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V 


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Nature 


A  WEEKLY 


ILLUSTRATED    JOURNAL    OF    SCIENCE 


ature 


A     WEEKLY 


ILLUSTRATED  JOURNAL  OF  SCIENCE 


VOLUME  XXXVIII 

MAY      1888      to      OCTOBER      1888 


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


% 0nb0it  aitb  iteto  Jtorli 
MAC  MIL  LAN    AND    CO. 

1888 


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Richard  Clay  and  Sons,  Limited, 
london  and  bungay. 


Nalurc,  Nov.  22,  i  881 


INDEX 


Abbe  (Prof.  Cleveland)  :  Macclesfield  Observations,  365  ;  Note 
on  his  Work,  502 

Abercromby  (Hon.  Ralph):  a  Meteorologist  at  the  Royal  Aca- 
demy, 225  ;  the  Weather  in  the  "Doldrums,"  238;  and  R. 
II.  Scott,  F.R.S.,  on  Meldrum's  Rules  for  Handling  Ships  in 
the  Southern  Indian  Ocean,  358  ;  Photographs  of  Lightning- 
Flashes,  547 

Abenlare  Hall,  Cardiff,  257 

Aberdeen  University,  552 

Aberration,  Constants  of,  185 

Abney  (Captain  W.  de  W.,  F.  R.S.)  :  Colour  Photometry,  212  ; 
Photometry  of  Colour,  286  ;  on  the  Determination  of  the 
Photometric  Intensity  of  the  Coronal  Light  during  the  Solar 
Eclipse  of  August  28,  29,  1886,  407 

Abscess,  Microbism  and,  Verneuil,  488 

Absorption  Spectra,  the,  of  Crystals,  M.  Becquerel,  A.  E. 
Tutton.  343 

Academy  of  Sciences,  Proposed  Czeck,  302 

Acari,  A.  D.  Michael  on,  94 

Acheson  (E.  G. ):  Measurements  of  Sparking  Distance  in  Air 
of  Alternate  Currents  used  in  Electric  Lighting,  305  ;  Inquiry 
into  Influence  of  Disruptive  Discharges  of  Powerful  Alter- 
nating Currents,  577 

Acores,  Excursions  Zoologiques  dans  les,  Jules  de  Guerne,  113 

Actinometer,  Electro-chemical,  Gouy  and  Rigollot,  119 

Adam  (Paul),  New  Organic  Compounds  of  Diphenyl,  599 

Adelaide  Botanic  Garden,  Report  of  the,  623 

Advancement  of  Science,  the  Australasian  Association  for  the, 

437 

.l.ulotropic  Elastic  Solid*,  C.  Chree  on,  165 

Aerolites,  on  the  Orbits  of,  H.  A.  Newton,  63,  250 

Aeronautics:  Proposed  Steel  Vacuum  Balloon,  185  ;  Aeronaut- 
ical Society  of  Great  Britain,  230  ;  a  Compressed-Air  Engine 
for  Flying  Machine,  L.  Hargrave,  463  ;  War  Aerostation  in 
France,  552 

Agassiz  Seaside  Assembly,  203 

Agriculture  :  in  Canada,  87  ;  Agricultural  Education  in  Nor- 
thern Italy  and  in  Prussia,  138  ;  the  Principles  of  Agricultural 
Practice  as  an  Instructional  Subject,  Prof.  John  Wrightson, 
220  ;  New  School  of  Agriculture  at  West  Lavington,  228 ; 
Report  of  the  British  Consul  at  Hakodadi,  on  Agriculture  of 
Yezo,  Japan,  373  ;  the  Rothamsted  Experiments  on  the 
Growth  of  Wheat,  Barley,  and  the  Mixed  Herbage  of  Grass 
Land,  William  Fream,  465  ;  Professorship  of  Agriculture 
founded  at  Virginia  University,  552  ;  Rural  School  Education 
in  Agriculture  in  Scotland,  Prof.  Robert  Wallace,  576  ;  Pro- 
posed Agricultural  College,  598 

Afforestation  in  America,  487 

Afghans,  the,  M.  L.  Rousselet,  431 

Afghan  Delimitation  Commission,  the  Botany  of  the,  J.  E.  T. 
Aitchison,  F. R. S.,  219 

Africa:  Dwarf  Races  in,  R.  G.  Haliburton,  112;  Tropical 
Africa,  Henry  Drummond,  171  ;  Lieutenants  Kund  and 
Tappenbeck's  Expedition  into  Cameroons,  186  ;  a  Century 
of  African  Exploration,  Dr.  Supan,  186  ;  Report  of  the  South 
African  Museum  for  1887,  230;  Jules  Borelli's  African  Ex- 
plorations, 259 ;  a  Monograph  of  the  Extra-Tropical  Species 


of  South  African  Butterflies,  Rowland  Trimen,  F.R.S.,  266; 
Incwadi   Yama,   or  Twenty  Years'   Personal   Experience    in 
South   Africa,  J.  W.   Matthews,    295  ;  German  East   African 
Possessions,  Dr.  Hans  Meyer,  305 
Ain,  Notes  on  the  Departement  de  I',  Dr.  Aubert,  431 
Ainos  :  Folk-Lore  of  the,  87  ;  Burial   Customs  of  the,  Rev.  J. 

Batchelor,  331 
Air  :  Determination  of  the  Weight  of,    M.  J.    M.   Crafts,  192  ; 

Movement  of,  in  the  Atmosphere,  Dr.  Lummer,  192 
Air  and  Water,  the  Micro-organisms  of,   Dr.  Percy  F.  Frank- 
land,  232 
Aitchison    (J.    E.    T.,    F.R.S),    the    Botany    of    the    Afghan 

Delimitation  Commission,  219 
Aitken    (Sir    William,    F.R.S. ),    the  Animal    Alkaloids,  &c, 

170 
Alaska,  Lieut.  Emmon's  Ethnographical  Collection  from,  64 
Al-Biruni's    India  :    an  Account  of  the  Religion,   Philosophy, 

Literature,  &c,  of  India  about  ad.  1030,  97 
Albuminoid  Substances  in  the  White  of  an  Eg'.;,  Study  of,  164 
Alcohol,  a  Treatise  on,  with  Tables  of  Spirit  Gravities,  Thomas 

Stevenson,  101 
Alcoholism  and  Criminality,  M.  Marambat,  135 
AUrovandia  vesiculosa,  M.  Korzchinsky  on,  160 
Alexander  (G.  W.),  Humming-bird  and  Mantis,  383 
Alexander  (Dr.  H.),  New  Platinum  Base  obtained  by,  256 
Alexander   (J.)   and    Prof.    Carnelly   on   the   Colour  of  some 

Carbon  Compounds,  141 
Alkaline   Phosphites,  on  the  Action  of  the,   on  the  Alkaline- 
Earthy  Oxides,  M.  L.  Ouvrard,  168 
Alkaloids,   the    Animal,    Sir   William    Aitken,    F.R.S.,    170; 

A.  M.  Brown,  170 
Allen  (Grant),  and  Electro-physics,  221 
Allene,  the  Gas,  Gustavson  and  Demjanoff,  552 
Alps,    Western,    on   the   Constitution    and    Structure    of    the 

Crystalline  Schists  of  the,  Prof.  Ch.  Lory,  506 
Aluminium  :  on  Organic  Compounds  in  their  relations  to  Haloid 
Salts  of,  G.  Gustafson,  139 ;  in  certain  Vascular  Cryptogams, 
on  the  Occurrence  of,  Prof.  A.  H.  Church,  140,  228  ;  Cowles's 
Process  for  the  Production  of,    162  ;  the  Vapour-density  of, 
239  ;  Production  of,  H.  T.  Castner,  326 ;  Present  Position  of 
the   Manufacture   of,    592  ;    Freezing-point   of  Solutions  of 
Organic  Compounds  of,  Louise  and  Roux,  608 
Amaryllidea?,  Hand-book  of  the,  J.  G.  Baker,  F.R.S.,  362 
Amber  in  West  Jutland,  Discovery  of,  598 

America:  Scandinavian  Colonization  of,  17;  American  Na- 
tional Academy  of  Sciences,  63  ;  American  Association  for 
Advancement  of  Science,  64,  256,  452  ;  American  Journal 
of  Science,  91,  189,  430,  462,  559 ;  American  Journal  of 
Mathematics,  164,  582  ;  American  Meteorological  Journal, 
112,  204,  326,  502;  Implements  of  Palaeolithic  Type  in 
America,  184;  New  York  "Blizzard,"  204;  Dr.  David 
T.  Day's  Pottery  Collection,  206  ;  American  Observa- 
tories, 231,  626;  the  International  Congress  of  "Ame- 
ricanists," 256,  552  ;  Trans- Mississippi  Rainfall,  326  ; 
American  Statistical  Association,  Water-power  employed  in  the 
United  States,  349  ;  American  Philosophical  Society,  351  ; 
Native  Birds  of  North  America,  373  ;  Cincinnati  Exposition, 


VI 


INDEX 


[A'atttre,  Nev.  22,  i! 


373  ;  National  Zoological  Park  at  Washington,  397  ;  Report 

of  the   Trustees   of  the  Museum  of  Natural  History,  New 

York,  422  ;  American  Geology,  452  ;  the  Fourth  Centenary 

of  the  Discovery  of  America  by  Columbus,  487  ;  Afforestation 

in  America,  487  ;  American  Association,  500,  552  ;  American 

Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  511  ;  American  Geographical 

Society,  529 
Amoretti  (Felix)  y  Carlos  M.  Morales,  Teoria  Elemental  de  las 

Determinantes  y  sus  Principales  Aplicaciones  al  Algebra  y  la 

Geometria,  537 
Amorphous  Antimony,  M.  F.  Herard,  432 
Ampere,  Statue  of,  598 
Amsterdam  :  Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,   24,    120,  216,   336, 

632  ;  Zoological  Society,  62 
Anagyrine,  on,  MM.  E.  Hardy  and  N.  Gallois,  360 
Analyst's  Laboratory  Companion,  Alfred  E.  Johnson,  564 
Anatomy,    Comparative,    Modifications   of   First   and     Second 

Visceral  Arches,  Hans  Gadow,  47 
Ancetres,  Les,  de  nos  Animaux,  dans  les  Temps  Ge'ologiques, 

Prof.  Albert  Gaudry,  4 
Ancient  Canoe  in  Norway,  134 
Ancient  Monuments  of  Egypt,   H.    H.   Howorth,  M.P.,  Sir  J. 

Fergusson,  M.P.,  326 
Ancient  Town,  Kemains  of,  on  Right  Bank  of  Volga,  374 
Andre  (Ch.),   on   the  Luminous   Bridges   observed   during  the 

Transits  and  Occultations  of  the  Satellites  of  Jupiter,  359 
Andrews  (Thos.),  Electro-chemical  Effects  on  Magnetizing  Iron, 

262 
Anenometers  :  Prof.  Waldo,  112  ;  Report  on  Experiments  with, 

G.  M.  Whipple  and  W.  H.  Dines,  191 
Anglesey  Rocks,  Prof.  Blake,  597 
Animal  Alkaloids,   Sir  William  Aitken,  F.R.S.,  170;  A.   M. 

Brown,  170 
Animal  Life,  Forms  of,  George  Rolleston,  F.  R.S.,    2$ 
Animals,  Effect  of  Earthquake  on,  Prof.  Milne,  500 
Animals'  Institute,  the,  500 
Animals  and  Plants,  Distribution  of,  by  Ocean  Currents,   A. 

W.  Buckland,  245  ;   Isaac  C.  Thompson,  270 
Another  World,  or,  the  Fourth    Dimension,  A.   T.   Schofield, 

363 

Anschiitz's  Instantaneous  Pho!ographs,  119 

Antagonism,  F.  Howard  Collins,  7  ;  Thomas  Woods,  56 

Antarctic  Islands,  Flora  of  the,  W.  T.  Thiselton  Dyer,  F.R.S., 
Dr.  H.  B.  Guppy,  40 

Antarctic  Regions,  German  Exploration  of,  228 

Anthrarobin  and  Chrysarobin,  Dr.  Weyl's  Researches  on  the 
Physiological  Action  of,  144 

Anthropology:  Les  Pygmees,  A.  de  Quatrefages,  4;  Pygmy 
Races  of  Men,  Prof.  Flower,  F.R.S.,  44,  66  ;  Anthropological 
Institute,  23,  214,  287  ;  Dr.  Topinard  on  the  History  of,  in 
1788,  212;  Dr.  P.  Topinard  on  Neolithic  Skull,  212; 
Ethnographic  Types  from  the  Monuments  of  Egypt,  Rev.  H. 
G.  Tomkins,  214 ;  Fixedness  of  the  American  Type,  Dr. 
Brinton,  256 ;  Anthropology  at  the  Cincinnati  Exhibition, 
279  ;  the  Nicobar  Islanders,  E.  H.  Man,  287  ;  Paris 
Anthropological  Exhibition,  371  ;  Journal  of  the  Anthropo- 
logical Institute,  396;  Japanese  "  go-hei  "  and  Shinto  Worship, 
Basil  Hall  Chamberlain,  396  ;  Mr.  Fawcett  on  the  Saoros  of 
the  Ganjam  Hill  Tracts,  453  ;  Philosophy  from  an  Anthropo- 
logical Point  of  View,  Dr.  Fauvelle,  462  ;  Anthropological  and 
Ethnological  Study  of  Cambodia,  Dr.  E.  Maurel,  463  ;  the 
Hand  and  Figure  of  Native  East  Indians,  Dr.  Mugnier,  463  ; 
Flatycnemia  in  Man  and  the  Anthropoda,  Manouvrier,  463 

Anticyclones  in  Europe,  Dr.  P.  Biounow,  63 

Antipodean  Notes,  29 

Anutchin  (M.),  on  Use  of  Sledges,  &c,  at  Burials,  134 

Apparatus  for  the  Measurement  of  the  Co-efficient  of  Expansion 
by  Heat,  Prof.  W.  E.  Ayrton,  F.R.S.,  and  Prof.  J.  Perry, 
F.R.S.,  141 

Arabia  Deserta,  Travels  in,  C.  M.  Doughty,  195 

Archaeological  Society  of  Sweden,  87 

Archer's  (W.  J.)  Journey  in  the  District  of  Chiengmai,  280 

Archibald  (E.  Douglas) :  Whirlwinds,  Waterspouts,  Storms,  and 
Rotating  Spheres,C.L.  Weyher,  104  ;  Faye's  Theory  of  Storms, 
149  ;  Cloud  Electric  Potential,  269  ;  Life  of  Matthew 
Fontaine  Maury,  339 

Arcs,  on  the  Supernumerary,  accompanying  the  Rainbow,  M. 
Boitel,  143 

Arctic  Regions,  Contributions  to  our  Knowledge  of  the  Meteoro- 
logy of  the,  625 


Argentine  Ornithology,  P.  L.  Sclater,  F.R.  S.,  and  W.  I 
Hudson,  Prof.  R.  Bowdler  Sharpe,  587 

Argyll  (the  Duke  of,  F. R.S.)  :  Functionless  Organs,  341,  411 
Prophetic  Germs,  564,  615 

Arithmetic  :  Graphical,  the  Elements  of,  and  Graphic 
Statics,  John  Y.  Gray  and  Geo.  Lowson,  4 ;  Arithmet 
for  Peginners,  Rev.  J.  B.  Lock,  76;  Arithmetic,  a  Highe 
and  Llementary  Mensuration,  P.  Goyen,  218  :  Arithmetic 
Exercises,  H.  S.  Hall  and  S.  R.  Knight,  490 

Arizona,  Discovery  of  Prehistoric  Cities  in,  42 

Arizona,  Hemenway  Expedition  in,  Thos.  Wilson,  629 

Armour  of  the  Middle  Ages,  a  Collection  of,  134 

Armstrong  (Lord),  on  Technical  Education,  313 

Armstrong    (Prof.    H.    E.,    F.R.S.):    Report    of    the    Briti 
Association  Committee  on  Isomeric  Napthalene  Derivatives 
596  ;  Valency,  596 

Arnaud  (M.),  Strophanthine,  311 

Aromatic  Monamines,  M.  Leo  Vignon,  216 

Avt  Wood-carving,  School  of,  574 

Arteries,    on    the    Proliferation    cf    Endothelium-cells    in 
Pekelharing,  216 

Asbesto=,  its  Production  and  Use,  R.  H.  Jones,  148 

Asia,  Central:  Lieut.  Younghusband's  Journey  across,  6? 
General  Prjevalsky's  Proposed  Fourth  Journey  in,  66 

Asiatic  Society  of  Japan,  87 

Assaying,  Manual  of  Practical,  J.  Mitchell,  148 

Assessors,  Scientific,  in  Courts  of  Justice,  289 

Asteroids,  the  Short  Period  Comets  and,  Prof.  Kirkwood,  1 14 
Photometric  Observations  of,  Henry  M.  Parkhurst,  554 

Astronomy:  Astronomical  Phenomena  for  the  Week,  18,  4j 
65,  89,  115,  136,  161,  186,  207,  231,  258,  279,  304,  32J: 
35i.  375.  398,  423,  454,  487,  5<>3,  529,  554,  577,  601,  626; 
Astronomical  Column,  43,  88,  114,  185,  206,  231,  258,  328, 
35°,  375,  397,  423,  5°3,  528,  553,  576,  600,  626  ;  New  Minor 
Planets,  Herr  Palisa  and  M.  Charlois,  43  ;  Comet  1888  a 
(Sawerthal),  43  ;  Cincinnati  Zone  Catalogue,  43  ;  Publi- 
cations of  Lick  Observatory,  43  ;  Comet  1888  a  (Sawerthal), 
Prof.  Lewis  Boss,  88  ;  New  Minor  Plant,  88  ;  Observations  of 
the  Channels  in  Mars,  95  ;  Comet  1888  a  (Sawerthal),  114. 
186,  258,  328  ;  the  Short  Period  Comets  and  Asteroids,  Prof. 
Kirkwood,  114;  New  Minor  Planet,  115  ;  Study  of  Mars,  F. 
Terby,  119  ;  Prof.  Russell  on  Chinese  Astronomy,  134  ;  Report 
of  the  Astronomer-Royal,  153;  Report  of  the  Paris  Observa- 
tory, 179;  Dr.  Gill's  Proposed  Star  Catalogue,  180;  Photo- 
graphic Chart  of  the  Heavens,  180  ;  the  Constant  of  Aber- 
ration, 185  ;  the  Markings  on  Mars,  185  ;  New  Rings  of 
Saturn,  Dom  Lamey,  191  ;  Rings  of  Saturn  and  on  the 
Planet  Mars,  M.  Perrotin,  216 ;  American  Observatories. 
231  ;  Minor  Planets,  231  ;  the  Rings  of  Saturn,  231  ;  Rota- 
tion Period  of  the  Sun  from  Faculse,  Dr.  J.  Wilsing,  206  ; 
Researches  on  the  Accidental  Errors  occurring  in  the  Obser- 
vations of  Transits,  M.  G.  Rayet,  216  ;  the  Canals  of  the 
Planet  Mars,  239 ;  the  Markings  on  Mars,  M.  Perrotin. 
258,  311  ;  Liverpool  Astronomical  Society,  277  ;  the  New 
Astronomy,  Samuel  Pierpoint  Langley,  A.  M.  Clerke,  291  ; 
Projected  Astronomical  Observatory  at  Pekin,  302  ;  Astro- 
nomical Instruments  for  International  Photographic  Survey  of 
the  Heavens,  Sir  H.  E.  Roscoe,  M.P.,  F.R.S.,  325  ;  Variable 
Stars,  Mr.  Sawyer,  328  ;  Paris  Astronomical  Society.  336  ;  the 
Red  Spot  on  Jupiter,  W.  F.  Denning,  342  ;  Michell's  Prob- 
lem, Joseph  Kleiber,  342  ;  Encke's  Comet,  350  ;  the  Mass 
of  Titan,  350;  Names  of  Minor  Planets,  351;  the  Lick 
Observatory,  Prof.  Holden,  355  ;  on  the  Luminous  Bridges 
observed  during  the  Transits  and  Occultationsjfof  the  Satellites 
of  Jupiter,  M.  Ch.  Andre,  359;  Globular  Star  Clusters,  A. 
M.  Clerke,  365  ;  Partial  Eclipse  of  August  7,  A.  E.  Cromme- 
lin,  364  ;  Macclesfield  Observations,  Prof.  Cleveland  Abbe,  365; 
a  Lunar  Rainbow,  T.  D.  A.  Cockerell,  365  ;  Further  Cometary 
Discoveries,  375  ;  Comet  1888c  (Books),  Dr.  H.  Kreutz,  397  ; 
Yale  College  Observatory,  397  ;  Gravitation  in  the  Stellar 
Systems,  Prof.  Asaph  Hall,  398;  on  the  Determination  of 
the  Photometric  Intensity  of  the  Coronal  Light  during  the 
Solar  Eclipse  of  August  28-29,  1886,  Captain  W.  de  W. 
Abney,  F.R.S.,  and  T.  E.  Thor|  e,  F.R.S.,  407;  Summary 
of  the  Solar  Observations  made  at  the  Royal  Observatory  of 
the  Collegio  Romano,  Second  Quarter  of  1888,  M.  P.  Tacchini, 
408  ;  Resignation  of  Prof.  Piazzi  Smyth,  421  ;  the  Spectrum 
of  R  Cygni,  423  ;  Encke's  Comet,  1888  d,  423,  503;  Milan 
Double-star  Observations,  423  ;  Faye's  Comet,  432  ;  Satel- 
lites of  Mars,  432,  553;   Bixoks's  New  Comet,  432;  Mars 


Nature,  Nov.  22,  iS38] 


INDEX 


Vll 


during  Opposition  of  18S8,  L.  Nieslen,  511  ;  Comet  1888  e 
(Barnard),  528  ;  Comets  Brooks  and  Faye,  Dr.  H.  Kreutz, 
528 ;  Comet  1888  c  (Brooks),  Dr.  H.  Kreutz,  503  ;  Dis- 
covery of  a  New  Comet,  1888  e,  E.  E.  Barnard,  503  ;  the 
Total  Lunar  Eclipse  of  January  28,  553  ;  Photometric  Obser- 
vations of  Asteroids,  Henry  M.  Parkhurst,  554  ;  New  Cata- 
logue of  Variable  Stars,  S.  C.  Chandler,  554  ;  Minor  Planet 
No.  275,  554  ;  the  Light-curve  of  U  Ophiuchi,  S.  C.  Chandler, 
S;6  ;  Comets  Brooks  and  Faye,  576  ;  Comet  1888 ^  (Barnard), 
W.  K.  Brooks,  576  ;  Astronomical  Instruments,  Lord  Craw- 
ford's Collection  of,  598  ;  the  Solar  Parallax  from  Photographs 
of  the  last  Transit  of  Venus,  600 ;  the  Markings  of  Mars,  601  ; 
Fresh  Calculation  of  Jupiter's  Mass,  E.  de  Haertl,  608  ;  Prof. 
Egoroff's  Report  on  the  Observations  made  in  Russia  and 
Siberia  during  the  Eclipse  of  the  Sun  of  August  19,  1887, 
625  ;  the  Ring  Nebula  in  Lyra,  Prof.  Holden,  626  ;  Comets 
Brooks  and  Faye,  626  ;  Comet  1888  e  (Barnard),  Herr  A. 
Berberich,  626  ;  American  Observatories,  626  ;  Fearnley  and 
Geelmuyden  Zone  Observations  of  the  Stars,  626 

Astrophysical  Observatory  at  Potsdam,  Publications  of  the,  206 

Atkinson  (W.  S.),  Description  of  the  New  Indian  Lepidopterous 
Insects  from  the  Collection  of  Frederick  Moore,   266 

Atlantic,  Indian,  and  Pacific  Oceans,  Charts  Showing  the  Mean 
Barometrical  Pressure  over  the,  196 

Atlantic,  North,  Currents,  Monthly  Charts,  M.  Simart,  143 

Atlantic,  North,  Pilot  Chart  of,  86,  204,  422 

Atlantic  Ocean,  Models  of  the  Bed  of  the,  327 

Atlantic  Slope,  Three  Formations  of  the  Middle,  W.  J.  McGee, 
190 

Atlas,  Mr.  Joseph  Thomson's  Proposed   Expedition  to  the,   1 12, 

555 
Atmosphere  in  Channel,  Extraordinary  Rarefaction  of,  256 
Atmosphere,  Thermo-dynamics  of  the,  Prof,  von  Bezold,  144 
Atmosphere,  Transparency  of  the,  J.   Parnell,  270 
Atmospheric  Nitrogen,  on  the  Relations  of,  to  Vetable  Soil,  M. 

Th.  Schlcesing,  383 
Atolls,  Formation  of,  5 

Atomic  Weight,  Prof.  Hartley,  F.R.S.,  142 
Aubert  (Dr.),  Notes  on  the  Departement  de  1'Ain,  431 
Aurivillius  (Dr.  C),   on  the  Skeleton  of  the  so-called  Sweden- 

borg  Whale,  Eubalena  ivedenborgii,  Lillj.,  134 
Aurora  Borealis  observed  at  Motala,  Sweden,  16  ;  at  Orebro  in 

Central  Sweden,  16 
Aurora  Borealis,  Origin  of,  Jean  Luvini,  143 
Aurora  Borealis  at  Rock  Ferry,  54 
Aurora  in  Spitzbergen,  Dr.  H.  Hildebrandsson,  84 
Australia  :    the  Rabbit  Pest  in,  42  ;   Curious  Apparent  Motion 
of  the  Moon  seen  in,  T.  Mellard  Reade,  102  ;  Wraggs's  Daily 
Weather  Charts  for  Australia,  303  ;  Lieut.   Israel's  Exploring 
Party,    374  ;    the  Australasian  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science,  437  ;  Report    of  the  Australian   Museum, 
575 ;    a    New   Australian    Mammal,    E.    C.    Stirling,    588  ; 
Female  Figures  modelled  in   Wax  discovered  among    Aus- 
tralian   Aboriginals,    623 ;    Australian    Association    for    the 
Advancement  of  Science,  623  ;  Catalogue  of  the  Fishes  in  the 
Australian  Museum,  Sydney,  624 
Austria,  Curious  Relic  of  Mediaeval  Superstition  in,  454 
Austrian  Alps,  New  Measurements  of  the,  280 
Aveling  (Edward),  Mechanics,  587 
Avocet  Rock,  the,  222 

Ayrton  (Prof.  W.  E.,  F.  R.S. )  :  Apparatus  for  the  Measurement 
of  the  Coefficient  of  Expansion  by  Heat,  141  ;  and  Prof. 
J.  Perry,  on  Electromotors,  190  ;  Electric  Transmission  of 
Power,  508,  533 
Azonaphthol  Compeunds,  on  the  Constitution  of  the,  Prof. 
Meldola,  623 


Babylonian  Characters,  the  Old,  and  their  Chinese  Derivates, 
by  Terrien  de  Lacouperie,  Prof.  A.  H.  Sayce,  122 

Backhouse  (T.  W.)=  the  Sky-coloured  Clouds,  196,  270;  the 
Zodiacal  Light  and  Meteors,  434 

Bacteria  in  Women's  Milk,  24 

Bacterial  Disease  of  the  Duck,  MM.  Cornil  and  Toupet,  216 

Bahia  or  Bendego  Meteorite,  349 

Bailey  (Wm.  H.),  Death  of,  396 

Baillie  (Nav. -Lieutenant,  R.N.),  Charts  of  Mean  Barometrical 
Pressure  over  Atlantic,  Indian,  and  Pacific  Oceans,  196 

Bait  for  Sea-Fishermen,  the  Supply  of,  G.  C.  Bourne,  318 


Baker  (C.  Weatherall),  a  Magnificent  Meteor,  203 

Baker  (J.  G.,  F.R.S.)  :  Flora  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  William 

Hillebrand,   49  ;    Preserving  the   Colour  of    Flowers,    245  ; 

Synoptical  Flora  of  North  America,   Prof.    Asa  Gray,   242  ; 

Hand-book  of  the  Amaryllidete,  362 
Balance,  Physical,  Theory  and  Use  of,  J.  Walker,  146 
Balance,  the  Voltaic,  Dr.  G.  Gore,  F.R.S.,  335 
Balland  (M.),  on  the  Development   of  the  Grain  of  Wheat, 

16S 
Balloon,    Captive,    at    Barcelona    Exhibition,    Destruction    by 

Lightning  of,  578 
Balloon  Journey,  a,  Lieut.   Moedebeck,  48 
Balloon,  Proposed  Steel  Vacuum,  185 
Ballot  (Dr.  Buys),  on  the  Distribution  of  Temperature  over  the 

Surface  of  the  Earth,  374 
Baltic,  Remarkable  Mirage  on  the,  304 
Bamford  (Alf.  J.),  Turbans  and  Tails,  or  Sketches  in  the  Un- 

romantic  East,  269 
Banare  (A.),  Experiments  with  Marine  Telephone,  464 
Banbury  (G.  A.  Lethbridge),  Sierra  Leone,  or  the  White  Man's 

Grave,  244 
Bandai-San  Eruption,  the,  452 

Barcelona  Exhibition,  Destruction  of  Captive  Balloon  by  Light- 
ning, 5J8 
Barley,  Experiments  on  Hybridism  or  Crossings  with  Common, 

336 
Barnard  (E.    E.),    Discovery  of  a  New  Comet,    1888  e,   503  ; 

Comet  1888  e,  W.  R.  Brooks,  576,  626 
Baroda,  Science  in,  41 
Barometer,  a  New,  T.  H.  Blakesley,  287 
Barometrical  Pressure  over  the  Atlantic,   Indian,   and   Pacific 

Oceans,  Charts  showing  the,  196 
Barttelot  (Major),  Murder  of,  499 
Bashfbrth  (Rev.  F. ),  Calculation  of  Ranges,  &c,   of  Elongated 

Projectiles,  468 
Basingstoke,  Discovery  of  Prehistoric  Remains  near,  553 
Basset  (A.  B.),  Treatise  on  Hydro- dynamics,  243 
Batavia,  Dr.  Guppy's  Expedition  to  the  Coral   Reefs  of  the 

Indian  Archipelago,  228 
Batchelor  (Rev.  J. ) :   on  AinoFolk-Lore,  87  ;  Burial  Customs  of 

the  Ainos,  331 
Bath  :     Natural    History    and    Antiquarian    Field-Club,    304 ; 

Meeting  of  the  British  Association,  346,  382 
Bather  (F.  A.),  Lightning  and  Milk,  30 
Baudot  (M.),  an  Isochronous  Regulator,  384 
Bauer  (G.),  Spelin,  Eine  Allsprache,  1 
Beat  of  the   Human   Heart,   on  the    Electromotive   Variations 

which  accompany  the,  Dr.  Augustus  D.  Waller,  619 
Beatty-Kingston  (W.),  a  Wanderer's  Notes,  196 
Becquerel  (M. ),  the  Absorption  Spectra  of  Crystals,  343 
Beddard  (Frank  E. ),  the  Nephridia  of  Earthworms  221 
Bedford  (II.),  Derivation  of  the  Word  Claret,  113 
Bedford  College,  Shaen  Wing,  372 
Beevor  (Dr.  Charles  E.)  and  Victor  Horsley,  F.  R.  S.,  Note  on 

some  of  the  Motor  Functions  of  certain  Cranial  Nerves  and 

of  the  Three  First  Cervical  Nerves  in  the  Monkey  {Macacus 

sinicus),  357 
Belgium,  Report  of  Royal  Commission  on  Condition  of  Labour, 

.  *33 

Bell  (Prof.  A.  Graham),  and  Deaf  Mutes,  132 

Bell  (Mr.),  on  Manure  Gravels  of  Wexford,  597 

Belladonna,  the  Constituents  of,  240 

Benda(Dr.),  the  Structure  of  Striated  Muscle-Fibres,  360 

Benham  (Dr.  Wm.  B.),  British  Earthworms,  319 

Bengal,  Meteorological  Report  for,  574 

Bengal,  Monsoon  Storms  in,  158 

Bentham  (George),  Prof.  W.  T.  T.  Dyer  on,  116 

Berenger-Ferand  (M.  le  Dr.),  Recurrence  of  the  Myth  of 
Ibicus  among  Provencals,  212 

Berget  (M-  Alphonse),  Measurement  of  the  Coefficients  of 
Thermic  Conductibility  for  Metals,  359 

BcricJue,  Chemistry  of  the  Rare  Earths,  Drs.  Kriiss  and 
Kiese wetter  on  the,  326 

Berlin :  Academy  of  Sciences,  302 ;  Awards  of,  16  ;  Meteoro- 
logical Society,  48,  119  ;  Report  of  the  Berlin  Meteorological 
Society,  278  ;  Physiological  Society,  24,  95,  119,  144,  240, 
264,  312,  360,  464;  Physical  Society,  72,  119,  143,  192,  311  ; 
Skull  of  Rhinoceros  tichorrhinus  found  near,  304 

Bernheim  (M.  J.)  and  M.  G.  Rousseau  on  the  Decomposition 
of  the  Ferrate  of  Baryta,  216 


Vlll 


INDEX 


{Nature,  Nov.  22,  1888 


Bernoulli  and  Haecker,  Formulas  of,  for  the  Lifting  Power  of 
Magnets,  Prof.  S.  P.  Thompson,  190 

Bert  (Paul),  First  Elements  of  Experimental  Geometry,  295 

Berthelet  and  Fabre,  the  Chemistry  of  Tellurium,  63 

Berthelot  (M.)  :  Experiments  on  the  Fixation  of  Nitrogen  by 
certain  Vegetable  Plants  and  Soils,  408  ;  and  G.  Andre, 
Remarks  on  the  Quantitative-  Analysis  of  Nitrogen  in 
Vegetable  Soil,  359 

Rertrand  (M.  J.),  Note  on  Target  Practice,  359 

Bessarabia,  Disease  of  the  Tobacco  Plant  in,  278 

Bezold  (Prof,  von),  Thermodynamics  of  the  Atmosphere,  144 

Bhabur  Grass,  the  Kew  Bulletin  on,  277 

Bialoveski  (A.),  Dreams,  56 

Bibliography  of  Meteorology,  C.  J.  Sawyer's,  574 

Biltz  (Dr.),  on  the  Vapour-Density  of  Sulphur,  229 

Biology:  G.  C.  Bourne  elected  Director  of  the  Marine  Bio- 
logical Association,  16;  a  Textbook  of  Biology,  J.  R. 
Ainsworth  Davis,  52 :  Biological  Society  of  University 
College,  114;  Text-book  of,  J.R.  Ainsworth  Davis,  126; 
Fossil  Fish  Remains  from  New  Zealand,  137  ;  Mammals 
of  Liberia,  137  ;  on  New  England  Medusas,  137;  Biological 
Notes,  137;  Davis's  Biology,  149;  Opening  of  the  Marine 
Biological  Laboratory  at  Plymouth,  198,  236  ;  Marine  Bio- 
logical Laboratory,  Wood's  Holl,  Massachusetts,  348  ; 
Studies  from  the  Biological  Laboratory  of  Johns  Hopkins 
University,  356  ;  Natural  Scavengers  of  French  Beaches, 
Hallez,  598  :  Colorado  Biological  Association,  625 

Bird  Pests  of  the  Farm,  599 

Birds  :  Lissemination  of  Tlants  by,  W.  Botting  Hemsley,  53  ; 
Dispersal  of  Seeds  by,  Dr.  H.  B.  Guppy,  101  ;  the  Birds  of 
Dorsetshire,  a  Contribution  to  the  Natural  History  of  the 
County,  J.  C.  Mansel-Pleydell,  125  ;  Notes  on  the  Birds  of 
Herefordshire,  Dr.  H.  G.  Bull.  125  ;  Manual  of  British  Birds, 
Howard  Saunders,  Prof.  Alfred  Newton,  F.R.S.,  145  ; 
History  of  the  Birds  of  New  Zealand,  Sir  Walter  Buller,  159  ; 
Native  Birds  of  North  America,  373  :  Key-List  of  British 
Birds,  Lieut. -Colonel  L.  Howard,  Prof.  R.  Bowdler  Sharpe, 
587  ;  Sea-Birds,  how  they  Dine,  Earl  Compton,  618  ;  Birds- 
nesting  and  Bird-skinning,  a  Complete  Description  of  the 
Nests  and  Eggs  of  Birds  which  Breed  in  Britain,  Edward 
Newman,  Prof.  R.  Bowdler  Sharpe,  587 

Bis-cobra,  Origin  of  the  Belief  in,  G.  A.  Da  Gama,  624 

Bismuth,  Effect  of  Magnetism  and  Heat  on  the  Electric  Resist  - 
ance  of,  19 

Bismuth  Spirals  (Flat)  for  Measuring  Intensity  of  Magnetic 
Field,  Lenard  and  Howard,  577 

Blaine  (Robert  G.),  Numerical  Examples  in  Practical  Mechanics 
and  Machine  Design,  563 

Blake  (Prof.),  Anglesey  Rocks,  597 

lilakesley  (T.  H.).  on  Magnetic  Lag  and  the  Work  Lost  due 
to  Magnetic  Lag  in  Alternating  Current  Tiansformers,  141  ; 
on  a  New  Barometer,  287 

B'anchard  (Prof.),  La  Vie  chez  les  Etres  animes,  17 

I  lanchet's  (M.)  Speech  at  the  Sorbonne  on  Education,  325 

Blanford  (H.  F.,  F.R.S.),  the  Relations  of  the  Diurnal  Baro- 
metric Maxima  to  Conditions  of  Temperature,  Cloud,  and 
Kainfall,  70 ;  the  Incurvature  of  the  Winds  in  Tropical 
Cyclones,  181 

Blanford  (W.  T.,  F.R.S.),  Fauna  of  British  India,  including 
Ceylon  and  Burma,  513 

Blindness,  Statistics  of,  in  Russia,  279 

Blindness,  Snow-,  Ncse-Blackening  as  Preventive  of,  Prof.  E. 
Kay  Lankester,  F.R.S.,  Edmund  J.  Power,  7 

Blood  :  on  the  Coagulalion  of  the,  Profs.  W.  D.  Haliburton  and 
E.  A.  Schafer,  F.R.S.,  331  ;  the  Gases  of  the,  Prof.  John 
Gray  McKendrick,  F.  R.S.,  376,  399 

1  lown  Sand,  the  Cornish,  R.  H.  Curtis,  55 

Blunt  (A.  H.),  Euclid's  Method,  or  the  Proper  Way  to  Treat 
on  Geometry,  363 

Bodies,  Latent  Colours  of,  M.  G.  Govi,  631 

Bohemian  Caddis-flies,  Transformations  of,  Prof.  Klapalek,  553 

Boillot  (M.  A.),  Experiments  with  a  Non-oscillating  Pendulum, 
192 

Pois-Reymond  (Trof.  Claude  du),  Photograph  of  the  Eye  by 
Plash  of  Magnesium,  15 

Boisbaudran  (Lecoq  de),  Fluorescence  of  Ferruginous  Lime, 
216 

Bologna  University,  Octocentenary  of,  113 

Bologna,  the  University  of,  ar.d  the  7'ivies  Correspondent,  302"* 

Bolometer,  New  Form  of,  Dr.  R.  von  Helmholtz,  311 


Bolton  (H.  Carrington),  Sonorous  Sands,  515 

Bombay  Natural  History  Society,  623 

Bombay  Presidency,  Poisonous  Snakes  of  the,  H.  M.  Phipson, 
284 

Bombay,  Proposed  Zoological  Garden  in,  623 

Borelli's  (Jules}  African  Explorations,  259 

Borelly  (278),  Observations  of,  M.  Esmiol,  143 

Borgman  Dr.),  the  Transmission  of  Electric  Currents  through 
Air  with  Flames  as  Electrodes,  577 

Bort  (M.  de),  Storm  Warnings,  419 

Boss  (Prof.  Lewis),  Comet  1888  a  (Sawerthal),  88 

Boston  (U.S.A.),  Proposed  Zoological  Garden  at,  42 

Botany  :  Flora  of  the  Antarctic  Islands,  W.  T.  Thiselton  Dyer, 
F.  R.S.,  Dr.  H.  B.  Guppy,  40;  Flora  of  the  Hawaiian 
Islands,  William  Hillebrand,  J.  G.  Baker,  F.R.S.,  49  ; 
Dr.  Trimen's  Keport  on  the  Botanic  Gardens  of  Ceylon.  112; 
a  Remarkable  Case  ofFasciation  in  Fourcrcya  cubenis,  Haw., 
Dr.  A.  Ernst,  131  ;  Flora  of  West  Yorkshire,  F.  A.  Lees, 
147  ;  M.  Korzchinsky  on  Aldrovandia  vesiculosa,  160 ; 
Botanical  Drying  Paper,  183  ;  the  Botany  of  the  Afghan 
Delimitation  Commission,  J.  E.  T.  Aitchison,  F.R.S.,  219; 
Prof.  Church  on  Aluminium  in  Plants,  228  ;  the  Botanical 
Magazine,  238  ;  the  Journal  of  Botany,  238,  430  ;  Nuovo 
Giornale  Botanico  Italiano,  238  ;  Synoptical  Flora  of  North 
America,  Prof.  Asa  Gray,  J.  G.  Baker,  242  ;  Bhabur  (Irass 
for  Manufacturing  Purposes.  277  ;  Annual  Report  of  i'he  Royal 
Botanic  Gardens,  Trinidad,  278  ;  Pflanzen-Teratologie,  Max- 
well T.  Masters,  341  ;  Botanical  Gazette,  430,  582  ;  the  Cen- 
tenary of  the  Calcutta  Botanic  Garden,  493  ;  Geological 
History  of  Plants,  Sir  J.  W.  Dawson,  F.R.S.,538;  German 
Botanical  Journal,  552  ;  the  Queen's  Jubilee  Prize  Essay  of 
the  Royal  Botanic  Society  of  London,  594  ;  Flora  of  the 
Kermadec  Islands,  W.  Botting  Hemsley,  622  ;  Report  of  the 
Adelaide  Botanic  Garden,  623 

Bott  (Dr.  W.)and  J.  B.  Miller,  Pyrocresols,  596 

Boule  (M.  Marcellin),  Stratigraphic  Palaeontology  in  Relation  to 
Man,  211  ;  Stratigraphic  Palaeontology  of  Man,  357  ;  Strati- 
graphic  Palaeontology  of  Man,  431 

Bourgeois  (M.  L. ),  Researches  on  Hydrocerusite  and  Cetusite, 
191 

Bourne  (G.  C.) :  Coral  Formations,  5  ;  elected  Director  of  the 
Marine  Biological  Association,  16 ;  the  Supply  of  Bait  for 
Sea  Fishermen,  318 

Rourne  (Consul)  :  Report  on  the  Non-Chinese  Races  of  China, 
345,  455  ;  Report  on  his  Journey  to  South-West  China,  455 

louty  (M.  E.)  and  M.  L.  Poincare,  on  the  Electric  Conducti- 
bility  of  Mixtures  of  Salts  in  Solution,  384 

Bowles  (Dr.  Robert  L.),  Nose-Blackening  as  Preventive  of 
Snow-Blindness,  101 

Bowman  (Sir  Win.)  Testimonial  Fund,  325 

Boys  (C.  Vernon)  :  Radio-micrometer,  19,  46;  on  Soap  Bubbles, 
22  ;  Magnetic  and  Electric  Experiments  with  Soap  Bubbles, 
162 

Brain,  M.  Brown-Sequard  on  the  Action  of  the,  168 

Bramwell  (Sir  Frederick,  F.R.  S.),  Inaugural  Address  to  the 
British  Association  at  Bath,  440 

Bronchial  Clefts  of  the  Dog,  on  the,  with  special  reference  to 
the  Origin  of  the  Thymus  Gland,  Dr.  F.  Mall,  356 

Brassard  (M.),  Recording  Rain-Gauge,  205 

Brauner  (Dr.  B.),  Sun  Columns,  414 

Brazil :  the  Bahia  or  Bendego  Meteorite,  349  ;  Meteorological 
Observatory  established  in  Brazil,  42  ;  Brazilian  Government 
Expeditions  for  Exploration  of  Interior  of,  455 

Bridge  Construction,  a  Practical  Treatise  on,  T.  Claxton  Fidler, 
Prof.  A.  G.  Greenhill,  F.R.S.,  2 

Bridge,  the  Forth,  39 

Bright  (Sir  Chas.),  Death  of,  41 

Brinton  (Dr.  David  G.)  :  Fixedness  of  the  American  Type,  256; 
the  Alleged  Mongoloid  Affinities  of  the  American  Race,  552 

Bristol  Naturalists'  Society,  486 

British  Archaeological  Association,  421 

British  Association:  President  for  1889,16;  General  Ar- 
rangements, 85  ;  the  Bath  Meeting  of  the,  346,  382  ;  Ad- 
dress of  the  Retiring  President,  Sir  Henry  Roscoe,  M.P., 
F.R. S.,  439;  Inaugural  Address  by  Sir  Frederick  Bram- 
well, F.R.S.,  President,  440;  Attendance  at  the,  469; 
Chemistry  at  the,  595  ;  Report  of  the  Committee  on  the 
Action  of  Light  en  the  PJ)di acids  in  Presence  of  Oxygen, 
Dr.  Richardson,  595  ;  the  Study  of  Mineralogy,  Prof. 
Sterry  Hunt,  596;  Chemical  Problems  presented  by  Living 


Nature,  Nov.  22,  1888] 


INDEX 


IX 


Bodies,  Prof.  Michael  Foster,  596 ;  Incompleteness  of 
Combustion  on  Explosion,  Prof.  H.  B.  Dixon,  and  II.  VV. 
Smith,  596  ;  Report  of  the  Committee  on  the  Teaching  of 
Chemistry,  Pro.f  Dunstan,  596  ;  Chemistry  as  a  School 
Subject,  Rev.  A.  Irving,  596  ;  Discussion  on  Valency,  Prof. 
Armstrong,  Dr.  Morley.  596  ;  Report  of  the  Committee  on 
Isomeric  Naphthalene  Derivatives,  Prof.  Armstrong,  596  ; 
'.Vote  on  the  Molecular  Weight  of  Caoutchouc  and  other 
Bodies,  Dr.  J.  H.  Gladstone,  F.R.S.,  and  VV.  J.  Hibbert, 
596  ;  the  Action  of  Light  on  Water  Colour-,  Dr.  Richard- 
son, 596  ;  Pyrocresols,  Dr.  VV.  Bott  and  J.  B.  Miller,  596  ; 
Geology  at  the,  596;  Recent  Eruption  in  Vulcano,  Dr. 
Johnston- Lavis,  596  ;  Report  on  Vesuvius,  Dr.  Johnston  - 
Lavis,  597;  1-orroation  of  Lava,  Logan  Lobley,  597; 
Tables  to  show  the  Distribution  of  Japanese  Earthquakes 
i  1  Connection  with  Years,  Seasons,  Months,  and  Hours  of 
the  Day,  Prof.  J.  Milne,  597  ;  Papers  on  the  Oolitic  and 
Carboniferous  Rocks,  Horace  Woodward,  597  ;  Report  on 
the  Manure  Gravels  of  Wexford,  Bell,  597  ;  Report  0.1  the 
Carboniferous  Flora,  Prof.  Williamson,  597  ;  Mineralogical 
Evolution,  Dr.  Sterry  Hunt,  597  ;  Anglesey  Rocks,  Prof. 
Blake,  597 

Section  A  (Mathematual  and  Physical  S  ieuce) — Opening 
Address  by  Prof.  G.  F. -Fitzgerald,  M.A.,  F.R.S..  Presi- 
dent of  the  Section,  446  ;  Lightning  Conductors,  W.  II. 
l'reece,  F.R.S  ,  546;  Prof.  Oliver  J.  Lodge,  546; 
Hon.  Ralph  Abercromby,  547;  Lord  Rayleigh,  F.  R.S., 
547  ;  Sir  William  Thomson,  F.R.S.,  547  ;  VV.  de  Fon- 
viellc,  547;  Sidney  Walker,  547  :  G.  J.  Symons,  F.R.S. , 
547  ;  a  Simple  Hypothesis  for  Electro-magnetic  Induction 
of  Incomplete  Circuits,  with  Consequent  Equations  of 
Electric  Motion  in  Fixed  Homogeneous  or  Heterogeneous 
Solid  Matter,  Sir  William  Thomson,  F.R.S.,  569  ;  on  the 
Transference  of  Electricity  within  a  Homogeneous  Solid 
Conductor,  Sir  William  Thomson,  F.R.S.,  57 '  »  Five 
Applications  of  Fourier's  Law  of  Diffusion  illustrated  by  a 
Diagram  of  Curves  with  Absolute  Numerical  Values,  Sir 
William  Thomson,  F.R.S.,  571  ;  on  the  Mechanical  Con- 
ditions of  a  Swarm  of  Meteorites  and  on  Theories  of  Cos- 
mogony, Prof.  G.  H.  Darwin,  F.R.S.,  573;  Dr.  Janssen 
on  the  Spectrum  of  Oxygen,  605 

Section  B  {Chemical  Science) — Opening  Address  by  Prof. 
William  A.  Tilden,  D.Sc.  Lond.,  F.R.S.,  F.C.S.,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Section,  470 

Section  C  (Geology) — Opening  Address  by  W.  Boyd  Dawkins, 
M.A.,  F.R.S.,  F.G.S.,  F.S.A.,  Professor  of  Geology  and 
Palaeontology  in  Owens  College,  President  of  the  Section, 

449 
Section  D  (Biology) — Opening  Address  by  VV.  T.   Thiselton- 
Dyer,  C.M.G.,  M.A.,   B.Sc,    F.R.S.,   F.L.S.,   President 
of  the  Section,  473 
Section  E  (Geography)— Opening  Address  by  Colonel  Sir  C. 
W.  Wilson,  R.E.,  K.C.B.,   K.C.M.G.,   D.C.L.,  LL  D., 
F.R.S.,    F.  R.G.S.,    Director-General    of   the  Ordnance 
Survey,  President  of  the  Section,  480 
Section   G  (Mechanical  Science) — Opening  Address   by    Wil- 
liam   Henry  Preece,    F.R.S.,  M.  Inst. C.E.,  &.C.,   Pre.-ident 
of  the-Section,  494 
Section  H  (Anthropology) — Opening  Address  by  Lieutenant- 
General    Pitt-Rivers,    D.C.L.,    F.R.S.,   F.G.S.,    F.S.A., 
President  of  the  Section,  516,  542 
British  Birds  :  Key  List  of,   Lieut. -Colonel  L.   Howard    Irby, 

Prof.  R.  Bowdler  Sharpe,  587 
British  Earthworms,  Dr.  VVm.  B.  Benham,  319 
British  Medical  Association,  Annual  Meeting,  347 
British  Museum,  Parliamentary  Paper  on,  486 
British  Petrography,   J.  J.  Harris   Teall,   Prof.  John  W.  Judd, 

K.R.S.,  385 
British  Pharmaceutical  Association,  452 
Brooks  (VV.  K.),  on  the  Life-History  oi\Epenthesis  mccraydi, 

356 
Brooks  (W.  R.),  Further  Cometary  Discoveries,  375 
Brooks's  New  Comet,  432,  576,  626  ;  Dr.  H.  Kreutz,  397,  503, 

528 
Brough  (Bennett  H.),  a  Treatise  on  Mine-Surveying,  C.  Le  Neve 

Foster,  317 
Brounow  (Dr.),  Anticyclones  in  Europe,  63 
Brown  (A.  M.),  Treatise  on  the  Animal  Alkaloids,  170 
Brown    (H.    T.)  and  Dr.    G.    H.    Morris's    Determination    of 
Molecular  Weights  of  Carbo-hydrates,  117 


Brown  (J    Allen),  Discovery  of  Elephas  primigenius  associated 

with  Flint  Implements  at  Southall,  283 
Brown   (Marie),    on   the   Scandinavian   Colonization   of  North 

America,  17 
Brown  (Robert),  Eulogy  on,  Sir  J.  Hooker,  116 
Brown-Sequard  (M.),  on  the  Action  of  the  Brain,  168 
Bnin'g  Railway,  the,  502 
Brunn  (Dr.  Otto),  Elimination  of  Arseniuretted  Hydrogen  from 

Sulphuretted  Hydrogen  by  means  of  Iodine,  575 
Bruyne  (Dr.  de),  Pulsation  in  the  Lower  Animal  Organisms,  310 
Buchheim   (Arthur),  Obituary  Notice  of,  Prof.  J.  J.   Sylvester, 

F.R.S.,  515 
Buckland    (A.    W.),   Distribution   of  Animals   and   Plants   by 

( >cean  Currents,  245  ;  Preserving  the  Colour  of  Flowers,  270 
Budge  (Dr.  Ludwig  Julius),  Death  of,  302 
Buitenzorg,  Java,  Annales  du  Jardin  Botanique  de,  344 
Bull  (Dr.  H.  G.),  Notes  on  the  Birds  of  Herefordshire,  125 
Buller  (Sir  Walter),  History  of  the  Birds  of  New  Zealand,  159 
Bulletin  de  1'Academie  Imperiale  des  Sciences  de  St.  Petersbourg, 

512 
Bulletin  de  1'Academie   Royale  de  Balgique,  20,  91,  164,  310, 

5" 

Bulletin  of  Paris  Geographical  Society,  455 
Bulletin  de  la  Societe  d' Anthropologic  de  Paris,  309 
Bulletin  de  la  Societe  des  Naturalistes  de  Moscou,  139 
Burbury   (S.    H.),   on    the   Induction    of  Electric   Currents   in 

Conducting  Shells  of  Small  Thickness,  333 
Burial  Customs,  the,  of  the  Ainos,  Rev.  J.  Batchelor,  331 
Burials,  on  the  Use  of  Sledges,  Sec,  at,  M.  Anutchin,  134 
Burma,  Upper,  the  Survey  of,  115 
Burma,  Upper,  Major  Hobday  on  Operations  in,  136 
Burton  (C.  V.),  on  Electromotive  Force  by  Contact,  94 
Butterflies  of  the  Eastern    United   States  and  Canada,  S.  H. 

Scudder,  624 
Butterflies,  South  African,  a  Monograph  of  the  Extra-Tropical 

Species,  Rowland  Trimen,  F.R.S.,  266 
Bussorah,  Agriculture  in,  278 
Butler  (E.  A.),  Silkworms,  386 


Caddis-flies,    Bohemian,    Transformations    of,    Prof.   Klapalek, 

553 
Cae-Gvvyn  Cave,  North  Wales,  22 
Cailletet  (M.)  and  M.  E.  Colardeau,  Researches  on  Refrigerant 

Mixtures,  191 
Calcium,  Influence  of  Temperature  on,  23 
Calculation  of  Ranges,  &c,  of  Elongated  Projectiles,  Rev.  F. 

Bashforth,  468 
Calculus,  a  Chapter  in  the  Integral,  A.  G.  Greenhill,  F.R.S.,  218 
Calcutta  :    Indian   Museum,  and  the  Insect  Pests  of  India,  17  ; 

Botanic  Garden,  the  Centenary  of  the,  493 
California  :  Live  Lobsters  sent  to,  327  ;  Hand-book  of  the  Lick 

Observatory  of  the  University  of  California,  Prof.  Edward  S. 

Holden,  410 
Calorimeter,  an  Ether,  Prof.  Neesen,  312 

Cambodia,  Anthropological,  &c,  Study  of.  Dr.  E.  Maurel,  463 
Cambrian  Faunas  in  North  America,  Stratigraphical  Succession 

of  the,  Prof.  Chas.  B.  Walcott,  551 
Cambridge:  Head   Growth  in   Students  at  the  University  of, 

Francis  Galton,   F.R.S.,  14;  Speeches  delivered,  June  9,  by 

Dr.  Sandys  at,  163  ;  Dr.  Alex.  Hill  elected  Master  of  Down- 
ing   College,    182 ;    Natural    Science    Examinerships,    189 ; 

Awards  in  Natural  Science,  189  ;  Cambridge  Philosophical 

Society,  215 
Cameron  (Sir  C.  A.)  and  John  Macallan,  on  the  Compounds  of 

Ammonia  with  Selenium  Dioxide,  46 
Cameroons  Territory  :  Valdau  and  Knutson's  Explorations  in 

the,  136;  Lieutenants  Kund  and  Tappenbeck's  Expedition, 

186 
Campbell  (F.  M.),  on  the  Reappearance  of  Pallas's  Sand  Grouse 

(Syrhaptcs  paradoxus)  in  Europe,  77 
Canada:  Agriculture  in,   87;  Sir  J.    VV.   Dawson,  F.R.S.,  on 

the    Eozoic  and   Palaeozoic   Rocks  of  the  Atlantic  Coast  of 

Canada,  142  ;  Geological  and  Natural  History  of,  257 
Candles,  Soaps  and,  Dr.  C.  R.  Alder  Wright,  F.R.S.,  292 
Canoes,  Ancient  :  found  in  Norway,  134 ;  in  Sweden,  304 ;  in 

the  River  Hamble,  598 
Canton,  Medical  Missionary  Society  of,  279 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  Meteorological  Service  of,  454 


INDEX 


{Nature,  Nov.  22,  li 


Capillaries,  Prof.  Fick's  Scheme  of  Blood-pressure  in  the,  Prof. 

Gad,  1 20 
Carbon    Compounds,    Colour  of  some,    Prof.    Carnelly  and  J. 

Alexander,   141 
Carbon  and  Copper  combined  to  form  a  Compensated   Resist- 
ance Standard,  Prof.  Nichols,  232 
Carbon   Disulphide   in    Prisms,    &c,   a  Substitute  for,    H.    G. 

Madan,  413 
Carbon,  Researches  on  the  Spectrum  of,  Prof.  Vogel,  72 
Carboniferous  Flora,  Prof.  Williamson,  597 
Cardiff,  Aberdare  Hall,  257 
Cardinal    Numbers,    the,    with    an    Introductory    Chapter   on 

Numbers  generally,  Manley  Hopkins,  27 
Carguet   (M.  le)   and  P.  Topinard,    Population  of  the  Ancient 

Pagus-Cap-Sizun,  Cape  du  Raz,  212 
Carlet  (M.  G.),  on  the  Poison  of  the  Hymenoptera,  216 
Carnelly  (Prof.)  and  J.    Alexander,   Colour    of   some    Carbon 

Compounds,  141 
Carnot  (M.  A.),  on  a  New  Method  of  Quantitative  Analysis  for 
the  Lithine  contained  in  a  Large  Number  of  Mineral  Waters. 
360 
Carolina  Rail,  the  Osteology  of,  279 
Caron  on  the  Position  of  Timbuktu,  288 
Carpenter  (W.  Lant),  New  Form  of  Lantern,  214 
Cartography,  Early  European,  375 

Carus-Wilson  (Cecil),  Sonorous  Sand  in  Dorsetshire,  415 
Casey  (John,   F.  R.  S. ),  a  Treatise  on  Plane  Trigonometry,  218 
Caspian  Sea  Deposits,  M.  Netchayeff,  160 
Castner  (H.  T.),  Production  of  Aluminium,  326 
Catchpool  (Edmund),  Circles  of  Light,  342 
Caterpillars,  the  Recent  Plague  of,  277 
Catgut  as  a  Ligature,  Prof.  Munk,  312 
Catholic  Missionaries,  the   Services  of,  in  the  East,  to  Natural 

Science,  434  N 

Caucasus  :  General  Uslar's  Works  on  the,  159  ;  Ethnography  of 

the,  Baron  Uslar,  623 
Cave  (Charles),  a  Shadow  and  a  Halo,  619 
Caves,  Cae-Gwyn,  North  Wales,  22 

Celtic  Heathendom,  Prof.  A.  H.  Sayce,  Prof.  J.  Rhys,  361. 
Centenarians  in  France,  Emile  Levasseur,  288,  501 
Centenary  of  the  Calcutta  Botanic  Garden,  493 
Cephalopods,  Observations  on  the  Development  of,  Homology 

of  the  Germ-layers,  S.  Watase,  356 
Ceylon  :    Botanic  Gardens  of,  Dr.  Trimen's  Report  on,    112  ; 
Ethnology  of  the  Moors  of,  P.  Ramanathan,  135  ;  Report  of 
the  Conservator  of  Forests,    373  ;     Forest    Conservancy  in, 
Colonel  Clarke,  606 
Challenger  Expedition,  Zoological  Results  of  the,  337,  561 
Chamberlain     (Basil    Hall),    Japanese    "go-hei"   and    Shinto 

Worship,  396 
Chandler  (S.    C),    New    Catalogue   of    Variable    Stars,    554; 

Light-curve  of  U  Ophitichi,  576 
Changes  of  Potential   of  Voltaic  Couple?,  Effects  of  Different 

Positive  Metals,  &c,  upon  the.  Dr.  G.  Gore,  F.R.S.,  335 
Channel,  Extraordinary  Rarefaction  of  Atmosphere  in  the,  256 
Chaperon  (G.)  arid  E.  Mercadier,  on  Electro-chemical  Radio- 
phony,  168 
Chaperon  and  Mercadier,  Electro-chemical  Radiophony,  305 
Chappell  (William,  F.S.A.),  Death  of,  421 
Chappuis   (J.),    on    Mechanism   of  Electrolysis  by    Process    of 

Alternative  Currents,  263 
Charadriidae,    the   Geographical    Distribution    of    the    Family, 

Henry  Seebohm,  R.  Bowdler  Sharpe,  73 
Charleston  Earthquake,  Captain  C.  E.  Dutton's  Monograph  on, 

16 
Chart  of  the  Heavens,  Photographic,  38 
Charts,  Monthly,  of  the  North  Atlantic  Currents,   M.  Simart, 

143 
Charts   showing   the    Mean    Barometrical    Pressure    over    the 

Atlantic,  Indian,  and  Pacific  Oceans,  196 
Charts,  Synoptic,  G.  Rollin,  575 

Chemistry :  Influence  of  Temperature  on  Calcium,  23  ;  Thermo- 
chemical  Constants,  23;  Chemical  Society,  23,  117,  141  ;  a 
New  Sulphur-Acid,  M.  Villiers,  41  ;  on  the  Compounds  of 
Ammonia  and  Selenium  Dioxide,  Sir  C.  A.  Cameron  and 
John  Macallan,  46  ;  Ilea's  of  Combustion  of  Isomerous  Acids, 
W.  Louguinine,  48 ;  Tellurium,  Berthelot  and  Fabre,  63  ; 
Elementary  Chemistry,  William  S.  Furneaux,  76  ;  Determina- 
tion of  Molecular  Weights  of  Carbo-hydrates,  H.  T.  Brown 
and  Dr.  G.   H.    Morris,    117;  New  Chlorine  Compounds  of 


Titanium,  133  ;  on  Organic  Compounds  in  their  relations  to 
Haloid  Salts  of  Alumininm,  G.  Gustafson,  139 ;  Atomic 
Weight  of  Osmium,  Prof.  Seubert,  183  ;  Silicon  Tetrafluoride 
Compounds,  Comey  and  Loring  Jackson,  203  ;  New  Double 
Phosphates  in  the  Magnesian  Series,  M.  L.  Ouvrard,  216  -r 
Aniline,  Monomethyl  Aniline,  and  Dimethylaniline,  M.  Leo 
Vignon,  216  ;  Ferrate  of  Baryta,  MM.  G.  Rousseau  and  J. 
Bernheim,  216  ;  the  Decadence  of  the  Chemical  Profession  in- 
Government  Opinion,  217 ;  New  Platinum  Base  obtained 
by  Dr.  H.  Alexander,  256  ;  the  Choice  of  a  Chemist  to 
the  Navy,  265  ;  Dr.  Rebs  on  the  Composition  of  Persulphide 
of  Hydrogen,  278  ;  a  New  Base  in  Tea,  Dr.  Kossel,  303  \ 
Conditions  of  Evolution  of  Gases  from  Homogeneous  Liquids, 
V.  H.  Veley,  310;  Strophanthine,  M.  Arnaud,  311  ;  Yttro- 
titanite  of  Arendal,  Drs.  Kruss  and  Kiesewetter,  326 
Hydrofluoric  Acid,  Vapour-Density  of,  Prof.  Thorpe  and  F 
J.  Hambly,  373  ;  Phenyl-thiocarbimide,  H.  G.  Madan,  413  ; 
Molecular  Physics,  an  Attempt  at  a  Comprehensive  Dynamical; 
Treatment  of  Physical  and  Chemical  Forces,  Prof.  F.  Linde- 
mann,  G.  W.  de  Tunzelmann,  458,  578  ;  Three  New  Sulpho- 
chlorides  of  Mercury,  Poleck  and  Goercki,  527  ;  the  Gas- 
Allene,  Gustavson  and  Demjanoff,  552  ;  a  New  Crystalline 
Substance,  Silicotetraphenylamide,  Prof.  Emerson  Reynolds,. 
F.R.S.,  575  ;  Elimination  by  means  of  Iodine  of  Arseniurettsd 
Hydrogen  from  Sulphuretted  Hydrogen,  Dr.  Otto  Brunn,  575  -T 
Applications  of  Dynamics  to  Physics  and  Chemistry,  J.  J. 
Thomson,  F.R.S.,  585  ;  Chemistry  as  a  School  Subject,  Rev. 
A.  Irving,  596  ;  Valency,  Prof.  Armstrong,  596  ;  Dr.  Morley,. 
596  ;  Chemistry  of  Modern  Method  of  Manufacturing  Chloro- 
form, Orndorff  and  Jessel,  598;  Laboratories  at  Trinity  College, 
Dublin,  598  ;  New  Organic  Compounds,  Diphenyl,  Paul  Adam. 
599  ;  Perseite,  Maquenne,  608  ;  Heats  of  Combustion  of  Acids,. 
Louguinine,  608;  Freezing- Points  of  Solutions  of  Organic  Com- 
pounds of  Aluminium,  Louise  and  Roux,  608 ;  Vapour-Densities- 
of  Chromic  Chlorides,  Profs.  Nilson  and  Pettersson,  624 

Chevreul  (M.),  his  102nd  Birthday,  452 

Child,  the  Mind  of  the,  Prof.  W.  Preyer,  490 

China  :  Earthquake  in  the  Yunnan  Province  of,  16  ;  Meteoro- 
logy of  South-Eastern,  Dr.  Doberck,  118;  Chinese  Deri  vat  es- 
and  Old  Babylonian  Characters,  Terrien  de  Lacouperie,  Prof. 
A.  H.  Sayce,  122  ;  Prof.  Russell  on  Chinese  Astronomy, 
134;  Scientific  Works  published  by  Dr.  Dudgeon  in  Chinese,. 
302  ;  Taxation  in  China,  Dr.  D.  J.  Macgowan,  364  ;  Consul 
Bourne's  Report  on  the  Non-Chinese  Races  of  China,  345  a 
Consul  Bourne's  Report  on  his  Journey  to  South- Western 
China,  455  ;  the  Teaching  of  Mathematics  in  China,  Gundiy,. 

485 
Chinook  Wind,  the,  C.  C.  McCaul,  502 
Chitin  Solvents,  on  Experiments  with,  T.  H.  Morgan,  356 
Chloride,  on  the,  Bromide,  and  Sulphide  of  Yttrium  and  Sodium.. 

M.  A.  Duboin,  360 
Chlorine,    on  the  Density  of,   and  on    the  Vapour-Density  of 

Ferric  Chloride,  MM.  C.  Friedel  and  J.  M.  Crafts,  384 
Chloroform,   the  Modern  Method  of   Manufacturing,    Orndorff 

and  Jessel,  598 
Cholera,  Cure  of,  by  Inoculation,   Dr.   Gamaleia,  M.  Pasteur, 

395 
Chree  (C.) :  on  ^Eolotropic  Elastic  Solids,  165  ;  Effect  of  Electric 

Current  on  Saturated  Solutions,  215 
Christiania  University,  Scientific  Scholarship-;  at,  574 
Christmas  Island  :  Captain  W.  J.  L.  Wharton's  Exploration  of, 

207  ;  Dr.  Guppy's  Expedition  to,  228 
Chromic    Chlorides,    Vapour-Densities    of,    Profs.   Nilson    and 

Pettersson,  624 
Chrysarobin,   Physiological   Action  of    Anthrarobin    and,    Dr. 

Weyl,  144 
Church    (Prof.    A.    H.),    on    the  Occurrence  of  Aluminium   in. 

certain  Vascular  Cryptogams,  140 
Cinchona  Bark,  Extraction  of  Alkaloids  from,  by  Cold  Oil,  17 
Cincinnati  Zone  Catalogue,  43 
Circles  of  Light,  Edmund  Catchpool,  342 
Circuits,  Incomplete,  a  Simple  Hypothesis  for  Electro-magnetic 

Induction  of,  with  consequent   Equations  of  Electric   Motion. 

in  Fixed   Homogeneous  or  Heterogeneous  Solid  Matter,  Sir 

W7illiam  Thomson,  569 
City  and  Guilds  of  London   Institute  :  Lectures,  43  ;  Lectures. 

on  Electricity  at,  228  ;  Statistics  of  the  Past  Year,  453 
Civil  List  Pensions,  325 

Claret,  Derivation  of  the  Word,  H-  Bedford,  1 13 
Clarke  (C.  B.),  on  Root- Pressure,  94 


Nature,  Nov.  22,  188S] 


INDEX 


XI 


Clarke  (Dr.  Hyde),  Indian  Life  Statistics,  297 

Clarke  (Colonel),  Forest  Conservancy  in  Ceylon,  606 

Classification  of  the  Various  Sp-cies  of  Heavenly  Bodies,  Sug- 
gestions on  the,  J.  Norman  Lockyer,  F  R.S.,  8,  31,  56,  79 

Clayton  (H.  Helm),  Does  Precipitation  Influence  the  Movement 
of  Cyclones  ?,  301 

Clausius  (Prof.  Rudolf  Julius  Emanuel).  Obituary  Notice  of, 
G.  W.  de  Tunzelmann,  438  ;  Prof.  Geo.  Fras.  Fitzgerald, 
F.R.S.,  491 

Clerke  (A.  M.)  :  Early  Correspondence  of  Christian  Huygens, 
193  ;  the  New  Astronomy,  Samuel  Pierpoint  Langley,  291  ; 
Globular  Star  Clusters,  365 

Climate  of  the  British  Empire,  1887,  422 

Climate  of  Quaternary  Times,  16a. 

Climatology  of  Constantinople,  M.  Coumbary,  133 

Climatology  and  Hydrology,  International  Congress  of,  348 

Clinical  Thermometers,  the  Verification  of,  372 

Cloud  Electric  Potential,  E.  Douglas  Archibald,  269 

Cloud  Electric  Potential,  Prof.  J.  D.  Everett,  F.R.S.,  342 

Clouds,  Sky  Coloured,  T.  W.  Backhouse,  196,  270;  R.  T. 
Omond,  220 

Coagulation  of  the  Blood,  on  the,  Prof.  W.  D.  Haliburton, 
Prof.  E.  A.  Schafer,  F.R.S.,  331 

Cockerell  (T.  D.  A.),  a  Lunar  Rainbow,  365 

Cod  and  Whale  Fisheries  in  North  of  Norway,  160 

Coefficients  of  Induction,  W.  E.  Sumpner,  22 

Colenso(W.,  F.R.S. ),  Ancient  Tide-Lore,  373 

College  at  Tientsin,  the  New  Foreign,  302 

Collins  (F.  Howard),  Antagonism,  7 

Colloidal  S'ate,  C.  Winssinger  on  the,  20 

Colorado,  Biological  Association,  625 

Colour  of  some  Carbon  Compounds,  Prof.  Carnelly  and  J. 
Alexander,  141 

Colour  of  Flowers,  Preserving  the,  A.  W.  Buckland,  270 

Colour,  Photometry  of,  the  Measurement  of  Reflected  Colours, 
Captain  W.  de  W.  Abney,  F.R.S.,  and  Maj^r-General 
Festing,  F.R.S. ,  212  ;  Captain  Abney,  F.R.S. ,  286 

Colour,  Preserving  the,  of  Flowers,  J.  G.  Baker,  F.R.S.,  245 

Colours,  Latent,  of  Bodies,  M.  G.  Govi,  631 

Columbia  (British),  Dr.  Dawson's  Exploration  of,  115 

Columbus,  the  Fourth  Centenary  of  the  Discovery  of  America 
by,  487 

Columns,  Sun,  Henry  Harries,  566 

Combustion,  Incompleteness  of,  on  Explosion,  Prof.  H.  B. 
Dixon  and  H.  W.  Smith.  596 

Combustion  of  Organic  Substances,  the  Slow,  Th.  Schlcesing,  48 

Comets:  Comet  1888  a  (Sawerthai),  43,  114,  168,  186,  258, 
328  ;  Prof.  Lewis  Boss,  88 ;  Encke's  Comet,  350  ;  John 
Tebbutt,  423  ;  Comet  1888  c  (Brooks),  Dr.  H.  Kreutz,  397, 
432,  503  ;  Brooks  and  Faye,  576,  626  ;  Dr.  H.  Kreutz  on, 
528  ;  Fare's  Comet,  432,  503  ;  Discovery  of  a  New  Comet, 
1888  e,  E.  E.  Barnard,  503,  528,  626  ;  YV.  R.  Brooks,  576  ; 
the  Short  Period  Comets  and  Asteroids,  Prof.  Kirkwood,  114; 
Lagrange's  Hypothesis  on  the  Origin  of  Comets  and  Meteor.tes, 
H.  Faye,  215  ;  Further  Cometary  Discoveries,  W.  R.  1'. rooks, 

375 
Comey  and    Loring  Jackson  on  a  Sodium  Salt  of  Zincic  Acid, 

86;  on  Silicon  Teirafluoride  Compounds,  203 
Companion  to  the  Weekly  Problem  Papers,  Rev.  John  Milne, 

76 
Comparison  of  the  Cranial  with  the  Spinal  Nerves,  on  the,  Dr. 

W.  H.  Gaskell,  F.R.S.,  19 
Compressed  Oxygen  Furnace,  Fletcher's,  606 
Compressibility  of   Water,   Salt   Water,    Mercury,    and    Glass, 

Prof.  P.  G.  Tait,  581 
Compton  (Earl),  How  Sea-Birds  Dine,  618 
Concrete  Quantities,  Multiplication  and  Division  of,  A.  Lodge, 

281 
Conductors,  Iron,  Self-induction  in,  Prof.  J.  A.  Ewing,  55 
Conference,  International  Maritime.  553 
Congo  and  West   Africa,  Baron  H.  von  Schwerin's  Expedition 

to  the,  424 
Congre-s  of  Americanists,  International,  552 
Congress,  International  Geological,  Prof.  J.  Prestwich,  F. R.S., 

503,  518.  548 
Congress,  Proposed  International  Geographical,  259 
Congresses,  Projected  Scieivific,  in  Paris,  255 
Conic  Sections,  Solutions  of  the  Examples  in   an    Elementary 

Treatise  on,  Chas.  Smith,  588 


Conies,  the  Geometric   Interpretation   of  Monge's   Differential 

Equation  to  all,  Prof.  Asutosh  Mukhopadhyay,  564,  619 
Coninck(M.  O.  de),  Contribution  to  the  Study  of  the  Ptomaines, 

168 
Constant  of  Aberration,  185 
Constantinople,  Climatology  of,  133 
Contemporary  Review  for  June,  Dr.  Romanes's  Article  in  the, 

Edward  B.  Poulton,  295,  364 
Contraction-Theory  of  Mountain-Formation,  History  of,  Charles 

Davison,  30 
Convulsions   produced  by  Cocaine,    Influence   of    the    Organic 

Temperature  on,  MM.  P.  Langlois  and  Ch.  Richet,  168 
Cook  on  the  Part  of  American  Geologists  in  the  International 

Geological  Congress,  452 
Copper  and  Carbon  combined  to  form  a  Compensated  Resistance 

Standard,  Prof.  Nichols,  232 
Copper,  Specific  Resistance  of  Pure,  232 
Coral  Formations,  G.   C.    Bourne,  5  ;  C.    R.    Dryer,  6  ;  Robert 

Irvine,  54 
Coral  Reefs,  Foundations  of,  Captain  W.  J.  L.  Wharton,  568 
Coral  Reefs  of  the  Indian  Archipelago,  Dr.  Guppy's  Expedition 

to,  228 
Corfield  (W.  H.),  Electric  Fishes,  515 

Cornil  and  Toupet  (MM.),  Bacterial  Disease  of  the  Duck,  216 
Cornish  Blown  Sands,  the,  R.  H.  Curtis,  55 
Coronal  Light  during  the  Solar  Eclipse  of  August   28-29,  1886, 

on    the  Determination  of  the  Photometric   Intensity  of  the, 

Captain  W.  de  W.  Abney,  F.R.S.,  and  T.  E.  Thorpe,  407 
Corry  (J.    II.)  and  S.  A.  Stewart,  Flora  of  the  North-East  of 

Ireland,  514 
Cosmogony,    on   the    Mechanical    Conditions    of  a    Swarm    of 

Meteorites  and  on  Theories  of,  Prof.  G.  11.  Darwin,  F.R.S., 

573 

Cotes  (E.  C),  Investigations  on  the  Insect  Pe  ts  of  India,  17 

Coudreau  (M.),  Explorations  m  Guiana,  398 

Couette  (SI.  M.),  on  a  New  Apparatus  for  studying  the  Friction 
of  Fluids,  408 

Coumbary  (M.),  Climatology  of  Constantinople,  133 

Courts  of  Justice,  Scientific  Assessors  in,  289 

Cowles's  Process  for  the  Production  of  Aluminium,  162 

Cranial  Nerves,  on  the  Comparison  of  the,  with  the  Spinal 
Nerves,  Dr.  W.  H.  Gaskell,  F.R.S.,  19 

Cranial  Nerves,  Note  on  some  of  the  Motor  Functions  of 
certain,  and  of  the  three  first  Cervical  Nerves  in  the  Monkey, 
Chas.  E.  Beevor  and  V.  Horsley,  F.R.S.,  357 

Crawford's  (Lord)  Collection  of  Astronomical  Instruments,  598 

Crawford  (P.),  Reminiscences  of  Foreign  Tiavel,  126 

Creation,  the  Method  of,  Henry  W.  Crosskey,  5 

Ciisp  (Frank),  Micromillimetre,  22: 

Croffut  (William  A.),  United  States  Geological  Survey,  421 

Croft  (W.  B. ),  Watches  and  the  Weather,  245 

Crommelin  (A.  E.).  Partial  Eclipse  of  August  7,  365 

Crosskey  (Henry  W.),  the  Method  of  Creation,  5 

Cryptogams,  on  the  Occurrence  of  Aluminium  in  certain  Vascular, 
A.  H.  Church,  140 

Crystal  Models,  a  System  for  the  Construction  of,  John 
Gorham,  411 

Crystalline  Rocks,  on  the  Origin  of  the  Primitive,  A.  Michel- 
Levy,  525 

Crystalline  Schists,  on  the  Classification  of  the,  Prof.  Albert 
Ileim,  524 

Crystalline  Schists,  on,  Dr.  T.  S terry  Hunt,  F.R.S.,  519 

Crystalline  Schists,  some  Questions  connected  with  the  Problem 
presented  by  the,  together  with  Contributions  to  their  Solution 
from  the  Palaeozoic  Formations,  Prof.  K.  A.  Lossen,  522 

Crystalline  Schists,  Remarks  on  some  of  the  more  Recent  Pub- 
lications dealing  with  the,  Prof.  J.  Lehmann,  549 

Crystalline  Schists  of  the  Western  Alps,  on  the  Constitution 
and  Structure  of  the,  Prof.  Ch.  Lory,  506 

Crystallization,  on  Solution  and,  Prof.  Liveing,  215 

Crystals,  the  Absorption  Spectra  of  Crystals,  At  Becquerel,  Ak 
E.  Tutton,  343 

Cudworth  (William),  Life  of  Abraham  Sharp,  304 

Cunningham  (Lieut. -Colonel  Allan),  Geometric  Meaning  of 
Differential  Equations,  318 

Curious  Resemblance,  a,  W.  J.  Lockyer,  270 

Curtis  (Charles  E.),  Practical  Forestry,  171 

Curtis  (R.  H.),  the  Cornish  Blown  Sands,  55 

Curve  Pictures  of  London  for  the  Social  Reformer,  Alex.  B. 
Macdowall,  410 


Xll 


INDEX 


\Nalurc,  Nov.  22,  i88fc 


Curves  with   Absolute  Numerical  Values,  Five  Applications  of 

Fourier's    Law    of    Diffusion    illustrated   by   a   Diagram    of, 

Sir  William  Thomson,  F.R.S.,  571 
Curves,  Movements  in,  160 
dishing   (Frank),   Discovery   of  Prehistoric  Cities   in  Arizona 

by,  42 
Cyclone  at  Havannah,  Frightful,  485 
Cyclones,    Does    Precipitation   influence    the    Movement    of?, 

H.  Helm  Clayton,  301 
Cyclones,  the  Incurvature  of  the  Winds  in  Tropical,   Henry  F. 

Blanford,  F.R.S.,  181 
Cygni,  Spectrum  of  R,  Rev.  T.  E.  Espin,  423 
Czech  Academy  of  Science,  Projected,  302 


Da  Gama  (G.  A.),  Origin  of  the  Belief  in  the  Bis-cobra,  624 

Dacca  'tornado,  the,  42 

Dana  (J.  D. ),  History  of  Changes  in  Mount  Loa  Craters,  462, 

559 
Darwin  (Charles),  Address  on,  Prof.  W7.  H.  Flower,  F.  R.S.,  116 
Darwin  (Prof.  G.  H.,  F.R.S.),  on  the  Mechanical  Conditions  of  a 

Swarm  of  Me'eorites  and  on  Theories  of  Cosmogony,  573 
Darwinian  Theories,  Proposed  Chair  for  the  Teaching  of,  182 
Darwinian  Theory,  Paris  Professorship  of,  276 
Darwinism,  Lamarckism  versus,  Prof.  R.  Meldola,  F.R.S.,  388  ; 
Edward  B.  Poulton,  295,  388,   434 ;  Dr.  Geo.  J.   Romanes, 
F.R.S.,  364,  413,  490 
Davis  (J.  R.  Ainsworth),  a  Text-book  of  Biol  <gy,  52,  126,  149 
Davis  (James  W.),  Yorkshire  Geological  and  Polytechnic  Society, 

590 
Davison    (Charles),     History    of    the     Contraction-Theory    of 

Mountain-Formation,  30 
Dawkins  (Prof.  W.  Boyd,  F.R.S.),  Opening  Address  in  Section  C 

(Geology)  at  the  British  Association,  449 
Dawson  (Dr.  G.  M.),  Exploration  of  British  Columbia,  115 
Dawson  (Sir  J.  W.,  F.R.S.),  on  the  Eozoic  and  Palaeozoic  Rocks 
of  the  Atlantic  Coast  of  Canada,    142  ;  Imperial  Geological 
Union,  157  ;  Geological  History  of  Plants,  538 
De  La  Noe  (Lieutenant- Colonel    G.),  Les  Formes  du  Terrain, 

614 
Deaf  and  Dumb,  Report  of  the  Association  for  the  Oral  Instruc- 
tion of  the,  159 
Deaf-Mutes,  Royal  Commission  on,  and  Prof.  Graham  Bell,  132 
Debray  (Jules  Henri):  and  A.   |oly,  Researches  on  Ruthenium, 

143  ;  Death  of,  359  ;  M.  Janssen's  Obituary  Address,  396 
Decadence  of  the  Chemical  Profession  in  Government  Opinion, 

217 
Deer  in  New  Zealand,  J.  W.  Fortescue,  328 
Definition  of  the  Theory  of  Natural   Selection,    Prof.  Geo.  T. 

Romanes,  F.R.S.,  616 
Defforges  (M.)  and  M.  C.  Wolf,  on  a  Point  in  the  History  of 

the  Pendulum,  191 
Demjanoff  and  Gustavson,  the  Gas  Allene,  552 
Denmark,  the  Oyster  Banks  of,  .114 
Denmark,  Sand  Grouse  in,  158 

Denning  (W.  F.)  :  the  Meteoric  Season,  276  ;  the  Red  Spot  on 
Jupiter,  342  ;    a  History  of  the  August  Meteors,  393  ;  Fire- 
ball of  August  13,  415  ;  August  Meteors,  415 
Density  and  Specific  Gravity,  Prof.  G.  Carey  Foster,  F.R.S., 

6  ;  E.  Hospitalier,  6  ;  Harry  M.  Elder,  55 
Departement  de  l'Ain,  Notes  on  the,  Dr.  Aubert,  431 
Determinants  :    Teoria  Elemental  de  las  Determinantes  y  sus 
Principles  Aplicaciones   al  Algebra  y  la  Geometria,   Felix 
Amoretti  y  Carlos  M.  Morales,  537 
Determinants,  Nomenclature  of,  Dr.  Thos.  Muir,  589 
Deutsche  Geographische  Blatter,  424 
Dewar  (T.  I.),  Resistance  of  Square  Bars  to  Torsion,  126 
Dewar  and  Liveing  (Profs.),  Investigations  on  the  Spectrum  of 

Magnesium,  165 
Di-cdcium  Arsenite,  Artificial  Production  of,  M.  Dufet.  17 
Dielectric,  Riicker  and  Boys,  161 
Dieterici    (Dr.),    Experiments     on    the    Determination    of   the 

Latent  Heat  of  Evaporation  of  Water  at  o°  C,  143 
Differential  Equation  to  all  Conies,  Geometric  Interpretation  of 

Monge's,  619 
Diffraction  of  Sound,  Lord  Rayleigh,  F.R.S.,  208 
Digiti  Minimi  Decessus,  622 

Dilute  Solutions  and  Gases,    on  the   Analogy   between,  Prof. 
van't  Hoff,  Prof.  Ramsay,  F.R.S.,  213 


Dine,  How  Sea-Birds,  Earl  Compton,  618 

Diphenyl,  New  Organic  Compounds  of,  Paul  Adam,  599 

Dispersal  of  Seeds  by  Birds,  Dr.  H.  B.  Guppy,  101 

Dispersion  of  Seeds  and  Plants,  E.  L.  Layard,  296 

Disseminaton  of  Plants  by  Birds,  W.  Botting  Hemsley,  53 

Distribution  of  Animals  and  Plants  by  Ocean  Currents,  A.  W. 
Buckland,  245  ;  Isaac  C.  Thompson,  270 

Divergent  Evolution,  Gulick  on,  Dr.  Alfred  R.  Wallace,  490 

Dixon  (Prof.  H.  B.,  F.R.S.l  and  H.  W.  Smith,  Incompleteness 
of  Combustion  on  Explosion,  596 

Doberck  (Dr.  W.  C):  on  the  Rainfall  and  Temperature  at 
Victoria  Peak,  Hong  Kong,  78  ;  Meteorology  of  South-East 
China,  1 18;  Upper  and  Lower  Wind  Currents  over  the 
Torrid  Zone,  565  ;  on  the  Grass  Minimum  Thermometer, 
619 

Dog,  Prof.  Nehring  on  the  Origin  of  the,  87 

Doldrums,  the  Weather  in  the,  Hon.  Ralph  Abercromby,  25S 

Donders  Memorial  Fund,  41,  62,  112 

Donkin  (Bryan,  Jim.),  Fuel-testing  Station  for  London,  172 

Dorsetshire  :  the  Birds  of,  J.  C.  Mansell-Pleydell,  R.  Bowdlev 
Sharpe,  125  ;  Sonorous  Sand  in.  Cecil  Cams  Wilson,  415 

Double-Star  Observations,  Milan,  Prof.  Schiaparelli,  423 

Doughty  (C.  M.),  Travels  in  Arabia  Deserta,  195 

Draper  (Harry  Napier),  Fact  and  Fiction,  221 

Draper  (Henry)  Memorial,  the  Progress  of  the,  Prof.  Edward 
C.  Pickering,  306 

Drawing  Instruments,  Mathematical,  W.  F.  Stanley,  230 

Dreams,  103  ;  A.  Bialoveski,  56 

Drummond  (H.),  Tropical  Africa,   171 

Dryer  (C.  R. ),  Coral  Formation-,  6 

Duboin  (M.  A.),  on  the  Chloride,  Bromide,  and  Sulphide  of 
Yttrium  and  Sodium,  360 

Dublin,  Chemical  Laboratories  at  Trinity  College,  598 

Dublin  Science  and  Art  Museum,  114 

Duck,  Bacterial  Disease  of  the,  MM.  Cornil  and  Toupet,  216 

Dudgeon  (Dr.),  Scientific  Works  published  in  Chinese  by,  302 

Dufet  (M.),  Artificial  Production  of  Di-calcium  and  Pharmaco- 
lite,  17 

Dufheld  (A.  J.),  Nose- Blackening  as  Preventive  of  Snow-Blind- 
ness, 172 

Dumple  (E.  T.),  the  Texas  Shell  Mounds,  454 

Dundee,  Science-Teaching  in,  574 

Dunman  (T. )  :  Sound,  Light,  and  Heat,  125;  Electricity  and 
Magnetism,  125 

Dunstan  (Prof.),  Report  of  the  British  Association  Committee  on 
the  Teaching  of  Chemistry,  596 

Duplex  Pendulum  Seismograph,  Prof.  J.  A.  Ewing,  30 

Durazzo  (Prof.),  Map  of  Massawa  District,  161 

Durham  Salt  District,  E.  Wilson,  214 

Dust,  a  Column  of,  Hugh  Taylor,  415 

Dutton  (Captain  C.  E.),  Monograph  on  the  Charleston  Earth- 
quake, 16 

Dwarf  Races  in  Africa,  R.  G.  Haliburton,  112 

Dyer  (F.  W.),  Lingualumina,  or  Language  of  Light,  1 

Dyer  (Henry),  the  Glasgow  and  West  of  Scotland  Technical 
College,  428 

Dyer  (W.  T.  Thiselton,  F.R.S.)  :  Flora  of  the  Antarctic  Islands, 
Dr.  H.  B.  Guppy,  40;  on  Geo.  Bentham,  116;  Opening 
Address  in  Section  D  (Biology),   at  the  British  Association, 

473 
Dynamics :    Prof.    Greenhill    on  Kinematics   and,    Prof.  J.    G. 

MacGregor,  149  ;  Applications  of  Dynamics  to  Physics  and 

Chemistry,  L  J-  Thomson,  F.R.S.,  585 
Dynamo  Machine,  on  the  Condition  of  Self-excitation  in  a,  Prof. 

S.  P.  Thompson,  141 


Earth-Knowledge,  W.  J.  Harrison  and  II.  R.  Wakefield,  563 
Earth-Pillars  in  Miniature,  Cecil  Carus-Wilson,  197 
Earth- Sculpture,  Lieut. -Colonel  G.  De  la  Noe,  614 
Earthquakes :   Supposed  Earthquakes  in   Norway,    16 ;    Earth- 
quake in  the  Yunnan  Province  of  China,  16  ;  at  Luchon,  16  ; 
Earthquakes   in   Norway  and    Sweden,  42,  422 ;    Dr.   Hans 
Reusch's  Report,  326  ;  Captain  C.    E.    Dutton's  Monograph 
on  the   Charleston,  16  ;  Earthquake   at  Florence,  November 
14,  1887,  165  ;  Remarks  on  the,  Prof.  P.  G.  Giovanozzi,  165; 
at  Julfa,   Erivan,  183:  in   Herno,  204;  Report  on,  at  Vyer- 
nyi,  204;  in  Monte  Video,  256  ;  in  Honduras,  278  ;  in  New 
Zealand,  452  ;  in  Mexico,  485  ;  Effect  of,  on  Animals,  Prof. 


Nature,  Nov.  22,  1888] 


INDEX 


xni 


Milne,  500  ;  Earthquakes,  and  How  to  Measure  Them,  Prof. 
J.    A.    Ewing,   F.R.S.,    299;    Earthquake-Intensity  in    San 
Francisco,  Edward  S.  Holden,  189 
Earthworms :  the  Nephridia  of,    Prof.    W.    Baldwin    Spencer, 
197  ;  Frank  E.  Beddard,  221  ;  British  Earthworms,  Dr.  Wm. 

B.  Benham,  319 
Earwigs,  Plague  of,  277 

Eclectic  Physical  Geography,   Russell  Hinmah,  615 
Eclipse,  Partial,  of  August  7,  A.  C.  Crommelin,  364 
Kclipse,  Solar,  of  August  28-29,  1886,  on  the  Determination  of 
the  Photometric  Intensity  of  the  Coronal   Light  during  the, 
Captain   W.   de   W.   Abney,    F.R.S.,    and   T.    E.    Thorpe, 
407 
Eclipse  of  the  Sun  of  August  19,  1887,  Prof.  Egoroff's  Report 
on  the  Observations  made  in  Russia  and  Siberia  during  the. 
625 
Eclipse,  Total  Lunar,  of  January  28,  553 
Edinburgh  Royal  Society,  47,  118,  263,  311,  383 
Edinburgh  :    Heriot-Watt  College    Calendar,   327  ;    Iron    and 

Steel  Institute,  Autumnal  Meeting.  395 
Education  :    Technical,    573  ;    Lord    Hartington    on,   40 ;    the 
National    Association  for  the    Promotion    of,   63,   255  ;   the 
Advancement  of  Higher  Education  in  London,  41  ;  London 
Chamber  of  Commerce   Scheme  for  Improvement  of  Com- 
mercial Education,  158  ;  Agricultural  Education  in  Northern 
Italy  and  in  Prussia,    138  ;    Education    in    India,   277 ;    M. 
Blanchet's  Speech  at  the  Sorbonne  on  Education,  325  ;  M. 
Lockroy's  Speech  at  the  Sorbonne  on.  325  ;  Science  Teaching 
in  Elementary  Schools  in  England  and  Wales,  576 
Edwards-Moss  (J.  E.),  a  Season  in  Sutherland,  220 
Egg,  Study  of  the  Albuminoid  Substances  in  the  White  of  an, 

164 
Egg-Masses  on  Hydrobia  ulvte,  Prof.  W.  A.  Herdman,  197 
Egoroff  (Prof. ),   Report  on  the   Observations   made  in   Russia 
and  Siberia  during  the  Eclipse  of  the  Sun  of  August  19,  1887, 
625 
Egypt :  Ethnographic  Types  from  the  Monuments  of,   Rev.   H. 
G.    Tomkins,   214  ;  Preservation  of  Ancient  Monuments  in, 
H.  H.  Howorth,  M.  P.,  and  Sir  T.  Fergusson,  M.P. ,  326 
Eider-fowl  caught  in  Fishermen's  Nets  on  Swedish  Coast,  304; 

Eider-fowl  Preservation  in  Sweden,  527 
Eimer  (Dr.),  on  the  Origin  of  Species,  123 
Elastic  Solid  Bodies,  on  a  General  Property  of,    Maurice  Levy, 

431 
Elastic  Solids,  ^Eolotropic,  C.  Chree,  165 
Elburz,  Mount,  Ascent  of,  by  Baron  Ungern  Sternberg,  501 
Elder  (Harry  M.),  Density  and  Specific  Gravity,  55 
Electricity  :  Electrical  Column,  19,  161  ;    Effects  of  Magnetism 
and    Heat  on   the   Electric   Resistance   of  Bismuth,    19  ;  C. 
Vernon    Boys'   Radio-micrometer,    19  ;  Dynamical   Action  of 
the  Current  of  Electrodes,  19  ;  the  Electric  Organ   of  Rata 
bitis,    Prof.   J.    C.   Ewart,    70  ;    on    the  Heating  Effects   of 
Electric    Currents,    W.     H.     Preece,    F.  R.S.,    93;    on    the 
Structure  of  the  Electric  Organ  of  the  Raiacircularis,  Prof.  J. 

C.  Ewart,  94  ;  C.  V.  Burton  on  Electromotive  Force  by  Con- 
tact, 94;  the  Electric  Light  in  Marine  Biology,  112;  Prof. 
W.  A.  Herdman  on,  130 ;  Incident  in  Patent  Electric  Light- 
ing Case,  Edison  and  Swan  Electric  Lighting  Company  v. 
Holland,  114;  Measurements  of  Sparking  Distance  in  Air 
of  Alternate  Currents  used  in,  E  G.  Acheson,  305  ; 
Electric  Light  at  St.  Catherine's  Point  Lighthouse,  501  ; 
Measurements  in  Electricity  and  Magnetism,  Prof.  A.  Gray, 
113  ;  Electricity  and  Magnetism,  Thomas  Dunman,  125  ;  a 
Treatise  on  Electricity  and  Magnetism,  E.  Mascart  and  J. 
Joubert,  241  ;  Effect  of  Chlorine  on  Electromotive  Force  of 
Voltaic  Couple,  Dr.  G.  Gore,  F.R.S.,  117;  Electromotive 
Properties  of  the  Leaf  of  Diotura  in  the  Excited  and 
Unexcited  States,  J.  Burdon- Sanderson,  F.R.S.,  140;  Elec- 
tric Fishes  in  the  River  Uruguay,  Dr.  P.  L.  Sclater, 
F.R.S.,  148;  Riicker  and  Boys'  Dieletric,  161  ;  Blondlot's 
Experiments,  162  ;  Cowles's  Process  for  the  Production  of 
Aluminium,  162  ;  Magnetic  and  Electric  Experiments  with 
Soap  Bubbles,  C.  Vernon  Boys,  162 ;  Electro  chemical 
Radiophony,  MM.  G.  Chaperon  and  E.  Mercadier,  168  ; 
Note  on  the  Governing  of  Electromotors,  Profs.  W.  E. 
Ayrton  and  J.  Perry,  190  ;  Electric  Mountain  Railway  near 
Lucerne,  453  ;  Effect  of  Electric  Current  on  Saturated  Solu- 
tions, C.  Chree,  215;  Lectures  at  the  City  and  Guilds  of 
London  Institute  on  Electricity,  228  ;  Electrical   Notes,   231, 


305,  555,  577  ;  Meteorological  Society's  Report  on  Thunder- 
storms, 238  ;  Electro-chemical  Effects  on  Magnetizing  Iron, 
II.,  Thos.  Andrews,  262  ;  Cloud  Electric  Potential,  E. 
Douglas  Archibald,  269;  Prof.  J.  D.  Everett,  F.R.S., 
343 ;  Changes  of  Potential  of  Voltaic  Couple,  Dr.  G. 
Gore,  F.R.S.,  285;  Note  on  Continuous  Current  Trans- 
formers, Prof.  S.  P.  Thompson,  286  ;  Undulatory  Move- 
ment accompanying  the  Electric  Spark,  287  ;  Electro- 
chemical Radiophony,  Chaperon  and  Mercadier,  305  ; 
Proportionality  between  Velocity  of  Light,  Conduction  of 
Heat,  and  Electric  Conductivity  in  Metals,  Kundt,  305  ;  In- 
fluence Machines,  J.  Wimshurst,  307  ;  Electric  Organ  of 
Skate,  Prof.  J.  C.  Ewart,  310  ;  on  the  Induction  of  Electric 
Currents  in  Conducting  Shells  of  Small  Thickness,  S.  H. 
Burbury,  333  ;  on  the  Electric  Conductibility  of  Mixtures  of 
Salts  in  Solution,  MM.  E.  Bouty  and  L.  Poincare,  384  ;  Elec- 
tricity and  Thermo-dynamics,  the  Storage  of,  M.  Gouy,  384  ; 
Modern  Views  of  Electricity,  Prof.  Oliver  J.  Lodge,  F.R.S., 
389,  416,  590 ;  Sir  Wm.  Thomson  on  Clerk-Maxwell's 
Theory  of  Electro-magnetic  Induction  for  Incomplete  Circuits, 
500:  Electric  Transmission  of  Power,  Prof.  Ayrton,  F.  R.  S., 
508,  533  ;  Electric  Fishes,  W.  II.  Corfield,  F.K.S.,  515  ;  In- 
troduction of  Electricity  into  Paris  Omnibus  Service,  527  ; 
Diffusion  of  Rapidly-alternating  Currents  in  Substance  of 
Homogeneous  Conductor-,  Sir  \V.  Thomson,  555  ;  Applied 
Electricity  in  United  States,  555  ;  the  Decomposition  of 
Water  by  Alternate  Currents  of  Electricity,  555  ;  Influence  of 
Plane  of  Transverse  Section  on  Magnetic  Permeability  of  Iron 
Bar,  Prof.  Ewing,  555  ;  the  Volta  Prize,  555  ;  Lord  Rayleigh's 
Experiments  as  to  Variation  of  Velocity  of  Light  by  Electric 
Current  through  Electrolyte,  555 ;  Electro-Magnetic  In- 
duction of  Incomplete  Circuits,  a  Simple  Hypothesis  for, 
with  Consequent  Equations  of  Electric  Motion  in  Fixed 
Homogeneous  or  Heterogeneous  Solid  Matter,  Sir  William 
Thomson,  569 ;  on  the  Transference  of  Electricity  within 
a  Homogeneous  Solid  Conductor,  Sir  William  Thom- 
son, 571  ;  Five  Applications  of  Fourier's  Law  of  Diffusion 
Illustrated  by  a  Diagram  of  Curves  with  Absolute  Nu- 
merical Values,  Sir  William  Thomson,  571  :  Homogeneous 
Solid  Conductor,  on  the  Transference  of  Electricity  within  a, 
Sir  William  Thomson,  571  ;  Hertz's  Experiments  on  the 
Electric  Ether,  577  ;  Static  Electricity,  a  Vortex  Analogue  of, 
Prof.  Hicks,  577 ;  the  Transmission  of  Electric  Currents 
through  Air  with  Flames  as  Electrodes,  Dr.  Borgman,  577  ; 
Lenard  and  Howard's  Flat  Bismuth  Spiral  for  Measuring 
Intensity  of  Magnetic  Field,  577  ;  Acheson 's  Inquiry  into 
Influence  of  Disruptive  Discharges  of  Powerful  Alternating 
Currents,  577  ;  the  Oscillatory  Character  of  the  Leyden  Jar 
Discharge,  578  ;  Experiments  on  Electrolysis,  W.  W.  Haldane 
Gee  and  H.  Holder,  190  ;  on  Mechanism  by  Alternative 
Current  Process  of  Chappuis  and  Maneuvrier,  263  ;  Electro- 
lytic Decomposition  of  Proteids,  Dr.  G.  N.  Stewart,  422  ; 
Electromotive  Variations,  on  the,  which  accompany  the 
Beat  of  the  Human  Heart,  Dr.  Augustus  D.  Waller,  619 
Elements,  Equivalents  of  the  Simple  Bodies,  96 
Elephant,  African,  Possibility  of  utilizing  the,  J.  Menges,  529 
Elephas  primigenius,    Discovery    of,    Associated    with    Flint 

Implements  at  Southall,  J.  Allen  Brown,  283 
Elimination,   Natural   Selection  and,   Prof.  C.    Lloyd   Morgan, 

370 

Ellington  (E.B.),  Hydraulic  Power  in  London,  17 

Elongated  Projectiles,  Calculation  of  Ranges,  &c,  of,  Rev.  F. 
Bashforth,  468 

Emin  Pasha  :  Letter  from,  238  ;  the  German  Plan  for  rescuing, 
Herr  Gerhard  Rohlfs,  486,  529 

Emmon's  (Lieut.)  Ethnographical  Collection  from  Alaska.  64 

Empiricism  versus  Science,  609 

Encke's  Comet,  350  ;  J'mn  Tebbutt  on,  423 

Energy,  Work  and,  Rev.  Edward  Geoghegan,  77 

Engel  (M.),  Neutral  Chloride  of  Platinum,  396 

Engineering  Schools,  Prof.  George  Francis  Fitzgerald,  F.  R.S., 
322 

Engler's  Jahrbiicher,  583 

Entomology  :  the  Insect  Pests  of  India,  17  ;  the  Pyralidina  of 
the  Hawaiian  Islands,  95  ;  Entomological  Society,  95,  I9'» 
287,  383,  560,  607  ;  R.  Mcl.achlan  on  Cold  Winters  in  relation 
to  Insects,  228  ;  the  Recent  Plague  of  Caterpillars,  277  ;  Indian 
Museum  Notes  on  Economic,  278  ;  Entomologist's  Monthly 
Magazine,  August,  327  ;  Scent  Organs  of  Male   Moth  Her- 


XIV 


INDEX 


[Nature,  Nov.  22,  li 


minia   tarsipennalis,  Prof.  Meldola,  486 ;  Transformations  of 

Bohemian  Caddis  flies,  Prof.  Klapalek,  553 
Entstehung    der   Arten   auf  Grund  von  Vererben   erworbener 

Eigenschaften  nacli  den  Gesetzen  organischen  Wachsens,  von 

Dr.  G.  H.  Theodor  Eimer,  123 
Eozoic  and   Palaeozoic  Rocks  of  the  Atlantic  Coast  of  Canada, 

on  the,  Sir  J.  W.  Dawson,  F.R.S.,  142 
Epenthesis  mccraydi,  on  the  Life-History  of,  W.  K.  Brooks,  356 
Epichlorhydrine,   Action  of   Aniline  on,   M.   Ad.    Fauconnier, 

36° 
Equations,    Geometric  Meaning  of  Differential,  Lieut. -Colonel 

Allan  Cunningham,  318 
Equatorials,  MM.  Loewy  and  Puiseux,  on  New  Theory  of,  143 
Equidean,  a  Quaternary,  M.  PoliakofT,  309 
Equilibrium,  on  the,  of  a  Heterogeneous  Mass  in  Rotation,  M. 

H.  Poincare,  168 
Ericsson  (Captain  John) :  the  Sun  Motor,  319  ;  his  Eighty-fifth 

Birthday,  37 
Ernst  (Dr.  A.),  a  Remarkable  Case  of  Fasciation  in  Fottrcroya 

cubensis,  Haw.,  131 
Erskine  (C.    H.),  Freaks  of  Nature,  104 
Erskine  (Major  D.),  Freaks  of  Nature,  104 
Eruption,  Japanese  Volcanic,  466 
Espin  (Rev.  T.  E.),  Spectrum  of  R  Cygni,  423 
Ethnographic  Types  from  the  Monuments  of  Egypt,  Rev.  H. 

G.  Tomkins,  214 
Ethnography   of  the   Caucasus,    General    Uslar,    159;    Baron 

Uslar,  623 
Ethnology  :  Lieutenant  Emmon's  Collection  from   Alaska,  64  ; 

Ethnology  of  the   Himalayan    Hill  Region  of    Sikhiin,   89  : 

Dwarf  Races  in  Africa,  R.    G.  H.diburton,  112;  Ethnology 

of  the  Moors  of  Ceylon,'  P.  Ramanathan,  135  ;  Internation- 
ales  Archiv   fur   Ethnologie,    279  ;  the    Alleged    Mongoloid 

Affinities  of  the  American  Race,  Dr.  D.  G.  Brinton,  552 
Euclid's  Method,  or,  the  Proper  Way  to  Treat  on  Geometry,  A. 

H.  Blunt,  363 
Europe,  Glaciers  of,  Dr.  Svenonius,  574 
Eustachian   Tube,    on   the  Development    of  the,    Middle  Ear, 

Tympanic  Membrane,  and  Meatus  of  the  Chick,  Dr.  F.  Mall, 

356 
Evaporation  and  Dissociation,  a  Study  of  the  Thermal  Proper- 
ties of  Propyl  Alcohol,  Drs.  Ramsay  and  Young,  238 
Evaporation  of  Water,    Dr.     Dieterici's    Experiments    on   the 

Determination  of  Latent  Heat  of,  143 
Eve  (A.  S.),  a  Shadow  and  a  Halo,  589 
Everett  (Alfred),  Return  of,  from  Borneo,  302 
Everett  (Prof.  J.  D.,  F.R.S.),  Cloud  Electric  Potential,  342 
Evolution,  Geological  Evidences  of,  Angelo  Heilprin,  50 
Evolution  and  its  Relation  to  Religious  Thought,    Toseph  Le 

Conte,  100 
Ewart  (Prof.  J.  C.)  :  the  Electric  Organ   of  Raid  batis,    70  ;  on 

the  Structure  of  the  Electric  Organ  of  Kaia  circular  is,  94  ; 

Electric  Organ  of  the  Skate,  310 
Ewing  (Prof.  J.  A.,  F.R.S.)  :  Duplex  Pendulum  Seismograph, 

30;     Self-induction     in     Iron    Conductors,    55  ;    Magnetic 

Qualities   of  Nickel.    117,    336;     Earthquakes   and  how  to 

measure  them,  299  ;  Influence  of  Plane  of  Transverse  Section 

on  Magnetic  Permeability  of  Iron  Bar,  555 
Explorations  and  Adventures  in  New   Guinea,   Captain    John 

Strachan,  315 
Eye,  Photograph  of  the,  by  Flash  of  Magnesium,  Prof.  Claude 

du  Bois-Beymond,  15 


Fabre,  Berthelot  and,  the  Chemistry  of  Tellurium,  63 
Fabritius  (Captain  H.),  Hydrographical  Researches  in  Norway, 

421 
Fact  and  Fiction,  Henry  Napier  Draper,  221 
Factors  in  Life,  H.  G.  Seeley,  F.R.S.,  267 
Farm,  Bird  Pests  of  the,  599 
Fasciation  in  Fourcroya  cubensis,  Haw.,  a  Remarkable  Case  of, 

Dr.  A.  Ernst,  131 
Fauconnier  (M.   Ad.),   Action  of  Aniline  on  Epichlorhydrine 

360  r 

Fauna  of  British  India,    including  Ceylon  and  Burma,   W.  T. 

Blanford,  F.R.S.,  304,  513 
Fauna,  the,  and  Flora  of  the  Lesser  Antilles,  370  ;  H.  A.  Alford 

Nicholls,  566 


Fauvelle  (Dr.),  Philosophy  from  an  Anthropological  Point  of 
View,  462 

Fawcett  (Mr.),  on  the  Saoros  of  the  Ganjam  Hills,  453 

Faye  (H.)  :  Theory  of  Storms,  E.  Douglas  Archibald,  149  ; 
Lagrange's  Hypothesis  on  the  Origin  of  Comets  and  Meteor- 
ites, 215  ;  Reply  to  E.  Douglas  Archibald's  Strictures  on  his 
Theory  of  Storm  Laws,  263  ;  on  a  Recent  Change  in  the 
Views  of  Meteorologists  regarding  Gyratory  Movements,  408 

Faye  and  Brooks,  Comets,  Dr.  H.  Kreutz,  528 

Faye's  Comet  (1888  d),  432,  503,  576,  626 

Fearnley  and  Geelmuyden,  Zone  Observations  of  the  Stars,  626 

Felsites,  Perlitic,  Frank  Rutley,  239 

Ferns,  Filmy,  the  late  Cooper  Foster's  Collection  of,  86 

Ferrate  of  Baryta,  on  the  Decomposition  of  the,  M.  G.  Rousseau 
and  M.  J.  Bernheim,  216 

Ferruginous  Lime,  Fluorescence  of,  M.  Lecoq  de  Boisbaudran, 
216 

Festing  ( Major-General,  F.R.S.),  Colour  Photometry,  212 

Fewkes  (J.  Walter),  on  New  England  Medusae,  137 

Fiction,  Fact  and,  Harry  Napier  Draper,  221 

Fidler  (T.  Claxton),  a  Practical  Treatise  on  Bridge  Construction, 
Prof.  A.  G.  Greenhill,  2 

Field,  Shell-Collector's  Hand-book  for  the,  Dr.  J.  W.  Williams, 
Dr.  Henry  Woodward,  F.R.S.,  103 

Fievez  (C),  Researches  on  Optic  Origin  of  Spectral  Rays  in 
connection  with  Undulatory  Theory  of  Light,  511 

Filmy  Ferns,  the  late  Cooper  Foster's  Collections  of,  86 

Finsch  (Dr.  O. ),  on  Mikluho-Maclay,  424 

Fire,  Milk  versus,  F.  M.  Wickramasingha,  342 

Fire-ball  of  August  13,  August  Meteors,  W.  F.  Denning,  415 

Fischer  (P.),  Testudo perpiniana,  464 

Fish  :  Another  Specimen  of  Lepidosiren  paradoxa,  Prof.  Henry 
H.  Giglioli,  102  ;  Fossil  Fish  Remains  from  New  Zealand. 
137  ;  Electric  Fishes  in  the  River  Uruguay,  Dr.  P.  L.  Sclater, 
F.R.S.,  147;  Cod  and  Whale  Fisheries  in  the  North  of 
Norway,  160  ;  Note  on  the  Tarpon  or  Silver  King  {Me»alopes 
thrissoides),  Prof.  W.  C.  Mcintosh,  F.R.  S.,  309;  Poison- 
glands  of  Trachinus,  329  ;  Self  reproducing  Food  for  Fish, 
631  ;  Recent  Visit  of  Naturalists  to  the  Galapagos,  Leslie  A. 
Lee,  Dr.  P.  L.  Sclater,  F.R.S.,  569  ;  Electric  Fishes,  W.  H. 
Corfield,  515  ;  Jackal  Fishery  Expedition,  527;  the  Scotch 
Fishery  Board,  574  ;  Fisheries  of  Australian  Colonies,  60J  ; 
Catalogue  of  the  Fishes  in  the  Australian  Museum,  Sydney, 
624 

Fison  (Dr.  A.  IL),  on  a  Method  of  comparing  very  Unequal 
Capacities  213 

Filzau  (Heir  August),  on  the  Region  of  the  North- West  African 
Seaboard,  424 

Fitzgerald  (Prof.  George  Francis,  F.R.S.):  Engineering  Schools, 
322  ;  Opening  Address  in  Section  A  (Mathematical  and  Phy- 
sical Science)  at  the  British  Association,  446  ;  the  Death  of 
Clausius,  491 

Fletcher's  Compressed  Oxygen  Furnace,  606 

P'lint  Implements  at  Southall,  Discovery  of  Elephas  primigenius 
associated  with  the,  J.  Allen  Brown,  283 

Flora  of  the  Antarctic  Islands,  W.  T.  Thiselton  Dyer,  F.R.S. , 
Dr.  H.  B.  Guppy,  40 

Flora  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  William  Hillebrand,  J.  G. 
Baker,  F.R.S.,  49 

Flora  of  the  Kermadec  Islands,  W.  Botting  Hemsley,  622 

Flora  of  the  Lesser  Antilles,  Fauna  and,  H.  A.  Alford  Nicholls, 
566 

Flora  of  the  North-East  of  Ireland,  S.  A.  Stewart  and  T.  II. 
Corry,  514 

Flora,  Synoptical,  of  North  America,  Prof.  Asa  Gray,  J.  G. 
Baker,  F.R.S.,  242 

Flora  of  West  Yorkshire,  F.  A.  Lees,  147 

Florence,  Earthquake  at,  November  14,  18S7,  Prof.  P.  G. 
Giovannozzi,  165 

Flower  (Prof.  W.  H.,  F.R.S.)  :  Pygmy  Races  of  Men,  44,  66  ; 
Address  on  Cnarles  Darwin,  116 

Flowers,  Preserving  the  Colour  of,  J.  G.  Baker,  F.R.S.,  245  ; 
A.  W.  Buckland,  270 

Fluorescence  of  Ferruginous  Lime,  M.  Lecoq  de  Boisbaudran, 
216 

Flying  Machine,  a  Compressed-Air  Engine  for,  L.  Hargrave, 
463 

Fokker  (M.  A.  P.),  on  the  Mechanical  Action  and  Vegetative 
Alterations  of  Animal  Protoplasm,  168 


Nature,  Nov.  22,  1$ 


INDEX 


XV 


Folk-Love  of  the  Ainos,  87 

Fonvielle  (W.  de),  on  Lightning  Conductors,  547 

Food,  Self- reproducing,  for  Young  Fish,  631 

Foote  (Bruce),  on  Neolithic  and  Palaeolithic  Finds  in   Southern 

India,  87 
Foraminifera,  Recent  and  Fossil,  from  1565  to  1888,  a  Biblio- 
graphy of  the,  C.  Davies  Sherborn,  562 
Forbes  (Henry  O.),  Director  of  the  Canterbury  Museum,  New 

Zealand,  348 
Forbes's  Attempt  to  reach  the  Owen  Stanley  Peak,  424 
Foreign  Travel,  Reminiscences  of,  R.  Crawford,  126 
Forestry:  Forest-Culture  in  Hesse,  17  ;  Proposed  Forest  School 

at  Kandy,  41  ;  Practical  Forestry,  C.  E.  Curtis,  171  ;  Report 

of  the  Conservator  of  Forests  in  Ceylon,  373  ;  Forestry  School 

in  Spain,  461  ;  Forest  Conservancy  in  Ceylon,  Colonel  Clarke, 

606 
Formations,  Coral,  Robert  Irvine,  54 
Formosa,  the  People  of,  89 

Forms  of  Animal  Life,  George  Rolleston,  F.R.S.,  25 
Formulae  of  Bernoulli  and  Haecker  for  the  Lifting  Power  of 

Magnets,  Prof.  S.  P.  Thompson,  190 
Fortescue  (J.  W.),  Deer  in  New  Zealand,  328 
Forth  Bridge,  the,  39 
Forticula  (Earwigs),  Plague  of,  277 
Forts,  Underground,  Colonel  Hennebert,  502 
Fossil  Fish  Remains  from  New  Zealand,  137 
Fossil   Mammals,    on   the   Gigantic   Dimensions   of  some,   M. 

Albert  Gaudry,  384 
Fossils  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  M.  Netchayeff,  160 
Foster  (C.  Le  Neve),  a  Treatise  on  Mine- Surveying,  Bennett  H. 

Brough,  317 
Foster  (Cooper),  his  Collections  of  Filmy  Ferns,  86 
Foster  (Prof.  G.  Carey,  F.R.S.),  Density  and  Specific  Gravity,  6 
Foster  (Prof.    Michael,    F.R.S.),    a  Text-book  of  Physiology, 

new  edition,    564 ;  Chemical  Problems  presented  by  Living 

Bodies,  596 
Foundations   of    Coral    Reefs,     Captain    W.    J.    L.    Wharton, 

F.R.S.,  568 
Fourcroya  cubensis,  Haw.,  a  Remarkable  Case  of  Fasciation  in, 

Dr.  A.  Ernst,  131 
Fourier's  Law  of  Diffusion,   Five  Applications  of,  illustrated  by 

a  Diagram   of  Curves  with  Absolute  Numerical  Values,   Sir 

William  Thomson,  F.R.S.,  571 
Fowls,  the  Gape-wcrm  of  {Syngamus  trachealis),  Lord  Walsing- 

ham,  F.R.S.,  324 
Fraipont   (Prof.  Julien),  the  Tibia  in  the  Neanderthal    Race, 

212 
France  :  Meteorology  in,   42  ;  P'rench  Meteorological  Society, 

42,  256  ;  French  Meteorological  Office,  599  ;  French  Scientific 

Missions,  255  ;  Centenarians  in,   Emile  Levasseur,  288,  501  ; 

M.  Renduel's  Report  on  Sprat  Fisheries,  349  ;  War  Aerostation 

in,  552  ;  Projected  French  Special  Mission  to  map  the  Coasts 

of  Madagascar,  577 
Frankfort-on-the-Main,  Third  International  Congress  of  Inland 

Navigation,  395 
Frankfort-on-Oder,  Discovery  of  Funereal  Urns  near,  486 
Frankland    (Dr.    Percy   F. ),    the  Micro-organisms  of  Air  and 

Water,  232 
Freaks  of  Nature,   Major  D.    Erskine,    104  ;   C.   H.   Erskine, 

104 
Fream  (William),  the  Rothamsted  Experiments  on  the  Growth 

of  Wheat,   Barley,  and  the  Mixed  Herbage  of  Grass  Land, 

465 
Freeman  (John).  Lights  and  Shadows  of  Melbourne  Life,  29 
Friction  of  Fluids,  on  a  New  Apparatus  for  studying  the,  M.  M. 

Couette,  408 
Friedel  (M.  C.)  and  M.  J.  M.  Crafts  :  on  the  Density  of  Chlorine, 

and  on  the  Vapour-Density  of  Ferric  Chloride,  384 ;  on  the 

Vapour-Density  of  the  Perchloride  of  Gallium,  384 
Fries  (Prof.),  Eulogy  on  Linnaeus,  116 
Frohlich  Trust,  Grants  from,  230 
Fruit  Production  in  the  Colonies,  Kew  Bulletin,  349 
Fuel-testing  Station  for  London,  Bryan  Donkin,  Jun.,  172 
Functionless  Organs,    Prof.    E.    Ray  Lankester,   F.R.S.,   364; 

J.  T.  Hurst,  364;  Duke  of  Argyll,  F.R.S.,  341,  4"  ;  prof.  J. 

Burdon-Sanderson,  F.R.S.,  Samuel  F.  Wilson,  387  ;  Joseph 

John  Murphy,  411  ;  William  White,  412 
Furnace,  Fletcher's  Compressed  Oxygen,  606 
Furneaux  (William  S.),  Elementary  Chemistry,  76 


Gad  (Prof.)  :  on  Prof.  Pick's  Scheme  of  Blood-Pressure  in  the 
Capillaries,  120;  on  Schistostega  osmumiacea,  144 

Gadow  (Hans),  Modifications  of  First  and  Second  Visceral 
Arches,  47 

Gairdner  (Prof),  the  Physician  as  Naturalist,  347 

Galapagos,  Recent  Visit  of  Naturalists  to  the,  Dr.  P.  L. 
Sclater,  F.  R.  S.,  Leslie  A.  Lee,  569 

Galileo,  Proposed  Complete  Edition  of  the  Works  of,  277 

Gallatly  (W.),  the  Elements  of  Logarithms,  172 

Galton  (Francis,  F.R.S.):  Head  Growth  in  Students  at  the 
University  of  Cambridge,  14 ;  Personal  Identification  and 
Description,  173,  201 

Gamaleia  (Dr.),  Cure  of  Cholera  by  Inoculation,  395 

Ganjam  Hills,  Saoros  of,  Fawcett  on  the,  453 

Gape-worm,  the,  of  Fowls  {Syngamus  trachealis),  Lord 
Walsingham,  F.R.S.,  324 

Gases  of  the  Blood,  the,  Prof.  John  Gray  McKendrick,  F.  R.S., 
376,  399 

Gases  from  Homogeneous  Liquids,  Conditions  of  Evolution, 
V.  H.  Veley,  310 

Gases,  Ignition  of  Platinum  in  Different,  Dr.  W.  R.  Hodgkinson, 
6 

Gaskell  (Dr.  W.  H.,  F.R.  S.),  on  the  Comparison  of  the  Cranial 
with  the  Spinal  Nerves,  19 

Gaudry  (Prof.  Albert) :  Les  Ancetres  de  nos  Animaux  dans  les 
Temps  Geologiques,  4  ;  on  the  Gigantic  Dimensions  of  some 
Fossil  Mammals,  384 

Gee  (W.  W.  Haldane)  and  II.  Holden,  Experiments  on 
Electrolysis,  190 

Gehnchten  (Dr.  van  der),  Minute  Structure  of  Striated  Vessels 
in  Vertebrata  and  Arthropoda,  264 

Geikie(Dr.  A.,  F.R.S.)-:  Geology  of  the  North- West  Highlands, 
70 ;  on  the  Geological  Structure  of  Scandinavia  and  the 
Scottish  Highlands,  127 

Genealogy  of  Man,  the  Latest  Stages  of  the,  M.  Topinard,  357 

Geoghegan  (Rev.  Edward) :  Work  and  Energy,  77  ;  the  Problem 
by  Vincentio  Viviani,  78  ;  a  Shadow  and  a  Halo,  619 

Geography  :  Lieut,  van  Gele's  Exploration  of  the  River  Mobangi, 
18  ;  Percy  Smith's  Visit  to  the  Kermadec  Islands,  18  ;  Dr.  Hans 
Meyer's  Exploration  of  Kilimanjaro,  19  ;  Exploration  of  the 
Meikong  River,  19  ;  Geographical  Notes,  18,  65,  89,  115,  136, 
161,  186,  207,  259,  280,  305,  375,  398,423.455»529»  555,  577, 
601  ;  Bulletin  of  the  Italian  Geographical  Society,  90  ;  Dr. 
Dawson's  Exploration  of  British  Columbia,  115  ;  the  Survey 
of  Upper  Burmah,  115  ;  Col.  Strahan's  Survey  of  the  Nicobar 
Islands,  115  ;  Major  Hobday  on  Operations  in  Upper  Burmah, 
136  ;  Cameroons,  MM.  Valdau  and  Knutson's  Explorations, 
136;  Hudson's  Bay  and  Hudson's  Strait,  Commander 
Markham,  161  ;  Prof.  P.  Durazzo's  Map  of  the  Massawa 
District,  161  ;  Lieutenants  Kund  and  Tappenbeck's  Expedition 
into  Cameroons,  186  ;  a  Century  of  African  Exploration,  Dr. 
Supan,  186  ;  Proposed  International  Geographical  Congress, 
259  ;  Dr.  Meyer's  Ascent  of  Kilimanjaro,  259  ;  Jules 
Borelli's  African  Explorations,  259  ;  New  Measurements  of  the 
Austrian  Alps,  280  ;  Teaching  of  Geography  in  Russian  Uni- 
versities, 280  ;  \V.  J.  Archer's  Journey  in  Siam,  280  ;  Position 
of  Timbuktu, Caron,  288  ;  Early  European  Cartography,  375  ; 
M.  Coudreau's  Explorations  in  Guiana,  398  ;  Mr.  Joseph  _ 
Thomson's  lExplorations  in  Morocco,  398  ;  Mr.  Mackinder's 
Report  to  the  University  of  Oxford,  423 ;  North-West 
African  Sea-board,  Herr  August  Fitzau,  424 ;  Mikluho- 
Maclay,  Dr.  O.  Finsch,  424  ;  Tenasserim,  Leonardo  Fea's 
Explorations  in,  424  ;  Indo-China  Explorations,  M.  Pavie, 
424 ;  Owen  Stanley  Peak,  Mr.  Forbes's  Report,  424  ;  Lukoma, 
Lake  Nyassa,  E.  G.  Ravenstein,  424  ;  Deutsche  Geographische 
Blatter,  424  ;  Geography  of  the  Dutch  East  Indies,  Herr  Metz- 
ger,  424  ;  Bourne's  Report  on  his  Journey  to  South- West 
China,  455  ;  Brazilian  Government  Expeditions  for  Explora- 
tion of  the  Interior,  455  ;  Bollettino  of  the  Italian  Geo- 
graphical Society,  424  ;  Congo  and  West  Africa,  Baron  Dr. 
H.  von  Schwerin,  424  ;  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Geographi- 
cal Society,  423  ;  Scottish  Geographical  Magazine,  424 ;  the 
Nicobar  Archipelago,  Dr.  Svoboda,  501  ;  Joseph  Thomson's 
Atlas  Mountain  Expedition,  555  ;  Nossilofs  Exploration  of 
Novaya  Zemlya,  555 ;  Geography  of  British  New  Guinea,  555  ; 
Projected  French  Special  Mission  to  map  Coasts  of  Madagas- 
car, 577 ;  1  Census  of  Illiterates  in  various  Countries  of  the 
World,  601  ;  Eclectic  Physical  Geography,  Russell  Hinman, 
6i5 


XVI 


INDEX 


[Nature,  Nov.  22,  i£88 


Geology  :  the  Cae  Gwyn  Cave,  North  Wales,  Dr.  H.  Hicks, 
22;  Geological  Society,  22,  70,  118,  142,  214,  239;  the 
Geological  Evidences  of  Evolution,  Angelo  Heilprin,  50 ; 
Reports  on  the  Geological  Survey  of  New  Zealand,  53  ;  Geo- 
logical Field  Class,  London,  64  ;  Geology  of  the  North-West 
Highlands,  Dr.  A.  Geikie,  F.R.S.,  70;  Hayclen  Memorial 
Geological  Fund,  86  ;  Bruce  Foote  on  Neolithic  and  Palaeo- 
lithic Finds  in  Southern  India,  87 ;  the  International  Geo- 
!  logical  Congress,  86,  18S,  415,  499,  518,  548  ;  International 
Geological  Congress,  Prof.  J.  Prestwich,  F.  R.S.,  503;  the 
Stockdale  Shales,  Marr  and  Nicholson,  118;  Geology  for 
All,  J.  Logan  Lobley,  125  ;  the  Geological  Structure  of 
Scandinavia  and  the  Scottish  Highlands,  Arch.  Geikie, 
F.R.S.,  127  ;  Spheroid-bearing  Granite,  Dr.  Fred.  H.  Hatch, 
142  ;  on  the  Eozoic  and  Paloeozoic  Rocks  of  the  Atlantic 
Coast  of  Canada,  Sir  J.  W.  Dawson,  F.R.  S. ,  142; 
Imperial  Geological  Union,  Sir  J.  W.  Dawson,  F.R.S.,  157  ; 
J.  J.  H.  Teall  appointed  to  the  Geological  Survey,  182  ; 
Report  on  Northern  Alberta,  J.  B.  Tyrrell,  184  ;  Relations 
of  the  Laramie  Group  to  Earlier  and  Later  Formations, 
Charles  A.  White,  189  ;  the  Gabbros  and  Diorites  of  the 
Cortlandt  Series,  George  H.  Williams,  189  ;  Three  Forma- 
tions of  the  Middle  Atlantic  Slope,  W.  J.  McGee,  190  ; 
Dr.  Hans  Reusch  on  the  Bommel  and  Karm  Islands,  194  ; 
Crystalline  Schists,  194 ;  Saliferous  Rocks  (Durham),  214  ; 
Geological  and  Natural  History  of  Canada,  257  ;  Discovery 
of  Elephas  primigenins  associated  with  Flint  Implements  at 
Southall,  J.  Allen  Brown,  283  ;  the  Geologists'  Association, 
302  ;  Allgemeine  Geologie,  von  Dr.  Karl  von  Fritsch,  387  ; 
Theoretische,  Geologie,  von  Dr.  E.  Reyer,  409  ;  Les  Dislo- 
cations de  l'Ecorce  Terrestre,  Essai  de  Definition  et  de 
Nomenclature,  Prof.  John  W.  Judd,  F.R. S.,  433  ;  American 
Geology,  Mr.  Cook,  452  ;  the  Part  of  American  Geologists  in 
the  International  Geological  Congress,  Mr.  Cook,  452  ;  on 
the  Constitution  and  Structure  of  the  Crystalline  Schists  of  the 
Western  Alps,  Prof.  Ch.  Lory,  506  ;  on  Crystalline  Schists, 
Dr.  T.  Sterry  Hunt,  F.R.S.,  519;  some  Questions  connected 
with  the  Problem  presented  by  the  Crystalline  Schists,  togeiher 
with  Contributions  to  their  Solution  from  the  Palaeozoic 
Formations,  Prof.  K.  A.  Lossen,  522  ;  on  the  Classification 
of  the  Crystalline  Schists,  Prof.  Albert  Heim,  524  ;  on  the 
Origin  of  the  Primitive  Crystalline  Rocks,  A.  Michel- Levy, 
525  ;  Remarks  on  some  of  the  more  Recent  Publications  Deal- 
ing with  the  Crystalline  Schists,  Prof.  J.  Lehmann,  549  ; 
Geological  History  of  Plants,  Sir  J.  W.  Dawson,  F.R.S., 
538  ;  the  Stratigraphical  Succession  of  the  Cambrian  Faunas 
in  North  America,  Prof.  Chas.  B.  Walcott,  551  ;  Geological 
Record,  576  ;  Geological  Results  of  the  last  Sayan  Expedition, 
L.  A.  Jaczewski,  577 ;  Yorkshire  Geological  and  Polytechnic 
Society,  590 

Geometry :  First  Lessons  in,  B.  Hanumanta  Rau,  53 ;  the 
Geometric  Interpretation  of  Monge's  Differential  Equation  to 
all  Conies,  619;  Prof.  Asutosh  Mukhopadhyay,  173,  197, 
564  ;  Multiplication  and  Division  of  Concrete  Quantities,  A. 
Lodge,  281  ;  First  Elements  of  Experimental  Geometry,  Paul 
Bert,  295 ;  Geometric  Meaning  of  Differential  Equations, 
Lieut. -Colonel  Allan  Cunningham,  318  ;  Geometry  of  the 
Triangle,  M.  E.  Vigarie,  624 

Germany  :  Association  of  Naturalists,  Meeting  at  Cologne,  16  ; 
Vital  Statistics  of,  M.  Ch.  Grad,  135  ;  German  Geological 
Society,  277 ;  the  German  East  African  Possessions,  Dr. 
Hans  Meyer,  305  ;  German  Emin  Pasha  Expedition,  529  ; 
German  Botanical  Journals,  552 

Germs,  Prophetic,  Prof.  E.  Ray  Lankester,  F.R.S.,  539,  588; 
the  Duke  of  Argyll,  F.R.S.,  564,  615 

Giglioli  (Prof.  Henry  H.)  :  Another  Specimen  of  Lepidosiren 
paradoxa,  102  ;  Prof.  G.  B.  Howes  on,  126 

Gilbert  (Dr.  J.  H.,  F.R.S.),  the  Growth  of  Root  Crops,  605 

Gilchrist  Engineering  Scholarships,  430 

Gill  (Dr.),  Proposed  Star  Catalogue,  180 

Gillig  (Charles  A.),  Tours  and  Excursions  in  Great  Britain, 
Stephen  F.  Smart,  318 

Giovannozzi  (Prof.  P.  G.),  Remarks  on  Earthquake  at  Florence, 
165 

Glaciers  :  on  the  Veined  Structure  of  the  Mueller  Glacier,  New 
Zealand,  F.  W.  Hutton,  77  ;  Glaciers  of  Europe,  Dr. 
Svenonius,  574 

Gladstone  (Dr.  J.  II.,  F.R.S.)  and  W.  J.  Hibbert,  Note  on  the 
Molecular  Weight  of  Caoutchouc  and  other  Bodies,  596 


Glanville  (Miss),  Death  of,  348 

Glasgow  :  British  Medical  Association  Meeting,  347  ;  the  Glas- 
gow and  West  of  Scotland  Technical  College,  Henry  Dyer, 
428 

Glass,  Compressibility  of  Water,  Salt  Water,  and,  Prof.  P.  G. 
Tait,  581 

Globes,  Old,  in  the  Middle  Temple  Library,  327 

Globular  Star  Clusters,  A.  M.  Clerke,  365 

Glycerine,  on  the  Quantitative  Analysis  of,  by  Oxidation,  M. 
Victor  Planchon,  360 

Godwin- Austen  (H.  H.,  F.  R.  S.),  the  Land  and  Fresh- Water 
Mollusca  of  India,  217 

Goercki  and  Poleck  (Drs.),  Three  New  Sulpho  chlorides  of 
Mercury,  527 

Gold-Field  discovered  in  Surinam,  88 

Golden  Mullet  {Mugil  auratus,  Risso)  caught  at  Stromstad, 
Sweden,  397 

Goldsmith's  Company,  the,  and  Technical  Education,  573 

Gore  (Dr.  G.,  F.R.S.)  :  Effect  of  Chlorine  on  Electromotive 
Force  of  Voltaic  Couple,  117;  Changes  of  Potential  of  Voltaic 
Couple,  &c,  284;  Effects  of  Different  Positive  Metals,  &c, 
upon  the  Changes  of  Potential  of  Voltaic  Couples,  335  :  the 
Voltaic  Balance,  335 

Gorham  (John),  a  System  for  the  Construction  of  Crystal  Models, 

4" 
Gossage  (A.  M.),  the  Volumetric  Determination  of  Uric  Acid, 

263 

Gosse  (P.  H.,  F.R.S.),  Death  of,  421 

Gould's  Astronomical  Journal,  328 

Goulier  (M.  C.  M.),  Provisional  Laws  determining  the  Sub- 
sidence of  the  Land  in  France,  432 

Gouy  (M.),  the  Storage  of  Electricity  and  Thermo-dynamics, 

384 
Gouy  and  Rigollot,  Electro-chemical  Actinometer,  119 
Government  Opinion,    Decadence  of    the  Chemical  Profession 

in,  217 
Govi  (M.  G. ),  Latent  Colours  of  Bodies,  631 
Goyen  (P.),  a  Higher  Arithmetic  and  Elementary  Mensuration, 

218 
Grad  (M.  Ch.),  Vital  Statistics  of  Germany,  135 
Gramme  (M.),  the  Volta  Prize  given  to,  555 
Granite,  Spheroid-bearing,  Dr.  Fred.  H.  Hatch,  142 
Grant  (G.  L.),  Nesting  Habit  of  the  House  Sparrow,  590 
Graphical  Arithmetic  and  Graphical  Statics,  Gray  and  Lowson,  4 
Grass  Minimum  Thermometer,  on  the,  Dr.  W.  Doberck,  619 
Grasses,  Fodder,  of  Northern  India,  J.  F.  Duthie,  350 
Gravitation  in  the  Stellar  System,  Prof.  Asaph  Hall,  398 
Gray  (Dr.   Asa)  :  Tribute  to  the  Memory  of,  16  ;  Bequest   to 

Harvard  College,  182;  Synoptical  Flora  of  North  America, 

J.  G.  Baker,  F.R.S.,  242 
Gray  (Prof.  A.),  Measurements  in  Electricity  and  Magnetism, 

"3 

Gray  (John  Y.)  and  Geo.   Lowson,   the  Elements  of  Graphical 

Arithmetic  and  Graphical  Statics,  4 
Great  Britain,  Tours  and  Excursions  in,  Charles  A.  Gillig,  318 
Green  (Prof.  J.  R.),  Vegetable  Rennet,  274 
Green  (Seth),  Death  of,  396 
Greenhill   (Prof.  A.   G.,   F.R.S.):  on  a  Practical  Treatise  on 

Bridge  Construction,  by  F.  Claxton  Fidler,  2  ;    Weight  and 

Mass,    54 ;     on    Kinematics    and    Dynamics,    Prof.    J.    G. 

MacGregor,  149  ;  a  Chapter  in  the  Integral  Calculus,  218 
Greenland,  Dr.  Nansen's  Expedition  to,  302,  372,  492,  527 
Greenwich,  Report  of  Astronomer-Royal,  153 
Greyhounds,  Notes  on  the  Reproduction  of  Rudimentary  Toes 

in,  Dr.  R.  W.  Shufeldt,  56 
Griess  (Dr.  Peter),  Death  o"f,  485 

Grieve  (W.  H.),  Lessons  in  Elementary  Mechanics,  244 
Griffiths  (A.    B.,    F.R.S.    Edin.),   Further   Researches    on    the 

Physiology  of  the  Invertebrata,  285 
Grouse,  Sand,  53,  77,  103,  112,  132,  158,  230,  295,  342 
Growth  of  Root-Crops,  Dr.  J.  H.  Gilbert,  F.R.S.,  605 
Growth  of  Wheat,  Experiments  on  the,  Prof.   William  Fream, 

,       465 
Guerne  (Jules  de),  Excursions  Zoologiques  dans  les  Acores,  113 
Guiana,  M.  Coudreau's  Explorations  in,  398 
Gulick,  on  Divergent  Evolution,  Dr.  Alfred  R.  Wallace,  490 
Gundry,  the  Teaching  of  Mathematics  in  China,  485 
Guppy  (Dr.    II.  B. ):   Flora    of  the   Antarctic    Islands,  W.  T. 
Thiselton  Dyer,  F.R.S.,  40;    Dispersal  of  Seeds  by    Birds, 


Nature,  Nov.  22,  1SS8J 


INDEX 


XV11 


101  ;  Expedition  to  the  Coral  Reefs  of  the  Indian  Archipelago, 

228 
Gustafson  (G. ),  on   Organic  Compounds  in  their  Relations  to 

I  [aloid  Salts  of  Aluminium.  139 
Gustavson  and  DemjanofF,  the  Gas  Allene,  552 


llaertl  (E.  de),  Fresh  Calculation  of  Jupiter's  Mass,  608 

Haidingerite,  Optical  Properties  of,  23 

Haliburton  (R.  G.).  Dwarf  Races  in  Africa,  112 

Haliburton  (Prof.  W.  D.),  on  the  Coagulation  of  the  Blood,  331 

Hall  (Prof.  Asaph),  the  Extension  of  the  Law  of  Gravitation  to 

Stellar  Systems,  39S 
Hall  (II.  S .)  and  S.  R.  Knight,  Arithmetical  Exercises,  490 
Hallez  (M.),  Natural  Scavengers  of  French  Beaches,  598 
Hallucinations,  Unilateral,  Prof.  A.  Raggi,  512 
Halo,   a    Shadow   and,   540 ;     A.  S.   I've,   589  ;     Rev.    Edward 

Geoghegan,  619  ;  Charles  Cave,  619 
Hambie  River,  Prehistoiic  Cave  discovered  at,  598 
Hamilton's  Numbers,  Prof.  J,  J.   Sylvester,  F.R.S.,  21 
Hamlet  (W.  M.),  Hand  book  of  Sydney,  575 
Hampson  (P.),  the  Romance  of  Mathematics,  28 
I  [amy  (Dr.    E.  T. ),    Report   on  the   Excavations   made  in   the 

Bed  of  the  Liane,  357 
Harding  (C),  Temperature  of  1887-S8,  23S 
Hardy  (M.  E.),  and  M.  N.  Gallois,  on  Anagyrine,  360 
Hargrave  (L.),  a  Compressed-Air  Engine  for  Flying  Machine, 

463 
Harley  (George,  F.  R.S.),  and   H.    S.  Harley  on  the  Chemical 

Composition  of  Pearls.  21 
Harpur  Euclid,  the,  E.  M.  Langley  and  W.  S.  Phillips,  218 
Harries  (Hy. ),  Sun  Columns.  566 

Harrison  (W.  J.)  and  H.  R.  Wakefield,  Earth  Knowledge,  563 
Hait  (J.  H.),  Annual  Report  of  the   Royal  Botanical  Gardens, 

Trinidad,  278 
Hartington  (Lord),  on  Technical  Education,  40 
Hartley   (Prof.,    F.R.S.),   on  Salicylic  Acid,  142;    on   Atomic 

Weight,  142 
Harvard    College  :     Dr.     Asa     Gray's    Bequest,     182 ;     Prof. 

Lovering's  Resignation,  182 
Hatch  (Dr.  Fred.  H.),  Spheroid-bearing  Granite,  142 
Havannah,  Frightful  Cyclone  at,  485 
Hawaiian  Islands,   Flora  of  the,   William    Hillebrand,  J.    G. 

Baker,  F.R.S.,  49 
Hayden  Memorial  Geological  Fund,  86 

Hazen  (Prof.  H.  A.),  Hand-book  of  Meteorological  Tables,  527 
Head  Growth  in  Students  at    the    University   of  Cambridge, 

Francis  Galton,  F.  R.S.,  14 
Heart,  Human,  on  the  Electromotive  Variations  which  accompany 

the  Beat  of  the,  Dr.  Augustus  D.  Waller,  619 
Heat,  New  Edition  of  Balfour  Stewart's,  135 
Heat  in  India,  203 
Heat,  Intense,  in  Norway,  304 

Heating  Effects  of  Electric  Currents,  W.  H.  Preece,  F.R.S.,93 
Heavenly    Bodies,    Suggestions    on    the   Classification    of   the 

Various  Species  of,  J.  Norman  Lockyer,   F.R.S.,  8,  31,  56, 

79 
Heavens,  Photographic  Chart  of  the,  38 
Heaviside  (Colonel),  Retirement  of,  452 
ffedwigia     balsa  mijlora,     Physiological    Action    of,     Gaucher, 

Combemale,  and  Marestang,  560 
Heilprin  (Angelo),  Geological  Evidences  of  Evolution,  50 
Heim  (Prof.  Albert;,   on  the  Classification  of  the    Crystalline 

Schists,  524 
Heligoland,  Meteorological  Observatory,  205 
Hellmann  (Dr.  G. ):  on  the  Rainfall  of  the  Iberian  Peninsula. 

229  ;  Torrential  Rainfall  in  Germany,  502 
Helmholtz  (Dr.  R.  von),  New  Form  of  Bolometer,  311 
Hemenway  Expedition  in  Arizona,  Thos.  Wilson,  629 
Hemsley  (W.  Botting)  :   Dissemination  of  Plants  by  Birds,  53  ; 

the  New  Vegetation  of  Krakatab,  344  ;  Flora  of  the  Kermadec 

Islands,  622 
Henchie  (hi.  T.),  an  Elementary  Treatise  on  Mensuration,  490 
Hennebert  (Colonel),  Underground  Forts,  502 
Henry  (Joseph),  the  Scientific  Writings  of,  98 
Herard  (M.  F.),  Amorphous  Antimony,  432 
Herdman  (Prof.  W.  A.)  :  Marine  Biology  and  the  Electric  Light. 

130  ;  Egg  Masses  on  HyJrobia  ufoir,  197 


Heredity,  Dr.  August  Wcismann  on,  156 

Heredity  in  Political  Economy,  M.  de  Lapouge,  212 

Herefordshire,    Notes   on    the    Birds   of,    Dr.   II.   G.    Hull,   R. 

Bowdler  Sharpe,  12=; 
Heriot-Watt  College,  Edinburgh,  Calendar,  327 
Herno,  Earthquake  in,  204 
Hertfordshire  Natural  History  Society,  64 
I  lertz's  Experiments  on  the  Electric  Ether,  577 
ffenninia    tarsipennalis,    Scent  Organs  of    Male  Moth,  Prof. 

Meldola,  486 
Hesehus  (Prof. ),    Meteorological   Observations  made  in  Russia 

and  Siberia  during  the  Eclipse  of  the  Sun  of  August  19.  1887, 

Hesse,  Forest  Culture  in,  17 

Hessian  Fly,  Parasites  of  the,  221 

Heterocera,  New  Species,  Mr.  Warren,  215 

Heymans  (Dr.)  :  the  Nerve-Endings  in  Unstriated  Muscle-Fibres 
of  Medicinal  Leech,  264  ;  on  the  Relative  Toxicity  of  Oxalic, 
Malonic,  Succinic,  and  Methyl-succinic  Acids,  and  of  their 
Sodium  Salts,  360 

Hibbert  Lectures  for  1887,  Prof.  J.  Rhys,  361 

llibbert  (W.  J.)  and  Dr.  J.  II.  Gladstone,  Note  on  the  Mole- 
cular Weight  of  Caoutchouc  and  other  Bodies,  596 

Hicks  (Dr.  Henry.  F.R.S.),  on  Cae  Gwyn  Cave,  North  Wales, 
22 

Hicks  (Prof.),  a  Vortex  Analogue  of  Static  Electricity,  577 

Hildebrandsson  (Dr.  II.),  Aurora  in  Spitzbergen,  84 

Hill  (Dr.  Alex.),  elected  Master  of  Downing  College,  Cam- 
bridge, 1S2 

Hill  (G.  W.),  the  Mass  of  Titan,  350 

Hill  (S.  A.),  the  Life  Statistics  of  an  Indian  Province,  245,  565 

Hillebrand  (William),  Mora  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  J.  G. 
Baker,  F.R.S.,  49 

Himalayan  Hill  Region  of  Sikhim,  Ethnology  of,  89 

Hime  (Lieut. -Colonel  II.  W.  L. ),  Meteor,  414 

Hinman  (Russell),  Eclectic  Physical  Geography,  615 

Hobday  (Major),  on  Operations  in  Upper  Burma,  136 

Hodgkinson  (Dr.  W.  R.)»  Ignition  of  Platinum  in  Different 
Gases,  6 

Hoff  (Prof  van  't),  Analogy  between  Dilute  Solutions  and  Gases, 

2l3 

Holden  (Prof.  Edward  S.)  :  Earthquake-Intensity  in  San  Fran- 
cisco.  189  ;    the   Lick  Observatory,  355  ;  Hand-book  of  the 

Lick  Observatory,  410  ;  Ring  Nebula  in  Lyra,  626 
Holmes  (G.  C.  V.),  the  Steam-Engine,  169 
Honduras,  Earthquakes  in,  278 
Hong  Kong:   Report  of  Inspector  of  Schools,    205;  Report  of 

the  Meteorological  Observatory,  229 
Hooker  (Sir  J.),  Eulogy  on  Robert  Brown,  116 
Hopkins  (Manley),  the  Cardinal  Numbers,  27 
Homes  (M.  M.),  Paleontology  in  Austria-Hungary,  357 
Horny  Tissue,  Dr.  Blaschko  on  the  Development  of,  96 
Horse.  Genealogy  of  the,  140 
Ilorsley  (Victor,  F.R.S.),  Note  on  some  of  the  Motor  Functions 

of  certain   Cranial   Nerves,    and   of  the   three  first  Cervical 

Nerves  in  the  Monkey,  357 
Hospitalier  (E.),  Density  and  Specific  Gravity,  6 
Howard   and    Lenard's    Flat    Bismuth    Spirals    for  measuring 

Intensitv  of  Magnetic  Field,  577 
Howes  (Prof.  G.  B.),  Dr.  Giglioli  and  Lepidosiren,  126 
Hudson    (W.     H.)    and    P.    L.     Sclater,    F.R.S.,     Argentine 

Ornithology,  Prof.  R.  Bowdler  Sharpe,  587 
Hudson's  Bay  and  Straits,  Commander  Markham  on,  161 
Human  Locomotion,    Representation  of  the  Altitudes  of,    M. 

Marey,  191 
Humidity  in  Rooms,   on  the  Measurement  of  the  Increase  of, 

Dr.  W.  C.  Marcet,  F.R.S.,  191 
Humming-bird  and  Mantis,  G.  W.  Alexander,  303 
Hunt  (A.'  R.),  Sonorous  Sands,  540 
Hunt  (Prof.   T.   Sterry,    F.  R.S.):   on  Crystalline  Schists,  519  ; 

the  Study  of  Mineralogy,  596  ;  Mineralogical  Evolution,  597 
Hurst  (J.  T.),  Functionless  Organs,  364 
Hutton  (F.  W.),  on  the  Veined  Structure  of  the  Mueller  Glacier, 

New  Zealand,  77 
Huygens  (Christian;,   Early  Correspondence  of,  A.   M.  Clerke, 

193 
Ilvdracids    in  Presence  of  Oxygen,   Action    of   Light   on  the, 

Report  of  the    British   Association    Committee,  Dr.    B.    W. 

Richardson,  F.R.S.,  595 


XVlll 


INDEX 


{Nature,  Nov.  22,  1888 


Hydrates,  on  some  New  Gaseous,  M.  Villard,  168 
Hydraulic  Power  in  London,  E.  B.  Ellington,  17 
Hydrobia  ulva,  Egg  Masses  on,  Prof.  W.  A.  Herdman,  197 
Hydrocerusite  and  Cerusite,  Researches  by  M.  L.  Bourgeois,  191 
Hydrochloric  Acid,  Action  of,  on    the  Solubility  of  Stannous 

Chloride,  95  . 
Hydrodynamics,  Treatise  on,  A.  B.  Basset,  243 
Hydrofluoric  Acid,  Vapour-Density  of,  373 
Hydrogen,  Arseniuretted,  from  Sulphuretted  Hydrogen,  Elimina- 
tion by  means  of  Iodine  of,  Dr.  Otto  Brunn,  575 
Hydrogen,  Persulphide  of,  the  Composition  of,  Dr.  Rebs,  278 
Hydrographic  Survey  of  Canadian  Waters,  132 
Hydrographical  Researches  in  Norway,  Capt.  II.  Fabritius,  421 
Hydrology  and  Climatology,  International  Congress  of,  348 
Hydrostatics,  Elementary,  with  Numerous  Examples,  &c,  S.  B. 

Mukerjee,  76 
Hygiene  Exhibition  at  Ostend,  228 
Hymenoptera,  on  the  Poison  of  the,  M.  G.  Carlet,  216 


Iberian  Peninsula,  Rainfall  of,  229 

Ice  Wall,  Village  buried  by  a  Gigantic,  205 

Ignition  of  Platinum  in  Different  Gases,  Dr.  W.  R.  Hodgkinson, 
6 

Illiterates  in  Various  Countries  of  the  World,  601 

Images  of  Stars  seen  by  Reflection  on  the  Surface  of  the  Sea,  on 
the  Deformation  of  the,  M.  C.  Wolf,  631 

Implements  found  in  Mound  at  Ogue,  205 

Implements  of  Palaeolithic  Type  in  America,  184 

Impregnation,  on  Partial,  Prof.  A.  Weismann  and  C.  Ischikawa, 
329 

Incurvature  of  the  Winds  in  Tropical  Cyclones,  Henry  F. 
Blanford,  F.R.S.,  181 

Incwadi  Yama,  or  Twenty  Years'  Personal  Experienae  in  South 
Africa,  J.  W.  Matthews,  295 

India :  the  Insect  Pests  of,  17 ;  Phenomenal  Storms  in,  42 : 
Bruce  Foote  on  Neolithic  and  Palaeolithic  Finds  in  Southern 
India,  87  ;  Al  Biruni's  India,  Dr.  E.  Sachau,  97  ;  Meteorology 
of  India,  133,  278;  the  Land  and  Fresh- Water  Mollusca  of, 
H.  H.  Godwin-Austen,  F.R.S.,  217;  Heat  in  India,  203; 
Coral  Reefs  of  the  Indian  Archipelago,  Dr.  Guppy's  Expedi- 
tion to,  228  ;  the  Life  Statistics  of  an  Indian  Province,  S.  A. 
Hill,  245  ;  Indian  Life  Statistics,  S.  A.  Hill,  565  ;  Dr.  Hyde 
Clarke,  297 ;  Description  of  New  Indian  Lepidopterous 
Insects  from  the  Collection  of  the  late  Mr.  W.  S.  Atkinson, 
Fred.  Moore,  266  ;  State  Education  in,  277  ;  India  in  1887, 
Robert  Wallace,  294  ;  Fauna  of  British  India,  304  ;  Fauna 
of  British  India,  including  Ceylon  and  Burma,  W.  T.  Blanford, 
F.R.S.,  513  ;  Fodder  Grasses  of  Northern  India,  J.  F.  Duthie, 
350  ;  Prof.  Oppert  on  the  Original  Inhabitants  of  Bharatavarsa, 
373  ;  on  the  Head  and  Figure  of  Native  East  Indians,  Dr. 
Mugnier,  463  ;  Fawcett  on  the  Saoros  of  the  Ganjam  Hills, 
453  ;  Catalogue  of  the  Moths  of,  624 ;  Indo-China  Explorations, 
M.  Pavie,  424 

Induction  of  Electric  Currents  in  Conducting  Shells  of  Small 
Thickness,  S.  H.  Burbury,  333 

Industrial  Instruction,  R.  Seidel,  148 

Industrial  Training,  Mansion  House  Meeting,  155 

Influence  Machines,  J.  Wimshurst,  307 

Inland  Navigation,  Third  International  Congress  of,  395 

Ino  Chukei,  Biographical  Note  on,  Dr.  Knott,  205 

Inoculation,  Cure  of  Cholera  by,  Dr.  Gamaleia,  395 

Insect  Life,  625 

Insect  Pests  of  India,  17 

Insects  and  Cold  Winters,  228 

Insects,  Description  of  New  Indian  Lepidopterous,  from  the 
Collection  of  the  late  W.  S.  Atkinson,  Frederick  Moore, 
266 

Institute,  the  Sanitary,  574 

Institution  of  Civil  Engineers,  17,  598  ;  Annual  Meeting,  142  ; 
Number  of  Members,  623 

Institution  of  Mechanical  Engineers,  302,  325,  600  ;  Annual 
Meeting  of  the,  46 

Integral  Calculus,  a  Chapter  in  the,  A.  G.  Greenhill,  218 

International  Bureau  of  Weights  and  Measures,  the,  574 

International  Geolcgical  Congress,  188,  415,  518,  548;  Prof.  J. 
Prestwich,  F.R.S.,  503 

International   Meteorology,  Robt.  H.  Scott,  F.R.S.,  491 


International  Photographic  Survey  of  the  Heavens,  Astronomical 
Instruments  for,  Sir  H.  Roscoe,  M.P.,  F.R.S.,  325 

Internationales  Archiv  fiir  Ethnographie,  553 

Invertebrata,  Further  Researches  on  the  Physiology  of  the,  A. 
B.  Griffiths,  F.R.S.  Edin.,  285 

Iodine,  Elimination  of  Arseniuretted  Hydrogen  from  Sul- 
phuretted Hydrogen  by  means  of,  Dr.  Otto  Brunn,  575 

Irby  (Lieut. -Colonel  L.  Howard),  British  Birds,  Key  List,  Prof. 
R.  Bowdler  Sharpe,  587 

Ireland,  Flora  of  the  North-East  of,  S.  A.  Stewart  and  T.  H. 
Corry,  514 

Ireland,  Technical  Education  in,  325 

Irish  Art,  Ancient,  114 

Iron,  Cast,  Silicon  and  Sulphur  in,  90 

Iron  Conductors,  Self-Induction  in,  Prof.  J.  A.  Ewing,  55 

Iron,  Electro-chemical  Effects  on  Magnetizing,  II.,  Thos. 
Andrews,  262 

Iron  as  Oxide  in  the  Organs  of  Animals,  96 

Iron  and  Steel  Institute,  Annual  Meeting,  90,  395 

Irruption  of  Syrrhaptes,  the  Renewed,  Prof.  Alfred  Newton, 
F.R.S.,  295 

Irvine  (Robert),  Coral  Formations,  54 

Irving  (Rev.  A.),  Chemistry  as  a  School  Subject,  596 

Ischikawa   (C.)  and   A.  Weismann  on    Partial    Impregnation, 

329 
Islands  of  Vulcano  and  Stromboli,  Dr.   H.  J.  Johnston- Lavis, 

13 

Isochronous  Regulator,  an,  M.  Baudot,  384 

Isomeric  Naphthalene  Derivatives,  Report  c.f  the  British  Asso- 
ciation Committee  on,  Prof.  Armstrong,  F.  R.  S. ,  596 

Italy :  Meteorology  in,  63  ;  Italian  Meteorological  Society 
Meeting,  183  ;  Vital  Statistics  of,  90  ;  Geographical  Society 
of,  90;  Agricultural  Education  in  Northern,  138;  Italian 
Government  Commemoration  of  Discovery  of  America  by 
Columbus,  Projected,  487 

Izvestia  of  Russian  Geographical  Society,  529 


Jackal  Fishery  Expedition,  527 

Jackson  (Loring)  and  Coaaey  on  a  Sodium  Salt  of  Zincic  Acid, 

86 
Jaczewski  (L.  A.),  Geological   Results  of  the  Last  Sayin  Expe- 
dition, 577 
Jamacia  Botanical  Department,  Bulletin,  63 
Jameson  (Mr.),  Death  of,  526 
Janssen  (Dr.),  on  the  Spectrum  of  Oxygen,  605 
Japan  :  Natural    Science  in,   83,  485  ;  Asiatic  Society  of,  87  ; 
Ino  Chukei,  Dr.  Knott's  Biographical  Note  on,  205  ;  Volcanic 
Eruption  in,  303  ;  Japanese  Volcanic  Eruption,  466  ;  Burial 
Customs  of  the  Ainos,   Rev.  J.  Batchelor,   331  ;    Report  of 
British  Consul  at  Hakodadi,  on  the  Agriculture  of  Yezo,  373  ; 
"Go-hei"  and  Shinto  Worship,  Basil  Hall  Chamberlain,  396  ; 
the  Bandai-San  Volcanic  Eruption  in,  452  ;  Imperial  Japan 
University,  552  ;  Tables  to  show  the  Distribution  of  Japanese 
Earthquakes  in  Connection  with  Years,  Seasons,  Months,  and 
Hours  of  the  Day,  Prof.  J.  Milne,  597 
Jentink  (Dr.  F.  A.),  Mammals  of  Siberia,  137 
Jersey,  Lepidoptera  of,  Dr.  R.  C.  R.  Jordan,  327 
Jessel  and  Orndorff,  the  Chemistry  of  Modern  Methods  of  manu- 
facturing Chloroform,  598 
Johns  Hopkins  University,  Register  for  1887-88,  230  ;  Studies 
from   the    Biological    Laboratory   of,  vol.   iv.,    No.    4,  June 
1888,  356 
Tohnson  (Alfred  E.),  Analyst's  Laboratory  Companion,  564 
johnston-Lavis  (Dr.),  Recent  Eruption  in  Vulcano,  596  ;  Report 

on  Vesuvius,  597 
Joly  (A.)  and  II.  Debray,  Researches  on  Ruthenium,  143 
Jones  (Chapman),  an  Introduction  to  the  Science  and  Practice 

of  Photography,  563 
Jones  (R.  H.),  Asbestos,  its  Production  and  Use,  148 
Jordan  (Dr.  R.  C.  R.),  Lepidoptera  of  Jersey,  327 
Jordan's  New  Photographic  Sunshine  Recorder,  118 
Journal  of  the  Bombay  Natural  History  Society,  624 
Journal  of  Botany,  238,  430,  582 
Journal  of. the  College  of  Science  of  the  Imperial  University  of 

Japan,  485 
Journal  of  the  Russian  Physical  and  Chemical  Society,  625 
Judd(Prof.  John  W.,   F.R.S.) :  British  Petrography,  385  ;  Les 


Nature,  Nov.  22,  1888] 


INDEX 


XIX 


Dislocations  de  l'Ecorce  Terrestre,  Essai  de  Definition  et  de 

Nomenclature,  433 
Julfa,  Earthquake  at,  183 
julien  (Alexis  A.),  Sonorous  Sands,  515 
Julius  (V.  A.),  Tables  of  Reciprocals,  77 
Jupiter,  the  Red  Spot  on,  \V.  F.  Denning,  342 
Tupiter's  Mass,  Fresh  Calculation  of,  E.  de  Haertl,  608 
Jutland  :  Discovery  of  Ancient  Clay   Urns  in,  454;  Excavation 

of  a  Viking  Mound  in,  454  ;  Opening  of  the  Oyster  Banks  at 

Sild,  553  ;  Discovery  of  Amber  in,  598 


Kandy,  Proposed  Forest  School  at,  41 

Kara  tcrzi  in  Varna  Vineyards,  134,  172 

Kazan  Observatory,  Jubilee  of.  186 

Kent  (Saville),  Australian  Fisheries,  600 

Kermadec  Islands  :  Exploration  of,  18  ;  Flora  of  the,  W.  Botting 

Hemsley,  622 
Kew  Bulletin,  63,  203,  349,  485,  552 
Kew   Magnetometer,  on  some   Additions  to  the,  Prof.  Thorpe, 

F.R.S.,  and  Prof.    Riicker,  F.R.S.,  214 
Kibbler  (Dr.),  New  Stand  and  Camera  for  Photomicrography, 

167 
Kilimanjaro  :  Exploration  of,  19  ;  Dr.  H.  Meyer's  Ascent  of,  259, 

529 
Kina  Balu  Expedition,  301 
Kinematics   and   Dynamics,   Prof.    Greenhill    on,    Prof.  J.    G. 

MacGregor,  149 
Kirchhoff  (Alfred),  Volapuk  or  Universal  Language,  1  ;  Key  to 

the  Volapuk  Grammar,  1 
Kirkwood   (Prof.),    the    Short    Period   Comets  and  Asteroids, 

114 
Klapalek    (Prof.),   Transformations  of  Bohemian  Caddis-flies, 

553 
Kleiber  (Joseph),  Michell's  Problem,  542 
Knight  (S.  R.)  and  PI.  S.  Hall,  Arithmetical  Exercises,  490 
Knott  (Dr.),  Biographical  Note  on  Ino  Chukei,  205 
Knowledge,  Earth,  W.  J.  Harrison  and  H.  R.  Wakefield,  563 
Knutson  (M.),  River  Mimeh  Explored  by,  136 
Koenig's   (Dr.    A.)    Measurements  of    Intensities  of  Light  in 

Spectrum,  119  ;  Experiments  on   Fechner's  Psycho-Physical 

Law  in  Relation  to  Use  of  Sight,  464 
Koenig  (Dr.)  and  Dr.  von  der  Pfordten,  New  Chlorine  Com- 
pounds of  Titanium,  133 
Kbnigsberg  Physico-Economic  Society,  Prof.  F.  Lindemann  on 

Molecular  Physics,  404 
Korzchinsky  (M.),  on  Aldrsvandia  vesiculosa,  160 
Kossel  (Dr.),  a  New  Base  in  Tea,  303 
Krakatab,    the    New    Vegetation    of,    Dr.    M.    Treub,    W.    B. 

Hemsley,  344 
Krakalab  Committee  of  the  Royal  Society,  the  Report  of  the, 

540,  566 
Krebs  (M.),  on  a  Telephone  with  Closed  Magnetic   Field,  and 

Plaque  with  Equal  Concentric  Cylindrical  Sections,  384 
Kreutz    (Dr.   H.),   Comet  1888  c,   Brooks,   397,    503;    Comets 

Brooks  and  Faye,  528 
Kruss  and  Kiesewetter  (Drs.),   Chemistry  of  the   Rare  Earths, 

326 
Kiihne  (Dr.  W.),  on  the  Origin  and  Causation  of  Vital  Move- 
ment, 627 
Kund  and  Tappenbeck  (Lieuts.),  Expedition  into  Cameroons, 

186 
Kundt,   Proportionality   between    Velocity    of    Light,    Electric 

Conductivity,  and  Conduction  of  Heat  in  Metals,  305 


Labour  in  Belgium,  Report  of  Royal  Commission  on  Condition 

of.  133. 
Lacouperie  (Prof.  Terrien),  on  the   Old   Babylonian  Characters 

and  their  Chinese  Derivates,  122 
Lagrange's  Hypothesis  on  the  Origin  of  Comets  and  Meteorites, 

H.  Faye,  215 
Lakes  (Russian),  Projected  Exploration  of,  529 
Lallemand  (M.  Ch.),  Determination  of  the  Mean  Level  of  the 

Sea,  191 
Lamarckism  versus  Darwinism,  Prof.  R.  Meldola,  F.  R.S. ,  388  ; 

Edward  B.    Poulton,   388,   434  ;   Prof.    George  J.  Romanes, 

F.R.S.,  413,  490 


Lamey  (Dom  M.),  Rings  of  Saturn,  191,  231 

Land  and  Fresh-Water  Mollusca  of  India,  H.  H.  Godwin- 
Austen,  F.R.S.,  217 

Land  of  the  Pink  Pearl,  L.  D.  Powles,  101 

Landslip  at  Zug,  the,  268 

Langley  (E.  M.),  Further  Use  of  Ptolemy's  Theorem  (Euclid 
VI.  D)  for  a  Problem  in  Maxima  and  Minima,  149 

Langley  (E.  M.)  and  W.  S.  Phillips,  the  Harpur  Euclid,  218 

Langley  (Samuel  Pierpoint),  the  New  Astronomy,  A.  M.  Clerke, 
291 

Langlois  (P.)  and  Ch.  Richet,  on  the  Influence  of  the  Organic 
Temperature  on  Convulsions  produced  by  Cocaine,  168 

Lankester  (Prof.  E.  Ray,  F. R.S.)  :  Nose-Blackening  as  Preven- 
tive of  Snow- Blindness,  7  ;  Functionless  Organs,  364  ;  Pro- 
phetic Germs,  539,  588 

Lantern,  W.  Lant  Carpenter,  on  New  Form  of,  214 

Laos  States,  Exploration  of,  19 

Lapouge  (M.  de),  Heredity  in  Political  Economy,  212 

Laramie  Group,  Relation  of  the,  to  Earlier  and  Later  Forma- 
tions, 189 

Latent  Colours  of  Bodies,  M.  G.  Govi,  631 

Latham  (Baldwin),  Strange  Rise  of  Wells  in  Rainless  Season, 
198 

Lava,  Formation  of,  Logan  Lobley,  597 

Lavis  (Dr.  H.  J.  Johnston),  Islands  of  Vulcano  and  Stromboli, 

13 

Lawrence  (H.  N  ),  Thunderstorms  and  Lightning  Accidents, 
172 

Layard  (Consul  E.  L.)  :  an  Unusual  Rainbow,  270;  a  Shell 
Collector's  Difficulty,  566 

Le  Conte  (Joseph),  Evolution  and  its  Relation  to  Religious 
Thought,  100 

Lee  (Leslie  A.),  Recent  Visit  of  Naturalists  to  the  Galapagos, 
Dr.  P.  L.  Sclater,  F.R.S.,  569 

Leech  the  Medicinal,  Nerve  Endings  in  Unstriated  Muscle- 
Fibres  of,  Dr.  Heymans,  264 

Lees  (F.  A.),  Flora  of  West  Yorkshire,  147 

Lehaie  (Jean-Charles  Houzeau  de),  Death  of,  277 

Lehmann  (Prof.  J.),  Remarks  on  some  of  the  more  Recent  Publi- 
cations dealing  with  the  Crystalline  Schists,  549 

Leidie  (M.  E. ),  Researches  on  some  Salts  of  Rhodium,  360 

Lemurs,  Placentation  of  the,  an  Additional  Contribution  to  the, 
Prof.  Sir  William  Turner,  Knt.,  F.R.S.,  190 

Lenard  and  Howard's  Flat  Bismuth  Spirals  for  measuring  In- 
tensity of  Magnetic  Field,  577 

Lenses,  Focal  Length  of,  Dr.  Lummer,  192  ;  Prof,  von  Helm- 
holtz,  192 

Lepidoptera  of  Jersey,  Dr.  R.  C.  R.  Jordan,  327 

Lepidoptera,  New  Works  on,  266 

Lepidopterous  Insects,  Description  of  New  Indian,  from  the 
Collection  of  the  late  Mr.  W.  S.  Atkinson,  F.  Moore,  266 

Lepidosiren,  Giglioli  (Dr.),  Prof.  G.  B.  Howes,  126 

Lepidosiren  paradoxa,  Another  Specimen  of,  Prof.  Henry  H. 
Giglioli,  102 

Lesser  Antilles,  the  Fauna  and  Flora  of  the,  370  ;  H.  A. 
Alford  Nicholls,  566 

Lethrus  eephalotes,  the,  A.  J.  Shipley,  172 

Levasseur  (Emile),  Centenarians  in  France,  288,  501 

Levy  (Maurice),  on  a  General  Property  of  Elastic  Solid  Bodies, 

431 
Lewis  (Prof.  H.  Carvill),  Death  of,  302 
Leyden  Jar  Discharge,  the  Oscillatory  Character  of,  578 
Leyden  Museum,  Notes  from  the,  vol.  x.   No.  3,  July  1888, 

356 
Liane,  Report  on  the  Excavations  made  in  the  Bed  of  the,  Dr. 

E.  T.  Hamy,  357 
Liberia,  Mammals  of,  Dr.  F.  A.  Jentink,  137 
Lick   Observatory,  the,    257  ;  Prof.  Holden,  355  ;  Publications 

of,  43  ;  Forthcoming  Hand-book  of  the,  113  ;  a  Guide  to  the, 

Prof.  Edward  S    Holden,  410 
Life,  Factors  in,  H.  G.  Seeley,  F.R.S.,  267 
Life  Statistics  of  an  Indian   Province,   S.   A.    Hill,    245,  565  ; 

Dr.  Hyde  Clarke,  297 
Lifting  Power  of  Magnets,  Formula.1  of  Bernoulli  and  Haecker 

for  the,  Prof.  S.  P.  Thompson,  190 
Ligament,  on  the  Luminous,  in  the  Transits  and  Occultations  <>f 

Jupiter's  Satellites,  Ch.  Andre,  632 
Light :  Wave-Lengths  of,  Louis  Bell,  91  ;  a  Comparison  of  the 

Elastic  and  the  Electric  Theories  of  Light,  J.  Willard  Glbbs, 


XX 


INDEX 


{Nature,  Nov.  22,  1SS8 


190  ;  Circles  of  Light,  Edmund  Catchpool,  342  ;  Report  of 
Effects  of  Light  on  Water-Colours,  Dr.  W.  J.  Russell  and 
Captain  Abney,  348  ;  Light-Curve  of  U  Ophiuchi,  S.  C. 
Chandler,  576  ;  Zodiacal  Light,  O.  T.  Sherman,  594  ;  Dr. 
Henry  Muirhead,  618 

Lighthouse,  St.  Catherine's  Point,  the  New  Light  at,  501 

Lightning,  Destruction  of  Captive  Balloon  in  Barcelona  Ex- 
hibition by,  578 

Lightning,  Meteorological  Society's  Report  on,  238 

Lightning  and  Milk,  F.  A.  Bather,  30  ;  Rev.  John  Cyprian 
Rust,  103 

Lightning  Photographs,  203,  374,  Dr.  Oliver  J.  Lodge,  F.R.S., 
244 ;  M.  Ch.  Moussette,  432 

Lightning-Conductors,  W.  H.  Preece,  F.R.S.,  546;  Prof. 
Oliver  J.  Lodge,  546  ;  Hon.  Ralph  Abercromby,  547  ;  Lord 
Rayleigh,  F.R.S.,  547  ;  W.  de  Fonvielle,  547  ;  Sidney 
Walker,  547  ;  G.  J.  Symons,  547 

Lightning-Flashes  of  several  Seconds'  Duration,  Trouvelot,  555 

Lightning-Flashes,  Successive,  Prof.  Elihu  Thompson,  305 

Lights,  Mysterious  Sky,  W.  Mattieu  Williams,  102 

Lights  and  Shadows  of  Melbourne  Life,  John  Freeman,  29 

Lime,  Fluorescence  of  Ferruginous,  M.  Lecoq  de  Boisbaudran, 
216 

Lindemann  (Prof.  F.),  Molecular  Physics,  an  Attempt  at  a 
Comprehensive  Dynamical  Treatment  of  Physical  and  Che- 
mical Forces,  G.  W.  de  Tunzelmann,  404,  458,  578 

Lingualumina,  or  Language  of  Light,  F.  W.  Dyer,  1 

Linnaeus,  Eulogy  on,  Prof.  Fries,  116 

Linnean  Society,  94,  191,  214;  Hundredth  Anniversary  Meet- 
ing of,  86,  116 

Linnean  Society  of  New  South  Wales,  583,  623 

Lithine,  on  a  New  Method  of  Quantitative  Analysis  for  the, 
contained  -in  a  Large  Number  of  Mineral  Waters,  M.  A. 
Carnot,   360 

Liveing  (Prof.),  on  Solution  and  Crystallization,  215 

Liveing and  Dewar  (Profs.),  Investigations  on  the  Spectrum  of 
Magnesium,  165 

Liverpool  Astronomical  Society,  277 

Liversidge  (A.),  the  Minerals  of  New  South  Wales,  75 

Lizards,  Scaling  of  Renewed  Tails,  G.  A.  Boulenger,  215 

Lobley  (J.  L.)  :  Geology  for  All,  125  ;  Formation  of  Lava,  597 

Lobsters,  Live,  sent  to  California,  327 

Lock  (Rev.  J.  B.)  :  Arithmetic  for  Beginners,  76  ;  Weight  and 
Mass,  77 

Lockroy's  (M.)  Speech  at  the  Sorbonne  on  Education,  325 

Lockyer  (J.  Norman,  F.R.S.):  Suggestions  on  the  Classifica- 
tion of  the  Various  Species  of  Heavenly  Bodies,  8,  31,  56,  79  ; 
Notes  on  Meteorites,  424,  456,  530,  556,  602  ;  the  Maximum 
of  Mira  Ceti,  621 

Lockyer  (W.  J.),  a  Curious  Resemblance,  270 

Locomotion,  Representation  of  the  Attitudes  of  Human,  M. 
Marey,  191 

Lodge  (A.),  the  Multiplication  and  Division  of  Concrete 
Quantities,  281 

Lodge  (Dr.  Oliver  J.,  F.R.S.)  :  Photography  of  Lightning,  244; 
Modern  Views  of  Electricity,  389,  416,  590  ;  on  Lightning 
Conductors,  546 

Logarithms,  the  Elements  of,  W.  Gallatly,  172 

London,  Curve  Pictures  of,  for  the  Social  Reformer,  Alex.  B. 
Macdowall,  410 

London,  Fuel-testing  Station  for,  Bryan  Donkin,  172 

London  Mathematical  Society,  List  of  Names  for  the  New 
Council,  623 

Lory  (Prof.  Ch.),  on  the  Constitution  and  Structure  of  the 
Crystalline  Schists  of  the  Western  Alps,  506 

Lossen   (Prof.    A.   K.)    Some    Questions    connected    with    the 
Problem  presented  by  the  Crystalline  Schists,  together  with 
Contributions  to  their   Solution  from  the  Palaeozoic  Forma- 
tions, 522 
Louguinine  (W.),  Heats  of  Combustion  of  Isomerous  Acids,  48, 

608 
Louise   and   Roux,    Freezing-Points  of    Solutions    of    Organic 

Compounds  of  Aluminium,  608 
Lovering  (Prof.),  Resignation  of  Chair  at  Harvard  College,  182 
Lowson    (Geo.)  and  John  Y.  Gray,  the  Elements  of  Graphical 

Arithmetic  and  Graphical  Statics,  4 
Lucerne,  Elec'ric  Mountain  Railway  near,  453 
Lummer  (Dr.):    Movement  of  Air  in   the   Atmosphere,    192; 
Focal  Length  of  Lenses,  192 


21  ;  as  observed  at  Milan, 


Lunar  Eclipse  of  January  28,  1 

553 
Lunar  Rainbow,  T.  D.  A.  Cockerel],  365 
Lupton  (Sydney),  Michell's  Problem,  272,  414 
Luvini  (Jean),  Origin  of  the  Aurora  Borealis,  143 


Macallan  (John)  and  Sir  C.  A.  Cameron,  on  the  Compounds  of 
Ammonia  with  Selenium  Dioxide,  46 

McCaul  (C.  C),  the  Chinook  Wind,  500 

Macclesfield  Observations,  Cleveland  Abbe,  365 

Macdowall  (Alex.  B.),  Curve  Pictures  of  London  for  the  Social 
Reformer,  410 

McGee  (W.  J.),  Three  Formations  of  the  Middle  Atlantic 
Slope,  190 

Macgowan  (Dr.  D.  J.),  Taxation  in  China,  364 

MacGregor  (Prof.),  on  Kinematics  and  Dynamics,  149 

Mcintosh  (Prof.  W.  C,  F.R.S.).  Note  on  the  Tarpon  or  Silver 
King  (Megalopes  thrissoides),  309 

McKendrick  (Prof.  John  Gray,  F.R.S.) :  the  Gases  of  the  Blood, 
376,  399  ;  a  Text-book  of  Physiology,  Dr.  L.  C.  Wooldridge. 
489 

Mackinder  (Mr.),  Geography  at  Oxford,  423 

Maclachan  (R.,  F.R.S.),  on  Cold  Winters  in  Relation  to 
Insects,  228 

Madagascar,  Projected  French  Mission  to  map  Coasts  of,  577 

Madan  (H.  G.),  a  Substitute  for  Carbon  Disulphide  in  Prisms, 
&c,  413 

Magnesium,  Investigations  on  the  Spectrum  of,  Profs.  Liveing 
and  Dewar,  165 

Magnesium,  Photograph  of  the  Eye  by  Flash  of,  Prof.  Claude 
du  Bois-Reymond,  15 

Magnetism:  Magnetic  Properties  of  Iron  and  Nickel,  II. 
Tomlinson,  95  ;  Graphic  Treatment  of  the  Lamont-Frolich 
Formula  for  Induced  Magnetism,  95  ;  Magnetic  Qualities  of 
Nickel,  Prof.  J.  A.  Ewing,  F.R.S.,  117,  336  ;  Measurements 
in  Magnetism  and  Electricity,  Prof.  A.  Gray,  113  ;  Mag- 
netic and  Electric  Experiments  with  Soap  Bubbles,  C.  V. 
Boys,  162 ;  Electricity  and  Magnetism,  a  Treatise  on,  E. 
Mascart  and  J.  Joubert,  241  ;  on  Magnetic  Lag,  and  the 
Work  lost  due  to  Magnetic  Lag  in  Alternating  Current 
Transformers,  T.  H.  Blakesley,  141  ;  Prof.  S.  P.  Thompson 
on  the  Formulae  of  Bernoulli  and  Haecker  for  the  Lifting 
Power  of  Magnets,  190 ;  Magnetic  Determinations  in  the 
Basin  of  the  West  Mediterranean,  M.  Th.  Moureaux,  359  ; 
Magnetic  Charts  of  the  West  Mediterranean  Basin,  M.  Th. 
Moureaux,  384  ;  on  an  Explanation  of  the  Action  of  a  Magnet 
on  Chemical  Action,  430 

Magnetometer,  Kew,  on  some  Additions  to,  Prof.  Thorpe, 
F.R.S.,  and  Prof.  Riicker,  F.R.S.,  214 

Magnus  (Sir  Philip),  Report  on  Technological  Examinations, 
1888,  372 

Malet  (Sir  E. ),  Report  on  Agricultural  Education  in  Northern 
Italy,  1 38 

Mall  (Dr.  F.) :  on  the  Branchial  Clefts  of  the  Dog,  with  Special 
Reference  to  the  Origin  of  the  Thymus  Gland,  356  ;  on  the 
Development  of  the  Eustachian  Tube,  Tympanic  Membrane, 
and  Meatus  of  the  Chick,  356 

Mammal,  a  New  Australian,  E.  C.  Stirling,  588 

Mammalia  during  Geological  Time,  Prof.  A.  Gaudry's  Work 
on,  4 

Mammalia,  Mesozoic  Structure  and  Classification  of,  H.  F. 
Osborn,  611 

Mammals  of  Siberia,  Dr.  F.  A.  Jentink,  137 

Man  (E.  H.),  the  Nicobar  Islanders,  2S7 

Man,    Stratigraphic    Palaeontology    in    Relation   to,    Marcellin 

Boule,  211,  431 
Manchester  Literary  and  Philosophical   Society,   Memoirs  and 

Proceedings  of,  230 
Manchuria,  Exploration  of,  90 
Maneuvrier  (G.),  on  Mechanism  of  Electrolysis  by  Process  of 

Alternative  Currents,  263 
Manganese,  Application  of,  to  Metallurgy,  20 
Mangon  (Herve) :  Death  of,  86  ;  Obituary  Notice  of,  III,  118 
Mansel-Pleydell  (J.  C),  the  Birds  of  Dorsetshire.  125 
Mantis,  Humming-bird  and,  G.  W.  Alexander,  303 
Manual  Training  School,  C.  M.  Woodward,  5 
Manure  Gravels  of  Wexford,  Mr.  Bell,  597 


Nature,  Nov.  12,  1 


INDEX 


XXI 


Maquenne,  Perseite,  608 

Marambat  (M.).  Alcoholism  and  Criminality,  135 

Marcet    (Dr.    W.    C,    F.R.S.),    on   the    Measurement   of  the 

Increase  of  Humidity  in  Rooms,  191 
March  Storms,  H.  C.  Russell,  F.R.S.,  491 
Marey  (M.),  Representation  of  the  Attitudes  of  Human  Locomo- 
tion, 191 
Marine  Biological  Association,  Plymouth,   158  ;  G.  C.  Bourne 

elected  Director,  16;  Opening  of,  198,  236 
Marine  Biological  Laboratory,  Wood's  Holl,  Massachusetts,  348 
Marine  Biology  and   the  Electric  Light,   112;    Prof.   W.    A. 

Herdman,  130 
Marine  Biology,  Proposed  Station  at  Ostend,  112 
Marine  Telephone,  Experiments  with,  A.  Banare,  464 
Maritime  (International)  Conference,  553 
Markham  (Commander),  on  Hudson's  Bay  and  Strait,  161 
Marr  (J.  E.)  and  Prof.  H.  A.  Nicholson,  the  Stockdale  Shales, 

118 
Mars:    M.  Perrotin,   95,  216,  258,    311  ;    Study  of,  F.  Terby, 
119;      Markings     of,     185,     601  ;     the     Canals     of,     239; 
Satellites   of,  432,  553  ;  Physical  Aspects  of  Mars  during  the 
Opposition  of  1888,  L.  Niesten,  511 
Mascart  (E),  on  the  Rainbow,  168 

Mascart  (E.)  and  J.  Joubert,  a  Treatise  on  Electricity  and  Mag- 
netism, 241 
Mass  of  Titan,  G.  W.  Hill,  350 
Mass,   Weight  and,  Prof.  A.   G.   Greenhill,  F.R.S.,  54;  Rev. 

John  B.  Lock,  77 
Massawa  District,  Prof.  P.  Durazzo's  Map  of,  161 
Masters  (Dr.  Maxwell  T.):  elected  Coresponding  Member  of  the 
Institute  of  France,  182  ;  Alpine  Strawberry,  327  ;  Pflanzen- 
Teratologie,  341 
Mathematics  :  the  Romance  of  Mathematics,  P.  Hampson, 
28  ;  Mathematical  Society,  95,  214  ;  Barlow's  Tables  of 
Reciprocals,  114;  American  Journal  of  Mathematics,  164; 
Plotting,  or  Graphic  Mathematics,  R.  Wormell,  172  ;  Com- 
mercial Mathematics,  196  ;  a  Chapter  in  the  Integral  Cal- 
culus, A.  G.  Greenhill,  F.R.S.,  218  ;  a  Treatise  on  Plane 
Trigonometry,  containing  an  Account  of  Hyperbolic  Func- 
tions, with  Numerous  Examples.  John  Casey,  F.R.  S.,  218; 
a  Higher  Arithmetic  and  Elementary  Mensura'ion,  P. 
Goyen,  218  ;  the  Harpur  Euclid,  E.  M.  Langley  and 
W.  S.  Phillips,  218  ;  Mathematical  Drawing  Instruments, 
W.  F.  Stanley,  230  ;  the  Teaching  of  Mathematics  in  China, 
Gundry,  485  ;  Teon'a  Elemental  de  las  Determinantes  y  sus 
Principales  Applicaciones  al  Algebra  y  la  Geometria,  Felix 
Amoretti  and  Carlos  M.  Morales,  537 
Matthews  (J.  W. ),  Incwadi  Yama,  or  Twenty  Years'  Personal 

Experience  in  South  Africa,  295 
Maurel  (Dr.  E.),  Anthropological  Study  of  Cambodia,  463 
Maury  (Matthew  Fontaine),  Life  of,  E.  Douglas  Archibald,  339 
Maxima    and    Minima,    Further    Use   of    Ptolemy's    Theorem 

(Euclid  VI.  D)  for  a  Problem  in,  E.  M.  Langley,  149 
Maximum  of  Mira  Ceti,  J.  Norman  Lockyer,  F.R.S.,  621 
Measurement  of  the  Coefficients  of  Thermic  Conductibility  for 

Metals,  M.  Alphonse  Berget,  359 
Mechanics,  Edward  Aveling,  587 

Mechanics,  Lessons  in  Elementary,  W.  H.  Grieve,  244 
Medimaremetcr,  M.  Ch.  Lallemand,  191 
Medusae,  on  New  England,  J.  Welter  Fewkes,  137 
Mega/ops   thrissoides,    Note    on    the   Tarpon    or    Silver   King, 

Prof.  W.  C.  Mcintosh,  F.R.S.,  309 
Meikong  River,  Exploration  of,  19 

Melbourne  Life,  Lights  and  Shadows  of,  John  Freeman,  29 
Meldola  (Prof.  R.,  F.R.S.) :  Lamarkism  versus  Darwinism,  388  ; 
Scent  Organs  of  Male  Moth,  Herminia  Tarsipennalis,  486  ; 
on  the  Constitution  of  the  Azonaphthol  Compounds,  623 
Meldrum's    Rules,    on,    for    Handling   Ships   in    the    Southern 
Indian  Ocean,  Hon.  Ralph  Abercromby,  R.  H.  Scott.,  F.R.  S., 
358 
Meneh  (River),  Explored  by  Mr.  Knutson,  136 
Memoires  de  la  Societe  d'Anthropologie,  462 
Memoirs  of  the  Odessa  Society  of  Naturalists,  140 
Men,  Pygmy  Races  of,  Prof.  Flower,  F.R.S.,  44,  66 
Menges  (J.),  Possibility  of  Utilizing  the  African  Elephant,  529 
Mensuration,  an  Elementary  Treatise  on,  E.  T.  Henchie,  490 
Mercadier  and  Chaperon's  Electro- chemical  Radiophony,  305 
Mercers'    Company,    Agricultural    College    projected    by   the, 
598 


Mercier  (Dr.  Chas.),  the  Nervous  System  and  the  Mind,  7 
Mercury  and  Glass,  Compressibility  of  Water,  Salt  Water,  and, 

Prof.  P.  G.  Tait,  581 
Mercury,  the  Specific  Resistance  of,  232 
Mercury,  Three  New  Sulpho-chlorides  of,  Poleck  and  Goerckir 

527 
Mesozoic   Mammalia,   Structure   and   Classification   of,   II.   F. 

Osborn,  611 
Metallurgy,  Application  of  Manganese  to,  90 
Metals,    Effects   of  Different   Positive,    upon  the    Changes  of 

Potential  of  Voltaic  Couples,  Dr.  G.  Gore,  F.R.S.,  335 
Meteorites  :  Diamantiferous  Meteorite,  Analysis  of,   MM.  Iero- 
feieff  and  Latchinoff,  192  :  Lagrange's  Hypothesis  on  Meteor- 
ites  and    Comets,    M.    H.    haye,    215  ;    on    the    Orbits    of 
Aerolites,   H.  A.  Newton,  250  ;  the  Meteoric  Season,  W.  F. 
Denning,  276  ;  the  Bahia  or  Bendego  Meteorite,  349  ;  Notes 
on   Meteorites,  J.  Norman   Lockyer,   F. R.S.,  424,  456,  530, 
556,    602  ;    on   the  Mechanical    Conditions   of  a    Swarm    of 
Meteorites,   and    on  Theories  of  Cosmogony,    Prof.    G.   H. 
Darwin,  F.R.S.,  573 
Meteorology  :  Pilot  Chart  of  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean,  16,  86, 
204,   303,  422,  574  ;    Storms  in  the  Philippine  Archipelago, 
16;    Meteorological    Observatory   established  in    Brazil,    42; 
Meteorology    in    France,  42 ;   French  Meteorological  Office, 
159,    599  ;    the   Dacca  Tornado,   42 ;    Phenomenal    Storms, 
in     India,    42  ;     M.    Coumbary    on    Climatology   of    Con- 
stantinople, 133  ;  India,  133  ;  Meteorology  in  the  North-West 
Provinces  of  India  and  Oudh,  278  ;  Meteorology  in  Italy,  63  ; 
Meeting   of  the  Italian  Meteorological  Society,    183  ;  Anti- 
cyclones in  Europe,  Dr.   Brounow,  63  :  the  Relations  of  the 
Diurnal  Barometric  Maxima  to  Conditions  of  Temperature, 
Cloud,  and   Rainfall,   H.   F.    Blanford,    F.R.S.,   70;  on  the 
Rainfall  and  Temperature  at  Victoria  Peak,  Hong  Kong,  Dr. 
W.  C.  Doberck,  78  ;  Meteorology  of  South-East  China,  Dr. 
W.  C.  Doberck,  118;   Thermo-dynamics  of  the  Atmosphere, 
Prof,    von  Bezold,    144  ;   M.   Faye's   Theory   of  Storms,   E. 
Douglas  Archibald,    149  ;   the  Incurvature  of  the  Winds  in. 
Tropical  Cyclones,  Henry  F.  Blanford,  F.  R.  S.,  181  ;  Storm- 
Signals,  183  ;  New  York  Blizzard,  204  ;  Waterspouts,  Grosses- 
Haffand  Dammausch,205;  Observatory  in  Heligoland,  205;  M. 
Brassard's  Rain-Gauge,  205  ;  Ice  Wall  at  Kerschkaranza,  205  ; 
a  Meteorologist  at   the   Royal  Academy,  Hon.    Ralph  Aber- 
cromby,   225  ;   Prizes  for  Essays    on    Tornadoes,   229  ;    the 
United  States  Weather  Bureau,  229  ;   Report  of  the  Hong 
Kong  Observatory  for  1887,  229  ;  Dr.  Hellmann  on  the  Rain- 
fall of  the  Iberian   Peninsula,  229  ;    Reply  to  Mr.    Douglas; 
Archibald's  Strictures  on  the  Storm  Laws,  H.  Fayc,  263  ;  Re- 
port of  the  Berlin  Society  of,  278;  Temperature  of  1887- 88,. 
C.  Harding,  238  ;  the  Weather  in  the  Doldrums,  Hon.  Ralph 
Abercromby,  238  ;  Royal  Meteorological  Society,  238  ;  Does 
Precipitation  influence  the  Movement  of  Cyclones  ?,  H.  Helm. 
Clayton,  301  ;  Wragge's  Daily  Weather  Charts  for  Australia, 
303  ;  International  Meteorological  Committee,  326  ;  American 
Meteorological  Journal,  326  ;  Trans-Mississippi  Rainfall,  326  -r 
Year-book  of  the  Magdeburg  Journal,  348  ;   Annuaire  of  the 
Municipal  Observatory  of  Montsouris,  348  ;  Dr.  E.  Bruckner, 
Observations  at  Kingua  Fjord  (Cumberland  Sound),  374  ;  Dr. 
Buys  Ballot   on    the  Distribution   of  Temperature  over   the 
Surface  of  the  Earth,  374  ;  Portuguese  Government,  Meteoro- 
logical  Signals,    396  ;   Winter  Temperature  of  Werchojansk, 
Siberia,  303  ;    on  a  Recent  Change  in  the  Views  of  Meteoro- 
logists regarding  Gyratory  Movements,    M.   H.   Faye,   408  ; 
Storm  Warnings,  M.  de  Bort,  419  ;  American  Meteorological 
Magazine,    July,    422  ;    Symons's    Monthly    Meteorological 
Magazine,  August,  422  ;  Climate  of  the  British  Empire,  422  ; 
Meteorological   Stations  in  the  United  States,  Loftiness  of, 
453  ;  the  Central  Meteorological  Observatory  of  Mexico,  454  'r 
Meteorological    Service    of    Cape    of    Good    Hope,    454  ; 
Meteorologische      Beobachtungen      in      Deutschland,    486 ; 
Meteorology  of  St.  Helena,  486  ;  the  March  Storms,  H.  C 
Russell,    F.R. S.,  491  ;   International    Meteorology,   Robert 
II.   Scott,  F.R.S.,  491  ;   Meteorological   Report  for  Bengal, 
574 ;    Meteorological   Reports  of  Straits    Settlements,   599  ; 
the  Chinook  Wind,  C.   S.  McCaul,  502  ;  Torrential  Rainfall 
in  Germany,  Dr.  G.  Hellmann,  502  ;  Hand-book  of  Meteoro- 
logical Tables,    Prof.   H.   A.    Hazen,   527  ;  Bibliography  of 
Meteorology,   C.  J.    Sawyer's,  574  ;  G.    Rollin  on   Synoptic 
Charts,  575  ;  Meteorological  Observations  made  in  Russia  and 
Siberia  during  the  Eclipse  of  the  Sun  of  August   19,   1887, 


XXI 1 


INDEX 


[Nature,  Nov.  2Z;  \\ 


Prof.  Hesehus,  625  ;  Contributions  to  our  Knowledge  of  the 
Meteorology  of  the  Arctic  Regions,  625 
Meteors:  Meteor  seen  at  Kalmar,  Sweden,  158;  Meteor  seen 
from  s.s.  Prometheus,  C.  Weatherall  Baker,  203  ;  Meteor 
seen  at  Smaland,  Sweden,  328  ;  a  History  of  the  August,  \V. 
F.  Denning,  393  ;  Meteor,  Lieut. -Colonel  H.  W.  L.  Hime, 
414  ;  Meteor  seen  at  Linkoping,  Sweden,  422  ;  Zodiacal  Light 
and  Meteors,  T.  \V.  Backhouse,  434;  Brilliant  Meteor  in 
Sweden,  527 
Mexico  :the  Central  Meteorological  Observatory  of,  454  ;  Severe 

Earthquake  in,  485 
Meyer  (Dr.   A.    B.),    on  the    Reappearance   of  Pallas's    SanA 
Grouse  {Syrrhaptes  paradoxus)  in  Europe,  53,  77,  342  ;  F.  M. 
Campbell,  77 
Meyer's  (Dr.  H.)  Ascent  of  Kilimanjaro,  259,  529  ;    the  German 

East  African  Possessions,  305 
Meyrick  (E.),  Pyralidina  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  95 
Michael  (A.  D.),  on  Acari,  94 
Michel-Levy  (A.),  on  the  Origin  of  the  Primitive   Crystalline 

Rocks,  525 
Michell's  Problem,   Sydney  Lupton,  272,  414  ;  Joseph  Kleiber, 

342 
Microbism  and  Abscess,  M.  Verneuil  on,  488 
Micrometer,  Airy's  Double-Image,  J.  A.  C.  Oudemans,  120 
Micromillimetre,     Frank    Crisp,    221  ;     Arthur    \Y.     Rucker, 

F.R.S.,  244 
Micro-Organisms  of  Air  and  Water,  the,    Dr.   Percy  F.   Frank- 
land,  232 
Microscopical  Science,  Quarterly  Journal  of,  91,  430 
Microscopy  :    Camera    Lucida  ;  Adapter  ;  Microscope,   by    M. 
Dumaige,  167  ;  New  Stand  and  Camera,  Dr.    Kibbler,    167  ; 
Haplodiscus  piger,  W.  F.  R.  Weldon,  430  ;  Ornithorhynchus, 
E.  B.  Poulton,  430;  Note  on  Microscopy,    Prof.  Aser  Poli, 
431  ;  South  London  Microscopical  and  Natural  History  Club, 
625 
Mikluho-Maclay,  Dr.  O.  Finsch  on  his  Wo.k,  424 
Milan  Double-Star  Observations,  Prof.  Schiaparelli,  423 
Milk  v.  Fire,  F.  M.  Wickramasingha,  342 
Milk,  Lightning  and,    F.  A.   Bather,   30 ;    Rev.  John  Cyprian 

Rust,  103 
Miller  (J.  B.),  Dr.  W.  Bott  and,  Pyrocresols,  596 
Milne   (Prof.  John)  Japanese  Order  bestowed  on,  302  ;  Tables 
to  sbow  the  Distribution  of  Japanese  Earthquakes  in  Connec- 
tion with  Years,  Seasons,  Months,  and  Hours  of  the  Day,  597 
Milne  (Rev.  John),  Companion  to  the  Weekly  Problem  Papers, 

76 
Mind  of  the  Child,  the,  Prof.  W.  Preyer,  490 
Mind,  the  Nervous  System  and  the,  Dr.  Chas.  Mercier,  7 
Mine-Surveying,  a  Treatise  on,  Bennett  H.  Brough,  C.  Le  Neve 

Foster,  317 
Mineralogy  :  Artificial  Production  of  Di-calcium   and  Pharma- 
colite,  M.  Dufet,  17  ;  the  Study  of,  Prof.  Sterry  Hunt,  F.R.S., 
596  ;  Mineralogical  Evolution,  Prof.  Sterry  H  unt,  597 
Mineralogical  Magazine,  257 
Mineralogical  Society,  71,  287 

Minerals  of  New  South  Wales,  the,  A.  Liversidge,  75 
Minimum  Thermometer,  on  the  Grass,  Dr.  W.  Doberck,  619 
Minnesota,  Report  of  Geological  and  Natural  History  Survey,  N. 

H.  Winchell,  206 
Minor  Planets,  New,  88,  115,  231  ;  Herr  Palisa  and  M.  Charlois, 

43  ;  Names  of,  351  ;  Minor  Planet  No.  275,  554 
Mira  Ceti,  Maximum  of,  J.  Norman  Lockyer,  F.  R.S.,  621 
Mirage,  Remarkable,  on  the  Baltic,  304 
Missions,  French  Scientific,  255 
Mitchell  (J.),  Manual  of  Practical  Assaying,  148 
Mitchell  (P.  Chalmers),  Dr.  August  Weismannon  Heredity,  156 
Mobangi,  the  River,  Exploration  of,  18 
Modern  Views  of  Electricity,  Prof.   Oliver  J.   Lodge,  F.R.S., 

389,  416,  590 
Moedebeck  (Lieut.),  a  Balloon  Journey,  48 
Molecular  Physics,  an  Attempt  at  a  Comprehensive  Dynamical 
Treatment  of  Physical  and  Chemical  Forces,  Prof.  F.  Linde- 
mann,  G.  W.  de  Tunzelmann,  404,  458,  578 
Mollusca,  the  Land  and  Fresh-water,  of  India,  H.  H.  Godwin- 
Austen,  F.R.S.,  217 
Monge's  Differential  Equation  to  all  Conies,  Geometric  Inter- 
pretation of,   Prof.   Asutosh   Mukhopadhyay,    173,    197,  564, 
619 
Monkey  as  Scientific  Investigator,  the,  257 


Monkey,  Three  First  Cervical   Nerves  in  the,  Chas.  E.  Beevor 

and  Victor  Horsley,  F. R. S.,  357 
Monsoon  Storms  in  Bengal,  158 
Mont  Blanc,  Three  Days  on  the  Summit  of,  35 
Monte  Video,  Earthquakes  in,  256 
Moon,  Curious  Apparent  Motion  of  the,  in  Australia,  T.  Mellard 

Reade,  102 
Moore  (Frederick),  Description  of  New  Indian   Lepidopterous 

Insects  from  the  Collection  of  the  late  W.  S.  Atkinson,  266 
Moors  of  Ceylon,  Ethnology  of,  P.  Ramanathan,   135 
Morales  (Carlos  M.)  y  Felix  Amoretti,  Teoria  Elemental  de  las 

Determinantes  sus  Principales  Aplicaciones  al   Algebra  y   la 

Geometria,  537 
Morgan  (Prof.   C.  Lloyd),  Natural  Selection  and   Elimination, 

37° 
Morgan  (T.  H.),  on  Experiments  with  Chitin  Solvents,  356 
Morley  (Dr.),  Valency,  596 

Morocco,  Joseph  Thomson's  Explorations  in,  398 
Morocco,  Temnodon  saltator  \v\,  133 
Morris    (Dr.    G.    H.)    and    H.    T.    Brown,    Determination    of 

Molecular  Weights  of  Carbo- Hydrates,  117 
Moths  of  India,  Catalogue  of  the,  624 
Motor,  the  Sun,  Captain  John  Ericsson,  319 
Mouchez  (Admiral),  Report  of  Paris  Observatory,  179 
Mount   Loa  Craters,  History  of  Changes  in,  II.,  J.    D.  Dana, 

462 
Mountain-Formation,    History    of  the    Contraction-Theory  of, 

Charles  Davison,  30 
Moureaux  (M.  Th.j,  Magnetic  Determinations  in  the  Basin  of  the 

West  Mediterranean,  359,  384 
Moussette,  (M.  Ch.),  Lightning  Photographs,  432 
Mueller  Glacier,  New  Zealand,  on  the  Veined  Structure  of  the, 

F.  W.  Hutton.  77 
Mugnier  (Dr.),  the  Hand  and   Figure  of  Native  East   Indians, 

463 
Muir  (Dr.  Thos.),  Nomenclature  of  Determinants,  589 
Muirhead  (Dr.  Henry),  Zodiacal  Light,  618 
Mukerjee   (S.    B.),    Elementary    Hydrostatics,   with  Numerous 

Examples,  76 
Mukhopadhyay  (Prof.  Asutosh),  the  Geometric  Interpretation  of 

Monge's  Differential  Equation  to  all  Conies,  173,  197,  564 
Multiplication  and  Division  of  Concrete  Quantities,  A.  Lodge, 

281 
Munk  (Prof.),  Catgut  as  a  Ligature,  312 
Muntz  (M.  A.),  Analysis  of  the  Nile  Waters,  360 
Murphy  (Joseph  John),  Functionless  Organs,  411 
Muscle-Fibres,  the  Structure  of  Striated,  Dr.  Benda,  360 
Muscular  Movements  in  Man,  and  their  Evolution  in  the  Infant, 

a    Study  of  Movement  in  Man,    and    its  Evolution,  Francis 

Warner,  M.D.,  238 
Musee  Guinet,  Opening  of  the,  255 
Museum  Association,  Proposed,  41 
Museum,  Australian,  Report  of,  575 
Museum,  Dublin  Science  and  Art,  114 
Mushketoff  (Prof. ),  Report  on  Earthquakes  at  Vyernyi,  204 
Mysterious  Sky  Lights,  W.  Mattieu  Williams,  102 
Myth  of  Ibicus,  Recurrence  among  the  Provencals,  M.  le   Dr. 

Berenger-Ferand,  212 


Nansen     (Dr.    Fridtjof)  :    Greenland    Expedition,    302,    372  ; 

Scarcity  of  Seals  on  the  Coast  of  Greenland,  422 
Natural  History  Collections,  British  Museum,  487 
Natural  History  of  the  Roman  Numerals,  Edw.  Tregear,  565 
Natural    Selection,    Definition   of  the  Theory  of,  Prof.  Geo.  J. 

Romanes,  F.R.S.,  616 
Natural  Selection  and  Elimination,  Prof.  C.  Lloyd  Morgan,  370 
Natural  Science  in  Japan,  83 
Natural  Science,  the   Services  of  Catholic   Missionaries  in  the 

East  to,  434 
Naturalists,  German  Association  of,  Meeting  of,  at  Cologne,  16 
Naturalists,    Recent  Visit    of,   to    the    Galapagos,   Dr.    P.    L. 

Sclater,  F.R.S.,  Leslie  A.  Lee,  569 
Nature,  Freaks  of,  Major  D.  Erskine,  104  ;  C.  H.  Erskine,  104 
Nature's  Fairy-Land,  Rambles  by  Woodland,  Meadow,  Stream, 

and  Shore,  H.  W.  S.  Worsley-Benison,  244 
Navy,  the  Choice  of  a  Chemist  to  the,  265 
Neanderthal  Race,  the  Tibia  in  the,  Prof.  Julius   Fraipont,  212 


Nature,  Nov.  22,  1888] 


INDEX 


'XXI II 


Neesen  (Prof.),  an  Ether  Calorimeter,  312 

Negreano  (M.,),  Measurement  of  the  Velocity  of  Etherification, 

192 
Nehring  (Prof.),  on  the  Origin  of  the  Dog,  87 
Neolithic  Skull,  Dr.  P.  Topinard  on,  212 
Neolithic  and  Palreolithic  Finds  in  Southern  India,  Bruce  Foote, 

87 
Nephridia,   the,    of  Earthworms,    Prof.   W.    Baldwin    Spencer, 

197  ;  Frank  E.  Beddard,  221 
Nerve,  Transplantation  of,  from  Rabbit  to  Man,  88 
Nerve-Centres  and  their  Modes  of  Action  in  expressing  Thought, 

Dr.  Francis  Warner,  238 
Nerves :   on  the  Comparison  of  theCranial  with  the  Spinal,  Dr. 

W.    H.   Gaskell,  F.R.S.,    19;  Note   on  some  of  the  Motor 

Functions  of  certain  Cranial  Nerves,  and  of  the  Three  First 

CervicalNerves  in  the  Monkey  (Macacus  sinicus),  Dr.  Charles 

E.  Beevor  and  Victor  Horsley,  F.R.S.,  357 
Nervous    System,    Anatomy    of    the    Central,    of   Vertebrate 

Animals,   Alfred  Sanders,  92 
Nervous  System  and  the  Mind,  the,  Dr.  Chas.  Mercier,  7 
Nesting  Habit  of  the  House  Sparrow,  G.  L.  Grant,  590 
Netchayeff  (M.),  on  Fossils  of  Caspian  Sea,  160 
Neutral  Chloride  of  Platinum,  M.  Engel,  396 
New  Cross  Institute,  the  Goldsmiths'  Company,  Proposed,  574 
New  England  Medusae,  on,  J.  Walter  Fewkes,  137 
New  Guinea,  British,  555 
New   Guinea,    Explorations  and  Adventures  in,   Captain  John 

Strachan,  315 
New  South  Wales  :  the  Minerals  of,  A.  Liversidge,  75  ;  Journal 

of  the  Royal  Society  of,  206 
New  York  Blizzard,  204 
New  Zealand  :   Reports  on  the  Geological   Survey  of,  53  ;  the 

Plague  of  Rabbits  in,  87  ;  Fossil   Fish   Remains  from,  137  ; 

Sir  Walter  Buller's    History  of  the  Birds  .of,  159;  Deer  in, 

328  ;  Earthquakes  in,  452 
Newman    (Edward),   Birdsnesting  and  Bird-skinning,   a  Com- 
plete Description  of  the  Nests  and  Eggs  of  Birds  which  breed 

in  Britain,  587 
Newton  (Prof.    Alfred,   F.  R.  S.)  :    the   Renewed    Irruption    of 

Syrrhaptes,  103,  295  ;  the  Boys'  Yarrell,  145 
Newton  (Prof.  H.  A.),  the  Orbits  of  Aerolites,  63,  250 
Newton  (Sir  Isaac),  Bibliography  of  the  Works  of,  184 
Nicholls  (H.  A.  Alford),  Fauna  and  Flora  of  the  Lesser  Antilles, 

566 
Nichols  (Prof.),  on  Carbon   and  Copper  Combined  to   form  a 

Compensated  Resistance  Standard,  232 
Nicholson  (Prof.  H.  A.)  and  J.  E.  Marr,  the  Stockdale  Shales, 

118 
Nickel,  Magnetic  Qualities  of,  Prof.  J.  A.  Ewing,  117,  336 
Nicobar  Islands,  Colonel  Strahin,  115  ;  E.  H.  Man,  287  ;  Dr. 

Svoboda,  501 
Nicol  (Dr.),  Report   of  the  British  Association   Committee  on 

the  Properties  of  Solutions,  596 
Niesten  (L.),  Physical  Aspects  of  Mars  during  the  Opposition  of 

1888,  511 
Night,  Sky-coloured  Clouds  at,  R.  T.  Omond,  220 
Nile  Delta,  the  Borings  in  the,  Colonel  Turner,  63 
Nde  Waters,  Analysis  of  the,  M.  A.  Muntz,  360 
Nilson  (Prof.)  and  Prof.  Pettersson,  Vapour-Densities  of  Chromic 

Chlorides,  624 
Nitrogen,  Remarks  on  the  Quantitative  Analysis  of,  in  Vegetable 

Soils,  MM.  Berthelot  and  G.  Andre,  359,  408 
Nitrophenol,  Metallic  Derivates  of  Ortho-  and  Para-nitrophenol, 

Prof.  Carnelly  and  Mr.  J.  Alexander,  141 
Nomenclature  of  Determinants,  Dr.  Thos.  Muir,  589 
Non-Chinese  Races  of  China,  Mr.  Bourne's  Report  on  the,  345 
North  America  :  Synoptical  Flora  of,    Prof.    Asa  Gray,  J.    G. 

Baker,   F.  R.  S.,   242;  the   Stratigraphical  Succession   of  the 

Cambrian  Faunas  in,  Prof.  Chas.  B.  Walcott,  551 
North  Atlantic  Ocean,  Pilot  Charts  of,  86,  143,  204,  303,  574 
Norway  :  Earthquakes  in,  16,  42  :  Dr.    Hans  Reusch's  Report 

on,   326  ;  Ancient  Canoe  found  in,    134  ;    Cod  and   Whale 

Fisheries  in  the  North  of,  160  ;  Implements  found  in   Mound 

at  Ogue,  205  ;  Intense  Heat  in,  304  ;  Ring-Throstle  Nesting 

in,  304  :  Norwegian  Geology,  Dr.   Hans   Reusch,  194  ;  Nor- 
wegian Greenland  Expedition,  302,  372,  492,  527 
Nose-Blackening  as  Preventive  of    Snow-Blindness,    Prof.    E. 

Ray  Lankester,  F.R.S.,  Edmund  J.    Power,  7;  Dr.    Robert 

L.  Bowles,  101  ;  A.  J.  Duffield,  172 


Nossilof's  Exploration  of  Novaya  Zemlya,  555 

Novaya  Zemlya,  Nossilof's  Exploration  of,  555 

Numbers,  the  Cardinal,  Manley  Hopkins,  27 

Numbers,  Prime,  on  certain  Inequalities  Relating  to,   Prof.  J. 

J.  Sylvester,  F.R.S.,  259 
Numerical    Examples    in    Practical   Mechanics   and    Machine 

Design,  Robert  G.  Blaine,  563 
Nuovo  Giornale  Botanico  Italiano,  July,  431 


Observatories:  American  Observatories,  231,  626;  Heligoland 
Observatory,  205  ;  Jubilee  of  Kazan,  186  ;  the  Lick,  257  ; 
Publications  of,  43  ;  Forthcoming  Hand-book  of  the,  113; 
Prof.  Edward  S.  Holden  on  the,  355  ;  Central  Meteorological, 
of  Mexico,  454  ;  Oxford  University  Observatory,  227  ;  Pro- 
posed Connection  between  Paris  and  Greenwich,  527  ;  Pro- 
jected Astronomical,  at  Pekin,  302  ;  Yale  College  Observatory, 
397 

Ocean  Currents,  Distribution  of  Animals  and  Plants  by,  A.  W. 
Buckland,  245  ;  Isaac  C.  Thompson,  270 

Odstreil  (Dr.  Johann),  Death  of,  277 

Ohm,  Determination  of  the,  M.  H.  Wuilleumier,  168 

Oil,  Use  of,  in  Smoothing  Waves  in  Stormy  Weather,  16 

Omond  (R.  T.),  Sky-Coloured  Clouds  at  Night,  220 

Oolitic  and  Carboniferous  Rocks,  Horace  Woodward,  597 

Ophiuchi,  U,  Light-Curve  of,  S.  C.  Chandler,  576 

Opossum,  Monkey  and,  257 

Oppert  (Prof.),  on  the  Original  Inhabitants  of  Bharatavarsa,  373 

Optical  Model,  on  an,  Prof.  A.  W.  Riicker,  F.R.S.,  287 

Optics,  Experiments  on  Fechner's  Psycho-physical  Law  in 
Relation  to  Sense  of  Sight,  Dr.  A.  Konig,  464 

Orbits  of  Aerolites,  on  the,  11.  A.  Newton,  250 

Organic  Substances,  the  Slow  Combustion  of,  Th.  Schlcesing, 
48 

Organs,  Functionless,  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  F.R.S.,  341,  411  ; 
Prof.  E.  Ray  Lankester,  F.R.S.,  364 ;  J.  T.  Hurst,  364; 
Prof.  J.  Burdon- Sanderson,  F.R.S.,  Samuel  F.  Wilson,  387; 
J.  J.  Murphy,  41 1  ;  William  White,  412 

Origin  and  Causation  of  Vital  Movement,  on  the,  Dr.  W. 
Kiihne,  627 

Origin,  the,  and  Growth  of  Religion  as  Illustrated  by  Celtic 
Heathendom,  Prof.  J    Rhys,  361 

Origin  of  Species,  Dr.  Eimer  on  the,  123 

Orndorff  and  Jessel,  the  Chemistry  of  Modern  MetliDd  of 
Manufacturing  Chloroform,  598 

Ornithology :  on  the  Reappearance  of  Pallas's  Sand  Grouse 
(Syrrhaptes  paradoxus)  in  Europe,  Dr.  A.  B.  Meyer,  53,  77, 
342  ;  F.  M.  Campbell,  77  ;  Prof.  Alfred  Newton,  F.R.S  ,  103, 
112,  295;  a  Specimen  presented  to  the  Zoological  Gardens, 
132;  W.  B.  Tegetmeier  on,  230;  the  Geographical  Dis- 
tribution of  the  Family  Charadriida;,  Henry  Seebohm,  R. 
Bowdler  Sharpe,  73  ;  the  Birds  of  Dorsetshire  a  Contribution 
to  the  Natural  History  of  the  County,  J.  C.  Mansel-Pleydell, 
R.  Bowdler  Sharpe,  125  ;  Notes  on  the  Birds  of  Hereford- 
shire, Henry  Graves  Bull,  Prof.  R.  Bowdler  Sharpe,  125  ;  the 
Illustrated  Manual  of  British  Birds,  Howard  Saunders,  Prof. 
Alfred  Newton,  F.R.S.,  145  ;  Ring-Throstle  Nesting  in 
Norway,  304;  Argentine  Ornithology,  P.  L.  Sclater,  F.R.S., 
and  W.  H.  Hudson,  587  ;  British  Birds,  Key  List,  Lieut. - 
Colonel  L.  Howard  Irby,  587  ;  Birdsnesting  and  Bird- 
skinning,  a  Complete  Description  of  the  Nests  and  Eggs  of 
Birds  which  Breed  in  Britain,  Edward  Newman,  Prof.  R. 
Bowdler  Sharpe,  587  ;  Bird  Pests  of  the  Farm,  599 

Osborn  (H.  F.),  Structure  and  Classification  of  Mesozoic 
Mammalia,  611 

Osmium,  Atonic  Weight  of,  Prof.  Seubert,  183 

Osteology  of  Porzaua  Carolina,  279 

Oudemans  (J.  A.  C),  on  Airy's  Double-Image  Micrometer,  120 

Ouvrard  (M.  L.)  :  on  the  Action  of  the  Alkaline  Phosphates  on 
the  Alkaline-Earthy  Oxides,  168  ;  on  some  New  Double 
Phosphates  in  the  Magnesium  Series,  216 

Owen  Stanley  Peak,  Forbes  on  his  Attempts  to  reach  the,  424 

Owens  College,  41 

Oxalic,  Malonic,  Succinic,  and  Methyl-Succinic  Acids,  on  the 
Relative  Toxicity  of,  and  of  their  Sodium  Salts,  Dr.  Heymans, 
360 

Oxford  :  Geography  at,  Mr.  Mackinder,  423  ;  University 
Observatory,  227 


XXIV 


INDEX 


[Nat we,  Nov.  22,  1S88 


Oxygen  Furnace,  Fletcher's  Compressed,  606 
Oxygen,  Spectrum  of,  Dr.  Janssen  on,  605 
Oyster  Banks  of  Denmark,  the,  114,'  553 

Ozone,  on  the  Production  of,  by  Electric  Streaks,  MM.  Iiichat 
and  Guntz,  384 


Fagus-Cap-Sizun,  Cap  du  Raz,  on  the  Population  of  the 
Ancient,  MM.  Le  Carguet  and  P.  Topinard,  212 

Palaeolithic  Type,  Implement  of,  in  America,  184 

Palaeontology  :  Les  Ancetres  de  Nos  Animaux  dans  les  Temps 
Geologiques,  Albert  Gaudry,  4  ;  Stratigraphic  Palaeontology 
in  Relation  to  Man,  Marcellin  Boule,  211,  431  ;  Palaeonto- 
logical  Society,  239  :  a  Quaternary  Equidean,  M.  Poliakoff, 
309  ;  Palaeontology  in  Austria- Hungary,  M.  M.  Homes, 
357;   Testudo  perplniana,  P.  Fi-cher,  464 

Palaeozoic  Formations,  some  Questions  connected  with  the 
Problems  presented  by  the  Crystalline  Schists,  together  with 
Contributions  to  their  Solution  from  the,  Prof.  K.  A.  Lossen, 
522 

Palestine,  the  White  Race  of,  Prof.  A.  H.  Sayce,  321 

Palgrave  (W.  Gifl'ord),  Death  of,  552 

Palisa  (Herr)  and  M.  Charlois,  New  Minor  Planets,  43 

Palisa  (279),  Observations  of  New  Planet,  MM.  Rambaud  and 

Sy,  143 

Pallas's  Sand  Grouse  {Syrrhapies  paradoxus),  on  the  Reappear- 
ance of,  in  Europe,  103,  112,  158,  295  ;  Dr.  A.  B.  Meyer,  53, 
77,  342  ;  F.  M.  Campbell,  77  ;  in  Denmark,  W.  B.  Teget- 
meier,  230  ;  presented  to  the  Zoological  Gardens,  132 

Paper,  Botanical  Drying,  183 

Parasites  of  the  Hessian  Fly,  221 

Paris:  Academy  of  Sciences,  23,  47,  71,95,  118,  143,  168,  191, 
215,  239,  263,  288,  311,  359,  383.  408,  43i>  463.  488,  512, 
529,  560,  583,  608,  631  ;  Paris  Geographical  Society,  66  ; 
Report  of  Paris  Observatory,  179  ;  Terrestrial  Globe  at  the 
Exhibition  of  1889,  183  ;  Projected  Scientific  Congresses  in 
Paris,  255  ;  Professorship  of  the  Darwinian  Theory  at  the 
Sorbonne,  276  ;  Introduction  of  Electricity  into  the  Paris 
Omnibus  Service,  527  ;  Astronomical  Society,  336  ;  Revue 
d'Anthropologie,  357;  Anthropological  Exhibition,  371 

Parish  Patches,  A.  Nicol  Simpson,  341 

Parkes  Museum,  485 

Parkhurst  (Henry  M.),  Photometric  Observations  of  Asteroids, 

554 
Parnell  (J.),  Transparency  of  the  Atmosphere,  270 
Pasteur  (M.),  Cure  of  Cholera  by  Inoculation.  395 
Patents,  Designs,  and  Trade- Marks,  Report  of  the  Comptroller- 
General,  349 
Pavie  (M.),  Indo-China  Explorations,  424 
Peabody  Institute,  the  Library  of  the,  229 
Pearls,  Chemical  Composition  of,  George   Harley,  F.R.  S.,  and 

H.  S.  Harley,  21 
Pekelhering  (M.),  on  the  Proliferation  of  EndotheUum-Cells  in 

Arteries,  216 
Pekin,  Projected  Astronomical  Observatory  at„302 
Pendulum  :  on  a  Point  in  the  History  of  the,  M.  Defforges  and 

M.  C.  Wolf,  191  ;  Experiments  with  a  Non-Oscillating,  M. 

A.  Boillot,  192 
Pendulum  Seismograph,  Duplex,  Prof.  J.  A.  Rwing,  30 
Perchloride  of  Gallium,   on  the  Vapour-Density  of  the,  M.  C. 

Friedel  and  J.  M.   Crafts,  384 
Perlewitz  (Dr.),  Aperiodic  Variations  of  Temperature,  119 
Perrotin  (M.)  :  Observations  of  the  Channels  in  Mars,  95,  216, 

258,  311  ;  the  Rings  of  Saturn,  216 
Perry  (Prof.  J.,    F.R.S.):  Apparatus  for  the  Measurement  of 

the  Coefficient  of  Expansion  by  Heat,  141  ;  and  Prof.  W.  E. 

Ayrton,  on  Electromotor?,  190 
Perseite,  Maquenne,  608 
Personal  Identification  and  Description,  Francis  Galton,  F.R. S., 

173,  201 
Persulphide   of    Hydrogen,    the    Composition    of,    Dr.     Rebs, 

278 
Petermann's  Mittheilungen,  601 
Pettersson    (Prof.)    and    Prof.     Nilson,    Vapour- Densities    of 

Chromic  Chlorides,  624 
Petrography,  British,  T-  J.  Harris  Teall,    Prof.  John  W.  Tudd, 

F.R.S.,  385 
Petrology,  Prof.  Rosenbusch's  Work  on,  30 
Pflanzen-Teratologie,  Maxwell  T.  Masters,  341 


Pharmacolite  :  Artificial  Production  of,  M.  Dufet,  17  ;  Optical 
Properties  of,  23 

Phenacite  and  the  Emerald,  Reproduction  of,  240 

Philippine  Archipelago  :  Storms  in  the,  16  ;  the  Tamaron  of 
the,  Dr.  P.  L.  Sclater,  F.R.S  ,  363  ;  Vulcanic  Eruption  in, 
528 

Phillips  (W.  S.),  E.  M.  Langley  and,  the  Harpur  Euclid,  218 

Philo-ophical  Society  of  Cambridge,  215 

Philosophy  from  an  Anthropological  Point  of  View,  Dr.  Fau- 
velle,  462 

Philothion,  J.  de  Rey-Pailhade,  264 

Phipson  (H.  M.),  the  Poisonous  Snakes  of  the  Bombay 
Presidency,   284 

Phosphates,  on  some  New  Double,  in  the  Magnesian  Series,  M. 
L.  Ouvrad,  216 

Photography  :  Photograph  of  the  Eye  by  Flash  of  Magnesium, 
Prof  Claude  du  Bois-Reymond,  15  ;  Photographic  Chart  of 
the  Heavens,  38,  180  ;  Photographic  Survey  of  the  Heavens, 
International,  Astronomical  Instruments  for,  Sir  H.  Roscoe, 
M.P.,  F.R.S  ,  325  ;  Anschutz's  Instantaneous  Photographs, 
119:  Proposed  International  Exhibition  of  Amateur  Photo- 
graphs and  Photographic  Apparatus  in  Vienna,  132  ;  Lightning 
Photographs,  203  ;  Lightning  Photographs,  Ch.  Moussette, 
432  ;  Photography  of  Lightning,  Dr.  Oliver  J.  Lodge,  F.R.S., 
244 ;  Landscape  Photography,  by  H.  P.  Robinson,  230 ; 
Meeting  of  the  Photographic  Convention,  Birmingham,  276  ; 
Adaption  of  a  Telescope  for  Photography,  257  ;  the  Photo- 
grapher's Note-book,  Sir  David  Salomons,  269  ;  an  Intro- 
duction to  the  Science  and  Practice  of  Photography,  Chapman 
Jones,  563  ;  the  Beginner's  Guide  to  Photography,  588  ;  the 
Solar  Parallax  from  Photographs  of  the  Last  Transit  of 
Venus,  600 

Photometric  Intensity  of  the  Coronal  Light  during  the  Solar 
Eclipse  of  August  28-29,  1886,  on  the  Determination  of  the, 
Captain  W.  de  W.  Abney,  F.  R.  S. ,  and  T.  E.  Thorpe,  407 

Photometric    Observations  of  Asteroids,  Henry  M.  Parkhurst, 

554 

Photometry  of  Colour,  Captain  W.  de  W.  Abney,  F.R.S. 

Photometry  of  Colour,  Captain  W.  de  W.  Abney,  F.R.S. 
Major-General  Festing,  F.R.S.,  212 

Physical  Balance,  Theory  and  Use  of,  J.  Walker,  146 

Physical  Geography,  Eclectic,  Russell  Hinman,  615 

Physical  Society,  22,  94,  141,  190,  213,  286 

Physician,  the.  as  Naturali>t,  Prof.  Gairdner,  347 

Physics   and   Chemistry,   Amplications  of    Dynamics  to,   J. 
Thomson,  F.R.S.,  585 

Physics,  Molecular,  an  Attempt  at  a  Comprehensive  Dynamical 
Treatment  of  Physical  and  Chemical  Forces,  Prof.  F.  Linde- 
mann,  G.  W.  de  Tunzelmann,  404,  458,  578 

Physics  in  Schools,  Teaching  of,  500 

Physiology  :  Physiological  Society  of  Berlin,  96,  240 ;  an 
Elementary  Text-book  of  Phy.-iology,  J.  McGregor  Robertson, 
99;  a  Text-book  of  Physiology,  J.  C.  McKendrick,  F.R.S., 
Dr.  L.  C.  Wooldridge,  489  ;  a  Text-book  of  Physiology,  M. 
Foster,  F.R.S.,  564;  Prof.  Gad  on  Prof.  Fick's  Scheme  of 
Blood-pressuie  in  the  Capillaries,  120  ;  the  Blood-vessels  of  the 
Eye  in  Carnivora,  Dr.  H.  Virchow,  264  ;  the  Nerve-endings 
in  Unstriated  Muscle-fibres  of  Medicinal  Leech,  Dr.  Heymans, 
264  ;  Further  Researches  on  the  Physiology  of  the  Invertebrata, 
A.  B.  Griffiths,  F.R.S.  Edir..,  285  ;  the  Minute  Structure  of 
Striated  Vessels  in  Vertebrata  and  Arthropoda,  264  ;  Pulsa- 
tion in  the  Lower  Animal  Organisms,  Dr.  de  Bruyne,  310 

Pickering  (Prof.  Edward  C),  the  Progress  of  the  Henry  Draper 
Memorial,  306 

Pidgeon  (D. )  :  Sonorous  Sands,  590  ;  a  Shell-Collector's  Diffi- 
culty, 590 

Pilot  Chart  of  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean,  16,  86,  20.1,  303,  422, 

574 
Pink  Pearl,  the  Land  of  the,  L.  D.  Powles,  101 
Pisciculture  :  Export  of  Salmon  Ova  to  the  Argentine  Republic, 

114  ;  Acclimatization  of  Salmonidae  in  Tasmania,  P.  S.  Seager, 

528 
Pitt-Rivers    (Lieut. -General,     F.R.S.),     Opening    Address    in 

Section  H  (Anthropology)  at  the   British   Association,   516, 

542 
Placentation  of  the  Lemurs,  an   Additional  Contribution  to  the, 

Prof.  Sir  William  Turner,  F.R.S.,  190 
Plagyodus  (Atepisaurus)  ferox,  349 
Planchon  (M.  Victor),  on  the  Quantitative  Analysis  of  Glycerine 

by  Oxidation,  360 


286 
and 


J- 


Nature,  Nov.  22,  \\ 


INDEX 


XXV 


Plane  Trigonometry,  a  Treatise  on,  John  Casey,  F.R.S., 
21S 

Planets,  Minor  :  New  Minor,  88,  115,  231  ;  Ilerr  Palisa  and  M. 
Charlois,  43  ;  Names  of,  351 

Plants  :  Dissemination  of,  by  Birds,  W.  Botting  Hemsley,  53  ; 
Aluminium  in,  Prof.  Church,  228  ;  Distribution  of  Animals 
and  Plants  by  Ocean  Currents,  A.  W.  Buckland,  245  ;  Isaac 
C.  Thompson,  270  ;  Dispersion  of  Seeds  and,  E.  L.  Layard, 
296;  Geological  History  of,  Sir  J.  W.  Dawson,  F.R.S., 
538  ;  Influence  of  Eclipse  on  Plants  and  Animals,  625 

Platinum:  Ignition  of,  in  Different  Gases,  J  >r.  \Y.  R.  Ilodg- 
kinson,  6  ;  Neutral  Chloride  of,  M.  Engel,  396  ;  Discovery 
of  a  New  Platinum  Base,  Dr.  II.  Alexander,  256 

riatyenemia  in  Man  and  the  Anthropoda,  Manouvrier,  463 

Plotting,  or  Graphic  Mathematics,  R.  Wormell,  172 

Plymouth,  Opening  of  the  Marine  Biological  Laboratory  at, 
198,  236 

Poincare  (M.  II.),  on  the  Equilibrium  of  a  Heterogeneous  Mass 
in  Rotation,  168 

Poison  of  the  Hymenoptera,  M.  G.  Carlet,  216 

Poisonous  Snakes  of  the  Bombay  Presidency,  H.  M.  Phipson, 
284 

Poleck  and  Goercki  (Drs.),  Three  New  Sulpho-chlorides  of 
Mercury,  527 

Poli  (Prof.  Aser),  Note  on  Microscopy,  431 

PoliakofT  (M.),  a  Quaternary  Equidean,  309 

Political  Economy,  Heredity  in,  M.  de  Lapouge,  212 

Polytechnic  Institute,  the,  73 

Polytechnic  Institutes  in  South  London,  155 

Population  of  the  Ancient  Pagus-Cap-Sizun,  Cape  du  Raz, 
MM.  le  Carguet  and  P.  Topinard,  212 

Portuguese  Government  and  Meteorological  Signals,  396 

Forzana  Carolina,  the  Osteology  of,  279 

Potato  Disease,  Experiment  on  the  Treatment  of  the,  M. 
Prillieux,  432 

Potsdam,  Publications  of  the  Astrophysical  Observatory,  206 

Pottery  Collection,  David  T.  Day,  206 

Potts  (T.  II. ),  Death  of,  527 

Poulton  (Edward  B.)  :  on  Dr.  Romanes's  Article  in  the  Con- 
temporary Review  for  June,  295  ;  Lamarckism  versus  Darwin- 
ism, 388,  434  ;  oh  the  Tiue  Teeth  and  on  the  Horny  Plates 
of  Ornithorhynchus,  430 

Power  (Edmund  J.),  Nose-blackening  as  Preventive  of  Snow- 
Blindness,  7 

Power,   Electric  Transmission   of,    Prof.  Ayrton,  F.  R.  S.,   508, 

533 
Powles  (L.  D.),  the  Land  of  the  Pink  Pearl,  101 
Practical  Mechanics  and  Machine  Design,  Numerical  Examples 

m,  Robert  G.  Blaine,  563 
Precipitation,    Does  it   influence  the  Movement  of  Cyclones?, 

H.  Helm  Clayton,  301 
Preece    (W.  H.,  E.R.S.):  on  the   Heating  Effects    of  Electric 
Currents,  93  ;  on  Lightning- Conductors,   546  ;  Opening  Ad- 
dress  in    Section    G     (Mechanical     Science)    at    the    British 
Association,  494 
Prehistoric  Canoe  discovered  in  River  Hamble,  598 
Prehistoric  Remains  near  Basingstoke,  Discovery  of,  553 
Prestwich  (Prof.  J.,  F.R.S. ),  International  Geological  Congress, 

503 
Preyer  (Prof.  W.),  the  Mind  of  the  Child,  490 
Prillieux   (M.),  Experiment  on    the  Treatment   of   the   Potato 

Disease,  432 
Prime  Numbers,  on   certain   Inequalities  relating  to.    Prof.   J. 

J.  Sylvester,  F.R.S.,  259 
Prisms,    &c,    a   Substitute  for  Carbon    Disulphide    in,   II.    (,. 

Madan,  413 
Prjevalsky  (General)  :  Proposed  Fourth  Journey  in  Central  Asia, 

66  ;  Filth  Journey  to  Tibet,  451 
Probability,  the  Theory  of,  Michell's  Problem,  Sydney  Lupton, 

272 
Problem  Tapers,  Companion  to  the  Weekly,  Rev.  John   Milne, 

76 
Problem  by  Vincentio  Viviani,  Rev.  Edward  Geohegan,  78 
Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society,  455,  601 
Proctor  (R.  A.),  Obituary  Notice  of,  49 
Produce  of  the  Soil,  how  to  increase  the,  Prof.  John  Wrightson, 

329 

Prognostic  of  Thunder,  B.  Woodd-Smith,  221 
Projectiles,   Elongated,    Calculation    of    Ranges,   &c,    Rev.   F. 
Bash  forth,  468 


Proliferation  of  Endothelium-Cells  in  Arteries,  M.  Pekelharing, 

216 
Prophetic  Germs,   Prof.  E.  Ray  I.ankester,   F.R.S.,    539,  588; 

the  Duke  of  Argyll,  F.K.S.,  5(4.  615 
Propyl    Alcohol,    Thermal     Properties    of,    Drs.    Ramsay    and 

Young,  238 
Protoplasm,  on  the  Chemical  Action  and  Vegetative  Alterations 

of  Animal,  M.  A.  P.  Fokker,  168 
Prussia  :  Agricultural  Education  in,  13S  ;  Sir  E.  Malet's  Report 

on,  138 
Psychology,  M.  Ribot  on  Contemporary,  160 
Ptolemy's  Theorem,  further  Use  of  (Euclid  VI .  D)  for  a  Problem 

in  Maxima  and  Minima,  E.  M.  Langley,  149 
Ttomaines,  Contribution  to  the   Study  of  the,  M.  'Echsner  de 

Coninck,  168 
Pygmees,  Les,  A.  de  Quatrefages,  4 
Pygmy  Races  of  Men,  Prof.  Flower,  F.R.S.,  44,  66 
Pyralidina  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  E.  Meyrick,  95 
Pyrocresols,  Dr.  W.  Bott  and  J.  B.  Miller,  596 


Qualitative  Analysis,  Outlines  of,  Geo.  W.  Slatter,  100 

( luantities,  Concrete,  Multiplication  and  Division  of,  A.  Lodge, 

281 
Quarterly  Journal  of  Microscopical  Science,  91,  430 
Quaternary  Times,  Climate  of,  164 
Quatrefages    A.  de),  Les  Tygmees,  4 
Queen's  Jubilee   Piize   Essay  of  the  Royal    Botanic   Society  of 

London,  594 


Rabbit  Test  in  Australia,  the,  42  ;  in  New  Zealand,  87 

Races,  Tygmy,  of  Men,  Prof.  Flower,  F.  R.S.,  44,  66 

Radio-micrometer,  C.  Vernon  Boys,  19,  46 

Radiophony,  Electro-chemical,  Chaperon  and  Mercadier,  305 

Raft,  the  Great,  abandoned  on  the  Coast  of  New  England, 
229 

Raggi(Prof.  A.),  Unilateral  Hallucinations,  512 

A'aia  circularis,  on  the  Structure  of  the  Electric  Organ  of, 
Prof.  J.  C.  Ewart,  94 

Railway,  the  Biiinig,  502 

Railway  near  Lucerne,  Electric  Mountain,  453 

Rain,  on  the  Distribution  of,  over  the  British  Isles  during  the 
Year  1887,  G.  J.  Symons,  F.R.S.,363 

Rainbow,  M.  Mascart,  168  ;  an  Unusual,  E.  L.  Layard,  270  ; 
Lunar  Rainbow,  T.  D.  A.  Cockerel],  365  ;  Remarkable  Rain- 
bow, 414 

Rainfall  in  Germany,  Torrential,  Dr.  G.  Hellmann,  502 

Rainfall  and  Temperature  at  Victoria  Peak,  Hong  Kong,  on  the, 
Dr.  W.  C.  Doberck,  78 

Rainfall,  Trans-Mississippi,   326 

Rain -Gauge,  M.  Brassard,  205 

Rainless  Season,  Si  range  Rise  of  Wells  in,  103 

Ramanathan  (B.),  Ethnology  of  the  Moors  of  Ceylon,  135 

Ramsay  (Prof.,  F.R.S. ),  Analogy  between  Dilute  Solutions  and 
Gases,  213 

Ramsay  and  Young  (Drs.),  Thermal  Properties  of  Propyl  Alco- 
hol, 238 

Ranges,  &c,  Calculation  of,  of  Elongated  Projectiles,  Rev.  F. 
Bashforth,  468 

Raoult  (M.  F.  M.),  on  the  Vapour-Tensions  of  Solutions  made 
in  Alcohol,  432 

Rati  (B.  Hanumanta),  First  Lessons  in  Geometry,  53 

Ravaz  (L.)  and  Pierre  Viala,  on  Diseases  of  the  Vine,  216 

Ray,  the  Electric,  Prof.  J.  C.  Ewart.  70 

Rayet  (M.  G.),  Accidental  Errors  in  the  Observations  of 
Transits,  216 

Rayleigh  (Lord,  F.R.S.)  :  Diffraction  of  Sound,  208  ;  Experi- 
ments as  to  Variation  of  Velocity  of  Light  by  Electric  Cur- 
rent through  Electrolyte,  555  ;  Lightning  Conductors.  547 

Readc  (T.  Mcllard),  Curious  Apparent  Motion  of  the  Moon  in 
Australia,   102 

Rebs  (Dr. ),  the  Composition  of  Persulphide  of  Hydrogen,  278 

Recalescence  of  Iron,  H.  Tomlinson,  95 

Reciprocals:  Tables  of,  V.  A.  Julius,  77  ;    Barlow's  Tables  of, 

114,  135 
Red  Spot  on  Jupiter,  W.  F.  Denning,  342 
Reefs,  Coral, "Foundations  of,  Captain  W.  J.  L.  Wharton,  568  ; 


XXVI 


INDEX 


[Nature,  Nov.  22,  li 


Refrigerant  Mixtures,    Researches    by  MM.    Cailletet  and  E. 

Colardeau,  191 
Religious  Thought,    Evolution  and  its   Relation   to,  Joseph  Le 

Conte,  100 
Reminiscences  of  Foreign  Travel,  Robert  Crawford,  126 
Rendiconti  del  Reale  Istituto  Lombardo,  21,  91,  164,  284,  512 
Rennet,  Vegetable,  Prof.  T.  R.  Green,  274 
Resemblance,  a  Curious,  W.  J.  Lockyer,  270 
Resistance  of  Square  Bars  to  Torsion,  T.  J.  Dewar,  126 
Respiration,  Method  of  Measuring  Gaseous  Interchange  during, 

Prof.  Zuntz,  312 
Reusch  (Dr.  Hans)  :  on  the  Bommel  and  Karm  Islands,  194  ; 

Report  on  Earthquakes  in  Norway,  326 
Revue  d'Anthropologie,  211,  357,  431 
Rey-Pailhade  (J.  de),  Philothion,  264 
Reyer  (Dr.  E.),  Theoretische  Geologie,  409 
Reynolds  (Prof.  Emerson,  F.  R.S.),  Silicotetraphenyiamide,  575 
Rhinoceros  tichorrhinus  at  Rixdorf,  Skull  found,  304 
Rhodium,  on  the    Sesquisulphide   of,    143  ;    Salts   of,    M.    E. 

Leidie,  360 
Rhys  (Prof.  J.),  the  Origin  and  Growth  of  Religion  as  illustrated 

by  Celtic  Heathendom,  361 
Ribot  (M. ),  on  Contemporary  Psychology,  160 
Ricco,  Reflected  Image  of  Sun  on  Marine  Horizon,  608 
Richardson  (Dr.    B.   W.,    F.R.S.):  the   Storage   of  Life  as  a 
Sanitary  Study,  276  ;   Report  of  the  British  Association  Com- 
mittee on  the  Action  of  Light  on  the  Hydracids  in  Presence 
of  Oxygen,  595  ;    the   Action    of  Light  on  Water- Colours, 

596 
Rigollot  and  Gouy,  Electro-chemical  Actinometer,  119 
Ring  Nebula  in  Lyra,  Prof.  Holden,  626 

Rings  of  Saturn,  M.  Perrotin,  216;  Dom  M.  Lamey,  191,  231 
Rivista  Scientifico-Industriale,  91,165,  431 
Robertson     (J.     McGregor),     an    Elementary     Text-book     of 

Physiology,  99 
Robinson  (H.  P.),  Landscape  Photography,  230 
Rock,  the  Avocet,  222 
Rocks,  Primitive  Crystalline,  on  the  Origin  of,  A.  Michel-Levy, 

525 
Rodger  (J.  W.)  and  Prof.  Thorpe,  Thiophosphorylfluoride,  348 
Rohlfs  (Herr  Gerhard),  the  German  Plans  for   Rescuing  Emin 

Pasha,  486 
Rolleston  (George,   F.R.  S.),    Forms   of  Animal  Life,    second 

edition,  25 
Rollin  (G.),  Synoptic  Charts,  575 

Roman  Numerals,  Natural  History  of  the,  Edw.  Tregear,  565 
Romance  of  Mathematics,  P.  Hampson,  28 
Romanes  (Dr.  G.  J.,  F.R.S.)  Article  in  the  Contemporary  Review 
for  June,   Edward  B.  Poulton,  295,  364;  Lamarckism  versus 
Darwinism,   413,   490;  Definition  of  the  Theory  of  Natural 
Selection,  616 
Root  Crops,  the  Growth  of,  Dr.  J.  H.  Gilbert,  F.R.S.,  605 
Root  Pressure,  C.  B.  Clarke  on,  94 

Roscoe's  (Sir  Henry,  M.P.,  F.R.S.),  Technical  Education  Bill, 
121  ;  Address  on  Technical  Instruction,  186  ;  Astronomical 
Instruments  for  International  Photographic  Survey  of  the 
Heavens,  325  ;  Retiring  Address  as  President  of  the  British 
Association,  439 
Rosenbusch's  (Prof.)  Work  on  Petrology,  30 
Rotating  Spheres,  Whirlwinds,  Waterspouts,  &c,  C.  L.  Weyher, 

E.  Douglas  Archibald,  104 
Rotation  Period  ®f  the  Sun  from  Faculse,  Dr.  J.  Wilsing,  206 
Rothamsted  Experiments  on  the  Growth  of  Wheat,  Barley,  and 

the  Mixed  Her!>age  of  Grass  Land,  William  Fream,  465 
Rousseau  (M.  G. )  and  M.  J.   Bernheim,  on  the  Decomposition 

of  the  Ferrate  of  Baryta,  216 
Rousselet  (M.   L.),  the  Afghans,  431 

Roux  and  Louise,  Freezing- Points  of  Solution  of  Organic  Com- 
pounds of  Aluminium,  608 
Royal  Academy,   a   Meteorologist  at  the,   Hon.    Ralph  Aber- 

cromby,  225 
Royal  Exhibitions,  National  Scholarships,  and    Free   Student- 
ships, Successful  Candidates,  430 
Royal  Geographical  Society,  161  ;  Anniversary  Meeting  of  the, 

116 
Royal  Institution,  41 
Royal  Meteorological  Society,  118,  191 
Royal  Microscopical  Society,  167 
Royal  Observatory,  Report  of  Astronomer- Royal,  153 
Royal  Society,   21,  46,   70,  92,   112,    117,    140,  165,  190,  212, 


238,  262,  284,  310,  331,  357,  407  ;  Selected  Candidates  for 
Election,  11  ;  Conversazione,  16,  60;  Election  of  Foreign 
Members,  132  ;  Election  of  Fellows,  158  ;  Report  of  the 
Krakatao  Committee  of  the,  540,  566 

Royal  Society  of  Canada,  576 

Royal  Society  of  New  South  Wales,  463 

Royal  Society  of  Tasmania,  599 

Riicker  (Prof.  A.  W.,  F.R.S.)  :  on  some  Additions  to  the  Kew 
Magnetometer,  214 ;  Micromillimetre,  244  ;  on  an  Optical 
Model,  287 

Riicker  and  Boys's  Dielectric,  161 

Runic  Inscriptions  in  Sweden,  87,  527 

Russell  (H.  C,  F.R.S.),  the  March  Storms,  491 

Russell  (Prof.),  Chinese  Astronomy,  134 

Russia  :  Statistics  of  Blindness  in,  279  ;  Teaching  of  Geography 
in  Universities  of,  280 ;  Prof.  Egoroff's  Report  on  the  Ob- 
servations made  in  Russia  and  Siberia  during  the  Eclipse  of 
the  Sun  of  August  19,  1887,  625  ;  Projected  Exploration  of 
Russian  Lakes,  529 

Rust  (Rev.  John  Cyprian),  Milk  v.  Lightning,  103 

Ruthenium,  Researches  on,  H.  Debray  and  A.  Joly,  134 

Rutley  (Frank),  on  Perlitic  Felsites,  239 


St.  Helena,  Meteorology  of,  486 

St.  Thomas's  Hospital,  255 

Salicylic  Acid,  Prof.   Hartley,  F.R.S.,  on,  141 

Salisbury  (the  Marquess  of),  on  Industrial  Training,  155 

Salmonida;  and  Tasmania,  P.  S.  Seager,  528 

Salomons  (Sir  David),  the  Photographers'  Note-book,  269 

Salt  District,  Durham,  E.  Wilson,  214 

Salt  Industry  in   the  United   States,   Thomas  Ward,    29  ;    F. 

Tuckerman,  148 
Salt    Water,   Mercury,  and    Glass,  Compressibility  of  Water, 

Prof.  P.  G.  Tait,  581 
Salts  of  Rhodium,  Researches  on  some,  M.  E.  Leidie,  360 
San  Francisco,   Earthquake  Intensity  in,  Edward   S.    Holden, 

189 
Sand  Grouse,  Pallas's  {Syrrhaptes  paradoxus) :   in  Europe,    on 

the  Reappearance  of,  103,  112,  295  ;  Dr.  A.  B.  Meyer,  53,  77, 

342  ;  F.  M.  Campbell,  77  ;  in  Denmark,  158  ;  W.  B.  Teget- 

meier,  230  ;  Presented  to  the  Zoological  Gardens,  132 
Sand,  Sonorous  :  in  Dorsetshire,  Cecil  Carus  Wilson,  415  ;  A. 

R.  Hunt,  540  ;  H.  Carrington  Bolton  and  Alexis  A.  Julien, 

515  ;  D.  Pidgeon,  590 
Sander  on  Runic  Inscriptions  in  Sweden,  87 
Sanders  (Alfred),  Anatomy  of  the  Central  Nervous  System  of 

Vertebrate  Animals,  92 
Sanderson  (J.  Burdon,  F.R.S.):  on  the  Electromotive  Properties 

of  the  Leaf  of  Dionsea  in  the  Excited  and   Unexcited   States, 

140  ;  Functionless  Organs,  387 
Sands,  the  Cornish  Blown,  R.  II.  Curtis,  55 
Sandys  (Dr.),  Speeches  at  Cambridge,  163 
Sanitary  Inspection  Association,  North-Eastern,  Report,  327 
Sanitary  Inspectors,  Lectures  for  Instruction  of,  485 
Sanitary  Institute  of  Great  Britain,  255,  276,  574 
Satellites  of  Mars,  432,  553 
Saturated  Solutions,  Effect  of  Electric  Current  on,   C.   Chree, 

215 
Saturn,  the  Rings  of,  M.  Perrotin,  216  ;  Dom  M.  Lamey,  191, 

231 
Saunders  (Howard),  Illustrated  Manual  of  British  Birds,  Prof. 

Alfred  Newton,  F.R.S.,  145 
Sawerthal,  Comet  1888  a,  168,  186,  258,  328 
Sawyer's  (C.  J.)  Bibliography  of  Meteorology,  574 
Sayan  Expedition,  Geological  Results  of  the  Last,    L.  A.  Jac- 

zewski,  577 
Sayce  (Prof.  A.  H.) :  the  Old  Babylonian  Characters  and  their 

Chinese  Derivatives,  Prof.  Terrien  de   I.acouperie,  122  ;  the 

White  Race  of  Palestine,   321  ;  the  Origin  and   Growth  of 

Religion  as  illustrated  by  Celtic  Heathendom,  J.  Rhys,  361 
Scandinavia,  Geology  of,  Dr.  A.  E.  Torrtebohin,  Dr.  Archibald 

Geikie,  F.R.S.,  127 
Scandinavian  Colonization  of  North  America,  17 
Scavengers,  Natural,  of  French  Beaches,  Hallez,  598 
Schafer  (Prof.  E.  A.,  F.R.S.),  on  the  Coagulation  of  the  Blood, 

331 

Schiaparelli  (Prof.),  Milan  Double- Star  Observations,  423 
Schistostega  osmundacea,  Prof.  Gad  on,  144 


Nature,  Nov.  22,  li 


INDEX 


XXV11 


Schists,  Crystalline  :  of  the  Western  Alps,  on  the  Constitution 
and  Structure  of  the,  Prof.  Ch.  Lory,  506  ;  Dr.  T.  Sterry 
Hunt,  519  ;  some  Questions  connected  with  the  Problems  pre- 
sented by  the,  together  withX'ontributions  to  their  Solution 
from  the  Palseozoic  Formations,  Prof.  K.  A.  Lossen,  522  ;  on 
the  Classification  of  the,  Prof.  Albert  Heim,  524 ;  Remarks 
on  some  of  the  more  Recent  Publications  dealing  with  the, 
Prof.  J.  Lehmann,  540 

Schlcesing  (M.  Th.)  :  the  Slow  'Combustion  of  Organic  Sub- 
stances, 48  ;  on  the  Relations  of  Atmospheric  Nitrogen  to 
Vegetable  Soils,  383 

Schofield  (A.  T.),  Another  World,  or  the  Fourth  Dimension, 

363 
Scholarship  for  Women,  Miss  Williams,  206 
Schools,  Teaching  of  Physics  in,  500 
Schorlemmer  (Prof.),  Complimentary  Dinner  to,  182 
Science,  Advancement  of,  the  Australasian  Association  for  the, 

437 
Science,  Empiricism  versus,  609 
Science,   Natural,  in  Japan,  83 
Science  Teaching  in  Dundee,  574 
Science  Teaching  in  Elementary  Schools  in  England  and  Wales, 

576  .  . 

Scientific  Assessors  in  Courts  of  Justice,  289 

Scientific  Missions,  French,  255 

Scientific  Results  of  the  Voyage  of  H.M.  S.  Challenger  during 
the  Years  1873-76,  Report  on  the,  561 

Scientific  Value  of  Volapiik,  351 

Scientific  Writings  of  loseph  Henry,  98 

Sclater  (Dr.  P.  L.,  F.R.S.)  :  Electric  Fishes  in  the  River  Uru- 
guay, 148;  the  Tamaron  of  the  Philippine  Islands,  363  ;  Recent 
Visit  of  Naturalists  to  the  Galapagos,  Leslie  A.  Lee,  569  ;  and 
W.  H.  Hudson,  Argentine  Ornithology,  Prof.  R.  Bowdler 
Sharpe,  587 

Scotland  :  Geology  of  the  North-West  Highlands  of,  Dr.  A. 
Geikie,  F.R.S.,  70  ;  Geology  of  the  Scottish  Highlands,  Dr. 
Archibald  Geikie,  F.R.S. ,  127  ;  Dr.  A.  E.  Tornebohm,  127  ; 
Scottish  Meteorological  Society,  302  ;  Scottish  Geographical 
Magazine,  424  ;  Scotch  Fishery  Board,  the,  574 ;  Return  of 
H.M.S.  jackal,  623 

Scott  (Robert  H.,  F.R.S.),  International  Meteorology,  491 

Scudder  (S.  H.),  the  Butterflies  of  the  Eastern  United  States  and 
Canada,  624 

Sea,  Determination  of  the  Mean  Level  of  the,  M.  Ch.  Lalle- 
mand,  191 

Sea-Birds,  how  they  dine,  Earl  Compton,  618 

Sea-Fisheries  in  the  United  Kingdom,  Return  of  the  Board  of 
Trade,  349 

Sea-side  and  Way-side,  Julia  McNair  Wright,  125 

Seager  (P.  S.),  Salmonidae  in  Tasmania,  528 

Seals,  Scarcity  of,  on  the  Coast  of  Greenland,  Dr.  Nansen,  422 

Season  in  Sutherland,  a,  J.  E.  Edwards-Moss,  220 

Seebohm  (Henry),  the  Geographical  Distribution  of  the  Family 
Charadriidae,  R.  Bowdler  Sharpe,  73 

Seeds,  Dispersal  of,  by  Birds,  Dr.  H.  B.  Guppy,  101 

Seeds  and  Plants,  Dispersion  of,  E.  L.  Layard,  296 

Seeley  (H.  G.,  F.R.S.),  Factors  in  Life,  267 

Seidel  (K.),  Industrial  Instruction,  148 

Seismology  :  Duplex  Pendulum  Seismograph,  Prof.  J.  A.  Ewing, 
30  ;  Report  on  Earthquake  at  Vyernyi,  Prof.  Mushketoff,  204  ; 
Two  Years'  Seismometric  Observations  inTokio,  Prof.  Sekiya, 
302  ;  Tables  to  show  the  Distribution  of  Japanese  Earthquakes 
in  connection  with  Years,  Seasons,  Months,  and  Hours  of  the 
Day,  Prof.  J.  Milne,  597  ;  Earthquakes  and  how  to  measure 
them,  Prof.  J.  A.  Ewing,  F.R.S.,  299 

Sekiya  (Prof.),  Two  Years',  Seismometric  Observations  in  Tokio, 
302 

Selborne  Society,  Lower  Thames  Valley,  Branch  of,  277 

Self-induction,  W.  E.  Sumpner,  30 

Self-induction  in  Iron  Conductors,  Prof.  J.  A.  Ewing,  55 

Self- Reproducing  Food  for  Young  Fish,  631 

Sense  of  Taste,  7 

Seubert  (Prof.),  Atomic  Weight  of  Osmium,  183 

Shadow  and  Halo,  540  ;  A.  S.  Eve,  589  ;  Rev.  Edward  Geoghe- 
gan,  619;  Charles  Cave,  619 

Shales,  the  Stockdale,  Marr  and  Nicholson,  1 18 

Shanghai,  Projected  Zoological  Garden  at,  598 

Sharp  (Abraham),  Life  of  William  Cudworth,  304 

Sharpe  (Prof.  R.  Bowdler)  ;  the  Geographical  Distribution  of  the 
Family    Charadriidse,    Henry    Seebohm,    73 ;   the    Birds   of 


Devonshire,  J.  Mansel-Pleydell,  125  ;  Notes  on  the  Birds  of 
Herefordshire,  Henry  Graves  Bull,  125  ;  Birdsnesting  and 
Birdskinning,  a  Complete  Description  of  the  Nests  and  Eggs 
of  Birds  which  breed  in  Britain,  587  ;  British  Birds,  Key 
List  of,  Lieut. -Colonel  L.  Howard  Irby,  587  ;  Argentine  Orni- 
thology, P.  L.  Sclater,  F.R.S.,  587 

Shell-Collector's  Difficulty,  a,  Consul  E.  L.  Layard,  566 ;  D. 
Pidgeon,  590 

Shell-Collector's  Hand-book  for  the  Field,  Dr.  J.  W.  Williams, 
51,  103;  Dr.  Henry  Woodward,  F.R.S.,  103    ' 

Sherborn  (C.  Davies),a  Bibliography  of  the  Foraminifera,  Recent 
and  Fossil,  from  1565  to  1888,  562 

Sherman  (O.  T. ),  Zodiacal  Light,  594 

Shih-Ping,  China,  Earthquake  in,  16 

Shipley,  A.  J.,  I.ethrus  cephaloies,  172 

Ships,  on  Meldrum's  Rules  for  Handling,  in  the  Southern  Indian 
Ocean,  Hon.  Ralph  Aberciomby,  358 

Shufeldt  (Dr.  R.  W.),  Notes  on  the  Reproduction  of  Rudi- 
mentary Toes  in  Greyhounds,  56 ;  the  Osteology  of  Porzana 
Carolina,  279 

Siam,  W.  J.  Archer's  Journey  in,  280 

Siberia :  Winter  Temperature  of  Werchojansk,  303  ;  First 
University  of,  350;  the  Question  of  Communication  with,  Dr. 
Torell,  601 

Sierra  Leone,  or  the  White  Man's  Grave,  G.  A.  Lethbridge 
Banbury,  244 

Siemens  (Dr.  Werner)  Ennobled,  41 

Sikkim,  Ethnology  of  the  Himalayan  Hill  Region  of,  89 

Silicon  and  Sulphur  in  Cast  Iron,  90 

Silicon  Tetrafluoride  Compounds,  Comey  and  Loring  Jackson, 
203 

Silicotetraphenylamide,     Prof.     Emerson     Reynolds,     F.R.S., 

575 
Silk,  Researches  on,  Dr.  Weyl,  144 
Silkworms,  E.  A.  Butler,  386 
Silver  King,  Note  on  the  Tarpon  or  {Megalops  thrissoides),  Prof. 

W.  C.  Mcintosh,  F.R.S.,  309 
Simart  (M.),  Monthly  Charts  of  the  North  Atlantic  Currents, 

143 
Simple  Bodies,  Equivalents  of  the,  96 
Simpson  (A.  Nicol),  Parish  Patches,  341 
Skate,  Electric  Organ  of,  Prof.  J.  C.  Ewart,  310 
Skin  Colouring,  Dr.  Klaatsch  on,  96 
Sky-coloured  Clouds,  T.  W.  Backhouse,  196,  270  ;  R.  T.  Omond, 

220 
Sky  Lights,  Mysterious,  W.  Mattieu  Williams,  102 
Slatter  (Geo.  W. ),  Outlines  of  Qualitative  Analysis,  100 
Sledges,  &c,  at  Burials,  on  the  Use  of,  M.  Anutchin,  134 
Smart  (Stephen  F.),  Tours  and  Excursions   in  Great  Britain, 

Charles  A.  Gillig,  318 
Smith    (Chas.),  Solutions  of  the  Examples  in  an  Elementary 

Treatise  on  Conic  Sections,  588 
Smith  (Dr.  G.  M.),  Wasted  Sunbeams,  205 
Smith  (H.  W.)and  Prof.  H.  B.  Dixon,  F.R.S.,  Incompleteness  of 

Combustion  on  Explosion,  596 
Smith  (Percy),  Visit  to  the  Kermadec  Islands,  18 
Smyth  (Prof.  Piazzi),  Resignation  of,  421 
Snakes,  Poisonous,  of  the  Bombay  Presidency,  H.  M.  Phipson, 

284 
Snow-Blindness,   Nose-Blackening  as  Preventive  of,    Prof.   E. 

Ray  Lankester,  F.R.S.,  7  ;  Edmund  J.  Power,  7  ;  Dr.  Robert 

L.  Bowles,  101  ;  A.  J.  Duffield,  172 
Snow-water  Rivers,  Cause  of  Peculiar  Green  of,  L.  Uchermann, 

527 

Soap-Bubbles,  177  ;  C.  V.  Boys  on,  22  ;  Magnetic  and  Electnc 
Experiments  with,  C.  V.  Boys,  162 

Soaps  and  Candles,  Dr.  C.  R.  Alder  Wright,  F.R.S.,  292 

Society  of  German  Engineers,  598 

Sodium  Salt  of  Zincic  Acid,  86 

Soil,  How  to  increase  the  Produce  of  the,  Prof.  John  Wrightson, 
329 

Solar  Eclipse  of  August  28-29,  1886,  on  the  Determination  of 
the  Photometric  Intensity  of  the  Coronal  Light  during  the, 
Captain  W.  de  W.  Abney,  F.R.S.,  and  T.  E.  Thorpe,  407 

Solar  Parallax  from  Photographs  of  the  last  Transit  of  Venus, 
600 

Solar  Phenomena  for  1887,  Distributions  in  Latitude  of,  P. 
Tacchini,  47 

Solid  Matter,  a  Simple  Hypothesis  for  Electro-magnetic  Induc- 
tion  of  Incomplete  Circuits  with   Consequent   Equations  of 


XXVlll 


INDEX 


[Naiurr,  Nov.  22,  1SS8 


Electric  Motion   in    Fixed  Homogeneous  or  Heterogeneous, 

Sir  William  Thomson,  F.R.S.,  569 
Solids,  /Eolotropic  Elastic,  C.  Chree,  165 
Solomon    Islands,   Projected   Third  Expedition  of  Mr.  C.   M. 

Woodford  to,  115 
Solution  and  Crystallization,  on,  Prof.  Liveing,  215 
Solutions,  Effect  of  an  Electric  Current  on  Saturated,  C.  Chree, 

215 
Solutions,  Report  of  the  British  Association  Committee  on  the 

Properties  of,  Dr.  Nicol,  596 
Sonnets,  347,  371,  421 

Sonorous  Sands  :  in  Dorsetshire,  Cecil  Carus-Wilson,  415  ;  H. 
Carrington  Bolton  and  Alexis  A.  Julien,  515  ;  A-  R.  Hunt, 
540 ;  D.  Pidgeon,  590 
Sorbonne,  Professorship  of  the  Darwinian  Theory  at,  182,  276 
Sound,  Diffraction  of,  Lord  Rayleigh,  F.R.S.,  208 
Sound,  Light,  and  Heat,  Thomas  Dunman,  125 
Southall,    Discovery  of  Elephas  primigenius,   associated    with 

Flint  Implements  at,  J.  Allen  Brown,  283 
Sow,  a  Six-Legged,  257 
Spain,  Forestry  School  in,  461 

Spark,  Electric,  Undulatory  Movement  accompanying,  287 
Sparrow,  Nesting  Habit  of  the  House,  G.  L.  Grant,  590 
Species,  Origin  of,  Dr.  Eimer,  123 
Specific  Gravity,   Density  and,  Prof.   G.  Carey  Foster,  F. R.S., 

6  ;  E.  Hospitalier,  6  ;  Harry  M.  Elder,  55 
Spectra  of  Crystals,  the  Absorption,  A.  E.  Tutton,  343 
Spectrum  Analysis  :    Researches  on  the  Spectrum  of    Carbon, 
Prof.  Vogel,  72  ;  Dr.  Koenig's  Measurement  of  Intensities   of 
Light  in  Spectrum,  119;  the  Progress  of  the  Henry  Draper 
Memorial,  Prof.  Edward  C.  Pickering,  306  ;  Experiments  on 
Change  in  Wave- length  of  Spectral  Lights  necessary  to  produce 
Perceptible   Difference   in    Colour,    Dr.    Uhthoff,   464 ;    Re- 
searches on  the  Optic  Origin  of  the  Spectral  Rays  in  Con- 
nection with  Undulatory  Theory  of  Light,  C.   Fievez,   511  ; 
Profs.  Liveing  and  Dewar's  Investigations  on  the  Spectrum  of 
Magnesium,  165  ;  Dr.  Janssen  on  the  Spectrum  of  Oxygen, 
605  ;  Rev.  T.  E.  Espin  on  the  Spectrum  of  R  Cygni,  423 
Spelin,  Eine  Allsprache,  G.  Bauer,  I 

Spencer  (Prof.  W.  Baldwin),  the  Nephridia  of  Earthworms,  197 
Spinal  Nerves,  on  the  Comparison  of  the  Cranial  with  the,  Dr. 

W.  H.  Gaskell,  F.R.S.,  19 
Spitzbergen,  Aurora  in,  Dr.  H.  Hildebrandsson,  84 
Sponge  Fishery,  Report  of  British  Consul  at  Tunis,  349 
Sprat  Fisheries  of  France,  Report  of  M.  Renduel,  349 
Square  Bars  to  Torsion,  Resistance  of,  T.  J.  Dewar,  126 
Stanley    (W.     F.),     Mathematical     Drawing    and     Measuring 

Instruments,  230 
Stars  :  Double,  on  the  Variation  of  the  Personal  Equation  in  the 
Measurement  of,  191  ;  Stars,  Variable,  328  ;  New  Catalogue 
of,    S.    C.   Chandler,  554 ;    Globular    Star   Clusters,    A.    M. 
Clerke,  365  ;  Stars,  Zone  Observations  of  the,    Fearnley  and 
Geelmuyden,  626  ;  on  the  Deformation  of  the  Images  of  Stars 
seen  by  Reflection  on  the  Surface   of  the  Sea,  M.  C.  Wolf, 
631  ;  on  the  Observation  of  Stars  by  Reflection,  M.  Perigaud, 
632 
Statics,  the  Elements  of  Graphical,  by  Gray  and  Lows  on,  4 
Statistics  of  Blindness  in  Russia,  279 
Statistics  of  Indian  Life,  Dr.    Hyde  Clarke,   237;  S.    A.    Hill, 

565 
Statistics,  the  Life,  of  an  Indian  Province,  S.  A.  Hill,  245 
Steam- Engine,  the,  G.  C.  V.  Holmes,  169 
Steel,  Increase  in  the  Production  of,  90 
Steel  Vacuum  Balloon,  Proposed,  185 
Steiner  (P.),  Elementar  Grammatik  zur  Weltsprache,  I 
Stellar  Systems,  Gravitation  in  the,  Prof.  Asaph  Hall,  398 
Sternberg  (Baron  Ungern),  Ascent  of  Mount  Elburz,  501 
Stevenson  (Thomas),  a   Treatise  on  Alcohol,    with   Tables  of 

Spirit  Gravities,  101 
Stewart  (Prof.  Balfour),  Elementary  Treatise  on  Heat,  135 
Stewart  (Dr.  G.  N.),  Electrolytic  Decomposition  of  Proteids,  422 
Stewart  (S.  A.)  and  T.    H.   Corry,  Flora  of  the  North- East  of 

Ireland,  514 
Stirling  (E.  C),  a  New  Australian  Mammal,  588 
Stockdale  Shales,  the,  Marr  and  Nicholson,  118 
Stockholm  Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  120,  168,  584,  632 
Storage  of  Life  as  a  Sanitary  Study,    Dr.  B.  W.  Richardson, 

F.R.S.,  276 
Storm  Signals,  Recently  Established,  183 
Storm  Warnings,  M.  de  Bort,  419 


Storms,  the  March,  H.  C.  Russell,  F.R.S.,  491 

Storms  :  in  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean,  16 ;   Use  of  Oil  during 

the,  16 
Storms,  Phenomenal,  in  India,  42 
Storms  in  the  Philippine  Archipelago,  16 
Storms   and  Rotating  Spheres,    Whirlwinds  and  Waterspouts, 

C.  L.  Weyher,  E.  Douglas  Archibald,  104 
Storms,  Theory  of,  M.  Faye,  E.  Douglas  Archibald,  149 
Strachan  (Captain  John),  Explorations  and  Adventures  in  New 

Guinea,  315 
Strahan's  (Colonel)  Survey  of  the  Nicobar  Islands,  115 
Straits  Settlements  Meteorological  Report,  599 
Stratigraphic  Palaeontology  of  Man,   M.   Marcellin  Boule,  211, 

.  357,  431. 
Stratigraphical  Succession  of  the   Cambrian   Faunas   in  North 

America,  Prof.  Chas.  B.  Walcott,  551 
Strawberry,  Alpine,  Dr.  Masters,  327 
Stromboli,  Islands  of  Vulcano  and,  Dr.  II.  J.  Johnston-Lavis, 

13 

Strophanthine,  M.  Arnaud,  311 

Subsidence  of  the  Land  in  France,  Provisional  Laws  deter- 
mining the,  M.  C.  M.  Goulier,  432 

Substitute,  a,  for  Carbon  Disulphide  in  Pri>ms,  &c. ,  II.  G. 
Madan,  413 

Sulphur,  the  Vapour-Density  of,  Dr.  Biltz,  229 

Sulphur- Acid,  a  New,  M.  Villiers,  41 

Sumpner  (W.  E.),  Coefficients  of  Induction,  22,  30 

Sun  Columns:  Dr.  B.  Brauner,  414;  Hy.  Harries,  566 

Sun  Motor,  the,  Captain  John  Ericcson,  319 

Sun,  Reflected  Image  of,  on  Marine  Horizon,  M.  Ricco,  608 

Sun,  Rotation  Period  of  the,  from  Faculae,  Dr.  J.  Wilsing, 
206 

Sunbeams,  Wasted,  Paper  by  Dr.  G.  M.  Smith,  205 

Sunday  Lecture  Society,  600 

Sunshine  Recorder,  Jordan's  New  Photographic,  118 

Supan  (Dr.),  a  Century  of  African  Exploration,  186 

Superstition  in  Austria,  Curious  Relic  of  Medieval,  454 

Surgery,  Catgut  of  a  Ligature,  Prof.  Munk,  312 

Surinam,  Gold-Field  discovered  in,  88 

Sutherland,  a  Season  in,  J.  E.  Edwards-Moss,  220 

Svenonius  (Dr.  F. ),  Glaciers  of  Europe,  574 

Svoboda  (Dr.),  the  Nicobar  Archipelago,  501 

Sweden :  Aurora  Borealis  in,  16  ;  Earthquake  in,  42  ;  Meteor 
seen  at  Kalmar,  158  ;  Meteor  at  Smaland,  328  ;  Meteor  in, 
527  ;  Archceological  Society  of,  87  ;  Swedish  Academy  of 
Science,  114;  Prehistoric  Canoes  found  in,  304;  Two  Hundred 
Eider  Fowl  caught  in  Fishermen's  Nets  off  Coast  on,  304  ; 
Preservation  of  Eider- Fowl  in,  527  ;  Runic  Stones  discovered 

in>  527  .  . 

Swedenborg  Whale  (Eubalena  svedenborgu,  Lillj.),  134 

Sword-fish  [Xipkias)  captured  in  Long  Reach,  Milton  Creek, 
Sittingbourne,  623 

Sydney,  Hand-book  of,  W.  M.  Hamlet,  575 

Sylvester  (Prof.  J.  J.,  F.R.S.):  on  Hamilton's  Numbers,  21  ; 
on  certain  Inequalities  relating  to  Prime  Numbers,  259 ; 
Obituary  Notice  of  Arthur  Buchheim,  515 

Symons  (G.  J. ,  F.R.S.) :  on  the  Distribution  of  Rain  over  the 
British  Isles  during  the  Year  1887,  363  ;  Lightning  Con- 
ductors, 547 

Syngamus  trachealis,  the  Gape-worm  of  Fowls,  Lord  Walsing- 
ham,  F.R.S.,  324 

Synoptic  Charts,  G.  Rollin,  575 

Syrrhaptes  paradoxus,  Pallas/s  Sand  Grouse,  on  the  Reappear- 
ance of,  in  Europe,  Dr.  A.  B.  Meyer,  53,  77,  342  ;  F.  M. 
Campbell,  77  ;  Prof.  Alfred  Newton,  F.  R.S.,  103,  112,  295; 
W.  B.  Tegetmeier,  230;  Specimen  at  the  Zoological  Gardens, 

1^2 


Tables  of  Reciprocals,  V.  A.  Julius,  77 

Tacchini  (P.)  :  Distributions  in  Latitude  of  the  Solar  Pheno- 
mena for  1887,  47  ;  Summary  of  the  Solar  Observations  made 
at  the  Royal  Observatory  of  the  Collegio  .Romano,  Second 
Quarter  of  1888,  40S 

Tait  (Prof.  P.  G.),  Compressibility  of  Water,  Salt  Water,  and 
Glass,  581 

Tamaron,  the,  of  the  Phillippine  Islands,  Dr.  P.  L.  Sclater, 
F.R.S.,  363 

Target  Practice,  Note  on,  M.  J.  Bertrand,  359 


Nature,  Nov.  22,  1888] 


INDEX 


XXIX 


Tarpon  or  Silver  King  (Meqalops  thrissoiJes)  Note  on  the, 
tfrof.  W.  C.  Mcintosh,  F.R.S.,  309 

Tartar  Sand  Grouse,  Appearance  of,  in  Denmark  and  Scandi- 
navia, 132 

Tasmania,  Salmonidx  in,  P.  S.  Seager,  528 

Taste,  Sense  of,  7 

Taxation  in  China,  Dr.  D.  J.  McGovvan,  364 

Taylor  (Hugh),  a  Column  of  Dust,  415 

Tea,  a  New  Constituent  of,  240  ;  Dr.  Kossel,  303 

Teall  (J.  J.  Harris)  :  appointed  to  the  Geological  Survey,  182; 
British  Petrography,  385 

Tebbutt  (John),  Encke's  Comet,  423 

Technical  College,  the  Glasgow  and  West  of  Scotland,  Henry 
Dyer,  428 

Technical  Education,  573;  Lord  Hartington  on,  40;  Lord 
Armstrong  on,  313  ;  Sir  Henry  Roscoe's  Bill,  121,  186  ; 
Technical  Instruction,  the  Bill  for  the  Promotion  of,  137  ; 
Government  Bill  for  the  Promotion  of  Technical  Education, 
121,  137  ;  the  Technical  Instruction  Bill,  255  ;  the  National 
Association  for  the  Promotion  of,  63,  277  ;  Technical  Educa- 
tion in  Ireland,  Mr.  Carbutt,  325  ;  Technological  Examina- 
tions, 1888,  Sir  Philip  Magnus's  Report  on,  372 

Tegetmeier  (W.  B.),  Pallas's  Sand  Grouse,  230 

Telephone,  on  a,  with  Closed  Magnetic  Field,  and  Plaque  with 
Equal  Concentric  Cylindrical  Sections,  by  M.  Krebs,  384 

Telephone  (Marine),  Experiments  with,  A.  Banare,  464 

Telephonic  Communication  between  Trains  in  Motion,  24 

Telescope,  Adaptation  for  Photography  of,  257 

Tellurium,  the  Chemistry  of,  Berthelot  and  Fabre,  63 

Temnodon  saltator  in  Morocco,  133 

Temperature,  Aperiodic  Variations  of,  Dr.  Perlewitz,  119 

Temperature  of  1887-88,  C.  Harding,  238 

Temperature,  Rainfall  and,  at  Victoria  Peak,  Hong  Kong,  Dr. 
W.  C.  Doberck,  78 

Temperature,  Winter,  of  Werchojansk,  Siberia,  303 

Tenasserim,  Leonardo  Fea's  Explorations  in,  424 

Terby  (F. ),  Study  of  Mars,  119 

Terrestrial  Globe,   Paris  Exhibition,  183 

Testudo  perpiniana,  P.  Fischer,  464 

Texas  Shell-Mounds,  the,  E.  T.  Dumple,  454 

Theophylline,  Dr.  Kossel,  303 

Theoretical  Geology,  409 

Theory  of  Natural  Selection,  Definition  of  the,  Prof.  Geo.  J. 
Romanes,  F.  R.S.,  616 

Thermo-chemical  Constants,  23 

Thermo-dynamics  of  the  Atmosphere,  Prof,  von  Bezold,  144 

Thermometer,  on  the  Grass  Minimum,  Dr.  W.  Doberck, 
619 

Thiophosphoryl  Fluoride,  348 

Thompson  (Isaac  C),  Distribution  of  Animals  and  Plants  by 
Ocean  Currents,  270 

Thompson  (Prof.  S.  P.)  :  on  the  Graphic  Treatment  of  the 
Lamont-Frolich  Formula  for  Induced  Magnetism,  95  ;  on  the 
Condition  of  Self-Excitation  in  a  Dynamo  Machine,  141  ;  on 
the  Formulae  of  Bernoulli  and  Haecker  for  the  Lifttng  Power 
of  Magnets,  190  ;  Note  on  Continuous  Current  Transformers, 
286 

Thomson  (Prof.  Elihu),  Successive  Lightning-Flashes,  305 

Thomson  (Joseph)  :  Proposed  Expedition  to  the  Atlas,  112; 
Atlas  Mountains  Expedition,  555  ;  Explorations  in  Morocco, 
398 

Thomson  (J.  J.,  F.R.S.),  Applications  of  Dynamics  to  Physics 
and  Chemistry,  585 

Thomson  (Sir  William,  F.  R.  S. )  :  on  Clerk-Maxwell's  Theory  of 
Electro-magnetic  Induction  for  Incomplete  Circuits,  500 ;  on 
Lightning  Conductors,  547  ;  Diffusion  of  Rapidly  Alternating 
Currents  in  Substance  of  Homogeneous  Conductors,  555  ;  a 
Simple  Hypothesis  for  Electro-Magnetic  Induction  of  Incom- 
plete Circuits,  with  Consequent  Equations  of  Electric  Motion 
in  Fixed  Homogeneous  or  Heterogeneous  Solid  Matter,  569  ; 
on  the  Transference  of  Electricity  within  a  Homogeneous  Solid 
Conductor,  571  ;  Five  Applications  of  Fourier's  Law  of  Diffu- 
sion, illustrated  by  a  Diagram  of  Curves  with  Absolute 
Numerical  Values,  571 

Thorpe  (Prof.  T.  E.,  F.R.S.)  :  on  some  Additions  to  the  Kew 
Magnetometer.  214  ;  on  the  Determination  of  the  Photometric 
Intensity  of  the  Coronal  Light  during  the  Solar  Fclipse  of 
August  28-29,  1 886,  407 

Thorpe  (Prof.  T.  E.,  F.R.S.)  and  J.  W,  Rodger,  Thiophos- 
phoryl Fluoride,  348 


Thorpe  (Prof.  T.  E.,  F.R.S.)  and  F.  J.  Hambly,  Vapour- 
Density  of  Hydrofluoric  Acid,  373 

Thought,  Religious,  Evolution  and  its  Relation  to,  Joseph 
Le  Conte,  100 

Three  Americas  Permanent  Exhibition,  Proposed,  256 

Three  Days  on  the  Summit  of  Mont  Blanc,  35 

Throstle,  Ring,  id  Norway,  304 

Thunder,  a  Prognostic  of,  B.  Woodd-Smith,  221 

Thunder-Axe,  Edward  Tregear,  296 

Thunderstorms,  Meteorological  Society's  Report  on,  238 

Thunderstorms  and  Lightning  Accidents,  H.  N.  Lawrence,  172 

Tibet,  General  Prjevalsky's  Fifth  Journey  to,  451 

Tibia,  the,  in  the  Neanderthal  Race,  Prof.  Julien  Fraipont, 
212 

Tide-Lore,  Ancient,  W.  Colenso,  F. R.S.,  373 

Tientsin,  the  New  Foreign  College  at,  302 

Tilden(Prof.  William  A.,  F.R.S.),  Opening  Address  in  Section 
B  (Chemical  Science)  at  the  British  Association,  470 

Timber,  and  some  of  its  Diseases,  Prof.  H.  Marshall  Ward, 
F.R.S.,  108,  127,  270,  297,  367 

Timbuktu,  Position  of,  Caron,  288 

Times  Correspondent,  the,  and  the  University  of  Bologna,  302 

Titan,  Mass  of,  G.  W.  Hill,  350 

Titanium,  New  Chlorine  Compounds  of,  133 

Tobacco,  English-grown  Samples,  183 

Tobacco-Plant,  Disease  of,  in  Russia,  278 

Toes,  Rudimentary,  Notes  on  the  Reproduction  of,  in  Grey- 
hounds, Dr.  R.  W.  Shufeldt,  56 

Tokio  Mathematical  and  Physical  Society,  598 

Tokio,  Two  Years'  Seismometric  Observations  in,  Prof.  Sekiya, 
302 

Tomkins  (Rev.  H.  G.),  Ethnographic  Types  from  the  Monu- 
ments of  Egypt,  214 

Tomlinson  (H. ),  Recalescence  of  Iron,  95 

Tomsk  University,  574 

Topinard  (M.),   the  Latest  Stage  of  the  Genealogy  of  Man, 

357 
Torell  (Dr.),  the  Question  of  Communication  with  Siberia,  601 
Tornado,  the  Dacca,  42 
Tornadoes,  Prizes  for  Essays  on,  229 
Tornebohm  (Dr.  A.  E.),  Geology  of  Scandinavia,  127 
Toronto,  Canadian  Institute  Sociological  Circular,  349 
Torrid  Zone,  Upper  and  Lower  Wind  Currents  over  the,  Dr. 

W.  Doberck,  565 
Torsion,  Resistance  of  Square  Bars  to,  T.  J.  Dewar,  126 
Total  Lunar  Eclipse  of  January  28,  553 
Tours   and    Excursions    in   Great    Britain,    Charles   A.   Gillig, 

Stephen  F.  Smart,  318 
Toxicology  :    Physiological  Action    of  Hedwigia  balsamijlora, 

560  ;  Gaucher,  Combemale,  and  Marestane;,  560 
Transformers,  Note  on  Continuous  Current,  Prof.  S.  P.  Thomp- 
son, 286 
Transit  of  Venus,  the  Solar   Parallax  from  Photographs  of  the 

last,  600 
Transits,   Accidental  Errors    in    the  Observations  of,    M.    G. 

Rayet,  216 
Transmission  of  Power,  Electric,  Prof.    Ayrton,   F.R.S. ,   508, 

533 
Transparency  of  the  Atmosphere,  J.  Parnell,  270 
Tregear  (Edward) :  the  Thunder-Axe,  296  ;  Natural  History  of 

the  Roman  Numerals,  565 
Treab  (Dr. ),  Annates  du  Jardin  Botanique  de  Buitenzorg,  344 
Triangle,  Geometry  of  the,  M.  E.  Vigarie,  624 
Trigonometry,  a  Treatise  on  Plane,  John  Casey,  F.R.S.,  218 
Trimen  (Rowland,  F.R.S.),  South  African  Butterflies,  a  Mono- 
graph of  the  Extra-Tropical  Species,  266 
Trimen's  (Dr.)  Report  on  Botanic  Gardens  of  Ceylon,  112 
Trinidad,  Annual  Report  of  the  Royal  Botanic  Gardens,  273 
Tropical  Africa,  Henry  Drummond,  171 
Trouvelot,  Lightning- Flashes  lasting  Several  Seconds,  555 
Tuberculosis,  Congress  at  Paris,  372 

Tuckerman  (F.),  the  Salt  Industry  in  the  United  States,  148 
Tunis,  Sponge  Fishery,  Report  of  British  Consul,  349 
Tunzelmann  (G.  W.  de)  :  Molecular  Physics,  an  Attempt  at  a 
Comprehensive  Dynamical  Treatment  of  Physical  and  Chemical 
Forces,  Prof.  F.  Lindemann,  404,  458,  578  ;  Obituary  Notice 
of  Prof.  Rudolf  Julius  Emanuel  Clausius,  438 
Turbans  and  Tails,  or  Sketches  in  the  Unromantic  East,  Alf. 

J.  Bamford,  269 
Turner  (Colonel),  the  Borings  in  the  Nile  Delta,  63 


XXX 


INDEX 


[Nature,  Nov.  22,  \\ 


Turner  (Prof.  Sir  Wm.,  F.R.  S.),   an  Additional  Contribution 

to  the  Placentation  of  the  Lemurs,  190 
Tutton  (A.  E.),  the  Absorption  Spectra  of  Crystals,  343 
Typhoons,  Report  of  the  Hong  Kong  Observatory  on,  229 
Tyrrell  (J.  B.),  Geology  of  Part,  of  Northern  Alberta,  184 


Ucherman  (L.),  Cause  of  Peculiar  Green  of  Snow-water  Rivers, 

527 

Uhthoff  (Dr.),  Experiments  on  Change  in  Wave-Length  of 
Spectral  Lights  necessary  to  produce  Perceptible  Difference  in 
Colour,  464 

Unequal  Capacities,  on  a  Method  of  comparing  very,  Dr.  A. 
H.  Fison,  213 

United  States :  Pilot  Chart  of  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean,  16, 
204,  303,  422,  574 ;  Salt  Industry  in  the,  Thomas  Ward,  29  ; 
F.  Tuckerman,  148  ;  Proposed  Alteration  in  the  Weather 
Bureau,  229  ;  Anthropology  and  Ethnology  at  the  Cincinnati 
Centennial,  279 ;  United  States  Fish  Commission  sending 
Lobsters  to  California,  327  ;  Applied  Electricity  in,  555  ; 
Loftiness  of  the  Meteorological  Stations  in  the,  453  ;  United 
States  and  Canada,  Butterflies  of  the  Eastern,  S.  H.  Scudder, 
624 

Universities:  Octocentenary  of  Bologna,  113  ;  the  Times  Corre- 
spondent on,  302  ;  Scientific  Scholarships  at  Cbristiania, 
574  ;  Gilchrist  Engineering  Scholarships  at  University  College, 
London,  430  ;  University  and  Educational  Intelligence,  20, 
46,  69,  116,  139,  163,  189,  237,  331,  429,  607;  Imperial 
Japan  University,  552  ;  Tomsk  University,  574  ;  University 
Training  for  Women,  257 

Uric  Acid,  the  Volumetric  Determination  of,  A.  M.  Gossage, 
263 

Urns,  Ancient  Clay,  in  Jutland,  Discovery  of,  454 

Ums,  Funereal,  near  Frankfort-on-Oder,  Discovery  of,  486 

Uruguay,  Electric  Fishes  in  the  River,  Dr.  P.  L.  Sclater, 
F.R.S.,  147 

Uslar  (General) :  Works  on  the  Caucasus,  159  ;  Ethnography  of 
the  Caucasus,  623 


Vail  (Alfred),  Proposed  Purchase  of  his  Telegraphic  Instrument, 
230 

Valency,  Prof.  Armstrong  and  Dr.  Morley,  596 

Vapour- Tensions,  on  the,  of  Solutions  made  in  Alcohol,  M.  F. 
M.  Raoult,  432 

Variable  Stars,    328  ;  New  Catalogue  of,  S.  C.  Chandler,  554 

Varna  Vineyards,  Kara  terzi  in,  133 

Vegetable  Rennet,  Prof.  J.  R.  Green,  274 

Vegetation,  the  New,  of  Krakatab,  Dr.  M.  Treub  and,  W.  B. 
Hemsley,  344 

Veined  Structure  of  the  Mueller  Glacier,  New  Zealand,  on  the, 
F.  W.  Hutton,  77 

Veley  (V.  H.),  Conditions  of  Evolution  of  Gases  from  Homo- 
geneous Liquids,  310 

Velocity  of  Etherificalion,  Measurement  of  the,  M.  Negreano, 
192 

Venus,  Transit  of,  the  Solar  Parallax  from  Photographs  of  the 
Last,  600 

Verneuil,  Microbism  and  Ab.-cess,  488 

Vertebrate  Animals,  Anatomy  of  the  Central  Nervous  System 
of,  Alfred  Sanders,  92 

Vesuvius,  Report  on,  Dr.  Johnston-Lavis,  597 

Vettin  (Dr.),  Daily  Periodicity  of  Wind- Velocity,  119 

Viala  (Piene)  and  L.  Ravaz,  on  Diseases  of  the  Vine,  216 

Victoria  Institute,  143 

Victoria  Peak,  Hong  Kong,  on  the  Rainfall  and  Temperature 
at,  Dr.  W.  C.  Doberck,  78 

Vigarie  (M.  E. ),  Geometry  of  the  Triangle,  624 

Vignon  (M.  Leo),  Heat  of  Combination  of  the  Primary,  Second- 
ary, and  Tertiary  Aromatic  Monamines  with  the  Acids,  216 

Viking  Mound  in  Jutland,  Excavation  of  a,  454 

Village  buried  by  a  Gigantic  Ice- Wall,  205 

Villard  (M.),  on  some  New  Gaseous  Hydrates,  168 

Villiers  (M.),  a  New  Sulphur-Acid,  41 

Vine,  Diseases  of  the,  MM.  Pierre  Viala  and  L.  Ravaz,  216 

Virchow  (Dr.  H),  the  Blood-vessels  of  the  Eye  in  Carnivora, 
264 

Virginia  University,  the  Miller  Professorship  of  Agriculture  at, 
552 


Vital  Movement,   on    the  Origin    and  ;Causation   of,    Dr.    W. 

Kiihne,  627 
Vital  Statistics  of  Germany,  M.  Ch.  Grad,  135 
Viviani,  Vincentio,  Problem  by,  Rev.  Edward  Geoghegan,  78 
Vogel  (Prof.),  Researches  on  the  Spectrum  of  Carbon,  72 
Volapiik  Grammar,  Key  to  the,  Alfred  Kirchhoff,  1 
Volapiik,  Pasilingua,  Spelin,  Lingualumina,  1 
Volapiik,  Scientific  Value  of,  351 
Volapiik,  or  Universal  Language,  Alfred  Kirchhoff,  1 
Volcanic  Eruption,  Island  of  Vulcano,  348 
Volcanic  Eruption  in  Japan,  303,  452,  46b 
Volcanic  Eruption  in  the  Philippine  Islands,  528 
Volcanoes,    History  of  Changes  in  Mount  Loa  Craters,  J.  D. 

Dana,  462 
Volga,  Remains  of  an  Ancient  Town  on  the  Right  Bank  of  the, 

374 
Voltaic  Balance,  the,  Dr.  G.  Gore,  F.R.S.,  335 
Voltaic    Couple  :  the  Minimum-Point   of  Change  of  Potential 
of  a,  Dr.  G.  Gore,  F.  R.  S.,  284  ;  on  the  Change  of  a  Poten- 
tial  of  a,   by   Variation  of  Strength  of   its    Liquid,   Dr.    G. 
Gore,    F.R.S.,    285  ;    Influence  of  the  Chemical   Energy  of 
Electrolytes  upon   Voltaic  Couple  in  Water,    Dr.   G.  Gore, 
F.  R.  S.,  285  ;  Effects  of  Different  Positive  Metals,  &c,  upon 
the  Changes  of  Potential  of,  Dr.  G.  Gore,  F.R.S.,  335 
Von  Fritsch  (Dr.  Karl),  AUgemeine  Geologie,  387 
Von  Helmholtz  (Prof.),  Focal  Lengths  of  Lenses,  192 
Vulcano  and  Stromboli,  Islands  of,  Dr.  H.  J.  Johnston-Lavis, 

13 

Vulcano,  Volcanic  Eruption   in  the  Island  of,  348  ;  Dr.  H.  J. 

Johnston-Lavis,  596 
Vyernyi,  Report  on  Earthquake  at,  204 


Wagner  (Prof.  Paul),  the   Increase  in  the   Produce  of  the   Soil 

through  the  Rational  Use  of  Nitrogenous  Manure,  330 
Wakefield  (H.  R.)  and  W.  J.  Harrison,  Earth  Knowledge,  563 
Walcott  (Prof.  Chas.  B.),  the   Stratigraphical  Succession  of  the 

Cambrian  Faunas  in  North  America,  551 
Waldo  (Prof.),  Anemometers,  112 

Walker  (J.),  Theory  and  Use  of  a  Physical  Balance,  146 
Walker  (Sidney),  Lightning  Conductors,  547 
Wallace  (Robert),  India  in  1887,  294 
Wallace  (Prof.  Robert),  Rural  School  Education  in  Agriculture 

(Scotland),  576 
Waller  (Dr.   Augustus   D.),   on  the  Electromotive   Variations 

which  accompany  the  Beat  of  the  Human  Heart,  619 
Walsingham    (Lord),    the    Gape-worm   of    Fowls    (Syngamus 

t  radicalism,  324 
Wanderer's  Notes,  a,  W.  Beatty-Kingston,  196 
Ward  (Prof.    H.    Marshall,  F.K.S.),  Timber,  and  some  of  its 

Diseases,  108,  127,  270,  297,  367 
Ward  (Thomas),  Salt  Industry  in  the  United  States,  29 
Warner  (Francis,    M.D.),   Muscular  Movements  in   Man,   and 

their  Evolution  in  the  Infant,  a  Study  of  Movement  in  Man, 

and  its  Evolution,  238 
Washington,  Projected  Zoological  Park  in,  64 
Watase  (S.),  Observations  on  the  Development  of  Cephalopod.s, 

Homology  of  the  Germ-layers,  356 
Watches  and  the  Weather,  W.  B.  Croft,  245 
Water-Colours,  Effect  of  Light  on,  348  ;  Dr.  B.  W.  Richardson, 

F.R.S.,  596 
Water,  Compressibility  of,  Salt  Water,  Mercury,  and  Glass,  Prof. 

P.  G.  Tait,  581 
Water,  Evaporation  of,  Dr.  Dieterici,  143 
Water,  the  Micro-organisms  of  Air  and,  Dr.  Percy  F.  Frankland, 

232 
Water-Power  employed  in  the  United  States,  349 
Waterspouts,  Grosses  Haff  and  Dammausch,  204,  205 
Waterspouts,     Storms,     and    Rotating    Spheres,     Whirlwinds, 

C.  L.  Weyher,  E.  Douglas  Archibald,  104-) 
Waves,  Enormous,  Isle  of  Rugen,  422 
Weather  Charts  for  Australia,  Wragge's  Daily,  303 
Weather  in  the  Doldrums,  Hon.  Ralph  Abercromby,  238 
Weather,  Watches  and  the,  W.  B.  Croft,  245 
Weekly  Problem  Papers,  Companion  to  the,  Rev.  John  Milne, 

76 
Weight    and  Mass,   Prof.  A.  G.  Greenhill,   F.R.S.,  54;    Rev. 

John  B.  Lock,  77 
Weights  and  Measures,  International  Bureau  of,  574,  623 


Nature,  Nov.  22,  188S] 


INDEX 


XXXI 


Weismann  (Dr.  August)  :  on  Heredity,  P.  Chalmers  Mitchell, 
156  ;  and  C.  I?chikawa,  on  Partial  Impregnation,  329 

Weldo'n  (F.  R.),  on  Haplodiscus  pigcr,  430 

Wells,  Strange  Rise  of,  in  Rainless  Season,  103  ;  Baldwin 
Latham,  198 

Weltsprache,  Elementar  Grammatik  zur,  Pasilmgua,  P. 
Steiner,  1 

Weyher  (C.  L.),  Whirlwinds,  Waterspouts,  Storms,  and 
Rotating  Spheres,  E.  Douglas  Archibald,    104 

Weyl  (Dr.):  Researches  on  Silk,  144;  on  the  Physiological 
Action  of  Anthrarobin  and  Chrysarobin,  144 

Wharton  (Captain  W.  J.  L.,  F.R.S.)  :  Foundations  of  Coral 
Reefs,  568  ;  Exploration  of  Christmas  Island,  207 

Wheat  Cultivation  :  Prof.  John  Wrightson,  162  ;  on  the  Deve- 
lopment of  the  Grain  of,  M.  Balland,  168  ;  Rothamsted  Ex- 
periments on  the  Growth  of,  William  Fream,  465 

Whipple  (G.  M.)  and  W.  H.  Dines,  Report  on  Experiments 
with  Anemometers,  191 

White  Race,  the,  of  Palestine,  Prof.  A.  H.  Sayce,  321 

White  (William),  Functionless  Organs,  412 

Whitehead  (John),  Return  of,  301 

Whirlwinds,  Waterspouts,  Storms,  and  Rotating  Sphere-',  C. 
L.  Weyher,  E.  Douglas  Archibald,  104 

Whitworth  Scholarships  and  Exhibitions,  1888,  Successful  Can- 
didates, 429 

Wickramasingha  (F.  M.),  Milk  v.  Fire,  342 

Williams  (Dr.  J.  W.),  Shell-Collector's  Hand-book  for  the 
Field,  51,  103 

Williams  (Miss),  Scholarship  for  Women,  206 

Williams  (W.  Mattieu),  Mysterious  Sky  Lights,  102 

Williamson  (Prof.),  Carboniferous  Flora,  597 

Wilsing  (Dr.  J.),  Rotation  Period  of  the  Sun  from  Faculae, 
206  ,  .    ■ 

Wilson  (Cecil  Carus) :  Earth  Pillar's  in  Miniature,  197  ;  Sonorous 
Sand,  415  . 

Wilson  (Sir  C.  W.,  F.R.S.),  Opening  Address  in  Section  E 
(Geography)  at  the  British  Association,  480 

Wilson  (E.),  Durham  Salt  District,  214 

Wilson  (Samuel  F.),  Functionless  Organs,  387 

Wilson  (Thqs.),  the  Hemenway  Expedition  to  Arizona,  629 

Wimshurst  (J.),  Influence  Machines,  307 

Wind  Currents,  Upper  and  Lower,  over  the  Torrid  Zone,  Dr. 
W.  Doberck,  565 

Wind-Velocity,  Daily  Periodicity  in,  Dr.  Vettin,  119 

Winds,  the  Incurvature  of  the,  in  Tropical  Cyclones,  Henry  F. 
Blanford,  F.R.S.,  18 1 

Wissmann  (Lieutenant),  African  Explorations,  207,  529 

Wolf  (M.  C),  on  the  Deformation  of  the  Images  of  Stars  seen 
by  Reflection  on  the  Surface  of  the  Sea,  631 

Woman,  Bust  of  a,  Carved  in  the  Root  of  an  Equine  Tooth, 

H3  .  .      , 

Women,  University  Training  for,  257 
Wood-Carving,  School  of  Art,  574 
Woodd-Smith  (B.),  a  Prognostic  of  Thunder,  221 


Woodford   (Mr.    C.    M.),    Projected  Third  Visit   to    Solomon 

Islands,  115 
Woods  (Thomas).  Antagonism,  56 
Woodward  (C.  M.),  Manual  Training  School,  5 
Woodward  (Dr.  Henry,  F.R.S.),   Shell-Collector's  Hand-book 

for  the  Field,  103 
Woodward  (Horace),  Oolitic  and  Carboniferous  Rocks,  597 
Wooldridge  (Dr.    L.   C),   a    Text-book  of   Physiology,  J.    C. 

McKendrick,  489 
Work  and  Energy,  Rev.  Edward  Geoghegan,  77 
World,  Another,  or  the  Fourth  Dimension,   A.    T.    Schofield, 

363 
Wormell  (R.),  Plotting,  or  Graphic  Mathematics,  172 
Wor.dey-Benison  (H.  W.  S. ),   Nature's  Fairy   Lani,    Rambles 

by  Woodland,  Meadow,  Stream,  and  Shore,  244 
Wragge's  Daily  Weather  Charts  for  Australia,  303 
Wright  (Dr.  C.  R.  Alder),  Soaps  and  Candles,  292 
Wright  (Julia  McNair),  Sea-side  and  Way-side,  125 
Wrightson  (Prof.  John)  :  Wheat  Cultivation,  162  ;  the  Principles 

of  Agricultural  Practice  as  an  Instructional  Subject,  220  ;  How 

to  increase  the  Produce  of  the  Soil,  330 
Wroblewski  (Dr.  S.) :  Death  of,  41  ;  Obituary  Notice  of,  598 
Wuilleumier  (M.  H.),  Determination  of  the  Ohm,  168 


Yale  College  Observatory,  372,  397 

Yarrell,  the  Boy's,  Prof.  Alfred  Newton,  F.R.S.,  1 45 

Yorkshire    Geological    and    Polytechnic    Society,    James    W. 

Davis,  590 
Yorkshire,  West,  Flora  of,  F.  A.  Lees,  147 
Younghusband's  (Lieutenant)  Journey  across  Central  Asia,  65 


Zincic  Acid,  a  Sodium  Salt  of,  86 

Zodiacal  Light  and   Meteors,  T.   W.   Backhouse,   434  ;  O.  T. 

Sherman,  594  ;  Dr.  Henry  Muirhead,  618 
Zone  Catalogue,  Cincinnati,  43 

Zone  Observations  of  the  Stars,  Fearnley  and  Geelmuyden,  626 
Zoological  Gardens,  Additions  to,  18,  43,  64,  88,  114,  136,  {61, 

185,  206,  230,  258,  279,  304,   328,  350,  374,  397,  422,  454, 

487,  502,  528,  553,  576,  600,  626 
Zoological  Garden  in  Bombay,  Proposed,  623 
Zoological  Garden  at  Shanghai,  Proposed,  598 
Zoological  Park  in  Washington,  Proposed,  64 
Zoological  Results  of  the  Challenger  Expedition,  337,  561 
Zoological  Society,  23,  71,  1 18,  142,  214,  238 
Zoological  Society  of  Amsterdam,  62 
Zoology  :  Forms  of  Animal  Life,  George  Rolleston,  F.  R.  S.,  25  ; 

Excursions  Zoologiques   dans   les  Acores,  Jules  de  Guerne, 

"3 
Zug,  the  Landslip  at,  268 
Zuntz  (Prof.),  Method  of  measuring  Gaseous  Interchange  during 

Respiration,  312 


A    WEEKLY    ILLUSTRATED    JOURNAL    OF    SCIENCE. 


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


-Wordsworth. 


THURSDAY,    MAY   3,    ii 


VOLAPUK,   PASILINGUA,    SPELIN, 
LING  UAL  UMINA. 

Volapiik  or  Universal  Language.     By  Alfred  Kirchhoff. 

(London  :  Swan  Sonnenschein  and  Co.,  1888.) 
Key  to   the    Volapiik    Grammar.     By   Alfred    Kirchhoff. 

(London:  Swan  Sonnenschein  and  Co.,  1888.) 
Eletnentar   Grammatik  zur    Weltsprache    (Pas/lingua). 

By  P.  Steiner.     (Berlin  :  Louis  Heuser,  1887.) 
Spelin,  Eine  Allsprache.     By  G.  Bauer.    (Agram  :  Franz 

Suppan,  1888.) 
Lingualumina,  or  Language  of  Light.     By  F.  W.  Dyer. 

(London:  Industrial  Press,  1875.) 

"TF  only  we  had  been  consulted  at  the  creation  of  the 
J-  world,  good  as  the  general  working  of  the  machine 
is,  how  many  little  improvements  might  have  been  intro- 
duced ! "  This  remark,  not  meant  to  be  irreverent,  is 
often  heard  when  people  suffer  from  toothache  either  at 
the  arrival  or  at  the  departure  of  their  molars,  or  when  a 
sudden  frost  sets  in  and  destroys  the  blossoms  on  all  the 
fruit-trees  in  their  garden.  Volapiik  seems  suggested 
by  the  same  kind  of  sentiment.  Languages,  the  adher- 
ents of  Volapiik  seem  to  say,  are  all  wonderful  machines, 
but,  if  we  could  only  have  been  consulted  by  the  original 
framers  of  human  speech,  how  many  little  irregularities 
might  have  been  eliminated,  how  much  might  the  whole 
working  of  the  machine  have  been  simplified,  and  what 
a  saving  of  fuel  might  have  been  effected  if  instead  of  a 
thousand  of  these  linguistic  machines,  each  having  its  own 
gauge,  there  had  been  one  engine  only,  taking  us  from 
Fireland  to  Iceland  without  any  change  of  carriages. 

Those  who  lament  the  imperfections  of  human  speech 
may  claim,  however,  this  advantage  over  the  grumblers  at 
the  world  at  large,  that  they  are  quite  prepared  to  produce 
a  better  article.  Again  and  again  has  the  world  been 
presented,  not  only  with  new  alphabets  and  new  systems 
of  spelling,  but  with  brand-new  languages.  Of  late, 
however,  there  has  been  quite  a  good  measure  of  them 
pressed  down  and  running  over.  At  the  head  of  our  article 
Vol.  xxxviii.— No.  966. 


we  have  mentioned  four  only,  called  respectively  Vola- 
piik, Spelin,  Pasilingua,  and  Lingualumtna.  But  there 
have  been  several  more  proposals  for  a  universal  language 
sent  to  us  lately  from  various  quarters  of  the  world,  all 
equally  ingenious,  though  we  are  sorry  we  cannot  disinter 
them  from  beneath  that  mighty  cairn  of  pamphlets  which 
is  growing  up  from  week  to  week  in  our  library. 

All  these  proposals  have  one  thing  in  common.  They 
start  from  a  fact  which  cannot  be  disputed,  that  life  is  too 
short  to  learn  more  than  four  or  five  languages  well,  and 
that  it  is  perfectly  wicked  to  write  books  on  scientific 
subjects  in  any  language  but  English,  French,  German, 
or  Latin.  They  then  go  off  into  raptures  about  the  days 
when  "the  whole  earth  was  of  one  language  and  one 
speech,"  and  they  even  appeal  to  prophecy  that  it  has 
been  promised  "  that  a  pure  language  will  be  turned  to 
the  people,  that  they  may  all  call  upon  the  name  of  the 
Lord,  to  serve  him  with  one  consent." 

And  how  is  that  prophecy  to  be  fulfilled  ?  Here  the 
answers  begin  to  vary  a  little.  Some  people  say,  Let  every- 
one learn  English,  and  the  problem  is  solved  at  once.  So  it 
would  be,  so  perhaps  it  will  be,  when  the  leopard  shall  lie 
down  with  the  kid.  But  till  that  comes  to  pass  different 
kinds  of  compromise  are  suggested.  First  of  all,  as  to 
grammar,  there  is  no  excuse  for  any  irregular  nouns  or  irre- 
gular verbs,  for  gender  as  different  from  sex,  for  obsolete 
degrees  of  comparison,  or  for  any  involved  syntactical  con- 
structions. These  ought  all  to  be  abolished.  SecondIy> 
as  to  the  dictionary,  it  is  quite  clear  that  if  15,000  words 
sufficed  for  Shakespeare,  a  dictionary  of  250,000,  like  the 
English  dictionary  now  being  published  by  the  University 
of  Oxford,  is  the  most  fearful  extravagance  ever  known. 
Here  all  inventors  of  a  new  language  insist  on  retrench- 
ment. The  inventor  of  Volapiik  was  satisfied  at  first  with  a 
dictionary  of  10,000  words,  but  we  are  now  promised  a 
new  one  of  20,000. 

There  is  a  great  difference  of  opinion,  however,  when 
the  question  arises  from  what  source  these  words  ought  to 
be  derived.  Some  draw  their  words  at  random  from  a 
number  of  the  best-known  languages,  others  confine  them- 
selves, as  much  as  possible,  to  words  common  to  German, 
French,  and  English.  Volapiik  draws  on  several  banks, 
chiefly  on  English,  but  it  clips  its  coins  fearfully.   Thus,  its 

B 


NA  TURE 


[May  3,  1888 


very  name,  Volapiik,  is  taken  from  German  and  English. 
^/represents  the  German  Volk,piik  the  English  speech, 
so  that  vola-piik  means  originally  folk-speech.  In  the  same 
manner  appetite  has  been  replaced  by  potit,  abundance 
by  bundan,  silver  by  silef,  Jew  by  yudel,  house  by  dom. 
In  many  cases  these  borrowed  words  have  been  so  much 
changed  that  it  is  difficult  to  recognize  them.  Here 
Pasilingua  has  a  great  advantage.  All  its  words  remind 
us  of  a  Teutonic  or  Romanic  prototype,  or  of  English, 
which  has  amalgamated  these  two  elements  in  its  dic- 
tionary. Volapiik  often  requires  a  commentary,  where 
Pasilingua  allows  us  to  guess  with  a  good  chance  of 
success.     Thus — 

What  o'clock  is  it  ?  is  in  Volapiik  Diip  kimid  binos  f  in 
Pasilingua  Quota  hora  er  al? 

Where  do  you  live  ?  is  in  Volapiik  Kiplace  lodens  ?  in 
Pasilingua  Ubi  habitirs  His? 

The  sentence,  Advertisements  are  to  the  man  of  busi- 
ness what  steam  is  to  industry,  has  been  rendered  in  Vola- 
piik by  Lenunc  binoms  jafaman  otos  kelos  stemplo  dust  or  • 
in  Pasilingua  by  Annoncius  ers  pro  tos  affdriros  qua  ta 
vapor  a  pro  ta  i/idustriu. 

After  Volapiik  has  once  chosen  what  may  be  called  its 
stems,  which  consist  mostly  of  a  consonant,  a  vowel,  and 
a  consonant  only,  everything  else  becomes  easy  enough 
Thus  if  fat  stands  for  father,  we  get  a  simple  declen- 
sion : — 


Singular. 

Plural. 

N.  fat,  father 

fats 

G.  fata 

fatas 

D.  fate 

fates 

A.  fati 

fatis 

Pasilingua  declines  : — 

Singular. 

Plural. 

N.  mortu,  the  death 

mortas 

G.  mortude 

mortasde 

D.  morhiby 

mortasby 

A.  mortun 

mortan 

Spelin  declines : — 

Singular. 

Plural. 

N.  mik,  a  friend 

mikoes 

G.  doe  mik 

doe  mikoes 

D.  tu  mik 

tu  mikoes 

A.  mik 

mikoes 

It  is  clear  that  there  are  ever  so  many  ways  by  which 
the  same  result  might  be  obtained,  so  long  as  the  prin- 
ciple is  strictly  adhered  to  that  each  case  shall  have  but 
one  sign,  and  that  the  same  sign  is  to  be  used  in  the 
plural  and  the  singular,  while  the  plural  again  is  indi- 
cated by  a  sign  of  its  own.  In  Bengali  and  many  other 
languages  the  same  principle  is  carried  out  with  consider- 
able consistency.  What  applies  to  declension  applies  to 
conjugation,  to  degrees  of  comparison,  and  to  derivation. 
All  becomes  regular,  simple,  intelligible,  whatever  set  of 
suffixes,  prefixes,  or  infixes  we  adopt.  Thus,  to  have  is 
lab  in  Volapiik.     Hence  : — 


Singular. 
labob,  I  have 
labol,  thou  hast 
labom,  he  has 
labof  she  has 
labos,  it  has 
labon,  one  has 


Plural. 
labobs,  we  have 
labols,  you  have 
laboms,  Ihey  have 


By  assigning  to  each  suffix  one  peculiar  power,  Pasilingua 
distinguishes  :  mortu,  death,  morto,  dead,  morte,  dead 
(fern.),   morta,    dead    (neut.),  mortiro,    dying,    mortaro, 


murderer,  mortamenta,  instrument  of  murder,  mortana, 
poison,  mortarea,  battle-field,  mortitarea,  churchyard, 
mortiblo,  mortal,  mortablo,  fatal,  mortoblo,  easy  to  kill, 
niorter,  to  be  dead,  mortir,  to  die,  mortar,  to  kill,  mortor, 
to  be  killed,  &c. 

These  few  extracts  will  give  our  readers  an  idea  of  what 
they  have  to  expect  from  Volapiik,  Pasilingua,  and  Spelin. 
Spelin  has  nothing  to  do  with  spelling.  It  is  derived  from 
lin,  the  abbreviated  stem  of  lingua.  Pe  (from  Greek  pas) 
means  all,  s  on  account  of  its  continuous  buzzing  sound  is 
used  to  form  collective  nouns  ;  hence  s-pe-lin  means  all- 
language,  or  Pasilingua. 

The  study  of  these  systems  is  by  no  means  without 
interest  and  advantage.  It  will  help  to  clear  people's 
ideas  about  the  great  complexity  of  language,  and 
show  how  simple  a  process  grammar  really  is.  If 
more  generally  adopted,  as  Volapiik  seems  likely  to 
be,  such  a  system  of  writing  may  become  even  prac- 
tically useful,  particularly  for  telegraphic  communication. 
That  it  could  ever  supplant  our  spoken  language  is  out 
of  the  question,  and  Dr.  Schleyer,  the  inventor  of 
Volapiik,  distinctly  disclaims  any  such  intention  ("  Haupt- 
gedanken,"  p.  10,  note).  One  protest  only  we  have  to 
enter  before  leaving  the  subject.  Nothing  could  be  a 
greater  mistake  than  to  imagine  that  these  clever  and 
amusing  experiments  have  anything  in  common  with 
Leibniz's  conception  of  a  philosophical  language.  What 
Leibniz  had  in  his  mind  may  be  guessed  from  the  "  Essay 
towards  a  Real  Character  and  a  Philosophical  Language," 
by  Bishop  Wilkins,  London,  1668,  of  which  an  abstract 
is  given  in  Max  Midler's  "  Lectures  on  the  Science  of 
Language "  (vol.  ii.  p.  50).  This  is  as  different  from 
Volapiik  as  the  Kriegspiel  is  from  real  warfare.  For 
spending  a  dreary  afternoon  pleasantly,  an  experimental 
study  of  Volapiik,  Pasilingua,  or  Spelin,  may  safely  be 
recommended.  Lingualumi?ia  is  a  more  serious  matter. 
It  is  built  on  an  exhaustive  analysis  of  the  notions  that 
have  to  be  expressed,  and  thus  approaches  nearer  to  the 
ideal  which  Leibniz  had  conceived  of  a  perfect  and 
universal  language. 


BRIDGE  CONSTRUCTION. 

A  Practical  Treatise  on  Bridge  Construction :  being  a 
Text-book  on  the  Design  and  Construction,  of  Bridges 
in  Iron  and  Steel.  For  the  Use  of  Students;  Draughts- 
men, and  Engineers.  By  T.  Claxton  Fidler,  M.Inst. 
C.E.     (London  :   Charles  Griffin  and  Co.,  1887.) 

THIS  book  is  principally  intended  for  practical  use  by 
engineers  and  draughtsmen,  who  are  now  being 
called  upon  to  design  and  construct  bridges  of  unprece- 
dented magnitude,  like  the  Forth  Bridge,  which  the 
introduction  of  iron,  and  latterly  more  especially  of  steel, 
has  rendered  possible.  The  execution  of  these  require- 
ments has  brought  forward  a  number  of  new  problems 
to  be  solved  in  Statics,  and  the  Elasticity  and  Strength 
of  Materials,  and  has  invested  old  problems  with  an  im- 
portance which  they  did  not  before  possess.  Evolution  in 
this  branch  of  creation  has  gone  on  so  rapidly  that  the 
Darwinian  student  of  the  "  survival  of  the  fittest  "  might 
turn  to  this  book  for  striking  exemplifications  of  his 
theories,    which    he  would  find   in    the  classification   of 


May  3,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


bridges,  described  and  illustrated  in  the  second  section  of 
the  work.  But  while  in  the  animate  kingdom  the  mammoth 
animals  have  become  extinct  from  insufficient  mobility 
and  relative  strength  to  carry  their  own  weight,  the  con- 
verse operation  is  observable  in  engineering  construction. 
Bone  and  muscle  are  of  the  same  strength  as  formerly, 
but  the  improved  manufacture  of  steel  has  placed  in  the 
hands  of  the  engineer  a  material  with  which  he  can  safely 
attempt  his  mammoth  creations  ;  and  should  metal- 
lurgical science  provide  commercially  for  the  engineer  a 
new  metal,  as  strong  as,  or  stronger  than,  steel,  but  of  less 
weight — say,  aluminium — then  we  may  expect  to  see  still 
more  marvellous  developments  in  bridge  building. 

The  bridge,  on  a  large  scale,  resembles  the  mammoth 
or  giant  in  requiring  its  whole  strength  to  keep  itself  up- 
right ;  and  one  of  the  most  interesting  theoretical  ques- 
tions  discussed  in  the  present  treatise  is  the  consideration 
of  the  maximum  span  possible  with  the  material  in  hand — 
say,  steel.  When  the  span  is  large,  the  greatest  economy 
in  details  must  be  practised,  as  the  chief  stress  is  due  to 
the  dead  weight  of  the  bridge,  and  not  to  the  relatively 
insignificant  weight  of  the  moving  load.  Thus  in  the  Forth 
Bridge  a  weight  of  20,000  tons  of  steel  is  required  in  a 
single  span  to  provide  it  with  the  necessary  strength  to  hold 
itself  up,  so  that  the  stresses  due  to  a  train  of  200  tons 
running  across  may  be  left  out  of  account. 

The  weight  of  metal  worked  into  a  bridge  is  at  once 
a  measure  of  the  stresses  in  the  material,  and  also  of  the 
quantity,  and  consequently  the  cost,  of  the  material  used. 
The  author  employs  the  customary  units  of  engineers, 
the  pound  or  ton  as  a  measure  of  force  and  of  weigh, 
and  measures  stresses  in  pounds  or  tons  per  square  inch. 
He  does  not  find  it  necessary  to  express  his  stresses  in 
poundals  per  square  foot,  nor  does  he  measure  quantity 
of  material  in  units  of  mass,  which  are  g  pounds  or  tons, 
as  we  are  taught  in  theoretical  text-books. 

The  mathematical  student,  to  whom  the  book  is 
partially  addressed,  will  find  it,  while  valuable  as  a  hand- 
book for  a  practical  engineer,  at  the  same  time  stimu- 
lating to  his  imagination  in  the  realms  of  pure  Abstract 
Mechanics,  which  at  present  run  the  risk  of  wandering 
away  from  reality,  because  the  writers  of  modern  text- 
books of  mathematics  do  not  look  to  the  wonderful 
creations  of  modern  engineering  science  for  illustrations 
of  theory.  Thus  the  methods  of  Graphic  Statics,  largely 
employed  in  this  treatise,  arose  out  of  the  requirements 
of  an  engineer's  office  :  a  draughtsman  was  found  using 
the  method,  and  Prof.  Maxwell  seized  upon  it  and  elevated 
it  to  the  rank  of  a  new  method  in  Mechanics. 

Scientific  treatises  on  Practical  Mechanics  are  more 
common  in  America,  where  the  requirements  of  opening 
up  a  vast  continent  have  given  great  employment  to  the 
engineer  and  the  bridge-builder  ;  and  it  must  be  owned 
that  these  treatises  are  far  superior  to  our  own.  But  we 
hope  the  present  treatise  will  do  something  to  take  away 
this  reproach. 

We  may  flatter  ourselves  that  the  Forth  Bridge 
now  in  progress  is  the  greatest  thing  of  the  kind  in 
the  world,  but  a  rival  in  the  Poughkeepsie  Bridge 
is  projected.  These  two  bridges  will  exemplify  the 
difference  of  practice  of  the  Old  World  and  the  New. 
In  our  practice  the  whole  bridge  is  riveted  up  into  a  rigid 
structure  as  much   as    possible  ;   while    in  America  the 


articulated  system  of  triangular  cells,  with  pin  joints  per- 
mitting rotation,  is  adopted,  the  stress  in  individual 
members  being  thus  a  simple  pull  or  thrust.  So  far  the 
American  system  has  scored  one  in  securing  the  contract 
for  the  Hawkesbury  Bridge  in  Australia.  This  system 
affords  the  best  theoretical  illustrations  of  elementary 
Statics— the  subject  of  Part  I.  of  the  present  treatise  —until 
the  question  of  the  bending  moment  (it  is  gratifying  to 
find  the  term  "tendency  to  break"  of  the  abstract 
treatises  discarded)  comes  into  consideration,  when  the 
Old  World  bridge  affords  the  requisite  illustrations. 

In  Part  1 1 1.,  on  the  "  Strength  of  Materials,"  the  author 
begins  with  the  resistance  of  columns  and  struts  to  flexure, 
and  here  theory  and  practice  have  long  worked  together 
almost  in  harmony.  The  expression  "  breaking  load  "  of 
a  column — to  mean  the  load  which  just  starts  flexure  of 
the  column — is  apparently  usual,  but  like  the  expression 
"tendency  to  break"  should  now  be  discarded  for  some- 
thing more  suitable.  The  theoretical  strength  of  a  column, 
according  to  Euler,  which  requires  the  assumption  that  the 
column  is  \m\\a.\\y  ftcrfect/y  straight, and  the  actual  strength 
against  flexure,  are  represented  in  a  diagram  (p.  160)  ;  and 
the  author  has  shown  very  ingeniously  how  the  actual  state 
of  things  encountered  in  practice  can  be  imitated  theo- 
retically by  a  strut  composed  of  two  flanges  of  unequal 
elasticity  (p.  163).  Such  a  strut  will  begin  to  curve  imme- 
diately as  the  load  is  gradually  applied,  and  will  thus  repre- 
sent very  closely  the  actual  behaviour  of  a  continuous 
column,  as  great  variations  are  found  experimentally  in  the 
elasticity  of  iron  or  steel  in  specimens  cut  from  one  piece 
of  metal  (p.  167).  When  crushing  or  tearing  takes  place 
from  continually  applied  pressure  or  tension,  only  em- 
pirical formulae  are  suitable  ;  but,  as  in  actual  structures 
the  stress  is  kept  by  Board  of  Trade  rules  much  below  the 
elastic  limit,  the  theoretical  equations  depending  essen- 
tially on  Hooke's  law,  that  Tension  and  Extension  are 
in  the  ratio  of  the  Elasticity  of  the  material,  may  be 
employed.  Even  with  the  low  stresses  permissible 
by  law,  Wohler's  researches  on  the  fatigue  of  metals 
show  that  permanent  deformation  may  keep  on  accu- 
mulating, and,  in  consequence,  modern  engineering 
practice  is  in  some  respects  not  so  daring  as  formerly. 
Gordon's  empirical  rules  (§  124)  (originally  due  to 
Tredgold)  have  been  shown  by  Prof.  J.  H.  Cotterill  to 
rest  on  a  theoretical  basis,  if  the  compression  of  the 
material  due  to  the  thrust  previous  to  flexure  is  taken 
into  account. 

For  very  long  spans,  the  only  two  rival  methods  of  con- 
struction are  the  cantilever  and  the  suspension  principles, 
of  which  the  Forth  Bridge  and  the  Brooklyn  Bridge  are 
the  great  respective  examples.  In  the  Cantilever  method 
we  build  out  equally  on  each  side  of  a  pier,  so  as  always  to 
preserve  stable  equilibrium,  while  in  the  suspension  method 
the  roadway  is  suspended  from  the  chains  or  steel  ropes. 
The  chief  drawbacks  of  the  suspension  principle,  its 
defect  of  stiffness  and  great  sensibility  to  changes  of 
temperature,  are  shown  by  the  author  to  be  avoidable  by 
the  system  of  bracing  in  his  "rigid  suspension  bridge'' 
(Fig.  22). 

The  disastrous  fall  of  the  Tay  Bridge  Viaduct  in  a 
hurricane  has  forcibly  redirected  the  attention  of  en- 
gineers to  the  importance  of  the  theory  of  wind-pressure 
and  wind-bracing  (Chapter  XXIV.),  and  now  we  may 


NATURE 


[May  3,  1888 


feel  secure  that  in  the  new  Tay  Bridge  of  Mr.  Barlow, 
as  well  as  in  all  recent  structures,  ample  allowance  of 
strength  is  provided  for  against  the  effect  of  wind. 

The  book  is  copiously  illustrated  with  excellent  dia- 
grams of  real  practice  in  the  construction  of  bridges, 
based  on  the  theories  of  the  text,  and  should  prove  not 
only  an  indispensable  hand-book  of  the  practical  en- 
gineer, but  also  a  stimulating  treatise  to  the  student  of 
mathematical  mechanics  and  elasticity. 

A.  G.  Greenhill. 


TWO  FRENCH  BOOKS. 
Les  Pygmies.     Par  A.  de  Quatrefages. 
Les  Ancetres  de  nos  Animaux,  dans  les  Temps  Geologiques. 

Par  Albert   Gaudry.     (Paris  :  J.  B.   Bailliere  et   Fils, 

1887-88.) 

r  I '  HESE  two  works  form  two  volumes  of  Bailliere  et 
•*-»  Fils'  "  Bibliotheque  Scientifique  Contemporaine." 
The  first,  by  the  eminent  Professor  of  Anthropology  at 
the  Jardin  des  Plantes  at  Paris,  treats  of  the  Pygmies, 
a  diminutive  race  of  mankind  known  to  the  ancients, 
alluded  to  by  Homer,  insisted  upon  as  really  existing  by 
Aristotle,  next  believed  to  be  but  myths,  and  now  estab- 
lished as  a  veritable  race  of  the  human  kind.  The  author 
accepts  for  them  the  terms,  suggested  by  Hamy,  of 
Negritos  and  Negrilles,  the  latter  being  confined  to  the 
African  Pygmies,  and  the  former  to  those  of  the  Asiatic 
Isles. 

Avowedly  a  compilation,  this  little  volume  has  all  the 
peculiar  charm  that  distinguishes  Prof.  Quatrefages* 
writings,  and  abounds  with  much  curious  and  interesting 
details.  The  first  chapter  treats  of  the  Pygmies  from  an 
historic  point  of  view ;  the  second,  third,  and  fourth,  of 
the  Negritos,  they  being  exclusively  insular.  The  Negritos 
are  to  be  found  in  New  Guinea,  and  'all  over  the  Mela- 
nesian  Archipelago,  as  far  as  Fiji ;  but,  while  the  typical 
Negrito  is  confined  to  this  area,  conquest,  emigration, 
and  slavery  have  spread  the  race  to  Timor,  Ceram,  Bouro, 
Gilolo,  to  the  western  shores  of  Borneo,  and  so  to  other 
islands  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Northwards  they  can  be 
traced  to  the  Carolines,  and  southwards  to  New  Zealand 
where  they  preceded  the  Maoris.  Mr.*  Ten  Kate  reports  a 
Melanesian  skull  found  in  the  little  Isle  of  Santo  Spiritu, 
off  the  coast  of  California.  To  the  northwards  they  can 
be  traced  to  the  Loochoo  Isles,  Formosa,  &c,  while 
their  western  limits  seem  to  be  the  Nicobar  and  Andaman 
Islands. 

The  question  of  the  mixing  of  races  on  the  borders 
of  their  distribution  is  discussed,  and  a  good  deal  of 
recent  information  on  this  subject  is  given.  The  various 
modifications  dependent  on  the  wide  range  of  distribution 
are  also  investigated,  and  the  manners  and  habits  of  the 
several  groups  are  described  at  some  length.  Good  copies 
of  photographs  of  native  heads  and  figures  are  appended. 

Chapter  VI.  treats  of  the  Negrilles,  or  African  Pygmies, 
the  details  of  the  Akkas,  Tobbo  and  Chairallah,  reared 
in  Italy  by  Count  Miniscalchi  Erizzo  being  full  of 
interest.  The  last  chapter  is  devoted  to  the  Bushmen 
of  the  Cape,  and  in  connection  with  them'  there  is  an 
account  of  the  Hottentots.  The  volume  has  thirty-one 
figures  intercalated  with  the  text. 


The  second  work  is  by  an  equally  well-known  writer, 
— though  of  a  very  different  school  from  that  of  Prof. 
Quatrefages — Prof.  Albert  Gaudry,  also  a  Member  of  the 
Institute,  and  the  Professor  of  Palaeontology  at  the 
Museum.  Well  known  for  his  able  writings,  and  for 
his  liberal  and  modern  views  on  science,  he  has  in  this 
little  volume  given  us  a  most  delightful  account  of  his 
ideas  on  the  origin  and  development  of  the  Mammalia 
during  geological  time.  The  volume  begins  with  a 
chapter  on  the  history  of  the  progress  of  palaeonto- 
logy, followed  by  one  on  evolution  and  Darwinism. 
Though  a  disciple  of  D'Archiac,  who  was  a  strong  op- 
ponent of  Darwin's  views,  Prof.  Gaudry  read  "  The  Origin 
of  Species"  with  the  most  passionate  admiration,  and  his 
labours  since  then  have  very  materially  helped  to  com- 
plete the  palaeontological  record.  The  third  chapter  is 
devoted  to  the  subject  of  the  evolution  of  the  Mammalia 
in  geologic  time  ;  the  fourth  introduces  us  to  the  author's 
researches  at  Pikermi,  where,  as  he  tells  us,  he  spent 
some  of  the  most  pleasurable  moments  of  his  life,  en- 
gaged in  excavating  the  remains  of  the  quadrupeds  which 
in  times  long  ago  roamed  at  liberty  over  the  plains  of 
Greece.  Here  were  found  an  assemblage  of  animals 
of  large  size,  such  as  has  never  been  found  before  within 
so  limited  an  area.  Beautiful  figures  of  many  of  these 
are  given,  and  their  relations  to  existing  forms  are  ex- 
plained. In  another  chapter  we  find  an  account  of  similar 
researches  carried  on  at  Ldberon,  near  Cucuron  (Vau- 
cluse),  where  the  remains  were  chiefly  those  of  Herbivores, 
and  an  interesting  table  is  added  of  the  succession  of 
the  terrestrial  Mammalia  in  France  during  the  Tertiary 
period.  In  a  concluding  chapter  there  are  some  short 
sketches  of  the  well-known  palaeontologists  of  the 
Museum  :  Alcide  D'Orbigny,  D'Archiac,  Edouard  Lartet, 
followed  by  a  description  of  the  fine  new  gallery  for 
fossil  forms  at  the  Museum. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

The  Elements  of  Graphical  Arithmetic  and  Graphical 
Statics.  By  John  Y.  Gray  and  George  Lowson,  M.A. 
(London  and  Glasgow :  W.  Collins,  Sons,  and  Co., 
1888.) 

In  the  year  1871,  Prof.  Crofton,  F.R.S.,  explained  before 
the  London  Mathematical  Society  his  diagrams  illus- 
trative of  the  stresses  in  Warren  and  lattice  girders,  and 
in  the  course  of  his  remarks  said  that  he  had  not  found 
anything  to  help  him  in  English  text-books,  and  referred 
to  papers  by  Profs.  Rankine  and  Clerk-Maxwell.  It  was 
at  this  meeting  (April  13)  that  Prof.  Henrici  drew  atten- 
tion to  a  work  then  little  known  in  this  country,  viz. 
Culmann's  "  Graphische  Statik  " — "  l'excellente  '  Graph- 
ische  Statik'  de  M.  Culmann"  (Prof.  Cremona) — and 
showed  that  Prof.  Crofton's  constructions  had  been 
anticipated  and  the  methods  applied  to  a  very  wide 
range  of  subjects.  On  this  occasion  also  Prof.  Henrici 
illustrated  the  subject  by  a  simple  and  ingenious 
notation.  He  subsequently  drew  up  an  abstract  of 
Culmann's  work  (1866),  which  was  printed  in  the 
Appendix  to  vol.  iii.  of  the  above-named  Society's  Pro- 
ceedings (pp.  320-22).  The  work  is  now  well  known,  and 
its  methods  are  very  generally  employed  by  engineers, 
and  are  the  subject  of  lectures  in  more  than  one  of  our 
Colleges. 

The  object  of  the  book  before  us  is  to  give  an  element- 
ary account  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  subject 


May  3,  1888] 


NATURE 


a  handy  and  cheap  form,  as  well  as  to  discuss  some 
simple  examples  of  their  application. 

The  first  part — which  gives  an  explanation  of  graphical 
methods,  illustrates  graphical  arithmetic,  and  shows  how 
to  represent  areas  and  volumes  by  lines — is  very  carefully 
and  clearly  worked  out,  and  leads  one  to  see  that  this 
part  of  the  subject  might  well  come  in  at  a  fairly  early 
date  in  school-work.  Our  idea  is  that  the  second  part, 
"  Graphical  Statics,"  would  be  improved  by  more  fullness 
of  detail.  It  comprises  an  account  of  the  following 
matters :  kinematics,  forces  in  one  plane  acting  at 
a  point,  the  funicular  polygon,  resolution  of  forces, 
moments,  couples,  bending  moment  and  shearing  force 
in  a  simple  beam,  rolling  loads,  framed  structures,  effects 
of  wind-pressure  on  roofs,  bridge-girders,  and  centres  of 
gravity. 

We  have  noted  only  two  or  three  typographical  errors. 
The  notation  employed  is  one  most  frequently  termed 
"  Bow's  notation  "  in  this  book,  from  its  having  "  been 
brought  into  use  by  Robert  H.  Bow,  Esq.,  C.E.,"  but  a 
note  states  that  "the  method  seems,  however,  to  have 
been  first  suggested  by  Prof.  Henrici."  We  presume  that 
Prof.  Henrici's  notation  was  the  one  we  have  referred  to 
in  the  opening  paragraphs  of  this  notice.  The  immediate 
object  of  the  book  is  to  furnish  help  to  students  preparing 
for  the  South  Kensington  Examinations  and  for  those  of 
the  City  and  Guilds  of  London  Institute. 

The  Manual  Training  School.      By  C.   M.  Woodward. 
(Boston  :  D.  C.  Heath  and  Co.,  1887.) 

Mr.  Woodward  has  by  no  means  a  high  opinion  of  the 
results  of  the  efforts  that  have  hitherto  been  made  in 
European  countries  to  promote  technical  education.  In 
1885  he  spent  five  months  in  examining  "  trade  schools  " 
on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and  all  the  schools  visited  by 
him,  with  the  exception  of  the  French  Government 
school  at  Chalons,  disappointed  him.  He  admits  that 
they  have  "many  excellent  features  "  ;  but  their  manual 
training  is  generally,  he  holds,  "  very  narrow,"  and  he 
condemns  "  their  long  daily  sessions,  their  long  terms, 
and  the  conventional  nature  of  their  curricula."  Manual 
training,  according  to  Mr.  Woodward,  is  in  a  much  more 
flourishing  condition  in  America.  There  it  has  been 
introduced  "  not  for  a  trade  or  a  profession,  but  for  the 
healthy  growth  and  vigour  of  all  the  faculties,  for  general 
robustness  of  life  and  character";  and  he  is  of  opinion 
that  it  has  been  developed  in  a  way  that  places  it  "  far  in 
advance  of  any  model  in  a  foreign  land/'  Whether  or 
not  this  comparative  estimate  is  accurate,  no  one  who 
reads  Mr.  Woodward's  book  will  dispute  that  the 
Americans  have  begun  to  understand  thoroughly  the 
importance  of  technical  instruction,  and  that  the  leaders 
of  opinion  on  the  subject  have  done  much  to  diffuse 
enlightened  ideas  as  to  the  true  aims  and  methods  of 
manual  training.  Unfortunately,  Mr.  Woodward  has  not 
the  art  of  presenting  facts  and  arguments  in  an  attractive 
style.  He  has,  however,  brought  together  a  great  mass 
of  useful  information  about  a  subject  of  pressing  import- 
ance, and  his  work,  although  relating  chiefly  to  institu- 
tions founded  in  his  own  country,  ought  to  find  readers  in 
England  as  well  as  in  the  United  States.  He  does  not 
enter,  in  detail,  into  the  theory  and  practice  of  manual 
training  in  primary  and  grammar  schools.  He  limits 
himself  to  the  training  of  pupils  beyond  the  age  of 
fourteen.  The  value  of  the  work  is  increased  by  a 
number  of  good  woodcuts  illustrating  shop  exercises 
in  woods  and  metals. 

The    Method   of    Creation.      By   Henry  W.    Crosskey. 
(London  :  The  Sunday  School  Association,  1888.) 

This  little  volume  belongs  to  a  series  of  "  Biblical 
Manuals,"  edited  by  Prof.  J.  Estlin  Carpenter.  With  the 
polemical  parts  of  the  book  we  have,  of  course,  nothing 


to  do.  In  the  chapters  in  which  Mr.  Crosskey  devotes 
himself  simply  to  the  exposition  of  scientific  truths  he 
writes  with  full  knowledge  of  his  subject  and  in  a  clear 
and  pleasant  style.  "  How  '  dry  land  '  was  formed"  is  the 
subject  of  an  excellent  chapter,  in  which  the  writer  brings 
together  some  of  the  more  striking  of  the  facts  which 
prove  that  rocks  have  been  formed  by  various  agencies, 
that  there  is  no  single  period  at  which  any  kind  of  rock 
has  been  specially  produced,  that  the  crust  of  the  earth 
consists  of  rocks  in  ordered  succession,  and  that  there  has 
been  an  unvarying  order  in  the  succession  of  rocks. 
There  are  also  good  chapters  on  the  history  of  plants  and 
animals,  and  on  the  antiquity  of  the  human  race. 


LETTERS   TO    THE   EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
of  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations..] 

"  Coral  Formations." 

Dr.  Guppy's  letter  shows  that  I  have  not  been  sufficiently 
explicit  on  the  subject  of  the  formation  of  atolls,  yet  I  cannot 
well  understand  that  I  have  been  obscure  on  the  subject  of  his 
first  question.  Surely  it  is  a  sufficient  reason  for  rejecting  the 
theory  of  subsidence  as  applied  to  the  Chagos  Group  that  I 
fancy  myself,  in  conjunction  with  M.  Spurs,  to  have  detected 
evidences  of  elevation  in  Diego  Garcia.  Darwin  laid  great 
stress  on  the  character  of  the  Great  Chagos  Bank  as  affording 
evidence  of  his  theory  of  subsidence  ;  he  considers  it  to  be  an  atoll 
drowned  by  a  too  rapid  act  of  subsidence  ;  but,  as  I  have  pointed 
out,  if  this  were  so  it  is  impossible  to  understand  how  two  atolls 
such  as  the  Great  Chagos  Bank  and  Centurion's  Bank  could  have 
been  thus  destroyed  without  Six  Islands  or  Egmont's  Atoll,  which 
lies  directly  between  them,  being  involved  in  their  destruction. 
Further,  the  raised  atolls  north  of  Madagascar  are  unquestion- 
able proofs  of  upheaval  in  this  region,  yet  in  the  same  region  are 
low-lying  atolls,  atoll-shaped  reefs  awash,  and  submerged  atoll- 
shaped  banks.  Clearly  the  theory  of  subsidence  does  not  apply 
to  these  groups,  and  I  do  not  see  any  reason  for  supposing  that 
the  Laccadive  and  Maldive  Islands  have  been  formed  differently 
to  the  other  atolls  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  though  I  am  unable  to 
bring  forward  any  fresh  arguments  with  regard  to  them. 

Secondly,  because  I  do  not  agree  with  Mr.  Murray  in  thinking 
that  lagoons  are  due  largely  to  the  solvent  action  of  sea-water, 
it  is  no  reason  that  I  should  disagree  with  other  parts  of  his 
theory.  Indeed,  after  Dr.  Guppy's  striking  observations  at 
Santa  Anna  and  other  islands,  it  would  be  idle  to  deny  that 
organic  deposits  have  formed  the  bases  of  many  atolls,  perhaps 
of  all.  It  did  not  seem  to  me  necessary  to  deal  with  this  part  of 
the  subject,  because  as  a  resident  on  an  atoll  without  the  means 
of  making  sectional  soundings  I  had  nothing  new  to  say  on  the 
subject. 

Perhaps  you  will  allow  me  space  to  add  that  before  reading 
my  paper  I  had  not  had  the  advantage  of  meeting  Mr.  Murray. 
I  have  since  had  that  advantage,  and  on  comparing  notes  with 
him  I  find  that  I  am  much  more  in  accord  with  him  than  my 
paper  would  seem  to  show.  I  still  maintain  my  point  that  the 
rate  of  organic  growth  in  the  lagoon  of  Diego  Garcia  is  suffi- 
cient to  counterbalance  the  solvent  action  of  the  sea-water.  In 
other  points  I  agree  with  him,  and  believe  that  my  observa- 
tions confirm  his  view  that  atolls  tend  to  spread  outwards  like  a 
fairy-ring.  Mr.  Murray  has  convinced  me  that  I  laid  undue 
stress  on  the  direct  influence  of  currents  in  determining  the 
growth  of  corals,  and  this  section  of  my  paper  was  in  con- 
sequence omitted  in  the  account  which  appeared  in  the  columns 
of  Nature.  Judging  from  the  local  effects  which  I  observed  at 
Diego  Garcia,  where  currents  often  swept  through  narrow  chan- 
nels with  great  force,  and  from  Prof.  Moseley's  account  of  the 
oceanic  currents  sweeping  past  St.  Paul's  rocks,  I  was  led  to  an 
exaggerated  estimate  of  the  rate  of  oceanic  currents.  No  doubt 
a  current  running  at  the  rate  of  some  thirty-five  miles  in  the 
day  would  modify  or  retard  coral  growth,  but  such  currents  are 
only  found  in  narrow  passages.  G.  C.  Bourne. 


NATURE 


[May  3,  1888 


I  lately  discussed  Murray's  theory  of  coral  formation  with  a 
class  of  boys  and  girls  (fourteen  to  sixteen  years  of  age),  and 
th<y  raised  two  questions  which  I  am  unable  to  answer,  (i)  If 
sea  water  dissolves  the  coral  near  the  surface  at  such  a  rate  as  to 
form  a  lagoon,  why  does  it  not  dissolve  the  limestone  foundation 
even  more  rapidly  ?  (2)  After  a  reef  has  progressed  a  considerable 
distance  from  the  shore,  and  a  channel  of  open  water  is  formed 
between,  why  should  not  the  reef  extend  back  again  shoreward*  ? 
How  could  such  a  channel  as  exists  between  Australia  and  its 
Great  Barrier  Reef  ever  have  been  kept  open?  These  seem 
to  be  valid  and  serious  objections  :  will  some  expert  be  kind 
enough  to  answer  them  ?  Charles  R.  Dryer. 

Fort  Wayne,  Indiana,  U.S.A.,  April  16. 

Density  and  Specific  Gravity. 
The  point  raised  by  Mr.  dimming  in  last  week's  Nature 
(vol.  xxxvii.  p.  584),  as  to  the  use  of  the  words  density  and 
specific  gravity  is,  it  seems  to  me,  of  some  importance.  For 
many  years  pa-t  I  have,  in  my  lectures,  taken  the  law  into  my 
own  hands  in  this  matter,  and,  defining  density  as  the  mass  of 
unit  volume,  I  have  defined  specific  gravity,  in  the  way  Mr. 
Cumming  suggests  in  the  last  paragraph  of  his  letter,  as  the  weight 
of  unit  volume  (or  rather,  lest  I  should  cause  any  to  offend 
against  the  examiner,  I  have  thus  denned  absolute  specific  gravity, 
or  specific  gravity  proper,  and  have  pointed  out  that  the  defini- 
tion commonly  given  was  the  definition  of  relative  specific 
gravity).     We  thus  get  the  parallel  relations — 

M  =  PV  and  W  =  .fV, 
also 

W  =  gM  and  s  =  gp. 

Thus  regarded,  specific  gravity  is  to  density  just  what  weight  is 
to  mass.  When  force  is  expressed  in  absolute  units  of  any 
kind,  specific  gravity  and  density  must  of  course  have  different 
numerical  values,  just  as  weight  and  mass  have.  But  in  the  very 
large  number  of  cases  in  which  weights  are  the  only  forces  that 
have  to  be  considered,  and  in  which  it  is  not  needful  to  take 
account  of  the  small  changes  of  weight  dependent  on  changes  of 
geographical  position,  the  local  weight  of  the  unit  of  mass  may 
be  conveniently  taken  as  the  practical  unit  of  force — that  is,  we 
may  take  g=  1.  In  all  such  cases  we  have,  numerically, 
weight  =  mass,  and  specific  gravity  =  density,  though  the  idea 
of  weight  is  essent'ally  different  from  that  of  mass,  and  the  idea 
of  specific  gravity  from  that  of  density. 

Of  course,  as  Mr.  dimming  points  out,  when  specific  gravity 
is  defined  as  weight  of  unit  volume,  its  numerical  value  for  a 
given  substance  depends  on  what  is  taken  as  unit  of  weight  and 
what  as  unit  of  volume.  With  the  weight  of  1  pound  avoir- 
dupois and  the  cubic  foot  as  units,  the  specific  gravity  of  water 
becomes  62'5,  and  that  of  platinum  I3I2'5,  instead  of  r  and  21 
as  given  in  the  ordinary  tables  of  (relative)  specific  gravities. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  ta!  e  as  unit  of  weight  the  weight  of 
unit  volume  of  the  standard  substance,  as  is  done  when  weights 
are  expressed  in  grammes  and  volumes  in  cubic  centimetres,  or 
weights  in  kilogrammes  and  volumes  in  litres,  absolute  specific 
gravities  and  relative  specific  gravities  become  equal,  and  the 
ordinary  specific  gravity  tables  can  be  used  for  practical  purposes, 
which  is  one  of  the  great  advantages  to  be  gained  by  using  the 
metrical  system  of  weights  and  measures.  With  any  other 
system,  the  numbers  given  in  the  tables  require  to  be  multiplied 
by  the  specific  gravity  of  water — that  is,  they  must  be  translated 
into  absolute  specific  gravities — before  they  are  of  use  for  almost 
any  real  calculation,  such  as  oc  urs  either  in  experimental  physics 
or  in  engineering  practice.  For  instance,  we  weigh  a  measured 
length  of  copper  wire  and  want  to  know  its  diameter,  or  we 
weigh  the  quantity  of  mercury  that  fills  a  glass  bulb  of  which  we 
require  the  capacity,  or  that  fills  a  measured  length  of  a  tube  of 
which  we  require  the  bore  ;  or  an  engineer  compares  his  pressure- 
gauge  against  a  mercury-manometer  in  order  to  convert  its 
indications  into  pounds-weight  per  square  inch  ;  or  he  has  to 
calculate  the  pressure  exerted  by  a  brick  wall  so  many  feet  high, 
or  the  weight  of  a  mass  of  rock  of  so  many  cubic  feet.  In  all 
these  cases  it  is  the  absolute  specific  gravity  that  comes  into 
account  ;  it  is  no  use  to  tell  us  that  copper  is  8*9  times  as  heavy 
as  water,  and  mercury  13-6  times  as  heavy,  unless  we  are  told 
how  heavy  the  unit  volume  of  water  itself  is. 

I  maintain,  in  short,  that  the  weight  of  unit  volume  of  a  sub- 
stance is  a  quantity  of  very  great  practical  importance,  for  which 
specific  gravity  is  a  very  suitable  name,  whereas  the  ratio 
usually  defined  as  specific  gravity  is  of  little  or  no  use  outside 


examination  questions,  and  that  if  it  needs  a  name  it  should  be 
called  relative  density. 

Further,  my  experience  is  that  the  definition  here  advocated 
presents  considerable  advantages  from  the  point  of  view  of 
systematic  teaching.  G.  Carey  Foster. 

University  College,  London,  April  21. 

Je  crois  que  la  notion  de  specific  gravity  donnee  par  M. 
Cumming  dans  Nature  du  19  avril  (vol.  xxxvii.  p.  584)  est  de 
nature  a  puzz'er  les  etudiants  plus  encore  que  la  vraie  definition 
physique  de  la  densite. 

La  densite  d'un  corps  est  le  rapport  de  sa  masse  a  son  volume — • 
M 

Dans  le  systeme  C.G.  S.  la  densite  doit  done  etre  exprimee  en 
grammes  masse  par  centimetre  cube  (voy.  Everett,  "Units  and 
Physical  Constants  ").  Le  poids  specifique  est  le  rapport  du 
poids  d'un  corps  a  son  volume  et  devrait  etre  exprime,  dans  le 
systeme  C.G.S.  en  dynes  par  centimetre  cube.  Mais  il  y  aurait 
alors  le  grave  inconvenient  pratique  a  cette  definition  rigourcuse 
que  le  poids  specifique  varierait  avec  ff>  acceleration  due  a  la 
pesanteur,  tandis  que  la  densite  resterait  constante. 

La  confusion  provient  de  ce  que  le  mot  weight,  comme  le  mot 
poids  en  francais,  s'applique  indistinctement  a  la  masse  d'un 
corps  en  grammes-masse  et  a  la  force  qu'exerce  la  pesanteur  sur 
le  corps  exprimee  en  grammes. 

La  solution  logique  est  de  supprimer  le  mot  poids  du  langage, 
a  cause  de  son  double  sens,  et  de  ne  parler  que  de  la  masse  ou 
de  la  force  exercee  par  la  pesanteur,  suivant  que  l'un  ou  l'autre 
facteur  intervient  dans  les  calculs. 

En  tout  cas,  exprimer  le  poids  specifique  en  livres  ou  en 
grammes  est  aussi  absurde  que  d'exprimer  les  vitesses  en  metres, 
et  la  puissance  {pmver)  d'une  machine  en  ergs  ou  en  foot-pounds. 
1  .e  respect  de  l'homogeneite  des  formules  est  la  condition 
essentielle  des  definitions  des  quantites  physiques,  et  cette 
homogeneite  n'est  pas  respectee  dans  la  definition  donnee  par 
M.  Cumming.  E.  Hospitalier. 

Paris,  le  23  avril.  

The  Ignition  of  Platinum  in  Different  Gases. 

An  abstract  appeared  a  few  weeks  ago  in  Nature  relating  to 
the  "  Occlusion  of  Gases  by  Platinum  and  their  Expulsion  by 
Ignition,"  which  induces  me  to  mention  some  curious  results 
obtained  by  Mr.  Lowndes  and  myself  by  the  ignition  of  platinum 
in  different  gases.  We  were  led  to  the  experiments  by  another 
investigation  on  the  behaviour  of  carbon  at  high  temperatures 
in  various  gases.  We  find  that  when  a  platinum  wire  is  heated 
to  nearly  melting  by  a  current  in  an  atmosphere  of  chlorine,  the 
walls  of  the  glass  vessel  become  covered  with  a  yellow  deposit, 
which  is  insoluble  in  water,  but  dissolves  in  hydrochloric  acid, 
and  then,  after  addition  of  a  little  nitric  acid,  gives  all  the  re- 
actions of  platinic  chloride.  The  yellow  deposit  is  in  fact 
platinous  chloride.  At  the  same  time  the  thick  part  of  the 
platinum  wire  conveying  the  current,  and  which  was  not  heated 
very  highly,  became  incrusted  with  very  fine  long  crystals  of 
platinum.  Some  of  these  were  more  than  the  sixteenth  of  an 
inch  in  length,  and  apparently  considerably  more  were  located 
on  that  end  of  the  thick  wire  leading  to  the  negative  pole  than 
on  the  other. 

There  was  also  a  very  decided  but  lambent  flame  playing 
around  the  ignited  and  part  of  the  cooler  wire  during  the  pas- 
sage of  the  current.  The  arrangement  used  was  a  wide-necked 
flask,  stopped  with  a  glass  bulb,  through  which  a  delivery-tube 
for  the  chlorine,  and  the  two  No.  12  platinum  wires  leading  the 
current,  passed.  The  ignited  parts  of"  the  wire  are  little  coils  of 
No.  24  wire  separated  by  a  I -inch  piece  of  No.  12.  On  heat- 
ing the  flask  externally  up  to  the  softening  of  the  glass,  the 
appearance  of  a  flame  around  the  wire  increased  slightly. 

On  repeating  the  experiment  with  bromine,  very  nearly  the 
same  effects  were  observed.  The  amount  of  platinous  bromide 
was  much  less  than  in  the  case  of  the  chloride,  but  the  flame 
appearance  was  very  much  more  pronounced.  On  passing 
chlorine  into  the  bromine,  so  as  to  form  chloride  of  bromine, 
both  the  flame  appearance  and  the  action  on  the  platinum  were 
largely  increased.  With  iodine  in  the  flask,  vaporized  by  heat- 
ing externally,  little  chemical  action  on  the  platinum  was  ob- 
served, only  the  slightest  deposit  being  formed  of  a  platinum- 
iodine  compound  on  the  glass;  but,  on  passing  chlorine  into 
this  also,  a  still  more  vigorous  action  on  the  metal  took  place, 
the  dep:.sit  containing  only  chlorine  and  platinum.     The  flame 


May  3,  1888] 


NATURE 


appearance  filled  the  entire  flask.  The  spectrum  of  these  flames 
shows  no  lines  in  any  case.  They  are  all  continuous.  The 
largest  crystals  of  platinum  were  obtained  with  the  IC13. 
Bromide  of  iodine  behaved  like  iodine. 

We  have  tried  a  number  of  other  substances  in  a  similar 
manner.  Oxygen,  sulphur,  sulphur  dioxide,  nitric  oxide,  mercury 
vapour  gave  negative  results  as  far  as  we  could  see.  With 
hydrochloric  acid  some  PtCl2  was  formed,  but  no  flame 
appearance.  Phosphoric  chloride  gave  a  slight  flame,  and  some 
PlCL,  ;  but  phosphorus  is  liberated,  and  then  unites  with 
the  platinum,  melting  it.  A  current  of  very  dry  hydrogen 
fluoride  was  passed  through  the  flask  ;  before  the  wire  was 
ignited  no  action  on  the  glass  of  the  flask  was  apparent,  but 
almost  immediately  on  passing  the  current  the  glass  became 
much  corroded  by,  probably,  liberated  fluorine.  Owing  to  the 
flask  breaking,  we  cannot  say  if  platinous  fluoride  was  formed. 

With  silicon  fluoride  a  singular  action  took  place,  the  wire, 
especially  the  negative  half,  becoming  covered  with  long  semi- 
transparent  crystals  of,  we  think,  silicon.  The  silicon  fluoride 
was  very  dry,  and  passed  for  a  long  time  through  the  flask 
without  any  action  until  the  wire  was  ignited,  when  simul- 
taneously with  the  production  of  these  crystals  the  glass  vessel 
became  much  corroded.  A  small  quantity  of  a  soluble  platinum 
salt  was  formed  at  the  same  time.  We  are  continuing  these 
experiments. 

We  do  not  think  the  platinum  salts  formed  in  this  way  are 
simply  shot  out  by  "  volcanic"  action,  as  they  are  quite  uniformly 
spread  over  the  sides  of  the  glass  vessel,  and  seem  to  be  really 
volatile  at  the  temperature  and  under  the  conditions.  We  have 
failed  to  find  any  record  of  platinum  salts  being  volatile  when 
heated  under  ordinary  conditions,  but  it  is  probable  that  in  the 
presence  of  free  halogen  they  would  be  volatile. 

Whether  there  be  any  true  electrolytic  action  in  these  cases 
we  are  not  at  the  mcment  prepared  to  say. 

Royal  Military  Academy.  W.  R.  Hodgkinson. 

"The  Nervous  System  and  the  Mind." 

Wn.T.  you  allow  me  to  account  for  one  or  two  of  the  dis- 
crepancies in  my  book  which  your  very  able  reviewer  points  out 
in  the  current  issue  of  Nature  ? 

He  cannot  reconcile  the  statement  that  "everyone  nowadays 
admits  that  the  evolution  of  mind  and  the  evolution  of  the 
nervous  system  have  proceeded  pari  passu,  and  are  indeed  but 
two  aspects  of  the  same  process,"  with  the  fnrther  statement  that 
"  this  way  of  studying  them  is  so  greatly  neglected,  is  indeed 
derided  and  scouted."  It  is  pointed  out,  however,  in  the 
passage  from  which  he  quotes,  that  the  latter  charge  is  laid  at 
the  door  of  my  brother  alienists  only ;  while  the  former 
statement  applies  to  psychologists  at  large. 

Were  it  worth  while,  I  could  substantiate  my  charge  by 
chapter  and  verse,  but  as  the  general  movement  is  at  last  begin- 
ning in  the  direction  I  advocate,  to  do  so  would  be  to  cause  the 
cry  from  the  wilderness  to  approximate  too  much  to  the  character 
of  the  voice  of  chanticleer. 

Your  reviewer  states,  as  if  in  controversion  of  my  doctrine, 
that  "experienced  alienists  tell  us  they  find  it  necessary  to 
admit  a  m  jral  insanity  with  an  average  amount  of  intelligence." 
This  I  have  never  denied.  My  position  is  not  that  in  "moral 
insanity  "  intelligence  is  deficient  in  amount.  What  I  say  is, 
that  in  "moral  insanity"  intelligence  is  always  disordered. 
Disorder  of  intelligence  is  very  different  from  deficiency  of 
intelligence.  Chas.  Mercier. 

Catford,  S.E.,  April  23. 

I  AM  glad  that  Dr.  Mercier  has  found  so  little  to  complain  of 
in  the  review  of  his  recent  work.  I  am  bound  to  accept  his 
explanation  of  the  discrepancy  I  ventured  to  point  out,  although, 
on  re- reading  the  two  apparently  antagonistic  passages  again,  I 
do  not  find  the  distinction  between  psychologists  and  alienists,  to 
which  he  now  refers,  clearly  stated.  The  expression  "  everyone  " 
(p.  4)  appears  to  include  both.  Dr.  Mercier's  "brother  alien- 
ists" are,  it  seems,  excluded  from  the  class  that  can  grasp  the 
truth  that  the  evolution  of  mind  and  the  nervous  system  are  but 
two  aspects  of  the  same  process,  and  belong  to  that  uninformed 
class  that  "deride  and  scout"  it.  I  certainly  should  have 
hesitated  to  understand  this  to  be  the  author's  meaning,  but, 
being  so,  I  must  leave  his  benighted  confreres  to  settle  their 
account  with  him.  They  may  perchance  think  that  in  this 
reading  of  the  passage,  "the  voice  of  chanticleer  "  has  already 
become  associated  with  the  vox  clamantis  in  the  wilderness  ! 


In  regard  to  the  association  of  moral  insanity  with  an  average 
amount  of  intellect,  I  would  only  observe  that  the  brother 
alienists  of  Dr.  Mercier,  including  Dr.  Maudsley,  contend  that, 
not  only  may  this  be  met  with,  but  that  moral  insanity  may  co- 
exist with  an  undisordercd  intelligence.  Dr.  Mercier's  conten- 
tion that  "inmo'al  insanity  intelligence  is  always  disordered" 
would  therefore  be  still  in  conflict  with  the  experience  of  some 
experienced  alienists,  which  was  the  position  I  took. 

Both  these  points,  however,  are  only  small  matters  compared 
with  the  general  subject-matter  of  the  work  under  review,  and  I 
repeat  that  it  is  gratifying  to  find  there  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  any  important  mis-statement  of  Dr.  Mercier's  views  in  the 
friendly  criticism  of  The  Reviewer. 

April  24.  

Nose-Blackening  as  Preventive  of   Snow-Blindness. 

My  friend  Mr.  Edmund  J.  Power  sends  me  the  following 
account  of  what  appears  to  me  to  be  an  interesting  fact.  I  should 
like  to  obtain  suggestions  from  physiologists  as  to  the  possible 
explanation  of  the  phenomenon,  on  the  assumption  that  the 
blackening  of  the  nose  and  eyelids  really  does  prevent  the 
injurious  action  of  sunlight  on  the  eyes  ;  and  further,  I  should 
like  to  know  whether  (quite  apart  from  the  fact  of  its  utility  or 
futility)  the  custom  has  possibly  a  remote  origin  in  some  ceremony 
or  ritual.  E.  Kay  Lankester. 

"  Can  you  or  some  of  your  friends  explain  the  following? 

"  When  in  Colorado  shooting  the  end  of  last  year,  my  friend 
had  a  very  bad  attack  of  snow-blindness,  caused  by  a  long  march 
on  snow  with  bright  sun.  My  eyes  also  were  very  bad  the  next 
day  and  caused  much  pain. 

"  Some  days  after  I  was  under  similar  circumstances,  when  my 
guide  stopped,  and  taking  some  burnt  wood  from  a  stump 
blackened  his  nose  and  under  the  eyes  well  down  on  the 
cheek-bone. 

"On  asking  him  the  reason,  he  told  me  it  stopped  snow- 
blindness,  and  as  the  glare  was  very  strong  I  did  the  same,  and 
found  immediate  relief. 

"  I  did  this  all  the  time  I  was  out,  and  never  found  the  snow 
affect  my  eyes  in  any  way. 

"  Everyone  I  spoke  to  about  it  could  give  no  reason  for  it, 
but  all  used  it  on  the  march.  Some  use  glasses,  but,  as  my  man 
remarked,  'glasses  cost  dollars,  dirt  nothing.' 

"Perhaps  some  of  your  friends  can  enlarge  on  the  subject,  as 
it  is  of  great  interest  to  me,  and  may  be  so  to  Alpine  people,  as 
glasses  are  hot  to  climb  in,  and  from  my  own  experience  it  is  not 
easy  to  stalk  in  glasses  and  then  take  them  off  and  shoot." 

"  Antagonism." 

The  author  of  "The  Correlation  of  the  Physical  Eorces " 
has,  I  am  sure,  our  sympathy  when  he  relates  how  he  has  been 
forestalled  by  Prof.  Huxley. 

As  Sir  William  Grove  subsequently  says  that  "it  is  always 
useful  to  know  the  truth,"  he  will,  perhaps,  excuse  my  suggest- 
ing that  his  views  upon  antagonism  as  pervading  the  universe 
have  been  anticipated  in  a  work  published  more  than  a  quarter 
of  a  century  ago.  I  allude  to  "  First  Principles,"  and  more 
especially  to  the  chapter  in  it  upon  "The  Rhythm  of  Motion," 
in  which  the  effects  of  antagonist  forces  are  shown  to  be  every- 
where present,  and  are  copiously  illustrated  and  expounded  from 
the  stand-points  of  astronomy,  geology,  biology,  psychology,  and 
sociology.  After  reading  this  chapter,  and  especially  its  con- 
cluding sentence—"  Given  the  co-existence  everywhere  of  an- 
tagonist forces,  a  postulate  which,  as  we  have  seen,  is 
necessitated  by  the  form  of  our  experience  " — we  cannot,  I 
think,  but  add  another  eminent  name  to  that  of  Prof.  Huxley  as 
anticipating  Sir  W.  Grove  :  it  is  that  of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer. 

E.  Howard  Collins. 

Churchfield,  Edgbaston,  April  29. 


Sense  of  Taste. 

The  curious  difference  between  male  and  female  observers  in 
detecting  feeble  traces  of  quinine,  sugar,  acid,  \c,  in  water  as 
mentioned  in  Nature  on  p.  557  (vol.  xxxvii.),  is  possibly  owing 
to  the  sense  of  taste  being  injured  in  the  males  by  the  use  of 
tobacco. 

I  have  had  occasion  to  apply  delicate  tests  of  smell  and  taste, 
and  I  find  that  even  moderate  smokers  are  unable  to  detect 
odours  and  tastes  that  are  quite  distinct  to  non-smokers. 

Dunstable.  w-  G-  *'• 


NATURE 


[May  3,  1888 


SUGGESTIONS  ON  THE  CLASSIFICATION  OF 
THE  VARIOUS  SPECIES  OF  HEAVENLY 
BODIES.1 

III. 

III.— SUB-GROUPS  AND  SPECIES  OF  GROUP  I. 

I.  Sub-Group.    Nebula. 

TTAVING,  in  the  preceding  part  of  this  memoir, 
-*-- »  attempted  to  give  a  general  idea  of  that  grouping  of 
celestial  bodies  which  in  my  opinion  best  accords  with  our 
present  knowledge,  and  which  has  been  based  upon  the 
assumed  meteoric  origin  of  all  of  them,  I  now  proceed  to 
test  the  hypothesis  further  by  showing  how  it  bears  the 
strain  put  upon  it  when,  in  addition  to  furnishing  us  with 
a  general  grouping,  it  is  used  to  indicate  how  the  groups 
should  be  still  further  divided,  and  what  specific  differences 
may  be  expected. 

The  presence  or  absence  of  carbon  will  divide  this 
group  into  two  main  sub-groups. 

The  first  will  contain  the  nebulae,  in  which  only  the 
spectrum  of  the  meteoric  constituents  is  observed  with  or 
without  the  spectrum  of  hydrogen  added. 

It  will  also  contain  those  bodies  in  which  the  nebula 
spectrum  gets  almost  masked  by  a  continuous  one,  such 
as  Comets  1866  and  1867,  and  the  great  nebula  in 
Andromeda. 

In  the  second  subgroups  will  be  more  condensed  swarms 
still,  in  which,  one  by  one,  new  lines  are  added  to  the 
spectra,  and  carbon  makes  its  appearance  ;  while  probably 
the  last  species  in  this  sub  group  would  be  bodies  repre- 
sented by  7  Cassiopeiae. 

Species  of  Nebulce. 

I  have  elsewhere  referred  to  the  extreme  difficulty  of 
the  spectroscopic  discrimination  in  the  case  of  the  meteor- 
swarms  which  are  just  passing  from  the  first  stage  of  con- 
densation, and  it  may  well  be  that  we  shall  have  to  wait 
for  many  years  before  a  true  spectroscopic  classification 
of  the  various  aggregations  which  I  have  indicated,  can 
be  made. 

It  is  clear,  then,  from  what  has  gone  before  that  in  each 
stage  of  evolution  there  will  be  very  various  surfaces  and 
loci  of  collisions  in  certain  parts  of  all  the  swarms,  and 
we  have  already  seen  that  even  in  the  nebulosities  dis- 
covered by  Sir  Wm.  Herschel,  which  represent  possibly 
a  very  inchoate  condition,  there  are  bright  portions  here 
and  there. 

If  the  conditions  are  such  in  the  highly  elaborated 
swarms  and  in  the  nebulosity  that  the  number  of  collisions 
in  any  region  per  cubic  million  miles  is  identical,  the 
spectroscope  will  give  us  the  same  result.  In  the  classifica- 
tion of  the  nebulae,  therefore,  the  spectroscope  must  cede 
to  the  telescope  when  the  dynamical  laws,  which  must 
influence  the  interior  movements  of  meteoric  swarms,  have 
been  fully  worked  out.  The  spectroscope,  however,  is 
certainly  at  one  with  the  telescope  in  pointing  out  that 
so-called  planetary  nebulae  are  among  the  very  earliest 
forms — those  in  which  the  collisions  are  most  restricted  in 
the  colliding  regions.  The  colour  of  these  bodies  is  blue 
tinged  with  green  ;  they  do  not  appear  to  have  that  milki- 
ness  which  generally  attaches  to  nebulae,  and  the  bright 
nebulous  lines  are  seen  in  some  cases  absolutely  without 
any  trace  of  continuous  spectrum.  In  higher  stages  the 
continuous  spectrum  comes  in,  and  in  higher  stages  still 
possibly  also  the  bands  of  carbon  ;  for  in  many  cases  Dr. 
Huggins  in  his  important  observations  has  recorded  the 
weakness  of  the  spectrum  in  the  red,  or  in  other  words 
the  strengthening  of  the  spectrum  in  the  green  and  blue 
exactly  where  the  carbon  bands  lie. 

But  in  all  the  bodies  of  Group  I.  which  possess  forms 
visible  to  us  in  the  telescope,  it  would  seem  proper  that 

1  Tht  Bakerian  Lecture,  delivered  at  the  Royal  Society  on  April  12,  by 
J.  Norman  Lockyer,  F.R.S.     Continued  fiom  vol.  xxxvii.  p.  609. 


their  classification  should  depend  mainly — at  present  at 
all  events — upon  their  telescopic  appearance,  and  there  is 
very  little  doubt  that  a  few  years'  labour  with  the  new 
point  of  view  in  the  mind  of  observers  armed  with  suffi- 
cient optical  power,  will  enable  us  to  make  a  tremendous 
stride  in  this  direction  ;  but  it  seems  already  that  this 
must  not  be  done  without  spectroscopic  aid.  For  instance, 
if  what  I  have  previously  suggested  as  to  the  possible 
origin  of  the  planetary  nebulae  be  accepted,  it  is  clear  that 
in  those  which  give  us  the  purest  spectrum  of  lines,  one 
in  which  there  is  the  minimum  of  continuous  spectrum, 
we  find  the  starting-point  of  the  combined  telescopic  and 
spectroscopic  classification,  and  the  line  to  be  followed 
will  be  that  in  which,  cceteris  paribus,  we  get  proofs  of 
more  and  more  condensation,  and  therefore  more  and 
more  collisions,  and  therefore  higher  and  higher  tempera- 
tures, and  therefore  greater  complexity  in  the  spectrum 
until  at  length  true  stars  are  reached. 

When  true  stars  are  reached  those  of  the  cluster 
appear  nebulous  in  the  telescope  in  consequence  of  its 
distance  ;  the  spectroscope  must  give  us  indications  by 
absorption. 

It  is  not  necessary  in  this  connection,  therefore,  to  refer 
to  undoubted  star  clusters,  as  the  presence  of  absorption 
will  place  them  in  another  group  ;  but  the  remark  may 
be  made  that  it  is  not  likely  that  future  research  will 
indicate  that  new  groupings  of  stars,  such  as  Sir  Wm. 
Herschel  suggests  in  his  paper  on  the  breaking  up  of  the 
Milky  Way,  will  differ  in  any  essential  particular  from  the 
successive  groupings  of  meteorites  which  are  watched  in 
the  nebulae.  Space  and  gravitation  being  as  they  are,  it 
is  not  necessary  to  assume  that  any  difference  of  kind 
need  exist  in  the  method  of  grouping  formed  stars  and 
meteoric  dust  ;  indeed  there  is  much  evidence  to  the 
contrary. 

II.  Sub-Group.    Bright-line  Stars. 

It  might  appear  at  first  sight  that  the  distribution  of 
bright-line  stars  among  various  species  should  be  very 
easy,  since  a  constant  rise  of  temperature  should  bring 
out  more  and  more  lines,  so  that  the  species  might  be  based 
upon  complexity  of  spectrum  merely. 

But  this  is  not  so,  for  the  reason  that  the  few  observa- 
tions already  recorded,  although  they  point  to  the  existence 
of  carbon  bands,  do  not  enable  us  to  say  exactly  how  far 
the  masking  process  is  valid.  Hence  in  the  present 
communication  I  content  myself  by  giving  some  details 
relating  to  maskings,  and  the  results  of  the  discussions, 
so  far  as  they  have  gone,  in  the  case  of  each  star.  I 
shall  return  to  the  line  of  evolution  in  a  later  paper. 

Masking  of  Radiation  Effects  produced  by  Variations  of 
Interspacing. 

I  have  already  stated  that  carbon  bands  are  apt  to 
mask  the  appearance  of  other  spectral  phenomena  in 
the  region  of  the  spectrum  in  which  they  lie.  In  this  way 
we  can  not  only  account  for  the  apparent  absence  of  the 
first  manganese  fluting,  while  the  second  one  is  visible, 
but  it  is  even  possible  to  use  this  method  to  determine 
which  bands  of  carbon  are  actually  present.  There  is 
another  kind  of  masking  effect  produced  in  a  different 
way,  and  this  shows  itself  in  connection  with  sodium.  It  is 
well  known  that  when  the  temperature  is  low,  D  is  seen 
alone,  and  if  seen  in  connection  with  continuous  spec- 
trum the  continuous  spectrum  is  crossed  by  either  dark 
or  bright  D,  according  to  the  existing  circumstances. 

1  showed  some  years  ago  that  the  green  line  of  sodium, 
not  the  red  one,  is  really  visible  when  sodium  is  burned 
in  the  bunsen  burner.  It  is,  however,  very  much 
brighter  when  higher  temperatures  are  used,  although 
when  bright  it  does  not  absorb  in  the  way  the  line  D 
does. 

Now,  if  we  imagine  a  swarm  of  meteorites  such  that  in 
the  line  of  sight  the  areas  of  meteorite  and  interspace  are 


May  3,  1888] 


NATURE 


equal,  half  the  area  will  show  D  absorbed,  and  the  other 
half  D  bright ;  and  in  the  resulting  spectrum  D  will  have 
disappeared,  on  account  of  the  equality,  or  nearly  equality, 
of  the  radiation  added  to  the  absorption  of  the  continuous 
spectrum.  The  light  from  the  interspace  just  fills  up  and 
obliterates  the  absorption. 

But  if  the  temperature  is  such  that  the  green  line  is 
seen  as  well  as  D ;  in  consequence  of  its  poor  absorb- 
ing effect  there  will  be  no  dark  line  corresponding  to  it 
in  the  resulting  spectrum,  but  the  bright  green  line  from 
the  interspace  will  be  superposed  on  the  continuous 
spectrum,  and  we  shall  get  the  apparently  paradoxical 
result  of  the  green  line  of  sodium  visible  while  D  is 
absent.  This  condition  can  easily  be  reproduced  in  the 
laboratory  by  volatilizing  a  small  piece  of  sodium — be- 
tween the  poles  of  an  electric  lamp.  The  green  line  will 
be  seen  bright,  while  D  is  very  dark. 

In  the  bodies  in  which  these  phenomena  apparently 
Occur — for  so  far  I  have  found  no  other  origin  for  the  lines 
recorded  569,  570,  and  571 — the  wave-length  of  the  green 
sodium  line  being  5687,  such  as  Wolf  and  Rayet's  three 
stars  in  Cygnus  and  in  7  Argus,  the  continuous  variability 
of  D  is  one  of  the  facts  most  clearly  demonstrated  by  the 
observations,  and  it  is  obvious  that  this  should  follow  if 
from  any  cause  any  variation  takes  place  in  the  distance 
between  the  meteorites. 

In  ail  meteoric  glows  which  have  been  observed  in  the 
laboratory,  not  only  D  but  the  green  line  have  been  seen 
constantly  bright,  while  we  know  in  Comet  Wells  most  of 
the  luminosity  at  a  certain  stage  of  the  comet's  history 
was  produced  by  sodium.  It  is  therefore  extremely 
probable  that  the  view  above  put  forward  must  be  taken 
as  an  explanation  of  the  absence  of  D  when  not  seen, 
rather  than  an  abnormal  chemical  constitution  of  the 
meteorites — that  is  to  say,  one  in  which  sodium  is  absent. 
This  may  even  explain  the  fact  that  up  to  the  present 
time  the  D  line  of  sodium  has  not  been  recorded  in  the 
spectrum  of  any  nebula.1 

Detailed  Discussion  of  the  Spectra  of  some  Bright- 
Line  Stars. 

These  things  then  being  premised,  I  now  submit  some 
maps  illustrating  this  part  of  the  inquiry,  although  it 
will  be  some  time  before  my  investigations  on  the 
bright-line  stars  are  finished.  These  maps  will  indi- 
cate the  way  in  which  the  problem  is  being  attacked,  and 
the  results  already  obtained.  To  help  us  in  the  work  we 
have  first  of  all  those  lines  of  substances  known  to  exist  in 
meteorites  which  are  visible  at  the  lowest  temperatures 
which  we  can  command  in  the  laboratory.  We  have  also 
the  results  of  the  carbon  work  to  which  reference  was 
made  in  the  previous  paper  ;  and  then  we  have  the  lines 
which  have  been  seen,  although  their  wave-lengths  have 
in  no  case  been  absolutely  determined,  in  consequence  of 
the  extreme  difficulty  of  the  observation,  both  in  stars 
and  in  comets,  which  I  hold  to  be  almost  identical  in 
structure. 

In  the  case  of  each  star  the  lines  which  have  been 
recorded  in  its  spectrum  are  plotted  in  the  way  indicated 
in  the  maps.  The  general  result  is  that  when  we  take 
into  account  the  low  temperature  radiation,  which  we 
learn  from  the  laboratory  work,  not  only  can  we  account 
for  the  existence  of  the  lines  which  have  been  observed, 
but  apparent  absorptions  in  many  cases  are  shown  to  be 
coincident  with  the  part  of  the  spectrum  in  front  of  a 
bright  carbon  fluting. 

1  In  the  lecture  the  author  here  referred  to  the  spectrum  of  o  Ceti,  as  photo- 
graphed by  Prof.  Pickering  for  the  Henry.  Draper  Memorial,  the  slide  having 
been  kindly  placed  at  his  disposal  by  the  Council  of  the  Royal  Astronomical 
Society.  All  the  bright  hydrogen  lines  in  the  violet  and  ultra-violet  are  sho*n 
in  the  photograph  ;  with  the  exception  of  the  one  which  is  nearly  coincident 
with  H.  The  apparent  absence  of  this  line  is  in  all  probability  due  to  the 
masking  effect  of  the  absorption-line  of  calcium.  In  this  case,  then,  it 
appears  that  the  calcium  vapour  is  outside  the  hot  hydrogen,  and  this  there- 
fore was  being  given  off  by  the  meteorites  at  the  time. 


A  continuation  of  this  line  of  thought  shows  us  also 
that,  when  in  these  stars  the  spectrum  is  seen  far  into  the 
blue,  the  luminosity  really  proceeds  first  from  the  carbon 
fluting,  and  in  the  hotter  stars,  from  the  hydrocarbon 
one  in  addition,  which  is  still  more  refrangible.  In  the 
stars  which  have  been  examined  so  far,  the  dark  parts  of 
the  spectrum,  which  at  first  sight  appear  due  to  absorption, 
are  shown  to  be  most  likely  caused  by  the  gap  in  the 
radiation  in  that  part  of  the  spectrum  where  there  is  no 
continuous  spectrum  from  the  meteorites,  and  no  bright 
band  of  carbon. 

All  the  observations,  it  would  appear,  can  be  explained 
on  the  assumption  of  low  temperature. 

Notes  on  the  Maps. 

Lalande  13412. — Both  Vogel  and  Pickering  have 
observed  the  spectrum  of  this  star  and  have  measured 
the  wave-lengths  of  the  bright  lines. 

Vogel  gives  a  sketch  of  the  spectrum  as  well  as  a  list 
of  wave-lengths. 

Vogel  mentions  a  dark  band  at  the  blue  end  of  the 
spectrum,  and  gives  the  wave-length  in  his  sketch  as  from 
486  to  473. 

Both  observers  measure  the  bright  486  hydrogen  (F) 
line. 

Vogel  measures  a  bright  line  at  540,  while  Pickering's 
measure  is  545  ;  but  Pickering  in  another  star,  Arg.- 
Oeltzen  17681,  has  measured  this  line  at  540,  so  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  is  the  correct  wave-length. 

Vogel  measures  a  line  at  581,  but  this  has  not  been 
noticed  by  Pickering. 

The  bright  part  of  the  spectrum  extending  from  473 
towards  the  blue  with  its  maximum  at  468  is,  I  would 
suggest,  the  carbon  band  appearing  beyond  the  continuous 
spectrum,  the  rest  of  the  carbon  being  cut  out  by  the 
continuous  spectrum,  although  564  asserts  itself  by  a 
brightening  of  the  spectrum  at  that  wave-length  in  Vogel's 
sketch,  and  by  a  rise  in  his  light-curve. 

The  line  at  540  is  the  only  line  of  manganese  visible 
at  the  temperature  of  the  bunsen  burner,  while  the  581 
measurement  of  Vogel  is  in  all  probability  the  579  line, 
the  strongest  line  of  iron  visible  at  low  temperatures. 

In  this  star  therefore  we  have  continuous  spectrum  from 
the  meteorites,  and  carbon  bands,  one  of  them  appearing 
beyond  the  continuous  spectrum  in  the  blue  as  a  bright 
band;  bright  lines  of  hydrogen,  manganese,  and  iron 
being  superposed  on  both.  There  is  no  absorption  of  any 
kind,  the  apparent  dark  band  being  due  to  defect  of 
radiation. 

Vogel's  results  are  given  in  the  Publicationen  des 
Astrophysikalischen  Observatoriums  zu  Potsdam,  vol.  iv. 
No.  14,  p.  17. 

Pickering's  are  published  in  the  Astronomische 
Nachrichten,  No.  2376 ;  Science,  No.  41  ;  and  quoted 
in  Copernicus,  vol.  i.  p.  140. 

2nd  Cygnus.—B.D.  -f  35°,  No.  4013.— Messrs.  Wolf  and 
Rayet,  in  1867,  first  observed  the  spectrum  of  this  star, 
and  measured  the  positions  of  the  bright  lines.  Micro- 
meter readings  and  reference  lines  are  given  by  them 
from  which  a  wave-length  curve  has  been  constructed. 
The  wave-lengths  of  the  bright  lines  in  the  star  thus 
ascertained  are  :  581  (y),  573  (£),  54©  (3),  and  470  (a)  ;  the 
relative  intensities  being  shown  by  the  Greek  letters. 

"  La  ligne  £  est  suivie  d'un  espace  obscur ;  un  autre 
espace  tres-sombre  precede  a" 

Vogel  afterwards  examined  the  spectrum,  measured 
the  positions  and  ascertained  the  wave-lengths  of  the 
bright  lines,  drew  a  sketch  of  the  spectrum  as  it  appeared 
to  him,  and  a  curve  showing  the  variation  of  intensity  of 
the  light  throughout  the  spectrum. 

The  wave-lengths  given  by  Vogel  are  582  and  570,  and 
of  a  band  with  its  brightest  part  at  464,  fading  off  in  both 
directions  and  according  to  the  sketch   having  its  red 


IO 


NA  TURE 


limit  at  473.  In  the  light  curve  Vogel  not  only  shows  the 
582  and  570  lines,  but  also  bright  lines  in  positions  which 
by  a  curve  have  been  found  to  correspond  to  wave-lengths 
540  and  636.  Vogel  indicates  in  his  sketch  a  dark 
band  extending  from  486  to  the  bright  band  473,  and  an 
apparent  absorption  on  the  blue  side  of  the  570  line,  this 


[May  3,  1888 


absorption  being  ended  at  564.  These  two  bands  agree 
in  position  with  the  dark  spaces  observed  by  Messrs. 
Wolf  and  Rayet.  The  bright  band  in  the  blue  at  473  is 
most  probably  the  carbon  band  appearing  bright  upon  a 
faint  continuous  spectrum,  this  producing  the  apparent 
absorption  from  486  to  473.     If  the  bright  carbon  really 


Fig.  4. — Map  showing  the  probable  origin  of  the  spectrum  of  Lalande  13412. 


2     3     4     5    6     7 


;0NTINU0U5     SPECTRUM 


HOT    CARBON 


MANCANESE  LINE 


SODIUM(CREF_IM),, 


LIMERICK   METEORITE 


RESULT,     2?PCYGNUS 


VOCELS  LIGHT  CURVE 


Fig.  5.— Map  showing  the  probable  or'gin  of  the  spectrum  of  Wolf  and  Rayet's  2nd  star  in  Cygnus. 


KB 


accounts  for  the  appearance  of  a  dark  band  between  the 
bright  570  and  564  in  this  star,  all  the  apparent  absorp- 
tion is  explained  as  due  to  contrast  of  bright  bands  on  a 
fainter  continuous  spectrum  due  to  red-hot  meteorites. 

The  line  at  540  is  the  only  line  of  manganese  visible  in 
the  bun  sen  burner,  and  the  580  line  is  the  strongest  low- 


temperature  iron  line.  The  570  line  is  most  probably  the 
green  sodium  line  569,  the  absence  of  the  yellow  sodium 
being  explained  by  the  half-and-half  absorption  and 
radiation  mentioned  in  the  discussion  of  the  causes  which 
mask  and  prevent  the  appearance  of  the  lines  in  a 
spectrum. 


May  3,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


1 1 


The  line  at  636  is  in  the  red  just  at  the  end  of  the  con- 
tinuous spectrum,  and  as  yet  no  origin  has  been  found  for 
it,  although  it  has  been  observed  as  a  bright  line  in  the 
Limerick  meteorite  at  the  temperature  of  the  oxyhydrogen 
blow-pipe. 

This  star  therefore  gives  a  continuous  spectrum  due  to 
radiation  from  meteorites,  and  on  this  we  get  bright 
carbon  (with  one  carbon  band  appearing  separate  in  the 
blue),  with  bright  lines  of  iron,  manganese,  sodium,  and 
some  as  yet  undetermined  substance  giving  a  line  at  636 
in  the  oxyhydrogen  blow-pipe. 

Wolf  and  Rayet's  results  are  given  in  the  Comptcs 
re  tutus,  vol.  lxv.  p.  292. 

Dr.  Vogel's  are  from  the  Publicationen  des  Astrophy- 
sikalischen  Obscrvatoriums  zu  Potsdam,  vol.  iv.  No.  14, 
p.  19. 

The  above  are  only  given  as  examples  of  the  seven 
bright-line  stars  explained  in  the  lecture. 

(To  be  confirmed) 


THE  ROYAL   SOCIETY  SELECTED 
CANDIDA  TES. 

HPHE  following  fifteen  candidates  were"  selected  on 
A  Thursday  last  by  the  Council  of  the  Royal  Society 
to  be  recommended  for  election  into  the  Society.  The 
ballot  will  take  place  on  June  7,  at  4  p.m.  We  print 
with  the  name  of  each  candidate  the  statement  of  his 
qualifications  :— 

Thomas  Andrews,  F.R.S.E., 

F.C.S.,  Assoc.  M.  Inst.  C.E.  Ironmaster  and  Metallurgist. 
Awarded  by  the  Institution  of  Civil  Engineers,  for  original 
metallurgical  and  physical  researches,  a  Telford  Medal  and  a 
Telford  Premium,  Session  1884 ;  again  a  Telford  Premium, 
Session  1885  :  and  another  Telford  Premium,  Session  1886. 
Author  of  the  following  eighteen  papers  :  — In  Proc.  Roy.  Soc. 
Lond.  (four  papers),  "  Electromotive  Force  from  difference  of 
Salinity  in  Tidal  Streams,"  "Action  of  Tidal  Streams  on 
Metals  during  diffusion  of  Salt  and  Fresh  Water,"  "Reversals 
of  Electromotive  Force  between  Metals  of  High  Temperatures 
in  Fused  Salts,"  "Observations  on  Pure  Ice  and  Snow"  (a 
determination  of  their  relative  conductivity  for  heat,  and  the 
great  contraction  of  ice  at  extremely  low  temperatures,  &c.)  ; 
Trans,  and  Proc.  Roy.  Soc.  Edin.  (four  papers),  "On 
Relative  Electro- chemical  Positions  of  Iron,  Steels,  and  Metals 
in  Sea  Water,"  "Apparent  Lines  of  Force  on  passing  a 
Current  through  Water,"  "  Resistance  of  Fused  Halogen 
Salts,"  "  Electromotive  Force  between  Metals  at  High  Tem- 
peratures "  ;  Proc.  Inst.  Civ.  Eng.  (four  papers),  "  On  Galvanic 
Action  between  Metals  long  exposed  in  Sea  Water,"  "Cor- 
rosion of  Metals  long  exposed  in  Sea  Water. "  Author  of  an 
investigation  on  "  Effects  of  Temperature  on  Strength  of 
Railway  Axles,"  Part  I.,  II.,  and  III.,  conducted  by  the  author 
at  a  cost  of  nearly  .£800,  to  determine  on  a  large  scale  the 
resistance  of  metals  to  a  sudden  concussion  at  varying  tempera- 
tures down  to  zero  F.  Author  also  of  papers  "On  Variations 
of  Composition  of  River  Waters"  (Chem.  Soc,  1875),  and 
"On  Curious  Concretion  Balls  from  Colliery  Mineral  Waters" 
(Brit.  Assoc.  Rep.,  Chemical  Section,  1879),  and  "On  Strength 
of  Wrought  Iron  Railway  Axles"  (Trans.  Soc.  Eng.,  1879  ;  a 
premium  of  books  awarded  for  this  paper).  At  present  engaged 
on  a  research  "On  some  Novel  Magneto-Chemical  Effects  on 
Magnetizing  Iron,"  and  "  On  the  Construction  of  Iron,  Steels, 
and  Cast  Metals  at  Low  Temperatures,  —50°  F.,"  and  "  On  the 
Viscosity  of  Pure  Ice  at  -  500  F.,  &c." 

James  Thomson  Bottomlev,  M.A., 

Demonstrator  of  Experimental  Physics  in  the  University  of 
Glasgow.  After  being  several  years  with'  Dr.  Andrews  in 
Belfast,  as  pupil,  and  as  assistant  afterwards,  he  acted  as 
Demonstrator  in  Chemistry  in  King's  College,  London,  under 
Dr.  W.  A.  Miller,  and  subsequently  as  Demonstrator  and 
Lecturer  in  Natural  Science,  under  Prof.  W.  G.  Adams,  til! 
1870,  when  he  came  to  his  present  post  in  the  University  of 
Glasgow.     Author  of  "Dynamics,"  for  the  Science   and   Art 


Department;  "Hydrostatics,"  ditto;  "Mathematical  Tables 
for  Physical  Calculations  ;"  Essay  on  the  Progress  of  Science 
since  1833  ("Conversations-Lexicon");  all  the  artii 
Electricity  and  Magnetism  in  Moxon's  "  Dictionary  of  Science." 
Also  of  many  scientific  articles  describing  his  own  experimental 
researches,  including  "Thermal  Conductivity  of  Water"  (Phil. 
Trans.,  1881)  ;  "Permanent  Temperature  of  Conductors,  &c." 
(Proc.  Roy.  Soc.  Edin.),  &c. 

Charles  Vernon  Boys, 

A.R.S.M.  Demonstrator  of  Physics  Normal  School  of  Science 
and  Royal  School  of  Mines.  Author  and  joint-author  of  the 
following: — "Magneto-Electric  Induction"  (Proc.  Phys.  Soc, 
1879  and  1880) ;  "  An  Integrating  Machine"  (Proc.  Phys.  Soc, 
1881) ;  "Integrating  and  other  Apparatus  for  the  Measurement 
of  Mechanical  and  Electrical  Forces"  (Proc  Phys.  Soc,  1882) ; 
"Apparatus  for  Calculating  Efficiency'  (Proc.  Phys.  Soc, 
1882);  "Measurement  of  Curvature  and  Refractive  Index" 
(Proc.  Phys.  Soc,  1882);  "Vibrating  Electric  Meter"  (Proc. 
Roy.  Inst.  1883);  "New  Driving  Gear"  (Soc  Art.  Lect., 
1884)  >  ar|d  other  papers. 

Arthur  Herbert  Church,  M.A.  (Oxon.), 

F.C.S  ,  F.I.C.  Professor  of  Chemistry  in  the  Royal  Academy 
of  Arts.  Sometime  Proressor  of  Chemistry  in  the  Royal 
Agricultural  College,  Cirencester.  Researches  in  Animal, 
Vegetable,  and  Mineral  Chemistry,  e.g.  Turacin,  an  animal 
pigment  containing  copper  (Phil.  Trans.,  1869);  Colein,  the 
pigment  of  Coleus  Vcrschajfeltii  (Journ.  Chem.  Soc  ,  1877)  ; 
Aluminium  in  certain  Cryptogams  {Chemical  News,  1874)  ; 
Vegetable  Albinism  (Journ.  Chem.  Soc,  1879,  1880,  1886, 
Pts.  I. -III.);  New  Mineral  Species,  Churchite,  Tavistockite, 
Bayldonite  {ibid.,  1865)  ;  Namaqualite  (ilrii/.,  1870)  ;  Analysis 
of  Mineral  Phosphates  and  Arseniates  (ibid.,  1868,  1870,  1873, 
1875,  &c,  Proc.  Roy.  Irish  Acad.,  1882),  &c 

Alfred  George  Greenhill,  M.A., 

Professor  of  Mathematics  for  the  Advanced  Class  of  Artillery 
Officers  at  Woolwich.  Was  Second  Wrangler  and  bracketed 
Smith's  Prizeman  in  1870.-  Has  been  Moderator  and  Examiner 
for  the  Mathematical  Tripos,  University  of  Cambridge,  in 
1%1S>  '77>  '78»  '8it  '83,  '84.  Author  of  "  Differential  and  In- 
tegral Calculus "  (1886)  ;  Article  on  Hydromechanics  in  the 
"  Encyclopaedia  Britannica."  Also  of  the  following  papers,  in 
the  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Artillery  Institute  : — "  Rotation 
required  for  Stability  of  Elongated  Projectiles"  (vol.  x); 
"  Motion  in  Resisting  Medium"  (ibid.)  ;  "Trajectory  for  Cubic 
Law  of  Resistance"  (vol.  xiv.)  ;  "Reduction  of  Bashforth's 
Experiments"  (vol.  xv.)  ;  "  Siacci's  Method  for  solving  Ballistic 
Problems"  (vol.  xiv.).  In  the  Journal  de  Physique  : — "  Sur  le 
Magnetisme  induit  d'un  Ellipsoide  creux"  (1881).  Ameriean 
Journal  of  Mathematics  : — "  Wave  Motion  in  Hydrodynamics  " 
(vol.  ix. ).  In  the  Engineer: — "Screw-propeller  Efficiency" 
(1886).  In  the  Quarterly  Journal  of 'Mathematics  : — "  Precession 
and  Nutation''  (vol.  xiv.)  ;  "  Plaie  Vortex  Motion  "  (vol.  xv.) ; 
"Motion  of  Top"  (ibid.);  "Motion  of  Water  in  Rotating 
Parallelopiped "  (ibid.);  "Fluid  Motion  between  Confocal 
Ellipsoids"  (vol.  xvi.)  ;  "Solution  by  Elliptic  Functions  of 
Problems  in  Heat  and  Electricity"  (vol.  xvii.)  ;  "Functional 
Images  in  Cartesians"  (vol.  xviii.)  ;  "Complex  Multiplication 
of  Elliptic  Functions  "  (vol.  xxii. ),  and  others.  In  Messenger 
of  Mathematics : — "Fluid  Motion"  (vols,  viii.-x.)  ;  "Lord 
Rayleigh's  Theory  of  Tennis  Ball"  (vol.  ix.)  ;  "Period  Equation 
of  Lateral  Vibrations  "  (vol.  xvi.);  "Sumner  lines  on  Mercator's 
Chart  "(ibid.)  ;  "Solution  of  Cubic  and  Quart  ic"  (vol.  xvii.). 
In  the  Proceedings  of  the  Cambridge  Philosophical  Society: — 
"Rotation  of  Liquid  Ellipsoid"  (vols,  iii.,  iv.) ;  "Green's 
Function  for  Rectangular  Parallelopiped  "(vol.  iii  )  ;  "  Integrals 
expressed  by  Inverse  Llliptic  Functions  (iHd.)  ;  "Conjugate 
Functions  of  Cai tesians "  (vol.  iv. );  "Greatest  Height  a  Tree 
can  grow  "  (ibid.)  ;  "Complex  Multiplication  of  Elliptic  Func- 
tions" (vols,  iv.,  v.).  In  Proceedings  Institution  Mechanical 
Engineers: — "  Stability  of  Shafting"  (1883). 

Lieut.-General   Sir  William  Francis  Drummond 
Jervois;  R.E.,  G.C.M.G., 

Governor  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  New  Zealand.  Distin- 
guished as  a  Military  Lngineer.  From  1841  to  1S4S  employed 
in  South  Africa,  during  which  time  he  erected  important  military 


12 


NA  TURE 


[May  3,  1888 


works,  and  added  largely  to  the  topographical  knowledge  of 
that  part  of  the  world,  discovering  the  true  feature  of  the 
Quathlamba  Mountains,  and  making  a  minute  topographical 
survey  of  Kaffraria  ;  his  map,  published  by  E.  Stanford,  being 
a  wonderful  delineation  of  n.ost  difficult  and  rugged  country.  For 
nearly  twenty  years,  from  1856  to  1875,  employed  in  the  design- 
ing and  execution  of  the  fortifications  of  the  Empire  at  a  most 
critical  period,  when,  owing  to  the  introduction  of  iron  armour, 
a  complete  revolution  took  place  in  matters  relating  to  ships,  forts, 
and  artillery.  Was  a  member  of  the  Scientific  Commission 
(1861-62,  &c.)  appointed  to  investigate  the  subject  of  the  ap- 
plication of  iron  armour  to  ships  and  forts.  Governor  of  Straits 
Settlements,  1875-77.  In  1877  selected  to  advise  the  Govern- 
ments of  Australia  on  the  defence  of  their  principal  harbours. 
His  recommendations  have  been  adopted  and  carried  out.  In 
1877  appointed  Governor  of  South  Australia,  and  in  that 
capacity,  as  also  in  that  of  Governor  of  New  Zealand  (since  1882), 
has  promoted  the  progress  of  Science  in  various  ways. 

Charles  Lapworth, 

Professor  of  Geology  in  the  Mason  Science  College,  Birmingham  ; 
Hon.  LL.D.  (St.  Andr.).  Most  important  contributions  to  the 
right  understanding  of  the  stratigraphy  of  the  North-West 
Highlands  and  the  Southern  Uplands  of  Scotland,  and  investi- 
gations of  the  Palaeozoic  and  other  strata,  as  published  in  his 
papers  on  "The  Moffat  Series,"  "The  Girvan  Succession," 
"  The  Stratigraphy  and  Metamorphism  of  the  Duness  and 
Eriboll  District,"  the  "Secret  of  the  Highlands,"  the  "Close 
of  the  Highland  Controversy,"  "Discovery  of  the  Cambrian 
Rocks  in  the  Neighbourhood  of  Birmingham,"  and  on  "The 
Classification  of  the  Lower  Palaeozoic  Rocks,"  &c, — papers 
published  between  1878  and  1887  in  the  Quart.  Journ.  Geol.  Soc  , 
and  the  Geol.  Mag.  Also  for  his  Palseontological  work,  es- 
pecially among  the  Rhabdophora,  mainly  published  in  six 
papers  between  1873  and  1887.  Recipient  of  the  Murchison 
and  of  the  Lyell  Funds,  and  of  the  Bigsby  Medal  of  the 
Geological  Society. 

T.  Jeffrey  Parker, 

Professor  of  Biology.  Author  of  the  Memoirs  enumerated  below. 
Distinguished  as  a  Comparative  Anatomist  and  as  a  Teacher. 
Has  introduced  an  important  new  method  of  preserving  the 
skeletons  of  cartilaginous  fishes  for  museum  purposes,  and  has 
rendered  service  to  the  cause  of  Science  in  the  Colonies  by  his 
creation  of  the  Otago  Museum,  and  by  his  popular  lectures  and 
addresses.  He  has  published  thirty-three  original  papers  on 
Biological  subjects  in  the  Proceedings  and  Transactions  of 
various  Societies — Royal,  Zoological,  Royal  Microscopical,  &c. 
Amongst  these  may  be  mentioned  the  following,  viz.  : — "On 
the  Stomach  of  the  Fresh-water  Cray-fish,"  "On  the  Stridu- 
lating  Organ  of  Palimirus  vulgaris,"  "  On  the  Intestinal  Spiral 
Valve  in  the  Genus  Raia,"  "On  the  Histology  of  Hydra 
fusca,"  "On  the  Venous  System  of  the  Skate,"  "On  the 
Osteology  of  Regalecus  argenteus,"  "  On  the  Blood-vessels  of 
Mustelus  antarcticus,"  &c. 

John  Henry  Poynting,  M.A.,  B.Sc. 

Professor  of  Physics  in  the  Mason  College,  Birmingham. 
Author  of  the  following  papers  :—  "  On  a  Method  of  Using  the 
Balance  with  great  Delicacy  "  (Proc.  Roy.  Soc,  vol.  xxviii.)  ; 
"On  the  Graduation  of  the  Sonometer"  {Phil.  Mag.,  1880); 
"On  a  Simple  Form  of  Saccharimeter"  {ibid.,  1880);  "On 
Change  of  State  :  Solid-Liquid"  {ibid.,  1881) ;  "  On  the  Con- 
nection between  Electric  Current  and  the  Electric  ard  Magnetic 
Inductions  in  the  surrounding  Field"  (Proc.  Roy.  Soc,  vol. 
xxxviii.)  ;  "  On  the  Transfer  of  Energy  in  the  Electro-magnetic 
Field"  (Phil.  Trans.,  1884,  Part  II.). 

William  Ramsay, 

Ph.D.  (Tub.).  F.C.S.,  F.I.C.  Professor  of  Chemistry,  Uni- 
versity College,  London.  President  of  the  Bristol  Society  of 
Naturalists,  and  of  the  Bristol  Section  of  the  Society  of 
Chemical  Industry.  Distinguished  as  a  Chemist,  and  especially 
for  his  researches  in  Chemical  Physics.  Author  of  the  following 
papers  : — "  Orthotoluic  Acid  and  its  Derivatives  "  {Liebig's 
Annalen,  1872);  "  Picoline  and  its  Derivatives"  {Phil.  Mag., 
1876-78);  "The  Oxidation  Products  of  Quinine  and  allied 
Alkaloids"  (Journ.  Chem.  Soc,  1878-79);  "  Specific  Volumes  " 
(ibid.,  1879-81);  "  The  Volatilization  of  Solids  "  (Phil.  Trans., 


Pt.  I.,  1884);  "  The  Vapour  Pressures  of  Solids  and  Liquids  " 
(Phil.  Trans.,  Pt.  II.,  1884);  "A  Study  of  the  Thermal 
Properties  of  Alcohol  "  (Proc.  Roy.  Soc,  vol.  xxxviii.,  p.  329)  ; 
"  On  Evaporation  and  Dissociation  "  (Preliminary  Notice,  Rep. 
Brit.  Assoc,  1884). 

Thomas  Pridgin  Teale,  M.A.  (Oxon.), 

F.R.C.S.,  1857.  Surgeon  to  the  Leeds  General  Infirmary. 
Late  Lecturer  on  Surgery,  Leeds  School  of  Medicine.  Member 
of  the  General  Medical  Council.  Eminent  as  a  Sanitary  Re- 
former, and  Surgeon  and  Ophthalmologist.  Author  of — {a) 
various  Papers  and  Lectures  bearing  upon  Public  Health  and 
Sanitary  Reforms,  among  which  are  : — (1)  "Dangers  to  Health 
in  our  own  Houses,"  a  Lecture  at  the  Leeds  Lit.  and  Phil.  Soc, 
1877  ;  (2)  "  Dangers  to  Health  :  a  Pictorial  Guide  to  Domestic 
Sanitary  Defects,"  4th  ed.,  1883  (also  in  French  and  German)  ; 
(3)  "  Economy  of  Coal  in  House  Fires,"  1882  ;  (4)  "  Address  on 
Health  "  (dealing  with  the  effects  of  Modern  Educational  Systems 
upon  Health),  delivered  as  President  of  the  Health  Section  of 
the  Social  Science  Congress  at  Huddersfield,  1883.  {b)  Papers 
of  value  in  Surgery  and  Ophthalmology,  extending  from  1850  to 
1885 — (1)  "On  the  Treatment  of  Lachrymal  Obstructions,  with 
suggestions  to  use  Bulbed  Probes  "  {Med.  Times  and  Gaz.,  i860) ; 
(2)  "  On  the  Relief  of  Symblepharon  by  the  Transplantation  of 
Conjunctiva"  (Ophth.  Hosp.  Rep.,  vol.  Hi.,  and  Repcrt  of  the 
International  Ophthalmic  Congress  in  London,  1872)  ;  (3)  "  On 
Extraction  of  Soft  Cataract  by  Suction"  (Ophth.  Hosp.  Rep., 
vol.  iv.)  ;  (4)  "The  Relative  Value  of  Atropine  and  Mercury  in 
Acute  Iritis"  {ibid.,  vol.  v.);  (5)  "Enucleation  of  Nsevus" 
(Trans.  Med.  and  Chir.  Soc,  1867)  ;  (6)  "On  Atrophy  induced 
by  Cicatrix"  {Brit.  Med.  Journ.,  1867) ;  (7)  "  On  the  Stimulation 
of  Hip  Disease  by  Suppuration  of  the  Bursa  over  the  Trochanter 
major"  (Clin.  Essay,  No.  2,  Lancet,  1870);  (8)  "Ovariotomy 
during  Acute  Inflammation  of  the  Cyst"  {Lancet,  1873);  (9) 
"Ovariotomy  in  extremis"  (Clin.  Essay,  No.  4,  Lancet,  1874); 
(10)  "  Exploration  of  the  Abdomen  in  cases  of  Obstruction  of 
the  Bowel"  (Clin.  Essay,  No.  5,  Lancet,  1875);  (11)  "On  the 
Treatment  of  Vesical  Irritability  and  Incontinence  in  the  Female, 
by  Dilatation  of  the  Neck  of  the  Bladder"  (Clin.  Essay,  No.  6, 
Lancet,  1875) ;  (12)  "The  Surgery  of  Scrofulous  Glands"  {Med. 
Times  and  Gazette,  1885). 

William  Topley, 

F.G.S.,  Assoc Inst.C.E.  Student  of  the  Royal  School  of 
Mines,  1858-61.  For  twenty  years  engaged  in  the  Geological 
Survey  ;  and  has  mapped  parts  of  Kent,  Surrey,  Durham,  North- 
umberland, &c,  with  illustrative  sections  and  memoirs.  Author 
of  a  general  Memoir  on  the  Geology  of  the  Weald  of  Kent  and 
Sussex.  Author  of  various  papers  in  Quart.  Journ.  Geol.  Soc.  ; 
of  a  paper  on  the  Relation  of  Geology  to  Agriculture,  in  Journ. 
Roy.  Agric  Soc  ;  and  on  the  Channel  Tunnel,  in  Quart.  Journ. 
Sci.  Assisted  Dr.  Buchanan  in  a  Report  to  the  Privy  Council 
Medical  Officer,  on  the  Distribution  of  Phthisis  as  affected  by 
dampness  of  soil.  Secretary  (1872-81)  of  the  Geol.  Section  of 
Brit.  Assoc.  Member  for  England  of  the  Committee  for 
preparing  an  International  Geological  Map  of  Europe.  Editor 
of  the  Geological  Record.  President,  Geologists'  Association. 
Author  of  Report  on  "The  National  Geological  Surveys  of 
Europe"  (Brit.  Assoc,  1884). 

Henry  Trimen,  M.B.  (Lond.), 

F.L.  S.  Director  of  the  Royal  Botanic  Gardens,  Ceylon.  De 
voted  to  the  study  of  Botany,  systematic,  descriptive,  economic, 
geographical,  and  historical.  Editor  of  the  Journal  of 
Botany,  1872-79.  Author  (in  conjunction  with  Mr.  W.  T. 
Thiselton  Dyer,  F.R.S.)  of  "Flora  of  Middlesex"  (1869);  of 
the  Botanical  portion  of  Bentley  and  Trimen's  "  Medicinal 
Plants"  (1875-80) ;  and  of  more  than  sixty  papers  on  botanical 
subjects,  including  : — "  Descriptions  and  Critical  Observations 
on  the  Successive  Additions  to  the  British  Flora "  {[ourn.  of 
Bot.,  1866-79);  "The  funcacetz  of  Portugal"  {ibid.,  1872); 
"  Spenceria,  a  new  genus  of  Rosacea;"  {ibid.,  1879)  ;  "  Phyllora- 
chis,  a  new  genus  of  Graminea"  {ibid.)  ;  "Notes  on  Oudneya 
and  Boea"  (Linn.  Soc.  Journ.,  1877-79);  "Systematic  Cata- 
logue of  the  Phanerogams  and  Ferns  of  Ceylon"  (Journ.  Asiat. 
Soc.  Ceylon,  1885);  "Notes  on  the  Flora  of  Ceylon,  with 
Descriptions  of  many  new  species"  {Journ.  of  Bot.,  1885); 
"Hermann's  Ceylon  Herbarium  and  Linnaeus's  'Flora  Zey- 
lonica,'  "  being  a  critical  examination  of  the  plants  of  Hermann 
described  by  Linnaeus  (Linn.  Soc.  Journ.,  1887);   "Report  to 


May  3,  1888] 


NATURE 


13 


the  Madras  Government  on  the  Cinchona  Plantations  of  that 
Presidency"  (1883)  ;  "Annual  Reports  of  the  Botanic  Gardens, 
Ceylon  "  (1880-85). 

Henry  Marshall  Ward,  M.A., 

F.L.S.  Fellow  of  Christ's  College,  Cambridge.  Professor  of 
Botany,  Royal  Indian  Engineering  College,  Cooper's  Hill 
(Forestry  Branch.)  Distinguished  for  his  researches  in  Histo- 
logical and  Cryptogamic  Botany.  Appointed  by  the  Secretary 
of  State  for  the  Colonies  to  visit  Ceylon,  1879-81,  to  investigate 
the  Coffee-Leaf  Disease.  Has  published  numerous  researches, 
of  which  the  following  are  the  more  important: — "On  the 
Embryo-sac  and  Development  of  Gymnodenia  conopsea "  {Quart, 
fourn.  Micros.  Set.,  1880,  pis.  3)  ;  "A  Contribution  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  Embryo-sac  in  Angiosperms  "  (!ourn.  Linn. 
Soc,  1880,  pis.  9)  ;  First,  second,  and  third  Reports  on  the 
Coffee-Leaf  Disease,  Ceylon,  1880-81  {ibid.)  ;  "Researches  on 
the  Morphology  and  Life-history  of  a  tropical  Pyrenomycetous 
Fungus  {Asterina)"  {Quart.  Journ.  Micros.  Sci.,  1882,  pis.  2)  ; 
' '  Observations  on  the  genus  Pythueni  "  { Quart.  Journ.  Micros. 
Sci.,  1884,  pis.  3);  "On  the  Structure,  Development,  and 
Life-history  of  a  tropical  Epiphyllous  Lichen  {Strigula  com- 
planata)"  (Trans.  Linn.  Soc,  1883,  pis.  4)  ;  "On  the  Morpho- 
logy and  the  Development  of  the  Perithecium  of  Meliola,  a 
genus  of  tropical  Epiphyllous  Fungi"  (Phil.  Trans.,  1883,  Pis. 
3)  ;  "On  the  Structure  and  Life-history  of  Entyloma  Ranun- 
culi" (Phil.  Trans.  1887,  pis.  4);  "On  some  points  in  the 
Histology  and  Physiology  of  the  Fi'iits  and  Seeds  of  the  genus 
Rhamnus"  {Annals  of  Botany,  1887,  pis.  2).  Translator  of 
"Lectures  on  the  Physiology  of  Plants,"  by  Julius  von  Sachs 
(Clarendon  Press,  1887). 

William  Henry  White, 

Assistant  Controller  and  Director  of  Naval  Construction.  Charged 
with  principal  responsibility  for  design  and  construction  of  all 
ships  of  the  Royal  Navy.  Author  of  a  "  Manual  of  Naval 
Architecture,"  adopted  as  a  Text-book  in  the  Royal  Naval 
College,  issued  to  the  Royal  Navy,  translated  into  German  and 
Italian,  and  officially  issued  to  both  fleets.  Author  of  numerous 
papers  on  the  science  and  practice  of  Shipbuilding,  most  of  these 
being  published  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Inst,  of  Naval 
Architects,  of  which  he  is  a  Member  of  Council.  In  these 
papers  there  is  a  large  amount  of  original  scientific  work, 
notably  in  "  Calculations  for  the  Stability  of  Ships,"  1871 
(written  jointly  with  Mr.  M.  John)  ;  The  Geometry  of  Meta- 
centric Diagrams,"  1878;  "The  Rolling  of  Sailing  Ships," 
188 1  ;  "  The  Course  of  Study  at  the  Roy.  Nav.  College,"  1877. 
Engaged  in  extensive  theoretical  investigations  and  experi- 
ments on  the  Structural  Strength  of  Ships,  and  the  Strains  to 
which  they  are  subjected  at  sea.  Many  of  the  results  published 
in  the  "  Manual  of  Naval  Architecture  "  and  Trans.  Inst.  Nav. 
Architects.  Has  had  much  to  do  with  the  extension  of  system- 
atic observations  of  rolling,  pitching,  and  general  behaviour  of 
H.  M.  ships  at  sea,  from  which  much  good  has  resulted  to  Ship- 
design,  and  valuable  additions  have  been  made  to  trustworthy 
information  on  Ocean  Waves.  Ha*  also  been  able  to  render 
good  service  to  the  general  extension  of  scientific  methods  of 
observing  and  analyzing  the  steam  trials  and  turning  trials  of 
H.  M.  ships.  Was  closely  associated  for  some  years  with  the 
late  Mr.  Froude,  and  with  the  practical  development  in  the 
designs  of  H.M.  ships  of  the  principles  deduced  from  model 
experiments  originated  and  conducted  by  Mr.  Froude,  which 
experiments  are  now  superintended  by  the  late  Mr.  Froude's 
son,  Mr.  R.  G.  Froude.  Is  the  designer  of  some  of  the  swiftest 
ships  afloat,  both  armoured  and  unarmoured,  in  which  designs 
wide  departures  were  made  from  previous  practice.  Is  a 
member  of  the  Inst.  Civ.  Eng.  ;  of  the  Council  of  the  Inst. 
Naval  Architects ;  Hon.  Mem.  of  the  N.E.  Coast  Inst,  of 
Engineers  and  Shipbuilders  ;  Member  of  the  Roy.  Unit.  Serv. 
Inst.  Has  diploma  as  Fellow  of  the  Royal  School  of  Naval 
Architecture  (highest  class).  Professor  of  Naval  Architecture  at 
South  Kensington,  1871-73,  and  at  Royal  Naval  College, 
1873-81. 

THE  ISLANDS  OF  VULCANO  AND  STROMBOLL 

T  N  the  spring  of  last  year,  accompanied  by  my  friend 
T  Signor  Gaetano  Platan ia,  I  passed  a  month  in  a 
geological  ramble  through  the  ^Eolian  Islands.     In  con- 


sequence of  such  a  short  stay,  no  observations  were  carried 
out  with  sufficient  detail  and  accuracy  to  be  worthy  of 
publishing,  especially  after  the  many  important  observa- 
tions that  we  already  possess  from  Spallanzani  to  Judd. 
Unfortunately,  the  isolated  position  of  the  group,  and  the 
absence  of  any  sufficiently  qualified  local  observer,  render 
it  impossible  to  have  continuous  records  of  the  vulcano- 
logical  and  seismological  phenomena  of  the  islands ;  in 
fact,  what  little  is  known  has  come  from  the  few  scientific 
travellers  who  from  time  to  time  visit  this  out-of-the-way 
locality.  It  is  for  that  reason,  therefore,  that  the  following 
notes  have  been  written,  in  the  hope  of  saving  a  few  of 
the  links  in  the  broken  chain  of  the  record  of  the  two  active 
volcanoes  of  Stromboli  and  Vulcano. 

We  arrived  at  Vulcano  on  May  24,  1887,  and  left  the 
island  on  May  28.  The  erruption  that  had  occurred 
during  February  and  two  following  months  of  1886 
had  drilled  out  the  bottom  of  the  crater,  so  that  the 
lower  half  of  the  path  (on  the  west  side)  leading  down 
to  the  bottom  of  the  crater  had  been  removed,  and 
its  lower  end  terminated  abruptly  in  a  cliff  sheer  down 
to  the  crater  bottom.  In  consequence  we  were  unable  to 
descend,  but  we  could  on  two  days  get  a  good  view  of  the 
crater  bottom.  Much  hissing  and  blowing  off  of  steam 
was  going  on  from  the  fissures  of  the  floor  of  the  crater, 
which  was  covered  by  a  layer  of  purplish-gray  ash 
washed  down  from  the  sloping  sides.  The  edges  of  the 
fissures  in  the  bottom  and  lower  part  of  the  crater  sides 
were  covered  by  a  yellow  crust  of  what  was  no  doubt 
sulphur,  boric  acid,  &c. 

On  the  somewhat  flattened  ridge  forming  the  northern 
lip  of  the  crater,  and  not  very  far  from  the  head  of  the 
celebrated  obsidian  lava  stream,  was  a  very  large  fumarole 
emitting  a  strong  and  large  jet  of  steam  under  pressure, 
having  about  the  size  and  force  of  that  of  the  bocca grande 
of  the  Solfatara.  With  our  sticks  we  removed  some  of 
the  stones  choking  the  hole,  which  on  their  cooler  parts 
were  covered  with  deposits  of  sulphur  and  realgar.  When 
this  was  exposed  to  the  full  jet  of  steam,  the  minerals  were 
melted,  and  blown  away  or  over  the  surface  of  the  blocks, 
forming  a  kind  of  reddish  varnish  or  patina,  whilst  a  rain 
of  drops  was  thrown  into  the  air,  so  that  our  clothes  and 
hats  were  bespattered  with  beads  of  a  variable  mixture  of 
sulphur  and  realgar.  To  the  east  side,  where  are  dis- 
tinguishable three  crater  rings,  a  considerable  number  of 
fumaroles  exist,  depositing  chiefly  sulphur,  but  also  boric 
acid  where  hottest.  Mr.  Narlian,  a  resident  in  the  island, 
says  that  not  since  the  1886  eruption  "has  the  crater 
entered  into  its  former  quiescent  condition." 

On  the  upper  portion  of  the  northern  slopes  of  the 
cone,  to  the  east  of  the  obsidian  stream,  all  the  ground  is 
fumarolic,  and  choked  with  sulphur,  where  that  mineral  is 
extensively  quarried. 

Vulcanello  seems  on  the  verge  of  extinction,  it  being 
possible  to  find  only  slightly  warm  exhalations  of  watery 
vapour  in  a  few  fissures. 

During  the  days  we  were  at  Vulcano  we  noticed  that 
the  apparent  quantity  of  vapour  emitted  had  a  very 
marked  relationship  to  the  moisture  of  the  atmosphere, 
and  therefore,  indirectly,  to  the  winds.  The  same  we  also 
observed  to  be  the  case  at  Vulcano  as  we  saw  it  from  time 
to  time  during  our  stay  on  the  Island  of  Lipari. 

June  1,  2,  and  3  were  spent  at  Stromboli.  In  ascending 
the  volcano,  we,  on  leaving  the  town,  skirted  the  northern 
coast  of  the  island,  and  after  passing  the  Punta  Labronzo 
commenced  the  ascent,  gradually  approaching  the  north- 
east limit  of  the  Sciarra.  It  is  a  track  that  passes  chiefly 
over  hard  rock,  and  to  be  strongly  recommended  in  pre- 
ference to  any  other  paths,  which  are  mostly  over  loose 
materials.  Skirting  the  crater,  one  walks  along  the  ridge 
of  the  mountain  which  overhangs  and  partly  hides  the 
crater ;  we  commenced  to  descend  a  little  on  the  south  side 
of  the  volcanic  mouth,  until  we  arrived  at  a  small  pin- 
nacle of  rock,  where  a  good  view   of   the   crater   was 


14 


NATURE 


[May  3,  1888 


obtainable.  Here,  under  very  great  difficulties,  from  the 
looseness  of  the  ground  of  about  two  square  metres  upon 
which  we  stood,  an  attempt  was  made  to  take  two  instant- 
aneous photographs  of  the  crater  as  we  looked  down  into 
it.  Unfortunately,  both  of  these  were  useless,  as  we  foresaw, 
from  the  vapour  blowing  towards  us. 

The  crater  was  very  quiet,  only  throwing  out  a  very 
few  fragments  of  pasty  lava  cake,  with  about  four  or  five 
explosions  during  the  four  hours  we  remained  near  by. 
There  were  other  explosions,  but  too  weak  to  eject  any- 
thing. I  descended  to  the  crater  edge,  but  could  not 
remain  long,  on  account  of  the  heat  of  the  ground  and  the 
acid  fumes,  which  seemed  to  be  in  great  part  composed  of 
HC1  with  a  good  dash  of  S02. 

On  returning  from  the  crater  edge  and  descending  a 
little  lower  on  the  south-west  of  the  Sciarra,  a  good  view 
is  obtainable  of  that  slope  and  the  crater.  Here  two 
successful  photographs  were  taken,  which  show  very  well 
the  crater  with  its  relative  position  to  the  summit  of  the 
mountain  and  to  the  Sciarra.  On  the  following  day  the 
tour  of  the  island  was  made  in  a  boat,  and,  as  only  a 
few  stones  were  being  ejected,  we  were  able  to  land  on 
the  narrow  ledge  or  beach  at  the  foot  of  the  Sciarra. 
Two  successful  photographs  were  taken  from  the  Scoglio 
dei  Cavassi,  from  which  a  fine  view  is  obtainable  of  the 
Sciarra  and  the  crater. 

During  our  residence  on  the  island,  and  our  stay  at 
Salina  and  Panaria,  we  always  noticed  that  the  amount 
of  visible  vapour  issuing  was  in  direct  proportion  to  the 
humidity  of  the  atmosphere.  On  account  of  the  great 
quietness  of  the  volcano,  it  was  impossible  to  form  any 
judgment  as  to  whether  there  was  any  relation  of  increased 
or  diminished  activity  to  the  barometric  pressure,  and  so, 
indirectly,  to  the  winds. 

Since  leaving  the  island,  correspondence  has  been  kept 
up  between  Signor  Giuseppe  Rende,  the  post  and 
telegraph  master,  and  myself.  The  following  information 
I  have  been  able  to  glean  from  that  gentleman's  letters. 
From  June  to  November  1887  the  volcano  remained  in  its 
normal  state.  On  November  18,  a  moderate  eruption 
(eruzione  mediocre),  and  the  wind  blowing  from  the  west, 
a  shower  of  scoria  {?  fragments)  (aride  pietre),  fell  amongst 
the  vines  near  the  village.  This  was  accompanied  by 
explosions  (<W//),  which,  it  appears,  considerably  frightened 
the  people.  Later,  the  scoria  (pomice)  fell  into  the  sea, 
which  it  covered  as  far  as  the  eye  could  see.  Un- 
fortunately, Signor  Rende  did  not  preserve  any  of  the 
£jectamenta,  but,  judging  from  what  one  sees  composing 
recent  deposits  of  the  island,  the  material  was  a  pumiceous 
scoria,  or  a  light  scoria,  as  it  appears  to  have  floated  on 
the  sea. 

In  answer  to  further  inquiries,  Signor  G.  Rende  tells 
me  that  the  floating  scoria  extended  eastwards  as  far 
as  the  eye  could  reach.  No  lava  appeared,  but  a  small 
mouth  opened  at  the  edge  of  the  crater,  but  in  a  very  few 
days  disappeared.     He  then  goes  on  to  say  : — 

"  I  draw  your  attention  in  this  letter  to  a  very  remark- 
able fact.  On  the  25th  of  last  February  (i.e.1888),  at  4.21 
p.m.,  occurred  two  little  shocks  of  earthquake  of  tin- 
dulatory  character,  followed  by  a  subsultory  one,  so  that 
we  thought  it  would  be  the  end  of  the  world  for  us. 
Never  had  a  subsu'tory  earthquake  been  felt.  It  split 
various  houses,  overturned  walls,  and  made  earth-banks 
slip.  Those  who  had  their  eyes  fixed  on  the  mountain 
seemed  to  see  the  summit  of  it  fall  over  from  south  to 
north.  People  who  were  working  amongst  the  vines  fell 
on  their  faces.  No  victims.  Neither  Panaria,  Lipari,  nor 
the  other  islands  noticed  the  shock.  The  volcano  {i.e. 
Stromboli)  was  in  no  way  affected  (non  fece  mossa 
alcuna)." 

Prof.  Mercalli  has  collected  together  what  is  known 
of  the  history  of  Vulcano  and  Stromboli.  He  also 
published  accounts  of  the  state  of  these  volcanoes  during 
the  years  1882-86  inclusive  ("  Natura  delle  eruzione  dello 


Stromboli,"  Atti  della  Soc.  Ital.  di  Sc.  Nat.  vol.  xxiv.  ; 
"  Notizie  sullo  stato  attuale  dei  vulcani  attivi  Italiani," 
ibid.  vol.  xxvii.  ;  "  La  fossa  di  Vulcano  e  lo  Stromboli  dal 
1884  al  1886,"  ibid.  vol.  xxix.). 

The  eruption  of  November  18,  1887,  is  curiously  near 
the  date  of  November  17,  1882,  when  one  of  the  strongest 
modern  eruptions  of  Stromboli  occurred,  and  when  five 
lateral  mouths  opened  on  the  Sciarra  about  100  metres 
below  the  crater  edge,  but  without  the  ejection  of  a  lava 
stream.  As  on  one  or  two  other  occasions,  the  last  erup- 
tion extensively  covered  the  sea  with  scoria,  a  fact  of 
no  small  importance  when  we  take  into  consideration  that 
.Stromboli  is  a  very  basic  volcano,  in  a  unique  state  of 
chronic  activity,  and  is  yet  able  to  produce  scoria  or 
pumiceous  scoria,  sufficiently  vesicular  to  float  on  the  sea, 
and  so  be  transported  to  great  distances. 

With  regard  to  the  position  of  lateral  eruptions  of  this 
mountain,  the  only  situation  in  which  dykes  are  visible  is 
on  the  north-west  side  and  near  the  Sciarra,  where  a  con- 
siderable number  are  to  be  seen.  One  of  these  is  visible 
in  section  near  La  Serra,  showing  it  continuous  with  a  lava 
flow  that  oozed  from  it  only  a  few  metres  above  sea-level, 
indicating  that  not  very  long  since  a  lateral  eruption  gave 
rise  to  a  lava  stream ;  another,  close  to  the  crater,  stands 
out  as  a  great  wall  at  right  angles  to  the  present  eruptive 
axis  of  Stromboli,  and  certainly  must  have  been  formed 
when  the  crater  was  at  a  very  much  higher  level.  No  less 
than  three  dykes  at  Stromboli  are  hollow  ones,  with  their 
interspace  filled  in  from  above  by  loose  materials,  show- 
ing that  they  must  also  have  been  drained  below  present 
sea-level,  as  they  reach — as  hollow  dykes — down  to  the 
beach.  I  believe  I  was  the  first  to  draw  attention  to  this 
peculiar  variety  of  dyke,  in  describing  the  eruption  of 
Vesuvius  of  May  2,  1885,  where  it  was  possible  to  watch 
the  process  of  formation  ("  L'Eruzione  del  Vesuvio  nel 
2  Maggio,  1885,"  Ann.  d.  Accad.  O.  Costa  d'Asp.  Natu- 
ralistic Era  3,  vol.  i.  ;  and  "  Lo  Spettatore  del  Vesuvio," 
Napoli,  1887).  These  hollow  dykes  of  Stromboli  may  be 
seen  at  La  Serra,  the  northern  limit  of  La  Sciarra,  and  at 
Punta  Labronzo.  I  expected  them  to  be  rare,  as  there  is 
no  mention  of  them  made  in  any  literature  known  to 
me  ;  but  as  it  is  also  well  shown  near  the  Punta  del 
Corno,  at  Vulcano,  it  can  hardly  be  the  case. 

In  conclusion,  I  take  this  opportunity  of  thanking 
Signor  Narlian,  of  Vulcano,  and  Signor  Rende  for  their 
past  kindness,  and  for  the  promise  of  further  notes  on 
these  two  isolated,  neglected,  but  interesting  volcanoes. 

H.  J.  Johnston  Lavis. 


HEAD  GROWTH  IN  STUDENTS  AT  THE 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CAMBRIDGE.1 

T  N  the  memoir  read  by  Dr.  Venn,  on  April  24,  at  the 
J-  Anthropological  Institute,  upon  the  measurements 
made,  during  the  last  three  years,  of  the  students  of  Cam- 
bridge, one  column  is  assigned  to  what  he  terms  "  Head 
Products,"  and  which  may  fairly  be  interpreted  as  "  Relative 
Brain  Volumes."  The  entries  in  it  are  obtained  by  multi- 
plying together  the  maximum  length  and  breadth  of  the 
head  and  its  height  above  a  specified  plane.  The  product 
of  the  three  determines  the  contents  of  a  rectangular  box 
that  would  just  include  the  portion  of  the  head  referred  to. 
The  capacity  of  this  box  would  be  only  rudely  propor- 
tionate to  that  of  the  skull  in  individual  cases,  but  ought 
to  be  closely  proportionate  in  the  average  of  many  cases. 
The  relation  they  bear  to  one  another  affords,  as  it  seems 
to  me,  a  trustworthy  basis  for  the  following  discussion, 
especially  as  all  the  measurements  were  made  not  only  on 
a  uniform  plan,  but  by  the  same  operator. 

1  Read  at  the  Anthropological  Institute,  on  April  2A,  by  Francis  Galton, 
F.R.S. 


May  3,  1888] 


NATURE 


15 


It  will  be  convenient  to  reproduce  Dr.  Venn's  figures  in 
a  separate  table,  neglecting  the  second  decimal  :  — 

Head  Products. 


u. 

■m 

Class  A. 

U 

Class  B. 

0  « 

Class  C. 

Ages. 

"  High 
honour     men. 

is 

ing  "  honour" 
men. 

'•  Poll  "  men. 

"la 

19 

241-9 

17 

237' I 

70 

229-1 

52 

20 

244-2 

54 

237'9 

149 

235-1 

102 

21 

241-0 

52 

236'4 

117 

240*2 

79 

22 

248- 1 

50 

241-7 

73 

240-0 

66 

a.S 

244-6 

27 

239-0 

33 

2350 

23 

24 

245-8 

25 

25 1  2 

14 

244-4 

13 

25 

) 

and 

up- 

[   248  9 

33 

239 - 1 

20 

243'5 

26 

wards. 

! 

476 

258 

36i 

The  figures  in  the  table  are  thrown  into  diagrams  in 
Figs.  I.,  II.,  and  III.,  in  which  curves  are  also  drawn  to 
interpret  what  seems  to  be  their  significance.    The  great 


irregularity  in  Fig.  II.,  corresponding  to  the  age  of  twenty- 
four,  may  be  fairly  ascribed  to  the  smallness  of  observa- 
tions, only  thirteen  in  number,  on  which  it  is  founded. 
The  three  resultant  curves  are  shown  by  themselves  in 
Fig.  IV.,  where  they  can  be  easily  compared.  It  will  then 
be  seen  that  the  A  and  C  curves  are  markedly  different, 
and  that  the  B  curve  is  intermediate.  Accepting  these 
curves  as  a  true  statement  of  the  case — and  they  are 
beyond  doubt  an  approximately  true  statement— we  find 
that  a  "  high  honour  "  man  possesses  at  the  age  of  nine- 
teen a  distinctly  larger  brain  than  a  "  poll "  man  in  the 
proportion  of  241  to  230-5,  or  one  that  is  almost  5 
per  cent,  larger.  By  the  end  of  his  College  career,  the 
brain  of  the  "  high  honour"  man  has  increased  from  241 
to  249  ;  that  is  by  3  per  cent,  of  its  size,  while  the  brain 
of  the  "  poll  "  man  has  increased  from  230-5  to  2445,  or 
6  per  cent. 

Four  conclusions  follow  from  all  this  : — 

(1)  Although  it  is  pretty  well  ascertained  that  in'the 
masses  of  the  population  the  brain  ceases  to  grow  after 
the  age  of  nineteen,  or  even  earlier,  it  is  by  no  means  so 
with  University  students. 

(2)  That  men  who  obtain  high  honours  have  had  con- 
siderably larger  brains  than  others  at  the  age  of  nineteen. 

(3)  That  they  have  larger  brains  than  others,  but  not  to 


Length  x  Breadth  x  Height  of  Head,  in  inches,  of  Cambridge  University  Men  at  different  Ages  {from  Dr.   Venn's  Tabes). 


AGES 


240 
I 


TL 


250      240 

L 


nr 


250      230 


IV 

240 
_J 


250 


19 

20 

21 

22- 

23- 

24- 

25  AND  ) 
UPWARDS i 


1 T 1 vj , r-! j , --1 j r 

A,  First  Class  Men  ;  B,  Honour  Men,  not  First  Class  ;  C,  Poll  Men. 


the  same  extent,  at  the  age  of  twenty-five  ;  in  fact  their 
predominance  is  by  that  time  diminished  to  one-half  of 
what  it  was. 

(4)  Consequently  "  high  honour  "  men  are  presumably, 
as  a  class,  both  more  precocious  and  more  gifted  through- 
out than  others.  We  must  therefore  look  upon  eminent 
University  success  as  a  fortunate  combination  of  these 
two  helpful  conditions. 


PHOTOGRAPH  OF  THE  EYE  BY  FLASH  OF 
MAGNESLUM. 

THE  effect  of  complete  obscurity  on  the  normal  pupil 
-*-  has  hitherto  been  seen  only  by  the  light  of  electric 
discharges,  which  allowed  of  no  measurements. 

MM.  Miethe  and  Gaedicke,  by  their  invention  of  the 
well-known  explosive  magnesium  mixture,  have  furnished 
us  with  a  simpler  method.  A  photograph  of  the  eye  can 
be  taken  in  a  perfectly  dark  room,  showing  the  pupil 
fully  dilated,  as  its  reaction  does  not  begin  until  after 
exposure. 

Mr.  Miethe,  astronomer  at  the  Potsdam  Observatory, 
himself  at  my  suggestion  undertook  to  execute  the  accom- 
panying photograph  of  a  normal  eye,  life-size,  after  a 
quarter  of  an  hour's  rest  in  a  carefully  darkened  room. 
The  pupil  was  found  to  measure  10  mm.  horizontally  (the 


breadth  of  the  cornea  being  13  mm.).     A  reflection  of 
the  flash  is  seen  on  the  cornea. 

This   kind   of    photography   may   prove    a    new   and 
valuable  method  for  many  other  branches  of  scientific 


research,  but  it  is  of  especial  utility  to  ophthalmology,  as 
the  eye,  by  its  mobility  and  sensitiveness,  has  hitherto 
been  a  most  difficult  subject  for  the  camera. 

Claude  du  Bois-Rkymont^ 


i6 


NATURE 


[May  3,  1888 


NOTES. 

The  Council  of  the  British  Association  has  nominated  Prof. 
Flower  for  the  Presidency  of  the  meeting  to  be  held  next  year 
at  Newcastle. 

The  annual  conversazione  of  the  Royal  Society  will  be  held 
on  Wednesday,  May  9. 

The  Council  of  the  Marine  Biological  Association  has 
appointed  Mr.  Gilbert  C.  Bourne,  M.A.,  F.L.S.,  Fellow  of 
New  College,  Oxford,  to  be  Director  and  Secretary  of  the  Ply- 
mouth Laboratory.  Mr.  Bourne  began  the  study  of  biology 
under  Dr.  P.  Herbert  Carpenter  at  Eton  College,  and  in  188 1 
obtained  an  exhibition  in  natural  science  at  New  College.  After 
studying  under  Prof.  Moseley  at  Oxford  and  Prof.  Aug.  Weis 
mann  at  Freiburg  in  Baden,  Mr.  Bourne  was  placed  in  the  first 
class  in  the  honour  school  of  natural  science  at  Oxford  in  1885. 
Immediately  after  taking  his  degree  he  proceeded  to  Diego 
Garcia  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  with  the  purpose  of  investigating 
the  fauna  and  flora  of  that  island.  On  his  return  to  England 
he  became  assistant  to  Prof.  Moseley  at  Oxford,  and  has  per- 
formed the  duties  of  Lecturer  and  Demonstrator  in  Animal 
Morphology  for  the  last  two  years.  In  October  last  Mr.  Bourne 
was  elected  to  an  open  Fellowship  at  New  College. 

On  the  evening  of  April  5,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  persons 
interested  in  science  met  in  the  hall  of  the  Columbian  University, 
Washington,  to  pay  a  tribute  to  the  memory  of  Asa  Gray. 
Prof.  Langley,  Secretary  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution, 
presided,  and  addresses  were  delivered  by  Prof.  Chickering, 
Dr.  Vasey,  Prof.  L.  F.  Ward,  and  Dr.  C.  V.  Riley. 

The  sixty-first  meeting  of  the  German  Association  of  Natural- 
ists will  take  place  at  Cologne  from  the  i8ih  to  the  23rd  of 
September  next.  Prof.  Bardenheuer  and  the  chemist  Th.  Kyll 
are  the  secretaries.  The  subjects  to  be  considered  will  be 
divided  into  thirty  sections. 

The  following  sums  for  the  furtherance  of  scientific  studies 
have  been  presented  by  the  Academy  of  Sciences  at  Berlin  : 
1500  marks  (.£75,)  to  Dr.  Goldstein  (Berlin),  a  physicist  ;  2000 
marks  (^100)  to  Dr.  Fabricius  (Berlin),  the  archaeologist,  and 
Dr.  Suhlmann  (Wiirzburg)  ;  and  900  marks  (^45)  to  Prof. 
Gerhard  (Eisleben). 

Captain  C.  E.  Dutton,  of  the  U.S.  Geological  Survey,  is 
writing  his  monograph  on  the  Charleston  earthquake.  The  re- 
ports on  which  it  will  be  based  are  complete,  and  in  shape  for 
the  printer.  Science  is  of  opinion  that  no  earthquake  of  ancient 
or  modern  times  has  been  observed  with  such  care  and  fulness 
of  detail.  Besides  the  observations  made  by  Professors  in  several 
Colleges,  by  hundreds  of  railway  officials,  and  at  signal  stations, 
a  large  number  of  intelligent  private  citizens  have  given  an 
account  of  their  own  experiences.  The  volume  which  Mr.  Dutton 
is  editing  will  also  contain  a  report  on  the  Sonora  earthquake. 

On  the  night  of  April  17  a  magnificent  display  of  the  aurora 
borealis  was  observed  at  Motala,  in  Sweden,  in  the  northern  sky. 
On  the  same  night  at  9.5  p.m.  a  phenomenon  was  seen  in  the 
north-western  sky  at  Orebro,  also  in  Central  Sweden,  having  the 
appearance  of  a  bright  horizontal  flash  of  lightning,  but  without 
any  report.  It  was  followed  by  the  appearance  of  an  unsteady 
and  varying  aurora.     The  thermometer  stood  at  210  C. 

On  the  night  of  March  27  a  rumbling  noise  like  that  of  a 
distant  earthquake  was  heard  at  Aaseral,  in  Southern  Norway, 
but  no  shock  was  felt.  It  could  not  have  been  thunder,  as  the 
weather  was  clear  and  intensely  cold. 

According  to  the  official  report  of  the  recent  great  earth- 
quake in  Yunnan  Province  of  China,  the  shocks  commenced 
between  5  and  6  p.m.  on  January  14,  and  lasted  till  4  o'clock 
the  following  morning.     During   this  period  about  ten  serious 


shocks  were  counted,  all  being  accompanied  by  a  noise  like 
thunder.  In  district  cities  in  the  south  of  the  province,  the  town 
walls  were  either  thrown  down  or  cracked,  while  public  offices 
and  temples  shared  the  same  fate.  In  the  city  of  Shih-ping  large 
numbers  of  private  houses  were  destroyed,  those  in  the  south 
and  east  quarters  suffering  most,  while  those  which  remained 
standing  had  cracked  or  slanting  walls.  Two  hundred  persons 
were  killed  in  this  town  alone,  and  3000  were  injured.  In  and 
around  this  single  city  about  5000  persons  were  killed  and  in- 
jured. Most  of  the  people  were  left  without  homes,  and  were 
starving,  as  the  provisions  were  buried  in  the  ruins  of  the  houses. 
In  one  town  the  gaol  was  thrown  down  by  the  shocks,  and  all 
the  prisoners  escaped.  The  earthquake  is  said  to  be  the  most 
destructive  ever  recorded  in  China.  The  locality  in  which  it  was 
most  violent  is  mountainous,  and  produces  copper  and  a  parti- 
cular kind  of  tea  for  which  Yunnan  is  famous.  The  area  of 
disturbance  is  said  to  be  about  770  miles  from  east  to  west,  and 
60  from  north  to  south,  Shih-ping  being  near  the  centre.  The 
direction  of  the  shocks  appears  to  have  been  at  right  angles  to 
the  prevailing  direction  of  the  valleys,  lakes,  and  rivers  of  the 
region.  This,  at  least,  is  how  the  Pekin  correspondent  of  a 
Shanghai  newspaper  reads  the  report  ;  and  he  adds  that  from  the 
centre  of  intensity,  a  little  to  the  west  of  the  city  of  Shih-ping, 
there  was  a  decided  extension  of  the  earthquake-wave  north- 
ward in  the  direction  of  the  Yunnan  lake  Tienchih,  as  well  as 
westward  to  the  city  of  Weiyuen. 

IT  is  curious  to  notice  that  on  the  day  when  this  earthquake 
occurred  there  was  one  also  at  Luchon,  a  town  in  the  Szechuen 
Province,  about  350  English  miles  north-east  of  the  locality  of 
the  Yunnan  earthquake.  Much  loss  of  life  is  said  to  have  taken 
place  here  also,  and  there  was  a  great  subsidence  of  land.  No 
official  report  respecting  this  second  earthquake  has  yet  made 
its  appearance. 

The  Manilla  Government  has  intrusted  to  the  Sub-Director  of 
the  local  Observatory  the  task  of  studying  the  causes  of  the 
numerous  storms  which  prevail  along  the  coast  of  the  Philippine 
Archipelago  as  well  as  inland,  with  a  view  to  drawing  a 
meteorological  chart  of  the  islands,  and  of  establishing  their 
magnetic  positions. 

The  Pilot  Chart  of  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean  for  the 
month  of  March,  issued  by  the  United  States  Hydrographer, 
contains  the  following  interesting  facts.  Three  pronounced 
cyclonic  storms  passed  over  the  North  Atlantic  during  the 
month.  One  of  these  was  in  some  respects  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  and  destructive  storms  ever  experienced 
along  the  Atlantic  coast  of  the  United  States.  After 
traversing  the  entire  American  continent  from  west  to  east 
without  any  noteworthy  energy,  it  gained  terrific  force  on 
reaching  the  coast  to  the  southward  of  Hatteras  on  the  nth. 
Its  progress  eastward  was  delayed  from  the  nth  to  the  15th 
by  an  area  of  high  barometer,  and  it  then  resumed  its  course 
easterly  with  renewed  energy,  crossing  the  40th  meridian  in 
about  500  N.  latitude.  Much  less  fog  was  experienced  off  the 
Grand  Banks  than  usual  during  March.  Field  ice  was  encoun- 
tered as  far  south  as  430  N.,  and  between  460  and  60°  W.,  but 
the  amount  reported  was  not  great.  Earthquakes  were  expe- 
rienced by  the  United  States  store-ship  at  Coquimbo  on  January 
4,  and  by  the  British  ship  Diadem  in  latitude  26°  2'  N., 
longitude  630  19'  W  ,  on  March  1.  The  sensation  in  the  latter 
case  was  as  though  the  vessel  had  grounded  upon  a  reef. 

In  the  storm  to  which  reference  is  made  in  the  preceding  note, 
oil  seems  to  have  been  freely  used  off  the  coast  of  the  United 
States  for  the  calming  of  the  waves.  According  to  Science,  more 
than  a  dozen  captains  and  sailing-masters  caught  in  the  tempest 
when  at  its  worst  believe  their  vessels  were  saved  by  this  ex- 
pedient.    The  sailing-master  of  the  yacht  Iroquois  reports  that 


May  3,  1888] 


NATURE 


17 


j  when  furious  waves  with  an  immense  comb  were  approaching 
they  were  deprived  of  their  power  to  do  harm  by  "a  patch  of 
oil  no  larger  than  a  dining-room  table." 

Another  interesting  mineral  synthesis  has  just  been  effected 
by  M.  Dufet.  Native  di-calcium  arsenate,,  pharmacolite,  occurs 
very  sparingly  upon  the  known  parts  of  the  surface  of  our  globe, 
and  is  so  rarely  found  in  well-defined  crystals  that  M.  Des 
Cloizeaux  has  only  just  completed  his  investigation  of  its 
mineralogical  and  optical  properties.  Generally  it  is  found  in 
the  form  of  silky  fibres,  but  is  at  times  met  with  in  perfect 
monoclinic  prisms  of  pearly  lustre  and  frequently  possessing  a 
pink  tint.  M.  Dufet  has  succeeded  in  producing  these  beautiful 
crystals  by  a  very  ingenious  method.  Two  concentric  vases, 
the  outer  containing  nitrate  of  lime  and  the  inner  di-sodium 
arsenate,  were  filled  with  water,  and  so  arranged  that  very  slow 
diffusion  occurred  between  the  two  liquids.  The  conditions  of 
Nature  were  evidently  very  closely  imitated,  for  the  very  gradual 
precipitation  thus  brought  about  resulted  in  the  formation  of 
groups  of  crystals,  exactly  resembling  those  of  pharmacolite. 
Goniometrical  measurements  showed  that  they  belonged  to  the 
monoclinic  system  ;  and  the  close  approximation  of  the  fundamental 
angles  to  those  of  the  mineral  given  by  Haidinger  and  Schrauf, 
and  especially  the  still  more  remarkable  closeness  to  the  values 
just  arrived  at  by  M.  Des  Cloizeaux,  leave  no  doubt  as  to  the 
identity  of  the  artificial  with  the  natural.  The  chemical  analysis 
of  M.  Dufet's  crystals  leads  to  the  formula  HCaAs04  + 2H20, 
and  it  thus  becomes  chemically  as  well  as  physically  isomor- 
phous  with  brushite,  the  corresponding  phosphate  of  calcium, 
HCaP04+2H20.  This  result  clears  up  the  discrepancy  between 
the  acknowledged  formula  of  the  latter  mineral  and  that  given 
by  older  mineralogists  for  pharmacolite,  2HCaAs04  +  5H20. 
The  number  of  minerals  which  have  now  been  reproduced  in 
the  laboratory  must  be  very  considerable,  and  every  day  the 
likelihood  is  increasing  that  those  noble  species  which  have  for 
ages  been  prized  as  gems  may  discover  the  secret  of  their 
formation  to  some  indefatigable  worker.  Rubies  and  sapphires 
have  already  yielded,  possibly  the  diamond  may  not  prove 
refractory  much  longer. 

A  valuable  paper,  describing  a  new  method  of  extraction 
of  the  alkaloids  from  Cinchona  bark  by  cold  oil,  as  used  at  the 
Government  Cinchona  Factory  in  Sikkim,  was  lately  drawn  up 
by  order  of  the  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Bengal,  and  has  now 
been  issued.  Dr.  King,  the  Superintendent  of  the  Sikkim 
Plantation,  carried  on  a  long  series  of  experiments  on  an  acid 
and  alkali  process  of  manufacture,  by  which  he  succeeded  in 
producing  an  excellent  quinine.  He  never,  however,  succeeded 
in  recovering  much  more  than  half  of  the  amount  contained  in 
the  bark  on  which  he  operated.  The  acid  and  alkali  process 
had,  therefore,  to  be  abandoned,  as  wasteful  and  inefficient. 
A  process  depending  on  the  maceration  of  the  bark  in  spirit 
was  next  tried,  but,  after  much  experiment,  it  was  in  turn  aban- 
doned. During  a  visit  which  Dr.  King  paid  to  Holland  in 
1884,  he  obtained  some  hints  as  to  a  process  of  extraction  by 
means  of  oil.  Benefiting  by  the  advice  of  some  chemical 
friends,  Mr.  Gammie,  the  resident  manager  in  Sikkim,  has  been 
able  to  perfect  this  process,  with  the  result  that  the  whole  of  the 
quinine  in  yellow  bark  can  be  extracted  in  a  form  indistinguish- 
able, either  chemically  or  physically,  from  the  best  brands  of 
European  manufacture.  This  can  be  done  cheaply,  and  the 
Bengal  Government  has  caused  an  account  of  the  matter  to  be 
printed,  in  order  that  private  growers  of  Cinchona  may  be 
enabled  to  take  full  advantage  of  the  process,  and  that  a 
permauent  reduction  in  the  price  of  quinine   may  ensue. 

The  Trustees  of  the  Indian  Museum,  Calcutta,  have  issued  a  cir- 
cular announcing  that  they  have  had  under  their  consideration  the 
means  whereby  a  useful  scientific  examination  of  the  insect-pests 


of  India  can  be  best  effected.  Bearing  in  view  the  great  economic 
importance  of  the  investigation,  they  have  directed  the  first 
assistant,  Mr.  E.  C.  Cotes,  to  consider  it  an  essential  portion  of 
his  duties,  and  have  instructed  him  to  communicate  with  persons 
interested  in  the  subject,  and  likely  to  aid  the  inquiry,  in  order 
to  collect  materials  which  may  form  a  sufficient  basis  for  really 
scientific  conclusions.  Mr.  Cotes  will  gradually  record  the 
entire  life-histories  and  practical  methods  of  dealing  with  the 
principal  insect-pests,  publishing  from  time  to  time,  as  materials 
accumulate,  the  information  collected,  and  distributing  it  to 
those  interested.  Those  who  live  in  the  districts  where  the 
insects  occur,  and  have  actual  experience  of  the  pests,  are  in- 
vited to  send  to  Mr.  Cotes  accounts  of  facts  they  have  observed  ; 
and  the  circular  includes  a  full  statement  of  the  points  upon 
which  information  is  wanted. 

Readers  interested  in  the  science  and  practice  of  forestry 
will  be  interested  in  the  perusal  of  a  Report  by  the  American 
Consul  at  Mayence,  on  Forest-Culture  in  Hesse,  contained  in  the 
January  issue  of  the  Consular  Reports  of  the  United  States. 
The  writer  discusses  the  organizations  and  functions  of  the 
department  having  the  care  of  forests,  the  duties  of  the  various 
classes  of  officials  employed  in  forest-cultivation,  the  economical 
results  of  the  system  pursued,  the  course  of  instruction  followed 
in  the  schools  of  forestry,  the  organization  and  methods  of  the 
institution  for  experimental  forestry,  and  the  degree  and  amount 
of  control  assumed  by  the  State  over  private  forests.  The 
Report  is  exceedingly  detailed,  and  is  practically  a  hand- 
book of  forestry  as  practised  in  the  Grand  Duchy. 

Prof.  Blanchard,  the  well-known  entomologist,  has  just 
published  in  Paris  a  book  on  "La  Vie  chez  les  Etres  animes," 
in  which  he  discusses  Darwinism  at  length,  but  in  a  very 
incomplete  manner,  and  of  course  in  a  hostile  spirit. 

The  address  delivered  by  Mr.  A.  D.  Michael,  President  of 
the  Quekett  Microscopical  Club,  on  the  24th  of  February  last, 
is  printed  in  the  Club's  Journal,  and  has  also  been  issued 
separately.     The  subject  is  ' '  Parasitism. " 

Prof.  Henry  Drummond  has  in  the  press  a  new  book, 
"Tropical  Africa,"  which  will  be  published  immediately  by 
Messrs.  Hodder  and  Stoughton.  It  will  contain  an  account  of 
the  author's  recent  travels  in  Central  Africa,  with  one  or  two 
chapters  of  natural  history. 

Mr.  Lewis,  of  Gower  Street,  will  publish  immediately  a 
volume  of  "  Physiological  and  Pathological  Researches,"  by 
the  late  T.  R.  Lewis,  F.R.  S.  (elect).  The  work  is  edited  by 
Sir  William  Aitken,  F.R.S.,  G.  E.  Dobson,  F.R.S.,and  A.  E. 
Brown,  and  contains  five  maps,  forty-three  plates,  including 
chromj-lithographs,  and  sixty  seven  wood  engravings. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Institution  of  Civil  Engineers  on 
Tuesday,  April  24,  Mr.  E.  B.  Ellington  read  a  paper  on  the 
distribution  of  hydraulic  power  in  London.  In  the  course  of 
his  remarks  he  took  occasion  to  refer  to  the  large  extent  to 
which  lifts  are  now  used,  and  he  considered  it  necessary,  he 
said,  to  urge  the  importance  of  securing  the  greatest  possible  safety 
iti  their  construction  by  the  general  adoption  of  the  simple  ram. 
Suspended  lifts  depended  on  the  sound  condition  of  the  ropes  or 
chains  from  which  the  cages  hung.  As  they  became  worn  and 
untrustworthy  after  a  short  period,  it  was  usual  to  add  safety 
appliances  to  stop  the  fall  of  the  cage  in  case  of  breakage  of 
the  suspending  ropes,  but  these  appliances  could  not  be  expected 
to  act  under  all  circumstances. 

Miss  Marie  Brown,  well  known  for  her  researches  on  the 
earliest  colonization  of  North  America  by  the  Scandinavians, 
has  presented  a  petition  to  the  United  States  Congress  urging 
that  steps  should  be  taken  to  secure  a  thorough  search  of  the 


i8 


NA  TURE 


[May  3,  1888 


Vatican  and  other  Italian  libraries  with  a  view  to  further  light 
being  thrown  upon  this  question. 

Mr.  W.  Chandler  Roberts-Austen  will  give  the  discourse 
on  Friday  evening,  May  n,  at  the  Royal  Institution  in  place  of 
Mr.  W.  H.  Barlow,  who  is  unwell. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Bonnet  Monkey  {Macacus  sinicus  ?  ),  from 
India,  presented  by  Mr.  Lionel  H.  Hanbury ;  a  Macaque 
Monkey  {Macacus  cynomolgus  &  ),  from  Burma,  presented  by 
Mrs.  G.  E.  Buchanan ;  a  Scarlet  Ibis  {Eudocimus  ruber),  a 
Roseate  Spoonbill  {Platalea  ajaja),  from  Brazil,  presented  by 
Mr.  Charles  Booth;  a  Common  Kestrel  {Tinnunculus 
alaudarius),  British,  presented  by  Mr.  H.  Weetman,  F.Z.S.  ; 
a  Hoffmann's  Sloth  {Cholopus  hoffmanni),  from  Panama, 
deposited ;  three  Lined  Finches  {Spermophila  lineola),  from 
South  America,  purchased ;  two  Persian  Gazelles  {Gazclla 
subgutterosa  S  9  ),  two  Chinchillas  {Chinchilla  lanigera),  born 
in  the  Gardens. 

ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR    THE 

WEEK  1888  MA  Y  6-12. 

/"pOR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 

^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  May  6 
San  rises,  4I1.  24m.;  souths,  nh.  56m.  25*95. ;  sets,  ic;h.  29m.  : 
right  asc.  on  meridian,  2h.  55 '5m.  ;  deck  16°  44'  N. 
Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  ioh.  29m. 
Moon  (New  on  May  II,  ih.)  rises,  3h.  15m.;  souths, 
8h.  49m. ;  sets,  14b.  34m.  :  right  a?c.  on  meridian, 
23h.  47 -5m.  ;  deck  50  36'  S. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 
Planet.  Rises.  Souths.  Sets.  on  meridian. 

h.       m.  „ 


Rises, 
h.  m. 
4  16 
3  56 

16    9 


Mercury 

Venus   . 

Mars 

Jupiter  ...   20  53 

Saturn  ...      9   16 

Uranus...    16  13 

Neptune..     5     7 


Souths, 
h.    m. 

11  36 
IO  49 
21    51 

1  9 
17  13 
21  52 

12  50 


Sets, 
h.  m. 
18   56 

17  42 
3  33* 
5  25 
1  10* 

3  3i* 
20  33 


2  35'i 
1  47-9 

12  51-5 

16    67 

8  125 

12  52-3 

3  49  "6 


14  29  N. 
9  35  N. 
4  15  S. 

19  52  S. 

20  35  N. 
A  52  S. 

18  25  N. 


*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 


May. 

9 


9     ...     Venus  in  conjunction  with  and  3°  50'  north 
of  the  Moon. 

10  ...     22     ...     Mercury  in  conjunction  with  and  5°  6' north 

of  the  Moon. 

11  ...       o     ...     Mercury  in   superior  conjunction  with    the 

Sun. 
Saturn,    May  6. — Outer  major  axis  of  outer  ring  =  4o""2 ; 
outer  minor  axis  of  outer  ring  =  14"  -3  :  southern  surface  visible. 


Variable  Stars. 

Star. 

R.A. 

h.      m. 

Decl. 

h. 

m 

R  Andromedse 

..     0  181  . 

•  •  37  57  N.  . 

..  May 

IO, 

M 

U  Cephei 

•  •      O   52-4  . 

.  81   16  N.  . 

•     " 

7. 
12, 

2 
I 

19  tn 

58  m 

C  Geminorum 

••     6  57-5  . 

.  20  44  N.  . 

10, 

O 

0  m 

8  Librae 

••   14  55-0- 

.    8    4  S.    . 

8, 

21 

12  m 

U  Coronse    ... 

..   15  I3"6  . 

•  32     3  N.  . 

•  • 

7, 

20 

39  m 

U  Ophiuchi... 

..   17  10-9  . 

.     1  20  N.  . 

>> 

7, 

2 

56  m 

and  at  intervals  of 

20 

8 

Z  Sagittarii... 

..   18  14-8  .. 

•  18  55  S.    . 

>» 

8, 

O 

0  m 

U  Sagittarii... 

..   18  25-3  . 

.  19  12  S.    . 

99 

7, 
10, 

2 
I 

0  m 
oM 

V  Aquilse 

..   19  46-8  . 

•    0  43  N.  . 

9  9 

8, 

O 

oM 

T  Aquarii    ... 

..  20  440  . 

•    5  34  S.    . 

7, 

m 

8  Cephei 

..  22  25-0  . 

■  57  5»N.  . 

•          99 

8, 

23 

0  m 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum. 

Meteor- Showers. 
R.A.  Decl. 


Near  t  Crateris 
,,  a  Coronse 
,,     £Draconis 


170  . 

.  10  s. 

..  Very  slow. 

232  . 

.  27  N.  . 

..  Rather  faint  and  slow 

260  . 

.  64  N.  . 

..  Rather  slow. 

GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

The  Mouvement  Geographique  contains  details  of  Lieut.  Van 
Gele's  recent  exploration  of  the  River  Mobangi,  the  great  tribu- 
tary of  the  north  bank  of  the  Congo,  which  discharges  a  little 
below  the  equator.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Rev.  George 
Grenfell  succeeded  in  making  his  way  up  the  river  as  far  as  40 
N.  latitude,  where  he  was  stopped  by  the  Zongo  rapids.  Lieut. 
Van  Gele  started  on  October  26  last,  and  reached  the  rapids  on 
November  21.  There  are  six  of  them,  covering  a  space  of  34 
miles.  They  are  situated  in  what  is  really  a  mountain  gorge, 
the  mountains,  in  gentle  slopes,  coming  down  to  the  river  banks. 
The  steamer  En  Avant  had  to  be  unloaded  several  times  and 
dragged  up  the  rapids.  The  spaces  between  the  rapids  are 
mostly  covered  with  islands,  with  great  bars  of  rock  stretching 
between  them.  The  countiy  on  each  side  is  described  as 
being  fine,  fertile,  and  covered  with  villages.  The  people  here 
are  all  of  the  same  tribe  ;  head  shaved  except  at  the  nape, 
bristling  moustaches,  and  no  tattooing.  Above  the  middle  falls, 
the  Bakombe  inhabit  the  country.  These  arrange  the  hair  in 
queues,  some  of  which  are  over  6  feet  long.  From  the  upper 
end  of  the  falls  the  river  continues  in  a  north-east  direction  for 
about  32  miles,  when  it  rounds  to  the  east.  It  has  a  breadth  of 
about  2600  feet,  and  the  navigation  is  easy,  the  average  depth 
being  14  feet.  The  easterly  direction  is  maintained  as  far  as  the 
En  Avant  went,  about  172  miles  further.  The  mountains  dis- 
appear from  the  right  bank,  and  the  left  is  marked  by  low  hills, 
with  grassy  plains  and  woods  alternating.  The  villages  are  at 
some  distance  from  the  river,  but  the  people  came  down  to  the 
vessel  in  crowds  all  the  way  up,  and  were  perfectly  friendly  until 
the  last  few  days.  Over  the  whole  course  tropical  cultures  of 
every  kind  were  abundant,  as  well  as  sheep,  goats,  and  fowls. 
The  natives  on  the  right  bank  belong  to  the  Buraka  and  Maduru 
tribes  ;  those  on  the  right  to  the  Bakangi,  the  Mombate,  and  the 
Banzy.  They  mostly  shave  the  head  so  as  to  leave  a  triangle  of 
hair,  with  the  forehead  as  base.  The  ears  are  enormously  elon- 
gated with  heavy  copper  rings.  The  river  here  is  covered  with 
islands,  mostly  cultivated  and  inhabited.  Among  the  Banzy  the 
huts  have  the  shape  of  huge  conical  extinguishers,  resting  on  a 
circular  wall  about  2  feet  high.  These  huts  are  ranged  in  circu- 
lar rows,  forming  broad  streets,  well  kept,  and  with  a  common 
meeting-house  in  the  centre.  Each  hut  is  divided  into  two 
apartments,  one  used  for  sleeping.  Iron  is  admirably  worked 
into  all  sorts  of  implements,  weapons,  and  ornament-.  Ivory  is 
abundant,  but  used  only  for  bracelets,  anklets,  and  pclele  or  lip- 
ornaments.  About  100  miles  above  the  Zongo  rapids  a  second 
is  met  with,  at  Bemay.  The  vessel  succeeded  in  passing  it,  and 
a  third  25  miles  further  up.  Just  above  Bemay,  the  only  tribu- 
tary met  with  from  the  Zongo  rapids  upwards — the  Bangasso — 
discharges  into  the  right  bank  of  the  Mobangi.  Above  the 
river  the  country  is  densely  peopled  by  the  Mombongo  and 
Yakoma,  and  these  showed  themselves  distinctly  hostile  to  the 
expedition.  There  were  unfortunately  several  conflicts,  in  which 
lives  were  lost  on  both  sides.  Rocks  and  sand-banks  obstructed 
the  navigation,  and  after  getting  as  far  as  21°  55'  E.,  Lieut.  Van 
Gele  turned  back,  making  his  way  downwards  with  some  diffi- 
culty, as  the  river  had  lowered  about  10  feet.  He  arrived  at 
Equator  Station  on  February  I.  The  river  was  about  8000  feet 
wide  at  the  furthest  point,  and  covered  with  islands,  mostly  in- 
habited. On  the  north  bank  of  the  river,  one  village  extended 
along  a  distance  of  3  miles.  As  Dr.  Junker's  furthest  point  on 
the  Welle  was  22°  55'  E. ,  only  i°  of  longitude  separates  his 
point  from  Van  Gele's  furthest,  or  about  68  miles.  As  they  are 
both  on  the  same  line  of  latitude,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
Mobangi  and  the  Welle  are  the  same  river. 

From  an  official  Report  by  Mr.  Percy  Smith,  Assistant  Sur- 
veyor-General of  New  Zealand,  on  a  visit  to  the  Kermadec 
Islands,  in  August  last,  we  glean  some  information  as  to  this 
recent  annexation  to  the  British  dominions.  The  group  is  situ- 
ated between  the  parallels  of  290  10'  and  310  10'  S.  lat.,  and 
between  the  meridian  of  177°  45'  and  1790  W.  long.  There 
are  four  islands,  with  some  outlying  islets  and  rocks,  the  most 
northerly,  Raoul  or  Sunday  Island,  being  674  miles  north-east  of 
Auckland.  The  islands  are  all  volcanic  ;  in  two  of  them, 
indeed,  signs  of  volcanic  activity  are  to  be  seen  at  the  present 
day,  though  on  a  limited  scale.  They  appear  to  be  situated  on 
an  oceanic  plateau  which  extends  from  New  Zealand  to  the 
Tonga  Group,  on  which  soundings  are  obtained  at  depths  much 
less  than  in  the  adjacent  areas,  but  still  so  great  as  to  show  that 
the  islands  form,  as  it  were,  the  tops  of  volcanic  cones  rising  to 


May  3,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


19 


a  great  height  above  their  bases.  The  group  is  situated  on  the 
north  easterly  projection  of  the  axis  of  the  volcanic  zone  of  the 
Bay  of  Plenty,  which,  continued  still  further  north- eastward, 
strikes  the  Tonga  and  Samoan  Croups,  places  where  volcanic 
action  is  still  going  on.  Two,  if  not  three,  volcanic  disturb- 
ances have  taken  place  at  the  Kermadec  Islands  within  recent 
years,  and  earthquakes  were  very  frequent  there  at  one  time  ; 
but  since  the  eruption  of  Tarawera,  June  io,  1886,  they  have 
ceased  entirely.  On  Sunday  Island  the  mo^t  prominent  feature 
is  the  large  crater  near  the  centre  of  the  island.  It  is  I \  mile 
long  by  i:i  ni'le  wide;  its  walls  are  generally  over  1000  feet 
high.  Steam  escapes  occasionally  from  the  (ireen  Lake  on  the 
south  side,  and  from  the  crevices  in  the  precipitous  cliffs  of 
Denham  Bay,  while  warm  water  oozes  out  of  the  sand  on  the 
north  coa-t. 

Dr.  Hans  Meyer,  who  recently  ascended  Kilimanjaro,  and 
Dr.  O.  Haumann,  who  accompanied  Dr.  Lenz  up  the  Congo, 
are  preparing  to  start  on  a  new  expedition  to  East  Africa.  Their 
object  will  be  to  make  a  thorough  exploration  and  survey  of  the 
whole  of  the  Kilimanjaro  region. 

Recent  issues  of  the  journals  published  in  French  Indo-China, 
contain  an  interesting  letter  from  M.  Gauthier,  describing  a 
journey  down  the  Meikong  River,  from  Luang  Prabang*  into 
Cambodia.  The  traveller  spent  forty  days  on  the  journey,  and 
passed  twenty  cataracts,  in  one  of  which  his  boat  was  almost 
dashed  to  pieces.  He  visited  the  Laos  States,  and  describes  its 
inhabitants  as  doing  nothing  except  laughing,  smoking,  and 
singing  throughout  the  day,  such  business  as  there  is  being  wholly 
in  the  hands  of  the  Chinese. 


OUR  ELECTRICAL  COLUMN. 

Gouy  has  found  that  the  attraction  between  two  electrified 
surfaces  maintained  at  a  constant  potential-difference  is  one 
hundred  times  greater  in  distilled  water  than  in  air. 

Admirably  well-equipped  public  electrical  laboratories  have 
been  established  in  Paris  and  Vienna.  When  are  we  to  see  one 
in  London  ? 

Van  Aubet.  {Arch,  de  Geneve,  xix.  p.  105,  1888)  has  been 
studying  the  effect  of  magnetism  and  heat  on  the  electric  resist- 
ance of  bismuth  and  of  its  alloys  with  lead  and  tin.  Contrary 
to  all  other  metals,  the  resistance  of  bismuth  sometimes  increases 
with  reduction  of  temperature.  He  also  verified  the  fact  that 
the  resistance  of  bismuth  at  low  temperatures  increases  in  the 
magnetic  field.     The  effect  is  very  feeble  with  alloys. 

Foeppi.  {Ann.  Wiedemann,  xxxiii.  p.  492)  has  been  endea- 
vouring to  prove  Edlund's  hypothesis  that  a  perfect  vacuum  is 
a  conductor,  but  has  completely  failed  to  do  so.  He  makes  the 
resistance  of  a  vacuum  to  be  three  million  times  greater  than 
that  of  copper. 

Mr.  C.  Vernon  Koys  has  communicated  to  the  Royal 
Society  some  further  details  of  his  beautiful  radio-micrometer. 
It  is  a  thermo-electric  circuit,  consisting  of  a  bar  of  antimony 
and  bismuth,  of  small  sectional  area,  the  ends  being  formed  by 
a  loop  of  copper  wire,  suspended  by  a  torsion  fibre  in  a  strong 
magnetic  field.  It  is  possible  to  observe  by  its  means  a  difference 
of  temperature  of  one  ten-millionth  of  a  degree  Centigrade. 

C.  L.  Weber  {Centralbla't  fur  Elek'rotechnik,  1887,  vol.  ix.), 
experimenting  on  various  amalgams  and  alloys  of  tin,  bismuth, 
lead,  and  cadmium,  has  found  that  many  of  them  have  a  higher 
conductivity  than  that  of  each  of  their  constituents. 

Sirks,  of  Deventer  (Holland),  has  found  a  peculiar  dynamical 
action  of  the  current  on  the  electrodes.  An  electrical  current 
passing  through  a  solution  of  C11SO4  between  two  electrodes  of 
copper,  which  are  varnished  at  the  back,  pulls  both  against  the 
direction  of  the  positive  stream.  Independently  of  the  con- 
centration, if  only  high  enough  to  prevent  the  formation  of 
gases,  the  pressure  at  the  anode  and  the  traction  at  the  kathode 
amount  to  nearly  1  gramme  per  ampere  and  per  square  metre. 

ON  THE  COMPARISON  OF  THE  CRANIAL 
WITH  THE  SPINAL  NERVES. 

'"THE  origin  of  vertebrate  animals  is  to  be  found  according  to 
many  morphologists  in  those  invertebrates  which  are  com- 
posed of  a  series  of  segments,  and  one  of  the  chief  arguments  in 
favour  of  this  view  has  always  been   the  fact  that  the  spinal 


nerves  are  arranged  segmentally.  It  has,  however,  long  been 
felt  that  the  cranial  nerves  ought  to  give  evidence  of  a  segmental 
arrangement  as  clearly  as  the  spinal  before  it  is  possible  to 
speak  of  a  segmentation  based  upon  the  arrangement  of  the 
nervous  system  ;  and  indeed  many  ingenious  tables  have  been 
manufactured  by  morphologists  in  order  to  bring  the  cranial 
nerves  into  the  same  system  as  the  spinal.  The  failure  of  these 
attempts  is  to  my  mind  due  largely  to  the  following  reasons  : — 

1.  Confusion  has  arisen  because  anatomists  have  been  in  the 
habit  of  looking  upon  the  nervous  system  of  the  vertebrate  as 
composed  of  two  separate  nervous  systems,  viz.  the  cerebro- 
spinal and  sympathetic. 

2.  In  the  comparison  of  cranial  and  spinal  nerves  the  morpho- 
logists have  directed  their  attention  too  exclusively  to  the  exits 
of  the  nerves  from  the  central  nervous  system  without  taking 
into  account  the  place  of  origin  of  the  nerves  in  the  central 
nervous  system  itself. 

3.  It  has  been  assumed  on  insufficient  grounds  that  the 
presence  of  ganglia  in  connection  with  motor  cranial  nerves 
indicates  that  the  cranial  nerves  do  not  follow  Bell's  law, 
and  are  therefore  not  strictly  comparable  with  spinal  nerves. 

These  difficulties  are  all  found  to  vanish  as  soon  as  a  clear 
conception  is  obtained  of  what  is  meant  by  the  nerves  of  a 
spinal  segment. 

Since  the  time  of  Charles  Bell  it  has  been  recognized  that  a 
spinal  nerve  is  formed  by  two  roots  :  the  one,  posterior,  which 
contains  only  afferent  fibres,  i.e.  fibres  which  convey  impulses 
from  the  periphery  to  the  central  nervous  system  ;  and  the  other, 
anterior,  containing  exclusively  efferent  fibres  which  convey 
impulses  from  the  central  nervous  system  to  the  periphery.  In 
correspondence  with  these  two  sets  of  fibres  the  grey  matter  of 
the  spinal  cord  is  divided  into  two  portions,  named  respectively 
ths  posterior  and  anterior  horns.  Another  division,  however, 
exists  of  almost  equal  importance,  which  is  not  so  generally 
recognized,  viz.  a  division  both  of  the  nerve  fibres  and  their 
centres  of  origin  in  the  grey  matter  for  the  purpose  of  supplying 
the  internrd  and  external  portions  of  the  body — a  division  of 
nerves  and  nerve  centres  into  splanchnic  and  somatic  as  well 
as  into  afferent  and  efferent.  The  centres  of  origin  of  the 
splanchnic  nerves  are  situated  in  the  internal  part  of  the  grey 
matter  of  the  spinal  cord,  being  arranged  in  groups  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  central  canal,  and  the  nerves  themselves 
supply  the  viscera  and  internal  surfaces  of  the  body,  together 
with  certain  muscles  of  respiration  and  deglutition  which  are 
derived  from  special  embryonic  structures  known  as  the  lateral 
plates  of  mesoblast.  On  the  other  hand,  the  centres  of  origin 
of  the  somatic  nerves  are  situated  in  the  outlying  horns  of  grey 
matter,  and  the  nerves  themselves  supply  the  integument  and 
the  ordinary  muscles  of  locomotion,  &c., — muscles  which  are 
derived  from  the  muscle-plates  or  myotomes. 

Further,  these  two  sets  of  nerves  are  arranged  in  the  posterior 
and  anterior  roots  in  a  special  manner,  the  significance  of  which 
is  the  key  to  the  whole  question  of  the  segmental  nature  of  the. 
cranial  nerves.  In  the  posterior  roots  the  afferent  fibres  of  both 
splanchnic  and  somatic  systems  pass  into  the  spinal  ganglion, 
which  is  always  situated  on  the  nerve  root  soon  after  its  exit 
from  the  central  nervous  system  ;  so  that  we  may  speak  of  the 
afferent  fibres  of  both  systems  as  being  in  connection  with  a 
ganglion  which  is  stationary  in  position.  In  the  anterior  roots, 
on  the  other  hand,  we  find  that  some  of  the  fibres  are  in  con- 
nection with  no  ganglia,  while  others  are  in  connection  with 
ganglia  which  are  not  fixed  in  position,  but  are  found  at  various 
distances  from  the  central  nervous  system  (it  is  this  system  of 
ganglia  which  has  hitherto  been  looked  upon  as  forming  a 
separate  nervous  system,  viz.  the  sympathetic  system),  so  that 
the  fibres  of  the  anterior  root,  all  of  which  are  efferent,  are 
divisible  into  a  ganglionattd  and  a  non-ganglionated  group,  of 
which  the  ganglionated  group  belongs  to  the  splanchnic  system, 
and  is  characterized  by  the  smallness  in  the  size  of  its  fibres, 
while  the  non-ganglionated  group  is  composed  both  of  somatic 
and  splanchnic  nerves,  and  forms  the  ordinary  large-sized  mctor 
nerve  fibres  of  the  voluntary  striped  muscles  both  of  respiration 
and  deglutition  as  well  as  of  locomotion. 

Again,  it  has  been  shown  that  these  efferent  ganglia  are  in 
reality  offshoots  from  a  primitive  ganglion  mass  situated  on  the 
spinal  nerves  into  which  both  afferent  and  efferent  fibres  ran. 

We  see,  then,  that  both  roots  of  a  fully  formed  spinal  nerve  are 
ganglionated,  so  that  the  presence  of  a  ganglion  is  no  longer  the 
sign  of  a  posterior  root,  and  we  must  define  a  spinal  nerve  as 
being  formed  by — 


20 


NATURE 


[May  3,  1888 


1.  A  posterior  root,  the  ganglion  of  which  is  stationary  in 
position  and  is  connected  with  both  splanchnic  and  somatic 
afferent  nerves. 

2.  An  anterior  root,  the  ganglion  of  which  is  vagrant,  and  is 
connected  with  the  efferent  small- fibred  splanchnic  nerves. 

Also  it  is  not  a  fundamental  characteristic  of  a  spinal  nerve 
that  the  anterior  root  should  necessarily  pass  free  from  the 
spinal  ganglion,  for  it  is  clear  that  both  anterior  and  posterior 
roots  may  pass  into  the  same  stationary  ganglionic  mass  if  the 
whole  or  part  of  the  efferent  ganglion  has  not  travelled  away 
from  the  parent  mass.  This  passage  of  the  fibres  of  the  anterior 
as  well  as  of  the  posterior  roots  into  the  spinal  ganglion  is  com- 
mon enough  in  the  lower  animals,  and  is  a  peculiarity  of  the 
first  two  cervical  nerves  in  such  an  animal  as  the  dog.  If,  then, 
the  cranial  nerves  are  formed  on  the  same  plan  as  the  spinal, 
their  efferent  roots  ought  to  be  divisible  into  a  large-fibred  non- 
ganglionated  portion  and  a  small-fibred  ganglionated  portion, 
the  ganglia  of  which  may  be  vagrant  in  character,  while  their 
afferent  roots  should  possess  stationary  ganglia  near  their  exits 
from  the  brain  ;  also  the  centres  of  origin  for  the  different  sets 
of  nerve  fibres,  i.e.  for  the  splanchnic  and  somatic  nerves,  ought 
to  be  the  direct  continuation  of  the  corresponding  centres  of  origin 
in  the  spinal  cord.  Such  I  find  to  be  the  case  ;  if  we  leave  out  of 
consideration  the  nerves  of  special  sense,  viz.  the  optic,  olfactory, 
and  auditory  nerves,  the  remaining  cranial  nerves  are  found  to 
divide  themselves  inio  two  groups — 

(1)  A  foremost  group  of  nerves,  which  in  man  are  entirely 
efferent,  viz.  third,  fourth,  motor  part  of  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh 
nerves. 

(2)  A  hindmost  group  of  nerves  of  mixed  character,  viz.  ninth, 
tenth,  eleventh,  and  twelfth  nerves,  and  the  sensory  part  of  fifth. 

The  nerves  of  the  first  group  resemble  the  spinal  nerve  s  as  far 
as  their  anterior  roots  are  concerned,  for  they  are  composed  of 
large-fibred  non-ganglionated  motor  nerves  and  small-fibred 
splanchnic  efferent  nerves,  which  possess  vagrant  ganglia,  such 
as  the  ganglion  oculomotorii,  the  ganglion  geniculaturo,  &c. 

They  resemble  spinal  nerves  also  as  far  as  their  posterior  roots 
are  concerned,  for  they  have  formed  upon  them  a  ganglion  at 
their  exit  from  the  brain  corresponding  strictly  to  the  stationary 
posterior  root  ganglion  of  a  spinal  nerve.  One  great  difference, 
however,  exists  between  their  posterior  roots  and  those  of  a 
spinal  nerve,  for  neither  the  nerve  fibres  nor  the  ganglion  cells  of 
these  roots  are  any  longer  functional  ;  they  exist  simply  in  the 
roots  of  this  group  of  cranial  nerves  in  man,  and  other  warm- 
blooded animals,  as  the  phylogenetically  degenerated  remnants 
of  what  were  in  ages  long  since  past  doubtless  functional  ganglia 
and  functional  nerve  fibres. 

This  foremost  group  of  cranial  nerves,  then,  is  built  up  on 
precisely  the  same  plan  as  the  spinal  nerves  ;  the  apparent 
difference  being  due  to  the  fact  that  the  afferent  roots  with  their 
ganglia  have  degenerated. 

The  hindmost  group  of  cranial  nerves  is  also  composed  of  the 
same  constituents  as  the  spinal  nerves,  and  their  different  com- 
ponents arise  from  centres  of  origin  in  the  medulla  oblongata 
and  in  the  cervical  region  of  the  spinal  cord  which  are  directly 
continuous  with  the  corresponding  groups  of  nerve  cells  in  other 
parts  of  the  spinal  cord.  Here,  however,  the  deviation  from 
the  spinal  nerve  type  which  has  taken  place  consists  not  in  the 
suppression  of  any  particular  component,  but  in  the  scattering  of 
the  various  components,  so  that  none  of  the  nerves  of  this  group 
form  in  themselves  complete  segmental  nerves,  but  rather  the 
whole  of  them  taken  together  form  a  broken  up  group  of 
segmental  nerves  which  are  capable  of  being  rearranged  not 
only  into  afferent  and  efferent  but  also  into  splanchnic  and 
somatic  divisions  of  precisely  the  same  character  as  in  a  group 
of  spinal  nerves. 

I  conclude  therefore  that  both  these  two  great  groups  of  cranial 
nerves  are  built  up  on  the  same  plan  as  the  spinal  nerves,  not 
only  with  respect  to  the  structure,  function,  and  distribution  of 
their  nerve  fibres,  but  also  as  far  as  the  arrangement  of  the 
centres  of  origin  of  those  nerve  fibres  in  the  central  nervous 
system  is  concerned  ;  and  I  think  it  probable  that  the  reason  for 
the  deviation  of  the  cranial  nerves  from  the  spinal  nerve  type  is 
bound  up  with  the  changes  which  occurred  at  the  time  when  a 
large  portion  of  the  fibres  of  the  foremost  group  of  cranial 
nerves  lost  their  functional  activity.  I  imagine  that  in  the  long 
past  history  of  the  vertebrate  animal  some  extensive  tract  in 
connection  with  the  foremost  part  of  the  nervous  system  has 
become  useless  and  disappeared,  and  in  consequence  the  nerves 
supplying  those  parts  have  degenerated.     In  this  phylogenetic 


degeneration  the  whole  of  the  splanchnic  and  somatic  afferent 
nerves  of  that  region  were  involved,  and  probably  also  some  of 
the  efferent  nerve  fibres,  with  the  result  that  certain  only  of  the 
motor  elements  have  remained  functional.  In  the  further  history 
of  the  vertebrate,  the  parts  which  have  replaced  those  which 
became  useless  have  received  their  nerve  supply  from  tracts  of 
the  central  nervous  system  situated  behind  this  foremost  group  of 
nerves  ;  in  consequence  of  which  the  component  parts  of  that 
hindermost  group  have  become  more  or  less  separated  from  each 
other.  The  extent  of  the  area  involved  is  especially  well  seen 
when  the  sensory  nerves  of  this  area,  both  somatic  and  splanchnic, 
are  considered  ;  for  we  see  not  only  that  the  sensory  part  of  the 
trigeminal,  representing  the  somatic  sensory  elements,  and  the 
sensory  part  of  the  vagus,  representing  the  splanchnic  sensory 
elements,  are  derived  from  their  respective  ascending  roots,  i.e. 
arise  in  connection  with  a  series  of  nerve  segments  extending 
well  into  the  cervical  region,  but  also  that  the  peripheral  distri- 
butions of  these  two  nerves  are  very  extensive.  Without  specu- 
lating further  at  present  upon  the  nature  of  the  change  which 
has  disturbed  the  orderly  arrangement  of  the  cranial  nerves, 
enough  has  been  said  to  prove  that  the  cranial  nerves  considered 
in  this  article  are  built  up  on  the  same  plan  as  the  spinal  nerves. 
Further  it  is  worthy  of  notice  that  just  as  the  division  into 
somatic  and  splanchnic  has  thrown  great  light  upon  the  concep- 
tion of  the  manner  in  which  a  segmental  nerve  is  formed,  so  also 
it  lends  aid  to  the  consideration  of  the  segmentation  of  structures 
other  than  the  nervous,  for  we  find  that  two  distinct  segmentations 
exist  in  the  body  which  do  not  necessarily  run  parallel  to  each 
other  :  the  one,  a  segmentation  which  may  be  fitly  called  splanch- 
nic, and  is  represented  by  the  orderly  arrangement  of  visceral 
and  branchial  clefts ;  and  the  other,  a  somatic  segmentation, 
characterized  by  the  formation  of  somites,  i.e.  of  vertebrae  and 
somatic  muscles  arranged  also  in  orderly  sequence. 

The  splanchnic  segmentation  is  most  conspicuous  in  the  cranial 
region,  the  somatic  segmentation  in  the  spinal  region,  and  it  is 
most  advisable  to  remember  that  a  valid  comparison  between 
cranial  *and  spinal  segments  can  only  be  made  when  like  is  com- 
pared with  like,  for  it  by  no  means  follows  that  the  somatic  and 
splanchnic  segmentations  have  proceeded  on  identical  lines  ; 
consequently,  in  comparing  cranial  with  spinal  nerves,  we  must 
compare  structures  of  the  same  kind,  and  seeing  that  the  spinal 
nerves  are  arranged  according  to  somatic  segments  so  also  must 
the  cranial  nerves  be  arranged  in  accordance  with  their  relation 
to  the  somatic  muscles  of  the  head,  and  not  in  relation  to  the 
branchial  and  visceral  clefts. 

It  is  not  advisable  in  this  article  to  enter  upon  any  discussion 
as  to  the  number  of  segments  supplied  by  the  cranial  nerves,  or 
to  speculate  upon  the  nature  of  the  changes  which  have  taken 
place  in  the  past  history  of  the  vertebrate  animal,  whereby  the 
present  distribution  of  the  cranial  nerves  has  been  brought  about. 
I  desire  only  to  put  as  shortly  as  possible  before  the  readers  of 
Nature  the  general  results  of  my  recent  investigations  into  the 
structure  of  the  cranial  and  spinal  nerves. 

W.  H.  Gaskeix. 


UNIVERSITY  AND  EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 

Cambridge. — Mr.  T.  C.  Fitzpatrick,  of  Christ's  College,  has 
been  appointed  an  Assistant  Demonstrator  of  Physics. 

Prof.  H.  M.  Ward,  M.A.,  of  Christ's  College,  has  been 
appointed  Examiner  in  Botany  in  the  place  of  Prof.  Bayley 
Balfour. 

Dr.  R.  D.  Roberts  has  been  appointed  an  Elector  to  the 
Harkness  Scholarship. 

The  name  of  Mr.  Adami,  the  new  Demonstrator  of  Pathology, 
was  misprinted  Adams  in  our  last  issue. 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

Bulletin  de  I'Academie  Royale  de  Belgique,  February. — 
Researches  on  the  coll  >idal  state,  by  C.  Winssinger.  This  is 
the  first  part  of  a  memoir  describing  a  series  of  experiments 
undertaken  to  determine  the  various  conditions  of  the  colloidal 
state — that  is,  of  the  state  assumed  under  certain  circumstances 
by  bodies  generally  insoluble  in  water.  For  the  present  the 
author  confines  himself  to  describing  the  mode  of  preparation 
1  and  the  chief  properties  of  the  colloidal  substances.     All  the 


May  3,  1888] 


NATURE 


21 


fifteen  sulphides  studied  by  him  (those  of  mercury,  zinc,  tung- 
sten, inolybdene,  indium,  platinum,  gold,  palladium,  silver, 
thallium,  lead,  bismuth,  iron,  nickel,  and  cobalt)  have  been 
obtained  in  the  colloidal  state.  They  bring  up  to  thirty-one  the 
number  of  colloids  now  known  to  science.  Some  have  been  pre- 
pared by  Graham's  method,  others  directly  by  treating  the  oxides 
suspended  in  the  water  with  hydrosulphuric  acid. — On  the  pre- 
tended pro-atlas  of  mammals  and  Hatteria  punctata,  by  Jules 
Cornet.  The  bony  process  between  the  occipital  and  the  atlas 
known  as  the  pro-atlas  or  proto-vertebra,  and  found  in  crocodiles 
and  some  other  reptiles,  is  here  shown  not  to  exist  in  the 
mammals  as  supposed  by  some  naturalists.  The  view  of  Smets 
regarding  its  absence  from  Hatteria  is  also  confirmed. — On  the 
process  employed  by  the  fresh-waterGasteropods  for  crawling  over 
the  liquid  surface,  by  Victor  Willem.  This  process  is  shown  to 
be  somewhat  analogous  to  that  of  snails  moving  on  dry  land, 
being  effected  by  secreting  a  mucus  which  enables  the  mollusk  to 
adhere  to  the  surface. — Researches  on  the  volatility  of  the  carbon 
compounds  ;  chloro -oxygenated  compounds,  by  Louis  Henry. 
The  object  of  these  researches  is  to  examine,  in  reference  to 
their  volatility,  the  compounds  in  which  chlorine  and  oxygen  are 
simultaneously  combined  with  carbon.  The  subject  is  discussed 
under  three  heads  :  (i)  the  compounds  comprising  the  system 
>C-0;  (2)  the  system  ->C-OX;  (3)  the  mixed  derivatives 
simultaneously  including  both  these  systems. 

Rendiconti  del  Reale  Istituto  Lotnbardo,  March  22. — Obser- 
vations made  in  the  Brera  Observatory,  Milan,  during  the  total 
lunar  eclipse  of  January  28,  1888,  by  G.  V.  Schiaparelli.  These 
observations  were  made  under  favourable  conditions  in  accord- 
ance with  the  instructions  issued  by  the  Pulkova  astronomers, 
with  the  ultimate  view  of  determining  more  accurately  than  has 
yet  been  possible  the  exact  length  of  the  diameter  of  the  moon.  In 
the  accompanying  tables  are  given  the  results  of  the  observations, 
comprising  the  ccomparison-stars  with  their  magnitudes  and 
numbers  as  in  the  catalogue  distributed  by  the  Pulkova 
astronomers. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  March  22. — "The  Chemical  Composition  of 
Pearls."  By  George  Harley,  M.D.,  F.R.S.,  and  Harald  S. 
Harley. 

(1)  As  regards  oyster  pearls.  Of  these,  three  varieties  were 
examined — British,  Australian,  and  Ceylonese. 

The  qualitative  analyses  showed  that  they  all  had  an  identical 
composition,  and  that  they  consisted  solely  of  water,  organic 
matter,  and  calcium  carbonate.  There  was  a  total  absence  of 
magnesia  and  of  all  the  other  mineral  ingredients  of  sea-water — 
from  which  the  inorganic  part  of  pearls  must  of  course  be  ob- 
tained. Seeing  that  ordinary  sea-water  contains  close  upon  ten 
and  a  half  times  more  calcium  sulphate  than  calcium  carbonate, 
one  might  have  expected  that  at  least  some  sulphates  would  have 
been  found  along  with  the  carbonates,  more  especially  if  they 
are  the  mere  fortuitous  concretions  some  persons  imagine  them 
to  be  ;  a  view  the]  authors  cannot  indorse,  from  the  fact  that  by 
steeping  pearls  in  a  weak  aqueous  solution  of  nitric  acid,  they  are 
able  to  completely  remove  from  them  all  their  mineral  constituents 
without  in  any  way  altering  their  shape,  and  but  very  slightly 
changing  their  naked  eye  appearances,  so  long  as  they  are  per- 
mitted to  remain  in  the  solution.  When  taken  out  they  rapidly  dry 
and  shrivel  up.  Dr.  George  Harley  will  take  occasion  to  point  out 
in  his  next  communication,  which  will  be  on  the  microscopic 
structure  of  pearls,  that  a  decalcified  crystalline  pearl  bears  an 
intimate  resemblance  to  a  decalcified  bone,  in  so  far  as  it 
possesses  a  perfectly  organized  matrix  of  animal  matter.  No 
phosphates  whatever  were  found  in  any  of  the  three  before-named 
varieties  of  pearls. 

The  next  point  being  to  ascertain  the  exact  proportions  of  the 
substances  composing  the  pearls,  and  pure  white  pearls  being  ex- 
pensive, from  having  ascertained  that  all  the  three  kinds  they 
were  operating  upon  had  exactly  the  same  chemical  composition, 
instead  of  making  separate  quantitative  analyses  of  them,  they 
simply  selected  two  pearls  from  each  variety,  of  as  nearly  the 
same  size  and  weight — giving  a  total  of  16  grains — and  analyzed 
them  collectively,  the  result  obtained  being  :  carbonate  of  lime 
9172  per  cent  ;  organic  matter  (animal),  5-94"per  cent ;  water 
2  23  per  cent. 


(2)  Composition  of  cocoa-nut  pearls. 

A  portion  of  a  garden  pea  sized  cocoa-nut  pearl,  weighing  14 
grains,  was  subjected  to  analysis,  and  found  that,  like  shell-fish 
pearls  it  consisted  of  carbonate  of  lime,  organic  matter  (animal), 
and  water. 

It  had  all  the  external  appearances  of  the  pearls  found  in  the 
large  clams  (Tridacna  gigas)  of  the  Southern  Ocean,  being  per- 
fectly globular,  with  a  smooth,  glistening,  dull  white  surface,  and 
resembling  them  exactly  in  microscopic  structure.  Besides  which 
in  chemical  composition  it  bore  no  similarity  to  cocoa-nut  milk, 
to  which  it  is  supposed  to  be  related  ;  for  cocoa-nut  milk  is  said 
to  contain  both  the  phosphate  and  the  malate,  but  not  the 
carbonate  of  lime.  That  there  are  pearls  found  in  cocoa-nuts 
the  authors  do  not  presume  to  deny ;  all  they  mean  to  say  is  that 
they  are  doubtful  if  the  specimen  examined  had  such  an  origin. 

(3)  As  regards  mammalian  pearls. 

These  so-called  pearls  have  been  met  with  in  human  beings 
and  in  oxen. 

In  so  far  as  naked-eye  appearances  are  concerned,  a  good 
specimen  of  the  variety  of  pearl  now  spoken  of  is  quite  undis- 
tinguishable  from  a  fine  specimen  of  Oriental  oyster  pearl,  from 
its  not  only  being  globular  in  shape,  and  of  a  pure  white  colour, 
but  from  its  also  possessing  the  iridescent  sheen  so  characteristic 
of  Oriental  oyster  pearls  of  fine  quality. 

In  chemical  composition,  however,  mammalian  pearls  bear  no 
similarity  whatever  to  pearls  found  in  shell-fish,  for  they  are  com  • 
posed  of  an  organic  instead  of  an  inorganic  material — namely, 
cholesterin.  In  microscopic  structure  again,  they  bear  a  marked 
resemblance  to  the  crystalline  variety  of  shell-fish  pearls. 

April  19. — "On  Hamilton's  Numbers.  Part  II."  By 
J.  J.  Sylvester,  D.C.L.,  F.R.S.,  Savilian  Professor  of  Geo- 
metry in  the  University  of  Oxford,  and  James  Hammond, 
M.A.  Cantab. 

§  4.    Continuation,  to  an  infinite  Number  of  Terms,  of  the 
Asymptotic  Development  for  Hypothenusal  Numbers. 

In  the  third  section  of  this  paper  (Phil.  Trans.  A.,  vol.  clxxviii. 
p.  311)  it  was  stated,  on  what  is  now  seen  to  be  insufficient  evi- 
dence, that  the  asymptotic  development  of/  -  q,  the  half  of  any 
hypothenusal  number,  could  be  expressed  as  a  series  of  powers 
of  q  -  r,  the  half  of  its  antecedent,  in  which  the  indices  followed 
the  sequence  2,  \,  1,  f,  f,  \,  .  .  . 

It  was  there  shown  that,  when  quantities  of  an  order  of  mag- 
nitude inferior  to  that  of  (q  -  r)i  are  neglected, 

p-q=(q-   rf  +  \(g  -  r)\  +  H(?  -/}  +  i?(?  -  r)l ; 
but,   on  attempting  to  carry  this  development  further,  it  was 
found  that,  though  the  next  term  came  out  Tlfp(?  ~  .r)*»  there 
was  an  infinite  series  of  terms  interposed  between  this  one  and 
(q  -  r)h. 

In  the  present  section  it  will  be  proved  that  between  (q-  r)i  and 
(q  -  r)i  there  lies  an  infinite  series  of  terms  whose  indices  are — 

8        »        "17       S3        «5 

¥»    lf»    3  21  tit  TJB')  •  •   • 

and  whose  coefficients  form  a  geometrical  series  of  which  the 
first  term  is  T^ffj-  and  the  common  ratio  $. 

We  shall  assume  the  law  of  the  indices  (which,  it  may  be  re 
marked,  is  identical  with  that  given  in  the  introduction  to  this 
paper  as  originally  printed  in  the  Proceedings  but  subsequently 
altered  in  the  Transactions),  and  write — 
p  -  q  =  (q  -  r)2  +  |(?  ~  &  +  WS  -r)  +  Hi?  T  r)1 

+  *  A(q  -  r)i  +  g-  B(q  -  r)A  +  £c(*  -  r)\\ 
3  3  J 

+  t.D(q  -  r)tt  +  *E(j-  r)fh  +  8cc.,ad inf.    .    .  (l) 

36  y 

+  e* 

The  law  of  the  coefficients  will  then  be  established  by  proving 
that— 

A  =  B  =  C  =  D  =  E= =  tt. 

If  there  were  any  terms  of  an  order  superior  to  that  of 
(q  -  r)h,  whose  indices  did  not  obey  the  assumed  law,  any  such 
term  would  make  its  presence  felt  in  the  course  of  the  work  ;  for, 
in  the  process  we  shall  employ,  the  coefficient  of  each  term  has 
to  be  determined  before  that  of  any  subsequent  term  can  be 
found.     It  was  in  this  way  that  the  existence  of  terms  between 

•  In  the  text  above,  9  represents  some  unknown  function,  the  asymptotic 
value  of  whose  ratio  to  (?-r)*  is  not  infinite. 


22 


NATURE 


[May  3,  1888 


(q  -<r)§  and  (q  -  r)h  was  made  manifest    in  the    unsuccessful 
attempt  to  calculate  the  coefficient  of  (q  -  r)h. 
It  thus  appears  that  the  assumed  law  of  the  indices  is  the  true 

one-  ,       i     ,  r 

It  will  be  remembered  that/,  q,  r,  .    .    .    .  are  the  halves  of 

the    sharpened   Hamiltonian   Numbers   E«  +  i,    E«,    E«  -  tf 

.    ,    .    .  and  that  consequently  the  relation — 

EmCEh  -  1)  _  E„  +  l(EM-,  -  i)(E«-i  -2)+  # 

1.2  1  .  .  2  ...  3 


E«+i  =  i  +  : 


may  be  written  in  the  form — 


2)     5(25  ■ 


l)(2J-2)(25-3) 


t(2t-l)(2t- 


2  •  3 
■2)(2/-3)(2/-4) 


2  .  3 


•   •  5 
11(211 


l)(2U  -  2)(2U  -  3)(2U  -  4)(2U  -  S) 


3-4-5 


(a) 


The  comparison  of  this  value  of  p  with  that  given  by  (i) 
furnishes  an  equation  which,  after  several  reductions  have  been 
made  in  which  special  attention  must  be  paid  to  the  order  of 
the  quantities  under  consideration,  ultimately  leads  to  the 
determination  of  the  values  of  A,  B,  C,  .    .    .    .  in  succession. 

"Physical  Society7~April  14.— Sh  el  ford"  Bidwell,  F.R.S., 
Vice-President,  in  the  chair. — Mr.  W.  E.  Sumpner  read  a  paper 
on  the  variation  of  the  coefficients  of  induction.  The  author 
pointed  out  that  there  are  three  ways  of  defining  the  coefficient 
of  self-induction  of  a  circuit,  expressed  by  the  following 
equations — 


(0  <  =  Li2 


(2)     N  =  L2C 


(3)    T  =  iL,C»; 

where  e  =  back  E.M.F.  due  to  change  of  current,  C  =  current, 
N  =  total  induction  through  the  circuit,  and  T  the  kinetic  energy 
of  the  circuit.  If  the  medium  be  air,  L15  L2,  and  L3  are  identical, 
but  in  the  case  cf  iron  this  is  no  longer  the  case.  When  tho 
curve  of  magnetization  is  given,  their  values,  corresponding  with 
any  value  of  C,  can  be  easily  determined  by  the  above  equations. 
■Maxwell's  absolute  method  of  measuring  self-induction  gives  L2, 
and  by  a  modification  due  to  Prof.  Ayrton,  where  the  current  is 

C    +  C 

altered  from  C,  to  C,  instead  of   from  o  to  C  =  — K  the 

2 

value  of  L  obtained  is  approximately  Lj,  if  C2  -  C2  is  small 
compared  with  C.  From  the  known  character  of  the  curves  of 
magnetization  of  iron,  it  is  easily  seen  that  the  value  of  L2  in- 
creases with  the  current  when  the  current  is  small,  then  becomes 
nearly  constant,  and  afterwards  decreases.  For  an  electro- 
magnet having  a  horse:shoe  core  of  best  Swedish  iron  %'  diameter 
and  14"  long,  wound  with  800  convolutions,  the  value  of  Lz  for 
currents  between  '047  and  "107  amp.  was  found  to  satisfy  the 

•        T  A 

equation  L2  =  -   +  '0425,  where  A  ss  current  in  amperes.     A 

method  of  comparing  self-induction  with  capacity  is  described,  in 
which  the  arm  of  a  Wheatstone's  bridge  opposite  the  one  con- 
taining self-induction  is  shunted  by  a  condenser  of  capacity  K. 
The  bridge  is  balanced  for  steady  currents,  and  the  deflection,  6lt 
of  the  galvanometer  observed  on  breaking  the  battery  circuit. 
01  is  : :  L2  -  Kps,  where  p  and  s  are  the  resistances  of  the  two 
remaining  arms  of  the  bridge.  The  condenser  is  then  disconnected, 
and  another  swing,  6.2,  obtained,  on  again  breaking  the  battery 
circuit.     02  is  : :  L«* 


01        L2  -  Kps  ' 


or   L0  = 


Kps. 


Further  experiments  were  made  on  the  electro-magnet  when  its 
poles  were  joined  by  a  piece  of  soft  iron,  the  currents  being 
reversed.  The  resulting  values  of  L2,  23,  Jt),  and  p  are  given  in 
absolute  measure,  and  from  them  the  author  deduces — 

L2  =  "05  +  3-9  A,  jb=  210  +  720  % 

28  —  210  5ty  +  720  |§2,     for  values  of  A  between  #o6  and  "9. 

The  difficulties  experienced  in  determining  the  induction  co- 
efficients for  strong  magnetizing  forces  produced  by  the  testing 


current  are  de-cribed.      They  arise  chiefly  from  the  fact  that  in 
order  to  obtain  strong  currents,  the  resistances  must  be  small. 
This  makes  the  "  time  constant"  large,  and  in  order  to  obtain 
the  values  of  L  in  absolute  measure,  a  ballistic  galvanometer  o( 
very  long  period  would  be  required.     A  method  of  calibrating  a 
galvanometer  of  comparatively  short  period  to  give  approximate 
results  is  described.      Where  the  magnetizing  force  is  produced 
by  an  independent  coil,  no  such  difficulties  present  themselves. 
Results    obtained    for   the   coefficients   of  self-induction   of  a 
gramme  armature  (A  type)  for  different  currents  round  the  field 
magnets  vary  from  T>2i8  for  current  .0  to  '0117  for  a  current  of 
29  amperes.      The  value  of  L  for  a  given  point  on  the  curve  of 
magnetization  is  not  a  definite  quantity,  but  has  always  two  or 
more  distinct  values,  depending  on  whether  the  magnetization  is 
increased  or  decreased  by  the  test  currents,  and  on  the  previous 
history  of  the  iron.     That  this  must  be  the  case  is  easily  seen 
from  the  curves  obtained  by  Prof.  Ewing  in  his  "Experimental 
Researches  on  Magnetism."     The  values  of  L  corresponding  to 
the  three    sides    of    a  small    Ewing's    cycle  are    denoted    by 
L/  (progressive  coefficient),  Lr  (return  coefficient)   and  L<r   (cyclic 
coefficient).       ~Lp  is   always    the    largest,  whether  the  magnet- 
ization   be    increased    or   decreased    by   the    testing    current. 
Numerical   values   of    L/>    and     L,c     obtained     from    a   Kapp 
and  Snell  transformer  are  given.    ~LC  can  be  very  accurately  deter- 
mined by  Profs.  Ayrton  and  Perry's  secohmmeter,  and  some  of 
the  results   given   in    the   paper  were  thus   obtained.     Having 
given  the  curve  of  magnetization  and  that  connecting  impressed 
E.M.F.  and  time,   a  simple  graphical  method  is  described  for 
drawing  the  current  curve.  Applying  this  to  an  alternating  current 
where  the  E.  M.  F.  is  a  pure  sine  function  of  the  time,  it  is  shown 
that  the  resulting  current  curve  differs  considerably  from  a  nine 
curve.     The  case  of  the  rise  of  current  in  the  magnet  coils  of  a 
dynamo  excited  by  accumulators  is  also  discussed,  the  derived 
curves  being  in  accordance  with  observation.     In  conclusion  the 
author  pointed  out  that  the  time  taken  to  discharge  a  condenser 
through  a  given  resistance  may  be  decreased  by  adding  self- 
induction  to  the  circuit,  provided  L  is  less  than  £KR-.     When 
L  =  iKR2,   the  discharge   is   completed   in  one-half  the   time 
required  when   L  =  o.     This  may  account  for  the  remarkable 
results  observed  by  Dr.  Lodge  in  his  experiments  on  iron  and 
copper  as  lightning-conductors. — Mr.  C.  V.  Boys  described  and 
performed  some  experiments  on  soap-bubbles,  and  by  their  aid 
demonstrated  in  a  remarkable  manner  the  phenomena  of  surface 
tension,   diffusion,   and  the  magnetic  properties  of  gases.     By 
blowing  one  bubble  inside  another,  he  showed  that  there  is  no 
electrical  force  inside  a  closed  conductor.     A  peculiar  property 
of   soap-bubbles  is   their    refusal   to   come   into   contact   when 
knocked  against  each  other;  they  may  receive  violent  shocks 
and  still  remain  separate.     If,  however,  an  electrified  body  be 
brought  in  the  vicinity,  they  immediately  coalesce.     So  sensitive 
are  they  to  electrical  attraction  that  a  potential  difference  due 
to  one  Leclanche  cell  between  the  two  bubbles  causes  them  t  i 
unite.      They  may  thus  serve  as  very  delicate   electroscopes. 
Many  other  beautiful  and  extremely  interesting  experiments  on 
liquid  films  of  different  shapes  were  performed  in  a  masterly 
manner. 

Geological  Society,  April  11. —  W.  T.  Blanford,  F.R.S., 
President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  communications  were 
read : — On  the  lower  beds  of  the  Upper  Cretaceous  series  in 
Lincolnshire  and  Yorkshire,  by  W.  Hill. — On  the  Cae  Gwyn 
Cave,  North  Wales,  by  Dr.  Henry  Hicks,  F.  R.  S.  ;  with  an  ap- 
pendix by  C.  E.  De  Ranee.  The  author  gave  an  account  of  the 
exploration  of  the  cavern  during  the  latter  part  of  1885,  and  during 
1886-87.  He  considered  that  the  results  obtained  during  that 
time  proved  conclusively  that  there  was  no  foundation  for  the  views 
of  those  who  contended  that  the  drift  which  covered  over  the 
entrance  and  extended  into  the  cavern  was  remanie,  but  they 
proved  that  the  deposits  which  lay  over  the  bone-earth  were  in 
situ,  and  were  identical  with  the  normal  glacial  deposits  of  the 
area.  These  deposits  had  once  extended  continuously  across  the 
valley,  and  the  cavern  (400  feet  above  Ordnance  datum)  had 
consequently  been  completely  buried  beneath  them.  The  cave 
must  have  been  occupied  by  animals  du»ing  the  formation  of  the 
bone-earth,  before  any  of  the  glacial  deposits  now  found  there 
had  accumulated,  and  a  thick  floor  of  stalagmite  had  covered  this 
"earth"  before  the  cavern  had  been  subjected  to  water-action. 
This  action  had  broken  up  the  floor,  and  completely  re-sorted  the 
materials,  and  added  sandy  and  gravelly  material  to  the  deposits  ; 
this  sand  and  gravel  had  been  examined  by  Prof.  Boyd  Dawkins, 
who  found  that  it  agreed  in  every  particular  with  the  glacial  sand 


May  3,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


23 


and  gravel  occurring  in  the  valley  a  little  way  above.  The  large 
limestone  blocks  in  the  cavern  had  also  been  evidently  disturbed 
by  water-action  ;  they  were  invariably  found  in  the  lowest 
deposiis,  and  were  covered  over  by  laminated  clay,  sand,  and 
gravels.  The  author  considered  it  certain  that  the  caverns  had 
been  completely  filled  with  these  materials,  and  in  the  case  of 
the  Cae  Gwyn  Cave  they  appeared  to  have  been  conveyed  mainly 
through  the  entrance  recently  discovered  under  the  drift.  The 
stratification  at  this  entrance  was  so  marked,  and  could  be  traced 
so  continuously  inwards  over  the  bone-earth,  that  there  could  be 
no  doubt  that  this  was  the  main  entrance.  There  was  not  the 
:  evidence  that  any  portion  of  the  material  had  been  con- 
vewd  in  through  a  swallow-hole,  and  the  conditions  witnessed 
throughout  were  such  as  to  preclude  any  such  idea.  The  author 
I  Report  by  Dr.  Geikie,  who  considered  that  the  wall  of 
the  cavern  had  give:i  way,  but  before  the  deposition  of  the 
glacial  deposits,  which  were  subsequently  laid  down  against  the 
limestone  bank  so  as  to  conceal  this  entrance  to  the  cavern.  In 
conclusion,  he  referred  to  the  presence  of  reindeer  remains  in 
these  caves,  in  conjunction  with  those  of  the  so  called  older 
Pleistocene  Mammalia,  proving  that  these  had  reached  the  area 
long  before  the  period  of  submergence,  and  evidently  at  an  early 
stage  in  the  Glacial  period.  It  was  important  to  remember  that 
reindeer  remains  had  been  found  in  the  oldest  river-gravels  in 
which  implements  had  been  discovered.  Man,  as  proved  by  the 
implements  discovered,  was  also  pre-ent  at  the  same  time  with 
the  reindeer,  and  it  was  therefore  natural  to  suppose  that  he 
migrated  into  this  area  in  company  with  that  animal  from  some 
noitheni  source,  though  this  did  not  preclude  the  idea  that  he 
might  al-o  have  reached  this  country  from  some  eastern  or 
southern  source,  perhaps  even  at  an  earlier  period.  In  the 
course  of  the  discussion  which  followed  the  reading  of  this 
paper,  Dr.  Evans  said  the  archaeological  evidence  was  against 
Dr.  Hicks's  views. 

Chemical  Society,  April  19. — Mr.W.  Crookes,  F  R.S.,inthe 
chair. -■-The  following  papers  were  read  :— The  influence  of  tem- 
perature on  the  composition  and  solubility  of  hydrated  calcium 
sulphate  and  of  calcium  hydroxide,  by  Messrs.  W.  A.  Shenstone 
and  J.  T.  Cundall.  The  authors  find,  contrary  to  the  usual  state- 
ments on  the  subject,  that  hydrated  calcium  sulphate,  whether  of 
natural  or  of  artificial  origin,  parts  with  a  portion  of  its  water  at 
moderate  temperatures,  e.g.  400  C.,  and  that  it  may  be  almost 
completely  dehydrated  in  dry  air  at  temperatures  below  100°  C. 
The  effect  of  heat  in  diminishing  the  solubility  of  calcium  sulphate 
in  water  at  temperatures  between  400  and  1 50°  may  therefore  be 
possibly  due  to  the  unequal  solubility  of  the  hydrated  and  an- 
hydrous salts.  Calcium  hydroxide  is  likewise  less  soluble  in  hot 
than  in  cold  water,  but  the  authors  have  failed  to  obtain  evidence 
in  favour  of  the  view  that  the  diminished  solubility  in  this  case 
may  depend  upon  the  dissociation  of  the  hydroxide  or  of  some 
hydrate  of  the  hydroxide. — Thermo-chemical  constants,  by  Mr. 
S.  U.  Pickering.  In  a  criticism  of  several  deductions  drawn  by 
Thomsen  from  thermo-chemical  data,  the  author  refers  to  the 
supposed  ."  common  constant  of  affinity" — a  quantity  whose 
multiples  by  numbers  up  to  10  are  supposed  to  represent  various 
reactions,  some  of  which  are  similar,  and  others  totally  dis- 
similar (Ber.  Dailsch.  Chem.  Ges.,  v.  170,  vi.  239)  ;  and  points 
out  that  any  number  taken  at  random,  e.g.  15,000  cal.,  would 
have  given  results  similar  to  those  obtained  by  employing 
Thomsen's  value  of  the  constant,  viz.  18,361  cal. — Action  of  hot 
copper  on  the  mixed  vapours  of  phenol  and  carbon  bisulphide, 
by  Prof.  T.  Carnelly  and  Mr.  J.  Dunn.  A  small  yield  of  anew 
diphenylene  ketone  (m.p.  ~  830)  is  obtained  in  this  reaction. — 
Oxidation  of  oxalic  acid  by  potassium  bichromate,  by  Mr.  E. 
A.  Werner. — The  action  of  phenylhydrazine  on  urea  and  on 
some  of  its  derivatives,  by  Mr.  S.  Skinner  and  Dr.  S. 
Ruhemann. — Derivatives  of  phenylisobutyric  acid,  by  Dr.  L. 
Edeleanu. — The  logarithmic  law  of  atomic  weights,  by  Mr.  G. 
J.  Stoney,  F.R.S. 

Zoological  Society,  April  17.— Dr.  St.  George  Mivart, 
F.R.S.,  Vice-President,  in  the  chair. — The  Secretary  read  a 
report  on  the  additions  that  had  been  made  to  the  Society's 
Menagerie  during  the  month  of  March  1888. — Mr.  C.  Stewart 
exhibited  a  preparation  showing  the  structure  and  development 
of  the  brood-pouch  of  a  Marsupial  Tree-Frog  {Nototrcma  mar- 
supiafum).  —  Mr.  Boulenger  exhibited  and  made  remarks  on  the 
type  specimen  of  a  new  species  of  Marsupial  Tree-Frog  {Noto- 
trema  fissipfs)  recently  discovered  by  Mr.  G.  A.  Ramage  near 
Pernambueo,  in  Brazil.— Mr.  Herbert  Druce  read  the  descrip- 
ions  of  some  new  species  of  Heterocera  collected  by  Mr.  C.  M. 


Woodford  at  Suva,  Viti  Levu,  Fiji  Islands.  The  collection 
had  been  made  during  the  months  of  February,  March,  and 
April,  1886,  and  was  especially  interesting  on  account  of  the 
exact  localities  being  noted,  as  well  as  for  the  new  species  it  con- 
tained. Ninety-four  species  were  represented,  eight  of  which 
were  described  by  the  author  as  new  to  science. — A  communica- 
tion was  read  from  Mr.  T.  D.  A.  Cockerell,  containing  some 
remarks  on  atavism,  with  reference  to  a  paper  on  the  same  <-ub- 
ject  read  by  Mr.  J.  Bland  Sutton  at  a  previous  meeting  of  the 
Society. — Prof.  G.  B.  Howes  gave  an  account  of  the  vocal  pouch 
of  Rhinodcrvia  dat-iviui,  and  described  in  detail  the  mode  of  its 
attachment  and  the  position  of  the  embryos  in  it.  The  author 
controverted  the  idea  of  Espada  that  the  alimentary  functions 
were  arrested  during  the  development  of  the  embryos  in  this 
Batrachian. — Mr.  Oldfield  Thomas  read  a  paper  describing  a 
new  genus  and  species  of  Muridae  obtained  by  Mr.  H.  O.  Forbes 
during  his  recent  expedition  to  New  Guinea.  The  author  pro- 
posed to  call  this  form,  which  was  characterized  by  the  possession 
of  a  prehensile  tail,  Chintromys  forbesi,  after  its  discoverer. — 
Lieut. -Colonel  Godwin-Austen,  F.  R.  S.,  read  the  first  of  a  pro- 
posed series  of  papers  on  the  Land-Mollusca  of  Burma.  The 
present  communication  gave  an  account  of  the  shells  collected 
by  Capt.  Spratt,  R.A.,  in  Upper  Burma,  among  which  were 
specimens  of  several  new  and  very  interesting  species.  A  com- 
munication was  read  from  Mr.  R.  Rowdier  Sharpe,  containing  the 
sixth  of  his  series  of  notes  on  the  specimens  of  the  Hume  collection 
of  birds.  The  present  paper  treated  of  some  of  the  species  of  the 
genus  Digenea. 

Anthropological  Institute,  April  24. — Francis  Galton, 
F.R.S.,  President,  in  the  chair. — A  paper  by  Dr.  Venn  on 
recent  anthropometry  at  Cambridge  was  read,  and  was  followed 
by  a  communication  by  the  President  on  the  head-growth  of 
Cambridge  students.  The  President's  paper  we  print  elsewhere. 
Mr.  Galton  also  read  a  paper  on  the  answers  he  had  received 
from  teachers  in  reply  to  questions  respecting  mental  fatigue. 

Paris. 
Academy  of  Sciences,  April  23. — M.  Janssen,  President, 
in  the  chair. — Influence  of  gravity  on  the  co-ordinates  measured 
by  means  of  equatorials,  by  MM.  Loewy  and  P.  Puiseux.  The 
paper  deals  mainly  with  the  equatorials  coudfo,  such  as  the  large 
instrument  intended  for  the  Paris  Observatory,  and  gives  the 
general  formulas  of  reduction. — On  the  aperiodic  regulation  of 
the  amortisement  and  of  the  phase  in  a  system  of  synchronized 
oscillations,  by  M.  A.  Cornu.  The  principle  is  explained  of 
this  aperiodic  method  of  control,  which  is  shown  to  possess 
several  advantages  over  the  systems  at  present  in  use.  It  reduces 
to  a  minimum,  if  not  to  zero,  the  influence  of  the  more  ordinary 
disturbing  causes,  and  supplies  a  continuous  check  for  the 
regulating  apparatus  as  well  as  a  simple  means  of  readjustment 
should  it  get  out  of  order.— Remarks  on  M.  Stoletow's  recent 
communication  on  a  class  of  electric  currents  set  up  by  the  ultra- 
violet rays,  by  M.  Edm.  Becquerel.  The  note  referred  to  the 
passage  of  an  electric  current  between  two  disks,  or  metallic  con- 
ductors, placed  parallel  to,  and  at  a  little  distance  from,  each 
other,  by  means  of  the  layer  of  intervening  air,  which  requires 
to  be  more  or  less  heated  by  the  radiation  of  a  voltaic  arc.  M. 
Becquerel  points  out  that  these  effects  appear  to  be  analogous  to 
those  which  he  observed  and  analyzed  in  a  different  way  in  the 
year  1853.  He  then  showed  that  heated  gases  may  conduct 
electric  currents,  these  effects  being  functions  of  the  nature  and 
density  of  the  gases,  as  well  as  of  the  relative  dimensions  of  the 
electrodes.— On  the  fixation  of  nitrogen  by  vegetable  soil,  by 
M.  Berthelot.  This  is  a  reply  to  M.  Schlcesing's  recent  remarks, 
the  main  object  of  the  note  being  to  more  clearly  establish  the 
history  of  these  researches  and  their  present  character.— On  the 
optical  properties  of  natural  pharmacolite,  by  M.  Des  Cloizeaux. 
The  author,  having  recently  resumed  his  interrupted  studies  of 
this  crystal,  finds  that  its  optical  crystallographic  properties  are 
absolutely  identical  with  those  of  the  artificial  crystals  lately 
obtained  by  M.  Dufet.  The  only  difference  is  an  excess  of 
about  4  per  cent,  of  water  as  determined  by  previous  ana- 
lyses of  the  aatural  crystals.  But  these  crystals  are  hygro- 
metric,  and  lose  some  of  their  water  at  ioo°  C.  I  M 
specimens  analyzed  were  also  probably  mixed  with  a  little 
wapplerite,  which  has  yielded  as  much  as  29  per  cent, 
of  water,  and  which  in  the  state  of  an  efflorescent  powder  is 
usually  associated  with  pharmacolite.— Note  on  the  optical 
characters  of  haidingerite,  by  M.  Des  Cloizeaux.  An  exanuna- 
ion  of  some  small  specimens  of  this  extremely  rare  crystal  found 


24 


NATURE 


[May  3,  1888 


in  association  with  a  few  fragments  of  pharmacolite  shows  that 
it  must  be  grouped  with  the  family  of  the  positive  acute  bisector 
crystals.  One  of  its  indices  of  refraction,  formerly  measured  by 
Haidinger  on  a  natural  prism  of  400,  formed  by  two  opposite 
facets,  ti  and  m,  must  be  the  maximum  index,  a  =  i'6'j. — 
Observations  of  Palisa's  new  planets  275  and  276,  made  at  the 
Observatory  of  Algiers,  by  MM.  Trepied,  Rambaud,  and  Sy. 
These  observations,  which  were  made  with  the  o '50  m.  telescope, 
cover  the  period  April  17-18,  when  the  two  planets  were  of  the 
respective  estimated  magnitudes  n  and  ii'5. — On  the  employ- 
ment of  gas  thermometers,  by  M.  Crafts.  These  remarks  are 
made  in  connection  with  the  hydrogen  instrument  recently 
described  by  M.  Cailletet,  who  mentions  an  analogous  type  of 
thermometer  devised  ten  years  ago  by  M.  Crafts. — On  a  new 
system  of  telephonic  communication  between  trains  in  motion 
and  the  neighbouring  stations,  by  M.  Y.  Germain.  A  series  of 
electric  measurements  effected  on  rails  from  the  stand-point  of 
their  resistance,  insulation,  and  diffusive  electric  power,  has 
satisfied  the  author  that  the  two  metallic  parts  of  the  same  line 
connected  together  constitute  an  excellent  conductor,  provided 
the  circuit  and  pile  be  insulated  from  earth.  He  has  established 
curves  of  resistance  for  the  rails  according  to  the  variations 
caused  by  the  temperature  and  by  the  humid  condition  of  the 
ballast.  A  new  line  shows  less  resistance  than  an  old,  owing  to 
the  oxidation  of  the  points  and  the  slow  transformation  brought 
about  in  the  molecules  of  steel  under  the  influence  of  vibration. 
By  setting  up  the  necessary  apparatus  in  the  stations  and  in  the 
guard's  van,  telephonic  correspondence  may  be  carried  on  in 
both  directions  ;  but  the  details  of  the  process  are  for  the  present 
withheld. — On  anew  fossil  fish  of  the  Commentry  (Allier)  Coal- 
measures,  by  M.  Charles  Brongniart.  This  fish,  of  which  several 
good  specimens  have  been  found,  presents  peculiarities  distin- 
guishing it  from  all  other  fishes  extinct  or  living.  It  is  here 
consequently  constituted  a  separate  order  of  Pleuracanthides, 
as  the  prototype  of  the  star-fish,  Ceratodus,  and  allied  forms. 
The  present  specimen  is  named  P.  gaudryi,  in  honour  of  M. 
Albert  Gaudry. 

Berlin. 
Physiological  Society,  April  13.— Prof.  Munk, President,  in 
the  chair. — Prof.  Gad  made  a  complementary  communication  to 
his  previous  one  dealing  with  the  proof  of  the  Wallerian  law. 
His   experiments   were   carried   out,    in   conjunction   with   Dr. 
Joseph,  on  the  vagus  nerve  and  its  jugular  ganglion.     The  nerve 
was  cut  through  either  on  the  central  or  peripheral  side  of  the 
ganglion,  and  after  six  or  eight  weeks  degeneration  was  looked 
for  in  the  ganglion  and  nerve.    These  experiments  yielded  only  a 
general  confirmation  of  Waller's  law  ;  at  the  same  time  they 
brought  to  light  so  many  peculiarities  and  divergencies,  that,  even 
with   the  help  of  physiological   experiment,  it  was   found   im- 
possible to  deduce   any  universal  laws   from   the  details  com- 
municated to  the  Society. — Dr.  Baginski  spoke  on  the  Bacteria 
normally  present  in  the  faeces  of  children  which  are  being  fed  on 
the  milk  of  the  mother.     As  is  well  known,  Eschricht  has  dis- 
tinguished two  kinds    among  the  above,   viz.    Bacterium  laclis 
and  Bacterium  coli  ;  of  these  the  first  is  said  to  be  capable  of  in- 
ducing the  lactic  fermentation  of  milk-sugar.     The  speaker  had 
investigated   the   truth   of    this    statement    by    cultivating   the 
Bacterium  lactis,  with  all  needful  precautions,  in  a  solution  of 
milk-sugar   to  which   neither   peptone   nor   any  other   nutrient 
fluid  had  been  added.     When  the  fermentation  was  at  an  end, 
the   fluid   was   strongly   acid,  but   no   lactic   acid,   or   at  most 
the  minutest  trace  of  this  acid,  could  be  discovered  in  it  :  all  the 
reactions  which  it  did  yield  pointed  to  the  presence  in  it  of  acetic 
acid.     This  Bacterium  lactis  (which  should  now  rather  perhaps 
be   called  Bacterium  aceti)   produced   no    effect   on    casein    or 
any  other  proteid,  and   no   putrefactive   change   was   induced. 
Similarly  it  had  no  action  on  starch  paste.     Bearing  in  mind  the 
practical    medical    interest    which     attaches     to    fermentative 
processes  which  may  occur  in  the  alimentary  canal  of  children  at 
the  breast,  Dr.  Baginski  had    next  investigated   the   behaviour 
of  the  Bacterium  and  the  nature  of  the  fermentation  it  produces 
when  deprived  of  air  and  oxygen,  and  found  that  the  fermentation 
was  in  all  respects  the  same  as  that  which  takes  place  with  access 
of  air.     The  gaseous  products  of  the  fermentation  were  carbonic 
acid  gas,  hydrogen  and  marsh-gas.     From  among  the  various 
substances  whose  action  on  the  Bacterium  was  tried,  it  is  sufficient 
to  mention  that  acetic  acid  very  speedily  killed  it,  so  that  no 
growth  of  the  organism  was  observed  in  gelatine  made  acid  with 
the  product  of  its  own  activity.     This  product  therefore  plays 
the  part  of  an  active  poison  as  regards  the  further  life  of  the 


organism. — Dr.  Mertsching  spoke  on  the  histology  of  the  skin 
and  hairs,  and  in  some  detail  on  the  mode  of  origin  of  horny 
growths.  The  speaker  exhibited  a  large  number  of  preparations 
in  support  of  his  views. 

Amsterdam. 
Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  March  31. — Mr.  Martin 
stated  that  he  had  been  charged  by  Mr.  van  Lansberge,  late 
Governor- General  of  Dutch  India,  to  present  to  the  Leyden 
Museum  a  portion  of  a  jaw  of  a  gigantic  Ichthyosaurus  from  the 
south  coast  of  Ceram.  From  this  fossil  the  existence  of 
Mesozoic  strata  in  that  island  may  be  inferred  ;  and  the  fact  that 
in  British  India  and  in  Australia  remains  of  the  same  animal 
have  been  found  in  the  Chalk  suggests  that  in  Ceram  also  there 
may  be  a  Cretaceous  formation.  The  statement  made  in 
Berghaus's  Physikalischer  Atlas,  to  the  effect  that  a  Palaeozoic 
formation  is  to  he  found  on  the  south  coast  of  Ceram,  is  without 
foundation. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED 
FOR  REVIEW. 

The  Australian  Race,  4  vols.:  E.  M.  Curr  (Triibner). — Abhandlungen  und 
Berichte  des  K.  Zoologischen  und  Anthropologisch-Ethnographischen 
Museums  zu  Dresden  :  Dr.  A.  B.  Meyer  (FriedlSnder). — Diamagnedsm  and 
Magne-Crystallic  Action  ;  New  Edition  :  John  Tyndall  (Longmans). — Silk- 
worms :  E.  A.  Butler  (Sonnenschein). — A  Treatise  on  Hydrodynamics,  vol. 
i.  :  A.  B.  Basset  (Deighton,  Bell,  and  Co .).— Publications  of  the  Lick  Obser- 
vatory of  the  University  of  California,  vol.  i.,  1887  (Sacramento). — 
Methodik  der  Gesamten  Naturwissenschaft :  K.  Kollbach  (Leipzig). — 
Turbans  and  Tails  :  A.  J.  Bamford  (Low). — Antipodean  Notes  :  Wanderer 
(Low). — Lights  and  Shadows  of  Melbourne  Life  :  J.  Freeman  (Low). — The 
Land  of  the  Pink  Pearl  :  L.  D.  Powles  (Low).— The  Birds  of  Dorsetshire  : 
J.  C.  Mansel  Pleydell  (Porter). — Argentine  Ornithology  ;  A  Descriptive 
Catalogue  of  the  Birds  of  the  Argentine  Republic,  vol.  i. :  P.  L.  Sclater  and 
W.H.  Hudson  (Porter). — Dr.  H.  G.  Bronn's  Klassen  und  Ordnungen  des 
Thier-Reichs ;  Erster  Band,  Protozoa :  Dr.  O.  Biitschli  (Williams  and 
Norgate). — Memoire  sur  la  Theorie  de  la  Figure  des  Planetes  :  M.  O. 
Callandreau. — Bulletin  de  l'Academie  Royale  des"  Sciences  de  Belgique, 
No.  3,  1888  (Bruxelles). — Transactions  of  the  New  York  Academy  of 
Sciences,  vol.  vi.  (New  York). 


PAGE 


CONTENTS. 

Volapiik,  Pasilingua,  Spelin,  Lingualumina     ....      1 
Bridge  Construction.     By  Prof.  A.  G.  Greenhill  ...      2 

Two  French  Books 4 

Our  Book  Shelf:— 

Gray  and    Lowson  :     "  The    Elements    of  Graphical 

Arithmetic  and  Graphical  Statics  " 4 

Woodward:   "  The  Manual  Training  School "   ....      5 

Crosskey  :   "  The  Method  of  Creation  " 5 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

"Coral  Formations." — G.  C.  Bourne;  C.  R.  Dryer  .     5 
Density    and     Specific    Gravity. — Prof.     G.     Carey 

Foster,  F.R.S.  ;  E.  Hospitalier 6 

The  Ignition  of  Platinum  in  Different  Gases. — Dr.  W. 

R.  Hodgkinson 6 

"  The  Nervous  System  and  the  Mind." — Dr.    Chas. 

Mercier;  The  Reviewer 7 

Nose-Blackening  as   Preventive  of  Snow-Blindness. — 
Prof.    E.  Ray  Lankester,  F.R.S. ;  Edmund  J. 

Power • 7 

"Antagonism." — F.  Howard  Collins 7 

Sense  of  Taste.— W.  G.  S 7 

Suggestions   on    the    Classification    of  the  Various 
Species  of  Heavenly  Bodies.     III.    {Illustrated.)   By 

J.  Norman  Lockyer,  F.R.S 8 

The  Royal  Society  Selected  Candidates n 

The  Islands  of  Vulcano  and  Stromboli.    By  Dr.  H.  J. 

Johnston  Lavis 13 

Head-Growth  in  Students  at  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge.  (With Diagram.)    By  Francis  Galton,  F.R.S.     14 
Photograph   of  the    Eye    by  Flash  of   Magnesium. 
(Illustrated.)     By  Prof.  Claude  du  Bois-Reymond     .     15 

Notes 16 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for      the     Week      1888 

May  6-12 18 

Geographical  Notes 18 

Our  Electrical  Column 19 

On  the  Comparison  of  the  Cranial  with  the   Spinal 
Nerves.     By  Dr.  W.  H.  Gaskell,  F.R.S.  .    .....    19 

University  and  Educational  Intelligence 20 

Scientific  Serials 20 

Societies  and  Academies 21 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received  for  Review    24 


NA  TURE 


25 


THURSDAY,    MAY    10,    1888. 


FORMS  OF  ANIMAL  LIFE. 
Forms  of  Animal  Life.  A  Manual  of  Comparative 
Anatomy,  with  Descriptions  of  Selected  Types.  By 
the  late  George  Rolleston,  D.M.,  F.R.S.,  Linacre  Pro- 
fessor of  Anatomy  and  Physiology  in  the  University 
of  Oxford.  Second  Edition,  Revised  and  Enlarged 
by  W.  Hatchett  Jackson,  M.A.,  Natural  Science  Lec- 
turer, St.  John's  College,  Oxford.  (Oxford  :  Clarendon 
Press,  1888.) 

THE  first  edition  of  Prof.  Rolleston's  "Forms  of 
Animal  Life"  was  published  in  1870.  Avowedly 
an  educational  work,  and  written  expressly  for  students, 
it  came  at  a  time  when  the  teaching  of  zoology  was  in  a 
very  different  position  from  that  which  it  now  holds,  and 
opportunities  for  systematic  laboratory  instruction  were 
rare. 

At  Oxford  there  already  existed  an  admirably  equipped 
Museum,  in  the  arrangement  of  which  the  wants  of 
students  received  special  attention  ;  facilities  for  labora- 
tory work  were  also  offered,  and  among  the  Linacre 
Professor's  pupils  were  men  destined  to  become  the 
leaders  of  the  younger  school  of  English  zoologists. 
Elsewhere,  however,  the  conditions  were  less  favourable. 
The  Cambridge  school  of  biology,  which  has  made  for 
itself  so  great  and  honourable  a  reputation,  as  yet  had  no 
existence.  Indeed,  it  was  not  till  the  year  of  publication 
of  Prof.  Rolleston's  volume  that  the  Trinity  Praslector  in 
Physiology  entered  on  the  duties  of  his  new  office  ;  and 
it  was  in  October  of  the  same  year  that  the  late  Prof. 
Balfour  commenced  his  brilliant  University  career. 

In  other  centres  the  state  of  things  was  very  similar. 
Zoology  was  taught  almost  exclusively  by  lectures,  often 
indeed  of  great  value,  but  supplemented  at  most  by 
demonstrations.  Individual  students  worked  hard  at 
dissections  or  in  museums,  but  organized  laboratory  in- 
struction, in  direct  connection  with  systematic  lectures, 
existed  on  a  very  small  scale,  if  at  all. 

There  was,  however,  a  firm  conviction  on  the  part  of 
those  most  directly  and  intimately  concerned,  that  a  great 
change  was  necessary  ;  and  a  determination  to  carry  out 
this  reform  at  the  earliest  possible  opportunity.  In  1872, 
Prof.  Huxley  entered  into  possession  of  the  new  Biological 
Laboratories  at  S^outh  Kensington,  and  at  once  inaugur- 
ated a  system  of  combined  lecture  and  laboratory  in- 
struction which  has  formed  the  model  on  which  all 
subsequent  courses  have  been  framed.  Three  years  later 
he  published,  in  conjunction  with  Prof.  Martin,  the 
"  Course  of  Elementary  Instruction  in  Practical  Biology," 
and  from  that  time  the  teaching  of  biology  by  lectures 
only  became  impossible. 

This  same  year,  1875,  witnessed  the  commencement  of 
Prof.  Balfour's  systematic  courses  of  practical  morphology 
at  Cambridge,  and  the  introduction,  by  its  newly  elected 
Professor  of  Zoology,  of  the  reformed  system  into  one 
of  the  most  eminent  of  the  London  medical  schools. 
The  change  spread  rapidly  throughout  the  country,  and 
the  adoption  of  the  new  methods  of  teaching,  pushed  to 
its  logical  conclusion,  led  to  the  establishment  of  numer- 
ous appointments,  and  to  the  building  and  equipment  of 
Vol.  xxxviii.— No.  967. 


the  splendid  Laboratories  at  Cambridge,  Manchester,  and 
elsewhere. 

It  would  not  be  wise  to  attempt  to  estimate  too  accur- 
ately to  what  extent  Prof.  Rolleston's  book  was  instru- 
mental in  bringing  about  this  reform,  by  which  the  whole 
scope  and  method  of  biological  teaching  were  altered.  It 
must  be  noted,  however,  that  the  time  of  its  appearance 
was  most  opportune,  and  that  the  two  leading  principles 
of  the  book,  in  which  it  differed  most  markedly  and  most 
deliberately  from  all  other  works  of  the  time,  were  pre- 
cisely the  characteristic  features  of  the  new  school. 
These  are,  in  the  first  place,  the  insistence  on  accurate  and 
practical  examination  of  selected  types  before  a  student 
is  allowed  to  proceed  to  the  systematic  study  of  the  groups 
to  which  the  types  belong  ;  and,  secondly,  the  importance 
of  direct  reference  to  the  original  sources  of  information. 
On  the  first  of  these  points,  Prof.  Rolleston  says,  in  his 
preface  : — 

"  The  distinctive  character  of  the  book  consists  in  its 
attempting  so  to  combine  the  concrete  facts  of  zootomy 
with  the  outlines  of  systematic  classification  as  to  enable 
the  student  to  put  them  for  himself  into  their  natural 
relations  of  foundation  and  superstructure.  The  founda- 
tion may  be  made  wider,  and  the  superstructure  may 
have  its  outlines  not  only  filled  up,  but  even  considerably 
altered,  by  subsequent  and  more  extensive  labours ;  but 
the  mutual  relations  of  the  one  as  foundation  and  of  the 
other  as  superstructure,  which  this  book  particularly  aims 
at  illustrating,  must  always  remain  the  same." 

On  the  importance  of  direct  reference  to  the  original 
authorities  he  speaks  very  positively  : — 

"  In  some  cases,  even  the  beginner  will  find  it  necessary 
to  consult  some  of  the  many  works  referred  to  in  the 
descriptions  of  the  preparations  and  in  the  descriptions 
of  the  plates ;  but  the  bibliographical  references  have 
been  added  with  a  view  rather  to  the  wants  indicated  in 
the  words  '  Fur  akademische  Vorlesungen  und  zum 
Selbststudium,'  so  often  prefixed  to  German  works  on 
science,  than  to  those  of  the  commencing  student." 

"  Forms  of  Animal  Life "  was  the  first  student's  text- 
book in  which  these  principles  were  distinctly  formulated 
and  deliberately  adopted  ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  it  played  a  most  important  part  in  stimulating  and 
enforcing  a  direct  study  and  accurate  acquaintance  with 
type  forms  as  a  necessary  prelude  to  systematic  zoological 
work  :  just  as  the  admirable  series  of  preparations  by 
Mr.  Robertson,  the  description  of  which  forms  so  charac- 
teristic and  important  a  feature  of  the  book,  have  fur- 
nished a  model  from  which  other  museums  have  copied 
freely  and  to  their  great  advantage. 

Prof.  Rolleston  took  great  interest  in  his  book :  during 
the  later  years  of  his  life  he  was  actively  engaged  in  pre- 
paring the  second  edition  ;  and  very  early  in  this  work 
he  asked  Mr.  Jackson  to  act  with  him  as  joint  author. 
Some  progress  was  made  in  this  joint  work,  but  it  was 
soon  interrupted  by  the  illness  which,  in  the  winter  of 
1880,  compelled  Prof.  Rolleston  to  go  abroad,  and  which 
proved  fatal  only  a  few  months  later. 

"  When  Prof.  Rolleston  went  abroad,"  says  Mr.  Jack- 
son, "he  put  me  in  possession  of  his  plans  for  the  rest  of 
the  work,  handed  his  papers  to  me,  and  expressed  a  hope 
that,  if  he  were  disabled  from  completing  the  new  edition, 
I  might  be  the  person  to  do  it  in  his  stead.  It  is  almost 
needless  for  me  to  add  that  in  fulfilling  this  sacred  trust 

C 


26 


NATURE 


[May 


10,  I 


I  have  endeavoured  to  carry  out  his  wishes,  which  were 
mainly  three:  (i)  to  enlarge  the  descriptions  of  the  pre- 
parations and  accounts  of  the  various  classes  of  animals, 
and  to  bring  them  to  the  standard  of  contemporary 
knowledge  ;  (2)  to  add  to  each  class  or  group  a  brief 
classification  ;  and  (3)  to  give  as  full  a  bibliography  as 
space  would  admit." 

The  new  edition  which  is  now  before  us  has  been  most 
carefully  revised  throughout  ;  very  considerable  additions 
have  been  made,  especially  in  the  systematic  portion, 
which  has  been  entirely  re-written  by  Mr.  Jackson  ;  and 
the  volume  is  more  than  double  the  size  of  its  predecessor 
—  extending  to  upwards  of  900  pages. 

The  book,  as  before,  consists  of  three  main  sections  : 
the  descriptions  of  the  selected  preparations  ;  the  descrip- 
tions of  plates  illustrating  the  salient  features  in  the 
anatomy  of  certain  of  these  types  ;  and,  thirdly,  the 
systematic  accounts  of  the  several  groups  into  which  the 
animal  kingdom  is  divided.  The  arrangement  of  these 
sections  has  been  altered  ;  for  while  in  the  former  edition 
the  descriptions  of  the  preparations  and  plates  were 
placed  after  the  systematic  part,  the  relative  positions 
have  in  the  new  edition  been  reversed.  The  present 
arrangement  is  a  more  natural  one,  and  the  change,  which 
was  contemplated  by  Prof.  Rolleston,  is  certainly  an 
improvement. 

The  selected  preparations,  the  description  of  which 
forms  the  first  section  of  the  book,  are  for  the  most  part 
the  same  as  those  of  the  former  edition.  The  skeleton 
and  certain  parts  of  the  muscular  system  of  the  rabbit, 
and  the  alimentary  canal,  urinary,  and  generative  organs 
of  the  same  animal,  have  been  added  ;  the  privet  hawk 
moth  has  been  substituted  for  the  death's  head  ;  and  the 
skeleton  of  the  pigeon  and  a  few  invertebrate  preparations 
have  been  omitted.  Though  the  number  of  the  prepara- 
tions remains  practically  the  same  as  before,  this  portion 
of  the  book  has  been  increased  by  nearly  a  hundred 
pages  ;  the  expansion  being  due  mainly  to  the  insertion 
of  much  fuller  accounts  of  allied  forms,  and  partly  to 
a  large  addition  in  the  bibliography. 

It  would  be  an  easy  matter  to  take  exception  to  the 
plan  of  this  part  of  the  book,  and  to  urge  that  the  space 
devoted  to  the  description  of  particular  specimens,  which 
the  majority  of  readers  can  never  have  a  chance  of  seeing, 
might  have  been  allotted,  with  far  greater  advantage  to 
students,  to  thorough  descriptions  of  the  anatomy  of  typical 
animals  selected  as  representatives  of  the  several  groups. 
Accounts  such  as  these  are  much  wanted,  and  the  oppor- 
tunity for  providing  them  was  an  exceptionally  favourable 
one.  The  criticism,  however,  loses  all  point  as  directed 
against  this  second  edition,  for  Mr.  Jackson,  regarding 
his  task  as  a  trust,  has  rightly  refrained  from  interfering 
with  the  scheme  of  arrangement  of  this,  perhaps  the 
most  characteristic  section  of  the  book. 

He  has,  however,  subjected  the  whole  to  very  careful 
revision.  The  descriptions  are  admirably  clear  and  con- 
cise, and  the  additional  paragraphs  have  given  Mr.  Jack- 
son opportunity  for  introducing  references  to  allied  forms 
which  are  always  important,  and  in  many  cases  of  very 
high  value  indeed. 

The  second  part  of  the  book,  containing  the  plates 
with  their  descriptions,  is  less  satisfactory.  Of  the  twelve 
plates  of  the  first  edition  ten  have  been  retained  without 


change,  one  has  been  slightly  altered,  and  one  cancelled. 
Three  new  plates,  which  had  been  prepared  and  com- 
pleted under  Prof.  Rolleston's  own  direction,  have  been 
added,  illustrating  points  in  the  anatomy  of  the  skate, 
of  the  oyster,  and  of  certain  Arthropoda  respectively. 
We  sincerely  wish  these  plates  had  been  omitted. 
They  form  no  essential  part  of  the  book  ;  the  subjects 
are  not  well  chosen ;  and  the  drawings  themselves  are  not 
always  correct.  The  figure  of  the  reproductive  organs  of 
the  earthworm,  for  instance,  is  very  misleading  ;  and  the 
nephridia,  as  shown  in  the  same  figure,  are  entirely 
wrong.  The  new  plates  show  no  improvement  on  the  old 
ones  :  the  figure  of  the  oyster  is  not  of  sufficient  import- 
ance to  justify  its  insertion,  while  the  plate  supposed  to 
illustrate  the  anatomy  of  the  skate  is  one  of  the  very 
worst  we  have  ever  seen.  We  cannot  but  feel  the  highest 
respect  for  the  conscientious  and  self-effacing  spirit  in 
which  Mr.  Jackson  has  carried  out  a  most  laborious  and 
delicate  task  ;  but  we  believe  most  sincerely  that  he 
would  have  done  more  honour  to  the  memory  of  his  chief 
by  suppressing  most  if  not  all  of  these  plates,  which  are 
in  every  way  unworthy  of  the  book  and  of  its  authors. 
From  the  fact  that  this  part  of  the  book  has  alone 
undergone  compression,  we  suspect  that  Mr.  Jackson, 
who  has  no  responsibility  in  connection  with  the  plates 
save  that  of  retaining  them,  agrees  with  us  as  to  their 
merits. 

About  a  dozen  woodcuts  have  been  inserted  in  the 
descriptions  of  the  preparations  :  these  are  well  chosen 
and  will  prove  useful,  though  the  absence  of  descriptions 
in  two  or  three  cases  is  somewhat  exasperating.  At  the 
present  time  accurate  and  original  figures  illustrating  the 
anatomy  of  typical  animals  are  so  urgently  needed  that 
we  cannot  but  regret  that  the  resources  of  the  Clarendon 
Press  were  not  drawn  on  more  largely  in  this  respect. 

The  third  and  concluding  portion  of  the  book  contains 
the  systematic  descriptions  of  the  groups  ;  and  here  the 
changes  are  very  great  indeed.  Occupying  less  than  two 
hundred  pages  in  the  former  edition,  it  has  now  increased 
to  six  hundred.  This  part  of  the  boo'.c  is  by  far  the  most 
important,  and  is  exceedingly  well  done.  Short  descrip- 
tions of  the  larger  groups  are  followed  by  most  accurate 
and  comprehensive  accounts  of  the  several  classes.  The 
further  subdivision  of  the  classes  into  orders  and  other 
minor  groups  is  given  in  all  cases  ;  and  the  most  recent 
researches  are  referred  to,  without  being  given  undue 
prominence. 

For  this  part  of  the  work  Mr.  Jackson  is  entirely  re- 
sponsible, and  we  congratulate  him  very  heartily  on  the 
admirable  manner  in  which  he  has  effected  it.  We  have 
indeed  but  one  complaint  to  make — namely,  that,  as  in 
the  former  edition,  the  groups  are  described  in  descending 
order,  Vertebrates  being  taken  first,  and  Protozoa  last. 
This  is  a  serious  fault,  giving  the  effect  of  an  uncomfort- 
able drop  as  we  pass  from  group  to  group,  and,  further- 
more, rendering  discussion  of  the  mutual  relations  of  the 
several  groups  very  difficult,  and  in  many  cases  futile  or 
impossible. 

Apart  from  this,  we  have  nothing  but  praise  to  offer. 
Limits  of  space  will  not  allow  that  we  should  deal  at  length 
with  the  several  classes,  but  a  few  points  may  be  noted. 

The  Enteropneusta  are  left  among  the  "Worms"; 
their  vertebrate    affinities    are    mentioned,  though    Mr. 


May  10,  1888] 


NATURE 


27 


Jackson  does  not  appear  to  favour  their  claims  to  rank 
among  the  higher  group.  The  vexed  question  of  the 
homologies  of  the  Arthropod  appendages  is  treated  fully 
The  antennules  of  Crustacea  are  doubtfully  classed  as 
true  appendages,  while  the  Crustacean  antennae,  with  the 
chelicene  of  Arachnida  are  regarded  as  post-oral  ap- 
pendages which  have  become  pre-oral  by  shifting  for- 
wards. The  antennae  of  Myriapodsand  Insects  are  ruled 
out,  "  as  being  apparently  processes  of  the  procephalic 
lobes  ; "  while  the  suggestion  that  the  telson  represents  a 
region  rather  than  a  somite  will  meet  with  very  general 
approval. 

Brauer's  classification  of  Insects  is  adopted,  with  some 
slight  modifications,  and  is  given  in  considerable  detail- 
The  leeches  are  treated  with  caution  as  an  isolated 
group,  and  no  suggestion  is  made  of  their  possible 
affinities  with  Turbellaria. 

Among  the  lower  groups  the  Ccelenterata  are  dealt 
with  very  thoroughly.  The  possibility  of  near  kinship 
between  the  Acraspedote  Medusas  and  the  Anthozoa  that 
has  found  favour  of  late  with  Gotte  and  others  is  men- 
tioned, but  rejected.  The  Protozoa  also  receive  very 
liberal  and  thorough  treatment,  more  than  a  hundred 
pages  being  devoted  to  them.  As  regards  classification 
three  main  divisions  are  adopted  :  the  Acinetaria,  Ciliata 
and  Mastigophora  are  classed  together  as  Plegepoda,  a 
group  equivalent  to  the  Stomatophorous  Corticata  of 
Lankester,  and  for  which  the  old  term  Infusoria  might 
conveniently  be  used.  The  remaining  divisions  are  the 
Endoparasita  or  Sporozoa,  and  the  Rhizopoda,  the  latter 
group  being  equivalent  to  Lankester's  Gymnomyxa. 

Mr.  Jackson  is  a  singularly  modest  writer,  and  seldom 
allows  his  own  hand  to  be  seen  ;  a  note  on  the  blood- 
vessels of  the  earthworm,  in  which  he  questions  the 
existence  of  the  so-called  subintestinal  vessel,  is  of  con- 
siderable interest ;  and  throughout  the  volume  there  is 
abundant  evidence  of  intimate  practical  acquaintance 
with  the  groups  he  describes  so  well. 

The  importance,  even  for  the  junior  student,  of  direct 
reference  to  original  papers  was,  as  we  have  noticed 
above,  one  of  the  points  on  which  Prof.  Rolleston  insisted 
most  strongly.  In  this  respect  Mr.  Jackson  has  afforded 
assistance  of  a  singularly  efficient  character.  Possessed 
of  a  most  unusually  accurate  and  extensive  acquaintance 
with  the  zoological  literature  of  all  countries,  Mr.  Jackson 
has  given  the  full  benefit  of  his  knowledge  to  readers  of 
his  book.  Every  page  teems  with  evidence  of  the  most 
diligent  research  amongst  authorities,  and  none  but  a 
specialist  in  each  group  can  estimate  rightly  the  enormous 
amount  of  labour  that  its  preparation  must  have  cost  him. 
Only  less  admirable  is  the  restraint  which  has  enabled 
him  to  refrain  from  burdening  the  book  with  an  undue 
number  of  references,  while  those  that  are  given  have 
been  selected  with  the  utmost  care,  and  arranged  in  such 
way  as  to  afford  the  student  aid  of  a  kind  hitherto  denied 
him.  "  The  method  I  have  adopted,"  says  Mr.  Jackson, 
"is  to  citethemost  important  and  recent  authorities, which 
when  consulted,  will  in  most  cases  give  the  names  of  all 
other  accounts  worth  reading,  so  as  to  form  a  really  very 
complete  index  to  the  state  of  present  knowledge."  It  is 
this  "index"  which  constitutes  the  characteristic  feature 
of  the  new  edition  ;  and  in  the  care  and  thoroughness 
with  which  he  has  compiled  it,  Mr.  Jackson  has  conferred 


an  inestimable  boon  on  zoologists,  and  has  rendered  his 
work  indispensable  to  teachers  and  students  alike. 

The  earlier  edition  of  "Forms  of  Animal  Life"  was 
marked  by  a  certain  singularity,  at  times  almost  gro- 
tesqueness,  of  diction,  which  interfered  to  some  extent 
with  the  popularity  of  the  book  ;  we  are  glad  to  observe 
that  care  has  been  taken  to  remove  this  blemish,  though 
an  occasional  tendency  to  reversion  may  be  noticed  in 
such  statements  as  that  "the  anterior  prostate  is  divaric- 
able  into  two  lobes,"  or  that  a  given  figure  is  "  one-half 
less  than  natural  size." 

It  would  be  better,  too,  if  zoologists  could  completely 
emancipate  themselves  from  the  traditions  of  human 
anatomy,  and  cease  to  speak  of  the  anterior  part  of  a 
rabbit  as  the  "upper  half,"  or  to  use  such  terms  as 
"  vena  cava  descendens."  "  Uro-genital,"  too,  which 
threatens  to  establish  itself  permanently,  should  not  be 
used  for  urino-genital  ;  and  the  term  "  pseud-haemal  "  is 
objectionable,  and,  as  applied  to  the  vascular  system  of 
an  earthworm,  meaningless. 

However,  these  are  but  small  points  ;  and  in  concluding 
we  acknowledge  in  the  fullest  degree  the  singularly  pains- 
taking and  conscientious  manner  in  which  Mr.  Jackson 
has  fulfilled  his  task,  and  the  signal  service  he  has  thereby 
rendered  to  zoologists.  "Forms  of  Animal  Life"  is  a 
unique  book  ;  none  but  Prof.  Rolleston  could  have  written 
it ;  and  probably  there  is  no  one  who  could  have  retained 
and  developed  more  successfully  than  Mr.  Jackson  has 
done  the  exactness  and  thoroughness  to  which  Prof. 
Huxley  long  ago  alluded  as  its  special  charm. 

A   M.  M. 


THE  CARDINAL  NUMBERS. 
The  Cardinal  Numbers,  with  an  Introductory  Chapter  on 
Numbers  Generally.     By  Manley  Hopkins.      London  : 
Sampson  Low,  1887.) 

UNLIKE  Hudibras,  who  could,  as  we  are  told, "  extract 
numbers  out  of  matter,"  Mr.  Hopkins  proposes  in 
the  essay  before  us  to  extract  matter  from  numbers,  or,  as 
he  says  in  the  preface,  "  to  show  that  every-day  things — 
numbers  being  one  of  them— possess  in  themselves 
materials  worth  investigation,  and  connections  with  other 
subjects  of  thought  and  study."  Our  author  does  not 
attempt  any  systematic  investigation  of  the  properties 
of  numbers :  to  do  so  would  far  transcend  the  modest 
limits  to  which  he  confines  himself.  He  prefers  to  con- 
sider numbers  in  their  relation  to  such  subjects  as  religion, 
music,  poetry,  mythology,  and  superstition.  Some  purely 
numerical  facts  are,  however,  given,  which  either  are,  or 
else  ought  to  be,  found  in  every  text-book  of  arithmetic — 
for  instance,  the  rules  (given  on  p.  75,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  appendix)  for  determining  when  a  number  is  divisible 
by  any  of  the  first  twelve  numbers,  7  only  excepted.  The 
cardinal  numbers  from  1  to  10  inclusive  are  treated 
separately  in  ten'  distinct  chapters.  These,  with  the 
introductory  chapter  and  an  appendix,  the  principal 
portion  of  which  is  taken  up  with  magic  squares,  form  the 
whole  of  the  work. 

The  nature  of  our  author's  remarks  will  be  best  seen 
by  making  a  few  quotations.  Thus  ia  the  chapter  on 
Number  tne,  after  speaking  of  the  unity  of  the  Godhead 
and  the  oneness  of  self,  he  goes  on  to  say :— 


28 


NATURE 


[May  10,  1888 


"  Geography  and  natural  history  abound  in  words 
which  express  the  separateness  of  an  object,  its  isolation, 
its  one-liness.  Similar  to  the  number  I,  and  to  the 
pronoun  I,  there  are  found  in  different  languages  and 
dialects  referring  to  local  separation,  the  words  i,  hi,  ey,  eye, 
egg  (and  here  think  of  the  Latin  ego  and  the  Greek  eyw), 
eyot,  ait,  inch,  innis,  He,  isle,  inver,  insula,  isola,  isla ; 
and  connote  some  of  these  with  the  animal  eye  and  egg, 
having  a  similar  separation  as  an  island  in  geography.  All 
the  latter  have  the  same  meaning,  and  express  a  portion 
of  land  segregated,  cut  off  from  other  land  and  surrounded 
by  water — oneness." 

With  the  above  we  may  compare  Shakespeare's  use  of 
the  word  eye  in  the  passage — "  The  ground,  indeed,  is 
tawny.  With  an  eye  of  green  in  V  ("  Tempest,"  Act  II., 
sc.  1). 

Respecting  the  celebrated  twos  in  profane  myth  and 
history,  we  read  in  the  next  chapter  : — 

"  Prominent  among  these  are  Romulus  and  Remus  ; 
Brutus  and  Cassius  ;  and  in  Irish  legend  Eber  and  Airem  ; 
concerning  whom  we  are  informed  that  Eber  was  slain  by 
his  brother  Airem.  He  was  the  hero  of  the  Ivernians,  the 
ancient  non-Celtic  inhabitants  of  Ireland.  Airem  was  the 
ancestor  of  the  Celts  who  conquered  the  country." 

The  Hibbert  Lecture,  May  1886,  is  referred  to  in  a  foot- 
note as  the  source  from  which  this  Irish  version  of  the 
story  of  Romulus  and  Remus  was  taken.  It  is  new  to  us, 
and  will  probably  be  so  to  most  of  our  readers. 

In  the  chapter  on  Number  Three  we  are  told  the  origin 
of  the  heraldicy?<?#r  de  lys : — 

"It  was  the  device  of  three  fishes  tied  together  with  a 
ribbon,  which  formed  the  fleur  de  luce — luce  being  the 
name  of  the  fish  ;  but  which  was  afterwards  transfigured 
into  the  more  elegant  emblem  of  the  fleur  de  lys,  the 
flower  of  the  iris,  taking  the  place  of  ths  fish,  its  three 
petals  still  presenting  a  trine." 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Justice  Shallow,  in  the 
opening  scene  of  the  "  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,"  speaking 
of  "  the  dozen  white  luces  "  in  his  coat,  remarks  that  "  the 
luce  is  the  fresh  fish." 

To  the  noble  army  of  circle-squarers  we  leave  the  task 
of  refuting  the  following  argument ;  merely  remarking 
that  it  may  with  equal  facility  be  used  to  disprove  the 
quadrature  of  the  parabola,  which  has  been  believed 
in  by  all  orthodox  mathematicians  since  the  time  of 
Archimedes : — 

"  In  a  quadrangle,  the  space  may  be  divided  into  the 
minutest  squares,  leaving  no  space  undivided  ;  but  in  a 
circle,  every  square  applied  to  its  periphery  will  always 
leave  an  angular  space  ;  and  however  far  the  process 
of  smaller  angles  may  be  carried,  an  ultimate  undivided 
space  will  remain." 

Apparently  our  author  is  not  quite  satisfied  with  this  ; 
for  in  the  next  paragraph  (on  p.  47)  he  proves,  in  another 
manner,  that  the  circle  cannot  be  squared.  In  both  proofs, 
for  the  words  "  a  circle  "  we  may  substitute  "  any  curve, 
including  the  parabola,"  without  thereby  affecting  the 
argument. 

We  have  never  heard  of  Montrecla,  to  whom  we  are 
referred  for  an  account  of  attempts  to  square  the  circle  ; 
but  possibly  Montucla  is  meant,  who  in  1754  published 
a  "  History  of  Researches  relating  to  the  Quadrature  of  the 
Circle,"  a  second  edition  of  which  (by  Lacroix)  appeared 
in  1831.  This  conjecture  is  strengthened  by  the  fact  that 
our  author's  list  of  the  principal  calculators  of  n  ends 
with  Vega  (born  in   1754  and  murdered  in  1802),  who 


obtained  its  value  to  140  decimal  places,  making  no 
mention  of  Rutherford  and  Shanks,  who  in  more  recent 
times  pushed  on  the  calculation  to  500  and  707  places 
respectively. 

From  Chapter  VII.,  which  treats  of  a  variety  of  subjects, 
including  among  them  "  the  number  of  the  beast "  and 
the  fine  distinction  between  six  and  half-a-dozen,  we  select 
for  comment  the  following  sentence  : — 

"  Six,  also,  is  the  least  number  of  the  points  of  fixature  ; 
so  that  a  body  cannot  under  all  circumstances  be  im- 
movable unless  secured  (or  resisted)  at  six  points." 

Having  only  common-sense  to  guide  us,  and  being  unable 
to  divine  what  train  of  reasoning  could  have  led  the 
author  to  the  above  conclusion,  we  should  imagine  that 
whenever  any  two  points,  A,  B,  of  a  body  are  fixed  every 
other  point  in  the  straight  line  AB  is  also  fixed,  so  that  the 
body  can  only  rotate  round  the  line  AB.  Consequently 
if  any  third  point  (not  in  the  straight  line  AB)  is  also 
fixed  the  body  is  immovable.  Do  the  words  "  under  all 
circumstances"  imply  that  the  body  is  immovable  even 
when  all  six  of  our  author's  "  points  of  fixature  "  are  in  the 
same  straight  line  ?  If  not,  we  are  at  a  loss  to  know  what 
they  mean. 

The  appendix  contains  among  other  things  a  method 
of  filling  up  magic  squares  which  is  said  to  have  been 
communicated  by  a  Russian  mathematician  to  Prof. 
Sylvester  and  by  him  to  a  friend  of  the  author.  As  some 
portions  of  the  Russian  Empire  are  not  very  far  distant 
geographically  from  the  land  of  the  Chaldaeans,  this  tradi- 
tion may  have  had  its  origin  among  the  magicians, 
astrologers,  Chaldaeans,  and  soothsayers  of  the  Court  of 
Nebuchadnezzar,  to  whom  magic  squares  were  doubtless 
well  known.  We  hope  Mr.  Hopkins  will  be  able  to  trace 
it  to  its  source;  even  though  it  would  take  some  time  to 
do  so,  and  the  appearance  of  a  second  edition  of  "  The 
Cardinal  Numbers  "  might  thereby  be  delayed.  The  public 
need  not  be  impatient,  for  they  can  in  the  meantime  allay 
their  curiosity  concerning  the  properties  of  magic  squares 
by  a  perusal  of  the  "  Mathematical  Recreations"of  Ozanam 
and  a  host  of  more  modern  writers. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

The  Romance  of  Mathematics.  Being  the  Original 
Researches  of  a  Lady  Professor  of  Girtham  College 
in  Polemical  Science,  with  some  Account  of  the  Social 
Properties  of  a  Conic  ;  Equations  to  Brain-Waves  ; 
Social  Forces  ;  and  the  Laws  of  Political  Motion.  By 
P.  Hampson,  M. A.,  Oriel  College,  Oxford.  (London: 
Elliot  Stock,  1886.) 

OUR  first  acquaintance  with  the  title,  which  we  have 
copied  in  full,  was  limited  to  its  four  opening  words. 
These  suggested  various  ways  in  which  the  subject  might 
be  treated  ;  we  had  no  idea  that  the  task  before  us  was 
to  examine  and  report  upon  a  somewhat  mildy>#  d1  esprit. 
The  editor,  who  poses  as  a  Cambridge  student  and 
quondam  pupil  of  the  Girtham  Professor,  and  subse- 
quently as  her  husband,  discovers,  in  a  well-worn  desk, 
certain  lectures,  essays,  and  other  matter.  In  his  intro- 
duction he  says  it  is  not  his  intention  to  disclose  how  he 
came  into  possession  of  the  papers  ;  in  the  closing  pages 
he  is  caught  in  his  work  of  reading  and  transcribing, 
and  "at  length  we  gained  our  point,  and  obtained  the 
full  sanction  of  the  late  Lady  Professor  of  Girtham  Col- 
lege to  publish  her  papers."  "  Thus  her  obedient  pupil  is 
enabled  to  repay  his  late  instructress  for  all  her  kindness  to 


May  10,  1888] 


NATURE 


29 


him,"  and  also  to  remove  from  the  mind  of  the  reader  the 
unpleasant  feeling  he  has  all  along  had  whilst  perusing 
the  papers,  that  he  was  a  party  to  a  mean  action  in  so 
doing. 

The  earliest  essay,  in  an  unfinished  form,  written  whilst 
in  statu  pupillari,  is  entitled  "  Some  Remarks  of  a 
Girtham  girl  on  Female  Education,"  and  combats  those 
"male  sycophants"  who  "would  prevent  us  from  com- 
peting with  you  ;  you  would  separate  yourselves  on  your 
island  of  knowledge,  and  sink  the  punt  which  would  bear 
us  over  to  your  privileged  shore.  Of  all  the  twaddle — 
forgive  me,  male  sycophants ! — that  the  world  has  ever 
heard,  I  think  the  greatest  is  that  which  you  have  talked 
about  female  education." 

The  second  paper  is  a  "  Lecture  on  the  Theory  of  Brain- 
Waves,  and  the  Transmigration  and  Potentiality  of 
Mental  Forces."     She  takes  the  usual  equation 


y 


a  •  27r  /  ,  N 
—  sin  —  (vt  -  r). 
r  X 


and  determines  X  by  the  method  of  mesmerism.  "  We 
find  the  ratio  of  brain  to  brain— the  relative  strength 
which  one  bears  to  another  ;  and  then,  by  an  application 
of  our  formula,  we  can  actually  determine  the  wave  of 
thought,  and  read  the  minds  of  our  fellow-creatures.  An 
unbounded  field  for  reflection  and  speculation  is  here 
suggested.  Like  all  great  discoveries,  the  elements  of 
the  problem  have  unconsciously  been  utilized  by  many 
who  are  unable  to  account  for  their  method  of  procedure. 
.  .  .  The  development  of  this  theory  of  brain-waves  may 
be  of  great  practical  utility  to  the  world.  It  shows  that 
great  care  ought  to  be  exercised  in  the  domain  of  thought, 
as  well  as  that  of  speech."  Some  verses  follow,  and  then 
we  have  Papers  iii.  and  iv.,  which  are,  in  our  opinion,  the 
best  part  of  the  book,  viz.  a  "  Lecture  on  the  Social  Pro- 
perties of  a  Conic  Section,"  and  the  "  Theory  of  Polemical 
Mathematics."  Paper  v.  contains  a  "  Lecture  upon  Social 
Forces,  with  some  Account  of  Polemical  Kinematics," 
and  Paper  vi.  carries  on  the  preceding  into  "  Polemical 
Statics  and  Dynamics"  ;  Paper  vii.  expounds  the  "  Laws 
of  Political  Motion,"  and  Paper  viii.  closes  the  book  with 
a  lecture  "  On  the  Principle  of  Polemical  Cohesion."  We 
ought  to  apologize  for  going  into  such  detail,  but  our 
account  will  show  our  readers  that  the  present  work  does 
not  deal  with  mathematical  discoveries.  It  is  a  "skit," 
with  the  perusal  of  which  a  reader  acquainted  with 
mathematics  may  while  away,  not  unpleasantly,  an  odd 
half-hour  or  two. 

Antipodean  Notes.   By  "  Wanderer."  (London  :  Sampson 

Low,  1888.) 
Lights  and  Shadows  of  Melbourne  Life.  By  John  Free- 
man. (Same  publishers.) 
The  "notes"  in  the  first  of  these  two  books  do  not 
embody  the  results  of  a  very  wide  experience.  They 
simply  record  some  observations  made  by  the  author  in 
the  course  of  a  nine  months'  tour  round  the  world. 
"Wanderer"  does  not,  however,  pretend  to  offer  an 
exhaustive  account  of  any  of  the  subjects  on  which  he 
touches.  He  has  an  easy,  pleasant  style,  and  gives  with 
some  vividness  his  first  impressions  of  the  scenes  he 
describes.  The  greater  part  of  the  book  relates  to  New 
Zealand,  the  practical,  commercial,  and  social  aspects  of 
which  he  had,  he  thinks,  more  and  better  opportunities  of 
studying  than  are  obtainable  by  the  majority  of  "  globe- 
trotters." There  is  a  short  but  interesting  chapter 
on  the  Maoris,  of  whose  qualities,  as  they  have  been 
affected  by  contact  with  civilization,  "Wanderer"  has 
no  very  exalted  opinion.  He  admits,  however,  that 
there  are  exceptions  to  what  he  calls  "  the  average 
of  uselessness."  One  of  the  native  members  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  is,  he  says,  "highly  edu- 
cated, intelligent,  and  even  eloquent."  The  question 
whether  women  should  be  admitted  to  the  House  was 
lately  discussed,  and  the  speech  of  this  deputy  on  the 


subject  was  "  by  far  the  most  brilliant  and  entertaining 
of  a  debate  in  which  many  colonial  legislators  soared 
above  the  ordinary  level  of  dull  mediocrity." 

The  second  book  consists  of  a  series  of  papers,  some 
of  which  were  originally  contributed  to  Melbourne  news- 
papers. They  are  written  in  rather  too  "smart"  a  style, 
but  contain  much  information  which  it  would  be  hard 
for  Englishmen  who  may  be  interested  in  Melbourne  to 
find  elsewhere.  The  book  will  no  doubt  be  welcomed  by 
many  visitors  who  will  go  this  year  to  Melbourne  to  see 
the  Centennial  International  Exhibition. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
of  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations..] 

The  Salt  Industry  in  the  United  States. 

I  CAN  sympathize  to  a  great  extent  with  your  correspondent 
George  P.  Merrill  en  the  question  of  salt  statistics.  For  a 
number  of  years  I  have  been  accumulating  information  on  the 
whole  subject  of  salt,  and  have  found  the  greatest  difficulty  in 
obtaining  much  of  a  trustworthy  character.  The  m  )st  extensive 
salt  literature  is  in  Germany  :  even  there  ihe  statistical  part  of  the 
subject  is  not  dea't  with  so  extensively  as  the  geological,  geo- 
graphical, chemical,  and  manufacturing.  Perhaps  the  most  com- 
plete salt  literature  is  that  of  India,  which  is  issued  yearly  by  the 
Government  ;  but  it  deals  almo.-t  exclusively  with  Indian  salt. 

I  am  not  much  surprised  that  the  information  in  our  Encyclo- 
paedias respecting  the  salt  industry  of  the  United  States  should 
be  so  scanty.  Most  of  the  information  derivable  re-pecting  it 
has  to  be  obtained  from  public  newspapers,  trade  pamphlets,  or 
papers  in  scientific  journals.  It  is  true  that,  so  far  as  the  deposit 
of  Petit  Anse,  in  Louisiana,  is  concerned,  the  United  States 
Government  published  an  account  of  it  shortly  after  the  termina- 
tion of  the  great  war.  Dr.  Sterry  Hunt,  whom  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  meeting  at  Manchester  at  the  British  Association,  has 
written  probably  more  than  anyone  else  on  American  salts  ;  but 
it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  it  is  only  within  the  last  twenty 
years  that  the  great  salt  discoveries  in  Western  New  York  and 
Michigan  have  been  made.  I  have  a  complete  or  nearly  com- 
plete list  of  all  the  Michigan  works,  which  was  issued  in  the 
Chicago  Tribune  of  January  24,  1888.  I  have  also  before  me  a 
copy  of  the  Saginaw  Courier  of  December  18,  1887.  This  gives 
some  valuable  tables  respecting  the  Michigan  i  alt.  In  Michigan, 
in  1887,  3,944,309  barrels  of  salt  were  inspected  by  the  salt 
inspector.  In  1869,  only  561,288  barrels  were  made  ;  and  in  1880, 
2,676,588.  There  was  more  salt  made  in  Michigan  in  1887  than 
had  been  made  previously  to  1869  in  that  State.  The  growth  of 
the  salt  manufacture  has  been  exceedingly  rapid  in  the  States  ; 
hence  the  reason  why  so  little  is  known  of  it  outside  the  persons 
interested  in  the  trade. 

Within  the  last  five  or  six  years  there  has  grown  up  a  most 
extensive  salt  manufacture  in  the  Wyoming  Valley  in  Western 
New  York.  Already  this  new  district  bids  fair  to  cut  out  entirely 
the  old  Syracuse  or  Onondaga  district.  The  make  of  American 
salt  has  much  more  than  doubled  itself  in  the  last  ten  years.  I 
am  sure  that  personally  I  shall  be  much  pleased  if  Mr.  Merrill 
will,  either  through  your  columns  or  direct  to  me,  give  any  in- 
formation more  accurate  than  is  obtainable  from  our  Encyclo- 
pedias. I  am  striving  to  establish  at  Northwich,  the  centre  of  the 
Cheshire  salt  trade,  a  Salt  Museum,  and  although  I  have  been  for 
a  long  time  accumulating  specimens  of  salt  from  all  parts,  and 
have,  thanks  to  the  East  Indian  Government,  and  through  the 
kind  exertions  of  Mr.  J.  T.  Brunner,  M.P.,  our  Parliamentary 
representative,  who  is  most  handsomely  furnishing  the  Museum,  a 
complete  set  of  specimens  of  Indian  salt,  yet  I  find  great  difficulty 
in  obtaining  works  treating  on  salt,  also  maps,  plans,  and  diagrams. 
I  trust,  by  degrees,  to  have  a  Museum  perfectly  unique,  I  believe. 

When  I  say  that  until  the  last  two  or  three  years  our  English 
salt  statistics  have  not  been  trustworthy,  and  that  it  is  only  by  the 
indefatigable  exertions  of  Mr.  Joseph  Dickinson,  II.  M.  Inspector 
of  Mines,  assisted  by  myself  and  one  or  two  other  gentlemen 
connected  w  ith  our  salt  trade,  that  they  are  now  very  nearly  com- 
plete, Mr.  Merrill  must  not  be  surprised  at  the  difficulty  of  getting 


3Q 


NATURE 


[May  10,  1888 


trustworthy  information.  For  some  seventeen  years  I  have  kept 
n.  complete  list  of  all  salt  exports  from  the  Mersey  ports,  and  this 
list,  I  think,  is  the  only  complete  one  published,  though  the  Salt 
Chamber  of  Commerce  here  professes  to  have  a  list,  which  it 
does  not  issue  for  public  use.  Indeed,  I  regret  to  say  that  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  get  any  assistance  or  information  from  this 
body. 

The  French  Government  issues  at  times  a  list  of  salt  manu- 
factured or  raised  from  mines.  The  last  I  received,  viz.  1879, 
gave,  as  the  production  for  that  year,  283,000  tons  of  sea  salt  and 
293,000  tons  of  rock  salt. 

I  shall  be  glad  to  give  any  information  I  possess  to  Mr.  Merrill, 
and  should  be  glad  if  any  of  your  readers  could  give  any  in- 
formation or  assistance  that  would  enable  me  to  make  as  complete 
as  possible  the  Salt  Museum  we  are  here  forming. 

Northwich,  Cheshire.  Thomas  Ward. 


Prof.  Rosenbusch's  Work  on  Petrology. 

Prof.  Bonney's  letter  (Nature,  vol.  xxxvii.  p.  556)  makes  me 
venture  once  more  to  ask  permission  for  space  for  a  few  remarks. 
One  of  the  objects  I  had  in  view  in  writing  to  you  at  first  is 
partly  attained  by  the  appearance  of  Prof.  Bonney's  "  friendly 
protest"  ;  and  his  remark  that  but  for  my  letter  he  should  have 
refrained  "for  a  season"  leads  me  to  hope  that  in  due  course 
this  object  may  be  still  further  realized. 

Prof.  Bonney  sees  great  objections  to  Rosenbusch's  system  of 
classification,  and  demurs  to  some  of  his  groups  altogether,  both 
as  to  those  admitted  and  those  omitted.  Naturally,  then,  he 
desires  that  this  system  shall  not,  by  students  of  petrology,  be 
too  readily  accepted  nor  too  blindly  followed.  I  do  not  think 
there  is  much  danger  of  this,  nor  do  I  think  that  the  ' '  viaduct  " 
was  too  much  complimented  either  by  Dr.  Hatch  or  myself,  the 
defective  foundation  of  the  piers  in  question  being  quite 
sufficiently  alluded  to  for  the  time  being. 

The  position,  however,  seems  to  be  this.  The  number  of 
earnest  students  of  petrology  is  larger  now  than  formerly,  and 
is  on  the  increase.  They  feel  that  no  satisfactory  system  of 
classification  had  yet  been  offered  toth^m,  and  indeed  are  rather 
bewildered  by  the  fact  that  opinions  as  to  what  is  the  best 
system  have  been  almost  as  many  in  number  as  the  teachers 
who  could  by  any  means  claim  to  be  authorities  entitled  to 
instruct  in  this  matter.  Also,  it  is  now  a  long  time  since  any 
detailed  system  of  classification,  covering  the  whole  ground, 
has  been  attempted. 

Now  we  have  such  an  attempt  offered  to  us  by  Rosenbusch, 
and  there  is  no  doubt  that  to  many  it  will  be  very  welcome  and 
will  be  largely  used,  in  spite  of  the  defects  undoubtedly  seen  in  it. 

Prof.  Bonney  objects  to  the  viaduct  because  of  the  weakness 
of  some  of  its  piers,  and  still  more  strongly  objects  to  it,  I  think, 
because  he  considers  that  when  a  student  has  crossed  it  he  will 
arrive  at  a  point  from  which  he  will  obtain  a  view  of  the  sur- 
rounding country  which  will  not  be  a  good  or  correct  view,  and 
which  will  in  some  respects  confuse  the  knowledge  of  that  country 
already  obtained  and  still  to  be  sought  for. 

Would  not  this  be  just  exactly  the  best  time  for  some 
authority  of  great  experience  to  come  forward  and  point  out  to 
us  younger  workers  wherein  the  viaduct  is  defective,  and  wherein 
we  shall  see  wrongly  from  the  ground  on  the  further  side  of  it  ; 
and  to  tell  us  his  opinions  as  to  a  better  viaduct,  so  placed  as  to 
lead  us  to  a  better  point  of  outlook  ? 

May  we  hope  that  Prof.  Bonney  will  himself  give  us  such  a 
detailed  criticism  of  the  subject  ?  It  would  be  received  with 
great  attention  and  gratitude  by  many  who,  like  myself,  are 
looking  for  "light  and  leading"  in  this  branch  of  study. 

A.   B. 

History  of  the  Contraction  Theory  of   Mountain 
Formation. 

In  his  "Physical  Geology,"  second  edition,  p.  674,  Prof. 
Green  says  :  "The  notion  that  the  earth's  contraction  has  been 
the  cause  of  the  displacement  of  the  rocks  and  the  elevations 
of  the  surface  seems  to  have  occurred  first  to  Descartes  (ed. 
francaise,  1668,  p.  322)." 

It  does  not  seem  to  be  generally  known  that,  a  few  years 
later,  the  same  idea  occurred  to  Newton.  In  a  letter  to  Dr. 
Thomas  Burnet  he  refers  to  that  writer's  "Sacred  Theory  of  the 
Earth,"  the  Latin  edition  of  which  was  published  in  1681,  and 
considers  the  creation  of  the  earth  in  connection  with  the  Mosaic 
account.     After  suggesting  illustrations  of  the  "generation  of 


hills,"  Newton  concludes  thus:  "I  forbear  to  describe  other 
causes  of  mountains,  as  the  breaking  out  of  vapours  from  below 
before  the  earth  was  well  hardened, — the  settling  and  shrinking 
of  the  whole  globe  after  the  upper  regions  or  surface  began  to  be 
hard;"  though  he  adds,  "  I  have  not  set  down  anything  I  have 
well  considered,  or  will  undertake  to  defend." 

The  letter,  which  is  written  in  reply  to  one  of  Burnet's,  dated 
January  13,  1680-81,  is  given  in  full  in  Brewster's  "  Memoirs  of 
Sir  Isaac  Newton,"  vol.  ii.  Appendix  4.  The  manuscript  from 
which  it  is  printed  is  a  copy  of  the  letter,  without  date  or 
signature  ;  but,  according  to  Brewster,  "the  whole  is  distinctly 
written  in  Sir  Isaac's  hand."  Charles  Davison. 

Birmingham,  April  23. 

Lightning  and  Milk. 

Emin  Pasha  (Nature,  vol.  xxxvii..  p.  583)  mentions  the 
African  superstition  "that  fire  kindled  by  a  flash  of  lightning 
cannot  be  extinguished  until  a  small  quantity  of  milk  has  been 
poured  over  it."  This  idea  is  embodied  in  a  Russian  proverb, 
and  has  also  existed  in  parts  of  Germany  (Boyes,  Lacon, 
p.  157).  Emin  Pasha  adds  that,  in  tempering  swords  made 
from  meteoric  iron  {vulgo,  thunderbolts),  the  blacksmith  uses 
not  water,  but  milk.  Are  other  instances  of  this  custom  known  ? 
Has  any  explanation  been  offered  ?  Indian  folk-lore  furnishes 
two  ideas  which  may  illustrate  it  :  one,  that  the  fall  of  a  meteor  is 
a  bad  omen  {Indian  Notes  and  Queries,  July  1887,  674) ;  the 
other,  that  evil  spirits  are  very  fond  of  fresh  milk  (ib.,  Decem- 
ber 1886,  198).  Meteorites  and  lightning  are  connected  in  the 
minds  of  ignorant  people,  particularly,  as  Emin  Pasha  tells  us, 
in  the  present  instance.  The  milk,  therefore,  whether  applied 
by  smith  or  fire-man,  may  be  rather  intended  as  a  propitia- 
tion than  used  for  its  intrinsic  power  of  tempering  steel  or 
extinguishing  flame.  F.  A.  BATHER. 

20  Campden  Hill  Road,  Kensington,  W.,  April  29. 

The  Duplex  Pendulum  Seismograph. 

As  the  accuracy  of  the  duplex  pendulum  seismograph  has 
been  impugned  by  a  writer  in  Nature,  vol.  xxxvii.  p.  571, 
who  at  the  same  time  adopts  the  instrument  (with  modifications 
which  are,  in  my  opinion,  the  reverse  of  improvements)  I  forward 
to  you  comparison  diagrams.  They  show  side  by  side  the  record 
given  by  the  seismograph  itself,  and  the  real  motion  of  the  base 
of  the  instrument  when  that  was  artificially  shaken  in  a  manner 
that  closely  imitated  an  earthquake.  The  real  motion  was  re- 
corded by  means  of  a  multiplying  lever  hinged  by  a  universal 
joint  in  a  bracket  fixed  to  a  separate  support.  In  both  records 
the  motion  is  magnified  about  six  times.  The  agreement  of  the 
two  demonstrates  the  accuracy  of  the  instrument  as  an  earthquake 
recorder,  alike  for  large  and  for  small  motions.  These  are  ex- 
amples of  tests  which  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  applying  to 
seismographs  since  1880  (see  Proc.  R.  S.,  vol.  xxxi.  p.  440).  In 
the  present  case  the  test  was  made  with  one  of  the  duplex 
pendulum  seismographs  made  and  sold  by  the  Cambridge 
Scien'ific  Instrument  Company,  and  described  by  me  in  Nature, 
vol.  xxxiv.  p.  343.  J.  A.  EwiNG. 

University  College,  Dundee,  April  20. 

Self-  Induction. 

I  have  to  apologize  for  erroneously  attributing  to  Dr.  Lodge 
a  suggestion  with  reference  to  the  self-induction  of  wires  for 
high-tension  electric  discharges.  I  do  not,  however,  consider, 
as  Prof.  Lodge  appears  to  do,  that  for  such  dis  harges  it  is  "on 
the  face  of  it  absurd"  to  suppose  that  the  self-induction  of  iron 
wires  is  less  than  that  of  copper  wires  of  the  same  dimensions. 
Prof.  Ewing  has  suggested  that  for  very  small  values  of  the 
magnetizing  force,  H,  iron  may  p;s~ibly  behave  as  a  diamagnetic 
body,  and  the  corresponding  values  of  the  magnetic  sus- 
ceptibility, k,  may  be  negative.  The  values  of  the  magnetic 
induction,  B,  which  are  given  by  the  equation — 

B  =  (1  +  4ir£)H, 
will  be  less  than  H,  because  k  is  negative.  The  rate  of  increase 
of  B  with  H  will  be  less  than  unity  for  iron  if  this  supposition 
is  true,  and  will  be  equal  to  unity  for  copper,  for  which  we  may 
suppose  that  the  value  of  k  is  negligible.  The  coefficient  of  self- 
induction,  which  will  be  proportional  to  the  rate  of  increase  of 
B  with  regard  to  H  for  wires  of  the  same  dimensions  will 
accordingly  be  less  for  the  iron  than  for  the  copper. 

City  and  Guilds  Institute,  May  2.  W.    E.    Sumpner. 


May  10,  1888] 


NATURE 


3i 


SUGGESTIONS  ON  THE  CLASSIFICATION  OF 
THE  VARIOUS  SPECIES  OF  HEAVENLY 
BODIES. ' 

IV. 

IV.— ON  THE  SPECTRA  OF  STARS  OF  GROUP  II. 

IN  the  previous  part  of  this  memoir  I  have  attempted  to 
give  a  general  idea  of  that  grouping  of  celestial  bodies 
which  in  my  opinion  best  accords  with  our  present  know- 
ledge, and  which  has  been  based  upon  the  assumed 
meteoric  origin  of  all  of  them. 

I  now  proceed  to  test  the  hypothesis  further  by  showing 
how  it  bears  the  strain  put  upon  it  when,  in  addition  to 
general  grouping,  it  is  used  to  show  us  how  specific 
differences  are  arrived  at. 

I.  General  Discussion  of  Duner's  Observations. 

In  the  paper  communicated  to  the  Royal  Society  on 
November  17   I  pointed  out  that  the  so-called  "stars" 


Fig.  6. — Diagram  showing  how  an  absorption  fluting  varies  in  width  according 
to  the  quantity  of  absorbing  substance  present. 

of  Class  lU.a  were  not  masses  of  vapour  like  our  sun, 
but  swarms  of  meteorites  ;  the  spectrum  being  a  com- 
pound one,  due  to  the  radiation  of  vapour  in  the  inter- 
spaces and  to  the  absorption  of  the  light  of  the  red-  or 
white-hot  meteorites  by  vapours  volatilized  out  of  them 
by  the  heat  produced  by  collisions. 

I  also  showed  that  the  radiation  was  that  of  carbon 
vapour,  and  that  some  of  the  absorption  was  produced  by 
the  chief  flutings  of  Mn  and  Zn. 

Dune'r  in  his  map  gives  eleven  absorption  bands,  chiefly 
flutings,  in  Class  Ilia,  but  in  the  case  of  the  tenth  and 
eleventh  bands  there  is  some  discrepancy  between  his  map 
and  the  text,  to  which  reference  will  be  made  subsequently. 
His  measurements  are  of  the  darker  portions  of  the 
flutings,  speaking  generally. 

'  Th«  Ba'<er'an  Lecture,  delivered  at  the  Royal  Society  on  April  12,  by 
J.  Ncrman  Lock;  er,  F.R.S.     Continued  from  p.  ir. 


It  will  be  clear  at  once  that  in  the  case  of  the  dark 
flutings  the  dark  bands  should  agree  with  the  ixwz.  absorp- 
tion of  the  vapours,  and  that  when  the  amount  of  absorp- 
tion varies,  only  that  wave-length  away  from  the  maximum 
of  the  flutings  will  vary.  Thus,  the  same  fluting  may  be 
represented  as  in  Fig.  6,  according  to  the  quantity 
of  the  absorbing  substance  present. 

In  the  case  of  the  £r/4r///flutings,however,  the  dark  bands 
on  either  side  may  in  some  cases  be  produced  partly  by 
contrast  only,  and  the  brighter  and  wider  the  bright  flutings 
are  the  more  they  will  appear  to  vary,  and  in  two  ways  : 
first,  they  will  dim  by  contrast  when  the  bright  fluting 
is  dimmer  than  ordinary ;  and  secondly,  the  one  on  the 
side  towards  which  the  bright  fluting  expands  from  its 
most  decided  edge  will  diminish  as  the  bright  fluting 
expands  (see  Fig.  7). 

There  is  also  another  important  matter  to  be  borne  in 
mind.  As  these  spectra  are  in  the  main  produced  by  the 
integration  of  the  continuous  spectra  of  the  meteorites, 
the  bright  flutings  of  carbon,  and  the  dark  flutings  pro- 
duced by  the  absorption  of  the  continuous  spectra  by  the 


Fig.  7.— Diagram  showing  the  variation  in  width  of  a  bright  fluting,  and  the 
consequent  variation  in  width  of  the  contrast  band  at  th;  fainter  edge. 

vapour  surrounding  each  meteorite  ;  the  proportion  of 
bright  fluting  area  to  dark  fluting  area  will  vary  with  the 
reduction  of  the  spacing  between  the  meteorites. 

If  any  bright  or  dark  flutings  occur  in  the  same  region 
of  the  spectra  when  the  spaces  are' greatest,  the  radia- 
tion effect  will  be  stronger,  and  the  absorption  fluting  will 
be  "  masked  ;"  where  they  are  least  the  radiation  itself 
will  be  masked.  This  reasoning  not  only  applies  to 
flutings  but  to  lines  also. 

The  Radiation  fluting  r. 

We  will  first  deal  with  the  radiation  flutings— those  of 
carbon.  The  brightest  less  refrangible  edge  of  the  chief 
one  is  at  wave-length  517,  where  it  sharply  cuts  off  the 
tail  end  of  the  absorption  of  the  magnesium  fluting  the 
darkest  edge  of  which  begins  at  520,  as  the  carbon  light 
from   the  interspace   pales  the  absorption.     The  same 


3* 


NATURE 


[May  10,  1888 


thing  happens  at  the  more  refrangible  edge  of  the  other 
absorption  of  Mg  at  500,  as  DuneYs  figures  show. 


Less  refrangible  edge. 

5502     ...      . 
SOI 
S03      •••       • 
S05      ...      • 


More  refrangible  sharp  edge. 
496  in  a  Herculis. 
496  in  p  Persei. 
496  in  R  Leonis  Min. 
496  in  /3  Pegasi. 


If  this  explanation  of  the  rigidity  of  the  less  refrangible 
edge  may  be  accepted,  it  is  suggested  that  the  rigidity  of 
the  end  of  band  8  at  496,  near  the  nebula  line  495,  seems 
to  indicate  that  we  may  have  that  line  as  the  bright,  less 
refrangible,  boundary  of  another  radiation  fluting. 

The  fluting  at  5 1 7  is  the  chief  radiation  fluting  of  carbon. 
The  next  more  refrangible  one,  which  would  be  most  easily 
seen,  as  the  continuous  spectrum  would  be  less  bright  in 
the  blue,  has  its  less  refrangible  and  brightest  edge  at  474. 

This  in  all  probability  has  been  seen  by  Dune'r,  though, 
as  before  stated,  there  is  here  a  discrepancy  between  his 
maps  and  his  text.  It  lies  between  his  dark  bands  9  and 
10,  the  measurements  of  which  are  as  follow  : — 


Band  9 
Band  10 


Less  refrangible  edge. 
482      ... 

484      ... 
472      ... 

474     ...     . 


More  refrangible  edge. 

476  in  a  Orionis. 

477  in  &  Pegasi. 
460  in  a  Orionis. 
462  in  0  Herculis. 


It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  point  out  the  extreme  and 
special  difficulty  of  observations  and  determinations  of 
wave-lengths  in  this  part  of  the  spectrum.  Taking  this 
into  consideration,  and  bearing  in  mind  that  my  observa- 
tions of  the  chemical  elements  have  shown  me  no  other 
bands  or  flutings  in  this  region,  I  feel  justified  in  looking 
upon  the  narrow  bright  space  between  bands  9  and  10  as 
an  indication  of  another  carbon  fluting — the  one  we 
should  expect  to  find  associated  with  the  one  at  517,  with 
its  bright  edge  at  473  instead  of  476,  where  DuneYs 
measurements  place  it.  There  is  a  bright  fluting  in  this 
position  in  Nova  Orionis. 

I  shall  refer  to  both  these  points  later  on. 

The  third  fluting,  the  carbon  one  with  its  brightest  edge 
at  564,  is  certainly  also  present ;  though  here  the  proof 
depends  upon  its  masking  effect,  and  upon  the  manner 
in  which  this  effect  ceases  when  the  other  flutings  narrow 
and  become  faint. 

In  addition  to  these  three  flutings  of  carbon,  which  we 
shall  distinguish  in  what  follows  as  carbon  A,  there  is 
sometimes  a  fourth  more  refrangible  one  beginning  at 
wave-length  461,  which  is  due  to  some  other  molecular 
form  of  carbon.  It  extends  from  wave-length  461  to  451, 
and,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  it  is  this  which  gives  rise 
to  the  apparent  absorption  band  No.  10  in  the  blue  ; 
this  we  shall  distinguish  as  carbon  B. 

It  is  very  probable  also  that  in  some  cases  there  is,  in 
addition  to  carbon  A  and  carbon  B,  the  hydrocarbon 
fluting  which  begins  at  wave-length  431,  the  evidence  of 
this  being  DuneYs  apparent  absorption  band  1 1.  It  may 
be  remarked  here,  that  although  most  of  the  luminosity 
of  this  fluting  is  on  the  more  refrangible  side  of  431, 
there  is  also  a  considerable  amount  on  the  less  refrangible 
side. 

With  regard  to  bands  9,  10,  and  11,  then,  there  is  little 
doubt  that  they  are  merely  dark  spaces  between  the 
bright  blue  flutings  of  carbon,  and  that  whether  they  are 
seen  or  not  depends  upon  the  relative  brightnesses  of"  the 
carbon  flutings  and  the  continuous  spectrum  from  the 
incandescent  meteorites.  When  the  continuous  spectrum 
is  faint,  it  will  not  extend  far  into  the  blue,  and  the  re- 
sulting dark  space  between  the  bright  carbon  A  fluting  at 
474  and  the  end  of  the  continuous  spectrum  is  the  origin 
of  the  apparent  absorption  band  9.  When  the  con- 
tinuous spectrum  gets  very  bright,  band  9  should,  and 
does,  disappear.  On  reference  to  the  maps  of  the 
spectra  of  the  "stars"  with  bright  lines,  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  broad  apparent  absorption  band   in   the   blue 


agrees  exactly  in  position  with  band  9,  and  it  undoubtedly 
has  the  same  origin  in  both  cases.  This  band  may  there- 
fore be  regarded  as  the  connecting  link  between  the 
bodies  belonging  to  Group  I.  and  those  belonging  to  the 
group  under  consideration. 

Band  10  is  the  dark  space  between  the  bright  carbon 
A  fluting  at  474  and  the  carbon  B  at  461,  and  can  only 
exist  as  long  as  the  carbon  flutings  are  brighter  than  the 
continuous  spectrum.  DuneYs  mean  values  for  the  band 
are  461-473,  and  on  comparing  these  with  the  wave- 
lengths of  the  carbon  flutings  (see  Fig.  10,  which  will  be 
given  in  the  next  instalment)  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
coincidence  is  almost  perfect. 

There  is  a  little  uncertainty  about  band  11,  which 
Dune'r  was  only  able  to  measure  in  one  star,  but  it  very 
probably  has  its  origin  in  the  dark  space  between  the 
bright  carbon  B  fluting  and  the  hydrocarbon  fluting  at 
431  (see  Fig.  10).  This  would  give  a  band  somewhat 
broader  and  more  refrangible  than  that  shown  in  DuneYs 
map  ;  but,  as  already  pointed  out,  great  accuracy  in  this 
part  of  the  spectrum  cannot  be  expected. 

Chemical  Substances  indicated  by  the  Absorption  Flutings 
and  Bands. 

I  may  state  that  I  have  now  obtained  evidence  to  show 
that  the  origin  of  the  following  absorption  flutings  is 
probably  as  under : — 

Wave-length  of 

less  refrangible 

end,  given  by  Duncr 

as  measured  in 

a  Orionis. 

...    628 

-  595 
...  564 
...  550 
...  526 

-  5i7 
...  495 

These  flutings  are  characteristic  of  the  whole  class, 
and  DuneYs  catalogue  consists  chiefly  of  a  statement  of 
their  presence  or  absence,  or  their  varying  intensities,  in 
the  different  stars. 

He  gives  other  bands  and  wide  lines  which  he  has 
measured  specially  in  a  Orionis.  I  have  also  discovered 
the  origin  of  the  majority  of  these.  They  are  as 
follows : — 


No.  of  Fluting. 

Origin. 

Wave-length  of 
darkest  most  re- 
frangible edge. 

2       

.     Fe 

...         6l6         ... 

3     

4     

5     

6     

7     

8     

.     Mn  (2) 
.     Mn(i)1 
.     Pb(i)2 
.     Bas     ... 
Mg      ... 
.     Mg      ... 

...         585         - 
...         S58         -. 

•••       544       •• 

...       524       ... 

...       521       ... 

500       ... 

Wave-length. 

I. 

Fluting  of  Cr(i) 

■•         581 

II. 

?                  

••    570-577 

III. 

Fluting  of  Pb  (2)         

••         567 

IV. 

?                  ... 

••       543 

V. 

Line  of  Mn  seen  in  bunsen 

..  538-540 

VI. 

Band  of  Ba 

••  532-534 

(*• 

Fluting  of  Cr  (2) 

5594 

\2- 

»,       (3) 

••       536 

J  3. 

Line  of  Cr  seen  in  bunsen  ... 

520 

',  4- 

Ba  band        

••       5H5 

5- 

) 

(601 

6. 

>  1st,  2nd,  and  3rd  Ba  flutings  . 

■■   J  634 

1.7. 

i 

I  649 

Lines 


Band  1,  which  extends  from  wave-length  649^5  to  663*8, 
has  not  yet  been  allocated. 

Tests  at  our  Disposal. 

In  order  to  prove  that  my  explanation  of  the  nature  of 
these  celestial  bodies  is  sufficient,  a  discussion  of  the 
individual  observations  of  them,  seeing  that  differences  in 

1  Means  strongest  fluting. 

2  The  sec  jnd  Pb  band  has  been  seen  in  a  Scorpii  and  a  Orionis.  Owing 
t  >  an  error  in  the  map  in  the  former  paper,  this  fluting  was  ascribed  to  zinc. 

3  This  is  the  second  brightest  band,  wave-length  525.  The  first,  at  wave- 
length 515,  is  masked  by  the  radiation  fluting  at  516. 

4  This  is  not  given  by  Duner.  It  would  be  masked  by  the  Mn  fluting  in  the 
star.  I  have  inserted  it  to  show  that  we  could  not  be  dealing  with  the  3rd 
fluting  of  Cr  at  536  if  we  could  not  explain  the  apparent  absence  of  the 
2nd. 

5  In  the  early  stages  this  band  is  masked  by  the  vivid  light  coming  from 
the  carbon  in  the  interspaces. 


May  10,  1888] 


NATURE 


33 


the  spectra  are  known  to  exist,  should  show  that  all  the 
differences  can  be  accounted  for  in  the  main  by  differ- 
ences in  the  amount  of  interspace  ;  that  is  to  say,  by  a 
difference  between  the  relative  areas  of  space  and 
meteorite  in  a  section  of  the  swarm  at  right  angles  to  the 
line  of  sight.  I  say  in  the  main,  because  subsequent  in- 
quiry may  indicate  that  we  should  expect  to  find  minor 
differences  brought  about  by  the  beginnings  of  condensa- 
tion in  large  as  opposed  to  small  swarms,  and  also  by  the 
actual  or  apparent  magnitudes  of  the  swarms  varying 
their  brilliancy,  thus  enabling  a  more  minute  study  to  be 
made  of  the  same  stage  of  heat  in  one  swarm  than  in 
another. 

How  minor  differences  may  arise  will  be  at  once  seen 
when  we  consider  the  conditions  of  observation. 

The  apparent  point  of  light  generally  seen  is  on  my 
view  produced  not  by  a  mass  of  vapour  of  more  or  less 
regular  outline  and  structure,but  by  a  swarm  of  meteorites 
perhaps  with  more  than  one  point  of  condensation. 

An  equal  amount  of  light  received  from  the  body  may  be 
produced  by  any  stage,  or  number  of  nuclei,  of  condensa- 
tion ;  and  with  any  differences  of  area  between  the  more 
luminous  centre  and  the  outliers  of  the  swarm. 

All  these  conditions  producing  light  of  very  different 
qualities  are  integrated  in  the  image  on  the  slit  of  the 
spectroscope. 

I  have  said  "  generally  seen,"  because  it  has  been  long 
known  that  many  of  the  objects  I  am  now  discussing  are 
variable,  as  well  as  red,  and  that  at  the  minimum  they 
are  not  always  seen  as  sharp  points  of  light 1  but  have 
been  described  as  hazy. 

The  severe  nature  of  the  tests  at  our  disposal  will  be 
recognized  when  we  inquire  what  must  follow  from  the 
variation  of  the  spacing.  Thus,  as  the  spacing  is 
reduced — 

I.  The  temperature  must  increas8. 

a.  Vapours  produced  at  the  lowest  temperatures 
will  be  the  first  to  appear. 

£.  The  spectrum  of  each  substance  must  vary  with 
the  quantity  of  vapour  produced  as  the 
temperature  increases,  and  the  new  absorp- 
tions produced  must  be  the  same  and  must 
follow  in  the  same  order  as  those  observed  in 
laboratory  experiments. 

II.  The  carbon  spectrum  must  first  get  more  intense 
and  then  diminish  afterwards  as  the  spaces,  now  smaller, 
are  occupied  by  vapours  of  other  substances. 

a.  The  longest  spectrum  will  be  that  produced  by 

mean  spacing. 
0.  The  masking  of  the  dark  bands  by  the  bright 

ones  must  vary,  and  must  be  reduced  as  the 

mean  spacing  is  reduced. 

III.  The  continuous  spectrum  of  the  meteorites  must 
increase. 

a.  There  will  be  a  gradually-increasing  dimming 
of  the  absorption-bands  from  this  cause. 

j3.  This  dimming  will  be  entirely  independent  of 
the  width  of  the  band. 

IV.  The  spectrum  must  gradually  get  richer  in  absorp- 
tion-bands. 

a.  Those  produced  at  the  lowest  temperatures  will 

be  relatively  widest  first. 
fi.  Those  produced  at  the  highest  temperatures  will 

be  relatively  widest  last. 
y.  They  must  all  finally  thin. 

These  necessary  conditions,  then,  having  to  be  fulfilled, 
I  now  proceed  to  discuss  M.  DuneVs  individual  observa- 


1  Hind    first    no'.ic    1    t'lls    in    1851. 
Populaire." 


Quoted   by   Arago,    "Astronomie 


tions.  I  shall  show  subsequently  that  there  are,  in  all 
probability,  other  bodies  besides  those  he  has  observed 
which  really  belong  to  this  group. 

II.  Discussion  of  Dun£r's  Individual  Cbservations. 
Consideration  of  the  Extreme  Conditions  of  Spacing. 

Ceteris  paribus,  when  the  interspaces  are  largest  we 
should  have  a  preponderance  of  the  radiation  of  carbon, 
so  far  as  quantity  goes.  The  bands  will  be  wide  and 
pale,  the  complete  radiation  will  not  yet  be  developed  ; 
a  minimum  of  metallic  absorption  phenomena— that  is, 
only  the  flutings  of  magnesium  (8  and  7),  the  first  fluting 
of  manganese  (3),  and  the  first  fluting  of  iron  (2)  ;  but  the 
great  width  of  the  bright  band  at  517  will  mask  band  8. 

When  the  interspaces  are  least,  the  radiation  of 
carbon  should  give  place  to  the  absorption  phenomena 
due  to  the  presence  of  those  metallic  vapours  produced 
at  the  highest  temperature  at  which  a  swarm  can  exist 
as  such;  the  bright  flutings  of  carbon  should  be  dimin- 
ished, and  the  true  absorption  flutings  of  Mg,  Fe,  Mn,  Pb, 
and  the  band  of  Ba,  should  be  enhanced  in  intensity. 

There  will  be  an  inversion  between  the  radiation  and 
absorption. 

The  highest  intensity  of  the  absorption  phenomena  will 
be  indicated  by  the  strengthening  of"  the  bands  2,  3,  4,  5, 
and  6  ;  and  the  appearance  of  the  other  flutings  and 
bands  specially  recorded  in  a  Ononis.  The  bands  7  and 
8  will  disappear  as  they  are  special  to  a  low  temperature, 
and  will  give  way  to  the  absorption  of  manganese,  iron, 
b,  &c. 

This  inversion,  to  deal  with  it  in  its  broadest  aspect 
should  give  us  at  the  beginning  7  strong,  and  2,  3  weak, 
and  at  the  end  7  and  8  weak,  and  2,  3  strong. 

The  first  stage,  representing  almost  a  cometic  condition 
of  the  swarm  before  condensation  has  begun,  has  been 
observed  in  Nos.  3,1  23,  24,  25,  36,  68,  72,  81,  118,  247, 
249.  There  is  a  very  large  number  of  similar  instances 
to  be  found  in  the  observations.  The  above  are  only 
given  as  examples. 

The  last  stage,  before  all  the  bands  fade  away  entirely, 
has  been  observed  in  Nos.  1,  2,  26,  32,  33,  38,  40,  61,  64, 
69,  71,  75,  77,  82,  96,  101,  116.  As  before,  these  are  only 
given  as  instances. 

It  is  natural  that  these  extreme  points  along  the  line  of 
evolution  represented  in  the  bodies  under  consider- 
ation should  form,  as  I  think  they  do,  the  two  most 
contrasted  distinctions  recorded  by  Dune"r — that  is,  re- 
corded in  the  greatest  number  of  cases. 

Origin  of  the  Discontinuous  Spectrum. 

I  have  already  shown  that  when  the  meteorites  are 
wide  apart,  though  not  at  their  widest,  and  there  is  no 
very  marked  condensation,  the  spectrum  will  extend 
farther  into  the  blue,  and  therefore  the  flutings  in  the  blue 
will  be  quite  bright ;  in  fact,  under  this  condition  the  chief 
light  in  this  part  of  the  spectrum,  almost  indeed  the  only 
light,  will  come  from  the  bright  carbon.  Under  this  same 
condition  the  temperature  of  the  meteorites  will  not  be  very 
high,  there  will  therefore  be  little  continuous  spectrum  to 
be  absorbed  in  the  red  and  yellow.  Hence  we  shall  have 
discontinuity  from  one  end  of  the  spectrum  to  the  other. 
This  has  also  been  recorded,  and  in  fact  it  is  the  condi- 
tion which  gives  us  almost  the  most  beautiful  examples  of 
the  class  (196,  a  Herculis,  141,  172,  229). 

The  defect  of  continuous  light  in  the  blue  in  this  class, 
after  condensation  has  commenced  and  the  carbon  flutings 
are  beginning  to  disappear,  arises  from  defect  of  radiation 
of  the  meteorites,  and  hence  in  all  fully-developed  swarms 
the  spectrum  is  not  seen  far  into  the  blue  for  the  reason 
that  the  vapours  round  each  meteorite  are  at  a  tempera- 

1  The  references  are  to  the  numbers  of  the  stars  in  Duner's  catalogue. 


34 


NA  TURE 


[May  10,  1888 


ture  such  that  fluting  absorption  mainly  takes  place, 
although  of  course  there  must  be  some  continuous  ab- 
sorption in  the  blue.  This  is  perhaps  the  most  highly- 
developed  normal  spectrum-giving  condition  ;  44,  45,  55, 
60,  65,  86,  92,  278  are  examples. 

77ie  Paling  of  the  Flutings. 

Subsequently,  the  spectra  are  in  all  cases  far  from  being 
discontinuous,  and  the  flutings,  instead  of  being  black, 
are  pale.  Thus,  while  the  bands  are  dark  in  the  stars  we 
have  named,  they  are  not  so  dark  in  a  Orionis.  Here, 
in  short,  we  have  a  great  distinction  between  this  star 
and  a  Herculis,  o  Ceti,  R  Lyrae,  and  p  Persei. 

Obviously  this  arises  from  the  fact  that  the  average 
distances  between  the  meteorites  have  been  reduced  ; 
their  temperature  being  thereby  increased  as  more  col- 
lisions are  possible,  the  vapours  are  nearly  as  brilliant 
as  the  meteorites,  and  radiation  from  the  interspaces 
cloaks  the  evidences  of  absorption.  Nor  is  this  all  : 
as  the  meteorites  are  nearer  together,  the  area  producing 
the  bright  flutings  of  the  carbon  is  relatively  reduced,  and 
the  bands  10  and  9  will  fade  for  lack  of  contrast,  while  8 
and  7  will  fade  owing  to  the  increased  temperature  of  the 
system  generally  carrying  the  magnesium  absorption  into 
the  line  stage  ;  b  is  now  predominant  (see  102,  157,  163, 
114,125,135). 

Under  these  conditions  the  outer  absorbing  metallic 
atmosphere  round  each  meteorite  will  in  all  probability 
consist  of  Mn  and  Fe  vapours,  and  in  this  position  the 
masking  effect  will  least  apply  to  them.  This  is  so 
(114,  116)  ;  they  remain  dark,  while  the  others  are  pale. 

Here  we  have  the  indication  of  one  of  the  penultimate 
stages  already  referred  to. 

Phenomena  of  Condensation. 

Dealing  specially  with  the  question  of  condensation, — 
I  have  already  referred  to  possibly  the  first  condition  of 
all,  recorded  by  Dundr  in  the  observations  now  discussed 
— I  may  say  that  the  first  real  and  obvious  approach  to  it 
perhaps  is  observed  when  all,  or  nearly  all,  except  9  and 
10  of  the  flutings  are  wide  and  dark.  The  reasons  will  be 
obvious  from  what  has  been  previously  stated.  Still 
more  condensation  will  give  all,  or  nearly  all,  the  bands 
wide  and  pale,  while  the  final  stage  of  condensation  of 
the  swarm  will  be  reached  when  all  the  bands  fade  and 
give  place  to  lines.  We  have  then  reached  Class  II.  (107, 
139,  168,  264)  ;  2  and  3  should  be  and  are  perhaps  the 
last  to  go  (203). 

The  Bands  9  and  10. 

With  regard  specially  to  the  bands  9  and  10,  which 
include  between  them  a  bright  space  which  I  contend  is  the 
second  fluting  of  carbon,  I  may  add  that  if  this  view  is 
sound,  the  absence  of  10  should  mean  a  broad  carbon 
band,  and  this  is  the  condition  of  non-condensation, 
though  not  the  initial  condition.  The  red  flutings  should 
therefore  be  well  marked—whether  broad  or  not  does  not 
matter  ;  but  they  should  be  dark  and  not  pale.  Similarly 
the  absence  of  band  9  means  non-condensation. 

Therefore  9  and  10  should  vary  together,  and  as  a 
matter  of  fact  we  find  that  their  complete  absence  from 
the  spectrum,  while  the  metallic  absorption  is  strong,  is  a 
very  common  condition  (1,  2,  6,  16,  26,  32,  39,  40,  46, 
54,  60). 

That  this  explanation  is  probably  the  true  one  is  shown 
by  further  consideration  of  what  should  happen  to  the 
red  flutings  when  9  and  10  are  present.  As  the  strong 
red  flutings  indicate  condensation,  according  to  my  view 
this  condensation  (see  ante)  should  pale  the  other 
flutings.  This  happens  (3,  8,  13,  28,  35,  45,  30  ;  and  last, 
not  least,  among  the  examples,  I  give  50,  a  Orionis). 


III.  Results  of  the  Discussion. 

The  Line  of  Evolution. 

I  have  gone  over  all  the  individual  observations 
recorded  by  Duner,  and,  dealing  with  them  all  to  the 
best  of  my  ability  in  the  light  afforded  by  the  alloca- 
tion of  the  bands  to  the  various  chemical  substances, 
the  history  of  the  swarms  he  has  observed  seems  to  be 
as  follows  :  — 

(1)  The  swarm  has  arrived  at  the  stage  at  which,  owing 
to  the  gradual  nearing  of  the  meteorites,  the  hydrogen 
lines,  which  appeared  at  first  in  consequence  of  the  great 
tenuity  of  the  gases  in  the  interspaces,  give  way  to  carbon. 
At  first  the  fluting  at  473  appears  (as  in  many  bright-line 
stars),  and  afterwards  the  one  at  517.  This  is  very 
nearly,  but,  as  I  shall  show  subsequently,  not  quite,  the  real 
beginning  of  Class  1 1 1. a,  and  the  radiation  is  now  accom- 
panied by  the  fluting  absorption  of  Mg,  Fe,  and  Mn — 
bands  7,  2,  3.  This  is  the  absorption  produced  at  the 
temperature  of  the  oxy-coal  gas  flame,  while  the  stars 
above  referred  to  give  us  the  bright  line  of  Mn  seen  at 
the  temperature  of  the  bun  sen. 

(2)  The  bright  band  of  carbon  at  517  narrows  and  un- 
veils the  Mg  absorption  at  band  8.  We  have  8  now  as 
well  as  7  (both  representing  Mg),  added  to  the  bands  2 
and  3,  representing  Fe  and  Mn,  and  these  latter  now 
intensify. 

(3)  The  spacing  gets  smaller  ;  the  carbon,  though  re- 
duced in  relative  quantity,  gets  more  intense.  The  second 
band  at  473  in  the  blue  gets  brighter  as  well  as 
the  one  at  517.  We  have  now  bands  9  and  10 
added.  This  reduced  spacing  increases  the  number  of 
collisions,  so  that  Pb  and  Ba  are  added  to  Mg,  Fe,  and 
Mn.  We  have  the  bands  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8,  9,  and  10. 
This  is  the  condition  which  gives,  so  to  speak,  the  normal 
spectrum 

(4)  This  increased  action  will  give  us  a  bright  atmo- 
sphere round  each  meteorite,  only  the  light  of  the 
meteorite  in  the  line  of  sight  will  be  absorbed  :  we  shall 
now  have  much  continuous  spectrum  from  the  interspaces 
as  well  as  the  vapour  of  carbon.  The  absorption  flutings 
will  pale,  and  the  Mg  flutings  will  disappear  on  account 
of  the  higher  temperature,  while  new  ones  will  make  their 
appearance. 

(5)  Greater  nearness  still  will  be  followed  by  the 
further  dimming  of  the  bright  carbon  flutings  including 
the  one  at  517.  The  blue  end  of  the  spectrum  will 
shorten  as  the  bands  fade,  narrow,  and  increase  in 
number.  If  the  star  be  bright,  it  will  now  put  on  the 
appearance  of  a  Orionis ;  if  dim,  only  the  flutings  of 
Fe  and  Mn(i),  bands  2  and  3,  will  remain  prominent. 

(6)  All  the  flutings  and  bands  gradually  thin,  fade,  and 
disappear.     A  star  of  the  third  group  is  the  result. 

In  the  latter  higher-temperature  stages  we  must 
expect  hydrogen  to  be  present,  but  it  need  not  necessarily 
be  visible,  as  the  bright  lines  from  the  interspaces  may 
cancel  or  mask  the  absorption  in  the  line  of  sight  of  the 
light  of  the  meteorites  ;  but  in  case  of  any  violent  action, 
such  as  that  produced  by  another  swarm  moving  with 
great  velocity,  we  must  expect  to  see  them  bright,  and 
they  are  shown  bright  in  a  magnificent  photograph  of 
o  Ceti,  taken  for  the  Draper  Memorial,  which  I  owe  to 
the  kindness  of  Prof.  Pickering.  I  shall  return  to  this 
question. 

Stages  antecedent  to  those  recorded  by  Duner. 

So  far  I  have  referred  to  the  swarms  observed  by 
DuneV.  The  result  of  the  discussion  has  been  to  show 
that  all  the  phenomena  are  included  in  the  hypothesis 
that  the  final  stages  we  have  considered  are  antecedent 
to  the  formation  of  stars  of  Group  III.,  bodies  which  give 
an  almost  exclusively  line  absorption,  though  these  bodies 
are  probably  not  yet  stars,  if  we  use  the  term  star  to 


May  10,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


35 


express  complete  volatilization,  similar  to  -that  observed  in 
the  case  of  our  sun. 

The  question  then  arises,  Are  all  the  mixed  fluting 
stages  really  included  among  the  objects  already  con- 
sidered ? 

It  will  be  remembered  that  in  my  former  communica- 
tion I  adduced  evidence  to  the  effect  that  the  mixed 
fluting  stage  was  preceded  by  others  in  which  the  swarms 
were  still  more  dispersed,  and  at  a  lower  temperature. 
The  first  condition  gives  us  bright  hydrogen  ;  the  last 
little  continuous  spectrum  to  be  absorbed,  so  that  the 
spectrum  is  one  with  more  bright  lines  than  indications  of 
absorption  ;  and,  in  fact,  the  chief  difference  between  the 
spectra  of  these  swarms  and  of  those  still  sparser  ones 
which  we  call  nebulae  lies  in  the  fact  that  there  are  a  few 
more  bright  metallic  lines  or  remnants  of  flutings  ;  those 
of  magnesium,  in  the  one  case,  being  replaced  by  others 
of  manganese  and  iron. 

If  my  view  be  correct — if  there  are  stages  preceding 
those  recorded  by  Dune"r  in  which  we  get  both  dark  and 
bright  flutings — it  is  among  bodies  with  spectra  very 
similar  to  these  that  they  should  be  found. 

The  first  stage  exhibited  in  the  objects  observed  by 
Duner  is  marked  by  flutings  7,  3,  and  2  (omitting  the  less 
refrangible  one  not  yet  allocated),  representing  the  flutings 
Mg,  Mn,  and  Fe  visible  at  the  lowest  temperatures. 

The  stars  which  I  look  upon  as  representing  a  prior 
stage  should  have  recorded  in  their  spectra  the  flutings 
7  and  3  (without  2),  representing  Mg  and  Mn. 

{To  be  continued) 


THREE  DA  YS  ON  THE  SUMMIT  OF 
MONT  BLANC. 

A  LPINE  men  are  already  beginning  to  think  of  the 
**■  work  of  the  coming  season.  We  commend  to  their 
attention  the  following  notes  relating  to  the  experiences 
of  M.  Richard,  who  spent  three  days  during  the  past 
summer  on  the  summit  of  Mont  Blanc,  with  a  view  to 
making  a  series  of  continuous  meteorological  and  other 
observations.  There  are  many  Alpine  men  who  might, 
if  they  pleased,  follow  his  example  without  much  incon- 
venience to  themselves  and  with  considerable  advantage 
to  science.  The  following  is  a  summary  of  the  record 
which  M.  Richard  has  contributed  to  La  Nature : — 

The  summit  of  Mont  Blanc  is  a  station  of  the  utmost 
importance  to  meteorology,  since  it  rises  to  a  great 
height  (4810  metres),  and  overtops  the  whole  Alpine 
group.  But  it  had  not  hitherto  been  considered  possible 
to  remain  there  for  any  length  of  time.  De  Saussure, 
whose  statue  is  erected  at  Chamounix,  passed  some  days 
in  1788,  on  the  Ge"ant  hill,  at  the  height  of  3510  metres. 
In  1844  Martin-,  Bravais,  and  Le  Pileur,  pitched  their 
tent  at  the  Grand-Plateau,  4000  metres  high,  and  here 
they  passed  several  days,  and  made  numerous  and  im- 
portant observations.  Hitherto  no  explorer  had  remained 
on  the  summit  of  the  mountain  itself  for  any  length  of 
time  ;  tourists  making  but  a  very  short  stay — usually  only 
a  few  minutes  From  these  facts  we  can  see  the  import- 
ance of  the  scientific  expedition  carried  out  in  the 
summer  of  1887,  with  great  success,  by  M.  Joseph  Vallot, 
one  of  the  most  daring  and  able  members  of  the  Alpine 
Club.  Having  made,  in  1886,  a  series  of  physiological 
observations,  during  the  ascent  of  some  of  the  highest 
peaks  of  the  Alps,  he  determined  to  establish  on  Mont 
Blanc  three  temporary  meteorological  observatories,  the 
first  at  Chamounix,  1050  metres  high,  the  second  on  the 
rocks  of  the  Grands-Mulets,  3059  metres  high,  and  ths 
third  on  the  summit  of  Mont  Blanc.  He  constructed 
meteorological  sheds,  and  furnished  each  of  them  with 
registering  instruments  constructed  by  MM.  Richard 
Brothers — a  barometer,  a  thermometer,  and  a  hygrometer. 
The  instruments  placed  at  Chamounix  and  the  Grands- 


Mulets  were  inspected  every  week,  but  those  at  the 
summit  could  not  be  reached  for  fifteen  days,  on 
account  of  bad  weather.  To  superintend  the  lower 
stations  he  procured  the  assistance  of  M.  Henri 
Vallot,  a  distinguished  engineer,  on  whose  competence 
and  carefulness  he  could  rely.  At  Chamounix,  M. 
Joseph  Vallot's  plan  was  considered  impracticable. 
He  executed  it,  however,  in  company  with  M.  F.  M. 
Richard,  one  of  the  makers  of  the  registers.  No  less 
than  twenty-four  guides  were  necessary,  on  account  of 


Fig.  i. 

the  great  weight  of  the  baggage  (250  kilogrammes).  At 
midday,  July  27,  1887,  they  began  the  ascent  to  the 
Grands-Mulets.  On  account  of  the  late  start,  the  party, 
overtaken  by  night,  arrived  at  the  Grands-Mulets  at  10 
o'clock.  Getting  to  bed  at  1 1  o'clock,  the  travellers  set 
out  again  the  next  morning  at  3,  after  a  light  meal. 

M.  Richard  then  proceeds  to  te'l  the  story  of  the  jour- 
ney and  of  the  time  spent  on  the  top  of  Mont  Blanc. 
The  ascent  from  the  Grands-Mulets  is  difficult,  but  not 
very  dangerous  when  the  snow  is  good.      Crevasses  have 


36 


NA  TURE 


[May  10,  1888 


to  be  crossed  by  ladders,  and  very  steep  banks  of  snow 
must  be  struggled  through.  They  arrived  at  the  Grand- 
Plateau  at  7  o'clock,  and  stopped  there  for  refreshment 
and  repose.  At  the  Tournette  rock,  one  of  the  bearers 
was  forced  to  stop  from  fatigue,  and  to  give  his  load 
to  one  of  the  more  robust,  and  about  3  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  they  arrived  at  the  summit.  All  the  guides 
but  two  deposited  their  burdens  on  the  snow,  and  imme- 
diately took  their  departure.  When  ascending  the  last 
hill,  MM.  Vallot  and  Richard  were  attacked  by  mountain- 
sickness,  and  for  some  hours  did  not  recover.  M.  Richard 
compares  the  shape  of  the  mountain-top  to  a  pear  cut  in 
two  and  resting  on  a  plate,  the  stalk  of  the  fruit  well 
representing  the  narrow  ridge  by  which  one  ascends. 
Between  this  ridge  and  the  dome,  which  measures  scarcely 
more  than  20  metres  in  diameter,  is  a  small  indentation, 
in  which  they  fixed  their  tent.  Having  driven  the  stakes 
into  the  snow,  they  secured  the  tent  by  a  long  rope.  None 
of   them  had  at  that  time   the   strength   or  courage  to 


arrange  the  baggage.  They  were  compelled  to  take 
shelter  from  the  wind,  and  having  refreshed  themselves 
with  a  little  soup,  made  with  melted  snow  and  preserved 
bouillon,  they  stretched  themselves  on  the  ground,  with 
their  heads  on  the  boxes  of  instruments  and  the  cooking- 
utensils. 

Overcome  by  his  efforts  in  erecting  the  tent,  M.  Richard 
fell  asleep  ;  but  during  part  of  the  night  M.  Vallot  made, 
gallant  efforts  to  fix  his  instruments,  but  he  was  at  length 
compelled  by  the  snow  to  return.  After  some  hours  of 
sleep,  the  cold  woke  M.  Richard,  and,  fearing  the  effects  of 
the  carbonic  acid  gas  engendered  by  the  breathing  of  four 
persons,  with  the  consent  of  the  others  he  allowed  some 
air  to  enter,  and,  lighting  a  lantern,  placed  it  on  the 
ground,  believing  it  would  be  extinguished  before  there 
would  be  any  danger  of  suffocation.  However,  the  wind 
which  raged  outside  kept  the  tent  well  ventilated,  and 
froze  them  to  the  marrow.  About  4  o'clock  they  all  went 
out  of  the  tent  and  watched  the  sun  rise — a  sight  which, 


Fig.  2. 


M.  Richard  says,  was  worth  all  the  pains  and  fatigues 
they  had  endured.  The  thermometer,  when  placed  on 
the  snow,  stood  at  190  C.  below  zero.  The  sun  rose,  and  it 
was  a  most  marvellous  sight.  As  the  day-star  shone  out, 
rosy  clouds  enveloped  the  snow-clad  tops  of  the  surround- 
ing mountains  ;  little  by  little,  the  shadows  in  which  the 
rocky  peaks  emerging  from  the  snow  were  clothed  dis- 
appeared, leaving  the  peaks  covered  with  the  richest 
tints.  The  clouds  below  sometimes  appeared  like  a  rough 
sea,  with  its  waves  dashing  against  a  rocky  shore,  and 
sometimes  like  a  thick  veil  thrown  over  valleys  by  the 
night.  Then  these  clouds  dissolved  into  air  under  the 
influence  of  the  sun's  rays,  seeming  to  disappear  as  if  by 
magic,  leaving  no  other  trace  of  their  existence  than  a 
light  mist  clinging  to  the  sides  of  the  mountains. 

They  now  began  to  put  their  instruments  into  position. 
The  large  actinometer,  made  by  M.  Violle,  was  placed  on 
a  small  table  ;  and  the  others — the  actinometers  of  Arago 


and  M.  Violle,  the  thermometers, and  the  Fontin  barometer 
— being  fixed  (Fig.  2),  M.  Vallot  at  once  commenced  his 
observations.  Then  they  made  their  tent  more  comfort- 
able with  a  floor  of  double-tarred  cloth,  and,  above  this,  a 
mattress,  hard,  no  doubt,  but  to  them  a  very  welcome 
addition.  The  tent  was  4  metres  square,  and  1  '50  metre 
high.  The  health  of  the  party  was  not  very  good  :  M. 
Richard  and  one  of  the  guides  suffered  from  severe  head- 
aches, with  feverish  symptoms.  The  least  effort,  even 
ordinary  movement,  caused  such  fatigue  th3t  they  were 
compelled  to  lie  down  during  a  great  part  of  the  day. 
They  had  a  visitor  the  first  day,  in  the  person  of  Baron 
Munch,  coming  from  Courmayeur,  in  Italy,  into  Chamou- 
nix,  who  was  amazed  to  find  sojourners  on  the  iop  of 
Mont  Blanc.  The  second  night  was  not  so  trying  as  the 
first :  they  had  pillows,  which  were  softer  than  the  pots 
and  pans,  and  they  thus  had  a  most  refreshing  sleep. 
The  tent  was  very  picturesque.     M.  Vallot  had   brought 


May  10,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


37 


for  the  party  gutta-percha  snow-boots,  which  they  put  on 
over  fur-lined  boots.  Thanks  to  this  precaution  their 
feet  were  kept  free  from  frost-bite.  Their  leather  shoes 
were  of  no  use  ;  they  had  been  dried  in  the  sun  and  hung 
on  a  string  stretched  aloft  across  the  tent.  On  this  string  at 
night  were  also  hung  the  glasses  which  are  always  neces- 
sary to  protect  the  eyes  from  ophthalmia  in  those  regions. 
M.  Vallot  had  also  brought  coverings  for  the  ears  and 
neck,  and  linen  masks  to  preserve  the  skin  of  the  face. 
Equipped  in  this  manner  the  aspect  of  the  travellers  was 
curious  and  even  terrifying  (Fig.  4).  The  tent  with  the 
various  articles  hung  up,  with  the  boxes  of  provisions, 
the  blazing  stove,  and  the  boiling  soup,  had  a  most  pictur- 
esque appearance  (Fig.  3). 

The  second  day  was  spent  in  making  observations. 
The  provisions  were  almost  neglected  ;  they  never  had 
an  appetite  during  their  stay.  The  different  preserved 
meats,  though  very  tempting,  did  not  entice  their 
benumbed   stomachs,   and  twice   each    day    they    took 


nothing  but  a  little  preserved  bouillon,  in  which  a  small 
piece  of  cheese  had  been  broken.  Their  drink  was  warm 
coffee  ;  on  the  first  day  tea  had  made  them  ill,  and  they 
never  could  take  it  again  during  their  three  days'  sojourn  : 
the  guides,  however,  drank  a  little  of  it. 

On  July  30,  the  observations  began  at  sunrise.  Towards 
10  o'clock  the  little  colony  received  a  second  visitor,  an 
Englishman,  who,  on  his  departure,  wished  to  take  away 
with  him  some  letters  dated  from  the  top  of  Mont  Blanc. 
A  yellow-beaked  crow  settled  herself  time  after  time  near 
the  observers.  The  guides  declared  that  her  presence 
was  a  sign  of  good  weather ;  but  it  did  not  prove  so. 
Towards  2  o'clock  enormous  clouds  began  to  form  on 
the  side  of  Mont  Pelvoux  ;  then  their  colour  changed ; 
the  gloom  turned  to  darkness ;  and  while  the  weather 
remained  fine  over  Chamounix,  the  valley  of  Aosta  and 
the  Savoy  Alps  were  soon  hidden  by  a  terrible  thunder- 
storm. A  furious  wind  drove  the  observers  into  the  tent. 
It  was  4  o'clock,  and  they  had  almost  made  up  their 


Fio.  4. 

minds  to  descend,  but  as  there  was  not  time  to  put  all 
their  instruments  in  safety,  they  decided  to  remain  and 
weather  the  storm.  They  held  the  ropes  of  the  tent,  and 
piled  snow  all  around  it  to  keep  it  steady.  Towards  9 
o'clock,  M.  Vallot  having  gone  out,  found  himself  sur- 
rounded by  electrical  clouds,  which  played  around  his 
clothes  and  his  head,  but  he  escaped  any  actual  shock. 
During  the  hours  that  they  thus  anxiously  passed  in  the 
tent  they  were  compelled  to  close  the  last  opening  to  pre- 
vent the  snow  from  getting  in.  But  the  time  was  not 
spent  without  profit.  M.  Vallot  made  some  physiological 
diagrams.  The  beatings  of  the  pulse,  of  the  carotid,  &c, 
were  to  have  so  much  the  more  interest  because  they 
would  differ  from  those  which  would  be  obtained  when 
but  a  short  stay  is  made,  the  travellers  now  having  been 
two  days  at  the  summit.  These  observations  made  them 
forget  their  troubles.  At  last,  about  2  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  the  tempest  passed  away,  and,    although  the 


Fig.  3. 

wind  continued  to  blow  violently,  they  got  a  refreshing 
sleep. 

They  decided  on  the  following  day,  July  31,  to  continue 
their  observations  till  9  o'clock,  then  to  bring  every- 
thing into  the  tent,  and  to  redescend  to  Chamounix.  The 
guide  Payot  was  suffering  from  a  violent  head- ache,  with 
a  high  fever,  and  was  compelled  to  keep  his  bed,  but 
about  1 1  o'clock  he  bravely  offered  to  descend  at  once, 
and  even  desired  to  carry  his  knapsack.  M.  Vallot  had 
not  given  orders  for  help  to  be  sent  to  take  their 
baggage  away  ;  they  therefore  left  the  greater  portion  be- 
hind them  in  the  tent ;  still  there  were  many  things  that 
could  not  be  left.  These  were  divided  into  bundles,  and, 
with  a  last  glance  at  the  magnificent  view,  they  began 
the  descent.  The  guide  Michel  had  warned  them  that 
this  would  be  very  difficult,  since  last  night's  storm 
would  have  obliterated  all  traces  of  the  usual  paths.  And 
so  it  was  found  to  be.      After  the   Grand-Plateau,  the 


38 


NATURE 


\_May  10,  1888 


journey  was  most  dangerous.  At  this  height  it  had 
rained,  and  the  snow  had  become  so  soft  that  they  often 
sank  to  the  waist  in  it.  In  the  rapid  slopes,  where  they 
were  forced  to  descend  zigzag,  the  snow  slipped  from 
under  their  feet,  but,  after  much  care  and  fatigue,  they 
arrived  at  the  Grands-Mulels.  A  good  meal,  a  denser 
air,  and  a  milder  temperature,  soon  restored  them  to  their 
usual  health.  Towards  7  o'clock  they  came  to  Cha- 
mounix,  where  they  received  an  enthusiastic  welcome. 

It  had  thus  been  proved  that  it  was  quite  possible  to 
live  and  make  observations  at  those  high  altitudes.  The 
greatest  danger  is  in  the  violent  storms  that  burst  almost 
without  notice,  and  which  may  become  terrible  tempests 
against  which  any  temporary  observatory  would  not 
stand.  M.  Richard  says  that  the  results  of  the  observa- 
tions will  be  published  when  the  papers  have  been 
inspected  and  classified. 

THE  PHOTOGRAPHIC  CHART  OF  THE 
HE  A  VENS. 

\ \  J  E    reprint    from     the-  Observatory    for    May    the 
*  V      following  article  by  the  editors: — 

The  "Bureau  du  Comite  international  permanent  pour 
1'exe'cution  photographique  de  la  Carte  du  Ciel ''  has 
published,  amongst  other  more  technical  papers  relating 
to  this  subject,  one  by  Dr.  Gill,  of  a  very  remarkable 
character,  to  which  we  wish  to  draw  attention.  Most  of 
those  who  attended  the  Conference  understood  that  the 
work  in  contemplation  was  to  make  a  photographic  chart 
of  the  heavens,  to  take  pictures  of  the  stars  by  photo- 
graphy, showing,  with  the  greatest  care,  the  appearance 
of  the  heavens  as  they  are  at  the  present  time,  in  order 
that  at  a  future  time  these  pictures  might  be  used,  by 
comparison  with  other  pictures  taken  under  similar  con- 
ditions or  directly  with  the  sky,  to  determine  the  many 
questions  that  could  be  dealt  with  in  this  way — to  enable, 
in  fact,  the  astronomer  of  the  future  to  have  the  sky  of 
his  past  and  his  present  to  deal  with.  That  this  was  so 
will  be  seen  from  a  consideration  of  the  three  following 
resolutions  which  were  agreed  to  unanimously  by  the 
Conference : — 

"1.  The  progress  made  in  astronomical  photography 
demands  that  the  astronomers  of  the  present  day  should 
unite  in  undertaking  a  description  of"  the  heavens  by 
photographic  means. 

"  2.  This  work  should  be  carried  out  at  selected  stations, 
and  with  instruments  which  should  be  identical  in  their 
essential  parts. 

"3.  The  principal  objects  are  (a)  to  prepare  a  general 
photographic  chart  of  the  heavens  for  the  present  epoch, 
and  to  obtain  data  which  will  enable  us  to  determine  with 
the  greatest  possible  accuracy  the  positions  and  the  bright 
ness  of  all  the  stars  down  to  a  given  magnitude  (the 
magnitude  being  understood  in  a  photographic  sense  to 
be  defined)  ;  (#)  to  provide  for  the  best  means  of  utilizing 
both  at  the  present  day  and  in  the  future  the  results  of  the 
data  obtained  by  photographic  means." 

These  were  the  fundamental  resolutions  ;  others, 
recommended  by  the  two  sections  into  which  the  Con- 
ference divided,  were  adopted  as  explanatory  of  the  first. 
Amongst  these  was  one  in  which  it  was  decided  to  take 
"a  second  series  of  plates  down  to  the  nth  magnitude, 
in  order  to  insure  greater  precision  in  the  micrometric 
measurement  of  the  reference-stars,  and  render  possible 
the  construction  of  a  catalogue."  We  have  stated  these 
fundamental  resolutions  at  length  as  bearing  on  the 
question  of  a  catalogue  of  stars,  for  the  paper  by  Dr. 
Gill  contains  the  astounding  proposition  of  cataloguing 
no  less  than  2,000,000  stars  ;  that  is  to  say,  Dr.  Gill 
gravely  and  seriously  proposes  the  establishment  of  a 
Central  Bureau,  consisting  of  chief,  assistants,  secret- 
aries, and  a  staff  of  measurers  and  computers,  to  take 
the  photographs  and  measure  them,  and  make  a  catalogue, 


the  work  to  go  on  for  twenty-five  years  at  a  cost  of" 
250,000  francs,  or  ,£10,000,  per  annnm,  or  for  fifty  years 
at  150,000  francs. 

It  is  quite  true  that  this  is  only  a  proposition  that 
Dr.  Gill  makes  ;  but  if  such  a  proposition  is  possible  in 
face  of  these  direct  resolutions  of  the  Conference,  it  is 
quite  time  that  everyone  interested  in  the  success  of  the 
work  the  Conference  met  to  consider  (that  is,  the  photo- 
graphic chart  of  the  heavens)  should  bestir  himself  and 
see  that  the  proposed  work  is  not  endangered  by  such 
astounding  proposals. 

To  tack  on  to  a  work  such  as  that  sanctioned  by  the 
Conference — a  work  eminently  practical,  that  has  the 
support  of  all  astronomers,  and  that  has  already  been 
taken  up  by  many  of  the  Governments  who  were  expected 
to  join — a  gigantic  work  such  as  Dr.  Gill  proposes,  a  work 
beside  which  that  proposed  by  the  Conference  sinks  into 
insignificance,  would  neither  be  fair  to  the  Conference 
nor  just  to  those  Governments  who  have  joined  in  the 
undertaking.  The  feature  of  the  international  scheme 
that  makes  it  possible  to  obtain  the  assent  of  Government 
is  that  the  work  is  proved  to  be  practicable  by  experiment, 
and  that  it  can  be  done  at  a  moderate  cost  in  something 
like  five  years,  while  the  results  are  good  for  as  long  as  the 
plates  will  last.  To  increase  this  work  by  extending  it  to,, 
at  the  lowest  computation  of  time,  twenty-five  and  possibly 
fifty  years,  and  to  add  enormously  to  the  cost,  would  be  to 
jeopardize  the  whole  scheme. 

Dr.  Gill  states  that  the  actual  state  of  astronomical 
science  demands  a  catalogue  of  stars  to  the  nth  magni- 
tude. He  thus  raises  the  question  on  its  merits  ;  and  we 
would  here  state  that  it  is  more  than  possible  that  not 
only  is  there  no  need  of  such  a  catalogue,  but  that  the  use 
of  such  catalogues  as  he  proposes  has  for  ever  ceased. 
The  minds  of  some  astronomers  move  in  grooves,  and  it 
will,  no  doubt,  never  be  conceded  by  them  that  catalogues 
can  be  superseded  ;  they  will  die  as  they  have  lived,  in 
the  strong  belief  that  the  only  way  to  use  the  stars  is  to 
catalogue  them. 

Till  recently  the  knowledge  we  had  of  the  stars  was 
only  to  be  gained  from  a  written  description  of  their 
brightness  and  position  with  regard  to  each  other ;  hence 
the  catalogue  was  an  absolute  necessity  if  we  needed  to 
know  the  number  or  brightness  of  certain  stars  in  any 
part  of  the  sky  at  any  previous  time  ;  and  we  could  only 
find  this  out  if  we  had  a  catalogue  of  that  time.  Our 
catalogues  of  stars  are  all  we  have  to  show  what  has  been 
observed  up  to  the  present  time  ;  but  when  we  have  a 
photographic  chart  of  the  heavens,  we  have  for  our  record 
not  a  catalogue,  but  a  representation.  That  catalogues  of 
stars  such  as  are  used  for  fundamental  places  will  be 
always  used  goes  without  saying  ;  the  photographic  plates 
themselves,  and  the  four  or  five  stars  on  each  required  as 
the  fiducial  points  and  for  identification,  will  of  course  be 
catalogued  ;  but,  beyond  this,  to  catalogue  the  stars  on 
each  plate,  to  measure  them  for  the  purpose  only  of  getting 
their  places  written  down,  would  be  the  most  utter  waste 
of  time,  labour,  and  money  that  it  could  enter  the  mind 
of  man  to  conceive. 

The  proposition  brought  forward  by  Dr.  Gill  should  be 
settled  decisively  so  far  as  the  proposition  concerns  the 
work  proposed  by  the  Conference.  There  can  be  no 
question  that  such  a  thing  was  never  intended  ;  had  such 
a  thing  been  thought  of,  we  should  have  had  a  "  Conference 
for  discussing  the  best  way  of  making  a  Catalogue  of 
Stars  by  photography." 

As  this  was  not  done,  it  can  be  done  now  ;  and  if  there 
is  the  great  need  of  a  catalogue  of  stars  to  the  nth 
magnitude  felt  by  so  many  astronomers,  as  stated  by 
Dr.  Gill,  it  is  a  thing  of  so  mu:h  greater  importance  as 
far  as  cost  and  time  are  concerned,  that  it  should  be 
considered  and  dealt  with  entirely  apart  from  the  other 
work.  A  new  Congress  might  discuss  it ;  the  one  which 
met  in  1887  is  not  in  any  way  committed  to  such  a  scheme. 


May  10,  i888] 


NA  TURE 


39 


THE  FORTH  BRIDGE. 

WE  have  been  enabled,  through  the  kindness  of  Mr. 
Baker,  to  reproduce  one  of  the  photographs  of 
the  Forth  Bridge,  showing  what  is  known  as  the 
"junction"  at  the  end  of  bay  i,  between  tie  i,  strut  2, 
and  the  bottom  member. 

A  general  account  of  the  Forth  Bridge  has  rbeen  so 


recently  placed  before  the  readers  of  Nature  (vol.  xxxvi. 
p.  79),  in  the  lecture  by  Mr.  Baker,  on  May  20,  1887, 
before  the  Royal  Institution,  that  it  is  unnecessary  to 
cover  the  same  ground  again.  The  progress  made  in 
erection  since  that  date  is  indicated  by  our  engraving, 
showing  the  successful  completion  of  the  lower  portion  of 
the  first  bay. 

The  junction  we  have  illustrated  is  nothing  more  nor 


less  than  the  connection  of  the  web  of  a  lattice  girder 
with  one  of  its  booms,  but  here  the  junction  alone  weighs 
as  much  as  an  ordinary  iron  railway  bridge  of  100  feet 
span.  This  mass  of  steel  work  is  suspended  80  feet  above 
high  water,  and  projects  180  feet  beyond  the  masonry 
piers.  Considerable  forces  are  sometimes  needed  to  bring 
the  tubes  into  their  correct  position  ;  and  as  in  the  case  of 
the  Britannia  Bridge,  which  on  a  hot  day  moves  3  inches 


horizontally  and  2^  inches  vertically  between  sunrise  and 
sunset,  so  here  considerable  movement  takes  place  during 
the  day,  and  by  careful  watching  the  great  tubes  can 
sometimes  be  caught  and  retained  in  proper  position, 
without  the  intervention  of  hydraulic  or  other  power. 

The  weight  of  steel  employed  in  the  junction  now 
under  consideration  is  about  90  tons.  The  attachments  to 
the  strut  and  tie  are  made  by  means  of  strong  gusset 


40 


NATURE 


[May  10,  1888 


plates,  the  bottom  member  itself  being  strengthened 
internally  at  the  junction  by  suitable  diaphragms. 

The  importance  of  this  junction  will  be  readily  under- 
stood, when  it  is  stated  that  a  load  of  some  6000  tons — 
the  weight  of  an  American  liner — will  be  transmitted 
through  it,  in  the  finished  structure,  on  its  way  to  the 
masonry  pier.  Some  16,000  rivets  are  required  for  the 
junction  ;  and  large  as  this  number  may  appear,  it  bears 
but  a  small  ratio  to  the  eight  million  rivets  used  in 
the  whole  structure.  The  method  of  construction  of  the 
junction  was  that  uniformly  adopted  in  dealing  with  these 
members.  The  junction  was  erected  on  the  drill  roads 
attached  to  the  workshops  at  South  Queensferry,  all 
holes  drilled  by  specially  designed  plant  ;  and,  having 
been  marked  for  re-erection,  it  was  taken  down  and  trans- 
ported plate  by  plate,  and  finally  hoisted  into  position 
in  the  finished  structure  from  a  steam  barge,  by  a  crane 
working  from  the  internal  viaduct. 

The  tie  was  built  downwards  from  the  top  of  the 
vertical  column  ;  the  timber  cage — shown  in  our  illustra- 
tion— in  which  the  men  worked  being  attached  to  and 
following  it  as  length  by  length  was  added.  To  design 
and  build  a  structure  of  steel  to  bear  a  load  of  some 
6000  tons  is  no  mean  task  in  itself,  but  what  shall  we 
say  of  the  whole  undertaking,  when  this  junction  alone 
contains  but  one  five-hundredth  of  the  material  required 
for  the  completed  Forth  Bridge? 


FLORA   OF  THE  ANTARCTIC  ISLANDS. 

MR.  W.  B.  HEMSLEY,  who  elaborated  at  Kew 
the  collections  made  during  the  Challenger 
expedition  illustrative  of  the  floras  of  oceanic  islands, 
has  handed  to  me  the  following  interesting  letter  from 
Dr.  Guppy.  The  materials  and  notes  accumulated  by 
this  skilful  observer  during  his  travels  in  the  Western 
Pacific  threw  a  good  deal  of  light  on  the  mode  in  which 
oceanic  islands  were  stocked  with  plants,  and  Mr. 
Hemsley  was  able  to  make  an  advantageous  use  of  them 
in  discussing  the  collections  made  in  the  same  region  by 
Prof.  Moseley. 

I  myself  am  very  much  impressed  with  the  probable 
truth  of  the  views  expressed  by  Dr.  Guppy.  It  would 
be  very  desirable  to  obtain  additional  observations  which 
would  serve  to  test  their  accuracy.  It  is  with  this  object 
that  I  have  obtained  Dr.  Guppy's  permission  to  com- 
municate his  letter  to  Nature. 

W.  T.  Thiselton  Dyer. 

Royal  Gardens,  Kew,  April  28. 

17  Woodlane,  Falmouth,  April  %,  1888. 

As  I  am  likely  to  be  proceeding  soon  to  the  South  Seas,  I 
have  been  re-perusing  your  volume  of  the  "  Botany  of  the 
Challenger"  more  especially  the  remarks  concerning  the  dispersal 
of  plants,  which  I  hope  to  take  the  opportunity  of  following  up 
in  a  more  systematic  way  than  before. 

I  was  thinking  that  if  you  thought  it  worth  while  you  might 
direct  the  attention  of  masters  of  ships  going  round  the  Horn 
and  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  to  the  chance  of  finding  seeds  in 
the  crops  of  the  oceanic  birds  that  follow  the  ships  in  the 
regions  of  the  westerly  winds.  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that 
important  results  would  be  obtained.  Judging  from  my 
experience,  about  one  bird  in  twenty-five  would  contain  a  seed  in 
its  crop. 

1  am  still  inclined,  if  you  will  pardon  my  saying  so,  to  the 
belief  that  the  agency  of  birds  like  the  Cape  pigeons  may 
explain  some  of  the  difficulties  in  the  floras  of  the  islands  in  the 
Southern  Ocean.  To  return  to  the  instance  of  my  seed,  I  have 
since  found  an  account  where  a  Cape  pigeon,  around  the  neck 
of  which  a  ribbon  had  been  tied,  followed  a  ship  on  its  way 
home  from  Australia  for  no  less  than  5000  miles  (Coppinger's 
"  Cruise  of  the  Alert"  1885,  p.  18);  and  on  consulting  other 
voyages  I  find  that  the  Cape  pigeon  appears  to  perform  the 
circuit  of  the  globe  in  the  region  of  the  Westerlies,  so  that  my 
seed  might  readily  have  been  transferred  from  Tristan  d'Acunha 
to  Amsterdam. 


A  remarkable  point  has  occurred  to  me  whilst  reading  your 
remarks  (doubtless  you  have  already  thought  of  it).  In  a 
botanical  sense,  and  also  in  a  geographical  sense,  the  Antarctic 
Islands  seem  to  be  arranged  in  two  parallel  zones.  Tristan 
d'Acunha,  Amsterdam,  and  St.  Paul's,  lying  between  the  parallels 
of  370  to  40°  S.  lat.,  have  similar  floras.  Further  south  is  the 
second  zone,  between  47°  and  550  (cirea),  in  which  the  land 
and  islands  (Fuegia,  Crozets,  Kerguelen,  Macquarie,  &c.)  are 
characterized  by  their  common  floras.  Now,  how  are  these  two 
parallel  botanical  zones  to  be  explained  ? '  It  seems  to  me  that 
if  you  grant  that  the  northern  zone  may  largely  derive  its 
common  characters  by  the  agency  of  birds  following  the 
westerly  winds,  such  as  I  believe  to  have  been  the  case,  you 
are  almost  forced  to  the  conclusi  >n  that  the  floras  of  Fuegia, 
Kerguelen,  Macquarie  Island,  &c,  in  the  southern  zone  have 
obtained  their  common  characters,  in  the  same  way.  Of  course 
the  distinctiveness  between  the  floras  of  the  two  parallel  zones 
would  then  be  explained  by  the  difference  in  the  climatic  con- 
ditions arising  from  difference  in  latitude.  For  my  own  part  I 
do  not  think  the  hypothesis  of  a  sunken  southern  tract  (or  tracts) 
of  land  to  be  supported  by  geological  evidence.  Is  not  the 
geological  character  of  the  remote  oceanic  islands  strongly 
negative  of  the  idea  that  they  are  portions  of  ancient  submerged 
tracts?  Can  Kerguelen,  Amsterdam,  &c,  be  in  any  sense 
continental  islands  as  regards  their  rocks  ?  With  reference 
to  New  Zealand,  if  geologists  are  right  in  regarding  it  as  lying 
along  the  same  volcanic  line  that  extendi  southward  through  the 
Western  Pacific  from  New  Guinea,  then  it  is  probable  that  the 
vast  post-Tertiary  upheaval  of  the  island  groups  (Solomon  Islands, 
New  Hebrides,  &c. )  which  I  have  shown  to  have  taken  place 
along  this  line  of  volcanic  activity  in  the  Western  Pacific,  has 
been  represented  in  New  Zealand  by  elevation  rather  than  de- 
pression. I  believe  that  subsequent  investigation  will  confirm 
my  belief  that  the  great  island  groups  of  the  Western  Pacific,  with 
New  Caledonia  and  New  Zealand,  have  been  always  insular. 
This  is,  I  think,  the  great  lesson  I  learned  in  the  Solomon 
Islands.  H.  B.  Guppy. 


LORD  HARTINGTON  ON  TECHNICAL 
EDUCATION. 

THE  Marquis  of  Hartingtcn  was  the  chief  guest  at  the 
anniversary  banquet  of  the  Institution  of  Mechanical 
Engineers  held  on  Friday,  May  4,  at  the  Criterion 
Restaurant.  Mr.  Edward  H.  Carbutt,  President  of  the 
Institution,  occupied  the  chair.  In  responding  to  the 
toast  of  "Our  Guest,"  proposed  by  the  Chairman,  Lord 
Hartington,  after  speaking  of  the  part  which  the  me- 
chanical engineering  profession  of  this  country  takes  in 
the  maintenance  and  the  extension  of  our  material  and 
industrial  supremacy  in  the  world,  referred  to  the  vast 
importance  of  technical  education.  He  had  never  pro- 
fessed to  be  an  authority  on  the  subject  of  technical 
education— he  was  no  authority  on  that  subject ;  all  he 
could  do  in  the  position  he  held  was  to  endeavour  to 
arouse  such  interest  as  he  could  in  that  subject,  to  enlist 
in  the  minds  of  the  ordinary  public — the  unscientific 
public  of  whom  he  formed  a  part — an  interest  in  this 
question,  and  to  listen  to  the  advice  and  attend  to  the 
counsel  which  were  given  to  the  public  by  those  who  were 
authorities  on  the  subject,  and  to  whose  advice  he  held 
it  was  most  important  that  attention  should  be  paid.  He 
had  been  greatly  struck  by  the  fact  that  in  every  country 
in  Europe  which  competed  with  us  in  industrial  or  com- 
mercial pursuits  greater  attention  had  recently  been  paid 
to  giving  a  practical  direction  to  the  national  education 
than  had  hitherto  been  considered  necessary  in  England. 
We  had,  like  other  countries— perhaps  somewhat  in  arrear 
of  them — established  a  national  and  tolerably  complete 
instruction  ;  but  they,  earlier  than  we,  had  embraced 
the  idea  of  making  that  national  instruction  not  only  a 
literary  instruction,  but  a  technical  and  commercial  edu- 
cation. But  he  could  not  help  thinking  that  in  that 
respect  they  had  gained  some  considerable  advantages 
over  ourselves.  He  did  not  think  there  was  any  occasion 
for  us  to  take  a  desponding  or  a  pessimistic  view  of  the 


May  10,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


4i 


situation.     He  had  great  confidence  in   the  energy,  the 
skill,  and  the  intelligence  of  our  people.     But  he  believed 
there  were  facts  which  it  would  be  madness  on  our  part 
to  ignore.     If  a  new  process,  a  new  invention,  were  dis- 
covered in  any  other  country — if  a  new  process  of  manu- 
facture were  discovered  greatly  superior  to  that  which  was 
in  existence  among  ourselves— we  should  at  once  admit 
that   it   was   necessary   for    us    either  to   improve   that 
invention  or  else  to  resign  ourselves  to   being   defeated 
in   the   competition  for  the   production  of  that   article. 
But  if  it  were  true,  as  he  believed  it  was,  that  the  system 
of  national  education  in  other  countries  was  being  devoted 
to  purposes  which  made  the  manual  labour  of  the  working 
population  more  intelligent,  more  skilled,  and  therefore 
more  valuable,  that  was  a  fact  which- was  just  as  important 
and  which  had  consequences  of  exactly  the  same  character 
as  if  foreign  nations  were  to  discover  an  invention  which 
was  not  available  for  our  own  use.     These  facts  had  been 
investigated  by  a  Royal  Commission,  and  by  a  great  num- 
ber of  private  individuals  for  their  own  purposes  ;  and  there 
was  no  sort  of  doubt  that  foreign  countries  had  not  only 
attempted  to  give,  but  had  to  a  very  considerable  extent 
succeeded  in  giving,  a  more  practical  turn  to  the  education 
of  their  people  in  all  branches  of  industry  and  commerce 
where  science  and  art  could  be  usefully  and  successfully 
applied.     If  it  were  the  fact  that  we  had  fallen  behind 
in  this  branch  of  the  instruction  of  our  people,  it  appeared 
to  him  that    it  would  be  worse  than   idle,  it  would  be 
criminal,  on  our  part  if  we  were  for  a  moment  to  ignore 
the  consequences  of  those  facts,  and  the  consequences 
which  might  result  not  only  to  our  temporary  commercial 
and   manufacturing   position   in    the   world,   but   to   the 
future  industrial  position  of  England.     He  was  sure  there 
were  none  to  whose  advice  great  employers  and  leaders 
of  industry  in  this  country  would  more  cheerfully  and 
more  willing  listen,  none  who  exercised  a  greater  influence 
over  the  public  mind  of  this  country,  than  those  whom 
he  had  the  honour  of   addressing  ;    and  it  was  a  great 
satisfaction  to  him  to  be  assured  by  the  words  that  had 
fallen  from  their  Chairman  that  they  were  giving  their 
earnest  and  anxious  attention  to  the  subject  of  technical 
education. 


NOTES. 

A  Royal  Commission  has  been  appointed  to  inquire 
"  whether  any  and  what  kind  of  new  University  or  powers  is 
or  are  required  for  the  advancement  of  higher  education  in 
London."  The  Commissioners  are  Lord  Selborne,  Chairman  ; 
Sir  James  Hannen,  Sir  William  Thomson,  Dr.  J.  T.  Ball,  Mr. 
G.  C.  Brodrick,  the  Re/.  J.  E.  C.  Welldon,  and  Prof.  Stokes, 
P.R.S.  Mr.  J.  L.  Goddard  is  appointed  Secretary  to  the 
Commission. 

Much  trouble  was  taken  to  secure  the  success  of  the  annual 
conversazione  of  the  Royal  Society  held  last  night.  We  shall 
give  some  account  of  it  next  week. 

The  Emperor  Frederick  has  marked  the  opening  of  his  reign 
by  conferring  personal  honours  on  some  eminent  Germans.  Dr. 
Werner  Siemens,  the  electric'an,  is  one  of  those  who  have  been 
ennobled  or  dignified  with  the  prefix  "Von." 

The  Donders  Memorial  Fund,  to  which  we  called  attention 
some  time  ago,  now  amounts  to  about  ,£2000,  of  which  ^250 
has  been  subscribed  in  England.  Prof.  Djnders'  seventieth 
birthday  falls  on  Sunday,  the  27th  inst.  ;  but  it  has  been  decided 
that  the  celebration  in  his  honour  shall  take  place  on  the  follow- 
ing day.  The  subscription  list,  so  far  as  this  country  is  concerned, 
will  be  closed  on  the  14th  inst. 

At  the  general  monthly  meeting  of  the  Royal  Institution, 
on  Monday  last,  Dr.  Tyndall  was  elected  Honorary  Professor, 
and  Lord  Rayleigh  Professor,  of  Natural  Philosophy. 


A  preliminary  meeting,  called  by  invitation  of  the  Council* 
of  the  Yorkshire  Philosophical  Society,  to  consider  the  desira- 
bility of  forming  a  Museum  Association,  was  held  in  York  on. 
May  3.  Among  the  Museums  represented  at  the  meeting  were 
those  of  Liverpool,  Manchester,  York,  Sheffield,  Notting- 
ham, Bolton,  Bradford,  Sunderland,  and  Warrington.  It  was 
unanimously  decided  that  a  Museum  Association  should  be 
formed,  and  that  it  should  consist  of  curators  or  those  engaged 
in  the  active  work  of  Museums,  and  also  of  representatives  of 
the  Committees  or  Councils  of  Management  of  Museums.  The 
Association  will  consider  (1)  whether  it  may  not  be  possible  to 
secure  a  compendious  index  of  the  contents  of  all  provincial 
museums  and  collections  ;  (2)  the  most  effectual  methods  of 
facilitating  the  interchange  of  specimens  and  books  between 
various  museums  ;  (3)  the  best  plans  for  arranging  museums  and 
classifying  their  contents  ;  (4)  the  organization  of  some  concerted 
action  for  the  obtaining  of  such  Government  publications  as  are 
interesting  or  important  from  a  scientific  point  of  view. 

Prof.  Arthur  Schuster,  F.R.S.,  has  been  appointed, 
to  the  Langworthy  Professorship  of  Physics  and  Directorship  of 
the  Physical  Laboratory  at  the  Owens  College,  in  succession  to 
the  late  Prof.  Balfour  Stewart. 

The  Gaekwar  of  Baroda  is  reported  to  have  decided  to  send 
a  number  of  young  men,  carefully  selected  for  the  purpose,  to  ■ 
study  scientific  and  technical  subjects  in   England,  under  the 
supervision  of  Mr.  Gajjar,  Professor  of  Biology  in  the   Baroda , 
College. 

The  Government  of  Ceylon  have  sanctioned  the  opening  of 
a  Forest  School  at  Kandy. 

We  regret  to  have  to  record  the  death  of  Sir  Charles  Bright, . 
the  eminent  electrician.  He  died  last  Thursday,  at  the  age  of 
fifty-six. 

Dr.  Sigismond  Wroblewski,  Professor  of  Experimental 
Physics  at  the  Polish  University  of  Cracow,  died  on  April  16  • 
last,  in  consequence  of  injuries  received  through  the  explosion 
of  some  petroleum  lamps.  Prof.  Wroblewski  lived  for  some 
time  in  London,  and  was  afterwards  a  Professor  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Strasburg.  He  also  worked  in  the  laboratory  of  Prof. 
Debray  in  the  Ecole  Normale,  Paris.  He  accepted  the  ap- 
pointment at  Cracow  in  1882.  His  researches  on  the  liquefaction  . 
of  gases  are  well  known. 

The  sodium  salt  of  a  new  sulphur  acid,  of  the  composition 
H2S4C)8,  has  been  prepared  by  M.  Villiers  {Bull,  de  Soc.  Chini., 
1888,  671).  It  was  obtained  by  the  action  of  sulphur  dioxide 
upon  a  strong  solution  of  sodium  thiosulphate,  and  is  tolerably 
stable,  crystallizing  in  well  developed  prisms.  A  quantity  of 
crystalline  sodium  thiosulphate  contained  in  a  flask  was  treated 
With  an  amount  of  water  insufficient  for  complete  solution;, 
the  flask  was  immersed  in  iced  water,  and  a  current  of  sulphur 
dioxide  pas  ed,  with  constant  agitation,  until  the  solution  was 
saturated  and  all  or  nearly  all  the  thiosulphate  had  dissolved. 
If  any  of  the  latter  crystals  remained  undissolved,  a  little  more  • 
water  was  added,  and  the  solution  again  saturated  with  the  gas, 
repeating  this  treatment  until  all  had  passed  into  solution.  After 
leaving  the  liquid  thus  obtained  at  the  ordinary  texiperature  for 
two  or  three  days,  it  was  found  to  be  capable  of  taking  up  a 
further  considerable  volume  of  sulphur  dioxide,  the  former 
quantity  having  evidently  entered  into  chemical  combination  in 
some  way  or  other.  It  was  therefore  again  saturated,  and  left 
for  another  day  or  two,  after  which  the  solution  was  evaporated 
in  vacuo  over  sulphuric  acid.  It  was  then  found  that  a  precipitate  • 
of  sulphur  was  gradually  depo-ited  upon  the  base  of  the 
containing  dish,  while  fine  white  prisms  of  brilliant  lustre  were 
formed   at   the   surface.     On   analysis   they  were   found   to  be 


42 


NA  TURE 


[May  10,  1888 


anhydrous,  and  yielded  numbers  corresponding  to  the  formula 
Na2S.iOg  or  NaS204.  They  dissolved  in  water  with  formation 
of  a  neutral  solution.  On  again  evaporating  this  solution  under 
the  receiver  of  the  air-pump,  crystals  of  a  hydrate,  Na2S408  + 
2ll20,  separated  out.  from  the  remarkable  similarity  in  pro- 
perties between  oxygen  and  sulphur,  it  is  probable  that  this 
new  acid  by  no  means  exhausts  ail  the  possible  combinations, 
for  it  appears  as  if  one  is  capable  of  replacing  the  other  to  any 
extent,  forming  compounds  which  may  perhaps  be  considered 
as  oxygen  substitution  derivatives  of  polysulphides.  M.  Villiers 
has  not  yet  completed  his  investigation  of  the  properties  and 
constitution  of  the  new  acid,  further  details  of  which  will  be 
.   awaited  with  considerable  interest. 

On  April  2  a  severe  shock  of  earthquake  was  felt  at  Kalleli, 
in  the  Lysefjord.  It  occurred  simultaneously  with  one  at  Gjsesdal, 
also  on  the  west  coast  of  Norway.  In  the  former  place  three  dis- 
tinct shocks  were  felt,  causing  the  windows  to  rattle,  clocks  to 
stop,  &c.  A  loud  subterranean  rumbling  was  heard.  On  the 
other  side  of  the  narrow  fjord  no  shock  was  felt,  but  a  deep 
rumbling   detonation   was  heard. 

On  the  morning  of  April  18  a  severe  shock  of  earthquake  was 
felt  at  Vexio,  in  the  south  of.  Sweden.  It  lasted  fully  two 
minute-,  and  was  followed  by  subterranean  detonations.  This  is 
the  third  earthquake  observed  in  this  district  during  the  last  six 
months. 

The  Calcutta  Correspondent  of  the  Times  telegraphs  that 
India  has  been  visited  by  a  series  of  what  he  calls  "pheno- 
menal "  storms,  partaking  very  much  of  the  character  of  the 
Dacca  tornado.  At  Moradabad,  150  deaths  are  reported, 
caused  chiefly  by  hailstones.  Many  of  the  houses  were  un- 
roofed, trees  were  uprooted,  and  masses  of  frozen  hail  remained 
lying  about  long  after  the  cessation  of  the  storm.  At  Delhi 
there  was  an  extraordinary  hailstorm  lasting  about  two  minutes, 
which  was  virtually  a  shower  of  lumps  of  ice.  One  of 
the  hailstones  picked  up  in  the  hospital  garden  weighed 
i£  lb.  ;  another,  srcured  near  the  Telegraph  Office,  was  of  the 
size  of  a  melon,  and  turned  the  scale  at  2  lbs.  At  another 
place  the  Government  House  suffered  severely,  200  panes  of 
glass  being  broken  by  hail.  In  Lower  Bengal,  at  Rayebati, 
2000  huts  were  destroyed,  while  twenty  persons  are  reported  to 
have  been  killed  and  200  severely  injured.  Chudressur,  close  to 
Serampore,  was  almost  completely  wrecked.  The  storm  lasted 
only  three  minutes,  its  course  extending  for  a  mile  and  a  half, 
and  its  path  being  300  yards  wide.  Its  advent  was  preceded  , 
by  a  loud  booming  noise.  Large  boats  were  lifted  out  of  the 
river,  and  in  one  case  a  small  boat  was  blown  up  into  a  tree. 

According  to  an  official  report,  the  substance  of  which  has 
been  given  by  the  Calcutta  Correspondent  of  the  Times,  an  im- 
mense amount  of  injury  was  done  by  the  Dacca  tornado.  No 
fewer  than  118  persons  were  killed,  excluding  those  drowned,  and 
1200  wounded  had  to  be  treated.  The  amount  of  the  damage  to 
property  is  estimated  at  Rs.6, 78,428.  Three  hundred  and  fifty- 
eight  houses  were  completely  destroyed,  121  boats  were  wrecked, 
and  148  brick-built  houses  were  partially,  and  9  were  com- 
pletely, destroyed.  Shortly  after  the  Dacca  tornado,  another 
visited  part  of  the  Murchagunje  subdivision,  and  66  deaths  and 
128  cases  of  injury  are  reported.  All  the  houses  struck  were 
completely  destroyed.  The  Dacca  tornado  travelled  altogether 
3}  miles.  Its  rate  of  speed  varied  from  12  to  20  miles,  and  its 
greatest  width  was  20  yards.  It  was  accompanied  by  a  rumbling 
hissing  sound,  the  clouds  over  it  were  illuminated,  and  liquid 
•mud  was  deposited  along  its  track,  and  was  ingrained  in  the 
wounds  of  the  injured. 

We  are  glad  to  be  able  to  report,  on  the  authority  of  Captain 
de  Brito  Capello,  Director  of  the  Lisbon  Observatory,  that  the 


Government  of  Brazil  has  established  a  Meteorological  Service 
there,  by  decree  dated  April  4  last.  The  Director  is  Senhor  A. 
Pinheiro,  who  has  visited  this  country  on  several  occasions. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  French  Meteorological  Society,  on  the 
3rd  of  April,  M.  Vaussenat  presented  and  analyzed  a  long  series 
of  photographs  of  clouds  taken  at  the  Observatory  of  the  Pic-du- 
Midi,  froja  1880  to  1887,  under  all  conditions  of  the  atmosphere- 
He  drew  special  attention  to  the  importance  of  the  systematic 
observation  of  clouds,  at  that  mountain  observatory,  and  stated 
that  by  the  aid  of  such  observations  he  had  been  able  to 
issue  local  predictions  of  weather  which  hr.d  acquired  great 
accuracy.  M.  Grad  gave  particulars  respecting  the  present 
meteorological  organization  in  Alsace  and  Lorraine.  In  1870, 
the  Meteorological  Commission  presided  over  by  M.  Him 
established  a  complete  network  of  stations,  but  this  service  was 
interrupted  by  the  war  which  broke  out  soon  after.  At  present 
there  are  twenty  stations  in  the  two  provinces.  One  of  these, 
viz.  Strasburg,  possesses  an  unbroken  series  of  observations  since 
1801.  It  has  been  decided  to  establish  a  service  there  for  the 
issue  of  weather  forecasts  for  the  benefit  of  agriculture. 

Mr.  T.  Wilson,  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  gives  in  the 
American  Naturalist  an  interesting  account  of  some  recent  disco- 
veries made  by  Mr.  Frank  Cushing,  who  has  not  only  been  adopted 
by  the  tribe  of  Zunis,  but  initiated  into  the  order  of  their  priest- 
hood. While  at  Tempe,  in  Arizona,  in  the  spring  of  1887,  Mr. 
Cushing  heard  of  a  large  truncated  moun  1  in  the  desert  6  or 
7  miles  to,  the  south-east.  He  visited  it,  and  declared  it  to  be 
of  artificial  formation.  Workmen  were  brought  from  Tempe, 
and  in  a  short  time  they  caaae  upon  the  ruins  of  an  immense 
building.  Mr.  Cushing  at  once  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that 
this  building  had  been  used  as  an  Indian  temple.  He  observed 
many  things  which  corresponded  in  a  remarkable  degree  with 
the  ZuHi  religion,  and  which  he  was  able  to  recognize  in  con- 
sequence of  the  experience  he  had  gained  as  a  priest.  Continu- 
ing his  explorations,  he  found  the  remains  of  a  city  3  miles 
lo.ig  and  at  some  places  I  mile  wide.  This  city  was  somewhat 
irregularly  laid  out,  consisting  principally  of  large  squares  or 
blocks  of  houses  surrounded  by  a  high  wall,. apparently  for  pro- 
tection. The  state  of  the  buildings  clearly  indicated  that  the  city 
had  been  ruined  by  an  earthquake.  Many  bodies  crushed  by 
fallen  roofs  and  walls  were  found.  Mr.  Cushing  also  discovered 
a  number  of  graves,  believed  to  be  the  graves  of  priests.  The 
symbols  and  decorations  on  the  pottery  found  in-  these  graves 
resemble  the  symbols  and  decorations  on  modern  Zuni  pottery. 
About  10  or  15  miles  from  this  ruined  city,  which  Mr. 
Cushing  calls  Los  Muertos,  the  City  of  the  Dead,  he  has  lately 
found  the  remains  of  another  prehistoric  town,  in  connection 
with  which  there  are  many  traces  of  extensive  works  for 
irrigation. 

The  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History  proposes  to  establish 
a  Zoological  Garden  in  that  city.  The  enterprise  will  be  thoroughly 
educational.  The  chief  object  will  be  to  show  specimens  of 
American  animals,  especially  those  of  New  England. 

According  to  a  telegram  from  Sydney,  the  Conference  upon 
the  means  of  dealing  with  the  rabbit-pest  in  Australia  has  re- 
sulted in  the  selection  of  an  island  where  M.  Pasteur's  and  other 
methods  of  extirpation  will  be  thoroughly  tried.  The  liability 
of  other  animals  and  birds  to  infection  by  the  same  means  will 
also  be  tested. 

During  the  month  of  July  the  following  courses,  for  technical 
teachers  and  others,  will  be  given  in  the  new  buildings  of  the 
City  and  Guilds  of  London  Institute  : — Elementary  Principles  of 
Machine-Designing,  by  Prof.  W.  C.  Unwin,  F.R.  S.  ;  Practical 
Lessons  in  Organic  Chemistry,  intended  mainly  for  teachers  of 
technological  subject-;,  by  Prof.  Armstrong,  F.R. S.  ;  the  Con- 
struction and  Use  of  Electrical  Measuring  Instruments,  by  Prof. 


May  10,  1888] 


NATURE 


43 


Ayrton,  F. R.S.  ;  Experimental  Mechanics,  by  Prof.  Henrici 
F.R.  S.  ;  the  Principles  of  Bread-making,  by  William  Iago  ; 
Photography,  by  Capt.  Abney,  F.R.S.  ;  Mathematical  and 
Surveying  Instruments,  by  Arthur  Thomas  Walmisley ;  Gas 
Manufacture,  by  Lewis  T.  Wright  ;  the  Application  of  Modern 
Geometry  to  the  Cutting  of  Solids  for  Masonry  and  other 
Technical  Arts,  by  Lawrence  Harvey  ;  and  the  Craft  of  the 
Carpenter,  by  John  Slater. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  two  Long-eared  Bats  {Plecotus  auritus),  from 

Cornwall,    presented    by    Mr.     F.     A.     Allchin ;     a  ■  Roe 

Wapreolus ?  ),  from  Corea,  presented  by  Mr.  F.  Harston 

Eagles ;  two  Burrowing  Owls  {Speotyto  cunicularid),  from 
Buenos  Ayres,  presented  by  Mr.  J.  Clark  Hawkshaw  ;  a  Blue 
and  Yellow  Macaw  {Ara  ararauna),  from  Para,  presented  by 
Mrs.  Yarrow  ;  two  Crested  Ducks  {Anas  cristatus),  from  the 
Falkland  Islands,  presented  by  Mr.  F.  E.  Co'>b,  C.M.Z.S.  ;  an 
Asp  Viper  ( Vipera  aspis),  from  Italy,  presented  by  Messrs. 
Paul  and  Co.  ;  a  Common  Viper  ( Vipera  berns),  from  Burnham 
Beeches,  presented  by  Mr.  F.  M.  Oldham  ;  two  Japanese  Deer 
(Cerzi/s  sika  £  £  ),  from  Japan  ;  a  Macaque  Monkey  (Macacus 
cynomolgus  £ ),  from  India,  a  Vulpine  Phalanger  {Phalangista 
vulpina  £ ),  from  Australia,  two  Burrowing  Owls  {Speotyto 
cuniailaria),  from  Buenos  Ayres,  deposited  ;  a  Spotted  Cavy 
{Ca-logcnys paca),  born  in  the  Gardens. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

New  Minor  Planets. — Herr  Palisa,  at  Vienna,  discovered 
a  new  minor  planet,  No.  276,  on  April  17,  and  M.  Charlois,  at 
Nice,  discovered  a  second,  No.  277,  on  May  3,  the  sixty-fourth 
and  third  discoveries  respectively  of  the  two  astronomers.  No. 
273  has  been  named  Atropos. 

Comet  1888  a  (Sawerthal). — The  following  ephemeris 
{Dun  Echt  Circular,  No.  155)  is  in  continuation  of  that  given  in 
Nature,  vol.  xxxvii.  p.  520  : — 

For  Greenwich  Midnight. 
1888.  R.A.  Decl.  Log  a.  Log  r.        Bright- 

h      m      «.  -  ness. 


May  10 

23  45  45 

12 

23  5°    ° 

14 

23  5*    9 

16 

23  58  12 

18 

028 

20 

0    5  58 

22 

0    9  42 

24 

0  13  20 

26 

0  16  51 

28 

0  20  16 

SO 

0  23  35 

31  39-8  N. 

32  337 

33  25  8 

34  16-1 

35  47 

35  517 

36  372 

37  2I-2 

38  3 '9 

38  45'3 

39  25-6 


0-2242 
0-2360 
0-2470 
02572 
0-2666 


0-1003      OI4 


0-I2 


O'll 


0-1566 

0-1738 


009 

008 


0-2752      0-1904      007 


The  brightness  at  discovery  is  taken  as  unity. 

Cincinnati  Zone  Catalogue.— No.  9  of  the  Publications 
of  the  Cincinnati  Observatory  contains  a  zone  catalogue  of 
4050  stars  observed  during  1885,  1886,  and  the  early  part  of 
1887  with  the  3-inch  transit  instrument  of  the  Observatory,  made 
by  Buff  and  Berger.  The  region  covered  by  the  zones  is  from 
S.  Decl.  180  50'  to  S.  Decl.  22°  20',  most  of  the  stars  down 
to  mag.  8-5  having  been  observed,  besides  a  considerable  number 
of  fainter  ones.  A  low  power  was  employed,  so  as  to  give  a 
field  of  50' in  breadth,  and  as  the  zones  were  taken  15'  apart, 
each  star  was  thus  usually  observed  in  three  zones.  The 
R.A.'s  were  deduced  from  transits,  recorded  on  a  chrono- 
graph, over  a  system  of  five  vertical  wires ;  the  declinations,  from 
bisections  by  a  micrometer  wire,  two  readings  being  taken  for 
each  star  whenever  practicable.  The  probable  error  of  a  single 
observation  was  found  to  be  R.  A.  ±  0-123$.,  Decl.  ±  i"'84, 
the  observations  being  a  little  rougher  than  could  have  been 
desired,  in  consequence  of  the  low  magnifying  power  used.  An 
important  portion  of  the  work  has  been  the  comparison  of 
the  resulting  places  with  those  for  the  same  stars  in  earlier  cata- 
logues, and  a  considerable  number  of  errata  in  Lalande's,  La- 
mont's,  and  other  catalogues  have  been  detected.      A  list  of 


seventy-five  proper  motions,  nearly  all  of  them  new,  is  likewise 
added. 

Publications  of  Lick  Observatory. — The  first  volume 
of  the  Publications  of  the  Lick  Observatory  has  been  received. 
It  is  chiefly  occupied  with  the  details  of  the  progress  of  the  insti- 
tution from  the  date  of  Mr.  Lick's  first  deed  of  trust,  1874,  and 
with  the  description  of  the  smaller  instruments,  the  great 
refractor  being  reserved  for  a  future  volume.  Meteorological 
observations  taken  on  Mount  Hamilton  from  1880  to  1885,  and 
reduction  tables  for  the  Observatory  occupy  a  large  part  of  the 
volume.  Amongst  the  most  interesting  reports  are  those  of 
Prof.  Newcomb,  on  the  glass  for  the  great  objective  ;  of  Mr. 
Burnham,  on  Mount  Hamilton  as  an  observing  station  ;  and  of 
Prof.  Todd,  on  the  transit  of  Venus,  1882.  A  report  on  the 
structure  of  the  mountain  is  also  given  by  Profs.  Irving  and 
Jackson. 


ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA  FOR  THE 
WEEK  1888  MAY  13-19. 

/"C*OR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
*■*•  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 
is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  May  13 

Sunrises,  4I1.  12m.;  souths,  Iih.  56m.  97s.  ;  sets,  19I1.  40m.  : 

right  asc.  on  meridian,  3I1.  22  8m.  ;  decl.  1 8°  34'  N. 
Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  iih.  8m. 

Moon    (at    First    Quarter    May    18,    23b.)    rises,  5I1.    58m.  ; 


souths,  I3h.  54m.  ;  sets,  2lh.  57m. 
5V1.  21 -2m. ;  decl.  190  46'  N. 


right  asc.  on  meridian, 


Right  asc. 

and  declination 

Planet. 

Rises. 

Souths. 

Sets. 

on 

Tieridian. 

h.    m. 

h.    m. 

h.    m. 

h.      m. 

0      / 

Mercury . 

4   16   .. 

.    12      8    . 

.20      O    .. 

■     3  34-8 

...   19  50  N. 

3  45  •• 

.    IO   54    . 

.18    3  •• 

.     2  20-6 

...   12  38  N. 

Mars 

15  36  .. 

.    21    19    . 

•     3     2*.. 

.  12  46 9 

...     4     6  S. 

Jupiter. .. 

20   21*.. 

.       O   38    . 

•     4  55  •• 

.  16    3-2 

...   19  43  S. 

Saturn 

8  51   •• 

.    16  47   • 

•     0  43*.. 

•     8  14-5 

...  20  29  N. 

Uranus  ... 

15  44  •• 

•    21    23    . 

.     3     2*.. 

•   12  515 

...     4  47  S. 

Neptune.. 

4  41   •• 

.    12    24    .. 

20    7  .. 

■     3  507 

...   18  28  N. 

*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 

Occultaiions  0/ Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 

angles  from  ver- 

May.  Star.  Mag.        Disap.  Reap.        tex  to  right  for 

inverted  image. 
h.     in.  h.     m.  o         o 

...   21  48  near  approach  212    - 


15  .. 

16  .. 

May. 

15 
16 


61  Geminorum , 
d'  Cancri ... 
h. 


23     5 


23  45 


74  337 


Mercury  at  least  distance  from  the  Sun. 
Saturn  in  conjunction  with  and  0°  42'  north 
of  the  Moon. 


Variable  Stars. 


Star. 

U  Cephei  ... 
(  Geminorum 
U  Hydne  ... 
W  Virginis  ... 
R  Draconis  ... 
U  Ophiuchi  .. 
W  Sagittarii 

8  Lyrse 

R  Lyrse 
r)  Aquilae 
WCygni      ... 
5  Cephei 


R.A. 
h.  m. 
O   52*4  • 

6  575  • 
10  32-0  .. 
13  20-3  .. 

16  324  . 

17  10-9  .. 

17  579  •• 

18  460  .. 

18  51-9  ■• 

19  46-8  .. 

21  31-8  .. 

22  25-0  .. 


Decl. 

.  81  16  N. 
.  20  44  N. 
.  12  48  S. 
.  2  48  S. 
.67  o  N. 
.     1  20  N. 

•  29  35  S. 

•  33  14.  N- 
.  43  48  N. 
.    o  43  N. 

•  44  53  N. 

•  57  5>  N. 


May  17, 
„     15. 


15. 

17,  I 
I4i 

18,  O 

17,  3 
17.  23 
18, 

19,  23 
18, 
15.  23 


38  m 
oM 

in 
oM 

in 

36  m 

o  in 

o  M 

m 
o  in 

M 
o  M 


M  signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum. 


Meteor- Showers. 
R.A.        Decl. 


Near  rj  Aquilse 
From  Delphinus 


295 
3H 


o 

15  N. 


May  15.    Very  swift. 
May     13-18.       Very 
swift.     Streaks. 


44 


NA  TURE 


[May  10,  1888 


THE  PYGMY  RACES.  OF  MEN} 

I. 

TT  is  well  known  that  there  existed  among  the  nations  of 
antiquity  a  wide-spread  belief  in  the  existence  of  a  race  or 
.-races  of  human  beings  of  exceedingly  diminutive  stature,  who 
dwelt  in  some  of  the  remote  and  unexplored  regions  of  the  earth. 
These  were  called  Pygmies,  a  word  said  to  be  derived  from 
■Kvyixi],  which  means  a  fist,  and  also  a  measure  of  length,  the 
distance  from  the  elbow  to  the  knuckles  of  an  ordinary-sized 
--.man,  or  rather  more  than  13  inches. 

In  the  opening  of  the  third  book  of  the  Iliad,  the  Trojan  hosts 
are  described  as  coming  on  with  noise  and  shouting,  "  like  the 
cranes  which  flee  from  the  coming  of  winter  and  sudden  rain,  and 
fly  with  clamour  towards  the  streams  of  ocean,  bearing  slaughter 
and  fate  to  the  Pygmy  men,  and  in  early  morn  offer  cruel  battle," 
or,  as  Pope  has  it  — 

"  So  when  inclement  winters  vex  the  plain, 
With  piercing  frosts,  or  thick  descending  rain, 
To  warmer  seas  the  cranes  embodied  fly, 
With  noise  and  order  through  the  midway  sky, 
To  Pygmy  nations  wounds  and  death  they  bring, 
And  all  the  war  descends  upon  the  wing." 

The  combats  between  the  pygmies  and  the  cranes  are  often 
alluded  to  by  late  classical  writers,  and  are  not  unfrequently 
depicted  upon  Greek  vases.  In  one  of  these  in  the  Hope  collec- 
tion at  Deepdene,  in  which  the  figures  are  represented  with 
great  spirit,  the  pygmies  are  dwarfish-looking  men  with  large 
heads,  negro  features,  and  close  woolly  or  frizzly  hair.  They  are 
armed  with  lances.  Notices  of  a  less  poetical  and  apparently  more 
scientific  character  of  the  occurrence  of  very  small  races  of  human 
beings  are  met  with  in  Aristotle,  Herodotus,  Ctesias,  Pliny, 
Pomponius  Melo,  and  others.  Aristotle  places  his  pygmies  in 
Africa,  near  the  sources  of  the  Nile,  while  Ctesias  describes  a 
race  of  dwarfs  in  the  interior  of  India.  The  account  in 
Herodotus  is  so  circumstantial,  and  has  such  an  air  of  truthful- 
ness about  it,  especially  in  connection  with  recent  discoveries, 
that  it  is  worth  quoting  in  full.2 

"  I  did  hear,  indeed,  what  I  will  now  relate,  from  certain 
natives  of  Cyrene.  Once  upon  a  time,  they  said,  they  were  on 
a  visit  to  the  oracular  shrine  of  Ammon,  when  it  chanced  that, 
in  the  course  of  conversation  with  Etearchus,  the  Ammonian 
king,  the  talk  fell  upon  the  Nile,  how  that  its  sources  were  un- 
known to  all  men.  Etearchus  up~>n  this  mentioned  that  some 
Nasamonians  had  once  come  to  his  Court,  and  when  asked  if 
they  could  give  any  information  concerning  the  uninhabited  parts 
of  Libya,  had  told  the  following  tale.  The  Nasamonians  are  a 
Libyan  race  who  occupy  the  Syrtes,  and  a  tract  of  no  great 
size  towards  the  east.  They  said  there  had  grown  up  among 
them  some  wild  young  men,  the  sons  of  certain  chiefs,  who, 
when  they  came  to  man's  estate,  indulged  in  all  manner  of  ex- 
travagancies, and  among  other  things  drew  lots  for  five  of  their 
number  to  go  and  explore  the  desert  parts  of  Libya,  and  try  if 
they  could  not  penetrate  further  than  any  had  done  previously. 
The  young  men  therefore  dispatched  on  this  errand  by  their  com- 
rades with  a  plentiful  supply  of  water  and  provisions,  travelled  at 
first  through  the  inhabited  region,  passing  which  they  came  to  the 
wild  beast  tract,  whence  they  finally  entered  upon  the  desert,  which 
they  proceeded  to  cross  in  a  direction  from  east  to  west.  After 
journeying  for  many  days  over  a  wide  extent  of  sand,  they  came 
at  last  to  a  plain  where  they  observed  trees  growing  :  approach- 
ing them,  and  seeing  fruit  on  them,  they  proceeded  to  gather  it. 
While  they  were  thus  engaged,  there  came  upon  them  some 
dwarfish  men,  under  the  middle  height,  who  seized  them  and 
carried  thern  off".  The  Nasamonians  could  not  understand  a 
word  of  their  language,  nor  had  they  any  acquaintance  with  the 
language  of  the  Nasamonians.  They  were  led  across  extensive 
marshes,  and  finally  came  to  a  town,  where  all  the  men  were  of 
the  height  of  their  conductors,  and  black-complexioned.  A 
great  river  flowed  by  the  town,  running  from  west  to  east,  and 
containing  crocodiles." 

It  is  satisfactory  to  know  that  the  narrative  concludes  by  say- 
ing that  these  pioneers  of  African  exploration,  forerunners  of 
Bruce  and  Park,  of  Barth,  Livingstone,  Speke,  Grant,  Schwein- 
furth,  Stanley,  and  the  rest,  "got  safe  back  to  their  country." 

Extension  of  knowledge  of  the  natural  products  of  the  earth, 

1  A  Lecture  delivered  at  the  Royal  Institution  on  Friday  evening,  April  14 

1  1888,  by  Prof.  Flower,  C.B.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  Director  of  the  Natural  History 
Departments  of  the  British  Museum. 

2  Herodotus,  Book  II.  32,  Rawlinson's  translation,  p.  47. 


and  a  more  critical  spirit  on  the  part  of  authors,  led  to  attempts 
of  explanation  of  this  belief,  and  the  discovery  of  races  of  mon- 
keys— of  the  doings  of  which,  it  must  be  said,  more  or  less  fabu- 
lous stories  were  often  reported  by  travellers — generally  sufficed 
the  commentators  and  naturalists  of  the  last  century  to  explain 
the  origin  of  the  stories  of  the  pygmies.  To  this  view  the  great 
authority  of  Buffon  was  extended. 

Still  more  recently-acquired  information  as  to  the  actual  con- 
dition of  the  human  population  of  the  globe  has,  however,  led 
to  a  revision  of  the  ideas  upon  the  subject,  and  to  more  careful 
and  critical  researches  into  the  ancient  documents.  M.  de 
Quatrefages,  the  eminent  and  veteran  Professor  of  Anthropology 
at  the  Museum  d'Histoire  Naturelle  of  Paris,  has  especially 
carefully  examined  and  collated  all  the  evidence  bearing  upon 
the  question,  and  devoted  much  ingenuity  of  argument  to  prove 
that  the  two  localities  in  which  the  ancient  authors  appear  to 
place  their  pygmies,  the  interior  of  Africa  near  the  sources  of 
the  Nile,  and  the  southernmost  parts  of  Asia,  and  the  characters 
they  assign  to  them,  indicate  an  actual  knowledge  of  the  exist- 
ence of  the  two  groups  of  small  people  which  still  inhabit  these 
regions,  the  history  of  which  will  form  the  subject  of  this  lecture. 
The  evidence  which  has  convinced  M.  de  Quatrefages,  and 
which,  I  have  no  doubt,  will  suffice  for  those  who  take  pleasure 
in  discovering  an  underlying  truth  in  all  such  legends  and  myths, 
or  in  the  more  grateful  task  of  rehabilitating  the  veracity  of  the 
fathers  of  literature  and  history,  will  be  found  collected  in  a  very 
readable  form  in  a  little  book  published  last  year  in  the  "  Biblio- 
theque  scientifique  contemporaine,"  called  "  Les  Pygmees."  to 
which  I  refer  my  readers  for  fuller  information  upon  the  subject 
of  this  discourse,  and  especially  for  numerous  references  to  the 
literature  of  the  subject,  which,  as  the  book  is  accessible  to  all 
who  wish  to  pursue  it  further,  I  need  not  give  here. 

It  is  still,  however,  to  my  mind,  an  open  question  whether 
these  old  stories  may  not  be  classed  with  innumerable  others, 
the  offspring  of  the  fertile  invention  of  the  human  brain,  the 
potency  of  which  as  an  origin  of  myths  has,  I  think,  sometimes 
been  too  much  underrated.  I  shall  therefore  now  take  leave  of 
them,  and  confine  myself  to  giving  you,  as  far  as  the  brief  space  of 
time  at  my  disposal  admits,  an  account  of  our  actual  knowledge  of 
the  smallest  races  of  men  either  existing  or,  as  far  as  we  know, 
ever  having  existed  on  earth,  and  which  may  therefore,  taking 
the  word  in  its  current  though  not  literal  sense,  be  called  the 
"pygmies"  of  the  species. 

Among  the  various  characters  by  which  the  different  races  of 
men  are  distinguished  from  one  another,  size  is  undoubtedly  one 
of  considerable  importance.  Not  but  what  in  each  race  there  is 
much  individual  variation,  some  persons  being  taller,  and  some 
shorter  ;  yet  these  variations  are,  especially  in  the  purer  or  less 
mixed  races,  restricted  within  certain  limits,  and  there  is  a 
general  average,  both  for  men  and  women,  which  can  be  ascer- 
tained when  a  sufficient  number  of  accurate  measurements  have 
been  recorded.  That  the  prevailing  size  of  a  race  is  a  really 
deeply-seated,  inherited  characteristic,  and  depends  but  little  on 
outward  conditions,  as  abundance  of  food,  climate,  &c,  is 
proved  by  well-known  facts.  The  tallest  and  the  shortest  races  in 
Europe  are  respectively  the  Norwegians  and  the  Lapps,  living  in 
almost  the  same  region.  In  Africa,  also,  the  diminutive  Bushmen 
and  the  tallest  race  of  the  country,  the  Kaffirs,  are  close  neighbours. 
The  natives  of  the  Andaman  Islands  and  those  of  many  islands 
of  the  equatorial  region  of  the  Pacific,  in  which  the  conditions 
are  similar,  or  if  anything  more  favourable  to  the  former,  are  at 
opposite  ends  of  the  scale  of  height.  Those  not  accustomed  to 
the  difficulties  both  of  making  and  recording  such  measurements 
will  scarcely  be  prepared,  however,  to  learn  how  meagre,  un- 
satisfactory and  unreliable  our  knowledge  of  the  stature  of  most 
of  the  races  of  mankind  is  at  present,  although  unquestionably  it 
has  been  considerably  increased  within  recent  years.  We  must, 
however,  make  use  of  such  material  as  we  possess,  and  trust  to 
the  future  correction  of  errors  when  better  opportunities  occur. 

It  is  convenient  to  divide  men,  according  to  their  height,  into 
three  groups — tall,  medium,  and  short ;  in  Topinard's  system, 
the  first  being  those  the  average  height  (of  the  men)  of  which 
is  above  1700  metres  (5  feet  7  inches),  the  latter  those  below 
1  '500  metres  (4  feet  1 1  inches),  and  the  middle  division  those 
between  the  two.  In  the  last  division  are  included  certain  of 
the  Mongolian  or  yellow  races  of  Asia,  as  the  Samoyedes,  the 
Ostiaks,  the  Japanese,  the  Siamese,  and  the  Annamites  ;  also 
the  Veddahs  of  Ceylon  and  certain  of  the  wild  hill- tribes  of 
Southern  India.  These  all  range  between  1  '525  and  1  600  metres 
— say  between  5  feet  and  5  feet  3  inches. 


May  10,  1888] 


NATURE 


45 


It  is  of  none  of  these  people  of  whom  I  am  going  to  speak 
to-day.  My  pygmies  are  all  011  a  still  smaller  scale,  the  average 
height  of  the  men  being  in  all  cases  below  5  feet,  in  some  cases, 
as  we  shall  see,  considerably  below. 

!cs  their  diminutive  size,  I  may  note  at  the  outset  that 
they  all  have  in  a  strongly-marked  degree  the  character  of  the 
hair  distinguished  as  frizzly — i.e.  growing  in  very  fine,  close 
curls,  and  flattened  or  elliptical  in  section,  and  therefore,  what- 
ever other  structural  differences  they  present,  they  all  belong  to 
the  same  primary  branch  of  the  human  species  as  the  African 
Negro  and  the  Melanesian  of  the  Western  Pacific. 

I  will  first  direct  your  attention  to  a  group  of  islands  in  the 
Indian  Ocean — the  Andamans — where  we  shall  find  a  race  in 
many  respects  of  the  greatest  possible  interest  to  the  anthropo- 
logist. 

These  islands  are  situated  in  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  between  the 
10th  and  14th  parallels  of  north  latitude,  and  near  the  meridian 
930  east  of  Greenwich,  and  consist  of  the  Great  and  Little 
Andamans.  The  former  is  about  140  miles  long,  and  has  a 
breadth  nowhere  exceeding  20  miles.  It  is  divided  by  narrow 
channels  into  three,  called  respectively  North,  Middle,  and 
South  Andaman,  and  there  are  also  various  smaller  islands  be- 
longing to  the  group.  Little  Andaman  is  a  detached  island  lying 
about  28  miles  to  the  south  of  the  main  group,  about  27  miles  in 
length  and  10  to  18  in  breadth. 

Although  these  islands  have  been  inhabited  for  a  very  great 
length  of  time  by  people  whose  state  of  culture  and  customs  have 
undergone  little  or  no  change,  as  proved  by  the  examination  of 
the  contents  of  the  old  kitchen-middens,  or  refuse  heaps,  found  in 
many  places  in  them,  and  although  they  lie  so  near  the  track  of 
civilization  and  commerce,  the  islands  and  their  inhabitants  were 
practically  unknown  to  the  world  until  so  recently  as  the  year 
1858.  It  is  true  that  their  existence  is  mentioned  by  Arabic 
writers  of  the  ninth  century,  and  again  by  Marco  Polo,  and 
that  in  1788  an  attempt  was  made  to  establish  a  penal  colony 
upon  them  by  the  East  India  Company,  which  was  abandoned 
a  few  years  after  ;  but  the  bad  reputation  the  inhabitants  had 
acquired  for  ferocious  and  inhospitable  treatment  of  strangers 
brought  by  accident  to  their  shores  caused  them  to  be  carefully 
avoided,  and  no  permanent  settlement  or  relations  of  anything 
like  a  friendly  character,  or  likely  to  afford  any  useful  infor- 
mation as  to  the  character  of  the  islands  or  the  inhabitants,  were 
established.  It  is  fair  to  mention  that  this  hostility  to  foreigners, 
which  for  long  was  one  of  the  chief  characteristics  by  which  the 
Andamanese  were  known  to  the  outer  world,  found  much  justifi- 
cation in  the  cruel  experiences  they  suffered  from  the  malpractices, 
especially  kidnapping  for  slavery,  of  the  Chinese  and  Malay 
traders  who  visited  the  islands  in  search  of  bhhe  de  mer  and 
edible  birds'-nests.  It  is  also  to  this  characteristic  that  the  in- 
habitants owe  so  much  of  their  inte'rest  to  us  from  a  scientific 
point  of  view,  for  we  have  here  the  rare  case  of  a  population, 
confined  to  a  very  limited  space,  and  isolated  for  hundreds, 
perhaps  thousands,  of  years  from  all  contact  with  external  in- 
fluence, their  physical  characters  unmixed  by  crossing,  and  their 
culture,  the>r  beliefs,  their  language  entirely  their  own. 

In  1857,  when  the  Sepoy  mutiny  called  the  attention  of  the 
Indian  Government  to  the  necessity  of  a  habitation  for  their 
numerous  convict  prisoners,  the  Andaman  Islands  were  again 
thought  of  for  the  purpose.  A  Commission,  consisting  of  Dr.  F.J. 
Mouat,  Dr.  G.  Playfair,  and  Lieut.  J.  A.  Heathcote  was  sent  to 
the  islands  to  report  upon  their  capabilities  for  such  a  purpose  ; 
and,  acting  upon  its  recommendations,  early  in  the  following 
year  the  islands  were  taken  possession  of  in  the  name  of  the 
East  India  Company  by  Captain  (now  General)  H.  Man,  and 
the  British  flag  hoisted  at  Port  Blair,  near  the  southern  end  of 
Great  Andaman,  which  thenceforth  became  the  nucleus  of  the 
settlement  of  invaders,  now  numbering  about  15,000  persons,  of 
whom  more  than  three-fourths  are  convict  prisoners,  the  rest 
soldiers,  police,  and  the  usual  accompaniments  of  a  military 
Nation. 

1  he  effect  of  this  inroad  upon  the  unsophisticated  native 
population,  who,  though  spread  over  the  whole  area  of  the 
slands,  were  far  less  numerous,  may  easily  be  imagined.  It  is 
simply  deterioration  of  character,  moral  and  physical  decay,  and 
finally  extinction.  The  newly-introduced  habits  of  life,  vices, 
and  diseases,  are  spreading  at  a  fearful  rate,  and  with  deadly 
•fleet.  In  this  sad  history  there  are,  however,  two  redeeming 
features  which  distinguish  our  occupation  of  the  Andamans  from 
that  of  'I  asmanin,  where  a  similar  tragedy  was  played  out  during 


the  present  century.  In  the  first  place,  the  British  Governors 
and  residents  appear  from  the  first  to  have  used  every  effort  to 
obtain  for  the  natives  the  most  careful  and  considerate  treat- 
ment, and  to  alleviate  as  much  as  possible  the  evils  which  they 
have  unintentionally  been  the  means  of  inflicting  on  them. 
Secondly,  most  careful  records  have  been  preserved  of  the 
physical  characters,  the  social  customs,  the  arts,  manufactures, 
traditions,  and  language  of  the  people  while  still  in  their  primi- 
tive condition.  For  this  most  important  work,  a  work  which, 
if  not  done,  would  have  left  a  blank  in  the  history  of  the  world' 
which  could  never  have  been  replaced,  we  are  indebted  almost 
entirely  to  the  scientific  enthusiasm  of  one  individual,  Mr. 
Edward  Horace  Man,  who  most  fortunately  happened  to  be  in 
a  position  (as  Assistant  Superintendent  of  the  Islands,  and  spe- 
cially in  charge  of  the  natives)  which  enabled  him  to  obtain  the 
required  information  with  facilities  which  probably  no  one  else 
could  have  had,  and  whose  observations  "  On  the  Aboriginal 
Inhabitants  of  the  Andaman  Islands,"  published  by  the  An- 
thropological Institute  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  are  most 
valuable,  not  only  for  the  information  they  contain,  but  as 
correcting  the  numerous  erroneous  and  misleading  statements 
circulated  regarding  these  people  by  previous  and  less  well 
informed  or  less  critical  authors. 

The  Arab  writer  of  the  ninth  century  previously  alluded  to 
states  that  "their  complexion  is  frightful,  their  hair  frizzled, 
their  countenance  and  eyes  frightful,  their  feet  very  large,  and 
almost  a  cubit  in  length,  and  they  go  quite  naked,"  while  Marco 
Polo  (about  1285)  says  that  "  the  people  are  no  better  than  wild 
beasts,  and  I  assure  you  all  the  men  of  this  island  of  Angamanain 
have  heads  like  dogs,  and  teeth  and  eyes  likewise  ;  in  fact,  in  the 
face  they  are  just  like  big  mastiff  dogs."  These  specimens  of 
mediaeval  anthropology  are  almost  rivalled  by  the  descriptions 
of  the  customs  and  moral  character  of  the  same  people  pub- 
lished as  recently  as  1862,  based  chiefly  on  information  obtained 
from  one  of  the  runaway  sepoy  convicts,  and  which  represent 
them  as  among  the  lowest  and  most  degraded  of  human  beings. 

The  natives  of  the  Andamans  are  divided  into  nine  distinct 
tribes,  each  inhabiting  its  own  district.  Eight  of  these  live  upon 
the  Great  Andaman  Islands,  and  one  upon  the  hitherto  almost 
unexplored  Little  Andaman.  Although  each  of  these  tribes 
possesses  a  distinct  dialect,  these  are  all  traceable  to  the  same 
source,  and  are  all  in  the  same  stage  of  development.  The  obser- 
vations that  have  been  made  hitherto  relate  mostly  to  the  tribe 
inhabiting  the  south  island,  but  it  does  not  appear  that  there  is 
any  great  variation  either  in  physical  characters  or  manners, 
customs,  and  culture  among  them. 

With  regard  to  the  important  character  of  size,  we  have  more 
abundant  and  more  accurate  information  than  of  most  other 
races.  Mr.  Man  gives  the  measurements  of  forty-eight  men 
and    forty-one    women,    making   the    average     of    the   former 

4  feet  \o\  inches,  that  of  the  latter  4  feet  7}  inches,  a  difference 
therefore  of  3J  inches  between  the  sexes.     The  tallest  man  was 

5  feet  4I  inches  ;  the  shortest  4  feet  6  inches.  The  tallest 
woman  4  feet  1 1  \  inches  ;  the  shortest  4  feet  4  inches.  Measure- 
ments made  upon  the  living  subject  are  always  liable  to  errors, 
but  it  is  possible  that  in  so  large  a  series  these  will  compensate  each 
other,  and  that  therefore  the  averages  may  be  relied  upon.  My 
own  observations,  based  upon  the  measurements  of  the  bones  alone 
of  as  many  as  twenty-nine  skeletons,  give  smaller  averages,  viz. 
4  feet  %\  inches  for  the  men,  and  4  feet  d\  inches  for  the  women  ; 
but  these,  it  must  be  recollected,  are  calculated  from  the  length 
of  the  femur,  upon  a  ratio  which,  though  usually  correct  for 
Europeans,  may  not  hold  good  in  the  case  of  other  races.1  The 
hair  is  fine,  and  very  closely  curled ;  woolly,  as  it  is  gener- 
ally called,  or,  rather,  frizzly,  and  elliptical  in  section,  as 
in  the  Negroes.  The  colour  of  the  skin  is  very  dark,  although 
not  absolutely  black.  The  head  is  of  roundish  (brachycephalic) 
form,  the  cephalic  index  of  the  skull  being  about  82.  The 
other  cranial  characters  arc  fully  described  in  the  papers  just 
referred  to.  The  teeth  are  large,  but  the  jaws  are  only  slightly 
prognathous.  The  features  possess  little  of  the  Negro  type  ;  at 
all  events,  little  of  the  most  marked  and  coarser  peculiarities  of 
that  type.  The  projecting  jaws,  the  prominent  thick  lips,  the 
broad  and  flattened  nose  of  the  genuine  Negro  are  so  softened 
down  in  the  Andamanese  as  scarcely  to  be  recognized,  and  yet  in 

1  See  "On  the  Osteology  and  Affinities  of  the  Natives  of  the  Andaman 
Islands"  (Journal  Anthropological  Institute,  vol.  ix._  p.  10S,  1879);  and 
"Additional  Observations  on  the  Osteology  of  the  Natives  of  the  Andaman 
Islands"  (ibid.,  vol.  x!v.  p.  115,  1884). 


46 


NA  TURE 


[May  10,  1888 


the  relative  proportions  of  the  limb-bones,  especially  in  the  short- 
ness of  the  humerus  compared  with  the  fore-arm,  and  in  the  form 
of  the  pelvis,  Negro  affinities  are  most  strongly  indicated. 

In  speaking  of  the  culture  of  the  Andamanese,  of  course  I 
only  refer  to  their  condition  before  the  introduction  of  European 
civilization  into  the  islands.  They  live  in  small  villages  or  en- 
campments, in  dwellings  of  simple  and  rude  construction,  built 
only  of  branches  and  leaves  of  trees.  They  are  entirely  ignorant 
of  agriculture,  and  keep  no  poultry  or  domestic  animals.  They 
make  rude  pots  of  clay,  sun-dried,  or  partially  baked  in  the  fire, 
but  these  are  hand-made,  as  they  are  ignorant  of  the  use  of  the 
potter's  wheel.  Their  clothing  is  of  the  scantiest  description, 
and  what  little  they  have  chiefly  serves  for  decorative  or 
ornamental  purposes,  and  not  for  keeping  the  body  warm. 
They  make  no  use  of  the  skins  of  animals.  They  have 
fairly  well-made  du^-out  canoes  and  outriggers,  but  only  fit 
for  navigating  the  numerous  creeks  and  straits  between  the 
islands,  and  not  for  voyages  in  the  open  sea.  They  are  expert 
swimmers  and  divers.  Though  constantly  using  fire,  they  are 
quite  ignorant  of  the  art  of  producing  it,  and  have  to  expend 
much  care  and  labour  in  keeping  up  a  constant  supply 
of  burning  or  smouldering  wood.  They  are  ignorant  of  all 
metals ;  but  for  domestic  purposes  make  great  use  of  shells, 
especially  a  species  of  Cyrene  found  abundantly  on  the  shores  of 
the  islands,  also  quartz  chips  and  flakes,  and  bamboo  knives. 
They  have  stone  anvils  and  hammers,  and  they  make  good 
string  from  vegetable  fibres,  as  well  as  baskets,  fishing-nets, 
sleeping-mats,  &c.  Their  principal  weapons  are  the  bow  and 
arrow,  in  the  use  of  which  they  are  particularly  skilful.  They 
have  harpoons  for  killing  turtle  and  fish,  but  no  kind  of  shield  or 
breastplate  for  defence  when  fighting.  The  natural  fertility  of 
the  island  supplies  them  with  abundance  and  a  great  variety  of 
food  all  the  year  round,  the  purveying  of  which  affords  occupa- 
tion and  amusement  for  the  greater  part  of  the  male  population. 
This  consists  of  pigs  (Sus  andamanensis),  which  are  numerous 
on  the  islands,  paradoxurus,  dugong,  and  occasionally  porpoise, 
iguanas,  turtles,  turtles'  eggs,  many  kinds  of  fish,  prawns, 
mollusks,  larvae  of  large  wood-boring  and  burrowing  beetles, 
honey,  and  numerous  roots  (as  yams),  fruits,  and  seeds.  The 
food  is  invariably  cooked  before  eating,  and  generally  taken 
when  extremely  hot.  They  were  ignorant  of  all  stimulants  or 
intoxicating  drinks — in  fact,  water  was  their  only  beverage  ;  and 
tobacco,  or  any  substitute  for  it,  was  quite  unknown  till 
introduced  by  Europeans. 

{To  be  continued?) 

THE    INSTITUTION   OF    MECHANICAL 
ENGINEERS. 

''THE  Institution  of  Mechanical  Engineers  held  its  annual 
-*-  meeting  at  the  house  of  the  Institution  of  Civil  Engineers 
in  Great  George  Street,  Westminster,  on  the  3rd  and  4th  inst., 
under  the  presidency  of  Mr.  E.  H.  Carbutt. 

The  papers  brought  forward  for  reading  and  discussion  were  : 
the  Third  Report  of  the  Research  Committee  of  the  Institu- 
tion on  Friction  ;  "Description  of  the  Emery  Testing  Machine," 
by  Mr.  Henry  R.  Towne,  of  Stamford,  Connecticut,  U.S.A.  ; 
and  "  Supplementary  Paper  on  the  Use  of  Petroleum  Refuse  as 
Fuel  in  Locomotive  Engines,"  by  Mr.  Thomas  Urquhart,  Loco- 
motive Superintendent,  Grazi  and  Tsaritsin  Railway,  South- 
East  Russia ;  the  third  of  which  was  deferred  till  the  next 
meeting  of  the  Institute. 

The  third  report  of  the  Friction  Committee  is  on  experiments 
on  the  friction  of  a  collar-bearing.  The  general  conclusions  of 
the  Committee  are  that  this  kind  of  bearing  is  inferior  to  a 
cylindrical  journal  in  weight-carrying  power.  The  coefficient  of 
friction  is  also  much  higher  than  for  a  cylindrical  bearing,  and 
the  friction  follows  the  law  of  the  friction  of  solids  more  nearly 
than  that  of  liquids,  due  doubtless  to  the  less  perfect  lubrication 
applicable  to  this  form  of  bearing  compared  with  a  cylindrical 
one.  The  coefficient  of  friction  appears  to  be  independent  of  the 
speed,  but  to  diminish  somewhat  as  the  load- is  increased,  and 
may  be  stated  approximately  at  ^  at  15  lbs.  per  square  inch, 
diminishing  to  ^V  at  75  lbs.  per  square  inch. 

In  the  broad  principles  of  construction  on  which  the  Emery 
system  of  testing  and  weighing  machinery  rests  are  included  two 
radically  new  and  highly  important  elements — namely,  an 
arrangement  of  hydraulic  chambers  and  diaphragms  capable  of 
receiving  without  injury  pressures  and  shocks  of  great  intensity, 
and   of    transmitting   them   simultaneously,   without   loss   from 


friction,  to  a  convenient  point  for  the  purpose  of  measuring  and 
recording  them,  and  capable  also  of  reducing  them  to  such  lower 
term  of  degree  as  may  be  desirable  ;  and  a  means  for  flexibly 
uniting  a  vibrating  scale-beam  either  to  a  fixed  abutment  or  to 
another  beam  of  the  same  system,  in  such  a  manner  as  absolutely 
to  eliminate  friction,  and  to  preserve  indefinitely  the  fulcrum 
intervals  or  distances  precisely  as  first  adjusted,  and  to  resist  and 
transmit  all  the  pressures  and  shocks  to  which  the  fulcrums 
are  subjected,  without  in  the  slightest  degree  impairing  their 
sensitiveness  or  durability. 

The  hydraulic  construction  is  such  that  through  it  the  strain 
on  the  specimen  is  transmitted  without  loss  to  a  hydraulic 
chamber  containing  a  thin  film  of  liquid,  which  is  again 
transmitted  through  a  small  copper  tube,  without  loss  from 
friction  or  otherwise,  to  a  much  smaller  chamber  containing 
a  similar  thin  film  of  liquid.  The  acting  area  of  the 
liquid  in  the  smaller  chamber  is  less  than  that  in  the  larger 
in  the  proportion  in  which  the  load  on  the  specimen  is  desired  to 
be  reduced  before  it  is  received  upon  the  beams  in  the  scale-case 
where  it  is  measured.  In  the  scale-case  containing  the  weighing 
mechanism,  the  pressure  transmitted  from  the  smaller  chamber 
is  received  at  one  end  of  a  system  of  levers,  and  measured  by 
means  of  devices  which  are  shown  in  detail  in  the  figures  which 
accompanied  the  paper. 

UNIVERSITY  AND  EDUCA  TIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 

Oxford. — Among  the  courses  of  lectures  announced  for  this 
Term  we  may  notice  the  following  : — 

In  Physics,  Prof.  Clifton  is  lecturing  on  Optical  Properties  of 
Crystals,  and  Mr,  Selby  on  Absolute  Electrical  Units,  at  the 
Clarendon  Laboratory.  At  Christ  Church,  Mr.  Baynes  lectures 
on  Thermo-dynamics,  and  on  the  Transfer  of  Energy  in  an 
Electro-magnetic  Field. 

The  University  has  made  a  grant  to  Mr.  Smith,  in  aid  of  the 
Millard  Engineering  Laboratory,  and  practical  work  on  the 
physical  basis  of  engineering  is  regularly  carried  on  there. 

In  Chemistry,  besides  the  usual  courses,  Mr.  Veley  is  lecturing 
on  Thermo-chemistry,  and  Mr.  Marsh  on  Recent  Organic 
Research. 

The  work  of  the  Geological  Chair  is  at  present  being  done  by 
Mr.  W.  W.  Watts  (M.A.  Camb.),  who  is  lecturing  for  a  term 
in  order  that  Prof.  Green  may  complete  his  session  at  the 
Yorkshire  College. 

Owing  to  Prof.  Moseley's  continued  illness,  Dr.  Hickson  is 
still  acting  as  Deputy  Linacre  Professor,  and  is  lecturing  on  the 
Morphology  of  the  Chordata.  Mr.  Bourne,  who  is  to  assume 
his  post  as  Superintendent  of  the  Plymouth  Marine  Station  in 
a  month,  is  lecturing  on  Embryology,  and  Prof.  Westwood  on 
the  Winged  Arthropoda. 

Dr.  Burdon-Sanderson  lectures  this  Term  on  Nutrition,  and 
Dr.  Gilbert  on  the  Rotation  of  Crops. 

In  the  absence  of  any  Professor  of  Botany,  Mr.  J.  B.  Farmer 
is  conducting  the  necessary  elementary  courses. 

Cambridge. — Prof.  Adams  is  appointed  one  of  the  four 
representatives  of  Cambridge  at  the  800th  anniversary  of  the 
foundation  of  the  University  of  Bologna,  in  June  next. 

An  additional  class-room  for  students  of  Mineralogy  is  to  be 
formed. 

SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  April  19. — "The  Radio-Micrometer."  By 
C.  V.  Boys. 

The  author  gave  the  result  of  a  mathematical  investigation 
made  with  a  view  to  arrive  at  the  best  possible  construction 
of  the  radio-micrometer  already  described  by  him.  At  the 
conclusion  of  the  meeting  he  showed  in  action  an  instrument 
which  he  had  made,  having  the  best  proportions,  which  was  both 
simpler  in  construction  and  far  more  sensitive  than  the  one  he 
exhibited  on  a  previous  occasion. 

"  On  the  Compounds,  of  Ammonia  with  Selenium  Dioxide." 
By  Sir  Charles  A.  Cameron,  M.D.,  F.R.C.S.I.,  and  John 
Macallan,  F.I.C. 

On  passing  dry  ammonia  into  a  solution  of  selenium  dioxide 
in  absolute  alcohol,  a  compound  is  formed  to  which  the  authors 
have  assigned  the  name  ammonium  selenosamate,  and  the 
formula   NH.,Se09NH9.     It  is  the  ammonium    salt  of  a  new 


May  10,  1888] 


NATURE 


47 


acid  :  namely,  H,Se02NH2.  It  is  unstable,  continuously 
evolving  ammonia,  and  ultimately  becoming  a  stable  acid  salt, 
N  1 1 ,,  1 1 .  Se(  )2N  H„)2.  1 'he  neutral  salt  forms  hexagonal  prisms 
and  pyramids,  and  the  acid  forms  prismatic  crystals.  The 
neutral  salt  dissolves  in  116  parts  of  alcoholic  ammonia,  but  is 
decomposed  by  absolute  alcohol  or  by  water. 

April  26. — "On  the  Modifications  of  the  First  and  Second 
Visceral  Arches,  with  especial  Reference  to  the  Homologies 
of  the  Auditory  Ossicles/'  By  Hans  Gadow,  Ph.D.,  M.A  , 
Strickland  Curator  and  Lecturer  on  Comparative  Anatomy  in 
the  University  of  Cambridge.  Communicated  by  Prof.  M. 
Foster,  Sec.  R.S. 

The  phylogenetic  development  of  the  first  two  visceral  arches 
shows  us  some  most  interesting  changes  of  function,  which  we 
can  follow  upwards  from  the  lower  Selachians  to  the  highest 
Mammals. 

Originally  entirely  devoted  to  respiration  as  gill-bearing 
structures,  the  whole  hyoidean  arch  becomes  soon  a  factor  in 
the  alimentary  system.  Its  proximal  half  forms  the  hinge  of  the 
masticatory  apparatus,  its  distal  half  remains  henceforth  connected 
with  the  process  of  deglutition.  Then  this  suspensorial  arrange- 
ment is  superseded  by  a  new  modification  ;  the  hyomandibula  is 
set  free  and  would  disappear  (it  does  nearly  do  so  in  Dipnoi  and 
certain  Urodela),  unless  it  were  made  use  of  for  a  new  function  ; 
with  its  having  entered  the  service  of  the  conduction  of  sound, 
it  has  entered  upon  a  new  departure,  and  it  is  saved  from  de- 
generation. The  whole  system  of  the  on?  to  four  elements  of 
the  middle  ear,  which  all  have  the  same  function  as  conductors 
of  sound,  is  to  be  looked  upon  as  one  organ  of  one  common 
origin, — namely,  as  a  modification  of  the  hyomandibula,  the 
primitive  proximal  paramere  of  the  second  visceral  arch. 

Successive    Modifications    of  the    Mandibular    and    Hyoidean 
Visceral  Arches. 

I.  Primitive  condition  (Notidanida;).  The  palato  quadrate 
bar  alone  carries  the  mandible.  The  second  arch  is  indifferent. 
Hyomandibula  and  quadrate  (the  palatine  part  is  an  outgrowth) 
are  both  attached  to  the  cranium. 

II.  The  hyomandibula  .gains  a  fibro  cartilaginous  connection 
with  the  mandible,  the  masticatory  apparatus  becomes  amphi- 
slylic  and  occasionally  hyostylic  (Rajidrc,  most  S  Jachians). 

The  hyoid  gains  a  cranial  attachment  (many  Rajida). 

HI.  The  quadrate  or  autostylic  suspensorium  becomes  pre- 
ponderant ;  the  hyomandibula  is,  as  in  Teleosteans,  divided  into 
a  proximal  and  into  a  distal  (symplectic)  element.  The  proximal 
part  is  received  into  a  fenestra  of  the  otic  capsule,  and  is  con- 
verted into  a  stapes,  whilst  the  distal  half  either  remains  {Proteus, 
Siren,  Menopoma)  or  is  lost  (other  Urodela).  The  whole  hyo- 
mandibula would  have  been  lost  owing  to  its  excalation  from 
suspensorial  function^,  unless  it  had  entered  the  auditory 
service. 

IV.  The  autostylic  arrangement  prevails.  The  whole  hyo- 
mandibula remains,  gains  an  attachment  on  the  "tympanum" 
and  differentiates  itself  into  several  conjointed  pieces,  notably 
stapes  or  columella  proper,  and  extra-columella  or  malleus. 

The  extra-columella  gains  connection  with  the  parotic  cartilage  ; 
this  connection  frequently  remains,  but  in  A nura  alone  itconatins 
a  special  element  of  probably  parotic  origin. 

The  quadrate  forms  an  important  part  of  the  tympanic 
frame. 

IVrt,  Collateral  departure  of  the  Anura.  The  connection 
between  the  tympanal  part  of  the  hyomandibula  with  the 
mandible  is  lost. 

V.  The  quadrate  still  forms  the  principal  suspensorial  part  of 
the  mandible.  The  extra-columella,  or  malleus,  retains  for  a  long 
time  its  previously  acquired  connection  with  Meckel's  cartilage 
{Amniota). 

\'a.  The  top  end  of  the  hyoid  is  attached  to  the  cranium 
(Geclzos,  Mammalia),  and  is  occasionally  fused  with  the  extra- 
columella  (Hatter  id). 

\  /'.  Or,  the  proximal  portion  of  the  hyoid  is  removed  from 
the  skull  and  remains  otherwise  well  developed  (most  Lizards) ; 
or  its  proximal  portion  becomes  reduced  and  lost  (Chelonia, 
Crocodiha,  Ophidia,  Aves). 

V  c.  The  extra-columella  gains  an  attachment  to  the  quadrate, 
squamosal,  or  pterygoid,  whilst  its  connections  with  the  mandible 
(Ophidia,  Chama'leon),  and  the  tympanum,  are  lost. 

\  I.  The  quadrate  gradually  loses  its  articulation  with  the 
mandible  ;  the  latter  gains  a  new  outer  articulation  with  the 
squamosal ;   the  quadrate  acts   almost   entirely  as  a   tympanic 


frame.  Incus  and  malleus  fuse  sometimes  with  each  other,  and 
lean  on  to  the  parotic  region.  The  masticatory  joint  is  doubly 
concave-convex  (Afouotrcwata). 

VII.  The  quadrate  is  converted  into  the  principal  part  of  the 
tympanic  frame,  viz.  annulus  tympanicus.  The  mandible  has 
lost  its  articulation  with  the  quadrate,  and  the  masticatory  joint 
is  a  single  concave-convex  one,  the  convexity  belonging  to  the 
mandible  (Monodelphia). 

Edinburgh. 

Royal  Society,  April  2.— Rev.  Prof.  Flint,  Vice-President, 
in  the  chair.— Prof.  Crum  Brown  communicated  a  paper  by  Dr. 
Prafulla  Chandra  Ray  on  the  conjugated  sulphates  of  the 
copper-magnesium  group. — Dr.  John  Murray  read  a  paper  by 
Mr.  A.  Dickie  on  the  chemical  analysis  of  water  from  the  Clyde 
area. — Sir  W.  Turner  read  a  paper  by  Prof.  His  on  the 
principles  of  animal  morphology. — Prof.  Tait  communicated 
two  mathematical  notes. 

April  16. — Prof.  Chrystal,  Vice-President,  in  the  chair. — Dr. 
Buchan  gave  an  analysis  of  the  Chalkng  r  meteorological 
observations,  pointing  out  various  important  meteorological 
conditions  the  existence  of  which  had  been  revealed  by  the 
work  of  the  Challenger  Expedition. — Dr.  John  Murray  read  a 
description  of  the  rocks  of  the  Island  of  Malta,  comparing  them 
with  deep-sea  deposits.  —  Prof.  Chrystal  described  an  electrical 
method  of  reversing  deep-sea  thermometers. — Dr.  Thomas 
Muir  read  a  paper  on  a  class  of  alternants  expressible  in  terms- 
of  simple  alternants. — Prof.  Tait  communicated  a  quaternion 
note. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  April  30. — M.  Jans-en,  President, 
in  the  chair. — On  the  consequences  of  the  equality  assumed  to 
exist  between  the  true  and  the  mean  value  of  a  polynome,  by  M. 
J.  Bertrand.  The  author  shows  by  a  rigorous  demonstration 
that  the  rule  is  not  justified  which  gives  a  posteriori  the  precise 
value  of  a  system  of  observations,  although  this  rule  is  frequently 
applied  with  complete  confidence  in  its  accuracy. — On  the 
theory  of  the  figure  of  the  earth,  by  M.  Maurice  Levy.  The 
point  here  mainly  discussed  is  the  difficulty  of  establishing  a 
satisfactory  agreement  between  the  theory  of  fluidity  and  that  of 
precession  in  connection  with  Clairaut's  differential  equation  and 
the  subsequent  researches  of  Lipschitz  inserted  in  vol.  lxii.  of  the 
Journal  de  Crelte. — Remarks  in  connection  with  Pere  Dechev- 
rens'  recent  note  on  the  ascending  movement  of  the  air  in 
cyclones,  by  M.  H.  Faye.  In  order  to  solve  by  direct  observa- 
tion the  question  of  the  ascending  or  descending  movement  of 
the  atmosphere  in  cyclones,  Pere  Dechevrens  has  devised  a 
special  anemometer  for  his  observatory  of  Zi-Ka-\Vei  in  China. 
But  he  suggests  that  more  trustworthy  results  might  perhaps  be 
obtained  by  fitting  up  a  similar  apparatus  at  a  greater  elevation 
from  the  ground  ;  for  instance,  on  the  top  of  Eiffel's  Tower,  300 
metres  high,  now  being  erected  in  Paris.  M.  Faye  accepts  this 
suggestion,  confident  that,  if  carried  out,  it  cannot  fail  to  confirm 
his  own  views  on  the  movement  of  the  atmospheric  currents  in 
cyclones. — An  elementary  proof  of  Dirichlet's  theorem  on 
arithmetical  progressions  in  cases  where  the  ratio  is  8  or  12,  by 
Prof.  Sylvester.  In  this  demonstration  the  author  slarts  from 
the  following  principle  :  To  show  that  the  number  of  prime 
numbers  of  a  given  form  is  infinite,  let  an  infinite  progression  be 
constructed  of  integers  relatively  prime  to  each  other,  and  each 
containing  a  prime  number  at  least  of  the  given  form. — Distribu- 
tion in  latitude  of  the  solar  phenomena  recorded  during  the  year 
1887,  by  M.  P.  Tacchini.  A  table  is  given  of  the  spots, 
eruptions,  faculae,  protuberances,  as  observed  in  each  zone  of  io° 
in  the  two  solar  hemispheres.  The  hydrogenic  protuberances 
occur  in  all  the  zones,  whereas  the  other  phenomena  were 
almost  entirely  restricted  to  the  central  region  between  o°  and 
±  40°,  as  in  the  previous  year.  The  spots,  faculae,  and  metallic 
eruptions  present  an  agreement  in  the  respective  zones  of  maxi- 
mum frequency  between  o°  and  ±  200 ;  a  maximum  for  each  of 
the  three  orders  of  phenomena  corresponds  to  the  zone  o°-loc 
exactly  as  in  1886.  The  spots  were  confined  to  the  equatorial 
zone  ( +  3O°-2O0) ;  the  eruptions  and  the  faculae  occurred  at 
much  higher  latitudes,  in  fact  as  far  as  +500  and  -6o°.  Hence 
there  are  zones  with  faculce  and  eruptions,  but  without  spots, 
while  on  a  great  part  of  the  solar  surface  hydrogenic  protuber- 
ances are  observed  in  the  total  absence  of  spots.  —  In  a  second 
communication,  M.  Tacchini  gives  a  summary  of  the  solar 
observations  made  at  Rome  during  the  first  quarter  of  the  year 


48 


NATURE 


[May  10,  1888 


.'1888.  From  this  summary  it  appears  that  the  phenomena  of 
spots  and  faculae  still  continue  to  decrease,  while  the  pro- 
tuberances have  increased.  This  confirms  the  remark  already 
made  that  there  is  no  close  relation  between  these  two  orders  of 
phenomena. — Determination  of  the  heats  of  combustion  of  the 
isomerous  acids  corresponding  to  the  formulas  C4H404  and 
C3H604,  by  M.  W.  Louguinine.  The  constituent  formulas  of 
the  fumaric  and  pyromalic,  as  well  as  of  the  mesaconic,  citra- 
conic,  and  itaconic  acids  have  been  the  subject  of  frequent 
discussions  amongst  chemists.  In  order  to  throw  some  light  on 
these  obscure  questions,  the  author  here  determines  the  heats  of 
combustion  of  the  acids  in  question.  He  concludes  generally  that 
fumaric  differs  greatly  from  pyromalic  acid,  the  former  being  the 
lower  homologue  of  one  of  the  three  acids  with  formula  C5H604. 
The  formulas  corresponding  to  these  three  acids  are  evidently 
closely  related,  the  difference  here  being  of  quite  another  order 
from  that  which  exists  between  the  formulas  corresponding  to 
the  fumaric  and  pyromalic  acids. — On  the  slow  combustion  of 
certain  organic  substances,  by  M.  Th.  Schlcesing.  The  author's 
experiments  with  tobacco  seem  to  show  that  the  combustion 
arising  in  heaps  of  foliage,  hay,  and  the  like  is  in  the  first 
instance  due  to  the  action  of  micro-organisms,  but  with  the 
increase  of  temperature  it  gradually  assumes  a  purely  chemical 
character.  The  influence  of  living  organisms  appears  to  cease 
between  400  and  500  C,  after  which  the  chemical  action  rapidly 
increases. 

Berlin. 

Meteorological  Society,  April  10. — Dr.  Vettin,  President, 
in  the  chair. — Dr.  Zenker  communicated  the  second  part  of  his 
research  on  the  distribution  of  heat  over  the  earth's  surface.  In 
the  first  part,  of  which  he  had  spoken  at  the  last  meeting  of  the 
Society,  he  had  shown  that  the  distribution  of  heat  depends  not 
only  upon  the  radiation  from  the  sun  and  absorption  by  the  atmo- 
sphere, but  additionally  upon  the  nature  of  the  earth's  surface, 
whether  it  is  land  or  water.  In  previous  researches  on  the 
distribution  of  heat,  the  mean  values  were  determined  from  and 
based  upon  empirical  observations ;  Dr.  Zenker,  on  the  other 
hand,  has  calcula'ed  the  distribution  of  heat  over  the  surface  of 
the  sea  with  the  help  of  Hann's  isothermal  charts,  starting  with 
the  temperature  of  a  point  on  its  surface  which  was  quite  unin- 
fluenced by  the  neighbouring  continents,  and  was  consequently 
equally  unaffected  by  any  warm  or  cold  currents.  Using  this 
factor,  and  the  formulae  deduced  in  the  theoretical  part  of  his 
paper,  he  has  calculated  the  distribution  of  heat  from  the  pole  to 
the  equator  for  each  successive  parallel,  and  compared  it  with  the 
distribution  of  solar  radiation.  As  a  basis  for  the  distribution 
of  heat  over  the  surface  of  the  land,  it  was  first  necessary  to 
determine  the  conditions  under  which  the  influence  of  the  neigh- 
bouring sea  is  either  nothing  or  minimal  in  amount.  The 
starting-point  for  this  was  the  fact  that  the  temperatures  on 
continents  exhibit  very  great  variations,  and  from  these  was 
determined  for  each  area,  as  a  percentage,  the  relative  influences 
of  the  sea  and  continent  upon  its  temperature.  The  region 
where  the  influence  of  the  sea  was  proved  to  be  nil  (or  where, 
as  the  speaker  said,  the  "  continentality  "  was  100  per  cent.)  was 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  east  coast  of  Asia,  whereas  all  other 
points  were  found  to  be  affected  by  the  neighbouring  sea  to  a 
gt eater  extent ;  the  observed  temperature  on  the  land  was  there- 
fore only  partly  dependent  upon  the  position  of  the  place  on  any 
given  parallel,  other  influences  making  themselves  more  or  less 
felt.  Hence  it  was  possible  to  calculate  for  each  parallel  the 
real  and  "  accessory  "  temperature.  The  amount  of  heat  radiated 
down  from  the  sun  was  compared  with  these  temperatures,  and 
was  found  to  be  about  the  same  for  each  io°  C.  of  difference 
in  temperature;  from  o°-io°C,  however,  quite  considerable 
differences  of  radiation  were  necessary.  In  conclusion,  Dr. 
Zenker  compared  the  temperatures  which  really  exist  on  the 
earth's  surface  with  those  which  he  had  deduced,  and  found  that 
in  reality  the  climate  on  the  sea  of  the  southern  hemisphere  is 
colder  than  it  should  be  according  to  calculation — a  result  which 
must  be  attributed  to  the  oceanic  currents  of  cold  water.  The 
continental  climate  in  the  northern  hemisphere  is  slightly  to:> 
warm,  in  consequence  of  the  disturbance  introduced  by  the  Gulf 
Stream. — Lieutenant  Moedebeck  gave  an  account  of  a  balloon 
journey  which  he  made  on  March  31.  The  marked  pheno- 
menon during  the  same  was  the  influence  of  rivers  ;  thus,  after 
the  balloon  had  risen  to  a  height  of  300-500  metres,  and  was 
passing  away  over  Berlin,  it  sank  so  rapidly  over  the  Spree  that 
when  it  was  about  50  metres  above  the  earth  a  large  quantity  of 
ballast  had  to  be  thrown  out.     At  an  elevation  of  1200  metres 


he  met  with  a  long  narrow  rain-cloud,  in  passing  through  which 
the  dry-bulb  thermometer  registered  i°'5  C,  the  wet-bulb  1°  C. ;  at 
an  elevation  of  1300- 1400  metres,  both  thermometers  recorded 
the  same  temperature  of  2°'5  C.  At  this  height,  and  in  circum- 
scribed areas,  a  few  very  small  semi-soft  hailstones  were  observed. 
Shortly  after  this  the  balloon  began  to  sink,  and  while  still  above 
the  cloud,  but  at  a  lower  level,  somewhat  larger  but  similar  hail- 
stones were  observed  for  the  second  time.  As  soon  as  the 
balloon  had  passed  through  the  cloud,  rain  fell  for  a  short  time, 
as  the  result  of  which  the  balloon  was  so  weighted  that  it  de- 
scended rapidly  to  the  earth.  The  atmosphere  above  the  cloud 
was  not  clear  but  rather  misty. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED 
FOR  REVIEW. 

Land  and  Fresh-water  Mollusca  of  India,  Parts  1  to  6,  and  plates  :  Lieut  - 
Col.  H.  H.  Godwin  Austen  (Taylor  and  Francis). — Botany  for  Beginners, 
4th  edition  :  Rev.  Prof.  G.  Henslow  (Stanford). — Botany  of  the  Afghan 
Delimitation  Commission  (Linnean  Society) :  J.  E.  T.  Aitchison  (Long- 
mans).— Report  on  the  Meteorology  of  India  in  1886  :  J.  Eliot  (Calcutta). — 
Indian  Meteorological  Memoirs,  vol.  iv.  part  4  (Calcutta). — Memoirs 
on  the  Winds  and  Monsoons  of  the  Arabian  Sea  and  North  Indian 
Ocean  :  W.  L.  Dallas  (Calcutta).  —  A  Short  Text-book  of  Electricity 
and  Magnetism  :  T.  Dunman  (Ward,  Lock,  and  Co.). — A  Short  Text- 
book of  Sound,  Light,  and  Heat  :  T.  Dunman  (Ward,  Lock,  and  Co.). 
— A  Life  of  Matthew  Fontaine  Maury  :  D.  F.  M.  Corbin  (Low).— 
An  Illustrated  Manual  of  British  Birds,  part  2 :  H.  Saunders  (Gurney 
and  Jackson*.  —  Bibliothek  der  Gesellschaft  fur  Erdkunde  zu  Berlin 
(Berlin). — Essai  de  Definition  et  de  Nomenclature  ;  Les  Dislocations  de 
l'ecorce  Terrestre  :  E.  de  Margerie  and  Dr.  A.  Heim  (Zurich). — Nature's 
Fairy  Land:  H.  W.  S.  Worsley-Benison  (Stock). — Evolution  and  its  Rela- 
tion to  Religious  Thought  :  J.  Le  Conte  (Appleton,  New  York). — Record  of 
Experiments  conducted  by  the  Commissioner  of  Agriculture  in  the  Manufac- 
ture of  Sugar  from  Sorghum  and  Sugar  Canes,  1887-88  (Washington). — The 
Constants  of  Nature,  1st  Supplement  to  Part  1  :  F.  W.  Clarke  (Washington). 
— The  Vegetable  Resources  of  the  West  Indies  :  D.  Morris  (Silver). — Fruit  : 
Dr.  Crespi  (Hey wood). — Journal  of  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society,  April 
(Murray). — Quarterly  Journal  of  Microscopical  Science,  April  (Churchill). — 
Geological  Magazine,  May  (Triibner). — Journal  of  the  Society  of  Telegraph 
Engineers  and  Electricians,  vol.  xvii.  No.  72  (Spon). — Schriften  der  Natur- 
forschenden  Gesellschaft  in  Danzig,  Siebenter  Band,  Erstes  Heft  (Danzig). 
— Bulletin  of  the  California  Academy  of  Sciences,  vol.  ii.  No.  8. 


CONTENTS.  page 

Forms  of  Animal  Life 25 

The  Cardinal  Numbers 27 

Our  Book  Shelf:— 

Hampson  :    "  The  Romance  of  Mathematics  "    ....  28 
"Wanderer"  :   "Antipodean  Notes"  ;  and  Freeman  : 

"  Lights  and  Shadows  of  Melbourne  Life  "     ....  29 
Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

The  Salt  Industry   in    the   United    States. — Thomas 

Ward 29 

Prof.  Rosenbusch's  Work  on  Petrology. — A.  B.    .    .    .  30 
History  of  the  Contraction  Theory  of  Mountain  Forma- 
tion.— Charles  Davison 30 

Lightning  and  Milk. — F.  A.  Bather 30 

The   Duplex    Pendulum    Seismograph. — Prof.    J.    A. 

Ewing 30 

Self-induction. — W.  E.  Sumpner 30 

Suggestions    on    the    Classification    of   the  Various 
Species  of  Heavenly  Bodies.     IV.    {Illustrated.)    By 

J.  Norman  Lockyer,  F.  R.S 31 

Three  Days  on  the  Summit   of    Mont  Blanc.    (Illus- 
trated.)    35 

The  Photographic  Chart  of  the  Heavens 38 

The  Forth  Bridge.     {Illustrated.) 39 

Flora  of  the  Antarctic  Islands.     By  W.  T.  Thiselton 

Dyer,  C.M.G.,  F.R.S.  ;  Dr.  H.  B.  Guppy     ....  40 

Lord  Hartington  on  Technical  Education 40 

Notes 41 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

New  Minor  Planets      43 

Comet  1888  a  (Sawerthal) 43 

Cincinnati  Zone  Catalogue 43 

Publications  of  Lick  Observatory 43 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for     the     Week      1888 

May  13-19 43 

The   Pygmy   Races  of    Men.     I.     By  Prof.  Flower, 

C.B.,  F.R.S 44 

The  Institution  of  Mechanical  Engineers 46 

University  and  Educational  Intelligence 46 

Societies  and  Academies 46 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received  for  Review  48 


NA  TURE 


49 


THURSDAY,   MAY    17,    il 


FLORA  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 

Flora  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands j  a  Description  of  their 
Phanerogams  and  Vascular  Cryptogams.  By  William 
Hillebrand,  M.D.  Annotated  and  Published  after  the 
Author's  death  by  W.  F.  Hillebrand.  8vo,  pp.  673, 
with  Frontispiece  and  Four  Maps.  (London  :  Williams 
and  Norgate,  1888.) 

THE  Sandwich  Islands,  from  a  botanical  point  of 
view,  are  a  group  of  peculiar  interest.  There  are 
about  a  dozen  of  them,  and  they  form  an  area  of  which 
the  northern  end  falls  just  within  the  tropical  zone,  at  a 
distance  of  2000  miles  from  America,  and  separated  from 
it  by  a  deep  gulf.  From  the  nearest  points  of  Polynesia 
proper,  the  Marquesas  Islands  and  Tahiti,  they  are 
distant  i860  and  2190  miles.  The  largest  island,  Hawaii, 
is  the  most  southern  of  the  group.  It  has  an  area  of 
about  5000  square  miles,  and  its  mountains,  one  of  which 
is  an  active  volcano,  rise  to  a  height  of  nearly  15,000 
feet.  The  other  islands,  all  taken  together,  are  not  equal 
to  more  than  half  the  area  of  Hawaii.  The  capital  of 
the  group,  Honolulu,  is  situated  on  the  south  side  of  the 
small  island  of  Oahu.  The  average  annual  temperature 
of  Honolulu  is  750  F.,  the  general  range  of  the  thermo- 
meter being  from  700  to  830,  so  that  within  an  area  about 
equal  to  that  of  Yorkshire  we  have  every  variation  of 
temperature  from  equatorial  heat  to  perpetual  snow. 
Dr.  Hillebrand  estimates  the  total  flora  of  the  islands 
(Phanerogamia  and  Vascular  Cryptogamia)  at  999  species, 
representing  365  genera,  and  99  orders.  Of  these  999 
species,  653  are  absolutely  restricted  to  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  207  native  species  are  known  elsewhere,  24 
species  were  introduced  by  the  natives  in  remote  times, 
and  115  species  are  weeds  of  recent  introduction. 
Leaving  the  introductions  out  of  account,  we  have 
therefore  a  native  flora  of  860  species,  of  which  three  out 
of  four  are  endemic.  A  vegetation  thus  individualized 
makes  the  group  one  of  the  most  interesting  fields  of  study 
in  the  world. 

Dr.  Hillebrand  may  be  said  to  have  devoted  his  life 
to  the  study  of  this  question.  He  was  born  in  West- 
phalia in  1 82 1,  and  studied  medicine  at  Gottingen, 
Heidelberg,  and  Berlin.  After  taking  his  degree,  he 
settled  down  for  a  short  time  in  practice  in  Germany,  but 
his  health  soon  broke  down,  and  he  sailed  for  Australia. 
After  visiting  the  Philippine  Islands  and  California,  he 
made  the  Sandwich  Islands  his  home,  and  his  health 
became  quite  restored.  He  lived  at  Honolulu,  mastered 
the  language,  and  practised  his  profession  with  great 
success.  He  became  private  physician  to  the  king,  a 
member  of  the  Privy  Council,  an  active  member  of  the 
Board  of  Health,  and  physician  to  the  Queen's  Hospital 
and  the  principal  lunatic  asylum.  During'twenty  years  he 
devoted  his  leisure  to  working  out  the  botany  of  the 
group,  and  sent  large  collections  to  Kew  and  other 
European  herbaria.  He  left  the  islands  in  1871,  but 
kept  up  a  regular  correspondence  with  various  residents 
who  were  interested  in  botany,  and  who  sent  him  further 
collections.  He  died  in  July  1886,  just  after  completing 
the  descriptive  portion  of  this  present  work,  which  has 
Vox,,  xxxviii. — No.  q68. 


been  edited  by  his  son,  who  lives  in  America,  and  who 
has  prefixed  to  it  the  introduction  which  was  drawn  up 
by  Mr.  Bentham  for  our  British  colonial  floras.  His 
name  is  commemorated  by  the  genus  Hillebrandia, 
which  is  the  only  representative  of  the  Begoniacece  in 
Polynesia,  and  which  was  named  after  him  by  Prof. 
Oliver.  The  type  specimens  of  the  present  work  have 
been  presented  to  the  Berlin  Herbarium,  and  the  Prus- 
sian Government  has  made  a  grant  towards  the  expense 
of  its  publication. 

The  book,  which  is  dedicated  to  the  Hawaiian  people, 
consists  almost  entirely  of  careful  descriptions,  in  English, 
of  the  orders,  genera,  species,  and  varieties,  that  form 
the  flora,  accompanied  by  full  details  of  their  distribution 
through  the  different  islands,  and  the  sort  of  places  in 
which  they  grow.  Nearly  all  the  native  plants  are  trees, 
shrubs,  or  perennial  herbs.  Comparing  the  islands  with 
one  another,  Dr.  Hillebrand's  general  view  is  that  the 
flora  of  Kaui,  the  comparatively  small  north-eastern 
island  of  the  group,  is  the  richest  and  most  individualized, 
and  that  of  the  large  southern  island  of  Hawaii,  where 
the  mountains  rise  the  highest,  is  the  most  monotonous 
and  least  attractive.  The  total  number  of  species  here 
described  as  new  is  180,  but  in  some  cases,  as,  for 
instance,  by  Mr.  C.  B.  Clarke,  in  his  "  Monograph  of  the 
Cyrtandraceas,"  issued  in  1883,  the  publication  of  these 
has  been  anticipated,  and  the  earlier  names  will  have  to 
be  adopted.  It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  author 
did  not  live  to  work  out  fully  his  generalizations.  A  great 
deal  has  been  written  during  the  last  few  years  on  the 
general  subject  of  plant-distribution,  and  in  particular 
Wawra  and  Engler  in  Germany,  and  in  England 
Wallace  in  "  Island  Life,"  and  Hemsley  in  the  u  Botany 
of  the  Challenger,"  have  discussed  the  various  points  of 
interest  connected  with  the  flora  of  these  islands.  What 
is  wanted  now  is  that  Dr.  Hillebrand's  added  facts 
should  be  compared  together  and  summarized,  and  that 
the  general  conclusions  which  they  establish  should  be 
carefully  traced  out. 

The  following  is  his  outline  of  the  zones  of  vegetation 
and  their  characteristics  : — 

"  (1)  The  Lowland  Zone. — Open  country,  grass-covered 
after  the  rains,  with  isolated  clump's  of  trees,  represented 
by  Paritium  tiliaceum,  Erythrina,  Reynoldsia,  Pan- 
danus,  Capparis,  Gossypium,  Abutilon  incanum.  This 
includes  also  the  littoral  zone. 

"  (2)  The  Lower  Forest  Zone. — Tropical  in  character,  its 
upper  limit  between  1000  and  2000  feet  above  the  sea. 
Its  physiognomy  is  marked  distinctly  by  Aleurites  moluc- 
cana,  the  pale  foliage  of  which,  in  contrast  with  the  green 
colour  around,  attracts  at  once  the  eye  of  the  beholder. 
The  woods  are  rather  open  ;  Zinziber  Zernmbet  covers 
the  ground.  Cordyline,  Eugenia  domestica,  Zinziber 
Zerumbet,  and  other  species,  are  strictly  confined  to  it. 
Pandanus  odoratissimus  and  Paritium  tiliaceum  do  not 
pass  beyond  it,  but  Freycinetia  does.  To  its  upper  por- 
tion, but  extending  also  into  the  lower  part  of  the  next 
zone,  belong  also  most  Sapotacecc,  Apocynacece,  Gardenia, 
Psychotria,  Maba,  most  Urticacew,  Pisinia,  Ela^ocarpus, 
Aurantiacece,  and  others. 

"  (3)  The  Middle  ForestZone. — Thislieswithinthe  region 
of  clouds,  and  develops  the  greatest  luxuriance  in  trees 
and  jungle.  Pelea  and  Cheirodendron  are  representative 
genera.  The  prevailing  trees  are  indeed  Metrosideros 
polymorpha  and  Acacia  Koa;  but,  although  they  reach 
here  their  greatest  development  in  size  and  number,  they 


5o 


NA  TURE 


[May  17,  1888 


are  not  confined  to  this  zone,  but  ascend  above  and 
descend  below  it.  It  is  the  home  of  all  Rutaceous  and 
most  Araliaceous  trees,  the  ubiquitous  Dodoncea  viscosa, 
Alphitonia,  and  Coprosma.  The  ferns  luxuriate  in  it,  and 
tree-ferns  attain  only  here  their  full  dimensions.  Old 
trunks  are  wrapped  in  creeping  ferns,  mosses,  and  lichens. 
Here  also  the  Lobeliacecz,  the  peculiar  pride  of  our  flora, 
exhibit  their  most  striking  forms,  invariably  in  isolated 
individuals.  The  upper  limit  of  this  zone  may  be  drawn 
at  an  elevation  of  5000  to  6000  feet. 

"  (4)  The  Upper  Forest  Zone. — This  extends  as  high  as 
8000  to  9000  feet,  and  is  characterized  by  stunted  trees, 
chiefly  Sophora  chrysophylla,  Cyathodes,  Myoporum, 
arborescent  Raillardice,  Wikstromice,  and  Coprosma 
Menziesii.  Between  them  luxuriate  shrubby  Composite 
{Raillardia,  Dubautia,  Camphylotheca,  and  Artemisia), 
with  strawberries,  brambles,  and  Vacci?iium.  Ferns  are 
scarce,  and  mostly  belong  to  widely  spread  species  .Our 
shrubby  Geraniums  and  silvery-leaved  Argyroxiphium 
extend  beyond  this  zone  to  the  upper  limit  of  vegetation, 
which  on  Mauna  Kea  may  be  placed  at  11,000  feet. 
Santalum  belongs  to  this  zone  and  the  upper  levels  of 
the  last. 

"  (5)  A  place  apart  must  be  assigned  to  the  bog  flora  of 
the  high  table-land  of  Kaui  and  the  broad  top  of  Mount 
Eeka,  on  West  Maui.  The  turfy  soil  is  covered  with 
tussock-like  Graminece  and  Cyperacece,  all  endemic 
species,  with  Sphagnum,  creeping  forms  of  woody 
Metrosideros,  Cyathodes,  Geranium,  Lysimachia,  and  a 
number  of  rare,  mostly  single,  representatives  of  genera 
which  have  their  home  in  the  Antarctic  regions,  New 
Zealand,  the  Falkland  Islands,  and  the  Southern  Andes." 

As  a  whole  the  flora  of  the  Sandwich  Islands  stands 
out  remarkably  isolated  from  those  of  the  two  nearest 
great  botanical  regions,  Polynesia  and  Central  America, 
and  has  curious  affinities  with  those  of  Australia,  North 
America,  the  north  temperate  zone  of  the  Old  World,  the 
Mexican  highlands,  the  Andes,  and  the  Antarctic  regions. 
The  subject  is  well  worth  working  out  in  the  same 
thorough  way  in  which  Sir  J.  D.  Hooker  has  dealt  with 
the  floras  of  Tasmania  and  New  Zealand. 

Dr.  Hillebrand's  book  is  also  valuable  as  a  contribution 
to  the  study  of  varieties.  In  the  Sandwich  Islands  we 
get  a  comparatively  small  number  of  species,  that  have 
lived  for  a  long  time  in  a  country  where  there  are  great 
variations  in  temperature  and  humidity  and  little  inter- 
ference from  man.  In  many  of  the  endemic  genera  the 
species  are  very  difficult  to  individualize,  and  he  has 
named  and  characterized  a  great  number  of  varieties. 
Altogether  the  book  is  of  exceptional  value,  not  only  to 
the  systematic  botanist,  but  to  all  who  are  interested  in 
the  problems  connected  with  the  origin  and  distribution 
of  species.  J.  G.  Baker. 


THE    GEOLOGICAL   EVIDENCES    OF 
EVOLUTION. 

The    Geological  Evidences   of  Evolution.      By   Angelo 
Heilprin,  Professor   of   Invertebrate  Palaeontology  at 
the   Academy  of   Natural    Sciences  of   Philadelphia. 
( Philadelphia  :  Published  by  the  Author,  1888.) 
pEW  chapters  in  the  "Origin  of  Species"  are  more 
■*-        impressive,  from   their  perfect  candour  and  their 
far-sighted  prescience,  than  those  dealing  with  the  ob- 
jections which  might  be  urged  against  the  author's  hypo- 
thesis, on  the  ground  of  the  comparatively  small  pakeonto- 
logical  evidence  in  its  favour.  But  this  evidence,  as  every 


student  knows,  has  been  almost  surprisingly  strength- 
ened and  augmented  during  the  thirty  years  which  have 
elapsed  since  the  publication  of  Darwin's  great  work.  It 
is,  however,  owing  to  the  nature  of  the  case,  scattered  up 
and  down  various  scientific  periodicals,  many  of  which 
are  practically  inaccessible  to  the  general  public,  so  that 
both  its  amount  and  its  force  are  under-estimated,  and 
the  old  objections  are  confidently  reiterated  by  that  still 
numerous  class  to  whom  "  Darwinism"  is  a  bugbear,  and 
the  very  name  of  "evolution"  an  absolute  abomination. 
As  Prof.  Heilprin  states  in  his  preface,  "There  has  not 
thus  far  appeared,  to  the  knowledge  of  the  author,  any 
collective  or  consecutive  statement  of  the  evidence  which 
geology  and  palaeontology  present  in  support  of  organic 
transmutation  ; "  so  "  with  the  view  of  partially  filling 
this  gap  in  the  literature  of  Darwinism,  the  author  has 
prepared,  at  the  request  of  many  of  his  friends,  the  fol- 
lowing pages,  which  represent,  somewhat  broadened,  the 
substance  of  a  Friday  evening  discourse  delivered  at  the 
Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia."  Thus 
this  little  book,  while  scientific  in  conception  and  method, 
is  popular  in  style.  While  there  is  no  attempt  at  an 
appeal  to  prejudices,  scientific  terminology  is  as  far  as 
may  be  avoided,  and  the  illustrations  appended  enable 
any  reader,  with  a  very  moderate  knowledge  of  natural 
history  and  palaeontology,  to  comprehend  the  line  of 
reasoning  followed  by  the  author. 

It  is  needless  to  add  that  he  is  a  thorough  going  evo- 
lutionist, though,  like  his  master,  he  is  candid  in  admitting 
defects  in  the  record,  and  transitions  which  as  yet  are 
merely  hypothetical.  In  one  case,  however,  he  ventures 
on  a  statement  which  seems  to  us  over  bold  :  "  It  is  not 
my  purpose  to-night  to  discuss  the  status  of  evolution, 
which  has  long  since  passed  from  the  realm  of  pure 
and  simple  theory,  but  to  present  to  you  such  of  the  more 
salient  facts  bearing  upon  its  proof,  drawn  from  my  own 
department  of  geology  and  palaeontology,  as  will  permit 
you  to  understand  why  the  greater  number  of  naturalists 
consider  the  doctrine  as  firmly  established  to-day  as  is 
the  Copernican  theory  of  planetary  revolution,  the  theory 
of  gravitation,  or  the  undulatory  theory  of  light." 

We  cannot  but  think  that,  in  making  this  confident 
assertion,  Prof.  Heilprin  has  exposed  a  joint  in  his  har- 
ness to  the  arrows  of  his  adversaries.  In  years  to  come, 
evolution,  as  stated  by  Darwin,  may  assume,  probably 
will  assume,  the  position  of  the  above-named  theories  in 
physical  science,  but  surely  the  evidence  for  it  is  not  yet 
either  so  complete  or  so  conclusive  as  for  them.  Hence 
it  is  unwise  thus  abruptly  to  exclude  any  possible  modi- 
fication or  supplement.  In  scientific  arguments  it  is  better 
not  to  imitate  the  practices  of  political  orators,  but  to  err, 
if  at  all,  on  the  side  of  understating  rather  than  of  over- 
stating a  conviction,  and  to  impress  by  caution  in 
reasoning  rather  than  to  dazzle  by  rhetoric. 

This,  however,  is  a  matter  of  opinion :  we  pass  on  to 
indicate  briefly  the  line  of  argument  followed  by  Prof. 
Heilprin.  At  the  outset  he  calls  attention  to  two  mis- 
conceptions relating  to  evolution  which  are  widely  preva- 
lent, and  are  often  made  the  ground  of  assaults  upon  the 
hypothesis.  These  are  :  that  if  the  missing  forms  of  life 
could  all  be  recovered,  they  would  form  a  continuous 
chain,  and  that  "  the  progressive  modification  of  individual 
organic  forms  need  be,  or  indeed  has  been,  one  of  con- 


May  17,  1888] 


NATURE 


5i 


tinuous  advance."  Past  and  present  organic  life,  as 
Darwin  himself  carefully  pointed  out,  are  combined,  not 
in  a  continuous  chain,  but  in  a  genealogical  tree:  "evo- 
lution recognizes  modifications  in  the  most  divergent 
directions,  and  the  tree  of  life  that  it  restores  is  not  a 
straight  stem  growing  from  a  continuous  apical  bud,  but 
a  stem,  or  possibly  even  a  limited  number  of  stems, 
branching  in  varying  directions."  Thus  the  progress 
among  organic  beings  is  analogous  to  that  in  the  develop- 
ment of  civilization.  "  The  united  world  advances,  whereas 
individual  tribes  or  nations  remain  at  a  standstill,  or  even 
degenerate  and  decay.  Such  is  precisely  the  history  of 
the  organic  development  of  our  planet :  new  and  more 
complicated  organic  types  are  being  continually  evolved, 
but  side  by  side  with  these  forms  we  still  meet  with  those 
of  a  lower  grade  of  organization,  while  still  others, 
belonging  to  the  earlier  periods  of  the  world's  history, 
have  completely  dropped  out." 

After  a  brief  sketch  of  the  first  appearance  of  vertebrate 
life,  Prof.  Heilprin  describes  the  relations  of  the  fishes,  the 
amphibians,  and  the  reptiles,  indicating  the  affinities  of 
the  first  and  second,  which  have  led  Prof.  Huxley  to  treat 
them  as  sub-groups  of  a  single  division,  the  Ichthyopsida. 
In  the  structure  of  the  heart,  mode  of  breathing,  and 
nature  of  circulation,  the  young  frog  agrees  with  a  fishj 
while  in  these  respects  the  mud-fishes  (Ceratodus)  agree 
with  the  amphibians.  Now  this  link  between  these  great 
groups  exists  in  very  early  times,  as  the  hypothesis  would 
demand.  "  Dipterus  and  its  allies  are  fishes  that  belong 
to  the  Devonian  period  of  time,"  and  Ceratodus  itself  was 
living  in  the  Permian,  and  thus  "  represents  the  oldest 
living  vertebrate  type  known  to  naturalists."  The  peculiar 
structure  of  the  teeth  of  the  labyrinthodonts,  found  also 
in  some  of  the  earliest  fishes,  and  still  retained  by  the 
alligator-gar,  is  another  link.  Next,  in  regard  to  the  date  of 
the  appearance  of  birds  and  mammals,  which  is  sometimes 
regarded  as  rather  anomalous,  Prof.  Heilprin  points  out 
that  both  the  earliest  birds  and  the  earliest  mammals 
have  marked  reptilian  affinities,  which  in  the  former  are 
very  distinct,  so  that  such  forms  as  Archcsopteryx  and 
some  of  the  early  dentigerous  birds  on  the  one  side,  and 
the  Pterosauria  on  the  other,  do  much  to  link  together 
the  two  classes.  Further,  the  ancestry  of  the  non-flying 
birds,  such  as  Dinornis  and  its  allies,  may  be  traced 
with  greatest  probability  to  members  of  the  Dinosauria, 
such  as  Iguanodon,  Hadrosaurus,  and  Compsognathus. 
In  like  way  the  affinities  of  the  monotremes  with  the 
reptiles  are  pointed  out,  and  attention  is  called  to  the 
significant  fact  that  "  the  earliest  reptilian  forms — those 
of  the  Permian  period — are  the  only  animals  which  possess 
the  remarkable  dental  characters  of  the  Mammalia." 

In  the  second  section  of  the  book  Prof.  Heilprin  deals 
more  especially  with  the  development  of  the  Mammalia 
themselves,  instancing  the  position  occupied  by  the 
Eocene  Creodonta  between  the  now  widely  divergent 
Carnivora  and  Insectivora,  the  relationships  among  the 
groups  of  the  former,  and  of  the  latter  to  the  lemurs,  the 
well-known  pedigree  of  the  horse,  the  ancestry  of  the 
hornless  ruminants,  the  development  of  the  horns  of  the 
deer,  from  the  simple  forked  crown  in  the  early  Cervines 
of  the  Middle  Miocene  to  the  complicated  forms  assumed 
in  the  Pliocene  and  more  recent  times.  Cervalcas 
■americanus,    the    newly-discovered    link    between     the 


Canada  stag  and  the  elk,  also  receives  notice,  as  does  the 
relation  of  the  homocercal  and  heterocercal  to  the 
primitive  diphycercal  fishes.  Attention  is  also  called  to 
the  development  of  the  brain  in  various  vertebrates. 

In  the  third  section  the  author  glances  at  the  question 
of  the  antiquity  of  man.  In  regard  to  some  of  the  alleged 
evidence  he  exercises  a  wise  scepticism,  and  states  that 
up  to  the  present  time  he  has  been  unable  "  to  find  satis- 
factory proof  of  man's  belongings  having  been  found  in 
deposits  very  much  (if  at  all)  older  than  the  Post-Plio- 
cene," though  he  thinks  it  not  unlikely  that  such  may 
ultimately  be  found.  In  connection  with  this  subject  he 
mentions  some  human  vertebrae,  mineralized  by  limonite, 
of  unknown  but  evidently  high  antiquity,  discovered  by 
himself  in  Florida. 

Lastly,  he  calls  attention  to  a  class  of  evidence  which 
the  comparative  persistency  of  conditions  in  certain  parts 
of  the  United  States  has  rendered  accessible  to  American 
geologists — namely,  the  relation  of  living  forms  to  their 
more  immediate  predecessors.  Instances  of  this  may  be 
obtained  in  the  sheltered  regions  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
and  in  the  comparatively  modern  rocks  of  the  Florida 
peninsula.  As  examples,  species  of  the  genera  Strombus, 
Voluta,  Fulgur,  and  Melongena,  are  figured,  showing  the 
gradual  transition  from  an  extinct  to  an  existing  species, 
and  to  these  are  added  a  group  of  Paludinaa  from  the 
Middle  Tertiary  of  Slavonia,  illustrating  successive  varietal 
and  specific  forms. 

The  book  is  attractively  written,  though  we  must 
venture  to  protest  against  two  instances  of  American- 
English  :  "  The  swift-footed  animal  .  .  .  elevates  the 
body  so  as  to  weight  it  principally  upon  the  extremi- 
ties of  the  toes ; "  and  "  the  evidence  is  .  .  .  but  a 
mere  figment  of  that  which  pertains  to  zoology."  The 
first  gains  so  little  that  brevity  can  hardly  be  pleaded  as 
its  excuse  ;  the  second,  unless  a  misprint,  is  worthy  of 
Mrs.  Malaprop.  T.  G.  B. 

THE  SHELL-COLLECTOR'S  HAND-BOOK  FOR 

THE  FIELD. 
The  Shell-Collector's  Hand-book  for  the  Field.     By  J.  W. 

Williams,  M.A.,  D.Sc.    Small  8vo,  pp.  148  (interleaved). 

(London  :  Roper  and  Drowley,  1888.) 

HANDY  books  for  collectors,  whether  of  birds,  beasts, 
fishes,  mollusks,  or  other  organisms,  are  always 
most  acceptable  when  well  put  together  and  carefully 
contrived,  even  if  they  be  not  original.  The  present  little 
book  might  at  first  sight  lay  claim  to  having  fulfilled  all 
these  conditions.  It  is  small  enough  for  the  pocket,  and 
the  type  is  clear  and  legible  ;  but  when  we  enter  upon  the 
work  itself,  alas  !  we  do  not  find  our  dream  of  a  typical 
collector's  hand-book  realized  by  any  means.  Chapter  I. 
"The  Anatomy  of  a  Snail,"  and  Chapter  II.  "The 
Anatomy  of  a  Fresh- water  Mussel,"  should  have 
been  altogether  omitted.  They  are  not  cleverly  com- 
piled, they  are  sadly  full  of  mistakes,  and  these  too 
clearly  betray  the  fact  that  the  author  himself  is  not 
familiar  with  Mollusca  from  an  anatomical  point  of  view, 
but  rather  has  got  up  his  subject  after  the  style  of  "  Cousin 
Cramchild."  Thus,  the  colour  of  the  shell  (says  Dr. 
Williams),  exists  entirely  in  the  periostracum  or  epi- 
dermis.     We  would  advise  the  learned  author  to  try  and 


52 


NA  TURE 


[May  17.  1888 


remove  the  epidermis  from  a  snail-shell  and  observe  the 
result. 

The  lip  or  aperture  of  a  snail's  shell  is  not  generally 
called  the  peritreme  but  the  peristome.  The  lines  of 
growth  in  a  snail's  shell  are  not  "arranged  concentrically 
with  the  nucleus,"  although  this  is  the  case  with  the 
growth-lines  in  bivalves. 

We  fail  to  understand  how  the  operculum  of  a  snail 
"differs  from  the  true  shell  in  having  more  conchiolin 
entering  into  its  composition."  Surely  the  author  meant 
to  say  less  conchiolin  and  more  chitine  ? 

The  cpiphragm,  or  layer  of  hardened  mucus,  sometimes 
strengthened  with  carbonate  of  lime,  closing  the  aperture 
of  the  shell  of  land-snails  during  hibernation  is  called 
here  also  the  clausiliwn !  (p.  5).  The  description  of  the 
odontophore  with  its  radula  and  jaws  (pp.  6  and  7)  is  very 
inaccurately  rendered,  and  in  copying  Prof.  Lankester  the 
author  has  carefully  also  quoted  a  mis-statement  as  to 
the  formula  of  the  teeth. 

The  eggs  of  snails  are  said  by  the  author  to  be  "  laid 
in  a  string,  which  is  called  the  nidamental  ribbon,  or 
inclosed  in  horny  capsules."  This  is  true  of  sea-snails 
such  as  the  whelks  (Fusus,  Buccinum,  &c),  but  it  is  not 
the  case  in  land-snails,  of  which  Dr.  Williams  is  dis- 
coursing. In  these  the  eggs  are  separate  and  protected 
by  a  shell,  which  is  sometimes  membranous  and  flexible, 
at  others  calcareous  and  brittle,  while  those  of  the  fresh- 
water species  are  deposited  in  small  glairy  masses  of  soft 
transparent  jelly-like  consistence. 

Turning  from  the  snail  to  the  fresh-water  mussel  (Chapter 
II.),  the  author,  in  describing  the  animal  of  the  latter, 
appears  to  have  made  a  mistake  similar  to  that  which  he 
has  made  with  regard  to  the  garden  snail  :  not  knowing 
his  subject  well,  he  has  in  fact  described  a  siphonated 
Mya,  when  he  fondly  imagined  he  was  writing  about  a 
non-siphonated  Unio  or  Anodon. 

Turning  to  the  species  enumerated  by  the  author,  we 
regret  to  observe  that  here  the  discrimination  of  the 
expert  is  alike  wanting.  For  example,  Anodonta  anatina, 
Linn.,  figures  as  a  good  species,  whereas  it  is  merely  a 
variety  of  A.  cygnea,  Linn.  It  seems  rather  absurd  to  give 
in  a  shell-collector's  hand-book  such  shells  as  Physa  acuta, 
Drap.,  "Hab.  In  one  of  the  lily-tanks  in  Kew  Gardens} 
imported"  (p.  72);  Bulimus  Goodallii,  Miller  (intro- 
duced into  a  green-house  with  exotic  plants)  ;  Vertigo 
tumida,  Westerlund,  another  "  casual "  ;  P.  dilatatus, 
Gould,  in  the  canals  around  Manchester,  "  introduced 
from  America  in  cotton  bales."  If  these  are  admitted, 
why  omit  Clausilia  parvula  and  C.  solida,  also  "  casuals," 
which  appear  both  in  Sowerby's  last  edition,  and  in 
Gwyn  Jeffreys,  v.  161-62  ? 

Far  too  much  prominence  is  given  to  worthless  varieties 
of  the  common  snail  Helix  aspersa,  such  as  minor, 
maxima,  albida,  and  sinistrorsum,  &c.  ;  but,  having  put 
them  in,  why  should  the  author  omit  such  a  one  as 
Unio  timidus  var.  ponderosa  ?  Many  of  the  genera 
too,  need  revision  to  be  brought  up  to  date.  Thus, 
Achatinaacicula  should  be  Ccecilianella  acicula j  Bulimus 
acutus  should  be  Helix  {Cochlicella)  acuta  j  Zonites  should 
be  Hyalinia.  By  the  way,  Zonites  draparnaldi  is  omitted 
altogether,  although  known  for  years. 

The  habitats  of  many  of  the  species  are  badly  given. 
Thus,  Testacella  Maugei  is  said  to  be  found  in  gardens 


and  fields,  whereas  it  has  been  met  with  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Bristol,  whence  it  has  spread  to  a  few  limited 
localities. 

Why  are  the  three  known  localities  for  Vertigo  moulin- 
siana  (p.  129)  omitted  ? — Itchen  Valley,  near  Otterbourne  ; 
near  Hitchin  ;  and  near  Rye-House,  Herts.  Other  quite 
local  species  are  recorded  as  if  they  occurred  everywhere 
as  Helix  pi sana  and  H  obvoluta,  &c. 

A  few  woodcuts  are  inserted,  but  they  are  very  poor 
and  not  accurately  drawn.  Testacella  haliotidea  is 
reversed. 

The  minute  characters  of  the  shells,  so  useful  in  many 
instances  in  the  field,  are  omitted.  The  book  is  inter- 
leaved, which  doubles  its  thickness  for  field-work,  and  we 
at  first  wondered  why  so  much  plain  paper  was  added. 
It  has  since  occurred  to  us  that  the  author  had  the  con- 
venience of  the  reviewer  in  his  mind's  eye,  and  we  must 
say  we  found  the  blank  pages  most  useful  in  correcting 
the  text  as  we  turned  over  the  leaves. 

Is  it  too  much  to  hope  that  the  author  may  be 
able  to  give  some  attention  to  the  living  land  and  fresh- 
water Mollusca  before  he  brings  out  a  new  edition  of  his 
handy  shell-collector's  manual,  and  so  avoid  those  pit- 
falls into  which  he  who  compiles  unskilfully  and  without 
practical  acquaintance  with  his  subject  is  sure  to  slip  ? 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

A  Text-book  of  Biology.  By  J.  R.  Ainsworth  Davis, 
B.A.,  Lecturer  on  Biology  in  the  University  of  Wales, 
Aberystwith.     (London  :  Griffin  and  Co  ,  1888.) 

This  is  one  of  a  class  of  books  which  the  system  of 
examining  the  whole  world  on  a  limited  schedule,  drawn 
up  by  a  Board  of  disinterested  philanthropists,  is  bound  to 
produce.  It  will  delight  the  misguided  student  whose 
sole  desire  is  "  to  get  through "  with  the  least  know- 
ledge possible,  and  will  disgust  every  competent  teacher. 
Mr.  Davis  is  in  error  in  stating  that  his  book  supplies  a 
gap  in  literature.  The  little  text-book  by  Prof.  Lloyd 
Morgan  is  on  the  same  lines,  and  appears  to  us  to  be  far 
less  objectionable,  inasmuch  as  it  is,  though  of  smaller 
dimensions,  a  more  genuine  exposition  of  the  principles 
of  the  subject,  less  of  a  cram-book  than  the  present  work, 
and  written  with  maturer  judgment  and  literary  power. 
The  only  way  to  prevent  the  study  of  biology,  as  directed 
by  the  University  of  London,  from  sinking  into  a  worthless 
exercise  of  memory  applied  to  the  contents  of  such  little 
books  as  this  by  Mr.  Davis,  is  to  change  the  animals  and 
plants  enumerated  in  the  schedule  every  three  years. 
This,  however,  would  hardly  suit  the  ubiquitous  aspirants 
to  a  degree  for  whom  alone  the  Imperial  University 
arranges  its  curriculum.  Nor  would  it  suit  Mr.  Davis 
and  other  more  distinguished  authors  of  regulation  cram- 
books.  The  fact  is  that  genuine  education  in  biology  as 
a  science,  and  the  influence  of  personal  contact  and 
association  with  an  active  investigator  and  discoverer  as 
teacher  and  friend,  are  destroyed  by  the  Imperial  system 
of  schedule  and  examination  ;  and  their  place  is  taken  by 
weary  grinding  at  little  books  written  by  teachers  of  no 
authority,  and  too  often  ignorant  as  well  as  unintelligent. 

Mr.  Davis  has  borrowed  a  number  of  excellent  figures 
to  illustrate  his  book,  which  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than 
a  strictly  limited,  and  in  minor  points  an  inaccurate, 
description  of  the  types  named  in  the  schedule  of  the 
University  of  London.  The  new  figures  are  bad,  and  the 
short  general  introduction  is  not  merely  shallow  but 
erroneous,  e.g.  the  account  of  protoplasm  and  the  tabular 
statement  of  differences  between  plants  and  animals. 


May  17,  1888J 


NA  TURE 


53 


Reports  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  New  Zealand. 

THE  issue  of  an  index  to  the  Reports  of  the  Geological 
Survey  of  New  Zealand,  from  1866  to  1885  inclusive, 
enables  us  to  see  at  a  glance  how  large  an  amount  of 
valuable  material  has  been  accumulated  by  the  staff  of 
this  Survey,  under  its  accomplished  and  energetic  Direc- 
tor, Sir  James  Hector.  Several  editions  of  the  useful 
geological  map  of  the  colony  have  appeared,  the  latest 
dated  1885  ;  and  the  volumes  containing  the  yearly 
reports  of  progress  are  now  eighteen  in  number.  Mono- 
graphs on  the  palaeontology  of  New  Zealand  are  stated  to 
be  in  preparation,  and  there  are,  besides  these,  museum 
and  laboratory  reports,  meteorological  returns,  and  mis- 
cellaneous publications.  The  difficulties  felt  in  correlating 
the  strata  of  so  isolated  an  area  as  New  Zealand  with  the 
rocks  of  other  districts  must  always  be  very  great,  and 
it  is  therefore  not  surprising  to  find  that  warm  and  ani- 
mated discussions  are  taking  place  among  the  different 
geologists  of  the  colony  as  to  the  age  and  relations  of 
some  of  the  fossiliferous  deposits.  We  may  feel  assured 
that  the  solution  of  these  questions  will  be  fraught  with 
important  results  having  a  direct  bearing  upon  some  of 
the  most  difficult  problems  that  now  confront  geologists. 

First  Lessons  in  Geometry.  For  the  Use  of  Technical, 
Middle,  and  High  Schools.  By  B.  Hanumanta  Rau, 
B.A.     (Vepery  :  Printed  at  the  S.P.C.K.  Press,  1888.) 

This  is  a  second  edition,  revised  and  enlarged,  of  a  very 
good  book  for  those  who  are  beginning  the  study  of  geo- 
metry. Much  stress  is  laid  all  through  on  the  construc- 
tion and  careful  drawing  of  the  figures,  and  great  pains 
seem  to  have  been  taken  by  the  author  to  make  his 
meaning  as  clear  as  possible  by  means  of  simple  ex- 
amples, thereby  inducing  the  reader  not  to  learn  the 
propositions  by  heart. 

The  volume  is  well  arranged  as  regards  the  order  of  the 
subjects,  and  teachers,  as  well  as  taught,  will  find  in  it  a 
good  amount  of  useful  information. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
of  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations,.] 

Dissemination  of  Plants  by  Birds. 

I  fully  agree  with  Dr.  Guppy  that  birds  may  have  effected 
much  more  in  the  distribution  of  plants  than  is  generally  ad- 
mitted, and  I  think  it  is  most  desirable  that  his  suggestion 
respecting  the  examination  of  the  contents  of  the  crops  of  birds 
shot  at  sea  in  high  southern  latitudes  should  be  carried  out.  At 
the  same  time  I  am  of  opinion  that  his  explanation  of  the  prob- 
able origin  of  the  vegetation  of  the  distant  islands  in  the  South 
Atlantic  and  South  Indian  Oceans  is  insufficient  to  account  for 
the  endemic  element,  unless  we  suppose  a  former  belt  of  vegeta- 
tion in  a  higher  latitude  than  these  islands,  which  is  now  extinct. 
Assuming  the  existence  of  such  a  belt  of  vegetation  at  some 
remote  period,  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  explain  the  relation- 
ships between  the  floras  of  America  and  Australasia,  as  well 
as  the  presence  in  these  islands  of  plants  hot  known  to  exist 
elsewhere. 

Pringlca  antiscorbutica,  the  Kerguelen  cabbage,  is  the  most 
remarkable  of  the  endemic  plants.  As  a  genus,  it  is  as  well 
characterized  as  the  majority  of  the  genera  of  the  Cruciferse  ; 
but,  what  is  more  significant,  it  has  no  near  ally  in  the  southern 
hemisphere,  being  most  nearly  related  to  the  northern  genus 
Cochlearia,  differing  from  it  more  in  habit  of  growth  than  in  any 
structural  peculiarity.  It  is  one  of  the  commonest  plants  in  the 
islands,  from  Prince  Edward  Group  to  the  Macdonald  Group,  and 
produces  seeds  in  great  abundance. 

Lyallia  kergi{detisis  is,  so  far  as  is  known,  confined  to 
Kerguelen  Island.    It  is  one  of  the  degraded  types  of  the  Caryo- 


phylleae-Polycarpese,   and  nearly   related  to  the  Andine  genus 
Pycnophyllum,  and  the  North  Mexican  genus  Cerdia. 

To  my  mind  there  are  other  difficulties  in  the  way  of  such  a 
derivation  of  this  insular  vegetation  as  that  suggested  by  Dr. 
Guppy,  but  I  will  not  enter  into  them  here,  as  it  would  occupy 
too  much  space.  W.  Botting  Hemsley. 

On  the  Reappearance  of  Pallas's  Sand  Grouse 
{Syrrhaptes  paradoxus)  in  Europe. 

This  bird  suddenly  reappeared  at  the  end  of  April  of  this  year 
at  different  localities  of  Central  Europe,  not  having  migrated  so 
far  since  1863.  A.  R.  Wallace,  in  his  important  work,  "The 
Geographical  Distribution  of  Animals,"  published  in  1876, 
figured  this  sand  grouse  among  the  characteristic  birds  of  Mon- 
golia (vol.  i.  p.  226,  plate  3),  and  remarks: — "A  curious 
bird,  whose  native  country  seems  to  be  the  high  plains  of 
Northern  Asia,  but  which  often  abounds  near  Pekin,  and  in 
1863  astonished  European  ornithologists  by  appearing  in  con- 
siderable numbers  in  Central  and  Western  Europe,  in  every 
part  of  Great  Britain,  and  even  in  Ireland."  Vol.  ii.  p.  337, 
the  same  author  says  in  the  work  quoted: — " Syrrhaptes  nor- 
mally inhabits  Tartary,  Thibet,  and  Mongolia  to  the  country 
around  Pekin,  and  occasionally  visits  Eastern  Europe.  But  a 
few  years  back  (1863)  great  numbers  suddenly  appeared  in 
Europe,  and  extended  westward  to  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic, 
while  some  even  reached  Ireland  and  the  Faroes." 

Mr.  Wallace,  speaking  here  of  the  geographical  distribution 
of  Syrrhaptes,  has  in  view  the  two  species  of  the  genus, 
viz.  S.  paradoxus,  Pallas,  from  Tartary  and  Mongolia,  and 
S.  tibetanus,  Gould,  from  Thibet ;  whereas  in  the  following 
sentence,  treating  of  the  extraordinary  migration,  only  S.  para- 
doxus appears  to  be  meant.  At  least  I  am  not  aware  that  the 
second  species  has  ever  been  observed  in  Europe. 

Two  years  later  not  one  bird  of  those  that  immigrated  in  1863 
appears  to  have  been  observed  again  here  ;  they  may  have  died, 
or  been  cruelly  killed,  or  may  have  returned  to  their  native 
steppes.  No  special  notice  having  been  taken  of  their  move- 
ments, we  did  not  learn  the  reason  of  that  uncommon  migration, 
nor  the  rapidity  of  their  wandering,  nor  whether  they  returned 
to  Asia  or  not. 

The  reappearance  of  the  sand  grouse  in  large  flocks,  con- 
sisting apparently  of  innumerable  individuals,  now  gives  us  the 
opportunity  of  watching  their  movements  in  detail.  This  should 
be  done  everywhere,  and  for  this  reason  I  communicate  the  fol- 
lowing notes,  comprising  all  that  I  have  learned  till  to-day 
about  it.  I  am  sure  that  many  more  observations  will  have 
been  made  in  these  days,  and  perhaps  those  who  can  add  some- 
thing to  the  following  list  will  do  so  through  the  columns  of 
Nature.  Observers  should  especially  try  to  find  out  whether 
there  are  specimens  of  3".  tibetanus  among  them. 

April  21,  Plock,  Poland.     On  the  same  day  specimens  on  the 

River  Pilica,  near  Radom,  and    in    the  market  of 

Warsaw,  Poland. 
,,     24,  at  5  p.m.,  near  Pima,  Saxony. 
,,     25-26,  in  the  night,  near  Leipzig,  Saxony. 
,,     26,  Kalisch,  Poland. 
,,     27,  3  p.m.,  near  Grossenhain,  Saxony;  on  the  same  day 

several  flocks  there. 
,,     27,  4  p.m.,  near  Pima,  Saxony. 
,,     27,  Brandenburg,  Prussia. 
,,     27,  Elbing,  Prussia. 
,,     27,  near  Leipzig,  Saxony. 
,,     28,  near  Leipzig,  Saxony. 
,,     28,  Kuchelberg,  Silesia. 
,,     28,  Czerwinsk,  Poland. 
,,     28,  Warscha,  Poland. 
,,     29,  Cemowitz,  Bohemia. 
On  the  last  days  of  April  near  Gorgemy,  Transylvania,  and  near 

Konigstein,  Saxony. 
May  1,  near  Grossenhain,  Saxony. 
,,     I,  Liobschiitz,  Saxony. 
,,     1,  Niederfaulbriick,  Silesia. 
,,    2,  Ratzeburg,  Holstein. 
,,    2-3,  in  the  night,  near  Grossenhain,  Saxony. 
,,    3,  near  Grossenhain,  Saxony. 
,,     3,  near  Bautzen,  Saxony. 
,,     3,  near  Schneeberg,  Saxony. 
,,     3,  near  Friedeberg,  Silesia. 
,,    4,  near  Grossenhain,  Saxony  ;  several  flocks. 


54 


NATURE 


[May  17,  1888 


May  5,  4  a.m.,  near  Grossenhain,  Saxony. 

,,  5,  Island  of  Riigen,  on  the  Baltic. 

,,  6,  near  Freiberg,  Saxony. 

,,  6,  near  Konigstein,  Saxony. 

,,  6,  near  Rendsburg,  Holstein. 

,,  7,  Reichenau,  Saxony. 

,,  7,  near  Soldi n,  Brandenburg,  Prussia. 

,,  7,  Palczyn,  Posen,  Prussia. 

,,  7,  near  Leipzig,  Saxony. 


Royal  Zoological  Museum,  Dresden,  May  12. 


A.  B.  Meyer. 


"  Coral  Formations." 

In  a  recent  paper  read  before  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh, 
I  have  pointed  out  the  importance  of  taking  into  consideration 
the  molecular  condition  of  carbonate  of  lime  in  relation  to  its 
solubility  in  sea-water. 

The  (tabulated)  results  of  an  exhaustive  series  of  tests  (see 
Nature,  vol.  xxxvii.  p  605)  show  in  a  striking  manner  this 
difference  between  the  crystalline  (or  massive)  and  the 
amorphous  conditions  of  that  body. 

In  Table  II.  the  amount  of  carbonate  of  lime  taken  up  by  sea- 
water  from  decomposing  shell-fish  is  shown  to  be  very  great,  the 
clear  newly  filtered  solution  giving  0*384  grammes  per  litre 
(other  determinations  since  made  giving  still  higher  results) ; 
this  is  due  no  doubt  to  the  formation  of  carbonic  acid,  the  result 
of  the  oxidation  of  the  organic  matter  in  the  putrefying  mass. 

The  clear  (foul-smelling)  liquid  on  standing  exposed  to  the  air 
rapidly  decomposes,  ammoniacal  salts  being  formed  ;  and  a  great 
portion  of  the  amorphous  carbonate  of  lime  which  was  dissolved 
during  the  first  stages  of  putrefaction  is  thrown  out  of  solution 
and  deposited  in  a  crystalline  and  practically  nearly  insoluble 
form. 

This  may  be  due  to  the  loss  of  carbonic  acid,  or  its  com- 
bination with  ammonia,  produced  during  decomposition  of 
nitrogenous  organic  matter  ;  or  to  the  well-known  action  certain 
salts  of  ammonia  (especially  the  carbonate)  exert  in  degrading 
the  solubility  of  carbonate  of  lime  in  water ;  but  the  result  so 
produced,  I  think,  meets  all  the  objections  Mr.  T.  Mellard 
Reade  brings  forward  against  the  solution  theory,  which  is  Dr. 
Murray's  explanation  of  the  formation  of  coral  lagoons. 

Again,  when  a  clear  saturated  solution  of  amorphous  carbonate 
of  lime  in  sea- water  (see  Table  II. ,  a  and  b)  is  allowed  to  stand  for 
a  few  hours  at  ordinary  temperatures,  the  solution  becomes 
turbid  and  ultimately  throws  out  in  a  crystalline  condition  a 
considerable  proportion  of  the  carbonate  of  lime  it  held  in 
solution. 

Dr.  Murray,  in  a  paper  on  "  Structure,  Origin,  and  Distribu- 
tion of  Coral  Reefs,  &c.,"  read  before  the  Royal  Institution, 
London,  on  March  16,  refers  to  this  change  of  condition  as 
follows  : — 

"  The  whole  of  a  coral  reef  is  permeated  with  sea- water  like  a 
sponge ;  as  this  sea-water  is  but  slowly  changed  in  the  interior 
parts  it  becomes  saturated,  and  a  deposition  of  crystalline  car- 
bonate of  lime  frequently  takes  place  among  the  interstices  of  the 
corals  and  coral  debris." 

These  facts  seem  to  me  quite  sufficient  to  account  for  the 
formation  of  coral  lagoons  by  the  more  rapid  solution  of  the 
amorphous  form  of  carbonate  of  lime,  found  in  dead  and  decom- 
posing corals.  At  the  same  time  other  deposits  are  preserved 
from  wholesale  solution  by  the  change  in  the  molecular  condition 
which  carbonate  of  lime  undergoes, — always  the  after  result  of 
solution. 

I  need  not  here  refer  to  other  influences  at  work  in  maintain- 
ing the  balance  of  absorption  and  secretion  of  lime  salts  in  the 
ocean,  because  I  consider  the  difference  in  solubility  of  various 
forms  which  carbonate  of  lime  assumes  equally  accounts  for  the 
formation  of  lagoons  and  the  preservation  of  coral  reefs  and  shell 
beds  or  banks.  Robert  Irvine. 

Royston,  Granton,  Edinburgh,  May  14. 


Aurora  Borealis. 
The  aurora  borealis  was  visible  here  on  Sunday  night,  May  6. 
We  have  difficulty  in  identifying  it  in  this  neighbourhood  with- 
out spectroscopic  aid,  because  the  lights  of  Liverpool  and  its 
suburbs  extend  over  the  eastern  horizon,  and  the  sky  to  the 
north-east  and  north  is  filled  with  a  glow  from    Bootle    and 


Birkenhead,  these  several  lights  often  giving,  with  clouds  "of 
varying  height,  effects  resembling  northern  lights. 

On  Sunday  night,  at  1.30,  the  brightness  in  the  north-western 
sky  was  not  to  be  mistaken  ;  and  shortly  before  2  o'clock  a 
curved  bluish-white  beam — two  brilliant  sides  inclosing  a  still 
brighter  rounded  angle  of  about  700 — shot  up  from  the  west,  the 
apex  coming  first,  and  attaining  a  height  of  6o°,  the  sides  there 
being  about  i°  broad  ;  the  extremities  of  the  sides,  i°  broad, 
touching  the  horizon  in  the  north-north-west  and  south-south- 
east. This  beautiful  beam  remained  a  few  seconds,  then  went 
as  it  came,  the  apex  disappearing  last.  The  general  phenomenon 
seemed  to  increase  in  brightness,  but  subsequent  observations 
show  that  it  could  not  then  be  satisfactorily  distinguished  from 
the  early  dawn  and  reflected  lights.  L.  J.  H. 

Rock  Perry,  May  11. 

Weight  and  Mass. 

The  tveight  of  a  body  is  the  quantity  which  is  measured  out 
by  the  operation  of  weighing.  To  weigh  a  body  it  is  placed  in 
one  of  the  scales  of  a  balance,  and  equilibrated  by  standard 
weights  formed  of  lumps  of  metal  called  pounds,  hundred- 
weights, tons,  &c,  or  kilogrammes  in  the  metric  system  ;  and 
the  sum  of  these  weights  is  {pace  Mr.  R.  E.  Baynes)  called  the 
zveight  of  the  body. 

The  mathematician  may  now  call  this  quantity,  if  he  likes, 
the  mass  of  the  body  ;  but  the  world  at  large  uses  the  word 
weight,  with  the  advantage  of  having  the  corresponding  verb 
"to  weigh,"  which  the  substantive  "mass"  does  not  possess  : 
we  are  not  yet  accustomed  to  speak  of  a  body  "  massing  "  100 
tons.  The  numerous  circumlocutions  to  express  one  single  idea 
in  Prof.  MacGregor's  examples  arise  from  the  want  of  the  verb 
"  to  mass." 

The  "  extraordinary  and  peculiar  "  language  is,  then,  that  of 
the  elementary  text-books  of  Mechanics,  which  tell  us  that  the 
weight  of  a  body  is  the  force  with  which  it  is  attracted  by  the 
earth  (Lodge,   "  Elementary  Mechanics,"  p.  66). 

It  is  true,  as  Sir  Philip  Magnus  points  out  in  his  "  Mechanics," 
§  46,  that  the  word  weight  is  made  to  do  double  duty,  sometimes 
standing  for  force  a  id  sometimes  for  mass  ;  and  that  these  two 
significations  must  be  carefully  distinguished. 

But  the  "ordinary  he  or  she"  would  no  more  accept  the 
" pull  or  heft  required  to  lift  a  body"  as  a  correct  measure  of 
the  weight,  than  the  Red  Indian  of  to-day  would  accept  the 
weight  of  the  Hudson  Bay  factor's  fist  as  one  pound. 

The  theorist  must  then  exert  his  ingenuity  to  invent  a  new 
word  to  express  the  force  idea,  to  associate  with  the  word  mass, 
already  invented  by  him  ;  but  to  attempt  to  restrict  the  meaning 
of  the  word  weight  in  a  manner  not  usual  in  ordinary  language 
can  only  lead  to  confusion.  In  any  engineering,  chemical,  or 
ordinary  journal  we  shall  always  find  weight  used  in  the  sense 
of  mass,  as  defined  in  the  text-books  of  elementary  dynamics  ; 
and  even  in  these  treatises  we  shall  find  in  the  parts  on  Statics 
the  word  weight  used  in  its  ordinary  sense.  For  instance,  on 
p.  196  of  Dr.  Lodge's  "Mechanics,"  we  find,  Ex.  10,  "A  mass 
of  wood  (sp.  gr.  o'6)  is  counterpoised  by  105  correct  grammes 
of  iron  (sp.  gr.  7*5);  find  the  mass  of  the  wood  (or  its  true 
weight  in  vacuo)." 

Sometimes  it  is  not  possible  to  employ  the  balance  to  estimate 
the  weight  (or  mass)  of  a  body  ;  as,  for  instance,  when  the 
chemist  evolves  a  certain  weight  of  hydrogen  in  a  chemical  com- 
bination, when  the  artillerist  speaks  of  a  gun  'weighing  no 
tons,  and  when  the  astronomer  "weighs  the  earth," — in  such 
cases  the  weight  or  mass,  whichever  it  is  called,  is  calculated  as 
the  product  of  the  volume  and  the  density :  determine  for 
example  the  weight  of  1000  cubic  feet  of  steel.  The  weight  W 
(or  mass  M)  is  then  found  theoretically  from  the  formula  W  (or 
M)  =  pV,  but  really  practically  from  the  formula  W  =  62  '4-fV, 
where  W  or  M  is  given  in  pounds,  when  V  is  given  in  cubic 
feet,  and  p  is  then  called  the  density,  and  s  the  specific  gravity 
(the  density  relative  to  water),  and  it  is  the  specific  gravity  for 
which  tables  are  given  ;  but  in  the  metric  system  W  (or  M)  = 
pV  =  sV,  where  W  or  M  is  given  in  grammes,  when  V  is  given 
in  cubic  centimetres,  and  the  density  p,  and  the  specific  gravity  s, 
are  then  the  same.  But  turn  to  the  ordinary  text-books,  and  we 
find  these  confusing  equations — 

W  =  Mg  =  gPV  =  sV, 

where  W  is  called  the  weight,  M  the  mass,  p  the  density,  and  f 
the  specific  gravity,  followed  oftenby  a  series  of  absurd  examples 
on  changes  of  units. 


May  17,  1888] 


NATURE 


55 


These  relations  are  derived  from  the  equation  W  =  M>,  the 
source  of  all  confusion  in  Dynamic--,  and  it  is  gratifying  to  find 
from  Prof.  Mendenhall  that  a  crusade  against  it  is  in  progress  in 
America. 

It  is  needless  to  repeat  here  the  objections  against  this 
equation,  but  it  is  easy  to  see  how  it  arose. 

Mathematicians  now  measure  mass  in  pounds,  so  that  the  mass 
of  a  body  is  the  number  of  pounds  of  matter  in  the  body  {the 
fit  in  the  vernacular)  ;  and  the  equation  W  =  Mg  means  that 
the  weight  of  M  pounds  is  Mg  poundals,  according  to  their 
definition  that  "the  weight  of  a  body  is  the  force  with  which  it 
is  attracted  by  the  earth  "  ;  but  this  was  not  so  originally. 

Early  writers  on  Dynamics,  before  Gauss  invented  the  absolute 
unit  of  force,  always  employed  the  statical  gravitational  unit, 
and  then  if  a  weight  of  W  pounds  was  acted  on  by  a  force  of 

P  pounds,  the  equation  of  linear  motion  was —  P. 

g    dt' 

W 
To  avoid  the  necessity   of   writing   and   printing  —  ,  it  was 

g 
replaced  by  the  letter  M,  and  called  the  mass ;  the  unit  of  mass 
being  thus  ^pounds.     But  now  the  invariable  quantity,  the  mas<=, 
is  measured  in  terms  of  a  variable  unit,  while  the  variable  unit 
of  force  is  the  attraction  of  the  earth  on  a  1 -pound  weight. 

Although  such  words  as  "a  force  equal  to  the  weight  of  the 
mass  of  10  pound  weights"  do  not  occur  in  Prof.  MacGregor's 
book,  they  are  strictly  derived  from  his  own  definitions  ;  and  so 
is  the  following,  "  the  weight  of  32  pound  weights  on  the  Earth 
is  at  the  surface  of  Jupiter  a  force  of  71  pounds'  weight."  I 
bring  forward  these  illustrations  to  show  that  the  fine  distinction 
between  "  10  pound  weights  "  and  "  10  pounds'  weight  "  is  not 
workable  ;  and  to  show  that  the  addition  of  the  word  weight  to 
pounds  does  not  convey  the  idea  of  force  in  ordinary  language, 
and  is  not  clear  even  in  the  language  of  the  precisionists. 

Nor  can  the  equation  p  —  gpz  in  Hydrostatics  be  defended,  as 
capable  of  expressing  a  pressure  in  pounds  on  the  square  foot 
(or  more  commonly  on  the  square  inch)  ;  for,  if  Prof.  MacGregor 
applies  this  equation  to  a  numerical  example,  he  will  find  himself 
dividing  by^in  one  operation,  only  to  multiply  by  g  in  the  next. 
The  unreal  character  of  these  changes  of  units  is  apparent  when 
we  come  to  numerical  examples ;  the  defect  of  our  dynamical 
teaching  is  that  the  student  is  so  rarely  brought  before  a  practical 
numerical  illustration  on  a  large  scale. 

The  rest  of  Prof.  MacGregor's  remarks  I  must  answer  very 
briefly,  for  fear  of  occupying  too  much  space. 

The  kilometre  was  designed  to  be  the  centesimal  minute  of 
latitude,  to  replace  the  geographical  or  sea  mile,  which  is  the 
sexagesimal  minute  of  latitude  ;  the  quadrant  of  the  earth  is  there- 
fore 10,000  kilometres,  or  io9  centimetres,  and  90  x  60  =  5400 
geographical  or  sea  miles. 

The  cosmopolitan  unit  of  speed  at  sea  is  the  knot,  which  is  a 
velocity  of  one  geographical  mile  an  hour ;  if  10  knots,  spaced 
about  50  feet  apart,  pass  over  the  taffrail  in  half  a  minute,  the 
vessel  is  said  to  be  going  10  kno'.s.  All  civilized  nations 
measure  speed  at  sea  in  knots,  in  French  nozuds,  German  knoten, 
Dutch  knoopen,  Italian  nodi,  Spanish  nudos,  Sec.  In  precision 
knots  an  hour  is  on  a  par  with  atmospheres  per  square  inch. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  we  have  not  yet  reached  uniformity  in 
the  use  of  the  words  elongation  and  extension.  The  French 
treatises,  and  our  practical  writers,  Rankine,  Unwin,  &c,  use 
tension  and  extension,  pressure  and  compression,  to  denote 
simple  longitudinal  stresses  and  their  corresponding  strains  ;  the 
ratio  of  tension  to  extension,  or  of  pressure  to  compression,  being 
the  modulus  of  elasticity.  This  variation  in  terminology  must  be 
settled  by  some  arbitrator,  say  Prof.  Karl  Pearson. 

In  conclusion,  speaking  on  behalf  of  engineers  and  practical 
men,  I  beg  to  say  that  the  treatment  of  the  subjects  of  weight, 
mass,  and  force,  in  our  ordinary  text-books  of  Mechanics  is  by 
no  means  clear  or  satisfactory,  and  requires  careful  revision. 

Woolwich,  May  4.  A.  G.  Greenhill. 

Density  and  Specific  Gravity. 

If  Mr.  Cumming's  definition  of  specific  gravity  be  accepted, 
the  confusion,  already  serious  enough,  in  the  minds  of  beginners 
in  physics  between  mass  and  weight  will  be  much  increased. 
Surely  the  best  and  clearest  definitions  of  density  and  specific 
gravity  are  those  given  in  Glazebrook  and  Shaw's  "  Practical 
Physics,"  p.  105.  These  make  density  a  quantity  having  dimen- 
sions in  mass  and  space,  and  specific  gravity  a  pure  number. 
There  are  many  advantages  in  defining  specific  gravi'y  as  a  ratio 


and  not  the  least  among  them  is  that  the  numbers  in  tables  of 
specific  gravities  are  independent  of  any  system  of  units,  while 
in  a  table  of  quantities  having  dimensions  the  numbers  given 
depend  on  the  system  of  units  used.  Thus  the  density  of  platinum 
would  have  to  be  given  in  an  English  table  as  134375  pounds, 
or  in  a  metrical  table  as  21 '5  grammes.  Again  we  should  lose 
the  very  useful  analogies  between  the  definitions  of  density  and 
thermal  capacity  and  specific  gravity  and  specific  heat,  to  which 
I  drew  attention  in  a  letter  to  Nature,  vol.  xxxiii.  p.  391. 

Prof.  Carey  Foster  seems  to  think  it  would  be  useful  to 
have  a  table  telling  us  the  force  with  which  unit  volume  of  any 
body  is  attracted  towards  the  earth,  and  that  this  should  be 
called  a  table  of  absolute  specific  gravities.  But  I  fail  to  see 
any  advantage  in  this,  for  it  is  adding  a  totally  new  definition  to 
be  remembered,  and  one  which  would  certainly  create  con- 
fusion in  a  beginner's  mind  ;  and  the  objection  applies  to  this,  that 
the  numbers  given  would  depend  on  the  system  of  units  used,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  value  of  gravity  at  the  place  for  which  the 
table  was  calculated.  Supposing  even  that  the  latter  were 
ignored,  it  is  not  more  troublesome  to  convert,  with  the  aid  ol 
the  known  weight  of  unit  volume  of  water,  the  specific  gravity 
of  any  material  into  the  weight  of  a  given  volume  of  it,  than  to 
convert  a  number  given  in  one  system  of  units  into  the  numbe-' 
representing  it  in  the  system  we  may  happen  to  be  using. 

If  we  are  to  take  Mr.  Cumming's  definition  as  he  expresses  it, 
I  would  submit  that  a  pound  avoirdupois  is  a  quantity  of  matter 
and  not  a  force  ;  and  to  say  that  the  specific  gravity  of  water  is 
62 -5  pounds  avoirdupois  is  simply  taking  the  density  of  water 
and  calling  it  specific  gravity.  Pace  Mr.  Greenhill  and  the 
engineers,  it  is  hard  enough  to  eradicate  the  notion  that  the 
quantity  of  stuff  in  a  body  and  the  force  with  which  it  is  pulled 
towards  the  earth  are  one  and  the  same  without  having  the  task 
made  more  difficult  by  our  definitions. 

50  City  Road,  E.C.  Harry  M.  Elder. 

The  Cornish  Blown  Sands. 

In  the  description  of  the  raised  sea  beach  at  Newquay,  which 
Sir  Henry  De  la  Beche  has  given  in  his  "  Survey  of  Devon  and 
Cornwall,"  he  makes  no  reference  to  a  curious  feature  observable 
in  a  part  of  the  beach,  and  to  which  I  should  like  to  direct 
attention,  with  a  view  to  obtaining  some  explanation  of  the  cause 
of  its  formation.  As  far  as  I  know,  the  appearance  is  only  to 
be  found  at  one  spot,  on  what  is  known  as  Little  Fistrel,  to  the 
westward  of  the  town.  It  consists  of  a  number  of  cylinders  of 
indurated  sand,  separated  from  each  other  by  thin  walls,  often 
only  an  inch  or  two  thick,  and  forming  the  base  of  the  cliff  or 
bank,  which  is  perhaps  10  or  15  feet  high  at  the  place.  These 
cylinders  rest  upon  a  bed  of  rock  (argillaceous  slate  ?),  which  runs 
down  from  the  bottom  of  the  bink  to  the  sea  in  a  series  of 
shelving  ledges.  The  cylinders,  which  are  locally  known  a> 
Pixie  Holes,  weather  out  from  the  bank,  but  unfortunately  few  or 
none  of  them  are  now  to  be  seen  in  a  perfect  state,  their  walls 
having  been  broken  down  by  people  scrambling  up  the  bank,  and 
also  by  quarrying  operations,  which  I  learn  have  recently  been 
carried  on  close  by.  I  am  told  that  formerly  the  cylinders  were 
very  perfect,  and  often  of  large  size  ;  I  myself  have  seen  them, 
fifteen  or  sixteen  years  ago,  standing  up  like  little  towers  along  the 
base  of  the  cliff,  and  I  have  often  sheltered  myself  perfectly  from 
a  shower  of  rain  by  standing  in  one  and  covering  myself  with  my 
umbrella.  I  have  recently  had  a  photograph  taken  of  the  best 
group  to  be  found,  and  a  copy  of  this,  together  with  a  piece  of 
the  wall  of  one  of  the  cylinders,  is  with  Mr.  Goodchild,  of  the 
Geological  Survey,  Jermyn  Street,  who  will  show  it  to  anyone 
interested  in  the  matter ;  the  size  of  one  of  the  cylinders 
photographed  is  5 1  inches  deep  and  28i  inches  in  diameter. 
1  R.  H.  Curtis. 

[The  sand  in  question  is  well  known  to  geologists  as  an 
example  of  blown  sand  agglutinated  into  a  compact  stone  by  car- 
bonate of  lime  derived  from  the  solution  of  calcareous  organisms, 
which  here  on  the  surface  consist  largely  of  land-snails.  The 
tubular  cavities  are  no  doubt  due  to  the  removal  of  the  calcareous 
cement  by  percolating  water,  and  are  thus  of  the  same  nature  as 
the  pot-holes  in  chalk,  and  the  cavernous  holes  and  tunnels  in 
hard  limestone. — Ed.] 

Self-induction  in  Iron  Conductors. 
Mr.  Sumpner  quotes  (Nature,  May  10,  p.  30),  in  support  of 
the  idea  that  iron  conductors  may  have  less  self-induction  than 
copper  ones  of  the  same  dimensions,  a  suggestion  of  mine  that 


56 


NATURE 


{May  17,  1888 


for  very  feeble  magnetizing  forces,  iron  may  be  diamagnetic 
That  suggestion  was  confessedly  speculative  ;  its  basis  was  the 
notion  that  the  Weber- Ampere  electro-magnetic  molecules  suffer 
something  akin  to  static  friction  when  the  process  of  magnetiza- 
tion attempts  to  bring  them  into  alignment.  Since  it  was  thrown 
out,  Lord  Rayleigh  has  proved  that  the  susceptibility  of  iron  is 
constant,  and  has  a  fairly  high  positive  value,  for  magnetic  forces 
ranging  from  003  to  004  C.G. S.  downwards.  Below  the 
lowest  force  he  has  investigated,  it  is  still  conceivable  that  there 
may  be  a  change  in  the  susceptibility,  but  it  is  extremely  im- 
probable. In  all  likelihood,  Lord  Rayleigh's  straight  line  in 
the  curve  of  B  and  H  or  of  I  and  H  extends  back  to  the  origin. 
This  at  least  is  certain,  that  if  there  is  any  region  at  the  begin- 
ning of  magnetization  within  which  the  permeability  is  less  than 
unity,  or  even  no  more  than  unity,  it  must  be  so  infinitesimally 
narrow  that  its  existence  has  no  practical  interest.  For  such 
magnetic  forces  as  act  on  a  lightning-conductor  when  a  dis- 
charge is  passing,  iron  is,  beyond  any  question,  strongly  paramag- 
netic, and  the  self-induction  with  the  iron  conductor  consequently 
greater  than  with  the  copper.  J.  A.  EwiNG. 

Dundee,  May  n. 


Notes  on  the  Reproduction  of  Rudimentary  Toes  in 
Greyhounds. 

At  the  present  writing,  I  have  under  my  observation  a  fine 
male,  light  clay-coloured,  smooth  haired  greyhound,  which  at 
certain  intervals  well  illustrates  the  reproduction  of  the  rudiment- 
ary digits  of  its  feet,  after  they  haVe  been  accidentally  amputated. 
To-day  this  dog  has  growing  on  the  inner  aspects  of  both  its 
fore  and  hind  feet,  and  situated  some  9  centimetres  above  the 
soles,  on  each  limb,  a  strong  rudimentary  toe.  If  we  choose, 
say,  this  toe  on  the  right  hind  foot  as  an  example  of  them  all,  we 
find  it  to  be  loosely  attached,  rather  more  than  a  centimetre 
long  to  the  base  .of  the  claw,  which  latter  is  large  and  strong, 
powerfully  curved,  and  fully  as  big  as  any  of  the  claws  on  the 
foot  phalanges,  I  further  find  that  this  toe  has  a  well-marked  pad 
on  its  under  side,  but  careful  examination  fails  to  detect  any 
bone  in  the  proximal  joint,  from  which  I  also  infer  that  the 
ungual  phalanx  likewise  lacks  one,  though  this  is  not  so  easily 
determined  without  cutting  through  the  horny  theca  forming  the 
claw.  About  four  months  ago  this  dog  was  coursing  hares  over  the 
prairie  of  this  region,  which  chances  to  be  overgrown  with  a 
stiff  growth  of  sage-brush,  about  2  feet  to  3  feet  high.  The  wiry 
stems  of  this  plant,  as  the  dog  bounded  among  them,  snipped  off 
all  four  of  these  rudimentary  digits,  close  down  to  the  leg  in  each 
case,  as  nicely  as  though  it  had  been  done  with  a  knife,  leaving 
linear  wounds  about  half  a  centimetre  long.  Now,  instead  of 
the  lips  of  these  wounds  healing  across,  as  one  would  naturally 
suppose  they  would,  they  immediately  form  the  basis,  in  each 
case,  for  the  growth  of  another  rudimentary  clawed  toe,  fully  as 
perfect  as  the  one  which  originally  sprang  from  the  same  site. 
These  subsequent  growths  take  about  three  months  to  attain 
their  full  size  again,  when  they  are  very  likely  to  be  removed  by 
a  similar  process,  and  once  more  grow  out  as  before,  and  so  on 
indefinitely. 

From  several  points  of  view,  this  case,  as  occurring  in  a 
vertebrate  so  high  in  the  scale  as  a  dog,  has  interested  me 
very  much  indeed,  and  I  further  find  that  it  is  no  uncommon  thing 
to  meet  with  greyhounds  that  have  never  possessed  these  rudi- 
mentary pollices  and  halluces,  and  it  is  fair  to  presume  that  in 
this  race  they  are  gradually  disappearing. 

R.  W.  Shufeldt. 

Fort  Wingate,  New  Mexico,  March  28. 


Dreams. 

In  discussing  the  differences  between  dreams  and  real  life, 
Schopenhauer  expresses  the  opinion  that  the  distinction  between 
these  two  activities  of  our  representative  power  consists  merely 
in  the  possibility  of  the  representations  of  real  life  being  con- 
nected in  an  uninterrupted  successive  series,  while  dreams 
resemble  the  separate  pages  of  a  book  torn  asunder,  and  put 
together  again  in  complete  confusion.  Some  personal  observa- 
tions of  my  own  do  not  quite  agree  with  this  view.  I  have 
watched  my  dreams  for  some  years,  and  have  remarked  that 
many  of  them  are  connected  with  one  another  in  separate  series. 
It  happens  to  me  very  often  that  my  dreams  consist  of  a  series 
of  representations  logically  developed  (although  sometimes  the 
logic  is  absurd)  from  other  series  of  representations  dreamed  long 


before.     It  would  be  interesting  to  know  if   anyone  else  has 
observed  anything  of  this  kind.  A.  Bialoveski. 

Oostkamenogorsk,  Western  Siberia,  April  6. 


"Antagonism." 

Mr.  Collins  (Nature,  May  3,  p.  7)  claims  that  Mr. 
Herbert  Spencer  anticipated  Sir  Wm.  Grove  and  Prof.  Huxley 
in  the  expression  of  the  idea  of  antagonism.  I  think  that 
priority  to  all  of  them  must  be  given  to  the  author  of  Eccle- 
siasticus  in  the  Apocrypha,  who  says  (chap,  xlii.,  verse  24), 
"All  things  are  double,  one  against  the  other.  He  hath  made 
nothing  imperfect."  Thomas  Woods. 

Parsonstown,  May  13. 


SUGGESTIONS  ON  THE  CLASSIFICATION  OF 
THE  VARIOUS  SPECIES  OF  HEAVENLY 
BODIES.1 

V. 

Classification  into  Species. 

V\7"E  are  now  in  a  position  to  apply  all  that  has  gone 
**  before  in  a  summarized  statement  of  the  various 
spectral  changes,  including  those  connected  with  hydrogen, 
which  take  place  not  only  in  these  objects  studied  by 
Duner,  but  in  those  others  to  which  I  have  referred  as 
forming  the  true  beginning  of  the  group. 

The  following  statement,  however,  must  not  be  taken 
as  anything  else  than  a  first  approximation  to  the  real 
criteria  of  specific  differences.  I  am  convinced  that 
further  thought  is  required  on  it,  and  that  such  further 
thought  will  be  well  repaid. 

The  Sequence  of  the  Various  Bands  in  the  Spectra  of  the 
Elements  indicated  by  Bodies  of  the  Group. 

In  comparing  the  spectrum  of  an  element  which  has 
been  mapped  in  the  laboratory  with  the  absorption  bands 
in  the  spectrum  of  a  "  star,"  we  need  only  consider  those 
bands  and  flutings  which  stand  out  prominently  and  are 
the  first  to  flash  out  when  there  is  only  a  small  quantity 
present.  Thus,  in  the  flame  spectrum  of  barium  there  is 
an  almost  continuous  background  of  flutings  with  a  few 
brighter  bands  in  the  green,  and  it  is  only  important  to 
consider  the  bands,  as  the  flutings  would  mainly  produce 
a  general  dimming  of  the  continuous  spectrum.  In 
order  to  show  at  a  glance  what  portions  of  the  spectrum 
of  an  element  it  is  most  important  for  us  to  consider  in 
this  discussion,  I  have  reconstructed  the  map  of  low- 
temperature  spectra  which  I  gave  in  my  previous  paper, 
with  reference  to  those  elements  which  are  indicated 
in  the  spectra  of  bodies  of  Group  II.  Five  orders  of 
intensities  are  represented,  the  longest  lines,  flutings,  or 
bands  being  the  brightest.  The  lines,  flutings,  or  bands 
in  the  lowest  horizon,  in  the  case  of  each  element,  are 
those  which  are  seen  at  the  lowest  temperature,  and  which 
are  the  first  to  appear  when  only  a  small  quantity  of 
substance  is  present.  Those  in  the  upper  horizons  are 
the  faintest,  and  are  only  seen  when  the  temperature  is 
increased,  or  a  considerable  amount  of  the  substance  is 
volatilized.  The  map  shows  that  if  there  are  any  indica- 
tions of  magnesium,  for  instance,  in  bodies  of  low  tem- 
peratures, the  fluting  at  500  will  be  seen,  possibly  with- 
out the  other  flutings  or  lines.  The  first  indications  of 
manganese  will  be  the  fluting  at  558,  and  so  on.  Again, 
on  account  of  the  masking  effect  of  the  spectrum  of  one 
element  upon  that  of  another,  we  may  sometimes  have  an 
element  indicated  in  a  star  spectrum,  not  by  the  brightest 
band  or  fluting  in  its  spectrum,  but  by  the  second  or  even 
third  in  brightness  ;  this,  of  course,  only  occurs  when  the 
darkest  band   falls   on   one   of  the  brightest  flutings  of 

1  The  Bakerian  Lecture,  delivered  at  the  Royal  Society  on  April  12,  by 
J.  Norman  Lockyer,  F.R.S.     Continued  from  p.  35. 


May  17,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


Fig.  8. — Map  showing  the  lines,  bands,  and  Outings  seen  in  the  spectra  of  the  elements  which  are  indicated  in  bodies  of  Group  II.  The  map  is  intended  to  show 
also  the  relative  intensities  of  the  different  lines,  bands,  and  flutings,  the  lines,  &c,  seen  in  the  lowest  horizon  being  those  seen  at  the  lowest  temperature. 


0      I      2 


HOT   CARBONS 


MAGNESIUM. 


MANGANESE 


RESULT  ,      SPECIES  2. 


RADIATION 


ABSORPTION 


HOT  CARBON 


MAGNESIUM. 


MANGANESE. 
RESULT,       SPECIES  3 


HOT   CARBON 


MAGNESIUM. 


MANCANESE. 


RESULT,       SPECIES  5. 


RADIATION 


ABSORPTION 


RADIATION. 


ABSORPTION 


Fig. 


9.— Diagram  showing  the  effects  of  variations  in  width  of  the  flutings  of  carbon  upon  the  integrated  spectra  of  carbon  radiation,  and  magnesium  and 
manganese  absorption,  as  they  occur  in  different  species  of  bodies  of  Group  II.  The  carbon  radiation  alone  would  give  bright  bands,  while  the 
absorption  alone  would  give  dark  ones ;  but  if  the  bright  and  dark  bands  fall  in  the  same  regions  of  the  spectrum,  the  result  will  be  enfeebled 
radiation,  enfeebled  absorption,  or  nil,  according  to  the  relative  quantities  of  radiating  and  absorbing  substances  present.  Thus,  in  species  2,  the 
magnesium  fluting  at  500  15  masked  by  the  carbon  fluting  at  517,  but  as  the  quantity  of  carbon  diminishes,  it  appears  as  an  abiorption  band. 


58 


NA  TURE 


{May  17,  1888 


carbon,  or  upon  a  dark  band  in  the  spectrum  of  some 
other  element.  In  the  former  case  the  dark  band  will  be 
cancelled  or  masked  ;  in  the  latter  case  the  two 
absorptions  will  be  added  together,  and  form  a  darker 
band  of  a  different  shape. 

The  Question  of  Masking. 

If  we  consider  the  masking  effects  of  the  bright  carbon 
flutings  upon  the  absorption  spectrum  of  each  of  the 
elements  which,  according  to  the  results  obtained,  enter 
into  the  formation  of  DuneYs  bands,  we  have  the  follow- 
ing as  the  main  results  : — 

Magnesium. — There  are  two  flutings  of  magnesium  to 
be  considered,  the  brightest  at  500  and  the  other  at  5201. 
In  the  earlier  stages  of  Duner's  stars  only  the  fainter  one 
at  5201  is  visible,  but  the  absence  of  the  brightest  at  500 
is  accounted  for  by  the  masking  effect  of  the  bright  carbon 
fluting  starting  at  517.  As  the  carbon  fades,  the  517 
fluting  narrows  and  the  absorption  of  magnesium  500 
becomes  evident. 

Manganese. — The  two  chief  flutings  of  manganese  are 
at  558  and  586,  the  former  being  the  brightest  fluting  in 
the  spectrum.  The  second  fluting  is  seen  in  all  of  DuneYs 
stars.  The  first  fluting,  558,  however,  does  not  appear 
as  an  absorption  fluting  until  the  radiation  fluting  of 
carbon  starting  at  564  has  narrowed  sufficiently  to  unmask 
it.  It  is  thus  easy  to  understand  why,  in  some  stars,  there 
should  be  the  second  fluting  of  manganese  without  the 
first. 

Barium. — The  spectrum  of  barium  consists  of  a  set  of 
flutings  extending  the  whole  length  of  the  spectrum,  and 
standing  out  on  this  as  a  background  are  three  bright 
bands  ;  the  brightest  band  is  at  515,  the  second  is  at  525, 
and  the  third,  a  broader  band,  is  about  485.  The  second 
band  is  recorded  as  an  absorption  band  in  Duner's  stars, 
the  apparent  absence  of  the  first  band  being  due  to  the 
masking  effect  of  the  bright  carbon  at  517.  The  third 
band  at  485  probably  forms  a  portion  of  band  9.  A 
fourth  band,  at  533,  and  the  three  brightest  flutings  at 
602,  635,  and  648  are  also  seen  in  a  Ononis. 

Lead. — The  brightest  fluting  of  lead  is  at  546.  This 
first  appears  in  species  5,  as  a  result  of  increased  tem- 
perature, and  not  on  account  of  the  removal  of  any 
previous  mask.  The  second  fluting  of  lead,  at  568,  also 
appears  in  two  cases. 

Chro?nium. — The  flutings  of  chromium  do  not  form 
portions  of  the  ten  principal  bands  of  Dune>,  but  the 
brightest  are  seen  in  a  Orionis.  The  brightest  fluting  is 
at  580,  and  this  forms  band  I.  ;  the  second,  at  557,  is 
masked  by  the  manganese  fluting  at  558,  and  the  third  at 
536  is  seen  as  line  2.  The  chromium  triplet  about  520, 
which  is  visible  in  the  bunsen,  is  seen  as  line  3. 

Bismuth. — The  brightest  fluting  of  bismuth  is  at  620, 
the  second  is  at  571,  the  third  at  602,  and  the  fourth  is 
at  646.  The  first  is  masked  by  the  iron  fluting  at  615,  the 
second  is  probably  seen  in  a  Orionis  as  band  II.  (570-577). 

The  points  I  consider  as  most  firmly  established  are 
the  masking  effects  of  the  bright  carbon  flutings  and  the 
possibility  of  the  demonstration  of  the  existence  of  some 
of  the  flutings  in  the  spectrum  by  this  means,  if  there 
were  no  other.-  There  are  two  chief  cases,  the  masking 
of  the  "nebula"  fluting  500  by  the  bright  carbon  fluting 
with  its  brightest,  less  refrangible  edge  at  517,  and  that  of 
the  strongest  fluting  of  Mn  =  M'n(i)  558,  by  the  other  with 
its  brightest  edge  at  564.  I  have  little  doubt  that  in  some 
quarters  my  anxiety  not  to  be  content  to  refer  to  the  second 
fluting  of  Mn  without  being  able  to  explain  the  absence 
of  the  first  one,  will  be  considered  thrown  away,  as  it  is  so 
easy  to  ascribe  any  non-understood  and  therefore  "  ab- 
normal "  spectrum  to  unknown  physical  laws  ;  but  when 
a  special  research  had  shown  me  that  at  all  temperatures 
at  which  the  flutings  of  manganese  are  seen  at  all,  the  one 
at  558  retained  its  supremacy,  I  felt  myself  quite  justi- 
fied in  ascribing  its  absence  in  species  1-4  to  the  cause  I 


have  assigned,  the   more   especially   as  the  Mg   fluting 
which  is  visible  even  in  the  nebula  followed  suit. 

•  The  Characteristics  of  the  Various  Species. 

I  append  the  following  remarks  and  references  to  the 
number  of  the  bodies  in  Duner's  catalogue,  in  which  the 
specific  differences  come  out  most  strongly,  to  the  tabular 
statement.     I  also  refer  to  some  difficulties. 

Sp.  1.  The  characteristic  here  is  the  almost  cometary 
condition.  All  three  bright  carbon  flutings  generally  seen 
in  comets  are  visible  ;  474  standing  out  beyond  the  end 
of  the  dull  blue  continuous  spectrum  of  the  meteorites,  516 
masking  Mg  500,  and  564  masking  Mn(i)  558.  The  bands 
visible  in  the  spectra  of  bodies  belonging  to  this  species 
will  therefore  be  Mn(2)  586,  and  Mg(2)  521  ;  band  9  will 
be  so  wide  and  pale  that  it  would  most  likely  escape  de- 
tection. It  is  very  doubtful  whether  any  of  the  bodies 
the  spectra  of  which  have  hitherto  been  recorded  can  be 
classed  in  this  species,  but  laboratory  work  assuredly 
points  to  their  existence  ;  it  will  therefore  be  extremely  in- 
teresting if  future  observations  result  in  their  discovery. 
It  is  possible,  however,  that  No.  150  of  Duner's  list  belongs 
to  this  species,  but  the  details  are  insufficient  to  say  with 
certainty.  His  description  is  as  follows  :—"  150.  lime 
parait  y  avoir  une  bande  e'troite  dans  le  rouge,  et  une  plus 
large  dans  le  vert  "  (p.  55). 

Sp.  2.  Characteristics  :  appearance  of  Fe.  The  number 
of  bands  now  visible  is  three — namely,  2,  3,  and  7.  The 
iron  comes  out  as  a  result  of  the  increased  tempera- 
ture. Mg(i)  and  Mn(i)  are  still  masked  by  the  bright 
carbon  flutings,  and  there  is  still  insufficient  luminosity 
to  make  the  apparent  absorption  band  9  dark  enough  to 
be  noticed. 

Sp.  3.  Characteristics :  appearance  of  Mg  500,  which 
has  previously  been  masked  by  the  carbon  bright  flut- 
ing 517.  8  and  7  are  now  the  darkest  bands  in  the 
spectrum,  37. 

Sp.  4.  Characteristics  :  appearance  of  Pb(i)  546,  i.e. 
band  5.  This,  if  present  in  the  earlier  species  at  all, 
would  be  masked  by  the  bright  carbon  at  564. 

Sp.  5.  Characteristics:  Mnfi)  is  now  unmasked.  The 
bands  now  visible  are  2,  3,  4,  5,  7,  and  8,  the  two  latter 
still  being  the  widest  and  darkest,  because  they  are 
essentially  low-temperature  phenomena. 

Sp.  6.  Characteristic  :  band  6,  i.e.  Ba(2),  525,  is  now 
added.  The  first  band  of  Ba  at  515  is  masked  by  the 
bright  carbon  at  517.  The  bands  now  visible  are  2-8,  7 
and  8  still  being  widest  and  darkest.  They  will  all  be 
pretty  wide,  and  they  will  be  dark  because  the  continuous 
spectrum  will  be  feebly  developed. 

Sp-  7.  Characteristics  :  appearance  of  band  9.  This, 
which  has  been  already  specially  referred  to,  has  been  too 
wide  and  pale  to  be  observed  in  the  earlier  species.  Its 
present  appearance  is  due  to  the  narrowing  and  brighten- 
ing of  the  carbon  at  474  and  the  brightening  of  the  con- 
tinuous spectrum,  the  result  being  a  greater  contrast. 
Bands  7  and  8  still  retain  their  supremacy,  but  all  the 
bands  will  be  moderately  wide  and  dark. 

Sp.  8.  Characteristics  :  all  the  bands  2-9  are  more 
prominent,  so  that  7  and  8  have  almost  lost  their 
supremacy. 

Sp.  9.  Characteristic:  appearance  of  band  1,  the 
origin  of  which  has  not  yet  been  determined.  All  the 
bands  are  well  seen,  and  are  moderately  wide  and  dark. 

Sp.  10.  Characteristics:  appearance  of  band  10,  and 
in  some  cases  n.  These  become  visible  on  account  of 
the  brightening  of  the  carbon  B  fluting  and  the  hydro- 
carbon fluting  at  431.  The  spectrum  is  now  at  its  greatest 
beauty,  and  is  discontinuous. 

Sp.  n.  Characteristics:  the  bands  are  now  becoming 
wider,  and  2  and  3  are  gaining  in  supremacy  ;  7  and  8 
become  narrower  on  account  of  the  increased  tempera- 
ture. 1  and  10  are  only  occasionally  seen  in  this 
species. 


May  17,  1888] 


NATURE 


59 


Sp.  12.  Characteristics:  with  the  expansion  of  the 
continuous  spectrum  towards  the  blue,  band  9  becomes 
verv  narrow,  and  cannot  be  observed  with  certainty. 
The   other  bands,  with   the   exception  of  7   and  8,   are 


becoming  wider  and  paler,  while  2  and  3  still  gain  in 
supremacy. 

Sp.   13.    Characteristics:    9   has   now  entirely   disap- 
peared, 2  and  3  still  retaining  their  supremacy. 


I      2     3 


EC.  FIRST  SPECIES 


A  LA5T   ,      , 


5     6     7     8<>  9 


£  ORIGIN  OF  BANDS 
5  OF  THE  BANDS. 


CH               C.B     C.A 

Mg 

MgBtt- 

Pb   Mn 

Mn 

Fe 

I                 1        1 

II                10        9 

8 

7  6 

5        4 

3 

2                     1 

MEAN  VALUES. 


.— Map  showing  the  spectra  of  the  various  species  of  the  bodies  of  Group  II.,  and  the  probable  origin  of  the  bands.  The  carbon  flutings  are  widest  in 
the  first  species,  and  gradually  narrow  until,  in  the  last  species,  only  a  trace  of  517  remains.  The  length  of  the  continuous  spectrum  gradually 
increases  as  the  carbon  flutings  narrow.     The  carbon  B1  fluting,  and  the  hydrocarbon  fluting  are  only  seen  in  species  8  to  12. 


Sp.  14.  Characteristics  :  all  the  bands  are  pale  and 
narrow  ;  2  and  3  will  still  be  darkest,  but  the  difference 
will  not  be  so  great  as  in  the  species  preceding. 

Sp.  15.  Characteristics:  in  ordinary  members  of  this 


group,  2  and  3  now  alone  remain  visible :  they  are  wide, 
but  feeble,  as  the  continuous  spectrum  which  has  been 
rapidly  developing  during  the  last  changes  is  now 
stronsr. 


6o 


NA  TURE 


[May  17,  1888 


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THE  ROYAL  SOCIETY  CONVERSAZIONE. 

HTHE  first  conversazione  of  the  season  was  held  on 
•*■  May  9,  and  was  very  numerously  attended.  More 
pains  than  ever  seemed  to  have  been  bestowed  on  the 
arrangements,  and  the  results  entirely  justified  them.  As 
the  carefully  prepared  programme  covers  eighteen  closely 
printed  pages,  we  can  only  give  a  very  summary  account, 
of  the  most  important  demonstrations  and  exhibits. 

Following  recent  precedents,  the  meeting-room  was  de- 
voted to  demonstrations  by  means  of  the  electric  lantern, 
the  following  being  given  :  image  of  electric  spark,  by 
Dr.  Marcet ;  Mr.  Poulton's  teeth  of  Ornithorhynchus,  by 
Dr.  Hickson  ;  Forth  Bridge,  by  Mr.  Baker ;  collieries, 
by  Mr.  Sopwith. 

The  chief  exhibits  in  the  other  rooms  were  as  follow  : — 
Experiments  on  the  optical  demonstration  of  electrical 
stress,  shown  by  Prof.  A.  W.  Riicker,  F.R.S.,  and  Mr. 
C.  V.  Boys.  These  experiments  are  similar  to  those  de- 
vised by  Dr.  Kerr,  the  arrangements  being  modified  so  as 
to  render  them  suitable  for  exhibition  in  public.  Con- 
ductors of  various  forms  are  immersed  in  bisulphide  of 
carbon  and  placed  between  crossed  Nicol  prisms.  When 
the  conductors  are  oppositely  electrified  the  medium  is 
thrown  into  a  state  of  stress,  and  the  light  which  had  been  ex- 
tinguished by  the  analyzing  prism  is  restored.  The  various 
forms  of  conductors  employed  are — parallel  cylinders, 
concentric  cylinders,  parallel  planes,  a  plane  and  cylinder, 
and  plates  bent  so  as  to  represent  a  section  of  a  Leyden 
jar.  Many  of  the  phenomena  exhibited  by  crystals 
in  plane  polarized  light  are  imitated — e.g.  the  black 
cross  and  the  production  of  colours  similar  to  those  in 
Newton's  rings.  A  bright  field  can  be  maintained  by  the 
introduction  of  a  plate  of  selenite  between  the  Nicols,  in 
which  case  the  electrical  stress  is  indicated  by  change  of 
colour. 

Large  electrical  influence  machine,  exhibited  by  Mr. 
James  Wimshurst.  It  has  twelve  disks  of  2  feet  6  inches 
in  diameter  ;  each  disk  carries  sixteen  metal  sectors.  The 
machine  is  self-exciting  in  any  condition  of  atmosphere. 
It  shows  large  and  perfect  brush  discharge  at  its  terminals. 
With  Leyden  jars  it  will  give  sparks  13!  inches  in  length. 
Photographs  of  flashes  of  lightning,  exhibited  by  the 
Royal  Meteorological  Society. 

Radio-micrometer,  exhibited  by  Mr.  C.  V.  Boys.  This 
is  probably  the  most  delicate  instrument  for  measuring 
radiant  heat  yet  made.  It  consists  of  a  circuit  made  of 
antimony,  bismuth,  and  copper  hung  by  an  exceedingly 
fine  fibre  of  quartz  in  a  strong  magnetic  field.  A  scale 
model  of  the  circuit,  twenty  times  the  size  or  8000  times 
the  weight,  shows  the  construction  of  the  suspended  part 
of  the  instrument.  The  fibre,  if  magnified  to  the  same 
extent,  would  still  be  finer  than  spun  glass.  The  propor- 
tions of  the  several  parts  are  those  which  have  been 
found  by  calculation  (confirmed  by  experiment)  to  give 
the  greatest  possible  delicacy. 

Experiments  with  soap-bubbles,  also  shown  by  Mr. 
Boys.  These  experiments  are  arranged  to  show  chiefly 
the  power  of  an  air-film  to  prevent  two  bubbles  from 
coming  into  real  contact.  Thus,  among  other  experi- 
ments, the  outer  of  two  bubbles  may  be  pulled  out  until 
it  squeezes  the  inner  one  into  a  long  oval,  but  no  real 
contact  takes  place.  An  inner  bubble  filled  with  gas  will 
carry  up  an  outer  one  to  which  are  attached  a  wire  ring 
and  other  things  without  really  touching  it  at  all.  A 
bubble  will  roll  down  a  spiral  groove,  also  made  of  soap- 
film,  or  jump  one  or  two  steps  at  a  time  down  a  spiral 
staircase  made  of  soap-film,  without  touching  the  spiral 
film  or  being  injured  in  the  least.  Some  of  the  experi- 
ments show  the  effects  of  diffusion,  of  vibration,  of  mag- 
netism, or  of  electricity  upon  bubbles  or  groups  of  bubbles. 
Maps  and  diagrams  illustrative  of  the  recent  work  of 
the  Geological  Survey  in  the  North- West  Highlands, 
exhibited  by  the   Director-General  of   H.M.  Geological 


May  17,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


61 


Survey.  The  maps,  on  the  scale  of  6  inches  to  a  mile, 
show  the  remarkable  geological  structure  of  the  west  of 
Sutherland.  A  series  of  enormous  dislocations  runs  in  a 
southerly  direction  from  the  mouth  of  Loch  Eriboll  to 
Skye.  By  these  disruptions  the  most  ancient  rocks 
have  been  torn  up  from  great  depths,  and  have 
been  launched  bodily  westwards,  sometimes  for  several 
miles.  The  displaced  masses  now  rest  upon  other  shifted 
portions  or  upon  wholly  undisturbed  rocks,  and  the  ex- 
traordinary structure  is  presented  of  vertical  and  highly 
inclined  strata,  with  their  unconformable  junctions  stand- 
ing upon  gently  inclined  and  much  younger  rocks.  The 
diagrams  are  taken  across  some  of  the  more  typical  parts 
of  the  district,  and  give  some  idea  of  the  physical  prob- 
lems presented  by  this  region,  which  undoubtedly  ex- 
hibits the  most  complicated  geological  structure  in  the 
British  Isles. 

Sections  and  specimens  illustrating  the  recent  borings 
in  the  Delta  of  the  Nile,  exhibited  by  Prof.  J.  W.  Judd, 
F.R.S.,  on  behalf  of  the  Delta  Committee.  The  whole  of 
the  samples  obtained  in  these  borings  have  now  reached 
the  Royal  Society,  and  the  examination  of  the  materials 
reveals  some  facts  of  great  geological  interest.  The 
alterations  and  mixtures  of  blown  sand  and  Nile  alluvium 
were  found  to  continue  down  to  the  depth  of  121  feet  from 
the  surface  and  95  feet  below  the  level  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean. At  that  depth  a  remarkable  change  in  the 
deposits  took  place,  and  beds  of  gravel  containing  both 
pebbles  and  subangular  fragments  of  quartzite,  chert, 
compact  limestone,  with  some  metamorphic  and  igneous 
rocks,  were  found  ;  and  similar  beds  occur  at  intervals 
down  to  the  greatest  depth  reached.  Up  to  the  present 
time  no  contemporaneous  organic  remains  have  been 
found  in  these  deposits. 

Fossil  plants  from  Ardtun  in  Mull,  exhibited  by  Mr.  J. 
Starkie  Gardner.  These  plants  are  from  a  small  patch  of 
limestone  beneath  the  gravels  and  silts  of  an  old  river 
course  sealed  up  in  the  great  trap  flows  of  Western 
Scotland.  The  limestone  is  rather  below  the  leaf-bed 
found  at  Ardtun  by  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  and  directly 
overhangs  the  sea,  the  cliffs  beneath  being  columnar  and 
worn  into  caverns.  The  plants  were  until  recently 
believed  to  be  Miocene,  but  are  now  recognized  to  be 
very  low  down  in  the  Eocene— vide  recent  writings  of 
Sir  W.  Dawson  and  the  Marquis  de  Saporta.  The  same 
plants  ranged  over  Greenland  and  North  America  during 
the  Tertiary,  perhaps  not  synchronously,  and  an  allied 
flora  seems  to  exist  at  the  present  day  in  China  and 
Japan. 

Photographs  illustrating  experiments  in  mountain- 
building,  exhibited  by  Mr.  Henry  M.  Cadell,  H.M. 
Geological  Survey  of  Scotland.  These  have  already 
been  referred  to  in  Nature. 

Set  of  thermometers  specially  constructed  by  Casella 
for  use  by  Mr.  Symons  in  determining  the  present  tem- 
perature of  the  mineral  springs  in  the  Pyrenees,  exhibited 
by  Mr.  G.  J.  Symons,  F.R.S.  ;  and  Immisch's  avitreous 
thermometer,  constructed  for  the  above  investigation.  This 
thermometer  is  absolutely  perfect,  its  verification  at  Kew, 
before  and  after  its  use  in  the  Pyrenees,  being  oc-o  at  all 
points  from  500  to  1300. 

An  apparatus  for  determining  the  hardness  of  metals  or 
other  substances,  exhibited  by  Mr.  Thomas  Turner. 

Robertson's  writing  telegraph,  exhibited  by  Mr.  John 
M.  Richards. 

A  Coulomb-meter,  exhibited  by  Prof.  George  Forbes, 
F.R.S.  This  consists  essentially  of  a  conductor  of  iron  wire 
in  the  form  of  a  spiral,  or  a  double  ring  with  cross  wires. 
Above  the  conductor  a  set  of  vanes  is  pivoted.  This  con- 
sists of  a  circular  disk  of  mica  with  a  hole  in  the  centre  in 
which'  is  fixed  a  paper  cone  carrying  at  its  apex  a  pinion 
with  a  concentric  ruby  cup.  Round  the  circumference  of 
the  mica  disk  eight  small  cylinders  of  pith  are  fixed  at 
equal  distances,  and  eight  vanes  inclined  at  45°  to  the  mica 


disk  are  attached  to  the  pith  cylinders,  these  vanes  being 
made  of  the  thinnest  mica.  This  set  of  vanes  is  supported 
by  the  ruby  cup  resting  on  a  steel  point  fixed  to  the  base 
of  the  instrument.  The  pinion  engages  with  the  first  wheel 
of  a  train  of  wheelwork  actuating  the  indexes,  which  show 
upon  dials  the  number  of  revolutions  made  by  the  vanes. 
The  action  of  the  instrument  is  very  simple.  The  electric 
current  passing  through  the  iron  conductor  creates  heat, 
which  sets  up  a  convection  current  in  the  air,  and  this 
causes  the  vanes  to  rotate  about  the  vertical  axis  and 
drive  the  clockwork.  The  number  of  revolutions  indicated 
on  the  dials  is,  through  a  considerable  range  of  currents, 
an  exact  indication  of  the  number  of  coulombs  or 
ampere-hours  which  have  passedth  rough  the  conductor. 
The  friction  of  the  ruby  cup  on  the  pivot  determines 
the  smallest  current  which  can  be  accurately  measured, 
and  the  friction  of  the  clockwork  is  barely  perceptible. 
The  resistance  of  a  meter  to  read  from  1  ampere  upwards 
is  o-02  ohm. 

Electrical  translucent  balloon  for  flashing  signals  by 
night,  invented  and  exhibited  by  Mr.  Eric  Stuart  Bruce. 

The  new  iridio-platinum  incandescent  gas-burner 
(Lewis  and  Sellon's  patents),  exhibited  by  Messrs. 
Johnson,  Matthey,  and  Co. 

Apparatus  for  measuring  the  changes  produced  by 
magnetization  in  the  dimensions  of  rods  and  rings  of  iron 
and  other  metals,  exhibited  by  Mr.  Shelford  Bidwell, 
F.R.S.  The  instrument  exhibited  is  capable  of  measur- 
ing changes  of  length  to  a  millionth  of  a  millimetre 
or  a  twenty-five-millionth  of  an  inch.  An  iron  rod  when 
magnetized  becomes  (as  is  well  known)  at  first  slightly 
lengthened.  But  if  the  magnetizing  force  is  sufficiently 
increased  it  again  contracts,  and  ultimately  becomes 
actually  shorter  than  when  unmagnetized.  A  cobalt  rod 
contracts  under  magnetization,  reaching  a  minimum 
length  in  a  field  of  about  500  C.G.S.  units,  beyond  which 
point  it  becomes  longer.  A  nickel  rod  also  contracts  ;  the 
limit  of  its  contraction  not  having  been  reached  with  the 
greatest  magnetizing  forces  yet  used.  Bismuth  is  slightly 
elongated  in  intense  fields.  (See  Proc.  Roy.  Soc,  vol.  xliii., 
1888,  p.  406.) 

Experiments  illustrating  low-temperature  spectra,  irt 
connection  with  the  spectra  of  meteorites,  shown  by 
Mr.  J.  Norman  Lockyer,  F.R.S. 

Skeleton  of  an  Akka,  a  Negro  tribe  from  Central 
Africa,  the  smallest  known  race  of  men.  (Height  exactly 
4  feet.)  Sent  by  Dr.  Emin  Pasha  for  the  British  Museum, 
and  exhibited  by  Prof.  Flower,  C.B.,  F.R.S. 

Charts  showing  lines  of  equal  values  of  the  magnetic 
elements  (epoch  1880) — declination  or  variation,  inclina- 
tion or  dip,  horizontal  force  (British  units),  vertical  force 
(British  units) — exhibited  by  Staff-Commander  E.  W. 
Creak,  R.N.,  F.R.S.  From  the  original  charts  at  the 
Admiralty,  compiled  by  Staff-Commander  E.  W.  Creak, 
and  prepared  in  their  present  form  for  the  "  Report  on 
the  Magnetical  Results  obtained  in  H.M.S.  Challenger," 
in  the  concluding  volume  of  the  "Voyage  of  H.M.S. 
Challenger."  The  small  maps  show— (1)  The  track  of 
H.M.S.  Challenger  where  magnetic  observations  were 
made.  (2)  The  approximate  distribution  of  the  secular 
change  in  the  declination  or  variation  (epoch  1840-80). 

Photographs  of  the  polar  axis  of  a  5-foot  telescope, 
December  1887,  January  1888,  exhibited  by  Mr.  A.  A. 
Common,  F.R.S. 

Sir  William  Thomson's  models  of  foam  or  froth  con- 
sisting of  equal  bubbles,  exhibited  by  Prof.  G.  H.  Darwin, 
F.R.S.  Each  bubble  is  a  curvilinear  fourteen-faced  space. 
If  a  single  bubble  be  dissected  from  the  mass,  it  is  found 
to  be  derived  from  the  regular  octahedron  (two  square 
pyramids  base  to  base)  by  truncating  the  six  solid  angles. 
Thus  the  eight  faces  of  the  octahedron  give  rise  to  eight 
curvilinear  hexagons,  and  the  six  solid  angles  to  six  solid 
curvilinear  squares.  In  the  foam  three  films  meet  at  120 
at  each  edge,  and  of  the  three  which  meet  two  are  hexa- 


62 


NATURE 


[May  17,  1888 


gons  and  one  is  a  square.  (See  Phil.  Mag.,  vol.  xxiv., 
1887,  p.  503.) 

Model  of  maximum  pressure  anemometer,  designed  by 
Mr.  Whipple,  Superintendent  of  Kew  Observatory,  ex- 
hibited by  the  Kew  Committee.  In  this  instrument  eight 
small  metal  disks,  each  of  o-oi  foot  in  area,  are  supported 
vertically  against  the  wind  by  levers  weighted  in  accord- 
ance with  the  various  pressures  of  the  wind  on  Beaufort's, 
or  some  other  accepted  scale  of  force.  A  vane  keeps 
their  surfaces  normal  to  the  wind's  direction.  By  their 
displacement  the  maximum  wind  pressure  during  any 
desired  period  is  registered.  The  large  perforated  disk 
against  which  they  are  pressed  serves  the  purpose  of 
removing  the  indicating  disks  beyond  the  action  of  the 
eddies  of  the  wind  playing  round  the  edges  of  the  plate. 

Specimens  of  gold  showing  the  effect  of  small  quantities 
of  impurity  on  the  fracture  of  the  metal,  exhibited  by  Mr. 
W.  C.  Roberts-Austen,  F.R.S. 

Miners'  electric  safety-lamps,  exhibited  by  the  Schan- 
schieff  Electric  Light  and  Power  Company.  (1)  A  three- 
cell  lamp  capable  of  giving  i\  candle-power  for  9  hours. 
Each  cell  contains  5  fluid  ounces  of  solution,  and  con- 
sumes §  pound  of  zinc  in  48  hours.  The  light  is  more 
than  four  times  more  powerful  than  that  of  the  Clanny 
oil  lamp,  and  its  working  cost  is  id.  per  shift  of  9  hours, 
or  3frf.  per  week.  The  weight  when  fully  charged  is 
about  3j  pounds.  The  elements  consist  of  carbon  and 
zinc,  and  the  excitant  is  a  mercurial  solution  of  Mr. 
Schanschieff's  invention.  (2  and  3)  Four-cell  batteries, 
one  round  and  one  square.  Each  cell  contains  5  fluid 
ounces  of  solution,  and  at  a  cost  of  id.  furnishes  a  light  of 
nearly  2  candle-power  for  9  hours.  The  weight  when 
fully  charged  is  4J  pounds.  (4)  A  four-cell  reversible 
battery,  i.e.  put  in  or  out  of  action  by  reversing  it.  The 
charge  consists  of  24  ounces  of  solution,  and  giving  alight 
of  2  candle-power  will  burn  from  10  to  12  hours  at  a  cost 
of  id.  The  batteries  can  be  used  for  many  purposes 
other  than  mining-lamps,  viz.  for  microscopical  purposes, 
house-lighting,  photography,  diving,  railway-lighting,  gun- 
firing,  gas-works,  &c. 


THE  ZOOLOGICAL  SOCIETY  OF  AMSTERDAM. 

/T*HE  celebration  of  the  jubilee  of  the  Zoological 
*  Society  of  Amsterdam  (Natura  Artis  Magis(ra), 
on  Tuesday  and  Wednesday,  May  1  and  2,  passed  off 
with  great  eclat.  Dr.  Westerman,  who  has  been  Director 
of  the  Gardens  for  more  than  fifty  years,  may  well  be 
congratulated  on  the  success  of  the  jubilee  fetes;  and 
the  vigour  with  which  he  spoke  at  the  banquet  on  May  1, 
and  again  at  the  distribution  of  honours  on  Wednes- 
day, shows  that  his  eighty  years  sit  lightly  upon  him. 
One  of  the  most  interesting  features  of  the  jubilee 
commemoration  was  the  performance  of  a  festival 
cantata,  specially  composed  for  the  occasion  by  Mr.  De 
Langa,  and  this  had  to  be  repeated  on  Thursday 
for  the  benefit  of  half  the  members  of  the  Society,  for 
whose  accommodation  the  enormous  concert-room  proved 
insufficient  on  the  opening  day.  All  the  streets  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  Zoological  Gardens  were  gaily  decorated 
with  flags,  and  the  rooms  of  the  Society  were  ornamented 
in  the  day-time  by  a  mass  of  gorgeous  flowers  and  at 
night  with  brilliant  illuminations.  After  the  reception  of 
the  guests  by  the  Committee  on  Tuesday  morning,  an 
adjournment  was  made  to  the  King's  Saloon,  which  was 
densely  crowded,  to  hear  an  address  from  Prof.  Stockvis. 
Luncheon  followed,  and  then  the  cantata  was  given  in 
the  concert  hall,  and  in  the  afternoon  the  new  Ethno- 
graphical Museum  was  formally  opened.  The  excellent 
way  in  which  the  collections  had  been  arranged  was 
generally  remarked,  and  the  Curator,  Mr.  Pleyte,  was 
warmly  congratulated.  The  public  spirit  which  charac- 
terizes modern  Amsterdam  will  doubtless  soon  cause  this 


new  Museum  to  become  famous,  as  there  is  a  vast  field 
for  research  among  the  Netherland  possessions  in  the 
East  Indies.  At  the  banquet  in  the  evening,  covers  were 
laid  for  nearly  200  persons,  and  after  the  usual  toasts,  the 
health  of  the  Queen  of  England  was  drunk  by  the 
assembled  company  with  the  greatest  enthusiasm,  and 
was  responded  to  by  Mr.  Bowdler  Sharpe,  of  the  British 
Museum,  who  spoke  in  English,  and  took  the  opportunity 
of  thanking  the  Dutch  nation  for  the  hospitality  which  he 
and  his  countrymen  always  received  from  the  Nether- 
landers,  to  which  he  could  testify  from  an  experience  of 
over  twenty  years.  Speeches  were  also  given  by  the 
Ministers  of  Finance  and  of  the  Interior,  the  Burgomaster 
of  Amsterdam,  and  others  ;  and  the  company  then 
adjourned  to  witness  a  torchlight  procession  of  students, 
who  sent  a  deputation  of  their  Senate  to  congratulate  the 
venerable  Director  and  the  Committee  of  the  Society. 
The  young  President  of  the  Students'  Senate,  Mr..  Van 
Schevichaven,  made  a  most  eloquent  address,  and  was- 
enthusiastically  received.  On  Wednesday,  May  2,  a 
special  reception  of  the  Committee  was  held  to  confer 
diplomas  on  the  new  honorary  members,  and  Prof. 
Hubrecht,  of  Utrecht,  Dr.  Jentink,  the  Director  of  the 
Royal  Museum  of  Natural  History  at  Leyden,  and  Mr. 
Biittikofer,  of  the  same  Museum,  were  the  first  recipients  ; 
being  followed  by  Mr.  A.  D.  Bartlett,  the  Superintendent 
of  our  Zoological  Gardens  in  the  Regent's  Park,  and  Mr. 
Bowdler  Sharpe.  Amongst  those  who  were  unable 
to  be  present,  but  to  whom  the  honorary  membership' 
of  the  Society  was  given,  were  Prof.  Flowers,  Dr. 
A.  B.  Meyer,  &c.  The  large  bronze  medal  of  the  Society 
was  conferred  on  Mr.  Charles  Jamrach  and  Mr.  G. 
A.  Frank  for  services  rendered  in  the  formation  of 
zoological  collections,  as  well  as  on  several  other  well- 
known  zoologists.  Mr.  Jansen,  the  Librarian  of  the 
Society,  and  Mr.  F.  E.  Blaauw,  the  Secretary,  also  received 
medals  and  diplomas.  The  latter  gentleman  has  a  large 
private  menagerie,  and  is  an  enthusiastic  supporter  of  the 
Society.  Simultaneously  with  the  festival  celebration,, 
the  Society  has  issued  a  jubilee  number  of  its  Bijdragen 
tot  de  Dierkunde,  containing  several  important  memoirs, 
of  which  the  following  is  a  list : — (1)  The  opening  address 
of  Prof.  Stockvis.  (2)  Mr.  Maitland's  review  of  the 
Society  and  its  work,  with  a  plan  of  the  Gardens.  (3) 
An  account  of  the  aquarium  with  2  plates,  by  Dr.  C. 
Kerbert,  the  Curator.  (4)  A  list  of  all  the  animals 
which  have  lived  in  the  Gardens  from  1838  to  1888  by  Mr. 
K.  N.  Swierstra.  (5)  A  list  of  the  birds  of  the  Nether- 
lands, by  Mr.  H.  Koller,  with  an  enumeration  of  the 
specimens  in  the  Society's  collection.  (6)  Description  of 
a  new  species  of  Proechidna  (P.  villosissimd)  and  an 
account  of  Cam's  jubata,  by  Prof.  Max  Weber  :  this  article 
is  illustrated  by  2  plates.  (7)  A  list  of  the  Macrolepido- 
fitera  of  Holland,  by  Dr.  J.  T.  Oudemans.  The  Gardens 
of  the  Society  seemed  to  be  in  flourishing  condition,  and 
the  collections  of  Cranes  and  Antelopes  were  as  remark- 
able as  ever. 


NOTES. 

The  ceremony  at  Utrecht  on  May  28  to  celebrate  the  seventieth 
birthday  of  Prof.  Donders,  and  his  consequent  retirement  from 
his  Professorship,  will  comprise  a  formal  presentation,  at  1.30  p.m., 
of  the  sum  collected,  together  with  the  roll  of  subscribers,  and 
a  public  dinner  at  5.30  p.m.  After  the  ceremony  of  pre- 
sentation the  Professor  will  name  the  scientific  purpose  to  which 
he  proposes  that  the  fund  shall  be  applied.  The  complete  list 
of  subscribers  from  this  country  is  to  be  seen  in  our  advertising 
columns  on  page  xviii.  Any  subscriber  may  verify  the  amount 
of  his  subscription  by  applying  to  Mr.  Brailey,  1 1  Old  Burlington 
Street,  where  the  audited  list  may  be  seen.  The  total  amount 
collected  here  is  ^280  115.  \od.    Prof.  Humphry,  Dr.  Hughlings 


; 


May  17,  1888] 


NATURE 


63 


_  ackson,  Mr.  Hutchinson,  and  Mr.  Brailey  have  been  invited  to 
attend  as  delegates  to  represent  the  subscribers,  and  it  is  hoped 
that  many  others  may  be  able  to  attend,  and  by  their  presence 
do  honour  to  Prof.  Donders. 

The  meeting  of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  lately 
held  at  Washington,  seems  to  have  been  remarkably  successful. 
According  to  Science,  the  most  important  papers  read  at  the 
meeting  were,  the  orbits  of  aerolites,  by  Prof.  H.  A.  Newton  ; 
preliminary  notice  of  the  object,  methods,,  and  results  of  a 
systematic  study  of  the  action  of  definitely  related  chemical 
compounds  upon  animals,  by  Profs.  Wolcott  Gibbs  and  Hobart 
Amory  Hare  ;  and  report  of  progress  in  spectrum  photography, 
and  note  on  the  spectrum  of  carbon  and  its  existence  in  the  sun, 
by  Prof.  II.  A.  Rowland.  Prof.  Newton,  in  his  paper,  sub- 
mitted the  two  following  propositions  : — (i)  The  meteorites 
which  we  have  in  our  collections,  and  which  have  been  seen  to 
fall,  were  originally  (as  a  class,  and  with  a  very  small  number  of 
exceptions)  moving  about  the  sun  in  orbits  that  had  inclinations 
to  the  ecliptic  of  less  than  900  ;  that  is,  their  motions  in  the  solar 
system  were  direct  and  not  retrograde.  (2)  The  reason  why  we 
have  only  this  class  of  stones  in  our  collections  is  not  a  reason 
wholly,  or  even  mainly,  dependent  on  the  habits  of  men;  nor 
on  the  times  when  men  are  out  of  doors ;  nor  on  the  places 
where  men  live  ;  nor  on  any  other  principle  of  selection  acting 
at  or  after  the  arrival  of  the  stones  at  the  ground.  Either  the 
stones  which  are  moving  across  the  earth's  orbit  in  the  solar 
system  move  in  general  in  direct  orbits,  or  else,  for  some  reason, 
the  stones  which  have  retrograde  orbits  do  not  in  general  come 
through  the  air  to  the  ground  in  solid  form. 

Two  gold  medals  were  presented  at  this  meeting :  the 
Lawrence  Smith  gold  medal  to  Prof.  Newton  for  his  study  of 
meteors  ;  the  Henry  Draper  gold  medal  to  Prof.  E.  C.  Pickering 
for  researches  in  stellar  photography.  On  the  evening  on  which 
these  presentations  were  made  the  following  obituary  memoirs 
were  read  :  on  the  late  Prof.  Henry  Draper,  of  New  York,  by 
Prof.  G.  F.  Barker,  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania ;  on 
Prof.  Watson,  of  the  University  of  Michigan,  by  Prof.  Comstock ; 
on  Capt.  J.  B.  Eady,  by  Mr.  W.  Sellers,  of  Philadelphia. 

We  are  glad  to  see  that  the  National  Association  for  the 
Promotion  of  Technical  Education  is  hard  at  work,  and  that  it 
is  likely  to  do  excellent  service  to  the  cause  it  supports.  In 
reply  to  circulars  sent  out  in  August  and  September  1887  a  good 
deal  of  information  has  been  provided  from  various  industrial 
centres,  which  it  is  hoped  may  form  the  basis  of  a  fairly  com- 
plete report  as  to  what  is  being  done  for  technical  education  in 
the  United  Kingdom  at  the  present  time.  Meetings  have  been 
held  in  a  good  many  towns,  and  in  some  cases  branches  or  cor- 
responding Associations  have  been  established.  The  Association 
is  also  issuing  a  series  of  publications,  each  consisting  of  a  page 
or  two,  and  presenting  in  a  clear,  popular  style  some  important 
aspect  of  the  subject.  Some  of  these  papers  are  sold  at  sixpence, 
others  at  a  shilling,  per  hundred,  and  we  may  hope  that  large 
numbers  of  them  will  be  widely  circulated.  In  a  series  of  more 
elaborate  publications  the  Association  has  included  the  admirable 
address  delivered  by  Prof.  Huxley  at  a  meeting  held  in  the  Town 
Hall,  Manchester,  on  November  29  last. 

Colonel  Turner's  Report  on  the  present  state  of  the 
borings  in  the  Delta  of  the  Nile  has  been  received  at  the  Royal 
Society.  The  total  result  of  the  whole  operations  is  to  prove 
that  no  rock  exists  at  a  depth  of  345  feet  at  Zagazig  ;  at  a  depth 
of  45  feet  at  Kasr-el-Nil ;  at  84  feet  at  Kafr-Zayat  ;  or  at 
73  feet  at  Tantah. 

The  May  number  of  the  Kew  Bulletin  contains  an  interesting 
paper,  giving  an  account  of  the  attempts  that  have  been  made  to 
introduce  ipecacuanha  into  India,  and  the  successful  cultivation 


of  the  plant  in  the  Straits  Settlement.  There  are  also  valuable 
papers  on  Brazilian  gum  arabic,  Trinidad  coffee,  patchouli, 
Cochin  China  vine,  Madagascar  ebony,  and  Shantung  cabbage. 
About  a  year  ago  the  Botanical  Department,  Jamaica,  began 
to  issue  Bulletins.  Six  numbers  have  been  sent  to  us,  and  each 
of  them  contains  some  contribution  or  contributions  worthy  of 
attention.  The  compilers  very  wisely  keep  local  industrial  needs 
steadily  in  view. 

In  a  Report  on  the  province  of  Florence,  just  laid  before 
Parliament,  Mr.  Colnaghi,  British  Consul-General,  says  that 
meteorological  stations,  both  public  and  private,  are  now  estab- 
lished at  the  following  places  in  the  province  r — Florence  (5), 
Fiesole,  Vallombrosa,  Prato,  Pistoia,  Scandicci,  Empoli, 
Fiorenzuola,  Caslaletti,  and  thermo-pluviometrical  stations 
at  S.  Miniato,  Mercatale  (in  Rocca  San  Casciano),  Pontas- 
sieve,  and  Barberino  di  Mugello.  Amongst  the  more  im- 
portant of  these,  he  mentions  the  Observatory  of  the  Royal 
Museum  of  Physical  Science,  that  attached  .to  the  medical  sec- 
tion of  the  Reale  Istituto  di  Studi  Superiori,  chiefly  devoted 
to  the  study  of  the  varialions  of  the  atmosphere,  and  the  Osser- 
vatorio  Ximeniano,  which  is,  at  the  same  time,  astronomical, 
meteorological,  and  seismical,  and  is  under  the  direction  of  the 
Fathers  of  the  Scuole  Pie.  For  many  years,  he  adds,  experi- 
ments have  been  made  by  Prof.  F.  Meucci,  of  the  Observatory 
of  the  Royal  Museum  of  Physical  Sciences,  for  the  purpose  of 
ascertaining  the  correlation  of  meteorological  phenomena  with 
the  productiveness  of  the  soil,  and  a  series  of  Reports  have  been 
published.  In  1880  the  Royal  Tuscan  Society  of  Horticulture 
established,  in  its  experimental  garden  at  Florence,  a  Meteoro- 
logical and  Physical  Observatory,  by  means  of  which  the  rela- 
tion existing  between  the  vegetation  of  plants  and  the  meteoric 
phenomena  can  be  studied.  The  Royal  Astronomical  Observa- 
tory of  Florence  is  established  at  Arcetri,  and  is  under  the 
direction  of  Prof.  Tempel. 

Volume  x.  of  the  Repertorin.ni  fib-  Meteorologie,  issued  by 
the  Imperial  Academy  of  Sciences  of  St.  Petersburg,  and  edited 
by  Dr.  H.  Wild,  contains,  among  other  interesting  discussions, 
one  upon  the  anticyclones  in  Europe,  by  Dr.  P.  Brounow. 
He  has  investigated  by  means  of  synoptic  charts  the  barometrical 
maxima  which  passed  over  Europe  in  the  years  1876-79,  with 
especial  reference  to  their  movements  and  their  causes — questions 
which  up  to  the  present  time  have  received  but  little 
attention,  although  they  are  intimately  connected  with  the 
movements  of  cyclonic  areas.  The  number  of  the  maxima  whose 
paths  are  drawn  on  the  charts,  are  most  frequent  in  August,  and 
least  so  in  July  and  March  ;  and,  generally  speaking,  their  motion 
is  towards  east-south-east,  while  their  motion  towards  the  north- 
westerly portion  of  the  compass  is  very  rare.  Among  the  chief 
results  of  his  inquiry  may  be  mentioned  that  the  prevalent  move- 
ment of  the  maxima  does  not  coincide  with  that  of  the  barometric 
minima,  but  deviates  from  it  by  an  angle  of  67!°.  There  appears 
to  be  no  important  difference  in  the  mean  velocity  of  their  motion 
in  different  seasons,  and  although  they  move  more  slowly  than 
the  depressions,  the  difference  of  velocity  is  not  so  great  as  is 
generally  assumed.  Their  origin  is  attributed  to  two  principal 
causes  :  (1)  terrestrial  radiation,  and  (2)  the  proximity  of  two  or 
m>re  barometric  minima.  The  work  is  accompanied  by  sixteen 
charts,  from  which  the  author  concludes  that  the  maxima 
advance  generally  in  the  direction  in  which  the  lowest  temperature 
exists,  and  that  the  lower  the  temperature  sinks  the  quicker  the 
centre  of  the  maximum  advances,  without  reference  to  the  season 
of  the  year. 

An  important  addition  to  the  chemistry  of  the  element  tel- 
lurium is  contributed  by  MM.  Berthelot  and  Fabre  to  the  May 
number  of  the  Annates  tie  Chiinie  et  tie  Physique.  They  find 
that  this  metalloid,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  links  between  the 


64 


NATURE 


[May  17,  1888 


non-metals  and  true  metals,  is  capable  of  existing  in  three 
distinct  allotropic  forms.  Besides  the  well-known  crystalline 
form,  exhibiting  so  strongly  the  metallic  lustre,  the  form  in  which 
one  always  obtains  it  by  volatilization  in  an  atmosphere  of  hydro- 
gen, it  may  be  obtained  by  precipitation  in  two  very  different 
amorphous  varieties.  One  of  these  is  the  product  of  the  reduc- 
tion of  tellurous  or  telluric  acids  by  sulphurous  acid,  and  the 
other  is  formed  when  solutions  of  the  alkaline  tellurides  are 
exposed  to  the  oxidizing  action  of  the  air.  Both  these  amor- 
phous varieties  are  dark-coloured  powders  very  liable  to  oxidation 
in  the  air,  and  only  to  be  obtained  pure  by  working  in  an  atmo- 
sphere of  nitrogen.  The  physical  difference  between  the  two  is 
most '  strikingly  shown,  however,  by  their  thermo-chemical 
behaviour.  All  three  varieties  are  rapidly  dissolved  by  a  mixture 
of  bromine  and  bromine  water,  and  during  the  reaction  in  case 
of  both  the  crystalline  variety  and  the  amorphous  form  obtained 
by  oxidation  of  tellurides  33*4  heat  units  are  evolved,  while  in 
case  of  amorphous  tellurium  derived  by  reduction  with  sulphurous 
acid  only  21  "3  units  are  disengaged.  There  was  no  mistake  as 
to  the  purity  of  this  latter  kind,  for  it  was  completely  converted 
to  crystals  on  sublimation  in  a  current  of  hydrogen.  Hence  it 
follows  that  one  of  the  precipitated  forms  of  tellurium  cor- 
responds to  the  crystalline  state,  and  the  other  possesses  an 
entirely  different  physical  nature.  It  is  curious,  moreover,  that 
all  three  modifications  have  the  same  specific  heat.  These 
interesting  facts  render  the  analogy  between  sulphur,  selenium, 
and  tellurium  still  more  complete.  MM.  Berthelot  and  Fabre 
have  also  discovered  a  new  and  far  superior  method  of  preparing 
telluretted  hydrogen.  They  first  pass  vapour  of  tellurium  over 
metallic  magnesium  heated  in  a  current  of  hydrogen,  and  after- 
wards treat  the  magnesium  telluride  thus  formed  with  dilute 
hydrochloric  acid  in  an  apparatus  previously  filled  with  an 
atmosphere  of  nitrogen.  The  telluretted  hydrogen,  which  is 
obtained  in  a  very  pure  state  by  this  new  method,  is  very  un- 
stable, decomposing  on  standing  in  a  tube  over  mercury  even  in 
the  dark,  coating  the  interior  with  tellurium  and  leaving  its  own 
volume  of  hydrogen.  Decomposition  is  immediate  in  contact 
with  moist  air.  In  conclusion,  the  French  chemists  show  that 
the  combination  of  the  elements  of  the  sulphur  group  with 
hydrogen  is  attended  with  a  beautifully  graduated  series  of 
thermal  changes,  from  water  with  heat  of  formation  +  59  units 
down  to  telluretted  hydrogen  with  -  35  units. 

Science  gives  an  interesting  account  of  a  magnificent  ethno- 
graphical collection  from  Alaska,  brought  together  by  Lieut. 
Emmon.  It  has  been  presented  to  the  American  Museum  of 
Natural  History  in  New  York,  and  forms  a  valuable  supplement 
to  the  Powell  collection  from  British  Columbia,  in  the  same 
Museum.  While  the  latter  includes  principally  specimens  of 
Haida  and  Tsimpshian  origin,  the  objects  in  the  new  collection 
come  from  the  territory  of  the  Tlingit,  in  whose  country  Lieut. 
Emmon  spent  more  than  five  years.  The  collection  includes  a 
large  number  of  masks.  They  are  especially  valuable,  as  Lieut. 
Emmon  took  great  pains  to  ascertain  the  meaning  of  the  masks, 
which  thus  became  a  rich  source  of  information  for  the  student 
of  ethnology.  A  comparison  of  these  masks  with  others  col- 
lected on  Vancouver  Island  and  in  Dean  Inlet  shows  that  the 
style  of  North-West  American  art,  although  uniform  in  general 
outlines,  has  its  specific  character  in  various  localities.  The 
imitation  of  animal  forms  is  much  closer  here  than  in  the 
southern  regions,  where  the  forms  are  more  conventional,  certain 
attributes  of  the  animal  alone  being  added  to  human  figures. 
Another  and  a  very  interesting  peculiarity  of  these  masks  is  to 
be  found  in  the  figures  of  animals  attached  to  the  faces.  The 
Eskimo  tribes  of  Southern  Alaska  carve  their  masks  in  the  same 
fashi  in,  numerous  attachments  belonging  to  each.  This  is 
another  proof  of  the  influence  of  Indian  art  upon  that  of  the 
Eskimo.     The  figures  attached  to  the  faces  refer,  as  a  rule,  to 


certain  myths  ;  and  the  like  is  true  of  the  Eskimo  masks  and  their 
characteristic  wings  and  figures.  A  considerable  number  of 
masks  show  deep  hollow  eyes  and  sunken  cheeks.  They  repre- 
sent the  heads  of  dead  men.  Masks  with  thick  lips  and  beards, 
and  eyebrows  made  of  otter  skin,  represent  the  fabulous  Kush- 
tcka,  the  otter  people,  of  which  many  tales  and  traditions  are 
told.  Another  remarkable  mask  is  that  of  the  mosquito.  This 
is  of  special  interest,  as  the  mosquito  is  among  the  southern 
tribes  the  genius  of  the  cannibal  ;  and  as  cannibalistic  ceremonies 
are  not  known  to  be  practised  by  the  Tlingit,  it  may  be  assumed 
that  the  myth  referring  to  the  mosquito  is  found  in  a  somewhat 
altered  form  among  the  Tlingit. 

We  learn  from  Science  that  a  Bill  providing  for  the  establish- 
ment of  a  zoological  park  in  Washington  has  been  introduced 
into  the  United  States  Senate.  The  Bill  creates  a  Commission, 
which  is  directed  to  secure  one  hundred  acres  of  land  bordering 
on  Rock  Creek,  about  one  mile  from  the  city,  to  prepare  the 
grounds  and  erect  suitable  buildings  upon  it.  The  park  is  then 
to  be  transferred  to  the  regents  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution 
for  their  future  custody  and  care.  The  site  indicated  is  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  It  is  composed 
of  rolling  ground,  with  the  beautiful  Rock  Creek  flowing  through 
it,  and  it  is  adjacent  to  Woodley  Park,  one  of  the  most  charming 
of  the  recent  additions  to  Washington.  A  street-railway  to  it 
is  already  projected. 

The  United  States  Bureau  of  Education  has  issued  an 
elaborate  report  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Department  of  Super- 
i  tendence  of  the  National  Educational  Association  at  its  meet- 
ing at  Washington  from  March  15  to  17,  1887.  The  volume 
includes  addresses  and  papers  by  some  of  the  most  eminent 
American  authorities  on  questions  relating  to  education. 

The  people  of  Cleveland,  where  the  American  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science  will  meet  in  August,  have 
already  begun  to  prepare  for  the  meeting,  which  is  expected  to 
mark  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  city.  At  a  recent  meeting 
of  citizens,  summoned  for  the  purpose  of  appointing  various  local 
committees,  an  interesting  address  on  the  history  of  the  Associa- 
tion and  its  objects  was  delivered  by  Prof.  F.  W.  Putnam,  the 
Peabody  Professor  of  American  Archaeology  and  Ethnology  in 
the  University  of  Harvard,  and  Permanent  Secretary  of  the 
Association  since  1873. 

According  to  the  Colonies  and  India,  the  Government  of  South 
Australia  have  issued  Part  8  of  a  work  on  "  The  Forest  Flora 
of  South  Australia,"  which  is  said  to  be  the  best  illustrated 
publication  ever  issued  in  the  colony.  Mr.  Brown,  Conservator 
of  Forests,  under  whose  direction  the  book  is  brought  out, 
supplies  the  letterpress  descriptions  of  the  plants  pictorially 
represented. 

The  American  publishers,  Messrs.  D.  C.  Heath  and  Co., 
have  in  the  press  a  book  of  "Chemical  Problems,"  by 
Drs.  Grabfield  and  Burns,  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology. 

A  FOURTH  edition  of  Prof.  G.  Henslow's  "Botany  for  Be- 
ginners" (Stanford)  has  just  been  issued.  In  this  little  book 
Prof.  Henslow  p.ovides  a  short  course  of  elementary  instruction 
in  practical  botany,  for  junior  classes  and  children. 

At  the  anniversary  meeting  of  the  Hertfordshire  Natural 
History  Society,  held  on  February  21  last,  Mr.  F.  Maule  Camp- 
bell, the  President,  delivered  an  interesting  address  on  the 
means  of  protection  possessed  by  plants.  This  address  is 
printed  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Society,  and  has  now  been 
issued  separately. 

The  London  Geological  Field  Class,  under  the  direction  of 
Prof.  H.  G.  Seeley,  begins  the  summer  excursions  on  Whit 
Monday,  May  21,  and  will  continue  them  on  Saturday  after- 
noons thereafter  up  to  July  14.     The  following  are  among  some 


May  17,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


65 


i>f  the  places  which  will  be  visited  :  Leatherhead  and  Boxhill,  to 
examine  the  gorge  of  the  Mole  in  chalk  ;  Maidstone  and  the 
vicinity,  for  gravels  ;  Woolwich  and  Reading  beds,  chalk  gault, 
and  lower  greensand  ;  Erith  and  Crayford,  for  river  gravels  ; 
Grays  (in  Essex),  Northfleet,  and  Oxsted,  for  studies  in  chalk  ; 
and  other  places  besides.  Intending  students  should  apply  for 
tickets  at  once,  as  only  a  limited  number  are  issued.  Application 
forms  may  be  had  from  Mr.  W.  P.  Collins,  157  Great  Portland 
Street. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Blue  and  Yellow  Macaw  (Ara  ararauiia), 

rom  South  America,  presented  by  Mrs.  Warrand  ;  two  White 
[bis  (Ettdocimus  albus),  from  South  America,  deposited ;  two 
Black-backed  Geese  (Sarcidiornis  mclanonota  i  J  ),  from  India, 
jurchased  ;  a  Puma  (/'Wis  concolor),  two  Long-fronted  Gerbilles 

Gerbillus  longifrons),  a  Hog  Deer  {Cervus  porcinus),  a  Sambur 
Deer  (Cervus  aristotelis  £  ),  born  in  the  Gardens. 


"RONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR    THE 
WEEK  1888  MAY  20-26. 

'T70R  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 
s  here  employed. ) 

At  Greenwich  on  May  20 
in  rises,  4I1.  2m.;  souths,  nh.  53m.  21 -o 
right   asc.    on    meridian,    3h.    50 ^ui. 
Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  nh.  45m. 
loon    (Full    on    May     25,     14b.)    rises,    I3h. 
ioh.    49m.;    sets,    2h.    23m.*:    right    asc. 
44'2m.  ;  deck  6°  3'  N. 


sets,   I9h. 
decl.    20" 


5o.n.  : 

8'    N. 


uh 

Planet. 


om.  ;     souths, 
on    meridian, 


Right  asc.  and  declination 
on  meridian, 
h.       m.  „ 


Rises.  Souths.  Sets. 

h.  m.  h.   m.  h.  m 

Mercury..     4  25   ...  12  43    ..  21  1    ...  4  37-3 

Venus   ...     3  35   ...  11     o    ..  18  25    ...  2  54-0 

Mar.-,     ...   15     7   ...  20  49   ...  2  31*...  12  44-8 

[upiter  ...   19  49*...  o     7   ...  4  25     ..  15  59-5 

Saturn  ...     8  27  ...  16  22   ...  o  17*...  8  167 

Uranus...   15   16  ...  20  55  ...  2  34*...  12  5o\8 

Neptune..     4  13  ...  11  57  ...  19  4I   ...  3  51 -8 

Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 

Occultations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 

angles  from  ver- 

Star.  Mag.  Disap.  Reap.         tex  to  right  for 

inverted  image. 
h.   m.  h.    m.  00 

19     o  near  approach  142    — 


23  42  N. 

15  26  N. 

4  12  S. 

19  33  S. 

20  22  N. 
4  43  S. 

18  31  N. 


May. 


20  .. 

21  .. 

24  .. 

25  •• 

26  .. 

May. 
21 


22 
23 
25 


B.A.C.  3996 
b  Virginis... 
V  Libra;  ... 
6  Libras  ... 
B.A.C.  5700 


6 
6 
6 
4h 

61 


o  57 
22  52 

3  45 

4  14 


5 
11 

7 


t  Below  horizon  at  Greenwich. 


I  44 

23  23 

4  39f 

4  44 


139  254 

128  184 

85  322 

175  236 


Jupiter  in  conjunction  with  and  o°  2'  north 

of  &  Scorpii. 
Mars  in  conjunction  with  and  40  32'  south 

of  the  Moon. 
Jupiter  in  opposition  to  the  Sun. 
Mars  stationary. 
Jupiter  in  conjunction  with  and  30  34'  south 

of  the  Moon. 

Variable  Stars. 


Star. 

U  Cephei  ... 
S  Persei 
W  Virginis  ... 
U  Coronas  ... 
U  Ophiuchi... 
S  Sagittae  ... 
R  Sagitta?  ... 
T  Vulpeculas 
8  Cephei 


R.A. 
h.  m. 
o  52-4  ...  81 

2  14*8  ...  58 
13  203  ...  2 
15    I3-6 

17  io'9 

19  5o'9 

20  90 
20  467 
22  25*0 


Decl. 


32 


16  N. 

4N. 

48  S. 

3N. 

1  20  N. 

16  20  N. 

16  23  N. 

27  50  N. 

57  5i  N. 


h. 

m 

22, 

I 

17  m 

22, 

VI 

26, 

3 

0  m 

25, 

2 

55  m 

23. 

1 

22  m 

25. 

3 

0  m 

23, 

m 

23, 

2 

0  M 

25, 

2 

0  m 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum. 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 


At  Monday's  meeting  of   the   Royal  Geographical  Society 
Lieut.   F.   E.   Younghusband  gave  an  account  of  his  journey 
across  Central  Asia,  from   Manchuria  and   Peking  to  Kashmir 
and  the  Mustagh  Pass.     This  is  the  most  important  paper  which 
has  been  read  at  the  Society  during  the  present  session,  and  the 
journey  one  of  the  most  remarkable  ever  made,  considering  its 
length,   the  time  taken — April    to    November,    1887 — and  the 
novelty  and  value  of  the  results.     We  have  only  space  to  refer 
briefly  to  Lieut.  Younghusband's  observations  on  the  Mustagh 
Pass,  which  he  has  been  the  first  European  to  cross.   He  crossed 
the  Gobi  Desert  to  Hami  by  a  route  lying  between  those  of 
Marco  Polo   and    Mr.    Ney  Elias.     His    observations    in    the 
Gobi  are  of  much  interest.     The  clearness  and  dryness  of  the 
atmosphere  were  remarkable.     Everything  became  parched  up, 
and  so  charged  with  electricity  that  a  sheepskin  coat  or  blanket, 
on  being  opened  out,  would  give  out  a  loud  crackling  noise, 
accompanied  by  a  sheet  of  fire.      At  the  western  end  of  the 
Hurku  Hills,  beyond  the  Galpin  Gobi — the  most  sterile  part  of 
the  whole  Gobi — is  a  most  remarkable  range  of  sand-hills.     It 
is  about  40  miles  in  length,  and  is  composed  of  bare  sand,  with- 
out a  vestige  of  vegetation  of  any  sort  on  it,  and  in  places  it  is 
as  much  as  900  feet  in  height,  rising  abruptly  out  of  a  gravel 
plain.     With  the  dark  outline  of  the  southern  hills  as  a  back- 
ground,  this  white,  fantastically-shaped  sand-range  presents  a 
very  striking  appearance.     It  must  have   been  formed   by  the 
action  of  the  wind,  for  to  the  westward  of  this  range  is  an  im- 
mense sandy  tract,  and  it  is  evident  that  the  wind  has  driven  the 
sand  from  this  up  into  the  hollow  between  the  Hurku  Hills  and 
the  range  to  the  south,  thus  forming  these  remarkable  sand-hills. 
It  was  near  this  region  that  traces  of  the  wild  camel  were  met 
with,   and  both  wild  asses  and  wild  horses  seen.      As  far  as 
Hami  the  country  continues  to  be  mainly  desert.     From  Hami, 
Lieut.  Younghusband  went  01  to  Yarkand,  and  by  the  Yarkand 
River   to    the  Karakorum  Range,    which    he    meant    to    cross 
by  the  Mustagh  Pass.     The  difficulties,  owing  to  the  enormous 
glaciers,    the    rugged    nature    of    the    mountains,    and    great 
height  of  the  pass,   were  very  great   for  Mr.   Younghusband, 
his  men,  and  his  ponies.     The  glaciers  here  are  of  enormous 
size,    and    Mr.     Younghusband    has    added    considerably    to 
the  information  obtained    by    Colonel    Godwin-Austen,    who 
surveyed     the     region   [to     the    south    of    the    pa-s    twenty- 
six    years    ago.        "The     appearance    of    these     mountains," 
Lieut.  Younghusband   stated,  "is   extremely  bold  and   rugged 
as   they  rise   in   a   succession  of  needle   peaks  like   hundreds 
of  Matterhorns  collected  together ;   but  the  Matterhorn,  Mont 
Blanc,  and  all  the  Swiss  mountains  would  have  been  two  or  three 
thousand  feet  below  me,  while  these  mountains  rose  up  in  solemn 
grandeur  thousands  of  feet  above  me.     Not  a  living  thing  was 
seen,  and  not  a  sound  was  heard  ;   all  was  snow  and  ice  and 
rocky  precipices  ;  while  these  mountains  are  far  too  grand  to 
support  anything  so  insignificant  as  trees  or  vegetation  of  any 
sort.     They  stand  bold  and  solitary  in  their  glory,  and  only  per- 
mit man  to  come  amongst  them  for  a  few  months  in  the  year, 
that  he  may  admire  their  magnificence  and  go  and  tell  it  to  his 
comrades  in  the  world  beneath."     After  some  extremely  difficult 
prospecting,  Lieut.  Younghusband  made  up  his  mind  to  cross  the 
old  and  long-abandoned  Mustagh  Pass,  instead  of  the  new  one. 
"  Next  morning,"  he  stated,  "while  it  was  yet  dark,  we  started 
for  the  pass,  leaving  everything  behind,  except  a  roll  of  bedding 
for  myself,  a  sheepskin  coat  for  each  man,  a  few  dry  provisions,  . 
and  a  large  tea-kettle.     The  ascent  to  the  pass  was  quite  gentle, 
but  led  over  deep  snow  in  which  we  sank  knee-deep  at  every 
step.     We  were  now  about  19,000  feet  above  the  sea-level,  and 
quickly  became  exhausted.     In  fact,  as  we  got  near  the  sum- 
mit, we  could  only  advance  a  dozen  or  twenty  steps  at  a  time, 
and  we   would  then   lean  over  on  our  alpenstocks,    and  gasp 
and  pant  away  as  if  we  had  been   running   up   a  steep    hill 
at  a  great  pace.     But  it  was  not  till  midday  that   we   reached 
the    summit,    and   then    on    looking   about   for    a   way   down . 
we  could  see  none.     Huge  blocks  of  ice  had  fallen  from  the 
mountains  which   overhang  the  pass,  and  had  blocked  up  the 
path  by  which  travellers  used  formerly  to  descend  from  it,  and 
the  only  possible   way  now  of  getting  to  the  bottom  was  by 
crossing  an  icy  slope  to  a  cliff,  which  was  too  steep  for  a  particle 
of  snow  to  lodge  on  it,  even  in  that   region  of  ice  and  snow. 
P'rom   this  we  should  have  to  descend  on  to  some  more  icy 
slopes  which  could  be  seen  below.   .  .   .    We  had  first  to  cross 
the  icy  slope  ;  it  was  of  smooth  ice  and  very  steep,  and  about 
thiity   yards   below  us   it  ended  abruptly,   and   we    could   see 


66 


NATURE 


[May  17,  1888 


•nothing  over  the  edge  for  many  hundreds  of  feet.  As  Wali 
hewed  the  steps  we  advanced  step  by  step  after  him,  leaning 
back  against  the  slope,  all  the  time  facing  th±  precipice,  and 
knowing  that  if  we  slipped  (and  the  ice  was  very  slippery,  for 
the  sun  was  just  powerful  enough  to  melt  the  surface  of  it),  we 
should  roll  down  the  icy  slope  and  over  the  precipice  into 
eternity.  After  a  time  we  reached  terra  firmx  in  the  shape  of  a 
projecting  piece  of  rock,  and  from  here  began  the  descent  of 
the  cliff.  We  had  to  let  ourselves  down  from  any  little  ledge, 
taking  every  step  with  the  greatest  possible  care,  as  the  rock 
was  not  always  sound  ;  and  once  a  shout  ca  ne  from  above,  and 
a  huge  rock,  which  had  been  dislodged,  came  crashing  past  me 
and  as  nearly  as  possible  hit  two  of  the  men  who  had  already 
got  some  way  down.  At  the  bottom  of  the  cliff  we  came  to 
another  steep  ice-slope."  After  eighteen  hours  of  this  task  the 
party  were  glad  to  lie  clown  for  a  few  hours'  rest.  At  daybreak 
next  morning  they  were  on  their  legs  again,  and  after  a  few 
hours'  travelling  emerged  on  to  the  great  Baltoro  Glacier,  which 
was  explored  by  Colonel  Godwin- Austen  in  i852,  when  making 
the  Kashmir  survey.  They  travelled  all  that  day,  and  for  two 
days  more,  till  they  reached  Askoli,  a  little  village  on  the  Braldo 
River,  surrounded  by  trees  and  cultivated  lands. 

Lieut.  Younghusband  remarked  as  follows  on  the  Altai 
Mountains : — "  These  mountains  are  perfectly  barren,  the 
upper  portion  composed  of  bare  rock  and  the  lower  of 
long  gravel  slopes  formed  of  the  debris  of  the  rocks  above. 
In  such  an  extremely  dry  climate,  exposed  to  the  icy  cold 
winds  of  winter  and  the  fierce  rays  of  the  summer  sun, 
and  unprotected  by  one  atom  of  soil,  the  rocks  here,  as  also  in 
every  other  part  of  the  Gobi,  crumble  away  to  a  remarkable 
extent,  and  there  being  no  rainfall  sufficient  to  wash  away  the 
debris,  the  lower  features  of  the  range  gradually  get  covered  with 
a  mass  of  debris  falling  from  the  upper  portions,  and  in  the 
course  of  time  a  uniform  slope  is  created,  often  30  or  40  miles  in 
length,  and  it  is  only  for  a  few  hundred  feet  at  the  top  that  the 
original  jagged  rocky  outline  is  seen."  Again,  with  regard  to 
Chinese  Turkistan : — "If  you  could  get  a  bird's-eye  view  of 
Chinese  Turkistan,  you  would  see  a  great  bare  desert  surrounded 
on  three  sides  by  barren  mountains,  and  at  their  bases  you  would 
see  some  vivid  green  spots,  showing  out  sharp  and  distinct  like 
blots  of  green  paint  dropped  on  to  a  sepia  picture.  In  the 
western  end  round  Kashgar  and  Yarkand  the  cultivation  is  of 
greater  extent  and  more  continuous  than  in  the  eastern  half, 
where  the  oases  are  small  and  separated  from  each  other  by  15 
or  20  miles  of  desert.  These  oases  are,  however,  extraordinarily 
fertile,  every  scrap  of  land  that  can  be  cultivated  is  used  up,  and 
every  drop  of  water  is  drained  off  from  the  stream  and  used  for 
irrigation."  At  the  conclusion  of  Monday's  meeting  of  the 
Royal  Geographical  Society,  General  J.  T.  Walker  proposed, 
and  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  seconded,  that  the  peak  in  the  Kara- 
korum  known  as  K2,  28,500  feet  high,  be  baptized  Mount 
Godwin- Austen — a  proposal  heartily  approved  by  the  meeting. 

The  Paris  Geographical  Society  has  awarded  gold  medals  to 
the  Rev.  P.  Roblet,  for  his  map  of  Madagascar  ;  to  MM. 
Bonvalot,  Capus,  and  Pepin,  for  their  journeys  in  Kafiristan 
and  the  Pamir;  to  M.  Chaffanjo-i,  for  his  exploration  of  the 
sources  of  the  Orinoco. 

General  Prjevalsky  will  start  in  August  next  on  his 
fourth  journey  in  Central  Asia.  His  ultimate  destination  will  be 
Lhassa,  the  capital  of  Tibet,  and  he  will  be  equipped  for  two 
years'  travel.  He  will  be  accompanied  by  an  escort  of  twenty - 
eight  persons,  including  twelve  Cossacks,  and  two  scientific 
companions,  Lieut.  Robrowsky  and  Sub-Lieut.  Koslow. 


THE  PYGMY  RACES  OF  MEN} 
II. 

T  IKE  all  other  human  beings  existing  at  present  in  the  world, 
'  however  low  in  the  scale  of  civilization,  the  social  life  of  the 
Andamanese  is  enveloped  in  a  complex  maze  of  unwritten  law  or 
custom,  the  intricacies  of  which  are  most  difficult  for  any  stranger 
to  unravel.  The  relations  they  may  or  may  not  marry,  the  food 
they  are  obliged  or  forbidden  to  partake  of  at  particular  epochs  of 
life  or  seasons  of  the  year,  the  words  and  nam  2s  they  may  or  may 
not  pronounce  :  all  these,  as  well  as  their  traditions,  sopsrsti- 

1  A  Lecture  delivered  at  the  Royal  Institution  on  Friday  even'n<",  April  13 
1888,  by  Prof.  Flower,  C.B.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  Director  of  the  Natural  History 
Departments  of  the  British  Museum.     Continued  from  p.  46. 


tions,  and  beliefs,  their  occupations,  games,  and  amusements 
of  which  they  seem  to  have  had  no  lack,  would  take  far  too  long 
to  describe  here  ;  but,  before  leaving  these  interesting  people, 
I  may  quote  an  observation  of  Mr.  Man's,  which,  unless  he  has 
seen  them  with  too  couhur-de-rose  eyesight,  throws  a  very  favour- 
able light  upon  the  primitive  unsophisticated  life  of  these  poor 
little  savages,  now  so  ruthlessly  broken  into  and  destroyed  by 
the  exigencies  of  our  ever-extending  Empire. 

"It  has  been  asserted,"  Mr.  Man  says,  "that  the  'com- 
munal marriage'  system  prevails  among  them,  and  that '  marriage 
is  nothing  more  than  taking  a  female  slave'  ;  but,  so  far  from 
the  contract  being  regarded  as  a  merely  temporary  arrangement, 
to  be  set  aside  at  the  will  of  either  party,  no  incompatibility  of 
temper  or  other  cause  is  allowed  to  dissolve  the  union  ;  and 
while  bigamy,  polygamy,  polyandry,  and  divorce  are  unknown, 
conjugal  fidelity  till  death  is  not  the  exception  but  the  rule,  and 
matrimonial  differences,  which,  however,  occur  but  rarely,  are 
easily  settled  with  or  without  the  intervention  of  friends."  In 
fact,  Mr.  Man  goes  on  to  say,  "  One  of  the  most  striking 
features  of  their  social  relations  is  the  marked  equality  and 
affection  which  subsists  between  husband  and  wife,  and  "the 
consideration  and  respect  with  which  women  are  treated  might 
with  advantage  be  emulated  by  certain  classes  in  our  own  land." 

It  should  also  be  mentioned  that  cannibalism  and  infanticide, 
two  such  common  incidents  of  savage  life,  were  never  practised 
by  them. 

We  must  now  pass  to  the  important  scientific  question,  Who 
are  the  natives  of  the  Andaman  Islands,  and  where,  among  the 
other  races  of  the  human  species,  shall  we  look  for  their  nearest 
relations  ? 

It  is  due  mainly  to  the  assiduous  researches  into  all  the  docu- 
mentary evidence  relating  to  the  inhabitants  of  Southern  Asia 
and  the  Indian  Archipelago,  conducted  through  many  years  by 
M.  de  Quatrefages,  in  some  cases  with  the  assistance  of  his 
colleague  M.  Hamy,  that  the  facts  I  am  about  to  put  before  you 
have  been  prominently  brought  to  light,  and  their  significance 
demonstrated. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  greater  part  of  the  large  island  of 
New  Guinea,  and  of  the  chain  of  islands  extending  eastwards 
and  southwards  from  it,  including  the  Solomon  Islands,  the 
New  Hebrides,  and  New  Caledonia,  and  also  the  Fijis,  are  still 
inhabited  mainly  by  people  of  dark  colour,  frizzly  hair,  and 
many  characters  allying  them  to  the  Negroes  of  Africa.  These 
constitute  the  race  to  which  the  term  Melanesian  is  commonly 
applied  in  this  country,  or  Oceanic  Negroes,  the  "  Papouas"  of 
Quatrefages.  Their  area  at  one  time  was  more  extensive 
than  it  is  now,  and  has  been  greatly  encroached  upon  by  the 
brown,  straight-haired  Polynesian  race  with  Malay  affinities, 
now  inhabiting  many  of  the  more  important  islands  of  the 
Pacific,  and  the  mingling  of  which  with  the  more  aboriginal 
Melanesians  in  various  proportions  has  been  a  cause,  among 
others,  of  the  diverse  aspect  of  the  population  on  many  of  the 
islands  in  this  extensive  region.  These  Papouas,  or  Mela- 
nesians, however,  differ  greatly  from  the  Andamanese  in  many 
easily  defined  characters ;  which  are,  especially,  their  larger 
stature,  their  long,  narrow,  and  high  skulls,  and  their  coarser 
and  more  Negro-like  features.  Although  undoubtedly  allied, 
we  cannot  look  to  them  as  the  nearest  relations  of  our  little 
Andamanese. 

When  the  Spaniards  commenced  the  colonization  of  the 
Philippines,  they  met  with,  in  the  mountainous  region  in  the  inte- 
rior of  the  Island  of  Luzon,  besides  the  prevailing  native  popu- 
lation, consisting  of  Tagals  of  Malay  origin,  very  small  people, 
of  black  complexion,  with  the  frizzly  hair  of  the  African  Negroes. 
So  struck  were  they  with  the  resemblance,  that  they  called 
them  "Negritos  del  Monte"  (little  Negroes  of  the  mountain). 
Their  local  name  was  Aigtas,  or  Inagtas,  said  to  signify 
"  black,"  and  from  which  the  word  Aeta,  generally  now  applied 
to  them,  is  derived.  These  people  have  lately  been  studied 
by  two  French  travellers,  M.  Marche  and  Dr.  Montano  ;  the 
result  of  their  measurements  gives  4  feet  8f  inches  as  the  average 
height  of  the  men,  and  4  feet  6^  inches  the  average  for  the 
women.  In  many  of  their  moral  characteristics  they  resemble 
the  Andamanese.  The  Aetas  are  faithful  to  their  marriage 
vows,  and  have  but  one  wife.  The  affection  of  parents  for 
children  is  very  strong,  and  the  latter  have  for  their  father  and 
mother  as  much  love  and  respect.  The  marriage  ceremony, 
according  to  M.  Montano,  is  very  remarkable.  The  affianced 
pair  climb  two  flexible  trees  placed  near  to  each  other.  One  of 
the  elders  of  the  tribe  bends  them  towards  each  other.     When 


May  17,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


67 


their  heads  touch,  the  marriage  is  legally  accomplished.  A  great 
ith  much  dancing,  concludes  the  ceremony. 

It  was  afterwards  found  that  the  same  race  existed  in  other 
parts  of  the  archipelago,  Panay,  Mindanao,  &c,  and  that  they 
entirely  peopled  some  little  islands — among  others,  Bougas 
Island,  or  "  Isla  de  los  Negros." 

As  the  islands  of  these  ea  tern  seas  have  become  better 
known,  further  discoveries  of  the  existence  of  a  small  Negroid 
population  have  been  made  in  Formosa,  in  the  interior  of 
Borneo,  the  Sandal  Islands  (Sumba),  Xulla,  Bourou,  Ceram, 
Flores.  Solor,  Pantar,  Lomblem,  Ombay,  the  eastern  peninsula 
of  Celebes,  &c.  In  fact,  Sumatra  and  Java  are  the  only  large 
islands  of  this  great  area  which  contain  no  traces  of  them 
except  some  doubtful  cross-breeds,  and  some  remains  of  an 
industry  which  appears  not  to  have  passed  beyond  the  Age  of 
Stone. 

The  Sunda  Islands  form  the  southern  limit  of  the  Negrito 
area ;  Formosa,  the  last  to  the  north,  where  the  race  has  pre- 
served all  its  characters.  But  beyond  this,  as  in  Lew-Chew, 
and  even  the  south-east  portion  of  Japan,  it  reveals  its  former 
existence  by  the  traces  it  has  left  in  the  present  population. 
That  it  has  contributed  considerably  to  form  the  population  of 
New  Guinea  is  unquestionable.  In  many  parts  of  that  great 
island,  small  round-headed  tribes  live  more  or  less  distinct  from 
the  larger  and  longer-headed  people  who  make  up  the  bulk  of 
the  population. 

But  it  is  not  only  in  the  islands  that  the  Negrito  race  dwelt. 
Traces  of  them  are  found  also  on  the  mainland  of  Asia,  but 
everywhere  under  the  same  conditions  :  in  scattered  tribes, 
occupying  the  more  inaccessible  mountainous  regions  of  countries 
otherwise  mainly  inhabited  by  other  races,  and  generally  in  a 
condition  more  or  less  of  degradation  and  barbarism,  resulting 
from  the  oppression  with  which  they  have  been  treated  by  their 
invading  conquerers  ;  often,  moreover,  so  much  mixed  that 
their  original  characters  are  scarcely  recognizable.  The 
Semangs  of  the  interior  of  Malacca  in  the  Malay  peninsula, 
the  Sakays  from  Perak,  the  Moys  of  Annam,  all  show  traces  of 
Negrito  blood.  In  India  proper,  especially  armng  the  lowect 
and  least  civilized  tribes,  not  only  of  the  central  and  southern 
districts,  but  even  almost  to  the  foot  of  the  Himalayas,  in  the 
Punjab,  and  even  to  the  west  side  of  the  Indus,  according  to 
Quatrefages,  frizzly  hair,  Negro  features,  and  small  stature, 
are  so  common  that  a  strong  argument  can  be  based  on  them  for 
the  belief  in  a  Negrito  race  forming  the  basis  of  the  whole  pre- 
Aryan,  or  Dravidian  as  it  is  generally  called,  population  of  the 
peninsula.  The  crossing  that  has  taken  place  with  other  races 
has  doubtless  greatly  altered  the  physical  characters  of  this 
people,  and  the  evidences  of  this  alteration  manifest  themselves 
in  many  ways  ;  sometimes  the  curliness  of  the  hair  is  lost  by 
the  admixture  with  smooth  straight-haired  races,  while  the  black 
complexion  and  small  stature  remain  ;  sometimes  the  stature  is 
increased,  but  the  colour  which  seems  to  be  one  of  the  most 
persistent  of  characteristics,  remains. 

The  localities  in  which  thes^  people  are  found  in  their  greatest 

I  purity,  either  in  almost  inaccessible  islands,  as  on  the  Andamans, 

II  or  elsewhere  in  the  mountainous  ranges  of  the  interior  only  ;  their 
social  positions  and  traditions,  wherever  they  exist — all  point  to 
the  fact  that  they  were  the  earliest  inhabitants ;  and  that  the 
Mongolian  and  Malay  races  on  the  east,  and  the  Aryans  on  the 
west,  which  are  now  so  1  apidly  exterminating  and  replacing  them, 

I  are  later  comers  into  the  land,  exactly  as,  in  the  greater  part  of 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  territory  formerly  occupied  by  the  aboriginal 
dark,  frizzly-haired  Negroid  Melanesianshas  been  gradually  and 
I  slowly  invaded  by  the  brown  Polynesians,  who  in  their  turn,  but 
I  by  a  much  more  rapid  process,  are  being  replaced  by  Europeans. 
We  now  see  what  constitutes  the  great  interest  of  the  Anda- 
I  manese  natives  to  the  student  of  the  ethnological  history  of  the 
I  Eastern  world.     Their  long  isolation  has  made  them  a  remark- 
ably  homogeneous  race,    stamping  them  all    with  a  common 
mblance  not  seen  in  the  mixed  races  generally  met  with  in 
j  continental  areas.    For  although,  as  with  most  savages,  marriages 
within  the  family  (using  the  term  in  a  very  wide  sense)  are  most 
strictly  forbidden,  all  such  alliances  have  necessarily  been  con- 
fined to  natives  of  the  islands.     They  are  the  least  modified 
representatives  of  the  people  who  were,  as  far  as  we  know,  the 
primitive  inhabitants  of  a  large  portion  of  the  earth's  surface, 
but  who  are  now  verging  on  extinction.     It  is,  however,  not 
nece-sary  to  suppose  that  the  Andaman  Islanders  give  us  the 
exact  characters  and  features  of  all  the  other  branches  of  the 
race.     Differences  in  detail  doubtless  existed — differences  which 


are  almost  always  sure  to  arise  whenever  races  become  isolated 
from  each  other  for  long  periods  of  time. 

In  many  cases  the  characters  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  a  land 
have  been  revealed  to  us  by  the  preservation  of  their  actual  re- 
mains. Unfortunately  we  have  as  yet  no  such  evidence  to  tell  us 
of  the  former  condition  of  man  in  Southern  Asia.  We  may,  how- 
ever, look  upon  the  Andamanese,  the  Aetas,  and  the  Semangs, 
as  living  fossils  ;  and  by  their  aid  conjecture  the  condition  of 
the  whole  population  of  the  land  in  ancient  times.  It  is  possible, 
also,  to  follow  Quatrefages,  and  to  see  in  them  the  origin  of  the 
stories  of  the  Oriental  pygmies  related  by  Ctesias  and  by  Pliny. 

We  now  pass  to  the  continent  of  Africa,  in  the  interior  of 
which  the  pygmies  of  Homer,  Herodotus,  and  Aristotle  have 
generally  been  placed.  Africa,  as  is  well  known,  is  the  home 
of  another  great  branch  of  the  black,  frizzly-haired,  or  Ethiopian 
division  of  the  human  species,  who  do,  or  did  till  lately,  occupy 
the  southern  two-thirds  of  this  great  continent,  the  northern 
third  being  inhabited  by  Hamite  and  Semite  branches  of  the 
great  white  or  Caucasian  primary  division  of  the  human  species, 
or  by  races  resulting  from  the  mixture  of  them  and  the  Negroes. 
Besides  the  true  Negro,  there  has  long  been  known  to  exist  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  continent  a  curiously  modified  type,  consist- 
ing of  the  Hottentots,  and  the  Bushmen — Bosjesmen  (men  of 
the  woods)  of  the  Dutch  colonists — the  latter  of  whom,  on 
account  of  their  small  size,  come  within  the  scope  of  the  present 
subject.  They  lead  the  lives  of  the  most  degraded  of  savages, 
dwelling  among  the  rocky  and  more  inaccessible  mountains  of 
the  interior,  making  habitations  of  the  natural  caves,  subsist- 
ing entirely  by  the  chase,  being  most  expert  in  the  use  of  the 
bow  and  arrow,  and  treated  as  enemies  and  outcasts  by  the 
surrounding  and  more  civilized  tribes,  whose  flocks  and  herds 
they  show  little  respect  for  when  other  game  is  not  within  reach. 
The  physical  characters  of  these  people  are  well  known,  as 
many  specimens  have  been  brought  to  Europe  alive  for  the  pur- 
pose of  exhibition.  Their  hair  shows  the  extreme  of  the  frizzly 
type,  being  shorter  and  less  abundant  than  that  of  the  ordinary 
Negro  ;  it  has  the  appearance  of  growing  in  separate  tufts,  which 
coil  up  together  into  round  balls  compared  to  "peppercorns." 
The  yellow  complexion  differs  from  that  of  the  Negro,  and,  com- 
bined with  the  wide  cheek-bones  and  form  of  the  eyes,  so  much 
recalls  that  of  certain  of  the  pure  yellow  races  that  some  anthropo- 
logists are  inclined  to  trace  true  Mongolian  affinities  and 
admixture,  although  the  extreme  crispness  of  the  hair  makes  such 
a  supposition  almost  impossible.  The  width  of  the  cheek-bones 
and  the  narrowness  of  the  forehead  and  the  chin  give  a  lozenge 
shape  to  the  front  view  of  the  face.  The  forehead  is  prominent 
and  straight  ;  the  nose  extremely  flat  and  broad,  more  so  than  in 
any  other  race,  and  the  lips  prominent  and  thick,  although  the 
jaws  are  less  prognathous  than  in  the  true  Negro  races.  The 
cranium  has  many  special  characters  by  which  it  can  be  easily 
distinguished  from  that  of  any  other.  It  has  generally  a  very 
feminine,  almost  infantile,  appearance,  though  the  capacity  of 
the  cranial  cavity  is  not  the  smallest,  exceeding  that  of  the 
Andamanese.  In  general  form  the  cranium  is  rather  oblong  than 
oval,  having  straight  sides,  a  flat  top,  and  especially  a  vertical 
forehead,  which  rises  straight  from  the  root  of  the  nose.  It  is 
moderately  dolichocephalic  or  rather  mesaticephalic,  the  average 
of  the  index  often  specimens  being  75*4.  The  height  is  in  all 
considerably  less  than  the  breadth,  the  average  index  being  71-1. 
The  glabella  and  infra-orbital  ridges  are  little  developed  except 
in  the  oldest  males.  The  malar  bones  project  much  forwards, 
and  the  space  between  the  orbits  is  very  wide  and  flat.  The 
nasal  bones  are  extremely  small  and  depressed,  and  the  aperture 
wide  ;  the  average  nasal  index  being  6o-8,  so  they  are  the  most 
platyrhine  of  races. 

With  regard  to  the  stature,  we  have  not  yet  sufficient 
materials  for  giving  a  reliable  average.  Quatrefages,  following 
Barrow,  gives  4  feet  6  inches  for  the  men,  and  4  feet  for  the 
women,  and  speaks  of  one  individual  of  the  latter  sex,  who  was 
the  mother  of  several  children,  measuring  only  3  feet  9  inches 
in  height ;  but  later  observations  (still,  however,  insufficient  in 
number)  give  a  rather  larger  stature  :  thus  Topinard  places  the 
average  at  1  -404  metre,  or  4  feet  l\  inches  ;  and  Fritsch,  who 
measured  six  male  Bushmen  in  South  Africa,  found  their  mean 
height  to  be  I  "444  metre,  or  nearly  4  feet  9  inches.  _  It  is 
probable  that,  taking  them  all  together,  they  differ  but  little  in  this 
respect  from  the  Andamanese,  although  in  colour,  in  form  of 
head,  in  features,  and  in  the  proportions  of  the  body,  they  are 
widely  removed  from  them. 


68 


NA  TURE 


[May  17,  1888 


There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  these  Bushmen  represent 
the  earliest  race  of  which  we  have,  or  are  ever  likely  to  have,  any 
knowledge,  which  inhabited  the  southern  portion  of  the  African 
continent,  but  that  long  before  the  advent  of  Europeans  upon 
the  scene,  they  had  been  invaded  from  the  north  by  Negro 
tribes,  who,  being  superior  in  size,  strength,  and  civilization,  had 
taken  possession  of  the  greater  part  of  their  territories,  and 
mingling  freely  with  the  aborigines,  had  produced  the  mixed 
race  called  Hottentots,  who  retained  the  culture  and  settled 
pastoral  habits  of  the  Negroes,  with  many  of  the  physical  fea- 
tures of  the  Bushmen.  These,  in  their  turn,  encroached  upon 
by  the  pure-bred  Bantu  Negroes  from  the  north,  and  by  the 
Dutch  and  English  from  the  south,  are  now  greatly  diminished, 
and  indeed  threatened  with  the  same  fate  that  will  surely  soon 
befall  the  scanty  remnant  of  the  early  inhabitants  who  still 
retain  their  primitive  type. 

At  present  the  habitat  of  the  Bushman  race  is  confined  to 
certain  districts  in  the  south-west  of  Africa,  from  the  confines  of 
the  Cape  Colony,  as  far  north  as  the  shores  of  Lake  Ngami. 
Further  to  the  north  the  great  equatorial  region  of  Africa  is 
occupied  by  various  Negro  tribes,  using  the  term  in  its  broadest 
sense,  but  belonging  to  the  divisions  which,  on  account  of  pecu- 
liarities of  language,  have  been  grouped  together  as  Bantu. 
They  all  present  the  common  physical  characteristics  typical  of 
the  Negro  race,  only  two  of  which  need  be  specially  mentioned 
here — medium  or  large  stature,  and  dolichocephalic  skull 
(average  cranial  index  about  73  "5). 

It  is  at  various  scattered  places  in  the  midst  of  these,  that 
the  only  other  small  people  of  which  I  shall  have  to  speak,  the 
veritable  pygmies  of  Homer,  Herodotus,  and  Aristotle,  according 
to  Quatrefages,  are  still  to  be  met  with.1 

The  first  notice  of  the  occurrence  of  these  in  modern  times  is 
•contained  in  "The  strange  adventures  of  Andrew  Battell  of 
Leigh  in  Essex,  sent  by  the  Portugals  prisoner  to  Angola,  who 
lived  there,  and  in  the  adjoining  regions  near  eighteen  yeares  " 
{1589  to  1607),  published  in  "Purchas  his  Pilgrimes"  (1625), 
lib.  vii.  chap.  iii.  p.  983  : — 

"  To  the  north-east  of  Mani-Kesock,  are  a  kind  of  little  people, 
-called  Matimbas ;  which  are  no  bigger  than  Boyes  of  twelve 
yeares  old,  but  very  thicke,  and  live  only  upon  flesh,  which  they 
kill  in  the  woods  with  their  bows  and  darts.  They  pay  tribute 
to  Mani-Kesock,  and  bring  all  their  elephants'  teeth  and  tayles 
to  him.  They  will  not  enter  into  any  of  the  Marambds  houses, 
nor  will  suffer  any  to  come  where  they  dwell.  And  if  by  chance 
any  Maramba  or  people  of  Longo  pass  where  they  dwell,  they 
will  forsake  that  place,  and  go  to  another.  The  women  carry 
Bows  and  Arrows  as  well  as  the  men.  And  one  of  these  will 
walk  in  the  woods  alone  and  kill  the  Pongos  with  their  poysoned 
Arrows." 

Battell's  narrative,  it  should  be  said,  is  generally  admitted  as 
having  an  air  of  veracity  about  it  not  always  conspicuous  in 
those  of  travellers  of  his  time.  In  addition  to  the  observations 
on  the  human  inhabitants,  it  contains  excellent  descriptions  of 
animals,  as  the  pongo  or  gorilla,  and  the  zebra,  now  well 
known,  but  in  his  day  new  to  Europeans. 

Dapper,  in  a  work  called  "  Description  dela  Basse  Ethiopie," 
published  at  Amsterdam  in  1686,  speaks  of  a  race  of  dwarfs 
inhabiting  the  same  region,  which  he  calls  Mimos  or  Bakke-Bakke, 
but  nothing  further  was  heard  of  these  people  until  quite  recent 
times.  A  German  scientific  expedition  to  Loango,  the  results  of 
which  were  published  in  the  Zeitschrift  fur  Ethnologic  1874;  and 
in  Hartmann's  work,  "  Die  Negritier,"  o'Uained,  at  Chinchoxo, 
photographs  and  descriptions  of  a  dwarf  tribe  called  "  Baboukos," 
whose  heads  were  proportionally  large  and  of  roundish  form 
-{cephalic  index  of  skull,  78  to  81).  One  individual,  supposed  to 
be  about  forty  years  of  age,  measured  1  "365  metre,  rather  under 
4  feet  6  inches. 

Dr.  Touchard,  in  a  "  Notice  sur  le  Gabon,"  published  in  the 
Revue  Maritime  et  Coloniale  for  1861,  describes  the  recent 
destruction  of  a  population  established  in  the  interior  of  this 
country  and  to  which  he  gives  the  name  of  "Akoa."  They 
seem  to  have  been  exterminated  by  the  M'Pongos  in  their 
expansion  towards  the  west.  Some  of  them,  however,  remained 
as  slaves  at  the  time  of  the  visit  of  Admiral  Fleuriot  de  Langle, 
who  in  1868  photographed  one  (measuring  about  4  feet  6  inches 
high)  and  brought  home  some  skulls,  which  were  examined  by 
Hamy,  and  all  proved  very  small  and  sub-brachycephalic. 

1  The  scattered  information  upon  this  subject  was  first  collected  together 
-by  Hamy  in  his  "  Essai  de  co-ordination  des  Materiaux  recemment  recueillis 
sur  l'ethnologie  des  Negrilles  ou  Pygmees  de  1'  Afrique  equatoriale,"  Bull. 
Soc.  d'  Anthropologie  de  Paris,  tone  i:.  (se-.  iii.),  1879,  r-.  j}. 


Another  tribe,  the  M'Boulous,  inhabiting  the  coast  north 
of  the  Gaboon  River,  have  been  described  by  M.  Marche 
as  probably  the  primitive  race  of  the  country.  They  live  in 
little  villages,  keeping  entirely  to  themselves,  though  surrounded 
by  the  larger  Negro  tribes,  M'Pongos  and  Bakalais,  who  are 
encroaching  upon  them  so  closely  that  their  numbers  are  rapidly 
diminishing.  In  i860  they  were  not  more  than  3000  ;  in  1879 
much  less  numerous.  They  are  of  an  earthy-brown  colour,  and 
rarely  exceed  1  600  metre  in  height  (5  feet  3  inches).  In  the 
rich  collections  of  skulls  made  by  Mr.  R.  B.  Walker  and  by  M. 
Du  Chaillu,  from  the  coast  of  this  region,  are  many  which  are 
remarkable  for  their  small  size  and  round  form.  Of  many  other 
notices  of  tribes  of  Negroes  of  diminutive  size,  living  near  the 
west  coast  of  Equatorial  Africa,  I  need  only  mention  that  of 
Du  Chaillu,  who  gives  an  interesting  account  of  his  visit  to  an 
Obongo  village  in  Ashango-land,  between  the  Gaboon  and  the 
Congo  ;  although  unfortunately,  owing  to  the  extreme  shyness  and 
suspicion  of  the  inhabitants,  he  was  allowed  little  opportunity 
for  anthropological  observations.  He  succeeded,  however,  in 
measuring  one  man  and  six  women  ;  the  height  of  the  former  was 
4  feet  6  inches,  the  average  of  the  later  4  feet  8  inches.1 

Far  further  into  the  interior,  towards  the  centre  of  the  region 
contained  in  the  great  bend  of  the  Congo  or  Livingstone  River, 
Stanley  heard  of  a  numerous  and  independent  population  of 
dwarfs,  called  "  Watwas,"  who,  like  the  Batimbas  of  Battell,  are 
great  hunters  of  elephants,  and  use  poisoned  arrows.  One  of 
these  he  met  with  at  Ikondu  was  4  feet  6£  inches  high,  and  of  a 
chocolate  brown  colour.2  More  recently  Dr.  Wolff  describes 
under  the  name  of  "Batouas"  (perhaps  the  same  as  Stanley's 
Watwas),  a  people  of  lighter  colour  than  other  Negroes,  and 
never  exceeding  1  '40  metres  (4  feet  7  inches)  high,  but  whose 
average  is  not  more  than  1*30  (4  feet  3  inches),  who  occupy 
isolated  villages  scattered  through  the  territory  of  the  Bahoubas, 
with  whom  they  never  mix.3 

Penetrating  into  the  heart  of  Africa  from  the  north-east,  in 
1870,  Dr.  George  Schweinfurth  first  made  us  acquainted  with  a 
diminutive  race  of  people  who  have  since  attained  a  consider- 
able anthropological  notoriety.  They  seem  to  go  by  two  names 
in  their  own  country,  Akka  and  Tikki-tikki,  the  latter  reminding 
us  curiously  of  Dapper's  Bakke-bakke,  and  the  former,  more 
singularly  still,  having  been  read  by  the  learned  Egyptologist, 
Mariette,  by  the  side  of  the  figure  of  a  dwarf  in  one  of  the 
monuments  of  the  early  Egyptian  Empire. 

It  was  at  the  court  of  Mounza,  king  of  the  Monbuttu,  that 
Schweinfurth  first  met  with  the  Akkas.  They  appear  to  live 
under  the  protection  of  that  monarch,  who  had  a  regiment  of 
them  attached  to  his  service,  but  their  real  country  was  further 
to  the  south  and  west,  about  30  N.  lat.  and  250  E.  long. 
From  the  accounts  the  traveller  received  they  occupy  a  consider- 
able territory,  and  are  divided  into  nine  distinct  tribes,  each 
having  its  own  king  or  chief.  Like  all  the  other  pygmy  African 
tribes,  they  live  chiefly  by  the  chase,  being  great  hunters  of  the 
elephant,  which  they  attack  with  bows  and  arrows. 

In  exchange  for  one  of  his  dogs,  Schweinfurth  obtained  from 
Mounza  one  of  these  little  men,  whom  he  intended  to  bring  to 
Europe,  but  who  died  on  the  homeward  journey  at  Berber.  Un- 
fortunately all  the  measurements  and  observations  which  were 
made  in  the  Monbuttu  country  by  Schweinfurth  perished  in  the 
fire  which  destroyed  so  much  of  the  valuable  material  he  had 
collected.  His  descriptions  of  their  physical  characters  are  there- 
fore chiefly  recollections.  Other  travellers — Long,  Marno,  and 
Vossion — though  not  penetrating  as  far  as  the  Akka  country, 
have  given  observations  upon  individuals  of  the  race  they  have 
met  with  in  their  travels.  The  Italian  Miani,  following  the  foot- 
steps of  Schweinfurth  into  the  Monbuttu  country,  also  obtained, 
by  barter,  two  Akka  boys,  with  the  view  of  bringing  them  tc 
Europe.  He  himself  fell  a  victim  to  the  fatigues  of  the  journey 
and  climate,  but  left  his  collections,  including  the  young  Akkas,  tc 
the  Italian  Geographical  Society.  Probably  no  two  individual; 
of  a  savage  race  have  been  so  much  honoured  by  the  attention; 
of  the  scientific  world.  First  at  Cairo,  and  afterwards  in  Italy. 
Tebo  (or  Thibaut)  and  Chairallah,  as  they  were  named,  wen 
described, measured, and  photographed, and  have  been  the  subject: 
of  a  library  of  memoirs,  their  bibliographers  including  the  name! 
of  Owen,  Panceri,  Cornalia,  Mantegazza,  Giglioli  and  Zannetti 
Broca,  Hamy,  and  de  Quatrefages.  On  their  arrival  in  Italy 
they  were  presented  to  the  King  and  Queen,  introduced  into  thi 

1  "  A  Journey  to  Ashango-land,"  1867,  p.  3:5. 

2  "  Through  the  Dark  Continent,"  vol.  ii. 

3  La  Gazette  Giogiaphique,  1SS7,  p.  153,  quoted  by  Quatrefages. 


May  17,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


69 


nost  fashionable  society,  and  finally  settled  down  as  members 
;>f  the  household  of  Count  Miniscalchi  Erizzo,  at  Verona,  where 
.hey  received  a  European  education,  and  performed  the  duties  of 

l)a2es- 
In  reply  to  an  inquiry  addressed  to  my  friend  Dr.  Giglioli,  of 

Florence,  I  hear  that  Thibaut  died  of  consumption  on  January 

28,   1883,  being  then  about  twenty-two  years  of  age,  and  was 

juried  in  the  cemetery  at  Verona.     Unfortunately  no  scientific 

xamination  of  the  body  was  allowed,  but  whether  Chairallah 

till  lives  or  not  I  have  not  been  able  to  learn.     As  Giglioli  has 

lot  heard  of  his  death,  he  presumes  that  he  is  still  living  in  Count 

Vliniscalchi's  palace. 

One   other  specimen   of  this    race   has  been    the    subject  of 

areful  observation  by  European  anthropologists — a  girl  named 

Saida,    brought  home  by  Romolo  Gessi  (Gordon's   lieutenant), 

nd  who  is  still,  or  was  lately,  living  at  Trieste  as  servant  to 

VI.  de  Gessi. 

The  various  scattered   observations   hitherto   made    are   ob- 

iously  insufficient  to  deduce  a  mean  height  for  the  race,  but 

he  nearest    estimate   that    Quatrefages  could   obtain  is  about 

feet    7   inches    for   the   men,   and    4  feet    3   inches  for   the 

vornen,  decidedly  inferior,  therefore,  to  the  Andamanese.    With 

egard  to  their  other  characters,  their  hair  is  of  the  most  frizzly 

ind,  their  complexion  lighter  than  that  of  most  Negroes,  but 

he  prognathism,  width  of  nose,  and  eversion  of  lips  characteristic 

f  the  Ethiopian  branch  of  the  human  family  are  carried  to  an 

xtreme  degree,   especially  if  Schweinfurth's    sketches  can  be 

rusted.    The  only  essential  point  of  difference  from  the  ordinary 

Jegro,  except  the  size,  is  the  tendency  to  shortening  and  breadth 

f  the   skull,    although  it  by  no  means  assumes    the  "almost 

pherical "  shape  attributed  to  it  by  Schweinfurth. 

Some  further  information  about  the  Akkas  will  be  found  in 

le  work,  just  published,   of   the    intrepid   and   accomplished 

•aveller  in  whose  welfare  we  are  now  so  much  interested,  Dr. 

Imin  Pasha,    Gordon's  last  surviving   officer   in    the    Soudan, 

'ho  in  the  course  of  his  explorations  spent  some  little  time  lately 

\  the  country  of  the  Monbuttu.     Here  he  not  only  met  with 

ving  Akkas,   one  of  whom   he  apparently  still  retains    as    a 

omestic  in  his  service,  and  of  whose  dimensions  he  has  sent  me 

most  detailed  account,  but  he  also,  by  watching  the  spots  where 

vo  of  them  had  been   interred,  succeeded   in  obtaining  their 

celetons,  which,  with  numerous  other  objects  of  great  scientific 

iterest,  safely  arrived  at  the  British  Museum  in  September  of 

1st  year.     I  need  hardly  say  that  actual  bones,  clean,  imperish- 

ble,  easy  to  be  measured  and  compared,  not  once   only,  but 

ny  number  of  times,  furnish  the  most  acceptable  evidence  that 

inthropologist   can  possess  of  many  of  the  most  important 

ical  characters  of  a  race.     There  we  have  facts  which  can 

s  be  appealed  to  in  support  of  statements  and  inferences 

on  them.     Height,  proportions  of  limbs,  form  of  head, 

ters  of  the  face  even,  are  all  more  rigorously  determined 

bones  than  they  can  be  on  the  living  person.     Therefore 

lue  of  these  remains,  imperfect  as  they  unfortunately  are, 

f  course  insufficient  in  number  for  the  purpose  of  establishing 

characters,  is  very  great  indeed. 

I  have  entered  fully  into  the  question  of  their  peculiarities 

here,  I  can  only  give  now  a  few  of  the  most  important 

most  generally  to  be  understood  results  of  their  examination. 

he  first  point  of  interest  is  their  size.     The  two  skeletons  are 

pth  those  of  full-grown  people,  one  a  man,  the  other  a  woman. 

|here  is  no  reason  to  suppose   that  they  were  specially  selected 

exceptionally  small  ;  they  were  clearly  the  only  ones  which 

nin  had  an  opportunity  of  procuring  ;  yet  they  fully  bear  out, 

pre  than  bear  out,  all   that  has  been  said  of  the  diminutive 

re  of  the  rac.     Comparing  the  dimensions  of  the  bones,  one 

rone,  with  those  of  the  numerous  Andamanese  that  have  passed 

gh  my  hands,  I  find  both  of  these  Akkas  smaller,  not  than 

veiage,  but  smaller  than  the  smallest  ;  smaller  also  than 

ushman  whose  skeleton  I  am  acquainted  with,  or  whose 

isions  have  been  published  with  scientific  accuracy.     In 

:hey  are  both,  for  they  are  nearly  of  a  size,  the  smallest 

al  human  skeletons  which  I   have  seen,  or  of  which  I  can 

any  record.     I  say  normal,  because   they  are  thoroughly 

rown  and  proportioned,  without  a  trace  of  the  deformity 

t  always  associated  with  individual  dwarfishness  in  a  taller 

One  only,   that  of  the  female,  is  sufficiently  perfect  for 

ation.    After  due  allowance  for  some  missing  vertebra1,  and 

e  intervertebral  spaces,  the  skeleton  measures  from  the 

n  of  the  head  to  the  ground  exactly  4  feet,  or  I'2i8  metre. 

ut  half  an  inch  more  for  the  thickness  of  the  skin  of  the 


head  and  soles  of  the  feet  would  complete  the  height  when 
alive.  The  other  (male)  skeleton  was  (judging  by  the  length 
of  the  femur)  about  a  quarter  of  an  inch  shorter. 

The  full-grown  woman  of  whom  Emin  gives  detailed 
dimensions  is  stated  to  be  only  1-164  metre,  or  barely  3  feet  10 
inches.1  These  heights  are  all  unquestionably  less  than  any- 
thing that  has  been  yet  obtained  based  upon  such  indisputable 
data.  One  very  interesting  and  almost  unexpected  result  of  a 
careful  examination  of  these  skeletons  is  that  they  conform  in 
the  relative  proportions  of  the  head,  trunk,  and  limbs,  not  to 
dwarfs,  but  to  full-sized  people  of  other  races,  and  they  are 
therefore  strikingly  unlike  the  stumpy,  long-bodied,  short- 
limbed,  large-headed  pygmies  so  graphically  represented  fighting 
with  their  lances  against  the  cranes  on  ancient  Greek  vases. 

The  other  characters  of  these  skeletons  are  Negroid  to  an 
intense  degree,  and  quite  accord  with  what  has  been  stated  of 
their  external  appearance.  The  form  of  the  skull,  too,  has  that 
sub-brachycephaly  which  has  been  shown  by  Hamy  to  charac- 
terize.all  the  small  Negro  populations  of  Central  Africa.  It  is 
quite  unlike  that  of  the  Andamanese,  quite  unlike  that  of  the 
Bushmen.  They  are  obviously  Negroes  of  a  special  type,  to  which 
Hamy  has  given  the  appropriate  term  of  Negrillo.  They  seem 
to  have  much  the  same  relation  to  the  larger  longer-headed 
African  Negroes  that  the  small  round-headed  Negritos  of  the 
Indian  Ocean  have  to  their  larger  longer-headed  Melanesian 
neighbours. 

At  all  events,  the  fact  now  seems  clearly  demonstrated  that  at 
various  spots  across  the  great  African  continent,  within  a  few 
degrees'north  and  south  of  the  equator,  extendingfrom  the  Atlantic 
coast  to  near  the  shores  of  the  Albert  Nyanza  (300  E.  long.), 
and  perhaps,  if  some  indications  which  time  will  not  allow  me  to 
enter  into  now  (but  which  will  be  found  in  the  writings  of  Hamy 
and  Quatrefages),  even  further  to  the  east,  south  of  the  Galla 
land,  are  still  surviving,  in  scattered  districts,  communities  of  these 
small  Negroes, all  much  resembling  each  other  in  size,  appearance, 
and  habits,  and  dwelling  mostly  apart  from  their  larger  neigh- 
bours, by  whom  they  are  everywhere  surrounded.  Our  informa- 
tion about  them  is  still  very  scanty,  and  to  obtain  more  would  be 
a  worthy  object  of  ambition  for  the  anthropological  traveller.  In 
many  parts,  especially  at  the  west,  they  are  obviously  holding 
their  own  with  difficulty,  if  not  actually  disappearing,  and  there 
is  much  about  their  condition  of  civilization,  and  the  situations  in 
which  they  are  found,  to  induce  us  to  look  upon  them,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Bushmen  in  the  south  and  the  Negritos  in  the  east,  as 
remains  of  a  population  which  occupied  the  land  before  the  in- 
coming of  the  present  dominant  races.  If  the  account  of  the 
Nasamonians  related  by  Herodotus  is  accepted  as  historical,  the 
river  they  came  to,  "  flowing  from  west  to  east,"  must  have  been 
the  Niger,  and  the  northward  range  of  the  dwarfish  people  far 
more  extensive  twenty- three  centuries  ago  than  it  is  at  the 
present  time. 

This  view  opens  a  still  larger  question,  and  takes  us  back  to 
the  neighbourhood  of  the  south  of  India  as  the  centre  from  which 
the  whole  of  the  great  Negro  race  spread,  east  over  the  African 
continent,  and  west  over  the  islands  of  the  Pacific,  and  to  our 
little  Andamanese  fellow  subjects  as  probably  the  least  modified 
descendants  of  the  primitive  members  of  the  great  branch  of  the 
human  species  characterized  by  their  black  skins  and  frizzly  hair. 


UNIVERSITY  AND  EDUCA  TIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 

Cambridge. — In  a  recent  discussion  on  the  proposed  appro- 
priation of  the  whole  of  the  Botanic  Gardens  site  for  Natural 
Science  Departments,  it  seemed  to  be  generally  agreed  that  the 
Mechanical  Department  ought  to  be  removed  from  a  locality 
where  it  must  cause  vibrations  injurious  to  microscopical  or 
physical  research.  The  suggested  removal  of  the  Herbarium 
to  the  Botanic  Gardens  was  disapproved  of  by  the  Professor  and 
his  Assistant-Curator.  The  proposed  appropriation  of  the 
present  Chemical  Rooms  for  Pathology  was  generally  approved. 
Mr.  J.  W.  Clark  emphatically  condemned  the  present  Museum 
of  Human  Anatomy  and  Surgery  as  a  discredit  to  the  Univer- 
sity. Prof.  Hughes  further  put  in  a  claim  that  the  Geological 
Museum  should  extend  to  the  extreme  east  of  the  site,  and  that 
the  erection  of  the  buildings  should  be  begun  at  once. 

'  In  his  letters  Emin  speaks  of  an  Akkrtmanas"3  feet  6  inches"  high,  though 
this  does  not  profess  to  be  a  scientifically  accurate  observation,  as  does  the 
above.  He  says  of  this  man  that  his  whole  body  was  covered  by  thick,  stiff 
hair,  almost  like  felt,  as  was  the  case  with  all  the  Akkas  he  had  yet  examined. 


7o 


NATURE 


{May  17,  1888 


The  first  Harkness  Scholarship  for  Geology  and  Palaeontology 
is  to  be  awarded  in  June  next  ;  names  of  candidates  are  to  be 
sent  in  by  May  31  next.  Candidates  must  be  Bachelors  of  Arts 
of  not  more  than  two-and-a-half  years'  standing. 

The  Sheepshanks  Astronomical  Exhibition  will  be  awarded 
next  December,  at  Trinity  College.  It  is  open  to  all  under- 
graduates of  the  University,  but  the  person  elected  must  become 
a  member  of  Trinity  College.  The  conditions  may  be  learnt 
from  Dr.  Glaisher,  Trinity  College. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  April  26. — "  On  the  Development  of  the 
Electric  Organ  of  Raia  bads."  By  J.  C.  Ewart,  M.D.,  Regius 
Professor  of  Natural  History,  University  of  Edinburgh.  Com- 
municated by  J.  Burdon  Sanderson,  F.  R.S. 

The  paper  consists  of  a  short  description  of  the  electric  organs 
found  in  the  skate  genus,  and  of  an  account  of  the  development 
of  the  electric  organ  of  the  common  grey  skate  {Raia  batis). 

It  is  shown  that  while  in  some  skates  {e.g.,  Raia  batis)  the 
organ  is  made  up  of  disk-shaped  bodies,  in  others  {e.g.,  Raia 
fullonica)  it  consists  of  numerous  cup-shaped  structures  provided 
with  long  or  short  stems. 

The  disks  (with  the  development  of  which  the  paper  chiefly 
deals)  consist  essentially  of  three  layers,  viz.  (1)  an  electric  plate 
in  front  in  which  the  nerves  end  ;  (2)  a  striated  layer  which 
supports  the  electric  plate  ;  and  (3)  an  alveolar  layer,  posterior 
to  which  is  a  thick  cushion  of  gelatinous  tissue.  Each  disk  is 
formed  in  connection  with  a  muscular  fibre.  In]  young  embryos 
there  is  no  indication  of  an  electric  organ,  but  in  an  embryo  6  or 
7  cm.  in  length,  some  of  the  muscular  fibres  at  each  side  of  the 
notochord  are  found  in  process  of  conversion  into  long  slender 
clubs  having  their  heads  nearest  the  root  of  the  tail. 

The  club-stage  having  been  reached,  the  muscular  fibre  next 
assumes  the  form  of  a  mace,  and,  later,  the  anterior  end  further 
expands  to  form  a  relatively  large  disk,  while  the  remainder  of 
the  original  fibie  persists  as  a  slender  ribbon-shaped  appendage. 
As  the  head  of  the  club  enlarges  to  form  a  disk,  it  passes 
through  an  indistinct  cup-stage,  which  somewhat  resembles  the 
cups  of  the  adult  Raia  fullonica,  hence  it  may  be  inferred  that 
in  Raia  fullonica  the  organ  has  been  arrested  in  its  develop- 
ment. The  conversion  of  the  muscular  fibre  into  a  club  is 
largely  caused  by  the  increase,  at  its  anterior  end,  of  muscle- 
corpuscles.  These  corpuscles  eventually  arrange  themselves, 
either  in  front  of  the  head  of  the  club,  to  give  rise  to  the  elec- 
tric plate,  or  they  migrate  backwards  to  form  at  the  junction  of 
the  head  of  the  club  with  its  stem  the  alveolar  layer.  The 
striated  layer,  which  is  from  the  first  devoid  of  nuclei,  seems  to 
be  derived  from  the  anterior  striated  portion  of  the  club. 

The  gelatinous  tissue  between  the  disks,  and  the  connective 
tissue  investing  them,  are  derived  from  the  embryonic  connective 
tissue  corpuscles,  which  exist  in  great  numbers  around  the  clubs 
and  developing  disks. 

May  3.  —  "On  the  Relations  of  the  Diurnal  Barometric  Maxima 
to  certain  Critical  Conditions  of  Temperature,  Cloud,  and 
Rainfall."     By  Henry  F.  Blanford,  F.R.S. 

The  author  refers  to  an  observation  of  Lamont's  that  the 
diurnal  barometric  variation  appears  to  be  compounded  of  two 
distinct  elements,  viz.  a  wave  of  diurnal  period,  which  is  very 
variable  in  different  places,  and  which  appears  to  depend  on  the 
horizontal  and  vertical  movements  of  the  atmosphere  and 
changes  in  the  distribution  of  its  mass,  and  a  semi-diurnal 
element  which  is  remarkably  constant  and  seems  to  depend 
more  immediately  on  the  action  of  the  sun.  Then,  referring  to 
the  theory  of  the  semi-diurnal  variation,  originally  put  forward 
by  Espy,  and  subsequently  by  Davies  and  Kreil,  the  author 
points  out  that  the  morning  maximum  of  pressure  approximately 
coincides  with  the  instant  when  the  temperature  is  rising  most 
rapidly.  This  is  almost  exactly  true  at  Prague,  Yarkand,  both 
in  winter  and  summer,  and  in  winter  months  at  Melbourne.  At 
the  tropical  stations,  Bombay,  Calcutta,  and  Batavia,  and  at 
Melbourne  in  the  summer,  the  barometric  maximum  follows  the 
instant  of  most  rapid  heating  by  a  shorter  or  longer  interval ; 
and  the  author  remarks  that  this  may  probably  be  attributed  to 
the  action  of  convection,  which  must  accelerate  the  time  of 
most  rapid  heating  near  the  ground  surface  ;.  while  the  baro- 
metric effect,  if  real,  must  be  determined  by  the  condition  of 


the  atmosphere  up  to  a  great  height.  With  reference  to 
Lamont's  demonstration  of  the  failure  of  Espy's  theory,  a  con- 
dition is  pointed  out  which  alters  the  data  of  the  problem,  viz. 
the  resistance  that  must  be  offered  to  the  passage  of  the  pres- 
sure-wave through  the  extremely  cold  and  highly  attenuated 
atmospheric  strata,  whose  existence  is  proved  by  the  phenomena 
of  luminous  meteors. 

With  respect  to  the  evening  maximum  of  pressure,  it  is  pointed 
out  that  very  generally,  and  especially  in  India,  and  also  at 
Melbourne,  there  is  a  strongly-marked  minimum  in  the  diurnal 
variation  of  cloud  between  sunset  and  midnight,  which,  on  an 
average,  as  at  Allahabad  and  Melbourne,  coincides  with  the 
evening  maximum  of  the  barometer.  A  similar  coincident 
minimum,  even  more  strongly  marked,  characterizes  the  diurnal 
variation  of  the  rainfall  at  Calcutta  and  Batavia  in  their  respect- 
ive rainy  seasons.  In  the  author's  opinion  these  facts  seem  to 
point  to  a  compression  and  dynamic  heating  of  the  cloud- 
forming  strata,  and  he  points  to  the  existence  of  a  small  irregu- 
larity in  the  diurnal  temperature  curves  of  Prague,  Calcutta,  and 
Batavia,  which  may  possibly  be  due  to  such  action.  It  is  further 
remarked  that  the  evening  maximum  about  coincides  with  the 
time  when  the  evening  fall  of  temperature,  after  a  rapid  reduction 
between  6  or  7  and  10  p.m.,  becomes  nearly  uniform  in  rate, 
and  it  is  suggested  that  the  former  may  possibly  be  determined 
by  the  check  of  the  rate  of  collapse  of  the  cooling  atmosphere. 
But  it  is  observed  that  both  the  morning  and  evening  waves  of 
pressure  probably  involve  other  elements  than  the  forced  waves, 
and  are  in  part  rhythmic  repetitions  of  previous  waves. 

Geological  Society,  April  25.— W.  T.  Blanford,  F.R.S., 
President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  communications  were 
read  : — Report  on  the  recent  work  of  the  Geological  Survey  in 
the  North- West  Highlands  of  Scotland,  based  on  the  field-notes 
and  maps  of  Messrs.  Peach,  Home,  Gunn,  Clough,  Hinxman, 
and  Cadell.  Communicated  by  Dr.  A.  Geikie.  At  the  outset 
a  review  was  given  of  the  researches  of  other  observers,  in  so 
far  as  they  forestalled  the  conclusions  to  which  the  Geological 
Survey  had  been  led.  Reference  was  made  to  the  observations 
of  Macculloch,  Hay  Cunningham,  C.  W.  Peach,  and  Salter; 
to  the  prolonged  controversy  between  Sir  Roderick  Murchison 
and  Prof.  Nicol  ;  to  the  contributions  of  Hicks,  Bonney, 
Hudleston,  Callaway,  Lapworth,  Teall,  and  others.  It  was 
shown  that  Nicol  was  undoubtedly  right  in  maintaining  that 
there  was  no  conformable  sequence  from  the  fossiliferous  quartzites 
an.l  limestones  into  the  eastern  schists.  It  was  also  pointed  out 
that  the  conclusions  of  Prof.  Lapworth  regarding  the  nature  and 
origin  of  the  eastern  schists  involve  an  important  departure  from 
Nicol's  position,  and  are  practically  identical  with  those  obtained 
independently  by  the  Geological  Survey.  The  results  of  the 
recent  survey  work  among  the  Archaean  rocks  may  be  thus 
summarized  :  (1)  the  eruption  of  a  series  of  igneous  rocks  of  a 
basic  type  in  which  pegmatites  were  formed  ;  (2)  the  develop- 
ment of  rude  foliation  in  these  masses,  probably  by  mechanical 
movement,  and  their  arrangement  in  gentle  anticlines  and  syn- 
clines,  the  axes  of  which  generally  run  N.E.  and  S.W.  ;  (3) 
the  injection  of  igneous  materials,  mainly  in  the  form  of  dykes, 
into  the  original  gneisses,  composed  of  {a)  basalt  rocks,  {b)  peri- 
dotites  and  palseopicrites,  {c)  microcline-mica  rocks,  ((/)  granites  ; 
(4)  the  occurrence  of  mechanical  movements  giving  rise  to  dis- 
ruption-lines trending  N.W.  and  S.E.,  E.  and  W.,  N.E.  and 
S.W.  ;  (5)  the  effects  of  these  movements  on  the  dykes  were  to 
change  the  basalt-rocks  into  diorites  and  hornblende-schists,  the 
peridotites  and  palseopicrites  into  talcose  schists,  the  microcline- 
mica  rocks  into  mica  schists,  and  the  granites  into  granitoid 
gneiss  ;  (6)  the  effects  on  the  gneiss  resulted  in  the  formation  of 
sharp  folds  trending  generally  N.W.  and  S.E.,  the  partial  or 
complete  reconstruction  of  the  original  gneiss  along  the  old 
foliation-planes,  and  finally  the  development  of  newer  schist- 
osity  more  or  less  parallel  with  the  prominent  disruption-lines. 
There  is  an  overwhelming  amount  of  evidence  to  prove  that  all 
these  various  changes  had  been  superinduced  in  the  Archaean 
rocks  in  pre-Cambrian  time.  After  reviewing  the  facts  bearing 
on  the  denudation  of  the  Archaean  land-surface,  the  order  of 
succession  and  thickness  of  the  Cambrian  strata  were  given,  from 
which  it  is  apparent  that  the  deposits  gradually  increase  in  thick- 
ness as  we  pass  southwards  from  Durness  to  Loch  Broom. 
Prior  to  the  deposition  of  the  Silurian  sediments  the  Cambrian 
strata  were  folded  and  extensively  denuded.  By  these  means 
various  Cambrian  outliers  were  formed  far  to  the  east  of  the 
present  limits  of  the  formation.  The  order  of  succession  of  the 
Silurian  strata  along  the  line   of  complicated  structure   from 


May  17,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


7i 


Eriboll  to  Ullapool  was  described,  reference  being  made  to  the 
further  subdivision  of  the  "Pipe-rock"  and  the  Ghrudaidh 
Limestones  (Group  I.  of  Durness  section).  None  of  the  richly 
fossiliferous  zones  of  Durness  is  met  with  along  this  line,  as 
they  occupy  higher  horizons.  An  examination  of  the  fossils 
recently  obtained  by  the  Geological  Survey  from  the  Durness 
ines  confirms  Salter's  conclusions  that  they  are  distinctly 
of  an  American  type,  the  Sutherland  quartzites  and  limestones 
tteing  represented  by  the  Potsdam  Sandstones  and  Calciferous 
Sand  Group  of  North  America.  After  the  deposition  of  the 
limestones,  the  Cambrian  and  Silurian  strata  were  pierced  by 
igneous  rocks,  mainly  in  the  form  of  sheets,  producing  important 
alterations  in  the  sedimentary  deposits  by  contact-metamorphism, 
the  quartzites  becoming  crystalline,  and  the  limestones  being 
converted  into  marble.  When  this  outburst  of  volcanic  activity 
had  ceased,  terrestrial  displacements  ensued  on  a  stupendous 
scale.  By  means  of  powerful  thrusts  the  Silurian  strata  were 
piled  on  each  other,  and  huge  slices  of  the  old  Archaean  plat- 
form, with  the  Cambrian  and  Silurian  strata  resting  on  it,  were 
driven  westwards  for  miles.  With  the  view  of  illustrating  the 
extraordinary  complications  produced  by  these  movements,  a 
series  of  horizontal  sections  was  described,  drawn  across  the  line 
between  Eriboll  and  Ullapool.  The  evidence  relating  to  regional 
metamorphism  was  next  referred  to,  from  which  it  is  obvious 
that  with  each  successive  maximum  thrust  there  is  a  progressive 
amount  of  alteration  in  the  displaced  masses,  as  the  observer 
passes  eastwards  to  the  higher  thrust-planes.  Eventually  the 
Archajan  gneiss  is  so  deformed  that  the  pre-Cambrian  foliation 
disappears  and  is  replaced  by  new  divisional  planes ;  the  Cam- 
brian grits  and  shales  are  converted  into  schists  ;  the  Silurian 
quarti'ites  into  quartz-schists  ;  the  limestones  become  crystalline  ; 
the  sheets  of  intrusive  felsite,  diorite,  and  granitoid  rock  pass 
into  sericite  schist,  hornblende-schist,  and  augen-gneiss  respect- 
ively. These  researches  furnish  a  vast  amount  of  evidence  in 
support  of  the  theory  that  regional  metamorphism  is  due  to  the 
dynamical  and  chemical  effects  of  mechanical  movement  acting 
on  crystalline  and  clastic  rocks.  It  is  also  c'ear  that  regional 
metamorphism  need  not.  be  confined  to  any  particular  geological 
period,  because  in  the  N.W.  Highlands,  both  in  pre  Cambrian 
time  and  after  the  deposition  of  the  Durness  Limestone  (Lower 
Silurian),  crystalline  schists  and  gneiss  were  produced  on  a 
magnificent  scale.  After  the  reading  of  this  Report,  the  Survey 
was  congratulated  on  its  work  by  the  President,  Prof.  Lapworth, 
Prof.  Judd,  and  other  speakers. — On  the  horizontal  movements 
of  rocks,  and  the  relation  of  these  movements  to  the  formation 
of  dykes  and  faults,  and  to  denudation  and  the  thickening  of 
trata,  by  Mr.  William  Barlow. — Notes  on  a  recent  discovery  of 
Stigmaria  ficoides  at  Clayton,  Yorkshire,  by  Mr.  Samuel  A. 
Adamson. 

Zoological  Society,  April  30. — Fifty-ninth  Anniversary 
Meeting.— Prof.  Flower,  F.R.S.,  President,  in  the  chair. — After 
he  Auditors'  Report  had  been  read,  and  some  other  preliminary 
ess  had  been  transacted,  the  Report  of  the  Council  on  the 
edings  of  the  Society  during  the  year  1887  was  read  by  Mr. 
Sclater,  F.  R.S.,  the  Secretary  of  the  Society.  It  stated  that 
he  number  of  Fellows  on  January  1,  1888,  was  3104,  showing 
1  decrease  of  42  as  compared  with  the  corresponding  period  in 
1887.  A  large  number  of  valuable  communications  received  at 
he  usual  scientific  meetings  held  during  the  session  of  1887  had 
cen  published  in  the  annual  volume  of  Proceedings,  which 
d  730  pages,  illustrated  by  55  plates.  Besides  this,  one 
>art  of  the  twelfth  volume,  viz.  Part  C,  of  the  Society's  quarto 
I  ransactions,  illustrated  by  seven  plates,  had  been  issued,  and 
event]  other  parts,  of  Transactions  were  in  a  forward  state. 
I  he  volume  of  the  Zoological  Record  for  i£86  had  been  sent 
Ht  in  the  month  of  January  of  this  year  to  about  140  sub- 
cnbers.  The  new  edition  of  the  Library  Catalogue,  spoken  of 
n  the  last  Annual  Report  as  ready  for  issue  had  been  published 
ast  summer.  Two  important  additions  had  been  made  to  the 
mrldings  in  the  Society's  Gardens  during  the  past  year.  The 
irsf  of  these,  the  wolves'  and  foxes'  dens,  which  were  commenced 
n  1886,  had  been  erected  by  the  Society's  staff,  under  the  super- 
ision  of  Mr.  Trollope,  by  whom  the  plans  were  drawn,  and 
completed  in  November  last.  The  second  addition  was  a  new 
viary  for  flying  birds  which  had  been  erected  on  the  water- 
pwUr  lawn,  opposite  the  eastern  aviary.  This  aviary  is  105  feet 
bop  62  feet  broad,  and  27  feet  high  in  the  centre  of  the  roof, 
Inch  is  formed  of  galvanized  wire.  The  visitors  to  the  Society's 
aniens  during  the  year  1887  had  been  "altogether  562,898; 
he   corresponding  number   in  1886  was  639,674.     Mr.   F.   E. 


Beddard,  Prosector  to  the  Society,  had  been  appointed 
Davis  Lecturer  for  the  present  year,  and  had  commenced  a 
course  often  lectures  on  "  Reptiles,  living  and  extinct."  These 
lectures  were  a  continuation  of  a  series  given  last  year  in  con- 
nection with  the  London  Society  for  the  Extension  of  University 
Teaching.  The  number  of  animals  in  the  Society's  collection 
on  the  31st  of  December  last  was  2525,  of  which  735  were 
mammals,  1331  birds,  and  459  reptiles.  Amongst  the  additions 
made  during  the  past  year,  13  were  specially  commented  upon  as 
of  remarkable  interest,  and  in  most  cases  representing  species 
new  to  the  Society's  collection.  About  29  species  of  mammals 
21  of  birds,  and  3  of  reptiles,  had  bred  in  the  Society's  Gardens 
during  the  summer  of  1887.  The  Report  concluded  with  a  long 
list  of  the  donors  and  their  various  donations  to  the  Menagerie 
during  the  past  year. — A  vote  of  thanks  to  the  Council  for  their 
Report  was  then  moved  by  Dr.  David  Sharp,  seconded  by  Mr. 
Robert  McLachlan,  and  carried  unanimously. — The  Report 
having  been  adopted,  the  meeting  proceeded  to  elect  the  new 
Members  of  Council  and  the  Officers  for  the  ensuing  year.  The 
usual  ballot  having  been  taken,  it  was  announced  that  Dr.  John 
Anderson,  F.R.S.,  F.  Du  Cane^  Godman,  F.R.S.,  John  W. 
Hulke,  F.R.S.,  Osbert  Salvin,  F.R.S.,  and  Lord  Walsingham, 
F.R.S.,  had  been  elected  into  the  Council  in  place  of  the  retiring 
members,  and  that  Prof.  Flower,  C.B.,  F.R.S.,  had  been  re- 
elected President,  Mr.  Charles  Drummond,  Treasurer,  and  Dr. 
Philip  Lutley  Sclater,  F.R.S.,  Secretary  to  the  Society,  for  the 
ensuing  year. — The  meeting  terminated  with  the  usual  vote 
of  thanks  to  the  Chairman,  proposed  by  Lord  Arthur  Russell, 
seconded  by  Prof.   G.  B.  Howes,  and  carried  unanimously. 

Minera'.ogical  Society,  May  8.— Prof.  Bonney,  F.R.S., 
Treasurer,  in  the  chair. — The  following  papers  were  read  :  — 
Notes  on  some  minerals  from  the  Lizard,  by  Mr.  J.  J.  H.  Teall. 
— Contributions  to  the  study  of  pyrargyrite  and  proustite,  with 
analyses  by  Mr.  G.  T.  Prior,  by  Mr.  H.  A.  Miers. — On  Ccrnish 
dufrenite,  by  Prof.  E.  Kinch. — On  a  peculiar  variety  of  horn- 
blende from  Mynydd  Mawr,  Carnarvonshire  ;  on  a  picrite  from 
the  Clicker  Tor  District,  by  Prof.  T.  G.  Bonney,  F.R.S. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  May  7. — M.  Janssen,  President,  in 
the  chair. — Note  on  the  introduction  of  the  element  of  mean 
averages  in  the  interpretation  of  the  results  of  statistical  returns, 
by  M.  J.  Bertrand.  A  demonstration  is  offered  of  the  following 
theorem  :  Whatever  be  the  number  of  urns  (ballot-boxes  and 
the  like)  and  their  composition,  the  law  of  discrepancies  is  the 
same  for  a  single  urn  of  given  composition  ;  but  this  urn  will  not 
yield  the  desired  mean  average.  Hence  in  order  to  compare 
the  results  of  statistical  returns  with  those  of  abstract  calculation 
two  different  urns  must  be  assumed,  the  mean  results  being 
assimilated  to  the  drawings  made  from  the  first,  and  the  dis- 
crepancies to  the  results  yielded  by  the  second. — New  theory  of 
the  equatorial  coudt  (continued),  by  MM.  Lcewy  and  Puiseux. 
In  this  paper  an  explanation  is  given  of  the  special  processes 
applicable  to  the  equatorial  region,  and  of  the  physical  methods 
employed  to  estimate  the  flexion  of  the  axes.  In  a  final  paper 
the  results  will  be  given  which  have  already  been  obtained  in 
the  application  of  this  theory  to  the  equatorial  coude  of  the  Paris 
Observatory.  —  On  the  convergence  of  a  continuous  algebraic 
fraction,  by  M.  Halphen.  Three  years  ago  the  author  com- 
municated to  the  Academy  the  results  of  his  researches  concern- 
ing continuous  fractions,  which  serve  to  develop  the  square  ror  t 
of  a  polynome  of  the  third  degree.  In  the  present  paper  he 
extends  his  investigations  to  the  case  of  a  continuous  fraction 

obtained  by  developing  the  function  f(x)  =  - — )J2_Z ±lt 

y  —  x 
where  F  indicates  a  polyncme  of  the  fourth  or  of  the  third 
degree. — On  M.  Massieu's  characteristic  functions  in  thermo- 
dynamics, by  M.  H.  Le  Chatelier.  It  is  shown  that  these 
functions  may  be  presented  under  a  form  somewhat  different 
from  that  which  they  are  usually  made  to  assume,  but  which  is 
more  convenient  for  practical  purposes. — On  the  variation  of  the 
specific  heat  of  quartz  with  the  temperature,  by  M.  Pionchon. 
From  the  experiments  the  results  of  which  are  here  tabulated 
it  appears  that  from  about  400°  to  12000  C.  the  specific  heat  of 
quartz  is  constant  and  equal  to  0*305.  Thus  the  increase  in  the 
specific  heat  of  this  mineral  is  entirely  confined  to  the  interval 
between  o°  and  400°  C,  a  result  which  presents  several  points 
of  interest  in  connection  with  M.  Joubert's  researches  on  the  opti- 
cal properties  of  the  same  substance. — On  the  theory  of  diamag- 


72 


NATURE 


{May 


/ 1 


1888 


netism,  by  M.  R.  Blondlot.  The  author's  experiments  tend  com- 
pletely to  confirm  M.  Ed.  Becquerel's  views  regarding  the  mutual 
relations  of  paramagnetic  and  diamagnetic  bodies.  It  is  shown 
that  these  views  are  in  no  way  affected  by  Tyndall's  experiment, 
which  fails  to  prove  the  existence  of  diamagnetic  polarity,  and 
which  is  perfectly  explicable  by  Becquerel's  theory. — On  the 
•electric  phenomena  produced  by  the  ultra-violet  rays,  by  M. 
Auguste  Righi.  In  connection  with  M.  Stoletow's  recent  com- 
munication on  this  subject,  the  author  points  out  that  several 
of  the  results  here  given  were  previously  announced  by  him  in 
a  note  presented  to  the  Academy  dei  Lincei  on  March  4,  and 
printed  at  the  time. — On  the  acid  phosphites  of  the  alkaline 
metals,  by  M.  L.  Amat.  To  the  acid  phosphite  of  ammonia 
(P03HO)NH40,HO,  previously  prepared  by  him,  the  author 
here  adds  the  corresponding  salts  of  potassa  and  soda 
<P03HO)KO,HO  and  (P03HO)NaO,HO,  and  explains  their 
method  of  preparation. — On  the  crystalline  form  of  the  tri- 
thionate  of  soda,  by  M.  A.  Villiers.  The  author  has  succeeded 
in  obtaining  crystals  of  this  substance,  the  measurements  of 
which  are  here  given. — On  terpinol,  by  MM.  G.  Bouchardat 
and  R.  Voiry.  It  is  shown  that  certain  derivatives  of  the  tere- 
benthenes  generally  supposed  to  be  identical  with  List's  terpinol 
are  really  of  different  composition,  although  presenting  some 
marked  analogies  with  that  substance. — M.  G.  Demeny  de- 
scribes a  number  of  instruments  which  he  has  devised  for  the 
purpose  of  accurately  determining  the  exterior  form  of  the 
thorax,  the  extent  of  the  respiratory  movements,  the  profiles 
and  sections  of  the  trunk,  and  the  volume  of  air  inhaled  and 
exhaled.  The  last-mentioned  is  described  as  a  self-registering 
"spirometer." 

Berlin. 

Physical  Society,  April  20. — Prof,  du  Bois-Reymond, 
President,  in  the  chair. — Prof.  Vogel  communicated  the  results 
of  his  researches  on  the  spectrum  of  carbon.  In  recent  times 
the  spectra  of  all  the  carbon  compounds  have  been  recognized 
as  being  those  due  to  carbon  itself,  the  sole  exception  being  in 
the  case  of  cyanogen,  whose  spectrum  was  considered  to  be  that 
of  the  compound,  not  of  carbon  itself.  The  speaker  had 
therefrom  investigated  the  spectrum  of  cyanogen,  with  the  help 
of  photography.  He  obtained  a  spectrum  which  was  marked, 
from  the  red  to  the  ultra-violet,  by  very  characteristic  lines. 
The  spectrum  of  a  Bunsen  burner  was  next  photographed,  and  it 
was  found  that  its  first  three  lines  coincide  in  all  respects  with 
those  of  the  spectrum  of  cyanogen  ;  in  addition  a  series  of  lines 
lying  between  the  above  and  also  in  the  blue  were  found  to  be' 
identical  in  both  spectra.  On  the  other  hand,  the  two  bands  in 
the  blue  and  ultra-violet  were  absent  in  the  spectrum  of  the 
compounds  of  carbon  and  hydrogen,  being  replaced  by  a  series 
of  very  characteristic  double  lines.  Prof.  Vogel  next  photo- 
graphed the  spectrum  of  carbonic  oxide,  and  found  that  its  more 
highly  refracted  portion  corresponded  completely  with  that  of 
cyanogen.  The  bands  in  the  blue  and  ultra-violet  were 
particularly  well  marked,  whereas  the  less  highly  refracted  half 
of  this  spectrum  did  not  correspond  with  that  of  cyanogen. 
Finally,  the  light  emitted  by  the  electric  arc  was  photographed, 
and  its  spectrum  resembled  in  all  respects  that  of  cyanogen. 
The  speaker  drew  the  conclusion  from  these  observations  that 
in  all  four  cases  he  was  really  dealing  with  the  spectrum  of 
carbon.  The  differences  in  the  several  spectra  are  not  dependent 
upon  differences  of  temperature,  inasmuch  as  the  temperature  of 
a  Bunsen  flame  is  higher  than  that  of  cyanogen,  and  notwith- 
standing this  the  latter  gave  a  more  highly  developed  and 
complicated  spectrum.  The  speaker  was  much  more  inclined  to 
assume  the  existence  of  modifications  of  carbon,  of  which  one 
yields  its  spectrum  in  the  Bunsen  flame,  the  other  in  the  flame 
of  carbon  monoxide,  the  two  spectra  being  met  with  united  in 
those  of  cyanogen  and  the  electric  arc  respectively.  In  photo- 
graphs of  the  solar  spectrum,  the  dark  background  on  which 
the  line  G  is  conspicuous  shows  such  a  marked  correspondence 
with  narrow  bands  in  all  the  above  four  spectra  that  the 
existence  of  carbon  in  the  sun  must  necessarily  be  assumed. — 
Prof.  Vogel  then  spoke  on  colour-perceptions,  which  he  explained 
by  means  of  experiments.  It  is  well  known  that  when  a  colour- 
chart  is  seen  illuminated  by  the  light  of  a  sodium  flame  it 
appears  colourless  :  the  yellow  appears  to  be  pure  white,  and  the 
other  colours  appear  gray,  graduating  into  black.  This  result  is 
not  observed  with  other  monochromatic  light,  such  as  that  of 
thallium  or  strontium.  The  speaker  was,  however,  able  to  produce 
the  same  result  by  means  of  coloured  glasses,  whether  red,  green, 


or  blue;  those  colours  always  appeared  to  be  white  or  very  bright 
which  most  strongly  reflected  the  light  with  which  the  colour- 
chart  was  illuminated,  all  the  other  colours  appearing  to  be  either 
gray  or  black.  When  a  second  monochromatic  light  was  added 
to  a  previous  one,  such  as  blue  to  a  yellow  light,  then  definite 
colour-sensations  were  observed,  which  increased  in  number 
when  a  third  source  of  monochromatic  light  was  superadded  to 
the  other  two.  Prof.  Vogel  laid  great  stress  on  the  perception 
of  white  by  monochromatic  illumination  of  a  uniformly  coloured 
field  of  view.  He  was  not  prepared  to  give  any  explanation  of 
the  phenomena,  but  simply  to  bring  them  to  notice,  with  the 
intention  of  investigating  them  further. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED 

Nature's  Hygiene,  3rd  edition  :  C.  T.  Kingzett  (Bailliere,  Tindall,  and 
Cox).— GEuvres  Completes  de  Christiaan  Huygens :  Tome  Premier,  Corres- 
pondance  1638-56  (Nijhoff,  La  Have).— Longmans'  Junior  School  Geography. 
G.  G.  Chisholm  (Longmans). — Kurzes  Handbuch  der  Kohlenhydrate  :  Dr. 
B.  Tollens  (Trewendt,  Breslau).— Geology  for  All :  J.  L.  Lobley  (Roper  and 
Drowley).— The  Elements  of  Logarithms:  W.  Gallatly  (Hodgson).— 
Natural  Causation :  C.  E.  Plumptre  (Unwin).  — Text-book  of  Practical 
Metallurgy :  A.  R.  Gower  (Chapman  and  Hall).— Recherches  sur  le  Cera- 
tium  Macroceros  :  E.  Penard  (Geneve).— The  Old  Babylonian  Characters 
and  their  Chinese  Derivates  :  Dr.  T.  de  Lacouperie  (Nutt). — The  Natural 
History  and  Epidemiology  of  Cholera:  Sir  J.  Fayrer  (Bale).— The  Study 
of  History  in  American  Colleges  and  Universities  :  H.  B.  Adams  (Washing- 
ton).— Tokyo  Sugaku  Butsurigaku  Kwai  Kiji,  Maki  No.  III.  Dai  3.— 
Asbestos  ;  its  Production  and  Use  :  R.  H.  Jones  (C.  Lockwood). — A  Chapter 
in  the  Integral  Calculus:  A.  G.  Greenhill  (Hodgson).— Journal  of  the 
Chemical  Society,  May  (Gurney  and  Jackson). — Annalen  der  Physik  und 
Chemie,  1888,  No.  6  (Barth,  Leipzig).— Bulletins  de  la  Societe  d'Anthropo- 
logie  de  Paris,  Tome  X.  (3  Serie).  4c  Fa?c.  (Masson,  Paris). — Me"moires  de  la 
Societe  d'Anthropologie'  de  Paris,  Tome  III.  (2e.  Serie)  Fasc.  3  and  4 
(Masson,  Paris). — Quarterly  Journal  of  the  Geological  Society,  vol.  44,  part 
2,  No.  174  (Longmans). — Bulletin  of  the  American  Geological  Society,  vol. 
xix.,  Supplement  1887,  vol.  xx.  No.  1  (New  York).— Jamaica,  Annual 
Report  on  the  Public  Gardens  and  Plantations  for  the  year  ended  September 
30,  1887  (Jamaica). 


CONTENTS.  page 

Flora  of  the   Hawaiian    Islands.      By  J.    G.    Baker, 

F.R.S 49 

The  Geological  Evidences  of  Evolution 50 

The  Shell-Collector's  Hand-book  for  the  Field    ...    51 
Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Davis:  "  A  Text-book  of  Biology  " 52 

"  Reports  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  New  Zealand"  .     53 
Rau  :   "  First  Lessons  in  Geometry  "  ........    53 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

Dissemination   of    Plants   by    Birds. — W.     Botting 

Hemsley 53 

On  the  Reappearance  of  Pallas's  Sand  Grouse  (Syr- 
rhaptes paradoxus)  in  Europe.— Dr.  A.  B.  Meyer  .    53 

"  Coral  Formations." — Robert  Irvine 54 

Aurora  Borealis. — L.  J.  H 54 

Weight  and  Mass. — Prof.  A.  G.  Greenhill 54 

Density  and  Specific  Gravity. — Harry  M.  Elder     .    .    55 

The  Cornish  Blown  Sands. — R.  H.  Curtis 55 

Self-induction    in     Iron    Conductors. — Prof.    J.     A. 

Ewing 55 

Notes  on  the  Reproduction  of  Rudimentary  Toes   in 

Greyhounds.— Dr.  R.  W.  Shufeldt 56 

Dreams. — A.  Bialoveski 56 

"Antagonism." — Thomas  Woods 56 

Suggestions   on   the    Classification    of   the  Various 
Species  of  Heavenly  Bodies.     V.    {Illustrated.)   By 

J.  Norman  Lockyer,  F.R.S 56 

The  Royal  Society  Conversazione 60 

The  Zoological  Society  of  Amsterdam 62 

Notes 62  ! 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for      the      Week      1888 

May  20-26 65  ' 

Geographical  Notes 65 

The  Pygmy   Races  of  Men.     II.     By  Prof.  Flower, 

C.B.,  F.R.S 66  ;j 

University  and  Educational  Intelligence 69  | 

Societies  and  Academies 70  t 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 72  1. 

I 


NA  TURE 


73 


THURSDAY,   MAY   24,    1! 


THE  POLYTECHNIC  INSTITUTE. 

EVERY  middle-aged  inhabitant  of  the  British  Islands 
must  recall  more  than  one  occasion  when  the  mind 
of  our  country  has  been  strongly  stirred  on  the  question 
of  national  defence.     The  adverse  evidence  of  an  expert, 
a   rousing  article  in  a  newspaper,  has  often  awakened 
general  anxiety  of  more  or  less  continuance,  and  followed 
by  more  or  less  adequate  results.      But  it  is  far  more 
difficult  to  awaken  any  widespread  concern  on  behalf  of 
those  great   abiding   national   interests  which  it  is  our 
charge  and  heritage  to  defend.     And  yet  there  are  signs 
of   no   uncertainty  which   must   to   all    thoughtful    and 
instructed   minds,   from    many   directions,    suggest    the 
question  whether  that  industrial   leadership  which  has 
hitherto    made    our    small    and    crowded    country    the 
world's    workshop,    and    almost     the    world's    mart,    is 
not     slipping    from    us.       This    is   a    question    not    of 
more  or  less  wealth  or  luxury,  but  of  very  livelihood  to 
the  masses  of  the  people  under  the  special  conditions  of 
our  national  existence.     If   work   ceases  to  come  to  a 
workshop,  there  is  nothing  for  it  but  prompt  dispersal  of 
the  workmen.    All  authorities  seem  agreed  that  the  popu- 
lation of  five   or   six   millions   inhabiting   England  and 
Wales  in  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth  represents  pretty 
nearly  what  their  areas  can  sustain  as  agricultural,  self- 
supporting  countries.     But  the  population  of  England  and 
Wales  alone  was  shown  by  the  census  of  1881  to  have 
reached  nearly  twenty-six  millions.      So  that  seven  years 
ago  there  was  in  the  southern  half  of  Great  Britain  an 
excess    of    twenty    millions    above    what    the     country 
could    reasonably    support,   except   as   a   community  of 
artificers   and    traders,   and    general    carriers,    by    im- 
jort    and    export,     of    the     world's     merchandise.       It 
leeds  only  a  glance  into  past  history  to  see  that  this, 
yhile  an  enviable  position  for  a  nation  while  prosperity 
ists,  is  practical  extinction  when  the  channels  of  com- 
lerce  are  turned,  or  lost  advantages  have  transferred  pro- 
luction  to  new  centres.     Macaulay's  fancy  picture  of  the 
few  Zealander  sketching  the  ruins  of  St.  Paul's  from  the 
broken  arches  of  London  Bridge  seems  of  very  little  con- 
cern to  the  present  citizen,  whose  ears  are  deafened  with 
the  ceaseless  roar  and  traffic  of  the  streets.    And  yet  pre- 
cisely that  doom  of  silence  and  decay  has  befallen  many 
a  proud  mother-city  of  which  now  "  even  the  ruins  have 
perished."     It  would  far  exceed  present  limits  to  show  in 
detail  how  many  articles  of  our  own  immemorial   pro- 
duction   we     ourselves     now    largely    import,    because 
the  foreign  workman  produces  them  better,  or  produces 
them  at  less  cost.     The  evidence  will   be  fresh  in  the 
recollection    of  the   readers    of   this    journal.      Neither 
can  they  fail  to  recall  with   what   persistence  we  have 
pointed  out  the  remedy.     There  is  but  one  real  remedy  : 
the   better  training   of  the  workman  ;    and — if  we  may 
be  allowed  to   say  it — of  his   employer  too.     Everyone 
who,  without  prejudice,  has  opportunity  to  watch  a  fair 
specimen  of  the  British  workman  at  his  work  must  admit 
that  the  raw  material  is  as  good  as  ever  it  was  ;  that  in  the 
quantity  and  quality  of  the  work  he  can  turn  out  in  a 
given  time,  few  of  any  nationality  can  equal,  and  none 
Vol.  xxxviii.— No.  969. 


surpass  him.  But  in  the  training  he  receives,  and  in  the 
opportunities  of  his  receiving  it,  there  is  much  left  to  be 
desired.  And,  meantime,  there  is  not  only  the  grave 
fear,  but,  in  many  branches  of  industry,  the  accom- 
plished fact,  that  other  nations  may  and  do  outstrip 
us  in  the  race. 

Perhaps  there  is  some  belated  merit  in  seeing  that 
now  ;  but  all  honour  to  those  who,  with  heart  and 
means  to  labour  towards  the  better  training  of  our 
artisans,  devoted  themselves  to  the  endeavour  when  the 
need  for  it  was  less  comparatively  obvious.  Honour 
especially  to  one  man,  Mr.  Quintin  Hogg,  who,  close  upon 
a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  at  an  age  when  most  young 
men  are  concentrating  their  best  energies  on  cricket,  or 
football,  or  lawn  tennis  (all  good  things  in  their  way), 
made  it  his  life's  task  to  raise  the  skilled  workman  of 
London,  and  furnish  him  more  fully  for  his  labour,  for  his 
own  sake  and  for  ours.  Probably  most  of  our  readers  know 
how  that  small  enterprise  has  become  a  great  one  indeed, 
with  the  old  Polytechnic  for  its  present  home  and  centre, 
and  with  a  fuller  variety  of  classes  and  branches,  and 
with  a  greater  comprehensiveness  of  scheme,  than  we 
can  now  attempt  to  describe.  But  all  has  hitherto 
rested  on  the  shoulders,  and  been  sustained  by  the 
purse,  of  Mr.  Hogg  himself,  who,  during  the  past  six 
years,  has  spent,  speaking  broadly,  some  £100,000  in 
establishing  and  sustaining  these  admirable  schools.  But 
the  time  has  now  come  when  so  great  a  burden,  for  the 
work's  sake  as  well  as  for  his  own,  should  no  longer 
depend  upon  the  means  and  life  of  a  single  man ;  and 
there  is  now  an  opportunity  of  securing  for  the  Institute 
something  like  an  adequate  endowment.  The  Charity 
Commissioners  have  offered  to  endow  it  with  ,£2500  per 
annum  on  condition  that  the  public  find  .£35,000  as  a 
supplementary  fund.  £18,000  have  already  been  promised 
by  the  personal  friends  of  the  founder  ;  but  £17,000  still 
remain  to  be  raised — a  large  sum  no  doubt,  but  a  small 
one  compared  to  our  still  unrivalled  resources,  and  the 
national  value  of  the  Institute,  not  only  for  its  own  im- 
mediate results,  but  as  a  model  for  similar  efforts  in  all 
the  great  centres  of  our  industry.  Those  who  believe  in 
science— that  is,  in  faithfully  accurate  and  exact  know- 
ledge— as  the  only  sure  basis  for  any  national  prosperity 
that  is  to  bear  the  stress  of  the  fierce  competition  of  our 
times,  are  earnestly  invited  to  make  themselves  ac- 
quainted with  the  work  of  the  Institute,  and  to  con- 
tribute to  its  funds.  |  Eighty-one  thousand  members 
and  students  have  joined  since  it  was  moved  to  the  Poly- 
technic, 309  Regent  Street,  in  1882.  All  donations  or 
subscriptions  will  be  thankfully  received  there,  or  by  Mr. 
Quintin  Hogg,  3  Cavendish  Square,  W. 

THE  GEOGRAPHICAL  DISTRIBUTION  OF 
THE  FAMILY  CHARADRIID<E. 

The  Geographical  Distribution  of  the  Family  Chara- 
driidce ;  or  the  Plovers,  Sandpipers,  Snipes,  and  their 
Allies.  By  Henry  Seebohm.  (London  :  H,  Sotheran 
and  Co.,  1888.) 

THIS  is  a  handsome  volume  of  more  than  500  pages, 
and  it  is  illustrated  by  twenty-one  coloured  plates, 
drawn  in  Mr.  Keuleman's  best  style.  Mr.  Seebohm  has 
eschewed  giving  much  information  as  to  the  habits  of 

E 


74 


NATURE 


[May  24,  1888 


these  families  of  wading  birds,  and  has  made  a  special 
point  of  the  geographical  distribution,  a  branch  of  the 
subject  which  cannot  fail  to  attract  the  interest  of  every 
true  naturalist.  The  introductory  chapters  treat  of  (1) 
the  "  Classification,"  and  (2)  the  "  Evolution  "  of  Birds. 
Chapter  III.  details  the  author's  views  on  the  "  Differ- 
entiation of  Species,"  and  Chapter  IV.  deals  with  the 
"  Glacial  Epoch."  Chapters  V.  to  IX.  are  devoted  to  the 
migration  of  birds,  and  end  with  a  scheme  of  classifi- 
cation of  the  Charadriidce,  Here  are,  in  fact,  enunciated 
clearly  all  the  articles  of  the  Seebohm  faith  ! 

Evolutionists  will  probably  join  issue  with  Mr.  Seebohm 
on  many  of  his  conclusions,  and  geologists  may  have 
something  to  say  as  to  the  possibility  of  glacial  epochs 
causing  all  that  the  author  claims  for  them,  but  ornitho- 
logists are  scarcely  likely  to  accept  all  his  conclusions  at 
once.  If  we  are  to  believe  Mr.  Seebohm,  there  is  very 
little  progress  being  made  in  ornithological  work  in  the 
Old  World,  his  sympathies  being  evidently  more  with  the 
American  school  of  [ornithologists,  for  whose  method  of 
nomenclature  he  has  great  respect.  The  non-adoption  of 
trinomial  principles  Mr.  Seebohm  attributes  to  the  "con- 
servative views  of  British  ornithologists,"  though  he  is 
mindful  to  add  :  "  It  is,  however,  only  fair  to  remember 
that  much  allowance  must  be  made  for  the  narrow, 
because  insular,  views  of  British  ornithologists."  Shade 
of  Darwin  !  The  author  has  singled  out  the  present  writer 
as  one  of  those  who  seem  to  have  had  "  no  definite  idea  of 
what  they  meant  by  a  sub-species"  ;  but  we  may  assure 
Mr.  Seebohm  that  in  1874  we  did  not  use  the  term  of 
Gyps  hispaniolensis  as  a  sub-species  of  G.  fidvus  "  in  an 
absolutely  arbitrary  manner,"  and  we  did  not  expect  to 
find  our  nomenclature  discussed  under  the  heading  of  a 
"  vague  use  of  trinomials."  Our  object  was  to  recognize 
evident  facts,  but  at  the  same  time  to  retain  a  binomial 
form  of  name  for  every  bird,  and  the  uncertainty  which 
still  surrounds  the  American  method  of  trinomial  names 
has  not  yet  encouraged  us  to  abandon  the  simpler  and 
decidedly  less  clumsy  way  of  expression.  Surely  Mr. 
Seebohm  himself  must  admit  that  to  have  to  speak  of  an 
Oyster- catcher  as  Hccmatopus  niger  ater(p.  311)  is  not  an 
advantage,  and  this  is  only  one  result  of  pushing  trinomial 
nomenclature  to  its  extreme.  There  are  not  wanting 
signs  that  the  advocates  of  the  system  are  beginning  to 
groan  under  the  weight  of  the  burden  they  have  placed 
on  their  own  shoulders  ;  and  when  the  inevitable  return  to 
the  old  simple  path  of  binomial  nomenclature  takes  place, 
the  only  tangible  result  will  have  been  to  have  weighted 
the  already  frightful  list  of  ornithological  synonyms  with 
an  additional  number  of  long  names.  Even  Mr.  Seebohm 
tries  to  modify  the  task  of  quotation  of  books  by  simplify- 
ing some  titles ;  as,  for  instance,  when  he  speaks  of 
"  Coues  and  Co.,  Check-List "  (p.  427),  as  if  the  authors 
of  the  admirable  A.O.U.  "  Check-List  of  North  American 
Birds"  had  formed  themselves  into  a  Limited  Liability 
Company  for  the  manufacture  of  trinomials. 

Another  point  on  which  Mr.  Seebohm  may  fairly  be 
called  to  task  is  for  the  number  of  new  names  which 
his  book  propounds.  On  the  back  of  the  title-page  he 
quotes  wise  saws  from  the  writings  of  John  Ray  (1878), 
A.  R.  Wallace  (1876),  and  Henry  Seebohm  (1883),  con- 
cerning the  necessity  of  having  simple  names  for  birds, 
and  those  generally  understanded  of  the  people.     Here 


are  his  own  words : — "  I  have  adopted  a  scheme  which 
appears  to  me  to  be  the  most  practical  method  of  any 
which  have  been  suggested.  It  may  not  satisfy  the  re- 
quirements of  poetical  justice  ;  but  it  is  at  least  consistent 
with  common-sense.  I  adopt  the  name  which  has  been 
most  used 'by  previous  writers.  It  is  not  necessary  for  me 
to  encumber  my  nomenclature  with  a  third  name,  either 
to  denote  the  species  to  which  it  refers,  or  to  flatter  the 
vanity  of  the  author  who  described  it :  all  my  names  are 
auctorum  plurimorum"  Either  our  author  had  forgotten 
that  he  had  nailed  this  flag  to  the  mast  when  he  began  the 
present  book,  or  the  system  of  auctorum  plurimorum  does 
not  suit  the  Charadriidce j  for  the  next  student  of  these 
birds  will  find  that  for  the  235  species  enumerated  by  Mr. 
Seebohm,  he  is  responsible  for  giving  to  sixty-five  of 
them  names  not  previously  in  vogue  ;  and  the  number 
would  have  been  greater,  had  not  Schlegel  worked 
somewhat  on  the  same  line  of  ideas,  while  many  of  the 
trinomial  combinations  had  been  anticipated  by  "  Coues 
and  Co." 

The  book  is  profusely  illustrated  by  woodcuts,  showing 
the  specific  characters  of  the  different  species,  and  these 
will  be  invaluable  to  the  student  of  these  difficult  birds. 
In  fact,  no  work  has  ever  been  so  remarkably  treated  in 
this  respect,  and  it  will  be  the  book  of  reference  for  the 
Charadriidce.  for  many  years  to  come.  The  "  Keys  to  the 
Species  "  are  also  excellent,  and  Mr.  Seebohm  deserves 
every  credit  for  having  given  us  such  a  complete  arrange- 
ment of  some  of  the  most  tiresome  of  all  the  birds  which 
it  falls  to  the  lot  of  the  ornithologist  to  determine.  Every 
naturalist  who  works  out  his  facts  as  completely  as  the 
author  has  done  is  permitted  to  account  for  them  by  any 
theory  which  seems  to  him  good ;  and  Mr.  Seebohm's 
arguments  as  to  the  origin  of  the  species  and  their  distri- 
bution are  not  only  examples  of  clever  writing,  but  are 
plausible  enough  if  once  the  absolute  certainty  of  the 
Charadriidce  having  been  driven  from  the  Polar  Basin  by 
successive  glacial  epochs  is  conceded.  Many  ornitho- 
logists, however,  will  think  that  he  carries  his  theory  a 
little  too  far,  as,  for  instance,  when  he  places  the  Avocets 
and  Stilts  in  one  genus,  Himantopus.  How  they  origin- 
ally came  from  the  north,  were  split  up  in  bands,  became 
some  of  them  "semi-Stilts"  and  "  semi-Avocets  "  ;  how 
they  thought  nothing  of  emigrating  (cause  not  hinted 
at)  from  the  New  World  across  the  Atlantic  to  the  Canary 
Islands  and  Spain,  or  from  the  Chilian  sub-region  across 
the  Pacific  to  New  Zealand  and  Australia — these  and 
many  other  interesting  theories  of  distribution  will  reward 
the  student  of  Mr.  Seebohm's  book.  Most  ornithologists 
will  be  more  grateful  for  small  mercies  than  Mr.  Seebohm 
is,  and  thank  Dame  Nature  for  having  given  them  charac- 
ters whereby  in  a  few  lines  a  genus  can  be  written  down. 
Take,  for  instance,  the  members  of  the  genus  Esacus, 
which  Mr.  Seebohm  unites  to  CEdicnemus,  and  yet  his 
woodcuts  show  that  the  former  genus  has  an  enormous  bill, 
longer  than  the  head  itself— surely  a  genuine  character  of 
importance.  Then,  again,  Anarhynchus,  with  its  asym- 
metrical bill— confined  to  New  Zealand — need  not  be 
united  to  Charadriusj — and  so  on.  With  his  theory  of 
distribution  strong  in  his  mind,  the  Avocets,  with  up-turned 
bill,  are  united  to  the  Stilts,  with  their  straight  bill,  because 
Mr.  Seebohm  has  no  doubts  as  to  their  common  origin 
in  the  distant  past ;  but  looking  at  the  present  almost 


May  24,  1888] 


NATURE 


75 


identical  distribution  of  Himantopus  melanopterus  and 
Recurvirostra  avocetta,  H.  mexicanus  and  R.  americana, 
it  would  seem  as  if  they  had  long  ago  been  separated  as 
distinct  generic  forms,  as  they  would  have  no  business 
to  occupy  the  same  areas,  if  Mr.  Seebohm's  theory  were 
true.  Is  it  not  possible  that  they  were  developed  as 
Avocets  and  Stilts  in  very  remote  times,  and  that  similar 
causes  have  driven  them  to  occupy  the  same  areas  of 
distribution  ?  And  may  not  both  have  had  a  southern 
instead  of  a  northern  origin  ?  Thus  Cladorhynchus  in 
Australia,  Himantopus  andinus  in  the  Andes  (apparently, 
from  Mr.  Seebohm's  illustration,  belonging  to  a  distinct 
genus),  and  the  various  species  of  Stilts  in  Australia,  New 
Zealand,  and  Brazil,  would  remain  as  isolated  species  of 
a  former  stock,  which  probably  inhabited  a  continuous 
area  in  the  South  Atlantic  and  South  Pacific  Oceans. 
Where  circumstances  were  favourable  to  their  stay,  some 
may  not  have  migrated  northwards,  and  the  differences 
in  some  of  the  southern  species  could  be  accounted  for 
by  their  subsequent  isolation,  rather  than  by  their  incon- 
sequent flight  from  Chili  to  New  Zealand,  as  Mr.  Seebohm 
supposes. 

Besides  the  woodcuts  of  heads,  tails,  &c,  and  other 
specific  characters,  the  present  volume  is  crowded  with 
woodcut  illustrations  by  Mr.  John  Millais,  Mr.  Lodge, 
and  Mr.  Holding.  They  are  mostly  extremely  well  done, 
but  Mr.  Millais  seems  a  little  inclined  to  fashion  his  Waders 
on  the  model  of  a  peg-top. 

R.    BOWDLER   SHARPE. 


THE  MINERALS   OF   NEW  SOUTH    WALES. 

The  Minerals  of  New  South  Wales,  Sr'c.  By  A.  Liver- 
sidge,  M.A.,  F.R.S.,  Professor  of  Chemistry  and 
Mineralogy  in  the  University  of  Sydney.  (London  : 
Triibner  and  Co.,  Ludgate  Hill,  1888) 

TT  was  a  very  happy  thought  of  Prof.  Liversidge  to 
J-  celebrate  the  centenary  of  the  foundation  of  the 
colony  of  New  South  Wales  by  the  publication  of  this 
handsome  and  comprehensive  volume.  Giving,  as  it 
does,  a  very  clear  account  of  what  is  known  of  the  mineral 
resources  of  the  oldest  of  the  Australian  colonies,  it 
brings  clearly  before  the  mind  of  the  reader  how  much 
has  already  been  accomplished  in  developing  the  subter- 
ranean resources  of  an  important  part  of  the  British 
Empire,  and  how  large  is  the  promise  for  the  future. 
The  term  "  mineral,"  we  may  mention,  is  not  employed 
in  this  work  in  its  narrower  scientific  sense  ;  coals  and 
oil-shales,  and  even  mineral  waters,  receiving  a  due 
amount  of  notice  in  it. 

The  basis  of  the  present  work  is  found  in  a  paper  pub- 
lished by  the  author  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Royal 
Society  of  New  South  Wales,  in  1874,  of  which  memoir 
a  second  edition  was  published  by  the  Mining  Depart- 
ment of  the  colony  in  1882.  Prof.  Liversidge  has  added 
very  largely  to  his  original  memoir ;  and  the  numerous 
analyses  of  minerals  and  rocks,  made  by  himself,  Mr.  W. 
J.  Dixon,  F.I.C.,  and  the  Government  Analyst  of  the 
Mining  Department,  greatly  increase  the  value  of  the 
book.  Owing  to  the  absence  of  the  author  from  the 
colony  during  the  past  year,  the  work  has  been  printed 


and  issued  in  this  country  ;  but,  as  a  proof  of  the  manner 
in  which  the  book  has  been  brought  fully  up  to  date, 
we  may  note  the  statement,  on  p.  185,  of  the  dis- 
covery, by  Mr.  T.  W.  Edgworth  David,  of  the  Geological 
Survey  of  New  South  Wales,  of  the  sparsely  distributed 
mineral  leucite  in  the  Australian  colony,  the  fact  having 
only  been  announced  to  the  Mineralogical  Society  so 
recently  as  October  in  last  year. 

A  considerable  amount  of  space  is  naturally  devoted 
to  discussions  concerning  the  occurrence  of  the  precious 
metals — the  account  of  gold  occupying  34  pages,  and  that 
of  silver  13  pages.  The  interesting  series  of  assays  of 
New  South  Wales  gold,  and  an  account  of  the  chief 
nuggets  found  in  the  colony,  are  of  much  interest.  In 
connection  with  this  subject,  we  have  in  the  work  before 
us  a  very  clear  and  concise,  but  very  carefully  drawn  up, 
statement  concerning  the  often-disputed  question  of  the 
original  discoverer  of  gold  in  Australia.  The  author  states 
his  facts  and  sources  of  information,  taking  great  care  to 
give  references  in  all  cases,  and  those  interested  in  the 
question  will  have  little  difficulty  in  arriving  at  a  decision 
as  to  the  relative  merits  of  the  claims  which  have  been 
put  forward  on  behalf  of  Count  Strzelecki,  the  Rev.  W. 
B.  Clarke,  Sir  Roderick  Murchison,  and  other  less  known 
individuals,  to  whom  the  discovery  has  been  ascribed. 
One  of  the  most  interesting  and  instructive  among  the 
many' tabular  statements  in  this  work  is  that  which  in- 
dicates the  number  of  minerals  which  have  yielded,  on 
assay,  larger  or  smaller  quantities  of  gold  and  silver. 
This  table  seems  to  indicate  that,  even  should  the  alluvial 
washings  and  quartz-reefs  be  exhausted  of  their  auriferous 
contents,  there  still  remain  in  Australia  many  available 
and  very  valuable  sources  of  the  precious  metals. 

Still  more  important  in  its  bearing  on  the  future  wel- 
fare of  the  colony  is  the  account  of  the  common  metallic 
ores,  and  of  the  coal,  lignite,  and  oil-shale  deposits. 
There  are  few,  if  any,  of  the  metals  used  in  the  arts,  of 
which  abundant  sources  of  supply  are  not  found  within 
the  limits  of  the  colony.  The  coal-fields  are  said  to  cover 
about  one-half  the  area  of  those  of  Great.  Britain,  and 
numerous  analyses  and  other  details  enable  us  to  judge 
of  the  quality  of  the  fuels  which  they  yield.  In  the  dis- 
cussion of  this  important  question,  Prof.  Liversidge's  great 
knowledge  and  experience  as  a  chemist  invest  his  opinions 
with  the  highest  value. 

Although  the  book  is  not  a  technical  mineralogical 
treatise  alone,  mineralogists  will  find  very  careful  descrip- 
tions of  all  the  minerals,  including  the  gem  stones,  which 
have  been  found  within  the  colony.  Their  study  of  the 
subject  will  be  much  facilitated  by  the  large  coloured 
map  which  forms  a  frontispiece  to  the  volume. 

In  concluding  this  notice  we  cannot  but  congratulate 
the  author  upon  the  enterprise  and  energy  which  have 
enabled  him  to  prepare  such  a  treatise  as  the  present 
one.  The  objects  aimed  at  in  such  books  as  Zepharovic's 
"  Mineralogisches  Lexicon  fur  das  Kaiserthum  Oester- 
reich  "  may  seem  at  first  sight  incompatible  with  those  to 
which  works  like  Mr.  Albert  Williams's  "  Mineral  Re- 
sources of  the  United  States"  are  devoted  ;  but  Prof. 
Liversidge  has  shown  that  this  is  by  no  means  the  case, 
and  he  has  achieved  the  feat  in  the  case  of  a  young  and 
rising  colony,  where  the  difficulties  of  the  undertaking 
must  have  been  more  than  usually  great.     The  colony, 


76 


NA  TURE 


\May  24,  1888 


too,  is  to  be  congratulated  on  its  good  fortune  in  having 
as  an  occupant  of  the  Chemical  Chair  in  its  University, 
one  who  has  shown  himself  so  successful  in  attaining 
practical,  while  not  losing  sight  of  the  scientific,  results 
of  his  researches. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Elementary  Chemistry.  By  William  S.  Furneaux, 
F.R.G.S.,  Science  Demonstrator,  London  School 
Board.     (London:  Longmans,  Green,  and  Co.,  1888.) 

The  main  object  of  this  little  work  is  to  assist  young 
students  intending  to  sit  for  the  chemistry  examination  of 
the  Science  and  Art  Department  in  the  new  alternative 
elementary  stage.  It  appears  to  be,  in  fact,  an  illustrated 
expansion  of  the  detailed  syllabus  published  by  the 
Department  in  their  Directory. 

The  want  of  such  a  work  has  possibly  been  felt  by 
many  teachers  of  this  "alternative''  or  "natural" 
chemistry,  which  appears  to  be  rapidly  becoming  more  and 
more  popular  with  young  beginners.  There  is  something 
truly  fascinating  in  learning  these  mysteries  of  common 
things,  and,  what  is  still  more  important,  the  knowledge 
gained  has  its  practical  applications  in  every-day  life. 
In  order  to  afford  teachers  some  idea  of  the  methods 
recommended  of  performing  the  class  experiments  them- 
selves, the  Department  have  caused  to  be  placed  in  the 
western  galleries  of  the  South  Kensington  Museum  a 
complete  set  of  apparatus,  as  simple  and  inexpensive  as 
is  compatible  with  the  object  in  view,  arranged  under  the 
personal  direction  of  the  examiners,  to  illustrate  the 
method  of  performing  each  of  the  experiments  indicated 
in  the  syllabus.  It  is  to  be  hoped,  therefore,  that  all  who 
are  interested  in  the  teaching  of  the  alternative  elementary 
stage  of  chemistry,  an1  who  can  conveniently  do  so,  will 
avail  themselves  of  this  opportunity  of  comparing  the 
experimental  methods  there  recommended  with  those 
which  they  themselves  have  previously  adopted.  One 
cannot  help  thinking  that  many  of  the  methods  illustrated 
by  Mr.  Furneaux  are  much  too  complicated,  and  it  is  to 
be  regretted  that  his  book  was  in  the  press  before  the 
completion  of  the  collection  in  the  western  galleries, 
which  was  accomplished  about  two  months  ago. 

The  majority  of  the  theoretical  explanations  leave  little 
to  be  desired.  The  ideas  of  the  author,  however,  as  to 
the  nature  of  the  Bunsen  flame  appear  scarcely  to  accord 
with  more  recent  investigations,  the  effect  of  mixture  with 
an  inert  gas  being  entirely  overlooked.  A.  E.  T. 

Companion  to  the  Weekly  Problem  Papers.  By  the  Rev. 
John  Milne,  M.A.  (London :  Macmillan  and  Co 
1888.) 

The  title  of  this  work  gives  no  adequate  idea  of  its 
contents.  It  consists  of  some  340  pages,  which,  if  about 
60  pages  be  excepted,  are  devoted  entirely  to  geometry. 
Besides  the  author,  several  other  mathematicians  are 
contributors,  viz.  Mr.  R.  F.  Davis,  Prof.  Genese,  Rev.  T. 
C.  Simmons,  and  Mr.  E.  M.  Langley. 

The  object  of  the  book  seems  to  be  to  give  prominence 
to  what  is  here  designated  "  The  Modern  Geometry  of 
the  Triangle."  This  is  seen  to  consist  of  a  group  of 
pretty  theorems  which  arise  from  a  consideration  of  the 
"  Brocard  points  "  and  the  "  Lemoine  point "  of  a  triangle. 
The  successive  chapters  bear  the  titles,  "  Antiparallels, 
lsogonals,  and  Inverse  Points,"  "  The  Brocard  Points  and 
Brocard  Ellipse,"  "  The  Lemoine  Point  and  Triplicate 
Ratio  Circle,"  "  The  Brocard  Circle  and  First  Brocard 
Triangle,"  "The  Tucker  Circles,"  "The  Cosine  and 
Taylor  Circles,"  "  The  Co-Symmedian  and  Co-Brocardal 
Triangles,"  and  "  Miscellaneous  Theorems  and  Construc- 
tions." They  comprise  a  good  and  almost  complete 
account  of  the  present  knowledge  of  these  subjects. 


On  p.  180  there  is  a  re'sumJ  of  the  bibliography, 
which  has  evidently  been  carefully  compiled  by  the  knot 
of  enthusiasts  in  this  country  who  have  followed  in  the 
footsteps  of  M.  Le  noine  M.  Brocard,  M.  Vigarie',  Prof 
Neuberg,  M.  Catalan,  and  others.  To  these  investigators 
on  the  Continent  most  of  the  results  here  given  were 
known  prior  to  1881  ;  they  were  subsequently  arrived  at 
independently  by  mathematicians  in  England  who  were 
unacquainted  with  the  work  already  accomplished,  in  the 
same  field  of  research,  abroad.  In  fact,  in  the  resume', 
discoveries,  and  rediscoveries,  and  rediscoveries  of  re- 
discoveries succeed  one  another  in  bewildering  fashion. 
The  reasons  which  have  led  to  the  nomenclature  in 
certain  cases  are  difficult  to  fathom.  We  find,  for 
instance,  a  circle  associated  with  the  name  of  one  mathe- 
matician, when,  admittedly,  the  same  circle  had  been 
examined  by  a  Continental  investigator  some  years 
previously,  whose  name,  if  name  be  necessary,  it  ought 
to  bear. 

The  algebraic  portions  comprehend  sections  on 
"Theory  of  Maximum  and  Minimum,"  "Theory  of 
Elimination,"  "  Summation  of  Series,"  "  Binomial  Series," 
and  "Algebraical  and  Trigonometrical  Identities." 

The  book  will  be  chiefly  useful  to  those  who  take  an 
interest  in  recent  triangular  geometry  ;  it  will  enable  them 
to  refer  to  original  sources  in  Continental  mathematical 
publications,  and  to  follow  further  developments  in  English 
magazines.  They  will  also  find  collected  here  most  of 
the  leading  propositions  given  in  a  form  which  is  without 
doubt  both  judicious  and  attractive. 

Elementary  Hydrostatics,  with  Numerous  Examples 
and  University  Papers.  By  S.  B.  Mukerjee,  M.A. 
(Calcutta:  Thacker,  Spink,  and  Co.,  1888.) 
THE  compiler  of  this  handy  little  work  is  Assistant  Pro- 
fessor of  Mathematics  in  the  Lahore  College,  who,  having 
been,  as  is  the  wont  of  his  order,  unable  to  select  from 
the  nu  nerous  text-books  in  existence  one  which  seemed 
fully  to  meet  the  wants  of  his  classes,  has  culled  his  ele- 
gant extracts  from  them,  and  so  got  what  he  wanted. 
This  proceeding  is  a  good  one  for  his  pupils,  and  saves 
them  the  trouble  and  expense  of  purchasing  and  reading 
many  text-books.  The  selection  is  well  made,  and  the 
compiler  suitably  acknowledges  his  indebtedness  to  the 
English  writers  (especially  to  Dr.  Besant's  classical  work). 
The  subjects  handled  are  definitions  and  first  principles, 
density  and  specific  gravity,  equilibrium  of  fluids,  total 
pressures  and  resultant  pressures  on  immersed  surfaces, 
floating  bodies,  on  air  and  gases,  determination  of 
specific  gravities,  and  the  application  of  hydrostatical 
principles  in  the  construction  of  instruments  and  ma- 
chines. Then  follow  several  papers  of  problems  set  in  the 
Calcutta  University  Examinations  from  i860  to  1884;  and 
the  book  closes  with  an  appendix  of  formulae  to  be  re- 
membered, and  another  appendix  which  gives  a  short 
history  of  the  growth  of  the  principles  of  hydrostatics, 
taken  for  the  most  part  from  Whewell's  "  History  of  the 
Inductive  Sciences."  In  the  body  of  the  work  are  given 
numerous  illustrative  examples,  many  of  which  have  been 
carefully  worked  out.  Putting  on  one  side  the  manufac- 
ture of  the  book — and  herein,  perhaps,  Mr.  Mukerjee  is 
only  more  honest  in  making  known  his  indebtedness  than 
many  are  in  the  writing  of  tect-books— we  can  congratu- 
late the  students  on  having  such  a  good  work  in  their 
hands,  and  can  indorse  the  favourable  opinion  expressed 
upon  it  by  Prof.  T.  C  Lewis,  Principal  of  the  College. 

Arithmetic  for  Beginners:  a  School  Class-book  of 
Commercial  Arithmetic.  By  the  Rev.  J.  B.  Lock,  M.A. 
(London  :  Macmillan  and  Co.,  1888.) 
It  is  not  necessary  to  report  upon  this  little  book  at  any 
length.  It  is  founded  upon  the  author's  larger  work,  but 
modifications  as  to  arrangement  and  treatment  of  some 
of  the  subjects  and  as  to  the  examples  have  been  intro- 
duced.    Then,  with  an  eye  to    the  requirements  of  the 


May  24,  1888] 


NATURE 


77 


examination  for  commercial  certificates,  a  chapter  on 
exchange  and  foreign  money  has  been  added  (in  a  worked- 
out  example  on  p.  151  there  is  an  error  of  some  pecuniary 
magnitude),  and  the  chapter  "On  Recurring  Decim  ils, 
not  required  by  Commercials,"  finds  a  place  at  the  close 
of  the  text.  Mr.  Lock  is  generally  so  careful  in  his 
explanations  that  we  are  surprised  at  his  omitting  all 
reference  to  brokerage  in  his  account  of  the  transferment 
of  stock.  Numerous  examples  are  given  in  the  text, 
and  six  examination-papers  and  answers  to  all  questions 
complete  a  capital  hand-book. 

LETTERS  TO  THE  EDITOR. 
[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
of  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations..] 

Weight  and  Mass. 
Prof.  Greenhill,  in  his  letter  which  appears  in  Nature 
of  May  17  last  (p.  54),  has  a^ain  repeated  his  views  on  the  use 
of  the  word  weight.  He  has  not,  however,  replied  to  the 
criticisms  of  those  who  differ  from  him  (see  Nature,  vol.  xxxvi. 
pp.  221,  317). 

His  opponents  wish  to  know  how  practical  engineers  who  use 
the  word  weight  as  synonymous  with  the  physicists'  mass,  treat 
a  problem  involving  inertia.  Prof.  Greenhill  has  not  yet 
given  us  an  example  of  such  a  problem  taken  from  some  modern 
text-book  of  the  practical  engineer  ;  nor  has  he  yet  given  us  in 
simple  language  a  definition  of  weight.  Prof.  Greenhill  some 
time  ago  referred  me  to  Kennedy's  "  Mechanics  of  Machinery  " 
for  such  a  definition,  but  I  venture  to  say  that  there  is  no  such 
definition  to  be  found  in  that  standard  work. 

My  own  idea  is  as  follows  :  Matter  has  many  properties — 
inertia,  weight  (the  force  with  which  the  earth  pulls  it),  volume, 
&c. — and  Newton's  great  discovery  consisted  partly  in  seeing 
clearly  that  the  universal  property  of  matter  by  which  it  must 
be  measured  is  its  inertia,  defined  as  its  capacity  for  resisting 
change  of  velocity. 

The  mass  of  a  body  is  that  which  can  be  ascertained  by  the 
operation  of  massing  ;  such  an  operation,  that  is,  as  the  follow- 
ing :  To  a  given  lump  of  matter  apply  some  strain  or  force,  and 
observe  the  acceleration  produced  in  the  matter  by  that  force  ; 
then  ascertain  by  experiment  to  how  many  lumps  of  matter  called 
pounds  this  same  force  will  communicate  an  equal  acceleration. 
The  weight  of  a  body  is  that  which  is  ascertained  by  the 
operation  of  weighing.  To  weigh  a  body  it  is  placed  on  a 
spring  balance,  and  the  force  of  the  earth's  attraction  is  ob- 
served by  showing  the  compression  of  the  steel  spring  of  the 
machine. 

It  happens,  however,  that  the  mass  of  a  body  is  proportional 
to  its  weight ;  consequently  it  is  sufficient  to  ascertain  whether 
the  weights  of  two  masses  are  equal  in  order  to  ascertain  that 
their  masses  are  equal.  The  weights  of  two  masses  are  ascer- 
tained to  be  equal  by  putting  them  each  on  one  side  of  a 
balance,  and  observing  that  the  force  of  the  earth's  attraction 
on  each  is  the  same.  Hence  the  very  difficult  operation  of 
massing  as  described  above  is  replaced  by  the  easy  operation  of 
weighing. 

Prof.  Greenhill  tells  us  that  "  now  the  invariable  unit,  the 
mass,  is  measured  in  terms  of  a  variable  unit."  Is  this  so  ?  Is  it 
not  a  fact  that  those  who  use  exclusively  the  force  of  the  earth's 
attraction  as  the  measure  of  matter,  rarely  if  ever  have  any 
conception  of  the  idea  of  inertia  ?  When  the  practical  engineer 
has  to  do  with  inertia,  as  in  cases  of  "  centrifugal  force,"  he 
works  by  formulae  or  rule  of  thumb. 

Prof.  Greenhill's  sentences,  "a  force  equal  to  the  weight  of 
the  mass  of  10  pound  weight*,"  and  "the  weight  of  32  pound 
weights  on  the  Earth  is  at  the  surface  of  Jupiter  a  force  of  71 
pounds'  weight,"  are  entirely  original. 

I  believe  he  means  to  express  "  the  weight  of  10  pounds,"  and 
the  weight  of  32  pounds  on  the  earth   is  a  force  equal  to  the 
weight  of  71  pounds  on  the  surface  of  Jupiter. 
Caius  College,  May  21.  John  B.  Lock. 


Work  and  Energy. 

While  a  discussion  of  the  nomenclature  of  mechanics  is  going 

on  in  Nature,  I  would  venture  to  sugge:  t  that  an  effort  should 


be  made  to  get  rid  of  the  practice  of  expressing  energy  in  foot- 
pounds or  foot-poundals.  There  are  certain  quantities  of  work, 
not  of  energy.  To  speak  of  a  foot-pound  of  energy  is  quite  as 
incorrect  as  it  would  be  to  speak  of  a  pint  of  velocity,  a  yard  of 
acceleration,  an  acre  of  momentum,  or  a  pound  of  duration. 
There  is  great  need  of  a  short  name  for  the  unit  of  \mvl. 
Bardsea,  May  21.  Edward  Geoghegan. 


On  the  Reappearance  of  Pallas's  Sand  Grouse 
(Syrrhaples  paradoxus)  in  Europe. 
I  beg  to  add  the  following  statements  to  my  communication 
of  May  12  concerning  Pallas's  sand  grouse  in  Central   Europe 
(see  Nature,  May  17,  p.  53): — 
April  22,  Cernozitz,  Bohemia. 

,,     26,  Portitz,  near  Leipzig,  Saxony. 
,,     27,  Guttmannsdorf,  near  Reichenbach,  Silesia. 
,,     27  ?  near  Hanover. 

,,     27-28,  near  Hermannstadt,  Transylvania. 
,,     29,  Marmarosch-Comitate,  Hungary. 
Last  days  of  April  :    Alsofeher-Comitate,  Transylvania. 
Gebhardsdorf,  Silesia. 
Brod,  Bohemia. 
First  days  of  May:  Tullner- field,  near  Vienna. 
Moravia. 
Hungary. 

Enzersdorf,  near  Vienna. 
Anclam,  Pomerania,  Prussia. 
May    6,  Haida,  Bohemia. 

,,     6,  Eidelstedt,    near  Hamburg. 

,,     7  ?  near  Schweinitz,  Silesia. 

,,     7,  Oederan,  Saxony. 

,,     7,  6.30  a.m.,  near  Oederan,  Saxony. 

,,     8,  Wiener  Neustadt,  Austria. 

,,     8?  Dalmatia. 

,,     8  ?  Grossvoigtsberg,  Saxony. 

,,     8  ?  near  Leipzig,  Saxony. 

,,     8?  near  Herrenhut,  Saxony. 

,,     9,  Oederan,    Saxony,    and   nearly"  every   following    day 

there. 
,,   13,  Selb,  Saxony. 
,,   13  ?  Gro?  svoigtsberg,  Saxony. 
,,   13,  Schluckenau,  Bohemia. 
,,   16,  5  p.m.  Oederan,  Saxony. 

A.  B.  Meyer. 
Royal  Zoological  Museum,  Dresden,  May  20. 

A  farm  in  this  neighbourhood  was  visited  yesterday  by  a 
flight  of  about  forty  sand-grouse  (pin-tailed).  They  were  first 
seen  about  6  p.m.  feeding  on  a  ploughed  field.  On  rising 
they  took  a  north-westerly  course.  A  pair  which  were  shot  by  a 
gamekeeper  are  in  my  posse- sion.  The  presence  of  these  birds 
in  our  country  is,  I  believe,  of  sufficiently  rare  occurrence  to 
justify  me  in  asking  whether  they  have  been  noticed  in  other 
districts  during  the  last  few  days.  F.  M.  CAMPBELL. 

Rose  Hill,  Hoddesdon,  Herts,  May  21. 

Tables  of  Reciprocals. 

In  investigating  spectral  phenomena  it  is  often  necessary  to 
convert  wave-lengths  in  frequencies.  Can  any  of  your  corre- 
spondents inform  me  if  there  exist  in  England  tables  of  reci- 
procals, by  which  this  may  be  done  easily  and  with  sufficient 
accuracy?  V.  A.  Julius. 

Delft,  Holland,  May  19. 

On  the  Veined  Structure  of  the  Mueller  Glacier, 

New  Zealand. 
The  Mueller  Glacier,  in  the  Mount  Cook  district,  has  a  total 
length  of  between  six  and  seven  miles,  with  a  breadth  of  one  mile 
in  its  lower  portion.  Like  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  New  Zealand 
glaciers  of  the  first  order,  the  lower  mile  or  two  is  so  thickly 
covered  with  rock  debris  that  the  ice  can  only  be  seen  in  the 
crevasses.  All  through  the  lower  portion  of  the  glacier  the 
veined  or  ribboned  structure  is  well  marked,  running  nearly  in 
the  direction  of  the  glacier.  But  at  the  terminal  face  there  are 
two  systems  of  veined  structure,  with  the  same  strike  but  crossing 
one  another  at  angles  between  150  and  200.  In  one  system  the 
blue  bands  are  small,  from  a  half  to  one  inch  thick,  and  separ- 
ated from  each  other  by  bands  of  white   icr,  with   large  air. 


78 


NATURE 


[May  24,  1888 


bubbles,  about  twice  the  thickness  of  the  blue  bands.  The  blue 
bands  are  irregular  and  sometimes  anastomose.  This  system  is 
similar  to  the  veined  structure  found  higher  up  the  glacier. 

The  second  system  is  formed  by  large  and  regular  blue  bands 
from  three  to  six  inches  broad  and  from  two  to  six  or  more  feet 
apart.  This  coarser  system  is  only  occasionally  developed. 
The  finer  system  forms  a  well-marked  synclinal  curve  on  the 
terminal  ice  cliffs,  which  are  from  250  to  300  feet  high. 

The  ice  here  contains  in  places  numerous  angular  stones, 
principally  of  slate,  scattered  irregularly  through  it,  and  these 
fragments  always  have  their  broad,  or  cleaved,  surfaces 
parallel  to  the  smaller  system  of  veins.  These  stones  have  no 
doubt  entered  the  ice  through  the  numerous  moulins  and 
crevasses  which  are  found  higher  up  the  glacier,  but  as  they  are 
not  found  in  bands  nor  in  pipes,  they  must  have  been  moved  in 
position  by  the  flowing  of  the  ice,  consequently  they  must 
originally  have  been  variously  oriented,  and  their  present 
parallelism  to  the  veins  is  a  decisive  proof  that  the  smaller 
system  is  due  to  pressure  at  right  angles  to  the  structure.  The 
origin  of  the  coarser  system  is  not  so  clear.  I  did  not  notice  it 
higher  up  the  glacier,  as  I  ought  to  have  done  if  it  had  been  an 
older  system  than  the  smaller  veins.  While,  on  the  other  hand, 
if  it  is  a  newer  system  the  rock  fragments  would  probably  have 
been  oriented  parallel  with  it  instead  of  with  the  finer  system. 

The  clear  blue  ice  is  generally  supposed  to  resist  melting 
better  than  the  white  ice,  and  to  stand  out  in  ridges  ;  but  I 
observed  nothing  of  this  on  the  Mueller  Glacier.  Both  kinds  of 
ice  melt  here  with  about  equal  rapidity.  The  grooving  of  the 
ice,  by  runlets  of  water,  is  certainly  parallel  to  the  structure 
when  that  structure  is  vertical  or  highly  inclined  ;  but  the 
grooves  are  formed  in  several  layers  of  both  kinds  of  ice,  and  it 
seemed  to  me  that  the  blue  ice  melted  rather  more  rapidly  than 
the  white  ice.  I  cannot  suggest  any  cause  for  this  difference 
between  the  ice  of  the  Mueller  Glacier  and  that  of  the  Swiss 
glaciers.  F.  W.  Hutton. 

Christchurch,  New  Zealand,  March  22. 


On  the  Rainfall  and  Temperature  at  Victoria  Peak, 
Hong  Kong. 

The  first  column  of  the  following  table  shows  the  month  of 
the  year ;  the  second,  the  mean  rainfall  at  the  Observatory 
(about  100  feet  above  the-  sea)  from  ten  years'  records ;  the 
third,  the  mean  of  the  past  four  years'  fall  ;  the  fourth,  same 
for  Victoria  Peak  (about  1800  feet  above  the  sea)  ;  the  fifth, 
the  proportion  between  the  figures  in  the  two  preceding 
columns;  the  sixth,  the  height  of  ascent  in  feet  for  one 
Fahrenheit  degree  of  decrease  of  temperature  (mean  of  the 
past  four  years)  : — 

1.                         11. .  in.  IV.  v.  VI. 

January 1-47  2-97  463  1-56  288 

February   1 -66  2-30  3-56  1*55  305 

March    3-53  3-41  360  106  489 

April 655  789  9-19  1-16  407 

May   9-82  4-86  6-29  1-29  309 

June   1267  14-42  1671  1-16  259 

July    16-41  16-55  20*29  1*23  274 

August  16-93  i5'27  I7'53  1  15  289 

September 9-89  7-98  7-01  o-88  283 

October 5-06  257  2-06  080  281 

November 1-04  0-77  1*19  1-54  267 

December 0-49  0-97  %'zi  1*25  278 

Year  85-52       79-96      93-27         1-17        310 

The  rainfall  at  the  Peak  exceeds  the  record  at  the  Qbservatory 
by  about  one-sixth  of  the  whole  amount,  and  this  appears  to  be 
due  to  the  circumstance  that  the  mountain  presents  an  obstacle 
to  the  wind  from  whatever  side  it  blows,  in  consequence  of 
which  the  air  is  forced  to  rise,  and  being  thereby  cooled  it  pre- 
cipitates more  moisture  in  the  form  of  rain.  Even  when  the  air 
is  moderately  dry  at  sea-level  its  temperature  may  be  decreased 
below  the  dew-point  in  the  course  of  such  a  rife.  The  compara- 
tively great  rainfall  in  hilly  districts  must  be  attributed  to  this,  for 
a  hill  must  of  course  exercise  its  influence  at  a  distance  all  round. 
Our  rainfall  would  therefore  be  smaller  if  there  were  no  hills 
in  this  neighbourhood.  But  during  the  months  of  September 
and  October  less  rain  is  collected  at  the  upper  level.  This  is 
explained  by  the  circumstance  that  most  of  the  rain  in  those 
months  is  due  to  typhoons,    when  the  air  is  everywhere   as- 


cending, even  above  the  open  sea  ;  and  the  defect  at  the  Peak  is 
most  noticeable  during  the  raging  of  a  typhoon.  The  fact  that 
less  rain  is  measured  above  must,  however,  be  further  investi- 
gated. It  is  very  doubtful  whether  it  would  not  be  as  well  to  ex- 
pose the  funnels  of  the  gauges  4  feet  above  the  ground,  where  they 
would  not  be  so  much  affected  by  the  rain  drifting  along  the 
surface  of  the  earth  in  typhoons,  as  to  have  them  1  foot  above 
the  grass,  as  is  the  case  here. 

The  last  column  of  the  table  proves  the  great  variability  of 
the  fall  of  temperature  with  increasing  height.  It  depends 
upon  the  humidity  of  the  air.  The  astronomical  refraction  near 
the  horizon  must  be  affected  by  this,  but  it  is  rather  doubtful 
whether  the  effect  should  be  ascertained  by  comparing  observed 
refractions  with  meteorological  registers  kept  on  mountains  on 
account  of  the  condensation  of  moisture  which  tends  to  raise 
the  temperature  on  the  top  of  the  hill.  But  it  would  appear  to  be 
time  that  some  astronomer  studied  the  refraction  in  connection 
with  daily  weather-maps,  seeing  that  the  variation  of  tempera- 
ture with  increasing  height  is  so  different  in  cyclones  and 
anticyclones.  Of  course  near  the  centre  of  a  cyclone  it  is 
scarcely  possible  to  make  astronomical  observations.  Bessel's 
theory  of  refraction  is  considered  a  failure  within  50  of  the 
horizon.  Ivory's  theory  might  possibly  be  made  to  account 
for  the  refraction  nearly  down  to  the  horizon  by  observing  the 
value  of  the  constant /"in  connection  with  the  isobars.  It,  on  the 
whole,  represents  the  variation  of  temperature  high  up  in  the  air 
as  estimated  by  meteorologists.  W.  C.  Doberck. 

Hong  Kong  Observatory,  February  II. 


Problem  by  Vincentio  Viviani. 

To  pierce  in  an  hemispherical  dome  four  windows  such  that 
the  remainder  of  the  surface  shall  be  exactly  quadrable.  It  was 
solved  by  Leibnitz,  J.  Bernoulli,  and  others.  Viviani  himself, 
in  1692,  published  the  construction,  but  without  proof.  Divide 
the  base  of  the  dome  into  quadrants  ;  on  the  four  radii  as  dia- 
meters trace  semi  circles,  one  in  each  quadrant  ;  the  four  right 
semi-cylinders,  of  which  these  are  the  bases,  will  pierce  the  dome 
in  the  required  windows.  The  following  simple  proof,  for  which 
I  am  substantially  indebted  to  Prof.  Francis  W.  Newman, 
would  probably  interest  many  readers  of  Nature  : — 

OXYZ  is  quarter  of  dome  ;  AB,  generator  of  cylinder  meeting 
dome  in  B  ;  BCD,  plane  parallel  to  base.  Radius  of  dome  =  R  = 
OX  =  OB;angleCDB=:XOA  =  t9;DC  =DB=  OA  =  Rcos0; 
OB  .  cos  BOA  =  OA  =  R .  cos  0 ;  .'.  BOA  =  0  ;  .\  arc  EB  =  Rt?  ; 


arc  BC  =  0 .  R  cos  0.  Element  of  surface  of  window  is  BC  .  ^(EB) 
=  R20  .  cos  .  0  .  d0  ;  .'.  surface  of  window  is  the  integral  of  this 
from  0  =  o  to  0  =  \nr.  Integrating  by  parts,  and  taking  limits, 
surface  of  window  =  R2  (%ir  -  1)  ;  .\  the  remainder  of  the  surface 
XYZ  is  R2,  which  is  exactly  quadrable.  Q.E.D. 

Cor.  The  quadrable  part  of  the  quarter-dome  is  equal  to  the 
surface  of  the  semi-cylinder  which  is  within  the  dome.  For,  if 
AB  =  z,  and  arc  XA=j  =  R0,  element  of  surface  of  the 
cylinder  is  z  .  ds  =  R2  .  sin  0  .  d0  ;  .*.  the  entire  surface  within 
the  dome  is  the  integral  of  this  from  0  =  o  to  0  =  ^v,  viz.  R2. 

A  general  discussion  of  Viviani's  problem  may  be  seen  in 
Lacroix,  "  Traite  du  Calcul  Differentiel  et  du  Calcul  Integral,  " 
tome  ii.  pp.  219-22.  Edward  Geoghegan. 

Bardsea,  May  2. 


May  24,  1888] 


NATURE 


79 


SUGGESTIONS  ON  THE  CLASSIFICATION  OF 
THE  VARIOUS  SPECIES  OF  HEAVENLY 
BODIES.1 

VI. 

ON  THE  CAUSE  OF  VARIATION  IN  THE  LIGHT  OF 
BODIES  OF  GROUPS  I.   AND  II. 

I.  General  Views  on  Variability. 

T  N  my  former  paper  I  referred  to  the  collision  of 
-*-  meteor-swarms  as  producing  "  new  stars,"  and  to  the 
periastron  passage  of  one  swarm  through  another  as 
producing  the  more  or  less  regular  variability  observed 
in  the  case  of  some  stars  of  the  class  under  consideration. 
I  propose  now  to  consider  this  question  of  variability 
at  somewhat  greater  length,  but  only  that  part  of  it  which 
touches  non- condensed  swarms  ;  i.e.  I  shall  for  the  pre- 
sent leave  the  phenomena  of  new  stars,  and  of  those 
whose  variability  is  caused  by  eclipses,  aside. 

It  is  not  necessary  that  I  should  pause  here  to  state  at 
length  the  causes  of  stellar  variability  which  have  been 
suggested  from  time  to  time.  It  will  suffice,  perhaps, 
that  I  should  refer  to  one  of  the  first  suggestions  which 
we  owe  to  Sir  I.  Newton,  and  to  the  last  general  discus- 
sion of  the  matter,  which  we  owe  to  Zollner  ("  Photo- 
metrische  Untersuchungen,"  76  and  JJ,  p.  252). 

Newton  ascribed  that  special  class  of  variability,  to 
which  I  shall  have  most  to  refer  in  the  sequel,  as  due  to 
the  appulse  of  comets. 

"  Sic  etiam  stellae  fixae,  quae  paulatim  expirant  in  lucem 
et  vapores,  cometis  in  ipsas  incidentibus  refici  possunt,  et 
novo  alimento  accerisce  pro  stellis  novis  haberi.  Hujus 
generis  sunt  Stellas  fixae,  quae  subito  apparent,  et  sub 
initio  quam  maxime  splendent,  et  subinde  paulatim  evan- 
escunt.  Talis  fuit  Stella  in  cathedra  Cassiopeia?  quam 
Cornelius  Gemma  octavo  Novembris  1572  lustrando 
illam  cceli  partem  nocte  serena  minime  vidit ;  at  nocte 
proxima  (Novem.  9)  vidit  fixis  omnibus  splendidiorem,  et 
luce  sua  vix  cedentem  Veneri.  Hanc  Tycho  Brahaeus 
vidit  undecimo  ejusdem  mensis  ubi  maxime  splenduit ; 
et  ex  eo  tempore  paulatim  decrescentem  et  spatio  men- 
sium  sexdecim  evanescentem  observavit "  ("  Principia," 
p.  525,  Glasgow,  1 871). 

With  regard  to  another  class  of  variables  he  makes  a 
suggestion  which  has  generally  been  accepted  since. 

"  Sed  fixae,  quae  per  vices  apparent  et  evanescunt, 
quaeque  paulatim  crescunt,  et  luce  sua  fixas  tertiae 
magnitudinis  vix  unquam  superant,  videntur  esse  generis 
alterius,  et  revolvendo  partem  lucidam  et  partem  obscu- 
ram  per  vices  ostendere.  Vapores  autem,  qui  ex  sole  et 
stellis  fixis  et  caudis  cometarum  oriuntur,  incidere 
possunt  per  gravitatem  suam  in  atmosphaeras  planetarum 
et  ibi  condensari  et  converti  in  aquam  et  spiritus 
humidos,  et  subinde  per  lentum  calorem  in  sales  et 
sulphura  et  tincturas  et  limum  et  lutum  et  argillam  et 
arenam  et  lapides  et  coralla  et  substantias  alias  terrestres 
paulatim  migrare." 

Zollner,  in  point  of  fact  advancing  very  little  beyond 
the  views  advocated  by  Newton  and  Sir  W.  Herschel, 
considers  the  main  causes  of  variability  to  be  as 
follows.  He  lays  the  greatest  stress  upon  an  advanced 
stage  of  cooling,  and  the  consequent  formation  of  scoriae 
which  float  about  on  the  molten  mass.  Those  formed  at 
the  poles  are  driven  towards  the  equator  by  the  centri- 
fugal force,  and  by  the  increasing  rapidity  of  rotation 
they  are  compelled  to  deviate  from  their  course.  These 
facts,  and  the  meeting  which  takes  place  between  the 
molten  matter,  flowing  in  an  opposite  direction,  influence 
the  form  and  position  of  the  cold  non-luminous  matter, 
and  hence  vary  the  rotational  effects,  and  therefore  the 

1  The  Bakerian  Lecture,  delivered  at  the  Royal  Society  on  April  12,  by 
J.  Norman  Lockyer,  F.R.S.     Continued  from  p.  60. 


luminous  or  non-luminous  appearance  of  the  body  to 
distant  observers. 

This  general  theory,  however,  does  not  exclude  other 
causes,  such  as,  for  instance,  the  sudden  illumination  of  a 
star  by  the  heat  produced  by  a  collision  of  two  dark 
bodies,  variability  produced  by  the  revolution  of  a  dark 
body,  or  by  the  passage  of  the  light  through  nebulous 
light-absorbing  masses. 

If  the  views  I  have  put  forward  arc  true,  the  objects 
now  under  consideration  are  those  in  the  heavens  which 
are  least  condensed.  la  this  point,  then,  they  differ 
essentially  from  all  true  stars  like  the  sun. 

This  fundamental  difference  of  structure  should  be  re- 
vealed in  the  phenomena  of  variability  ;  that  is  to  say, 
the  variability  of  the  bodies  we  are  now  considering 
should  be  different  in  kind  as  well  as  in  degree  from  that 
observed  in  bodies  like  the  sun  or  a  Lyrae,  taken  as 
representing  highly  condensed  types.  There  is  also  little 
doubt,  I  think,  that  future  research  will  show  that, 
when  we  get  short-period  variability  in  bodies  like  these, 
we  are  really  dealing  with  the  variability  of  a  close 
companion. 

II.  On  the  Variability  in  Group  I. 

That  many  of  the  nebulae  are  variable  is  well  known, 
though  so  far  as  I  am  aware  there  are  no  complete  re- 
cords of  the  spectroscopic  result  of  the  variability.  But 
bearing  in  mind  that  in  some  of  these  bodies  we  have  the 
olivine  line  by  itself,  and  in  others,  which  are  usually 
brighter,  we  have  the  lines  of  hydrogen  added,  it  does  not 
seem  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  any  increase  of  tem- 
perature brought  about  by  the  increased  number  of  col- 
lisions should  add  the  lines  of  hydrogen  to  a  nebula  in 
which  they  were  not  previously  visible. 

The  explanation  of  the  hydrogen  in  the  variable  stars 
is  not  at  first  so  obvious,  but  a  little  consideration  will 
show  that  this  must  happen  if  my  theory  be  true. 

Since  the  stars  with  bright  lines  are,  as  I  have  attempted 
to  show,  very  akin  to  nebulae  in  their  structure,  we  might, 
reasoning  by  analogy,  suppose  that  any  marked  variability 
in  their  case  also  would  be  accompanied  by  the  coming 
out  of  the  bright  hydrogen  lines. 

This  is  really  exactly  what  happens  both  in  /3  Lyrae 
and  in  y  Cassiopeiae.  In  j!i  Lyrae  the  appearance  of  the 
lines  of  hydrogen  has  a  period  of  between  six  and  seven 
days,  and  in  y  Cassiopeiae  they  appear  from  time  to  time, 
although  the  period  has  not  yet  been  determined. 

III.  On  the  Variability  in  Group  II. 

This  same  kind  of  variability  takes  place  in  stars  with 
the  bright  flutings  of  carbon  indicated  in  their  spectra, 
o  Ceti  being  a  marvellous  case  in  point.  In  a  Orionis, 
one  of  the  most  highly-developed  of  these  stars,  the 
hydrogen  lines  are  invisible  ;  the  simple  and  sufficient 
explanation  of  this  being  that,  as  I  have  already  sug- 
gested, the  bright  lines  from  the  interspaces  now  at 
their  minimum  and  containing  vapours  at  a  very  high 
temperature — teste  the  line-absorption  spectrum  now  be- 
ginning to  replace  the  flutings— balance  the  absorption  of 
the  meteoritic  nuclei. 

Anything  which  in  this  condition  of  light-equilibrium 
will  increase  the  amount  of  incandescent  gas  and  vapour 
in  the  interspaces  will  bring  about  the  appearance  of 
the  hydrogen  lines  as  bright  ones.  The  thing  above  all 
things  most  capable  of  doing  this  in  a  most  transcend- 
ental fashion  is  the  invasion  of  one  part  of  the  swarm  by 
another  one  moving  with  a  high  velocity.  This  is  exactly 
what  I  postulate.  The  wonderful  thing  under  these 
circumstances  then  would  be  that  bright  hydrogen  should 
not  add  itself  to  the  bright  carbon,  not  only  in  bright- 
line  stars,  but  in  those  the  spectrum  of  which  consists  of 
mixed  flutings,  bright  carbon  representing  the  radiation. 


8o 


NA  TURE 


\_May  24,  1888 


I  now  propose  to  use  this  question  of  variability  in 
Group  II.  as  a  further  test  of  my  views. 


The  first  test  we  have  of  the  theory  is  that  there  should 
be   more  variability  in   this   group   than   in  any  of  the 


Fig. 


11.— Explanation  of  the  variability  of  bodies  of  Group  II.  (1)  Maximim  variation.  The  ellipse  represents  the  orbit  of  the  smaller  swarm,  which 
revolves  round  the  larger.  When  the  variation  is  great,  the  orbit  of  the  revolving  swarm  is  very  elliptical,  so  that  at  periastron  the  number  of 
collisions  is  enormously  increased. 


FlG*  I2'T.^ylf,n^i0?^°f  th£.va£iabi';ty  of  bodies  of  Group  II      (2)  Medium  variation.     There  will  be  a  greater  number  of  collisions  at  periastron  than  at 
new twiddle  of°the    rima      Vanatl0n  In  the  hght  WlU  not  be  w^  Sreat  under  the  conditions  represented,  as  the  revolving  swarm  never  gets  very 

others.     Others  are  as  follows.     (2)  When  the  swarm  is  j  lisions,  but  (3)  when  it  is  fairly  condensed,  the  effect  at 
most  spaced,  we  shall  have  the  least  results  from  col-  |  periastron  passage  (if  we  take  the  simplest  case  of  a 


May  24,  18S8] 


NA  TURE 


81 


double  star  in  posse)  will  be  greatest  of  all,  because  (4) 
condensation  may  ultimately  bring  the  central  swarm 
almost  entirely  within  the  orbit  of  the  secondary  (cometic) 
body,  in  which  case  no  collision  could  happen. 

In  the  light  of  what  has  gone  before  it  is  as  easy  to 
test  these  points  as  the  former  ones. 

I  will  take  them  in  order. 

The  Frequent  Occurrence  of  Variability  in  Group  II. 

The  total  number  of  stars  included  in  Argelander's 
Catalogue,  which  deals  generally  with  stars  down  to  the 
ninth  magnitude,  but  in  which,  however,  are  many  stars 
between  the  ninth  and  tenth,  is  324,118.  The  most  com- 
plete catalogue  of  variables  (without  distinction)  that  we 
have  has  been  compiled  by  Mr.  Gore,  and  published  in 
the  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Irish  Academy  (series  ii. 
vol.  iv.  No.  2,  July  1884,  pp.  150-63).     I  find  191    known 


variables  are  given,  of  which  m  are  in  the  northern 
hemisphere  and  80  in  the  southern  hemisphere. 

In  the  catalogue  of  suspected  variable  stars  given  in 
No.  3  of  the  same  volume  (January  1885,  pp.  271-310), 
I  find  736  stars,  of  which  381  are  in  the  northern  and 
355  in  the  southern  hemisphere. 

Taking,  then,  those  in  the  northern  hemisphere,  both 
known  and  suspected,  we  have  the  number  492. 

We  have  then  as  a  rough  estimate  for  the  northern 
heavens  one  variable  to  659  stars  taken  generally. 

The  number  of  objects  of  Group  II.  observed  by  DuneV, 
and  recorded  in  his  admirable  memoir,  is  297  of  these, 
forty-four  are  variable. 

So  that  here  we  pass  from  1  in  657  to  1  in  7. 

Of  the  great  development  of  variability-conditions  in 
this  group  then  there  can  be  no  question. 

To  apply  the  other  tests  above  referred  to,  I  have 
made  a  special  study  of  the  observations  of  each  variable 


Fig.  13.— Explanation  of  the  variability  of  the  bodies  of  Group  II.  (3)  Mini  uum  variation.  Under  the  conditions  repreiented,  the  smaller  swarm  will 
never  be  entirely  oat  of  the  larger  one,  and  at  penastron  the  number  of  collisions  will  not  be  very  greatly  increased  ;  consequently  the  variation  in 
the  amount  of  light  given  out  wdl  be  small. 

recorded  by   Duner.     I    find   they   may   be  grouped 
follows  : — 

I.  All  ba  ids  visible  bid  narrow. 


No.  in 
Duner 
Cat. 

Name. 

Max.         Min. 
1 

Period. 

269     /u  Cephei   ... 

4?  |      5? 

irreg.  1 

2.   Bands  well  marked,  but  feebler  in  Red. 

No.  in 
Duner 
Cat. 

Name.              Max. 

1 

Min. 

Period. 

186 

222 

8l 

W  Herculis 

(?V)   

R  Sagittarii 
S  Hydrae    ... 

>8 

7 
7-8 

<I2 

12 
<I2 

290? 

270 

256 

3.  Bands  tvide  and 

* 

strong,  es 

pecially  7  and  8. 

No.  in 

Dune> 

Name. 

Max. 

Min. 

Period. 

Cat. 

23 

T  Arietis  ... 

8 

9-IO 

324 

37 

R  Tauri 

7-8 

<i3 

326 

68 

S  Canis  Min. 

7 

<" 

332 

76 

R  Cancri   ... 

6 

<II-I2 

360 

91 

R  Leonis  Min. 

S 

IO 

3*3 

100 

R  Urs.  Maj. 

6 

12 

3°3 

106 

R  Crateris... 

>8 

<9 

160? 

118 

R  Corvi 

7 

<"-i3 

319 

159 

R  Bootis    ... 

6 

12 

223 

165 

8 

12-13 

190? 

170 

R  Serpentis. 

5-6 

<" 

358 

181 

U  Herculis. . 

67 

11-12 

408 

192 

S  Herculis... 

6 

12 

303 

195 

R  Ophiuchi. 

7-8 

12 

302 

82 


NATURE 


[May  24,  1888 


4.  All  bands  markedly  wide  and  strong. 


No.  in 

Duner 

Name. 

Max. 

Min. 

Period. 

Cat. 

iS 

0  Ceti 

2-5 

8-9 

(331) 

20 

RCeti 

8 

<i3? 

167 

29 

p  Persei 

3  "4 

4-2 

irreg. 

Many  lines. 

92 

R  Leonis     ... 

5 

10 

313 

141 

R  Hydrse    ...    • 

4-5 

4-o? 

(437) 

IS« 

V  Bootis     ... 

— 

3 

166 

S  Coronae    ... 

6 

12 

361 

184 

g  Herculis  ... 

5 

6 

irreg. 

/  Nearly  circulai 
\      orbit. 

196 

a.  Herculis  ... 

3 

4 

irreg. 

217 

R  Lyrse 

4 '3 

4-6 

46 

221 

R  Aquilae    ... 

67 

11 

345 

239 

X  Cygni 

4 

13 

406 

293 

R  Aquarii   ... 

6 

11 

388 

5- 

Bands  zvide,  but  pale. 

No.  in 

Duner 

Name. 

Max. 

Min. 

Period. 

Cat. 

3 

T  Cassiopeise 

67 

II 

436 

125 

T  Urs.  Maj. 

7 

12 

256 

127 

R  Virginis... 

67 

II 

I46 

157 

RCamel    ... 

8 

12? 

266 

231 

R  Cygni    ... 

6 

13 

425 

281 

£  Pega>i    ... 

7 

12 

382 

2IO 

T  Herculis 

7 

12 

165 

4 

R  Androm. 

56     <I2-I3 

405 

6.  Bands  thin  and  pale. 


No.  in 

Duner 

Cat. 

Name. 

Max. 

Min. 

Period. 

50 
128 
187 
238 
26l 

a  Ononis    ... 
S  Urs.  Maj. 
R  Draconis 
S  Vulpec.  ... 
R  Vulpec... 

I 

7-8 
67 

7-8 

14 

II 

11-12 

13 

irreg. 

225 
247 

137 

A  glance  at  the  above  tables  will  show  that  the  kind  of 
variability  presented  by  these  objects  is  a  very  special  one, 
and  is  remarkable  for  its  great  range.  The  light  may  be 
stated  in  themost  general  terms  to  vary  about  six  magni- 
tudes, from  the  sixth  to  the  twelfth.  This  I  think  is  a  fair 
average  ;  the  small  number  of  cases  with  a  smaller  varia- 
tion I  shall  refer  to  afterwards.  A  variation  of  six 
magnitudes  means  roughly  that  the  variable  at  its 
maximum  is  somewhere  about  250  times  brighter  than  at 
its  minimum.1 

I  have  already  indicated  that,  with  regard  to  the  various 
origins  of  the  variability  of  stars  which  have  been  sug- 
gested, those  which  have  been  always  most  in  vogue 
consider  the  maximum  luminosity  of  the  star  as  the 
normal  one  ;  and  indeed  with  regard  to  the  Algol  type  of 
stars  of  short  periods,  which  obviously  are  not  here  in 
question,  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt,  that  the 
eclipse  explanation  is  a  valid  one  ;  but  in  cases  such  as 
we  are  now  considering,  when  we  may  say  that  the 
ordinary  period  is  a  year,  this,  explanation  is  as  much  out 
of  place  on  account  of  period,  as  are  such  suggested 
causes  as  stellar  rotation  and  varying  amount  of  spotted 
area  on  a  stellar  surface,  on  account  of  range. 

1  Obtained  by  the  formula  lm  =  (2\5i2)«  .  Lw  +  „.  For  differences  of 
5,  6,  7  and  8  mag.  we  get 

\,m  =  ioo-o2  .  Lm  +  5 

=  251-24  •  Lw+6 

=  631-11.   Lm  +  J 

=  1585-35.  Lw  +  8 

1-m  =  light  of  a  star  if  magnitude  m. 

L//(_|_„=       ,,        ,,        tt'majnitudes  fainter 


We  are  driven,  then,  to  consider  a  condition  of  things  in 
which  the  minimum  represents  the  constant  condition,  and 
the  maximum  a  condition  imposed  by  some  cause  which 
produces  an  excess  of  light ;  so  far  as  I  know  the  only 
explanation  on  such  a  basis  as  this  that  has  been 
previously  offered  is  the  one  we  owe  to  Newton,  who 
suggested  such  stellar  variability  as  that  we  are  now  con- 
sidering was  due  to  conflagrations  brought  about  at  the 
maximum  by  the  appulse  of  comets. 

How  the  Difficulty  of  Regular  Variability  on  Newton's 
View  is  got  over  in  mine. 

It  will  have  been  noticed  that  the  suggestion  put  forward 
by  myself  is  obviously  very  near  akin  to  the  one  put  forward 
by  Newton,  and  no  doubt  his  would  have  been  more 
thoroughly  considered  than  it  has  been  hitherto,  if  for  a 
moment  the  true  nature  of  the  special  class  of  bodies  we 
are  now  considering  had  been  en  Evidence.  We  know  that 
at  their  minimum  they  put  on  a  special  appearance  of  their 
own  in  that  haziness  to  which  I  have  before  referred  as  hav- 
ing been  observed  by  Mr.  Hind.  My  researches  show  that 
they  are  probably  nebulous,  if  indeed  they  are  not  all  of 
them  planetary  nebulae  in  a  further  stage  of  condensation, 
and  such  a  disturbance  as  the  one  I  have  suggested  would 
be  certain  to  be  competent  to  increase  the  luminous 
radiations  of  such  a  congeries  to  the  extent  indicated. 

Some  writers  have  objected  to  Newton's  hypothesis 
on  the  ground  that  such  a  conflagration  as  he  pictured 
could  not  occur  periodically,  but  this  objection  I  imagine 
chiefly  depended  upon  the  idea  that  the  conflagra- 
tion brought  about  by  one  impact  of  this  kind  would 
be  quite  sufficient  to  destroy  one  or  both  bodies,  and 
thus  put  an  end  to  any  possibilities  of  rhythmically  re- 
current action.  It  was  understood  that  the  body  con- 
flagrated was  solid  like  our  earth.  However  valid  this 
objection  might  be  as  urged  against  Newton's  view,  it 
cannot  apply  to  mine,  because  in  such  a  swarm  as  I  have 
suggested,  an  increase  of  light  to  the  extent  required  might 
easily  be  produced  by  the  incandescence  of  a  few  hundred 
tons  of  meteorites. 

I  have  already  referred  to  the  fact  that  the  initial  species 
of  the  stars  we  are  now  considering  have  spectra  almost 
cometary,  and  this  leads  us  to  the  view  that  we  may  have 
among  them  in  some  cases  swarms  with  double  nuclei — 
incipient  double  stars,  a  smaller  swarm  revolving  round 
the  larger  condensation,  or  rather  round  their  common 
centre  of  gravity.  In  such  a  condition  of  things  as  this, 
it  is  obvious  that,  as  before  stated,  in  the  swarms  having 
a  mean  condensation  this  action  is  the  more  likely  to  take 
place,  for  the  reason  that  the  more  the  outliers  of  the 
major  swarm  are  drawn  in,  the  more  likely  is  the  orbit  of 
the  smaller  one  to  pass  clear.  The  tables  show  that  this 
view  is  entirely  consistent  with  the  facts  observed,  for 
the  greater  number  of  instances  of  variability  occur  in 
the  case  of  those  stars  in  which,  on  other  grounds,  mean 
spacing  seems  probable. 

The  Cases  of  Small  Range. 

So  far,  to  account  for  the  greatest  difference  in 
luminosity  at  periastron  passage,  we  have  supposed  the 
minor  swarm  to  be  only  involved  in  the  larger  one  during 
a  part  of  its  revolution,  but  we  can  easily  conceive  a  con- 
dition of  things  in  which  its  orbit  is  so  nearly  circular  that 
it  is  almost  entirely  involved  in  the  larger  swarm.  Under 
these  conditions,  collisions  would  occur  in  every  part  of 
the  orbit,  and  they  would  only  be  more  numerous  at 
the  periastron  in  the  more  condensed  central  part  of  the 
swarm,  and  it  is  to  this  that  I  ascribe  the  origin  of  the 
phenomena  in  those  objects — a  very  small  number — in 
which  the  variation  of  light  is  very  far  below  the  normal 
range,  one  or  two  magnitudes  instead  of  six  or  seven.  .  Of 
course,  if  we  imagine  two  subsidiary  swarms,  the  kind  of 
variability  displayed  by  such  objects  as  /3  Lyras  is  easily 
explained. 


May  24,  1888] 


NATURE 


83 


NATURAL  SCIENCE  IN  JAPAN. 

WITH  the  close  of  our  eventful  Jubilee  year  there 
was  completed  the  first  volume  of  a  new  journal 
of  science  which  is  destined  to  play  a  very  important  part 
in  the  advance  of  knowledge.  We  refer  to  the  Journal 
of  the  College  of  Science  of  the  Imperial  University  of 
Japan,  already  noted  in  these  pages. 

This  periodical  is  issued  under  the  joint  editorship  of 
four  professors  in  the  College  whence  it  originated.  These 
gentlemen,  one  only  of  whom  is  an  Englishman,  constitute 
a  publishing  committee  :  they  have  adopted  the  wise  plan 
of  issuing  all  communications  on  all  subjects  recognized 
within  the  one  cover,  and  under  their  supervision  there 
have  already  appeared  a  series  of  original  papers  of  con- 
siderable interest,  so  far  at  least  as  those  biological  are 
concerned.     The   work    is    being  well   done :    authors, 


editors,  publishers,  and  craftsmen  appear  to  be  working 
harmoniously  in  the  production  of  a  journal  which,  while 
it  reflects  the  utmost  credit  on  all,  leaves  nothing  to  be 
desired.  Twenty-one  original  monographs  have  been  set 
up,  three  of  them  in  German,  the  rest  in  English.  Of 
these  five  are  biological,  while  six  are  devoted  to  physics, 
four  to  chemistry,  three  to  seismology,  and  two  to  geology 
proper.  It  is  to  the  first-named  that  we  wish  now  to 
refer.  The  first  paper  published  deals  with  the  life-history 
of  a  parasite  (Ugimya  sericaria)  which  works  fearful 
havoc  among  the  silkworms  in  Japan  :  this  monograph  is 
in  itself  interesting,  apart  from  its  intrinsic  merit,  as 
showing  that  our  Eastern  friends  are  fully  alive  to  the 
so-called  practical  application  of  their  work.  This  and 
other  valuable  papers  which  we  might  name  testify  most 
satisfactorily  to  the  thoroughness  of,  at  any  rate,  one  side 
of  the  undertaking  ;  others  there  are  which   show  that 


The  Marine  Biological  Station  of  the  Imperial  University  at  Misaki. 


these  investigators  are  fully  prepared  to  face  some  of  the 
most  formidable  problems  now  exercising  the  mind  of  the 
zoologist,  and  in  dealing  with  such  problems  they  display 
a  diligent  attention  and  cautious  generalization,  such  as 
are  occasionally  looked  for  in  vain  in  writings  nearer 
home.  If  this  excellent  beginning  is,  in  these  respect^, 
indicative  of  that  which  is  to  follow,  only  results  of  the 
greatest  value  can  ensue. 

Of  the  zoological  communications  two  are  excep- 
tional—  we  refer  to  those  contributed  by  Prof.  K. 
Mitsukuri,  of  the  Imperial  University,  Tokio.  One  of 
these,  on  the  germinal  layers  in  Chelonia  (produced  in 
conjunction  with  his  assistant,  Ishikawa),  has  previously 
appeared  in  our  own  Journal  of  Microscopical  Science. 
The  other  is  deserving  of  especial  comment,  for  it  brings 
tidings  of  the  establishment  of  a  marine  biological  station 
of  the  Imperial  University,  at  Misaki. 


Misaki  is  a  fishing  settlement  to  the  west  of  the  Bay  of 
Tokio,  easily  accessible,  we  are  told,  from  Tokio  or 
Yokohama  in  a  day.  Its  waters  have  a  direct  interest  for 
Western  zoologists,  in  the  fact  that  they  have  given  birth 
to  most  of  those  museum  specimens  of  Hyalonema,  with 
which  the  skilful  Japanese  so  long  duped  the  rest  of  the 
world.  Geographically,  the  relations  of  Japan  to  Asia 
may  be  appropriately  compared  with  those  of  Britain  to 
Europe  :  in  their  greater  climatic  variations,  however,  the 
Easterns  have  an  advantage,  if  only  by  way  of  variety  in 
the  fauna  and  flora  thereby  induced.  Again,  Misaki,  says 
Prof.  Mitsukuri,  has  "long  been  a  favourite  collecting 
ground  for  naturalists  ;  almost  every  group  of  animals 
is  represented  in  this  region  in  more  or  less  abundance," 
and  he  gives  it  as  his  opinion  that  zoologists  have  by  no 
means  "become  acquainted  with  even  a  small  part  of  all 
the  interesting  animals  to  be  found."     When  we  reflect 


84 


NATURE 


[May  24,  1888 


upon  this,  mindful  of  the  climatic  features  of  the  district, 
and  in  view  of  the  enumeration  given  of  known  inhabit- 
ants of  its  waters,  great  expectations  are  conjured  up,  and 
the  importance  of  the  enterprise  upon  which  our  friends 
have  embarked  becomes  self-evident. 

The  station  has  been  founded  by  the  Department  of 
Education  and  the  authorities  of  the  Imperial  University, 
as  a  special  adjunct  to  the  biological  laboratories  of  the 
latter.  As  it  is  fair  to  assume  that  the  governmental 
body  will,  like  all  others,  expect  "  something  practical " 
for  its  money,  we  anticipate  that  attention  will  early  be 
given  to  questions  of  economic  importance.  The  Japanese 
have  a  fishing  population  of  more  than  1,500,000  active 
workers,  while  it  is  computed  that  36,000,000  persons,  in 
all,  are  more  or  less  dependent  upon  fish,  as  food.  When, 
in  view  of  the  total  area  and  population  of  our  own  islands 
as  compared  with  those  of  Japan,  it  is  remembered  that 
our  own  fishing  population  numbers  little  over  540,000,  it 
becomes  needless  to  point  out  that  the  Japanese  are  par 
excellence  a  fishing  folk.  They  moreover  appear  to  possess 
an  ancient  but  limited  literature  on  the  subject. 

The  establishment,  by  the  Japanese,  of  this  and  other 
similar  institutions  has  been  necessitated  by  the  adoption 
of  the  products  of  Western  civilization,  almost,  it  would 
seem,  in  return  for  that  "  devout  and  learned  admiration  " 
so  long  accorded  them  by  the  Western  nations.  Rapid 
indeed  has  been  their  progress  under  influences  which 
are  bringing  their  wares  into  open  competition  with 
Western  markets,  and  who  shall  say  but  that  we  proud 
Europeans  may  not  yet  be,  perforce,  to  no  small  extent 
dependent  upon  them  for  edible  produce  ? 

The  founding  of  this  marine  station  is,  biologically,  a 
sign  of  the  times.  More  than  this,  however.  It  is  a 
mo  ement  upon  which,  in  the  long  run,  the  intellectual 
as  well  as  the  commercial  prosperity  of  a  large  section  of 
the  community  must  depend  ;  for  in  the  spread  of  that 
true  science  which  seeks  to  unravel  the  knowledge  of 
causes,  there  now  lies  the  only  sound  basis  for  national 
prosperity.  Prof.  Mitsukuri's  association  with  the  under- 
taking is,  in  itself,  a  guarantee  that  these  interests  will 
be  upheld.  His  earlier  work  was  executed  under  the 
guidance  of,  and  in  fellowship  with,  American  subjects 
whose  names  will  be  for  ever  memorable  in  the  history 
of  marine  zoology  :  his  association  with  them  and  with 
the  illustrious  Balfour,  and  his  acknowledged  indebted- 
ness to  Dohrn,  are,  in  themselves,  auguries  of  success.  We 
note  with  much  satisfaction  that  "  arrangements  will  be 
made  by  which  students  in  the  biological  course  of  the 
University  will  be  required  to  pass  at  least  one  term  in  the 
station  "  :  workers  will  be  thus  assured,  and  we  tender 
them  our  sincere  congratulations  and  hearty  good  wishes 
for  a  prosperous  development  of  their  enterprise.  It 
must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  Japanese  waters  have 
lately  yielded  us  the  interesting  Chlamydoselache,  and  it 
would  be  a  most  interesting  circumstance  should  the  far- 
famed  Hyalonema,  to  which  Prof.  Mitsukuri  so  frequently 
reverts  in  his  article  quoted,  receive  final  consideration  at 
the  hands  of  his  countrymen. 

The  following  is  a  brief  description  of  the  station 
itself,  extracted  from  the  original  article.  "  The  building 
is  of  plain  wood,  and  one  story  high,  except  in  the  middle 
part,  which  has  a  second  floor.  The  main  laboratory-room 
(a),  which  occupies  the  whole  sea-front,  is  48  feet  long,  12 
feet  wide  at  the  two  ends,  and  18  feet  in  the  middle,  and 
is  able  to  accommodate  about  ten  workers.  A  number  of 
small  aquaria  for  the  use  of  investigators  will  be  placed 
in  this  room.  Of  the  rooms  at  the  back  of  the  main 
laboratory,  one  (b)  has  a  cement  floor  and  is  for  assort- 
ing and  preserving  specimens  brought  in  from  the  sea. 
Another  (e)  is  to  be  used  as  the  library-room,  and  a  third 
(c)  as  the  store-room.  The  second  floor  over  the  central 
part  of  the  building  is  able  to  give  sleeping  accommoda- 
tion for  a  few  persons.     From  a  tank  placed  outside  the 


building,  fresh  sea-water  is  carried  into  the  main  labora- 
tory-room and  the  assorting-room,  and  is  delivered  out  of 
many  facets."  G.  B.  H. 


THE  AURORA  IN  SPITZBERGEN} 

THE  best  observations  hitherto  made  on  the  aurora 
borealis  are  those  made  at  Bossekop,  by  Bravais, 
during  the  expedition  of  the  French  corvette  Le  Recherche, 
1838-40.  Bossekop  is  also  situated  in  the  maximum  zone 
of  the  auroras,  on  the  coast  of  Northern  Norway.  Con- 
sidering that  Spitzbergen  lies  a  little  north  of  the  same 
zone,  and  nearly  on  the  same  meridian  as.  Bossekop,  it 
was  resolved  that  the  observations  of  auroras  should  be 
made  with  the  greatest  possible  care  at  the  Swedish  In- 
ternational Polar  Station  at  Spitzbergen  in  1882-83.  This 
work  was  confided  to  Mr.  Carlheim-Gyllenskiold,  and  the 
auroral  observations  are  the  most  complete  that  have 
been  made  by  any  of  the  international  expeditions  during 
that  year.  The  results  are  now  printed,  and  form  a  large 
quarto  volume  of  409  pages,  with  a  great  number  of 
tables,  illustrations,  and  figures.  The  results  confirm  and 
enlarge  those  of  Bravais,  and  of  other  observers  of  this 
brilliant  phenomenon. 

(1)  The  first  question  is  the  determination  of  the  mean 
co-ordinates  of  the  auroral  arch.  A  mean  of  371  mea- 
surements gave  the  azimuth  of  the  culminating  point  or 
summit  of  the  auroral  arch  in  S.  240  12'  E.  As  early  as 
1834,  Argelander,  in  Abo,  Finland,  found  that  the  azi- 
muth of  the  culminating  point  of  the  auroral  arch  differs 
about  io°  from  the  magnetic  meridian.  At  Bossekop 
the  magnetic  declination  was  N.  io°  8'  W.,  and  the  de- 
clination of  the  culminating  point  of  the  auroral  arch 
N.  22°  4'  W.,  the  anomaly  being,  of  course,  about  n°  W. 
The  magnetic  declination  at  Cape  Thordsen  was  found  to 
be  N.  120  45'  W.,  and  of  course  the  auroral  anomaly  from 
the  magnetic  meridian  was  1 1°  27'  W. 

(2)  Eighty-seven  measures  on  the  position  of  the 
corona  borealis  were  made,  and  the  position  of  the  centre 
of  the  corona  was  found  nearly  in  the  magnetic  zenith, 
and  not  in  the  same  vertical  as  the  highest  point  of  the 
arch.     The  means  are  : — 

Position  of  the  centre  of  the  0     ,  0    , 

corona H  =  79  55  ...  Az.  =  S.    7  12  E. 

Position  of  the  magnetic  zenith  H  =  80  35  ...  Az.  =  S.  12    4  E. 

Position    of    the    culminating 

point  of  the  arch       H  =     —     ...  Az.  =  S.  24  12  E. 

This  confirms  the  measurements  made  during  the  past 
century  by  Wilcke,  Mairan,  and  others. 

(3)  The  breadth  of  the  auroral  arches  varies  with  their 
elevation  above  the  horizon.  The  arches  consist  of  rays 
running  in  the  direction  of  the  breadth  of  the  arch,  and 
converging  towards  the  magnetic  zenith.  Thus  they  form 
a  long  fringe  of  rays  parallel  to  the  dipping-needle,  sus- 
pended, like  a  curtain,  from  east  to  west,  but  with  a  small 
extent  of  breadth  from  north  to  south.  If  this  curtain  of 
rays  moves  from  the  horizon  to  the  zenith,  the  breadth 
varies  according  to  the  laws  of  perspective.  The  formula 
gives  the  greatest  breadth  at  a  height  of  45°.  In  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  zenith  the  arches  are  very  narrow, 
stretching  as  a  luminous  band  across  the  heavens. 

(4)  Besides  the  arches  and  rays,  the  auroral  light  some- 
times formed  a  true  spherical  zone  parallel  with  the  earth's 
surface,  thus  floating  in  space  as  a  horizontal  layer  of  light, 
often  crossed  by  several  arches.  This  form  is  seldom  to 
be  seen  in  lower  latitudes.  These  auroral  zones  were 
apparently  much  broader  in  the  zenith  than  at  their  ex- 
tremities nearer  to  the  horizon.  When  such  an  auroral 
zone  was  lying  wholly  over  the  heavens,  with  the  excep- 

1  "  Observations  faites  au  Cap  Thordsen,  Spitzberg,  par  l'Expedition 
Suedoise."     Tome  II.  (i)  Aurores  boreales.     Par  Carlheim-Gyllenskiold. 


May  24,  1888] 


NATURE 


85 


tion  of  a  low  segment  near  the  horizon,  a  dark  segment 
was  produced  by  contrast.  Sometimes  the  luminous  zone 
was  broken,  and  then  dark  spots  or  irregular  spaces  were 
produced  in  the  same  way.  These  dark  spaces  were 
frequently  seen  tinted  with  a  faint  rosy  light. 

(5)  The  movement  of  the  arches  is  ordinarily  reported 
to  be  from  north  to  south,  at  places  situated  to  the  south 
of  the  maximum  zone,  and,  from  the  opposite  direction, 
at  places  within  the  maximum  zone.  Thus,  at  different 
stations  between  the  latitude  of  Rome  and  the  latitude  of 
Bossekop,  696  per  cent,  of  the  auroral  arches  have  moved 
from  the  north  ;  at  Mossel  Bay,  Franz-Josef  Land,  and 
Discovery  Bay,  on  the  contrary,  62-5  per  cent,  have  moved 
from  the  south.  At  Cape  Thordsen  it  was  of  course  expected 
that  the  most  part  of  the  auroral  arches  would  move  from 
the  south.  Yet  this  was  not  the  case.  On  the  contrary,  576 
per  cent,  moved  from  the  north.  The  movements  were,  of 
course,  almost  the  same  in  both  directions. 

(6)  The  anomalous  forms  of  arches  were  very  frequent, 
and  were  made  a  matter  of  accurate  investigation.  Some- 
times an  auroral  arch  presents  the  form  of  a  sinuous  band, 
or  resembles  a  brilliant  curtain  with  deep  folds.  At  other 
times  the  arches  appeared  as  regular  spirals.  Seen  from 
the  outside  of  the  earth,  or  from  above,  the  spirals  were 
almost  all  contorted  in  a  direction  contrary  to  the  motion 
of  the  hands  of  a  watch,  and  the  undulations  folded  as 
an  S.  The  motion  was,  in  80  per  cent.,  from  west  to  east. 
The  folds  of  the  auroral  draperies  had  very  different 
dimensions  on  different  occasions.  Sometimes  a  regular 
arch  showed  only  a  slight  undulation  ;  at  other  times, 
only  a  part  of  an  immense  auroral  drapery  was  seen 
above  the  horizon,  as  a  pseudo-arch. 

(7)  Often,  waves  of  light  are  running  along  the  arches, 
and  then  the  rays  or  beams  are  apparently  in  vivid 
motion.  This  appearance  of  the  aurora  is  known  in 
England  as  "  the  merry  dancers."  In  103  cases  the  waves 
were  running  from  west  to  east,  and  in  101  cases  from 
east  to  west.  The  mean  angular  velocity  per  second  was 
38'6.  For  a  mean  vertical  height  of  the  aurora  of  100  kilo- 
metres above  the  earth's  surface,  or  222  kilometres  from  the 
observer's  eye,  this  gives  the  immense  velocity  of  about 
2-5  kilometres  per  second.  The  light  of  the  aurora  was 
often  suddenly  changing  as  to  the  distribution  and  in- 
tensity of  light,  but  the  geometrical  form  of  the  whole 
phenomenon  was  only  slowly  varying.  The  rays  were 
sometimes  observed  to  have  a  slow  proper  motion  from 
west  to  east,  or  vice  versa. 

(8)  As  to  the  classification  of  the  auroral  forms,  the 
author  rejects  that  of  Weyprecht.  The  different  forms 
of  the  aurora  in  the  classification  of  Weyprecht  are,  in 
fact,  only  different  views  or  projections,  as,  for  instance, 
the  forms  III.  =  beams  or  rays,  and  IV.  =  corona.  The 
corona  results,  according  to  the  rules  of  perspective,  when 
a  large  number  of  separate  beams  parallel  to  each  other 
and  to  the  direction  of  the  dipping-needle  seem  to  con- 
verge to  one  point,  viz.  the  magnetic  zenith.  A  regular 
and  fully-developed  arch  consists,  as  we  have  said  before, 
of  a  long  fringe  of  rays,  and  so  on.  The  author  considers 
only  two  different  forms  of  auroral  light,  viz.  zones,  or 
horizontal  layers  of  light ;  and  arches,  composed  more 
or  less  of  distinct  rays  parallel  to  the  dipping-needle. 
The  arches  present  themselves  in  four  different  condi- 
tions :  (1)  arch,  or  a  regular  band  ;  (2)  band,  or  drapery; 
(3)  spiral ;  and  (4)  pseudo-arch. 

(9)  The  light  of  the  aurora  is,  according  to  the  author, 
of  two  kinds:  (1)  the  yellow  light,  entirely  monochro- 
matic, and  showing  in  the  spectroscope  the  well-known 
yellow  line  of  Angstrom  ;  (2)  the  crimson  or  violet  light, 
resolved  in  the  spectroscope  into  several  rays  and  bands, 
spread  over  all  parts  of  the  spectrum.  In  the  following 
table  we  give  (I.)  the  lines  observed  by  the  author,  (II.) 
the  lines  observed  by  several  authors  before  the  year 
1884,  and  (III.)  the  spectrum  of  lightning,  according  to 
the  observations  of  Herschel,  Vogel,  Schuster,  and  the 


author.      The    unity  for    wave-length    is,  as   usual,  the 
o-ooooooi  of  the  millimetre. 


1. 
6306  ± 
5776  ± 
5664  ± 
5568  ± 

5353  ± 
5264  ± 
5228  ± 
5001  ± 

4837  ± 
4707  ± 
4642  ± 
4236  ± 


7'3 
30 
30 
i-6 

3o 

25 
27 
42 
107 
5"i 
3 '3 
67 


11. 
6294  ±64 
5776  ±  30 
5664  ±  30 
5570  ±  09 

5353  ±  3'3 
5280  ±  1  8 
5226  ±  3*2 
5003  ±27 
4862  ±  1-5 
4702  ±29 

4636  ±2-4 
4286  ±44 


III. 

6300 

5685 

5338 
5260 

5004 
4860 

4632 


There  were  twelve  other  extremely  faint  auroral  rays 
to  be  seen  occasionally,  but  their  position  could  not  be 
exactly  observed. 

As  to  the  further  discussion  of  the  different  auroral 
spectra  and  their  supposed  connection  with  different 
auroral  forms,  we  must  refer  to  the  original  paper. 

(10)  No  sound  was  ever  heard  from  the  auroral  light. 
The  feeble  rustling  noise  sometimes  heard  was  observed  to 
come  from  the  loose  agile  surface-layer  of  snow  driven  to 
and  fro  by  the  lightest  wind  over  the  underlying  layers. 
Nor  was  a  "  smell  of  sulphur"  observed. 

(1 1)  As  to  the  height  of  the  aurora,  it  may  first  be  men- 
tioned that  the  aurora  was  never  seen  to  descend  below 
the  mountains  or  the  lower  clouds.  Only  two  or  three 
times  it  is  possible  that  the  light  was  seen  below  the 
upper  clouds.  Yet  sometimes  the  auroral  light  was  seen 
to  be  reflected  from  the  surface  of  the  snow.  Direct 
measures  of  the  parallax  from  the  end  of  a  short  base 
(573  metres),  by  means  of  auroral  theodolites  of  Mohn's 
construction,  gave  an  average  height  of  551  kilometres  ; 
from  observations  of  the  corresponding  amplitudes  and 
heights  of  the  arches,  according  to  Bravais'  method, 
577  kilometres  ;  and  by  several  other  observations  and 
calculations,  about  60  kilometres  was  found  to  be  the 
probable  mean  height  of  the  aurora. 

(12)  As  to  the  annual  and  diurnal  periods  of  the  aurora, 
no  annual  variation  in  the  frequency  could  be  proved. 
The  apparent  daily  period  gave  a  maximum  at  8h.  50m. 
Gottingen  time,  or  9h.  13m.  local  time,  in  the  evening  ;  and 
a  minimum  at  exactly  the  same  hour  in  the  morning. 
This  apparent  period  must  be  corrected  for  the  influence 
of  the  quantity  of  clouds  and  for  the  influence  of  the 
twilight.  If  F  represents  the  apparent  frequency  of  the 
aurora,  and  Q  the  quantity  of  clouds  in  tenth  parts  of  the 
whole  sky,  there  was  found  F  =  1  -  0*0730  Q,  in  taking 
for  unity  the  apparent  frequency  when  the  heavens  were 
totally  clear. 

Further,  the  apparent  frequency  when  the  sun  was 
io°  47'  below  the  horizon  was  the  half  of  the  true  fre- 
quency, and  the  influence  of  the  sun's  light  was  sensible 
as  far  as  to  a  depth  of  the  sun  of  170  45'  below  the  hori- 
zon. Once  only  the  aurora  was  seen  when  the  sun  was 
not  more  than  50  25'  below  the  horizon. 

Taking  into  account  these  sources  of  error,  the  true 
daily  range  has  a  maximum  at  3I1.  3m.  p.m.,  and  a 
minimum  at  8h.  3m.  a.m.  local  time. 

Finally,  there  was  also  a  well-marked  daily  range  in 
the  form  of  the  aurora.  The  most  brilliant  phase  of  the 
phenomenon  occurred  at  4I1.  p.m.  ;  the  aurora  then  ap- 
peared as  a  complete  regular  arch.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  minimum  brilliancy  took  place  at  9I1.  a.m. ;  the  arches 
then  were  resolved  into  whirling  fragments. 

Upsala,  April.  H.  Hildebrandsson. 

NOTES. 
The  general  arrangements  for  the  Bath  meeting  of  the  British 
Association  have  now  been   made.     The  first  meeting  will  be 
held  on  Wednesday,   September  5,  at  8  p.m.  precisely,  when 


86 


NATURE 


[May  24,  1888 


Sir  H.  E.  Roscoe  will  resign  the  chair,  and  Sir  F.  J.  Bramwell, 
President-elect,  will  assume  the  Presidency,  and  deliver  an 
address.  On  Thursday  evening,  September  6,  at  8  p.m.,  there 
will  be  a  soiree ;  on  Friday  evening,  September  7,  at  8.30  p.m., 
a  discourse  on  "The  Electrical  Transmission  of  Power,"  by 
Prof.  W.  E.  Ayrton  ;  on  Monday  evening,  September  10,  at 
8.30  p.m.,  a  discourse  on  "The  Foundation  Stones  of  the 
Earth's  Crust,"  by  Prof.  T.  G.  Bonney  ;  on  Tuesday  evening, 
September  11,  at  8  p.m.,  a  soiree.  On  Wednesday  evening, 
September  12,  the  concluding  general  meeting  will  be  held  at 
2.30  p.m.  Excursions  to  places  of  interest  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Bath  will  be  made  on  the  afternoon  of  Saturday,  September  8, 
and  on  Thursday,  September  13. 

The  fourth  session  of  the  International  Geological  Congress 
will  be  opened  on  Monday  evening,  September  17,  and  will  last 
during  the  whole  of  the  week.  The  meetings  will  be  held  in 
the  rooms  of  the  University  of  London,  Burlington  Gardens. 
The  Honorary  President  of  the  Congress  will  be  Prof.  Huxley ; 
the  President,  Prof.  Prestwich ;  the  Vice-Presidents,  the 
Director-General  of  the  Geological  Survey,  the  President  of  the 
Geological  Society,  and  Prof.  McK.  Hughes  ;  Treasurer,  Mr. 
F.  W.  Rudler;  and  General  Secretaries,  Mr.  J.  W.  Hulke  and 
Mr.  W.  Topley.  Up  to  the  present  date  395  geologists  have 
signified  their  intention  of  being  present.  Of  these  210  are 
British,  and  185  foreign.  The  number  of  countries  represented 
is  22. 

The  Linnean  Society  holds  its  centenary  celebration  to-day. 
The  following  is  the  programme  of  the  proceedings: — At 
2.30  p.m.  the  President  will  receive  the  visitors.  At  3  p.m.  the 
President  will  take  the  chair.  After  introductory  remarks  by 
the  President,  and  the  formal  business  of  the  anniversary  meet- 
ing, the  Treasurer  will  lay  before  the  meeting  an  account  of  the 
financial  condition  of  the  Society  during  the  last  century  ;  the 
Secretaries  will  lay  before  the  meeting  a  history  of  the  Linnean 
books,  herbarium,  and  other  collections  ;  the  President  will 
deliver  the  annual  address.  The  following  Eulogia  will  be  pro- 
nounced :  On  Linnaeus,  by  Prof.  Thore  Fries,  the  present 
occupant  of  the  Chair  of  Botany  at  Upsala  ;  on  Robert  Brown, 
by  Sir  Joseph  Hooker  ;  on  Charles  Darwin,  by  Prof.  Flower  ; 
on  George  Bentham,  by  Mr.  W.  T.  Thiselton  Dyer.  The 
Linnean  Gold  Medal,  instituted  by  the  Society  on  the  occasion  of 
its  centenary,  will  be  presented  to  Sir  Joseph  Hooker  (botanist), 
and  Sir  Richard  Owen  (zoologist).  (In  subsequent  years  the 
presentation  will  be  alternately  to  a  botanist  and  zoologist. )  At 
6.30  p.m.  the  annual  dinner  will  be  held  at  the  Hotel  Victoria, 
Northumberland  Avenue,  the  President  in  the  chair.  To- 
morrow (May  25th),  at  8.30  p.m.,  the  President  and  Officers  will 
hold  a  reception  of  the  members  and  visitors  in  the  Rooms  of 
the  Society,  when  the  Linnean  collections  and  relics  will  be 
exhibited. 

The  late  Mr.  Cooper  Foster,  of  Grosvenor  Street,  for  many 
years  senior  surgeon  to  Guy's  Hospital,  was  famous  among 
horticulturists  as  a  collector  and  grower  of  Hymenophyllums, 
Trichomanes,  and  Todias,  popularly  known  as  Filmy  Ferns. 
With  very  few  exceptions,  the  whole  of  these  plants  are  ex- 
tremely difficult  to  cultivate.  The  conditions  under  which  they 
grow  naturally  are  not  easily  imitated.  Mr.  Foster,  however, 
contrived  to  keep  a  very  rich  collection  of  species,  many  of  them 
unknown  in  gardens  except  at  Kew,  where  the  collection  of  Filmy 
Ferns  is  perhaps  unique  ;  and  even  Kew  did  not  possess  several 
kinds  which  Mr.  Foster  possessed.  When  it  is  remembered  that 
these  extremely  delicate  plants  wei-e  cultivated  in  one  or  two  small 
greenhouses  at  the  back  of  a  house  in  Grosvenor  Street,  Mr. 
Foster's  success  appears  still  more  remarkable.  After  his  death 
the  Filmy  Ferns  were  removed  to  his  son's  residence  at  Binfield, 
Berks.      Recently,    however,    Mrs.    Foster    offered   the  whole 


collection  to  Kew,  and  it  has  lately  been  transferred  lo  these 
Gardens,  special  accommodation  having  been  provided  for  it  in 
the  house  (No.  3)  where  the  bulk  of  the  Kew  collection  is 
grown.  Among  the  most  noteworthy  of  the  plants  comprised  in 
the  Cooper  Foster  collection  are  Trichomanes  reniforme,  a 
magnificent  specimen  a  yard  across,  bearing  hundreds  of  fine 
healthy  leaves  ;  T.  parvulum,  which  has  a  compact  cushion-like 
mass  of  tiny  palmate  leaves  ;  T.  alabamense,  Hymenofhylhim 
ceruginosum,  H.  chiloense,  H.  eruentum,  H.  flextwsum,  H. 
Fosterianum,  H.  pectinatum,  H.  pulcherrimum,  and  some  grand 
masses  of  H.  demisstim.  This  magnificent  gift  to  the  national 
gardens  at  Kew  will  no  doubt  receive  the  appreciation  from  the 
public  which  its  intrinsic  beauty,  scientific  interest,  and  actual 
pecuniary  value  deserve. 

Mrs.  Emma  W.  Hayden  has  given  to  the  Academy  of 
Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia  in  trust  the  sum  of  $2500.00,  to 
be  known  as  the  Hayden  Memorial  Geological  Fund,  in  com- 
memoration of  her  husband,  the  late  Prof.  Ferdinand  V.  Hayden. 
According  to  the  terms  of  the  trust,  a  bronze  medal  and  the 
balance  of  the  interest  arising  from  the  fund  are  to  be  awarded 
annually  for  the  best  publication,  exploration,  discovery,  or  re- 
search in  the  sciences  of  geology  and  palaeontology,  or  in  such 
particular  branches  thereof  as  may  be  designated.  The  award 
and  all  matters  connected  therewith  are  to  be  determined  by  a 
Committee,  to  be  selected  in  an  appropriate  manner  by  the 
Academy.  The  recognition  is  not  to  be  confined  to  American 
naturalists. 

According  to  the  Colonies  and  India,  the  appointment  of 
Superintendent  of  the  Botanical  Gardens,  Singapore,  has  be- 
come vacant  owing  to  the  death  of  Mr.  Cautley  in  Tasmania. 

M.  Herve  Mangon,  Member  of  the  Paris  Academy  of 
Sciences,  and  President  of  the  French  Meteorological  Councils 
died  on  the  16th  inst.,  at  the  age  of  sixty-seven.  He  was 
Minister  of  Agriculture  in  the  Brisson  Cabinet,  and  was  a  high 
authority  on  drainage  and  agricultural  improvements. 

The  Pilot  Chart  of  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean  for  May  show, 
that,  generally,  fine  weather  prevailed  over  that  ocean  during 
April.  Storms  accompanied  by  electric  phenomena  occurred 
about  once  a  week  north  of  the  46th  parallel.  A  cyclonic  storm 
of  great  strength  was  generated  on  April  15  in  about  350  N.  and 
6o°  W. ,  moving  across  the  Banks  from  the  16th  to  the  18th,  in  which 
the  wind  reached  force  II.  There  was  also  a  gale  of  consider- 
able strength  to  the  north-eastward  of  the  Azores  during  the 
second  week  of  April,  and  a  "  norther  "  was  felt  in  the  western 
part  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  on  the  13th.  Considerable  fog 
was  met  with  off  the  Grand  Banks,  and  southwards.  The 
amount  of  ice  encountered  was  unusually  small,  and  was  con- 
fined for  the  most  part  to  the  south-east  coast  of  Newfound- 
land. Although  it  has  been  delayed  in  its  southward  movement 
by  the  unusual  prevalence  of  south-easterly  winds,  it  is  now 
liable  to  appear  in  quantity,  and  to  constitute  a  source  of  danger 
for  several  months.  Careful  observations  of  the  Gulf  Stream 
and  the  equatorial  current  are  now  being  made  at  certain  points 
by  the  United  States  steamer  Blake. 

A  sodium  salt  of  zincic  acid  has  at  last  been  obtained  in  the 
crystalline  state  by  Messrs.  Comey  and  Loring  Jackson,  of 
Harvard  University  {Berichte,  1888,  1589).  Every  analyst  is 
aware  that  zinc  hydrate  is  soluble  in  potash  or  soda,  and  although 
it  has  been  presumed  that  zincates  of  the  alkalies  or  compounds 
of  the  alkaline  oxides  with  zinc  oxide  are  formed  under  these 
circumstances  by  replacement  of  the  hydrogen  of  the  hydrate  by 
potassium  or  sodium,  no  such  compounds  have  hitherto  been 
isolated.  Messrs.  Comey  and  Jackson,  however,  find  that  when 
a  concentrated  solution  of  zinc  or  zinc  oxide  in  soda  is  shaken 
with  alcohol  the  mixture  separates  on  standing  into  two  layers 


May  24,  1888] 


NATURE 


87 


a  heavier  aqueous  and  a  lighter  alcoholic  layer.  When  the  treat- 
ment of  the  heavier  layer  with  alcohol  is  repeated  once  or  twice, 
it  eventually  solidifies  to  a  mass  of  white  crystals  which  melt 
below  ioo°  C.  Moreover,  on  allowing  the  alcoholic  washings 
to  stand,  long  brilliant  white  needles,  often  more  than  a  centi- 
metre in  length,  are  deposited.  These  latter  crystals  differ  very 
markedly  in  melting-point  from  those  obtained  from  the  aqueous 
portion,  as  they  remain  unfused  even  at  3000.  They  were 
finally  purified  and  subjected  to  analysis,  the  results  of  which 
point  very  clearly  to  the  composition  2NaHZn02  +  7H20,  or 
2Zn(OH)(ONa)  +  7ll20.  Hence  this  new  salt  may  be  re- 
garded as  hydrogen  sodium  zincate.  It  is  soluble  in  water  and 
alcohol  holding  soda  in  solution,  but  is  decomposed  both  by  pure 
water  and  alcohol.  The  crystals  obtained  from  the  aqueous 
solution  above  mentioned  appear  to  differ  from  those  just  de- 
scribed only  in  containing  more  water  of  crystallization,  the 
amount  of  which  has  not  yet  been  fixed  with  certainty.  The 
fact  that  zinc  oxide  behaves  so  negatively  towards  the  more  positive 
alkalies,  playing  as  it  evidently  does  the  rdle  of  an  acid,  is  now 
happily  a  proved  one,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  American 
chemists  will  continue  their  researches  until  they  have  been  as 
fortunate  in  preparing  the  normal  salt  of  zincic  acid. 

At  the  last  meeting  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan,  the  Rev. 
J.  Batchelor  read  a  paper  on  "  Some  Specimens  of  Aino  Folk- 
Lore."  There  were  seven  of  these  taken  down  as  they  were 
sung,  chanted,  or  recited  by  the  Aino  bard  or  story-teller. 
After  telling  these  stories,  Mr.  Batchelor  observed  that  among 
the  Ainos  there  are  still  prophets  and  prophetesses,  but  they 
limit  their  powers  now  to  telling  the  cause  of  illness,  prescribing 
medicine,  using  charms,  and  the  like.  A  person  when  pro- 
phesying is  supposed  to  sleep  or  otherwise  lose  consciousness, 
and  to  become,  so  to  speak,  the  mouthpiece  of  the  gods.  The 
prophet  is  not  even  supposed  to  know  what  he  himself  utters, 
and  often  listeners  cannot  understand  the  meaning  of  the  utter- 
ances. The'  burden  of  the  prophecy  sometimes  comes  out  in 
jerks,  but  more  often  in  a  kind  of  sing-song  monotone.  Mr. 
Batchelor  described  one  scene  of  Aino  prophesying  at  which  he 
was  present.  "  Absolute  silence  reigned  around,  old  men  with 
gray  beards  sat  with  eyes  full  of  tears,  in  rapt  attention  ;  the 
prophet  himself  was  apparently  quite  carried  away  with  his 
subject  ;  he  trembled,  perspired  profusely,  and  beat  himself 
with  his  hands.  At  length  he  finished  exhausted,  and  as  he 
opened  his  eyes  for  a  moment,  they  shone  with  a  wild  light." 
During  the  discussion  which  followed,  it  was  stated  that  the 
author  of  the  paper  was  engaged  in  the  preparation  of  an  Aino 
dictijnary,  for  which  seven  or  eight  thousand  words  had  already 
been  collected.  "Such  a  dictionary,"  said  Prof.  Chamberlain, 
"would  in  all  likelihood  be  a  kind  of  tomb  in  which  the 
rapidly  dying  language  would  remain  enshrined  for  ages.  .  Even 
now  it  was  striking  to  observe  how  all  except  the  oldest  men 
and  women  were  really  bi-linguil,  speaking  Japanese  as  easily 
as  Aino." 

Mr.  Bruce  Foote,  Superintendent  of  the  Geological  Survey 
of  India,  lately  contributed  to  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal 
some  most  interesting  "notes"  on  recent  Neolithic  and  Palaeo- 
lithic finds  in  Southern  India.  These  notes  have  now  been 
reprinted  from  the  Society's  Journal.  One  of  the^facts  to  which 
he  calls  attention  is  that  "the  old  Stone-folk "  of  the  Bellary- 
Anantapur  country,  where  great  numbers  of  Neolithic  settle- 
ments have  been  found,  selected  granite-gneiss  hills  as  the  sites 
of  their  settlements.  Four  considerations  may,  he  thinks,  have 
influenced  them  in  this  choice  : — (1)  The  more  perfect  isolation 
of  the  granite-gneiss  hills,  which  mostly  rise  singly  out  of  the 
plains,  or,  if  in  clusters,  are  yet  individually  detached,  and 
therefore  more  suitable  for  defence  than  posts  on  continuous 
ridges,  such  as  are  generally  formed  by  jthe  "schistose   rocks. 


Some  of  the  granite-gneiss  hills  are  nearly  perfectly  castellated 
by  the  disposition  of  the  rock-masses.  (2)  Rock-shelters  of 
great  efficiency  and  comfortable  terraces  are  to  be  found  in 
numbers  on  many  of  the  granitoid  hills,  but  hardly  ever  on  the 
schistose  hills.  (3)  The  collection  of  rain  water  and  its  storage 
would,  from  the  nature  of  the  ground,  be  much  easier  on  the 
average  granitoid  rock  than  on  the  average  schistose  hill. 
(4)  The  schistose  hills  are,  in  very  many  cases,  generally,  in 
fact,  surrounded  by  a  heavy  and  broad  talus  most  detrimental  to 
easy  agricultural  work.  The  granitoid  hills,  on  the  contrary, 
form,  as  a  rule,  no  great  talus,  but  rise  up  straight  out  of  the 
great  cotton-soil  plains,  so  that  the  Neolithic  field  labourers 
could  have  been  quite  close  to  places  of  refuge  in  cases  of  attack 
from  other  tribes,  and  yet  have  been  able  to  carry  on  their 
agricultural  work. 

At  the  last  meeting  of  the  Archaeological  Society  of  Sweden, 
Herr  N.  F.  Sander  read  a  paper  on  the  wholly  or  partly  un- 
deciphered  runic  inscriptions  in  Sweden,  which  he  divided  into 
three  classes:  (1)  those  composed  of  ordinary  runic  letters,  but 
in  which  the  runic  "staf  "  or  sign  1,  when  signifying  i  or  e  had 
purposely  been  left  out,  in  one  inscription  even  twenty- five 
times  ;  (2)  the  conventional  runic  signs,  which  were  really  runic 
cipher;  and  (3)  the  so-called  Sudermania  "  qvist "  (sprig  or 
faggot)  runes,  as  well  as  the  "  ice  "  runes.  Here  the  secret  lay 
in  the  circumstance  that  the  three  "sets"  of  letters  had  been 
purposely  misplaced,  so  that  in  the  inscriptions  the  third  set 
(h,b,l,m,  r)  came  first;  first  set  (/",«,/,  h,o,r,k)  second;  and  second 
set  («,  i,  a,  s)  third.  Referring  to  seven  of  the  first-named  order 
of  inscriptions  which  had  recently  been  deciphered,  Herr  Sander 
stated  that  five  of  them,  all  situated  in  the  province  of  Upland, 
had  the  same  contents,  and  contained  some  curious  objurgations. 
In  four  of  them  appeared  the  word  Pim  or  Piment  (i.e.  a  strong 
drink  composed  of  wine,  honey,  and  spice),  which,  as  well  as 
Klaret,  was  mentioned  in  the  Saga  of  Rollo  the  Ganger  and  the 
Normans.  All  these  inscriptions  were  referred  to  the  close  of 
the  pagan  age.  One  of  them  read  as  follows  :  "  Reksessr,  only 
Thynne's  son  (son  of),  assigned  (to  himself)—/.*,  wedded — asa- 
Askra;  (she)  is  daughter  of  Thynne-Signil  and  the  giant."  At 
the  mouth  of  the  River  Aby,  close  to  which  this  stone  was  found, 
is  a  little  island  called  Thynne  or  Tonno. 

In  an  interesting  article  in  a  recent  number  of  the  Natur- 
wissenschaftliche  Wcchenschrift,  Prof.  Nehring  discusses  the  ques- 
tion as  to  the  origin  of  the  dog.  He  expresses  his  belief  that  it 
is  descended  from  various  still-surviving  species  of  wolves  and 
jackals.  The  taming  of  jackals,  he  says,  presents  no  particular 
difficulty,  and  many  attempts  to  domesticate  wolves  have  been 
successfully  made  in  recent  times.  Herr  Ronge  has  so  com- 
pletely tamed  a  young  wolf  that  it  follows  him  exactly  as  a  dog 
might  do. 

The  United  States  Consul  at  Auckland,  in  a  recent  report, 
says  that  rabbits  have  so  eaten  out  the  ranges  in  New  Zealand, 
that  the  capacity  for  maintaining  sheep  has  greatly  lessened,  and 
the  flocks  have  fallen  off  in  numbers.  At  the  Stock  Conference 
of  1886  it  was  stated  that  rabbits  reduced  by  a  third  the  feeding 
capacity  of  land,  and  that  the  weight  of  fleeces  had  decreased 
by  1  lb.  to  \\  lb.  each.  The  number  of  lambs  decreased  from 
30  to  40  per  cent.,  while  the  death  rate  increased  from  3  to  13 
per  cent.  Since  1882,  when  the  Rabbit  Act  became  law, 
Government  has  expended  ^7000  on  Crown  lands  alone,. and  it 
is  estimated  that  during  the  last  eight  years  private  persons  have 
spent  ^2,400,000  in  extirpating  rabbits.  The  methods  gener- 
ally in  favour  are  fencing,  poisoned  grain  (generally  phosphorized 
oats),  and  ferrets,  weasels,  and  stoats. 

The  Canadian  Minister  of  Agriculture  in  his  report  for  the 
past  year  refers  to  various  measures  taken  by  the  Government 
for  the  advance  of  scientific  a;riculture  in  the  Dominion.     Five 


88 


NATURE 


{May  24,  1888 


experimental  farms  in  various  parts  of  the  country  were  provided 
by  the  Legislature,  a  botanist  and  entomologist  were  appointed, 
and  a  large  number  of  experiments  to  ascertain  the  roots  and 
cereals  most  suited  for  the  circumstances  of  Canada — especially 
its  short  summer — were  carried  out  under  scientific  supervision. 

A  rich  gold-field  has  been  discovered  between  the  two 
rivers,  Lava  and  Papanahoni,  in  Surinam.  It  is  an  open 
question  whether  this  district  of  20,000-25,000  square  kilometres 
belongs  to  France  or  Holland.  M.  Condreau,  the  French 
traveller,  who  has  been  closely  investigating  the  district,  con- 
siders that  it  will  be  as  productive  as  the  gold-fields  of  Australia 
and  California. 

The  University  of  Christiania  has  despatched  a  zoologist, 
Herr  J.  Jversen,  to  Sumatra,  for  the  purpose  of  collecting  natural 
history  objects  for  that  institution. 

A  SUM  of  .£550  has  been  granted  by  the  Danish  Government 
towards  the  expenses  of  publishing  the  zoological  and  botanical 
results  of  Lieut.  Hovgaard's  Arctic  expedition  in  the  Dijmphna 
in  1880-81.     The  work  will  soon  be  issued. 

In  addition  to  a  sum  already  granted,  the  Norwegian  Govern- 
ment has  given  ^300  towards  the  publication  of  Prof.  Friis's 
ethnographical  chart  of  the  provinces  of  Tromso  and  Finmarken. 

The  number  of  visitors  to  the  Natural  History  Museum,  re- 
corded by  aid  of  Benton's  "  O "  register  up  to  6  o'clock  on 
Whit  Monday,  was  4567,  and  the  Museum  was  open  for  two 
hours  longer.  This  number  compares  with  6010  and  6589 
admissions  on  the  Whit  Mondays  of  the  two  prece  ling  years. 
During  the  week  ending  Saturday  last,  149,583  persons  visited 
the  Museum  in  the  present  year,  being  an  increase  of  8000  on 
last  year. 

The  honorary  degree  of  LL.D.  has  been  conferred  by  the 
McGill  University,  Montreal,  upon  Prof.  W.  Fream,  B.  Sc. 
Lond.,  of  the  College  of  Agriculture,  Downton,  Salisbury,  in 
recognition  of  his  contributions  to  agricultural  science  and  of 
his  services  to  Canadian  agriculture. 

Much  interest  has  been  excited  by  the  successful  transplanta- 
tion of  nerve  from  a  rabbit  to  man.  The  operation  was  per- 
formed by  Dr.  Gersung,  of  Vienna,  and  the  patient  was  Dr. 
von  Fleischl,  Professor  of  Physiology  in  the  University  of  that 
city.  Sixteen  years  ago  Dr.  von  Fleischl  accidentally  wounded 
himself  while  conducting  a  post-mortem  examination,  and  the 
consequent  severe  inflammatinn  of  his  right  arm  and  hand  led 
ultimately  to  the  loss  of  the  terminal  joint  of  his  thumb.  The 
end  of  the  stump  having  become  painful,  amputation  somewhat 
further  back  was  performed.  This  was  followed  by  the  forma- 
tion of  "neuromata."  In  the  hope  of  obtaining  relief  he 
underwent  several  fruitless  operations.  Ultimately,  Dr.  Gersung 
suggested  that  the  nerves  might  be  repaired,  and  the  missing 
portions  replaced,  by  means  of  fresh  nerve  taken  from  a  rabbit. 
The  Times  of  Tuesday  gives  the  fallowing  account  of  the  opera- 
tion : — "Just  as  there  is  nothing  special  in  any  individual  human 
nerve,  and  as  any  one  of  them  would  be  capable  of  discharging  the 
duty  of  any  other,  so,  it  may  be  assumed,  there  is  no  difference 
between  the  endowments  of  the  nerves  of  man  and  those  of  the 
lower  animals,  which  fulfil  identical  functions  in  an  identical 
manner.  It  was,  therefore,  inherently  probable  that  the  nerve 
of  an  animal,  if  a  piece  could  be  obtained  of  the  proper  size  and 
length,  and  if  transplantation  and  union  could  be  successfully 
effected,  would  suffice  to  make  good  any  loss  of  nerve  in  man ; 
and,  in  the  present  instance,  which  is,  we  believe,  the  first  of 
the  kind  on  record,  not  only  have  the  transplantation  and  union 
been  succesful,  but  the  new  piece  of  nerve  seems  to  have  over- 
come the  tendency  of  the  old  to  undergo  degeneration  of  struc- 
ture at  its  divided  extremity.     A  portion,   six   centimetres   in 


length,  of  the  great  nerve  of  a  rabbit's  thigh  was  selected,  and 
was  so  removed  from  the  freshly  killed  animal  as  to  include  the 
natural  bifurcation  of  the  main  trunk  into  two  branches.  The 
divided  stem  was  secured  by  stitches  to  the  stump  of  the  nerve 
in  Prof,  von  Fleischl's  arm,  and  the  ends  of  the  branches  were 
secured  in  like  manner  to  the  nerve  terminations  which  remained 
in  his  fingers,  and  which  were  rendered  useless  by  their  separa- 
tion from  the  trunk  to  which  they  belonged.  The  whole 
operation,  as  a  matter  of  course,  was  conducted  with  strict 
adherence  to  those  principles  of  antiseptic  surgery  without  which 
failure  would  have  been  more  than  likely  ;  but,  by  the  observance 
of  which,  union,  almost  anywhere  or  of  any  thing,  can  with  a 
near  approach  to  certainty  be  secured.  The  wound  healed 
kindly,  the  transplanted  nerve  soon  became  at  home  in  its  new 
position  ;  and  already,  after  the  lapse  of  a  little  more  than  two 
months,  it  is  reported  that  sensation  is  returning  to  the  fingers. 
At  the  same  time  there  has  been  no  return  of  pain,  and  no  fresh 
indication  of  the  development  of  neuromata,  so  that  hope  of  an 
absjlutely  successful  issue  may  now  with  some  confidence  be 
entertained." 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  three  Cape  Crowned  Cranes  (Balearica  chryso- 
pelargus)  from  Zanzibar,  presented  by  Colonel  E.  Smith  ;  two 
Peregrine  Falcons  (Falco  peregrinus)  from  India,  presented  by 
Mr.  J.  Davidson  ;  a  Gannet  {Sula  bassana),  British,  presented  by 
the  Baroness  de  Taintegnies  ;  a  Three-toed  Chalcis  (Chalcides 
tridactylus)  from  France,  presented  by  Mr.  J.  C.  Warburg  ;  an 
Indian  Python  {Python  molurus)  from  India,  received  in  ex- 
change ;  an  Elliot's  Pheasant  (Phasianus  elliotiQ  )  from  China, 
purchased  ;  an  American  Bison  (Bison  americanus),  a  Great 
Kangaroo  (Macropus  giganteus  £ ),  seven  Suricates  {Suricata 
letradactyld)  born  in  the  Gardens. 

OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

Comet  1888  a  (Sawerthal). — Several  computers  having 
shown  that  the  Cape  observation  of  this  object  made  on 
February  18  cannot  be  harmonized  with  those  made  since  peri- 
helion by  means  of  parabolic  elements,  Prof.  Lewis  Boss  has 
computed  elliptic  elements  for  it,  based  on  the  above-mentioned 
Cape  observation,  and  observations  obtained  at  Albany  on 
March  17  and  April  18.  His  first  effort  was  to  find  a  parabolic 
orbit  from  the  last  two  observations,  and  another,  also  made  at 
Albany,  on  March  30 ;  but  the  resulting  parabola  not  only  entirely 
failed  to  satisfy  the  Cape  observation,  but  also  left  residuals  too 
large  to  be  admitted,  for  other  observations  at  his  disposal  which 
had  been  made  since  perihelion.  The  ellipse,  on  the  contrary, 
which  he  obtained  from  the  places  of  February  18,  March  17, 
and  April  18  satisfied  these  other  observations  very  fairly,  the 
largest  differences  being  given  by  the  observation  of  March  30, 
viz.  (C  -  O)— 

Aa  =  -  8" -5.  AS  —  -  7""2. 

The  residuals  point  to  a  somewhat  larger  eccentricity  than  that 
given  below,  but  are  probably  due  in  great  part  to  comparatively 
small  errors  in  the  first  and  last  observations  used. 

The  elements  are  as  follow  : — 


T=  il 


March  16-9987  G.M.T. 


«"  =  359  54  58-4 

a  =  245  22  46*6 

i  =    42  15  23-1 
log<?  =  9 '997790 
log  q  =  9-844329 
Period  =  1615  years. 

Prof.  Boss  suspects,  however,  that  the  true  period  will  be  found 
decidedly  greater  than  2000  years. 


x  =  r  [9  -898389]  sin  (v  +  328     9     76). 

y  =  r  [9-999694]  sin  (v  +  236  29  13-9). 

s  =  r  [9 -787085]  sin  (v  +  323  42  17  9). 

In  the  same  number  of  Gould's  Astronomical  Journal  in  which 

the  above  elements  appear,  the  Rev.  G.  M.  Searle  gives  an  inde- 


May  24,  1888] 


NATURE 


pendent  elliptic  orbit  very  closely  resembling  that  computed  by 
Prof.  Boss.  The  first  two  places  used  are  the  same  as  those 
Prof.  Boss  employed  ;  the  third  is  one  obtained  on  April  16  at 
Harvard  College.  Prof.  Boss  gives  the  following  epheme/is  for 
Greenwich  midnight : — 

1888.  R.A.  Decl.  Logn  Log  A. 

h.   in.      s.  011 

May  26  o  17  19-4  38     1  45  N.  0-17274  0-26595 

28  o  20  45-6  38  43     8  0-18109  0-27036 

30  024    5-5  392319  0-18928  027459 

June   1  o  27  19  o  40     2  24  0-19730  0-27864 

3  o  30  26-1  40  40  25  0-20516  0*28252 

5  o  33  266  41   17  26  0-21287  0-28623 

7  o  36  20-5  41  53  30  0-22042  0-28978 

9  o  39    76  42  28  39  0*22783  0-29317 

11  o  41  47-8  43     2  56  0*23509  0-29639 

13  o  44  21  1  43  36  23  0-24222  0-29947 

15  o  46  47-5  44    9     i  N.  0*24921  030240 

The  light  ratio  on  June  15  is  „\  of  that  at  discovery. 

New  Minor  Planet.— A  new  minor  planet,  No.  278,  was 
discovered  by  Herr  Palisa  at  Vienna  on  May  16. 


ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA  FOR  THE 
WEEK  1888  MAY  27— JUNE  2. 
/p*OR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 
is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  May  27 
Sun  rises,  3h.  54m. ;  souths,  nh.  56m.  57*8s.  ;  sets,  19I1.  59m.  : 
right  asc.  on  meridian,  4V1.  18 -8m.  ;  decl.  21°  25'  N. 
Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  I2h.  22m. 
Moon  (at  Last  Quarter  June  1,  13I1.)  rises,  2ih.  10m.*; 
souths,  ih.  27m.  ;  sets,  5I1.  41m.  :  right  asc.  on  meridian, 
17I1.  47-6111.;  decl.  200  31'  S. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 
Planet.         Rises.  Souths.  Sets.  on  meridian. 

h.    m.  h.    m.  h.    m.  h.      m.  0      , 

Mercury..     4  42  ...   13  14  ...  21  46  ...     5  35-8  ...  25  29  N. 

Venus 3  26  ...   11     6  ...   18  46  ...     3  28-2  ...   17  56  N. 

Mars 14  42  ...  20  22  ...     2     2*..   12  45-1    ...     4  31  S. 

Jupiter...  19  12  ...  23  31  ...  3  50*...  15  55-3  ...  19  22  S. 
Saturn....  8  2  ...  15  57  ...  23  52  ...  8  19-3  ...  20  14  N. 
Uranus...  14  47  ...  20  27  ...  2  7*...  12  502  ...  4  39  S. 
Neptune..  3  47  ...  u  31  ...  19  15  ...  3  528  ...  18  35  N. 
*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  thesetting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 

Occultations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 

angles  from  ver- 

May.  Star.  Mag.         Disap.  Reap.        tex  to  right  for 

inverted  image, 
h.    111.  h.    m.  0        0 

27  ...  31  Sagittarii     ...  6     ...  22  17T...  23  23     ...     49  240 
30  ...  20  Capricorni  ...  6     ...     2  45   ...     3  38     ...     40  322 
t  In  horizon  at  Greenwich. 

Variable  Stars. 
R.A.  Dec', 

h.      m.              .      .  h.    m. 

...     o  52-4  ...  81   16  N.  ...  May  27,  o  57  m 

June    I,  o  36  m 

U  Cancri      8  29*4  ...  19  17  N.  ...  May  28,  M 

S  Leonis      II     5-1  ...    6     4  N.  ...     ,,     27,  M 

RCorvi        12  138  ...  18  38  S.    ...June    2,  M 

R  Bootis      14  32*3  ...  27  13  N.  ...  May  29,  M 

U  Coronse 15  13*6  ...  32     3  N.  ...  June    1,  o  37  m 

S  Libra       15  15-0  ...  19  59  S.    ...     ,,       2,  m 

R  Scorpii     16  no  ...  22  40  S.    ...  May  30,  M 

U  Ophiuchi 17  10-9...     1  20  N 28,  2    8  m 

and  at  intervals  of  20     8 

W  Sagittarii        ...   17  579  ...  29  35  S.    ...  May  27,  21     o  M 

Z  Sagittarii 18  14-8  ...  18  55  S.    ...     ,,     27,  1     o  M 

,,     31,  00m 

#  Lyras 18  460  ...  33  14  N.  ...     ,,     30,  21     o  M 

R  Lyrae        18  51*9  ...  43  48  N.  ...  June    2,  M 

S  Vulpeculae       ...   19  43-8  ...  27     1  N.  ...  May  29,  m 

S  Sagittae    19  509  ...  16  20  N.  ...     „     28,  3     oM 

T  Vulpeculae       ...  20  46*7  ...  27  50  N.  ...     ,,     31,  23    oil/ 

June    2,  1     o  m 

SCephei      22  25*0  ...  57  51  N.  ...     ,,       1,  1     o  M 

s  pegasi      23  14-9  ...    8  18  N.  ...  May  29, 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum. 


Star 
U  Cephei 


M 


Meteor-  Showers. 
R.A.       Decl. 


Near  x  Bootis 

,,  54  Draconis 
From  Vulpecula  . 
Near  *  Pegasi 


227 
290 
303 
332 


30  N. 
60  N. 
24  N. 
27  N. 


89 


June  2. 

Slow,  short.   May  30. 
Swift. 

Swift.       Very     long 
paths.     Streaks. 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

Referring  to  the  ethnology  of  the  Himalayan  hill  region  o 
Sikkim,  where  a  small  British  force  is  at  present  in  occupation, 
the  Madras  Mail  says  that  the  population  may,  broadly  speak- 
ing, be  divided  into  three  nationalities  :  the  Lepchas,  who  are 
the  aborigines  ;  the  Nepalese  immigrants,  now  forming  nearly 
half  the  entire  population  ;  and  the  Bhuteas,  or  Bhutanese,  who 
very  closely  resemble  the  Tibetans,  and  are  pure  Tartars.  It  is 
remarkable  that  the  last-named  are  like  the  Chinese  in  the  make 
of  their  hats,  clothes,  and  boots,  and  in  their  pig-tails,  but  their 
language  is  somewhat  like  Turkish  in  its  sound.  It  is  supposed 
that  this  people  originally  came  from  Tibet,  though  they  ap- 
parently derive  their  name  from  Bhutan,  which  lies  to  the  east  of 
Sikkim.  They  are  tall,  strong,  and  hardy,  though  they  are 
accused  of  being  lazy.  They  have  their  Buddhist  temples,  and 
erect  long  poles  round  their  houses,  with  paper  streamers  on 
which  are  printed  prayers  in  Chinese-looking  characters.  One 
may  often  meet  them  on  the  roads  twirling  their  praying-machines, 
which  are  cylinders  of  brass  or  copper,  with  a  printed  roll  of 
prayer  inside,  and  small  weights  attached  to  it  to  make  it  re- 
volve when  once  it  is  set  going.  It  is  thought  that  amongst  them, 
like  the  Tibetans,  polyandry  prevails.  The  women  are  large  and 
coarse-featured ;  they  wear  thick  woollen  clothes  of  bright  colours, 
and  numerous  massive  gold  and  silver  ornaments.  Some  of 
them  smear  themselves  with  a  browni-h  ointment  which  makes 
their  faces  appear  as  if  a  coating  of  French  polish  had  been 
put  on.  With  regard  to  the  aborigines  of  Sikkim,  they  are  a 
Mongolian  race,  short  and  stout.  In  appearance  they  resemble 
closely  the  Nepalese,  though,  far  different  from  the  latter,  who 
are  brave  soldiers,  they  are  the  most  arrant  cowards.  They  live 
by  cultivating  small  tracts  of  the  forests,  which  they  clear  by 
setting  fire  to  the  trees  and  brushwood,  and  move  to  a  fresh  spot 
each  year.  As  may  be  supposed,  their  agriculture  is  of  the  most 
primitive  description,  and  in  their  language  they  have  no  word 
for  a  plough.  They  worship  the  forces  of  Nature  under  the  form 
of  demons  ;  the  Bhuteas  also,  though  professed  Buddhists,  pro- 
pitiate evil  demons,  the  same  sort  of  imaginary  beings  as  the 
Nats  of  the  Burmese.  The  Lepchas  are  monogamous.  The 
race  is  gradually  dying  out.  The  Limboos  are  a  race  of  half- 
breeds  between  the  Nepalese  and  the  Lepchas,  but  resembling 
the  former  more  than  the  latter.  There  are  several  similar 
mongrel  races  to  be  found  in  Sikkim,  for  the  Nepalese  immigrate 
in  vast  numbers,  being  driven  out  of  their  own  country  by  press 
of  over-population.  Few  ever  return  to  their  own  country,  and 
great  numbers  of  them  work  as  coolies  on  the  tea  estates.  Their 
religion  is  a  mixture  of  Buddhism  and  Brahminism,  and  they 
boast  of  their  caste  distinctions.  Many  of  them  carry  curved 
weapons  in  their  belts,  while  the  Bhuteas  and  Lepchas  use 
straight-bladed  weapons.  The  Bhutea  sword  is  like  that  of  the 
old  Roman  legionary,  but  the  hilt  has  no  guard,  after  the 
Mongolian  fashion.  Amongst  the  jungles  of  Perai  there  are 
some  curious  aboriginal  tribes,  who  do  not  appear  to  suffer  from 
the  malaria  which  attacks  everybody  else  who  sets  foot  in  their 
territory  ;  but  it  is  said  that  if  they  leave  their  jungles  they  are  im- 
mediately attacked  themselves  by  fever,  the  malarial  poison  with 
which  they  have  become  inoculated  thus  finding  an  exit  when  they 
quit  their  own  locality.  All  the  natives  of  the  plain  call  these  races 
indiscriminately  "  Pahariyas,"  or  "  hill-men,"  who,  though  they 
differ  from  each  other,  differ  still  more  from  the  inhabitants  of 
the  plain  in  their  language  and  mode  of  life.  They  are  all  moun- 
taineers and  Mongolians,  and  have  all  great  physical  strength. 
A  story  is  told  of  a  Bhutea  woman  who  once  carried  a  grand 
piano  up  the  Ghaut  from  Punkabari  to  Darjeeling  in  three  days, 
and  arrived  on  the  third  day  quite  fresh  and  unexhausted  at  her 
destination  with  her  burden  on  her  back. 

A  recent  number  of  the  China  Reviau  (vol.   xvi.  No.   3) 
contains  a  long  paper  by  Mr.  Taylor,  whose  publications  on 


90 


NATURE 


[May  24,  1888 


Formosa  and  its  people  have  frequently  been  noticed  in  these 
columns,  entitled  "A  Ramble  through  Southern  Formosa."  It 
really  describes  a  long  journey  along  the  almost  wholly  unknown 
east  coast,  and  has  much  information  respecting  the  various 
tribes,  their  relations  to  each  other  and  to  the  Chinese  Govern- 
ment—the Tipuns,  Paiwans,  Diaramocks,  Amias,  and  others. 
Mr.  Taylor  refuses  to  discuss  gravely  the  theory  of  a  cataclysm 
put  forward  to  account  for  the  aborigines  in  Formosa.  "  One 
might  just  as  well  introduce  the  mythical  convulsion  which  lost 
Atlanta  to  Europe,  and  detached  Great  Britain  from  the  neigh- 
bouring continent,  to  account  for  the  painted  savages  Caesar 
found  in. England."  The  Tipuns  are  probably  descended  from 
emigrants  from  some  northern  islands,  probably  Japan  ;  the 
Paiwans  as  a  rule  inhabit  the  mountains  of  the  interior,  and  are 
head-hunters,  a  cruel,  predatory,  and  passionate  race,  probably 
of  Malay  origin,  and  the  very  earliest  settlers  in  Southern 
Formosa.  The  Pepohoans  probably  came  from  Loochoo  ;  they 
have  no  language  of  their  own,  speaking  only  Chinese,  while  all 
the  other  tribes  have  their  own  tongue.  The  Diaramocks  are 
the  most  dreaded  tribe  of  the  south  part  of  the  island  ;  they  are 
reputed  cannibals,  but  Mr.  Taylor  doubts  whether  they  are  not 
accused  without  cause.  The  paper  concludes  with  some  vigorous 
engravings  of  representatives  of  the  different  tribes,  including  a 
Diaramock,  a  Tipun  chief,  an  Amia,  a  Paiwan,  a  Tipun  warrior, 
a  Nicka,  and  Tipun  weapons. 

The  Bollettino  of  the  Italian  Geographical  Society  for  April 
publishes  the  results  of  some  preliminary  studies,  by  Prof.  Giulio 
Beloch,  of  the  Roman  University,  on  the  vital  statistics  of  Italy 
during  the  last  three  centuries.  According  to  these  studies,  the 
total  population  of  the  peninsula  has  increased  from  a  little  over 
ii,odo,ooo  in  1550  to  13,003,003  in  1703,  16,500,000  in  1775, 
over  18,003,030  in  1880,  and  nearly  30,033,030  in  1887.  The 
growth  of  the  population  for  some  of  the  larger  States  is  given 
as  under : — 

States. 

Naples 

Sicily 

States  of  the 
Church  ... 
Tuscany 
Venetia 
Milanese  ... 
Piedmont  ... 
Sardinia 

A  geological  Expedition,  under  the  leadership  of  MM. 
Ivanoff  and  Konshin — the  two  well-known  investigators  of  the 
geology  of  Turkistan — is  to  be  sent  out  this  summer  for  the 
exploration  of  the  littoral  region  of  Russian  Mantchuria.  The 
orography  of  this  regi  >n  is  hardly  yet  known,  and  the  Expe- 
pitioa  will  certainly  throw  some  light  on  the  structure  of  the 
chains  of  mountains  which  are  still  hypothetically  represented 
on  our  maps. 


THE  IRON  AND  STEEL  INSTITUTE. 

'T'HE  annual  meeting  of  the  Iron  and  Steel  Institute  took 
place  last  week  at  the  theatre  of  the  Institution  of  Civil 
Engineers,  under  the  presidency  of  Mr.  Daniel  Adamson.  On 
the  motion  of  the  President,  His  Royal  Highness  the  Prince  of 
Wales  was  unanimously  elected  an  honorary  member.  Sir 
Henry  Bessemer  presented  the  Bessemer  medal  to  the  President, 
and  referred  in  the  course  of  his  remarks  to  the  circumstance 
that  whereas  in  Sheffield,  the  stronghold  of  steel-making,  he 
could  find  no  one  to  investigate  his  process  when  he  first  brought 
it  out,  fortunately  for  him — and  he  might  add,  fortunately  for  the 
world — their  President,  Mr.  Daniel  Adamson,  did  so,  and  having 
satisfied  himself  as  to  its  applicability  determined  to  employ  it. 
The  President,  whose  investigations  with  regard  to  steel  are  well 
known,  thanked  Sir  Henry  Bessemer  and  the  Council  of  the 
Institution  for  the  award,  and  referred  to  his  early  connection 
with  Bessemer  steel,  which  metal  he  had  continued  to  use  ever 
since. 

The  President  then  delivered  the  annual  address,  which  was 
.mainly  statistical  in  character.    The  Iron  and  Steel  Institute  had 


been  nineteen  years  in  existence,  during  which  period  21 16 
members  had  been  elected,  including  seventy-two  elected  at  the 
present  meeting.  He  drew  attention  to  the  falling  off  which  had 
taken  place  in  the  production  of  manufactured  iron  in  this  country 
since  1884,  and  the  large  increase  in  the  production  of  steel  dur- 
ing the  same  period.  Thus  in  1884  about  one  and  a  quarter  million 
tons  of  Bessemer  steel  ingots  were  produced,  and  in  1887  about 
two  million  tons,  being  an  increase  of  about  60  per  cent.  ;  in  1884 
nearly  half  a  million  of  tons  of  Siemens  open-hearth  steel  ingots 
were  cast,  and  nearly  a  million  tons  last  year,  the  actual  increase 
during  the  period  being  over  106  per  cent.,  besides  which  plant 
is  at  present  in  course  of  erection  estimated  to  produce  another 
quarter  of  a  million  tons  annually.  During  the  same  period  there 
has  been  an  enormous  increase  in  the  application  of  steel  to  ship- 
building purposes.  Thus  from  a  table  supplied  to  the  President 
by  Mr.  William  Parker,  Chief  Engineer  to  Lloyd's  Registry  of 
British  and  Foreign  Shipping,  it  is  found  that  whereas  in  1878, 
under  3000  tons  of  steel  were  employed  in  the  manufacture  of 
steamers  and  sailing-vessels  built  under  Lloyd's  survey,  and  over 
300,000  tons  of  iron,  last  year  over  210,000  tons  of  steel  were 
employed  and  about  52,000  tons  of  iron.  The  proportional 
increase  in  the  use  of  steel  in  the  last  three  years  has  been  about 
cent,  per  cent.,  and  the  falling  off  in  the  use  of  iron  during  the 
same  period  350  per  cent.  Before  leaving  the  subject  of  steel, 
the  President  referred  to  the  papers  read  at  the  Institution  of 
Civil  Engineers  on  "  Manganese  in  its  Application  to  Metal- 
lurgy," and  on  "  Some  Novel  Properties  of  Iron  and  Manganese," 
wherein  it  was  shown  that  whereas  2*5  to  7'5  per  cent,  of 
manganese  in  steel  makes  it  as  brittle  as  glass,  breaking  under  a 
much  less  transverse  load  than  cast  iron,  12  to  14  per  cent,  of 
manganese  in  the  metal  secures  high  carrying  power  with  great 
elongation.  Thus  a  bar  of  the  composition— carbon  0-85  per 
cent.,  silicon  0-23  per  cent.,  sulphur  o-o8  per  cent,  phosphorus 
0-09  per  cent.,  and  manganese  13 '5  per  cent.,  carried  a  load  of 
57-02  tons  to  the  square  inch,  and  took  a  permanent  set  at 
29!  tons,  with  an  elongation  of  39-8  per  cent.  This  metal 
is  toughened  by  heating  it  to  a  high  temperature,  and  plunging 
it  into  water  at  a  temperature  of  720  F.  It  is  difficult  _  to 
machine,  which  would  militate  against  its  practical  application 
for  many  purposes,  unless  cooling  in  water  whilst  developing 
strength  and  toughness  should  also  have  a  softening  tendency. 
The  President  concluded  his  address  by  drawing  attention  to  the 
influence  of  the  alloys  they  contain  on  the  various  applications  of 
pig  metal,  as  outside  of  high-class  haematites  that  are  used  for  the 
manufacture  of  Bessemer  and  open-hearth  steel,  selections  may 
be  made  giving  the  highest  results  without  using  some  of  the 
higher-priced  irons  that  are  now  considered  necessary  for  given 
purposes. 

Mr.  Carbutt,  President  of  the  Institution  of  Mechanical 
Engineers,  in  proposing  a  vote  of  thanks  to  the  President  for  his 
address,  drew  attention  to  the  interesting  circumstance  noted  by 
Mr.  Parker  that  100  tons  can  now  be  carried  one  mile  by  steam- 
ships at  the  rate  of  thirteen  miles  an  hour,  at  a  total  cost,  including 
fuel,  insurance,  &c,  of  seven-eighths  of  a  penny. 

The  papers  read  and  discussed  at  this  meeting  ranged  oyer  a 
large  variety  of  subjects.  Mr.  T.  Turner's  paper  on  "Silicon 
and  Sulphur  in  Cast  Iron,"  read  at  a  previous  meeting,  was 
discussed.  The  conclusions  at  which  the  author  arrives  are  that 
in  the  blast  furnace  three  chief  agencies  are  at  work  tending  to 
eliminate  sulphur,  of  which  in  Cleveland  practice  not  more  than 
one-twentieth  passes  into  the  iron  :  (1)  a  high  temperature  tends 
to  prevent  the  absorption  of  sulphur  by  iron  ;  (2)  a  slag  rich  in 
lime  readily  combines  with  sulphur  ;  and  (3)  the  amount  of 
sulphur  actually  retained  by  the  metal  is  influenced  by  the  pro- 
portion of  silicon  and  probably  certain  other  elements  present 
in  the  iron — the  more  silicon  the  less  sulphur.  This  paper  was 
discussed  by  Messrs.  Snelin,  Gautier,  Riley,  Bauerman,  and  Sir 
Lowthian  Bell  ;  but  the  author,  in  his  reply  on  the  discussion, 
considered  that  nothing  had  been  brought  forward  to  disprove 
what  he  maintained,  viz.  that  if  they  put  silicon  and  sulphur 
together  in  iron,  they  would  not  combine  there,  the  sulphur 
would  pass  off  and  the  silicon  remain. 

Mr.  Gautier  read  a  paper  on  the  melting  in  cupola  furnaces 
of  wrought  iron  or  steel  scrap  mixed  with  ferro-silicon,  the  con- 
clusion at  which  he  arrived  being  that  ordinary  wrought-iron 
scrap  so  heated  may  yield  results  as  good  as  those  obtained  from 
castings  made  with  ordinary  steel  scrap.  This  conclusion  was 
contested,  however,  by  various  speakers  in  discussion. 

A  paper  read  at  the  last  meeting  of  the  Institute  by  Mr. 
A.    Wilson,    on    "The    Use   of   Water   Gas   for   Metallurgical 


May  24,  1888] 


NATURE 


9i 


Purposes,"  was  discussed.  The  author  had  found  water  gas  and 
producer  gas  practically  equal  both  as  regarded  cost  of  production 
and  heating  values. 

Mr.  II.  Eccles  drew  attention,  in  a  paper  on  "An  Imperfection 

in  Mild  Steel  Plates  considered  chemically,"  to  want  of  care  in 

sampling  steel  before  casting,  whereby  defects  in  the  ingots  were 

rolled  out  into  the  plates  ;  and  it  appeared  in  the  discussion,  as 

1  well  as  in  a  paper  by  Major  Cubillo,  on  "  The  Manufacture  and 

Treatment  of  Ordnance  at  Trubia,"  that  the  ingot  was  much 

I  improved  when  the  steel  was  made  and  heated  in  a  radiation 

i  furnace.     Another  paper  by  Major  Cubillo,  on  "  Steel  Castings 

for  the  Manufacture  of  Guns,"  gave  rise  to  a  highly  technical 

ion  ;  as  did  also  papers  on  "The  Behaviour  of  Arsenic  in 

J  Ore  and  Metal  during  Smelting  and  Purification  Processes,"  by 

.  Pattinson  and  Stead,  and  on  "  The  Effect  of  Arsenic  on 

Mild  Steel,"  by  Messrs.  Harbord  and  Tucker. 

The   last  paper   read  was  on   "A  New  Instrument  for    the 
Measurement   of  Colour,    more    especially   as   applied   to   the 
Estimation  of  Carbon  in  Steel,"  by  Mr.  H.  Le  Neve  Foster.     In 
!  the  instrument  are  two  fields  of  view  under  similar  monocular  con- 
ditions, freed  from  any  errors  which  may  arise  from  the  introduction 
l  of  unequal  side  lights,  and  also  the  different  power  of  distinguish- 
I  ing  colour  that  often  exists  in  the  eye  of  the  observer  ;  in  con- 
junction with  the  instrument  is  a  standard  set  of  coloured  glasses, 
jeach  set  being  the  same  colour,  but  regularly  graded  for  depth 
of  tint.     The  instrument  consists  of  a  tube,  divided  by  a  central 
partition  terminating  at  the  eye-piece  in  a  knife-edge,  which,  being 
inside  the  range  of  vision,  is  not  seen  when  the  instrument  is  in  use. 
jjAt  the  other  end  of  the  instrument  are  two  apertures  of  equal 
size,  and  alterable  in  size  or  shape  by  means  of  diaphragms.   The 
two  apertures  are  divided  by  the  thick  end  of  the  central  parti- 
tion, which,  together  with  the  sides,  is  recessed  so  as  to  hide  the 
edges  of  the  standard  glasses,  as  well  as  the  sides  of  the  gauged 
jglass  vessels,  which  are  used  to  contain  the  liquid  that  requires 
Ito  be  matched  or  compared.     The  only  light  coming  to  the  eye 
must  pass  in  equal  quantity  through  the  gauged  glass  vessel  and 
the  standard  glasses  respectively. 

J  The  instrument  has  been  used  by  dyers,  brewers,  and  sugar,  and 
^various  other  manufacturers.  It  forms  a  ready  means  of  measuring 
the  depth  of  colour  in  water,  and  is  also  applicable  for  Nessler's 
ammonia  test  as  used  in  water  analysis.  For  the  estimation  of 
carbon,  the  author  finds  the  best  results  are  obtained  by  dis- 
solving o"5  gramme  of  steel  in  10  c.c.  nitric  acid,  sp.  I  20,  and 
joiling  for  twenty  minutes,  and  then  diluting  to  50  c.c.  and 
placing  the  liquid  in  a  i-inch  cell.  For  mild  steel  this  gives  an 
r»asy  colour  to  match,  the  results  obtained  agreeing  well  with 
ii  hose  found  by  the  Eggerty  method. 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

The  Quarterly  Journal  of  Microscopical  Science  for  April, 
[888  (vol.  xxviii.  part  4)  contains : — A  monograph  on  the 
ipecies  and  distribution  of  the  genus  Peripatus,  Guilding  (plates 
54  to  40),  by  Adam  Sedgwick,  F.  R.  S.,  gives  an  account  of  all 
he  known  species  of  the  genus,  with  a  bibliography  of  most  of 
he  literature  relating  to  them.  Many  of  the  figures  are 
:oloured  from  nature. — Notes  on  the  anatomy  of  Peripatus 
'apet/sis  and  P.  ttovce-zealandice,  by  Lilian  Sheldon,  Bathurst 
Student,  Newnham  College,  Cambridge.  Gives  details  about  the 
j:rural  glands,  the  segmental  organs,  the  accessory  glands  of  the 
nale,  and  the  vas  deferens. — On  the  construction  and  purpose 
>f  the  so-called  labyrinthine  apparatus  of  the  L  ab^inthine 
ishes  (plate  41),  by  Dr.  Nicholas  Zograff. — Studies  on  the 
comparative  anatomy  of  sponges  ;  (1)  on  the  genera  Ridleia, 
ji.  gen.,  and  Quasillina,  Norman  (plate  42),  by  Arthur  Dendy 
-Kleinenberg  on  the  development  of  Lopadorhynchus,  by  G.  C. 
ioume.  This  paper  gives  a  resume'  of  Prof.  Kleinenberg's  very 
iletailed  account  of  the  development  of  the  Polyehaste  Annelid 
.opadorhynchus,  which  extends  over  225  pages  of  the  Zeitschrift 
iir  Wisscnschaftliche  Zoologie. 

American  Journal  oj  Science,  May. — The  absolute  wave- 
ength  of  light,  Part  2,  by  Louis  Bell.  In  continuation  of  his 
>revious  communication  the  author  here  gives  the  angular 
measurements,  and  the  details  of  the  measurement  and  cali- 
ration  of  the  gratings,  together  with  the  final  results.  He  also 
iquires  into  the  probable  sources  of  error  in  some  recent  deter- 
minations of  wave-length.  His  own  final  determination  of  the 
lean  value  of  the  absolute  wave-length  for  the  line  Dx  is 
896"i8  in  air  at  760  mm.  pressure  and  200  C.  temperature,  or 


in  vacuo  5897 '90,  which  he  considers  not  likely  to  be  in  error 
by  an  amount  as  great  as  one  part  in  two  hundred  thousand. — 
Three  formations  of  the  Middle  Atlantic  slope  (continued),  by  W. 
J.  McGee.  In  this  paper  the  author  deals  with  the  Columbian 
formation  alone,  describing  in  detail  the  general  characters  of 
its  fluvial  and  interfluvial  phases.  By  the  fluvial  phase  he 
understands  the  thicker  and  more  conspicuous  formations 
commonly  occurring  along  the  great  rivers  at  and  for  some 
miles  below  the  fall  line,  while  the  iuterfluvial  comprises 
the  thinner  deposits  forming  the  surface  over  the  re- 
mainder of  the  coastal  plain.  These  interfluvial  deposits 
are  shown  to  corroborate  and  extend  the  testimony  of 
the  deltas,  all  the  phenomena  conjointly  recording  a  brief 
period  of  submergence  of  the  entire  coastal  plain  in  the 
Middle  Atlantic  slope  reaching  ico  feet  in  the  south  and  over 
400  in  the  north,  with  coaeval  cold,  long  anterior  to  the  terminal 
moraine  period. — On  some  peculiarly-spotted  rocks  from  Pigeon 
Point,  Minnesota,  by  W.  S.  Bailey.  The  character  and  origin 
are  discussed  of  some  curious  circular  spots  occurring  here  and 
there  on  the  quartzites  of  Pigeon  Point,  a  district  projecting  about 
3 J  miles  into  Lake  Superior,  and  consisting  mainly  of  a  great 
dyke  of  coarse  olivine  gabbro  or  diabase. — The  Taconic  system 
of  Emmons,  and  the  use  of  the  name  Taconic  in  geological 
nomenclature  (continued),  by  Chas.  D.  Walcott.  In  this  paper 
the  author  deals  with  the  subject  of  nomenclature,  discussing  the 
use  of  the  names  Taconic  and  Cambrian,  and  concluding  with  a 
classification  of  the  North  American  Cambrian  rocks. — Prof.  R. 
D.  Salisbury  has  some  remarks  on  the  terminal  moraines  of 
North  Germany,  and  Carl  Barus  communicates  a  short  note  on 
the  viscosity  of  gases  at  high  temperature,  and  on  the  pyrometric 
use  of  the  principle  of  viscosity. 

Bulletin  de  V  Acadhnie  Royale  de  Belgique,  March. — Remarks 
on  some  stone  implements  found  in  Spain  by  MM.  H.  and  L. 
Siret,  by  A.  F.  Renard.  Amongst  the  rich  archaeological  finds 
recently  made  by  MM.  Siret  in  the  Carthagena  and  Almeria 
districts  are  some  polished  stone  hatchets  of  small  size  and  - 
beautiful  workmanship.  With  a  view  to  determining  the 
material  of  which  these  implements  were  made,  the  author  has 
subjected  them  to  a  careful  analysis,  and  finds  that  this  material 
is  fibrolite,  which  occurs  in  many  parts  of  Spain.  In  appearance 
it  somewhat  resembles  jade,  but  its  chemical  composition  and 
general  properties  show  that  it  is  quite  distinct  from  that  sub- 
stance.— Determination  of  the  variations  in  the  specific  heat  of 
fluids  near  the  critical  point,  by  P.  de  Heen.  It  is  suggested  as  a 
working  hypothesis,  that  fluids  are  formed  of  molecular  groups 
which  may  be  called  liquidogenic  molecules.  These  groups  and 
their  constituent  elements,  presenting  the  aspect  of  little  vortices, 
would  appear  simply  to  be  the  molecules  as  regarded  in  the  gaseous 
state  (gasogenic  molecules).  The  transition  from  the  liquid  to 
the  gaseous  state  at  the  critical  temperature  might  then  be  thus 
interpreted.  It  may  be  admitted  that  at  a  given  temperature 
the  gasogenic  molecules  cease  to  move  in  closed  curves,  and 
describe  the  rectilinear  trajectories  of  M.  Clausius.  The 
author's  researches,  as  here  described,  tend  mainly  to  confirm, 
this  view. 

Rendiconli  del  Reale  Istituto,  Lombardo,  April. — On  the 
importance  of  the  phagociti  in  the  morphology  of  the  Metazoi, 
by  Prof.  Leopoldo  Magi.  The  author's  researches  generally 
tend  to  confirm  the  conclusions  of  Metschnikoff  regarding  the 
physiological  functions  of  the  phagociti.  He  considers  that 
"  phagocitism  " — that  is,  the  intracellular  digestive  process — is  a 
function  which  attests  in  the  morphology  of  the  Metazoi,  or 
pluricellular  organisms,  their  genetic  descent  from  the  Protozoi. 
Thus  physiology,  as  well  as  embryology  and  palaeontology, 
confirms  the  now  commonly  accepted  views  regarding  biological 
volution  in  animal  organisms. 

Rivista  Scientifico-Industriale,  April  30. — On  some  recent 
discoveries  in  electro-optics,  by  Prof.  Ercole  Fossati.  In  con- 
nection with  the  recent  researches  of  Hertz  and  Hallewachs  on 
the  influence  of  light  on  electrified  conductors,  attention  is 
directed  to  the  analogous  experiments  made  by  Morichini  at  the 
beginning  of  the  present  century.  Reference  is  made  more  par- 
ticularly to  this  physicist's  observations  on  the  magnetization  of 
steel  by  the  effect  of  light  alone,  independently  altogether  of  any 
action  caused  by  heat  or  terrestrial  magnetism. — Researches  on 
magnetic  thermogenesis,  by  Prof.  Giuseppe  Martinotti.  The  ex- 
periments described  in  this  and  previous  papers  lead  to  the 
general  conclusion  that  heat  is  developed  when  soft  iron,  or  any 
other  magnetic  body,  is  successively  magnetized  ;.  and  that  the 


92 


NATURE 


{May  24,  1888 


heat  is  increased  by  reversing  or  even  simply  interrupting  the 
current,  which  is  in  accordance  with  the  modern  theories  on 
thermodynamics  and  molecular  polarization.  But  all  these  ex 
periments  are  merely  preliminary  studies  in  a  field  of  vast  and 
increasing  importance,  the  cultivation  of  which  may  ultimately 
lead  to  the  greatest  discovery  of  modern  times,  the  deter- 
mination and  application  of  the  laws  by  which  the  material 
universe  is  governed  even  in  phenomena  of  a  psychic  order. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  March  8. — "Contributions  to  the  Anatomy 
of  the  Central  Nervous  System  of  Vertebrate  Animals : 
Anatomy  of  the  Brain  of  Ceratodus  forsteri"  By  Alfred 
Sanders,  M.R.C.S.,  F.L.S. 

The  brain  of  Ceratodus  has  the  following  general  arrangement  : 
the  membrane  which  represents  the  pia  mater  is  of  great  thick- 
ness and  toughness  ;  there  are  two  regions  where  a  tela  choroidea 
is  developed  ;  one  where  it  covers  in  the  fourth  ventricle,  and  the 
other  where  it  penetrates  through  the  third  ventricle  and  separates 
the  lateral  ventricles  from  each  other. 

The  thalamencephalon  and  the  mesencephalon  are  narrow, 
and  the  medulla  oblongata  is  wide.  The  ventricles  are  all  of 
large  size,  and  the  walls  of  the  lateral  ventricles  are  not  com- 
pleted by  nervous  tissue.  All  the  cranial  nerves  are  to  be  seen 
except  the  abducens  and  the  hypoglossal.  There  is  a  large 
communicating  branch  between  the  trifacial  and  the  vagus.  The 
glossopharyngeal  has  no  separate  root,  but  is  a  branch  of  the 
vagus  ;  the  ganglion  of  the  vagus  is  not  the  termination  of  the  main 
trunk,  but  is  an  off-shoot  from  the  ramus  lateralis  ;  the  ganglion 
gives  off  the  branchial  nerves  and  the  ramus  intestinalis,  the 
ramus  lateralis  passing  on  without  entering  it. 

The  minute  structure  of  the  dorsal  part  of  the  cerebrum 
presents  four  layers  :  externally  a  layer  of  finely  granular 
neuroglia,  with  slight  indications  of  radial  striation  ;  next  a 
layer  of  larger-sized  cells ;  then  another  layer  of  neuroglia, 
with  fibrillar  having  a  tendency  to  a  longitudinal  direction  ;  and 
internally  a  layer  of  rounded  cells  closely  crowded  together. 
The  ventral  part  of  the  cerebrum  has  only  two  layers,  the 
external  of  neuroglia,  and  the  internal  of  rounded  cells. 

The  olfactory  lobes  resemble  the  cerebrum  in  structure,  there  is 
an  internal  layer  of  cells  continuous  with  those  of  the  cerebrum, 
and  an  external  layer  of  glomeruli  olfactori,  which  seem  as  if 
they  were  the  external  layer  of  the  cerebrum  condensed  ;  and 
between  the  two,  a  layer  of  longitudinal  fibres,  on  which 
fusiform  cells  are  developed. 

The  optic  lobes  also  consist  of  four  layers  :  externally  there 
is  a  layer  of  longitudinal  fibrils  derived  from  the  optic  tract ; 
then  a  layer  of  smoothly  granular  neuroglia ;  then  a  layer  of 
transverse  fibrillae  which  collect  into  a  commissure  in  the  central 
line  at  the  dorsal  surface.  This  layer  also  contains  fusiform 
and  rounded  cells  sparsely  scattered  through  it  ;  and  inter- 
nally there  is  a  layer  of  cells  mostly  rounded.  At  the  central 
line  on  the  dorsal  surface  there  is  a  ganglion  of  large  cells 
resembling  those  of  the  optic  lobe  of  the  Plagiostomata. 

The  cerebellum  is  a  mere  bridge  over  the  fourth  ventricle. 
Its  structure  presents  the  usual  number  of  layers  :  internally  the 
fibrous  layer,  which  ultimately  forms  the  crura  cerebelli  ad 
medullam  ;  then  the  granular  layer,  the  cells  of  which  are  of 
large  size  compared  to  those  of  the  same  layer  in  Teleostei  and 
Plagiostomata  ;  then  a  layer  of  Purkinje  cells,  of  which  the  form 
and  the  number  of  processes  are  not  uniform  ;  externally  is  the 
molecular  layer,  which  consists  of  a  coarsely  granular  network 
derived  from  the  processes  of  the  Purkinje  cells,  also  a  network 
of  finer  fibrils  and  many  rounded  cells. 

In  the  spinal  cord  there  are  three  columns  of  longitudinal  fibres 
on  each  side  in  the  white  substance  :  viz.  the  ventral  columns 
between  the  two  ventral  roots  of  the  spinal  nerves ;  the  lateral 
columns  between  the  dorsal  and  ventral  roots  ;  and  the  dorsal 
columns  between  the  two  dorsal  roots.  Fibres  of  large  size  are 
scattered  throughout  the  two  former  columns,  but  collected 
principally  in  the  ventral.  The  dorsal  consists  entirely  of  minute 
fibres. 

The  principal  feature  in  the  white  substance  is  a  fibre  of  gigantic 
size,  which  is  situated  on  tl  e  summit  of  the  ventral  columns,  one 
on  each  side;  it  consists  of  a  common  medullary  sheath  ;  inclosing 


(where  the  fibre  is  largest)  about  40  to  50  axis-cylinders  ;  these 
have  the  character  of  the  axis-cylinders  of  the  ordinary  fibres  of 
the  white  substance,  but  have  no  separate  medullary  sheaths  ; 
this  fibre  is  traceable  throughout  the  spinal  cord  ;  commencing 
opposite  the  posterior  end  of  the  abdomen,  it  extends  to  a  short 
distance  behind  the  exit  of  the  facial  nerve ;  it  varies  in  size, 
and  becomes  of  the  greatest  diameter  near  the  posterior  end  of 
the  medulla  oblongata  ;  its  axes  escape  through  the  medullary 
sheath,  and  join  the  longitudinal  fibres  of  the  ventral  columns. 
Near  its  anterior  termination  all  the  axes  have  escaped  except 
one  ;  at  this  point  it  bears  a  great  resemblance  to  Mauthner's  fibre 
in  the  Teleostei.  This  remaining  fibre  decussates  with  that  of 
the  other  side  a  short  distance  behind  the  exit  of  the  facial  nerve, 
and  enters  the  root  of  that  nerve  on  the  opposite  side. 

In  the  gray  substance  of  the  spinal  cord,  there  are  two  series 
of  ganglia,  one  in  the  ventral  horn,  which  consists  of  multipolar 
cells  often  of  very  large  size.  They  send  processes  into  the  ventral 
and  lateral  columns,  which  often  become  the  smaller-sized  longi- 
tudinal fibres.  The  cells  of  the  other  series  of  ganglia  are  of 
smaller  size,  and  are  situated  in  the  substantia  gelatinosa  cen- 
tralis ;  they  are  smooth  in  outline,  and  give  off  one  or  two  pro- 
cesses ;  they  probably  have  to  do  with  the  dorsal  roots  of  the 
spinal  nerves.  Cells  also  of  this  kind  occur  at  other  places,  as 
in  the  fibr?e  rectse,  and  in  the  field  of  the  ventral  columns. 

The  transverse  commissures  are  :  one  in  the  spinal  cord,  which 
passes  through  the  substantia  gelatinosa  centralis  over  the  central 
canal  ;  another  on  the  ventral  side  of  the  anterior  part  of  the 
medulla  oblongata,  which  corresponds  to  the  commissura  ansu- 
lata  of  the  Teleostei,  and  is  connected  with  the  commissure  in 
the  dorsal  part  of  the  optic  lobes  ;  then  there  is  the  posterior 
commissure  at  the  posterior  part  of  the  third  ventricle  ;  and  a 
commissure  at  the  posterior  end  of  the  cerebrum  which  is  the 
anterior  commissure. 

There  is  no  chiasma  of  the  optic  nerves  visible  externally  ;  what 
there  is  of  it,  is  situated  in  the  substance  of  the  thalamencephalon. 
The  anterior  root  of  the  fifth  nerve  arises  from  a  ganglion 
occupying  a  broad  swelling  at  the  lateral  part  of  the  gray  matter 
of  the  floor  of  the  fourth  ventricle.  The  posterior  root  arises 
from  the  summit  of  the  restiform  bodies. 

The  facial  passes  backward  in  a  small  tubercle  at  the  junction 
of  the  floor  of  the  fourth  ventricle  with  the  restiform  bodies. 

The  acusticus  arises  from  a  bundle  of  fibres  which  are  situated 
on  the  summit  of  the  ventral  column,  and  appear  to  be  a  con- 
tinuation forward  of  part  of  the  multi-axial  fibre  which  has  not 
decussated. 

The  five  roots  of  the  vagus  pass  backward,  and  enter  in  suc- 
cession the  same  tubercle  as,  and  to  the  outside  of,  the  facial 
nerve  ;  the  three  posterior  roots  are  double,  so  that  the  vagus 
is  equivalent  to  eight  nerves,  and  consists  entirely  of  dorsal 
roots. 

Two  nerves  are  given  from  the  ventral  side  of  the  medulla 
oblongata,  each  of  which  has  two  roots  ;  they  do  not  join  the 
vagus,  and  pass  back  some  distance  within  the  vertebral  canal, 
and  emerge  on  a  level  with  the  exit  of  the  dorsal  roots  of  the 
spinal  nerves. 

The  second  and  third  spinal  nerves  supply  the  pectoral  fin, 
and  follow  the  course  usually  pursued  by  the  hypoglossal  when 
that  nerve  is  present  in  Teleostei. 

The  fibres  of  the  ventral  roots  of  the  spinal  nerves  enter  in  a 
direction  upward  and  forward  toward  the  inner  edge  of  the  multi- 
axial  fibre,  between  it  and  the  central  canal,  and  then  passing 
over  the  dorsal  edge  of  the  same  are  either  lost  in  the  gray  sub- 
stance of  the  ventral  horn,  join  a  process  of  one  of  the  multi- 
polar cells,  or  become  one  of  the  longitudinal  fibres  of  the 
ventral  columns  of  the  cord. 

The  brain  of  Ceratodus  presents  an  embryonic  condition  in 
three  points  :  viz.  first,  in  the  extreme  size  of  the  ventricles  and 
the  tenuity  of  the  substance  of  their  walls  ;  second,  in  the  alter- 
nating origins  of  the  dorsal  and  ventral  roots  ;  third,  in  the  origin 
of  the  dorsal  roots  close  to  the  central  line. 

Compared  to  Protopterus,  it  differs  in  the  shape  and  imper- 
fection of  the  cerebral  lobes,  and  in  the  fact  of  its  having  a  well- 
developed  rhinencephalon  ;  but  it  agrees  in  the  narrowness  of 
the  mesencephalon,  and  breadth  of  the  medulla  oblongata,  and 
in  the  rudimentary  character  of  the  cerebellum. 

Ceratodus  agrees  also  with  the  Ganoids  in  the  comparative 
narrowness  of  the  mesencephalon,  and  in  the  proportions  of  the 
cerebellum. 

With  the  Plagiostomata  it  agrees  in  the  structure  of  the  optic 


May  24,  1888] 


NATURE 


93 


Jobes,  both  orders  presenting  a  ganglion  of  large  cells  in  the 
dorsal  part. 

With  the  Teleostei  it  agrees  in  the  multi-axial  fibre,  which 
anterior  to  its  termination  resembles  the  Mauthner's  fibre,  also 
in  the  position  aad  fact  of  its  decussation. 

With  the  Petromyzon  it  agrees  in  the  structure  of  the  tela 
choroidea  which  covers  the  fourth  ventricle. 

April  19.  —  "On  the  Heating  Effects  of  Electric  Currents, 
No.  III."     By  W.  H.  Preece,  F.R.S. 

I  have  taken  a  great  deal  of  pains  to  verify  the  dimensions  of 
the  currents  as  detailed  in  my  paper  read  on  December  22, 
1887,  required  to  fuse  different  wires  of  such  thicknesses  that 
the  law 

C  =  ad3/* 


is  strictly  followed ;  and  I  submit  the  following  as  the  final  values 
of  the  constant  "a"  for  the  different  metals : — 


Inches. 

Centimetres. 

Millimetres. 

Copper 

..      IO244 

••      2530 

..     8o*o 

Aluminium 

••        7585 

..      1873 

••     592 

Platinum 

••         5«72 

••       1277 

..    40-4 

German  silver  ... 

5230 

1292 

..    40-8 

Platinoid 

4750 

■•     "73 

••     37-i 

Iron       

••         3'48 

777'4 

..     24*6 

Tin         

1642 

••       405-5 

..       12*8 

Alloy(leadandtin 

2  to 

I)         I3l8 

325-5 

..    IO*3 

Lead      

1379 

..       34Q-6 

..     io-8 

With  these  constants 

[  have  calculated  the   two  following 

tables,  which  I  hope 

will  be  found  of  some  use  and  value  : — 

Table  showing  the  Current  in  Amperes  required  to  Fuse   Wires  »f  Various  Sizes  and  Materials. 

C  ■  cid*\ 


No. 

Diameter. 

S.W.G. 

Inches. 

M 

0*080 

16 

0*064 

18 

0*048 

20 

0-036 

22 

0*028 

24 

0*022 

26 

0*018 

28 

0*0148 

30 

0*0124 

32 

0*0108 

dW. 


0*022627 
0*016191 
0*OI05l6 
0*006831 
0*004685 
0*003263 
0*002415 

0*001801 
0*001381 
0001122 


Copper. 
a  = 10244. 


231*8 
1658 
IO77 

69-97 
48  OO 

33-43 
24*74 
1 8*44 

I4-I5 
11*50 


Aluminium. 
a  =  7585. 


I7I*6 
1 22 '8 

7975 
5I'8l 

35 '53 
2475 
1832 
13-66 
10*47 
8512 


Platinum. 

Ger.  Silver. 

a  =  5i72. 

a  =  5230. 

II7*0 

"83 

8373 

84*68 

54  37 

54-99 

35  33 

35-72 

24-23 

24'5o 

16-88 

17*06 

12*49 

1263 

9"3" 

9-416 

7*142 

7*222 

5-8o5 

5-870 

Platinoid. 

Iron. 

a  -  4750. 

«  =  3M8- 

I07-5 

71-22 

76*90 

50  96 

49'95 

33IO 

32-44 

21*50 

22*25 

1475 

I5-50 

IO*27 

11-47 

7*602 

8-552 

5-667 

6  559 

4-347 

5-33o 

3-533 

Tin. 

<t=  1642. 


37-15 
26*58 
17*27 
11*22 
7*692 

5357 
3'965 
2*956 
2*267 
1-843 


Tin-Lead 

Alloy. 
a  =  1318. 


29*82 
2134 
13  86 
9*002 

6-175 
4-300 
3-l83 

2-373 
1-820 

1-479 


Lead. 
"  =  1379- 


3I*20 
22*32 
I4'50 
9*419 
6*461 

4*499 
3-330 
2*483 
1*904 
1*548 


Table  giving  the  Diameters  of  Wire;  of  Various  Materials  which  will  be  Fused  by  a  Current  of  Given  Strength. 


\  i 

D 

iameter  in  inches. 

Copper. 

Aluminium. 

Platinum. 

German  Silver. 

Platinoid. 

Iron. 

Tin. 

Tin -Lead  alloy. 

Lead. 

c 

a  =  10244. 

a  =  7585. 

a  =  5172. 

a  =  5230. 

a  =  4750. 

a  —  3148. 

a  ss  1642. 

a  =  1318. 

a  =  1379. 

1 

0  002I 

0*0026 

OOO33 

O*O033 

OOO35 

OOO47 

OO072 

0*0083 

o-oo8i 

2 

0*0034 

0*0041 

0*0053 

0*0053 

0-0056 

O*0O74 

0*0II3 

0*0132 

0*OI28 

3 

OOO44 

0*0054 

OOO70 

0*0069 

00074 

0*0097 

OOI49 

0*0173 

0*0168 

4 

0*0053 

OO065 

0*0084 

0*0084 

00089 

0*0II7 

0'0l8l 

00210 

0*0203 

5 

0*0062 

0*0076 

OOO98 

OOO97 

0*0104 

0*0136 

0*0210 

OO243 

0*0236 

10 

0*0098 

0*0120 

OOI55 

0*OI54 

0*0164 

0*0216 

OO334 

OO386 

0-0375 

'5 

0*OI29 

0*0158 

0*0203 

0*0202 

0*0215 

0*0283 

0-0437 

0-0506 

0*049I 

20 

OOI56 

0-0I9I 

0*0246 

0  0245 

0*0261 

0-0343 

0*0529 

0*0613 

0-0595 

25 

OOl8l 

0*0222 

0*0286 

O-O284 

0*0303 

OO398 

0*0614 

0071 1 

0*0690 

30 

0*0205 

0-0250 

0*0323 

OO32O 

0*0342 

0*0450 

0*0694 

0*0803 

0*0779 

35 

0*0227 

0*0277 

0*0358 

OO356 

0*0379 

0*0498 

0*0769 

O  0890 

00864 

40 

0*0248 

0*0303 

OO39I 

0*0388 

0*0414 

0-0545 

O084O 

0*0973 

OO944 

45 

0*0268 

0-0328 

0*0423 

0*0420 

0*0448 

0*0589 

0*0909 

OI052 

0*1021 

50 

0*0288 

0-0352 

0*0454 

0*0450 

0*0480 

0*0632 

0*0975 

0*1129 

OIO95 

bo 

OO325 

0*0397 

0-05I3 

0*0509 

00542 

0*0714 

OIIOI 

0*I275 

0*I237 

70 

O-0360 

CO44O 

0*0568 

0*0564 

00601 

0*079I 

0*1220 

0-1413 

0-I37I 

80 

0-0394 

OO48 1 

OO62I 

0*0616 

00657 

0*0864 

0-1334 

CI544 

OI499 

90 

0-0426 

O-O52O 

O  0672 

0-0667 

0*0711 

OO935 

0-1443 

0-1671 

0*l62I 

100 

0-0457 

0*0558 

0*0720 

0*0715 

0*0762 

0*I003 

0*1548 

0-1792 

OI739 

1 20 

0*0516 

0*0630 

OO814 

0-0808 

o*o86i 

0*II33 

0*1748 

O-2024 

OT964 

140 

0*0572 

O0698 

OO902 

0*0895 

00954 

0*I255 

0*I937 

0*2243 

0*2I76 

100 

0*0625 

0*0763 

0*0986 

0*0978 

0*1043 

0*I372 

0*2Il8 

0*2452 

0*2379 

1  So 

0*0676 

0*0826 

OI066 

01058 

01128 

0*1484 

0*2291 

0*2652 

0-2573 

200 

O0725 

O0886 

0*II44 

0-1135 

0*I2I0 

0*1592 

0-2457 

0*2845 

0*2760 

225 

0*0784 

OO958 

OI237 

0*1228 

01309 

0*I722 

0-2658 

0-3077 

O2986 

250 

0*0841 

0*I028 

OI327 

0-1317 

0*1404 

OI 848 

0*2851 

0-330I 

0*3203 

-/  5 

0*0897 

OIO95 

0*1414 

0-1404 

01497 

0*1969 

0*3038 

0-3518 

0-34I3 

300 

OO950 

0*1161 

0*1498 

0*1487 

0*1586 

0*2086 

0*3220 

03728 

O3617 

94 


NATURE 


[May  24,  1888 


May  17. — "  On  the  Structure  of  the  Electric  Organ  of  Raia 
circularise  By  J-  C.  Ewart,  M.D.,  Regius  Professor  of 
Natural  History,  University  of  Edinburgh.  Communicated  by 
Prof.  J.  Burdon  Sanderson,  F.R.S. 

This  paper  gives  an  account  of  the  structure  of  the  cup-shaped 
bodies,  which,  as  mentioned  in  a  previous  paper  read  on  April  26, 
1888,  make  up  the  electric  organs  of  certain  members  of  the 
skate  family.  The  structure  of  these  electric  cups  has  been 
already  studied  in  three  species  of  skate,  viz.  Raia  fullonia,  R. 
radiata,  and  R.  circularis.  The  present  paper  only  deals  with  the 
electric  organ  of  R.  circularis.  It  shows  that  the  caps  in  this  species 
are  large,  well-defined  bodies,  each  resembling  somewhat  the  cup 
of  the  familiar  "  cup  and  ball."  The  cup  proper,  like  the  disks 
of  R.  Sails,  consists  of  three  distinct  layers,  (1)  the  lining,  which 
is  almost  identical  with  the  electric  plate  of  R.  batis ;  (2)  a  thick 
median  striated  layer  ;  and  (3)  an  outer  or  cortical  layer.  The 
lining  or  electric  plate  is  inseparably  connected  with  the  terminal 
branches  of  the  numerous  nerve-fibres,  which,  entering  by  the 
wide  mouth  in  front,  all  but  fill  the  entire  cavity  of  the  cup,  and 
ramify  over  its  inner  surface,  the  intervening  spaces  being 
occupied  by  gelatinous  tissue.  This  electric  layer,  which  is 
richly  nucleated,  presents  nearly  as  large  a  surface  for  the  ter- 
minations of  the  electric  nerves  as  the  electric  plate  which 
covers  the  disk  in  R.  batis  and  R.  clavata.  The  striated  layer, 
as  in  R.  batis,  consists  of  numerous  lamellae,  which  have  an 
extremely  contorted  appearance,  but  it  differs  from  the  corre- 
sponding layer  in  R.  batis,  in  retaining  a  few  corpuscles.  The 
cortical  layer  very  decidedly  differs  in  appearance  from  the 
alveolar  layer  in  R.  batis.  It  is  of  considerable  thickness,  con- 
tains large  nuclei,  and  sometimes  has  short  blunt  processes 
projecting  from  its  outer  surface.  These  short  processes  ap- 
parently correspond  to  the  long  complex  projections  which  in 
R.  batis  give  rise  to  an  irregular  network,  and  they  seem  to 
indicate  that  the  cortical  layer  of  R.  circularis  essentially  agrees 
with  the  alveolar  layer  of  R.  batis,  differing  chiefly  in  the  amount 
of  complexity.  Surrounding  the  cortex  there  is  a  thin  layer  of 
gelatinous  tissue  in  which  capillaries  ramify.  This  tissue  evidently 
represents  the  thick  gelatinous  cushion  which  lies  behind  the 
disk  in  R.  batis,  and  fills  up  the  alveoli. 

The  stem  of  the  cup  is  usually,  if  not  always,  longer  than  the 
diameter  of  the  cup.  It  consists  of  a  core  of  altered  muscular 
substance,  which  is  surrounded  by  a  thick  layer  of  nucleated 
protoplasm  continuous  with  the  cortical  layer  of  the  cup,  and 
apparently  also  identical  with  it. 

The  cups  are  arranged  in  oblique  rows  to  form  a  long,  slightly- 
flattened  spindle,  which  occupies  the  posterior  two-thirds  of  the 
tail,  being  in  a  skate  measuring  27  inches  from  tip  to  tip,  slightly 
over  8  inches  in  length,  and  nearly  a  quarter  of  an  inch  in  width 
at  the  widest  central  portion,  but  only  about  2  lines  in  thickness. 

The  posterior  three-fifths  of  the  organ  lies  immediately  beneath 
the  skin,  and  has  in  contact  with  its  outer  surface  the  nerve  of 
the  lateral  line.  The  anterior  two-fifths  is  surrounded  by  fibres 
of  the  outer  caudal  muscles.  It  is  pointed  out  that  while  the 
organ  in  R.  circularis  is  larger  than  in  R.  radiata,  it  is  relatively 
very  much  smaller  than  the  organ  of  R.  batis. 

Linnean  Society,  April  19. — Mr.  Carruthers,  F.R.S. , 
President,  in  the  chair.  — Prof.  Martin  Duncan  exhibited  Pa 
specimen  of  Heterocen'rotus  mamillatus,  showing  the  apertures 
of  three  of  the  genital  ducts  to  be  in  the  median  interradial 
sutures,  the  corresponding  basal  plates  being  imperforate.  A 
discussion  followed,  in  which  Mr.  W.  Percy  Sladen  and  Dr.  C. 
Stewart  took  part. — Mr.  George  Murray  exhibited  some 
specimens  of  Spongocladia,  with  explanatory  coloured  diagrams, 
and  made  some  interesting  remarks  on  the  presence  of  sponge- 
spicules  on  Algae  at  present  unaccounted  for. — Mr.  D.  Morris, 
of  Kew,  exhibited,  and  made  remarks  upon,  the  bird-catching 
sedge,  Uncinia  jamakensis. — Mr.  John  R.  Jackson,  of  Kew, 
exhibited  some  table  mats  from  Canada  made  of  the  highly 
scented  grass  Hierochloa  borealis,  and  a  sample  of  the  so-called 
pine  wool  prepared  from  the  leaves  of  the  American  long-leaved 
or  turpentine-yielding  pine,  Pinus  australis,  with  a  mat  made 
from  the  wool,  an  industry  which  has  recently  been  started,  on  a 
large  scale  at  Wilmington,  North  Carolina. — Mr.  J.  E.  Harting 
exhibited  a  living  specimen  of  Natterer's  bat,  which  had  been 
captured  the  previous  day  at  Christchurch,  Hants,  together  with 
a  water-colour  drawing  from  life  of  Daubenton's  bat  recently 
taken  at  the  same  place. — The  first  paper  of  the  evening  was  by 
the  Rev.  George  Post  (communicated  by  Mr.  Thiselton  Dyer), 
and  contained  descriptions  of  new  plants  from  Palestine.  In 
.the  absence  of  the  author,  the  salient  points  in  the  paper  were 


admirably  demonstrated  by  Mr.  J.  G.  Baker,  F.R.S.,  who 
exhibited  specimens  of  the  plants  alluded  to. — A  paper  was  then 
read  by  the  Botanical  Secretary,  Mr.  B.  Daydon  Jackson,  on 
behalf  of  Prof.  Fream,  on  the  flora  of  water  meadows.  An 
interesting  discussion  followed,  and  the  meeting  adjourned. 

May  3. — Dr.  John  Anderson,  F.R.S.,  Vice-President,  in 
the  chair. — The  Chairman  announced  a  resolution  of  the 
Council  to  found  a  gold  medal,  to  be  called  the  "  Linnean 
Medal,"  to  be  awarded  at  the  forthcoming  anniversary 
meeting  to  a  botanist  and  zoologist,  and  in  future  years 
to  a  botanist  and  zoologist  alternately,  commencing  with  a 
botanist. — Dr.  Francis  Day  exhibited  sune  specimens  of  Loch- 
leven  and  sea  trout  raised  at  Howietoun  to  illustrate  his  obser- 
vation that  the  markings  usually  relied  upon  to  distinguish  the 
species  are  not  constant,  and  therefore,  taken  alone,  of  no  value 
for  the  purpose  of  identification.  He  also  exhibited  specimens 
of  trout  from  Otago,  New  Zealand,  descendants  of  some 
which  had  been  introduced  there,  presenting  some  curious  modi- 
fications of  structure.  A  discussion  followed,  in  which  some 
interesting  remarks  were  made  by  Prof.  Howes  and  Mr.  Willis 
Bund. — On  behalf  of  Mr.  Miller  Christy,  the  Botanical 
Secretary  (Mr.  B.  Daydon  Jackson)  exhibited  some  specimens  of 
the  Bardfield  oxlip  {Primula  elatior,  Jacquin),  gathered  near 
Dunmow,  and  occurring  only  in  this  part  of  England  (cf. 
Trans.  Essex  Field  Club,  iii.  p.  148). — Mr.  A.  D.  Michael  read 
a  paper  on  the  life-histories  of  the  Acari  Glyciphagus  domesticus 
and  G.  spinipes.  After  describing  in  detail  observations  and 
dissections  extending  over  three  years,  the  author  concludes  that 
there  is  a  hypopial  stage  in  the  life-history  of  Glyciphagus,  but 
far  less  developed  than  in  Tyrogly pints,  and  not  an  active  stage 
in  the  species  observed  ;  that  it  does  not  occur  to  all  individuals 
of  a  species,  and  it  has  not  been  ascertained  whether  it  occurs  in 
all  species  ;  that  the  stage  is  not  the  result  of  desiccation  or  un- 
favourable conditions  ;  and  that  it  occupies  the  period  between 
the  penultimate  ecdysis  and  that  immediately  previous.  Dr.  C. 
Stewart  criticized  Mr.  Michael's  researches  in  favourable  terms. 
— A  communication  was  then  made  by  Mr.  C.  B.  Clarke  on 
root-pressure.  He  contested  the  view  of  A.  Sachs  (and  his 
followers)  that  root-pressure  is  sufficient  to  su-tain  the  weight  of 
a  column  of  water  of  the  height  of  100  (or  even  30)  feet,  and 
to  force  out  drops  at  particular  points  of  the  leaves.  He  main- 
tained that  it  was  a  mathematical  error  to  apply  the  equation 
p  =  g/>z  to  the  case  of  water  in  plants,  and  that  in  a  collection 
of  cells  and  longitudinal  tubes  of  varying  size  (all  very  small) 
the  only  mechanical  ideas  that  could  be  applied  were  those  of 
capillary  attraction  and  motion..  In  the  discussion  which 
followed,  Prof.  Marshall  Ward  thought  root-pressure  necessary 
to  explain  the  admitted  results  of  manometer  experiments.  Mr. 
A.  W. -Bennett,  on  the  other  hand,  regarded  the  assumption  of  a 
high  fluid  tension  in  the  cells  of  roots  to  drive  moisture  to  the 
summits  as  nothing  more  than  an  expression  of  our  ignorance 
as  to  what  the  water  does  move. — A  paper  on  the  ovicells  of 
some  Lichenoporae  was  read  by  the  Zoological  Secretary  (Mr.  W. 
Percy  Sladen  in  the  absence  of  the  author,  Mr.  A.  W.  Waters. 

k 'Physical  Society,  April  28.  — Prof.  Reinold,  F.R.S., 
resident,  in  the  chair. — The  following  communications  were 
read  : — On  electromotive  force  by  contact,  by  Mr.  C.  V.  Burton. 
The  object  of  the  paper  is  to  discuss  the  seats  of  the  electro- 
motive forces  developed  by  the  contact  of  conductors.  By 
considering  the  distribution  of  electricity  on  the  surfaces  of 
the  conductors,  and  from  the  fact  that  the  potentials 
throughout  their  masses  are  constant,  except  about  a  thin  layer 
near  the  junction,  the  author  deduces  that  "the  molecular  action 
which  gives  rise  to  a  contact  E.M.F.  between  t ivo  conductors  is 
confined  to  the  immediate  neighbourhoo  I  of  the  Junction."  If 
E  be  the  contact  E.  M.F.,  and  M  the  quantity  of  electricity  which 
passes  across  the  junction  when  two  metals  originally  at  the 
same  potential  are  placed  in  contact,  it  is  shown  that  the  work 
done  is  KM,  half  of  which  is  spent  in  producing  heat  and  half  in 
raising  the  potential  energy  of  the  system.  Since  the  conductors 
are  supposed  to  be  kept  at  constant  temperature,  and  the  action 
which  gives  rise  to  the  E.M.F.  is  confined  to  the  immediate 
neighbourhood  of  the  junction,  the  molecular  energy  must  be 
absorbed  at  the  junction.  By  supposing  the  surface  of  contact 
very  small,  and  the  capacity  of  the  system  large,  it  is  shown 
that  heat  and  chemical  action  are  the  only  kinds  of  energy  which 
fulfil  the  required  conditions  of  supplying  an  indefinite  amount 
of  energy.  Hence,  for  substances  chemically  inactive,  "  the  true 
contact  E.  M.  F.    is  equal  to  their  coefficient  of  the  Peltier  effect 


May  24,  1888]        ££ 


NA  TURE 


95 


in  absolute  measure";  and  for  substances  chemically 
active,  but  devoid  of  Peltier  effect,  "the  E. M.F.  is  equal  to  the 
ynergy  of  combination  of  one  eleetro-ckemical  equivalent." 
Since  metal-metal  contacts  can  only  be  the  seats  of  Peltier 
E.M.F.'s  it  is  inferred  that  the  apparent  contact  E.M.F. 
[{measured  inductively)  must  be  due  chiefly  to  air-metal  contacts. 
jA  list  of  analogous  properties  of  Peltier  and  chemical  E.M.F.'s  is 
biven  in  parallel  columns.  The  results  of  some  experiments  on 
the  contact  E.M.F.  of  glass  and  ebonite  with  mercury  are 
[tabulated,  but  they  are  very  irregular,  and  the  author  concludes 
pat  there  is  no  true  and  definite  contact  E.M.F.  between 
Conductors  and  non-conductors.  Profs.  Ayrton,  Schuster, 
Thompson,  and  Perry  discussed  the  points  raised,  and  it  was 
considered  that  direct  experiment  on  contact  E.M.F.  in  a  very 
ct  vacuum  could  alone  decide  the  questions.  —  On  a  theory 
I  concerning  the  sudden  loss  of  magnetic  properties  of  iron  and 
nickel,  by  Mr.  H.  Tomlinson.  Experiments  by  himself  and 
other  observers  have  shown  that  the  temperatures  at  which 
iron  and  nickel  lose  their  magnetic  properties  depend  on  the 
specimens  used,  and  the  magnetizing  forces  employed  ;  but  the 
temperature  at  which  they  begin  to  lose  these  properties  are 
definite — for  nickel  about  300°  C.,  and  iron  about  68o°C.  The 
author's  own  experiments  on  "  Recalescence  of  iron  "  show  two 
critical  temperatures  ;  and  Pinchon  has  shown  by  calorimetric 
measurements  that  between  66o°and  7200  C,  and  between  10000 
and  10500  C,  heat  becomes  latent.  All  these  facts  seem  to  indicate 
a  molecular  rearrangement  about  these  temperatures.  In  his 
proposed  theory,  he  assumes  that  the  molecules  of  iron  (say) 
ontain  magnetic  atoms  capable  of  motions  of  translation  and  of 
rotation.  These  tend  to  form  closed  magnetic  circuits,  but  at 
ordinary  temperatures  are  unable  to  do  so  on  account  of  the 
close  proximity  of  their  centres.  On  raising  the  temperature, 
their  centres  are  further  separated  till  at  about  680°  C.  their  polar 
extremities  rush  together,  forming  complete  circuits  and  exhibiting 
no  external  magnetic  properties.  On  cooling  down,  the  centres 
approach  until  the  gravitation  attraction  overcomes  the  magnetic 
Utraction  of  their  poles,  when  the  magnetic  properties  reappear. 
Prof.  Ayrton  asked  whether  the  author  had  made  experiments 
on  the  reappearance  of  magnetic  properties  when  raised  to  a 
white  heat,  and  Prof.  Thompson  inquired  whether  cobalt  had 
been  tested.  Both  questions  were  answered  negatively. — Note 
mi  the  graphic  treatment  of  the  Lamont-Frolich  formula  for 
induced  magnetism,  by  Prof.    S.    P.   Thompson.     The  formula 

Si     '  — 

referred  to  is  N  =  N   c,  ■  ,  ,  ;  where  N  =  total  induction  when 
Si  +  b  ' 

saturated,  N  =  induction  due  to  Si  ampere  turns,  and  b  — 
yalue  of  Si  which  makes  N  =  |N.  Simple  geometrical  con. 
tructions  are  given  for  plotting  the  curve  when  N  and  b  are 
cnown,  and  for  finding  N  and  b  when  two  pairs  of  values  of  N 
nd  Si  have  been  determined.  The  use  of  the  formula  is  shown 
Iko  be  justified  in  practice,  for,  as  pointed  out  to  the  author  by 
"'rof.  Perry,  the  curves  connecting  permeability,  fi,  and  induction, 
3,  are  straight  lines  from  B  =  7000  to  B  =  16,000,  between 
vhich  dynamos  are  usually  worked.  A  method  of  predetermining 
and  b  is  given  for  magnetic  circuits  of  known  form  and 
aterials,  thus  removing  the  objection  often  urged  against  the 
bove  formula,  viz.  that  it  involves  two  constants  which  had  to 
determined  after  the  magnet  was  made.  / 

Mathematical  Society,  May  10. — Sir/f.  Cockle,  F.R.S., 
resident,  in  the  chair. — Mr.  E.  B.  Elliott  communicated  a 
ourth  paper  on  cyclicants  or  ternary  reciprocants  and  allied 
unctions. — Mr.  Cook  Wilson  gave  a  sketch  of  some  theorems  on 
•arallel  straight  lines,  together  with  some  attempts  to  prove 
Euclid's  twelfth  axiom.  Messrs.  Elliott,  Buchheim,  and  Prof. 
Ienrici,  F.  R.  S.,  took  part  in  a  lengthened  discussion  of  the 
taper. — The  following  were  taken  as  read  : — On  the  flexure  and 
he  vibrations  of  a  curved  bar,  by  Prof.  H.  Lamb,  F.R.  S. — On  the 
igures  formed  by  the  intercepts  of  a  system  of  straight  lines  in  a 
ilaneand  on  analogous  relations  in  space  of  three  dimensions,  by 
>.  Roberts,  F.R.S. — On  Lame's  differential  equation;  and 
(ability  of  orbits,  by  Prof.  Greenhill. 

Entomological  Society,  May  2. — Dr.  D.  Sharp,  President, 
n  the  chair. — Dr.  P.  B.  Mason  exhibited  an  hermaphrodite  speci- 
nen  of  Saturnia  carpini,  from  Lincoln,  and  another  specimen  of 
he  same  species  with  five  wings,  bred  at  Tenby. — Herr  Jacoby 

xhibited  female  specimens  of  Chrysomelajapana,  collected  by  Mr. 

•  II.  Leech  in  Japan,  and  called  attention  to  a  sexual  structure  in 
he  middle  of  the  abdominal  segment. — Mr.  Adkin  exhibited  a 
•ariety  of  Eubolia  bipunctaria,  taken  at  Box  Hill. — Mr.  W.  F. 


Kirby  exhibited,  for  Dr.  Livett,  a  curious  discoloured  female 
specimen  of  Otnithoptcra  mines,  Ciamer. — Mr.  H.  Goss  ex- 
hibited, for  Mr.  W.  Denison-Rcebuck,  a  rumber  of  specimens 
of  an  exotic  species  of  bee  obtained  by  the  Rev.  W.  Fowler,  of 
Liversedge,  from  split  logwecd.  The  cells  or  pouches  were  very 
irregular  and  rough,  and  altogether  unlike  those  of  any  known 
British  species.— Dr.  J.  W.  Ellis  read  a  paper  entitled  "Re- 
marks on  the  British  Specimens  of  Aphodius  melanostictus, 
Schmidt,"  and  he  exhibited  a  number  of  specimens  and  drawings 
of  this  species  and  of  Aphodius  ittquinatus,  F.  A  discussion 
ensued,  in  which  Dr.  P.  B.  Mason,  Dr.  Sharp,  Mr.  Champion,  and 
Dr.  Ellis  took  part. — Mr.  E.  Meyrick  communicated  a  paper  on 
the  Pyralidina  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  the  material  for  which 
paper  consisted  principally  of  the  collection  of  Lepidopteia 
Heterocera  formed  by  the  Rev.  T.  Blackburn  during  six  years' 
residence  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands.  Mr.  Meyrick  pointed  out 
that  the  exceptional  position  of  these  islands  renders  an  accurate 
knowledge  of  their  fauna  a  subject  of  great  interest.  He  stated 
that,  of  the  fifty-six  known  species  of  Hawaiian  Pyralidina,  nine 
had  probably  been  introduced  through  the  agency  of  man  in 
recent  times  ;  but  he  believed  the  remaining  forty-seven  to  be 
wholly  endemic  :  of  these  latter  the  author  leferred  twenty-six 
species  to  the  Botydidce,  twelve  to  the  Scopariada:,  four  to  the 
Pterophoridie,  three  to  the  Cj  ambida,  and  two  to  the  Phycitidw. 
Dr.  Sharp,  Mr.  McLachlan,  Dr.  Mason,  and  Mr.  E.  B.  Poulton 
took  part  in  the  discussion  which  ensued. 

Paris. 
Academy  of  Sciences,  May  14. — M.  Janssen,  President,  in 
the  chair. — On  diamagnetism,  by  M.  Mascart.  In  connection 
with  M.  Blondlot's  recent  communication  describing  an  experi- 
ment on  the  apparent  diamagnetism  of  a  solution  of  the  per- 
chloride  of  iron  in  a  more  concentrated  solution  of  the  same 
substance,  it  is  pointed  out  that  in  1845  Faraday  showed  that 
the  action  of  the  magnetic  forces  on  a  body  depends  on  the 
medium  in  which  it  is  plunged,  as  it  results  from  the  difference 
of  their  coefficients  of  magnetic  induction.  If  the  intensity  of 
magnetization  remains  proportional  to  the  magnetizing  force, 
which  is  the  case  with  all  diamagnetic  and  slightly  magnetic 
bodies,  the  theory  then  shows  that  the  magnetizm  on  the  surface 
of  the  body  in  question  changes  its  sign  when  the  outer  medium 
has  a  high  coefficient. — Remarks  accompanying  the  presentation 
of  a  map  of  Massaya  in  Abyssinia,  by  M.  d'Abbadie.  Attention 
was  drawn  to  some  cartographic  improvements  introduced  into 
this  map  by  the  author  with  the  view  of  rendering  the  nomencla- 
ture more  distinct,  and  more  in  accordance  with  the  local  pro- 
nunciation of  geographical  names.  In  all  cases  such  foreign 
descriptive  terms  as  Pas,  Jebel,  &c,  give  place  to  their  equiva- 
lents Cape,  Mount,  Sec. — Fluorescence  of  cupriferous  lime,  by  M. 
Lecoq  de  Boisbaudran.  After  calcination  in  the  air,  carbonate 
of  lime  containing  a  little  oxide  of  copper  yields  a  substances 
which  gives  in  vacuum  an  extremely  bright  green  fluorescence. 
No  spectral  rays  have  been  observed.  When  calcination  takes 
place  in  hydrogen,  instead  of  the  green  fluorescence,  a  more  or 
less  pink  or  reddish  light  is  obtained,  at  times  somewhat  intense, 
but  always  greatly  inferior  to  the  green  fluorescence. — Observa- 
tions of  the  new  planet  277,  discovered  on  May  3,  at  the 
Observatory  of  Nice,  by  M.  Charlois.  The  observations  extend 
over  the  period  from  May  3  to  May  9,  when  the  planet  appeared 
to  be  of  the  thirteenth  magnitude.— Observations  of  the  same 
planet  are  recorded  for  the  period  May  5-12,  taken  by  M. 
Trepied,  at  the  Observatory  of  Algiers. — Observations  of  the 
channels  in  Mars,  by  M.  Perrotin.  Some  important  modifica- 
tions are  described,  that  have  taken  place  in  these  appearances 
since  they  were  first  observed  by  the  author  in  1886.  The 
triangular  continent,  somewhat  larger" than  France  (the  Lybia  of 
Schiaparelli's  map),  which  at  that  time  stretched  along  both 
sides  of  the  equator,  and  which  was  bounded  south  and  west 
by  a  sea,  north  and  east  by  channels,  has  disappeared.  The 
place  where  it  stood,  as  indicated  by  the  reddish-white  tint  of 
land,  now  shows  the  black,  or  rather  deep  blue  colour  of  the 
seas  of  Mars.  The  Lake  Mceris,  situated  on  one  of  the 
channels,  has  also  vanished,  and  a  new  channel,  about  200  long 
and  1°  or  l°*5  broad,  is  now  visible,  running  parallel  with  the 
equator  to  the  north  of  the  vanished  continent.  This  channel 
forms  a  direct  continuation  of  a  previously  existing  double 
channel,  which  it  now  connects  with  the  sea.  Another  change 
is  the  unexpected  appearance  about  the  north  pole  of  another 
passage,  which  seems  to  connect  two  neighbouring  seas  through 
the  polar  ice. — Action  of  hydrochloric  acid  on  the  solubility  of 
stannous  chloride  ;  hydrochlorate  of  stannous  chloride,  by  M. 


96 


NA  TURE 


[May  24,  1888 


Engel.  It  is  generally  assumed  that  the  solubility  of  stannous 
chloride  in  water  increases  in  the  presence  of  hydrochloric  acid. 
But  the  experiments  here  described  show  that  this  is  the 
case  only  when  the  quantity  of  acid  added  to  the  saturated 
solution  of  the  chloride  attains  a  certain  value.  The  hydro- 
chlorate  of  stannous  chloride,  here  also  described,  has  for 
formula,  SnCl2  +  HC12  +  3H26.  It  crystallizes  and  melts  at 
about  -  27°. — On  the  existence  of  a  pyrophosphorous  acid,  by 
M.  L.  Amat.  The  existence  here  demonstrated  of  this  body  is 
a  brilliant  verification  of  the  theory  of  Wurtz  regarding  the  con- 
stitution of  the  phosphorous  and  hypophosphorous  acids. — Essay 
on  the  equivalents  of  the  simple  bodies,  by  M.  Delauney. 
Taking  as  unity  the  equivalent  of  hydrogen,  the  equivalents 
of   the   simple    bodies    may   be    obtained    by  the    expression, 

_  «/52  -  «'2,    where  N  and  n   are  integers,   the  values  of  n 

being  obviously  restricted  to  o,  I,  2,  3,  or  4.  According  to  these 
several  values  of  n  the  elementary  bodies  are  disposed  in  so 
many  family  groups,  from  which  chlorine  alone  is  excluded, 
while  its  neighbour,  bromine,  appears  to  belong  to  as  many  as 
three  of  the  groups.  This  classification  seems  natural,  the  first 
family  supplying  the  true  metals — copper,  gold,  lead — below 
which,  in  the  descending  scale,  the  fifth  family  corresponds  to  the 
alkaline  metals  and  metalloids.  From  all  this  is  deduced  a 
curious  molecular  theory  based  on  the  assumption  of  a  primitive 
molecule  formed  of  six  atoms.  Around  one  of  these  the  other 
five  describe  circles  with  radii  I,  2,  3,  4,  5,  all  moving  in  the 
same  plane,  and  the  central  atom  revolving  round  its  own  axis 
perpendicular  to  the  plane.  The  atoms  at  the  distances  1,  2,  3,  4 
revolve  in  the  same  direction  as  the  central,  the  outer  in  the 
contrary  direction,  the  molecule  thus  constituting  a  sort  of 
astronomic  system,  infinitely  small,  but  analogous  to  the  stellar 
groups.  All  these  considerations  go  to  confirm  in  principle,  if 
not  in  fact,  the  views  of  those  chemists  who  hold  that  all  the 
simple  bodies  are  ultimately  reducible  to  one — that  is,  hydrogen. 
— Researches  on  the  synthesis  of  the  albuminoid  and  proteic 
substances,  by  M.  P.  Schutzenberger.  Having  completed  his 
analytical  studies  of  albumen,  fibrine,  caceine,  gelatine,  and 
other  proteic  substances,  the  author  has  now  begun  the  study  of 
their  synthesis.  In  this  paper  the  first  results  are  given,  showing 
that  the  leuceine  obtained  by  the  synthetic  process  is  identical 
with  that  yielded  by  decomposition. 

Berlin. 
Physiological  Society,  April  27. — Prof,  du  Bois-Reymond, 
President,  in  the  chair. — Dr.  Blaschko  spoke  on  the  develop- 
ment of  horny  tissue.  Between  the  rete  Malpighii  and  the 
corneous  layer  (stratum  corneum)  of  the  epidermis  two  layers 
are  found — the  stratum  granulosum  and  the  stratum  lucidum — in 
which  the  cells  of  the  rete,  produced  karyokinetically,  must 
undergo  their  conversion  into  the  epidermal  cells  of  the  stratum 
corneum.  The  speaker  confined  himself  first  to  a  consider- 
ation of  the  granules  of  the  stratum  granulosum,  about  which 
most  widely  different  views  have  been  advanced  by  various 
writers.  They  have  been  regarded  as  consisting  of  fat,  chole- 
sterin,  amyloid  substance,  proteid,  keratin,  and  hyalin  ;  and 
further  as  fluid,  semi-fluid,  or  solid.  Dr.  Blaschko  has  satisfied 
himself  that  the  granules  are  not  fluid,  but  that  they  contain 
more  water  than  the  cells  of  the  epidermis.  He  has  further 
proved  by  employing  all  the  chemical  reactions  which  are  charac- 
teristic of  such  different  substances  as  fat,  cholesterin,  proteid, 
&c,  that  the  granules  cannot  be  regarded  as  composed  of  any 
of  the  above.  The  curious  colour  they  assume  when  stained 
with  hematoxylin,  and  their  behaviour  with  chemical  reagents, 
shows  that  their  proper  place  is  one  intermediate  between 
albumen  ar.d  keratin  ;  the  speaker  hence  proposed  to  give  the 
name  of  prokeratin  to  the  material  of  which  the  granules  are 
composed. — Dr.  Klaatsch  had  made  a  series  of  preparations 
from  the  skin  of  monkeys,  by  which  he  shows  that  it  is  possible, 
by  using  various  colouring-matters,  to  give  different  colours  to 
the  stratum  lucidum  and  stratum  corneum  in  one  and  the  same 
specimen,  thus  making  it  easy  to  distinguish  these  layers  each 
from  the  other  and  from  the  stratum  granulosum.  He  shows 
further  that  in  the  skin  of  monkeys,  as  in  that  of  man,  alter- 
nating elevations  and  depressions  are  met  with  ;  the  former,  or 
gland-hillocks,  cover  the  glands  of  the  skin,  while  the  latter,  or 
folds,  are  joined  by  tense  bundles  of  connective-tissue  passing 
through  the  rete,  and  thus  forming  an  attachment  for  the  skin. 
Finally,  and  in  the  third  place,  the  preparations  showed  that  the 
nuclei  of  the  cells  in  the  rete  are  still  here  and  there  recognizable 
in  the  stratum  corneum  as  spaces  which  are  probably  formed  by 


a  disappearance  of  the  nuclear  substance,  the  nuclear  membrane 
being  persistent. — Dr.  R.  Schneider  has  carried  on  a  series  ol 
researches,  extending  over  nearly  every  class  of  animals,  on  the 
absorption  of  iron  and  on  its  occurrence  as  oxide  in  the  organ; 
and  tissues  of  the  animals.  Up  to  the  present  time  all  the 
animals  examined,  whether  living  in  water,  mud,  or  under- 
ground, have  contained  oxide  of  iron ;  which  was  detected, 
using  all  due  precautions,  by  employing  ferrocyanide  of  potas- 
sium and  dilute  hydrochloric  acid.  The  speaker  gave  an  account 
of  the  behaviour  of  single  animals  taken  from  the  Protozoa, 
Coelenterates,  Worms,  Arthropods,  Gasteropods,  Fishes,  and 
Amphibia.  Among  Vertebrates,  oxide  of  iron  was  found  in  the 
cells  of  the  alimentary  canal,  in  the  liver  and  spleen,  occasion- 
ally in  the  kidneys  and  teeth,  and  in  Proteus  it  occurred  through- 
out the  whole  skeleton.  Among  the  Invertebrates  oxide  of  iron 
was  found  to  occur  in  the  cells  of  the  liver  and  intestine, 
in  the  respiratory  organs,  the  shells  and  chitinous  envelopes. 
The  oxide  occurred  chiefly  in  the  protoplasm  of  the  cells,  but 
also  frequently  in  the  nuclei.  It  is  impossible  here  to  enlarge 
further  upon  the  interesting  details  of  which  Dr.  Schneider 
supplied  an  extended  series. 

BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Theoretische  Geologie  :  Dr.  E.  Reyer  (E.  Schweizerbachsche).— Practical 
Lesscms  in  the  Use  of  English  :  M.  F.  Hyde  (Heath,  Boston).— The  Origin 
of  Floral  Structures  :  Rev.  G.  Henslow  (Kegan  Paul).— The  Baths  and  Wells 
of  Europe,  3rd  edition,  revised  :  j.  Macpherson  (Stanford). — Jahrbuch  der 
Naturwissenschaften,  1887-88  :  Max  Wildermann  (Herder,  Freiburg).— A 
Manual  of  General  Pathology  :  J.  F.  Payne  (Smith,  Elder).— Practical 
Zoology,  2nd  edition  :  Marshall  and  Hurst  (Smith,  Elder). —Tropical  Africa  : 
H.  Drummond  (Hodder  and  Stoughton). — A  Manual  of  Practical  Assaying, 
6th  edition  :  J.  Mitchell  ;  edited  by  W.  Crookes  (Longmans).— Hand-book 
for  the  Stars,  4th  edition  :  H.  W.  Jeans;  revised  by  W.  R.  Martin  (Long- 
mans).— Descriptions  of  New  Indian  Lepidopterous  Insects  from  the  Collec- 
tion of  the  late  Mr.  W.  S.  Atkinson  ;  Part  3,  Heterocera  (continued) :  F. 
Moore  (Calcutta). — Memoirs  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  India,  Palaeonto- 
logia  Indica,  ser.  xiii.,  Salt  Range  Fossils,  vol.  i.  Part  7  :  W.  VVaagen 
(Iriibner). — Beitrage  zur  Kenntniss  der  Nagelfluh  derSchweiz:  Dr.  J.  J. 
Fruh  (Williams  and  Norgate).— Plotting,  or  Graphic  Mathematics  :  Dr.  R. 
Wormell  (Waterlow).— Hylomorphism  of  Tnought— Being  Part  1  Theory 
of  Thought :  Rev.  T.  Q.  Fleming  (Williams  and  Norgate). — Transactions  of 
the  Society  of  Naturalists  of  Cracow  University,  1887. — Memoires  de  la 
Societe"  de  Physique  et  d'Histoire  Naturelle  de  Geneve,  tome  xxix.  seconde 
partie  (Geneve).— drain,  April  (Macmillan). 

CONTENTS.  page 

The  Polytechnic  Institute 73 

The  Geographical  Distribution  of  the  Family  Chara- 

driidae.     By  R.  Bowdler  Sha*rpe 73 

The  Minerals  of  New  South  Wales 75 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Furneaux  :   "Elementary  Chemistry  " 76 

Milne  :   "  Companion  to  the  Weekly  Problem  Papers  "    76 

Mukerjee  :  "  Elementary  Hydrostatics  " 76 

Lock:   "  Arithmetic  for  Beginners  " 76 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

Weight  and  Mass. — Rev.  John  B.  Lock 77 

Work  and  Energy. — Rev.  Edward  Geoghegan     .    .    77 
On  the  Reappearance  of  Pallas's  Sand  Grouse  (Syr- 
rhaptes  paradoxus)  in  Europe. — Dr.  A.  B.  Meyer ; 

F.  M.  Campbell j 

Tables  of  Reciprocals. — V.A.Julius 77 

On  the  Veined  Structure  of  the  Mueller  Glacier,  New 

Zealand.— F.  W.  Hutton ; 

On  the  Rainfall  and  Temperature  at  Victoria   Peak, 

Hong  Kong. — Dr.  W.  C.  Doberck 

Problem  by  Vincentio  Viviani.     (With   Diagram.)  — 

Rev.  Edward  Geoghegan 78 

Suggestions   on    the    Classification    of   the  Various 
Species  of  Heavenly   Bodies.    VI.   (Illustrated.)   By 

J.  Norman  Lockyer,  F.R.S 791 

Natural  Science  in  Japan.     (Illustrated.) 83 

The    Aurora    in    Spitzbergen.      By    Dr.    H.     Hilde- 

brandsson 84 

Notes 85 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

Comet  1888  a  (Sawerthal) 88 : 

New  Minor  Planet 89 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for     the     Week      1888 

May  27— June  2 89! 

Geographical  Notes 89, 

The  Iron  and  Steel  Institute 90 ! 

Scientific  Serials 91 

Societies  and  Academies 92 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received      96 


NA TURE 


97 


AL-BlR&Nt. 

Al-Biruni's  India  :  an  Account  of  the  Religion,  Philosophy, 
Literature,  Chronology,  Astronomy,  Customs,  Law,  and 
Astrology  of  India  about  A.D.  1030.  Edited  in  the 
Arabian  original  by  Dr.  Edward  Sachau.  (London : 
Triibner  and  Co.,  1887.) 

IT  has  often  been  said  that  India  has  no  history  and 
no  historians.  We  look  in  vain  through  the  ancient 
Sanskrit  literature  for  any  Herodotus  or  Thucydides. 
The  very  idea  of  chronicling  the  events  of  the  day  or 
gathering  the  recollections  of  the  past  seems  never  to  have 
entered  the  Hindu  mind,  and  their  ancient  chronology 
is  hardly  more  than  astronomical  mythology.  The  histo- 
rical growth  of  Indian  literature,  religion,  and  philosophy 
would  indeed  have  remained  a  perfect  riddle  but  for  the 
few  glimpses  which  we  are  able  to  catch  of  the  real 
history  of  the  country  through  other  nations  which  were 
brought  in  contact  with  it.  These  are  the  Greeks,  the 
Chinese,  and  the  Arabs,  whose  successive  accounts  run 
like  three  broad  bands  of  longitude  across  the  ill-defined 
map  of  ancient  India. 

The  Greeks  do  not  tell  us  very  much  of  what  they  saw 
of  India,  either  before  or  after  Alexander's  invasion.  We 
may  indeed  gather  from  Hecataeus  (b.c.  549-486)  that 
India  existed,  and  that  its  chief  river,  the  Indus,  had  a 
name  of  Sanskrit  origin.  We  know,  therefore,  that 
Sanskrit  was  the  spoken  language  of  India  in  the  sixth 
century  B.C.  But  even  that  name  had  clearly  passed 
through  Persian  channels  before  it  reached  Hecataeus,  for 
it  is  only  in  Persian  that  the  initial  s  of  Sindhu,  the  river, 
could  have  been  changed  into  h,  and  afterwards  been 
dropped.  Herodotus  also  mentions  some  Indian  names — 
such  as  the  Gandarii,  the  Gandhdras  of  the  Veda — which 
clearly  show  that  at  his  time  the  peoples  and  rivers  and 
mountains  of  India  had  names  which  find  their  explanation 
in  Sanskrit  only.  With  Alexander's  expedition  we  might 
have  hoped  that  the  full  light  of  history  would  have  burst 
upon  India.  But  most  of  the  works  written  by  Alexander's 
companions  have  been  lost,  and  even  the  work  of 
Megasthenes,  who  stayed  as  ambassador  at  Palimbothra, 
the  modern  Patna,  at  the  court  of  King  Sandracottus,  has 
been  preserved  to  us  in  fragments  only.  Still  the  date  of 
Sandracottus,  in  Sanskrit  Chandragupta,  has  proved  the 
sheet-anchor  of  ancient  Indian  chronology,  and  has  once 
for  all  fixed  the  date  of  Chandragupta  and  of  his  grandson, 
the  great  Buddhist  monarch  Asoka,  in  the  fourth  and 
third  centuries  B.C. 

The  next  witnesses  to  the  actual  state  of  political, 
social,  and  religious  life  in  India  are  the  Chinese. 
Buddhism  had  been  adopted  as  a  third  State  religion 
in  China  in  the  first  century  a.d.  From  that  time  the 
religious  intercourse  between  China  and  India  was  never 
entirely  interrupted.  Buddhist  priests  travelled  from 
India  to  China,  and  pious  pilgrims  went  from  China  to 
India  as  the  holy  land  of  their  religion.  Some  of  these 
pilgrims  have  left  very  full  descriptions  of  what  they  saw 
and  did  in  India,  the  most  important  being  those  by 
Fa-hian  (399-414  A.D.),  Hiouen-thsang  (629-645),  I-tsing 
(673-695),  and  Khi-nie,  who  visited  India  in  964,  at  the 
Vol..  xxxviii. — No.  970. 


head  of  300  pilgrims.  Most  of  these  travels  and  diaries 
have  been  translated  into  French  and  English  by 
Remusat,  Stanislas  Julien,  Beal,  and  Legge  ;  and  they 
give  us  a  picture  of  Indian  life  during  the  Middle  Ages 
of  which  we  should  have  had  no  idea  if  we  had  been 
restricted  to  Indian  sources  alone. 

More  important,  however,  than  the  descriptions  of 
these  Greek  and  Chinese  authors,  is  the  work  to  which 
we  wish  to  call  attention— namely,  the  account  of  India 
written  by  Al-Biruni  in  the  year  1030  a.d.,  and  now 
published  for  the  first  time  by  Prof.  Sachau,  of 
Berlin.  Al-Biruni  was  a  native  of  Khwarizm,  the  modern 
Khiva,  born  in  973.  He  had  devoted  himself  to  the 
study  of  astronomy  and  philosophy,  and  when  Khiva  was 
taken  by  Sultan  Mahmud  of  Ghazna  in  1017,  Al-Biruni 
was  induced  to  accompany  him  to  India.  The  famous 
Avicenna,  i.e.  Abu  Ali  Ibn  Sina,  declined  the  same 
honour,  and  remained  at  home.  During  the  thirteen 
years  that  Al-Biruni  spent  in  India,  he  devoted  him- 
self sedulously  to  the  study  of  Sanskrit,  and  Sanskrit 
literature.  He  does  not  use  the  name  of  Sanskrit,  but 
calls  the  language  of  India,  both  literary  and  vernacular, 
Hindi,  i.e.  Indian  ;  the  fact  being  that  Sanskrit  was  not 
yet  used  as  a  proper  name  of  the  ancient  literary  idiom, 
but  only  as  an  epitheton  ornans.  What  progress  Al-Biruni 
made  in  his  studies  seems  somewhat  doubtful.  It  was 
formerly  supposed  that  he  translated  not  only  from  Sanskrit 
into  Arabic  and  Persian,  but  likewise  from  Arabic  and 
Persian  into  Sanskrit.  But  Dr.  Sachau  has  clearly  proved 
that  his  knowledge  of  Sanskrit  was  far  too  elementary  to 
enable  him  to  perform  such  tasks  by  himself.  He  shows 
that  he  depended  chiefly  on  the  assistance  of  his  pandits, 
like  many  Sanskrit  scholars  of  more  recent  times,  and 
that  all  we  can  assert  with  safety  is  that  he  was  able  to 
direct  and  to  check  their  labours.  With  all  that,  Al-Biruni 
was  a  most  exceptional  man  for  his  time,  a  man  of  wide 
sympathies,  a  true  philosopher,  and  acute  observer.  The 
very  idea  of  learning  a  foreign  language,  except  perhaps 
Persian  and  Turkish,  never  entered  the  head  of  a 
Muhammedan.  His  weapon  was  the  sword,  not  the 
pen.  Al-Biruni,  however,  to  quote  Prof.  Sachau's 
words,  "  convinced  that  those  who  want  to  meet  the 
Hindus  on  the  battle-ground  of  intellectual  warfare,  and 
to  deal  with  them  in  the  spirit  of  justice  and  equity,  must 
I  first  learn  all  that  is  peculiar  to  them  in  manners  and 
customs  as  well  as  in  their  general  modes  of  thought,  pro- 
duced a  comprehensive  description  of  Indian  civilization, 
always  struggling  to  grasp  its  very  essence,  and  depicting 
it  with  due  lights  and  shades,  as  an  impartial  spectator." 
The  title,  of  the  book  tells  its  own  story:  "An  accurate 
description  of  all  the  categories  of  Indian  thought,  as  well 
those  w^tich  are  admissible,  as  those  which  must  be 
rejected." 

The  existence  of  this  work  of  Al-Biruni's  has  been 
known  for  many  years,  and  Sanskrit  scholars  have  long 
clamoured  for  its  publication  and  translation.  Their 
appetite  was  first  whetted  by  the  specimens  which 
Reinaud  published  in  1845  in  his  "  Fragments  Arabes  et 
Persans  relatifs  a  PInde,"  and  some  years  later  in  his 
invaluable  "  Memoire  sur  l'lnde  "  (1849).  When  Reinaud 
declined  to  undertake  the  editing  of  the  whole  text  of 
Al-Biruni's  "  Indica,"  Woepcke  and  MacGuckin  de  Slane 
undertook  the  difficult  task.     The  former,  however,  died  • 

F 


98 


NA  TURE 


[May  31,  1888 


the  latter  began  to  feel  the  approach  of  old  age,  and  the  pro- 
spect of  a  speedy  termination  of  this  important  undertaking 
became  more  and  more  doubtful,  when,  in  the  year  1872,  a 
young  German  scholar,  Dr.  Sachau,  boldly  stepped  into  the 
breach,  and  promised  to  devote  all  his  time  to  this  great 
enterprise.  After  fifteen  years  of  hard  work  he  has  redeemed 
his  pledge.  He  has  given  us  the  Arabic  text  of  Al-Biruni, 
and  he  is  now  engaged  in  printing  an  English  translation 
of  it.  We  doubt  whether  anyone  could  have  been  found 
so  well  qualified  for  the  task.  Dr.  Sachau  has  long  been 
known  as  a  hard-working,  honest,  and  thoroughly  sound 
scholar.  He  stands  in  the  first  rank  among  the  students  of 
Arabic  and  Persian,  and  he  possesses,  at  the  same  time,  a 
fair  knowledge  of  Sanskrit.  He  is  now  one  of  the  brightest 
stars  in  the  Univerity  of  Berlin,  and  has  lately  been  ap- 
pointed there  as  Director  of  the  newly-founded  Imperial 
School  of  Oriental  Languages.  He  was  well  prepared  for 
his  task  by  having  previously  published  another  work  of 
Al-Biruni's,  the  text  and  English  translation  of  "  The 
Chronology  of  Ancient  Oriental  Nations."  Few  people 
can  appreciate  the  enormous  difficulties  of  publishing  for 
the  first  time  an  Oriental  text  like  that  of  Al-Biruni.  Dr. 
Sachau  was,  no  doubt,  more  fortunate  than  his  predeces- 
sors in  securing  a  manuscript  of  Al-Biruni's,  belonging 
to  M.  Schefer,  which  professes  to  have  been  copied  from 
a  copy  in  the  handwriting  of  the  author.  But  even  thus 
the  labour  of  editing  and  translating  such  a  text,  which 
had  never  been  edited  and  translated  before,  was  enor- 
mous. When  speaking  of  the  difficulties  which  he  had 
to  overcome  in  editing  Al-Biruni's  chronological  work, 
Dr.  Sachau  writes  :  "  I  have  boldly  attacked  the  some- 
times rather  enigmatic  style  of  the  author,  and  if  I  have 
missed  the  mark,  if  the  bewildering  variety  and  multi- 
plicity of  the  subject-matter  have  prevented  my  reaching 
the  very  bottom  of  every  question,  I  must  do  what  more 
or  less  every  Oriental  author  does  at  the  end  of  his  work 
—humbly  ask  the  gentle  reader  to  pardon  my  error  and 
correct  it."  There  is  the  true  ring  of  the  bond  fide  scholar 
in  this.  No  one  is  nowadays  considered  a  real  Oriental 
scholar  who  has  not  won  his  spurs  by  an  editio  princeps. 
After  a  text  has  once  been  constituted  by  a  comparison  of 
manuscripts  more  or  less  faulty  ;  after  a  translation  has 
once  been  accomplished,  however  imperfect,  it  is  easy 
enough  to  print  a  new  so-called  critical  edition,  or  a  new 
so-called  improved  translation.  But  the  scholars  who  take 
the  first,  and  the  scholars  who  take  the  second,  step 
belong  to  different  races.  They  differ  as  Columbus  who 
discovered  America  differs  from  the  traveller  who  now 
crosses  the  Atlantic  in  seven  days.  "  Generations  of 
scholars,"  as  Dr.  Sachau  says,  "have  toiled  to  .carry  the 
understanding  of  Herodotus  to  that  point  where  it  now 
is,  and  how  much  is  wanting  still  !  "  To  expect,  there- 
fore, that  Al-Biruni's  text,  as  edited  here  for  the  first  time, 
or  its  translation,  should  be  free  from  mistakes  would 
only  show  a  complete  ignorance  of  the  conditions  under 
which  Oriental  scholars  have  to  work.  There  may  be 
hereafter  better  editions  of  Al-Biruni ;  there  never  can 
be  one  so  creditable  to  its  author  as  this  editio  princeps. 
We  could  have  wished  that  a  work  of  such  importance 
to  students  of  Indian  history  had  been  carried  out  by  an 
English  scholar.  But,  failing  that,  we  have  at  least  the 
satisfaction  that  the  expense  of  publishing  the  Arabic 
original  of  the  "  Indica  "  has  been  generously  defrayed 


by  the  Indian  Government,  following  in  this  respect  the 
noble  example  set  by  the  patron  of  Al-Biruni  himself,  the 
powerful  Sultan  Mahmud  of  Ghazna. 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  WRITINGS   OF  JOSEPH 
HENRY. 

The  Scientific  Writings  of  Joseph  Henry.  Two  Vols. 
8vo,  pp.  1082.  (Washington  :  Smithsonian  Institution, 
1886.) 

UNDER  the  above  title,  two  handsome  volumes  have 
recently  been  published  by  the  Smithsonian  Insti- 
tution, Washington,  containing  the  papers  published  by 
its  late  distinguished  Secretary  in  various  scientific  serials 
through  the  long  period  of  fifty-four  years.  It  is  character- 
istic of  the  man  that,  although  for  thirty-two  of  those  years 
he  had  almost  unrestricted  command  of  the  publishing 
resources  of  that  great  institution,  not  one  of  his  papers  was 
given  to  the  world  through  the  medium  of  the  "  Smith- 
sonian Contributions"  or  "Miscellaneous  Collections," 
or  in  any  way  at  the  expense  of  its  funds.  They  range 
over  a  great  variety  of  subjects,  chiefly  in  electrical 
physics  and  meteorology,  and  in  date  from  1824  to  1878. 

As  may  be  inferred  from  the  earlier  of  these  dates, 
when  Faraday  was  still  an  assistant  to  Sir  Humphry 
Davy,  in  the  laboratory  of  the  Royal  Institution,  and 
Henry  a  private  tutor  in  a  family  at  Albany,  New  York, 
many  of  these  papers  are  reprinted  for  their  historical 
interest  rather  than  for  their  present  scientific  value  ;  but 
his  fellow-countrymen,  in  acknowledging  Faraday's  pre- 
eminence, delight  to  point  out  in  how  many  particulars 
Henry  walked  pari  passu  with  him  in  the  then  nearly 
untrodden  paths  of  electro-magnetism,  under  immense 
relative  disadvantages.  As  early  as  1835,  Henry,  then  a 
Professor  at  Princeton,  New  Jersey,  connected  his  resid- 
ence with  his  laboratory  in  the  Philosophic  Hall  by  a 
telegraph,  in  which  the  galvanic  circuit  was  completed 
through  the  earth — probably  the  first  realization  of  that 
familiar  property  on  which  all  our  telegraph  circuits  are 
now  dependent.  It  was  a  little  later  (in  1842)  that  he 
showed  the  writer  of  this  short  notice,  under  promise  of 
secrecy,  an  experiment  which  at  the  moment  greatly  in- 
terested him.  A  long  bar  of  iron  was  wrapped  in  a  coil 
or  ribbon  of  copper,  half  an  inch  wide  ;  two  copper  wires, 
each  terminating  in  a  small  ball,  were  soldered  to  the 
bar.  On  holding  these  balls  to  the  ears,  and  transmitting 
a  strong  current  through  the  coil,  a  very  distinct  musical 
note  was  heard  each  time  the  current  was  made  or  broken 
He  narrowly  missed  forestalling  Faraday  in  the  gre 
discovery  of  producing  electric  currents  by  the  rotati 
of  an  electro-magnet  or  movement  of  its  armatur 
Henry  caused  an  electro-magnet  of  unusual  power  to 
constructed  in  August  1 831,  with  a  view  to  realizing  hi 
conceptions  on  this  subject.  He  was  at  the  time  accident- 
ally interrupted  in  pursuing  his  experiments,  and  did  not 
resume  them  until  May  or  June  1832 ;  and  in  the  mean- 
time (in  February  1832)  Faraday  had  made  his  inde- 
pendent discovery.1  As  early  as  1843,  Henry  proposed  "a 
new  method  of  applying  the  instantaneous  transmission 
of  an  electrical  action  to  determine  the  time  of  tlv 
passage  of  a  (cannon)  ball  between  two  screens,  plac 

1  Philosophical  Magazine,  April  1832. 


211. 

I 


May  3T.  1 888] 


NATURE 


99 


at  a  short  distance  from  another  in  the  path  of  the 
projectile,"  and  contrived  a  self-recording  apparatus 
reading  to  the  one-thousandth  part  of  a  second.  As  at 
that  time  Hutton  and  the  ballistic  pendulum  reigned 
supreme — and  this  is  not  an  experiment  easily  made  in  a 
laboratory — it  does  not  appear  that  he  carried  it  out. 
Perhaps  the  most  elaborate  of  his  numerous  researches 
is  that  on  the  transmission  of  sound  in  relation  to  fog- 
signalling,  carried  on  at  the  expense  of  the  United  States 
Lighthouse  Board  for  several  years  from  1865  onwards, 
concurrently  with  those  on  which  Prof.  Tyndall  was  at 
that  time  engaged  for  the  Trinity  Board.  That  these 
distinguished  men  did  not  always  meet  with  the  same 
effects,  or  draw  the  same  conclusions  from  them,  is  but  a 
natural  consequence  from  the  extreme  complexity  of  the 
phenomena. 

The  great  work  of  Prof.  Joseph  Henry's  life — in  which 
his  strength  and  calmness  of  judgment,  his  high-minded 
independence  and  self-effacement,  enabled  him  to  achieve 
the  highest  results — was  the  organization  of  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution  upon  its  present  liberal  basis,  in  the 
face  of  not  a  little  opposition  from  persons  of  more 
contracted  views. 

"  These  I's  are  egos,  and  not  oculi"  is  a  line  from  some 
forgotten  squib  which  he  was  wont  to  quote  when  self- 
interest  seemed  to  obscure  the  only  interest  precious  to 
him — that  of  science  in  its  widest  scope,  and  the  advance- 
ment of  human  knowledge.  He  lived  to  see  the  wisdom 
of  his  policy  gratefully  acknowledged  by  his  countrymen 
and  the  scientific  world.  Although  a  very  fertile  inventor, 
and  the  author  of  many  ingenious  contrivances  now  in 
use  to  facilitate  the  working  of  the  electric  telegraph, 
he  never  patented  anything.  In  his  own  words,  he  "did 
not  consider  it  compatible  with  the  dignity  of  science  to 
confine  the  benefits  which  might  be  derived  from  it  to 
the  exclusive  use  of  any  individual."  The  expression  is 
not  carefully  chosen  ;  it  simply  means  that  he  declined  to 
derive  selfish  advantage  from  his  discoveries.  A  very 
brief  and  modest  statement  by  himself  of  what  these  were 
in  relation  to  the  electro-magnetic  telegraph  is  reprinted 
in  vol.  ii.  from  the  Smithsonian  Annual  Report  for  1857. 
In  collecting  and  reprinting  these  papers,  the  Institution 
has  raised  a  worthy  monument  to  Henry's  memory,  and 
made  a  valuable  contribution  to  the  history  of  physical 
science.  J.  H.  L. 

AN  ELEMENTARY  TEXT-BOOK  OF 
PHYSIOLOGY. 
An     Elementary     Text-book     of    Physiology.        By   J. 
McGregor   Robertson,  M.A.,    M.B.,  Senior  Assistant 
in  the  Physiological  Department,  University  of  Glas- 
gow.    350  pp.     (London:  Blackie  and  Son,  1887.) 
T  N   compiling  this  volume   the  author  has  sought   to 
-*-     "present    the    essential    facts    and    principles    of 
physiology,  not  in  a  series  of  disconnected  paragraphs, 
but  woven  into  a  continuous  story."     This  being  so,  we 
look  for    a    readable  book   rather    than    for    the   more 
empirical    treatise    nowadays    predominant  ;     and    the 
the  success  of  the  work  must  consequently  depend,  in 
the  main,  upon  the  manner  in   which  the  narrative  is 
strung   together.       That  the  book  really  is  a  readable 
one  there  can  be  no  doubt,  and   for  style  and  general 


accuracy    it    is  very   satisfactory.      When  we   consider 
the  method  of  arrangement  adopted,  however,  we  must 
confess  that  it  is  disappointing.    The  author  lays  it  down 
as  a  tenet  that  "  we  cannot  properly  understand  the  physio- 
logy of  the  human  body  without  reference  to  the  form 
and  build,  .  .  .  and  thus  we  shall  have  to  note  the  main 
anatomical  facts  regarding  a  part  of  the  body  before  going 
on  to  consider  the  work  which  that  part  does."     Very 
proper,  and  true  to  the  letter.     In  spite  of  this,  however, 
the  reader  is  led  straight  away  into  a  consideration  of 
the   chemical   constitution    of   the    body    as    a    whole. 
Surely  it  would  be  more  logical  to  treat  of  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  several  structural  elements  in  order  of  presen- 
tation, deferring  the  more  general  statements  for  a  final 
re'sumL     A  similarly  dangerous  position  is  approached 
when  the  writer  deals  with  structure  itself.  Chapter  II.  is 
devoted  to  "Elementary  Structures,"  that  is  to  say,  the 
author  discusses  the  structural  unit  before  entering  upon 
a  consideration  of  those  organs  and  tissues  which  are  its 
aggregates.     This  is  an  old  grievance,  and  all  experience 
shows  that  this  method,  though  at  first  sight  apparently 
natural,    is    in   reality   seductive,  if  not  illogical.     It   is 
fair   to   the  author  to   state  that  he   does  not  adopt  it 
throughout.    In  view  of  it,  however,  the  following    state- 
ments are  the  more  unfortunate  :  "  cells  are  little  masses 
of  a  jelly-like  material "  ;   "  usually  the  cell  has  an  outer 
covering  or  membrane,  called  the  cell-wall";  "from  little 
nucleated  masses  of  protoplasm  cells  are  produced,  and 
then  from  cells   all  the  other  textures  of  the  body  are 
derived." 

As  the  work  is  of  a  readable  character,  we  expect, 
furthermore,  to  find  comparisons  and  illustrations  drawn 
from  the  experience  of  daily  life,  and  in  this  we  are  not 
disappointed.  Stock  comparisons,  like  that  of  the  human 
body  with  the  steam-engine,  come  in  as  a  matter  of 
course,  and  in  his  choice  of  novel  ones  the  author  has 
been  very  successful.  Nothing  can,  however,  be  more 
easily  overdone  than  this.  If,  for  example,  the  human 
eye  is  compared  with  the  photographer's  camera,  care 
ought  to  be  taken  to  point  out  in  what  the  two  differ, 
especially  when  considering  the  lens  in  accommodation. 
This  has  not  been  done. 

Taking  the  book  as  a  whole,  the  author  is  to  be  con- 
gratulated, and  especially  so  upon  his  treatment  of  certain 
leading  topics — notably  that  of  diet.  By  far  the  weakest 
parts  of  the  work  are  those  devoted  to  histology.  The 
interminable  striped  muscle  question  is  most  feebly  treated, 
and  who  but  the  author  is  to  know  what  is  meant  by 
the  words  "the  nerve-tubes  end,  it  has  been  seen,  in 
the  (muscle)  fibres"?  The  description  of  a  secreting 
gland  generally  given  is  so  worded  as  to  imply  that 
the  "  basement  membrane "  is  a  leading,  if  not  the 
chief,  constituent  thereof.  These  and  other  defects  re- 
ferred to  in  the  sequel  demand  immediate  attention,  and 
we  would  fain  see  the  elimination  of  such  old  heresies  as 
the  capillary  or  "hair-like  vessel"  and  the  transmission 
of  "  messages "  along  the  nerve-fibre.  There  would 
appear  to  be  a  fatality  in  the  persistency  with  which 
teachers  of  a  certain  class  continue  to  thrust  these  and 
similar  stumbling-blocks  in  the  way. 

This  volume  is  confessedly  designed  for  the  "  require- 
ments of  candidates  for  the  examinations  of  the  Science 
and   Art    Department    and   of  the    Local    Examination 


IOO 


NATURE 


{May  31,  188S 


Boards  of  the  Universities,"  and  the  syllabus  of  the  first- 
named  body  is  appended  to  it.  The  book  thus  finds 
a  place  among  the  legion  of  cram-books  which  now 
threaten  to  overwhelm  us.  The  majority  of  these  are, 
as  everybody  knows,  notoriously  bad,  and  readers  of 
Nature  will  not  need  to  be  reminded  that  strong 
measures  are  being  proposed  for  the  purpose  of  checking 
the  evil  consequent  upon  their  multiplication,  and 
that  of  elementary  text-books  in  general.  Conspicu- 
ous among  these  is  the  recent  proposal  to  establish 
a  Publication  Committee,  whose  members  shall  sit  in 
judgment  on  all  text-books,  with. power  to  suppress  or 
modify  at  will.  With  this  suggestion  we  have  no 
sympathy :  it  is  unscientific  in  principle,  while  its  adop- 
tion would  tend  towards  the  establishment  of  a  con- 
servatism and  narrow  cliquism  greatly  to  be  dreaded. 
The  introduction  of  such  a  measure  would,  in  our  opinion, 
only  serve  to  strengthen  that  spirit  of  popery  which 
threatens  to  invade  certain  branches  of  science  in  our 
own  lands.  The  evil  will  assuredly  work  it's  own  end, 
and,  so  far  as  professed  cram-books  are  concerned,  the 
publication  of  works  of  such  relatively  general  excellence 
as  the  one  before  us  cannot  fail  to  be  a  far  more  potent 
remedy — a  more  natural  one  it  most  certainly  is. 

Chief  among  the  defects  referred  to  above,  as  standing 
in  need  of  revision,  are  the  following.  Too  little  import- 
ance is  throughout  attached  to  the  sources  and  evolution 
of  heat  in  the  animal  economy  ;  the  parts  played  by  the 
muscles  and  liver  need  especial  comment,  and  we  note 
that  in  the  table  of  gains  and  losses  given  no  count  is 
taken  thereof.  The  .  functional  importance  of  the  dia- 
phragm in  the  mechanism  of  respiration  is  over-stated  ; 
on  the  other  hand,  that  of  the  withdrawal  of  water  by  the 
kidney  is  under-stated  as  a  fundamental  of  excretion. 
The  distribution  and  function  of  glycogen  are  insufficiently 
noted.  The  references  to  non-nucleated  cells  (p.  26),  and 
to  the  comparative  anatomy  of  the  central  nervous  system, 
might  well  be  excised  ;  while  the  long  resume  (pp.  255-58) 
of  brain-functions  given  might  be  advantageously  replaced 
by  a  more  concise  description  of  the  actual  facts  deter- 
minable in  a  typical  case.  The  relegation  (p.  48)  of  the 
sutures  of  the  cranial  bones  to  the  category  of  "  imperfect 
joints"  is  groundless. 

Numerous  illustrations  are  employed,  and  of  these 
many  are  new  and  highly  satisfactory.  Figs.  42,  45,  80, 
and  118,  are,  however,  little  short  of  useless.  It  is  a  fact, 
and  not  a  "  view"  that  "  the  life  of  the  body  is  the  sum  of 
the  lives  of  the  individual  cells  composing  it,"  and  it  cannot 
be  said  that  with  the  study  of  the  anatomy  of  the  lungs 
we  begin  our  " view"  of  the  means  of  purification  of  the 
blood. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Evolution  and  its  Relation  to  Religious  Thought.  By 
Joseph  Le  Conte,  Professor  of  Geology  and  Natural 
History  in  the  University  of  California.  (New  York: 
D.  Appleton  ;  London  :   Chapman  and  Hall,  1888.) 

The  title  of  this  book  is  somewhat  misleading.  The  work 
is  in  effect  a  concise  account  of  evolution  and  its  principal 
evidences,  contained  in  253  pages,  supplemented  by  82 
pages  giving  the  author's  views  on  the  relation  of  evolution 
to  materialism,  which  he  rejects,  and  to  several  religious 


questions,  of  which  we  can  only  say  in  these  columns 
that  they  are  dealt  with  in  a  candid  spirit,  on  the  basis 
that  the  law  of  evolution  is  thoroughly  established,  and  is 
indeed  "  a  necessary  condition  of  rational  thought."  The 
exposition  of  evolution  is  well-planned,  the  main  problems 
and  their  significance  and  the  modes  of  proof  being  clearly 
and  simply  set  out,  so  that  the  general  reader  with  a 
modicum  of  knowledge  of  natural  history  may  realize  them 
to  a  considerable  extent.  These  chapters  are  illustrated 
by  a  number  of  well-selected  comparative  figures,  such  as 
the  fore  and  hind  limbs  of  typical  vertebrates,  the 
evolution  of  the  horse  family,  and  the  vascular  system  and 
brain  of  vertebrates.  Prof.  Le  Conte  cordially  accepts 
Mr.  Romanes's  "physiological  selection"  as  the  most 
important  advance  in  the  theory  of  evolution  since 
Darwin  ;  and  it  is  significant  that  this  new  view  should 
have  already  found  a  place  in  a  popular  work  written  by  a 
man  of  science.  It  is,  however,  a  little  hazardous  to 
apply  with  so  much  confidence  a  theory  still  requiring 
proof ;  and  this  appears  to  lead  the  author  to  put  forward 
a  still  less  proven  idea,  not  new  it  is  true,  that  the  steps  of 
evolution  at  certain  times  become  comparatively  rapid,  so 
that  there  may  be  few  generations,  or  perhaps  only 
one,  between  successive  species.  Some  of  the  author's 
statements  are  undesirably,  broad,  as  when  he  says,  "  All 
vertebrates,  and  none  other,  have  a  number  of  their 
anterior  vertebral  joints  enlarged  and  consolidated  into  a 
box  to  form  the  skull,  in  order  to  inclose  and  protect  a 
similar  enlargement  of  the  nervous  centre,  viz.  the  brain." 
Of  course  the  author  is  excluding  Amphioxus,  but  he  does 
not  say  so.  Similarly  the  statement  that  "  by  extensive 
comparison  in  the  taxonomic  and  ontogenic  series  the 
whole  vertebrate  structure  in  all  its  details  in  different 
animals  may  be  shown  to  be  modifications  one  of  another  " 
is  a  little  vague.  But  on  the  whole  the  book  is  sufficiently 
accurate,  and  should  prove  useful. 

Outlines  of  Qualitative  Analysis.  By  George  W.  Slatter, 
Science  Master  at  the  Salt  Schools,  Shipley.  (London  : 
Thomas  Murby,  1888.) 

This  further  addition  to  the  already  large  number  of 
books  on  elementary  analysis  is  compiled  from  the 
author's  laboratory  notes  issued  to  his  students  in  the 
Salt  Schools.  Most  teachers  appear  to  have  a  few  par- 
ticular methods  of  their  own,  and  the  custom  of  writing 
a  book  to  embody  them  seems  to  be  fast  gaining  ground. 
With  the  matter  of  Mr.  Slatter's  book  one  can  find  very 
little  fault ;  but  at  the  same  time,  except  for  the  use  of  his 
own  students,  one  can  scarcely  see  any  reason  why  another 
book  should  be  presented  to  the  public,  when  all  the  facts, 
in  a  much  more  complete  form,  are  already  given  in  most 
of  the  larger  laboratory  guides  now  in  vogue. 

The  majority  of  the  methods  recommended  are  cer- 
tainly well-tried  and  convenient  ones  ;  and  a  very  good 
point  is  the  trouble  taken  in  explaining  the  theory  of  the 
analysis  tables.  Exception,  however,  may  be  taken  to 
Mr.  Slatter's  mode  of  separating  antimony,  and  tin  by  use 
of  Marsh's  apparatus :  while  theoretically  good,  experi- 
ence shows  that  accidents  are  liable  to  happen,  and  this 
is  especially  the  case  among  young  students  ;  hence  the 
platinum  and  zinc  electrolytic  method  is  more  frequently 
preferred.  The  author  seems  also  to  have  a  predilection 
for  the  use  of  nitro-hydrochloric  acid  in  dissolving  the 
sulphides  of  nickel  and  cobalt  in  Group  III.,  while  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  potassium  chlorate  and  hydrochloric 
acid  work  far  better,  there  being  no  danger  of  leaving 
nitrates  in  the  solution. 

The  method  of  analyzing  phosphates  is  one  which  works 
very  well,  and  is  probably  the  best  known.  Similarly  the 
analysis  of  double  cyanides  by  ignition  with  ammonium 
nitrate  and  sulphate  is  the  one  which  in  the  writer's 
opinion  is  both  the  simplest  and  gives  most  satisfactory 
results.  A.  E.  T. 


May  31,  1888] 


NATURE 


ior 


The  Land  of  the  Pink  Pearl.    By  L.  D.  Powles.    (London  : 
Sampson  Low,  1888.) 

Mr.  Powles  served  for  some  time  as  a  circuit  justice  in 
the  Bahama  Islands,  and  in  the  present  volume  he  com- 
municates the  impressions  produced  upon  him  both  by 
the  islands  themselves  and  by  their  inhabitants.  He 
makes  no  profession  of  an  intimate  knowledge  of  any 
branch  of  science,  so  that  the  work  contains  few  elements 
of  interest  that  call  here  for  special  notice.  We  may 
say,  however,  that  the  book  is  written  in  a  lively  and 
agreeable  style,  and  that  the  author  has  brought  together 
much  useful  general  information  about  what  he  calls 
<l  this  obscure  corner  of  Her  Majesty's  dominions."  The 
most  valuable  passages  are  those  in  which  he  deals  with 
the  relations  between  the  white  and  the  coloured  popula- 
tion. His  statements  on  this  subject  are  certainly  not 
lacking  in  vigour,  for  he  speaks  of  the  African  race  in 
the  Bahamas  as  being  "ground  down  and  oppressed  in  a 
manner  which  is  a  disgrace  to  British  rule."  When  Mr. 
Powles  went  to  the  Bahamas,  he  had  an  impression  that 
negroes  were  "intended  by  Nature  to  be  kept  in  subjec- 
tion by  the  whites."  Experience,  however,  led  him  to 
modify  this  extravagant  notion.  Referring  to  the  state- 
ment, so  often  made,  that  "it  is  impossible  to  produce 
anything  by  free  negro  labour,"  he  sensibly  suggests  that 
"  perhaps  if  the  Imperial  Government  would  establish  an 
agricultural  college  and  give  the  coloured  race  in  the 
Bahamas  a  fair  chance,  we  might  see  a  different  state  of 
things."  The  physical  deterioration  of  the  coloured 
people  is,  he  thinks,  sufficiently  accounted  for  by  their 
wretched  food  and  by  the  unhealthy  nature  of  the  places 
in  which  they  are  compelled  to  live.  Curiously  enough, 
Africans  in  the  Bahamas  retain  their  original  tribal 
distinctions ;  and  Mr.  Powles  says  that  every  August 
some  tribes  elect  a  queen  whose  will  on  certain  matters 
is  accepted  as  law. 

A  Treatise  on  Alcohol,  with  Tables  of  Spirit- Gravities. 
By  Thomas  Stevenson,  M.D.  Second  Edition.  (Lon- 
don :  Gurney  and  Jackson,  1888.) 

The  present  edition  of  this  useful  little  work,  originally 
published  under  the  title  of  "Spirit-Gravities,"  contains 
a  critical  account  of  the  various  determinations  of  the 
specific  gravity  of  alcohol,  and  introduces  the  most  recent 
investigations— those  of  Messrs.  Squibb— on  this  subject. 
These  investigations  do  not,  however,  affect  the  accuracy 
of  the  alcoholometric  tables,  which  are  therefore  reprinted 
unchanged. 


LETTERS  TO  THE  ED L TOR. 
[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
of  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations.'] 

The  Dispersal  of  Seeds  by  Birds. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  by  readers  of  Nature  in  various 
parts  of  the  world  that  many  facts  bearing  on  this  matter  may  be 
collected  with  very  little  trouble.  At  Mr.  Thiselton  Dyer's 
suggestion  I  take  this  opportunity  of  supplementing  my  letter  to 
Mr.  Botting  Hemsley  (Nature,  vol.  xxxviii.  p.  40). 

The  frigate-birds,  petrels,  gannets,  boobies,  &c,  that  frequent 
in  numbers  the  guano  islands  of  the  Pacific,  will  present  oppor- 
tunities of  investigating  this  subject  rarely  found  elsewhere.  Not 
only  the  crops,  but  also  the  feathers  and  feet  should  be  examined, 
since  seeds  have  been  sometimes  found  adhering  to  sea-birds  that 
have  been  sitting  on  broken  eggs.  The  industries  connected 
with  the  ocean- ranging  mutton-bird  in  Ba?s's  Straits,  and  with 
the  grebe  in  South  America,  may  afford  other  opportunities. 
The  seal-fisher  in  the  Southern  Ocean,  and  the  sportsman  on 
some  remote  coral  islet,  the  voyager  around  the  Cape,  and  the 


lighthouse-keeper  in  southern  climes,  these  and  many  others 
might  take  a  practical  interest  in  this  subject.  It  is  important 
that  not  only  should  the  seeds  and  fruits  be  preserved  and  sent 
to  Kew,  but  that  the  species  of  bird  should  be  known  ;  and  for 
this  purpose,  where  there  is  any  doubt,  the  wing  or  head  of  the 
bird  might  be  also  .'ent.  H.  B.  Guppy. 

May  27. 

Nose-Blackening  as  Preventive  of  Snow-Blindness. 

As  a  partial  answer  to  Prof.  Ray  Lankester's  inquiry  on 
nose-blackening  as  preventive  of  snow-blindness,  may  I  offer 
some  observations  which  I  have  made  in  my  many  wanderings  in 
the  higher  Alps  in  early  summer,  when  I  have  necessarily  had 
much  experience  of  the  effects  of  snow  on  the  human  body  ? 

But  first  I  should  like  to  draw  attention  to  a  letter  of  the  Hon. 
Ralph  Abercromby  in  Nature  (vol.  xxxiii.  p.  559),  which  he  was 
kind  enoug  h  to  send  me,  relating  some  experiences  on  nose  and 
face  blackening  in  Morocco  to  prevent  sand  glare,  in  Fiji  to 
prevent  water  glare,  and  in  Sikkim  to  prevent  snow  glare.  It 
was  very  curious  that  the  Fijians,  who  ordinarily  painted  their 
faces  white  and  red  for  ornament,  would,  before  going  fishing  on 
the  reefs  in  the  full  glare  of -the  sun,  blacken  them.  Mr.  Aber- 
cromby draws  attention  very  naturally  to  "  the  strange  anomaly  of 
physiological  experience  apparently  contradicting  the  teachings  of 
pure  physics.  Charcoal  black,  which  is  used  in  physical  experi- 
ments as  the  best  absorbent  of  every  kind  of  heat  radiation,  is 
practically  used  by  three  races  at  least,  to  protect  one  of  the  most 
sensitive  human  organs  from  reflected  light  and  heat." 

Experience  has,  I  think,  sufficiently  shown  that  snow-blindness 
and  snow-burn,  or  sunburn  on  snow,  own  the  same  causes  for 
their  production  ;  and,  as  nowadays  both  guides  and  climbers  in 
the  Alps  invariably  take  the  precaution  of  protecting  their  eyes 
with  coloured  spectacles,  snow- blindness  is  rarely  heard  of. 
My  observations  are  almost  entirely  confined  to  the  causes  of 
sunburn. 

It  will,  I  think,  be  readily  conceded  by  Alpine  climbers  that 
sun  on  the  snow  burns  more  quickly  than  on  rocks  or  in  the  heated 
valleys  at  a  lower  elevation.  This  increased  power  of  burning 
appears  somewhat  singular  when  one  reflects  that  the  heat  rays 
must  be  occupied  in  the  melting  of  the  snow,  and  thus  rendered 
latent. 

Iron-workers,  glass-workers,  and  others  are  constantly  exposed 
to  a  heat  of  4000  or  5000  F.,  and  yet  do  not  become  burnt  ;  and 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  enormous  radiation  from  heated 
rocks  and  valleys,  in  addition  to  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun,  make 
up  an  amount  of  heat  far  greater  than  is  ever  experienced  on  even 
a  very  sunny  snow  slope,  and  yet  one  does  not  become  sunburnt. 
No  doubt  the  surface  of  the  snow  reflects  and  disperses  much 
heat,  but  certainly  far  less  than  it  receives,  as  heat  rays  are  ab- 
sorbed and  rendered  latent  by  the  snow-melting  and  evaporation. 
Experience  fully  corroborates  this,  for  one  may  often  lie  on  one's 
back  and  freely  expose  the  face  for  long  periods  to  the  sun  and 
yet  remain  unburnt.  There  must  therefore  be  some  other  factor 
in  sunburn  than  heat  alone. 

In  discussing  the  subject  with  Prof.  Tyndall,  he  added  the 
very  interesting  and  significant  fact  that  he  was  never  more  burnt 
en  snow  than  whilst  experimenting  with  the  electric  light  at  the 
North  Foreland  Lighthouse,  where  there  was  no  heat  sufficient 
to  produce  such  an  effect. 

I  am  aware  that  sometimes,  in  peculiar  conditions  of  the  atmo- 
sphere, the  direct  sun's  rays  will  burn.  I  have  met  with  some 
singular  instances  where  several  persons  have  been  burnt  on  the 
same  day,  even  in  England,  who  had  never  previously  suffered  in 
that  way.  I  am  further  aware  that  sometimes  (not  always)  in  a 
dead  calm  on  a  ship's  deck  one  may  be  severely  burnt,  and  that 
in  boating  on  a  river  the  same  may  occasionally  happen.  Masks 
and  veils  have  been  long  used  as  a  protection  on  snow,  and  are 
more  or  less  successful ;  brown  veils  and  glasses  in  my  experience 
being  the  most  efficient.  As  bearing  upon  this,  I  may  mention 
that  a  friend  of  mine  after  an  ascent  on  snow  had  an  enormously 
swollen  face,  and  I  observed  that  in  the  general  swelling  there 
were  many  pits  or  depressions,  and  that  each  pit  corresponded  to 
a  freckle  :  the  irritating  rays  had  been  intercepted  by  the  brown 
colour  of  the  freckle.  About  the  same  time,  I  encountered  a 
paragraph  in  the  Lancet,  saying  that  a  German  savant  had  been 
experimenting  on  the  effects  of  sunlight  on  the  retina,  and  had 
found  that  it  had  destroyed  the  visual  purple  of  the  retina,  but 
that  the  action  was  modified  by  transmitting  the  sun's  rays  through 
various   coloured   glasses,   and   that  when  transmitted   through 


102 


NA  TURE 


{May  31,  1888 


brown  glass  the  purple  of  the  retina  was  unchanged.  I  have 
never  seen  any  corroboration  of  these  assertions,  but  they  are 
worthy  of  further  consideration.  Stimulated  by  these  observation-, 
I  painted  my  face  brown  with  water-colour,  and  spent  many 
hours  on  the  snow  of  the  Corner  Grat  on  the  same  day  that 
about  eighty  out  of  a  hundred  people  who  were  staying  at  the 
Riffel  Alp  went  up  to  witness  the  first  ascent  of  the  season  of 
Monte  Rosa.  In  the  evening  everyone  except  myself  and  my 
daughter,  who  had  carefully  protected  herself  with  a  brown  veil, 
was  more  or  less  severely  sunburnt,  whilst  the  remaining  visitors, 
who  had  spent  the  day  on  the  rocks  and  mountain-sides  in  the 
full  sun,  were  untouched.  Connected  with  this  is  the  fact  that 
visitors  to  the  Engadine  in  winter  become  extremely  brown,  as 
though  coloured  by  walnut-juice,  whilst  in  summer,  unless  they 
go  on  the  snow,  this  is  not  so,  although  of  course  the  heat  is 
greater.  I  have  been  there  in  winter  and  summer,  and  have  had 
many  opportunities  of  confirming  this  observation.  Then  again 
the  very  brown  colour  of  the  chalets  is  only  to  be  seen  at  high 
altitudes  where  snow  is,  and  even  those  parts  of  the  chdlets 
which  by  their  position  cannot  receive  rays  reflected  from  snow 
do  not  become  brown.  And  over  the  doors  of  these  brown 
chalets  in  which  the  cows  are  kept  the  wood  is  invariably  white 
and  colourless  just  at  that  part  which  would  always  have,  steam- 
ing up,  the  warm  moist  breath  of  the  cows,  and  by  this  moisture 
the  reflected  rays  would  be  intercepted.  I  think  that  all  these 
observations  bear  upon  and  are  related  to  the  question  raised  by 
Prof.  Ray  Lankester. 

I  have  made  many  other  experiments  and  observations,  but 
for  brevity's  sake  I  omit  them,  as  I  think  I  have  said  enough 
to  show  that  the  subject  is  a  large  one,  and  worthy  of  con- 
sideration. In  a  comment  on  Mr.  Abercromby's  letter  above- 
mentioned,  Petrie  says,  "  We  should  not  look  at  the  surface  skin, 
which  is  constructed  to  bear  local  variations  of  temperature,  &c. , 
but  at  the  delicate  tissues  beneath.  White  skin,"  he  adds,  "is 
translucent,  but  black  stops  out  solar  energy."  It  is  possible 
that  sunlight  reflected  from  snow  may  have  an  influence  in  pro- 
ducing the  improved  health  of  consumptives  who  remain  in  the 
Engadine  in  winter,  and  Mr.  Abercromby  reminds  me  that  the 
quality  of  heat  which  causes  snow-burnt  is  not  that  which  causes 
sun-stroke.  Sun-stroke  is  very  rare  (if  known  at  all)  on  mount- 
ains. Equatorial  countries — Ceylon,  Borneo,  West  Indies,  &c. — 
are  not  the  worst  for  sun-stroke ;  but  sub-tropical  and  semi-tropical 
dry  countries,  such  as  Scinde,  North-West  Bengal,  United  States, 
Italy,  &c. 

He  also  says  that  photography  is  much  slower  in  equatorial 
than  in  these  latter  countries.  The  cause  undoubtedly  is  the 
absorption  of  violet  and  ultra-violet  rays  by  water  vapour,  which 
is  in  excess  near  the  Line.  Photography  is  rapid — except  for  blue 
sky — at  high  altitudes.  Robert  L.  Bowles. 

Folkestone,  May  23. 

Mysterious  Sky  Lights. 

On  turning  over  some  back  volumes  of  Nature  in  search  of 
information  concerning  the  spectrum  of  the  zodiacal  light,  I 
have  discovered  something  which  appears  to  be  interesting  and 
suggestive,  viz.  several  communications  describing  what  the 
writers  supposed  to  be  abnormal  displays  of  the  zodiacal  light, 
displays  occurring  at  the  wrong  time,  i.e.  near  to  the  periods  of 
the  solstices  instead  of  those  of  the  equinoxes,  and  displays 
having  the  wrong  shape,  lacking  the  conical  outline,  but  never- 
theless nearly  in  the  right  place.  The  most  interesting  of  these 
letters  are  from  Mr.  Maxwell  Hall,  and  dated  from  Jamaica. 
He  was  so  much  exercised  by  the  heterodoxy  of  the  appearances 
he  observed  that  he  suggested  a  new  theory,  and  illustrated  it  by 
a  diagram  on  p.   204  of  vol.  vii. 

He  fays  in  this  letter  that  "for  several  nights  lately  the 
zodiacal  light  has  been  exceedingly  bright  and  well-defined,  and 
more  particularly  on  the  nights  of  November  24  and'  27  ;  on  the 
evening  of  the  24th  I  found  an  explanation  of  what  had  often 
perplexed  me  before,  viz.  the  existence  of  a  faint,  isolated  band 
of  light  across  the  zenith,  but  as  soon  as  it  was  dark  in  the 
evening,  the  zodiacal  light  was  distinctly  seen  to  stretch  across 
the  tvhole  sky,  forming  that  faint  band  of  light  previously  ob- 
served ;  I  then  began  to  note  its  position,  but  the  best  observations 
tvere  made  on  the  night  of  the  2Jth,  when  it' was  most  distinct." 

The  italics  in  the  above  are  mine.  The  dates  given,  November 
24  and  27,  1872,  are  those  of  the  remarkable  meteoric  shower 
supposed  to  be  connected  with  the  lost  comet,  Biela.  The 
grandest   display  was   on   the   27th.     May  not  the  luminosity 


stretching  "across  the  sky"  have  been  due  to  sunlight  reflected 
from  the  meteoric  matter  lying  outside  of  the  earth's  atmosphere  ? 
Such  a  spurious  zodiacal  light  does  not  demand  our  actual  plung- 
ing into  the  meteoric  stream  producing  it,  but  should  be 
observable  whenever  such  a  stream  exists  between  us  and  the 
sun,  its  apparent  breadth  varying  with  its  actual  breadth  and  its 
proximity  to  the  earth. 

On   p.   85  of  the   same   volume  is  a  diagram  of   the    Biela 


^^rth^_£?^( 


meteor-path  showing  its  relation  to  the  earth's  orbit  and  to  the  sun. 
From  this,  reprinted  above,  it  is  evident  that  the  meteors  should  dis- 
play a  spurious  zodiacal  light  at  the  time  named,  and  on  to  that  of 
the  winter  solstice,  and  later.  In  vol.  xi.  of  Nature,  p.  115, 
reference  is  made  to  a  letter  from  Mr.  Hind,  dated  December  7, 
1874,  in  which  he  points  out  "  that  the  zodiacal  light  has  been 
conspicuous  for  the  last  few  evenings  ;  and  for  several  years  past 
this  phenomenon  has  been  much  more  marked  in  December  and 
January  than  about  the  vernal  equinox." 

The  pages  of  Nature  and  those  of  some  of  the  older  volumes 
of  the  Gentleman' s  Magazine  contain  many  records  of  mysterious 
streaks  and  bands  and  "pillars"  of  light  seen  after  sunset, 
variously  ascribed  to  zodiacal  light,  to  aurora  borealis,  celestial 
phosphorescence,  &c.  If  I  am  right  in  assigning  the  spurious 
zodiacal  light  of  the  period  above  named  to  the  Biela  meteors, 
careful  observations  of  such  celestial  luminosity  in  relation  to 
other  well-known  meteor-streams  may  be  very  frui  ful. 

The  Grange,  Neasden.  .       W.  Mattieu  Williams. 


Curious  Apparent  Motion  of  the   Moon  seen  in 
Australia. 

Can  any  of  your  readers  explain  the  phenomenon  described  in 
the  following  extract  from  a  letter  received  from  my  daughter 
residing  in  Maryborough,  Queensland,  Australia  : — 

"  We  saw  such  a  curious  phenomenon  on  Sunday  night,  about 

10.30.  Miss  C ,-Miss  H ,  and  I  were  sitting  in  the  balcony, 

when  we  noticed  the  moon  apparently  dancing  up  and  dozun.  It 
is  on  the  wane,  so  looked  so  extraordinary.  The  motion  was 
visible  only  when  she  was  behind  a  narrow  stratum  of  cloud, 
and  continued  at  intervals  for  thirty  minutes.  I  felt  quite  sea- 
sick with  watching  it,  and  Miss  H.  was  so  frightened  ;  she  thought 
there  might  be  an  earthquake  coming,  so  went  to  bed  in  her 
clothes  to  be  ready  for  an  emergency.  Our  house  would  soon 
fall  in  an  earthquake,  its  walls  are  thin,  and  no  cellars." 

I  presume  the  phenomenon  is  connected  with  the  varying,  re- 
frangibility  of  the  atmosphere,  perhaps  arising  from  the  mixing 
of  hot  and  cold  air  ;  but  should  be  glad  of  further  information. 

T.  Mellard  Reade. 

Park  Corner,  Blundellsands,  May  27. 


Another  Specimen  of  Lepidosiren  paradoxa. 
It  may  interest  some  of  your  readers  to  know  that  I  have 
lately  received  another  specimen  of  this  rare  fish  from  my  friend 
Dr.  J.  Barbosa  Rodriguez,  the  energetic  Director  of  the  Museu 
Botanico  do  Amazonas  at  Manaos.  This  is  the  fifth  specimen 
known.  A  short  notice  of  the  fourth  specimen,  an  adult  female  of 
large  size,  caught  in  the  Igarape  do  Aterro  near  Manaos,  also  pre- 


May  $\,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


103 


sented  to  me  by  Dr.  Barbosa  Rodriguez,  appeared  in  Nature 
more  than  a  year  ago  (vol.  xxxv.  p.  343).  Dr.  Rodriguez  pub- 
lished a  note  on  that  specimen  in  the  Jornal  do  Cowmereio  of 
Rio  de  Janeiro  for  October  15,  1886.  I  state  this  as  his  note 
might  easily  be  overlooked,  not  having  appeared  in  a  scientific 
periodical. 

The  last  specimen  received  was  caught  at  Autaz  near  the 
Madeira  River  in  September  1887  ;  it  came,  Dr.  Rodriguez 
writes,  from  a  mud-pool,  whence  it  issued  forth  wriggling  on  the 
mud  during  rain-storms.  My  friend  received  it  dead  and  in  a 
state  of  incipient  decomposition  ;  he  did  all  he  could  to  insure 
its  preservation,  but  when  it  reached  me  all  I  could  save  was 
the  skeleton  and  portions  of  the  skin  and  tougher  muscles. 
These  I  have  put  in  strong  alcohol  for  future  study.  This 
specimen  is  considerably  smaller  than  the  one  previously 
received,  being,  as  far  as  I  can  judge,  about  0:11.  400  millim.  in 
length. 

At  Autaz  this  fish  is  called  Trayra-boia,  or  Turum-boia  ;  the 
latter  name  is  onomatopoeic  for  Turum,  which  expresses  the  grunt 
made  by  the  fish,  and  boia  means  "snake."  On  the  Rio  Mahu,  an 
affluent  of  the  Rio  Branco,  Dr.  Rodriguez  tells  me  that  the  name 
of  this  fish  in  the  Makuchy  dialect  is  Aramo. 

Henry  H.  Giglioli. 

Royal  Zoological  Museum,  Florence,  May  22. 


Dreams. 


Mr.  R.  L.  Stevenson,  in  his  "Chapter  on  Dreams"  in 
Scribners  Magazine  for  January  last,  brings  forward  one  difficult 
point  that  must  have  puzzled  many  dreamers  besides  himself. 
The  point  is  that  the  dreamer  is  often  in  the  position  of  an 
ignorant  onlooker,  who,  only  when  the  plot  or  story  is  complete, 
sees  the  drift  and  motive  of  the  different  incidents  that  have  been 
enacted  before  his  eyes  by  what  Mr.  Stevenson  calls  "  the  Little 
People  who  manage  man's  internal  theatre." 

Perhaps  it  is  one  step  further  on  in  the  puzzle  to  have  the 
interpretation  only  vouchsafed  to  one  after  awaking  ;  and  the 
following  example  may  be  of  some  interest. 

Much  of  my  dreaming  goes  on  in  the  form  of  reading  ;  and  it 
once  happened  to  me  to  awake  while  looking  at  the  outside  of  a 
pamphlet  I  dreamt  I  was  holding.  I  saw  it  vividly  enough 
before  me  ;  it  had  a  mud-coloured  cover,  and  the  title  was 
printed  on  it  in  plain  Roman  capitals  :  "  Food,  or  the  astrology 
of  every  day."  "But  this  is  nonsense,"  I  thought ;  until,  still 
having  a  vivid  view  of  the  title  before  me,  I  observed  that  the 
rough  brown  paper  had  been  rubbed  up  after  the  word  "  the," 
and  that  there  was  a  wide  gap  between  it  and  the  "astrology." 
Evidently  a  letter  was  missing,  and  I  at  once  conjectured  th.it 
the  word  had  been  printed  "  gastrology. "  But  this  I  did  not 
arrive  at  till  I  was  wide  awake. 

I  come  back  to  Mr.  Stevenson's  query,  "  Who  are  the  Little 
People?"  and  how  comes  their  amazing  independence  of  their 
employers?  E.  H. 


Strange  Rise  of  Wells  in  Rainless  Season. 

A  house  near  Fareham,  standing  in  its  own  grounds,  is 
principally  supplied  with  water  by  two  wells,  about  16  feet  deep. 
They  are  usually  quite  full  in  winter,  and  gradually  empty  before 
autumn.  Owing  to  the  small  amount  of  rain  last  winter,  the 
beginning  of  March  found  the  wells  with  only  3  feet  and  2  feet 
of  water  respectively  :  when,  after  a  continuance  of  north-east 
wind,  without  rain,  but  with  half  a  gale  blowing,  the  water  in 
these  wells  rose  14  feet  and  12  feet. 

Can  you  or  any  of  your  readers  explain  this  mystery?  There 
is  a  tradition  in  the  neighbourhood  that  it  is  customary  with  the 
wells  in  the  district  to  rise  with  a  heavy  gale  even  without  rain  ; 
and  a  similar  phenomenon  has  been  observed  before  by  my 
informant.  E.  II. 

May  23.  

Milk  v.   Lightning. 

In  Emin  Pasha's  letter  published  in  Nature  (vol.  xxxvii. 
p.  583),  the  Sudan  Arabs  are  said  to  have  a  superstition 
that  fire  kindled  by  a  flash  of  lightning  cannot  be  extinguished 
until  a  small  quantity  of  milk  has  been  poured  upon  it.  A 
similar  belief  seems  to  have  existed  formerly  in  this  country. 
The  earliest  register-book  of  this  parish  contains  the  following 
note  : — 


"  In  the  yeare  of  our  Lord  1601  and  uppon  ye  14  day  of  May 
beinge  thursday  ther  was  great  thundringe  and  lightninge  and 
ye  fyer  descendinge  from  heaven  kindled  in  a  white-thorne  bush 
growinge  neere  to  a  mudd-wall  in  Brook-street  westward  from 
Thomas  Wake  his  house,  it  burned  and  consumed  ye  bush  and 
tooke  into  ye  wall  about  on  yeard  then  by  milke  brought  in 
tyme  it  was  quenched  and  it  did  noe  more  hurl." 

John  Cyprian  Rust. 

The  Vicarage,  Soham,  Cambridgeshire,  May  23. 


The  Renewed  Irruption  of  Syrrhaptes, 

Mr.  Sclater  having  requested  me  to  contribute  to  The  l/ns 
an  account  of  the  present  visitation  of  Syrrhaptes  similar  to  that 
which  I  compiled  for  that  journal  in  1864,  I  would  ask  for  in- 
formation on  the  subject  to  be  sent  to  me,  and  especially  cuttings 
from  foreign  newspapers,  the  name  of  the  publication  and  the 
date  being  always  indicated  thereon.  I  must  add  that  I  do  trust  my 
task  will  not  be  the  unpleasant  one  of  merely  recording  senseless 
slaughter.  In  1863  the  species  bred  both  in  Denmark  and  in 
Holland.  There  is  no  reason  why  it  should  not,  if  unmolested, 
breed  this  year  in  many  parts  of  Britain.  The  visitations  of 
1872  and  1876  were  of  insignificant  proportions,  but  that  of  the 
present  year  would  seem  to  be  of  considerable  magnitude,  and 
sanguine  hopes  might  be  entertained  as  to  the  result  if  the  • 
malign  influence  of  the  "  collector "  could  be  neutralized  or 
withstood.  Alfred  Newton. 

Magdalene  College,  Cambridge,  May  27. 


"The  Shell-Collector's  Hand-book  for  the  Field." 

As  your  reviewer  (Nature,  May  17,  p.  51)  has  shown  that  the 
little  book  which  bears  the  above  title  is  certainly  worth  a  large 
share  of  "  powder  and  shot,"  I  may,  in  all  fairness,  be  allowed 
to  reply  to  those  strictures  made  by  him  which  are  the  most  unfair, 
and  which  I  consider  warrant  a  reply  from  me.  In  the  first  place, 
it  is  quite  apparent  that  he  has  never  used  the  "Authenticated 
British  List "  published  by  the  Conchological  Society,  where  he 
would  have  found  Clausilia  parvula,  C.  solida,  and  Zonites 
draparnaldi  excluded,  doubtless,  on  reliable  authority  ;  while 
Bulimiis  Goodallii,  Vertigo  turnida,  and  Platiorbis  dilatatus  are 
included,  also,  doubtless,  on  reliable  authority,  as  recognized 
members  of  the  British  fauna,  even  if  they  be  "casuals."  He 
has  also,  it  is  quite  apparent,  never  read  Prof.  Macalister's 
"Introduction  to  Animal  Morphology,"  where  he  will  find  it 
stated  on  p.  286  that  "the  operculum  has  always  more  conchiolin 
in  its  composition  than  the  shell  whose  mouth  it  closes."  He 
does  not  know,  it  is  also  quite  apparent,  that  Pisidium  and 
Sphjerium  are  British  fresh-water  mussels,  and  siphonated  British 
fresh- water  mussels  too,  there  being  one  siphon  in  the  former  and 
two  in  the  latter  genus  (cp.  the  description  of  these  genera  in 
Westerlund's  "  Fauna  of  Sweden  and  Denmark  ").  He  can 
scarcely  know  that  the  epiphragm  has  been  called  by  some  authors 
(as  instance  Macalister)  the  clausilium  ;  and  although  recognizing 
this  on  p.  5  of  my  "  Hand-book,"  I  have  described  in  a  footnote 
to  the  genus  Clausilium  (p.  44)  the  only  structure  which  we 
recognize  to-day  under  that  name.  He  does  not  know,  it  is 
evident,  that  Prof.  Milnes  Marshall  ("  Practical  Zoology,"  p.  106) 
states  that  "the  perio?tracum  or  outer  layer  is  horny  and 
uncalcified.  To  it  the  colour  of  the  shell  is  due,"  and  that  "the 
middle  layer"  "is  densely  calcified,  and  has  an  opaque 
porcellanous  appearance."  And  he  scarcely  knows  that  in 
Huxley  and  Martin's  "Course  of  Elementary  Instruction  in 
Practical  Biology,"  p.  274,  the  aperture  of  the  shell  is  spoken  of 
as  the  peritreme  and  not  as  the  peristome,  and  that  in  the  majority 
of  works  on  comparative  anatomy  it  is  also  solely  mentioned 
under  that  name.  I  think  it  also  my  duty  to  tell  your  reviewer 
that  the  teeth- formulae  were  not  copied  from  Lanke-ter,  as  he 
supposes,  but  from  Woodward,  and  that  upon  comparison  I  find 
the  copy  correct  (cp.  Jeffrey  Bell,  "Comparative  Anatomy  and 
Physiology,"  p.  136). 

In  the  second  place,  with  regard  to  those  other  strictures 
which  I  can  characterize  by  no  other  name  than  mere  whims. 
It  is  a  mere  whim,  for  instance,  to  consider  Auodonta  anatiiia  as 
a  variety  of  A.  eyguea,  since  such  has  never  yet  been  generally 
recognized.  It  is  a  mere  whim  to  believe  that  Achatina  acicula 
should  be  Cacilianella  acicula  :  Bulimus  acutns  should  be  Helix 
(Coelilicella)  acuta;  Zonites  should  be  /fya/iuia,"  and  I  had 
rather  remain  with  my  old  system  of  nomenclature  than  get  so 


io4 


NA  TURE 


[May  31,  1888 


inextricably  entangled  in  the  medley  of  new  systems  made  by 
Continental  workers,  all  of  which  systems  differ  the  one  from 
the  other  as  "  chalk  from  cheese."  It  is  a  mere  whi;n  to  imagine 
that  chapters  on  "The  Anatomy  of  a  Snail "  and  "  The  Anatomy 
of  a  Fresh-water  Mussel  "  should  have  been  excluded  since  the 
basis  of  systematic  zoology  is  anatomy.  And  it  is  a  mere  whim 
to  cavil  at  the  inclusion  of  the  vars.  minor,  maxim  1,  and  "  albida," 
(exalbida,  if  you  please,  Mr.  Reviewer,  for  so  was  it  named  by 
Menke),  and  the  monstrosity  sinistrorsttm  of  Helix  aspersa,  since 
Dr.  Gwyn  Jeffreys  and  Moquin-Tandon  have  named  varieties  and 
used  variety-names,  and  since  Prof.  E.  von  Martens,  than  whom 
no  better  conchologist,  expressly  mentions  that  "it  is  certainly 
desirable  that  every  local  form,  well-marked  zoologically  or 
geographically,  should  have  a  distinct  name. "  And  may  I  turn 
a  reviewer  on  my  own  book,  and  ask  myself  how  it  is  that  I  did 
not,  as  your  reviewer  desires,  give  the  localities  for  every 
species,  and  make  the  book  costly,  and,  by  so  doing,  take 
it  away  from  the  reach  of  the  poorer  classes  ?  Why  also  did  I 
not  give  the  definite  localities  for-the  now  local  species,  when  I 
considered  rightly  that  some  of  them  may  turn  up  in  other,  and, 
perhaps,  far  distant  spots  to  those  now  known  ?  In  conclusion, 
I  would  point  out  to  your  reviewer — for  I  must  not  occupy  your 
valuable  space  to  any  greater  extent — that  as  there  is  a  virtue  in 
the  every-day  affairs  of  this  our  mundane  life  which,  to  quote 
Seneca,  is  "  the  only  immortal  thing  that  belongs  to  mortality," 
so,  as  certainly,  is  there  a  virtue  in  right  reviewing  which  is  quite 
as  exacting  and  quite  as  important  to  always  bear  in  one's 
remembrance.  J.  W.  Williams. 

51  Park  Village  East,  N.W. 


In  reviewing  Dr.  Williams's  little  book,  I  wished  not  merely 
to  point  out  the  author's  mistakes,  but  to  guard  young  concho- 
logists,  to  whom  the  book  is  addressed,  from  placing  too  great 
reliance  on  the  statements  it  contains. 

I  felt  also  convinced  that  the  author  was  not  practically  con- 
versant with  his  subject ;  indeed,  that  his  knowledge  was  purely 
derivative,  and  this  the  foregoing  letter  fully  confirms. 

I  will  not  occupy  space  with  a  detailed  criticism  on  the  author's 
method  of  compilation,  but  will  simply  refer  to  a  single  instance, 
quoted  to  show  his  want  of  care  in  referring  to  the  original 
sources  of  information,  so  needful  in  such  a  task.  The  method 
of  numeration  of  the  tooth-formula,  referred  to  by  me  as  incorrect 
at  p.  7  of  the  "Hand-book,"  is  now  justified  by  the  author, 
who  quotes  Woodward  as  his  authority  ;  but  upon  referring 
to  my  brother's  "Manual"  I  find  that  my  statement  was 
fully  justified  by  the  fact  that  the  quotation  is  not  correct, 
it  having  been  taken  by  Dr.  Williams  from  Prof.  Jeffrey  Bell's 
"Comparative  Anatomy,"  where  my  brother's  name  is  given  as 
the  authority  for  the  instances  quoted,  and  not  for  the  whole 
paragraph  to  which  it  is  appended,  and  which  does  not  appear 
in  his  book.  To  the  second  part  of  Dr.  Williams's  whimsical 
letter  I  feel  sure  it  is  needless  to  reply. 

Henry  Woodward. 

129  Beaufort  Street,  S.W.,  May  28. 


Freaks  of  Nature. 

I  INCLOSE  a  letter  from  my  grandson  Charles,  a  boy,  son  of 
St.  Vincent  Erskine,  the  explorer,  with  whose  travels  you  are 
probably  acquainted. 

This  singular  instance  of  a  change  in  the  habits  of  birds, 
consequent  on  the  advance  of  civilization,  is  extremely  important 
and  interesting,  as  it  evinces  almost  reasoning  powers  and 
adaptation  of  habits  to  circumstances.  As  you  are  aware,  some 
birds  in  South  Africa  build  their  nests  on  the  pendant  boughs 
of  willow-trees  as  a  defence  against  snakes  and  iguanas. 

These  willows,  like  other  trees  in  Natal,  are  rapidly  becoming 
scarcer,  as  they  are  cut  down,  whilst  the  bo/s  who  take  the  nests 
increase.  This  is,  no  doubt,  the  cause  of  the  birds  changing 
their  nests  to  the  telegraph-wires,  where  they  are  also  safer  from 
their  natural  enemies. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  whether  similar  instances 
occur  elsewhere.  D.  Erskine. 

47  Gratton  Road,  Kensington,  May  25. 

P.S. — It  is  remarkable  also  that  the  hole  is  at  the  side  instead 
of  the  bottom,  showing  that  the  bird  was  aware  that  the  situation 
was  snake -proof.  Darwin  would  have  been  glad  of  this  proof 
of  evolution. 


While  watching  the  landscape  of  Natal  between  Ladysmith 
and  Pietermaritzburg  .from  a  Natal  Government  Railway 
carriage,  I  saw  some  nests  of  the  "  golden  weaver  "  bird.  There 
were  four  of  them  hanging  in  a  row,  close  together.  They  were 
the  round  kind,  without  the  long  arm.  On  one  of  the  nests  sat 
a  cock  weaver  bird,  but  I  saw  no  hens. 

The  nests  seemed  to  be  one  or  two  years  old,  except  one, 
which  was  greener  than  the  others,  and  most  certainly  one  of 
this  season's.  The  chief  peculiarity  seemed  to  lie  in  the  fact 
that  the  birds  had  woven  grass  round  the  wire  for  some  six  or 
eight  inches,  and  two  or  three  inches  in  circumference,  before 
beginning  to  make  the  nest,  and  that  the  bird  had  to  deal  with 
a  horizontal  wire  instead  of  a  vertical  stick  or  a  branch.  The 
bird  always  twists  the  grass  round  the  branch  (if  he  builds  on  a 
vertical  twig)  for  some  way  up  among  the  leaves  and  stalks, 
leaving  the  long  ends  free,  thus  forming  his  foundation.  Weavers 
prefer  to  build  on  trees  where  the  long  slender  twigs  droop  to- 
wards the  ground,  and  so  afford  a  nice  vertical  slender  support. 
They  are  especially  fond  of  the  weeping-willow,  whose  slender 
switches  generally  branch  off  into  two  small  shoots  at  the  end  : 
between  these  the  bird  loves  to  build  his  nest.  Besides,  the 
willow  has  lots  of  leaves  very  near  together,  and  so  holds  the 
straws  very  well.  On  the  wire  he  had  no  such  support,  but  had 
to  trust  to  his  own  ingenuity  to  overcome  the  novel  situation, 
which  task  he  seems  to  have  accomplished  very  well. 

The  entrance  to  these  nests  was  not  at  the  bottom,  as  usual, 
but  by  a  hole  in  the  side,  and  all  the  nests  did  not  look  the  same 
way. 

I  suppose  there  was  only  one  nest  a  season  or  two  ago,  with 
a  single  pair  of  birds  ;  soon  we  shall  have  a  long  string,  or 
rather  wire,  of  these  ingeniously  built  homes  with  their  happy 
quarrelsome  occupants,  making  enough  noise  to  stop  all  the 
messages  ever  sent  that  way.  They  will  hear  all  the  "  Govern- 
ment" secrets  :  then  we  will  be  able  to  say  truly,  "  A  little  bird 
told  me."  C.  H.  Erskine, 


WHIRLWINDS,   WATERSPOUTS,  STORMS, 
AND  ROTATING  SPHERES.1 

IT  is  often  necessary,  in  many  branches  of  science,  to 
halt  in  our  steady  progress  along  the  beaten  roads  of 
induction,  and  say,  "  Fiat  experimentum."  We  may  not 
always  be  able  by  this  means  to  reproduce  exactly  all  the 
physical  conditions  of  the  phenomenon,  we  are  investigat- 
ing, or  to  evolve  a  test  crucial  enough  to  enable  us  to  decide 
between  rival  hypotheses.  Nevertheless,  the  power  we 
thus  gain,  especially  in  the  case  of  an  atmospheric  pheno- 
menon, of  seeing  the  entire  system  of  action  in  a  coup 
a" ceil,  of  gauging  its  relative  proportions,  and  of  examining 
its  dependence  and  effects  on  its  entourage,  can  hardly  be 
over-rated. 

Such  would  appear  to  have  been  M.  Weyher's  object 
in  the  delicate  and  ingenious  experiments  which  he  has 
so  skilfully  elaborated  and  described  in  the  pamphlet  of 
91  pages  before  us. 

The  physical  theory  of  atmospheric  eddies,  including  the 
rotating  flat  dis'c  or  cyclone,  and  the  rotating  column 
which  manifests  itself  as  a  tornado,  waterspout,  or  dust- 
whirl,  according  to  variations  in  its  intensity  and  surround- 
ing circumstances,  has  lately  been  developed  to  an  extent 
not  generally  known,  principally  by  Ferrel,  Sprung,  Ober- 
beck,  and  Marchi.  It  is  therefore  decidedly  satisfactory 
to  those  who  believe  in  the  progress  of  meteorology  by 
rational  theory  and  deduction,  to  find  that  the  motions 
exhibited  in  M.  Weyher's  experiments,  in  which  the  con- 
ditions in  Nature  are  very  fairly  imitated,  agree  in  every 
point  with  those  which  have  been  deduced  from  their 
physical  theory. 

Theory,  for  example,  shows  that  a  tornado  is  due 
primarily  to  an  unstable  condition  of  saturated  air,  ac- 
companied by  a  gyrating  motion  (which  may  initially  be 
very    small,  and  which  is  practically  always  present  to 

,  «  "  Sur  les   Tourb  lions,    Trombes,  Tempetes,   et    Spheres    Tournantes ; 
Etude  et  Experiences."     Par  C.  L.  Weyher.     (Paris,  1887.) 


May  z\,  i838] 


NATURE 


105 


some  extent,  owing  to  the  earth's  rotation),  relative  to 
some  central  point.1 

Given  these  conditions,  the  rest  follow  as  necessary 
consequences,  viz.  (1)  a  current  ascending  up  the  axis, 
combined  with  rapid  rotation  round  it ;  (2)  a  hyperboloidal 
funnel  of  rarefied  air  tapering* downwards,  and  reaching 
the  earth  when  the  action  is  powerful,  round  the  sides  of 
which  a  condensed  vapour-,  or  so-called  water-spout,  should 
usually  prevail,  owing  to  the  sudden  rarefaction  of  the  air 
entering  the  central  area  through  the  sides  or  at  the  base, 
with  the  consequent  lowering  of  the  plane  of  condensation 
from  the  cloud-level  which  it  usually  occupies.  When, 
therefore,  it  is  said  that  "  a  waterspout  is  simply  the  cloud 
brought  down  to  the  earth  by  the  rapid  gyratory  motion 
of  the  tornado," 2  it  is  not  meant  that  the  cloud  is  actually 
carried  downwards  by  an  aerial  current,  since  by  theory 
the  motion  is  precisely  in  the  opposite  direction  ;  but  that 
the  conditions  of  condensation  are  propagated  downwards 
from  the  cloud-stratum  where  they  first  commence. 
Neglect  of  this  consideration,  as  well  as  the  physical  fact 


that  condensation  can  only  occur  under  most  exceptional 
circumstances  in  a  downward  current,  has  led  to  many 
false  deductions  from  apparent  circumstances. 

Theory,  moreover,  indicates  that  the  current  up  the 
axis,  together  with  gyration  round  it,  which,  by  the  con- 
servation of  rotational  momentum,  may  become  exceed- 
ingly rapid  as  the  air  approaches  it,  must  combine  to  give 
a  spiral  character  to  the  movement  near  the  axis,  while 
the  conditions  of  continuity  equally  demand  that  there 
should  be  a  compensatory  descending  current  somewhere 
in  the  vicinity,  gyrating  spirally  in  the  same  sense,  and  of 
only  moderate  velocity,  owing  to  its  greater  distance  from 
the  axis. 

At  the  base  of  a  tornado,  or  its  milder  form  of  water- 
spout, there  should  also  be  a  rising  up  of  the  water  at  sea, 
or  of  light  objects  on  land,  which  are  supported  by  the 
ascending  current  until  their  collision  or  size  carries  them 
outside  the  central  area,  when  they  fall  back  to  the  earth, 
or  to  points  where  they  are  again  brought  within  the 
influence  of  the  whirl-currents.     These  and  many  other 


Fig.  i. 


minor  characteristics  of  tornadic  action  are  confirmed  and 
illustrated  by  M.  Weyher's  experiments. 

M.  Weyher  commences  by  examining  the  conditions 
which  prevail  in  an  eddy  produced  in  water,  either  by  an 
outflow  through  a  sluice,  or  a  momentary  rotation  im- 
parted by  the  stroke  of  an  oar.  In  the  former  case  the 
motion  is  well  known,  but  in  the  latter  it  is  somewhat 
new  to  find  that  besides  the  rotation  round  a  vertical  axis 
there  is  an  interchanging  vertical  motion  such  that  each 
particle  describes  a  descending  helix  down  the  axis  of  the 
whirl,  and  ascends  in  a  helix  of  the  same  sense  to  regain 
the  surface. 

Fig.  1  shows  the  same  circulation  produced  by  the 
revolution  of  a  tourniquet,  A. 

If  this  figure  be  looked  at  upside  down,  it  substantially 

1  Sergeant  Finley  found,  in  his  review  of  600  tornadoes  in  the  United 
States,  that  the  direction  of  rotation  round  the  axis  was  invariably  cyclonic, 
or  against  watch-hands  ("Signal  Service  Notes,"  No.  xii.  p.  10). 

-  "  Recent  Advances  in  Meteorology  "  (p.  301),  by  W.  Ferrel.  (Washing- 
ton, 1885. 


depicts  what  is  believed  to  be  the  motion  of  the  air  in  a 
whirlwind,  waterspout,  or  tornado,  and  is  precisely  similar 
to  what  is  found  to  be  the  motion  round  those  artificially 
produced  by  M.  Weyher. 

The  important  point  to  notice  with  respect  to  the 
water  eddies,  which  are  introduced  mainly  to  show  their 
analogy  to  air-whirls,  is  that,  according  to  M.  Weyher, 
their  source  of  action  must  be  at  some  distance  below  the 
surface.  By  artificially  causing  the  liquid  to  rotate  at  its 
surface  only,  he  found  it  impossible  to  obtain  the  central 
descending  funnel  of  a  complete  water  eddy. 

A  similar  condition  is  found  to  hold  in  an  inverse  sense 
in  the  case  of  artificially- produced  air-whirls.  The  action 
must  in  their  case  originate  in  the  upper  part  of  the  air- 
column,  whence  the  motion  is  communicated  by  degrees 
to  its  lower  boundary.  The  analogy,  therefore,  between 
the  water  eddy  with  a  descending  motion  round  its  axis 
and  the  atmospheric  whirlwind  is  completely  inverse, 
and  not  direct,  as  some  have  supposed. 


io6 


NATURE 


{May  31,  1888 


M.  Weyher  next  proceeds  to  discuss  the  motions  which 
should  theoretically  occur  in  an  air-whirl.  These  are 
shown  in  vertical  section  in  Fig.  2. 

In  the  annular  region  bordering  the  inner  rarefied 
space,  and  represented  by  Aaccf  b B  D  d,  the  air  is 
assumed  to  be  rendered  denser  than  the  normal  by  the 
centrifugal  force  of  gyration,  and  according  to  M. 
Weyher  it  is  by  the  descent  of  this  denser  air  upon  the 
depression  caused  by  the  air  below  rushing  up  to  fill  the 
central  area,  that  the  rotation  system  propagates  itself 
from  above  towards  the  earth. 

We  do  not  think  this  explanation  is  either  correct  or 
necessary.  It  is  contrary  to  the  physical  theory  that 
there  should  be  a  sheath  of  dense  air  surrounding  the 
rarefied  region,  and,  apart  from  this,  friction,  and  the 
transference  of  air  up  the  axis  from  its  lower  end  amply 
account  for  the  downward  propagation. 

The  most  interesting  of  M.  Weyher's  experiments  are 
those  in  which  he  artificially  produces  the  phenomena  of 
the  waterspout.  By  means  of  a  rotating  tourniquet  placed 
over  cold  water,  an  aerial  eddy  is  caused  which  draws  up 
the  water,  in  the  form  of  a  spout  composed  of  drops,  to  a 
considerable  height  ;  but  when  the  water  is  heated,  a 
clearly-defined  condensed-vapour-,  or,  as  it  is  popularly 


Fig.  2. 

termed,  water-spout,  makes  its  appearance,  like  that 
shown  in  Fig.  3,  which  represents  a  form  of  the 
apparatus  suitable  for  a  chamber  experiment.1 

With  from  1500  to  2000  rotations  per  minute,  the 
vapour  from  the  heated  water  is  found  to  condense  itself 
into  a  visible  sheath  enveloping  a  clearly-defined  and 
rarefied  central  nucleus,  conical,  and  tapering  downwards. 
The  diameter  of  the  sheath  is  from  f  inch  to  1  inch. 
Besides  this  vapour-spout,  water-drops  are  carried  up,  as 
in  natural  marine  spouts,  until  they  are  thrown  'out 
beyond  the  influence  of  the  upward  current. 

Other  features  of  spouts  are  then  imitated,  particularly 
what  is  called  the  herisson,  which  appears  to  be  identical 
with  what  the  French  sailors  call  the  buisson,  or  bush- 
like ploughing  up  of  the  sea,  which  occurs  at  their  bases, 
both  before  and  during  the  period  of  complete  formation! 
This  is  effected  by  placing  twenty  or  thirty  small  air- 
balloons  in  the  place  of  the  water,  underneath  the 
tourniquet.      These  are  then    seen   to   rise  up   a  short 

r  u  F°r  li.uSe  desiring  t0  rePeat  the  experiment  the  dimensions  are  as 
follows.  The  tourmqu-.t  is  made  of  tin  from  5  to  6  inches  in  diameter  bv  1 
to  1*  inch  in  height  1 here  are  from  10  to  12  rectangular  fans  1  inch  bv 
i  inch.  The  vessel  holdmg  the  water  is  placed  31  to  39  inches  froir  the 
tourniquet,  and  is  from  7  inches  to  1  foot  in  diameter  by  r£  to  2  inches  deeo 
The  hemispherical  continuation  of  the  vessel,  to  keep  off  local  air-currents 
which  disturb  the  continuity  of  the  spout,  is  3  feet  in  diameter 


distance,  and  fall  back  in  graceful  interlacing  elliptical 
curves.  The  entire  motion  throughout  the  hc'risson,  as 
well  as  the  whole  system,  is  further  studied  by  placing 
underneath  the  tourniquet  a  quantity  of  oatmeal  in  a 
glass  vessel,  and  observing  its  motion  by  means  of  eye- 
pieces fitted  into  the  top  of  the  vessel.  The  motions  are 
thus  seen  to  be  precisely  the  same  as  those  theoretically 
inferred,  and  when  the  rotation  is  stopped,  the  ascending 
spires  of  the  currents  at  the  lower  end,  are  found  engraven 
in  lines  on  the  finer  particles,  which,  in  obedience  to  these 
currents,  lie  in  a  conical  heap  round  the  vertical  axis  of 
the  whirl. 

Several  other  experiments  are  made  with  cotton-wool 
and  smoke,  each  of  which  exhibits  some  special  feature 
characterizing  the  spouts  of  Nature. 

The  pressure  and  temperature  conditions  in  different 
parts  of  the  area  are  next  investigated. 


Fig.  3. 

By  means  of  a  manometer,  it  is  found  that  the  rarefac- 
tion at  the  centre  of  the  rotating  tourniquet  is  transmitted 
almost  unaltered  in  intensity  (probably  proportionally 
diminished  in  area)  to  the  centre  of  the  whirl  on  the 
surface,  while  the  thermometer  at  the  same  point,  at  first 
shows  a  fall  and  then  a  rise  of  temperature,  the  latter 
evidently  due  to  the  friction  of  the  rapidly  moving  air 
against  the  surface. 

The  analogous  phenomenon  of  a  cyclone  is  very  fairly 
imitated  by  the  apparatus  shown  in  the  accompanying 
diagram  (Fig.  4),  consisting  of  a  large  tourniquet  placed 
over  a  table  covered  with  a  number  of  pins  mounted  with 
movable  threads  of  red  wool.  The  tourniquet  is  arranged 
so  as  to  be  capable  of'translation  as  well  as  rotation.  At 
the  centre,  the  table  is  pierced  with  a  small  hole  at  D, 
communicating  by  means  of  a  caoutchouc  tube  with  a 
manometer,  which  thus  registers  the  changes  of  pressure 


May  31,  1888] 


NATURE 


107 


as  the  supposed  cyclone  passes  over  it.  On  rotating  the 
tourniquet  and  passing  it  along  over  the  table,  the  direc- 
tions and  positions  of  the  threads  are  seen  to  indicate 
not  only  the  horizontal,  but  also  the  vertical  components 
of  the  winds  thus  produced,  including  the  region  of  calm 
in  the  centre,  as  well  as  the  downward  and  outward 
motion  at  the  anticyclonic  border.  The  variations  of 
pressure  recorded  by  the  manometer,  when  plotted  out, 
show  a  curve  similar  to  that  in  a  symmetrical  cyclone, 
including  the  rise  of  pressure  at  the  border  where  the 
motion  is  descending  and  outwards. 

Hail  is  then  explained,  as  being  caused  by  vapour 
drawn  up  into  the  herisson  of  what  M.  Faye  terms  a  trombe 
inter  nubaire,  which  descends  from  the  upper  regions  as 
far  as  the  surface  of  the  cloud,  whence  the  hail  proceeds. 
The  rest  of  the  explanation,  which  mainly  involves  a 
continual  churning  up  and  down  of  the  frozen  particles, 
is  similar  to  that  given  by  Ferrel  and  Moller,  except  that 
the  hailstones  impinging  upon  one  another  at  the  focus 
of  the  herisson  are  supposed,  by  the  heat  thus  engendered, 
to  aid  in  effecting  the  temporary  melting  of  their  surfaces 
necessary  to  account  for  the  concentric  coats  of  snow  and 
ice  they  usually  exhibit. 

M.  Weyher's  experiments  do  not,  of  course,  fulfil  all 
the  conditions  which  prevail  in  Nature,  since  in  that  case 


the  rotation  is  doubtless  kept  up,  after  it  has  once  been 
started  in  the  air  at  some  distance  above  the  surface,  by 
the  upward  movement  along  the  axis,  and  the  con- 
sequent aspiration  of  the  surrounding  air  into  the  area 
of  gyration.  With  this  exception,  however,  there  seems 
little  wanting. 

The  position  of  the  source  from  which  the  vapour  is 
drawn  is  not  so  important  as  might  be  thought,  since  the 
vapour  condensed  in  the  natural  waterspout  is  not  the 
cloud  actually  brought  down  to  the  surface,  any  more 
than  it  is — except  for  the  space  of  a  few  feet  at  its  lower 
extremity — the  water  bodily  carried  up,  but  is  the  result 
of  the  condensation,  by  rarefaction,  of  vapour  previously 
contained  invisibly,  but  certainly  amply  enough  for  the 
purpose,  right  down  to  the  earth's  surface.  In  fact,  the 
origin  of  the  vapour,  being  at  the  base,  more  nearly 
imitates  Nature  than  if  it  were  only  supplied  above  in  the 
form  of  a  cloud. 

M.  Weyher's  experiments  so  far,  therefore,  bear  out  the 
hypothesis  that  a  system  of  rotating  air-currents  above 
the  earth's  surface,  causes  tornadic,  waterspout,  and  dust- 
spout  phenomena,  by  an  aspiration  towards,  and  a  flow 
up,  its  axis,  and  show  that  such  a  system  can  propagate 
itself  and  its  accompanying  effects  downwards  without 
assuming  any  downward  component  along  the  axis. 


Fig. 


The  last  part  of  the  work  is  devoted  to  a  description  of 
certain  curious  effects  produced  by  rotating  spherical 
tourniquets.  Fig.  5  shows  a  convenient  form  of  the 
apparatus,  in  which  S  represents  a  sphere  made  of  eight 
or  ten  circular  fans,  fixed  on  an  axis  passing  through  two 
vertical  disks  whose  function  it  is  to  keep  off  disturbing 
currents,  and  also  to  concentrate  the  action.  M  is  an  air- 
balloon,  which,  when  the  tourniquet  is  set  in  motion,  is 
found  to  revolve  round  it  in  the  plane  of  its  equator,  and 
be  attracted  instead  of  repelled. 

M.  Weyher  thus  explains  this,  at  first  sight,  paradoxical 
motion.  A  rotating  spherical  ventilator  draws  in  the  air 
chiefly  at  its  poles,  and  expels  it  in  the  plane  of  the 
equator,  but,  except  in  this  plane,  there  is  a  general 
motion  of  the  air  all  round  towards  the  ventilator.  The 
stream  of  air  issuing  from  the  ventilator  in  the  plane  of 
the  equator  is  divided  by  the  balloon,  and  forms  vortices, 
which,  together  with  the  currents  centrally  directed  on  its 
reverse  side,  tend  to  urge  it  towards  the  ventilator. 
Whether  this  explanation  be  considered  satisfactory  or 
not,  the  balloon  certainly  revolves  like  a  satellite  round 
the  ventilator.  By  means  of  floating  gold-leaves,  the 
action  of  the  ventilator  is  seen  to  cause  two  dissymmetrical 
aerial  whirls,  whose  inner  gyrations  commencing  at  some 
distance  from  the  generating  sphere,  run  round  the  polar 


axis  in  opposite  directions,  and  meet  on  the  plane  of 
the  equator.  From  thence  the  air  jointly  brought  by 
these  inner  helices  is  driven  outwards,  and  returns  by 
similar  helices,  like  the  downward  return-current  of  the 
tornado,  to  the  points  at  the  extremities  of  the  prolonged 
polar  axis.  So  far  well,  but  we  cannot  quite  admit  the 
validity  of  the  manometer  experiment  by  which,  on  p.  74, 
the  author  attempts  to  show  the  existence  of  the  aspira- 
tion in  the  plane  of  the  equator  requisite  to  explain  the 
attraction  it  exerts  on  the  air-balloon.  The  effect  of 
velocity  in  decreasing  pressure,  as  exemplified  by  Hawks- 
bee's  famous  experiment,  would  probably  mask  any  other 
vortical  effects  such  as  those  sought  by  M.  Weyher. 

It  appears  to  be  a  recognized  custom  for  an  author, 
after  describing  his  experiments,  to  indulge  in  some  pet 
speculations,  and  even  to  make  the  orthodoxy  of  the 
former  an  excuse  for  the  frequently  Utopian  character  of 
the  latter. 

M.  Weyher  certainly  treats  himself  to  an  ample  dessert 
of  this  description  in  his  concluding  section,  in  which, 
assuming  the  existence  of  a  ponderable  ether,  the  pheno- 
mena of  the  tourbillon  are  by  analogy  transferred  to 
the  solar  system,  which  is  supposed  to  be  the  herisson  of 
a  whirl  system  reaching  it  from  space,  the  sun  being  in 
the  focus,   and   in   which    the    planets,  by   the  mutual 


io8 


NATURE 


[May  31,  1888 


influence  of  the  ethereal  whirls  due  to  their  axial  rotation, 
cause  simultaneously  spots  on  the  sun  and  cyclones  on 
the  earth. 

We  fail  to  follow  M.  Weyher  here,  and  think  it  would 
have  been  better  if  he  had  not  only  hesitated,  as  he 
admits  he  did,  but  decided  not  to  publish  such  wild 
speculations.  His  experiments  are  exceedingly  instructive 


- 


Fig.  5. 


and  suggestive,  and  if  he  can  ultimately  succeed  in  imi- 
tating the  conditions  of  Nature  more  closely,  we  shall 
doubtless  have  an  end  of  the  theoretical  polemics  which 
have  hitherto  retarded  rather  than  aided  the  progress  of 
our  knowledge  of  aerial  motions  and  their  causes. 

E.  Douglas  Archibald. 


TIMBER,  AND  SOME  OF  ITS  DISEASES.1 
VII. 

T  F  we  pass  through  a  forest  of  oaks,  beeches,  pines,  and 
*■  other  trees,  it  requires  but  a  glance  to  see  that  various 
natural  processes  are  at  work  to  reduce  the  number  of 
branches  as  the  trees  become  older.  Every  tree  bears 
more  buds  than  develop  into  twigs  and  branches,  for  not 
only  do  some  of  the  buds  at  a  very  early  date  divert  the 
food-supplies  from  others,  and  thus  starve  them  off,  but 
they  are  also  exposed  to  the  attacks  of  insects,  squirrels, 
&c,  and  to  dangers  arising  from  inclement  weather,  and 
from  being  struck  by  falling  trees  and  branches,  &c,  and 
many  are  thus  destroyed.  Such  causes  alone  will  account 
in  part  for  the  irregularity  of  a  tree,  especially  of  a  Conifer, 
in  which  the  buds  may  be  developed  so  regularly  that  if 
all  came  to  maturity  the  tree  would  be  symmetrical.  But 
that  this  is  not  the  whole  of  the  case,  can  be  easily  seen,  and 
is  of  course  well  known  to  every  gardener  and  forester. 

If  we  remove  a  small  branch  of  several  years'  growth 
from  an  oak,  for  instance,  it  will  be  noticed  that  on  the 
twigs  last  formed  there  is  a  bud  at  the  axil  of  every  leaf ; 
but  on  examining  the  parts  developed  two  or  three  years 
previously  it  is  easy  to  convince  ourselves  of  the  existence 
of  certain  small  scars,  above  the  nearly  obliterated  leaf- 
scars,  and  to  see  that  if  a  small  twig  projected  from  each 
of  these  scars  the  symmetry  of  the  branching  might  be 

1  Continued  from  vol.  xxxvii.  p.  516. 


completed.  Now  it  is  certain  that  buds  or  twigs  were  formed 
at  these  places,  and  we  know  from  careful  observations 
that  they  have  been  naturally  thrown  off  by  a  process 
analogous  to  the  shedding  of  the  leaves  ;  in  other  words, 
the  oak  sheds  some  of  its  young  branches  naturally  every 
year.  And  many  other  trees  do  the  same  ;  for  instance, 
the  black  poplar,  the  Scotch  pine,  Dammara,  &c. ;  in  some 
trees,  indeed,  and  notably  in  the  so-called  swamp  cypress 
(Taxodium  distichum)  of  North  America,  the  habit  is  so 
pronounced  that  it  sheds  most  of  its  young  branches 
every  year. 

But  apart  from  these  less  obvious  causes  for  the  sup- 
pression of  branches,  we  notice  in  the  forest  that  the 
majority  of  the  trees  have  lost  their  lower  branches  at  a 
much  later  date,  and  that  in  many  cases  the  remains  of 
the  proximal  parts  of  the  dead  branches  are  sticking  out 
from  the  trunk  like  unsightly  wooden  horns.  Some  of  these 
branches  may  have  been  broken  off  by  the  fall  of  neighbour- 
ing trees  or  large  limbs  ;  others  may  have  been  broken  by 
the  weight  of  snow  accumulating  during  the  winter ;  others, 
again,  may  have  been  broken  by  hand,  or  by  heavy  wind  ; 
and  y=t  others  have  died  off,  in  the  first  place  because  the 
over-bearing  shade  of  the  surrounding  trees  cut  off  the 
access  of  light  to  their  leaves,  and  secondly  because  the 
flow  of  nutritive  materials  to  them  ceased,  being  diverted 


Fig.  21.— Portion  of  a  tree  from  which  a  branch  has  been  cut  off  close  to  the 
stem.     C,  the  cambium  of  the  branch  ;  B,  the  cortex. 

into  more  profitable  channels  by  the  flourishing,  growing 
parts  of  the  crown  of  leaves  exposed  to  sunlight  and  air 
above. 

The  point  I  wish  to  insist  upon  here  is  that  in  these 
cases  of  branch-breaking,  however  brought  about,  open 
wounds  are  left  exposed  to  all  the  vicissitudes  of  the 
forest  atmosphere  ;  if  we  compare  the  remnant  of  such 
a  broken  branch  and  the  scar  left  after  the  natural 
shedding  of  a  branch  or  leaf,  the  latter  will  be  found 
covered  with  an  impervious  layer  of  cork,  a  tissue  which 
keeps  out  damp,  fungus-spores,  &c,  effectually. 

It  is,  in  fact — as  a  matter  of  observation  and  experiment 
— these  open  wounds  which  expose  the  standing  timber  to 
so  many  dangers  from  the  attacks  of  parasitic  fungi  ;  and 
it  will  be  instructive  to  look  a  little  more  closely  into  the 
matter  as  bearing  on  the  question  of  the  removal  of 
large  branches  from  trees. 

If  a  fairly  large  branch  of  a  tree,  such  as  the  oak,  is  cut 
off  close  to  the  trunk,  a  surface  of  wood  is  exposed,  sur- 
rounded by  a  thin  ring  of  cambium  and  bark  (as  in  Figs. 
21  and  22).  We  have  already  seen  what  the  functions 
of  the  cambium  are,  and  it  will  be  observed  that  the  cut 
edge  of  the  cambium  (C)  is  suddenly  placed  under  different 
conditions  from  the  usual  ones  ;  the  chief  change,  and 
the  only  one  we  need  notice  at  present,  is  that  the  cam- 
bium in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  cut  surface  is  released 


May  31,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


109 


from  the  compressing  influence  of  the  cortex  and  bark, 
and  owing  to  this  release  of  pressure  it  begins  to  grow  out 
at  the  edges  into  a  cushion  or  "callus,"  as  shown  in  Figs. 
23*and  24.  A  very  similar  "  callus "  is  formed  in  the 
operation  of  multiplying  plants  by  "  cuttings,"  so  well 


18  G  7- 73 


Fig.  22.— The  same  in  longitudinal  section.  /',  the  pith  of  stem  and  branch  ; 
on  either  side  of  this  are  the  twelve  annual  zones  of  wood  produced 
during  the  years  1867-78,  as  marked.  The  cambium,  C,  separates  these 
from  the  cortex,  B. 

known  to  all :    the  cambium  at  the  cut  surface  of  the 
"  slip"  or  "  cutting,"  is  released  from  the  pressure  of  the 
cortex,  and  begins  to  grow  out  more  rapidly  in  the  direc- 
tions of  less  pressure,  and  forms  the  callus. 
Now  this  callus  (Fig.  23,  Cal)\s\r\  all  cases  somethingmore 


Fig.  23. — The  same  piece  of  stem  four  years  later.  The  cushion-like  deve- 
lopment, Cal,  resulting  from  the  overgrowth  of  the  cambium  and  cortical 
tissues  of  the  cut  branch,  has  extended  some  distance  from  the  edges, 
and  is  covering  in  the  exposed  wood.  B  is  the  dead  outer  corky  tissue, 
incapable  of  growth,  and  partially  cracked  under  the  pressures  exerted  by 
the  thickening  of  the  stem.  The  latter  is  somewhat  swollen  trai  s- 
versely.  owing  to  the  release  of  pressure  in  this  region  enabling  the 
cambium  to  develop  a  little  more  actively  here  ;  the  quicker  growth  of  the 
occluding  cushion  in  the  horizontal  direction  is  due  to  the  same  cause. 

than  mere  cambium — or  rather,  as  the  cambium  extends 
by  cell-divisions  from  the  cut  edge  of  the  wound,  its  outer 
parts  develop  into  cortex,  and  its  inner  parts  into  wood, 
as  in  the  normal  case.  The  consequence  is  that  we  have 
in  the  callus,  slowly  creeping  out  from  the  margins  of  the 


wound,  new  layers  of  wood  and  cortex  with  cambium 
between  them  (Fig.  24)  ;  and  it  will  be  noticed  that  each 
year  the  layer  of  wood  extends  a  little  further  over  the 
surface  of  the  wound,  and  towards  the  centre  of  the  cut 
branch  ;  and  in  course  of  time,  provided  the  wound  is 
not  too  large,  and  the  tree  is  full  of  vigour,  the  margins  of 
the  callus  will  meet  near  the  middle,  and  what  was  the 
exposed  cut  surface  of  the  branch  will  be  buried  beneath 
layers  of  wood  and  cortex,  between  which  lies  the  cam- 
bium, now  once  more  continuous  over  the  whole  trunk  of 
the  tree  (Figs.  25  and  26). 

It  is  not  here  to  the  purpose  to  enter  into  the  very  in- 
teresting histological  questions  connected  with  this  callus- 
formation,  or  with  the  mechanical  relations  of  the  various 
parts  one  to  another.  It  is  sufficient  for  our  present 
object  to  point  out  that  this  process  of  covering  up,  or 
occlusion,  as  I  propose  to  term  it,  requires  some  time  for 
its  completion.  For  the  sake  of  illustration,  I  have  num- 
bered the  various  phases  in  the  diagram,  with  the  years 
during  which  the  annual  rings  have  been  formed  ;  and  it 


Fig.  24. — The  same  in  longitudinal  section  :  P,  B,  and  C  as  before.  The  four 
new  layers  of  wood  formed  during  1879-82  are  artificially  separated 
from  the  preceding  by  a  stronger  line.  On  the  left  side  of  the  figure  it 
will  be  noticed  that  the  cambium  (and  therefore  the  wood  developed  from 
it)  projected  a  little  further  over  the  cut  end  of  the  branch  each  year, 
carrying  the  cortical  layers  (Cor)  with  it.  At  X  ,  in  both  figures,  there  is 
necessarily  a  depression  in  which  rain-water,  &c-,  is  apt  to  lodge,  and 
this  is  a  particularly  dangerous  place,  since  fungus-spores  may  here  settle 
and  develop. 

will  be  seen  at  a  glance  that,  in  the  case  selected,  itre- 
quired  seven  years  to  cover  up  the  surface  of  the  cut 
branch  (cf.  Figs.  21-26).  During  these  seven  years 
more  or  less  of  the  cut  surface  was  exposed  (Fig.  24)  to 
all  the  exigencies  of  the  forest,  and  it  will  easily  be  under- 
stood that  abundant  opportunities  were  thus  afforded  for 
the  spores  of  fungi  to  fall  on  the  naked  wood,  and  for 
moisture  to  condense  and  penetrate  into  the  interior ;  more- 
over, in  the  ledge  formed  at  X  in  Figs.  23  and  24,  by  the 
lower  part  of  the  callus,  as  it  slowly  creeps  up,  there  will 
always  be  water  in  wet  weather  ;  and  a  sodden  condition 
of  the  wood  at  this  part  is  insured.  All  this  is,  of  course, 
peculiarly  adapted  for  the  germination  of  spores  ;  and, 
since  the  water  will  soak  out  nutritive  materials,  nothing 
could  be  more  favourable  for  the  growth  and  development 
of  the  mycelium  of  a  fungus.  These  circumstances, 
favourable  as  they  are  for  the  fungi,  are  usually  rendered 
even  more  so  in  practice,  because  the  sawyers  often  allow 
such  a  branch  to  fall,  and  tear  and  crush  the  cambium 
and  cortex  at  the  lower  edge  of  the  wound.     These  and 


I  IO 


NA  TURE 


[May  31,  1888 


other  details  must  be  passed  over,  however,  and  our 
attention  be  confined  to  the  fact  that  here  are  ample 
chances  for  the  spores  of  parasitic  and  other  fungi  to 
fall  on  a  surface  admirably  suited  for  their  development. 


Fig.  25. — The  same  piece  of  stem  six  years  later  still:  the  surface'of  the 
cut  branch  has  now  been  covered  in  for  some  time,  and  only  a  boss-like 
projection  marks  where  the  previous  cut  surface  was.  This  projection  is 
protected  by  cork  layers,  like  ordinary  outer  cortex,  the  old  outer  cortex 
cracking  more  and  more  as  the  stem  expands. 

The  further  fact  must  be  insisted  upon  that  numerous 
fungus-spores  do  fall  and  develop  upon  these  wounds,  and 
that  by  the  time  the  exposed  surface  is  covered  in  (as  in  Fig. 
25)  the  timber  is  frequently  already  rotten,  usually  for 


Fig.  26. — The  same  in  longitudinal  section  :  lettering  as  before.  Six  new 
layers  of  wood  have  been  developed,  and  the  cut  end  of  the  branch  was 
completely  occluded  before  the  last  three  were  formed — i.e.  at  the  end 
of  1885.  After  that  the  cambium  became  once  more  continuous  round  the 
whole  stem,  and,  beyond  a  slight  protuberance  over  the  occluded  wound 
and  the  ragged  edges  of  the  dead  corky  outer  layers,  B,  there  are  r.o 
signs  of  a  breach. 

some  distance  down.  In  the  event  of  fungi,  such  as  have 
been  described  above — parasites  and  wound-parasites — 
gaining  a  hold  on  such  wounds,  the  ravages  of  the  myce- 
lium will  continue  after  the  occlusion  is  complete,  and  I 


have  seen  scores  of  trees,  apparently  sound  and  whole, 
the  interior  of  which  is  a  mere  mass  of  rottenness  :  when 
a  heavy  gale  at  length  blows  them  down,  such  trees  are 
found  to  be  mere  hollow  shells,  the  ravages  of  the 
mycelium  having  extended  from  the  point  of  entry  into 
every  part  of  the  older  timber. 

In  a  state  of  nature  the  processes  above  referred  to  do 
not  go  on  so  smoothly  and  easily  as  just  described,  and  it 
will  be  profitable  to  glance  at  such  a  case  as  the  following. 

A  fairly  strong  branch  dies  off,  from  any  cause  what- 
ever— e.g.  from  being  overshadowed  by  other  trees.  All 
its  tissues  dry  up,  and  its  cortex,  &c,  are  rapidly 
destroyed  by  saprophytic  fungi,  and  in  a  short  time  we 
find  only  a  hard,  dry,  branched  stick  projecting  from  the 
tree.  At  the  extreme  base,  where  it  joins  the  tree,  the 
tissues  do  not  at  once  perish,  but  for  a  length  of  from 
half  an  inch  to  an  inch  or  so  the  base  is  still  nourished  by 
the  trunk.  After  a  time,  the  wind,  or  a  falling  branch,  or 
the  weight  of  accumulated  snow,  &c,  breaks  off  the  dead 
branch,  leaving  the  projecting  basal  portion :  if  the 
branch  broke   off  quite   close   to   the    stem,  the  wound 


Fig.  27. — Base  of  a  strong  branch  which  had  perished  naturally  twenty-four 
years  previously  to  the  stage  figured.  The  branch  decayed,  and  the 
base  was  gradually  occluded  by  the  thickening  layers  of  the  stem  :  the 
fall  of  the  rotting  branch  did  not  occur  till  six  years  ago,  however, 
as  can  be  determined  from  the  layers  at  e  and/",  which  then  began  to- 
turn  inwards  over  the  stump.  Meanwhile,  the  base  had  become  hollow 
and  full  of  rotten  wood,  g.  It  is  interesting  to  note  how  slight  the 
growth  is  on  the  lower  side  of  the  branch  base,  /,  as  compared  with  that 
at  h  above  :  the  line  numbered  24  refers  to  the  annual  zones  in  each  case. 
As  seen  at  b  and  d,  the  rotting  of  the  wood  passes  backwards,  and  may 
invade  the  previously  healthy  wood  for  some  distance.    (After  Hartig.) 

would,  or  at  least  might,  soon  be  occluded  ;  but,  as  it  is, 
the  projecting  piece  not  only  takes  longer  to  close  in,  but 
it  tends  to  rot  very  badly  (Fig.  27),  and  at  the  best  forms 
a  bad  "  knot"  or  hole  in  the  timber  when  sawn  up.  Of 
course  what  has  already  been  stated  of  cut  branches  applies 
here  :  the  wounds  are  always  sources  of  danger  so  long  as 
they  are  exposed. 

It  is  beyond  the  scope  of  these  articles  to  set  forth  the 
pros  and  cons  as  to  the  advisability  of  adopting  any  pro- 
posed treatment  on  a  large  scale  :  the  simple  question  of 
cost  will  always  have  to  be  decided  by  those  concerned. 
But  whether  it  is  practicable  or  not  on  a  large  scale, 
there  is  no  question  as  to  the  desirability  of  adopting 
some  such  treatment  as  the  following  to  preserve  valuable 
trees  and  timber  from  the  ravages  of  these  wound-para- 
sites. Branches  which  break  off  should  be  cut  close 
down  to  the  stem,  if  possible  in  winter,  and  the  clean  cut 
made  so  that  no  tearing  or  crushing  of  the  cambium  and 
cortex  occur  ;  the  surface  should  then  be  painted  with  a 
thorough  coating  of  tar,  and  the  wound  left  to  be  occluded. 
If  the  cutting  is  accomplished  in  spring  or  summer, 
trouble  will  be  caused  by  the  tar  not  sticking  to  the  damp 


May  31,  1888] 


NATURE 


in 


surface.  Although  this  is  not  an  absolute  safeguard 
against  the  attacks  of  fungi — simply  because  the  germinal 
tubes  from  spores  can  find  their  way  through  small  cracks 
at  the  margin  of  the  wound,  &c. — still  it  reduces  the  danger 
to  a  minimum,  and  it  is  certain  that  valuable  old  trees 
have  been  preserved  in  this  way. 

Before  passing  to  treat  of  the  chief  diseases  known  to 
start  from  such  wounds  as  the  above,  it  should  be  re- 
marked that  it  is  not  inevitable  that  the  exposed  surface 
becomes  attacked  by  fungi  capable  of  entering  the  timber. 
It  happens  not  unfrequently  that  a  good  closure  is  effected 
over  the  cut  base  of  a  small  branch  in  a  few  years,  and  that 
the  timber  of  the  base  is  sound  everywhere  but  at  the 
surface  :  this  happy  result  may  sometimes  be  attained  in 
pines  and  other  Conifers,  for  instance,  by  the  exudation  of 
resin  or  its  infiltration  into  the  wood  ;  but  in  rarer  cases 
it  occurs  even  in  non-resinous  trees,  and  recent  investiga- 
tions go  to  show  that  the  wood  formed  in  these  healing 
processes  possesses  the  properties  of  true  heart-wood. 
At  the  same  time  there  is  always  danger,  as  stated,  and 
we  will  now  proceed  to  give  a  brief  account  of  the  chief 
classes  of  diseases  to  which  such  wounds  render  the  tree 
liable. 

The  first  and  most  common  action  is  the  decay  which 
sets  in  on  the  exposure  of  the  wood  surface  to  the 
alternate  wetting  and  drying  in  contact  with  the  atmo- 
sphere :  it  is  known  that  wood  oxidizes  under  such 
circumstances,  and  we  may  be  sure  that  wounds  are  no 
exception  to  this  rule.  The  surface  of  the  wood  gradually 
turns  brown,  and  the  structure  of  the  timber  is  destroyed 
as  the  process  extends. 

The  difficulty  always  arises  in  Nature,  however,  that 
mould-fungi  and  bacteria  of  various  kinds  soon  co- 
operate in  ani  hurry  these  processes,  and  it  is  impossible 
to  say  how  much  of  the  decay  is  due  to  merely  physical 
and  chemical  actions,  and  how  much  to  the  fermentative 
accion  of  these  organisms.  We  ought  not  to  shut  our 
eyes  to  this  rich  field  for  investigation,  although  for  the 
present  purpose  it  suffices  to  recognize  that  the  combined 
action  of  the  wet,  the  oxygen  of  the  air,  and  the  ferment- 
ing action  of  the  moulds  and  bacteria,  &c,  soon  converts 
the  outer  parts  of  the  wood  into  a  mixture  of  acid 
substances  resembling  the  humus  of  black  leaf-mould. 

Now  as  the  rain  soaks  into  this,  it  dissolves  and  carries 
down  into  the  wood  below  certain  bodies  which  are 
poisonous  in  their  action  on  the  living  parts  of  the 
timber,  and  a  great  deal  of  damage  may  be  caused  by 
this  means  alone.  But  this  is  not  all :  as  soon  as  the 
decaying  surface  of  the  wound  provides  these  mixtures  of 
decomposed  organic  matter,  it  becomes  a  suitable  soil  for 
the  development  of  fungi  which  are  not  parasitic — i.e. 
which  cannot  live  on  and  in  the  normal  and  living  parts  of 
the  tree — but  which  can  and  do  thrive  on  partially  decom- 
posed wood.  The  spores  of  such  fungi  are  particularly 
abundant,  and  most  of  the  holes  found  in  trees  are  due  to 
their  action.  They  follow  up  the  poisonous  action  of  the 
juices  referred  to  above,  living  on  the  dead  tissues  ;  and 
it  will  be  intelligible  that  the  drainage  from  their  action 
aids  the  poisonous  action  as  it  soaks  into  the  trunk.  It 
is  quite  a  common  event  to  see  a  short  stump,  projecting 
from  the  trunk  of  a  beech,  for  instance,  the  edges  of  the 
stump  neatly  rounded  over  by  the  action  of  a  callus 
which  was  unable  to  close  up  in  the  middle,  and  to  find 
that  the  hollow  extends  from  the  stump  into  the  heart  of 
the  trunk  for  several  feet  or  even  yards.  The  hollow  is 
lined  by  the  decayed  humus-like  remains  of  the  timber, 
caused  by  the  action  of  such  saprophytes  as  I  have  re- 
ferred to.  Similar  phenomena  occur  in  wounded  or 
broken  roots,  and  need  not  be  described  at  length  after 
what  has  been  stated. 

But,  in  addition  to  such  decay  as  this,  it  is  found  that  if 
the  spores  of  true  wound-parasites  alight  on  the  damp 
surface  of  the  cut  or  broken  branch,  their  mycelium  can 
extend  comparatively  rapidly  into  the  still  healthy  and 


living  tissues,  bringing  about  the  destructive  influences 
described  in  Articles  III.  and  IV.,  and  then  it  matters 
not  whether  the  wound  closes  over  quickly  or  slowly — the 
tree  is  doomed.  H.  Marshall  Ward. 

( To  be  continued?) 


HERVE  MANGON. 

T  N  the  current  number  of  La  Nature  there  is  an 
•*•  interesting  article,  by  M.  Gaston  Tissandier,  on 
Charles  Francois  Herve^  Mangon,  whose  death  we 
announced  last  week.  The  following  are  the  essential 
facts  noted  by  M.  Tissandier. 

Hervd  Mangon  was  born  in  Paris  on  July  31, 1821,  and 
was  trained  by  his  father,  a  military  surgeon,  who  devoted 
himself  almost  entirely  to  the  education  of  his  t  son. 
At  the  age  of  nineteen  the  young  man  entered  1'Ecole 
Polytechnique,  and  two  years  later  1'Ecole  des  Ponts  et 
Chaussdes.  He  afterwards  acted  as  engineer  for  several 
railways,  but  his  chief  interest  at  that  time  was  in  science 
as  applied  to  agriculture. 

In  1850  he  published  his  "Etudes  sur  les  Irrigations 
de  la  Campine  Beige,"  and  on  the  "  Travaux  Analogues 
de  la  Sologne."  This  work  attracted  great  attention, 
and  brought  about  important  improvements  in  the 
French  laws  relating  to  agriculture.  Drainage  was  then 
scarcely  known,  even  by  name,  in  France.  In  1851,  M. 
Hervd  Mangon  published  a  work  on  the  subject,  which 
was  considered  so  valuable  that  he  received  from  the 
Academy  of  Sciences  the  decennial  prize  for  the  most 
useful  work  on  agriculture  issued  during  the  previous  ten 
years.  His  practical  instructions  on  drainage,  of  a  little 
later  date,  were  widely  circulated,  and  it  is  estimated 
that  the  results  of  his  researches  have  led  to  an  increase, 
in  the  French  revenue,  of  fourteen  millions  of  francs 
yearly.  Irrigation,  manures,  chemical  refuse,  and  every- 
thing by  which  land  might  be  fertilized,  were  made  by 
him  subjects  of  prolonged  and  careful  study.  He  visited 
the  principal  agricultural  works  and  irrigations  in  France, 
Belgium,  Scotland,  Spain,  and  Algiers,  and  summed 
the  knowledge  thus  acquired  in  his  "  Traite  de  Ge"nie 
Rural." 

These  researches  were  followed  by  meteorological 
studies,  in  which  he  took  the  deepest,  interest.  He  in- 
vented or  improved  many  meteorological  instruments, 
and  on  his  estate  at  Bre'court  in  Normandy  he  organized 
a  model  meteorological  station,  provided  with  the  latest 
scientific  improvements.  Towards  the  end  of  his  career 
he  played  a  most  important  part  in  the  reorganization  of 
the  French  meteorological  service,  and  he  became  the 
President  of  the  Meteorological  Council.  He  contributed 
also  to  the  organization  of  the  scientific  mission  to  Cape 
Horn,  and  to  many  other  enterprises  useful  to  science. 

As  a  Professor,  he  created  at  the  Ecole  des  Ponts  et 
Chausse'es  the  course  on  "  Hydraulique  Agricole " 
(1849)  >  at  tne  Conservatoire  des  Arts  et  Me'tiers  the 
course  on  "  Travaux  Agricoles  et  de  Ge'nie  Rural"  (1864)  ; 
and  at  the  new  Institut  National  the  course  on  "  Genie 
Rural"  (1876),  a  science  of  which  he  may  be  considered 
one  of  the  founders.  He  lectured  with  ease,  and  his 
expositions  were  always  clear  and  methodical. 

He  possessed  an  extraordinary  power  of  work.  He 
rose  early,  carried  on  his  own  correspondence,  and  did 
all  his  literary  work  without  assistance.  His  personal 
tastes  were  simple,  and  the  activity  of  his  body  seemed  to 
keep  pace  with  that  of  his  mind.  He  welcomed  fellow- 
workers  cordially,  and  readily  offered  them  counsel  and 
help,  his  disposition  being  one  of  rare  generosity.  He 
was  skilful  in  working  in  wood  and  metal,  and  always  kept 
in  his  library  a  quantity  of  apparatus  made  by  himself. 
With  this  he  was  constantly  experimenting,  sometimes 
even  getting  up  during  the  night  to  carry  on  some 
research  of  special  interest.  _ 


1  I  2 


NA  TURE 


[May  31,  1888 


In  1872  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Academy 
of  Sciences;  in  1880,  Director  of  the  Conservatoire  des 
Arts  et  Metiers;  and  in  1887,  Vice-President  of  the 
Academy  of  Sciences.  Notwithstanding  the  manifold 
calls  on  his  time,  he  worked  hard  to  secure  the  success 
of  the  Exhibition  of  1867,  and  of  all  the  succeeding  Paris 
Exhibitions. 

Believing  it  to  be  important  that  men  of  science  should 
take  part  in  politics,  he  entered  the  Chamber  as  Deputy 
for  La  Manche,  and  became  Minister  of  Agriculture  in 
the  Brisson  Ministry,  in  which  he  was  of  eminent  service. 

During  the  war  of  1870  he  gave  proof  of  ardent 
patriotism.  Night  and  day,  during  the  siege  of  Paris, 
he  made  incessant  observations  in  order  to  facilitate  the 
despatch  of  letters  by  balloon.  For  six  months  he  did 
not  miss  the  departure  of  one  of  the  balloons  ;  he  was 
always  present,  encouraging  the  aeronauts,  and  giving 
them  valuable  directions.  When  M.  Tissandier  was' 
about  to  leave  Paris  in  a  balloon,  laden  with  messages 
for  the  Government  at  Tours,  M.  Herve  Mangon  said 
to  him,  "  Vous  avez  bon  vent  est-nord-est ;  vous  allez 
filer  dans  la  direction  de  Dreux,"  and  the  balloon 
descended  at  the  gates  of  that  very  town. 

M.  Herv^  Mangon  was  the  son-in-law  of  J.  B.  Dumas. 
He  had  a  wide  circle  of  friends,  and  many  young  men  of 
science  owe  him  a  deep  debt  of  gratitude  for  the  en- 
couragement they  received  from  him  in  their  work.  For 
a  long  time  he  suffered  from  a  painful  malady,  and  on  the 
15th  of  May  he  died  at  Paris,  in  his  sixty-seventh  year. 


NOTES. 
The  annual  Ladies'  Conversazione  of  the  Royal  Society  will  be 
held  on  Wednesday,  June  6. 

Mr.  R.  G.  Haliburton  writes  from  Oran,  Algeria,  that  a  few 
hours  after  he  had  read  the  account  in  the  Times  of  the  recent 
soirie  of  the  Royal  Society,  at  which  two  skeletons  of  Akkas, 
sent  by  Emin  Pasha  from  Equatorial  Africa,  were  exhibited,  the 
discovery,  made  by  himself  in  February  last,  of  the  existence  of 
another  dwarf  race,  in  North  Africa,  also  only  4  feet  high,  and 
called  by  the  same  name,  Akkahs,  was  confirmed  by  the  receipt 
of  a  letter  on  the  subject  from  our  late  Minister  at  Morocco,  Sir 
John  Drummond  Hay. 

The  creation  of  the  new  Chair  of  Philosophic  Biologique  is  to 
be  proposed  to  the  Sorbonne  in  the  course  of  the  next  few  days. 
There  will  be  much  opposition  to  the  scheme,  but_not  enough  to 
prevent  it  from  being  carried  out. 

The  ceremony  'in  honour  of  Prof.  Donders,  at  Utrecht,  on 
Monday,  passed  off  most  successfully.  Many  friends  and  admirers, 
not  only  from  all  parts  of  Holland,  but  from  the  Dutch  colonies 
and  other  countries,  assembled  to  show  their  respect  for  the 
illustrious  investigator,  and  the  Dutch  Government  was  repre- 
sented on  the  occasion  by  the  Home  Minister.  A  medal  com- 
memorative of  the  ceremony  was  struck,  and  the  King  of  Holland 
conferred  on  Prof.  Donders  the  distinction  of  Commander  of  the 
Golden  Lion.  King  Humbert  sent  him  the  Order  of  the  Crown 
of  Italy,  and  Sir  Joseph  Lister  congratulated  him  on  behalf  of 
the  Royal  Society  of  England.  In  responding  to  the  address 
recognizing  his  services  to  science  and  humanity,  Prof.  Donders 
declared  that  although  the  law  rendered  it  necessary  for  him,  on 
the  attainment  of  his  seventieth  birthday,  to  resign  his  professor, 
ship,  he  did  not  consider  that  he  had  finished  his  task.  The  sum 
subscribed  as  an  expression  of  gratitude  for  Prof.  Donders'  work 
is  to  be  appropriated,  in  accordance  with  his  own  decision,  for 
the  benefit  of  young  physiologists  and  ophthalmologists  at  the 
University. 

During  the  recent  cruise  of  the  Liverpool  Marine  Biology 
Committee  in  the  s.s.  Hycena,  the  electric  light  was  applied  to 


deep  and  surface  tow-netting  after  dark  with  important  results. 
We  hope  shortly  to  publish  fuller  details. 

A  marine  zoological  station,  on  the  plan  of  the  one  at 
Naples,  is  shortly  to  be  established  at  Ostend.  The  proposal  is 
supported  by  four  Belgian  Universities. 

A  letter  has  been  received  by  Sir  J.  D.  Hooker  from  Mr. 
Joseph  Thomson,  dated  Mogador,  May  6,  stating  that  he  is  on 
the  eve  of  starting  by  a  route  through  the  province  of  Shedma 
to  Saffi,  where,  after  a  short  stay  with  M.  Hunot,  H.B.M.'s 
Consul  there,  he  will  go  direct  to  Demenat,  an  entirely  unex- 
plored part  of  the  Atlas,  north-east  of  the  city  of  Morocco. 
Mr.  Thomson  describes  the  past  seaso.i  as  having  been  excep- 
tionally late  and  cold,  and  with  an  extraordinary  rain  and  snow- 
fall ;  the  season's  rainfall  at  Mogador  having  been  more  than 
32  inches,  against  an  average  of  less  than  18  inches. 

It  is  stated  that  Mr.  Knipping,  of  the  Meteorological  Depart- 
ment of  Japan,  is  coming  to  Europe  on  a  mission  to  report  en 
European  meteorological  observatories. 

In  the  American  Meteorological  Jotirnal  for  April,  Mr.  A.  L. 
Rotch  continues  his  article  on  the  history  of  the  meteorological 
organizations,  dealing  with  the  German  Institute,  and  the  various 
newspaper  services.  Prof.  F.  Waldo  contributes  a  very  interest- 
ing paper  on  the  instruments  for  making  observations  of  the 
amount  and  direction  of  the  wind.  Special  attention  is  given  to 
Dr.  Robinson's  anemometer,  as  the  instrument  almost  universally 
adopted,  and  so  called  from  his  investigation  of  its  principle, 
published  in  1850.  Its  invention  is  attributed  toEdgeworth,  who 
first  used  it  as  a  scientific  instrument,  but  a  similar  apparatus, 
made  of  wood,  with  oval  cups,  is  described  in  the  Mongolische 
Volker,  1770.  Dr.  Robinson  found  that  the  velocity  of  the  cups 
must  be  multiplied  by  the  factor  3  in  order  to  get  the  true  wind 
velocity,  and  this  value  was  generally  adopted.  Mr.  Stow  and 
Prof.  Stokes  in  this  country,  and  Dr.  Dohrandt  in  Russia,  first 
questioned  the  accuracy  of  this  value,  and  recent  careful  experi- 
ments by  Mr.  Dines,  just  communicated  to  the  Royal  Meteoro- 
logical Society,  show  that  the  factor  for  anemometers  of  this  class 
must  be  reduced  to  about  2'1$.  And  further,  it  has  been  found 
that  the  formula  for  conversion  of  velocity  to  pressure  (P=  •005V'2} 
adopted  by  Smeaton  (Phil.  Trans.  1763),  and  repeated  subse- 
quently in  text-books,  requires  amendment,  so  that  the  pressures 
deduced  from  velocity  anemometers  have  been  greatly  exagger- 
ated. In  fact  great  doubt  has  been  expressed  by  competent 
authority  as  to  the  value  of  the  records  of  this  class  of  instru- 
ments. Prof.  Waldo's  discussion  of  the  subject  is  therefore 
very  opportune. 

At  Cragside,  Rothbury,  Northumberland,  the  seat  of  Lord 
Armstrong,  a  very  fine  female  of  Pallas's  sand  grouse  {Syrrhaptesr 
paradoxus)  killed  itself  against  the  telegraph-wires  near  Crag- 
side  on  Wednesday,  May  23.  The  bird  was  picked  up  by  the 
gamekeeper,  and  was  sent  by  Lord  Armstrong  to  Mr.  John 
Hancock  at  the  Natural  History  Museum,  Newcastle-on-Tyne, 
where  it  will  be  carefully  preserved.  This  bird  was  in  fine 
plumage,  and  was  proved  by  dissection  to  be  a  female,  the  ovary 
containing  seven  ova  about  the  size  of  No.  1  shot,  and  numerous 
others  of  very  much  smaller  size.  It  is  a  curious  coincidence 
that  the  first  specimens  of  Pallas's  sand  grouse,  recorded  in  1863, 
were  shot  at  Thropton,  a  few  miles  west  of  Rothbury,  on  May 
21,  and  were  sent  to  Mr.  Hancock.  The  crop  of  another 
specimen  (male)  of  this  bird,  which  we  are  told  was  obtained  at 
Winlaton,  five  or  six  miles  west  of  Newcastle-on-Tyne,  was  sent 
to  the  Museum  on  the  23rd  inst.  The  crop  was  full  of  the  seed 
of  a  wild  plant,  probably  charlock  or  wild  mustard  {Sinapis 
arvensis,  L. ). 

Dr.  Trim  en's  report  on  the  five  Royal  Botanic  Gardens  of 
Ceylon,  which  has  just  been  issued,  contains  much  interesting 


May  31,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


"3 


matter  relating  to  the  economic  aid  given  by  the  institution  to 
planting  in  Ceylon  and  elsewhere.  Referring  to  the  gradual 
decline  in  the  cultivation  of  coffee,  Dr.  Trimen  mentions,  as  one 
of  the  causes,  that  it  has  suffered  severely  during  the  last  few 
years  from  the  attacks  of  a  scale-insect  or  "bug"  which  has  in 
some  places  actually  killed  out  the  bushes.  Practical  planters 
think  the  insect  different  from  either  of  the  "bugs"  familiar 
hitherto  as  foes  to  coffee — Lecanium  coffece  and  L.  nigrum,  the 
brown  coffee  and  black  bugs.  The  distinctions  between  the 
three  have  been  pointed  out  by  Mr.  E.  Green  in  a  paper  with 
illustrations  printed  by  the  Government  of  Ceylon.  He  names 
the  new  pest  L.  viride,  it  being  generally  known  as  the  green 
bug.  Dr.  Trimen  mentions  that  his  principal  employment  dur- 
ing the  past  year  has  been  the  compilation,  with  the  aid  of  the 
library  and  herbarium,  of  a  catalogue  of  the  contents  of  the 
gardens,  for  use  by  the  staff,  the  public,  and  correspondents  in 
other  countries.  The  list  as  now  completed  is  brought  down  to  the 
end  of  1886,  and  contains  about  3000  species,  mostly  trees  and 
shrubs.  He  also  reports  the  commencement  of  the  long  projected 
museum  of  economic  botany. 

A  volume  on  the  life  and  works  of  Lavoisier,  by  Prof.  E. 
Grimaux,  of  the  Polytechnic  School  of  Paris,  has  just  been  pub- 
lished. It  is  illustrated  by  many  interesting  engravings,  two  of 
which  represent  Lavoisier  in  his  laboratory.  A  number  of 
hitherto  unknown  documents  relating  to  Lavoisier  have  been 
discovered  by  Prof.  Grimaux. 

Messrs.  Macmillan  and  Bowes,  Cambridge,  will  have 
ready  in  a  week  a  "  Bibliography  of  the  Works  of  Sir  Isaac 
Newton,  together  with  a  List  of  Books  illustrating  his  Life  and 
Works,"  by  G.  J.  Gray. 

Messrs.  Macmillan  and  Co.  will  shortly  publish  a  work 
on  "The  Theory  and  Practice  of  Absolute  Measurements  in 
Electricity  and  Magnetism,"  by  A.  Gray,  M.A.,  Professor  of 
Physics  in  the  University  College  of  North  Wales.  Though 
nominally  a  second  edition  of  the  small  book  by  the  same  author 
published  in  1884,  it  has  been  entirely  rewritten  and  extended 
in  plan,  so  as  to  form  a  fairly  complete  treatise  on  the  absolute 
measurement  of  electric  and  magnetic  quantities.  This  has 
necessitated  the  division  of  the  work  into  two  volumes,  of  which 
the  first,  extending  to  over  450  pages,  is  about  to  be  issued.  The 
following  is  a  synopsis  of  the  contents  : — Vol.  I.  contains  a 
sketch  of  the  theory  of  electro-statics  and  flow  of  electricity, 
chapters  on  units,  general  physical  measurements,  electrometers, 
comparison  of  resistances,  comparison  of  capacities,  and  measure- 
ment of  specific  inductive  capacities,  and  concludes  with  an 
appendix  of  tables  of  units,  resistances,  and  useful  constants. 
The  chapter  on  the  comparison  of  resistances  contains  full  details 
of  the  various  methods  of  comparing  high  and  low  resistances, 
calibration  of  wires,  &c.  ;  the  chapter  on  capacities  discusses 
methods  generally,  and  contains  an  account,  as  full  as  possible,  of 
the  principal  determinations  of  specific  inductive  capacity  made 
up  to  the  present  time.  Vol.  II.  will  contain  an  account  of 
magnetic  theory,  units  and  measurements ;  electro-magnetic 
theory  and  absolute  measurement  of  currents,  potentials  and 
electric  energy  ;  the  definitions  and  realization  of  the  ohm  and 
other  practical  units  ;  the  relation?  of  electro-magnetic  and  electro- 
static units  and  the  determination  of  v  ;  practical  applications  of 
electricity,  and  especially  related  points,  of  theory  and  measure- 
ments. (This  volume  is  in  hand,  and  will  be  issued  as  soon  as 
possible  after  Vol.  I.)  An  attempt  has  been  made  to  arrange 
the  work  so  as  to  avoid  any  too  sharp  distinction  between  what 
is  theoretical  and  what  is  practical,  and  at  the  same  time  pre- 
serve a  logical  order  in  the  former  and  prevent  the  constant 
introduction  of  digressions  on  theory  into  accounts  of  instruments 
and  processes  of  manipulation. 


A  work  of  some  interest  and  importance,  "  Excursions 
zoologiques  dans  les  lies  de  Fayal  et  de  San  Miguel  (Acores), " 
has  just  been  producedby  M.  Jules  de  Guerne,  at  the  expense 
of  Prince  Albert  de  Monaco.  Of  the  new  species  mentioned, 
some,  perhaps  all,  have  been  elsewhere  recorded  in  con- 
temporary periodicals.  M.  de  Guerne  concludes  from  his- 
researches  that  the  land  fauna  of  the  Azores  has  a  definitely 
European  character  ;  that  the  fresh-water  fauna  has  the  same 
character,  many  of  the  species  composing  it  being  probably 
cosmopolitan,  most  of  them  provided  with  powerful  means  of 
dissemination,  which  have  enabled  them  to  reach  the  Azores  ; 
that  most  of  the  species  have  been  brought  by  the  wind  and  by 
birds,  the  wind  playing  only  a  secondary  part  ;  that  the  lakes 
in  the  craters  are  of  modern  origin,  due  to  the  accumulation  of 
rain-water,  and  have  not  taken  long  to  people ;  that  the 
character  of  the  aquatic  types  and  the  absence  of  any  great 
struggle  for  existence  suffice  to  explain  this  rapid  peopling  of  the 
waters  ;  that  the  land  species,  like  those  of  the  water,  have  been 
fortuitously  introduced  from  the  nearest  islands  and  continents, 
though  at  a  remoter  epoch  and  more  distant  intervals,  this 
greater  antiquity  accounting  for  the  greater  differentiation  of  the 
land  fauna,  and  in  especial  of  the  Mollusca;  that  the  alpine 
character  of  the  land  fauna  has  not  been  demonstrated,  and  that, 
on  the  theory  of  the  gradual  submergence  of  the  islands,  the 
animals  of  the  littoral  region  in  retiring  to  the  higher  grounds 
would  have  there  produced  a  varied  and  numerous  assemblage  of 
species,  which,  as  a  fact,  is  not  found.  Incidentally,  M.  de  Guerne 
points  out  a  mistake  which  has  crept  into  works  of  importance — a 
sudden  depth  of  58  fathoms  at  a  single  spot  being  attributed  to 
the  little  Lagoa  Grande  in  the  Island  of  San  Miguel,  instead  of 
the  true  depth,  which  is  about  17  fathoms. 

The  Bancroft  Company,  San  Francisco,  announces  that 
there  will  shortly  be  added  to  the  series  of  guide-books  to  the 
Pacific  Coast  a  hand-book  of  the  Lick  Observatory,  which  has 
been  prepared  by  Prof.  Edward  S.  Holden,  Director  of  the 
Observatory.  This  book  is  intended  to  give  all  the  information 
which  will  be  of  value  to  each  one  of  the  many  visitors  to  the 
Lick  Observatory,  which  possesses  the  largest  and  most  powerful, 
telescope  in  the  world,  and  is  situated  in  one  of  the  wildest  and 
most,  romantic  portions  of  California.  Besides  the  useful  and 
necessary  information  of  a  mere  guide-book,  the  work  is  to  con- 
tain interesting  and  popular  accounts  of  the  various  astronomical 
instruments,  and  of  the  way  in  which  they  are  made  and  used. 
It  will  be  illustrated  by  twenty  or  more  woodcuts  from  photographs 
and  drawings. 

Mr.  Henry  Bedford,  of  All  Hallows  College,  Dublin, 
writes  to  us  : — "  I  see  among  the  notes  in  your  last  number  (p. 
87)  that  Herr  Sander,  in  his  paper  on  some  recently  deciphered 
runic  inscriptions  in  Sweden,  says  that  '  in  four  of  them  appeared 
the  word  Pirn  or  Piment  {i.e.  a  strong  drink  composed  of  wine, 
honey,  and  spice),  which,  as  well  as  Klaret,  was  mentioned  in 
the  Saga  of  Rollo  the  Ganger  and  the  Normans,'  and  that  'all 
these  inscriptions  were  referred  to  the  close  of  the  pa^an  age.' 
Now  if  the  word  Klaret  refers  like  Piment  to  some  kind  of 
drink,  does  not  this  point  to  the  direction  in  which  we  are  to 
look  for  some  more  satisfactory  explanation  of  our  modern  word 
Claret  than  that  which  our  dictionaries  give — as  a  derivation  from- 
the  French  clairet— although  the  word  is  not  used  in  that 
language  to  describe  the  French  wine  to  which  we  apply  it. 
Perhaps  you  or  some  of  your  readers  will  throw  some  light  upon' 
the  origin  of  this  obscure  word." 

The  800th  anniversary  of  the  University  of  Bologna  will  be 
celebrated  on  June  12  next.  An  oration  will  be  delivered  by 
the  poet  Giosue  Carducci.  There  will  also  be  a  musical  per- 
formance, an  ode  having  been  written  for  the  occasion  by 
Panzacchi,  and  set  to  music  by  Baron  Franchetti. 


ii4 


NATURE 


\_May  31,  1888 


Last  week  we  printed  a  letter  from  M.  Julius,  of  Delft, 
Holland,  asking  a  question  with  regard  to  tables  of  reciprocals. 
Mr.  T.  S.  Barrett  and  Mr.  A.  Freeman  write  to  us  recom- 
mending Barlow's  tables  of  squares,  cubes,  square  roots,  cube 
roots,  and  reciprocals  of  all  integers  up  to  10,000.  The  re- 
•  ciprocals  are  given  to  seven  places  of  significant  figures,  besides 
the  leading  zeros.  The  work  was  edited  by  the  late  A.  De 
Morgan,  and  published  for  the  Useful  Knowledge  Society  by 
Taylor  and  Walton,  London,  1840. 

Prof.  Ball,  General  Director  of  the  Science  and  Art 
Museum,  Dublin,  mentions  in  his  report  for  1887,  that  early  in 
the  year  he  brought  before  the  Council  of  the  Royal  Irish 
Academy  the  desirability  of  its  handing  over  to  the  Museum  an 
old  collection  of  moulds  of  Irish  crosses  and  miscellaneous 
sculptures,  together  with  casts,  most  of  which  had  been  prepared 
for  the  Exhibition  of  1853.  To  this  proposition  the  Academy 
cordially  assented,  and,  after  much  piecing  together  of  broken 
fragments,  it  was  found  that  the  material  provided  a  very 
valuable  and  representative  set  of  casts.  It  is  proposed  that 
casts  of  many  objects  of  ancient  Irish  art  not  included  in  this 
collection  shall  also  be  obtained.  The  collection,  when  com- 
pleted and  properly  arranged  in  the  new  Museum,  ought  to  be  of 
great  service  not  only  to  archaeologists  but  to  workmen,  who 
would  be  well  rewarded  for  a  careful  and  elaborate  study  of  the 
ideas  of  the  mediaeval  craftsmen  of  Ireland. 

Herr  H.  Forsf.ll  has  been  chosen  President  of  the  Swedish 
Royal  Academy  of  Science  for  the  ensuing  year,  in  place  of 
Herr  C.  G.  Malmstrom. 

The  Biological  Society  of  University  College  will  hold  its 
annual  soiree  at  the  College  on  Thursday,  June  7,  beginning  at 

8  p.m.     Prof.  W.  H.  Flower,  F.R.S.,  will  deliver  a  lecture  at 

9  p.m.  on  "  The  Pygmy  Races  of  Men."     Tickets  may  be  had 
on  application  to  the  secretaries  of  the  Society. 

We  have  received  the  Annuaire  for  the  year  1888  of  the  Paris 
Society  for  the  Encouragement  of  National  Industry.  Among 
the  contents  are  a  list  of  the  members,  and  an  extract  from  the 
programme  relating  to  the  prizes  to  be  given  by  the  Society  from 
1888  to  1893. 

The  Danish  Government  has  granted  a  sum  of  ^"500  for  the 
purpose  of  having  the  oyster-banks  in  Denmark  examined  by 
an  expert.  His  object  will  be  to  ascertain  the  results  of  their 
continued  preservation,  with  a  view  to  the  resumption  of  fishing. 

Some  months  ago  a  large  consignment  of  salmon  ova  was  de- 
spatched from  Denmark  to  Buenos  Ay  e?,  vid  Hamburg,  for  the 
stocking  of  certain  lakes  and  rivers  in  the  Argentine  Republic. 
The  experiment  has  proved  very  successful,   the  ova  ariving  in 
■  excellent  condition,  and  further  consignments  are  to  be  made. 

The  following  incident  in  the  trial  of  the  great  patent  case, 
Edison  and  Swan  Electric  Light  Company  v.  Holland  and 
others,  now  proceeding  in  the  Chancery  Division  of  the  High 
Court  of  Justice,  before  Mr.  Justice  Kay,  is  taken  .from  the 
shorthand  report  in  the  Electrician  of  May  18.  On  May  16, 
Prof.  James  Dewar,  F.R.  S.,  Professor  of  Chemistry  in  the 
University  of  Cambridge  was  under  examination.  A  small 
crucible  was  produced  and  handed  to  the  witness,  who  said  : 
In  that  crucible  T  have,  with  Mr.  Gimingham,  carbonized  fila- 
ments in  the  precincts  of  the  court,  using  no  packing  and  no 
luting  of  any  description.  The  filament  was  a  thread  so  far  as 
he  could  remember. 

Sir  Horace  Davey  urged  that  this  did  not  arise  out  of  the 
cross-examination. 

Mr.  Justice  Kay  said  it  should  have  been  produced  in  the 
*xamination-in-chief.  If  it  were  pursued,  Sir  Horace  Davey 
would  be  entitled  to  ask  any  questions  upon  it. 

Sir  Horace  Davey,  cross-examining: — About  what  heat  was 


this  produced  at  ? — It  was  a  mere  experiment.  It  was  a  spirit- 
lamp  that  was  used. 

Do  you  suggest  that  this  coil,  or  whatever  you  like  to  call  it, 
has  been  heated  to  a  sufficient  heat  for  use  as  a  conductor  in  an 
incandescent  lamp  ?  —Not  at  the  present  time. 

Then  it  is  not  completely  carbonized  ? — It  is  carbonized  ;  but 
it  does  not  conduct  well  enough.  It  wants  to  be  heated  for  a 
longer  time  at  a  higher  temperature. 

Plas  it  been  heated  to  a  degree  at  which  the  oxygen  would 
combine  with  or  attack  the  carbon  ? — That  I  cannot  say.  I  think 
it  is  probably  at  a  low  red  heat. 

Mr.  Justice  Kay  :  I  am  very  much  disgusted.  I  am  here  trying 
all  I  can  to  understand  the  case,  and  this  is  clearly  an  attempt  to 
mislead.     I  am  greatly  disgusted. 

Prof.  Dewar :  I  have  no  desire  to  mislead  your  lordship.  I 
have  stated  that  this  was  a  mere  experiment.  I  did  not  produce 
it.     It  was  put  to  me. 

Mr.  Justice  Kay  :  You  may  stand  down. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Rhesus  Monkey  {Macacus  rhesus  9  )  from 
India,  presented  by  Mr.  George  Somerford  ;  a  Barbary  Ape 
{Macacus  inims  9)  from  North  Africa,  presented  by  Miss 
Waterman  ;  a  Brazilian  Tree  Porcupine  {Sphingurus  prehensilis) 
from  Pernambuco,  presented  by  Mr.  Clement  J.  Bateman  ;  a 
Barbary  Wild  Sheep  {Ovis  tragelaphus),  from  North  Africa,  pre- 
sented by  Mr.  E.  H.  Forwood  ;  a  Greater  Black-backed  Gull 
(Larus  marinus),  British,  presented  by  Prof.  E.  Ray  Lankester, 
F.R.S.,  F.Z.S.  ;  a  Herring  Gull  {Larus  argentatus),  British, 
presented  by  Mr.  E.  Wright:  a  Cape  Dove  {(Ena  capensis),  a 
Tambourine  Pigeon  (  Tympanistria  bicolor)  from  South  Africa, 
presented  by  Mr.  R.  H.  Milford  ;  a  White-handed  Gibbon 
{Hylobates  lar)  from  the  Malay  peninsula,  a  Chimpanzee  {Anthro- 
popithecus  troglodytes  9  ),  a  Marabou  Stork  {Leptoptilus  crumeni- 
ferns')  from  West  Africa,  two  Caracals  {Felts  caracal  juv)  from 
Africa,  three  Red-crowned  Pigeons  {Erythremias  pulchcrrimus), 

a  Praslin  Parrot  {Coracopsis  barklyi),   two Kestrels  ( Tin- 

minculus  gracilis)  from  the  Seychelles,  a  Laughing  Kingfisher 
{Dacelo  gi«antea),  a  Black -backed  Piping  Crow  {Gymnorhina 
tibiceu),  a  Greater  Sulphur-crested  Cockatoo  {Cacatua.  galerita) 
from  Australia,  two  Glass  Snakes  {Pseudopus  pallasi)  from  Dal- 
niatia,  deposited  ;  six  Common  Pintails  {Dafila  acuta),  eight 
Common  Teal  {Qtierquedu'a  crecca),  eight  Garganey  Teal 
{Querquedula circia),  ten  Wigeon  {Mareca pcnelopc),  a  Shoveller 
{Spatula  clypmta),  British,  purchased;  a  Red  Kangaroo 
{Macropus  ru/us),  born  in  the  Gardens. 

OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

Comet  1888  a  (Sawerthal).  —  A.t  the  beginning  of  last 
week,  apparently  on  May  20  or  21,  the  comet  suddenly  became 
very  much  brighter,  gaining  fully  three  magnitudes.  It  has  since 
faded  again.  Only  a  few  observations  have  as  yet  come  to 
hand,  but  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  everyone  who  has  observed  it 
during  the  last  fortnight,  and  made  any  estimate  of  its  bright- 
ness, will  publish  his  observations  without  delay. 

The  Short  Period  Comets  and  Asteroids. — Prof. 
Kirkwood,  who  has  already  given  reasons  for  thinking  that 
two  short  period  comets  originally  belonged  to  the  group 'of 
asteroids,  has  extended  his  argument  in  the  Sidereal  Mes- 
senger for  May  to  include  the  class  of  short  period  comets 
as  a  whole.  He  points  out  that,  of  the  twenty  comets  con- 
cerned, seven  have  disappeared,  either  by  dissolution  into 
fragments,  like  Biela's  comet,  or  by  the  transformation  of  the 
orbit  by  the  influence  of  Jupiter,  as  in  the  case  of  Lexell's 
comet.  The  instances  of  the  comets  of  Lexell  and  Wolf  (1884) 
are  representative,  Prof.  Kirkwood  considers,  of  the  mode  in 
which  asteroidal  may  have  been  changed  into  cometary  orbit;. 
Had  the  latter,  indeed,  been  discovered  before  its  perturbation, 
it  would  probably  have  been  considered  simply  an  asteroid  of 
unusually  long  period,  for  its  eccentricity  and  inclination  were 


May  si>  l888] 


NA  TURE 


J'5 


well  within  asteroidal  limits.  Of  the  twenty  comets,  not  only 
have  seven  disappeared,  but  five,  or,  including  Encke's  and 
Biela's,  seven,  have  periods  commensurable  with  that  of  Jupiter  ; 
all  the  twenty  have  direct  motion  ;  all  but  one  have  smaller 
inclination  than  Pallas  ;  and,  as  with  the  asteroids,  there  is  a 
tendency  of  the  perihelia  to  concentrate  in  the  1800  from 
290°  to  110°. 

New  Minor  Planet. — A  new  minor  planet  was  discovered 
by  M.  Borrelly  on  May  12  at  Marseilles.  This  may  possibly, 
but  not  very  probably,  prove  to  be  Xanthippe,  No.  156.  Should 
it  be  really  a  fresh  discovery,  it  will  rank  as  No.  278,  whilst  the 
one  discovered  by  Herr  Palisa  on  May  16  (see  Nature,  vol. 
xxxviii.  p.  89)  will  be  numbered  279. 


ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR    THE 
WEEK  1888  JUNE  3-9. 

/"pOR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  June  3 
Sun  rises,  3h.  49m.;  souths,  Iih.  57m.  57'6s. ;  sets,   20h.  7m.  : 

right   asc.    on    meridian,    4h.    47 '4m.  ;   decl.    230  24'  N. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  I2h.  58m. 
Moon    (New    on    June    9,     I7h.)     rises,    ih.    42m.  ;    souths, 

7I1.    30m.;    sets,     I3h.    29m.:    right    asc.     on    meridian, 

oh.  186m.  ;  decl.  2°  54'  S. 


Right  asc. 

and  declination 

Planet.          Rises. 

Souths.          Sets. 

on 

meridian. 

h.  m. 

h.    m.            h.    m. 

h.       m. 

0       / 

Mercury..     5     4 

..    13  35   ...   22     6   ... 

6  25-2 

...  25  23  N. 

Venus   ...     3  21 

..   11   14  ...   19     7  ... 

4    3'4 

...  20    4  N. 

Mars      ...    14  19 

•  •  19  57  ...     i  35*- 

12  47-6 

...     5     3S. 

Jupiter  ...   18  39 

...  23    0  ...     3  21*... 

15  517 

...  19  12  S. 

Saturn  ...     7  38 

..  15  32  ...  23  26  ... 

8  220 

...  20     5  N. 

Uranus...    14  19 

•  •   19  59  •••     1  39*- 

12  49*8 

...     4  37  S. 

Neptune..     3  20 

..  11     5  ...  18  50  ... 

3  53  9 

...   18  38  N. 

*  Indicates  that  the 

rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening 

and  the  setting 

that  of  the  following  morning. 

June.              h.  , 

8    ...     20    ... 

Venus  in  conjunction 

with  and  30  39'  north 

of  the  Moon. 

Variable  Stars. 

Star. 

R.A.                Decl. 

h.      m.              . 

h.    m. 

U  Cephei     

0  52-4  ...  81    16  N. 

...  June 

6,      O    l6   7)1 

Mira  Ceti     

2    137  ...     3   29  S. 

,, 

9,             m 

R  Leonis     

9  41-5  -.  "  57  N. 

,, 

4,             M 

S  Ursae  Majoris  .. 

12  39-i  ...  61  42  N. 

,, 

9,             M 

V  Virginis 

13  22-0  ...    2  36  S. 

,, 

8,             M 

U  Coronas 

15  13-6  ...  32     3  N. 

...     ,, 

7,  22  20  m 

U  Herculis 

16  209  ...  19     9  N. 

,, 

3.               m 

U  Ophiuchi 

17  10*9  ...     1  20  N. 

,, 

7,  23  48  ;« 

W  Sagittarii 

17  579  -  29  35  S. 

>> 

8,  22    0  m 

U  Sagittarii 

18  25-3  ...  19  12  S. 

,, 

3,    2    0  m 

>> 

6,    1     0  M 

R  Scuti 

18  41-5  ...    5  50  S. 

,, 

4,           m 

B  Lyrae 

18  460  ...  33  14  N. 

..  •     ,, 

3»    3    0  m 

R  Capricorni 

20    5 x>  ...  14  36  S. 

...     fi 

4,             M 

X  Cygni       

20  390  ...  35  11  N. 

,, 

8,  21     0  m 

M 

signifies  maximum  ;  tn  minimum. 

Meteor- Showers. 

R.A.        Decl. 

Near  Antares 

.     ...  248  ...  20  S. 

,,     a  Ophiuchi  . 

..     ...  260  ...     5  N. 

..    Rather  slow. 

GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

In  the  Report  of  the  Survey  of  India  for  1886-87,  Colonel 
Strahan  gives  an  account  of  the  survey  and  exploration  of  the 
Nicobar  Islands  by  himself  and  party.  A  very  careful  survey  of 
the  whole  group  was  made,  and  the  coast-lines  at  last  accurately 
laid  down.  Owing  to  the  dense  vegetation,  the  party  were  unable 
to  penetrate  any  distance  into  the  interior,  and  only  a  few  heights 
could  be  measured.  The  culminating  point  of  the  whole  group, 
2105  feet  above  sea-level,  stands  near  the  south-east  corner  or 


Great  Nicobar,  the  area  of  which  is  375  square  miles,  the  total 
area  of  the  group  being  678  square  miles.  The  scenery,  es- 
pecially of  Great  and  Little  Nicobar,  is  of  indescribable  beauty.. 
There  are  several  rivers  in  the  former  island  which  are  navigable 
by  boats  for  some  miles,  especially  the  Galatea,  on  the  south 
coast.  Its  course  is  very  tortuous,  the  banks  are  fringed  with 
tree-ferns,  canes,  bamboos,  and  tropical  vegetation  of  infinite 
variety,  through  which  occasional  glimpses  are  obtained  of 
high  mountains  in  the  interior  covered  with  dense  forests  to 
their  very  summits,  and  generally  cloud-capped.  The  country 
through  which  the  stream  runs  is  almost  uninhabited ;  a  few  huts 
appear  here  and  there  tenanted  by  an  inland  tribe  of  savages 
called  "  Shorn  Pen,"  of  whom  very  little  is  known,  except  that 
they  are  in  such  an  utter  state  of  barbarism  as  to  be  held  in  con- 
tempt even  by  the  Nicobarese  inhabiting  the  coasts.  On  most 
of  the  islands  the  forest  grows  luxuriantly  down  to  the  beach. 
Mangroves,  except  in  the  island  of  Kamorta,  are  not  very 
plentiful,  and  in  this  respect  these  islands  differ  widely  from 
the  neighbouring  Andaman  group,  where  the  creeks  are 
fringed  with  mangroves  mile  after  mile.  The  sea-beach  con- 
sists largely  of  coral.  The  climate  is  very  equable  day  and  night 
all  the  year  through,  and  most  pleasant  to  one's  feelings,  but 
unfortunately  its  character  for  unhealthiness  is  only  two  well 
established.  The  rainfall,  which  averages  about  100  inches,  is 
pretty  evenly  distributed  throughout  the  year.  The  thermometer 
stands  very  steadily  between  8o°  and  850  in  the  shade,  and  hardly 
varies  day  or  night.  The  inhabitants  of  these  islands,  Colonel 
Strahan  states,  are  allied  to  the  Malays,  and  are  a  complete 
contrast  to  their  tiny,  intensely  black,  woolly-haired  neighbour-, 
the  Andamanese.  The  Nicobarese  are  very  strong,  thicklj- 
built  men,  not  much  if  at  all  inferior  to  Europeans  in  physique, 
of  a  reddish-brown  colour.  They  are  unconquerably  lazy, 
having  no  inducement  whatever  to  exertion.  They  have  a 
wonderful  talent  for  learning  languages.  Fortunately,  Mr  Man, 
the  Settlement  Officer  at  Kamorta,  who  has  done  so  much  for 
Andaman  anthropology,  has  been  carefully  studying  the  Nico- 
barese, their  habits  and  language,  and  is  now  engaged  on  a  book 
on  the  subject,  which  will  shortly  be  published. 

Mr.  C.  M.  Woodford,  the  successful  naturalist  explorer  of 
the  Solomon  Islands,  is  about  to  leave  England  on  a  third  visit 
to  the  group.  After  spending  some  time  in  various  parts  of  the 
islands  not  previously  visited,  he  will  investigate  Santa  Cruz, 
Woodlark  Island,  and  other  islands  lying  to  the  south-east  of 
New  Guinea. 

According  to  the  new  Survey  Report,  triangulation  surveys 
have  already  been  effected  over  15,000  square  miles  in  Upper 
Burma,  and  the  out-turn  of  reconnaissance  surveys  amounts  to- 
11,000  square  miles  on  the  scale  of  4  miles  to  an  inch,  in  the 
following  States  and  districts  :  Northern  Shan  States  and  Ruby 
Mines  district,  3000  square  miles  ;  Southern  Shan  States,  3000  ; 
Yemethin  and  Mehtila  district,  2000  ;  Yaw  country,  1000  ; 
Mandalay  and  Kyaukse  districts,  20CO. 

In  the  summary  Report  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  Canada 
for  1887,  some  of  the  results  are  given  of  the  expedition  under 
Dr.  G.  M.  Dawson  last  summer,  of  the  exploration  of  British 
Columbia.  Mr.  Ogilvie's  instrumental  survey  to  the  intersection 
of  the  Yukon  with  the  141st  meridian  will  form  a  sufficiently 
accurate  base-line  for  future  explorations  in  this  region.  In 
addition  to  this  the  geographical  results  include  the  completion- 
of  an  instrumental  survey  of  the  Sitkine  to  Telegraph  Creek  by 
Mr.  McConnell,  which  is  connected  with  Dease  Lake  by  a 
carefully  placed  traverse  by  Mr.  M'Evoy.  Thence  a  detailed  run- 
ning survey  was  carried  by  the  Dease,  Liard,  and  Pelly  Rivers, 
connecting  with  Mr.  Ogilvie's  line  at  the  mouth  of  the  Lewis 
River,  a  total  distance  of  900  mile-.  Taken  in  conjunction  with 
Mr.  Ogilvie's  line,  these  surveys  include  an  area  of  over 
6000  square  miles,  the  interior  of  which  is  still,  with  the 
exception  of  reports  received  from  a  few  prospectors  and  from 
Indians,  a  terra  incognita.  The  same  remark  may  be  applied  to 
the  whole  surrounding  region  outside  the  surveyed  circuit,  but 
much  general  information  has  been  obtained  respecting  the 
entire  district,  which  will  facilitate  further  explorations.  The 
whole  region  is  more  or  less  mountainous,  though  intersected  by 
wide  areas  of  flat  or  valley  country.  The  country,  though 
generally  mountainous  in  character,  includes  large  tracts  of  flat 
and  slightly  broken  land,  and,  according  to  Dr.  Dawson,  may 
eventually  support  a  population  as  large  as  that  found  in  . 
corresponding  latitudes  in  Europe. 


n6 


NATURE 


[May  31,  1888 


The  anniversary  meeting  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society 
was  held  on  Monday  in  the  hall  of  the  University  of  London, 
General  R.  Strachey  presiding.  The  report,  which  was  read 
by  Mr.  Clements  R.  Markham,  having  been  adopted,  General 
Strachey  was  for  the  third  consecutive  year  elected  President  of 
the  Society.  The  Founder's  Medal  for  the  encouragement  of 
geographical  science  and  discovery  was  presented  to  Mr. 
Clements  R.  Markham,  who  retires  from  the  honorary  secretary- 
ship after  twenty-five  years'  service,  in  acknowledgment  of 
the  valuable  services  rendered  by  him  to  the  Society  during 
that  period.  Lieut.  H.  Wissmann  was  awarded  the  Patron's 
Medal  in  recognition  of  his  great  achievements  as  an  ex- 
plorer in  Central  Africa  ;  Mr.  J.  M'Carthy,  Superintendent 
of  Surveys  in  Siam,  the  Murchi-on  Grant  ;  Major  Festing,  the 
Cuthbert  Peek  Grant,  for  his  services  as  a  cartographer  on  the 
Gambia  River  and  the  country  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Sierra 
Leone.  The  Gill  Memorial  for  1888  was  secured  by  Mr.  Charles 
M.  Doughty.  Various  scholarships  and  prizes  to  students  in 
training  colleges  were  also  distributed.  The  President  then 
delivered  his  annual  address,  passing  in  review  the  chief 
geographical  events  of  the  year. 


THE  LINNEAN  SOCIETY. 

'"THE  hundredth  anniversary  meeting  of  this  Society  was  held 
"*•  on  Thursday  last,  24th  inst.,  at  Burlington  House,  in  the 
library,  the  usual  meeting-room  being  inadequate  for  the  reception 
of  the  large  number  of  members  present  on  this  occasion.  The 
President,  Mr.  Wm.  Carruthers,  F.  R.S.,  took  the  chair  at  three 
o'clock,  and  was  supported  by  the  two  former  Presidents  who 
are  happily  still  with  us — Prof.  Allman  and  Sir  John  Lubbock — 
the  Council  of  the  Society,  and  many  distinguished  Fellows, 
amongst  whom  we  noted  Sir  Richard  Owen,  Sir  Joseph  Hooker, 
Dr.  Gunther,  Sir  Walter  Buller,  Prof.  Duncan,  Mr.  Romanes, 
Colonrl  Grant,  and  amongst  the  visitors  Dr.  Henry  Woodward, 
F.R.S.,  and  Mr.  Studley  Martin,  a  nephew  of  the  founder. 

After  preliminary  business,  H.M.  the  King  of  Sweden  was 
elected  an  honorary  member.  The  Treasurer,  Mr.  Frank  Crisp, 
laid  the  last  year's  accounts  before  the  mee'ing,  and  briefly 
referred  to  the  financial  history  of  the  Society  during  the  century 
now  closed.  The  senior  Secretary,  Mr.  B.  Daydon  Jackson, 
presented  an  account  of  the  Linneati  collections  from  their 
formation,  their  purchase  by  the  founder  of  the  Society,  and 
their  possession  by  the  Linnean  Society.  This  was  succeeded 
by  the  President's  annual  address,  which  was  largely  devoted  to 
a  review  of  the  Society's  past  career.  He  spoke  of  the  original 
quarto  Transactions,  then  of  the  octavo  Proceedings,  finally  of  the 
Journal,  of  which  forty-three  volumes  are  extant.  During  the 
past  year  seven  parts  of  the  Transactions  and  twenty  of  the 
Journal  had  been  issued,  an  amount  equal  to  that  published 
during  fifteen  years  in  the  early  part  of  the  century. 

A  novel  feature  was  then  introduced,  one  of  those  intended  to 
mark  the  centenary  of  the  Society.  Prof.  Thore  Fries,  the 
present  occupant  of  Linnseus's  Botanical  Chair  at  Upsala, 
had  been  invited  to  pronounce  a  eulogium  on  his  illus- 
trious predecessor.  As  he  was  detained  by  his  professorial 
duties  in  his  University,  his  essay  wis  read  by  the  Pre- 
sident. In  it  he  spoke  of  the  profound  sleep  of  natural 
science  during  the  Middle  Ag(  s,  and  the  hard  struggle  which  had 
to  be  fought  before  men  of  science  could  liberate  themselves  from 
a  narrow  orthodoxy,  or  the  fetters  they  had  themselves  forged  by 
attaching  infallibility  to  Aristotle  and  classic  authors.  Linnaeus 
bore  an  honourable  part  in  placing  the  study  of  natural  science  on 
a  logical  basis  by  his  clear  definitions,  and  admirable  nomencla- 
ture, and  by  the  enthusiasm  he  was  able  to  rouse  in  his  disciples 
for  the  same  methods.  England,  unluckily  for  Sweden,  became 
his  heir ;  many  consequently  are  the  ties  which  unite  the  memory 
of  Linnaeus  with  this  country,  the  strongest  perhaps  being  the 
Linnean  spirit,  the  genuine  spirit  of  freshness  and  enterprise  in 
which  scientific  research  is  carried  on  in  England. 

Sir  Joseph  Hooker  then  pronounced  a  eulogy  on  Robert 
Brown,  the  greatest  botanist  of  the  present  century.  He 
specially  dwelt  on  the  evidence  afforded  by  the  "  Prodromus  " 
of  his  untiring  industry,  accuracy  of  observation  and  exposition, 
-together  with  sagacity,  caution,  and  soundness  of  judgment,  in 
which  he  has  not  been  surpassed.  Where  others  have  advanced 
beyond  the  goal  he  reached,  it  has  been  by  working  on  the 
foundations  he  laid,  aided  by  modern  appliances  of  optics  and 
physics.  His  memory  was  wonderful,  he  seemed  never  to 
forget  a  plant  he  had  examined  ;  and  the  same  with  his  books — 


he  could  turn  to  descriptions  for  a  statement  or  a  figure  without 
needing  a  reference.  The  noble  title  conferred  upon  him  by 
Humboldt  has  been  confirmed  by  acclamation  by  botanists  of 
every  country,  "  Botanicorum  facile  princeps." 

Prof.  Flower,  C.  B.,  F.R.  S.,  delivered  an  address  on  Charles 
Darwin,  who,  he  said,  had  special  claims  on  their  considera- 
tion, inasmuch  as  a  large  and  very  important  portion  of  his  work 
was  communicated  to  the  world  by  papers  read  before  the 
Society  and  published  in  the  Journal.  His  life  was  one  long 
battle  against  our  ignorance  of  the  mysteries  of  living  Nature, 
and  he  sought  to  penetrate  the  shroud  which  conceals  the 
causes  of  all  the  variety  and  wonders  round  us.  His  main 
victory  was  the  destruction  of  the  conception  of  species  as 
being  fixed  and  unchangeable  beyond  certain  narrow  limits,  a 
view  which  prevailed  universally  before  his  time.  That  other 
factors  had  operated  besides  natural  selection  in  bringing  about 
the  present  condition  of  the  organic  world  was  admitted  even 
by  Darwin  himself.  His  work,  and  the  discussions  which  had 
sprung  from  it,  had  marvellously  stimulated  research,  and  he 
had  shown  by  his  life  and  labours  the  true  methods  by  which 
alone  the  secrets  of  Nature  may  be  won. 

Prof.  W.  T.  Thiselton  Dyer  spoke  on  George  Bentham,  who 
presided  over  the  Society  from  1863  to  1874.  A  nephew  of 
Jeremy  Bentham,  and  trained  to  some  extent  under  him,  he  was 
early  imbued  with  a  taste  for  method  and  analysis,  and  through 
his  mother's  fondness  for  plants  he  was  led  to  study  them, 
with  marvellous  results.  The  records  of  his  life-work  are 
astonishing.  Whilst  President  he  delivered  a  series  of  masterly 
addresses,  and  the  latter  part  of  his  career  witnessed  the  pre- 
paration of  the  "Flora  Australiensis "  and  a  full  share  of  the 
"Genera  Plantarum."  He  stood  in  the  footsteps  of  Linnaeus, 
and  although  the  descent  was  oblique  he  inherited  the  mantle  of 
the  master  whose  memory  was  that  day  commemorated. 

The  President  stated  that  the  Council  had  decided  to  establish 
a  Linnean  Gold  Medal,  to  be  presented  to  a  botanist  and  a 
zoologist  in  alternate  years,  but  on  this  occasion  it  would  be 
awarded  in  duplicate.  The  medal  bore  on  the  obverse  a  profile 
of  Linnaeus,  modelled  from  the  bust  in  the  library  ;  on  the 
reverse,  the  arms  of  the  Society  and  the  name  of  the  recipient. 
The  President  made  the  first  presentation  to  Sir  Richard  Owen, 
recounting  the  chief  services  he  had  rendered  to  zoology.  Sir 
Richard,  with  some  emotion,  expressed  his  high  sense  of  the 
honour  conferred,  and  thanked  the  Fellows  for  their  cordial 
reception  of  him.  The  President  then  presented  a  similar 
medal  to  Sir  Joseph  Hooker,  with  a  like  recapitulation  of  the 
splendid  services  he  had  bestowed  on  botany.  Sir  Joseph 
suitably  replied,  returning  his  cordial  thanks  for  the  distinction. 
The  remaining  formal  business  included  the  announcement 
of  the  newly-elected  Councillors,  and  the  re-election  of  the 
officers— Mr.  Wm.  Carrathers,  President ;  Mr.  Frank  Crisp, 
Treasurer;  and  Messrs.  B.  Daydon  Jackson,  and  W.  Percy 
Sladen,  Secretaries. 

The  annual  dinner  was  held  at  the  Hotel  Victoria,  Northum- 
berland Avenue,  at  seven  o'clock.  The  President  took  the 
chair,  about  sixty  of  the  Fellows  being  present.  In  addition  to 
the  usual  toasts,  that  of  "The  Medallists"  was  given,  and 
replied  to  by  Sir  Joseph  Hooker,  who  alluded  to  the  fact  that 
he  had  personally  known  eight  of  the  Presidents  of  the  Society, 
and  that  the  founder  himself  induced  his  father,  Sir  William 
Hooker,  to  take  up  the  study  of  botany.  As  a  proof  of  his  close 
connection  with  the  Linnean  Society,  he  added  that  his  father, 
grandfather,  father-in-law,  and  uncle  had  all  been  Fellows. 

The  final  portion  of  the  centenary  celebration  took  place  the 
following  evening,  when  the  President  and  officers  held  a  recep- 
tion at  Burlington  House.  A  special  feature  was  made  of  the 
Linnean  manuscripts  and  memorials,  which  were  displayed  in 
glass  cases  with  descriptions,  a  catalogue  of  them  being  also 
distributed.  Memorials  of  other  distinguished  naturalists  were 
also  shown,  conspicuously  those  of  Robert  Brown  and  George 
Bentham,  lent  by  Sir  Joseph  Hooker  and  M.  Alphonse  de 
Candolle,  of  Geneva,  a  foreign  member  of  the  Society. 


UNIVERSITY  AND  EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 

Cambridge. — The  Rede  Lecture  on  June  8,  by  Sir  F.  A. 
Abel,  will  be  upon  applications  of  science  to  the  piotection  of 
human  life.  It  will  be  illustrated  by  experiments  and  the 
exhibition  of  appliances. 


May  31,  1888] 


NATURE 


117 


Mr.  Percy  Groom,  B.  A.,  late  of  Trinity  College,  has  been 
elected  to  the  Frank  Smart  Studentship  in  Botany  at  Gonville 
and  Caius  College. 

The  fittings  of  the  new  Chemical  Laboratory  are  costing  ,£1000 
more  than  was  originally  estimated  (from  rough  drawings  only) 
by  Mr.  Lyon,  Superintendent  of  the  University  workshops. 
Some  of  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  fixing  of  the  tables  on  a 
bottom  independent  of  the  floors  of  the  rooms,  and  making  the 
cupboard  doors  fairly  dust-proof,  originally  recommended,  was 
not  adopted  till  after  the  tables  had  been  fixed,  and  much 
cutting  of  the  floors  had  to  be  done.  Also  much  of  the  iron  and 
steel  work  was  not  particularized  at  first. 

The  Council  are  taking  steps  to  carry  out  the  appropriation  of 
the  old  Chemical  Laboratory  to  the  department  of  pathology. 

Prof.  Darwin  will  lecture  during  the  long  vacation  on  the 
theory  of  the  potential,  and  on  attractions,  commencing  on 
Tuesday,  July  io.  The  lectures  will  treat  principally  of  gravi- 
tational problems,  including  attraction  of  ellipsoids,  Gauss's 
paper,  heat  of  tin,  Jacobi's  and  Dedekind's  ellipsoids,  oscilla- 
tions of  a  fluid  sphere,  the  foundation  of  the  theory  of  tides, 
atmospheres  of  planets,  &c. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  May  3. — "  Effect  of  Chlorine  on  the  Electro- 
motive Force  of  a  Voltaic  Couple."     By  Dr.  G.  Gore,  F.R. S. 

If  the  electromotive  force  of  a  small  voltaic  couple  of 
unamalgamated  magnesium  and  platinum  in  distilled  water,  is 
balanced  through  the  coil  of  a  moderately  sensitive  galvanometer 
of  about  100  ohms  resistance,  by  means  of  that  of  a  small 
Daniell's  cell,  plus  that  of  a  sufficient  number  of  couples  of  iron 
and  German  silver  of  a  suitable  thermoelectric  pile  (see  Proc. 
Birm.  Philos.  Soc.,  vol.  iv.  p.  130),  the  degree  of  potential 
being  noted  ;  and  sufficiently  minute  quantities  of  very  dilute 
chlorine  water  are  then  added  in  succession  to  the  distilled  water, 
the  degree  of  electromotive  force  of  the  couple  is  not  affected 
until  a  certain  definite  proportion  of  chlorine  has  been  added  ; 
the  potential  then  suddenly  commences  to  increase,  and  continues 
to  do  so  with  each  further  addition  within  a  certain  limit. 
Instead  of  making  the  experiment  by  adding  chlorine  water,  it 
may  be  made  by  gradually  diluting  a  very  weak  aqueous 
solution  of  chlorine. 

The  minimum  proportion  of  chlorine  necessary  to  cause  this 
sudden  change  of  electromotive  force  is  extremely  small  ;  in 
my  experiments  it  has  been  1  part  in  17,000  million  parts  of 
water,1  or  less  than  1/7000  part  of  that  required  to  yield  a 
barely  perceptible  opacity  in  ten  times  the  bulk  of  a  solution  of 
sal-ammoniac  by  means  of  nitrate  of  silver.  The  quantity  of 
licptid  required  for  acting  upon  the  couple  is  small,  and  it  would 
be  easy  to  detect  the  effect  of  the  above  proportion,  or  of  less 
than  one  ten-thousand-millionth  part  of  a  grain  of  chlorine,  in 
one-tenth  of  a  cubic  centimetre  of  distilled  water  by  this  process. 
The  same  kind  of  action  occurs  with  other  electrolytes,  but 
requires  larger  proportions  of  dissolved  substance. 

As  the  degree  of  sensitiveness  of  the  method  appears  extreme, 
I  add  the  following  remarks.  The  original  solution  of  washed 
chlorine  in  distdled  water  was  prepared  in  a  dark  place  by  the 
usual  method  from  hydrochloric  acid  and.  manganic  oxide,  and 
was  kept  in  an  opaque  well- stoppered  bottle  in  the  dark.  The 
strength  of  this  liquid  was  found  by  means  of  volumetric  analysis 
with  a  standard  solution  of  argentic  nitrate  in  the  usual  manner, 
the  accuracy  of  the  silver  solution  being  proved  by  means  of  a 
known  weight  of  pure  chloride  of  sodium.  The  chlorine  liquid 
contained  2*3  milligrammes  or  0-03565  grain  of  chlorine  per  cubic 
centimetre,  and  was  just  about  three-fourths  saturated. 

One-tenth  of  a  cubic  centimetre  of  this  solution  ( "  No.  I  "),  or 
0003565  grain  of  chlorine,  was  added  to  Q-Q  c.c.  of  distilled  water 
and  mixed.  One  cubic  centimetre  of  this  second  liquid  ("No. 
2"),  oro  0003565  grain  of  chlorine  was  added  to  99  c.c.  of  water 
and  mixed;  the  resulting  liquid  ("No.  3")  contained 
o  000003565  grain  of  chlorine  per  cubic  centimetre.  To  make 
the  solutions  ("  No.  4  ")  for  exciting  the  voltaic  couple,  successive 
portions  of  ^  or  ^\  c.c.  of  ("No.  3")  liquid  were  added  to 
900  cubic  centimetres  of  distilled  water  and  mixed. 

As  1  part  of  chlorine  in  17612  million  parts  of  water  had  no  visible  effect, 
and  1  in  17000  millions  had  a  distinct  effect,  the  influence  of  the  d. (Terence, 
or  of  1  part  in  500,000  millions,  has  been  detected. 


I  have  employed  the  foregoing  method  for  examining  the 
states  and  degrees  of  combination  of  dissolved  substances  in 
electrolytes,  and  am  also  investigating  its  various  relations. 

May  17. — "Magnetic  Qualities  of  Nickel."  By  J.  A.  Ewing, 
F.  R.S.,  Professor  of  Engineering,  University  College,  Dundee, 
and  G.  C.  Cowan. 

The  experiments  described  in  the  paper  were  made  with  the 
view  of  extending  to  nickel  the  same  lines  of  inquiry  as  had 
been  pursued  by  one  of  the  authors  in  regard  to  iron  (Phil. 
Trans.,  1885^3.523).  Cyclic  processes  of  magnetization  have  been 
studied,  in  which  a  magnetizing  force  of  about  100  C.G.S.  units 
was  applied,  removed,  reversed,  again  removed,  and  re-applied, 
for  the  purpose  of  determining  the  form  of  the  magnetization 
curve,  the  magnetic  susceptibility,  the  ratio  of  residual  to 
induced  magnetism,  and  the  energy  dissipated  in  consequence  of 
hysteresis  in  the  relation  of  magnetic  induction  to  magnetizing 
force.  Curves  are  given,  to  show  the  chiracter  of  such  cycles 
foi  nickel  wire  in  three  conditions :  the  original  hard-drawn 
state,  annealed,  and  hardened  by  stretching  after  being  annealed. 
The  effects  of  stress  have  also  been  examined  (1)  by  loading  and 
unloading  magnetized  nickel  wire  with  weights  which  produced 
cyclic  variations  of  longitudinal  pull,  and  (2)  by  magnetizing 
while  the  wire  was  subjected  to  a  steady  pull  of  greater  or  less 
amount.  The  results  confirm  and  extend  Sir  William  Thomson's 
observation  that  longitudinal  pull  diminishes  magnetism  in 
nickel.  This  diminution  is  surprisingly  great  :  it  occurs  with 
respect  to  the  induced  magnetism  under  both  large  and  small 
magnetic  forces,  and  also  with  respect  to  residual  magnetism. 
The  effects  of  stress  are  much  less  complex  than  in  iron,  and 
cyclic  variations  of  stress  are  attended  by  much  less  hysteresis. 
Curves  are  given  to  show  the  induced  and  residual  magnetism 
produced  by  various  magnetic  forces  when  the  metal  was  main- 
tained in  one  or  other  of  certain  assigned  states  of  stress  ;  also 
the  variations  of  induced  and  residual  magnetism  which  were 
caused  by  loading  and  unloading  without  alteration  of  the 
magnetic  field.  Values  of  the  initial  magnetic  susceptibility, 
for  very  feeble  magnetizing  forces,  are  stated,  and  are  cqmpared 
with  the  values  determined  by  Lord  Rayleigh  for  iron,  and  the 
relation  of  the  initial  susceptibility  to  the  stress  present  is  in- 
vestigated. The  paper  consists  mainly  of  diagrams  in  which 
the  results  are  g<aphically  exhibited  by  means  of  curves. 

Chemical  Society,  May  3. — Mr.  W.  Crookes,  F.R. S.,  in  the 
chair. — The  following  papers  were  read  : — The  determination  of 
the  molecular  weights  of  the  carbo-hydrates,  by  Mr.  H.  T. 
Brown  and  Dr.  G.  H.  Morris.  The  law  established  by  Blagden 
in  1788,  that  the  lowering  of  the  freezing-point  of  aqueous  solu- 
tions of  inorganic  salts  is  proportional  to  the  weight  of  substance 
dissolved  in  a  constant  weight  of  water,  was  extended  by  de 
Coppet  in  1871-72,  who  pointed  out  that  when  the  lowering  of 
the  freezing-point  is  calculated  for  a  given  weight  of  the  sub- 
stance in  100  grammes  of  water,  the  result,  which  he  termed  the 
coefficient  of  depression,  is  constant  for  the  same  substance,  and 
that  the  coefficients  for  different  substances  bear  a  simple  relation 
to  their  molecular  weights.  Raoult  extended  the  law  to  organic 
substances  and  to  other  solvents  than  water,  and  showed  that 
when  certain  quantities  of  the  same  substance  are  successively 
dissolved  in  a  solvent  upon  which  it  has  no  chemical  action, 
there  is  a  progressive  lowering  of  the  point  of  congelation  of  the 
solution,  and  that  this  lowering  is  proportional  to  the  weight 
of  the  substance  dissolved  in  a  constant  weight  of  water. 
The  "coefficient  of  depression,"  A — that  is,  the  depression 
of  the  point  of  congelation  produced  by  1  gramme  of  the  sub- 
stance in  100  grammes  of  the  solvent — is  given  by  the  formula 
C  x  y 
100 

x  grammes  of  the  substance  dissolved  in  y  grammes  of  the 
solvent,  and  from  this  value  the  "  molecular  depression,"  T,  is 
calculated  by  the  formula  M  x  A  =  T,  where  M  is  the  molecular 
weight  of  the  substance  in  question.  T  is  a  value  varying  with 
the  nature  of  the  solvent,  but  remaining  constant  with  the  same 
solvent  for  numerous  groups  of  compounds,  whence  it  follows 
that  A  and  T  being  known,  the  molecular  weight  of  the  sub- 
stance in  question  may  be  determined  from  the  equation 
M  =  T/A.  This  method  of  Raoult's,  which  is  of  value  in  cases 
where  a  vapour  density  determination  is  not  possible,  has  been 
employed  by  the  authors  to  determine  the  molecular  weights  of 
the  following  carbo-hydrates :  dextrose,  cane-sugar,  maltose, 
milk-sugar,  arabinose,  and  raffinose,  and  also  that  of  mannitol 
(the  solvent  being  water),  with  results  which  lead  to  formula> 


•^    =  A,  where  C  is  the  observed  depression  produced  by 


n8 


NATURE 


[May  31,  1888 


identical  with  those  ordinarily  adopted  for  these  substances. — The 
molecular  weights  of  nitric  peroxide  and  nitrous  anhydride,  by 
Prof.  Ramsay.  The  molecular  weight  of  nitric  peroxide  as 
•determined  by  Raoult's  method  in  acetic  acid  solution,  accords 
with  the  formula  N^O^.  No  definite  results  could  be  obtained 
with  nitrous  anhydride  since  dissociation  occurred  at  the 
temperature  of  experiment  (160). — In  the  discussion  which  fol- 
lowed the  reading  of  these  papers,  and  in  which  Prof.  Debus, 
F.R.S.,  Dr.  Perkin,  F.  R.S.,  and  others  took  part,  Mr.  Wynne 
remarked  that  most  results  hitherto  obtained  by  Raoult's  method 
pointed  to  a  complete  dissociation  of  the  complex  molecules 
present  in  solids  and  liquids,  and  would  seem  to  show  that  the 
dissociation  is  not  dependent  on  the  particular  solvent  employed  ; 
Mr.  Crompton  referred  to  the  great  irregularities  noticeable  on 
comparing  the  molecular  depressions  of  various  substances  as 
determined  by  Raoult,  and  thought  that  until  more  was  known 
-of  the  cause  of  such  irregularities,  and  of  the  mechanism  of  the 
changes  under  discussion,  such  results  as  those  brought  forward 
by  Messrs.  Brown  and  Morris  should  be  accepted  with  great 
reservation  ;  and  Prof.  Armstrong,  F.  R.S.,  observed  that,  apart 
from  the  information  as  to  the  comparative  molecular  weights  of 
dissolved  substances  which  Raoult's  method  promised  to  afford, 
it  appeared  that,  in  order  to  gain  as  complete  an  insight  as 
possible  into  the  molecular  composition  of  solids  and  liquids  it 
was  important  to  vary  in  every  way  the  proportions  of  substance 
dissolved  as  well  as  the  solvent. — The  action  of  heat  on  the 
•salts  of  tetramethylammonium,  by  Dr.  A.  T.  Lawson  and  Dr. 
N.  Collie.  In  the  majority  of  cases,  the  salts  examined  decom- 
pose in  a  simple  manner,  yielding  trimethylamine  and  a  salt  of 
methyl. — The  action  of  heat  on  the  salts  of  tetramethylphos- 
phonium,  by  Dr.  N.  Collie.  Tne  salts  of  tetramethylphos- 
phonium  with  the  oxy-acids,  when  heated,  undergo  as  a  rule  two 
changes  :  the  first  and  most  important  is  the  production  of  tri- 
methylphosphine  oxide  and  a  ketone,  and  the  second,  which 
occurs  only  to  a  very  limited  extent,  results  in  the  formation  of 
trimethylphosphine  and  a  salt  of  methyl. 

Geological  Society,  May  9.— Mr.  W.  T.  Blanford,  F.R.S. 
President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  communications  were 
read:— The  Stockdale  Shales,  by  J.  E.  Marr,  and  Prof.  H.  A. 
Nicholson.  The  Stockdale  Shales  extend  in  an  east-north-east  to 
■west-south-west  direction  across  the  main  part  of  the  Lake 
District,  parallel  with  the  underlying  Coniston  Licnestone  Series 
and  the  overlying  Coniston  Flags,  with  both  of  which  they  are 
conformable.  They  also  occur  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Appleby, 
and  in  the  Sedbergh  district.  They  are  divisible  into  a  lower  group 
-of  black  and  dark  gray  and  blue  Graptolite-bearing  shales, 
Interstratified  with  hard  bluish-gray  mudstones,  containing 
Trilobites  and  other  organisms,  and  an  upper  group  of  pale 
greenish-gray  shales,  with  thin  bands  of  dark  Graptolitic  shales. 
The  lower  group  (Skelgill  B;ds)  are  well  seen  in  the  stream  which 
runs  past  Skelgill  Farm,  and  enters  Windermere  near  Low 
Wood ;  while  the  upper  group  (Browgill  Beds)  occurs  fully 
developed  in  the  Long  Sleddale  Valley,  and  its  beds  are  very 
fossiliferous  in  Browgill.  The  authors  divided  these  into  a 
•series  of  fossil-zones,  and  the  beds  were  compared  with  the 
•corresponding  beds  in  Sweden,  Bohemia,  Bavaria,  &c.  The 
fossils  other  than  Graptolites  were  shown  to  occur  elsewhere  in 
strata  of  Llandovery-Tarannon  age,  from  which  it  was  concluded 
that  the  Stockdale  Shales  occupy  that  horizon.  A  fault  occurs 
•everywhere  between  the  Middle  and  Lower  Skelgill  Beds,  except 
perhaps  in  the  Sedbergh  district ;  but  it  does  not  seem  to  cut  out 
a  great  thickness  of  rock,  and  the  authors  gave  reasons  for 
supposing  that  it  was  produced  by  one  set  of  beds  sliding  over  the 
other  along  a  plane  of  stratification.  The  beds  are  found  to 
thicken  out  in  an  easterly  direction,  and  the  possibility  of  the 
-existence  of  land  in  that  direction  was  suggested.  The  authors 
•directed  attention  to  the  importance  of  Graptolitoidea  as  a  means 
of  advancing  the  comparative  study  of  the  stratified  deposits  of 
Lower  Palaeozoic  age.  A  description  was  given  of  the  following 
new  species  and  varieties  : — Phacops  elegans,  Boeck  and  Stars,  var. 
glab.r,  Cheirurus  bimucronatus,  Murch.,  var.  acanthodes, 
Ckeirurm  moroides,  Acidaspis  erinaceus,  Harpes  judex,  H. 
angustus,  Amfiyx  aloniensis,  Proeius  brachypygus,  and  A  try  pa. 
flexuosa. — On  the  eruptive  rocks  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Sarn, 
Caernarvonshire,  by  Alfred  Harker. 

Zoological  Society,  May  1.—  Prof.  Flower,  F.R.S. , 
President,  in  the  chair.— Colonel  Irby  exhibited  (on  behalf  of 
Lord  Lilford)  a  specimen  of  Aqulla  rapax  from  Southern  Spain, 
believed  to  be  the  first  authentic  specimen  of  this  species  known 


from  the  Peninsula. — Prof.  Flower  exhibited  and  made  remarks 
on  a  specimen  of  the  Japanese  Domestic  F'owl  with  the  tail-coverts 
enormously  elongated,  the  longest  attaining  a  length  of  9  feet. 
The  specimen  had  been  presented  to  the  British  Museum  by 
Mr.  F.  D.  Parker. — Mr.  C.  M,  Woodford  made  some  general 
remarks  on  the  zoology  of  the  Solomon  Islands,  and  read  some 
notes  on  the  nesting-habits  of  Brenchley's  Megapode,  which  lays 
its  eggs  in  the  sands  on  the  sea-shore  of  these  islands. — Mr.  G. 
A.  Boulenger  read  the  description  of  a  new  Land-Tortoise  of. 
the  genus  Homopus  from  South  Africa,  based  on  specimens 
living  in  the  Society's  Gardens,  which  had  been  presented  to  the 
SDciety  by  the  Rev.  G.  H.  R.  Fisk.  The  author  proposed  to 
name  the  species  H.  femora'is. — Mr.  F.  E.  Beddard  read  the 
second  of  his  series  of  notes  on  the  visceral  anatomy  of  birds. 
The  present  paper  treated  on  the  air-sacs  in  certain  diving  birds. 
— Mr.  Francis  Day  read  the  first  of  a  proposed  series  of 
observations  on  Indian  fishes. 

Royal  Meteorological  Society,  April  18. — Dr.  W.  Marcet, 
F.R.S.,  President,  in  the  chair.  —  The  following  papers  were 
read  : — Jordan's  new  pattern  photographic  sunshine  recorder,  by 
Mr.  J.  B.  Jordan.  The  improvement  in  this  instrument  over  the 
previous  pattern  of  sunshine  recorder  consists  in  using  two  semi- 
cylindrical  or  D-shaped  boxes,  one  to  contain  the  morning,  and 
the  other  the  afternoon  chart.  An  aperture  for  admitting  the 
beam  of  sunlight  is  placed  in  the  centre  of  the  rectangular  side 
of  each  box  so  that  the  length  of  the  beam  within  the  chamber 
is  the  radius  of  the  cylindrical  surface  on  which  it  is  projected ; 
its  path  therefore  follows  a  straight  line  on  the  chart  at  all 
seasons  of  the  year.  The  semi-cylinders  are  placed  with  their 
faces  at  an  angle  of  6o°  to  each  other.  They  are  fixed  on  a  flat 
triangular  plate  which  is  hinged  to  a  suitable  stand  having  level- 
ling screws  attached,  and  fitted  with  a  graduated  arc  as  a  means 
of  readily  adjusting  and  fixing  the  cylinders  to  the  proper  vertical 
angle  agreeing  with  the  latitude  of  the  station  where  used. — On 
the  meteorology  of  South-Eastern  China  in  1886,  by  Dr.  W. 
Doberck.  This  paper  gives  the  results  of  observations  made  at 
the  Custom-houses  and  lighthouses  by  officers  of  the  Imperial 
Chinese  Maritime  Customs.  In  summer  there  is  very  little 
change  of  temperature  with  latitude.  The  temperature  depends 
upon  the  distance  from  the  nearest  sea  coast,  and  is  greatest  at 
stations  farthest  inland.  The  highest  mean  temperature  occurred 
in  July,  and  the  lowest  in  January.  The  north-east  monsoon 
blows  from  September  to  June,  and  the  south  monsoon  during 
July  and  August ;  the  latter  does  not  blow  with  half  the  force  of 
the  former.  Rainfall  is  greatest  in  Northern  Formosa,  and  least 
in  Northern  China.  Along  the  east  coasts  of  Formosa  and 
Luzon  the  winter  is  the  wet  season,  while  in  China  July  seems 
to  be  the  wettest  month  of  the  year. — Lightning  in  snowstorms, 
by  Prof.  A.  S.  Herschel,  F.R.S. — Insolation,  by  Mr.  Rupert 
T.  Smith. 

Edinburgh. 

Royal  Society,  May  7. — Lord  Maclaren,  Vice-President,  in 
the  chair. — Dr.  G.  Sims  Woodhead  communicated  a  paper 
written  by  Mr.  Robert  Irvine  and  himself,  on  the  secretion  of 
carbonate  of  lime  by  animals. — A  paper  by  Mr.  Irvine  and  Mr. 
George  Young,  on  the  solubility  of  carbonate  of  lime  under 
different  forms  in  sea-water,  was  also  read. — Dr.  Alexander 
Bruce  described  a  case  of  absence  of  the  corpus  callosum,  in  the 
human  brain. — Dr.  J.  Murray  discussed  the  distribution  of  some 
marine  animals  on  the  west  coast  of  Scotland. — Mr.  W.  E. 
Hoyle  described  some  larvae  of  certain  Schizopodous  Crustacea 
from  the  Firth  of  Clyde. 

May  21. — The  Rev.  Prof.  Flint,  Vice-President,  in  the  chair. — 
A  series  of  photographs  of  the  Nice  Observatory,  presented  by 
M.  Bischoffsheim  through  the  Astronomer-Royal  for  Scotland, 
were  exhibited. — A  note  by  Prof.  Cayley,  on  the  hydrodynamical 
equations,  was  communicated.  The  author  discusses  the  result 
of  the  elimination  of  the  symbol  denoting  the  pressure  by 
differentiation  of  the  three  fundamental  hydrokinetical  equations. 
— Dr.  Archibald  Geikie  treated  fully  the  history  of  volcanic 
action  during  Tertiary  time  in  the  British  Islands. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  May  22. — M.  Janssen,  President, 
in  the  chair. — Obituary  notice  of  M.  Herve  Mangon,  member  of 
the  Section  for  Rural  Economy,  and  Vice-President  of  the 
Academy  for  the  year  1888,  by  the  President.  M.  Mangon, 
who  was  born  in   Paris  on  July  31,*  1821,  and  died  there  on 


May  31,  1888] 


NATURE 


119 


May  15,  1888,  may  be  regarded  as  the  founder  of  agronomic 
science,  to  which  he  devoted  many  years  of  assiduous  labour. 
To  him  France  is  indebted  for  the  introduction  of  all  the  more 
useful  agricultural  processes.  He  also  gave  a  great  stimulus  to 
the  associated  science  of  meteorology,  and  rendered  important 
services  to  ballooning,  especially  in  connection  with  military 
tactics. — On  the  part  played  by  atmospheric  nitrogen  in  vegetable 
economy,  by  M.  E.  Chevreul.  A  few  summary  observations 
are  made  in  reference  to  the  memoir  recently  presented  to  the 
Academy  by  MM.  Gautier  and  Drouin.  These  observers  having 
announced  as  a  result  of  their  personal  experiments  and  as  some- 
thing new  to  science  that  the  gaseous  nitrogen  of  the  atmosphere 
is  absorbed  by  plants,  it  is  pointed  out  that  the  Commission 
appointed  in  1854  to  investigate  the  question  decided  in  favour 
of  .M.  Georges  Ville's  theory  and  against  that  of  M.  Boussingault. 
Since  then  the  part  played  by  atmospheric  nitrogen  in  the 
vegetative  process  has  been  carefully  studied  both  in  France  and 
Germany,  and  hitherto  the  results,  such  as  those  of  MM.  Gautier 
and  Drouin,  have  tended  to  confirm  the  conclusions  first  arrived 
at  by  M.  Georges  Ville. — The  sardine  on  the  Marseilles  coast, 
by  M.  A.  F.  Marion.  The  sardine  appears  yearly  in  these 
waters,  where  a  total  of  409,055  kilogrammes  were  taken  during 
the  period  between  March  1887  and  the  end  of  February  1888. 
Details  are  given  regarding  the  food,  migrations,  and  breeding- 
season  of  this  fish.— Study  of  the  planet  Mars,  by  M.  F.  Terby. 
Three  small  round  spots,  white  and  brilliant,  are  visible  on  the 
continuation  of  Erebus  (left  or  west  side),  when  the  Trivium 
Charontis  is  midway  from  the  central  meridian  in  the  eastern 
half  of  the  disk.  These  spots,  at  first  scarcely  perceptible, 
become  brighter  and  whiter  as  they  approach  the  limb,  where 
they  become  diffused  by  irradiation  like  the  polar  spot.  The 
black  line,  which  seems  to  divide  the  north  polar  spot,  has  been 
perfectly  visible  since  May  12.  Facing  it  on  the  outer  side  is  a 
small  hyperborean  tract,  white  or  snowy,  but  less  brilliant  and 
white  than  the  true  polar  spot,  of  which  it  seems  at  first  sight  to 
form  an  integral  part.  It  is  evidently  the  same  phenomenon  as 
that  which  has  recently  been  simultaneously  observed  by  M. 
Perrotin,  as  well  as  by  M.  Schiaparelli. — On  an  electro-chemical 
actinometer,  by  MM.  Gouy  and  H.  Rigollot.  Copper  oxidized 
or  covered  with  basic  salts,  and  plunged  into  water  or  into  a 
solution  of  sulphate  of  copper,  is  known  to  undergo  variations 
of  electromotor  force  under  the  action  of  light,  effects  which  can 
be  clearly  indicated  only  with  intensely  luminous  means.  But 
the  authors  find  that  the  oxidized  copper  plunged  into  a  solution 
of  metallic  chloride,  bromide,  or  iodide  becomes,  on  the  contrary, 
extremely  sensitive  to  luminous  rays  even  of  slight  intensity,  and 
may  consequently  be  employed  as  an  actinometer.  Details  are 
given  of  the  process  by  which  they  have  constructed  the  apparatus 
based  on  this  phenomenon. — Determination  of  the  heat  of  com- 
bustion of  a  new  solid  substance  isomerous  with  benzine,  by  M. 
W.  Louguinine.  Five  experiments  with  a  beautiful  specimen 
of  this  substance,  discovered  by  M.  Grimer,  give  a  mean  of 
10,863-9  calories  for  the  heat  liberated  in  the  combustion  of  I 
grain.  The  heat  of  combustion  of  benzine  is  much  less 
(776,000  cal.),  corresponding  to  a  body  whose  constitution  is 
absolutely  different  from  that  of  the  isomerous  substance.— On 
the  Pliocene  formations  of  the  Montpellier  district,  by  M. 
Viguier.  In  this  paper  the  conclusions  are  summed  up  of  an 
extensive  investigation  of  this  geological  area.  Three  distinct 
groups  are  determined :  (1)  Amusian,  fresh-water  deposits, 
puddings  and  gravels,  with  remains  of  Elephas  meridionalis ; 
(2)  Astian,  also  fresh-water,  clays  and  marls,  with  remains  of 
Semnopithccus  monspessulanus,  Helix  quadrifasciata,  Triptychia 
sinistrorsa,  &c.  ;  (3)  Plaisancian,  marine  deposits,  sandy  and 
other  marls,  with  remains  of  Potamirfes  basteroti,  Melampus 
my otis,  Rhinoceros  leptorhinus,  Mastodon  brevirostris,  &c. 

Berlin. 
Meteorological  Society,  May  1.—  Dr.  Vettin,  President,  in 
the  chair. — Dr.  Perlewitz  spoke  on  aperiodic  variations  of  tem- 
perature. He  based  his  researches  on  the  observations  made  at 
Berlin  during  the  forty  years  1848-87,  and  during  ninety-three 
years,  1 791  -1883,  at  Breslau.  If  a  year  is  divided  into  halves, 
the  first  half  is  characterized  by  a  normal  curve  of  rising  tem- 
perature, the  second  half  by  a  similarly  normal  curve  of  falling 
temperature.  Both  curves,  however,  show  negative  irregularities, 
whose  number  may  be  very  considerable  in  any  one  month  :  thus 
in  May  these  irregularities  (fall  of  temperature)  occurred  on  more 
than  thirteen  days  as  against  seventeen  clays  on  which  the  curve 
rose  regularly  ;  and  similarly,  in  October,  there  were  more  than 


twelve  days  on  which  an  irregularity  (rise  of  temperature)  was 
observed  as  against  nineteen  days  with  a  normally  falling  tem- 
perature. On  the  whole  the  number  of  these  irregularities  is 
greater  in  the  first  half  of  the  year  than  in  the  second,  so  that  the 
heat  of  the  second  half  is  greater  than  that  of  the  first.  A  whole 
series  of  interesting  details  exists  in  connection  with  the  number, 
magnitude,  and  periodic  duration  of  the  changes  of  temperature 
during  both  the  normal  and  abnormal  times  ;  these  cannot  how- 
ever be  considered  here. — Dr.  Vettin  communicated  the  results 
of  his  observations  on  the  daily  periodicity  in  the  velocity  of  the 
wind,  extending  over  a  period  of  two  years.  From  direct  deter- 
mination of  the  movement  of  smoke  coming  from  a  chimney,  and 
from  observations  with  a  home-made  anemometer,  he  found  that 
in  addition  to  the  well-known  maximum  velocity  of  the  wind 
which  occurs  at  midday,  there  is  a  second  maximum  just  after 
midnight.  This  latter  maximum  is  very  small  in  summer,  but 
in  winter,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  much  greater  and  even  exceeds 
that  maximum  which  occurs  at  midday.  This  second  maximum 
is  not  very  marked  as  an  average  on  the  whole  year.  The 
speaker  then  gave  a  detailed  description  of  the  construction  of  his 
anemometer,  which  he  exhibited  to  the  Society.  He  further 
described  a  spring  vane  which  he  had  made,  which  he  has  erected 
at  the  window  of  his  house  in  a  moderately  wide  street  ;  this 
vane  indicates  accurately  not  only  the  direction  of  the  wind  which 
is  blowing  up  or  down  the  street,  but  also  of  any  wind  which 
may  be  blowing  over  the  houses  at  right  angles  to  this.  Experi- 
ments made  with  tobacco-smoke  in  a  glass-covered  chamber  have 
shown  that  the  wind  which  blows  over  the  houses  gives  rise  to 
ascending  and  descending  currents  of  air  along  their  walls,  causing 
an  elevation  or  depression  of  the  vane.  The  vane  also  records 
accurately  the  direction  of  a  wind  which  blows  at  any  angle  other 
than  at  right  angles  to  the  axis  of  the  street.  Suitable  as  this 
spring  vane  is  for  observers  who  live  in  narrow  streets,  it  is 
specially  adapted  for  observations  in  narrow  mountain  valleys, 
in  which  the  direction  of  the  wind  cannot  be  ascertained  by  any 
other  means. 

Physical  Society,  May  4. — Prof,  von  Bezold,  President,  in 
the  chair. — Prof.  Schwalbe  gave  expression  to  the  lo-s  which  the 
Society  had  sustained  through  the  death  of  Prof.  Hoh,  for  many 
years  an  active  collaborator  with  the  "  Fortschritte  der  Physik."' 
— In  the  election  which  then  followed,  Prof.  Kundt,  the  new 
Director  of  the  Physical  Institute,  was  chosen  as  first  Vice- 
President  in  the  place  of  the  late  Prof.  Kirchhoff. — Dr.  Koenig 
spoke  on  the  instantaneous  photographs  made  by  Ottomar 
Anschiitz,  of  Lissa,  accompanied  by  demonstrations  and  examples 
of  the  photographs.  Anschiitz  began  taking  instantaneous  photo- 
graphs in  1882,  operating  at  first  upon  bodies  of  troops  during 
the  manoeuvres.  *  Later  on,  at  the  instance  of  the  Minister  of 
War,  he  photographed  horses  and  riders  moving  at  every  sort  of 
pace.  In  addition,  up  to  1885,  he  busied  himself  with  photo- 
graphing many  animals  in  the  different  and  frequently  very 
bizarre  positions  in  which  they  place  themselves  dining  their 
movements.  Some  of  the  most  interesting  photographs  taken  at 
this  time  are  those  of  storks.  From  1885  onwards  he  has  been 
taking  serial-photographs  of  men  and  animals  in  motion,  obtain- 
ing pictures  of  the  consecutive  stages  of  each  movement.  From 
these  serial-photographs  it  is  possible  to  draw  many  scientific 
deductions,  by  following  the  course  of  the  centre  of  gravity  of 
the  object  in  the  successive  pictures  of  horses  and  men  when 
running  and  jumping.  A  complete  knowledge  of  the  mechanics 
of  motion  can,  however,  only  be  arrived  at  from  these  series  of 
photographs  when  the  interval  of  time  between  each  consecutive 
member  of  the  series  is  equal  and  extremely  small,  a  result  which 
Anschiitz  has  nearly  obtained.  Latterly  he  has  taken  pictures  of 
large  masses  in  motion,  such  as  processions,  &c.  The  numerous 
photographs  which  the  speaker  exhibited  and  briefly  explained, 
testified  completely  to  the  technical  excellence  at  which  Anschiitz 
has  already  arrived.  The  apparatus  used  for  instantaneous 
photography  was  exhibited  at  the  same  time. 

Physiological  Society,  May  II. — Prof,  du  Bois-Reymondr 
President,  in  the  chair. — Dr.  Koenig  spoke  on  his  measurement 
of  the  intensities  of  light  in  the  spectrum.  The  method  em- 
ployed was  as  follows.  A  circular  field  of  vision  was  divided  into 
two  halves,  of  which  one  was  illuminated  with  some  colour  of 
the  spectrum  of  fixed  intensity,  usually  with  red  ;  the  colour  to 
be  compared  with  this  was  then  applied  to  the  other  half,  and 
made  to  vary  until  it  produced  the  sensation  of  a  light-intensity 
equal  to  that  of  the  red.  The  first  measurements  were  made  en 
Dr.  Broddahn,  whose  eyes  are  dichromatic  (green  colour-blind). 


120 


NA  TURE 


[May  31,  1888 


By  taking  the  mean  of  the  separate  determinations  for  different 
parts  of  the  prismatic  spectrum,  Dr.  Koenig  had  constructed  a 
•curve  for  the  light-intensity  of  all  the  colours  of  the  spectrum  ; 
there  was  a  difference  of  at  most  2  per  cent,  between  the  values  of 
the  separate  measurements  and  the  mean.  The  speaker  then 
made  similar  measurements  with  his  own  normal  trichromatic 
■eyes  ;  in  this  case  he  obtained  a  greater  difference  between  the 
value  of  the  separate  determinations  and  the  mean  (up  to  5  per 
cent.)  but  the  curve  of  light-intensity  for  the  whole  range  of  the 
spectrum  was  found  to  be  identical  with  that  obtained  from  Dr. 
Broddahn.  By  reducing  the  prismatic  spectrum  used  in  these 
experiments  to  one  produced  by  diffraction,  he  was  able  to  cal- 
culate the  curve  of  light-intensity  for  a  normal  spectrum. 
Comparing  this  curve  with  those  which  he  had  obtained,  in 
conjunction  with  Dr.  Dieterici,  for  the  sensations  of  the  three 
primary  colours,  red,  green,  and  blue  (as  determined  for  each 
point  in  a  normal  spectrum),  he  found  that  the  curve  of  light- 
intensity  of  the  spectrum  was  identical  with  that  for  the  sensation 
of  red.  From  this  it  must  be  concluded  that  the  sensation  of 
luminous  intensity  for  each  sepa>  ate  light  is  simply  dependent 
on  the  amount  of  red  contained  in  it,  or,  to  state  this  more 
accurately,  the  brightness  of  each  kind  of  light  is  determined  by 
the  extent  to  which  it  stimulates  the  red-perceiving  fibres  of  the 
retina.  Dr.  Koenig  had  some  time  ago  given  expression  to  the 
conjecture  that  in  the  dichromatic  eye  it  is  not  the  fibres  for  the 
perception  of  the  third  colour  which  are  wanting  (the  red-per- 
ceiving for  red  colour-blindness  and  green-perceiving  for  green), 
but  that  they  are,  so  to  say,  differently  tuned  ;  tuned  down  in 
those  who  are  colour-blind  to  green,  so  that  they  can  only  per- 
ceive the  sensation  due  to  light  as  red,  tuned  up  to  a  higher 
pitch  in  those  who  are  red  colour-blind,  so  that  when  they  are 
stimulated  by  rays  of  greater  wave-length  they  only  perceive 
g'  een.  It  is  now  possible  to  verify  the  above  conjecture  experi- 
mentally as  follows.  The  measurements  of  luminous  intensities 
throughout  the  spectrum  were  made  upon  the  eye  of  another 
person  who  was  colour-blind,  and  this  time  on  one  who  was  red 
colour-blind  ;  in  this  case  the  curve  obtained  was  identical  with 
that  of  the  sensation  of  green.  The  phenomena  observed  by 
Dove,  that  the  relative  luminous  intensities  of  red  and  blue  vary 
according  to  the  intensity  of  the  illumination,  were  verified  by 
Dr.  Koenig,  but  only  up  to  a  certain  limit ;  beyond  this  limit, 
the  relative  luminosities  of  these  two  colours  underwent  no 
further  alteration  in  the  brightness  of  the  illumination. — Prof. 
Gad  discussed  Prof.  Fick's  views  on  blood-pressure  in  the 
capillaries,  which  the  latter  believed  he  had  placed  on  an  experi- 
mental basis  by  means  of  an  artificial  vascular  scheme  ;  accord- 
ing to  this  the  pressure  in  the  capillaries  could  not  be  much  less 
than  in  the  arteries,  and  only  sinks  appreciably  as  the  capillaries 
are  passing  over  into  the  veins.  Prof.  Gad  showed  that  the 
conditions  existing  in  the  above  scheme  cannot  be  applied  to  the 
blood-capillaries  ;  he  further  pointed  out  that  the  requisite  data 
for  calculating  the  true  blood-pressure  in  the  capillaries  can  be 
obtained  from  a  theoretical  consideration  of  the  rate  of  flow  in, 
and  sectional  area  of,  these  vessels,  and  from  this  the  pressure 
would  appear  to  be  about  half  of  that  which  exists  in  the  aorta. 
A  true  basis  for  any  theory  of  capillary  blood-pressure  can  only 
be  obtained  from  such  experimental  investigation  as  admits 
of  being  applied  to  various  parts  of  the  purely  theoretical 
consideration. 

Stockholm. 

Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  April  II. — Prof.  W.  C. 
Williamson,  of  Manchester,  was  elected  a  foreign  member  of  the 
Academy. — Critical  remarks  on  the  researches  of  Foeppl  on  the 
electrical  conductibility  of  the  vacuum,  by  Prof.  Edlund. — A 
theory  of  isohydric  solutions,  by  Dr.  Arrhenius. — Remarks  on 
the  fossils  of  the  Cretaceous  formation  of  Sweden,  by  Prof.  B. 
Lundgren. 

May  9. — On  Triglaps  pingelii,  an  Arctic  fish,  found  for  the 
first  time  off  the  shores  of  Sweden,  and  on  some  specimens  of 
Syrrhaptes  paradoxus  lately  shot  in  Sweden,  by  Prof.  F.  A. 
Smitt. — The  whale  of  Swedenborg  {Balana  svedenborgii, 
Liljeborg)  found  in  the  diluvial  strata  of  Sweden,  described  by 
Dr.  Carl  Aurivillius. — On  the  anazotic,  stored  up  nutriments  of 
the  Graminese,  by  Dr.  C.  J.  Johanson. — A  generalization  of  the 
researches  of  Laplace  on  the  libration  in  the  orbits  of  the  planets, 
by  Dr.  K.  Bohlin. — On  the  points  of  approximation  in  the  theory 
of  perturbation,  by  the  same. — Some  extracts  from  the  report  of 
the  French  scientific  expedition  to  Spitzbergen  and  other  places  in 
the  years   1838,  1839,  and  1840,  by  C.  B.   Lilliehook,  R.N. — 


Contributions  to  the  theory  of  the  undulatory  movement  in  a 
gaseous  medium  (conclusion),  by  Dr.  A.  W.  Backlund.— 
Derivatcs  of  the  5-amido-naphthaline-sulpho-acid,  by  Prof.  P.  T. 
Cleve. — Derivates  of  the  7-amido-naphthaline-sulpho-acid,  by  the 
same. — On  naphthol  acids,  by  Dr.  A.  G.  Ekstrand. — On  ab- 
normal forms  of  the  first  abdominal  appendices  of  some  female 
cray-fishes,  by  Dr.  D.  G.  Bergendahl. — On  two  new  Lamelli- 
branchiates  from  the  Arctic  post-glacial  beds  of  Scania,  by  Herr 
G.  Clessin,  of  Ochsenfurth,  Bavaria. 

Amsterdam. 

Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  April  27. — Mr.  J.  A.  C. 
Oudemans  spoke  of  Airy's  double-image  micrometer,  and  stated 
the  result  of  his  efforts  to  discover  the  conditions  to  which  this 
apparatus  must  be  made  to  conform,  in  order  that  the  value  of 
one  screw-turn  maybe  independent  of  the  adjustment  of  the  eye. 
He  had  found  that  the  distance  from  the  first  to  the  second  lens 
must  be  equal  to  the  focal  length  of  the  first  lens — a  condition 
already  fulfilled  in  the  micrometer  for  another  purpose. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

British  Petrography  :  J.  J.  Harris  Teall  (Dulau). — A  Manual  of  Orchi- 
daceous Plants,  Part  3  (Veitch). — Longmans'  Commercial  Mathematics 
(Longmans). — A  Wanderer's  Notes,  2  vols.  :  W.  Beatty- Kingston  (Chap- 
man and  Hall). — Principles  of  Agricultural  Practice  :  J.  Wrightson 
(Chapman  and  Hall). — Discromatopsia,  Enrico  dal  Pozzo  di  Mombello 
(Scariglia,  Foligno). — Soaps  and  Candles:  J.  Cameron  (Churchill). — Die 
Regenverhiiltnisse  der  Iberischen  Halbinrel  :  G.  Hellmann  (Pormetter, 
Berlin). — Proceedings  of  the  Geologists'  Association,  February  (Stanford). 


CONTENTS.  pace 

Al-Biruni 97 

The  Scientific  Writings  of  Joseph  Henry 98 

An  Elementary  Text-book  of  Physiology 99 

Our  Book  Shelf:— 

Le  Conte  :   "Evolution  and  its  Relation  to  Religious 

Thought" 100 

Slatter  :   "  Outlines  of  Qualitative  Analysis  "  .    .    .    .  100 

Powles  :   "  The  Land  of  the  Pink  Pearl " 10 1 

Stevenson  :   "A  Treatise  on  Alcohol,  with  Tables  of 

Spirit  Gravities" • 101 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

The    Dispersal    of    Seeds    by    Birds. —Dr.    H.    B. 

Guppy      101 

Nose-Blackening  as   Preventive  of  Snow-Blindness. — 

Dr.  Robert  L.  Bowles 101 

Mysterious    Sky    Lights.       {With    Diagram.') — W. 

Mattieu  Williams 102 

Curious    Apparent    Motion    of    the    Moon    seen    in 

Australia. — T.  Mellard  Reade 102 

Another  Specimen  of  Lepidosiren  paradoxa. — Prof. 

Henry  H.  Giglioli      102 

Dreams. — E.  H 103 

Strange  Rise  of  Wells  in  Rainless  Season. — E.  H.  .    .  103 

Milk  v.  Lightning. — Rev.  John  Cyprian  Rust     .    .  103 
The  Renewed  Irruntion  of  Syrrhaptes. —  Prof.  Alfred 

Newton,  F.R.S 103 

"The  Shell-Collector's  Hand-book  for  the  Field."— 
Dr.  J.  W.  Williams  ;  Dr.   Henry  Woodward, 

F.R.S 103 

Freaks   of   Nature.— Major  D.    Erskine  ;    C.    H. 

Erskine 104 

Whirlwinds,  Waterspouts,   Storms,   and   Rotating 

Spheres.     {Illustrated.)    By  E.  Douglas  Archibald  .  104 
Timber,  and  some  of  its  Diseases.   VII.  {Illus'rated.) 

By  Prof.  H.  Marshall  Ward 10S 

Ilerve  Mangon in 

Notes 112 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

Comet  1888  a  (Sawerthal) 114 

The  Short  Period  Comets  and  Asteroids 114 

New  Minor  Planet 115 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for     the     Week      1888 

June  3-9 115 

Geographical  Notes 115 

The  Linnean  Society 116 

University  and  Educational  Intelligence 116 

Societies  and  Academies 117 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 120 


NA TURE 


121 


THURSDAY,  JUNE   7,    1888. 


TECHNICAL  EDUCATION. 

WE  are  glad  to  see  that  the  Government  Bill  for 
the  Promotion  of  Technical  Instruction  (which  we 
print  elsewhere)  is  down  for  second  reading  as  first  order 
of  the  day  on  June  14.  The  objects  effected  by  this  Bill 
are  substantially  the  same  as  those  of  the  Government 
Bill  of  last  year,  and  of  that  already  introduced  by  Sir 
Henry  Roscoe  and  other  friends  of  education,  this  year, 
on  behalf  of  the  National  Association  for  the  Promotion 
of  Technical  Education.  That  is  to  say,  it  is  an  enabling 
Bill,  giving  powers  to  localities,  if  they  think  fit,  to 
apply  local  rates  to  the  purpose  of  promoting  technical 
instruction. 

In  Clause  6,  "  technical  instruction "  is  defined  to 
mean  "instruction  in  the  principles  of  science  and  art 
applicable  to  industries,  and  in  the  application  of  special 
branches  of  science  and  art  to  specific  industries  or  em- 
ployments." It  does  not  include  teaching  the  practice  of 
any  trade,  or  industry,  or  employment ;  but,  subject  to  this 
reservation,  it  includes  "  instruction  in  the  branches  of 
science  and  art  with  respect  to  which  grants  are  for  the 
time  being  made  by  the  Department  of  Science  and 
Art,  and  any  other  form  of  instruction  which  may  for 
the  time  being  be  sanctioned  by  that  Department  by 
a  minute  laid  before  Parliament,  and  made  on  the 
representation  of  a  School  Board  or  local  authority  that 
such  a  form  of  instruction  is  required  by  the  circumstances 
of  its  district."  This  definition  appears  good,  so  far  as 
it  goes,  but  in  our  opinion  it  does  not  go  far  enough,  for 
it  does  not  .specifically  include,  as  Sir  Henry  Roscoe's 
Bill  does,  the  commercial  subjects  and  modern  languages. 
This,  however,  may  easily  be  amended  by  a  slight  altera- 
tion of  the  wording  of  Clause  6,  which  should  read : 
"Technical  instruction  means  instruction  in  subjects 
applicable  to  industry  and  commerce,  and  in  the  appli- 
cation of  special  branches  of  science  and  art  to  specific 
industries  and  employment."  It  is,  however,  to  be  noticed 
that  Clause  5  suggests  the  possibility  of  Imperial  grants 
in  aid  of  instruction  in  technical  subjects  in  the  words, 
"  Every  minute  of  the  Department  of  Science  and  Art 
with  respect  to  the  condition  on  which  grants  may  be 
made  for  technical  instruction  shall  be  laid  on  the  table 
of  both  Houses  of  Parliament."  What  the  precise  nature 
and  amount  of  such  grants  may  be  is  not  stated,  and 
we  shall  await  with  interest  the  explanation  of  the 
Government  on  this  essential  point. 

In  any  case,  however,  it  will  be  necessary  that  such 
grants  should  be  accompanied  by  inspection  under 
Imperial  authority,  but  this  does  not  necessarily  form 
part  of  the  Bill,  which,  after  all,  is  one  simply  for  giving 
rating  power,  and  only  contains  one  compulsory  clause, 
viz.  that  in  which  School  Boards  availing  themselves  of 
the  provisions  are  required  to  grant  similar  powers  to 
voluntary  schools  in  their  districts  claiming  such  powers, 
up,  be  it  always  understood,  to  the  limfrof  one  penny  in 
the  pound. 

Vol.  xxxviii. — No.  971. 


There  are  many  points  of  difference  between  this 
Government  Bill  and  that  of  last  year.  In  the  first  place, 
the  clause  giving  powers,  granted  by  the  last  Bill,  to  fifty 
ratepayers  to  demand  a  poll  is  very  wisely  omitted  from 
this  Bill.  In  the  second  place,  under  the  Bill  of  last  year 
the  powers  of  promoting  technical  instruction  could  only 
be  exercised  by  School  Boards  or  by  Town  Councils 
where  School  Boards  do  not  exist.  No  provision  was 
made  for  districts  in  which  neither  exist.  Under  the 
present  Bill,  where  a  School  Board  does  not  exist,  the 
powers  may  be  exercised  by  any  local  authority  which 
can  carry  out  the  Public  Libraries  Acts,  and  this  gives,  of 
course,  a  much  wider  sphere  of  action  than  the  former 
Bill.  But,  more  than  this,  the  present  Bill  gives  power  to 
Town  Councils  and  other  local  authorities  to  grant  aid 
from  the  rates  (even  where  a  School  Board  exists)  to 
supply  higher  technical  instruction,  whereas  under  the 
former  Bill  technical  instruction  both  of  an  elementary 
and  of  a  higher  character  was  in  the  hands  of  one  author- 
ity, viz.  that  of  the  School  Board.  Another  new  point  is 
that  the  annual  rate  in  aid  for  technical  instruction  is 
limited  to  one  penny  in  the  pound  in  the  case  of  that 
levied  by  the  School  Board,  and  at  twopence  in  the 
pound  where  the  powers  given  under  the  Public 
Libraries  Acts  are  exercised  concurrently.  In  the 
Bill  introduced  on  behalf  of  the  National  Associa- 
tion no  such  limit  is  named.  Possibly,  in  view  of 
Parliamentary  objections,  some  limitation  is  advisable, 
although  very  serious  objections  may  be  raised  to  this 
proposal.  Admission  to  technical  schools  and  classes, 
may,  under  Sir  Henry  Roscoe's  Bill,  be  granted  to  all 
comers  who  pay  the  required  fees  ;  powers  being,  however, 
given  to  Boards  and  local  authorities  to  institute  an 
entrance  examination  in  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic, 
should  they  think  fit.  The  Government  adhere  to  their 
former  proposal  to  restrict  all  attendance  in  these  schools 
and  classes  (with  the  exception  of  those  in  which  manual 
instruction  alone  is  given)  to  such  pupils  as  shall  have 
passed  an  examination  equivalent  to  that  of  the  Sixth 
Standard.  The  exception  made  this  year  in  favour  of 
manual  instruction  is  a  step  in  the  right  direction.  We 
should  have  preferred  perfect  freedom  of  admission  in  the 
Technical,  as  is  now  the  case  in  the  Science  and  Art 
Classes  of  the  Department,  or  at  least  to  leave  it  to 
the  locality  to  determine  whether  any  such  entrance 
examination  is  advisable  or  not. 

No  powers  are  granted  in  the  Government  Bill  respect- 
ing payment  of  fees  to  deserving  students  or  for  the 
establishment  of  scholarships,  as  in  Sir  H.  Roscoe's 
Bill.  These  seem  to  be  minor  defects,  which  can 
be  easily  remedied.  A  more  important  point,  and 
one  concerning  which  not  only  much  discussion  in  the 
House  of  Commons  may  be  expected,  but  upon  which 
the  success  or  failure  of  the  Bill  will  probably  depend, 
is  the  much-vexed  question  of  whether,  and,  if  so, 
under  what  conditions,  any  aid  from  local  rates  can  be 
given  for  the  special  purposes  of  technical  instruction 
to  public  elementary  schools  not  under  control  of  a 
School  Board,  i.e.  to  voluntary  or  denominational  schools. 
Here  the  difference  of  opinion  between  the  two  great 
political  parties  is  very  marked.  One  party  will  not  on 
any  consideration    sanction    payment    from    the    rates 

G 


122 


NATURE 


[June  7,  1888 


unless  the  spending  of  this  is  placed  under  the  definite 
control  of  the  ratepayers  ;  the  other  will  not  permit  the 
Board   schools   to   reap   a   distinct  advantage  which  is 
withheld  from  those  carried  on  by  voluntary  enterprise. 
The  Bill  of  the  Association  summarily  cuts  the  Gordian 
knot  by  specifically  excluding    voluntary  schools   from 
participation  in  income  derived  from  the  rates  ;  naturally, 
therefore,    denying     to     any    higher     institution    of    a 
distinctly  denominational  type  similar  assistance.      Sir 
Hart  Dyke's  Bill,  on  the  other  hand,  having  in  its  first 
clause  declared  that  "Any  School  Board  in  England  may 
from  time  to  time  supply  or  aid  the  supply  of  such  manual 
or  technical  instruction,  or  both,  as  may  be  required  for 
supplementing  the  instruction  given  in  any  public  ele- 
mentary school  in  its   district,  whether   under   its  own 
management  or  not,"  goes  still  further  in  its  second  clause, 
and  makes  distinct  provision  as  to  the  equality  of  treatment 
between  Board  schools  and  voluntary  schools  such  that, 
if  the  Board  aids  its  own  schools,  "  it  shall,  on  the  request 
of  the  managers  of  any  other  public  elementary  school 
in  its  district  fulfilling  like  conditions  as  to  the  supply  of 
manual  or  technical  instruction  in    that  school,  aid  the 
supply  of  such  instruction  in  that  school  in  like  manner  as  it 
aids  such  supply  in  the  school  or  schools  underitsown  man- 
agement,subject  to  such  terms  as  may  be  agreed  on  or  deter- 
mined inpursuance  of  this  Act."  Moreover,  if  the  managers 
object  to  these  terms,  the  Department  of  Science  and  Art 
shall  act  as  umpire.     The  support  or  opposition  to  this 
Bill  by  those  who  object  to  payment  from  the  rates  with- 
out representation,  and  therefore  the  probable  success  or 
defeat  of  the  measure,  will,  we  venture  to  think,  much 
depend  upon  the  exact  meaning  which  the  Government 
attaches  to  these  "  terms  of  agreement."     If  the  expres- 
sion may  be  taken  to  mean  that  the  School  Board  shall 
have  some  direct  representation  by  its  members  on  the 
governing  body  of  the  voluntary  schools  to  whom  that 
Board  makes  grants,  qua  the  technical  instruction  given 
in  such  schools,  some  of  the  opposition  may  possibly  be 
removed.     But  this  should  be  distinctly  expressed  ;  in- 
deed, it  would  be  better  to  make  such  an  arrangement 
imperative.     If  this  meaning  is  not  to  be  attached  to 
these  words,  we  fear  that  the  Bill  will  lose  the  support 
of  very  many  ardent  educationalists  in  the  House. 

Another  provision  which  we  do  not  find  in  the  Govern- 
ment measure  is  the  one  contained  in  the  third  clause  of 
the  Association  Bill,  and  also  in  the  fourth  clause  of  the 
Government  Bill  of  last  year,  in  which  School  Boards 
may  join  together  to  contribute  towards  the  promotion 
of  technical  instruction,  power  being  already  possessed 
for  this  purpose  by  local  authorities  under  the  Public 
Libraries  Acts.  This  power,  in  the  case  of  small  or 
sparsely-populated  districts,  is  especially  important,  with 
a  view  to  the  foundation  of  higher  elementary  technical 
schools,  which  from  their  nature  do  not  need  to  be  very 
numerous,  and  which  the, School  Boards  of  many  of  the 
single  areas  of  ihe  kind  included  in  the  Bill  would  be 
quite  unable  to  create  or  maintain. 

The  above  by  no  means  exhausts  the  points  which 
may  be  brought  up  for  discussion  on  this  Bill.  It  will, 
however,  serve  to  show  the  general  scope  of  the  Bill, 
which,  unless  greatly  modified,  cannot,  we  fear,  be 
considered  a  satisfactory  one. 


OLD  BAB  YLON/AN  AND  CHINESE 
CHARACTERS. 

The  Old  Babylonian  Characters  and  their  Chinese  Deri- 
vates.  By  Terrien  de  Lacouperie.  (London  :  Nutt,  and 
Triibner  and  Co.,  1888.) 

PROF.  TERRIEN  DE  LACOUPERIE  has  long  been 
known  as  the  advocate  of  a  theory  which  would  bring 
the  ancestors  of  the  Chinese  from  Western  Asia,  and  see  in 
the  characters  they  employed  derivatives  from  the  cuneiform 
symbols  once  in  use  in  Babylonia.  The  proofs  of  his 
theory  have  been  gradually  placed  before  the  learned 
world.  In  two  articles  published  in  the  Journal  of  the 
Royal  Asiatic  Society  he  has  endeavoured  to  trace  the 
history  of  the  Yh-King,  the  oldest  and  most  mysterious 
of  Chinese  books,  and  to  show  that  its  earliest  portions 
contain  lists  of  characters  and  their  meanings,  ancient 
poems  and  similar  fragments  of  antiquity,  misunderstood 
and  misinterpreted  by  successive  generations  of  com- 
mentators. Elsewhere  he  has  given  us  for  the  first  time  a 
rational  account  of  the  vicissitudes  undergone  by  the 
Chinese  system  of  writing,  based  upon  the  statements  of 
the  Chinese  writers  themselves.  Lately  he  has  communi- 
cated to  the  Philological  Society  an  interesting  and 
exhaustive  description  of  the  languages  spoken  in  China 
before  the  arrival  of  the  "  Bak"  tribes  or  Chinese  proper, 
as  well  as  of  the  modern  dialects  which  are  descended 
from  them.  Now  we  have  the  last  instalment  of  his 
proofs  in  the  shape  of  a  comparison  between  the  primitive 
forms  of  the  Chinese  characters  and  the  pictorial  forms 
out  of  which  the  cuneiform  script  subsequently  developed. 
Prof,  de  Lacouperie  claims  to  have  proved  in  a  typical 
number  of  instances  that  the  correspondence  is  exact, 
or  fairly  so,  as  regards  form,  signification,  and  phonetic 
value  ;  and  that  consequently  an  early  connection  between 
Chinese  and  Babylonian  must  be  assumed.  Since  the 
Babylonian  forms  can  be  shown  to  presuppose  those  of 
China,  we  must  bring  the  Chinese  from  the  West,  and  not 
conversely  the  Babylonians  from  the  East. 

I  am  not  a  Sinologist,  and  therefore  can  pronounce  no 
opinion  on  the  Sinological  side  of  the  argument.  Chinese 
scholars  must  determine  how  far  Prof,  de  Lacouperie's 
restoration  of  the  primitive  forms  and  values  of  the 
Chinese  signs  is  correct.  Assuming  it  to  be  so,  the 
resemblance  between  many  of  them  and  the  corresponding 
characters  of  Accadian  Chaldaea  is  certainly  surprising. 

On  the  Babylonian  side,  Prof,  de  Lacouperie  has  been 
at  great  pains  to  secure  accuracy,  and  has  left  but  little  to 
criticize.  Zik,  however,  it  may  be  observed,  is  not  a 
value  of  the  Babylonian  ideograph  of  "  ship,"  but  goes 
back  to  an  erroneous  conjecture  of  Dr.  Hincks  ;  and  the 
original  meaning  of  the  character  which  has  the  value  of 
pa  was  "  the  leaf  "  or  "  leafy  branch  "  of  a  tree. 

The  Babylonians  seem  never  to  have  forgotten  that  the 
cuneiform  characters  they  used  had  originated  in  pictures. 
Indeed,  their  scribes  long  claimed  the  privilege  of  adding 
to  them,  the  result  being  that  hieroglyphic  forms  took  their 
place  in  the  texts  by  the  side  of  forms  that  had  long  de- 
generated into  a  cuneatic  shape.  The  original  hierogly- 
phics had  been  the  invention  of  the  so-called  Accadians, 
the  early  population  of  Chaldaea,  who  spoke  agglutinative 
dialects,  and  were  eventually  superseded  by  the  Semites- 


June  7,  iSSS] 


NA  TURE 


123 


The  Semites  received  the  hieroglyphics  from  their  inven- 
tors after  they  had  already  assumed  a  cuneatic  form,  and 
added  still  further  to  the  heritage.  When  the  Semitic 
king  Sargon  I.  was  reigning  in  Babylonia  in  B.C.  3800, 
the  scribes  at  his  court  were  still  occupied  in  devising  new 
forms  of  characters,  and  in  increasing  the  number  of  phon- 
etic values  the  student  was  required  to  learn.  This  is  the 
cause  of  the  fact  pointed  out  by  Prof,  de  Lacouperie,  that, 
whereas  most  of  the  cuneiform  characters  have  to  be 
turned  on  their  sides  in  order  to  be  restored  to  their 
primitive  position  (Chaldaean  writing  having  once  been 
traced  [in  vertical  columns),  there  are  other  characters 
which  have  never  been  thus  displaced.  As  time  went  on, 
the  forms  of  the  characters  became  more  and  more  dis- 
torted ;  the  number  of  persons  in  Babylonia  who  could 
read  and  write  was  very  large,  and  while  the  general  form 
of  script  varied  from  age  to  age,  the  individual  in  each 
age  was  distinguished  by  a  peculiar  form  of  handwriting 
as  much  as  is  the  individual  of  to-day.  An  official  scrip- 
never  prevailed  in  Babylonia  as  it  did  in  Assyria,  where 
education  was  practically  confined  to  the  class  of  scribes  ; 
and  while,  therefore,  the  Assyrian  student  has  little  need 
of  learning  more  than  one  form  of  writing  as  long  as  he 
confines  himself  to  the  monuments  of  Assyria,  he  is 
bewildered  by  the  number  of  cursive  hands  which  the 
documents  of  Babylonia  oblige  him  to  decipher. 

The  oldest  Babylonian  monuments  yet  known  are  those 
discovered  by  the  French  Consul  M.  de  Sarzec  at  Telloh 
in  Southern  Babylonia.  They  are  earlier  than  the  epoch 
of  Sargon  I.,  and  belong  to  the  pre-Semitic  era.  The 
inscriptions  engraved  upon  them  still  preserve  in  some 
measure  the  old  vertical  arrangement  of  the  characters, 
and  in  some  few  cases  the  characters  themselves  have  a 
pictorial  form.  But  more  generally  they  have  already 
become  cuneatic,  and  not  unfrequently  have  departed  so 
widely  from  their  primitive  appearance  as  to  make  it  im- 
possible even  to  guess  what  they  were  primarily  intended 
to  represent.  If  this  were  the  case  in  the  fourth  millen- 
nium before  our  era,  we  may  have  some  idea  of  the  vast 
antiquity  to  which  the  beginnings  of  Babylonian  writing 
must  reach  back. 

In  other  instances,  though  the  transformation  of  the 
character  is  not  so  complete,  it  is  difficult  to  determine 
with  certainty  the  object  originally  portrayed.  Some  of 
Prof,  de  Lacouperie's  examples  are  in  this  plight,  and  as 
regards  at  least  two  of  them — those  pronounced  da  and 
du  or  tur — I  prefer  the  explanations  suggested  by  Mr. 
Pinches  and  Mr.  Bertin  to  those  suggested  by  himself. 
In  fact,  in  tjje  first  case  he  has  misinterpreted,  like  the 
earlier  Assyriologists,  the  Assyrian  explanation  of  the 
ideograph  nasa  sa  nisi j  which  signifies,  not  "the  summit 
of  man,"  but  "  the  lifting  up  of  a  man."  It  is  consequently 
natural  to  regard  it  as  representing  the  uplifted  arm. 

Prof,  de  Lacouperie  rejects  the  theory  which  saw  in  the 
mountains  of  Elam  the  birth-place  of  Babylonian  writing. 
Whatever,  however,  may  be  the  value  of  the  arguments 
urged  by  the  advocates  of  this  theory,  the  arguments 
brought  against  it  by  Prof,  de  Lacouperie  do  not  appear 
to  me  to  be  cogent.  Certainly  it  is  not  my  experience 
that  the  coast  of  a  flat  country  like  Chakkea  "  always  looks 
mountainous  "  to  the  seafarer  ;  while  the  Accadian  word  a 
(misprinted  at)  signifies  "father,"  not  because  of  the 
ideographic  meaning  of  the  character  which  represented 


it,  but  because  the  Accadian  ada,  "  father,"  became  in 
pronunciation,  through  phonetic  decay,  first  ad,  and  then  a. 
The  symbol  of  "  country  "  attached  to  the  ideographs  of 
"  man  "  or  "  servant,"  "  handmaid  "  and  "  wild  ox,"  need 
not  have  been  introduced  before  the  Accadians  had  long 
been  settled  in  the  Babylonian  plain,  and  it  is  not  quite 
correct  to  say  that  "  while  [Babylonian  writing]  possesses 
primitive  symbols  for  '  boat '  and  for  '  wind,'  represented 
by  an  inflated  sail,  there  are  none  for  'river.'"  Both 
"ship"  and  "river"  are  alike  denoted  by  a  double 
ideograph. 

The  question,  however,  whether  the  cuneiform  system 
of  writing  originated  in  "the  mountains  of  the  East,"  as 
the  Babylonians  called  them,  or  in  the  islands  of  the  Persian 
Gulf,  does  not  affect  Prof,  de  Lacouperie's  main  contention. 
If  this  can  be  established,  a  new  and  important  chapter 
will  be  opened  in  the  history  of  the  ancient  East,  and  the 
mystery  which  has  so  long  enveloped  the  origin  of  the 
Celestial  Empire  will  be  cleared  away.  I  must  leave  it  to 
the  Sinologists  to  determine  whether,  on  the  Chinese  side, 
Prof,  de  Lacouperie's  conclusions  are  sustainable  ;  on  the 
Babylonian  side,  he  has  nothing  to  fear  from  Assyrian 
scholars.  A.  H.  Sayce. 


DR.  EIMER  ON  THE  ORIGIN  OF  SPECIES. 

Die  Entstehutig  der  Arten  auf  Grimd  von  Vererben 
erworbener  Eigenschaften  nack  den  Gesetzen  organ- 
ischen  Wachsens.  Von  Dr.  G.  H.  Theodor  Eimer, 
Professor  der  Zoologie  und  vergleichenden  Anatomie 
zu  Tubingen.     (Jena:  Gustaf  Fischer,  1888.) 

IT  is  a  little  curious  that,  although  Darwin  was  so  much 
more  an  experimenter  than  an  anatomist,  the  im- 
mediate stimulus  of  his  work  was  to  anatomy,  and  not  to 
experiment.  There  is,  however,  ample  evidence  that 
morphologyisbeginningto  advance  on  the  lines  prophesied 
for  it  at  the  end  of  the  "  Origin  of  Species,"  and  that 
morphologists  are  to  enter  the  "  almost  untrodden  field 
of  inquiry  on  the  causes  and  laws  of  variation,  on  correla- 
tion, on  the  effects  of  use  and  disuse,  on  the  direct  action 
of  external  conditions." 

Dr.  Eimer's  book  is  written  from  the  stand-point  of  one 
who  believes  that  there  is  more  to  be  made  out  of  the 
study  of  the  influence  of  the  environment  on  a  single  set 
of  organisms  than  of  the  anatomy  and  microscopy  of 
many  organisms.  It  is  an  abundant  storehouse  of  facts, 
old  and  new,  about  the  influence  of  the  physical  environ- 
ment. Many  curious  problems  are  dealt  with,  and  the 
infinite  fertility  of  the  field  of  investigation  is  shown.  But 
the  book  claims  to  be  far  more  than  this  :  it  claims  to 
supply  a  new  theory  of  the  organic  world — a  theory  in 
which  natural  selection  plays  only  a  casual  and  incidental 
part. 

Dr.  Eimer  starts  from  the  premiss  that  natural  selection 
is  insufficient  to  account  for  the  evolution* of  the  organic 
world  because  it  is  essentially  the  rule  of  chance.  One 
had  thought  that  this  misconception  had,  even  in  the  con- 
troversy of  the  ignorant,  long  ago  died  of  inanition.  Not 
only  is  the  whole  tenour  of  Darwin's  book  opposed  to 
such  a  conception,  but  Darwin  has  specifically  guarded 
against  it.  For  him  and  for  his  theory  "  chance  "  is  but  a 
convenient  way   of  denominating    processes    of   whose 


124 


NATURE 


{June  7,  1888 


details,  from  their  complexity  or  from  their  intricacy,  we 
are  ignorant. 

From  his  study  of  the  life-conditions  of  some  lizards, 
Dr.  Eimer  has  reached  the  conclusion  that  at  any  given 
time  variations  occur  only  in  a  few  definite  directions. 
These  directions  depend  on  inner  constitutional  causes. 
The  variations  are  produced  by  the  direct  action  of  the 
environment,  are  always  transmitted,  and  when  accumu- 
lated, become  the  inner  constitutional  cause  determining 
the  direction  in  which  the  organism  will  respond  to  new 
stimuli.  In  old  males  which  have  been  subjected  for  a 
longer  time  than  other  forms  to  the  environment  there  is 
a  tendency  to  the  appearance  of  new  characters.  These 
show  the  direction  in  which  species-variation  is  going  to 
take  place.  Not  only  does  the  ontogeny  repeat  the 
phylogeny  in  a  condensed  form,  but  the  later  stages  of 
the  ontogeny  are  prophetic  of  the  new  phylogeny.  Varia- 
tion, so  directed  and  limited,  assimilation  causing  growth, 
and  reproduction  or  discontinuous  growth,  are  the  chief 
laws  of  organic  growth. 

Suppose  a  primitive  undifferentiated  plasma  capable  of 
responding  to  stimuli  of  heat,  light,  moisture,  &c.  In 
response  to  the  action  of  the  environment  ever  slightly 
varied  in  such  details,  various  conditions  would  "  crystal- 
lize out "  of  the  plasma,  just  as  from  a  homogeneous 
inorganic  mass  crystals  form  in  varied  groups.  As  the 
organic  world  continued  to  grow,  this  original  differentia- 
tion would  increase.  With  increase  of  complexity  due  to 
the  storage  in  each  generation  of  the  complete  effect  of 
the  environment  on  each  stage  of  the  phylogeny,  the 
different  directions  in  which  forms  were  developing  would 
become  more  different.  Each  new  character  appearing 
would  through  correlation  influence  the  whole  organism. 
Allow  a  little  to  natural  selection  and  a  little  to  the  results 
of  sexual  mingling,  and  the  varied  species,  orders,  and 
classes  into  which  the  organic  world  can  now  be  divided 
appear  as  the  inevitable  result  of  its  mode  of  growth. 
There  is  no  need  to  search  for  intermediate  forms  :  they 
may  never  have  existed.  As  the  branching  of  a  tree  is 
the  natural  consequence  of  its  mode  of  growth,  so  is 
separation  and  isolation  inevitable  in  the  whole  organic 
world. 

The  two  crucial  points  in  Dr.  Eimer's  theory  are  his 
view  of  the  action  of  the  environment  and  his  extreme 
Lamarckian  acceptance  of  the  transmission  of  acquired 
characters.  Probably  he  is  correct  in  his  supposition  that 
the  extent  of  the  direct  action  of  the  environment  has  as 
yet  been  unappreciated.  Many  characters  hitherto  unex- 
plained may  come  to  be  referred  to  direct  action,  and 
experiment  only  can  determine  its  scope.  But  it  is  no 
explanation  of  the  presence  of  chlorophyll  to  refer  it  with 
the  author  to  the  continued  action  of  sunlight  upon  proto- 
plasm. And  still  less  is  it  an  explanation  of  the  difference 
between  queen  and  worker  bee  to  refer  it  to  the  difference 
in  their  food.  But  indeed  in  this  latter  case  the  refutation 
of  the  author  is  easy.  The  neuter  is  not  a  different  kind 
of  bee  produced  by  a  different  kind  of  food.  It  is  merely 
an  arrested  queen — a  queen  that  has  not  become  some- 
thing else  on  account  of  a  different  diet,  but  a  queen  that 
is  not  quite  a  queen  because  it  has  not  had  enough  to 
eat.  That  this  is  the  true  state  of  the  case  is  apparent 
from  the  less  specialized  colonies  of  wasps.  There  the 
queen  in  spring  lays  female  eggs,  and  has  herself  to  forage 


for  the  whole  brood.  As  a  result  the  young  do  not  get 
enough  to  eat,  and  the  development  of  their  sexual  organs 
is  arrested.  They  in  turn  help  to  feed  the  next  brood, 
the  individuals  of  which  reach  a  further  state  of  develop- 
ment. As  the  summer  wears  on,  the  ever-increasing 
band  of  workers  bring  in  an  increasing  supply  of  food,  till 
finally  a  condition  is  reached  when  there  is  enough  food 
to  make  perfect  females  of  a  whole  brood.  Clearly  the 
bee  colony,  with  its  sharper  distinction  between  neuter 
and  queen,  is  merely  a  specialization  of  this  condition.  It 
is  but  a  verbal  explanation  of  the  difference  between 
queen  and  neuter  to  refer  it  to  the  direct  action  of  food 
upon  the  organism.  Moreover,  to  explain  the  condition 
of  things  even  in  the  wasp  colony,  natural  selection  is 
necessary.  Obviously,  insufficient  food  would  arrest 
general  development  as  well  as  sexual  development,  and 
natural  selection  acting  on  variations  naturally  arising 
had  to  select  those  whose  genitalia  suffered  most  with 
least  detriment  to  general  powers.  From  the  many  in- 
teresting cases  adduced  by  the  author,  this  one  has  been 
selected  because  it  is  fairly  typical  of  the  slight  grounds 
on  which  he  refers  important  characters  to  the  direct 
action  of  the  physical  environment. 

As  for  the  inheritance  of  acquired  characters,  it  may 
be  said  at  once  that  Dr.  Eimer  has  added  nothing 
of  importance  to  the  controversy.  He  certainly  has 
adduced  a  few  isolated  cases  that  seem  to  be  explained 
best  on  this  theory  ;  and  were  the  inheritance  of  acquired 
characters  merely  of  incidental  value  to  his  argument,  his 
easy  acceptance  of  the  traditional  view  might  avoid 
criticism.  But  when  it  is  said  that  the  direct  action 
of  the  environment,  together  with  inner  constitutional 
causes,  produces  varieties  and  species,  and  that  these 
inner  constitutional  causes  that  determine  the  direction 
of  variation  are  merely  a  summation  of  direct  action,  a 
summation  effected  by  inheritance,  we  perceive  at  once 
that  a  new  and  all-important  role  is  assigned  to  heredity. 
There  is  no  attempt  to  meet  the  serious  theoretical  diffi- 
culties involved  in  every  conception  of  the  mechanism  ot 
the  inheritance  of  acquired  characters :  there  is  no 
adequate  attempt  to  establish  the  fact.  Were  it  possible 
and  were  it  true,  undoubtedly  it  would  be,  as  Dr.  Eimer 
in  elaborate  and  learned  detail  has  shown,  of  immense 
importance.  But  to  prove  its  possibility  or  truth  Dr. 
Eimer  has  done  little  or  nothing. 

Dr.  Eimer  appears  to  have  mistaken  a  generalized 
expression  of  the  process  of  evolution  for  an  explanation 
of  it.  Natural  selection  acts  at  a  time  only  on  the  one  or 
two  characters  which  the  environment  temporarily  ele- 
vates into  criteria  of  existence.  But,  as  these  change, 
there  are  changed  with  them  a  vast  multitude  of  minor 
characters — in  a  word,  there  results  what  the  author 
happily  calls  "  kaleidoscopic  variation."  These  changes 
can  be  referred  only  indirectly  to  selection,  though  they 
may  play  no  inconsiderable  part  in  determining  the 
appearance  of  the  organism.  With  all  these  variations 
are  correlated  variations  in  the  results  produced  by  the 
direct  physical  action  of  the  environment. 

Dr.  Eimer  has  concentrated  his  attention  on  these 
secondary  and  certainly  neglected  changes,  and  his 
theory  is  a  statement  of  their  course.  But  he  has  brought 
forward  no  motive  power  to  take  the  place  of  natural 
selection  in  determining  the  ruling  changes  ;  and  there- 


June  7,  1888] 


NATURE 


125 


fore  his  generalized  statement,  even  when  raised  into  a 
law  and  dignified  with  a  name,  is  not  an  explanation  of 
the  phenomena.  Darwin  has  convinced  men  of  evolution 
where  Lamarck  failed  and  where  certainly  Dr.  Eimer 
would  fail,  not  because  he  discovered  any  law,  but 
because  he  discovered  an  intelligible  mechanism,  an 
obvious  sequence  of  cause  and  effect,  which  could,  and 
probably  did,  act.  P.  C.  M. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

The  Birds  of  Dorsetshire :  A  Contribution  to  the 
Natural  History  of  the  County.  By  J.  C.  Mansel- 
Pleydell,  B.A.,  F.L.S.,  &c.  8vo.  pp.  i-xvi.,  1-179. 
(London  and  Dorchester:  R.  H.  Porter,  1888.) 

Notes  on  the  Birds  of  Herefordshire,  contributed  by 
Members  of  the  Woolhope  Club.  Collected  and  Ar- 
ranged by  the  late  Henry  Graves  Bull,  M.D.,  &c. 
pp.  i-xxxii.,  1-274.  (London  and  Hereford  :  Jakeman 
and  Carver,  1888.) 

County  lists  of  birds  are  still  the  order  of  the  day. 
First  we  have  Mr.  Mansel-Pleydell's  book  on  the 
Ornithology  of  Dorsetshire,  a  very  neat  little  volume, 
compiled  evidently  with  the  greatest  care.  The  author's 
long  acquaintance  with  the  country  and  his  well-known 
love  of  natural  history  have  rendered  him  the  most 
competent  authority  on  the  subject,  and  he  has  been 
aided  by  many  well-known  naturalists  in  supplying  him 
with  instances  of  the  capture  of  rare  birds,  so  that  the 
list  is  a  very  complete  one.  The  inevitable  Great  Black 
Woodpecker  (Picus  martius)  of  course  appears,  on 
Pulteney's  authority,  but  no  recent  specimen  is  extant,  nor 
is  likely  to  be.  The  Pied-billed  Grebe  (Podilymbus 
podiceps),  which  was  first  recorded  by  ourselves  as  a 
British  bird,  is  placed  between  brackets,  and  considered 
to  be  "  extremely  doubtful  "  by  the  author.  All  we  can 
say  is  that  we  should  not  have  been  godfather  to  the 
specimen,  to  add  one  more  doubtful  species  to  the  already 
overburdened  British  list,  unless  we  had  felt  tolerably 
certain  of  its  authenticity,  while  the  fact  of  the  specimen 
being  immature  renders  its  occurrence  as  a  chance 
wanderer  much  more  probable  than  if  it  had  been  an 
adult  bird  in  breeding-plumage.  The  bird  has  ten  times 
more  claim  to  a  place  amongst  our  stragglers  than  such 
species  as  Picus  medius,  Pycnonotus  barbalus,  and 
dozens  of  others.  A  most  interesting  history  is  given  of 
the  celebrated  swannery  at  Abbotsbury,  with  a  photo- 
graphic plate,  in  which  the  birds  are  well  depicted, 
but  the  keeper's  face  lacks  expression  !  Some  pretty 
woodcuts  by  Mr.  Lodge  are  interspersed  in  the  text.  The 
author  informs  us  that  Puffinus  obscurus  (p.  113)  should 
be  P.  griseus. 

Dr.  Bull's  "  Birds  of  Herefordshire  '■  is  one  of  the  most 
useful  of  the  county  lists  ;  for  it  contains  a  complete  list 
of  British  birds,  with  special  notes  on  the  Herefordshire 
species.  A  great  deal  of  care  has  evidently  been  taken 
over  this  book,  which  is  rendered  more  interesting  by  the 
poetical  researches  of  the  author.  Mr.  Phil.  Robinson, 
when  he  issues  a  new  edition  of  his  "Poets'  Birds" 
will  certainly  have  to  consult  this  work  of  Dr.  Bull,  which 
contains  many  quotations  we  have  not  seen  elsewhere. 

R.  BOWDLER  SHARPE. 

Geology  for  All.  By  J.  Logan  Lobley,  F.G.S.,  &c. 
(London  :  Roper  and  Drowley,  if 


The  object  of  this  little  book  is  to  give  an  account  of  the 
important  facts  and  deductions  in  geology,  without 
"  unnecessary  scientific  terminology."  That  there  is  room 
for  such  a  work  will  not  be  questioned,  and  doubtless 
many  who  have    paid    no  heed   to   the   subject  would 


begin  to  study  it  if  only  their  lessons  were  made  easy 
and  attractive.  This  was  accomplished  in  old  times 
by  Hugh  Miller,  and  more  recently  by  Canon  Kingsley  in 
his  charming  "  Town  Geology  "  ;  and  Mr.  Lobley,  in  his 
enthusiastic  preface,  raises  the  hope  that  he  will  follow 
a  similar  course,  and  provide  "all  intelligent  readers" 
with  a  simple  record  of  the  earth's  history.  In  this 
respect,  however,  we  are  disappointed.  The  work  is  a 
condensed  account  of  the  leading  geological  facts  and 
deductions,  arranged  much  after  the  fashion  of  an 
ordinary  text-book.  Of  its  general  accuracy  and  clear- 
ness we  can  speak  with  confidence  ;  and  indeed,  through 
his  long  connection  with  the  Geologists'  Association,  the 
author  has  had  ample  opportunities  of  qualifying  himself 
for  his  task.  The  work,  however,  is  more  adapted  for  the 
young  student  who  wishes  to  pursue  the  subject,  than  for 
the  general  reader.  We  fear  the  patience  of  the  latter 
will  be  tried  when  he  reads  the  explanations — and  not 
always  happy  explanations — of  outcrops,  anticlinals,  un- 
conformities, and  outliers,  for  there  are  no  diagrams  to 
give  pictorial  aid.  Nor  is  the  chapter  on  the  composition 
of  rocks  likely  to  prove  more  readable  ;  for  surely  the 
accounts  of  the  physical  characters  of  minerals,  and  the 
chemical  formulae,  introduce  "unnecessary  scientific 
terminology."  Again,  when  we  read  of  the  acidic  and 
basic  rocks,  of  the  seismic  focus  and  the  meizoseismic 
curve,  of  the  "  homocircle  (sic)  or  equal-lobed  tailed 
fishes,"  and  of  those  that  present  a  "  heterocircle-tailed 
character,"  we  feel  that  the  author  has  not  sufficiently 
carried  out  his  good  intentions.  In  the  chapter  on  meta- 
morphic  rocks  a  popular  account  might  have  been  given 
of  recent  researches  in  the  Highlands,  and  then  perhaps 
the  author  would  not  have  remarked  that  "  rarely  a 
reversed-fault  is  seen."  H.  B.  W. 

Sound,  Light,  and  Heat.     By  Thomas  D unman. 
Electricity    and   Magnetism.       By    the    same    Author. 
(London:  Ward,  Lock,  and  Co.,  1888.) 

These  two  books  are  revised  reprints  of  the  articles  on 
the  subjects  which  have  already  appeared  in  Messrs. 
Ward,  Lock,  and  Co.'s  well  known  "Universal  Instruc- 
tor." They  have  been  published  in  their  present  form  for 
the  convenience  of  students.  The  work  of  revision  and 
expansion  has  been  undertaken  by  Mr.  Chapman  Jones, 
the  death  of  the  original  author  having  rendered  it  neces- 
sary for  other  hands  to  perform  this  part  of  the  work. 

As  might  be  expected,  the  books  are  of  a  popular  cha- 
racter, but  their  value  to  students  of  elementary  physics 
does  not  in  the  least  suffer  on  this  account.  The  almost 
entire  absence  of  mathematical  statements  makes  them 
suitable  for  the  most  elementary  students. 

The  method  of  treatment  is  that  of  the  orthodox  text- 
book, and  there  is  very  little  that  calls  for  special  remark. 
They  differ  mainly  from  other  elementary  text-books 
inasmuch  as  they  are  brought  quite  up  to  date,  especially 
in  electrical  matters.  The  300  diagrams  which  are  dis- 
tributed throughout  the  text,  though  not  of  a  high  order 
of  excellence,  will  do  much  towards  enlightening  the 
minds  of  those  who  read  the  books. 

Though  not  designed  to  suit  the  syllabus  of  any 
examining  body,  they  are  well  adapted  for  students 
preparing  for  the  Science  and  Art  Department  examin- 
ations. 

Sea-side    and    Way-side.      By    Tulia '  McNair    Wright. 

(Boston  :  D.  C.  Heath  and  Co.,  1888.) 
This  little  volume  is  the  first  of  a  series  of  "  Nature 
Readers,"  intended  for  the  use  of  beginners  in  reading. 
As  a  rule,  the  authors  of  reading-books  take  little  trouble 
to  excite  the  interest  of  children.  Their  object  is  to  bring 
together  a  number  of  simple  sentences,  and  they  seem  to 
be  indifferent  whether  the  sentences  express  sense  or  non- 
sense.    In  the  present  series  an  attempt  will  be  made  to 


126 


NATURE 


\Jwie  7,  1888 


convey,  through  reading-lessons,  some  of  the  more 
attractive  elementary  facts  of  science  ;  and,  if  we  may 
judge  from  the  degree  of  success  attained  in  "  Sea-side 
and  Way-side,"  the  volumes  are  likely  to  be  cordially 
welcomed  in  many  primary  schools  in  England  as  well  as 
in  the  United  States.  The  author  has  taken,  as  the 
subjects  of  her  lessons,  crabs,  wasps,  bees,  spiders,  and 
shell-fish  ;  and  she  has  contrived  to  put  into  the  simplest 
and  most  direct  language  a  great  deal  of  really  useful  and 
entertaining  information.  Almost  all  children  find  some- 
thing to  interest  them  in  what  they  are  told  about  the 
habits  of  animals,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  these 
bright  and  pleasant  lessons  will  implant  in  a  good  many 
young  minds  the  seeds  of  an  enduring  love  of  natural 
history. 

Reminiscences  of  Foreign  Travel.     By  Robert  Crawford. 
(London  :  Longmans,  Green,  and  Co.,  1888). 

Mr.  Crawford  is  already  favourably  known  as  the 
author  of  "Across  the  Pampas  and  the  Andes."  The 
present  volume  will  maintain  his  reputation  as  a  traveller 
who  knows  how  to  observe  what  is  most  significant  in  the 
countries  he  visits,  and  who  possesses  the  faculty  of  re- 
producing his  impressions  in  a  lively  and  attractive 
narrative.  His  reminiscences  relate  to  Canada,  Austria, 
Germany,  Sardinia,  Egypt,  Algeria,  and  various  other 
lands  ;  and  in  every  chapter  he  records  something  that 
most  readers  will  find  fresh  and  interesting.  The  most 
instructive  sections  of  the  book  are,  upon  the  whole,  those 
relating  to  Canada  and  Algeria. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
of  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations..] 

Dr.  Giglioli  and  Lepidosiren. 

Dr.  Giglioli  asserts,  in  his  interesting  letter  published  in 
the  last  issue  of  Nature  (p.  102),  that  the  Lepidosiren  whose 
capture  he  records  is  "the  fifth  specimen  known."  Reference 
to  his  earlier  remarks  (Nature,  vol.  xxxv.  p.  343),  concerning 
that  which  he  regards  as  "  the  fourth  known"  specimen,  shows 
that  while  he  has  acknowledged  the  examples  of  Natterer  and 
Castlenau,  he  has  apparently  overlooked  that  of  Bibron  and 
IL  Milne-Edwards,  recorded  in  1840.  Readers  of  Nature 
interested  in  this  wonderful  creature,  now  apparently  verging  on 
extinction,  will  find  a  resume  of  all  that  is  topographically 
important  concerning  the  last-named  and  the  three  previously 
recorded  specimens  in  the  Zoolog.  Jahrb.  for  1887  (pp.  575  to 
583).  For  this  welcome  communication,  to  which  a  full  biblio- 
graphy is  appended,  we  are  indebted  to  Dr.  G.  Baur,  of  Yale 
College  Museum,  U.S.A.  It  forms  one  of  the  series  of  historical 
miscellanea  with  which  he  has  enriched  our  recent  literature ; 
and,  if  the  conclusions  at  which  he  (in  common  with  Briihl) 
arrives  are  sound,  Dr.  Giglioli's  "fifth"  specimen  will  be  in 
reality  a  sixth. 

Zoologists  in  general  will  unite  in  congratulating  Drs.  Rodriguez 
and  Giglioli  upon  their  recent  acquisition  ;  and  while  hoping  for 
a  repetition  of  the  same,  they  will  eagerly  await  the  results  of 
the  promised  "future  study."  G.  B.  Howes. 

South  Kensington,  June  2. 


"A  Text-book  of  Biology." 

Will  you  allow  me  to  point  out  that  the  reviewer,  in  your  issue 
of  May  17  (p.  52),  apparently  misunderstands  the  object  of  my 
"  Text-book  of  Biology  "  ?  The  work  is  not  meant  to  supplant 
lectures,  but  to  aid  them,  by  reducing  for  the  student  the  wearisome 
labour  of  note-taking,  and  by  enabling  the  teacher  to  enlarge 
where  necessary,  and  to  treat  the  subject  from  other  points  of 
view,  running  meanwhile  less  risk  of  addressing  an  audience  of 
mere  scribblirg-machines. 

The   review    alsD   implies   that  a  previously  published  work 


covers  the  same  ground  as  the  present  book.  This,  however,  is 
not  the  case,  as  my  book  deals  with  the  Botany  as  well  as  with  the 
Zoology  of  the  course. 

I  cannot  but  think  that  the  reviewer  is  led  by  his  enthusiasm 
into  the  common  mistake  of  demanding  that  the  ordinary  "pass" 
man  shall  follow  the  same  course  as  the  specialist.  I  suppose 
that  the  University  of  London  prescribes  at  the  Intermediate  Pass 
stage  a  portion,  not  too  small,  of  Biology,  which  shall  form  part 
of  a  general  course  of  science  adapted  to  the  average  student,  and 
to  the  time  at  his  disposal ;  perhaps  your  reviewer  will  kindly 
explain,  less  vaguely,  what  other  system  he  would  propose  to 
substitute  ?  J.  R.  Ainsworth  Davis. 

Aberystwyth,  May  24. 


Resistance  of  Square  Bars  to  Torsion. 

The  attention  of  writers  on  Applied  Mechanics  should  be 
called  to  the  error  continuously  repeated  in  about  thirty  editions 
of  the  late  Prof.  Rankine's  different  works  which  have  appeared 
during  the  last  thirty  years.  The  error  is  still  reproduced  in 
quite  recent  works  of  other  writers  :  Prof.  Ewing's  article, 
"Steam-Engine,"  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica ;  Prof. 
Unwin's  "Elements  of  Machine  Design";  Prof.  Alexander's 
"  Elementary  Applied  Mechanics  "  ;  &c. 

It  is  stated  that  the  moment  of  resistance  of  a  square  bar  to 
torsion  appears  from  Saint -Venant's  investigations  to  be — 

0-281  fh\ 

where/"  =  maximum  intensity  of  stress,  and  h  =  side  of  the 
square.  This  formula  is  also  quoted  at  discussions  of  Institu- 
tions of  Engineers  and  accepted  without  dissent.  It  is  easily 
seen  to  be  wrong,  because  the  moment  of  torsion  of  a  round  bar 
of  equal  area  is  only 

0*282  fh\ 

The  error  is  reproduced  in  the  text  of  Prof.  Cotterill's  "  Applied 
Mechanics,"  but  is  corrected  in  an  appendix,  where  the  author 
says  Rankine  gives  the  formula  without  further  explanation. 
The  explanation  is  that  on  the  old  theory  the  torsional  moment 
of  inertia  was — 

h* 

which  had  to  be  multiplied  by  the  maximum  intensity  of  stress 
and  divided  by  the  corresponding  radial  distance — namely,  from 
the  centre  to  the  middle  of  the  side,  giving  the  moment  of 
resistance 

=  f!l 
3 

on  the  old  theory.  (Rankine  was  aware  that  the  maximum 
stress  does  not  occur  at  the  angles,  as  in  Coulomb's  method. ) 

Now,  in  Saint- Venant's  "  Memoire,"  the  torsional  rigidity  of  a 
square  bar  is  proved  to  be  the  fraction 

0-843 

of  the  fallacious  result  of  the  old  theory.  Rankine  accordingly 
wrote 

0843  x  l-  =  o-28i/7;3 

as  the  true  moment  of  torsion. 

But  the  toi  sional  rigidity  determines  the  amount  of  twist,  and 
not  the  maximum  stress.  A  few  pages  farther  on,  Saint-Venant 
gives  the  correct  formula,  equivalent  to 

0208 //A 

It  seems  strange  that  the  tiLnted  author  of  the  expressive  dis- 
tinctions strain  and  stress  should  himself  have  taken  the  formula 
for  the  strain  instead  of  that  for  the  stress.  The  reason  is,  that 
up  to  that  dale  (Todhunter's  "  History  of  Elasticity  ")  the  strain 
and  stress  were  supposed  to  be  proportional  to  each  other. 

Abstracts  of  Saint- Venant's  researches  are  given  in  Sir 
William  Thomson's  article  "  Elasticity,"  in  the  Encyclopaedia 
Britannica,  Thomson  and  Tait's  "Natural  Philosophy,"  and 
Minchin's  '*  Statics."  Strange  that  in  all  of  these  the  method 
is  given  which  determines  the  strain  to  be  0843  of  the  old 
fallacy,  while  nothing  is  said  about  what  is  of  more  importance 
in  Applied  Mechanics,  the  maximum  stress,  nor  the  moment  of 
resistance  to  torsion,  as  given  above. 

Perhaps  this  hint  may  be  attended  to  in  future  editions. 

T.  I.  Dewar. 

Engineering  Academy,  721  Commercial  Road,  E. 


June  7,  1SS8] 


NATURE 


127 


THE  GEOLOGICAL  STRUCTURE  OF  SCANDI- 
NA  VIA  AND  THE  SCOTTISH  HIGHLANDS. 

THE  obvious  connection  and  analogy  between  the 
A  geological  structure  of  the  crystalline  rocks  of  the 
Highlands  of  Scotland  and  those  of  Scandinavia  have  long 
■engaged  the  attention  of  geologists.  Among  the  northern 
observers  to  whose  labours  we  are  largely  indebted  for 
our  knowledge  of  the  Scandinavian  regions,  D>\  A.  E. 
Tornebohm  has  proved  himself  a  keen  and  indefatigable 
explorer  of  the  Swedish  uplands.  Many  years  ago  he 
showed  that  above  clay-slates  and  limestones,  with  re- 
cognizable Silurian  fossils,  there  lies  a  great  thickness  of 
quartzites,  gneisses,  and  schists,  called  by  him  the  Seve 
group.  In  more  recently  studying  the  relations  of  these 
rock-masses,  he  encountered  some  great  difficulties,  of 
which  he  sent  me  at  the  time  an  account.  I 
could  not  pretend  to  solve  them,  but  suggested,  as 
at  least  a  working  hypothesis,  that  the  Scandinavian 
structure  might  be  fundamentally  similar  to  that  now 
recognized  as  characteristic  of  the  North-West  High- 
lands, where  the  apparent  conformable  superposition 
of  a  series  of  schists  upon  fossiliferous  Lower  Silurian 
strata  has  been  produced  by  great  terrestrial  displace- 
ments, whereby  the  overlying  rocks  have  been  crushed 
and  deformed,  until  they  have  assumed  a  new  crystalline 
structure  along  the  planes  of  movement,  these  stupendous 
changes  having  occurred  at  some  time  subsequent  to  the 
Lower  Silurian  period.  I  have  recently  received  from 
Dr.  Tornebohm  the  following  letter,  which  he  gives  me 
leave  to  publish,  and  which  will  no  doubt  be  read  with 
interest  by  those  who  are  aware  of  the  recent  progress  of 
research  in  this  subject  :— "  It  will  perhaps  interest  you 
to  learn  that  your  suggestion  four  years  ago  regarding  the 
construction  of  our  Scandinavian^?/^  has  turned  out  to 
be  correct,  at  least  in  my  opinion.  My  late  researches 
have  little  by  little  driven  me  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
crystalline  schists  belonging  to  what  I  have  called  the 
*  Seve  group '  have  been  placed  over  Silurian  strata  by 
an  enormous  eastward  thrust.  I  admit  that  I  have  most 
reluctantly  come  to  this  conclusion,  knowing  that  it 
implied  a  horizontal  thrust  of  enormous  masses  of  rock 
for  more  than  100  kilometres.  Such  a  stupendous  move- 
ment of  entire  mountain-regions  is  hard  to  realize  ;  but 
facts  are  stubborn  things." 

It  will  be  observed  that  Dr.  Tornebohm  speaks  of  the 
movement  having  been  towards  the  east,  whereas  in  the 
north-west  of  Scotland  it  has  been  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion. In  a  more  recent  letter,  in  reply  to  one  in  which  I 
had  called  his  attention  to  this  difference,  he  says : — 
"  Though  in  Scotland  the  great  thrusts  are  westward,  in 
Scandinavia  it  is  quite  the  reverse.  Here  the  chief 
movement  has  been  to  the  east  or  south-east.  In  the 
region  of  Trondhjem,  indeed,  there  have  been  lesser 
movements  towards  the  north-west,  but  these  may 
have  taken  place  somewhat  later.  At  least  I  rather 
suspect  this,  but  am  not  prepared  positively  to  affirm  it." 
I  may  remark  that  in  Scotland  also  there  are  districts 
where  the  thrusts  have  not  come  from  the  normal  direc- 
tion but  from  the  westward.  In  the  Island  of  Islay,  for 
example,  I  recently  found  the  limestones  and  quartzites 
piled  up  by  sharply-cut  thrust-planes  which  had  a  general 
westward  inclination  at  lower  angles  than  the  displaced 
strata.  One  of  the  great  problems  in  working  out  the 
complicated  geology  of  the  Highlands  is  the  determina- 
tion of  the  positions  and  extent  of  such  thrust- planes,  and 
the  direction  in  which  the  displaced  rock-masses  have 
been  moved.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  much  mutual 
help  in  this  research  will  be  gained  by  a  co-operation 
between  the  field  geologists  who  are  engaged  in  the  study 
of  these  problems  in  Scotland  and  in  Scandinavia. 

Arch.  Geikik. 


TIMBER,  AND  SOME  OF  ITS  DISEASES.1 
VIII. 

'T'HERE  is  a  large  and  important  class  of  diseases  of 
■*■  standing  timber  which  start  from  the  cortex  and 
cambium  so  obviously  that  foresters  and  horticulturists, 
struck  with  the  external  symptoms,  almost  invariably  term 
them  "  diseases  of  the  bark " ;  and  since  most  of  them 
lead  to  the  production  of  malformations  and  excrescences, 
often  with  outflowing  of  resinous  and  other  fluids,  a  sort 
of  rough  superficial  analogy  to  certain  animal  diseases  has 
been  supposed,  and  such  terms  as  "  canker,"  "  cancer," 
and  so  forth,  have  been  applied  to  them. 

Confining  our  attention  to  the  most  common  and 
typical  cases,  the  following  general  statements  may  be  . 
made  about  these  diseases.  They  usually  result  from  im- 
perfect healing  of  small  wounds,  the  exposed  cortex  and 
cambium  being  attacked  by  some  parasitic  or  semi- 
parasitic  fungus,  as  it  tries  to  heal  over  the  wound.  The 
local  disturbances  in  growth  kept  up  by  the  mycelium 


Cam. 


Fig.  28. — Piece  of  tree  stem  affected  with  "  canker."  The  injury  commenced 
after  the  two  inner  zones  of  wood  (i  and  2)  had  been  developed  :  it  extended 
further  in  successive  periods  of  growih,  as  shown  by  the  receding  zones 
3,  4,  5,  and  6,  until  all  the  cambium  and  cortex  was  destroyed  except  the 
pieces  D  to  D.  Cam,  cambium  ;  Cor,  living  cortex  ;  D  D,  dead  tissues. 
At  each  period  of  growth  the  attempt  has  been  made  to  heal  over  the 
wound,  as  shown  by  the  successively  receding  lips. 

feeding  on  the  contents  of  the  cells  of  these  tissues  lead 
to  the  irregular  growths  and  hypertrophies  referred  to ; 
the  wounds  are  kept  open  and  "sore,"  or  even  extended,  and 
there  is  hardly  any  limit  to  the  possibilities  of  damage 
to  the  timber  thus  exposed  to  a  multitude  of  dangers. 

In  Fig.  28  is  represented  a  portion  of  a  tree  stem 
affected  with  "  canker  " :  the  transverse  section  shows 
the  periods  of  growth  numbered  i  to  6  from  within  out- 
wards. When  the  stem  was  younger,  and  the  cambium 
had  already  developed  the  zones  marked  i  and  2,  the 
cortex  suffered  some  injury  near  the  base  of  the  dead 
twig,  below  the  figure  I.  This  injury  was  aggravated  by 
the  ravages  of  fungus-m3celium,  which  penetrated  to  the 
cambium  and  destroyed  it  over  a  small  area :  in  conse- 
quence of  this,  the  next  periodic  zone  of  wood  (marked  3) 
is  of  course  incomplete  over  the  damaged  area,  and  the 
cortex  and  cambium  strive  to  heal  over  the  wound  by  lip- 
like callus  at  the  margins.     The  healing  is  prevented, 

1  Continued  from  p.  m. 


128 


NATURE 


[June  7,  1888 


however,  by  the  mycelium,  which  is  continually  extending 
the  area  of  injury  :  consequently  the  next  zone  of  wood 
(4  in  the  figure)  extends  even  a  shorter  distance  round 
the  stem,  and  so  on  with  5  and  6,  the  cambium  being 
now  restricted  to  less  than  half  round  the  stem — i.e.  from 
D  to  D,  and  the  same  with  the  living  cortex.  Of  course 
the  injured  area  extends  upwards  and  downwards  also, 
as  shown  by  the  lips  of  the  healing  tissue.  As  soon  as 
the  injury  extends  all  round,  the  stem  dies — it  is,  in  fact, 
ringed.  It  is  also  interesting  to  note  that  the  zones  4  and 
5  (and  the  same  would  be  true  of  6  when  completed)  are 
thicker  than  they  would  have  been  normally :  this  is 
partly  due  to  release  from  pressure,  and  partly  to  a 
concentrated  supply  of  nutritive  materials. 

Much  confusion  still  exists  between  the  various  cases: 
some  of  them  undoubtedly  are  due  to  frost  or  to  the 
intense  heat  of  direct  insolation  ;  these  are,  as  a  rule, 
capable  of  treatment  more  or  less  simple,  and  can  be 
healed  up.  Others,  again,  can  only  be  freed  fro.n  the 
irritating  agents  (which,  by  the  bye,  may  be  insects  as  well 
as  fungi)  by  costly  and  troublesome  methods. 

I  shall  only  select  one  case  for  illustration,  as  it  is 
typical,  and  only  too  well  known.  As  examples  of  others 
belonging  to  the  same  broad  category,  I  may  mention  the 
"canker"  of  apple-trees,  beeches,  oaks,  hazels,  maples, 
hornbeams,  alders,  and  limes,  and  many  others ;  and 
simply  pass  the  remark  that  whatever  the  differences  in 
detail  in  the  special  cases,  the  general  phenomena  and 
processes  of  reasoning  are  the  same. 

Perhaps  no  timber  disease  has  caused  so  much  conster- 
nation and  difference  of  opinion  as  the  "  larch-disease," 
and  even  now  there  is  far  too  little  agreement  among 
foresters  either  as  to  what  they  really  mean  by  this  term, 
or  as  to  what  causes  the  malady.  The  larch,  like  other 
timber-trees,  is  subject  to  the  attacks  of  various  kinds  of 
fungi  and  insects,  in  its  timber,  roots,  and  leaves  ;  but  the 
well-known  larch-disease,  which  has  been  spreading  itself 
over  Europe  during  the  present  century,  and  which  has 
caused  such  costly  devastation  in  plantations,  is  one  of 
the  group  of  cancerous  diseases  the  outward  and  visible 
signs  of  which  are  manifested  in  the  bark  and  young 
wood. 

The  appearance  presented  by  a  diseased  larch-stem  is 
shown  in  Fig.  29.  In  the  earlier  stages  of  the  malady  the 
stem  shows  dead,  slightly  sunken  patches,  a,  of  various 
sizes  on  the  cortex,  and  the  wood  beneath  is  found  to  cease 
growing  :  it  is  a  fact  to  be  noted  that  the  dead  base  of  a 
dried-up  branch  is  commonly  found  in  the  middle  of  the 
patch.  The  diseased  cortex  is  found  to  stick  to  the  wood 
below,  instead  of  peeling  off  easily  with  a  knife.  At  the 
margins  of  the  flattened  patch,  just  where  the  dead  cortex 
joins  the  normal  living  parts,  there  may  frequently  be 
seen  a  number  of  small  cup-like  fungus  fructifications 
(Fig.  29,  b),  each  of  which  is  white  or  gray  on  the  outside, 
and  lined  with  orange-yellow.  These  are  the  fruit-bodies 
of  a  discomycetous  fungus  called  Peziza  Willkommii 
(Htg.),  and  which  has  at  various  times,  and  by  various 
observers,  received  at  least  four  other  names,  which  we 
may  neglect. 

In  the  spring  or  early  summer,  the  leaves  of  the  tree 
are  found  to  turn  yellow  and  wither  on  several  of  the  twigs 
or  branches,  and  a  flow  of  resin  is  seen  at  the  dead  patch 
of  cortex.  If  the  case  is  a  bad  one,  the  whole  branch  or 
young  tree  above  the  diseased  place  may  die  and  dry  up. 
At  the  margins  of  the  patch,  the  edges  of  the  sounder 
cortex  appear  to  be  raised. 

As  the  disease  progresses  in  succeeding  years,  the 
merely  flattened  dead  patch  becomes  a  sunken  blistered 
hole  from  which  resin  flows :  this  sinking  in  of  the  de- 
stroyed tissues  is  due  to  the  up-growth  of  the  margins  of 
the  patch,  and  it  is  noticed  that  the  up-growing  margin 
recedes  further  and  further  from  the  centre  of  the  patch. 
If  this  goes  on,  the  patch  at  length  extends  all  round  the 
stem  or  branch,  and  the  death  of  all  that  lies  above  is 


then  soon  brought  about,  for,  since  the  young  wood  and 
cambium  beneath  the  dead  cortex  are  also  destroyed,  the 
general  effect  is  to  "  ring  "  the  tree. 

To  understand  these  symptoms  better,  it  is  necessary 
to  examine  the  diseased  patch  more  closely  in  its  various 
stages.  The  microscope  shows  that  the  dead  and  dying 
cortex,  cambium,  and  young  wood  in  a  small  patch,  contain 
the  mycelium  of  the  fungus  which  gives  rise  to  the  cup-like 
fructifications — Peziza  Willkommii — above  referred  to 
(Fig.  30) ;  and  Hartig  has  proved  that,  if  the  spores  of  this 
Peziza  are  introduced  into  the  cortex  of  a  healthy  living 
larch,  the  mycelium  to  which  they  give  rise  kills  the  cells 
of  the  cortex  and  cambium,  penetrates  into  the  young 
wood,  and  causes  the  development  of  a  patch  which 
everyone  would  recognize  as  that  of  the  larch-disease. 
It  is  thus  shown  that  the  fungus  is  the  immediate  cause 
of  the  patch  in  which  it  is  found. 

The  next  fact  which  has  been  established  is  that  the 
fungus  can  only  infect  the  cortex  through  some  wound  or 
injury — such  as  a  crack  or  puncture — and  cannot  pene- 
trate the  sound  bark,  &c.  Once  inside,  however,  the 
mycelium  extends  upwards,  downwards,  sideways,  and 
inwards,  killing  and  destroying  all  the  tissues,  and  so 
inducing  the  outflow  of  resin  which  is  so  characteristic  of 
the   disease.       The   much-branched,   septate,  colourless 


Fig.  29. — Po-tion  of  stem  ofa  young  larch  affected  with  the  larch-disease,  as 
indicated  by  the  dead  "  cancerous  "  patch  of  cracked  cortex,  a  :  at  and 
near  the  margins  of  the  patch  are  the  small  cup-like  fructifications  of 
Peziza  U> 'illkommii '(Htg.),  which  spring  from  mycelium  in  the  dead  and 
dying  cortex  and  cambium  beneath.    (After  Hess.) 

hyphae  can  penetrate  even  as  far  as  the  pith,  and  the 
destroyed  tissues  turn  brown  and  dry  up. 

After  destroying  a  piece  of  the  tissues  in  the  spring, 
the  growth  of  the  mycelium  stops  in  the  summer,  the 
dead  cortex  dries  up  and  sticks  to  the  wood,  and  the 
living  cortex  at  the  margins  of  the  patch  commence  to 
form  a  thick  layer  of  cork  between  its  living  cells  and  the 
diseased  area. 

It  is  this  cork-formation  which  gives  the  appearance  of 
a  raised  rim  around  the  dead  patch.  It  has  long  been 
known  that  the  patches  dry  up  and  cease  to  spread  in  the 
dry  season.  It  should  be  pointed  out  that  it  is  one  of 
the  most  general  properties  of  living  parenchymatous 
tissue  to  form  cork-cells  at  the  boundaries  of  an  injury : 
if  a  slice  is  removed  from  a  potato,  for  instance,  the  cut 
surface  will  be  found  in  a  few  days  with  several  layers 
of  cork-cells  beneath  it,  and  the  same  occurs  at  the  cut 
surface  of  a  slip,  or  a  pruned  branch, — the  "  callus  "  of 
tissue  formed  is  covered  with  a  layer  of  cork. 

If  it  is  remembered  that  the  cambium  and  young  wood 
are  destroyed  beneath  the  patch,  it  will  be  at  once  clear 
that  in  succeeding  periods  of  growth  the  annual  rings  of 
wood  will  be  deficient  beneath  the  patch. 

Next  year,  the  cambium  in  the  healthy  parts  of  the 
stem    begins    to    form    another  ring  ;     but    the    fungus 


June  7,  1888] 


NATURE 


129 


mycelium  awakens  to  renewed  activity  at  the  same  time, 
and  spreads  a  little  further  upwards,  downwards,  and 
sideways,  its  hyphae  avoiding  the  cork-layer  and  travers- 
ing the  young  wood  and  cambium  below.  During  this 
second  spring,  therefore,  a  still  larger  patch  of  dead  tissue 
— cortex,  cambium,  and  young  wood — is  formed,  and  the 
usual  cork-layer  describes  a  larger  boundary.  Moreover, 
since  the  cambium  around  the,  as  yet,  undiseased  parts 
has  added  a  further  annual  ring — which  of  course  stops 
at  the  boundaries  of  the  diseased  patch — the  centre  of 
the  patch  is  yet  more  depressed  (cf.  Fig.  28). 

And  so  matters  go  on,  year  after  year,  the  local  injury 
to  the  timber  increasing,  and  ultimately  seriously  affect- 
ing, or  even  bringing  to  an  end,  the  life  of  the  tree. 

At  the  margins  of  the  diseased  patches,  as  said,  the 
fungus  at  length  sends  out  its  fructifications.  These 
appear  at  first  as  very  minute  cushions  of  mycelium,  from 
which  the  cup-like  bodies  with  an  orange-coloured  lining 


FlG.  30.  —A,  vertical  section  (magnified)  through  the  dead  cortex  of  a  larch, 
infected  with  the  mycelium  (d)  of  Peziza  lVillkalnmii (V{\g.),  which  is 
developing  its  fructifications  (a  and  E).  The  mycelium  fills  up  the  gaps 
in  the  cortex,  d,  with  a  white  felt- work,  it  is  a  boss  like  cushion  of  this 
felt-work  bursting  forth  to  become  a  cup-like  fructification  ;  F,  the  mature 
Peziza  fructification  (in  section)  ;  c,  its  stalk  ;  r,  the  margins  of  the  cup  ; 
h,  the  layer  of  spore-sacs  (asci).  B,  four  of  the  asci  from  h,  very  highly 
magnified,  a,  hair-like  barren  filaments  between  the  asci ;  c,  a  fully- 
developed  ascus,  containing  the  eight  spores ;  d,  an  ascus  emptied  of 
spores  (they  have  escaped  through  the  hole  at  the  apex) ;  bx  a  young 
ascus  in  which  the  spores  are  not  yet  formed  :  to  the  left  below  is  a  small 
one  still  younger.   (After  Hartig  and  Willkomm.) 

arise  :  the  structure  of  this  fructification  is  best  seen  from 
the  illustration  (Fig.  30,  A).  The  orange-red  lining  (h)  is 
really  composed  of  innumerable  minute  tubular  sacs,  each  of 
which  is  termed  an  ascus,  and  contains  eight  small  spores  : 
as  seen  in  the  figure  (Fig.  30,  B),  these  asci  stand  upright 
like  the  pile  of  velvet  lining  the  cup.  They  are  formed  in 
enormous  numbers,  and  go  on  ripening  and  scattering  the 
spores  day  after  day.  There  are  many  interesting  details 
connected  with  the  development  and  structure  of  these 
fructifications  and  spores ;  but  we  may  pass  over  these 
particulars  here,  the  chief  point  for  the  moment  being 
that  very  large  numbers  of  the  minute  spores  are  formed, 
and  scattered  by  the  wind,  rain,  animals,  &c.  Moreover, 
as  already  stated,  it  has  been  shown  by  experiments  that 
the  spores  will  infect  the  stem  of  the  larch  if  they  are 
introduced  into  a  wound  ;  but  it  is  important  to  notice 
that  the  fungus  cannot  penetrate  the  sound  cortex. 

It  now  remains  for  us  to  see  if,  in  the  natural  course  of 


events,  infection  of  the  larch  can  take  place  to  any  great 
extent ;  for,  unless  this  is  the  case,  we  cannot  reconcile 
the  above  peculiarities  of  the  fungus  with  the  prevalence 
of  the  disease. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  larch  is  an  Alpine 
tree,  growing  naturally  at  an  elevation  of  from  about  3000 
to  6000  feet  above  sea-level,  and  even  more.  In  its  native 
heights,  both  the  larch-disease  and  Peziza  Willkommii 
occur  associated  as  we  have  described  them,  but  the 
malady  does  not  become  epidemic,  as  it  has  done  in  the 
valleys  and  plains  of  Europe. 

Several  insect-enemies  of  the  larch  are  known,  some 
of  which  feed  on  the  buds,  and  others  on  the  leaves, 
&c. :  it  is  not  impossible  that  insect-wounds  may  serve 
occasionally  as  points  of  entry  for  the  fungus. 

But  attention  should  be  directed  to  the  remark  made 
when  describing  the  symptoms  of  the  disease — namely, 
that  a  dead  branch  often  springs  from  near  the  centre  ot 
the  patch.  Now  it  is  a  well-known  fact  in  the  hill-forests 
of  Switzerland,  Germany,  Austria,  &c,  that  heavy  falls 
of  snow  often  load  the  branches  until  they  bend  down  to 
the  ground,  and  the  bark  in  the  upper  angle  where  the 
branch  joins  the  stem  is  ruptured  ;  similar  cracks  are  also 
caused  by  the  bending  down  of  the  branches  under  the 
weight  of  water  condensed  from  mists,  &c.  If  a  spore 
alighted  near  such  a  place,  the  rain  would  wash  it  into 
the  crevice,  and  it  would  germinate  in  the  moisture 
always  apt  to  accumulate  there.  This  certainly  accounts 
very  completely  for  the  situation  of  the  dead  branch, 
which  of  course  would  at  once  suffer  from  the  mycelium. 
Another  way  in  which  such  wounds  as  would  give  access 
to  the  parasite  might  arise,  is  from  the  blows  of  hailstones 
on  the  still  young  and  tender  cortex. 

But  probably  the  most  common  source  of  the  crevices 
or  wounds  by  which  the  fungus  gains  an  entry  is  frost  ; 
and  to  understand  this  we  must  say  a  few  words  as  to 
what  is  known  of  the  larch  at  home  in  its  native  Alps. 

It  is  well  known,  since  Hartig  drew  attention  to  the  fact, 
that  in  the  high  regions  of  the  Alps  the  trees  begin  to 
put  forth  their  shoots  very  late  :  the  larch  in  the  lowlands 
of  Germany  and  the  British  Isles  often  begins  to  shoot  at 
the  end  of  March  or  beginning  of  April,  whereas  in  the 
mountains  it  may  be  devoid  of  leaves  in  May.  This  is 
because  the  transition  from  winter  to  spring  is  very  sud- 
den on  high  slopes,  whereas  in  the  lowlands  and  valleys 
it  may  be  very  gradual.  The  consequence  is  that  in  the 
Alps,  when  the  buds  once  begin  to  open  they  do  this 
rapidly  and  vigorously,  and  the  tender  leaves  and  shoots 
are  quickly  formed  and  beyond  the  reach  of  those  late 
spring  frosts  which  do  so  much  damage  in  our  country  : 
in  the  lowlands,  on  the  contrary,  the  leaves  slowly  deve- 
lop at  a  time  when  late  frosts  are  very  apt  to  recur  at 
night,  and  they  are  for  several  weeks  exposed  to  this 
danger  ;  and  if  a  sharp  frost  does  come,  the  chances  are 
that  not  only  will  the  first  output  of  tender  leaves  be 
killed  off,  but  the  whole  shoot  suffers,  and  frost-wounds 
are  formed  in  the  young  cortex. 

Another  point  comes  into  consideration  also.  In  warm 
damp  valleys  the  whole  tree  is  apt  to  be  more  watery, 
and  it  is  well  known  that  the  soft  tissues,  like  the  cortex, 
suffer  more  from  frost  when  filled  with  watery  sap,  than 
do  harder,  drier,  more  matured  ones.  It  has  been  shown, 
according  to  Sorauer,  that  dead  patches,  exactly  like  those 
which  characterize  the  larch-disease  in  its  early  stages, 
can  be  artificially  produced  by  exposing  the  stem  to 
temperatures  below  zero,  so  as  to  freeze  the  water  in  the 
cells. 

Given  the  above  conditions  for  producing  frost-wounds, 
then,  and  the  presence  of  spores  of  Peziza  Willkommii, 
there  is  no  difficulty  in  explaining  the  well-known 
phenomena  of  the  larch-disease. 

But  Hartig  has  brought  to  light  some  other  facts  of 
great  importance  in  considering  this  admittedly  com- 
plex question.     We  have  already  stated  that  the  Peziza 


130 


NA  TURE 


[J2ine  7,  1888 


does  occur  at  the  margins  of  the  wounds  in  the  Alps 
where  the  larch  is  native.  In  these  higher  region?,  how- 
ever, the  air  is  usually  dry  during  periods  of  active  growth 
and  the  young  fructifications  of  the  fungus  are  particularly 
sensitive  to  drought  ;  consequently,  even  when  many 
scattered  trees  are  infected,  the  cups  developed  at  the 
edges  of  the  wounds  are  apt  either  to  dry  up  altogether, 
or  to  produce  relatively  few  spores,  and  these  spores  have 
fewer  chances  of  germinating.  In  fact,  the  fungus  enjoys 
at  best  a  sporadic  existence,  chiefly  at  the  bases  of  trees 
where  the  herbage  affords  a  certain  degree  of  dampness. 

When  the  larch  was  brought  down  to  the  plains  and 
valleys,  however,  and  planted  in  all  directions  over  large 
areas,  the  Peziza  was  also  brought  with  it  ;  but  it  will  be 
clear  from  the  foregoing  discussion  that  the  climatic 
conditions  were  now  proportionally  raised  in  favour  of 
the  fungus,  and  lowered  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  larch. 
Plantations  in  damp  valleys,  or  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
the  sea,  or  of  large  lakes,  were  especially  calculated  to 
suffer  from  frost,  and  the  damp  air  favoured  the  propaga- 
tion of  the  fungus,  and  the  disease  tended  to  become 
epidemic.  The  enormous  traffic  in  larch  plants  also 
shows  how  man  too  did  his  share  in  spreading  the  epi- 
demic ;  and  in  fact  the  whole  story  of  the  larch-disease 
is  of  peculiar  interest  biologically,  as  illustrating  the  risks 
we  run  every  day  in  trusting  to  the  chapter  of  accidents 
to  see  us  safely  through  any  planting  undertaking,  no 
matter  how  great  the  stake  at  issue,  or  how  ruthless  the 
interference  with  those  complex  biological  and  physical 
conditions  which  always  play  such  an  important  part  in 
keeping  the  balance  in  the  struggle  for  existence  between 
all  organisms  living  together. 

Let  us  now  very  shortly  see  what  are  the  chief  lessons 
taught  us  by  the  bitter  and  costly  experience  which  the 
larch-disease  brought  to  foresters.  It  is  evident  that  the 
larch  should  not  be  planted  at  all  in  low-lying  situations 
exposed  to  late  frosts  ;  and  even  in  more  favoured  valleys 
experience  points  to  the  advantage  of  mixing  it  with  other 
trees  :  large  areas  of  pure  larch  are  planted  at  enormous 
risk  in  the  lowlands. 

As  to  the  treatment  of  trees  already  diseased,  it  is 
possible  (when  it  is  worth  while)  to  remove  diseased 
branches  from  trees  of  which  the  trunk  and  crown  are 
healthy,  but  it  hardly  needs  mention  that  such  diseased 
branches  must  be  burnt  at  once.  As  regards  trees  with 
the  stems  diseased — in  those  cases  where  the  patches  are 
large,  and  much  resin  is  flowing  from  the  wounds,  ex- 
perience points  to  the  advisability  of  cutting  them  down. 
In  those  cases  where  the  tree  is  already  very  large,  and 
the  diseased  wound  but  small,  it  may  be  expedient  to  let 
them  alone  :  theoretically  they  ought  to  go,  or  at  any  rate 
the  diseased  tissues  be  excised  and  burnt ;  but  it  seems 
to  be  proved  that  such  a  tree  may  go  on  forming  timber 
for  many  years  before  the  wound  will  spread  far  enough 
to  reduce  the  annual  increment  below  the  limits  of  profit, 
and  we  all  know  the  view  a  practical  forester  will  take  of 
such  a  case.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  man 
of  science  to  point  out  that  even  such  a  tree  is  a  possible 
source  of  danger  to  its  neighbours. 

H.  Marshall  Ward. 

( To  be  cofitinued.) 


MARINE  BIOLOGY  AND   THE  ELECTRIC 
LIGHT. 

'THE  Liverpool  Salvage  Association,  with  their  usual 
-■•  liberality,  placed  their  famous  old  steamer  the 
Hycena  once  more  at  the  service  of  the  Liverpool  Marine 
Biology  Committee  this  Whitsuntide,  for  a  three  days' 
dredging  expedition.  During  the  three  former  biological 
cruises  of  the  Hycena  in  1885,  1886,  and  1887,  the  region 
explored  has  been  the  southern  part  of  the  L.M.B.C.  dis- 


trict, around  the  coasts  of  North  Wales  and  Anglesey 
(see  Fig.). 

On  the  present  occasion  the  Committee  decided  to  run  a 
couple  of  lines  of  soundings  and  dredgings  between  the 
Mersey  and  the  Isle  of  Man,  and  to  spend  some  time 
dredging  round  the  southern  end  of  that  island ;  the 
general  objects  being  (1)  to  get  some  knowledge  of  the 
depths,  bottom,  and  animals,  across  the  eastern  half  of 
the  Irish  Sea,  and  (2)  to  investigate  the  rich  fauna  living 
around  the  ''  Calf"  and  south  end  of  the  Isle  of  Man. 

About  7  a.m.  on  Saturday  morning,  May  19,  the 
Hycena  left  the  Liverpool  landing-stage,  with  a  party  of 
nearly  twenty  biologists  on  board,  and  provided  with 
dredges,  trawls,  tow- nets,  sounding-line,  deep-sea  reversing 
thermometer,  microscopes,  and  the  other  necessary  instru- 
ments, dishes,  bottles,  and  reagents.  After  the  well-known 
sand-banks  round  the  mouth  of  the  Mersey  had  been 
passed,  soundings  and  bottom  temperatures  were  taken 
occasionally,  and  several  times  during  the  day  a  stop  was 
made  for  trawling,  dredging,  and  tow- netting.  A  fair 
amount  of  material,  including  some  interesting  larval 
forms,  was  obtained,  and  for  the  most  part  preserved  for 
further  examination.     No  greater  depth  than  23  fathoms 


Map  of  the  L.M.B.C.  District,  showing  the  curse  of  the   Hycena  in   18 
1886,  1887,  and  1888.     H,  Hilbre  Island  ;  v,  Puffin  Island  ;  f,  Ramsey  : 
d,  Douglas  ;  e,  Port  Erin  ;  c,  the  Calf. 

was,  however,  met  with  ;  and  there  was  nothing  specially 
noteworthy  amongst  the  animals  dredged,  so  far  as  could 
be  seen  at  the  time. 

It  had  been  intended  to  anchor  for  the  night  in  Douglas 
Bay,  but  during  the  dredging  and  trawling  the  vessel  had 
drifted  so  far  out  of  her  course  that  when  evening  came 
it  was  found  advisable  to  run  for  Ramsey.  Here  half  the 
party  went  on  shore  for  the  night,  the  rest  staying  on 
board  for  the  electric  light  experiments  which  will  be 
described  further  on. 

On  the  following  morning  an  early  start  for  the  south 
was  made,  and  the  rest  of  the  party  was  picked  up  at 
Douglas,  and  then  the  work  of  the  day  commenced. 
The  Hycena  steamed  slowly  round  the  east  and  south 
coasts  of  the  island  to  Port  Erin,  dredging  and  tow-netting 
at  intervals,  with  very  good  results.  When  a  stop  was 
made  for  collecting,  the  fullest  advantage  was  taken  of  it. 
The  sounding- line  and  deep-sea  thermometer  were  over 
amidships,  and  two  dredges,  a  large  bottom  tow-net  and 
one  or  more  surface  tow-nets,  were  put  out  astern.  The 
deep  tow-net,  devised  and  worked  by  Mr.  W.  S.  McMillan, 
was  so  weighted  and  buoyed  as  to  work   steadily  at  a 


June  7,  1888] 


NA  7  URE 


W 


distance  of  a  foot  or  so  above  the  sea-bottom,  and  it 
yielded  a  large  amount  of  material,  which  was  in  some 
cases  conspicuously  different  from  the  contents  of  the 
surface  nets,  worked  by  Mr.  I.  C.  Thompson  during  the 
same  time. 

A  large  area  of  the  sea  bottom  between  Port  Soderic 
and  Port  St.  Mary  is  apparently  covered  by  masses  of 
Melobesia  calcarea  and  the  dead  valves  of  Pectunculus 
glycimeris,  and  incrusting  Polyzoa  are  especially  abundant 
upon  both  the  Nullipore  and  the  shells.  Mr.  J.  Lomas, 
who  has  charge  of  the  Polyzoa,  informs  me  that  amongst 
a  number  of  other  rare  forms  he  has  identified  Stomatopora 
johnstoni  and  S.  tncrassata,  Tubuliftora  lobulata,  Licheno- 
pora  hispida,  Cellepora  dichotoma,  Membranipora  aurita, 
and  a  peculiar  variety  of  Cellaria  fistulosa. 

Towards  evening  three  very  successful  hauls  of  the 
dredge  were  made,  which  covered  practically  all  the 
ground  in  a  line  from  the  southern  end  of  the  "  Calf"  to 
the  northern  side  of  Port  Erin  Bay,  just  under  Bradda 
Head.  Amongst  the  material  obtained  in  these  hauls 
the  following  species  were  noticed :  Asterias  glacialis, 
Solaster  endeca,  Stichaster  roseus,  Poram'a  pulvillus, 
Luidiafragilissima,  Antedon  rosaceus,  Ebalia  sp.,Xan//io 
sp. ,  Plenrobranchus  membranaceus,  Ascidia  venosa,  Ascidia 
plebeia,  Corella  parallelogramma.  Polycarpa  sp.,  Lepto- 
climtm  sp.,  and  other  Compound  Ascidians. 

In  Port  Erin  Bay  after  dark  the  electric  light  was  again 
used  successfully  in  the  bottom  and  surface  tow-nets. 

On  the  third  day  an  early  start  was  again  made,  with 
the  object  of  leaving  time  to  run  down  into  the  deep  water 
lying  to  the  south  of  the  Isle  of  Man.  Unfortunately, 
however,  a  thick  fog  was  encountered,  which  hampered 
our  movements  during  the  morning  and  changed  all  the 
plans  for  the  day.  After  passing  the  "  Chicken  "  Rock,  the 
Hycena  steamed  slowly  for  Liverpool,  and  reached  the 
Mersey  about  1  a.m.  on  Tuesday.  A  fiw  hauls  of  the 
trawl  and  dredge  were  taken  on  the  way  home,  with  no 
great  results,  and  the  tow-nets,  both  bottom  and  surface, 
were  worked  whenever  practicable. 

The  important  feature  of  this  cruise,  however,  was  the 
use  which  was  made  of  the  electric  light  for  collecting 
after  dark.  On  the  first  night,  in  Ramsey  Bay,  after  the 
shore  party  had  left  and  the  ship  was  anchored  for  the 
night,  an  electric  light  of  1000  candle-power  was 
hoisted  a  few  feet  above  deck,  and  this  allowed  work 
to  be  carried  on  almost  as  comfortably  as  during  the  day. 
Captain  Young,  of  the  Liverpool  Salvage  Association, 
who  was  in  command  of  the  Hycena,  then  kindly  arranged 
for  me  a  60  candle  power  Edison-Swan  submarine  in- 
candescent lamp  in  the  mouth  of  a  tow-net.  This  illum- 
inated net  was  carefully  let  down  to  a  depth  of  3  fathoms, 
and  allowed  to  remain  thee  for  half  an  hour.  At  the 
same  time,  another  tow-net  without  any  light  was  let  down 
to  the  same  depth  over  the  opposite  side  of  the  ship. 
When  the  nets  were  being  hauled  in,  as  the  one  with 
the  electric  light  approached  the  surface  numerous  small 
animals  (Crustacea  probably)  were  noticed  accompanying 
it,  and  darting  about  in  the  bright  light.  This  tow  net, 
when  emptied  into  a  glass  jar  of  sea-water,  was  found  to 
contain  an  abundant  gathering,  consisting  mainly  of 
Crustaceans  ;  while  the  net  in  the  dark  on  the  other  side 
of  the  ship  had  practically  nothing. 

The  two  nets  were  then  put  out  again.  The  one  had 
the  electric  light  in  its  former  position,  but  this  time  it 
was  let  down  to  the  bottom  at  a  depth  of  6  fathoms  ; 
while  the  other  net  was  placed  in  the  dark  at  the  ship's 
stern,  and  also  reached  the  bottom.  The  tow-nets  re- 
mained stationary,  but  were  kept  distended  by  the  tide. 
The  outline  of  the  illuminated  net  could  be  made  out 
indistinctly  at  a  depth  of  6  fathoms.  After  being  out  for 
three-quarters  of  an  hour,  both  nets  were  hauled  in,  with 
the  same  result  as  before.  The  illuminated  net  contained 
abundance  of  Crustacea  (chiefly  Amphipoda,  Schizopoda, 
and   Cumacea),   while    the    dark   net    again    cont  lined 


practically  nothing.  These  two  experiments  showed 
pretty  conclusively  the  effect  of  the  brilliant  light  in 
attracting  the  free-swimming  animals,  the  difference 
between  the  contents  of  the  two  nets  being  on  both 
occasions  most  marked.  Consequently,  on  the  second 
night,  in  Port  Erin  Bay,  both  nets  were  illuminated,  and 
while  the  one  was  let  down  close  to  the  bottom,  at  a 
depth  of  5  fathoms,  the  other  was  kept  at  the  surface  of 
the  sea  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  ship.  This  experiment 
was  tried  three  times,  with  the  same  result  eich  time  : 
both  the  nets  were  found  to  contain  abundance  of 
animals,  but  the  bottom  and  surface  gatherings  differed 
greatly  in  appearance  and  in  constitution.  The  net 
from  the  bottom  contained  mainly  large  Amphipoda, 
and  some  Cumacea,  while  the  gathering  from  the  sur- 
face was  characterized  by  the  abundance  of  Copepoda. 
As  Mr.  A.  O.  Walker,  who  is  reporting  upon  our  higher 
Crustacea,  pointed  out  to  me,  the  Amphipods  from  the 
d  iep  net  appeared  to  be  chiefly  red-eyed  species,  such 
as  Ampelisca  Icevigata  and  Bathyporeia  pilosa.  If  this, 
on  a  detailed  examination  of  the  material,  turns  out 
to  be  the  case,  it  may  indicate  an  interesting  relation 
between  the  colour  of  the  eyes  and  sensitiveness  to  the 
electric  light. 

Mr.  Thompson  has  already  identified  the  following 
species  of  Copepoda  from  the  illuminated  surface  net : 
Calanusfinmarchicus,  Pseudocalanus  e'ongatus,  Dias  longi- 
retnis,  Idya  furcata,  Cenlropages  hamatus,  Anomalo- 
cera  paterso?iii,  Isias  clavipes,  Oithona  spinifrons, 
Harpacticus  chelifer,  and  Harpacticus  fulvus.  The 
specimens  of  the  last  two  species  are  remarkable  for 
their  unusually  large  size  and  their  abundance. 

The  various  groups  of  animals  collected  will  as  usual 
be  worked  up  in  detail  by  specialists,  and  the  results  will 
appear  in  future  L  M.B.C.  Reports;  but  the  application 
of  the  electric  light  to  marine  biology,  as  a  bait  or 
attraction  in  the  tow-net  worked  after  dark,  seems  of 
sufficient  importance  to  warrant  the  publication  of  this 
preliminary  account  of  the  results  of  the  Hycena  cruise 
of  Whitsuntide  1888.  The  obvious  extension  of  this 
illumination  method  to  deep-water  tow-netting  and 
trawling  during  the  day-time  I  hope,  thanks  to  the 
kindness  of  the  Salvage  Association,  to  be  able  to 
experiment  upon  in  a  future  expedition. 

W.  A.  He  RDM  AN. 


A  REMARKABLE  CASE  OF  FASCIATION  IN 
FOURCROYA  CUBENIS,  HAW 

THERE  was  lately  exhibited  in  this  city  a  plant  of 
Fotircroya  cubensis,  Haw.,  in  which  the  well-known, 
tree-like  inflorescence  had  been  deformed  into  what  I 
believe  to  be  the  largest  fasciati  >n  on  record.  The  plant 
came  from  Carapa,  a  s  nail  village  distant  about  4  miles 
towards  the  west  from  Caracas.  Its  aspect  is  given  in 
the  accompanying  figure,  engraved  after  a  photograph. 

The  stem  of  the  plant,  covered  by  the  leaves,  is  about 
1  metre  in  height.  From  between  the  upper  leaves 
there  branch  out  two  flattened  and  curiously  twisted 
bodies.  The  one  to  the  left  was  soon  checked  in  its 
growth,  so  that  it  forms  but  little  more  than  a  semi- 
circle ;  whilst  the  other,  after  having  described  a  curve 
somewhat  like  a  very  large  capital  S,  rises  to  a  height  of 
about  4  metres  from  the  soil.  Both  together  have  in 
the  front  view  the  appearance  of  a  small  boat  with  hoisted " 
sail  filled  by  the  wind.  The  under  and  lower  parts  of  this 
deformed  flower- stem  are  covered  by  numerous  bracts, 
and  measure  80  centimetres  in  their  greatest  breadth. 
Towards  the  top  it  divides  into  shred-like  branches 
bearing  flower-buds  ;  those  of  the  latter  I  examined  being 
in  every  respect  of  normal  structure. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that,  in  this  case,  the  malfor- 
mation is  due  to  some  injury  done  to  the  young  flower- 


132 


NATURE 


{June  7,  1888 


stem,  when  it  was  scarcely  1  foot  high,  vestiges  being 
still  visible  that  it  was  bent  towards  the  right  and  kept  in 
this  forced  position  by  some  of  the  leaves.  The  upward 
growth  being  thus  checked,  numerous  adventitious  buds 
made  their  appearance  on  the  injured  organ,  coalesced 
from  the  very  outset,  and  formed  by  their  subsequent 
growth  the  fasciated  stem,  the  twisting  resulting  from  the 
unequal  rate  of  development  of  its  component  parts 
(Masters,  "Veget.  Teratology,"  18). 


Fasciation  is  likely  to  be  not  at  all  uncommon  in 
Fourcroya  and  other  allied  plants,  though  I  know  of  but 
three  cases  in  the  former,  and  never  heard  of  any  in 
Agave.  In  1854  a  very  curious  case  of  this  kind  was  for 
several  months  the  cause  of  considerable  excitement 
among  the  good  people  of  Caracas  ;  it  is  described  in  the 
newspapers  of  the  time  as  having  been  likewise  twisted  in 
the  shape  of  a  gigantic  S.  Another  instance  came  under 
my  notice  in  1876,  and  was  described  in  the  Journal  of 
Botany  of  that  year,  p.  1 80. 

Caracas,  April  19.  A.  Ernst. 


NOTES. 

The  following  were  elc  cted  Foreign  Members  of  the  Royal 
Society,  on  Thursday,  May  31  :  Prof.  Edmond  Becquerel,  of 
Paris,  distinguished  for  his  researches  on  the  effects  of  light  on 
bodies,  especially  with  reference  to  phosphorescence ;  Prof. 
Hermann  Kopp,  of  Heidelberg,  for  his  researches  on  atomic 
volumes  and  boiling-points  ;  Prof.  Eduard  F.  W.  Pfliiger,  of 
Bonn,  for  his  researches  in  physiology,  especially  in  relation  to 
irritability  of  nerves,  respiration,  and  animal  heat ;  and  Prof. 
Julius  Sachs,  of  Wiirzburg,  for  his  researches  in  botany, 
especially  vegetable  physiology. 


The  Board  of  Visitors  made  their  annual  inspection  of  the 
Royal  Observatory  at  Greenwich  on  Saturday  last. 

The  Vienna  Correspondent  of  the  Times  announces  that,  in 
pursuance  of  a  resolution  passed  at  a  recent  meeting,  the  Vienna 
geologists  will  invite  the  International  Geologists'  Congress, 
which  will  assemble  in  London  in  September,  to  hold  its  next 
meeting  in  Vienna. 

At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  Victoria  Royal  Society,  the 
President  (Prof.  Kerrot)  announced  that  the  first  meeting  of  the 
Australian  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  would 
be  held  at  Sydney,  beginning  September  4,  the  second  at  Mel- 
bourne, the  third  at  Adelaide.  The  proposal  that  Victoria  should 
join  in  the  movement  was  favourably  received,  but  at  that 
meeting  no  action  was  taken  in  the  matter. 

It  will  be  seen  from  our  list  of  the  additions  to  the  Zoological 
Society's  Gardens  during  the  past  week  that  a  living  specimen 
of  Pallas's  sand  grouse  (Syrrhaptcs  paradoxus),  the  new  visitor 
from  Central  Asia,  has  been  presented  by  Mr.  H.  Hewart  Crane, 
of  Berwick -on-T weed.  It  was  captured  at  that  place  on  May  25. 
The  Tartar  sand  grouse  seems  to  have  appeared  in  Denmark 
and  Scandinavia  before  making  its  appearance  here.  In  the 
Island  of  Bornholm,  in  the  Baltic,  large  flocks,  numbering  many 
hundreds,  were  seen  early  in  May,  some  being  shot,  others 
captured  alive.  A  few  days  later,  birds  were  seen  in  various 
parts  of  Denmark  and  Sweden.  In  Norway  a  flock  of  birds 
was  seen  at  Lister,,  on  the  extreme  west  coast,  on  May  12,  and 
two  were  shot,  a  male  and  female.  Their  crops  were  full  of 
tiny  black  seeds  unknown  to  that  country,  whilst  the  eggs  in  the 
hen  were  far  developed.  During  the  immigration  in  1863  these 
birds  were  seen  as  far  north  as  Nordfjord.  In  that  year,  too, 
many  nested  on  the  west  coast  of  Jutland,  where  the  soil  is 
sandy,  but  they  were  all  gathered  by  the  fishermen. 

Prof.  A.  Graham  Bell,  who  is  now  on  his  way  to  England, 
will  shortly  appear  before  the  Royal  Commission  engaged  in 
making  inquiry  as  to  the  best  methods  of  caring  for  and  educat- 
ing deaf-mutes.  In  announcing  this  fact,  Science  reminds  its 
readers  that  several  years  ago  Prof.  Bell  presented  a  paper,  at  a 
meeting  of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  on  the  formation, 
through  the  intermarriage  of  deaf-mutes,  of  a  deaf  variety  of  the 
human  race,  and  gave  some  important  statistics  to  show  that  a 
much  larger  percentage  of  the  children  of  deaf  parents  are  deaf 
than  of  those  whose  parents  possess  the  sense  of  hearing.  This 
paper  attracted  wide  attention,  and  gave  rise  to  very  interesting 
discussions  both  in  America  and  elsewhere.  The  Royal  Com- 
mission has  requested  Prof.  Bell  to  lay  before  it  the  results  of  his 
subsequent  investigations  and  studies  upon  this  branch  of  the 
subject,  and  he  has  devoted  much  time  to  the  preparation  of 
facts  and  figures  in  regard  to  it.  He  will  also  give  the  Commis- 
sion the  result  of  his  studies  of  other  divisions  of  the  subject. 

According  to  Allen's  Indian  Mail,  Mr.  Barrington  Browne, 
the  geologist  sent  by  the  Secretary  of  State  to  examine  the 
Burma  Ruby  Mines,  has  left  Simla  for  England.  He  has,  it  is 
understood,  handed  in  to  the  Government  of  India  his  report  on 
the  mineral  wealth  of  Upper  Burma. 

The  hydrographic  survey  of  Canadian  waters,  which  has 
already  taken  about  five  years,  is  now  nearly  half  done.  Com- 
mander Boulton  is  hard  at  work  in  Georgian  Bay,  one  of  the 
most  dangerous  of  inland  waters  in  Canada,  and  it  is  said  that 
the  survey  will  be  extended  to  Lake  Superior. 

From  September  15  to  October  25  there  will  be  in  Vienna  an 
International  Exhibition  of  Amateurs'  Photographs  and  Photo- 
graphic Apparatus.  The  Exhibition  is  being  organized  by  the 
Vienna  Club  of  Amateur  Photographers,  and  will  be  held  in 
honour  of  what  is  called  "the  Jubilee  "  of  the  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph.  It  will  include  every  branch  of  art  and  manufacture 
connected  with  photography.     The  Club's  Daguerre  Medal  and 


June  7,  1888] 


NATURE 


*33 


certificates  of  honourable  mention  will  be  awarded  to  the  best 
exhibit  or  exhibits  in  each  class  of  photography,  photographic 
apparatus,  lenses,  &c,  provided  the  jury  deem  any  exhibit  or 
exhibits  of  sufficient  merit.  From  the  decision  of  the  jury  there 
will  te  no  appeal.  The  Club,  as  far  as  its  funds  permit,  will 
purchase  the  most  interesting  exhibits.  Amateurs  have  not  to 
pay  hire  for  the  space  allotted  to  them.  On  application  they  can 
obtain  the  use  of  frames  free  of  charge.  A  catalogue  will  be 
published,  possibly  with  illustrations  of  the  most  interesting 
objects.  According  to  the  statutes  of  the  I.  and  R.  Austrian 
Museum  for  Arts  and  Manufactures,  admission  will  be  free  five 
days  a  week. 

The  current  number  of  the  Board  of  Trade  Journal  contains 
an  abstract  of  the  third  volume  of  the  Reports  of  the  Royal 
Commission  appointed  by  the  King  of  the  Belgians  in  April 
1886  to  inquire  into  the  condition  of  labour  in  Belgium.  The 
volume  contains  the  propositions  of  the  various  sections  of  the 
Commission  with  respect  to  the  different  questions  relating  to  the 
condition  of  the  working  classes,  and  also  the  final  conclusions 
of  the  whole  Commission.  The  third  section  of  the  Commission 
dealt  with  technical  education,  and  the  conclusions  adopted  by 
the  whole  Commission  are  as  follow  : — (1)  They  recommend  that 
in  the  technical  schools  practical  lectures  be  given  on  the  applica- 
tion of  art  and  science  to  industry.  (2)  Manual  dexterity  should 
be  cultivated  in  the  elementary  schools.  At  the  indus'rial  schools 
the  theoretical  application  of  science  to  industry  should  be  taught. 
(3)  The  Government  should  limit  its  action  to  providing  grants 
for  these  schools,  and  fixing  the  position  each  school  is  to  occupy 
in  a  proper  gradation  of  educational  institutions.  (4)  The  local 
bodies  should  introduce  manual  exercises  into  the  primary  schools, 
and  found  more  technical  schools  and  schools  of  design  and 
modelling.  (5)  The  aid  of  the  Government  and  the  communes 
should  be  given  conditionally  on  a  minimum  age  being  fixed  for 
apprentices,  and  on  a  test  examination  at  entrance  being  made 
necessary.  (6)  The  Government  should  aid  in  increasing  the 
facilities  by  which  workmen  would  get  technical  instruction  in 
Subjects  suited  to  their  occupation. 

M.  Coumbary,  Director  of  the  Imperial  Meteorological 
Observatory  at  Constantinople,  has  published  a  pamphlet  upon 
the  climatology  of  that  place,  deduced  from  twenty  years' 
observations  (1868-87).  Hitherto,  what  has  been  known  about 
its  climate  is  mostly  ow  ing  to  observations  and  summaries  con- 
tained in  the  periodicals  of  the  French  Meteorological  Society, 
commencing  with  the  year  1847,  and  to  the  telegraphic  reports 
in  the  French  Bulletin  International.  M.  Coumbary  issued  a 
monthly  Bulletin  in  1869,  containing  observations  made  at 
several  places  in  the  Ottoman  Empire,  but  this  was  discontinued 
in  1874.  The  present  discussion  shows  that  the  mean  tempera- 
ture is  57°"7.  The  absolute  maximum  was  99°-i  in  August 
1880,  and  the  minimum  l7°-2  in  January  1869,  giving  a  range 
of  82°.  The  French  observations  show  greater  extremes,  but 
this  is  probably  owing  to  imperfect  protection  from  radiation  in 
earlier  years.  The  greatest  daily  ranges  were  37°  *8  in  December, 
and  360  in  March  ;  in  other  months  the  range  has  not  exceeded 
27°.  The  extremes  are  of  course  modified  by  the  influence  of 
the  Black  Sea ;  it  is  not  unusual  for  the  thermometer  at  Odessa, 
for  instance,  to  indicate  240  or  so  below  the  temperature  at 
Constantinople.  The  mean  annual  rainfall  is  28  inches,  and 
the  days  of  rain  average  84.  Snow  falls  on  14  days,  on  an 
average.  About  three  years  ago  the  Sultan  showed  his  interest 
in  the  subject  by  the  establishment  of  a  second  observatory  in 
his  palace  at  Yildiz.  Both  institutions  are  furnished  with  the 
best  instruments. 

We  have  received  the  twelfth  Annual  Report  on  the  Meteoro- 
logy of  India,  containing  the  observations  taken  in  1886.  It 
deals  with  nearly  the  same  area  as  last  year,  and  is  published  in 


the  form  previously  adopted.  For  fullness  and  thoroughness  in 
the  discussion  of  results,  it  remains  unexcelled,  and  it  includes, 
as  before,  monthly  charts  showing  very  clearly  the  mean  pressure 
and  temperature,  and  the  resultant  winds  over  the  vast  region 
embraced  in  the  Report.  Among  the  more  important  additions 
are  an  observatory  at  Mandalay,  where  the  transitions  of  the  seasons 
are  said  to  be  sudden,  and  earthquakes  not  infrequent,  and  a 
station  on  the  Great  Coco  Island,  in  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  an  island 
which  is  said  to  be  destitute  of  drinking-water.  The  results  show 
that  in  every  month  of  the  year  1886  the  mean  "  equilibrium  " 
temperature  of  insolation  throughout  India  was  below  the  average 
of  the  last  ten  or  eleven  years  by  amounts  varying  from  o0-8  to 
i°'8.  The  annual  variations  for  the  past  seven  years  show  a  fairly 
well-marked  periodicity,  and  suggest  a  slight  variation  in  the  sun's 
radiating  power.  The  rainfall  is  represented  by  500  stations  (14 
more  than  in  the  previous  Report),  and  was  characterized  by 
several  striking  features.  On  the  mean  of  the  whole  area  there  was 
an  excess  of  277  inches  as  compared  with  the  averages  for  previous 
years. 

Three  important  new  chlorine  compounds  of  titanium  have 
been  obtained  by  Drs.  Koenig  and  von  der  Pfordten,  of  Munich. 
They  may  be  considered  as  chlorine  derivatives  of  titanic  acid, 
Ti(OII)4,  and  form  the  only  complete  series  of  such  compounds 
with  which  we  are  as  yet  acquainted  in  the  whole  range  of 
inorganic  chemistry.  They  are  formed  by  the  replacement  of 
the  hydroxyl  groups  by  chlorine,  and  have  therefore  the  follow- 
ing constitutions:  TiCl(OH)3,  TiCl2(OH)2,  and  TiCl3OH. 
The  well-known  tetrachloride  of  titanium,  TiCU,  thus  completes 
the  series,  and  in  reality  formed  the  starting-point  from  which 
the  three  intermediate  compounds  were  successively  prepared. 
Trichloride  of  titanic  acid,  TiCl3OII,  was  obtained  by  the 
careful  addition  of  concentrated  hydrochloric  acid  to  the  tetra- 
chloride in  such  proportion  that  the  amount  of  water  present  in 
the  strong  acid  was  that  required  by  the  following  equation  : 
TiCl4  +  H20  =  TiCl3OH  +  HC1.  The  reaction  is  very  violent, 
and  a  solid  mass  of  the  trichloride  was  almost  instantly  formed 
and  considerably  distended  by  the  escaping  hydrochloric  acid 
gas.  The  substance  was  at  once  transferred  to  the  vacuum  of 
an  air-pump,  and  after  a  few  days  was  found  to  be  entirely  freed 
from  last  traces  of  the  gas.  The  solid  trichloride  thus  formed 
is  extremely  deliquescent,  and  readily  dissolves  with  considerable 
hissing  in  water  and  alcohol,  the  aqueous  solution  being  remark- 
ably stable.  The  dichloride,  TiCl2(OH)2,  was  prepared  by 
addition  of  a  slight  excess  of  strong  hydrochloric  acid  to  the 
tetrachloride,  and  also  by  placing  the  latter  compound  in  a  small 
quantity  of  ice-cold  water.  In  the  latter  case,  the  drops  of 
T1CI4  are  at  first  decomposed  with  loud  hissing,  which,  as  the 
drops  continue  to  fall,  gradually  diminishes  until  a  point  is 
reached  when  a  drop  floats  on  the  surface  and  remains  un- 
attacked.  This  last  drop  is  then  removed,  and  the  clear 
solution  evaporated  in  vacuo,  when  the  dichloride  is  left  as  a 
compact  deliquescent  solid.  The  monochloride,  TiCl(OH)3,  is 
the  product  of  the  action  of  moist  air  upon  the  tri-  and 
di-chlorides,  hydrochloric  acid  gas  being  at  the  same  time 
evolved,  in  accordance  with  the  following  equations  : 
TiCl3OH  +  2H20  =  TiCl(OH),  +  2IICI, 
TiCl2(OH)2  +  H20  =  TiCl(OH)3  +  HC1. 
The  monochloride  thus  formed  remains  stable  in  air  ;  on  evapora- 
tion over  oil  of  vitriol  it  is  obtained  as  a  white  solid,  crystallizing 
apparently  in  the  hexagonal  system,  and  very  difficultly  soluble 
in  water.  In  conclusion,  the  Munich  chemists  show  very  con- 
clusively that  these  new  substances  are  true  compounds  and  no 
mere  mixtures ;  and,  it  may  be  added,  the  analyses,  which  must 
of  necessity  have  been  extremely  difficult,  are  quite  satisfactory. 

The  British  Consul  at  Mogador,  in  Morocco,  in  his  last  report 
notes,  in  connection  with  the  fisheries  of  the  year,   a  curious 


134 


NATURE 


{June  7,  1888 


phenomenon.  A  fish  locally  called  the  "tasargelt"  (Temnodon 
saltator)  has  appeared  in  vast  shoals,  having  left  the  waters 
unvisited,  save  a  few  stray  specimens,  since  1859.  It  weighs 
from  six  to  eight  pounds,  and  has  flesh  of  rich  flavour,  of  which 
the  natives  never  seem  to  tire.  It  first  appeared  in  large 
numbers  early  in  September,  and  from  that  time  till  December 
the  fishermen  were  busily  occupied  taking  them.  The  mode  of 
capture  is  rather  primitive.  A  piece  of  white  rag  or  a  strip  of 
the  skin  of  the  tasargelt  itself  is  fastened  to  a  large  and  often 
barbless  hook,  which  in  turn  is  tied  by  strong  brass  wire  to  the 
end  of  a  short  bamboo  rod.  When  the  bait  is  drawn  rapidly 
through  the  water,  the  fish  rises  quickly  to  it.  The  tasargelt 
was  accompanied  by  shoals  of  the  "azlimzah"  or  "maigre,"  a 
fish  which  frequently  weighs  as  much  as  sixty  or  seventy  pounds. 
The  presence  of  these  voracious  fish  ruined  the  ordinary  hook- 
and-line  industry.  Though  shoals  of  bonito  appeared,  only  one 
small  specimen  was  taken,  for  they  refused  to  take  any  bait. 
The  sardine  fishery  was  also  a  failure. 

The  British  Consul  at  Varna^  in  the  course  of  his  Report  on 
the  trade  of  his  district  for  the  past  year,  refers  to  the  vineyards, 
and  says  that,  though  the  Phylloxera  has  not  made  its  appear- 
ance in  these  regions,  there  is  a  kind  of  insect  pest  which  he 
believes  to  be  peculiar  to  the  Varna  vineyards.  Its  ravages 
have  been  confined  to  certain  areas,  and  the  vine  it  attacks  is 
disabled  only  for  the  year  of  the  attack,  and  only  to  the  extent 
of  the  particular  shoots  which  it  may  lop  off.  The  local  name 
of  the  insect  is  Kara  terzi,  or  "  the  black  tailor,"  an  appellation 
which  is  supposed  to  indicate  its  appearance  and  habits.  In  the 
absence  of  local  entomologists,  Mr.  Brophy  describes  this  new 
pest  as  an  adipose  black  beetle,  somewhat  resembling  the 
ordinary  dung-beetle,  measuring,  when  adult,  about  three- 
fourths  of  an  inch  in  body-length;  and  furnished  with  a  short 
pair  of  shears  ;  with  these,  in  the  mornings  of  April  and  May, 
it  cuts  through  and  off  the  young  vine-shoots,  which  it  leaves  on 
the  ground  until  they  are  parched  by  the  sun,  when  it  drags 
them  into  the  recesses  of  its  deep  and  tunnelled  hole,  generally 
situated  at  the  foot  of  the  plant  attacked.  The  vineyards  chiefly 
affected  are  situated  on  ground  near  the  sea-shore,  whence  the 
insect  makes  its  way  inland  ;  "and  as  the  Kara  terzi  does  not 
appear  to  have  obtruded  itself  upon  the  notice  of  the  vine- 
growers  by  its  obnoxious  habits  until  comparatively  recently,  it 
may  perhaps  be  fair  to  suppose  that  the  temptation  of  green  and 
succulent  vine-shoots  may,  in  the  course  of  generations,  have 
perverted  the  present  race  into  abandoning  the  more  innocent 
diet  which  satisfied  their  ancestors,  and  which,  when  the  vine- 
shoots  have  passed  the  tender  stage,  has  still  to  suffice  those  of 
the  present  day."  Mr.  Brophy  says  that  if  the  circumstances 
of  insect-life  here  related  prove  in  any  way  new  or  interesting, 
it  would  not  be  difficult  to  procure,  in  summer,  specimens  of 
this  beetle  for  inspection  by  qualified  entomologists. 

At  two  successive  meetings  of  the  Oriental  Society  of  Pekin, 
Prof.  Russell,  of  the  Tung-Wen- K wan,  or  Foreign  Language 
College,  read  two  papers  on  subjects  connected  with  Chinese 
astronomy.  In  the  fir;t  he  described  the  instruments  in  the  Pekin 
Observatory,  which  were  "constructed  by  the  order  "of  the  great 
Emperor  Kanghi  about  1670.  In  the  course  of  the  discussion 
which  followed,  it  was  stated  that  this  prince  was  very  fond  of 
mathematics  and  astronomy,  and  that  the  present  Emperor  was 
credited  with  similar  inclinations.  Kanghi  was  sixteen  when  he 
ordered  the  instruments  to  be  constructed.  The  clepsydra  used 
in  the  Observatory,  it  was  stated,  consisted  of  five  cisterns,  and 
was  used  for  observing  the  time  of  eclipses,  being  put  in  order 
for  this  purpose  three  days  before  each  eclipse.  One  of  the 
instruments  is  usually  said  to  be  of  European  design  and  to 
have  been  presented  by  Louis  XIV.  The  inscription  or  emblem 
on  it  has  been  carefully  removed,  and  its  place  supplied  by  a 


piece  of  bronze  matching  the  metal  of  the  instrument.  In  some 
Chinese  books  it  is  said  that  this  instrument  was  manfactured  by 
a  foreign  priest.  Verbiest,  a  Jesuit  of  the  time  of  Kanghi, 
pointed  out  a  mistake  in  the  Chinese  calendar  ;  the  matter  was 
referred  by  the  Emperor  to  the  Board  of  Astronomy,  and 
Verbiest's  accuracy  was  acknowledged.  From  that  time  a 
Jesuit  missionary  occupied  the  post  of  Vice-President  of  the 
B:>ard  down  to  1828. 

The  second  paper,  also  by  Prof.  Russell,  was  on  early 
Chinese  eclipse  calculations,  and  entailed  vast  labour  in  re- 
calculating. It  appears  from  the  investigations  of  the  learned 
Professor  that  the  earliest  calculations  of  a  solar  eclipse  and  also 
of  a  lunar  eclipse  which  have  been  preserved  were  made  by 
the  Chinese.  The  discussion  turned  largely  on  the  historical 
value  of  the  Chinese  classics  with  regard  to  these  astronomical 
observations,  and  the  attention  with  which  the  Chinese  from  the 
earliest  times  have  studied  astronomy.  Passages  found  in  one 
or  other  of  the  few  works  which  survived  the  destruction  of  the 
books  before  the  Christian  era  bear  witness  to  the  devotion  with 
which  the  stars  were  studied  in  China  at  that  remote  epoch. 
The  full  text  of  these  two  interesting  papers  will  be  awaited 
with  interest. 

At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  Scientific  Society  of  Upsala,  Dr. 
C.  Aurivillius  read  a  paper  on  the  skeleton  of  the  so-called 
Swedenborg  whale  {Etibalena  svedenborgii,  Lillj.),  discovered 
last  November  in  the  province  of  Halland,  in  a  layer  of  marl 
50  feet  above  the  sea.  Remains  of  this  species  of  whale 
have  only  been  found  once  before,  viz.  early  last  century, 
when  some  parts  of  one  were  discovered  in  the  province  of 
Western  Gothland,  330  feet  abrve  the  sea,  and  70  miles  in- 
land. It  was  at  first  believed  that  they  were  the  bones  of 
some  giant,  but  it  is  said  that  Swedenborg  discovered  their 
true  nature.  The  skeleton  has  been  presented  to  the  Upsala 
Museum. 

In  the  Proceedings  of  the  Moscow  Archaeological  Society, 
there  is  a  most  interesting  communication  by  M.  Anutchin,  on 
the  use  of  sledges,  boats,  and  horses,  or  saddles,  at  the  burials  of 
various  races.  He  shows  that  until  the  seventeenth  century  the 
Slavonians  used  sledges  even  in  summer  for  the  transport  of  the 
corpse  to  the  grave.  The  Samoyedes  and  Ostyaks,  and  many 
Russian  peasants  of  Northern  Russia,  still  follow  this  custo  n. 
The  boat  was  used  by  the  Normans,  the  Old  Germans,  and  gener- 
ally by  races  inhabiting  the  shores  of  lakes.  Many  tribes  of 
North  America  used  to  bury  their  dead  together  with  a  horse, 
or  transported  the  dead  to  the  grave  on  a  horse.  It  is  remark- 
able that  the  same  custom  is  found  among  the  Lithuanians,  who, 
even  in  the  sixteenth  century,  put  their  dead  on  a  saddle.  The 
sledge,  the  boat,  and  the  horse,  or  saddle,  were  obviously 
intended  to  aid  the  dead  in  passing  into  another  world,  and  in 
visiting  kinsfolk  there. 

An  ancient  canoe  has  been  found  in  the  Tunhovd  Fjord,  in 
Valders,  in  South  Central  Norway.  It  has  been  hollowed  out 
by  means  of  red-hot  stones,  and  is  4^  metres  long  and  80  centi- 
metres broad.  It  is  in  fair  condition.  The  find  is  of  interest, 
no  other  primitive  vessel  of  the  kind  has  been  found  inland 
Norway.     The  boat  will  be  sent  to  the  Museum  at  Christiania. 


: 


Science  says  that  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  who  has  long 
resided  abroad,  proposes  to  give  to  the  Smithsonian  Institution 
a  large  collection  of  armour  from  the  Middle  Ages— some  of  it 
connected  with  most  famous  historical  names — including  horse- 
armour,  helmets,  swords,  and  all  the  paraphernalia  of  ancient 
warfare.  These  objects,  numbering  about  five  thousand,  have 
been  brought  together  at  great  expense,  and  the  collection  iso: 
of  the  most  valuable  of  the  kind  in  the  world.     The  condition 


June  7,  1888] 


NATURE 


135 


the  presentation  is  that  the  Smithsonian  Institution  shall  furnish 
a  fire-proof  building  for  the  collection. 

At  the  last  meeting  of  the  Ceylon  Branch  of  the  Royal  Asiatic 
Society,  a  lengthy  paper  was  read  by  Mr.  P.  Ramanathan,  the 
leading  Tamil  of  Colombo,  on  the  ethnology  of  the  Moors  of 
Ceylon.  These  Moor?,  or  Moormen,  are  usually  classified  in 
the  island  as  a  race  by  themselves,  apart  from  the  Tamils, 
Singhalese,  and  other  races  inhabiting  it,  but  Mr.  Ramanathan 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  history,  social  customs,  physical 
features,  and  language  of  the  Moors,  class  them  as  Tamils  who 
were  converted  to  Mohammedanism  in  India  before  their  migra- 
tion to  Ceylon.  He  does  not  think  there  is  any  difference  be- 
tween the  two  classes  of  "  Ceylon  Moors  "  and  "Coast  Moors  "  in 
race  or  in  the  history  of  their  conversion,  the  difference  drawn  by 
he  members  of  these  classes  between  themselves  being  due  to  a 
break  in  the  course  of  immigration  from  India  caused  by  the 
persecution  of  Mohammedans  by  the  Dutch  when  the  latter  had 
possession  of  Ceylon.  He  pointed  out  that  it  was  impossible 
that  the  very  large  number  of  Moors  now  existing  in  India  and 
Ceylon  could  be,  as  is  popularly  supposed,  descendants  of  the 
small  bands  of  Arab  and  Moorish  merchants  and  refugees 
who  visited  India  in  early  times.  He  thought  that  only  ar oat 
5  per  cent,  of  the  existing  Moors  could  owe  their  origin  to 
these  immigrants.  The  paper,  which  was  a  very  long  and 
exhaustive  one,  evidently  could  not  be  fully  appreciated  by  those 
who  merely  heard  it  read  ;  but  in  the  subsequent  discussion  most 
of  the  speakers  appeared  to  think  that  Mr.  Ramanathan's  con- 
clusion was  not  satisfactorily  established.  It  was  argued  that  in 
several  directions — especially  in  regard  to  the  shapes  of  the 
skulls — the  facts  were  insufficient,  and  that  at  best  Mr.  Rama, 
nathan's  evidence  for  his  thesis  was  only  secondary.  The  value 
of  the  paper  as  a  starting-point  for  further  investigation  was 
generally  acknowledged. 

The  Comptes  rendus  of  the  French  Academy  of  Sciences  for 
May  14,  publishes  some  interesting  remarks  on  the  vital  statistics 
of  Germany,  by  M.  Ch.  Grad,  author  of  a  work  on  the  power 
and  resources  of  the  German  people.  The  population  of  the 
empire  increased  from  40,816,000  in  1870  to  46,855,000  in  1885  ; 
that  is,  an  increase  of  over  6,000,000  in  fifteen  years,  or  at 
the  rate  of  1  per  cent,  per  annum.  Compared  with  this  the 
increase  in  France  has  been  extremely  slow,  less  than  5,000,000 
for  the  period  of  fifty  years  between  1831  and  1S81  (32,560,000 
and  37,321,000  respectively),  or  at  the  rate  of  only  03  per  cent, 
per  annum,  with  a  constant  tendency  to  diminish.  During  the 
last  fifteen  years  the  excess  of  births  over  deaths  has  been  seven 
times  greater  in  Germany  than  in  France.  The  contrast  becomes 
greater  when  it  is  added  that,  while  few  Frenchmen  emigrate,  as 
many  as  4,000,000  Germans  have  removed  to  the  United  States 
since  1820.  In  1880,  the  population  of  the  empire  induced 
2,86o,oco  of  Polish  speech,  300,000  of  French,  150,000  of 
Danish,  150,000  of  Lettish,  137,000  of  Wendish,  and  34,000  of 
Checkish  or  Bohemian.  But  on  the  other  hand  there  are  at 
present  in  Europe  over  60,000,000  of  Germanic  speech,  if  the 
8,000,000  Dutch  and  Flemish  speaking  inhabitants  of  the  Low 
Countries  be  included.  Altogether,  the  Teutonic  nationality  has 
doubled  in  Europe  since  1840.  But  the  increase  has  been  almost 
entirely  in  the  urban  population,  which  advanced  from  14,790,000 
in  1871  to  18,720,000  in  1880,  while  that  of  the  rural  districts 
remained  almost  stationary  (26,219,000  and  26,513,000  respec- 
tively). For  the  whole  empire  the  density  of  the  population  is 
about  86  per  square  kilometre  as  compared  with  72  in  France. 

Some  figures  with  reference  to  alcoholism  and  criminality 
were  recently  communicated  to  the  French  Academy  of  Medi- 
cine by  M.  Marambat.  They  referred  to  an  examination  of 
3000  condemned  persons  ;  and  it  appears  that  79  per  cent,  of 
the  vagabonds  and  mendicants  were  drunkards,  50  to  57  per 


cent,  of  assassins  and  incendiaries,  53  per  cent,  of  persons  con- 
victed of  outrages  on  morals,  71  per  cent,  of  thieves,  sharpers, 
&c.  In  acts  of  violence  against  the  person,  88  per  cent,  were 
found  to  be  drunkards  ;  against  property,  77  per  cent.  Among 
youths  under  twenty,  drunkards  were  nearly  as  numerous  as 
among  adults,  the  difference  being  only  10  per  cent.  Of  these 
youths,  64  per  cent,  were  addicted  to  drinking.  An  examina- 
tion of  the. departments  showed  the  largest  number  of  drunkards 
from  the  regions  where  spirits  are  most  largely  consumed. 

A  fifth  edition  of  the  late  Prof.  Balfour  Stewart's  "Ele- 
mentary Treatise  on  Heat "  (Clarendon  Press)  has  just  been 
issued.  Prof.  Tait  undertook  to  read  the  proofs,  but  found  that 
there  was  little  for  him  to  do.  "  Prof.  Balfour  Stewart  had  him- 
self," he  says,  "  given  imprimatur  to  all  but  the  last  six  sheets  ; 
and  for  these  I  was  furnished  with  '  copy '  (excepting  four  pages) 
fully  revised  and  initialed  by  him.  The  book  is  published, 
therefore,  precisely  in  the  form  in  which  its  author  intended  it 
to  appear." 

The  February  and  May  numbers  of  the  Journal  of  the 
Anthropological  Institute  are  of  more  than  usual  interest. 
Among  the  contents  are  the  following  papers :  on  an  ancient 
British  settlement  excavated  near  Rushmore,  Salisbury,  by 
General  Pitt-Rivers  ;  on  the  stature  of  the  older  races  of  Eng- 
land, as  estimated  from  the  long  bones,  by  Dr.  John  Beddoe  ; 
the  Lower  Congo,  a  sociological  study,  by  Mr.  R.  C.  Phillips  ; 
the  origin  and  primitive  seat  of  the  Aryans,  by  Canon  Isaac 
Taylor  ;  the  Maori  and  the  Moa,  by  Mr.  E.  Tregear ;  on  the 
shell  money  of  New  Britain,  by  the  Rev.  Benjamin  Danks  ;  on 
tattooing,  by  Miss  A.  W.  Buckland  ;  on  the  evolution  of  a 
characteristic  pattern  on  the  shafts  of  arrows  from  the  Solomon 
Islands,  by  Mr.  Henry  Balfour  ;  on  the  occurrence  of  stone 
mortars  in  the  ancient  (Pliocene  ?)  river-gravels  of  Butte  County, 
California,  by  Mr.  Sydney  B.  J.  Skertchly  ;  and  the  address 
delivered  by  Mr.  F.  Galton,  as  President,  at  the  anniversary 
meeting  of  the  Institute. 

Messrs.  John  Wiley  and  Sons,  the  American  publishers, 
have  in  preparation  a  translation  of  Rosenbusch's  "  Microscopi- 
cal Physiography  of  Minerals  and  Rocks,"  by  Joseph  P. 
Iddings,  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey. 

Last  week  we  referred  to  the  edition  of  Barlow's  Tables  of 
Reciprocals  issued  by  Taylor  and  Walton  in  1840.  The  work 
has  also  been  issued  by  E.  and  F.  N.  Spon.  With  reference  to 
our  note  on  this  subject,  Mr.  V.  B.  Spragueand  Mr.  George  King 
call  attention  to  the  "Table  of  the  Reciprocals  of  Numbers 
from  I  to  100,000,  with  their  differences,  by  which  the  recipro- 
cals of  numbers  maybe  obtained  up  to  10,000,000,  by  Lieut.- 
Colonel  W.  H.  Oakes,  A. I. A.  London:  Charles  and  Edwin 
Lay  ton,  150  Fleet  Street,  1865."  This  table  gives  to  seven 
significant  figures  the  reciprocals  of  all  numbers  from  10,000  up 
to  99,999  ;  and  by  means  of  the  proportional  parts  the  recipro- 
cals of  all  numbers  up  to  10,000,000  may  be  obtained.  Mr. 
Sprague  points  out  that  reciprocals  can  also  be  obtained  with 
great  facility  by  the  use  of  Thomas's  arithmometer  ;  and  this,  he 
thinks,  is  the  most  convenient  method  when  the  number  contains 
eight  digits,  and  it  is  desired  that  the  reciprocal  should  contain  the 
same,  or  a  larger  number,  of  significant  figures. 

A  Russian  translation  of  Prof.  Everett's  "  Units  and 
Physical  Constants"  has  just  been  published  at  St.  Petersburg. 
This  is  the  fifth  language  into  which  the  work  has  been  translated, 
the  other  four  being  Dutch,  French,  Polish,  and  German.  The 
German  edition  was  long  delayed  by  the  compiling  of  additional 
experimental  data,  and  only  made  its  appearance  a  month  ago. 

The  New  York  State  Museum  of  Natural  History  has  issued 
a  useful  Bulletin  (No.  3)  on  "Building-Stone  in  the  State  of 
New  York."     The  author  is  Mr.  John  C.  Smock. 


i^6 


NATURE 


{June  7,  1888 


The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Pudu  Deer  (Pudu  humilis  o  )  from  Chili, 

presented   by  Mr.    G.     E.    Pugh    Cook  ;    two  Squirrels 

(Sciurus )  from  Demerara,   presented  by  Mr.  R.  Forrester 

Daly  ;  a  Blue  and  Yellow  Macaw  (Ara  ararauna)  from  South 
America,  presented  by  Mrs.  Alfred  Palmer  ;  a  Pallas's  Sand 
Grouse  (Syrrhaptes  paradoxus)  from  Berwick-on-Tweed,  pre- 
sented by  Mr.  H.  Hewart  Crane;  two  Australian .  Waxbills 
(Estrelda  temporalis)  ;  seven  Spotted-sided  Finches  {Amadina 
lathami)  from  Australia,  presented  by  Mr.  David  S.  Hodge  ;  a 
Nose-crested  Iguana  (Iguana  rhinolopha)  from  St.  Lucia,  West 
Indies,  presented  by  Dr.  T.  Dennehy ;  a  Tent  Tortoise  (Testudo 
tenloria),  a  Fisk's  Tortoi-  e  ( Testudo  fiski)  from  Cradock,  Cape 
Colony,  a  Dwarf  Chameleon  (Chamceleon  pumihis),  a  Purplish 
Gecko  (Phyllodactylus  porphyreus),  a  Hoary  Snake  (Coronella 
cana),  three  Narrow-headed  Toads  (Bufo  angusticeps),  five 
Gray's  Frogs  (Rana  grayi)  from  South  Africa,  presented  by  the 
Rev.  G.  H.  R.  Fisk  ;  two  Tigers  (Felis  tigris)  from  India,  two 
Puff  Adders  ( Vipera  arietans)  from  South  Africa,  deposited;  a 
Long-billed  Butcher  Crow  (Barita  destructor)  from  New  Plolland, 
received  in  exchange  ;  two  North  African  Jackals  (Canis anihus), 
born  in  the  Gardens. 


ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA  FOR  THE 
WEEK  1888  JUNE  10-16. 

/pj*OR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
*  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  June  10 
Sunrises,  3I1.  46m.  ;  souths,  nh.  59m.  15 -5s.  ;  sets,  2oh.  13m.  : 

right    asc.    on    meridian,    5I1.    16  "3m.  ;     decl.    23°  4'    N. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  13I1.  31m. 
Moon    (New    on    June    9,    1711.)    rises,    4h.    35m.  ;     souths, 

I2h.   40m.  ;    sets,    2oh.    49m.  :    right    asc.    on    meridian, 

5h.  57 '3m. ;  decl.  200  45'  N. 


Planet. 


Rises, 
h.    m. 


Mercury..  5 

Venus 3 

Mars 14 

Jupiter...,  18 

Saturn ....  7 
Uranus*.. 
Neptune, 


13  5' 

2  53 


Souths. 

h.    m. 

13  46 
II    22 

19  34 
22  29 

15  7 
19  31 
10  38 


Right  asc.  and  declination 
on  meridian, 
h.      m.  „      , 


June. 
II 


■3 


Sets. 
h.  in. 
22  7 
19   26 

1  & 

2  51 

22  59 

I  II 

18  23 

Indicates  that  the  setting  is  that  of  the  following  morning 
h. 

Mercury  in  conjunction  with  and  2°  29'  north 

of  the  Moon. 
Mercury    at    greatest    elongation   from    the 

Sun  240  east. 
Saturn  in  conjunction  with  and  0°  20'  north 
of  the  Moon. 


7  3'o 

4  39"5 
12  52*2 

15  48-4 

8  24-9 
12  49-5 

3  54'9 


24    o  N. 

21  45  N. 

5  45S. 
19  3S. 
19  55  N. 

4  35S. 
18  41  N. 


21 


Variable  Stars. 

Star. 

R.A. 

Decl. 

h.      m. 

0      . 

h. 

m 

U  Cephei     ... 

...      O   52-4  . 

.  81    16  N.  ...  June 

IOi 

15. 

23  55  ** 
23  35  m 

S  Cassiopeia 

...     i   1 1 '4  . 

.72     1  N.  ...     ,, 

16, 

M 

n  Geminorum 

...     6     81. 

.  22  32  N.  ...     ,, 

15. 

M 

V  Geminorum 

...     7  16-9  . 

.  1.1  18  N.  ...     ,, 

ii> 

M 

U  Monocerotis 

•••     7  25-5  . 

•    9  33  S.    ...     ,, 

16, 

M 

S  Geminorum 

-     7  36'3  ■ 

•  23  43  N.  ...     „ 

14. 

M 

5  Librae 

...  14  55-o. 

.    8     4S.    ...     „ 

15. 

2 

54  W 

U  Ophiuchi... 

...   17  1C9  .. 

.     1  20  N.  ...     ,, 

13. 

O 

34  m 

W  Sagittarii 

...  17  579  •• 

•  29  35  S.    ...     „ 

12, 

2 

0  M 

0  Lyrae 

...  18  460  . 

•  33  14  N.  ...     „ 

16, 

I 

0  m 

t)  Aquilae 

...  19  46-8  . 

•    0  43  N.  ...     „ 

12, 

21 

oM 

S  Sagittte    ... 

...  19  5o'9  • 

.  16  20  N.  ...     ,, 

10, 

22 

0  m 

?) 

13. 

22 

oM 

X  Cygni 

...  20  39 'O  . 

•  35  11  N.  ...     „ 

12, 

21 

0  M 

T  Vulpeculae 

...  20  467  . 

..  27  50  N.  ...     ,, 

10, 

22 

0  tn 

R  Vulpeculse 

...  20  59-4  . 

.  23  23  N.  ...     „ 

16, 

m 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum. 

Meteor-  Showers. 
R.A.        Decl. 


Near  a  Vulpeculae 
,,     o  Cephei 
,,     #  Piscium    .. 


286 
316 

345 


24  N. 

60  N. 

1  N. 


Rather  slow. 
Swift,  streaks. 
June  11-13.      Very 
swift. 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 
Major  Hobday  reports  of  the  operations  in  Upper  Burma 
that  during  the  season  of  1887-88,  the  whole  of  the  Yaw  country 
has  been  thoroughly  surveyed  by  surveyors  attached  to  the 
various  columns  converging  on  Gangaw.  On  the  north  a  con- 
nection has  been  made  with  the  work  executed  by  Colonel 
Woodthorpe's  party  last  year  in  the  Kubo  Valley.  A  good  deal 
of  the  geography  of  the  Schwele  River  and  the  Mohlaing  dis- 
trict has  also  been  obtained.  The  extent  of  surveying  that  has 
been  done  by  the  surveyors  who  accompanied  the  column  from 
Bhamo  to  Mogdung  and  thence  by  the  Jade  Mines  and 
Endawgyi  Lake  to  Katha,  on  the  Irrawaddy,  is  not  yet  known, 
as  reports  have  not  yet  been  received.  In  the  Southern  Shan 
States  a  party  under  Lieut.  Jackson,  R.E.,  has  carried  on  survey 
operations  in  continuation  of  last  year's  work  from  Fort  Stedman 
to  Pekon,  in  the  Saga  Valley,  thence  via  Maukme,  and  Mone  to 
Maing-pan  and  the  Salween  River,  where  the  Siamese  mission 
under  Mr.  Archer  was  met.  Returning  to  Mone,  they  carried 
the  survey  through  Legya  and  Bansan  to  Maing-ye.  In  the 
Northern  Shan  States  a  sub-surveyor  has  carried  our  surveys 
from  Thibaw  to  Namsan,  and  across  the  Myit-nge  or  Namtu 
River  to  Theinni,  on  the  Salween,  and  thence  via  Maing-yaw  to 
Manse  and  Maing-ye,  thus  effecting  a  junction  with  Lieut. 
Jackson's  work.  Major  Hobday  himself  has  extended  the 
triangulation  from  Kyan  Nyat  to  Bhamo,  of  which  the  position 
is  thus  determined,  and  a  basis  provided  for  the  surveys  in  the 
direction  of  Mogaung.  It  is  hoped  that  the  triangulation  exe- 
cuted by  this  party  will  be  connected  during  this  season  with 
that  of  the  surveys  in  Lower  Burma.  In  addition  to  the  work 
done  by  members  of  this  department,  many  reconnaissances 
have  been  executed  by  regimental  and  other  military  officers 
and  the  results  given  to  Major  Hobday  for  incorporation  in  his 
sheets. 

We  are  glad  to  notice  that  Signor  Guido  Cora's  Cosmos  now 
appears  more  regularly  and  frequently  than  formerly.  The 
last  number  contains  a  detailed  account  of  recent  Danish  expe- 
ditions in  Greenland. 

The  whole  of  the  new  number  of  the  Deutsche  Geographische 
Blatter  is  occupied  with  the  narrative  of  J.  G.  Kohl's  American 
studies,  the  results  of  journeys  made  thirty  years  ago  in  North 
America. 

The  principal  paper  in  the  new  part  of  the  Zeitschrift  of  the 
Berlin  Geographical  Society  is  an  elaborate  examination  of  Sir 
John  Mandeville's  writings  by  Dr.  A.  Bovenschen,  in  which  the 
author  comes  to  conclusions  decidedly  unfavourable  to  Sir  John's 
trustworthiness.  Dr.  G.  Hellmann  contributes  an  important  paper 
on  the  rainfall  of  the  Iberian  peninsula,  In  the  Verhandlungen 
of  the  same  Society  we  find  papers  on  the  geography  and 
ethnography  of  Southern  Mesopotamia,  by  Dr.  B.  Moritz,  and 
on  the  Isthmus  of  Corinth,  by  Dr.  A.  Philippson. 

It  may  be  useful  to  state  that  in  No.  1  of  the  third  series  of 
the  Btdletin  of  the  Egyptian  Geographical  Society  is  a  connected 
account  in  French,  by  Dr.  O.  Lenz,  of  his  last  journey  across 
Africa. 

The  June  number  of  the  Journal  of  the  Royal  Geographical 
Society  contains  the  first  part  of  Mr.  D.  \V.  Freshfield's  paper 
on  the  Caucasus ;  it  deals  with  Suanetia,  and  is  illustrated  with 
maps  and  diagrams.  The  same  number  contains  Mr.  Wood- 
ford's paper  on  his  explorations  in  the  Solomon  Islands. 

Two  Swedish  colonists,  MM.  Valdau  and  Knutson,  have 
recently  done  some  interesting  geographical  work  in  the 
Cameroons  territory.  M.  Valdau  has  explored  the  northern 
slopes  of  the  range,  which  are  very  thickly  peopled  by  the 
Bomboko  tribe.  The  main  chain  of  the  mountains  does  not 
extend  as  far  as  40  30'  N.  lat.,  as  the  highest  point  attained  by 
the  traveller,  about  40  28'  N.  lat.,  only  measured  2850  feet.  M. 
Knutson  has  explored  the  River  Memeh,  which,  he  ascertained, 
empties  itself  into  the  sea  a  little  to  the  south  of  Rumbi.  The 
river  is  navigable  for  thirty  miles,  to  the  Diiben  falls,  which  are 
100  feet  in  height. 


June  7,  1888] 


NATURE 


137 


BIOLOGICAL  NOTES. 

'ossil  Fish  Remains  from  New  Zealand. — Mr.  Davis 
recently  described  a  number  of  fish  remains  from  the 
tiary  and  Cretaceo-Tertiary  formations  of  New  Zealand.  The 
noir  forms  a  part  of  the  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Dublin 
iety,  and  is  illustrated  by  seven  well-executed  plates  of  the 
Bossils.  Some  short  time  ago  Mr.  Davis  received  the  remains  of 
ome  fossil  Tertiary  Elasmobranchs  from  Prof.  F.  W.  Hutton,  from 
<Jew  Zealand,  which  formed  the  subject  of  a  short  communication 
othe  Geological  Society  of  London  ;  but  a  much  larger  collection 
aving  been  in  the  meanwhile  received,  permission  was  granted 
or  the  withdrawal  of  the  paper,  and  now,  based  on  several  addi- 
ional  collections,  we  have  the  present  memoir,  which  for  the  first 
ime  does  justice  to  these  interesting  fossil  forms  by  full  descrip- 
ions  and  excellent  figures.  The  memoir  opens  with  an  account 
f  the  Tertiary  formations  of  New  Zealand,  based  on  the  results 
trained  by  the  Geological  Survey  under  Sir  James  Hector, 
hile  notice  is  taken  also  of  the  views  of  Prof.  Hutton  and  Sir 
,  von  Haast.  In  addition  to  the  remains  of  fish,  some  .Saurian 
eeth,  as  well  as  those  of  a  Squalodon,  have  been  found.  Of 
he  thirty-five  species  of  fish  described,  no  le-s  than  twenty- 
ight  appear  as  new  species  ;  of  these  thirty-five,  twenty-eight 
ire  Sharks,  four  are  Rays,  two  belong  to  the  Chimerids,  and  one 
o  the  Teleostei.  A  new  species  of  toothed  Whale,  Sptalodon 
erratus,  is  also  described. — (Transactions  of  the  Royal  Dublin 
society,  vol.  iv.  (ser.  2),  part  i.  pp.  1-50,  plates  i.-vii.) 

Mammals  of  Liberia. — Dr.  F.  A.  Jentink  continues  his 
iccount  of  the  recent  zoological  researches  in  Liberia,  which 
lave  been  carried  on  for  the  last  seven  or  eight  years  by 
'.  Buttikofer,  C.  F.  Sala,  and  F.  X.  Stampfli.  The  amount  of 
nformation  collected  by  the  first-named  investigator  is  very 
jreat,  and  merits  the  high  praise  bestowed  upon  it  by  the 
Director  of  the  Leyden  Museum.  Of  the  ninety  species  of 
Mammals  sent  home,  thirteen  belong  to  the  Monkeys,  eleven  to 
:he  Carnivores,  thirty-three  to  the  Ruminants,  five  to  the 
'achyderms,  twenty-five  to  the  Rodents,  one  Sireniad,  four 
Insectivores,  seventeen  to  the  Bats,  and  three  to  the  Edentates. 
Among  the  more  interesting  species  mentioned  are  the  follow- 
ing :  Cenopithectis  stampflii,  n.  sp.,  from  Pessy  Country  ;  Terpone 
iongiceps,  Gray ;  Cephalophus  doria,  Ogilby,  and  Euryceros 
euryccros,  Ogilby  ;  Graphiurus  nagtglasii,  n.  sp.  ;  Claviglis 
trassicaudatus,  n.  g.  et  n.  sp.  ;  Crocidura  buttikoferi,  n.  sp.,  and 
C.  stampflii,  n.  sp. ;  Pachyura  megalura,  n.  sp.  ;  Epomophorus 
vddkampii,  n.  sp.  ;  and  Vesperugo  stampflii,  n.  sp.  This  num- 
ber also  contains  notes  of  151  species  of  Birds,  collected  by  J. 
Buttikofer  and  F.  X.  Stampfli,  during  their  last  sojourn  in 
Liberia.  The  last-named  is  still  collecting  on  the  Farmington 
River,  a  large  confluent  of  the  Junk. — ("  Notes  from  the  Leyden 
Museum,"  vol.  x.  Nos.  1  and  2,  January  and  April,  1888.) 

On  New  England  Medusa. — In  a  list  of  certain  Medusae, 
found  by  Mr.  J.  Walter  Fewkes,  off  the  coast  of  Maine  and 
From  Grand  Manan,  he  redescribes  and  figures  the  interesting 
ind  beautiful  Nanomia  cava,  A.  Ag.  This  Physophore,  described 
some  twenty-five  years  ago,  though  repeatedly  referred  to  in 
text-books  and  general  works  on  zoology,  seems  to  have  since 
escaped  attention,  but  many  specimens  were  found  at  Grand 
Manan.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  form  thought  to  be 
dult  by  A.  Agassiz,  is  not  above  six  inches  in  length,  but  Mr. 
Fewkes  captured  specimens  measuring,  when  extended,  over 
four  feet  in  length,  and  three  feet  when  retracted  ;  while  many 
hundreds  were  seen  of  the  size  of  the  specimen  he  figures,  which 
is  about  sixteen  inches  long.  When  floating  in  the  water  they 
were  easily  distinguished  from  the  southern  Physophore,  Agalma 
elegans ;  the  nectocalyces  are  biserial,  the  specimen  figured  has 
thirteen  pairs  of  well-developed  bells,  and  many  of  the  adults 
had  fifteen  pairs.  Among  the  most  interesting  and  it  would 
seem  exceptional  structures  in  this  form  are  the  organs  referred 
to  by  A.  Agassiz  as  the  "third  kind  of  polyps,"  now  called 
"hydrocysts"  or  "tasters";  these  hang  from  the  polyp  stem 
midway  between  the  polypites,  a  single  adult  and  many  half- 
developed  tasters  occurring  between  each  pair  of  polypites.  They 
are  small,  slender,  flask -shaped  bodies,  the  distal  end  is  closed, 
and  near  the  basal  attachment  there  is  a  prominent  red  body  of 
spherical  shape,  known  as  the  "oil  globule  "  ;  each  taster  has  als  > 
a  single  long  tentacle.  Contrary  to  what  A.  Agassiz  thought, 
the  adult  Nanomia  has  male  and  female  bells  on  one  and  the  same 
colony  ;  each  female  bell  carries  a  single  ovum,  which,  when 
they  escaped,  could   be   easily  seen  by   the  unassisted    virion. 


Uydrichthys  mirus 1  is  also  described  and  figured  as  a  new  genus, 
and  species  belonging  to  the  Hydroida ;  it  was  found  attached 
to  the  side  of  a  small  fish  (Serio/a  zonaia,  Cuv.)  which  had  been 
taken  in  the  dip-net  at  a  time  when  the  sea  was  quiet.  The 
patch  had  at  first  all  the  appearance  of  a  Fungoid  growth.  The 
fish  and  Hydroid  parasite  were  kept  alive  for  some  time  in  an 
aquarium,  and  from  the  latter  many  thousands  of  Medu>se  were 
raised.  The  Hydroid  colony  formed  a  cluster  of  reddish  and 
orange-coloured  bodies ;  the  basal  attachment  is  a  flat  thin 
plate  with  ramifying  tubes  ;  upon  it  are  separate  clusters  of 
gonosomes  and  (?)  hydranths.  Each  gonosome  is  botryoidal  ; 
the  free  extremity  of  the  gonosome  is  without  tentacles,  its  rim 
is  entire,  and  it  is  destitute  of  Medusa  buds.  It  seems  possible 
that  no  food  is  taken  in  by  the  gonosomes,  but  that  the  whole 
structure  is  dependent  upon  the  tubes  of  the  basal  plate  for  its 
nutrition.  The  filiform  structures  (hydranths  ?)  are  elongated 
flask-shaped  bodies  of  about  uniform  size,  with  terminal  open- 
ings. The  Medusa  is  closely  related  to  Sarsia,  and  so  far  shows 
the  new  Hydroid  to  be  allied  to  the  Tubularians,  but  there  are 
not  wanting  certain  features  which  hint  at  a  kindred  to  the 
Siphonophores.  The  rare  and  interesting  CaUinema  ornata, 
Verrill,  is  redescribed,  and  for  the  first  time  figured.  With  a  re- 
mark of  the  author,  ' '  that  histological  researches  lose  some  of 
their  value  if  not  preceded  by  an  accurate  identification  or  specific 
description  of  the  animal  studied,  if  it  be  different  from  known 
species,"  we  heartily  agree. — ("  Studies  from  the  Newport  Marine 
Laboratory,"  Bull.  Mus.  Comp.  Anat.  Harvard  College, vol.  xiii. 
No.  7,  February  1888.) 


THE  BILL  FOR  THE  PROMOTION  OF 
TECHNICAL  INSTRUCTION. 

""THE  following  is   the   Bill  for  the   promotion   of  technical 
■*■      instruction,  introduced  by  the  Government  : — 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Queen's  most  Excellent  Majesty,  by  and 
with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Lords  Spiritual  and  Temporal, 
and  Commons,  in  this  present  Parliament  assembled,  and  by  the 
authority  of  the  same,  as  follows  : 

X, — (1)  Any  School  Board  in  England  may  from  time  to  time 
supply  or  aid  the  supply  of  such  manual  or  technical  instruction, 
or  both,  as  may  be  required  for  supplementing  the  instruction 
given  in  any  public  elementary  school  in  its  district,  whether 
under  its  own  management  or  not. 

(2)  Manual  or  technical  instruction  shall  not  be  supplied  or 
aided  under  this  section  except  for  such  scholars  as — 

(a)  are  recognized  by  the  Education  Department  as  in  attend- 
ance at  a  public  elementary  school  and  receiving  instruction  in 
the  obligatory  or  standard  subjects  prescribed  by  the  minutes  of 
the  Education  Department  for  the  time  being  ;  and 

(b)  (in  the  case  of  technical  instruction  only)  have  obtained 
from  the  Education  Department  certificates  of  having  passed 
the  examination  in  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic,  prescribed 
by  the  standard  set  forth  in  the  schedule  to  this  Act,  or  an 
examination  equivalent  thereto. 

(3)  For  the  purpose  of  supplying  or  aiding  the  supply  of 
manual  or  technical  instruction  under  this  sretion,  a  School 
Board  shall  have  the  same  powers,  but  subject  to  the  same  con- 
ditions, as  it  has  for  providing  sufficient  public  school  accommoda- 
tion for  its  district,  subject  to  this  restriction  that  the  amount  of 
the  rate  to  be  levied  in  any  one  year  for  the  additional  purposes 
authorized  by  this  section  shall  not  exceed  the  sum  of  one  penny 
in  the  pound. 

2. — (1)  If  a  School  Board  aids  the  supply  of  manual  or 
technical  instruction  in  any  school  or  schools  under  its  own  man- 
agement, it  shall,  on  the  request  of  the  managers  of  any  other 
public  elementary  school  in  its  district  fulfilling  like  conditions 
as  to  the  supply  of  manual  or  technical  instruction  in  conformity 
with  the  requirements  of  the  Department  of  Science  and  Art, 
and  on  proof  of  sufficient  demand  for  such  instruction  in  that 
school,  aid  the  supply  of  such  instruction  in  that  school  in  like 
manner  as  it  aids  such  supply  in  the  school  or  schools  under  its 
own  management,  subject  to  such  terms  as  may  be  agreed  on  or 
determined  in  pursuance  of  this  Act. 

(2)  If  the  managers  of  a  public  elementary  school  in  the  dis- 
trict of  a  School  Board  object  to  the  terms  on  which  the  School 
Board  proposes  to  aid  the  supply  of  technical  instruction  in  that 
school,  the  Department  of  Science  and  Art  shall,  on  the  appli- 

1  Vide  Nature,  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  604,  wh.-re  we  beli:v.>  this  genu;  and 
species  were  first  des:ribed  by  the  author. 


13* 


NA  TURE 


[June  7,  1888 


cation   of    those   managers,    determine   whether   the    terms   so 
proposed  are  reasonable. 

3. — (1)  Any  local  authority  empowered  to  carry  into  execution 
the  provisions  of  the  Public  Libraries  Acts  with  respect  to  the 
■establishment  and  maintenance  of  public  libraries,  public 
museums,  schools  for  science,  art  galleries,  and  schools  for  art, 
may  from  time  to  time  supply  or  aid  the  supply  of  technical  in- 
struction by  providing  or  aiding  in  the  provision  of  teachers, 
apparatus,  or  buildings  to  such  extent  and  on  such  terms  as  the 
authority  think  expedient,  and  may  exercise  its  powers  under 
this  section  either  with  or  without  exercising  any  of  its  powers 
-under  the  Public  Libraries  Acts. 

(2)  Provided  as  follows  : — 

(a)  In  a  district  for  which  there  is  a  School  Board,  the  local 
authority  shall  not  out  of  their  own  funds  supply  or  aid  the  supply 
of  technical  instruction  suitable  for  scholars  receiving  at  a  public 
elementary  school  instruction  in  the  obligatory  or  standard 
subjects  prescribed  by  the  minutes  of  the  Education  Department 
for  the  time  being,  except  to  the  extent,  if  any,  to  which  the 
.authority  was  so  supplying  or  aiding  before  the  establishment  of 
a  School  Board. 

(b)  In  a  district  for  which  there  is  not  a  School  Board,  the 
managers  of  a  public  elementary  school  shall  not  receive  aid 
under  this  section  except  for  scholars  for  whom  technical  in- 
struction may  be  supplied  or  aided  by  a  School  Board  in  a 
district  for  which  there  is  a  School  Board. 

(3)  The  amount  of  the  rate  to  be  levied  in  any  one  year 
under  the  Public  Libraries  Acts  as  amended  by  this  Act  for  the 
additional  purposes  authorized  by  this  section  shall  not  exceed 
the  sum  of  one  penny  in  the  pound,  and  where  the  powers  given 
by  the  Public  Libraries  Acts  are  exercised  concurrently  with 
the  powers  given  by  this  section  shall  not  exceed  txvopence  in  the 
pound. 

4. — (1)  The  managers  of  any  technical  school  in  the  district 
-of  a  School  Board  or  local  authority  may  make  an  arrangement 
with  the  Board  or  authority  for  transferring  their  school  to  that 
Board  or  authority,  and  the  Board  or  authority  may  assent  to  any 
such  arrangement. 

(2)  The  provisions  of  section  twenty-three  of  the  Elementary 
Education  Act,  1870,  with  respect  to  arrangements  for  the 
transfers  of  schools,  shall  apply  in  the  case  of  arrangements  for 
the  transfers  of  schools  in  pursuance  of  this  section. 

5. — Every  minute  of  the  Department  of  Science  and  Art  with 
respect  to  the  condition  on  which  grants  may  be  made  for  technical 
instruction  shall  be  laid  on  the  table  of  both  Houses  of  Parlia- 
ment within  three  weeks  after  it  is  made,  if  Parliament  is  then 
titting,  and  if  Parliament  is  not  then  sitting,  within  three  weeks 
after  the  then  next  session  of  Parliament,  and  shall  not  come 
into  operation  until  one  month  after  being  so  laid. 

6. — In  this  Act — 

The  expression  "technical  instruction"  means  instruction  in 
the  principles  of  science  and  art  applicable  to  industries  and 
in  the  application  of  special  branches  of  science  and  art  to 
specific  industries  or  employments.  It  does  not  include  teaching 
the  practice  of  any  trade  or  industry  or  employment,  but,  sub- 
ject as  aforesaid,  includes  instruction  in  the  branches  of  science 
and  art  with  respect  to  which  grants  are  for  the  time  being 
made  by  the  Department  of  Science  and  Art,  and  any  other 
form  of  instruction  which  may  for  the  time  being  be  sanctioned 
by  that  Department  by  a  minute  laid  before  Parliament  and 
made  on  the  representation  of  a  School  Board  or  local  authority 
that  such  a  form  of  instruction  is  required  by  the  circumstances 
of  its  district. 

The  expression  "technical  school"  means  a  school  or 
•department  of  a  school  which  is  giving  technical  instruction 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Department  of  Science  and  Art. 

The  expression  "manual  instruction"  means  instruction  in 
the  use  of  tools  and  modelling  in  clay,  wood,  or  other  material. 

The  expression  "the  Education  Department"  means  the 
Lords  of  the  Committee  of  Her  Majesty's  Privy  Council  on 
Education. 

The  expression  "local  authority"  means  the  Council,  Com- 
missioners, Board,  or  other  persons  or  authority  carrying  into 
execution,  or  empowered  to  carry  into  execution,  the  Public 
Libraries  Acts. 

The  expression  "  Public  Libraries  Acts "  means  the  Public 
Libraries  (England)  Acts,  1855  to  1887,  and  the  Public  Libraries 
{(Ireland)  Acts,  1855  to  1884. 

7- — This  Act  may  be  cited  as  the  Technical  Instruction  Acf, 


SCHEDULE. 

Standard. 

Reading. — To  read  a  passage  from  some  standard  author. 

Writing. — A  short  theme  or  letter  on  an  easy  subject,  spelling, 
handwriting,  and  composition  to  be  considered.  An  exercise  in 
dictation  may,  at  the  discretion  of  the  inspector,  be  submitted 
for  composition. 

Arithmetic. — Eractions,  vulgar  and  decimal,  simple  pro- 
portion, and  simple  interest. 


A  GRICUL  TURA  L  ED  UCA  TION  IN  NOR  THERN 
ITALY  AND  IN  PRUSSIA. 

jV/TR.  COLNAGHI,  Consul-General  at  Florence,  in  the  course 

A  of  an  elaborate  Report  on  his  district,  refers  at  some 
length  to  agricultural  education  in  the  province  of  Florence. 
He  describes  especially  the  well-known  "Academia  dei  Geor- 
gofili,"  the  Tuscan  Society  of  Agriculture,  the  Comizi  Agrari, 
or  Agricultural  Boards,  the  Stazioni  Agrarie,  and  also  refers  to  the 
various  institutes  and  schools  which  have  been  established  of 
late  years  in  the  province.  The  "Academia  dei  Georgofili"of 
Florence  was  founded  in  1753,  and  was  the  first  Association  of 
the  kind  formed  in  Italy  to  promote  the  science  of  agriculture. 
On  the  roll  of  the  Academy  are  to  be  found  the  names  of  the 
most  distinguished  Italian  agronomists,  and  the  long  series  of  its 
Transactions  contains  important  papers  on  all  points  of  interest 
connected  with  the  agriculture  of  Tuscany. 

The  Royal  Tuscan  Society  of  Horticulture,  which  was  estab- 
lished in  1854,  now  numbers  about  700  members.  Much  useful 
work  has  been  done  by  this  body  in  encouraging  the  improved 
cultivation  of  fruit,  vegetables,  flowers,  and  ornamental  places 
and  by  the  holding  of  annual  shows  in  Florence. 

Each  district  of  the  province  has  its  Comizio  Agrario,  the 
objects  of  which  are  to  extend  agricultural  skill  and  knowledge, 
or  encourage  improvements,  and  to  form  a  centre  for  the 
diffusion  of  information.  The  Comizi  offer  prizes  for  improve- 
ments in  cultivation,  hold  Conferences  on  various  subjects,  and 
publish  Bulletins  containing  much  useful  information  on  prac- 
tical subjects.  These  bodies  are  supported  by  members'  subscrip- 
tions, and  by  grants  from  the  Minister  of  Agriculture  and  from 
the  province.  Besides  the  annual  shows  held  at  Florence,  there 
are  regional  agricultural  shows  (Concorsi  Agrarii  Regionali), 
instituted  by  the  Ministry  of  Agriculture  and  the  Comizi  Agrari, 
which  are  held  at  stated  periods,  and  in  which  some  five  or  six 
provinces  are  included.  These  larger  shows  have  been  useful  in 
bringing  agriculturists  from  various  parts  of  the  country  together, 
showing  the  latest  improvements  in  machinery,  and  in  displaying 
the  various  products  of  the  different  districts. 

At  the  "  Stazione  Agraria"  of  Florence,  which  is  a  branch  of 
the  Technical  Institute,  and  is  under  the  direction  of  Prof. 
Bechi,  experiments  are  made  on  the  culture  and  diseases  of  the 
vine,  the  olive,  and  other  plants,  and  analyses  are  made  of  soil, 
minerals,  water,  wines,  &c.  Attached  to  the  Stazione  is  an 
experimental  farm  six  hectares  in  size,  and  also  a  Government 
depot  of  agricultural  machinery. 

There  is  also  in  Florence  a  Bureau  of  Agricultural  Entomo- 
l°gy>  under  Prof.  Tragioni-Tozzetti,  where  great  attention  is 
paid  to  the  Phylloxera.  This  Bureau  is  in  fact  the  centre  of 
information  for  the  whole  of  Italy  on  entomological  subjects. 

For  practical  instruction  the  province  contains  the  Regio 
Istituto  Forestale  (Vallombrosa),  the  Regia  Scuola  di  Pomo- 
logia  e  d'Orticoltura  (Florence),  and  the  Scuole  Agrarie  of 
Castaletti,  near  Signa,  and  of  Scandicci,  in  the  immediate 
neighbourhood  of  Florence.  The  Forest  Institute  of  Vallom- 
brosa, now  under  the  Presidency  of  Prof.  Piccioli,  who  is 
assisted  by  eight  professors,  was  founded  in  1869,  on  the  model 
of  the  forestry  schools  of  France,  Germany,  and  Austria,  to 
supply  a  sufficient  number  of  trained  officers  for  the  Department 
of  Woods  and  Forests.  From  1869  till  the  present  time,  159 
students  have  entered  the  school,  and  of  these  136  have  received 
diplomas.  All  of  these  have  entered  into  the  service  of  their 
native  country,  except  one  who  was  a  Swiss.  The  course  of 
study  lasts  three  years,  during  which  time  instruction  is  given  in 
forestry  and  kindred  subjects,  and  in  French  and  German.  The 
limits  of  age  at  entrance  are  sixteen  and  twenty-two,  and  the 
annual  charge  for  board,  residence,  and  instruction  is  fixed  at 
700  lire.  The  State  pays  a  portion  of  the  cost  of  some  of  the 
students,    and    sometimes    their    respective    provinces    do  so. 


June  7,  1 888] 


NATURE 


139 


Attached  to  the  Institute  is  a  library  of  works  on  forestry, 
and  also  the  requisite  collections  and  instruments,  both 
chemical  and  scientific.  A  nursery  which  contains  nearly 
450,000  plants,  and  which  can  supply  annually  nearly  100,000 
plants  of  from  three  to  five  years  old,  is  also  annexed.  There  is 
also  a  small  fish-breeding  establishment,  in  which  about  10,000 
trout-fry  are  annually  hatched,  and  placed  in  the  neighbouring 
streams. 

The  Royal  School  of  Pomology  and  of  Horticulture  was 
established  in  1882,  and  is  now  under  the  direction  of  Prof. 
Ynlvassori.  Its  object  is  to  train  vegetable  and  fruit  gardeners. 
The  course  lasts  three  years,  and  is  both  theoretical  and 
practical.  The  age  for  the  admission  of  pupils  is  from  fourteen 
to  seventeen,  preference  being  given  to  the  sons  of  the  smaller 
farmers,  and  the  charges  are  25  lire  per  month,  besides  20  lire 
for  the  purchase  of  gardening- tools,  &c,  and  an  entrance  fee  of 
10  lire.  There  are  five  professors,  with  a^  censor  and  two 
gardeners,  and  at  present  the  number  of  pupils  is  thirty-two. 
For  practical  instruction  the  school  possesses  an  orchard,  and 
kitchen  and  flower  gardens. 

The  Agricultural  Institute  of  Castaletti  has  been  in  existence 
since  1859,  when  it  was  founded  by  Commendalore  Leopoldo 
Cattani-Cavalcanti.  It  is  now  under  the  direction  of  Signor 
Riccardi-Manelli.  One  section  of  the  school  was  placed  on  the 
footing  of  a  Government  technical  institute  during  the  life-time 
of  the  founder;  but  this  has  now  been  changed  by  the  present 
Director,  because  the  school  has  for  its  object,  not  the  production 
of  engineers  and  surveyors,  but  of  factors  or  agents  and  head 
gardeners.  The  course  of  instruction  in  this  institution  lasts  for 
four  years,  and  the  age  of  admission  is  from  eleven  to  fifteen. 
Of  late  the  charges  have  been  increased,  and  in  consequence  the 
number  of  students  has  fallen  from  seventy  to  fifty.  The 
entrance  fee  is  now  50  lire;  board,  lodging,  &c,  165  lire  for 
the  first  and  second  years,  and  180  lire  for  the  third  and  fourth 
years ;  and  8  lire  in  addition  per  month  for  washing.  The 
institution  is  not  self-supporting. 

The  Agricultural  School  of  Scandicci  was  founded  as  recently 
as  1884  by  Count  Napoleone  Passerini  for  charitable  purposes, 
his  own  villa  being  given  up  to  the  work.  It  was  first  only  a 
day-school,  but  this  year  boarders  have  been  admitted,  and 
there  are  now  ten  boarders  and  eight  externs.  The  object 
of  the  institution  is  to  make  good  managers  of  rural  estates. 
The  course  of  study  lasts  for  three  years  ;  the  ages  of  admission 
are  from  fifteen  to  eighteen  ;  the  entrance  fee  is  10  lire,  boarders 
paying  in  addition  36  lire  per  month,  and  2  extra  for  washing. 
There  are  in  all  seven  professors  and  masters.  There  is  an 
experimental  farm  of  100  hectares  in  extent  attached  to  the 
school,  and  a  good  library,  and  zoological,  mineral,  and  agri- 
cultural collections,  a  chemical  laboratory,  an  apiary,  and  a 
pigeon-house.  A  meteorological  observatory  of  the  second 
class,  affiliated  to  the  Central  Observatory  at  Rome,  is  also 
annexed.  The  diplomas  awarded  to  the  pupils  at  the  close  of 
their  course  of  study  are  countersigned  by  a  special  delegate  pf 
the  Government. 

According  to  the  Report  recently  presented  to  the  Foreign 
Office  by  Sir  E.  Malet  on  agricultural  education  in  Prussia,  the 
State  annually  gives  ^49,625  for  agricultural  instruction  in  that 
country,  and  .£38,401  to  the  veterinary  Colleges.  Out  of  the 
former  grant  are  supported  the  two  Agricultural  Colleges  of  Berlin 
and  Poppelsdorf,  the  Pomological  Institutes  of  Proskau  and 
Geisenheim,  and  a  station  near  Wiesbaden  for  experiments  in 
agricultural  chemistry  ;  and  subsidies  are  given  to  various  pro- 
vincial schools  which  are  supported  by  local  Boards  but  inspected 
by  the  central  executive  of  the  province.  At  the  two  Colleges 
the  education  is  mainly  scientific  and  theoretical,  the  ordinary 
course  consisting  of  two  terms  of  six  months  each.  At  the  end 
of  each  term  the  subjects  of  examination  are  the  science  of 
farming  and  planting,  farm  management,  physics  and  chemistry, 
botany,  zoology,  animal  physiology,  mineralogy,  and  geology. 
On  passing  these  examinations  the  students  are  entitled  to 
diplomas  of  proficiency  in  agricultural  science.  Those  who  wish 
to  become  land  surveyors  can  proceed  to  a  further  course  of  two 
terms  of  six  months  each,  in  which  the  instruction  given  is  of  a 
most  advanced  kind,  embracing  mathematics,  trigonometrical 
surveying,  levelling,  engineering,  forestry,  and  plantation,  the 
science  of  breeding  and  rearing  cattle,  dairy  farming,  mechanics 
and  agricultural  machinery,  besides  a  course  nf  law  bearing  on 
questions  with  which  land  surveyors  have  to  do.  According  to 
the  most  recent  report,  the  Berlin  Agricultural  College  was 
attended  by  98  students  in  the  summer  term,  12  of  whom  pro- 


ceeded to  the  more  advanced  course,  and  in  the  winter  term  by 
155  students,  27  of  whom  went  in  for  the  higher  course. 
Poppelsdorf  College  was  attended  by  76  in  the  summer  term, 
of  whom  45  went  on  to  the  higher  course,  and  in  the  winter  term 
by  87,  of  whom  57  attended  the  larger  course.  With  regard  to 
the  lower-grade  schools  receiving  help  from  the  grant  in  aid  of 
agricultural  education,  16  are  intermediate  schools  which  get 
;£  1 3i365  every  year  from  the  State.  The  school  money  varies 
from  £5  $s.  to  ,£1  10s.  per  term  of  six  months,  and  the  subjects 
taught  in  these  institutions  comprise  chemistry,  mineralogy, 
physics,  zoology,  veterinary  science,  and  farming.  There  are 
also  numerous  local  winter  elementary  schools  which  supplement 
by  theoretical  training  the  practical  teaching  which  the  pupils 
have  had  in  the  fields  in  spring  and  autumn.  ^6648  is  annually 
given  to  them. 


UNIVERSITY  AND  EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 

Cambridge. — An  examination  will  be  held  at  Cavendish- 
College  on  Tuesday,  July  24,  and  following  days,  according  to 
the  results  of  which  it  is  intended  to  award  eight  Scholarships  of 
,£30  a  year,  provided  that  candidates  of  sufficient  merit  present 
themselves.  Candidates  must  be  under  eighteen  years  of  age  on 
October  1,  1888,  and  may  offer  for  examination  one  or  more  of 
the  following  subjects  :  Classics,  Mathematics,  Natural  Science, 
Modern  Languages.  The  Scholars  elected  will  be  required  to 
come  into  residence  at  Cavendish  College  in  October  1888,  and 
commence  study  for  a  Tripos  or  the  Engineering  course. 
Medical  students  may  conveniently  combine  their  medical  work 
with  the  course  for  the  Natural  Science  Tripos.  It  is  also 
intended  to  offer  in  June  1889  three  Scholarships  of  ^"30  to  be 
competed  for  by  students  of  the  College  who  will  then  have 
resided  not  longer  than  one  year.  The  College  fee  for  board, 
lodging,  and  tuition,  is  ^25  for  each  of  the  three  University 
terms,  and  ,£15  for  residence  (optional)  in  the  Long  Vacation. 
For  further  information  apply  to  the  Bursar,  Cavendish  College, 
Cambridge. 

In  the  paragraph  last  week  about  Prof.  Darwin's  lectures- 
(p.  117),  for  "tin"  read  "sun." 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

Bulletin  de  la  Societe  des  Naturalisies  de  Moscou,  1887,  No.  4 
■ — On  organic  compounds  in  their  relations  to  haloid  salts  of 
aluminium,  by  G.  Gustafson  (in  German).  In  this  second  part 
the  following  conclusions  are  arrived  at.  The  organic  com- 
pounds undergo  deep  modifications  in  presence  of  the  above 
salts.  The  reactions  of  addition  are  the  chief  ones,  but  the  most 
interesting  are  those  undergone  by  the  aromatic  hydrocarbons 
under  the  influence  of  chloride  and  bromide  of  aluminium  ; 
although  most  unstable,  and  therefore  sometimes  viewed  as 
mere  molecular  compounds,  they  show  a  deep  modification  of 
the  hydrocarbons  from  which  they  issue.  They  explain  also  the 
rdle  of  salts  in  organisms.  —  On  the  regeneration  of  lost  organs  in 
spiders,  by  V.  Wagner  (in  French).  This  is  the  result  of  a 
double  simultaneous  process  ;  the  atrophy  of  the  tissues  belong- 
ing to  the  lost  member,  and  the  growth  of  the  new  one  in  the 
atrophied  remnants  of  the  old  member.  Both  processes  are 
described  and  illustrated. — Short  notes  on  some  (eighteen) 
Russian  species  of  the  genus  Blaps,  by  E.  Ballion  (in  German). 
— On  two  new  Branchiopods  from  the  Transcaspian  region 
(A/us  hatckclii,  n.  sp.,  and  Artemia  asiatica,  n.  sp. ),  by  Dr.  A. 
Walter. — Enumeration  of  the  vascular  plants  of  the  Caucasus,  by 
M.  Smirnow  (continued).  The  Ranunculaceae  are  described  ;  they 
contain  ninety-eight  species,  belonging  to  seventeen  genera,  and 
out  of  them  thirty-seven  belong  to  the  genus  Ranunculus, 
and  thirteen  to  that  of  Delphinium.  The  Myosurus,  Garidella, 
Call/ia,  and  Aetata  number  only  one  species  each.  The  total 
number  of  Caucasian  Phanerogams,  according  to  Ledebour's 
"  Flora  Rossica, "  is  2965  ;  now  it  must  be  estimated  at  about  4000 
species.  Out  of  the  ninety-eight  species  of  Ranunculaceae  de- 
scribed, forty  belong  exclusively  to  the  flora  of  the  East,  while 
fifty- two  are  met  with  in  South  Russia,  thirty  in  the  Crimea,  thirty- 
three  in  the  Altai,  twenty-four  around  Lake  Baikal,  and  only 
twenty-one  in  the  Urals,  and  eighteen  in  North  Russia.  Very 
interesting  remarks  follow  as  to  the  distribution  of  the  Ranun- 
culacese  in  separate  parts  of  the  Caucasus. 


140 


NATURE 


{June  7,  1888 


1888,  No.  I. — Some  remarks  on  the  consequences  of  the 
earthquake  of  February  1887  in  the  Riviera,  by  H.  Traut- 
schold. — The  chief  noxious  insects  on  tobacco  in  Bessarabia,  an 
elaborate  research  by  Prof.  K.  Lindeman.  (Both  papers  in 
German.) — Count  Alexis  Razumovsky,  first  President  of  the 
Society,  by  Dr.Benzengre  (in  French). — List  of  plants  of  Tambof, 
by  D.  Litvinoff  (continued). — On  the  hairs  called  auditive  of  the 
spiders,  by  W.  Wagner  (Gekor-Organe  of  Dahl).  They  belong 
to  different  types,  and  none  of  them  can  be  recognized  as  per- 
forming the  auditive  function  ;  they  seem  merely  to  be  tactile 
organs  of  a  higher  structure. — Studies  on  the  palseontological 
history  of  the  Ungulatce,  by  Marie  Pavloff  (second  memoir). 
After  having  discussed  the  genealogy  of  the  horse  as  viewed 
by  V.  Kovalevsky,  Messrs.  Marsh,  Cope,  Lydekker,  Branco, 
and  Schlosser,  and  discussed  the  rich  material  which  Mrs.  Pavloff 
was  in  possession  of,  the  writer  arrives  at  the  following  scheme. 
The  eldest  ancestors  of  the  horse,  Phenacodus,  are  found  in  the 
Eocene  of  North  America  ;  in  Europe  they  are  represented  by 
the  Hyracotherium  leporinum,  which,  together  with  the  Pachyno- 
lophus  and  Anchilophus,  inhabited  both  continents.  In  the 
Miocene  we  find  the  Anchit/urium,  in  America  first,  and  later 
on  in  Europe  ;  it  was  transformed  in  America  into  the  Proto- 
hippus  of  the  Mio-Pliocene.  This  last  gave  rise  to  the 
Hippidium  and  Equus,  which  largely  developed  during  the 
Pliocene  period  in  America  (E.  parvulus),  Asia  (E.  nomadicus), 
Europe  and  Africa,  where  the  E.  stenonis  was  the  ancestor  of 
the  Post-Pliocene  Equus  caballus.  In  how  far  our  present  horse 
originates  from  this  later  will  be  discussed  next.  Two  plates 
illustrate  the  paper,  written  in  French. 

The  Memoirs  of  the  Odessa  Society  of  Naturalists  (vols,  xi- 
and  xii. )  contain  the  usual  quantity  of  elaborate  work,  especially 
in  anatomy  and  physiology.  The  papers  on  the  embryogeny  of 
the  fresh-water  lobster,  by  M.  Morin  ;  on  the  embryogeny  of  the 
Caucasian  scorpion  Androctonus  oimatus,  by  MM.  A.  Kovalevsky 
and  Shulghin  ;  on  the  development  of  the  Urospora  mirabilis,  by 
M.  Woltke  ;  on  the  embryology  of  the  Mysis  chameleo,  by  M. 
Nusbaum  ;  and  on  the  morphology  of  the  Haplotrichum  roseum, 
by  M.  Khmielevsky,  are  elaborate  articles  profusely  illustrated 
by  excellent  plates. — M.  Krasilschik's  researches  on  the  struc- 
ture and  life  of  the  Cercobodo  laciniagerens — a  new  genus  of  the 
Flagellatae — are  most  interesting,  showing  how  this  microscopic 
organism  preys  on  Bacteria  and  digests  them,  and  how  com- 
plicated is  its  organization  altogether. — The  same  author  con- 
tributes an  interesting  paper  on  the  parasite  Fungi  of  insects,  and 
M.  Khawkin  has  an  article  on  the  buccal  apparatus  of  the  Eug'ena 
and  Astasia,  as  also  on  the  laws  of  heredity  in  the  case  of  uni- 
cellular organisms  ;  and  Dr.  Kultchitsky  studies  the  inte-tinal 
canals  of  several  fishes. — Geology  and  mineralogy  are  represented 
by  R.  Prendel's  article  on  the  Wiluite,  from  which  it  appears 
that  the  crystals  of  this  interesting  mineral  have  a  double  com- 
position— those  parts  of  it  which  penetrate  into  the  depth  of  the 
crystal  as  cones  set  upon  the  surfaces  of  the  pyramids  differing 
both  by  their  density  and  refractive  power  from  the  parts  which 
are  built  upon  the  faces  of  the  prisms ;  three  papers  by  Prof. 
Sintsoff  on  the  water-bearing  deposits  of  Kishineff,  the  Steppe 
deposits  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Lower  Volga,  and  the  Pliocene 
of  South  Russia  ;  and  on  the  crystalline  rocks  of  Crimea,  by  M. 
Prendel. — Prof.  Klossovsky  contributes  a  paper  on  the  oscilla- 
tions of  temperature  and  density  of  the  water  of  the  Black  Sea  in 
*the  neighbourhoods  of  Odessa  ;  andMrs.  Mary  Balashoff  has  an 
article  on  the  influence  of  small  ponds  and  of  limited  supplies 
of  water  on  the  development  of  Planorbis. — Chemistry  is  repre- 
sented by  one  paper,  on  the  laws  of  dissolution  of  salts,  by 
R.  Umoff. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  April  26.—"  On  the  Occurrence  of  Alu- 
minium in  Certain  Vascular  Cryptogams."  By  A.  H.  Church, 
M.A.,F.C.S.     Communicated  by  Dr.  J.  H.  Gilbert,  F.R.S. 

Most  of  the  older  and  more  complete  analyses  of  plant-ashes 
disclosed  the  presence  of  sensible  quantities  of  alumina.  But  of 
late  years  this  substance  has  been  regarded  as  accidental,  and 
has  been  excluded  from  ash-constituents  with  the  single  exception 
of  certain  species  of  Lycopodium.  Since  1851  several  analysts 
have  proved  the  presence  of  large  quantities  of  alumina 
in  the  ashes  of  these  Dlants      The  author  has  confirmed  and 


extended  their  remits,  and  has  shown  that  the  allied  genus 
Selaginella  does  not  absorb  alumina.  He  found,  however,  two 
species  of  Lycopodium  — namely,  L.  PhlegmaHa  and  L.  biilardieri 
—from  which  this  constituent  is  absent.  The  anomaly  was  ex- 
plained by  the  epiphytic  nature  of  these  plants,  which  have  no 
direct  access  to  the  soil.  The  author  has  further  examined 
certain  species  belonging  to  genera  nearly  related  to  Lycopodium, 
such  as  Equisetum,  Ophioglossum,  Salvinia,  Marsilea,  and 
Psilotum,  in  all  cases  with  negative  results.  But  he  has  found 
20  per  cent,  of  alumina  in  the  ash  of  a  New  Zealand  tree-fern, 
and  has  also  discovered  abundance  of  this  substance  in  Cyathea 
medullaris  and  Alsophila  australis,  and  more  than  mere  traces 
in  Dicksonia  squarro'a.  The  last  part  of  the  paper  is  occupied 
with  some  considerations  having  reference  to  the  connection 
between  elementary  plant-food  and  the  periodic  law. 

May  17. — "On  the  Electromotive  Properties  of  the  Leaf  of 
Dioncea  in  the  Excited  and  Unexcited  States."  No.  II.  By 
J.  Burdon-Sanderson,  M.A.,  M.D.,  F.R.S. ,  Professor  of 
Physiology  in  the  University  of  Oxford. 

The  author  has  continued  his  experimental  inquiries,  of  which 
the  results  were  communicated  to  the  Royal  Society  under  the 
same  title  in  1881.  In  the  introduction  to  the  paper  he  gives 
a  summary  of  his  previous  observations,  which  led  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  property  by  virtue  of  which  the  excitable 
structures  of  the  leaf  respond  to  stimulation,  is  of  the  same 
nature  with  that  possessed  by  the  similarly-endowed  structures 
of  animals.  He  then  proceeds  to  state  that  the  main  purpose  of 
his  subsequent  investigations  has  been  to  determine  the  relation 
between  two  sets  of  phenomena  which  might,  in  accordance  "with 
the  language  commonly  used  in  animal  physiology,  be  termed 
respectively  those  of  the  "  resting  current "  and  of  the  "action 
current"  of  the  leaf,  i.e.  between  the  electrical  properties 
possessed  by  the  leaf  when  stimulated,  and  those  which  it 
displays  when  at  rest.  Assuming  the  excitatory  response  in  the 
leaf  to  be  of  the  same  nature  as  the  excitatory  variation  or 
"action  current"  in  muscle  and  nerve,  the  question  has  to  be 
answered,  whether  in  the  leaf  the  response  is  a  sudden  diminu- 
tion of  a  previously  existing  electromotive  action  (according  to 
the  pre-existence  theory  of  du  Bois-Reymond),  or  the  setting  up 
at  the  moment  of  stimulation  of  a  new  electromotive  action — in 
short,  whether  and  in  how  far  the  two  sets  of  phenomena  are 
intef-dependent  or  the  contrary. 

An  observation  recorded  in  his  former  paper  suggested  proper 
methods.  It  had  been  shown  that  by  passing  a  weak  voltaic 
current  through  the  leaf  for  a  short  period  in  a  particular 
direction,  its  electromotive  properties  could  be  permanently 
modified  without  loss  of  its  excitability.  If  it  could  be  shown 
that  the  influence  of  this  modification  extended  to  both  orders  of 
phenomena,  those  of  rest  and  excitation,  and  that  both  underwent 
corresponding  changes  of  character  under  similar  conditions,  this 
would  go  far  to  prove  that  an  essential  relation  existed  between 
them. 

Acting  on  this  suggestion,  the  author  has  had  recourse  to 
modes  of  experiment  similar  to  those  which  have  been  employed 
during  the  last  few  years  in  the  investigation  of  the  newly-discovered 
"secondary  electromotive"  phenomena  of  muscle  and  nerve  (see 
"  Oxford  Biological  Memoirs,"  vol.  i.  part  2).  The  details  of 
these  experiments,  made  in  1885,  are  given  in  the  first  three 
sections  of  the  paper.  They  relate  to  (1)  the  more  immediate 
effect  of  the  current  as  seen  in  the  records  of  successive  galvano- 
metric  observations  made  at  regular  intervals;  (2)  the  more 
permanent  influence  of  the  current  on  the  electromotive  properties 
of  the  unexcited  leaf,  and  on  its  electrical  resistance  ;  and  (3)  the 
concomitant  modification  of  its  behaviour  when  stimulated. 

The  general  result  of  these  experiments  is  to  show  that  the  two 
orders  of  phenomena,  the  excitatory  and  those  which  relate  to  the 
resting  state,  are  so  linked  together  that  every  change  in  the  state 
of  the  leaf  when  at  rest  conditionates  a  corresponding  change  in 
the  way  in  which  it  reacts  to  stimulation — the  correspondence 
consisting  in  this,  that  the  direction  of  the  response  is  opposed  to 
that  of  the  previous  difference  of  potential  between  the  opposite 
surfaces,  so  that  as  the  latter  changes  from  ascending  to  descend- 
ing, the  former  changes  from  descending  to  ascending. 

The  author  considers  that  this  can  only  be  understood  to  mean 
that  the  constantly  operative  electromotive  forces  which  find  their 
expression  in  the  persistent  difference  of  potential  between  the 
opposite  surfaces,  and  those  more  transitory  ones  which  are  called 
into  momentary  existence  by  touching  the  sensitive  filaments  or 
by  other  modes  of  stimulation,  have  the  same  seat,  and  that  the 


June  7,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


141 


opposition  between  them  is  in  accordance  with  a  principle 
applicable  in  common  to  the  excitable  structures  of  plants  and 
animals,  viz.  that  the  property  which  renders  a  structure  capable 
of  undergoing  excitatory  change  is  expressed  by  relative  posilivity, 
the  condition  of  discharge  by  relative  negativity. 

The  fourth  section  of  the  paper  is  devoted  to  an  investigation 
made  in  1887,  of  the  events  of  the  first  second  after  excitation, 
made  with  the  aid  of  a  pendulum-rheotome  specially  adapted  for 
the  purpose.  The  fifth  contains  the  description  of  the  records 
obtained  by  photographing  the  electrical  phenomena  of  the 
excitatory  reaction,  as  observed  with  the  aid  of  the  capillary 
electrometer,  on  rapidly-moving  plates.  Both  of  these  series  of 
observations  serve  to  confirm  and  complete  the  results  obtained 
by  other  methods.     The  photographs  were  exhibited. 

Physical  Society,  May  12. — Prof.  Reinold,  F.R.S.,  Pre- 
sident, in  the  chair. — The  following  papers  were  read  : — 
Note  on  the  condition  of  self-excitation  in  a  dynamo  machine, 
by  Prof.  S.  P.  Thompson.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  a  series 
dynamo  running  at  a  given  speed  will  not  excite  itself  unless 
the  resistance  is  less  than  a  certain  value,  depending  on  the  speed 
and  construction  of  the  machine,  and  if  the  resistance  is  slightly 
less  than  this  critical  value  the  excitation  will  not  be  such  as  to 
saturate  the  magnets.  According  to  the  primitive  statement  of 
the  action  of  self-exciting  dynamos  on  the  "  compound  interest 
law,  "a  dynamo  should  excite  itself  to  saturation  at  any  finite  speed 
providing  the  resistance  is  not  infinite.  An  explanation  of  the 
observed  facts  is  given  in  the  paper,  without  any  assumption  as 
to  the  curve  of  magnetization.  If  E  =  E.M.F.  of  the  machine, 
n  =  speed,  C  =  number  of  wires  on  outside  of  armature, 
N  =  number  of  magnetic  line-,  i  =  current,  S  =  number  of 
turns  on  magnet,  2R  and  2p  the  sums  of  the  electric  and  mag- 
netic resistances  respectively,  then  E  =  «CN,  i  =  «CN/2R,  and 
N  =  47rS//2p.  From  these  it  is  easily  seen  that  4ttmCS  = 
2p .  2R,  (A).  ;  i.e.  for  a  dynamo  running  at  constant  speed  the 
product  of  the  magnetic  and  electric  resistances  is  constant, 
and  the  dynamo  will  not  excite  itself  if  2R  is  greater  than 
4ir«CS/2p.  Similarly  for  a  given  value  of  2R,  excitation  is  im- 
possible if  n  is  less  than  2p  .  2R/4TCS.  For  a  value  of  2R  less 
than  the  critical  value  the  excitation  increases  until  the  mag- 
netic resistance  is  increased  so  that  equation  (A)  is  satisfied. 
The   corresponding  formula  for    shunt    machines  is  ^irnCZ  — 


fp{(ra 


+  *>+Sp 


;  where  Z  =  number  of  shunt  turns  ;  ra 


rs,  and  R,  the  resistances  of  armature,  shunt,  and  external  circuits 
respectively.  In  the  discussion  which  followed,  Mr.  Kapp  de- 
scibed  a  method  used  in  testing  dynamos,  for  determining 
the  minimum  speed  at  which  dynamos  will  excite  themselves, 
and  from  thence  determining  the  magnetic  resistance  of  the  air 
gap.  In  all  cases  experiment  showed  this  to  be  less  than  the 
calculated  resistance,  generally  in  the  proportion  of  1500  to 
i860,  the  difference  being  greater  in  low-tension  machines. 
Prof.  Ayrton  pointed  out  that  permanent  magnetism  was  not 
taken  into  account,  and  that  the  apparent  resistance  due  to  self- 
induction,  and  between  the  brushes  and  commutator  were  con- 
siderable for  small  currents.  Lord  Rayleigh  and  Sir  W.  Thomson 
had  shown  critical  speeds  for  given  resistances  to  exist  in 
Faraday's  disk  dynamo.  He  (Lord  Rayleigh)  did  not  approve 
of  the  term  "magnetic  resistance,"  and  thought  "reluctance," 
as  recently  suggested  by  Mr.  Heaviside,  would  be  preferable. — 
Note  on  the  conditions  of  self-regulation  in  a  constant  potential 
dynamo  machine,  by  the  same  author.     In  "Dynamo-Electric 

Z  r 

Machinery"  a  formula  —  =  - —  is  given  as  expressing  the 

S        I'a  +  rm 

ratio  of  the  number  of  turns  in  the  shunt  and  series  windings  of 
a  compound  dynamo.  This  is  on  the  assumption  that  there  is 
no  saturation  within  the  working  limits.  As  this  assumption  is 
not  legitimate,  a  correcting  factor  is  necessary.  The  factor  is 
shown  to  be  the  ratio  of  the  average  ptrmeability  over  the 
whole  working  range  to  the  permeability  corresponding  with 
no  external  current.  The  formula  is  transformed  so  as  to  be 
expressed  in  terms  of  the  "  satural "  data  of  the  machine,  which, 
as  shown  in  a  previous  paper,  can  be  calculated  from  its  details. 
— On  magnetic  lag,  and  the  work  lost  due  to  magnetic  lag  in 
alternating  current  transformers,  by  Mr.  Thomas  H.  Blakesley. 
The  method  adopted  to  detect  the  lag  is  to  place  dynamometers 
in  both  circuits,  and  one  with  a  coil  in  each.  Then,  on  the  sup- 
position that  the  E.M.F.  of  the  secondary  circuit  is  entirely  due 
to  the  changing  magnetism  of  the  core,  the  author  proves  that 


the    tangent   of   the   magnetic  lag   angle    must    be    equal    to 
—   Ca3  -  Ba2 

•  where  m  and  u  are  the  number  of 


m        I 


(AB«A  -  CV) 


turns  in  the  primary  and  secondary  coils  respectively  ;  A,  B,  C, 
the  constants  of  the  dynamometers  ;  and  au  a2,  o3,  their  angular 

reading.     A  is  such  that  Aat  =  _L  ,  where  Ix  is   the   maximum 

2 
value  of  the  primary  current.     A  table  of  actual  results  is  given, 
where  the  magnetic  lag  is  about  Sz°-     The  whole  power  given 

out  by  the  machine  takes  the  form  t^Ac^  +  r2  —  C</2,  where  r, 

n 
and    r2   are    the    resistances    of   the    primary   and    secondary 
circuits,   while   the   power   lost   in   hysteresis   is  expressed  by 

r2  (  —  Ca3  -  Bo2  J.    The  lag  is  attributed  to  an  induced  magnetic 

stress  called  into  being  by  the  increasing  or  decreasing  magnetism 
itself,  and  always  opposing  it  as  motion  in  a  medium  induces 
an  opposing  force  of  friction.  By  supposing  such  an  induced 
magnetic  stress  in  quadrature  (as  Mr.  Blakesley  expresses  it) 
with  the  magnetism,  and  of  such  a  value  as  when  compounded 
with  the  stresses  due  to  the  currents  shall  bring  the  resultant 
into  quadrature  with  the  secondary  current,  the  effective  mag- 
netic stress  is  obtained.  This  involves  a  new  idea  called 
magnetic  self-induction  with  its  coefficient.  The  whole  problem 
is  treated  by  the  geometrical  method,  which  the  author  has 
applied  to  several  other  problems  in  alternating  currents.  Mr. 
Kapp,  Profs.  Thompson,  Perry,  and  Ayrton,  and  Lord  Rayleigh 
took  part  in  discussing  the  paper. — On  a  simple  apparatus  for 
the  measurement  of  the  coefficient  of  expansion  by  heat,  by 
Prof.  W.  E.  Ayrton,  F.R.S.,  and  Prof.  J.  Perry,  F.R.S.  The 
apparatus  consists  of  a  metal  tube,  within  which  the  wire  or 
rod  whose  coefficient  is  to  be  determined  is  placed.  One  end 
of  the  wire  is  rigidly  attached  to  one  end  of  the  tube,  and  the 
other  end  connected  to  an  Ayrton  and  Perry  magnifying  spring, 
a  pointer  attached  to  which  indicates  the  change  of  length  due 
to  alteration  of  temperature.  Steam  or  water  may  be  passed 
through  the  tube,  the  temperature  of  the  wire  being  shown  on  a 
thermometer.  The  arrangement  is  very  sensitive,  and  with  a 
pointer  about  20  cm.  long,  the  motion  is  magnified  about 
1000  times. — A  magnifying  spring  attached  to  an  aneroid  was 
also  shown,  and  its  great  sensibility  demonstrated.  A  com- 
bination of  a  spring  of  large  diameter  and  pitch  with  one  of 
small  diameter  and  pitch  was  exhibited.  By  such  a  combination 
small  rotations  can  be  immensely  magnified.  The  great  features 
of  the  patent  spring  as  a  magnifier  are  the  entire  absence  of 
friction  and  back  lash,  and  the  large  range  of  proportionality. 

Chemical  Society,  May  17.— Mr.  W.  Crookes,  F.R.S.,  in 
the  chair. — The  following  papers  were  read  : — Researches  on  the 
constitution  of  azo-  and  diazo-derivatives  ;  (iv.)  diazo-amido-com- 
pounds,  by  Prof.  Meldola,  F.R.S. ,  and  Mr.  F.  W.  Streatfield.— 
The  colour  of  some  carbon  compounds,  by  Prof.  Carnelly,  and 
Mr.  J.  Alexander.  An  investigation  of  a  number  of  metallic 
derivatives  of  ortho-  and  para-nitrophenol  has  given  the  following 
results:  (1)  in  all  cases  without  exception  the  colour  passes 
towards  the  red  end  of  the  spectrum  as  the  temperature  rises  ; 
(2)  the  colour  of  the  ortho-derivative  is  nearer  the  red  end  than 
that  of  the  corresponding  para-compound  ;  (3)  a  comparison  of 
the  nitrophenates  of  the  metals  belonging  to  the  same  sub-group 
shows  that  the  colour  passes  towards  the  red  end  as  the  atomic 
weight  of  the  metal  increases  ;  (4)  when  the  same  salt  occurs 
in  both  the  anhydrous  and  the  hydrated  state,  the  colour  passes 
towards  the  red  end  as  the  quantity  of  water  of  crystallization 
diminishes  ;  (5)  as  regards  the  salts  investigated,  the  para- 
compound  always  takes  up  a  larger  quantity  of  water  of 
crystallization  than  the  corresponding  ortho-compound.  In  the 
course  of  the  discussion  which  followed  the  reading  of  the  paper, 
Prof.  Armstrong,  F.R.S.,  remarked  that  the  facts  advanced  were 
far  too  few  to  justify  the  very  general  conclusions  arrived  at  by 
the  authors  ;  all  who  had  worked  with  the  nitrophenols  were  well 
aware  that  the  colour  changed  on  heating  in  the  manner 
described  ;  and  there  was  no  novelty  in  the  statement  that  the 
para-nitrophenols  crystallized  with  the  larger  proportion  of  water. 
Referring  to  the  authors'  fourth  deduction,  he  quoted  calcium 
parachlorodiorthonitrophenate  as  an  exception,  since  this  com- 
pound can  be  obtained  either  in  yellow  anhydrous  crystals,  or  in 
deep-orange  hydrated   crystals. — The   identity  of  natural   and 


142 


NATURE 


[June  7,  1888 


artificial  salicylic  acid,  by  Prof.  Hartley,  F.R.  S.  Spectroscopic 
examination  of  the  two  compounds  establishes  their  identity. — 
Researches  on  the  relation  between  the  molecular  structure  of 
-carbon  compounds  and  their  absorption  spectra  (part  viii.),  by  the 
same. — A  definition  of  the  term  atomic  weight  and  its  reference 
to  the  periodic  law,  by  the  same.  The  author  is  of  opinion  that 
the  fact  that  the  atomic  weights  are  real  measures  of  the  quantity 
of  matter  in  the  atoms  of  the  elements  is  often  overlooked,  and 
advocates  the  adoption  of  the  definition  :  The  atomic  weight  of 
an  element  is  the  ratio  of  the  mass  of  its  atom  to  the  mass  of  an 
atom  of  hydrogen.  The  periodic  law  then  admits  of  being  stated 
thus :  The  properties  of  the  atoms  are  a  periodic  function  of 
their  masses. 

Geological  Society,  May  23.— Dr.  W.  T.  Blanford,  F.R.S., 
President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  communications  were 
read : — On  the  spheroid-bearing  granite  of  Mullaghderg,  Co. 
Donegal,  by  Dr.  Frederick  H.  Hatch.  Communicated  with  the 
permission  of  the  Director-General  of  the  Geological  Survey. 
This  paper  deals  with  a  remarkable  variety  of  granite  which 
may  be  compared  with  the  well-known  orbicular  diorite  or 
Napoleonite  of  Corsica.  According  to  Mr.  J.  R.  Kilroe,  of 
the  Geological  Survey  of  Ireland,  who  first  discovered  this 
interesting  rock,  the  concretionary  balls  occur  in  close  juxta- 
position in  a  mass  of  granite  of  5  or  6  cubic  yards  in  size.  They 
have  not  been  found  in  any  other  portion  of  the  granite  area. 
The  author  gave  a  detailed  description  of  the  microscopic  struc- 
ture of  the  normal  granite.  He  also  described  the  spheroidal 
bodies,  and  gave  a  synopsis  of  the  literature  concerning  the 
occurrence  of  similar  concretionary  bodies  in  granite.  The 
conclusion  arrived  at  was,  that  concretionary  bodies  occurring  in 
granite  may,  according  to  the  mode  of  arrangement  of  their 
constituents,  be  divided  into  three  classes,  viz.  (1)  the 
concretionary  patches  of  Phillips  ;  (2)  the  granospherites  of 
Vogelsang  ;  (3)  the  belonospherites  of  Vogelsang.  The 
spheroids  from  Mullaghderg  belong  to  the  last-mentioned  class. 
They  must  be  regarded  as  concretions  formed,  during  the  con- 
solidation of  the  granite  magma,  by  a  process  of  zonal  and 
radial  crystallization  around  an  earlier-formed  nucleus.  Re- 
marks on  this  paper  were  offered  by  Mr.  Rutley,  Prof.  Bonney, 
Dr.  Hicks,  and  Prof.  Jucld. — On  the  skeleton  of  a  Sauroptery- 
gian  from  the  Oxford  Clay  near  Bedford,  by  R.  Lydekker. — On 
the  Eozoic  and  Palaeozoic  rocks  of  the  Atlantic  coast  of  Canada 
in  comparison  with  those  of  Western  Europe  and  the  interior  of 
America,  by  Sir  J.  W.  Dawson,  F.  R.  S.  The  author  referred  to 
the  fact  that  since  1845  he  had  contributed  to  the  Proceedings  of 
the  Geological  Society  a  number  of  papers  on  the  geology  of 
the  eastern  maritime  provinces  of  Canada,  and  it  seemed  useful 
to  sum  up  the  geology  of  the  older  formations  and  make  such 
corrections  and  comparisons  as  seemed  warranted  by  the  new 
facts  obtained  by  himself,  and  by  other  observers  of  whom  men- 
tion is  made  in  the  paper.  With  reference  to  the  Laurentian, 
he  maintained  its  claim  to  be  regarded  as  a  regularly  stratified 
system  probably  divisible  into  two  or  three  series,  and  character- 
ized in  its  middle  or  upper  portion  by  the  accumulation  of  organic 
limestone,  carbonaceous  beds,  and  iron-ores  on  a  vast  scale.  He 
also  mentioned  the  almost  universal  prevalence  in  the  northern 
hemisphere  of  the  great  plications  of  the  crust  which  terminated 
this  period,  and  which  necessarily  separate  it  from  all  succeeding 
deposits.  He  next  detailed  its  special  development  on  the  coast 
of  the  Atlantic,  and  the  similarity  of  this  with  that  found  in  Great 
Britain  and  elsewhere  in  the  west  of  Europe.  The  Huronian 
he  defined  as  a  littoral  series  of  deposits  skirting  the  shores  of 
the  old  Laurentian  uplifts,  and  referred  to  some  rocks  which  may 
be  regarded  as  more  oceanic  equivalents.  Its  characters  tn 
Newfoundland,  Cape  Breton,  and  New  Brunswick  were  referred 
to,  and  compared  with  the  Pebidian,  &c,  in  England.  The 
questions  as  to  an  upper  member  of  the  Huronian  or  an  inter- 
mediate series,  the  Basal  Cambrian  of  Matthew  in  New  Bruns- 
wick, were  discussed.  The  very  complete  series  of  Cambrian 
rocks  now  recognized  on  the  coast-region  of  Canada  was  noticed, 
in  connection  with  its  equivalency  in  details  to  the  Cambrian  of 
Britain  and  of  Scandinavia,  and  the  peculiar  geographical  con- 
ditions implied  in  the  absence  of  the  Lower  Cambrian  over  a 
large  area  of  interior  America.  In  the  Ordovician  age  a  marginal 
and  a  submarginal  area  existed  on  the  east  coast  of  America. 
The  former  is  represented  largely  by  bedded  igneous  rocks,  the 
latter  by  the  remarkable  series  named  by  Logan  the  Quebec 
Group,  which  was  noticed  in  detail  in  connection  with  its 
equivalents  further  west,  and  also  in  Europe.  The  Silurian, 
Devonian,  and  Carboniferous  were  then  treated  of,  and  detailed 


evidence  shown  as  to  their  conformity  to  the  types  of  Western 
Europe  rather  than  to  those  of  America.  In  conclusion,  it  was 
pointed  out  that  iho.igh  the  great  systems  of  formations  can  be 
recognized  throughout  the  northern  hemisphere,  their  divisions 
must  differ  in  the  maritime  and  inland  regions,  and  that  hard  and 
fast  lines  should  not  be  drawn  at  the  confines  of  syste  ms,  nor 
widely  different  formations  of  the  same  age  reduced  to  an 
arbitrary  uniformity  of  classification  not  sanctioned  by  Nature. 
It  was  also  inferred  that  the  evidence  pointed  to  a  permanent  con- 
tinuance of  the  Atlantic  basin,  though  with  great  changes  of  its 
boundaries,  and  to  a  remarkable  parallelism  of  the  formations 
deposited  on  its  eastern  and  western  sides.  The  President, 
whilst  recognizing  the  importance  of  the  paper,  doubted  whether 
the  question  of  correlation  of  the  Pre-Cambrian  rocks  on  either 
side  of  the  Atlantic  was  ripe  for  discussion.  Dr.  Hicks  agreed 
with  most  of  the  conclusions  of  the  author,  including  the  correla- 
tion of  the  Huronian  with  the  Pebidian.  Some  observations  on 
the  paper  were  also  made  by  Dr.  Scott,  Dr.  Hinde,  and  Mr. 
Marr. — On  a  hornblende-biotite  rock  from  Dusky  Sound,  New 
Zealand,  by  Captain  F.  W.  Hutton. 

Zoological  Society,  May  15. — Dr.  A.  Giinther,  F.R.S., 
Vice-President,  in  the  chair. — The  Secretary  read  a  report  on 
the  additions  that  had  been  made  to  the  Society's  Menagerie 
during  the  month  of  April  1888 ;  and  called  special  attention 
to  two  Rock-hopper  Penguins  from  the  Auckland  Islands,  pre- 
sented by  Capt.  Sutcliff,  R.M.S. S.  Aorangi,  on  April  19  ;  also 
to  two  Indian  Hill-Foxes,  and  to  a  fine  example  of  the  Spotted 
Hawk-Eagle  {Spizaetus  nipalensis),  presented  by  Colonel  Alex. 
A.  A.  Kuiloch,  and  received  on  April  20. — A  communication 
was  read  from  Mr.  George  A.  Treadwell,  containing  an 
account  of  a  fatal  case  of  poisoning  from  the  bite  of  the  Gila 
Monster  {HAoderma  suspectum). — Mr.  Boulenger  exhibited  the 
type-specimen  of  a  singular  new  genus  of  Snakes  {Azemiops  fece) 
recently  discovered  by  M.  Fea,  of  the  Museo  Civico  of  Genoa, 
in  the  Kakhim  Hills,  Upper  Burma.  Mr.  Boulenger  proposed 
to  refer  this  genus  provisionally  to  the  family  Elapida;. — The 
Secretary  read  a  letter  addressed  to  him  by  Mr.  E.  C.  Cotes, 
Entomological  Department,  Indian  Museum,  Calcutta,  respecting 
the  insect-pests  of  India,  and  requesting  the  assistance  of  entomo- 
logists in  working  out  the  species  to  which  they  belong.  — Mr. 
H.  Seebohm  exhibited  and  made  remarks  on  a  series  of  speci- 
mens of  Pheasants  from  Mongolia,  Tibet,  and  China,  including 
examples  of  the  two  species  discovered  by  Colonel  Prjevalski, 
Phasianus  strauchi  and  P.  vlangali. — Prof.  F.  Jeffrey  Bell 
exhibited  and  made  remarks  on  three  specimens  of  a  large 
Pennatulid  {Fmiicidina  quadrangularis)  obtained  by  Mr.  John 
Murray  on  the  west  coast  of  Scotland.  They  showed  very 
clearly  the  differences  between  examples  of  this  species  of  differ- 
ent ages.— Mr.  R.  Bowdler  Sharpe  gave  an  account  of  a  third 
collection  of  birds  made  by  Mr.  L.  Wray  in  the  main  range  of 
mountains  of  the  Malay  Peninsula,  Perak.  The  present  paper 
contained  descriptions  of  ten  species  new  to  science,  amongst 
which  was  a  new  Pericrocotus,  proposed  to  be  called  P.  wrayi. — 
Prof.  F.  Jeffrey  Bell  read  the  descriptions  of  four  new  species  of 
Ophiuroids  from  various  localities. — Mr.  F.  E.  Beddard  read  a 
paper  containing  remarks  on  certain  points  in  the  visceral 
anatomy  of  Balceniceps  rex  bearing  upon  its  affinities,  which  he 
considered  to  be  with  the  Ardeidse  rather  than  with  the  Ciconi- 
idae.  Mr.  G.  B.  Sowerby  gave  the  description  of  a  gigantic 
new  species  of  Mollusk  of  the  genus  Aspergilltim  from  Japan, 
which  he  proposed  to  name  A.  giganteum. 

Institution  of  Civil  Engineers,  May  29. — Annual 
General  Meeting. — Mr.  George  B.  Bruce,  President,  in  the 
chair. — After  the  reading  of  the  Report,  hearty  votes  of 
thanks  were  passed  to  the  President,  to  the  Vice-Presidents, 
and  other  members  of  the  Council,  to  the  Auditors,  to  the 
Secretaries  and  staff,  and  to  the  Scrutineers. — The  ballot  for  the 
Council  resulted  in  the  election  of  Mr.  G.  B.  Bruce,  as  President ; 
of  Sir  Tohn  Coode,  Mr.  G.  Berkley,  Mr.  H.  Hayter,  and  Mr. 
A.  Giles,  M.P.,  as  Vice-Presidents  ;  and  of  Mr.  W.  Anderson, 
Mr.  B.  Baker,  Mr.  J.  W.  Barry,  Sir  Henry  Bessemer,  F.R.S., 
Mr.  E.  A.  Cowper,  Sir  James  N.  Douglass,  F.R.S.,  Sir 
Douglas  Fox,  Mr.  C.  Hawksley,  Mr.  J.  Mansergh,  Mr.  W.  H. 
Preece,  F.R.S.,  Sir  Robert  Rawlinson,  K.C.B.,  Sir  E.  J. 
Reed,  K.C.B.,  F.R.S.,  M.P.,  Mr.  W.  Shelford,  Mr.  F.  C. 
Stileman,  and  Sir  William  Thomson,  F.R.S.,  as  other  mem- 
bers of  the  Council. — The  Council  has  made  the  following 
awards  to  the  authors  of  some  of  the  papers  read  and  discussed 
at  the  ordinary  meetings  during  the  past  session,  or  printed  in 


June  7,  1 888] 


NA  TURE 


M3 


the  minutes  of  proceedings  without  being  discussed,  as  well  as 
for  papers  read  at  the  supplemental  meetings  of  students  : — For 
papers  read  and  discussed  at  the  ordinary  meetings :  a  Telford 
Medal  and  a  Telford  Premium  to  Robert  Abbott  Hadfield,  for 
"Manganese  in  its  Application  to  Metallurgy,"  and  "Some 
Newly-discovered  Properties  of  Iron  and  Manganese  "  ;  a  Watt 
Medal  and  a  Telford  Premium  to  Peter  William  Willans,  for 
"Economy-Trials  of  a  Non-condensing  Steam-Engine,  Simple, 
Compound,  and  Triple"  ;  a  Telford  Medal  and  a  Telford  Pre- 
mium to  Dr.  Edward  Ilopkinson,  for  "  Electrical  Tramways — 
the  Bessbrook  and  Newry  Tramway  "  ;  a  Watt  Medal  and  a 
Telford  Premium  to  Edward  Bayzand  Ellington,  for  "The 
1  (istribution  of  Hydraulic  Power  in  London  "  ;  a  Telford  Medal 
and  a  Telford  Premium  to  Josiah  Pierce,  Jun.,  for  "  The 
Economic  Use  of  the  Plane-Table  in  Topographical  Surveying  "  ; 
a  George  Stephenson  Medal  and  a  Telford  Premium  to  Sir 
Bradford  Leslie,  K.C.I.E.,  for  "  The  Erection  of  the  'Jubilee' 
Bridge,  carrying  the  East  Indian  Railway  across  the  River 
Hooghly  at  Hooghly";  and  the  Man  by  Premium  to  the  late 
Hamilton  Goodall,  for  "The  Use  and  Testing  of  Open-hearth 
Steel  for  Boiler-making."  For  papers  printed  in  the  Proceed- 
ings without  being  discussed :  a  Watt  Medal  and  a  Telford 
Premium  to  Prof.  Victor  Auguste  Ernest  Dwelshauvers-Dery, 
for  "  A  New  Method  of  Investigation  applied  to  the  Action  of 
Steam-Engine  Governors"  ;  and  Telford  Premiums  to  William 
Mann  Thompson,  for  "  Improved  Systems  of  Chaining  for  Land 
and  Engineering  Surveys";  to  James  William  Wyatt,  for 
"  Sizing  Paper  with  Rosin  "  ;  and  to  Dugald  Drummond,  for 
"The  Heating  of  Carriages  by  Exhaust  Steam  on  the  Cale- 
donian Railway."  For  papers  read  at  the  supplemental  meetings 
of  students  the  following  Miller  Prizes  have  been  given  :  to 
David  Sing  Capper,  for  "The  Speed-Trials  of  the  latest 
additi  >n  to  the  Admiral  Class  of  British  War-Vessels";  to 
Lawrence  Gibbs,  for  "  Pumping-Machinery  in  the  Fenland  and 
by  the  Trentside "  ;  to  Harold  Medway  Martin,  for  "Arched 
Ribs  and  Voussoir  Arches  "  ;  to  John  Henry  Parkin,  for  "  River- 
Gauging  at  the  Vyrnwy  Reservoir";  to  Alfred  Chatterton,  for 
"  The  Prevention  and  Extinction  of  Fires"  ;  to  John  Holliday, 
for  "Boiler  Experiments  and  Fuel-Economy";  to  Arthur 
Wharton  Metcalfe,  for  "The  Classification  of  Continous  Rail- 
way-Brakes" ;  to  Robert  Jarratt  Money,  for  "Railway  En- 
gineering in  British  North  America." 

Victoria  Institute,  June  4. — The  annual  general  meeting 
was  held  at  the  house  of  the  Society  of  Arts.  The  President, 
Prof.  G.  G.  Stokes,  P.R.S.,  M.P.,  took  the  chair.  The  twenty- 
second  Annual  Report  was  read  by  Captain  Frank  Petrie,  the 
Honorary  Secretary,  and  Sir  Monier- Williams  delivered  an 
address  on  mystical  Buddhism.  A  vote  of  thanks  was  accorded 
to  the  President. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  May  28. — M.  Janssen,  President,  in 
the  chair. — New  theory  of  equatorials  (continued),  by  MM. 
Lcewy  and  Puiseux.  In  order  to  verify  the  already  explained 
theory,  the  authors  here  compare  the  values  of  the  constants 
obtained  by  physical  processes  with  those  resulting  from  the 
astronomical  methods  based  on  the  observation  of  transits  or  on 
the  apparent  variations  of  the  right  ascensions  or  declinations. 
They  conclude  with  some  general  remarks  on  the  employment 
of  the  equatorial  coude. — On  the  measurement  of  low  tempera- 
tures, by  MM.  L.  Cailletet  and  E.  Colardeau.  The  researches 
here  described  have  been  undertaken  for  the  purpose  of  obviat- 
ing the  difficulties  hitherto  felt  in  employing  hydrogen  thermo- 
meters for  the  measurement  of  low  temperatures.  —  Researches 
on  ruthenium,  by  MM.  H.  Debray  and  A.  Joly.  These  studies 
are  occupied  chiefly  with  the  rutheniates  of  potassa  and  silver, 
and  the  heptarutbeniates  of  potassa  and  soda.  The  authors  find 
that,  although  there  exists  an  evident  analogy  in  the  composition 
and  reactions  of  the  rutheniate  and  heptarutheniate  of  potassa  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  manganate  and  permanganate  of  potassa 
on  the  other,  no  relation  of  isomorphism  has  been  detected 
between  the  salts  of  the  acids  of  ruthenium  and  those  of  man- 
ganese. The  rutheniate  of  potassa  is  hydrated,  while  the  man- 
ganate, like  the  sulphate,  is  anhydrous. — On  the  monthly  charts 
of  the  North  Atlantic  currents,  by  M.  Simart.  Continuing  the 
work  of  Commander  Brault,  the  author  has  prepared  two  series 
of  charts  (diagrams  and  results)  based  on  60,400  observations 
obtained  from  the  records  of  the  French  Admiralty  and  various 
other  sources.  The  charts  of  results  give  the  currents  most 
likely  to  be  met  with  from  month  to  month  all  the  year  round, 
while  the  diagrams  indicate  the  currents  that  may  possibly  be 


met,  especially  near  the  coasts,  where  they  present  the  greatest 
dangers  to  seafarers. — Origin  of  the  aurora  borealis,  by  M.  Jean 
Luvini.  This  phenomenon  is  regarded  as  analogous  to  the  dis- 
charge of  electricity  in  thunderstorms,  the  only  difference  con- 
sisting in  their  different  degrees  of  intensity.  Both  are  attributed 
to  the  friction  of  particles  of  water  and  ice  and  occasionally  of 
other  minute  bodies  drawn  by  the  aerial  currents  into  the  higher 
atmospheric  regions  and  disseminated  over  the  terrestrial  atmo- 
sphere some  hundred  miles  thick.  The  northern  lights  are  most 
frequent  about  the  pole,  where  the  air  abounds  most  in  icy  particles 
and  where  the  field  of  terrestrial  magnetism  is  most  intense. — Ob- 
servations of  the  new  planet  Palisa  (279)  made  at  the  Observatory 
of  Algiers  with  the  o-5om.  telescope,  by  MM.  Rambaud  and  Sy. 
These  observations,  which  include  the  positions  of  two  comparison 
stars  and  the  apparent  positions  of  the  planet,  cover  the  period 
from  May  18  to  May  22. — Observations  of  the  planet  Borelly 
(278)  made  at  the  Observatory  of  Marseilles  with  the  o-26m. 
Eichens  equatorial,  by  M.  Esmiol.  During  these  observations, 
continued  from  May  13  to  May  21,  the  planet  appeared  to  be 
of  magnitude  11*5. — On  the  supernumerary  arcs  accompanying 
the  rainbow,  by  M.  Boitel.  The  position  of  these  arcs,  as 
determined  by  Airy  on  the  principles  of  diffraction,  and  generally 
accepted  as  absolute,  is  shown  to  be  merely  a  first  approxima- 
tion, which  the  author  hopes  soon  to  supplement  by  more 
accurate  calculations. — Researches  on  the  application  of  the 
rotatory  power  to  the  study  of  the  compounds  formed  by  the 
action  of  the  neutral  tungstates  of  soda  and  potassa  on  the 
solutions  of  tartaric  acid,  by  M.  D.  Gernez.  From  these  experi- 
ments it  appears  that  the  neutral  tungstates  of  soda  and  potassa 
behave  analogously  in  their  action  on  tartaric  acid. — On  the 
sesquisulphide  of  rhodium,  by  M.  E.  Leidie.  The  author 
describes  the  methods  of  preparation  of  this  substance  and  of 
the  double  sulphides  both  by  the  wet  and  dry  processes. — On 
two  isomerous  naphthoquinoleins,  by  M.  Alphonse  Combes. 
The  only  terms  hitherto  known  of  these  rare  compounds  are 
those  obtained  by  Skraup  by  making  glycerine  act  on  the 
naphthylamines  in  the  presence  of  sulphuric  acid.  The  author 
here  describes  two  new  terms  of  the  series,  as  well  as  a  means 
by  which  several  others  may  also  be  obtained.  —  On  a  new  species 
of  Coregonus,  by  M.  Victor  Fatio.  To  this  species,  discovered 
in  the  French  Lake  Bourget,  the  author  has  given  the  name  of 
Coregonus  Bezola.  It  is  a  well-defined  local  variety. — On  the 
germination  of  Anemone  apennitta,  by  M.  Ed.  de  Janczewski. 
This  species  presents  in  its  germination  a  curious  and  most 
remarkable  anomaly,  differing  in  this  respect  from  all  other 
dicotyledonous  plants. — On  the  bust  of  a  woman  carved  in  the 
root  of  an  equine  tooth,  by  M.  Ed.  Piette.  This  specimen  of 
prehistoric  art,  recently  discovered  by  the  author  in  the  cave  of 
Mas  d'Azil,  Ariege,  presents  several  points  of  interest  to  the 
anthropologist.  Owing  to  the  contracted  space,  the  artist  had 
to  suppress  shoulders  and  arms,  merely  suggesting  the  outlines- 
of  the  sides.  But  the  pendant  breasts  are  well  executed,  and 
the  profile  of  the  face  carefully  delineated.  The  nose  is  large 
and  rounded,  the  lips  thick,  the  chin  retreating  like  that  of  the 
Nauletle  jaw,  but  the  forehead  is  high  and  hot  receding  like 
that  of  the  Neanderthal  skull.  It  is  the  third  extant  representa- 
tion of  a  woman  of  the  Quaternary  period,  the  two  others  being 
M.  de  Vibraye's  "Venus"  and  the  "Reindeer  Woman,"  both 
from  Laugerie-Basse. 

Berlin. 

Physical  Society,  May  18. — Prof,  du  Bois-Reymond, 
President,  in  the  chair. — Dr.  Dieterici  gave  an  account  of  his 
experiments  on  the  determination  of  the  latent  heat  of  evapora- 
tion of  water  at  o°  C.  Regnault's  experiments  on  the  latent 
heat  of  evaporation  of  water  were  made  at  higher  temperatures, 
and  had  led  to  the  construction  of  a  formula  according  to 
which  the  latent  heat  of  evaporation  at  0°  C.  must  be  607  units 
of  heat.  The  speaker,  using  an  ice-calorimeter,  had  made 
a  direct  determination  of  this  value.  A  glass  tube,  with  its 
lower  end  blown  out  into  a  bulb  and  filled  with  water,  was 
immersed  in  the  chamber  of  the  calorimeter,  the  upper  end  of 
the  tube  being  connected  with  an  air-pump,  and  a  small  column 
of  sulphuric  acid  being  interposed  between  the  pump  and 
the  tube.  As  soon  as  the  apparatus  had  assumed  a  perfectly 
uniform  temperature,  a  vacuum  was  produced  by  the  air-pump, 
whereupon  the  water  in  the  tube  evaporated,  taking  up  from  the 
calorimeter  the  heat  necessary  for  its  evaporation.  Values  were 
obtained  from  a  series  often  experiments,  which  differed  from  each 
other  by  not  more  than  \  per  cent.  In  order  to  meet  the  objection 
which  might  be  raised— namely,  that  the  temperature  at  which 


144 


NATURE 


{June  7,  1888 


the  evaporation  took  place  was  not  o°  C, — Dr.  Dieterici  re- 
peated his  experiments,  using  a  platinum  instead  of  a  glass 
tube.  The  values  obtained  in  this  set  of  experiments  only  differed 
by  \  per  cent.  The  mean  of  the  two  sets  of  experiments  was 
identical,  and  the  final  ouf  come  of  the  whole  research  was  that  the 
latent  heat  of  evaporation  of  water  at  o°  C.  is  596  "4  thermal  units. 
The  speaker  then  discussed  fully  the  theoretical  significance  of  the 
above  results,  ar.d  described  an  experiment  he  had  made  in 
order  to  determine  the  latent  heat  of  evaporation  of  ice  at  o°  C. 
The  method  employed  was  the  same  as  above,  but  it  did  not 
yield  the  value  which  was  theoretically  expected,  which  should 
have  been  equal  to  the  sum  of  the  latent  heat  of  evaporation  of 
water  and  of  the  latent  heat  of  fusion  of  ice.  The  cause  of  the 
divergence  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the  ice  used  was  not  clear 
and  crystalline,  but  milky  and  opaque.  Dr.  Dieterici  intends 
to  repeat  these  determinations  next  winter. — Prof,  von  Bezold 
gave  an  account  of  a  paper  which  he  had  recently  read  before 
the  Berlin  Academy  on  the  thermodynamics  of  the  atmosphere. 
Recent  meteorology  has  derived  very  considerable  benefit  from 
the  application  of  thermodynamics  to  events  taking  place  in  the 
atmosphere  ;  but  up  to  the  present  time  all  the  researches  had 
only  dealt  with  adiabatic  and  reversible  processes.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  these  processes  are  neither  adiabatic  nor  reversible,  since, 
when  the  air  is  cooled,  its  aqueous  vapour  is  condensed,  and  the 
water  thus  formed  falls  as  either  rain,  hail,  or  snow.  If  both  these 
facts  are  taken  into  account,  the  calculations  involved  thereby 
become  so  complicated  that  Prof,  von  Bezold  was  only  enabled 
to  proceed  to  the  application  of  thermodynamics  to  the  processes 
which  really  take  place  in  the  atmosphere  by  employing  an 
artifice  ;  the  latter  consisted  of  the  graphic  method  introduced 
by  Clapeyron  with  such  marked  success  as  a  technical  method. 
For  this  purpose  the  consideration  starts  with  the  assumption 
that  the  air  is  dry,  in  which  case  the  equation  for  its  condition 
is  given  in  terms  of  its  volume,  pressure,  and  temperature,  and 
can  be  represented  by  plane  co-ordinates.  The  variable 
amount  of  aqueous  vapour  in  the  air  is  then  treated  as  a  further 
variable  in  the  third  co-ordinate,  in  such  a  way  that  for  any  given 
amount  of  aqueous  vapour  in  the  air  a  new  co-ordinate  repre- 
senting the  change  in  condition  of  the  air  is  obtained.  When, 
on  cooling,  a  portion  of  this  aqueous  vapour  is  condensed,  the 
curve  representing  the  change  of  condition  passes  over  from  one 
plane  to  the  other,  pursuing  its  further  course  in  the  latter  plane. 
In  this  way  it  becomes  possible,  as  the  speaker  fully  showed,  to 
treat  non-reversible  and  pseudo-adiabatic  processes  theoretically, 
according  to  the  laws  of  thermodynamics.  It  can  thus  be 
shown  in  the  case  of  the  Fbhn  and  of  cyclones,  as  well  as  of  anti- 
cyclones, which  are  not  reversible  but  reversed  processes,  that 
the  theoretical  considerations  lead  to  results  which  are  found  to 
be  confirmed  by  experience.  Thus,  according  to  theory,  in  an 
anticyclone  occurring  in  winter,  there  should  be  a  rise  of  tem- 
perature at  some  height  above  the  earth,  a  fact  which  is  now 
observed  at  all  meteorological  stations  at  high  altitudes. 

Physiological  Society,  May  25.— Prof,  du  Bois-Reymond, 
President,  in  the  chair. — Dr.  Weyl  gave  an  account  of  the 
results  of  his  further  researches  on  silk.  Among  the  products 
of  decomposition  of  albumen  and  proteid  substances,  one  is 
known  as  a  snowy  crystalline  body,  which  is  considered  to  be 
leucin,  and  is  generally  regarded  as  being  also  a  product  of  the 
decomposition  of  silk.  Since  this  substance  may  be  obtained 
in  large  quantities  by  the  decomposition  of  silk,  the  speaker  had 
prepared  it  from  this  source  and  analyzed  it,  and  has  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  it  is  not  leucin  (amidocaproic  acid),  but  rather 
another  amidated  ac'd — namely,  alanin.  Of  the  two  possible 
isomers  of  alanin,  it  is  a-alanin  which  is  obtained  by  the  de- 
composition of  silk.  Dr.  Weyl  laid  stress  on  the  fact  that 
Schutzenbergcr  had  also  concluded  that  alanin  and  glycocol 
occur  among  the  products  of  decomposition  of  silk,  notwith- 
standing that,  during  his  elaborate  and  careful  researches  on 
proteids,  he  employed  a  method  which  is  as  unfavourable  as  can 
be  imagined  for  determining  this  point :  this  result  is  now  con- 
firmed by  the  speaker's  researches.  Schutzenberger's  further 
supposition,  that  an  amido-acid  of  the  acrylic  series  can  be  pre- 
pared from  silk,  was  not  supported  by  Dr.  Weyl's  analyses. — 
The  same  speaker  further  communicated  the  results  of  his  re- 
searches on  the  physiological  action  of  anthrarobin  and  chrys- 
arobin,  which  have  recently  been  largely  used  in  medical  practice. 
These  two  substances,  whose  chemical  constitution  and  rela- 
tionship to  alizarin  and  anthracene  have  been  made  clear  by 
Liebermann,  are  largely  used  as  reducing-bodies,  especially  in 
skin  diseases.    Dr.  Weyl  endeavoured,  by  means  of  experiments 


on  rabbits  and  dogs,  and  on  himself,  to  determine  the  physi 
logical  action  of  anthrarobin,  and  found  that  it  possesses  absolute 
no  action  on  the  living  organism,  even  when  taken  by  the  mou 
in  relatively  large  doses,  or  injected  subcutaneously.  It  cou 
be  detected  in  an  unaltered  condition  in  the  urine,  so  that  th 
substance,  notwithstanding  that  it  possesses  a  great  affinity  fi 
oxygen,  passes  through  the  body  without  being  oxidize< 
Chrysarobin,  on  the  other  hand,  has  a  very  different  action 
notwithstanding  its  close  relationship  to  the  non-injurioi 
anthrarobin,  it  has  a  powerfully  poisonous  action,  so  that  a 
experiments  made  with  it  were  of  necessity  confined  to  rabbi 
and  dogs.  The  speaker  was  unable  to  confirm  the  statemen 
of  several  authors  that  chrysarobin  reappears  in  the  urine  ; 
chrysophanic  acid.  It  is  rather  his  opinion  that  chrysarobin 
first  excreted  in  an  unaltered  condition,  and  only  subsequent! 
undergoes  a  change  into  chrysophanic  acid.  It  remains  f< 
further  experiments  to  clear  up  this  point. —  Prof.  Gad  spoke  0 
the  phosporescent  moss  Schistostega  osmundacea,  which  he  ha 
been  for  rome  time  cultivating,  and  which  he  exhibited.  . 
thorough  investigation  of  the  phosphorescent  powers  of  this  plai 
promises  a  rich  harvest  of  facts  from  a  physical  point  of  view 
it  is  well  known, 'on  the  basis  of  morphological  research,  that  tr 
phosphorescence  is  due  to  a  reflection  of  the  incident  light. 

In  the  report  of  the  Berlin  Meteorological  Society,  May 
(p.  119),  the  expression  "a  spring- vane,"  should  have  been  " 
vane  made  of  feathers." 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVE! 

Travels  in  Arabia  Deserta,  2  vols.  :  C.  M.  Doughty  (Cambridge  Press).- 
Modern  Science  in  Bible  Lands:  Sir  J.  W.  Dawson  (Hodderand  Stoug 
ton).— Catalog  der  Conchylien-Sammlung,  Lief.  7  :  Fr.  Paetel  (Berlin). 
Charts  showing  the  Mean  Barometrical  Pressure  over  the  Atlantic,  India 
and_  Pacific  Oceans  (Eyre  and  Spottiswoode). — Inorganic  Chemistry,  2r 
edition  :  by  Kolbe,  translated  and  edited  by  Humpidge  (Longmans).  - 
Longmans'  Test  Cards  in  Mechanics,  Stages  I.,  II.,  III.  (Longmans 
— Flora  of  North  America  (the  Gamopetalae)  :  Dr.  Asa  Gray  (Smithsonis 
Institution,  Washington).— La  Biologie  Vegetale  :  P.  Vuillemin  (Bai 
Here,  Paris). — Applications  r.f  Dynanvcs  to  Physics  and  Chemistry 
J.  J.  Thomson  (Macmillan).— Lingua  :   G.  J.  Henderson  (Triibner). 

CONTENTS.  pag 

Technical  Education 12 

Old  Babylonian  and  Chinese  Characters.     By  Prof. 

A.  H.  Sayce 12 

Dr.  Eimer  on  the  Origin  of  Species 12 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Mansel-Pleydell  :   "The  Birds  of  Dorsetshire  "  ;  and 
Bull:   "Notes  on  the  Birds  of  Herefordshire." — 

R.  Bowdler  Sharpe 12 

Lobley  :   "  Geology  for  All " 12 

Dunman  :   "Sound,  Light,   and   Heat,"  and  "  Elec- 
tricity and  Magnetism  "    12 

Wright:  "  Sea  side  and  Way-side  " 12 

Crawford:   "  Reminiscences  of  Foreign  Travel "     .    .  12 
Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

Dr.   Giglioli  and  Lepidosiren. — Prof.  G.  B.   Howes  12 
"A   Text-book    of   Biology." — J.     R.     Ainsworth 

Davis 12 

Resistance  of  Square  Bars  to  Torsion. — T.  I.  Dewar  12 
The  Geological  Structure  of  Scandinavia  and  the 

Scottish  Highlands.  By  Arch.  Geikie,  F.R.S.  .  .  12 
Timber,  and  some  of  its  Diseases.  VIII.  {Illus'rated.) 

By  Prof.  H.  Marshall  Ward 12 

Marine   Biology  and  the  Electric  Light.     {With  a 

Map).     By  Prof.  W.  A.  Herdman 13. 

A     Remarkable    Case    of    Fasciation    in    Fourcroya 

cubensis,  Haw.     {Illustrated.)     By  Dr.  A.  Ernst     .    .  13 

Notes 13 

Astronomical     Phenomena    for     the     Week      1888 

June  10-16 13 

Geographical  Notes 13' 

Biological  Notes  : — 

Fossil  Fish  Remains  from  New  Zealand 13 

Mammals  of  Liberia ,    .  13 

On  New  England  Medusae 13 

The  Bill  for  the  Promotion  of  Technical  Instruction  1 , 
Agricultural    Education  in    Northern  Italy  and  in 

Prussia " 13 

University  and  Educational  Intelligence 13 

Scientific  Serials 13 

Societies  and  Academies 14 

Books,  Pamphl-rts,  and  Serials  Received 14 


NA  TURE 


145 


THE  BO  YS'  "  YARRELL." 

An  Illustrated  Manual  of  British  Birds.  By  Howard 
Saunders,  F.L.S.,  F.Z.S.  Part  I.,  April  1888.  (Lon- 
don :  Gurney  and  Jackson.) 

\  BOYS'  "  Yarrell "  is  a  book  that  many  ornithologists 
have  long  wished  to  see.  More  than  six  years  ago  a 
scheme  for  producing  one  was  thought  out,  and  Mr. 
Howard  Saunders  was  invited,  and  consented,  to  aid  in 
its  production.  Dis  alitcr  visum— the  scheme  fell  through 
for  the  time ;  but  now  the  proposed  coadjutor  has  been 
favoured  by  fortune,  and  has  by  himself  been  able  to  put 
it  into  operation.  He  is  to  be  heartily  congratulated 
accordingly,  and  not  only  he,  but  scores  if  not  hundreds 
of  boys — to  whom  the  work,  just  begun,  will  afford  no  less 
delight  than  good  instruction. 

From  the  moment  when  the  first  part  of  the  original 
edition  of  Yarrell's  "  British  Birds  "  appeared — now  more 
than  fifty  years  ago — it  was  seen  that  a  new  era  in  the  study 
had  dawned.  The  author  had  no  other  scientific  training 
than  that  which,  amid  the  turmoil  of  business,  he  had  been 
able  to  acquire  for  and  by  himself;  but  he  knew  the  value 
of  scientific  work,  and  having  an  uncommon  amount  of 
common-sense,  he  knew  that  the  introduction  of  too  much 
of  it  into  his  books  would  render  them  indigestible  to  the 
unscientific  public  of  those  days.  Hence  his  "  British 
Fishes"  and  "  British  Birds,"  though  intentionally  popu- 
lar, are  permeated  by  an  only  half-concealed  thread  of 
scientific  thought,  which,  without  its  interfering  with  their 
rendableness,  the  true  aspirant  could  catch, and  guide  him- 
seli  thereby  to  a  higher  level.  From  the  publishers'  point 
of  view,  these  works  were  successful  beyond  expectation  ; 
but  they  had  one  great  drawback.  They  were  abundantly 
illustrated,  and  therefore  necessarily  expensive.  This  put 
them,  and  especially  the  "  British  Birds,"  to  which  the 
theme  of  the  present  notice  relates,  out  of  the  reach  of 
almost  all  but  those  in  easy  circumstances.  Scarcely  a 
school-boy,  however  much  he  might  covet  a  copy,  such  as 
he  might  happen  to  see  in  some  more  favoured  hands,  could 
out  of  his  pocket-money  afford  to  buy  a  "  Yarrell  "  ;  and 
even  though  the  price  of  the  later  editions  has  been  some- 
what reduced,  there  is  not  one  of  them  that  would  be  within 
his  means.  Moreover,  they  contained  a  good  deal  more 
than  he  cared  to  know.  The  sort  of  information  he 
wanted  was,  let  us  say,  whether  the  bird  he  saw  on  the 
top  of  a  hedge  was  a  Cirl- Bunting  or  not ;  or  whether,  as 
the  gamekeeper  had  told  him,  the  Sparrow-Hawk  was 
"that  artful  to  turn  hisself"  into  a  Cuckoo  in  the  spring  ; 
or,  again,  whether  the  bird  that  had  suddenly  risen  as  he 
walked  along  the  brook-side  was  a  Summer-Snipe  or  a 
Sandpiper,  and  what  was  the  difference,  if  any,  between 
them.  Of  course  he  would  a^so  like  to  know  how  the  Wild 
Duck  got  herducklings  down  into  the  waterfrom  the  hollow 
tree  in  which  he  had  found  her  nest,  and  what  became  of 
the  Swallows  in  winter,  and  the  Fieldfares  in  summer. 
Yarrell's  work  gave  all  this  in  the  best  way  possible,  but 
it  added  a  great  deal  more  that  the  school-boy  did  not  care 
a  button  for.  It  told  him  of  "  orders  "  and  "genera,"  and 
gave  u  characters  " — which  to  him  were  as  hard  as  Greek 
Vol.  xxxviii.— No.  972. 


verbs.  Every  now  and  then  there  was  a  bit  of  anatomy  ; 
but  that  was  to  the  good,  for  your  inquiring  school-boy 
rather  likes  making  a  rough  dissection,  and  is  pleased  to 
find  that  the  windpipe  of  a  drake  differs  from  that  of  a 
duck.  But  then,  again,  there  was  a  good  deal  of  "  dis- 
tribution," and  he  was  bored  by  recollections  of  dreary 
geographical  lessons,1  and  was  not  interested  at  learning 
that  such  or  such  a  bird  was  found  in  some  country  with 
a  long  name  not  easy  to  pronounce. 

With  all  these  merits  and  defects,  Yarrell's  work,  in  all 
its  editions,  undoubtedly  held  the  field,  and  there  grew  up 
more  than  one  imitation  of  it — specious,  pretentious,  and 
misleading.  One  of  these  plagiarisms  has  been  "  embel- 
lished" (that,  at  least,  is  the  word  used  by  the  publisher) 
with  coloured  figures  ;  but  unfortunately,  among  people 
who  knew  no  better,  as  well  as  among  people  who  ought 
to  have  known  better,  they  have  met  with  a  success  hardly 
inferior  to  the  work  from  which  they  have  been  ingeniously 
and  shamelessly  "  cribbed."  This  shows  the  exceeding 
popularity  of  the  subject ;  but  it  is  disgusting  to  find  in 
nearly  every  school-library  one  or  more  of  these  piratical 
works — generally  instead  of  the  good,  though  more  costly, 
original,  though  sometimes  on  the  same  shelf  with  it,  as  if 
the  two  were  of  equal  authority.  The  common  excuse  is  the 
high  price  of  "the  "  Yarrell,"  but  no  excuse  can  justify  the 
corruption  of  youthful  minds  by  ignorance,  twaddle,  and 
inaccuracy.  Better  hunger  than  poison — if  both  be  deadly, 
one  will  kill  more  quickly  than  the  other  ;  and,  since  while 
there  is  life  there  is  hope,  the  chance  of  proper  aliment 
being  timeously  supplied  exists  in  the  former  case,  but  in 
the  latter  even  the  antidote,  if  such  a  thing  there  be,  may 
be  exhibited  in  vain. 

The  work  now  begun  by  Mr.  Saunders  ought  to  abolish 
for  ever  the  excuse  just  spoken  of.  This  "  Manual  of 
British  Birds  "  is  cheap,  marvellously  cheap,  and  as  fully 
illustrated2  as  ordinary  boys  can  wish.  That  the  design 
he  has  followed  is  certain  to  have  a  good  effect  few  in  a 
position  to  give  an  opinion  can  doubt,  and  his  treatment 
of  it  is  satisfactory,  considering  the  enormous  difficulties 
in  the  way.  When  one  thinks  of  the  vast  amount  that 
has  been  written  about  British  birds  by  men  who  have 
written  from  their  own  knowledge — leaving  wholly  aside 
the  pilferers  above  complained  of— it  will  be  evident  that 
no  ordinary  discrimination  is  needed  to  extract  the 
essence  and  serve  it  up  on  an  octavo  page  and  a  half,  or 
perhaps  a  few  lines  more,  for  this  is  practically  the 
amount  of  letterpress  at  Mr.  Saunders's  disposal,  the  top 
of  the  first  page  being  reserved  for  a  woodcut  of  the 
species.  But  Mr.  Saunders  has  been  a  "Zoological 
Recorder,"  and  therefore  has  learnt  the  art  of  "  boiling 
down."  Occasionally  there  is  a  tendency  to  "  straggle  " 
— a  favourite  word  of  his,  and  one  that  is  seldom  apposite 
— and  if  verbal  criticism  be  allowable,  a  protest  might  be 
made  against  "  segregate"  (more  than  once  used)  where 
separate  is  meant.  But  generally  Mr.  Saunders  sets  an 
admirable  example  in  the  matter  of  language,  and  one 
that  all  ornithological  writers  might  well  follow,  since 
some  of  the  more  profuse  of  them  have  lately  banished 
grammar  and  etymology  to  the  outer  planets,  while  style 
is  a  quality  unthought  of. 

1  All  the  same,  the  school-boy  of  forty  or  fifty  years  ago  did  learn  some 
geography — a  kind  of  learning  that  has  lately  been  almost  wholly  dropped. 

2  The  illustrations  consist  mostly  of  reproductions  of  the  well-known 
"  Yarrell"  woodcuts. 

H 


146 


NA  TURE 


[June  14,  1888 


There  is  one  drawback  in  a  work  of  this  kind,  and  to 
some  extent  it  is  perhaps  unavoidable.  Mr.  Saunders, 
following  literally  the  scheme  originally  laid  before  him, 
and  disregarding  the  exceptions  therein  provided  for,  de- 
votes two  pages  to  each  species  of  bird.  Now  it  is  evident 
that  this  Procrustean  plan  cuts  off  many  details  of  the 
greatest  interest  from  what  might  be  said  of  some  species, 
and  compels  the  story  of  comparatively  uninteresting 
species  to  be  stretched  out.  Among  these  last  must  of 
course  be  reckoned  those  which  have  only  a  few  times 
made  their  way  to  the  British  Islands,  and  have  scarcely 
a  claim  to  be  called  "  British  "  birds.  In  a  work  like  this, 
Mr.  Saunders,  with  the  justly-earned  reputation  he  pos- 
sesses, might  well  have  taken  a  new  departure ;  but, 
unfortunately,  four  out  of  the  twenty  species  included  in 
his  first  part  come  under  this  condemnation.  Their  room, 
where  every  line  is  precious,  would  have  been  better  than 
their  company,  and  their  introduction  gives  the  beginner 
a  wholly  mistaken  notion  of  the  British  fau  na.  Figures 
of  the  same  absolute  dimensions  are  often  useful  for 
certain  purposes  of  comparison  ;  but  to  treat  the  Rock- 
Thrush  and  three  exotic  species  of  Wheatears  on  an  equality 
with  our  real  denizens,  that  have  inhabited  these  islands 
longer  probably  than  any  human  beings,  is  to  present  a 
piece  of  distorted  perspective.  The  practice  was  excus- 
able in  old  days,  and  those  that  had  to  tread  the  ancient 
tracks  were  compelled  to  follow  it ;  but  here  was  an  op- 
portunity of  striking  out  a  fresh  line.  Of  course  there  is 
great  difficulty  in  drawing  that  line,  for  it  must  be  drawn 
arbitrarily,  but  an  arbitary  line  would  be  better  than 
none.  On  a  wharf  a  post-and-rail  fence,  or  a  suspended 
chain,  may  be  placed  almost  at  random,  and  people  may 
say  that  it  should  have  been  a  few  inches  nearer  to,  or 
further  from,  the  brink,  but  if  it  saves  them  from  falling 
into  the  water,  few  persons  will  not  recognize  the  service 
it  does. 

It  is  a  pity  that  almost  the  first  word  in  this  excellent 
book  is  one  to  which  exception  must  be  taken.  Mr. 
Saunders  has  brought  back  the  vulgar  name  of  "  Missel- 
Thrush,"  which  some  people  fondly  hoped  had  been  for 
ever  abrogated — as  being  either  a  corrupt  abbreviation  or 
wholly  without  meaning.  Of  course  he  can  cite  Willughby 
and  a  long  string  of  subsequent  authorities  in  his  favour ;  but 
the  "  auctorttm plurimorum"  principle  is  directly  opposed 
to  sound  scientific  sense  ;  and  if  Mr.  Saunders  will  look 
up  Willughby's  predecessors — Charleton  and  Merrett — he 
will  find  that  they  do  not  admit  the  solecism.  In  a  work  of 
this  kind,  which  cannot  fail  to  have  a  great  effect  upon 
the  rising  generation  of  ornithologists,  the  least  tendency 
to  return  to  exploded  errors  is  to  be  deplored.  So  much 
for  criticism  of  the  part  which  is  now  before  me  :  I  gladly 
say  of  the  whole  book — Floreat.        Alfred  Newton. 

THEORY  AND    USE   OF  A   PHYSICAL 
BALANCE. 
Theory  and  Use  of  a  Physical  Balance.  By  James  Walker, 
M.A.,    Demonstrator    at    the    Clarendon    Laboratory. 
(Oxford  :    Clarendon  Press,  1887.) 

THE  author  states  that  this  publication  was  originally 
intended  as  a  chapter  of  a  book  on  practical 
physics  for  the  use  of  students  at  the  Clarendon  Labora- 
tory,   but  that   he    proposes    to    publish    each   chapter 


when  ready,  without  waiting  for  the  completion  of  the 
work.  This  method  certainly  has  some  advantages 
both  from  the  author's  and  the  student's  points  of  view. 
The  practical  study  of  physics,  like  that  of  all  other 
sciences,  and  perhaps  even  to  a  greater  extent  than  any 
other,  is  rapidly  becoming  specialized,  with  the  necessary 
consequences  that  while  each  subdivision  is  expanding 
and  becoming  weighted  with  more  details  and  technic- 
alities, many  diligent  workers  on  one  part  of  the  subject 
are  indifferent  to  the  methods  and  appliances  used  in 
other  branches.  The  numerous  army  of  students  in 
electricity  and  magnetism  may  take,  for  example,  but  a 
very  superficial  interest  in  the  experimental  side  of 
acoustics  or  optics.  At  the  same  time  it  may  be  open 
to  question  whether  it  is  advisable  to  break  a  work  up 
into  comparatively  small  fragments,  as  appears  to  be 
the  intention  in  the  present  case.  Like  all  other  matter, 
the  subject  may  lose  in  cohesion  by  being  presented  in 
too  fine  a  state  of  division. 

The  instalment  now  issued  gives  a  detailed  and  precise 
description  of  one  of  Oertling's  balances  used  in  the 
Clarendon  Laboratory.  The  very  clear  explanation  of 
the  mechanism  is  assisted  by  three  plates,  one  a  photo- 
graph showing  a  general  view,  and  the  others  line 
drawings  of  the  various  parts.  Any  want  of  clearness  and 
definition  in  the  photograph,  which  is  not  a  particularly 
happy  example  of  a  collotype,  is  amply  atoned  for  in  the 
sectional  diagrams. 

Details  are  given  of  the  methods  adopted  by  the 
manufacturers  to  insure  the  accurate  adjustment  of  the 
knife-edges,  to  test  for  their  parallelism,  for  their  being  in 
the  same  plane,  for  the  equality  of  the  lengths  of  the  arms, 
and  of  the  masses  of  the  pans,  &c.  The  expression  for 
the  sensibility  of  the  balance  is  determined  from  the 
general  equations  of  equilibrium,  and  practical  instruc- 
tions are  given  with  the  necessary  formulae  for  performing 
some  half-dozen  of  the  usual  physical  operations  with 
the  balance,  such  as  the  determination  of  density  of 
bodies  heavier  and  lighter  than  water,  of  bodies  in  small 
pieces,  &c. 

In  a  thorough  and  somewhat  elaborate  investigation, 
which  seems  hardly  suitable  for  a  work  intended  as  a  hand- 
book for  a  student  entering  on  a  course  of  laboratory  in- 
struction, the  writer  discusses  the  equations  of  motion  of  a 
balance,  and  shows  that  the  method  of  determining  the 
position  of  equilibrium  from  the  amplitude  of  the  oscilla- 
tions on  either  side  of  the  zero  is  not  rigidly  correct,  since 
the  beam  with  its  adjuncts  have  not  a  simple  definite 
period  of  vibration  like  a  pendulum.  The  reassuring 
result  is,  however,  arrived  at,  that  the  errors  introduced 
are  of  a  vanishing  order,  if  the  masses  in  the  pans  remain 
constant  during  a  set  of  weighings. 

Borda's  method  of  counterpoising  to  eliminate  errors 
of  the  instrument  is  recommended  according  to  the  usual 
practice,  a  mass  heavier  than  the  substance  to  be  weighed 
being  placed  in  the  left-hand  pan,  while  the  substance 
and  known  masses  are  placed  in  the  right-hand  pan  to 
bring  the  beam  into  an  observed  position  of  equilibrium. 
This  procedure  has  advantages  over  the  more  tedious 
and  less  cleanly  plan  of  exactly  counterbalancing  the 
substance  with  shot  and  fine  sand,  &c. 

In  allowing  for  the  supporting  force  of  the  atmosphere, 
the  author  assumes  that  the  average  amount  of  moisture  in 


II 


June  14,  1888] 


NATURE 


147 


the  air  may  be  taken  as  two  thirds  of  the  maximum  possible. 
This  seems  a  very  high  value  for  a  closed  and  artificially 
heated  room;  certainly  much  in  excess  for  air  in  a  balance 
case  which  contains  any  substance,  such  as  chloride  of 
calcium,  for  absorbing  the  moisture.  Perhaps  it  is  the 
uncertainty  as  to  the  condition  of  the  air  thus  artificially 
treated  which  causes  the  author  to  omit  any  reference  to 
any  of  the  hygroscopic  substances  usually  employed. 

The  standard  masses  used  at  the  Clarendon  Laboratory 
are  stated  to  be  marked  with  their  apparent  value  in 
air  at  io°  C.  and  76  cm.  of  mercury.  It  is  the  usual 
custom,  we  believe,  to  mark  the  absolute  value  of  the 
masses.  For  work  not  requiring  the  most  refined  pre- 
cautions, the  convenience  of  weights  marked  with  their 
apparent  value  is  obvious  :  no  correction  need  be  made 
for  the  supporting  force  of  the  air  on  the  weights  ;  but  if 
that  accuracy  is  considered  sufficient,  it  seems  an  un- 
necessary refinement  to  complicate  the  formulae  by 
introducing  a  correction  for  the  difference  between  the 
temperature  of  the  air  and  of  the  water  in  which  the 
substance  is  weighed. 

The  work  is  very  clearly  written  and  admirably  printed, 
and  will  doubtless  form,  when  completed  (and  we  hope 
this  will  not  be  at  a  distant  date),  a  valuable  addi- 
tion to  the  text-books  on  this  subject.  We  have  only 
noticed  two  mistakes  in  the  text — the  omission  of  the 
small  over-weight  w  at  line  23,  p.  12,  and  of  the  length  of 
the  arm,  a,  at  line  10,  p.  16  ;  but  neither  of  these  omissions 
affects  the  final  results.  The  average  student  would, 
however,  probably  prefer  that  a  larger  portion  of  the 
space  should  be  devoted  to  the  more  practical  side  of 
the  subject,  to  hints  and  precautions  to  be  taken  in  various 
operations  ;  those  given  are  very  good,  but  they  might 
with  advantage  have  been  extended.  It  would  also,  we 
think,  be  useful  to  indicate  by  numerical  examples 
the  order  of  magnitude  of  the  various  corrections 
to  be  applied,  so  that  a  student  may  judge  what 
corrections  may  be  safely  omitted  in  the  particular 
observation  on  which  he  is  engaged.  Some  of  the  space 
given  to  the  description  of  the  instrument  might,  we 
think,  have  been  more  profitably  devoted  to  a  general 
account  of  other  types  of  construction.  Only  a  passing 
reference  is  made  to  the  "  short-beam "  balance,  and 
other  modifications  of  the  physical  balance  are  not 
alluded  to. 


OF  WEST  YORKSHIRE. 
Yorkshire,  with  a    Sketch    of  the 


THE  FLORA 
The  Flora  of  West 

Climatology   and  Lithology   in   connection   therewith. 

By  Frederic  Arnold   Lees.     8vo,  pp.  843,  with  a  Map. 

(London  :  Lovell  Reeve  and  Co.,  1888.) 
TT  is  just  a  quarter  of  a  century  since  John  Gilbert 
J-  Baker's  excellent  book  on  the  botany,  geology, 
climate,  and  physical  geography  of  North  Yorkshire 
appeared,1  and  the  present  volume,  devoted  to  West 
Yorkshire,  is  avowedly  moulded  on  that  model.  Since 
then,  English  county  and  other  local  "floras"  have 
become  very  numerous —many  of  them  well  executed, 
others  indifferently.  We  do  not  mean  to  say  that  Mr. 
Baker  was  the  originator  of  local  "floras,"  for  this  branch 

1  We  understand  that  a  new  edition  is  in  preparation. 


of  botanical  literature  early  took  root  in  this  country, 
and  has  perhaps  attained  a  development  unknown  else- 
where. Interesting  among  the  earlier  of  such  publications 
is  John  Ray's  "  Catalogus  Plantarum  circa  Cantabrigiam 
nascentium,"  which  dates  (1660)  nearly  a  hundred  years 
before  the  first  edition  of  Linnasus's  "  Species  Plantarum." 
It  is  interesting  alike  for  its  botany  and  its  botanical 
history.  But  the  importance  of  exactitude  in  recording 
the  localities  of  plants  was  not  thoroughly  realized  by 
amateur  botanists  until  they  were  stimulated  thereto  by 
the  methodical  and  conscientious,  though  somewhat  dis- 
cursive, ph)  togeographical  writings  of  the  late  Hewett 
Cottrell  Watson.  Now,  thanks  to  the  exertions  of  the 
competent  few,  English  amateur  botanists  are  so  tho- 
roughly educated  in  geographical  botany  at  the  beginning 
of  their  studies,  that  the  careless,  or,  what  is  worse,  the 
unprincipled,  recorder  of  assumed  localities  of  the  rarer 
plants,  is  at  once  discovered  and  exposed.  The  lati- 
tudinal and  altitudinal  range  of  each  species  is  now 
known  with  such  accuracy  that  any  new  record  outside 
of  the  known  limits  is  at  once  scrutinized  and  tested, 
and  only  accepted  on  the  best  authority.  It  is  a  ques- 
tion, however,  whether  this  sort  of  thing  is  not  being 
overdone. 

Mr.  Lees  expresses  a  hope  that  the  acknowledged 
adoption  of  Baker's  admirable  method  of  inquiry  and 
statement  will  not  be  regarded  as  too  servile.  We  think 
it  will  not ;  and  had  the  imitation  been  carried  a  little 
further,  and  the  briefer  and  more  condensed  style  of  the 
pattern  followed,  it  would  have  been  a  distinct  advantage, 
because  it  would  have  reduced  the  size  of  the  book  with- 
out in  the  least  impairing  its  value.  The  area  of  West 
Yorkshire  is  about  2750  square  miles,  and  this  is  divided 
into  ten  drainage  districts,  varying  in  size  from  30  square 
miles  (Mersey  tributaries)  to  570  square  miles — Don  with 
Dearne  ;  and  the  stations,  or  a  selection  of  stations,  in 
which  a  given  plant  is  known  to  occur  in  each  of  these 
districts  are  given — in  many  instances,  in  what  we  should 
regard  as  excessive  detail.  Whether  it  would  not 
have  been  better  to  amalgamate  some  of  the  districts, 
instead  of  adhering  so  closely  to  a  principle  as  to  main- 
tain a  very  small  portion  of  a  drainage  area  as  a  distinct 
district,  we  will  not  pretend  to  decide  ;  but  there  is  no 
doubt  it  would  have  resulted  in  a  considerable  saving  of 
space,  which  might  have  been  profitably  devoted  to  a 
brief  exposition  of  the  total  geographical  area  of  each 
genus  and  species. 

With  regard  to  the  manner  in  which  Mr.  Lees  has 
executed  the  task  he  undertook,  there  is  ample  evi- 
dence that  he  has  spared  no  pains ;  and  we  have 
means  of  knowing  that  those  most  concerned  are  very 
grateful  for  such  a  store  of  well-sifted  records.  Never- 
theless, this  work,  which  forms  the  second  volume  of 
the  botanical  series  of  the  Transactions  of  the  York- 
shire Naturalists'  Union,  has  its  peculiarities,  chiefly 
of  a  literary  kind.  On  opening  the  book,  we  happened 
to  light  on  the  "  Foreword,"  first  of  all,  and  we  naturally 
expected  that  our  author  was  a  purist  who  wrote  only 
Saxon  English  ;  but  we  soon  discovered  that  uncommon 
words,  irrespective  of  their  origin,  are  dragged  into  use, 
and  sometimes  so  piled  up  as  to  obscure  not  a  little  the 
meaning  of  the  somewhat  inflated  sentences.  However, 
this  peculiarity  is  not  carried  so  far  as  to  constitute   a 


148 


NATURE 


\June  14,  1 


serious  defect  in  the  work,  and  may  be  passed  over  with 
this  allusion. 

Very  interesting  are  two  introductory  chapters  on  the 
climatology  and  lithology  of  West  Yorkshire,  specially  in 
relation  to  plant-life,  which  many  persons  would  doubt- 
less gladly  possess,  apart  from  the  enumeration  of  the 
plants  of  the  region.  In  the  list  of  pelophilous  (clay- 
loving)  plants,  we  note  Spircea  Filipendula,  a.  plant  so 
strictly  associated  with  chalk  in  the  south  of  England, 
that  we  are  surprised  to  find  it  among  those  characteristic 
of  clay  and  mud-soils.  Perhaps  it  was  a  slip  of  the  pen 
for  S.  Ulmaria  ? 

The  total  number  of  species  of  vascular  plants  enumer- 
ated is  1042,  whereof  995  are  phanerogams,  which  is 
equal  to  the  whole  phanerogamic  flora  of  New  Zealand, 
even  after  allowing  40  off  for  "  critical  species  "  of  various 
genera.  On  the  other  hand,  the  vascular  cryptogams  of 
West  Yorkshire  are  only  47  against  138  in  New  Zea- 
land, of  which  120  are  ferns.  Fortunately  for  the  New 
Zealanders,  and  Australians  too,  for  that  matter,  they  are 
free  from  the  "  horse-tails,"  which  are  such  terrible  pests 
to  farmers  in  some  districts  of  this  country ;  but  seven 
species  are  indigenous  in  West  Yorkshire. 

Cellular  cryptogams  are  also  included  in  Lees's 
"  Flora,"  and  occupy  about  250  pages.  The  enumera- 
tions of  some  of  the  groups  are  exceedingly  imperfect 
— imperfect  in  consequence  of  their  not  having  been 
investigated — and  it  would  have  been  much  more  con- 
venient for  the  majority  of  workers  had  this  class  been 
reserved  for  a  separate  volume.  W.  B.  H. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

A  Manual  of  Practical  Assaying.  By  John  Mitchell, 
F.C.S.  Edited  by  William  Crookes,  F.R.S.  Sixth 
Edition.     (London:  Longmans,  Green,  and  Co.,  1888.) 

Mitchell's  "  Assaying "  is  so  well  known  to  all  whom 
the  subject  concerns,  that  it  is  hardly  necessary  at  present 
to  do  more  than  announce  the  appearance  of  a  new 
edition.  In  this  edition,  as  Mr.  Crookes  explains,  much 
new  matter  has  been  introduced,  and  matter  which  had 
become  obsolete  has  been  omitted.  Among  the  more 
important  of  the  additions  are  descriptions  of  the  "auto- 
matic sampling-machine,"  invented  by  Mr.  D.  W.  Brun- 
ton ;  many  new  gas-furnaces  and  burners  for  the  laboratory, 
devised  by  Mr.  Fletcher,  Messrs.  J.J.  Griffin,  and  others  ; 
new  blow-pipe  reagents  and  operations  ;  new  processes, 
dosimetric,  volumetric,  and  calorimetric,  for  the  partial 
and  complete  assay  of  iron  ores,  iron,  steel,  spiegeleisen, 
&c.  In  the  copper  assay  the  American  system  of  fire 
assay  is  here,  for  the  first  time  in  this  country,  fully  de- 
scribed. In  the  assay  of  silver,  the  action  of  bismuth  on 
the  ductility  of  this  metal  has  received  adequate  atten- 
tion. Much  has  been  added  about  gold  ores ;  and 
improved  modes  of  assaying  the  precious  metal  and 
detecting  it  in  poor  ores  are  given.  The  number  of 
woodcuts  has  been  increased  from  188  in  the  last  edition 
to  201  in  the  present  edition. 

Asbestos,  its  Production  and  Use.  By  Robert  H.  Jones. 
(London  :  Crosby  Lockwood  and  Son,  1888.) 

This  little  book,  written  in  epistolary  style,  though  pos- 
sessing little  or  no  scientific  value,  contains  an  interesting 
account  of  the  "  asbestos  "  mines  of  Canada,  and  of  the 
methods  pursued  in  working  the  mineral  in  that  country. 
It  is  precisely  ten  years  since  the  first  Canadian 
chrysotile  mines  were  opened,  and  the  annual  yield  at  the 
present  time  appears  to  be  more  than  2000  tons,  so  that  the 


new  locality  is  rapidly  becoming  an  important  rival  to  the 
older  and  better-known  asbestos  mines  of  the  Italian  Alps. 
The  author  gives  a  brief  description  of  the  mode  of  occur- 
rence of  the  mineral  in  the  Serpentine  belt  which  traverses 
the  provinces  of  Megantic  and  Beauce  in  Quebec,  and 
prophesies  a  wider  development  of  this  industry  in  the 
future  ;  he  does  not,  however,  supply  any  such  details  as 
would  suggest  either  the  origin  or  the  probable  extent  of 
the  Canadian  "  asbestos,"  and  the  book  contains  no 
original  observations  of  any  scientific  importance.  The 
author  does  not  appear  to  be  aware  of  the  difference 
between  asbestos  and  chrysotile.  The  pages  most  inter- 
esting to  general  readers  are  those  which  contain  an 
account  of  the  latest  uses  to  which  the  mineral  is  now 
applied  ;  among  which  may  be  mentioned  fire-balloons, 
theatre-curtains,  fire-proof  paint,  filters,  and  letter-paper. 

Industrial  Instruction.  By  Robert  Seidel.  Translated 
by  Margaret  K.  Smith.  (Boston  :  D.  C.  Heath  and 
Co.,  1888.) 
In  the  years  1882  and  1884  industrial  instruction  formed 
the  subject  of  much  discussion  in  the  Synod  of  the  Canton 
of  Zurich.  Herr  Seidel,  who  had  long  devoted  earnest 
attention  to  the  question,  carefully  answered  all  the 
objections  to  industrial  education  which  were  raised  in  the 
course  of  these  debates  ;  and  the  substance  of  his  replies 
is  embodied  in  the  work  translated  in  the  present  volume. 
If  there  is  still  anyone  who  has  doubts  as  to  the  value  of 
manual  training  in  schools,  he  would  profit  largely  by 
reading  this  little  book.  Herr  Seidel's  main  point  is  that 
such  training  is  absolutely  essential  in  the  interests  of  true 
education,  and  in  working  out  this  view  he  displays  great 
intellectual  resource  and  a  thorough  appreciation  of  the 
laws  of  mental  growth.  He  is  not  afraid  that  when  the 
need  for  this  "  new  departure  "  is  generally  recognized 
the  task  imposed  upon  teachers  will  be  beyond  their 
capacities.  The  training  of  teachers  for  industrial  in- 
struction," he  says,  "  offers  no  difficulty,  and  will  not  (as 
has  been  asserted)  by  any  means  involve  the  necessity  for 
two  kinds  of  teachers.  The  teacher  can  very  well  master 
the  new  task,  and  if  his  prejudice  has  disappeared,  will 
very  gladly  undertake  it.  Probably  the  imparting  of 
industrial  instruction  will  become  a  favourite  employment 
of  the  teacher,  because  the  change  refreshes  and  the 
labour  gladdens  him." 

LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
op  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations.'] 

Electric  Fishes  in  the  River  Uruguay. 

In  Sir  Horace  Rumbold's  "  Great  Silver  River"  (London, 
1887),  the  author,  when  on  the  Upper  Uruguay  above  Uru- 
guayana,  speaks  of  a  "kind  of  Electric  Eel  (Gymnotus)  called 
here  Rayo  or  Lightning,  of  the  effects  of  contact  with  which, 
very  curious  and  unrelateable  stories  are  told." 
,  The  range  of  the  Gymnoti  is  usually  supposed  to  be  con- 
fined to  the  waters  of  the  Orinoco  and  Amazons  and  their 
affluents,  so  that  it  would  be  very  desirable  to  ascertain  what 
this  supposed  electric  fish  of  the  Rio  Uruguay  really  is.  Perhaps 
some  of  your  readers  in  the  Argentine  Republic  may  be  able  to 
assist  us  in  solving  this  problem,  which  would  be  best  done  by 
the  transmission  of  specimens  of  the  fish  in  question  to  the 
British  Museum.  P.  L.  Sclater. 

3  Hanover  Square,  London,  W.,  June  8. 


The  Salt  Industry  in  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Ward  in  his  letter  to  Nature  (May  10,  p.  29), 
respecting  the  salt  industry  in  the  United  States,  makes  no  men- 
tion of    the    important    and    numerous    contributions    to    the 


J  n  uc  14,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


149 


literature  of  that  subject  by  Dr.  Charles  A.  Goessmann,  at  the 
present  time  Director  of  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural  Experi- 
ment Station,  but  formerly,  from  1861  to  1869,  chemist  to  the 
Onondaga  Salt  Company,  at  Syracuse,  N.Y.  While  filling  that 
position  he  investigated  very  thoroughly  the  salt  deposits  of  New 
York,  Michigan,  Goderich,  Canada,  and  Petit  Anse  Island, 
Louisiana,  and  his  published  reports  and  memoirs  (some  twenty 
in  number)  npon  the  salines,  brines,  and  mineral  springs  of  the 
country  form,  for  the  period  which  they  cover,  a  very  complete 
and  valuable  record  of  the  salt  industry  in  the  United  States. 
Amherst,  Mass.,  May  26.  F.  Tuckerman. 


Prof.   Greenhill  on   "  Kinematics  and  Dynamics." 

May  I  ask  space  for  a  few  short  comments  on  Prof.  Greenhill's 
letter  in  your  issue  of  May  17  (p.  54),  so  far  as  it  is  directed 
against  myself. 

(1)  The  "circumlocutions"  referred  to  are  not  of  my  devising, 
but  are  current  phrases  which  involve  no  ambiguity  and  are  useful 
for  avoiding  frequent  repetition. 

(2)  It  is  not  true  that  "  although  such  words  as  '  a  force  equal 
to  the  weight  of  the  mass  of  10  pound  weights  '  do  not  occur  in 
Prof.  MacGregor's  book,  they  are  strictly  derived  from  his  de- 
finitions." According  to  my  definitions,  it  is  the  body  itself 
which  has  weight,  not  its  mass  ;  and  the  above  phrase  is  therefore 
meaningless. 

(3)  Prof.  Greenhill  has  not  cited  a  single  instance  to  justify 
his  charge  that  I  am  at  variance  with  my  own  definition 
of  the  weight  of  a  body  in  the  majority  of  the  subsequent 
examples. 

(4)  He  now  seems  to  admit  that  in  my  hydrostatical  equations 
pressure  may  be  expressed  in  pounds  on  the  square  foot,  but  to 
claim  that  it  can  be  done  only  in  a  clumsy  manner.  There  is 
doubtless  a  certain  clumsiness,  but  it  seems  to  me  to  be  due  to 
the  employment  of  a  clumsy  set  of  units. 

(5)  Your  reviewer  still  demands  that  I  should  give  the 
dimensions  of  the  earth,  not  in  terms  of  the  actual  metre,  but 
in  terms  of  what  the  original  designers  of  the  metre  intended  it 
to  be  ;  but  he  gives  no  reason  for  this  strange  demand. 

(6)  If  the  knot  is  a  unit  of  velocity,  the  term  knots  per  hour  is 
of  course  redundant.  I  have  always  considered  it  an  abbrevia- 
tion, but  have  no  means  at  hand  of  settling  the  point. 

(7)  Prof.  Greenhill  tacitly  admits  that  he  was  in  error  in  ac- 
cusing me  of  misusing  the  term  elongation. 

(8)  He  makes  no  attempt  to  substantiate  his  statement  that 
my  equations  of  energy  were  not  expressed  in  pioper  form. 

(9)  He  does  not  answer  my  question  as  to  which  of  the  most 
recent  treatises  on  dynamics  my  treatment  of  units  shows  me  to 
have  read  without  profit  and  discrimination. 

Edinburgh,  May  31.  J.  G.  MacGregor. 

Further  Use   of  Ptolemy's   Theorem    (Euclid,  VI.   D.) 
for  a  Problem  in  Maxima  and  Minima. 

To  find  E  within  AABC  such  that 

AE  sin  BEC  +  BE  sin  CEA  +  CE  sin  AEB 

shall  be  a  maximum. 

A 


Keep  BEC  constant ;  produce  AE  to  cut  circum-circle  of  BEC 
(which  is  then  a  fixed  circle)  in  D. 

Then  sin  BEA  =--  sin  BED  =  sin  BCD, 

"sin  AEC  =  sin  CED  =  sin  CBD, 
and  sin  BEC  =  sin  BDC  ; 


BC 


CD 


DB 


sin  BEC      sin  AE< :       sin  AEB 
.  \   AE  sin  BEC  +  BE  sin  CEA  +  CE  sin  A  EB 
is  proportional  to 

AE  .  BC  +  BE  .  CD  +  CE  .  BD, 

and  therefore  to 

AE  .  BC  +  ED  .  BC.     (En.  VI.  D), 
which 

=  AD  .  BC. 

For  a  maximum  AE  passes  through  centre  of  circum-circle  of 
BEC. 

Similarly  BE  passes  through  centre  of  circum-circle  of  CEA. 
Let  it  cut  it  again  in  F. 

1  BCE  =   z  BDE, 

=   z  BFA  in  same  segment  of  circle  through  F,  A,  B,  D, 
=   t  ACE. 


Similarly 


Bedford. 


AE,  BE  bisect   1  CAB,  ABC. 
.'.  E  is  the  in-centre  of  AABC. 

E.  M.  Langley. 


Davis's  "Biology." 

If  I  may  argue  from  the  contents  of  Mr.  Davis's  book,  he 
should  be  a  good  judge  of  what  constitutes  "  falling  into  a  com- 
mon mistake,"  and  yet  I  cannot  accept  his  opinion  as  to  my 
having  accomplished  this  feat.  I  have  refrained  from  enumerat- 
ing the  common  mistakes  which  his  little  book  contains,  but  I 
am  not  prepared  to  allow  him  to  lay  down  the  law  as  to 
educational  methods.  In  my  opinion  it  is  a  grievous  error  to 
present  any  subject  of  study  to  University  students  under  two 
aspects,  that  of  "pass"  and  that  of  "honours."  Whatever  is 
worth  doing  at  all  (in  academic  exercises)  is  worth  doing  well, 
and  no  regulations  sanctioned  by  any  University  Senate — however 
philanthropic,  incompetent,  and  imperial — can  make  the  perennial 
iteration  of"  the  statements  in  a  cram-book  concerning  six  plants 
and  six  animals  a  satisfactory  substitute  for  the  study  of 
zoological  and  botanical  science,  or  anything  but  a  pernicious 
torturing  of  the  youthful  mind.  The  Reviewer. 


M.  FAYE'S  THEORY  OF  STORMS.1 

ACCORD  I N  G  to  M.  Faye,  "  There  exist  in  meteorology 
two  theories  diametrically  opposed — one  which  con- 
siders air-whirls  round  a  vertical  axis,  including  cyclones, 
typhoons,  tornadoes,  and  waterspouts,  to  originate  in  the 
upper  currents  of  the  atmosphere  ;  and  the  other  which 
considers  each  of  these  as  the  effect  of  a  local  rarefaction, 
giving  rise  at  the  surface  of  the  ground,  in  an  atmosphere 
in  a  more  or  less  unstable  condition,  to  an  ascending 
current  of  air,  which  borrows  a  gyratory  tendency  from 
the  rotation  of  the  ground  itself."  Such  is  the  opening 
sentence  of  the  pamphlet  before  us,  which  embodies  a 
resume  of  M.  Faye's  discussions  in  the  French  Academy 
with  those  who  do  not  accept  his  peculiar  views  on  the 
generation  of  atmospheric  disturbances. 

M.  Faye  upholds  the  former  theory  with  that  incisive 
vigour  which  characterizes  our  Gallic  neighbours,  and 
attacks  the  meteorologists  with  whose  writings  he  is 
acquainted,  beginning  with  poor  Franklin  and  ending 
with  Sprung  in  1885,  without  mercy,  but  at  the  same  time 
without  the  smallest  reference  to  physics  apart  from 
mechanics. 

Before  pointing  out  some  of  the  grave  errors  of  fact,  as 
well  as  theory,  into  which  we  deem  M.  Faye  to  have 
fallen,  it  may  be  as  well  to  see  if  we  cannot  attempt  a 
reconciliation  between  these  two  opposite  views,  which 
are  considered  to  be  prevalent. 

To  avoid  mixing  up  tornadoes  and  cyclones,  which  we 
hold  to  be,  if  not  generically,  at  all  events  specifically,  dis- 
tinct, let  us  first  consider  the  former  alone.     The  point 

1  "  Siir  les  Temretes."  Par  M.  H.  Faye.  (Paris:  Gauthier-Villars, 
1887.) 


i5o 


NATURE 


[J  tine  14,  1888 


that  M.  Faye  insists  upon  all  through  is,  that  these  arise 
solely  through  inequalities  in  the  upper  currents,  causing 
gyration  round  a  vertical  axis,  which,  like  a  river  eddy,  is 
propagated  from  above  downwards,  by  a  descending  motion 
of  the  air.  M.Colladon,referringtoM.  Faye's  view,  describes 
the  supposed  action  as  "  un  mouvement  tourbillonnaire 
aerien  constituant  a  son  interieur  une  trombe  aspiratrice 
a  mouvement  descendant."  M.  Faye,  therefore,  postulates 
two  points  :  (1)  that  the  movement  commences  above  ; 
(2)  that  it  is  propagated  downwards  by  a  descending 
motion,  accompanied  by  gyration  round  a  vertical  axis. 
The  opposite  theory,  as  presented  by  M.  Faye,  is  the 
exact  inverse  of  this,  since  it  makes  the  action  (1)  com- 
mence at  the  earth's  surface  ;  (2)  propagate  itself  up- 
wards ;  and  (3)  borrow  its  gyration  from  that  of  the 
earth.  Here,  however,  we  find  ourselves  distinctly  at  issue 
with  M.  Faye,  for  we  do  not  believe  that  the  leaders  of 
modern  meteorology  entertain  any  such  view  as  the 
latter.  The  surface  of  the  earth  is  the  most  unlikely 
birthplace  for  a  tornado,  whirlwind,  or  waterspout.  In 
order  to  maintain  an  ascending  current,  the  air  must  be 
nearly  saturated,  and  this  will  generally  occur  only  in 
and  near  the  lowest  cloud  stratum.  The  vertical  tem- 
perature gradient  and  disturbances  which  start  the  action, 
will  likewise  operate  most  effectively  at  this  level,  so  that 
all  the  conditions  which  unite  to  cause  a  tornado  will  tend 
to  commence  at  some  distance  above  the  earth's  surface. 
On  the  question  of  level,  therefore,  we  may  invite  M. 
Faye  to  agree  with  us.  Then  comes  the  question  of  the 
downward  propagation. 

The  entire  gist  of  the  question  appears  to  us  to  lie  in 
this  downward  propagation.  The  physical  theory  de- 
veloped by  Ferrel  and  Sprung  makes  the  action  commence 
in  a  slight  upward  motion  in  unstable  air,  due  to  a  tem- 
perature inequality  or  some  other  cause,  the  only  other 
condition  being  a  gentle  gyratory  motion  relative  to  some 
central  point,  which  is  never  wanting  in  a  cyclonic  area. 
Once  the  motion  is  started,  and  the  air  which  feeds  it  is 
nearly  or  quite  saturated,  the  action  will  go  on  and  be 
propagated  downwards,  not  by  a  descent  of  the  air,  but 
by  the  transference  of  the  physical  conditions  which 
favour  the  continuance  and  maximum  development  of  the 
"  courant  ascendant."  The  increasing  rapidity  of  gyration 
of  the  air  as  it  approaches  the  axis,  however  gentle  it  may 
be  at  starting,  only  allows  it  to  partially  feed  the  initial 
and  continually  reproduced  vacuum,  which  is  thus  com- 
pelled to  draw  its  supplies  chiefly  from  the  non-gyrating 
air  at  the  lower  end  of"  the  aerial  shaft.  As  this  is  drawn 
upwards,  the  centrally  aspired  surrounding  air  is  made  to 
gyrate  more  rapidly  (partly  by  the  friction  of  the  super- 
jacent rotating  layer),  and  thus  the  gyratory  and  other 
conditions  are  propagated  downwards  until  a  balance  is 
struck  between  supply  and  demand. 

The  theory  thus  sketched  may  be  termed  the  modern 
theory  of  aspiration  as  applied  to  tornadoes,  and  will,  we 
venture  to  think,  be  found  to  meet  all  M.  Faye's  objections 
to  the  first  crude  notions  which  prevailed  in  past  years 
from  a  study  of  a  few  isolated  surface  conditions. 

Before  proceeding  to  notice  the  objections  which  M. 
Faye  brings  against  the  existence  of  either  an  upward 
current  or  any  sort  of  aspiration  in  tornadoes,  we  must  first 
touch  upon  the  cognate  question  of  cyclone  generation, 
which  he  explains  on  the  same  principles  ; l  and  here,  with- 
out attempting  to  give  any  review  of  the  modern  theory, 
which  involves  as  a  primary  condition  a  horizontal 
temperature  anomaly  over  a  considerable  area,  we 
may  observe  that  the  two  main  objections  brought  by  M. 
Faye  against  the  ordinary  view  of  their  formation  are, 
(1)  that  it  assumes  the  existence  of  centripetal  currents, 
and  hence  aspiration  towards  their  axes ;  (2)  that  it  gives 

•  '  There  is  no  real  connecting  link  between  the  two,  i.e.  the  smaller 
cyclones  do  not  begin  where  the  larger  tornadoes  leave  off.  The  average 
size  of  600  tornadoes  in  the  United  States  was  found  to  be  1085  yards.  The 
average  size  of  the  cyclones  is  as  many  miles. 


no  explanation  of  their  movements  over  the  earth's 
surface. 

With  respect  to  the  first  objection,  M.  Faye  draws 
attention  to  a  principle  which  he  develops  on  p.  46, 
according  to  which  the  isobars  in  the  temperate  zone  do 
not  correctly  represent  the  motions  of  the  air  in  a  cyclone, 
and  says  we  must  look  at  the  isobars  in  a  tropical  cyclone 
if  we  wish  to  arrive  at  correct  conclusions. 

Here,  according  to  M.  Faye  (pp.  2  and  46),  where  "by 
the  ancient  theory  the  direction  of  the  wind  ought  to  cut 
the  isobar  at  an  angle  of  nearly  90°,  the  angle  is  sensibly 
nothing  ;  the  pretended  centripetal  component  disappears  ; 
and  the  isobars  and  the  wind  arrows  display  an  almost 
rigorous  circularity."  Again,  on  p.  12  he  ridicules  the 
idea  of  a  barometric  gradient  in  the  tropics,  "  where  the 
wind  blows  precisely  along  the  isobars."  It  is  with  no 
desire  to  indulge  in  mere  polemic  that  we  take  up  the 
gauntlet  thus  thrown  down,  but  the  magnificent  work  of 
that  most  careful  and  renowned  inductive  meteorologist 
Prof.  Loomis  which  he  has  been  lately  revising,  enables 
us  to  show  most  conclusively  not  only  that  in  the  latitude 
of  the  Philippines  which  is  nearly  the  equatorial  limit  of 
true  cyclones,  the  direction  of  the  wind  in  a  particularly 
violent  and  well  observed  typhoon  cut  the  isobars  right 
through  at  the  large  angle  of  620 ;  but  that  an  extensive 
comparison  of  similar  conditions,  embraced  in  a  large 
number  of  violent  storms  in  different  latitudes,  shows  that 
the  angle  between  the  winds  and  the  isobars  increases  as 
it  should  do  according  to  theory  from  the  poles  to  the 
equator. 

The  accompanying  figure  represents  the  observations 
accurately,  except  that  the  isobars  were  not  as  there 
exactly  circular  ;  while  the  following  table  shows  at 
a  glance  how  entirely  opposed  M.  Faye's  statement  is 
to  the  true  facts,  in  the  very  region  where  he  says,  a  les 
isobares  elles-memes  dessinent  sur  le  sol  comme  les  fleches 
du  vent  un  edifice  cyclonique  non  encore  deforme."  We 
have  no  hesitation  therefore  in  saying  that  these  obser- 
vations of  Prof.  Loomis  not  only  give  the  death-blow,  if 
one  were  needed,  to  the  purely  circular  theory  of  Reid  and 
Piddington,  but  constitute  a  coticlusive  argument  against 
M.  Faye's  theory  of  downward  gyratory  currents  and  non- 
aspiration  in  cyclones. 

Inclination  of  the  Wind  to  the  Isobars  in  Violent  Storms. 


Latitude. 

Inclination     of 
wind  to  isobar. 

Arctic  Regions 

70  56 

...           28   35 

Atlantic  Ocean 

56  15 

30     6 

United  States 

45     0 

40    3 

India  and  Bay  of 

Bengal... 

20  48 

57  12 

Philippine  Islands 

14  35 

62  12 

It  is  true  both  from  theory  and  observation  that  the 
inclination  is  less  on  sea  than  on  land,  and  usually  less  as 
we  approach  the  centre  ;  but  the  above  cases  suffice  to 
show  the  danger  which  might  attend  an  unmodified 
adherence  to  the  circular  theory,  or  the  rough  empirical 
law  of  Buys  Ballot,  which  is  its  practical  expression.  Dr. 
Meldrum,  F.R.S.,  of  Mauritius,  as  we  have  pointed  out 
in  a  previous  article  (Nature,  vol.  xxvi.  p.  31),  has 
frequently  exposed  the  danger  of  following  the  purely 
circular  theory,  and  in  a  number  of  the  Journal  of  the 
Mauritius  Meteorological  Society  for  July  1883,  he 
mentions  a  case  in  which  the  captain  of  the  ship 
Caledonien  on  January  24,  1883,  deliberately  ran  it  into 
the  centre  of  a  cyclone  by  following  the  circular  rules. 
Fortunately  he  subsequently  became  aware  of  his  error, 
and  altered  his  course  just  in  time  to  escape  the  centre. 

The  second  objection  brought  by  M.  Faye  against  the 
physical  theory  of  cyclones  is,  that  it  cannot  explain  their 
general  motions  and  course  over  the  earth.  We  admit 
that  the  partial  theory,  sketched  in  his  opening  statement, 
which  he  considers  to   represent  the   modern   meteoro- 


June  14,  1888] 


NATURE 


151 


logical  views,  could  scarcely  hope  to  account  for  this  ; 
but  if  he  will  allow  the  meteorologists  to  rise  with  him  a 
few  thousand  feet  above  the  ground,  he  will  find  that  the 
"  drift  theory,"  of  which  he  appears  to  regard  himself  as 
the  discoverer  and  sole  exponent,  has  for  some  years  been 
recognized  as  one  of  the  chief  possible  causes  of  the 
motion  of  cyclonic  systems. 

Prof.  Ferrel,  a  representative  deductive  meteorologist,  con- 
siders the  motions  of  the  upper  and  middle  currents  to  be 
the  prim ipal  cause  of  the  motion  of  a  cyclone  in  longitude  ; 
its  motion  in  latitude,  which  is  generally  towards  the  poles, 
being  due  to  the  inherent  tendency  which  a  mass  of  fluid 
gyrating  in  the  same  sense  as  the  hemisphere  in  which  it 
is  situated,  has  to  press  towards  its  pole. 

Prof.  Loomis,  an  equally  representative  inductive  me- 
teorologist, is  more  cautious  ;  but  in  his  latest  work,1 
while  admitting  the  existence  of  numerous  other  physical 
factors  to  account  for  the  frequently  anomalous  move- 
ments of  storm  centres — which  M.  Faye  elegantly  ignores 


— he  agrees  in  attributing  their  general  directions  of 
translation  to  the  general  extrinsic  movement  of  the 
atmosphere  at  the  time,  at  some  height  above  the  surface, 
in  combination  with  the  intrinsic  mechanical  principle 
just  mentioned. 

That  these  are  not  the  sole  causes  of  the  motion  of 
cyclones  may,  however,  be  freely  admitted,  and  we  quite 
agree  with  the  remark  which  M.  Faye  triumphantly 
quotes  in  italics  from  Dr.  Sprung's  recent  "  Lehrbuch,"  on 
p.  14,  viz.  that  "  none  of  the  theories  which  have  been 
put  forward  will  alone  suffice  to  completely  explain  the 
motion  of  translation  of  cyclones." 

Many  facts,  such  as  the  observed  direction  of  the  upper 
clouds  over  and  surrounding  a  cyclone,  the  velocities  at 
the  surface  in  different  quadrants,  the  retardation  of  the 
barometric  minima  at  mountain  stations,  and  the  fre- 
quently small  elevation  reached  by  the  entire  disturbance 
(not  more  than  6500  feet  according  to  Loomis) — which 
are  all  entirely  overlooked  by  M.  Faye— tally  more  with 


The  Manilla  cyclone  of  October  20,  1882.  The  arrows  denote  the  direction  of  the  wind  ;  the  circles  denote  the  isobars  a',  intervals  of  5mm. 
the  inclination  of  the  arrows  to  the  isobars  was  constant  all  through,  and  =  62°' 2. 


a  species  of  wave-motion  by  which  the  conditions  are 
continually  reproduced  in  a  certain  direction  than  with 
the  drift  theory,  and  in  any  case  require  other  and 
additional  causes  for  their  complete  elucidation. 

We  therefore  entirely  dissent  from  M.  Faye's  dictum 
that  the  failure  up  to  date  to  discover  all  the  causes  of 
the  motion  of  cyclonic  areas  is  to  be  considered  "  an 
irremediable  check  to  their  meteorological  theory,"  and 
we  equally  fail  to  recognize  how  the  drift  theory  as  put 
forward  by  him  strengthens  his  case  in  favour  of  down- 
ward motion  in  tornadoes,  or  advances  our  knowledge  of 
cyclone  and  tornado  motion  one  step  beyond  the  position 
it  has  already  reached. 

To  return  to  tornadoes. 

Fully  armed  with  his  preconceived  theory  of  gyration, 
due  to  inequalities  in  the  velocity  of  the  upper  currents, 
causing  a  downward  motion  of  air  along  the  axis  of  the 

"  Contributions  to  Meteorology,"  chap,  ii   p.  142,  revised  edition,  1837. 


whirl,  and  completely  disregarding  all  evidence  of  upward 
motion  or  aspiration,  M.  Faye  devotes  the  main  part  of 
his  pamphlet  to  criticizing  in  turn  the  various  experiments 
and  opinions  of  MM.  Weyher,  Colladon,  Lasne,  and 
Schwedoff,  with  the  result  that  he  likes  none  of  them,  for 
the  very  obvious  reason  that,  while  they  differ  from  one 
another  in  certain  points,  they  all  demand  aspiration  and 
upward  motion  along  the  axis. 

We  have  not  space  to  follow  all  these  attacks  in  detail, 
but  we  venture  to  think  that  before  attempting  to  strangle 
all  adverse  hypotheses  it  would  have  been  wise  if  M. 
Faye  had  placed  his  own  theory  on  a  substantial  basis  of 
either  physical  and  mechanical  principles,  or  experiment, 
As  it  is,  the  sole  foundations  he  appears  to  rest  upon  are 
(1)  the  analogy  of  the  river  eddy,  and  (2)  the  fancied 
absence  of  all  indications  of  upward  aspiration  either 
during  or  after  the  passage  of  a  tornado. 

Regarding  (1)  we  need  only  refer  to  M.  Weyher's 
experiments,  which  we  recently  reviewed  in  Nature,  in 


152 


NA  TURE 


{June  14,  1888 


order  to  point  out  that,  by  causing  rotation  at  the  surface, 
M.  Weyher  found  himself  unable  to  produce  a  gyratory 
system  extending  downwards  into  the  liquid  from  the 
area  of  rotation.  On  the  other  hand,  he  always  found 
rotation,  whether  above  or  below,  produce  aspiration  (ac- 
companied by  gyration)  towards  the  area  initially  set  in 
motion.  According  to  these  results,  therefore,  river  eddies 
produced  by  inequalities  in  the  horizontal  flow  cannot 
propagate  themselves  below  the  area  of  flow  disturbance. 

Now  it  is  precisely  this  very  form  of  river  eddy  which  M. 
Faye  takes  as  his  analogue  to  the  aerial  tornado,  and  it 
is  here  that  his  argument  fails  ;  for,  while  he  draws  atten- 
tion to  the  system  of  downward  motion  and  gyration  in 
an  eddy  caused  by  an  outflow  through  an  orifice  in  the 
bottom  of  a  vessel  containing  liquid,  where  such  motion 
and  gyration  is  evidently  caused  by  the  outflow,  he  is 
obliged  to  avoid  all  reference  to  outflow  at  the  surface  as 
a  cause  in  the  supposed  downward  atmospheric  gyrations. 
At  the  same  time  he  imagines  that  an  entirely  similar 
system  takes  place,  in  the  river,  and  the  atmospheric 
eddies,  as  in  that  produced  by  efflux,  which  propagates 
itself  downwards  simply  through  initial  rotations  taking 
place  in  the  upper  portions,  of  the  liquid  in  the  one  case, 
and  of  the  atmosphere  in  the  other.  We  have  no  hesita- 
tion in  saying  that  even  if  such  an  action  were  possible, 
which  we  strongly  doubt,  it  is  in  direct  opposition  to  all 
that  we  know  of  tornadoes,  either  deductively  from  physical 
theory,  or  inductively  from  the  facts  which  have  been 
recorded  up  to  date. 

It  would  be  a  laborious,  though  at  the  same  time  dis- 
tinctly easy,  task,  to  point  out  the  numerous  physical  facts 
which  accord  with  the  upward  aspiration  and  downward 
propagation  of  conditions  only,  and  which  are  utterly 
opposed  to  M.  Faye's  theory  of  downward  motion  of  the 
air.  It  would  be  equally  easy  to  quote  numerous  obser- 
vations showing  the  objective  reality,  which  M.  Faye 
questions,  of  upward  motion  in  a  tornado.  Prof.  Loomis, 
for  example,  who  is  noted  for  his  caution,  relates  the  fol- 
lowing pregnant  incident  in  his  own  life,  in  his  preface 
to  the  revised  "Contributions": — "  In  February  1842  a 
tornado  of  unusual  violence  passed  within  20  miles  of 
Hudson.  As  soon  as  I  received  the  news,  I  started  out 
with  chain  and  compass  to  make  a  thorough  survey  of 
the  track,  and  succeeded  to  my  entire  satisfaction.  As 
the  tornado  passed  over  a  forest  of  heavy  timber,  I  had 
the  best  opportunity  to  learn  the  direction  of  the  wind 
from  the  prostrate  trees  ;  and,  by  measuring  the  direction 
of  the  trees  as  they  lay  piled  one  upon  another,  I  deter- 
mined the  successive  changes  in  the  direction  of  the  wind. 
The  facts  demonstrated  incontestable  that  the  movement  of 
the  wind  was  spirally  inward  and  upward,  circulating 
from  right  to  left  about  the  centre  of  the  tornado.  This 
tornado  was  but  an  incident  in  a  great  storm  which  swept 
over  the  United  States  .  .  . "  ;  and  he  goes  on  to  say  that 
the  results  of  his  subsequent  investigation  of  the  latter 
showed  that  neither  the  purely  circular  theory  of  Redfield 
nor  the  purely  inward  theory  of  Espy  was  correct.  -The 
truth,  as  usual,  lay  between  these  two  extremes,  and  the 
wind,  like  that  shown  in  the  diagram  of  the  Manilla  cyclone, 
really  blew  in  a  spiral,  curving  in  towards  the  centre.  Any  of" 
the  accounts  published  by  the  United  States  Signal  Service 
afford  equally  strong  evidence  in  favour  of  both  aspiration 
towards  the  centres  and  motion  up  the  axes  of  the  tor- 
nadoes. Thus,  in  the  Report  furnished  by  Rev.  Charles 
Brooke,  of  the  West  Cambridge  tornado  of  August  22, 
1851,  the  following  remark  occurs:  "No  one  saw  any 
object  driven  downward  by  it,  but  all  testify  to  its  taking 
things  up"  (the  italics  are  in  the  original);  and  then 
follows  a  list  of  articles  taken  up  and  carried,  such  as 
boards  and  slates,  to  a  distance  of  3  miles,  a  large  barn 
1 5  feet,  a  freight-car  60  feet,  &c. 

Again,  in  the  Official  Report  of  the  Iowa  and  Illinois 
tornado  of  May  22,  1873,  different  witnesses  say:  "  Saw 
boards  whirling  round  in  the  funnel."     "  While  the  whirl- 


wind was  on  the  river,  the  water  ceased  to  flow  over  the 
dam,  although  the  river  at  the  time  was  high."  "  Saw  rails 
flying  out  from  the  summit  [of  the  column]  ;  an  aver- 
age rail  weighs  about  forty  pounds."  And  we  may  close 
the  list  with  one  quoted  by  Ferrel  as  a  well-authenticated 
case,  in  the  tornado  at  Mount  Carmel,  Illinois,  June  4, 
1877,  in  which  "the  spire,  vane,  and  gilded  ball  of  the 
Methodist  church  were  carried  15  miles  to  the  north-east- 
ward." The  whole  evidence,  in  fact,  both  in  tornadoes, 
and  in  their  milder  form  of  water  and  sand  spouts,  is 
overwhelmingly  against  M.  Faye's  views,  and  in  favour 
of  upward  motion  and  aspiration  to  their  very  summits. 

In  his  endeavour  to  bolster  up  a  theory  weak  at  all 
points,  M.  Faye  seizes  upon  the  well-known  phenomenon 
of  the  central  calm  in  cyclones,  and  cites  one  which 
occurred  in  the  typhoon  at  Manilla  on  October  20, 1882,  as 
proving  the  general  existence  of  a  downward  current.  In 
this  case,  while  the  thermometer  during  the  first  half  of 
the  storm  marked  240  C,  it  rose  during  the  passage  of  the 
central  calm  to  310  C,  after  which  it  fell  again  to  24°  C. 
The  relative  humidity  followed  analogously  inverse 
changes,  falling  from  98  to  53 — an  extraordinary  degree 
of  dryness  for  such  a  climate.  With  reference  to  this 
circumstance,  M.  Faye  quotes  with  considerable  triumph 
a  remark  of  Dr.  Sprung  to  the  effect  that  "  such  a 
characteristic  phenomenon  can  only  be  explained  by 
admitting  the  existence  of  a  descending  current  at  the 
centre  of  this  cyclone."  Locally,  and  for  a  short  space 
upwards,  there  might  have  been  ;  but  these  particular 
features,  accompanied  by  a  clearing  of  the  sky,  and 
known  as  the  "  eye  of  the  storm,"  are  the  exception  and 
not  the  rule,  even  in  tropical  cyclones.  It  is,  moreover, 
readily  seen  that  if  there  were  a  descending  current  of 
any  extent  or  velocity  in  cyclones  it  would  necessitate  an 
outflow  along  the  surface  for  some  distance  round  their 
centres — a  condition  utterly  opposed  to  all  observation 
and  experience.  M.  Faye  makes  one  more  attempt  to 
support  the  differential-current-motion  hypothesis  of 
tornado  and  cyclone  generation,  by  referring  to  certain 
empirical  laws  of  the  relation  of  the  former  to  the  latter 
disturbances,  deduced  by  Mr.  Finley,  of  the  United  States 
Signal  Service.  For  example,  (1)  the  fact  that  tornadoes 
are  usually  found  in  the  south-south-east  or  dangerous 
octant  of  a  cyclone  ;  and  (2)  a  law  formulated  by  M. 
Faye  himself,  according  to  which  their  trajectories,  as 
traced  by  the  areas  of  destruction,  are  parallel  to  those 
of  the  cyclones  in  which  they  are  generated. 

The  first  of  these  facts  has  been  known  for  some  time, 
and  applies  equally  to  thunderstorms.  M.  Faye  considers 
it  to  arise  from  the  air  shot  down  from  the  upper  currents 
reaching  its  maximum  velocity  "  where  the  velocity  of 
translation  is  added  to  that  of  rotation,"  an  idea  which 
concentrates  in  a  truly  tornadic  manner  two  fundamental 
errors  which  pervade  his  work.  Modern  investigation 
has  shown  that  the  velocities  of  rotation  and  translation 
in  cyclones  are  quite  independent,  and  is  in  this  matter 
as  far  ahead  of  M.  Faye's  view  as  his  knowledge  of 
cyclonic  systems  is  superior  to  that  of  Franklin,  who  had 
no  isobaric  charts  to  help  him. 

Again,  the  south-east  portion  of  a  cyclone  is  precisely 
where,  according  to  the  corrected  theory  of  aspiration, 
the  conditions  are  most  favourable  to  the  production  of 
local  and  parasitical  disturbances  of  equilibrium,  and 
since  such  disturbances  take  their  birth  in  or  just  below 
the  cloud-strata,  their  trajectories  will  naturally  tend  to 
follow  the  course  of  these  higher  strata,  which  in  this 
part  of  the  cyclone  generally  coincides  with  that  of  its 
translation.  The  violent  motion,  moreover,  which  M. 
Faye  considers  to  be  such  an  essential  primary  condition 
in  the  generation  of  tornadoes  is  by  no  means  necessary, 
as  Prof.  James  Thomson,  among  others,  has  pointed  out 
in  a  recent  paper  before  the  British  Association  (British 
Association  Reports,  1884,  p.  641.) 

Besides  the  objections  we  have  all  along  pointed  out 


June  14,  1888] 


NATURE 


'53 


to  the  existence  of  the  downward  current  in  cyclones, 
it  renders  M.  Faye  perfectly  helpless  when  he  con- 
templates an  anticyclone.  In  the  presence  of  such  a 
formidable  foe  he  is  completely  disarmed.  Here,  just 
where  a  downward  current  would  come  in  really  useful, 
he  finds  he  has  used  it  all  up.  All  he  can  say,  there- 
fore, is  that  they  have  nothing  cyclonic  about  them, 
which  is  quite  true. 

M.  Faye  concludes  by  drawing  up  a  list  of  questions 
which  relate  to  the  phenomena  exhibited  by  cyclones, 
tornadoes,  and  waterspouts,  and  which  he  considers  yet 
unsolved.  Some,  doubtless,  still  await  a  more  complete 
explanation,  but  we  think  the  list  might  be  considerably 
curtailed  if  M.  Faye  would  descend,  if  possible,  in  one  of 
his  favourite  eddies,  and  meet  the  aspiring  meteorologist 
half-way.  Atmospheric  phenomena  seldom  present  them- 
selves in  the  form  of  purely  mechanical  problems.  If,  as 
M.  Faye  says,  the  question  "  is  not  one  which  can  be 
treated  by  actual  methods  of  rational  mechanics  on 
which  everyone  can  agree,"  we  are  equally  confident 
that  it  is  one  whose  solution  cannot  be  attempted  without 
the  aid  of  rational  physics,  or  without  reference  to  the 
facts  already  established  by  observation. 

E.  Douglas  Archibald. 


THE 


VISITATION  OF  THE  ROYAL 
OBSERVATORY. 


T'HE  Report  of  the  Astronomer- Royal  to  the  Board  of 
-*•      Visitors  of  the  Royal  Observatory  was  read  at  the 

annual  visitation  on  June  2. 

One  of  the  first  points  touched  on  in  the  Report  is  the 
threatened  railway  invasion  of  the  Observatory. 

The  subject  of  approaching  railways  has  again,  after  a  lapse 
of  many  years,  engaged  our  serious  attention.  Early  in  March 
notice  was  received  from  the  Home  Office  of  a  proposal  to 
carry  a  railway  (in  extension  of  the  authorized  Bexley  Heath 
Railway)  in  a  tunnel  across  Blackheath,  the  nearest  point  being 
840  yards  from  the  Observatory.  As  there  was  reason  to  believe 
that  this  railway  might  injuriously  affect  the  Observatory,  pre- 
liminary observations  of  the  effect  produced  by  trains  on  the 
existing  Greenwich  and  Maze  Hill  Railway  were  at  once  com- 
menced, the  observations  being  made  on  six  nights  with  the 
transit-circle,  and  the  disturbance  in  the  image  of  the  wires,  as 
seen  by  reflection  from  the  trough  of  mercury,  being  noted.  It 
resulted  from  these  experiments  that  trains  on  this  railway  caused 
great  disturbance  during  their  passage,  not  only  on  the  section 
between  Greenwich  and  Maze  Hill,  the  nearest  point  of  which 
is  570  yards  from  the  transit-circle,  but  also  on  the  line  beyond 
Greenwich  on  the  London  side  and  beyond  Maze  Hill  on  the 
Woolwich  side.  The  distances  of  the  Greenwich  and  Maze  Hill 
stations  from  the  Observatory  are  about  970  and  670  yards  re- 
spectively. There  was  also  evidence  of  disturbance  caused 
presumably  by  trains  on  the  Lewisham,  Blackheath,  and 
Charlton  line,  at  a  distance  of  about  a  mile  from  the  Observa- 
tory, but  we  could  only  infer  the  times  of  passage  of  these  trains 
from  the  published  time-tables. 

In  order  to  establish  conclusively  the  connection  between 
definite  disturbances  and  trains,  arrangements  were  made  to  note 
the  times  of  arrival  and  departure  of  trains  on  the  Greenwich 
line  and  at  Blackheath,  facilities  for  doing  this  having  been 
courteously  given  by  Mr.  Myles  Fenton,  the  Manager  of  the 
South-Eastern  Railway.  Observations  were  made  on  this  plan 
on  five  nights,  one  observer  being  stationed  at  the  transit- circle 
to  record  all  disturl  ances  of  the  reflected  image,  while  another 
observer  travelling  up  and  down  the  Greenwich  line,  and  a  third 
observer  at  Blackheath,  noted  the  times  of  arrival  at  and 
departure  from  the  stations.  It  was  found  that  the  disturbance 
was  very  great  during  the  passage  of  trains  between  Greenwich 
and  Maze  Hill,  the  reflected  image  being  invisible  while  the 
train  was  in  the  tunnel,  at  a  minimum  distance  of  570  yards, 
and  that  there  was  considerable  disturbance  during  the  pa-sage 
of  trains  through  the  Blackheath-Charlton  tunnel,  at  a  distance 
of  a  mile,  the  reflected  image  becoming  occasionally  in- 
visible.     As    the  tunnel  of  the  proposed  railway    would    be 


similar  in  character  to  this,  but  at  half  the  distance,  it  was  con- 
cluded that  it  would  cause  so  great  a  disturbance  as  to  make 
delicate  observations  impossible.  On  my  notifying  this  to  the 
Admiralty,  the  Bill  was  opposed  on  the  part  of  the  Government, 
and  as  a  consequence  of  this  the  clauses  authorizing  the  con- 
struction of  the  railway  across  Blackheath  were  abandoned. 

I  may  here  mention  that  the  extension  of  the  London,  Chat- 
ham, and  Dover  Railway  from  Blackheath  Hill  to  Greenwich, 
which  was  authorized  in  1 881,  is  now  in  course  of  construction. 
I  hope  that,  though  the  terminus  of  this  line  is  distant  only  620 
yards  from  the  Observatory,  the  tremor  fr  im  trains  will  not  have 
sufficient  time  to  produce  the  full  accumulated  effect  in  the  short 
interval  between  Blackheath  Hill  station  and  the  terminus.  But 
if  at  any  future  time  a  further  extension  of  this  line  should  be 
proposed,  the  question  would  require  very  careful  consideration 
in  the  interests  of  the  Royal  Observatory. 

The  following  statement  shows  the  number  of  observa- 
tions made  with  the  transit-circle  in  the  period  of  356  days 
ending  May  10,  1888  :  — 

Transits,  the  separate  limbs  being  counted  as  separate 

observations          ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  5304 

Determinations  of  collimation  error           ....         ...         ...  294 

Determinations  of  level  error          ...         ...         ...         ...  351 

Circle  observations   ...          ...          ...          ...         ...          ...  5067 

Determinations  of  nadir  point  (included  in  the  number  of 

circle  observations)            ...          ...          ...         ...         ...  331 

Reflection-observations  of  stars  (similarly  included)        ...  503 

About  350  transits  (included  in  the  above  number)  have  been 
observed  with  the  reversion-prism,  to  determine  personality 
depending  on  the  direction  of  motion. 

The  very  bad  weather  in  the  first  four  months  of  this  year  has 
seriously  affected  the  number  of  observations  with  the  transit- 
circle. 

The  total  number  of  observations  made  with  the 
altazimuth  is  as  follows,  the  observations  having  been  as 
usual  restricted  to  the  first  and  last  quarters  in  each 
lunation,  except  during  the  winter,  when,  in  the  absence 
of  suitable  objects  for  equatorial  observations,  the  moon 
was  observed  throughout  the  lunation. 

Azimuths  of  the  moon  and  stars  354 

Azimuths  of  the  azimuth  mark 114 

Azimuths  of  the  collimating  mark   116 

Zenith  distances  of  the  moon  and  stars 209 

Zenith  distances  of  the  collimating  mark 116 

In  consequence  of  the  building  operations  for  the  extension  of 
the  computing-rooms  the  collimating  mark  was  dismounted  on 
November  9,  and  the  view  of  the  azimuth  mark  has  been 
obstructed  by  the  new  building  from  the  beginning  of  December. 
Since  then  the  collimation  and  azimuth  errors  have  been  deter- 
mined entirely  by  observations  of  high  and  low  stars.  It  is 
proposed,  when  the  work  on  the  new  building  is  completed, 
to  select  two  azimuth  marks,  one  distant  and  the  other 
sufficiently  near  to  be  seen  in  the  foggy  weather  of  the  winter 
months.  For  distinct  vision  of  the  latter  a  lens  of  very  long 
focus  would  be  required,  and  it  would  thus  be  available  strictly 
as  a  collimating  mark. 

All  will  regret  to  hear  that  no  progress  has  been  made 
since  the  date  of  the  last  Report  in  the  construction  of  the 
new  28-inch  refractor,  owing  to  difficulty  in  obtaining  the 
crown  disk.  The  flint  disk  made  by  Messrs.  Chance 
seems  to  be  satisfactory,  but  up  to  the  present  neither  that 
firm  nor  M.  Feil's  successor  has  succeeded  in  making  a 
crown  disk. 

Attempts  have  been  made  to  show  if  anything  is  gained 
in  sidereal  photography  by  using  curved  plates.  For 
this  purpose  a  4-inch  photographic  object-glass  by  Dall- 
meyer,  belonging  to  one  of  the  photoheliographs,  was 
mounted  at  the  end  of  June  in  a  light  wooden  tube,  and 
firmly  attached  to  the  side  of  the  telescope  tube  and 
parallel  to  it,  to  carry  out  experiments  on  the  extent  of 
field  available  on  plane  and  curved  plates  respectively, 
the  latter  being  moulded  by  Messrs.  Chance  to  a  radius 
of  22  inches,  corresponding  to  the  curvature  of  the  field, 
if  the  circle  of  least  confusion  be  taken  for  the  image. 
We  read  : — 


i54 


NA  TURE 


\June  14,  i 


Forty-one  photographs  have  been  taken  of  the  Pleiades  and 
other  objects  with  different  exposures  and  in  different  parts  of 
the  plate,  13  of  these  being  on  curved  plates.  In  these  ex- 
periments the  Sheepshanks  refractor  was  used  as  directing 
telescope,  the  image  of  a  star  being  kept  on  its  cross-wires 
during  the  exposure  of  a  plate  by  means  of  the  slow 
motions.  The  plates  measure  6  inches  x  6  inches,  repre- 
senting 5!°  x  5f°,  ani  it  is  found  that  on  the  flat  plates 
the  star  images  are  sensibly  circular  to  a  distance  of  nearly 
2°  from  the  centre  of  the  field,  while  micrometric  measures  of 
these  plates  show  that  for  some  distance  beyond  this  limit  the 
relative  places  of  stars  can  still  be  measured  with  an  accuracy 
exceeding  that  of  meridian  observations,  and  with  no  sensible 
systematic  error  depending  on  magnitude  or  duration  of  ex- 
posure. Comparison  of  the  results  on  flat  and  curved  plates 
respectively  indicates  that  the  advantages  of  using  the  latter  are 
doubtful.  As  the  Dallmeyer  object-glass  is  peculiar  in  having  the 
flint  omVide,  it  was  reversed  in  the  cell  in  the  course  of  the  experi- 
ment, and  some  photographs  were  taken  with  it  in  this  position, 
the  flint  being  inside.  It  appeared  on  comparing  the  results  that 
a  somewhat  better  field  is  obtained  with  the  flint  outside.  A 
photographic  object-glass  of  6  inches  aperture  and  6  feet  focal 
length,  made  by  Sir  H.  Grubb  for  experiment,  was  mounted  at 
the  end  of  Apiil  in  place  of  the  4-inch  object-glass,  and  some 
trial  photographs  of  stars  have  been  taken  with  it. 

Special  arrangements  were  made  for  observing  00 
cultations  during  the  total  eclipse  of  the  moon  on  January 
28,  observers  being  stationed  at  nine  instruments,  but 
clouds  covered  the  moon  almost  continuously  during 
totality.  Various  devices  were  adopted  with  a  view  to 
facilitating  the  observation  in  rapid  succession  of  the 
faint  stars  occulted  during  the  eclipse.  In  the  case  of  two 
instruments  the  eye-piece  was  mounted  excentrically  at 
the  distance  of  the  radius  of  the  moon's  image  from  the 
axis,  so  that  without  disturbing  the  position  of  the  tele- 
scope any  point  of  the  limb  could  be  brought  into  the 
centre  of  the  field.  For  setting  the  position-circles  rapidly 
in  the  dark,  cardboard  circles  with  notches  at  important 
points  or  with  the  figures  indicated  with  luminous  paint, 
were  found  very  useful. 

The  spectroscopic  observations  of  motions  of  stars  in  the 
line  of  sight  have  been  continued.  The  recent  obser- 
vations of  Algol  confirm  the  previous  results  indicating 
orbital  motion,  but  further  observations  are  required  to 
establish  the  fact.  At  the  request  of  Mr.  Lockyer,  the 
spectra  of  a  Orionis,  a  Herculis,  y  Cassiopeia?,  and  jS  Lyra; 
have  been  examined  on  several  occasions. 

That  the  daily  record  of  the  solar  surface  is  gradually 
getting  more  complete  is  clearly  shown  by  what  happened 
in  the  year  1887,  in  which  Greenwich  photographs  are 
available  on  188  days  ;  photographs  from  India  or  Mauritius 
filled  up  the  gaps  in  the  series  on  173  clays,  thus  making 
a  total  of  361  days  out  of  365  on  which  photographs 
have  been  measured  in  this  year. 

The  sun  has  been  free  from  spots  on  106  days  in  the 
year  1887,  and  the  areas  of  both  spots  and  facute  have 
diminished  since  the  date  of  the  last  Report.  With  the 
exception  of  a  fine  group  seen  during  three  rotations  in 
May,  June,  and  July,  and  of  three  other  groups,  one  in 
July  and  two  in  De^  ember,  all  of  these  being  in  the 
southern  hemisphere,  there  has  been  a  complete  ab- 
sence of  conspicuous  spots.  The  entire  spotted  area  has 
rarely  amounted  to  1/20CO  of  the  sun's  visible  hemi- 
sphere, and  the  mean  is  less  than  one-sixth  of  that  re- 
corded in  1883,  being  intermediate  between  those  for  the 
years  1875  and  1876. 

In  view  of  the  diminution  of  the  current  work  as  the 
minimum  of  sunspots  approaches,  the  further  discussion 
of  the  results  of  former  years  has  been  commenced,  and 
arrangements  have  been  made  through  the  Solar  Physics 
Committee  to  complete  the  Greenwich  results  as  far  as 
practicable  by  the  measurement  of  photographs  taken  else- 
where, particularly  at  Ely  and  Cambridge,  U.S.  From 
the  beginning  of  1882  thephotographicrecordis  practically 
complete,  the  measurement  of  Indian  photographs  to  fill 


up  gaps  in  the  Greenwich  series  having  been  under- 
taken from  December  22,  1881.  The  further  discus- 
sion of  results  has,  therefore,  been  commenced  from  that 
date,  and  the  projected  areas  of  spots  (uncorrected  for 
foreshortening)  have  been  formed  to  May  29,  1885,  and 
from  the  beginning  of  1886  to  the  end  of  1887.  The 
ledgers  in  which  the  areas  and  positions  of  the  spots  of  a 
group  are  collected  and  the  mean  area  and  position  of 
the  group,  deduced  for  each  day  and  for  the  whole  period 
of  visibility,  have  been  formed  for  1886  and  1887,  and 
their  completion  for  the  years  1882  to  1885  will  now  be 
taken  in  hand.  Two  new  forms  have  been  prepared  to 
exhibit  the  distribution  of  spotted  area  on  each  day  for 
every  degree  of  latitude  and  for  every  10°  of  longitude, 
mean  results  being  taken  for  each  rotation  and  for  each 
year. 

With  regard  to  magnetic  observations  we  read  that 
the  only  important  change  is  the  substitution,  since 
October  last,  of  a  wooden  bar  loaded  with  lead,  of  the 
same  size  and  weight  as  the  declination-magnet,  for  the 
brass  bar  hitherto  used  for  determination  of  the  torsion 
of  the  suspending  skein,  a  very  weak  trace  of  magnetism 
having  been  detected  in  the  brass  bar. 

The  earth-current  observations  have  been  attended  with 
some  difficulties.     We  read  : — 

The  earth-current  wire5,  which  were  damaged  by  the  snow- 
storm of  1886  December  26,  were  not  completely  repaired  till 
August  1887,  when  it  was  found  that  the  earth-plate  at  Angerstein 
Wharf  had  been  stolen,  another  earth-plate  being  then  supplied. 
A  renewal  of  the  earth-current  wires  concurrently  with  the 
telegraph  wires  on  this  portion  of  the  South-Eastern  Railway 
was  arranged,  in  concert  with  Mr.  Leonard,  but  this  has  not 
been  carried  out  owing  to  a  rise  in  the  price  of  copper.  Five 
measures  of  resistance  of  the  earth-current  wires  have  been  made 
since  the  last  Report,  but  the  results  are  not  satisfactory,  owing 
presumably  to  the  bad  condition  of  the  wires.  On  the  line  from 
Angerstein  Wharf  to  I.adywell,  7A  miles  in  length,  the  measures 
of  resistance  range  from  220  10285  ohms,  and  on  the  Blackheath 
to  North  Kent  East  Junction  line,  5  miles  long,  the  measures 
range  from  230  to  262  ohms.  Under  these  circumstances  it 
seems  hopeless  to  attempt  to  express  the  merures  of  ordinates 
on  the  earth-current  sheets  in  terms  of  the  electrical  units  until 
the  conditions  of  the  circuits  have  been  improved  A  furthei 
difficulty  arises  in  discussing  the  small  diurnal  inequality  on  the 
earth-current  registers  in  consequence  of  the  circumstance  (to 
which  attention  was  first  drawn  by  Mr.  A.  J.  S.  Adams,  of  the 
Post  Office  Telegraphs)  that  there  is  a  slight  dislocation  in  the 
Angerstein  Wharf  to  Lady  well  traceshortly  after  sunset  with  sudden 
return  to  the  original  position  shortly  before  sunrise,  representing 
an  increase!  current  from  Lady  well  to  Angerstein  Wharf,  or  a 
diminished  potential  at  Angerstein  Wharf  during  the  night  hours. 
Possibly  this  may  be  connected  with  the  electric  lighting  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  earth  plate.  It  appears  to  have  commenced  in 
1883,  becoming  more  pronounced  in  1884. 

The  following  are  the  principal  results  for  the  magnetic 
elements  for  1887  : — 

Approximate  mean  declination         .         .  170  47  W. 

,,        ,      .       .,,  f  3 '94IQ  (in  B  itish  units') 

Mean  horizontal  force    .         .      |  ?.{£7J  \[n  Metric  units) 

I  670  25'  45"  (by  9-inch  needles 
Mean  dip      .         .         .         .      j  67    26  20    (by  6-inch  needles) 

(  67    27  13    (by  3-inch  ne 

In  the  year  1887  there  were  only  three  days  of  great 
magnetic  disturbance,  but  there  were  also  about  twenty 
other  days  of  lesser  disturbance  for  which  tracings  of  the 
photographic  curves  will  be  published,  as  well  as  tracings 
of  the  registers  on  four  typical  quiet  days. 

The  mean  daily  motion  of  the  air  in  1887  was  275  miles, 
being  9  miles  below  the  average  of  the  preceding  twenty 
years.  The  greatest  daily  motion  was  829  miles  on. 
March  23  ;  and  the  least,  59  miles  on  November  16.  The 
only  recorded  pressure  exceeding  20  pounds  on  the  square 
foot  was  2o-5  pounds  on  April  6. 


June  14,  1888] 


NATURE 


155 


During  the  year  1887,  Osier's  anemometer  showed  an 
excess  of  about  17  revolutions  of  the  vane  in  the  positive 
direction  N.,  E.,  S.,  W.,  N.,  excluding  the  turnings  which 
are  evidently  accidental. 

The  number  of  hours  of  bright  sunshine  recorded  during 
1887  by  Campbell's  sunshine  instrument  (Prof.  Stokes's 
improved  pattern)  was  1401,  which  is  about  190  hours 
above  the  average  of  the  preceding  ten  years.  The 
aggregate  number  of  hours  during  which  the  sun  was 
above  the  horizon  was  4454,  so  that  the  mean  proportion 
of  sunshine  for  the  year  was  o-3i5,  constant  sunshine 
being  represented  by  1. 

The  rainfall  in  1887  was  199  inches,  being  4"8  inches 
below  the  average  of  the  preceding  forty-six  years. 

There  has  been  no  failure  in  the  automatic  drop  of  the 
Greenwich  time-ball,  but  on  four  days  the  ball  was  not 
raised  on  account  of  the  violence  of  the  wind. 

The  automatic  drop  of  the  Deal  time-ball  failed  on  six 
days  owing  to  interruption  of  the  telegraphic  connections, 
and  on  two  days  high  wind  prevented  the  raising  of  the 
ball.  There  has  been  no  case  of  failure  of  the  1  p.m. 
signal  to  the  Post  Office  Telegraphs. 

There  have  been  twenty-three  failures  in  the  automatic 
signals  from  the  Westminster  clock  since  the  date  of  the 
last  report.  The  error  of  the  clock  was  insensible  on  25 
per  cent,  of  the  days  of  observation,  is.  on  38  per  cent., 
2s.  on  20  per  cent.,  3s.  on  15  per  cent.,  and  4s.  on  2  per 
cent. 

Provision  has  been  made  in  the  estimates  for  the  ex- 
pense of  a  re-determination  of  the  difference  of  longitude  be- 
tween Greenwich  and  Paris,  and  correspondence  has  been 
carried  on  with  the  French  authorities  on  the  subject.  The 
regretted  death  of  General  Perrier  occurred  before  any 
definite  plan  had  been  settled  ;  but  his  successor,  M.  le 
Commandant  Bassot,  has  taken  the  matter  up  warmly  in 
concert  with  Admiral  Mouchez,  and  the  French  Bureau 
des  Longitudes  has  approved  the  scheme,  which  is  to 
include  a  determination  of  the  longitude  of  Dunkirk. 
Three  French  delegates  (M.  Lcewy,  M.  Bassot,  and  M. 
Defforges)  propose  to  visit  Greenwich  very  shortly  to 
settle  the  details  of  the  plan  of  operations  which  it  is 
intended  to  carry  out  in  the  autumn.  In  preparation  for 
the  work,  Mr.  Turner  and  Mr.  Lewis  have  observed  for 
practice,  by  eye  and  ear,  a  number  of  galvanometer 
signals  sent  by  another  observer  and  automatically 
registered  on  a  chronograph,  five  sets  of  ten  signals 
having  been  recorded  on  each  of  seven  days. 

The  Report  concludes  as  follows  : — 

In  my  last  Report  it  was  suggested  that  the  instrumental 
equipment  of  the  Observatory  should  be  supplemented  by  a 
photographic  refractor  of  13  inches  aperture  (equatorially 
mounted)  to  enable  Greenwich,  a>  the  National  Observatory,  to 
take  its  share  in  the  scheme  for  forming  a  photographic  map  of 
the  heavens,  and  for  thus  extending  our  knowledge  of  the  places 
of  the  fixed  stars.  Consequent  on  the  resolution  of  the  Board  of 
Visitors  at  the  last  visitation,  I  brought  this  question  of  the 
insufficiency  of  our  instruments  for  the  present  wants  of  astronomy 
to  the  notice  of  the  Admiralty  and  of  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer,  and  the  matter  is  still  under  the  consideration  of 
the  Government.  If  the  Royal  Observatory  is  to  take  part  in 
this  work  of  carrying  out  one  of  the  principal  objects  for  which 
the  Astronomer-Royal  was  appointed,  it  appears  to  be  essential 
that  a  decision  should  be  arrived  at  without  delay,  in  view  of  the 
circumstance  that  thirteen  Observatories  (including  those  of  Mel- 
bourne and  Sydney  in  our  own  colonies)  have  already  ordered 
their  instruments,  which  are  to  be  completed  by  the  end  of  the 
present  year. 

Allusion  was  made  in  the  last  Report  to  the  increased  demands 
made  on  the  Observatory  in  recent  years  both  by  the  scientific 
nnd  the  general  public,  and  in  view  of  the  consequent  develop- 
ment of  work  it  now  becomes  necessary  to  review  the  position 
of  the  establishment,  which  was  constituted  many  years  ago, 
when  the  conditions  were  very  different.  In  order  to  understand 
the  difficulty  of  the  present  situation  it  is  necessary  to  bear  in 
mind  the  following  facts  : — In  1835  there  were  five  assistants 
(excluding  the  chief  assistant),  having  no  computers  to  superin- 


tend, no  extraneous  work  beyond  the  care  of  a  relatively  small 
number  of  chronometers  for  the  Navy,  m  magnetic  and  meteoro- 
logical observations,  no  altazimuth  observations,  no  spectroscopic 
and  photographic  observations.  At  the  present  time  there  are 
eight  assistants  (excluding  the  chief  assistant)  having  fifteen  com- 
puters to  superintend,  and  of  this  staff  two  assistants  are  absorbed 
by  the  magnetic  and  meteorological  branch,  one  by  the  altazimuth, 
and  two  by  the  spectroscopic  and  photographic  branch,  leaving 
only  three  assistants  to  do  the  astronomical  work,  which  in  1835 
required  five  assistant^,  and  in  addition  to  perform  all  the  ex- 
traneous duties  which  the  Astronomer- Royal  has  felt  it  desirable 
to  undertake  in  the  public  interest. 

Under  these  circumstances  it  becomes  a  matter  for  serious 
c  msideration  whether,  unless  adequate  provision  be  made  for 
the  primary  objects  of  the  Observatory,  extraneous  work,  such 
as  the  supply  of  time-signals,  may  not  have  to  be  dropped.  The 
service  of  hourly  time  signals  throws  considerable  work  on 
myself  and  the  staff  of  the  Observatory,  and,  as  it  is  purely 
voluntary,  it  appears  to  me  that  a  condition  of  its  maintenance 
must  be  that  arrangements  shall  be  made  to  enable  the  proper 
work  of  the  Observatory  to  be  carried  on  and  suitably  developed. 

INDUSTRIAL  TRAINING. 

A  T  a  meeting  held  at  the  Mansion  House  on  Friday 
•£*•  last,  in  support  of  the  scheme  for  establishing 
Polytechnic  Institutes  in  South  London,  an  able  and 
interesting  speech  was  delivered  by  Lord  Salisbury. 
Having  pointed  out  that  of  late  years  much  had  been 
done  for  primary  education,  he  went  on  to  show  that  a 
sound  system  of  secondary  education  for  the  great  mass 
of  the  people  was  not  less  necessary.  Secondary  educa- 
tion, as  we  know  it  at  present,  had  been  established  for 
the  benefit  of  classes  who  in  the  main  had  not  to  work 
for  their  living.  Plainly,  therefore,  it  was  not  adapted  to 
the  needs  of  the  working  classes.  "  What  we  have  now 
to  do,"  he  continued,  "  is  to  provide  an  education  which 
will  develop  for  each  man  the  faculties  that  Nature  has 
given  him  in  such  a  manner  that  he  may  be  as  active, 
profitable,  and  prosperous  a  member  of  the  community 
as  possible."  Lord  Salisbury  then  passed  in  review  the 
efforts  which  have  been  made  in  London  to  meet  the 
demand  for  technical  instruction,  and  concluded  as 
follows  : — 

"  I  have  only  one  more  word  to  say,  just  to  call  your 
attention  to  another  aspect  of  this  case  and  to  commend 
it  to  your  efforts.  We  live  in  a  time  when  men  multiply 
fast,  but  apparently  the  means  of  supporting  them  do  not 
multiply  as  rapidly  ;  when  there  is  vehement  competition 
and  occasionally  intervals  of  deep  depression.  And  if 
you  should  look  more  closely,  you  will  find  that  one  cause 
at  least  of  this  phenomenon  is  that  man,  as  the  mere 
owner  of  muscle,  is  being  edged  out  by  another  and  more 
powerful  competitor.  Merely  as  an  agent  of  physical 
force,  as  the  possessor  of  the  power  of  labour,  the  steam- 
engine  is  a  competitor  which  drives  him  easily  out  of  the 
market.  And  more  and  more  the  mere  unskilled  labour  is 
being  made  unnecessary  by  the  development  of  the  forces 
which  mechanical  science  has  discovered.  And  as  the 
world  goes  on,  you  must  expect  this  tendency  to  increase. 
You  must  expect  mechanical  force  to  become  more  varied 
and  more  powerful  and  more  cheap,  and  the  competition 
with  human  arms  and  limbs  to  become  more  hopeless.  But 
there  is  one  region  where  the  machine  can  never  follow 
the  human  being,  and  that  is  in  the  exercise  of  thought. 
In  skill,  in  cultivated  mind,  in  the  power  to  adapt  the 
processes  of  thought  to  the  laws  of  Nature,  in  all  that  we 
call  'skilled  labour'  of  the  highest  kind,  in  that  man 
must  always  have  a  monopoly,  and  need  fear  no  encroach- 
ment from  the  competition  of  the  steam-engine.  It  is 
to  the  development  of  his  powers  in  that  respect  that  the 
increase  in  the  means  of  subsistence  and  the  opening  of 
new  paths  of  self-support  must  be  found.  On  all  of  us,  in 
whatever  position  we  are,  is  pressing,  as  one  of  the  most 
anxious  subjects  of  public  care,  the  discovery  of  methods 


156 


NATURE 


{June  14,  1888 


by  which  the  teeming  millions  of  this  country  shall  be 
able  to  maintain  themselves  in  a  prosperous,  decent,  and 
comfortable  condition.  We  cannot  find  in  their  unskilled 
labour  a  satisfaction  of  that  want.  The  difficulties  are 
enhanced  by  the  fact  that  our  neighbours  in  other 
countries  have  been  sensible  of  the  superiority  which 
skilled  education  can  confer,and  have  not  been  slow  to  take 
advantage  of  it.  If  we  will  not  be  left  behind  in  the  race,  if 
we  desire  to  find  any  satisfactory  solution  for  the  deepest 
and  the  most  inscrutable  problem  of  our  time,if  wewish  our 
complex  community  and  high  civilization  to  be  maintained 
secure  from  all  the  dangers  which  the  presence  of  unfed, 
unprosperous,  untaught  millions  must  bring  upon  them, 
we  shall  do  our  utmost  to  give  a  healthy  and  a  rapid 
development  to  the  secondary  education  of  the  working 
classes." 

The  Times,  commenting  on  the  meeting  addressed  by 
Lord  Salisbury,  says: — 

"  The  Prime  Minister  spoke  of  the  occasion  as  marking 
an  era  in  the  development  of  secondary  education.  The 
expression  is  scarcely  too  emphatic.  Many  of  those 
present  at  the  Mansion  House  have  been  for  years  labour- 
ing for  that  cause,  and  often  with  little  confidence  that 
they  would  ever  see  the  produce  of  the  seed  which  they 
sowed.  Now,  however,  the  husbandman's  hopes  rise,  for 
he  discerns  everywhere  lusty  shoots  flourishing,  and  he 
knows  that  a  harvest  is  at  hand.  It  is  no  small  matter 
to  find  Government  recognition  of  the  importance  of 
manual  or  technical  education  in  a  Bill  which  will  enable 
any  School  Board  to  promote  it.  What  London  has 
done  other  cities  will  do,  and  here  much  has  been  done, 
and  still  more  is  imminent.  The  Polytechnic  and  the 
Beaumont  Institutes  are  admirable  pioneers.  The  pro- 
jected Institutes  for  South  London  will  soon,  we  should 
hope,  be  established  ;  and  the  Charity  Commissioners 
have  promised  to  grant  ,£50,000  in  aid  of  an  Institute  for 
the  south-west  parishes  north  of  the  river  on  condition 
that  the  same  amount  is  contributed  by  the  district.  What 
limits  are  there  to  the  possible  benefits  from  a  network  of 
such  institutions  over  London  and  other  great  cities? 
Even  if  they  fail  to  sharpen  the  wits  of  our  workers,  and  to 
prepare  them  for  their  part  in  that  struggle  which  thi 
Prime  Minister  eloquently  described  as  the  course  of 
civilization,  if  the  foreign  clerk  continues  to  oust  our  own 
youth,  we  may  count  with  certainty  on  deep  and  far- 
extending  good  from  institutions  mingling  instruction 
with  recreation,  uniting  many  of  the  good  points  of  clubs 
and  schools,  serving  to  some  as  ladders  for  ambition  to 
climb  with,  to  others  as  refuges  from  the  public-house,  and 
introducing  intellectual  light  into  the  dark  places  of  our 
cities.  For  many  a  man  and  woman,  especially  at  the 
outset  of  life,  narrow  means  would  lose  all  terror  if  there 
were  open  of  an  evening  an  Institute  such  as  was  de- 
scribed yesterday  ;  and  it  would  be  the  best  palliative 
of  that  dull  monotony  which  in  some  walks  of  life  is 
more  injurious,  as  it  is  immensely  more  common,  than 
downright  viciousness." 

For  many  a  day,  as  our  readers  know,  we  have  been 
urging  the  necessity  for  the  establishment  of  a  proper 
system  of  technical  instruction.  The  subject  is  one  of  such 
pressing  importance  that  we  have  returned  to  it  again  and 
again,  seeking  to  present  it  in  many  different  aspects  ;  and 
Lord  Salisbury's  speech  and  the  article  in  the  Times  may 
be  taken  as  indications  that  large  classes  of  the  com- 
munity have  at  last  begun  to  understand  that  the  nation 
has  no  time  to  lose  in  setting  about  a  task  which  ought 
long  ago  to  have  been  most  seriously  undertaken.  Even 
if  the  question  had  little  direct  relation  with  economic 
interests,  it  would  be  for  many  reasons  desirable  to  secure 
for  manual  training  a  place  among  our  educational 
methods.  Attention  has  hitherto  been  too  exclusively 
devoted  in  schools  to  such  knowledge  as  may  be  derived 
from  books.    It  is  necessary,  from  the  strictly  educational 


point  of  view,  that  teachers  should  aim  at  a  wider,  more 
direct,  and  more  practical  development  of  the  mental 
powers  of  their  scholars.  But  other  and  even  more  funda- 
mental interests  are  also  concerned.  The  leading  nations 
of  the  world,  our  rivals  in  industry  and  trade,  have 
already  perceived  the  benefits  to  be  secured  from  a 
thorough  mastery,  on  the  part  both  of  employers  and 
employed,  of  the  principles  of  science  as  applied  to  agri- 
cultural and  manufacturing  processes.  The  result  is  that 
in  many  of  the  best  markets,  where  our  supremacy  as  a 
trading  people  was  formerly  unquestioned,  we  find  our- 
selves at  a  disadvantage  ;  and  it  is  certain  that  unless  we 
place  ourselves  on  a  level  with  our  competitors  we  shall 
have  to  pass  through  some  very  bitter  national  experiences. 
The  question  is  really  one  of  life  and  death  for  England. 
It  is  a  question  whether  in  the  near  future  there  are  or 
are  not  to  be  sufficient  employment  and  remuneration  for 
the  vast  and  growing  masses  of  her  population. 

WEISMANN  ON  HEREDITY} 

THE  fundamental  property  of  all  living  matter  is 
assimilation  and  consequent  growth  ;  and  repro- 
duction is  merely  discontinuous  growth.  This  is  most 
apparent  in  the  Protozoa,  where  the  primitive  form  of 
reproduction — division  into  two  parts — is  common.  Each 
part  exactly  resembles  the  other  part,  and  both  the 
parent.  Heredity  in  them  merely  means  identity  of  bodily 
substance,  and  consequent  identity  of  vital  phenomena. 
In  Metazoa  there  is  a  sharp  distinction  between  repro- 
ductive cells  and  body  cells.  In  many  cases  it  is  certain 
that  the  reproductive  cells  of  each  new  organism  arise 
directly  from  the  reproductive  cells  of  the  parent.  Here 
there  is  as  manifestly  a  continuity  or  identity  of  the  germ- 
plasma  as  in  the  Protozoa.  As  has  already  been  explained 
by  Prof.  Moseley  in  this  paper,  Weismann  extends  this 
phylogenetic  continuity  of  germ-cell,  or  at  least  of  germ- 
plasma — the  essential  constituent  of  the  germ-cell — to  all 
the  Metazoa. 

In  the  Metazoa,  the  germ-cells,  instead  of  remaining 
single, give  rise  to  the  vast  number  of  somatic  cells  which 
compose  the  adult  structure.  The  form,  arrangement, 
and  succession  of  these  depend  on  the  germ-plasma  ; 
and  as  there  is  continuity  of  this  from  generation  to 
generation  it  follows  that  the  structures  derived  from  it 
are  identical  in  each  generation.  Obviously  this  view 
excludes  the  possibility  of  the  inheritance  of  acquired 
characters.  But  this  inheritance  has  been  proved  neither 
by  observation  nor  by  experiment,  and  it  has  been  im- 
possible to  conceive  any  satisfactory  mechanism  by  which 
it  could  be  accomplished. 

Weismann  believes  that  the  theory  of  the  inheritance 
of  acquired  characters  is  not  required  to  explain  the 
phenomena  of  the  organic  world.  In  the  production  of 
an  acquired  character  two  forces  are  at  play,  and  these 
forces  in  relation  to  the  organism  may  well  be  called 
centripetal  and  centrifugal.  The  centrifugal  forces  are 
ultimately  referable  to  the  molecular  constitution  of  the 
germ-plasma,  and  are  transmitted  with  the  other  pro- 
perties of  the  germ-plasma  from  generation  to  generation. 
Changes  in  the  centrifugal  forces  due  to  that  mixing  of 
plasmata  which  is  the  object  of  amphigonic  reproduction 
constantly  occur.  Adaptation  and  differentiation  result 
from  the  action  of  the  environment  (centripetal  forces)  on 
these  continual  changes  in  the  possibilities  of  the  organism. 
Not  acquired  characters,  but  the  internal  possibilities  of 
them,  are  transmitted  :  not  the  results,  but  the  centrifugal 
causes  of  them,  are  transmitted  and  accumulated  by  natural 
selection.  An  example  will  make  this  clear.  Giraffes  are 
certainly  descended  from  short-necked  forms.  According 
to  the  old  theory,  during  life  their  ancestors,  by  constantly 
stretching  to  reach  higher  and  higher  branches  of  the 
acacias,  &c,  on  which  they  fed,  elongated  their  necks  a 

1  "  Ueber  die  Vererbung,"  von  Dr.  August  Weismann.     (Jena.  1884.) 


June  14,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


157 


little.  Each  addition  to  the  neck  so  acquired  was  trans- 
mitted to  the  descendant,  and  by  accumulation  of  the 
changes  thus  produced  the  modern  long-necked  condition 
was  attained.  According  to  Weismann,  what  happens 
is  this.  In  each  generation  slight  variations  in  the  length 
of  the  neck,  as  in  the  other  parts  of  the  body,  occur. 
These  variations  are  due  to  constitutional  causes  which 
are  transmitted.  When  greater  length  of  neck  became 
important  to  the  animal,  those  animals  with  necks  a  little 
longer  or  capable  of  being  stretched  out  a  little  further, 
would  have  the  advantage,  would  survive  longer,  and 
leave  more  offspring.  The  offspring,  inheriting  the 
constitution  of  their  parents,  would  inherit  this  tendency 
to  have  longer  necks.  By  the  continual  elimination  in 
many  generations  of  the  short-necked  forms,  and  by  the 
seizing  hold  of  each  naturally-occurring  variation,  the  long- 
necked  condition  would  finally  appear. 

As  variations  are  constantly  occurring,  natural  selection 
must  constantly  be  at  work  to  maintain  the  standard  of 
any  organ.  Whenever  an  organ  ceases  to  be  of  use,  or  even 
when  it  becomes  merely  of  subordinate  utility,  this  selective 
maintenance  falls  into  abeyance.  A  state  that  Weismann 
calls  Panmixia  results.  Variations  below  the  standard 
cease  to  be  eliminated,  and  the  organ  slowly  degenerates. 
In  this  way  is  explained  degeneration  through  disuse  : 
degeneration  from  conditions  that  are  not  harmful  but 
merely  unnecessary.  In  many  cases  organs  that  are  not 
used  degenerate  very  much  during  individual  lives,  but 
this  occurs  through  failure  of  nutrition.  Weismann 
believes  such  effects  not  to  be  transmitted.  Were  these 
effects  inherited,  useless  organs  must  inevitably  disappear 
very  much  more  rapidly  and  completely  than  there  is 
evidence  for. 

Instincts  are  elaborated,  not  by  the  accumulation  of 
transmitted  individual  experience,  but  by  continual  selec- 
tion of  mental  variations  in  the  required  direction.  For 
instance,  the  instinct  to  avoid  enemies  arose  not  by 
accumulation  of  experience,  for  experience  of  the  incon- 
venience of  being  devoured  could  hardly  be  transmitted, 
but  by  the  naturally  more  timid  forms  surviving,  and 
leaving  more  offspring  than  their  less  wary  brethren. 

Talent  and  even  genius  often  run  through  several 
generations  ;  and  certainly  mental  powers  can  be  much 
increased  in  individual  lives.  But  the  exhibition  of  talent 
and  genius  depends  on  a  combination  of  many  physical 
and  mental  conditions  in  which  constitutional  variation  is 
ever  present,  and  these  variations  are  undoubtedly 
inheritable.  Moreover,  the  history  of  families  of  con- 
spicuous ability  (as,  for  instance,  that  of  the  musical  family 
Bach)  shows  that  the  highest  development  often  occurs  in 
the  middle  of  the  series,  while  the  theory  of  the  trans- 
mission of  acquired  characters  would  demand  to  find  it 
at  the  end. 

Selection  of  variations  best  explains  cases  of  adaptation 
to  new  climates.  But  the  immense  influence  of  climate 
conditions  on  nutrition  in  each  ontogeny  must  be  taken 
into  account. 

Qualitative  changes  at  first  present  some  difficulty,  but 
it  must  be  remembered  that  qualitative  changes  are  nearly 
always  at  bottom  quantitative.  A  surface  appears  naked, 
though  covered  with  many  small  hairs  ;  or  light-coloured, 
though  scattered  pigment-cells  are  present.  Quantitative 
variations  in  such  conditions  certainly  occur,  and  are 
certainly  transmitted,  and  natural  selection  can  readily 
change  the  number  or  size  of  hairs  or  pigment-cells,  and 
produce  so-called  qualitative  results. 

It  is  not  claimed  as  yet  that  the  inheritance  of  acquired 
characters  can  be  excluded  in  every  case.  But  increasing 
knowledge  of  the  conditions  of  life  and  of  the  functions 
of  organs  causes  ever  a  larger  and  larger  part  of  the 
phenomena  of  the  organic  world  to  be  explained  by  the 
selection  of  naturally-arising  variations. 

P.  Chalmers  Mitchell. 


IMPERIAL  GEOLOGICAL  UNION. 


"D  EFERRING  to  my  letter  on  the  above  subject, 
-t^-  published  in  Nature,  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  146,  I  beg  to 
communicate,  for  the  information  of  those  interested  in 
the  matter,  the  substance  of  a  report  made  to  the  Royal 
Society  of  Canada  at  its  meeting  on  May  22,  in 
Ottawa. 

The  Committee  reported  that  it  had,  as  directed, 
printed  the  letter  of  Sir  William  Dawson  to  the  President 
of  the  Royal  Society,  and  the  first  report  of  the  Com- 
mittee, and  had  circulated  these  extensively,  sending  them 
especially  to  geologists  and  Societies  in  Great  Britain 
and  the  colonies  and  dependencies  of  the  Empire.  A 
large  number  of  replies  had  been  received,  testifying  to 
a  somewhat  general  wish  for  union  and  co-operation. 

The  matter  was  then  laid  before  the  Council  of  the 
Royal  Society,  with  the  view  of  holding  a  Conference  in 
London  under  its  auspices.  The  subject  was  taken  up 
by  the  Council  in  October  last,  and  a  resolution  was 
passed  and  communicated  to  the  Committee  to  the  effect 
that,  having  regard  to  the  existing  condition  of  the 
question  of  scientific  federation,  and  the  various  con- 
tingencies that  may  occur  during  the  next  few  years,  they 
do  not  see  their  way  to  summon  such  a  Conference  as 
that  recommended. 

In  view  of  this  resolution  it  was  felt  to  be  useless  for 
the  present  to  attempt  any  farther  action.  Still,  as  the 
desire  for  and  appreciation  of  the  benefits  of  the  union 
contemplated  seemed  to  be  very  general,  and  as  oppor- 
tunities may  occur  later  for  giving  it  a  practical  form,  it 
was  thought  best  by  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada  to  con- 
tinue its  Committee,  with  power  to  correspond  with  other 
bodies  and  with  persons  interested.  The  undersigned 
will  therefore  be  glad  to  receive  any  communications  on 
the  subject. 

Some  misconception  appears  to  exist  as  to  the  relations 
of  the  intended  movement  to  the  International  Geological 
Congress  which  is  to  meet  in  London  in  September  next. 
They  have  in  reality  no  connection,  except  that, 
under  certain  contingencies,  they  might  be  mutually 
helpful. 

A  Union  of  British  Geologists  might  exercise  an  in- 
fluence for  good  in  connection  with  the  plans  for  unifica- 
tion of  classification,  nomenclature,  and  mapping,  which 
have  occupied  the  attention  of  the  Congress  ;  but  its 
function  would  rather  be  the  positive  one  of  uniting 
workers  throughout  the  wide  area  occupied  by  the  British 
Empire,  and  enabling  them  more  effectually  to  co-operate 
in  the  extension  of  actual  knowledge,  in  giving  mutual 
aid,  in  enlarging  the  mental  vision  of  local  and  special 
workers,  in  making  accessible  to  isolated  labourers  the 
common  stock  of  knowledge,  and  in  preventing  the  inter- 
ference and  discordance  which  result  from  disunited 
effort. 

That  there  are  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  realization 
of  such  apian  as  applied  to  British  and  colonial  geologists 
in  the  first  instance,  and  ultimately  to  all  English-speaking 
geologists,  there  can  be  no  doubt ;  but  they  are  continually 
diminishing,  in  consequence  of  greater  facilities  for  inter- 
course and  the  rapid  growth  of  scientific  work  in  the 
various  outlying  parts  of  the  Empire.  The  idea  is  thus  a 
fruitful  one,  certain  to  be  realized  in  the  future  ;  and 
possible  even  at  present  if  a  central  nucleus  could  be 
secured  for  an  Imperial  organization.  It  is  not  impossible 
that  the  large  gathering  of  English-speaking  geologists 
in  London  in  September  may  afford  opportunity  for 
further  discussion  of  the  plan  ;  and  if  the  invitation  which 
it  is  understood  will  be  given  by  our  friends  of  the  United 
States  to  hold  the  next  meeting  in  America  be  accepted, 
this  may  constitute  another  step  in  the  same  direction. 

Montreal,  May  31. 

J.  Wm.  Dawson. 


158 


NATURE 


\June  14,  1 


NOTES. 

The  Laboratory  of  the  Marine  Biological  Association  at  Ply- 
mouth is  now  approaching  completion,  and,  after  the  opening 
ceremony  on  the  30th  inst.,  it  will  be,  in  all  essential  respects, 
ready  for  work.  The  salt-water  reservoirs  have,  after  several 
delays,  been  filled,  and  the  water  is  now  circulating  freely  in 
the  tanks  of  the  aquarium.  The  fittings  of  the  main  laboratory 
are  complete  on  the  north  side,  and  will  give  accommodation 
for  seven  naturalists,  besides  the  Resident  Director.  In  addition 
to  this  there  are  the  physiological  and  chemical  laboratories, 
all  the  fittings  of  which  are  now  in  place,  and  the  library  is  in 
process  of  formation.  The  Association  stands  very  much  in 
need  of  presents  of  books,  and  it  is  hoped  that  those  who  are 
interested  in  its  work,  and  have  duplicate  copies  of  biological 
works  on  their  shelves,  will  be  disposed  to  present  them  to  so 
deserving  an  institution.  At  the  opening  ceremony  on  the  30th, 
upwards  of  a  hundred  members  and  their  friends  are  expected 
to  be  present.  The  fact  that  Parliament  is  in  session  will  keep 
away  many  of  those  who  take  a  liberal  interest  in  the  Associa- 
tion, but  it  is  hoped  that  Sir  Lyon  Playfair,  Sir  Edward  Clarke, 
and  Sir  Edward  Birkbeck  will  be  present  to  represent  the  Par- 
liamentary interest.  Prof.  W.  H.  Flower  will  be  the  presiding 
zoologist,  and  with  him  will  be  many  well-known  men  of  science, 
including  Profs.  Ray  Lankester,  Milnes  Marshall,  Mcintosh,  C. 
Stewart,  Dr.  Gunther,  Mr.  Adam  Sedgwick,  and  many  others. 
The  Hydrographer  has  stated  his  intention  to  be  present,  and 
the  naval  and  military  element  will  be  fully  represented  by  the 
commanding  officers  of  both  services  at  Plymouth.  The  Fish- 
mongers' Company,  which  has  been  so  munificent  a  patron  of 
the  Association,  will  be  fully  represented  by  its  Prime  Warden, 
Sir  James  Clarke  Lawrence,  and  several  members  of  the  Court. 
They  have  kindly  undertaken  the  hospitable  duties  of  the  occa- 
sion, and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  dejefuier  at  the  Grand 
Hotel,  and  the  speeches  that  may  be  expected  to  be  made  there, 
will  form  a  most  important  part  of  the  day's  proceedings. 

The  annual  meeting  for  the  election  of  Fellows  of  the  Royal 
Society  was  held  at  the  Society's  rooms  in  Burlington  House 
on  June  7>  when  the  following  gentlemen  were  elected  :  Thomas 
Andrews,  F.R.S.E.,  James  Thomson  Bottomley,  M.A.,  Charles 
Vernon  Boys,  Arthur  Herbert  Church,  M.A.,  Prof.  Alfred  George 
Greenhill,  M.  A.,  Lieut. -General  Sir  William  F.  D.Jervois,  R.E., 
Prof.  Charles  Lapworth,  LL.D.,  Prof.  T.  Jeffery  Parker, 
Prof.  John  Henry  Poynting,  M.A.,  Prof.  William  Ramsay, 
Ph.D.,  Thomas  Pridgin  Teale,  F.R.C.S.,  William  Topley, 
F.G.  S.,  Henry  Trimen,  M.B.,  Prof.  Henry  Marshall  Ward, 
M.A.,  William  Henry  White,  M.I.C.E. 

Dr.  S.  H.  Vines,  F.R.S.,  Fellow  of  Caius  College,  Cam- 
bridge, has  been  elected  to  the  Sherardian  Professorship  of 
Botany  at  Oxford. 

The  King  of  Sweden,  who  was  elected  an  Honorary  Member 
of  the  Linnean  Society  at  the  centenary  anniversary  meeting  of 
that  Society  held  at  Burlington  House  on  May  24  last,  gave  an 
audience  on  Friday  afternoon  to  the  President  (Mr.  W.  Car- 
ruthers,  F.R.S.),  Secretaries  (Messrs.  B.  D.  Jackson  and  W. 
P.  Sladen),  and  Librarian  (Mr.  Harting),  and  inscribed  his 
name  in  the  album  wherein  the  names  of  all  Fellows  and 
Honorary  Members  have  been  inscribed  since  1788.  The  Royal 
signatures  include  those  of  George  IV.,  William  IV.,  Queen 
Victoria,  Prince  Albert,  the  Prince  of  Wales,  the  King  of  the 
Belgians,  the  King  of  Saxony,  and  now  the  King  of  Sweden. 

This  week  the  University  of  Bologna  is  celebrating  the  eighth 
•century  of  its  existence.  A  congratulatory  Greek  ode  has  been 
written  by  Prof.  R.  C.  Jebb,  who  represents  the  University  of 
Cambridge  as  its  senior  delegate  at  Bologna.  The  verses,  which 
are  composed  in  the  metres  of  Pindar's  eighth  Olympian  ode,  are 


suggested  by  the  circumstance  that  the  University  of  Glasgow, 
in  which  Prof.  Jebb  holds  the  Chair  of  Greek  Literature,  is  the 
only  University  in  this  country  of  which  the  model  was  taken 
directly  and  exclusively  from  Bologna. 

The  second  annual  soiree  of  the  Middlesex  Natural  History 
and  Science  Society  was  held  at  the  Society's  rooms,  11  Chandos 
Street,  Cavendish  Square,  on  Thursday  evening  last.  Lord 
Strafford,  the  Lord-Lieutenant  of  the  county,  President  of  the 
Society,  was  in  the  chair.  Many  objects  of  scientific  interest 
were  exhibited. 

The  Hon.  J.  Collier  has  undertaken  to  paint  the  portrait  of 
Prof.  Williamson,  which  is  to  be  presented  to  University 
College. 

The  Conferences  convened  by  the  London  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce to  consider  the  question  of  commercial  education  led  to 
the  appointment  of  a  Committee  for  the  full  discussion  of  the 
subject.  This  Committee  nominated  a  sub-Committee,  among 
the  members  of  which  were  Sir  John  Lubbock,  Sir  Henry 
Roscoe,  and  Sir  B.  Samuelson.  A  scheme  for  the  improvement 
of  commercial  education  has  now  been  drawn  up  by  the  sub- 
Committee  and  sent  to  various  business  men,  schoolmasters,  and 
other  authorities  on  education,  with  a  request  for  practical 
suggestions.  The  scheme,  as  it  stands,  proposes  as  obligatory 
subjects  for  examination  for  a  commercial  certificate  :  (1) 
English  ;  (2)  Latin  ;  (3a)  French  ;  (3^)  German,  Spanish,  or 
Italian  ;  (4)  history  of  British  Isles  and  colonies,  general  and 
modern  history,  including  commercial  history  ;  (5)  geography, 
physical,  political,  commercial,  and  industrial ;  (6)  mathematics  ; 
(7)  drawing.  Proficiency  is  also  required  in  at  least  one  of 
the  following  :  physics,  chemistry,  natural  history,  commerce, 
and  political  economy. 

Prof.  Lutken,  Director  of  the  Zoological  Museum  of 
Copenhagen,  has  addressed  a  strong  appeal  to  country  people  in 
Denmark  to  protect  the  sand  grouse.  He  points  out  that  the  only 
countries  in  which  the  birds  nested  in  1863  were  Denmark  and 
Holland,  but  that  owing  to  people  gathering  and  eating  the  eggs 
no  birds  were  hatched.  He  trusts  that  this  wanton  conduct 
may  not  now  be  repeated.  The  Professor  feels  sure  that  the 
bird  can  be  acclimatized  in  Denmark,  as  the  sandy  cliffs  and 
shores  of  that  country  are  particularly  suited  to  its  breeding.  The 
Zoological  Gardens  in  Copenhagen  have  obtained  a  live  specimen 
of  the  bird,  caught  in  the  Island  of  Funen.  Flocks  upwards  of  a 
hundred  in  number  have  of  late  been  seen  in  many  parts  of 
Denmark. 

One  of  the  largest  pine-trees  ever  grown  in  Sweden  was 
felled  the  other  day  in  Lapland.  It  measured  over  120  feet  in 
height,  and  was    12  5  feet  in  diameter  2  feet  from  the  ground. 

On  the  evening  of  May  14,  about  10  p.m.,  a  brilliant  meteor 
was  seen  at  Kalmar,  in  Sweden.  It  was  about  the  size  of  an 
ordinary  plate,  the  colour  being  pale  yellow,  and  it  had  a  train 
about  ico  feet  in  length.  It  went  in  a  north-westerly  direction, 
apparently  only  some  little  height  above  the  ground,  and  ex- 
ploded some  distance  from  the  town  with  a  noise  like  that  of 
burning  gunpowder.  During  its  progress  a  whizzing  sound  was 
distinctly  heard. 

In  vol.  iv.  Part  4,  of  the  Indian  Meteorological  Memoirs, 
Mr.  J.  Elliot  gives  a  list  and  brief  account  of  the  south-west 
monsoon  storms  generated  in  the  Bay  of  Bengal  during  the  years 
1882-86.  This  list,  which  contains  Nos.  47-101  of  the  series 
of  storms,  is  a  continuation  of  that  given  in  the  sixth  paper 
of  the  second  volume  of  the  Memrirs,  and  is  accompanied  by 
yearly  and  monthly  track  charts.  Some  of  the  principal  storms 
have  been  fully  discussed  in  previous  parts  of  the  Memoirs  and 
in  the  Journal  of  the  Bengal  Asiatic  Society.  The  retreat  of  the 
south-west  monsoon  in  October  1866  was  followed  by  the  occur- 


June  1 4,  1888] 


NATURE 


159 


rence  of  three  cyclones  at  intervals  of  about  a  fortnight.  They  pre- 
sented  such  marked  peculiarities  that  they  have  been  specially  in- 
vestigated. All  were  generated  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of 
the  Andamans.  The  first,  which  began  to  form  on  November  2, 
is  an  example  of  a  class  of  storms,  of  occasional  occurrence, 
which  pass  across  Southern  India  into  the  Arabian  Sea,  and  it 
lasted  for  a  fortnight.  It  is  the  first  example  of  its  kind  which 
has  been  fully  worked  out.  The  second,  which  was  also  a  very 
violent  storm,  was  formed  on  November  13,  and  affords  a 
marked  illustration  of  the  effect  of  a  mass  of  land  in  modifying 
the  motion  of  a  cyclonic  disturbance.  The  third  storm  formed 
on  December  7,  and  was  in  many  respe  cts  exactly  similar  to  the 
first,  excepting  that  it  was  comparatively  feeble  at  sea  and 
short-lived  on  land. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  French  Meteorological  Society  on  May  1, 
M.  Poincare  presented  calculations  and  synoptic  charts  showing 
mean  barometric  heights  at  latitude  30°  and  10°  N.,  for  every 
day  from  December  9,  1882,  to  December  15,  1883,  and  on  the 
parallels  of  400,  50°,  and  200,  for  a  number  of  selected  days,  and 
pointed  out  certain  relations  which  he  considered  existed  between 
the  barometric  movements  at  these  latitudes,  and  the  positions 
of  the  sun  and  moon,  and  the  effect  of  these  on  the  displace- 
ments of  the  region  of  the  trade  winds.  M.  Renou  made  a  com- 
munication upon  the  unsatisfactory  condition  of  actinometry, 
and  showed  that  the  values  obtained  varied  according  to  the  in- 
struments used,  the  force  of  the  wind,  &c,  and  he  submitted  some 
of  the  observations  made  during  seven  years  at  the  Observatory 
of  the  Pare  Saint-Maur.  The  Secretary  presented,  on  the  part 
of  M.  Pictre,  of  Pan,  a  plan  for  the  graphical  representation  of 
local  observations,  in  connection  with  general  weather  charts, 
with  the  view  of  facilitating  local  predictions.  M.  d'Abbadie 
urged  the  desirability  of  developing  the  study  of  earthquakes,  and 
offered  to  give  particulars  as  to  an  inexpensive  form  of  seismo- 
graph, and  as  to  the  ob-ervations  required,  to  persons  willing  to 
undertake  such  investigations. 

The  Committee  of  the  Association  for  the  Oral  Instruction  of 
the  Deaf  and  Dumb  have  issued  their  Report  for  1887.  They 
express  much  regret  that  in  a  great  many  instances  the  children 
are  too  early  removed  from  the  school  established  by  the 
Association.  Parents  and  guardians  appear  to  think  that  as 
soon  as  a  fair  amount  of  speech  and  lip-reading  has  been 
acquired  there  is  no  longer  any  need  for  special  training.  Not- 
withstanding this  drawback,  the  Committee  feel  assured  that 
in  each  year  the  friends  of  oral  instruction  increase  in  numbers, 
and  that  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  the  manual  alphabet 
and  sign  language,  if  retained  at  all,  will  exist  only  as  a  special 
requirement  for  cases  of  imperfect  vision  and  semi-imbecility. 
At  the  Training  College  two  grades  of  certificates  are  now 
granted — first-class  for  head,  second-class  for  assistant  teachers. 
During  the  year  1887  eleven  female  teachers  attended  the 
Training  College,  of  whom  six  obtained  first-class,  and  two 
second-class  certificates. 

A  new  edition  of  Sir  Walter  Puller's  "  History  of  the  Birds  of 
New  Zealand  "  has  been  issued.  Without  going  over  identically 
the  same  ground,  the  author  gives  in  this  edition  a  more  thoroughly 
complete  account  of  the  birds  of  a  country  which  is  second  in 
interest  to  none  in  the  world  as  regards  its  natural  history.  A 
melancholy  interest  attaches  to  the  avifauna  of  New  Zealand, 
where  so  many  of  the  indigenous  birds,  remains  of  a  most  ancient 
fauna,  are  either  extinct  or  on  the  verge  of  extinction.  Sir  Walter 
Buller  deserves  well  of  every  naturalist  for  the  wonderful  pains 
and  energy  he  has  shown  in  getting  together  the  facts  for  the 
life-histories  of  many  of  these  birds,  which  in  a  few  years  no 
one  will  be  able  to  procure,  and  he  has  accomplished  his  task 
ably.  The  scientific  portion  of  the  work  and  the  full  descrip- 
tions of  the  species  are  as  well  written  as  the  accounts  of  the 


habits.  The  plates  have  been  done  by  Keulemans,  and  produced 
by  chromolithography,  but,  like  all  illustrations  of  birds  pro- 
duced by  this  process,  they  are  not  quite  satisfactory.  Insects 
appear  to  us  to  be  capable  of  illustration  by  chromolithography, 
but  birds  do  not  lend  themselves  sd  readily  to  this  method.  The 
delay  in  production  is  excessive,  and  the  cost  very  consider- 
able, while  the  efforts  to  produce  a  striking  plate  result  in  some 
loss  of  exactness  in  the  colouring  of  the  bird,  this  being  not 
strictly  accurate  in  many  cases.  That  this  should  result  when 
the  best  lithographic  draughtsman  of  birds  in  the  world  has  been 
employed,  and  unlimited  money  been  spent  on  the  production  of 
the  plates,  clearly  shows  us  that  chromolithography  is,  and  ever 
will  be,  inferior  to  hand-colouring. 

The  fifth  monthly  part  of  the  "  Cyclopaedia  of  Education  " 
(Swan  Sonnenschein)  has  now  been  issued.  The  complete  work 
will  include  about  twelve  parts. 

A  second  edition  of  Mr.  S.  R.  Bottone's  "  Electrical  Instru- 
ment-making for  Amateurs"  (Whittaker  and  Co.)  has  just  been 
issued.  In  compliance  with  the  request  of  several  correspond- 
ents, the  author  has  added  a  short  article  on  the  telephone. 

Sir  David  Salomon's  useful  "Management  of  Accumu- 
lators and  Private  Electric  Light  Installations  "  (Whittaker  and 
Co.)  has  already  reached  a  fourth  edition.  The  author  has 
thoroughly  revised  the  work  and  made  some  additions,  including 
the  "  Rules  and  Regulations  for  the  Prevention  of  Fire  Risks," 
as  laid  down  by  the  Committee  of  the  Society  of  Telegraph- 
Engineers  and  Electricians. 

Messrs.  Guy  and  Co.,  at  Cork,  and  Messrs.  Simpkin, 
Marshall,  and  Co.,  London,  have  published  a  "Guide"  to  what 
the  enthusiastic  author  calls  "the  most  picturesque  tour  in- 
Western  Europe."  By  this  he  means  a  tour  in  the  south-west 
of  Ireland.     The  little  volume  is  illustrated. 

Mr.  Leland's  work  on  "  Practical  Education  "  has  reached 
a  second  edition.  He  will  now  follow  up  the  ideas  set  down  in 
this  book  by  a  series  of  illustrated  hand-books  on  the  minor 
arts  and  industries.  The  series  will  begin  with  a  manual  on 
"  Drawing  and  Designing." 

"  A  Fresh-water  Yarn,"  an  illustrated  account  of  a 
boat-voyage  up  the  River  Avon,  is  announced  for  immediate 
publication  by  Mr.  Elliot  Stock. 

Mr.  T.  Fisher  Unwin  is  about  to  publish  a  second  edition 
of  Mr.  Edward  Newman's  "  Birdsnesting  and  Bird  skinning." 
The  work  has  been  revised,  and  practically  re-written,  with,  in 
addition,  directions  for  the  collection  and  preservation  of  birds, 
and  a  new  chapter  on  bird-skinning,  by  Miller  Christy. 

Messrs.  E.  and  F.  N.  Spon  have  in  preparation  "  The 
Drainage  of  Fens  and  Low  Lands  by  Gravitation  and 
Steam  Power,"  by  Wr.  H.  Wheeler;  "Practical  N.jtes  on 
1  ipe  Founding,"  by  James  W.  Macfarlane  ;  and  "  A  System 
for  the  Construction  of  Crystal  Models  on  the  Type  of  an 
Ordinary  Plait,"  by  John  Gorham. 

The  administrators  of  the  schools  of  the  Caucasus  have  just 
brought  out  the  first  volume  of  the  works  of  the  late  General 
Uslar.  No  explorer  of  the  Caucasus  has  done  so  much  as  Uslar 
did  for  the  ethnography  of  the  region,  yet  his  works  are  little 
known.  In  1862  he  published  his  remarkable  researches  into  the 
Abkhazian  language,  and  laid  the  foundations  for  a  rational,  most 
appropriate,  and  easy  transcription  of  this  and  other  Caucasian 
languages.  Later  on,  he  brought  out  similar  works  on  the 
languages  of  the  Tcherkesses,  Avarians,  Lakhes,  and  so  on. 
He  did  not  merely  compile  more  or  less  perfect  vocabularies  of 
each  language,  but  thoroughly  learned  each  in  turn,  with  the  help 


i6o 


NATURE 


[June  14,  1888 


of  natives,  and  he  considered  his  work  worthy  of  publication 
only  when  he  could  bring  out  an  elaborate  grammar.  Unhappily 
all  his  works  were  merely  lithographed  in  a  limited  number  of 
copies.  Now  the  first  volume  has  appeared  at  Tiflis  under  the 
title  of  "  Ethnography  of  the  Caucasus."  It  contains  Uslar's 
work  on  the  Abkhazian  language,  and  several  smaller  articles 
on  the  principles  of  transcription  of  the  Caucasian  languages ; 
on  the  languages  of  the  Tcherkesses  and  Ubykhes ;  and  on  the 
grammar  of  the  Svanetian  language. 

The  sporadic  geographical  distribution  of  the  Aldrovandia 
vesiculosa — an  aquatic  plant  of  the  family  of  Droseraceas — long 
ago  attracted  the  attention  of  botanists.  Grisebach  and 
De  Candolle  discussed  it,  and  Caspary  made  it  the  subject  of 
two  well-known  monographs,  trying  to  explain  the  strange  dis- 
tribution of  the  Aldrovandia,  a  few  individuals  of  which  had 
been  discovered,  after  much  hunting  for  them,  in  localities  so 
far  apart  as  Aries,  Bordeaux,  and  a  very  few  other  places  in 
France ;  at  isolated  spots  in  Italy,  Tyrol,  and  Hungary;  in  Silesia ; 
about  Pinsk  in  Lithuania  ;  and  at  Calcutta.  Since  Caspary 
wrote,  it  has  been  discovered  also  in  Brandenburg,  South 
Bavaria,  and  at  two  other  spots  in  Prussia.  Schweinfurth  dis- 
covered it  in  Central  Africa,  and  Ferd.  Muller  in  Australia  ;  and 
Russian  explorers  have  found  it  on  the  Lower  Amu-daria,  and 
in  the  delta  of  the  Volga.  Taking  up  again  the  whole  question 
as  to  the  causes  of  its  sporadic  extension,  in  the  Trudy  of  the 
Kazan  Society  of  Naturalists  (vol.  xvii.  fasc.  1),  M.  Korz- 
chinsky  shows  that  in  the  delta  of  the  Volga  it  grows  especially 
in  thickets  of  rushes.  There,  in  the  most  inaccessible  parts  of 
the  thickets,  the  water  is  covered  with  flowers  of  the  Aldrovandia, 
while  in  open  places  it  is  very  scarce,  and  the  few  individuals 
discovered  rarely  flower.  MM.  Herbich  and  Berdan  noticed  the 
same  circumstance  on  the  Tiniecki  Lake  about  Cracow  ;  and 
M.  Korzchinsky  concludes  that  the  Aldrovandia  vesiculosa  is  a 
feeble  plant  which  cannot  compete  with  other  aquatic  plants,  and 
is  thus  compelled  to  seek  for  refuge  in  the  shaded  spots  amidst 
the  rushes  where  no  other  aquatic  plants  grow.  The  spots  where 
the  Aldrovandia  grows  now  must  be  regarded  as  a  few  remnants 
of  a  wide  region  over  which  it  formerly  extended,  and  M. 
Korzchinsky  compares  it  in  this  respect  with  the  Trapa  natans, 
which  is  also  disappearing. 

How  far  north  did  the  Caspian  Sea  extend  during  the  post- 
Pliocene  period  ?  This  question  has  often  been  considered  by 
geologists  and  geographers.  Marine  deposits,  undoubtedly 
Caspian — that  is,  containing  a  fauna  which  is  now  characteristic 
of  the  Caspian  Sea — have  been  recently  found  as  far  north  as 
the  Samara  bending  of  the  Volga ;  so  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  during  the  post-Pliocene  period  a  gulf  of  the  great  Aral- 
Caspian  basin  penetrated  north,  up  the  present  valley  of  the 
Volga,  as  far  as  the  54th  degree  of  north  latitude.  A  few 
years  ago  Prof.  Golovkinsky  raised  the  question  whether  the 
post-Pliocene  sediments  which  fill  up  the  great  depression  on  the 
middle  Volga  at  its  junction  with  the  Kama,  were  not  also 
deposited  in  a  great  lake  which  stood  in  connection  with  the 
Caspian  ;  and  this  question  is  now  answered  by  M.  Netchayeff, 
who  has  investigated  these  deposits.  He  communicates  to  the 
Kazan  Society  of  Naturalists  {Trudy,  vol.  xvii.  fasc.  5),  that 
the  brown-yellow  sandy  clays  on  the  Kama  about  Tchistopol 
(550  20'  N.  lat.),  contain  the  following  fossils  :  Dreyssena  poly- 
morpha,  most  characteristic  of  the  Aral-Caspian  deposits  all  over 
the  Trans-Caspian  region,  Pisidium  fontinale,  Paludina  achatina, 
P.  impura,  Limnceus  fuscus,  Helix  pulchella,  and  the  Hydrobia 
caspia  (Eichwald).  The  latter,  according  to  Grimm,  is  one  of 
the  forms  now  in  the  Caspian  Sea  which  are  found  only  in  that 
sea.  We  must  therefore  conclude  that  the  Kazan  depression  of 
the  Volga,  now  about  150  feet  above  the  sea-level,  i.e.  235  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  Caspian,  was  a  part  of  that  sea  at  a  period 
so  close  to  our  own  as  the  post-Pliocene. 


The  cod  and  whale  fisheries  in  the  north  of  Norway  have 
entirely  failed  this  spring,  and  it  is  suggested  that  the  non- 
appearance of  the  former  is  due  to  the  low  temperature  of  the 
sea  this  season.  Thus  the  Russian  naval  officers  stationed  on 
the  Murman  coast  found  in  May  only  a  surface  temperature  of 
from  i°  to  2°  C,  and  along  the  Norwegian  coast  it  has  been 
lower  still.  As  to  the  whale-fishing,  only  40  animals  had  been 
captured  by  the  end  of  April  against  200  last  year.  It  is  main- 
tained that  the  present  wholesale  slaughter  carried  out  by 
Norwegian  and  Russian  steamers  equipped  with  harpoon  guns 
will  eventually  extirpate  these  animals,  and  some  measure  for 
their  preservation  is  contemplated.  Advices  from  the  Arctic 
regions  state  that  there  was  an  enormous  mass  of  drift-ice  in  those 
waters  during  this  spring.  Two  sealers,  the  Hekla  and  the  famous 
Vega,  were  imprisoned  for  more  than  a  month  in  the  ice  to  the 
north-east  of  Norway. 

In  the  very  useful  scientific  methods  whereby  movements  re- 
cord themselves  in  curves,  photography  and  a  point  moving  on  a 
smoked  surface  are  perhaps  those  forms  which  yield  the  most 
delicate  curves.  In  the  French  Societe  d'Encouragement,  M. 
Mascart  has  called  attention  to  a  useful  modification  by  M. 
Fenon,  in  which  a  bent  tube  of  tempered  steel  forms  a  siphon, 
dipping  at  one  end  in  a  reservoir  of  ink,  and  at  the  other  being 
shaped  like  a  pen  point,  which  is  brought  near  the  moving  paper 
(the  sloped  section  outwards).  Capillary  fjrce  prevents  outflow 
when  the  apparatus  is  at  rest.  A  fine  trace  is  produced  by  this 
pen,  without  interruption  by  the  most  rapid  displacements,  and 
without  sticking  when  at  rest.  M.  Wolf,  of  the  Paris  Obser- 
vatory, has  used  the  system  for  getting  records  of  air-pressure, 
temperature,  wind,  &c,  with  the  best  results.  The  reservoir 
needs  charging  only  once  a  week  ;  and  using  inks  mixed  with 
glycerine  a  single  charge  has  been  found  to  suffice  for  a  barometer 
record  of  more  than  six  months. 

In  a  recent  interesting  lecture,  opening  his  course  at  the  Col- 
lege   de    France,    M.    Ribot   gave    a   sketch    of   contemporary 
psychology.     The  science  in  France  might  be  characterized  by 
one  expression — "the  era  of  monographs."     There  was  no  com- 
prehensive work  like  that  of  Wundt  in  Germany  ;  such  were 
certainly   very   useful,    but,   like  vast    cathedrals,   they   always 
needed  repair  at  some  point.     In  psychology  proper,  the  part 
belonging  to  logical  operations,  to  reasoning,  as  principle  of  the 
unity  of  perceptions,  had  been  well  studied ;  and  perhaps  the 
most  important  results  had  been  reached  in  the  study  of  the  nature 
and  physical  conditions  of  the  image.     The  psychology  of  move- 
ments, especially  those  expressing  thought,  had  yielded  a  rich  har- 
vest ;  while  the  great  amount  of  experimentation  in  hypnotism,  and 
the  foundation  in  1885  of  a  Society  of  Physiological  Psychology 
(impossible  twenty  years   ago),  showed  the  vitality  of  French 
studies.     In  England,  the  principal  contributions  were  in  com- 
parative psychology,  represented  chiefly  by  the  work  of  Lubbock 
and   Romanes.       Germany  was  the  centre  of  psycho-physics. 
Wundt's  laboratory  at  Leipzig,  founded  in   1879,  had  acquired 
great  renown,  and,  last  year,  had  twenty  students  of  different 
nationalities  working  in  it.     M.   Ribot  justified  those  studies, 
which  had  been  rather  depreciated  in  France.     The  predomin- 
ating tendency  in  Italy  was  criminal  psychology  (better  known 
as  criminal  anthropology)— the  three  chiefs  of  the  school  being 
Lombroso,  mainly  a  biologist ;  Ferri,  a  sociologist  and  statis- 
tician ;  and  Garofals,  a  jurist.     It  had  gained  several  adherents 
in  France,  and  there  were  symptoms  of  its  invading  Spain.     In 
the  United  States,  as  in  Germany,  public  instruction  had  almost 
alone  played  the  part  of  initiation  in  the  psychological  move- 
ment ;  in  England,  the  work  had  been  chiefly  done  by  books 
(Mill,  Bain,  Spencer,  &c).      Four  American   Universities  now 
gave   special    teaching   in   physiological   psychology,  and  had 

laboratories,    psycho- physics   being   the    dominant   study.      A 


June  14,  1888] 


NATURE 


161 


journal  devoted  to  experimental  psychology  was  started  at  the 
Johns  Hopkins  University,  last  November,  by  Prof.  Stanley 
Hall.  The  work  of  James  at  Harvard  was  also  referred  to. 
Allusion  was  further  made  to  Russia,  which  might  be  expected 
to  take  a  good  place  in  the  psychology  of  the  future. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  five  Pea-fowls  (Pavocristatus,  2  <J  ,  3  Q  )  from 
India,  presented  by  Her  Majesty  the  Queen  ;  a  Pagoda  Owl 
{Syrnium  sinense),  a  Horsfield's  Scops  Owl  {Scops  lempiji)  from 
Penang,  presented  by  Mr.  C.  B.  Ricketts  ;  three  Grey-breasted 
Parrakeets  {Bolborhynchus  monachus)  from  Monte  Video,  pre- 
sented  by   Mrs.    Macnab ;    a    Gull    (Larus   )  from 

Massowah,  presented  by  Mr.  D.  Wilson-Barker  ;  a  Chilian 
Skunk  (Conepatus  mapurito)  from  Chili,  a  Black-necked  Swan 
(Cygnus  nigricollis)  from  Australia,  a  White-throated  Monitor 
(Varanus  albogularis)  from  South  Africa,  purchased  ;  a  West 
Australian  Great  Kangaroo  (Macropus  ocydromus  <J  )  from  West 
Australia,  two  Wandering  Tree  Pies  (Dendrocitta  vagabunda) 
from  India,  received  in  exchange ;  a  Japaneese  Deer  {Cervus 
sika  9  ),  a  Burrhel  Wild  Sheep  (Ovis  burrhel  9),  born  in  the 
Gardens. 


THE 


ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR 
WEEK  1888  JUNE  17-23. 

/■pOR.  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  *•  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 
is  here  employed. ) 

At  Greenwich  on  June  17 
Sun  rises,  3h.  44m.;  souths,  I2h.  om.  437s. ;  sets,  2oh.  17m.  : 

right   asc.    on    meridian,    sh.    45 '4m.  ;   decl.    230  25'  N. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  14b..  3m. 
Moon  (at  First  Quarter  June  17,   7h.)  rises,   I2h.  im.  ;  souths, 

i8h.    33m.;   sets,    oh.    52m.*:    right   asc.   on    meridian, 
i9-2m.  ;  decl.  2°  56'  N. 


I2h. 


Planet. 

Mercury.. 
Venus  ... 
Mars 
Jupiter  .., 
Saturn  ... 
Uranus... 
Neptune- 


Rises. 

h.   m. 

5  37 
3  19 

13  43 
17  36 

6  52 
13  23 

2  27 


Souths, 
h.    m. 

13  43 
II  32 

19  13 
21  59 

14  43 
19  3 
10  12 


Sets. 
h.    in. 

21  49 

19  45 
o  43* 
2  22* 

22  34 
o  43* 

17  57 


Right  asc.  and  declination 
on  meridian, 
h.       m 


7  27-5 
5  i°'3 

12  58-5 

15  45'3 

8  28  o 

12  49-3 
3  56  -o 


21  58  N. 

22  57  N. 
6  38  S. 

18  54  S. 

19  45  N. 
A   35  S. 

18  44  N. 


Indicates  that  the  setting  is  that  of  the  following  morning. 


June. 
18 

20 
21 


h. 
13 

15 
o 


Mars  in  conjunction  with  and  50  48'  south 

of  the  Moon. 
Uranus  stationary. 
Sun  at  greatest  declination  north  ;   longest 

day  in  northern  latitudes. 
Jupiter  in  conjunction  with  and  3°  51'  south 

of  the  Moon. 


Star. 

U  Cephei 
R  Virginis   ... 
5  Librae 
U  Ophiuchi... 

Variable  Stars. 
R.A.             Decl. 
h.      m.               „ 
...     0  52-4  ...  81    16  N.  . 
...   12  32-8  ...    7  36  N.  . 
...   14  55-0  ...    8     4  S.    . 
...  17  io-9  ...     1  20'N.  . 

..  June 
>  > 

»> 

Z  Sagittarii... 

...   18  14-8  ...  18  55  S.    . 

>> 
»> 

t\  Aquilae 
X  Cygni 
5  Cephei 

...   19  46*8  ...    0  43  N.  . 
...  20  390  ...  35  11  N.  . 
...  22  25*0  ...  57  51  N.  . 

>> 
>> 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  tii  minimum. 

Meteor-Showers. 
R.A. 

Decl. 

Near  8  Ursre  Majoris        169     ... 

.»     CCygni      318     .. 

Between  8  and  e  Cephei    335 

55  N 
32  N 

57  N 

22, 

2 

28 

m 

23. 

2 

6 

m 

23. 

22 

14 

m 

1 '), 

1 

0 

M 

2.], 

0 

0 

in 

20, 

1 

0 

M 

22, 

22 

0 

m 

20, 

22 

0 

in 

Swift. 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

The  paper  read  at  Monday's  meeting  of  the  Royal  Geo- 
graphical Society  was  on  Hudson's  Bay  and  Hudson's  Strait  as 
a  navigable  channel,  by  Commander  Markham.  It  was  really  a 
brief  sketch  of  a  much  larger  memoir  on  Hudson's  Bay  which 
Commander  Markham  has  prepared,  and  which  will  ultimately 
be  published  by  the  Society.  For  some  years  investigations 
have  been  carried  on  with  a  view  to  discover  whether  the  naviga- 
tion of  Hudson's  Bay  could  be  so  depended  on-  as  to  justify  its 
acceptance  as  a  regular  trade  route,  in  conjunction  with  a  railway, 
to  the  more  northerly  parts  of  Canada.  Commander  Markham 
briefly  sketches  the  history  of  navigation  in  Hudson's  Bay,  and 
concludes  with  the  results  of  his  own  visit  in  the  summer  of  1886 
on  board  the  Alert.  The  result,  he  states,  of  all  the  experience 
gathered  from  voyages  during  two  centuries,  and  from  observa- 
tions at  the  stations,  is  that  Hudson's  Strait  is  perfectly  navigable 
and  free  from  ice  in  August  and  later  in  the  season.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  this  passage  has  been  successfully  accomplished 
nearly  every  year  for  the  last  two  centuries,  while  the  vessels 
that  have  been  employed  on  the  service  have  been  ordinary 
sailing-ships,  dependent  entirely  on  wind  and  weather.  It  is 
very  rare  indeed  that  they  have  failed  to  get  through,  and  still 
more  rare  that  any  of  them  have  been  destroyed  by  the  ice.  It 
appears  from  the  official  records  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company 
that  Moose  Factory,  on  the  southern  shore  of  the  bay,  has  been 
visited  annually  by  a  ship  since  1735,  with  but  one  exception, 
namely  in  1779,  when  the  vessel  for  once  failed  to  achieve  the 
passage  of  the  strait.  The  percentage  of  losses  by  shipwreck 
among  these  vessels  employed  in  Hudson's  Bay  is  far  less  than 
would  have  to  be  recorded  in  a  like  number  of  ships  engaged  in 
general  ocean  traffic.  Commander  Markham  pointed  out  that 
until  quite  recently  only  sailing-vessels  attempted  to  navigate 
Hudson's  Bay,  and  maintained  that  with  a  properly  constructed 
steam-vessel,  there  need  be  neither  difficulty  nor  danger.  The 
establishment  of  new  routes  for  commerce,  Commander  Mark- 
ham concluded,  is  always  a  gain  to  the  science  of  geography.  In 
come  cases  new  regions  have  to  be  discovered  and  explored.  In 
others  the  physical  aspects  of  an  already  known  region  must  be 
more  carefully  studied,  and  many  points  of  interest  relating  to 
the  action  of  climates,  or  of  winds  and  currents,  may  be  ascer- 
tained. The  proposed  Winnipeg  and  Hudson's  Bay  Railroad  is 
a  striking  instance.  The  objections  of  opponents  to  the  route 
have  had  to  be  carefully  examined.  All  former  experience  had 
to  be  collected,  maturely  considered,  and  passed  in  review. 
Observatories  had  to  be  established  at  several  points,  to  make 
certain  whether  the  historical  records  actually  coincided  with 
physical  facts  as  they  now  exist.  The  route  itself  had  to  be 
sailed  over  and  explored.  All  these  various  researches  have 
been  as  great  a  gain  to  geography  as  to  commerce.  They  have 
enriched  our  science  with  a  fresh  stock  of  information,  have 
revised  previous  conceptions,  and  confirmed  or  rejected,  as  the 
case  may  be,  the  theories  and  views  which  may  have  been  put 
forward.  From  this  point  of  view,  and  from  this  point  of  view 
alone,  can  commercial  or  political  questions  receive  consideration 
here.  The  study  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  route  involves  a  problem 
for  which  physical  geography  alone  can  furnish  a  solution. 

Dr.  F.  H.  H.  Guillemard  has  been  recommended,  by 
the  joint  Committee  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  and  the 
University,  as  Lecturer  on  Geography  at  Cambridge. 

The  Bollettino  of  the  Italian  Geographical  Society  for  May 
publishes  the  map  of  the  Massawa  district  (Massawa  to  Saati) 
prepared  to  the  scale  of  I  :  80,000,  by  Prof.  P.  Durazzo,  with  the 
materials  which  have  been  supplied  by  the  Italian  Staff  officers 
during  the  recent  military  operations  in  that  region.  Prof. 
Durazzo  has  also  now  completed  his  large  map  in  two  sheets, 
scale  1  :  800,000,  of  all  the  Italian  possessions  and  protectorates 
in  East  Africa.  These  cartographic  works  embody  the  results 
of  all  the  latest  surveys,  and  contain  several  new  features,  as  well 
as  some  important  corrections  of  existing  maps. 


OUR  ELECTRICAL  COLUMN. 

The  beautiful  illustrations  of  stress  in  a  dielectric  in 
an  electric  field,  due  to  Dr.  Kerr,  have  been  modified 
and  amplified  by  Messrs.  Riicker  and  Boys,  and  were  shown 
to  a  large  audience  at  the  Institution  of  Electrical  Engin- 
eers   on    March    22,    and    again    at   the   soirh   of    the     Royal 


162 


NATURE 


\jnne  14,  i 


Society.  The  dielectric  they  used  was  carbon  bisulphide 
(CS2),  and  the' beam  of  light  passed  through  about  four  inches 
of  the  liquid.  The  presence  and  intensity  of  the  electric 
field  was  evident  to  all  by  the  brightness  of  the  screen. 
They  showed  experiments  to  illustrate  the  fact  that  the  repulsion 
of  similarly  electrified  bodies  may  be  regarded  as  an  attraction 
between  each  of  them  and  surrounding  objects.  They  have  devised 
an  experiment  visible  to  a  large  audience  to  show  that  in  an  electric 
field  the  structure  of  the  CS2  becomes  crystalline — that  is,  the 
optical  properties  along  and  transverse  to  the  electric  lines  of 
force  are  different ;  in  other  words,  the  velocities  of  propagation 
of  light  vibrations  differ  when  parallel  and  perpendicular  to  the 
lines  of  force,  contrary  to  the  view  formerly  held  on  the  Continent 
that  the  effect  is  due  to  unequal  expansion.  They  were  able  to 
increase  the  stress  so  that  the  liquid  displayed  colours  even  to 
the  green  of  the  second  order  ;  and  by  observing  the  spectrum  of 
the  light  passing  through  the  field,  black  bands  enter  at  the 
violet  end  and  traverse  its  whole  length  as  the  potential  rises. 
Faraday's  experiments  and  speculations,  Maxwell's  mathematics 
and  theories,  are  rapidly  becoming  acknowledged  facts  ;  and  the 
apparatus  of  Messrs.  Riicker  and  Boys  will  materially  assist  in 
spreading  a  knowledge  of  the  confirmation  which  those  theories 
receive  from  the  work  of  Kerr  and  Quincke. 

Blondlot  {Comptes  rendus,  January  30,  1888)  has  been 
working  in  the  same  direction,  but  with  vibratory  discharges 
from  a  Leyden  jar,  in  order  to  test  the  existence  or  non-exist- 
ence of  retardation  in  the  optical  effects.  He  could  see  no 
retardation. 

Cowles's  process  for  the  production  of  aluminium  from  its 
ores  by  the  direct  action  of  an  electric  current  of  5000  amperes 
in  an  electric  furnace  has  now  become  an  industry.  Works  have 
been  started  near  Stoke,  and  bronzes  of  wonderful  quality  are 
supplied  at  comparatively  cheap  prices. 

There  is  a  fashion  in  experimental  investigation  as  in  every- 
thing else.  Self-induction  is  played  out,  and  now  the  counter 
E.M.  F.  of  the  arc  is  passing  through  the  same  phase.  Uppen- 
born  {Beib/dtter,  No.  1,  1882,  p.  83)  is  the  last  inquirer.  He 
finds  for  a  current  of  77  amperes  and  10  mm.  carbons,  that 
a  =  35  -4  to  45-4  ;  b  =  1  74  to  3-2  in  Edlund's  formula — 

E  =  a  +  b/. 
Since   a  decreases  both  for  an  increase  of  current  and  for  an 
increase  in  the  section  of  arc,  he  leans  to  a  resistance  hypothesis 
rather  than  an  E.M.F. 

Klemencie  {Beib/dtter,  No.  I,  1888,  p.  57)  finds  the  specific 
inductive  capacity  of  mica  to  be  6  64 ;  Cohn  and  Arons  {Ann. 
der  Physik,  No.  1,  1888,  p.  13)  that  of  distilled  water  76, 
ethyl  alcohol  26"5,  amyl  alcohol  15,  and  petroleum  2'04. 

Palmieri  (March  1888)  has  observed  that  in  a  bright  clear 
sky,  with  a  high  and  steady  barometer,  and  every  indication  of 
continued  fine  weather,  the  electrometer  will  give  an  indication 
of  change  long  before  the  barometer. 

W.  Kohlrausch  {Electrolechnische  Zeitschrift,  March  1888) 
has  estimated  the  current  and  quantity  of  electricity  in  a 
lightning-flash.  He  calculates  that  it  will  take  9200  amperes 
to  melt  a  copper  rod  of  2 '5  centimetres  diameter.  Preece's 
constant  (Proc.  R.  S.,  March  18S8)  makes  it  10244.  Such  a 
current  concentrated  in  a  flash  would  contain  fr  mi  52  to  270 
coulombs,  which  would  decompose  from  5  to  25  milligrammes 
of  water,  and  from  9  to  47  cubic  centimetres  of  explosive  gas. 
If  this  energy  were  stored  up  and  distributed  for  electric  lighting, 
it  would  require  from  7  to  35  such  flashes  to  keep  one  glow 
lamp  alight  for  an  hour. 

Vogel  {Electrotechnische  Zeitschrift,  January  1888)  had  pre- 
viously calculated  the  relative  value  of  copper  and  iron  as 
lightning- protectors,  giving  iron  a  section  25  times  that  of 
copper  to  act  with  equal  efficiency.  Preece's  constants  give  the 
relative  efficiency — 

Iron         3148 

Copper 10244 

for  equal  diameters — that  is,  an  inch  rod  will  fuse  with  the  above 
currents  in  amperes ;    or,  if  we  take  the  same  current,  say  300 
amperes — 

Iron    ...         ...         ...         ...         o-2o86 

Copper  0095 

are  the  diameters  in  inches  of  the  wires  such  currents  will  fuse, 
or  in  the  ratio   2 '2    to  1  ;   Vogel's  ratio  being  13  -54  to  9-6. 


Vogel  did  not  consider  the  emissivity  of  the  surface,  and  there- 
fore his  results  are  not  so  accurate  as  Preece's  experimental 
figures. 

That  patient  worker,  II.  Tomlinson,  has  proved  that  the 
temperature  at  which  nickel  begins  to  lose  its  magnetic 
properties  is  between  3000  and  320°  C.  ;  but  that  the  rate  of 
decrease  of  magnetic  permeability,  and  the  temperature  at  which 
permeability  practically  vanishes,  vary  with  the  magnetizing 
force,  and  hence  the  widely  different  results  by  different 
observers.  Faraday  made  the  former  point  3300  to  340° ; 
Becquerel  400° ;  Pouillet  350°  ;  Chrystal  4000.  Iron  behaves 
in  the  same  way  :  permeability  vanishes  between  750°  and  770° 
according  to  Ledeboer. 

Prof.  Ewing  and  Mr.  Cowan  have  been  examining  the 
magnetic  qualities  of  nickel  on  the  same  lines  as  the  former 
examined  iron.  They  confirm  Sir  W.  Thomson's  observation 
that  longitudinal  pull  diminishes  magnetism  to  a  surprising 
extent.  Their  paper  in  the  Philosophical  Transactions  will  be 
looked  forward  to  with  much  interest. 

S.  Arrhenius  {Wiener  Berichte,  xcvi.  p.  831)  has  shown 
that  the  electrical  conductivity  of  chloride  and  bromide  of  silver 
was  influenced  by  the  intensity  of  the  rays  of  light  which  fell  upon 
the  salts.  It  was  most  intense  at  G  of  the  spectrum,  and  is 
therefore  an  effect  of  light,  and  not  of  heat. 

F.  Kohlrausch  {Wiedemann's  Annalen,  No.  4,  1888)  has 
shown  that  the  electric  conductivity  of 

Hard  steel       is  3*3 
Soft  steel  ,,  5 '5 

Wrought  iron  ,,76 

mercury  being  I  ;  while  their  thermal  conductivities  in  C.G.S. 

units  were — 

Hard  steel    C062 

Soft  steel      o'lii 

Wrought  iron       0*152 

the  ratios  being  the  same.  Hence  the  conditions  that  determine 
the  conduction  of  heat  and  electricity  are  the  same. 

Mr.  C.  V.  Boys's  interesting  magnetic  and  electric  experi- 
ments with  soap-bubbles,  and  his  wonderful  manipulative  skill, 
remind  old  habitues  of  the  Royal  Institution  how  exquisitely 
Faraday  handled  sjap-bubbles  blown  with  oxygen  to  illustrate 
the  magnetic  character  of  that  gas.  Mr.  Boys  blows  one  bubble 
inside  another,  and,  on  bringing  the  two  into  an  electric  field, 
the  perfect  indifference  of  the  inner  one  to  any  change  of 
potential  clearly  shows  that  electrification  is  confined  to  the 
absolute  surfaces  of  a  conductor,  and  that  it  is  not  felt  at  any 
depth  within  it,  however  small. 


WHEA  T  CULTIVA  TION} 

'"THE  most  interesting  sections  of  this  number  of  the  Journal 
-*-  are  those  bearing  upon  the  subject  of  wheat  cultivation. 
The  permanent  wheat  and  barley  experiments  at  Woburn, 
reported  upon  by  Sir  John  Lawes,  Bart.,  is  followed  by  a  paper 
upon  the  condition  of  wheat-growing  in  India  by  Dr.  George 
Watt,  Reporter  upon  Economic  Products  to  the  Government  of 
India.  Next  comes  an  article  by  Mr.  W.  E.  Bear  upon  the 
Indian  wheat  trade.  Lastly,  in  this  connection,  comes  a  highly 
interesting  account  of  modern  improvements  in  corn-milling 
machinery.  These  four  papers  occupy  one-third  part  of  the 
volume,  and  taken  in  connection  with  each  other  throw  consider- 
able light  upon  the  difficulties  under  which  the  English  wheat- 
grower  is  struggling.  Dr.  Watt  and  Mr.  Bear  both  show  the 
extraordinary  extent  of  the  wheat-producing  area  of  our  Indian 
Empire,  and  the  rapidity  with  which  this  vast  field  is  being 
opened  up.  With  reference  to  the  latter  point  men  in  middle 
life  are  scarcely  likely  to  realize  the  fact  that  in  1853  there  were 
in  all  only  zo\  miles  of  railway  in  India,  that  in  1873  there  were 
5695  miles  of  railway,  while  in  1887  there  were  13,386  miles. 
Telegraphic  communication  with  India  was  first  opened  in  1865, 
and  the  opening  of  the  Suez  Canal  in  1869  was  scarcely  of  less 
importance  in  developing  her  trade— first,  by  shortening  the 
passage,  and  secondly,  by  mitigating  the  risk  from  wheat  weevil. 
Another  agency  has  been  the  development  of  irrigation  works. 

1  The  Journal   of  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society  of   England,  vol.  xxiv. 
(second  series),  part  1.     (John  Murray,  Albemarle  Street.) 


June  14,  1888]' 


NA  TURE 


163 


We  read  that  "only  "  30,000,000  acres  have  up  to  date  been  arti- 
ficially irrigated,  but  the  appropriateness  of  the  qualifying  adverb 
is  rendered  evident  when  it  is  employed  in  contrast  with  the 
total  area  of  200,000,000  acres  of  cultivated  ground,  and  the 
vast  tract  of  868,314  square  miles  which  include  British  India. 
The  normal  area  under  wheat  is  26,000,000  acres,  and  the  degree 
to  which  this  area  is  likely  to  be  increased  depends  entirely  upon 
demand  and  price.  Dr.  Watt  informs  us  that  the  Indian  culti- 
vator is  at  all  times  ready  to  adapt  his  courses  of  cropping  to 
circumstances,  and  that  he  will  increase  or  abandon  the  cul- 
tivation of  wheat,  cotton,  or  any  other  crop  according  to  its 
comparative  profitableness. 

Dr.  Watt  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Indian  wheat 
trade  up  to  the  present  time  is  a  perfectly  natural  one.  "  The 
people  are  exporting  only  what  they  specially  cultivate  for  that 
purpose.  The  moment  better  profits  can  be  realized  on  another 
crop  they  will  turn  from  wheat,  without  being  in  the  least  degree 
incommoded."  If  this  is  the  case,  the  English  farmer  may  well 
look  with  envy  upon  his  Indian  brother,  as  he  is  in  the  unfor- 
tunate position  of  being  compelled  to  carry  on  wheat-growing 
from  sheer  inability  to  find  a  substitute  for  it  in  his  agricultural 
economy.  Natural  though  the  course  of  the  ryot  may  be  from 
his  point  of  view,  the  actual  bounty  upon  wheat,  or  what 
amounts  to  a  bounty,  consequent  upon  the  fall  in  value  of  the 
rupee,  can  scarcely  be  described  as  natural.  This  great  advant- 
age to  the  Indian  cultivator  is  clearlv  brought  out  by  Mr.  Bear 
by  the  following  considerations.  First,  the  Indian  ryot  gets  as 
much  for  a  quarter  of  his  wheat  now  as  he  obtained  in  1872.  He 
gets  as  many  rupees,  and  his  rupees  are  worth  as  much  to  him 
as  they  were  then  !  In  1871-72  the  average  exchange  value  of 
the  rupee  was  is.  ii'i2</.,  whereas  recently  it  has  been  under 
I*.  5</.  The  price  of  No.  2  club  wheat  in  Calcutta  in  1872 
averaged  only  21s.  3«.  ip.  per  maund,  whereas  it  has  for  some 
time  past  been  over  zrs.  10a.  !  Taking  i6rs.  per  quarter 
{6  maunds)  as  the  price  for  both  periods,  then  reckoning  the 
exchange  value  of  the  rupee  for  both  periods,  it  is  clear  that  the 
exchange  value  of  i6rs.  in  1872  was  equal  to  305.  8</.  per 
quarter,  whereas  the  exchange  value  of  the  same  sum  in  1888 
is  only  22s.  8t/.  The  fact  is  that  the  Indian  ryot  gets  as  much 
for  a  quarter  of  wheat  now  as  he  did  in  1872,  in  spite  of  the 
fall  in  prices.  He  ge'.s  as  many  rupees,  and  his  rtipees  are  worth 
as  much  to  him.  This  seems  to  settle  the  question  as  to  the  encour- 
agement given  to  the  ryot  as  a  competitor  in  wheat-growing  with 
the  English  farmer.  Another  point,  in  all  respects  discouraging  to 
the  cultivation  of  wheat  in  England,  is  found  in  the  complete  revo- 
lution during  the  last  ten  years  in  corn-milling  machinery  described 
by  Mr.  W.  Proctor  Baker,  of  Bristol.  There  has  been  in  fact 
not  a  mere  substitution  of  one  machine  for  another,  or  of  one 
scries  of  machines  for  another,  but  there  has  been  a  change  of 
the  principle  and  mode  of  procedure.  The  old  system  of  "low 
grinding  "  by  mill-stones,  so  well  calculated  for  producing  flour 
from  soft,  tender  wheats,  such  as  are  produced  by  us,  has  been 
entirely  superseded  by  the  Hungarian  and  American  "  gradual 
reduction"  process  by  "roller  mills."  Not  only  does  this 
system  require  the  wheat  to  be  dry,  hard,  and  brittle,  so  as  to 
secure  the  requisite  cracking  and  gradual  reduction,  but  any- 
thing in  the  form  of  a  soft  or  moist  wheat  is  most  injurious  to 
the  machinery  and  the  products.  It  rolls  into  a  paste,  steam  is 
generated,  and  the  flour  works  into  balls,  becomes  attached  to 
the  rollers,  turns  sour,  and,  in  fact,  throws  the  entire  process  out 
of  gear.  "It  is  because  of  these  troubles  that  owners  of  mills 
on  a  large  scale  will  not  employ  native  wheats  in  damp  seasons. 
No  concession  of  price  is  sufficient  inducement  to  them  to  risk 
the  disorganization  of  the  mill,  and  probable  loss  of  reputation, 
by  turning  out  inferior  or  irregular  flour."  There  are,  however, 
two  modes  in  which  these  wheats  may  be  used.  First,  by  sub- 
mitting them  to  an  artificial  drying  process  ;  and  secondly,  by 
mixing  them  with  some  description  of  very  brittle  wheat,  and 
allowing  the  mixture  to  lie  for  some  weeks,  until  the  brittle  wheat 
absorbs  some  of  the  moisture  of  the  native  wheat,  to  the  mutual 
advantange  of  both. 

One  of  the  most  serious  points  at  issue  between  science  and 
agricultural  practice  at  present  appears  to  be  the  comparative  values 
of  farm-yard  manure  and  artificial  fertilizers.  So  far  as  absolute 
experiment  goes,  the  evidence  seems  to  be  in  favour  of  the  appli- 
cation of  the  latter,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  preponderating 
opinion  among  farmers  is  on  the  side  of  farm-yard  manure.  In 
the  Report  on  the  Field  and  Feeding  Experiments  at  Woburn, 
by  Dr.  J.  Augustus  Voelcker,  applications  of  dung  appear  some- 
what at  a  disadvantage  when  contrasted  wi'.h  applications  of  salts 


of  potash,  phosphates,  and  nitrates  direct.  Mr.  Vallentine,  in 
his  paper  upon  the  practical  value  of  dung  as  compared  with 
artificial  manures,  declares  in  favour  of  the  latter,  and  labours  to 
show  the  extravagant  cost  at  which  farm-yard  manure  is  pro- 
duced. "  For  years  past,"  he  says,  "  my  main  reliance  has  been 
placed  on  artificial  manures.  Some  dung  is  made  and  some 
bought,  but  it  is  found  to  answer  best,  as  a  rule,  to  sell  hay  and 
straw  and  to  purchase  manures."  This  may  answer  on  some 
classes  of  soil  ;  but  what  would  be  the  effect  upon  our  high-lying 
and  thin  chalk  downs  if  we  were  to  relinquish  sheep-farming  and 
depend  upon  "  artificials?  " 

Many  more  valuable  papers  well  repay  perusal,  among  others 
one  upon  recent  experiences  in  laying  land  down  to  grass,  by  Mr. 
James  A.  Caird.  The  remainder  are  mostly  official  in  character, 
being  the  usual  Reports  upon  implements,  prize  farm  competi- 
tions, shows,  experiments,  and  the  Annual  Reports  of  the 
Consulting  Chemist,  Botanist,  and  Entomologist,  which,  how- 
ever, are  none  the  less  valuable  for  being  official. 

Downton.  John  Wrightson. 


UNIVERSITY  AND  EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 

Cambridge. — The  following  are  the  speeches  delivered  on 
June  9  by  the  Public  Orator,  Dr.  Sandys,  Fellow  and  Tutor  of 
St.  John's  College,  in  presenting  for  the  honorary  degree  of 
Doctor  in  Science,  Prof.  G.  G.  Stokes,  Lord  Rayleigh,  Sir 
Frederick  Abel,  Prof.  Cayley,  and  Prof.  Adams  :  — 

(1)  Salutamus  deinceps  Regiae  societatis  praesidem,  pro- 
fessorem  nostrum  Lucasianum,  senatorum  nostrorum  omnium 
consensu  Britanniae  senatoribus  additum  ;  quern  in  munere  illo 
triplici  Newtoni  nostri  in  vestigiis  insistere  gloriamur.  Atqui 
ipse,  qua  est  morum  suavitate  et  modestia,  vix  tali  sese  honore 
dignatur,  sed  a  plausu  populari  remotus  et  seclusus,  templum 
quoddam  serenum  occupat,  ubi  reverentia  debita  rerum  naturae 
miracula  perscrutatur,  ubi  "in  statione  tranquilla  collocatus " 
lucis  leges  obscuras  observat,  observatas  ingenii  sui  lumine 
illustrat.  Viro  tali  rerum  naturam  contemplanti  crediderim 
apparere  nonnunquam  sedes  illas  quietas, 

"  quas  neque  concutiunt  venti,  nee  nubila  nimbis 
aspergunt,  neque  nix  acri  concreta  prulna 
cana  cadens  violat,  semperque  innubilus  aether 
integit,  et  large  diffuso  iumine  ridet." 

Duco  ad  vos  virum  illustrem,  Professorem  Stokes. 

(2)  Venio  ad  nomen  physicorum  professoris  quern  non  sine 
desiderio  nuper  amisimus,  viri  cum  Cancellarii  nostri  munificentia 
haud  ita  pridem  consociati.  Ex  illo  velut  fonte,  liberalitatis 
flumen  amplum  professoris  nostri  in  provinciam  defluxit  inque 
alias  Academiae  partes  redundavit.  Ipse  fontium  exsilientium 
et  aquarum  destillantium  naturam  quam  feliciter  exploravit ; 
caeli  colorem  ilium  caeruleum  quam  dilucide  explicuit ;  quicquid 
audiendi  quicquid  videndi  ad  rationes  intimas  pertinet,  quam 
sapienter  interpretatus  est ;  quotiens  in  rerum  natura  eventis 
specie  quidem  inter  sese  diversis  causas  easdem  subesse  ostendit. 
Quam  profundam  rei  mathematicae  deoopiav,  ut  aiunt,  cum 
quanta  in  experimentis  instituendis  sollertia  coniunxit ;  quam 
subtilem  denique  scientiae  cognitionem  cum  sensu  illo  communi 
consociavit  qui  non  in  magna  tantum  fortuna  sed  in  omni  vitae 
condicione  rerum  omnium  est  revera  ra  rissimus. 

Duco    ad    VOS    lOANNEM     WlLELMUM      STRUTT,     BARONEM 

Rayleigh. 

(3)  Scientiam  Chemicam  et  in  bello  et  in  pace  utilem  esse,  quis 
negabit  ?  Heri  in  hoc  ipso  loco  virum  hunc  insignem  docentem 
audivistis,  quo  potissimum  modo  scientia  ilia  populi  saluti  con- 
sulere  et  pericula  pacis  in  artibus  suscepta  possit  avertere.  Idem 
Martis  fulmina  ilia  antiquis  ignota  quam  familiariter  tractat : 
pulverem  ilium  formidolosum  quo  Bellona  gaudet,  quot  experi- 
mentis vexat  :  quam  admirabilem  in  modum  velut  Olympius  ille 
Aristophanis,  fulgurat,  tonat,  omnia  permiscet.  Atqui  non 
minus  quam  Pericles  ille  Atheniensis,  qui  tot  insularum  imperium 
civitati  suae  conciliavit,  inter  ipsa  tonitrua  audit  tot  coloniarum 
Britannicarum  uno  in  imperio  coniunctarum  vocem,  et  illorum 
consiliis  pro  virili  parte  oprtulatur  qui  in  ipsa  wrpoirjtei  arlium 
et  scientiarum  templum  quoddam  tanto  imperio  dignum  con- 
secrare  voluerunt.  Templi  illius  e  sacerdotibus  unum,  cuius 
praeceptor   coram    Principe   nostro    in  hoc  senaculo   quondam 


164 


NATURE 


{June  14,  1888 


laudatus    est,    hodie     coram     eodem,     templi    illius     praeside 
illustrissimo,  titulo  nostro  libenter  ornamus. 

"  sunt  hie  etiam  sua  praemia  laudi ; 
sunt  lacrimae  rerum  et  mentem  mortalia  tangunl." 

Duco  ad  vos  Hofmanni  discipulum,  Faradai  successorem, 
Fredericum  Augustum  Abel. 

(4)  Perveni  tandem  ad  Professorem  nostrum  Sadlerianum, 
virum  non  modo  in  recentioris  quae  dicitur  Algebrae  provincia, 
sed  etiam  studiorum  mathematicorum  in  toto  regno  inter  principes 
numeratum  ;  qui,  quamquam  iuris  peritia  honores  summos 
adipisci  potuisset,  maluit  sese  scientiae  illi  dedicare,  quae  verbis 
quam  paucissimis,  quam  illi  quae  verbis  quam  plurimis,  rerum 
veritatem  exprimere  conatur.  Quantum  tamen  prudentia  eius 
Academiae  profuerit,  et  senatus  totius  concilium  et  Collegium 
plus  quam  unum  testantur  ;  neque  Cami  tantum  prope  ripas  sed 
etiam  in  ipsa  Europa  atque  adeo  trans  aequor  Atlanticum  fontes 
eius  aliis  patuerunt.  Idem,  velut  alter  Socrates,  ipsi  rerum 
pulchritudini  et  veritati  mentis  oculis  contemplandae  sese  con- 
secravit,  arbitratus  ilia  sola  quae  studiorum  suorum  in  puro  velut 
caelo  sint,  revera  esse,  illorum  autem  imagines  quas  (paivofieva 
vocamus,  velut  specus  eltiuAa  videri  ;  ipsam  vero  pulchritudinem 
percipi  quidem  posse  sed  non  omnibus  explicari.  Quam  dilucide 
tamen  regnum  suum  quondam  non  campo  deserto  comparavit  sed 
regioni  cuidam  pulcherrimae  primum  e  longinquo  prospectae, 
cuius  partem  unamquamque  posse  deinde  peragrari,  cuius  et 
clivos  et  valles,  et  rivos  et  rupes,  et  flores  et  silvas  posse  propius 
maxima  cum  voluptate  aspici.  Diu,  inter  numina  silvestria, 
regionem  illam  laetam  feliciter  pererret  Professor  noster  insignis, 
Arthurus  Cayley. 

(5)  Extra  ipsas  Athenas,  stadiis  fere  decern  ab  urbe  remotus, 
prope  ipsam  Platonis  Academiam,  surgit  Coloneus  ille  tumulus 
Sophocleo  carmine  olim  laudatus,  Neptuni  templo  quondam 
ornatus,  astronomi  magni  Metonis  cum  memoria  consociatus. 
Et  nos  Colonum  nostrum  iactamus,  clivum  ilium  spatio  a  nobis 
eodem  distantem,  locum  arboribus  obsitum,  avibus  canorum,  ubi 
in  templo  quodam  stellis  observandis  dedicato  vivit  Neptuni 
ipsius  inventor.  Quid  si  Colono  nostro  deest  Cephisus  ?  sed 
aqua  de  clivo  illo  antiquitus  deducta,  Collegii  Herscheliani  sub 
hortis  transmissa,  Newtoni  in  Collegio  in  fontem  exsilit.  Quid 
si  Neptuni  inventi  gloria  cum  altero  participatur  ?  sed,  gloriae 
illius  geminae  velut  imago  perpetua,  Geminorum  in  sidere  est 
stella  quaedam  quae  caeli  totius  inter  Stellas  duplices  prae  ceteris 
fulget.  Idem  neque  stellarum  geminarum  cursus,  neque  Satur- 
num  neque  Uranum  inexploratum  reliquit  ;  neque  faces  illas 
caelestes,  Leonides  vocatas,  quas  ter  in  annis  fere  centenis  orbes 
suos  magnos  conficere  ostendit  ;  neque  motum  ilium  medium 
lunae  qui  cum  motu  diurno  terrae  collatus  per  saeculorum  lapsus 
paullatim  acceleratur.  Talium  virorum  laudibus  non  debet 
obesse  quod  inter  nosmet  ipsos  vivunt  ;  pravum  enim  malig- 
numque  foret  "  non  admirari  hominem  admiratione  dignissimum, 
quia  videre,  alloqui,  audire,  complecti,  nee  laudare  tantum, 
verum  etiam  amare  contigit." 

Tot  insignium  virorum  nominibus  hodie  velut  cumulus  accessit 
vir  illustris,  Professor  Adams. 

The  Senior  Wrangler  of  the  year  is  Mr.  Orr,  of  St.  John's  ;  the 
Second  Wrangler  Mr.  Brunyate,  of  Trinity.  No  woman  is  placed 
with  the  Wranglers  ;  but  one,  Miss  H.  F.  Ashwin,  of  Girton,  is 
bracketed  with  the  first  Senior  Optime. 

The  Rede  Lecture  was  delivered  in  the  Senate  House  on 
Friday,  by  Sir  F.  A.  Abel,  on  the  applications  of  science  to  the 
protection  of  human  life. 

The  Report  on  Local  Lectures  gives  particulars  of  a  large 
number  of  science  lectures  given  in  local  populous  centres.  At 
evening  lectures  on  astronomy  at  Northampton,  Mr.  j.  D. 
McClure  had  a  regular  audience  of  277,  and  250  at  Aylesbury. 
The  formation  of  Students'  Associations,  for  mutual  aid  between 
the  lectures,  has  been  very  useful.  Several  students  from 
Northumberland  came  up  to  Cambridge  in  the  Long  Vacation, 
and  did  practical  work  in  chemistry  and  biology. 

The  Syndicate  appointed  to  report  on  Sir  Isaac  Newton's 
manuscripts  in  the  possession  of  the  Earl  of  Portsmouth,  the 
scientific  portion  of  which  he  offered  to  present  to  the 
University,  have  prepared  a  detailed  catalogue  of  the  whole, 
which  is  to  be  published. 

Prof.  Thomson  announces  that  students  who  receive  per- 
mission may  work  in  the  Cavendish  Laboratory  in  the  Long 
Vacation.     There  will  be  a  special  course  for  those  who  have 


passed  the  Mathematical  Tripos,  and  intend  taking  the  Natural 
Sciences  Tripos. 

In  the  Long  Vacation,  Mr.  Fenton  will  give  a  general  course 
on  Chemistry,  Mr.  Potter  will  lecture  on  Systematic  Botany  with 
practical  work,  Prof.  Macalister  will  lecture  on  Osteology,  and 
Mr.  Wingfield  will  give  a  revision  course  of  Practical  Physiology 
for  Dr.  Foster ;  Prof.  Roy  will  lecture  on  the  Elements  of 
Pathology,  and  will  hold  a  practical  course  on  three  days  a 
week. 

Prof.  Lewis  will  lecture  on  Crystallography  during  July,  and 
Mr.  Solly  will  give  elementary  demonstrations  in  Mineralogy 
during  July  and  August. 


SCIENTIFIC  SEXIALS. 

American  Journal  of  Mathematics,  vol.  x.  No.  3  (Balti- 
more, April). — The  number  opens  with  an  article  by  M.  E. 
Goursat,  "  Surfaces  telles  que  la  somme  des  rayons  de  courbure 
principaux  est  proportionnelle  a  la  distance  d'un  point  fixe  au 
plan  tangent "  (pp.  187-204),  in  which  are  discussed  some 
surfaces  of  a  somewhat  more  general  character  than  those  treated 
of  by  M.  Appell  in  the  last  number  of  the  Journal.  The  title 
sufficiently  indicates  the  scope  of  the  memoir,  which  in  part 
touches  upon  work  accomplished  by  Riemann. —  "Remarks  on  the 
Logarithmic  Integrals  of  Regular  Linear  or  Differential  Equations  " 
(pp.  205-24),  by  Karl  Heun,  follows  up  Fuchs's  investigations 
(Journal  fur  Mathematik,  lxviii.  p.  376).  The  author  has  else- 
where shown  that  the  Fuchs  equations  are  not  independent  of 
each  other  when  the  differential  equation  is  of  a  higher  order 
than  the  second,  and  in  this  paper  he  deduces,  from  elementary 
considerations,  the  minimum  number  of  conditions  on  which  the 
existence  of  logarithms  depends.  In  addition  he  gives  several 
theorems  concerning  the  pseudo-singular  points. — Mr.  C.  II. 
Chapman,  in  his  article  "  On  Some  Applications  of  the  Units  of 
an  «-fold  Space  "  (pp.  224-42),  obtains  a  proof  of  the  rule  for 
multiplying  two  determinants  of  the  «th  order  by  the  principles 
of  quaternions. — In  "  A  Problem  suggested  in  the  Geometry  of 
Nets  of  Curves  and  applied  to  the  Theory  of  Six  Points  having 
Multiply  Perspective  Relations"  (pp.  243-57),  Mr.  E.  H. 
Moore  discusses  matters  treated  of  by  Von  Staudt,  Clebsch,  Klein, 
and  others. — Adopting  the  definition  of  orientation  given  by 
Laguerre,  M.  G.  Humbert  generalizes  results  previously  obtained 
by  Laguerre  and  himself  in  a  memoir  entitled  "  Sur  l'orientation 
des  systemes  de  droites  "  (pp.  258-81),  and  also  brings  together 
some  interesting  properties  of  the  hypocycloid  given  already  by 
Cremona  and  Darboux. 

Bulletin  de  V Academie  Royale  de  Belgique,  April.  —  Contribu- 
tion to  the  study  of  the  albuminoid  substances  in  the  white  of  an 
egg,  by  MM.  G.  Corin  and  E.  Berard.  It  was  recently  shown  by 
Halliburton  that  the  albumen  of  the  serum  is  a  mixture  of  two 
or  of  three  albumens,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  animal, 
which  coagulate  under  different  degrees  of  temperature.  Apply- 
ing the  same  process  of  research  to  the  albuminoids  of  the  white 
of  eggs,  the  authors  find  that  five  different  albuminoid  substances 
are  present  in  this  liquid:  two  globulines,  coagulating  at  +57° 
and  +670  C.  respectively,  and  three  true  albumens,  coagulating 
at  +720,  +760,  and  +820.  Besides  these  new  facts,  they  also 
offer  some  interesting  remarks  on  the  general  character  of  the 
relations  existing  between  the  albumens  and  the  globulines,  and 
on  the  opalescence  observed  when  these  substances  begin  to 
coagulate  under  the  action  of  heat. — M.  F.  Folie  describes  anew 
method  of  determining  the  constant  of  aberration  by  means  of  a 
series  of  observations  of  one  and  the  same  star  in  right  ascension. 
For  this  method  he  claims  great  simplicity,  and  exemption  from 
the  numerous  sources  of  error  to  which  other  processes  are  liable. 
— To  this  number  of  the  Bulletin,  A.  F.  Renard  contributes  an 
exhaustive  memoir  on  the  prevailing  geological  formations  of 
the  Cape  Verd  Islands. 

Rendiconti  del  Reale  Istituto  Lombardo,  May. — On  an  old 
theory  regarding  the  climate  of  Quaternary  times,  by  Prof.  T. 
Taramelli.  Reference  is  made  to  the  theory  announced  in  1840 
by  Lombardini,  who  considered  that  the  Quaternary  climate  was 
simply  a  continuation  of  those  of  previous  epochs,  modified  by 
the  appearance  of  more  elevated  lands  upheaved  in  post-Tertiary 
times.  This  anticipates  by  twenty  years  Frankland's  remarks 
on  the  physical  causes  of  the  Glacial  epoch,  and  leads  the  author 
to  formulate  a  vulcanico-glacial  theory  based  on  the  views  of 


June  14,  1888] 


NATURE 


165 


these  physicists  and  of  Charpentier. — Meteorological  observations 
made  at  the  Brera  Observatory,  Milan,  daring  the  month  of 
April. 

Rivista  Scientifico-Industriale,  May  15. — Remarks  on  the 
earthquake  at  Florence  on  November  14,  1887,  by  Prof.  P.  G. 
Giovannozzi.  Following  the  system  adopted  by  Serpicri,  the 
author  has  collected  data  from  various  quarters  showing  that  the 
disturbance  was  of  a  purely  local  character.  The  chief  shock, 
although  s  i  violent  as  to  have  been  heard  by  the  deaf,  passed 
through  the  city  with  such  velocity  that  very  little  damage  was 
done.  It  presented  all  the  characters  of  a  true  gaseous  explosion, 
taking  a  vertical  direction  from  a  moderate  depth  below  the 
crust  of  the  earth,  and  absolutely  unconnected  with  any  volcanic 
phenomena.  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  earthquake  followed  a 
long  and  exceptional  period  of  wet  weather,  during  which  a 
rainfall  of  225mm.  was  recorded  within  the  zone  of  disturbance. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  May  17.— "On  /Folotropic  Elastic  Solids." 
By  C.  Chree,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  King's  College,  Cambridge. 
Communicated  by  Prof.  J.  J.  Thomson,  F.R.S. 

On  the  multi-constant  theory  of  elasticity,  the  equations  con- 
necting the  strains  and  stresses  contain  21  constants.  As  shown 
by  Saint-Venant,  these  reduce  for  one-plane  symmetry  to  13,  for 
three-plane  symmetry  to  9,  and  for  symmetry  round  an  axis 
perpendicular  to  a  plane  of  symmetry  to  5. 

Part  I.  of  this  paper  deals  with  one-plane  symmetry.  A  solution 
is  obtained  of  the  internal  equations  of  equilibrium  complete  so 
far  as  it  goes.  It  is  employed  in  solving  the  problem,  already 
treated  by  Saint-Venant,  of  a  beam,  whose  length  is  perpen- 
dicular to  the  plane  of  symmetry,  held  at  one  end,  and  at  the 
other  acted  on  by  a  system  of  forces,  whose  resultant  consists 
of  a  single  force  along  the  axis  of  the  beam,  and  of  a  couple 
about  any  line  in  the  terminal  section  through  its  centroid.  The 
case  when  the  cross-section  is  elliptical,  and  the  beam  exposed 
to  equilibrating  torsional  couples  over  its  ends  is  also  treated. 
Results  are  obtained  confirmatory  of  Saint-Venant's.  They  are 
also  extended  to  the  case  of  a  composite  cylinder,  formed  of 
shells  of  different  materials  whose  cross-sections  are  bounded  by 
concentric  similar  and  similarly  situated  ellipses,  the  law  of 
variation  being  the  same  for  all  the  elastic  constants  of  the  solu- 
tion. The  limiting  case  of  a  continuously  varying  structure  is 
deduced. 

When  a  beam  of  circular  section  is  exposed  to  torsion,  it  is 
proved  that  warping  will  ensue  proportional  to  the  moment  of 
the  twisting  couple.  Only  two  diameters  in  the  cross-section, 
and  these  mutually  at  right  angles,  remain  perpendicular  to  the 
axis  of  the  beam. 

Part  II.  treats  of  a  material  symmetrical  round  an  axis,  that 
of  z,  and  having  the  perpendicular  plane  one  of  symmetry.  A 
general  solution  of  the  internal  equations  of  equilibrium  is 
obtained,  supposing  no  bodily  forces  to  act.  The  solution 
involves  arbitrary  constants,  and  consists  of  a  series  of  parts, 
each  composed  of  a  series  of  terms  involving  homogeneous  pro- 
ducts of  the  variables,  such  as  xL ym  zH~l~m,  where  /,  m,  n  are 
integers,  and  n  is  greater  than  3.  The  terms  involving  powers 
of  the  variables,  the  sum  of  whose  indices  is  less  than  4,  are  then 
obtained  by  a  more  elementary  process,  and  these  alone  are 
required  in  the  applications  which  follow. 

The  first  application  of  the  solution  is  to  "Saint-Venant's 
problem  "  for  a  beam  of  elliptical  cross-section.  The  problem 
is  worked  out  without  introducing  any  assumptions,  and  a  solu- 
tion obtained,  which  is  thus  directly  proved  to  be  the  only 
solution  possible  if  powers  of  the  variables  above  the  third  be 
neglected. 

Part  III.  consists  of  an  application  of  the  second  portion  of 
the  solution  of  Part  II.  to  the  case  of  a  spheroid,  oblate  or  pro- 
late, and  of  any  eccentricity,  rotating  with  uniform  angular 
velocity  round  its  axis  of  symmetry,  which  is  also  the  axis  of 
symmetry  of  the  material.  The  surface  of  the  spheroid  is 
supposed  free  of  all  forces. 

The  limiting  form  of  the  solution,  when  the  polar  axis  of  the 
spheroid  is  supposed  to  diminish  indefinitely,  is  applied  to  the 
case  of  a  thin  circular  disk  rotating  freely  about  a  perpendicular 
to  its  plane  through  its  centre.     The  solution  so  obtained  is 


shown  to  satisfy  all  the  conditions  required  for  the  circular  disk, 
except  that  it  brings  in  small  tangential  surface  stresses. 
According  to  this  solution  the  disk  increases  in  radius,  and 
diminishes  everywhere  in  thickness,  especially  near  the  axis, 
so  as  to  become  biconcave.  All,  originally  plane,  sections 
parallel  to  the  faces  become  very  approximately  paraboloids  of 
revolution. 

Again,  by  supposing  the  ratio  of  the  polar  to  the  equatorial 
diameter  of  the  spheroid  to  become  very  great,  a  surface  is 
obtained  which  differs  very  little  from  that  of  a  right  circular 
cylinder.  The  corresponding  form  of  the  solution  obtained  for 
the  spheroid,  when  the  ratio  of  the  polar  to:  the  equatorial  dia- 
meter becomes  infinite,  may  thus  be  expected  to  apply  very 
approximately  to  a  long  thin  cylinder.  This  is  verified  directly, 
and  it  is  shown  that  this  solution  is  in  all  respects  as  approxi- 
mately true  as  that  universally  accepted  for  Saiut-Venant's 
problem.  According  to  the  solution  the  cylinder  shortens,  and 
every  cross-section  increases  in  radius  but  remains  plane. 

Part  IV.  treats  of  the  longitudinal  vibrations  of  a  bar  of  uni- 
form circular  section  and  of  material  the  same  as  in  Part  II. 
Assuming  strains  of  the  form — 


radial  =  r\p(r)  cos  (pz 
longitudinal  =  <p(r)  sin  (pz  - 


-  a)  cos  it, 
a)  cos  kt, 


<p(r)  is  found  in  terms  of  \p(r)  by  means  of  the  equations 
established  in  Part  II.  From  these  equations  is  deduced  a 
differential  equation  of  the  fourth  order  for  ty(r),  and  for  this  a 
solution  is  obtained  containing  only  positive  integral  even  powers 
of  r.  A  relation  exists,  determining  all  the  constants  of  the 
solution  in  terms  of  the  coefficients  a0  and  a.2  of  r°  and  r2.  In 
applying  this  solution  to  the  problem  mentioned,  terms  contain- 
ing powers  of  r  above  the  fourth  are  neglected,  and  it  is  shown 
to  what  extent  the  results  obtained  are  approximate. 

On  the  curved  surface,  the  two  conditions  that  the  normal  and 
tangential  stresses  must  vanish  lead  to  the  following  relation 
between  k  and  / — 

Here  p  denotes  the  density  and  a  the  radius  of  the  beam, 
while  M  is  Young's  modulus,  and  <r  the  ratio  of  lateral  contrac- 
tion to  longitudinal  expansion  for  terminal  traction.  This  agrees 
with  a  result  obtained  by  Lord  Rayleigh  ("Theory  of  Sound," 
vol.  i.  §  157)  on  a  special  hypothesis. 

Proceeding  to  the  terminal  conditions,  it  is  shown  how  /  is 
determined  from  the  conditions  at  the  ends.  Since  a0  depends 
only  on  the  amplitude  of  the  vibrations,  we  are  left  with  no 
arbitrary  constant  undetermined.  If  the  bar  be  so  "  fixed  "  at 
its  ends  that  the  radial  motion  is  unobstructed,  this  leads  to  no 
difficulty,  but  if  an  end  be  "  free  "  a  difficulty  arises.  At  such 
an  end  the  solution  requires  the  existence  of  a  radial  stress 
oc  (2*  +  i)3  r  (a1  -  r'2)//3,  where  i  is  an  integer  depending  on 
the  number  of  the  harmonic  of  the  fundamental  note,  and  / 
denotes  the  length  of  the  bar.  There  will  thus  be  a  difference 
in  these  cases  between  the  results  of  experiment  and  those  of 
the  accepted  theory,  even  as  amended  by  Lord  Rayleigh.  This 
divergence  will  increase  rapidly  with  the  order  of  the  harmonic, 
and,  though  very  small  for  a  long  thin  bar,  will  increase  rapidly 
as  the  ratio  of  the  diameter  to  the  length  is  increased.  Since, 
in  dealing  with  the  conditions  at  the  curved  surface,  terms  of 
the  order  (ajlf  were  neglected,  the  same  remarks  apply,  though 
to  a  smaller  extent,  in  the  case  of  the  "  fixed-fixed"  vibrations. 

May  31. — "Investigations  on  the  Spectrum  of  Magnesium. 
No.  II."     By  Profs.  Liveing  and  Dewar. 

Since  our  last  communication  on  this  subject,  we  have  made 
many  additional  observations  on  the  spectrum  of  magnesium 
under  various  circumstances,  and  have  arrived  at  some  new 
results.  Speaking  generally,  we  find  that  differences  of  tem- 
perature, such  as  we  get  in  the  flame  of  burning  magnesium,  in 
the  arc,  and  in  the  spark,  produce  less  differences  in  the 
spectrum  than  we  had  before  attributed  to  them.  For  instance, 
the  lines  which  previously  we  had  observed  only  in  the  spark 
discharge,  we  have  since  found  to  be  developed  in  the  arc  also, 
provided  the  discharge  occur  between  electrodes  of  magnesium.1 
In  making  these  experiments  we  used  thick  electrodes  of 
magnesium,  and  brought  them  together  inside  a  glass  globe 
about  6  inches  in  diameter,  fitted  with  a  plate  of  quartz  in  front 

1  Compare  the  appearance  of  the  lines  of  hydrogen  in  the  arc  discharge. 
Roy.  Soc.  Proa,  vol.  xxx.  p.  157  ;  and  vol.  xxxv  p.  75. 


i66 


NATURE 


[June  14,  1888 


and  filled  from  time  to  time  with  various  gases.  The  arc  was 
an  instantaneous  flash  which  could  not  be  repeated  more  than 
twice  without  rendering  the  sides  of  the  vessel  opaque  with  a 
complete  coating  of  magnesium.  It  was  therefore  analogous  to 
an  explosion  of  magnesium  vapour.  The  strong  blue  line 
A4481,  two  pairs  about  A3S95,  3893,  and  A3855,  3848,  the  strong 
pair  about  A2935,  2927,  and  the  two  weaker  lines  of  the  quad- 
ruple group,  namely  A2789'9  and  2797,  all  come  out  in  the  arc 
given  by  a  Siemens  dynamo  between  magnesium  electrodes  in 
air,  in  nitrogen,  and  in  hydrogen.  We  have  observed  most  of 
them  also  when  the  arc  is  taken  in  carbonic  acid,  in  ammonia, 
in  steam,  in  hydrochloric  acid,  in  chlorine,  and  in  oxygen.  The 
observations  render  doubtful  the  correctness  of  the  received 
opinion  that  the  temperature  of  the  spark  discharge  is  much 
higher  than  that  of  the  arc.  Heat,  however,  is  not  the  only 
form  of  energy  which  may  give  rise  to  vibrations,  and  it  is 
probable  that  the  energy  of  the  electric  discharge,  as  well  as 
that  due  to  chemical  change,  may  directly  impart  to  the  matter 
affected  vibrations  which  are  more  intense  than  the  temperature 
alone  would  produce. 

The  Bands  of  the  Oxide. 

The  set  of  seven  bands  in  the  green,  beginning  at  about 
A50o6-4  and  fading  towards  the  violet  side  of  the  spectrum, 
which  we  have  before  attributed  to  the  oxide  of  magnesium,  have 
been  subjected  to  further  observation,  and  we  have  no  reason  to 
doubt  the  correctness  of  our  former  conclusion  that  they  are  due 
either  to  magnesia  or  to  the  chemical  action  of  oxidation.  On 
repeating  our  experiments  with  the  spark  of  an  induction  coil 
between  magnesium  electrodes  in  different  gases  at  atmospheric 
pressure,  we  could  see  no  trace  of  these  bands  in  hydrogen, 
nitrogen,  or  ammonia,  whether  a  Leyden  jar  was  used  or  not. 
Nor  could  we  see  them  at  all  in  carbonic  oxide,  but  in  this  case 
the  brightness  of  the  lines  due  to  the  gas  might  prevent  the 
bands  being  seen  if  they  were  only  feebly  developed.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  bands  come  out  brilliantly  when  the  gas  is 
oxygen  or  carbonic  acid,  both  with  and  without  the  use  of  a 
Leyden  jar.  In  air  and  in  steam  they  are  less  brilliant,  but 
may  be  well  seen  when  no  jar  is  used.  When  a  jar  is  used  they 
are  less  conspicuous,  because  in  air  the  lines  of  nitrogen  come 
out  strongly  in  the  same  region,  and  in  steam  the  F  line  of 
hydrogen  becomes  both  very  bright  and  much  expanded.1  It 
seems,  therefore,  that  it  is  not  the  character  of  the  electric  dis- 
charge, but  the  nature  of  the  gas  which  determines  the  appear- 
ance of  the  bands  ;  and  the  absence  of  the  bands  in  the  absence 
of  oxygen,  and  their  increased  brilliance  in  that  gas,  leave  little 
room  for  doubt  that  they  are  due  to  the  oxide,  or  to  the  process 
of  oxidation.  If  a  very  small  piece  of  magnesia,  such  as  a 
fragment  of  the  ash  of  burnt  magnesium  ribbon,  be  held 
in  an  oxy-hydrogen  jet,  most  of  the  spectrum  of  burning 
magnesium  is  developed  in  the  flame  for  a  short  distance 
from  the  piece  of  magnesia.  Under  these  circumstances,  the 
flame  shows  the  b  group  and  the  magnesium-hydrogen  series 
close  to  it,  the  bands  in  the  green,  the  triplet  near  L,  the 
triplet  near  M  of  the  flame  of  burning  magnesium,  with  the 
group  of  bands  in  that  region,  and  the  line  A2852.  It  is  remark- 
able that  the  proportions  in  which  the  oxygen  and  hydrogen  are 
mixed  affect  the  relative  intensities  of  different  parts  of  the 
spectrum.  In  general,  both  the  metallic  lines  of  the  b  group 
and  the  bands  of  the  oxide  are  easily  seen  ;  but  if  the  oxygen 
be  in  excess  the  bands  of  the  oxide  come  out  with  increased 
brightness,  while  the  b  group  fades  or  sometimes  becomes  in- 
visible. On  the  other  hand,  if  the  hydrogen  be  in  excess  the 
bands  fade,  and  the  b  group  shows  increased  brilliance.  There 
can  hardly  be  much  difference  in  the  temperature  of  the  flame 
according  as  one  gas  or  the  other  is  in  excess,  but  the  excess  of 
oxygen  is  favourable  to  the  formation  and  stability  of  the  oxide, 
while  excess  of  hydrogen  facilitates  the  reduction  of  magnesium 
and  its  maintenance  in  the  metallic  state.  As  regards  tempera- 
ture, it  should  be  observed  that  while  substances  merely  heated 
by  the  flame,  and  not  undergoing  chemical  change,  are  not  likely 
to  rise  to  a  temperature  above  the  average  temperature  of  the 
flame,  it  will  be  otherwise  with  the  materials  of  the  flame  itself 
and  other  substances  in  it  which  are  undergoing  chemical  change, 

1  Neither  the  arc  of  a  Siemens  dynamo,  nor  that  of  a  De  Meritens 
magneto-electric  machine,  when  taken  in  a  crucible  of  magnesia,  shows  these 
bands,  even  if  metallic  magnesium  be  dropped  into  it.  A  stream  of  hydro- 
gen led  into  the  crucible  with  a  view  to  cool  it  does  not  elicit  them.  When 
the  arc  is  taken  in  the  open  air,  and  metallic  magnesium  dropped  through  it, 
the  bands  appear  momentarily,  tut  that  is  probably  the  result  of  the  burning 
cf  the  magnesium  vapour  outside  the  arc.     (May  23.) 


and  have  at  the  instant  of  such  change  the  kinetic  energy  due  to 
the  change. 

In  fact,  when  chemical  changes  are  occurring  in  a  flame  it 
cannot  be  taken  for  granted  that  the  temperatures  of  the  mole- 
cules are  all  alike,  or  that  the  vibrations  which  they  assume  are 
the  result  of  heat  alone.  On  the  other  hand,  the  temperature 
of  the  metal  separated  from  magnesia  by  the  oxyhydrogen  flame 
cannot,  we  suppose,  be  at  a  temperature  higher  than  that  of  the 
hottest  part  of  the  flame.  We  are  therefore  inclined  to  think 
that  the  metallic  lines  (b)  are  manifested  at  a  lower  temperature 
than  the  bands  of  the  oxide  ;  and  the  appearance  of  a  line  in  the 
position  of  the  first  band  without  any  trace  of  the  second  band 
(which  is  nearly  as  bright  as  the  first),  and  without  any  trace  of 
the  b  group,  is  quite  sufficient  to  create  a  suspicion  of  mistaken 
identity  when  Mr.  Lockyer  ascribes  the  sharp  green  line  in  the 
spectrum  of  nebulae  to  this  band  of  magnesia.  This  suspicion 
will  be  strengthened  when  it  is  noticed  that  the  line  in  question 
is  usually  in  the  nebulae  associated  with  the  F  line  of  hydrogen, 
if  it  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  spark  of  magnesium  in  hydrogen 
does  not  give  the  bands,  and  that  the  oxyhydrogen  flame  hardly 
produces  them  from  magnesia  when  the  hydrogen  is  in  excess. 

In  Mr.  Lockyer's  map  of  the  spectrum  of  the  nebula  in  Orion 
(Roy.  Soc.  Proc.  vol.  xliii.  p.  134),  he  has  'represented  three 
lines  in  the  position  of  the  edges  of  the  first  three  of  these 
bands.  If  these  three  lines  were  really  seen  in  the  nebula,  there 
would  be  less  room  to  doubt  the  identity  of  the  spectra  ;  but  the 
authorities  quoted  for  the  map  {loc.  cit.,  p.  142)  mention  only  a 
single  line  in  this  position. 

When  the  flame  of  burning  magnesium  is  viewed  with  a  high 
dispersion,  these  bands  are  resolved  into  series  of  fine,  closely 
set  lines.  Seven  such  series  may  be  counted,  beginning  at  the 
approximate  wave-lengths  5006*4,  4995 '6,  4985*4,  4973*6, 
4961*6,  4948*6,  4934*4,  respectively.  When  a  condensed  spark 
is  taken  between  magnesium  electrodes  in  oxygen  mixed  with  a 
little  air,  the  pair  of  strong  nitrogen  lines  may  be  seen  simul- 
taneously with  the  bands,  and  lying  within  the  first  band,  the 
bright  edge  of  the  band  being  somewhat  less  refrangible  than 
the  less  refrangible  of  the  two  nitrogen  lines. 

When  the  bands  are  produced  by  the  spark  discharge  between 
magnesium  electrodes  in  oxygen  or  other  gas,  we  have  not  been 
able  to  resolve  them  into  lines,  but  the  whole  amount  of  light 
from  the  spark  is  small  compared  with  that  from  the  flame,  and 
besides  it  is  possible  that  the  several  lines  forming  the  shading 
may  be  expanded  in  the  spark,  and  thus  obliterate  the  darker 
spaces  between  them. 

Triplet  near  M  and  adjacent  Bands. 

Our  former  account  of  the  spectrum  of  the  flame  of  burning 
magnesium  included  a  description  of  a  triplet  near  the  solar  line 
M,  and  a  series  of  bands  extending  from  it  beyond  the  well- 
known  triplet  near  L.  As  we  had  not  observed  these  features  in 
the  spectrum  of  the  spark  or  arc,  and  could  not  trace  their  con- 
nection with  any  compound,  we  concluded  that  they  were  pro- 
duced by  magnesium  only  at  the  comparatively  low  temperature 
of  the  flame.  We  have  since  found  that  they  are  not  produced 
by  the  metal  at  that  temperature  only,  but  are  exhibited  as 
strongly,  or  even  more  strongly,  in  the  arc  between  electrodes 
of  magnesium.  In  the  latter  case  they  appear  concurrently 
with  the  line  at  4481  and  other  lines  which  seem  to  belong  to 
high  temperatures.  We  must  therefore  regard  them  as  not  only 
produced  at  the  temperature  of  flames,  but  as  persistent  at 
temperatures  very  much  higher. 

The  different  circumstances  under  which  we  have  observed  this 
triplet  are  as  follow  : — 

In  the  oxyhydrogen  flame  when  a  very  small  piece  of  mag- 
nesia is  held  in  it.  In  this  case  the  outer  two  lines  of  the  triplet 
are  much  stronger  than  the  middle  line  (A3724  about),  which  in 
some  of  our  photographs  does  not  show  at  all.  It  should  be 
noticed  that  the  least  refrangible  of  the  three  lines  (A3730  about) 
is  in  general  more  diffuse  and  not  quite  so  bright  as  the  two 
more  refrangible  lines.  Magnesia  in  the  oxyhydrogen  flame 
also  gives  rise  to  some  bands  close  to  and  more  refrangible  than 
the  triplet,  and  to  another  still  more  refrangible  but  less  bright 
triplet,  in  which  the  lines  are  set  at  nearly  equal  distances  from 
each  other,  with  the  approximate  wave-lengths  3633*7,  3626*2, 
3620*6.  These  additional  bands  and  triplets  are  not  really 
absent  from  the  flame  spectrum,  for  traces  of  them  may  be  seen  in 
some  of  our  photographs  of  the  magnesium  flame,  but  they  seem 
relatively  brighter  in  the  oxyhydrogen  flame  with  magnesia,  and 
the  longer  exposure  of  the  photographic  plate  in  the  latter  case 


June  14,  1 888] 


NATURE 


167 


helped  to  bring  them  out.  They  seem  to  come  out  more 
strongly  under  the  conditions  which  make  both  the  green  bands 
of  the  oxide  and  the  b  group  show  well. 

Wo  have  not  noticed  the  more  refrangible  triplet  (A36337  to 
3620 "6  about)  under  other  circumstances,  but  the  triplet  near  M 
is  produced  when  magnesia  is  held  in  the  flame  of  cyanogen 
burning  in  oxygen,  in  the  flash  of  pyroxylin  with  which 
magnesium  filings  have  been  mixed,  or  which  has  been  treated 
with  an  alcoholic  solution  of  magnesium  chloride. 

It  is  not  only  very  strongly  developed,  but  shows  strongly  re- 
versed on  our  photographic  plates,  in  the  spectrum  of  the  arc 
from  a  Siemens  dynamo  taken  between  electrodes  of  magnesium 
in  oxygen  ;  and  most  of  the  accompanying  ultra-violet  bands  of 
the  magnesium  flame  spectrum  are  at  the  same  time  reversed. 
It  is  less  strongly,  but  distinctly,  reversed  in  the  spectrum  of  the 
same  arc  taken  in  air,  in  carbonic  acid  gas,  and  in  sulphurous 
acid  gas.  It  appears  also  if  the  arc  is  taken  in  ordinary  nitrogen 
unless  great  precautions  are  taken  to  exclude  all  traces  of  oxygen 
or  carbonic  acid,  when  it  completely  disappears.  It  is  developed 
also  in  the  flash  produced  when  a  piece  of  magnesium  ribbon  is 
dissipated  in  air  by  the  discharge  through  it  of  the  current  from 
50  cells  of  a  storage  battery.  Also  in  the  spark  in  air  at  atmo- 
spheric pressure  between  magnesium  electrodes  connected  with 
the  secondary  wire  of  an  induction  coil  when  the  alternating 
current  of  a  De  Meritens  magneto-electric  machine  is  passed 
through  the  primary. 

In  two  cases,  but  only  two,  we  have  found  this  triplet,  or 
what  looks  like  one  or  both  of  the  more  refrangible  of  its  lines, 
developed  in  vacuous  tubes.  In  both  tubes  the  gas  was  air. 
One  had  platinum  electrodes  and  a  strip  of  magnesia  from  burnt 
magnesium  disposed  along  the  tube  ;  the  other  had  fragments  of 
the  Dhurmsala  meteorite  attached  to  the  platinum  electrodes. 
The  discharge  was  that  of  an  induction  coil  worked  in  the  usual 
way  without  a  Ley  den  jar.  In  each  case  it  is  only  in  one  photo- 
graph of  the  spectrum  that  the  lines  in  question  appear.  In 
other  photographs  taken  with  the  same  tubes  they  do  not  show. 

On  the  other  hand,  this  triplet  does  not  make  its  appearance 
in  the  arc  from  a  dynamo  between  magnesium  electrodes  in 
hydrogen,  coal  gas,  cyanogen,1  chlorine,  hydrochloric  acid,  or 
ammonia  ;  nor  in  the  arc  from  a  De  Meritens  machine  in  hydro- 
gen or  nitrogen.  It  does  not  show  in  the  spark  between  mag- 
nesium electrodes  of  an  induction  coil  used  in  the  ordinary  way, 
either  with  or  without  a  Leyden  jar,  in  hydrogen  or  in  air  at 
atmospheric  pressure  ;  nor  in  the  glow  discharge  in  vacuous  tubes 
with  magnesium  electrodes  when  the  residual  gas  is  either  air, 
oxygen,  hydrogen,  carbonic  acid  gas,  or  cyanogen.  Nor  does 
it  appear,  except  in  the  one  instance  above-mentioned,  in  the 
glow  discharge  in  highly  rarefied  air  in  a  tube  containing  either 
magnesia  or  a  strip  of  metallic  magnesium. 

A  review  of  all  the  circumstances  under  which  the  triplet  near 
M  and  its  associated  bands  appear,  and  of  those  under  which 
they  fail  to  appear,  leads  pretty  conclusively  to  the  inference 
that  they  are  due  not  to  merely  heated  magnesium  but  to  the 
oxide,  or  to  vibrations  set  up  by  the  process  of  oxidation. 

We  have  expended  a  vast  amount  of  time  and  trouble  over 
vacuous  tubes,  and  our  later  experiments  do  but  confirm  the 
opinion  which  we  had  previously  formed  that  there  is  an  un- 
certainty about  them,  their  contents  and  condition,  which  makes 
us  distrustful  of  conclusions  which  depend  on  them.  Photo- 
graphs of  the  ultra-violet  spectra  given  by  such  tubes  tell  tales  of 
impurities  as  unexpected  as  they  are  difficult  to  avoid.  Every 
tube  of  hydrogen  which  we  have  examined  exhibits  the  water 
spectrum  more  or  less,  even  if  metallic  sodium  has  been  heated 
in  the  tube,  or  the  gas  dried  by  prolonged  contact  with  phos- 
phoric oxide.  Indeed  the  only  tubes  which  do  not  show  the 
water  spectrum  have  been  filled  wij.h  gases  from  anhydrous 
materials  contained  in  a  part  of  the  tube  itself;  and  even  when 
tubes  have  been  filled  with  carbonic  acid  gas  from  previously 
fused  sodium  carbonate  and  boracic  anhydride  the  water  spec- 
trum is  hardly  ever  absent.  The  last  traces  of  the  ultra-violet 
bands  of  nitrogen  are  almost  as  difficult  to  be  rid  of  with 
certainty.     Frequently,  unknown  lines   or    bands    make    their 

1  In  taking  the  arc  in  this  way  in  cyanogen  our  photographs  show  the 
whole  of  the  five  bands  of  cyanogen  between  K  and  L  well  reversed.  We 
have  before  noticed  (Roy.  Soc.  Proc,  vol.  xxxiii.  p.  4)  the  reversal  of  the 
more  refrangible  three  of  these  bands  against  the  bright  background  of  the 
expanded  lines  of  magnesium  when  some  of  that  metal  was  dropped  into  the 
arc  between  carbon  electrodes,  but  in  taking  the  arc  between  magnesium 
electrodes  in  an  atmosphere  of  cyanogen  the  bright  wings  of  the  expanded 
magnesium  lines  near  L  extend  beyond  the  cyanogen  bands,  and  the  whole 
series  of  the  latter  are  well  reversed.    (May  23.) 


appearance,  and  the  same  tube  will  at  different  times  exhibit 
wholly  different  spectra.  This  is  especially  the  case  with  tubes 
of  rarefied  gases  which  oppose  much  resistance  to  the  passage  of 
the  electric  discharge,  such  as  oxygen. 

The  ultra-violet  magnesium  lines  which  we  have  observed  in 
vacuous  tubes  with  magnesium  electrodes,  when  the  induction 
coil,  without  jar,  is  employed,  are  the  triplets  at  A.3837,  and  the 
lines  A.2852,  2802,  and  2795.  These  appear  whether  the  residual 
gas  be  air,  oxygen,  hydrogen,  or  carbonic  acid.  When  a  jar  is 
used  we  have  obtained  also  the  triplets  at  P  and  S,  the  pair 
about  A.2935  and  2927,  and  the  quadruple  group  near  A.2802  and 
the  quintuple  group  beyond,  and  in  one  case  only,  in  oxygen,  the 
group  near  s,  described  below,  and  the  flame-triplet  near  M. 
When  no  jar  is  used  sometimes  only  A2852  is  to  be  seen,  some- 
times A2852  and  the  strong  pair  near  A.2802,  and  sometimes  also 
the  triplet  near  L.  We  infer,  therefore,  that  this  is  the  order  of 
persistency  of  these  lines  under  the  circumstances. 

Group  near  "  s." 

In  their  list  of  lines  in  the  spectrum  of  magnesium  (Phil. 
Trans.,  1884,  p.  95)  Messrs.  Hartley  and  Adeney  have  given 
two  lines,  A307i"6and  A. 3046*0,  which  we  had  not  heretofore 
observed  either  in  the  spectrum  of  the  flame,  arc,  or  spark  of 
magnesium  ;  but  in  our  recent  observations  we  have  noticed  in 
many  cases  a  well-marked  line  which,  by  interpolation  between 
neighbouring  iron  lines,  appears  to  have  a  wave-length  about 
3073 '5,  and  a  pair  of  narrow  bands  sharply  defined  on  their  less 
refrangible  sides  at  wave  lengths  about  3050-6  and  30467,  and 
fading  away  on  their  more  refrangible  sides. 

The  circumstances  under  which  this  group  is  seen  and  is  not 
seen,  do  not  seem  to  indicate  that  its  emission  is  connected  with 
any  particular  temperatures  so  much  as  with  the  character  of  the 
electric  discharge,  and  perhaps  aho  with  the  density  of  the 
magnesium  vapour. 

Royal  Microscopical  Society,  May  9. — Dr.  C.  T.  Hud- 
son, President,  in  the  chair. — The  President  said  that  on  the 
occasion  of  his  taking  the  chair  for  the  first  time,  he  desired, 
before  beginning  the  business  of  the  evening,  to  thank  the 
Fellows  very  heartily  for  the  honour  which  they  had  done  him 
in  electing  him  their  President. — Mr.  Crisp  exhibited  a  form  of 
camera  lucida  by  M.  Dumaige,  of  Paris,  fitted  in  a  box  with  a 
cover,  which,  when  closed,  kept  the  prism  and  mirror  free  from 
dust  ;  also  by  the  same  maker,  an  adapter  with  spiral  springs, 
for  rapidly  changing  objectives,  and  a  portable  microscope  in 
which  the  foot  and  stage  were  in  one  piece. — Dr.  Kibbler  ex- 
hibited and  described  a  new  stand  and  camera,  which,  he 
believed,  would  be  found  very  useful  for  photomicrography.  It 
had  been  made  to  his  design  by  Mr.  Bailey,  his  idea  being  that 
it  was  best  not  to  take  negatives  upon  a  large  plate,  but  on  a 
quarter-plate  first,  and  afterwards  to  enlarge  the  pictures  from  the 
original  negatives.  The  great  advantage  of  this  method  was  in 
the  amount  of  light  gained  for  the  purpose  of  focussing.  The 
quarter-plate  size  was  also  the  proper  one  for  lantern  slides.  The 
ordinary  diaphragm  plate  placed  immediately  below  the  stage 
he  had  found  entirely  useless,  but  by  removing  it  a  certain 
distance  from  the  object  it  then  ceased  to  cut  off  the  field,  and 
began  to  reduce  the  light  and  to  improve  the  penetration  and 
definition.  With  high  powers  this  answered  very  well,  but  it 
would  not  work  with  low  powers  unless  the  diaphragm  was 
removed  to  a  distance  too  great  to  be  convenient  in  practice. 
He  had  therefore  devised  the  plan  of  introducing  a  short  I^inch 
condenser  behind  the  stage,  and  about  3  inches  in  front  of  the 
diaphragm  plate,  in  this  way  throwing  it  out  of  focus.  The  effect 
of  this  was  that  the  same  improvement  in  penetration  and 
definition  was  obtained,  but  on  a  much  shorter  distance.  Atten- 
tion was  also  called  to  a  method  of  clamping  the  object  in 
position  when  the  focus  had  been  obtained  ;  also  to  a  plan  for 
obtaining  a  fine  adjustment  by  a  tangent  screw. — Mr.  Mills's 
note  on  a  sponge  with  stelliform  spicules  was  read. — Mr.  Crisp 
referred  to  some  comments  which  had  recently  been  made  in 
America  upon  the  advantages  of  the  method  of  tilting  the  stage 
of  the  microscope  as  a  means  of  obtaining  a  very  economical  and 
simple  fine  adjustment,  on  which  some  discussion  took  place. — 
Dr.  A.  C.  Stokes's  paper  on  new  Infusoria  Flagellata  from 
American  fresh-waters,  containing  descriptions  of  twenty  new 
species,  was  read. — A  paper  on  the  Foraminifera  of  the  Red 
Chalk,  by  Messrs.  H.  W.  Burrows,  C.  D.  Sherborn,  and  Rev. 
G.    Bailey,  was  also  read. 


i68 


NA  TURE 


\June  14,  1888 


Paris. 
Academy  of  Sciences,  June  4. — M.  Janssen,  President,  in 
the  chair. — On  the  equilibrium  of  a  heterogeneous  mass  in 
rotation,  by  M.  H.  Poincare.  This  is  a  generalization  (worked 
out  on  a  fresh  basis)  of  M.  Hamy's  theorem  of  fluids  in  rotation. 
If  all  the  surfaces  of  the  several  liquid  layers  in  contact  were 
ellipsoids,  then  all  these  ellipsoids  would  be  homofocal,  which 
is  impossible  unless  all  the  layers  be  assumed  of  equal  density. 
— On  the  rainbow,  by  M.  Mascart.  The  results  are  here 
published  of  the  author's  researches  on  this  phenomenon  in 
connection  with  M.  BoitePs  recent  communication  on  the 
supernumerary  arcs  of  the  rainbow. — Experimental  researches 
on  the  action  of  the  brain,  by  M.  Brown- Sequard.  The  ex- 
periments with  rabbits  here  described  tend  to  show  that  the 
so-called  motor  centres  and  the  other  parts  of  one  hemisphere 
of  the  encephalon  may  determine  movements  in  both  sides  of  the 
body  through  the  influence  of  gravitation  alone.  This  con- 
clusion, while  opposed  to  the  generally  accepted  doctrines,  is  in 
harmony,  with  the  views  advocated  by  M.  Brown-Seqnard  in 
previous  communications  to  the  Academy.  It  is  evident,  he 
remarks,  that  the  motor  zone  of  each  side  of  the  brain  is 
capable  of  producing  movements  in  the  corresponding  members 
on  either  side,  and  not,  as  is  commonly  supposed,  on  that  side 
alone  which  is  opposed  to  the  centre  of  irritation. — Observations 
of  Sawerthal's  comet  made  at  the  Observatory  of  La  Plata  with 
the  Gautier  cr2i7m.  equatorial,  by  MM.  Beuf,  MacCarthy, 
Salas,  and  Delgado.  These  observations  cover  the  period  from 
March  9  to  April  2,  1888,  and  the  position  of  the  Observatory 
is  given  at  lat.  -  340  54'  3o"*3,  long.  W.  of  Paris  4I1.  om.  58s. 
—  Determination  of  the  ohm  by  M.  Lippmann's  electrodynamic 
method,  by  M.  H.  Wnilleumier.     The  true  value  of  the  ohm  as 

worked  out  by  this  process  is  given  by  the  relation    — - — ,  the 

R 

resistance  of  the  conductor  between  two  given  points  A  and  B 
being  R  =  0*301889  .  io9.  The  value  thus  obtained  is  repre- 
sented by  the  resistance  at  o°  of  a  column  of  mercury  with 
section  immq.  and  length  106 '27cm. — On  electro-chemical  radio- 
phony,  by  MM.  G.  Chaperon  and  E.  Mercadier.  By  the 
method  here  adopted,  the  authors  have  succeeded  in  obtaining 
an  electro-chemical  radiophone  whose  effects  are  analogous  to 
those  of  the  selenium  electric  instruments,  possessing  equal 
intensity  and  being  capable  of  like  applications. — On  the  action 
of  the  alkaline  phosphates  on  the  alkaline  earthy  oxides,  by 
M.  L.  Ouvrard.  The  author  has  made  a  comparative  study  of 
baryta,  lime,  and  strontian.  for  the  purpose  of  determining  the 
nature  of  the  compound  substances  that  may  be  obtained  by 
fusion  of  these  bases  and  some  of  their  salts  with  the  alkaline 
phosphates. — On  some  new  gaseous  hydrates,  byM.  Villard.  To 
those  already  known  the  author  now  adds  analogous  hydrates  of 
methane,  ethane,  ethylene,  acetylene,  and  protoxide  of  nitrogen. 
They  are  generally  less  soluble,  less  easily  liquefied,  than  those  pre- 
viously obtained,  and  are  decomposed  at  the  respective  tempera- 
tures of  2i0,5,  120,  i8°*5,  14°,  and  120.  It  is  shown  in  the  case  of 
methane  and  ethylene  that  a  gas  may  form  a  hydrate  above  its 
critical  temperature  of  liquefaction,  and  that  these  two  gases 
have  a  critical  temperature  of  decomposition  considerably  higher 
than  the  others. — Contribution  to  the  study  of  the  ptomaines, 
by  M.  Oechsner  de  Coninck.  Having  recently  obtained  a 
ptomaine  in  C8HnN,  the  author  here  determines  by  analysis  a 
certain  number  of  salts,  and  describes  the  preparation  of  the 
chloromercurates  and  iodomethylate. — On  the  development  of 
the  grain  of  wheat,  by  M.  Balland.  It  results  from  these  studies 
that  wheat  may  be  advantageously  reaped  eight  or  ten  days 
earlier  than  is  customary.  During  this  latter  period  the  grain 
ceases  its  independent  growth,  and  may  continue  to  complete  its 
development  just  as  well  in  the  cut  ear  as  on  the  standing  stalk. 
The  point  is  obviously  of  great  importance  to  growers,  who  have 
thus  so  much  more  time  to  harvest  their  crops. — Influence  of 
the  organic  temperature  on  convulsions  produced  by  cocaine,  by 
MM.  P.  Langlois  and  Ch.  Richet.  Some  experiments  are 
described  tending  to  show  that  the  higher  the  temperature  of  the 
animal  the  more  susceptible  it  becomes  to  the  toxic  effects  of 
cocaine.  It  is  inferred  that  refrigeration  should  be  a  general 
method  apt  to  diminish  the  effects  of  toxic  substances  causing 
convulsions. — On  the  chemical  action  and  vegetative  alterations 
of  animal  protoplasm,  by  M.  A.  P.  Fokker.  Continuing  his 
already-described  experiments,  the  author  here  shows  that, 
besides  the  property  of  producing  fermentations,  protoplasm  pos- 
sesses that  of  undergoing  vegetative  changes,  thus  confirming  his 
already  expressed  opinion  that  the  formation  of  hematocytes  is  a 
case  of  heterogenesis. 


Stockholm. 

Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  June  6. — A  review  of  the 
researches  on  the  electricity  of  the  air,  by  Prof.  Edlund. — Re- 
searches on  the  elasticity  and  tenacity  of  metallic  wires,  by  Da 
Isberg. — On  the  probability  of  finding  large  numbers  in  the 
development  of  irrational  decimal  fractions  and  of  continued 
fractions,  by  Prof.  Gylden. — Researches  on  a  non-linear 
differential  equation  of  the  second  order,  by  the  same. — On  the 
forms  and  varieties  of  the  common  herring,  by  Prof.  F.  A. 
Smitt.  —  On  the  integration  of  the  differential  equations  in  the 
N  body,  problem  iv. ,  by  Prof.  Dillner. — New  remarks  on  the 
genus  Williamsonia,  by  Prof.  A.  G.  Nathorst.  —  Contributions  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  hydroids  of  the  western  coast  of  Sweden, 
by  M.  Segerstedt. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Poems  in  the  Modern  Spirit :  C.  Catty  (Scott). — Rural  Water  Supply  : 
C.  L.  Hett  (Spon). — Contribution  a  la  Meteorologie  Electrique,  Notes  : 
Prof.  J.  Luvini  (Turin). — Natural  History  Transactions  of  Northum- 
berland, Durham,  and  Newcastle-upon-Tyne,  vol.  ix.  Part  2  (Williams 
and  Norgate). — Morphologisches  Jahrbuch,  13  Band,  4  Heft  :  C.  Gegen- 
baur  (Williams  and  Norgate). — Bulletin  of  the  New  York  State  Museum  of 
Natural  History,  No.  3  (Albany). — Rapport  Annuel  surl'Etat  de  l'Observa- 
toire  de  Paris,  1887  (Gauthier-Villars,  Paris). — Archives  Italiennes  de 
Biologie,  Tome  9,  Fasc.  3  (Loescher,  Turin). — Zeitschrift  ftir  Wissenschaft- 
liche  Zoologie,  46  Band,  3  Heft  (Williams  and  Norgate). — Botanische 
Jahrbiicher,  Neunter  Band,  5  Heft  (Williams  and  Norgate). — Geological 
Magazine,  June  (Triibner). — Journal  of  the  Society  of  Telegraph-Engineers 
and  Electricians,  No.  73  (Spon). — Proceedings  of  the  Bath  Natural  History 
and  Antiquarian  Field  Club,  No.  3,  vol.  vi.  (Bath). — Hand-book  of  the 
Amaryllideae :  J.  G.  Baker  (Bell). — Elementary  School  Atlas  :  J.  Bartholo- 
mew (Macnillan). — A  Season  in  Sutherland  :  J.  E.  Edwards-Moss (Macmil- 
lan). — The  Encyclopaedic  Dictionary,  vol.  vii.  Part  1  (Cassell). — Teoria 
Elemental  de  las  Determinantes :  F.  Amoretti  and  C.  M.  Morales  (Biedma. 
Buenos  Ayres). — The  Clyde  from  its  Source  to  the  Sea:  W.  J.  Millar 
(Blackie). — General  Physiology:  Dr.  J.  G.  M'Kendrick  (MacLehose,  Glas- 
gow).— An  Illustrated  Manual  of  British  Birds,  Part  3  :  H.  Saunders  (Gurney 
and  Jackson). — Die  Natiirlichen  Pflanzenfamilien,  18  and  19  Liefg.  : 
Engler  and  Prantl  (Leipzig). — Ueber  Kern-  und  Zelltheilung  i<n  Pflanzen- 
reiche  (Heft  1  of  Histologische  Beitrage)  :  E.  Strasburger  (Fischer,  Jena). 
— Sea-side  and  Way-side  Nature  Readers,  No.  2  :  J.  M.  Wright  (Heath, 
Boston). — Report  on  a  Part  of  Northern  Alberta  and  Portions  of  Adjacent 
Districts  of  Assiniboia  and  Saskatchewan  :  J.  B.  Tyrrell  (Dawson,  Montreal). 
— The  Forest  Flora  of  South  Australia,  Part  8  :  J.  E.  Brown  (Adelaide). — 
Journal  of  the  Chemical  Society,  June  (Gurney  and  Jackson). 


CONTENTS.  page 

The    Boys'    "Yarrell."      By   Prof.  Alfred    Newton, 

F.R.S 145 

Theory  and  Use  of  a  Physical  Balance 146 

The  Flora  of  West  Yorkshire 147 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Mitchell:  "  A  Manual  of  Practical  Assaying "     .    .    .  148 

Jones  :  "  Asbestos,  its  Production  and  Use  "  .    .    .    .  14S 

Seidel :   "  Industrial  Instruction  " 148 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

Electric  Fishes  in   the  River  Uruguay.' — Dr.   P.   L. 

Sclater,  F.R.S 148 

The  Salt  Industry  in  the  United  States.— F.  Tucker- 
man     148 

Prof.    Greenhill  on  "Kinematics  and  Dynamics." — 

Prof.  J.  G.  MacGregor 149 

Further  Use  of  Ptolemy's  Theorem  (Euclid,  VI.    D) 
for  a  Problem    in    Maxima    and  Minima.     ( With 

Diagram.) — E.    M.  Langley 149 

Davis's  "Biology." — The  Reviewer 149 

M.  Faye's  Theory  of  Storms.     {With  Diagram.)     By 

E.  Douglas  Archibald      149 

The  Visitation  of  the  Royal  Observatory 153 

Industrial  Training 155 

Weismann  on  Heredity.     By  P.  Chalmers  Mitchell  156 
Imperial  Geological  Union.  By  Sir  J.  Wm.  Dawson, 

K.C.M.G.,  F.R.S 157 

Notes 158 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for      the     Week      1888 

June  17-23 161 

Geographical  Notes 161 

Our  Electrical  Column 161 

Wheat  Cultivation.     By  Prof.  John  Wrightson     .    .  162 

University  and  Educational  Intelligence 163 

Scientific  Serials 164 

Societies  and  Academies 165 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 168 


NA  TURE 


169 


THURSDAY,  JUNE   21,    IJ 


THE  STEAM-ENGINE. 
The  Steam- Engine.     By  G.  C.  V.  Holmes.      (London  : 
Longmans,  1887.) 

r*HIS  treatise  is  intended  as  an  elementary  text-book 
*-  for  technical  students.  In  many  respects  it  fulfils  its 
purpose,  at  least  better  than  any  book  of  moderate  size 
with  which  we  are  acquainted.  It  is  clearly  written  ;  its 
arrangement,  if  not  the  best  possible,  is  orderly  ;  it  is  so 
far  practical  that  problems  arising  in  the  actual  design 
and  use  of  steam-engines  are  not  ignored,  but  attacked 
in  a  sufficiently  elementary  way  ;  and  the  rationale  of 
processes  involved  in  the  use  of  steam  is  explained 
adequately  and  correctly  on  the  whole.  The  woodcuts 
represent  fairly  good  examples  of  construction,  with  the 
exception  of  one  or  two,  like  those  of  the  injector  and 
exhaust-ejector,  which  are  antiquated,  and  one  or  two 
others  so  bad  that  they  are  obviously  mere  imaginary 
sketches.  Nevertheless  the  book  fails  of  being  what  a 
really  good  elementary  text-book  of  the  steam-engine 
might  easily  be — what,  indeed,  anyone  of  Mr.  Holmes's 
competence  would  make  it,  if  some  experience  in  teaching 
had  shown  him  the  needs  and  difficulties  of  engineering 
students.  It  is  a  little  to  be  feared  that  Mr.  Holmes's 
book  is  marred  by  an  attempt  in  part  to  adapt  it  to  the 
requirements  of  some  existing  examinations  on  the  steam- 
engine,  which  are  more  scrappy  and  less  scientific  than 
the  worst  of  existing  text-books.  If  only  a  really 
adequate  practical  and  elementary  text-book  were 
written,  it  would  control  the  examinations  instead  of 
needing  to  be  adapted  to  them. 

The  treatise  includes  the  mechanics,  the  thermo- 
dynamics, and  rules  for  the  design  of  steam-engines. 
The  portions  included  under  the  last  head  are  by  far  the 
weakest  portions  of  the  book.  The  scattered  discussions 
of  the  strength  of  some  portions  of  engines  and  boilers 
are  too  vague  and  general  to  be  of  practical  value.  The 
rules  for  the  strength  of  fly-wheels  at  p.  246,  and  that  for 
area  of  steam  passages  at  p.  204,  are  examples  of  the 
kind  of  useless  rules  which  stop  short  of  encountering 
any  one  of  the  actual  difficulties  of  ordinary  designing. 
It  is  just  these  portions  of  the  book  which  seem  designed 
to  meet  the  exigencies  of  a  student  cramming  for  an 
examination,  and  the  book  would  be  improved  by  their 
omission.  An  elementary  treatise  on  the  steam-engine 
might  well  leave  questions  of  design  on  one  side,  and 
confine  itself  to  a  descriptive  account  of  engines  and 
boilers,  with  theory  enough  to  explain  the  actions  involved. 
But  then  it  is  neither  necessary  nor  useful  in  such  a 
treatise  to  introduce  elementary  physics  and  mechanics. 
A  technical  student  may  be  assumed  to  know  elementary 
science.  "  I  have  not  assumed,"  says  the  author,  "  the 
slightest  acquaintance  on  the  part  of  the  reader  with  the 
sciences  of  heat  and  motion,  and  have  consequently  de- 
voted many  pages  to  the  explanation  of  such  parts  of 
these  sciences  as  are  necessary  for  the  proper  under- 
standing of  the  working  of  engines."  Hence  we  find 
a  chapter  on  the  nature  of  heat,  including  a  discussion  of 
the  melting  of  ice,  and  the  graduation  of  thermometers. 
There  are  definitions  of  mass,  weight,  force,  and  velocity, 
and  arithmetical  examples  of  the  laws  of  motion.  Surely 
Vol.  xxxviii.— No.  973. 


all  this  would  only  be  justifiable  in  an  age  when  elementary 
books  were  scarce  and  dear.  An  ordinary  student  finds 
it  a  tiresome  obstruction,  when  the  way  to  the  subject  of 
the  book  is  barred  by  such  repetition.  On  the  other  hand, 
a  brief  but  clear  and  critical  account  of  the  methods  by 
which  Regnault  determined  the  fundamental  constants 
for  steam  would  have  been  very  useful.  It  would  have 
shown  both  the  meaning  of  the  terms  used,  and  the 
probable  trustworthiness  of  the  determinations.  In  place 
of  this,  we  find  only  verbal  definitions  and  formulae. 

The  thermodynamical  portion  of  the  book  is  probably 
its  best  and  clearest  part,  and  that  in  which  it  is  most  in 
advance  of  any  quite  elementary  book  of  a  similar  kind. 
It  must  be  understood  that  in  criticizing  this  portion  we 
do  not  ignore  the  fact  that  the  author  has  done  a  service 
to  elementary  technical  students. 

On  p.  67  a  diagram  is  copied  from  Maxwell,  and  called 
a  diagram  of  isothermals  of  dry  saturated  steam.  It  has 
escaped  the  author  that  for  dry  saturated  steam  there  is 
no  isothermal.  At  a  point  in  the  curve,  say  at  2120,  the 
steam  is  saturated  :  on  one  side  of  this  it  is  a  mixture  of 
steam  and  water,  or  conventionally  wet  steam  ;  on  the 
other  side  it  is  superheated  steam.  The  saturation  curve 
so  useful  in  steam-engine  calculations  is  nowhere 
mentioned.  Further,  in  any  modern  treatment  of  the 
steam-engine  it  ought  to  be  recognized  that  the  engineer 
is  always  or  almost  always  dealing  not  with  dry  saturated 
steam  but  with  wet  steam.  The  algebraical  expressions 
for  the  total  heat,  &c,  of  wet  steam  should  be  introduced 
along  with  those  for  dry  steam.  Curiously,  nowhere  in 
this  book  can  we  find  an  expression  for  the  latent  heat 
of  steam,  though  no  quantity  is  so  often  required.  The 
total  heat  is  given,  and  so  the  latent  heat  can  be  inferred> 
but  surely  the  ordinary  approximate  expression  for  latent 
heat  is  also  useful. 

In  Chapter  III.  the  theory  of  perfect  engines  is  given. 
Following  the  precedent  of  treatises  of  wider  scope,  the 
author  begins  with  the  laws  of  expansion  of  permanent 
gases.  Next  the  theorem  about  a  reversible  engine  is 
given,  but  in  a  form  in  which  it  is  restricted  to  the  case  of 
an  air-engine.  The  efficiency  of  the  reversible  engine  so 
obtained  is  afterwards  spoken  of  as  the  efficiency  of 
perfect  heat-engines  in  general.  But  the  independence 
of  the  result  on  the  nature  of  the  fluid  employed  is  no- 
where indicated.  The  diagram  for  a  perfect  steam-engine 
is  given  on  p.  113.  But  no  elementary  student  will 
perceive  why  the  efficiency  of  this  is  the  same  as  that 
of  the  air-engine,  at  least  without  explanation.  The  only 
idea  ordinary  students  get  from  the  theorem  about  the 
Carnot  engine  is  that  the  efficiency  of  any  engine 
is  proportional  to  the  range  of  temperature  in  the 
cylinder.  In  the  case  of  the  actual  steam-engine  this  is 
so  wrong  as  to  be  nearly  the  reverse  of  the  truth,  and 
the  misconception  is  hardly  anywhere  adequately  guarded 
against.  It  is  very  doubtful  whether  the  Carnot  engine 
ought  to  be  introduced  into  the  elementary  theory  of  the 
steam-engine.  An  ordinary  indicator-diagram  can  be 
taken,  and  the  relation  of  the  heat  expended  to  the  heat 
utilized  determined.  From  the  feed  measurement  and 
indicator-diagram  the  steam  liquefied  at  the  end  of 
admission  and  at  exhaust  can  be  ascertained.  The  heat 
expenditure  corresponding  to  work  of  admission,  ex- 
pansion,  and  expulsion   can  be   calculated.     From   the 

I 


I  JO 


NA  TURE 


\Jtme  21,  1888 


condenser  measurement  the  heat  abandoned  can  be 
found,  and  an  estimate  formed  of  the  loss  by  radiation. 
Repeating  the  calculation  for  different  degrees  of  ex- 
pansion, and  perhaps  for  cases  of  a  jacketed  and  un- 
jacketed  cylinder,  really  clear  notions  will  be  formed  of 
the  relative  importance  of  the  processes  going  on  in  the 
engine.  All  this  can  be  done  in  a  perfectly  elementary 
way,  and  the  student  will  soon  perceive  that  it  is  in  the 
direct  study  of  the  losses  of  heat,  and  not  in  attempts  to. 
realize  the  conditions  of  a  Carnot  engine,  that  improve- 
ment is  to  be  sought. 

We  fail  to  see  the  use  of  reviving  the  antiquated 
empirical  treatment  of  Navier  and  de  Pambour  given  in 
Chapter  IV.  De  Pambour' s  equations  involve  so  many 
assumed  quantities  that  they  are  practically  useless.  The 
author  might  have  remembered  that  contrary  to  de  Pam- 
bour's  view  the  friction  of  an  engine  is  not  proportional 
to  the  load,  but  very  nearly  independent  of  it. 

Chapter  V.  deals  with  the  mechanics  of  the  engine. 
But  the  simplest  graphic  methods  for  finding  curves  of 
crank  pin  effort  and  acceleration  are  not  given.  The  next 
chapter,  on  slide-valve  diagrams,  is  one  of  the  clearest  and 
most  useful  in  the  book. 

In  Chapter  XI.  the  very  difficult  question  of  cylinder  con- 
densation is  treated  on  the  whole  clearly  and  with  insight. 
But  the  obscurities  of  this  difficult  part  of  the  explanation 
of  the  steam-engine  are,  as  might  be  expected,  not  quite 
removed.  The  author  probably  attaches  much  too  great 
importance  to  radiation  from  the  cylinder  sides  to  the 
steam,  and  too  little  to  conduction  from  the  cylinder 
sides  to  the  water  lying  on  its  surface.  The  following 
passage  will  certainly  puzzle  a  student  :  — 

"  The  second  cause — excess  of  condensation  over  re- 
evaporation — is  a  most  fruitful  source  of  waste,  and  should 
be  most  carefully  guarded  against.  It  results  in  the 
continuous  accumulation  of  water  in  the  cylinder,  and 
consequently  causes  an  amount  of  waste  which  goes  on 
increasing  with  each  stroke." 

Of  course,  if  the  accumulation  is  continuous  the  cylinder 
must  get  full,  which  is  impossible.  In  steady  working, 
initial  condensation  must  exactly  equal  re-evaporation  and 
water  carried  mechanically  to  the  condenser.  Priming 
and  condensation  during  expansion  may  for  the  argument 
be  neglected.  What  is  prejudicial  is  not  excess  of  con- 
densation over  re-evaporation,  but  retention  of  water  in 
the  cylinder  after  exhaust. 

THE  ANIMAL  ALKALOIDS. 
On  the  Animal  Alkaloids,  the  Ptomaines,  Leucomaines, 
and  Extractives  in  their  Pathological  Relations.  By 
Sir  William  Aitken,  Knt,  M.D.,  F.R.S.,  Professor 
of  Pathology  in  the  Army  Medical  School.  (London  : 
H.  K.  Lewis,  1887.) 

A  Treatise  on  the  Animal  Alkaloids,  Cadaveric  and 
Vital j  or,  The  Ptomaines  and  Leucomaines  chemic- 
ally, physiologically,  and  pathologically  considered 
in  Relation  to  Scientific  Medicine.  By  A.  M.  Brown, 
M.D.  With  an  Introduction  by  Prof.  Armand  Gautier, 
of  the  Faculty  de  Me'decine  of  Paris,  &c.  (London: 
Bailliere,  Tindall,  and  Cox,  1887.) 

TP  HE  advancement  of  modern  chemistry  has  increased 
■*■       our  knowledge   of  the  alkaloids  occurring  in  the 

vegetable   kingdom — bodies  which  are  of  great  import- 


ance both  in  a  therapeutical  and  a  toxicological  aspect. 
Since  the  year  1872,  a  new  mode  of  natural  origin  of 
alkaloids  has  been  discovered,  viz.  from  animal  sources, 
and  the  knowledge  and  investigation  of  these  bodies 
have  proved  of  great  service  in  the  study  of  both  physio- 
logical and  pathological  chemical  processes. 

Ptomaines  were  first  discovered  in  decomposing  animal 
tissues,  as  their  pseudonym  of  "  cadaveric  alkaloids  "  im- 
plies. Their  presence  in  these  dead  tissues  introduced  a 
new  factor  in  the  post-  mortem  search  for  poisons  in  sus- 
pected cases — a  factor,  however,  the  importance  of  which 
has  been  somewhat  exaggerated.  A  more  important  result 
of  their  discovery  has  been  the  explanation  of  the  cases 
of  poisoning  by  decayed  animal  foods,  such  as  sausages, 
tinned  and  putrid  meats,  in  which  they  have  been  found. 

Further  researches  have,  moreover,  brought  to  light 
the  fact  that  similar  bodies  of  an  alkaloidal  nature  may  be 
produced  within,  and  by,  the  living  organism.  In  this 
case  they  may  be  considered  as  of  "  vital  "  origin,  the 
products,  that  is,  of  the  metabolism  of  protoplasm  ;  or 
they  may,  in  some  cases,  be  the  result  of  the  decompo- 
sition of  albuminoid  bodies:  in  both  cases,  the  term 
"  leucomaines "  has  been  used  to  designate  them.  A 
leucomai'ne— peptotoxin — has,  for  example,  been  found 
by  Brieger  as  a  product  of  artificial  peptic  digestion  ; 
another  has  been  discovered  in  the  body  of  the  sea-mussel 
(Mytilus  edulis),  and  to  its  presence  were  ascribed  the 
symptoms  of  poisoning  which  occurred  in  Wilhelms- 
haven,  in  many  people  who  had  eaten  the  shell-fish. 
These  facts,  of  the  origin  of  poisonous  alkaloids  by  the 
decomposition  of  albuminoid  bodies,  and  also  in  the  living 
animal  tissues,  open  out  a  wide  field  of  research  in 
pathology,  and  have  perhaps  led  to  more  speculation  than 
our  present  knowledge  warrants. 

The  two  books  before  us  deal  with  the  whole  subject  of 
poisonous  alkaloids.  Sir  W.  Aitken's  small  work  owes 
its  origin  to  an  introductory  lecture  delivered  by  him  at 
the  Army  Medical  School  at  Netley.  It  is  chiefly  a  short 
resume  of  the  work  done  on  the  subject.  The  second 
part  of  the  brochure  will  be  found  of  interest  to  medical 
men,  as  it  gives  the  direction  in  which  modern  thought 
is  tending  with  regard  to  the  part  played  by  poisonous 
alkaloids  in  the  production  of  disease.  The  conclusions 
drawn  can,  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge,  be  con- 
sidered merely  as  suggestions  :  many  more  facts  must  come 
to  light  before  the  role  played  by  the  "  vital  "  alkaloids 
in  pathological  processes  can  be  adequately,  or  even 
reasonably,  discussed. 

Dr.  Brown's  work  is  of  a  more  ambitious  nature,  and 
purports  to  be  a  treatise  on  the  subject  of  animal  alka- 
loids generally.  After  commencing  with  a  short  history 
of  the  subject,  the  author  proceeds  to  give  an  account  of 
the  methods  for  extraction  of  the  alkaloids,  and  of  the 
chemical  and  physiological  properties  of  ptomaines  ;  the 
"  vital  "  alkaloids,  leucomaines,  being  treated  in  a  similar 
manner.  The  account  of  the  methods  of  extraction 
might,  we  think,  be  made  more  practical  by  being  con- 
sidered a  little  more  fully,  as  it  is  to  this  part  of  the  book 
that  workers  in  this  field  will  turn  for  information. 

Of  the  chemical  and  physiological  properties  of  these 
alkaloids,  a  fairly  complete  account  is  given  :  our  know- 
ledge of  these  properties  is,  however,  up  to  the  present 
so  imperfect,  that  the  researches  carried  on  during  the 


June  21,  1888] 


NATURE 


171 


last  sixteen  years  only  serve  as  a  basis  for  future  work. 
Much  has  yet  to  be  done  regarding  the  physiological 
action  of  these  bodies  ;  and  no  progress  can  be  made  in 
this  respect  until  the  alkaloids  have  been  extracted  in  a 
pure  state.  It  is  almost  useless,  in  the  interests  of  science, 
to  speak  of  the  action  of  alkaloids  extracted  by  various 
reagents  ;  though,  in  certain  cases  of  poisoning,  the  in- 
vestigation of  such  an  action  may  be  of  immediate  utility. 
Dr.  Brown  has  devoted  much  space  to  the  consideration 
of  the  part  played  by  the  vital  alkaloids  in  physiological 
or  pathological  conditions.  In  his  account  he  has  closely 
followed  the  views  of  M.  Gautier,  whose  researches  have 
thrown  great  light  on  the  subject. 

Dr.  Brown's  work  may  be  recommended  as  giving  a 
general  account  of  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge 
regarding  these  alkaloids.  S.  H.  C.  M. 


PRACTICAL  FORESTRY. 

Practical  Forestry  :  its  Bearing  on  the  Improvement  of 
Estates.  By  Charles  E.  Curtis,  F.S.T.,  F.S.S.,  Pro- 
fessor of  Forestry,  Surveying,  and  General  Estate 
Management  at  the  College  of  Agriculture,  &c.  (Lon- 
don:  Land  Agent's  Record  Office,  1888.) 

THE  present  work  is  described,  as  a  reprint  of  a  series 
of  papers  on  "  Practical  Forestry,"  which  appeared 
in  the  Land  Agent's  Record,  and  the  author's  object  in 
republishing  his  ideas  on  practical  forestry  is  to  pro- 
mote and  encourage  the  study  of  true  forestry  among  the 
British  land-owners  and  land  agents,  and  especially  to 
impress  upon  students  the  necessity  of  acquiring  a  sound 
practical  knowledge  of  a  branch  of  land  economy  so  long 
neglected  and  ignored.  So  far  so  good  ;  but  when  the 
author  says,  "  I  trust  this  publication  will  be  the  means  of 
spreading  this  object  more  widely  "  (sic),  we  fear  that  he 
will  be  grievously  disappointed. 

To  begin  with  :  the  book  is  written  in  doubtful  English. 
Though  the  correct  use  of  the  English  language  is  not 
absolutely  essential,  yet  in  order  to  be  a  really  useful 
work,  a  book  should  be  written  in  language  which  com- 
plies with  the  ordinary  grammatical  rules,  and  which  is 
also  intelligible  to  the  class  of  readers  expected  to  profit 
by  its  perusal.  The  whole  book  is  conceived  in  a  very 
narrow  spirit,  and  the  expressed  views  of  the  author 
are  frequently  open  to  question.  Take  for  instance  the 
following  passage  (p.  40) : — 

"  The  great  and  true  principle  of  thinning  is  to  en- 
courage the  growth  of  those  trees  which  are  left,  and  not 
to  secure  a  financial  present  return.  This,  though  im- 
portant, is  quite  a  secondary  consideration,  and  should 
at  all  times  be  ignored." 

We  beg  to  say  that  the  great  and  true  principle  of 
thinning  is  nothing  of  the  kind.  In  every  instance  the 
owner,  or  his  manager,  must  consider  what  the  objects 
of  his  management  are.     They  may  be  :  — 

(1)  To  produce  material  of  a  certain  description. 

(2)  To  produce  the  greatest  possible  number  of  cubic 
feet  per  acre  and  year. 

(3)  To  secure  the  highest  possible  money  return  from 
the  property. 

(4)  To  secure  the  highest  possible  interest  on  the 
invested  capital. 


(5)  To  improve  the  landscape,  or  to  affect  the 
climate,  &c. 

In  each  of  these  cases  the  method  of  thinning  will 
be  different. 

Again,  the  descriptiongiven  of  a  true  forester  (p.  12)  is 
somewhat  illusory.  If  the  author  thinks  that  a  man  who 
has  studied  botany,  vegetable  physiology,  geology,  entomo- 
logy, &c,  is  also  able  to  wield  the  axe,  and  use  with 
skill  the  pruning  saw  or  knife,  he  is  likely  to  be  dis- 
appointed in  nine  cases  out  of  ten.  Such  ideas  are 
theoretical  speculations,  and  not  the  result  of  practical 
experience. 

The  chapter  on  "  Soil  and  Site  "  is  of  a  very  hazy  descrip- 
tion whenever  the  author  attempts  to  rise  above  ordinary 
platitudes.  He  promises  to  describe  clearly  in  future 
sections  the  nature  of  the  soils  and  sites  in  which  the 
individual  trees  most  delight,  but,  as  far  as  we  can  see, 
he  has  got'  over  the  difficulty  by  omitting  to  redeem  his 
promise. 

To  sum  up,  the  book  is  not  likely  to  further  the- object 
which  the  author  seems  to '  have  at  heart.  The  ex- 
perienced forester  will  find  nothing  new  in  it,  and  the 
beginner  will  only  meet  with  badly  arranged  statements 
which  are  frequently  not  in  accordance  with  the  teaching 
of  science  or  of  practice.  Sw. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Tropical  Africa.     By    Henry    Drummond.     (London  : 
Hodder  and  Stoughton,  1888.) 

This  is  a  brightly-written  and  most  interesting  sketch  of 
Mr.  Drummond's  experiences  during  a  recent  journey  in 
East  Central  Africa.  He  has  no  very  surprising  or 
exciting  adventures  to  describe,  but  in  the  course  of  his 
narrative,  which  is  written  with  a  vigour  and  grace 
unusual  in  books  of  travel,  he  contrives  to  convey  a 
remarkably  vivid  impression  of  the  country  through 
which  he  passed.  Going  up  the  valley  of  the  Shire" 
River,  he  visited  Lake  Shirwa,  of  which  little  has  hitherto 
been  known  ;  then  he  went  on  to  Lake  Nyassa,  and  to 
the  plateau  between  Lake  Nyassa  and  Lake  Tanganyika. 
During  the  whole  of  his  journey  he  was  a  close  observer, 
not  only  of  the  physical  features  of  the  districts  he 
visited,  but  of  the  various  classes  of  phenomena  which 
interested  him  as  a  geologist,  an  ethnographer,  and  a 
student  of  natural  history.  In  one  admirable  chapter  he 
gives  a  full  and  striking  account  of  the  white  ant,  which 
he  had  frequent  opportunities  of  studying  ;  in  another  he 
brings  together  many  curious  illustrations  of  the  well- 
known  fact  that  among  numerous  species  of  animals 
mimicry  is  one  of  the  means  of  self-protection.  Before 
going  to  Africa,  Mr.  Drummond  had  mentally  resolved 
not  to  be  taken  in  by  "  mimetic  frauds,"  yet  he  was 
"completely  stultified  and  beaten"  by  the  first  mimetic 
form  he  met.  This  was  an  insect — one  of  the  family  of 
the  Phasmidce— exactly  like  a  wisp  of  hay.  Another 
insect,  which  he  often  saw,  closely  resembles  a  bird- 
dropping,  and  the  consequence  is  that  "it  lies  fearlessly 
exposed  on  the  bare  stones,  during  the  brightest  hours  of 
the  tropical  day,  a  time  when  almost  every  other  animal 
is  skulking  out  of  sight."  Mr.  Drummond  has  of  course 
much  to  say  about  the  chances  of  a  great  future  for 
Africa,  and  in  this  connection  he  presents  a  good  deal  of 
valuable  information  as  to  the  capacity  of  the  natives  for 
work  and  as  to  the  wrongs  inflicted  upon  them  by  vile 
gangs  of  slave-traders. 


172 


NATURE 


{June  21,  1888 


Plotting,  or  Graphic  Mathematics.  By  R.  Wormell, 
D.Sc,  M.A.  (London :  Waterlow  and  Sons,  Limited, 
1888.) 

This  book  is  intended  chiefly  for  those  who  have 
mastered  the  beginnings  of  algebra  and  Euclid,  and  so  is 
very  elementary.  The  method  employed  throughout  is 
that  of  using  squares,  and  preparatory  exercises  are  first 
given  to  show  the  student  the  different  purposes  to  which 
they  may  be  applied  with  facility.  Proportion  and  the 
determination  of  areas  are  the  subjects  of  the  first  two 
chapters,  followed  by  a  chapter  on  the  tracing  of  paths 
of  projectiles,  with  various  data.  The  sections  of  the 
cone,  such  as  the  parabola,  ellipse,  and  hyperbola,  are 
next  described,  with  various  methods  of  tracing  them. 
The  book  contains  a  great  number  of  numerical  examples, 
and  concludes  with  a  chapter  on  the  higher  graphs  and 
curves  of  observation. 

The  Elements  of  Logarithms.  By  W.  Gallatly,  M.A. 
(London:  F.  Hodgson,  1888.) 

In  this  little  book  of  thirty-one  pages  the  various  rules 
and  methods  of  treating  logarithms  are  stated  and 
explained  in  a  simple  and  precise  way,  and  those 
beginning  the  subject  would  do  well  to  read  through 
these  few  pages.  Numerous  examples  are  put  in  here  and 
there,  and  at  the  end  the  author  has  added  a  collection  of 
questions  taken  from  the  Woolwich  and  Sandhurst 
examination  papers  for  the  years  1880-87. 


LETTERS   TO   THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
of  Nature.  Mo  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations.] 

Thunderstorms  and  Lightning  Accidents. 

As  the  season  of  thunderstorms  and  lightning  accidents  is 
now  approaching,  I  hope  you  will  kindly  allow  me  to  make 
known  through  your  columns  the  fact  that,  in  the  interests  of 
science,  the  Institute  of  Medical  Electricity  is  very  desirous  of 
obtaining  authentic  information  concerning  lightning  accidents, 
whether  fatal  or  otherwise.  I  should  therefore  esteem  it  a 
favour  if  some  of  the  many  friends  of  humanity  among  your 
readers  will  assist  us  to  investigate  these  phenomena  by  sending 
me  such  particulars  of  accidents  of  this  nature  as  they  may  have 
personal  or  trustworthy  knowledge  of  as  soon  after  they  occur  as 
possible. 

Of  course,  electrical  and  physiological  details  are  what  we 
most  require,  but  trustworthy  general  information  is  often  valuable, 
and  will  be  gratefully  received. 

24  Regent  Street,  S.  W.  H.  Newman  Lawrence. 

Nose-Blackening  as  Preventive  of  Snow-Blindness. 

I  ONLY  read  Prof.  Ray  Lankester's  letter  the  other  day  on  the 
above,  which  appeared  in  Nature  of  May  3  (p.  7).  I  have 
made  inquiries  among  travellers  in  the  snow  regions  of  North 
America,  and  find  the  practice  to  be  quite  common  and  well 
known,  but  have  met  with  no  one  who  can  explain  it.  I  may 
say,  however,  that  when  I  visited  New  Zealand  in  1884  there 
were  in  one  of  the  canoes  which  came  off  to  our  ship  several 
naked  natives,  who  had  disfigured  their  faces  by  blackening  their 
noses  and  eyes,  and  running  a  black  fillet  round  the  face,  which 
gave  them  a  villainous  aspect ;  and  I,  in  that  insolent  ignorance 
which  seems  to  prevail  with  all  pious  people  who  have  dealings 
with  "the  heathen  of  the  isles,"  believed  they  had  got  them- 
selves up  in  this  way  in  order  to  frighten  us.  But  it  may  well 
have  been  for  other  reasons.  Certainly  the  sun's  heat,  reflected 
from  the  still  waters  of  the  sea,  was  quite  as  painful  as  any  I  ever 
felt  in  the  regions  of  the  silver  snow.  I  subsequently  found  that 
the  black  used  by  these  people,  who  are  of  a  pale  complexion, 
was  the  oxide  of  manganese,  called  in  their  tongue  labdn. 

A.  J.  Duffield. 
The  Delaware,  Keweenaw  Michigan,  U.S.A.,  June  4. 


The  Lethrus  ccphalotes. 

The  beetle  which  is  described  in  your  issue  of  June  7  (p. 
134),  by  the  British  Consul  at  Varna,  is  probably  the  Lethrus 
cephalotes,  which  has  proved  so  destructive  to  vineyards  in  East 
and  South-East  Europe.  It  is  a  dull  black  beetle,  easily 
recognized  by  the  swollen  truncated  ends  of  the  antennre  ;  its 
length  is  about  21  mm.  It  lives  chiefly  in  dry  and  sandy  soil, 
and  during  dry  weather  the  beetles  leave  their  holes  generally 
between  nine  and  eleven  in  the  morning  and  after  three  in  the 
afternoon,  to  attack  the  tender  parts  of  the  vine,  as  Mr.  Brophy 
describes. 

Taschenberg  is  of  the  opinion  that  the  buds,  &c,  of  the  vine 
which  are  dragged  back  to  the  holes  of  the  beetles  serve  as  food 
for  the  larvae.  As  the  beetles  show  a  marked  aversion  to  water, 
it  is  possible  that  the  pest  might  be  lessened  by  copiously  watering 
the  infected  areas.  Arthur  E.  Shipley. 

*\  Christ's  College,  Cambridge,  June  16, 


Proposed  Fuel-testing  Station  fori'London. 

Will  you  allow  me  to  put  before  your  readers  the  following 
proposition  for  the  establishment  of  such  a  station,  the  desirability 
of  which  has  been  much  impressed  upon  me  within  the  last  few 
years  ?  So  far  as  I  know,  there  does  not  exist  anything  of  the 
kind  in  this  country  where,  as  on  the  Continent,  coals  can  be 
tested  for  their  evaporative  power,  the  gases  of  combustion 
analyzed,  and  all  the  results  carefully  reported  on  by  experts.  I 
subjoin  a  few  details  of  the  proposed  station,  with  probable  cost. 
It  should,  I  consider,  be  placed  on  a  perfectly  independent  foot- 
ing, and  managed  by  experts,  under  a  small  committee  appointed 
by  those  who  assist  with  money  or  otherwise.  It  might  follow 
generally  the  lines  of  existing  coal- testing  stations,  but  with  all 
modern  improvements. 

In  this  country  it  is  remarkable  that  neither  the  sellers  of  coal 
take  the  trouble  to  find  out  how  much  heat  they  are  offering,  nor 
the  purchasers  how  much  they  are  getting  for  their  money,  and 
this  notwithstanding  the  hundreds  of  millions  of  tons  of  coal  chang- 
ing hands  yearly.  Colliery-owners  and  coal-merchants,  as  well  as 
the  large  consumers,  know  very  little  about  coal  calorimeters, 
although  the  former  sell  so  much  heat,  and  the  latter  try  to  utilize 
it  to  the  best  advantage.  How  few  of  the  latter  weigh  their  coal 
regularly,  or  keep  any  weekly  record  of  the  quantities  of  ashes 
and  clinkers,  to  find  out  how  much  dirt  and  incombustible  matter 
they  are  paying  for  !  How  few  know  what  it  costs  them  in  fuel 
to  evaporate  one  thousand  gallons  of  water  into  steam,  which  is 
one  of  the  best  standards  of  comparison  in  a  given  district ! 

Locality. — The  station  might  be  in  close  proximity  to  a  river, 
canal,  or  railway-station,  so  that  the  coals  could  be  delivered  easily 
and  cheaply,  and  the  steam  allowed  to  escape  under  pressure 
without  causing  annoyance.  A  small  piece  of  land  doubtless 
could  be  obtained  in  such  a  situation  at  a  low  rent.  The  boiler- 
shed  should  be  about  35  x  20  feet,  with  a  small  additional  shed 
for  storing  the  fuel. 

Cost. — It  would  be  desirable  to  allow  at  least  ^700  for  a 
start,  to  cover  the  cost  of  the  boiler-shed,  chimney,  20  horse- 
power boiler  (if  such  were  considered  large  enough),  and  the 
special  arrangements  for  measuring  the  feed-water  with  tanks, 
scales,  feed-pump,  injector,  gas  and  coal  analyzing  apparatus, 
calorimeters,  &c.  Seeing  that  until  the  objects  of  the  station 
become  known  it  would  probably  not  pay  expenses,  the  help  of 
guarantors  would  no  doubt  be  necessary. 

Yearly  Expenses.  — The  charge  for  testing  and  reporting  upon 
each  combustible  would  probably  more  than  cover  eventually  the 
salaries  of  a  technical  manager,  his  assistant,  and  the  stoker. 
Some  arrangement  might  possibly  be  made  by  which  the  manager 
and  his  assistant  should  only  attend  when  required,  at  any  rate  at 
first,  in  order  to  diminish  expenses. 

The  station  would  require  to  be  advertised  and  made  known  in 
various  ways.  Colliery-owners  would  no  doubt  find  it  to  their 
advantage  to  have  their  different  kinds  of  coal  tested  and  reported 
upon,  so  as  to  offer  them  to  their  customers  with  their  ascertained 
heating  value  or  evaporative  power.  Large  consumers  of  coal 
(railway  companies,  water-works,  and  others)  should  know  the 
heating  value  of  the  coal  they  are  paying  for,  and  the  percentage 
of  incombustibles. 

I  add  a  few  notes  on  the  temporary  and  permanent  experi- 
mental heat  stations  known  to  me. 

(1)  The  earliest  fuel-testing  station  was  established  in  1847  at 
Brix,  in  Germany. 

(2)  Sir  H.  de  la  Beche  and  Dr.  Lyon  Playfair  made  a  series  of 


June  21,  1888] 


NATURE 


173 


experiments  before  the  year  185 1  with  different  coals  suitable  for 
the  Navy.  These  trials  were  conducted  near  London,  under  a 
small  marine  boiler  at  atmospheric  pressure. 

(3)  At  the  English  Government  dockyards,  various  interesting 
experiments  have  been  made  under  small  marine  boilers,  and  the 
results  published  in  Blue-books. 

(4)  Messrs.  Armstrong,  Longridge,  and  Richardson  published 
in  1858  an  account  of  some  valuable  experiments  they  had  made 
with  the  steam-coals  of  the  Hartley  district  of  Northumberland, 
under  a  small  marine  boiler,  for  the  Local  Steam  Colliery 
Association. 

(5)  At  Wigan  many  excellent  experiments  were  made  by 
Messrs.  Richardson  and  Fletcher  about  1867,  to  test  the  value  of 
Lancashire  and  Cheshire  steam-coals  for  use  in  marine  boilers. 
The  water  was  evaporated  under  atmospheric  pressure  from  a 
small  marine  boiler.     This  station  was  afterwards  abolished. 

In  none  of  the  above  do  the  gases  of  combustion  appear  to 
have  been  analyzed. 

(6)  A  fuel-testing  station  was  worked  at  Dantzig  in  1863. 

(7)  An  important  station  was  opened  at  Brieg,  on  the  Oder, 
by  the  colliery-owners  of  Lower  Silesia  in  April  1878,  with  the 
primary  object  of  testing  the  value  as  fuel  of  the  important  coal- 
seams  of  that  province.  After  working  with  the  most  satisfactory 
results  for  two  years,  and  establishing  the  superiority  of  the  Lower 
Silesian  coal,  the  experiments  terminated  in  1880.  The  testing 
boilers  had  each  40  square  metres  of  heating  surface.  Gases 
and  coals  were  analyzed. 

Existing  Continental  Stations. — (8)  The  Imperial  Naval 
Administration  Coal-testing  Station  at  Wilhelmshaven,  Germany, 
was  established  in  1877. 

(9)  Dr.  Bunte's  coal-testing  station,  erected  at  Munich  about  1878, 
particulars  of  which  have  been  published  in  the  Proceedings  of  the 
Institution  of  Civil  Engineers,  vol.  lxxiii.  Here  some  hundreds 
of  trials  have  been  reported  on  and  published  ;  much  valuable 
work  has  been  done,  and  many  fuels  tested,  including  coals  of  the 
Ruhr  valley,  Saar  basin,  Saxon  and  Bohemian  coal-fields,  and 
those  of  Silesia  and  Upper  Bavaria.  The  boiler  of  the  station  has 
about  450  square  feet  of  heating  surface.  The  gases  and  coals 
are  analyzed,  and  all  particulars  carefully  noted.  It  is  one  of 
the  most  complete  stations  I  have  seen. 

(10)  In  Belgium,  near  Brussels,  there  is  a  Government  station 
for  testing  fuels,  under  the  administration  of  the  Belgium  State 
railways  ;  locomotive  boilers  are  used.  The  establishment  has 
been  at  work  for  the  last  two  years,  but  no  results  are  published, 
as  they  are  considered  the  property  of  the  Government.  Private 
firms  can,  however,  have  their  coals  tested  and  reported  upon. 

(11)  The  Imperial  Marine  Station,  Uantzig. 

(12)  Boiler  Insurance  Company  at  Magdeburg. 

The  above  is  a  slight  outline  of  the  work  already  done  in  this 
direction. 

With  the  view  of  obtaining  the  opinions  of  those  interested  in 
starting  a  fuel-testing  station,  I  ask  you  kindly  to  give  this  letter 
publicity.  If  the  necessary  sum  can  be  raised,  we  may  hope  to 
have  before  long  a  practical  and  useful  establishment  in  London, 
and  to  gain  from  it  many  interesting  practical  results  respecting 
the  combustion  of  fuels.  Bryan  Donkin,  Jun. 

Bermondsey,  S.E.,  June  n. 


The  Geometric  Interpretation  of  Monge's    Differential 
Equation  to  all  Conies — the  Sought  Found. 

The  question  of  the  true  geometric  interpretation  of  the 
Mongian  equation  has  been  often  considered  by  mathematicians. 
In  the  first  place,  we  have  the  late  Dr.  Boole's  statement  that 
"here  our  powers  of  geometrical  interpretation  fail,  and  results 
such  as  this  can  scarcely  be  otherwise  useful  than  as  a  registry  of 
integrable  forms  "  ("Diflf.  Equ.,"  pp.  19-20).  We  have  next 
two  attempts  to  interpret  the  equation  geometrically.  The  first 
of  these  propositions,  by  Lieut-Colonel  Cunningham,  is  that 
"the  eccentricity  of  the  osculating  conic  of  a  given  conic  is 
constant  all  round  the  latter"  {Quarterly  Journal,  vol.  xiv. 
229)  ;  the  second,  by  Prof.  Sylvester,  is  that  "the  differential 
equation  of  a  conic  is  satisfied  at  the  sextactic  points  of  any 
curve"  (Atner.  Journ.  Math.,  vol.  ix.  p.  19).  I  have  elsewhere 
considered  both  these  interpretations  in  detail,  and  I  have 
pointed  out  that  both  of  them  are  irrelevant  ;  the  first  of  them 
is,  in  fact,  the  geometric  interpretation,  not  of  the  Mongian 
equation,  but  of  one  of  its  five  first  integrals  .which  I  have 
actually  calculated  (Proc.  Asiatic  Soc.  Bengal,  1888,  pp.  74- 
86)  ;  the  second  is  out  of  mark  as   failing  to   furnish  such   a 


property  of  the  conic  as  would  lead  to  a  geometrical  quantity 
which  vanishes  at  every  point  of  every  conic  (Journal  Asiatic 
Soc.  Bengal,  1887,  Part  2,  p.  143).  In  this  note  I  will  briefly 
mention  the  true  geometric  interpretation  which  I  have  recently 
discovered. 

Consider  the  osculating  conic  at  any  point,  P,  of  a  given 
curve  ;  the  centre,  O,  of  the  conic  is  the  centre  of  aberrancy  at 
P,  and  as  P  travels  along  the  given  curve,  the  locus  of  O  will 
be  another  curve,  which  we  may  conveniently  call  the  aberrancy 
curve.  Take  rectangular  axes  through  any  origin  ;  let  (x,  y)  be 
the  given  point  P,  and  a,  £  the  co-ordinates  of  the  centre  of 
aberrancy.     Then  it  can  be  shown  without  much  difficulty  that 

a  =  x  -        Zqr 

W  -  y 

fi=y  -  37(/r  -  3?2) 


whence 


where 


da. 

ll.X 


=  \T, 


3qs  -  5r- 
d$ 


dx 


=  hT, 


KW  ~  5"*)*  (3'/*  -  Sr!f 

T  =  9ft  -  i&qrs  +  40;-3, 
p,  q,  r,  s,  t  being,  as  usual,  the  successive  differential  coefficients 
of  y  with  respect  to  x. 

If  dip  be  the  angle  between  two  consecutive  axes  of  aberrancy, 
ds  the  element  of  arc,  and  p  the  radius  of  curvature  of  the 
aberrancy  curve,  we  have 

p  =  *Lt    ds*  =  </a2  +  d$2, 
dty 
whence 

,  dx 

p  =  <x»  +  m2)*  .  T .  % 

But  it  is  easy  to  show  that 

fty  =     y(3^  -  Sr-) 

dx         r1  +  (rp  -  3<72)2' 
so  that 

f  =  T  t  {r 2  +  (rp  -  3?2)2}1, 

q(w  -  5^)3 

Now,  T  =  o  is  Monge's  differential  equation  to  all  conies, 
and  when  T  =  o  we  have  p  =  o.  Hence,  clearly,  the  true 
geometric  interpretation  of  the  Mongian  equation  is  : 

The  radius  of  curvature  of  the  aberrancy  curve  vanishes  at 
every  point  of  every  conic. x 

This  geometrical  interpretation  will  be  found  to  satisfy  all  the 
tests  which  every  true  geometrical  interpretation  ought  to  satisfy, 
and  I  believe  that  this  is  the  interpretation  which,  during  the 
last  thirty  years,  has  been  sought  for  by  mathematicians,  ever 
since  Dr.  Boole  wrote  his  now  famous  lines.  I  will  not  take 
up  the  valuable  space  of  these  columns  with  the  details  of  calcu- 
lation :  they  will  be  found  fully  set  forth  in  two  of  my  papers 
which  will  be  read  next  month  before  the  Asiatic  Society  of 
Bengal,  and  will  in  due  course  be  published  in  the  Journal. 

Calcutta,  May  18.  Asutosh  Mukhopadhyay. 


PERSONAL  IDENTIFICA  TION  AND 

DESCRIPTION? 

I. 

T  is  strange  that  we  should  not  have  acquired  more 

power    of  describing    form  and    personal   features 

than  we  actually  possess.     For   my  own  part   I   have 


I 


1  The  differential  equation  of  all  parabolas, 
2,qs  -  5^  =  O, 
is  also  easily  interpreted,  viz.  calling  the  distance  OP  between  the  given 
point  and   the  centre    of  aberrancy  the  radius  of   aberrancy,    and    the 
reciprocal  of  this  (=  I)  the  index  of  aberrancy,  we  have,  easily, 

39s  -  5** 


I  = 


iq  {r2  +  (rp  -  3?8)8}  * 


so  that  the  interpretation  is  that  the  index  of  aberrancy  vanishes  at  every 
point  of  every  parabola.  . 

2  'the  substance  of  a  Lecture  given  by  Francis  Galton,  F  R.S.,  at  the  Royal 
Institution  on  Friday  evening,  May  25,  1888.        j 


i74 


NATURE 


[June  21,  1888 


frequently  chafed  under  the  sense  of  inability  to  ver- 
bally explain  hereditary  resemblances  and  types  of 
features,  and  to  describe  irregular  outlines  of  many 
different  kinds,  which  I  will  not  now  particularize.  At 
last  I. tried  to  relieve  myself  as  far  as  might  be  from 
this  embarrasment,  and  took  considerable  trouble,  and 
made  many  experiments.  The  net  result  is  that  while 
there  appear  to  be  many  ways  of  approximately  effecting 
what  is  wanted,  it  is  difficult  as  yet  to  select  the  best  of 
them  with  enough  assurance  to  justify  a  plunge  into  a 
rather  serious  undertaking.  According  to  the  French 
proverb,  the  better  has  thus  far  proved  an  enemy  to  the 
passably  good,  so  I  cannot  go  much  into  detail  at  present, 
but  will  chiefly  dwell  on  general  principles. 

Measure  of  Resemblance.  —  We  recognize  different 
degrees  of  likeness  and  unlikeness,  though  I  am  not 
aware  that  attempts  have  been  as  yet  made  to  measure 
them.  This  can  be  done  if  we  take  for  our  unit  the  least 
discernible  difference.  The  application  of  this  principle  to 
irregular  contours  is  particularly  easy.  Fig.  1  shows  two 
such  contours,  A  and  B,  which  might  be  meteorological, 
geographical,  or  anything  else.  They  are  drawn  with  firm 
lines,  but  of  different  strengths  for  the  sake  of  distinction. 
They  contain  the  same  area,  and  are  so  superimposed  as  to 
lie  as  fairly  one  over  the  other  as  may  be.  Now  draw  a 
broken  contour  which  we  will  call  C,  equally  subdividing 
the  intervals  between  A  and  B ;  then  C  will  be  more  like 
A  than  B  was.  Again  draw  a  dotted  contour,  D,  equally 
subdividing  the  intervals  between  C  and  A  ;  the  likeness  of 
D  to  A  will  be  again  closer.     Continue  to  act  on  the  same 


Fig. 


principle  untila  stageis  reached  when  the  contour  last  drawn 
is  undistinguishable  from  A.  Suppose  it  to  be  the  fourth 
stage  ;  then  as  24  =  16,  there  are  16  grades  of  least-discern- 
ible differences  between  A  and  B.  If  one  of  the  contours 
differs  greatly  in  a  single  or  few  respects  from  the  other, 
reservation  may  be  made  of  those  peculiarities.  Thus,  if 
A  has  a  deep  notch  in  its  lower  right-hand  border,  we 
might  either  state  that  fact,  and  say  that  in  other  respects 
it  differed  from  B  by  only  16  grades  of  unlikeness,  or  we 
might  make  no  reservation,  and  continue  subdividing 
until  all  trace  of  the  notch  was  smoothed  away.  It  is 
purely  a  matter  of  convenience  which  course  should  be 
adopted  in  any  given  case.  The  measurement  of  resem- 
blance by  units  of  least-discernible  differences  is  applicable 
\o  shades,  colours,  sounds,  tastes,  and  to  sense-indications 
generally.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  infinite  unlikeness. 
A  point  as  perceived  by  the  sense  of  sight  is  not  a 
mathematical  point,  but  an  object  so  small  that  its 
shape  ceases  to  be  discernible.  Mathematically,  it 
requires  an  infinitude  of  points  to  make  a  short  line  ; 
sensibly,  it  requires  a  finite  and  not  a  large  number  of 
what  the  vision  reckons  as  points,  to  do  so.  If  from  thirty 
to  forty  points  were  dotted  in  a  row  across  the  disk  of  the 
moon,  they  would  appear  to  the  naked  eyes  of  most 
persons  as  a  continous  line. 

Description  within  Specified  Limits. — It  is  impossible  to 
verbally  define  an  irregular  contour  with  such  precision 
that  a  drawing  made  from  the  description  shall  be  undis- 
tinguishable from  the  original,  but  we  may  be  content  with 
a  lower  achievement.     Much  would  be  gained  if  we  could 


refer  to  a  standard  collection  of  contours  drawn  with 
double  lines,  and  say  that  the  contour  in  question  falls 
between  the  double  lines  of  the  contour  catalogued  as 
number  so-and-so.  This  would  at  least  tell  us  that  none 
of  the  very  many  contours  that  fell  outside  the  specified 
limits  could  be  the  one  to  which  the  description  applied. 
It  is  an  approximate  and  a  negative  method  of  identifica- 
tion. Suppose  the  contour  to  be  a  profile,  and  for  sim- 
plicity's sake  let  us  suppose  it  to  be  only  the  portion  of 
a  profile  that  lies  below  the  notch  that  separates  the  brow 
from  the  nose  and  above  the  parting  between  the  lips,  and 
such  as  is  afforded  by  a  shadow  sharply  cast  upon  the  wall 
by  a  single  source  of  light,  such  as  is  excellently  seen  when 
a  person  stands  side- ways  between  the  electric  lantern  and 
the  screen  in  a  lecture-room.  All  human  profiles  of  this 
kind,  when  they  have  been  reduced  to  a  uniform  vertical 


Fig.  2. 

scale,  fall  within  a  small  space.  I  have  taken  those  given 
by  Lavater,  which  are  in  many  cases  of  extreme  shapes, 
and  have  added  others  of  English  faces,  and  find  that 
they  all  fall  within  the  space  shown  in  Fig.  2.  The 
outer  and  inner  limits  of  the  space  are  of  course  not 
the  profiles  of  any  real  faces,  but  the  .limits  of  many 
profiles,  some  of  which  are  exceptional  at  one  point  and 
others  at  another.  We  can  classify  the  great  majority 
of  profiles  so  that  the  whole  of  each  class  shall  be  in- 
cluded between  the  double  borders  of  one,  two,  or  some 
small  number  of  standard  portraits  such  as  Fig.  3.  I  am 
as  yet  unprepared  to  say  how  near  together  the  double 
borders  of  such  standard  portraits  should  be  ;  in  other 
words,  what  is  the  smallest  number  of  grades  of  un- 
likeness that  we  can  satisfactorily  deal  with.  The  process 
of  sorting  profiles  into  their  proper  classes  and  of  gradually 


Fig.  3. 

building  up  a  well-selected  standard  collection,  is  a 
laborious  undertaking  if  attempted  by  any  obvious  way, 
but  I  believe  it  can  be  effected  with  comparative  ease  on 
the  basis  of  measurements,  as  will  be  explained  later  on, 
and  by  an  apparatus  that  will  be  described. 

Classification  of  Sets  of  Measures. — Prisoners  are  now 
identified  in  France  by  the  measures  of  their  heads  and 
limbs,  the  set  of  measures  of  each  suspected  person  being 
compared  with  the  sets  that  severally  refer  to  each  of  many 
thousands  of  convicts.  This  idea,  and  the  practical  appli- 
cation of  it,  is  due  to  M.  Alphonse  Bertillon.  The  actual 
method  by  which  this  is  done  is  not  all  that  could  be 
theoretically  desired,  but  it  is  said  to  be  effective  in  action, 
and  enables  the  authorities  quickly  to  assure  themselves 
whether  the  suspected  person  is  or  is  not  an  old  malefactor. 
The  primary  measures  in   the  classification  are   four — 


I 


June  21,  1888] 


NATURE 


175 


amely,  the  head  length,  head  breadth,  foot  length,  and 
iddle-finger  length  of  the  left  foot  and  hand  respectively, 
ach  of  these  is  classified  according  as  it  is  large, 
medium,  or  small.  There  are  thus  three,  and  only  three, 
divisions  of  head  lengths,  each  of  which  is  subdivided  into 
three  divisions  of  head  breadth  ;  again,  each  of  these  is 
further  subdivided  into  three  of  foot  length,  and  these 
again  into  three  of  middle-finger  length  ;  thus  the  num- 
ber of  primary  classes  is  equal  to  three  multiplied  into 
itself  four  times — that  is  to  say,  their  number  is  eighty- 
one,  and  a  separate  pigeon-hole  is  assigned  to  each.  All 
the  exact  measures  and  other  notes  on  each  criminal  are 
written  on  the  same  card,  and  this  card  is  stored  in  its 
appropriate  pigeon-hole.  The  contents  of  each  pigeon- 
hole are  themselves  sub-sorted  on  the  same  principle  of 
three-fold  classification  in  respect  to  other  measures. 
This  process  can,  of  course,  be  extended  indefinitely,  but 
how  far  it  admits  of  being  carried  on  advantageously  is 
another  question.  The  fault  of  all  hard-and-fast  lines  of 
classification,  when  variability  is  continuous,  is  the  doubt 
where  to  find  values  that  are  near  the  limits  between  two 
adjacent   classes.     Let  us  take   the  case  of  stature,  for 


f- 

2^^ 

SCALE 

OF 

d,^ 

(J3^ 

INCHES 

1 
1 

1 
1 

1 

C-l     C     C-2 


e-i  E  e-2 


B 


Fig.  4. 


illustration  of  what  must  occur  in  every  case,  represent- 
ing its  distribution  by  what  I  have  called  a  "  scheme,"  as 
shown  in  Fig.  4. 

Here  the  statures  of  any  large  group  of  persons  are 
represented  by  lines  of  proportionate  length.  The  lines 
are  arranged  side  by  side  at  equal  distances  apart  on  a 
base,  A  B,  of  convenient  length.  A  curve  drawn  through 
their  tops  gives  the  upper  boundary  of  the  scheme  ;  the 
lines  themselves  are  then  wiped  out,  having  served  their 
purpose.  If  the  base  A  B  be  divided  into  three  equal 
parts,  and  perpendiculars,  c  D,  E  f,  be  erected  at  the 
divisions  between  them,  reaching  from  the  base  up  to  the 
curve,  then  the  lengths  of  those  perpendiculars  are  pro- 
portionate to  the  limiting  values  between  the  small  and 
the  medium  group,  and  the  medium  and  the  large  group, 
respectively.  The  difference  between  these  perpendiculars 
in  the  case  of  stature  is  about  2*3  inches.  In  other 
words,  the  shortest  and  tallest  men  in  the  medium  class 
differonly  by  that  amount.  We  have  next  to  consider  how 
much  ought  reasonably  to  be  allowed  for  error  of  measure- 
ment. Considering  that  a  man  differs  in  height  by  a  full 
third  of  an  inch  between  the  time. of  getting  up  in  the  morn- 
ing and  lying    down    at   night  ;    considering   also   that 


measures  are  recorded  to  the  nearest  tenth  of  an  inch 
at  the  closest,  also  the  many  uncertainties  connected 
with  the  measurement  of  stature,  it  would  be  rash  not  to 
allow  for  a  possible  error  of  at  least  ±  half  an  inch. 
Prolong  C  D,  and  note  the  points  upon  it  at  the  distance 
of  half  an  inch  above  and  below  D  ;  draw  horizontal  lines 
from  those  points  to  meet  the  curve  at  d.i,  d.z,  and  from 
the  points  of  intersection  drop  perpendiculars  reaching 
the  base  at  c.\,c.i.  A  similar  figure  is  drawn  at  F.  Then 
the  ratio  borne  by  the  uncertain  entries  to  the  whole  num- 
ber of  entries  is  as  cxc2  +  exc.  to  ab.  This,  as  seen  by  the 
diagram,  is  a  very  serious  proportion.  There  is  a  dilemma 
which  those  who  adopt  hard  and-fast  lines  of  classifica- 
tion cannot  avoid  :  either  the  fringe  of  uncertainty  is 
dangerously  wide,  or  else  the  delicacy  with  which 
measures  are  made  is  not  turned  to  anything  like  its  full 
account.  If  the  delicacy  is  small,  the  fringe  of  uncer- 
tainty must  be  very  wide  ;  if  the  delicacy  is  great,  the 
fringe  will  be  narrow  ;  but  then  the  other  advantages  of 
possessing  delicate  observations  are  wasted  through  em- 
ploying only  a  few  classes.  The  bodily  measurements 
are  so  dependent  on  one  another  that  we  cannot  afford 
to  neglect  small  distinctions.  Thus  long  feet  and  long 
middle-fingers  usually  go  together.  We  therefore  want 
to  know  whether  the  long  feet  in  some  particular  person 
are  accompanied  by  particularly  long,  or  moderately  long, 
or  relatively  short  fingers,  though  the  fingers  may  in  the 
two  last  cases  be  long  as  compared  with  those  of  the 
general  population,  and  will  be  treated  as  long  in  M. 
Bertillon's  system  of  classes.  Certainly  his  eighty- one 
combinations  are  far  from  being  equally  probable.  The 
more  numerous  the  measures  the  greater  would  be  their 
interdependence,  and  the  more  unequal  would  be  the 
distribution  of  cases  among  the  various  possible  combina- 
tions of  large,  small,  and  medium  values.  No  attempt 
has  yet  been  made  to  estimate  the  degree  of  their  inter- 
dependence. I  am  therefore  having  the  above  measure- 
ments (with  slight  necessary  variation)  recorded  at  my 
anthropometric  laboratory  for  the  purpose  of  doing  so. 
This  laboraiory,  I  may  add,  is  now  open  to  public  use 
under  reasonable  restrictions.  It  is  entered  from  the 
Science  Collections  in  the  Western  Galleries  at  South 
Kensington. 

Mechanical Selector. — Feeling  the  advantage  of  possess- 
ing a  method  of  classification  that  did  not  proceed  upon 
hard-and-fast  lines,  I  contrived  an  apparatus  that  is  quite 
independent  of  them,  and  which  I  call  a  mechanical 
selector.  Its  object  is  to  find  which  set  out  of  a  standard 
collection  of  many  sets  of  measures,  resembles  any  one 
given  set  within  specified  degrees  of  unlikeness.  No  one 
measure  in  any  of  the  sets  selected  by  the  instrument  can 
differ  from  the  corresponding  measure  in  the  given  set,  by 
more  than  a  specified  value.  The  apparatus  is  very 
simple,  it  applies  to  sets  of  measures  of  every  description, 
and  ought  to  act  on  a  large  scale  with  great  rapidity,  and 
as  well  as  it  does  on  a  small  one,  testing  several  hundred 
sets  by  each  movement.  It  relieves  the  eye  and  brain 
from  the  intolerable  strain  of  tediously  comparing  a  set 
of  many  measures  with  each  successive  set  of  a  large 
series,  in  doing  which  a  mental  allowance  has  to  be  made 
for  a  plus  or  minus  deviation  of  a  specified  amount  in 
every  entry.  It  is  not  my  business  to  look  after  prisoners, 
and  I  do  not  fully  know  what  need  may  really  exist  for  new 
methods  of  quickly  identifying  suspected  persons.  If 
there  be  any  real  need,  I  should  think  that  this  apparatus, 
which  is  contrived  for  other  purposes,  might,  after 
obvious  modifications,  supply  it. 

The  apparatus  consists  of  a  large  number  of  strips  of 
card  or  metal,  c\,  ci  (Fig.  5),  say  8  or  9  inches  long,  and 
having  a  common  axis,  A,  passing  through  all  their  smaller 
ends.  A  tilting-frame,  T,  which  turns  on  the  same  axis,  has  a 
front  cross-bar,  F,  on  which  the  tips  of  the  larger  ends  of  all 
the  cards  rest  whenever  the  machine  is  left  alone.  In 
this  condition  a  counterpoise  at  the  other  end  of  T  suffices 


176 


NATURE 


{June  2i,  1888 


to  overcome  the  weight  of  all  the  cards,  and  this  heavy  end 
of  T  lies  on  the  base-board  S.  When  the  heavy  end  of  T  is 
lifted,  as  in  Fig.  5,  its  front-bar  is  of  course  depressed,  and 
the  cards  being  individually  acted  on  by  their  own  weights 
are  free  to  descend  with  the  cross-bar  unless  they  are  other- 
wise prevented.  The  lower  edge  of  each  card  is  variously 
notched  to  indicate  the  measures  of  the  person  it  repre- 
sents. Only  four  notches  are  shown  in  the  figure,  but  six 
could  easily  be  employed  in  a  card  of  eight  or  nine 
inches  long,  allowing  compartments  of  1  inch  in  length,  to 
each  of  six  different  measures.  The  position  of  the  notch 
in  the  compartment  allotted  to  it,  indicates  the  correspond- 


ing measure  according  to  a  suitable  scale.  When  the 
notch  is  in  the  middle  of  a  compartment,  it  means  that 
the  measure  is  of  mediocre  amount  ;  when  at  one  end  of 
it,  the  measure  is  of  some  specified  large  value  or  of  any 
other  value  above  that  ;  when  at  the  other  end,  the 
measure  is  of  some  specified  small  value  or  of  any  other 
value  below  it.  Intermediate  positions  represent  inter- 
mediate values  according  to  the  scale.  Each  of  the 
cards  corresponds  to  one  of  the  sets  of  measures  in 
the  standard  collection.  The  set  of  measures  of  the 
given  person  are  indicated  by  the  positions  of  parallel 
strings  or  wires,  one  for  each  measure,  that  are  stretched 


Fig.  5. — Section  of  the  apparatus,  but  the  bridge  and  rod  are  not  shown,  only  the  section  of  the  wires. 


K      ,j 


Fig.  6a. 

Plan  and  section  of  the  key -board  k. 


Fig.  7. — Reduced  plan  of  complete  apparatus. 


Explanation:— a,  the  common  axis  ;  ci,  C2,  the  cards  ;  t,  tilting-frame,  turning  on  A  (the  cards  rest  by  their  front  ends  on  F,  the  front  cross-bar  of  T, 
at  the  time  when  the  heavy  hinder  end  of  T  rests  on  the  base-board  s) ;  K,  key-board,  in  which  R,  R  are  the  rods  between  which  the  wires  stretch  ; 
b,  b,  are  the  bridges  over  which  the  wires  pass. 


across  bridges  at  either  end  of  a  long  board  set  cross- 
ways  to  the  cards.  Their  positions  on  the  bridges  are 
adjusted  by  the  same  scale  as  that  by  which  the  notches 
were  cut  in  the  cards.  Figs.  6a  and  6b  are  views  of  this 
portion  of  the  apparatus,  which  acts  as  a  key,  and  is  of 
about  30  inches  in  effective  length.  The  whole  is  shown 
in  working  position  in  Fig.  7.  When  the  key  is  slid  into 
its  place,  and  the  heavy  end  of  the  tilting-frame  T  is 
raised,  all  the  cards  are  free  to  descend  so  far  as  the 
tilting-frame  is  concerned,  but  they  are  checked  by  one 
or  more  of  the  wires  from  descending  below  a  particular 
level,  except  those  few,  if  any,  whose  notches  correspond 


throughout  to  the  positions  of  the  underlying  wires.  This 
is  the  case  with  the  card  ci,  drawn  with  a  dotted  outline, 
but  not  with  c\,  which  rests  upon  the  third  wire,  counting 
from  the  axis.  As  the  wires  have  to  sustain  the  weight  of 
all  or  nearly  all  the  cards,  frequent  narrow  bridges  must 
be  interposed  between  the  main  bridges  to  sustain  the 
wires  from  point  to  point.  The  cards  should  be  divided  into 
batches  by  partitions  corresponding  to  these  interposed 
bridges,  else  they  may  press  sideways  with  enough  friction 
to  interfere  with  their  free  independent  action.  Neither 
these  interposed  bridges  nor  the  partitions  are  drawn  in 
the  figure.    The  method  of  adjusting  the  wires  there  shown 


June  21,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


is  simply  by  sliding  the  rings  to  which  they  are  attached 
at  either  end,  along  the  rod  which  passes  through  them. 
It  is  easy  to  arrange  a  more  delicate  method  of  effecting 
this  if  desired.  Hitherto  I  have  snipped  out  the  notches 
in  the  cards  with  a  cutter  made  on  the  same  principle 
as  that  used  by  railway  guards  in  marking  the  tickets 
of  travellers.  The  width  of  the  notch  is  greater  than 
the  width  of  the  wire  by  an  amount  proportionate  to  the 
allowance  intended  to  be  made  for  error  of  measurement, 
and  also  for  that  due  to  mechanical  misfit.  There  is 
room  for  500  cards  or  metal  strips  to  be  arranged  in 
sufficiently  loose  order  within  the  width  of  30  inches, 
and  a  key  of  that  effective  length  would  test  all  these  by 
a  single  movement.  It  could  also  be  applied  in  quick 
succession  to  any  number  of  other  collections  of  500 
in  each. 

Measurement  of  Profiles. — The  sharp  outline  of  a 
photograph  in  profile  admits  of  more  easy  and  precise 
measurement  than  the  yielding  outline  of  the  face 
itself.  The  measurable  differences  between  the  profiles 
of  different  persons  are  small,  but  they  are  much  more 
numerous  than  might  have  been  expected,  and  they  are 
more  independent  of  one  another  than  those  of  the 
limbs.  I  suspect  that  measures  of  the  profile  may 
be  nearly  as  trustworthy  as  those  of  the  limbs  for  ap- 
proximate identification — that  is,  for  excluding  a  very  large 
proportion  of  persons  from  the  possibility  of  being  mis- 
taken for  the  one  whose  measurements  are  given.  The 
measurement  of  a  profile  enables  us  to  use  a  me- 
chanical selector  for  finding  those  in  a  large  standard 
collection  to  which  they  nearly  correspond.  From  the 
selection  thus  made  the  eye  could  easily  make  a  further 
selection  of  those  that  suited  best  in  other  respects.  A 
mechanical  selector  also  enables  us  to  quickly  build  up 
a  standard  collection  step  by  step,  by  telling  us  whether 
or  no  each  fresh  set  of  measures  falls  within  the  limits 
of  any  of  those  already  collected.  If  it  does,  we  know 
that  it  is  already  provided  for  ;  if  not,  a  new  card  must  be 
added  to  the  collection.  There  will  be  no  fear  of  duplica- 
tions, as  every  freshly-added  standard  will  differ  from  all 
its  predecessors  by  more  than  the  specified  range  of 
permitted  differences.  After  numerous  trials  of  different 
methods  for  comparing  portraits  successively  by  the  eye, 
I  have  found  none  so  handy  and  generally  efficient  as  a 
double-image  prism,  which  I  largely  used  in  my  earlier 
attempts  in  making  composite  portraits.  As  regards  the 
roost  convenient  measurements  to  be  applied  to  a  profile 
or  use  with  the  selector,  I  am  unable  as  yet  to  speak 
lecidedly.  If  we  are  dealing  merely  with  a  black 
silhouette,  such  as  the  shadow  cast  on  a  wall  by  a  small 
>r  brilliant  light,  the  best  line  from  which  to  measure 
ftems  to  be  B  c  in  Fig.  8  ;  namely,  that  which  touches 
both  the  concavity  of  the  notch  between  the  brow  and 
nose,  and  the  convexity  of  the  chin.  I  have  taken  a  con- 
siderable number  of  measures  from  the  line  that  touches 
the  brow  and  chin,  but  am  now  inclined  to  prefer  the 
former  line.  A  sharp  unit  of  measurement  is  given  by 
the  distance  between  the  above  line  and  another  drawn 
parallel  to  it  just  touching  the  nose,  as  at  N  in  the  figure. 
A  small  uncertainty  in  the  direction  of  p  c  has  but  a  very 
trifling  effect  on  this  distance.  By  dividing  the  interval 
>etween  these  parallel  lines  into  four  parts,  and  drawing 
a  line  through  the  third  of  the  divisions,  parallel  to  B  c, 
we  obtain  the  two  important  points  of  reference,  M  and  R. 
M  is  a  particularly  well-defined  point,  from  which  o  is 
determined  by  dropping  a  perpendicular  from  M  upon  B  c. 
0  seems  the  best  of  all  points  from  which  to  measure.  It  is 
xcellently  placed  for  defining  the  shape  and  position  of  the 
notch  between  the  nose  and  the  upper  lip,  which  is  perhaps 
r.he  most  distinctive  feature  in  the  profile.  O  L  can  be  deter- 
mined with  some  precision  ;  o  B  and  O  C  are  but  coarse 
neasurements.  In  addition  to  these  and  other  obvious 
neasures,  such  as  one  or  more  to  define  the  projection  of 
he  lips,  it  would  be  well  to  measure  the  radius  of  the  circle  of 


curvature  of  the  depression  at  B,  also  of  that  between  the 
nose  and  the  lip,  for  they  are  both  very  variable  and  very 
distinctive.  So  is  the  general  slope  of  the  base  of  the  nose. 
The  difficulty  lies  not  in  selecting  a  few  measures  that  will 
go  far  towards  negatively  identifying  a  face,  but  in  selecting 
the  best— namely,  those  that  can  be  most  precisely  deter- 
mined, are  most  independent  of  each  other,  most  variable, 
and  most  expressive  of  the  general  form  of  the  profile.  I 
have  tried  many  different  sets,  and  found  all  to  be  more  or 
less  efficient,  but  have  not  yet  decided  to  my  own  satis- 
faction which  to  adopt. 

A  closer  definition  of  a  profile  or  other  curve,  can  be 
based  upon  the  standard  to  which  it  is  referred.  Short 
cross-lines  may  be  drawn  at  critical  positions  between 
the  two  outlines  of  the  standard,  and  be  each  divided 
into  eight  equal  parts.  The  intersection  of  the  cross- 
lines  with  the  outer  border  would  always  count  as  o,  that 
with  the  inner  border  as  8,  and  the  intermediate  divisions 
would  count  from  1  to  7.  As  the  cross-lines  are  very 
short,  a  single  numeral  would  thus  define  the  position  of 
a  point  in  any  one  of  them,  with  perhaps  as  much  pre- 
cision as  the  naked  eye  could  utilize.     By  employing  as 


N   M  0 


Fig.  8. 

many  figures  as  there  are  cross-lines  in  the  standard,  each 
successive  figure  for  each  successive  cross-line,  a  corre- 
sponding number  of  points  in  the  profile  would  be  accu- 
rately fixed.  Suppose  a  total  of  nine  figures  to  be  given, 
together  with  a  standard  collection  of  under  a  thousand 
doubly  outlined  portraits,  each  with  six  cross-lines.  The 
first  three  figures  would  specify  the  catalogue  number  of 
the  portrait  to  be  referred  to, -and  the  remaining  six 
figures  would  determine  with  much  accuracy,  six  points 
in  the  outline  of  the  portrait  that  it  is  desired  to  describe. 

I  have  not  succeeded  in  contriving  an  instrument  that 
shall  directly  compare  a  given  profile  with  those  in  a 
standard  collection,  and  which  shall  at  the  same  time  act 
with  anything  like  the  simplicity  of  the  above,  and  with 
the  same  quick  decision  in  acceptance  or  rejection. 
Still,  I  recognize  some  waste  of  opportunity  in  not 
utilizing  the  power  of  varying  the  depths  of  the  notches 
in  the  cards,  independently  of  their  longitudinal  position. 

I  shall  have  next  to  speak  of  other  data  that  may 
serve  for  personal  identification,  and  especially  on  the 
marks  left  by  blackened  finger-tips  upon  paper. 

(To  be  continued.) 


SOAP-BUBBLES. 

SOAP-BUBBLES  fill  the  same  happy  position  as  do 
those  charming  books  in  which  Lewis  Carroll  de- 
scribes the  adventures  of  Alice,  in  that  they  serve  equally 
to  delight  the  young  and  to  attract  the  old.  Clerk- 
Maxwell  has  mentioned  the  fact  that  on  an  Etruscan 
vase  in  the  Louvre  are  seen  the  figures  of  children 
amusing  themselves  with  bubbles,  while  to-day  the  same 
subject  is  being  forced   on  the  attention  of  the    world 


i78 


NATURE 


[June  21,  1888 


by  a  strange  development  of  modern  enterprise.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  bubble  has  occupied  the  minds 
of  scientific  men  of  all  times.  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  Sir 
David  Brewster,  and  Faraday,  not  to  mention  many 
others,  devoted  themselves  to  the  soap-bubble  as  a  means 
for  investigating  the  subtleties  of  light.  Plateau  a  few 
years  ago  delighted  men  of  science  with  that  wonderful 
book  in  which  he,  a  blind  man,  expounded,  in  the  clearest 
and  most  elegant  manner,  the  result  of  years  of  labour  on 
this  one  subject.  Lately,  Profs.  Reinold  and  Riicker 
have  employed  the  soap-film  in  investigations  which 
tend  to  throw  more  light  on  the  molecular  constitution  of 
bodies.  These  experiments  will  be  remembered  by  all 
who  saw  them  as  being  no  less  beautiful  than  instructive. 
The  latest  experiments  with  bubbles,  which  were  shown 
by  Mr.  C.  V.  Boys  to  the  Physical  Society  and  at  the 
Royal  Society  conversazione,  and  of  which  a  full  account 
is  to  be  found  in  the  May  number  of  the  Philosophical 
Magazine,  depend  upon  no  property  which  is  not  well 
known,  and,  unlik  e  those  referred  to  above,  are  not  intended 
to  increase  our  scientific  knowledge  ;  and  yet  no  one  would 
have  ventured  to  predict  that  bubbles  would  submit  to  the 
treatment  described  in  the  paper,  or  would  have  expected 
such  simple  means  to  produce  such  beautiful  results. 

The  first  property  of  the  soap-film  turned  to  account 
is  that  strange  reluctance  of  two  bubbles  to  touch  one 
another.  Just  as  a  bubble  may  be  danced  on  the  sleeve 
of  a  serge  coat,  or  even  embraced,  without  wetting  the 
sleeve  or  being  broken,  so  can  two  bubbles  be  pressed 
together  until  they  are  materially  deformed  without 
really  touching  one  another  at  all.  Cne  bubble  may  be 
blown  inside  another,  and  if  the  heavy  drops  which 
accumulate  at  the  bottom  are  removed,  the  inner  one  may 
be  detached  and  rolled  about  within  the  outer  one  ;  or  the 
outer  one,  held  by  two  moistened  rings  of  wire  (Fig.   1), 


Fig.  i.  Fig.  2. 

may  be  pulled  out  so  as  to  squeeze  the  inner  one  into  an 
oval  form  (Fig.  2),  or  may  even  be  swung  round  and 
round,  and  yet  the  inner  one  remains  free  and  independent, 
and  when  the  outer  is  broken  it  floats  gently  away.  If 
the  inner  one  is  coloured  with  the  fluorescent  material 
uranine,  it  shines  with  a  green  light,  while  the  outer  one 
remains  clear  as  at  first,  showing  that  there  is  no  mixture 
and  no  contact. 

When  the  inner  bubble  is  blown  with  coal  gas,  it  rests, 
against  the  upper  side  of  the  outer  one  (Fig.  3),  pulling  it 


Fig.  3. 


Fig. 


Fig.  5. 


more  and  more  out  of  shape  as  its  size  increases  (Fig.  4). 
It  can  even  be  made  to  tear  the  outer  one  off  the  ring  to 
which  it  was  attached,  after  which  the  two  bubbles  rise  in 
the  air  one  inside  the  other.  The  outer  bubble  may  be 
held  by  a  light  ring  of  thin  wire  to  which  thread  and  paper 
are  attached,  and  then  when  an  inner  bubble  of  coal  gas  is 
blown,  it  will  carry  up  the  outer  bubble,  ring,paper, and  all ; 
and  yet,  in  spite  of  this  weight  pressing  them  together,  the 


inner  bubble  refuses  to  touch  the  outer  one.  If  a  little  gas 
is  let  into  the  outer  of  two  bubbles,  the  inner  one  will 
remain  suspended  like  Mahomet's  coffin  (Fig.  5). 

Diffusion  of  gas  through  a  soap-film  is  shown  by 
lowering  a  bell-jar  of  coal-gas  over  a  bubble  in  which  a 
second  one  is  floating  (Fig.  6).  By  degrees  the  gas  pene- 
trates the  outer  bubble,  until  the  inner  one,  insufficiently 
buoyed  up,  gently  sinks  down. 

The  heavy  and  inflammable  vapour  of  ether  is  made 
use  of  to  show  the  rapidity  with  which  the  vapour 
of  a  liquid  which  will  mix  with  the  soap  solution 
will  penetrate  through  the  walls  of  a  bubble.     A  large 


Fig.  6. 


Fig. 


inverted  bell-jar  has  some  ether  poured  into  it,  after  which) 
bubbles  blown  with  air  in  the  usual  way  may  be  dropped! 
into  the  jar,  when  they  will  float  upon  the  vapour.  They  arc; 
then  taken  out  and  carried  to  a  flame,  when  a  blaze  oi 
light  shows  that  the  inflammable  vapour  has  penetrated) 
through  the  film.  A  bubble  blown  at  the  end  of  a  widei 
tube  and  lowered  into  the  vapour  hangs  like  a  heavy 
drop  when  removed  ;  and  if  held  in  the  beam  of  an  electrici 
light  the  vapour  is  seen  oozing  through  the  film  andfallingl 
away  in  a  heavy   stream,  while   a   light  applied  to  the! 


Fig.  8. 

mouth  of  the  tube  fires  the  issuing  inflammable  vapour. 
and  a  large  flame  like  that  of  a  bunsen  burner  is  the 
result  (Fig.  7). 

A  variety  of  experiments  are  described  in  which  bubbles 
are  rolled  along  troughs  made  of  soap-film — either  straight 
circular,or  spiral — the  prominent  feature  being  that  bubbles 
will  roll  upon  or  within  one  another  as  if  they  were  made 
of  india-rubber ;  they  will  even,where  apparently  in  contact 
take  up  the  vibrations  of  a  tuning-fork,  and  this  will  no; 
force  them  to  touch.  There  is  one  influence,  however 
which  they  cannot  resist,  and  that  is  electrification.  Wher  1 
two  bubbles  which  are  resting  against  one  another  (Fig.  8) 
provided  that  one  is  not  within  the  other,  are  exposed  tc 
the  influence  of  an  even  feebly  electrified  body,  they  in- ; 


June  21,  1888] 


NA1URE 


179 


stantly  coalesce  and  become  one  (Fig.  9),  and  so  act  as 
a  delicate  electroscope.  When  one  bubble  is  within  the 
other,  the  outer  one  may  be  pulled  out  of  shape  by 
electrical  action,  and  yet  the  inner  one  is  perfectly  screened 
from  the  electrical  influence,  thus  showing  in  a  striking 
manner  that  there  is  no  electrical  force  within  a  conductor 
not  even  as  near  the  surface  as  one  side  of  a  soap-film  is 
near  the  other  ;  for  though  the  force  outside  is  so  great 
that  the  bubble  is  deformed,  yet  the  fact  that  the  inner 
one  remains  separate  shows  that  the  force  within  is  too 
small  to  be  detected.  One  of  the  experiments  described 
shows  at  the  same  time  the  difference  between  the 
behaviour  of  two  bubbles,  one  blown  inside  a  third,  and 
the  other  brought  to  rest  against  the  third  from  the  out- 
side.    Under  these  conditions,  if  electricity  is  produced 


Fig. 


Fig.  10. 


in  the  neighbourhood,  the  two  outer  bubbles  become  one, 
and  the  inner  one,  unharmed,  rolls  down  and  rests  at  the 
bottom  of  the  now  enlarged  outer  bubble  (Fig.  10). 

One  experiment  is  described  in  which  a  cylindrical 
bubble  is  blown  with  oxygen  gas  between  the  poles  of  an 
electro-magnet.  If  the  length  is  properly  adjusted,  the 
bubble  breads  into  two  directly  the  exciting  current  is 
turned  on,  though  the  force  due  to  the  magnetic  nature 
of  oxygen  is  so  feeble  that  not  the  slightest  change  of 
shape  can  be  detected  in  a  spherical  bubble  under  the 
same  conditions. 

For  other  experiments  and  for  details,  readers  are 
referred  to  the  original  paper  in  the  Philosophical 
Magazine,  the  editor  of  which  has  kindly  allowed  us  to 
reproduce  the  illustrations  used  in  this  article. 


THE  PARIS  OBSERVA  TORY. 

THE  Annual  Report  of  the  Paris  Observatory,  which 
has  recently  appeared,  draws  special  attention  to 
the  two  events  which  have  rendered  the  past  year 
memorable,  not  merely  in  the  history  of  the  Observatory, 
but  in  that  of  astronomical  science  as  a  whole.  The  first 
of  these  was,  of  course,  the  meeting  at  Paris  of  the  Inter- 
national Congress  for  the  execution  of  the  photographic 
chart  of  the  heavens,  and  Admiral  Mouchez  gives  the 
names  of  the  members  of  the  Congress,  and  the  resolu- 
tions adopted  by  them.  Of  the  Permanent  Committee 
appointed  by  the  Congress,  Admiral  Mouchez  is  himself 
the  President,  and  he  has  already  issued  the  first  number 
of  the  Bulletin  ale  la  Carte  du  Ciel,  future  numbers  of 
which  will  be  brought  out  by  the  Committee  as  occasion 
may  require.  Twelve  Observatories,  including  that  of 
Paris,  had  definitely  pledged  themselves  to  join  in  the 
scheme,  and  five  or  six  more  expected  to  be  able  to  do  so 
shortly,  so  that  there  should  be  no  difficulty  in  completing 
the  chart  within  three  or  four  years.  The  International 
Exhibition  to  be  held  at  Paris  next  year  would  furnish  a 
good  opportunity  for  the  reassembling  of  the  Permanent 
Committee  in  order  that  the  final  decisions  relating  to 
the  carrying  out  of  this  great  scheme  might  be  formed. 

The  other  great  event  was  the  publication  of  the  first 
two  volumes  of  the  great  Paris  Catalogue,  the  revision  of 
the  Catalogue  of  Lalande.  This  last  work,  which  has 
already  been  referred  to  in  Nature  (vol.  xxxvii.  p.  569), 
was  commenced  in  1855,  but  owing  to  many  unfavourable 
circumstances  has  only  been  pushed  forward  vigorously 


during  the  last  ten  years,  and  now  is  all  but  completed. 
As  the  stars  which  still  require  observation  have  become 
fewer  and  more  scattered,  it  has  been  found  no  longer 
necessary  to  devote  more  than  one  instrument  to  the 
work  ;  the  great  meridian  instrument  has  therefore  been 
set  apart  for  this  work,  and  for  the  observation  of  minor 
planets  and  comparison  stars,  whilst  the  other  meridian 
instruments  have  been  left  free  for  the  careful  study  of 
the  places  of  fundamental  stars  and  for  special  researches. 
The  "  garden  "  circle  has  accordingly  been  used  for  the 
observation  of  circumpolars  after  M.  Loewy's  plan,  and 
the  Gambey  mural  circle  by  M.  Perigaud  for  the  re- 
determination of  the  latitude  of  the  Observatory.  The 
value  found  for  this  latter  by  a  series  of  consecutive 
observations  of  Polaris  at  upper  and  lower  transit  is 
480  50'  i2''"o,but  Admiral  Mouchez  considers  that  despite 
the  care  and  skill  of  M.  Perigaud  this  determination  falls 
short  of  the  desired  accuracy  on  account  of  the  uncer- 
tainty of  the  corrections  for  refraction.  This  is  partly 
due  to  the  observations  having  all  been  made  during 
midsummer,  but  chiefly  to  the  bad  position  of  the 
Observatory  at  the  extreme  south  of  Paris,  the  observa- 
tions of  Polaris  therefore  being  made  with  the  telescope 
pointed  over  the  entire  breadth  of  the  city.  It  is  hoped 
that  the  great  Eiffel  tower  may  render  assistance  to  the 
study  of  refraction  by  affording  much  information  as  to 
inversions  of  the  usual  law  of  the  variation  of  temperature 
with  the  height.  The  above  value  for  the  latitude  still 
remains  to  be  corrected  for  flexure  of  the  instrument,  and 
M.  Perigaud  is  now  undertaking  the  study  of  this  error. 
The  total  number  of  meridian  observations  obtained 
during  the  year  was  16,318,  the  highest  monthly  number 
having  been  secured  in  February,  a  most  unusual  circum- 
stance. The  observations  of  sun,  moon,  and  planets 
amounted  to  545. 

The  observations  with  the  equatorials  have  been  of  the 
usual  kind.  M.  Bigourdan  has  made  400  measures  of 
nebulae  with  that  of  the  West  Tower  ;  and  M.  Obrecht, 
with  the  equatorial  coude',  has  made  720  measures  of 
lunar  craters  referred  to  different  points  of  the  limb,  in 
order  to  secure  a  better  determination  of  the  form  of  our 
satellite.  But  a  yet  more  important  work  with  this  latter 
instrument  has  been  the  thorough  examination  of  its 
theory  by  MM.  Lcewy  and  Puiseux.  In  view  of  the  success 
of  the  Paris  telescope,  of  the  number  of  similar  instru- 
ments now  under  construction,  and  of  the  still  wider 
popularity  which  the  same  form  will  probably  have  in 
the  future,  this  was  a  work  much  to  be  desired. 

The  results,  however,  achieved  in  the  field  of  astro- 
nomical photography  are  those  in  which,  in  view  of  the 
proposed  chart,  the  greatest  interest  will  be  felt  just 
now,  and  here  the  MM.  Henry  have  further  evidences 
of  progress  to  present.  Saturn  and  the  moon  have  been 
photographed  with  a  direct  enlargement  of  20  diameters. 
The  phases  of  the  lunar  eclipse  of  August  3  have  been 
recorded  by  the  same  means.  With  the  smaller  photo- 
graphic instrument,  aperture  4"3  inches,  negatives 
have  been  obtained,  one  of  which  showed  more  than 
30,000  stars  on  the  single  plate.  Several  curious  new 
nebulas  have  been  discovered,  one  1°  in  length  near 
C  Orionis  ;  but  the  most  remarkable  have  been  those  in 
the  Pleiades.  Two  plates  of  this  group,  each  with  an 
exposure  of  four  hours,  have  not  only  added  much  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  nebulae  round  Electra,  Merope,  Maia, 
and  Alcyone,  these  no  longer  appearing  as  mere  faint 
clouds,  but  as  well-marked  nebulosities  of  intricate  and 
complicated  forms,  but  two  new  nebulas  are  shown,  both 
very  narrow  and  straight,  the  longer  one  being  some  40' 
in  length  and  but  2"  or  3"  in  breadth,  and  threading 
together  as  it  were  no  fewer  than  seven  stars.  The  plate 
representing  this  photograph  of  the  Pleiades,  which  is 
attached  to  the  Report,  shows  2326  stars,  and  comprises 
stars  of  the  18th  magnitude,  instead  of  the  1421  stars 
contained  in  the  earlier  photograph.     MM.  Henry  have 


i8o 


NATURE 


\7 


une  21,  i 


been  likewise  engaged  in  the  study  of  the  new  instrument 
they  have  devised  for  the  measurement  of  the  stellar 
photographs,  and  in  the  preparation  of  tables  of  instru- 
mental corrections,  and  of  corrections  for  the  effect  of 
refraction  ;  whilst  M.  Thiele  has  been  inquiring  into  the 
degree  of  accuracy  of  which  the  measures  are  capable, 
with  most  encouraging  results,  and  Admiral  Mouchez 
considers  that  the  precision  thus  attainable  "will  permit 
the  carrying  out  under  good  conditions  of  the  Catalogue 
of  all  the  stars  down  to  the  nth  magnitude  as  decided 
by  the  Congress."  It  should  be  noted,  however,  that 
this  interpretation  of  the  resolution  of  the  Congress 
has  been  challenged,  and  it  has  been  urged  that  the 
Catalogue  to  be  formed  was  to  contain  simply  as  many 
suitably  placed  stars  as  would  be  necessary  as  reference 
points  for  the  great  photographic  chart,  and  that  stars 
down  to  the  nth  magnitude  might  be  used  for  this 
purpose. 

As  to  the  publications  of  the  Observatory,  the  first 
volume  of  the  Catalogue,  ch.-6h.  of  R.A.,  is  shortly  to  be 
followed  by  the  second,  6h.-i2h.,  the  first  sheets  of  which 
were  already  in  the  printers'  hands.  The  volume  of 
Observations  for  1882  was  published  last  August,  that  for 
1883  was  passing  through  the  press,  whilst  the  reduction 
of  apparent  to  mean  places  was  completely  finished  for 
1884.  The  nineteenth  volume  of  the  Memoirs  was  in  course 
of  publication,  and  would  contain,  besides  the  works 
mentioned  in  the  Report  for  1886,  a  memoir  on  the  theory 
of  the  figure  of  the  planets,  by  M.  Callandreau,  and 
another  on  an  allied  subject,  by  M.  Hamy.  Amongst  the 
works  published  by  the  individual  members  of  the 
Observatory,  the  most  important  have  been  M.  Lcewy's 
new  method  for  the  determination  of  the  constant  of 
aberration,  and  a  work  by  M.  Wolf,  on  the  pendulum.  M. 
Leveau  is  still  engaged  in  his  work  upon  Vesta,  and  M. 
Bossert  is  preparing  for  the  determination  of  a  definitive 
orbit  of  the  Pons-Brooks  comet.  Under  the  head  of 
"  Mate'riel "  the  progress  of  the  new  equatorial  coude  of 
2  feet  aperture  and  60  feet  focal  length  is  referred  to.  Its 
completion  is  expected  during  the  present  year,  but  the 
building  for  it  has  not  yet  been  begun. 

The  chief  exception  to  the  record  of  progress  which 
Admiral  Mouchez's  Report  supplies  is  found  in  the  short 
paragraph  which  records  the  closing  of  the  astronomical 
school,  on  financial  grounds.  The  necessity  for  this  step 
is  to  be  most  deeply  regretted. 


THE  PHOTOGRAPHIC  CHART  OF  THE 
HE  A  VENS. 

\X7E  lately  reprinted  from  the  Observatory  (N  AT\jRE,May 
*  *  10,  p.  38)  an  article  by  the  editors  of  that  periodical 
on  Dr.  Gill's  proposal  that  two  million  stars  should  be 
catalogued.  The  following  is  the  reply  of  the  editors, 
printed  in  the  June  number  of  the  Observatory,  to  letters 
addressed  to  them  on  the  subject  by  Admiral  Mouchez 
and  Mr.  E.  B.  Knobel  :— 

We  print  above  letters  from  Admiral  Mouchez  and 
from  Mr.  Knobel,  concerning  the  remarks  we  made  last 
month  on  Dr.  Gill's  proposition  to  catalogue  2,000,000 
stars.  There  is  a  somewhat  personal  implication  in  both 
letters,  to  which  we  must  at  once  reply  before  proceeding 
to  treat  of  the  real  question  at  issue — a  suggestion  that 
we  have  been  so  emphatic  in  our  disapproval  of  the 
scheme  as  to  be  discourteous  to  its  supporters.  We  may 
perhaps  venture  to  doubt  whether  either  writer  has  done 
us  the  honour  to  read  our  remarks  carefully  enough. 
Admiral  Mouchez  "  nous  trouve  bien  severe  pour  un 
projet  aussi  bien  etudie'  et  venant  d'un  savant  aussi  habile 
et  competent  que  le  Directeur  de  l'Observatoire  du  Cap." 
We  have  not  said  a  single  word  in  disparagement  of  the 
skill  and  care  with  which  Dr.  Gill's  paper  has  been 
written  ;  we  have  vehemently  objected  to  the  question 


being  raised  at  all  ;  and  that  we  have  objected  so  vehe- 
mently may  be  taken  as  a  full  recognition  of  Dr.  Gill's 
prominent  position,  which  makes  it  a  matter  of  necessity 
to  bring  all  our  forces  to  bear  against  a  scheme  which  ho 
chooses  to  advance.  Mr.  Knobel  is  perhaps  more  unjust 
to  us.  We  have  not  in  an  unqualified  manner  character- 
ized a  catalogue  of  2.000,000  stars  as  "  an  utter  waste  of 
time,  labour,  and  money  "  ;  but  we  did  use  even  stronger 
language  about  cataloguing  stars  "  for  the  purpose  only  of 
getting  their  places  written  down,"  in  order  to  call 
attention  to  the  reductio  ad  absurdum  of  cataloguing 
towards  which  we  very  much  fear  there  is  some  apparent 
tendency.  And,  finally,  if  we  have  been  so  emphatic  as 
to  be  accused  of  exaggeration,  let  us  again  point  out  that 
a  scheme,  which  we  contend  has  not  been  assented  to  or 
even  considered  by  the  members  of  the  Astrophotographic 
Conference,  has  been  quietly  launched,  and  is  now  so  far 
under  way  that  it  is  referred  to  by  the  President  in  the 
opening  sentence  of  his  letter  as  a  matter  already  accepted 
by  the  "  Comite"  permanent,"  and  as  only  remaining  to  be 
discussed  in  detail.  Surely  it  is  time  for  those  who  have 
the  welfare  of  the  scheme  really  sanctioned  by  the 
Conference  to  raise  their  voices  loudly  in  protest! 

So  much  in  explanation  of  the  tone  we  have  adopted  in 
speaking  of  this  proposal,  and  we  now  return  to  the 
letters.  The  main  point  of  both  is  that  this  scheme  of  a 
catalogue  of  2,000,000  stars  has  not  been  originated  by 
Dr.  Gill,  but  was  really  considered  and  approved  by  the 
Conference.  As  we  have  stated  above,  we  hold  the 
opposite  opinion, — that  although  two  resolutions  of  the 
Conference  do  mention  a  catalogue,  this  term  cannot  be 
supposed  to  sanction  a  catalogue  of  2,000,000  stars  with- 
out further  specification.  The  Conference  met  to  discuss 
the  advisability  of  making  a  chart.  With  the  invitations 
sent  out  to  the  various  astronomers  to  attend  this  Confer- 
ence there  was  sent  a  "  programme  provisoire  "  (which,  it 
is  to  be  very  much  regretted,  was  not  that  considered  by 
the  Congress).  This  first  "programme  provisoire"  was 
dropped,  and  at  the  first  seance  of  the  Congress  another 
was  produced.  In  the  first,  in  article  19  a  catalogue  of 
reference  stars  was  mentioned,  and  properly  so,  but  in  the 
second  there  was  no  mention  of  any  such  catalogue. 
Mention  was  made  in  section  4  of  a  means  of  publishing 
the  chart  and  the  form  of  publication,  but  up  to  this 
time  there  was  absolutely  no  question  before  the  Confer- 
ence of  publication  of  a  catalogue  either  of  2,000,000 
or  any  other  number  of  stars.  There  was  no  doubt  a 
feeling  amongst  some  astronomers  present  that  a  catalogue 
would  be  as  useful,  in  their  judgment,  as  the  chart ;  and 
they  took  the  opportunity  of  putting  forward  their  views 
when  the  question  of  a  second  series  of  plates  was  brought 
forward.  The  taking  of  this  second  series  of  plates  was 
proposed  to  meet  an  anticipated  difficulty  in  photographing 
parts  of  the  heavens  where  the  stars  differed  greatly  in 
magnitude.  It  was  decided  (Resolution  17)  that  a  second 
series  of  plates  should  be  taken,  in  order  to  insure  the 
greatest  precision  in  the  micrometrical  measurement  of 
the  stars  of  reference,  and  to  render  possible  the  con- 
struction of  a  catalogue.  Here  we  have  the  first  mention 
of  a  catalogue  in  the  resolutions  noted.  A  reference  to 
the  minutes  of  the  Congress  will  show  that  this  resolution 
was  a  compromise,  for  there  had  already  been  before  the 
Congress  a  direct  proposition  (that  of  M.  Tacchini)  for  a 
catalogue,  which,  however,  was  not  voted  upon.  The 
resolution  was  in  fact  an  endeavour  to  settle  a  question 
that  was  before  the  Congress,  viz.  whether  the  plates 
should  be  so  taken  as  to  be  capable  of  accurate  measure- 
ment ;  and  this  is  decided  by  the  specification  that  they 
shall  render  possible  the  construction  of  a  catalogue. 
The  next  two  resolutions  speak  of  the  second  series  of 
plates  as  destines  a  la  construction  du  catalogue,  but  no- 
where is  any  direct  resolution  to  be  found  as  to  the 
construction  of  a  catalogue  of  all  the  stars. 

If  these  resolutions  need  interpretation  by  the  light  of 


June  2i,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


i«i 


subsequent  consideration  at  all,  we  may  suggest  a  very 
different  direction  in  which  they  might  be  modified  in  actual 
fact,  and  in  which  their  spirit  would  yet  be  even  better 
represented  than  by  a  literal  fulfilment.  It  was  pointed 
out  that  in  taking  the  photographic  plates  of  stars  down 
to  the  14th  magnitude  in  parts  of  the  sky  where  brighter 
stars  existed,  these  with  the  exposure  necessary  to  obtain 
the  14th  magnitude  would  be  very  much  over-exposed. 
And  it  was  suggested  that  it  would  be  advisable  to  take  a 
second  series  of  plates,  as  already  mentioned  (see  Resolu- 
tion 17).  Now  in  some  parts  of  the  sky  no  second  series 
of  plates  are,  from  this  point  of  view,  at  all  necessary  ; 
whilst  in  others  not  one  or  two,  but  many  series  of  plates 
would  be  necessary  in  order  to  do  justice  to  the  various 
magnitudes  in  that  particular  part  of  the  sky.  For  the 
present  this  is  not  the  point  at  issue,  but  it  may  serve  as  an 
illustration  of  the  sort  of  interpretation  of  the  resolutions 
which  we  should  consider  legitimate. 

In  order  to  come  to  a  proper  judgment  on  the  legiti- 
macy of  the  derivation  of  Dr.  Gill's  proposal  from  the 
resolutions  it  is  necessary  to  make  some  statements,  which 
are  not  new,  but  of  which  the  true  significance  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  universally  appreciated  : — (1)  When 
the  plates  are  obtained  they  are  actual  representations  of 
the  stars  as  existing  at  a  given  time,  and  for  every  purpose 
except  spectrum  analysis  are  as  good,  if  not  better,  than 
the  visible  heavens.  If  with  these  plates  we  have  the 
absolute  places  of  a  certain  small  number  of  known  stars, 
we  have  then  all  the  data  to  make  them  valuable,  either 
in  the  present  or  in  the  future.  (2)  The  many  questions 
concerning  the  stars  which  it  is  hoped  a  photographic 
chart  of  the  heavens  would  do  a  great  deal  towards 
settling,  such  as  their  distribution,  their  proper  motions, 
their  changes  of  magnitude,  and  the  presence  of  minor 
planets,  of  new  stars  and  the  like,  can  all  be  best  treated 
by  a  direct  comparison  of  plate  with  plate,  in  any  of  the 
various  ways  in  which  this  can  be  done.  (3)  In  order  to 
obtain  the  best  results  from  such  an  agent  as  photography 
it  is  necessary  to  use  it  in  its  own  proper  way  ;  and 
astronomers  must  recollect  that  old  methods  of  procedure 
adapted  to  other  instrumental  means  may  most  probably 
be  out  of  place.  We  might  considerably  enlarge  on  these 
statements,  but  for  our  present  purpose  it  is  sufficient  to 
call  attention  to  them. 

Now,  if  Dr.  Gill's  catalogue  were  successfully  con- 
structed— and  there  are,  alas  !  many  difficulties  in  the 
way — its  utility  in  the  direction  of  comparison  of  our  sky 
with  that  of  the  future  is  wholly  limited  by  one  condition, 
that  in  the  future  another  exactly  similar  catalogue  be 
constructed,  occupying  a  similar  time.  Even  then,  if  any 
changes  were  found  by  means  of  this  comparison  of 
catalogues  which  might  very  well  be  made  in  the  course 
of  fifty  or  one  hundred  years,  the  natural  and  indeed  the 
proper  thing  to  do  would  be  to  immediately  compare  the 
original  plates.  But  can  it  be  possible  that  any  man  or 
number  of  men  really  think  of  dealing  with  such  a  subject 
in  such  a  way  ?  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  object  of  a 
catalogue  be  merely  to  allow  of  comets,  minor  planets, 
and  other  bodies  being  located,  surely  it  would  be  better 
to  measure  the  plates  as  occasion  arises,  and  not  to  cata- 
logue 2,000,000  stars  on  the  off-chance  of  having  some 
twenty  or  thirty  positions  to  settle  in  the  course  of  a  year. 
And,  further,  such  a  catalogue  would  have  this  enormous 
disadvantage,  that  whilst  in  some  parts  of  the  sky  stars 
of  the  nth  magnitude  would  be  fairly  well  spread,  in 
the  Milky  Way  we  should  have  stars  clustered  in  such 
enormous  quantities  that  it  would  be  an  extremely  difficult 
thing  to  even  identify  them  :  in  fact,  speaking  roundly, 
we  should  say  that  if  such  a  catalogue  were  made,  two- 
thirds  of  the  stars  catalogued  would  lie  in  the  Milky  Way. 
If,  contrary  to  the  opinion  we  have  expressed,  it  is 
decided  to  form  a  very  large  catalogue,  surely  it  would  be 
better  to  determine  the  places  of  a  certain  number  of  stars, 
of  such  magnitudes  as  are  found  available,  in  each  square 


degree,  and  make  these  the  reference  stars  from  which 
the  positions  of  the  other  stars  on  the  plate  could  be 
obtained. 

We  are  therefore  of  opinion  that,  supposing  limitless 
time  and  money  available  for  such  a  purpose,  the  advant- 
ages of  constructing  this  catalogue  would  be  doubtful  ; 
but  even  if  we  waived  all  these  objections  and  agreed  that 
such  a  catalogue  would  be  a  "  nice  thing  to  have,"  or 
admitted  that  since  men  of  the  ability  and  reputation  of 
Admiral  Mouchez  and  Dr.  Gill  consider  such  a  catalogue 
necessary  it  is  heresy  to  inquire  the  why  and  wherefore, 
there  would  still  be  left  the  serious  objection  that  to  form  a 
chart  of  the  heavens  is  the  first  thing  to  do,  and,  take  it 
in  as  simple  a  form  as  possible,  it  will  quite  possibly  tax 
the  energies  of  astronomers  to  their  utmost ;  and  that 
stellar  photography  being  as  yet  in  its  infancy  it  is  suicidal 
to  attempt  anything  which  will  commit  us  to  a  course  of 
action  extending  over  more  than  a  very  few  years.  We 
could  not  give  a  better  illustration  of  the  dangers  of  the 
opposite  procedure  than  has  been  supplied  by  Admiral 
Mouchez  himself.  In  a  recent  article  he  has  suggested 
that  there  have  lately  been  such  improvements  in  the 
sensitiveness  of  plates  that  we  could  now  go  to  the  15th 
magnitude  instead  of  the  14th.  With  a  little  ingenuity 
and  less  arithmetic  it  could  easily  be  shown  that  the 
whole  plan  of  operations  would  have  become  hopelessly 
futile  and  obsolete  before  half  the  time  allowed  by  Dr. 
Gill  for  its  completion  had  elapsed. 

But  not  for  one  moment  do  we  wish  to  appear  lacking 
in  sympathy  with  those  who  have  spent  and  are  spending 
so  much  time  and  thought  on  this  subject  ;  it  is  our  great 
anxiety  for  the  success  of  the  work  in  which  they  are  co- 
operating which  makes  us  eager  to  protest  as  far  as  we 
can  against  the  grand  mistake  of  attempting  too  much. 


THE    INCURVATURE     OF    THE     WINDS    IN 
TROPICAL   CYCLONES. 

THE  question  of  the  incurvature  of  the  winds  in  tropical 
cyclones  is  one  of  such  importance  to  mariners,  to 
enable  them  to  judge  their  position  in  a  storm,  and  to 
escape  the  hurricane  around  the  central  calm,  that  no 
apology  is  needed  for  adding  my  independent  testimony 
to  that  of  Prof.  Loomis,  whose  conclusions,  given  at  length 
in  his  recent  well-known  memoir,  "  Contributions  to 
Meteorology,"  are  quoted  in  Mr.  Douglas  Archibald's 
paper  on  M.  Faye's  work  "  Sur  les  Tempetes "  in.  last 
week's  Nature  (p.  149). 

In  the  preparation  of  a  forthcoming  work  on  the  weather 
and  climates  of  India  and  the  storms  of  Indian  seas,  I  have 
lately  had  occasion  to  re-investigate  the  above  question 
in  the  case  of  cyclones  in  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  on  the 
evidence  afforded  by  the  numerous  original  memoirs  and 
reports  prepared  by  Messrs.  Willson,  Eliot,  Pedler,  and 
other  officers  of  the  Indian  and  Bengal  Meteorological 
Departments  ;  my  object  being  the  practical  one  of  de- 
termining directly  the  bearing  of  the  storm-centre  from  a 
ship's  position  ;  and  instead,  therefore,  of  measuring  the 
angle  between  the  wind  direction  and  the  nearest  isobar, 
as  was  done  by  Prof.  Loomis,  I  have  measured  with  a 
protractor  the  angle  included  between  the  former  and 
its  radius  vector,  in  all  cases  in  which  the  position 
of  the  storm's  centre  has  been  ascertained  on  sufficient 
evidence.  In  one  other  important  condition  I  have  also 
departed  from  the  method  pursued  by  Prof.  Loomis.  I 
have  restricted  the  measurements  to  wind  observations  of 
ships  at  sea,  within  the  influence  of  the  storm,  and  to 
those  of  good  observatories  on  the  coast,  subject  to  the 
same  proviso  ;  and  have  taken  no  account  of  those  of 
inland  observatories.  This  difference  of  procedure  is 
probably  the  reason  that  the  amount  of  the  incurvature 
shown  by  these  measurements  is  somewhat  different  from 


182 


NATURE 


\yune  21,  i 


that  obtained  by  Prof.  Loomis,  though  the  general  fact  of 
a  great  incurvature  is  thoroughly  confirmed.  My  results 
are  as  follow  : — 

(i)  The  mean  of  132  observations  between  lats.  15°  and 
220,  within  500  miles  of  the  storm-centre,  gives  the  angle 
J 220  between  the  wind  direction  and  its  radius  vector. 

(2)  The  mean  of  12  observations  between  the  same 
latitudes,  within  50  miles  of  the  storm-centre,  gives  the 
angle  1230. 

(3)  The  mean  of  63  observations  between  N.  lats.  8° 
and  1 5°,  within  500  miles  of  the  storm-centre,  gives  the 
angle  129°. 

The  observations  within  50  miles  of  the  storm-centre 
in  the  south  of  the  Bay  are  too  few  to  afford  any  trustworthy 
result. 

For  seamen's  guidance,  the  following  practical  rules 
may  be  formulated  : — 

(1)  In  the  north  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  standing  with 
the  back  to  the  wind,  the  centre  of  the  cyclone  bears 
about  five  points  on  the  left  hand,  or  three  points  before 
the  beam. 

(2)  In  the  south  of  the  Bay,  it  bears  about  four  points 
on  the  left  hand,  or  four  points  before  the  beam. 

(3)  These  rules  hold  good  for  all  positions  within  the 
influence  of  the  storm,  up  to  500  miles  from  the  storm- 
centre.  On  the  north  and  west  the  influence  of  the  storm 
rarely  extends  to  anything  like  this  distance,  but  it  does 
to  the  east  and  south. 

Since  much  of  this  evidence,  afforded  by  the  Bay  of 
Bengal  cyclones,  has  been  before  the  public  for  many 
years,  it  is  incomprehensible  to  me  how  a  man  of 
M.  Faye's  scientific  eminence  can  still  assert  that  in  the 
tropics  "  the  wind  arrows  display  an  almost  rigorous 
•circularity."  If,  as  may  possibly  be  the  case,  he  relies  on 
the  evidence  of  Mr.  Piddington's  memoirs,  ignoring  all 
subsequent  work,  it  is  only  necessary  to  examine  those 
memoirs  to  find  that  his  data  do  not  bear  out  that  author's 
conclusions.  In  the  charts  which  accompany  Mr.  Pid- 
dington's later  memoirs,  the  wind  observations  are,  as  a 
rule,  not  shown,  but  only  the  ships'  courses,  and  the 
author's  interpretation  of  the  positions  and  tracks  of  the 
storms.  But  the  evidence  is  always  fully  given  in  the 
text,  and  it  will  be  found  that  when  the  wind  arrows  are 
plotted  therefrom,  and  are  sufficiently  numerous  to  allow 
of  the  position  of  the  storm's  centre  being  determined, 
which  is  far  from  being  generally  the  case,  they  are  re- 
concilable only  with  spiral  courses,  having  a  considerable 
incurvature. 

I  do  not  propose  now  to  enter  on  a  formal  criticism  of 
Mr.  Piddington's  work,  the  great  merit  of  which,  as  that 
of  a  pioneer  in  the  field  of  storm-science,  no  one  more 
fully  recognizes  than  myself ;  but  so  much  seems  necessary 
in  explanation  of  the  apparent  glaring  discrepancy  between 
his  results  and  those  of  modern  workers  in  the  same  field. 

The  evidence  of  the  cyclones  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal, 
those  tropical  cyclones  to  which  M.  Faye  appeals  as 
authoritative  on  the  validity  of  his  views,  is,  then,  conclu- 
sive against  him.  There  is  a  strong  influx  of  the  lower 
atmospheric  strata  into  a  tropical  cyclone,  proving,  in  the 
most  unquestionable  manner,  the  existence  of  an  ascend- 
ing current  over  the  vortex  This  fact  is  quite  indepen- 
dent of  any  views  that  may  be  entertained  as  to  any  theory 
of  cyclone  origin  and  movement  of  translation,  but  any 
such  theory  must  harmonize  with  the  fact,  and  hence 
I  conceive  that  it  is  fatal  to  M.  Faye's  views.  With 
these,  in  so  far  as  they  are  theoretical  merely,  I 
have  no  present  concern,  but  it  is  obviously  a  matter  of 
high  importance  to  seamen  that  they  should  not  be  misled 
as  to  the  facts  of  the  wind's  movement  in  cyclones,  and  it 
is  because  the  promulgation  of  such  views  as  M.  Faye's 
tends  to  perpetuate  an  old  and  now  exploded  error  of  fact, 
that  I  have  to  put  in  my  protest  against  them. 

Henry  F.  Blanford. 

Folkestone,  June  15. 


NOTES. 

It  should  have  been  stated  in  our  paragraph  last  week  relative 
to  the  opening  of  the  Laboratory  of  the  Marine  Biological 
Association  at  Plymouth  that  the  President,  Prof.  Huxley,  who 
has  given  unremitting  care  to  the  affairs  of  the  Association  during 
the  last  three  years,  would  be  present  if  he  were  not  pre- 
vented from  taking  part  in  any  public  proceedings  by  the  state 
of  his  health.  In  the  absence  of  the  President,  one  of  the  Vice- 
Presidents  of  the  Association,  Prof.  Flower,  will  preside.  The 
Honorary  Secretary,  Prof.  Ray  Lankester,  who  founded  the 
Association,  and  has  conducted  its  affairs  to  the  present  issue, 
will  also  be  present. 

Mr.  J.  J.  H.  Teall,  who  now  holds  a  foremost  place  among 
the  petrographers  of  this  country,  has  just  been  appointed  to  the 
Geological  Survey.  We  understand  that  he  will  be  specially 
charged  with  the  study  of  the  crystalline  schists  and  the  problems 
of  regional  metamorphism,  and  that  he  will  be  closely  associated 
with  the  field  officers  who  are  mapping  these  rocks  in  different 
parts  of  Scotland.  The  Survey  is  to  be  heartily  congratulated 
on  this  appointment.  The  staff  is  now  remarkably  strong,  but 
the  problems  with  which  it  is  confronted  are  among  the  most 
difficult  in  geology.  These  problems  have  never  been  attacked 
by  such  a  united  force  of  field  geologists  and  microscopists,  who, 
working  together  with  one  common  aim,  will  no  doubt  raise  still 
higher  the  scientific  reputation  of  the  Survey,' increase  our  know- 
ledge of  the  history  of  the  most  ancient  rocks,  and  throw  light  on 
some  of  the  most  puzzling  questions  in  geological  science. 

The  electors  to  the  Mastership  of  Downing  College,  Cam- 
bridge, have,  by  a  unanimous  vote,  chosen  Dr.  Alexander  Hill, 
Fellow  of  the  College,  to  succeed  Prof.  Birkbeck.  Dr.  Hill's 
claim  to  the  appointment  sprang  from  his  success  as  a  teacher 
and  worker  in  biology.  No  appointment  to  a  Headship  has 
been  made  on  this  ground  alone  since  the  revival  of  natural 
science  at  the  Universities. 

On  the  4th  inst.,  Dr.  Maxwell  T.  Masters  was  elected  a  cor- 
responding member  of  the  Institute  of  France,  in  the  Botanical 
Section,  in  place  of  the  late  Prof.  Asa  Gray.  Besides  Dr. 
Masters,  the  following  names  appeared  on  the  list  of  presenta- 
tion :  M.  Treub,  of  Batavia  ;  Mr.  Triana,  of  Paris  ;  M.  Warm- 
ing, of  Lund  ;  M.  Wiesener,  of  Vienna.  Dr.  Masters  obtained 
39  votes  ;  M.  Triana,  5  ;  M.  Treub,  1. 

The  Sorbonne,  consulted  as  to  the  proposed  creation  "of  a 
Chair  for  the  teaching  of  Darwinian  theories,  has  not  expressed 
disapproval  of  the  scheme  suggested  by  the  Municipal  Council 
of  Paris.  It  has  appointed  a  committee  to  report  on  the 
matter  ;  and  it  is  expected  that  no  serious  opposition  will  be 
offered  to  the  proposal. 

We  are  glad  to  learn  that  a  pension  of  ^50  has  been  granted 
to  Mrs.  Balfour  Stewart  from  the  Civil  List. 

On  May  25,  a  complimentary  dinner  was  given  at  the 
Queen's  Hotel,  Manchester,  to  Prof.  Schorlemmer,  of  the 
Owens  College,  by  his  former  pupils,  to  celebrate  the  occasion 
of  the  conferring  of  LL.D.  upon  him  by  the  Senate  of  the 
Glasgow  University,  and  to  offer  their  congratulations.  In  the 
absence  of  Sir  Henry  Roscoe,  who  had  been  expected  to  take 
the  chair,  Mr.  R.  S.  Dale,  one  of  Prof.  Schorlemmer's 
eldest  pupils  and  friends,  presided.  Numerous  congratulatory 
telegrams  and  letters  were  received  by  Dr.  Schorlemmer,  and 
early  in  the  evening  a  letter  was  read  from  Sir  Henry  Roscoe, 
expressing  regret  that  he  could  not  be  present,  and  testifying  to 
his  high  appreciation  of  the  ability  of  his  old  friend  and  colleague. 
Among  those  from  whom  congratulatory  telegrams  were  received 
were  Dr.  Pauli,  Director  of  the  firm  of  Meister,  Lucius,  and 
Bruning,  in  Hoechst  ;  Prof.  Bernthsen,  of  the  Badische 
Anilin  und  Sodafabrik,  in  Ludwigshafen  ;  and  Prof.  Hermann 
Kopp,    of  Heidelberg,    the  historian  of  chemistry,  who  spoke 


Jane  21,  1888] 


NATURE 


183 


of  Prof.  Schorlemmer's  position  as  one  of  the  principal 
pioneers  of  the  science  of  organic  chemistry  and  one  of  its  fore- 
most exponents,  both  as  a  teacher  and  a  writer.  Prof.  Thorpe, 
F.R.S.,  proposed  the  health,  long  life,  and  prosperity  of  Dr. 
Schorlemmer,  and  referred  to  the  fact  that  Glasgow,  which  had 
conferred  honour  on  him,  had  produced  such  men  as  Black  and 
Thomson,  names  familiar  to  all  chemists. 

Dr.  Asa  Gray  left  Harvard  College  in  trust,  to  aid  in  the 
support  of  the  Gray  Herbarium  of  Harvard  University,  the 
copyrights  of  all  his  books,  upon  condition  that  proper  provision 
should  be  made  for  the  renewal  and  extension  of  these  copy- 
rights by  new  editions,  continuations,  and  supplements,  such  as 
might  be  needed  in  the  study  of  botany,  and  as  might  best 
enhance  and  prolong  the  pecuniary  value  of  the  bequest. 

Prof.  Lovering  has  resigned  the  Chair  of  Mathematics  and 
Natural  Philosophy  which  he  has  held  at  Harvard  for  fifty  years. 
In  accepting  his  resignation,  which  takes  effect  in  the  autumn,  the 
President  and  Fellows  of  the  College  have  expressed  warm 
appreciation  of  his  services.  Prof.  Lovering  has  been  President 
of  the  American  Association,  and  still  presides  over  the  American 
Academy. 

Prof.  McNab,  Swiney  Lecturer  on  Geology  in  connection 
with  the  British  Museum,  wiil  begin  a  course  of  twelve  lectures 
on  the  fossil  plants  of  the  Palaeozoic  epoch  on  Monday  next,  at 
the  Natural  History  Museum,  Cromwell  Road. 

Last  night  the  conversazione  of  the  Society  of  Arts  took  place 
at  the  South  Kensington  Museum. 

A  conversazione  will  be  given  by  the  Royal  College  of  Sur- 
geons, at  the  College,  on  Wednesday,  June  27  ;  and  by  the 
Royal  Geographical  Society,  at  Willis's  Rooms,  on  Friday, 
June  29. 

Ax  International  Horticultural  Exhibition  is  to  be  held  at 
Cologne  from  August  4  to  September  19. 

We  have  received  from  Messrs.  West,  Newman,  and  Co., 
samples  of  two  kinds  of  botanical  drying  paper.  One  of  the 
kinds  differs  but  little  from  tbat  which  they  have  supplied  for 
many  years,  which  was  originally  manufactured,  purposely  for 
drying  plants,  by  a  paper-maker  of  the  name  of  Bentall,  who 
lived  at  Halstead  in  Essex,  and  contributed,  a  generation  ago,  to 
the  distributions  of  the  London  Botanical  Society.  This  paper 
has  been  largely  used  for  the  last  thirty  years,  and  combines  in  a 
very  satisfactory  manner  the  merits  of  a  high  degree  of  absorb- 
ence  with  a  reasonable  toughness.  No  doubt,  for  drying  plants, 
it  is  the  best  paper  that  can  be  got,  but  yet,  excepting;  gra-ses, 
Cyperaceae,  and  mosses,  one  or  more  changes  are  required  in  the 
first  few  days  to  make  satisfactory  specimens  in  a  climate  like 
that  of  England.  'I  he  new  paper  is  quite  without  glaze,  and 
seems  a  little  more  absorbent  than  the  old  "Bentall."  The 
other  kind  is  copied  from  an  American  model,  a  paper  not  made 
expressly  for  botanical  use,  sent  to  England  by  the  late  Dr.  Asa 
Gray.  It  is  twice  as  thick  as  the  "Bentall,"  much  more  rigid, 
and  very  absorbent ;  a  serviceable  paper  to  mix  with  the  lighter 
kind  for  home  use,  but  too  heavy  to  carry  about  in  large 
quantities. 

According  to  La  Nature,  an  immense  terrestrial  globe,  con- 
structed on  the  scale  of  one- millionth,  will  be  shown  at  the  Paris 
Exhibition  of  1889.  A  place  will  be  set  apart  for  it  at  the  centre 
of  the  Champ  de  Mars.  The  globe  will  measure  nearly  13 
metres  in  diameter,  and  will  give  some  idea  of  real  dimensions, 
since  the  conception  of  the  meaning  of  a  million  is  not  beyond 
the  powers  of  the  human  mind.  Visitors  to  the  Exhibition  will 
see  for  the  first  time  on  this  globe  the  place  really  occupied  by 
certain  known  spaces,  such  as  those  of  great  towns.  Paris,  for 
instance,  will  barely  cover  a  square  centimetre.     The  globe  will 


turn  on  its  axis,  and  thus  represent  the  movement  of  rota- 
tion of  the  earth.  The  scheme  was  originated  by  MM.  T. 
Villard  and  C.  Cotard,  and  La  Nature  says  that  it  has  been 
placed  under  the  patronage  of  several  eminent  French  men  of 
science. 

We  have  received  a  sample  of  tobacco  grown  by  Messrs. 
James  Carter  and  Co.,  at  a  farm  in  Kent,  and  cured  by  Messrs. 
Cope  Brothers  and  Co.  It  represents  one  of  the  first  experi- 
mental crops  brought  to  maturity,  and  passed  through  the  various 
processes  of  manufacture,  in  this  country,  since  the  time  of 
Charles  II.  The  packet  is  accompanied  by  a  card,  on  which 
we  find  the  somewhat  discouraging  counsel:  "Examine 
leisurely— use  warily — smoke  sparingly."  Mr.  Goschen  was 
asked  1  he  other  evening  in  the  House  of  Commons  whether  he 
would  cause  an  inquiry  by  experts  into  the  results  attending  the 
experiment  made  by  Messrs.  Cope,  with  the  view,  if  possible,  of 
relaxing  the  fiscal  restrictions  upon  the  culture  of  tobacco  in 
Great  Britain.  The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  cautiously 
replied  that  "  only  experience  would  show  the  value  to  smokers 
of  this  tobacco,  and  no  inquiry  by  experts  would  be  so  valuable 
as  that  practical  test.  If  any  hon.  member  wished  to  try  it, 
samples  would  be  placed  in  the  smoking-room.  It  was  impos- 
sible to  give  any  form  of  relaxation  in  the  fiscal  regulations 
which  would  injure  the  revenue." 

.  According  to  the  Kavkaz  newspaper,  a  shock  of  earthquake 
was  felt  at  Julfa,  in  the  Armenian  province  of  Erivan,  on  May 
15,  about  midday.  The  first  shock  was  followed  by  a  stronger 
one,  which  lasted  for  about  three  seconds,  and  seemed  to  have  a 
direction  from  east  to  west. 

The  Council  of  the  Italian  Meteorological  Society  held  its 
first  annual  meeting  at  Turin  on  Sunday,  April  15,  under  the 
presidency  of  Padre  Denza.  It  was  decided  to  hold  the  third 
general  assembly  of  the  Society  at  Venice,  in  September  next, 
just  before  or  after  the  Congress  of  the  Alpine  Club  at  Bologna. 
The  establishment  by  the  Society  of  a  new  Observatory  in  the 
Argentine  Republic  was  notified,  and  also  of  four  new  meteoro- 
logical stations  in  Italy.  The  arrangements  being  made  with 
respect  to  the  hygienic  stations  at  five  large  cities  were  explained, 
as  well  as  the  proposed  method  of  publication  of  the  observa- 
tions. The  President  submitted  the  Report  of  the  Geodynamic 
Committee,  nominated  at  the  meeting  at  Aquila  (Nature, 
vol.  xxxvi.  p.  614),  with  reference  to  seismological  observations 
and  the  protection  of  buildings.  The  Report,  which  is  printed 
in  the  monthly  Bulletin  of  the  Italian  Meteorological  Society  for 
May,  consists  of  nine  articles,  and  will  be  distributed  to  the 
Prefects  and  Mayors  of  districts  liable  to  earthquake-shocks 

The  Hydrographer  of  the  Admiralty  has  issued  notices  of  the 
recent  establishment  of  the  following  storm-signals  : — (1)  By 
the  Japanese  Government,  at  forty-seven  stations  on  the  coasts 
of  Japan.  A  red  ball,  or  one  red  light,  to  indicate  that  strong 
winds  are  probable  from  any  direction.  A  red  cone,  or  three 
red  lights  in  the  shape  of  a  triangle,  to  indicate  that  strong  winds 
are  probable,  at  first  from  the  northward  or  southward,  according 
as  the  apex  is  upwards  or  downwards.  (2)  By  the  harbour 
authorities  at  Chittagong,  relative  to  the  signals  at  that  port. 
A  ball,  or  three  lights  placed  vertically,  to  indicate  that  a 
severe  cyclone  is  near  Akyab,  and  will  probably  advance 
towards  Chittagong.  A  drum,  or  two  lights  placed  vertically, 
to  indicate  the  early  approach  of  a  severe  cyclone,  with  its- 
attendant  storm-wave.  We  take  this  opportunity  of  suggest- 
ing the  desirability  of  introducing  more  uniformity  in  these 
signals  in  different  countries,  wherever  practicable. 

The  atomic  weight  of  the  element  osmium  has  been  re-deter- 
mined by  Prof.  Seubert.  The  necessity  for  this  re-determination 
has  been  felt  ever  since  the  principle  of  periodicity  began  to  take 


1 84 


NA  TURE 


{June  21,  1888 


firm  root  in  the  minds  of  chemists  ;  and  the  more  recent  values 
arrived  at  for  the  atomic  weights  of  iridium,  platinum,  and  gold 
have  tended  to  render  this  necessity  even  more  imperative.  The 
natural  sequence,  according  to  their  chemical  and  physical  pro- 
perties, of  the  metals  of  the  platinum  group  is  generally  accepted 
as — osmium,  iridium,  platinum,  gold.  Now  the  atomic  weight 
of  iridium  as  determined  in  1878  by  Seubert  is  192-5,  that  of 
platinum  as  fixed  by  the  same  chemist  in  1881  is  194 '3,  and  that 
of  gold  as  estimated  last  year  by  Thorpe  and  Laurie,  and  by 
Kriiss,  is  1967,  while  the  recognized  atomic  weight  of  osmium 
as  given  by  Berzelius  in  1828  is  so  high  as  198  *6.  Obviously,  if 
the  grand  conception  of  Newlands,  Mendelejeff,  and  Lothar 
Meyer  is  correct,  the  atomic  value  of  osmium  required  most 
careful  revision.  Such  an  undertaking,  however,  is  endowed 
with  peculiar  interest  owing  to  the  dangerous  nature  of  work 
with  the  osmium  compounds,  and  many  chemists  who  have  been 
interested  in  this  subject  have  been  deterred  by  the  knowledge 
that  accidental  contact  with  the  fum  es  of  the  tetroxide,  which 
are  so  frequently  evolved  by  the  spontaneous  decomposition  of 
many  osmium  compounds,  might  deprive  them  of  the  use  of  their 
eyes  for  ever.  Prof.  Seubert  has  happily  succeeded  without  acci- 
dent in  establishing  the  validity  of  our  "natural  classification  "  by 
means  of  the  analysis  of  the  pure  double  chlorides  of  osmium  with 
ammonium  and  potassium,  (NH4)2OsCl6  and  K20sCl6.  Both 
these  salts  were  obtained  in  well-formed  octahedral  crystals,  of 
deep  red  colour  while  immersed  in  their  solutions,  but  appearing 
deep  black  with  a  bluish  reflection  when  dry,  and  yielding  bright 
red  powders  on  pulverization.  The  method  of  analysis  consisted 
in  reducing  the  double  chlorides  in  a  current  of  hydrogen  :  in 
case  of  the  ammonium  salt  the  spongy  osmium  which  remained 
after  reduction  was  weighed,  and  the  expelled  ammonium 
chloride  and  hydrochloric  acid  caught  in  absorption  apparatus, 
and  the  total  chlorine  estimated  by  precipitation  with  silver 
nitrate.  In  case  of  the  potassium  salt  the  expelled  hydrochloric 
acid  was  absor  bed  and  determined,  and  the  metallic  osmium  left 
after  removal  of  the  potassium  chloride  by  washing  was  weighed. 
The  mean  value  yielded  by  all  these  various  estimations  is  191  *i, 
thus  placing  osmium  in  its  proper  place  before  iridium,  and 
removing  the  last  striking  exception  to  the  "law  of  periodicity." 

At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  Washington  Society  of  Anthropo- 
logy, Mr.  H.  M.  Reynolds  read  a  paper  on  Algonquin  metal- 
smiths.  He  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  working  of  the 
copper-mines  of  Lake  Superior  is  not  of  such  high  antiquity  as 
has  been  supposed,  and  that  it  may  have  been  continued  until 
comparatively  modern  Indian  times. 

Some  time  ago  the  Smithsonian  Institution  issued  inquiries  as 
to  the  existence  and  geographical  distribution  of  "rude  and 
unfinished  implements  of  the  Palaeolithic  type."  The  American 
Naturalist  says  that  responses  have  been  received  from  thirty 
States  and  Territories.  The  implements  already  noted  amount 
to  between  six  and  seven  thousand,  and  their  distribution 
extends  nearly  all  over  the  United  States.  Several  hundreds  of 
implements — none  of  which  seem  to  have  been  found  in  the 
mounds— have  been  sent  to  the  Institution.  The  object  of  the 
Institution  in  undertaking  this  investigation  was  to  determine 
whether  there  was  in  America  a  Palaeolithic  Age,  and,  if  so, 
whether  it  had  any  extended  existence. 

The  Free  Public  Libraries  and  Museum  of  Sheffield  seem  to 
be  in  a  most  flourishing  condition.  According  to  the  last  Report, 
which  has  just  been  sent  to  us,  there  has  been  a  steady  increase 
in  the  number  of  books  issued.  The  number  issued  during  the 
year  ending  August  31,  1887,  was  410,395.  The  number  issued 
during  the  previous  year  was  399,653,  so  that  there  was  an 
increase  of  10,742. 

Messrs.  Longmans,  Green,  and  Co.  have  sent  us  a 
series  of  their  test  cards  in  mechanics,  packed  in  neat  little  card- 


board cases.  The  questions  on  the  many  and  various  branches 
of  the  subject  are  arranged  in  three  stages.  Each  stage  consists 
of  about  thirty  cards  with  six  questions  on  each,  and  is  supple- 
mented by  cards  containing  the  answers  to  all  the  numerical 
questions.  The  questions  are  excellently  chosen,  and  are 
arranged  in  an  intelligible  and  progressive  order. 

A  careful  and  very  valuable  bibliography  of  the  works  of  Sii 
Isaac  Newton,  with  a  list  of  books  illustrating  his  life  and  works, 
by  G.  J.  Gray,  has  just  been  issued  by  Messrs.  Macmillan  and 
BOwes,  Cambridge.  The  bibliography  is  divided  into  ten 
sections  :  (1)  collected  editions  of  works  ;  (2)  the  "  Principia"  ; 
(3/  "  Optics  "  ;  (4)  "  Fluxions  "  ;  (5)  "  Arithmetica  Universalis  "  ; 
(6)  minor  works ;  (7)  theological  and  miscellaneous  works ; 
(8)  works  edited  by  Newton  ;  (9)  memoirs,  &c.  ;  (10)  index. 

A  new  edition  of  the  late  Prof.  Humpidge's  translation  of 
Dr.  Hermann  Kolbe's  "  Short  Text-book  of  Inorganic  Chemis- 
try "  (Longmans)  has  been  issued.  The  greater  part  of  this 
edition  was  prepared  by  Dr.  Humpidge  last  summer.  Being 
unable,  owing  to  failing  health,  to  complete  the  task  of  revision, 
he  asked  Prof.  D.  E.  Jones,  of  the  University  College,  Aberyst- 
with,  to  undertake  it,  and  to  see  the  book  through  the 
press. 

A  Report,  with  admirable  illustrative  maps,  on  the  geology 
and  natural  resources  of  part  of  Northern  Alberta,  and  the 
western  parts  of  the  districts  of  Assiniboia  and  Saskatchewan, 
by  Mr.  J.  B.  Tyrrell,  Field  Geologist  of  the  Geological  Survey 
of  Canada,  has  just  beenj  published  at  Montreal.  The  Report 
is,  to  a  certain  degree,  preliminary,  but  the  author  hopes 
that,  for  the  present  at  all  events,  it  may  suffice  as  a  guide 
to  the  extent,  position,  and  character  of  the  mineral  wealth  of 
the  district. 

An  interesting  paper  by  Mr.  Tyrrell,  giving  an  account  of  the 
journeys  of  David  Thompson  in  North-Western  America,  has 
been  issued  at  Toronto.  It  was  read  lately  before  the  Canadian 
Institute,  and  is  published  in  advance  of  the  Proceedings  by 
permission  of  the  Council.  The  materials  for  this  narrative 
are  contained  in  Mr.  Thompson's  field  note-books  and  journals, 
which  are  preserved  in  the  office  of  the  Crown  Land  Depart- 
ment of  Ontario.  Mr.  Thompson  died  in  1857  at  the  age  of 
eighty-seven. 

Mr.  Leland  will  shortly  send  to  the  printer  his~work  on 
"Americanisms,"  which  will  follow  on  the  "Dictionary  of 
Slang,  Jargon,  and  Cant  "  now  in  the  press.  It  will  contain  much 
folk-lore  in  the  form  of  proverbs,  songs,  and  popular  phrases, 
and  also  the  etymology  and  history  of  the  words,  as  far  as  they 
could  be  traced.  The  work  will  include  an  account  of  American 
dialects,  such  as  Pennsylvanian  Dutch,  Chinook,  Creole,  and 
Gumbo.  A  number  of  American  scholars  will  deal  with  special 
subjects. 

We  have  received  a  copy  of  the  Toyo  Gakugei  Zasshi  (the 
Eastern  Science  Journal),  printed  in  Japanese  characters.  This 
magazine  is  published  monthly,  and  is  edited  by  a  committee, 
most  of  whose  members  are  Professors  of  the  Imperial  Uni- 
versity at  Tokio.  Nearly  3000  copies  of  each  number  are 
sold. 

The  first  part  of  the  second  volume  of  the  Journal  of  the 
College  of  Science,  Imperial  University,  Japan,  has  been  sent 
to  us.  The  contents  include,  besides  a  mathematical  paper,  in 
German,  by  Dr.  P.  R.  Fujisawa,  the  following  articles  in  Eng- 
lish :  on  the  composition  of  bird-lime,  by  Dr.  E.  Drivers, 
F.R.S.,  and  Michitada  Kawakita ;  on  anorthite  from  Miya- 
kejima,  by  Yasushi  Kikuchi ;  the  source  of  Bothriocephalus 
latus  in  Japan,  by  Dr.  Isao  Ijima ;  and  earthquake-measure- 
ments of  recent  years,  especially  relating  to  vertical  motion,  by 
S.  Sekiya. 


June  21,  1888] 


NATURE 


185 


Messrs.  D.  C.  Heath  and  Co.  (Boston)  will  publish  at 
once  Compayre's  "Lectures  on  Pedagogy:  Theoretical  and 
Practical,"  a  companion  volume  to  their  Compayre's  "  History 
of  Pedagogy."  It  is  translated  and  annotated  by  Prof.  Payne, 
of  the  University  of  Michigan. 

Prof.  J.  Violle  has  just  issued  the  first  part  of  the  second 
volume  of  his  "  Cours  de  Physique."  The  present  part  relates 
to  acoustics. 

We  reprint  from  Science  of  June  I,  1888,  the  following 
suggestive  paragraph  : — "The  Committee  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  on  acoustics  and  ventilation  has  actually 
reported  favourably  a  Bill  appropriating  seventy-five  thousand 
dollars  to  subsidize  a  man  who  thinks  he  can  construct  a  steel 
•  vacuum '  balloon  of  great  power.  He  is  to  be  allowed  to  use 
the  facilities  of  one  of  the  navy-yards  for  the  building  of  his 
machine,  and  is  to  have  the  money  as  soon  as  he  has  expended 
seventy-five  thousand  dollars  of  private  capital  upon  his  air-ship. 
One  of  the  mathematical  physicists  of  Washington  was  asked 
by  a  member  of  Congress  whether  such  a  balloon  could  be 
successfully  floated.  He  set  to  work  upon  the  problem,  and 
here  are  some  of  his  results,  which  are  rather  curious  : — A 
common  balloon  is  filled  with  hydrogen  gas,  which,  being  lighter 
than  air,  causes  the  balloon  to  rise  and  take  up  a  load  with  it. 
But,  as  the  pressure  of  the  gas  within  is  equal  to  the  pressure  of 
the  atmosphere  without,  no  provision  other  than  a  moderately 
strong  silk  bag  is  required  to  prevent  collapse.  The  inventor  of 
the  proposed  steel  balloon  hopes  to  gain  greater  lifting-power  by 
using  a  vacuum  instead  of  gas,  the  absence  of  substance  of  any 
kind  being  lighter  than  even  hydrogen'gas.  But  he  has  to  con- 
tend with  the  tendency  of  the  shell  to  collapse  from  the  enormous 
pressure  of  the  atmosphere  on  the  outside,  which  would  not  be 
counterbalanced  by  anything  inside  of  it.  The  first  question 
which  presented  itself  was,  How  thick  could  the  metal  of  the 
shell  be  made,  so  that  the  buoyancy  of  the  sphere,  which  would 
be  the  most  economical  and  the  strongest  form  in  which  it  could 
be  constructed,  would  just  float  it  without  lifting  any  load? 
The  computations  showed  that  the  thickness  of  the  metal  might 
be  "000055  of  the  radius  of  the  shell.  For  example  :  if  the 
spherical  shell  was  one  hundred  feet  in  diameter,  the  thickness 
of  the  metal  composing  it  could  not  be  more  than  than  one- 
thirtieth  of  an  inch,  provided  it  had  no  braces.  If  it  was 
thicker,  it  would  be  too  heavy  to  float.  Now,  if  it  had  no 
tendency  to  buckle,  which  of  course  it  would,  the  strength  of 
the  steel  would  have  to  be  equivalent  to  a  resistance  of  more 
than  130,000  pounds  to  a  square  inch  to  resist  absolute 
crushing  from  the  pressure  of  the  air  on  a  cross-section  of  the 
metal.  Steel  of  such  high  crushing-strength  is  not  ductile,  and 
cannot  be  made  into  such  a  shell.  If  the  balloon  is  to  be  braced 
inside,  as  the  inventor  suggests,  just  as  much  metal  as  would  be 
used  in  constructing  the  braces  would  have  to  be  subtracted  from 
the  thickness  of  that  composing  the  shell.  Of  course,  such  a 
shell  would  buckle  long  before  the  thickness  of  the  metal  of 
which  it  was  composed  was  reduced  to  •000055  of  its  radius.  In 
other  words,  it  is  mathematically  demonstrated  that  no  steel 
vacuum  balloon  could  be  constructed  which  could  raise  even  its 
own  weight.  This  is  an  illustration  of  how  intelligently  Congress 
would  be  likely  to  legislate  on  scientific  matters  unguided  by 
intelligent  scientific  advice." 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during 
the  past  week  include  two  Pig-tailed  Monkeys  (Macacus 
nemestrinus  i  9  )  from  Java,  presented  by  Mr.  C.  W.  Ellacott ; 
a  Bonnet  Monkey  {Macacus  sinicus  0.  )  from  India,  presented  by 
Mr.  J.  Wiltshire  ;  a  Pig-tailed  Monkey  (Macacus  nemestrinus) 
from  Java,  presented  by  Mrs.  Gleig  ;  two  Spotted  Cavys 
(Ccelogcnys  paca  6  $ )  from  South  America,  presented  by  Mr. 
W.  H.  Stather  ;  a  Mauge's   Dasyure  {Dasyurus  maugai)  from 


Australia,  presented  by  Mr.  H.  R.  Brame  ;  three  Abyssinian 
Sheep  (Ovis  aries,  var.)  from  Abyssinia,  presented  by  Mr.  A.  J. 
Baker;  two  Pallas's  Sand  Grouse  (Syrrhaptes  paradoxus)  from 
the  Island  of  Tiree,  Argyllshire,  presented  by  Lieut. -Colonel 
Irby  and  Captain  Savile  Reid,  F.Z.S.  ;  a  Wapiti  Deer  (Cervus 
canadensis  6  ),  born  in  the  Gardens. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

The  Constant  of  Aberration. — In  the  year  1862,  Prof. 
J.  S.  Hubbard  commenced  a  series  of  observations  of  o  Lyrae 
with  the  prime  vertical  instrument  of  the  Washington  Naval 
Observatory,  which  was  continued  by  either  Profs.  Newcomb, 
Harkness,  or  Hall  until  1867.  The  purpose  of  these  observa- 
tions had  been  to  obtain  corrections  to  the  assumed  values  of 
the  constants  of  nutation  and  aberration,  and  to  afford  an  abso- 
lute determination  of  the  annual  parallax  of  the  star.  The  series 
was  not  continued  for  a  sufficient  period  for  the  first  purpose  ; 
and  Prof.  Asaph  Hall,  when  engaged  on  the  determination  of 
the  parallax  of  o  Lyrae  by  another  method,  found  that  these 
observations  would  give  it  a  small  negative  value.  From  this 
and  other  circumstances  he  was  at  that  time  induced  to  think 
the  observations  would  not  repay  the  trouble  of  a  careful  dis- 
cussion ;  but  recently,  reflecting  that  they  had  been  skilfully 
designed,  and  carried  out  with  care,  he  resolved  to  ascertain  the 
result  they  would  furnish  for  the  constant  of  aberration.  The 
observations  commenced  1862  March  25,  and  extended  to  1867 
April  25,  and  were  436  in  number.  The  mean  resulting  value 
of  the  parallax  is — 

tt  —  -  o"-o79  ±  o#"oi34, 
whilst 

Constant  of  aberration  =  20" -4506  ±  o"x>i42, 

with   an  average   probable   error  for  a  single   observation  of 
±  o"-i74. 
Adopting  a  parallax  of  +  o'^lS,  the  result  would  be — 

Constant  of  aberration  =  20" '4542  ±  o"'OI44. 

Prof.  Hall  prefers  this  latter  result,  notwithstanding  the  un- 
certainty as  to  the  true  parallax  of  the  star.  The  negative 
result  obtained  for  the  parallax  may  probably  be  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  coefficient  of  parallax  obtains  its  extreme  values  in 
January  and  July,  when  the  mean  temperature  is  likewise  at  its 
extreme  points  ;  the  January  observations  also  are  made  in  day- 
light, but  the  July  at  night,  which  would  tend  to  produce  a 
systematic  difference  in  the  method  of  observing.  The  coefficient 
of  aberration,  on  the  other  hand,  has  its  greatest  values  in  April 
and  October,  when  the  conditions  of  observation  will  be  nearly 
the  same. 

The  above  value  of  the  constant   of  aberration  gives,  for  the 
solar  parallax — 

7r  =  8"  810  ±  o"-oo62, 

Hansen's  values  of  the  mean  anomaly  of  the  earth,  and  eccen- 
tricity of  its  orbit  being  assumed,  together  with  Clarke's  value 
for  the  equatorial  radius,  and  Michelson  and  Newcomb's  deter- 
mination of  the  velocity  of  light,  viz.  186,325  miles  per  second. 
The  Markings  on  Mars. — The  observations  of  M.  Perrotin 
at  Nice,  and  M.  Terby  at  Louvain,  and,  in  England,  of  Mr.  Den- 
ning at  Bristol,  have  confirmed  the  presence  on  the  planet  of  most 
of  the  "  canals  "  or  narrow  dark  lines  which  were  discovered 
by  M.  Schiaparelli  in  1877,  and  at  subsequent  oppositions.  M. 
Perrotin  has  also  been  able  to  detect,  in  several  cases,  the 
gemination  or  doubling  of  the  canals,  and  M.  Terby  has  ob- 
served the  same  phenomenon  in  one  or  two  cases,  but  with 
much  greater  difficulty  than  in  the  opposition  of  1881-82.  But 
some  curious  changes  of  appearance  have  been  noted.  An 
entire  district  (Schiaparelli's  Lybia)  has  been  merged  in  the 
adjoining  "sea,"z.*.  its  colour  has  changed  from  the  reddish 
hue  of  the  Martial  "  continents  "  to  the  sombre  tint  of  the  "  seas." 
The  district  in  question  is  larger  than  France.  To  the  north  of 
this  district  a  new  canal  has  become  visible,  and  again  another 
new  canal  has  appeared  to  traverse  the  white  North  Polar  cap, 
or,  according  to  M.  Terby,  to  divide  the  true  Polar  cap  from  a 
white  spot  of  similar  appearance  a  little  to  the  south  of  it.  With 
the  exception  of  these  changes,  the  principal  markings,  both 
light  and  dark,  are  those  which  former  oppositions  have  rendered 
familiar. 


i86 


NA  TURE 


\  J  line  21, 


June  23.. 

•  055  11 

25- 

•  057    1 

27.. 

0  58  42 

29.. 

1    0  16 

July      I.. 

1     1  42 

3- 

1    3    0 

5- 

1    4    9 

7- 

i    5    9 

9- 

1    6    1 

11.. 

1    644 

I*. 

1    7  18 

Log  r. 
..  0'2j6o  . 

Log  A. 

•  0-3129  . 

Bright- 
ness. 
.    0'042 

..  0-2887  . 

•  0-3I73  • 

•    OO39 

..  0-3009  . 

.  C32I2  . 

.    0-036 

■  •  0-3127 . 

•  0-3247  . 

•    0-033 

..  0-3241  . 

.  0-3278  . 

•    0-03I 

••  0-3352 . 

•  0-3306  . 

.   Q-029 

Comet  1888  a  (Sawerthal). — The  following  ephemeris  for 
Berlin  midnight  is  by  Herr  Berberich  (Astr.  Nack.,  No.  2838), 
from  elliptic  elements  which  he  has  found  for  it,  and  which 
closely  resemble  those  of  Prof.  Boss  given  in  Nature  of 
May  24  (p.  88)  :— 

1888.  R.A.  Decl. 

h.    m.    s.  o      / 

..  46  11-5  N. 
••  46  40'S 

..  47    8-9 

•  •  47  36-6 
-48  37 
..  48  3o-2 
..  48  56-0 
..  4921-2 
..  49  457 

•  •  50  9'<5 
..  50  32-8  N. 

The  brightness  at  discovery  is  taken  as  unit}'. 

The  Kazan  Observatory  has  celebrated  its  "Jubilee"  by 
publishing  an  interesting  report  about  its  activity  since  it  was 
founded  by  Littrow  fifty  years  ago.  The  mapping  of  the  stars 
between  750  and  80°,  which  was  begun  by  Prof.  Kovalsky,  was 
continued  and  extended  by  his  successor,  Prof.  Dubyago. 

The  Tashkend  Observatory  has  just  issued  the  second  volume 
of  its  "Works." 


ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA  FOR  THE 
WEEK  1888  JUNE  24-30. 

/"C*OR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
*  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  June  24 

Sunrises,  3I1.  46m.  ;  souths,  I2h.  2m.  137s.  ;  sets,  2oh.  19m.  : 
right  asc.  on  meridian,  6h.  I4'5m.  ;  decl.  230  25'  N. 
Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  14b.  33m. 

Moon  (Full,  June  23,  2ih.)  rises,  I9h.  57m.*  ;  souths,  oh.  9m.  ; 
sets,    4I1.  20m.  :  right  asc.  on  meridian,  i8h.  i9-6m. ;  decl. 


21°  5'  S. 


Right  asc. 

and  declination 

Planet. 

Rises. 

Souths. 

Sets. 

on 

neridian. 

h.    m. 

h.    m. 

h.     m. 

h.      m. 

Mercury. 

5  33 

..    13   25    . 

.    21    17    . 

•     7  37-2 

...    19  52  N. 

3  23 

..    II   41    . 

•  19  59  •• 

•     5  537 

...   23  36  N. 

Mars 

13  28 

..  18  53  •• 

.     0  18*  . 

•   13    6-5 

...     7  39  S. 

Jupiter. ... 

17     6 

..  21  29  .. 

.     1  52*.. 

•  15  42-7 

...   18  47  S. 

Saturn 

6  29 

..  14  19  •■ 

.22    9  .. 

•     8  31-3 

...   19  34  N. 

Uranus  ... 

12  56 

..  18  36  .. 

.     0  16*.. 

•   12  49-3 

...     4  35  S. 

Neptune.. 

1  59 

••     9  45  • 

17  31  .. 

•     3  569 

...   18  47  N. 

*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 


June. 
24 
28 


Comet  Sawerthal. 

Right  Ascension, 
h.     m. 

o  55-2 
•  •        o  587        . 


Declination. 
1 

46  12  N. 

47  9 


Ocatltations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 


June. 

24    .. 

28    .. 
June. 

25 

27 


Star. 


Mag. 


Disap. 


Reap. 


h.    m. 

22      6 

2    28 


h.     m. 
23    16 

2  59 


Corresponding 
angles  from  ver- 
tex to  right  for 
inverted  image. 


65    250 
163   215 


50  Sagittarii     ...  6 
50  Aquarii        ...  6 

h. 

9     ...     Mercury  stationary. 
..     23     ...     Mercury  at  greatest  distance  from  the  Sun. 


Meteor- Showers. 
R.A.  Decl. 


Near  52  Herculis 
,,     5  Cygni 
,,     e  Delphini 


253 
295 
305 


47  N. 

40  N. 

9N. 


June  25-30.   Swift. 

Slow. 
June  28. 


Variable  Stars. 

Star. 

R.A.               Decl. 

h.      m.              „       / 

h. 

m. 

U  Cephei 

...     0  52-4  ...  81   16  N.  ... 

[une  25, 

22 

54  '» 

,.     30, 

22 

33  * 

R  Geminorum 

...     7    o-6  ...  22~53  N.  ... 

,,     27, 

M 

5  Librae 

...   14  55-0  ...    8    4S.   ... 

,.     29, 

2 

2  m 

U  Ophiuchi... 

...   17  10-9  ...     1  20  N.  ... 

,,     28, 

2 

52  m 

„     28, 

23 

0  m 

W  Sagittarii 

...  17  57"9  ■••  29  35  S.    ... 

„     24, 

2 

0  m 

T  Herculis  ... 

...   18     4-9  ...  31     0  N.  ... 

,,     27, 

.1/ 

U  Sagittarii... 

...   18  25-3  ...  19  12  S.    ... 

„     30, 

2 

O  m 

B  Lyrae 

...   18  46-0  ...  33  14  N.  ... 

,,     28, 

22 

O    fU 

S  Vulpeculse 

...   19  43-6  ...  27     1  N.  ... 

,,     26, 

M 

77  Aquilae 

...   19  468  ...    0  43  N.  ... 

»     24, 

21 

0  m 

R  Sagittae    ... 

...  20     9-o  ...  16  23  N.  ... 

„     27, 

m 

X  Cygni       ... 

...  20  39-0  ...  35  11  N.  ... 

,,     26, 

22 

0  M 

5  Cephei 

...  22  25-0  ...  57  51  N.  ... 

„     27, 

21 

0  M 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum. 

GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 
Lieutenants  Kund  and  Tappenbeck  have  been  conduct- 
ing an  expedition  into  the  Cameroons  interior  during  the  latter 
part  of  1887  and  the  beginning  of  the  present  year.  Starting 
from  Batanga  they  succeeded  in  penetrating  as  far  as  120  30'  W. 
long.,  when,  being  attacked  by  Soudan  Negro  traders  they  were 
forced  to  retreat;  both  of  them  seriously  wounded.  They  suc- 
ceeded in  tracing  the  course  of  the  Beundo  or  Njong  River  far 
into  the  interior,  and  brought  back  much  information  concerning 
the  people  and  the  products  of  the  country.  With  regard  to 
general  results,  they  found  that  the  water-parting  between  the 
rivers  that  discharge  in  the  Cameroons  region  and  those  that  flow 
into  the  Congo  Basin  lies  not  near  the  coast  as  has  hitherto  been 
supposed,  and  therefore  it  is  hoped  that  a  navigable  route  may  be 
discovered  that  will  lead  well  into  the  interior.  The  water- 
parting  between  the  left  tributaries  of  the  Binue  and  the  rivers 
in  the  German  Cameroons  also  lies  far  in  the  interior.  The 
division  between  the  Soudan  Negroes  and  the  Bantus  is  not  to 
be  looked  for  in  the  direction  of  Adamawa,  but  southwards  is 
formed  by  the  Zannaga  River  and  eastwards  lies  at  a  distance  of 
150  miles  from  the  coast.  Lieutenants  Kund  and  Tappenbeck 
assert  that  the  area  of  Mohammedan  influence  extends  much 
farther  south  than  has  hitherto  been  thought.  No  signs  of 
volcanic  action  have  been  met  with  as  far  as  the  Zannaga  River 
or  in  the  mountains  to  the  north.  The  profile  which  accompanies 
the  report  shows  a  coast  plain  about  70  feet  high,  succeeded  by  a 
sharp  slope  rising  to  a  height  of  from  3000  to  4000  feet,  beyond 
which  the  country  slopes  gradually  to  the  inner  African  plateau, 
about  2500  feet  above  the  sea. 

The  June  number  of  Petermann's  Mittcilungen  is  mostly 
occupied  with  a  memoir  by  Dr.  Supan  on  "A  Century  of 
African  Exploration,"  written  in  commemoration  of  the 
centenary  of  the  British  African  Association,  founded  in  June 
1788.  Dr.  Supan  traces  the  gradual  opening  up  of  the 
continent  and  its  various  regions,  the  text  being  illustrated  by 
a  series  of  most  instructive  maps.  In  indicating  what  yet 
remains  to  be  done,  Dr.  Supan  maintains  that  it  is  a  mistake 
to  assert  that  the  days  of  pioneer  exploration  are  over.  He 
shows  that  while  a  few  patches  have  been  surveyed  with  some 
care,  while  of  others  we  have  a  general  knowledge,  and  while 
in  other  regions  lines  of  travel  have  been  run  through,  there  are 
great  regions  that  stiil  remain  absolutely  blank.  In  the  north, 
in  the  region  of  the  Sahara,  which  has  been  so  long  known  to 
Europe,  the  blaijks  are  almost  greater  than  elsewhere,  leaving 
ample  room  for  pioneer  work,  which  may  very  well  be  carried 
on  alongside  of  more  minute  exploration. 


TECHNICAL  INSTRUCTION} 

TN  celebrating  as  we  are  now  doing  the  fifty  first  annual 
■*■  meeting  of  the  Yorkshire  Union  of  Institutes,  one's  thoughts 
naturally  revert  to  the  foundation  of  that  Union  and  to  the  edu- 
cational progress  which  our  country  has  made  since  the  earlier 
years  of  the  century  ;  and  round  these  thoughts  will  gravitate 
recollections  of  the  life  and  labours  of  your  revered  President, 

1  Address  delivered  by  Sir  Henry  Roscoe,  M.P.,  F.R.S.,  at  Castleford, 
on  Wednesday,  June  20,  on  the  occasion  of  the  fifty-first  annual  meeting  of 
the  Yorkshire  Union  of  Mechanics'  Institutes. 


June  21,  1888] 


NATURE 


187 


Sir  Edward  Baines,  for  in  him  we  have  a  living  picture  of  the 
history  of  the  educational  progress  of  the  century.  Truly,  he 
has  been  a  witness,  and  an  active  witness,  of  English  educa- 
tional reform  from  his  earliest  years,  nor  have  his  efforts  in  the 
great  cause  from  that  time  forward  ever  ceased.  Was  he  not 
even  as  a  boy  in  Eeeds  so  long  ago  as  1809  an  earnest  listener 
to  the  expositions  of  one  who  may  be  justly  regarded  as  the 
founder  of  our  present  system  of  national  education,  I  mean 
Joseph  Lancaster?  The  name  of  Baines,  again,  is  intimately 
connected  with  those  of  Birkbeck  and  Brougham  in  the  great 
work  of  founding  mechanics'  institutes. 

The  English  character  is  ever  prone  to  consecutive  action, 
sudden  revolutions  are  contrary  to  its  spirit,  and  this  character- 
istic is  evidenced  by  the  present  phase  of  interest  in  so-called 
technical  education,  for  this  is  doing  nothing  more  than  carrying 
out  in  accordance  with  the  necessities  of  the  hour  the  old  prin- 
ciple enunciated  by  Birkbeck,  Brougham,  and  Baines  in  1825 
in  the  founding  of  mechanics'  institutions,  which  have  for  their 
object  the  teaching  to  our  workmen  the  principles  of  art  and 
science  which  underlie  the  trades  they  practise.  This,  too,  is  our 
definition  of  technical  instruction.  We  do  not  attempt  to  teach 
trades,  but  the  principles,  artistic  or  scientific,  upon  which  these 
trades  depend.  The  school  can  teach  how  to  make  the  best 
article,  how  to  apply  the  principles  which  lie  at  the  foundation 
of  the  manufacture.  The  workshop,  on  the  other  hand,  teaches 
what  the  workshop  alone  can  teach — how  to  produce  the  article 
most  economically.  This  I  take  to  be  the  essential  distinction 
between  school  teaching  and  workshop  practice.  The  boy  at 
school  learns  how  to  do  the  work  well,  the  man  at  the  factory  or 
shop  must  learn  to  do  it  not  only  well  but  most  cheaply.  If  we 
keep  these  two  parts  of  the  question  separate,  give  to  the  school 
what  belongs  to  the  school,  and  to  the  workshop  what  belongs 
to  the  workshop,  we  shall  avoid  all  conflict  between  the  so 
called  theorist  and  the  practical  man,  we  shall  preserve  what  is 
greatly  to  be  prized,  our  English  workshop  experience,  but  add 
thereto  a  knowledge  of  principles  which  have  hitherto  been 
greatly  wanting.  Each  does  necessary  work  ;  what  we  desire 
and  need  to  develop  and  to  foster  is  the  proper  union  of  theory 
and  practice,  without  which  the  supremacy  in  manufacturing 
industry,  the  chief  glory  and  mainstay  of  our  country,  will  be 
endangered  in  the  industrial  warfare  in  which  all  civilized  nations 
are  now  engaged. 

This,  then,  is  the  problem  which  Baines  sought  to  solve,  and 
which  your  Union  and  all  ardent  educationists  of  the  present 
day  are  striving  to  accomplish.  For  this  end  we  now  seek 
Government  aid,  and  are  asking  for  national  recognition  of  a 
national  necessity.  What  else  is  the  meaning  of  the  Bills  for  the 
promotion  of  technical  education  now  before  Parliament?  We 
ask  simply  for  powers  to  develop  and  to  strengthen  the  work 
which  mechanics'  institutes  were  founded  to  accomplish.  We 
desire  to  carry  on  that  work  on  sound  lines  ;  that,  whilst  asking 
for  Imperial  aid  and  for  the  imprimatur  of  a  national  system,  we 
shall  be  left- to  decide  for  ourselves  the  exact  mode  of  carrying 
out  that  system  which  each  locality  and  each  special  industry 
knows  is  best  adapted  to  satisfy  its  peculiar  requirements.  These 
should  be  the  main  objects  of  any  Technical  Bill.  Are  these 
objects  properly  put  forward,  and  are  these  conditions  properly 
safe-guarded  in  the  Government  Technical  Bill  now  before 
Parliament  ?  This  is  the  pressing  question  of  the  hour.  It  is  for 
you,  and  for  similar  associations  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land,  to  say  whether  this  is  so  or  not,  to  satisfy 
yourselves  on  this  point,  and  to  urge  your  representative  in 
Parliament — than  whom  none  is  more  willing  or  more  able  to 
assist  you — to  see  that  your  claims  and  opinions  on  this  subject 
are  made  known  to  the  Government  which  is  responsible  for 
bringing  this  great  subject  forward  For,  gentlemen,  it  is  a 
great  question,  one  which  lies  at  the  foundation,  of  the  future 
welfare — I  had  almost  said  the  future  existence — of  the  nation. 

May  I,  then,  venture  to  call  your  attention  to  one  or  two  of  the 
salient  poinds  in  this  Bill,  and  to  point  out  to  you  what  I  consider 
some  of  its  valuable  provisions  as  well  as  some  of  its  defects?  In 
the  first  place,  then,  the  chief  and  leading  principle  of  the  Bill 
is  the  recognition  that  the  time  has  arrived  for  giving  national 
aid,  whether  from  local  rates  or  from  Imperial  sources,  for  the 
promotion  of  technical  instruction.  The  establishment  of  this 
principle  is  one,  I  venture  to  think,  of  the  highest  possible 
importance,  which  if  once  admitted  may  well  cover  a  multitude 
of  minor  defects.  Still,  every  benefit  may  be  purchased  too  dear, 
and  it  is  well  to  look  at  the  conditions  with  which  this  concession 
to  public  opinion  is  coupled.  Here  I  am  speaking  to  educa- 
tionists, but  I  am  also  speaking  in  Yorkshire  and  to  Yorkshiremen, 


who  have  always  upheld,  and  especially  at  the  present  moment 
do  uphold,  the  standard  of  Liberal  opinion  in  political  as  well  as 
in  educational  matters,  and  I  therefore  feel  that  in  expressing  my 
opinion  against  certain  conditions  attached  to  the  Bill— conditions 
which  are  diametrically  opposed  to  the  ideas  and  principles  upon 
which  the  Liberal  party  has  always  acted — I  say  in  expressing 
these  objections  I  may  claim  your  support  as  well  as  your 
attention. 

Clause  2  of  the  Bill  makes  it  compulsory  on  every  School 
Board  adopting  its  provisions  as  to  technical  instruction — that  is, 
upon  every  School  Board  undertaking  to  rate  its  district  to  the 
limited  penny  in  the  pound — to  aid  thcsupply  of  technical  instruc- 
tion in  any  other  public  elementary  school  not  under  its 
management  in  like  manner  as  it  aids  the  supply  of  such  instruc- 
tion in  its  own  schools.  This  clause,  which  as  you  all  will  see 
may  be  most  sweeping  in  its  effects,  must  be  entirely  rejected  ; 
indeed,  it  could  not  stand  one  hour's  scrutiny  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  for  it  offends  against  the  cardinal  principle  that  those 
who  pay  the  rates  should  have  a  voice,  either  directly  or  in- 
directly, in  the  spending  of  them,  and  this  is  not  provided  fqr. 
But  whilst  strongly  objecting  to  this  compulsory  clause — the  only 
compulsory  one  in  the  Bill — I,  for  one,  am  willing  to  consider, 
and  to  deal  fairly  with,  the  just  claims  of  the  voluntary  schools  ; 
for  although  I  am  a  believer  in  the  Liberal  creed,  I  am  before 
all  things  an  educationist,  and  I  cannot  forget  that  if  we  are  to 
have  our  children  made  more  fit  for  succeeding  in  the  modern 
battle  of  life,  we  must  endeavour  to  bring  to  bear  upon  them  all, 
without  distinction  of  creed  or  of  party,  the  lever  which  will 
raise  them  in  the  social  scale  and  enable  them  to  use  their  heads 
and  their  hands  to  their  own  benefit,  and  therefore  to  that  of  the 
nation  of  which  they  for.n  the  units. 

Hence,  remembering  that  more  than  one-half  of  our  popula- 
tion are  educated  in  voluntary  schools,  and  that  in  many  localities 
these  schools  are  the  only  ones  in  existence,  and  moreover  that 
they  are  doing  excellent  educational  work,  I,  speaking  for  myself, 
whilst  strongly  opposed  to  any  compulsory  powers,  do  not  feel 
the  same  difficulty  in  admitting  the  provisions  of  the  first  clause 
in  the  Bill  by  which  "any  School  Board  in  England  may  from 
time  to  time  supply,  or  aid  the  supply  of,  such  manual  or 
technical  instruction  or  both,  as  may  be  required,  for  supplement- 
ing the  instruction  in  any  public  elementary  school  in  its  district, 
whether  under  its  own  management  or  not."  This  clause,  you 
will  perceive,  enables  School  Boards  if  they  think  fit  to  assist 
voluntary  schools  in  their  districts  by  aid  from  the  rates  for  the 
special  purposes  of  technical  instruction,  and  through  the  School 
Board  the  ratepayers  have  a  voice  as  to  whether  their  rates  shall 
or  shall  not  be  thus  spent.  But  here  comes  in  the  limiting 
clause  that  not  more  than  id.  in  the  pound  shall  be  spent.  I 
object  to  this  limit.  It  will  obviously  be  very  difficult  for  any 
School  Board  to  ascertain  how  far  the  expenses  of  giving 
technical  instruction  can  be  accurately  defined,  and  I  should 
prefer  to  leave  the  amount  spent  on  this  object  to  the  good  sense 
and  judgment  of  the  locality  as  represented  by  the  School  Board. 
But  how  about  districts  which  possess  no  School  Board  ?  Are 
they  to  be  left  out  in  the  cold  ?  No.  Provision  is  made  in  a 
further  clause  by  which  any  local  authority  having  adopted  the 
Free  Libraries  Acts  may  hand  over  to  the  voluntary  schools  in 
its  district  a  sum  not  exceeding  id.  in  the  pound  for  the  purpose 
of  supplying  technical  education  to  be  given  in  its  district  public 
elementary  schools.  Here  again  the  clause  is  a  permissive  one 
only,  and  the  local  authority  as  representing  the  ratepayers  is 
the  judge  of  whether  and  how  far  such  aid  is  to  be  given.  I  do 
not  like  the  plan  of  mixing  up  the  vexed  question  of  free  libraries 
with  that  of  technical  education,  and  should  much  prefer  the 
names  of  the  authorities  to  be  simply  scheduled,  as  I  see  grave 
objections  to  the  necessary  plebiscite  in  districts  which  have  not 
already  adopted  the  Acts.  Still  I  do  not  know  that  on  this 
account  I  should  wish  to  see  the  Bill  rejected. 

Another  grave  defect  in  the  Bill  is  a  limit  is  placed  on  the 
teaching  of  technical  subjects  in  Board  schools  at  the  seventh 
standard.  This  deals  a  fatal  blow  at  the  higher  elementary 
schools.  Thus  in  the  Central  School  in  Manchester  at  the 
present  moment  no  fewer  than  500  scholars  who  have  passed 
Standard  VII.  are  now  learning  the  sciences — subjects  included 
within  the  term  technical  instruction.  These  scholars  cannot 
continue  thus  to  be  taught  under  the  Bill.  We  must  have  a 
similar  provision  introduced  to  that  in  the  Scotch  Bill,  by  which 
the  Boards  are  empowered  to  use  the  rates  for  the  maintenance 
of  higher-grade  schools  ;  and  these  matters  must  be  attended  to 
if  we  are  to  have  a  Technical  Bill  worthy  of  the  name.  The 
higher  technical  education,  as  that  given  in  the  Colleges,  may  be 


1 88 


NATURE 


\June  21,  i 


assisted  by  rates  levied  by  local  authorities  or  by  Imperial  grants, 
in  addition  to  those  made  now  by  the  Department.  All  acknow- 
ledge the  importance  of  this  higher  training.  If  the  head  is  not 
educated,  the  hands  are  apt  to  get  into  mischief.  Hence,  as  these 
University  Colleges  can  never  be  self-supporting,  it  is  greatly  to 
be  hoped  that  they  will  receive  that  national  aid  which  their 
importance  to  the  State  demands. 

But  we  have  a  second  Bill  before  the  House  of  Commons — 
one  introduced  by  myself  on  behalf  of  the  National  Association 
for  the  Promotion  of  Technical  Education.  I  naturally  prefer 
the  provisions  of  my  own  Bill  to  those  of  the  Government. 
They  are  much  simpler,  less  clogged  and  hampered  by  con- 
ditions, and  confer  the  same  benefits  as  the  Government  Bill 
proposes  to  confer,  with  one  exception  only,  viz.  aid  from  the 
rates  to  voluntary  schools,  for  to  this  many  of  my  friends  are 
strongly  opposed  ;  but,  so  far  as  I  am  myself  concerned,  I  am 
free  to  admit  that  I  should  not  object  to  see  the  difficulty  settled 
by  permissive  powers  being  given  to  the  School  Boards  to  aid 
voluntary  schools  in  their  district,  just  as  it  is  proposed  that  local 
authorities  shall  have  power  to  do  the  same  where  no  School 
Boards  exist ;  for,  as  I  have  pointed  out,  the  ratepayers  have  it 
in  their  power  to  refuse  such  payments  by  electing  members  who 
will  oppose  such  an  application  of  the  rates. 

Now,  to  turn  to  the  more  immediate  question  relating  to  your 
Union,  you  may,  I  think,  be  gratified  with  the  results  of  your 
fifty-one  years'  work.  You  can  look  back  upon  half  a  century  of 
admirable  endeavour.  You  have  now  260  institutions  in  union, 
containing  upwards  of  500,000  members  and  14,000  technical 
students.  You  have  spent  half  a  million  of  money  in  buildings 
contributed  by  voluntary  subscriptions,  with  the  exception  of 
1  per  cent,  derived  from  S.K.  grants  for  building.  All  the  mem- 
bers of  your  committees  are  unpaid,  and  many  of  them  have 
been  at  work  for  you  all  their  lives.  Your  claims  for  national 
aid  are  therefore  high,  and  such  aid  is  much  needed,  for,  though 
the  progress  you  have  made  is  great,  you  have  not  nearly  accom- 
plished all  that  has  to  be  done.  We  want  continuation  evening 
schools  established  on  a  new  and  generous  basis.  We  want  a 
new  and  more  elastic  evening  school  code.  We  want  to  eman- 
cipate from  the  rigid  lines  and  requirements  of  payment  on 
individual  results.  We  want  an  attendance  and  merit  grant  for 
evening  continuation  schools — say  \2s.  per  head  for  attendance 
of  sixty  nights  to  insure  good  and  continuous  teaching.  Above 
all,  we  wish  that  existing  institutions  should  be  rendered  effective. 
The  260  institutes  are  in  existence,  but  need  help. 

When  we  look  abroad  we  see  that  both  Governments  and 
municipalities  vie  with  each  other  in  aiding  technical  schools. 
They  are  proud  to  do  so,  for  they  know  their  value.  "Do  you 
suppose,"  said  an  intelligent  German  to  me,  "  that  we,  weighted 
as  we  are  with  heavy  taxation  for  our  military  and  civil  services, 
would  willingly  further  tax  ourselves  for  the  purposes  of  technical 
schools  unless  we  were  convinced  that  the  outlay^will  repay  us 
over  and  over  again  ?  "  This  is  German  opinion,  and  it  is  the 
opinion  which  we  need  to  inculcate  in  the  minds  of  our  own 
people,  for  then  we  shall  get  what  we  want. 

Nor  need  we  be  ashamed  of  the  beginnings  which  we  have 
already  made  ;  many  of  our  existing  institutions  will  bear  favour- 
able comparison  with  Continental  models.  Take  Huddersfield 
for  example  ;  the  school  there  exactly  meets  the  requirements  of 
the  district,  and  it  has  already  exerted  a  very  marked  and  bene- 
ficial influence  on  the  trades  of  the  district,  especially  as 
concerns  dyeing  and  design.  This  school  cost  ^20,000,  all 
raised  by  voluntary  effort,  but  though  doing  excellent  work  it  is 
heavily  in  debt,  and  its  friends  have  difficulty  in  raising  funds  to 
keep  it  going — not  for  lack  of  pupils,  for  the  school  is  largely 
attended,  but  for  the  reason  that  such  higher  schools  cannot  be 
self-supporting,  and  the  greater  the  number  of  pupils  the  greater 
the  cost.  Surely,  if  our  people  understood  their  true  interests  as 
well  as  our  neighbours  and  competitors  do,  they  would  not  rest 
until  such  an  institution  is  placed  in  a  position  to  do  all  it  can 
to  raise  the  condition  of  their  industries  by  supplanting  the  too 
common  and  worn-out  rule  of  thumb  by  scientific  knowledge 
always  new  and  always  productive.  Then  again  at  Yeadon,  a 
small  place,  you  have  a  school  which  cost  .£7000  to  build,  and 
in  which  350  students  are  being  instructed.  But  here,  too, 
funds  are  urgently  needed  to  carry  on  the  work.  Surely  there 
ought  not  to  be  many  who  grudge  spending  a  penny  in  the 
pound  on  such  objects.  In  Castleford  itself,  your  Mechanics' 
Institute  has  done  during  its  forty  years  of  life,  and  is  now 
doing,  good  work.  The  building  is,  however,  too  small  for  the 
requirements  of  the  day  ;  your  numbers  have  increased  from  80 
to  210,  and  the  necessary  appliances  for  teaching  science  and 


technology  are  deficient.  Let  us  hope  that  when  the  Technical 
Bill  becomes  an  Act,  Castleford  will  be  one  of  the  first  to  take 
advantage  of  its  provisions. 

But  you  may  ask,  What  good  will  come  to  our  leading  industries 
here — coal  and  glass — by  your  technical  education  ?  How  shall 
the  employers  and  employed  benefit  therefrom  ?  In  the  first 
place,  then,  there  is  no  industry  in  which  the  value  of  even  a 
little  scientific  training  is  so  important  for  both  masters  and  men 
as  in  that  of  coal-getting.  Such  a  training  may,  for  instance, 
be,  and  indeed  has  often  been,  the  means  of  saving  hundreds 
of  valuable  lives.  One  ignorant  man  may  place  in  jeopardy 
or  even  sacrifice  by  a  single  careless  act  the  lives  of  his 
comrades,  an  act  which  no  one  acquainted  with  the  properties 
of  explosive  gases  would  dare  to  commit.  In  a  thousand  other 
ways  scientific  knowledge — which  after  all  is  only  organized 
common-sense — will  help  all  concerned  in  this  great  industry. 
So  again  in  glass-making,  how  great  is  the  aid  given  by  scientific 
and  artistic  knowledge.  What  a  step  was  the  introduction  of 
the  Siemens  regenerative  tank  furnace,  and  how  much  more 
remains  to  be  achieved.  Then  your  bottle  trade  might,  by  the 
application  of  artistic  knowledge,  be  made  the  foundation  of  a 
higher  and  more  tasteful  industry  which  might  successfully  com- 
pete with  the  wares  of  Bohemia  and  Venice.  Why  not  ?  Are 
not  our  workmen  both  mentally  and  physically  superior  to  the 
foreigner  ?  I  believe  them  to  be  so.  They  only  need  teaching, 
and  that  we  have  hitherto  withheld  from  them. 

It  has  been  well  said  that  whilst  we  have  confined  our  atten- 
tion to  improving  our  machines,  the  Germans  have  devoted 
themselves  to  educating  their  men.  Let  us  lose  no  time  in 
following  their  lead.  "  What  we  fear,"  said  one  of  the  masters 
to  me,  "is  not  either  free  trade  or  protection.  What  we  fear  is 
that  some  day  you  English  will  wake  up  to  the  necessity  of 
educating  your  manufacturing  population  as  we  do,  and  then 
with  your  racial  and  physical  advantages  it  will  become  difficult, 
if  not  impossible,  for  us  to  compete  with  you."  Let  us,  then, 
take  to  heart  the  old  adage  that  victory  comes  to  the  strong, 
but  remember  that  it  is  not  to  the  bodily  strong,  but  only 
to  the  strong  mentally  and  morally  that  the  victory  comes. 
Let  us  see  that  in  this  struggle  for  existence  our  people  are 
healthy  and  vigorous  in  all  these  three  essentials,  and  act  upon 
the  true  and  eloquent  words  of  Huxley,  "  You  may  develop  the 
intellectual  side  of  a  people  as  far  as  you  like,  and  you  may 
confer  upon  them  all  the  skill  that  training  and  instruction  can 
give,  but  if  there  is  not  underneath  all  that  outside  form  and 
superficial  polish  the  firm  fibre  of  healthy  manhood  and  earnest 
desire  to  do  well,  your  labour  is  absolutely  in  vain." 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  GEOLOGICAL 
CONGRESS. 

A  DMIRABLE  arrangements  have  been  made  for  the  London 
■*"*■  meeting  of  the  International  Geological  Congress,  from 
September  17  to  22  next.  The  following  details  are  taken 
from  a  printed  letter  signed  by  the  General  Secretaries,  Mr.  J. 
W.  Hulke  and  Mr.  W.  Topley.  The  meetings  will  be  held  in 
the  rooms  of  the  University  of  London,  Burlington  Gardens, 
where  accommodation  for  the  Council,  Committees,  Exhibition, 
&c,  has  been  granted  by  the  Senate  of  the  University.  There 
is  a  refreshment-room  in  the  building,  and  there  are  several 
restaurants  and  hotels  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood.  Arrange- 
ments will  be  made  at  one  of  these  restaurants  for  a  room  to  be 
set  apart  for  the  social  meetings  of  members  of  the  Congress. 
The  opening  meeting  of  the  Congress  will  take  place  on  Monday 
evening,  September  17,  at  8  p.m.,  when  the  Council  will  be 
appointed,  and  the  general  order  of  business  for  the  session 
will  be  determined.  The  ordinary  meetings  of  the  Congress  will 
be  held  on  the  mornings  of  Tuesday,  the  18th,  and  succeeding  days, 
beginning  at  10  a.m.  In  the  afternoons  there  will  be  visits  to 
Museums,  or  to  places  of  interest  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
London.  Arrangements  for  the  evenings  will  be  made  at  a  later 
date.  The  ordinary  business  of  the  Congress  will  include  the 
discussion  of  questions  not  considered  at  Berlin,  or  adjourned 
thence  for  fuller  discussion  at  the  London  meeting.  Amongst 
these  are  :  the  geological  map  of  Europe ;  the  classification  of 
the  Cambrian  and  Silurian  rocks,  and  of  the  Tertiary  strata  ;  and 
some  points  of  nomenclature,  &c,  referred  to  the  Congress  by 
the  International  Commission.  Miscellaneous  business  will  also 
be  considered.  In  addition  to  these  questions,  the  Organizing 
Committee  proposes  to  devote  a  special  sitting  to  a  discussion  on 
the  Crystalline   Schists.     An  Exhibition  will    be    held  during 


June  21,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


189 


the  week  of  the  Congress,  to.  which  geologists  are  invited  to  send 
maps,  recent  memoirs,  rocks,  fossils,  &c.  Foreign  members  of 
the  Congress  are  invited  by  the  Council  of  the  British  Association 
to  attend  the  meeting  of  that  Association  at  Bath.  During  the 
week  when  the  Association  meets,  there  will  be  short  excursions 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Bath,  and  longer  excursions  will  be 
made  after  the  meeting.  At  these  excursions  excellent  sections 
of  the  Lower  Secondary  and  Upper  Palaeozoic  rocks  will  be  visited. 
Excursions  will  take  place  in  the  week  after  the  meeting  of  the 
Congress  (September  24  to  30).  The  number  of  these  will 
depend  upon  the  number  of  members  desirous  of  attending,  and 
upon  the  districts  which  they  most  wish  to  visit.  The  excursions 
at  present  suggested  are  : — (1)  The  Isle  of  Wight  (visiting  the 
Ordnance  Survey  Office  at  Southampton  on  the  way) — Creta- 
ceous, Eocene,  Oligocene.  (2)  North  Wales — Pre- Cambrian  and 
the  older  Palaeozoic  rocks  ;  West  Yorkshire  (Ingleborough,  &c.) 
— Silurian  and  Carboniferous  Limestone.  (3)  East  Yorkshire 
(Scarborough,  Whitby,  &c.) — Jurassic  and  Cretaceous.  Should 
the  number  of  members  be  so  large  as  to  make  additional 
excursions  necessary,  they  will  probably  be  : — (4)  Norfolk  and 
Suffolk — Pliocene  (Crag)  and  Glacial  beds.  (5)  To  the  Jurassic 
rocks  of  Central  England.  The  short  excursions  during  the 
week  of  the  Congress  will  probably  be  to  Windsor  and  Eton,  to 
St.  Albans,  to  Watford,  to  Brighton,  to  the  Royal  Gardens  at 
Kew,  and  to  other  places  of  interest.  Brief  descriptions  of  the 
districts  to  be  visited  in  these  excursions  will  be  prepared  (with 
illustrative  sections,  &c),  and  will,  if  possible,  be  sent  to 
members  before  the  meeting.  The  full  Report  of  the  London 
meeting  will  be  issued  soon  after  the  close  of  the  session.  It 
will  contain,  in  addition  to  reports  of  the  ordinary  business  of 
the  Congress,  the  Report  of  the  American  Committee  on 
Nomenclature  (about  230  pp.)  ;  the  Memoirs  on  the  Crystalline 
Schists  (about  150  pp.).  and  reports  of  discussion  on  the  same  ; 
and  probably  a  reprint,  with  additions,  of  the  Report  of  the 
English  Committee  on  Nomenclature  (about  150  pp.). 


UNIVERSITY  AND  EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 

Oxford. — The  Burdett-Coutts  Scholarship  in  Geology  has 
been  awarded  to  Mr.  M.  Hunter,  B.A.,  Queen's  College. 

The  degree  of  M.A.  honoris  causa  has  been  conferred  on  Dr. 
S.  J.  Hickson,  the  Deputy  Linacre  Professor,  and  on  Mr. 
Wyndham  R.  Dunstan. 

Scholarships  in  Natural  Science  are  announced  for  competition, 
at  Merton  and  Corpus  jointly  on  June  26,  at  Magdalen  on 
October  9,  and  at  Balliol,  Christ  Church,  and  Trinity  jointly  on 
November  20.  Information  may  be  had  from  the  science  tutors 
of  the  various  Colleges. 

A  statute  is  being  discussed  by  Congregation,  which  will  place 
the  biological  sciences  on  the  same  footing  as  the  physical 
sciences  so  far  as  the  examinations  for  pass  degrees  are  concerned, 
and  it  is  hoped  that  the  changes  to  be  introduced  will  increase 
the  numbers  of  the  biological  and  medical  schools. 

Mr.  F.  J.  Smith,  of  the  Millard  Laboratory  at  Trinity,  has  been 
appointed  University  Lecturer  in  Mechanics  and  Experimental 
Physics. 

Cambridge. — An  amended  report  on  the  Natural  Science 
Examinerships  has  just  appeared,  but  the  scheme  proposed  is 
very  complex.  It  having  been  found  difficult  to  get  examiners 
to  undertake  the  honours,  and  ordinary  degree,  and  M.B. 
examinations  combined,  it  is  proposed  to  separate  the  elementary 
examination  work,  and  appoint  two  examiners  each  in  element- 
ary chemistry,  in  elementary  physics,  and  in  elementary  biology, 
while  two  examiners  in  each  subject  of  the  Natural  Sciences 
Tripos  are  to  be  appointed  as  before,  and  two  in  pharmaceutical 
chemistry,  for  the  second  M.B.  Thus  there  will  be  twenty-four 
examiners  in  all.  The  examiners  are  to  be  paid  a  minimum  of 
fifteen,  twenty,  or  thirty  pounds  each,  with  a  payment  of  five 
shillings  for  each  Tripos  candidate  in  their  subject,  or  one,  two, 
and  four  shillings  per  candidate  in  other  examinations.  Moreover, 
it  is  required  that  all  papers  and  all  practical  work  in  honours 
shall  be  examined  by  both  examiners  in  a  subject.  Both 
examiners  are  to  be  present  at  all  oral  work  in  their  subject ; 
and  all  examiners  must  be  present  at  the  meeting  for  arranging 
the  class-list  for  any  examination.  We  prognosticate  that  the 
list  of  examiners,  if  at  all  worthy  of  the  University,  will  not 
largely  consist  of  non-residents,  under  the  new  scheme.     The 


worst  mistake  perhaps  that  the  University  mikes  is  in  continuing 
the  one-sided  ordinary  degree  examinations  in  single  subjects,  such 
as  geology,  botany,  and  zoology ;  for  all  combined  there  were 
only  four  candidates  in  the  last  academical  year  ;  and  for  these 
there  were  six  separate  examinations  provided,  though  two 
were  not  held.  The  chemistry  "special  "  attracts  a  number  of 
candidates,  who  might  be  much  better  employed  in  preparing 
for  the  First  Part  of  the  Natural  Sciences  Tripos.  It  would  be 
far  easier  to  work  the  Natural  Science  Examinations  if  these  were 
abolished.  It  is  absurd  to  keep  up  a  machinery  of  examination 
which  is  tabooed  even  by  candidates.  The  Tripos  is  a  success, 
which  the  specials  are  not,  and  still  more  liberal  payments  and 
regulations  ought  to  be  made.  It  ought  to  be  remembered  that, 
the  graduates  pay  heavy  degree  fees  in  addition  to  examination 
fees. 

The  examiners  for  1888  in  the  Second  Part  of  the  Mathe- 
matical Tripos  were  Edward  John  Routh,  Sc.  D.,  Peterhouse; 
James  Whitbread  Lee  Glaisher,  Sc.D.,  Trinity  College  ;  Joseph 
John  Thomson,  M.A.,  Trinity  College;  Andrew  Russell 
Forsyth,  M.A.,  Trinity  College.  The  names,  in  each  class  and 
in  each  division,  are  arranged  in  alphabetical  order,  and  not  in 
order  of  merit.  All  the  candidates  passed  the  Mathematical 
Tripos,  Part  I.,  in  June  1887. 

Class  I. — Division  1. — Baker,  B.A.,  Joh.  ;  Berry,  B.A., 
Trin.  ;  Flux,  B.A.,  Joh.  ;  Mitchell,  B.A.,  Trin.  Division 
2.— Brown,  B.A.,  Christ's;  Clay,  B.A.,  Trin.;  lies,  B.A., 
Trin. 

Class  II.— Little,   B.A.,  Trin.  ;  Norris,  B.A.,   Joh.  ;  Peace, 
B.A.,  Emman.  ;  Soper,  B.A.,  Trin. 
Class  III. — None. 

The  faint  hope  that  there  was  till  lately  that  a  Geological 
Museum  might  soon  be  begun  has  been  dissipated  by  the 
Financial  Board  having  reported  that  the  University  has  no  funds 
available  at  present,  although  the  Sedgwick  Fund  has  ^"19,000 
in  hand  to  supplement  the  University  contribution. 

The  late  Sir  Charles  Bunbury's  valuable  herbaria  .have  been 
presented  to  the  University  by  Lady  Bunbury. 

At  the  Annual  Scholarship  Election  at  St.  John's  College,  on 
June  1 8,  the  following  awards  in  Natural  Science  were  made  : — 
Foundation  Scholarships  continued  or  augmented — Seward, 
Rolleston,  Rendle.  Turpin,  Groom,  d' Albuquerque  ;  Foun- 
dation Scholarships  awarded — Hankin,  Horton-Smith,  Locke, 
Baily,  Simpson  ;  Exhibitions  awarded — d' Albuquerque,  Han- 
kin, Horton-Smith,  Blackman,  Schmitz.  In  Mathematics,  the 
following  awards  were  made  : — Foundation  Scholarships  con- 
tinued or  augmented — Baker,  Flux,  Norris,  Orr,  Sampson, 
Harris,  Rudd,  Bennett ;  Foundation  Scholarships  awarded — 
Palmer,  Carlisle,  Burstall,  Monro,  Cooke,  Lawrenson  ;  Exhibi- 
tions awarded — Sampson,  Harris,  Monro,  Dobbs,  Reeves, 
Bennett,  Burstall,  Cooke,  Lawrenson,  Brown,  Finn,  Kahn, 
Salisbury,  Schmitz,  Shawcross ;  Proper  Sizarship  awarded — 
Finn.  Wright's  Prizes  to  Simpson,  Hankin,  Blackman,  for 
Science  ;  and  Orr,  Burstall,  Reeves,  for  Mathematics.  The 
Herschel  Prize  to  Salisbury,  for  Astronomy  ;  the  Hockin  Prize 
for  Electricity  not  awarded.  The  Hutchinson  Studentship  of 
£60  a  year  for  two  years  is  awarded  to  Mr.  G.  S.  Turpin  for 
research  in  Organic  Chemistry  ;  and  the  Hughes  Prize  to  Orr 
(Senior  Wrangler)  and  Brooks  (Senior  Classic). 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

American  Journal  of  Science,  June. — Note  on  earthquake- 
intensity  in  San  Francisco,  by  Edward  S.  Holden.  The  object 
of  this  paper  is  to  obtain  an  estimate  of  the  absolute  value  of  the 
earthquake-intensity  developed  at  San  Francisco  during  the 
American  historic  period,  based  on  the  very  complete  records 
collected  by  Thomas  Tennant.  The  intensity  of  each  separate 
shock  (417  altogether)  is  assigned  on  the  arbitrary  scale  of  Rossi 
and  Forel.  The  total  average  intensity  during  the  80  years  from 
1808  to  1888  is  found  to  be  nearly  equal  to  the  intensity  of  28 
separate'shocks  as  severe  as  that  of  1868,  and  the  417  shocks  of 
known  intensities  correspond  to  33,360  units  of  acceleration. — 
On  the  relations  of  the  Laramie  Group  to  earlier  and  later 
formations,  by  Charles  A.  White.  The  author's  further  studies 
of  this  group,  by  some  geologists  referred  to  the  Tertiary,  by 
others  to  the  Cretaceous  ages,  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
upper  strata  form  a  gradual  transition  from  the  latter  to  the 
former,  while  there  is  strong  presumptive  evidence  of  the  Cre- 
taceous age  of  the  greater  part  of  it. — The  gabbros  and  diorites 
of  the  "  Cortlandt  Series  "  on  the  Hudson  River  near  Peekskill  j 


190 


NATURE 


[June  21,  1888 


New  York,  by  George  H.  Williams.  With  this  paper  the 
author  concludes  for  the  present  his  elaborate  petrographic 
studies  of  the  extremely  varied  massive  rocks  of  the  "  Cortlandt 
Series,"  as  it  has  been  designated  by  Prof.  J.  D.  Dana.  He 
treats  in  detail  the  gabbro,  diorite,  and  mica-diorite  varieties  of 
norite  occurring  chiefly  in  the  south-western  portion  of  the  area. 
— Three  formations  of  the  Middle  Atlantic  slope  (continued),  by 
W.  T-  McGee.  In  this  concluding  paper  the  whole  subject  of 
the  Columbia  formation  is  recapitulated,  the  general  conclusion 
being  that  it  is  much  older  than  the  moraine-fringed  drift-sheet 
of  the  North-Eastern  States,  and  that  while  th  evertebrates  of  its 
correlatives  suggest  a  Pliocene  origin,  both  stratigraphy  and  the 
invertebrate  fossils  prove  that  it  is  Quaternary.  Thus  the 
Columbia  formation  not  only  enlarges  current  conceptions  of 
Quaternary  time,  and  opens  a  hitherto  sealed  chapter  in  geology, 
but  at  the  same  time  bridges  over  an  important  break  in  geo- 
logical history,  between  the  Tertiary  and  Quaternary  epochs.—  A 
comparison  of  the  elastic  and  the  electrical  theories  of  light  with 
respect  to  the  law  of  double  refraction  and  the  dispersion  of 
colours,  by  J.  Willard  Gibbs.  The  main  object  of  this  paper  is 
to  show  the  great  superiority  of  the  electric  over  the  elastic 
theories  of  light  as  applied  to  the  case  of  plane  waves  propa- 
gated in  transparent  and  sensibly  homogeneous  media.  The 
phenomena  of  dispersion  here  studied  corroborate  the  conclusion 
which  seemed  to  follow  inevitably  from  the  law  of  double  refrac- 
tion alone. — Mr.  Henry  J.  Biddle  contributes  some  valuable 
notes  on  the  surface  geology  of  Southern  Oregon,  visited  by  him 
during  the  summer  of  1887. 

SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  June  7. — "An  Additional  Contribution  to 
the  Placentation  of  the  Lemurs."  By  Prof.  Sir  Wm.  Turner, 
Knt,  M.B.,LL.D.,F.R.S. 

In  1876  the  author  contributed  to  the  Royal  Society  a  memoir 
"  On  the  Placentation  of  the  Lemurs,"  which  was  published  in 
the  Philosophical  Transactions  of  that  year  (vol.  clxvi.  Part 
2).  The  gravid  uteri  which  he  examined  and  described  were 
from  specimens  of  Propithecus  diadema,  Lemur  rufipes,  and  Indris 
brevicaudatus. 

In  April  of  the  present  year  he  received  from  Mr.  F.  E. 
Beddard,  Prosector  to  the  Zoological  Society  of  London,  the 
gravid  uterus  of  a  Lemur,  which  was  Lemur  xanthomystax. 

The  examination  of  this  gravid  uterus  confirmed  the  conclusions 
to  which  both  Alphonse  Milne  Edwards  1  and  the  author  had 
arrived  independently  from  previous  investigations,  that  the 
placenta  in  this  important  group  of  animals  is  diffused  and  non- 
deciduate,  and  that  the  sac  of  the  allantois  is  large  and  persistent 
up  to  the  time  of  parturition.  In  these  important  respects, 
therefore,  the  Lemurs,  are,  in  their  placental  characters,  as  far 
removed  from  man  and  apes  as  it  is  possible  for  them  to  be. 

Although  the  author  is  not  disposed  to  attach  too  much  weight 
to  the  placenta  as  furnishing  a  dominant  character  for  purposes 
of  classification,  yet  he  cannot  but  think  that  animals  which 
are  megallantoid,  non-deciduate,  and  with  the  villi  diffused 
generally  over  the  surface  of  the  chorion,  ought  no  longer  to 
be  associated  in  the  same  order  with  animals  in  which,  as  in  the 
apes,  the  sac  of  the  allantois  early  disappears,  and  the  villi  are 
concentrated  into  a  special  placental  area,  in  which  the  foetal  and 
maternal  structures  are  so  intermingled  that  the  placenta  is  highly 
deciduate.  Hence  he  is  of  opinion  that  the  Lemurs  ought  to  be 
grouped  apart  from  the  Apes  in  a  special  order,  which  may  be 
named  either  with  Alphonse  Milne  Edwards  Lemuria,  or  with 
Victor  Cams  and  others  Prosimii. 

The  foetus  possessed  an  imperfect  covering,  external  to  the 
hairy  coat,  and  quite  independent  of  the  amnion,  composed  of 
a  cuticular  membrane.  It  corresponded  with  the  envelope 
named  by  Welcker  epitrichium,  and  described  both  by  him  and 
by  the  author  as  present  in  Bradypus  and  Cholopus.  But  it 
occurred  in  the  foetus  both  of  Lemur  xanthomystax  and  Pro- 
fit hecus  diadema  in  flakes  and  patches,  and  not  as  a  continuous 
envelope  as  in  the  Sloths. 

Physical  Society,  May  26.— Mr.  Shelford  Bidwell,  F.R.S., 
Vice-President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  communications 
were  read: — Note  on  the  governing  of  electromotors,  by  Profs. 
W.  E.  Ayrton  and  J.  Perry.   In  a  paper  read  before  the  Society  of 

1  "Histoire  Naturtlle  des  Mammiferes  de  Madagascar,"  forming  vol.  vi. 
chap.  ix.  ofGrandidier's  "  Histoire  de  Madagascar." 


Telegraph-Engineers  in  1882  the  authors  deduced  the  conditions 
of  self-regulation  of  electromotors  for  varying  load  when  sup- 
plied either  at  constant  potential  or  with  constant  current.  The 
conditions  involved  "differential  winding,"  i.e.  the  use  of  a 
shunt  motor  with  series  demagnetizing  coils.  With  this  arrange- 
ment fairly  good  regulation  has  been  obtained,  but  owing  to 
want  of  economy  the  methods  have  not  been  developed  further. 
Since  then  another  arrangement,  in  which  a  simple  shunt  motor  is 
used,  and  a  few  accumulators  placed  in  series  with  the  armature, 
has  been  devised  for  working  in  a  constant  current  system.  By 
means  of  a  suitable  switch,  the  accumulators  can  be  charged 
when  the  motor  is  at  rest.  On  the  assumption  that  the 
E.M.F.  of  motors  is  given  by  E  =  n(f  +  tZ),  where  11  =  speed, 
Z  =  number  of  turns  on  magnets,  and  p  and  t  are  constants, 
it  is  shown  that  the  speed  at  which  a  motor  will  govern  is 
given  by 


and  the  constant  current 


z  +  a  +a' 


,-,  _  e  -  np 
a  +  a' 


where  2  and  a  are  the  resistances  of  the  shunt  and  armatuie 
respectively,  and  e  and  a'  the  E.M.F.  and  resistance  of  the 
accumulators.  Since  a  and  a'  may  be  small  and  tip  not  large,  the 
value  of  e  need  not  be  great  to  give  a  considerable  value  for  C, 
and  thus  only  a  small  number  of  accumulators  will  be  required. 
—  On  the  formulae  of  Bernoulli  and  Haecker  for  the  lifting-power 
of  magnets,  by  Prof.  S.  P.  Thompson,  read  by  Prof.  Perry. 
The  formulas  referred  to  are  P  °c  ^/ \\T2  and  P  =  al/^i  re- 
spectively, where  P  =  lifting-power,  W  =  mass  of  magnet,  and 
a  a  constant  depending  on  the  material  and  shape  of  the  magnet. 
These  formulae,  the  author  shows,  are  equivalent  to  saying  that 
the  lifting-power  of  magnets  in  which  the  magnetic  induction, 
B,  has  been  carried  to  an  equal  degree,  is  proportional  to  the 
polar  surface,  and  that  Haecker's  coefficient  a  is  proportional  to 
B-  through  the  surface.  Assuming  the  induction  uniform  over 
the  surface,  it  is  shown  that 

p  =  1bsa, 

Sir 

where  A  =  area  of  surface,  and  this  gives  a  very  convenient 
method  of  determining  B  from  measurements  made  upon  the 
pull  exerted  at  a  given  polar  surface.  If  P  be  measured  in 
kilogrammes  and  A  in  square  centimetres,  the  formula  for  B 
becomes 


B  =  5000 


V  a' 


and  if  the  measurements  be  made  in  pounds  and  inches,  the 
constant  becomes  131 7.  It  will  be  readily  seen  that  the  greater 
power  of  small  magnets  in  proportion  to  weight  does  not  require 
for  its  explanation  the  sometimes  alleged  fact  that  small  pieces  of 
steel  can  be  more  highly  magnetized  than  large  ones,  for  if  B 
be  the  same,  the  lifting- power  will  be  proportional  to  the  polar 
surface,  and  not  to  weight,  and  hence  must  necessarily  be  greater 
relatively  to  weight  in  small  magnets.  In  the  case  of  electro- 
magnets for  inductions  between  6000  and  16,000,  between  which 
the  permeability,  /x,  is  approximately  given  by 

16,000  -  B 

fj.    =    -, 

3 '2 

the  lifting-power  is  shown  to  be 

\S»  +  2-56//  ' 

where  P  is  in  kilogrammes,  A  in  square  centimetres,  Si  =  ampere 
turns,  and  /  =  mean  length  of  the  magnetic  circuit. — Experi- 
ments on  Electrolysis  ;  Part  ii.,  Irreciprocal  Conduction,1  by  Mr. 
W.  W.  Haldane  Gee  and  Mr.  H.  Holden.  An  abstract  was 
read  by  the  Secretary.  The  authors  have  observed,  when  strong 
sulphuric  acid  is  used  as  an  electrolyte,  the  electrodes  being  of 
platinum,  that  the  decomposition  nearly  ceases,  if,  by  decreasing 
the  resistance  in  circuit,  it  is  attempted  to  increase  the  current 
beyond  a  certain  maximum.  When  this  condition  (called  the 
insulating  condition)  is  arrived  at,  reversing  the  current  imme- 
diately restores  the  conductivity.  Experiment  shows  that  the 
current  density  is  an  important  factor,  and  that  the  composition, 

1  Irreciprocal  conduction  is  said  to  occur  if  a  reversal  of  tl.e  direction  of  a 
current  causes  any  change  in  its  magnitude. 


June  2  1,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


191 


viscosity,  and  temperature  of  the  electrolyte,  as  well  as  the 
previous  history  of  the  electrode,  have  considerable  influence  on 
the  current  density  at  which  the  insulating  condition  occurs. 
The  seat  of  the  insulating  layer  is  found  to  be  at  the  anode  ;  and 
the  authors  believe  it  due  to  very  concentrated'  acid  formed 
around  the  electrode,  whose  specific  resistance  is  very  high. 
Experiments  were  also  made  with  carbon  and  gold  electrodes, 
and  phosphoric  acid,  caustic  potash,  soap,  and  sodium  benzoate 
were  used  as  electrolytes,  the  results  of  which  seem  compatible 
with  the  concentration  hypothesis  above  stated.  The  paper 
contains  an  historical  and  critical  account  of  allied  phenomena, 
and  tables  expressing  the  numerical  results  obtained  by  the 
authors  are  given. 

Linnean  Society,  June  7. — Mr.  Carruthers,  President,  in 
the  chair. — The  following  were  nominated  Vice-Presidents : 
Mr.  F.  Crisp,  Dr.  Maxwell  Masters,  Dr.  John  Anderson,  Mr. 
C.  B.  Clarke. — An  exhibition  under  the  microscope  of  decalcified 
and  stained  portions  of  the  test  of  Laganum  depression  was  then 
given  by  Prof.  Martin  Duncan,  who  made  some  very  instructive 
remarks  on  the  structural  characters  to  be  relied  on  for  discrim- 
inating the  species. — Mr.  D.  Morris,  of  Kew,  exhibited  some 
drawings  of  a  Fungus  {Exobasidiutn)  causing  a  singular  distortion 
of  the  leaves  of  Lyonia,  from  Jamaica. — A-  paper  was  then  read, 
by  Mr.  II.  N.  Ridley,  on  the  natural  history  of  Fernando 
Noronha,  in  which  he  gave  the  general  results  of  his  investigations 
into  the  geology,  botany,  and  zoology  of  this  hitherto  little 
explored  island. 

Royal  Meteorological  Society,  May  16. — Dr.  W.  Marcet, 

F.  R.S.,  President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  communications 
were  read  : — Report  of  the  Wind  Force  Committee  on  experi- 
ments   with    anemometers  conducted     at    Hersham,     by    Mr. 

G.  M.  Whipple  and  Mr.  W.  H.  Dines.  A  whirling 
apparatus,  with  arms  29  feet  radius,  was  rotated  by  means  of  a 
small  steam-engine.  On  the  arms  of  the  whirler  four  different 
anemometers  were  placed.  Each  experiment  lasted  fifteen 
minutes,  the  steam-pressure  remaining  constant  during  the  run. 
For  the  Kew  standard  anemometer,  with  arms  2  feet  long,  the 
experiments  give  a  mean  value  for  Robinson's  factor  of  2'I5  > 
and  for  two  smaller  instruments  the  factor  is  2 '51  and  2  "96. 
Mr.  Dine's  helicoid  anemometer  gave  very  satisfactory  results, 
the  mean  factor  being  o-996. — On  the  measurement  of  the 
increase  of  humidity  in  rooms  by  the  emission  of  steam  from  the 
so  called  bronchitis  kettle,  by  Dr.  W.  Marcet,  F.  R.  S.  The  author 
described  a  number  of  experiments  which  he  had  made  by  steam- 
ing a  room  with  a  bronchitis  kettle,  and  ascertaining  the  rise  and 
fall  of  the  relative  humidity  from  readings  of  the  dry-  and  wet- 
bulb  thermometers.  He  found  that  the  air  in  the  room  could 
not  be  saturated,  the  relative  humidity  not  exceeding  85  per 
cent. 

Entomological  Society,  June  6. — Dr.  D.  Sharp,  President, 
in  the  chair. — Mr.  Pascoe  brought  for  exhibition  a  book  of  fine 
plates  of  Mantidtc,  drawn  by  Prof.  Westwood,  which  it  had  been 
hoped  would  have  been  published  by  the  Ray  Society. — Mr.  E. 
Saunders  exhibited  a  species  of  Hemiptera,  Monanthia  angustata, 
H-S.,  new  to  Britain,  which  he  had  captured  by  sweeping,  near 
Cisbury,  Worthing.  The  insect  is  rather  closely  allied  to  the  com- 
mon Monanthia  cardui,  L.— Mr.  McLachlan  exhibited  a  species 
of  Ilalticidie,  which  had  been  sent  him  by  Mr.  D.  Morris,  Assist- 
ant Director  of  the  Royal  Gardens,  Kew,  who  had  received  them 
from  Mr.  J.  H.  Hart,  of  the  Botanic  Gardens,  Trinidad,  with  a 
note  to  the  effect  that  they  had  attacked  young  tobacco  and  egg- 
plants badly  in  that  island.  Mr.  Jacoby  had,  with  some  reserve, 
given  as  his  opinion  that  it  might  possibly  turn  out  to  be  Epitrix 
fuscata,  Duv.,  a  species  which  had  been  described  from  Cuba. — 
The  Rev.  II.  S.  Gorham  exhibited  a  collection  of  beetles  lately 
captured  in  Brittany  including  Diachrotnus  germamts,  L., 
Ontliophagus  taunts,  L.,  Hister  simialns,  111.,  and  other 
species  which  are  exceedingly  rare,  or  altogether  wanting  in 
Britain,  and  yet  occur  very  commonly  in  the  north  of  France. — 
Mr.  White  exhibited  living  larva;  of  Endromis  versicolora, 
from  near  Bristol,  and  remarked  that  when  quite  young  they  are 
nearly  black,  owing  to  being  very  thickly  spotted  with  that  colour  ; 
the  body-colour  is  green,  and  after  two  or  three  changes  of  skin 
the  spots  disappear.  Mr.  White  also  exhibited  two  preserved 
larva;  of  Phorodesma  smaragdaria,  which  he  had  recently  taken, 
and  made  some  remarks  concerning  the  so-called  "  case,"  which 
this  insect  is  said  to  construct  from  the  leaves  of  its  food-plant, 
Artemisia  maritima.  This  he  did  not  consider  to  be  really  a 
case,  but   he  had  discovered  that  the  larva  possessed  on   its 


segments  certain  secretory  glands,  at  the  apex  of  each  of  which 
there  is  a  bristly  hair  ;  this  appears  to  retain  pieces  of  the  plant, 
which  are  probably  fixed  firmly  afterwards  by  means  of  the 
secreted  fluid.  These  pieces  are  very  irregularly  distributed,  and 
their  purpose  does  not  seem  quite  evident. — Mr.  Lewis  exhibited 
about  three  hundred  specimens  of  the  genera  Hetarius,  Er.,  and 
Eretmotus,  Mars.  The  most  remarkable  of  these  was  EUtmritu 
acntangulus,  Lewis,  discovered  last  year  by  Mr.  J.  J.  Walker 
near  Tangier,  and  recently  taken  by  him  at  San  Roche,  in 
Spain. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  June  11. — M.  Janssen,  President,  in 
the  chair. — A  study  of  the  refrigerant  mixtures  obtained  with 
solid  carbonic  acid,  by  MM.  Cailletetand  E.  Colardeau.  These 
researches  seem  to  show  that  the  ether  generally  used  in  com- 
bination with  snow  and  carbonic  acid  for  the  purpose  of  obtain- 
ing intense  cold,  plays  a  much  greater  part  than  has  been 
supposed  in  lowering  the  temperature  of  the  mixture. — Repre- 
sentation of  the  attitudes  of  human  locomotion  by  means  of 
figures  in  relief,  by  M.  Marey.  The  figure  of  a  runner  at  a  given 
moment  is  here  reproduced  from  a  relief  obtained  by  M.  Engrand 
by  means  of  the  photochronograph.  It  is  pointed  out  that  a 
continuous  series  of  such  figures,  obtained  by  this  process,  would 
be  of  great  service  in  determining  for  artists  and  physiologists  the 
successive  changes  of  attitude  in  running  and  walking. — Deter- 
mination of  the  mean  level  of  the  sea,  by  means  of  a  new 
instrument,  by  M.  Ch.  Lallemand.  In  a  previous  note  {Comptes 
renins,  May  28,  1888)  the  principle  was  described  of  this  appara- 
tus, wdiich  is  here  figured  and  named  the  inediinaranetcr.  It 
gives  the  mean  sea- level  without  any  mechanical  adjustments,  and 
almost  without  the  need  of  calculations — On  the  artificial 
reproduction  of  hydrocerusite,  on  the  chemical  composition  of 
this  mineral  species,  and  on  the  constitution  of  white  lead,  by 
M.  L.  Bourgeois.  These  synthetic  researches  throw  much 
light  on  the  hitherto  problematical  nature  of  hydrocerusite,  as 
well  as  on  the  constitu'ion  of  white  lead  (ceruse),  in  which  the 
author  distinguishes  only  two  definite  substances,  both  existing 
in  nature — hydrocerusite  and  cerusite.  Analysis  shows  that  the 
formula  of  the  artificially  prepared  hydrocerusite  is  3PbO,  2C02, 
HO,  or  2(PbO,CO.,)  +  PbO.HO,  which  is  no  doubt  that  of 
the  natural  substance  also. — On  the  variations  of  the  personal 
equation  in  the  measurement  of  double  stars,  by  M.  G.  Bigourdan. 
Thiele  supposes  that  the  personal  equation  of  each  observer  remains 
somewhat  constant  during  a  "season  of  observations,"  and  then 
takes  a  different  value  for  another  period,  the  duration  of  the 
"seasons"  varying  from  a  few  days  to  several  months.  But 
according  to  Struve  these  variations  are  rapid,  occurring  in  a  few 
hours,  and  lasting  only  a  single  night.  The  observations  of  the 
author  tend  to  show  that  these  apparently  contradictory  views 
are  capable  of  being  reconciled,  both  being  to  a  certain  extent 
true. — On  the  determination  of  some  new  rings  of  Saturn  lying 
beyond  those  already  known,  by  Dom  Lamey.  These  were  first 
vaguely  perceived  by  theauthorin  1868,  and  have  been  repeatedly 
observed  since  February  12,  1884,  with  the  16  cm.  refractor 
in  the  clearer  atmosphere  of  the  Grignon  Observatory.  They 
are  four  in  number,  and  are  visible  as  well-defined  elliptical 
rings  in  the  regions  intermediate  between  Mimas  and  Titan,  first 
and  sixth  satellites  of  Saturn.  The  semi-diameter  of  the  planet 
being  taken  as  1,  the  semi-diameter  of  the  rings,  measured  from 
the  middle  of  the  most  intense  region,  would  be  2*45  ±  C05  ; 
3'36  ±  0*02  ;  4'90  ±  o-5o  ;  8*17  ±  o'23.  They  were  also 
independently  observed  by  two  of  the  author's  fellow-workers, 
and  cannot  therefore  be  explained  away  as  optical  illusions  due 
to  the  terrestrial  atmosphere  or  any  other  sources  of  error. — On  a 
point  in  the  history  of  the  pendulum,  by  M.  Defforges,  with 
remarks  by  M.  C.  Wolf.  In  connection  with  Kater's  memoir 
of  1818,  presented  to  the  Royal  Society,  on  the  "  convertible  " 
pendulum,  and  his  repudiation  of  de  Prony's  claim  to  priority  of 
invention,  M.  Defforges  announces  the  discovery  of  some 
documents  in  the  Ecole  des  Ponts  et  Chaussees  fully  confirming 
de  Prony's  claim.  M.  Wolf,  however,  points  out  that  these 
documents  (undated,  but  no  doubt  written  in  1800)  were  never 
published,  and  certainly  unknown  both  to  Bohnenberger  when  he 
announced  the  project  of  a  pendulum  with  reciprocal  axes  (181 1), 
and:  to  Kater  when  he  rejected  de  Prony's  claim  to  priority  of 
inve'ntion  (1818).  Hence,  although  de  Prony  now  appears 
to  have  been  the  precursor,  the  rights  of  Bohnenberger  and 
Kater  remain  intact  as  discoverers  of  the  principles  to  which 
is  due  the  revolution  effected  in  the  observations  of  the 
pendulum   during  the  present    century. — On   a    correction  to 


192 


NATURE 


{June  21,  1888 


be  made  in  Regnault's  determinations  of  the  weight  of  a 
litre  of  the  elementary  gases,  by  M.  J.  M.  Crafts.  The 
error  already  pointed  out  by  Lord  Rayleigh  is  here  corrected 
for  air,  N,  H,  O,  and  C02. — Experiments  with  a  non-oscillating 
pendulum,  by  M.  A.  Boillot.  It  is  shown  that  the  oscillating 
pendulum,  which  in  Foucault's  experiment  demonstrates  the 
movement  of  the  globe,  may  be  used  for  the  same  dsmonstration 
by  suppressing  the  oscillatory  action  and  operating  in  a  room. — 
Measurement  of  the  velocity  of  etherification  by  means  of  electric 
conductors,  by  M.  Negreano.  A  process  is  explained  for  measur- 
ing the  rapidity  of  the  chemical  reactions  which  take  place 
between  certain  resisting  bodies  at  the  moment  their  electric 
resistances  become  varied.  These  resistances  have  been  measured 
according  *-o  the  method  indicated  by  Lippmann. — On  a  diamanti- 
ferous  meteorite,  which  fell  on  September  10/22,  1886,  at  Novo- 
Urei,  in  the  Government  of  Penza,  Russia,  by  MM.  Ierofeieff 
and  Latchinoff.  Analysis  of  this  specimen,  weighing  1762  gr., 
shows  that  it  contains  1  per  cent,  of  very  fine  carbonado,  or 
diamond  dust,  besides  1  "26  of  amorphous  carbon.  The  other 
chief  substances  were — peridot,  6"]'4J&;  pyroxene,  23*82;  and 
nickled  iron,  5  "45. 

Berlin. 

Physical  Society,  June  1. — Prof,  von  Helmholtz,  President, 
in  the  chair. — Dr.  Lummer  gave  an  account  of  experiments  which 
he  had  made  on  the  determination  of  the  focal  length  of  lenses 
by  the  method  of  Abbe  in  Jena.     The  method  is  based  upon  the 


equation/  = 


;  where /"is  the  focal  length,  a  the  distance 


of  two  objects  from  the  lens,  and  /3X  ft2  the  respective  magnifica- 
tions of  their  images.  The  speaker  discussed  first  the  way  by 
which  Abbe  had  arrived  at  the  above  equation,  and  then  went 
thoroughly  into  an  explanation  of  the  methods  for  measuring  the 
amount  of  magnification  of  the  images.  It  must  suffice  here  to 
say  briefly  that  the  magnification  was  measured  by  a  microscope 
directed  along  the  principal  axis  of  the  lens,  and  at  right  angles 
to  its  surface,  the  microscope  then  being  moved  backwards  and 
forwards,  until  the  upper  and  lower  ends  of  the  image  were 
visible.  Prof,  von  Helmholtz  explained  that  during  his  physio- 
logical-optical researches  he  had  already  determined  the  focal 
lengths  of  lenses  by  the  measurements  of  the  magnification,  in 
accordance  with  the  formula  given  above,  admitting  at  the  same 
time  that  his  methods  were  perhaps  less  exact. — Dr.  Lummer 
then  gave  an  abstract  of  a  paper  on  the  movement  of  air  in  the 
atmosphere,  which  he  had  recently  read  before  the  Academy  of 
Sciences.  In  solving  the  problem,  he  had  made  use  of  the 
principle  of  mechanical  similarities.  When  the  hydrodynamic 
equation  for  a  given  motion  is  known,  it  is  only  necessary  to 
multiply  all  the  factors  by  n  in  order  to  represent  the  motion  in 
much  larger  dimensions.  Accordingly  if  the  conditions  of  the 
occurrence  of  air  currents,  such  as  take  place  in  the  atmosphere, 
have  been  experimentally  determined  in  the  laboratory  for  1 
cubic  metre  of  air,  and  if  the  atmosphere  is  assumed  to  be  8000 
metres  high,  then  the  space,  time,  and  moment  must  be 
multiplied  by  8000,  while  on  the  other  hand  the  internal  friction 
must  be  taken  as  being  only  1/8000  of  that  which  has  been 
determined  by  experiment.  It  follows  from  this  that  the 
internal  friction  is  of  very  small  account ;  but  as  against  this,  the 
friction  of  the  earth's  surface  has  a  considerable  influence  and 
cannot  be  neglected.  Supposing  a  mass  of  air  moving  horizon- 
tally is  considered,  then  a  series  of  particles*  of  air,  which  were  at 
the  outset  vertically  each  above  the  other,  will  finally  place  them- 
selves along  a  curve  of  sines  as  the  result  of  friction  at  the  earth's 
surface.  Calculation  shows  that  it  would  require  a  period  of 
42,000  years  before  the  motion  was  reduced  to  one-half  as  the 
result  of  internal  friction.  The  speaker  then  considered  the  atmo- 
sphere as  made  up  of  rings  of  air  which  surround  the  earth  in 
coincidence  with  the  parallels  of  latitude  :  each  of  these  rings  of 
air  has  its  own  moment  of  rotation,  which  depends  on  its  radius, 
and  is  therefore  greatest  at  the  equator  and  least  at  the  poles. 
If  the  air  which  is  streaming  upwards  at  the  equator  were  to 
stream  down  again  to  the  earth  in  higher  latitudes,  it  would  be 
moving  with  a  velocity  far  exceeding  that  of  any  known  storm, 
even  at  the  latitude  of  300.  Since  the  internal  friction  of 
the  air  is  so  small  that  it  may  be  neglected,  the  speaker 
proceeded  to  point  out  the  other  factors  which  have  an  influence 
in  slowing  down  the  air  as  it  falls.  He  regards  them  as  being 
the  vortex  motions  which  take  place  in  the  atmosphere  at  the 
iscontinuous  surfaces   of  two  masses  of  air  moving  with  different 


velocities.  These  vortex  motions  cause  the  adjoining  layers  of 
the  two  masses  of  air  to  mix,  and  thus  diminish  their  velocity. 
This  is  the  explanation  of  the  calms,  trade-winds,  sub-tropical 
rain?,  and  other  phenomena  which  occur  in  the  atmosphere.  It 
would  occupy  too  much  space  to  give  even  a  brief  statement  of 
how  these  conclusions  are  arrived  at. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

A  Course  of  Practical  Instruction  in  Botany,  Part  1,  2nd  edition  :  Prof.  F. 
O.  Bower  (Macmillan). — Lessons  in  Elemeniary  Mechanics,  Stage  2  :  W.  H. 
Grieve  (Longmans). — Observations  on  the  Embryology  of  Insects  and 
Arachnids  :  A.  T.  Bruce  (Baltimore). — Smithsonian  Report,  1885,  Part  2 
(Washington). — Birdsnesting  and  Bird-skinning,  2nd  edition  :  M.  Christy 
(Unwin). — An  Elementary  Treatise  on  Mensuration  :  E.  J.  Henchie  (School 
Books  Publishing  Co.) — First  Elements  of  Experimental  Geometry  :  P.  Bert  ; 
translated  (Cassell). --Introductory  Inorganic  Analysis  :  E.H.Cook  (Churchill). 
— Origin  and  Growth  of  Religion  as  illustrated  by  Celtic  Heathendom  :  Prof. 
J.  Rhys  (Williams  and  Norgate). — Sierra  Leone;  or  the  White  Man's 
Grave:  G.  A.  Lethbridge  Banbury  (Sonnenschein). — Explorations  and 
Adventures  in  New  Guinea  :  Capt.  J.  Strachan  (Low). — Longmans'  School 
Geography  for  Australasia  :  G.  G.  Chisholm  (Longmans). — On  the  Dicoty  linae 
of  the  John  Day  Miocene  of  North  America  :  E.  D.  Cope. — On  the  Mechani- 
cal Origin  of  the  Dentition  of  the  Amblypoda :  E.  D.  Cope. — The  Theory 
of  the  Tides:  J.  Nolan  (Dulau). — The  Perissodactyla:  E.  D.  Cope  (Phila- 
delphia).— The  Mechanical  Origin  of  the  Sectorial  Teeth  of  the  Carnivora  : 
E.  D.  Cope  (Salem). — Recent  Advances  in  our  Knowledge  of  the  Law  of 
Storms  :  F.  Chambers  (Bombay). — Causation  of  Pneumonia :  H.  B.  Baker 
(Lansing). — Quarterly  Journal  of  the  Royal  Meteorological  Society,  ApriJ 
(Stanford). — Quarterly  Weather  Report,  Part  3  (Eyre  and  Spottiswoode). — 
Hourly  Readings,  1885  (Eyre  and  Spottiswoode). — Travaux  de  la  Societe 
des  Naturalistes  de  St.  Pdtersbourg,  vol.  xix.  1888,  Section  de  Geologie  et 
de  Mineralogie  (St.  Petersbourg). — Notes  from  the  Leyden  Museum,  vol.  x. 
Nos.  1  and  2  (Brill,  Leyden). — Madras  Journal  of  Literature  and  Science, 
Session  1887-88  (Madras). — Proceedings  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences 
of  Philadelphia,  Part  1,  1888  (Philadelphia). — Internationales  Archiv  fur 
Ethnographie,  Band  i.  Heft  3  (Triibner). 


CONTENTS.  page 

The  Steam-Engine 169 

The  Animal  Alkaloids 170 

Practical  Forestry 171 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Drummond  :   "  Tropical  Africa" 171 

Wormell  :   "  Plotting,  or  Graphic  Mathematics  "     .    .     172 

Gallatly  :   "  The  Elements  of  Logarithms  " 172 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

Thunderstorms  and  Lightning  Accidents. — H.  New- 
man Lawrence 172 

Nose-Blackening  as  Preventive  of  Snow-Blindness. — 

A.  J.  Duffield 172 

The  Lethrus  cephalotes. — Arthur  E.  Shipley     ...     172 
Proposed  Fuel-testing  Station  for  London. — Bryan 

Donkin,  Jun .     172 

The  Geometric  Interpretation  of  Monge's  Differential 
Equation    to    all    Conies — the    Sought    Found. — 

Prof.  Asutosh  Mukhopadhyay 173 

Personal  Identification  and  Description.     I.     {Illus- 
trated.)    By  Francis  Galton,  F.R.S 173 

Soap-Bubbles.     {Illustrated.) 177 

The  Paris  Observatory 179 

The  Photographic  Chart  of  the  Heavens 180 

The  Incurvature  of  the  Winds  in  Tropical  Cyclones. 

By  Henry  F.  Blanford,  F.R.S 181 

Notes      182 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

The  Constant  of  Aberratio* 185 

The  Markings  on  Mars 185 

Comet  1888  a  (Sawerthal) 186 

Astronomical     Phenomena    for     the     Week      1888 

June  24-30 186 

Geographical  Notes 186 

Technical  Instruction.    By  Sir  Henry  Roscoe,  M.P., 

F.R.S 186 

The  International  Geological  Congress 188 

University  and  Educational  Intelligence 189 

Scientific  Serials 189 

Societies  and  Academies 190 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 192 


NA  TURE 


193 


THURSDAY,  JUNE   28,    li 


THE  EARLY  CORRESPONDENCE  OF 
CHRISTIAN  HUYGENS. 

OEuvres  Completes  de  Christian  Huygens  publiies  par  la 
Societe"  Hollandaise  des  Sciences.  Tome  Premier  :  Corre- 
spondance  1638-1656.  (La  Haye  :  Martinus  Nijhoff, 
1888.) 

NEVER  before,  we  venture  to  assert,  even  in  this  age 
of  "  complete  editions,"  has  so  colossal  a  literary 
monument  been  raised  to  the  memory  of  a  great  man  as 
the  edition  of  the  works  of  Christian  Huygens,  of  which 
the  first  instalment  now  lies  before  us.  In  a  huge  and 
splendid  volume  of  621  quarto  pages,  is  contained  the 
correspondence,  from  his  ninth  to  his  twenty-eighth  year, 
of  the  "  young  Archimedes,"  as  his  friends  delighted  to 
call  him.  Yet  out  of  2600  documents  in  the  hands  of  the 
Commission  charged  by  the  Amsterdam  Academy  of 
Sciences  with  the  superintendence  of  the  publication, 
no  more  than  365  have  as  yet  been  printed.  Seven  ad- 
ditional tomes,  at  least  as  massive  as  that  just  now  issued 
from  the  press  at  the  Hague,  will  be  needed  to  bring  to 
completion  the  initial  section  of  the  comprehensive  record. 
The  works  of  Huygens,  edited  and  inedited,  will  follow, 
with  an  elaborate  biography,  so  that  we  may  safely  assume 
that  the  present  century  will  not  see  the  end  of  an  enter- 
prise the  pecuniary  responsibility  of  which  has  been 
generously  undertaken  by  the  Scientific  Society  of 
Holland. 

We  have  nothing  but  praise  to  accord  to  the  manner  in 
which  it  has  so  far  been  conducted.  All  selective  diffi- 
culties were  indeed  spared  to  the  Commission  ;  for  the 
collection  at  Leyden  was  of  such  exceptional  value  that 
their  resolution  to  print  everything  it  contained  admitted 
of  no  cavil,  and  was  arrived  at  without  hesitation.  Room 
was,  however,  left  for  discretion  as  to  the  manner  of  pre- 
senting to  the  public  the  materials  at  their  disposal ;  and 
it  has  been  wisely  exercised.  The  notes  are  elucidatory 
without  being  obtrusive  ;  the  prefatory  remarks  are  few 
and  to  the  point ;  the  indexes  (of  which  there  are  no  less 
than  five)  afford  a  satisfactory  clue  to  a  labyrinth  of 
close  upon  four  hundred  letters  in  Latin,  French,  and 
Dutch,  miscellaneous  in  their  contents,  and  necessarily 
chronological  in  their  arrangement.  They  are  of  great  and 
varied  interest.  Scientific  history,  the  dispositions  and 
modes  of  thought  of  "  men  of  light  and  leading"  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  the  manners  and  customs  of  the 
time,  are  all  in  turn  illustrated  by  them  ;  above  all,  their 
perusal  offers  singular  advantages  for  studying  the  develop- 
ment of  the  powerful  and  active  mind  of  the  protagonist 
in  the  life-drama  they  partially  unfold. 

Christian  Huygens  was  born  at  the  Hague,  April  14, 
1629.  Every  educational  advantage  which  the  age  could 
afford  was  showered  upon  him.  His  father,  Constantine 
Huygens,  was  distinguished  as  a  statesman,  a  poet,  a  man 
of  letters,  and  a  musician.  Himself  a  product  of  the 
most  varied  culture,  he  desired  that  none  of  the  brilliant 
faculties  early  apparent  in  his  two  elder  sons  should  rust 
in  disuse.  They  were  accordingly  taught  to  sing  and 
play  the  lute  as  well  as  to  compose  Latin  verses  ;  they 
Vol.  xxxviil— No.  974. 


attended  the  juridical  lectures  of  Vinnius,  and  studied 
mathematics  under  Van  Schooten ;  they  were  accom- 
plished in  dancing  and  drawing  no  less  than  in  Greek, 
rhetoric,  and  logic  ;  they  travelled  to  see  the  world  and 
improve  their  manners  ;  they  could,  as  occasion  required, 
play  the  courtier,  or  work  as  skilled  mechanics.  The 
native  turn  of  each  was,  however,  different.  Constantine 
excelled  in  the  lighter  branches  of  literature  ;  Christian 
promptly  shot  ahead  of  him  in  geometry.  Study  and  in- 
vention went,  with  him,  in  this  direction,  hand  in  hand. 
Before  he  was  seventeen,  he  had  begun  to  strike  out 
original  lines  of  investigation,  and  the  promise  of  these 
juvenile  essays  was  discerned,  among  the  first,  by 
Descartes.  Mersenne  about  the  same  time  opened  a 
correspondence  with  him,  and  predicted  for  him  greatness 
beyond  that  of  the  towering  figure  of  Archimedes. 

He  made  his  debut  in  print  in  1651  with  a  treatise  on 
quadratures,  to  which  he  appended  a  refutation  of  the 
theorems  on  the  same  subject  of  Gregory  of  St.  Vincent, 
with  the  unusual  result  of  gaining  (besides  many  admirers) 
a  friend  in  the  person  chiefly  interested  in  the  controversy. 
The  little  book  was  received  with  acclamations  of  praise. 
At  once  and  everywhere,  the  genius  <of  its  author  was 
acknowledged.  The  mathematicians  of  France,  England, 
and  Germany  vied  with  those  of  Holland  in  doing  him 
honour.  He  was  lauded  as  "  Vieta  redivivus,"  placed  on 
a  level  with  Pappus  and  Apollonius,  hailed  as  the  great 
coming  light  of  science.  Yet  it  was  not  in  pure  mathe- 
matics that  his  brightest  laurels  were  to  be  gathered. 
Many  lesser  men  did  more  to  help  on  the  great  revolu- 
tion in  method  which  signalized  his  age.  He  remained, 
throughout  its  progress,  constant  to  the  ancient  jnodels, and 
looked  on,  indifferent  or  averse  to  changes  the  full  import 
of  which  he  failed  to  realize.  His  extraordinary  ability 
was,  however,  never  more  conspicuous  than  in  his  suc- 
cessful grappling  with  problems — such  as  that  of  the 
isochronous  curve — unapproachable  by  geometers  of  a 
more  common-place  type  without  the  aid  of  the  calculus  ; 
and  there  is  reason  to  think  that,  had  he  lived  longer,  he 
would  have  reinforced  his  powers  by  its  adoption.  It 
appears  from  a  letter  of  Leibnitz  to  him,  of  October  1,  1693, 
that  he  was  just  then,  eighteen  months  before  his  death, 
"  beginning  to  find  the  convenience  "  of  the  infinitesimal 
mode  of  calculation,  and  had  gone  so  far  as  to  express 
publicly  his  approbation. 

The  most  interesting  part  of  the  correspondence  now 
before  us  refers  to  Huygens's  observations  on  Saturn. 
As  early  as  November  1652,  we  find  him  making  in- 
quiries as  to  the  best  manner  of  preparing  and  polishing 
lenses.  Assisted  by  his  brother  Constantine,  he  prosecuted 
the  subject  with  a  diligence  for  which  he  half  apologized 
to  his  learned  friends,  and  which  produced  unwelcome 
gaps  in  his  communications  with  them.  By  the  com- 
mencement, accordingly,  of  1655,  he  was  in  possession 
of  a  telescope  of  12  feet  focal  length,  undoubtedly  the 
best  produced  up  to  that  date.  It  showed  him,  not  only 
the  phases  of  Venus  and  the  satellites  of  Jupiter,  but — 
March  25,  1655 — "  aliud  quid  memorabile,"  unseen  by 
Fontana  or  Hevelius,  namely  a  Saturnian  moon,  after- 
wards named  Titan,  the  sixth  counting  outward  from  the 
planet,  the  first  in  order  of  terrestrial  detection.  He  con- 
cealed and  endeavoured  to  secure  his  discovery,  after  the 
fashion  set  by  Galileo,  in  an  anagram  which  was  widely 

K 


194 


NATURE 


{June  28,  1888 


circulated,  and  expounded  in  the  following  year.  The 
precaution  was  nevertheless  insufficient  to  prevent  a  claim 
to  priority  being  put  forward.  Dr.  Wallis,  the  Savilian 
Professor  of  Geometry,  prepared  on  behalf  of  his  friends 
Wren  and  Neile,  a  storage-battery  of  fame  in  the  shape 
of  a  counter-anagram,  which — if  Huygens's  private  notes 
are  to  be  relied  upon — he  fraudulently  interpreted  as  an 
announcement  similar  in  purport  to  that  imparted  to  him 
from  the  Hague.  Some  unexplained  circumstance  possibly 
underlies  a  transaction  on  the  face  of  it  highly  discredit- 
able to  our  countrymen.  The  pretensions  of  the  English 
observers  were  at  any  rate  quickly  and  quietly  withdrawn, 
and  Huygens  was  left  in  undisturbed  enjoyment  of  the 
credit  most  justly  due  to  him. 

Shortly  after  his  return  from  Paris,  late  in  1655,  he 
constructed  a  telescope  of  23  feet,  magnifying  one 
hundred  times ;  and  the  comparison  of  the  observa- 
tions it  afforded  him  with  those  of  the  previous  year 
enabled  him  at  once  to  penetrate  the  mystery  of  Saturn's 
enigmatical  appendages.  His  hypothesis  as  to  their 
nature,  wrapt  up  in  the  customary  logogryph,  was  ap- 
pended to  his  little  tract  on  the  Saturnian  satellite,  with 
an  accompanying  prediction  of  the  future  changes  of 
figure  to  be  expected  in  the  planet.  Its  verification,  how- 
ever, falls  outside  the  limits  of  the  publication  we  are  at 
present  concerned  with.  Nor  does  it  include  any  mention 
of  the  novel  sight  disclosed  to  Huygens  by  his  improved 
instrument  in  the  constellation  of  Orion,  where  a  certain 
"  hiatus  "  in  the  firmament  permitted  (as  he  supposed) 
the  pure,  faint  splendour  of  the  empyrean  to  shine  through 
on  his  amazed  vision. 

Huygens  .had  an  eminently  sane  and  sagacious  mind. 
His  fortunate  intuitions  were  numerous,  and  the  inves- 
tigations they  suggested  were  singularly  solid  and  com- 
plete. A  great  part  of  his  work  was  thus  fitted  to  be,  and 
has  actually  become,  the  substructure  of  the  modern 
scientific  edifice.  He  was,  however,  less  happy  in  the 
few  cases  in  which,  relaxing  his  habitual  prudence,  he 
gave  the  rein  to  speculation.  His  prevision  that  the 
measure  of  discovery  in  the  solar  system  was  filled  by  the 
disclosure  of  Titan,  was  belied  with  scarcely  civil  haste 
by  Cassini's  further  detections  hopelessly  overthrowing  the 
numerical  balance  between  six  primary  and  six  second- 
ary bodies.  And  the  surmises  which  constituted  the  bulk 
of  his  "  Cosmotheoros  "  were,  for  the  most  part,  infelicitous. 
Yet  he  reprehended,  as  woven  out  of  figments,  the  Car- 
tesian theory  of  the  origin  of  the  universe,  and  concluded 
with  the  wise  and  memorable  words  :— "To  me  it  would 
be  much  if  we  could  understand  how  things  actually  are, 
which  we  are  far  enough  from  doing.  How  they  were 
brought  about,  what  they  are,  and  how  begun,  I  believe 
to  be  beyond  the  range  of  human  ingenuity  to  discover, 
or  even  by  conjectures  to  approach/' 

A.  M.  Clerke. 


NORWEGIAN    GEOLOGY. 

BbmmeWen   og  Karmocn   med   Omgivelser.      Geologisk 

beskrevne  af  Dr.  Hans  Reusch.    (Kristiania  :  Published 

by  the  Geological  Survey  of  Norway,  1888.) 

'THE  attention  of  geologists  in  all  parts  of  the  world 

-1-      has  for   some  years   been  concentrated  upon  the 

crystalline  schists,  which  have  so  long  presented  insuper- 


able difficulties  to  those  who  would  explore  their  origin. 
Little  by  little  the  darkness  has  been  rising  from  these 
ancient  foundation  stones  of  the  earth's  crust ;  and 
though  a  long  time  must  probably  still  elapse  before  their 
history  can  be  even  approximately  sketched,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  we  are  now  at  last  on  the  right  road  of 
investigation.  Fresh  evidence  is  continually  being  ob- 
tained from  the  rao:t  widely-separated  regions,  and  each 
additional  body  of  facts  goes  to  support  the  view  that  the 
schistose  rocks  are  the  records  of  gigantic  terrestrial 
displacements,  whereby  portions  of  the  crust  have  been 
pushed  over  each  other,  and  so  crushed  and  deformed  as 
to  acquire  new  internal  rock-structures.  Out  of  these 
mechanical  movements,  with  their  accompanying  che- 
mical transformations,  a  true  theory  of  metamorphism 
will  no  doubt  eventually  be  evolved.  In  the  meantime 
it  is  too  soon  to  generalize  ;  what  we  need  is  a  far  larger 
mass  of  observations.  The  subject  is  a  wide  one,  for  it 
involves  the  labours  of  the  field-geologist,  the  petro- 
grapher,  the  mineralogist,  the  chemist,  and  the  physicist. 
And  only  by  the  united  exertions  of  these  fellow-workers 
can  we  hope  for  good  progress  and  solid  results. 

The  most  recent  contribution  to  the  question  of  the 
origin  of  the  crystalline  schists  has  just  appeared  in  the 
form  of  a  handsome  volume,  by  Dr.  Hans  Reusch,  on 
the  Bommel  and  Karm  Islands  off  the  mouth  of  the 
Hardanger  Fjord.  It  consists  of  a  mass  of  detailed  ob- 
servations on  the  structure  of  the  crystalline  rocks  of  that 
part  of  the  Scandinavian  coast,  and  furnishes  an  admir- 
able array  of  fresh  data  for  the  study  of  the  problems 
of  regional  metamorphism.  Dr.  Reusch's  previous  re- 
searches on  the  compressed  conglomerates  and  meta- 
morphosed fossiliferous  rocks  of  the  same  district  were 
of  the  utmost  value  in  the  discussion  of  the  question, 
and  he  now  augments  these  by  new  details  from  the 
surrounding  region. 

Especially  important  are  the  numerous  illustrations  of 
the  effects  of  pressure  and  stretching  in  the  production 
of  the  well-known  structures  of  the  crystalline  schists. 
The  strangely  deceptive  resemblance  to  stratification 
resulting  from  these  processes  is  exhibited  in  many  ex- 
amples. Excellent  instances  are  likewise  given  of  the 
production  of  foliation  in  dykes.  Eruptive  diabases  and 
gabbros  are  shown  to  pass  into  dioritic  rocks,  and  horn- 
blendic  schists  and  granite  mto  various  foliated  com- 
pounds. More  novel  features  of  the  essay  are  the 
careful  studies  of  the  deformation  and  foliation  of  what 
were  unquestionably  at  one  time  ordinary  sedimentary 
deposits — sandstones,  conglomerates,  and  limestones.  It 
is  shown,  for  instance,  that  in  a  mass  of  still  recognizable 
conglomerate  the  planes  of  stratification  are  cut  across, 
almost  at  right  angles,  by  those  of  foliation,  while  the 
lines  that  mark  the  direction  of  stretching  or  deformation 
slant  upwards  across  the  latter. 

Dr.  Reusch  brings  forward  some  remarkable  observa- 
tions regarding  the  connection  between  conglomerates 
and  granitic  rocks.  He  thinks  that  in  some  places  what 
is  now  granite  has  resulted  from  the  metamorphism  of 
what  was  originally  a  breccia  or  conglomerate  composed 
of  fragments  of  granite,  gneiss,  quartzite,  and  quartz. 
The  quartzite  and  quartz,  being  less  liable  to  change, 
remain  still  visible,  while  the  granite  and  gneiss  have 
passed  into  common   granite.      In   another  locality  he 


June  28,  1888] 


NATURE 


195 


finds  what  he  believes  to  be  evidence  of  the  pas- 
sage of  a  conglomerate  into  augen-gneiss.  Without 
in  any  way  calling  in  question  the  accuracy  of  his 
observations,  a  geologist  who  has  had  much  expe- 
rience among  the  crystalline  schists  in  districts  where 
great  thrust-planes  and  other  proofs  of  powerful  dis- 
placements prevail,  will  recall  examples  of  breccias  that 
might  at  first  be  taken  to  be  sedimentary  masses,  but 
which  have  eventually  proved  to  be  portions  of  rocks 
crushed  during  the  disturbances  that  produced  the 
schistose  structure.  Coarse  pegmatites,  for  example, 
may  be  traced  through  various  stages  of  comminution, 
until  they  pass  at  length,  along  the  plane  of  movement, 
into  finely  fissile  rocks,  that  in  some  cases  might  be  mis- 
taken for  shales,  in  others  for  eruptive  rocks  with  the 
most  exquisitely  developed  flow-structure.  The  "  eyes  " 
in  some  augen-gneisses  are  almost  certainly  fragments 
resulting  from  the  crushing  of  largely  crystalline  rocks, 
such  as  coarse  pegmatites. 

Dr.  Reusch  shows  that  in  Scandinavia,  as  in  the  north- 
west and  north  of  the  British  Isles,  the  axes  of  the  great 
terrestrial  plications  run,  on  the  whole,  from  north-east 
to  south-west,  and  that  as  they  have  involved  Upper 
Silurian  strata  in  their  folds,  the  movements  must  be  of 
later  date  than  some  part,  if  not  the  whole,  of  the  Upper 
Silurian  period.  His  essay  is  most  welcome  as  a  valu- 
able contribution  to  one  of  the  most  perplexing  problems 
in  geology.  It  once  more  shows  him  to  be  a  careful  and 
intrepid  field-geologist,  and,  at  the  same  time,  a  skilful 
worker  with  the  microscope.  This  combination  of  quali- 
fications fits  him  in  a  special  manner  for  the  researches  to 
which  he  has  devoted  himself  with  so  much  ardour  and 
success.  His  volume  is  copiously  illustrated  with  figures 
in  the  text,  and  a  selection  of  coloured  geological  maps. 
English  geologists  will  also  welcome  in  it  a  copious 
English  summary  of  the  contents.  We  may  confidently 
predict  that,  before  long,  some  of  his  drawings  will  be 
reproduced  in  the  text-books  as  standard  representations 
of  the  facts  of  regional  metamorphism.  A.  G. 


TRAVELS  IN  ARABIA  DESERT  A. 

Travels  in  Arabia  Deserta,    By  C.  M.  Doughty.  2    Vols. 
(Cambridge:   University  Press,  1888.) 

MR.  DOUGHTY'S  book  takes  us  back  to  the  age  of 
the  old  travellers.  His  wanderings  were  in  countries 
where  not  only  no  European  had  preceded  him,  but 
where  he  had  to  travel  with  his  life  continually  in  his 
hand.  He  travelled  alone,  and  without  any  of  the  equip- 
ment which  the  modern  explorer  considers  a  necessity  of 
existence,  living  with  the  Beduin  of  the  desert,  and 
sharing  with  them  their  wretched  subsistence.  Even 
the  style  in  which  he  writes  is  a  style  in  which  it  is  safe 
to  say  no  Englishman  has  written  for  the  last  two 
hundred  years,  and  while  it  attracts  us  by  its  quaintness 
it  makes  us  not  unfrequently  wonder  what  is  exactly  the 
author's  meaning.  Indeed,  were  it  not  for  the  very 
excellent  index,  it  would  often  be  almost  impossible  to 
find  one's  way  through  the  labyrinth  of  Mr.  Doughty's 
sentences  or  to  ascertain  the  exact  chronology  of  his 
route. 

Mr.  Doughty  seems  to  have  been  born  under  an  evil 


star.  While  he  possesses  most  of  the  requisites  of  a 
successful  traveller — a  love  of  adventure,  an  insatiable 
curiosity,  indomitable  patience,  and  extraordinary  powers 
of  endurance— he  lacks,  on  the  other  hand,  just  those 
qualities  which  would  have  smoothed  his  journey  and 
made  his  life  more  comfortable.  He  is  a  man,  by  his  own 
confession,  of  blunt  and  plain  speech,  improvident  and 
forgetful,  with  an  old  world  belief  in  the  falsity  of 
Mohammedanism  and  the  Koran,  and  the  iniquity  of 
countenancing  them  even  by  a  politic  word.  His 
explorations  took  place  at  the  time  of  the  war  between 
Turkey  and  Russia,  when  the  fanaticism  of  the  Moham- 
medans of  Arabia  was  excited  to  the  utmost,  and  he  had 
to  leave  Damascus  at  the  outset  of  his  journey  without 
any  letters  or  help  from  the  British  Consul.  The  latter, 
indeed,  declared  that  "he  had  as  much  regard  of"  him, 
would  he  "  take  such  dangerous  ways,  as  of  his  old  hat." 
It  is  no  wonder  that  Mr.  Doughty  complains  of  conduct 
which  caused  him  "  many  times  come  nigh  to  be  foully 
murdered." 

His  explorations  were  conducted  in  Central  Arabia, 
a  country  which  is  less  known  than  Central  Africa. 
He  accompanied  the  Mecca  pilgrims  as  far  as  "  the 
kella  "  or  fort  of  Medain,  where  he  lived  with  the  Turkish 
garrison,  visiting  from  time  to  time  the  ruins  of  Medain 
Salihh,  and  taking  squeezes  of  the  Nabathean  inscrip- 
tions there.  After  some  months  he  joined  the  nomad 
Beduin,  and  wandered  with  them  in  various  directions, 
visiting  the  lava  crags  on  the  west  and  Teyma  on  the 
north-east.  Eventually  he  made  his  way  to  Hayil  in  the 
Nejd — a  centre  of  Wahabi  fanaticism — where  a  sort  of 
settled  government  was  established  under  Ibn  Rashid. 
From  Nejd  he  was  forwarded,  along  with  some  Beduin, 
to  Kheybar,  not  far  to  the  north  of  Medineh,  where  he 
found  himself  once  more  within  what  was  nominally 
Turkish  territory,  and  was  arrested  as  a  spy.  Released 
after  a  while,  he  was  sent  back  again,  for  reasons  which 
are  never  explained,  to  Hayil,  and  here  his  troubles  began. 
The  people  of  the  place  would  not  receive  the  Christian 
stranger  a  second  time  ;  his  Beduin  escort  were  afraid 
of  bringing  him  back  to  Kheybar,  and  after  a  series 
of  misadventures  he  was  finally  deserted  near  Aneyza,  a 
town  considerably  to  the  south  of  Hayil.  The  governor 
and  leading  merchants  of  Aneyza  fortunately  befriended 
him,  and  he  at  last  found  his  way  to  Taif  and  Jedda, 
though  not  without  being  first  stripped  of  the  little  that 
still  belonged  to  him,  and  narrowly  escaping  with  his  life. 

Mr.  Doughty  was  a  careful  observer,  and  he  has  not 
only  made  important  additions  to  our  geographical  know- 
ledge of  Arabia,  but  also  to  our  geological  knowledge  of 
it.  The  inscriptions  he  obtained  at  Medain  Salihh  and 
elsewhere  have  been  published  by  the  French  Govern- 
ment, and  important  inferences  have  been  drawn  from 
them.  They  prove  not  only  that  a  powerful  and  civilized 
State  existed  in  this  part  of  Arabia  far  on  into  the 
Christian  era — a  fact  which  was  already  known — but  that 
this  State  was  Nabathean  in  its  language  and  character. 
M.  Berger  has  come  to  the  conclusion  that  before  the 
rise  of  Mohammedanism  the  Arabic  of  the  Koran  was 
the  language  of  Mecca  only  and  the  surrounding  district, 
the  Nabathean  with  its  Aramaic  affinities  prevailing  in 
the  northern  part  of  Arabia,  and  the  Himyaritic  in  the 
south.     It  seems  clear,  at  all  events,  that  the  Nabathean 


196 


NATURE 


\June  28,  1888 


and  Himyaritic  civilizations  once  adjoined  one  another, 
and  that  their  overthrow  marked  the  triumph  of  the  Beduin 
children  of  Ishmael.  Since  Mr.  Doughty's  travels,  Prof. 
Euting  and  M.  Huber  (who  was  afterwards  murdered 
by  the  Hharb  Arabs)  have  visited  Medain  Salihh  and 
Teyma,  and  carried  away  with  them  a  large  number 
of  valuable  inscriptions.  One  of  these,  on  a  stele 
discovered  at  Teyma,  is  now  in  Paris. 

It  is  interesting  to  find  Mr.  Doughty  confirming  the 
statement  that  the  final  n  of  classical  Arabic  is  still 
pronounced  in  the  Nejd.  His  remarks  on  the  diseases 
prevalent  among  the  natives  are  also  curious,  though  it  is 
difficult  to  believe  that  the  ophthalmia  from  which  he  had 
himself  suffered  is  due  to  drinking  cold  water  before 
going  to  bed.  Everyone,  however,  who  has  had  much 
experience  of  the  Beduin  will  agree  with  the  character 
he  gives  of  them.  The  Egyptians  have  a  proverb  :  "He 
who  shows  a  Beduin  the  way  to  his  door  will  have 
long  sorrow  "  ;  and  the  traveller  is  unfortunate  who  is 
compelled  to  intrust  himself  to  their  tender  mercies. 

A.  H.  S. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Charts  showing  the  Mean  Barometrical  Pressure  over  the 
Atlantic, Indian, and  Pacific  Oceans.  (London:  Published 
by  the  Authority  of  the  Meteorological  Council,  1888.) 

These  charts  are  issued  in  the  form  of  an  atlas,  and 
deal  in  a  very  complete  manner  with  the  barometer  means 
and  range  of  all  oceans.  The  months  for  which  separate 
charts  are  given  are  February,  May,  August,  and 
November,  which  have  been  selected  to  represent  the 
mean  values  for  winter,  spring,  summer,  and  autumn 
respectively  in  either  hemisphere.  In  addition  to  the 
large  charts,  which  give  the  material  in  considerable  detail, 
there  are  four  index  charts,  on  a  smaller  scale,  which 
exhibit  for  the  same  months  the  isobars,  or  lines  of  equal 
pressure,  over  the  entire  globe.  These  are  followed  by 
four  charts,  on  the  same  scale,  showing  the  range  of 
barometrical  pressure.  The  observations  have  been 
derived  from  logs  and  documents  deposited  in  the 
Meteorological  Office  ;  logs  and  remark-books  of  Her 
Majesty's  ships,  furnished  by  the  Admiralty ;  published 
narratives  of  various  voyages,  and  various  published  results 
of  other  nations  ;  also  observations  at  coast  stations  and 
islands  obtained  from  all  available  sources.  The  number 
of  observations  obtained  from  the  Meteorological  Office 
logs  for  the  several  oceans  are :  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  339,300  ; 
the  Indian  Ocean,  162,000;  the  Pacific,  88,300. 

The  barometrical  means  are  given  in  large  figures  for 
areas  of  50  of  latitude  by  50  of  longitude,  and  for  the 
benefit  of  those  who  require  the  material  in  greater  detail 
smaller  figures  are  given  to  show  the  means  for  areas  of 
20  of  latitude  by  20  of  longitude,  the  several  means  being 
obtained  from  the  daily  averages.  The  range  to  the 
nearest  tenth  of  an  inch  for  each  50  area  is  placed  over 
the  mean  for  that  area,  and  the  number  of  observations 
under  it ;  so  that  the  charts  not  only  supply  the  navigator 
with  all  the  detail  he  is  likely  to  require,  but  afford 
opportunity  of  the  values  being  combined  by  other  com- 
pilers with  material  of  a  similar  nature.  The  isobars  are 
given  for  each  tenth  of  an  inch,  and  the  free  use  which 
has  been  made  of  the  barometrical  values  for  the  coast 
stations  greatly  enhances  the  degree  of  dependence  of 
the  several  lines.  To  facilitate  the  use  of  the  charts  for 
the  navigator,  the  observations  are  corrected  for  a 
constant  altitude  of  1 1  feet  above  the  sea,  and  are  reduced 
to  320  F.,  but  are  not  corrected  for  gravity  ;  a  table  is, 
however,  given  on  the  face  of  keach  chart  to  facilitate 
this  correction. 


The  general  charts  which  give  the  isobars  of  the  globe 
show  very  conspicuously  the  prevalence  of  high-pres- 
sure areas  in  each  ocean  in  each  of  the  four  seasons. 
Change  is  of  course  shown  in  the  distribution  of  pres- 
sure, but  there  is  the  same  tendency  to  the  persistency 
of  high  reading.  It  is  seen  that  these  areas  oscillate  and 
alter  somewhat  in  intensity  with  the  season,  but  there 
are  many  characteristics  in  common.  The  northern  ' 
Indian  Ocean,  which  is  much  more  surrounded  by  land, 
is,  however,  an  exception,  the  high  pressure  being  situated 
over  the  northern  part  of  the  ocean,  in  November  and 
February,  and  decreasing  southwards ;  whilst  in  May 
and  August  the  pressure  is  lowest  in  the  north  and 
increases  southwards,  this  change  being  intimately  related 
to  the  monsoon  winds.  The  charts  of  range  show  well 
the  influence  of  season,  the  largest  differences  occurring 
in  the  winter  months  in  each  hemisphere.  In  February 
the  range  to  the  west  of  the  British  Islands  is  2-o  inches, 
whereas  in  August  it  is  only  one-half  as  great.  The  effect 
of  latitude  on  the  amount  of  range  is  very  evident,  the 
values  near  the  equator  being  very  small.  These  charts, 
which  have  been  compiled  by  Nav.-Lieut.  Baillie,  R.N., 
are  considerably  in  advance  of  any  previous  work  of  a 
similar  nature,  and  will  materially  aid  in  explaining  the 
general  circulation  of  the  wind  over  the  globe,  barometric 
pressure  and  wind  being  so  intimately  co-related. 

Commercial  Mathematics.     (London :  Longmans,  Green, 
and  Co.,  1888.) 

This  volume  is  the  continuation  of  a  series  of  books  on 
commercial  education,  and  specially  adapted  for  can- 
didates preparing  for  the  Oxford  and  Cambridge  Schools 
Examination  Board.  Arithmetic  is  first  dealt  with,  the 
first  chapter  consisting  of  an  account  of  the  decimal 
system  in  France.  Moneys,  weights,  and  measures,  of 
Germany,  Italy,  Spain,  Portugal,  and  Russia,  are  next 
discussed,  followed  by  numerous  examples  ;  and  the  first 
part  concludes  with  a  chapter  on  "  Exchange."  Algebra 
is  the  subject  of  Part  II.,  which  extends  as  far  as  quadratic 
equations,  including  involution  and  evolution,  and  a 
chapter  on  the  methods  of  testing  algebraical  results. 
The  examples  are  very  numerous  throughout,  and  the 
book  ought  to  be  much  in  demand  by  the  above- 
mentioned  students  and  others.  The  volume  concludes 
with  a  list  of  results  of  the  various  examples. 

A  Wanderer's  Notes.     By  W.  Beatty-Kingston.     In  Two 
Vols.     (London:  Chapman  and  Hall,  1888.) 

For  about  thirteen  years  Mr.  Beatty-Kingston  acted  as  a 
newspaper  correspondent,  and  in  this  capacity  he  had  to 
visit  many  centres  of  life  on  the  Continent.  In  the 
present  volumes  he  offers  a  selection  from  the  innumer- 
able pen-and-ink  sketches  taken  during  his  "  multifarious 
peregrinations."  The  work,  we  need  scarcely  say,  has 
no  strictly  scientific  interest ;  but  it  is  fresh  and  amusing, 
and  will  no  doubt  give  pleasure  to  many  a  reader  who 
has  never  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  the  places  de- 
scribed in  its  lively  pages.  The  author  is  particularly 
successful  in  the  chapters  devoted  to  Germany,  where  he 
seems  to  have  had  exceptional  means  of  making  himself 
acquainted  with  the  characteristics  of  the  various  classes 
of  the  community. 

LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
of  NATlTKe.  Aro  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations.\ 

The  "  Sky-coloured  Clouds"  again. 
These  clouds  have  reappeared.      Last  night  was  the   first 
occasion    I    have    noticed  any    very  distinct    display  of   them 


June  28,  1888] 


NATURE 


197 


this  year  ;  but  I  first  saw  them  on  June  12,  and  again  on  the 
14th  ;  and  I  think  I  saw  them  on  June  13  and  17,  but  was  not 
sure.  Previous  to  that,  on  May  15  and  16,  the  green  sky,  when 
the  sun  had  set,  was  of  unusual  brightness,  showing,  as  I 
thought,  a  tendency  to  the  formation  of  these  clouds.  Each 
summer  they  appear  to  be  growing  fainter  since  they  were  first 
generally  noticed  in  1885. 

This  year's  observations  were  made  in  Cornwall,  with  the 
exception  of  last  night's,  which  was  at  Sunderland. 

Sunderland,  June  26.  T.  W.  Backhouse. 


Earth  Pillars  in  Miniature. 

I  HAVE  taken  two  photographs  of  an  interesting  specimen  I 
obtained  from  the  cliffs  here.  The  stone  is  composed  of  very 
fragile  sand-rock  containing  fragments  of  flint.  A  large  mass 
of  this  became  detached  from  the  higher  part  of  the  cliff,  and 
some  of  the  pieces  chanced  to  fall  on  a  ledge  upon  which  dry 
sand  was  constantly  pouring  in  windy  weather.  The  action  of 
this  falling  sand  wore  away  all  parts  of  the  surface  of  the  stone 
save  those  protected  by  the  small  embedded  fragments  of  flint, 
and  hence  the  formation  of  these  miniature  pillars. 

Owing  to  the  extreme  incoherency  of  the  substance,  I  un- 
fortunately lost  one  of  the  most  perfect  pillars  before  the 
photograph  was  taken. 

I  conclude  that  the  formation  of  these  pillars  was  the  work  of 
a  very  few  days — perhaps  hours.  On  visiting  the  spot  a  few 
days  later,  all  traces  of  sand-action  had  been  obliterated  by 
rain.  An  analogous  case  was  that  described  by  Mr.  Blake 
("Geol.  Miscell.  Tracts,"  10)  as  occurring  in  the  Pass  of  San 
Bernardino,  California  ;  the  surface  of  the  granite  had  been 
worn  by  blown  sand,  but  the  garnets  therein  stood  out  in  relief 
upon  long  pedicles  of  feldspar,  as  a  proof  of  their  superior 
hardness.  Cecil  Carus-Wilson. 

Bournemouth,  June  23. 

Egg-masses  on  Hydrobia  ulvce. 

Can  any  of  your  readers  give  me  information  in  regard  to  the 
eggs  of  the  Gastropod  Hydrobia  ulvce  ? 

At  a  recent  excursion  of  the  Biological  Society  to  Hilbre 
Island,  while  crossing  the  great  stretch  of  wet  sand  which  lies  in 
the  estuary  of  the  Dee,  it  was  noticed  that  the  surface  was 
covered  in  some  places  with  vast  numbers  of  Hydrobia.  Some 
of  these  were  brought  back  to  the  laboratory  in  their  wet  sand  ; 
and,  on  being  put  in  a  dish  of  sea-water,  the  mollusks  were 
found  next  day  to  have  crawled  out  of  the  sand,  and  I  then 
noticed  that  nearly  every  specimen  had  several  little  rounded 
excrescences  scattered  over  the  surface  of  its  shell.  On  examin- 
ing these,  it  was  found  that  each  was  a  little  mass  of  small 
sand  grains,  in  the  centre  of  which  was  a  clear  jelly  containing 
several  segmenting  ova  or  young  embryos.  They  were  undoubt- 
edly molluscan  eggs,  as  I  kept  them  alive  until  one  or  two  had 
reached  a  veliger  stage  ;  but  did  they  belong  to  the  Hydrobia 
or  to  some  other  mollusk  ?  No  other  mollusk  was,  however, 
noticed  in  any  abundance  in  the  neighbourhood.  Has,  then, 
the  Hydrobia  acquired  the  habit  of  laying  its  eggs  upon  its 
neighbours'  shells,  as  being  the  only  comparatively  stable  objects 
to  be  found  in  the  fine  shifting  sands  around  it  ?  Possibly  the 
method  of  oviposition  of  Hydrobia  is  already  known,  but  1  have 
not  come  across  any  reference  to  it.  W.  A.  Herdman. 

Zoological  Laboratory,  University  College,  Liverpool, 
June  23. 

Interpretation  of  the  Differential  Equation  to  a  Conic. 

May  I  ask,  with  reference  to  Mr.  Asutosh  Mukhopadhyay's 
geometrical  interpretation  of  the  above  in  Nature  of  the  21st 
inst.,  how  to  draw  a  curve  at  every  point  of  which  the  radius  of 
curvature  vanishes,  or  the  curvature  is  infinite? 

Is  it  not  evident  that  the  osculating  conic  of  a  conic  is  the 
conic  itself,  and  the  "  aberrancy  curve  "  therefore  a  point,  the 
centre  of  the  conic  ? 

The  "sought  found,"  then,  is  the  fact  that  a  conic  is  a  conic  ! 

June  24.  R.  B.  H. 

The  Nephridia  of  Earthworms. 

The  last  number  of  the  Quarterly  Journal  of  Microscopical 
Science  has  just  come  into  my  hands,  containing  a  paper,  by  Mr. 


Beddard,  on  the  nephridia  of  certain  earthworms.  In  Novem- 
ber of  last  year  I  read  a  paper,  before  the  Royal  Society  of 
Victoria,  on  the  anatomy  of  the  large  Gippsland  earthworm, 
Megascolides  australis.  This,  which  reaches  the  length  of  6  to 
8  feet,  is,  I  believe,  the  largest  recorded  earthworm,  and  its 
nephridial  system  is  of  great  interest,  corresponding  closely  in 
many  points  to  that  described  by  Mr.  Beddard,  in  the  above 
paper,  as  present  in  Acanthodrilus  multiporus  and  Perichata 
aspergillum.  My  drawings  have  been  for  some  time  in  the 
lithographers'  hands,  but  as  it  will  still  be  one  or  two  months 
before  the  full  paper  is  published,  I  should  be  glad  to  draw 
attention  to  .the,  in  some  ways,  still  more  interesting  features  of 
the  nephridial  system  in  Megascolides  australis.  The  nephridia 
are  very  evident,  and  can  be  divided  clearly  into  two  sets. 

(1)  A  great  number  of  small  vascular-looking  little  tufts  lining 
the  body- wall,  save  in  the  mid-dorsal  and  ventral  lines,  espe- 
cially abundant  in  the  segments  containing  the  reproductive 
organs  (segments  11-19).     They  have  no  internal  opening. 

(2)  A  series  of  much  larger  nephridia,  one  pair  of  which  only 
is  present  in  each  of  the  segments  in  the  middle  and  posterior 
regions  of  the  body — that  is,  from  about  segment  120  to  segment 
500,  or  whatever  may  be  the  number  of  the  last  segment,  which 
varies  according  to  the  worm's  size.  They  are  placed  in  the 
anterior  part  of  each  segment,  whilst  the  smaller  nephridia  form 
a  ring  round  the  body-wall  posteriorly.  Each  one  has  the  usual 
ciliated  funnel  opening  through  the  septum  into  the  segment  in 
front. 

Throughout  the  body,  where  the  smaller  nephridia  occur, 
there  is  a  network  of  intra-cellular  ducts  lying  immediately 
beneath  the  peritoneal  epithelium  in  connection  with  the 
nephridia,  and  giving  off  an  irregularly  arranged  series  of 
branched  ducts  opening  externally.  Ventrally,  also,  there 
appears  to  be  on  either  side,  in  the  middle  and  posterior  por- 
tions of  the  body,  a  longitudinal  duct  running  from  segment  to 
segment  within  the  most  ventral  pair  of  setae :  into  this  duct 
open,  first,  the  larger  nephridia,  and,  secondly,  the  most  vent- 
rally  placed  small  nephridia  of  the  same  segment ;  the  latter, 
again,  are  united  with  the  network  of  ducts  connected  with  the 
ring  of  smaller  nephridia. 

In  the  case  of  the  latter  there  appear  to  be  two  somewhat 
differently  formed  sets  of  external  openings.  All  over  the  body, 
except  in  the  clitellar  region,  where  there  is  a  great  glandular 
development  in  the  body-wall,  the  duct  leading  to  the  exterior 
is  intercellular,  small,  and  composed  of  minute  cubical  cells  ;  in 
the  clitellar  region,  on  the  other  hand,  the  duct,  though  similarly 
intercellular,  is  much  swollen  out,  slightly  coiled,  and  always 
provided  with  a  distinct  coiled  blood-vessel  running  by  its  side  : 
its  lining  cells  form  a  flattened  epithelium. 

The  external  opening  itself  is  formed  of  cells  of  the  epidermis, 
so  modified  as  to  present  very  much  the  external  appearance  of 
a  taste-bulb — that  is,  they  form  a  sphere  with  the  cells  thicker  in 
their  middle  parts,  and  the  two  ends  attached  to  the  poles  of  the 
sphere,  the  duct  passing  right  up  through  the  centre.  This 
structure  of  the  external  opening  is  common  to  all  the  ducts  in 
the  body,  but  is  more  clearly  made  out  in  the  case  of  those 
referred  to. 

The  large  size  and  ciliated  funnels  of  the  paired  nephridia 
distinguish  these  clearly  from  the  more  numerous  smaller  ones, 
which  are  devoid  of  internal  openings,  and  are  without  a  doubt 
homologous  with  those  of  Acanthodrilus  and  Perichceta.  At  the 
same  time  it  is  important  to  note  that  histologically  the  network 
of  ducts  and  the  longitudinal  duct,  which  are  intimately  con- 
nected with  each  other,  are  precisely  similar  in  structure,  and, 
a  priori,  might  be  expected  to  have  a  similar  origin,  i.e.  to  be 
derived  from  the  same  germinal  layer. 

Leaving  out  of  consideration  at  present  the  question  dealt 
with  by  Mr.  Beddard  and  others  as  to  the  homology  of  the  larval 
nephridia  of  Choctopods,  and  assuming  the  existence  of  a  genetic 
relationship  between  the  adult  nephridial  system  of  Platy helminths 
and  Chsetopods,  the  following  questions  suggest  themselves  with 
regard  to  the  various  nephridial  structures  present  in  different 
forms  :  — 

(1)  Are  the  longitudinal  ducts  in  Lanice,  the  embryo  of 
Lumbricus  and  Megascolides,  homologous  with  each  other? 
Before  this  can  be  determined  the  development  of  each  must  be 
known. 

(2)  Granted,  of  which  there  can  be  little  doubt,  that  the 
smaller  nephridia  of  Megascolides  are  homologous  with  the 
nephridia  of  Perichata  and  Acanthodrilus,  are  not  the  large 
nephridia  of  the  former,  which  are  completely  wanting  in  both 


198 


NATURE 


{June  28,  1888 


of  these,  homologous  with  the  nephridia  of  other  worms,  such  as 
Lumbricus,  to  which  they  are  at  all  events  suspiciously  similar  in 
arrangement  and  structure? 

(3)  What  is  the  relationship  of  the  large  to  the  smaller 
nephridia?  Are  they  modifications  of  the  latter,  or  independent 
later  developments  ? 

(4)  In  either  case  the  Platyhelminth  system  must  be  more 
closely  represented  by  the  small  nephridial  bodies  devoid  of 
internal  openings  and  provided  with  a  network  of  ducts  such  as 
is  found  in  Perichceta,  Acanlhodrihts,  and  Megascolides,  than 
by  the  more  specialized  paired  nephridia  of  such  a  form  as 
Lumbricus, 

Possibly  the  course  of  development  as  represented  in  living 
forms  may  be  somewhat  as  follows  : — 

(1)  A  series  of  numerous  nephridia  present  in  each  segment 
devoid  of  internal  openings,  and  connected  by  a  continuous 
network  of  ducts,  as  in  Perichceta. 

(2)  The  aggregation  of  these  smaller  nephridia  into  tufts  in 
various  parts,  as  in  the  posterior  region  of  Acanthodrilus ;  the 
subsequent  enlargement  of  certain  of  these  nephridia  and  the 
acquirement  by  them  of  secondary  internal  openings.  It 
is  interesting  to  note  in  Megascolides  that  in  the  anterior 
part  of  the  body,  where  the  small  nephridia  are  scattered 
over  the  whole  body- wall  of  the  segment,  large  nephridia 
are  absent,  whilst  they  are  present  in  the  posterior  region, 
where  the  small  nephridia  are  confined  to  a  ring  in  the 
posterior  part  of  the  segment.  In  this  case,  as  the  nephridia 
become  aggregated  into  tufts  in  the  anterior  part,  the  ducts 
connecting  them  with  those  in  the  posterior  region  of  the  seg- 
ment next  in  front  will  become  fewer,  until  when,  as  in  Megasco- 
lides, only  a  single,  modified,  large  nephridium  remains  on 
either  side  anteriorly,  there  will  be  simply  one  duct  from  seg- 
ment to  segment  uniting  with  a  network  of  ducts  in  the  region 
where  the  small  nephridia  still  persist. 

■  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  aggregation  of  the  smaller 
nephridia,  and  on  this  supposition  the  modification  of  certain  of 
them  to  form  the  larger  ones,  commences  in  the  posterior  region 
of  the  body. 

In  certain  worms,  such  as  Acanthodrilus,  the  connection  of 
the  network  of  ducts  from  segment  to  segment  seems  to  have 
b';en  lost,  at  any  rate  in  the  adult  :  aggregation  of  these  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  setae,  and  subsequent  modification,  would 
give  rise  to  a  certain  number  of  nephridia  in  each  segment 
without  any  longitudinal  duct. 

(3)  The  next  stage  is  reached  in  such  a  form  as  Lattice,  where 
the  longitudinal  duct  persists,  but  all  trace  of  the  smaller 
nephridia  is  lost. 

(4)  The  final  stage  is  present  in  most  earthworms  where,  in 
the  adult,  all  traces  of  both  small  nephridia  and  longitudinal 
duct  are  lost,  though  the  latter  is  present,  as  in  Lumbricus,  during 
development. 

These  lead  to  three  conclusions,  two  of  which  are  practically 
identical  with  those  of  Mr.  Beddard  : — 

(1)  That  the  smaller  nephridia  without  internal  openings, 
irregularly  scattered,  and  with  a  network  of  ducts  such  as 
are  seen  in  Acanthodrilus,  Perichceta,  and  Megascolides,  are 
homologous  with  the  nephridial  system  of  Platyhelminths. 

■  (2)  That  the  larger  nephridia  typical  of  most  earthworms  are 
secondary  modifications  of  certain  of  the  smaller  ones  subsequent 
to  their  aggregation  into  groups ;  the  modified  ones  acquiring 
each  an  internal  opening. 

(3)  That  there  is  no  homology  between  the  longitudinal  duct 
of  lumbricus,  Lattice,  Megascolides,  &c,  with  that  of  the  Platy- 
helminths, since  it  has  only  been  developed  in  the  above  forms 
in  connection  with  the  larger  nephridia  and  as  a  modification 
of  the  original  network,  and  has  thus  had  its  origin  within  the 
Chsetopod  group.  W.  Baldwin  Spencer. 

Melbourne  University,  May  3. 

Strange  Rise  of  Wells  in  Rainless  Season. 
My  attention  has  "been  directed  to  a  letter  published  by  you  a 
few  weeks  ago  (May  31,  p.  103)  under  the  above  heading.  It 
would  appear  that  there  is  something  mysterious  in  the  eyes  of 
the  author  of  the  communication  in  question  in  the  fact  that  the 
water  in  two  wells  at  Fareham  rose  several  feet  in  the  month  of 
March,  as  he  states,  "after  a  continuance  of  north-east  wind, 
without  rain,  but  with  half  a  gale  blowing  "  ;  so  that  it  would 
appear  that  there  was  some  connection  between  the  north- 
easterly gale  and  the  rise  of  the  water. 


In  this,  however,  the  author  is  entirely  mistaken  ;  the  rise  of 
water  in  the  wells  in  question  is  nothing  more  than  the  ordinary 
seasonable  rise  due  to  percolation.  For  twelve  years  past  I 
have  been  carrying  on  constant  observations  of  the  underground 
water-supplies  in  various  parts  of  this  country,  and  it  is  quite 
true,  as  mentioned  by  the  writer  of  the  letter,  that  ordinarily  the 
water  in  wells  rises  in  the  winter  and  falls  in  the  summer  ;  but 
this  is  by  no  means  an  exceptional  rule,  for  in  the  present  season  . 
there  have  been  two  low  waters,  the  last  of  which  occurred  in 
the  southern  counties  on  the  8th  of  March  in  the  present  year. 
After  that  date  commenced  a  very  wet  period,  and  before  the 
end  of  the  month  over  z\  inches  of  rain  had  absolutely  passed 
through  the  ground  as  measured  by  my  percolation  gauges. 
The  water  in  a  well  on  the  Surrey  hills,  which  had  been  falling 
up  to  March  8,  rose  before  the  end  of  the  month  over  30  feet, 
which  rise  was  entirely  due  to  the  replenishment  from  rainfall. 
I  may  point  out  that  there  are  many  wells  at  the  present  time 
in  which  the  water  is  still  rising,  while  in  others  in  the  same 
districts  the  water  is  falling,  for  the  simple  reason  that  as  a  rule 
underground  water  follows  the  same  law  as  water  flowing  in  a 
river,  and  that  the  floods  or  high  waters  descend  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest  districts,  so  that  at  present  in  wells  situated 
in  high  positions  the  water  is  falling,  while  the  crest  of  the  wave 
of  high  water  in  the  same  watershed  has  not  yet  been  reached 
in  the  lower  levels  of  the  district. 

That  the  water  in  wells  does  fluctuate  under  certain  conditions 
of  the  wind  there  is  no  doubt,  as  I  have  already  drawn  attention 
both  to  the  fluctuations  which  take  place  in  the  water-levels  of 
wells  under  barometric  pressure  and  also  in  the  volume  of  water 
discharged  from  the  ground  with  a  fall  of  the  barometer.  It 
should  be  noted  that  the  rise  of  water  in  wells  when  due  to 
barometric  changes  coincides  with  the  fall  of  the  barometer. 
Now  a  north-easterly  wind  as  a  rule  is  accompanied  by  a  high 
barometer,  and  therefore  is  not  likely  to  influence  the  rise  of 
water  in  a  well.  During  the  month  of  March  the  rainfall  was 
above  the  average,  while  there  were  comparatively  few  days 
with  easterly  winds,  the  only  time  when  it  could  be  termed 
a  half-gale  from  the  north-east  occurring  on  the  19th  of  March, 
by  which  time  the  water  in  all  the  wells,  had  made  a  consider* 
able  rise,  due  simply  to  ordinary  percolation.  Thus  there  is  no 
mystery  attaching  to  the  rising  of  the  water  in  these  wells  at 
Fareham.  The  rise  simply  took  place  from  the  replenishment 
of  the  springs,  which  this  year  occurred  at  a  "period  somewhat 
different  from  ordinary  years.  Baldwin  Latham. 

7  Westminster  Chambers,  Westminster,  June  21. 


THE  OPENING  OF  THE  MARINE  BIOLOGICAL 
LABOR  A  TOR  Y  AT  PL  YMOUTH. 

THE  Laboratory  at  Plymouth,  which  is  now  ready 
-*-  for  work,  is  remarkable  as  being  the  first  institution 
in  this  country  designed  purely  for  scientific  research 
which  has  been  originated  and  firmly  established  by  the, 
efforts  of  scientific  men  appealing  to  the  generosity  and 
confidence  of  wealthy  individuals  and  corporations  who 
desire  the  progress  of  knowledge  for  practical  ends  and 
the  general  good  of  the  community. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  Marine  Biological  Association 
will  begin  its  active  career  on  and  after  Saturday  next. 
On  that  day  Prof.  Flower  will,  on  behalf  of  the  Associa- 
tion, declare  that  the  Laboratory  at  Plymouth,  which  is 
now  complete,  is  open  for  the  purposes  of  biological 
research.  The  opening  of  the  Laboratory  may  be  said 
to  mark  an  epoch  in  English  zoological  science,  just  as 
the  opening  of  the  Stazione  Zoologica  at  Naples,  which 
is  essentially  a  German  undertaking,  marked  an  epoch  in 
German  science.  It  is  true  that  small  sea-side  labora- 
tories have  already  been  established  in  the  United  King- 
dom— at  Granton,  St.  Andrews,  and  Liverpool  Bay  ;  but 
none  of  them  can  compare  with  the  present  undertaking 
in  size  and  importance,  and  none  can  offer  such  advantages 
to  the  investigator. 

The  present  institution,  it  may  be  remembered,  is 
historically  the  outcome  of  the  International  Fisheries 
Exhibition  held  in  London  in  1883.  That  Exhibition 
served  partly  as  an  amusement  to  Londoners,  but  it  also 
performed    a   far  more    important    service — it    directed 


June  28,  1888] 


NATURE 


199 


people's  minds  towards  the  importance  of  our  fisheries, 
and  made  them  in  some  slight  degree  acquainted  with 
the  conditions  under  which  those  fisheries  are  worked. 
At  the  close  of  the  Exhibition  a  large  balance  was  left  in 
the  hands  of  its  promoters,  and  it  was  hoped  by  many 
leading  men  of  science  that  the  money  thus  obtained 
would  be  utilized,  in  part  at  least,  for  the  purpose  of  en- 
couraging investigations  upon  the  habits  and  economy  of 
food-fishes.  But  the  money  was  appropriated  to  other 
purposes,  excellent  in  themselves,  though  useless  as  a 
means  of  promoting  the  welfare  of  the  fishing  industry. 
Prof.  Lankester,  however,  nothing  daunted  by  this  want 
of  success  in  obtaining  funds  from  the  surplus  of  the 
Fisheries  Exhibition,  and  feeling  that  it  was  time  to 
strike  whilst  people's  minds  were  awakened  to  the  im- 
portance of  our  fisheries  and  to  the  lack  of  scientific 
knowledge  concerning  them,  determined  to  found  an 
Association  for  the  purpose  of  encouraging  the  study  of 
the  marine  fauna  of  the  British  coasts,  and  with  the 
consent  and  co-operation  of  the  officers  of  the  Royal 
Society  called  a  meeting  for  this  purpose  in  the  rooms 
of  the  Society  on   March  31,  1884.     The  meeting  was 


eminently  successful.  The  Duke  of  Argyll  proposed  a 
resolution  to  found  the  Marine  Biological  Association  of 
the  United  Kingdom,  and  was  supported  by  the  most 
eminent  biologists  in  the  country.  An  appeal  was  made 
for  subscriptions  in  aid  of  the  Association's  projects,  and 
was  soon  liberally  responded  to.  His  Royal  Highness 
the  Prince  of  Wales  graciously  consented  to  be  patron 
of  the  Association,  and  gave  liberally  to  its  funds  ;  the 
scientific  Societies,  the  City  Companies,  the  Universities, 
and  finally  Her  Majesty's  Government,  joined  the  list  of 
subscribers  ;  and  in  a  short  time  the  Association  was  in  a 
position  to  undertake  the  building  of  a  laboratory.  After 
some  debate  as  to  the  most  suitable  locality  for  a  laboratory, 
Plymouth  was  selected,  partly  because  it  is  a  large 
and  important  fishing  port,  partly  because  the  rich- 
ness of  the  marine  fauna  of  the  Sound  and  neighbouring 
shores  was  extolled  by  such  eminent  authorities  as  the 
late  Dr.  Gwyn  Jeffreys,  Mr.  C.  Spence  Bate,  and  Prof. 
Charles  Stewart.  The  Association  was  fortunate  in  se- 
curing a  magnificent  site  for  the  Laboratory  from  the  War 
Office.  For  this  site,  than  which  a  better  could  not  be  found, 
the  Association  is  greatly  indebted  to  the  Earl  of  Morley, 


South  Front  of  the  Laboratory  of  the  Marine  Biological  Association,  on  the  Citadel  Hill,  Plymouth. 


then  Under-Secretary  of  State  for  War,  and  to  Sir  Andrew 
Clarke,  Inspector-General  of  Fortifications.  The  site 
granted  is  that  part  of  the  fosse  of  the  Citadel  lying  to 
the  south  of  the  portion  of  the  Citadel  wall  known  as 
King  Charles's  Curtain  ;  it  has  a  frontage  towards  the  sea 
of  265  feet,  and  extends  some  240  feet  southwards  of  the 
Citadel. 

The  Laboratory  which  has  been  erected  upon  this 
site  is  admirably  adapted  to  the  purposes  of  the  As- 
sociation. It  is,  indeed,  more  than  a  laboratory,  it  is 
also  an  aquarium,  whose  tanks  are  extensive  and  fitted 
with  every  improvement  that  modern  science  can  suggest. 
The  total  cost  of  building,  machinery,  and  fittings,  includ- 
ing all  fees,  has  been  about  ,£12,500.  The  structure  com- 
prises a  central  portion  with  a  wing  at  either  end.  The 
east  wing  is  almost  wholly  taken  up  by  the  residence  of 
the  Director,  and  needs  no  further  comment.  The  west 
wing  has  on  the  ground  floor  the  caretaker's  rooms,  and  a 
receiving-room  into  which  the  results  of  the  day's  fishing 
will  be  brought  for  examination.  On  the  first  floor  are 
chemical  and  physiological  laboratories,  and  on  the 
second  floor  a  'library,  a  work-room,  and  lavatory.     The 


main  part  of  the  building  contains  on  the  ground  floor  the 
aquarium  or  tank-room,  and  on  the  first  floor  the  large 
laboratory.  The  tank-room  is  fitted  with  slate  and  glass 
tanks,  of  which  one  on  the  northern  side  is  a  noble 
window  tank,  30  feet  in  length,  9  feet  in  breadth,  and 
5  feet  deep.  There  are  three  large  window  tanks  on 
the  north  side,  nine  smaller  window  tanks  on  the 
south  side,  and  a  series  of  five  table  tanks  in  the  middle 
of  the  room.  The  tanks  are  supplied  with  salt  water  from 
two  reservoirs,  capable  of  holding  50,000  gallons  each. 
From  these  the  salt  water  is  led  by  means  of  pumps 
through  vulcanite  pipes  into  the  tanks  ;  the  openings  of 
the  pipes  are  placed  rather  more  than  a  foot  above  the 
level  of  the  water  in  the  tanks,  and  are  provided  with 
nozzles  through  which  the  water  is  forced  at  high  pressure, 
so  as  to  form  jets  descending  deep  into  the  tank  and 
carrying  with  them  a  quantity  of  atmospheric  air.  Circu- 
lation has  been  established  in  the  tanks  for  the  last 
fortnight,  and  there  is  every  reason  to  be  satisfied  with  the 
arrangements  for  aerating  the  water.  The  jets  carrying 
down  the  air  deep  into  the  water  of  the  tank  cause  it  to  be 
filled  with  minute  bubbles  so  as  to  resemble  champagne, 


200 


NA  TURE 


{June  28,  1888 


and  all  the  animals  that  have  hitherto  been  placed  in  the 
tanks  are  thriving  in  a  remarkable  manner,  which  is  the 
more  surprising  as  new  tanks  are  generally  supposed  to 
be  highly  injurious  to  organisms  introduced  into  them  at 
an  early  a  date.  It  would  be  too  much  to  expect  that 
tanks  which  have  been  so  lately  put  up  should  be  fully 
stocked  within  a  fortnight,  nevertheless  they  will  present 
to  the  visitors  on  Saturday  next  a  sufficiently  interesting 
collection  of  local  marine  forms.  For  the  rest  the  tank- 
room  is  a  plain  room,  without  any  attempt  at  ornamenta- 
tion. It  is  felt  that  the  scientific  nature  of  the  institution 
must  be  kept  in  the  foreground,  and  therefore  nothing  has 
been  done  to  make  the  aquarium  a  place  of  popular 
amusement. 

The  main  laboratory  is  at  present  fitted  with  seven 
compartments,  each  to  contain  a  single  naturalist,  along 
its  north  side.  When  the  necessity  arises,  similar  com- 
partments will  be  placed  along  the  south  side.  In  the 
centre  of  the  room  is  a  series  of  slate  and  glass  tanks 
supplied  with  salt  water  from  the  circulating  pumps. 
Beneath  these  a  convenient  shelf  has  been  arranged,  so 
that  naturalists  will  be  able  to  arrange  for  themselves 
any  temporary  apparatus  that  they  may  devise  on  as 
small  a  scale  as  is  desired.  All  the  arrangements  for 
laboratory  work  will  be  completed  at  the  end  of  the  week, 
and  the  only  thing  now  required  is  a  company  of  ardent 
naturalists  ready  to  undertake  the  work  that  lies  to  hand. 

The  material  for  work  and  for  stocking  the  tanks  is 
obtained  from  the  Sound  and  the  sea  outside  the  break- 
water by  means  of  the  trawl,  dredge,  and  tow-net.  In 
general  a  small  shrimp-trawl  is  used  in  preference  to  a 
dredge,  as  it  is  much  wider  and  equally  effective  in 
collecting  the  animals  that  live  at  the  bottom.  Hitherto 
the  Association  has  been  content  to  hire  fishing-boats  for 
dredging  and  trawling.  Most  of  the  work  has  been  done 
in  a  small  hook-and-line  boat,  the  Quickstep,  of  about  6 
tons  burden,  and  on  special  occasions  the  trawler  Lola, 
of  50  tons  burden,  has  been  hired.  But  this  method  of 
hiring  is  too  expensive  to  be  continued  ;  the  Association 
will  soon  have  to  purchase  boats,  and  probably  will  find 
it  necessary  to  acquire  a  steam-boat.  Without  a  steam- 
boat the  station  is  at  the  mercy  of  the  weather.  If  it  is 
a  dead  calm — and  calms  are  frequent  in  summer  along 
the  south  coast— no  dredging  or  surface  netting  can  be 
done,  a  cruel  fate  when  one  knows  that  the  pelagic 
surface  fauna  swarms  thickest  on  bright  calm  days.  Or 
if  it  is  wished  to  explore  a  certain  region  on  a  certain 
day,  if  the  winds  prove  contrary  more  than  half  the  day 
is  lost  in  beating  up  to  the  station  ;  in  any  case  one  may 
generally  expect  to  have  a  contrary  wind  on  either 
the  outward  or  the  homeward  journey.  Such  losses 
of  time  and  material  are  most  prejudicial  to  an  institu- 
tion like  the  Marine  Biological  Association.  A  steam- 
launch  has  been  found  necessary  at  all  other  marine 
stations.  Dr.  Dohrn  has  two,  the  Johannes  Miiller  and 
the  Francis  Balfour,  at  Naples  ;  and  the  Granton  Station 
is  well  provided  for  by  the  steam -yacht  Medusa.  But  the 
funds  of  the  Association  have  been  well  nigh  exhausted 
in  the  building  of  the  Laboratory.  If  a  steam-launch  is 
found  requisite,  it  will  be  necessary  to  make  another 
appeal  to  its  friends,  which,  let  it  be  hoped,  will  be  as 
heartily  responded  to  as  the  first  appeal  for  funds  for 
building  the  Laboratory. 

It  was  stated  in  the  early  part  of  this  article  that  the 
Association  would  begin  its  active  existence  on  the  30th. 
It  would  have  been  more  proper  to  say  its  active  public 
existence,  for  its  staff  has  been  active  for  some  time  past. 
Under  the  guidance  of  Mr.  W.  Heape,  the  late  Superin- 
tendent, a  careful  though  necessarily  incomplete  explora- 
tion of  the  Sound  has  been  made,  and  numbers  of 
animals  have  been  identified,  preserved,  and  put  aside 
for  future  reference.  Mr.  Heape  has  also  drawn  up  a 
complete  list  of  the  fauna  and  flora  of  the  Sound,  as 
recorded  up  to  the  present  date,  and  a  very  formidable 


list  it  is.1  Botanists  will  note  that  there  are  more 
than  250  species  of  marine  Algae,  recorded  from  the 
neighbourhood,  and  some  of  them  are  extremely  rare. 
Zoologists  will  see  that  there  is  an  unlimited  field  in 
certain  groups,  particularly  in  the  Crustacea  and  the 
Mollusca,  but  that  some  of  the  most  interesting  forms, 
the  "pets  of  the  laboratory,"  such  as  Amphioxus  and 
Balanoglossus,  are  absent.  But  to  say  that  they  are 
absent  means  only  that  other  less  familiar  forms  are 
present,  and  that  these  old  favourites  have  not  been 
recorded.  A  good  authority  states  that  Amphioxus  can 
be  found  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood,  whilst  it  is 
confidently  expected  that  both  Balanoglossus  and  Amphi- 
oxus can  be  introduced  from  the  Channel  Isles,  and 
kept  alivj  in  the  tanks.  The  zoologist  need  not  fear  that 
he  will  i.e  hindered  by  the  poverty  of  the  fauna  ;  there  is 
materia!  enough  and  to  spare.  The  remarkable  Hydroid, 
Myriothela,  occurs  at  low-tide  mark  in  considerable 
quantities.  The  interesting  Actinias,  Edwardsia  and 
Peachia,  are  to  be  found.  Appendiculariae  and  Sagittas  are 
taken  in  hundreds  in  the  tow-net.  Antedon  rosaceus  is 
abundant  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  Laboratory,  and  mag- 
nificent specimens  of  Pinna  will  attract  the  interest  of  the 
malacologist. 

Such  an  institution  as  that  at  Plymouth  challenges 
comparison  with  Dr.  Dohrn's  famous  zoological  station  at 
Naples.  But  there  is  this  remarkable  difference  between 
them.  The  Naples  Station  was  founded  for  purely 
scientific  objects  :  it  does  not  profess  to  undertake  in- 
vestigations for  the  benefit  of  economic  interests.  The 
Marine  Biological  Association  receives  an  annual  grant 
from  the  Treasury,  on  the  express  understanding  that 
it  shall  conduct  researches  upon  questions  relating  to 
the  life- history  and  habits  of  food-fishes.  It  must  not 
be  supposed  that  this  work  is  not  scientific  because 
it  has  a  practical  object  in  view.  Science  is  not  only 
the  art  of  thinking  correctly,  but  of  observing  and 
recording  correctly,  and  correct  observations  and  records 
of  the  life-history  of  our  food-fishes  are  just  what  are 
wanted  at  the  present  time.  The  work  of  Mr.  J.  T. 
Cunningham,  Naturalist  of  the  Association,  is  an  admir- 
able example  of  scientific  method  as  applied  to  a  practical 
investigation.  Mr.  Cunningham  has  been  working  for 
several  months  at  the  development  of  fishes,  with  the  view 
of  obtaining  and  artificially  fertilizing  their  ova  and  rear- 
ing their  young  in  captivity.  His  results  are  necessarily 
incomplete,  as  he  has  been  working  in  a  half-finished 
laboratory,  without  gas  or  water,  and  under  unfavourable 
conditions  as  regards  boats  and  men.  But  he  has  suc- 
ceeded in  tracing  out  the  life-history  of  the  "  merry  sole" 
{Pleuronectes  microcephalus),  and  has  acquainted  himself 
with  such  important  facts  concerning  the  development  of 
the  common  sole,  that  he  confidently  expects  to  be  able  to 
hatch  out  the  young  next  season,  his  experiments  this  year 
having  failed  only  for  want  of  the  proper  apparatus.  He 
has  also  recorded  the  interesting  fact  that  the  herring 
spawns  continuously  from  January  to  June  in  the  Channel, 
and  appears  to  have  no  definite  breeding-season  as  it  has 
in  northern  waters  ;  and  has  discovered  important  facts 
relative  to  the  breeding  of  the  mackerel,  conger,  and 
pilchard,  which  will  be  made  public  as  soon  as  his  re- 
searches are  complete.  He  has  now  stocked  one  of  the 
large  tanks  in  the  aquarium  with  conger,  and  hopes  in  a 
short  time  to  give  a  final  opinion  on  the  obscure  question 
of  the  breeding  of  this  fish.  Not  less  interesting  than  Mr. 
Cunningham's  researches  are  those  of  Mr.  Weldon  on  the 
breeding  of  the  common  lobster,  and  the  rock-lobster 
or  craw-fish  (Palinurus).  Another  of  the  tanks  in  the 
aquarium  is  occupied  by  the  "berried"  females  of  these 
forms,  whose  bright  colours  and  active  movements  are  as 
attractive  to  the  casual  spectator  as  their  study  is  interest- 
ing to  the  zoologist  and  fisherman.     So  much  has  been 

1  Mr.  Heape's  list  will  be  published  in  the  forthcoming  number  (No.  II. 
of  the  Journal  of  the  Marine  Biological  Association. 


June  28,  1888] 


NATURE 


201 


done  already  by  Messrs.  Cunningham  and  Weldon  under 
the  most  unfavourable  conditions  that  it  cannot  but  be 
anticipated  that  when  a  number  of  investigators  are 
working  under  favourable  conditions  on  different  groups, 
but  with  a  common  object  in  view,  results  of  the  greatest 
scientific  and  practical  importance  will  accrue. 

The  ceremony  on  Saturday  will  be  interesting  and  im- 
portant. Many  of  the  leading  biologists  in  England  will 
be  present,  but  unfortunately  the  eminent  President  of  the 
Association,  Prof.  Huxley,  will  be  absent  on  account  of 
ill-health,  and  so,  unfortunately,  will  Prof.  Moseley,  one  of 
its  most  ardent  and  generous  supporters.  The  Fish- 
mongers' Company  have  added  to  their  munificent 
patronage  of  the  institution  by  undertaking  the  entertain- 
ment of  the  numerous  guests  who  have  been  invited  to 
the  ceremony  ;  and  the  Association  will  be  launched  on  its 
career  of  usefulness  in  a  manner  worthy  of  its  aspirations, 
and  satisfactory  in  the  highest  degree  to  its  energetic 
promoters.  G.  C.  B. 


PERSONAL  IDENTIF1CA  TION  AND 
DESCRIPTION.1 

II. 

"DERSONAL  characteristics  exist  in  much  more 
■*■  minute  particulars  than  those  described  in  the 
last  article.  Leaving  aside  microscopic  peculiarities 
which  are  of  unknown  multitudes,  such  as  might  be 
studied  in  the  800,000,000  specimens  cut  by  a  micro- 
tome, say  of  one  two-thousandth  part  of  an  inch  in 
thickness,  and  one  tenth  of  an  inch  each  way  in  area, 
out  of  the  4000  cubic  inches  or  so  of  the  flesh,  fat,  and 
bone  of  a  single  average  human  body,  there  are  many 
that  are  visible  with  or  without  the  aid  of  a  lens. 

The  markings  in  the  iris  of  the  eye  are  of  the 
above  kind  ;  they  have  been  never  adequately  studied 
except  by  the  makers  of  artificial,  eyes,  who  recognize 
thousands  of  varieties  of  them.  These  markings  well 
deserve  being  photographed  from  life  on  an  enlarged  scale. 
I  shall  not  dwell  now  upon  these,  nor  on  such  pecu- 
liarities as  those  of  hand-writing,  nor  on  the  bifurcations 
and  interlacements  of  the  superficial  veins,  nor  on  the 
shape  and  convolutions  of  the  ear.  These  all  admit  of 
brief  approximate  description  by  the  method  explained  in 
the  last  article — namely,  by  reference  to  the  number  in  a 
standard  collection  of  the  specimen  that  shall  not  differ 
from  it  by  more  than  a  specified  number  of  units  of 
unlikeness.  I  fully  explained  what  a  unit  of  unlikeness 
was,  and  certain  mechanical  means  by  which  a  given  set 
of  measures  could  be  compared  with  great  ease  and  by  a 
single  movement  with  every  set  simultaneously,  in  a  large 
standard  collection  of  sets  of  measures. 

Perhaps  the  most  beautiful  and  characteristic  of  all 
superficial  marks  are  the  small  furrows  with  the  inter- 
vening ridges  and  their  pores  that  are  disposed  in  a  sin- 
gularly complex  yet  even  order  on  the  under  surfaces  of 
the  hands  and  the  feet.  I  do  not  now  speak  of  the 
large  wrinkles  in  which  chiromantists  delight,  and  which 
may  be  compared  to  the  creases  in  an  old  coat  or  to  the 
deep  folds  in  the  hide  of  a  rhinoceros,  but  of  the  fine 
lines  of  which  the  buttered  fingers  of  children  are  apt  to 
stamp  impressions  on  the  margins  of  the  books  they 
handle,  that  leave  little  to  be  desired  on  the  score  of 
distinctness.  These  lines  are  found  to  take  their  origin 
from  various  centres,  one  of  which  lies  in  the  under 
surface  of  each  finger-tip.  They  proceed  from  their 
several  centres  in  spirals  and  whorls,  and  distribute  them- 
selves in  beautiful  patterns  over  the  whole  palmar  surface. 
A  corresponding  system  covers  the  soles  of  the  feet. 
The  same  lines  appear  with  little  modification  in  the 
hands  and  feet  of  monkeys.     They  appear  to  have  been 

*  "The  substance  of  a  Lecture  given  by  Francis  Galton,  F.R.S.,  at  the  Royal 
Institution  on  Friday  evening,  May  25.  1888.     Continued  from  p.  177. 


carefully  studied  for  the  first  time  by  Purkinje  in  1822  ; 
since  then  they  have  attracted  the  notice  of  many  writers 
and  physiologists,  the  fullest  and  latest  of  whom  is 
Kollman,  who  has  published  a  pamphlet  upon  them, 
"Tastapparat  der  Hand"  (Leipzig,  1883),  in  which  their 
physiological  significance  is  fully  discussed.  Into  that 
part  of  the  subject  I  am  not  going  to  enter  here.  It 
has  occurred  independently  to  many  persons  to  propose 
finger-marks  as  a  means  of  identification.  In  the  last 
century,  Bewick  in  one  of  the  vignettes  in  the 
"  History  of  Birds"  gave  a  woodcut  of  his  own  thumb- 
mark,  which  is  the  first  clear  impression  that  I  know 
of.  Some  of  the  latest  specimens  that  I  have  seen  are 
by  Mr.  Gilbert  Thomson,  an  officer  of  the  American 
Geological  Survey,  who,  being  in  Arizona,  and  having  to 
make  his  orders  for  payment  on  a  camp  suttler,  hit 
upon  the  expedient  of  using  his  own  thumb-mark  to 
serve  the  same  purpose  as  the  elaborate  scroll  engraved 
on  blank  cheques  —  namely,  to  make  the  alteration 
of  figures  written  on  it,  impossible  without  detection. 
I  possess  copies  of  two  of  his  cheques.  A  San 
Francisco  photographer,  Mr.  Tabor,  made  enlarged 
photographs  of  the  finger-marks  of  Chinese,  and  his 
proposal  seems  to  have  been  seriously  considered  as  a 
means  of  identifying  Chinese  immigrants.  I  may  say 
that  I  can  obtain  no  verification  of  a  common  state- 
ment that  the  method  is  in  actual  use  in  the  prisons  of 
China.  The  thumb-mark  has  been  used  there  as  else- 
where in  attestation  of  deeds,  much  as  a  man  might 
make  an  impression  with  a  common  seal,  not  his  own, 
and  say,  "  This  is  my  act  and  deed"  ;  but  I  cannot  hear  of 
any  elaborate  system  of  finger-marks  having  ever  been  em- 
ployed in  China  for  the  identification  of  prisoners.  It  was, 
however,  largely  used  in  India,  by  Sir  William  Herschel, 
twenty-eight  years  ago,  when  he  was  an  officer  of  the 
Bengal  Civil  Service.  He  found  it  to  be  most  suc- 
cessful in  preventing  personation,  and  in  putting  an 
end  to  disputes  about  the  authenticity  of  deeds.  He 
described  his  method  fully  in  Nature,  in  1880  (vol.  xxiii. 
p.  76),  which  should  be  referred  to  by  the  reader  ;  also  a 
paper  by  Mr.  Faulds  in  the  next  volume.  I  may  also 
refer  to  articles  in  the  American  journal  Science,  1886 
(vol.  viii.  pp.  166  and  212). 

The  question  arises  whether  these  finger-marks  remain 
unaltered  throughout  the  life  of  the  same  person.  In 
reply  to  this,  I  am  enabled  to  submit  a  most  interesting 
piece  of  evidence,  which  thus  far  is  unique,  through  the 
kindness  of  Sir  Wm.  Herschel.  It  consists  of  the  imprints 
of  the  two  first  fingers  of  his  own  hand,  made  in  i860  and 
in  1888  respectively ;  that  is,  at  periods  separated  by  an 
interval  of  twenty-eight  years.  I  have  also  two  inter- 
mediate imprints,  made  by  him  in  1874  and  in  1883 
respectively.  The  imprints  of  i860  and  1888  have  now 
been  photographed  on  an  enlarged  scale,  direct  upon  the 
engraver's  block,  whence  Figs.  9  and  1 1  are  cut ;  these 
woodcuts  may  therefore  be  relied  on  as  very  correct  repre- 
sentations. Fig.  10  contains  the  portion  of  Fig.  9  to  which 
I  am  about  to  draw  attention.  On  first  examining  these  and 
other  finger-marks,  the  eye  wanders  and  becomes  confused, 
not  knowing  where  to  fix  itself ;  the  points  shown  in  Fig.  10 
are  those  it  should  select.  They  are  those  at  which  each 
new  furrow  makes  its  first  appearance.  The  furrows 
may  originate  in  two  principal  ways,  which  are  not  always 
clearly  distinguishable  :  (1)  the  new  furrow  may  arise  in 
the  middle  of  a  ridge  ;  (2)  a  single  furrow  may  bifurcate 
and  form  a  letter  Y.  The  distinction  between  (1)  and  (2) 
is  not  greatly  to  be  trusted,  because  one  of  the  sides  of 
the  ridge  in  case  (1)  may  become  worn,  or  be  narrow  and 
low,  and  not  always  leave  an  imprint,  thus  converting  it 
into  case  (2)  ;  conversely  case  (2)  may  be  changed  into 
(1).  The  position  of  the  origin  of  the  new  furrow  is, 
however,  none  the  less  defined.  I  have  noted  the 
furrow-heads  and  bifurcations  of  furrows  in  Fig.  9,  and 
shown  them  separately  in  Fig.  10.     The  reader  will  be  able 


202 


NATURE 


{June  28,  1888 


to  identify  these  positions  with  the  aid  of  a  pair  of  com- 
passes, and  he  will  find  that  they  persist  unchanged  in  Fig. 
11,  though  there  is  occasional  uncertainty  between  cases 
(1)  and  (2).  Also  there  is  a  little  confusion  in  the  middle  of 
the  small  triangular  space  that  separates  two  distinct 
systems  of  furrows,  much  as  eddies  separate  the  stream 


.  s2&S!9fc. 


Fig.  9. — Enlarged  impressions  of  the  fore  and  middle  finger  tips  of  the  right 
hand  of  Sir  William  Herschel,  made  in  the  year  i860. 


*  A  ^ 

Fig.  10. — Positions  of  furrow-heads  and  bifurcations  of  furrows,  in  Fig.  9. 


FlG   11. — Enlarged  impressions  of  the  fore  and  middle  finger  tips  of  the  right 
hand  of  Sir  William  Herschel,  made  in  the  year  1888. 

lines  of  adjacent  currents  converging  from  opposite 
directions.  A  careful  comparison  of  Figs.  9  and  1 1  is  a 
most  instructive  study  of  the  effects  of  age.  There  is  an 
obvious  amount  of  wearing  and  of  coarseness  in  the 
latter,  but  the  main  features  in  both  are  the  same.  I 
happen  to  possess  a  very  convenient  little  apparatus  for 


recording  the  positions  of  furrow-heads.  It  is  a  slight  and 
small,  but  well-made  wooden  pentagraph,  multiplying  five- 
fold, in  which  a  very  low-power  microscope,  with  coarse 
cross-wires,  forms  the  axis  of  the  short  limb,  and  a  pencil- 
holder  forms  the  axis  of  the  long  limb.  I  contrived  it 
for  quite  another  use — namely,  the  measurement  of  the 
length  of  wings  of  moths  in  some  rather  extensive  experi- 
ments that  are  now  being  made  for  me  in  pedigree  moth- 
breeding.  It  has  proved  very  serviceable  in  this  inquiry 
also,  and  was  much  used  in  measuring  the  profiles  spoken 
of  in  the  last  article.  Without  some  moderate  magnifying 
power,  the  finger-marks  cannot  be  properly  studied  It 
is  a  convenient  plan,  in  default  of  better  methods,  to  prick 
holes  with  a  needle  through  the  furrow-heads  into  a 
separate  piece  of  paper,  where  they  can  be  studied  without 
risk  of  confusing  the  eye.  There  are  peculiarities  often 
found  in  furrows  that  do  not  appear  in  these  particular 
specimens,  to  which  I  will  not  further  refer.  In  Fig.  10 
the  form  of  the  origin  of  the  spirals  is  just  indicated. 
These  forms  are  various  ;  they  may  be  in  single  or  in 
multiple  hnes,  and  the  earlier  turns  may  form  long  loops 
or  be  nearly  circular.  My  own  ten  fingers  show  at  least 
four  distinct  varieties. 

Notwithstanding  the  experience  of  others  to  the  con- 
trary, I  find  it  not  easy  to  make  clear  and  perfect 
impressions  of  the  fingers.  The  proper  plan  seems  to  be 
to  cover  a  flat  surface,  like  that  of  a  piece  of  glass  or  zinc, 
with  a  thin  and  even  coat  of  paint,  whether  it  be  printers' 
ink  or  Indian  ink  rubbed  into  a  thick  paste,  and  to  press 
the  finger  lightly  upon  it  so  that  the  ridges  only  shall 
become  inked,  then  the  inked  fingers  are  pressed  on  smooth 
and  slightly  damped  paper.  If  a  plate  of  glass  be 
smoked  over  a  paraffin  lamp,  a  beautiful  negative  im- 
pression may  be  made  on  it  by  the  finger,  which  will  show 
well  as  a  lantern  transparency.  The  blackened  finger 
may  afterwards  b2  made  to  leave  a  positive  impression  on 
a  piece  of  paper,  that  requires  to  be  varnished  if  it  is  to  be 
rendered  permanent.  All  this  is  rather  dirty  work,  but 
people  do  not  seem  to  object  to  it ;  rivalry  and  the  hope 
of  making  continually  better  impressions  carries  them  on. 
It  is  troublesome  to  make  plaster  casts  ;  modelling-clay 
has  been  proposed  ;  hard  wax,  such  as  dentists  use,  acts 
fairly  well ;  sealing-wax  is  excellent  if  the  heat  can  be 
tolerated  ;  I  have  some  good  impressions  in  it.  For  the 
mere  study  of  the  marks,  no  plan  is  better  than  that  of 
rubbing  a  little  thick  paste  of  chalk  ("  prepared  chalk ") 
and  water  or  sized  water  upon  the  finger.  The  chalk  lies 
in  the  furrows  and  defines  them.  They  could  then  be 
excellently  photographed  on  an  enlarged  scale.  My  own 
photographic  apparatus  is  not  at  hand,  or  I  should  have 
experimented  in  this.  When  notes  of  the  furrow-heads 
and  of  the  initial  shape  of  the  spiral  have  been  made, 
the  measurements  would  admit  of  comparison  with  those 
in  catalogued  sets,  by  means  of  a  numerical  arrangement, 
or  even  by  the  mechanical  selector  described  in  the  last 
article.  If  a  cleanly  and  simple  way  could  be  discovered 
of  taking  durable  impressions  of  the  finger  tips,  there 
would  be  little  doubt  of  its  being  serviceable  in  more 
than  one  way. 

In  concluding  my  remarks,  I  should  say  that  one  of  the 
inducements  to  making  these  inquiries  into  personal 
identification  has  been  to  discover  independent  features 
suitable  for  hereditary  investigation.  It  has  long  been 
my  hope,  though  utterly  without  direct  experimental 
corroboration  thus  far,  that  if  a  considerable  number  of 
variable,  and  independent  features  could  be  catalogued, 
it  might  be  possible  to  trace  kinship  with  considerable 
certainty.  It  does  not  at  all  follow  because  a  man  inherits 
his  main  features  from  some  one  ancestor,  that  he  may 
not  also  inherit  a  large  number  of  minor  and  commonly 
overlooked  features  from  many  ancestors.  Therefore  it 
is  not  improbable,  and  worth  taking  pains  to  inquire 
whether  each  person  may  not  carry  visibly  about  his  body 
undeniable  evidence  of  his  parentage  and  near  kinships. 


June  28,  1 888] 


NA  TURE 


203 


A  MAGNIFICENT  METEOR. 


VVrK  have  received  from  Mr.  C.  Weatherall  Baker  (who 
vv  writes  from  Penang)  the  following  notes  on  a 
magnificent  meteor  seen  from  the  s.s.  Prometheus  in 
longitude  62'  E.,  latitude  io°  20'  N.,  at  1040  p.m.  on 
Friday,  April  6,  1888:— 

"  It  rose  from  the  north  by  west  horizen,  and,  pass- 
ing behind  a  small  cloud,  travelled  in  a  south  by 
east  direction,  being  at  one  period  of  its  transit  im- 
mediately above  the  ship.  Sketch  A  represents  the 
meteor  when  in  that  position.  It  traversed  the  whole 
arc  of  1  So0,  and  was  visible  from  first  to  last  with 
the  exception  of  the  time  when  it  was  behind  the  small 
cloud  before  mentioned,  the  transit  occupying  about  30 


A. — View  as  seen  directly  over  ship  at  10.40  p.m. 


B. — View  as  seen  shortly  after  appearing. 

seconds.  When  directly  above  the  ship,  the  head  ap- 
peared as  near  as  possible  the  size  of  the  moon  when  at 
its  height,  and  the  tail  streamed  out  as  in  the  sketch,  to  a 
length  of  about  15  diameters  of  the  head.  It  was  a 
brilliant  white,  and  threw  shadows  oh  the  deck  as  dense  as 
those  caused  by  the  moon  at  the  full.  Sketch  B  represents 
the  meteor  as  it  appeared  a  few  degrees  above  the  horizon 
on  its  upward  course,  and  on  reaching  the  same  distance 
above  the  south  by  east  horizon  it  was  simply  a  dull  red 
ball  with  no  tail  whatever.  Captain  J.  K.  Webster,  of  the 
s.s.  Prometheus,  who  has  had  many  years'  experience  in 
most  parts  of  the  world,  tells  me  that  he  has  never  seen  a 
meteor  in  any  way  equalling  this  one  for  size  or  brilliancy." 


NOTES. 

The  Council  of  the  Royal  Meteorological  Society  have  issued 
a  circular  requesting  that  photographs  of  lightning  may  be  sent 
to  them.  In  response  to  a  similar  appeal  last  year,  about  sixty 
photographs  of  lightning-flashes  were  received  from  various  parts 
of  Europe  and  America.  The  Council  remind  photographers, 
amateur  and  professional,  that  the  photography  of  lightning 
does    not    present    any    particular    difficulties.        "  If   a  rapid 


plate,  and  an  ordinary  rapid  lens  with  full  aperture,  be  left  un- 
covered for  a  short  time  at  night  during  a  thunderstorm,  flashes 
of  lightning  will,  after  development,  be  found  in  some  cases  to 
have  impressed  themselves  upon  the  plate.  The  only  difficulty 
is  the  uncertainty  whether  any  particular  flash  will  happen  to 
have  been  in  the  field  of  view.  A  rapid  single  lens  is  much 
more  suitable  than  a  rapid  doublet ;  and  it  is  believed  that  films 
on  paper  would  effectually  prevent  reflection  from  the  back. 
The  focus  should  be  that  for  a  distant  object  ;  and,  if  possible, 
some  point  of  landscape  should  be  included  to  give  the  position 
of  the  horizon.  If  the  latter  is  impossible,  then  the  top  of  the 
picture  should  be  distinctly  marked.  Any  additional  informa- 
tion as  to  the  time,  direction  in  which  the  camera  was  pointed, 
and  the  state  of  the  weather,  would  be  very  desirable." 

The  Kew  Bulletin  for  June  contains,  besides  an  account  of 
the  manufacture  of  quinine  in  India,  papers  on  "Job's  Tears  "  (the 
round,  shining  fruits  of  a  grass  widely  distributed  in  tropical 
countries,  and  used  by  the  Karens  for  the  decoration  of  cloth  • 
ing) ;  on  China  grass  or  Ramie,  the  fibre  of  which,  if  it  could 
be  extracted  and  cleaned  at  a  cheap  rate,  would  have  great 
economic  value ;  and  on  a  new  botanical  station  at  Lagos, 
which  promises  to  exercise  a  very  favourable  influence  on  the 
industrial  development  of  the  West  African  colonies. 

Some  time  ago  the  Agassiz  Association  appointed  a  Commit- 
tee to  arrange  for  a  seaside  meeting  during  the  present  summer. 
This  Committee,  according  to  Science,  proposes  that  the  meeting 
shall  be  known  as  the  "  Agassiz  Seaside  Assembly."  Its 
membership  is  to  consist  of  such  persons  as  shall  send  their 
names  to  the  secretary  before  the  opening  of  the  assembly,  or 
such  as  shall  be  elected  members  according  to  by-laws  adopted 
afterwards.  It  is  intended  that  the  organization  shall  be  made 
permanent.  A  six-days'  session  will  be  held  this  year,  at  Asbury 
Park,  N.J.,  provided  suitable  accommodations  can  be  secured 
at  that  place  in  the  month  of  August.  The  subjects  to  be 
discussed  this  year  will  be  principally  botany  and  entomology, 
under  the  direction  of  such  practical  specialists  as  can  be 
secured.  The  work  is  to  include  several  field-day  excursions 
with  experienced  guides. 

The  heat  in  India  .lately  has  been  unprecedented,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  delay  of  the  monsoon.  On  June  24,  when  the 
Calcutta  Correspondent  of  the  Times  despatched  a  telegram  on 
the  subject,  the  temperature  was  the  highest  that  had  ever  been 
registered.  Professional  business  was  almost  entirely  suspended, 
and  trading  operations  were  greatly  hampered.  Many  persons 
had  suffered  from  heat-apoplexy  and  sunstroke,  some  cases  having 
terminated  fatally. 

A  conversazione  was  given  yesterday  evening  by  the  President 
and  Fellows  of  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians,  at  the  College. 
The  President  of  the  Society  of  Telegraph-Engineers  and  Elec- 
tricians, and  Mrs.  Grave*,  have  issued  invitations  for  a  conver- 
sazione in  the  galleries  of  the  Royal  Institute  of  Painters  in 
Water  Colours  on  Tuesday,  July  10. 

A  remarkable  new  series  of  compounds  of  silicon  tetra- 
fluoride  with  organic  derivatives  of  ammonia  have  been  prepared 
by  Messrs.  Comey  and  Loring  Jackson,  of  Harvard.?  Many  years 
ago,  Gay  Lussac  and  Thenard  discovered  that  silicon  tetrafluoride 
formed  w  ith  gaseous  ammonia  a  singular  compound,  2N  H3.  SiF4  ; 
this  substance,  which  is  comparatively  stable  in  air  and  distinctly 
crystalline,  is  decomposed  by  water  with  formation  of  ammonium 
fluoride  and  silicofluoride  and  deposition  of  silicic  acid.  The 
American  chemists  now  show  that  a  very  large  number  of  sub- 
stituted ammonias  form  similar  compounds,  and  give  an 
interesting  description  of  the  methods  by  which  they  have 
isolated  the  most  important  members  of  the  series.  Aniline 
forms  two  such  compound--,  the  most  stable  being  represented 


204 


NA  JURE 


{June  28,  1888 


by  the  formula  3C6HSN  H2. 2SiF4,  and  the  other  2C6HSNH2.  SiF4, 
corresponding  to  the  well-known  compound  with  ammonia  itself. 
The  first  was  obtained  by  passing  gaseous  tetrafluoride  of  silicon 
over  aniline,  the  gas  delivery  tube  not  quite  touching  the  surface 
of  the  aniline  so  as  to  avoid  the  stoppage  of  the  passage  by  the 
solid  product.  The  combination  is  so  rapid  that  practically  all 
the  fluoride  is  absorbed,  considerable  heat  being  evolved  during 
the  process  ;  and,  which  is  very  satisfactory,  the  reaction  is  one 
of  the  few  quantitative  ones,  the  whole  of  the  aniline  being 
eventually  converted  into  a  loose  white  crystalline  solid,  which 
sublimes  about  2000  C.  without  fusion.  This  new  substance  is 
further  remarkable  by  being  insoluble  in  the  usual  organic 
solvents,  alcohol  alone  slowly  acting  upon  it  with  decomposition. 
Brought  in  contact  with  water  it  is  at  once  decomposed  with  de- 
position of  silicic  acid  ;  the  solution,  on  evaporation,  yielding 
beautiful  pearly  tabular  crystals  of  aniline  fluosilicate,  aniline 
fluoride  remaining  dissolved.  When  aniline  vapour  was  con- 
ducted into  a  receiver  filled  with  silicon  tetrafluoride  the  second 
compound  was  formed  as  a  white  powder,  decompo-ing  when 
warmed  or  when  treated  with  water  and  even  spontaneously  on 
keeping.  From  the  fact  that  the  products  of  spontaneous  de- 
composition are  the  first  compound  and  free  aniline,  it  is  very 
probable  that  the  true  formula  is  4C6H5NH2.2SiF4,  double  the 
empirical  formula  ;  and  it  is  evidently  more  than  a  mere 
coincidence  that  the  values  obtained  by  Mixter  for  the  vapour 
density  of  the  ammonia  compound  also  point  to  the  fact  that  its 
real  composition  is  4NH3.2SiF4. 

A  severe  shock  of  earthquake  was  felt  in  the  Herno,  an 
island  in  the  Baltic,  on  June  7,  at  7.24  a.m.  Houses  shook, 
and  furniture  moved.  The  shock  went  in  a  direction  mrth- 
north-west.  At  the  Lungb  Lighthouse  the  shock  was  felt  at 
9.50,  and  was  accompanied  by  a  detonation  like  that  of  heavy 
artillery.  Here  the  shock  went  in  a  direction  north-east  to 
south-west.     The  shock  was  also  felt  in  the  town  of  Hernosand. 

A  SPEcrAL  Committee,  under  Prof.  Mushketoff,  appointed 
to  inquire  into  the  causes  of  the  earthquake  which  nearly 
destroyed  Vyernyi,  in  Russian  Turkistan,  on  June  9,  1887,  has 
delivered  its  report  to  the  Russian  Geographical  Society.  The 
Committee,  which  consisted  of  four  mining  engineers  and  several 
topographers,  began  its  work  in  August  with  a  systematic  explora- 
tion of  the  crevices  in  the  buildings  and  the  soil,  both  at  Vyernyi 
and  in  the  surrounding  region  as  far  as  Lake  Balkhash,  Kulja, 
Lake  Issyk-kul,  and  Tashkent.  Detailed  maps  were  made,  and 
numerous  photographs  taken  of  the  destroyed  buildings.  The 
chief  shock  of  earthquake  took  place  at  4h.  35m.  a.m.  on 
June  9  ;  it  destroyed  nearly  all  the  stone  buildings  of  Vyernyi. 
It  was  followed  at  4I1.  45m.  by  another  severe  shock.  Severe 
shocks  continued  for  nearly  half  an  hour,  at  intervals  of  one 
minute,  and  they  were  succeeded  by  feebler  shocks  which  were 
felt  throughout  the  day.  Nearly  1500  stone  houses  were 
destroyed,  while  scarcely  any  harm  was  done  to  houses  made  of 
wood.  Of  a  population  of  30, 000,  no  fewer  than  332  persons  were 
killed.  The  shocks  continued  almost  every  day  throughout  the 
months  of  June,  July,  and  August ;  since  September  they  have 
not  been  so  frequent,  but  they  go  on  still,  and  on  March  4,  1888, 
there  was  a  rather  severe  shock.  The  total  number  of  shocks 
noticed  (without  instruments)  reaches  more  than  200.  It  appears 
that  the  wave  of  earthquake  had  its  origin  in  the  south  of 
Vyernyi,  in  the  Alatau  Mountains  ;  and  in  the  spur  of  mountains 
which  separates  the  Kaskelen  and  the  Berezovaya  Rivers,  the 
Expedition  discovered  at  a  height  of  from  5000  to  6000  feet 
a  region  where  a  dislocation  of  the  rocks  had  taken  place  on  an 
immense  scale.  The  granitic  and  porphyritic  rocks  were  dislocated 
and  covered  the  slopes  with  masses  of  fresh  debris.  As  to  the  softer 
deposits — clays  and  so  on — which  were  still  mote  softened  by  the 
very  severe  showers  which  preceded  the  earthquake,  they  were 


flowing  and  gliding  like  glaciers  on  the  slopes  of  the  mountains. 
One  of  these  masses,  on  the  Aksai  River,  has  a  volume  of  no  less 
than  10,000,000  cubic  metres.  The  centre  of  the  earthquake 
was  at  a  depth  of  from  5000  to  8000  metres,  and  its  projection 
on  the  surface  of  the  earth  of  the  most  severely  affected  regions 
covers  a  surface  about  twenty-three  miles  long  and  three  miles 
wide  on  the  northern  slope  of  the  Alatau.  The  earthquake 
spread  with  greater  force  towards  the  north  than  to  the  south  ; 
thus  the  region  of  the  greatest  destruction  extends  for  about 
twenty-five  miles  northwards,  and  for  only  ten  or  thirteen  miles 
southwards  ;  but  the  whole  region  where  the  earthquake  was  felt 
has  a  length  of  nearly  1000  miles  from  south-west  to  north-east, 
and  about  600  miles  from  south-east  to  north-west.  As  to  its 
cause,  it  obviously  must  be  searched  for  in  the  interior  movements 
of  the  rocks — not  in  volcanic  agencies.  Regular  seismological 
stations  in  Turkistan  and  the  Caucasus  will  probably  be  the 
immediate  outcome  of  the  work  of  the  Committee. 

In  the  American  Meteorological  Journal  for  May,  Mr.  Bocher 
contributes  an  article  on  the  labours  of  Dove,  Redfield,  and  Espy, 
the  greater  part  of  whose  work  was  included  between  the  years 
1830  and  i860.  Redfield's  first  paper  on  the  theory  of  storms 
was  published  in  1831,  and  was  due  to  the  fact  of  his  having 
previously  noticed,  during  a  journey  after  a  storm,  that  the  trees- 
were  lying  in  opposite  directions  to  those  near  his  home.  Espy 
supposed  that  the  wind  always  blows  inwards  from  the  edge  of 
the  storm  to  a  central  point  or  line.  He  was  a  persistent 
opponent  of  Redfield.  Dove's  work  on  the  theory  of  storms 
was  essentially  the  same  as  Redfield's,  but  he  also  deals  with 
the  subject  of  winds  in  general.  In  a  second  article  Mr.  Rotch 
gives  the  description  and  history  of  the  Sonnblick  Mountain 
Observatory  in  Austria,  and  some  of  the  preliminary  results 
obtained.  Mr.  W.  Upton  contributes,  on  the  part  of  the  New 
England  Meteorological  Society,  a  very  able  paper  on  the 
remarkable  storm  which  visited  the  eastern  portion  of  the  United 
States  from  the  nth  to  14th  of  March  last,  and  which  is  known 
as  the  New  York  '-blizzard."  Its  peculiar  characteristics  were 
(1)  the  rapidity  with  which  its  energy  was  developed  ;  (2)  the 
excessive  precipitation  which  accompanied  it,  principally  as  snow. 
West  of  the  72nd  meridian  it  was  almost  wholly  snow,  piled  up 
in  immense  drifts,  making  it  absolutely  impossible  to  measure  it. 
East  of  this  meridian  it  was  snow  and  rain  mixed.  Jn  a  table 
giving  the  ratio  of  unmelted  and  melted  snow  it  is  shown  that 
the  density  varied  greatly,  and  furnishes  proof  that  the  method 
of  assuming  that  I'o  inch  of  snow  equals  01  inch  of  rain  is 
exceedingly  erroneous.  (3)  The  relatively  small  area  of  its 
maximum  intensity.  This  storm  was  one  of  the  most  notable 
in  this  century  over  the  Atlantic,  and  its  behaviour  over  the 
ocean  will  be  the  subject  of  a  special  investigation  by  the 
United  States  Hydrographic  Office. 

The  Pilot  Chart  of  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean  for  the  month 
of  June  shows  that  seven  pronounced  cyclonic  storms  passed 
over  portions  of  the  North  Atlantic  during  May,  but  none 
appear  to  have  traversed  the  entire  ocean.  Ice  has  been  reported 
in  increased  quantity  west  of  the  46th  meridian,  and,  although 
confined  for  the  most  part  to  the  coast  of  Newfoundland,  it  has 
been  met  with  as  far  south  as  latitude  410,  in  longitude  460  W. 
There  has  been  a  marked  increase  of  fog  over  the  Grand  Banks 
and  off  the  American  coast  north  of  Hatteras,  while  the  amount 
encountered  east  of  the  40th  meridian  has  been  unusually  large. 
It  is  attributed  almost  entirely  to  the  prevalence  of  southerly 
winds  in  that  part  of  the  ocean.  During  the  past  six  months  51 
vessels  are  known  to  have  met  with  disaster  in  the  North 
Atlantic  ocean  ;  the  general  drift  of  the  logs  of  the  great  raft 
has  been  about  east  by  south,  and  most  of  them  are  now  about 
west-south-west  from  the  Azores.  Very  few,  if  any,  have 
drifted  north  of  the  40th  parallel.     On  April  10,  latitude  41°  59' 


June  28,  1888] 


NATURE 


205 


N.,  longitude  470  30'  W.,  Capt.  McKay,  of  the  s.s.  Pavonia,  saw 
a  large  waterspout  travelling  north-east  at  about  30  miles  an 
hour.  The  great  column  of  water  reached  up  to  a  dense  black, 
low-lying  cloud,  and  was  in  shape  like  a  huge  hour-glass.  It  was 
accompanied  by  a  terrific  roaring.  The  spout  broke,  with  a 
I  thunder  and   hail  storm.      Many  pieces  of  ice,  4  to  6  inches 

J  in  diameter,   fell  on  board  the  ship.     On  the  next  day  three 
distinct  spouts  were  seen  by  another  ship,,  about  250  miles  north- 

»-*^ast  of  the  above  position.     These  spouts  gradually  mergei  into 
one,  and  travelled  out  of  sight. 

Fishermen  report  that  early  on  the  morning  of  June  13  a 
waterspout  was  seen  rn  the  Grosses  Haff,  off  Stettin.  About  1 1.45 
another  one  appeared  near  Dammausch.  A  steamer  was,  at  the 
time,  only  100  yards  distant,  and  had  to  reverse  her  engines  in 
order  to  escape  it.     Each  lasted  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour. 

Sir  Terence  O'Brien,  Governor  of  Heligoland,  in  his 
report  on  the  condition  cf  that  colony  during  the  past  year, 
states  that  at  his  instigation  the  Council  of  the  Meteorological 
Department  agreed  to  start  a  station  there,  and  the  Secretary, 
Mr.  Scott,  having  gone  over  to  superintend  the  putting  up  of  the 
instruments,  the  observatory  was  established  in  August  last,  and 
will,  he  hopes,  not  only  be  of  benefit  to  this  branch  of  science, 
but  will  enable  more  accurate  data  than  were  formerly  obtain- 
able from  the  old  and  imperfect  instruments  at  their  disposal  to 
be  forthcoming  in  future  Blue-book  statistics. 

In  a  recording  rain-gauge,  recently  devised  by  M.  Brassard, 
the  water  passes  from  the  bottom  of  the  receiver  into  a  centrally- 
pivoted  trough,  having  each  arm  slightly  depressed  in  the 
middle.  It  fills  the  two  divisions  alternately  :  the  filled  arm 
goes  down,  and  empties  itself  into  a  lower  trough,  and  the 
rocking  thus  caused  is  registered  by  an  ordinary  counter.  Each 
rocking  of  the  trough  indicates  one-tenth  of  a  millimetre  of 
water  having  fallen  into  the  receiver.  The  instrument  is 
designed  to  eliminate  the  error  usually  arising  from  evaporation. 

Advices  from  the  fishing  village  of  Kerschkaranza,  in  the 
Kola  Peninsula,  en  the  White  Sea,  state  that  on  January  5  a 
curious  and  destructive  phenomenon  occurred  there.  At  4  a.m. 
the  inhabitants  were  awakened  by  a  peculiar,  dull,  heavy  detona- 
tion like  that  of  distant  artillery.  Piled  up  to  a  height  of  several 
hundredfeet,  the  ice — in  consequence,  no  doubt,  of  the  enormous 
pressure  of  the  ocean  ice  without — was  seen  to  begin  moving 
from  the  north-w  est  towards  the  shore.  The  gigantic  ice  wall 
moved  irresistibly  forward,  and  soon  reached  the  shore  and  the 
village,  which  it  completely  buried,  the  ice  extending  a  mile 
inland.  The  forward  movement  of  the  ice  lasted  four  hours. 
No  lives  were  lost. 

On  April  29,  when  off  the  Westman  Wands,  Iceland,  the 
captain  of  the  Danish  mail-steamer  Lailra  threw  overboard  a 
letter  written  in  Danish.  On  May  6  the  letter  was  found  in 
the  stomach  of  a  cod  caught  by  a  French  fisherman  off  Reyk- 
janaes,  about  120  miles  distant.  The  man  showed  it  to  the 
French  Consul  at  Reykjavik,  who  submitted  it  to  the  captain 
of  the  Laura.     It  was  much  decomposed,  but  still  readable. 

A  lance,  an  axe,  a  sword — all  of  bronze — an  urn,  a  couple 
of  whetstones,  and  some  human  remains  have  been  found  in 
a  mound  at  Ogue,  on  the  south-west  coast  of  Norway. 

At  the  last  meeting  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan,  Dr.  Knott 
read  a  biographical  note  on  Ino  Chukei,  the  great  Japanese 
surveyor  and  cartographer.  The  following  summary  is  taken 
from  the  report  of  the  Japan  Weekly  Mail : — Ino  was  born 
in  1744,  but  did  not  begin  his  scientific  career  till  he  was 
fifty  years  of  age.  Up  to  that  time  he  was  a  successful  brewer. 
Towards  the  close  of  the  century  he  went  to  Yedo,  and  there 
studied  astronomy  under  the  elder  and  younger  Takahashi.  The 
latter  is  the  man  who  was  put  on  his  trial  in   1830  for  having  J 


exchanged  maps  of  Yesso  and  Japan  with  Von  Siebold  for  some 
books  ;  the  case,  however,  was  never  concluded,  for  he  died  in 
the  meantime.  In  the  year  1800,  Ino  began  his  work  of  sur- 
veying the  coasts  and  islands  of  Japan,  and  for  eighteen  years 
he  continued  to  labour  at  it,  making  in  that  time  innumerable 
measurements  of  distance,  and  between  1100  and  and  1 200  direct 
measurements  of  latitude.  The  wonder  is  that  he  did  so  much 
with  such  rude  instruments  as  he  had,  which  resembled  those  in 
use  in  the  West  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.  The 
records  of  his  survey  were  compiled  in  1821,  and  were  pub- 
lished, under  the  authority  of  the  Tokio  University,  in  book 
form  in  1870.  In  fact,  the  charts  he  constructed  have  been  the 
basis  of  all  maps  that  have  since  been  made.  About  six  or 
seven  years  ago,  Ino  was  raised  by  Imperial  decree  to  the  rank  of 
"  Posthumous,"  or  Senior  Fourth  Class,  an  honour  seldom  held 
in  his  time  by  any  but  nobles,  and,  moreover,  posthumous 
honours  are  very  rarely  given.  Ino  might  be  named  the 
Japanese  Picard,  the  French  astronomer  who  made  the  first 
good  calculation  of  the  size  of  the  earth.  The  instruments — 
an  azimuth  circle  and  a  quadrant — used  by  Ino  in  his  survey 
were  destroyed  by  fire,  but  exact  copies  of  them,  constructed  in 
1828,  were  exhibited  at  the  meeting. 

According  to  the  report  of  the  Inspector  of  Schools  in 
Hong  Kong  for  the  past  year,  the  total  number  of  schools  subject 
to  Government  supervision  was  94,  as  against  45  in  1877  and 
13  in  1867  ;  the  numbers  of  scholars  for  the  corresponding  years 
being  respectively  5974,  3144,  and  700.  Of  the  5974  pupils 
who  attended  schools  under  Government  supervision  in  1887, 
4160  attended  missionary  schools,  and  1814  the  Government 
undenominational  establishments.  In  the  colony  there  are  five 
classes  of  schools  :  (1)  Chinese,  where  a  purely  Chinese, 
education  is  given  ;  (2)  Romanized  Chinese,  in  which  a  European 
education  is  given  in  the  Chinese  language  ;  (3)  Portuguese, 
where  a  European  education  is  given  in  the  Portuguese  language 
only;  (4)  Anglo-Chinese  schools,  numbering  eight,  with  1 160 
scholars  ;  (5)  English  schools,  numbering  six,  with  688  scholars, 
in  which  the  children  are  taught  in  the  English  language  only. 
The  Government  Central  School  presented  384  boys  for  the 
annual  examination,  and  of  these  375  passed — that  is,  the  very 
high  percentage  of  97 '65.  At  this  latter  school  the  subjects 
taught  are :  reading,  dictation,  arithmetic,  Chinese  into 
English,  English  into  Chinese,  grammar,  geography,  map- 
drawing,  composition,  Euclid,  algebra,  mensuration,  history, 
and  Latin. 

Messrs.  Eyre  and  Spottiswoode,  as  the  Government 
publishers,  have  issued  two  new  volumes  of  the  "  Report  on  the 
Scientific  Results  of  the  Voyage  of  the  Challenger' ':  vol.  xxiv. 
Zoology  (2  parts,  text  and  plates),  Report  on  the  Crustacea 
Macrura ;  vol.  xxv.  Zoology,  Report  on  the  Tetractinellida. 

A  paper  on  "Wasted  Sunbeams,"  by  Dr.  G.  M.  Smith,  of 
New  York,  has  just  been  reprinted  from  the  Medical  Record. 
The  author's  aim  is  to  show  that  great  advantages  to  health 
might  be  secured  by  a  rearrangement  of  the  upper  stories  of 
private  dwellings.  "Cannot  architectural  ingenuity,"  he  asks, 
"  coached  by  sanitary  science,  contrive  some  method  of  using 
the  thousands  of  acres  of  housetops,  so  that  roofs,  now  so  useful 
in  affording  indoor  protection  from  cold,  sleet,  and  rain,  can  be 
made  additionally  useful,  at  certain  seasons,  by  affording  out- 
door recreation  and  protection  from  invalidism  ?  Cannot  the 
same  skill  contrive  new  designs  for  the  upper  and  most  salutary 
stories  of  our  dwellings ;  playing-rooms  and  sunning-rooms, 
especially  adapted  for  the  winter  season,  but  so  cleverly 
fashioned  that  too  intense  torrid  beams  can  be  excluded  in 
summer  ?  " 

Mr.  J.  Ellard  Gore  has  in  the  press  a  volume  entitled 
"  Planetary  and  Stellar  Studies  :  papers  on  the  Planets,  Stars, 


206 


NATURE 


{June  28,  1888 


and  Nebulae."     It  will  be  published  shortly  by  Messrs.    Roper 
and  Drowley. 

The  Fifteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  progress  of  the 
Geological  and  Natural  History  Survey  of  Minnesota,  by  Mr. 
N.  H.  Winchell,  State  Geologist,  has  been  issued.  This  Report 
relates  chiefly  to  the  geology  of  the  iron-bearing  rocks.  It  seems 
that  during  the  last  two  years  great  interest  has  been  manifested 
with  regard  to  the  iron  industry  in  Northern  Minnesota. 

We  have  received  Part  3  of  the  twenty-first  volume  of  the 
Journal  and  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Society  of  New  South 
Wales.  Among  the  contents  are  papers  on  Port  Jackson  silt 
beds,  by  F.  B.  Gipps  ;  some  New  South  Wales  tan-substances, 
parts  3  and  4,  by  J.  H.  Maiden,  Curator  of  the  Technological 
Museum,  Sydney ;  soils  and  subsoils  of  Sydney  and  suburbs, 
by  J.  B.  Henson ;  quarantine  and  small-pox,  by  J.  Ashburton 
Thompson ;  on  the  presence  of  fusel-oil  in  beer,  by  W.  M. 
Hamlet ;  autographic  instruments  used  in  the  development  of 
flying-machines,  by  Lawrence  Hargrave. 

Part  i  of  the  seventh  volume  of  the  "Encyclopaedic 
Dictionary"  (Cassell  and  Co.)  has  just  been  issued.  This  care- 
fully-compiled work,  as  we  have  repeatedly  had  occasion  to  note, 
contains  all  the  words  in  the  English  language,  with  a  full 
account  of  their  origin,  meaning,  pronunciation,  and  use. 
Great  pains  are  taken  to  secure  that  scientific  terms  shall  be 
properly  explained. 

Messrs.  Oliver  and  Boyd  are  about  to  publish  "  India  in 
1887,  as  seen  by  Robert  Wallace,  Professor  of  Agriculture  and 
Rural  Economy  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh."  The  author 
was  four  months  in  India  and  Ceylon,  and  made  inquiry  as  to 
the  breeds  of  cattle  and  horses,  and  as  to  the  condition  of 
native  agriculture,  soils,  irrigation,  &c.  The  work  contains 
290  illustrations.  Prof.  Wallace  especially  wished  to  "  learn 
in  an  unmistakable  manner  what  fruits  the  Cirencester  College 
training  had  borne." 

We  have  received  Parts  1  and  2  of  "The  Speaking 
Parrots,"  by  Dr.  Karl  Russ  (Upcott  Gill).  Much  useful 
information  is  given  as  to  the  purchase  and  reception  of  parrots, 
the  cages  in  which  they  ought  to  be  kept,  their  food,  the  best 
way  of  taming  and  training  them,  the  preservation  of  their 
health,  and  as  to  their  diseases. 

An  Australian  edition  of  Longmans'  "  School  Geography,"  by 
Mr.  George  G.  Chisholm,  has  just  been  issued.  For  this 
edition  the  sections  on  Australasia  and  the  British  Isles  have 
been  entirely  re-written,  and  modifications  have  been  made  in 
other  parts  of  the  text  with  the  view  of  calling  attention  to 
matters  of  special  interest  in  Australia  and  New  Zealand. 

A  new  catalogue  of  mathematical  works  has  been  issued  by 
Messrs.  Dulau  and  Co. 

The  current  number  of  the  Technology  Quarterly  opens  with 
an  interesting  paper,  by  Mr.  James  P.  Munroe,  on  the  beginning 
of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology.  The  Institute 
was  legally  established  on  April  10,  i86r,  after  more  than  two 
years  of  almost  constant  effort  in  the  face  of  opposition  and 
discouragement. 

It  has  been  decided  that  the  Miss  Williams  Scholarship  for 
Women,  of  the  annual  value  of  ^20,  tenable  for  three  years 
shall  be  offered  at  the  entrance  scholarship  examination  at 
University  College,  Cardiff,  on  September  18,  and  that  it  may 
be  held  with  a  College  exhibition.  As  it  is  specially  intended 
to  encourage  the  higher  education  of  women  in  Wales,  preference 
will  be  given  to  the  children  of  Welsh  parents. 

A  collection  of  American  pottery  for  the  American  National 
Museum  is  about  to  be  made  by  Dr.  David  T.  Day  of  the  United 
States  Geological  Survey.     Science  says  that  the  collection  of 


Sevres  pottery  presented  by  the  French  Government  is  an  ex- 
ceedingly fine  one,  as  is  also  that  of  Japanese  ceramics  ;  and  the 
department  of  Indian  pottery  is  not  approached  elsewhere  in  the 
world.  But  the  Museum  possesses  very  little  modern  American 
pottery. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during 
the  past  week  include  a  Macaque  Monkey  {Macacus  cynomolgtis). 
from  India,  presented  by  Mr.  A.  B.  Parker  ;  a  Larger  Hill- 
Mynah  (Gracula  intermedia)  from  North  India,  presented  by 
Mrs.  M.  von  Kornatzki ;  two  Naked-footed  Owlets  {Athene 
nochia)  from  France,  presented  by  Miss  Pierce  ;  a  Swainson's 
Lorikeet  ( Trichoglossus  novce-hollandice)  from  Australia,  presented 
by  Mr.  H.  A.  Hankey ;  two  Loggerhead  Ducks  (Tachyeres 
cinereus)  from  the  Falkland  Islands,  presented  by  Mr.  Archibald 
McCall ;  a  Duyker-bok  (Cephalophus  mergens  g)  from  South 
Africa,    a    Red-legged    Partridge   (Caccabis   rufa),    a    Barbary 

Partridge  (Caccabis petrosa),  five    Pigeons  (Columba  ballii) 

from  Teneriffe,  deposited  ;  a  Bennett's  Wallaby  (Halmotitrus 
bennetti  ?  ),  two  Long-fronted  Gerbilles  (Gerbillus  longifrons) 
born  in  the  Gardens  ;  a  Yellow-legged  Herring  Gull  (Larus 
cachinnans),  bred  in  the  Gardens. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

Rotation  Period  of  the  Sun  from  Facul^.— The  fifth 
part  of  vol.  iv.  of  the  Publications  of  the  Astrophysical  Observa- 
tory at  Potsdam  has  recently  appeared,  and  contains  a  deter- 
mination by  Dr.  J.  Wilsing  of  the  rotation  period  of  the  sun 
from  observations  of  faculae.  The  previous  determinations  of 
the  solar  rotation  have  been  based  upon  observations  of  the 
spots,  or  upon  the  relative  displacement  of  lines  in  the  spectra 
of  the  east  and  west  limbs,  for,  as  faculae  can  usually  only  be 
seen  well  when  near  the  limb,  and  therefore  can  seldom  be 
watched  for  more  than  three  consecutive  days,  and  as  they 
often  undergo  rapid  changes,  they  did  not  seem  well  suited  for 
such  a  discussion.  Their  irregular  and  often  straggling  shapes, 
too,  render  measures  of  their  positions  much  less  precise  than 
those  of  spots.  Notwithstanding  these  difficulties  Dr.  Wilsing's 
inquiry  seems  to  have  met  with  a  measure  of  success.  Of  the 
faculae  shown  on  the  solar  photographs  taken  at  Potsdam  from 
1884  March  14  to  August  31,  144  groups  were  seen  at  three  or 
more  different  epochs,  at  intervals  of  one  or  more  semi-rotations. 
Arranging  these  according  to  their  distribution  in  solar  latitude, 
in  zones  of  30  wide,  Dr.  Wilsing  finds  practically  the  same  rota- 
tion period  for  each  zone  from  +  24"  to  -  330,  the  difference 
from  the  mean  of  the  daily  angular  motion  only  exceeding  2'  in 
a  single  instance,  and  in  many  cases  amounting  only  to  20"  or 
30".  As  these  differences  are  so  small  and  follow  no  law,  it  would 
appear  that,  whilst,  as  Carrington  and  Spoerer  have  shown,  the 
different  spot  zones  have  different  rates  of  rotation,  the  layer  of 
the  faculae  rotates  as  a  whole.  Since  the  faculae  are  certainly  at 
a  higher  level  than  the  spots,  this  conclusion  is  one  which  will 
fail  to  be  accepted  until  we  have  much  further  and  more  con- 
vincing evidence  than  we  have  at  present.  In  the  present  dis- 
cussion it  sometimes  happens  that  a  group  of  faculae  is  considered 
as  identical  with  an  earlier  group  seen  two  or  three  semi- 
rotations  earlier,  when  the  same  part  of  the  sun  has  been  seen 
in  the  interval,  but  without  showing  the  group,  although  the 
district  has  been  favourably  presented  for  displaying  faculae.  In 
such  a  case,  and  particularly  if  several  semi-rotations  have 
elapsed,  the  two  groups  will  be  identified  or  not  according  to 
the  rotation  period  assumed  ;  so  that  if  a  single  rotation  period 
for  the  whole  sun  be  assumed  in  the  preliminary  reductions  of 
position  for  the  sake  of  identification  of  the  groups,  there  will  be 
an  inevitable  tendency  towards  a  single  rotation  period  in  the 
final  result. 

The  mean  daily  angular  velocity  given  by  the  faculae  is  I40  16' 
1 1"*3,  corresponding  to  a  sidereal  period  of  25d.  5I1.  28m.  12s.,  the 
values  for  the  northern  and  southern  hemisphere,  taken  sepa- 
rately, differing  only  by  n"'5.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  this 
corresponds  to  the  rotation  period  of  spots  about  latitude  io°,  as 
given  alike  by  Carrington  and  Spoerer's  formulae,  and  that  the  two 
zones  5°  to  150  yield  the  greater  number  both  of  spots  and  faculae 
which  are  available  for  these  investigations.  The  present  dis- 
cussion, with  whatever  reserve  its  conclusions  are  to  be  accepted, 


?une  2&,  1888] 


NATURE 


207 


is,  however,  both  interesting  and  important  and  should  lead  to 
further  inquiries  in  the  same  direction,  when  a  more  extended 
series  of  observations  should  be  laid  under  contribution. 


ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR    THE 
WEEK  1888  JULY  1-7. 

/"pOR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
*  ■*■  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 
is  here  employed. ) 

At  Greenwich  on  July  I 
Sun  rises,  3I1.  50m.;  souths,  I2h.  3m.  38-5s. ;  sets,  2oh.  17m.  : 

right   asc.    on    meridian,    6h.    43'5tn.  ;    decl.    230    4'  N. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  14b.  58m. 
Moon    (at    Last  Quarter  July  1,  4I1.)  rises,  oh.    8m.  ;    souths, 

6h.     9m. ;    sets,     I2h.    22m.  :     right    asc.    on    meridian, 

oh.  47*5m.  ;  decl.  o°  16'  S. 


Right  asc. 

and  declination 

Planet.          Rises. 

Souths.            Sets. 

on 

meridian. 

h.   m. 

h.    m.            h.    111. 

h.       m. 

Mercury..     5     9 

..    12   51    ...    20  33    ... 

7  3i-5 

...   18  16  N. 

Venus   ...     3  33 

..    II    51    ...    20      9    ... 

6  31-2 

...  23  41  N. 

Mars     ...   13  16 

..    18   35    ...    23   54    ... 

13  i5'9 

...     8  46  S. 

Jupiter  ...   16  35 

..    20  59   ...       I    23*... 

15  4°"5 

...  18  42  S. 

Saturn  ...     6     6 

..  13  55  ...  21  44  ... 

8  347 

...   19  22  N. 

Uranus...   12  29 

..  18    9  ...  23  49  ... 

12  49"5 

...    4  36  s. 

Neptune..     1  32 

..    9  18  ...  17    4  ... 

3  57-8 

...   18  49  N. 

*  Indicates  th 

it  the  setting  is  that  of  the  following  morning. 

Comet  Sawerthal. 

Right  Ascension. 

Declination. 

July.           h. 

h.      m. 

0 

/ 

I      ...      0 

I       IT) 

47  5i  N. 

5     •••     0 

I      36 

..        48 

44 

July.        .     h. 

3       ...     17     ... 

Sun  at  greatest  distance  from  the  Earth. 

Variable  Stars. 

Star 

R.A.               Decl. 

h.      m.              „      > 

h.   m. 

U  Cephei     

0  52-4  ...  81    16  N. 

...  July 

5,  22  12  vi 

R  Sculptoris 

i  21-8  ...  33     7  S. 

4,             M 

V  Tauri        

4  45-6  ...  17  21  N. 

,, 

2,             M 

T  Cancri      

8  50-3  ...  20  17  N. 

,, 

6,              m 

R  Leonis  Minoris 

9  38-9  ...  35     2N. 

,, 

3,             M 

W  Virginis 

13  20-3  ...    2  48  S. 

,, 

7,  21     0  M 

5  Librae         

14  55-0  ...    8    4S. 

".          t% 

6,     1  36  vi 

U  Coronse 

15  13-6  ...  32     3  N. 

...          19 

2,     2  18  m 

R  Ursae  Minoris  .. 

16  31-5  ...  72  30  N. 

11 

7,              vi 

U  Ophiuchi 

17  io-9  ...     1  20  N. 

...          ,, 

3,  23  46  m 

U  Sagittarii 

18  25*3  ...  19  12  S. 

...          ,, 

3,     1     0  M 

0  Lyrae 

18  460  ...  33  14  N. 

>> 

2,    3    0  M 

R  Lyrse        

18  51-9  ...  43  48  N. 

11 

3.    '         M 

y)  Aquilae      

19  46-8  ...    0  43  N. 

19 

2,     1     0  tn 

S  Sagittae     

19  50*9  ...  16  20  N. 

...          19 

6,     1     0  m 

SCygni        

20     3-2  ...  57  40  N. 

,, 

1,             M 

XCygni       

20  39-0  ...  35  11  N. 

11 

6,  23    0  m 

T  Vulpeculae 

20  467  ...  27  50  N. 

...          ,, 

2,     1     0  M 

11 

3,     2     O  VI 

8  Cephei       

22  25-0  ...  57  51  N. 

11 

7,     0     O  VI 

R  Cassiopeiae 

23  527  ...  50  46  N. 

11 

7,             M 

M 

signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum. 

GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

At  Monday's  meeting  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society,  Lieu- 
tenant Wissmann  was  present,  and  was  formally  presented  by  the 
President  with  the  gold  medal  which  has  been  awarded  to  him  by 
the  Society  f  >r  his  exploring  work  in  Africa.  Lieutenant  Wissmann 
afterwards  gave  some  account  of  his  explorations  in  the  region 
to  the  south  of  the  great  Congo  bend.  He  began  his  African 
work  eight  years  ago  in  company  with  the  late  Dr.  Pogge,  with 
whom  he  traversed  the  region  lying  between  Loanda  and 
Nyangwe  on  the  Upper  Congo.  The  Kassai  and  several  others 
of  the  great  rivers  that  flow  north  to  the  Congo  were  crossed, 
and  a  large  area  of  new  country,  thickly  covered  with  an 
interesting  population,  opened  up.  Dr.  Pogge  returned  to 
the  west  coast,  whilst  Lieutenant  Wissmann  proceeded  from 
Nyangwe  to  Zanzibar.  He  returned  to  Africa  a  second  time  in 
the  service  of  the  King  of  the  Belgians,  and  in  company  with 


Dr.  Wolf,  Lieutenant  von  Francois,  and  others,  made  his  way 
again  from  Loanda  into  the  interior.  During  the  period  between 
1884  and  1887,  Lieutenant  Wissmann  explored  the  Great  Kassai, 
and  did  much  to  unravel  the  complicated  system  of  rivers,  of  which 
it  is  the  centre.  Moreover,  his  observations  on  the  people,  as  well 
as  the  fauna  and  flora,  render  his  work  of  great  scientific  value. 
He  again  crossed  to  Nyangwe,  and,  by  Lakes  Tanganyika  and 
Nyassa,  reached  the  east  coast  at  the  mouth  of  the  Zambesi.  He 
returned  to  Europe  in  the  autumn  of  last  year,  with  his  health 
shattered,  and  was  compelled  to  go  to  Madeira  to  recruit.  Now 
Lieutenant  Wissmann  returns  to  Germany,  and  will  no  doubt 
there  work  out  the  results  of  his  eight  years'  work  in  Africa. 
Already  one  volume  has  been  published,  dealing  with  the 
exploration  of  the  Kassai- Sankuni. 

Captain  W.  J.  L.  Wharton,  the  Hydrographer,  also  read  a 
paper  at  Monday's  meeting  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society. 
He  described  the  results  of  a  very  complete  examination  which 
has  recently  been  made  of  Christmas  Island,  in  the  Indian 
Ocean,  some  200  miles  south  of  the  western  end  of  Java.  The 
island  is  a  peculiar  one,  and  extremely  difficult  to  explore.  It 
consists  apparently  of  high  cliffs  of  coral,  covered  with  the 
densest  vegetation.  After  describing  the  results  of  examination 
by  Captain  Aldrich  and  others,  Captain  Wharton  concluded  by 
giving  a  summary  of  the  conclusions  to  be  drawn.  We  have, 
he  said,  a  high  island,  on  the  surface  of  which,  wherever  ex- 
amined, we  findlimestone, bearing  in  most  places  the  appearance 
of  coral  origin,  though  in  some  specimens  the  shells  of  the 
Foraminifera  abound,  and  in  none  of  them  have  direct  evidences 
of  coral  structure  been  detected.  It  must  be  remembered,  how- 
ever, that  coral  limestone  becomes  so  altered  by  the  deposition 
of  lime  by  infiltration,  that  a  large  surface  of  it  may  be 
searched  before  a  piece  retaining  its  coralline  structure  is  found, 
and  that  the  specimens  sent  home  are  very  small.  From  the 
description  of  Captain  Aldrich,  who  is  well  acquainted  with 
coral  formations,  it  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  the  majority 
of  this  rock  is  of  coral  origin.  The  rock  forming  the 
summit  is  of  this  structureless  character.  In  two  spots,  and 
at  the  bottom  of  a  hole  in  the  summit  of  the  ridge,  we  have 
volcanic  rock.  The  island  is  very  steep  on  all  sides,  great 
depths  being  found  close  to  the  cliffs,  while  on  all  sides,  at  a 
short  distance,  soundings  over  three  miles  in  depth  were 
obtained.  It  appears,  then,  most  probable  that  Christmas 
Island  is  founded  on  a  volcanic  mound  which  rose  from  the 
bottom  to  a  certain  distance  from  the  surface  of  the  sea  ;  that 
Foraminifera  shells  dying  on  the  surface  were  rained  upon  it  in 
sufficient  number  to  form  a  stratum,  since  solidified  into  lime- 
stone rock  ;  that  as  the  mound  neared  the  surface,  corals  built 
upon  it,  and  it  is  possible  from  the  sketch  of  the  island,  and 
from  Captain  Aldrich's  description  of  the  slope  of  the  ridge 
inwards,  that  it  first  assumed  an  atoll  form.  This,  however,  is 
a  mere  inference  from  probabilities.  The  island  was  next 
gradually  upheaved,  the  coral  growing  outwards  on  the  gentle 
slope  until  a  period  of  immobility  ensued  long  enough  to  permit 
the  waves  to  erode  the  upper  cliff.  Another  short  period  of 
upheaval,  and  one  of  stationary  character  ensued,  when  the 
second  cliff  was  worn  away.  A  third  interval  of  upheaval, 
probably  longer  than  the  others,  and  then  a  second  stand,  when 
the  lowest  and  highest  inland  cliff  was  formed.  Finally,  another 
lift  was  given,  and  the  stationary  period  now  in  existence  com- 
pleted the  process.  The  volcanic  stones  found  in  various  places 
on  the  higher  parts  of  the  island  point  to  a  thinning  of  the 
limestone  covering  in  those  places.  Denudation  has  worn  away 
the  limestone,  and  the  volcanic  core  is  consequently  exposed.  Man 
has  never  lived  on  Christmas  Island,  nor  would  it  be  a  pleasant 
residence,  as,  apart  from  the  fact  that  there  is  no  water — the 
rain  sinking  into  the  limestone  xoc\ — the  extreme  discomfort  of 
locomotion,  and  the  absence  of  any  harbour  whence  the  produce 
that  might  possibly  be  raised  could  be  conveniently  shipped,  will 
deter  any  settlers  from  seeking  a  home  there  until  other  more 
favourable  spots  are  occupied.  There  is  no  other  instance  with 
which  Captain  Wharton  is  acquainted  of  an  island  of  this  height 
retaining  its  coral  covering  so  intact.  Coral  reefs  have  been 
found  at  heights  of  1000  feet  in  Cuba,  in  the  Fiji  Islands,  and 
other  places  ;  but  in  all  cases  they  are  mere  fragments,  and  the 
intervening  spaces  sho  v  no  signs  of  coral.  Further  and  closer 
investigation  may  record  more  direct  evidence  of  its  structure, 
and  of  the  successive  steps  which  have  resulted  in  its  pre  ent 
condition  ;  but  the  Hydrographer  thought  our  present  knowledge 
of  Christmas  Island  was  sufficient  to  make  this  short  notice 
interesting  to  the  Society. 


208 


NATURE 


[June  28,  1888 


DIFFRACTION  OF  SOUND.1 

rpHE  interest  of  the  subject  which  I  propose  to  bring  before 
•*■  you  this  evening  turns  principally  upon  the  connection  or 
analogy  between  light  and  sound.  It  has  been  known  for  a 
very  long  time  that  sound  is  a  vibration  ;  and  everyone  here 
knows  that  light  is  a  vibration  also.  The  last  piece  of  know- 
ledge, however,  was  not  arrived  at  so  easily  as  the  first ;  and 
one  of  the  difficulties  which  retarded  the  acceptance  of  the  view 
that  light  is  a  vibration  was  that  in  some  respects  the  analogy 
between  light  and  sound  seemed  to  be  less  perfect  than  it  should 
be.  At  the  present  time  many  of  the  students  at  our  schools 
and  universities  can  tell  glibly  all  about  it  ;  yet  this  difficulty  is 
one  not  to  be  despised,  for  it  exercised  a  determining  influence 
over  the  great  mind  of  Newton.  Newton,  it  would  seem, 
definitely  rejected  the  wave-theory  of  light  on  the  ground  that 
according  to  such  a  theory  light  would  turn  round  the  corners  of 
obstacles,  and  so  abolish  shadows,  in  the  way  that  sound  is 
generally  supposed  to  do.  The  fact  that  this  difficulty  seemed 
to  Newton  to  be  insuperable  is,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
advancement  of  science,  very  encouraging.  The  difficulty  which 
stopped  Newton  two  centuries  ago  is  no  difficulty  now.  It  is 
well  known  that  the  question  depends  upon  the  relative  wave- 
lengths in  the  two  cases.  Light-shadows  are  sharp  under 
ordinary  circumstances,  because  the  wave-length  of  light  is  so 
small ;  sound-shadows  are  usually  of  a  diffused  character,  because 
the  wave-length  of  sound  is  so  great.  The  gap  between  the  two 
is  enormous.  I  need  hardly  remind  you  that  the  wave-length  of 
C  in  the  middle  of  the  musical  scale  is  about  4  feet.  The 
wave-length  of  the  light  with  which  we  are  usually  concerned, 
the  light  towards  the  middle  of  the  spectrum,  is  about  the  forty- 
thousandth  of  an  inch.  The  result  is  that  an  obstacle  which  is 
immensely  large  for  light  may  be  very  small  for  sound,  and  will 
therefore  behave  in  a  different  manner. 

That  light-shadows  are  sharp  is  a  familiar  fact,  but  as  I  can 
prove  it  in  a  moment  I  will  do  so.  We  have  here  light  from  the 
electric  arc  thrown  on  the  screen  ;  and  if  I  hold  up  my  hand 
thus  we  have  a  sharp  shadow  at  any  moderate  distance,  which 
shadow  can  be  made  sharper  still  by  diminishing  the  source  of 
light.  Sound-shadows,  as  I  have  said,  are  not  often  sharp  ;  but 
1  believe  that  they  are  sharper  than  is  usually  supposed,  the 
reason  being  that  when  we  pass  into  a  sound-shadow — when,  for 
example,  we  pass  into  the  shade  of  a  large  obstacle,  such  as  a 
building — it  requires  some  little  time  to  effect  the  transition, 
and  the  consequence  is  that  we  cannot  make  a  very  ready 
comparison  between  the  intensity  of  the  sound  before  we  enter 
and  its  diminution  afterwards.  When  the  comparison  is  made 
under  more  favourable  conditions,  the  result  is  often  better  than 
would  have  been  expected.  It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to 
perform  experiments  with  such  obstacles  before  an  audience,  and 
the  shadows  which  I  propose  to  show  you  to-night  are  on  a 
much  smaller  scale.  I  shall  take  advantage  of  the  sensitiveness 
of  a  flame  such  as  Professor  Tyndall  has  often  used  here — a 
flame  sensitive  to  the  waves  produced  by  notes  so  exceedingly 
high  as  to  be  inaudible  to  the  human  ear.  In  fact,  all  the 
sounds  with  which  I  shall  deal  to-night  will  be  inaudible  to  the 
audience.  I  hope  that  no  quibbler  will  object  that  they  are 
therefore  not  sounds :  they  are  in  every  respect  analogous 
to  the  vibrations  which  produce  the  ordinary  sensations  of 
hearing. 

I  will  now  start  the  sensitive  flame.  We  must  adjust  it  to  a 
reasonable  degree  of  sensitiveness.  I  need  scarcely  explain  the 
mechanism  of  these  flames,  which  you  know  are  fed  from  a 
special  gas-holder  supplying  gas  at  a  high  pressure.  When  the 
pressure  is  too  high,  the  flame  flares  on  its  own  account  (as  this 
one  is  doing  now),  independently  of  external  sound.  When 
the  pressure  is  somewhat  diminished,  but  not  too  much  so — 
when  the  flame  "  stands  on  the  brink  of  the  precipice"  were,  I 
think,  Tyndall's  words — the  sound  pushes  it  over,  and  causes  it 
to  flare  ;  whereas,  in  the  absence  of  such  sound,  it  would  remain 
erect  and  unaffected.  Now,  I  believe,  the  flame  is  flaring  under 
the  action  of  a  very  high  note  that  I  am  producing  here.  That 
can  be  tested  in  a  moment  by  stopping  the  sound,  and  seeing 
whether  the  flame  recovers  or  not.  It  recovers  now.  What  I 
want  to  show  you,  however,  is  that  the  sound-shadows  may  be 
very  sharp.  I  will  put  my  hand  between  the  flame  and  the 
source  of  sound,  and  you  will  see  the  difference.  The  flame  is 
at  present  flaring  ;  if  I  put  my  hand  here,  the  flame  recovers. 

1  Lecture  delivered  by  Lord  Rayleigh,  F.R.S.,  at  the  Royal  Institution, 
on  January  20,  1888. 


When  the  adjustment  is  correct,  my  hand  is  a  sufficient  obstacle 
to  throw  a  most  conspicuous  shadow.  The  flame  is  now  in  the 
shadow  of  my  hand,  and  it  recovers  its  steadiness  :  I  move  my 
hand  up,  the  sound  comes  to  the  flame  again,  and  it  flares. 
When  the  conditions  are  at  their  best,  a  very  small  obstacle  is 
sufficient  to  make  the  entire  difference,  and  a  sound-shadow  may 
be  thrown  across  several  feet  from  an  obstacle  as  small  as  the 
hand.  The  reason  of  the  divergence  from  ordinary  experience 
here  met  with  is,  that  while  the  hand  is  a  fairly  large  obstacle 
in  comparison  with  the  wave-length  of  the  sound  I  am  here 
using,  it  would  not  be  a  sufficiently  large  obstacle  in  comparison 
with  the  wave-lengths  with  which  we  have  to  do  in  ordinary 
life  and  in  music. 

Everything  then  turns  upon  the  question  of  the  wave-length. 
The  wave-length  of  the  sound  that  I  am  using  now  is  about  half 
an  inch.  That  is  its  complete  length,  and  it  corresponds  to  a 
note  that  would  be  very  high  indeed  on  the  musical  scale.  The 
wave-length  of  middle  C  being  four  feet,  the  C  one  octave  above 
that  is  two  feet ;  two  octaves  above,  one  foot ;  three  octaves  above, 
six  inches ;  four  octaves,  three  inches ;  five  octaves,  one  and  a 
half  inch  ;  six  octaves,  three-quarters  of  an  inch ;  between  that 
and  the  next  octave,  that  is  to  say,  between  six  and  seven  octaves 
above  middle  C,  is  the  pitch  of  the  note  that  I  was  just  now 
using.  There  is  no  difficulty  in  determining  what  the  wave-length 
is.  The  method  depends  upon  the  properties  of  what  are  known 
as  stationary  sonorous  waves  as  opposed  to  progressive  waves. 
If  a  train  of  progressive  waves  are  caused  to  impinge  upon  a 
reflecting  wall,  there  will  be  sent  back  or  reflected  in  the  reverse 
direction  a  second  set  of  waves,  and  the  co-operation  of  these 
two  sets  of  waves  produces  one  set  or  system  of  stationary  waves  ; 
the  distinction  being  that,  whereas  in  the  one  set  the  places  o  f 
greatest  condensation  are  continually  changing  and  passing 
through  every  point,  in  the  stationary  waves  there  are  definite 
points  for  the  places  of  greatest  condensation  (nodes),  and  others 
distinct  and  definite  (loops)  for  the  places  of  greatest  motion. 
The  places  of  greatest  variation  of  density  are  the  places  of  no 
motion  :  the  places  of  greatest  motion  are  places  of  no  variation 
of  density.  By  the  operation  of  a  reflector,  such  as  this  board, 
we  obtain  a  system  of  stationary  waves,  in  which  the  nodes  and 
loops  occupy  given  positions  relatively  to  the  board. 

You  will  observe  that  as  I  hold  the  board  at  different  distances 
behind,  the  flame  rises  and  falls — I  can  hardly  hold  it  still  enough. 
In  one  position  the  flame  rises,  further  off  it  falls  again  ;  and  as 
I  move  the  board  back  the  flame  passes  continually  from  the 
position  of  the  node — the  place  of  no  motion — to  the  loop  or 
place  of  greatest  motion  and  no  variation  of  pressure.  As  I  move 
back,  the  aspect  of  the  flame  changes  ;  and  all  these  changes  are 
due  to  the  reflection  of  the  sound-waves  by  the  reflector  which  I 
am  holding.  The  flame  alternately  ducks  and  rises,  its  behaviour 
depending  npon  the  different  action  of  the  nodes  and  loops.  The 
nodes  occur  at  distances  from  the  reflecting  wall,  which  are  even 
multiples  of  the  quarter  of  a  wave-length  ;  the  loops  are,  on  the 
other  hand,  at  distances  from  the  reflector  which  are  odd 
multiples,  bisecting  therefore  the  positions  between  the  loops.  I 
will  now  show  you  that  a  very  slight  body  is  capable  of  acting  as 
a  reflector.  This  is  a  screen  of  tissue-paper,  and  the  effect  will 
be  apparent  when  it  is  held  behind  the  flame  and  the  distances 
are  caused  to  vary.  The  flame  goes  up  and  down,  showing  that 
a  considerable  proportion  of  the  sonorous  intensity  incident  upon 
the  paper  screen  is  reflected  back  upon  the  flame  ;  otherwise  the 
exact  position  of  the  reflector  would  be  of  no  moment.  I  have 
here,  however,  a  different  sort  of  reflector.  This  is  a  glass  plate 
— I  use  glass  so  that  those  behind  may  see  through  it — and  it 
will  slide  upon  a  stand  here  arranged  for  it.  When  put  in  this 
position  the  flame  is  very  little  affected  :  the  place  is  what  I  call 
a  node — a  place  where  there  is  great  pressure  variation,  but  no 
vibratory  velocity.  If  I  move  the  glass  back,  the  flame  becomes 
vigorously  excited  :  that  position  is  a  loop.  Move  it  back  still 
more,  and  the  flame  becomes  fairly  quiet ;  but  you  see  that  as  the 
plate  travels  gradually  along,  the  flame  goes  through  these  evolu- 
tions as  it  occupies  in  succession  the  position  of  a  node  or  the 
position  of  a  loop.  The  interest  of  this  experiment  for  our 
present  purpose  depends  upon  this — that  the  distances  through 
which  the  glass  plate,  acting  as  a  reflector,  must  be  successively 
moved  in  order  to  pass  the  flame  from  a  loop  to  the  next  loop,  or 
fiom  a  node  to  the  consecutive  node,  is  in  each  case  half  the 
wave-length  ;  so  that  by  measuring  the  space  through  which  the 
plate  is  thus  withdrawn  one  has  at  once  a  measurement  of  the 
wave-length,  and  consequently  of  the  pitch  of  the  sound,  though 
one  cannot  hear  it. 


June  28,  1888] 


NATURE 


209 


The  question  of  whether  the  flame  is  excited  at  the  nodes  or 
at  the  loops — whether  at  the  places  where  the  pressure  varies 
most,  or  at  those  where  there  is  no  variation  of  pressure,  but 
considerable  motion  of  air — is  one  of  considerable  interest  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  theory  of  these  flames.  The  experiment 
Could  be  made  well  enough  with  such  a  source  of  sound  as  I  am 
now  using  ;  but  it  is  made  rather  better  by  using  sounds  of  a 
lower  pitch,  and  therefore  of  greater  wave-length,  the  discrimina- 
tion being  then  more  easy.  Here  is  a  table  of  the  distances 
which  the  screen  must  be  from  the  flame  in  order  to  give  the 
maximum  and  the  minimum  effect,  the  minimum  being  practically 
nothing  at  all. 

Table  of  Maxima  and  Minima. 


Max. 
PI 

4'5 

7'5 

IO-3 

130 

I5-9 


Min. 

3'o 
5'9 
8-9 
117 
H7 


The  distance  between  successive  maxima  or  successive  minima 
is  very  nearly  3  cm.,  and  this  is  accordingly  half  the  length  of  the 
wave. 

But  there  is  a  further  question  behind.  Is  it  at  the  loops  or 
is  it  at  the  nodes  that  the  flame  is  most  excited  ?  The  table  shows 
what  the  answer  must  be,  because  the  nodes  occur  at  distances 
from  the  screen  which  are  even  multiples,  and  the  loops  at 
distances  which  are  odd  multiples  ;  and  the  numbers  in  the 
table  can  be  explained  in  only  one  way — that  the  flame  is  excited 
at  the  loops  corresponding  to  the  odd  multiples,  and  remains 
quiescent  at  the  nodes  corresponding  to  the  even  multiples. 
This  result  is  especially  remarkable,  because  the  ear,  when 
substituted  for  the  flame,  behaves  in  the  exactly  opposite  manner, 
being  excited  at  the  nodes  and  not  at  the  loops.  The  experi- 
ment may  be  tried  with  the  aid  of  a  tube,  one  end  of  which  is 
placed  in  the  ear,  while  the  other  is  held  close  to  the  burner.  It 
is  then  found  that  the  ear  is  excited  the  most  when  the  flame  is 
excited  least,  and  vice  versa.  The  result  of  the  experiment 
shows,  moreover,  that  the  manner  in  which  the  flajne  is  dis- 
integrated under  the  action  of  sound  is  not,  as  might  be  expected, 
symmetrical  in  regard  to  the  axis  of  the  flame.  If  it  were 
symmetrical,  it  would  be  most  affected  by  the  symmetrical 
cause — namely,  the  variation  of  pressure.  The  fact  being  that  it 
is  most  excited  at  the  loop,  where  there  is  the  greatest  vibratory 
velocity,  shows  that  the  method  of  disintegration  is  unsym- 
metrical,  the  velocity  being  a  directed  quantity.  In  that  respect 
the  theory  of  these  flames  is  different  from  the  theory  of  the 
water-jets  investigated  by  Savart,  which  resolve  themselves  into 
detached  drops  under  the  influence  of  sonorous  vibration.  The 
analogy  fails  at  this  point,  and  it  has  been  pressed  too  far  by 
some  experimenters  on  the  subject.  Another  simple  proof  of 
the  correctness  of  the  result  of  our  experiment  is  that  it  makes 
all  the  difference  which  way  the  burner  is  turned  in  respect  of 
the  direction  in  which  the  sound-waves  are  impinging  upon  it. 
If  the  phenomenon  were  symmetrical,  it  would  make  no 
difference  if  the  flame  were  turned  round  upon  its  vertical  axis. 
But  we  find  that  it  does  make  a  difference.  This  is  the  way  in 
which  I  was  using  the  flame,  and  you  see  that  it  is  flaring 
strongly.  If  I  now  turn  the  burner  round  through  a  right  angle, 
the  flame  stops  flaring.  I  have  done  nothing  more  than  turn  the 
burner  round  and  the  flame  with  it,  showing  that  the  sound- 
waves may  impinge  in  one  direction  with  great  effect,  and  in 
another  direction  with  no  effect.  The  sensitiveness  occurs  again 
when  the  burner  is  turned  through  another  right  angle  ;  after 
three  right  angles  there  is  another  place  of  no  effect  ;  and  after 
a  complete  revolution  of  the  flame  the  original  sensitiveness 
recurs.  So  that  if  the  flame  were  stationary,  and  the  sound- 
waves, came,  say,  from  the  north  or  south,  the  phenomena 
would  be  exhibited  ;  but  if  they  came  from  the  east  or  west,  the 
flame  would  make  no  response. 

This  is  of  convenience  in  experimenting,  because,  by  turning 
the  burner  round,  I  make  the  flame  almost  insensitive  to  a 
sound,  and  I  am  now  free  to  show  the  effect  of  any  sound  that 
may  be  brought  to  it  in  the  perpendicular  direction.    I  am  going 


to  use  a  very  small  reflector — a  small  piece  of  looking-glass. 
Wood  would  do  as  well  ;  but  looking-glass  facilitates  the  adjust- 
ment, because  my  assistant,  by  seeing  the  reflection,  will  be 
able  to  tell  me  when  I  am  holding  it  in  the  best  position.  Now, 
the  sound  is  being  reflected  from  the  bit  of  glass,  and  is  causing 
the  flame  to  flare,  though  the  same  sound,  travelling  a  shorter 
distance  and  impinging  in  another  direction,  is  incompetent  to 
produce  the  result  (Fig.  1). 

I  am  now  going  to  move  the  reflector  to  and  fro  along  the 
line  perpendicular  to  that  joining  the  source  and  the  burner,  all 
the  while  maintaining  the  adjustment,  so  that  from  the  position 
of  the  source  of  sound  the  image  of  the  flame  is  seen  in  the 
centre  of  the  mirror.  Seen  from  the  source,  it  is  still  as  central 
as  before,  but  it  has  lost  its  effect,  and  as  I  move  it  to  and  fro  I 
produce  cycles  of  effect  and  no  effect.  What  is  the  cause  of 
this  ?  The  question  depends  upon  something  different  from  what 
I  have  been  speaking  of  hitherto  ;  and  the  explanation  is,  that 
we  are  here  dealing  with  a  diffraction  phenomenon.  The  mirror 
is  a  small  one,  and  the  sound-waves  which  it  reflects  are  not  big 
enough  to  act  in  the  normal  manner.  We  are  really  dealing 
with  the  same  sort  of  phenomena  as  arise  in  optics  when  we  use 
small  pin-holes  for  the  entrance  of  our  light.  It  is  not  very  easy 
to  make  the  experiment  in  the  present  form  quite  simple, 
because  the  mirror  would  have  to  be  withdrawn,  all  the  while 
maintaining  a  somewhat  complicated  adjustment.  In  order  to 
raise  the  question  of  diffraction  in  its  simplest  shape,  we  must 
have  a  direct  course  for  the  sound  between  its  origin  and  the 
place  of  observation,  and  interpose  in  the  path  a  screen  perforated 
with  such  holes  as  we  desire  to  try. 

The  screen  I  propose  to  use  is  of  glass.  It  is  a  practically 
perfect  obstacle  for  such  sounds  as  we  are  dealing  with  ;  but  it 
is  perforated  here  with  a  hole  (20  cm.  diameter),  rendered  more 
evident  to  those  at  a  distance  by  means  of  a  circle  of  paper 
pasted  round  it.  The  edge  of  the  hole  corresponds  to  the  inner 
circumference  of  the  paper.  We  shall  thus  be  able  to  try  the 
effect  of  different-sized  apertures,  all  the  other  circumstances  re- 
maining unchanged.  The  experiment  is  rather  a  difficult  one 
before  an  audience,  because  everything  turns  on  getting  the 
exact  adjustment  of  distances  relatively  to  the  wave-length.  At 
present  the  sound  is  passing  through  this  comparatively  large 
hole  in  the  glass  screen,  and  is  producing,  as  you  see,  scarcely 
any  effect  upon  the  flame  situated  opposite  to  its  centre.  But  if 
(Fig.  2)  I  diminish  the  size  of  the  hole  by  holding  this  circle  of 
zinc  (perforated  with  a  hole  14  cm.  in  diameter)  in  front  of  it, 
it  is  seen  that,  although  the  hole  is  smaller,  we  get  a  far  greater 
effect.  That  is  a  fundamental  phenomenon  in  diffraction.  Now 
I  reopen  the  larger  hole,  and  the  flame  becomes  quiet.  So  that 
it  is  evident  that  in  this  case  the  sound  produces  a  greater  effect 
in  passing  through  a  small  hole  than  in  passing  through  a  larger 
one.  The  experiment  may  be  made  in  another  way,  by  ob- 
structing the  central  in  place  of  the  marginal  part  of  the  aper- 
ture in  the  glass.  When  I  hold  this  unperforated  disk  of  zinc 
(14  cm.  in  diameter)  centrically  in  front,  we  get  a  greater  effect 
than  when  the  sound  is  allowed  to  pass  through  both  parts 
of  the  aperture.  The  flame  is  now  flaring  vigorously  under 
the  action  of  the  sonorous  waves  passing  the  marginal  part 
of  the  aperture,  whereas  it  will  scarcely  flare  at  all  under  the 
action  of  waves  passing  through  both  the  marginal  and  the 
central  hole. 

This  is  a  point  which  I  should  like  to  dwell  upon  a  little, 
for  it  lies  at  the  root  of  the  whole  matter.  The  principle  upon 
which  it  depends  is  one  that  was  first  formulated  by  Huygens, 
one  of  the  leading  names  in  the  development  of  the  undulatory 
theory  of  light.  In  this  diagram  (Fig.  3)  is  represented  in 
section  the  different  parts  of  the  obstacle,  c  represents  the 
source  of  sound,  B  represents  the  flame,  and  A  P  q  is  the  screen. 
If  we  choose  a  point,  p,  on  this  screen,  so  that  the  whole  dis- 
stance  from  B  to  c,  reckoned  through  P,  viz.  B  P  c,  exceeds  the 
shortest  distance  B  A  c  by  exactly  half  the  wave-length  of  the 
sound,  then  the  circular  area,  whose  radius  is  A  P,  is  the  first 
zone.  We  take  next  another  point,  Q,  so  that  the  whole  dis- 
tance B  Q  c  exceeds  the  previous  one  by  half  a  wave-length. 
Thus  we  get  the  second  zona  represented  by  P  Q.  In  like  manner, 
by  taking  different  points  in  succession  such  that  the  last  dis- 
tance taken  exceeds  the  previous  one  every  time  by  half  a 
wave-length,  we  may  map  out  the  whole  of  the  obstructing 
screen  into  a  series  of  zones  called  Huygens'  zones.  I  have  here 
a  material  embodiment  of  that  notion,  in  which  the  zones  are 
actually  cut  out  of  a  piece  of  zinc.  It  is  easy  to  prove  that  the 
effects  of  the  parts  of  the  wave  traversing  the  alternate  zones  are 


2IO 


NATURE 


{June  28,  1888 


opposed  ;  that  whatever  may  be  the  effect  of  the  first  zone,  A  p, 
the  exact  opposite  will  be  the  effect  of  P  Q,  and  so  on.  Thus,  if 
A  P  and  p  Q  are  both  allowed  to  operate,  while  all  beyond  Q  is 
cut  off,  the  waves  will  neutralize  one  another,  and  the  effect 
will  be  immensely  less  than  if  a  P  or  PQ  operated  alone.  And 
that  is  what  we  saw  just  now.  When  I  used  the  inner  aperture 
only,  a  comparatively  loud  sound  acted  upon  the  flame.  When 
I  added  to  that  inner  aperture  the  additional  aperture  P  Q,"  the 
sound  disappeared,  showing  that  the  effect  of  the  latter  was 
equal  and  opposite  to  that  of  a  p,  and  that  the  two  neutralized 
each  other. 

[If  A  c  =  a,  A  B  =  b,  A  R  =  x,  wave  length  =  A,  the  value  of 
x  for  the  external  radius  of  the  «lh  zone  is 


x2  =  n\ 


or,  if  a  =  'b, 


Source 


a  +  b 
ab 


x1  =  \n\a. 


Source 
O 


Burner 


Fig.  1. 


With  the  apertures  used  above,  x-  =  49  for  n  =  1  ;  x1  —  10c 
for  n  =  2  ;  so  that 

Ka  =  100, 

the  measurements  being  in  centimetres.  This  gives  the  suit- 
able distances,  when  X  is  known.  In  the  present  case  \  =  1  '2. 
a  =  83.] 

Closely  connected  with  this  there  is  another  very  interesting 
experiment,  which  can  easily  be  tried,  and  which  has  also  an  im- 
portant optical  analogy.  I  mean  the  experiment  of  the  shadow 
thrown  by  a  circular  disk.  If  a  very  small  source  of  light  be 
taken — such  a  source  as  would  be  produced  by  perforating  a 
thin  plate  in  the  shutter  of  the  window  of  a  dark  room  with  a  pin, 
and  causing  the  rays  of  the  sun  to  enter  horizontally— and  if  we 
interpose  in  the  path  of  the  light  a  small  circular  obstacle,  and 
then  observe  the  shadow  thrown  in  the  rear  of  that  obstacle,  a 
very  remarkable  peculiarity  manifests  itself.  It  is  found  that  in  the 
centre  of  the  shadow  of  the  obstacle,  where  the  darkness  might 


Burner 
— O 


Fig.  2. 


Fig. 


be  expected  to  be  greatest,  there  is,  on  the  contrary,  no  darkness 
at  all,  but  a  bright  spot,  a  spot  as  br'ght  as  if  no  obstacle 
intervened  in  the  course  of  the  light.  The  history  of  this  subject 
is  curious.  The  fact  was  first  observed  by  Delisle  in  the  early 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  but  the  observation  fell  into 
oblivion.  When  Fresnel  began  his  important  investigations,  his 
memoir  on  diffraction  was  communicated  to  the  French  Academy, 
and  was  reported  on  by  the  great  mathematician  Poisson. 
Poisson  was  not  favourably  impressed  by  Fresnel's  theoretical 
views.  Like  most  mathematicians  of  the  day,  he  did  not  take 
kindly  to  the  wave  theory;  and  in  his  report  on  Fresnel's 
memoir,  he  made  the  objection  that  if  the  method  were  applied, 
as  Fresnel  had  not  then  done,  to  investigate  what  should  happen 
in  the  shadow  of  a  circular  obstacle,  it  brought  out  this  para- 
doxical result,  that  in  the  centre  there  would  be  a  bright  point. 
This  was  regarded  as  a  reductio  ad  absurdum  of  the  theory.  All 
the  time,  as  I  have  mentioned,  the  record  of  Delisle's  observa- 


tions was  in  existence.  The  remarks  of  Poisson  were  brought  to 
the  notice  of  Fresnel,  the  experiment  was  tried,  and  the  bright 
point  was  rediscovered,  to  the  gratification  of  Fresnel  and  the 
confirmation  of  his  theoretical  views.  I  don't  propose  to  attempt 
the  optical  experiment  now,  but  it  can  easily  be  tried  in  one's 
own  laboratory.  A  long  room  or  psssage  must  be  darkened  :  a 
fourpenny  bit  may  be  used  as  the  obstacle,  strung  up  by  three 
hairs  attached  by  sealing-wax.  When  the  shadow  of  the  obstacle 
is  received  on  a  piece  of  ground  glass,  and  examined  from  behind 
with  a  magnifying  lens,  the  bright  spot  will  be  seen  without 
much  difficulty.  But  what  I  propose  to  show  you  is  the  corre- 
sponding phenomenon  in  the  case  of  sound.  Fresnel's  reasoning 
is  applicable,  word  for  word,  to  the  phenomena  we  are  consider- 
ing just  as  much  as  to  that  which  he,  or  rather  Poisson,  had  in 
view.  The  disk  (Fig.  4),  which  I  shall  hang  up  now  between 
the  source  of  sound  and  the  flame,  is  of  glass.  It  is  about  15 
inches  in  diameter.   I  believe  the  flame  is  flaring  now  from  being 


June  2S,  1888] 


NATURE 


211 


in  the  bright  spot.  If  I  make  a  small  motion  of  the  disk,  I  shall 
move  the  bright  spot  and  the  effect  will  disappear.  I  am  push- 
ing the  disk  away  now,  and  the  flaring  has  stopped.  The  flame 
is  still  in  the  shadow  of  the  disk,  but  not  at  the  centre.  I  bring 
the  disk  back  again,  and  when  the  flame  comes  into  the  centre 
it  flares  again  vigorously.  That  is  the  phenomenon  which  was 
discovered  by  Delisle  and  confirmed  by  Arago  and  Fresnel,  but 
mathematically  it  was  suggested  by  Poisson. 

Disc 


Flame 


Source 


Fig.  4. 

r  Poisson's  calculation  related  only  to  the  very  central  point  in 
the  axis  of  the  disk.  More  recently  the  theory  of  this  experi- 
ment has  been  very  thoroughly  examined  by  a  German  mathe- 
matician, Lommel ;  and  I  have  exhibited  here  one  of  the  curves 
given  by  him  embodying  the  results  of  his  calculations  on  the 
subject  (Fig.  s). 

The  abscissas,  measured  horizontally,  represent  distances 
drawn  outwards  from  the  centre  of  the  shadow  o ;  the  ordinates 
measure  the  intensity  of  the  light  at  the  various  points.  The 
maximum  intensity  o  A  is  at  the  centre.  A  little  way  outwards, 
at  B,  the  intensity  falls  almost,  but  not  quite,  to  zero.  At  C  there 
is  a  revival  of  intensity,  indicating  a  bright  ring  ;  and  further  out 
there  is  a  succession  of  subordinate  fluctuations.     The  curve  on 


QT  =28  INCHES 
&==  10       >  > 
A-=  -6       »  ? 
37' =  15        »» 


B 


Fig. 


the  other  side  of  o  A  would  of  course  be  similar.  This  curve  cor- 
responds to  the  distances  and  proportions  indicated,  a  is  the 
distance  between  the  source  of  sound  and  the  disk  ;  b  is  the  dis- 
tance between  the  disk  and  the  flame,  the  place  where  the 
intensity  is  observed.  The  numbers  given  are  taken  from  the 
notes  of  an  experiment  which  went  well.  If  we  can  get  our 
flame  to  the  right  point  of  sensitiveness,  we  may  succeed  in 
bringing  into  view  not  only  the  central  spot,  but  the  revived 
sound  which  occurs  after  you  have  got  away  from  the  central 
point  and  have  passed  through  the  ring  of  silence.     There  is  the 


loud  central  point.  If  I  push  the  disk  a  little,  we  enter  the  ring 
of  silence,  B  ; l  a  little  further,  and  the  flame  flares  again,  being 
now  at  C 

Although  we  have  thus  imitated  the  optical  experiment,  I 
must  not  leave  you  under  the  idea  that  we  are  working  under  the 
same  conditions  that  prevail  in  optics.  You  see  the  diameter  of 
my  disk  is  15  inches,  and  the  length  of  my  sound-wave  is  about 
half  an  inch.  My  disk  is  therefore  about  thirty  wave-lengths  in 
diameter,  whereas  the  diameter  of  a  disk  representing  thirty 
wave-lengths  of  light  would  be  only  about  toVt  inch.  Still,  the 
conditions  are  sufficiently  alike  to  get  corresponding  effects, 
and  to  obtain  this  bright  point  in  the  centre  of  the  shadow 
conspicuously  developed. 

I  will  now  make  an  experiment  illustrating  still  further  the 
principle  of  Huygens'  zones,  which  I  have  already  roughly 
sketched.  I  indicated  that  the  effect  of  contiguous  zones  was 
equal  and  opposite,  so  that  the  effect  of  each  of  the  odd  zones 
is  one  thing,  and  of  the  even  zones  the  opposite  thing.  If  we 
can  succeed  in  so  preparing  a  screen  as  to  fit  the  system  of  zones, 
allowing  the  one  set  to  pass,  and  at  the  same  time  intercepting 
the  other  set,  then  we  shall  get  a  great  effect  at  the  central 
point,  because  we  shall  have  removed  those  parts  which,  if  they 
remained,  would  have  neutralized  the  remaining  parts.  Such  a 
system  has  been  cut  out  of  zinc,  and  is  now  hanging  before  you. 
When  the  adjustments  are  correct,  there  will  be  produced,  under 
the  action  of  that  circular  grating,  an  effect  much  greater  than 
would  result  if  the  sound-waves  were  allowed  to  pass  on  without 
any  obstruction.  The  only  point  difficult  of  explanation  is  as  to 
what  happens  when  the  system  of  zones  is  complete,  and  extends 
to  infinity,  viz.  when  there  is  no  obstiuction  at  all.  In  that  case 
it  may  be  proved  that  the  aggregate  effect  of  all  the  zones  is,  in 
ordinary  cases,  half  the  effect  that  would  be  produced  by  any  one 
zone  alone,  whereas  if  we  succeed  in  stopping  out  a  number  of  the 
alternate  zones,  we  may  expect  a  large  multiple  of  the  effect  of 
one  zone.  The  grating  is  now  in  the  right  position,  and  you  see 
the  flame  flaring  strongly,  under  the  action  of  the  sound-waves 
transmitted  through  these  alternate  zones,  the  action  of  the  other 
zones  being  stopped  by  the  interposition  of  the  zinc.  But  the 
interest  of  the  experiment  is  principally  in  this,  that  the  flame  is 
flaring  more  than  it  would  do  if  the  grating  were  removed  alto- 
gether. There  is  now,  without  the  grating,  a  very  trivial 
flaring  ; 2  but  when  the  grating  is  in  position  again — though  a 
great  part  of  the  sound  is  thereby  stopped  out — the  effect  is  far 
more  powerful  than  when  no  obstruction  intervened.  The 
grating  acts,  in  fact,  the  part  of  a  lens.  It  concentrates  the 
sound  upon  the  flame,  and  so  produces  the  intense  magnification 
of  effect  which  we  have  seen. 

[The  exterior  radius  of  the  «th  zone  being  x,  we  have,  from 
the  formula  given  above — 

1       1  _  n\ 

a  +  b~x*' 

so  that  if  a  and  b  be  the  distances  of  the  source  and  image  from 
the  grating,  the  relation  required  to  maintain  the  focus  is,  as 
usual, 

I       1        1 

a  +  b=f> 

where/,  the  focal  length,  is  given  by — 

J        n\ 

In  the  actual  grating,  eight  zones  (the  first,  third, 
fifth,  &c.)  are  occupied  by  metal.  The  radius 
of   the  first  zone,    or  central  circle,   is   3  inches, 

_t  so  that  x^/n  —  g.  The  focal  length  is  neces- 
sarily a  function  of  X.     In  the  present  case  \  =  4 

inch  nearly,   and  therefore  f=  18  inches.     If  a  and  b  are  the 

same,  each  must  be  made  equal  to  36  inches.] 

SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

Revue  d'Anthrofologie,  troisieme  serie,  tome  iii.,  1888 
(Paris). — Stratigraphic  palaeontology  in  relation  to  man,  by  M. 
Marcellin  Boule.  Rejecting  as  unauthenticated  all  evidence  of 
human  existence  in  the  Tertiary  age,   the  author  considers  the 

1  With  the  data  given  above  the  diameter  of  the  silent  ring  is  two-thirds  of 
an  inch. 

2  Under  the  best  conditions  the  flame  is  absolutely  unaffected. 


212 


NA  TURE 


[June  28,  1888 


grounds   on   which   we   may   assume   that   the   so-called    Saint 
Acheul  flint  instruments,  found  in    alluvial  beds  of  undoubted 
Quaternary  origin,  supply  the  most  ancient  testimony  of  man's 
presence  on  the  surface  of  the  earth.     While  attaching  great 
importance  to  the  careful  elucidation  of  the  chronological  order 
in   which   the   oldest   traces   of   man   appear   relatively  to   the 
different  series  of  the  Quaternary  formations,  he  points  out  the 
imminent  risk  of  losing  the  few  opportunities  which  still  remain 
of  studying  this  connection  between  the  objects  found  and  the 
nature  and  order  of  sequence  of  the  beds  in  which  they  were 
deposited,  owing  to  the  most  interesting  finds  having  long  been 
made  to  swell  the  collections  of  our  Museums  without  reference 
to  their  value  as  exponents  of   the  problems  of  our  primitive 
history.     M.  Marcellin  Boule  considers  that  palaeologists  have 
erred    in    assuming   that   all   beds   containing   the  same   fossil 
remains  must  necessarily  belong  to  the  same  epoch,  and  that 
sufficient  importance  has  not  been  attached  to  the  fact  that  the 
same  deposit  often  contains  a  mixture  of  animal  forms  belonging 
both  to  so-called  northern  and  southern  types.     In  explanation 
of   these   and   many  other    anomalous   phenomena,    he    thinks 
we  may  derive  important  help  from  a  careful  consideration  of 
the  intermittence  and  recurrence  of  glacial  action.     In  regard  to 
this    point   he   recognizes   the   great   value   of    the   labours   of 
British   and    American   as  well   as   Scandinavian   and   German 
geologists  when  compared  with  those  of  the  majority  of  their 
French  confreres  ;  and,  following  the  lead  of  our  own  palaeonto- 
logists, he  refuses  to  believe  that  any  traces  of  human  existence 
can  be  referred  to  pre-glacial  ages,  although  some  may  perhaps 
be  assigned  to  inter-glacial  periods  ;  while  he  considers  that  in 
certain  northern  lands,  as  Denmark  and  Southern  Sweden,  where 
there  is  a  complete  absence  of  Palaeolithic  objects,  their  non- 
appearance may  be  explained  by  the  ice-covering   not  having 
been  entirely  removed  in  these  regions  till  the  dawn  of  the  age 
of  polished  stone. — The  tibia  in  the  Neanderthal  race,  by  Prof. 
Julien  Fraipont.     As  a  further  exposition  of  the  views  which  the 
author,  in  concert  with  M.  Lohest,  had  expressed  in  regard  to 
the  effect  on  the  maintenance  of   the  vertical   position  of  the 
obliquity  and  curvature  of  the  femur  in  the  "men  of  Spy,"  he 
now  attempts  to  show,  from  the  observations  of  others,  and  his 
own  anatomical  experiments,  that  in  this  inclination  of  the  head 
of  the  femur  we  have  a  characteristic  common  to  the  anthropoids. 
An  ingeniously  devised  series  of  determinations  of  the  variations 
of  the  axis  of  the  head  of  the  tibia  in  recent  man,  the  men  of 
Spy,    the    gorilla,    and  other   anthropoids,    shows   the   gradual 
straightening  of  the  axis  as  we  ascend  from  the  latter  to  existing 
man,  in  whom  there  is  a  well-marked  tendency  to  the  fusion  of 
the  axis  of  the  head  of  the  tibia  with  that  of  the  body.     From 
a  careful  comparison  of   the  gradual    anatomical    changes  pre- 
sented in  man  since  his  earliest  representative  appeared  in  the 
Quaternary  age,  M.  Fraipont  believes  we  are  justified  in  assuming 
that  the  human  race  has  progressively  acquired  a  more  and  more 
vertical  posture. — On  the  papulation  of  the  ancient  Pagus-Cap- 
Sizun,  "  Cape  du  Raz,"  by  MM.  Le  Carguet  and  P.  Topinard.    In 
considering  the  map  of  France  from  an  ethnographic  point  of 
view,  French  anthropologists  are  generally  agreed  in  regarding  as 
specially  Celtic  the  region  which  includes  Brittany,  Auvergne,  and 
the  entire  mass  of  mountains  extending  through  Central  France 
and  Savoy.     The  population  of  the  eastern  portion  of  this  region 
is  more  brachycephalic  than  that  of  the  western,  which  has  been 
largely    affected  by  admixture  with   the  blonde,  tall,   dolicho- 
cephalic races  whose  presence  is  traceable  everywhere  in  Europe, 
although  more  definitely  the  further  north  we  go.     This  admixture 
of  types  is  most  strongly  marked  in  Brittany,  where  French  is 
the  spoken  tongue  in  Haute-Bretagne,  and  Breton  (apparently 
a  dialect  derived  from  an  ancient   Kymric  language)   the  pre- 
dominant tongue  in  Basse- Bretagne.   Among  the  many  interesting 
localities  of  the  latter  region,  special  attention  is  due  to  Pointe 
du  Raz,  which,  from  the  nature  of  its  rocky  boundaries  on  the 
land  side,  and  its  position  further  west  than  any  other  in  France, 
has  been   virtually  cut  off  from  communication  with  the  rest  of 
the   country,  in  consequence  of  which  its  population   presents 
relatively  fewer  marks  of  mixed  origin.     M.  Topinard  supplies 
an  interesting  report  on  the  geological,  historical,  and  ethnological 
characteristics  of  the  Cape  du  Raz  district,  and  thus  enhances 
the  value  of  the  series  of  observations  regarding  the  population 
of  this  far  west  of  France  which  have  been  supplied  by  M.  Le 
Carguet,  and  may  be  generally  summarized  as  leading  to  the 
inference  that  the  "  Capiste  "  race  is  essentially  Breton  in  regard 
to  the  predominance  of   blue  eyes  with  dark   hair,   and   their 
generally  low  stature,  these  characteristics  being  associated  with 


a  disposition  in  which  courage  and    energy  are  blended  with 
strongly  marked  avarice  and  a  love  of  greed  ;  while  in  other 
respects  they  show  evidence  of  a  strongly-marked  Celtic  type. — 
Heredity  in   political   economy,  by  M.  de  Lapouge.      In    this 
sequel  to  his  former  articles  on  "  Inequality  among  Men,"  the 
author  urges  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  State  to  use  all  means  at 
its  disposal  to  eliminate  the  degenerate,  and  multiply  the  favoured 
elements  of  which  the  community  is   composed.     As  an  ultra- 
pessimist  in   regard   to   the   advance  of  inferior   races   through 
civilization,  he  points  to  the  small   effect  which   thousands  of 
years  have  effected  in  the  natives  of  the  Black  Continent.     To 
him,  equality  and  fraternity  are  mere  delusive  terms,  based  on 
an  insufficient  estimate  of  the  force  of  the  immutable  laws  of 
Nature,  from  amongst  which  we  cannot  exclude  natural  selection 
and  survival  of  the  fittest.     As  the  avowed   opponent  of  the 
doctrine   of    the   amalgamation   of  types,    and   the   production 
of  permanent  hybrids,  he  proclaims  it  as  his  opinion  that,  if  the 
higher  races  are  not  to  be  exterminated  by  the  lower,  they  must 
ally  themselves  solely  with  their  own  dolichocephalic,  blonde, 
Aryan  kindred.      In  treating  of  the    question  of   selection  he 
passes  in  review  the  bearing  that  religious  opinions  have  had 
among   different  races  in  determining  various  degrees  of  con- 
sanguinity  which   were   to   be   recognized    as    natural  barriers 
against   intermarriage  among  relatives.     Considered  generally, 
M.  de  Lapouge's  article  is  a  protest  against  futile  attempts  in 
the  assumed  name  of  philanthrophy  to  raise  inferior  types  at  the 
expense  of  those  whom  history  from  its  earliest  dawn  has  shown 
us  to  have  been  the  leaders  and  pioneers  in  every  path  of  human 
progress. — In  a  note  on  the  recurrence  among  the  Provencals 
of  the  present  day  of  the  myth  of  Ibicus,  M.  le  Dr.  Berenger- 
Ferand  draws  attention  to  the  numerous  characteristics  derived 
from  Hellenic  antiquity  which  are  still  to  be  met  with  on  the  site 
of  ancient  Greek  settlements.     The  modern  tale  of  the  detection 
of  a  murder  through  a  reference  by  the  murderers  themselves  to 
the  birds  which  had  been  near  the  spot  where  the  deed  was 
done,  is  current  both  at  Toulon  and  La  Grasse.      Both  versions 
agree  closely  with   the  Greek  original  as  to  the  course  of  the 
events,  although  the  myth  had  been  accepted  as  a  true  account 
of  a  contemporaneous  occurrence  in  the  latter  place  many  years 
before  it  received  its  modern  names  of  persons  and  places  from 
the  Toulonais. — In  a  note  on   the  history  of  anthropology  in 
1788,   M.   Topinard  has  collected  together   various  interesting 
details  as  to  the  precise  meaning  attached  at  that  and  earlier 
periods   of    the   last    century   to   the   terms   anthropology   and 
ethnology.      A   doubt   exists,   however,   as  to  the  latter  term, 
which  is  generally  believed   to  have  originated   in  its   present 
sense  with  W.  Edwards,  when  in  1839  he  founded  his  so-called 
Ethnological  Society.     Dr.  Topinard  derives  many  curious  facts 
from  the  manuscript  work  of  Chavannes,  Professor  of  Theology  at 
Lausanne,  whose  speculative  views  as  given  in  his  writings  he 
believes  to  have  largely  influenced  the  Encyclopaedists  no  less 
than  the  author  of  "Emile." — Report  by  Dr.  P.  Topinard  on  the 
Neolithic  skull,  found  at  Feigneux  (Oise)  in  1887,  which  presents 
undoubted  traces  of  having  been  trepanned  both  during  life  anil 
afier  death. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  May  31. — "Colour  Photometry.  Part  II. 
The  Measurement  of  Reflected  Colours."  By  Captain  W. 
de  W.  Abney,  R.E.,  F.R.S.,  and  Major-General  Festing,  R.E., 
F.R.S. 

In  a  previous  paper  we  showed  how  the  luminosity  ol 
different  spectrum  colours  might  be  measured,  and  in  the  present 
paper  we  give  a  method  of  measuring  the  light  of  the  spectrum 
reflected  from  coloured  bodies  such  as  pigments  in  terms  of  the 
light  of  the  spectrum  reflected  from  a  white  surface.  To  effect 
this  the  first  named  of  us  devised  a  modification  of  our  previous 
apparatus.  Nearly  in  contact  with  the  collimating  lens  was 
placed  a  double  image  prism  of  Iceland  spar,  by  which  means 
two  spectra  were  thrown  on  the  focussing  screen  of  the  camera 
(which  was  arranged  as  described  in  the  Bakerian  lecture  for 
1886),  each  formed  of  the  light  which  enters  the  slit.  The  light 
was  thus  identical  in  both  spectra.  The  two  spectra  were  separ- 
ated by  about  \  of  an  inch  when  the  adjustments  were  complete. 
A  slit  cut  in  a  card  was  passed  through  this  spectrum  to  isolate 
any  particular   portion  'which    might   be   required.     The   rays 


June  28,  1888J 


NATURE 


213 


coming  from  the  uppermost  spectrum  were  reflected  by  means  of 
a  small  right-angled  prism  in  a  direction  nearly  at  right  angles 
to  the  original  direction  on  to  another  right-angled  prism.  Both 
prisms  were  attached  to  the  card.  From  this  last  prism  the  rays 
fell  on  a  lens,  and  formed  on  a  white  screen  an  image  ofthe  face 
of  the  spectroscope  prism  in  monochromatic  light.  The  ray  of 
the  same  wave-length  as  that  reflected  from  the  upper  spectrum 
passed  through  the  lower  half  of  the  slit,  and  falling  on  another 
lens  formed  another  image  of  the  face  of  the  prism,  superposed 
over  the  first  image.  A  rod  placed  in  front  of  the  screen  thus 
cast  two  shadows,  one  illuminated  by  monochromatic  rays  from 
the  top  spectrum,  and  the  other  by  those  from  the  bottom 
spectrum.  The  illumination  of  the  two  shadows  was  equalized 
by  means  of  rotating  sectors  which  could  be  closed  and  opened 
at  pleasure  during  the  time  of  rotation.  The  angle  to  which  the 
sector  required  to  be  opened  to  establish  equality  of  illumination 
of  the  two  shadows  gave  the  ratio  of  the  brightness  of  the  two 
spectra.  When  proper  adjustment  had  been  made,  the  relative 
brightness  was  the  same  throughout  the  entire  spectrum. 

To  measure  the  intensity  of  any  ray  reflected  from  a  pigment, 
a  paper  was  coated  with  it  and  placed  adjacent  to  a  white  surface, 
and  it  was  so  arranged  that,  one  shadow  of  the  rod  fell  on  the 
coloured  surface  and  the  other  on  the  white  surface.  The  illu- 
minations were  then  equalized  by  the  sectors,  and  the  relative 
intensities  of  the  two  reflected  rays  calculated.  This  was  ^re- 
peated throughout  the  spectrum.  Vermilion,  emerald-green, 
French  ultramarine  were  first  measured  by  the  above  method,  and 
then  sectors  of  these  colours  prepared,  which  when  rotated  gave 
a  gray  matching  a  gray  obtained  by  rotation  of  black  and  white. 
The  luminosity  curves  of  these  three  colours  were  then  calculated 
and  reduced  proportionally  to  the  angle  that  each  sector  occupied 
in  the  disk.  The  luminosity  curve  of  the  white  was  then  reduced 
in  a  similar  manner,  and  it  was  found  that  the  sum  of  the  lumin- 
osities of  the  three  colours  almost  exactly  equalled  that  of  the 
white.  The  same  measurements  were  gone  through  with  pale- 
yellow  chrome  and  a  French  blue,  which  formed  a  gray  on 
rotation,  with  like  results.  It  was  further  found  that  the  sum  oj 
the  intensities  of  vermilion,  (blue,  and  green  varied  at  different 
parts  of  the  spectrum,  and  the  line  joining  them  was  not  parallel 
to  the  straight  line  which  represented  white  for  all  colours  of  the 
spectrum  and  which  itself  was  parallel  to  the  base.  Since  a 
straight  line  parallel  to  the  base  indicated  degraded  white,  it 
followed  that  if  the  intensity  of  the  rays  of  the  spectrum  were 
reduced  proportionally  to  the  height  of  the  ordinates  above  a  line 
tangential  to  the  curved  line  (which  represented  the  sum  of  the 
intensities  of  the  three  colours  at  the  different  parts  of  the  spec- 
trum) and  were  recombined,  a  gray  should  result.  A  method 
was  devised  of  trying  this,  and  the  experiment  proved  that  such 
was  the  case.  The  same  plan  enabled  the  colour  of  any  pigment 
to  be  reproduced  from  the  spectrum  on  the  screen.  The  com- 
bination of  colours  to  form  a  gray  on  rotation  by  a  colour-blind 
person  was  also  tried,  and  after  the  curve  of  luminosity  of  the 
colours  had  been  calculated  and  reduced  according  to  the  amount 
required  in  the  disk,  it  was  found  that  the  sum  of  the  areas  of 
the  curves  was  approximately  equal  to  the  white  necessary  to 
be  added  to  a  black  disk  to  form  a  gray  of  equal  intensity  as  per- 
ceived by  him.  The  spectrum  intensity  of  gas-light  in  comparison 
with  the  electric  light  was  also  measured,  and  the  amount  of 
the  different  colours  necessary  to  form  a  gray  in  this  light  was 
ascertained  by  experiment. 

As  before,  it  was  found  that  the  calculated  luminosity  of  the 
colours  was  equal  to  the  white  which,  combined  with  black, 
formed  a  gray  of  equal  luminosity. 

The  question  of  the  coloured  light  reflected  from  different 
metals  was  next  considered,  and  the  method  of  measuring  it 
devised,  as  was  also  the  method  of  measuring  absorption  spectra. 
The  luminosity  curves  obtained  by  the  old  method  were  compared 
with  those  obtained  by  the  present  method,  and  so  close  an 
agreement  between  them  was  found  to  exist  as  to  give  a  further 
confirmation  that  our  former  plan  was  accurate.  A  number  of 
pigments  that  can  be  used  for  forming  grays  by  rotation  were 
measured,  and  the  results  tabulated  in  percentages  of  the 
spectrum  of  white  light  and  on  a  wave-length  scale. 

Physical  Society,  June  9.— Prof.  Reinold,  President,  in 
the  chair. — The  following  papers  were  read  :— On  the  analogy 
between  dilute  solutions  and  gases  as  regards  Gay-Lussac's  and 
Boyle's  and  Avogadro's  laws,  by  Prof,  van  't  Hoff,  presented 
by  Prof.  Ramsay,  F.R.S.  If  a  dilute  aqueous  solution  of 
sugar  (say  1  per  cent.)  be  placed  in  a  vessel,  A  (the  walls  of 


which  are  permeable  to  water,  but  not  to  sugar  molecules),  and 
immersed  in  a  large  quantity  of  water,  B,  water  will  pass  from 
B  to  A  until  a  certain  difference  of  pressure  exists  between  the 
inside  and  outside  of  A,  that  difference  depending  on  the 
temperature  and  concentration  of  the  solution.  The  pressure  is 
called  osmotic  pressure,  and  the  walls  of  A  are  said  to  be  semi- 
permeable. Such  a  vessel  may  be  artificially  produced  by 
depositing  ferrocyanide  of  copper  on  unglazed  porcelain  ;  but 
many  of  the  experiments  dealt  with  in  the  paper  have  been  made 
with  the  cells  of  plants,  the  walls  of  which  form  good  semi- 
permeable membranes.  At  constant  temperature  the  osmotic 
pressure  is  found  to  be  proportional  to  the  concentration  of  the 
solution,  and  for  a  given  concentration  the  pressure  is  propor- 
tional to  the  absolute  temperature.  Similar  results  have  been 
obtained  with  solutions  of  KN03,  K2S04,  NaCl,  &c,  and  Soret 
has  found  that  if  a  solution  be  heated  unequally  at  different 
parts,  the  warmer  parts  are  less  concentrated,  just  as  in  gases 
under  similar  conditions  the  warmer  parts  are  more  rarefied. 
The  numerical  results  are  in  fair  accordance  with  those  deduced 
from  the  laws  above  stated.  Theoretical  proofs  of  the  laws  are 
given,  in  which  reversible  cycles  and  the  second  law  of  thermo- 
dynamics are  made  use  of.  By  similar  reasoning  the  author 
concludes  that  "  under  equal  osmotic  pressure,  and  at  the  same 
temperature,  equal  volumes  of  all  solutions  contain  the  same 
number  of  molecules,  and  moreover  the  same  number  of  mole- 
cules which  would  be  contained  in  a  gas  under  the  same  condi- 
tions of  temperature  and  pressure."  These  results  are  confirmed 
by  Pfeffer's  direct  determinations  of  osmotic  pressure,  and 
Raoult's  experiments  on  the  "  molecular  lowering  of  vapour- 
pressure,"  and  the  "molecular  depression  of  the  freezing-point 
of  the  solvent."  The  latter  part  of  the  paper  contains  applica- 
tions to  chemical  phenomena.  Prof.  Riicker  regretted  that  the 
names  Boyle's  law  and  Gay-Lussac's  law  had  been  so  persist- 
ently made  use  of  in  the  paper,  as  he  thought  a  wrong  impression 
would  be  spread  as  to  the  nature  of  the  phenomena.  He  also 
considered  it  probable  that  the  proportionality  observed  was 
merely  the  result  of  the  smallness  of  the  ranges  over  which  the 
experiments  had  been  made.  Mr.  H.  Crompton  took  exception 
to  the  imaginative  character  of  the  reasoning,  and  thought  much 
more  experimental  proof  was  required  before  the  results  could 
be  accepted  for  any  but  very  small  ranges  of  concentration.  In 
answer  to  Prof.  Reinold,  Prof.  Ramsay  said  the  experimental 
data  were  not  obtained  by  van  't  Hoff  himself,  but  were  taken 
chiefly  from  Raoult's  determinations. — On  a  method  of  compar- 
ing very  unequal  capacities,  by  Dr.  A.  H.  Fison.  One  coating 
of  each  condenser  is  joined  to  earth,  and  to  one  end,  A,  of  a 
high  resistance  (20,000  or  30,000  ohms),  through  which  a  current 
is  flowing.  The  small  condenser  is  charged  to  the  P.  D.  existing 
between  the  ends  A,  B,  of  the  resistance,  and  discharged  into 
the  large  one.  This  is  repeated  a  great  number  of  times.  If  C 
be  a  point  between  A  and  B,  the  resistance  between  A  and  C 
may  be  varied  until  the  P.D.  between  them  is  equal  to  that 
between  the  coatings  of  the  condensers  after  n  operations.  If 
theinsulatedcoatings.be  now  joined  to  C  through  a  galvano- 
meter, no  deflection  will  result.  The  relation  between  the 
capacities  Cj  and  C2  of  the  large  and  small  condensers  is 
given  by 

/.  ,  c2y  _  Rab 

where  Rab,  Rbc  are  the  resistances  between  AB  and  BC  re- 
spectively. Since  time  is  required  to  perform  the  operation,  the 
instantaneous  capacities  cannot  be  compared,  and  accordingly 
the  measurements  are  taken  after  a  definite  time  of  electrification. 
A  special  rotating  key  was  shown  for  performing  ten  operations 
per  revolution,  in  which  a  trigger  arrangement  was  provided  for 
stopping  the  rotation  after  a  predetermined  integral  number  of 
revolutions.  The  method  has  been  used  for  comparing  a  small 
air-condenser  with  a  microfarad.  The  capacity  of  the  former 
was  also  calculated  electro-statically  (correction  being  made  for 
the  edges),  and  that  of  the  latter  measured  electro-magnetically 
by  a  ballistic  galvanometer.  The  results  give  a  value  for  v 
equal  to  2*965  x  io10.  In  these  experiments  the  capacity  of  the 
rotating  key  was  allowed  for.  Under  favourable  conditions, 
capacities  in  the  ratio  of  1  to  1000  or  1  to  10,000  can  be  com- 
pared with  an  accuracy  of  \  per  cent.  Prof.  Ayrton  thought  the 
novelty  of  the  arrangement  was  in  the  rotating  key,  as  the 
method  of  comparing  unequal  capacities  by  charging  the  smaller 
and  discharging  it  into  the  larger  a  considerable  number  ot 
times  had  been  described  and  used  by  himself  and  Prof.  Perry 


214 


NATURE 


{June  28,  1888 


in  their  experiments  on  the  specific  inductive  capacity  of  gases. 
— Mr.  W.  Lant  Carpenter  exhibited  a  new  form  of  lantern, 
recently  constructed  by  Mr.  Hughes,  of  Dalston.  The  mahogany 
body  is  hexagonal,  and  each  of  the  three  front  sides  is  provided 
with  condensers  and  projecting  arrangements.  The  back  side 
opens  to  give  access  to  the  radiant,  which  in  this  case  is  a 
Brockie-Pell  arc  lamp,  but  if  necessary  a  lime-light  can  be 
readily  substituted.  The  lamp  is  fixed  to  the  base-board,  and  the 
body  can  be  rotated  through  6o°  on  either  side  of  the  central 
position,  thus  allowing  any  of  the  three  nozzles  to  be  directed 
towards  the  screen.  The  three  sets  of  condensers  are  placed  so 
that  their  axes  intersect  at  a  point  about  which  the  radiant  is 
placed.  The  centre  nozzle  is  fitted  as  a  lantern  microscope, 
with  alum  cell  and  various  sets  of  condensing  lenses  and  ob- 
jective*, and  a  space  in  front  of  the  main  condensers  is  provided 
for  polarizing  apparatus.  The  focussing  arrangement  consists 
of  a  skew  rack  and  pinion  and  a  fine  screw  adjustment,  and  the 
whole  microscope  can  be  easily  removed  and  a  table  polariscope 
substituted.  The  right-hand  nozzle  is  arranged  for  the  projec- 
tion of  ordinary  lantern-slides,  and  the  left-hand  one  is  provided 
with  an  adjustable  slit  for  spectrum  work.  A  small  table  sliding 
on  rails  serves  to  carry  the  prisms,  and  the  same  rails  support 
projecting  lenses.  Prof.  S.  P.  Thompson  congratulated  Mr. 
Lant  Carpenter  on  his  selection  of  the  Brockie-Pell  lamp  as  the 
radiant,  for,  in  addition  to  its  being  a  focussing-lamp,  it  is 
unique  in  the  fact  that  it  works  satisfactorily  on  either  constant 
current  or  constant  potential  circuits. — Note  on  some  additions 
to  the  Kew  magnetometer,  by  Prof.  Thorpe,  F.R.  S.,  and 
Prof.  Riicker,  F.R. S.  In  their  magnetic  survey  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  the  authors  have  experienced  considerable 
difficulty  in  making  the  necessary  adjustments  of  the  small 
transit-mirror  used  for  determining  the  geographical  N.  point 
from  observations  on  the  sun.  To  make  the  required  adjust- 
ments it  is  necessary  to  obtain  an  image  of  the  cross-wires 
reflected  from  the  mirror  ;  and  owing  to  the  large  amount  of 
extraneous  light,  and  the  insufficient  illumination  of  the  cross- 
wire,  the  image  is  difficult  to  see.  To  exclude  extraneous  light, 
a  tube  is  placed  between  the  transit-mirror  and  the  telescope, 
and  a  small  screen  placed  behind  the  mirror.  The  cross-wires 
are  illuminated  by  light  reflected  from  a  small  platinum  mirror 
introduced  between  the  eye-piece  and  the  cross-wires,  which  are 
viewed  through  a  hole  in  its  centre.  The  mirror  is  placed  at 
450  to  the  axis,  and  reflects  a  considerable  quantity  of  light  on 
the  cross-wires  when  directed  towards  a  bright  part  of  the  sky. 
In  some  cases  it  is  advisable  to  take  observaiions  of  the  sun 
without  first  adjusting  the  transit-mirror,  and  afterwards  correct 
the  error  introduced  thereby.  To  do  this  a  finely-divided  scale 
is  placed  in  the  plane  of  the  cross-wires,  and  from  the  position 
of  the  image,  as  indicated  on  the  scale,  the  correction  can  be 
made.  Observations  taken  with  the  mirror  in  adjustment  and 
others  taken  when  out  of  adjustment,  and  subsequently  cor- 
rected, give  very  concordant  results.  The  Rev.  Father  Perry 
said  the  improvements  described  were  of  great  importance,  for 
difficulties  similar  to  those  experienced  by  the  authors  had 
caused  him  to  abandon  the  Kew  magnetometer  for  field  work, 
and  to  use  a  theodolite  instead. 

Linnean  Society,  June  21.— Mr.  F.  Crisp  in  the  chair. — 
Mr.  F.  W.  Oliver  exhibited  the  aquatic  and  terrestrial  forms  of 
Trapella  sinensis,  of  which  he  gave  a  detailed  account,  illustrated 
by  diagrams.— Dr.  R.  C.  A.  Prior  exhibited  a  branch  of  the 
so-called  "Cornish  elm,"  and  described  its  peculiar  mode  of 
growth,  which  suggested  its  recognition  as  a  distinct  species. 
In  the  opinion  of  botanists  present,  however,  it  was  regarded  as 
merely  a  well-marked  variety  of  the  common  elm. — On  behalf  of 
Mr.  R.  Newstead,  of  the  Grosvenor  Museum,  Chester,  photo- 
graphs and  drawings  of  the  little  grebe,  Podiceps  minor,  were 
exhibited  to  illustrate  a  peculiarity  observed  in  the  mechanism 
of  the  leg-bones. — Mr.  A.  W.  Bennett  exhibited  under  the  micro- 
scope, and  made  remarks  upon,  filaments  of  Spharoplea  annu- 
lina_  (from  Kew),  containing  fertilized  oospores. — Mr.  Thomas 
Christy  exhibited  specimens  of  natural  and  manufactured  Kola 
nuts,  and  explained  how  the  latter  might  always  be  detected. — 
The  following  papers  were  then  read : — Dr.  P.  H.  Carpenter, 
on  the  Comatulce  of  the  Mergui  Archipelago. — Prof.  P.  Martin 
Duncan  and  W.  P.  Sladen  on  the  Echinoidca  of  the  Mergui 
Archipelag).— Mr.  W.  P.  Sladen,  on  the  Asteroidea  of  the 
Mergui  Archipelago.— Mr.  W.  Bolus,  on  South  African 
Orchideiz. — Mr.  R.  A.  Rolfe,  a  morphological  and  systematic 
revision  of  Apostasies. 


Geological  Society,  June  7.— Dr.  W.  T.  Blanford,  F.R.S. 
President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  communications  were 
read  : — A  letter  from  H.  M.  Secretary  of  State  for  India,  accom- 
panying some  specimens  of  rubies  in  the  matrix  from  Burma. — 
On  the  Sudbury  copper  deposits  (Canada),  by  J.  H.  Collins. — 
Notes  on  some  of  the  auriferous  tracts  of  Mysore  Province, 
Southern  India,  by  George  Attwood. — On  the  Durham  salt- 
district,  by  E.  Wilson.  In  this  paper  the  author  described  the 
new  salt- field  in  the  North  of  England,  occupying  the  low -lying 
country  bordering  the  estuary  of  the  Tees,  and  situated  partly  in 
Yorkshire  and  partly  in  Durham.  The  history  of  the  rise  and  pro- 
gress of  the  salt-industry  in  South  Durham  was  given,  since  the 
first  discovery  of  salt  by  Messrs.  Bolckow,  Vaughan,  and  Co.,  at 
Middlesborough,  in  the  year  1859.  The  stratigraphical  position 
of  the  saliferous  rocks  of  the  Durham  salt-district  was  considered 
in  some  detail.  The  diverse  views  which  have  been  previously 
expressed  on  this  head  were  referred  to,  and  reasons  given  for 
concluding  that  all  the  beds  of  rock-salt  which  have  been  hitherto 
proved  in  this  field,  and  the  red  rocks  with  which  they  are 
associated,  belong  to  the  upper  portion  of  the  Trias,  viz.  to  the 
Upper  Keuper  series  (Waterstones  subdivision).  The  probable 
area  of  this  salt-field,  the  limits  of  the  distribution,  and  varying 
depths  of  the  chief  bed  of  rock-salt  were  indicated,  and  the 
extent  of  its  supplies  pointed  out.  In  conclusion,  the  author 
called  attention  to  the  waste,  as  well  as  to  certain  other  disad- 
vantages resulting  from  the  process  of  winning  the  salt  now  in 
operation. — On  the  occurrence  of  Cahispharce,  Williamson,  in 
the  Carboniferous  Limestone  of  Gloucestershire,  by  E.  Wethered. 
— Second  note  on  the  movement  of  scree-material,  by  C. 
Davison;  communicated  by  Prof.  T.  G.  Bonney,  F.R.  S. 

Anthropological  Institute,  May  29.— Francis  Galton, 
F.R.S.,  President,  in  the  chair. — A  paper  by  Mr.  G.  H. 
Kinahan  was  read,  on  rubbings  from  ancient  inscribed  stone 
monuments  in  Ireland. — Dr.  Stewart  gave  an  account  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Paraguay. 

June  12. — The  Rev.  H.  G.  Tomkins  read  a  paper  on  Mr. 
Flinders  Petrie's  collection  of  ethnographic  types  from  the  monu- 
ments of  Egypt.  The  author  classified  the  collection  under  the 
four  heads  of  Westerns,  Southerns,  Asiatics,  and  Egyptians  ; 
and  examined,  in  order,  the  races  mentioned  under  each  of  these 
heads.  Among  the  Westerns  are  the  Tahennu,  or  fair  people, 
who,  as  Egyptian  mercenary  troops,  founded,  by  a  praetorian 
revolt,  the  famous  twenty-second  dynasty,  to  which  Shishak,  the 
invader  of  Palestine,  belonged.  The  Lebu,  or  Libyans,  fall 
under  this  head  ;  and  the  author  identifies  with  them  the  light- 
complexioned,  fair-haired,  and  blue-eyed  brickmakers  of  the 
celebrated  tomb  of  Rekhmara.  The  want  of  the  long  side-locks 
is  not  surprising,  since  they  were  slaves  employed  in  the  lowest 
drudgery.  The  Shardina  furnished  highly-trained  soldiers  to 
the  Egyptian  army  of  Rameses  II.  They  wore  helmets  with 
two  horns,  crested  with  a  disk,  and  seem  to  have  been  Sar- 
dinians. Under  the  head  of  Southerns  we  have  very  various 
and  interesting  types.  It  is  curious  to  find,  in  the  paintings, 
blacks  with  red  hair  ;  but  it  seems  probable  that  the  colour  was 
produced  by  the  use  of  dye.  Mr.  Tomkins  gave  a  full  descrip- 
tion of  the  race  of  Pun,  and  dwelt  particularly  upon  the  terraced 
mountains  covered  with  incense-trees  that  caused  so  much 
astonishment  to  the  officers  of  Queen  Hatasu.  He  also  gave 
a  probable  explanation  of  the  origin  of  the  remarkable  features 
of  Amenhotep  IV.,  the  celebrated  Khu-en-aten,  whose  mother, 
Queen  Tua,  was  distinguished  for  her  beauty. 

Mathematical  Society,  June  14. — Sir  J.  Cockle,  F.R.S., 
President,  in  the  chair. — The  Vice- Chancellor  of  Cambridge 
University  (Dr.  C.  Taylor),  read  a  paper  on  the  determination 
of  the  circular  points  at  infinity.  -Prof.  M.  J.  M.  Hill  followed  with 
a  paper  on  the  c-  and  /-discriminants  of  integrable  differential 
equations  of  the  first  order. — Mr.  Tucker  (Hon.  Sec),  com- 
municated papers  by  Lord  Rayleigh,  Sec.  R.  S. ,  on  point-,  line-, 
and  plane-sources  of  sound. — Note  on  rationalization,  by  H. 
Fortey. — Applications  of  elliptic  functions  to  the  theory  of 
twisted  quartics,  by  Prof.  G.  B.  Mathews. — Prof.  Greenhill, 
F.R. S.,  communicated  remarks  on  coefficients  of  induction  and 
capacity  and  allied  problems,  in  continuation  of  a  former  paper 
(January  1879). — The  following  were  taken  as  read  :  electrical 
oscillations,  by  Prof.  J.  J.  Thomson,  F.  R.  S.  ;  and  demonstration 
of  the  theorem  "that  the  equation  x3  +  yz  +  z3  —  o  cannot 
be  solved  in  integers,"  by  J.  R.  Holt. 

Zoological  Society,  June  5.— Dr.  Edward  Hamilton,  Vice- 
President,  in  the  chair. — The  Secretary  read  a  report  on  the 
.   additions  that  had  been  made  to  the  Society's  Menagerie  during 


June  28,  1888] 


NA  TURB 


215 


the  month  of  May. — Mr.  H.  E.  Dresser  exhibited  a  specimen  of 
a  new  Shrike  from  the  Transcaspian  district  of  Central  Asia, 
which  he  proposed  to  name  Lanitts  raddei,  after  Dr.  Radde,  of 
Tiflis,  its  discoverer. — Mr.  Sclater,  on  the  part  of  Mr.  F.  M. 
Campbell,  exhibited  a  pair  of  Pallas's  Sand-Grouse  {Syrrhaples 
paradoxus),  shot  in  Hertfordshire  in  May  last,  and  made 
remarks  on  the  recent  immigration  of  this  Central  Asiatic  bird 
into  Western  Europe. — The  Secretary  exhibited,  on  behalf  of 
Prof.  R.  Collett,  a  nest,  eggs,  and  two  young  ones  in  down  of 
the  Ivory  Gull  (Lams  eburneus),  belonging  to  the  Tromso 
Museum,  which  had  been  obtained  in  Spitzbergen  in  August 
1887. — Mr.  Warren  communicated  a  paper  on  Lepidoptera 
collected  by  Major  Yerbury  in  Western  India  in  1886-87,  form- 
ing a  continuation  and  completion  of  two  previous  papers  by  Mr. 
A.  G.  Butler  on  Lepidoptera  collected  by  the  same  gentleman  in 
similar  localities.  The  present  collection  contained  examples  of 
over  200  species  of  Heterocera,  of  which  about  one-fourth  were 
described  as  new.  Mr.  Warren  remarked  upon  the  abnormal 
development  of  separate  organs,  such  as  the  antennae  and  palpi, 
in  tropical  insects,  as  being  rather  specific  aberrations  from  a 
generic  type,  than  as  warranting  the  erection  of  new  genera. — A 
communication  was  read  from  Mr.  Martin  Jacoby,  containing 
descriptions  of  some  new  species  of  Phytophagous  Coleoptera 
from  Kiukiang,  China.— Mr.  F.  E.  Beddard  read  some  notes  on 
the  structure  cf  a  peculiar  sternal  gland  found  in  Didelphys  dimi- 
diata. — Mr.  G.  A.  Boulenger  read  a  paper  on  the  scaling  of  the 
reproduced  tail  in  Lizards,  and  pointed  out  that  the  scaling  of 
the  renewed  tails  of  Lizards  may,  in  some  cases,  afford  a  clue  to 
the  affinities  of  genera  or  species  to  one  another. — Mr.  F.  E. 
Beddard  gave  a  preliminaiy  notice  of  an  apparently  new  form  of 
Gregarine,  found  parasitic  on  an  earthworm  o  the  genus 
Perickcefa  from  New  Zealand. 

Cambridge. 

Philosophical  Society,  May  21.  — Mr.  J.  W.  Clark, 
President,  in  the  chaT. — On  solution  and  crystallization, 
by  Prof.  Liveing.  When  a  substance  passes  from  a  state 
of  solution  into  the  solid  state,  the  new  arrangement  of  the 
matter  must  be  such  that  the  entropy  of  the  system  is  a  maximum  ; 
and,  other  things  being  the  same,  the  surface  energy  of  the 
newly  formed  solid  must  be  a  minimum.  If  the  surface  tension 
be  positive,  that  is  tend  to  contract  the  surface,  the  surface 
energy  will  be  a  minimum  when  the  approximation  of  the  mole- 
cules of  the  surface  is  a  maximum.  The  essential  difference 
between  a  solid  and  a  fluid  is  that  the  molecules  of  the  former 
maintain  approximately  the  same  relative  places,  whereas  the 
molecules  of  a  fluid  are  subject  to  diffusion.  Further,  crystal- 
loids in  assuming  the  solid  form  assume  a  regular  arrangement 
of  their  molecules  throughout  their  mass,  which  we  can  usually 
recognize  by  the  optical  properties  of  the  crystal,  and  by  the 
cleavage.  If  we  suppose  space  to  be  divided  into  equal  cubes 
by  three  sets  of  parallel  planes,  each  set  at  right  angles  to  the 
other  two,  and  suppose  a  molecule  to  be  placed  in  every  point 
where  three  planes  intersect,  we  shall  have  an  arrangement  which 
corresponds  with  the  isotropic  character  of  a  crystal  of  the  cubic 
system.  But  of  all  the  surfaces  which  can  be  drawn  through 
the  system  the  planes  bounding  the  cubes  meet  the  greatest 
number  of  molecules,  those  parallel  to  the  faces  of  the  dodeca- 
hedron meet  the  next  greatest  number  of  molecules,  and  those 
parallel  to  the  faces  of  the  octahedron  meet  the  next  greatest 
number.  Also  if  we  take  an  angular  point  of  one  of  the  cubes 
as  origin,  and  three  edges  of  the  cube  as  axes,  and  the  length  of 
an  edge  qf  the  cube  as  the  unit  of  length,  every  plane  which 
cuts  the  rnree  axes  at  distances  /,  q,  r  respectively  from  the 
origin,  where/;,  q  and  r  are  whole  numbers,  will  be  a  surface  of 
maximum  concentration  of  molecules,  but  the  concentration  will 
be  less  as  /,  q  and  r  are  greater.  Hence  forms  which  are 
bounded  by  these  planes,  which  follow  the  law  of  indices  of 
crystal?,  will  be  forms  of  minimum  surface  energy  and  therefore 
of  equilibrium.  The  tendency  in  general  will  be  for  substances 
with  such  a  structure  as  is  here  supposed  to  take  the  form  of 
cubes,  since  the  cube  will  have  the  greatest  concentration  of 
molecules  per  unit  of  surface.  But  the  total  surface  energy  will 
depend  on  the  total  surface  as  well  as  on  the  energy  per  unit  of 
surface,  and  for  a  given  volume  the  surface  will  be  diminished 
if  the  edges  and  angles  of  the  cube  are  truncated  by  faces  of  the 
dodecahedron  and  octahedron,  or  by  more  complicated  forms. 
When  a  solid  is  broken,  two  new  surfaces  are  formed  each  with 
its  own  surface  energy,  and  the  solid  must  be  more  easily 
fractured  when  the  new  surfaces  have  the   minimum   energy. 


Hence  substances  with  the  structure  supposed  must  break  most 
easily  in  directions  parallel  to  the  sides  of  the  cube,  dodeca- 
hedron and  octahedron  ;  and  these  are  the  cleavages  observed  in 
this  system.  If  we  suppose  the  molecules  placed  at  the 
centres  of  the  faces  of  the  cubes,  instead  of  at  the  angles,  the 
arrangement  will  still  be  isotropic,  but  the  octahedron  will 
be  bounded  by  the  surfaces  of  greatest  condensation,  and  the 
cube  will  come  next  to  it.  It  is  probable  that  substances 
which  cleave  most  readily  into  cubes,  such  as  rock-salt  and  galena, 
have  the  former  structure,  while  those  which  have  the  octahedral 
cleavage  may  have  the  latter  arrangement  of  their  molecules. 
For  the  pyramidal  and  prismatic  systems  we  may  suppose  space 
divided  not  into  cubes  but  into  rectangular  parallelopipeds  with 
edges  equal  severally  to  the  axes  of  the  crystals,  and  molecules 
placed  as  before.  For  the  rhombohedral  system  we  may  suppose 
space  divided  into  rhombohedra,  or  in  crystals  of  the  hexagonal 
type  into  right  prisms  with  triangular  bases,  and  for  the  other 
systems  into  parallelopipeds  with  edges  parallel  and  equal  to  the 
axes.  In  each  case  if  the  molecules  be  disposed  at  points  of 
intersection  of  three  dividing  planes  we  shall  have  such  an 
arrangement  as  satifies  the  optical  conditions,  and  planes  which 
follow  the  law  of  indices  are  surfaces  of  maximum  condensation. 
Calculations  show  that  whenever  a  crystal  has  an  easily  obtained 
cleavage  the  direction  of  cleavage  corresponds  to  the  surface  of 
greatest  condensation,  and  that  the  most  common  forms  of 
crystals  correspond  in  general  to  forms  of  minimum  surface 
energy.  The  surface  tension  of  a  plane  surface  will  have  no 
resultant  out  of  that  plane,  but  where  two  plane  surfaces  meet 
in  an  edge,  or  angle,  the  tensions  will  have  a  resultant  of 
sensible  magnitude  in  some  direction  falling  within  the  angle. 
Whenever  all  the  faces  of  a  crystallographic  form  are  developed, 
every  such  resultant  will  be  met  by  an  equal  and  opposite 
resultant,  and  the  form  will  be  one  of  equilibrium.  If  one  edge, 
or  angle,  be  modified,  the  opposite  edge,  or  angle,  must  either 
be  similarly  modified,  or  the  resultant  arising  from  the  modifica- 
tion must  be  equilibrated  by  some  internal  forces  produced  by 
displacement  of  the  molecules.  In  general,  equilibrium  is 
attained  by  similar  modifications  of  similar  edges  and  angles, 
but  when  only  some  of  the  edges  or  angles  of  a  crystal  are 
modified,  while  other  similar  edges  or  angles  are  not  modified,  we 
usually  have  evidence  of  the  consequent  internal  strain.  Thus 
cubes  of  sodium  chlorate,  which  have  half  the  angles  truncated 
by  faces  of  a  tetrahedron,  rotate  the  plane  of  polarized  light, 
hemihedral  tourmalines  are  pyro-electric,  and  so  on.  This  theory 
therefore  accounts  for  the  plane  faces  of  crystals,  the  law  of 
indices,  the  most  common  combinations,  and  the  cleavages. 
The  same  theory  accounts  for  the  development  of  plane  faces 
when  a  crystalline  solid  of  any  shape  is  slowly  acted  on  by  a 
solvent.  Solution  will  proceed  so  long  as  the  entropy  of  the 
system  is  increased  by  the  change,  but  when  the  solution  is  nearly 
saturated  there  will  be  an  increase  of  entropy  from  the  solution 
of  a  surface  which  has  more  than  the  minimum  surface  energy, 
while  there  will  be  no  increase  from  the  solution  of  a  surface 
which  has  only  the  minimum  energy. — On  the  effect  of  an 
electric  current  on  saturated  solutions,  by  Mr.  C.  Chree,  M.A. 
This  paper  contains  an  account  of  experiments  whose  aim  was 
to  determine  what  effect,  if  any,  an  electric  current  may  have  on 
the  quantity  of  salt  required  to  form  a  saturated  solution.  Strong 
currents  and  a  rapidly  reversing  commutator  were  employed. 
Certain  chlorides  were  dealt  with,  and  in  no  case  did  the  exist- 
ence of  a  current  produce  any  sensible  immediate  effect.  When 
heating  was  allowed  to  take  place,  the  action  of  the  current 
appeared  to  check  the  solution  that  would  naturally  have 
followed.  This  view  was  further  supported  by  experiments  on 
the  effects  of  simple  heating.  These  experiments  showed,  how- 
ever, that  an  originally  saturated  solution  when  slowly  heated 
can  dissolve  salt  only  with  extreme  slowness. 

Paris. 
Academy  of  Sciences,  June  18. — M.Janssen,  President,  in 
the  chair. — Lagrange's  hypothesis  on  the  origin  of  comets  and 
meteorites,  by  M.  H.  Faye.  According  to  the  author's  calcula- 
tions, this  hypothesis,  first  submitted  to  the  Bureau  of  Longitudes 
in  18 1 2,  does  not  hold  good  for  the  comets  whose  orbits  do  not 
quite  approach  any  of  the  planetary  orbits.  But  it  would  seem 
capable  of  being  applied  to  the  meteorites,  whose  fragmentary 
character,  minute  size,  chemical  and  mineralogical  identity  with 
the  constituent  elements  of  the  earth,  combined  with  their  great 
abundance,  would  seem  to  be  absolutely  incompatible  with  an 
extra-planetary  origin.      The  earth  alone  with  its  satellite  best 


2l6 


NA  TURE 


\Jtme  28,  1888 


satisfies  all  the  conditions  of  the  problem,  while  its  orbit  is  con- 
tinually intersected  by  millions  of  these  bodies,  as  required  by 
the  hypothesis  in  question.  Hence  their  origin  is  to  be  sought 
in  the  earth  itself  and  in  the  moon,  whence  they  were  ejected 
under  conditions  which  have  long  ceased  to  exist. — Fluorescence 
of  ferruginous  lime,  by  M.  Lecoq  de  Boisbaudran.  These 
experiments  show  that  a  small  quantity  of  the  sesquioxide  of 
iron  added  to  the  carbonate  of  lime  produces  a  green  fluorescence 
after  high  calcination  in  the  air.  This  fluorescence,  which  is 
occasionally  somewhat  intense,  is  very  sensitive  to  the  action  of 
heat ;  hence  it  soon  fades  away  in  the  presence  of  the  electrode, 
retaining  its  brilliancy  only  in  the  parts  of  the  tube  furthest 
removed  from  the  centre  of  action. — Experimental  researches  on 
the  diseases  of  the  vine,  by  MM.  Pierre  Viala  and  L.  Ravaz. 
Having  already  shown  that  the  different  reproductive  organs 
found  on  the  parts  affected  by  black  rot  belong  to  the  fungus, 
cause  of  this  disease,  the  authors  here  demonstrate  the  true 
parasitic  character  of  the  fungus  itself.  They  once  for  all 
establish  the  filiation  which  exists  between  its  various  forms  of 
reproduction,  and  thus  make  it  evident  that  the  blight  on  the  leaves 
has  the  same  origin  as  that  of  the  grapes.  —  Researches  on  the 
accidental  errors  occurring  in  the  observations  of  transits  made 
by  the  method  of  eye  and  ear,  by  M.  G.  Rayet.  In  supplement 
to  the  studies  of  Struve,  Robinson,  Dunkin,  Finlay,  and  others, 
the  author  here  describes  the  results  of  special  observations  made 
on  about  seventy  stars,  or  constellations,  comprised  between  200 
of  austral  declination  and  the  North  Pole.  He  has  thus  deter- 
mined the  numerical  value  of  the  accidental  errors  relative  to 
some  dozen  stars  between  8o°  and  890  22' '3  of  declination. —  On 
the  rings  of  Saturn,  by  M.  Perrotin.  During  the  opposition  of 
Saturn  in  the  present  year  the  author  has  made  a  series  of 
micrometric  measurements  of  the  rings  by  means  of  the  great 
equatorial  of  the  Observatory  of  Nice.  The  results  of  these 
observations,  made  for  the  purpose  of  determining  the  dimensions 
of  the  system,  are  here  fully  tabulated  for  the  whole  period 
from  February  2  to  May  8. — On  the  planet  Mars,  by  M.  Perrotin. 
On  presenting  the  already  promised  sketches  of  recent  appear- 
ances in  this  planet,  the  author  remarked  that  since  his  last 
communication  the  region  of  Libya  has  undergone  fresh  modifica- 
tions. The  sea  which  covered  the  surface  of  this  insular  mass 
has  mostly  receded,  its  present  appearance  being  intermediate 
between  that  of  1886  and  its  condition  a  few  weeks  ago.  The 
existence  has  also  been  determined  of  canals  or  channels,  partly 
double,  running  from  near  the  equator  to  the  neighbourhood  of 
the  North  Pole.  They  mainly  follow  the  meridian,  and  merge 
in  the  seas  encircling  the  white  snow-cap  of  the  Pole,  and,  strange 
to  say,  their  course  may  be  followed  across  the  seas  themselves 
right  up  to  the  snow-cap. — Heat  of  combination  of  the  primary, 
secondary,  and  tertiary  aromatic  monamines  with  the  acids,  by 
M.  Leo  Vignon.  In  continuation  of  M.  Louguinine's  study  of 
the  primary  monamines,  the  author  here  investigates  the 
reactions  of  several  acids  on  a  series  of  primary,  secondary,  and 
tertiary  monamines.  He  deals  more  especially  with  aniline, 
monomethyl  aniline,  and  dimethylaniline  in  the  presence  of  the 
hydrochloric,  sulphuric,  and  acetic  acids. — On  the  decomposition 
of"  the  ferrate  of  baryta  at  high  temperatures,  by  MM.  G. 
Rousseau  and  J.  Bernheim.  In  his  researches  on  ferric  acid, 
Fremy  has  indicated  the  analogy  existing  between  the  ferrates 
and  the  manganates,  as  established  by  the  wet  process.  Here 
the  authors  endeavour  to  ascertain  whether  the  parallelism  is 
maintained  in  the  reactions  of  the  dry  process  and  in  their  mode 
of  decomposition  under  the  action  of  heat.  —  On  some  new 
double  phosphates  in  the  magnesian  series,  by  M.  L.  Ouvrard. 
The  products  here  described  have  been  obtained  by  the  method 
already  referred  to  in  a  previous  note  on  the  action  of  the 
alkaline  phosphates  on  the  alkaline  earthy  oxides.  All  the 
metals  investigated  are  allied  in  their  composition  to  the 
substances  obtained  with  the  pyro-  and  ortho-phosphates  of 
potassa  and  soda. — On  the  poison  of  the  Hymenoptera  with 
smooth  sting,  and  on  the  existence  of  a  poison-cell  in  the  honey- 
producing  insects,  by  M.  G.  Carlet.  In  continuation  of  his 
researches  on  the  barbed  sting  of  bees,  wasps,  &c,  the  author 
here  studies  the  smooth  sting  of  Philanthus,  Pompilus,  &c. 
He  describes  the  nature  of  the  poison,  which  has  merely  a 
soporiferous  effect,  and  clearly  determines  the  presence  of  a 
poison-cell  in  bees  and  allied  insects. — On  a  new  bacterial 
disease  of  the  duck,  by  MM.  Cornil  and  Toupet.  An  examina- 
tion of  the  bacteria  of  this  disease  ("  duck  cholera  ")  shows  that 
it  is  quite  distinct  from  chicken  cholera.  The  virus  is  fatal  to 
the  duck  alone,  sparing  hens  and  pigeons,   and  killing  rabbits 


only  when  an  excessive  dose  is  administered. — M.  A.  d'Arsonval 
contributes  an  elaborate  paper  on  the  relation  between  animal 
electricity  and  surface  tension. 

Amsterdam. 
Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  May  26. — M.  Franchimont, 
communicating  the  results  of  experiments  on  nitro-ureides  and 
nitramines,  said  that  internal  ureides,  by  their  behaviour  with 
nitric  acid,  may  be  distinguished  into  at  least  three  sorts. — M.' 
Sahols  treated  of  the  calculation  of  the  moments  of  flexion  and 
the  shearing-forces  in  railway-bridges,  in  connection  with  the 
irregular  distribution  of  the  pressures  exercised  by  the  axles  of 
locomotive-engines.  He  pointed  out  what  elements  of  the 
engine  are  of  especial  influence  on  these,  and  arrived  at  very 
simple  approximative  formula?  for  the  calculation  of  the  said 
moments  and  forces  on  bridges  of  not  too  insignificant  length. — 
M.  Pekelharing  read  a  paper  on  the  proliferation  of  endothe- 
lium-cells  in  arteries,  stating,  as  the  result  of  his  experiments 
made  upon  them,  that  this  proliferation  is  most  probably  caused 
by  a  diminution  of  the  pressure  upon  the  inner  wall  of  the 
arteries. — M.  van  der  Waals  treated  of  the  connection  between 
the  change  in  the  density  of  the  limiting  layer  between  fluid 
and  vapour,  and  the  mode  of  action  of  the  molecular  forces. 

BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  Sessions  1883  to  1887 
(Edinburgh). — Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  vol.  xxx. 
Part  4,  vol.  xxxii.  Parts  2,  3,4,  vol.  xxxiii.  Parts  1,  2  (Williams  and  Nor- 
gate). — Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  vol.  xxxi.  Botany 
ofSocotra:  Prof.  I.  B.  Balfour  (Williams  and  Norgate).  —  British  Reptiles 
and  Batrachians  :  C.  C.  Hopley  (Sonnenschein). — Anleitung  zu  Wissen- 
schaftlichen  Beobachtungen  auf  Reisen,  Bands  1  and  2  :  Dr.  G.  Neumayer 
(Oppenheim,  Berlin). — Mathematical  Drawing  Instruments,  sixth  edition : 
W.  F.  Stanley  (Spon). — Proceedings  of  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science,  New  York  Meeting,  1887  (Salem). — British  Dogs, 
Parts  17  to  2C  :  H.  Dalziel  (U.  Gill). — Observations  made  at  the  Hong  Kong 
Observatory  in  the  year  1887  :  W.  Doberck  (Hong  Kong). — Synopsis  of  the 
Aphididae  of  Minnesota  :  O.  W.  Oestlund  (St.  Paul). — Report  on  Botanical 
Work  in  Minnesota  for  the  year  1886  :  J.  C.  Arthur  (St.  Paul). — Preliminary 
Description  of  the  Peridotytes,  Gabbros,  Diabases,  and  Andesytes  of  Minne- 
sota: M.  E.  Wadsworth  (St.  Paul). — Palaeolithic  Man  in  Eastern  and 
Central  North  America  (Cambridge,  Mass.). — Journal  of  the  Royal  Micro- 
scopical Societv,  June  (Williams  and  Norgate). — Proceedings  of  the  Society 
for  Psychical  Research,  June  (Triibner). — Sulla  Forza  Elettromotrice  del 
Selenlo,  Memoria  del  Prof.  A.  Righi  (Padova). 

CONTENTS.  pace 

The  Early  Correspondence  of  Christian  Huygens. 

By  A.  M.  Clerke 193 

Norwegian  Geology 194 

Travels  in  Arabia  Deserta 195 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

"  Charts  showing  the  Mean  Barometrical  Pressure  over 
the  Atlantic,  Indian,  and  Pacific  Oceans  "    ....     196 

"  Commercial  Mathematics  " 196 

Beatty- Kingston  :   "  A  Wanderer's  Notes  " 196 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

The   "  Sky-coloured  Clouds  "  again.— T.  W.  Back- 
house      196 

Earth  Pillars  in  Miniature. — Cecil  Carus-Wilson    .    197 
Egg-masses  on  Hydrobia  tilvce. — Prof.  W.  A.  Herd- 
man     197 

Interpretation  of  the  Differential  Equation  to  a  Conic. 

— R.  B.  H 197 

The  Nephridia  of  Earthworms. — Prof.  W.  Baldwin 

Spencer 197 

Strange  Rise  of  Wells  in  Rainless  Season. — Baldwin 

Latham      198 

The  Opening  of  the  Marine  Biological  Laboratory 

at  Plymouth.    {Illustrated.) 198 

Personal  Identification  and  Description.    II.    {Illus- 
trated.)    By  Francis  Galton,  F.R.S 201 

A  Magnificent  Meteor.     {Illustrated.) 203 

Notes 203 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

Rotation  Period  of  the  Sun  from  Faculae 2o5 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for      the     Week      1888 

July  1-7      207 

Geographical  Notes 207 

Diffraction   of  Sound.     {With   Diagrams.)     By  Lord 

Rayleigh,  F.R.S 208 

Scientific  Serials 211 

Societies  and  Academies 212 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 216 


NA  TURE 


21 7 


THURSDAY,  JULY    5,    ii 


THE  DECADENCE  OF  THE  CHEMICAL  PRO- 
FESSION IN  GOVERNMENT  OPINION. 

THE  Professorship  of  Chemistry  in  the  Royal  Naval 
College,  Greenwich,  is,  or  is  about  to  become,  vacant 
through  the  resignation  of  Dr.  H.  Debus,  F.R.S.,  and  it  is 
currently  reported  that  the  authorities  have  been  advised 
to  discontinue  the  professorship,  and  to  substitute  for  it  a 
mere  lectureship  or  readership.  We  trust  that  this  rumour 
may  prove  unfounded,  or  that  the  Government  may  be  led 
in  time  to  see  the  folly  of  degrading  a  subject  which,  if 
properly  handled,  is  of  such  extreme  value  and  importance 
to  the  Navy.  We  say  degrade,  because  in  the  first  place  it 
cannot  be  questioned  that  chemistry  is  a  science  which 
may  claim  to  rank  with  any  other  which  enters  into  the 
curriculum  at  Greenwich,  both  on  account  of  its  educa- 
tional value  and  its  direct  usefulness  ;  and  because  any 
such  change  must  of  necessity  tend  to  lower  the  value  of 
chemical  knowledge  in  comparison  with  that  of  other 
subjects  in  the  eyes  of  the  students. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  point  out  in  how  many  ways 
a  knowledge  of  chemistry  may  be  of  service  in  the  Navy. 
Our  sailors  are  stationed  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  and 
the  question  of  water-supply  both  for  men  and  boilers  is 
an  ever-present  one  :  a  decision  as  to  the  quality  of  a 
water  can  only  be  given  after  it  has  been  examined 
chemically.  Again,  the  action  of  sea-water  on  metals, 
the  corrosion  of  metals,  the  decay  of  timber,  the  econo- 
mical use  of  fuel,  are  all  matters  in  which  the  sailor 
nowadays  is  deeply  interested,  and  these  can  only  be 
rightly  understood  by  those  who  have  acquired  a  sound 
knowledge  of  chemical  principles.  There  are  very  many 
other  ways  in  which  chemistry  is  of  direct  value  to  the 
sailor ;  but,  most  important  of  all,  there  is  no  subject 
which,  if  properly  and  practically  taught,  affords  the  same 
opportunity  of  training  the  student  to  observe  accurately 
and  to  think  correctly,  and  it  is  especially  on  this  ground 
that  chemistry  should  be  assigned  a  high  position  in  the 
course  at  a  Naval  College.  It  will,  however,  not  suffice  to 
require  attendance  at  a  course  of  lectures  in  which  general 
chemistry  is  treated  of  in  slow  and. measured  cadences  and 
no  heed  is  paid  to  the  requirements  of  the  students  :  the 
subject  must  be  taught  technically,  and  almost  exclusively 
with  direct  reference  to  matters  familiar  to  sailors  and  to 
their  future  requirements  ;  and  the  training  must  be  to  a 
very  large  extent  carried  on  in  the  laboratory,  and  not  in 
the  lecture-room. 

If  the  results  thus  far  obtained  at  Greenwich  have  not 
been  such  as  to  lead  the  authorities  to  appreciate  the 
value  of  the  subject,  the  most  short-sighted  course  they  can 
possibly  pursue  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  better  results  in 
the  future  will  be  to  assign  a  lower  rank  to  chemistry. 
In  cases  of  grave  disease,  if  a  practitioner,  guided  by 
particular  traditions,  and  operating  under  conditions 
which  he  takes  no  particular  pains  to  control,  be  unsuc- 
cessful, it  is  not  usual  to  call  in  another  of  lower  grade  ; 
but  on  the  contrary,  if  possible,  one  of  equal  or  higher 
grade  is  summoned,  holding  different  and  perhaps  wider 
Vol.  xxxviii. — No.  975. 


views,  and  the  effort  is  made  to  improve  the  conditions 
so  as  to  give  every  opportunity  for  his  treatment  to  be 
successful :  and  so  may  it  happen,  we  trust,  at  Greenwich. 

In  these  anxious  times  of  fierce  competition  the  nation 
cannot  afford  that  the  Government  should  act  so  as  in 
the  least  degree  to  diminish  the  importance  of  so  valuable 
a  branch  of  science  as  chemistry.  Moreover,  a  golden 
opportunity  will  be  lost  if  occasion  be  not  now  taken  to 
appoint  at  Greenwich  a  chemist  who  not  only  is  known 
to  have  been  thoroughly  trained,  but  who  has  given 
proof,  by  his  own  researches  and  those  of  his  pupils,  that 
he  is  possessed  of  enthusiasm,  and  capable  of  extending 
our  knowledge.  In  connection  with  explosives,  and  in 
many  other  directions,  there  is  infinite  opportunity  for 
research  ;  and  it  is  a  disgrace  to  the  nation  that  the  Navy 
at  present  has  not  a  single  chemist  of  repute  in  its 
service,  especially  as  such  invaluable  service  has  been 
rendered  to  the  War  Department  by  its  chemist,  Sir 
Frederick  Abel. 

If  the  professorship  at  Greenwich  be  quashed,  it  is 
unlikely  that  a  man  of  proper  calibre  will  be  attracted  by 
a  mere  lectureship  ;  and  thus  another  step  will  have  been 
taken  to  indicate  that  in  this  country  we  care  little  for 
science,  that  our  Government  is  blind  to  facts  so  clearly 
recognized  by  foreign  Powers.  Among  the  noted  men 
of  science  now  in  the  House  of  Commons,  besides  Prof. 
Stokes,  there  are  three  chemists,  Prof.  Maskelyne,  Sir 
Lyon  Play  fair,  and  Sir  Henry  Roscoe  :  we  feel  sure  that 
they  will  not  allow  the  Government  to  make  a  false  move 
in  so  important  a  matter  without  publicly  warning  them, 
and  without  fully  eliciting  their  reasons. 


THE  LAND  AND  FRESH-WATER  MOLLUSC  A 
OF  INDIA. 

Land  and  Fresh-water  Mollusca  of  India.  Edited  by 
Lieut.-Colonel  H.  H.  Godwin-Austen,  F.R.S.,  &c. 
Parts  I.  to  VI.  (London :  Taylor  and  Francis, 
1882-88.) 

ALTHOUGH  much  has  been  done  to  elucidate  the 
fauna  of  our  great  Eastern  dependency,  very  much 
more  still  remains  to  be  accomplished  :  vast  tracts  have 
yet  to  be  explored  scientifically,  even  though,  year  by 
year,  new  areas  are  visited  by  the  naturalist  and  collector, 
and  fresh  species  are  added  to  the  list. 

This  is  especially  evident  in  the  case  of  land  and  fresh- 
water iMollusca ;  whilst  so  scattered  are  the  various 
descriptions  of  the  species  up  and  down  the  pages  of 
different  scientific  journals  and  magazines,  that  the  spe- 
cialist himself  has  a  hard  task  to  ascertain  whether  a 
given  example  is  new  or  not. 

It  is  true  that  Hanley  and  Theobald,1  in  their  now 
classical  work,  went  some  way  towards  remedying  this 
state  of  things  ;  but  their  task  was  never  completed, 
and  many  new  forms  have  been  discovered  since  their 
publication  was  brought  to  a  close. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  present  undertaking 
cannot  fail  to  be  most  welcome.  It  is  modestly  described 
as  "  supplementary "  to  the  work  just  named ;  but,  in 
reality,  it  is  something  far  more  important,  if  we  may 

1  The  names  are  inadvertently  reversed  on  the  title-page  of  Colonel 
Godwin-Austen's  bock. 


2l8 


NA  TURE 


[July  5,  1888 


judge  from  the  six  parts  (257  pp.),  which,  with  their 
sixty-two  hand-coloured  plates,  will,  when  the  index  is 
issued,  complete  the  first  volume.  Each  species  figured 
is  most  thoroughly  described,  and,  when  not  new,  full 
quotations  with  the  synonymy  are  given.  The  figures 
are  also  the  handiwork  of  Colonel  Godwin-Austen,  and 
though  they  by  no  means  attain  to  that  standard  of 
excellence  with  which  Sowerby  at  his  best  made  us 
familiar,  they  are  effective  and  (fortunately)  under,  rather 
than  over,  coloured.  The  illustrations  of  the  living 
animals,  which  are  copied  from  drawings  by  a  native 
artist,  are  extremely  spirited  and  life-like.  Anatomical 
details  where  obtainable  are  given,  and,  what  is  yet  more 
important  from  the  systematic  point  of  view,  the  Radulae 
are  figured ;  for,  whatever  may  be  the  case  with  marine 
forms,  in  the  Pulmonates  certainly  it  is  of  the  greatest 
importance. 

How  truly  gigantic  the  task  Colonel  Godwin-Austen 
has  set  himself,  becomes  apparent  when  it  is  seen  that, 
disregarding  political  boundaries,  under  "  India "  are 
included  "  South  Arabia,  Baluchistan,  Afghanistan, 
Kashmir,  Nepal,  Burmah,  Pegu,  Tenasserim,  Malay 
Peninsula,  Ceylon,  and  other  islands  of  the  Indian 
Ocean " ;  whilst,  when  necessary  for  purposes  of  com- 
parison, genera  from  yet  other  countries  are  also  de- 
scribed and  figured  {e.g.  Geomalaais,  Africarion) — of  a 
truth  there  does  not  seem  to  be  any  probability  that 
the  author  will  ever,  like  some  scientific  Alexander,  be 
in  want  of  fresh  fields  for  conquest  ! 

The  weak  point  of  the  work  appears  to  be  that  "  the 
genera  and  sub-genera  are  treated  of  in  no  particular 
order,  ....  but  as  data  concerning  them  can  be  put 
together  and  the  drawings  completed."  Nothing,  we  feel 
sure,  but  the  necessity  of  doing  so,  if  the  work  was  to  be 
published  at  all,  can  have  induced  the  author  to  adopt 
such  a  course.  Few  things  are  more  provoking  to  the 
student  than  the  necessity  of  turning  to  many  different 
pages  in  the  same  work  when  engaged  on  a  particular 
subject,  an  inconvenience  which  even  a  good  index  does 
not  obviate ;  whilst  in  its  absence  matters  are  not  im- 
proved by  such  a  table  as  the  one  given  on  p.  253,  which 
professes  to  be  "  a  classification  of  families  and  genera 
treated  of  in  the  preceding  pages,"  but  which  only 
includes  those  placed  by  the  author  in  Fam.  Zonitidae  (or, 
as  it  is  misprinted,  Zonitidae). 

This  infringement  of  Nature's  first  law  renders  it  hard 
to  disabuse  one's  mind  of  the  unfortunate  impression 
derived  on  a  first  examination  that  the  author  had  tran- 
scribed and  enlarged  his  preliminary  notes  without 
previously  sorting  them.  Nor  does  the  reason  alleged 
seem  altogether  sufficient :  "  the  classification  can  be 
hereafter  attempted  ;  we  shall  then  be  better  able  to  judge 
what  weight,  generic  or  sub-generic,  to  give  to  the  many 
genera  now  recorded  from  the  Indian  region."  This  did 
not  preclude  the  author  from  giving — as  we  trust  he  will 
do  in  a  future  part — what  all  who  try  to  follow  him  would 
find  of  great  assistance  ;  namely,  a  provisional  table  of 
classification  in  which  the  main  divisions  at  all  events 
should  be  shown. 

Such  a  scheme  would  be  none  the  less  useful  seeing 
that  he  evidently,  like  most  authorities,  has  his  own 
notions  on  the  subject,  which  at  present  can  only  dimly 
be  guessed  at  by  a  careful  perusal  of  the  text.     Thus  at 


p.  165  he  speaks  of  "the  two  great  natural  divisions  of 
land  Mollusca,  .  .  .  the  Helicidae  and  Cyclophoridae." 
Again,  he  agrees  with  Fischer  (v.  p.  59)  that  Hyalimax 
belongs  to  the  same  group  as  Succinea  ;  but  on  pp.  64-65 
gives  a  "  key  to  genera  of  Limacidae  and  Arionidae  "  in 
which  Hyalimax  figures. 

Another  drawback,  if  it  may  be  so  described,  is  the 
undue  prominence  given  to  minor  differences,  and  the 
consequent  elevation  into  genera  of  what  in  the  eyes  of 
the  general  conchologist  are  sub-genera,  or  even  mere 
sections  of  sub-genera.  This,  however,  raises  a  very 
wide  and  much  vexed  question,  into  which  far  be  it  from 
us  to  enter. 

In  thus  briefly  indicating  what  appear  to  us  the  short- 
comings of  this  important  work,  we  are  by  no  means  blind 
to  its  great  value,  and  we  most  heartily  wish  success  to 
its  author  in  his  arduous  undertaking,  which  bids  fair  to 
prove  as  endless  as  that  of  Sisyphus. 


RECENT  MATHEMATICAL  BOOKS. 

A  Chapter  in  the  Integral  Calculus.  By  A.  G.  Green- 
hill,  M.A.     (London  :  Hodgson,  1888.) 

A  Treatise  on  Plane  Trigonometry :  con  taming  an  Ac- 
count of  Hyperbolic  Functions,  with  Numerous  Ex- 
amples. By  John  Casey,  F.R.S.  (Dublin :  Hodges, 
1888.) 

A  Higher  Arithmetic  and  Elementary  Mensuration. 
By  P.  Goyen,  Inspector  of  Schools,  New  Zealand. 
(London:  Macmillan,  1888.) 

The  Harpur  Euclid.  Book  II.  By  E.  M.  Langley, 
M.A.,  and  W.  S.  Phillips,  M.A.  (London  :  Rivingtons, 
1888.) 

THE  first  book  in  this  list  is  intended  to  be  used 
by  way  of  supplement  to  any  ordinary  treatise 
on  the  calculus.  It  might  almost  be  said  that  Prof. 
Greenhill  is  nothing  if  not  hyperbolic,  for  he  ex- 
patiates in  seas  of  these  functions  and  the  kindred 
Weierstrassians.  No  one  has  done  better  work  than  he 
in  his  endeavours  to  make  them  "  familiar  as  household 
words  "  to  students,  to  whom,  as  Dr.  Casey  remarks  in  the 
preface  to  his  "  Trigonometry,"  they  are  very  interesting 
and  important,  not  only  in  pure  mathematics  but  also  in 
mathematical  physics.  Our  author,  who  is  quite  in  accord 
with  this  opinion,  considers  that  "  the  hyperbolic  functions 
have  not  received  adequate  treatment  in  ordinary  text- 
books ;  to  illustrate  this  importance,  a  digression  has  been 
made  on  their  principal  properties,  illustrated  by  examples 
of  their  application." 

In  the  course  of  thirty-six  pages  he  gives  an  exceedingly 
clear  sketch,  and  works  out  in  detail  several  examples, 

viz.  the  different  forms  of  the  result  of   /  dx/(x  -  p)  *J R, 

where  R  ==  ox2  +  2  bx  -f-  c,  and  several  kindred  forms. 

The  analogies  and  properties  of  the  hyperbolic  functions 

are  considered  ;  three  sections  are  given  up  to  hyperbolic 

trigonometry ;  three  more  to   relations   connecting  true, 

excentric,  and  mean  anomaly  in  an  elliptic  and  hyperbolic 

orbit ;  and  a  section  to  Abel's  theorem  and  the  general 

,     fN     dx  ,  .>'■.-•- 

integral    I  7^  *  ~p%  1  anc* t0  ^^  rectification  of  some  curves. 


July  5,  1888] 


NATURE 


219 


There  is  a  large  collection  of  examples,  and  the  whole 
pamphlet  is  "  teres  atque  rotundus." 

Dr.  Casey's  "  Treatise  on  Plane  Trigonometry "  is 
quite  independent  of  the  "  Elementary  Trigonometry " 
by  the  same  author.  It  is  a  most  comprehensive  work, 
and  quite  as  exhaustive  as  any  ordinary  student  will 
require.  Dr.  Casey  shows  his  usual  mastery  of  de- 
tail, due  to  thorough  acquaintance,  from  long  teaching, 
with  all  the  cruces  of  the  subject.  He  has  embraced 
in  his  pages  all  the  usual  topics,  and  has  introduced 
several  points  of  extreme  interest  from  the  best  foreign 
text  books.  A  very  rigid  proof  is  given  of  the  exponential 
theorem,  and  a  section  is  devoted  to  interpolation.  Dr. 
Casey  approves  of,  but  does  not  at  present  venture  to  adopt, 
the  practice  of  French  authors  who  use  log  sin  A  instead  of 
our  old  friend  L  sin  A,  i.e.  he  would  prefer  1-859  to  9*859. 

Chapters  V.  and  VI.,  which  are  devoted  to  triangles  and 
quadrilaterals,  are  exceedingly  interesting,  and  contain 
quite  a  crop  of  elegant  propositions  culled  from  many 
fields.  Following  the  course  adopted  by  other  recent 
writers,  he  gives  a  systematic  account  of  imaginary  angles 
and  hyperbolic  functions.  "  The  latter  are  very  interesting, 
and  their  great  and  increasing  importance,  not  only  in 
pure  mathematics  but  in  mathematical  physics,  makes  it 
essential  that  the  student  should  become  acquainted  with 
them."  We  may  remark  that  Dr.  Casey  adopts  the  follow- 
ing notation  :  sh,  ch,  th,  coth,  sech,  cosech,  for  sinh,  cosh, 
&c.  ;  and  has  gone  further  than  his  English  predecessors 
in  introducing  at  this  early  stage  the  angle  r,  Hoiiefs 
hyperbolic  amplitude  of  6  (r  =*  amh.  6).  Numerous 
illustrative  examples  and  tables  afford  practice  to  the 
student  in  this  branch. 

The  modern  geometry  has  a  small  niche,  and  here  we 
note,  as  one  of  several  small  clerical  errors  come  across, 
in  addition  to  the  list  furnished,  that  (440)  should  have 
cosecants  in  place  of  secants.  The  special  results,  which 
on  Dr.  Casey's  useful  plan  are  numbered  consecutively, 
reach  810.  The  book  is  rich  in  examples,  and  will  be 
sure  to  find  for  itself  a  place  on  the  mathematician's 
shelves  within  easy  reach  of  his  hand. 

The  object  of  the  author  of  "  A  Higher  Arithmetic  and 
Elementary  Mensuration  "  is  to  furnish  a  work  suited  to 
"  the  senior  classes  of  schools,  and  candidates  preparing 
for  public  examinations."  A  large  number  of  typical 
exercises  are  worked  out,  and  the  student,  being  left  to 
observe  and  think  for  himself,  acquires,  or  should  acquire, 
a  sound  practical  knowledge  of  the  subject,  which 
the  author  rightly  thinks  will  be  more  abiding  than  the 
knowledge  of  rules  and  definitions  obtained  by  the  mere 
committal  of  them  to  memory.  For  the  benefit  of 
beginners,  in  many  of  the  examples  the  steps  of  the 
reasoning  are  given  at  some  length,  but  the  student  is 
advised,  as  he  grasps  the  details,  to  shorten  the  work  as 
much  as  possible  in  the  examples  he  subsequently  works 
out.  The  text  covers  all  the  ordinary  divisions  under 
which  arithmetic  is  discussed  in  the  books,  even  our  old 
friend  alligation  having  a  chapter  assigned  to  it.  The 
last  two  chapters  are  devoted  to  the  mensuration  of  plane 
surfaces  and  of  solids.  There  are  400  exercises  at  the  end, 
in  addition  to  a  very  great  number  scattered  throughout 
the  book.  The  whole  is  a  vast  storehouse  of  well-put 
matter,  which  should  render  a  reader  quite  independent 
of  any  other  text-book,  and,  we  might  say,  of  a  teacher. 


Book  II.  of  "  The  Harpur  Euclid"  is  on  the  lines  laid 
down  in  the  edition  of  Book  I.,  and  the  subject  is  handled 
in  an  interesting  manner.  There  is  a  sufficient  number  of 
good  illustrative  examples,  with  assistance  enough  to  enable 
a  thoughtful  boy  to  work  them  out  by  himself.  We  are 
glad  to  see  a  few  examples  on  antiparallels  and  sym- 
medians.  These  lines  must  soon  force  their  way  to  a 
foremost  position  even  in  a  school  curriculum.  This  is  a 
useful  and  handy  edition  brought  out  in  accordance  with 
the  Syllabus  of  the  Association  for  the  Improvement  of 
Geometrical  Teaching. 

THE    BOTANY    OF    THE    AFGHAN 
DELI  MIT  A  TION   COMMISSION. 

The  Botany  of  the  Afghan  Delimitation  Commission.  By 
J.  E.  T.  Aitchison,  M.D.,  F.R.S.,  Naturalist  attached  to 
the  Mission.  Being  Trans.  Linn.  Soc,  Ser.  2,  Bot.  v. 
3,  pp.  1-139,  tt-  l~\%  5  with  two  Maps.     (1888.) 

OF  this  expedition  Dr.  Aitchison  has  already  pub- 
lished, in  the  Pharmaceutical  fournal  and  Trans- 
actions, Ser.  3,  v.  17  (1887),  a  report  on  the  drugs,  and 
he  is  preparing  a  report  on  the  zoology  to  appear  in  the 
Transactions  of  the  Linnean  Society. 

In  several  previous  collections  and  papers  relating  to 
the  Punjab  flora  ("  Flora  of  Jhelum,"  "  Lahul,  its  Flora 
and  Vegetable  Products, "  "  Flora  of  Hushiapore," 
"  Hand-book  of  Trade  Products  of  Leh  "),  and  especially 
in  his  Report  on  the  plants  of  the  Kuram  Valley,  Dr. 
Aitchison  had  shown  himself  an  excellent  collector  and  an 
enthusiastic  botanist ;  and  by  the  knowledge  of  the  Afghan 
flora  he  had  acquired  in  this  preceding  work  he  was 
eminently  qualified  to  make  the  most  of  the  opportunities 
afforded  on  hasty  marches  and  in  rough  camps.  The 
Secretary  of  State  for  India,  who  employed  Dr.  Aitchison 
on  this  duty,  may  certainly  be  well  satisfied  with  the 
present  botanic  section  of  the  Report.  In  28  quarto 
pages  Dr.  Aitchison  describes  the  country  traversed,  and 
the  general  character  of  the  vegetation,  interspersed  with 
many  economic  and  agricultural  remarks.  The  re- 
mainder of  the  Report  consists  of  a  list  of  the  plants 
collected  in  order,  with  descriptions  of  the  new  species, 
most  of  which  are  figured.  There  are  about  800  plants 
catalogued,  whereof  53  are  new  to  science.  The  whole 
forms  a  most  valuable  addition  to  our  scientific  know- 
ledge of  an  interesting  frontier  region.  Dr.  Aitchison 
started  from  Quetta'on  September  22, 1884,  and  proceeding 
west  struck  the  Helmund  on  October  19  ;  following  the 
course  of  the  Helmund  and  Harut,  he  was  close  to  Herat 
on  November  4  ;  the  remaining  nine  months,  up  to  Sep- 
tember 1885,  he  was  in  Khorassan  and  Badghis,  i.e.  in 
North  Cabul. 

The  dry  region  of  South-West  Asia  extends  into 
Western  India — into  Sind,  the  Punjab,  Rajputana ; 
but  in  his  "  Flora  of  British  India,"  Sir  J.  D.  Hooker 
accepts  the  political  frontier  of  India  as  his  western 
limit.  It  is  impossible  in  local  floras  to  find  natural 
boundaries.  Beluchistan  and  Cabul  are  thus  excluded 
from  the  "  Flora  of  British  India.''  They  are  included  in 
Boissier's  l<  Flora  Orientalis " ;  but  Boissier  had  by  no 
means  plentiful  material  for  this  frontier.  The  additions 
now  made  by  Dr.  Aitchison  are  not  to  be  estimated  by 
the  53  new  species  alone,  but  by  the  further  light  thrown 


220 


NATURE 


{July  5,  1888 


on  numerous  little-known  species,  and  especially  by  the 
quantity  of  economic  information  collected. 

Of  the  800  plants  enumerated,  the  richest  orders  are 
Leguminosae  with  78  species,  Compositae  with  77  species, 
Gramina  with  63  species,  Cruciferae  with  57  species, 
Chenopods  with  38  species.  The  large  Umbelliferae  allied 
to  Asafcetida  are  finely  illustrated  in  plates  18  to  29  ;  four 
new  species  are  described.  There  remain  still  many  points 
about  these  valuable  gum-producing  plants  of  Central  Asia 
that  are  obscure.  Of  the  78  Leguminosae,  no  less  than 
37  are  of  the  genus  Astragalus,  and  of  these  13  are  new. 
Of  the  petaloid  Monocotyledons  the  most  prominent  are 
the  Iridaceas  (2  new  species  of  Iris),  and  the  Liliaceae 
(26  species,  of  which  3  are  new). 

The  introductory  narrative,  with  the  lists  of  character- 
istic plants  at  different  levels  and  localities,  enables  a 
phytographic  botanist  to  apprehend  the  nature  of  the 
country  and  climate.  Cabul  is  clearly  a  much  richer 
country  agriculturally  than  has  been  hitherto  supposed. 
Corn  can  be  cultivated  without  irrigation  either  above 
3500  feet  altitude,  or  in  the  vicinity  of  a  river ;  and  a 
large  area  between  these  levels  is  capable  of  irrigation. 
The  dry  and  hot  summer  is,  as  was  before  well  known, 
very  favourable  to  the  production  of  fruit,  and  it  now 
appears  almost  equally  so  to  the  production  of  vegetables. 
Dr.  Aitchison  found  "  not  uncommon,"  in  clefts  of  rocks 
and  escarpments  of  hill-sides,  the  common  fig  {Fiats 
Carica,  Linn.),  apparently  wild ;  and  collected  both  male 
and  female  branches,  some  of  the  male  receptacles  con- 
taining both  male  and  gall  flowers.  Dr.  Aitchison  had 
few  opportunities  of  examining  the  country  above  5000 
feet ;  at  the  spots  he  did  visit  he  found  a  very  scanty 
flora,  and  above  7000  feet  absolute  sterility. 

Dr.  Aitchison  compared  his  collection  in  the  Kew 
Herbarium,  and  had  the  assistance  of  Mr.  W.  B.  Hemsley 
in  the  technical  botanic  work,  and  in  arranging  the  plates  ; 
and  the  new  species  described  are  given  as  of  "  Aitchison 
and  Hemsley,"  except  a  few  Liliaceae,  &c,  attributed  to 
"  Aitchison  and  Baker."  By  this  plan  Dr.  Aitchison  gives 
to  botanists  who  cannot  refer  to  the  specimens  a  guaran- 
tee that  the  new  species  are  "good,"  and  that  the  list  of 
names  has  been  accurately  worked  out.  It  is  indeed  the 
closeness  with  which  a  list  of  the  present  kind  is  worked 
out  that  gives  it  more  than  a  temporary  value. 

Praise  is  due  to  Dr.  Murie,  the  Assistant  Secretary  of 
the  Linnean  Society,  for  the  style  in  which  this  number 
of  the  Society's  Transactions  has  been  put  out.  Credit 
may  certainly  be  given  to  the  India  Office  for  assisting  in 
a  publication  of  this  class  ;  somebody  there  must  have 
discovered  that  the  money  spent  by  the  old  Company  on 
Roxburgh  and  Buchanan-Hamilton,  on  Royle  and  on 
Wallich,  was  not  money  spent  on  ornamental  books,  but 
has  been  returned,  many  times  over,  to  the  Government 
coffers. 

OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

The  Principles  of  Agricultural  Practice  as  an  Instruc- 
tional   Subject.      By    John    Wrightson,    Professor    of 
Agriculture  and  Principal  of  the  College  of  Agriculture, 
Downton.     (London:  Chapman  and  Hall,  1888.) 
This  is  a  useful  text-book,  written  in  an  interesting  style, 
and  by  one  who  shows  that  in  addition  to  being  scientific 
he  is  thoroughly  practical.      The  subject-matter  of  the 
book  was  first  delivered  as  lectures  to  science  teachers, 


and  it  deals  with  the  dufies  of  teachers  as  well  as  the 
defects  of  students  under  examination.  It  exposes  in 
commendable  language  the  narrow  grooves  into  which 
agricultural  teaching  under  the  Science  and  Art  Depart- 
ment has  fallen.  This  is  called  "  molecular  and  micro- 
scopic "  in  place  of  "  bold  and  comprehensive,"  which  ought 
to  be  the  suitable  form  of  description  if  the  Department 
were  properly  constituted. 

The  book  is  the  first  of  a  series  of  text-books.  It 
disposes  in  a  clear  and  unmistakable  manner  of  many 
knotty  points  of  difficulty  to  the  farmer  and  to  the 
student,  in  matters  relating  to  the  nature  and  composition 
of  soils,  kinds  and  qualities  of  manures — "  artificial  and 
natural,"  "general  and  special," — also  to  the  cultivation 
of  soil,  and  the  growth  and  rotation  of  crops.  Under 
these  various  headings  many  popular  fallacies  are  exposed, 
connected  with  the  classification  of  soils,  the  action  of 
lime  and  nitrate  of  soda  when  applied  to  soil,  the  value 
of  silica  and  of  farm-yard  manure,  the  sources  of  the 
supply  of  nitrogen  to  the  growing  plant,  and  the  supposed 
ultimate  exhaustion  of  soil — called  a  "  store-house,  a 
laboratory,  a  vehicle" — by  systems  of  cropping. 

The  merits  and  methods  of  "autumn  cleaning"  are  duly 
introduced.  The  valuable  work  of  the  Rothamsted  experi- 
ments is  fully  acknowledged  and  concisely  explained. 

This  new  contribution  to  agricultural  literature  comes 
at  an  appropriate  season,  when  there  is  a  growing  de- 
mand for  text-books  of  a  trustworthy  kind  :  so  few  can  be 
found  which  are  not  simply  the  incoherent  drivel  of  men 
who  have  but  a  very  limited  and  imperfect  knowledge  of 
the  subject. 

The  work  is  written  in  a  style  which  will  lead  the 
student  to  think  for  himself,  and  but  for  one  serious 
blunder  in  the  later  pages  we  should  have  pronounced  it 
to  be  exceptionally  perfect.  Partial  toleration  is  extended 
to  the  practice  of  sowing  down  land  to  pasture  with  seeds 
swept  from  the  stable-loft.  The  loss  sustained  by  the 
country  through  Miss  Ormerod's  warble-fly  is  thrown  into 
the  shade  by  the  loss  which  has  resulted  from  this 
exploded  system  of  seeding  down  to  grass.  We  hope  to 
see  the  error  corrected  in  a  second  edition,  which,  judging 
from  the  value  of  the  book,  cannot  be  long  in  making  its 
appearance. 

A    Season    in    Sutherland.      By  J.    E.    Edwards-Moss. 

(London  :  Macmillan,  1888.) 
This  is  a  pleasant  little  book,  though  it  affords  no  kind 
of  information  to  the  naturalist  or  to  the  sportsman,  while 
it  can  hardly  pretend  to  rank  as  a  contribution  to  belles 
lettres.  But  Mr.  Edwards-Moss  is  acquainted  with  certain 
districts  in  the  north  of  Sutherlandshire  ;  he  has  thrown 
a  fly,  and  shouldered  a  breechloader ;  and  he  writes  of 
his  experiences  in  an  unpretentious  and  graceful  way 
which  ought  to  commend  the  little  volume  as  an  accom- 
paniment to  an  after-dinner  cigar.  He  also  quotes  freely 
from  contemporary  and  other  authorities,  including 
amongst  these  that  profound  thinker  and  teacher,  Mr. 
Mallock.  Mr.  Mallock,  as  quoted  by  Mr.  Edwards- 
Moss,  tells  us  that  we  should  "  learn  to  love  the  sea,  and 
the  woods,"  and  also  "  the  wild  smell  of  the  heather  "  ; 
from  which  we  may  gather  that  Mr.  Mallock  has  probably 
discovered  some  portion  of  the  country  in  which  the 
heather  smells  of  patchouli. 

LETTERS  TO  THE  EDITOR. 
[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
of  Nature,  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations.] 

"Sky-coloured  Clouds"  at  Night. 
In  Nature,  June  28  (p.  196),  Mr.   Backhouse  notes  the  ap- 
pearance of  illuminated  clouds  to  northward  at  night.     Similar 


July  5,  1888] 


NATURE 


22  1 


clouds  are  seen  from  here  on  almost  every  clear  night  near 
the  summer  solstice.  For  the  last  two  years  special  note  has 
been  taken  of  them.  In  1887  they  were  first  seen  at  midnight 
on  June  13,  and  last  seen  on  July  20  ;  this  year  their  first  appear- 
ance at  midnight  was  on  June  4,  and  they  are  still  visible  every 
clear  night.  The  clouds  are  not,  as  far  as  I  have  observed, 
coloured,  but  shine  with  a  pearly  or  silvery  lustre.  I  have  seen 
them  at  midnight  as  high  as  300  altitude,  but  they  are  generally 
confined  to  the  first  io0  or  so  above  the  northern  horizon.  The 
facts  that  they  vary  greatly  from  night  to  night  in  appearance, 
being  sometimes  almost  absent,  and  that  one  or  two  photographs 
that  have  been  taken  of  them  show  them  simply  as  ordinary 
cirrus  clouds,  all  seem  to  indicate  that  they  really  are  very  high 
cirrus  lighted  by  the  sun. 

I  may  add  that  the  upper  glows  continue  to  be  seen  here, 
though  with  varying  intensity,  on  every  clear  night  both  before 
sunrise  and  after  sunset,  but  for  the  past  year  no  reddish  ring  or 
glare  has  been  observed  round  the  sun  in  the  day-time. 

Ben  Nevis  Observatory,  July  2.  R.  T.  Omond. 


Micromillimetre. 

The  Council  and  the  Fellows  in  general  meeting  have  taken 
into  consideration  the  objection  raised  by  Prof.  Riicker  to  the 
term  micromillimetre. 

This  term  was  in  use  by  microscopists  long  before  the  British 
Association  Committee  formulated  their  system  of  nomenclature  ; 
but  nevertheless  the  Society  are  unwilling,  on  a  question  of 
precedence  only,  to  insist  upon  retaining  a  word  which  may  give 
rise  to  confusion. 

The  Council  have  therefore  directed  the  editors  of  the  Journal 
to  discontinue  the  use  of  the  term  "micromillimetre,"  and  to 
substitute  for  it  that  of  "  micron,"  which  has  been  in  use  for  as 
long  a  time  as  the  former  word. 

This  resolution  has  been  confirmed  by  a  general  meeting  of 
the  Society,  who  agree  with  the  Council  in  thinking  that  the 
term  "  micrometre,"  proposed  by  Prof.  Riicker,  would  give  rise 
to  considerable  confusion  from  its  similarity  to  "micrometer." 

Frank  Crisp, 

Royal  Microscopical  Society,  June  21.  Secretary. 


A  Prognostic  of  Thunder. 

Among  prognostics  of  thunder  given  in  books  and  elsewhere 
I  have  never  met  with  mention  of  what  has  for  years  been  to  me 
one  of  the  most  trustworthy  of  weather  signs,  viz.  the  formation 
of  parallel  streaks  or  bars,  definite  in  form  but  limited  in  number, 
extent,  and  persistence,  appearing  chiefly  in  cirrus  and  cirro- 
stratus,  but  also  oh  the  surface  (apparently)  of  nimbus.  In 
cirrus  they  give  often  almost  the  first  intimation  of  coming  change 
after  settled  weather,  and  are  almost,  if  not  quite,  invariably 
followed  within  twenty  four  or  thirty-six  hours  by  thunder. 
When  they  appear  on  nimbus  the  interval  is  much  less,  but  they 
are  not  seen,  I  think,  on  the  thunder-cloud  itself.  These  small 
patches  of  definitely  marked  "parallel  bars"  are  to  be  distin- 
guished from  the  more  general  parallel  arrangement  which  is 
often  seen  on  a  much  larger  scale,  but  which  has  not,  so  far  as 
my  observation  goes,  any  very  distinct  value  as  a  weather 
prognostic. 

As  the  thundery  season  is  now  on,  it  would  be  interesting  to 
have  the  observation  confirmed  by  others,  and  the  connection  of 
this  particular  form  of  cloud  with  electric  disturbance  explained. 
I  have  no  doubt  of  the  fact,  and  have  often,  and  several  times 
within  the  present  year,  pointed  out  these  "parallel  bars"  to 
friends  who  had  never  observed  them,  and  hardly  ever  has  my 
prediction  of  thunder  failed  to  come  true.  In  the  very  few  cases 
in  which  thunder  has  not  followed  in  the  same  locality,  I  think 
I  may  say  that  there  have  never  been  wanting  instances  of  its 
occurrence  within  a  moderate  distance.       B.  Woodd-Smith. 

Branch  Hill  Lodge,  Hampstead  Heath,  June  29. 


Parasites  of  the  Hessian  Fly. 

Although  numbers  of  these  most  useful  insects  were  bred 
last  year  from  puparia  of  1886  and  1887,  there  seemed  to  be  a 
good  deal  of  doubt  among  some  entomologists  as  to  whether  the 
American  species,  Merisas  destructor,  had  occurred.     I  bred  a 


large  number  of  various  kinds,  four  of  which  appeared  to  me  to 
agree  in  every  respect  as  to  form,  colour,  and  marking  with  the 
description  given  by  Prof.  Riley. 

During  the  present  month  (June)  I  have  bred  a  very  large 
number  of  this  parasite,  specimens  of  which  (both  male  and 
female)  I  sent  to  Dr.  Charles  Lindeman,  of  Moscow,  who  has 
just  replied  that  "  the  specimens  of  parasites  sent,  bred  in  Eng- 
land from  the  Hessian  fly,  seem  to  me  to  be  Merisus  destructor 
of  Riley,  &c."  He  thus  fully  confirms  my  opinion  of  last  year, 
that  the  American  parasite  had  occurred  here.  Early  in  the 
spring  I  bred  several  other  parasites  which,  I  am  much  inclined 
to  think  are  Platygaster  herrickii  of  Riley  ;  and,  if  this  is 
correct,  it  strengthens  the  opinion  that  part  of  the  attack  came 
from  America. 

The  damp  muggy  weather  appears  to  be  decidedly  favourable 
for  the  development  of  "  the  pest,"  the  larvae  of  which  I  found 
at  the  beginning  of  this  week  engaged  in  weakening  the  stems 
of  barley  ;  and  on  June  2  I  observed  a  female  Hessian  fly  ovi- 
positing. The  number  of  eggs  laid  was  158  !  Truly  a  most 
prolific  "  pest,"  requiring  both  natural  and  artificial  means  to 
check  its  increase.  F.  E.  S. 


Fact  and  Fiction. 

As  Mr.  Grant  Allen  reads  Nature, — indeed  this  is  evident 
from  a  sentence  in  his  novel  "This  Mortal  Coil,"  now  in  course 
of  publication  in  Chambers'  Journal — he  will  perhaps  be  good 
enough  to  satisfy  my  doubts  upon  the  following  practical  points 
in  electro-  and  thermo-physics.  Firstly,  in  order  to  successfully 
attract  a  flash  of  lightning  to  a  tree,  is  it  necessary  to  bury 
beneath  its  roots  a  Rhumkorf  coil  ?  Secondly,  do  Rhumkorf 
coils  exist  which  are  without  secondary  wires  ?  Thirdly,  will  an 
electric  discharge  ignite  commercial  petroleum  oil  ? 

While  it  is  not  undesirable  that  scientific  fact  should  be 
imported  into  modern  fiction,  it  is  surely  important  that  it  should 
be  fact :  loose  statements  are  apt  to  perpetuate  themselves. 

Mr.  Allen  is  exceptionally  well  read  and  observant,  and  I  am 
quite  at  a  loss  to  understand  why  a  simple  solution  of  continuity 
in  that  part  of  his  copper  conducting  wire  which  was  immersed 
in  the  petroleum  would  not  as  well  have  served  his  purpose  (if 
indeed,  that  purpose  could  have  been  effected  in  the  way 
described),  as  the  elaborate  expedient  of  burying  and  destroying 
an  expensive  piece  of  apparatus. 

Dublin,  July.  Harry  Napier  Draper. 


The  Nephridia  of  Earthworms. 

The  number  of  Nature  published  on  June  28  last  contains 
(p.  197)  an  interesting  paper  by  Prof.  Baldwin  Spencer,  which 
deals  with  the  excretory  system  of  the  gigantic  Australian  earth- 
worm Megascolides.  Prof.  Spencer  promises  an  extended 
memoir  upon  the  anatomy  of  this  earthworm,  which  has  not 
hitherto  received  more  attention  than  a  superficial  description. 
In  the  meantime  the  paper  in  Nature  contains  an  abstract  of 
the  results  obtained  by  the  author  from  his  investigation  of  the 
nephridia. 

This  paper  is  particularly  interesting  to  myself,  as  I  am  at 
present  preparing  an  account  of  some  further  investigations  into 
the  anatomy  of  the  excretory  system  of  earthworms,  which  will 
supplement  those  already  published  by  me  in  the  Quart.  J  our  11. 
Micr.  Sci.  (January  1888). 

It  appears  from  Prof.  Spencer's  paper  that,  as  he  himself 
points  out,  there  is  a  considerable  resemblance  between  the 
excretory  organs  of  Megascolides  and  of  Perichceta  aspergillum, 
one  of  the  species  investigated  by  me  ;  there  are  at  the  same 
time  certain  important  differences  between  the  two  types. 

In  my  paper  upon  P.  aspergillum  I  described  only  the 
nephridia  of  the  anterior  segments  of  the  body.  I  have  since 
found  that  the  nephridia  of  the  posterior  segments  are  in  some 
respects  different.  In  both  cases,  however,  the  external  orifices 
are  more  numerous  than  I  was  at  first  inclined  to  suspect.  They 
are  not  limited  to  the  area  of  the  segments  which  lie  between 
the  setae,  but  are  found  all  over  the  body,  scattered  irregularly  ; 
they  have,  in  fact,  no  relation  whatever  to  the  segmentation  oj  the 
body. 

The  tufts  of  tubules  in  the  posterior  segments  of  the  body  are 
not  so  abundantly  developed  as  in  the  anterior  segments,  where 
they  not  only  form  a  layer  covering  the  body-wall  and  septa 
but  occupy  nearly  tl  e  whole  of  the  ccelomic  space  available. 


222 


NATURE 


[July  5>  i 


Again,  (hey  are  furnished  with  numerous  ciliated  funnels  ;  I 
have  not  detected  them  in  the  nephridia  of  the  anterior  segments, 
but  they  have  been  possibly  overlooked.  These  funnels  are  very 
abundant  ;  for  example,  I  counted  five  in  one  section  on  one  side 
of  the  body.  Some  of  them  are  distinciy  larger  than  others  ;  the 
larger  ones  were  occasionally  observed  to  be  connected  with  a 
duct  which  perforated  the  septum  and  joined  the  nephridia  of  the 
segment  behind. 

In  the  posterior  segments  there  is  a  distinct  tendency  for  the 
nephridial  system  to  become  broken  up  into  isolated  clumps. 
It  by  no  means  always  happened  that  this  tendency  to  segregation 
was  in  relation  to  the  me  amerism  of  the  body.  On  the  contrary, 
the  tufts  are  scattered  irregularly  in  the  segments  ;  and  the  inter- 
segmental septa  do  not  always  isolate  the  nephridial  tufts  which 
are  connected  by  intraseptal  tubules. 

In  fact  the  nephridial  system  of  Perichceta  and  Megascolides 
forms  a  strong  support  for  that  view  of  the  origin  of  the  seg- 
mented from  the  unsegmented  worms  that  has  been  so  ably 
argued  by  Arnold  Lr  ng. 

With  regard  to  the  ciliated  funnels  of  Perichceta,  it  is  right  to 
mention  that  they  have  been  already  observed  by  Dr.  Benham 
in  a  species  from  Luzon,  though  no  description  has  been  pub- 
lished. Prof.  Spencer  has  made  the  observation  that  in  the 
posterior  region  of  the  body  of  Megascolides  there  are  a  pair 
of  much  larger  nephridia,  which  are  furnished  with  a  ciliated 
funnel  opening  into  the  segment  in  front  of  that  containing  the 
nephridium.  He  believes  that  these  have  arisen  from  the 
smaller  nephridial  tufts,  and  that  from  them  are  derived  the 
paired  nephridia  of  such  earthworms  as  Lumbricus.  I  am  quite 
disposed  to  agree  with  Prof.  Spencer  with  regard  to  these 
points.  I  had  already  made  some  observations  upon  another 
earthworm  which  exhibits  a  closely  analogous  structure. 

In  Perichceta  aspergillum,  as  I  have  mentioned  above,  some 
of  the  ciliated  funnels  are  larger  than  the  others,  and  are  con- 
nected with  a  nephridial  tuft  lying  in  the  segment  behind  that 
which  contains  the  funnels.  I  could  not,  however,  notice  a  very 
marked  difference  in  the  size  of  the  nephridial  tubules  themselves. 
In  another  species  of  Perichceta,  viz.  P.  armata,  which  was 
characterized  some  years  ago  ( Ann.  Mag.  Nat.  Hist ,  1 883)  by 
myself,  the  nephridial  system  is  rather  different  from  that  of  P. 
aspergillu?n.  Mr.  W.  L.  Sclater,  of  the  Calcutta  Museum,  has 
kindly  sent  me  some  specimens  of  this  worm  which  were  well 
preserved.  The  worm  has  been  lately  re-described  by  Dr.  D. 
Rosa  {Ann.  Afus.  Civ.  Genova,  1888),  who  states  that  each 
segment  contains  a  pair  of  nephridia,  opening  internally  by  a 
funnel  which  lies  in  the  segment  anterior  to  that  which  contains 
the  nephridium.  So  far  Dr.  Rosa's  description  is  accurate,  but 
there  are  also  innumerable  tufts  of  minute  tubules  which  may  or 
may  not  be  provided  with  funnels.  These  appear  to  be  for 
the  most  part  quite  distinct  from  the  large  pair  of  nephridia. 
The  calibre  of  the  tubules  of  the  large  nephridia  is  many  times 
greater  than  that  of  the  small  tufts.  The  latter  open  by 
numerous  orifices  on  to  the  exterior. 

In  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge  it  appears  to  me  per- 
missible to  derive  the  paired  nephridia  of  Luvibricus,  Sec,  from 
the  network  of  Perichcrta  in  two  ways,  which  may  both  have 
actually  taken  place  : — 

(1)  By  the  gradual  development  of  a  pair  of  large  nephridia, 
in  the  way  suggested  by  Prof.  Spencer,  out  of  the  minute 
nephridial  network,  and  the  gradual  disappearance  of  the  latter 
(which  is  in  the  process  of  disappearance  in  Pe7'ichceta  armata). 

(2)  By  the  gradual  breaking  up  of  the  nephridial  network  into 
tufts  of  tubules  specially  connected  with  the  setae,  as  in  Acantho- 
drilus  tnultiporus,  and  by  the  disappearance  of  all  but  two  of 
these.  Dr.  Benham's  interesting  form,  Brachydrilus,  which  has 
two  pairs  of  nephridia  in  each  segment,  offers  an  intermediate 
condition  in  this  reduction. 

To  assume  that  the  ordinary  condition  of  the  nephridial 
system  of  earthworms  has  been  derived  in  these  two  ways, 
renders  the  mutual  affinities  of  certain  earthworms  easier  to 
understand.  For  example,  Perionyx  (which  is  so  nearly  allied 
to  Perichceta  in  most  respects,  but  differs  in  having  nephridia  of  the 
Lumbricus  pattern)  may  have  been  derived  from  Perichceta 
directly  via  some  such  form  as  P.  armata  without  having  passed 
through  an  "  Acanthodrilus  stage"  ;  again,  Deinodrilus,  which 
is  intermediate  in  many  characters  between  Perichceta  and 
Acanthodrilus,  is  also,  as  I  shall  hope  to  show  later,  inter- 
mediate in  the  arrangement  of  its  nephridia,  and  may  therefore 
represent  a  stage  in  the  evolution  of  Acanthodrilus. 

Zoological  Gardens,  N.  W.  Frank  E.  Beddard. 


THE    " AVOCET"   ROCK. 

THE  circumstances  attending  the  loss  of  the  s.s. 
Avocet  and  Teddington  towards  the  southern  end 
of  the  Red  Sea  in  the  year  1887,  and  the  subsequent 
finding  of  the  small  coral  patch  on  which  it  is  probable 
they  both  struck,  are  of  interest,  and  deserving  of  record 
as  showing  the  necessity  for  very  close  examination  of 
seas  where  corals  flourish,  and  the  difficulties  experienced 
in  finding  a  small  patch  at  a  distance  from  land,  when 
neither  discoloration  nor  break  of  sea  aid  the  searcher. 
It  should  be  premised  that  the  area  between  the  Zebayir 
Islands  and  Jebel  Zukur,  in  which  this  rock  lies,  had 
never  been  properly  sounded,  only  a  few  scattered  depths 
having  been  obtained.  It  is  crossed  yearly  by  hundreds 
of  steam-ships — the  majority  of  them  British — and  has 
always  been  accounted  as  deep,  safe  water. 

On  the  4th  of  March  the  Avocet  was  steaming  south- 
wards— with  another  steamer,  the  St.  Oswald,  with  which 
she  had  kept  company  for  some  hours,  not  far  from  her — 
a  strong  head-wind  and  heavy  short  sea  prevailing  at  the 
time.  At  about  8  a.m.  a  shock  was  felt,  succeeded  by 
two  others,  and  shortly  afterwards  water  was  found  to  be 
coming  in.  It  being  evident  that  the  ship  would  go  down, 
the  St.  Oswald  was  signalled,  and  after  a  little  time  the 
crew  of  the  Avocet  were  taken  off  by  her,  and  the  latter 
sank.  A  Court  was  held  at  Aden,  and  the  evidence 
taken  before  it  showed  that  the  shock  had  been  slight, 
one  witness  stating  that  he  thought  something  had  gone 
wrong  in  the  engine-room  ;  and  another,  that  it  was  a 
heavy  sea  that  had  struck  the  ship.  The  verdict  was 
that  the  ship  had  struck  on  an  unknown  rock  in  latitude 
140  21'  N.,  longitude  42°  38'  E.,  the  position  given  by  the 
master.  No  evidence  was  given  to  prove  this  position  ; 
but  the  fact  of  the  St.  Oswald  being  in  company,  and  of 
other  steam-vessels  passing  on  either  side  of  the  two 
ships  both  just  before  and  just  after  the  accident,  seemed 
to  show  that  they  must  have  been  in  the  straight  track, 
and  that  the  position  was  not  far  wrong  in  longitude  at 
any  rate.  H.M.  surveying-ship  Flying  Fish,  arriving  at 
Aden  shortly  after  the  inquiry,  spent  some  days  on  the 
suspected  ground,  and  found  nothing  but  deep  water,, 
over  a  hundred  fathoms  being  found  in  the  position 
given. 

Those  who  have  the  responsibility  of  the  issue  of  charts 
for  the  guidance  of  navigators  may  be  pardoned  if  they 
are  extremely  sceptical  and  difficult  to-  convince  in  the 
matter  of  new  rocks  in  the  great  highways  of  traffic.  So 
many  instances  occur  of  reports  which  on  investigation 
prove  to  be  erroneous— sometimes  in  the  whole,  some- 
times in  part  (as  of  the  position,  for  instance) — that  very 
good  evidence  is  required  before  a  report,  which  seems 
in  itself  improbable,  can  be  accepted,  and  one  of  Her 
Majesty's  ships  sent— perhaps  from  a  long  distance,  and 
from  other  important  duties — to  spend  many  days  in  a 
search.  In  this  case  there  was  no  doubt  of  the  ship  having 
foundered ;  but  the  cause  of  the  disaster  was  somewhat 
doubtful,  and  her  position  was  unsubstantiated.  It  was 
evident,  however,  that  if  she  had  struck  bottom  it  must 
be  a  very  small  rock,  as  the  presence  of  other  vessels 
prevented  the  supposition  of  a  wrong  course. 

The  Avocet  was  partly  laden  with  railway  iron,  she  was 
pitching  in  a  heavy  sea,  and  the  evidence  of  external 
injury  was  not  convincing.  Altogether  it  seemed  more 
probable  that  some  of  this  heavy  material  had  fetched 
way  and  injured  the  ship  from  inside  than  that  a  rock, 
could  exist  in  the  very  track  of  the  heavy  trade  of  the 
Red  Sea.  The  Admiralty  therefore  announced  that  they 
would  order  no  further  search  until  these  points  were 
cleared  up,  and  the  Board  of  Trade  consented  to  order  a 
further  inquiry. 

The  witnesses  were  collected,  and  the  Court  sat  on 
June  10,  but  before  any  further  proceedings  could  take 
place  a  telegram  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  President 


July  5.  1888] 


NATURE 


223 


announcing  that  the  s.s.  Teddington  had  foundered  after 
striking  an  unknown  rock  5  miles  north-east  of  the  Avocet's 
rock,  or  in  latitude  140  23'  N.,  longitude  420  42'  30"  E. 
This  seemed  sufficient,  and  the  Court  dissolved  without 
any  attempt  to  cross-examine  the  Avocefs  officers  on  her 
position.  The  Admiralty  telegraphed  for  a  ship  of  war 
to  proceed  from  Aden  to  examine  the  spot.  The  Griffon, 
therefore — whose  captain  had  sat  on  the  Court  held  there, 
and  had  concurred  in  the  finding  that  the  Teddington  had 
struck  on  an  unknown  rock — spent  over  a  week  in 
traversing  the  area  including  both  positions,  sounding 
and  dragging  a  chain  cable  suspended  from  her  quarters, 
but  found  no  sign  of  shallow  water  or  rock.  On  her 
return  to  Aden,  a  fisherman  announced  that  he  knew  the 
rock,  and  the  Griffon  returned  with  him,  only  to  find  that 
his  rock  was  a  well-known  one  40  miles  from  the  spot 
required. 

Any  further  action  was  then  suspended  until  the  full 
report  of  the  Teddington  disaster  was  received.  The 
official  report  of  the  Court  held  at  Aden  was  long  before 
it  arrived  in  England,  though  the  protest  of  the  master 
was  received  before  many  weeks. 

This  stated  that  the  Teddington  was  on  her  way  north, 
and  on  June  9,  at  6  a.m.,  she  passed  5^  miles  eastward  of 
Abu  Ail,  where  she  got  a  good  position  and  the  error  of 
her  compass,  and  thence  steered  to  pass  5  miles  east  of 
the  position  given  for  the  Avocet  danger ;  calm,  and 
weather  fine.  At  8.30  she  struck  heavily,  nothing  being 
seen  under  the  stern,  and  no  land  in  sight.  Course  was 
at  once  steered  to  the  south-west,  into  the  track  of  steamers, 
when  the  s.s.  Cairo  was  met  with,  and  the  crew  taken  off, 
the  Teddington  foundering  shortly  afterwards.  The 
master  gave  his  position  as  in  latitude  140  24'  30"  N., 
longitude  420  42'  30"  E.,  or  \\  mile  north  of  the 
telegraphed  position  ;  but  cause  was  afterwards  seen  to 
prefer  the  latter. 

A  statement  was  shortly  after  received  from  another 
ship  that  they  passed  the  Teddington,  abandoned  and 
low  in  the  water,  at  a  time  four  hours  later  than  that 
given  for  her  foundering.  This  contradiction  seemed  to 
require  explanation. 

Before  the  official  report  arrived,  the  master  of  the 
Teddington  called  at  the  Admiralty  by  desire  on 
August  4,  and  gave  his  account  by  word  of  mouth. 
His  relation  was  so  straightforward,  and  it  was  so  evident 
on  cross-examination  that  the  ship  had  been  navigated 
with  great  care,  that  it  was  clear  that  another  and  closer 
search  must  be  made.  Captain  Free  explained  that  the 
Teddington  had  been  lost  sight  of  in  the  haze,  as  the 
Cairo  steamed  away  ;  and  that  it  was  believed  she  had 
then  sunk. 

The  position  now  given,  being  5  miles  from  the  straight 
track  that  steamers  usually  endeavour  to  follow,  gave 
much  more  probability  to  the  existence  of  a  rock  than  the 
Avocefs  report,  which  placed  it  exactly  in  that  direct 
route.  Orders  were  therefore  at  once  sent  to  H.M.  sur- 
veying-vessel Sylvia  —  then  in  the  Mediterranean  —  to 
proceed  to  the  spot,  and  institute  a  minute  search  early  in 
October,  when  the  climatic  conditions  are  most  favourable 
to  that  work. 

In  September  a  reply  was  received  to  inquiries  made  of 
the  master  of  the  St.  Oswald  as  to  the  position  of  his  ship 
when  signalled  by  the  Avocet.  This  showed  that  the  St. 
Oswald  had  found,  when  Jebel  Zukur  was  sighted,  that  she 
was  considerably  to  the  eastward  of  the  correct  course, 
and  that  the  position  given  by  the  Avocet  was  some  four 
miles  in  error.  The  position  now  given  was  140  21'  N., 
420  41'  E.,  placing  the  Avocet  within  \\  mile  of  the 
Teddington's  danger.  This  greatly  strengthened  the 
evidence,  and  showed  that  a  general  strong  cross-set 
must  have  existed  on  the  morning  that  the  Avocet  was 
lost,  sweeping  the  whole  trade  to  the  eastwards. 

Unfortunate  occurrences  delayed  the  Sylvia,  and  when 
she  arrived  on  the  scene,  the  strong  southerly  winds  had 


already  set  in.  Nevertheless,  a  close  search  was  accom- 
plished, especially  of  the  ground  embracing  the  two  best 
positions  of  the  Avocet  and  Teddington,  and  extending 
far  on  either  side.  Six  weeks  were  spent  in  this  search, 
but  no  danger  nor  considerable  shoaling  of  the  water 
could  be  found.  The  heavy  sea  which  caused  her  to  part 
her  cable,  carry  away  anchor  stocks,  and  do  other  damage, 
and  also  placed  considerable  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
marking  the  area  with  beacons,  seemed  also  to  afford  a 
means  of  sighting  the  rock — had  it  existed — by  the  break 
that  would  probably  be  seen  on  it.  When,  however,  the 
chart  of  the  search  was  received,  it  was  noticed  that  in 
one  spot,  nearly  midway  between  the  Avocet  and  Ted- 
dington positions,  there  was  a  slight  shoaling  of  the 
water ;  a  small  area  of  28  and  30  fathoms  existing 
among  the  general  depths  of  35  fathoms.  The  Sylvia 
had  anchored  on  this,  and  had  commenced  to  search  it 
carefully  with  the  boats,  but  the  freshening  gale  drove  her 
from  her  anchors  before  the  whole  area  was  examined. 

The  indication  afforded  by  this  area,  the  slope  of  the 
sides  of  which  was  only  a  few  degrees,  was  very  slight, 


TJTSJ 


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V*       \ 


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N-:TIb<leidah 


^ 


«K\        8d\         „    „ 

\\M  SS*7*0 

A. 


JebdZukurl-C;     ]  \  \ 


ScaUofSeaMiUt    YJ?^ 

,..,f,..^,.ff.,fl„,yx%\ 


\  \ 
1  \ 

\  \ 


but  it  was  evidently  necessary  to  re-examine  it  before 
it  could  be  certainly  stated  that  no  small  danger  existed. 
H.M.  surveying-vessel  Stork  was  therefore  directed  to 
make  a  fourth  search  on  her  way  to  the  East  Indies. 

Steering  out  from  the  mainland  to  the  eastward,  the 
Stork  struck  a  depth  of  28  fathoms  at  8  a.m.,  April  25  ; 
but  passing  over  it,  the  spot  was  not  again  found  until 
late  in  the  afternoon.  The  ship  was  then  anchored  with 
a  light  anchor  in  26  fathoms  of  water,  and  the  boats  began 
to  search.  Just  before  dusk  6  fathoms  was  found.  The 
night  was  luckily  fine,  and  next  morning  the  search  was 
renewed,  concluding  in  finding — not  100  yards  from  the 
ship— a  small  coral  mound  on  which  in  one  spot  was  a 
depth  of  only  15  feet  at  low-water  summer  level  of  the  sea. 
Before,  however,  the  examination  was  quite  complete,  the 
wind  suddenly  freshened,  causing  the  ship's  anchor  to 
drag,  and  the  ship  to  drift  directly  towards  the  rock.  To 
clear  this  the  cable  had  to  be  slipped,  and  the  Stork  thus 
narrowly  escaped  passing  over  the  rock  that  she  had  just 
found. 


224 


NATURE 


{July  5,  1888 


The  position  of  the  rock  is  in  latitude  140  22'  8"  S., 
longitude  420  41'  32"  E.,  18  miles  from  the  island  of 
Jebel  Zukur,  and  the  same  from  the  eastern  shore  of  the 
sea,  and  out  of  sight  of  land  except  in  clear  weather,  when 
Jebel  Zukur  is  visible.  The  dangerous  portion  of  the 
rock  is  only  about  40  yards  in  diameter,  but  the  sound- 
ings round  for  about  100  yards  give  indications  of  its 
presence. 

Its  slope  is  not  so  very  steep  as  in  some  other  instances 
of  coral  banks  in  this  sea.  Assuming  that  coral  after  it 
attains  within  a  certain  distance  of  the  surface  grows 
mainly  outwards,  and  that  the  almost  perpendicular  sides 
of  some  of  the  Red  Sea  reefs  are  mainly  the  result  of  such 
outward  growth,  the  comparatively  gentle  slope  of  the 
Avocet  rock  may  be  taken  to  show  that  it  is  in  an  early 
stage  of  its  development ;  a  view  which  its  small  size  also 
supports. 

The  rock  lies  on  the  bank  of  soundings  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  deep-water  gully  up  the  centre  of  the  Red  Sea, 
near  its  edge,  and  close  to  the  point  where  it  comes  to  an 
end.  It  has  frequently  been  noticed  that  coral  patches 
most  readily  form  on  the  edges  of  such  steep  submarine 
slopes — witness  other  parts  of  the  Red  Sea  itself— but 
they  generally  take  the  form  of  a  scattered  line  along  such 
an  edge,  and  it  is  not  usual  for  one  small  and  isolated 
patch  to  alone  make  its  appearance. 

This  rock  is  nearly  midway  between  the  St.  Oswald's 
position  for  the  Avocet  and  the  telegraphed  position 
of  the  Teddington,  and  is  about  350  yards  from  where 
the  Sylvia  was  at  one  time  anchored.  It  lies  about  5^ 
miles  off  the  direct  line  between  the  Abu  Ail  channel  and 
a  point  3  miles  west  of  the  Zebayir  Islands— the  course 
generally  taken  by  ships. 

Seeing  that  transverse  currents  are  by  no  means  rare 
in  the  Red  Sea,  and  also  that  many  vessels — especially 
when  bound  north  at  night — habitually  pass  outside  Abu 
Ail,  it  is  a  cause  for  marvel  that  no  ship  has  ever  struck 
this  small  danger  before.  One  of  the  telegraph  cables 
passes  close  to  it — so  close  that  it  is  doubtful  on  which 
side  it  lies,  and  the  ship  laying  it  may  therefore  be  con- 
sidered to  have  had  a  narrow  escape.  On  the  very 
morning  of  the  Avocefs  loss,  a  large  troopship  passed 
east  of  that  vessel  an  hour  before  she  struck.  Evidence 
is  already  forthcoming  of  many  ships  having  been  swept 
to  the  eastward  at  different  times,  so  that  they  must  have 
passed  very  close  to  the  Avocet  rock. 

The  absence  of  a  marked  break  on  the  rock  is  another 
somewhat  curious  fact,  and  shows  how  a  short  heavy  sea 
without  the  accompaniment  of  an  ocean  swell  can  pass 
over  as  little  water  as  15  feet  without  showing  more  than 
the  white  horses  which  crown  every  wave  when  the  wind 
is  strong. 


MAGNETIC  STRAINS. 
TT  has  long  been  known  that  when  an  iron  rod  is 
magnetized  its  length  is  in  general  slightly  increased. 
This  phenomenon  was  first  studied  by  Joule  about  the 
year  1847,  and  most  of  his  experimental  results  have  been 
confirmed  by  other  physicists,  among  whom  may  be 
mentioned  the  names  of  Tyndall,  Mayer,  and  Barrett. 

Joule  enunciated  the  law  that  the  elongation  of  a 
magnetized  rod  is  proportional  to  the  square  of  its 
magnetization,  a  law  which  seems  to  have  been  pretty 
clearly  supported  by  his  experiments  so  far  as  they 
went.  Now,  when  iron  is  subjected  to  the  action  of  con- 
tinually increasing  magnetizing  force,  a  point  is  at  length 
reached  when  further  increase  of  the  force  produces  com- 
paratively little  effect  upon  the  magnetization.  The  iron 
is  then,  in  popular  language,  said  to  be  "  saturated,"  and 
is  (or  until  lately  was)  commonly  supposed  to  have 
attained  a  condition  of  magnetic  constancy,  so  that  none 
of  the  properties  of  the  metal  connected  in  any  way  with 


its  magnetism  would  be  materially  affected  by  any  increase 
of  magnetizing  force,  however  great,  beyond  what  was 
necessary  to  produce  saturation. 

Joule  carried  many  of  his  observations  up  to  the  so- 
called  "saturation  point,"  and  then,  perhaps  naturally, 
seems  to  have  assumed  that  nothing  would  be  gained  by 
going  any  further,  and  accordingly  discontinued  his 
experiments.  It  is,  however,  a  somewhat  remarkable 
fact  that  although  his  interesting  discovery  was  soon 
widely  known,  an  account  of  it  appearing  in  almost  every 
text-book  dealing  with  electricity,  while  an  exhibition  of 
the  phenomenon  in  question  became  a  familiar  lecture 
illustration,  yet  for  the  thirty- seven  years  following  the 
publication  of  Joule's  paper  it  seems  never  to  have 
occurred  to  any  experimenter  to  try  what  would  be  the 
effect  of  subjecting  an  iron  rod  to  stronger  magnetizing 
forces  than  those  applied  by  Joule  himself.  Perhaps  I 
may  be  pardoned  if  I  refer  to  the  accidental  circumstance 
which  led  me  to  do  so. 

In  1884,  a  reprint  of  Joule's  scientific  papers  was  issued 
by  the  Physical  Society,  and  I  then  read,  for  the  first 
time,  his  original  memoir  on  the  effects  of  magnetism 
upon  the  dimensions  of  iron  and  steel  bars.  I  had  re- 
cently been  engaged  in  an  investigation  of  the  heat- 
expansion  of  sulphur,  changes  in  the  length  of  rods  of 
that  substance  being  indicated  by  their  action  upon  a 
small  movable  mirror  which  reflected  the  focussed  image 
of  a  wire  upon  a  distant  scale  ;  and  it  struck  me  that  a 
similar  method  would  be  well  adapted  for  the  exhibition 
of  magnetic  expansions.  Wishing  to  have  the  satisfaction 
of  witnessing  some  of  these  effects,  I  put  together  a  rough 
apparatus,  in  which  the  mirror  principle  was  applied. 
The  battery  employed  consisted  of  five  large  bichromate 
cells,  the  zinc  plates  of  which  were  immersed  in  the  solu- 
tion by  the  action  of  a  treadle,  and  withdrawn  by  an 
opposing  spring  when  the  pressure  on  the  treadle  was 
removed.  The  circuit  included  the  magnetizing  coil,  a 
galvanometer,  and  a  contact-key. 

The  first  results  of  experiments  made  with  this  appar- 
atus were  disappointing.  Everything  appeared  to  be 
quite  right :  the  mirror  worked  perfectly,  as  was  shown 
by  its  deflection  when  the  temperature  of  the  iron  rod 
was  slightly  varied  ;  the  iron  was  well  annealed,  and 
there  could  be  no  doubt  that  the  magnetizing  force  used 
was  more  than  sufficient  to  "  saturate  "  it  (in  the  popular 
sense).  Yet  the  elongation  indicated  when  the  circuit 
was  closed  was  only  a  small  fraction  of  what  had  been 
expected,  the  movement  of  the  focussed  index  upon  the 
scale  being,  indeed,  scarcely  perceptible. 

The  arrangement  was  varied  in  several  details,  and 
further  attempts  were  made,  but  without  any  better 
success.  In  these  perplexing  circumstances  I  happened 
to  remove  my  foot  from  the  battery  treadle  while  the 
contact  key  was  still_depressed,  and  at  the  moment  of 
doing  so  I  noticed  a  curious  "  waggle  "  of  the  focussed 
image.  A  movement  of  the  same  kind  was  found  upon 
trial  to  occur  if  the  zincs  were  lowered  into  the  liquid 
while  the  key  was  down.  The  operation  was  then  per- 
formed very  slowly,  and  the  exact  nature  of  the  waggle 
became  clearly  revealed.  As  soon  as  the  zinc  plates 
touched  the  surface  of  the  liquid  the  index  immediately 
jumped  into  a  position  indicating  a  certain  small  elonga- 
tion of  the  magnetized  rod.  As  the  zincs  went  in  deeper, 
this  elongation  at  first  steadily  increased,  but  only  up  to 
a  certain  point,  after  which  it  was  diminished ;  and  when 
they  were  completely  immersed  in  the  liquid,  the  focussed 
index  had  returned  nearly  to  the  zero  position,  showing 
that  the  elongation  had  almost  entirely  disappeared. 
When  the  zincs  were  again  slowly  raised,  the  same  cycle 
of  changes  occurred  in  inverse  order. 

The  conclusion  obviously  suggested  by  these  observa- 
tions was  one  that  could  not  be  readily  accepted.  It 
appeared  as  if  the  magnetizing  force  which  had  been  used 
in  the  first  instance  was  too  great  to  produce  Joule's 


July  5,  1888] 


NATURE 


225 


effect,  and  that  it  was  only  when  the  current  was  dimin- 
ished by  increasing  the  resistance  of  the  battery  that  the 
elongation  of  the  iron  became  well  developed.  This  view 
clearly  involved  the  assumption  that  the  common  notions 
as  to  magnetic  saturation  must  be  at  least  in  part  erro- 
neous, and  I  therefore  endeavoured  to  find  some  other 
explanation  of  the  apparent  anomaly.  In  particular,  I 
suspected  that  it  might  be  due  to  electro-magnetic  action 
of  the  kind  known  as  "  solenoidal  suction  "  between  the 
iron  rod  and  the  coil  ;  but  a  few  careful  experiments  con- 
vinced me  that,  although  this  might  well  have  been  the 
case,  yet  in  fact  it  was  not  so.  Nor  did  any  other  hypo- 
thesis present  itself  which  would  bear  examination,  and  I 
accordingly  fell  back  upon  the  first  and  natural  interpreta- 
tion of  the  facts,  which  implies  that  magnetizing  force  may 
exert  an  important  molecular  influence  upon  iron  even 
when  its  magnetism  is  saturated. 

A  fuller  investigation  of  the  phenomenon  was  then  made 
with  very  delicate  apparatus  and  greater  battery  power, 
and  the  results  were  communicated  during  the  next  year 
to  the  Royal  Society,  the  principal  conclusion  arrived  at, 
so  far  as  regards  iron,  being  the  following  :  When  an  iron 
rod  is  subjected  to  a  continually  increasing  magnetizing 
force,  its  length  at  first  increases  to  a  maximum  and  then 
diminishes,  ultimately  becoming  actually  less  than  when 
the  rod  is  unmagnetized. 

I  have  since  published  accounts  of  further  experiments, 
and  amongst   others   of  a    series    in   which   iron   rings 


surrounded  by  magnetizing  coils  were  used  instead  of 
straight  rods.  The  changes  produced  by  magnetization 
in  the  diameter  of  the  rings  were  of  exactly  the  same 
nature,  showing  conclusively  that  the  effects  before  ob- 
served could  not  have  been  due  to  any  unexplained  action 
of  the  ends  of  the  rods. 

By  the  kindness  of  Mr.  W.  H.  Preece,  F.R.S.,  who 
placed  at  my  disposal  the  large  secondary  battery  used  in 
lighting  his  house  at  Wimbledon,  I  have  recently  been 
able  to  repeat  some  of  my  experiments  with  magnetic 
fields  of  exceedingly  high  intensity.  Rods  of  iron,  nickel, 
and  cobalt  were  thus  tested,  and  the  results  are  clearly 
shown  in  the  accompanying  curves,  where  the  abscissae 
represent  the  magnetic  fields  due  to  the  coil  in  C.G.S. 
units,  and  the  ordinates  the  elongations  and  retractions  of 
the  rods  in  ten-millionths  of  their  lengths. 

The  retraction  of  iron,  it  will  be  seen,  becomes  ulti- 
mately greater  in  amount  than  its  maximum  elongation, 
and  reaches  a  limit  in  a  field  of  1000  or  1100  units,  after 
which  its  curve  becomes  sensibly  parallel  to  the  horizontal 
axis.  Nickel,  unlike  iron,  retracts1  from  the  very  com- 
mencement, rapidly  at  first  and  afterwards  more  slowly, 
until  in  fields  of  800  units  and  upwards  its  length  becomes 
apparently  constant.  Cobalt  behaves  in  a  very  remark- 
able manner.  While  the  field  is  comparatively  weak,  no 
sensible  change  in  either  direction  can  be  detected.    After 

1  The  retraction  of  nickel  under  magnetization  was  first  observed  by  Prof. 
Barrett  (Nature,  xxvi.  585). 


about  50  units  of  magnetizing  force,  the  rod  begins  to 
contract,  attaining  its  minimum  length  with  300  or  400 
units.  But  instead  of  remaining  unchanged  in  fields 
stronger  than  this,  it  again  becomes  longer.  At  750  it 
regains  its  original  length,  and  thence  up  to  1400,  the 
highest  field  reached  in  the  experiment,  it  continues  to 
elongate  steadily. 

It  should  be  understood  that  so  far  as  mere  details  are 
concerned  the  curves  in  the  diagram  relate  only  to  par- 
ticular specimens  of  the  metals  in  question.  With  different 
rods  there  will  be  certain  small  variations,  dependent  upon 
the  purity  of  the  metals  and  their  physical  condition. 
But  I  have  always  found  that  under  increasing  magnetizing 
force  iron  is  at  first  extended  and  then  contracted,  nickel 
is  contracted  from  the  beginning,  while  cobalt  is  first 
contracted  and  afterwards  extended. 

My  best  thanks  are  due  to  Mr.  Preece,  not  only  for 
having  given  me  the  opportunity  of  carrying  out  the 
experiments  described  above,  but  also  for  the  exceedingly 
kind  and  cordial  manner  in  which  he  did  so. 

Shelford  Bidwell. 


A  METEOROLOGIST  AT  THE  ROYAL 
ACADEMY. 

ARTISTS  and  poets  are  supposed  to  draw  their  in- 
spirations from  communing  with  Nature  ;  but  it  is 
well  known  that  painters  in  oil  are  rarely  successful  with 
the  cloud  portion  of  their  pictures. 

For  some  reason  or  other,  skies  and  clouds  are  always 
far  more  satisfactory  in  the  water-colour  exhibitions  than 
in  galleries  devoted  to  oils.  The  transparency  of  the 
former  medium  enables  a  painter  to  put  an  amount  of 
detail  into  his  clouds  which  would  make  the  sky  far  too 
heavy  if  attempted  in  oil ;  so  there  is  no  doubt  that  oil 
as  a  medium  is  peculiarly  unsuitable  for  the  reproduction 
of  cloud-forms,  and  that  the  utmost  skill  is  required  to 
give  even  passable  results. 

Painters  generally  do  pretty  well  when  they  only  try 
to  represent  shading  of  the  sky,  or  what  Mr.  Lockyer  has 
called  the  zoning  of  colour  in  the  heavens.  They  can 
paint  the  blue  sky  overhead  gradually  getting  whiter  and 
grayer  as  you  approach  the  horizon,  or  the  red  round  the 
horizon  at  sunset  surmounted  by  a  zone  of  orange  shading 
through  green  into  the  blue  above,  as  only  shade  and 
colour  have  to  be  rendered.  But  when  artists  try  to 
delineate  the  form,  and,  still  more,  the  texture,  of  clouds, 
the  difficulties  are  so  great  that  few  painters  attain 
excellence  in  this  branch  of  their  work. 

Few  have  yet  learnt  that,  putting  the  difficulties  of  the 
medium  aside,  the  structure  of  a  cloud  has  an  anatomy 
as  definite  as  that  of  a  man  ;  and  that  the  perspective  of 
cloud-forms  obeys  the  same  laws  as  that  of  bodies  on  the 
earth's  surface.  Everybody  paints  ordinary  objects  so  as 
to  show  a  characteristic  texture  or  structure :  the  silk 
dress,  the  woollen  carpet,  the  wooden  floor,  are  all  care- 
fully distinguished  ;  but  how  many  realize  the  essentially 
different  structure  of  cloud-forms — the  hairy  cirrus,  the 
lovely  fleecy  sky,  or  the  rocky  masses  of  cumulus  ?  Nobody 
would  dare  to  draw  a  building,  a  road,  or  a  tree  out  of  its 
due  perspective  ;  but  many  seem  to  think  that  the  forms 
and  distances  of  the  sky  can  be  rendered  by  daubing 
white  and  blue  and  gray  promiscuously  over  the  canvas. 

The  chapters  on  clouds  in  Mr.  Ruskin's  "  Modern 
Painters "  sin  against  every  canon  of  literature.  They 
are  disjointed,  discursive,  irrelevant,  and  wander  into 
many  by-paths  ;  for  one  note  brings  in  the  causes  of  the 
failure  of  the  Reformation  in  Germany,  and  the  whole  ends 
with  a  commentary  on  the  nineteenth  Psalm.  But,  in 
spite  of  all  this,  they  preach  in  brilliant  and  poetic  lan- 
guage the  two  great  truths  that  clouds  have  distinctive 
characteristic  structures,  and  that  their  perspective  must 
be  as  carefully  drawn  as  that  of  a  building.  In  one  of  the 


226 


NATURE 


\July  5,  1888 


illustrations — that  of  the  tower  of  Beauvais  Cathedral  in 
front  of  a  thundery  sky — is  the  finest  delineation  of  cloud 
in  line  that  has  yet  been  produced  ;  and  though  Mr. 
Ruskin's  writings  have  had  a  powerful  influence  on  con- 
temporary art  in  England,  the  following  notes  on  the 
pictures  now  hanging  on  the  walls  of  the  Royal  Academy 
will  show  that  much  still  remains  to  be  done  before 
British  artists  have  exhausted  the  possibilities  of  cloud- 
painting. 

The  great  landscape  of  the  year  is  undoubtedly  Sir  J. 
Millais'  "  Murthly  Moss "  (No.  292),  and  readers  will 
naturally  ask,  Is  the  sky  good  ?  The  answer  is,  unequi- 
vocally, Yes.  Our  great  artist  has  selected  a  somewhat 
rare  form  of  sky,  but  one  which  is  most  useful  in  giving 
distance  and  perspective  to  a  picture.  As  a  whole,  the 
sky  is  covered  with  a  sheet  of  thin  flat  cloud  ;  but,  while 
the  top  of  the  picture  appears  uniform,  the  sky  lower 
down  looks  as  if  it  were  composed,  or  made  up,  of 
parallel  bars,  which  get  thinner  and  thinner  as  they 
approach  the  horizon. 

If  a  series  of  disks  stretched  in  a  line  from  nearly 
overhead  to  the  horizon,  at  a  uniform  height  of  about 
10,000  feet,  we  should  see  the  whole  under-surface  of 
those  overhead  ;  and  progressively  less  and  less,  till  on 
the  horizon  the  thin  edges  of  the  disks  only  were  visible, 
like  straight  bars.  This  is  exactly  what  happens  in 
Nature  when  a  thin  flat  sheet  of  cloud  is  broken  into 
irregular  flakes.  Above,  there  is  only  visible  the  flat, 
formless  under-surface,  while  in  the  distance  the  thin 
edges  of  the  flakes  appear  more  and  more  like  bars. 
Thus  the  picture  of  the  sky  alone  gives  instinctively  the 
idea  of  retreating  distance. 

Turner,  curiously  enough,  hardly  ever  painted  cumulus, 
but  almost  always  a  coarser  form  of  this  flaky  sky  grow- 
ing into  thinner  and  thinner  bars  towards  the  horizon  ; 
and  I  have  seen  pictures  by  Mr.  Leader,  in  which  the 
same  device  was  used  for  giving  distance,  with  great 
effect.  In  Millais'  picture  the  artist  has  painted  the  sky 
with  consummate  skill,  true  to  Nature,  and  true  to  art 
in  not  destroying  the  balance  of  relative  distance. 

Another  important  landscape  is  No.  102,  Mr.  G. 
Boughton's  "  A  Golden  Afternoon."  But  in  this  the  sky 
is  scarcely  satisfactory.  The  clouds  are  rather  spotty, 
but  yet  not  of  the  kind  which  come  in  flocks  of  little 
cloudlets  ;  and  it  is  difficult  to  make  out  either  the 
precise  form  which  it  is  intended  to  delineate,  or  the 
perspective  of  the  whole  sky.  The  reproduction  of  re- 
presentative structure  is  simply  nowhere,  for  at  a  distance 
neither  form  nor  structure  are  discoverable  ;  while  close 
at  hand  the  brush-marks  are  so  apparent  that  the  lower 
clouds  appear  to  have  a  fibrous  structure.  This  would 
be  practically  impossible,  for  though  the  summit  of  a 
rocky  cumulus  is  often  combed  out  into  hairy  cirrus,  the 
rest  of  the  cloud  remains  firm,  and  this  would  not  occur 
on  "  a  golden  afternoon." 

Mr.  Leader  can  be  complimented  on  sending  three  first- 
rate  skies  in  the  three  pictures  which  he  contributes  to  the 
exhibition.  In  No.  408  he  not  only  paints  "  An  Old  English 
Homestead,"  but  also  a  truly  English  sky.  A  wisp  of  cirrus 
floats  over  a  well-painted  cumulus,  while  the  ideas  of 
relative  height  and  distance  are  well  given.  Cloud  forms 
are  essentially  the  same  all  over  the  world,  but  the  details 
differ ;  and  if  the  sky  in  this  picture  were  alone,  I 
could  say  that  it  was  nowhere  in  the  tropics,  but  somewhere 
irt  a  temperate  zone.     In  No.  638,  "A  Summer  Day  "— 

"  When  the  south  wind  congregates  in  crowds 
The  floating  mountains  of  the  silver  clouds  " — 

Mr.  Leader  again  paints  the  same  kind  of  sky  very 
beautifully;  but  in  No.  421,  over  "  The  Sands  of  Aber- 
dovey,"  he  gives  a  totally  different  type  of  cloud.  Here 
the  clouds  float  as  a  thin  white  fleece  on  the  sky,  with 
some  small  raggy,  evaporating  cloud  of  a  totally  different 


structure  at  a  lower  level.  The  effect  is  very  striking, 
and  the  accurate  drawing  of  the  forms  gives  height  and 
distance  to  the  picture. 

Mr.  V.  Cole's  "The  Pool  of  London"  (No.  350)  has 
been  purchased  under  the  Chantrey  bequest.  This  is  a 
large,  fine  picture,  in  which  the  artist  has  employed  a 
device  for  giving  distance  that  was  sometimes  used  by 
Turner.  A  dark  mass  of  cumulus  cloud  on  either  side  of 
the  sky  leaves  a  sort  of  bright  vault  running  down  the 
centre,  in  which  high  white  clouds  lead  the  eye  to  the  dome 
of  St.  Paul's  in  the  distance.  The  painting  of  all  the  clouds, 
and  the  effect  of  their  floating  at  different  levels,  are  very 
good  ;  but  somehow  the  scale  of  distance  in  the  picture 
is  scarcely  satisfactory.  Artists  are  conventionally 
allowed  to  diminish  the  size  of  objects  in  the  foreground, 
and  to  increase  that  of  distant  objects  so  as  to  improve  the 
effect ;  but  the  modern  eye,  which  is  trained  to  the  accurate 
projection  of  objects  at  different  distances  given  by  photo- 
graphy, knows  that  in  this  picture  the  ships  in  the  fore- 
ground should  be  bigger,  and  the  Cathedral  dome  smaller 
than  they  are  here  delineated. 

"  Then  came  the  Autumn,  all  in  yellow  clad,"  is  the 
poetic  title  of  Mr.  G.  Lucas's  picture  (No.  342).  A  beautiful, 
finely-painted  shower-cloud,  in  the  shape  of  a  rising, 
driving  cumulus,  gives  such  an  idea  of  space  and  height 
that  it  is  a  pleasure  to  look  at  such  a  truthful  transcript  of 
Nature.     This  is  one  of  the  best  skies  in  the  exhibition. 

Close  by,  and  in  great  contrast  to  the  above,  but 
fortunately  well  skied,  hangs  a  small  landscape  which 
contains  a  sky  of  the  worst  possible  description.  White 
and  blue  and  gray  are  patched  about  the  canvas  pro- 
miscuously, regardless  of  form  or  drawing  or  perspective  ; 
and  the  artist  seems  to  consider  that  any  mixture  of  these 
colours  represents  a  cloud-covered  sky. 

Artists  do  not  often  break  a  lance  with  men  of  science, 
but  Mr.  J.  Brett  has  run  a  tilt  against  the  astronomers  and 
geologists.  One  of  his  pictures  of  this  year  is  an  am- 
bitious subject — "  The  Earth's  Shadow  on  the  Sky  :  the 
Rising  of  the  Dusk."  A  short  time  after  sunset  in  fine 
weather,  the  shadow  of  the  earth  appears  to  rise  from  the 
eastern  horizon,  like  the  segment  of  a  leaden-gray  arch  ; 
but  there  is  little  to  suggest  this  on  Mr.  Brett's  canvas, 
though  the  general  effect  of  the  picture  is  very  pleasing. 
A  bright  green  sea  fills  up  the  foreground,  then  comes  a 
line  of  gray  mist  in  shadow,  with  blue  hills  above  ;  while 
the  zoning  of  a  gilded  sunset  sky  from  red  through 
orange  to  blue  is  very  skilfully  handled.  But  the  low 
mist  is  more  characteristic  of  sunrise  than  sunset  ;  and 
the  sky  appears  to  us  very  bright  to  be  opposite  the  sun. 
This  artist  also  shows  a  well-painted  shower-cloud  in  "  A 
Heavy  Squall  off  the  Start  Lighthouse,"  and  a  confused 
cumulus  in  a  slightly  finished  work  entitled  "  The  Bristol 
Channel." 

In  "  Nearing  the  Needles — Return  of  Fine  Weather 
after  a  Gale,"  Mr.  H.  Moore  exhibits  a  pretty  picture,  with 
a  lovely  sea  and  sunlit  chalk  cliff;  but  the  clouds  are  not 
very  well  defined  ;  and  are  rather  soft  for  the  rear  of  a  gale. 
The  Needles  appear  to  lie  to  the  east  of  the  observer, 
while  the  sea  and  ships  appear  to  be  running  from  south- 
east. If  this  is  so,  the  sky  has  far  more  the  character  of  a 
north-west  than  of  a  south-east  wind.  Another  of  Mr. 
Moore's  pictures— "A  Breezy  Day  in  the  Channel" — brings 
into  evidence  the  great  difficulty  of  painting  clouds  care- 
fully, and  yet  of  maintaining  the  balance  of  the  picture. 
Here  the  clouds — irregular  cumulus — are  very  good  in 
form,  and  beautifully  painted ;  but  this  careful  work 
makes  them  so  heavy  that  they  appear  rather  too  near. 
An  artist's  scale  of  distance  is  to  a  certain  extent  a  scale 
of  distinctness  ;  so  that  when  clouds  are  painted  in  minute 
detail,  it  is  very  difficult  not  to  make  them  appear  too 
near.  The  same  criticism  applies  to  this  painter's  "  West- 
ward," where  another  beautiful  sky,  correct  both  in  form 
and  perspective,  is  a  good  deal  too  heavy. 


July  5,  1888] 


NATURE 


227 


The  low,  ill-defined  cumulus  in  Mr.  Hook's  "  Low-Tide 
Gleanings "  are  not  more  finished  than  the  rest  of  the 
picture,  but  are  correct  both  in  form  and  drawing ;  and 
the  same  remarks  apply  to  his  work,  "  A  Day  for  the 
Lighthouse." 

"  Thanet  Cliffs  in  the  Time  of  Peace,"  by  Mr.  S.  Cooper, 
shows  a  good  cumulus  with  cirrus  overhead  ;  but  in  Mr. 
C.  Hunter's  "Fishers  of  the  North  Sea"  the  cumulus 
cloud  is  not  satisfactory. 

Mists  on  a  mountain,  with  a  gray  sky,  are  very  well 
painted  in  Mr.  Faed's  "  And  with  the  Burden  of  Many 
Years,"  and  make  an  effective  background  to  a  striking 
work  of  art ;  while  in  "  The  Approach  to  Bealloch-na-ba  " 
Mr.  H.  Davis  has  delineated  mountain  mist  with  equally 
good  effect. 

Mr.  P.  Graham's  "A  Norfolk  River"  contains  a  very 
good  showery  sky,  but  the  brush-marks  give  an  app  earance 
of  fibrous  structure  which  would  not  be  in  Nature  ;  while 
his  "Driven  by  the  Wind"  contains  an  effective  mass  of 
gray  nimbus  or  rain-cloud. 

Mr.  W.  Shaw  paints  a  good  misty  yellow-tinted  sky  in 
his  "  Tide  Race"  ;  but  the  great  mass  of  cumulus  behind 
Sir  F.  Leighton's  central  figure  of  the  "Captive  Andro- 
mache" is  not  very  satisfactory. 

The  sky  in  "  The  Old  Water-Way,"  by  T.  Liddell,  is 
good  so  far  as  form  is  concerned,  but  is  painted  so  heavily 
that  the  clouds  look  like  clods.  Philologists  say  that  the 
word  cloud  is  really  derived  from  clod,  but  artists  should 
not  express  that  idea  in  their  works.  There  is  a  rainbow 
in  this  picture,  so  ill  defined  that  it  is  difficult  to  make 
out  the  succession  of  tints  ;  though  I  think  the  red  is 
meant  to  be  outside,  which  is  correct. 

Mr.  R.  Rouse's  "  Pasture-land  in  Kent "  would  be  much 
more  pleasing  if  the  clouds  were  more  carefully  painted, 
and  not  so  like  patches  on  the  sky.  In  No.  553,  Mr.  H. 
Wells  is  to  be  complimented  on  having  painted  rays 
diverging  from  the  sun  from  exactly  the  proper  kind  of 
sky.  These  rays  are  rarely  seen  except  through  a  peculiar, 
flat,  broken  cloud  ;  but  they  are  usually  associated  with  a 
firmer,  harder  sky  than  is  here  depicted. 

Lastly,  Mr.  C.  Johnson  paints  the  "  Plain  of  Arundel " 
under  two  well-drawn  layers  of  cloud ;  and  Mr.  J. 
MacWhirter  has  hit  off  with  great  skill  and  accuracy  a 
flat,  broken  cloud,  lit  from  below  by  a  setting  sun,  beside 
the  picturesque  castle  of  "  Edinburgh." 

Such  are  some  of  the  more  notable  skies  in  our  great 
national  exhibition  of  pictures,  and  it  will  be  seen  at  once 
that  the  best  skies  are  painted  as  a  rule  by  those  who 
have  achieved  the  greatest  success  in  the  other  elements 
which  make  up  a  good  picture.  May  we  not  therefore 
fairly  conclude  that  part  of  their  success  is  due  to  their 
faithful  rendering  of  skies  and  clouds  ;  and  that  it  behoves 
those  who  wish  to  attain  a  high  place  among  landscape 
painters  to  study  the  form,  the  structure,  and  the  perspec- 
tive of  those  clouds  which  give  life,  and  height,  and 
distance,  to  every  picture  ?  Ralph  Abercromby. 


THE    OXFORD    UNIVERSITY  OBSERVATORY. 

'THE  following  are  the  principal  parts  of  the  Thirteenth 
■*■    Annual  Report  of  the  Savilian  Professor  of  Astronomy 
to  the  Board  of  Visitors  of  the  University  Observatory, 
read  June  6,  1888  : — 

I.  Lectures. — In  addition  to  the  requisite  statutable 
lectures,  Prof.  Pritchard  has  offered  some  others  of  a 
more  elementary  and  quasi  public  character  on  descrip- 
tive astronomy,  and  expressed  as  far  as  possible  in  un- 
technical  language.  He  has  been  so  much  encouraged  by 
the  interest  manifested  in  these  lectures  that  he  proposes 
to  offer  another  and  perhaps  more  extended  series  on  the 
recent  speculations  as  to  the  origin  of  the  Cosmos  from 
meteoric  collision  and  on  matters  cognate  therewith. 


II.  Instruments. — The  De  La  Rue  equatorial  is  in 
excellent  order ;  its  mechanical  mounting  is  now  equal 
to  the  delicate  purposes  of  stellar  parallax  to  which  it  has 
been  uninterruptedly  applied  during  the  last  twelve  months. 
Although  the  mirror  is  perhaps  somewhat  dimmed  with 
age,  its  figure,  which  has  been  recently  tested  by  com- 
parison with  the  presumed  best  productions  of  the  day, 
retains  its  original  very  remarkable  character. 

The  two  mirrors  mentioned  in  the  last  Report  have 
been  mounted  temporarily  on  the  large  equatorial  for  the 
purpose  of  the  comparison  of  their  photographic  action. 
An  efficient  electric  control  contrived  by  Sir  H.  Grubb 
has  also  been  added  with  the  view  of  securing  the  great 
accuracy  necessary  in  the  movement  of  the  telescope. 
The  work  for  which  the  mirrors  were  intended  having 
been  completed,  they  have  now  been  dismounted. 

Dr.  De  La  Rue  having  provided  the  funds  necessary 
for  a  photographic  telescope  of  13  inches  aperture  and  of 
the  pattern  suggested  at  the  Paris  Conference  of  1887, 
the  large  equatorial  has  been  sent  to  Sir  H.  Grubb  at 
Dublin,  for  the  purpose  of  attaching  thereto  the  instru- 
ment in  question,  and  of  carrying  out  the  other  con- 
siderable alterations  necessary  for  the  photographic 
charting  of  the  heavens,  as  proposed  at  the  aforesaid 
Conference. 

The  transit-circle  is  in  perfect  order. 

III.  Buildings.  —  Mr.  Nasmyth  has  presented  his 
magnificent  picture  map  of  the  moon  for  the  service  of 
the  Observatory.  This  very  beautiful  work  of  art  (6 
feet  in  diameter)  was  completed  by  Mr.  Nasmyth  from 
actual  observation  with  a  large  telescope  of  his  own 
construction  in  1849. 

IV.  Astronomical  Work. — During  the  past  year  this 
has  been  twofold.  In  the  first  place  continuous  attention 
has  been  devoted  to  the  photography  of  small  portions  of 
the  heavens  with  the  view  of  determining  the  parallax  of 
certain  selected  stars.  In  the  first  instance  a  careful  trial 
of  the  method  was  made  on  the  parallax  of  611  and  612 
Cygni,  because  the  parallax  of  the  point  midway  between 
the  two  stars  had  been  determined,  with  presumedly 
great  accuracy,  by  Bessel  in  1838,  whereby  effective  means 
of  comparing  the  two  methods  were  supplied.  The 
general  agreement  of  the  result  obtained  from  photo- 
graphy with  that  determined  by  this  most  able  astronomer, 
together  with  the  remarkable  consistency  of  the  individual 
photographic  measurements,  satisfied  Prof.  Pritchard  not 
only  of  the  great  convenience,  but  also  of  the  unimpeach- 
able accuracy  of  the  method.  Dr.  Pritchard  has  conse- 
quently much  extended  these  operations  for  stellar  parallax, 
and  before  the  termination  of  the  presentyear  he  hopes  that 
the  computation  of  the  parallaxes  of  altogether  some  ten  or 
twelve  stars  will  be  completed.  The  list  will  comprise 
611  and  612  Cygni,  /*  Cassiopeia?,  and  Polaris,  which  four 
stars  may  be  regarded  as  already  completed.  Three 
more  parallaxes  have  been  provisionally  determined  from 
observations  of  six  months*  viz.  a.  0,  y  Cassiopeia?  ;  four 
others  also  are  in  a  forward  state.  Experience  has 
suggested  that  these  stellar  parallaxes  will  be  most  readily 
and  efficiently  determined  by  confining  the  photographic 
work  on  each  star  to  those  four  periods  of  the  year  which, 
in  respect  of  each  parallactic  ellipse,  are  the  most  effective 
for  the  purpose.  It  should  be  stated  that  for  the  purposes 
of  accuracy  four  stars  of  comparison  are  selected,  instead 
of  the  two  with  which  astronomers  have  hitherto  been 
generally  contented.  This  photographic  process  enables 
Prof.  Pritchard  also,  without  much  consumption  of  time,  to 
measure  from  night  to  night  the  distance  between  the  stars 
of  comparison  themselves,  thus  furnishing  a  check  to  the 
unavoidable  variability  of  the  scale  of  the  focal  field  and 
of  the  photographic  film.  These  operations  are  at  present 
restricted  to  a  systematic  catalogue  of  stars  of  the  second 
magnitude.  It  appears  that  astronomical  work  like  this 
is  well  adapted  to  an  Observatory  connected  with  a  great 


228 


NATURE 


[July  5,  1888 


University.     It  may  be  interesting  to  record  the  results 
of  the  computations  so  far  obtained,  viz. : — 


611  Cygni    .  0*4289  ±0*0180 

612  Cygni  .  0-4353  ±0-0152 
Ij.  Cassiopeise  0-0356  ±0*0250 
Polaris    .     .  0*052    ±0-0314 


o  Cassiopeise  .  0*072  ±0-042* 
P  Cassiopeise  .  0*187  ±0*039* 
7  Cassiopeise<o*o5    ±0*047* 


The  last  result  is  peculiarly  interesting,  as  it  seems  to 
furnish  an  instance  where  the  resources  of  modern 
astronomy  have  arrived  at  the  limits  of  their  present 
possibility.  The  total  number  of  plates  taken  for  the 
purposes  of  the  above  investigation  is  approximately  700, 
and  each  plate  has  been  measured  with  120  bisections  of 
the  necessary  stars,  amounting  altogether  to  about  eighty- 
four  thousand  observations.  Independently  and  concur- 
rently with  the  preceding  work  Dr.  Pritchard  undertook 
for  the  Photographic  Committee  of  the  Royal  Society  the 
examination  of  two  silver  on  glass  mirrors  of  the  same 
aperture  but  of  very  different  focal  lengths,  with  the  view 
of  ascertaining  the  practical  effects  of  focal  length  on  the 
photographic  field.  This  work,  owing  to  the  temporary 
character  of  the  mounting  and  the  imperfection  of  the 
mechanical  movement  of  the  telescope,  has  been  attended 
with  great  labour  and  personal  endurance  on  the  part  of 
the  observer,  but  at  length  it  was  brought  to  a  successful 
conclusion,  and  the  results  have  been  communicated  to 
and  printed  by  the  Royal  Society.  The  expenses  of  the 
instrumental  appliances  connected  with  this  investigation 
have  been  defrayed  partly  from  a  grant  from  the  Royal 
Society,  and  partly  by  the  generosity  of  Dr.  De  La  Rue, 
to  whom  this  Observatory  owes  so  much,  not  only  in  the 
matter  of  pecuniary  aid,  but  by  his  kindly  encouragement 
and  appreciation  of  our  labours.  The  general  result  of 
the  investigation  alluded  to  above  is  the  comparative  un- 
suitability  of  any  mirror  for  an  extensive  charting  of  the 
heavens,  and  particularly  as  regards  mirrors  of  short  focal 
length  ;  but  at  the  same  time  it  leaves  no  doubt  as  to 
their  capacity  for  the  singularly  accurate  delineation  of 
small  portions  of  the  heavens,  and  for  such  operations  as 
those  connected  with  stellar  parallax,  or  the  charting  of 
the  moon.  Preparations  were  made  for  the  necessary 
observations  of  the  lunar  eclipse  of  January  28  of  this 
year  ;  but,  as  was  the  unfortunate  case  with  this  and 
many  other  Observatories,  they  were  rendered  ineffectual 
by  a  clouded  sky. 

The  above  astronomical  operations  made  under  Dr. 
Pritchard's  direction  were  skilfully  and  sedulously  carried 
out  by  the  two  Observatory  assistants,  Mr.  Plummer  and 
Mr.  Jenkins. 

NOTES. 

We  learn  that  Dr.  Guppy  left  England  for  Batavia  on  the  30th 
ult.  with  the  intention  of  spending  some  time  in  the  examina- 
tion of  the  living  and  upraised  coral  reefs  of  the  Indian  Archi- 
pelago. Mr.  John  Murray  has  provided  the  necessary  funds 
for  the  first  six  months  of  his  sojourn  in  that  region,  and  has 
directed  Dr.  Guppy  in  the  first  place  to  make  as  complete  an 
examination  as  he  can  of  the  geological  structure  of  Christmas 
Island.  Judging  from  the  important  notes  and  collections  made 
by  Captain  Aldrich  and  Mr.  Lister  during  the  recent  visit  of 
H.M.  S.  Egeria,  this  island  would  seem  to  be  one  of  the  oldest 
of  the  upraised  coral  islands,  and  as  such  it  is  likely  to  prove 
of  considerable  geological  interest.  At  the  last  meeting  of  the 
Geographical  Society,  Captain  Wharton,  the  Hydrographer,  read 
a  short  paper  on  this  subject. 

Apparently  we  have  missed  our  chance  of  solving  the  many 
interesting  problems  relating  to  the  Antarctic  regions.  The 
matter  has  now  been  taken  in  hand  by  Germany,  and  we  may 
be  sure  that  she  will  not  fail  to  carry  out  the  enterprise  in  an 
energetic  and  thoroughly  scientific  spirit.  The  expedition  is  being 
organized  by  Dr.  Neumayer,  of  the  Hamburg  Observatory. 


Mr.  Jesse  Collings  is  to  be  congratulated  on  the  result  of 
his  efforts  to  secure  for  the  parish  of  West  Lavington,  Wiltshire, 
the  full  benefit  of  the  Dauntsey  Charity,  a  part  of  which  the 
Charity  Commissioners  proposed  to  use  for  the  establishment  of 
a  High  School  in  some  other  place  in  Wiltshire.  It  is  now  pro- 
posed— with  the  approval  of  the  Mercers'  Company,  the  principal 
trustees  and  patrons  of  the  Charity,  who  have  agreed  to  under-  . 
take  a  liability  of  ,£60,000 — not  only  that  the  children  of  the 
poorer  inhabitants  of  West  Lavington  shall  be  provided  with  an 
ordinary  elementary  education,  but  that  a  fully-equipped  Lower 
School  for  technical  training  in  horticulture  and  agriculture  shall 
be  created  for  their  benefit.  It  is  intended  that  the  latter  school 
shall  be  adapted  to  the  needs  of  persons  who  cannot  afford  to 
attend  such  institutions  as  those  at  Cirencester  and  Downton. 
If  the  scheme  is  carried  out,  land  will  be  provided  for  the  more 
thorough  instruction  of  pupils,  and  classes  will  be  formed 
for  the  teaching  of  the  various  sciences  and  arts  which  especially 
relate  to  agriculture. 

On  July  16,  Prof.  W.  E.  Ayrton  will  begin,  at  the  City  and 
Guilds  of  London  Institute,  a  course  of  six  lectures  (to  be  de- 
livered on  Mondays,  Wednesdays,  and  Fridays)  on  the  con- 
struction, testing,  and  use  of  electrical  measuring  instruments. 
This  course  will  include  experimental  lectures  and  special 
laboratory  work.  The  lectures  will  comprise  the  principles  and 
practice  of  the  construction,  calibration,  and  testing  for  faults  of 
ammeters,  voltmeters,  ohm  meters,  wattmeters,  coulombmeters, 
and  ergmeters  as  used  for  direct  and  alternating  current  systems. 
The  students'  practical  work  will  be  conducted  in  a  laboratory 
specially  fitted  with  accumulators,  standard  instruments,  &c. , 
for  electrical  instrument  testing  ;  and  they  will  have  the  oppor- 
tunity of  examining  and  practically  trying  all  the  more  important 
electrical  meters  at  present  in  ordinary  use. 

An  interesting  Exhibition  of  hygiene  and  life-saving  apparatus 
has  been  opened  in  the  Park  Leopold  at  Ostend,  The  exhibits 
are  divided  into  the  following  sections  :  — Applications  of  geo- 
logical, meteorological,  and  medical  science  to  hygiene,  in- 
dustrial hygiene,  maritime  hygiene,  domestic  hygiene,  hygiene 
of  infancy,  publications  relating  to  hygiene,  and  life-saving 
apparatus. 

At  Messrs.  Stevens'  Sale  Rooms  on  Monday,  the  25th  ult.,  a 
specimen  of  Papilio  caumis  from  Assam  was  sold  for  £,\0. 
Mr.  William  Watkin,  of  Croydon,  was  the  purchaser. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Scientific  Committee  of  the  Royal 
Horticultural  Society  on  June  26,  Prof.  Church  contributed  a 
summary  of  his  highly  interesting  and  important  researches  upon 
the  presence  of  aluminium  in  the  ashes  of  plants.  This  sub- 
stance, instead  of  being  peculiar  to  the  species  of  Lycopodium, 
as  once  supposed,  is  found  in  minute  traces  in  the  ashes  of  very 
many  others,  a  circumstance  not  to  be  wondered  at,  considering 
the  abundant  distribution  of  the  element  in  many  soils.  It  oc- 
curs in  all  the  species  of  Lycopodium  examined,  except  those 
which  are  of  epiphytic  habit,  and  which,  consequently,  do  not 
directly  derive  their  food  from  the  soil.  It  does  not  occur  in 
the  allied  genus  Selaginella.  It  occurs  in  the  ashes  of  some 
tree  ferns  in  large  proportions,  sometimes  forming  as  much 
as  20  per  cent,  of  the  ash,  as  in  Alsophila  australis,  Cyathea 
medullaris  ;  while  from  others  it  is  all  but  absent.  In  the  British 
species  of  ferns  little  or  no  alumina  has  been  found. 

At  the  same  meeting  Mr.  McLachlan  called  attention  to  the 
notion  that  cold  winters  are  injurious  to  insects — a  notion  he 
stated  to  be  erroneous,  although,  no  doubt,  severe  alternations  of 
cold,  heat,  drought,  or  moisture,  were  prejudicial  to  insect  life. 
During  the  present  season  it  was  noticed  generally  that  great 
destruction  of  foliage  occurred  from  caterpillars  which  destroyed 
the  succulent  portions  of  the  leaf  and  tied  the  framework  and 
fragments  together  by  a  web  of  fine  threads  comparable  with 


July  5,  1888] 


NATURE 


229 


spiders'  webs.  These  caterpillars  were  different  in  different 
cases.  In  the  oak  they  were  species  of  Tortrix  ;  in  the  apple 
the  win:er  moth  was  destructive  ;  while  in  other  cases  the  larva 
of  the  Ermine  moth  was  exceedingly  hurtful  to  leaves. 

The  American  Meteorological  Journal,  desiring  to  attract  the 
attention  of  students  to  tornadoes,  in  hopes  that  valuable  results 
may  be  obtained,  offers  the  following  prizes  : — For  the  best 
original  essay  on  tornadoes  or  description  of  a  tornado,  200  dollars 
will  be  given  ;  for  the  second  best,  50  dollars.  Among  those 
worthy  of  special  mention  50  dollars  will  be  divided.  The 
essays  must  be  sent  to  either  of  the  editors,  Prof.  Harrington, 
Astronomical  Observatory,  Ann  Arbor,  Michigan,  or  A. 
Lawrence  Rotch,  Blue  Hill  Meteorological  Observatory,  Read- 
ville,  Mass.,  U.S.A.,  before  the  first  day  of  July,  1889.  They 
must  be  signed  by  a  nom  de  plume,  and  be  accompanied  by  a 
sealed  envelope  addressed  with  the  same  nom  de  plume  and  in- 
closing the  real  name  and  address  of  the  author.  Three  inde- 
pendent and  capable  judges  will  be  selected  to  award  the  prizes  ; 
and  the  papers  receiving  them  will  be  the  property  of  the  journal 
offering  the  prizes.  A  circular  giving  fuller  details  can  be 
obtained  by  application  to  Prof.  Harrington. 

The  United  States  Congress  has  been  discussing  the  question 
whether  the  Weather  Bureau  should  be  transferred  to  the  pro- 
posed new  Department  of  Agriculture.  Science  advocates  the 
maintenance  of  the  existing  system.  "The  observations,"  it 
says,  "upon  which  the  Weather  Bureau  bases  its  calculations 
are  now  all  made  by  enlisted  men  of  the  army,  who  have  been 
specially  instructed  and  trained  for  the  work.  No  political 
influence  whatever  has  been  allowed  to  operate  for  their 
appointment,  promotion,  or  retention  in  the  service.  It  has 
been  the  aim  of  the  Chief  of  the  Signal  Office  to  send  to  all 
important  stations  men  who  will  be  acceptable  to  the  communities 
in  which  they  are  to  live  and  do  their  work,  but  no  member  of 
Congress  has  been  able  to  secure  the  transfer  or  removal  of  an 
observer  sergeant  in  order  that  some  favourite  might  be  put  in 
his  place.  The  security  which  the  observer  sergeants  have  felt 
for  the  terms  of  their  enlistment  has  certainly  had  a  beneficial 
effect  upon  the  character  of  the  service  they  have  rendered. 
It  may  seem  an  anomaly  to  the  people  that  a  duty  that  is  in  no 
respect  of  a  military  character  should  be  done  by  soldiers  rather 
than  by  civilians,  but  the  military  organization  of  the  Weather 
Bureau  has  certainly  resulted  in  keeping  political  influence  from 
dictating  in  regard  to  the  personnel  of  a  class  of  men  whose 
appointment  and  promotion  it  was  very  desirable  to  keep  free 
from  this  influence." 

The  Report  of  the  Director  of  the  Hong  Kong  Observatory 
for  1887  shows  that  the  meteorological  inquiries  are  being 
pushed  on  with  vigour,  and  that  the  amount  of  information 
collected  respecting  the  typhoons  of  the  past  year  has  been  much 
greater  than  in  previous  years.  Some  of  these  results  have  been 
published  in  an  appendix  on  the  "  Results  of  Further  Researches 
concerning  Typhoons  "  ;  and  another  work  on  the  subject,  with 
maps  exhibiting  the  paths  of  the  typhoons,  is  in  preparation. 
This  investigation  will  throw  light  on  the  cause  of  the  frequency 
of  these  storms  in  the  China  Sea  in  September,  and  will  enable 
masters  of  vessels  to  escape  damage  from  them,  and  to  make 
quicker  voyages. 

We  have  received  from  Dr.  Hellmann  a  very  comprehensive 
and  careful  discussion  of  the  rainfall  of  the  Iberian  Peninsula, 
being  an  excerpt  paper  from  the  Berlin  Zeitschrift  der  Gesellschaft 
fiir  Erdkunde,  vol.  xxiii.  The  principal  results  of  the  investiga- 
tion were  communicated  to  the  Berlin  Meteorological  Society  in 
January  last  (see  Nature,  vol.  xxxvii.  p.  312).  Dr.  Hellmann, 
to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  many  laborious  inquiries,  took  ad- 
vantage of  his  stay  in  Andalusia,  in  1875-76,  to  collect  all  avail- 
able materials,  but  found  them  insufficient  for  trustworthy  results  ; 


the  present  discussion  has  therefore  been  delayed  until  the  ob- 
servations of  ten  more  years  could  bi  added.  The  work  deals 
with  the  monthly  and  yearly  values  for  sixty-seven  stations,  for 
which  a  sufficiently  long  series  could  be  got,  and  contains  a  map 
showing  the  yearly  distribution  of  rainfall.  The  yearly  and 
daily  periods  of  rainfall,  the  monthly  and  yearly  extremes,  and 
the  frequency,  are  also  all  fully  and  ably  discussed.  The 
annual  fall  is  very  various,  being  no  less  than  138  inches  on  the 
Serra  da  Estrella,  and  as  little  as  11  inches  at  Lerida,  in 
Catalonia.  In  the  yearly  period  the  minimum  fall  at  all 
stations  occurs  in  July  and  August,  and  the  maximum,  generally 
speaking,  about  May  or  October ,  according  to  locality.  Snow 
falls  only  in  a  few  of  the  more  elevated  districts. 

The  vapour-density  of  sulphur  has  been  re-determined  by  Dr. 
Biltz  in  the  laboratory  of  Prof.  Victor  Meyer,  with  unexpected 
results.  It  has  hitherto  been  generally  accepted  that  at  a  tem- 
perature (5240  C.)  not  very  far  removed  from  its  boiling-point 
(4470  C.)  the  molecule  of  sulphur  is  built  up  of  six  atoms.  This 
assumption  is  based  upon  vapour-density  determinations  by 
Dumas  and  Mitscherlich,  who  obtained  values  about  this  tempera- 
ture pointing  to  a  hexatomic  molecule.  However,  the  work  of 
the  last  few  years  upon  the  chlorides  of  aluminium,  tin,  and  iron, 
has  opened  the  eyes  of  chemists  to  the  fact  that  the  double 
formulae  A12C16,  Sn2Cl4,  and  Fe2Cl6,  resting  as  they  did  upon  a 
few  experiments  performed  within  a  very  limited  range  of  tem- 
perature, are  erroneous,  and  have  no  foundation  in  fact.  The 
older  work  upon  the  constitution  of  sulphur  molecules  was 
notably  of  this  class.  The  experiments  themselves  were  irre- 
proachable, and  completed  with  all  the  skill  for  which  the 
experimenters  were  famous  ;  but  unfortunately  the  temperatures  at 
which  they  worked  were  not  sufficiently  removed  from  each  other, 
there  being  only  a  difference  of  27°  C.  between  their  maxima  and 
minima.  It  is  now,  moreover,  a  demonstrated  law  that  the 
existence  of  molecules  of  fixed  composition  can  only  be  assumed 
when  the  vapour-density  remains  constant  within  a  notable 
interval  of  temperature.  Hence  a  series  of  fresh  determinations 
have  been  undertaken  in  the  case  of  sulphur.  Experiments  con- 
ducted at  5180  in  a  bath  of  vaporized  pentasulphide  of  phos- 
phorus by  Dumas's  method  gave  values  averaging  about  7#o, 
which  are  nearly  coincident  with  Dumas's  own.  At  the  higher 
temperature  of  6060,  using  a  bath  of  stannous  chloride  vapour, 
the  density  had  diminished  to  47.  At  86o°,  as  is  well  known, 
sulphur  vapour  attains  the  normal  constitution  of  two  atoms  to 
the  molecule,  and  the  density  remains  constant  for  about  2000 
higher  still.  Hence,  in  order  to  finally  set  the  question  at  rest, 
a  series  of  ten  determinations  were  made  at  intervals  of  about 
io°-i5°  from  4680  to  6060,  with  the  conclusive  result  that  the 
density  regularly  diminished  from  7  •9  at  the  former  to  47  at  the 
latter  temperature.  Hence  the  notion  of  S6  is  completely  dis- 
sipated ;  there  is  no  more  experimental  reason  for  it  than  there 
is  for  the  existence  of  molecules  of  the  constitution  S5  or  S„. 
None  but  the  value  corresponding  to  the  normal  composition, 
S2,  stands  the  test  of  interval  of  temperature,  therefore  we  must 
conclude  that  sulphur  obeys  the  usual  law,  and  that  its  molecules 
when  completely  vaporized  are  each  composed  of  two  atoms. 

Science  says  that  the  logs  from  the  great  raft  abandoned  off  the 
coast  of  New  England  a  few  months  ago  have  drifted  in  a  direc- 
tion about  east  by  south,  and  that  the  greater  part  of  them  are 
now  in  the  region  between  the  33rd  and  38th  parallels  and  the 
30th  and  50th  meridians.  The  reports  lately  received  at  the 
Hydrographic  Office  would  seem  to  show  that  the  general  drift  of 
the  logs  has  been  about  east  by  south,  and  that  most  of  them 
are  now  west-south-west  from  the  Azores.  Very  few,  if  any,  have 
drifted  north  of  the  40th  parallel.  A  great  deal  of  timber  has 
been  reported  further  north,  to  the  westward  of  the  20th 
meridian,  but,  from  the  descriptions  given,  it  does  not  seem 
to  be  a  part  of  the  great  raft. 


230 


NATURE 


{July  5,  1888 


In  the  twenty-first  Annual  Report  of  the  Provost  to  the  Trustees 
of  the  Peabody  Institute,  Baltimore,  it  is  stated  that  whereas  the 
number  of  readers  during  the  past  year  declined,  the  number  of 
books  used  increased.  Thus  the  library  "is  being  gradually 
converted  into  that  real  reference  library  for  scholars  which  its 
founder  intended  to  establish."  A  table  included  in  the  Report 
gives  some  interesting  and  suggestive  information  as  to  the 
subjects  studied.  Antiquities,  philology,  and  theology  seem  to 
be  the  most  popular  subjects.  On  the  first  of  these  subjects 
2894  volumes  were  read  ;  on  the  second,  2336  ;  on  the  third, 
2212.  Biography  comes  next  ;  but  there  were  readers  for  only 
1,964  volumes  under  this  heading. 

The  Register,  for  1887-8S,  of  the  John?  Hopkins  University 
of  Baltimore  has  been  sent  to  us.  In  an  introductory  statement 
it  is  explained  that  this  University  was  opened  in  1876  ;  that 
thus  far  the  Faculty  of  Philosophy  has  alone  been  fully  organized  ; 
and  that  the  formation  of  a  Medical  Faculty  has  been  begun,  and 
will  soon  receive  further  development.  In  the  Faculty  of  Philo- 
sophy, instruction  is  carried  on  by  University  methods  and 
by  Collegiate  methods  corresponding  with  the  requirements  of 
students  at  different  stages  of  their  advancement.  University 
instruction  is  offered  to  those  who  have  already  taken  an  aca- 
demic degree,  or  who  have  otherwise  fitted  themselves  to  pursue 
advanced  courses  of  study. 

From  the  Report,  just  issued,  of  the  trustees  of  the  South 
African  Museum  for  the  year  ended  December  31,  1887,  we 
learn  that  the  condition  of  the  collection  generally  has  been 
satisfactorily  maintained  by  dint  of  regular  and  frequent  inspec- 
tion. The  donations  during  the  year  numbered  3125  specimens, 
presented  by  78  donors,  as  compared  with  1298  specimens, 
presented  by  58  donors,  in  1886.  The  trustees  make  an  urgent 
appeal  for  the  extension  of  the  Museum  buildings.  "  Each 
year,"  they  point  out,  "has  of  necessity  increased  the  over- 
crowding of  the  very  limited  available  space,  and  this  has  now 
become  a  most  serious  hindrance  to  the  usefulness  of  the 
Museum,  and  indeed  an  absolute  barrier  to  its  due  develop- 
ment. The  trustees  have  been  disappointed  to  find  that  their 
repeated  written  representations  on  this  important  matter  failed 
to  meet  with  the  favourable  consideration  of  the  Government,  as 
they  have  thus  been  placed  in  the  highly  unsatisfactory  position 
of  inability  to  promote  the  normal  growth  of  the  institution,  or 
even  to  insure  the  proper  preservation  of  much  of  the  valuable 
public  property  for  which  they  are  trustees." 

The  annual  reports  of  the  Aeronautical  Society  of  Great 
Britain  for  the  years  1885-86  have  baen  issued  in  one  small 
volume.  Among  the  contents  are  the  following  papers,  read  at 
the  annual  meeting  of  the  Society  on  December  11,  1886: — 
Gravity  and  wind-pressure  on  auxiliary  powers  in  flight,  by 
Sidney  Hollands ;  balloon-signalling  in  war,  by  Eric  Bruce  ; 
experimental  ballooning,  by  F.  W.  Breary  ;  an  aerial  boat,  by 
Mr.  Green  ;  and  jet-propulsion  for  aeronautical  purposes,  by 
Captain  Griffiths. 

We  have  received  No.  5  of  the  first  volume,  fourth  series,  of 
the  Memoirs  and  Proceedings  of  the  Manchester  Literary  and 
Philosophical  Society.  It  contains  the  following  memoirs.: — 
Descriptions  of  twenty-three  new  species  of  Hymenoptera,  by 
P.  Cameron  ;  a  survey  of  the  genus  Cypraea  (Linn.),  its  nomen- 
clature, geographical  distribution,  and  distinctive  affinities,  with 
descriptions  of  two  new  species  and  several  varieties  (with  two 
plates),  by  James  Cosmo  Melvill ;  a  catalogue  of  the  species 
and  varieties  of  Cypraia,  arranged  on  a  new  circular  system,  in 
accordance  with  true  sequence  of  affinity,  by  James  Cosmo 
Melvill;  memoir  of  the  late  Prof.  Balfour  Stewart,  F.R.S.,  by 
Prof.  A.  Schuster,  F.  R.S.  To  the  last  of  these  memoirs  a 
list  of  the  titles  of  papers  by  Prof.  Balfour  Stewart  is  appended. 


It 


A  SIXTH  edition  of  Mr.  William  Ford  Stanley's  "Ms 
matical  Drawing  and  Measuring  Instruments"  (E.  and  F. 
Spon)  has  just  been  issued.  It  contains  descriptions  of  twenty- 
five  new  instruments  mounted  or  brought  out  since  the  publication 
of  the  fifth  edition  ten  years  ago.  Among  the  instruments  in- 
vented by  the  author  himself  is  the  oograph,  designed  for  the 
purpose  of  enabling  oologists  to  draw  eggs  of  birds  in  their 
natural  sizes  and  proportions. 

A  USEFUL  little  volume  on  "  Landscape  Photography,"  by 
Mr.  H.  P.  Robinson,  has  been  issued  as  one  of  the  series  of 
"  Photographic  Handy-Books  "  (Piper  and  Carter).  It  consists 
of  letters  written  to  a  friend  "whose  study  of  photography 
enabled  him  to  produce  a  technically  perfect  negative,  but  who  did 
not  know  how  to  put  his  knowledge  to  pictorial  use."  "  They 
were  not  intended, "  the  author  explains,  ' '  to  point  out  a  royal  road 
to  art,  but  rather  to  act  as  a  stimulus  to  activity  in  the  search  for 
subjects  for  the  camera,  and  to  teach  how  readiness  of  resource 
may  help  good  fortune  in  turning  them  into  agreeable  pictures." 

An  interesting  pamphlet  on  Pallas's  sand  grouse,  by  Mr.  \V. 
B.  Tegetmeier,  has  just  been  issued  (Horace  Cox).  It  is 
illustrated  with  a  coloured  plate  and  woodcuts.  "It  is  greatly 
to  be  regretted,"  says  the  author,  "  that  a  bird  so  beautiful  in 
its  form,  harmless  in  its  habits,  valuable  as  an  article  of  food, 
interesting  to  the  sportsman  as  a  game  bird,  and  to  the  naturalist 
as  the  type  of  a  most  singular  genus,  should  not  be  protected. 
The  present  pamphlet  has  been  compiled  as  an  endeavour  to 
make  the  bird  better  known,  to  interest  the  public  at  large  in 
the  species,  and  thus,  if  possible,  to  aid  in  its  preservation  and 
naturalization  as  a  British  game  bird." 

Science  states  that  Mr.  William  Walter  Phelps  has  introduced 
into  Congress  a  Bill  to  purchase  from  Stephen  Vail,  of  Morris- 
town,  N  J.,  the  original  telegraphic  instrument,  or  recording 
receiver,  invented  by  his  father,  Alfred  Vail,  and  used  upon  the 
first  telegraphic  line  ever  constructed, — that  between  Washing- 
ton and  Baltimore, — and  to  transmit  the  fust  message  ever  sent : 
"  What  hath  God  wrought  ?  "  The  purchase  of  this  instrument 
is  strongly  recommended  by  the  officers  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institution.     The  price  is  ten  thousand  dollars. 

According  to  an  official  notification  of  the  Trustees  of  the 
Schwestern  Frohlich  Stiftung  at  Vienna,  certain  donations  and 
pensions  will  be  granted  from  the  funds  of  this  charity  this  year, 
in  accordance  with  the  will  of  the  testator,  Miss  Anna  Frohlich, 
to  deserving  persons  of  talent  who  have  distinguished  themselves 
in  any  of  the  branches  of  scien:e,  art,  or  literature,  and  who 
may  be  in  want  of  pecuniary  support,  either  through  accident, 
illness,  or  infirmity  consequent  upon  old  age.  The  grant  of 
such  temporary  or  permanent  assistance  in  the  form  of  donations 
or  pensions  is,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  foundation  deed, 
primarily  intended  for  natives  of  the  Austrian  Empire,  but 
foreigners  of  every  nationality — English  and  others — may  like- 
wise participate,  provided  they  are  resident  in  Austria.  In- 
formation as  to  the  terms  and  conditions  of  the  foundation  deeds, 
&c,  may  be  obtained  from  the  Austro-Hungarian  Embassy  in 
London. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during 
the  past  week  include  two  Tasmanian  Wolves  ( Thylacinus  cyno- 
cepkalus),  two  Bennett's  Wallabys  (Halmaturus  bennettt),  a 
Black  and  Velio w  Cyclodus  (Cyclodus  nigro-luteus)  from  Tas- 
mania, nine  Silky  Bower  Birds  (Philonorhyruhus  riolaceus)  from 
New  South  Wales,  ten  LaughiDg  Kingfishers  (Dacelo  gigaiitea), 
ten  Blue-cheeked  Parrakeets  (Flatycercus  cyanogenys),  two 
Cereopsis  Geese  (Cereopsis  noviv-hollandiir),  seven  Maned  Geese 
Berniclajubata),  two  Black-backed  Piping  Crows  {GymncrMm 
tibicen),  two  Lace  Monitors  ( Varanus  varius),  two  Gould's 
Monitors  {Vdramis  gouldi),  a  Gaimard's  Rat  Kangaroo  {Hypsi- 
prynuius  gaimardi)    from    Australia,     deposited ;    a     Smooth 


July  5,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


'3' 


Snake  (Coronella  Icevis),  European,  presented  by  Mr.  Walter  C. 
Blaker ;  a  Dark-Green  Snake  {Zamenis  atrovirens)  from  Dal- 
matia,  an  ^Esculapian  Snake  {Coluber  atsculapii),  European, 
purchased ;  two  Triangular-spotted  Pigeons  {Columba  guinea), 
bred  in  the  Gardens. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

American  Observatories. — The  Trustees  of  the  Lick 
bequest  formally  made  over  the  Lick  Observatory  to  the  Univer- 
sity of  California  on  June  1.  The  staff  of  the  Observatory 
consists  of  Prof.  Holden,  Director  ;  Messrs.  Barnard,  Burnham, 
Keeler,  and  Schaeberle,  astronomers  ;  and  Mr.  Chas.  B.  Hill, 
librarian  and  assistant-astronomer. 

The  Lick  Observatory  is  not  to  be  the  most  elevated  of 
American  Observatories.  Mr.  H.  B.  Chamberlin,  of  Denver, 
Colorado,  is  providing  the  University  of  that  city  with  a  new 
equatorial  refractor  of  20  inches  aperture.  The  site  chosen  for 
the  erection  of  this  telescope  is  5000  feet  above  sea-level,  some 
800  feet  higher  than  the  Lick  Observatory. 

Mr.  W.  R.  Brooks,  so  well  known  for  his  cometary  discoveries, 
has  removed  to  the  Observatory  provided  for  him  by  the  generosity 
of  Mr.  William  Smith,  of  Geneva,  New  York.  His  present 
address  is  therefore  "  Smith  Observatory,  Geneva,  N.Y." 

The  instruments  of  the  Dearborn  Observatory,  Chicago,  have 
been  dismounted,  and  the  old  site  abandoned,  and  a  new  build- 
ing is  to  be  erected  at  Evanston,  about  16  miles  north  and  3 
miles  west  of  the  old  site,  and  some  250  feet  from  the  shore  of 
Lake  Michigan,  on  grounds  belonging  to  the  North- Western 
University,  with  which  institution  the  Observatory  is  in  future  to 
be  connected,  but  without  affecting  its  relationship  to  the  Chicago 
Astronomical  Society.  The  new  building,  which  is  to  cost  about 
^5000,  and  which  will  include  a  dome  and  tower  for  the  i8i-inch 
refractor,  a  transit-room,  library,  and  about  eight  other  rooms,  is 
the  gift  of  Mr.  James  Hobbs. 

Rochester,  New  York,  has  no  fewer  than  seven  Observatories, 
of  which  the  Warner  Observatory  is  the  most  important. 

Minor  Planets. — The  object  discovered  by  M.  Borelly  on 
May  12  has  proved  to  be  Sironia,  No.  116;  the  difference 
between  the  ob.-erved  and  predicted  places  being  due  to  the 
omission  of  perturbations  in  the  computation  of  the  ephemeris. 
Herr  Palisa's  discovery  of  May  16  thus  remains  No.  278  as 
given  in  Nature,  vol.  xxxviii.  p.  89,  at  first.  No.  272  has 
been  named  Antonia  ;  No.  274  Philagoria. 

The  Rings  of  Saturn. — Dom  M.  Lamey,  Director  of  the 
Observatory  of  the  Priory  of  St.  John,  Grignon,  claims  to  have 
discovered  four  new  rings  around  Saturn,  outside  those  pre- 
viously known.  The  first  of  these  rings  is  said  to  commence 
at  the  extreme  ed^e  of  that  now  known  as  the  outer  ring ;  the 
next  reaches  to  the  orbit  of  Enceladus  ;  the  third,  which  is  the 
brightest,  touches  the  orbit  of  Tethys ;  whilst  the  fourth  and 
faintest  lies  between  Dione  and  Rhea. 

The  distances  from  Saturn  of  the  known  rings  have  been 
measured  by  M.  Perrotin,  at  Nice,  with  the  following  results  : — 


Cassinian  Dark  ring. 

Outer  limit.        division.      Outer  limit.     Inner  limit. 


F.  Ansa 
W.   Ansa 


1 1  22 
1112 


8-50 
8-43 


4-08 
4-07 


1-46 
1-41 


with  an  average  probable  error  for  each  determination  of 
±  o""02.  These  results  agree  well  with  those  of  Profs.  O. 
Struve  and  Meyer,  except  in  the  case  of  those  in  the  last  column. 
The  distances  in  the  E.  ansa  appeared  almost  always  greater 
than  those  in  the  W.  ansa  for  the  two  outer  points  measured, 
but  the  measures  of  the  dark  ring  are  sometimes  greater  on  one 
side,  sometimes  on  the  other.  This  is  probably  due  to  the 
revolution  of  the  perisaturnium  of  the  dark  ring,  which  would 
appear  to  revolve  round  the  planet  in  an  elliptic  orbit.  The  dark 
line  known  as  Encke's  division  has  not  been  seen  in  1888, 
though  seen  in  previous  years  ;  but  on  the  other  hand  the  inner 
part  of  the  ring  B  has  shown  three  faint  divisions  separating  it 
into  three  nearly  equal  parts.  The  dark  ring  has  appeared  of 
a  uniform  tint,  and  no  division  has  been  detected  in  it. 


ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA  FOR   THE 
WEEK  1888  JULY  8-14. 

/"C*OR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed.) 

'At  Greenwich  on  July  8 

Sunrises,  3I1.  56m.  ;  souths,  I2h.  4m.  Ji'is.  ;   sets,  2oh.  14m.  : 

right    asc.    on    meridian,    7I1.    I2,3m.  ;     decl.    22°   25'  N. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  I5h.  23m. 
Moon  (New  on  July  9,  6h.)  rises,  3h.  16m.  ;  souths,  uh.  25m.  ; 

sets,    19I1.  36m.  :  right  asc.  on  meridian,  6h.  32-5m. ;  decl. 

21°  11'  N. 


Planet.         Rises. 

h.    m. 

Mercury..     4  30 

Venus 3  46 


Mars 

Jupiter 

Saturn .... 
Uranus  ... 
Neptune.. 


13  5 
16  6 

5  42 

12  1 

1  6 


Souths. 
h.  m. 
12   7 

12  I 
18  18 
20  30 

13  30 
17  41 

8  52 


Sets, 
h.  m. 

19  44 

20  l6 
23  31 

o  54* 

21  18 
23  21 
16  38 


Right  asc.  and  declination 
on  meridian, 
h.      m.  o      / 


7  147 

7  8-8 
13  26-5 
15  39"o 

8  38  2 
12  49-8 

3  587 


17  35  N. 
23  12  N. 

9  58  S. 

18  38  S. 

19  9  N. 
4  39  S. 

18  51  N. 


July. 
9 


*  Indicates  that  the  setting  is  that  of  the  following  morning. 
Comet  Sawerthal. 

Right  Ascension.  Declination. 

July.  h.  h.      m.  »       / 

8     ...     o         ...         i     52         ...         49  22  N. 

12      ...      O  ...  I      67  ...  50    IO 


19 


Star. 

U  Cephei     ... 

Algol    

U  Monocerotis 

R  Crateris  ... 

5  Librae 

U  Coronse   ... 

U  Ophiuchi... 

Z  Sagittarii... 

R  Scuti 

S  Sagittae     ... 

X  Cygni       ... 

T  Vulpeculse 

W  Cygni      ... 
S  Cephei 


Mercury  in  conjunction  with  and  30  34'  south 

of  the  Moon. 
Venus  in  conjunction  with  and  i°  57'  north 

of  the  Moon. 
Mercury  in  inferior  conjunction  with  the  Sun. 
Mercury  in  conjunction  with  and  50  32'  south 

of  Venus. 
Partial   eclipse  of  the  Sun :  not  visible   in 

Europe. 
Saturn  in  conjunction  with  and  o°  1'  north 

of  the  Moon. 
Venus  in  superior  conjunction  with  the  Sun. 


Variable  Stars. 


R.A. 

h.      m. 

o  52-4 

3    0-9 

7  25-5 

10  551 

14  55  "o 

15  13-6 

17  10-9 

18  14-8  . 

18  41-5 

19  5o'9 

20  39-0 


Decl. 

8l    16  N. 

40  31  N. 

9  33  S. 

17  43  S. 
8    4S. 

32    3  N- 
1  20  N. 

18  55  S. 
5  5o  S. 

16  20  N. 
35  "  N. 


July 


...  20  467  ...  27  50  N.  ...     ,, 

...  21  31-8  ...  44  53  N.  ...  „ 
...  22  25-0  ...  57  51  N.  ...  „ 
M  signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum. 


h. 

10,  21 

11,  O 
13. 
II, 

13,  1 
9,  o 

14,  1 

12,  1 

10, 

9,     1 
10,  23 

10,  22 

11,  23 


52  m 

42  m 

m 

M 

10  m 

I  m 

18  m 

o  M 

M 

o  M 

oM 

o  M 

o  m 

m 

o  m 


Near  102  Herculis 
„     it  Cygni       .. 


Meteor-Showers. 

R.A. 

Decl. 

271    . 
280  . 
330 

352  • 

..    21  N. 

.  14  s. 

•  35  N. 

•  38  N. 

Very  slow. 

»> 
Swift.    Red  streaks. 
Swift. 


ELECTRICAL  NOTES. 
Prof.  Nichols,  of  the  Cornell  University,  has  suggested 
the  use  of  carbon  and  copper  combined  to  form  a  compensated 
resistance  standard.  The  resistance  of  metals  increases  with 
temperature,  but  that  of  carbon  diminishes.  The  movement  of 
copper  is  +  C384,  that  of  carbon  —  00235  Per  cent-  Per  degree 
Centigrade.  For  every  ohm  of  carbon,  1 1  544  ohms  of  copper 
are  needed  to  secure  complete  compensation  for  temperature. 


232 


NATURE 


[July  5,  1888 


Prof.  Nichols  electroplates  a  strip  1  millimetre  wide  of  the  car- 
bon rod  parallel  to  the  axis  with  copper  to  the  required  thick- 
ness. The  influence  of  temperature  up  to  1000  C.  is  then  entirely 
imperceptible. 

Messrs.  Glazebrook  and  Fitzpatrick  have  once  more 
utilized  the  resources  of  the  Cavendish  Laboratory  to  determine 
the  specific  resistance  of  mercury,  and  therefore  the  value  of 
the  ohm  (io9  C.G.S.  units  of  resistance).  The  result,  together 
with  the  most  recent  determinations,  is  given  in  the  following 
table  :— 

Value  of     Value  of 
Siemens        ohm  in 
Observer.  Date.       unit  in     centimetres 

B.A.       of  mercury 
units.  at  0°. 

Lord  Rayleigh  and  Mrs.  Sidgwick  ...   1883     095412     106*23 

Mascart,  Nerville,  and  Benoit 1884     0-95374     106-33 

Strecker      1885     0-95334     106-32 

L.  Lorentz 1885     095388     105-93 

Rowland     1887     0-95349     106-32 

Kohlrausch 1888     0-95331     106-32 

Glazebrook  and  Fitzpatrick      1888     0*95352     106-29 

Wuilleumier       1888     0-95355     106-27 

The  specific  resistance  of  mercury  at  o°  C.  is  therefore  95352 
C.G.S.  units. 

The  mean  of  the  values  in  centimetres  of  mercury — 106-3 — 
omitting  Lorentz's,  must  be  considered  a  very  close  approxima- 
tion to  the  true  ohm.     We  thus  have 

B.A.  unit 104-808  cm. 

Legal  ohm  ...         ...         ...         106 

Ohm  106-3 

The  B.A.  unit  is  thus  1-347  per  cent,  wrong. 

What  is  the  specific  resistance  of  pure  copper  ?  is  a  curious 
question  to  ask  in  1888,  but  Mr.  G.  P.  Prescott  asks  it  in  the 
Electrical  Engineer  of  New  York.  He  points  out  that  Ayrton 
gives  it  as  i'599,  and  Stewart  and  Gee  I '616,  legal  microhms,  at 
the  same  temperature,  o°  C.  He  also  shows  that  Matthiessen 
and  Jenkin  did  not  agree  ;  they  differed  2-3  per  cent.  Messrs. 
Glazebrook  and  Fitzpatrick,  who  have  done  such  good  work 
with  mercury,  might  well  turn  their  attention  to  copper.  It  is 
well  known  that  Matthiessen's  standard  for  pure  copper  is 
wrong.  It  was  one  English  standard  mile  of  pure  annealed 
copper  wire  1/16  inch  in  diameter  at  I5°*5  C,  having  a  resistance 
equal  to  13-59  B.A.  units.  It  is  a  common  thing  to  get  copper 
giving  better  results  than  this. 

The  magnetic  elements  for  1887  as  determined  at  Greenwich 
were — 

Mean  declination         I7°47'W. 

Mean  horizontal  force        181*75 

Mean  dip     670  26' 20" 

Why   does  the    Astronomer-Royal    retain  British    and  metric 
units  when  nearly  all  the  world  uses  C.G.S.  units  ? 


THE  MICRO-ORGANISMS  OF  AIR  AND 
WA  TER. 

"C"  VER  since  the  great  importance  of  micro-organisms  in  the 
■*■**'  economy  of  Nature  was  pointed  out  by  Pasteur  now  some 
twenty- five  years  ago,  the  presence  of  these  minute  living  forms 
in  the  two  great  fluid  media — air  and  water — with  which  we  are 
surrounded,  has  formed  the  subject  of  elaborate  investigations. 
As  these  investigations  are  thus  co-extensive  with  the  period 
during  which  micro-organisms  have  been  made  the  subject  of 
careful  study,  a  review  of  them  becomes  particularly  instructive 
as  illustrating  the  gradual  development  of  the  methods  of 
bacteriology  from  the  earliest  times  up  to  the  high  degree  of 
perfection  to  which  they  have  attained  at  the  present  day. 

It  was  Pasteur  himself  who  first  instituted  a  systematic  inquiry 
into  the  presence  and  distribution  of  micro-organisms  in  the 
atmosphere  in  connection  with  his  well-known  researches  dis- 
proving the  spontaneous  generation  of  life.  The  experiments 
which  he  undertook  for  this  purpose  are  as  remarkable  for  their 
extreme  simplicity  as  for  the  striking  results  which  they  yielded. 
Thus  the  apparatus  with  which  Pasteur  set  about  exploring  the 
distribution  of  microbes  in  the  air  consisted  simply  of  a  number 
of  small  flasks,  each  partially  filled  with  a  putrescible  liquid  such 
as  broth ;  the  necks  of  these  flasks  were  drawn  out  and  sealed 
before  the  blow-pipe  whilst  the  fluid   contents  were  in   active 


ebullition.  The  flasks  thus  prepared  were  both  vacuous  and 
sterile,  and  could  be  preserved  for  an  indefinite  length  of  time 
without  the  contained  liquid  undergoing  change.  A  number  of 
these  flasks  were  then  momentarily  opened  in  various  places — in 
Paris,  in  the  open  country,  at  various  altitudes  in  the  Jura 
Mountains,  and  at  an  elevation  of  6000  feet  at  the  Montanvert, 
near  Chamonix.  Each  flask  on  being  opened  became  instantly 
filled  with  the  air  of  the  place  in  question,  whilst,  by  sealing  the 
flask  directly  afterwards,  the  further  access  of  air  was  prevented. 
On  preserving  these  flasks  which  had  been  thus  opened,  the 
liquid  of  some  was  found  to  become  turbid  and  lose  its  trans- 
parency owing  to  the  development  of  bacterial  life  within  it, 
whilst  in  others  it  remained  perfectly  clear  and  translucent.  It 
was  further  observed  that  the  proportion  of  flasks  becoming  so 
affected  varied  greatly  according  to  the  places  where  they  had 
been  exposed.  Thus,  of  twenty  flasks  exposed  in  the  open 
country  near  Arbois,  eight  developed  living  organisms  ;  of  twenty 
opened  on  the  lower  heights  of  the  Jura  Mountains,  five  became 
affected  ;  whilst  of  the  twenty  opened  at  the  Montanvert,  close  to 
the  Mer  de  Glace,  only  one  broke  down.  The  proportion  of 
flasks  which  became  affected  on  being  similarly  exposed  in  Paris, 
was  considerably  greater  than  in  the  case  of  the  experiment 
made  at  Arbois. 

The  results  of  these  simple  experiments  thus  convey  a  most 
vivid  picture  of  the  great  density  of  microbial  life  in  the  air  of 
towns,  and  of  its  attenuation  in  the  higher  regions  of  the  atmo- 
sphere, although  they  can  give  no  account  of  the  actual  numbers 
present  in  the  air  under  examination. 

Miquel  and  Freudenreich 1  made  the  first  step  in  the  quanti- 
tative estimation  of  aerial  microbes  by  aspirating  air  through 
plugs  of  glass-wool,  thus  taking  advantage  of  a  fact  long  known 
— that  it  is  impossible  for  micro-organisms  to  pass  through 
sufficiently  tightly  constructed  plugs  of  such  materials. 

Without  entering  into  a  detailed  account  of  this  method,  the 
merits  and  demerits  of  which  have  been  fully  discussed  by 
German  investigators,  it  is  sufficient  to  state  that  a  very  large 
number  of  experiments  have  been  carried  out  by  the  authors 
which  can  lay  claim  to  a  fair  degree  of  accuracy.  However, 
since  solid  nourishing  media  for  the  cultivation  of  micro' 
organisms  were  introduced  by  Koch,  the  importance  of  substi- 
tuting the  latter  for  the  liquid  media  hitherto  exclusively  employed 
has  led  experimenters  to  devise  processes  which  shall  render 
their  use  possible  in  the  examination  of  air. 

The  advantages  possessed  by  solid  over  fluid  media  are  very 
great,  for  whereas  in  fluid  media,  such  as  broth,  the  organisms 
are  in  no  way  restricted  in  their  movements,  and  their  multi- 
plication can  take  place  indiscriminately  throughout  the  entire 
liquid,  on  the  other  hand,  if  they  are  introduced  into  gelatine- 
peptone  which  has  been  first  melted,  they  can  be  evenly  dispersed 
throughout  the  culture-material  by  gentle  agitation,  and  by 
subsequently  allowing  it  to  solidify  they  are  not  only  isolated, 
but  rigidly  confined  to  one  spot.  Thus  each  individual  organism 
becomes  a  centre  round  which  extensive  multiplication  takes 
place,  and  in  a  few  days  definite  points  of  growth  are  visible  to 
the  naked  eye,  which  are  appropriately  described  as  ''colonies," 
and  which  can  be  easily  counted  with  the  aid  of  a  low  magnifying 
glass.  Although  each  colony  consists  of  many  thousands  or  even 
millions  of  individual  microbes,  yet  as  in  the  first  instance  they 
owe  their  origin  to  a  single  organism  or  indivisible  group  of 
organisms,  it  is  correct  to  regard  the  number  of  colonies  as 
representing  the  number  of  micro-organisms.  These  colonies 
have  often  very  beautiful  and  characteristic  appearances, 2  and 
it  is  exceedingly  remarkable  how  constant  and  distinct  for  one  and 
the  same  organism  these  appearances  are.  In  many  cases  they 
give  rise  to  magnificent  patches  of  colour — deep  orange,  chrome 
yellow,  brown,  various  shades  of  red,  green,  black,  &c.  Often 
under  a  low  magnifying  power  they  are  seen  to  spread  over 
the  surface  of  the  gelatine,  producing  tangled  networks  of  threads, 
sometimes  they  resemble  the  petals  of  a  flower,  sometimes  the 
roots  of  a  tree  or  its  branches  ;  in  fact,  one  is  constantly  startled 
by  the  novelty  and  beauty  of  their  modes  of  growth. 

Koch  3  and,  later,  Hesse  4  have  devised  methods  by  which  the 
organisms  in  the  air  become  deposited  on  a  solid  surface  of 
gelatine-peptone,  and  by  there  producing  colonies  render  their 
estimation  possible.     A  large  number  of  experiments  have  been 

1   "Annuaire  de  l'Observatoire  de  Montsouris,"  1879-86.  _    ^ 

8  *'  Studies  on  some  New  Micro-organisms  obtained  from  Air,"  Phil. 
Trans.,  vol.  clxxviii.  p.  257.  . 

3  Mittkeilungen  ans  de7ii  kaiserlichen  Gesnndheitsamte,  1881,  Bd.  1. 
*  Ibid.,  1883,  Bd.  ii. 


July  5,  1888] 


NATURE 


233 


made  with  Hesse's  method,  which  consists  in  aspirating  air 
through  glass  tuhes  about  3  feet  in  length,  coated  internally  with 
a  film  of  gelatine-peptone.  The  organisms,  owing  to  the  pro- 
perty they  possess  of  rapidly  subsiding  in  the  absence  of  disturb- 
ing influences,  fall  on  the  surface  of  the  gelatine,  and  give  rise  to 
colonies. 

The  following  series  of  observations  was  made  by  this 
method  in  1886 1  on  the  roof  of  the  Science  Schools,  South 
Kensington  Museum,  in  order  to  trace  the  seasonal  variations  in 
the  number  of  micro-organisms  present  in  the  air  of  one  and  the 
same  place.  The  following  are  the  averages  obtained  for  each 
month  during  which  these  observations  were  made  : — 

Number  of  Micro-organisms  found  in  Ten  Litres  ( Two  Gallons') 
of  Air. 


January  

.     ...       4 

August    

...   105 

March     

.     ...     26 

September 

•••     43 

May         

•     -     31 

October 

•••     35 

June        

•     -     54 

November 

...     13 

July      

.     ...     63 

December 

...     20 

From  these  figures  it  will  be  seen  that  it  is  during  the 
summer  that  the  largest  number  of  micro-organisms  are  found 
in  the  air,  whilst  the  smallest  average  number  was  recorded 
in  the  month  of  January. 

The  air  at  sea,  the  air  at  higher  altitudes,  and  the  air  in 
sewers,  have  all  been  explored  by  means  of  Hesse's  method. 

Thus  Dr.  Fischer,2  in  experiments  carried  on  at  sea,  found 
that  beyond  a  distance  of  120  sea  miles  from  land  micro- 
organisms were  invariably  absent.  And,  inasmuch  as  micro- 
organisms are  abundantly  present  in  sea-water,  it  thus  appears 
that  no  micro-organisms  are  communicated  to  the  air  from  the 
water  even  when  the  latter  is  much  disturbed.  Moreover,  as 
might  have  been  anticipated,  this  complete  freedom  from  micro- 
organisms was  attained  even  in  close  proximity  to  land,  pro- 
vided the  wind  had  passed  over  the  above-mentioned  distance 
of  sea. 

As  regards  the  air  at  higher  altitudes,  experiments  have  been 
made  on  the  dome  of  St.  Paul's,  in  London,  and  on  the  spire  of 
Norwich  Cathedral,  which  show  that  even  in  ascending  to  such 
modest  elevations  in  densely-populated  centres,  the  number  of 
micro-organisms  suspended  in  the  air  undergoes  very  marked 
diminution. 

Thus,  on  the  top  of  Norwich  Cathedral  spire,  at  a  height  of 
about  300  feet,  I  found  in  ten  litres  (two  gallons)  of  air  only  seven 
micro-organisms,  and  on  the  tower,  about  180  feet  high,  I 
found  nine,  whilst  at  the  base  of  the.  Cathedral,  in  the  Close, 
eighteen  were  found.  These  results  are  fully  confirmed  by 
another  series  of  experiments  made  at  St.  Paul's  Cathedral.  In 
this  case  the  air  examined  from  the  Golden  Gallery  yielded  in  the 
same  volume  eleven,  that  from  the  Stone  Gallery  thirty-four, 
whilst  in  the  churchyard  there  were  seventy  micro-organisms 
present. 

The  contrast  between  town  and  country  air,  and  even  between 
the  air  of  the  London  parks  and  streets  is  also  exceedingly 
sharp.  In  Hyde  Park — the  place  selected  for  the  experiment 
being  as  far  removed  from  roads  and  traffic  as  possible — I  found 
eighteen,  whilst  on  the  same  day,  June  7,  the  air  in  the 
Exhibition  Road,  South  Kensington,  yielded  as  many  as  ninety- 
four.  On  the  following  day,  however,  when  the  traffic  was  very 
great,  and  the  air  was  consequently  heavily  laden  with  dust,  the 
number  rose  to  554.  This  is  in  marked  contrast  to  the  microbial 
condition  of  country  air,  for  on  the  Surrey  Downs  in  the  same 
volume  only  two  micro-organisms  were  found  ;  and  in  the  case 
of  an  extensive  heath  near  Norwich  only  seven. 

Within  doors  we  find  that  the  number  of  micro-organisms 
suspended  in  the  air  depends,  as  we  should  have  expected,  upon 
the  number  of  people  present,  and  the  amount  of  disturbance  of 
the  air  which  is  taking  place.  Thus,  on  examining  the  air  in 
the  large  entrance  hall  of  the  Natural  History  Museum  in 
Cromwell  Road  it  was  found  to  yield  under  ordinary  conditions 
from  fifty  to  seventy  organisms  in  the  same  volume  (two  gallons), 
but  on  Whit  Monday,  when  an  immense  number  of  visitors  were 
present  in  the  building,  I  found  as  many  as  280.  Again,  on  a 
paying  day  at  the  South  Kensington  Museum,  about  eighteen 
micro-organisms  were  found,  but  on  the  Saturday,  when  no  en- 

1  "  The  Distribution  of  Micro-organisms  in  Air,"  Proc.  Roy.  Soc,  No.  245, 
1885  ;  "  Further  Experiments  on  the  Distribution  of  Micro-organisms  in  Air," 
Froc.  Roy.  Soc,  vol.  xlii.  p.  267,  1886.  * 

2  "  Bacteriologische  Untersuchungen  auf  einer  Reise  nach  Westindien,  ' 
Zeitschrift fur  Hygiene,  Bd.  i.  Heft  3. 


trance  fee  is  charged,  there  were  as  many  as  seventy-three  in  the 
same  volume  of  air. 

The  air  of  sewers  has  been  shown  by  Carnelley  in  this  country, 
and  by  Petri  in  Berlin,  to  be  remarkably  free  from  micro- 
organisms, the  number  being  almost  invariably  less  than  iii 
outside  air.  That  this  should  be  the  case  is  only  natural  when 
the  moist  nature  of  the  walls  and  the  absence  of  dust  in  these 
subterranean  channels  is  borne  in  mind,  and  although  their 
liquid  contents  is  teeming  with  bacterial  life,  there  is  no  reason 
why  the  latter  should  be  carried  into  the  air  provided  no  effer- 
vescence or  splashing  takes  place.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the 
contents  of  a  sewer  enter  into  fermentation  and  bubbles  of 
gas  become  disengaged,  minute  particles  of  liquid  with  the  living 
matter  present  may  be  carried  to  great  distances,  and  it  must 
not,  therefore,  be  too  hastily  concluded  that  because  sewer  air 
is  generally  remarkably  free  from  micro-organisms,  that,  there- 
fore, a  visit  to  the  sewers  should  be  attended  with  such  beneficial 
results  as  atrip  to  sea  or  the  ascent  of  a  mountain  summit ! 

During  the  use  of  Hesse's  method  I  became  acquainted  with, 
several  serious  defects  which  it  possessed,  and  in  order  to  over- 
come these  disadvantages  I  was  led  to  devise  a  new  process  x  for 
the  examination  of  air.  This  consists  essentially  in  aspirating 
a  given  volume  of  air  through  a  small  glass  tube,  not  more  than, 
4  inches  long  and  \  inch  in  width,  which  is  provided  with  two 
filter-plugs,  the  first  of  which  is  more  pervious  than  the  second, 
and  consists  of  glass-wool  coated  with  sugar,  whilst  the  second 
contains,  in  addition,  a  layer,  \  inch  in  thickness,  of  fine  sugar- 
powder.  On  these  plugs  the  microbes  suspended  in  the  aspirated 
air  are  deposited,  and  each  of  these  plugs  is  then  introduced 
into  a  separate  flask  containing  a  small  quantity  of  melted  gela- 
tine-peptone ;  with  this  the  plug  is  agitated  until  it  becomes 
completely  disintegrated,  and  since  the  sugar-coating  of  the  glass- 
wool  dissolves  in  the  liquid  gelatine,  the  microbes  become 
immediately  detached.  The  contents  of  the  flask  are  then  made 
to  congeal  in  the  form  of  a  thin  film  over  its  inner  surface.  The 
flasks  are  then  preserved  at  a  suitable  temperature,  and  in  the 
course  of  a  few  days  the  colonies  derived  from  the  organisms, 
which  were  collected  by  the  plug,  make  their  appearance  and 
can  be  counted  and  further  studied.  Now,  if  the  plug  has  been- 
properly  constructed,  the  flask  into  which  the  second  or  more 
impervious  plug  has  been  introduced  will  be  found  to  remain 
quite  sterile,  clearly  showing  that  the  first  plug  has  arrested  all 
the  microbes  suspended  in  the  aspirated  air.  This  method  yields 
results  which  agree  not  only  very  closely  amongst  themselves,  but 
also  with  those  obtained  by  Hesse's  method,  if  the  experiments 
are  made  in  still  air,  which  is  the  condition  necessary  for  an 
accurate  result  being  obtained  with  a  Hesse  tube.  As  this  new 
method  is  equally  applicable  in  disturbed  air,  it  possesses  great 
advantages  over  Hesse's,  and  is,  moreover,  considerably  more 
convenient,  as  it  renders  possible  the  examination  of  a  far  larger 
volume  of  air  in  a  very  much  shorter  space  of  time,  the  apparatus 
required  being  also  exceedingly  portable. 

Of  the  presence  of  pathogenic  or  disease-producing  micro- 
organisms in  air,  there  is  little  or  no  direct  evidence  so  far ;  it 
must,  however,  be  remembered  that  it  is  just  in  the  case  of  those 
extremely  infectious  diseases,  such  as  measles,  whooping-cough,. 
&c,  in  which  the  virus  might  be  expected  to  be  carried  through 
the  air,  that  the  exciting  organized  poisons  have  not  yet  been 
discovered  and  identified. 

The  investigations  on  aerial  microbia,  so  far  as  they  have  as 
yet  been  carried,  are  of  service  in  indicating  how  we  may  escape 
from  all  micro-organisms,  whether  harmful  or  harmless  ;  and 
secondly,  how  we  may  avoid  the  conveyance  of  micro-organisms 
into  the  atmosphere  from  places  where  pathogenic  forms  are 
known  or  likely  to  be  present.  This  acquaintance  with  the 
distribution  of  micro-organisms  in  general,  and  the  power  of 
controlling  their  dissemination  which  it  confers,  is  really  of  far 
wider  practical  importance  than  discovering  whether  some 
particular  pathogenic  form  is  present  in  some  particular  sample 
of  air.  It  is  this  knowledge  which  has  led  to  the  vast  improve- 
ments in  the  construction  and  arrangement  of  hospital  wards  and 
of  sick-rooms  generally,  and  which  has  directed  attention  to  the 
importance  of  avoiding  all  circumstances  tending  to  disturb  and 
distribute  dust.  It  is,  moreover,  this  knowledge  of  the  distribution 
of  micro-organisms  in  our  surroundings  which  has  formed  one 
of  the  foundations  for  the  antiseptic  treatment  of  wounds—that 
great  step  in  surgery  with  which  the  name  of  Sir  Joseph  Lister 
is  associated. 

1  "A  New  Method  for  the  Quantitative  Estimation  of  the  Micro-organisms 
present  in  the  Atmosphere,"  Phil.   Trans.,  vol.  clxxviii.  p.  113. 


234 


NA  TURE 


[July  5,  1888 


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J : 


a  o  c 

Fir:.  1. — Glass  tube  through  which  the  air  is  aspirated:  about  the  original  size,  a,  aperture  of  tube  through  which  the  aspirated  air  enters;  B,  exit  of 
aspirated  air ;  a,  first  filter-plug,  consisting  of  glass-wool ;  i,  second  filter-plug,  consisting  of  glass-wool  and  powdered  glass  or  sugar  ;  c,  cotton- 
wool plug  to  protect  plug  b. 


Fig.  2.— Arrangement  of  the  apparatus  for  taking  a  sample  of  air.    a,  n,  the  filter  tube;  c,  lead  tubing,  about  10  feet  in  length;  d,  mercury  pressure- 
gauge  ;  b,  air-pump. 


Tig.  3.— Flasks  after  incubation,  showing  colonies  on  film  of  gelatine  with  which  the  inner  surface  is  coated, 


July  5,  1888J 


NATURE 


235 


Micro-organisms  in  Water. 
The  micro-organisms  present  in  water  have  long  been  studied 
by  direct  observation  with  the  microscope.  Such  ohserva- 
tions  can,  however,  only  be  made  in  the  case  of  foul  waters  in 
which  bacterial  life  is  very  abundant,  and  even  in  such  cases  the 
information  gained  by  the  microscope  alone  has  but  little  value. 
It  is  to  the  modern  methods  of  cultivation,  more  especially  those 
in  which  solid  media  are  employed,  that  our  increased  knowledge 
concerning  these  primitive  inhabitants  of  water  is  due.  Trms 
the  beautiful  process  of  plate-cultivation  introduced  by  Koch, 
and  to  which  more  than  to  anything  else  the  recent  advances  in 
bacteriology  are  due,  has  been  of  the  greatest  service  in  the  in- 
vestigation of  a  number  of  questions  bearing  on  the  micro- 
organisms in  water.  The  method  of  plate-cultivation  consists, 
as  is  well  known,  in  taking  some  of  the  liquid  or  other  substance 
under  examination  for  micro-organisms  and  mixing  it  with  melted 
gelatine-peptone  in  a  test-tube,  the  mixture  being  then  poured 
out  on  a  horizontal  plate  of  glass  and  allowed  to  congeal,  the 
plate  being  then  preserved  in  a  damp  chamber  at  a  suitable 
temperature.  In  the  course  of  a  few  days  colonies  make  their 
appearance  in  the  gelatine  film,  and  can  be  counted  and  further 
studied  as  required.  This  process  is  of  extremely  wide  applica- 
tion, for  by  this  means  pure  cultivations  of  the  various  organisms 
in  a  mixture  can  be  readily  obtained.  If  a  definite  volume  of 
water  be  submitted  to  this  method  of  plate-cultivation,  the 
resulting  colonies  on  the  plate  clearly  indicate  both  the  number 
and  the  character  of  the  organisms  present  in  it. 

From  numerous  investigations  made  by  means  of  gela- 
tine plate-cultivations,  it  appears  that  whilst  surface  waters, 
such  as  rivers,  contain  an  abundance  of  microbial  life,  waters, 
which  like  those  from  springs  and  deep  wells  have  undergone 
filtration  through  porous  strata,  contain  but  very  few  micro- 
organisms. Now  since  such  underground  waters  have  at  some 
time  or  other  been  surface  waters,  it  is  obvious  that  in  passing 
through  the  porous  strata  of  the  earth  they  have  been  deprived 
of  those  microbes  which  they  contained  whilst  at  the  surface. 
This  removal  of  micro-organisms  from  water2  also  takes  place  in 
a  very  marked  manner  when  it  is  submitted  to  some  kinds  of 
artificial  filtration,  such  as  that  through  very  finely  divided  coke 
or  charcoal,  as  well  as  in  the  filtration  of  water  on  the  large  scale 
through  sand.  The  process  of  filtration,  however,  which  abso- 
lutely removes  microbes  with  the  greatest  degree  of  certainty  is 
that  introduced  by  Pasteur,  in  which  the  water  is  forced  through 
porous  porcelain.  It  is  especially  noticeable  that  the  efficiency 
exhibited  by  these  various  materials  in  removing  micro- organisms 
stands  in  no  sort  of  relationship  to  their  chemical  activity,  i.e. 
power  of  removing  organic  matter  from  water.  Thus  the  porous 
porcelain  produces  practically  no  change  whatever  in  the 
chemical  composition  of  the  water,  whilst  it  deprives  it  entirely  of 
micro-organisms. 

The  relative  abundance  of  bacterial  life  in  surface  water,  in 
deep  well  water,  as  well  as  in  surface  water  after  filtration 
through  sand  on  the  large  scale,  is  well  illustrated  by  the  following 
results.  •       -  •'. 

Thus  the  average  number  of  micro-organisms  obtained  during 
the  past  year  from  a  cubic  centimetre  (about  twenty  drops)  of  the 
raw  water  as  abstracted  from  the  Rivers  Thames  a  id  Lea  by 
the  metropolitan  water  companies  was  21,500  and  13,200  re- 
spectively. The  same  water,  however,  after  having  undergone 
storage  and  filtration  contained  on  an  average  respectively  500 
and  450  micro-organisms  in  I  cubic  centimetre.  It  is  at  once 
apparent,  therefore,  what  striking  results  can  be  obtained  by 
sand  filtration  as  at  present  carried  out,  and  there  is  no  doubt 
that  with  the  introduction  of  fresh  improvements  and  increased 
care  an  even  greater  reduction  will  be  effected. 

In  deep  well  water  obtained  from  the  chalk,  which  has  under- 
gone no  artificial  filtration,  we  find  the  remarkably  low  nu  nber 
of  eighteen  as  the  average  for  the  year.  Thus  the  artificial  filtra- 
tion through  sand  is  far  surpassed  by  the  exhaustive  filtration 
through  vast  thicknesses  of  porous  strata. 

Another  point  which  has  been  brought  to  light  thr  nigh  investi- 
gating the  micro-organisms  of  water  by  means  of  the  improved 
methods  which  we  now  possess  is  that  many  of  the  microbes 
found  in  natural  waters  are  capable  of  the  most  abundant  multi- 
plication3  in    the   absence   of   practically   any  organic   matter 

1  Mittheilungen  aus  dent  kaiscrlichen  Gesuruiheitsamte,  Bd.  i.,  1881. 

2  "The  Removal  of  Micro- organis  11s  from  Water,"  Prjc.  Roy.  Soc. 
No.  238,  1885.  ,  „ 

3  "  On  the  Multiplication  of  Micro-organisms,  Proc.  Roy.  Soc,  No.  245. 
1886.  "Ueber  das  Verhalten  versc'iied.  Bacterienarten  1m  Tnnkwasser, 
Meade  Bolton,  Zeitschrift  fur  Hygiene,  Bd.  i.  Heft  1. 


whatever.  Thus,  if  the  deep  well  water  referred  to  above  is 
preserved  for  several  days  thoroughly  protected  from  contamina- 
tion through  the  air,  and  is  then  examined  for  micro-organisms, 
it  will  be  found  that  these  have  undergone  an  enormous  increase, 
1  cubic  centimetre  containing  many  thousands  instead  of  the 
ten  or  twenty  usually  present  in  the  water  at  the  time  of  pumping. 
It  has  been  found,  moreover,  that  some  of  the  water-organisms 
are  even  capable  of  such  abundant  multiplication  in  water  which 
has  been  several  times  redistilled,  and  which  is,  therefore,  almost 
absolutely  pure.  From  what  source  such  organisms  obtain  their 
necessary  nourishment  under  these  circumstances  has  not  yet 
been  determined.  The  following  figures  serve  to  illustrate  the 
extent  to  which  multiplication  of  this  kind  may  take  place : — 

Nuihber  of  Micro-organisms  obtained  from  I  cubic  centimetre 
of  water. 
Day  of  Collection.     Standing  1  day     Standing  3  days 
Sample  of  Vater  from'l  at  20°  C.  at  20   C. 

Kent  Co. 's  deep  well  >  7  ...  21         ...        495,000 

in  chalk ) 


It  is  often  urged  that  the  bacteriological  examination  of  water 
is  of  little  practical  importance,  inasmuch  as  the  micro-organisms 
found  are  not  necessarily  prejudicial  to  health,  and  that  the 
method  of  examination  does  not  aim  at  the  detection  of  harmful 
forms.  A  little  more  mature  consideration,  however,  will  show 
that  the  actual  detection  of  harmful  or  pathogenic  forms  is  a 
matter  of  very  little  importance,  and  that  if  methods  of  water 
purification  are  successful  in  removing  micro-organisms  in  general, 
and  more  especially  those  which  find  a  suitable  home  in  natural 
waters,  there  can  be  no  serious  doubt  that  they  will  be  equally 
successful  in  removing  ha'mful  forms,  which  are  not  specially 
adapted  for  life  in  water.  Could  it  be,  fur  instance,  reasonably 
contested  that  a  method  of  purification  which  is  capable  of 
removing  the  Bacillus  aquatilis  from  water,  would  be  incapable 
of  disposing  of  the  Bacillus  anthracis  when  suspended  in  the 
same  medium  ?  The  supposition  is,  on  the  face  of  it,  absurd, 
and  not  a  particle  of  experimental  evidence  can  be  adduced  in 
its  favour.  It  is,  therefore  only  rational  to  conclude  that  those 
methods  of  water  purification,  both  natural  and  artificial,  which 
succeed  in  most  reducing  the  total  number  of  micro-organisms, 
will  also  succeed  in  most  reducing  the  number  of  harmful  forms 
should  they  be  present.  m  . .. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  pathogenic  forms  can  and  have 
been  discovered  in  waters  by  the  process  of  plate- cultivation  ; 
thus  the  "  comma-bacillus,"  which  is  by  many  authorities  re- 
garded as  the  cause  of  Asiatic  cholera,  was  found  by  Koch  in 
some  tank-water  in  India,  and  the  bacillus  which  with  more  or 
less  probability  is  identified  with  typhoid  fever  has  by  Chante- 
messe  and  Widal  been  discovered  in  the  drinking-water  which 
had  been  consumed  by  persons  suffering  from  that  disease. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  examination  of  water  for  the  number  of 
micro-organisms  present  can  have  no  value  if  the  multiplication 
referred  to  above  has  taken  place.  Thus,  if  the  number  of 
micro-organisms  present  in  a  water  is  to  throw  light  on  the 
natural  purification  it  has  undergone,  the  sample  for  examination 
must  be  taken  as  near  as  possible  to  the  point  where  it  issues 
from  the  water-bearing  stratum,  and,  in  the  case  of  artificially 
purified  water,  as  soon  as  possible  after  it  has  left  the  purifying 
apparatus.  _. 

Of  much  more  importance  than  the  discovery  of  pathogenic 
organisms  in  particular  waters  is  the  problem  of  ascertaining  the 
fate  of  pathogenic  forms,  when  these  are  introduced  into  waters 
of  different  kinds.  A  considerable  amount  of  work  has  been 
done  in  this  direction  with  a  number  of  typical  pathogenic  forms, 
and  some  very  remarkable  results  have  been  obtained.  Thus  it 
has  been  found  that  the  bacilli  of  authrax  do  not  survive  many 
hours  on  being  introduced  into  ordinary  drinking-water  ;  their 
spores,  however,  are  not  in  any  way  affected  by  such  immersion, 
and  even  in  distilled  water  the  latter  retain  their  vitality  for 
practically  an  indefinite  length  of  time.  In  polluted  water,  such 
as  sewage,  on  the  other  hand,  not  only  do  the  bacilli  not 
succumb,  but  they  undergo  extensive  multiplication.  Similarly 
Koch's  "comma-bacillus"  was  found  to  flourish  in  sewage, 
being  still  present  in  very  large  numbers  after  eleven  months 
residence  in  this  medium.  In  deep-well  and  filtered  Thames 
water,  on  the  other  hand,  although  the  "  comma-bacilli  were 
1  "Die  Vermehrung  der  Bacterien  im  Wasser  "  Wolffhugel  und  Riedel, 
Arbeiten  a.  d.  kaiserlichen  Gesnndheitsamte.  ''Ueber  das  Verhalten, 
&c  "  Meade  Bolton.  "On  the  Multiplication  of  M.c.porgamsms,  Proc. 
I  Roy  Soc  ;  also  "  Recent  Bacteriological  Research  in  connection  with 
I   Water  Supply,"  Soc.  Chem.  Ini.,  vol.  vi.No.  5. 


236 


NATURE 


[July  5,  1888 


still  demonstrable  after  nine  days,  they  were  only  present  in 
small  numbers.  Much  less  vitality  is  exhibited  by  the  micro- 
coccus of  erysipelas  when  introduced  into  waters  of  various 
kinds,  for  even  in  sewage  this  organism  was  not  demonstrable 
on  the  fifth  day.  In  fact,  all  the  pathogenic  micrococci  which  have 
been  experimented  with  in  this  manner  exhibit  but  little  vitality 
under  similar  circumstances. 

From  these  experiments  it  appears,  therefore,  that  whilst 
ordinary  drinking-water  does  not  form  a  suitable  medium  for  the 
extensive  growth  and  multiplication  of  those  pathogenic  forms 
which  have  hitherto  been  made  the  subject  of  investigation  in 
this  respect,  yet,  that  in  the  condition  of  spores,  they  are 
extremely  permanent  in  any  kind  of  water,  however  pure,  and 
that  even  those  of  which  no  spores  are  known  may  often  be 
preserved  for  days  or  even  weeks. 

Thus  the  investigations  which  have  hitherto  been  made  on  the 
micro-organisms  both  of  air  and  water,  by  the  light  which  they 
throw  on  the  behaviour  of  micro  organisms  in  general  in  these 
media,  the  manner  in  which  they  may  be  preserved  and  the 
manner  in  which  they  may  be  removed,  are  of  great  service  in 
indicating  how  the  spread  of  zymotic  diseases  through  these 
media  is  to  be  avoided. 

Until  we  are  fully  acquainted  with  all  pathogenic  forms  of 
microbes,  a  consummation  which  is  certainly  not  likely  to  be 
attained  in  the  near  future,  it  is  obvious  that  in  endeavouring  to 
exclude  dangerous  organisms  we  must  attempt  to  exclude  all 
organisms,  e.g.  in  the  purification  of  water  which  has  been 
exposed  to  possibly  noxious  pollution,  that  process  of  puri- 
fication which  insures  the  removal  or  destruction  of  the  greatest 
proportion  of  micro-organisms  must  be  regarded  as  the  most 
efficient.  In  just  the  same  way  as  in  the  antiseptic  treatment 
of  wounds,  the  preventive  measures  employed  by  surgeons  are 
of  such  a  nature  as  to  destroy  or  preclude  the  possibility  of 
growth  of  any  microbes  whatever,  and  not  only  of  those  known 
to  be  capable  of  causing  mischief. 

Percy  F.  Frankland. 


THE  OPENING  OF  THE  MARINE  BIOLOGICAL 
LA  BORA  TOR  Y  AT  PL  YMO  UTH 

'"THE  Laboratory  erected  at  Plymouth  by  the  Marine  Biological 
A  Association  of  the  United  Kingdom,  of  which  a  full 
account  was  given  last  week  in  Nature,  was  opened  on  Satur- 
day, June  30.  The  weather  was  fine,  and  at  ten  o'clock  a  large 
and  distinguished  company  were  present.  Having  viewed  the 
tanks,  the  company  assembled  in  the  Laboratory,  where  Prof. 
W.  H.  Flower,  C.B.,  F.R.S.,  Director  of  the  Natural  History 
Department  of  the  British  Museum,  delivered  an  address,  in  the 
course  of  which  he  said  : — "  The  necessity  for  such  institutions  as 
this  has  been  felt  almost  simultaneously  throughout  the  cultivated 
nations  of  the  world.  The  British  Isles,  with  their  extensive 
and  varied  seaboard,  offering  marvellous  facilities  for  the  inves- 
tigation of  marine  life,  with  their  vast  economical  interests  in  the 
denizens  of  the  waters  that  lave  their  shores,  have  been  rather 
behind  some  other  countries  in  adopting  this  line  of  research. 
Let  us  hope,  however,  that  being  so,  we  may  profit  by  example 
and  the  experience  of  others,  and  ultimately,  as  in  so  many 
other  similar  cases,  may  outstrip  our  neighbours  in  a  department 
of  work  for  which  our  maritime  and  insular  position  seems  so 
specially  to  fit  us.  That  our  country  should  be  alone  in  neglect- 
ing this  branch  of  scientific  inquiry  was  impossible.  Stations 
for  the  investigation  of  the  phenomena  of  marine  life  have  been 
founded  at  several  places  on  the  northern  coasts  of  our  island, 
but  all  on  a  very  limited  scale.  An  institution  commensurate 
with  the  importance  of  the  subject  and  of  the  nation  had  to  be 
established  sooner  or  later  ;  the  only  questions  to  be  solved 
were  when  it  was  to  be  founded  and  where  it  was  to  be  placed. 
Much  of  the  success  of  an  enterprise  must  depend  upon  the 
particular  time  selected  for  embarking  upon  it.  If  delayed  too 
long,  the  world  is  a  loser  by  the  non-existence  of  the  knowledge 
that  is  to  be  gained  from  it.  On  the  other  hand,  premature 
attempts  before  sufficient  interest  in  the  subject  is  awakened,  or 
before  sufficient  information  as  to  the  best  means  of  carrying  it 
out  has  been  gained,  often  end  in  failure.  .  I  think  that  in  this 
respect  we  have  taken  the  right  medium."  After  a  reference  to 
the  Fisheries  Exhibition,  Prof.  Flower  continued: — "The  question 
as  to  the  place  at  which  our  head-quarters  were  to  be  established 
was  at  first  one  of  considerable  difficulty.  Many  were  the  rival 
claimants,  but  Plymouth  was  finally  chosen  as  best  approaching 


the  requisite  physical  and  geographical  surroundings  for  such  an 
institution ;  and  the  cordiality  with  which  the  Association  was 
welcomed  by  its  leading  citizens  was  in  itself  a  ground  of 
justification  for  the  choice.  Though  a  portion  of  the  old  military 
defences  of  the  town  has  been  given  up  to  our  peaceful  enterprise, 
we  trust  the  safety  of  the  inhabitants  will  not  suffer.  The 
Laboratory  now  stands  beneath  the  Plymouth  Citadel  and  the 
sea,  and  an  enemy  entering  the  town  by  the  most  direct  route 
would  have  to  march  over  the  ruins  of  the  building.  That 
consideration  alone  should  be  enough  to  secure  your  safety 
in  a  war  with  many  of  the  enlightened  science-loving  nations 
of  Europe,  should  such  an  event  unhappily  arise.  As  to  the 
institution  itself,  few  words  are  needed  to  show  how  excellent  is 
its  adaptation  to  the  purpose  for  which  it  is  founded.  Although 
still  not  in  all  respects  in  full  working  order,  we  have  been  all 
enabled  to  see  to-day  how  carefully  it  has  been  planned,  and 
how  well  the  design  has  been  carried  out.  We  have  secured  a 
capable  and  energetic  working  staff,  students  are  already  taking 
their  places  at  our  laboratory  tables,  and  already  a  commence- 
ment has  been  made  in  their  original  investigations  and  contri- 
butions to  knowledge,  which  we  hope  will  be  of  such  a  character 
and  of  such  abundance  as  to  give  this  Laboratory  a  high  place 
among  the  scientific  institutions  of  the  world.  Our  present 
financial  position  and  our  future  needs  are  fully  set  forth  in  the 
report  of  the  Council,  just  issued.  This  shows  that  of  our  capital 
already  subscribed  the  greater  part  has  been  expended  on  the 
building  and  the  necessary  apparatus  for  its  equipment.  We  still 
want  a  steam-vessel  for  the  use  of  the  staff  in  exploring  the  fish- 
ing grounds  of  the  neighbourhood  and  for  collecting  materials  to 
stock  our  tanks  ;  and  for  the  means  of  providing  this,  and  for  the 
annual  maintenance  of  our  establishment  in  a  state  of  efficiency,  we 
shall  require  further  pecuniary  assistance.  But  as  the  report  is, 
or  shortly  will  be  in  your  hands,  I  need  not  detain  you  longer 
by  enlarging  upon  its  contents.  I  will  therefore,  in  the  name  of 
the  President  and  Council  of  the  Marine  Biological  Association 
of  the  United  Kingdom,  thank  all  those  who  have,  by  their 
generous  contribution  of  money  or  by  expenditure  of  their  time, 
labour,  and  thought,  brought  us  so  far  on  our  way,  and  declare 
the  Laboratory  of  the  Association  open  for  work.  May  we  all 
join  in  the  earnest  hope  that  the  expectations  which  have  been 
raised  of  its  future  usefulness  may  never  be  disappointed." 

The  company,  after  being  photographed,  adjourned  to  the 
Grand  Hotel  -on  the  Hoe,  where  they  sat  down  to  a  deje&ner 
given  by  the  Fishmongers' Company.  Sir  James  Lawrence,  Prime 
Warden  of  the  Fishmongers'  Company,  presided,  and  was  sup- 
ported by  the  Earl  of  Morley,  Prof.  Flower,  Sir  H.  W.  Acland, 
K.C.B.,  F.R.S,  the  Mayor  of  Plymouth  (Mr.  H.  J.  Waring), 
the  Mayor  of  Devonport  (Mr.  J.  W.  W.  Ryder),  the  Chairman 
of  the  Stonehouse  Local  Board  (Mr.  E.  A.  Lyons),  Prof.  E.  Ray 
Lankester,  LL.D.,  F.R.  S.,  Sir  Edwin  Saunders,  Sir  George 
Paget,  K.C.B.,  F.R.S.,  the  Ven.  Archdeacon  Wilkinson,  Prof. 
A.  Milnes  Marshall,  F.R.S.,  Prof.  Charles  Stewart,  Mr.  J. 
Evans,  P.S.A.,  F.R.S.,  Captain  Wharton,  R.N.,  F.R.S.,  the 
Vice-Chancellor  of  Cambridge,  Sir  Edward  Watkin,  M.P.,  Prof. 
J.  W.  Groves,  Rear- Admiral  H.  D.  Grant,  C.B.,  Major- 
General  T.  C.  Lyons,  C.B.,  Mr.  Thiselton  Dyer,  C.M.G., 
F.R.S.,  Mr.  A.  Sedgwick,  F.R.S.,  Mr.  W.  Pengelly,  F.R.S., 
Mr.  F.  Crisp,  F.R.S.,  Colonel  Hewet,  R.E.,  Rev.  J.  Hall 
Parlby,  Dr.  A.  Gunther,  F.R.S.,  Major-General  Barton,  R.E., 
Captain  Inskep,  R.M.,  Mr.  Robert  Bayly,  Prof.  F.  Jeffery  Bell, 
Prof.  D'Arcy  Thompson,  Prof.  G.  B.  Howes,  Mr.  C.  Spence 
Bate,  F.R.S.,  Prof.  M.Foster,  Mr.  W.  Lant  Carpenter,  Mr.  E. 
W.  N.  Holdsworth,  Mr.  E.  L.  Beckwith,  Fishmongers'  Com- 
pany, Mr.  Gilbert  C.  Bourne,  and  Mr.  J.  Solly  Foster  and 
Mr.  John  Hall,  Wardens,  Fishmongers'  Company. 

The  health  of  "The  Queen"  having  been  given  by  the 
Chairman,  Lord  Morley  proposed  "The  Marine  Biological 
Association  of  the  United  Kingdom."  He  said  he  was  sure  that 
his  friends  the  Mayors  of  Plymouth  and  Devonport  would  join 
with  him  in  wishing  a  hearty  welcome  to  the  Association,  and  in 
sincerely  hoping  that  the  Laboratory  would  prove  a  success.  Any 
doubt  as  to  the  practical  value  of  the  Laboratory  was  dissipated 
by  the  fact  that  the  Chairman  was  one  of  its  main  founders,  and 
also  that  many  well-known  gentlemen,  including  the  Chairman 
of  the  National  Association  at  Kensington  and  Kew,  anticipated 
good  results  therefrom.  Since  there  was  such  a  consensus  of 
opinion  as  to  the  importance  of  the  scheme  from  a  practical  and 
scientific  point  of  view,  the  thing  which  surprised  him  was  why 
it  was  not  done  before.  We  reaped  the  richest  harvest  from  the 
sea,  and  yet  we  had  never  inquired  scientifically  into  the  source 


July  5,  1888] 


NATURE 


237 


of  this  great  industry.  We  had  lagged  behind  other  nations  in 
fchis  respect.  France  had  no  less  than  four  institutions  of  a 
similar  kind  ;  Austria,  with  its  small  coast,  had  one  at  Trieste  ; 
and  the  German  Government  endowed  their  Laboratory  at 
Naples,  which  was  the  most  complete  in  existence,  with  ,£1500 
a  year.  From  certain  statistics  recently  given  to  Parliament  by 
the  Board  of  Trade,  they  learned  that  the  production  of  fish  in 
the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  last  year 
amounted  in  value  to  six  and  a  quarter  millions,  and  if  they  took 
the  retail  value  and  not  the  wholesale  value,  as  put  in  the 
statistics,  it  would  amount  to  not  less  than  thirteen  millions  per 
year.  The  east  coast  was  by  far  the  most  fruitful  of  all  our 
coasts  as  regards  the  fishing  industry,  Grimsby,  Hull,  Lowestoft, 
and  Yarmouth  producing  ^2,800,000  worth  of  fish.  Plymouth 
with  its  ^96,000  worth  of  fish  per  year,  Brixham  with  its 
^■56,000,  and  Penzance  with  its  ,£41,000,  gave  some  idea  of  what 
the  sea  produced  in  the  shape  of  food.  Comparing  these  figures 
with  other  countries,  it  would  be  found  that  Canada  did  not 
produce  four  millions  worth  of  fish,  and  France  even  less.  Then 
they  ought  to  consider  the  immense  amount  of  traffic  our  fishing 
industry  gave  to  our  railways.  From  Plymouth  alone  there  were 
sent  on  two  lines  of  railway  50,000  tons  of  fish  annually. 
It  seemed  to  him  an  extraordinary  thing  that  so  many  years 
should  have  elapsed  before  scientific  methods  were  adopted 
I  for  learning  the  conditions  under  which  fish  live.  If  they 
read  the  interesting  Reports  of  the  Trawling  and  Fishing  Com- 
mission, they  would  be  surprised  at  the  ignorance  of  fishermen  as 
to  the  habits  of  fish,  their  modes  of  existence,  their  food,  and 
the  climatic  and  other  effects  which  influenced  their  existence 
and  modes  of  living,  and  he  was  afraid  that  ignorance  was  not 
confined  to  fishermen.  The  great  want  was,  he  hoped,  about  to 
be  supplied  in  the  establishment  of  this  Laboratory.  In  heartily 
wishing  success  to  the  Marine  Biological  Association  of  the 
United  Kingdom,  he  had  the  greatest  possible  pleasure  in 
coupling  with  it  the  name  of  Prof.  Ray  Lankester. 

Prof.  Kay  Lankester  said  it  was  with  feelings  of  pride  that  he 
rose  to  return  thanks.  It  was  the  great  Fisheries  Exhibition 
which  suggested  the  movement  for  the  formation  of  a  laboratory 
where  fishery  studies  could  be  carried  on.  The  idea  they  had  in 
view  at  that  time,  or  rather  the  institution  existing  elsewhere 
which  they  wished  to  copy,  was  that  established  by  Dr.  Dohrn 
at  Naples,  with  which  they  were  all  familiar.  The  question  was, 
How  could  such  a  laboratory  be  put  up  on  the  British  coast  ?  And 
it  was  to  his  friend  Dr.  Gunther,  of  the  British  Museum,  that  they 
owed  the  suggestion  of  the  formation  of  an  Association.  It  was  to 
the  officers  of  the  Royal  Society  that  they  owed  the  opportunity 
of  starting  the  Association.  A  meeting  was  called  in  the  rooms 
of  that  Society,  and  presided  over  by  the  illustrious  President  of 
the  great  scientific  institution,  which  was  also  the  first  public 
body  to  support  the  funds  of  the  Association  with  a  large  and 
handsome  subscription,  and  was  very  largely  attended  by  men  of 
science  and  gentlemen  interested  in  fisheries,  while  the  late  Earl 
of  Dalhousie,  one  of  their  most  ardent  supporters,  the  Duke  of 
Argyll,  and  other  public  men  took  part  in  it.  The  newspaper 
Press  had  all  along  helped  them  in  a  most  admirable  and  cheer- 
ing manner.  The  limes  had  been  their  warmest  friend,  and  he 
hoped  it  would  continue  to  be  so  for  years  to  come.     No  sooner 

I  had  the  first  start  been  made  at  the  meeting  in  the  rooms  of  the 
Royal  Society  and  the  subscription  list  put  forward  than  many 
other  big  societies  came  in  and  individuals  throughout  the 
country  put  down  their  money,  as  did  also  the  Universities  of 
Oxford  and  Cambridge.  Subscriptions  had  been  received  from 
purely  scientific  bodies  and  individuals  to  the  amount  of  ,£3000, 
and  from  various  sources  a  total  sum  of  ^"16,000 to^l7, 000  had 
been  obtained.  The  most  important  item  of  siipport  given  to 
the  Association  was  the  grant  from  Her  Majesty's  Government  of 
^5000  and  .£500  a  year.  The  remaining  ^10,000  they  owed 
to  the  great  civic  Companies  and  to  munificent  individuals, 
among  whom  he  must  not  omit  to  mention  with  hearty  gratitude 
their  friends  Mr.  John  Bayley  and  Mr.  Robert  Bayley,  of 
Plymouth.  No  sooner  had  the  enterprise  been  set  on  foot  than 
His  Royal  Highness  the  Prince  of  Wales  expressed  his  desire  to 
become  the  patron  of  the  institution,  and  support  came  in  from 
very  side.  The  Inspector-General  of  Fortifications  and  the  Earl 
if  Morley  were  instrumental — were,  in  fact,  the  actual  causes  of 
heir  receiving  the  grant  of  the  splendid  site  on  which  the 
wilding  had  been  erected  ;  and  the  co-operation  and  consent  of 
he  Town  Council  of  Plymouth,  who  had  certain  rights  over  the 
ea,  were  cheerfully  given.     They  had  now  arrived  at  a  definite 


stage  in  their  work  :  the  building  was  completed,  the  laboratory 
was  equipped,  the  naturalists  were  on  the  spot,  and  they  had 
thus,  as  he  had  said,  accomplished  what  he  considered  to  be  the 
first  step  in  the  work  of  the  Association.  But  it  was  only  the 
first  step.  Beyond  the  mere  existence  of  the  laboratory  build- 
ing, they  had  still  to  justify  themselves  in  the  eyes  of  their  sup- 
porters by  the  work  that  was  done  within  it.  He  thought 
they  might  rely  upon  the  staff  they  had  been  fortunate  enough 
to  obtain.  He  had  the  greatest  confidence  in  the  work  that 
would  be  done  in  the  institution,  and  in  the  direction  which 
would  be  given  to  that  work  by  his  friend  Mr.  Gilbert  Bourne, 
assisted  by  the  experience  of  his  friend  Mr.  J.  T.  Cunningham, 
who  had  come  to  them  fresh  from  his  work  in  Scotland,  and  stu- 
dents of  all  ages.  He  would  mention  once  more  a  subject  which 
had  been  already  alluded  to.  They  wanted  a  yacht  of  their  own 
— not  a  pleasure-yacht,  but  a  steam  sea-going  vessel  which 
could  accompany  the  trawlers  on  their  expeditions,  and  should 
be  a  thoroughly  seaworthy  boat.  He  hoped  that  those  who  were 
able  to  place  additional  funds  at  their  disposal,  and  who  had 
been  pleased  and  gratified  with  the  way  in  which  they  had  ex- 
pended the  money  already  intrusted  to  them,  would  not  delay  to 
add  to  the  resources  of  the  Association  so  as  to  enable  them  to 
purchase  this  steamer. 

The  Prime  Warden  then  proposed  "  Prosperity  to  Plymouth," 
and  the  Mayor  of  Plymouth  replied. 

Sir  George  Paget,  K.C.B.,  proposed  the  health  of  the  Prime 
Warden,  who  responded,  and  three  cheers  having  been  given  for 
the  Fishmongers'  Company,  the  guests  dispersed. 


UNIVERSITY  AND  EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 

Cambridge. — The  following  have  been  placed  in  the  first  class 
in  the  Natural  Sciences  Tripos,  Part  I.  (the  names  are  in 
alphabetical  order) : — Baily,  Joh.  ;  Daniel,  Trin.  ;  Falkener, 
King's  ;  Hankin,  Joh.  ;  Horton-Smith,  Joh.  ;  Jones,  King's  ; 
R.  Langdon-Down,  Trin.  ;  Locke,  Joh.  ;  Long,  Caius  ;  Morrell, 
Caius  ;  Newstead,  Christ's  ;  Perkins,  Emman.  ;  Phear,  Trin.  ; 
Schott,  Trin.  ;  H.  Simpson,  Joh.  ;  H.  Smith,  Trin.  ;  W.  A.  L. 
Smith,  Trin.  ;  Thornton,  B.A.,  Christ's;  Whetham,  Trin.  ;  G. 
Wilkinson,  jun.,  Emman. 

Women. — Class  I. — L.  Ackroyd,  Newnham  ;  D.  Alford, 
Girton  ;  A.  G.  Earp,  Newnham ;  L.  R.  Howell,  Girton  ;  M. 
Kennedy,  Girton. 

The  following  have  been  placed  in  the  first  class  in  the 
Natural  Sciences  Tripos,  Part  II.  :— Ds.  Anderson,  Caius  (phy- 
siology) ;  Barber,  Christ's  (botany);  Ds.  D'Arcy,  Caius  (physics)  ; 
Ds.  Francis,  King's  (human  anat.  and  physiology)  ;  Fry,  King's 
(botany)  ;  Hardy,  Caius  (zoology)  ;  Hutchinson,  Christ's 
(chemistry)  ;  E.  R.  Saunders,  Newnham  (physiology). 

Mr.  A.  C.  Seward,  B.A.,  Scholar  of  St.  John's  College,  has 
been  elected  Harkness  Scholar  in  geology  and  palaeontology. 

Mr.  W.  W.  Watts,  M.A.,  has  been  elected  to  a  Fellowship  at 
Sidney-Sussex  College.  Mr.  Watts  graduated  in  the  Natural 
Sciences  Tripos,  1881,  and  was  placed  in  the  first  class  for 
proficiency  in  geology. 

At  Downing  College  the  following  have  been  elected  to  minor 
Scholarships  of  ^50  each  open  to  the  competition  of  persons  not 
yet  in  residence :  H.  Brownsword,  for  physics,  Manchester 
Grammar  School  ;  C.  Swift,  for  chemistry,  University  College, 
Liverpool  ;  and  H.  Widdicombe,  private  tuition,  for  botany. 
G.  Dodson  has  been  elected  Foundation  Scholar  for  Natural 
Science. 

At  Christ's  College  the  following  undergraduates  have  been 
elected  to  Natural  Science  Scholarships :  A.  H.  L.  Newstead, 
£bo ;  C.  Krishnau,  £50 ;  R.  H.  Luce,  ^30  ;  H.  M.  Stewart, 
,£30. 

At  King's  College,  R.  C  Fry  has  been  elected  Natural  Science 
Scholar,  and  G.  L.  Rolleston  to  an  "Exhibition  of  £ap,  and  L. 
Falkener  to  £10. 

At  Gonville  and  Caius  College,  H.  B.  Brunner,  Berkhamp- 
stead  School,  has  been  elected  to  an  Entrance  Scholarship  of  ^50 
for  natural  science. 

The  following  Natural  Science  Scholars  have  been  elected  at 
St.  John's  College :  H.  Simpson,  Hankin,  Horton-Smith,  Locke, 
Baily,  Blackman,  Schmitz.  Turpin,  B.A.,  has  been  elected 
Hutchinson  Student  for  organic  chemistry. 


233 


NATURE 


[July  5,  1888 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

The  Journal  of  Botany  continues,  in  its  numbers  for  April, 
May,  and  June,  Mr.  J.  G.  Baker's  Synopsis  of  the  Tillandsiese, 
and  MM.  Britten  and  Boulger's  valuable  biographical  index  of 
British  and  Irish  botani-ts  (deceased). — Students  of  diatoms 
will  be  interested  in  Mr.  J.  Rattray's  paper  on  Aulacodiscus,  in 
which  the  many  and  singular  abnormalities  of  this  genus  of 
fossil  diatoms  are  described  and  illustrated  by  a  plate. — Mr.  G. 
Massee  contributes  a  revision  of  the  genus  Bouista,  in  which 
several  new  species  of  this  genus  of  Fungi  are  described,  also 
illustrated  by  a  plate. — We  have  also  biographies  of  Prof.  Asa 
Gray,  and  Mr.  John  Smith,  of  Kew  (the  portrait  of  the 
former  is  not  a  pleasing  one),  and  several  papers  on  local  or 
descriptive  botany. 

In  the  Botanical  Gazette  for  February,  March,  and  April,  we 
have  no  important  papers  of  original  research  or  observation  such 
as  sometimes  reach  us  in  this  record  of  the  doings  of  botanists  in 
the  Far  West  (published  at  Crawfordsville,  Indiana).  The 
original  papers  in  these  numbers  relate  almost  entirely  to  the 
•distribution  of  plants  in  the  Western  States  of  America,  and  to 
the  description  of  American  species. 

The  number  of  the  Nuovo  Giornale  Botanico  Italiano  for 
April  contains  the  conclusion  of  Prof.  A.  N.  Berlese's  mono- 
graph of  the  genera  of  Fungi  Pleospora,  Clatkrospora,  and 
Pyrenophora,  with  the  ten  coloured  plates  which  serve  to 
illustrate  the  whole  paper  ;  and  a  description  by  Sig.  C.  Massa- 
longo  of  a  number  of  instances  of  teratology,  chiefly  relating  to 
the  flower.  It  serves  further  as  the  medium  of  publication  of 
the  proceedings  of  the  Italian  Botanical  Society,  reports  being 
appended  of  a  number  of  smaller  contributions  in  various 
departments  of  botany. 

SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  June  21.  —  "Muscular  Movements  in  Man, 
and  their  Evolution  in  the  Infant :  a  Study  of  Movement  in 
Man,  and  its  Evolution,  together  with  Inferences  as  to  the  Pro- 
perties of  Nerve-centres  and  their  Modes  of  Action  in  expressing 
Thought."  By  Francis  Warner,  M.D.,  F.R.C.P.,  Physician  to 
the  London  Hospital,  and  Lecturer  on  Botany  in  the  London 
Hospital  Medical  College.  Communicated  by  Prof.  J. 
Hutchinson,  F.R.S. 

Before  proceeding  to  give  an  account  of  the  visible  evolution 
of  voluntary  movement  in  man,  it  is  necessary  to  define  the 
•different  classes  of  movements  seen,  indicating  the  criteria  by 
which  the  observer  may  be  guided  in  the  examples  before  him. 

The  new-born  infant  presents  constant  movement  in  all  its 
parts  while  it  is  awake,  and  this  is  not  controlled  by  impressions 
from  without.  Graphic  tracings  of  such  movements  are  given 
This  spontaneous  movement  in  the  infant  appears  to  be  of  great 
physiological  importance,  and  is  here  termed  "  microkinesis." 
It  is  argued  that  the  mode  of  brain  action  which  produces  micro- 
kinesis  is  analogous  to  the  action  producing  spontaneous 
movements  in  all  young  animals,  and  to  the  modes  of  cell- 
growth  which  produce  circumnutation  in  young  seedling  plants. 
It  is  argued  that  as  circumnutation  becomes  modified  by  external 
forces  to  the  modes  of  movement  termed  heliotropism,  geo- 
tropism,  &c  ,  so  microkinesis  in  the  infant  is  replaced  by  the 
more  complicated  modes  of  brain  action  as  evolution  proceeds. 

The  conditions  of  movement  are  then  described,  as  seen  at 
successive  stages  of  development  of  the  child,  and  it  is  shown 
that  they  become  less  spontaneous,  and  more  under  control  of 
stimuli  acting  upon  the  child  from  without,  while  the  phenomena 
termed  memory  and  imitation  are  evolved. 

From  observations  made,  two  hypotheses  are  put  forward.  It 
is  suggested  that  when  a  well  co-ordinated  movement  follows  a 
slight  stimulus,  the  impression  produces  temporary  unions 
among  the  centres,  preparing  them  for  the  special  combinations 
and  series  of  actions  which  are  seen  to  follow.  Such  unions 
among  nerve-centres  appear  to  be  formed  when  a  period  of 
cerebral  inhibition,  produced  by  a  word  of  command,  is  seen  to 
be  followed  by  a  co-ordinated  series  of  acts.  A  graphic  tracing 
indicating  suspension  of  microkinesis  to  the  stimulus  of  sight 
and  sound  is  given.  It  is  further  suggested  that  the  brain  action 
corresponding  to  thought  is  the  formation  of  functional  unions 
among  cells,  whose  outcome  is  seen  in  the  movements  which 
express  the  thought,  or  its  physical  representation.  Properties 
similar  to  those  described  in  brain-centres  may  be  illustrated  in 
modes  of  growth. 


"  Evaporation  and  Dissociat'on.  Part  VIII.  A  Study  of  the 
Thermal  Properties  of  Propyl  Alcohol."  By  William  Ramsay, 
Ph.D.,  F.R.S.,  and  Sydney  Young,  D.Sc. 

In  continuation  of  our  investigations  of  thermal  properties  of 
pure  liquids,  we  have  now  determined  the  vapour-pressures, 
vapour-densities,  and  expansion  in  the  liquid  and  gaseous  states 
cf  propyl  alcohol,  and  from  these  results  we  have  calculated  the 
heats  of  vaporization  at  definite  temperatures.  The  compressi- 
bility of  the  liquid  has  also  been  measured.  The  range  of 
temperature  is  from  50  to  2800  C,  and  the  range  of  pressure 
from  5  mm.  to  56,000  mm. 

The  memoir  contains  an  account  of  the  purification  of  the 
propyl  alcohol  ;  determinations  of  its  specific  gravity  at  o°,  and 
at  io°"j2  ;  and  of  the  constants  mentioned  above. 

The  approximate  critical  temperature  of  propyl  alcohol  is 
263°'7  ;  the  approximate  critical  pressure  is  38,120  mm.,  and 
the  approximate  volume  of  1  gramme  is  3 '6  c.c.  The  first  two 
of  these  constants  must  be  very  nearly  correct  ;  the  third  cannot 
be  determined  with  the  same  degree  of  precision. 

The  memoir  is  accompanied  by  plates,  showing  the  relations 
of  volume,  temperature,  and  pressure  in  a  graphic  form. 

Royal  Meteorological  Society,  June  20. — Dr.  W.  Marcet, 
F.  R.  S. ,  President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  papers  were 
read  : — First  Report  of  the  Thunderstorm  Committee.  This  Re- 
port deals  with  the  photographs  of  lightning-flashes,  some  sixty 
in  number,  which  have  been  received  by  the  Society.  From  the 
evidence  now  obtained  it  appears  that  lightning  assumes  various 
typical  forms,  under  conditions  which  are  at  present  unknown. 
The  Committee  consider  that  the  lightning-flashes  may  be 
arranged  under  the  following  types  :  (1)  stream,  (2)  sinuous,  (3) 
ramified,  (4)  meandering,  (5)  beaded  or  chapletted,  and  (6) 
ribbon  lightning.  In  one  of  the  photographs  there  is  a  dark 
flash  of  the  same  character  as  the  bright  flashes,  but  the  Com- 
mittee defer  offering  any  explanation  of  the  same  until  they  get 
further  examples  of  dark  flashes.  As  the  thunderstorm  season 
is  now  coming  on,  the  Committee  propose  to  publish  their 
Report  at  once,  along  with  some  reproductions  of  the  photographs 
by  the  autotype  process,  in  order  that  observers  may  be  pre- 
pared to  notice  the  various  forms  of  lightning. — The  cold  period 
from  September  1887  to  May  1888,  by  Mr.  C.  Harding.  The 
mean  temperature  for  each  of  the  nine  months  from-  Septem- 
ber 1887  to  May  1888  was  below  the  average,  whilst  in  the  case 
of  October  there  has  been  no  corresponding  month  as  cold 
during  the  last  half  century,  and  only  three  colder  Aprils.  In 
London  the  mean  temperature  for  the  period  was  only  42° '4,  and 
there  has  been  no  similarly  low  mean  for  the  corresponding 
period  since  1854-55,  which  will  be  remembered  as  the  time  of  the 
Crimean  War,  and  only  three  equally  cold  periods  during  the 
la  t  50  years.  The  temperature  of  the  soil  at  Greenwich  at  3 
feet  below  the  surface  was  below  the  average  in  each  month 
from  October  to  April ;  in  October  and  April  the  temperature  at 
this  depth  was  the  coldest  on  record,  observations  being  avail- 
able for  the  last  42  years,  and  in  November  it  was  the  coldest 
f°r  37  years. — Observations  on  cloud  movements  near  the 
equator  ;  and  on  the  general  character  of  the  weather  in  the 
"  Doldrums,"  by  Hon.  R.  Abercromby.  The  author  gives  the 
results  of  observations  made  during  four  voyages  across  the 
equator  and  the  "Doldrums,"  with  special  reference  to  the 
motion  of  clouds  at  various  levels.  Two  voyages  were  across 
the  Indian  Ocean  during  the  season  of  the  north-west  monsoon, 
and  two  across  the  Atlantic  in  the  months  of  July  and  December. 
The  nature  of  the  general  circulation  of  the  atmosphere  near  the 
"  Doldrums  "  is  discussed  as  regards  the  theory  that  the  Trades, 
after  meeting,  rise  and  fall  back  on  themselves  ;  or,  according  to 
the  suggestion  of  Maury,  that  the  Trades  interlace  and  cross  the 
equator  ;  or,  as  following  the  analogy  of  Dr.  Vettin's  experiments 
on  smoke.  It  is  shown  that  the  materials  at  present  available 
are  insufficient  to  form  a  definite  conclusion,  but  details  are 
given  of  the  general  character  of  the  weather  and  of  the  squalls 
in  the  "Doldrums,"  with  a  view  of  showing  what  kind  of 
observations  are  required  to  solve  this  important  problem.  The 
old  idea  of  a  deep  Trade — with  a  high  opposite  current  flowing 
overhead  —is  certainly  erroneous  ;  for  there  is  always  a  regular 
vertical  succession  of  the  upper  currents  as  we  ascend,  according 
to  the  hemisphere. 

Zoological  Society,  June  19. — Prof.  Flower,  F.R.S., 
President,  in  the  chair. — A  letter  was  read  addressed  to  the 
President  by  Dr.  Emin  Pasha,  dated  Tunguru  Island  (Lake 
Albert),  October  31,  1887,  announcing  the  despatch  of  further 
collections  of  natural  history  objects,   and    promising   for  the 


July  5,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


239 


Society  some  notes  on  European  migratory  birds  observed  in 
t  country. — An  extract  was  read  from  a  letter  addressed  by 
E.  L.  Layard  to  Mr.  John  Ponsonby  concerning  the  occur- 
ce  of  a  West  Indian  Land-Shell  (Stenogyra  octona)  in  New 
edonia.  —  Mr.  Tegetmeier  exhibited  and  made  remarks  on 
feet  of  an  Australian  Rabbit,  supposed  to  have  acquired 
arboreal  habits. — Prof.  Bell  exhibited  and  made  remarks  on  a 
specimen  of  a  tube-forming  Actonian  {Cerian/hns  numbran- 
aceus)  in  its  tube  ;  obtained  by  Mr.  John  Murray  at  a  depth  of 
70  fathoms  in  Loch  Etive. — A  communication  was  read  from 
Prof.  W.  Newton  Parker,  on  the  poison-glands  of  the  fishes  of 
the  genus  Trachinus.  This  paper  showed  the  existence  of 
glands  in  connection  with  the  grooved  dorsal  and  opercular 
spines  of  the  two  British  species  of  Weever.  The  glands  were 
stated  to  be  composed  of  large  granular  nucleated  cells,  which 
are  continuous  with  those  of  the  epidermis.  An  account  of  the 
observations  of  previous  authors,  both  as  regards  the  structure 
and  physiology  of  the  poison-organs  of  these  fishes,  was  also 
given. — A  communication  was  read  from  Mr.  H.  W.  Bates, 
F.  R.  S.,  containing  the  description  of  a  collection  of  Coleoptera 
nade  by  Mr.  J.  H.  Leech,  during  a  recent  visit  to  the  eastern 
side  of  the  Corean  Peninsula. — A  second  communication  from 
Mr.  Bates  treated  of  some  new  species  of  Coleoptera  of  the 
families  Cicindelidse  and  Carabidse  from  the  valley  of  the  Yang- 
tze-Kiang,  China.— Mr.  J.  B.  Sutton  read  a  paper  on  some 
ibnormalities  occurring  among  animals  recently  living  in  the 
l  Society's  Gardens. — Prof.  Bell  read  an  account  of  a  collection 
)f  Echinoderms  made  at  Tuticorin,  Madras,  by  Mr.  Edgar 
Thurston,  Superintendent  of  the  Government  Central  Museum, 
Vladras. — A  communication  was  read  from  Mr.  F.  Moore,  con- 
taining the  second  portion  of  a  list  of  the  Lepidoptera  collected 
jjy  the  Rev.  J.  H.  Hocking,  chiefly  in  the  Kangra  District  of 
[he  North-Western  Himalayas.  The  present  paper  contained 
■he  descriptions  of  seven  new  genera  and  of  forty-eight  new 
■pedes.  An  account  of  the  transformati  >ns  of  a  number  of  these 
pecies  was  also  given  from  Mr.  Hocking's  notes. 

Geological  Society,  June  20.— Dr.  W.  T.  Blanford,  F.R.S., 
president,   in  the  chair. — The  following  communications  were 

aad  : — On  the  occurrence  of  marine  fossils  in  the  Coal-measures 
|f  Fife,  by  Jas.  W.  Kirkby  ;  communicated  by  Prof.  T.  Rupert 

one-,  F.  R.  S. — Directions  of  ice-flow  in  the  North  of  Ireland, 
Ijs  determined  by  the  observations  of  the  Geological  Survey,  by 

I  R.  Kilroe  ;  communicated  by  Prof.  E.  Hull,  F.R.  S. — 
:  Evidence  of  ice-action  in  Carboniferous  times,  by  John  Spencer. 
i  r-The  Greensand  bed  at  the  base  of  the  Thanet  sand,  by  Miss 

largaret  I.  Gardiner,  Bathurst  Student,  Newnham  College, 
i  ambridge  ;  communicated  by  J.  J.  H.  Teall. — On  the  occur- 
ence of  Elcphas  meridionalis  at  Dewlish,  Dorset,  by  the  Rev. 

I.  Fisher. — On  perlitic  felsites,  probably  of  Archaean  age,  from 
Ike  flanks  of  the  Herefordshire  Beacon,  and  on  the  possible  origin 
IF  some  epidosites,  by  Frank  Rutley.  The  author  has  previously 

■  escribed  a  rock  from  this  locality  in  which  faint  indications  of  a 
I  brlitic     structure    were    discernible.     In    the    present    paper 

■  pditional  instances  were  enumerated  and  a  description  was 
ven.  The  perlitic  structnre  is  difficult  to  recognize,  owing  to 
ibsequent  alteration  of  the  rock.  Decomposition-products, 
)parently  chiefly  epidote,  with  possibly  a  little  kaolin,  have 
;en  found  in  great  part  within  the  minute  fissures  and  perlitic 
acks.  The  author  suggested,  from  his  observations,  that 
Isites,  resulting  from  the  devitrification  of  obsidian,  quartz- 
sites,  aplites,  &c,  may,  by  the  decomposition  of  the  felspathic 
nstituents,  pass,  in  the  first  instance,  into  rocks  composed 
sentially  of  quartz  and  kaolin  ;  and  that  by  subsequent  altera- 
m  of  the  kaolin  by  the  action  of  water  charged  wjth  bicarbon- 
e  of  lime  and  more  or  less  carbonate  of  iron  in  solution,  these 
ay  eventually  be  converted  into  epidosites.     He  regarded  it 

probable  that  the  rocks  are  of  later  Archaean  or  Cambrian 
e.  —  The  ejected  blocks  of  Monte  Somma,  Part  I.,  stratified 
nestones,  by  Dr.  H.  J.  Johnston- Lavis. 

[Palseontographical  Society,  June  22.— Annual  Meeting. 
[Dr.  H.  Woodward,  F.R.S.,  Vice-President,  in  the  chair.— 
he  Report  of  the  Council,  presented  by  the  Secretary,  Prof, 
filtshire,  stated  that  since  the  date  of  the  last  annual  meeting 
■"i  volume  for  1887  had  been  issued,   and  that  the  volume  for 

■  present  year  was  in  progress.  It  would  contain  the  following 
Irts  of  monographs  :  the  Stromatoporoids,  Part  II.,  by  Prof, 
■leyne  Nicholson  ;  the  Cretaceous  Echinodermata,  Part  I.,  by 

.  W.  P.  Sladen  ;  the  Jurassic  Gasteropoda,  Part  III.,  by  Mr. 
II.  Iludleston  ;  the  Inferior  Oolite  Ammonites,  Part  II.,  by 


Mr.  S.  S.  Buckman.  It  was  stated  that  the  arrangement  by 
which  members  had  been  enabled  to  procure  parts  of  finished 
monographs  as  well  as  the  complete  monographs,  distinct  from 
the  annual  volumes,  had  been  found  to  work  very  efficiently. 
It  was  further  stated  that  the  financial  position  of  the  Society 
was  much  better  than  on  the  previous  occasion.  This  was  due 
in  part  to  a  grant  of  ^50  made  by  the  General  Committee  of  the 
British  Association  at  the  Manchester  meeting,  and  in  part  to 
the  very  considerable  increase  in  the  number  of  subscribers, 
which  had  resulted  from  the  efforts  made  during  the  past  and 
preceding  year  to  bring  before  geologists,  palaeontologists,  and 
all  interested  in  science,  the  work  which  was  carried  on  by  the 
Society.  If  the  present  improvement  could  be  maintained, 
there  need  be  no  fears  for  the  future. — Sir  R.  Owen  was  re- 
elected President  ;  Mr.  Etheridge,  Treasurer;  and  Prof.  Wiltshire 
Secretary.  Messrs.  W.  E.  Balston,  C.  J.  A.  Meyer,  G.  H. 
Morton,  and  W.  P.  Sladen  were  elected  members  of  the  Council, 
in  the  place  of  Messrs.  S.  S.  Buckman,  J.  Evans,  C.  H.  Gatty, 
and  W.  C.  Lucy,  who  retire  by  rotation. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  June  25. — M.  Janssen,  President,  in 
the  chair. — On  the  canals  of  the  planet  Mars,  by  M.  Fizeau. 
The  various  circumstances  connected  with  these  appearances,  as 
lately  described  by  MM.  Perrotin  and  Schiaparelli,  suggest  a 
strong  analogy  with  certain  phenomena  of  glaciation — parallel 
ridges,  crevasses,  rectilinear  fissures  often  of  great  length  and  at 
various  angles— observed  in  the  regions  of  large  glaciers  in 
Switzerland  and  especially  in  Greenland.  This  leads  to  the 
hypothesis  of  a  vast  development  of  glaciation  on  the  surface  of 
Mar-,  where,  the  seasons  being  relatively  longer  and  the  tem- 
perature much  lower,  the  conditions  must  also  be  more  favour- 
able than  on  the  earth  for  there  manifestations.  The  reading  of 
the  paper  was  followed  by  some  remarks  by  M.  J.  Janssen,  who 
gave  a  guarded  assent  to  M.  Fizeau's  "very  ingenious  and  very 
beautiful "  theory. — On  the  vapour-density  of  the  chloride  of 
aluminium,  and  on  the  molecular  weight  of  this  body,  by  MM 
C.  Friedel  and  J.  M.  Crafts.  The  recent  experiments  of  MM. 
Nilson  and  Pettersson  tended  to  show  that  this  substance  should 
receive  the  formula  A1C13  rather  than  the  double  formula  A12C1,; 
proposed  by  MM.  Sainte- Claire  and  Troost.  The  fresh  researches 
of  MM.  Friedel  and  Crafts,  undertaken  to  settle  the  point,  lead 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  density  corresponds  to  A12C16,  which 
would  accordingly  represent  the  molecular  weight  of  the  chloride 
of  aluminium.  The  experiments  of  MM.  Louise  and  Roux  on 
methyl  and  ethyl  aluminium  are  in  harmony  with  this  inference. — 
Progress  of  the  Roscoff  and  Arago  Laboratories,  by  M.  de  Lacaze- 
Duthiers.  Both  of  these  important  biological  stations  have  lately 
been  inspected  by  the  author,  who  is  able  to  speak  most  favourably 
of  their  present  state.  Zoologists  will  find  concentrated  at 
Banyuls  during  the  winter  and  at  Roscoff  in  summer  all  the  con- 
ditions best  adapted  for  the  study  of  the  lower  forms  of  animal 
life. — Some  remarks  relative  to  the  representation  of  irrational 
numbers  by  means  of  continuous  fractions,  by  M.  Hugo  Gylden. 
From  the  points  here  discussed  flows  a  thesis  of  great  import- 
ance connected  with  the  convergence  of  certain  trigonometric 
series  employed  in  the  calculation  of  perturbations.  The  thesi; 
is  thus  worded  :  The  probability  of  finding  a  value  for  a  beyond 
a  given  limit  is  in  inverse  ratio  to  the  number  expressing  this 
limit. — On  the  degrees  of  oxidation  observed  in  the  efflorescing 
compounds  of  chromium  and  manganese,  by  M.  Lecoq  de  Bois- 
baudran.  In  this  first  paper  on  the  subject  the  author  deals 
mainly  with  the  carbonate  of  lime  in  combination  with  an  oxide 
of  chromium  (or  chromate  of  ammonia),  and  highly  calcined  in 
the  air.  He  shows  that  chromium  produces  with  lime  a  fluor- 
escence which  seems  to  present  no  analogy  with  those  yielded 
by  it  in  combination  with  alumina,  gallina,  or  magnesia. — On 
orthogonal  substitutions  and  the  regular  divisions  of  space,  by 
M.  E.  Goursat.  The  divisions  here  determined  may  be  con- 
nected with  the  regular  figures  of  space  of  four  dimensions. 
Thus  may  readily  be  found  the  six  regular  figures  discovered  by 
Stringham.  But  the  question  may  be  pushed  further,  and,  by 
following  Poinsot's  method,  in  space  of  four  dimensions  the  exist- 
ence may  be  shown  of  regular  figures  analogous  to  the  regular 
s'arred  polyhedrons  of  s-pace  of  three  dimensions.  These 
results,  here  merely  indicated,  will  be  fully  developed  in 
a  memoir  which  will  shortly  be  published. — On  a  theorem  of 
Kummer,  by  M.  E.  Cesaro.  This  is  in  connection  with  a  recent 
paper  by  M.  Jensen,  who  is  stated  to  defend  himself  from  in- 
accuracies of  which  he  was  not  accused.     In  the  author's  com- 


240 


NATURE 


[July  5,  1888 


•munication  of  April  16,  nothing  was  questioned  except  the 
■novelty  of  M.  Jensen's  theorem,  which  does  not  differ  essen- 
tially from  that  of  Kummer,  as  modified  and  completed  by 
Dini  in  1867. — On  the  hydrochlorates  of  trichloride  of  antimony, 
•of  trichloride  of  bismuth,  and  of  pentachloride  of  antimony,  by 
M.  Engel.  The  researches  here  described  fully  confirm  the 
existence  of  these  bodies,  which  are  described  as  well-defined 
salts  that  may  be  easily  isolated.  Like  all  the  other  hydrochlorates 
•of  chloride  hitherto  prepared,  they  all  contain  water  of  crystal- 
lization, and  there  are  in  each  case  at  least  two  molecules  of 
water  for  each  molecule  of  hydrochloric  acid  fixed  by  the  chloride. 
— On  the  reproduction  of  phenacite  and  the  emerald,  by  MM.  P. 
Hautefeuille  and  A.  Perrey.  The  conditions  are  described  under 
which  the  authors  have  effected  the  synthesis  of  two  substances 
whose  properties  are  identical  with  those  of  natural  phenacite 
and  the  emerald.  The  analysis  of  the  artificial  emerald  yielded 
-silica  677,  alumina  19 '6,  and  glucine  13  '4,  which  are  nearer 
to  the  calculated  proportions  than  those  given  for  the  compo- 
sition of  most  natural  emeralds.  The  analyzed  crystals,  whose 
density  was  2*67,  were  colourless  ;  but  greenish-yellow  and 
green  crystals  were  easily  obtained — the  former  by  the  oxide  of 
iron,  the  latter  by  the  oxide  of  chromium. 

Berlin. 
Physiological  Society,  June  8. — Prof,  du  Bois-Reymond, 
President,  in  the  chair. — Prof.  Kossel  spoke  on  a  new  consti- 
tuent of  tea.     Inasmuch  as  the   presence  of  caffein  in  tea  does 
not  suffice  to  explain  its  physiological  action,  he  had  examined 
it  for  other  bases,  and  found  in  the  leaves  of  tea,  in  addition  to 
adenin,   a   new   well-characterized   base   whose   composition  is 
C7H8N402,   to   which  he  has  given  the  name  of  theophyllin. 
Theobromin  and  paraxanthin  have  the  same  chemical  compo- 
sition as  theophyllin,  but  the  latter  differs  from  the  former  by  a 
series   of  well-marked    chemical  reactions.       One  question    of 
special  interest  was  as  to  the  constitution  of  the  new  base,  which 
belongs  to  that  class  of  substances  known  as  the  xanthin-bodies. 
Fischer  has  shown  that  xanthin  yields  alloxan  and  urea  when 
oxidized ;  and,   similarly,   it  is  known  that  theobromin  is  di- 
methylxanthin,    yielding,    by     oxidation,    methylalloxan     and 
methylurea ;  as  also  that  caffein  is  trimethylxanthin,  yielding, 
by    oxidation,    dimethylalloxan    and    monomethylurea.       The 
question  hence  arose  as  to  the  constitution  of  the  new  base, 
which,  since  it  is  isomeric  with  theobromin,  is  also  presumably 
a  dimethylxanthin.     Since  the  speaker  was  in  possession  of  so 
limited  a  quantity  of  the  substance  that  he  could  not  proceed 
to  oxidize  it,  he  proceeded  by  a  different  method,  and  intro- 
duced  a   methyl  group   into   the  molecule  of  theophyllin  :  on 
performing  this  experiment  he  obtained  caffein,  from  which  it 
must    be    concluded    that    theophyllin     contains    one    methyl 
group  united  to    a   residue  of  urea,   and  one  to  a  residue   of 
alloxan,  and  has   therefore   a  constitution   identical   with  that 
of  theobromin.       It   still  remains  to    investigate    the   physio- 
logical  action   of   the    new    base. — Dr.    Will    spoke    on    the 
alkaloids  of  the  Solanaceae,  of  which  at  present  only  atropin, 
hyoscyamin,  and  hyoscin  are  known  as  distinct  substances  with 
reference  to  their  mydriatic  action.     The  first  two  of  the  above 
are  of  special  interest,  as  possessing  the  same  chemical  compo- 
sition (C17H23N03),  but  differing  as  regards  their  melting-point, 
the  salts  which  they  form  with  gold,  and  their  specific  rotatory 
powers.     It  had  been  noticed  long  ago  that  sometimes  much 
atropin  and  but  little  hyoscyamin,  and,  vice  versd,  much  hyos- 
cyamin and  but  little  atropin,   is  obtained  from  the  roots  of 
Belladonna.     This  difference  in  the  relative  amounts  of  the  two 
substances   obtained  was  noticed  when   portions  of  the   same 
sample  of  roots  were  treated  in  the  same  way  ;  as  the  result  of 
which   the   chemical   factory   of   Schering   had    requested   the 
speaker  to  investigate  the  cause  of  this  difference  in  the  relative 
amounts  of  the  several  products.     The  first  fact  which  he  deter- 
mined was,  that  when  hyoscyamin  is  heated  to  109  °  C. — that  is  to 
say,  to  a  temperature  slightly  above  its  melting-point — it  changes 
into  atropin.     This  is,  however,  of  no  significance  in  the  pre- 
paration of  the  alkaloids,  as  carried  on  in  a  factory,  inasmuch 
as  no  such  temperatures  are  employed.     Dr.  Will  further  found 
that,  when  a  few  drops  of  alkali  are  added  to  a  solution  of  hyos- 
cyamin which  posse^ses  strong  rotatory  powers,  in  a  few  hours 
the  rotatory  power  is  lost,  and  the  solution  no  longer  contains 
hyoscyamin,  but  atropin.     According  to  this,  during  the  extrac- 
tion of  Belladonna  roots  in  the  factory,  the  amount  of  hyoscya- 
min which  may  have  become  converted  into  atropin  is  dependent 
upon  the  time  of  action  and  the  concentration  of  the  alkaline 
solution  employed  in  the  process  :  by  treatment  with  alkali,  tl  e 


whole  of  the  hyoscyamin  can  always  be  converted  into  atropin 
The  fact  that,  by  the  extraction  of  the  roots  of  Hyoscyamus,  onl; 
hyoscyamin  and  no  atropin  is  obtained,  was  explained  by  th< 
speaker  as  being  due  to  the  employment  of  ammonia  in  thi 
process,  which  has  only  a  feeble  power  of  converting  the  on< 
alkaloid  into  the  other.  The  speaker  intends  to  employ  thi: 
conversion  of  hyoscyamin  into  atropin,  which  is  measurable  b] 
means  of  change  in  rotatory  power,  to  the  determination  of  th( 
combining  affinities  of  the  alkalies.  Dr.  Will  is  inclined  tr. 
believe  that  relations  similar  to  the  above  exist  in  the  case  o 
quinine  and  cinchonine,  which  are  also  obtained  in  varying  rela 
tive  amounts  from  the  bark. — Dr.  Koenig  gave  an  account  o 
fome  experiments,  undertaken  at  his  suggestion  by  Isaacksen. 
with  a  view  to  testing  Holmgren's  statement  that  very  smal 
coloured  dots  can  only  be  seen  as  one  of  the  primary  colours  of 
the  Young-Helmholtz  theory — namely,  red,  green,  or  violet. 
This  statement  was  not,  however,  confirmed  when  the  necessan 
precautions  were  taken,  and  it  was  found  that  small  dots  of  an; 
colour,  even  yellow  and  blue,  were  perceived  as  possessing  thei 
own  objective  colour  ;  this  had  also  been  observed  by  Hering 
Isaacksen  had,  further,  investigated  the  power  which  the  ey 
possesses  of  distinguishing  between  minute  dot-like  light 
which  are  so  small  that  their  image  on  the  retina  only  falls  oi 
one  cone,  and  found  that  it  was  as  fully  developed  as  for  th 
colours  of  large  surfaces. 

BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED 

Chemical  Problems :  Grabfield  and  Burns  (Heath,  Boston). — The  Mov< 
ments  of  Respiration  and  their  Innervation  in  the  Rabbit:  Dr.  M.  Mnrcl 
wald,  translated  (Blackie). — Natural  History  and  Epidemiology  of  Cholera 
Sir  J.  Fayrer  (Churchill). — The  Photographer's  Note-book  and  Index  :  Sir! 
Salomons  (Marion). — Short  Lectures  to  Electrical  Artisans:  J.  A.  Fleming 
second  edition  (Spon). — Whence  comes  Man  ;  From  Nature  or  from  God  ': 
A.  J.  Bell  (Isbister). — Challenger  Expedition  Report,  vols,  xxiii.,  xxiv. 
Parts,  and  xxv.,  Zoology  (Eyre  and  Spottiswoode). — Annual  Report  of  tht 
Geological  and  Natural  History  Survey  of  Canada,  vol.  ii.  1886  (Dawsoi 
Montreal). — Another  World,  or  the  Fourth  Dimension  :  A.  T.  Schofiel  I 
(Sonnenschein). — Changes  of  Level  of  the  Great  Lakes:  J.  K.  Gilbe: 
(Washington). — The  Construction  and  Maintenance  of  School  Infirmaries  an 
Sanatoria  (Churchill). — Electricity  versus  Gas:  J.  Stent  (Sonnenschein).-  j 
Annalen  der  Physik  und  Chemie,  1888,  No.  8a  (Leipzig). 


CONTENTS.  pag 

The    Decadence    of   the    Chemical    Profession    in 

Government  Opinion 21 

The  Land  and  Fresh-water  Mollusca  of  India  ...    21 

Recent  Mathematical  Books 21 

The  Botany  of  the  Afghan  Delimitation  Commis- 
sion      21 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Wrightson  :   "  The  Principles  of  Agricultural  Practice 

as  an  Instructional  Subject" 22 

Edwards-Moss  :   "  A  Season  in  Sutherland  "    ....    22 
Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

"Sky-coloured  Clouds"  at  Night.— R.  T.  Omond  .    22 

Micromillimetre. — Frank  Crisp 22 

A  Prognostic  of  Thunder. — B.  Woodd-Smith  .    .    .    22 

Parasites  of  the  Hessian  Fly.— F.  E.  S 22 

Fact  and  Fiction. — Harry  Napier  Draper     ....    22 
The  Nephridia  of  Earthworms. — Frank  E.  Beddard    22 

The   "  Avocet  "  Rock.     {With  a  Chart.) 22 

Magnetic  Strains.      {Illustrated.)     By  Shelford  Bid- 
well,  F.R.S 22 

A  Meteorologist  at  the  Royal  Academy.     By  Hon. 

Ralph  Abercromby 22 

The  Oxford  University  Observatory 22 

Notes 22 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

American  Observatories 23 

Minor  Planets 23 

The  Rings  of  Saturn 23 

Astronomical     Phenomena    for     the     Week      1888 

July  8-14 2" 

Electrical  Notes 23 

The  Micro-organisms   of   Air   and  Water.      {Illus- 
trated.)   By  Dr.  Percy  F.  Frankland 2': 

The  Opening  of  the  Marine  Biological   Laboratory 

at  Plymouth is 

University  and  Educational  Intelligence 

Scientific  Serials 

Societies  and  Academies 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 


NATURE 


241 


THURSDAY,  JULY    12,    ii 


ELECTRICITY  AND  MAGNETISM. 
A     Treatise    on    Electricity    ci7id    Magnetism.      By    E. 
Mascart  and  J.  Joubert.     Translated  by  E.  Atkinson. 
Vol.  II.     (London:  De  La  Rue  and  Co.,  1888.) 

THE  English  translation  of  the  second  volume  of  the 
valuable  work  of  MM.  Mascart  and  Joubert  is  a 
welcome  addition  to  the  class,  none  too  large,  of  really 
substantial  English  books  on  electricity.  We  have  already 
directed  the  attention  of  the  readers  of  Nature  to  the 
first  volume  of  this  work  ;  and  we  took  occasion  to  point 
out  that  in  their  exposition  of  the  subject  the  authors 
follow  very  closely  the  general  methods  of  Clerk-Maxwell. 
That  they  do  so  is  a  great  advantage  for  the  English 
student ;  because  it  enables  him,  without  breach  in  the 
continuity  of  his  studies,  to  use  Mascart  and  Joubert  as  a 
commentary  upon  Maxwell,  who  is  often  by  no  means 
easy  reading.  The  French  work  is  also  supple- 
mentary to  Maxwell,  for  writers  avoid  as  much  as 
possible  the  purely  theoretical  side  of  electrical  science, 
and  treat  electrical  phenomena,  more  especially  in 
their  second  volume,  as  subjects  of  observation,  and 
above  all,  of  measurement.  This  volume,  which  is 
now  before  us,  is,  in  fact,  an  epitome  of  all  the  wisdom 
in  exact  electrical  measurement  which  has  been  gained 
during  a  period  of  extraordinary  activity  in  that  field. 
This  period  began  with  the  researches  of  Gauss  and 
Weber  ;  and  may  perhaps  be  said  to  have  culminated  in 
the  great  series  of  determinations  of  the  absolute  units 
which  were  made  about  the  time  of  the  Congress  of 
Electricians  at  Paris  in  1884.  The  prominent  part  taken 
by  MM.  Mascart  and  Joubert  in  this  work  has  well  fitted 
them  to  record  with  precision  the  details  of  the  leading 
methods  by  which  it  was  accomplished,  and  it  would  be 
hard  to  refer  the  student  of  electrical  science  to  an 
authority  on  electrical  measurement  at  once  so  clear  and 
precise  in  detail,  and,  with  a  few  small  and  evidently 
accidental  exceptions,  so  manifestly  candid  and  fair,  as  the 
second  volume  of  the  treatise  of  Mascart  and  Joubert. 

The  space  at  our  disposal  in  the  pages  of  Nature 
allows  us  to  give  but  a  brief  summary  of  the  contents  of 
this  volume.  Part  I.  deals  with  the  auxiliaries  of  elec- 
trical measurement,  such  as  the  measurement  of  angles, 
of  the  periods  and  amplitudes  of  oscillations,  of  couples, 
and  of  such  properties  of  circular  currents  as  are  im- 
portant in  the  construction  of  galvanometers  and  other 
electrical  instruments.  As  an  example  of  the  care  with 
which  the  subject  is  treated,  we  may  refer  to  the  discus- 
sion, in  §§  659,  660,  of  the  power  of  a  telescope,  and  of  the 
relation  that  ought  to  subsist  between  the  dimensions  of  a 
graduated  circle  and  of  the  telescope  with  which  it  is 
associated.  The  conclusion  of  this  discussion  is  marred 
in  the  English  version  by  inadequate  translation.  Thus, 
for  example,  "  un  cercle  de  ce  diametre  [80  cm.]  devra 
done  etre  associe"  a  une  lunette  de  16  centimetres  d'ouver- 
ture,"  does  not  mean  "a  circle  of  this  diameter  is 
therefore  comparable  with  a  telescope  of  16  cm.  aperture." 
The  meaning  is,  that,  to  get  the  full  use  of  the  circle,  a 
telescope  having  an  objective  lens  of  80  cm.  aperture  is 
required  ;  and  that  a  more  powerful  one  is  unnecessary. 

Part  II.,  which  is  the  kernel  of  the  volume,  describes 
Vol.  xxxviii. — No.  976. 


the  various  electrical  measurements  as  they  are  carried 
out  in  practice.  There  are  chapters  on  electrometry,  and 
on  measurement  of  current,  resistance,  electromotive 
force,  capacity,  constants  of  coils,  absolute  resistance, 
and  the  fundamental  velocity,  v.  The  methods  are 
described  in  great  variety  and  with  great  detail.  They 
are  illustrated  by  giving  not  only  the  old  classical  results, 
but  also  by  means  of  the  most  recent  examples.  Nothing 
is  attempted  like  the  exhaustive  catalogue  of  results,  good, 
bad,  and  indifferent,  which  makes  Wiedemann  such  an 
invaluable  book  of  reference.  Experimental  results  are 
given  simply  as  part  of  the  exposition  of  the  methods  by 
which  they  are  obtained.  It  is  probably  for  this  reason 
that  the  authors  make  no  mention  of  the  valuable 
experiments  on  dieletric  strength  recently  made  by  their 
fellow-countryman,  Bailie. 

Part  III.  is  devoted  to  magnetic  measurements,  and  is 
excellent  so  far  as  it  goes.  It  is  by  no  means  so  exhaustive 
as  the  purely  electrical  part ;  and,  probably  for  that  very 
reason,  will  be  found  to  be  lighter  reading  for  the  tyro  in 
electricity  and  magnetism  ;  to  such  we  commend  more 
especially  the  parts  relating  to  the  determination  of 
so-called  magnetic  poles  and  to  the  magnetism  of  feebly 
magnetic  and  diamagnetic  bodies,  subjects  which  are 
very  frequently  imperfectly  understood  or  inadequately 
expounded  in  current  text-books. 

Part  IV.,  which  is  called  a  complement,  deals  with 
industrial  applications,  and  contains  a  table  of  numerical 
constants.  The  table  of  constants  gives  full  references 
to  the  sources  of  such  information  as  it  contains,  and  will 
be  found  most  useful.  The  part  that  deals  with  industrial 
applications  is  to  our  thinking  the  least  satisfactory  part 
of  the  book  ;  not  because  there  is  any  want  of  clearness  or 
soundness  in  it,  but  because  it  is  too  short  and  too  scantily 
illustrated  by  references  to  practical  cases  to  give  the 
student  any  real  idea  of  the  problems  that  surround  the 
electrical  engineer. 

In  describing  the  various  methods  of  electrical  measure- 
ment the  authors  are,  on  the  whole,  very  sparing  of 
criticism.  They  seem  to  assume  that  they  are  addressing 
an  audience  fitted  to  draw  their  own  conclusions  from 
the  facts  put  before  them.  Occasionally  the  weak  points 
of  the  methods  used  by  various  experimenters  are  pointed 
out,  but  the  authors  never  indulge  in  that  species  of 
criticism  which  consists  in  treating  a  fellow-labourer  and 
all  his  productions  with  indiscriminate  scorn  because 
the  critic  has  discovered  some  microscopic  oversight,  or 
believes  that  he  has  wrung  one  more  decimal  place  from 
reluctant  Nature. 

Thereareone  or  two  little  points  which  mightbe  amended 
in  a  future  edition.  For  example,  the  elegant  method  of 
discussing  resisted  motion  by  means  of  the  equiangular 
spiral,  given  in  §  682,  should  be  attributed  to  its  author, 
Prof.  Tait.  The  use  of  the  fish-back  galvanometer-needle 
{i.e.  a  needle  made  up  of  a  number  of  separate  parallel 
needles)  was  not  an  invention  of  M.  Deprez,  at  least  not 
an  original  invention  ;  for  the  writer  used,  more  than 
twelve  years  ago,  a  galvanometer  fitted  with  a  needle  of 
this  sort,  which  had  been  constructed  for  the  B.A.  Com- 
mittee of  1867.  Who  the  inventor  was,  is  doubtful ;  but 
probably  he  took  his  idea  from  the  laminated  magnets 
constructed  by  Jamin  and  others.  Perhaps  the  most 
serious  historical  oversight  is  made  in  §  1274,  where,  in 

M 


242 


NA  TURE 


{July  12, 


speaking  of  the  graphical  characteristic  of  a  dynamo, 
language  is  used  which  would  lead  the  reader  to  infer 
that  this  important  method  in  the  theory  and  practice 
of  electrical  engineering  was  introduced  by  M.  Marcel 
Deprez,  the  fact  being  that  it  was  first  introduced,  fully 
explained,  and  actually  used  by  Dr.  Hopkinson  in  1879. ' 
What  M.  Deprez  did,  was,  we  believe,  simply  to  give  a 
name  to  Hopkinson's  curve,  and  to  further  develop  its 
applications.  It  would  be  easy  to  correct,  in  footnotes 
or  otherwise,  these  and  a  few  similar  small  blots  on  a 
work  which  is,  in  most  respects,  remarkably  fair  and 
cosmopolitan  in  its  history. 

Regarding  the  work  of  the  translator,  we  can,  on  the 
whole,  speak  very  favourably.  There  are,  however,  pas- 
sages here  and  there  which  are  so  inadequately  translated 
that  they  suggest  the  idea  of  an  inferior  assistant  not 
always  sufficiently  overlooked.  Compare,  for  example, 
the  following  piece  of  the  original  with  the  accompanying 
translation : — 

"  Si  la  loi  e'tait  generale,  on  en  conclurait,  pour  le  cas 
de  deux  plateaux  paralleles,  que  la  production  de  l'etin- 
celle  correspond  toujours  a  unememe  valeur  de  la  densite 
electrique  et,  par  suite,  de  la  force  electrique  et  de  la 
pression  electrostatique,  ou,  dans  les  ide"es  de  Maxwell, 
a  un  meme  e"tat  ou  une  meme  energie  spdcifique  du 
milieu  interpose"." 

"  If  the  law  was  general,  we  should  conclude,  for  the 
case  of  two  parallel  plates,  that  the  production  of  elec- 
tricity almost  represents  the  same  value  of  the  electrical 
density,  and  therefore  of  the  electrical  force  and  the 
electrostatic  pressure,  or,  as  in  Maxwell's  views,  to  the 
same  condition  or  the  same  specific  energy  of  the 
interposed  medium." 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  English  passage  is  not  a  trans- 
lation of  the  French,  is  not  English,  and  means  nothing. 
We  mention  this,  by  far  the  worst,  case  of  loose  trans- 
lation that  we  have  noticed,  to  draw  the  attention  of  the 
English  editor  to  the  need  there  is  for  revision.  Such 
corrections  as  are  absolutely  necessary  might  be  given 
on  a  fly-leaf ;  and,  in  order  to  help,  we  mention  a  few 
things  that  we  have  noticed.  Some  are  misprints,  some 
wrong,  some  merely  doubtful. 

P-  39)  "compass  of  horizontal  intensity"  ? 

P.  41,  "  observations  "  (oscillations  ?) 

P.  48,  "collate"  (collect?) 

P.  50,  "  bodies  of  easy  construction  "  ? 

P.  237,  "combine  the  experiment"? 

P.  293,  "  but  they  are  not  sufficiently  so,  &c.  "  ? 

P-  557)  "  residues  of  the  Leyden  jar"  ? 

P-  577)  "  induced  charges"  (decharges  induites)  ? 

P.  578,  "  to  make  the  co?tstant  of  the  ballastic  galvano- 
meter "  (faire  la  tare  :  why  use  tare  ?     Tare  is  English). 

P.  878,  "regulation  of  a  galvanometer"  (tarage  d'un 
galvanometre)  ? 

Notwithstanding  minor  shortcomings,  this  English 
translation  of  the  work  of  MM.  Mascart  and  Joubert 
will  be  of  great  use  to  English  readers  ;  and  we  hope 
that  it  will  not  be  thought  that,  by  calling  attention  to 
inaccuracies  here  and  there,  we  mean  to  depreciate  the 
labour  of  the  editor,  or  to  undervalue  the  debt  which  the 
English  scientific  public  owes  him  for  rendering  more 
accessible  one  of  the  most  important  electrical  treatises 
of  the  day.  G.  C. 

1  See  his  papers  in  the  Poceefngs  of  the  Institution  o."  Mechanical 
Engineers,  April  1879  anJ  Ap.il  iS^o. 


SYNOPTICAL  FLORA  OF  NORTH  AMERICA. 
Synoptical  Flora  of  North  America :  the  Gamopetalar. 
A  Second  Edition  of  Vol.  I.  Part  2,  and  Vol.  II.  Part  1, 
collected.  By  Asa  Gray,  LL.D.  Large  8vo.  480  4* 
494  pp.  (Washington  :  Published  by  the  Smithsonian 
Institution,  1888.) 
'  I  'HE  first  feeling  which  the  sight  of  this  book  re- 
*■  awakens  in  the  mind  is  one  of  deep  regret  that 
Prof.  Asa  Gray  did  not  live  to  carry  out  the  plans  he 
had  entertained  so  long  for  an  elaboration  of  a  complete 
flora  of  Temperate  North  America  upon  one  uniform  plan. 
A  work  of  this  scope  was  planned  by  Dr.  Torrey  and 
himself  when  he  was  quite  a  young  man,  and  the  first  part 
appeared  as  long  ago  as  1838.  It  was  soon  found  by  the 
anthers  that  it  was  impossible  to  identify  satisfactorily  the 
plants  which  had  been  named  by  their  predecessors 
without  studying  the  European  Herbaria;  and  in  order  to 
do  this  Dr.  Gray  spent  a  year  in  Europe  in  1838-39. 
Another  instalment,  which  extended  to  the  end  of  Poly- 
petalse,  was  published  in  1840,  and  the  remainder  of  the 
first  volume,  extending  to  the  end  of  Composite,  in  1842. 
Then  Dr.  Gray  accepted  the  post  of  Fisher  Professor  of 
Natural  History  in  the  University  of  Harvard,  and  what 
with  teaching  and  herbarium  work,  and  the  preparation 
of  the  successive  five  editions  of  his  "  Flora  of  the 
Northern  United  States,"  and  the  elaboration  of  the  new 
collections  that  poured  in  as  fresh  territories  were  ex- 
plored and  settled,  his  time  was  fully  occupied  for 
thirty-five  years.  In  1878  he  returned  to  the  more 
comprehensive  work,  and  in  that  year  published  the 
first  part  of  the  second  volume,  which  includes  the  re- 
maining orders  of  Gamopetalae,  from  Goodeniaceae  to 
Plantaginaceae.  In  1884  he  issued  a  revised  edition  of 
the  part  devoted  to  the  Composite  and  small  allied 
orders.  The  work  we  have  now  before  us  is  a  re- 
print of  the  whole  of  the  Gamopetalae,  with  two  sup- 
plements, embodying  additions  and  corrections  up  to  the 
end  of  1885.  Although  the  title-page  bears  the  date  of 
1888,  it  was  really  issued,  as  the  secondary  title-page 
indicates,  in  January  1886,  and  we  have  had  it  in  use  at 
Kew  for  a  couple  of  years.  The  present  volume,  there- 
fore, covers  the  central  third,  brought  up  to  date,  of  the 
complete  undertaking  as  planned  ;  and  at  the  beginning 
the  Polypetalous  Dicotyledons  are  still  left  as  they  stood 
in  1840,  except  for  the  most  useful  bibliographical  index, 
brought  up  to  date,  which  Dr.  Sereno  Watson  issued  in 
1878;  and  the  Incompletae  and  Monocotyledons,  to 
which  Dr.  Watson  has  happily  devoted  special  attention 
during  many  years,  have  still  to  be  dealt  with. 

The  flora  of  Temperate  North  America  contains 
about  the  same  number  of  species  as  that  of  the  whole  of 
Europe,  but  of  course  the  orders  are  to  a  certain  extent 
different,  and  others  enter  in  the  two  floras  in  very 
different  proportions.  In  the  present  work  there  are 
described  3521  species  of  Gamopetalous  Dicotyledons,  of 
which  all  but  162  are  indigenous.  They  fall  under  562 
genera,  of  which  520  are  native.  The  American  Com- 
positae  alone,  1636  species,  far  more  than  outnumber  tl 
whole  Phanerogamic  flora  of  Britain.  Next  to'^Cor 
positse  come  Scrophulariaceae,  represented  by  367  sp 
cies  and  38  genera.  Of  Hydrophyllaceae,  an  order  near 
restricted  to  North  America,  there  are  129  species 
14  genera  ;    of  Polemoniaceae,  another  nearly'  endemi 


July  12,  1888] 


NATURE 


243 


order,  there  are  133  species.  The  more  tropical  cha- 
racter of  the  North  American,  as  compared  with  the 
European,  flora,  is  shown  by  the  presence  of  44  non- 
stellate  Rubiaceae,  9  Sapotaceae,  97  Asclepiadaceas,  6 
Bignoniaceae,  and  41  Acanthaceae.  To  get  such  a  large 
number  of  plants  worked  up  by  such  a  model  systematist 
as  Dr.  Gray  is  an  enormous  boon  to  all  species 
botanists.  A  great  many  of  the  species  are  here  de- 
scribed for  the  first  time  ;  and  a  still  larger  proportion 
have  only  been  previously  noticed  in  scattered  unclassi- 
fied papers.  A  large  number  of  the  best-known  North 
American  plants  cultivated  in  our  gardens  belong  to 
Gamopetalas  ;  and  to  have  such  genera  as  Aster,  Solidago, 
Helianthus,  Pentstemon,  Phacelia,  and  Gilia,  put  in  order 
and  brought  up  to  date  will  be  a  great  saving  of  time  and 
trouble,  and  make  the  book  essential,  not  only  to  botanists, 
but  to  all  owners  of  gardens  who  wish  to  understand  the 
characters,  affinities,  and  geographical  distribution  of  the 
plants  they  grow. 

In    arranging  their  material  the   authors   of  the  four 
great  recent  descriptive  local  floras  have  followed  four 
different   plans.      In   Bentham's    "Flora   Australiensis" 
there  is,  under  each  genus,  an  initial  analytical  key,  in 
which   each  species  is  distinguished,  and  afterwards  a 
single  detailed  description  of  each  species  and  its  varie- 
ties.    The  8500  species  of  the  Australian  flora,  described 
after   this   plan,  fill   seven  volumes  of  from  500  to  800 
pages  each.     In  Boissier's  "  Flora  Orientalis"  the  initial 
key  only  goes  down  to  the  sections,  and  there  is  a  less 
detailed  single  description  given  of  each  species.     The 
number  of  species  is  about  10,000,  and  the  whole  work 
runs  on  to  five  large  volumes  of  about  1000  pages  each. 
In   Sir  J.  D.  Hooker's  "  Flora  Indica"  there  is  no  initial 
key,  but  sub-genera  and  groups  are  briefly  characterized, 
and  under  each  species  is  given  both  a  compact  diag- 
nosis and  brief  description.      Under  this  plan  the  10,000 
Dicotyledons  of  India  fill  five  octavo  volumes  of  700  to 
800   pages  each.     Dr.   Gray  gives  no  initial  key,  more 
detailed  characters  of  sub-genera  and  groups,  and  under 
each  species  a  single  short  description.     Under  this  plan 
the  3500  Gamopetalae  fill  a  book  of  970  larger  pages.    It  is 
an  omission,  we  think,  that  Dr.  Gray  has  not  numbered 
his  species,  for,  in  referring  from  the  book  to  the  herbarium 
and  back  again,  such  numbers  are  a  very  useful  guide. 
Mr.  Bentham,  Sir  J.  D.  Hooker,  and  Dr.  Gray  all  three 
adopt  the  same  comprehensive  idea  of  what  constitutes  a 
species,  and  use  substantially  the  same  orders  and  genera, 
and  the  same  plan  of  nomenclature ;    and  it  is  a  very 
great  convenience  in  herbarium  work  that  these  three 
jjreat  floras  have  been  treated  upon  one  uniform  system. 
Our  best  sympathies  are  with  the  American  botanists 
in  the  great  loss  they  have  sustained.     In  securing  such 
a  competent  assistant  as  Dr.  Sereno  Watson,  Dr.  Gray 
was  very  fortunate,  and  we  trust  that  the  material  for  the 
two  other  volumes  is  in  such  an  advanced  state  of  pre- 
paration that  they  may  be  published  under  his  editorship 
before  long.     We  European  botanists  have  great  reason 
to  thank  the  managers  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  for 
their  liberality  in  granting  funds  for  the  book.     What  a 
boon  it   would  be  if  we  could  have  a  general  flora  of 
Europe  planned  upon  the  same  lines ;  but  with  all  our 

reat  Universities  and  Herbaria  this  does  not  at  present 
seem  at  all  likely.  J.  G.  Baker. 


HYDROD  YNAMICS. 
Treatise  on  Hydrodynamics.     Vol.  I.     By  A.  B.  Basset. 
(Cambridge  :  Deighton,  Bell,  and  Co.   London  :  George 
Bell  and  Sons.     1888.) 

THIS  book  deserves  to  be  most  warmly  received  by  all 
who  are  interested  in  this  branch  of  mathematics,  in 
which  remarkably  rapid  progress  has  been  made  of  late 
years.  For  some  time  past  a  constant  and  familiar  acquaint- 
ance with  the  Proceedings  of  learned  Societies  has  been 
necessary  to  enable  students  to  keep  abreast  with  the  sub- 
ject ;  and  the  author  has  performed  real  service  in  incor- 
porating in  his  work  many  important  results  and  memoirs. 
This  volume,  which  is  to  be  followed  by  a  second,  con- 
tains the  general  equations  of  motion,  with  the  auxiliary 
discussions  of  vortex  and  irrotational  motion,  and  also 
the  theory  of  motion  of  solids  in  a  fluid,  in  which  both 
the  hydrodynamical  and  the  dynamical  effects  of  the 
motion  are  very  fully  discussed.  The  chapter  on  the 
equations  of  motion  is  noticeable  for  the  introduc- 
tion of  Clebsch's  transformation,  proving  the  perman- 
ency of  vortex  lines  and  vortex  sheets,  and  for  the 
application  of  the  principles  of  least  action  and  energy. 
Students  are  apt  to  lose  sight  of  general  dynamical 
principles  in  the  not  inconsiderable  difficulties  of  pure 
analysis  that  attend  this  subject ;  and  it  is  well  they 
should  be  aided  to  bear  in  mind  that  their  symbols  are 
after  all  intended  to  represent  physical  phenomena,  while 
it  adds  considerably  to  the  interest  of  the  subject  to 
exhibit  its  analogies  with  kindred  physical  principles. 
But  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  in  this  chapter  the  author 
has  not  removed  the  obscurity  which  arises  from  the  fact 
that  the  equations  of  motion  can  be  obtained  in  the  same 
form  by  either  a  Lagrangian  or  an  Eulerian  method.  The 
device  of  endowing  each  particle  of  fluid  with  co-ordinate 
axes,  all  its  own,  marks  the  first  method  ;  the  observation 
of  fluxes  at  a  certain  point  of  space  is  the  distinguishing 
feature  of  the  second.  To  identify  the  results  thus 
obtained  (as  e.g.  in  the  equations  of  motion  in  spherical 
co-ordinates)  is  justifiable,  but  will  certainly  lead  to  much 
misapprehension  at  the  outset. 

A  chapter  on  images  and  doublets  is  useful  as  collecting 
together  what  must  otherwise  be  introduced  in  a  random 
manner.  The  discussion  of  motion  in  two  dimensions  is 
as  complete  as  the  limited  number  of  cases  that  are 
soluble  will  allow ;  several  new  cases,  not  previously 
fourtd  in  the  text-books,  illustrate  the  increasing  difficulty 
of  the  analysis.  In  dealing  with  discontinuous  motions 
the  author  follows  Kirchhoff,  beyond  whose  work  on  this 
question  it  seems  impossible  to  advance. 

The  second  half  of  the  book,  treating  of  the  motion  of 
solids  in  a  fluid,  is  singularly  interesting,  and  contains  the 
last  contributions  to  the  dynamical  theory,  which  are  due 
to  the  author  himself.  These  are  marked  by  great 
generality  of  treatment  and  power  of  anal)  sis,  but  we  fear 
the  complexity  of  the  results  will  prevent  their  being 
generally  appreciated. 

In  dealing  with  the  velocity-potential  due  to  the  motion 
of  an  ellipsoid,  it  would  appear  that  the  most  direct  and 
general  method  of  obtaining  the  result  in  every  case  is 
to  form  Laplace's  equation  in  ellipsoidal  co-ordinates  ; 
instead  of  this  the  author  has  recourse  to  formulae  in  the 
theory  of  attraction,  which  need  modification  to  suit  each 
special  case. 


244 


NA  TURE 


{July  12,  1888 


A  chapter  on  the  motion  of  two  spheres  indicates  the 
attention  given  to  this  problem  of  late  years,  and  may  also 
serve  as  a  warning  of  its  hopelessness.  The  anticipations 
of  its  yielding  an  explanation  of  magnetic  phenomena,  to 
which  the  first  experiments  by  Bjerknes  gave  rise,  have 
been  dissipated  by  the  exhaustive  mathematical  treatment 
it  has  received. 

The  excellence  of  this  work  leads  us  to  look  forward 
with  great  interest  to  the  publication  of  the  second  volume, 
which  will  deal  with  fresher  and  more  suggestive  portions 
of  the  subject ;  and  the  two  volumes  together  will  prove 
of  very  great  use  to  every  student.  The  words  on  the 
title-page,  "  with  numerous  examples,"  strike  us  as  below 
the  dignity  of  a  subject  like  hydrodynamics.  The  book 
will  certainly  be  appreciated  for  its  own  merits  even  more 
than  for  its  examination  usefulness,  to  which  aim  too 
many  books  conform. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Sierra  Leone ;  or,  the   White  Man's   Grave.     By   G.  A. 

Lethbridge  Banbury.     (London  :  Swan  Sonnenschein, 

Lowrey,  and  Co.,  1888.)  , 

The  author  of  this  book  explains  that  he  does  not  offer  it 
as  ''  one  of  travel  over  unknown  ground  "  or  "  as  one  of 
dangerous  adventures  and  hardships."  His  aim  simply 
is  to  bring  before  his  readers  a  description  of  an  English- 
man's life  in  "  the  most  interesting  but  deadly  colony  of 
Sierra  Leone."  He  has  done  his  work  well,  and  the  book 
will  be  cordially  welcomed  by  all  who  have  any  special 
reason  for  wishing  to  obtain  clear  and  accurate  informa- 
tion about  this  part  of  the  West  African  coast.  The 
volume  consists  chiefly  of  letters  written  while  Mr.  Ban- 
bury was  at  Sierra  Leone,  and  has  therefore  a  freshness 
and  vividness  which  it  would  have  been  hard  for  him  to 
match  in  a  more  elaborate  and  formal  work.  The  most 
valuable  chapters  are  those  in  which  he  sets  forth  the 
impressions  produced  upon  him  by  the  natives,  in  whose 
ideas  and  customs,  as  here  depicted,  there  is  an  odd 
mixture  of  Christianity  and  the  lowest  forms  of  paganism. 
Mr.  Banbury  has  a  strong  belief  in  the  power  of  education 
to  improve  the  character  of  the  native  population,  and  he 
urges  that  more  strenuous  efforts  should  be  made  for  the 
establishment  of  proper  schools.  It  is  tolerably  certain 
that  if  permanent  good  cannot  be  done  to  the  colony  by 
this  means  there  is  no  other  way  in  which  real  progress 
can  be  secured,  for,  as  Mr.  Banbury  points  out,  the  un- 
healthiness  of  the  climate  prevents  any  large  increase  of 
the  number  of  European  settlers. 

Nature's  Fairy-Land :  Rambles  by  Woodland,  Meadow, 
Stream,  and  Shore.  By  H.  W.  S.  Worsley-Benison. 
(London  :  Elliot  Stock,  1888.) 
This  book  consists  of  a  series  of  papers  selected  from  a 
considerable  number  which  have  appeared  in  various 
periodicals.  The  author  has  a  clear,  pleasant  style,  and 
his  vivid  descriptions  and  explanations  are  well  adapted  to 
awaken  in  the  minds  of  young  readers  a  genuine  interest 
in  various  aspects  of  scientific  truth.  The  volume  opens 
with  an  attractive  paper  on  "  The  Journeyings  of  the  Rain 
Drops,"  and  this  is  followed  by  papers  entitled  "  From 
Root  to  Flower,"  "  Out  Among  the  Gorse,"  and  "  Com- 
panions of  the  Corn."  These  three  papers  serve  as  an 
introduction  to  other  chapters  on  plant-life.  There  are 
also  interesting  essays  on  such  subjects  as  shells  and 
shell-builders,  spiders,  and  the  nests  of  fishes. 

Lessons  in  Elementary  Mechanics.     By  W.   H.   Grieve, 

P.S.A.     (London:  Longmans,  Green  and  Co.,  1888.) 
The  second  stage  of  mechanics  is  alone  dealt  with  here, 
and  throughout,  the  author  has  rendered  the  various  forces 


which  produce  motion,  together  with  the  laws  which 
regulate  those  forces,  in  a  clear  and  simp'e  style  ;  the 
illustrations  are  numerous,  and  are  specially  adapted  to 
an  elementary  course.  The  work  is  suited  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  second  stage  of  the  revised  code,  and  the 
arrangement  of  the  chapters  is  the  same  as  that  in  the 
Syllabus  of  Instruction  adopted  by  the  London  School 
Board.  The  examples  at  the  end  of  each  chapter  are 
instructive  and  well  chosen,  and  the  book  concludes  with 
a  series  of  examination  papers  and  results  to  the 
numerical  questions. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
of  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations..] 

Photography  of  Lightning. 

So  much  interest  is  being  taken  at  the  present  time  in  obtain- 
ing photographs  of  lightning  flashes,  that  perhaps  some  one 
would  be  willing  to  take  the  necessary  trouble,  and  use  a 
moving  camera.  A  camera  revolving  or  vibrating  at  any 
ordinary  pace  would  probably  give  each  single  flash  unaltered, 
but  it  might  analyse  multiple  and  complex  flashes  into  their 
constituents. 

The  eye  is  so  easily  deceived  as  to  what  is  really  happening  in 
these  sudden  effects  that  very  erroneous  views  may  easily  be 
formed,  and  indeed  are  in  some  quarters  now  prevalent. 

Whether  it  is  better  to  make  the  camera  revolve  as  a  whole, 
or  only  the  sensitive  plate,  or  whether  a  revolving  mirror  should 
be  used  with  a  stationary  camera,  are  questions  for  experience 
to  decide. 

One  good  method,  if  not  too  troublesome  in  practice,  would 
be  to  arrange  a  double  camera,  with  component  axes  parallel,  so 
as  to  photograph  the  same  flash  in  both  halves,  but  with  the 
sensitive  plate  of  one  fixed,  of  the  other  rapidly  revolving. 
Appearances  really  due  to  succession  in  time  could  be  then  easily 
distinguished,  and  might  be  capable  of  interpretation. 

July  10.  Oliver  J.  Lodge. 

Micromillimetre. 

I  AM  glad  that  the  Council  and  Fellows  of  the  Royal  Micro- 
scopical Society  have  seen  their  way  to  the  adoption  of  the  word 
micron,  but  the  letter  in  which  Mr.  Crisp  announces  this  decision 
to  you  is  not,  I  think,  calculated  to  give  a  correct  impression  of 
the  circumstances  under  which  it  was  taken. 

Firstly,  I  need  hardly  say  that  I  did  not  take  exception  to 
the  word  micromillimetre,  but  to  its  use  as  equivalent  to  the 
thousandth  of  a  millimetre. 

In  the  next  place,  I  wrote  to  the  Secretaries  of  the  Royal 
Microscopical  Society  on  behalf  of  the  Council  of  the  Physical 
Society,  of  which  no  mention  is  made  by  Mr.  Crisp. 

Thirdly,  the  proposal  of  the  Council  of  the  Physical  Society  was 
that  the  word  microti  should  be  adopted. 

Lastly,  I  am  myself  quite  in  favour  of  this  course,  and  in  fact 
moved  its  adoption  by  the  Physical  Society. 

The  word  micrometre  must  in  accordance  with  the  rules  of  the 
B.A.  Committee  be  a  possible  alternative  just  as  a  cubic  decimetre 
is  alternative  to  a  litre,  and  I  think  the  disadvantage  of  the 
multiplication  of  special  names  not  based  on  a  uniform  system  is 
nearly  as  great  as  that  of  the  possible  occasional  confusion 
between  micrometre  and  micrometer.  This  is  however  a  little 
matter  as  compared  with  the  use  of  micromillimetre  in  two 
different  senses,  and  the  official  sanction  of  micron  by  the 
French  authorities  (of  which  I  was  not  aware  when  I  originally 
wrote  to  you)  is  quite  sufficient  to  turn  the  scale  in  its  favour. 

As  some  of  your  readers  may  not  have  seen  the  previous 
correspondence,  will  you  allow  me  in  conclusion  to  state  that  it 
is  now  generally  agreed, 

(1)  That  the  thousandth  of  a  millimetre  shall  be  called  a 
micron  and  denoted  by  /x. 

(2)  That  the  millionth  of  a  millimetre  shall  be  called  the 
micromillimetre  and  denoted  by  fx.  yu. 

Arthur  W.  Rucker. 


July  12,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


245 


Distribution  of  Animals  and  Plants  by  Ocean  Currents. 

I  BEG  to  forward  you  herewith  some  extracts  from  a  letter  just 
received  from  Port  Elizabeth,  South  Africa,  which,  I  think, 
cannot  fail  to  interest  your  readers  in  connection  with  Darwin's 
theory  of  the  distribution  of  animals  and  plants  in  some  cases 
by  ocean  currents.     My  correspondent  writes  : — 

"  About  the  beginning  of  the  year  1 887  the  attention  of  the  public 
of  Port  Elizabeth  wasaroused  by  finding  a  quantity  of  pumice-stone 
washed  up  upon  the  shores  of  the  bay,  showing  volcanic  action. 
Some  of  the  pieces  were  covered  with  barnacles  of  a  few  months' 
growth,  and  others  appeared  as  though  a  mass  of  vitrified  matter 
had  been  poured  upon  them.  At  the  same  time,  shipmasters 
stated  that  they  had  seen  large  masses  floating  upon  the  sea  as 
they  approached  the  east  coast  of  Africa.  Strange  fish  also  made 
their  appearance  in  our  waters,  and,  among  the  number,  two 
large  specimens  of  the  ox-ray  species  were  found  washed  up 
upon  the  rocks.  But  more  remarkable  was  the  discovery  of  four 
venomous  sea-snakes  about  18  inches  long,  the  bodies  marked 
black  above  and  yellow  below,  answering  the  description  of  the 
Pelamis  bicolor  usually  to  be  found  about  the  coasts  of  Sumatra, 
Java,  and  the  adjacent  isles,  and  which  must  have  followed  the 
floating  debris.  One  of  these  snakes  was  still  alive  when  found, 
although  it  did  not  long  survive,  and  one  of  the  others  was  in  a 
sufficient  state  of  preservation  to  be  sent  to  the  Museum.  What 
will  prove  more  interesting  still,  is  the  discovery  of  a  large  seed 
resembling  a  cocoa-nut,  which  was  picked  up  about  the  same 
time,  of  which  Mr.  Russell  Hallack,  of  Port  Elizabeth,  gives 
the  following  description  : — 

"  '  About  the  latter  end  of  1886  a  large  husky  fruit  was  picked 
up.  It  resembled  a  square  cocoa-nut  of  4  inches  cube,  not  quite 
so  deep  as  broad  and  long.  Inside  this  husk,  which  was  more 
cork-like  than  fibrous,  was  a  solitary  nut,  about  if  inch  round, 
melon-shaped,  with  fluted  outside,  covered  with  a  coating  re- 
sembling potato-peel.  This  nut  had  been  bitten  by  the  boy  who 
found  it,  but  whether  the  taste  was  not  to  his  liking,  or  for  some 
other  reason,  he  was  persuaded  to  give  the  remains  to  the  gar- 
dener of  the  north-end  park,  who  planted  it.  In  due  time  the 
shoot  came  up  like  a  potato-plant  with  small  leaves.  The  plant 
is  now  about  4  feet  high,  and  the  small  leaves  have  developed 
into  grand  foliage  20  inches  long  by  7  or  8  broad.  It  is  sup- 
posed to  be  the  Barrin«tonia  speciosa,  a  native  of  the  East 
Indies.  A  smaller  variety,  the  B.  racemosa,  is  said  to  exist  in 
Natal  and  the  east  coast  of  Africa,  but  is  easily  distinguished 
from  this  by  the  smallness  of  its  fruit.  The  B.  speciosa  belongs 
to  the  myrtle  tribe,  but  differs  from  the  ordinary  type  in  having 
this  large,  one-sided,  corky  husked  fruit ;  it  is  one  of  the  hand- 
somest of  its  tribe,  and  in  the  Moluccas  attains  the  height  of 
40  or  50  feet,  with  a  circumference  of  10  to  14  feet.  It  is 
generally  found  near  the  sea.'  " 

The  suggestion  is  that  this  nut,  as  well  as  the  snakes,  the 
strange  fish,  and  the  pumice-stone,  are  all  relics  of  the  great 
Krakatab  eruption  in  1883,  and  that  they  had  drifted  about  till 
the  beginning  of  1887,  till  thrown  upon  the  coast  of  South 
Africa.  If  this  be  really  the  case,  the  tenacity  of  life  in  the 
snakes  and  the  nut  is  truly  remarkable,  and,  as  my  corre- 
spondent adds  :  "Surely  some  of  this  debris  must  have  been 
deposited  on  the  island  shores  visited  by  these  currents,  and  if 
we  could  only  become  acquainted  with  the  date  of  their  appear- 
ance upon  each,  some  idea  might  be  formed  as  to  the  course 
taken  by  these  plants,  &c,  in  their  journey  to  Southern  Africa." 
I  find,  by  a  reference  to  the  back  numbers  of  Nature,  that 
the  pumice  has  been  traced  to  the  east  coast  of  Africa,  leaving 
portions  on  various  islands  en  route,  and  that  some  of  it  was 
timed  to  reach  the  west  coast  of  America  at  Panama  in  1886  ; 
but  nowhere  do  I  find  any  notice,  except  that  given  above,  of 
animal  or  vegetable  debris  accompanying  the  masses  of  pumice. 
Perhaps  the  publication  of  these  interesting  facts  may  call  forth 
similar  observations  from  some  of  the  Pacific  Islands. 

A.  W.  BUCKLAND. 

Watches  and  the  Weather. 

My  neighbours,  Messrs.  Jacob  and  Ross,  watchmakers,  often 
tell  me  their  experiences  in  the  breaking  of  mainsprings. 

Unreflecting  people  fancy  they  have  broken  the  spring  by 
over-winding,  or  in  other  words  have  drawn  asunder  a  piece  of 
steel  by  the  force  of  finger  and  thumb. 

The  springs  of  course  break  through  a  subtle  molecular  change 
produced  in  the  steel  by  atmospheric  causes  :  they  usually  fly 
asunder  a  few  hours  after  being  wound,  at  3  or  4  o'clock  in  the 


morning.  Many  watches  and  clocks  come  to  the  workshops  for 
new  springs  after  a  frost,  but  not  until  a  thaw  has  set  in  ;  still 
more  come  after  thunderstorms. 

This  morning  a  clock  spring  was  taken  out  of  its  box,  which 
had  overstrained  itself  at  one  moment  into  seventeen  pieces, 
there  was  a  complete  fracture  in  each  coil  along  a  radial  line 
from  the  centre.  Some  time  back  one  was  found  with  three 
such  radial  lines  of  fracture. 

Of  course  this  subject  is  not  new,  but  it  gains  by  recorded 
experiences.  W.  B.  C'ROFT. 

The  College,  Winchester,  July  9. 


Preserving  the  Colour  of  Flowers. 

I  SHOULD  be  greatly  obliged  if  some  of  your  readers  would 
inform  me  how  to  preserve  the  colour  of  those  flowers  prone  to 
fade  during  and  after  pressing. 

In  a  local  paper  I  saw  an  extract  from  the  Pharmaceutical 
yournal,  in  which  salicylic  acid  was  recommended.  I  have 
tried  it  both  as  powder  and  in  solution  in  spirit  ;  in  either  case 
it  had  a  great  tendency — except  in  the  case  of  yellow  flowers — 
to  change  the  colour  to  either  a  bright  scarlet  or  to  a  light 
brown.  A.  W. 

[There  is  no  difficulty  in  preserving  the  colour  of  yellow  flowers 
if  they  are  properly  dried  by  the  ordinary  method,  i.e.  in  ab- 
sorbent paper,  changed  at  the  end  of  the  first  day,  and  once  or 
twice  afterwards.  It  is  very  difficult  to  prevent  such  plants  as 
Pedicularis,  Bartsia,  and  Melampyrum  turning  black.  See  an 
account  of  a  plan  recently  tried  in  Germany  by  Schbnland,  in 
Annals  of  Botany,  vol.  i.  p.  178,  1887. — J.  G.  Baker.] 


THE  LIFE  STATISTICS  OF  AN  INDIAN 
PRO  VINCE. 

COME  years  ago,  in  this  journal  (vol.  xxix.  p.  338),  I 
"H*  published  a  short  article  on  the  intimate  relations 
which  subsist  between  meteoiological  conditions  and  the 
statistics  of  death  and  crime  in  India.  In  this  it  was 
incidentally  mentioned  that,  imperfect  as  they  were,  the 
vital  statistics  of  the  North-West  Provinces  and  Oudh  were 
at  that  time  more  to  be  depended  on  than  those  of  any 
other  province  in  India,  thanks  to  the  unremitting  atten- 
tion paid  to  the  subject  of  registration  by  the  late  Sanitary 
Commissioner,  Dr.  Planck  ;  and  though  they  have  not 
sensibly  improved  since  1884,  but  perhaps  rather  fallen 
off  in  accuracy,  the  birth  and  death  registers  of  these 
provinces  are  still  undoubtedly  better  than  any  others 
in  India  embracing  an  equal  population. 

As  ten  complete  years  have  now  elapsed  since  the 
amalgamation  of  the  two  provinces,  which  together  con- 
tain a  larger  population  than  any  European  country 
except  Russia,  and  as  similar  statistics  are  not  at  present 
obtainable  from  any  other  Oriental  country  but  India,  it 
may  be  of  interest  to  compare  some  of  the  conditions  of 
life  revealed  by  them  with  those  obtaining  in  the  more 
favoured  countries  of  the  West.  That  India  has  a  high 
death-rate,  owing  to  the  unhealthiness  of  the  prevailing 
climatic  conditions  and  imperfect  sanitation,  as  well  as  to 
the  low  vitality  of  the  mass  of  the  people  consequent  upon 
superabundant  population  and  insufficient  food,  is  univers- 
ally understood  ;  but  there  is  no  proper  appreciation  of 
the  marvellous  recuperative  power  of  a  population  among 
whom  prudential  restraints  on  increase  are  unknown,  and 
where  almost  every  woman  has  been  married  in  child- 
hood, and  commences  to  bear  children  at  the  age  of 
fourteen  or  fifteen  years.  It  may  be  said  with  almost 
absolute  truth  that  there  are  not  only  no  old  maids  in 
India,  but  no  unmarried  women  above  the  age  of 
puberty,  except  the  unfortunate  class  of  Hindu  widows  of 
the  higher  castes,  who  are  not  permitted  to  marry  again ; 
but  though  this  class  appeals  in  many  ways  to  our 
sympathies,  it  is  of  very  slight  importance  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  increase  of  population,  the  widows  of 
child-bearing  age  amounting  to  only  9  per  cent,  of  the 


246 


NATURE 


[July 


12,  1 


total  number  of  females  of  the  same  age — a  proportion 
which  compares  very  favourably  with  that  of  widows  and 
spinsters  in  England.  This  wonderful  power  of  rapid 
recovery  after  decimation  by  famine  or  pestilence  will  be 
fully  exhibited  in  the  tables  given  below. 

The  registration  of  deaths  was  in  regular  operation 
for  several  years,  both  in  the  North-West  Provinces  and 
in  Oudh,  before  the  two  were  united  under  one  administra- 
tion in  1877.  That  of  births  was  first  introduced  generally 
in  1879,  though  it  had  been  tentatively  commenced  in 
municipalities  and  cantonments  some  time  previously. 
We  have  therefore  now  (February  1888)  ten  complete 
years'  death  statistics  for  the  united  provinces,  of  a  fairly 
uniform  degree  of  accuracy,  and  nine  years'  registers  of 
births,  decidedly  improving  in  completeness  and  accuracy 
for  the  first  five  or  six  years.  The  births  for  the  first  year 
of  the  ten — 1878 — may  also  be  approximately  arrived  at  by 
a  proportionate  computation  from  those  registered  that 
year  in  municipalities.  The  total  number  of  births  of 
each  of  the  ten  years,  was  as 


each   sex, 

registered   i 

follows  : — 

Year. 

Males. 

1878 

...         667,975* 

1879 

669,921 

1880 

••■       747,953 

l88l 

948,191 

1882 

...       875,616 

1883 

...       95°>932 

1884 

...    1,015,699 

1885 

•  ••      957,672 

1886 

...       874,099 

1887 

902,844 

No.  of  Males 

to  100  Females 

54f,285* 

I2250 

555,9n 

120-51 

642,826 

116-34 

831,282 

1 1406 

780,543 

II2l8 

850,469 

m-8i 

915,262 

110-98 

861,609 

111-15 

785,433 

111-28 

805,891 

112-03 

,574,5U 

...       113-68 

Total       8,610,902 

An  inspection  of  the  last  column  shows  that  these 
numbers  require  to  be  corrected,  not  only  by  an  allowance 
for  general  incompleteness  of  the  records,  but  by  a  special 
addition  to  counteract  the  tendency  to  omit  females. 
During  the  first  seven  years  this  tendency  diminished  as 
registration  improved,  and  the  numbers  of  the  two  sexes 
approximated  more  and  more  to  equality  ;  but  even 
with  the  most  intelligent  and  careful  recording 
agency,  the  true  ratio  between  the  sexes  at  birth 
will  never  be  attained  in  the  records  until  the  opinion 
of  the  mass  of  the  people  on  the  relative  values  of 
male  and  female  life  has  undergone  a  complete  altera- 
tion. The  ratios  for  the  first  seven  or  eight  years  inj 
the  table  give  a  curve  apparently  asymptotic  to  a  certaini 
line,  the  ordinate  of  which  would  stand  for  the  ratio 
attainable  by  the  greatest  care  in  registration  under  the 
present  conditions.     Representing  the  above  ratios  for 

b  . 
the  first  eight  years  by  the  formula,  a  +   y,  where  /  is 

counted  in  years  from  1877,  we  find  the  ordinate  of  the 
asymptote,  rt,  to  be  108-57.  In  the  provinces  there  are, 
however,  two  districts  in  which  the  numbers  born  of  the 
two  sexes  invariably  approach  much  more  nearly  to 
equality.  One  is  Garhwal,  a  Himalayan  district  inhabited 
by  an  unsophisticated  people  who  claim  to  be  Rajputs, 
but  are  probably  of  aboriginal  descent,  and  who  have 
never  come  under  Muhammadan  influence  in  any  way,  or 
acquired  the  custom  of  paying  a  heavy  dowry  with  the 
bride,  which  is  the  cause  of  female  infanticide  among 
many  of  the  higher  castes.  The  other  is  Lalitpur,  in  the 
extreme  south,  where  the  inhabitants  are  chiefly  Chamdrs 
and  other  low  castes,  who  have  never  concealed  their 
women  or  practised  infanticide,  and  amongst  many  of 
whom  the  bridegroom's  family  pay  for  the  bride.  The 
statistics  for  these  two  districts  give  a  series  of  ratios 
represented  by  a  curve  whose  asymptote  has  an  ordinate 
of  ioo'oo,  or  which  points  ultimately  to  exact  equality 
between  the  sexes.  In  like  manner,  if  we  select  for  each 
year  that  district  in  which  the  recorded  birth-rate  was 

*  Estimated  from  those  registered  in  municipalities. 


highest,  and  where,  therefore,  the  registration  was  pre- 
sumably most  complete,  we  get  a  curve  pointing  to  an 
ultimate  ratio  of  10278  males  to  100  females.  If  we  take 
the  mean  of  all  three  results,  that  for  Garhwal  and 
Lalitpur  being  probably  below  the  true  average  for  the 
whole  population,  we  get  103-78  males  to  100  females. 
This  comes  very  near  the  ratio  for  England,  which,  I 
believe,  is  between  103  and  104,  and  is  almost  identical 
with  that  deduced  from  the  distribution  of  the  population 
according  to  age  and  sex  at  the  last  two  censuses  of  the 
North- West  Provinces — namely,  103-75.  It  may  therefore 
be  adopted  as  a  close  approximation  to  the  truth,  and  it 
shows  that,  in  regard  to  the  relative  numbers  of  the 
sexes,  human  nature  is  much  the  same  in  the  East  and 
West,  notwithstanding  the  deceptive  appearance  pre- 
sented by  unanalyzed  statistics,  as  well  as  by  public 
gatherings  in  countries  where  respectable  women  seldom 
venture  out  of  doors. 

The  numbers  of  females  in  the  above  table  must  there- 
fore be  all  recast  so  as  to  give  103-78  males  for  every  100 
females. 

This  special  inaccuracy  in  the  birth  tables  being  cor- 
rected, there  remains  the  general  inaccuracy  due  to  in- 
completeness of  the  register,  which  is  common  to  both 
births  and  deaths,  and  has  been  estimated  by  Dr.  Planck, 
after  careful  and  extended  personal  inquiry,  at  20  per 
cent,  of  the  total,  or  one-fourth  of  the  numbers  recorded. 
When  both  causes  of  error  are  allowed  for,  the  total 
number  of  births  in  each  year  will  be  as  in  the  second 
column  of  the  next  table.  The  third  column  gives  the 
recorded  deaths,  increased  by  25  per  cent,  to  make  them 
represent  approximately  the  true  mortality,  and  the  last 
shows  the  increase  or  decrease  of  population  each  year, 
due  to  these  causes.  The  figures  in  this  column  repre- 
sent very  fairly  the  total  gain  or  loss  of  population,  for  the 
number  of  emigrants  is  only  three  or  four  thousand 
annually,  and  this  loss  is  partly  balanced  by  a  return 
migration,  the  numbers  of  which  are  not  known. 


Year. 

Births. 

Deaths. 

Increase. 

1878       . 

■       1,639,544       • 

..       1,902,175      . 

-262,631 

1879       . 

.       1,644,320       . 

..      2,393,124      . 

..       -748,804 

l88o       . 

•       1,835,850       • 

••       1,601,544      . 

..       +234,306 

l88l       . 

•       2,327,335       . 

••       1,753,091       • 

••       +574,244 

1882       . 

.       2,149,219       . 

..       1,856,409      . 

+  292,810 

1883       . 

•       2,334,062       . 

..       1,520,371       . 

+  813,691 

1884      . 

•       2,493,036 

••       1,944,177      • 

••       +548,859 

1885       . 

.       2,350,606       . 

•  •       1,763,299      • 

■•       +587,307 

1886       . 

.       2,145,476       . 

..       1,834,516      . 

+  310,960 

1887       . 

..       2,216,030      . 

■■       1,977,174      • 
18,545,880 

..       +238,856 

otal 

••    21,135,478 

+  2,589,598 

During  the  year  of  scarcity,  1878,  and  that  of  pesti- 
lence, 1S79 — for  the  great  epidemic  of  unprecedentedly 
fatal  malarial  fever  that  year  surely  deserves  the  name 
of  pestilence — the  net  loss  of  population  was  over  a 
million  ;  but  in  the  next  three  years  this  was  fully 
recovered,  and  in  the  succeeding  years  large  numbers 
were  added  to  the  population,  especially  in  the  healthy 
year,  1883.  Thus  the  net  gain  for  the  ten  years,  notwith- 
standing famine  and  pestilence,  was  over  two  millions  and 
a  half,  an  increase  almost  unprecedented  since  the  first 
census  in  i853,anddoubtless  the  result  of  an  unusuallylong 
succession  of  abundant  harvests.  Since  1 885,  however,  the 
increase  has  grown  less  and  less  rapid  ;  and  as  another 
srarcity  is  now  nearly  due,  if  any  trust  may  be  placed  in 
the  average  period  of  the  recurrence  of  droughts  in  the 
past,  it  seems  likely  that  in  the  next  two  or  three  years 
the  increase  may  be  temporarily  stopped. 

With  these  figures,  and  the  fixed  point  given  by  the 
census  of  188 1,  it  is  possible  to  find  the  probable  number 
living  at  the  commencement  of  each  year  from  1878  to 
1888,  and  also  the  mean  birth-  and  death-rate  for  each 
year  of  the  ten.  The  census  was  taken  on  the  night  of 
February  17,  1881,  and  the  total  of  the  people  numbered 


July  12,  1888] 


NATURE 


247 


'.  was  44,107,869.  In  the  Census  Report  it  is,  however, 
shown  that  over  a  million  females  between  the  ages  of  5 
and  20  must  have  escaped  enumeration  ;  and  when 
allowance  is  made  for  them,  the  probable  accurate  total 
comes  out  45,232,391.  During  January  and  the  first 
seventeen  days  of  February  the  increase  was  118,532; 
so  at  the  beginning  of  1881  the  population  stood  at 
45,113,859.  From  this  starting-point  the  following  figures 
have  been  worked  out  : — 

Number  living 
at  Commencement. 
46,794,604 
47.343.463 
47.930,770 
48,241,730 
48,480,586 


y  Number  living 

at  C  immencement. 

1878  ...    45,890,988 

1879  ...    45,628,357 

1880  ...    44,879,553 

1881  ...    45,113,859 

1882  ...    45,688,103 

1883  ...    45,980,913 


Year. 

1884 

1885 
1886 
1887 
1888 


The  mean  number  living  during  the  ten  years  was 
46,478,714. 

The  total  area  of  the  united  provinces  is  given  in  the 
Census  Report  as  106,104  square  miles.  The  population 
is  thus  at  the  present  time  about  457  to  the  square  mile, 
including  in  the  average  the  Himalayan  province  of 
Kumaon,  over  12,000  square  miles  in  area,  where 
the  average  density  is  less  than  90  to  the  square  mile. 
There  is  practically  no  export  trade,  except  in  agricultural 
produce  ;  hence  the  whole  population  is  supported  directly 
or  indirectly  by  the  agriculture  of  the  province  ;  and  there 
is  probably  no  purely  agricultural  country  in  the  world, 
except  perhaps  some  parts  of  China,  where  so  dense  a 
population  is  maintained. 

The  birth-  and  death-rates  and  rate  of  increase  or 
decrease  each  year,  calculated  on  the  usual  basis  of  iooo 
livinsr,  are  given  in  the  next  table. 


Year. 

Birth-Rate. 

Death-Rate. 

Rate  of  Increase 

1878 

••           35-83 

41-57 

-   574 

1879 

3633 

52-88 

-16-55 

1880 

40  54 

35  37 

+  5-i7 

l88l 

51-26 

38-61 

+  12-65 

1882 

46-89 

40-50 

+  6-39 

l883 

5032 

..        3278 

+  17-54 

1884 

5297 

4131 

+  1166 

1885 

49-35 

37'02 

+  1233 

1886 

4472 

38-24 

+   648 

1887 

45-82 

40-88 

+   4-94 

Mean 


45-40 


39  91 


5-49 


The  birth-rate,  even  in  the  worst  years  of  the  ten,  was 
as  high  as  in  England,  while  in  the  best  years  it  was 
about  50  per  cent,  higher.  The  death-rate  averaged 
nearly  forty  per  mi  He,  and  therefore,  notwithstanding  the 
high  birth-rate,  the  population  increased  only  at  the  rate 
of  5'5  per  thousand  per  annum. 

A  glance  at  the  annexed  diagram  will  render  these  data 
more  intelligible.  Fig.  1  exhibits  the  movement  of  the 
total  population  from  year  to  year  ;  and  the  nearly  straight 
line,  marked  Fig.  2,  shows  what  this  movement  would 
have  been  had  it  proceeded  uniformly  at  the  rate  of  5-49 
per  mille  per  annum.  The  curve  has  been  computed  by 
the  formula  P  =  P0r„,  where  n  is  counted  from  the 
beginning  of  1883,  and  consequently  the  ordinate  for 
1883,  P0,  is  the  geometrical  mean  of  all  the  ordinates  of 
Fig.  1.  The  differences  of  the  ordinates  of  the  first  two 
curves  are  charted  in  Fig.  3,  which  therefore  exhibits  the 
extent  to  which  the  actual  population  exceeds  or  falls 
short  of  that  given  by  a  uniform  movement.  This  is 
apparently  a  periodic  function  of  the  time  ;  and  if  so, 
the  period  does  not  differ  much  from  ten  years,  since  the 
last  ordinate  is  only  slightly  greater  than  the  first.  Figs. 
4  and  5  represent  the  birth-  and  death  rates  respectively. 
At  first  sight  these  appear  to  have  no  relation  to  each 
other,  as  concomitant  and  opposed  variations  are  nearly 
equal  in  numbers.  The  years  of  lowest  death-rate,  1880 
and    1883,   were,   however,    followed    by    the   years   of 


highest  birth-rate,  showing  that  healthy  conditions  con- 
duce to  fecundity  as  well  as  diminished  mortality.  An 
exception  to  this  rule  is,  however,  found  in  1879,  which, 
following  a  healthy  year,  should  have  had  a  high  birth- 
rate, but  was  marked  instead  by  a.n  exceptionally  low 
one.  The  year  1878,  though  a  dry  and  very  healthy  year, 
was  one  in  which  the  vitality  of  the  people  reached  a 
low  ebb,  owing  to  long-continued  scarcity,  approaching 
in  some  places  to  famine  ;  for,  though  few  or  none 
actually  died  of  starvation,  millions  were  for  many 
months  at  starvation-point. 

The  annual  rate  of  increase  per  thousand,  shown  in 
Fig.  6,  is  probably  the  best  possible  measure  of  the  general 
well-being  of  the  people,  combining  as  it  does  the  effects  of 
abundance  or  scarcity  of  food,  which  influence  the  birth- 
rate, with  those  of  health  and  disease,  on  which  the 
death-rate  depends.  Curiously  enough,  this  index  of 
general  prosperity  or  the  reverse  is  much  less  liable  to 
sudden  fluctuations  than  the  birth-  or  death-rate  alone, 
and  yet,  like  the  numbers  represented  by  Fig.  3,  it  is 
apparently  subject  to  a  periodic  oscillation  about  a  mean 
value.  The  length  of  the  period  is  probably  something 
over  ten  years,  since  the  last  year  gives  a  considerably 
greater  result  than  the  first,  though  it  exhibits  a  down- 
ward tendency.  It  is  therefore  possible  that  the  rate  of 
increase  of  a  primitive  people,  living  a  natural  life  un- 
trammelled by  too  much  civilization,  and  multiplying  up 
to  the  limit  of  the  means  of  subsistence,  may  be  subject — 
like  the  prices  of  grain,  investigated  by  Mr.  E.  Chambers 
and  the  late  Mr.  Stanley  Jevons,  and  like  many  other 
terrestrial  phenomena — to  a  periodic  variation  determined 
by  that  of  the  energy  received  from  the  sun.  Assuming 
that  there  is  a  variation  with  a  period  of  eleven  years, 
the   rates    of    increase    charted  in    Fig.  6    lead  to  the 

formula,  r  =  4-576  +  11-725  sin  (  +  262  J°  )•  This  for- 

mula gives  the  smoothly  flowing  curve  of  Fig.  6,  which 
coincides,  as  fairly  as  may  be,  with  the  curve  of  actual 
variations.  For  the  minimum  epoch  the  formula  gives 
1878-73,  and  for  the  maximum  1884-23, — dates  which  fall 
suggestively  near  those  of  the  corresponding  phases  of 
solar  disturbance. 

Into  this  interesting  speculation  it  is  impossible  at 
present  to  enter  further,  beyond  remarking,  as  was  said 
at  the  beginning,  that  the  increase  of  the  population 
during  the  last  ten  years  was  probably  above  the  average, 
and  too  rapid  to  be  maintained.  The  hypothesis  that  it 
is  subject  to  a  variation  in  the  eleven-year  period  leads 
to  the  result  that  the  mean  for  a  long  term  of  years 
is  only  4-576  per  thousand,  instead  of  5-49.  Now,  in  the 
Report  on  the  Census  of  1881,  the  Census  Officer,  Mr. 
Edmund  White,  calculated  that  the  population,  as  re- 
ported, increased  only  2-33  per  thousand  per  annum 
between  1853  and  1881  ;  but  it  is  pointed  out  that  this 
result  was  vitiated  by  an  over-estimation  in  1853,  when  the 
individual  members  of  the  population  were  not  counted 
by  name,  but  only  the  total  number  of  each  family  was 
entered  in  the  census  forms.  In  the  sixteen  years  from 
1865  to  1 88 1  the  rate  of  increase  was  4-48,  and  as  these 
years  included  a  fair  proportion  of  good  and  bad,  the 
rate  of  movement  is  probably  near  the  truth.  It  differs 
only  by  a  small  fraction  from  the  mean  rate  given  by 
the  above  formula,  according  to  which  the  population 
might  be  expected  to  double  itself  in  152  years,  notwith- 
standing the  already  great  pressure  on  the  soil.  In  the 
same  Census  Report,  from  the  distribution  of  the  popu- 
lation according  to  age,  a  mean  death-rate  of  39-5  per 
mille  is  arrived  at.  This  agrees  sufficiently  closely  with 
the  rate  here  found  to  warrant  the  conclusion  that  the 
corrections  applied  to  the  numbers  actually  registered 
cannot  be  far  wrong. 

Fig.  7  shows  the  variations  of  the  average  rainfall  of 
the  province,  for  which  the  general  mean  of  the  ten  years. 


248 


NA  TURE 


July  \2,  iSSS 


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July  12,  1888] 


NATURE 


249 


was  almost  exactly  38  inches.  Neither  the  birth-rate  nor 
the  rate  of  increase  has  any  distinct  relation  to  the  rain- 
fall, but  there  are  very  evident  indications  of  such  a 
relation  as  regards  the  rate  of  mortality.  The  first  seven 
years  witnessed  great  fluctuations  in  the  rainfall,  and 
these  were  almost  exactly  parallel  in  the  death-rates,  the 
wettest  years  being  those  of  greatest  mortality.  During 
the  last  three  years,  on  the  other  hand,  the  death-rate 
increased  slightly  as  rainfall  diminished,  and  vice  versd. 
Amongst  the  principal  causes  of  death,  cholera  and 
small-pox  vary  enormously  in  their  prevalence  from  year 
to  year,  these  diseases  being  of  an  epidemic  nature  ;  but 
the  variations  do  not  seem  to  be  related  in  any  way  to 
the  rainfall.  On  the  contrary,  those  from  endemic 
malarial  fevers,  represented  by  Fig.  8,  follow  the  rainfall 
variations  very  closely,  and  they  are  the  chief  factors  in 
the  general  mortality. 

In  my  former  article,  the  death-rates  from  various 
causes  were  compared  with  the  prevailing  meteorological 
conditions,  not  year  by  year,  but  month  by  month.  If  a 
similar  method  be  adopted  with  the  statistics  of  the  ten 
years  now  available,  the  conclusions  arrived  at  in  the 
former  paper  are  fully  borne  out  as  regards  all  their  more 
important  points,  only  needing,  in  one  or  two  instances, 
slight  modifications  in  detail. 

The  next  table  gives  the  total  mortality  for  each  month, 
computed  as  a  rate  per  mille  per  annum,  and  also  the 


rates  for  certain  specified  causes  of  death,  which  can  in 

most  cases  be  recognized  by  the  recording  agency.     In 

1  computing  these,  the  registered  numbers  have  all  been 

I  increased  by  an  allowance  for  omissions  similar  to  that 

given  above. 

Cholera. 

0-08 


Month. 
January 
February 
March 
April 
May 
June 

July 

August 

September 

October 

November 

December 

Year 


Total 
Mortality. 

••  3271 

••  3085 

••  30-94 

..  38-26 

•  384O 

.'■  36-29 

..  31-41 

••  38-67 

••  45-27 

..  58-60 

••  54'67 

■•  4253 


Fevers. 

25^4 
22-95 
22  26 
25'46 

25-55 
24T2 

20-88 
26-94 
34*39 
48-77 
46-07 
3612 


008 
0-31 
2-04 
2-32 
311 

2-59 
3-o8 
219 
2  06 
0-79 
0-36 


Small- 
pox. 

1-16 
165 
271 
479 
4'75 
3-20 
171 
0-65 
026 

0'12 
Ol8 
0-51 


Suicide. 
0-032 
0-036 
0-062 
0-087 

0*080 
0083 
0*078 
0-077 
0-084 
0076 
0-050 

0-034 


Wounds  or 

Accidents. 

0236 

0-255 
0276 

0-325 
0366 
0508 
0-543 
0-535 
0532 
0-404 
0-276 
0228 


3990      2998       1-58       i-8i      0066      0-374 


This  table  shows  how  utterly  insignificant  as  causes  of 
death  are  cholera  and  small-pox,  the  two  most  dreaded 
diseases,  by  the  side  of  fevers,  which  account  for  three- 
fourths  of  the  total  mortality. 

The  monthly  mean  values  of  the  three  chief  climatic 
factors  for  the  last  ten  years  may  be  compared  with  the 
preceding  figures.     They  are  : — 


Mean  temperature 
Range  of  temperature 

Rainfall        


Jan. 


Feb.       March.      April.       May.       June.       July.     August.       Sept.         Oct. 


Nov. 


Dec.    Year. 


59*4  64-5  75-0 

27*5  27-4  30-0 

Inches.  Inches.  Inches. 

0-87  0-53  0-56 


85-7 

907 

912 

85-0 

83-7 

83-2 

77-8 

67'9 

60 -3 

...    770 

30-7 

27I 

21-3 

i3'9 

I3-I 

160 

25 '3 

30-7 

28-9 

...    243 

Inches. 

Inches. 

Inches. 

Inches. 

Inches. 

Inches. 

Inches. 

Inches. 

Inches. 

Inches. 

0*22 

0-84 

4'6o 

II-9I 

10-63 

6-07 

1-38 

o-o6 

0-42 

•  •  38*09 

These  are  computed  on  the  average  of  the  whole  province, 
exclusive  of  the  higher  hill  stations. 

The  relations  of  the  rates  of  mortality  to  these  climatic 
causes  will  be  best  seen  from  the  curves  marked  Fig.  9 
to  Fig.  16.  The  general  death-rate,  and  that  of  fever 
mortality,  which  follows  it  closely,  have  two  maxima  in 
October  and  April  or  May,  and  two  minima  in  July  and 
February  or  March.  The  secondary  maximum  in  May 
is  a  very  important  feature  in  the  fever  curve  (Fig.  13), 
but  rises  noticeably  above  the  preceding  minimum  in 
Fig.  12,  which  represents  the  general  mortality,  owing  to 
the  influence  of  small-pox  and,  to  a  small  extent,  of 
cholera.  The  fatal  prevalence  of  fever  seems  to  be 
altogether  uninfluenced  by  the  temperature  (represented 
by  Fig.  9),  and  its  variations  are  almost  exactly  opposed 
in  phase  to  those  of  the  rainfall,  shown  in  Fig.  1 1  ;  but 
the  maxima  and  minima  nearly  coincide  in  time  with 
those  of  the  daily  range  of  temperature  (Fig.  10).  These 
statistics  therefore  confirm  the  general  experience  that 
people  are  most  subject  to  fever  when  the  nights  are 
chilly  and  the  days  hot.  If  we  neglect  the  secondary 
maximum  in  the  hot  season,  Figs.  11  and  13,  represent- 
ing rainfall  and  fever  mortality  respectively,  will  be 
observed  to  be  almost  identical  in  form,  except  that  the 
latter  is  displaced  three  spaces  to  the  right.  This  means 
that  malarial  fevers  are  directly  dependent  on  rainfall,  in 
their  annual  variation  as  in  the  variations  from  year  to 
year  ;  but  it  takes  about  three  months  in  Northern  India 
for  the  malarial  conditions  brought  about  by  the  rainfall 
(which  probably  depend  on  the  growth  and  decay  of 
vegetation)  to  attain  full  development.  Dr.  Meldrum  has 
shown,  in  several  of  his  annual  reports,  that  in  Mauritius 
the  highest  fever  mortality  follows  the  maximum  rainfall 
at  an  interval  of  about  two  months,  and  in  Northern  India 
a  parallel  rule  seems  to  hold,  except  that  the  interval  is 
slightly  longer. 

The  meteorological  conditions  predisposing  to  cholera 
are  evidently  heat  and  moisture,  the  disease  being  more 


prevalent  than  usual  during  the  whole  hot  season  from  April 
to  October,  and  dying  out  in  the  winter.  The  cholera  curve 
(Fig.  14),  which  is  drawn  on  a  scale  four  times  more  open 
than  that  for  the  total  mortality,  has  two  maxima  in  June 
and  August,  and  a  secondary  minimum  in  July.  In  most 
years  the  first  maximum  falls  in  April  or  May,  but  it  has 
been  thrown  forward  to  June  in  the  average  for  the  last 
ten  years  by  the  excessive  mortality  of  last  June,  when 
over  50,000  deaths  from  cholera  were  registered. 

Regarding  small-pox  (Fig.  15),  shown  on  the  same  en- 
larged scale  as  cholera,  all  the  remarks  in  my  former  article 
hold  good.  This  disease  is  at  a  maximum  in  April  and 
May,  and  it  diminishes  rapidly  during  the  rains,  until  it 
almost  dies  out  in  October  and  November.  The  condi- 
tions most  favourable  to  its  spread  seem  to  be  a  high  wind, 
and  very  dry,  or  perhaps  rather  very  dusty,  air  ;  and  the 
number  of  fatal  cases  may  be  almost  exactly  represented 
as  a  direct  function  of  the  wind  velocity  and  the  dryness 
of  the  air.  This  result  is  completely  in  accordance  with 
all  that  is  known  about  the  cause  and  mode  of  propagation 
of  the  disease. 

Fig.  16  gives  the  annual  variation  of  the  deaths  by 
violence,  including  under  this  head  both  suicides  and 
wounds.  The  curve  is  a  very  smoothly  flowing  one,  with 
a  distinct  annual  minimum  at  the  coldest  time  of  the 
year,  a  steady  rise  through  the  dry  hot  season,  and 
relatively  high  ordinates  throughout  the  rainy  season. 
The  scale  of  the  curve  is  ten  times  more  enlarged  than 
that  of  the  cholera  curve,  or  forty  times  larger  than  the 
scale  of  total  mortality  or  fever ;  but  though  this 
magnification  renders  the  annual  variation  visible,  it  does 
not  reveal  any  irregularity  except  a  slight  increase  in 
September,  when,  owing  to  a  long  "  break,"  or  the  pre- 
mature cessation  of  the  rains,  the  weather  sometimes 
becomes  very  much  hotter  than  in  July  or  August.  This 
September  maximum  is  more  distinct  in  the  suicide  ratios 
than  in  those  of  deaths  from  wounds.  It  appears,  there- 
fore, that  these  fatalities  from  crime,  instead  of  disease, 


250 


NATURE 


\July  12,  1888 


are  distinctly  subject  to  climatic  causes,  and  the  explana- 
tion given  in  my  former  article,  which  attributes  them  to 
irritability  of  temper  consequent  on  long-continued  heat 
and  moisture,  is  the  best  I  can  put  forward. 

When  the  birth  statistics  are  analyzed  with  reference  to 
the  annual  period,  results  equally  striking  and  curious  are 
brought  out.  The  numbers  registered,  when  tabulated 
month  by  month,  corrected  for  the  causes  of  error 
mentioned  at  the  commencement  of  this  article,  and 
thrown  into  the  form  of  average  rates  per  thousand  per 
annum,  give  the  following  table,  in  which  also  the 
monthly  ratios,  which  are  for  nine  years  only,  have  been 
slightly  altered  so  as  to  make  the  annual  mean  equal  to 
that  already  found  for  ten  years  : — 


Number  of 

Month. 

Males. 

Females. 

Total. 

Males  to 
100  Females 

January     ... 

2267       . 

.      21-92       .. 

44'59 

..       103*42 

February   ... 

22-31       . 

■      21-53      .. 

•     43 '84 

..       103-67 

March 

2072      . 

•       I9-95       •• 

■     40-67 

..       103*86 

April 

20'17 

•     19  "3°     •• 

•     39-47 

••       I04-5I 

May 

18-46    . 

.    1764   .. 

•     36-ii 

••       104-65 

June 

18-12     . 

•     1 7 '3°     •• 

•     35  '43 

••       104-74 

July 

20-80     . 

.    19-70    .. 

•     40-50 

•■       1^5-59 

August 

25-81    . 

•    24-72    .. 

•     5o-53 

..       104-41 

September 

28-85  • 

.    2786    .. 

•     56-71 

••       IO355 

October     ... 

28-30    . 

.    27-41    .. 

•     55-7I 

..       103-25 

November... 

25-89    . 

•   25-15   .. 

•     5 1  04 

I02'94 

December... 

25-36   . 

.    24-88    .. 

•     50-24 

..       IOI-52 

Year 


22-28 


45'40 


io3'77 


From  the  existence  of  the  Holi  festival  among  the 
Hindus,  and  of  similar  spring  festivals,  accompanied 
with  lascivious  songs  and  dances,  among  many  bar- 
barous tribes,  as  well  as  from  the  traces  of  such  festivals 
still  surviving  in  Europe,  and  the  hints  given  by  classical 
writers  regarding  the  nature  of  certain  annual  religious 
mysteries  performed  by  the  early  Greeks  and  Romans, 
anthropologists  have  thought  that  possibly,  during  pre- 
historic times,  the  human  species,  like  the  lower  animals 
in  a  state  of  nature,  had  an  annual  pairing-time.  If  any 
traces  of  such  a  condition  still  survive,  we  may  with  some 
confidence  look  for  them  in  India,  where  a  large  number 
of  the  poorer  classes  are  chronically  on  the  verge  of  star- 
vation, and  the  different  seasons  are  sufficiently  marked 
in  character  to  affect  people  differently  both  in  body  and 
in  mind.  The  birth-rates  in  the  above  table,  represented 
by  Fig.  17  in  the  diagram,  exhibit  a  most  distinct  annual 
variation,  smoother  and  more  uniform  in  character  than 
any  of  the  mortality  curves,  and  with  a  range  equal  to 
nearly  50  per  cent,  of  the  mean  value.  The  minimum 
falls  in  June  and  the  maximum  in  September, — dates 
which  point  to  a  maximum  of  conceptions  in  December, 
and  a  minimum  in  September.  The  latter  month  is  near 
the  end  of  the  long  and  depressing  hot  season,  when 
malarial  influences  are  rapidly  increasing  to  a  maximum, 
the  food-supply  of  the  year  is  nearly  exhausted,  and  there 
is  the  greatest  tendency  to  suicide.  The  births,  as  well 
as  the  deaths,  therefore,  show  that  at  the  end  of  the 
rains  the  vitality  and  energy  of  the  people  have  reached 
low-water  mark. 

In  December,  on  the  other  hand,  not  only  is  the 
salubrity  of  the  country  greatly  increased,  as  shown  by 
the  rapid  diminution  of  nearly  every  cause  of  death,  but 
food  is  again  cheap  and  abundant.  The  crops  of  millet, 
on  which  the  poorer  classes  live,  are  sown  in  July  and 
reaped  in  November.  During  December  and  the  latter 
half  of  November  they  are  threshed  out,  and  then  is  the 
season  for  paying  the  village  functionaries  and  labourers 
their  share  of  the  produce.  Consequently  food  is  more 
abundant  at  this  time  of  the  year  than  at  any  other,  and 
as  a  result  of  these  conditions  we  find  a  large  number  of 
births  the  following  September  and  October. 

It  thus  appears  that  among  the  poorest  of  the  popula- 
tion there  is  probably  still  a  more  or  less  distinct  annual 


reproductive  season,  but  instead  of  being  determined  by 
the  returning  warmth  of  spring,  as  must  have  been  the 
case  in  prehistoric  Europe,  it  follows  the  annual  return  of 
healthy  conditions  with  abundant  food-supply.  That  the 
Holi  festival  occurs  in  spring,  instead  of  in  December,  is 
perhaps  to  be  accounted  for  as  a  survival  from  a  time 
when  the  ancestors  of  the  Hindus  lived  in  a  colder 
climate. 

In  the  last  column  of  the  table  are  given  the  monthly 
values  of  the  ratio  of  males  to  females  at  birth.  This 
appears  to  be  subject  to  a  small  but  distinct  annual 
variation,  with  a  maximum  in  July,  and  a  minimum  in 
December  ;  but  whether  this  is  a  remote  and  obscure 
physiological  effect  of  the  annual  march  of  the  seasons, 
or  only  a  chance  arithmetical  result,  I  cannot  say. 

Allahabad,  February  8.  S.  A.  Hill. 


ON  THE  ORBITS  OF  AEROLITES} 

MY   studies    have    led    me    to    the    following    three 
propositions  : 

1.  The  meteorites  which  we  have  in  our  cabinets  and 
which  were  seen  to  fall  were  originally  fas  a  class,  and 
with  a  very  small  number  of  exceptions),  moving  about 
the  sun  in  orbits  that  had  inclinations  less  than  900  ;  that 
is,  their  motions  were  direct,  not  retrograde. 

2.  The  reason  why  we  have  only  this  class  of  stones  in 
our  collections  is  not  one  wholly  or  even  mainly  depen- 
dent on  the  habits  of  men  ;  nor  on  the  times  when  men 
are  out  of  doors  ;  nor  on  the  places  where  men  live  ;  nor 
on  any  other  principle  of  selection  acting  at  or  after  the 
arrival  of  the  stones  at  the  ground.  Either  the  stones 
which  are  moving  in  the  solar  system  across  the  earth's 
orbit  move  in  general  in  direct  orbits  ;  or  else  for  some 
reason  the  stones  which  move  in  retrograde  orbits  do  not 
in  general  come  through  the  air  to  the  ground  in  solid 
form. 

3.  The  perihelion  distances  of  nearly  all  the  orbits  in 
which  these  stones  moved  were  not  less  than  0-5  nor 
more  than  ro,  the  earth's  radius  vector  being  unity. 

The  first  and  thirds  propositions  are  limited  strictly  by 
their  terms  to  the  meteorites  from  stone-falls  actually 
witnessed,  and  also  represented  by  specimens  in  some  one 
or  more  of  existing  collections.  The  investigations  that 
have  led  to  them  have  been  limited  to  the  same  stone- 
falls.  This  is  not  because  any  line  of  separation  is  sus- 
pected to  exist  astronomically  between  the  stone-furnishing 
and  detonating  meteors,  or  even  between  them  and  the 
shooting  stars,  but  because,  for  manifest  reasons,  any  facts 
established  about  these  stones  have  a  greater  value  than 
similar  facts  about  meteors  from  which  no  stones  have 
been  secured. 

About  265  observed  falls  are  represented  by  specimens 
in  existing  collections.  The  history  of  these  falls  I  have 
searched  out  with  no  little  pains,  so  far  as  the  material 
for  such  history  could  be  found  in  books  accessible  to  me. 
Every  direct  statement  and  every  indirect  indication 
which  I  have  obtained  about  the  paths  of  these  meteors 
through  the  air  have  been  carefully  considered,  and  their 
meaning  and  value  duly  estimated.  The  determination 
of  the  path  of  a  stone-furnishing  meteor  through  the  air 
is  greatly  aided  by  the  fact  that  we  know  at  once  one 
point  of  the  trajectory,  viz.:  the  point  where  the  stone 
strikes  the  ground.  To  this  fact  may  usually  be  added 
another,  viz.:  that  some  of  the  observations  are  by 
persons  near  the  place  of  fall,  and  hence  their  statements 
of  direction,  so  far  as  we  may  trust  them,  have  peculiar 
significance.  In  individual  cases  it  will  be  found  that  not 
much  reliance  can  be  placed  upon  the  asserted  direction 
of  the  meteor's   motion.     But  when  the  results   are  all 

1  "  Upon  the  relation  which  the  former  Orbits  of  those  Meteorites  that  are 
in  our  colltctions,  and  that  were  seen  to  fall,  had  to  the  Earth's  Orb.t"  by 
H.  A.  Newton.     (From  the  American  Journal  of  Science,  July  18S8.) 


July  12,  1888] 


NATURE 


2Sf 


collated  there  is  such  a  general  agreement  in  support  of 
the  first  and  third  propositions  set  forth  above  that  I  am 
very  confident  that  they  are  true. 

The  orbit  of  a  meteoroid  about  the  sun  is  wholly  given 
when  we  know  these  three  things,  the  time  when  it  enters 
the  air,  the  direction  of  its  motion,  and  the  velocity.  The 
velocity  cannot  be  easily  measured  directly.  But  the 
connection  between  meteors  and  comets  will  be  assumed 
as  fully  proven.  The  velocity  of  the  meteoroids  (neglect- 
ing the  increase  due  to  the  earth's  attraction),  ought  then 
to  be  that  of  the  comets,  at  the  same  distance  from  the 
sun.  The  greatest  cometary  velocity  at  the  distance 
unity  is  N/2,  the  earth's  velocity  being  unity.  The 
smallest  velocity  for  any  known  comet  is  that  of  Encke's 
comet,  which  at  the  earth's  mean  distance  from  the  sun  is 
1  244.  It  seems  safe,  therefore,  to  assume  that  the 
meteorites  we  are  considering  had  velocities  relative  to 
the  sun  not  greater  than  1*414,  nor  less  than  i"244. 

The  direction  of  a  meteor's  motion  through  the  air  is 
to  be  determined  solely  by  the  evidence  of  observers  of 
the  stone-fall.  This  evidence  needs  to  be  carefully 
collated,  especially  when  statements  apparently  conflict. 
A  judicial  temper  of  mind  must  be  preserved  in  estimating 
the  meaning  of  the  statements,  lest  the  evidence  be 
twisted  to  the  support  of  some  preconceived  notion. 
Knowing  the  danger,  I  have  tried  to  keep  my  own  mind 
free  from  bias. 

We  need  not  know  the  exact  day,  but  we  must  know 
the  time  of  day  of  the  stone-fall,  else  the  direction 
through  the  air  cannot  be  used.  This  throws  out  about 
one-fifth  of  the  total  number  of  falls  named  above, — 
there  being  no  statement  of  the  time;  of  day  of  the  fall 
attainable.  There  are  left  210  different  cases  available 
for  use.  For  94  of  these  there  is  no  reliable  statement  of  the 
direction  of  the  motion  of  the  meteor.  We  know  only  the 
day  and  the  hour.  Even  this,  however,  is  of  some  value, 
since  we  know  that  the  meteor  must  have  been  moving 
downward  at  the  place  of  fall  ;  that  is,  from  some  point  of 
the  heavens  then  above  its  horizon.  For  1 16  stone-falls 
the  direction  of  the  motion  of  the  meteor  is  more  or  less 
definitely  indicated  by  the  statements  of  observers,  or  by 
the  statements  of  those  who  have  inquired  into  and 
reported  the  facts  of  the  falls. 

We  may  then  divide  the  observed  stone  falls  into  three 
groups  which  will  be  separately  considered:  (a),  116 
falls  for  which  we  have  statements  as  to  the  direction  of 
the  path  through  the  air  ;  (b),  94  falls  of  which  we  know 
the  time  of  day  ;  (c),  50  or  more  falls  of  which  the  history 
is  too  scanty  to  give  the  time  of  day. 

There  is  frequent  occasion  to  speak  of  two  points  on 
the  celestial  sphere  for  which  the  English  language  has  no 
good  names.  These  are  the  point  from  which  a  body  is 
moving,  and  the  point  to  which  a  body  is  moving.  These 
two  points  are  opposed  to  each  other,  as  north  is  to  south, 
east  to  west,  zenith  to  nadir.  The  words  quit  and  goal 
will  be  used  to  denote  these  two  points.  The  earth's  quit 
is  that  point  of  the  ecliptic  from  which  the  earth  is 
moving,  the  earth's  goal  that  point  to  which  the  earth  is 
moving  ;  the  one  being  about  90°  ahead  of  the  sun  in  the 
ecliptic,  the  other  90°  behind  it.  A  meteor's  quit  is  that 
point  of  the  heavens  from  which  the  meteor  is  moving  ; 
its  goal  that  point  of  the  heavens  to  which  it  is  moving. 
The  motion  may  be  that  relative  to  the  earth,  in  which 
case  the  point  of  the  celestial  sphere  from  which  it  is 
moving  is  the  meteor's  relative  quit.  Thus  the  relative 
quit  of  a  meteor  when  it  is  entering  the  air  must  be  above 
the  horizon  of  the  place  of  entrance,  inasmuch  as  the 
meteor  must  be  moving  downward.  If  a  meteoroid's 
motion  be  corrected  for  the  earth's  motion  the  direction 
of  its  absolute  motion  about  the  sun  is  obtained,  and  then 
the  two  points  of  the  celestial  sphere  from  which  and  to 
which  the  meteoroid  is  moving  are  its  absolute  quit  and 
its  absolute  goal. 

The  observations  have  been  treated  graphically.     They 


do  not  demand  nor  do  they  admit  of  greater  accuracy  in 
methods  of  discussion  than  can  be  used  in  graphic  processes, 
and  these  processes  have  many  advantages  over  numerical 
computations.  A  stereographic  projection  of  two  hemi- 
spheres was  prepared  and  printed,  upon  which  there  were 
three  sets  of  coordinate  lines  from  three  sets  of  poles. 
The  three  sets  of  points  were  the  angles  of  triquadrantal 
triangles.  Thus  the  lines  were  drawn  to  represent  at 
intervals  of  10°  the  distances  and  directions  from  the 
poles  P,  P,  S,  E,  and  G,  Q,  (Fig.  1).  In  the  engraved 
figure  these  coordinate  limes  are  omitted.  The  common 
diameter  of  the  two  hemispheres  E  S  E  was  made  to 
represent  the  ecliptic,  and  the  sun  was  placed  at  the 
centre  or  at  the  edge  of  one  of  the  hemispheres.  The 
points  P  would  then  be  the  poles  of  the  ecliptic,  and  if  S 
be  the  place  of  the  sun  the  earth's  quit  will  be  Q,  and  the 
earth's  goal  G. 

To  treat  any  single  meteor  a  large  celestial  globe  was 
first  set  for  the  time  and  place  of  the  fall.  Upon  the 
globe  the  celestial  latitude  and  longitude  of  the  zenith 
and  of  the  west-point  were  then  measured.  The  day  of 
the  year  gave  the  sun's  longitude.  The  zenith  and  west- 
point  could  then  be  marked  upon  the  chart,  after  which  it 
was  easy  to  draw  the  circles  representing  the  meridian 
and  the  prime  vertical.  The  stereo-graphic  projection 
was  peculiarly  advantageous  in  this  work  as  all  circles 
are  represented  by  circles,  and  angles  are  conserved  in 
the  projection.  The  effort  was  then  made  to  mark  upon 
the  chart  the  meteor's  relative  quit  as  accurately  as  the 
observations  permit,  or  rather  to  describe  an  area  within 
which  the  quit  was  probably  or  certainly  located 

Some  of  the  116  meteorite  quits  have  been  heretofore 
fairly  well  determined  by  other  persons,  or  they  can  be  so 
determined.  This  is  the  case  with  the  meteors  of  Agram, 
Weston,  Orgeuil,  Pultusk,  Iowa,  Rochester,  Estherville, 
Krahenberg,  Khairpur,  Vendome,  etc.  For  other  cases 
we  are  able  by  comparing  the  various  statements  of 
observers  to  locate  approximately  the  relative  quit.  But 
for  a  considerable  number  of  the  falls  we  have  to  be 
content  with  the  sim;.  le  statement  that  the  stones  came 
from  the  north,  or  from  the  northeast,  or  from  the  south- 
southeast,  or  from  some  other  similarly  defined  direction. 
When  this  has  been  the  case  I  have  taken  a  point  20° 
above  the  horizon  in  the  direction  indicated,  and  con- 
sidering this  as  the  centre  of  an  area  of  considerable  size 
within  which  the  quit  was  probably  located,  have  treated 
the  point  itself  as  the  meteor's  quit. 

These  observations  of  direction  in  some  cases  will  be  in 
error,  or  will  be  perverted  in  reporting,  as  every  one  who 
has  tried  to  reconcile  numerous  accounts  of  a  meteor  has 
unpleasantly  learned.  But  when  the  statements  have 
come  from  persons  who  saw  the  stones  come  down,  they 
are  usually  of  much  more  value  than  similar  reports  about 
ordinary  meteors.  In  any  case  when  the  reports  are 
single  they  must  be  taken  for  what  they  are  worth.  I 
have  plotted  them  as  given. 

In  several  notable  instances  where  there  are  full 
accounts  I  have  not  been  able  to  accept  the  conclusions 
heretofore  arrived  at  as  to  the  direction  of  the  meteor's 
path.  .  Thus,  Dr.  Bowditch  made  the  path  of  the  Weston 
meteor  to  be  from  north  to  south  and  parallel  to  the 
horizon.  I  make  it  to  have  moved  from  a  point  N.  40^ 
W  ,  35°  high.  The  Cold-Bokkeveld  meteor  was  described 
by  Sir  Thomas  Maclear  as  moving  from  the  west-north- 
west. It  apparently  moved  in  the  opposite  direction  ; 
that  is,  from  the  east-south-east.  The  l'Aigle  meteor  was 
described  by  M.  Biot  as  moving  from  the  south-south- 
east, whereas  it  is  well  nigh  certain  that  it  came  from  the 
north-west.  In  like  manner  the  Stannern  meteorite  was 
assumed  by  von  Schreibers  to  have  come  from  the  north- 
north-west,  whereas  there  are  reasons  of  great  weight  for 
believing  that  it  came  from  the  opposite  direction.  I 
may  add  that  these  and  other  like  changes  are  not 
made  under  any  pressure   or  bias  to  prove  my  proposi- 


252 


NATURE 


[July  12,  1888 


tions.  In  fact  three  of  the  four  changes  just  named 
make  the  evidence  for  my  conclusions  weaker  instead  of 
stronger. 

In  the  treatment  of  the  observations  several  quantities 
have  been  neglected  as  not  large  enough  to  be  comparable 
with  the  probable  errors  of  the  observations  themselves. 
Thus  the  effect  of  the  earth's  attraction  in  changing  the 
direction  of  motion,  or  what  has  been  called  the  zenithal 
attraction  of  the  quit,  has  been  allowed  for  only  in  a 
general  way.  So  the  earth's  quit  and  goal  are  treated  as 
being  exactly  90°  from  the  sun  ;  or,  in  other  words,  the 
earth's  orbit  has  been  treated  as  a  circle.  In  like  manner 
the  motion  of  the  place  of  fall  due  to  the  earth's  rotation 
on  its  axis  has  not  been  taken  account  of. 

Having  located  upon  the  chart  the  meteor's  relative 
quit  we  have  next  to  construct  its  absolute  quit.  This 
evidently  lies  on  the  great  circle  joining  the  relative  quit 
to  Q  (Fig.  1),  which,  when  the  sun  is  at  S  is  represented 
on  the  chart  by  a  straight  line  through  Q,  together  with 
its  corresponding  line  through  G.      When  the   absolute 


velocity  of  the  meteroid  in  its  motion  about  the  sun  is 
given,  the  place  on  this  circle  of  the  absolute  quit  can  be 
determined  by  combining  by  the  parallelogram  of  velocities 
the  motions  of  the  earth  and  of  the  meteoroid.  The 
following  table  is  an  abstract  of  a  larger  one  used  in  this 
reduction,  and  is  constructed  for  the  limiting  velocities 
1 '414  and  1 '244  : — 

Table  showing  the  Distances  from  the  Earth's  Quit  to  the  Absolute 
Quit  of  a  Meteoroid  for  Different  Distances  from  the  Earth's 
Quit  to  the  Relative  Quit  of  the  Meteoroid. 

Distance  from  Q  to  relative  quit.  Distance  from  Q  to  absolute  quit. 

v  =  1 '414.  z>-=  1-244 

3o°  9°-3  6°  -3 

60  22-i  15*8 

90  45-0  36-5 

120  82-1  75-8 

150  129-3  126-3 

180  1800  1800 

In  the  following  constructions  the  maximum  velocity  of 
the   meteoroid   has   been  used.     When  the  meteoroid's 


^<~     'p 

/^ 

*       7^ 

hS 

\ 

« 

>^ 

t^    ,4 

-r-\*/ 

* 

.*  * 

*  \i     *    ** 

**  '«*  V 

4 
1 

.  **       «»*». 

,./ 

s\ 

^1 

••t     ..♦  '*   9 

**.** 

A 

^r^- 

• 

""~/T     \ 

, 

X. 

/         » 

yi 

^^--~_     P 

Fig.  1. — Showing  the  distribution  of  116  meteorite  quits  relatively  to  the  sun's  place  and  to  the  earth's  quit. 


relative  quit  is  known  as  a  point  the  absolute  quit  is  at 
once  constructed.  If,  however,  we  have  an  area  within 
which  the  relative  quit  is  probably  located  we  may  mark 
off  with  equal  facility  points  on  the  boundaries  of  the 
area  within  which  the  absolute  quit  is  probably  located. 
If  the  former  area  is  a  circle  the  latter  will  be  an  oval. 
The  centre  of  the  circle  does  not  correspond  exactly  to 
the  centre  of  the  oval,  but  by  applying  a  correction  to  the 
table  the  centre  of  the  oval  absolute  quit  area  can  be 
directly  constructed  from  the  centre  of  the  circular 
relative-quit  area. 

In  Fig.  1  I  have  given  in  a  single  diagram  constructed 
on  a  stereographic  projection,  the  results  for  1 16  stone-falls. 
The  best  determinations  which  the  accounts  admit  of  for 
the  meteor's  direction  were  first  made  out.  Then  the 
centre  of  the  probable  quit  area  in  each  case  was  assumed 
to  be  the  actual  quit.  When  only  the  quarter  of  the 
heavens  from  which  the  stones  came  is  stated  the  centre 
of  probable  area  was  taken  200  above  the  horizon.  Inter- 
preted thus,  the  stars  in  Fig.  1  represent  the  places  of  the 


1 16  absolute  quits  relatively  to  the  place  of  the  sun,  S,  and 
to  that  of  the  earth's  quit  and  goal,  Q  and  G. 

Let  us  denote  any  one  of  these  quits  (or  stars),  by  the 
letter  q.  The  elements  of  the  orbit  in  which  the 
corresponding  stone  was  formerly  moving  can  be  easily 
obtained  from  the  projection.  The  earth's  longitude  on 
the  day  of  fall  is  the  longitude  of  the  node.  The  angle 
^SQ  is  the  inclination  of  the  orbit  to  the  ecliptic,  and  its 
amount  is  at  once  read  off  on  the  projection.  The  orbit 
has  been  assumed  to  have  been  a  parabola.  Hence,  twice 
the  complement  of  ^S  was  the  angular  distance  of  the 
stone  from  its  perihelion.  If  ^S  >  90°,  the  perihelion 
had  not  been  reached  ;  if  ^S  <  90,  the  perihelion,  had 
been  passed.  The  perihelion  distance  was  sin2QS.  If, 
however,  it  be  assumed  that  the  orbit  was  a  long  ellipse 
of  given  major  axis,  the  place  of  the  absolute  quit,  q, 
moves  somewhat  nearer  to  Q  along  the  line^Q,  the  angle 
in  the  plane  of  the  orbit  from  perihelion  was  a  little  more 
than  twice  the  complement  of  ^S,  and  the  perihelion 
distance     somewhat   less   than   sin'^S.      But    all    these 


July  12,  1888] 


NATURE 


253 


quantities  are  easily  computed  in  terms  of  the  assumed 
major  axis.  With  a  semi-major  axis  as  large  as  5  the 
change  in  Fig.  1  would  not  be  so  considerable  as  to 
modify  any  conclusions  we  can  deduce  from  the  grouping 
of  the  stars. 

The  most  noticeable  fact  revealed  by  the  figure  is  the 
clustering  of  the  stars  about  the  point  Q.  All  but  seven 
of  the  116  meteor  quits  are  in  the  Q  hemisphere  ;  that  is, 
had  orbits  whose  inclinations  were  less  than  900.  One 
hundred  and  nine  followed  the  earth,  seven  met  it.  Again 
the  two  lines  STE  are  drawn  to  represent  circles  inclined 
35J  to  the  ecliptic.  More  than  two-thirds  of  the  meteor 
quits  lie  between  these  two  lines  ;  hence,  over  two-thirds 
of  the  orbits  were  inclined  less  than  350  to  the  ecliptic, 
the  motion  being  direct. 

It  should  be  said  that  this  clustering  of  the  points  near 
Q  is  somewhat  exaggerated  in  the  figure  by  the  nature  of 
the  stereographic  projection.  The  scale  of  distances  near 
Q  differs  from  that  near  the  circumference.  But  this  does 
not  affect  the  distribution  between  the  hemispheres. 


It  has  been  assumed  that  certain  centres  of  quit  areas 
were  themselves  the  quits.  Can  the  condensation  of  the 
quits  near  Q  have  been  caused  in  any  way  by  this 
assumption  ?  Or,  is  it  possible  that  general  errors  of 
observation,  or  inaccuracy  of  reporting,  could  have  been 
the  cause  ?  To  answer  this  question  let  us  suppose  that 
there  had  existed  a  law  that  led  to  condensation  of  the 
relative  quits  in  any  manner  whatever.  The  effect  of  the 
errors  of  observing  or  reporting,  and  also  the  effect  of  the 
assumption  above  stated,  would  be  toward  scattering 
these  relative  quits  over  the  heavens  more  equably,  and 
thus  masking  the  law.  Then  when  the  relative  quits  thus 
unduly  scattered  are  reduced  to  absolute  quits  there 
might  be  as  a  result  a  tendency  towards  condensation 
near  Q.  If,  however,  we  draw  the  circle  TT,  enclosing 
those  absolute  quits  whose  relative  quits  are  in  the  hemi- 
sphere next  Q,  the  general  tendency  of  the  errors  in 
question  would  be  towards  equalizing  the  number  of 
absolute  quits  within  to  those  without  the  circle  TT. 
Now,  the  number  of  stars  is  nearly  twice  as  great  within 


*  *  \. 

•        *  '     *     *  #  \ 

|  Q  E 


Fig.  2. — Showing  relatively  to  the  sun's  place,  the  zeniths  for  the  tints  and  place  of  94  stone-falls. 


as  without  the  circle.  The  condensation  about  Q,  shown 
in  Fig.  1,  exists  therefore  in  spite  of,  and  not  in  con- 
sequence of,  these  errors.  With  a  good  deal  of  confidence 
do  I  conclude  that  these  1 16  meteors  were,  as  a  class 
and  with  probably  a  very  few  exceptions,  before 
coming  into  the  air  following  the  earth  in  its  orbit 
about  the  sun. 

Another  fact  of  great  interest  is  also  shown  by  the 
grouping  of  the  points  in  Fig.  1.  In  general  these  stones 
did  not  go  in  their  orbits  very  near  to  the  sun.  Assuming 
that  the  orbits  were  parabolas  we  have  for  all  the  stones 
whose  perihelion  distances  were  less  than  one-half, 
sinL'^S<3.  If  there  be  drawn  circles,  AA,  AA,  450  from 
S  and  from  E,  then  will  all  the  stones  whose  absolute 
quits  were  in  the  central  zone,  A  P  PA  A  A  which  is  bounded 
by  the  circles  A  A,  have  perihelion  distances  greater  than 
one-half  and  less  than  unity.  Of  these  there  are  103  out 
of  a  total  116.  If  the  same  orbits  are  assumed  to  have 
had  semi-major  axes  equal  to  5,  then  the  circles  A  A 
would  have  to  be  drawn  a  fraction  of  one  degree  farther 


from  S  and  from  E  to  serve  as  the  limiting  curve  to  orbits 
whose  perihelion  distances  exceed  one-half. 

It  appears  from  Fig.  1  that  these  116  stones  were,  with 
a  few  exceptions,  following  the  earth  in  their  orbit  about 
the  sun.  This  could  happen  from  either  one  or  more  of 
three  possible  causes  : 

Firstly,  that  nearly  all  the  stones  in  the  solar  system 
are  moving  in  direct  orbits,  very  few  in  retrograde  orbits  ; — 

Or,  secondly,  that  stones  moving  in  retrograde  orbits 
for  some  reason,  as  for  example  their  great  relative  velo- 
city, may  not  have  been  able  to  pass  through  the  air  and 
to  reach  the  ground  in  solid  form  ; — 

Or,  thirdly,  that  stones  moving  in  such  retrograde 
orbits,  and  coming  through  the  air,  may  be  falling  while 
men  sleep,  or  for  some  like  reason  may  fail  to  be  found. 
In  other  words,  the  effective  cause  may  work  above  the 
air,  in  the  air,  or  below  the  air. 

Let  us  assume,  as  an  hypothesis,  that  neither  of  the 
first  two  are  the  true  causes.  In  that  case  we  should  have 
the  stones  moving  in  every  direction  as  they  cross  the 


254 


NATURE 


{July  12,  1888 


earth's  orbit.  There  should  be  about  as  many  orbits 
having  retrograde  motions  as  direct  motions.  Hence  the 
absolute  quits  of  all  stones  coming  into  and  hence,  by 
hypothesis,  coming  through  the  air,  should  be  symmetric- 
ally distributed  in  their  longitudes  relative  to  the  sun. 
At  least  there  should  be  as  many  absolute  quits  in  the 
G-hemisphere  as  in  the  O  hemisphere  (Fig.  1).  Take 
account  now  of  the  earth's  motion  and  locate  the  relative 
quits.  All  these  stones  whose  absolute  quits  lie  outside 
of  the  circle  T  T  will  have  their  relative  quits  in  the 
G-hemisphere.  Upon  the  hypothesis  of  parabolic  orbits 
and  of  an  equable  distribution  of  the  absolute  quits  over 
the  celestial  sphere  the  number  of  relative  quits  in  the 
G-hemisphere  should  be  to  those  in  the  Q-hemisphere 

as  1  +  cos  —  :  1   —  cos  —  ,  or  as  17:  3.    The  relative  quits 

4  4 

should  then  be  very  much  more  numerous  in  the  G-hemi- 
sphere than  in  the  Q-hemisphere. 

Furthermore,  suppose  that  the  heavens  visible  at  a  given 
time  and  place,  are  divided  by  a  vertical  circle  into  two 
halves  ;  and  suppose  that  this  vertical  circle  is  at  right 
angles  to  the  plane  containing  the  zenith  and  the  earth's 
quit  and  goal.  That  half  of  the  visible  heavens  that  lies 
towards  the  earth's  goal  may  be  called  the  goal-half,  the 
other  half  may  be  called  the  quit-half  of  the  visible 
heavens.  In  any  given  period  there  should  evidently  be, 
under  the  several  hypotheses  stated,  many  more  stones 
coming  into  the  air  and  reaching  the  ground  directed 
from  the  goal-half  than  there  should  be  directed  from  the 
quit-half  of  the  visible  heavens.  Still  further,  since  this 
proposition  applies  to  any  epoch  whatever,  we  may  apply 
it  to  116  periods  covering  the  times  of  the  116  stone-falls, 
that  is,  to  the  116  stone-falls  themselves  Many  more  of 
these  should  (under  the  hypotheses  stated)  have  come 
from  the  goal-half  than  from  the  quit-half  of  the  visible 
heavens. 

If,  then,  the  relative  quit  of  each  of  these  116  stones  is 
supposed  to  be  carried  around  in  azimuth  1 8o°,  the  altitude 
being  unchanged,  the  116  distances  from  each  new  place 
of  the  quit  to  the  earth's  quit  for  the  epoch  of  the  fall 
should,  in  the  average,  be  decidedly  less  than  the  cor- 
responding 116  distances  from  the  actual  relative  quits  to 
the  earth's  quit.  This  should  hold  true  (under  the  hypo- 
theses stated)  no  matter  what. causes  below  the  air  may 
have  occasioned  the  selection  of  the  116  epochs.  The 
fact  that  more  persons  are  abroad  in  the  evening  hours 
from  6h.  to  ioh.  p.m.,  than  in  the  corresponding  morning 
hours,  2h.  to  6h.  a.m.,  may  well  cause  that  more  stones 
should  be  secured  in  the  evening  than  in  the  morning 
hours.  In  the  evening  hours  the  earth's  quit  is  above  the 
horizon  ;  in  the  morning  hours  the  earth's  goal.  It  might 
easily  be  that  we  should  for  this  reason  get  more  stones 
of  direct  than  of  retrograde  motions.  But  the  'above 
criterion  is  entirely  independent  of  any  such  principle  of 
selection  of  the  epochs.  A  change  of  the  azimuth  of  the 
quits  through  1800  should  cause  a  larger  number  of  them 
{under  the  hypotheses  stated)  to  approach  the  earth's  quit 
than  to  recede  from  it. 

I  have  marked  off  upon  the  working  sheets  the  position 
1800  in  azimuth  from  each  of  1 15  relative  quits,  the  altitude 
being  unchanged,  and  measured  the  several  distances 
from  the  earths  quit.  (One  fall,  Nedagolla,  was  unavail- 
able). The  following  is  the  result.  In  44  cases  the 
meteor's  quit  by  the  change  approaches  the  earth's 
quit  ;  in  70  cases  it  approaches  the  earth's  goal  ;  in  one 
it  remains  unchanged.  That  is,  instead  of  a  very  large 
majority  of  the  quits  moving  towards  the  earth's  quit  we 
have  nearly  two-thirds  of  them  moving  the  other  way. 
In  the  reversed  position,  moreover,  we  should  have  had 
38  absolute  quits  in  the  G-hemisphere  instead  of  7.  These 
numbers  show  very  decidedly  that  the  hypotheses  made 
above  are  not  true.  The  principle  of  selection  is  not 
entirely  below  the  air,  and  the  numbers  testify  so  markedly 


against  that  hypothesis  that  I  feel  warranted  in  adding 
that  the  cause  is  mainly  either  above  the  air,  or  in 
the  air. 

Between  the  first  and  second  causes  named  the  materials 
used  for  the  present  discussion  do  not  furnish  a  positive- 
critical  test.  But  if,  as  I  believe,  the  Stannern  stone  came 
from  the  south,  we  have  at  least  one  instance  of  stones- 
coming  into  the  air  with  a  velocity  of  nearly,  or  quite,  45 
miles  a  second  and  reaching  the  ground  in  solid  form. 
About  twenty-five  of  the  quits  in  Fig  1  imply  velocities 
of  not  less  than  25  miles  a  second  on  entering  the  air. 
Large  velocities  do  not  seem  to  be  entirely  fatal  to  the 
integrity  of  the  meteorites.  I  believe  that  the  first  cause 
was  the  dominant  one  rather  than  the  second,  yet  for  a 
crucial  test  of  the  two  causes,  if  one  can  be  found,  we 
must  look  to  a  class  of  facts  other  than  those  we  have 
been  considering. 

We  are  now  in  position  to  consider  the  other  ninety- 
four  stone-falls.  In  Fig.  2,  the  construction  of  which  is 
similar  to  that  of  Fig.  1,  the  stars  mark  the  zenith  points 
for  each  time  and  place  of  the  ninety-four  falls.  A  grouping 
is  at  once  noticeable.  They  are  nearly  all  in  the  northern 
hemisphere,  since  the  observing  peoples  live  there.  Those 
stars  in  the  hemisphere  of  which  S  is  the  pole,  that  is 
between  the  two  lines  P  P  and  P  P,  are  evidently  daylight 
stone  falls,  since  S  is  above  the  horizon  for  each  case. 
These  constitute  about  seven-eighths  of  the  whole 
number.  The  reason  for  this  predominance  is  manifest. 
In  the  night  men  see  the  fireball  or  the  train,  whereas  in 
the  day  the  first  intimation  of  the  stone  fall  is  usually  the 
hearing  of  the  detonation  two  or  three  minutes  after  the 
fireball  has  disappeared.  Hence,  daylight  stone  falls  are 
those  whose  directions  are  less  likely  to  be  observed,  and 
these  ninety-four  falls  are  the  ones  of  which  the  directions 
are  unknown. 

It  will  also  be  seen  that  there  are  nearly  twice  as  many 
in  the  Q-hemisphere  as  in  the  G-hemisphere  ;  that  is,  there 
are  nearly  twice  as  many  that  fell  when  the  earth's  quit 
was  above  the  horizon  as  there  were  when  the  earth's  goal 
was  above  the  horizon.  In  general,  the  former  were  after- 
noon stone-falls,  the  latter  forenoon  stone-falls.  Now  the 
habits  of  the  urban  population  have  not  much  to  do  with 
these  daylight  meteors,  for  the  fireballs  were  not  seen. 
The  accounts  come  from  the  country,  where  the  stones  in 
general  have  fallen,  and  about  as  m  my  people  are  there 
abroad  in  the  forenoon  as  in  the  afternoon.  If  stones 
came  to  the  ground  as  often  from  retrograde  as  from 
direct  orbits  we  ought  apparently  to  have  had  very  many 
more  zeniths  in  the  G-hemisphere  than  in  the  O-hemi- 
sphere. The  contrary  being  the  fact  of  experience  we 
may  reasonably  say  that  the  ninety-four  stone-falls,  about 
which  we  know  comparatively  little,  seem  decidedly 
to  follow  the  same  laws  as  the  116  falls  about  which  we 
know  so  much  more. 

This  conclusion  is  greatly  strengthened  if  we  take 
account  of  the  effect  of  the  earth's  attraction  in  carrying 
the  meteor's  quit  toward  the  zenith.  Any  stone  must  be 
moving  downward  when  it  enters  the  air.  But  the  earth's 
attraction  must  change  the  direction  of  its  motion  during 
the  approach  to  the  earth.  Hence  the  region  of  the 
heavens  from  which  a  stone  can  approach  the  earth  is  not 
bounded  by  the  actual  horizon,  but  by  a  curve  which  may 
be  treated  as  a  depressed  horizon.  This  depression  of 
the  horizon  is  far  greater  toward  the  quit  than  toward  the 
the  goal  side  of  the  horizon.  The  maximum  depression 
for  a  stone  moving  in  a  parabolic  orbit  is  about  1J°.  It 
hence  follows  that  when  the  zenith  is  more  than  730  and 
less  than  900  from  G,  both  the  points  G  and  Q  are  above 
the  depressed  horizon,  and  therefore  that  the  14  falls 
whose  zeniths  are  between  these  limits,  that  is,  are  be- 
tween the  circles  A  A  and  PEPS,  Fig.  2,  should  be  left 
out  of  the  count.  The  corresponding  region  on  the  Q- 
hemisphere  is  less  than  one  degree  in  breadth,  and  con- 
tains one  zenith  point.     We  have  left  only  20  falls  when 


July  12,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


255 


the  earth's  goal  alone  was  above  the  depressed  horizon  to 
be  compared  with  59  falls  when  the  earth's  quit  alone 
was  above  the  depressed  horizon. 

Of  the  50  observed  falls  constituting  the  third  group,  of 
which  the  hour  of  fall  is  not  stated,  very  few  particulars 
other  than  the  fact  of  fall  are  known.  Although  we  are 
left  without  the  power  of  saying  that  they  indicate  the 
same  law  as  the  other  210  falls,  we  find  at  the  same  time 
no  reason  to  suspect  the  contrary.  It  is  not  unreasonable 
to  assume  that  the  well  observed  stone-falls  are  good 
representatives  of  the  whole  group,  and  to  affirm  the 
three  propositions  with  which  I  set  out  as  true,  in  general, 
not  only  for  the  210  stone-falls  of  the  first  two  groups, 
but  for  the  whole  260  stone-falls  which  are  represented  by 
stones  in  our  cabinets,  and  in  which  the  stones  were  seen 
or  known  to  fall. 

It  also  seems  a  natural  and  proper  corollary  to  these 
propositions  (unless  it  shall  appear  that  stones  meeting 
the  earth  are  destroyed  in  the  air),  that  the  larger 
meteorites  moving  in  our  solar  system  are  allied  much 
more  closely  with  the  group  of  comets  of  short  period  than 
with  the  comets  whose  orbits  are  nearly  parabolic.  All 
the  known  comets  of  shorter  periods  than  33  years  move 
about  the  sun  in  direct  orbits  that  have  moderate  inclina- 
tions to  the  Ecliptic.  On  the  contrary,  of  the  nearly 
parabolic  cometic  orbits  that  are  known  only  a  small  pro- 
portion of  the  whole  number  have  small  inclinations  with 
direct  motion. 

It  also  follows  that  in  future  reductions  of  these  stone-fall 
•observations  it  will  be  better  to  assume  that  the  velocity 
of  the  stone  in  its  orbit  was  not  that  velocity  which  corre- 
sponds to  a  parabolic  orbit,  but  that  which  corresponds  to 
the  mean  orbit  of  the  comets  of  short  period.  The 
largeness  of  the  perihelion  distances  has  an  evident 
bearing  also  upon  the  idea  that  these  stones  form  the 
fuel  of  the  sun. 
.  The  presentation  of  the  argument  here  made  has  been 
incomplete  in  that  the  details  of  the  investigation  of  in- 
dividual stone-falls  have  been  entirely  omitted.  Some  of 
the  determinations  of  the  paths  are,  I  think,  as  complete 
as  I  can  hope  to  make  them.  But  others  must  be 
regarded  as  provisional,  since  I  hope  to  secure  respecting 
them  additional  data.  I  hope  at  some  future  time  to  give 
a  complete  discussion  of  all  these  observed  stone-falls. 
In  the  past  I  have  been  greatly  indebted  to  friends  for 
aid  in  collecting  accounts  of  the  falls,  and  I  heartily 
thank  them  therefore.  I  shall  be  very  grateful  also  in 
the  future  for  unpublished  observations  of  the  stone-falls, 
as  well  as  for  observations  that  have  been  so  published  as 
not  to  be  likely  to  have  attracted  attention.  I  bespeak 
the  kindly  aid  of  any  who  have  made  or  have  collected 
such  observations. 


NOTES. 

At  the  time  of  the  Paris  Exhibition  in  1889,  several  scientific 
congresses  will  assemble  in  the  French  capital— congresses  of 
zoology,  anthropol/gy,  physiology,  electricity,  dermatology, 
hygiene.  The  Revue  Scienlifique  expresses  a  hope  that  the  great 
congress  of  electricity  in  1881  may  betaken  as  a  model  for  all 
these  assemblies  ;  that  attempts  will  be  made,  as  far  as  possible, 
to  establish  uniformity  in  scientific  nomenclature  ;  and  that  men 
of  science  in  other  countries  will  not  allow  themselves  to  be 
deterred  by  international  jealousies  from  being  adequately  repre- 
sented at  meetings  whose  proceedings  will  relate  to  matters  of 
universal  interest. 

At  the  next  meeting  of  the  British  Association  there  will  be  a 
discussion  in  Section  D  on  the  vexed  question  of  the  formation 
of  coral  reefs.  The  discussion  will  be  opened  by  Dr.  Sydney  J. 
Hickson. 


On  Tuesday  evening  Mr.  W.  II.  Smith,  speaking  of  the 
measures  with  which  it  would  be  impossible  to  deal  during  the 
present  Session,  announced  that  the  Government  had  decided  to 
drop  the  Technical  Instruction  Bill.  He  deeply  regretted  that 
this  was  necessary,  "  but  perhaps,"  he  added,  "  there  may  not 
be  much  loss  of  time,  as  the  Royal  Commission  on  Elemen'ary 
Education  will  report  shortly  on  the  whole  question,  and  it  will 
be  interesting  and  convenient  to  the  House  to  have  that  report 
before  it  before  attempting  to  legislate  on  the  subject." 

A  Conference  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  National 
Association  for  the  Promotion  of  Technical  Education  and  re- 
presentatives of  branches  and  co-operating  associations  was 
held  last  Saturday  afternoon  at  the  Society  of  Arts.  After- 
wards the  first  annual  meeting  of  the  Association  was  held. 
Lord  Hartington  presided,  and  delivered  an  able  and  interesting 
speech,  showing  how  the  establishment  of  a  proper  system  of 
technical  instruction  has  been  rendered  absolutely  necessary  by 
the  conditions  of  modern  industrial  development. 

The  anniversary  meeting  of  the  Sanitary  Institute  of  Great 
Britain  will  be  held  to-day  at  3  p.m.  The  chair  will  be  taken 
by  Mr.  Edwin  Chadwick,  C.B.,  who  will  present  the  medals 
and  certificates  awarded  to  the  exhibitors  at  the  exhibition  held 
at  Bolton.  Dr.  B.  W.  Richardson,  F.R.S.,  will  deliver  an 
address,  entitled,  "  The  Storage  of  Life  as  a  Sanitary  Study." 

On  Thursday,  the  5th  inst.,  Prof.  Stckes  distributed  the 
prizes  to  the  students  at  the  Medical  School,  St.  Thomas's 
Hospital.  In  addressing  the  students  he  said  that  he  need  not 
lemind  th<-m  that  diligence  was  the  great  road  to  success,  and 
urged  that  it  was  a  duty  to  work  for  our  fellow-creatures  as 
well  as  ourselves.  He  thought  that  the  two  noblest  professions 
were  those,  one  of  which  assisted  in  the  rectification  of  man's 
character  and  the  other  in  alleviating  the  results  of  disease.  In 
the  exercise  of  the  medical  profession  our  best  feelings  were,  he 
thought,  called  forth.  The  best  foundation  was  a  general  liberal 
education,  and  although  those  branches  of  science  which  bear 
directly  on  medicine  might  be  separated  from  their  practical 
application,  they  were  in  themselves  most  interesting,  and>  when 
studied  for  their  own  sakes,  were  excellent  mental  training.  He 
was  glad  to  hear  from  Dr.  Ord  that  Sr.  Thomas's  students 
were  successful  in  athletics,  as  the  cups  exhibited  testified. 
In  the  necessarily  sedentary  life  of  a  medical  student  exercise 
and  relaxation  should  not  be  neglected,  and  students  did  well  to 
study  the  use  of  their  muscles  in  athletic  pursuits.  Sir  John 
Simon,  on  behalf  of  the  Governors  of  the  Hospital,  thanked 
Prof.  Stokes  for  distributing  the  prizes,  and  referred  to  the  high 
position  attained  by  Prof.  Stokes,  who,  as  President  of  the 
Royal  Society,  and  representative  in  Parliament  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  might  be  said  to  have  gained  the  best 
possible  prize,  but  hinted  that  the  happiness  of  life  consisted  in 
its  endeavours  rather  than  in  its  prizes.  He  concluded  by  allud- 
ing to  the  retirement  of  Dr.  Ord,  whose  services  as  Dean  of  the 
Medical  School  during  the  past  twelve  years  had  been,  he  felt 
sure,  much  appreciated  by  the  Governors  of  the  Hospital,  l>y 
the  medical  and  surgical  staff,  and  by  the  students. 

The  French  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  has  authorized  the 
following  scientific  missions  : — -If.  Georges  Martin  is  entrusted 
with  a  mission  to  Sweden  and  Norway,  to  study  the  different 
educational  questions;  M.  Henry  Meyners  d'Estrey  is  sent  to 
explore  the  mountainous  districts  of  Scan  linavia,  and  to  study 
certain  questions  connected  with  ethnography  and  anthropology  ; 
M.  Gaston  Angelvy,  civil  engineer,  goes  to  explore  the  tract 
of  country  between  Lake  Nyassa  and  the  coast  of  the  Indian 
Ocean,  and  to  visit  more  particularly  the  basin  of  the  river 
Royaurva. 

The  Musee  Guimet  in  Paris,  which  contains  specimens  of 
a  great  number  of   objects  used  in  religious  ceremonies,    was 


256 


NATURE 


{July 


12,  1 


nominally  opened  some  days  ago.     It  will  not,   however,   be 
opened  to  the  public  for  several  months. 

The  meeting  which  will  shortly  be  held  in  Paris  for  the  study 
of  tuberculosis,  under  Prof.  Chauveau's  presidency,  promises  to 
be  very  interesting  and  successful. 

The  International  Congress  of  "Americanists"  will  hold 
its  seventh  session  in  Berlin  from  October  2  to  5  next.  The 
organizing  committee  has  just  issued  the  programme.  The  first 
day  will  be  devoted  to  questions  relating  to  the  discovery  of  the 
New  World,  to  the  history  of  America  before  the  time  of 
Columbus,  and  to  American  geology  ;  the  second  to  archaeology  ; 
the  third  to  anthropology  and  ethnography ;  the  fourth  to 
philology  and  palaeography. 

It  is  proposed  that  an  exhibition,  to  be  called  the  "Three 
Americas  Permanant  Exhibition,"  shall  be  established  at  Wash- 
ington in  1892  as  a  memorial  of  the  discovery  of  America  by 
Columbus.  Both  Houses  of  Congress  have  expressed  approval 
of  the  scheme.  While  the  subject  was  being  considered  by  the 
House  Committee  on  Commerce,  Major  J.  W.  Powell,  director 
of  the  U.S.  Geological  Survey,  pointed  out,  in  an  interesting 
address  to  the  Committee,  the  benefits  that  archaeologists  would 
be  likely  to  derive  from  such  an  exhibition,  and  the  importance 
of  securing  without  delay  the  necessary  materials. 

We  have  received  the  volume  containing  a  report  of  the 
Proceedings  of  the  thirty-sixth  meeting  of  the  American  Associa- 
tion for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  held  at  New  York  in 
August,  1887.  Among  the  more  interesting  contents  of  the 
volume  is  the  addres;  of  Dr.  Daniel  G.  Brinton,  vice-President 
of  the  Section  for  anthropology.  In  this  address  Dr.  Brinton 
presents  a  comprehensive  review  of  the  data  for  the  study  of  the 
prehistoric  chronology  of  America.  Speaking  of  physical 
characteristics,  he  says  that  although  the  anatomy  and  physiology 
of  the  various  American  tribes  present  great  diversity  they  also 
display  a  really  remarkable  fixedness  of  type.  No  observer  well 
acquainted  with  this  type  could  err,  he  thinks,  in  taking  it  for 
another.  "  Darwin  says  that  the  Fuegians  so  closely  resemble 
the  Botocudos  [of  Brazil]  that  they  seemed  members  of  the  same 
tribe.  I  have  seen  Arawacks  from  Guiana  who  in  the  north- 
west would  have  passed  for  Sioux."  According  to  Prof.  J. 
Kollmann,  the  results  of  whose  researches  on  this  subject  are 
accepted  by  Dr.  Brinton,  the  essential  physical  identity  of  the 
American  race  is  as  extended  in  time  as  in  space.  Prof.  Koll- 
mann has  analyzed  the  cranioscopic  formulas  of  the  most  ancient 
American  skulls,  those  from  the  alleged  tertiary  deposits  of  the 
Pampas,  that  obtained  from  Rock  Bluff,  Illinois,  the  celebrated 
Calaveras  skull  from  California,  and  one  from  Pontemelo  in 
Buenos  Ayres  of  geologic  antiquity.  The  conclusion  at  which 
he  arrives  is  that  the  earliest  Americans — those  who  were  con- 
temporaries of  the  fossil  horse  and  other  long  since  extinct 
quadrupeds — possessed  the  same  racial  character  as  the  natives 
of  the  present  day,  with  similar  skulls  and  a  like  physiognomy. 

On  Monday  the  atmosphere  in  the  Channel  became  so  rarefied 
that  objects  could  be  seen  with  extraordinary  distinctness  at  a 
distance  of  between  30  and  40  miles  from  Dover  and  Folkestone. 
The  Times  says  that  the  lighthouse  at  Cape  Grisnez,  Calais,  and 
the  dome  of  the  Cathedral, 'and  Napoleon's  Column  at  Boulogne 
could  be  distinctly  seen  with  the  naked  eye,  and  every  prominent 
object  could  be  picked  out  along  the  French  coast.  The  distance 
from  Dover  to  Boulogne  as  the  crow  flies  is  28  miles,  and  the 
column  is  about  2  miles  further  inland. 

The  following  telegram  from  Valparaiso  was  lately  received 
at  Buenos  Ayres: — "A  rather  severe  earthquake  shock  was 
experienced  in  Santiago  on  Sunday,  May  13,  at  11.30  a.m.,  and 
considerable  alarm  prevailed  in  consequence  of  May  13  being  the 
anniversary  of  the  great  earthquake  in  1647,  which  laid  a  large 


portion  of  the  city  in  ruins,  and  which  was  the  origin  of  the  pro- 
cession of  the  Senor  de  [Mayo.  A  severe  but  short  vertical 
shock  occurred  here  on  Tuesday,  the  15th,  at  8.5  p.m.  A 
strong  earthquake  shock  was  felt  at  Yumbel  on  the  10th,  at 
9. 15  p.m.  A  smart  earthquake  shock,  preceded  by  a  long  sub- 
terranean noise,  was  experienced  in  Santiago  on  Wednesday, 
the  16th,  at  _  4. 55  a.m.  The  shock  was  also  felt  here,  but 
slightly."  At  Buenos  Ayres  several  earthquake  shocks  were 
experienced  on  the  night  of  Monday,  June  4.  According  to  the 
Buenos  Ayres  Standard,  a  slight  shock  was  felt  at  12.18.  Three 
seconds  afterwards  a  very  strong  shock  occurred,  and  the  oscil- 
lation was  slow  and  pronounced.  The  walls  of  houses  and  all 
movable  articles  were  shaken,  and  a  third  shock,  which  seemed 
to  be  nothing  more  than  the  subsidence  of  the  second,  occurred 
two  seconds  afterwards.  No  serious  accident  followed  the 
occurrence.  Several  families,  however,  were  so  startled  that 
they  rushed  out  of  their  houses  and  sought  refuge  in  the  open 
square.  The  shocks  were  felt  with  more  or  less  intensity  all 
over  the  province  of  Buenos  Ayres  and  in  Montevideo.  As  felt 
in  Montevideo  the  shock  passed  from  south-south-west  to  north- 
north-east. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  French  Meteorological  Society  on 
June  5,  M.  Angot  communicated  a  paper  on  the  climate  of  St. 
Martin-de-Hinx  (Landes)  based  on  observations  made  since  1864, 
in  which  he  has  determined  the  diurnal  variations  of  each  ele- 
ment. He  also  announced  that  as  soon  as  funds  were  obtained 
he  intended  to  publish  in  extenso  several  long  series  of  observa- 
tions. At  several  of  the  places  mentioned,  including  Paris, 
Marseilles,  &c,  the  observations  date  from  far  into  the  last 
century.  M.  L.  Teisserenc  de  Bort  communicated  a  note 
relative  to  two  earthquakes  which  occurred  at  8  p.m.  on  the  4th, 
and  at  5  p.m.  on  May  14  last,  in  the  department  of  Puy- 
de-D6me.  M.  Moureaux  remarked  that  the  magnetograms  at 
Parc-St.-Maur  showed  no  special  disturbances  at  those  times. 
M.  Renou  paid  a  tribute  to  the  memory  of  M.  Herve-Mangon, 
to  whose  exertions  the  separation  of  the  meteorological  from  the 
astronomical  service  was  due.  This  memoir  will  be  printed  in 
the  Bulletin  of  the  Society. 

A  NEW  base  and  its  series  of  salts,  belonging  to  the  remark- 
able group  known  as  "platinum  bases,"  have  been  obtained  by 
Dr.  Heinrich  Alexander,  of  Konigsberg.  The  base  itself  has 
the  composition  Pt(OH)2  .  4NH30,  and  may  be  considered  as 
the  hydroxylamine-platinum  compound  corresponding  to  the  free 
base  of  the  well-known  green  salt  of  Magnus,  Pt(OH)2  .  4NH3. 
The  chloride  of  the  series  was  prepared  some  little  time  ago  by 
Lossen,  but  can  be  most  readily  obtained,  according  to 
Alexander,  by  mixing  a  10  per  cent,  solution  of  potassium 
platinous  chloride  with  hydrochloride  of  hydroxylamine  and  an 
alkaline  carbonate.  On  standing,  the  deep  red  liquid  becomes 
decolourized,  and  the  reaction  is  completed  when  a  yellowish 
precipitate  commences  to  settle  ;  on  the  addition  of  more  alkali 
the  new  base  is  immediately  and  quantitatively  precipitated. 
The  precipitate  is  then  dissolved  in  the  calculated  quantity  of 
cold  dilute  hydrochloric  acid,  and  on  passing  a  gentle  stream  of 
hydrochloric  acid  gas  through  the  solution,  or  on  the  addition 
of  absolute  alcohol,  fine  colourless  needles  of  the  chloride 
PtCl2  .  4NH3O  are  deposited.  These  needles  are  very  soluble 
in  water,  but,  like  many  other  chlorides,  are  insoluble  in  con- 
centrated hydrochloric  acid.  The  free  base  is  at  once  precipitated 
from  this  salt  on  the  addition  of  stronger  bases,  such  as  potash 
and  soda,  or  even  ammonia.  It  is  perfectly  stable  in  the  air 
and  is  extremely  insoluble  in  water  and  alcohol ;  it  behaves 
exactly  like  a  true  metallic  hydroxide,  dissolving  in  acids 
with  formation  of  the  corresponding  salts.  The  sulphate 
PtS04  .  4NH3O,  which  is  best  obtained  by  treating  the  base 
with  the  calculated  quantity  of  sulphuric  acid  upon  a  water  bath, 
crystallizes  well  in  short,  heavy  prisms,  difficultly  soluble  in  cold 


July  12,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


257 


but  better  in  hot  water,  the  crystals  deposited  from  which  con- 
tain a  molecule  of  water  of  crystallization.  When  heated  above 
100°  C.  it  violently  decomposes  with  detonation.  In  a  similar 
manner  the  phosphate  and  oxalate  of  the  series  were  obtained 
pure  and  analyzed.  The  former  separates  out  in  microscopic 
crystals  while  the  latter  is  deposited  in  beautiful  stellar  aggre- 
gates of  long  needles.  During  the  course  of  the  work,  two 
interesting  isomeric  salts  were  obtained.  When  the  base  is 
treated  with  excess  of  warm  hydrochloric  acid  and  the  solution 
allowed  to  cool,  yellow  needles  of  a  chloride  of  the  composition 
PtCl2  .  2NHsO  fall  out.  If  however  potassium  platinous 
chloride  be  added  to  dilute  solutions  of  the  first  chloride, 
PtCl2  .  4NH3O,  beautiful  violet  needles  of  an  isomeric  salt, 
PtCl2  .  4NH80  +  PtCI2,  separate  out.  The  two  substances  are 
quite  distinct,  though  possessing  the  same  empirical  formula, 
reminding  one  of  the  remarkable  isomerism  so  frequently  met 
with  among  the  compounds  of  carbon. 

Under  the  heading  of  "  Psychology"  the  American  Naturalist 
for  May  has  a  curious-  paragraph  on  "  The  Monkey  as  a  Scien- 
tific Investigator."  In  the  interesting  little  "Zoo"  connected 
with  the  National  Museum  at  Washington,  there  is  a  fine  male 
grivet  monkey  (Ceixopithecus  erythraa),  who  shares  a  large  cage 
with  four  opossums.  To  human  beings  he  shows  himself  any- 
thing but  amiable,  but  "  he  takes  kindly  to  his  strange  com- 
panions, and  they  have  been  the  best  friends  from  the  first." 
The  attention  of  the  attendant  was  lately  drawn  to  the  cage  by 
the  excitement  of  a  crowd  in  front  of  it,  and  on  going  to  ascer- 
tain the  cause  he  was  surprised  to  see  the  monkey  seated  in  the 
middle  of  the  cage,  with  one  of  the  opossums  lying  quietly  on 
her  back  on  his  lap,  and  her  head  under  his  arm.  "  The 
monkey  had  just  discovered  the  marsupial  pouch  of  the 
opossum,  and  was  diligently  investigating  it.  Had  he  not  been 
a  close  observer  it  certainly  would  have  remained  unseen,  for  it 
was  so  tightly  closed  as  to  be  perfectly  invisible  'in  its  normal 
condition.  The  monkey  carefully  lifted  the  outer  wall  of  the 
pouch,  and  peered  into  the  cavity.  Then  he  reached  in  with  his 
hand,  felt  about  for  a  moment,  and  to  the  astonishment  of  every- 
body took  out  a  tiny  young  opossum,  about  2  inches  long,  hair- 
less, blind,  and  very  helpless,  but  alive  and  kicking.  Jock  held 
it  up  to  the  light,  where  he  could  get  a  good  view  of  it,  scrutin- 
ized it  with  the  air  of  a  savant,  and  presently  returned  it  to  the 
pouch,  very  carefully.  After  replacing  it  he  looked  into  the 
pouch  again,  and  presently  drew  out  another  for  examination, 
which  he  looked  at  with  solemn  interest,  smelt  it,  and  then 
carefully  put  it  back.  It  was  thus  it  became  known  to  the 
attendants  that  the  old  female  opossum  had  the  young  ones, 
which  had  previously  been  looked  for  in  vain." 

Some  time  ago  an  English  resident  at  Canton,  Mr.  Pitman, 
bought  a  curious  monstrosity — a  sow  with  six  legs.  The  front 
part  of  the  body  is  simple,  that  is,  the  animal  has  one  head,  one 
thorax,  and  two  front  legs.  Behind,  all  the  organs  are  double. 
M.  Bezaure,  the  French  Consul  at  Canton,  persuaded  Mr. 
Pitman  to  let  'him  have  this  strange  creature  for  the  Paris 
Museum  of  Natural  History,  where  it  may  now  be  seen.  It  is 
white,  with  great  black  spots,  and  appears  to  be  in  perfect 
health.  An  account  of  it,  by  M.  Charles  Brongniart,  of  the 
Museum  of  Natural  History,  appears  in  the  current  number  of 
La  Nature.  The  separation  of  the  two  trunks  seems  to  begin 
after  the  dorsal  vertebra  ;  but  the  animal  is  so  fat  that  this 
cannot  be  precisely  determined. 

Many  women  who  are  anxious  to  obtain  a  University  train- 
ing cannot  afford  to  pay  the  fees  required  for  residence  at  one  of 
the  colleges  or  halls  in  connection  with  the  old  Universities. 
For  their  benefit  Aberdare  Hall,  Cardiff,  was  founded  ;  and  we 
are  glad  to  learn  that  the  institution  has  made  steady  progress 
since  it  was  opened  in  1885.  This  year  the  number  of  students 
has  doubled.     At  University  College,  Cardiff,  the  students  at 


Aberdare  Hall  are  taught  on  the  same  footing  as  the  men 
students.  They  generally  work  for  London  University  degrees, 
but  when  they  wish  to  prepare  for  other  examinations  the 
necessary  help  is  gladly  given. 

The  Irish  Exhibition  in  London  has  published  a  useful 
"  Handy-book  of  Reference  for  Irishwomen."  It  is  edited  by 
Miss  Helen  Blackburn,  and  Mrs.  Power  Lalor  contributes  a 
preface.  The  volume  presents  full  and  accurate  information  as 
to  women's  work  in  Ireland,  and  as  to  the  schools  and  classes  in 
which  they  may  obtain  scientific  and  technical  training. 

The  annual  report  of  the  Geological  and  Natural  History 
Survey  of  Canada  for  1886  (vol.  ii.  new  series)  has  been  issued. 
It  embodies  the  results  of  some  of  the  work  of  preceding  years, 
and  not  all  of  the  work  of  the  year  for  which  it  is  dated.  The 
volume  consists  of  thirteen  parts,  separately  paged  and  lettered, 
and  relating  to  various  portions  of  the  Dominion  from  Nova 
Scotia  to  British  Columbia,  and  northward  to  the  Arctic  Ocean. 
The  parts  were  issued  separately  with  accompanying  maps  and 
illustrations  in  pamphlet  form,  as  they  were  received  from  the 
printers. 

The  new  number  of  the  Mineralogical  Magazine  contains, 
besides  abstracts  and  a  full  index  to  vol.  vii.,  the  following 
papers  : — On  the  development  of  a  lamellar  structure  in  quartz- 
crystals  by  mechanical  means,  by  Prof.  John  W.  Judd,  F.  K.  S.  ; 
on  the  polysynthetic  structure  of  some  porphyritic  quartz-crystals 
in  a  quartz-felsite,  by  Major-General  C.  A.  McMahon  ;  on 
kaolinite,  by  Alan  Dick  ;  note  on  the  occurrence  of  celestite 
containing  nearly  14  per  cent,  of  free  sulphur,  by  H.  J.  John- 
ston-Lavis  ;  notes  on  hornblende  as  a  rock-forming  mineral,  by 
Alfred  Harker. 

M.  Vayniere  has  brought  out  the  second  of  the  four  parts  of 
his  Atlas  of  invertebrate  animals. 

In  a  circular  issued  by  Mr.  Edward  S.  Holden,  director  of  the 
Lick  Observatory,  it  is  stated  that  the  Observatory  build- 
ings will  be  open  to  visitors  during  office  hours  every  day  in  the 
year.  An  hour  or  so,  he  points  out,  can  be  profitably  occupied 
in  viewing  the  various  instruments,  and  the  rest  of  the  stay  can 
be  well  spent  in  walks  to  the  various  reservoirs,  from  which 
magnificent  views  of  the  surrounding  country  can  be  had.  With 
regard  to  the  admission  of  visitors  at  night,  Mr.  Holden  says 
that,  for  the  present,  visitors  will  be  received  at  the  Observatory 
to  look  through  the  great  telescope  every  Saturday  night  between 
the  hours  of  7  and  10,  and  at  these  times  only.  Whenever  the 
work  of  the  Observatory  will  allow,  other  telescopes  will  also  be 
put  at  the  disposition  of  visitors  on  Saturdays  between  the  same 
hours.  Mr.  Holden  hopes  that,  by  setting  apart  these  times  for 
visitors  (which  allow  freer  access  to  the  Lick  Observatory  than 
is  allowed  to  any  other  Observatory  in  the  world)  all  interested 
may  be  able  to  arrange  their  visits  in  conformity  to  them  ;  and 
that  the  remaining  hours  of  the  week  will  be  kept  entirely  un- 
interrupted, in  order  that  the  astronomers  may  do  the  work 
upon  which  the  reputation  of  the  Observatory  entirely  depends. 

From  a  report  signed  by  Mr.  Edward  S.  Holden  we  learn 
that  the  trustees  of  the  Lick  Observatory,  acting  on  his  advice, 
have  provided  a  photographic  attachment  to  the  36-inch  tele- 
scope, which  will  enable  this  to  be  used  as  a  gigantic  camera  for 
photography.  It  cannot  be  used  to  make  maps  according  to  the 
scheme  of  the  Paris  Congress,  since  that  scheme  requires  a  focal 
length  of  13  feet,  while  that  at  the  Lick  Observatory  will  be  47. 
But  a  vast  deal  of  work  may  be  done  in  connection  with  appli- 
cations to  astronomy  other  than  the  construction  of  the  chart. 
In  the  photography  of  the  moon,  of  the  planets,  of  nebulae,  and 
comets  the  Lick  telescope  will  have  Rome  important  advantages. 
"  But,"  says  Mr.  Holden,  "  it  is  in  the  photography  of  stars— 
of  double  and  binary  stars,  of  all  the  fainter  stars,  of  all  star 


258 


NA  TURE 


\_July  12,  1888 


clusters  —  that  the  Lick  photographic  telescope  will  find  its 
chief  application  and  demonstrate  its  immense  superiority.  One 
■of  the  first  works  to  be  done  is  to  photograph  the  vicinity  of  all 
the  brighter  stars,  for  the  discovery  of  fainter  companions,  and 
for  the  permanent  record  of  their  surroundings.  A  certain  number 
of  stars  will  be  selected  and  photographed  at  regular  intervals 
throughout  the  year.  Measures  made  upon  these  plates  will  give 
the  data  by  which  the  distances  of  these  stars  from  the  earth  can 
be  determined.  Similar  measures  upon  photographs  of  star 
•clusters  may  serve  to  give  us  a  clue  to  the  laws  which  govern  the 
internal  structure  of  these  wonderful  objects.  A  continuous  series 
of  photographs  of  the  brighter  parts  of  one  of  the  brighter  comets 
will  certainly  throwa  flood  of  much  needed  light  upon  the  process 
of  their  development." 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  White-thighed  Colobus  (Colobus  vcllerosus 
3  ),  a  Campbell's  Monkey  {Ccrcopithecus  campbelli  V  ),  a  White- 
Collared  Mangabey  (Cercocebus  collarii),  a  Bosnian's  Potto 
(Perodicticus  potto),  a  Marabou  Stork  (Leptoptilus  crumeniferus), 
a  Black  Sternothere  (Slemothcerus  nigcr)  from  West  Africa,  pre- 
sented by  Mr.  H.  H.Johnston,  F.Z.S.  ;  two  Black-Bellied  Sand 
Grouse  (Pterocles  arenarius)  from  North  Africa,  presented  by  Sir 
Kirby  Green,  R. C.M.G.  ;  an  Eyed  Lizard  (Licerta  ocellata), 
European,  presented  by  Mr.  J.  Hopson  ;  a  Patas  Monkey  (Cer- 
topithectis  patas  0  ),  two  West  African  Love  Birds  (Agapornis 
pullaria)  from  West  Africa,  a  Cormorant  {Phalacrocorax  carbo), 
British,  three  Scarlet  Ibises  (Eudocimus  ruber)  from  South 
America,  five  Common  Chameleons  {Chamcele  n  vulgaris)  from 
North  Africa,  deposited  ;  a  Chipping  Squirrel  (Tamias  striatus) 
"from  North  America,  five  Lesser  Pintailed  Sand  Grouse  (P.cro  les 
.■exustus  1  6  ,  3  9  )  from  Abyssinia,  two  Modest  Grass  Finches 
(Amadina  modesta)  from  Australia,  purchased  ;  a  Moor  Monkey 
(Semnopithccus  maurus  6  )  from  Java,  received  in  exchange  ;  a 
Spotted  Tinamon  (Nothura  maculosa),  two  Cambayan  Turtle 
Doves  {Turtur  senegalensis),  three  Chiloe  Widgeon  (Maieca 
chilosnsis),  three  Slender  Ducks  {Anas  gibber/frons),  two  Aus- 
tralian Wild  Ducks  (Anas  supcrciliosa),  three  Mandarin  Ducks 
(sEx  galericulata),  eleven  Chilian  Pintails  (Dafila  spinicanda) 
bred  in  the  Gardens. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

The  Markings  on  Maks. — M.  Perrotin,  in  a  more  recent 
communication  to  the  Paris  Academy  of  Sciences,  states  that 
the  district  of  Libya,  the  disappearance  of  which  he  had  recorded 
a  week  or  two  earlier  (Nature,  vol.  xxxviii.  p.  185), 
has  undergone  a  further  change,  the  "sea"  which  had  so 
recently  covered  it  having  retreated  again  for  the  most  part,  so 
that  the  present  appearance  of  the  district  is  intermediate  be- 
tween that  which  it  recently  presented  and  that  under  which  it 
was  seen  in  1886.  Of  the  canals  M.  Perrotin  has  noticed  four, 
three  of  which  are  double,  which,  starting  from  the  "seas"  of 
the  southern  hemisphere  near  the  equator,  and  following  a 
nearly  meridional  course,  extend  right  up  to  the  north  polar  ice 
cap,  being  traceable  across  the  "seas"  which  immediately 
surround  the  latter.  No  other  observer  as  yet  seems  to  have 
traced  these  canals  for  such  a  distance,  and  across  "seas"  as 
well  as  continents.  This  observation  renders  their  true  character 
more  puzzling  than  ever,  and  seems  effectually  to  dispose  both  of 
M.  Fizeau's  just  published  theory,  which  explains  them  by  the 
analogy  of  the  rifts  in  terrestrial  glaciers,  Mars  being  assumed  to 
be  in  a  glacial  condition,  and  of  that  of  Mr.  Proctor,  who 
-ascribes  them  to  the  varying  appearances  of  the  Martial  rivers 
when  clearly  seen  or  partly  veiled  by  local  mists.  More  detailed 
observations  of  these  strange  markings  are  needed,  and  it 
is  to  be  much  desired  that  as  many  as  possible  of  actual  drawings 
made  at  the  telescope  should  be  published.  It  is  possible  that 
the  comparison  of  sketches  made  with  different  observers  and 
-with  different  apertures,  would  throw  much  light  on  the  subject  ; 
if,  for  instance,  the  appearances  were  partly  optical  and  due  to 
:some  effect  of  diffraction,  it  would  soon  become  apparent. 


Comet  1888a,  Sawerthal. — The  remarkable  change  in 
brightness  which  this  object  displayed  about  May  20  (Nature, 
vol.  xxxviii.  p.  114)  seems  to  have  been  well  observed,  and 
there  is  a  general  agreement  that  the  increase  in  brightness 
amounted  to  24  or  3  magnitudes.  At  Dorpat  Herr  Blumbach 
estimated  the  comet  as  9-10  on  May  19,  and  as  7-8  on  May  22. 
Dr.  Franz,  at  Konigsberg,  considered  the  increase  as  amount- 
ing to  3^  magnitudes,  estimating  the  brightness  as  5  8  on  May 
21,  whilst  Dr.  Kammeraoann,  at  Geneva,  on  May  25,  reckoned 
the  comet  as  between  the  5th  and  6th  mags.,  and  the  increase 
as  having  been  between  2  and  3.  Father  Fenyi,  of  the  Kalocsa 
Observatory,  finds  the  change  of  magnitude  about  the  same,  but 
estimates  the  absolute  brightness  differently  ;  the  recorded 
magnitudes  being:  JVIay  20,  9-3  ;  May  21,  78;  May  22,  68; 
and  May  23,  6 '8.  Father  Fenyi  also  supplies  {Astr.  Nach., 
No.  2844)  a  series  of  sketches  of  the  comet,  showing  the  changes 
of  shape  which  have  accompanied  the  changes  of  brightness, 
and  especially  the  development  about  May  28  of  a  sort  of  wing 
on  either  side  of  the  head.  These  wings  appear,  however,  to 
have  been  seen  earlier  at  other  observatories,  thus  Herr 
Kortazzi,  at  Nicolaiew,  observed  them  on  May  24,  and  Herr 
Wutschichowski  gives  a  beautiful  drawing  of  them  under  date 
May  25  (Astr.  Nach.,  No.  2845).  The  comet  does  not  appear 
to  have  been  satisfactorily  observed  with  the  spectroscope  during 
this  period  of  unusual  brilliancy.  The  outburst  was  soon  over, 
and  the  comet  speedily  returned  to  it-  former  faintness. 

The  following  ephemeris  (Astr.  Nach.,  No.  2838)  is  in  con- 
tinuation of  that  given  in  Nature,  vol.  xxxviii.  p.  186. 

1888.  R  A.  Decl.  L^g  r.  Log  .A.  Bright- 

h.    m.    s.  o       /  ness. 

July    13  ..   1    7  18  ...  50  32  8  N.  ...  03352  ...  0-3306  ...  0029 


15...  1  742  ...  5055-4 

17...  1  7  56  ...  51  17-2 

19...  1  8    2  ...  51  38-4 

21...  1  757  ...  51  58-8 

23...  1  743  ...  52  18-5 

25...  1  7  19  ...  52374 

27...  1  645  ...  52  55-4 

29...  1  6    o  ...  53  126 

31...  1  5    6  ...  53  28-9 

Aug.    2...  1  4    1  ...  53  44-2  N.  ...  0-3857  ...  0-3405  ...  0-022 


...  0*3459  ...  0-3331  ...  o  028 
...  0-3563  ...  0-3353  •••  °'°2° 
...  0-3664  ...  03372  ...  o  025 
...  0-3762  ...  03389  ...  0023 


The  brightness  on  February  18  is  taken  as  unity. 


ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR    THE 

WEEK  1888  JULY  15-21. 
/T70R  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
'  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed. ) 

At  Greenwich  on  July  15 
Sun  rises,  4h.  3m.  ;  souths,  I2n.  5m.  44-23.;  sets,  2oh.  8m.  : 
right  asc.  on  meridian,  7h.  40-801.  ;  decl.  21°  26'  N. 
Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  15(1.  44m. 
Moon  (at  First  Quarter  July  16,  I2h.)  rises,  nh.  7m.  ;  souths, 
I7h.  21m. ;  sets,  23(1.  22m.:  right  asc.  on  meridian, 
I2h.  566m.  ;  decl.  o"  35'  S. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 
Planet.  Rises.  Souths.  Sets.  on  meridian. 

h.   m.  h.    m.  h.    m.  h.       m.  „        , 

Mercury..  3  44  ...  1 1  24  ..19  4  ...  6  58-6  ...  18  o  N. 
Venus  ...  4  4  ...  12  11  ...  20  18  ...  7  45-9  ...  22  9  N. 
Mars  ...  12  56  ...  18  2  ...  23  8  ...  13  38-3  ...  11  15  S. 
Jupiter  ...  15  38  ...  20  2  ...  o  26*...  15  38-0  ...  18  36  S. 
Saturn  ...  5  19  ...  13  6  ...  20  53  ...  8  4i-8  ...  18  56  N. 
Uranus...  11  34  ...  17  14  ...  22  54  ...  12  50-3  ...  4  42  S. 
Neptune.,  o  39  ...  8  25  ...  16  11  ...  3  59-5  ..18  53  N. 
*  Indicates  that  the  setting  is  that  of  the  following  morning. 

Comet  Satverthal. 

Right  Ascension.  Declination. 

July.  h.  h.      m.  „       / 

15     ...     o         ...         i     7-5         ...         50  45  N. 
19     ...     o         ...         1     80        ...         51  28 

Occultations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 

angles  from  ver- 

July.  Star.  Mag.  Disap.  Reap.         tex  to  right  for 

inverted  image, 
h.    m.  h.     m.  00 

17  ...  £'  Libra    6     ...    19  22  ...    19  40     ...   145  176 

18  ...   0  Libra:      4^   ...   21     2  ...   21  23     ...       8  359 

19  ..    49  Libra: 54  •••     o  20  near  approach  202    — 

19  ...  B.A.C.  5700   ...  64  ...   22  26    ..   23  14     ...   142  232 


July  12,  1888] 


NATURE 


259 


July. 
16 

18 

20 


h. 

17 
O 


Mars  in  conjunction  with  and  6°  40'  south 

of  the  Moon. 
Jupiter  in  conjunction  with  and  40  5'  south 

of  the  Moon. 
Mercury  stationary. 

Variable  Stars. 


Star. 
U  Cephei     .. 

W  Virginis  .. 
S  Librae 
U  Coronse   .. 
W  Herculis .. 
U  Ophiuchi.. 

W  Sagittarii 
Z  Sagittarii.. 
T  Serpentis  ., 

/3  Lyrse 

R  Lyras 
R  Cygni 
S  Aquilas     .. 
S  Delphini  .. 
X  Cygni 


R.A.  Decl. 

h.      m.  „       / 

o  52-4  ...  81    16  N. 


13  203 

14  55  o 

15  i3"6 

16  3i'3 

17  io-9 


48  S. 

4s. 

3N. 

37  34  N. 
1  20  N. 


32 


...   17  57-9  ...  29  35  S 

...  18  14-8...  18  55  S.  ...  „ 
...  18  23-4  ...  6  14  N.  ...  ,. 
...   18  46-0  ...  33  14  N.  ...     ,, 

...   18  51-9  ...  43  48  N , 

...  19  33-8  ...  49  57  N.  ...  „ 
...  20    65  ...  15  17  N.  ...     ,, 

...  20  379  ...  16  41  N , 

...  20  39-0  ...  35  11  N.  ...     „ 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum. 

Meteor- Showers. 

R.A.  Decl. 


h. 

July  15,  21 

,,  20,   21 

„  16,  22 

„  20,    O 

„  15.  21 

I,  20, 

„  19,      2 

II  19,  22 

,,  16,   21 

,1  16,    o 

II  20, 

M  15.     1 

>,  18, 

,.  I9i 

,,  21, 

„  18, 

>>  21,    o 


31   m 

11  m 
o  vi 

44  m 

43  * 

m. 

4  m 

12  vi 
o  VI 
o  m 

M 
oM 

VI 

M 


The  Perseids  .. 
Near  7  Draconis 
,,     o  Lacertae 


2D 

'269 
336 


50  N. 

51  N. 
49  N. 


Swift,  streaks. 
Swift. 

Swift,  short. 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

The  Geographical  Society  of  Paris  have  decided  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  Universal  Exhibition  at  Paris,  next  year,  by 
convening  an  International  Congress  of  the  Geographical 
Sciences,  to  meet  in  the  month  of  August.  There  will  be  two 
classes  of  members,  subscribing  respectively  40  and  20  francs, 
and  each  member  will  be  entitled  to  receive  a  copy  of  the  pub- 
lications of  the  Congress  and  have  a  vote  in  the  questions 
discussed  at  the  meetings.  Each  Society  represented  at  the 
Congress  will  be  invited  to  submit  a  report  on  the  voyages, 
explorations,  and  publications  which  have  most  contributed,  in 
the  country  to  which  it  belongs,  to  the  progress  of  geography 
during  the  past  hundred  years  ;  the  combined  reports  will 
afterwards  be  published  with  the  names  of  their  authors. 

Dr.  H.  Meyer  has  made  some  important  corrections  in  the 
preliminary  account  of  his  ascent  of  Kilimanjaro.  After  verify- 
ing and  correcting  his  barometrical  observations,  he  admits  that 
the  previously  accepted  height  of  18, 700  feet  is  more  accurate 
than  that  given  by  himself,  19,850  feet.  He  then  refers  to  the 
dense  mist  which  prevented  him  from  seeing  beyond  a  wall  of 
inaccessible  ice,  130  feet  high,  which  his  first  account  indicated 
as  being  the  terminal  point  of  the  peak.  It  results  from  these 
observations  that  Dr.  Meyer  did  not  reach  to  within  820  feet 
of  the  summit  of  Kilimanjaro,  which  therefore  still  remains 
unconquered. 

M.  Jules  Borelli,  the  French  traveller,  who  accompanied 
M.  Rimbaud  last  year  in  his  interesting  journey  from  Antotto  to 
Harar,  is  engaged  in  exploring  the  country  to  the  south-west  of 
Shoa.  The  Paris  Geographical  Society  has  received  some  of 
the  results  accruing  from  his  journey  from  Antotto  to  Jiren, 
which  is  situated  in  7°42'  N.  latitude,  and  34°35'  E.  longitude. 
Among  these  results  is  the  discovery  of  the  sources  of  the  River 
Hawash,  which  lie  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Ilfata  at  the  extremity 
of  the  Meca  range,  and  not  near  Mount  Dandi,  as  hitherto 
supposed.  On  the  .-ummit  of  the  latter  peak  the  traveller  found 
a  double  lake  resembling  in  shape  the  figure  8,  which  is  of  con- 
siderable extent  and  depth  ;  an  affluent  of  the  Gudar,  and  thus 
of  the  Abbay,  issues  from  this  lake.  He  also  discovered  a  deep 
lake  at  the  bottom  of  the  immense  crater  mountain  known  as 
Mount  Harro ;  the  surroundings  of  this  sheet  of  water  are 
described  by  the  traveller  as  of  incomparable  beauty.  From 
this  lake,  which  is  named  by  the  natives  Wancit,  a  stream  issues 
and  joins  the  Walga,  the  source  of  the  latter  river  being  in  the  sum- 
mit of  Mount  Harro.    Dr.  Traversi,  the  Italian  explorer,  made  in 


June,  1887,  an  excursion  into  the  mountainous  region  of  Urbanagh,. 
lying  to  the  east  of  the  district  now  being  explored  by  M. 
Borelli.  The  chief  result  of  this  journey  of  Dr.  Traversi  is  to 
throw  light  on  the  problem  of  the  hydrographical  systems  of  the 
Somali  and  Galla  countries.  From  the  summit  of  Mount 
Gafat  he  was  able  to  comfirm  his  previous  observations  made 
near  the  Suai  Lake,  with  reference  to  the  three  lakes  above- 
mentioned  and  their  interconnection. 


ON  CERTAIN  INEQUALITIES  RELATING  TO 
PRIME  NUMBERS. 

T  SHALL  begin  with  a  method  of  proving  that  the  number  of 
L  prime  numbers  is  infinite  which  is  not  new,  but  which  it  is 
worth  while  to  recall  as  an  introduction  to  a  similar  method,  by 
series,  which  will  subsequently  be  employed  in  order  to  prove 
that  the  number  of  primes  of  the  form  4«  +  3,  as  also  of  the 
form  611  +  5,  is  infinite. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  reciprocal  of  the  product 


•'•I' 


A/V       pj\        pj  \       Pv.p, 

(where/,  means  the  uh  in  the  natural  succession  of  primes,  and 
ps  means  the  highest  prime  number  not  exceeding  N) 1  will  be 
equal  to 

i+h  +  h+\  +  l  +  1s+  .   .    .    .    +n+R> 

and  therefore  greater  than  log  N  (R  consisting  exclusively  of 
positive  terms). 


Hence 


1  +  — 
A 


1  +  - 
A 


1  +     -  )  >  M  log  N, 

An./ 


where 


M  =     1  - 


'Nj» 


and  is  therefore  greater  than  -. 

IT 

Hence  the  number  of  terms  in  the  product  must  increase 
indefinitely  with  N. 

By  taking  the  logarithms  of  both  sides  we  obtain  the 
inequality 

Si  -  |S2+  iS3  -  iS4+    .    .    .    .  >loglogN, 

where  in  general  S/  means  the  sum  of  inverse  s'th  powers  of  all 
the  primes  not  exceeding  N  ;  and  accordingly  is  finite,  except 
when  i  —  \,  for  any  value  of  N.     We  have  therefore 

Si  ->  1°§  l°g  N  +  Const. 
The  actual  value  of  Sj  is  observed  to  differ  only  by  a  limited 
quantity  from  the  second  logarithm  of  N,  but  I  am  not  aware 
whether  this  has  ever  been  strictly  proved. 
Legendre  has  found  that  for  large  values  of  N 

(I  -.«■(! 

Consequently 

(■-;,)(' 

This  would  show  that  the  value  of  our  R  bears  a  finite  ratio 
to  log  N  ;  calling  it  6  log  N  we  obtain,  according  to  Legendre's 
formula, 

which  gives  6  =  *8n, 


_  1)  (l  _   -1    \  =    I'I°4 

'    '    'V        Pn.p)        log  N' 

~  PJ  '    '    '       \     ~  Ps.J 


•552 

log  N* 


I  + 


=  -552, 


so  that  the  nebulous  matter,  so  to  say,  in  the  expansion  of  the 
reciprocal  of  the  product  of  the  differences  between  unity  and 
the  reciprocals  of  all  the  primes  not  exceeding  a  given  number, 
stands  in  the  relation  of  about  4  to  5  to  the  condensed  portion 
consisting  of  the  reciprocals  of  the  natural  numbers. 

I  will  now  proceed  to  establish  similar  inequalities  relating  to 
prime  numbers  of  the  respective  forms  4«  +  3  and  6;/  +  5. 

Beginning  with  the  case  4«  +  3,  I  shall  use  qj  to  signify  the 
yth  in  the  natural  succession  of  primes  of  the  form  4«  +  3,  and 
</N  to  signify  the  highest  q  not  exceeding  N,  N.^  itself 
signifying  the  number  of  q%  not  exceeding  N. 

1  N/  itself  of  course  denotes  in  the  above  notation  the  number  of  primes- 
(/)  iut  exceeding  N. 


26o 


NATURE 


{July  12,  1888 


Let  us  first,  without  any  reference  to  convergence,  consider 
the  product  obtained  by  the  usual  mode  of  multiplication  of  the 
infinite  series 


S  =  1  - 
by  the  product 

1  I  + 

I  -_ 


+  *'-  \  +h~ 


ad  inf. 


I  + 


ad  inf. 


<h 


'/■1 


It  is  clear  that  the  effect  of  the  multiplication  of  S  by  the 
numerator  of  the  above  product  will  be  to  deprive  the  series  S 
of  all  its  negative  terms.  Then  the  effect  of  dividing  by  the 
denominator  of  the  product,  with  the  exception  of  the  factor 
I  -  \,  will  be  to  restore  all  the  obliterated  terms,  but  with  the 
sign  +  instead  of  - .  Lastly,  the  effect  of  multiplying  by  the 
reciprocal  of  ( 1  -  \)  will  be  to  supply  the  even  numbers  that 
were  wanting  in  the  denominators  of  the  terms  of  S,  and  we 
shall  thus  get  the  indefinite  series 

1  +  4  +  \  +  I  +  • 

Call  now 


ad  inf. 


Qs  = 


1  + 


?N., 


i  -  i    1 1  -  1  -  — 

QN,  which  is  finite  when  N  is  finite,  may  be  expanded  into 
an  infinite  aggregate  of  positive  terms,  found  by  multiplying 
together  the  series 


i 

+ 

1 

i 

2 

+ 

2 

</i 

</r 

2 

2 

-  +  -,  +  r%  + 


+   —   + 


'/■i 


fk" 


•i-r 


Let 


222 

1      +    +  '■>+-' 

y-K.q  '^n.q  ?N.C 


■■•** 


then  from  what  has  been  said  it  is  obvious  that  we  may  write 
QNSN  -  t  +:  i  +  |  +  {  +  .    .    .    .  +  -L  +  V-R, 

where  V  and  R  may  be  constructed  according  to  the  following 
rule  :  Let  the  denominator  of  any  term  in  the  aggregate  QN 
be  called  t,  and  let  6  be  the  smallest  odd  number  which,  multi- 
plied by  t,  makes  id  greater  than  N  ;  then  if  6  is  of  the  form 
4«  +  1  it  will  contribute  to  V  a  portion  represented  by  the 
product  of  the  term  by  some  portion  of"  the  series  SN  of  the  form 

--___+__ 

e      e  +  2      e  +  4 

and  if  6  is  of  the  form  4«  +  3  it  will  contribute  to  -  R  a  portion 
equal  to  the  term  multiplied  by  a  series  of  the  form 

-  I  +  -         -  --  +  •    •    •    • 

e      e  +  2      e  +  4. 

Hence  R  is  made  up  of  the  sum  of  products  of  portions  of  the 
aggregate  Qx  multiplied  respectively  by  the  series 

1   —   1   4.    1  1-Ll  1_1_ 

1    —     1     4-      1       _      1      _. 

tV  -   tV  +    •     ■     •     ■ 
of  which  the  greatest  is  obviously  the  first,  whose  value  is  1  -  SN. 

Consequently   R    must  be  less  than  the  total  aggregate  QN 
multiplied  by  1  -  SN. 

Therefore 


+    -  >  log  N, 


Qnsn  +  Qn(j  -  sK)>  1  +  _.+  !  +  *  +._. 

i.e.  QN  >  log  N, 

from  which  it  follows  that  when  N  increases  indefinitely  the 
number  of  factors  in  QN  also  increases  indefinitely,  and  there 
must  therefore  be  an  infinite  number  of  primes  of  the  form 
4»  +  3- 


Denoting  by  MN  the  quantity 

-  '■)(' "  -' 

we  obtain  the  inequality 


'/n 


N../ 


and  taking  the  logarithms  of  both  sides 

_!  -  A22  +  i_3  -  .    .    .    .  >  4  log  log  N  +  1  log  MN  -  I  log  2, 

where  in  general  2,  denotes  the  sum  of  the  z'th  powers  of  the 
reciprocals  of  all  prime  numbers  of  the  form  472  +  3  not 
surpassing  N. 

Hence  it  follows  that  2X  >  \  log  log  N. 

If  we  could  determine  the  ultimate  ratio  of  the  sum  of  those 
terms  of  QN  whose  denominators  are  greater  than  N  to  the  total 
aggregate>  and  should  find  that  ft,  the  limiting  value  of  this  ratio, 
is  not  unity,  then  the  method  employed  to  find  an  inferior  limit 
would  enable  us  also  to  find  a  superior  limit  to  QN  ;  for  we 
should  have  V  <  /xQN  added  to  the  sum  of  portions  of  what 
remains  of  the  aggregate  when  /*QN  is  taken  from  it  multiplied 
respectively  by  the  several  series 

i  -  7  +  I  ~  i't  +  TV  "  tV  +   •    •    •    •  adinf 
\  -  t  r  +  -h  ~  T-s  +  •    •    •    •  ad  inf. 
Ts  ~  t a  +  ■    ■    ■    ■  ad  inf. 
the  total  value  of  the  sum  of  which  products  would  evidently  be 
less  than 

(1  -m)(S-  i  +  DQ^ 

Hence  the  total  value  of  V  would  be  less  than 


i.e.  less  than 


MQNs  +  (i  -  M)QN.(s  -  |y, 


QNS  -  |(i  -  M)QN> 
and  consequently  we  should  have 

f(i  -  M)QN  <  log  N, 

l-e-  Qv  <        3        log  N. 

N       2(1  -  M     8 

From  which  we  may  draw  the  important  conclusion  that  if  fi  is 

less  than  I,  i.e.  if  when  N  is  infinite  the  portion  of  the  aggregate 

SNQN  comprising  the  terms  whose  denominators  exceed  N  does 

not  become  infinitely  greater  than  the  remaining  portion,  the 

sum  of  the  reciprocals  of  all   the  prime  numbers  of  the  form 

4«  +  3  not  exceeding  N  would  differ  by  a  limited  quantity  from 

half  the  second  logarithm  of  N. 

A  precisely  similar  treatment  may  be  applied  to  prime  numbers 

of  the  form  6«  +  5.     We  begin  with  making 


SN  =  1 
We  write 

1 
Qn  =  


1    4-    1    — 


I    +    _ 


I    +    _ 


We  make 

QNSN  =  i  +  h  +  h  +  i+  ■    ■    ■ 
We  prove  as  before  that 

R  <  (1  -  S)QN, 


1 

+  — -- 

I 

I 

'.Vr 

+ 

I 

N 

+ 

V 

-  R. 

and  thus  obtain 

and  then  putting 
MVI  =  1  ] 


Qv  >  log  N, 


and  finally  noticing  that 


we  obtain 


1  +  - 


1 


N.r  / 


I+I)31 

''0/ 


>  4MM  log  N. 


July  12,  1888] 


NATURE 


261 


Taking  the  logarithms  of  both  sides  of  the  equation,  we  find 
©i  -  i©2  +  J®3  "  •    •    •    •  >  i  log  log  N  +  i  log  MN  -  \  log  3, 
where  0,-  means  the  sum   of  *th  powers  of  the  reciprocals  of 
all  the  prime  numbers,  not  exceeding  N,  of  the  form  6«  +  5. 

Either  from  this  equation  or  from  the  one  from  which  it  is 
derived  it  at  once  follows  that  the  number  of  primes  of  the  form 
6«  +  5  is  greater  than  any  assignable  limit. 

Parallel  to  what  has  been  shown  in  the  preceding  case,  if  it 
could  be  ascertained  that  the  sum  of  the  terms  of  the  aggregate 
Q  .  whose  denominations  do  not  exceed  N  bears  a  ratio  which 
becomes  indefinitely  small  to  the  total  aggregate,  it  would  follow 
by  strict  demonstration  that  the  sum  of  the  reciprocals  of  the 
primes  of  the  form  6«  +  5  inferior  to  N  would  always  differ  by 
a  limited  quantity  from  the  half  of  the  second  logarithm  of  N. 

It  is  perhaps  worthy  of  remark  that  the  infinitude  of  primes 
of  the  forms  4«  +  3  and  6«  +  5  may  be  regarded  as  a  simple 
rider  to  Euclid's  proof  (Book  IX.,  Prop.  20)  of  the  infinitude  of 
the  number  of  primes  in  general. 

The  point  of  this  is  somewhat  blunted  in  the  way  in  which  it  is 
presented  in  our  ordinary  text-books  on  arithmetic  and  algebra. 

What  Euclid  gives  is  something  more  than  this  : 1  his  statement 
is,  "  There  are  more  prime  numbers  than  any  proposed  multitude 
(■n\rj9os)  of  prime  numbers"  ;  which  he  establishes  by  giving  a 
formula  for  finding  at  least  one  more  than  any  proposed  number. 
He  does  not  say,  as  our  text-book  writers  do,  "if  possible  let 
A,  B,  .  .  .  .  (J  be  all  the  prime  numbers,"  &c,  but  simply  that 
if  A,  B,  ....  C  are  any  proposed  prime  numbers,  one  or 
more  additional  ones  may  be  found  by  adding  unity  to  their 
product  which  will  either  itself  be  a  prime  number,  or  contain 
at  least  one  additional  prime ;  which  is  all  that  can  correctly  be 
said,  inasmuch  as  the  augmented  product  may  be  the  power  of  a 
prime. 

Thus  from  one  prime  number  arbitrarily  chosen,  a  progression 
may  be  instituted  in  which  one  new  prime  number  at  least  is 
gained  at  each  step,  and  so  an  indefinite  number  may  be  found 
by  Euclid's  formula  :  e.g.  17  gives  birth  to  2  and  3  ;  2,  3,  17  to 
103  ;  2,  3,  17,  103  to  7,  19,  79  ;  and  so  on. 

We  may  vary  Euclid's  mode  of  generation  and  avoid  the  trans- 
cendental process  of  decomposing  a  number  into  its  prime  factors 
by  using  the  more  general  formula,  a,  b,  .  .  .  .  c  +  1,  where 
a,  b,  .  .  .  .  c,  are  any  numbers  relatively  prime  to  each  other  ; 
for  this  formula  will  obviously  be  a  prime  number  or  contain  one 
or  more  distinct  factors  relatively  prime  to  a,  b,   ....  c. 

The  effect  of  this  process  will  be  to  generate  a  continued 
series  of  numbers  all  of  which  remain  prime  to  each  other  :  if 
we  form  the  progression 

a,  a  +  1,  a?  +  a  +  1,  a(a  +  i)(a2  +  a  +  1)  +  1,  .    .    .    . 

and  call  these  successive  numbers 

«,,  Up   «3,  «4,  .    .    .    . 


we  shall  obviously  have 

Ux  +  j  =  MM 


-  ux  +  I. 


It  follows  at  once  from  Euclid's  point  of  view  that  no  primes 
contained  in  any  term  up  to  ux  can  appear  in  ux  +  1(  so  that  all 
the  terms  must  be  relatively  prime  to  each  other.  The  same 
consequence  follows  a  posteriori  from  the  scale  of  relation  above 
given  ;  for,  as  I  had  occasion  to  observe  in  the  Comptes  rendus  for 
April  1888,  if  dealing  only  with  rational  integer  polynomials, 

<p(x)  =  (x-  a)f{x)  +  a, 

then,  whatever  value,  c,  we  give  to  x,  no  two  forms  <t>*(c),  <t>J(c) 
can  have  any  common  measure  not  contained  in  a  :  in  this  case 
<p(x)  =  (x  -  \)x  +  1  ;  so  that  <£'(<:)  and  <p'{c)  must  be  relative 
primes  for  all  values  of  i  andy'.2 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  all  the  primes,  other  than  3, 
implicitly  obtained  by  this  process  will  be  of  the  form  6i  +  I. 

Euclid's  own  process,  or  the  modified  and  less  transcendental 
one,  may  be  applied  in  like  manner  to  obtain  a  continual  suc- 
cession of  primes  of  the  form  4^+3  and  6«  +  5. 

1  Whereas  the  English  elementary  book  writers  content  themselves  with 
showing  that  to  suppose  the  number  of  primes  finite  involves  an  absurdity, 
Euclid  shows  how  from  any  given  prime  or  primes  to  generate  an  infinite 
succession  of  primes. 

-  Another  theurem  of  a  similar  kind  is  that,  whatever  integer  polynomial 
<p(x)  may  be,  if  i,  J  have  for  their  greatest  common  measure  k,  then 
<(>*[<p(o)]  will  be  the  greatest  common  measure  of  <pl[<t>(o)],  ^[^(o)]. 


As  regards  the  former,  we  may  use  the  formula 

2.a.b....c+i 

(where a,  b,  .  .  .   .  c  are  any  "proposed  "  primes  of  the  form 
4«  +  3),  which  will  necessarily  be  of  the  form  4«  +  3,  and  must 
therefore  contain  one  factor  at  least  of  that  form. 
As  regards  the  latter,  we  may  employ  the  formula 

3  .  a  .  b  .  .  .  .  c  +  2 

(where  a,  b,  .  .  .  c  are  each  of  the  form  6«  +  5),  which  will 
necessarily  itrelf  be,  and  therefore  contain  one  factor  at  least,  of 
that  form. 

The  scale  ot    elation  in  the  first  of  these  cases  will  be,  as 
before, 

ux  + !  =  ux2  -  ux  +  1  ; 

so  that  each  term  in  the  progression,  abstracting  3,  will  be  of 
the  form  4^  +  3  and  6/  +  1  conjointly,  and  consequently  of  the 
form  I2«  +  7  ;  as  e.g., 

3,  7,  43,   1807,  .... 
In  the  latter  case  the  scale  of  relation  is 
ux  +  x  =  zij  -  2itx  +  2, 

which  is  of  the  form  (ux  -  2)ux  +  2.  It  is  obvious  that  in  each 
progression  at  each  step  one  new  prime  will  be  generated,  and 
thus  the  number  of  ascertained  primes  of  the  given  form  go  on 
indefinitely  increasing,  as  also  might  be  deduced  a  posteriori  by 
aid  of  the  general  formula  above  referred  to  from  the  scale  of 
relation  applicable  to  each.  Each  term  in  the  second  case  (the 
term  3,  if  it  appears,  excepted)  will  be  simultaneously  of  the 
form  6i  -  I  and  4/  +  1,  and  consequently  of  the  form  12n  +  5, 
as  in  the  example  5,  17,  257,  65537,  .... 

The  same  simple  considerations  cease  to  apply  to  the  genesis 
of  primes  of  the  forms  4W  +  I,  6n  +  I.  We  may  indeed  apply 
to  them  the  formulae 

(2  .  a  .  b  .   .   .   .  cf  +  1  and  ${a  .  b  .  .   .   .  c)~  +  l 

respectively,  but  then  we  have  to  draw  upon  the  theory  of 
quadratic  forms  in  order  to  learn  that  their  divisors  are  of  the 
form  4«  +  1  and  6«  +  1  respectively. 

Of  course  the  difference  in  their  favour  is  that  in  their  case  all 
the  divisors  locked  up  in  the  successive  terms  of  the  two  progres- 
sions respectively  are  of  the  prescribed  form  ;  whereas  in  the  other 
two  progressions,  whose  theory  admits  of  so  much  simpler  treat- 
ment, we  can  only  be  assured  of  the  presence  of  one  such  factor 
in  each  of  the  several  terms. 

Euler  has  given  the  values  of  two  infinite  products,  without 
any  evidence  of  their  truth  except  such  as  according  to  the 
lax  method  of  dealing  with  series  without  regard  to  the  laws  of 
convergence  prevalent  in  his  day,  and  still  held  in  honour  in 
Cambridge  down  to  the  times  of  Peacock,  De  Morgan,  and 
Herschel  inclusive  (and  this  long  after  Abel  had  justly  denounced 
the  use  of  divergent  series  as  a  crime  against  reason),  was 
erroneously  supposed  to  amount  to  a  proof,  from  which  the  same 
consequences  may  be  derived  as  shown  in  the  foregoing  pages, 
and  something  more  besides.  *     These  two  theorems  are — 

W    3  +  1  '  5  -  1  '  7  +  1  '  11  +  1  '  13  -  1  '  4 

(where,   corresponding  to  the  primes   3,    7>    n>  •    •    •    •  OI"  the 
form  i,n  +  3,  the  factors  of  the  product  on  the  left  are 

3  7  II 

3  +  1'  7  +  1'  11  +  1  ' 
all  of  them   with  the  sign   +    in  the  denominator  ;  while  the 
fractions  corresponding  to  primes  of  the  form  4«  +  I    have  the 
-  sign  in  their  denominators). 

_J 7_         11  13  17  (    .=^V3 

5  +  1  "  7  -  1  '  11  +  1  '  13  -  1  '  17  +  1  ' 


(2) 


1     11  +  1     13  —  1     17  +  1  2 

where,  as  in  the  previous  product,  the  sign  in  the  denominator 
of  each  fraction  depends  on  the  form  of  the  prime  to  which  it 
corresponds  (being  +  for  primes  of  the  form  6w  -  1,  and  -  for 
primes  of  the  form  6«  +  1). 

1  It  follows  from  the  first  of  these  theorems  that  with  the  understanding 
that  no  denominator  is  to  exceed  n  (an  indefinitely  great  number), 
(1  +  i)d  +  4)(i  +  i\)(i  +  tS)  •  •  •  •  bears  a  finite  ratio  to  (1  +  l)(i  +  -h) 
(1  + -fa)  .  .  .  .  so  that  as  their  product  is  known  to  be  infinite,  each  of  these 
two  partial  products  must  be  separately  infinite  ;  in  like  manner  from  Euler's 
second  theorem  a  similar  conclusion  may  be  inferred  in  regard  to  each  of  the 
two  products  (1  +  *)(i  +  A)  (1  +  •&)  (1  +  »'-,)  (1  +  A)(i  +  A)  •  •  •  -and 
(i  +  »(i  +  A)(i  +  A)(i  +  irt).    •    •   • 


262 


NA  TURE 


\juty  12, 


Dr.  J.  P.  Gram  (MJmoires  de  V  Academie  Royale  de  Copen- 
hagne,  6me.  serie,  vol.  ii.  p.  191)  refers  to  a  paper  by  Mertens 
("Ein  Beitrag  zur  analytischen  Zahlentheorie,"  Borckardfs 
Jonrnil,  Bd.  78),  as  one  in  which  the  truth  of  the  first  of  the  two 
theorems  is  demonstrated — "  fuldstoendigt  Bevis  af  Mertens  " 
are  Gram's  words.1 
Assuming  this  to  be  the  case,  we  shall  easily  find  when  N  is 

.indefinitely  great,  so  that  SN  becomes  -, 

4 

QnSn  = 


(1  -4)  (1  -4).  .  .  .  (1  -  * 


which,    according  to    Legend  re's      empirical    law    (Legendre, 
"  Theorie  des  Nombres,"  3rd  edition,  vol.  ii.  p.  67,  art.  397), 

2   1 0°"   "N 

is  equal  to  = —  ,  where  K  =  1*104  ;  and  as  we  have  written 

-Q   S  .  =  log  N  +  (V  -  R),  we   may  deduce,  upon  the   above 
assumptions, 

V  -  R  =  (—    -  1)  log  N  =  o*8n  ....  log  N. 

R,  we  know,  is  demonstrably  less  than  (  1  -  -  )  log  N,  con- 
sequently V  must  be  less  than  (0*812  +  0*215)  l°g  N,  i.e.  less 
than  1*027  log  N,  and  a  fortiori  the  portion  of  the  omnipositive 
aggregate  Qv  which  consists  of  terms  whose  denominators  ex- 
ceed N,  when  N  is  indefinitely  great,  cannot  be  less  than 
log  N,  i.e.  0*273  log  N. 

Before  concluding,  let  me  add  a  word  on  Legendre's  empirical 
•formula  for  the  value  of 


(1  -  \)  (1  -1).    .    .    .     1 


PsJ 


referred  to  in  the  early  part  of  this  article. 

If  N  is  any  odd  number,  the  condition  of  its  being  a  prime 
number  is  that  when  divided  by  any  odd  prime  less  than  its  cwn 
square  root,  it  shall  not  leave  a  remainder  zero.  Now  if  N  (an 
unknown  odd  number)  is  divided  by  /,  its  remainder  is  equally 
likely  to  be  o,  1,  2,  3,  .    .    .    .  or  (/  -  1).     Hence  the  chance 

that  it  is  not  divisible  by/  is  (  1  -  -  J,  and,  if  we  were  at  liberty 

to  regard  the  like  thing  happening  or  not  for  any  two  values  of 
p  within  the  stated  limit  as  independent  events,  the  expectation 
■of  N  being  a  prime  number  would  be  represented  by 


(!-!)(!-    I)  (I    -|)  (I    -T\) 


I 

P^.i 


■which,  according  to  the  formula  referred  to,  for  infinitely  large 

values  of  N  is  equal  to       -  *-.     It  is  rather  more  convenient  to 

log  N* 

regard  N  as  entirely  unknown  instead  of  being  given  as  odd,  on 

which  supposition  the  chance  of  its  being  a  prime  would  be 

1*104           1*104 
T-  or  -. 

2  log  N*         log  N 

Hence  for  very  large  values  of  N  the  sum  of  the  logarithms  of 
all  the  primes  inferior  to  N  might  be  expected  to  be  something 
like  (i*io4)N.  This  does  not  contravene  Tchebycheffs  formula 
(Serret,  "  Coursd'Algebre  Superieure,"  4me  ed.,  vol.  ii.  p.  233), 
which   gives  for  the  limits  of   this  sum  AN    and    BN,  where 

6A 

A  =  0*921292,  and  B  =  —    =  1*10555;  but  does  contravene  the 

■narrower  limits   given    by    my    advance    upon    Tchebycheffs 

1  It  always  seems  to  m:  absurd  to  speak  of  a  complete  proof,  or  of  a 
theorem  being  rigorously  demonstrated.  An  incomplete  proof  is  no  proof, 
and  a  mathematical  truth  not  rigorously  demonstrated  is  not  demonstrated 
at  all.  I  do  not  mean  to  deny  that  there  are  mathematical  truths,  morally 
certain,  which  defy  and  will  probably  to  the  end  of  time  continue  to  defy 
proof,  as,  e.g. ,  that  every  indecomposable  integer  polynomial  function  must 
represent  an  infinitude  of  primes.  I  have  sometimes  thought  that  the  pro- 
found mystery  which  envelops  our  conceptions  relative  to  prime  numbers 
depends  upon  the  limitation  of  our  faculties  in  regard  to  time,  which  like 
space  may  be  in  its  essence  poly-dimensional,  and  that  this  and  such  sort  of 
truths  would  become  self-evident  to  a  being  whose  mode  of  perception  is 
according  to  superficially  as  distinguished  from  our  own  limitation  to 
Jinearly  extended  time. 


method   (see  Am.  Math.  Journal,  vol.    iv.   Part   3),  according 
to  which  for  A,  B,  we  may  write  Ax,  B1(  where 

Aj  =  0*921423,  B:  =  1*076577.  •* 

That  the  method  of  probabilities  may  sometimes  be  success- 
fully applied  to  questions  concerning  prime  numbers  I  have 
shown  reason  for  believing  in  the  two  tables  published  by  me  in 
the  Philosophical  Magazine  for  1883. ■ 

New  College,  June  10.  J.  J.  Sylvester. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  May  3.  — "  Electro- Chemical  Effects  on 
Magnetizing  Iron."  Part  II.  By  Thomas  Andrews,  F.R. S.E. 
Communicated  by  Prof.  G.  G.  Stokes,  P..R.S. 

The  present  paper  contains  the  results  of  a  further  study  of  the 
electro-chemical  effects  observed  between  a  magnetized  and  an 
unmagnetized  bar  when  in  circuit  in  certain  electrolytes,  recorded 
in  Part  I.  of  this  research.  The  method  of  experimentation 
was  generally  similar  to  that  pursued  and  described  in  Part  I., 

1  Viz.  A]  =  -— °-2A,  and  Bi  =  S959-5A,  the  values  of  which  are  incorrectly 
50999  50999 

stated  in  the  memoir.  Strange  to  say,  Dr.  Gram,  in  his  prize  essay,  pre- 
viously quoted,  on  the  number  of  prime  numbers  under  a  given  limit,  has 
omitted  all  reference  to  this  paper  in  his  bibliographical  summary  of  the  sub- 
ject, which  is  only  to  be  accounted  for  by  its  having  escaped  his  notice  ;  a 
narrowing  of  the  asymptotic  limits  assigned  to  the  sum  of  the  logarithms  of 
the  prime  numbers  series  being  the  most  notable  fact  in  the  history  of  the 
subject  since  the  publication  of  'tchebycheffs  me  noir.  Subjectively,  this 
paper  has  a  peculiar  claim  upon  the  regard  of  its  author,  for  it  was  his  medi- 
tation upon  the  two  simultaneous  difference-equations  which  occur  in  it  that 
formed  the  starting-point,  or  incunabulum,  of  that  new  and  boundless  world 
of  thought  to  which  he  has  given  the  name  of  Universal  Algebra.  But,  apart 
from  this,  that  the  superior  limit  given  by  TchebychefF  as  1*1055  should  be 
brought  down  by  a  more  stringent  solution  of  his  own  inequalities  t )  only 
1*076577 — in  other  words,  that  the  excess  above  the  probable  mean  value 
(unity)  should  be  reduced  to  little  more  than  jfrds  of  its  original  amount — is  in 
itself  a  surprising  fact.  Perhaps  the  numerous  (or  innumerable)  misprints 
and  arithmetical  miscalculations  which  disfigure  the  paper  may  help  to 
account  for  the  singular  neglect  which  it  has  experienced.  It  will  be  noticed 
that  the  mean  of  the  limits  of  TchebychefF  is  1  01342,  the  mean  of  the  new 
limits  being  0*99900.  The  excess  in  th^  one  case  ab  ^ve  and  the  defect  in 
the  other  below  the  probable  true  mean  are  respectively  001342  and 
o'ooioo. 

-  A  principle  precisely  similar  to  that  employed  above  if  applied  to  deter- 
mining the  number  of  reduced  proper  fractions  whose  denominators  do  not 
exceed  a  given  number  n,  leads  to  a  correct  result.  The  expectation  of  two 
numbers  being  prime  to  each  other  will  be  the  product  ofthe  expectations 
of  their  not  being  each  divisible  by  any  the  same  prime  number.     But  the 

probability  of  one  of  them  being  divisible  by  i  is  -,  and  therefore  of  two  of 

z 

them  being  not  each  divisible  by  i  is  -.     Hence  the  probability  of  their 

having  no  common  factor  is 

(1  -  i)(i  -  \)  1  -  A)  (rii)  •   ■  •   •  ad  inf.,  i.e.  is  %. 


If.  then,  we  take  two  sets  of  numbers,  each  limited  to  n,  the  probable  number 
of  relatively  prime  combinations  of  each  of  one  set  with  each  of  the  other 

should  be  --  ,  and  the  number  of  reduced  proper  fractions  whose  denomin- 

ators  do  not  exceed  n  should  be  the  half  of  this  or  —  -  .  I  believe  M.  Cesaro 

has  claimed  the  prior  publication  of  this  mode  of  reasoning,  to  which  he  is 
heartily  welcome.  The  number  of  these  fractions  is  the  same  thing  as  the 
sum  of  the  totients  of  all  numbers  not  exceeding  n.  In  the  Philosophical 
Magazine  for  1883  (vol.  xv.  p.  251),  a  table  of  the.se  sums  of  totients  has  been 
published  by  me  for  all  values  of  n  not  exceeding  500,  and  in  the  same  year 
(vol.  xvi  p.  231)  the  table  was  extended  to  values  of  n  not  exceeding  1000 
In  every  case  without  any  exception  the  estimated  value  of  this  totient  sum 
is  found  to  be  intermediate  between 

V*  and   3("  +  e£. 

7T-'  77- 

Calling  the  totient  sum  to  n,  T(«),  I  stated  the  exact  equation 

n"  +  n 


T(«)  +  t(;)+t(*)+t(2)  + 


from  which  it  is  capable  of  proof,  without  making  any  assumption  as  to  the 

form  of  T«,  that  its  asymptotic  value  is      „ -*    The  functional  equation  itself 

is  merely  an  integration  (so  to  say)  of  the  well  known  theorem  that  any 
number  is  equal  to  the  sum  ofthe  totients  of  its  several  divisors.  The  intro- 
duction to  these  tables  will  be  found  very  suggestive,  and  besides  contains  an 
interesting  bibliography  of  the  subject  of  Karey  series  {suites  de  Fairy), 
comprising,  among  other  writers  upon  it,  the  names  of  Cauchy,  Glaisher,  and 
Sir  G.  Airy,  the  last-named  as  author  of  a  paper  on  toothed  wheels,  pub- 
lished, I  believe,  in  the  "  Selected  Papers  "  of  the  Institute  of  Mechanical 
Engineers.  The  last  word  on  the  subject,  as  far  as  I  am  aware,  forms  one  of 
the  interludes,  or  rather  the  postscript,  to  my  "Constructive  Theory  of 
Partitions,"  published  in  the  American  Journal  0/  Mathematics. 


July  12,  1888] 


NATURE 


263 


though  it  was  necessary  to  introduce  numerous  modifications  of 
detail  and  also  new  modes  of  experimentation.  The  bars  experi- 
mented on  were  of  specially  prepared  wrought-iron  and  cast-steel  ; 
all  the  rods  were  finely  polished,  and  the  general  physical  pro- 
perties of  the  metals  are  given  in  Table  B.  Steel  bars  were  em- 
ployed in  some  of  the  experiments,  because  after  magnetization  by 
the  coil  their  subsequent  influence  as  permanent  magnets  could 
be  observed.  The  reagents  employed  as  electrolytes  consisted 
of  various  solutions  of  bromine,  ferric  chloride,  and  chlorine 
water,  ferrous  sulphate,  ferric  chloride,  cupric  chloride,  ctipric 
iulphate,  cupric  nitrate,  cupric  acetate,  cupric  bromide,  nickel 
chloride,  hydrochloric,  acid,  nitric  acid,  and  potassium  chlorate. 
A  pair  of  bars  in  each  experiment  were  immersed  as  elements  in 
the  solution  in  the  special  apparatus  employed,  in  circuit  also 
with  a  delicate  galvanometer,  and  after  normal  galvanic  equili- 
brium had  been  obtained  the  bar  within  the  coil  was  magnetized 
for  various  periods  and  the  magneto-chemical  effect  observed. 
It  was  found  to  vary  with  the  nature  of  the  metal  and  solution 
employed,  and  also  with  the  extent  of  the  magnetization  of  the 
metals.  The  average  results  of  many  repeated  experiments  are 
given  in  numerous  detailed  tables,  and  it  was  generally  found 
that  a  magnetized  bar  became  electro-positive  to  an  unmagnetized 
one.  In  Parts  I.  and  II.  a  total  of  near  600  iron  and  steel  bars 
have  been  experimented  upon.  Experiments  were  also  made 
showing  that  local  currents  were  developed  in  a  magnetized  bar 
between  the  more  highly  and  less  magnetized  parts  thereof, 
when  the  rod  was  immersed  in  suitable  solutions  acting 
chemically  upon  it. 

Interesting  experiments  have  also  been  made  in  c  mnection 
with  the  influence  of  magnetization  on  the  action  of  strong  nitric 
acid  on  iron  and  steel.  In  course  of  the  research  the  results  of 
an  extensive  quantitative  study  of  magneto-chemical  phenomena 
have  been  recorded,  the  effect  in  connection  with  a  considerable 
variety  of  typical  reagents  having  been  carefully  observed  ;  with 
some  reagents  the  effect  was  found  to  be  comparatively  small,  in 
other  instances  it  was  somewhat  considerable.  The  general 
conclusion  was  that  under  the  conditions  recorded  a  magnetized 
bar  was  electro-positive  to  an  unmagnetized  one,  when  the  two 
were  immersed  in  suitable  solutions,  and  that  the  extent  of  the 
result  was  in  some  degree  dependent  both  on  the  nature  and 
s1  rength  of  the  solution,  and  also  on  the  extent  of  the  magnetiza- 
tion of  the  metal. 

June  7.  — "  Note  on  the  Volumetric  Determination  of  Uric 
Acid."     By  A.  M.  Gossage,  B.A.  Oxon. 

It  seemed  improbable  that  the  method  recently  proposed  by 
Dr.  Haycraft  for  the  volumetric  determination  of  uric  acid  in 
urine  could  be  accurate,  since  both  Salkowski  and  Maly  had 
previously  shown  that  the  precipitate  of  silver  urate  obtained 
from  urine  contains  variable  quantities  of  other  urates.  To  test 
the  method,  I  examined  samples  of  various  urines  both  by  his 
method  and  by  that  of  Salkowski,  which  is  universally  acknow- 
ledged to  be  the  most  trustworthy.  The  mean  percentages  of 
uric  acid  found  were  as  follow  : — 


Experiment 
Haycraft's  method 
Salkowski's  method 


I.  II.         III.         IV.  V. 

0*108    0*076    0*082     0072     o-io8 
0084    0035    0051     o  oj5    0*084 


The  results  obtained  by  Haycraft's  method  were  always  con- 
siderably higher  than  th^se  obtained  by  Salkowski's.  The 
reason  of  this  is  that  Dr.  Haycraft  has  assumed  that  the  silver 
precipitate  from  urine  consists  of  a  urate  containing  only  1  atom 
of  silver  in  the  molecule,  whereas  the  proportion  of  silver  in 
silver  urate  corresponds  more  nearly  to  2  atoms  in  the  molecule. 
Assuming,  then,  that  there  are  2  atoms  of  silver  in  all  the 
molecules  of  the  urate,  and  dividing  the  results  obtained  by 
Haycraft's  method  by  two,  we  see  that  the  results  so  obtained 
are  usually  lower  than  those  obtained  by  Salkowski's  method, 
and  that  the  proportion  between  the  results  by  the  two  methods 
varies,  as  would  be  expected  from  Salkowski's  researches. 

Edinburgh. 
Royal  Society,  June  4. — Dr.  John  Murray,  Vice-President, 
in  the  chair. — Dr.  G.  Sims  VVoodhead  exhibited  a  series  of 
photographs  of  large  sections  of  the  lung. — A  paper  by  the 
Astronomer-Royal  for  Scotland  on  Scottish  meteorology  for  the 
last  thirty-two  years  was  read. — Dr.  E.  Sang  read  a  paper  on 
John  Leslie's  computation  of  the  ratio  of  the  diameter  to  the 
circumference  of  a  circle. — A  paper  by  Lord  Maclaren  on  the 
figure  of  aplanatic  lenses  was  read. — Prof.  Tait  submitted  some 
quaternion  notes. 


June  18. — The  Hon.  Lord  Maclaren,  Vice-President,  in  the 
chair. — The  Secretary  exhibited  M.  Amagat's  photographs  of 
the  crystallization  of  chloride  of  carbon  under  pressure  alone. — 
A  paper  by  Prof.  W.  Carmichael  Mcintosh  and  Mr.  E.  E. 
Prince,  St.  Andrews'  Marine  Laboratory,  was  communicated. — 
A  paper  by  Prof.  Anglin  on  certain  theorems  mainly  connected 
with  alternants,  was  read. — Prof.  Haycraft  and  Dr.  R,  T. 
Williamson  gave  a  demonstration  of  a  method,  which  can  be 
used  chemically,  for  estimating  quantitatively  the  alkalinity  of  the 
blood. — A  preliminary  notice  of  a  paper  by  Dr.  G.  N.  Stewart 
on  electrolytic  decomposition  of  proteid  substances  was  submit- 
ted.— Papers  by  Dr.  A.  B.  Griffiths,  on  the  Malpighian  tubules 
of  Libelhila  depressa,  and  on  a  fungoid  disease  in  the  roots  of 
Cucumis  sativa,  were  communicated. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  July  2. — M.  Janssen,  President,  in 
the  chair.  —  Reply  to  Mr.  Douglas  Archibald's  strictures  on  the 
subject  of  storms,  by  M.  H.  Faye.  The  storm  laws,  as  esta- 
blished by  the  observations  of  Capper,  Piddington,  Reid,  and 
Redfield,  are  declared  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  disc  >veries  of 
the  century,  and  their  truth  is  here  vindicated  against  the  recent 
attacks  of  Prof.  Loomis,  Dr.  Meldrum,  and  especially  Mr.  E. 
Douglas  Archibald,  in  Nature  for  June  14  (p.  149).  Archi- 
bald's diagram  of  the  Manilla  cyclone  of  October  20,  1882,  is 
here  reproduced,  and  it  is  contended  that  these  highly  charac- 
teristic phenomena  can  be  explained  only  by  admitting  a 
descending  motion  in  the  central  part  of  the  cyclone.  But  on 
the  opposite  supposition  it  is  precisely  here  that  the  ascending- 
current  should  be  strongest,  for  this  central  region  corresponds 
exactly  to  the  minimum  of  barometric  pressure.  The  error  in 
this  theory  of  his  opponents  is  attributed  to  a  confusion  between 
two  quite  distinct  kinds  of  depressions,  a  confusion  which  has 
for  fifty  years  impeded  the  progress  of  meteorological  science 
and  increased  the  perils  of  navigation.  —  On  the  cultivation  of 
Bcemaria  in  Provence,  by  M.  Naudin.  The  author  reports  that 
the  white  species  (B.  nivea),  lately  introduced  from  China, 
thrives  well  in  the  Antibes  district,  where  the  green  variety  (/?. 
utilis)  has  long  been  acclimatized.  The  foliage  make-;  excellent 
fodder  for  cattle.  —  Automatic  control  of  the  velocity  in  machinery 
of  variable  action,  by  M.  H.  Leaute.  An  apparatus,  the  result 
of  many  years'  study,  is  here  described,  by  means  of  which  the 
action  of  engines  may  easily  be  regulated,  even  when  required 
to  work  at  varying  rates  of  speed. — On  a  compass  enabling  the 
observer  to  find  the  meridian  on  land  or  water  despite  the  dis- 
turbing influence  of  iron,  by  M.  Bisson.  An  ingenious  appa- 
ratus is  described  by  means  of  which  the  compass  may  be  pre- 
vented from  deviating  more  than  one-tenth  of  a  millimetre,  even 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  iron.  It  has  been  tested  with  satisfactory 
results  on  board  several  French  ironclads,  and  works  equally 
well  by  land  or  sea. —On  the  snows,  ice,  and  waters  of  Mars,  by 
M.  Flammarion.  In  reply  to  some  recent  remarks  on  the 
meteorological  condition  of  this  planet,  it  is  pointed  out  that  the 
varying  state  of  the  polar  ice-caps  has  long  been  carefully 
observed  by  Maedler,  Schiaparelli,  and  others,  the  inference 
being  that  Mars  is  not  in  a  state  of  glaciation.  On  the  contrary 
its  temperature  is  equal  to,  if  not  higher,  than  that  of  the  earth, 
and  its  polar  snows  melt  periodically  to  a  far  greater  extent  than 
on  our  planet. — On  the  graphic  representation  of  numerical 
divisors,  by  M.  Saint- Loup.  By  adopting  a  rectangular  distribu- 
tion of  the  numerals,  the  author  arrives  at  some  practical  results 
on  the  general  grouping  of  the  prime  numbers. — On  the  deter- 
mination of  the  constants  and  of  the  dynamic  coefficient  of  elas- 
ticity for  steel,  by  M.  E.  Mercadier.  By  the  method  already 
indicated  (Cumptts  rendus,  July  and  August,    1887),  the  author 

here  determines  the  relation  —  of  the  constants  for  steel.     In 

M 
a  future  paper  will  be  given  the  results  of  the  experiment  under- 
taken to  determine  the  coefficients  of  electricity. — On  the 
mechanism  of  electrolysis  by  the  process  of  alternative  cur- 
rents, by  MM.  J.  Chappuis  and  G.  Maneuvrier.  The 
recognized  impossibility  of  electrolysing  the  sulphate  of 
copper  by  alternative  currents  is  explained  by  the  theory  that 
the  copper  deposited  on  each  electrode  by  one  of  the  currents  is 
immediately  dissipated  by  the  inverse  current.  This  explana- 
tion is  here  justified  by  the  authors'  experiments,  which  render 
visible  the  decomposition  of  the  sulphate  of  copper,  as  they  had 
previously  done  for  acidulated  water.  From  this  experimental 
study  they  hope  to  deduce  the  general  principles  for  the  prac- 


264 


NA  TURE 


{July  12,  1888 


tical  application  of  alternative  currents  in  the  process  of  electro- 
lysis.— Application  of  Carnot's  principle  to  endothermic  re- 
actions, by  M.  Pellat.  By  distinguishing  between  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  bodies  giving  rise  to  the  endothermic  reaction  and 
that  of  the  source  supplying  in  the  form  of  heat  the  energy 
needed  for  the  reaction,  the  author  is  led  by  the  application  of 
Carnot's  principle  to  a  law  analogous  to  that  of  Potier,  but  of  a 
more  general  character.  —  On  the  hydrochlorate  of  cupric 
chloride,  by  M.  Paul  Sabatier.  The  author  admits  the  priority 
of  M.  Engel's  researches  on  the  properties  and  preparation  of 
this  substance,  but  points  out  that  this  chemist  gives  it  a  very 
different  composition  from  that  which  he  has  himself  obtained, 
and  which  is  represented  by  the  formula  CuCl,  HO,  5HO. — 
On  the  artificial  reproduction  of  the  micas  and  of  scapolite,  by 
M.  Doelter.  A  process  is  described,  by  means  of  which  the 
author  has  artificially  reproduced  the  chief  minerals  of  the  mica 
group,  as  well  as  of  natural  scapolite.  He  has  already  effected 
the  synthesis  of  biotite,  phlogopite,  muscovite,  and  lepidolite 
(zinnwaldite  variety). — Fresh  physiological  researches  on  the 
organic  substance  which  has  the  property  of  hydrogenating 
sulphur,  by  M.  J.  de  Rey-Pailhade.  During  his  further  study 
of  this  substance,  to  which  he  has  given  the  name  of  philothion, 
the  author  has  determined  several  new  facts,  amongst  others 
that  when  the  yeast  is  treated  by  reagents,  the  death  of  the 
organism  always  precedes  the  destruction  of  this  organic  sub- 
stance. Philothion  is  generated  by  the  physiological  develop- 
ment of  the  yeast,  and  combines  with  sulphur  according  to  an 
equation  of  which  sulphuretted  hydrogen  is  a  factor.  Acting 
as  a  diastase,  it  adds  a  fresh  proof  to  M.  Berthelot's  theory  of 
fermentation.  Lastly,  it  is  the  first  known  instance  of  a  sub- 
stance extracted  from  a  living  organism  which  has  the  property 
of  hydrogenizing  sulphur. — Prof.  Langley  has  been  elected  by  a 
large  majority  to  succeed  the  late  M.  Roche  as  Corresponding 
Member  of  the  Academy  on  the  Section  of  Astronomy. 

Berlin. 

Physiological  Society,  June  22. — Prof,  du  Bois  Reymond, 
President,  in  the  chair. — Dr.  H.  Virchow  spoke  on  the  blood- 
vessels of  the  eye  in  Carnivora  as  worked  at  by  Bellarminoff 
under  his  direction.  The  communication  was  illustrated  by 
drawings  and  the  exhibition  of  preparations.  The  points  of 
most  general  interest  which  stand  out  from  among  the  mass  of 
details  in  this  research  are  that  the  blood-vessels  of  the  eye  have 
a  tendency  to  form  rings  from  which  a  large  number  of  fine 
branches  pass  posteriorly  ;  further  that  the  arrangement  is  often 
very  different  in  different  classes  of  animals,  thus,  for  instance, 
the  course  of  the  arteries  in  the  eye  of  a  dog  as  compared  with 
that  of  a  rabbit  is  such  that  the  dog's  eye  must  be  turned  through 
an  angle  of  180°  in  order  to  make  the  course  of  its  arteries 
correspond  with  that  of  the  rabbit's  eye. — Dr.  Heymans  com- 
municated the  results  of  his  researches  on  the  nerve-endings  in 
the  unstriated  muscle-fibres  of  the  medicinal  leech.  In  the 
alimentary  canal  of  the  Hirudinea  the  muscle-fibres  are  placed 
both  longitudinally  and  circularly  ;  they  consist  of  a  contractile 
sheath  and  a  protoplasmic  axis  containing  the  nucleus,  and 
either  have  pointed  ends  or  else  divide  into  two  or  more  branches, 
each  of  which  then  ends  in  a  point.  The  muscle-fibres  are 
separated  from  each  other  by  large  interstitial  spaces  filled  with 
connective  tissue,  in  which  the  nerve-plexus  lies  and  sends  fine 
nerve-branches  into  the  muscle-fibres.  The  nerves  end  partly  as 
extremely  fine  filaments  and  partly  as  round,  flattened  end-plates, 
and  in  no  case  does  the  nerve-ending  penetrate  the  contractile 
sheath  of  the  fibre  so  as  to  come  into  connection  with  the  proto- 
plasmic axis.  In  the  vascular  system  of  the  leech  the  muscular 
layers  are  principally  disposed  in  a  circular  fashion,  but  frequently 
the  speaker  noticed  that  at  some  point  or  another  a  circular  fibre 
divided  itself  into  two  branches,  and  that  the  latter  were  then 
bent  through  a  right  angle  so  as  now  to  pass  in  a  longitudinal 
course  in  the  wall  of  the  blood-vessel.  The  nerve-endings  in 
the  fibres  of  the  vascular  system  are  the  same  as  in  those  of  the 
alimentary  canal.  Similarly,  the  muscle-fibres  in  the  vascular 
system  do  not  lie  in  close  apposition  to  each  other,  but  are 
separated  by  interstitial  spaces  ;  each  fibre  also  contains  only 
one  nucleus. — Dr.  van  der  Gehnchten,  of  Holland,  gave  a  short 
abstract  of  his  observations  on  the  minute  structure  of  striated 
muscles  in  Vertebrata  and  Arthropoda.  He  described  the 
appearance  of  the  muscles  in  the  fresh  conditions,  after  the  coagu- 
lation of  the  myosin  and  after  the  solution  of  the  amorphous 
proteid,  and  illustrated  his  statements  by  drawings.     According 


to  these  researches  the  muscle-fibre  of  the  Vertebrata  consists  of 
a  network  of  doubly-refractive  filaments,  whose  meshes  are  filled 
with  the  semi-fluid  plasmatic  substance.  In  Arthropoda  the 
structure  differs  according  as  the  muscle  is  taken  from  the  wings 
or  the  legs  ;  when  taken  from  the  latter  the  structure  is  extremely 
similar  to  that  in  the  Vertebrata.  In  the  discussion  which 
followed,  Dr.  Benda  pointed  out  that  being  engaged  for  years  in 
studying  the  structure  of  striated  muscle  he  had  often  obtained 
preparations  similar  in  appearance  to  those  of  Dr.  van  der 
Gehnchten,  but  his  interpretation  of  these  appearances  was  very 
different.  He  pointed  out,  moreover,  that  he  had  often  observed 
transitional  forms  between  the  muscles  of  the  leg  and  wing  in 
Arthropoda  and  those  of  Vertebrata.  Without  entering  into 
any  details,  Dr.  Benda  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  the  network  in 
a  striated  muscle-fibre  must  not  be  regarded  as  contractile,  but 
as  a  connective-tissue  interstitial  substance,  in  whose  interspaces 
the  really  contractile  muscle  fibrillar  lie. 

In  the  report  of  the  meeting  of  the  Physical  Society  in 
Nature  of  June  21,  p.  192,  for  "Dr.  Lummer  "  (line  37  from 
the  bottom)  read  "  Prof,  von  Helmholtz." 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Geologische  Studien  ueber  Niederlandische  West  Indien,  2te.  Lief. 
Hollandisch  Guyana,  K.  Martin  (Brill,  Leyden).— Lectures  on  Geography  : 
Lieut. -General  R.  Strachey  (Macmillan). — British  Dogs,  No.  21  :  H.  Dalziel 
(Gill).— Speaking  Parrots,  Part  3  :  Dr.  K.  Russ  (Gill).— India  in  1887:  Prof. 
R.  Wallace  (Oliver  and  Boyd). — Annual  Report  of  the  Aeronautical  Society 
of  Great  Britain  for  the  years  1885-86  (Hamilton).— Beiblatter  zu  den  Anna- 
len  der  Physik  und  Chemie,  1886,  No.  6  (Leipzig). — Geological  Magazine, 
July  (Trtibner).—  Journal  of  Anatomy  and  Physiology,  July  (Williams  and 
Norgate).— J  ahrbuch  der  Meteorologischen  Beobachtungen  der  Wetterwarte 
der  Magdeburgischen  Zeitung,  Jahrg.  v.,  1886  ( Magdeburg).— Zeitschrift 
fur  Wissenschaftliche  Zoologie,  xlvi.  Band,  4  Heft.  (Leipzig). — Mind,  luly 
(Williams  and  Norgate). — Notes  from  the  Leyden  Museum,  vol.  x.  No.  J 
(Leyden). — Journal  of  the  Chemical  Society,  July  (Gurney  and  Jackson). 


CONTENTS.  page 

Electricity  and  Magnetism 241 

Synoptical  Flora  of  North  America.   By  J.  G.  Baker, 

F.R.S 242 

Hydrodynamics 243 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Banbury:   "Sierra  Leone" 244 

Worsley-Benison  :   "  Nature's  Fairyland  " 244 

Grieve  :   "  Lessons  in  Elementary  Mechanics  "...  244 
Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

Photography  of  Lightning.  —  Dr.  Oliver  J.  Lodge, 

F.R.S 244 

Micromillimetre. — Arthur  W.  Riicker,  F.R.S.    .    .  244 
Distribution  of  Animals  and  Plants  by  Ocean  Currents.  ■ 

— A.  W.  Buckland 245 

Watches  and  the  Weather. — W.  B.  Croft 245 

Preserving  the  Colour  of  Flowers. — A.  W.  ;  J.  G. 

Baker,  F.R.S 245 

The  Life  Statistics  of  an  Indian  Province.      ( With 

Diagrams.)     By  S.  A.  Hill 245 

On   the    Orbits  of  Aerolites.     {With  Diagrams.)     By 

H.  A.  Newton 2150 

Notes 255 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

The  Markings  on  Mars 258 

Comet  1S88  a  (Sawerthal) 258 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for      the     Week      1888 

July  15-21 258 

Geographical  Notes 259 

On  Certain  Inequalities  relating  to  Prime  Numbers. 

By  Prof.  J.  J.  Sylvester,  F.R.S 259 

Societies  and  Academies 262 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 264 


NA  TURh 


265 


THE  CHOICE  OF  A  CHEMIST  TO  THE  NAVY. 

SIR  HENRY  ROSCOE'S  watchful  regard  of  the  true 
interests  of  science  was  evidenced  by  his  recent 
question  in  the  House  to  the  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty, 
whether,  in  consequence  of  the  resignation  of  Dr.  Debus 
of  the  Professorship  of  Chemistry  in  the  Royal  Naval 
School  at  Greenwich,  it  was  proposed  to  reduce  the  status 
of  this  post  to  a  lectureship  ;  and  if  so,  whether  he  would 
take  into  consideration  the  inexpediency  of  this  step 
being  taken,  in  view  of  the  importance  to  naval  officers  of 
a  knowledge  of  this  science,  and  of  the  necessity  that  in 
the  Government  Naval  School  the  post  in  question  should 
be  filled  by  a  gentleman  of  the  highest  possible  scientific 
position  and  attainments. 

Lord  G.  Hamilton  is  reported  to  have  replied  that  the 
resignation  of  Dr.  Debus,  Professor  of  Chemistry  at  the 
Royal  Naval  College,  had  only  just  been  received  by  the 
Admiralty,  and  therefore  it  would  be  premature  to  make 
any  statement  as  to  the  manner  in  which  it  may  be 
thought  desirable  to  fill  the  vacancy  so  caused.  The 
policy  of  the  Admiralty  was  always  to  inquire  into  the 
circumstances  of  any  appointment  of  this  kind  that  may 
fall  vacant,  with  the  view  of  adjusting  the  salary  to  the 
requirements  of  the  day. 

It  must  be  obvious  that  this  statement  savours  most 
strongly  of  officialism,  and  that  it  affords  no  information 
whatever  with  regard  to  the  views  and  intentions  of  the 
Admiralty.  We  have  already  clearly  indicated  what  are 
the  requirements  of  the  day,  and  Sir  Henry  Roscoe  has 
given  emphasis  to  our  views  ;  but  it  is  more  than  probable 
that  unless  attention  be  again  directed  to  the  importance 
of  the  issues  involved  in  the  appointment  of  a  chemist  to 
the  Navy  the  course  of  action  indicated  in  our  previous 
article  as  likely  to  be  followed  will  inevitably  be  adopted. 

We  therefore  without  hesitation  again  urge  that  in  a 
case  of  this  kind  only  one  course  can  be  adopted  with 
safety  by  the  Admiralty,  if  the  interests  of  the  nation  are 
to  be  considered — that  course  is  to  engage  the  services 
of  the  best  man  available.  No  candidate's  claims  should 
be  considered  unless  it  can  be  shown  that  he  is  a  trained 
chemist,  and  has  been  actively  engaged  in  the  pursuit  of 
new  knowledge  ;  and  unless  it  appear  probable  that  he  is 
enthusiastic  and  single-minded  enough  to  continue  to 
interest  himself  in  research  work  and  to  lead  his  senior 
pupils  to  engage  in  research.  We  are  fully  aware  that  in 
imposing  this  standard  we  are  demanding  higher  quali- 
fications than  many  may  consider  necessary  ;  that  some 
may  even  think  that  nothing  more  is  required  at  Green- 
wich than  one  who  will  teach  young  midshipmen  the 
elements  of  chemistry  and  simple  analysis  fairly  well ; 
but  to  this  we  demur  most  emphatically,  believing  it  to  be 
incontestable  that  the  science  of  chemistry  may  minister 
directly  and  indirectly  in  so  many  ways  to  the  wants  of  our 
Navy  that  it  is  essential  to  give  it  the  highest  possible 
footing  in  the  course  of  study  at  a  naval  college. 

In  the  recently  published  life  of  W.  E.  Forster,  a 
fragment  of  conversation  at  a  dinner  party  preserved  by 
Mrs.   Forster    is  recorded   which   will   be  aptly   quoted 

here.     "  Mr. said  that was  always  going  about 

asking  people  what   was  the  ideal  towards  which  they 
Vol.  xxxviii. — No.  977. 


were  working,  and  there  was  a  laugh  at  the  notion.  But 
my  husband  did  not  join  in  it,  saying  that,  for  his  part, 
if  he  was  not  constantly  thinking  of  the  ideal  which  he 
was  working  up  to,  he  should  not  be  able  to  get  on  at  all." 
We  venture  to  think  that  the  infertility  of  British  chemists 
and  the  inferior  position  which  chemistry  holds  in  this 
country,  especially  at  our  two  great  universities,  as  well  as 
our  failure  to  excel  in  those  industries  in  which  chemistry 
plays  an  important  part,  are  due  to  the  absence  of  an 
ideal  among  our  chemists  generally  in  any  way  approach- 
ing to  that  which  has  long  obtained  in  Germany, 
where  no  higher  grade  appointment  can  be  bestowed 
except  on  a  man  who  is  master  of  his  subject,  and  not  a 
past-master  even  but  an  active  worker  ;  and  it  is  the 
absence  of  any  such  ideal  which  in  cases  like  the  present 
renders  it  possible  for  the  authorities  to  entertain  the 
suggestion  of  reducing  the  status  of  the  post  at  Greenwich. 
We  believe  that  a  master  chemist  is  required  at  Green- 
wich for  a  variety  of  reasons.  Firstly,  as  a  matter  of 
national  honour  ;  secondly,  because,  as  we  have  already 
said,  the  subject  must  be  taught  technically,  i.e.  with  direct 
reference  to  the  knowledge  and  requirements  of  the  stu-. 
dents  ;  thirdly,  because  the  students  are  not  only  young 
beginners,  but  are  of  all  ages,  including  many  men  of' 
ripe  experience,  and  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  remark 
that  no  one  who  is  not  a  thorough  chemist  can  possibly 
gain  the  sympathies  of  this  latter  class  ;  and,  lastly, 
because  no  one  who  is  not  himself  actively  engaged  in 
research  will  remain  ate  coicrant  with  the  progress  of 
knowledge,  and  will  be  able  to  select  and  incorporate 
into  his  teaching  important  new  facts,  thus  avoiding  the 
otherwise  inevitable  tendency  to  teach  in  a  stereotyped, 
and  bookish  fashion  from  year  to  year. 

The  proper  man  being  found,  he  should  be  told  at  the- 
outset  that  it  is  expected  that  when  engaged  in  investiga- 
tion he  will  devote  his  attention  primarily  to  problems  of 
importance  in  the  Navy  ;  a  short  intercourse  with  men, 
versed  in  naval  affairs  and  requirements  would  soon  fur- 
nish an  active-minded  chemist  with  more  than  sufficient 
subject-matter  meriting  attentive  study.  It  is  more  than, 
probable  that  if  a  good  example  were  set,  and  a  spirit  of 
enthusiasm  kindled  among  the  students,  officers  who  had 
been  led  to  take  a  real  interest  in  chemistry  would  be 
willing,  in  the  intervals  of  enforced  inactivity  when  they 
were  not  on  service,  to  devote  themselves  to  research  ;: 
and  if  but  moderate  encouragement  were  given  to  such, 
men,  we  can  conceive  that  Greenwich  at  no  distant  date- 
might  become  an  important  school  of  naval  research. 

Unfortunately  it  is  only  too  obvious  that  the  public  are 
slow  to  heed  the  repeated  warnings  of  experts  that  our 
competitors  in  commerce  are  outrunning  us  largely  be- 
cause of  their  readiness  to  avail  themselves  of  the  aid 
which  science  can  afford  to  industry.  The  evidence  that 
foreign  Governments  are  more  anxious  than  is  ours  to, 
make  every  possible  use  of  science  in  the  service  of  the. 
Army  and  Navy  is  also  growing  daily  ;  but  we  are  con- 
fident that  in  the  present  instance  the  danger  of  the. 
retrograde  action  which  appears  to  have  been  contenu 
plated  having  been  pointed  out.  the  naval  authorities  will 
not  allow  themselves  to  be  guided  by  shortsighted  ad- 
visers, and  will  no  longer  countenance  any  change  which 
does  not  enhance  their  opportunities  of  receiving  aid 
from  so  all-important  a  branch  of  science  as  chemistry. 

N 


266 


NA  TURE 


{July  19,  1888 


NEW  WORKS  ON  LEPIDOPTERA. 

South  African  Butterflies :  a  Monograph  of  the  Extra- 
Tropical  Species.  By  Rowland  Trimen,  F.R.S.,  &c, 
assisted  by  James  Henry  Bowker,  F.Z.S.  Vols.  I.  and 
II.     Royal  Svo.     (London:  Triibner  and  Co.,  1887.) 

Descriptions  of  New  Indiaii  Lepidopterous  Insects  from 
the  Collection  of  the  late  Mr.  W.  S.  Atkinsonj  M.A. 
Part  III.  Heterocera  (continued).  By  Frederick  Moore, 
F.L.  S.,  &c.  4to.  (Calcutta  :  Published  by  the  Asiatic 
Society  of  Bengal,  1888.) 

MORE  than  twenty-one  years  have  elapsed  since  Mr. 
Trimen  finished  the  publication  of  his  "  Rhopalo- 
cera  Africae  Australis."  During  the  whole  of  this  time  he 
has  kept  the  subject  of  South  African  butterflies  steadily 
in  view,  and  the  number  of  additional  species  discovered  in 
South  Africa  is  so  large  that  he  has  chosen  a  new  title  for 
his  book  rather  than  call  it  a  second  edition  of  the  old  one. 

Between  1866  and  the  present  time  the  number 'of 
species  of  butterflies  known  to  inhabit  South  Africa  has 
swollen  from  C22  to  380,  and  instead  of  a  small  octavo 
volume  we  have  now  before  us  two  out  of  three  royal 
octavo  volumes  of  goodly  dimensions.  This  progress  in 
the  study  of  a  favourite  group  of  insects  in  South  Africa 
probably  represents  a  similar  progress  in  the  knowledge  of 
the  butterflies  of  the  world,  for  nearly  everywhere  it  has 
been  increased  by  rapid  strides. 

Mr.  Trimen  has  had  the  advantage  of  living  in  the 
country  the  butterflies  of  which  he  describes,  and  he  has 
been  in  close  correspondence  with  numerous  enthusiastic 
helpers,  foremost  amongst  whom  is  Colonel  J.  H.  Bowker 
whose  name  appears  on  the  title-page  as  Mr.  Trimen's 
coadjutor. 

The  earlier  chapters  of  the  work  are  devoted  to  general 
subjects  relating  to  insects  and  leading  up  to  the  special 
subject  in  view.  In  all  this  portion  Mr.  Trimen  has  exer- 
cised admirable  judgment,  giving  the  leading  points  in 
concise  but  clear  language.  •  The  classification  adopted 
is  that  of  Mr.  H.  W.  Bates,  which  has  now  stood  the  test 
of  many  years'  practical  working,  hardly  any  important 
alteration  having  been  made  in  its  main  features  since  it 
was  published.  Still,  much  remains  to  be  done  before 
some  of  the  great  families,  such  as  the  Lycaenidae  and 
Hesperidas,  and  sub-families,  such  as  Satyrinse  and 
Nymphalinas,  can  be  reduced  to  order. 

As  is  well  known,  the  front  pair  of  legs  in  the  imago 
provides  one  of  the  most  important  characters  for  deter- 
mining the  families  of  butterflies.  Their  examination 
affords  a  most  interesting  study.  Owing  to  improved 
methods  of  preparing  these  limbs,  whereby  their  scaly 
clothing  is  either  destroyed  or  rendered  invisible,  they 
can  be  conveniently  arranged  for  microscopic  examina- 
tion. The  full  extent  to  which  they  are  atrophied  is 
thus  clearly  revealed.  The  front  legs  of  the  males  in  the 
members  of  some  families  have  their  tarsal  joints  either 
more  or  less  fused  together  or  reduced  to  a  single 
atrophied  joint ;  but  the  variation  in  the  -extent  to  which 
this  takes  place  is  great.  It  sometimes  also  happens  that 
when  a  number  of  individuals  are  examined,  one  will 
be  found  in  which  rudimentary  spurs  appear,  and  even 
unsymmetrically  and  attached  to  one  tarsus  only  and  not 
the  other  of  the  same  insect.  In  some  cases  recently 
examined,  ma'es  in  the  Erycinidas  have  been  found  with 


the  front  legs  furnished  with  the  full  complement  of  joints 
and  with  claws.  The  like  occurs  in  the  Lycasnidae  both 
in  America  and  in  South  Africa.  Such,  cases,  however, 
are  exceptional,  and  though  they  break  down  to  some 
extent  the  universal  application  of  these  characters  to 
the  discrimination  of  families,  discrepancies  are  only  to 
be  expected,  and  the  wonder  is  there  are  so  few  of  them. 
Mr.  Trimen  appears  to  have  studied  this  part  of  his 
subject  with  care,  but  a  closer  examination  than  is  usually 
made  will  repay  the  labour  of  arranging  the  preparations. 
Though  the  variation  in  the  relative  lengths  of  the  femur, 
tibia,  and  tarsus  have  been  compared,  the  coxa  has 
seldom  been  taken  into  consideration.  Yet  it,  too, 
furnishes  useful  points  for  distinguishing  forms,  and  in 
the  case  of  the  Erycinidae  the  prolongation  of  this  joint  in 
the  male  front  leg  beyond  its  junction  with  the  trochanter 
is  diagnostic  of  the  family.  Mr.  Trimen  has  not  made 
any  use  in  his  classification  of  the  varied  structures  pre- 
sented by  the  secondary  sexual  characters  of  the  terminal 
segments  of  the  body  ;  but  there  can  be  little  doubt  that, 
as  improved  methods  of  preparation  are  discovered,  these 
characters  will  be  found  very  useful  in  determining  the 
relationship  of  species  if  not  of  genera. 

The  limits  of  the  fauna  treated  of,  as  the  title  of  the 
book  states,  extend  from  the  Tropic  of  Capricorn  south- 
wards to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  This  district  forms  a 
sub-region  of  the  great  African  or  Ethiopian  region.  Its 
distinguishing  characteristics  are  mainly  negative,  only 
six  out  of  the  sixty-nine  genera  not  being  found  elsewhere, 
though  195  out  of  380  of  the  species  are  peculiar.  Whether 
the  northern  limit  of  this  section  of  the  African  fauna 
really  lies  along  the  tropic  remains  to  be  seen,  as  our 
knowledge  of  the  butterfly  fauna  north  of  this  line  is  very 
meagre  :  of  the  interior  we  know  nothing,  and  of  the 
coasts  not  much.  Regarding  the  internal  distribution  of 
the  species,  it  would  appear  that  the  western  and  central 
portions,  as  well  as  that  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
Cape,  are  poor  in  species.  During  a  residence  of  over 
twenty-five  years,  Mr.  Trimen  has  succeeded  in  captur- 
ing only  forty-seven  species  within  a  radius  of  twelve 
miles  from  Cape  Town.  In  the  eastern  districts  the 
fauna  is  richer  :  Natal  produces  206  species,  and  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Delagoa  Bay  many  additional  species 
occur.  Each  species  is  very  fully  described  in  this  work, 
and  many  useful  notes  are  added  whereby  the  allied  forms 
may  be  discriminated.  Their  history  and  range  are  also 
given  with  great  precision.  The  larvae  and  pupae  of  many 
species  are  described,  and  this  feature  is  a  very  acceptable 
addition,  as  most  works  on  exotic  Lepidoptera  are  silent 
on  the  subject. 

The  portion  of  the  introduction  that  will  be  read  with 
the  greatest  interest  is  that  which  relates  to  protection, 
resemblances,  mimicry,  &c.  (pp.  32-40).  A  concise 
summary  of  the  best  .work  on  this  subject  is  given  ;  and 
the  instances  furnished  by  the  African  butterfly  fauna  are 
described  more  in  detail.  Some  years  ago  Mr.  Trimen 
brought  forward  some  very  interesting  cases  of  mimetic 
resemblances  in  butterflies,  the  most  important  being 
that  in  which  Papilio  merope  is  involved.  He  was  able 
to  prove  that,  wherever  it  is  found,  the  females  of  this 
species  take  the  pattern  of  a  Danais,  and  though  the 
males  hardly  vary  over  a  very  wide  area,  the  female 
varies    with    the  Danais     in    each    district    except    in 


July  19,  1888] 


NATURE 


267 


Madagascar  and  Abyssinia,  where  females    and    males 
are  alike. 

The  plates,  on  which  a  selection  of  the  less  known 
species  are  depicted,  are  chromolithographs,  and  are 
rather  uneven  in  quality,  as  is  usually  the  case  in 
drawings  of  butterflies  by  this  process.  Some  of  the 
figures  are  admirable,  while  others,  such  as  the  Lycaenidae, 
are  not  at  all  satisfactory.  Notwithstanding  this  defect, 
we  can  safely  say  that  Mr.  Trimen's  "South  African 
Butterflies"  is  the  best-planned  and  best-executed  work 
of  its  kind  that  has  yet  appeared.  It  cannot  fail  to 
promote  an  accurate  study  of  the  Lepidoptera  of  the 
country  of  which  it  treats  ;  and  it  may  serve  as  a  model 
for  entomologists  to  follow  when  writing  of  the  butterflies 
in  other  portions  of  the  world. 

Mr.  F.  Moore's  book  on  new  Indian  Lepidoptera,  the 
third  and  concluding  part  of  which  is  before  us,  is  a  work 
of  a  very  different  character  from  Mr.  Trimen's,  and  con- 
sists of  descriptions  of  new  species  from  the  collection  of 
the  late  Mr.  W.  S.  Atkinson.  Mr.  Moore  has  long  been 
engaged  on  work  of  this  kind,  and  every  year  issues 
scores  of  descriptions  of  Lepidoptera,  chiefly  Heterocera, 
of  India.  His  former  position  as  Assistant  Curator  to 
the  Indian  Museum  placed  him  in  communication  with 
a  number  of  correspondents,  who  have  helped  him  to 
gather  together  probably  the  most  important  collection 
of  Indian  Lepidoptera  in  existence.  Without  such  a 
collection  no  work  like  the  present  could  be  undertaken. 
We  confess,  however,  to  a  feeling  of  despair  as  to  the 
future  of  the  subject  treated  of  when  we  glance  at 
the  descriptions  before  us.  They  are  descriptions  of 
the  barest  kind,  scarcely  relieved  by  a  few  comparisons, 
and  with  hardly  a  note  to  break  the  tedious  monotony  of 
the  frequent  repetition  of  the  same  characters  over  and 
over  again.  Whether  future  workers  will  be  able  to 
determine  species  by  them  without  reference  to  the  types 
is  more  than  we  can  say,  but  we  do  not  envy  them  the 
task  of  trying  the  experiment.  And  here  we  note  with 
regret  that  the  types  of  these  species  are  not  to  be  found 
in  our  National  Collection,  but  in  the  possession  of  Dr. 
Staudinger,  of  Dresden,  and  some  of  them  in  Mr.  Moore's 
own  cabinets.  This  might  have  been  otherwise  had  more 
interest  been  shown  by  our  home  authorities  in  the 
productions  of  our  great  dependency. 

On  the  title-page  of  this  part  it  is  stated  that  members  of 
the  families  Pyralidae,Crambidae,  Geometridas,  Tortricidae, 
Tineidae  are  treated  of,  but  in  the  body  of  the  work  new 
species  are  referred  to  no  less  than  twenty-three  other 
families  of  Heterocera.  In  the  present  state  of  the  classi- 
fication of  Heterocera  such  an  oversight  is  hardly  to  be 
wondered  at.  No  serious  attempt  has  been  made  for 
many  years  to  place  the  classification  of  the  moths  on 
a  sound  and  definite  basis.  The  old  systems  are  to  a 
great  extent  obsolete,  and  the  more  recent  attempts  to 
modify  them,  by  their  halting  and  spasmodic  character, 
have  increased  rather  than  lessened  the  confusion. 

Mr.  Moore  has  introduced  a  number  of  new  generic, 
names  into  this  work,  but  he  seldom  gives  any  clue 
to  the  relationship  of  the  proposed  new  genus.  On 
p.  283  he  commences  descriptions  of  some  "  additional 
species "  by  introducing  five  new  generic  names  for 
sections  of  the  great  genus  Papilio.  Whether  this 
genus  should  be   divided  into  many  or  left  as  a  large 


aggregate  of  species  is  a  disputed  point,  but  we  have 
no  hesitation  in  condemning  the  plan  here  adopted  of 
thrusting  these  names  upon  us  in  this  piecemeal  fashion. 
To  anyone  who  will  give  the  whole  subject  a  careful 
examination  and  work  out  the  diagnostic  characters  of 
the  groups  of  this  wonderful  genus  we  are  prepared  to 
give  a  patient  and  respectful  hearing  ;  but  to  name  sec- 
tions here  and  there,  with  brief  descriptions  which  are 
anything  but  diagnostic,  is  a  practice  to  be  deprecated. 

Three  coloured  plates  accompany  this  part,  on  which 
eighty-seven  species  are  depicted.  These  are  carefully 
drawn  and  nicely  coloured,  and  form  a  substantial 
addition  to  the  book. 

We  note  that  the  first  sheet  of  this  part  bears  the  date 
of  September  5,  1887,  but  the  title-page  that  of  1888. 
The  meaning  of  this  is  not  obvious,  as  the  former  is 
valueless  in  face  of  the  later  date  of  the  title-page  and 
wrapper. 

FACTORS  IN  LIFE. 
Factors  in  Life.     By   H.  G.  Seeley,  F.R. S.     "People's 

Library    Series."       (London  :    Society  for  Promoting 

Christian  Knowledge,  1888.) 
rFHE  book  before  us  is  one  of  the  useful  series  of 
J-  household  guide  books,  published  by  the  Society 
for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge  and  intended  to 
instruct  the  people  in  some  of  the  more  important  laws 
of  health.  There  are  so  many  guide  books  on  this 
subject  at  the  present  time  that  Prof.  Seeley  has,  we 
feel  sure,  found  it  a  difficulty  of  no  slight  kind  to  put 
before  his  readers  the  material  he  had  in  hand,  so  as  to 
feel  that  he  was  supplying  anything  that  by  its  novelty 
could  be  considered  acceptable.  Happily  the  enormous 
importance  of  his  theme  has  come  to  his  aid,  and  has 
enabled  him  to  bring  forth  an  essay  which  makes  up 
in  earnestness  whatever  it  may,  by  very  necessity,  want 
in  originality  ;  for  health  is  like  truth — it  can  never  be 
confirmed  enough,  nor  have  too  many  able  expositors. 

The  factors  in  life  treated  of  by  our  author  are 
health,  food,  and  education.  Health  he  defines,  very 
tersely,  as  "  the  condition  of  life  in  which  the  body 
produces  more  energy  than  is  lost  in  performing  our 
work";  and  then  he  proceeds  to  indicate  the  various 
methods,  habits,  and  practices  by  which  it  can  be  secured 
by  the  individual  and  by  the  community  at  large.  With 
much  prudence  the  Professor  dwells  on  the  obstacles  that 
lie  in  the  way  of  health  from  the  expense  that  attends 
their  application.  He  illustrates  this  uncommonly  well 
in  regard  to  cleanliness.  "  The  difficulty,"  he  says,  "  of 
securing  the  universal  practice  of  the  habit  is  chiefly  a 
matter  of  expense.  There  are  few  pleasures  more  costly 
than  perfect  cleanliness,  since  it  implies  labour  in  every 
detail."  Here,  too,  he  enforces  what  all  practical  sani- 
tarians have  foreseen,  that  such  labour  can  never  be 
satisfactory  unless  the  woman  of  the  house,  the  wife,  can 
direct  and  take  part  in  it,  "  because  servants  can  in  no 
other  way  become  of  the  same  flesh  and  blood  as  their 
employers.  Personal  cleanliness  to ;  be  of  any  value 
must  extend  to  all  members  of  a  household.  It  is 
as  important  for  the  servants  as  for  the  mistress,  for 
they  are  often  exposed  to  greater  chances  of  infection, 
and  have  greater  capacity  for  diffusing  disease.     If  the 


268 


NATURE 


{July  19,  1888 


cook  and  the  kitchen  are  not  scrupulously  clean,  the 
health  of  the  household  suffer  with  every  touch  given 
to  food,  and  many  an  obscure  derangement  of  health 
which  baffles  medical  skill  is  due  to  this  poison  of  dirt." 
Touching  the  question  of  national  cleanliness,  we  are 
very  glad  to  find  Prof.  Seeley  spotting  the  greatest  of  all 
political  evils  of  a  social  kind — the  evil  of  allowing  a 
monopoly  to  companies  for  the  supply  of  fresh  water  to 
the  community.  "  The  wisdom  of  the  State,"  he  affirms, 
"  never  permitted  any  greater  obstacle  to  come  between 
the  people  and  their  health  than  the  monopoly  of  water 
companies  who  make  water  an  article  of  trade  ;  "  from 
.which  saying  we  only  dissent  in  regard  to  one  word — 
the  word  wisdom,  for  which  the  truer  word  folly  ought,  we 
think,  to  be  substituted. 

Prof.  Seeley  takes  a  decisive  view  of  the  duties  of  the 
members  of  the  profession  of  medicine,  to  whom  he 
would  apply  the  drastic  reformation  inaugurated  by  that 
heathen  Chinee,  who  makes  the  doctor  earn  his  fees  not 
by  treating  the  man  that  is  sick,  but  by  keeping  the  man 
that  is  whole  always  free  from  sickness.  The  doctor, 
according  to  this  prescription,  would  keep  up  the  health 
of  the  household  by  contract,  through  which  plan  there 
would  be  no  necessity  for  sick-hospitals,  sick-beds,  or  any 
other  of  the  extensive  and  costly  methods  now  in  use 
for  keeping  up  the  cure  of  disease.  The  whole  art  of 
medicine  would  be  an  art  of  prevention  ;  and  cure,  now 
the  almost  sole  object  of  the  highest  skill  in  medicine, 
would  be  quite  subordinate  to  prevention.  But  where 
then  would  poor  medical  science  be  landed  ?  Every 
man  would  be  his  own  general  practitioner,  every  house- 
wife would  be  a  physician,  every  old  woman  who  had 
gained  most  experience  from  observation  of  preventive 
measures  would  be  a  consulting  physician,  and  there 
would  be  nothing  to  cure.  Fie  on  you  !  learned,  if  not 
jealous,  Professor,  for  suggesting  such  a  heartless  disinte- 
gration of  the  great  and  noble  sciences  of  pathology  and 
therapeutics.  The  next  time  we  meet  you  we  will  not 
speak  to  you  unless  you  publicly  recant  such  brazen 
heresy,  and  repent  in  dust  and  ashes.  Seriously,  the  idea 
of  such  a  change  is  not  far  off,  and  indeed  has,  to  some 
extent,  commenced  amongst  the  more  advanced  members 
of  the  educated  community.  It  is  an  idea  that  will 
spread  far  and  wide,  and  in  half  a  century  or  so  may  be 
the  fashion  of  the  time. 

On  the  topic  of  food  our  author  is  very  explicit,  and  is 
strong  in  his  recommendations  to  feeders  generally  that 
they  should  distinguish  carefully  between  foods  that  are 
bond  fide  foods,  and  those  which  are  merely  stimulants. 
Tea  and  drinks  of  its  class  owe  their  popularity  to  their 
power  of  arresting  waste  or  nervous  exhaustion,  and 
this  constitutes  their  superiority  over  alcoholic  drinks. 
Neither,  perhaps,  is  food  in  the  popular  sense  of  the 
term.  "  Wine  and  its  allies  give  a  fillip  to  the  nervous 
system,  which  enables  exceptional  work  to  be  done  at 
the  price  of  increased  nervous  exhaustion,  and  draw  a 
bill  on  the  strength  which  must  be  met  at  a  short  date  : 
while  tea  and  its  allies  enable  increased  work  to  be  done 
by  making  the  dormant  strength  available,  and  discount, 
on  favourable  terms,  the  bills  we  hold  on  nervous  energy." 
This  is  sound  and  plain  teaching,  told  in  a  concise  form, 
that  deserves  to  be  retold  by  all  who  have  the  advantage 
of  learning  from  the  volume  before  us. 


We  are  glad  to  see  that  Prof.  .Seeley  inclines  calmly 
and  judiciously  to  the  advocacy  of  a  more  distinctive 
national  leaning  towards  vegetable  products  as  foods. 
He  sees  that  the  ease  with  which  animal  foods  can  be 
prepared  for  the  table  is  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  their 
popularity,  until  a  better  system  of  cookery  is  established 
throughout  the  land,  in  which  vegetable  foods  shall  play 
a  more  distinguished  part  than  they  have  ever  yet  played 
in  this  country  up  to  the  present  date.  "  The  sum,"  he 
tells  us,  "  that  is  annually  spent  on  animal  food  in  this 
country  is  more  than  £1 14,000,000,  or  upwards  of  a  ninth 
of  the  national  income  ;  while  the  sum  spent  on  bread, 
potatoes,  and  vegetables  combined  is  ^127,000,000.  By 
a  reformed  diet  it  is  probable  that  a  substantial  saving  of 
about  ^30,000,000  a  year  might  be  made  in  the  cost  of 
nitrogenous  food  alone,  without  any  serious  change  in 
national  habits,  and  with  advantage  in  every  way." 

Turning  lastly  to  the  essay  on  education  as  a  factor  in 
life,  we  find  excellent  rules  for  combining  education  with 
health,  and  both  with  good  morals.  "  Education  begins 
earliest  in  childhood,  ends  only  in  death,  and  survives 
death  itself  in  its  effects  on  after  time."  In  fact,  "  Nature 
has  appointed  no  period  for  education."  These  are  some 
of  the  wise  and  prudent  sayings  which  the  author  places 
before  his  readers,  with  many  others  on  which  we  have 
not  space  to  dwell.  But  it  would  not  be  just  to  conclude 
without  directing  attention  to  the  simimum  bonum  of 
educational  efforts  which,  in  his  last  pages,  Prof.  Seeley 
impresses  on  his  countrymen.  He  deals  here  with  the 
subject  of  education  on  its  religious  side.  The  religious 
feeling  is,  he  contends,  partly  an  inherited  character  of 
the  race,  and  partly  theiproduct  of  education.  But,  unless 
it  permeates  and  saturates  life  so  that  every  act  and 
endeavour  of  existence  has  a  basis  which  unites  them  into 
one  sustained  movement  onward  towards  higher  things,  he 
should  not  express  what  he  conceives  the  religious  side  of 
the  education  of  life  should  be.  The  sciences  are  the 
sisters  of  religion,  in  that  they  unfold  something  of  the 
laws  by  which  the  universe  is  governed  and  by  which  the 
life  of  man  is  directed.  "  They  are  thus  far  the  stepping- 
stones  of  faith.  And  those  who  have  learned  that  health 
is  the  reward  of  moral  discipline,  that  mental  vigour  may 
be  augmented  by  the  wise  or  moral  use  of  food,  and  that 
education  is  the  systematic  exercise  of  moral  responsi- 
bility in  any  or  all  the  affairs  of  life,  may  find  that  in  the 
practice  and  the  pursuit  of  the  truths  of  science  they  are 
conscious  of  a  religious  education  which  is  a  light  to  their 
feet."  The  words  are  true.  The  words  are  a  true  gospel 
— a  gospel  new  and  true  and  ever-extending ;  and  we 
congratulate  the  religious  Society  which  has  had  the 
courage  to  publish  them,  as  heartily  as  we  congratulate 
the  author  who  has  had  the  good  sense  and  moral  faith 
to  send  them  forth  for  publication. 


THE  LANDSLIP  AT  ZUG. 
Die  Catastrophe  von  Zug,  5  Juli,  1887.     (Zurich  :  Ho 
und  Burger,  1888.) 
N    account   of    this    catastrophe,   written    by    P 
Bonney,  who  visited  the  scene  of  ruin,  has  aire 
appeared  in  the  pages  of  Nature  (vol.  xxxvi.  p.  389! 
The  present  volume,  compiled  from  official  documents, 


A' 


I 


July  19,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


269 


gives  a  fuller  history  and  more  minute  details  of  the 
results  of  the  slip  than  were  at  that  time  accessible.  It 
mainly  consists  of  an  elaborate  report,  written  by  Dr.  A. 
Heim,  the  well-known  Professor  of  Geology  at  Zurich, 
"  Ober-ingenieur  "  R.  Moser,  and  Dr.  A.  Burkli-Ziegler, 
to  which  are  appended  brief  accounts  of  the  incidents  of 
the  catastrophe,  and  of  that  which  occurred  in  1435,  and 
lastly,  a  note  on  the  disposal  of  the  fund  raised  for  the 
benefit  of  the  sufferers.  Plans  and  sections  (extracted 
from  the  series  which  was  attached  to  the  above  report) 
accompany  the  book,  and  indicate  very  clearly  not  only 
the  amount  of  the  mischief  done,  but  also  its  cause, 
which,  as  already  stated  in  these  pages,  is  the  exist- 
ence of  a  deep  deposit  of  silt  beneath  the  superficial 
gravelly  soil.  The  latter  is  but  a  very  few  feet  thick,  and 
suffices  for  the  foundation  of  the  less  important  buildings  ; 
the  former  constitutes  the  shelving  bed  of  the  lake  to  a 
depth  of  more  than  100  feet.  Borings  made  at  various 
stations  on  the  land,  not  far  from  the  lake  margin,  have 
shown  that  this  material  remains  incoherent  to  nearly  the 
above  depth,  after  which  it  becomes  stronger.  Hence 
there  is  always  a  danger  of  the  underlying  silt  being 
squeezed  outwards  into  and  upon  the  bed  of  the  lake,  and 
the  plans  and  sections  furnished  with  the  present  volume 
show  precisely  how  the  accident  occurred.  There  appear 
to  have  been  some  premonitory  indications  of  the  coming 
mishap,  in  addition  to  the  subsidence  in  the  new  pier 
wall,  which  had  already  excited  alarm.  The  inhabitants 
of  certain  houses,  which  afterwards  fell,  had  observed 
sundry  small  displacements,  which  were  especially  shown 
by  the  jamming  of  doors  and  windows  ;  cracking  noises 
also  had  once  or  twice  been  heard.  But  the  actual 
catastrophe  was  very  sudden.  About  3.20  p.m.  the 
end  of  the  quay  wall,  which  had  been  completed  up  to 
a  sort  of  little  bastion,  began  to  crack  and  sink.  A 
quarter  of  an  hour  later  came  the  first  great  slip,  which 
caused  the  loss  of  seven  ii-'es.  Except  for  some  minor 
slips,  there  was  then  a  pause  for  rather  more  than  three 
hours,  and  then  at  6.50  p.m.  the  second  and  greater  slip 
occurred.  A  graphic  account  is  given  of  the  terror  caused 
by  this  second  catastrophe,  which  caused  the  loss  of  four 
more  lives.  A  third,  but  comparatively  unimportant,  slip 
occurred  at  10.15  p.m. 

From  the  plan  and  sections  it  is  evident  that  the  second 
slip  affected  the  larger  area,  both  of  the  land  and  of  the 
lake  bed.  Each  slip  forced  the  loose  silt  horizontally 
outwards*  so  as  to  form  a  delta-like  deposit  on  the  lake 
floor,  thus  diminishing  the  depth  of  the  water  sometimes 
by  about  4  or  5  yards.  At  the  first  slip  a  triangular 
piece  of  ground,  measuring  about  80  yards  a^long  the  shore, 
and  some  40  yards  to  its  apex  inland,  was  destroyed,  and 
the  "  delta  "  produced  by  this,  which  in  outline  resembles 
a  rather  stout  pear,  is  about  250  yards  across  the  wider 
part,  and  apparently  extends  to  about  450  yards  from  the 
shore.  By  the  second  slip  not  only  a  much  larger  piece 
of  the  land  (with  a  rudely  oblong  boundary)  was  removed, 
but  the  lake  bed  opposite  to  it,  for  a  distance  of  220  yards, 
appears  to  have  slipped,  so  as  to  form  a  kind  of  broad 
trench,  resulting  in  an  interval  of  deeper  water  some 
50  yards  wide.  The  material  thus  removed  was  deposited 
over  the  deeper  part  of  the  lake  bed,  covering  a  space 
not  quite  so  wide  as  that  occupied  by  the  former  "  delta," 
but  much  more  than  double  the  length,  for  its  end  is 


placed    1020    metres    from    the    shore,    at    a    depth    of 
44  metres. 

These  elaborate  maps  and  sections,  with  the  results  of 
investigations  (by  means  of  borings)  into  the  nature  of  the 
lake  bed,  the  level  of  the  ground  water,  &c,  give  a  high 
value  to  this  publication,  which  maybe  commended  tothe 
notice  of  architects  and  engineers,  as  well  as  to  those 
interested  in  the  history  of  Switzerland. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Turbans  and  Tails  ;  or,  Sketches  in  the  Unromatic  East. 
By  Alfred  J.  Bamford.  (London :  Sampson  Low, 
1888.)     • 

The  author  of  this  book  does  not  claim  to  have  anything 
very  new  or  striking  to  tell  his  readers.  He  has  seen  a 
good  deal  of  India  and  China,  and  is  content  with  repro- 
ducing, in  a  popular  way,  the  impressions  made  upon  him 
during  his  not  very  exciting  sojourn  in  those  countries. 
He  has  little  to  say  about  "  the  mild  Hindu  "  or  "the  man 
of  Han ''  that  tends  to  make  us  think  more  highly  of 
either.  Mr.  Bamford,  like  many  English  travellers,  is  apt 
to  be  impressed  by  the  bad  rather  than  by  the  good 
aspects  of  unfamiliar  types  of  character ;  and  some  of 
his  sweeping  judgments  would  no  doubt  have  been  con- 
siderably modified  if,  in  estimating  the  intellectual  and 
moral  qualities  of  Orientals,  he  had  remembered  more 
frequently  and  vividly  than  he  has  actually  done,  that 
thought  and  conduct  in  the  East  and  West  cannot  always 
be  fairly  or  wisely  measured  by  the  same  standards.  The 
book,  however,  has  the  merit  of  being  written  in  a  lively 
style,  and  the  author's  judgments,  whether  sound  or 
unsound,  invariably  result  from  his  own  observation  and 
reflection.  Here  is  one  of  a  good  many  suggestive 
anecdotes  which  brighten  his  pages  :  "  Of  what  caste  are 
you  ? "  asked  an  Englishman  of  a  native  of  India.  "  Oh," 
replied  the  native,  "  I'm  a  Christian — I  take  brandy 
shrab,  and  get  drunk  like  you." 

The  Photographer  s  Note-book.  By  Sir  David  Salomons, 
Bart.,  M.A.     (London:  Marion  and  Co.,  1888.) 

Both  amateur  and  professional  photographers,  and 
especially  those  who  travel  and  take  a  great  number 
of  photographs  per  day,  will  find  this  little  book  very 
handy  and  useful,  as  it  is  of  a  very  convenient  size  and 
contains  enough  space  for  inserting  the  particulars,  such 
as  number  of  stop,  rapidity  of  shutter,  remarks  on  the 
light,  &c,  of  each  of  fifty-one  dozen  plates. 

Formulae  for  enlargement  and  depth  of  focus  and  rules 
for  exposure  are  added,  followed  by  a  table,  calculated 
by  Messrs.  Marion,  of  the  correct  quantities  to  be  taken 
from  10  per  cent,  solutions  to  make  up  developers  for  all 
the  best  known  plates.  The  book  concludes  with  various 
tables,  such  as  area  enlarging,  enlarging  by  linear  di- 
mensions, and  equivalent  focal  lengths  of  lenses  of 
different  sizes  and  makers. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
of  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations.,] 

"Cloud  Electric   Potential." 

I  DESIRE  to  draw  ihe  attention,  mere  particularly  of  your 
electrical  readers,  to  the  following  paragraph  on  p.  651  of  the 
eighth  edition  (1884)  of  Deschanel's  "Natural  Philosophy," 
part  hi.,  which  appears  distinctly  at  variance  with  the  theory  o 


270 


NATURE 


\July  19,  1888 


thunderstorms  as  explained  in  Prof.  Silvanus  Thompson's 
"  Elementary  Lessons,"  and  similar  elementary  treatises  : — 

"The  coalescence  of  small  drops  to  form  large  ones,  though 
it  increases  the  electrical  density  on  the  surfaces  of  the  drops 
does  not  increase  the  total  quantity  of  electric'ty,  and  therefore 
cannot  directly  influence  the  observed  potential." 

Surely  this  entirely  omits  the  fact  that  the  capacity  of  a  sphere 
is  equal  to  its  radius,  and  thus  in  the  case  of  eight  equal  spheres 
coalescing  into  one  (which  is  taken  by  Prof.  Thompson),  not 
merely  would  the  density  be  doubled,  but  the  potential  of  the 
same  quantity  would  be  increased  four  times. 

In  the  well-known  case  given  by  Prof.  Tait  for  the  formation 
of  a  raindrop  the  potential  of  the  same  quantity  might  be 
increased  fifty  million  time?. 

The  source  of  the  energy  which  is  the  cause  of  the  increased 
potential  in  this  case,  is  prob  ibly  the  molecular  force  of  cohe- 
sion released  during  the  act  of  condensation  and  union,  the 
cohesion  and  the  electricity  being  oppositely  placed,  so  that 
while  the  former  is  running  down  hill  (as  it  were)  the  latter  is 
obliged  to  run  up  ;  the  top  of  the  hill  answering  to  the  critical 
moment  for  disruptive  discharge. 

In  view  of  these  facts,  it  seems  to  me  that  if  the  above 
sentence  is  not  altogether  erroneous,  it  is  certainly  ambiguous, 
and  liable  to  breed  false  notions  in  the  mind  of  the  unreflecting 
and  too  credulous  student.  E.  Douglas  Archibald. 


Transparency  of  the  Atmosphere. 

It  may  be,  I  think,  desirable  to  correct  an  error  which  has 
crept  into  all  the  accounts  of  the  extraordinary  transparency  of 
the  atmosphere  observed  here  last  week.  It  occurred  on  Sun- 
day, the  8th,  and  not  on  Monday,  the  9th  inst.  I  can  confirm 
the  several  details  as  to  the  objects  visible  to  the  unassisted  eye. 
But  in  one  respect  this  effect  was  surpassed -on  August  20,  1887, 
when  the  double  flash  of  the  Dunkirk  light,  distant  from  this 
place  about  forty-five  miles,  was  visible  for  several  hours.  This 
light  could  not  be  seen  here  on  the  8th  inst. 

Pavilion  Hotel,  Folkestone,  July  16.  J.  Parxell. 

Preserving  the  Colour  of  Flowers. 

In  response  to  the  inquiry  of  "A.  W.,"  perhaps  you  will 
allow  me  to  say  that  many  years  ago  I  met  with  Mdlle.  d'Ange- 
ville,  the  first  lady  to  ascend  Mont  Blanc.  She  possessed  the 
largest  and  best  preserved  collection  of  Alpine  flowers  I  have 
ever  seen,  and  she  assured  me  she  never  used  anything  but 
cotton-wool  in  her  presc,  changing  it,  of  course,  frequently. 
Her  gentians,  pedicularias,  and  other  delicate  plants  were  per- 
fect in  colour  ;  and  having  tried  her  plan  myself,  although  with 
less  care,  and  therefore  with  less  success,  I  still  have  Alpine 
flowers  which  have  retained  their  colour  for  twenty  years. 

54  Doughty  Street,  July  17.  A.  W.  Buckland. 


Distribution  of  Animals  and  Plants  by  Ocean  Currents. 

In  connection  with  Miss  Buckland's  letter  on  this  subject  it 
may  be  interesting  to  note  that,  during  a  visit  to  Orotava,  Tene- 
riffe,  in  April  1887  (about  the  time  mentioned  by  your  corre- 
spondent), I  observed  and  gathered  a  quantity  of  pumice-stone 
upon  the  seashore,  the  high  tide  mark  being  literally  strewed 
with  it.  It  ;eemed  probable  that  it  had  been  deposited  there 
some  weeks  or  possibly  months  previously,  as,  had  there  been 
any  quantity  floating  about  in  the  sea,  I  should  have  noticed  it, 
being  engaged  at  the  time  tow-netting  in  the  neighbourhood 
and  in  the  adjacent  Canary  Islands.  There  was  no  evidence  of 
vegetable  debris  having  accompanied  the  pumice,  nor  did  I 
notice  any  pieces  with  barnacles  attached. 

Liverpool,  July  13.  Isaac  C.  Thompson. 


A  Curious  Resemblance 

WHILST  walking  by  the  sea  on  the  cliffs  last  Sunday,  I  per- 
ceived at  a  distance  of  about  15CO  yards  a  flight  of  nearly  forty 
ducks,  travelling  at  a  good  pace  2  or  3  feet  above  the  level  of 
the  water.  To  me  they  appeared  exactly  what  the  so-called 
"sea-serpent"  would,  eight  or  ten  of  the  birds  flying  close 
together  and  forming  the  head,  whilst  the  rest  trailed  behind 
and  formed  the  body  and  tail.  At  intervals  they  disappeared. 
This  was  caused,  I   think,  by  the  birds  changing  their  course 


and  flying  either  directly  away  or  towards  me  ;  the  former,  I 
believe,  in  my  case. 

Some  time  afterwards  I  saw  two  other  flights,  and  these  re- 
sembled the  first  exactly,  those  with  me  also  being  surprised  at 
their  "snake  "-like  appearance.  W.  J.  Lockyer. 

Thanet,  July  16. 

The  "Sky-coloured  Clouds." 

There  was  a  very  bright  display  of  these  clouds  last  night! 
I  could  not  perceive  anything  of  them  up  to  10  p.m.,  though  the 
sky  was  clear,  but  by  10.18  they  had  become  conspicuous,  and 
were  brightest,  so  far  as  I  observed,  near  midnight. 

I  have  seen  very  little  account  in  any  English  paper  of  the 
visibility  of  these  clouds  beyond  England,  nor  do  I  know 
whether  they  have  been  seen  elsewhere  than  in  Northern 
Europe.  Has  there  been  anything  published  on  these  points  in 
English  ? 

Neither  have  I  seen  any  reference  to  the  extensive  observa; 
tions  of  Herr  O.  Jesse  at  Steglitz,  with  his  suggestions  to 
observers.  He  considers  it  very  important  that  this  unusually 
favourable  opportunity  should  be  utilized  for  learning  the 
motions  of  currents  at  great  heights  in  the  atmosphere.  He 
suggests  that  photographs  taken  simultaneously  from  two  places 
at  a  distance  of  say  20  kilometres  would  be  useful  for  ascertain- 
ing the  height  of  the  clouds  ;  but  for  this  purpose  the  necessity 
arises  of  being  able  to  calculate  very  accurately  the  azimuths 
and  altitudes  of  different  points  in  the  photograph.  Their  height 
can  likewise  be  determined,  though  less  accurately,  by  observa- 
tions of  the  limit  of  sunshine  upon  them.  Herr  Jesse  proposes 
another  way  also,  viz.  by  throwing  an  intense  beam  of  electric 
light  on  the  clouds  ;  but  I  should  doubt  the  practicability  of 
this. 

The  direction  and  rate  of  motion  could  be  best  made  out,  he 
says,  by  the  use  of  a  cloud-minor.  The  changes  that  take 
place  in  the  forms  of  the  clouds  before  they  have  moved  far  make 
it  difficult  to  ascertain  their  motion  accurately. 

Herr  Jesse  further  thinks  the  intensity  of  the  light  of  the 
clouds  in  different  positions  should  be  determined  ;  also  that 
the  sky  should  be  examined  in  the  day-time  with  a  polariscope 
and  photometer  in  the  hope  that  the  presence  of  the  matter  of 
the  clouds,  then  invisible  to  the  eye,  might  be  revealed. 

Sunderland,  July  13.  T.  W.  Backhouse. 

An  Unusual  Rainbow. 

Singularly  enough  I  can  record  the  appearance  of  a  rain- 
bow aft«-r  sunset  similar  to  that  described  by  Mr.  S.  A.  Hill 
(Nature,  March  15,  vol.  xxxvii.,  p.  464).  I  was  not  aware 
there  was  anything  unusual  in  it  until  I  read  Mr.  Andrew's  com- 
munication, or  would  have  written  to  you  about  it.  I  do  not 
remember  on  what  day  I  saw  the  rainbow,  but  it  was  about  the 
date  of  that  observed  by  Mr.  Andrew.  I  called  my  wife's  at- 
tention to  it,  and  attributed  it  to  the  bril'iant  glow  of  the  sunset 
tints.  It  had  a  secondary  bow,  and  Mont  Kogie  as  a  dark 
background.  E.  L.  Layard. 

British  Consulate,  Noumea,  May  15. 


TIMBER,  AND  SOME  OE  ITS  DISEASES} 
IX. 

IF  the  leaves  are  stripped  from  a  timber-tree  early  in  the 
summer,  or  during  their  young  conditions  in  the 
spring,  the  layer  of  wood  produced  in  the  current  year— and 
probably  even  that  formed  next  year-- will  be  poor  and  thin. 
This  is  simply  a  fact  of  observation,  and  does  not  depend 
on  what  agent  deprives  the  tree  of  its  leaves.  Those  oaks 
which  suffered  so  greatly  from  the  ravages  of  certain  tiny 
caterpillars  this  last  summer  (1887)— many  of  them  having 
all  their  leaves  eaten  away  before  July — will  have  recorded 
the  disaster  by  a  thin  annual  ring  of  wood  :  it  is  true  the 
more  vigorous  trees  produced  (at  the  expense  of  what 
stores  of  food  materials  remained  over)  a  second  crop  of 
leaves  in  August,  and  so  no  doubt  the  zone  of  wood  will 
prove  to  be  a  thin  double  one,  but  it  is  at  the  expense  of 
next  year's  buds. 

1  Continued  frim  p.  1^0. 


Jtdy  19,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


271 


Now  there  are  very  many  foes  which  injure  the  leaves 
of  our  timber-trees,  and  I  wish  to  show,  as  clearly  as  pos- 
sible in  a  short  article,  how  it  comes  about  that  injury  to 
the  leaves  means  injury  to  the  timber.  The  sum  total  of 
the  matter  is  that  the  substances  which  are  to  be  sent 
down  to  the  cambium,  and  converted  through  its  agency 
into  wood,  are  produced  in  the  cells  of  the  leaves  :  conse- 
quently, from  our  point  of  view,  when  an  insect  or  a 
fungus  consumes  the  substance  of  the  leaves,  it  consumes 
timber  in  prospective.  Similarly,  when  the  leaves  are  re- 
moved from  a  tree  by  any  agent  whatever,  the  latter  is 
robbed  in  advance  of  timber.  A  leaf,  generally  speaking, 
is  an  extended,  flattened  portion  of  a  branch,  covered 
by  a  continuation  of  the  epidermis  of  the  branch,  and 
containing  a  continuation  of  its  other  tissues — the  vascular 
bundles  of  the  branch  being  continued  as  the  venation, 
and  the  cellular  cortex  reappearing  as  the  green  soft  tissue 
of  the  leaf.  The  epidermis  of  the 'leaf  is  so  pierced  at 
hundreds  or  thousands  of  nearly  equi-distant  points,  that 
gases  can  enter  into  or  escape  from  all  its  tissues  :  at  these 
points  are  the  so-called  stomata,  each  stoma  being  a  little 
apparatus  which  can  open  and  close  according  to  circum- 
stances. 

These  openings  lead  into  excavations  or  passages 
between  the  loose  cells  of  the  softer  leaf-tissue,  and  if  we 
supposed  a  very  minute  creeping  organism  to  enter  one 
of  the  stomata,  it  would  find  itself  in  a  labyrinth  of  inter- 
cellular passages  :  supposing  it  able  to  traverse  these,  it 
could  pass  from  any  part  of  the  leaf  to  any  other  between 
the  cells  ;  or  it  could  emerge  again  from  the  leaf  at  thou- 
sands of  places — other  stomata.  In  traversing  the  whole 
of  the  labyrinth,  however,  it  would  pass  over  many 
millions  of  times  its  own  length  Moreover  it  would 
find  these  intercellular  passages  filled  with  a  varying 
atmosphere  of  diffusing  gases — oxygen,  nitrogen,  the 
vapour  of  water,  and  carbon-dioxide  being  the  chief.  It 
would  also  find  the  cell-walls  which  bound  the  passages 
damp,  with  water  continuous  with  the  water  in  the  cells. 
If  we  suppose  our  hypothetical  traveller  threading  the 
mazes  of  these  passages  at  night,  and  able  to  perceive  the 
changes  which  go  on,  it  would  find  relatively  little  oxygen 
and  relatively  much  carbon-dioxide  in  the  damp  atmo- 
sphere in  the  passages  ;  whereas  in  the  daylight,  if  the  sun 
was  shining  brightly  on  the  leaves,  it  would  find  the  atmo- 
sphere rarer,  and  relatively  little  carbon-dioxide  present, 
but  an  abundance  of  oxygen.  These  gases  and  vapour 
would  be  slowly  moving  in  and  out  at  the  stomata  by 
diffusion,  the  evaporation  of  the  watery  vapour  especially 
being  quicker  on  a  dry,  hot,  sunny  day. 

Inside  the  cells  between  which  these  tortuous  passages 
run,  are  contained  structures  which  have  much  to  do  with 
these  changes.  Each  of  the  cells  I  am  considering  con- 
tains a  lining  of  protoplasm,  in  which  a  nucleus,  and  a 
number  of  small  protoplasmic  granules,  coloured  green,  and 
called  chlorophyll  corpuscles,  are  embedded  :  all  these  are 
bathed  in  a  watery  cell-sap. 

Now,  putting  together  in  a  general  manner  some  of  the 
chief  facts  which  we  know  about  this  apparatus,  it  maybe 
said  that  the  liquid  sap  inside  the  cells  gives  off  water  to  re- 
place that  which  escapes  through  the  damp  cell-walls,  and 
evaporates  into  the  above-named  passages  and  out  through 
the  stomata,  or  at  the  surface.  This  evaporation  of  the 
water  is  in  itself  the  cause  of  a  flow  of  more  water  from 
behind,  and  this  flow  takes  place  from  the  vascular  bundles 
forming  the  so-called  venation  of  the  leaf,  coming  directly 
from  the  wood  of  the  stem.  The  course  of  this  water, 
then,  is  from  the  soil,  through  the  roots,  up  the  young 
wood  and  into  the  venation  of  the  leaf,  and  thence  it 
is  drawn  into  the  cells  we  are  considering.  But  this  water 
is  not  pure  water  :  it  contains  in  solution  small  quantities 
of  salts  of  lime,  potash,  magnesia,  nitric,  sulphuric,  and 
phosphoric  acids,  as  well  as  a  little  common  salt,  and  traces 
of  one  or  two  other  things.  It  is,  in  fact,  of  the  nature  of 
ordinary  drinking-water,  which  always  contains  minute 


quantities  of  such  salts  :  like  drinking-water,  it  also  con- 
tains gases  (oxygen,  nitrogen,  carbon-dioxide)  dissolved 
in  it 

It  follows  from  what  has  bem  said  that  the  cell-sap  tends 
to  accumulate  small  increasing  quantities  of  these  salts, 
&c,  as  the  water  passes  away  by  evaporation.  But  we 
must  remember  that  the  living  contents — the  protoplasm, 
nucleus,  and  the  green  chlorophyll-corpuscles — use  up 
many  of  these  salts  for  their  life-purposes,  and  other 
portions  pass  into  the  cell-walls. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  green  chlorophyll-corpuscles 
are  bathed  by  a  fluid  cell-sap,  the  dissolved  gaseous  and 
mineral  contents  of  which  are  continually  changing,  even 
apart  from  the  alterations  which  the  life-processes  of  the 
living  contents  of  the  cell  themselves  entail.  We  may  say 
that  the  chlorophyll-corpuscles  find  at  their  disposal  in  the 
cell-sap,  with  which  they  are  more  or  less  in  direct  con- 
tact, traces  of  salts,  oxygen,  carbon-dioxide,  and  of  course 
water,  consisting  of  hydrogen  and  oxygen. 

Now  we  have  the  best  possible  reasons  for  knowing  that 
some  such  changes  as  the  following  occur  in  these  chloro- 
phyll-corpuscles, provided  they  are  exposed  to  sunlight : 
they  take  up  carbon-dioxide  and  water,  and  traces  of 
minerals,  and  by  means  of  a  molecular  mechanism  which 
is  as  yet  unexplained  in  detail,  they  perform  the  astonish- 
ing feat — for  it  represents  an  astonishing  transformation 
when  regarded  chemically  and  physically — of  tearing 
asunder,  by  the  aid  of  the  light,  the  carbon,  hydrogen,  and 
oxygen  of  the  carbon-dioxide  and  water,  and  rearranging 
these  elements  in  part  so  as  to  form  a  much  more  complex 
body — starch,  or  an  allied  compound,  oxygen  being  at  the 
same  time  set  free. 

It  is  of  course  not  part  of  my  present  task  to  trace  these 
physiological  processes  in  detail,  or  to  bring  forward  the 
experimental  evidence  on  which  our  knowledge  of  them 
is  based.  It  must  suffice  to  state  that  these  compounds, 
starch  and  allied  substances,  do  not  remain  in  the  chloro- 
phyll-corpuscles, but  become  dissolved  and  carried  away 
through  certain  channels  in  the  vascular  bundles  of  the 
venation,  and  thence  pass  to  wherever  they  are  to  be  em- 
ployed as  food.  The  chemical  form  in  which  these  sub- 
stances pass  from  one  cell  to  another  in  solution  is  chiefly 
that  of  grape-sugar,  and  it  is  a  comparatively  easy  observa- 
tion to  make  that  the  cells  so  often  referred  to  contain 
such  sugar  in  their  sap. 

We  are  only  concerned  at  present  with  the  fate  of  a 
portion — but   a  very   large   portion — of  this   starch   and 
sugar :  we  can  trace  them  down  the  vascular  bundles  of 
the  venation,  through  the  leaf-stalk,  into  the  cortex,  and 
eventually  to  the  cambium-cells  ;  and  it  is  necessary  to  be 
quite  clear  on  the  following  points  :  (1)  the  cambium-cells, 
like  all  other  living  cells  which  contain  no  chlorophyll, 
need  to  be  supplied  with  such  foods  as  sugar,  starch,  &c, 
or  they  starve  and  perish  ;  (2)  since  these  foods  are  pre- 
pared, as  we  have  seen,  in  the  leaves,  and  in  the  leaves 
only,  it  is  obvious  that  the  vigour  and  well-being  of  the 
cambium  depend  on  the  functional  activity  of  the  leaves. 
We   have  already   seen   how   the   cambium- cells  give 
rise  to  the  young  wood,  and  thus  it  will  be  clear  how 
the  formation  of  timber  is  dependent  on  the  functional 
activity  of  the  leaves.    Moreover,  it  ought  to  be  mentioned, 
by  the  way   at   least,  that   it  is  not  only  the  cambium 
which  depends  upon  the  leaves  for  its  supplies — all  the 
roots,   young   buds,   flowers,   and  fruits,  &c,  as  well  as 
the  cortex  and  cork-forming  tissues,  are  competitors  for 
the  food  supply.     Now  it  is  clear  that  if  we  starve  the 
buds  there  will  be  fewer  leaves  developed  in  the  follow- 
ing year,  and  so  next  year's  cambium  will  again   suffer, 
and  so  on. 

I  have  by  no  means  traced  all  the  details  of  even  the 
first  ramifications  of  the  complex  network  of  correlations 
implied  by  this  competition  of  the  various  organs  and 
tissues  for  the  food  supplies  from  the  leaves  ;  but  probably 
the  following  proposition  will  be  generally  clear  : — If  the 


272 


NATURE 


[July  19,  1888 


leaves  are  stripped,  the  cambium  suffers  starvation  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent,  depending  on  the  intensity  of  its 
competition  with  other  tissues,  &c.  ;  of  course  a  starved 
cambium  will  form  less  wood,  and,  it  may  be  added,  the 
timber  will  be  poorer. 

Again,  even  if  the  leaves  are  not  stripped  quickly  from  the 
tree,  but  the  effect  of  some  external  agent  is  to  shorten  their 
period  of  activity  ;  or  to  occupy  space,  on  or  in  them,  and 
so  diminish  the  amount  of  leaf-surface  exposed  to  the  light 
and  air  ;  or  to  block  up  their  stomata,  the  points  of  egress 
and  ingress  for  gases  and  water  ;  or  to  steal  the  contents 
of  the  cells — contents  which  should  normally  be  passed 
on  for  the  growth,  &c,  of  other  parts  of  the  tree— in  all  or 
any  of  these  ways  injury  to  the  timber  may  accrue  from 
the  action  of  the  agent  in  question.  Now  there  are 
numbers  of  parasitic  fungi  which  do  all  these  things,  and 
when  they  obtain  a  hold  on  pure  plantations  or  forests, 
they  may  do  immense  injury  before  their  presence  is 
detected  by  anyone  not  familiar  with  their  appearance 
and  life-histories. 

The  great  difficulty  to  the  practical  forester  who 
attempts  to  deal  with  these  "leaf  diseases"  is  at  least 
twofold  ;  for  not  only  are  the  leaves  so  numerous  and  so 
out  of  reach  that  he  can  scarcely  entertain  the  idea  of 
doing  anything  directly  to  them,  but  (and  this  is  by  no 
means  so  clearly  apprehended  as  it  should  be)  they  stay 
on  the  tree  but  a  short  time  as  a  rule,  and  when  they  fall 
are  a  continual  source  of  re-infection,  because  the  spores  of 
the  fungi  are  developed  on  them.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that 
those  fungi  which  are  known  to  affect  the  leaves  of  forest- 
trees  nearly  all  belong  to  two  highly-developed  groups — 
the  Uredineae  and  the  Ascomycetes — and  the  remarkable 
biological  adaptations  which  these  parasites  exhibit  for 
attacking  or  entering  the  leaves,  passing  through  periods 
of  danger,  and  so  on,  are  almost  as  various  as  they  are 
numerous.  Some  of  them,  such  as  the  Erysiphece  or 
mildews  on  beeches,  oaks,  birches,  ashes,  &c,  only  form 
small  external  patches  on  the  leaves,  and  do  little  if  any 
harm  where  the  leaf-crown  is  large  and  active  ;  others, 
such  as  many  of  the  very  numerous  Sphczriacece  and 
their  allies,  which  form  small  dark-coloured  flecks  and 
spots  on  leaves,  may  also  be  looked  upon  as  taking  only  a 
slight  tax  from  the  leaves.  Even  in  these  cases,  however, 
when  the  diseases  become  epidemic  in  certain  wet  seasons, 
considerable  damage  may  accrue,  because  two  chief  causes 
(and  many  minor  ones)  are  co-operating  to  favour  the 
fungus  in  the  struggle  for  existence :  in  the  first  place,  a 
continuously  wet  summer  means  loss  of  sunlight  and 
diminished  transpiration,  &c,  to  the  leaves,  and  so  they 
form  smaller  quantities  of  food  materials  ;  and  secondly, 
the  damp  in  the  atmosphere  and  leaves  favours  the  fungi, 
and  so  they  destroy  and  occupy  larger  areas  of  leaf 
surface. 

It  should  be  mentioned  here,  by  the  way,  that  all  leaves 
of  all  trees  are  apt  to  have  fungi  on  them  in  a  wet  summer, 
but  many  of  these  are  only  spreading  their  mycelia  in  all 
directions  over  the  epidermis,  in  preparation,  as  it  were,  for 
the  fall  of  the  leaf :  they  are  saprophytes  which  feed  on 
the  dead  fallen  leaves,  but  cannot  enter  into  them  while  yet 
alive.  In  some  cases,  however,  this  preparation  for  the  fall  is 
strikingly  suggestive  of  adaptation  towards  becoming  para- 
sites. 1  will  quote  one  instance  only  in  illustration  of  this. 
On  the  leaves  of  certain  trees  in  Ceylon,  there  was  always 
to  be  found  in  the  rainy  season  the  much-branched 
mycelium  of  a  minute  Sphceria :  this  formed  enormous 
numbers  of  branches,  which,  on  the  older  leaves,  were 
found  to  stop  short  over  the  stomata,  and  to  form 
eventually  a  four-celled  spore-like  body  just  blocking  up 
each  stoma  on  which  it  rested.  So  long  as  the  leaf 
remained  living  on  the  tree,  nothing  further  occurred  ;  but 
wherever  a  part  of  the  leaf  died,  or  when  the  leaf  fell 
moribund  on  the  ground,  these  spore-like  bodies  at  once 
began  to  send  hyphae  into  the  dying  tissue,  and  thus 
obtained   an   early  place   in   the   struggle   for   existence 


among  the  saprophytes  which  finished  the  destruction  of 
the  cells  and  tissues  of  the  leaf. 

There  is  another  group  of  fungi,  the  Capnodiece,  which 
form  sooty  black  patches  on  the  leaves,  and  which  are 
very  apt  to  increase  to  a  dangerous  extent  on  leaves  in 
damp  shady  situations :  these  have  no  connection  with 
the  well-known  black  patches  of  Rhytisma  from  which  the 
leaves  of  our  maples  are  rarely  free.  This  last  fungus  is  a 
true  parasite,  its  mycelium  penetrates  into  the  leaf  tissues, 
and  forms  large  black  patches,  in  and  near  which  the  cells 
of  the  leaf  either  live  for  the  benefit  of  the  fungus  alone, 
or  entirely  succumb  to  its  ravages  :  after  the  leaf  has 
fallen,  the  fungus  forms  its  spores.  Nevertheless,  although 
we  have  gone  a  step  further  in  destructiveness,  foresters 
deny  that  much  harm  is  done  to  the  trees— no  doubt 
because  the  foliage  of  the  maples  is  so  very  abundant. 
Willows,  pines,  and  firs  suffer  from  allied  forms  of  fungi. 

But  it  is  among  the  group  of  the  Uredinecc  or  rusts 
that  we  find  the  most  extraordinary  cases  of  parasitism, 
and  since  some  of  these  exhibit  the  most  highly  developed 
and  complex  adaptations  known  to  us,  I  propose  to  select 
one  of  them  as  the  type  of  these  so-called  "  leaf  diseases." 
This  form  is  Coleosporium  Senecionis  {Peridermium  Pint), 
rendered  classical  by  the  researches  of  several  excellent 
botanists. 

It  is  true,  Coleosporium  Senecionis  is  not  in  some 
respects  the  most  dangerous  of  these  fungi — or,  rather,  it 
has  not  hitherto  been  found  to  be  so— but  in  view  of  the 
acknowledged  fact  that  foresters  have  not  as  yet  been 
able  to  devise  practical  measures  against  the  ravages  of 
these  numerous  rust-fungi,  and  since  we  are  as  yet  very 
ignorant  of  the  details  of  the  biology  of  most  of  them,  it 
seems  advisable  to  choose  for  illustration  a  form  which 
shows  in  a  distinct  manner  the  complexities  of  the  subject, 
so  that  those  interested  may  see  in  whit  directions 
biologists  may  look  for  new  results.  That  the  story  of 
this  fungus  is  both  complicated  and  of  great  biological 
interest  will  be  sufficiently  evident  from  the  mere  recital 
of  what  we  know  concerning  it. 

H.  Marshall  Ward. 

{To  be  continued) 


MIC  HELL'S  PROBLEM. 

"C'OR  the  last  two  hundred  years  the  attention  of  logi- 
-*■        cians  and  mathematicians  has  been  directed  to  the 
inverse  principles  of  the  theory  of  probability,  in  which 
we  reason  from  known  events  to  possible  causes.     Two 
different  methods  of  calculation  are  in  use,  which  give 
approximately  the  same  results.     According  to  the  cele- 
brated theorem  of  James    Bernoulli,  "  If   a    sufficiently 
large  number  of  trials  is  made,  the  ratio  of  the  favourable 
to  the  unfavourable  events  will  not  differ  from  the  ratio 
of  their  respective  probabilities  beyond  a  certain  limit  in 
excess  or  defect,  and  the  probability  of  keeping  within 
these  limits,  however  small,  can  be  made  as  near  certainty 
as  we  please  by  taking  a  sufficiently  large  number  o 
trials."     The  inverse  use  of  this  theorem  is  much  mon 
important  and  much  more  liable  to  objection  and  diffi 
culties  than  the  direct  use.     In  the  words  of  De  Morgan 
"  When    an   event   has    happened,  and   may  have   ha 
pened    in  two  or  three    different  ways,  that  way  whic 
is  most  likely  to  bring  about  the  event,  is  most  likely  to 
have  been  the  cause." 

The  second  principle,  due  to  Bayes,  is  thus  given  by 
De  Morgan,  "  Knowing  the  probability  of  a  compound 
event,  and  that  of  one  of  its  components,  we  find  the 
probability  of  the  other  by  dividing  the  first  by  the 
second." 

These  principles  have  been  accepted  by  the  great 
majority  of  thinkers,  and  freely  used  by  Laplace,  Poisson, 
Herschel,  and  De  Morgan.  Stanley  Jevons  ("  Principles  of 
Science")  gives  a  luminous  account  of  the  value  of  the 


I 


July  19,  1888] 


NATURE 


273 


theory,  and  accepts  Micl.e'.l's  views  :  "  If  Michell  be  in 
error,  it  is  in  the  methods  of  calculation,  not  in  the  general 
validity  of  his  reasoning  and  conclusions." 

On  the  other  hand,  Leibnitz,  Kant,  Forbes,  Boole,  and 
Mill  ("  Logic,"  xvii.,  xviii.,  xxv.),  while  allowing  some 
value  to  the  theory,  doubt  if  it  can  be  rigorously  applied 
to  obtain  definite  numerical  results. 

The  interest  and  importance  of  the  subject,  and  the 
length  of  time  which  has  elapsed  since  any  detailed  dis- 
cussion of  it  has  been  undertaken,  furnish  an  excuse  for 
the  following  suggestions,  which  are  made  in  the  hope 
that  they  may  elicit  more  valuable  arguments  and 
opinions. 

More  than  a  century  ago,  Michell  (Phil.  Trans.,  1767, 
p.  243)  attempted  to  find  the  probability  that  there  is  some 
cause  for  the  fact  that  the  stars  are  not  uniformly  distributed 
over  the  heavens,  but  frequently  form  binary  combina- 
tions or  larger  groups.  Michell's  results  are  quoted  with 
approval  by  Laplace  ("Theorie  des  Prob,"  p.  63),  and  by 
Herschel  ("Astronomy,"  p.  607),  though  the  latter  men- 
tions that  Michell's  data  are  too  small,  and  immediately 
afterwards  quotes  Struve's  solution  of  the  same  problem, 
which  seems  to  be  inconsistent  with  Michell's.  I  select 
Michell's  problem  for  discussion,  since  it  has  been 
accepted  by  high  authority  and  vigorously  attacked,  and 
for  the  sake  of  simplicity  in  the  calculations  shall  confine 
my  remarks  to  binary  combinations. 

Michell's  statements  are  not  very  clear,  and  his  arith- 
metical methods  are  cumbrous,  but  his  argument  may 
be  condensed  as  follows  :  "  What,  it  is  probable,  would 
have  been  the  least  apparent  distance  of  any  two  or  more 
stars  anywhere  in  the  whole  heavens,  upon  the  supposition 
that  they  had  been  scattered  by  mere  chance  ?"  Imagine 
any  star  situated  on  the  surface  of  a  sphere  (S  =  \t:r%)  of 
radius  r,  and  surrounded  by  a  circle  of  radius  a  (=  r  sin  0, 
•where  6  is  che  angle  subtended  by  a  at  the  centre  of  the 
sphere),  the  area  of  this  small  circle  is  s  —  no?  =  rrr2  sin2#. 
The  probability  that  another  star,  "  scattered  by  mere 

s 
chance,"  should  fall  within  this  small  circle  is  -~,  and  that 


it  should  not  fall  within  it 


S 


But  there  is  the  same 


chance  for  any  one  star  as  for  any  other  to  fall  within  the 
circle,  hence  we  must  multiply  this  fraction  into  itself  as 
many  times  as  the  whole  number  of  stars  («)  of  equal 
brightness  to  those  in  question.  "  And  farther,  because 
the  same  event  is  equally  likely  to  happen  to  any  one 
star  as  to  any  other,  and  therefore  any  one  of  the  whole 
number  of  stars  (n)  might  as  well  have  been  taken  for  the 
given  star  as  any  other,  we  must  repeat  the  last  found 

chance  n  times,  and  consequently  (  r  —  -  J  will  repre- 
sent the  probability  that  nowhere  in  the  whole  heavens 
any  two  stars  among  those  in  question  would  be  within 
the  given  distance  (a)  from  one  another,  and  the  com- 
plement of  this  quantity  to  unity  will  represent  the 
probability  of  the  contrary." 

In  the  case  of  the  two  stars,  /3  Capricorni,  Michell  takes 
n  =  230,  6  =  3'  20".     Hence 

A  B  S         (sm  3'  2°")2  = 


1/42545 19, 


1/804 ; 

1    that  no 
fall  so  near 


•which  Michell  takes  as  1/4254603  ;  and 

Q=(i    -    1/4254603  Y'   =  1  -     529Q°    = 
V  >+  ^     oj  4254603 

or,  according  to  Michell,  the  probability  is 

two  stars  equal  in  size  to  (3  Capricorni  shall 

to  one  another  as  they  do. 

Prof.  J.    D.    Forbes    {Phil.    Mag.,    December    1850) 

objects  to  the  entire  principle  upon  which  Michell's  work 

is   based,   and   has   pointed  out  some  errors    in    detail. 

Todhunter  ("  Theory  of  Prob.,"  p.  334)  and  Boole  ("  Laws 

of  Thought,"  p,  365)  countenance  these  objections  ;  but 


before  discussing  them  it  will  be  well  to  mention  other 
attempts  to  solve  the  same  problem. 

Struve  ("Cat.  Nov.,"  p.  37)  has  used  an  entirely 
different  method.  The  possible  number  of  binary  com- 
binations of  n  stars  is  n^n  1  V  ;    and    the    chance    that 

1  .  2 
such  a  pair  should  fall  on  a  small  circle  of  area  s  is  j/S, 
where  S  is  the  surface  of  the  portion  of  the  sphere  in 
which  n  has  been  counted.     Hence  the  chance  that  any 
pair  of  stars  should  fall  within  the  circle  is  n(n  -  i)s/2S. 

Taking  S  as  the  surface  from  —  1 50  of  declination  to 
the  North  Pole,  n  =  10229,  and  &  —  4*,  Struve  finds 
p  —  o,oo78i4. 

Herschel  ("  Ast.,"  p.  607),  either  in  error  or  by  a  re- 
calculation from  different  data,  quotes  Struve  as  finding 
that  the  probability  is  1/9570  against  two  stars  of  the 
7th  magnitude  coming  within  4"  by  accident. 

Applying  Struve's  formula  to  Michell's  data  for  £ 
Capricorni,  we  have 


230  X  229 

2 


4254603 


1/161-5, 


or  161/162,  as  the  probability  that  no  two  such  stars  fall 
within  the  given  area. 

Forbes,  with  the  aid  of  a  mathematical  friend,  offers 
the  following  solution  : — Suppose  the  n  stars  are  repre- 
sented by  dice,  each  with  v(>ri)  sides,  where  v  repre- 
sents the  number  of  small  circles  in  the  spherical  surface, 
or  S/s.  The  chance  of  two  stars  falling  into  one  circle  is 
the  same  as  that  two  dice  show  the  same  face. 

The  total  number  of  arrangements  without  duplication 
is — 

v  .  v  —  1   .v  —  2....V  —  n-\-i, 

and  the  total  number  of  falls  is  v*  ;  hence  the  probability 
of  a  fall  without  duplication  is — 


v  —  1  .  v  —  2 


v  —  n  -+-  l/v"  ; 


and  the  chance  that  two  or  more  dice  show  the  same 
face  is — 

1  —  [  v  I  \  v  -n  .  v". 

In  the  case  of  /3  Capricorni  v  =  4254603,  and  n  =  230. 
Evaluating  by  Stirling's  theorem,  Forbes  gives  p  =  o  00617 
=  1/160  nearly,  which  does  not  differ  much  from  riz/2v. 

A  recalculation  has  given  me  p  =  1/162.  The  result 
then  agrees  with  that  of  Struve  and  differs  from  that  of 
Michell. 

The  following  suggestions  are  due  in  substance  chiefly 
to  Boo'e  and  Forbes,  but  their  language  has  been  freely 
altered,  and  misapprehension  of  their  meaning  may 
therefore  be  feared. 

In  all  such  cases  an  hypothesis  ("  the  random  distribu- 
tion of  stars ")  is  assumed,  and  the  probability  of  an 
observed  consequence  ("  the  appearance  of  a  double 
star  ")  calculated.  The  small  probability  of  this  result  of 
the  assumed  hypothesis  is  held  to  imply  that  the  prob- 
ability of  the  hypothesis  is  equally  small,  and  therefore 
the  probability  of  the  contrary  hypothesis  is  very  large. 

According  to  Boole,  "  the  general  problem,  in  whatever 
form  it  may  be  presented,  admits  only  of  an  indefinite 
solution,"  since  in  every  solution  it  is  tacitly  assumed 
that  the  a  priori  probability  of  the  hypothesis  has  a 
definite  value,  generally  o  or  1,  and  also  a  definite  prob- 
ability is  assigned  to  the  occurrence  of  the  event  observed 
if  the  assumed  hypothesis  were  false. 

In  Michell's  problem  it  is  assumed  that  the  stars  are 
either  scattered  at  random  or  obey  a  general  law  j  no 
notice  is  taken  of  the  possible  case  that  a  general  law 
holds  for  stars  within  a  certain  distance  from  our  system, 
beyond  which  an  entirely  different  law  may  obtain. 
Again,  the  subjection  of  each  system  to  a  separate 
intelligence  is  tacitly  ignored. 


274 


NATURE 


\Juiy  i.9,  1888 


The  probability  of  an  event  is  the  value  of  the  expecta- 
tion of  its  occurrence  existing  in  the  mind  of  the  thinker  : 
"  We  must  again  warn  the  reader  that  probabilities  are 
in  his  mind,  not  in  the  urn  from  which  he  draws"  (De 
Morgan,  "  Enc.  Met.,"  414)  ;  but  in  the  solution  of  these 
problems  this  subjective  value  is  converted  with  startling 
ease  into  a  much  more  objective  and  concrete  expression. 
As  Forbes  puts  it,  "  The  doubt  existing  whether  an  event 
still  future,  which  may  happen  in  many  different  ways, 
shall  occur  in  one  particular  way  is  not  equivalent  to 
an  inherent  improbability  of  its  happening,  or  having 
happened,  in  that  way  " 

We  do  not  assume  that  a  friend  is  speaking  untruly 
when  he  tells  us  that,  out  of  10001  seats,  the  number  of 
his  ticket  is  453,  yet  the  antecedent  probability  is  1/10000 
against  the  truth  of  his  statement.  The  chances  are 
greatly  against  ten  stars  out  of  230  appearing  as  binary 
combinations  ;  but,  according  to  one  view  of  the  meaning 
of  "  random  distribution/'  that  arrangement  is  no  more 
unlikely  than  any  other,  and  we  should  be  no  more 
surprised  to  hear  that  one  rather  than  another  is  the 
actual  one.  Forbes  objects  that  "  to  assume  that  '  every 
star  is  as  likely  to  be  in  one  position  as  another,'  is  not 
the  expression  of  the  idea  of  random  or  lawless  distribu- 
tion." .  The  expression  seems  to  me  to  be  true,  but  its 
interpretation  into  mathematical  symbols  has  been  far 
too  closely  restricted  both  by  Michell  and  Forbes. 

"  Michell  assumes  that,  with  random  distribution,  the 
chance  of  finding  a  star  in  a  space  is  proportional  to  the 
space,  or  that  a  perfectly  uniform  distribution  would  be 
that  alone  which  would  afford  no  evidence  of  causation." 

Suppose  the  whole  surface  of  the  sphere  cut  up  into 
minute  equilateral  triangles,  and  a  star  placed  at  each 
collection  of  angular  points.  Each  star  is  the  middle 
point  of  a  regular  hexagon,  and  at  a  distance,  a,  from  six 
other  stars.  If  we  imagine  the  six  stars  to  be  fixed,  and 
the  central  star  shot  out  from  the  centre  of  the  sphere 
so  as  to  fall  within  the  hexagon,  that  it  may  not  fall 
within  a  distance,  r,  of  any  other  star  it  must  fall  in  a 
regular  hexagon,  the  side  of  which  is  (a  —  r)  situated 
symmetrically  within  the  larger  hexagon.  The  prob- 
ability of  the  star  falling  within  this  smaller  hexagon  is 

expressed  bv  5 '- ,  which  becomes  less  and  less  the 

a1 

more  nearly  r  equals  a  ;  that  is,  the  more  nearly  the  dis- 
tribution is  truly  uniform.  When  r  =  a,  the  expression 
becomes  o,  or  the  probability  of  exactly  uniform  distribu- 
tion is  nil,  and  apparently  uniform  distribution  is  due 
solely  to  the  imperfections  of  our  instruments.  Michell, 
however,  seems  to  assume  this  probability  to  be  1,  or 
certainty.  Struve's  method  is  open  to  the  grave  objec- 
tion that  he  assumes  that  the  total  possible  number  of 
binary  combinations  really  occur.  Applying  his  formula 
to  calculate  a  value  for  it  which  makes  the  chance  a 
certainty,  we  find  that,  if  2917  stars  are  scattered  over 
the  sphere,  it  is  a  certainty  that  each  will  be  vvithinf 
3'  20"  of  another  !  Of  the  three  methods,  that  of  Forbes 
seems  to  be  the  least  open  to  objection. 

Besides  these  fundamental  difficulties  in  principle, 
there  are  several  very  doubtful  points  in  the  calculation 
which  may  be  worthy  of  a  brief  notice. 

Michell  considered  the  whole  surface  of  the  sphere, 
though  in  his  time  the  examination  of  the  southern  hemi- 
sphere was  hardly  complete  enough  to  furnish  the  requisite 
data.  The  stars  do  not  lie  on  the  surface  of  a  sphere,  but 
scattered  through  infinite  space,  so  that  two  stars,  the 
angular  distance  between  which  is  apparently  small, 
may  in  reality  be  very  far  apart.  Suppose  that  the 
nearer  star  lies  on  the  surface  of  our  imaginary  sphere, 
the  probability  that  the  direction  of  the  other  star  is 
within  1 50  of  the  surface  is  only  about  one-fourth.  Hence 
the  number  of  apparently  double  stars  must  be  reduced 
to  a  considerable  but  unknown  extent. 


Forbes  throws  considerable  doubt  on  the  correctness 
of  raising  a  second  time  to  the  power  n.  Struve's  multi- 
plication by  «'s  seems  to  prove  very  curious  conclusions. 
Mr.  Venn's  reasons  for  dissenting  from  Michell's  solution 
will  be  found  well  worthy  of  perusal  ("  Logic  of  Chance," 
p.  260).  Sydney  Lupton. 


VEGETABLE  RENNET. 

'"P HE  idea  that  the  protoplasm  or  living  substance  of 
-*•  both  animals  and  plants  is  essentially  similar,  if  not 
quite  identical,  has  long  been  accepted  by  both  physio- 
logists and  botanists.  This  similarity  is  most  easily  seen 
in  the  very  lowest  members  of  both  kingdoms  ;  in  fact, 
for  a  very  long  time  doubt  existed  in  the  case  of  many 
organisms — eg.  Volvox — as  to  which  kingdom  they 
should  properly  be  included  in.  Even  now  it  is  hardly 
possible  to  formulate  a  definition  of  "  plant "  or  "  animal ;: 
which  shall  put  all  into  their  proper  positions.  When  we 
go  higher  up  the  scale  in  both  the  animal  and  the 
vegetable  world,  this  difficulty  of  course  disappears,  on 
account  of  the  differences  of  organization  and  develop- 
ment. It  is  not  difficult  even  here  to  trace  a  remarkable 
similarity  of  properties  in  the  living  substance,  which 
leads  to  the  conception  that  not  only  is  protoplasm 
practically  the  same  in  animal  and  vegetable,  but  that  its 
activities  in  the  two  cases — that  is,  the  metabolic  pro- 
cesses which  accompany,  and  are  in  a  way  the  expression 
of,  its  life — are  fundamentally  the  same.  In  both  king- 
doms we  have  as  the  sign  of  its  life  the  continual  building 
up  of  the  living  substance  at  the  expense  of  the  materials 
brought  to  it.  as  food,  and  the  constant  breaking  down  of 
its  substance  with  the  consequent  appearance  ot  different 
organic  bodies,  which  are  strictly  comparable  in  the  two 
cases.  The  vegetable  protoplasm  produces  starch,  the 
animal  glycogen — both  carbohydrate  bodies  of  similar 
composition  and  behaviour.  In  both  organisms  we  meet 
with  sugars  of  precisely  similar  character.  The  proteid 
bodies  long  known  to  exist  in  animals,  and  classed  into 
albumins,  globulins,  albumoses,  peptones,  &c,  have  been 
found  to  be  represented  in  vegetables  by  members  of  the 
same  groups,  differing  but  in  minor  points  from  them- 
selves. We  have  fats  of  complex  nature  in  the  animal 
represented  by  oils  of  equal  complexity  in  the  vegetable, 
their  fundamental  composition  being  identical  ;  even  the 
curious  body  lecithin,  so  long  known  as  a  constituent  of 
nervous  tissue  in  the  animal,  having  been  procured  from 
the  simple  yeast  plant. 

Further,  the  changes  which  give  rise  to  these  bodies,  or 
which  bring  about  various  transformations  of  them,  have 
been  in  very  many  cases  demonstrated  to  be  due  to 
similar  agencies  at  work  in  both  the  animal  and  vegetable 
organism  In  many  cases,  no  doubt,  they  are  produced 
by  the  actual  splitting  up  of  the  protoplasm  itself  ;  but 
apart  from  this  we  have  their  formation  in  large  quanti- 
ties by  the  agency  of  bodies  which  are  known  as  unor- 
ganized ferments,  and  which  are  secreted  by  the  proto- 
plasm for  the  purpose  of  such  formation.  Perhaps  no 
line  of  research  in  vegetable  physiology  in  recent  years 
has  been  so  productive  of  good  results  as  the  investiga- 
tions that  have  been  made  into  the  occurrence  of  such 
bodies,  and  the  comparison  of  them  with  those  that  are 
met  with  in  the  animal  organism.  Diastase  in  vegetables, 
and  the  ferments  of  saliva  and  of  pancreatic  juice  in 
animals,  possess  the  same  power  of  converting  starch  into 
sugar.  The  peptic  and  tryptic  ferments  of  the  stomach 
and  pancreas  respectively  have  been  shown  to  have 
representatives  in  the  vegetable  kingdom,  and  these  not 
only  in  such  cases  as  the  carnivorous  plants,  but  to 
actually  made  use  of  in  such  truly  vegetable  metabclisr 
as  the  processes  involved  in  the  germination  of  the  seec 
The  conversion  of  albumins  and  other  indiffusible  pre 
teids  into  a  further  stage  than  that  of  diffusible  peptone- 


July  19,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


275 


that  of  leucin  in  the  animal,  and  asparagin  in  the 
vegetable— has  been  shown  to  be  the  work  of  such  a 
ferment  in  the  two  cases.  These  ferments,  too,  are  inter- 
changeable to  a  certain  extent,  for  those  of  the  alimentary 
canal  are  capable  of  digesting  the  proteids  of  vegetable 
bodies,  while  those  of  the  latter  can  similarly  split  up  the 
animal  albumins,  fibrin,  and  other  forms  of  proteid. 

The  essential  similarity  of  the  metabolism  is  also  indi- 
cated by  the  appearance  in  the  two  cases  of  complex 
bodies  of  somewhat  similar  constitution  which  are  quite 
comparable  with  each  other.  In  the  vegetable  kingdom 
these  bodies  are  known  as  alkaloids  ;  in  the  animal  they 
have  for  the  past  ten  years  or  more  been  known  as 
ptomaines.  They  are  among  the  products  of  the  destruc- 
tive decomposition  of  proteids.  Thus  cadaverin,  a  body 
found  in  putrefying  animal  matter,  is  apparently  to  be 
looked  upon  as  belonging  to  the  same  group  cf  bodies  as 
muscarin,  the  poisonous  principle  found  in  several  species 
of  mushroom. 

Perhaps  the  latest  development  of  the  same  idea  has 
been  the  discovery  of  ferments  in  the  vegetable  kingdom 
which  are  comparable  in  their  action  with  the  rennet 
which  is  obtainable  from  the  stomach  of  many  young 
animals,  particularly  the  calf.  In  an  extract  of  such  a 
stomach  taken  while  secretion  of  gastric  juice  is  pro- 
ceeding, or  in  the  gastric  juice  itself,  is  a  principle  which 
has  the  power  of  curdling  milk — a  property  taken  ad- 
vantage of  by  the  farmer  in  the  process  of  manufacturing 
cheese.  The  casein,  which  is  the  proteid  concerned  in 
cheese-making,  is,  under  appropriate  conditions,  converted 
by  this  body  into  an  insoluble  form,  which,  for  want  of  a 
better  name,  may  be  called  briefly  cheese.  The  conver- 
sion is  not  to  be  confused  with  the  loose  curdling  which 
takes  place  when  milk  becomes  sour  from  putrefactive 
changes  or  from  the  addition  of  an  acid,  for  it  is  a  true 
coagulation,  resembling  the  clotting  of  blood.  Now, 
recent  investigations  show  us  that  in  many  plants  a 
similar  ferment  exists,  which  possesses  an  identical 
power,  producing,  when  added  to  milk,  a  clot  which  is  quite 
indistinguishable  from  that  which  is  formed  under  the 
action  of  animal  rennet.  The  list  of  such  plants  is  con- 
tinually increasing,  but  they  do  not  appear  to  be  grouped 
at  all  on  the  lines  of  the  recognized  natural  orders. 
Ranunculaceae,  Solanaceae,  Cucurbitacea;,  Composite, 
Galiacea?,  and  others,  furnish  us  with  conspicuous 
examples. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Society  of  Natural  Science  of 
Stockholm,  held  about  four  years  ago,  the  Secretary 
brought  before  the  notice  of  the  meeting  the  fact  that 
the  common  butterwort  (Pinguicula  vulgaris)  possessed 
the  very  curious  property  of  causing  a  clotting  of  milk 
when  the  vessels  in  which  the  milk  was  contained  had 
been  first  rubbed  over  with  the  plant.  No  explanation 
was  offered  of  the  phenomenon,  but  a  suggestion  was 
made  that  the  power  might  be  due  to  the  presence  of 
micro-organisms.  Judging  from  analogy  with  other 
plants  since  discovered  to  possess  the  same  property,  it 
is  far  more  likely  to  be  due  to  a  specific  unorganized 
ferment.  The  occurrence  of  this  in  Pinguicula  is  very 
significant,  as  bearing  on  the  similarity  of  the  metabolism 
in  animals  and  vegetables,  for  Pinguicula  is  one  of  the 
carnivorous  plants,  digesting,  by  the  aid  of  its  secretions, 
flies  which  it  captures  in  its  leaves.  We  have  so  asso- 
ciated in  the  same  plant  a  proteolytic  and  a  rennet  fer- 
ment, a  condition  which  at  once  recalls  the  gastric  juice 
of  animals,  in  which  both  these  bodies  are  present. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  of  the  plants  which  con- 
tain this  ferment,  or  vegetable  rennet,  is  the  so-called 
"  Naras "  of  the  West  Coast  of  Africa  (Acanthosicyos 
Jiorrida),  a  species  of  Cucurbitaceae.  The  plant  was 
described  in  detail  by  Welwitsch,  in  1869,  when  its 
peculiar  physiological  property  was  unknown.  A  more 
detailed  description,  given  by  Marloth,  has  recently 
appeared,  which    deals,  among   other  points,  with  this 


power.  The  plant  is  to  be  met  with  in  dry,  sandy,  and 
desert  places  in  Namaqua  Land,  Whale  Bay,  and  the 
Mozambique  district.  It  is  very  singular  in  its  habit 
and  appearance,  consisting  of  long,  spiny,  weak-looking 
branches  running  almost  on  the  surface  of  the  sand,  and 
being  at  intervals  buried  therein  and  again  emerging. 
The  stem  is  very  short,  so  that  the  plant  looks  like  a 
system  of  creeping  spiny  branches,  some  of  which  mea- 
sure 20  feet  or  more  in  length.  The  root  system  is  similarly 
developed,  long  creeping  roots  penetrating,  in  some 
cases,  for  a  distance  of  100  feet  through  the  sand.  The 
long  spiny  branches  seem  destitute  of  leaves,  for  these 
are  quickly  deciduous  and  sometimes  abortive,  and  while 
they  remain  upon  the  shoots  they  are  closely  adpressed  to 
them,  and  are  stiff  and  horny  in  texture.  At  the  base  of 
each  leaf  are  two  strong  spines,  which  persist  after  the 
leaf  has  fallen.  The  flowers  are  borne  in  the  axils  of  the 
leaves,  between  the  spines.  The  male  and  female  flowers 
are  found  on  separate  plants  ;  the  former  are  sessile,  the 
latter  shortly  stalked.  The  ripe  fruit  is  of  considerable 
size,  much  like  an  orange  in  appearance.  It  has  a  very 
powerful  and  pleasant  aroma,  and  its  pulp  is  very  juicy 
and  agreeable  to  the  taste.  In  the  unripe  condition  it  is 
bitter  and  uneatable.  According'  to  Marloth,  the  natives 
eat  it  to  a  very  great  excess,  both  fresh  and  in  the  form 
of  "  Naras  cake,"  a  preparation  of  it  made  by  drying  the 
expressed  pulp  and  juice  in  the  sun.  The  power  to  ap- 
preciate its  excellence  seems  to  be  confined  to  the  natives 
of  the  part,  for  strangers  partaking  of  it  for  the  first  time 
are  said  to  pass  through  strange  and  painful  experiences 
after  their  banquet. 

Its  power  of  causing  the  clotting  of  milk  is  well  known 
among  the  natives  of  the  part,  who  use  it  freely  for 
that  purpose.  The  ferment  is  contained  in  consider- 
able quantity  in  the  juice,  the  pulp,  and  the  rind 
of  the  fruit.  It  is  absent  from  the  branches,  from 
the  seeds,  and  from  all  parts  of  the  unripe  fruit.  It  is 
soluble,  according  to  Marloth,  in  alcohol  of  60  per 
cent,  strength,  an  extract  of  the  pulp  made  with  that 
fluid  retaining  the  power  to  coagulate  the  milk.  It  is 
not  identical  with  the  principle  which  gives  the  frag- 
rance to  the  ripe  fruit,  nor  to  that  which  gives  the  bitter 
taste  to  it  when  still  young.  The  ferment  is  destroyed 
by  boiling,  but  will  remain  for  an  almost  indefinite  time 
in  the  dried  rind.  Marloth,  in  his  experiments,  found 
that  an  extract  of  pulp  dried  to  a  friable  condition  in  the 
sun  was  quite  active  in  causing  coagulation.  The  writer 
had  the  opportunity  recently  of  examining  some  dried 
rind  and  some  old  seeds.1  An  extract  of  these  materials, 
made  with  5  per  cent,  solution  of  common  salt,  showed 
the  ferment  in  abundance  in  the  rind,  but  absent  from 
both  the  testa  and  the  interior  of  the  seeds. 

Another  plant,  occurring  nearer  home,  has  the  same 
property.  This  is  the  common  yellow  Galium  [G. 
verum).  In  his  "  Popular  Names  of  British  Plants," 
Prior  speaks  of  its  peculiarity  as  being  known  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  when  Matthioli  wrote  of  it,  "  Galium 
inde  nomen  sortitum  est  suum  quod  lac  coagulet." 
In  the  West  of  England,  particularly  Somersetshire- 
and  Herefordshire,  it  is  still  the  custom  of  dairymen  to 
put  this  plant  into  the  milk  they  have  devoted  to  cheese 
production,  to  "  set  "  it.  The  plant  has  a  long  straggling 
stem,  bearing  at  short  intervals  whorls  of  small  leaves,  in 
the  axils  of  which  are  numerous  panicles  of  yellow 
flowers.  The  practice  is  to  put  the  whole  plant,  or  as 
much  of  it  as  is  above  ground,  into  the  milk,  but  the 
active  principle  seems  to  be  located  in  the  flowers.  The 
white  Galium  (G.  Aparine)  is  said  to  be  devoid  of  the 
property. 

The  common  traveller's  joy  {Clematis  Vitalba)  is 
another  instance  of  the  occurrence  of  this  ferment.  It  is 
peculiar  in  one  respect,  the  property  appearing   to    be 

■  This  material  was  kindly  furnished  by  Mr.  W.  Thiselton  Dyer,  F.R.S.. 
Director  of  the  Royal  Gardens,  Kew. 


276 


NATURE 


{July  19,  1888 


situated  in  the  tissue  of  the  stem,  probably  the  soft  bast. 
In  most  other  cases  it  seems  to  be  attached  somehow  to 
the  reproductive  parts  of  the  plant.  The  quantity  that 
can  be  extracted  from  Clematis  is,  however,  much  less 
than  from  the  other  plants  spoken  of. 

The  ferment  has  also  been  found  in  the  petals  of  the 
artichoke  (Cynara  Scolymus). 

An  account  of  the  occurrence  of  this  vegetable  rennet 
would  not  be  complete  without  its  including  the  re- 
searches of  Dr.  Sheridan  Lea  on  Withania  coagulans 
(Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Society,  1883).  These  have, 
besides  their  scientific  value,  a  direct  bearing  upon 
the  commercial  aspect  of  the  question.  Many  of  the 
natives  of  India  refuse  to  have  anything  to  do  with  cheese 
prepared  by  means  of  animal  rennet,  and  there  is  conse- 
quently there  a  large  field  for  the  employment  of  the 
plant.  Some  years  ago  Surgeon-Major  Aitchison  sent 
home  an  account  of  the  peculiar  property  of  the  Withania. 
The  shrub  grows  freely  in  Afghanistan  and  Northern 
India,  and  the  natives  there  have  for  a  long  time  em- 
ployed an  aqueous  extract  of  the  capsules  to  curdle  their 
milk.  Some  dried  material  sent  from  thence  to  Kew  was 
used  by  Dr.  Lea  in  his  investigations.  Withania  is  a 
genus  of  the  order  Solanaceae,  and  has  a  capsular  fruit, 
containing  a  large  number  of  small  seeds.  In  the  dried 
material  these  seeds  were  enveloped  in  a  coating  of  a 
peculiar  resinous  matter,  which  was  probably  the  dried 
juice  of  the  capsules  in  which  they  had  ripened.  The 
ferment  was  found  to  exist  to  a  very  slight  amount  in  the 
stalks  of  the  fruits,  and  to  be  extremely  abundant  in  the 
seeds.  From  the  ground  seeds  it  could  be  extracted 
easily  by  maceration  with  solution  of  common  salt  and  by 
treatment  with  glycerine.  So  extracted,  it  was  found  to 
be  destroyed  on  boiling,  but  to  be  able  to  withstand 
moderately  prolonged  exposure  to  alcohol.  Its  activity 
in  a  fairly  strong  extract  was  quite  equal  to  that  of  most 
commercial  samples  of  rennet  prepared  from  the  stomach. 
It  could,  moreover,  be  kept  with  as  great  security  as  the 
latter  by  the  aid  of  common  salt  and  a  little  alcohol. 
Its  commercial  value  is  somewhat  interfered  with  by 
the  presence  in  the  seeds,  and  in  their  extracts,  of  a 
peculiar  yellowish-brown  colouring-matter,  which  cannot 
be  separated  without  destroying  the  rennet. 

Since  the  publication  of  Dr.  Lea's  researches  the  writer 
has  met  with  the  ferment  in  the  unripe  seeds  of  Datura 
Stramonium,  a  plant  belonging  to  the  same  order, 
Solanaceae.  In  this  plant,  though  present  in  the  unripe 
seeds,  it  appears  to  be  absent  from  them  when  ripe.  Its 
exact  distribution  is,  however,  not  yet  determined. 

The  occurrence  of  this  property  in  so  many  plants,  and 
these  not  at  all  closely  connected  in  other  ways,  leads  to 
the  consideration  of  what  must  be  its  physiological  signi- 
ficance. It  is  perhaps  not  difficult  to  see  why  rennet 
should  occur  in  the  stomachs  of  young  animals  whose 
food  consists  chiefly  of  milk,  bjt  its  importance  in  the 
vegetable  kingdom  must  be  independent  of  such  a 
function.  Further  researches,  still  in  progress,  may  per- 
haps throw  some  light  upon  this  point.  It  is  significant 
so  far  to  notice  that  its  occurrence  is  mainly  in  those 
parts  which  are  especially  connected  with  the  reproduc- 
tion of  the  plant,  a  fact  which  seems  to  point  to  a  pos- 
sible function  in  connection  with  the  storage  of  proteid 
food  materials  for  the  nutrition  of  the  embryo  during 
germination.  J.  R.  Green. 


THE  METEORIC  SEASON. 

\  \  J"E  have  now  arrived  at  a  period  of  the  year  which  is 
*  *  full  of  interest  to  meteoric  observers.  The  number 
of  meteors  visible  has  greatly  increased,  as  compared  with 
preceding  months,  and  apart  from  this,  observations  may- 
be pursued  without  the  discomfort  and  inconvenience  so 
often  experienced  on  the  cold  starlight  nights  of  autumn 


and  winter.  The  impending  return  of  two  rich  showers 
is  an  additional  incentive  to  those  who  may  con- 
template giving  a  little  time  to  this  interesting  branch 
of  astronomy. 

From  observations  at  Bristol  on  the  nights  of  July  8, 
1 1,  and  12  last,  it  appears  certain  that  the  Perseids  (which 
attain  a  maximum  on  August  10,  when  the  radiant  is  at 
45°  +  ST)  had  already  commenced.  On  July  8  twenty- 
five  meteors  were  counted  between  nh.  and  13b..  30m., 
and  these  included  six  paths  which  denoted  a  well-defined 
radiant  at  the  point  30  +  49°,  a  little  south  of  Cassiopeia's 
Chair.  The  visible  traits  of  the  individual  meteors  traced 
from  this  radiant  were  identical  with  those  exhibited  by 
the  Perseids  which  are  displayed  in  August,  and  the  fact 
that  this  radiant  seen  on  July  8  is  far  west  of  the  radiant 
usually  remarked  on  August  10,  does  not  negative  the 
presumed  identity  of  the  two  showers.  The  Perseid 
radiant  which  endures  a  considerable  time,  changes  its 
position  amongst  the  stars  from  night  to  night,  and  the 
extent  and  direction  of  this  displacement  will  be  seen  by 
a  reference  •  to  Nature  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  407,  where  I  have 
described  a  number  of  observations  secured  at  this 
station  in  July  and  August  of  last  year. 

When  the  moon  leaves  the  evening  sky  towards  the 
close  of  the  present  month,  observers  should  watch 
for  the  reappearance  of  the  Aquarids  which  are  usually 
seen  in  marked  abundance  about  July  27,  28,  and  29. 
The  radiant  is  near  h  Aquarii,  and  the  meteors  are  rather 
slow,  usually  ascending  from  low  in  the  south-east,  and 
the  brighter  ones  throw  off  trains  of  sparks.  Early 
Perseids  are  also  numerous  at  the  end  of  July,  and  the 
radiant  is  then  closely  south  of  the  well-known  star 
cluster  x  Persei.  Observers  should  register  the  paths  of 
the  meteors  and  determine  the  precise  place  of  the 
radiant  on  each  night  of  observation. 

Bristol,  July  13.  W.  F.  Denning. 


NOTES. 

The  proposal  that  a  Professorship  for  the  exposition  of  the 
Darwinian  theory  should  be  established  in  connection  with  the 
Sorbonne  has  received  the  sanction  of  the  Sorbonne  authorities. 
Three  members  of  the  Committee  by  which  the  matter  was 
decided  were  opposed  to  the  scheme,  but  they  did  not  vote 
against  it.  They  simply  refrained  from  voting.  The  Sorbonne 
has  asked  that  the  name  of  the  proposed  chair  shall  be  changed. 
One  or  other  of  the  three  words,  "  evolution,"  "  morphology," 
"phylogeny,"  is  to  be  substituted  for  "philosophy." 

The  Birmingham  meeting  of  the  Photographic  Convention  of 
the  United  Kingdom  will  be  held  from  the  23rd  to  the  28th  of 
July.  A  programme  of  excursions  and  local  arrangements  has 
been  issued.  The  Convention  will  be  opened  on  the  evening  of 
the  23rd  inst.,  by  the  Mayor  of  Birmingham,  at  a  conversazione 
to  be  held  in  the  Masonic  Hall  in  connection  with  an  exhibition 
of  photographs  and  photo  apparatus. 

On  Thursday,  the  12th  inst.,  the  anniversary  meeting  of  the 
Sanitary  Institution  of  Great  Britain  was  held  in  the  theatre  of 
the  Koyal  Institution.  The  Chairman,  Mr.  Edwin  Chad  wick, 
in  opening  the  proceedings,  claimed  credit  for  the  Sanitary 
Institution  of  Great  Britain  and  like  institutions  for  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  reduced  death-rate  of  the  metropolis,  which  was 
now  14  in  iooo.  London  in  that  respect  compared  very 
favourably  with  other  places,  the  death-rate  in  Paris  being  27, 
Vienna  30,  and  St.  Petersburg  40.  The  medals  and  certificates 
awarded  to  the  exhibitors  at  the  Sanitary  Exhibition  held  at 
Bolton  in  1887  having  been  distributed  by  Mr.  Chadwick,  Dr. 
B.  W.  Richardson  delivered  an  address  on  "The  Storage  of 
Life  as  a  Sanitary  Study."  He  began  by  referring  to  instances 
of  long  life  in  lower  animals  and  in  man.     These,   he  said,  by 


July  19,  1888] 


NATURE 


277 


*  mi c  peculiar  process  as  yet  but  little  investigated^  beld  life  as  a 
possession,  and  to  this  faculty  he  applied  the  term  "  The 
age  of  Life."  The  problem  which  the  lecturer  placed  before 
the  society  was  stated  as  follows  : — Certain  proofs  of  the  power 
of  the  human  body  to  lay  or  store  up  life  to  a  prolonged  period 
are  admitted.  What  are  the  conditions  which  favour  such 
storage,  and  how  can  we  promote  the  conditions  which  lead  to 
it  ?  He  stated  the  conditions  in  the  following  order,  here- 
ditary qualification,  the  virtue  of  continence,  maintenance  of 
balance  of  bodily  functions,  perfect  temperance,  and  purity  from 
implanted  or  acquired  diseases.  In  estimating  the  value  of 
temperament  as  connected  with  life  storage,  he  maintained  that 
the  bilious  and  sanguine  temperaments  are  best  for  long  life,  the 
nervous  and  lymphatic  the  worst.  In  dealing  with  what  he 
called  all-round  temperance,  he  showed  that  whatever 
quickened  the  action  of  the  heart  beyond  its  natural  speed  and 
force  was  a  stimulant,  and  in  proportion  to  the  unnatural  tax  in- 
flicted by  stimulation  there  was  a  reduction  in  the  storage  of  life. 
Dr.  Richardson  spoke  also  of  the  prevention  of  the  damaging 
diseases,  where  the  art  of  the  sanitarian  comes  into  most  effective 
play.     A  vote  of  thanks  was  accorded  to  the  lecturer. 

The  annual  meeting  of  the  Liverpool  Astronomical  Society 
was  held  at  Liverpool  on  the  9th  inst.,  when  the  report  of  the 
Council  for  the  past  year  was  read.  It  appears  that  since  the 
last  annual  meeting  more  than  200  new  members  have  been 
elected,  and  that  the  work  carried  on  by  the  Society  has  increased 
in  a  commensurate  degree.  The  balance  sheet  shows  a  small 
sum  in  the  hands  of  the  treasurer,  so  that  the  financial  condition 
is  satisfactory,  though  there  has  been  a  large  outlay  for  printing 
the  Journal.  Mr.  T.  G.  E.  Elger  succeeds  Mr.  Denning  as 
President,  and  Mr.  Rowlands  is  appointed  Secretary  in  the  place 
of  Mr.  W.  H.  Davies,  who  has  resigned.  In  commenting  upon 
the  withdrawal  of  Mr.  Davies,  the  Council  refer  to  the  earnest- 
ness, zeal,  and  ability  displayed  by  him  in  performing  the 
arduous  duties  of  his  office  during  a  long  period,  and  attribute 
the  rapid  development  of  the  Society  to  his  untiring  efforts 
on  its  behalf. 

The  thirty-fifth  General  Meeting  of  the  German  Geological 
Society  will  be  held  at  Halle  from  August  13  to  15. 

We  regret  to  announce  the  death  of  M.  Jean-Charles 
Houzeau  de  Lehaie,  Honorary  Director  of  the  Royal  Observa- 
tory of  Brussels,  member  of  the  Belgian  Royal  Academy  of 
Sciences.  He  died  at  Schaerbeck  on  the  12th  inst.  M. 
Houzeau  was  in  his  sixty-eighth  year. 

The  death  is  announced  of  Dr.  Johann  Odstreil,  an  eminent 
mathematician  and  physicist  of  Vienna. 

A  Lower  Thames  Valley  Branch  of  the  Selborne  Society 
has  been  formed.  Its  operations  will  extend  on  both  sides  of 
the  river  from  Hampton  to  Putney  inclusive.  The  inaugural 
meeting  was  held  on  Monday  in  the  coffee-room  of  the  Star  and 
Garter  Hotel,  Richmond,  the  Duke  of  Cambridge  in  the  chair. 
The  objects  of  the  Selborne  Society  are  to  sequre  the  preserva- 
tion from  unnecessary  destruction  of  such  wild  birds,  animals, 
and  plants  as  are  harmless,  beautiful,  or  rare  ;  to  discourage  the 
wearing  and  use  for  ornaments  of  birds  and  their  plumages, 
except  when  the  birds  are  killed  for  food  or  reared  for  plumage  ; 
to  protect  places  and  objects  of  interest  or  natural  beauty  from 
ill-treatment  or  destruction  ;  and  to  promote  the  study  of  natural 
history.  It  is  proposed  that  the  new  branch  of  the  Society  shall 
devote  a  part  of  its  funds  to  the  purchase  of  works  on  natural 
history  for  the  free  libraries  of  Richmond,  particularly  such  as 
throw  light  upon  the  natural  history  of  the  Thames  Valley,  and 
encourage  a  love  of  nature  in  the  young. 

The  first  Annual  Report  of  the  National  Association  for  the 
Promotion  of  Technical   Education  has  now  been   issued.       It 


contains  a  full  account  of  the  objects  and  work  of  the  Association. 
Its  main  work  up  to  the  present  may,  according  to  the  Report, 
be  roughly  divided  as  follows: — (1)  the  publication  of  leaflets, 
pamphlets,  addresses,  and  other  papers,  and  the  circulation  of 
this  literature  throughout  the  country  ;  (2)  the  holding  of  public 
meetings  and  conferences,  and  the  delivery  of  lectures  and  ad- 
dresses on  subjects  connected  with  the  work  of  the  Association  ;  (3) 
Parliamentary  work  5(4)  formation  of  an  agricultural  section  ;  (5) 
commercial  education  ;  (6)  the  organization  of  branches  and 
local  committees  to  co-operate  with  the  Central  Association. 
Besides  the  work  falling  under  these  heads,  the  Association  has 
been  the  means  of  supplying  much  information  to  inquirers  on 
various  subjects  connected  with  technical  education,  and  has 
promoted  the  movement  in  other  ways.  The  committee  are 
strongly  of  opinion  that  there  is  a  wide  field  for  the  future  opera- 
tions of  the  Association.  They  urge  that  branches  should  be 
started  in  all  large  towns  which  are  now  without  them,  and  that 
every  opportunity  should  be  taken  by  conferences,  and  in  various 
other  ways,  to  spread  sound  information  on  the  question  of 
technical  education,  on  which,  as  the  Report  truly  says,  in  spite 
of  the  great  increase  in  public  interest,  much  lamentable  ignorance 
still  remains. 

The  Indian  Government  has  adopted  an  important  resolution 
on  the  subject  of  State  education.  It  recommends  that  wherever 
possible  Government  schools  should  be  substituted  for  private 
ones,  and  that  the  education  staff  should  be  strengthened  by  the 
engagement  of  specialists  in  Great  Britain.  The  resolution  deals 
largely  with  the  question  of  technical  education,  and  urges  that 
as  a  beginning  an  industrial  survey  should  be  made  of  each 
province. 

Having  been  charged  with  the  supervision  of  a  new  and 
complete  edition  of  the  "Works  of  Galileo,"  to  be  shortly 
undertaken  at  the  expense  of  the  Government  and  under  the 
patronage  of  the  King  of  Italy,  Prof.  Antonio  Favaro,  of  the 
Royal  University,  Padua,  earnestly  begs  all  librarians,  curators 
or  trustees  of  museums,  collectors  of  old  manuscripts  and  auto- 
graphs, and  all  those  engaged  in  researches  touching  the  history 
of  science,  to  give  him  any  information  in  their  power  respecting 
any  Galileian  documents,  which  may  assist  him  in  carrying  out 
this  difficult  undertaking. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Scientific  Committee  of  the  Royal 
Horticultural  Society  on  July  10,  the  plague  of  caterpillars,  &c, 
was  one  of  the  subjects  discussed.  Mr.  O'Brien  alluded  to  the 
abundance  of  earwigs  (Forficula)  this  season.  Mr.  Wilson  drew 
attention  to  the  local  distribution  of  the  caterpillars.  In  one 
garden  in  his  neighbourhood  none  of  the  pests  were  found,  while 
in  others  there  was  scarcely  a  leaf  left  on  the  trees.  At  Wisley 
Mr.  Wilson  had  found  that  exposure  to  east  wind  was  associated 
with  the  presence  of  the  insects.  Thus  the  trees  in  one  line  of 
plums,  fully  exposed,  were  stripped  of  their  foliage,  while  in 
another  line  of  the  same  variety  close  by,  on  the  same  description 
of  soil,  but  where  the  trees  were  sheltered  by  a  furze  fence,  not 
a  leaf  was  injured. 

The  Kew  Bulletin  for  July  opens  with  a  paper  containing 
much  information  on  Bhabur  grass,  which  closely  approaches 
esparto  in  habit  and  in  the  possession  of  the  technical  qualities 
necessary  for  paper  manufacture.  In  another  paper  there  is  an 
interesting  extract  from  a  letter  by  Mr.  William  Fawcett,  giving 
his  first  impression  of  the  vegetable  resources  of  the  Cayman 
Islands,  which  are  situated  in  the  Caribbean  Sea,  about  200 
miles  to  the  west  of  Jamaica.  In  association  with  the  Governor 
of  Jamaica  Mr.  Fawcett  lately  visited  these  lonely  and  little- 
known  islands  for  the  purpose  of  investigating  a  disease  which 
has  existed  for  some  time  among  the  cocoa-nut  palms  at  Grand 
Cayman.      Valonia  in  Cyprus  and  prickly  pear  in  South  Africa 


NA  TURE 


[July  19,  1888 


form  the  subjects  of  two  other  sections  ;  and  the  number  closes 
with  an  account  of  the  true  star  anise  of  China,  prepared  by  Sir 
J.  D.  Hooker  for  the  current  issue  of  the  Botanical  Magazine. 

The  Annual  Report  of  the  Royal  Botanic  Gardens,  Trinidad, 
for  1887,  by  Mr.  J.  H.  Hart,  Superintendent,  has  been  issued. 
In  an  interesting  historical  sketch  Mr.  Hart  notes  that  the 
Trinidad  garden  has  been  in  existence  seventy  years,  and  is  the 
•oldest  botanical  garden  which  has  been  continuously  maintained 
in  working  order  within  the  circuit  of  the  British  West  Indies. 
Mr.  Hart  was  appointed  Superintendent  in  1886,  and  assumed 
charge  in  March,  1887,  after  eleven  years'  service  in  Jamaica. 
One  of  his  first  objects  was  to  make  provision  for  the  proper 
arrangement  and  storage  of  herbarium  specimens,  and  he  is  able 
to  report,  thanks  chiefly  to  the  interest  in  the  matter  taken  by 
the  Governor  (Sir  W.  Robinson),  that  the  herbarium  is  already 
•established  on  a  sound  basis.  He  hopes  that  when  the  material 
is  all  arranged  it  will  be  among  the  first  of  West  Indian 
herbariums,  if  not  the  very  first.  "  To  show  the  value  of 
such  work,"  says  Mr.  Hart,  "and  especially  the  value  attached 
to  the  Trinidad  flora,  I  may  state  that  I  have  already  received 
four  applications  for  sets  of  the  Trinidad  plants  ;  as  these  will 
bring  exchanges  from  a  like  number  of  countries  possessing  a 
flora  of  great  value  to  us  for  the  comparison  and  identification  of 
our  own,  these  offers  will  be  taken  up  as  early  as  possible.  Prof. 
W.  Thiselton  Dyer,  Director  of  Kew,  in  a  letter  recently  received, 
says  :  '  In  Trinidad  itself  there  must  be  an  enormous  amount  of 
work  still  to  be  done.'  Trinidad  stands  unique  among  the  other 
islands  by  the  possession  of  a  flora  which  combines  the  West 
Indian  with  the  South  American,  and  has  besides  many  plants 
which  are  only  known  to  occur  within  its  own  boundaries,  or,  in 
other  words,  are  pecular  to  the  island  itself." 

According  to  intelligence  received  at  New  York  on  July  14, 
Honduras  had  been  visited  by  severe  storms  and  earthquake 
shocks,  which  had  caused  great  damage  to  property,  but  no  loss 
of  life. 

The  fourth  yearly  report  of  the  Berlin  branch  of  the  German 
Meteorological  Society  for  the  year  1887,  shows  that  the  number 
of  members  has  increased  from  thirty-seven  in  January,  1884, 
the  time  of  its  foundation,  to  117.  The  President  for  the  year 
1888  is  Dr.  Vettin.  The  proceedings  of  the  monthly  meetings 
have  been  reported  in  our  Notices  of  Societies,  &c.  The  present 
report  contains  an  account  of  the  special  rainfall  investigations 
at  twenty  stations  in  and  near  Berlin,  and  comparisons  of  the 
different  rain  gauges  employed. 

The  British  Consul  at  Bussorah  on  the  Persian  Gulf  in  his 
last  report  states  that  a  remarkable  improvement  has  taken  place 
in  the  climate  of  the  country  round  Bussorah  with  the  substi- 
tution of  date  and  wheat  cultivation  for  that  of  rice.  The 
malarious  fever,  to  which  Bussorah  gave  its  name,  is  now 
comparatively  rare  ;  and  sallow  complexions  and  worn  looks, 
which  some  years  ago  were  universal,  are  now  no  longer  seen. 
The  north-west  wind,  which  prevails  in  the  hot  weather,  instead 
of  being  moist  and  clammy,  as  it  \v.  ed  to  be,  is  dry  and  hot. 
The  month  of  September,  when  the  marsh  which  is  formed 
yearly  by  the  overflow  of  the  Euphrates  is  drying  up,  is  still  the 
least  healthy  season.  December  and  January  are  cold,  July 
and  August  intensely  hot.  The  rest  of  the  year  is  very  much 
like  the  spring  and  summer  of  Southern  Europe. 

The  administration  report  of  the  Meteorological  Reporter  for 
the  North- West  Provinces  and  Oudh  for  the  year  1887-88,  states 
that  there  are  now  nineteen  first-class  observatories  and  275 
rainfall  stations  reporting  regularly  to  the  central  office.  Records 
of  rainfall  and  temperature  are  kept  at  numerous  dispensaries  all 
over  the  Jeypore  territory.  At  the  majority  of  the  stations  the 
old  float  gauge  is  still  used,  but  gauges  of  this  kind  are  gradually 


being  replaced  by  Symons's  5-inch  gauge,  with  improved  results. 
Mr.  Hill  has  under  discussion  a  valuable  series  of  tempera- 
ture and  humidity  observations  mac'e  at  various  heights  above 
the  ground.  Amongst  the  interesting  results  published  we  may 
specially  mention  the  sunshine  observations  at  Allahabad.  No 
less  than  89  per  cent,  of  the  possible  amount  was  recorded  in 
November,  1887  ;  the  lowest  percentage  was  34-5  in  August, 
and  the  mean  for  the  year  was  67*9  per  cent. 

The  composition  of  persulphide  of  hydrogen  has  at  last  been 
satisfactorily  determined  by  Dr.  Rebs  of  Jena.     The  history  of 
this  substance  has  been  a  most  remarkable  one  ;  it  has  by  turns 
been  awarded  almost  every  conceivable  formula  from  H.,S2  to 
H2Slft.     The   results  of  Dr.    Rebs'  researches,   however,   go  to 
show  that  it  possesses  the  formula  H,S5,  first  assigned  to  it  many 
years  ago  by  Berthollet,  and  that  it  is  a  true  pentasulphide  of 
hydrogen.      It    was    prepared    pure   by   the    following   method : 
A  solution  of  soda  in  alcohol  was  saturated  with  sulphuretted 
hydrogen  gas,  and  an   equal  bulk  of  alcoholic  soda  afterwards 
added  to  the  sodium  sulphydrate  thus  formed.     After  agitation 
the   fluid   solidified   to  a  white  crystalline  mass  of  sodium  sul- 
phide, to  which  flowers  of  sulphur  were  added  in  the  proportion 
necessary  to  form   the  required  polysulphide  of  soda.     The  di- 
and  tri-sulphides  prepared  in  this  manner  crystallized  out,  but  the 
tetra-  and    penta-sulphides  remained  in   solution.     They  were 
then  freed    from   alcohol   in   a   current  of  hydrogen,   and    the 
residue  dissolved   in   water  out   of  which  all  the  air  had  been 
expelled.      In  order   to   obtain    persulphide   of  hydrogen,   the 
solutions   were  poured  into   cylinders   containing   concentrated 
hydrochloric  acid  kept  cool  by  ice.      Sulphuretted  hydrogen  gas 
was  immediately  evolved,  and  an   emulsion  formed,  which   on 
standing  became  clear,    and   small  oily  drops  of  persulphide  of 
hydrogen  settled  out  and  united  to  form  an  oil.     After  decanta- 
tion  of  the  supernatant  liquor  and  washing  with  ice-cold  water, 
the  oil  was  eventually  dried   and  analysed.     The  analyses  shov 
mo-t  conclusively  that  all  the  four  polysulphides  of  soda,  wher 
their  aqueous  solutions  are  poured  into  hydrochloric  acid,  yielc 
one   and  the  same   polysulphide   of  hydrogen,  viz.   the   penta- 
sulphide H.,S5.     To  complete  the  proof  the  four  polysulphides  of 
potassium  were  similarly  treated,  with  like  result ;    more  inter- 
esting still,  Dr.  Rebs  shows  that  the  sulphides  of  barium  behave 
in  a  precisely  analogous   manner,   forming  nothing  but   H2Sj 
When  the  pentasulphides  are  employed  there  is  a  simple  e> 
change  of  metal  for  hydrogen,  but  with  the  lower  persulphides 
decomposition  of  the  corresponding   sulphide  of  hydrogen  first 
formed  occurs    into  pentasulphide  and   sulphuretted  hydrogen. 
Pentasulphide  of  hydrogen  is  a   bright    yellow,   mobile,   trans- 
parent oil,  possessing  an  odour  peculiar  to  itself.     When  dry 
may  be  preserved  in  a  closed  tube  without  decomposition,  but  it 
contact  with  water  it  breaks   up   rapidly,  with  evolution  of  sul- 
phuretted hydrogen  and  s  paration  of  sulphur. 

The  tobacco-plants  in  the  Russian  Government  of  Bessarabia 
have  of  late  years  suffered  greatly  from  disease,  which  has  almos 
threatened  ruin  to  the  industry  of  tobacco  growing.  Prof 
Lindemann,  having  been  asked  as  a  specialist  to  study  the 
subject,  has  found  three  kinds  of  disease,  the  most  important 
which  by  far  is  a  kind  of  consumption  to  which  the  plant 
subject,  caused  chiefly  by  larvae  of  the  beetle  Opatrum  inter 
medium,  Fisch.  This  grub  attacks  the  underground  part  of  the 
stem  and  the  leaves.  The  female  lays  her  eggs  from  the  middle 
of  April  to  that  of  May,  and  in  loose  ground  not  yet  covered  bj 
the  plants.  The  larva  lives  two  and  a  half  months,  and  the 
pupa  stage  is  fourteen  days.  The  insect  does  not  breed  til 
the  following  spring.  The  larva  feeds  at  first  mostly  on  wile 
plants, 'A triplex  and  Convolvulus,  but  never  on  Leguminosa.  It 
attacks  Gramineae  (maize,  wheat,  &c. ),  but  only  the  embryo 
of  the  grain,  and  when  germination  has  begun  the  grain  is 
avoided.       Though  the  time  of  possible  attack  is    thus  short, 


July  19,  1888] 


NATURE 


279 


maize  culture  in  Bessarabia  has  suffered  much  in  this  way. 
To  protect  the  tobacco,  Prof.  Lindemann  recommends  sowing 
the  fields  in  the  end  of  March  with  mustard  or  rape,  so  that  the 
jnsect  at  the  time  of  egg-laying  may  be  hindered  by  a  thick  cover 
of  vegetation.  Another  insect  {Ped'tius  femoralis,  F.)  acts  just 
like  Opatrum,  but  does  more  harm  to  maize  than  to  tobacco. 
Prof.  Lindemann  further  describes  two  minor  diseases  affecting 
the  leaves,  and  making  the  tobacco  unsalable.  One  {(/trips)  is 
also  caused  by  an  insect  ;  the  other  {mosaic  disease)  seems  to  be 
due  to  some  condition  of  the  ground. 

The  Indian  Museum  has  begun  to  issue  what  promises  to  be 
a  most  useful  series  of  "  Notes  on  Economic  Entomology."  Two 
numbers,  by  Mr.  E.  C.  Cotes,  first  assistant  to  the  Superintendent 
of  the  Indian  Museum,  have  been  published- — the  first  presenting 
a  preliminary  account  of  the  wheat  and  rice  weevil  in  India  ;  the 
second  dealing  with  the  experimental  introduction  of  insecticides 
into  India,  and  including  a  short  description  of  modern  insecti- 
cides and  methods  of  applying  them. 

The  new  number  of  the  "Internationales  Archiv  fiir  Ethno- 
graphic "  (Rand  I.,  Heft  III.)  contains,  besides  various  collec- 
tions of  short  notes,  the  conclusion  of  Herr  J.  Biittikofer's 
excellent  paper  on  the  natives  of  Liberia,  and  an  account,  by 
Herr  A.  Woldt,  of  objects  of  interest  brought  by  Captain 
Jacobsen  from  certain  districts  of  the  Amoor  in  1884-85,  and 
now  preserved  among  the  treasures  of  the  Berlin  Ethno- 
graphical Museum.  These  objects  are  valuable  on  account  of 
the  light  they  throw  on  customs  connected  with  Shamanism. 

Ax  instructive  paper  on  the  osteology  of  Porzana  Carolina 
(the  Carolina  Rail),  by  Dr.  R.  W.  Schufeldt,  has  been  re- 
published from  the  Journal  of  Comparative  Medicine  and 
Surgery.  As  defined  by  the  American  Ornithologists'  Union, 
the  order  Paludicolae,  containing  the  Cranes,  Rails,  &c,  is 
primarily  divided  into  two  sub-orders,  the  (1)  Grues  or  the  true 
Cranes,  and  (2)  the  Ralli,  containing  the  Rails,  Coots,  and 
Gallinules,  &c.  The  family  Pallida  occur  in  this  latter  group, 
wherein  the  genus  Porzana  is  well  represented  by  the  subject  of 
Dr.  Schufeldt's  memoir — the  common  Sora  or  Carolina  Rail.  A 
complete  account  of  the  osteology  of  this  ralline  form  has  never 
been  published,  yet  its  skeleton  contains  many  points  of  interest, 
to  say  nothing  of  importance  when  it  is  compared  with  other 
types.  When  his  material  better  admits  of  it,  Dr.  Schufeldt  pro- 
poses to  thoroughly  compare  the  anatomy  of  the  several  forms  of 
American  Cranes  and  Rails. 

The  Cavendish  Lecture,  delivered  at  the  West  London 
Hospital  by  Sir  William  Stokes,  has  just  been  published.  The 
subject  is  "The  Altered  Relations  of  Surgery  to  Medicine." 

According  to  the  report  of  the  Medical  Missionary  Society's 
Hospital  in  Canton  for  1887,  the  medical  class  numbered 
twelve  Chinese,  of  whom  four  were  women.  The  students  are 
required  to  pay  a  fee,  which  is  fixed  at  twenty  dollars  a  year  for 
three  years,  over  which  period  the  course  extends.  They 
support  themselves  and  buy  their  own  books.  Western 
medicine  and  surgery  are  slowly  but  surely  advancing  in  China, 
and  it  is  now  time  that  schools  of  a  high  order  were  established. 
The  publication  of  many  medical  books,  the  establishing  of 
hospitals,  in  which  millions  of  patients  have  been  treated,  the 
training  of  hundreds  of  students,  the  skill  of  the  European 
physicians  practising  in  the  open  ports — all  tend  to  educate 
China  and  prepare  the  way  for  greater  things. 

The  Russian  Statistical  Committee  having  made  minute 
inquiry  as  to  the  number  of  blind  people  in  Russia,  it  appears 
that  blindness  is  very  unequally  distributed  among  the  different 
nationalities  inhabiting  the  Empire.  While  there  are  only  8 
blind  people  for  each  ic,coo  Poles,  10  for  as  many  Lithuanians 
and  Jews,  and  19  for  Russians  and  Letts,  the  figures  rise  to  22 


with  the  Esthonians,  35  with  the  Bashkirs,  41  with  the  Mor- 
dovians,  51  with  the  Tartars  and  Tcheremisses,  63  with  the 
Tchuvashes,  and  83  with  the  Votyaks.  Blindness  is  thus  much 
more  widely  spread  among  the  Ural-Altayans,  and  especially 
among  the  Finnish-Mongolian  stems,  than  among  the  Aryans 
and  Semites,  although  the  conditions  of  all  these  races,  so  far  as 
poverty  is  concerned,  are  much  the  same.  It  is  worthy  of  note 
that  one-eighth  of  all  cases  of  blindness  in  Russia  are  due  to 
small-pox,  and  one-half  only  to  direct  eye  diseases. 

A  joint  exhibition  will  be  made  at  the  "Cincinnati  Centen- 
nial "  by  the  National  Museum,  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  the 
U.S.  Geological  Survey,  and  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology.  The 
law  providing  the  necessary  funds  was  not  approved  until  May 
28,  so  that  there  has  been  little  time  for  preparation  ;  but  "  the 
Government  scientific  exhibits,"  says  Science,  "will  be  in  Cin- 
cinnati in  good  season,  and  will  constitute  one  of  the  most 
interesting  features  of  the  exposition."  In  the  Department  of 
Anthropology  the  National  Museum  will  exhibit  cases  of  ob- 
jects showing  the  geographical  distribution  and  physical  charac- 
teristics of  the  races  of  men,  and  the  processes  and  results  of 
some  of  the  most  primitive  arts.  It  will  also  exhibit  a  collection 
illustrating  Biblical  archrcslogy,  and  a  collection  of  remains  of 
prehistoric  man  in  Europe,  Asia,  and  America.  In  connection 
with  the  same  department  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology  will  have  a 
good  exhibition.  It  has  chosen  as  its  special  subject  the 
Pueblo  of  Zuiii,  its  arts  and  industries  ;  and  it  will  show  various 
models  of  Indian  mounds  of  the  Mississippi. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Mona  Monkey  {Cercopithecus  mona  6  )  from 
West  Africa,  presented  by  Miss  Edith  Frank ;  a  Macaque 
Monkey  {Macacus  cynomolgtis  6  )  from  India,  presented  by  Miss 
Chester;  a  Brown  Capuchin  {Cebus fatiielliis  <J)  from  Guiana, 

presented    by    Mr.     Roger    M.     Dodington  ;    a Capuchin 

{ Cebus  )    from    Columbia,     presented    by    Mr.     H.     B. 

Whitmarsh  ;  a  Grand  Eclectus  {Ec'ectus  roratus)  from  Moluccas,, 
a  Red-sided  Eclectus  {Eclectus  pictoralis)  from  New  Guinea, 
presented  by  Lt.-Col.  R.  Wolfe;  two  Corn  Crakes  {Crex 
pratensis)  British,  presented  by  Mr.  R.  B.  Spalding  ;  a  Green 
Turtle  (Chelone  viridis)  from  the  West  Indies,  presented  by 
Baron  Henry  de  Worms  ;  two  Hog-nosed   Snakes  {Heterodon 

platyrhinos),  a   Snake   {Cyclophis  a'slira),    two    Carolina 

Anolises  {Anolis  carolincnsis)  from  North  America,  presented 
by  Mr.  H.  E.  T.  Glover  ;  two  European  Tree  Frogs  [Hyla 
arborea)  European,  presented  by  Mr.  Lionel  A.  Williams ;  a 
Tuberculated  Iguana  {Iguana  tuberculata),  two  Common  Boas 

{Boa   constrictor  var.   divinihequd),   a Snake    {Dromicus 

ater)  from  the  West  Indies,  presented  by  the  West  Indian 
Natural  History  Exploration  Committee ;  two  Ruffed  Lemurs 
{Lemur  varius)  from  Madagascar,  a  Hyacinthine  Macaw  {Ara 
hyacinthind)  from  Northern  Brazil,  three  Red  and  Blue  Macaws 
{Ara  macao)  from  Central  America,  four  Spotted  Tinamous 
{Nothura  maculosa)  from  Buenos  Ayres,  deposited  ;  two  King 
Crabs  {Limulus  polyphenols)  from  North  America,  purchased  ; 
two  Mule  Deer  {Cariacus  macrotis)  born  in  the  Gardens. 


ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA  FOR  THE 
WEEK  1888  JULY  22-28. 

/"C*OR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
*  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  July  22 
Sun  rises,  4h.  12m. ;  souths,  I2h.  6m.  11  "8s.  ;  sets,  20I1.  om.  : 

right    asc.    on    meridian,    8h.    8  "9m.  ;    deck    200    9'    N. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  i6h.  4m. 
Moon  (Full  on  July  23,  6h.)  rises,  19m  39m.  ;  souths,  23b.  53m.  ; 

sets,  4V1.  10m.*:  right  asc.  on  meridian,  19I1.  57"3m.;  deck 

200  25'  S. 


280 


NATURE 


[July  19,  1888 


Right  asc.  and  declination 
Souths.  Sets.  on  meridian, 

h.    m.  h.     m.  h.      m.  0 

10  54  ...   18  42  ...  6  56-0  ...   19  IO  N. 

12  20  ...   20  17  ...  8  22'3   ...   20  34  N. 

17   48    ...    22   47    ...  13   51*2    ...    12   34  S. 

19  34  ...  23  58  ...  15  37-6  ...   18  37  S. 

12  43  ...  20  28  ...  8  45*4  ...   18  43  N. 

16  47  ...  22  26  ...  12  51  o  ...     4  46  S. 

7  58  ...   15  45   •••  4    0-2  ...   18  55  N. 

Indicates  that  the  setting  is  that  of  the  following  morning. 

Comet  Sawerthal. 
Right  Ascension. 


Planet.         Rises. 

h.    m. 

Mercury..     3     6 

Venus 4  23 

Mars 12  49 

Jupiter....  15  10 
Saturn....  4  58 
Uranus...  11  8 
Neptune.,     on 


July. 
22 
26 


h. 


7 '9 

7'3 


Declination. 

51  59  N. 

52  38 


Occultations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 


July. 

-22    .. 

23    •• 
26    .. 

July. 

23 


23 
24 

27 


Star. 

o  Sagittarii 
20  Capricorni 
74  Aquarii 
h. 


Mag.        Disap. 

h.    m. 

4      ...      O  42 

6     ...  21  35 

,6     ...     o  57 


Reap. 

h.    m. 

1  15 
22   46 

2  II 


angles  from  ver- 
tex to  right  for 
inverted  image. 

•••  173  235 
...  64  269 
...   80  308 


22 

4 

13 


Total  eclipse  of  Moon  :  first  contact  with 
penumbra  2h.  57m.  :  first  contact  with 
shadow  3I1.  55m.,  shortly  after  which,  at 
4b.  10m.,  the  Moon  sets  at  Greenwich. 

Jupiter  stationary. 

Venus  at  least  distance  from  the  Sun. 

Venus  in  conjunction  with  and  0°  35'  north 
of  Saturn. 


Variable  Stars. 


Star. 

U  Cephei  . 

R  Piscium  . 

W  Virginis  . 

U  Bootis  . 

5  Librae 

V  Coronse    . 
U  Ophiuchi. 

U  Sagittarii. 

6  Lyrae...     . 
7j  Aquilae 

X  Cygni 
S  Cephei 
R  Pegasi 


R.A. 
h.      m. 

0  52-4  .. 

1  24-9  .. 

13  203  .. 

14  49-2  .. 

14  55'°  •• 

15  54'5  •• 
17  10-9  .. 


Decl. 


8l    16  N.   .. 

2    18  N.  .. 
2   48  S.    .. 

18     9  N.  .. 
8     4  S.    .. 

39  55  N.  .. 
1  20  N.  .. 


h. 

July  25,  20 
„      22, 

m  25,  3 

„  22, 

,,  27,  o 

,,  26, 

,»  24,  2 

,,  24,  22 

„  27,  1 


...  18  253  ...  19  12  S.    ... 

...  18  460  ...  33  14  N.  ...  ,,     27, 

...   19  46-8  ...    o  43  N.  ...  „     25, 

...  20  39-0  ...  35  n  N.  ...  „     25, 

...  22  25-0  ...  57  51  N.  ...  „     23, 

...  23     10  ...    9  56  N.  ...  ,,     28, 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum. 

Meteor- Showers. 
R.A.  Decl. 


50  m 
Si 

oM 

m 

18  m 

M 

50  m 

58  m 

o  m 

oM 

oM 

o  M 

o  m 

M 


Near  8  Cassiopeia? 

The  Perseids 

The  Aquarids 


20 

25 
340 


59  N. 

53  N. 

13  s. 


Very  swift.    Streaks. 
Swift.     Streaks. 
Max.  July  28. 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

The  last  survey  of  the  Austrian  Alps,  we  learn  from  the 
Proc.  R.G.  S.,  has  already  led  to  some  important,  if  not  alto- 
gether unexpected  results.  Thus  the  Marmolata,  the  highest 
dolomite,  is  reduced  from  11,464  feet  to  11,016  feet.  The 
Antelao  comes  next,  reaching,  according  to  the  new  Italian 
survey,  10,874  feet.  Mr.  D.  Freshfield  pointed  out  in  1875,  m 
his  "  Italian  Alps,"  that  the  two  highest  points  of  the  Primiero 
group  do  not  differ  by  159  metres,  as  then  indicated  in  the 
Government  survey,  but  are  almost  equal  in  height.  The  new 
measurements  show  a  difference  of  only  16  feet  between  them, 
and  reverse  the  advantage.     The  figures  are  subjoined  : — 

Previous  Cadaster 
Last  survey.     Old  survey,      measurement, 
m.  m.  m. 

Cima  di  Vezzana     ...       3191  3061  3317 

Cimon  della  Pala   ...       3186  3220  3343 

The  Cima  di  Vezzana  is  therefore  10,470  feet  and  the  Cimon 
della  Pala  10,454  feet.  The  remaining  peaks  of  the  Primiero 
group  gain  or  lose  only  a  few  feet  by  the  new  measurements. 


Mi:.  W.  J.  Archer,  British  Vice-Consul  at  Chiengmai,  has 
written  an  interesting  Report  of  a  journey  he  made  in  his  district 
last  year.  This  journey  extended  north  along  the  Meping  River, 
north-east  to  Chiengsin  on  the  Cambodia  River,  south  and  east 
to  Nan  on  the  Nam  Nan,  then  westwards  across  the  Meyom,  by 
Lakhon  to  Chiengmai.  Several  maps  accompany  the  Report, 
which  add  considerably  to  our  knowledge  of  the  topography  of 
the  region  visited.  Mr.  Archer,  writing  of  the  new  capital  of 
Miiang  Fang,  describes  the  manner  in  which  this  and  similar 
new  settlements  were  formed  in  Siam.  In  such  new  colonies, 
as  the  people  spread  out  over  the  districts  around,  other  settle- 
ments were  gradually  formed  at  a  distance  from  the  capital.  A 
large  body  of  immigrants,  or  a  number  of  families  from  the 
same  locality,  generally  form  a  separate  settlement,  especially  if 
they  are  of  a  different  race  from  the  original  settlers  ;  and  if 
they  settle  in  the  capital  they  usually  have  a  separate  quarter 
allotted  to  themselves.  This  is  characteristic  of  all  the  settle- 
ments in  Siam,  both  in  the  larger  cities  and  in  the  provinces. 
In  Bangkok  the  inhabitants  of  the  different  quarters  have 
gradually  become  amalgamated  ;  but  not  far  from  the  capital  the 
colonies  of  former  captives  of  war  still  retain  their  language  and 
customs,  and  keep  up  little  intercourse  with  their  conquerors. 
In  the  northern  country  the  separation  is  as  complete,  and  the 
area  of  Chiengmai,  for  example,  is  divided  into  numerous 
quarters,  each  inhabited  almost  exclusively  by  people  of  a 
different  race  ;  and  many  of  the  villages  in  the  provinces  are  also 
colonies  of  refugees  or  captives.  Mr.  Archer  is  of  opinion  that 
the  country  of  the  Thai  Yai  (literally  "  great  Siamese  "),  or  its 
vicinity,  is  the  cradle  of  the  Thai  people,  who  thence  gradually 
flowed  southward.  The  Thai  family  has  numerous  divisions, 
differing  more  or  less  in  appearance,  language,  and  costume, 
though  it  is  not  difficult  to  trace  the  common  type  through  all. 
The  whole  subject  of  the  gradual  development  and  modifications 
of  the  Thai  race  is  a  very  interesting  one  from  an  ethnological 
point  of  view,  and,  Mr.  Archer  thinks,  well  worthy  of  research 
for  the  light  it  may  throw  on  the  early  history  of  Indo-China. 
Mr.  Archer  gives  many  useful  notes  on  the  various  hill-tribes  of 
the  country,  whose  distribution  and  characteristics  deserve 
careful  investigation.  It  is  to  be  hoped  he  may  have  further 
opportunities  of  exploring  the  region  and  collecting  additional 
information. 

The  Council  of  the  Russian  Geographical  Society  have  issued 
a  memorandum  with  regard  to  the  teaching  of  geography  in 
the  Universities.  This  memorandum  will  probably  be  taken 
as  a  basis  for  the  impending  organization  of  University  teaching 
and  degrees  in  geography  in  Russia.  "  Geography,"  the 
Council  write,  "beine  a  study  of  the  laws  and  associations  of 
phenomena  of  the  physical  and  organic  life  of  the  earth,  it 
implies  a  serious  preliminary  study  of  natural  sciences.  Without 
a  serious  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  physics,  it  is  impossible  to 
reason  upon  the  laws  dealing  with  the  physical  features  of  the 
globe.  For  recognizing  its  true  place  in  the  solar  system,  its 
figure  and  movements,  the  knowledge  of  astronomy  and  geodesy 
is  absolutely  necessary.  The  origin  of  the  present  features  of 
the  surface  of  the  earth  cannot  be  dealt  with  without  a  knowledge 
of  geology  and  mineralogy.  Botany  and  zoology  are  necessary 
for  studying  the  laws  of  the  distribution  of  organisms  ;  while  a 
knowledge  of  anatomy  and  physiology  is  necessary  for  the  study 
of  anthropology,  phy  to- geography,  zoo-geography,  and  anthropo- 
geography,  and  so  on."  The  experience  of  the  German  Univer- 
sities having  shown  how  difficult  it  is  for  the  student  to  master 
all  these  subjects  if  he  merely  follows  the  usual  lectures  of  the 
Natural  Sciences  Faculty,  the  Council  express  a  hope  that  special 
courses,  appropriate  to  the  requirements  of  geographical  students, 
may  be  opened  in  physics,  astronomy  and  geodesy,  chemistry, 
mineralogy  and  petrography,  geology  and  the  study  of  soils  (a 
branch  which  has  lately  received  a  good  deal  of  attention  in 
Russia),  zoology,  anatomy  and  zootomy,  physiology,  history, 
literature,  comparative  philology,  and  the  leading  principles  of 
political  economy  and  statistics.  Psychology  being  intrusted 
in  Russian  Universities  only  to  Professors  chosen  from  among  the 
clergy,  the  Council  urge  that  it  should  be  introduced  into  the 
Natural  History  Faculty.  As  to  geography  proper,  they  advise, 
first,  that  there  shall  be  two  separate  Professors  for  geography 
and  anthropology,  and  point  out  the  absolute  impossibilitj 
of  combining  both  sciences  in  one  professorship.  They  propose, 
moreover,  to  divide  the  course  of  geography  into  two  distinct 
parts,  physical  geography  (Erdkunde)  and  special  geography 
(Landerkunde) .  Historical  geography  is  excluded  from  the 
programme,  its  contents  belonging  partly  to  history  and  parti) 


July  19,  1888] 


NATURE 


281 


to  the  Landerkunde.  Although  fully  recognizing  the  difficulty 
of  having  lectures  in  all  the  above-named  subjects  especially 
appropriated  to  the  needs  of  geography,  the  Council  suggest 
that  privat-docents  might  supply  the  new  want.  But  if  this 
is  found  to  be  impossible,  they  advise  that  the  students  who 
wish  to  take  either  geography  or  anthropology  as  their  specialty 
should  be  left  to  select  in  the  above-named  group  of  sciences 
those  subjects  which  would  best  suit  them.  Students  might 
thus  take  any  one  of  the  three  chief  directions  opened  to  the 
geographer — namely,  that  of  the  geologist-geographer,  the 
biologist-geographer,  or  the  anthropologist-geographer. 


THE  MULTIPLICATION  AND  DIVISION  OF 
CONCRETE  QUANTITIES* 

T  HAVE  recently  been  laying  stress  on  the  fact  that  the  funda- 
mental  equations  of  mechanics  and  physics  express  relations 
among  quantities,  and  are  independent  of  the  mode  of  measure- 
ment of  such  quantities ;  much  as  one  may  say  that  two 
lengths  are  equal  without  inquiring  whether  they  are  going  to  be 
measured  in  feet  or  metres  ;  and  indeed,  even  though  one  may 
be  measured  in  feet  and  the  other  in  metres.  Such  a  case  is,  of 
course,  very  simple,  but  in  following  out  the  idea,  and  applying 
it  to  other  equations,  we  are  led  to  the  consideration  of  products 
and  quotients  of  concrete  quantities,  and  it  is  evident  that  there 
should  be  some  general  method  of  interpreting  such  products 
and  quotients  in  a  reasonable  and  simple  manner.  To  indicate 
such  a  method  is  the  object  of  the  present  paper. 

For  example,  I  want  to  justify  the  following  definition,  and  its 
consequences  :  Average  velocity  is  proportional  to  the  distance 
travelled  and  inversely  proportional  to  the  time  taken,  and  is 
measured  by  the  distance  divided  by  the  time,  or,  in  symbols, 
v  —  s  -r-  /.  As  a  consequence  of.  this,  the  distance  travelled  is 
equal  to  the  average  velocity  multiplied  by  the  time,  or  s  —  vt. 
The  following  examples  will  serve  to  illustrate  what  I  mean  : — 

(i.)  If  a  man  walks  16  miles  in  4  hours,  his  average  speed  is 

16  miles  1  mile  -,  .  ..■  u  1     I    mile 

— =  4  x  — . =  4  nules  an  hour,  the  symbol    — 

4  hours  I  hour  I   hour 

denoting  a  speed  of  a  mile  an  hour,  in  accordance  with  the 

definition. 

Similarly, ,  or  shortly,   — -  ,  denotes  a  velocity  of 

I  second  sec. 

a  foot  per  second.  The  convenience  of  this  notation  is  that  it 
enables  us  to  represent  velocities  algebraically,  and  to  change 
from  one  mcde  of  measurement  to  another  without  destroying 
the  equation. 

16  miles   _   4  miles   _  4  x  1760  x  3  feet  _  ft. 

4  hours  1  hour  60  x  60  seconds.  sec. 


Thus    !2J 


=  5  "9  feet  per  second, 
(ii.)  The  distance  travelled  in  40  minutes  by  a  person  walking 

at  the  rate  of  4A  miles  an  hour  =  — ^  x  40  minutes  = 


4^  miles 


I  hour 


2  =  3  miles. 


Such  concrete  equations  are  used  by  a  considerable  number 
of  people,  I  believe,  but  I  have  not  seen  any  attempt  at  a 
general  method  of  interpreting  the  concrete  products  and 
quotients  involved. 

Now,  I  think  I  cannot  do  better  by  way  of  clearing  the 
ground  before  us  than  quote  what  Prof.  Chrystal  says  in  his 
"  Algebra"  about  multiplication  and  division.  He  begins  by 
saying  that  multiplication  originally  signified  mere  abbreviation 
of  addition  ;  and  then  (on  p.  12)  he  says  : — 

"  Even  in  arithmetic  the  operation  of  multiplication  is 
extended  to  cases  which  cannot  by  any  stretch  of  language  be 
brought  under  the  original  definition,  and  it  becomes  important 
to  inquire  what  is  common  to  the  different  operations  thus  com- 
prehended under  one  symbol.  The  answer  to  this  question, 
which  has  at  different  times  greatly  perplexed  inquirers  into  the 
first  principles  of  algebra,  is  simply  that  what  is  common  is  the 
formal  laws  of  operation  [the  associative,  commutative,  and  dis- 
tributive laws].  These  alone  define  the  fundamental  operations 
of  addition,  multiplication,   and  division,  and  anything  further 

1  Paper  read  at  the  General  Meeting  of  the  Association  for  the  Improve- 
ment of  Geometrical  Teaching,  on  January  14,  1888,  by  A.  Lodge,  Cooper's 
Hill,  Staines. 


that  appears  in  any  particular  case  is  merely  a  matter  of  some 
interpretation,  arithmetical  or  other,  that  is  given  to  a  symbolical 
result,  demonstrably  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  symbolical 
operation." 

"  Division,  for  the  purposes  of  algebra,  is  best  defined  as  the 
inverse  operation  to  multiplication." 

I  will  begin  by  considering  instances,  and  then  go  on  to  the 
general  case. 

A  product  of  a  number  and  a  concrete  quantity  presents  sio 
difficulty.  All  that  is  necessary  is  to  define  that  the  orchrf  of 
stating  the  product  shall  not  alter  its  meaning — that  is,  tKat  the 
commutative  law  shall  hold — that, 

e.g.,  2xi  foot  =  1  foot  x  2  =  2  feet. 

The  distributive  law  is  satisfied  ;  thus, 

2  feet  -f  3  feet  —  (2  +  3)  feet 
=  5  feet. 

In  interpreting  the  meaning  of  the  product  of  two  concrete 
quantities,  we  have  to  be  careful  that  in  the  interpretation 
nothing  shall  violate  the  laws  of  numerical  multiplication  ;  i.e. 
if  any  numerical  factors  occur,  they  must  be  able  to  be  multiplied 
in  the  ordinary  way,  and  placed  before  the  final  concrete  pro- 
duct, which  must,  of  course,  represent  something  which  varies 
directly  with  both  quantities. 

Thus  4  feet  x  2  yards  must  be  equal  to  8  x  1  foot  x  1  yard. 

Now  a  rectangle,  whose  sides  are  4  feet  and  2  yards,  is  eight 
times  the  rectangle  whose  sides  are  I  foot  and  I  yard,  so  that, 
if  we  define  the  product  of  two  lengths  as  representing  a  rect- 
angle whose  sides  are  these  lengths  respectively,  we  are  not 
violating  any  multiplication  law  as  regards  the  numerical  multi- 
pliers ;  and  we  can  compare  one  such  rectangle  with  any  other 
whose  sides  are  of  different  lengths,  by  ordinary  multiplication 
and  division  among  such  numbers  as  arise,  and  by  interpretation 
of  the  concrete  products  in  accordance  with  the  definition. 

Thus,  4  feet  x  2  yards  =     8x1  foot  x  1  yard, 
=  24  x  1  foot  x  1  foot, 
=  24  square  feet, 
=  24  x  12  inches  x  12  inches, 
—  3456  square  inches, 
&c. 

Here  we  have  applied  the  commutative  law  so  as  to  bring 
the  numerical  factors  together  for  multiplication,  and  have  in- 
terpreted the  lemaining  concrete  products  in  accordance  with 
the  definition. 

The  general  result  is  that  ab  =  a0  .  a'b',  if  a  —  aa',  and  b  =  0b', 
i.e.  a  rectangle  whose  sides  are  a,  b  is  a0  times  a  rectangle  with 
sides  a',  b',  if  a  =  aa',  and  b  =  0b'. 

From  this  example  I  think  we  can  see  that  a  concrete  product 
may  properly  be  used  to  represent  any  quantity  that  varies 
directly  as  the  several  concrete  factors,  and  that,  being  so  repre- 
sented, it  may,  by  use  of  the  ordinary  rules  of  multiplication, 
be  compared  with  any  other  concrete  product  of  the  same  kind  ; 
that  is  to  say,  that,  generally,  ab  =  a.0 .  a'b',  if  a  =  aa',  and 
b  —  0b',  where  a,  0  are  numerical  factors,  and  a,  a'  are  different 
amounts  of  one  kind  of  quantity,  and  b,  b'  of  another  kind. 

Similarly,  a  concrete  quotient  may  be  used  to  represent  a 
quantity  which  varies  directly  as  the  concrete  numerator  and 
inversely  as  the  concrete  denominator,  and  may,  by  the  ordinary 
rules  of  multiplication  and  division,  be  compared  with  any  other 
quantity  of  the  same  kind. 

Indeed,  I  may  go  further  and  assert  that  a  concrete  product 
or  quotient  (the  latter  including  the  former)  must,  if  it  is  to 
have  any  meaning  at  all,  represent  a  quantity  varying  directly  as 
the  concrete  factors  in  the  numerator  and  inversely  as  those  in 
the  denominator,  and  that  the  general  use  of  such  representation 
is  for  comparison  of  the  complex  quantity  with  a  standard 
of  the  same  kind.  Or,  generally,  we  may  say  it  should  be 
used,  whenever  we  wish,  in  our  work,  to  give  as  full  and  explicit 
a  representation  to  the  complex  quantity  as  possible. 

The  operation  of  multiplying  [and  dividing]  concretes  may  be 
separated  into  two  parts  :  the  formation  of  the  products,  and  the 
simplification  of  them  ;  and  this  latter  process  may  be  again 
considered  in  two  parts :  the  simplification  of  the  numerical 
factors,  i.e.  ordinary  multiplication  and  division,  and  the  simpli- 
fication of  the  concrete  factors,  i.e.  cancelling  where  possible, 
and,  finally,  interpretation. 


282 


NATURE 


{July  19,  1888 


The  first  part  of  the  multiplication  is  the  representation  of  a 
complex  quantity  which  is  proportional  to  the  several  factors  in 
the  numerator,  and  inversely  proportional  to  those  in  the  deno- 
minator ;  the  second  part  is  the  comparison  between  the  particu- 
lar complex  quantity  and  a  standard  of  the  same  kind.  The 
representation  may  be  temporary,  i.e.  adopted  for  the  solution 
of  a  particular  problem  ;  or  it  may  be  permanent,  i.e.  adopted 
throughout  a  whole  subject. 

Thus,  if  a,  b  are  two  lengths,  the  product  ab  is  always  used  to 
represent  a  rectangle  whose  sides  are  a,  b  respectively  ;  though 
we  might  have  agreed  to  use  it  as  a  representation  of  a  parallelo- 
gram with  sides  a,  b  containing  an  angle  of  (say)  6o°  ;  and  of 
course  we  might  find  a  number  of  things  which  in  some  par- 
ticular problem  might  be  represented  by  ab,  but  all  such  quan- 
tities must  agree  in  this  property,  viz.  that  in  the  problem  in 
question  they  shall  vary  jointly  as  a  and  b. 

Our  right  to  cancel  among  concretes  may  be  established  once 
f  jr  all  in  some  such  way  as  the  following  : — 

Let  a  =  aa',  b  =  0b',  and  therefore  ab  =  a$  .  a'b',  as  before. 
Now,  if  we  proceed  to  deduce  a  formally  from  the  equation 

ab  =  a&  .  a'b',  we  shall  get  a  =  a&  \ a  b ,  which  reduces  down  to 

b 
its  known  value  aa'  if  we  allow  b  in  the  denominator  to  cancel 
against  its  equivalent  $b'  in  the  numerator.     (This  cancelling  is 
really  an  application  of  the  law  of  association  to  the  quotients.) 

By  such  methods  as  this  we  can  establish  once  for  all  our  right 
to  apply  the  formal  laws  of  multiplication  and  division  to  con- 
crete products  and  quotients,  when  such  concrete  products  and 
quotients  represent  quantities  varying  directly  as  the  concrete 
numerator  and  inversely  as  the  concrete  denominator  ;  though, 
indeed,  for  that  matter  a  very  little  practice  in  the  use  of  such 
concrete  representations  renders  one's  perception  of  that  right 
almost  intuitive.  In  fact,  in  all  cases  a  student  would  very  soon 
perceive  that  the  standards  involved  in  the  various  equations 
might  be  treated  exactly  like  numbers,  and  he  would  also  learn 

from  the  resulting  expressions  (e.g.  ^— ,    ,  foot  .  &c.Vo  appre- 

V  sec.     (sec.)2         / 

ciate    the    meaning    of  the    dimensions    of    quantities   with   a 
thoroughness  unattainable  in  any  other  way. 

All  questions  dealing  with  mixed  standards,  or  change  of 
standards,  present  no  difficulty  when  this  method  is  adopted. 

Here  is  a  good  example  of  the  concrete  method.  Two  ton- 
masses  p'aced  a  yard  apart  attract  each  other  with  a  force  equal 
to  the  weight  of  one-eighth  of  a  grain.  Calculate  the  mass  of 
the  earth  in  tons. 


Solu  'ion. 


earth  x  |  grain  _  I  ton  x  1  ton 
(I  yard)'- 


(4000  miles)- 

mass  of  earth  =    **?£_  x  f4°°°  miIesY  tc 
I  grain       \     !  yard 
=  &c. 


It  is  most  important  that  the  student  should  be  taught  to 
notice  that  physical  equations  can  only  be  among  quantities  of 
the  same  kind,  or  that,  if  there  are  quantities  of  different  kinds 
in  the  equation,  then  the  equation  is  really  made  up  of  two  or 
more  independent  equations  which  must  be  separately  satisfied, 
each  of  these  being  only  among  auantities  of  the  same  kind. 
So  we  may  consider  generally  that,  in  any  equation,  all  the  terms 
must  represent  quantities  of  the  same  kind. 

But  I  want  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  merely  the  dimen- 
sions of  a  quantity  do  not  always  fix  the  kind  of  quan'ity.  For 
example,  the  moment  of  a  force  is  of  the  dimensions  of  work, 
and  yet  it  is  not  work,  and  cannot  exist  as  a  term  in  an  equation 
involving  work  terms.  Again,  the  circular  measure  of  an  angle 
is  not  a  pure  number,  though  it  is  of  zero  dimensions  as  a  pure 
number  is ;  and  that  it  is  not  a  pure  number  is  evident  physically, 
for  a  moment  of  a  force  x  an  angle  =  work. 

Now  these  are  special  cases  of  certain  general  laws  as  to 
direction  which  hold  among  the  terms  of  an  equation  involving 
directed  quantities,  but  in  ivkich  the  symbols  themselves  do  not 
include  the  idea  of  direction  (for  I  wish  to  confine  myself  strictly 
to  ordinary  algebraical  equations). 

The  laws  are  :  firstly,  if  any  term  is  independent  of  direction, 
every  term  must  be  also  independent  of  direction,  or  involve 
ratios  between  parallel  vectors,  and  so  by  cancelling  direction 
become  independent  of  it. 

E.g.  if  a  body  is  projected  with  velocity  V  at  angle  o  with 
the  horizon,  it  reaches  its  greatest  height  in  the  time  Y  sin  a. 

g 


Here  both  numerator  and  denominator  are  vertical  vectors, 
and  therefore  the  directions  cancel  as  they  ought. 

Secondly,  if  any  term  involve  only  one&vector,  the  other 
terms  must  also,  after  such  simplification  of  directions  as  possible, 
involve  the  same  vector  only. 

E.g.   Horizontal  range  of  projectile  =  2Y"  sin  a  cg!_g ,  where 

V  sin  a  and  g  are  vertical  vectors,  and  V  cos  o  is  horizontal,  so 
that  the  whole  expression  is  a  horizontal  vector,  as  it  should  be. 

Again,  if  any  term  involve  a  product  (or  ratio)  between  two 
vectors  including  any  angle,  every  term  must,  after  such  can- 
celling and  simplification  of  directions  as  possible,  also  involve 
a  product  (or  ratio)  between  two  vectors  including  the  same 
angle. 

The  most  frequent  cases  are  those  whe-e  a  term  consists  of  a 
product  of  parallel,  or  mutually  perpendicular  directed  quanti- 
ties, in  which  case  every  term  must  do  the  same. 

It  is  not  easy  to  see  what  law  holds  in  cases  where  a  greater 
number  of  directed  quantities  occur  in  each  term,  except  in  the 
simple  case  where  one  term  consists  of  a  product  of  a  number  of 
parallel  vectors,  in  which  case  every  term  must  do  the  same. 
_  The  general  law  is,  I  believe,  that  if  any  term  consists  in  its 
simplest  form  of  a  product  or  quotient  of  certain  vectors,  which 
will  form  a  kind  of  solid  angle,  then  every  term  must  also 
involve  an  exactly  similar  solid  angle  of  vectors.  However,  I 
have  not  followed  this  out,  as  it  dors  not  seem  likely  to  be  a 
useful  test  in  its  general  form. 

The  following  are  simple  examples  of  some  of  the  above  laws  : 

b    =  a  cos  C  +  c  cos  A  )    .        .  .       , 
a"-  =  //-'  +  c"  -  2bc  cos  A  }  ,n  a  tnanSle  I 

y  =  mx  +  c  ; 
sin  (A  +  B)  —  sin  A  cos  B  +  cos  A  sin  B. 

This  last  example  should  be  considered  in  connection  with  the 
ordinary  geometrical  proof,  where  it  will  be  seen  that  each  term 
on  the  right  is  a  ratio  between  lines  inclined  to  each  other  at  the 
angle  900  -  (A  +  B),  just  as  the  left-hand  side  is. 

An  angle  is  the  ratio  between  the  arc  and  radius  of  a  circle, 
and  if  it  multiplies  a  radius,  changes  it  into  an  arc.  Thus,  if  by 
applying  a  force  P  at  the  end  of  an  arm  a,  a  body  is  turned 
through  a  small  angle  0,  the  work  done  is  Tad ;  i.e.  the  product 
of  P  into  the  arc  through  which  it  has  been  acting,  which  is  a 
product  of  parallel  vectors,  as  it  must  be  besides  having  to  be  of 
right  dimensions  if  it  is  to  represent  work.  This  expression  is 
also  the  product  of  the  moment  of  the  force  into  the  small  angle 
turned  through,  so  that,  if  we  wish  to  connect  the  moment  of  a 
force  with  work,  we  must  say  :  — 

The  moment  =  the  worker  radian  which  can  be  done, 

or  simply,  moment  =  W0-rk  done . 

angle  turned  through 

Now  I  do  not  wish  to  insist  that  in  dealing  practically  with 
mechanical  problems  it  is  necessary  always  to  include  the 
standards  as  well  as  the  numerical  multipliers  in  the  equations, 
for  it.  would  be  an  intolerable  nuisance  to  have  to  do  so.  In  com- 
plicated cases,  however,  I  think  the  student  should  test  the  dimen- 
sions of  each  term  in  his  equation,  so  as  to  avoid  gross  mistakes. 
But  it  is  in  trying  to  understand  the  fundamental  equations  in 
any  subject  that  it  appears  to  me  important  to  express  particular 
examples  of  them  as  fully  as  possible. 

For  practical  purposes  any  numerical  equations  we  may 
desire  may  be  deduced  from  the  fundamental  equations. 

For  example,  the  connection  between  the  height  (h)  of  an 
observer  above  the  sea  with  the  distance  (d)  of  his  horizon,  is 
d'2  =  2RI1,  where  R  is  the  radius  of  the  earth  ;  and  we  can 
deduce  from  this  the  numerical  relation  between  the  height  in 
feet,  and  the  distance  of  vision  in  miles.  For  if/  be  the  number 
of  feet  in  h,  and  m  the  number  of  miles  in  d,  so  that  /z  =  /Teet, 
and  d  s=  m  miles,  the  equation  becomes 


•  "•  /  =  » 


(in  miles)-  =  2R  x/feet, 

=  8000  miles  x  /"feet  ; 
(miles)2  =  5280  m„ 

8000  miles  x   1  foot       8000 


=  I  i/r  approximately  ; 

i.e.  the  observer's  height  in  feet  =  §  of  the  square  of  the  distance 
of  his  view  in  miles. 

This   is   a  strictly  numerical   equation,   deduced   for  practical 
purposes  from  the  concrete  equation  d'1  =  2R//. 


July  19,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


283 


It  cannot,  I  think,  be  too  clearly  impressed  on  the  student 
that,  when  any  quantity  is  expressed  by  a  number,  that  number 
is  the  ratio  of  the  quantity  to  some  standard  of  the  same  kind. 

To  take  the  preceding  example, /is  the  number  of  feet  in  the 
height  h. 

i.e.     h  =/feet, 

.-.  f=  —-—   =  the  ratio  of  h  to  1  foot. 
1  foot 

Similarly  m  —       '     -  =  the  ratio  of  </  to  I  mile. 
1  mile 

So  that  the  full  expression  for  the  relation  /=  \m"  is  : — 

height  _  „     fr  distance  T- 

I  foot  L  1  mile  J 

My  position,  therefore,  as  regards  numerical  equations,  is 
this  :  That  the  numbers  which  appear  are  only  short  methods 
of  stating  pure  ratios,  and  that  such  short  methods  are  eminently 
useful  in  dealing  with  practical  problems,  but  do  not  help  ft 
student  to  grasp  the  fundamental  principles  of  a  subject. 

There  is  another  simple  way  in  which  numerical  equations 
can  be  deduced  from  the  fundamental  ones  ;  viz.  by  so  choosing 
the  standards  of  measurement  that  every  term  may  be  expressed 
in  terms  of  the  same  standard,  which  may  then  be"  omitted, 
leaving  only  a  relation  among  the  numerical  coefficients  of  that 
standard. 

To  enable  this  to  be  done,  all  the  standards  of  subsidiary 
quantities  are  so  chosen  that,  when  expressed  in  terms  of  certain 
primary  standards,  their  coefficients  shall  be  unity.  When  this 
is  systematically  done,  all  the  standards  are  usually  called  units, 
■  apparently  because  if  you  arbitrarily  put  unity  for  each  primary 
standard,  the  subsidiary  ones  will  become  equal  to  unity  also. 
1  For  example,  if  a  foot  and  a  second  are  chosen  units  of  length 
and  time,  a  foot  per  second  is  the  unit  of  velocity.  For,  the  full  ex- 
pression for  a  foot  per  second  is  ;    and  if  you  put  1  foot 

1  sec. 

=  I,  and  I  sec.  »*  1,  the  fraction  becomes    equal    to    I 

1  sec. 

also.  .   • 

This  plan  certainly  enables  the  working  numerical  equations 

to  be  very  easily    deduced   from  the   fundamental   ones,  with 

which   indeed  they  thus  become  identical  in  form,  but  there  is 

great  danger   lest  this  fact  should,  make  us  lose  sight  of  the 

important  fact  that  they  are  only  special   deductions  from  the 

higher  kind  of  equation — from  the  true  fundamental  equations 

which  exist  among  the  quantities  themselves. 


DISCOVERY  OF  ELEPHAS  PRIMIGENIUS 

ASSOCIATED     WITH    FLINT    IMPLEMENTS 

AT  SOUTH  ALL. 

A  PAPER  with  the  above  title  was  latHy  read  by 
•^  Mr.  J.  Allen  Brown  before  the  Geologists'  Association. 
It  is  of  more  than  ordinary  interest  to  'geologists  since  an 
attempt  has  lately  been  made  to  show  that  the  mammoth 
became  suddenly  extinct  by  the  action  of  a  vast  flood  seemingly 
universal  in  its  operation,  due  to  some  convulsion  or  cataclysm, 
which  also  changed  the  climate  of  Northern  Europe. 

During  last  year  some  important  drainage  works  were  carried 
out  at  Southall,  and  sections  were  exposed  in  the  Windmill  Lane, 
a  road  running  from  Greenford,  through  Hanwell,  across  the 
Great  Western  Railway  to  Woodlake,  skirting  Osterley  Park, 
as  well  as  in  Norwood  Lane,  leading  from  Windmill  Lane, 
south-westward. 

The  remains  of  the  mammoth  were  discovered  in  Norwood 
Lane  at  the  88;foot  contour,  about  550  yards  from  its  junction 
with  the  Windmill  Lane.  They  were  embedded  in  sandy  loam, 
underlying  evenly  stratified  sandy  gravel,  with  a  thin  deposit  of 
1ji  ick  earth,  about  1  foot  in  thickness,  surmounting  the  gravel — in 
all,  about  13  feet  above  the  fossils.  The  tusks  were  found  curving 
across  the  shore  or  excavation,  attached  to  the  skull,  parts  of 
which,  with  the  leg-bones,  teeth,  &c. ,  were  exhumed,  other  bones 
being  seen  embedded  in  one  side  of  the  cutting.  Probably  the 
entire  skeleton  might  have  been  removed  if  the  excavation  could 
have  been  extended,  and  if  there  had  been  appliances  at  hand 
for  removing  the  fossils,  which  were  in  a  soft  pulpy  condition. 

The  author  obtained  some  of  the  bones  in  a  fragmentary  state, 


including  parts  of  the  fore-limbs  and  jaw,  with  portions  of  the 
tusks  as  well  as  two  of  the  three  teeth  found,  which  were  much 
better  preserved.  The  remains  were  quite  unrolled,  and  the 
joints  and  articulations  of  the  leg-bones  and  the  teeth  were 
unabraded.  There  can  hardly  be  a  doubt,  from  the  report  of 
the  workmen,  that  the  bones  of  the  fore-part  of  the  elephant,  if 
not  of  the  entire  skeleton,  were  in  juxtaposition. 

Several  implements  were  found  in  Norwood  Lane,  in  close 
proximity  to  the  remains,  and  a  well-formed  spear-head,  nearly 
5  inches  in  length,  of  exactly  the  same  shape  as  the  spear-heads 
of  obsidian  until  recently  in  use  among  the  natives  of  the 
Admiralty  Islands,  and  other  savages,  was  discovered  in  actual 
contact  with  the  bones ;  smaller  spear-head  flakes,  less 
symmetrically  worked,  were  also  found  at  this  spot.  They  are 
formed  for  easy  insertion  into  the  shafts  by  thinning  out  the  butt 
ends,  similar  to  those  found  abundantly  by  the  author  at  the 
workshop  floor,  Acton,  and  described  by  him  in  his  recently 
published  work,  "  Palaeolithic  Man  in  North- West  Middlesex.'' 
Among  the  implements  found  at  this  spot  are  an  unusually  fine 
specimen  of  the  St.  Acheul  or  pointed  type,  8  inches  long,  of 
rich  ochreous  colour  and  unabraded,  and  a  well  formed  lustrous 
thick  oval  implement  pointed  at  one  extremity,  rounded  at  the 
other,  about  5  inches  in  length,  also  unrolled. 

From  the  adjacent  excavations  in  the  Windmill  Road  several 
good  specimens  of  Palaeolithic  work  were  also  obtained,  includ- 
ing two  dagger  implements,  with  heavy  unworked  butts,  and 
incurved  sides  converging  to  a  long  point ;  these  were 
evidently  intended  to  be  used  in  the  hand  without  hafting. 
Also  an  instrument  characteristic  of  the  older  river  drift,  convex 
on  one  side,  and  slightly  concave  on  the  other  near  the  point, 
and  partly  worked  at  the  butt.  WTith  these  were  two  rude 
choppers  or  axes,  two  points  of  implements  with  old  surfaces 
of  fracture,  a  shaft-smoother  or  spoke-shave,  and  several  flakes. 

It  is  remarkable  that  most  of  the  principal  types  of  flint 
implements  which  characterize  the  oldest  river-drift  deposits  are 
represented  in  this  collection  from  the  vicinity  of  the  remains  of 
the  elephant. 

Mr.  J.  Allen  Brown  accounts  for  the  deposit  of  fossils  and 
associated  human  relics  at  this  locality  by  the  fact  that  the 
underlying  Eocene  bed  rises  to  within  2  or  3  feet  of  the  surface  a 
few  yards  west  of  the  spot  where  the  bones  and  implements 
were  found,  while  towards  the  Uxbridge  Road  and  upper  part 
of  the  Windmill  Lane  the  drift  deposits  thicken,  until  at  no 
great  distance  they  have  a  thickness  of  14  to  17  feet.  Thus  the 
river  drift  rapidly  thins  out,  and  the  upward  slope  of  the  London 
Clay  reaches  nearly  to  the  surface  at  about  the  90-foot  contour. 
As  the  level  at  which  the  fossils  were  found  (13  feet  from  the 
surface)  would  represent  the  extent  of  the  erosion  and  in-filling 
of  the  valley  which  had  taken  place,  it  is  probable  that 
the  higher  ground  formed  by  the  up-slope  of  the  London  Clay 
then  formed  the  banks  of  the  ancient  river  ;  or  if  another  thick 
bed  of  drift  should  be  found  still  further  west  in  a  depression  of 
the  Tertiary  bed  such  as  often  occurs,  the  intervening  higher 
ground  would  form  an  island  in  the  stream.  In  either  case  a 
habitable  land  surface  would  be  formed  with  shallow  tranquil 
water  near  the  banks,  not  impinged  upon  by  the  current,  which 
afterwards  set  in  the  direction  of  this  spot  as  shown  by  the 
coarser  slatified  gravel  above  the  loamy  bed  and  remains. 

The  author  is  thus  led  to  the  conclusion  either  that  the  carcass 
of  the  elephant  drifted  into  the  shallow  tranquil  water  near 
the  bank,  or  else,  as  seems  more  probable  from  the  presence  of 
so  many  weapons  near  the  spot,  including  the  spear-head 
found  with  the  remains,  that  the  animal  was  pursued  into  the 
shallow  water  by  the  Palaeolithic  hunters  and  there  became 
bogged.  Whatever  hypothesis  may  be  accepted,  there  is  no 
evidence  of  any  greater  flood  or  inundation  than  would  often 
occur,  under  the  severe  climatal  conditions  which  prevailed 
during  the  long  period  that  intervened  between  the  formation 
of  the  higher  brenches  of  river  drift  and  that  of  the  mid 
terrace,  only  25  to  30  feet  above  the  present  river,  in  which  the 
remains  of  the  mammoth  and  the  extinct  Quaternary  Mammalia 
are  more  frequently  met  with  under  similar  conditions.  Nor 
does  there  appear  to  be  any  more  reason  for  ascribing  the 
extinction  of  the  great  Quaternary  Pachyderms  to  a  sudden 
catastrophe  or  cataclysm  than  there  is  for  the  extinction  of  some 
other  Pleistocene  animals,  such  as  the  great  Irish  elk,  which 
lived  on  into,  or  nearly  into,  historic  times.  The  difficulty 
involved  in  this  hypothesis  is  still  further  increased  by  the  fact 
that  other  animals,  such  as  the  reindeer  and  others  of  northern 
habit,  as  well  as  southern  forms  like  the  hippopotamus,  werenot 


284 


NA  TURE 


{July  19,  1888 


utterly  destroyed  with  their  contemporaries  by  the  same  cause, 
but  merely  migrated  to  regions  more  suited  to  them,  as  the 
climate  and  other  conditions  of  this  country  changed. 

Exhibits.- — Bones,  teeth,  and  part  of  the  tusks  of  mammoth, 
and  associated  flint  implements  from  Southall.  A  flint  imple- 
ment from  the  lacustrine  (?)  bed  at  the  Mount,  Ealing  (190  to  200 
O.D.)  (See  the  author's  paper,  Proceedings  Geologists'  Associa- 
tion, vol.  x.  No.  4).  A  flint  apparently  worked  by  man  from 
the  Weybourn  Crag,  beneath  the  "Forest  bed"  near  Cromer. 
A  Palaeolithic  scraper  found  on  the  beach  near  Cromer,  &c. 


THE  POISONOUS  SNAKES  OF  THE  BOMB  A  Y 
PRESIDENCY. 

ATa  recent  meeting  of  the  Bombay  Natural  History  Society, 
"^  a  paper  was  read  by  the  Honorary  Secretary,  Mr.  H.  M. 
Phipson,  on  the  "  Poisonous  Snakes  of  the  Bombay  Presidency." 
He  produced  for  inspection  specimens  of  the  following  poisonous 
snakes,  all  of  them  having  been  killed  in  the  Presidency  of 
Bombay. 

Colubrine. — (1)  Ophiophagus  daps;  (2)  Naga  tripudians ; 
(3)  Bungarus  arcuatus  ;  (4)  Callophis  trimaculatus  ;  (5)  Callophis 
nigrescens. 

Viperine.  — (6)  Daboia  elegans  ;  (7)  Echis  carinata  ;  (8)  Trime- 
resurus  anamallenis  ;  (9)  Hypnale  nepa. 

With  regard  to  the  first  species,  the  Ophiophagtis  elaps,  it  is 
perhaps  the  largest  poisonous  snake  in  the  world,  sometimes 
measuring  over  15  feet.  It  is  also  called  the  "king  cobra" 
or  "hamadryad,"  and  is  not  very  common,  though  widely 
diffused,  being  found  in  the  Andamans,  the  Philippines,  Borneo, 
Java,  and  Sumatra.  On  account  of  expanding  a  "hood,"  it  is 
frequently  mistaken  for  the  cobra,  but  the  head-shields  of  the 
hamadryad  differ  very  much  from  those  of  the  cobra.  The 
second  species,  Naga  tripudians,  or  cobra,  is  found  all  over  India, 
and  up  to  the  height  of  8coo  feet  in  the  Himalayas.  There  are 
many  varieties,  differing  in  colour  and  marking,  to  which  the 
natives  give  different  names,  thinking  them  distinct  species  ;  but 
in  such  matters  the  native  l<nowledge  is  not  very  extensive. 
Thus  they  believe  that  all  the  hooded  cobras  are  females,  and 
that  the  males  are  harmless.  What  they  call  the  male  is  in 
reality  only  the  common  Indian  rat  snake  {Ptyas  mucosus). 
They  also  state  that  the  rat  snake  is  proof  against  the  poison  of 
the  cobra.  But  this  is  not  the  case.  Last  year  the  young  ones 
hatched  in  the  Society's  rooms  attacked  a  small  Malay  python 
put  into  their  cage,  when  they  were  only  a  few  days  old,  and  bit 
at  it  viciously,  and  the  python  died  in  a  few  hours  after  its  re- 
moval to  another  cage.  Once  a  year,  during  the  rainy  season, 
the  cobra  lays  from  twelve  to  twenty  eggs.  In  one  specimen 
shown  by  Mr.  Phipson,  the  young  one  is  seen  just  as  it  is 
emerging  from  the  egg.  The  tooth  with  which  it  cuts  its  way  out  is 
shed  as  soon  as  it  has  served  its  purpose.  When  born,  the  young 
cobras  measured  about  7^  inches  long,  and  were  very  fat ;  but  at 
the  end  of  a  few  months  they  were  about  9  inches  in  length,  but 
had  lost  all  their  plumpness.  It  is  very  remarkable  that  the 
original  nutriment  got  out  of  the  egg  should  be  able  to  sustain 
them  so  long.  On  account  of  its  timidity  and  the  great  ease  with 
which  it  can  be  tamed,  it  is  the  only  snake  with  which  the  snake- 
charmers  will  have  anything  to  do.  By  attracting  its  attention  with 
one  hand,  it  may  be  easily  seized  round  the  body  with  the  other  ; 
and  so  long  as  the  hand  or  any  other  object  is  kept  moving 
before  its  eyes,  it  will  never  turn  to  bite  the  hand  that  holds  it. 
This  is  the  simple  fact  the  knowledge  of  which  the  charmers 
turn  to  such  advantage  in  their  well-known  performances.  The 
snake  is  taken  from  its  basket,  and  a  slight  stroke  across  the  back 
brings  it  at  once  into  a  defensive  attitude.  The  constant  motion 
of  the  musical  instrument  before  the  snake  keeps  it  watchful  and 
erect,  and  not  the  music  produced.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  snakes 
have  no  external  ears,  and  it  is  extremely  doubtful  whether  the 
cobra  hears  the  music  at  all.  The  charmers  say  that  the  adder 
of  the  East,  the  Daboia,  has  no  ear  for  music,  because  they  can- 
not operate  on  it  as  they  do  on  the  cobra.  It  is  rather  in- 
teresting to  note  that  this  has  been  the  belief  since  David's  time 
at  least — "  like  the  deaf  adder  that  stoppeth  her  ear  ;  which  will 
not  hearken  to  the  voice  of  charmers."  (3)  The  krait  {Bun- 
garus arcuatus)  is  an  exceedingly  poisonous  snake,  and  is  quite 
common  in  nearly  every  part  of  India.  One  specimen  taken  in 
the  Bombay  Presidency  contained  a  "brown  tree  snake"  {Dipsas 
gokool)  and  in  another  specimen  was  found  a  Ptyas  mucosus,  thus 
showing  that  this  species  eats  snakes.     The  common  Lycodon 


aulicus,  one  of  the  non-poisonous  snakes,  is  very  much  like  the 
krait,  but  they  can  be  distinguished  by  the  presence  in  the 
krait  of  large  hexagonal  scales  down  the  centre  of  the  back. 
(4)  The  Callophis  trimaculatus  has  no  popular  name.  It  is 
undoubtedly  poisonous,  and  lives  on  other  snakes,  very  likely  the 
Calamarise.  (5)  Callophis  nigrescens,  which  grows  to  about 
4  feet  in  length,  is  black  in  the  upper  parts  and  red  in  the 
lower. 

(6)  The  first  class  of  the  Viperine  snakes  is  the  Daboia  clegans 
called  by  Europeans  in  India  the  Chain  Viper  and  in  Ceylon  the 
Tic  Polonga.  The  fangs  are  very  long,  and  for  this  reason, 
together  with  its  fierceness,  it  is  the  most  dreaded  snake  in 
India.  Its  poison  acts  differently  from  that  of  the  cobra.  Its 
tenacity  of  life  is  really  wonderful,  it  having  been  known  to  live 
for  a  whole  year  without  food.  The  length  of  this  snake  rarely 
exceeds  5  feet.  (7)  The  Echis  carinata  and  the  last-named  class 
are  the  only  true  vipers  in  India.  The  harmless  "  brown  tree 
snake "  {Dipsas  gokool)  is  frequently  confused  with  the  Echis 
carinata,  but  they  are  easily  distinguished  by  the  scales  on  the 
head  of  the  latter,  while  the  Dipsas  gokool  has  plates  or  shields. 
(8)  The  green  tree  viper  ( Tritneresurus  anamallcnsis)  is  one  of 
the  family  of  Crotalidae  or  pit  vipers,  so  named  from  the  pit  or 
cavity  beneath  the  eye  and  the  nostril,  of  which  family  the  terrible 
rattlesnake  of  America  is  a  member.  In  India  there  are  eight 
species  of  Trimeresuri,  but  up  to  the  present  only  one  has  been 
found  in  Bombay,  though  it  has  been  stated  that  another  species, 
T.  strigatus  has  been  seen  far  up  the  country.  (9)  The  head- 
quarters of  the  Hypnale  nepa,  or  Carawala,  are  in  Ceylon,  but  it 
is  commonly  found  along  the  Malabar  coast. 

These  classes  include  all  the  poisonous  land-sr.akes.  All  the 
true  sea-snakes  are  poisonous,  and  of  these,  amongst  others,  the 
following  are  in  the  Bombay  collection  :  Hydrophis  diadema, 
Hydrophis  robusta,  Hydrophis  curta,  Hydrophis  au>ifasciatus, 
Hydrophis  Phipsoni,  Hydrophis  Guntheri,  Hydrophis  Lindsayt, 
Hydrophis  chloris,  Enrhydrina  bcngalensis,  Pelamis  bicolor. 

SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

Kendiconti  del  Reale  Instituto  Lombardo,  May. — Foraminifera 
of  Mount  S.  Colombano  Lodigiano,  by  Dr.  Ernesto  Mariani. 
A  classified  list  is  given  of  these  organisms,  collected  chiefly  by 
Profs.  Maggi  and  Balsamo  Cuvelli  in  the  district  stretching  from 
the  right  bank  of  the  Lambro  to  within  a  few  miles  of  the  Po. 
The  prevalence  of  Miliolidse  and  allied  forms  shows  that  this 
fauna,  which  mostly  still  survives  in  the  surrounding  seas, 
flourished  in  the  warm  shallow  waters  which  at  a  remote  epoch 
flooded  the  plains  of  Lombardy. — On  the  use  of  the  lucimeter 
in  agriculture,  by  Prof.  Giovanni  Cantoni.  The  author's  recent 
experiments  with  this  instrument,  first  designed  by  Bellani,  show 
that  it  is  calculated  to  render  great  service  to  husbandry  in 
combination  with  the  thermometer  and  psycrometer. — Alberto 
Brambilla  continues  his  paper  on  a  certain  class  of  algebraic 
surfaces  ;  and  Prof.  A.  Scarenzio  has  some  remarks  on  the 
therapeutic  properties  of  the  arsenical  thermal  waters  of 
Acquarossa,  near  Biasca,  on  the  old  St.  Gothard  road  in  the 
Canton  of  Ticino. 

June  7. — On  the  normal  curves  of  genus/  of  various  spaces, 
by  Prof.  E.  Bertini.  Clifford's  fundamental  theorem  is  here 
established  by  a  more  synthetic  method  than  any  hitherto 
published  demonstrations.  The  theorem  itself  (Philosophic 
Transactions,  1878,  p.  681)  is  here  announced  in  the  following 
modified  form  : — A  curve  of  genus  p  and  order  n  >  2p  -  2  cannot 
belong  to  a  space  of  more  than  n  - p  dimensions. — On  the  pro- 
posed sanitary  legislation  for  Italy,  by  D.  C.  Zucchi.  A 
calculation  is  made  that  by  the  adoption  of  such  measures  as  are 
enforced  by  the  Local  Government  Boards  in  Great  Britain,  the 
average  mortality  of  the  population  might  be  reduced  from  over 
27  to  under  20  per  thousand.  This  is  shown  to  be  equivalent  to 
the  rescue  of  100,000  lives,  whose  labour  for  300  working  days 
represents  an  annual  sum  of  nearly  ^5,01:0,000  at  present  lost 
to  the  nation. — Meteorological  observations  made  at  the  Royal 
Observatory  of  Brera,  Milan,  for  the  month  of  May. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 
Royal  Society,  June  14.  —  "The  Minimum-point  of  Change 
of  Potential  of  a  Voltaic  Couple."     By  Dr.  G.  Gore,  F.R.S. 

In  this  communication  is  described  the  following  very  simple 
method  of  detecting  the  influence  of  the  minimum  proportion  of 


July  19,  1888] 


NATURE 


285 


chlorine  or  other  soluble  substance,  &c,  upon  the  electromotive 
force  of  a  voltaic  couple  (see  Nature,  vol.  xxxviii.  p.  117). 

Take  a  voltaic  couple,  composed  of  an  unamalgamated  strip  of 
zinc  or  magnesium  (the  latter  is  usually  the  most  sensitive),  and 
a  small  sheet  of  platinum,  immersed  in  distilled  water  ;  balance 
its  electric  potential  through  an  ordinary  galvanometer  of  about 
100  ohms  resistance  by  that  of  a  precisely  similar  couple  com- 
posed of  portions  of  the  same  specimens  of  the  same  metals, 
immersed  the  same  moment  as  the  other  pair  in  a  separate 
quantity  of  the  same  water  ;  and  gradually  add  to  one  of  the  two 
cells  sufficiently  small  and  known  quantities  of  an  adequately 
weak  solution  of  known  strength  in  a  portion  of  the  same  water, 
of  the  substance  to  be  used,  until  the  balance  is  upset,  and  take 
note  of  the  proportions  of  the  substance  and  of  the  water  then 
contained  in  that  cell.  In  the  present  experiments  a  magnesium 
platinum  couple  was  employed. 

The  minimum  proportions  required  with  several  substances 
were  as  follows  :  potassic  chloride,  between  I  part  in  3875  and 
4650  parts  of  water  ;  potassic  chlorate,  between  I  in  4650 
and  5166;  hydrochloric  acid,  between  1  in  516,666  and 
664,285  ;  and  with  chlorine  between  1  in  15,656,500,000  and 
19,565,210,000. 

The  proportion  required  of  each  different  substance  is 
dependent  upon  very  simple  conditions,  viz.  unchanged  com- 
position of  the  voltaic  couple,  a  uniform  temperature,  and 
employing  the  same  galvanometer.  The  apparently  constant 
numbers  thus  obtained  may  probably  be  used  as  tests  of  the 
purity  or  of  the  uniformity  of  composition  of  the  dissolved 
substances. 

The  "minimum-point"  varies  with — (1)  the  chemical  com- 
position of  the  liquid  ;  (2)  the  kind  of  positive  metal ;  (3)  to 
a  less  degree  with  the  kind  of  negative  metal  ;  (4)  the  tempera- 
ture at  the  surface  of  the  positive  metal,  and  at  that  of  the 
negative  one  ;  and  (5)  with  the  kind  of  galvanometer  employed. 

The  or. ler  of  the  degree  of  sensitiveness  is  manifestly  related 
to  that  of  the  degree  of  free  chemical  energy  of  the  liquid  ;  also 
to  the  atomic  and  molecular  weights  of  the  dissolved  substances, 
and  to  the  ordinary  chemical  groups  of  halogens.  The  greater 
the  degree  of  free  chemical  energy  of  the  dissolved  substance, 
and  the  greater  its  action  upon  the  positive  metal,  the  smaller 
the  proportion  of  it  required  to  change  the  potential. 

As  the  "minimum  point"  of  a  chemically  active  substance 
dissolved  in  water  is  usually  much  altered  by  adding  almost  any 
soluble  substance  to  the  mixture,  measurements  of  that  point  in 
a  number  of  liquids  at  a  given  temperature  with  the  same  voltaic 
pair  and  galvanometer  will  probably  throw  some  light  upon  the 
degree  of  chemical  freedom  of  substances  dissolved  in  water. 

"  On  the  Change  of  Potential  of  a  Voltaic  Couple  by  Variation 
of  Strength  of  its  Liquid."     By  Dr.  G.  Gore,  F. R.  S. 

This  paper  contains  a  series  of  tables  of  measurements  of  the 
electromotive  forces  of  a  voltaic  couple  composed  of  unamal- 
gamated zinc  and  platinum  in  distilled  water,  and  in  aqueous 
solutions  of  different  strengths  of  the  following  substances  : 
potassic  chlorate,  potassic  chloride,  hydrochloric  acid,  and 
bromine.  The  measurements  were  made  by  balancing  the 
potential  of  the  couple  by  that  of  a  suitable  thermo-electric  pile 
(Proc.  Birm.  Phil.  Soc.  vol.  iv.  p.  130)  through  an  ordinary 
astatic  galvanometer  of  about  100  ohms  resistance. 

The  following  are  the  minimum  proportions  of  those  substances 
required  to  change  the  potential  of  the  couple  in  water  :  potassic 
chlorate,  between  1  in  221  and  258  parts  of  water  ;  potassic 
chloride,  between  I  in  695,067  and  1,390,134;  hydrochloric 
acid,  between  1  in  9,300,000  and  9,388,185;  and  of  bromine, 
between  1  in  77,500,000  and  84,545,000  parts. 

With  each  of  these  substances  a  gradual  and  uniform  increase 
of  strength  of  the  solution  from  the  weakest  up  to  a  saturated 
one  was  attended  by  a  more  or  less  irregular  change  of  electro- 
motive force. 

By  plotting  the  quantities  of  dissolved  substance  as  ordinates 
to  the  electromotive  forces  as  abscissae,  each  substance  yielded 
a  different  curve  of  variation  of  electromotive  force  by  uniformly 
changing  the  strength  of  its  solution,  and  the  curve  was  charac- 
teristic of  the  substance.  As  the  least  addition  of  a  foreign 
soluble  substance  greatly  changed  the  "minimum-point,"  and 
altered  the  curve  of  variation  of  potential,  both  the  curve  and 
the  minimum  proportion  of  a  substance  required  to  upset  the 
balance  of  the  couple  in  water  may  probably  be  used  as  tests  of 
the  chemical  composition  of  the  substance,  and  as  means  of 
examining  its  state  of  combination  when  dissolved.  By  varying 
the  strength  of  the  solution  at  each  of  the  metals  separately,  a 


curve  of  change  of  potential  was  obtained  for  each  positive  metal, 
but  not  for  every  negative  one. 

"  Influence  of  the  Chemical  Energy  of  Electrolytes  upon  the 
Minimum-point  and  Change  of  Potential  of  a  Voltaic  Couple  in 
Water."     By  Dr.  G.  Gore,  F.K.S. 

By  means  of  a  zinc-platinum  voltaic  couple  in  distilled  water, 
with  its  electromotive  force  balanced  by  that  of  a  suitable 
thermo-electric  pile l  (Birm.  Phil.  Soc.  Proc.  vol.  iv.  p.  130), 
the  effect  of  several  groups  of  chemical  substances  upon  the 
potential  of  the  couple  was  examined.  Measurements  were 
made  of  the  electromotive  forces  of  a  series  of  strengths  of 
solution  of  each  substance,  and  the  results  are  given  in  a  series  of 
tables. 

The  minimum  proportions  of  substance  required  to  change  the 
potential  of  the  couple  in  water  were  as  follows  : — 

Potassic    iodate,  between  1  in  443  and  494 

,,      bromate  ,,  1  ,,  344  ,,  384 

,,      chlorate  ,,  1  ,,  221  ,,  258 

,,      iodide  ,,  1  ,,  15,500  ,,  17,222 

,,      bromide  ,,  I  ,,  66,428  ,,  67,391 

,,      chloride  ,,  I  ,,  695,067  ,,  704,540 

Iodine      ...  ,,  I  ,,  3,100,000  ,,  3,521,970 

Bromine  ...  ,,  I  ,,  77,500,000  ,,  84,545,000 

Chlorine  ...  ,,  1  ,,  1,264,000,000  ,,  1,300,000,000 

On  comparing  these  numbers  we  find  that  the  proportion  of 
substance  required  to  upset  the  voltaic  balance  was  largest  with 
the  oxygen  salts,  intermediate  with  the  haloid  ones,  and  least 
with  the  free  elementary  halogens.  It  was  smaller  the  greater  the 
degree  of  chemical  energy  of  the  substance  ;  thus  it  was  about  400 
times  less  with  chlorine  than  with  iodine.  And  it  was  smaller 
the  greater  the  degree  of  freedom  to  exert  that  energy  ;  thus  it 
was  about  5,416,000  times  less  with  free  chlorine  than  with 
potassic  chlorate,  or  1,570,000  times  less  than  with  the  combined 
chlorine  of  the  chlorate,  and  about  185  times  smaller  than  with 
potassic  chloride,  or  88  times  less  than  with  the  combined 
chlorine  of  that  salt. 

The  order  or  curve  of  variation  of  potential  by  uniform  increase 
of  strength  of  the  solution  was  different  with  each  substance, 
and  was  apparently  characteristic  of  the  body  in  each  case.  A 
great  number  of  such  representative  curves  might  be  obtained 
with  a  zinc  platinum  or  other  voltaic  couple  in  different 
electrolytes. 

June  21. — "Further  Researches  on  the  Physiology  of  the 
Invertebrata."  By  A.  B.  Griffiths,  Ph.D.,  F.R.S.  (Edin.), 
F. C.S.  (Lond.  and  Paris),  Principal  and  Lecturer  on  Chemistry 
and  Biology,  School  of  Science,  Lincoln ;  Member  of  the 
Physico-Chemical  Society  of  St.  Petersburg.  Communicated 
by  Sir  Richard  Owen,  K.C.B.,  F.R.S. 

I.    The  Renal  Organs  of  the  Asleridea. 

The  digestive  apparatus  of  Uraster  rubens  (one  of  the  Aste- 
ridea)  is  briefly  described  as  follows  : — The  capacious  mouth, 
found  upon  the  oral  side,  leads  into  a  short  oesophagus,  which 
opens  into  a  wider  sacculated  stomach  with  thin  distensible  walls. 
There  are  five  large  stomach  sacs  ;  each  of  these  is  situated  in 
radial  position  and  passes  into  the  base  of  the  corresponding  ray. 
Each  sac  or  pouch  is  kept  in  its  place  by  two  retractor  muscles 
fixed  to  the  median  ridge  of  the  ray,  which  lie  between  the  two 
ampulla?  or  water-sacs.  Passing  towards  the  aboral  side,  the 
stomach  forms  the  well-known  pentagonal  "pyloric  sac."  The 
pyloric  sac  gives  off  five  radial  ducts,  each  of  which  divides  into 
two  tubules  bearing  a  number  of  lateral  pancreatic  follicles, 
whose  secretions  are  poured  into  the  pyloric  sac  and  intestine. 
The  author  has  proved  the  nature  of  this  secretion  to  be  similar 
to  the  pancreatic  fluid  of  the  Vertebrata  (Edinburgh  Roy.  Soc. 
Proc,  No.  125,  p.  120).  Recently,  the  secretion  found  in  the 
five  pouches  of  the  stomach  (of  Uraster)  has  been  submitted  to 
a  careful  chemical  and  microscopical  examination.  With  a 
quantity  of  the  secretion  uric  acid  crystals  were  extracted  by  the 
same  methods  as  described  in  his  previous  papers  (Proc.  Roy. 
Soc,  vol.  xlii.  p.  392,  vol.  xxxviii.  p.  187). 

The  tests  proved  the  entire  absence  of  urea  in  the  secretion 
under  examination.  No  guanin  or  calcium  phosphate  could  be 
detected  in  the  secretion,  although  the  author  has  found  the 
latter  compound  as  an  ingredient  in  the  renal  secretions  of  the 
Cephalopoda  and  the  Lamellibranchiata  (Edinburgh  Roy.  Soc. 
Proc,  vol.  xiv.  p.  230). 

»  This  instrument  i  manufactured  by  Messrs.  Nalder  Brcs.,  Horseferry 
Road,  Westminster* 


286 


NATURE 


[July  19,  1888 


From  this  investigation,  the  isolation  of  uric  acid  proves  the 
renal  function  of  the  five  pouches  of  the  stomach  of  the  Asteridea. 
These  pouches  are  the  homologues  of  the  organs  of  Bojanus 
and  nephridia  in  the  Mollusca,  the  green  glands  of  the  Crustacea, 
and  the  segmental  organs  of  worms. 

II.  The  Salivary  Glands  of  Sepia  officinalis  and  Patella 
vulgata. 
The  author  has  already  made  a  complete  study  of  the 
nephridia  and  the  so-called  "livers"  in  both  these  forms  of 
the  Invertebrata  (see  the  memoirs,  loc.  cit.).  Since  then  he  has 
studied  the  chemico-physiological  reactions  of  the  secretion 
produced  by  the  salivary  glands  of  the  cuttle-fish  and  the 
limpet  ;  these  organisms  representing  two  important  orders  of 
the  Mollusca. 

1.  Sepia  officinalis. 

There  are  two  pairs  of  salivary  glands  in  Sepia  officinalis. 
The  posterior  pair,  which  are  the  largest,  lie  on  either  side  of 
the  CESophagus.  The  secretion  of  the  posterior  glands  is  poured 
into  the  oesophagus,  while  the  secretion  of  the  smaller  anterior 
pair  of  glands  passes  directly  into  the  buccal  cavity.  .  This 
secretion  was  tested  by  similar  reactions  to  those  described  in  a 
former  paper  (Edinburgh  Roy.  S.oc.  Proc,  vol.  xiv.  p.  230)  and 
with  similar  results.  ... 

There  is  .much  in  favour  of  the  supposition  that  the  diastatic 
ferment  found  in  these  secretions  is  produced  as  the  result  of  the 
action  of  nerve-fibres  (frpm  the  inferior  buccal  ganglion)  upon 
the  protoplasm  of  the  epithelium  cells  of  the  glands. 

The  author  intends  to  examine  various  organs  in  other  genera 
and  species  of  the  Decapoda  ;  especially  those  inhabiting  the 
Japanese  seas. 

2.  Patella  vulgata. 

The  two  salivary  glands  of  Patella  are  well-marked  and 
situated  anteriorly  to  the  pharynx,  lying  beneath  the  pericardium 
on  one  side,  and  the  renal  and  anal  papillae  on  the  other.  They 
are  of  a  yellowish-brown  colour  and  give  off  four  ducts.  The 
secretion  of  these  glands  was  examined  by  the  same  method 
applied  to  the  salivary  glands  of  Sepia  officinalis,  and  with 
similar  results. 

The  following  table  represents  the  constituents  found  in  the 
salivary  secretions  of  the  two  orders  of  the  Mollusca  aleady 
investigated  : — 


Cephalopoda. 

Gasteropoda. 

(«)      Dibran- 

chiata. 

(a)    Pulmogas- 
teropoda.' 

(i)      Branchio- 
gasteropoda. 

Soluble  diastatic  fer- 

present 
present 
present 
present 

present 
? 

present 
present 
present 
present 

Calcium  phosphate.. 

From  these  investigations,  the  salivary  glands  of  the  Cephalo- 
poda and  Gasteropoda  are  similar  in  physiological  function  to 
the  salivary  glands  of  the  Vertebrata. 

III.    The  "Liver"  of  Carcinus  mcenas. 

The  "  liver  "  of  Carcinus  mcenas  consists  of  two  large  glands 
on  each  side  of  the  stomach,  and  extending  the  whole  length  of 
the  cephalo-thorax.  These  organs  are  of  a  yellow  colour,  and 
consist  of  numerous  csecal  tubes  arranged  in  tufts  which  are 
easily  seen  in  a  dissection  beneath  the  surface  of  water. 

The  secretion  of  the  so-called  "liver"  of  Carcinus  mcenas, 
when  freshly  killed,  gives  an  acid  reaction. 

From  the  reactions  detailed  in  the  paper  the  conclusion  to  be 
drawn  is  that  the  so-called  "liver"  of  Carcinus  maznas  is  pan- 
creatic in  function,  i.e.  its  secretion  is  more  like  the  secretions 
of  the  pancreas  of  the  Vertebrata  than  those  of  a  true  liver. 

Some  biologists  look  upon  the  vertebrate  liver,  pancreas,  and 
salivary  glands  as  differentiated  bodies  of  an  original  pancreas 
of  the  Invertebrata.  But  have  not  very  many  forms  of  the 
lower  animals  similar  salivary  glands  to  those  found  in  the 
Vertebrata?  And  is  not  the  so-called  "liver"  of  the  Inverte- 
brata a  true  pancreas  capable  of  producing  the  same  chemical 
and  physiological  reactions  as  the  pancreas  of  higher  forms  ? 
1  Edinburgh  Proc.  Roy.  Soc,  vol.  xiv.  p.  236. 


Physical  Society,  June  23. — Prof.  Reinold,  F.R.  S.,  Presi- 
dent, in  the  chair. — The  following  communications  were  read  : — 
The  photometry  of  colour,  by  Captain  Abney,  F.R.  S.  This 
relates  to  the  measurement  of  light  reflected  from  coloured  sur- 
faces and  pigments  as  compared  with  the  quantity  reflected 
from  white  or  black.  The  apparatus  used  in  the  investigation 
consisted  of  a  spectroscope  and  camera  similar  to  those  used  by 
the  author  for  the  production  of  a  patch  of  monochromatic  light, 
and  a  small  shadow  photometer  served  for  the  measurement. 
The  screen  was  made  of  two  parts — one  the  colour  to  be  tested, 
and  the  other  white  or  black  according  to  the  standard  being 
used  ;  and  the  stick  was  arranged  so  that  the  shadows  fell  near 
the  junction  of  the  two  parts.  Light  reflected  from  the  surface 
of  the  first  glass  prism  served  to  illuminate  one  shadow  ;  and  for 
the  other,  monochromatic  light  of  any  desired  colour  could  be 
used.  The  intensities  were  adjusted  to  equality  by  cutting  off 
more  or  less  of  the  stronger  light  by  means  of  a  revolving  wheel 
with  adjustable  sectors,  the  opening  of  the  sectors  being  a 
measure  of  the  luminosity  of  the  pigment.  In  another  arrange- 
ment a  double-image  prism  was  used  to  separate  the  spectrum 
into  two  parts.  Monochromatic  light  from  one  part  passed 
direct  to  the  screen  through  sectors  in  a  rotating  wheel,  and 
monochromatic  light  from  the  other  spectrum  was  reflected  on  the 
screen  at  a  sufficient  azimuth  to  give  a  separate  shadow,  by 
means  of  two  total  reflection  prisms.  The  losses  by  reflection 
were  allowed  for  by  observing  the  position  of  the  adjustable 
sectors  required  to  give  equal  intensities  on  a  white  screen.  From 
the  results  obtained  "colour  curves  "  can  be  plotted  for  different 
pigments,  &c,  and  templates  constructed  which,  when  rotated 
in  the  path  of  a  spectrum,  reproduce  the  corresponding  colour. 
Carmine,  sky-blue,  and  gold  were  thus  reproduced.  By  means 
of  templates  constructed  from  "colour  curves"  any  colour  may 
be  reproduced  at  any  future  time.  In  course  of  the  experiments 
many  interesting  observations  on  colour-blindness  have  been  ob- 
tained by  the  author  and  General  Festing,  some  of  which  were 
described.  A  question  was  asked  as  to  whether  it  was  possible 
to  reproduce  any  given  colour,  for  no  two  arc  lights  could  be  ex- 
pected to  give  exactly  equal  intensities  in  all  parts  of  the  spectrum. 
Dr.  Thompson  requested  information  regarding  the  effect  of 
absorption  by  the  different  thicknesses  of  the  prism  through 
which  the  light  passed,  and  thought  the  results  obtained  might 
be  different  if  prisms  of  other  materials  were  used.  The  fact 
mentioned  in  the  paper  as  to  the  sky  being  greenish  is  well 
known  to  artists,  who  usually  mix  cobalt  blue  with  yellow  to 
produce  the  required  tint.  Dr.  Thompson  also  reminded  the 
members  of  an  experiment  he  brought  before  the  Society  some 
years  ago,  in  which  grass  seen  through  a  solution  of  perman- 
ganate of  potash  appears  bright  crimson  when  compared  with  red 
colours  seen  through  the  same  solution.  In  reply.  Captain  Abney 
said  that  colours  could  be  imitated  whatever  the  source  used  to 
produce  the  spectrum,  for  the  resulting  colour  is  the  same  as  that 
seen  when  the  "original  "  is  viewed  by  light  from  that  source. 
Regarding  absorption,  &c,  by  the  prism,  he  did  not  think  any 
appreciable  difference  was  produced,  for  the  results  obtained 
when  using  the  recomposed  spectrum  as  white  light  were  the 
same  as  those  got  by  using  light  reflected  from  the  surface  of  the 
first  prism.  In  conclusion,  he  directed  the  attention  of  physicists 
to  Lord  Rayleigh's  papers  on  sky  colours,  &c,  published  in  the 
Phil.  Mag.,  which  would  well  repay  very  careful  study. — Note 
on  continuous  current  transformers,  by  Prof.  S.  P.  Thompson. 
Two  classes  of  transformers  are  considered,  viz.  motor-generators 
and  commuting  transformers,  in  which  a  two-circuit  armature  is 
fixed  in  a  revolving  magnetic  field.  Such  a  field  may  be  pro- 
duced by  using  a  fixed  gramme  ring  as  the  field- magnet,  and 
rotating  the  brushes  round  its  commutator.  The  formulae  ob- 
tained apply  equally  to  both  classes.  If  cx  c2  be  the  numbers  of 
primary  and  secondary  wires  on  outside  of  armature  ;  Ej  E2, 
e\  e2>  h  *2>  ri  r-2>  tne  E.M.F.,  potential  difference  at  ter- 
minals, currents,  and  resistances  of  primary  and  secondary  re- 
spectively, then  it  is  shown  that  <?2  =  kex  -  [r3  +  k"r^)i,  where 

k  —   £?,  which  is  called  the  "co-efficient  of  transformation."  Thus 

the  potential  difference  is  the  same  as  if  the  dynamo  part  had  its 
resistance  increased  by  k2rv  As  the  currents  in  the  primary 
and  secondary  are  in  opposite  directions,  the  effective  self- 
induction  will  be  very  small,  hence  such  machines  can  be  run 
with  little  or  no  sparking.  In  a  previous  paper  by  the  same 
author,  similar  properties  as  regards  self-induction  and  resistance 
were  shown  to  exist  in  alternating  current  transformers.  From 
the  above  equation  it  is  evident  that  a  motor-generator  cannot  be 


July  19,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


287 


made  to  give  constant  potential  when  supplied  at  constant 
potential  except  when  the  internal  resistances  are  very  small  ;  but 
by  over-compounding  the  distributing  dynamo  the  desired  result 
may  be  obtained.  Mr.  Kapp  agretd  with  the  author  as  regards 
motor-generators  running  with  little  sparking,  but  thought  the 
great  difficulty  in  using  them  commercially  would  be  in  preserving 
the  insulation  between  the  circuits,  if  anything  like  2000  volts 
were  used  in  the  primary.  He  also  mentioned  the  method  of 
producing  a  rotating  field  by  alternating  currents,  recently  de- 
scribed by  Prof.  Ferraris  and  Mr.  Tesla,  and  thought  it  would 
be  preferable  to  the  one  devised  by  the  author  of  the  paper.  In 
reply,  Dr.  Thompson  j-aid  that  insulation  could  be  easily  main- 
tained between  the  core  and  windings  of  brush  armatures,  and 
saw  no  reason  why  it  should  present  very  serious  difficulties  in 
continuous  current  transformeis. — On  an  optical  model,  by 
Prof.  A.  W.  Riicker,  F. R.S.  The  model  exhibited  and  de- 
scribed is  to  illustrate  the  character  of  the  vibrations  in  a  crystal 
cut  parallel  to  the  axis,  when  plane-polarized  light  is  incident 
upon  it.  A  rectangular  glass  box  represents  the  crystal,  and 
glass  plates  placed  at  short  distances  from  each  end  imitate 
^cd  Nicols.  A  rod,  carrying  coloured  circular  and  elliptical 
rings  and  straight  bars,  passes  along  the  axis  of  the  box.  These 
rings  are  intended  to  indicate  the  character  of  the  vibration  at  the 
different  points  at  which  they  are  placed.  The  length  of  the 
crystal  is  supposed  to  be  such  that  plane-polarized  red  rays 
emerge  plane-polarized  in  the  initial  plane  after  being  succes- 
sively plane,  elliptical,  circular,  elliptical  plane,  elliptical 
circular,  elliptical  and  plane-polarized  within  the  crystal.  All 
the  light  is  quenched  by  the  analysing  Nicol.  Supposing  light 
of  greater  frequency  (say  green)  to  be  used,  another  rod  with 
green  ellipses,  &c,  is  placed  in  the  box,  and  illustrates  that  such 
light  emerges  elliptically  polarized,  one  component  only  of  which 
is  stopped  by  the  analyzer.  This  shows  how  plane-polarized 
white  light,  when  passed  through  crystals  placed  betwen  Nicols, 
may  become  coloured. — On  a  new  barometer,  by  Mr.  T.  H. 
Blakesley.  A  uniform  glass  tube  is  sealed  at  one  end  and  a 
thread  of  mercury  introduced,  inclosing  a  quantity  of  air.  An 
observation  is  taken  by  noting  the  volumes,  A  and  B,  of  the  in- 
closed air  (as  indicated  by  the  divisions  on  the  scale)  when  the 
tube  is  placed  vertically  with  its  closed  and  open  ends  upward 
respectively.     The  height,  H,  of  the  b.irometer  is  given  by  the 

A  +  B 
formula  II  =  -  /,   where   /   is  the  length   of  the   mercury 

A  -  B  &  J 

column  in  the  tube.  For  convenience,  /  is  made  10  inches.  The 
whole  instrument  is  very  portable,  weighing  only  6  ounces,  and 
measuring  about  18  inches  long.—  In  the  absence  of  the  author, 
:a  paper  on  the  existence  of  an  undulatory  movement  accompany- 
ing the  electric  spark,  by  Dr.  Ernest  H.  Cook,  was  taken  as  read. 
When  sparks  pass  between  two  points  placed  above  a  plate  on 
which  some  powdered  substance  has  been  scattered,  the  particles 
arrange  themselves  in  circular  lines  approximately  concentric 
with  the  projection  of  the  middle  line  joining  the  two  points. 
The  proximity  of  the  lines  is  found  to  be  very  nearly  constant  for 
the  same  powder,  independent  of  the  intensity  of  the  spark  used, 
or  the  material  of  the  plate.  Different  powders  give  different 
numbers  of  lines  per  inch,  and  mixtures,  numbers  between  those 
corresponding  to  their  constituents.  A  great  number  of  sub- 
stances have  been  tried,  giving  numbers  between  forty  and  eighty- 
eii;ht  per  inch.  These  extreme  numbers  were  obtained  for  chalk 
and  silica  respectively.  The  author  has  fcund  no  satisfactory 
hypothesis  by  which  to  explain  the  results.  A  number  of  photo- 
graphs accompany  the  paper,  showing  the  character  of  the 
figures  produced.  At  the  meeting,  an  apparatus  made  by  the 
late  Dr.  Guthrie  was  exhibited,  with  which  similar  figures  to 
those  described  in  the  paper  could  be  obtained.  It  consists  of  a 
shallow  elliptical  dish  covered  by  a  glass  plate.  Sparks  are 
passed  between  two  small  knots  across  one  focus,  and  powder, 
sprinkled  on  the  bottom,  forms  into  circles  about  the  other 
focus. 

Anthropological  Institute,  June  26.— Francis  Galton, 
F.R.S.,  President,  in  the  chair. — Mr.  Arthur  S.  Burr  ex- 
hibited a  collection  of  pottery  and  other  objects  from  recent 
excavations  in  New  Mexico.  —  Mr.  II.  O.  Forbes  exhibited 
a  series  of  photographs  taken  by  him  in  New  Guinea. — A 
paper  on  the  Nicobar  Islanders,  by  Mr.  E.  H.  Man,  was  read. 
Mr.  Man  has  been  resident  at  the  Nicobars  for  periods  amount- 
ing in  all  to  about  7  years,  viz.,  1871-88  ;  during  that  time  he 
has  prepared  a  vocabulary  containing  6000-7000  words,  and  he 
has  thus  been  in  a  position  readily  to  make  inquiries  from  the 


natives  on  the  various  points  of  ethnological  interest  connected 
with  their  constitution  and  their  culture,  and  to  substantiate  from 
a  variety  of  independent  sources  all  the  information  he  obtained. 
After  giving  a  description  of  the  islands  and  sketch  of  their 
history,  Mr.  Man  proceeds,  working  on  the  lines  laid  down  in 
the  Anthropological  Notes  and  Queries,  to  a  careful  considera- 
tion of  the  constitution  of  the  Nicobarese,  which  he  prefaces 
with  an  outline  of  certain  facts  and  ethnic  characteristics  in 
support  of  the  racial  affinities  of  the  Nicobarese  with  the  Indo- 
Chinese  races.  From  measurements  taken  of  150-200  indi- 
viduals at  the  different  islands,  Mr.  Man  gives  the  average  height 
of  the  Nicobarese  men  as  5f,  and  of  the  women  as  5  feet,  a 
result  which  disproves  the  statements  of  earlier  writers  regarding 
the  disproportion  which  exists  between  the  sexes  in  respect  of 
size:  The  coloration  of  the  skin  pigment  of  the  face,  chest, 
back,  arms,  and  thighs  is  found  to  differ  in  a  more  or  less 
marked  degree  in  each  individual  ;  the  two  former  are  usually  of 
a  distinctly  lighter  shade  than  the  last  three.  Another  error 
needing  correction  is  the  assertion  that  these  people  can  carry 
without  any  trouble  200  cocoa  nuts,  or  5  cwts.,  whereas  it 
appears  that  in  spite  of  their  undoubtedly  fine  physical  develop- 
ment the  maximum  load  which  a  Nicobarese  can  carry  may  be 
reckoned  as  from  160-180  lbs.  In  the  absence  of  statistics  it  is 
difficult  to  speak  with  certainty,  but  from  personal  observations 
extending  over  17  years  it  would  seem  that  the  average  length 
of  life  among  these  islanders  is  higher  rather  than  lower  than  it 
is  among  the  natives  of  the  adjacent  continents  :  the  extreme 
limit  of  life  actually  noted  is  a  little  over  70,  and  80  may  be 
regarded  as  the  maximum  ever  attained.  With  reference  to  the 
numerical  strength  of  the  aboriginal  population,  a  census  taken  by 
Mr.  Man  a  year  or  two  ago  proves  that  nearly  half  the  popula- 
tion of  the  group  is  contained  in  Car  Nicobar,  where  a  decided 
increase  is  taking  place,  as  is  also  the  case  at  Chowra  Teressa 
and  Bompoka.  In  the  central  and  southern  portions  of  the 
Archipelago  the  small  ratio  of  the  juvenile  element  points, 
however,  to  a  diminution  in  those  islands  of  the  number  of 
inhabitants.  It  is  satisfactory  to  learn  that,  though  not  entirely 
exempt  fiom  the  evils  which  seem  inseparably  connected  with 
advance  in  civilization,  it  does  not  appear  that  the  Nicobarese 
have  suffered  either  physically  or  morally  from  their  contact  with 
Europeans  during  the  past  19  years. 

Entomological  Society,  July  4.-Dr.  D.  Sharp,  President,  in 
the  chair. — Mr.  Enock  exhibited  male  and  female  specimens 
of  a  spider  received  from  Colonel  Le  Grice,  R  A.,  who  had 
captured  them  at  Folkestone  on  May  27  last.  They  had  been 
submitted  to  the  Rev.  O.  Pickard-Cambridge,  F.  R.S.,  who 
identified  them  as  Pellenes  tripunctatus,  a  species  new  to 
Britain.  Mr.  Enock  also  exhibited  specimens  of  Merisits 
destructor  (Riley),  an  American  parasite  of  the  Hessian  fly. — 
Mr.  Wallis-Kew  exhibited  larva;  of  Adimonia  tanaccti  found  in 
Lincolnshire  feeding  on  Scabious.— Mr.  Porritt  exhibited  a 
number  of  specimens  of  Arctia  mendica,  bred  from  a  batch  of 
eggs  found  last  year  on  a  species  of  Rumcx  at  Huddersfield. 
Mr.  Porritt  said  that  this  species,  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Huddersfield,  was  often  more  spotted  than  the  typical  form,  but 
he  had  never  before  seen  anything  approaching  in  extent  the 
variation  exhibited  in  these  bred  specimens.  Out  of  forty-four 
specimens  not  more  than  eight  were  like  the  ordinary  type  of 
the  species. — Mr.  M'Lachlan  exhibited  specimens  of  Falirtgeuia 
longicauda  received  from  Rotterdam. — Mr.  Jacoby  exhibited 
the  following  species  of  Phytophagous  Coleoptera  from  Africa 
and  Madagascar,  recently  described  by  him  in  the  Transactions 
of  the  Society,  viz.  : — Lema  latieollis,  Cladocera  nigripeuuis, 
Oediovychis  inadagaseariensis,  Blepharida  intermedia,  B.  nigro- 
mactda'a,  Chrysomela  madagaseariensis,  Sagraopaca,  Blepharida 
oruaticollis,  B.  laterimaculata,  Mesodonta  submetalliea,  Schemati- 
zclla  vir.dis,  Spiiocephahis  viridipennis,  Apophylia  smaragidi- 
peiniis,  Acthonea  variabilis. — M.  Alfred  Wailly  exhibited  a  large 
number  of  species  of  Lepidoptera  and  Coleoptera,  recently 
received  by  him  from  Assam,  from  the  West  Coast  of  Africa, 
and  from  South  Africa.  He  also  exhibited  eggs  and  living  larvae 
of  Bombyx  cytheraa,  and  made  remarks  on  the  life-history  of 
the  species. 

Mineralogical  Society,  June  28. — Prof.  Jas.  Geikie, 
F.R.S.,  in  the  chair. — The  following  papers  were  read: — A 
mangano  magnesian  magnetite,  by  Prof.  A.  H.  Chester,  Hamil- 
ton College,  U.S.A. — The  distribution  and  origin  of  the  mineral 
albatilein  Ross-shire,  by  Hugh  Miller,  F.R.S.,  of  H.  M.  Geol. 
Survey. — Elaterite,  a  mineral  tar  in  old  red  sandstone,  Ross-shire, 


288 


NATURE 


[July  19,  1888 


by  Mr.  W.  Morrison,  Dingwall  Academy. — These  papers  were 
accompanied  by  various  analyses,  by  Prof.  J.  Macadam. — The 
rock-forming  ieldspars  and  their  determination,  by  Mr.  Alex. 
Johnstone,  and  A.  B.  Griffiths,  F.R.S.E. — A  Scottish  locality  for 
boruite,  with  analyses  by  Prof.  Macadam,  by  Rev.  W.  W. 
Peyton. — Minerals  of  the  Treshinish  Isles,  by  Prof.  Heddle. — 
On  the  zeolites  of  rye  water,  Ayrshire,  by  Prof.  Heddle. — Prof. 
Macadam  communicated  various  analyses  of  coals,  of  head  dies, 
and  of  diatomite. — Minerals  were  exhibited  by  the  Duke  of 
Argyll,  Dr.  Balfour,  Prof.  Macadam,  Mr.  Peyton,  and  Dr. 
Black. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Science,  July  9. — M.  Janssen,  President,  in 
the  chair.  —  On  cyclones,  by  M.  Mascart.  Referring  to  M. 
Faye's  last  communication,  the  author  accepts  as  a  concession 
the  remark  that  at  all  events  in  fixed  depressions  currents  arise 
about  the  periphery,  which  have  a  more  or  less  convergent 
tendency.  He  also  quotes  the  full  text  from  Mohn's  work, 
showing  that  this  meteorologist  admits  an  ascending  motion  in 
tropical  cyclones,  and  is  consequently  opposed  to  M.  Faye's 
theory. — On  the  figure  of  the  earth,  by  M.  H.  Poincare.  The 
object  of  these  calculations  is  to  ascertain  whether  it  be  possible 
to  find  a  law  for  the  varying  density  in  the  interior  of  the  globe 
which  shall  satisfy  at  once  (1)  Clairaut's  equation ;  (2)  the 
observed  value  yfj  of  the  flattening  ;  (3)  the  observed  value 
305*6  of  the  constant  of  the  precession.  The  conclusion  arrived 
at  is  that  no  hypothesis  on  the  law  of  densities  will  satisfy  these 
values. — The  number  of  centenarians  in  France  according  to 
the  census  of  1886,  by  M.  Emile  Levasseur.  Of  the  184 
returned  as  centenarians,  101  are  shown  to  have  been  classed  in 
this  category  by  error.  For  67  of  the  others  no  documentary 
evidence  was  forthcoming,  leaving  16  whose  claim  to  the  honour 
appeared  to  be  fairly  well  established.  Joseph  Ribas,  the 
oldest,  was  born  at  San  Estevan  de  Litera,  in  Spain,  on  August 
20,  1770,  and  was  still  living  at  Tarbes  in  1888,  and  is  con- 
sequently now  close  upon  118  years  old.  The  greater  proportion 
belong  to  the  south-western  provinces,  and  as  far  as  can  be 
judged  from  available  data  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
they  are  either  more  or  less  numerous  now  than  in  former 
times. — Formula  for  the  calculation  of  longitudes  by  means  of 
chronometers,  by  M.  Caspari.  By  the  formula  here  worked  out 
the  author  has  determined  a  correction  of  2" '45  for  Hai-Phong, 
Tongking,  which  differs  little  from  the  2"'93  which  M.  La  Porte 
has  recently  obtained  by  the  telegraph. — On  the  position  of 
Timbuktu,  by  M.  Caron.  The  approximate  position  of  this 
place  is  found  to  be  160  49'  N.  lat.  ;  5°  12'  W.  long.,  which 
differs  considerably  from  Barth's  180  3'  45"  N.  ;  40  5'  10"  W. — 
On  the  determination  of  the  constants  and  dynamic  coefficient 
of  elasticity  of  steel,  continued,  by  M.  E.  Mercadier.  These 
researches  lead  to  the  general  conclusion  that  the  strictly  clastic 
properties  shown  in  vibratory  or  other  phenomena  of  a  transitory 
nature  should  be  carefully  distinguished  from  the  physical 
properties  accompanied  by  permanent  distortion.  The  former 
vary  but  slightly,  the  latter  considerably  in  the  different  kinds  of 
hard  and  soft  steel. — On  the  propagation  of  the  sound  produced  by 
firearms,  by  M.  de  Labouret.  The  apparent  increase  of  velocity  is 
explained  with  M.  Journee  on  the  hypothesis  that  the  projectile 
at  each  successive  instant  of  its  motion  through  space  is  the  centre 
of  a  fresh  concussion.  The  series  of  observations  here  recorded 
gives  results  for  the  velocity  of  the  sound,  which  are  mainly  in 
accordance  with  the  theoretic  calculations. — A  new  method  for 
the  measurement  of  the  electric  resistance  of  saline  solutions,  by 
MM.  E.  Bouty  and  L.  Poincare.  A  process  is  described  by 
means  of  which  the  difficulties  may  be  overcome,  which  are  met 
with  in  the  application  of  ordinary  methods  to  salts  in  solution  at 
temperatures  ranging  from  3000  to  5000  C.  The  results  agree 
sufficiently  well  v\  ith  those  previously  obtained  by  M.  Foussereau 
by  a  different  process  for  temperatures  from  329°  to  355°  C. — 
Actino-electric  researches,  continued,  by  M.  A.  Stoletow.  The 
author  here  describes  an  apparatus  constructed  by  him  for  the 
purpose  of  studying  the  actino-electric  currents  in  diverse  gases 
and  vapours,  and  under  diverse  pressures.  At  ordinary  pressure 
he  finds  little  difference  between  dry  air,  moist  air,  and  hydrogei, 
while  for  carbonic  acid  the  current  is  nearly  twice  as  strong. — 
On  some  compounds  of  yttrium,  by  M.  A.  Duboin.  To  the  few 
combinations  of  yttria  hitherto  obtained  by  the  dry  process  the 
author  here  adds  the  silicate  of  yttria,  gadolinite  of  pure  yttr.'a, 
and  the  crystallized  oxide  of  yttrium. — Syntheses  by  means  01 
cyanacetic     ether,    by    M.     Alb.     Haller.      By     the     process 


already  described  for  the  preparation  of  the  corresponding 
benzoyl,  acetyl,  propionyl,  and  other  ethers,  the  author  has  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  the  synthesis  of  the  orthotoluyl,  phenylace- 
tyl,  cinnamyl,  and  dicinnamyl  cyanacetic  ethers. — On  the 
alkaloids  of  cod  liver  oil,  by  MM.  Arm.  Gautier  and  L.  Mour- 
gues.  It  is  shown  that  this  substance  contains  several  alkaloids, 
some  very  active  :  but  the  present  paper  deals  mainly  with  the 
leucomaines  obtained  by  the  authors  from  the  yellowish  oils 
yielded  both  by  the  Norwegian  and  Newfoundland  cod. — On 
paradoxal  deafness  and  its  treatment,  by  M.  Boucheron.  This 
curious  affection,  the  paracousia  of  Willis,  in  which  the  patient 
is  deaf  to  words  uttered  in  the  silence  of  a  room,  but  not  in  a 
noisy  street,  is  here  carefully  studied  and  found  to  be  a  variety 
of  otopiesis.  —  A  fishing  basket  for  deep  sea  hauls,  and  an  electric 
apparatus  for  illuminating  the  oceanic  depths  are  described  and 
illustrated,  the  former  by  Prince  Albert  of  Monaco,  the  latter  by 
M.  P.  Regnard. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Tabular  List  of  Australian  Birds:  E.  P.  Ramsay  (Sydney).  —  Flora  of  the 
North-East  of  Ireland:  Stewart  and  Corry(  Belfast  Naturalists'  Field  Club). — 
Lewis's  Medical  and  Scientific  Library  Catalogue  (Lewis). — Charles  A.  Gillig's- 
Tours  and  Excursions  in  Great  Britain  :  S.  F.  Smart  (United  States  Exchange). 
— Numerical  Examples  in  Practical  Mechanics  and  Machine  Design  :  R.  G. 
Blaine  (Cassell). — Austrian  Health  Resorts  :  W.  F.  Rae  (Chapman  and 
Hall). — An  Illustrated  Manual  of  British  Birds,  Part  4  :  H.  Saunders  (Gur- 
ney  and  Jackson). — Euclid 's  Method  or  the  proper  way  to  treat  on  Geometrv  : 
A.  H.  Blunt. — Experimente  iiber  die  Bacterienfeindlichen  Einfliisse  des 
Thierischen  Korpers :  Dr.  G.  Nuttall. — Annals  of  Botany,  vol.2,  No.  5 
(Frowde). — Annalen  der  Physik  und  Chemie,  i883.  No.  ?>b  (Leipzig). —  The 
Auk,  vol.  v.  No.  3  (New  York). — Notes  from  the  Leyden  Museum,  vol.  x. 
No.  3  (Leyden).— Studies  from  the  Biological  Laboratory,  Johns  Hopkins. 
University,  vol.  iv.  No.  4  (Baltimore). 


CONTENTS.  page 

The  Choice  of  a  Chemist  to  the  Navy 265 

New  Works  on  Le-pidoptera 266 

Factors  in  Life 267 

The  Landslip  at  Zug 268 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Bamford  :  "Turbans  and  Tails" 269 

Salomons:  "  The  Photographer's  Note-book  "    .    .    .    269 
Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

"Cloud  Electric  Potential." — E.    Douglas   Archi- 
bald      269 

Transparency  of  the  Atmosphere. — J.  Parnell  .  .  .  270 
Preserving  the  Colour  of  Flowers. — A.  W.  Buckland  270 
Distribution  of  Animals  and  Plants  by  Ocean  Currents. 

Isaac  C.  Thompson 270 

A  Curious  Resemblance — W,  J.  Lockyer 270 

The  "Sky-coloured  Clouds."— T.  W.  Backhouse  .    270 

An  Unusual  Rainbow. — E.  L.  Layard 270 

Timber,  and  some  of  its  Diseases.     IX.    By  Prof.  H. 

Marshall  Ward,  F.R.S.  .    .    , 270 

Michell's  Problem.     By  Sydney  Lupton 272 

Vegetable  Rennet.     By  Prof.  J.  R.  Green 274 

The  Meteoric  Season.     By  W.  F.  Denning    .    .    .    .    : 

Notes 

Astronomical     Phenomena    for     the     Week      1888 

July  22-28 

Geographical  Notes 

The  Multiplication  and  Division  of  Concrete  Quanti- 
ties.    By  Prof.  A.  Lodge 2 

Discovery   of   Elephas    primigenius    associated    with 

Flint  Implements  at  Southall 283 

The  Poisonous  Snakes  of  the  Bombay  Presidency  .    2S4 

Scientific  Serials 2S4 

Societies  and  Academies 2S4 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received     ....    •   288 


NA  TURE 


289 


SCIENTIFIC  ASSESSORS  IN  COURTS  OF 
JUSTICE. 

PUBLIC  attention  has  lately  been  called,  by  various 
incidents,  to  the  system  under  which  the  trial  of 
scientific  cases,  and  especially  those  in  which  the  respec- 
tive rights  of  rival  inventors  are  involved,  is  at  present 
conducted  in  courts  of  justice.  Last  week  Mr.  Justice 
Kay  decided  a  case  in  which  the  Edison-Swan  United 
Electric  Company  were  plaintiffs,  which  lasted  twenty-one 
whole  days,  or  about  one-tenth  of  the  legal  year  ;  and  it  is 
possible  that  it  may  occupy  very  much  more  time  in  the 
Court  of  Appeal,  where  every  day  is  equivalent  to  three 
days  in  ordinary  courts,  because  three  judges  sit  here,  and 
again  in  the  House  of  Lords,  if  the  litigants  decide  to 
proceed  to  extremities,  as  they  very  frequently  do  in  cases 
of  this  magnitude  and  importance.  At  the  same  time,  Mr, 
Justice  Kekewich  was  engaged  in  trying  another  large 
electric  patent  case ;  the  Court  of  Appeal  had  a  similar  case 
occupying  it  for  several  days,  in  the  course  of  which  Lord 
Justice  Cotton,  who  presided,  animadverted  in  somewhat 
severe  terms  on  the  length  to  which  such  cases  are 
allowed  to  run.  His  Lordship,  with  the  concurrence  of 
the  two  Lords  Justices  who  sat  with  him,  attributed  this  to 
the  manner  in  which  counsel  spun  out  their  arguments, 
and  urged  more  brevity  and  conciseness.  Whatever  may 
have  been  the  circumstances  in  the  case  to  which  the 
Lord  Justice  adverted,  it  is  certain  that  the  addresses  of  the 
eminent  counsel  engaged  in  the  Edison-Swan  case  were 
not  responsible  for  the  twenty-one  days  which  it  occupied 
before  Mr.  Justice  Kay — not  including  seven  or  eight 
days  for  experiments  ; — by  far  the  greater  part  of  this  time 
was  occupied  in  hearing  the  contradictory  and  conflicting 
evidence  of  a  score  of  scientific  men,  many  of  the  greatest 
eminence,  on  the  points  in  dispute  between  the  parties. 
With  these  points  we  have  absolutely  nothing  to  do  here. 
It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  the  case  involved  the  investiga- 
tion and  decision  of  matters  of  the  utmost  complexity 
respecting  the  applications  of  recent  electrical  discoveries 
to  lighting,  and  also  some  obscure  questions  in  the 
history  of  these  applications.  All  these  exceedingly  com- 
plicated and  difficult  questions  were  tried  before  an 
eminent  judge,  who,  as  he  said  himself  at  the  commence- 
ment of  his  judgment,  "  has  not  had  the  requisite 
scientific  training."  It  was,  in  fact,  necessary  to  begin  by 
instructing  the  judge  in  the  elements  of  electrical  science  ; 
the  propositions  which  scientific  men  accept  as  truisms, 
or  as  common  knowledge  in  discussions  amongst  them- 
selves, had  here  to  be  gone  over  ab  initio  in  order  to 
inform  the  judge's  mind  respecting  the  A  B  C  of  the  j 
problem  which  he  had  to  solve.  As  to  Mr.  Justice  Kay's 
success  in  the  task  of  acquiring  this  information,  we  are 
quite  willing  to  accept  the  opinion  of  one  of  the  leading 
electrical  papers,  which  says  that  '"the  manner  in  which 
the  judge  grasped  the  bearing  of  the  technical  evidence 
has  been  the  subject  of  remark  amongst  everyone  present 
in  court.'' 

We    have    no    doubt    that    a  judge,   with   his  trained 

and  experienced  mind,  would  make  a  very  apt  pupil  ;  but 

the  process  of  obtaining  knowledge,  even  in  such  cases, 

is  not  always  a  very  smooth  or  pleasant  one.  It  is  trying 

Vol.  xxxviii.— No.  978. 


to  the  calmest  and  most  equable  mind  to  be  compelled 
constantly  to  reconsider  information  acquired  with 
care  and  difficulty,  to  find  the  views  inculcated  by 
one  eminent  man  of  science  totally  contradicted  by 
another  equally  eminent.  It  is  not  surprising  that 
in  the  maze  of  conflicting  opinions  Mr.  Justice  Kay 
was  unable  of  his  own  knowledge  to  find  his  way. 
We  reproduced  a  painful  incident  in  our  columns  at 
the  time  it  occurred,  with  the  view  of  exhibiting  to  our 
readers  one  of  the  evils  of  the  present  system  for  trying 
complicated  cases,  although  the  circumstance  that  the 
case  was  then  sub  judice  precluded  us  from  offering  any 
comment  on  it.  We  did  this  with  a  view  of  suggesting, 
also,  that  whoever  was  wrong — the  judge  or  the  expert 
witness — a  matter  which  it  did  not  concern  us  to  inquire 
into — it  is  not  in  the  interests  of  science  that  scientific  men 
of  reputation  should  put  themselves  in  the  position 
of  advocates,  thus  rendering  such  treatment  possible. 
Judges  are  only  human,  and,  so  long  as  men  with  no 
scientific  training  are  left  to  bear  unaided  the  burden  of 
trying  cases  like  that  in  which  the  Edison-Swan  Com- 
pany were  plaintiffs,  with  their  conflicting  evidence,  their 
authoritative  opinions  one  way  flatly  contradicted  by 
equally  authoritative  opinions  the  other,  their  masses  of 
facts  on  subjects  unfamiliar  to  the  judge,  so  long  must 
scientific  men  who  are  concerned  in  such  cases  expect 
unpleasant  rencontres  of  this  description  either  with  the 
perplexed  and  worried  judge  or  with  the  counsel  on  one 
side  or  the  other.  To  be  a  witness  at  any  time  in  a  court 
of  justice  is  not  pleasant  ;  it  is  an  experience  we  have  all 
to  go  through,  at  one  time  or  another,  with  more  or 
less  resignation,  supported  by  the  consciousness  that 
we  are  doing  our  duty  as  citizens  and  aiding  the  course 
of  justice.  But  to  be  a  witness  in  a  scientific  case 
on  a  subject  to  which  you  have  devoted  your  life, 
and  with  regard  to  which  you  have  obtained  a  position 
of  authority,  it  may  be,  amongst  your  fellows  who  are,  of 
all  men  in  the  world,  the  most  capable  of  judging,  and  to 
be  compelled  to  undergo  cross-examination  of  the  usual 
type  at  the  hands  of  a  gentleman  who  made  up  his  few 
meagre  and  jejune  facts  on  the  subject  from  his  brief  the 
night  before,  and  who  will  forget  all  he  knew  by  the  next 
night — this  is  hard  indeed.  But  we  cannot  see  how  men 
of  science  can  get  out  of  these  inconveniences  and  un- 
pleasantnesses any  more  than  any  other  class  of  the  com- 
munity, so  long  as  the  trials  of  these  cases  are  in  the 
hands  of  men  who  know  nothing  of  science,  and  who 
have  no  regular  and  systematic  means  of  obtaining  aid — 
judicial  aid,  that  is — from  those  who  do. 

Lawyers  appear  to  be  as  discontented  with  the  present 
system  as  men  of  science  have  reason  to  be.  The  prin- 
cipal legal  paper  went  so  far  the  other  day  as  to  suggest 
the  formation  of  a  special  court  for  the  trial  of  patent 
cases.  These  have  increased  so  much  of  recent  years, 
consequent  on  the  vast  increase  of  scientific  discoveries 
and  their  practical  applications  to  the  business  of  life, 
that  the  old  machinery  is  no  longer  adequate  to  deal  with 
the  new  situation.  Other  litigants  suffer  in  their  business 
and  pockets  ;  the  courts  become  congested,  and  the  judi- 
cial business  of  the  country  is  seriously  impeded.  The 
present  arrangements  can  be  satisfactory  to  no  one,  ex- 
cept, perhaps,  to  the  few  lawyers  who  are  making  their 
fortunes  by  them.     To  our  minds,  no  very  revolutionary 

O 


290 


NA  TURE 


[July  26,  1888 


process  is  needed  to  render  the  courts  equal  to  the  work. 
A  judge's  time  in  such  cases  is  mainly  lost  in  acquiring 
the  information  necessary  to  enable  him  to  understand 
the  points  at  issue.  On  a  famous  occasion  it  was  said 
that  we  should  have  to  educate  our  masters  ;  litigants  in 
patent  cases  have  to  begin  by  educating  their  judges. 
During  the  course  of  the  Edison  case  the  judge  found 
the  evidence  on  one  important  point  so  conflicting,  that 
he  suggested  the  propriety  of  having  experiments  made 
by  scientific  men  on  both  sides,  in  the  presence  of  some 
disinterested  man  of  science,  who  should  report  to  him 
on  the  result.  The  suggestion  was  followed  :  Prof.  Dewar 
and  Dr.  Hopkinson  carried  out  the  experiments  on  one 
side,  Mr.  Crookes  and  Prof.  Silvanus  Thompson  on  the 
other,  the  President  of  the  Royal  Society  being  the 
umpire.  In  the  course  of  the  judgment  Mr.  Justice 
Kay  acknowledged  that  Prof.  Stokes's  report  made  that 
"  obvious,"  which  he  could  not  previously  understand. 
Prof.  Stokes,  in  fact,  was  called  in  qud  that  particular 
point  as  an  assessor  to  the  Court.  Suppose  he  had  been 
called  in  at  the  beginning,  and  had  sat  all  through  the 
case,  how  much  time,  labour,  and  unpleasantness  would 
have  been  spared  !  How  rapidly  he  would  have  enabled 
the  judge  to  narrow  down  the  points  at  issue,  and  to 
understand  them  !  And  if  Prof.  Stokes  had  been  aided 
by  some  other  independent  and  qualified  man  of  science, 
how  much  sooner  and  more  satisfactorily  the  whole 
business  would  have  been  concluded.  We  want,  in  fact, 
sworn  scientific  assessors  in  courts  of  justice  to  aid  un- 
scientific judges  in  arriving  with  reasonable  despatch  at 
reliable  conclusions  on  matters  which  demand  scientific 
knowledge.  Patent  cases  invariably  turn  on  the  con- 
struction of  a  written  document — namely,  the  specification 
— and  this,  like  all  other  documents,  is  a  matter  for  the 
Court,  guided  by  the  rules  which  apply  generally.  "  But," 
says  Lord  Chancellor  Chelmsford,  "  if  the  terms  used 
require  explanation  as  being  terms  of  art  or  of  scientific 
views,  explanatory  evidence  must  be  given,  and  with  this 
aid  the  Court  proceeds  to  the  office  of  construction." 
Now  there  are  two  processes  already  in  operation  in  the 
High  Court  of  Justice,  which  it  seems  to  us  might  well 
be  applied  to  the  determination  of  these  complicated 
scientific  cases,  or  rather  by  which  disinterested  and 
unbiassed  scientific  aid  might  be  given  to  the  Court  in 
the  determination  of  cases  such  as  the  Edison  and  Swan 
case.  One  is  by  the  system  of  "referring,"  the  other  by 
assessors.  Reference  is  an  every-day  proceeding  in  the 
Courts  in  complicated  cases.  By  the  57th  section  of  the 
Judicature  Act  of  1873,  the  Courts  are  empowered  "  in 
any  cause  or  matter  requiring  any  prolonged  examination 
of  documents  or  accounts,  or  any  scientific  or  local 
examination  which  cannot,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Court  or 
a  judge,  conveniently  be  made  before  a  jury,  or  conducted 
by  the  Court  before  its  ordinary  officers,  the  Court  or 
judge  may  at  any  time,  on  such  terms  as  may  be  thought 
proper,  order  any  question  or  issue  of  fact,  or  any 
question  of  account  arising  therein  to  be  tried  either 
before  an  official  referee,  or  before  a  special  referee  to  be 
agreed  on  between  the  parties."  The  referee  or  umpire 
is  armed  with  proper  powers,  and  in  due  time  reports  to 
the  Court,  which  thereupon  proceeds  to  adjudicate 
upon  the  case,  having  got  rid  of  a  mass  of  technical 
details   with  which   it  was  incompetent  to   deal  by  the 


instrumentality  of  the  referee  who  was  quite  competent. 
Doubtless  it  was  in  pursuance  of  this  power  that  Mr. 
Justice  Kay  referred  a  portion  of  the  recent  case  to  Prof. 
Stokes  ;  but  suppose  the  whole  matter,  the  issues  having 
been  narrowed  down  to  their  real  limits,  had  been  referred 
at  the  beginning  to  Prof.  Stokes,  aided  if  necessary  by 
some  other  independent  expert,  to  report  the  result  to  the 
Court,  about  twenty  days  of  valuable  public  time  would 
have  been  spared,  and  in  the  end  the  decision  would 
have  commanded  a  confidence  which  the  judgment  of  a 
wholly  unscientific  judge,  however  acute,  cannot  be 
expected  to  receive. 

But  it  appears  to  us  that  the  system  of  assessors,  who 
sit  with  the  judge  in  court,  and  who  aid  him  with  their 
scientific  knowledge  and  experience,  would  be  even  more 
satisfactory.  It  is  in  daily  use  in  Admiralty  cases.  The 
practice  is  thus  laid  down  in  Messrs.  Williams  and  Bruce's 
"  Admiralty  Practice,"  second  edition,  p.  441: — "If  the 
questions  in  the  cause  depend  upon  technical  skill  and 
experience  in  navigation  or  other  nautical  matters,  the 
judge  is  usually  assisted  by  two  of  the  Elder  Brethren  of 
the  Trinity  House  of  Deptford  Strond,  who  sit  with  him 
as  assessors,  and  who,  at  the  request  of  the  judge,  after 
hearing  all  the  evidence  on  each  side,  advise  him  on  all 
questions  of  a  nautical  character.  But  in  all  cases  it  is 
with  the  judge  alone  that  the  decision  rests."  An  eminent 
judge  of  the  Privy  Council  summed  up  the  duty  and 
position  of  assessors  in  these  words : — "  He  (the  judge) 
is  advised  and  assisted  by  persons  experienced  in  nautical 
matters  ;  but  that  is  only  for  the  purpose  of  giving  him 
the  information  he  desires  upon  questions  of  professional 
skill  ;  and  having  got  that  information  from  those  who 
advise  him,   he  is  bound  in  duty  to  exercise  his  own 

judgment The  assessors    merely   furnish   the 

materials  for  the  Court  to  act  upon."  But  what  this 
comes  to  in  practice,  circumscribed  though  the  duties  of 
the  assessors  are  in  theory,  we  learn  from  a  remark  of  the 
eminent  Admiralty  judge,  Dr.  Lushington  :  "  I  never 
yet  pronounced  a  single  decree,  when  I  was  assisted  by 
Trinity  Masters,  in  which  I  was  not  perfectly  convinced 
that  the  advice  they  gave  me  was  correct."  The  presence 
of  the  Trinity  Masters  is  secured  by  either  party  filing  a 
prcecipe  praying  for  their  attendance.  And  now  all  Ad-j 
miralty  cases,  in  whatever  Court,  may  be  tried  with  the  aid 
of  nautical  assessors,  when  this  is  considered  desirable. 

Although  this  system  is,  as  a  rule,  confined  to  Admiralty 
cases  in  practice,  all  Courts  are  empowered  to  call  in  the 
aid  of  assessors,  for  by  the  56th  section  of  the  Judicature 
Act  of  1873,  the  High  Court  or  Court  of  Appeal  may  in 
any  cause  or  matter  in  which  it  thinks  it  expedient  so 
do,  call  in  the  aid  of  one  or  more  assessors  speciall 
qualified,  and  try  and  hear  such  cause  or  matter  whol 
or  in  part  with  their  assistance.  If  Prof.  Stokes  ar 
some  other  qualified  expert  had  sat  with  Mr.  Justice  K? 
during  the  hearing  of  the  recent  lighting  case,  it 
scarcely  probable  that  it  would  have  lasted  twenty-cr 
days,  or  that  various  unpleasantnesses  inseparable  fror 
the  hearing  of  such  a  case,  which  was  nothing  if  nc 
scientific,  by  a  conscientious  but  unscientific  judge,  woul 
not  have  been  avoided.  There  are  no  reasons  why 
judge  should  not  be  aided  in  cases  of  this  technics 
description  by  scientific  experts,  as  Admiralty  judges  ar 
by   nautical   experts ;    there  are  a  great  many  why  he 


July  26,  1888] 


NATURE 


291 


should.  The  orderly  and  effective  administration  of 
justice,  the  weight  which  should  be  attached  to  judicial 
decisions,  the  economy  of  public  time,  and,  we  would 
add,  the  self-respect  of  scientific  men,  and  the  best 
interests  of  scientific  discovery,  all  call  loudly  for  some 
such  reform  as  that  here  suggested. 


LA NGLE  Y:S  NEW  AS TRONOM V. 
The  New  Astronomy.     By  Samuel   Pierpoint    Langley, 
Ph.D.,   LL.D.      Illustrated.      (Boston:    Ticknor   and 
Co.,  1888.) 

PROFESSOR  LANGLEY'S  beautiful  book  does  not 
appeal  merely  to  the  intellect.  The  senses  have 
their  share  in  the  gratification  its  perusal  affords.  .Every 
turning  of  a  page  is  a  conscious  luxury.  Each  touch  of 
the  paper,  in  which  the  thickness  of  vellum  is  combined 
with  the  polish  of  satin,  flatters  the  finger-tips  with  a 
bland  caress.  In  texture,  it  compares  with  the  paper  on 
which  ordinary  work-a-day  scientific  treatises  are  printed 
as  does  a  velvet-pile  with  a  Kidderminster  carpet.  The 
binding  is  in  a  corresponding  style  of  lavish  magnificence. 
The  illustrations  have  obtained  the  last  perfection  of 
finish. 

Yet  the  excellence  of  their  execution  is  for  the  most 
part  secondary  to  their  intrinsic  merit.  Needless  to  say 
that  photographs  figure  largely  among  them.  There  is  a 
capital  sunspot  series  by  Rutherford  ;  there  are  specimens 
of  Pickering's  stellar  spectra  ;  besides  several  coronal 
autographs,  Mr.  Common's  inimitable  Orion  nebula,  and 
Rutherford's  scarcely  yet  surpassed  print  of  the  moon. 
Among  visual  delineations,  we  meet  Bond's  admirable 
views  of  Donati's  comet,  Trouvelot's  elaborate  Saturn, 
De  la  Rue's  well-known  Jupiter,  above  all,  Prof. 
Langley's  own  exquisite  solar  drawings.  The  surface 
of  the  sun  has  probably  never  been  so  perfectly  seen  as 
by  him  ;  it  has  certainly  never  been  depicted  with  such  a 
wealth  of  trustworthy  detail.  Some  insight  into  one  of 
the  sources  of  his  success  is  afforded  by  the  following 
paragraph  (p.  17)  : — 

"  The  surface  of  the  sun,"  he  tells  us,  "  may  be  com- 
pared to  an  elaborate  engraving,  filled  with  the  closest  and 
most  delicate  lines  and  hatchings,  but  an  engraving  which 
during  ninety-nine  hundredths  of  the  time  can  only  be 
seen  across  such  a  quivering  mass  of  heated  air  as  makes 
everything  confused  and  liable  to  be  mistaken,  causing 
what  is  definite  to  look  like  a  vaguely  seen  mottling.  It  is 
literally  true  that  the  more  delicate  features  are  only 
distinctly  visible  even  by  the  best  telescope  during  less 
than  one-hundredth  of  the  time,  coming  out  as  they  do  in 
brief  instants  when  our  dancing  air  is  momentarily  still, 
so  that  one  who  has  sat  at  a  powerful  telescope  all  day 
is  exceptionally  lucky  if  he  has  secured  enough  glimpses 
of  the  true  structure  to  aggregate  five  minutes  of  clear 
seeing,  while  at  all  other  times  the  attempt  to  magnify 
only  produces  a  blurring  of  the  image.  This  study,  then, 
demands  not  only  fine  telescopes  and  special  optical  aids, 
but  endless  patience." 

'"  Endless  patience "  is,  indeed,  a  sine  qud  non  in 
nearly  all  departments  of  astronomy  ;  but  it  is  not 
always  associated  with  the  skill  of  eye  and  hand  witnessed 
to  by  the  representations  before  us.  Nor  could  they  have 
been  brought  to  bear  without  instrumental  accessories  of 


a  more  than  commonly  high  quality.  The  polarizing  eye- 
piece made  at  Pittsburgh  must  be  one  of  the  best  ever 
employed  to  blunt  the  keen  edge  of  the  solar  rays.  "  By 
its  aid,"  our  author  remarks,  "the  eye  can  be  safely 
placed  where  the  concentrated  heat  would  otherwise  melt 
iron.  In  practice  I  have  often  gazed  through  it  at  the 
sun's  face  without  intermission  from  four  to  five  hours, 
with  no  more  fatigue  or  harm  to  the  eye  than  in  reading 
a  book." 

The  object  of  the  work  before  us  is  to  advocate  the 
claim  of  the  "  New  Astronomy  "—the  astronomy  which 
studies  the  constitution  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  as  opposed 
to  that  which  determines  their  movements — to  a  larger 
share  of  public  interest,  sympathy,  and  benefactions  than 
has  hitherto  been  allotted  to  it.  The  appearance  of  the 
eight  chapters  of  which  it  consists  in  the  pages  of  the 
"  Century  "  magazine,  has  doubtless  already  contributed 
to  promote  that  end.  They  are  written  in  an  eminently 
popular  style,  and  with  much  of  that  Transatlantic  fresh- 
ness by  which  many  a  jaded  European  palate  is  enticed 
to  renewed  enjoyment  of  wholesome  literary  fare.  They 
profess  to  give  only  a  sketch  of  the  results  so  far  attained  ; 
but  it  is  a  highly  stimulating  and  suggestive  one. 
Intelligible  to  all,  they  should  be  welcomed  by  readers  of 
every  grade  of  culture  desiring  to  gain  acquaintance, 
almost  without  an  effort,  with  some  of  the  most  surprising 
encroachments  ever  yet  made  by  the  agile  human  mind 
upon  the  vast  realms  of  the  unknown. 

The  two  most  interesting,  because  the  most  original 
chapters  in  the  book,  are  those  dealing  with  the  "Sun's 
Energy."  Here  Prof.  Langley  is  more  especially  at 
home  ;  his  opinions  carry  all  the  weight  that  long  medi- 
tation and  laborious  research  can  give  them  ;  yet  they 
are  expressed  not  only  without  dogmatism,  but  almost 
with  diffidence.  The  higher  value  given  to  the  "  solar 
constant"  by  his  inquiries  into  atmospheric  selective 
absorption,  have  naturally  obliged  him  to  curtail  the 
"  life"  of  the  sun.  During  no  more  than  eighteen  million 
years  can  the  present  rate  of  radiation — supposing  it  fed 
by  the  shrinkage  through  gravity  of  the  sun's  substance — 
have  been  maintained  in  the  past.  "We  say  'present' 
rate  of  radiation,"  our  author  continues,  "  because,  so  long 
as  the  sun  is  purely  gaseous,  its  temperature  rises  as  it 
contracts,  and  the  heat  is  spent  faster ;  so  that  in  early 
ages  before  this  temperature  was  as  high  as  it  is  now,  the 
heat  was  spent  more  slowly,  and  what  could  have  lasted 
'  only  '  eighteen  million  years  at  the  present  rate  might 
have  actually  spread  over  an  indefinitely  greater  time  in 
the  past ;  possibly  covering  more  than  all  the  aeons 
geologists  ask  for." 

This  is  of  course  perfectly  true.  There  can  be  no 
reasonable  doubt  that  the  sun  was,  in  the  initial  stages  of 
its  career,  a  comparatively  murky  luminary,  rich  in  the 
promise  of  future  possession,  but  scantily  distributing,, 
because  scantily  supplied  from,  stores  of  light  and  heat 
strictly  tied  up  against  the  possibility  of  premature  waste 
for  the  benefit  of  generations  to  come,  its  heirs  by  entail. 
But  has  there  been  no  compensatory  period  of  extrava- 
gance ?  Has  our  sun  already  passed  through  its  "  Sirian" 
phase  —  if  a  Sirian  phase  be  indeed  an  inevitable 
"  moment"  in  the  existence  of  every  star — or  is  it  yet  to 
come  ?  The  question  cannot  at  present  be  answered ; 
but  until  it  is,  estimates  of  the  probable  past  duration, 


292 


NATURE 


{July  26,  1888 


in  its  illuminative  capacity,  of  the  central  body  of  our 
system,  are  evidently  illusory.  The  actual  radiation  of 
the  sun  would  be  not  improbably  decupled  by  the  sudden 
change  of  its  atmospheric  and  photospheric  constitution 
to  that  of  Sirius  or  Vega.  In  other  words,  the  stock  of 
energy  now  sufficing  for  the  expenditure  of  ten  million 
years  would  then  be  dissipated  in  one  million,  with  a 
corresponding  abridgment  in  time  of  the  heating  and 
lighting  efficacy  thus  vastly  heightened  in  intensity.  The 
same  caveat  applies — should  it  be  concluded  that  the 
Sirian  is  a  later  than  the  solar  stage — to  attempts  to 
assign  a  term  for  the  inevitable  exhaustion  of  the 
great  fountain  of  vital  possibilities.  The  objection  is 
however  evaded  by  Prof.  Langley's  statement  (p.  100) 
that,  at  the  present  rate,  "  the  sun's  heat-supply  is  enough 
to  last  for  some  such  time  as  four  or  five  million  years 
before  it  sensibly  fails.  It  is  certainly  remarkable,"  he 
adds,  "  that  by  the  aid  of  our  science  man  can  look  out 
from  this  '  bank  and  shoal  of  time,'  where  his  fleeting 
existence  is  spent,  not  only  back  on  the  almost  infinite 
lapse  of  ages  past,  but  that  he  can  forecast  with  some  sort 
of  assurance  what  is  to  happen  in  an  almost  infinitely 
distant  future,  long  after  the  human  race  itself  will  have 
disappeared  from  its  present  home.  But  so  it  is,  and  we 
may  say— with  something  like  awe  at  the  meaning  to 
which  science  points — that  the  whole  future  radiation 
cannot  last  so  long  as  ten  million  years." 

Our  author  is  sanguine  as  to  the  prospect  of  econo- 
mically applying  the  sun's  heat  to  mechanical  purposes. 
"  From  recent  measures  it  appears  that  from  every  square 
yard  of  the  earth  exposed  perpendicularly  to  the  sun's 
rays,  in  the  absence  of  an  absorbing  atmosphere,  there 
could  be  derived  more  than  one-horse  power,  if  the  heat 
were  all  converted  into  this  use,  and  that  even  on  such  a 
little' area  as  the  island  of  Manhattan,  or  that  occupied 
by  the  city  of  London,  the  noontide  heat  is  enough,  could 
it  all  be"  utilized,  to  drive  all  the  steam-engines  in  the 
world"  (p.  in).  No  wonder  that,  enticed  by  such  calcu- 
lations, "  practical  men  "  should  devote  attention  to  this 
unfathomable  source  of  power  ;  and  we  may  well  believe, 
with  Prof.  Langley,  "  that  some  of  the  greatest  changes 
which  civilization  has  to  bring  may  yet  be  due  to  such 
investigations." 

"  Future  ages  may  see  the  seat  of  empire  transferred 
to  regions  of  the  earth  now  barren  and  desolated  under 
intense  solar  heat — countries,  which  for  that  very  cause, 
will  not  improbably  become  the  seat  of  mechanical  and 
thence  of  political  power.  Whoever  finds  the  way  to 
make  industrially  useful  the  vast  sun-power  now  wasted 
on  the  deserts  of  North  Africa  or  the  shores  of  the  Red 
Sea,  will  effect  a  greater  change  in  men's  affairs  than  any 
conqueror  in  history  has  done  ;  for  he  will  once  more 
people  those  waste  places  with  the  life  that  swarmed 
there  in  the  best  days  of  Carthage  and  of  old  Egypt,  but 
under  another  civilization,  where  man  shall  no  longer 
worship  the  sun  as  a  god,  but  shall  have  learned  to  make 
it  his  servant." 

In  his  chapter  on  "  Meteors,"  our  author  seems  to  view 
with  a  certain  degree  of  favour  the  suggestion  that  some 
of  these  small  bodies  "may  be  the  product  of  terrestrial 
volcanoes  in  early  epochs,  when  our  planet  was  yet 
glowing  sunlike  with  its  proper  heat,  and  the  forces  of 
Nature  were  more  active  "  (p.  193).  He  does  not,  how- 
ever, stop  to  discuss  the  difficulties  besetting  this 
hypothesis ;   had  he  done    so,   he    could    scarcely  have 


failed  to  conclude  them  insuperable.  The  resistance 
opposed  by  the  atmosphere  of  the  earth  to  the  upward 
flight  of  projectiles  from  its  surface  has,  for  instance, 
never  been  sufficiently  taken  into  account.  It  is  quietly 
assumed  that  some  unspecified  and  insignificant  addition 
to  the  initial  velocity  needed  to  secure  definitive  escape 
in  a  vacuum,  would  have  sufficed  to  overcome  atmo- 
spheric hindrances  ;  whereas  the  minimum  swiftness  at 
starting  in  the  second  case  should  be  at  least  thrice,  or 
quadruple  that  in  the  first.  The  effectiveness  of  the  air 
in  arresting  motion  is  practically  exemplified  in  the  con- 
tinuous meteoric  bombardment  against  which  it  forms 
our  sole  shield.  Yet  the  projectiles  composing  it  possess 
far  higher  velocities  than  terrestrial  volcanoes  could, 
under  any  conceivable  circumstances,  be  supposed  to 
impart.  And  the  few  among  them  that  meet  the  earth's 
surface  are  impelled  towards  it  by  gravity  after  their  own 
movement  has  been  wholly,  or  all  but  wholly  destroyed. 
Instances  must  be  very  rare  in  which  an  aerolite  has 
brought  down  with  it  in  its  fall  any  portion  of  its  orbital 
speed.  Moreover,  our  present  atmosphere  is  doubtless 
rare  and  shallow  compared  with  its  pristine  condition  ; 
while  there  is  no  certainty  that  volcanic  action,  of  an 
explosive  kind,  was  ever  much  more  enei'getic  than  it 
now  is. 

Prof.  Langley  adopts,  or  rather  admits  the  "  tempera- 
ture-classification "  of  stellar  objects  current  at  the  time 
when  his  concluding  chapter  on  "  The  Stars "  was 
written.  It  speaks  volumes  for  the  rapidity  with  which 
the  "new  astronomy"  progresses  that,  in  a  few  short 
months,  this  scheme — to  which  there  were  always  serious 
objections — should  have  fallen  obsolete.  Mr.  Lockyer's 
recent  investigations  have  at  least  had  the  effect  of 
rendering  a  complete  revision  of  ideas  on  the  subject  in- 
dispensable. The  book  with  which  we  are  just  now  con- 
cerned professes,  however,  not  even  to  describe,  but  barely 
to  mention,  the  various  departments,  photometric,  spectro- 
scopic, and  photographic,  of  stellar  physical  astronomy, 
"on  each  of  which,"  the  author  justly  remarks  (p.  248), 
"  as  many  books,  rather  than  chapters,  might  be  written, 
to  give  only  what  is  novel  and  of  current  interest.  But 
these,"  he  adds,  "  are  themselves  but  a  part  of  the  modern 
work  that  has  overturned  or  modified  almost  every  con- 
ception about  the  stellar  universe  which  was  familiar  to 
the  last  generation,  or  which  perhaps  we  were  taught  in 
our  youth." 

An  English  edition  of  a  work  which  we  can  recommend 
as  corresponding  with  singular  felicity  and  charm  to  the 
designs  of  the  writer,  is  in  preparation,  and  will  shortly 
appear.  Some  photographs  of  the  moon,  too  recent  to  be 
as  yet  generally  known,  will  probably  replace  in  it  sue! 
of  Mr.  Nasmyth's  lunar  illustrations  as  figure  in  the 
American  edition.  A.  M.  Clerke. 


SOAPS  AND  CANDLES. 

Soaps  and  Candles.  Edited  by  James  Cameron,  F.I.C. 
Analyst  in  the  Laboratory,  Somerset  House 
"Churchill's  Technological  Hand-books."  (London: 
J.  and  A.  Churchill,  1888.) 

THE  object  of  this  hand-book,  as  stated  in  the  preface 
is  to  add    to  the  articles  originally  published  ir 
Cooley's    "  Cyclopaedia "    additional    information    froir 


July  26,  1888] 


NATURE 


293 


various  scattered  sources,  so  as  to  present,  in  as  small  a 
compass  as  possible,  information  which  it  is  hoped  may 
be  found  useful  to  technological  students  and  others 
interested  in  the  industries  described.  Compression  of 
bulk  being  a  main  object,  it  is  assumed  that  the  reader 
has  some  degree  of  acquaintance  with  various  points 
connected  with  theoretical  and  practical  chemistry  and 
certain  analytical  processes,  so  that  details  in  such  cases 
may  be  omitted  without  interfering  seriously  with  the 
usefulness  of  the  book.  In  carrying  out  the  work  of 
compilation,  the  same  necessity  for  economizing  space 
has  rendered  imperative  considerable  care  in  selecting 
and  "  boiling  down  "  the  matter,  derived  from  some  two 
dozen  different  sources  in  the  way  of  English  biblio- 
graphy, for  the  most  part  published  within  the  last  few 
years  ;  amongst  which  may  be  more  particularly  men- 
tioned the  works  on  soap-making,  candle-manufacture, 
and  allied  industries  by  Morfit,  Kurten,  Dussauce, 
Christiani,  Ott,  Lant  Carpenter,  and  Watt  ;  and  the 
Cantor  Lectures  of  Field  ("  Solid  and  Liquid  Illuminat- 
ing Agents  ")  and  of  Alder  Wright  ("Toilet  Soaps"). 
References  to  Continental  literature  and  patents,  though 
comparatively  infrequent,  are  also  to  be  found  at  intervals 
throughout  the  book. 

On  the  whole,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  author  has 
carried  out  the  work  of  selection  and  excision,  compila- 
tion, abstraction,  and  general  editing  with  great  judgment, 
and  that  he  has  succeeded  in  getting  into  very  small  com- 
pass not  only  a  large  amount  of  general  information,  but 
also  a  valuable  epitome  of  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  various 
advances  in  manufacture  and  the  additions  to  scientific 
knowledge  that  have  been  made  up  to  the  present  date 
in  connection  with  the  industries  treated  of,  comprising 
not  merely  the  production  of  soap  and  candles,  but  also 
the  intimately  associated  manufacture  of  glycerin.  This 
latter  is  quite  a  modern  offshoot  from  the  parent  indus- 
tries, neither  of  which,  however,  can  claim  as  high  an 
antiquity  as  some  of  the  metallurgical  operations  ;  for, 
whilst  the  property  of  certain  oils  and  animal  fats  to 
become  converted  into  a  saponaceous  mass  by  treatment 
with  the  lye  of  wood  ashes  was  known  in  the  first  century 
in  an  incomplete  way,  as  evidenced  by  the  writings  of 
Pliny,  no  authentic  information  is  extant  leading  to  the 
belief  that  anything  of  the  nature  of  true  soap  was  known 
at  any  much  earlier  period  ;  the  materials  referred  to  by 
the  Old  Testament  writers  as  borith,  and  translated 
"soap"  (or,  in  early  editions,  "  sope"),  appearing  to  have 
been  simply  alkaline  matter,  without  any  oil  or  fatty  in- 
gredient combined  therewith.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
manufacture  of  candles,  i.e.  a  wick  surrounded  by  a  solid 
fusible  matter  capable  of  combustion  under  such  circum- 
stances like  oil  in  a  lamp,  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
practised  among  the  ancients,  lamps  burning  fluid  oil 
being  their  usual  source  of  artificial  illumination  :  prob- 
ably torches,  or  thick  wicks  impregnated  with  oil,  pitch, 
&c,  and  sufficiently  stiff  to  be  handled,  were  the  earliest 
form  of  candle.  Not  until  the  fourth  century  of  our  era, 
however,  does  this  crude  device  appear  to  have  developed 
into  anything  approaching  the  modern  form  of  candle,  wax 
being  then  used  as  the  combustible  matter  in  the  finer 
kinds,  and  tallow  or  other  solid  animal  fat  in  the  coarser 
descriptions. 


The  researches  of  the  yet  living  M.  Chevreul,  made  in 
the  early  part  of  the  present  century,  cleared  up  the 
chemical  constitution  of  oils  and  fats  generally,  and 
largely  helped  to  bring  about  great  improvements  both 
in  the  manufacture  of  soap  and  in  that  of  candles  :  they 
demonstrated  that  oils  and  fatty  matters  in  general  are, 
for  the  most  part,  compounds  analogous  to  mineral  salts, 
being  produced  by  the  union  of  a  "  fatty  acid "  and  an 
organic  compound  of  weak  basic  character,  glycerin, 
in  the  same  way  that  a  mineral  acid  and  a  strong  base 
or  metallic  oxide  will  saturate  one  another  to  form  a  salt 
of  the  ordinary  type  ;  and  that  soaps  are  the  alkaline 
salts  of  the  fatty  acids  contained  in  the  oil,  &c,  used,  the 
process  of  "saponification"  being  simply  the  elimination 
of  the  organic  basic  constituent,  glycerin,  by  the  more 
powerful  alkali  employed,  potash  usually  forming  a  "  soft" 
soap,  and  soda  a  "  hard "  one.  By  treating  the  soaps 
thus  formed  with  mineral  acids,  the  "fatty  acids"  are 
similarly  displaced  from  combination  with  the  alkalies, 
and  substances  are  thus  obtained  usually  less  fusible  than 
the  original  fatty  matter,  but,  like  it,  capable  of  being 
burnt  in  conjunction  with  a  wick,  and  frequently  with 
less  liability  to  smoking  and  charring  the  wick.  The 
leading  developments  of  the  candle  industry  thence 
resulting  have  accordingly  been  in  the  direction  of  pro- 
ducing the  fatty  acids  by  saponification  (or  cheaper 
processes  substantially  equivalent  thereto),  and  expression 
of  the  more  fluid  constituents  (usually,  though  somewhat 
unsystematically,  termed  oleine),  so  as  to  render  the  solid 
residue,  or  stearine,  of  higher  melting-point,  and  therefore 
better  suited  to  form  candles  not  apt  to  bend  in  summer 
or  in  hot  climates  ;  and  the  use  of  mineral  solid  hydro- 
carbons (paraffin-wax  and  allied  materials  from  paraffin- 
oil,  petroleum,  ozokerite,  &c.)  as  ingredients  in  combina- 
tion with,  and  sometimes  to  the  exclusion  of,  the  stearines 
thus  formed.  The  more  solid  fats  (tallow,  suet,  and 
certain  solid  vegetable  fats)  are  naturally  the  substances 
most  largely  employed,  as  furnishing  the  greatest  yield 
of  solid  stearine  suitable  for  candle-making  ;  but  several 
oils  and  semi-fluid  products  (like  palm  and  cocoa-nut  oils), 
when  chilled  and  pressed,  yield  a  notable  quantity  of 
more  solid  constituents  equally  available  for  the  purpose. 
The  fluid  fatty  acids,  or  "  oleines,"  obtained  as  by- 
products in  the  candle  industry,  are  either  neutralized 
directly  by  aqueous  caustic  alkalies,  thus  forming  soaps, 
or,  according  to  the  recent  process  of  Radisson,  are  fused 
with  caustic  alkalies  (preferably,  but  not  necessarily, 
potash),  whereby  oleic  acid  becomes  converted  into  solid 
palmitic  acid,  of  sufficiently  high  melting-point  to  be 
capable  of  employment  for  making  candles. 

For  the  manufacture  of  soaps,  scarcely  any  fatty  matter, 
whatever  its  source  or  lack  of  purity,  comes  amiss  ;  it  being 
of  course  obvious  that  the  coarser  kinds  are  only  available 
for  the  cheapest  scouring  soaps,  and  that  only  the  better 
kinds  can  be  employed  in  the  production  of  superior 
classes  of  soaps,  especially  those  intended  for  toilet  soaps 
of  high  quality  (which  term  by  no  means  applies  to  all  in 
the  market).  Recovered  greases  from  wool-scouring  and 
fulling  operations,  foetid  animal  fats  from  the  carcasses  of 
horses,  bones,  and  by-products  of  glue-manufacture  and 
tanning,  &c,  greasy  matters  extracted  from  dead  cats  and 
dogs   netted   in   the  rivers  and  streams,  and  even  that 


294 


NA  TURE 


{July  26,  1888 


obtained  from  the  scum  of  sewage,  represent  some  of  the 
leastattractiveofthesourcesof  oleaginous  matter  dealtwith 
by  the  soap-boiler  ;  whilst  more  or  less  damaged  or  rancid 
oils,  unfit  for  other  use,  and  "foots  "  (residues  containing 
much  impurity,  which  separate  during  the  processes  of 
refining  various  kinds  of  oils),  together  with  the  somewhat 
impure  oily  matters  obtained  by  the  aid  of  solvents  (eg. 
carbon  disuiphide)  from  the  marcs  or  cakes  obtained  in 
olive  and  seed-oil  crushing,  cocoa-nut  and  other  rank 
vegetable  oils,  and  animal  tallows,  lards,  suets,  &c, 
imported  from  abroad,  and  obtained  by  treatment  usually 
of  such  a  nature  as  to  render  the  product  more  or  less 
malodorous,  represent  a  better  class  of  raw  material, 
suitable,  after  more  or  less  purification,  for  the  ultimate 
production  of  the  ordinary  kind  of  household  and  laundry 
soaps.  The  finest  varieties  of  lard,  &c,  and  purified 
almond  and  other  comparatively  choice  vegetable  oils, 
and  such  like  superfine  materials,  constitute  the  substances 
actually  used  in  the  manufacture  of  some  of  the  best 
varieties  of  toilet  soap,  and  supposed  to  be  employed  in 
the  production  of  all  such  more  delicate  varieties. 

The  author  briefly  but  clearly  describes  the  leading 
processes  and  methods  by  means  of  which  useful  and 
even  superior  qualities  of  soaps  are  manufactured  in  bulk 
from  the  more  ordinary  materials,  and  the  finer  kinds  from 
the  choicest  sources,  usually  on  a  smaller  scale.  Numer- 
ous analyses  of  various  sorts  of  soaps  are  quoted,  and  the 
methods  of  production  of  "  filled  "  {i.e.  adulterated  and 
watered)  soaps,  and  of  the  composite  scouring  materials 
containing  silicate  of  soda  and  analogous  alkaline  com- 
pounds together  with  true  soap,  are  adverted  to.  It  might, 
perhaps,  be  considered  that  sufficient  stress  has  hardly 
been  laid  on  the  enormous  extent  to  which  such  admixture 
is  sometimes  carried  on  in  the  case  of  certain  articles  still 
sold  under  the  name  of  soap.  When  a  scouring  material 
contains  only  one-seventh  of  its  weight  of  actual  soap 
(mostly  from  cocoa-nut  oil),  and  about  as  much  silicate 
of  soda  and  inert  soda  salts  added  to  "  harden  "  the  mass, 
the  balance  being  water  pure  and  simple  ;  or  when  a 
so-called  "  toilet  soap "  contains  less  than  two-fifths  of 
its  weight  of  true  soap,  and  nearly  as  much  water,  the 
balance  being  simply  sugar  and  a  more  or  less  marked 
excess  of  corrosive  alkaline  matter  (both  calculated  to 
act  most  injuriously  on  tender  and  delicate  skins),  it 
would  be  supposed  by  many  that  the  limit  of  honest 
trading  and  proper  description  of  quality  has  been  pretty 
closely  approached,  if  not  a  long  way  passed,  by  describ- 
ing and  selling  such  articles  as  "soap"  at  all.  In  the. 
description  of  the  manufacture  of  transparent  toilet 
soaps  by  the  process  of  solution  of  previously  made 
soap  (mostly  yellow  or  resin  soap)  in  alcohol,  the  author 
states  that  "most  makers  also  add  a  certain  proportion 
of  glycerin."  It  would  be  more  correct  to  say  that  in  the 
great  bulk  of  such  soap  actually  sold  a  very  consider- 
able quantity  of  sugar  is  present ;  whilst  glycerin,  although 
frequently  professedly  a  constituent,  is  usually  conspicuous 
by  its  entire  absence  from  the  composition — a  difference 
by  no  means  to  the  advantage  of  the  consumer,  if  troubled 
with  a  sensitive  skin,  although  not  of  any  great  conse- 
quence to  the  fortunate  possessor  of  a  stout  healthy 
epidermis  not  easily  affected  by  external  influences. 

C.  R.  Alder  Wright. 


INDIA  IN  1887. 
India  in  1887.  By  Robert  Wallace,  Professor  of  Agri- 
culture and  Rural  Economy  in  the  University  of 
Edinburgh.  With  plates  and  illustrations.  (London  : 
Simpkin,  Marshall  and  Co.  Calcutta  and  Bombay  : 
Thacker,  Spink  and  Co.,  1888.) 

PROFESSOR  WALLACE  has  evidently  thrown  his 
heart  as  well  as  his  brains  into  his  self  imposed 
task.  He  wished  to  know  the  effect  of  his  own  teaching, 
and  that  of  the  college  to  which  he  was  attached,  upon 
the  development  of  Indian  agriculture— and  he  went  to 
see  for  himself.  Let  us  hope  that  Prof.  Wallace  will  have 
his  reward  for  so  unselfish  a  motive.  The  key  to  his 
position  lies  in  the  fact  that  Indian  Government  scholar- 
ships have  been  for  many  years  bestowed  at  Cirencester 
upon  Indian  native  graduates  who  have  been  selected 
for  this  purpose,  with  a  view  to  their  subsequent  employ- 
ment in  the  Agricultural  and  Forestry  Departments  of 
India.  His  object,  as  he  himself  expresses  it,  is  "to  induce 
the  Government  to  alter  its  plans  as  regards  the  Indian 
Agriculture  Department,  and  to  see  that  ground  which 
has  been  lost  by  inexperienced  officers  is  yet  capable  of 
being  regained  by  efforts  made  in  the  right  direction." 
Quixotic  as  any  attempt  may  appear  to  cause  a  Govern- 
ment department  to  alter  itself,  or  to  quietly  submit  to 
alteration,  no  doubt  the  best  plan  is  to  appeal  to  the 
public,  and  this  is  what  Prof.  Wallace  has  done.  He  has, 
no  doubt,  to  some  extent  courted  contradiction  and  hostile 
criticism  from  those  already  engaged  in  agricultural 
improvement  in  India.  His  book  is  not  wanting  in; 
denunciation  of  the  existing  system,  the  strength  of  which 
lies  in  the  strongly  practical  bias  of  the  writer,  who 
sympathizes  with  the  farmer  and  his  ways,  whether 
found  in  the  stalwart  son  of  the  soil  in  England 
or  Scotland,  or  in  the  ryot  of  India.  Their  methods 
are  proved  methods,  their  opinions  are  the  result  of 
thousands  of  years  of  mental  evolution.  Prof.  Wallace 
clearly  shows  an  inherent  dislike  to  that  kind  of  innova- 
tion which  springs  from  superficial  knowledge  gained  in 
one  part  of  the  globe  and  thrust  upon  those  who  are 
engaged  under  totally  different  circumstances  of  soil  and 
climate.  He  insists  most  properly,  we  think,  that  it  is  a 
delusion  to  imagine  that  any  man,  however  able,  can 
gain  a  thorough  or  adequate  knowledge  of  the  science  and 
practice  of  agriculture  in  two  years.  Without  in  the 
least  detracting  from  the  value  of  two  years  spent  in 
study  at  an  agricultural  college,  he  insists  that  the  first 
step  is  the  study  of  native  agricultural  practices  "by  men 
who  have  been  trained  in  agriculture  from  their  early 
youth  in  this  country,  and  who  have  subsequently 
acquired  a  sound  knowledge  of  the  sciences  bearing  on 
the  subject." 

In  the  same  spirit  he  inveighs  heavily  against  the 
almost  universal  employment  as  model  farm  managers 
of  men  who  have  had  no  truly  agricultural  training,  either 
practical  or  scientific,  and  who  have  no  intimate  know- 
ledge of  the  native  methods  of  cultivation.  The  result  of 
this  system  has  been  that  "  many  failures  have  destroyed 
the  confidence  of  Government ;  and  anything  agricul- 
tural, that  is  now  being  done,  is  reduced  to  the  mere 
minimum,  with  a  chance  any  moment  of  being  utter 
abandoned." 

While  these  views  are  forcibly  expressed  and  abui 


July  26,  1888] 


NA  JURE 


295 


antly  illustrated,  Prof.  Wallace  has  not  forgotten  to  widen 
the  scope  and  interest  of  his  very  valuable  book  by 
copious  information  as  to  the  products,  the  agriculture, 
the  cattle,  the  instruments  of  husbandry,  the  habits,  and 
the  customs  of  India.  He  has  placed  on  record  an  im- 
mense number  of  facts  which  must  render  his  book  valuable 
for  purposes  of  reference  as  well  as  interesting  to  the 
general  reader.  With  reference  to  the  liberal  display  of 
photographic  representations,  executed  by  Waterston  and 
is,  the  author  looks  upon  them  as  instructive  rather 
than  artistic.  The  photographs  from  which  they  were 
taken  were  executed  by  himself,  often  under  difficulties, 
but  they  are  none  the  less  accurate,  and  therefore  trust- 
worthy. 

With  regard  to  the  present  arrangement  of  the  book, 
the  first  300  pages  are  devoted  to  descriptive  matter 
relating  to  the  cattle  and  other  domesticated  animals,  the 
soils,  implements  of  husbandry,  and  crops  of  India. 
Much  of  the  matter  may  be  left  by  the  busy  reader,  who 
will  find  the  special  views  and  conclusions  of  the  author 
reserved  for  the  concluding  chapters. 

The  book  is  an  honest  and  able  attempt  to  place  the 
peculiarities  of  Indian  agriculture  fairly  before  the  British 
public,  and  the  views  of  the  author  with  reference  to  the 
best  methods  for  developing  the  agricultural  sources  of 
the  Indian  Empire  will,  we  hope,  receive  the  attention 
they  deserve. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Jncwadi  Yama  :  or  Twenty  Years'  Personal  Experience 
in  South  Africa.  By  J.  W.  Matthews,  M.D. 
(London:  Sampson  Low,  1887.) 

Dr.  Matthews  left  England  in  1864,  soon  after  he  had 
taken  his  medical  degree.  He  settled,  in  the  first 
instance,  at  Verulam,  in  Natal,  where  he  was  appointed 
a  district  surgeon.  Afterwards  he  became  familiar  with 
many  different  parts  of  South  Africa,  and  especially  with 
the  Diamond  Fields,  the  inhabitants  of  which  twice  re- 
turned him  at  the  head  of  the  poll  to  represent  them  in 
the  councils  of  their  country.  He  is  not  a  very  skilful 
writer,  but  any  one  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  read  his 
long  and  somewhat  elaborate  narrative  will  be  rewarded 
by  obtaining  a  great  amount  of  solid  and  more  or  less  in- 
teresting information.  He  has  naturally  much  to  say  about 
the  population  of  the  Diamond  Fields,  and  about  the  pro- 
cess of  diamond  mining,  and  on  these  subjects  he  speaks 
with  the  authority  of  one  who  presents  the  results  of  direct 
personal  observation.  He  has  also  brought  together  a  good 
many  curious  and  instructive  facts  about  the  native  tribes  ; 
and  his  descriptions  of  scenery,  if  not  brilliant  from  a 
literary  point  of  view,  at  any  rate  suffice  to  convey  a 
general  impression  of  some  of  the  districts  he  has  visited. 
The  work  will  be  of  considerable  service  to  Englishmen 
who  think  of  settling  in  South  Africa. 

First  Elements  of  Experimental  Geometry.  By  Paul 
Bert.     (London:  Cassell  and  Co.,  1888.) 

The  book  of  which  this  is  a  translation  was  M. 
Paul  Bert's  last  work,  and,  like  his  earlier  books 
of  a  similar  kind,  it  is  written  in  a  style  that  cannot 
fail  to  interest  children.  His  aim  is  to  go  straight 
to  the  goal,  and,  as  he  tells  us  in  the  preface,  the 
goal  of  experimental  geometry  in  elementary  schools  is, 
not  a  knowledge  of  the  properties  of  different  figures, 
but  the  power  of  measuring  objects  round  about  us.  By 
the  time  the  pupil  ha3  reached  the  third  or  fourth  lesson 
he  has  learnt  how  to  measure  the  height  of  a  tree,  and  by 


so  doing  has  done  a  practical  piece  of  work,  and  begins 
to  take  an  interest  in  the  subject. 

The  book  is  divided  into  nine  parts,  containing  in  all 
about  forty  lessons.  The  measurement  of  straight  lines, 
plane  areas,  solids,  lengths  of  curved  lines,  &c,  are 
dealt  with  in  the  first  seven  parts  ;  the  eighth  shows 
the  methods  of  constructing  various  geometrical  figures 
and  the  instruments  employed  ;  Part  9  consists  of  the 
elements  of  land  surveying  and  of  plan  drawing. 

The  illustrations  and  diagrams  are  numerous  and  well 
chosen  throughout,  and  the  work  has  been  well  trans- 
lated. At  the  end  of  the  volume  exercises  have  been 
added  for  the  use  of  teachers  which  are  not  found  in 
the  French  version,  the  translator  telling  us  that  "the 
extraordinary  character  of  our  table  of  weights  and 
measures  has  made  it  almost  impossible  to  reproduce 
with  the  neatness  and  clearness  of  the  original  the 
numerous  examples  which  are  based  upon  the  metrical 
system." 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
of  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations.] 

The  Renewed  Irruption  of  Syrrhaptes. 

Thanks  to  your  kindness  in  printing  a  note  of  mine  a  few 
weeks  since  (p.  103),  I  have  received  from  your  correspond- 
ents a  large  amount  of  help  in  the  task  I  have  undertaken  ;  but 
there  is,  to  me  at  least,  a  complete  blank  as  regards  observations 
of  Syrrhaptes  this  year  in  France.  It  is  almost  impossib'e  for 
the  invasion  to  have  missed  that  country,  since  Italy  and  Spain 
even  have  been  visited  in  greater  force  than  upon  any  one  of 
the  former  occasions,  yet  not  a  word  of  the  birds  being  seen  in 
France  on  the  present  occasion  has  come  to  me,  notwithstand- 
ing the  inquiries  I  have  made  of  French  ornithologists.  I  would 
ask  such  of  your  readers  as  may  be  in  that  country  to  send  me 
any  tidings  they  may  obtain.  In  1863  there  were  at  least  a  dozen 
French  localities  recorded,  and  in  some  of  them  large  flocks  were 
seen.  I  can  hardly  suppose  that  it  has  been  otherwise  this 
year.  Alfred  Newton. 

Magdalene  College,  Cambridge,  July  23. 


Dr.  Romanes'  Article  in  the   Contemporary  Review 
for  June. 

My  attention  has  been  directed  to  an  article  entitled  "  Recent 
Critics  of  Darwinism,"  by  Dr.  Romanes  in  the  June  number  of 
the  Contemporary  Review.  While  the  anonymous  writer  of  a 
recent  article  in  the  Edinburgh  Review  is  rightly  exposed  for 
quoting  what  he  believes  to  be  the  opinions  of  men  who:e 
writings"  he  can  never  have  read,  or  at  least  can  never  have 
understood,  it  is  somewhat  unfortunate  that  Dr.  Romanes 
should  have  fallen  into  the  similar  error  of  not  making 
himself  acquainted  with  views  which  he  professes  to  express. 
He  states  (on  page  841)  that  while  Cope,  Semper,  Geddes, 
and  Seebohm  have  argued  "  that  any  proof  of  natural  selection 
as  an  operating  principle  opens  up  the  more  ultimate  problem  as 
to  the  causes  of  the  variations  on  the  occurrence  of  which  this 
principle  depends,"  Weismann  and  Poulton,  on  the  other 
hand,  "have  not  so  much  concerned  themselves  with 
this  more  ultimate  problem."  As  it  is  unlikely  that  Dr. 
Weismann  will  have  the  opportunity  of  replying  to  this 
statement,  it  is  only  right  to  point  out  that  this  eminent 
zoologist  has  most  certainly  concerned  himself  very  earnestly 
with  this  ultimate  problem,  and  that  his  original  and  important 
theories  upon  the  subject  will  be  found  in  two  of  his  recent 
papers,  viz.  "Die  Continuitat  des  Keimplasma's  als  Grundlage 
einer  Theorieder  Vererbung,"  Jena,  1885,  and  "  Die  Bedeutung 
der  sexuellen  Fortpflanzung  fur  die  Selektions-Theorie,"  Jena, 
1886. 

I  should  not  have  troubled  to  write  this  reply  on  account  of 
the  allusion  to  myself,  and  I  agree  with  Dr.  Romanes  in  the 


296 


NATURE 


[July  26,  1888 


belief  that  my  work  does  not  throw  any  light  upon  the  causes  of 
variation.  There  are  however  many  zoologists  who  believe  that 
it  has  such  a  bearing,  and  indeed  it  seems  only  natural  that 
writers  (such  as  Dr.  Romanes  himself)  who  retain  the  Lamarckian 
conception  of  the  direct  influence  of  surroundings  in  causing  the 
variations  of  the  higher  animals,  should  believe  (as  I  ihink 
wrongly)  that  they  see  evidence  for  the  soundness  of  their  views  in 
the  results  of  experiments  in  which  the  colours  of  insects  have 
been  completely  modified  in  a  single  generation  by  the  action  of 
environment.  Edward  B.  Poulton 

Oxford,  July  15. 


The  Thunder-Axe. 

Those  who  are  interested  in  the  study  of  anthropology  need 
no  reminder  as  to  the  European  belief  in  a  connection  between 
ancient  stone  weapons  and  thunder.  It  would  be  mere  waste  of 
time  if  I  quoted  instances  of  this  connection  ;  but  it  may  not  be 
devoid  of  interest  to  some  of  your  readers  if  I  bring  to  their 
notice  a  modern  account  of  the  thunder-weapon,  as  described 
to-day  by  a  New  Zealander.  The  account  may  also  be  of 
service  to  those  studying  another  branch  of  anthropology — that 
concerning  the  influence  and  value  of  ancient  and  modern 
creeds  warring  in  the  minds  of  semi-civilized  peoples.  I  shall 
make  no  comment  of  my  own,  but  proceed  to  give  a  translation 
of  a  tale  printed  (in  Maori  only)  in  the  pages  of  the  native 
newspaper,  the  Korimako.  The  few  words  in  it  which  were 
not  understood  by  those  acquainted  with  the  ordinary  Maori 
speech,  I  referred  to  old  men  well  versed  in  the  dialect  of  that 
part  of  New  Zealand. 

"  The  finding  of  Te  Awhiorangi. 

"The  tribes  of  this  island  have  hitherto  only  heard  of  Te 
Awhiorangi,  but  have  not  seen  it.  We,  Ngarauru — that  is,  the 
people  descended  from  Rangitaupea,  our  ancestor  who  hid  the 
axe — have  never  seen  it  until  now  .  .  .  One  of  our  settlements, 
called  Okutuku,  is  near  Waitotara.  Twenty  natives  from  this 
settlement  proceeded  in  a  party  for  the  purpose  of  gathering 
the  edible  fungus  (Hakekakeka)  for  the  purpose  of  sale.  With 
the  party  went  a  young  woman  whose  name  was  Tomairangi 
(Dew  of  Heaven),  the  wife  of  Te  Potonga  Kaiawha.  This  girl 
was  a  perfect  stranger  in  the  district :  she  did  not  know  where 
the  sacred  (tapu)  places  were  ;  she  belonging  to  the  Ngaitahu 
(a  South  Island  tribe),  but  her  father  was  of  us,  the  Ngarauru. 
The  girl  wandered  away  by  herself,  looking  here  and  there, 
searching  for  trees  on  which  the  fungus  grew.  She  saw  a  tree 
on  which  there  was  fungus,  and  laid  her  hand  on  it,  but  suddenly 
there  came  the  flash  of  the  Axe.  Following  with  her  eyes  the 
direction  of  the  flash,  she  saw  the  Axe  close  against  the  foot  of  a 
Pukatea  tree  ;  a  cry  of  terror  broke  from  her,  and  she  fled 
screaming.  At  the  same  time  the  thunder  roared,  the  lightning 
flashed,  and  blinding  hail  burst  forth  in  sudden  storm,  increasing 
her  terror  almost  to  madness.  Her  husband  heard  her  cries  as 
she  flew  along  :  but  an  old  man,  called  Te  Rangi  Whakairione, 
directly  he  heard  her  shrieks,  understood  the  reason  of  the  out- 
cry, so  he  began  to  chant  an  incantation,  and  the  fury  of  the 
storm  abated.  When  the  parly  had  assembled  together  in  the 
open  land,  the  old  priest  asked  which  of  them  had  been  to 
Tieke  ;  whereupon  the  girl  asked  '  Where  is  Tieke  ? '  The 
old  man  answered  that  it  was  beyond  the  turn  at  Waione. 
Tomairangi  replied,  '  I  have  been  there,  but  I  did  not  know  it 
was  a  sacred  place  :  I  saw  something  that  looked  like  a  spirit, 
and  I  am  full  of  great  fear.'  Then  all  the  party  went  to 
ascertain  what  it  was,  and  then  they  found  that  it  was  indeed 
the  lost  sacred  Axe,  Te  Awhiorangi.  After  Te  Rangi 
Whakairione  had  chanted  another  incantation  over  it,  they  all 
took  hold  of  the  Axe,  and  wailed  over  it.  When  the  crying  had 
ceased,  they  brought  the  Axe  back  to  the  settlement.  All  the 
tribe  knew  that  the  Axe  was  somewhere  in  that  vicinity,  for  our 
ancestor  Rangitaupea  had  passed  the  secret  on  to  his  children  in 
the  words,  '  Te  Awhiorangi  is  at  Tieke  on  the  plain  close  above 
the  Cave  of  the  Dead.'  Until  now  that  place  has  been  unvisited, 
being  entirely  sacred  till  this  day,  the  10th  of  December,  1887. 
Then  gathered  all  Ngarauru  and  some  of  the  Whanganui  and 
Ngatiapa  tribes,  in  number  300  persons,  and  at  dawn  the  next 
day  the  sacred  thing  was  hung  up  on  a  tree  that  all  might  see  it. 
The  priests,  Kapua  Tautahi  and  Werahiko  Taipuhi  were  at  the 
head  of  the  procession  as  they  approached  the  place  :  they 
reciting  charms  and  incantations  as  they  moved  along  with  the 
people  following.     All  the  people  carried   gieen  branches  in 


their  hands  as  an  offering  to  Te  Awhiorangi.  When  the  con- 
course drew  near  the  place,  successive  peals  of  thunder  and 
flashes  of  lightning  rent  the  air;  then  came  down  a  dense  fog, 
making  it  dark  as  night.  The  Tohunga  (priests)  stopped  the 
thunder  and  dispersed  the  darkness  by  their  incantations.  When 
the  light  again  appeared,  the  people  offered  the  green  branches, 
together  with  a  number  of  Maori  mats,  &c.  ;  then  they  made 
lamentations,  and  sang  the  old  songs  in  which  the  ancient  Axe 
was  spoken  of  by  their  forefathers." 

Thus  far  the  native  account.  Then  follows  an  enumeration 
of  the  articles  offered  up  as  propitiation  ;  then  a  description  of 
the  axe,  which  appears  to  be  a  huge  and  beautiful  specimen  of 
the  stone  weapon,  so  highly  polished  that  the  face  of  the  be- 
holder may  be  seen  reflected  in  it.  Afterwards,  the  pedigree,  or 
rather  the  mythological  history,  of  the  axe,  showing  how  (name 
by  name)  it  had  been  handed  down  from  the  first  Maori  chief 
who  came  to  New  Zealand  (Turi),  and  that  it  had  descended  to 
him,  through  the  great  god  Tane,  from  the  primaeval  pair, 
Heaven  and  Earth  (Rangi  and  Papa).  But  our  chief  interest 
in  it  is  the  thunder  heralding  its  finding. 

Edward  Tregear. 

Wellington,  N.Z.,  June  11. 

The  Dispersion  of  Seeds  and  Plants. 

I  have  read  with  much  interest  Mr.  Morris's  communication 
on  the  above  subject  (Nature,  vol.  xxxvii.  p.  466),  and  can 
corroborate  most  of  what  he  states  from  personal  observation. 
I  can  also  remove  his  doubt  respecting  the  germination  of  the 
seeds  of  the  Guava  and  Passiflora,  to  which  may  also  be  added 
the  Tomato. 

I  have  adopted  the  "  earth  system  "  in  my  w.c,  and  from  the 
place  where  the  earth  is  deposited  may  always  be  gathered  fine 
young  plants  of  the  three  genera  named  above. 

Thousands  of  acres  of  pasturage  have  been  destroyed  in  this 
island  by  the  distribution  by  birds  of  the  Lantana,  which  was 
unfortunately  introduced  here  by  the  first  Roman  Catholic 
missionaries,  to  form  a  hedge  for  their  property  at  St.  Louis  or 
Conception.  The  "  Gendarme  plant  "  (an  Asclepiad)  was  brought 
here  in  a  pillow  by  a  gendarme  from  Tahiti.  It  was  a  seed  at- 
tached to  a  wing  of  silk  cotton.  The  gendarme  shook  out  his 
pillow  ;  the  wind  carried  the  seed  to  a  suitable  spot,  and  now  it 
vies  with  the  Lantana  in  destroying  our  pastures. 

I  have  shot  the  Great  Fruit  Pigeons  of  Fiji  and  this  island 
with  several  seeds  of  the  Canarium  (?)  in  their  crops,  as  Mr. 
Morris  says,  as  big  as  hen's  eggs.  The  seeds  of  water-plants 
are  conveyed,  with  the  eggs  of  fresh-water  Mollusca,  to  vast 
distances,  adhering  to  the  hairs  and  feathers  of  the  legs  of 
water  birds — ducks,  herons,  and  waders  of  all  sorts.  In  London 
the  basins  of  the  fountains  in  Trafalgar  Square  were  peopled 
by  Lymnea  brought  thither  from  the  Serpentine,  attached  to  the 
feathers  of  the  sparrows  who  bathed,  first  in  one,  and  then  in  the 
other. 

Another  plant  which  occurs  to  me  as  being  largely  indebted 

i  to  man  for  its  distribution,  is  that  known  as  the  "  Cape  Goose- 

I  berry,"  which  is  a  native  of  South  America  (I  forget  its  botanical 

I  name).    The  Kaffirs  call  it  the  "  White  man's  plant,"  and  say  it 

follows  the  white  man  everywhere.     I  know  it  is  found  in  India, 

Ceylon,    Africa,     Fiji,    New    Caledonia,     New    Hebrides.       I 

really  believe  boiling  it  into  jam  does  not  destroy  the  vitality 

of  the  seeds.     We  have  just  got  a  plant  here,  bearing  a  lovely 

flower,  but  whence  it  comes  no  one  knows.     It  has  hard  wooden 

seed  capsules,  each  furnished  with  two  hooks  as  hard  as  steel 

and  as  sharp  as  needles,  this  size  and  shape.      These,  hooking 


into  the  hide  of  any  animal,   would  be  carried  for  days   unt 
forcibly  dislodged. 

The  "  Bathurst  burr "  (Xanthium  spinosum)  was  introduc 
into  the  Cape  in  a  cargo  of  wool  wrecked  at  Cape  Lagulha 
and  spread  out  to  dry,  first  there,  and  then  at  Simon's  Town, 
both  of  which    places  the   "burr"  sprang  up.     I   believe 
hope  I  destroyed  the  first  and  last  plant  of  it  that  sprang  up 
New  Zealand  some  twenty-five  years  ago.     The  seed  had  bee 


July  26,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


297 


brought  in  the  living  fleece  of  a  fine  merino  ram.  The  owner  of 
the  pasture  was  cherishing  the  "  wonderful  new  plant,"  and  was 
not  a  little  horrified  when  I  took  out  my  knife  and  carefully  cut 
it  down.      He  was  more  horrified  when  I  told  him  what  it  was. 

The  .seeds  of  >ome  of  the  Indian  banians,  I  believe,  require 
to  pass  through  the  bodies  of  birds  to  enable  them  to  germinate. 
A  minute  bird  (Diceum)  feeds  on  them,  and  is  so  small  that  its 
dropping  cannot  fall  clear  of  the  branch  on  which  it  sits,  conse- 
quently it  is  glued  to  the  !>ark  and  takes  root.  Sometimes  this 
takes  place  on  a  palm  tree  ;  ihe  roots  then  run  down  the  trunk, 
and  finally  smother  their  host. 

British  Consulate,  Noumea,  May  15.  E.  L.  Layard. 


Indian  Life  Statistics. 

Although  Mr.  Hill  (in  Nature  of  July  12,  p.  250)  refers 
to  tiie  Holi  festival  as  among  possible  influences  in  causing 
variations  of  births,  he  does  not  say  whether  he  considers  lucky 
and  unlucky  m  >nths  and  years,  which  so  largely  affect  marriages 
in  India,  as  incidents  which  may  have  an  effect. 

Hyde  Clarke. 


TIMBER,  AND  SOME  OE  ITS  DISEASES.1 
X. 

IN  the  months  of  April  and  May,  the  younger  needle- 
like leaves  of  the  Scotch  pine  are  occasionally  seen 
to  have  assumed  a  yellow  tinge,  and  on  closer  examination 
this  change  in  colour,  from  green  to  yellow,  is  seen  to 
be  due  to  the  development  of  what  look  like  small  orange- 
coloured  vesicles  standing  off  from  the  surface  of  the 
epidermis,  and  which  have  in  fact  burst  through  from  the 
interior  of  the  leaf  (Fig  31).    Between  these  larger  orange- 


IG.  3  1. — To  the  left  is  a  pair  of  leaves  of  the  Scotch  pine,  with  the  blister- 
like /Ecidia.  a.  of  Peridermium  Pini  ;var.  acicola)  projecting  from 
their  tissues:  these  blisters  are  orange-yellow  111  ojIjut,  a.id  contain 
spores,  as  sh">wn  in  Fig.  33.  Between  the  blisters  are  the  minute 
tpermogonia.  b  To  the  right  is  a  small  branch,  killed  at  a  a  a  by 
Peridermium  Pint  (var.  corticold),  the  blister-like  yellow  Ecidia  of 
the  fungus  being  very  conspicuous.     (Reduced,  after  Hartig.) 

yellow  vesicles  the  lens  shows  certain  smaller  brownish  or 
almost  black  specks.  Each  of  the  vesicular  swellings  is  a 
form  of  fungus-fructification  known  as  an  .Ecidium,  and 
each  of  the  smaller  specks  is  a  fungus-structure  called  a 
Spermogonium,  and  both  of  these  bodies  are  developed 
from  a  mycelium  in  the  tissues  of  the  leaf.  I  must  employ 
these  technical  terms,  but  will  explain  them  more  in  detail 
shortly  :  the  point  to  be  attended  to  for  the  moment  is 

1  Continued  from  p.  272. 


that  this  fungus  in  the  leaf  has  long  been  known  under  the 
name  of  Peridermium  Pini  (var.  acico/a,  i.e.  the  variety 
which  lives  upon  the  needle-like  leaves). 

On  the  younger  branches  of  the  Scotch  pine,  the 
Weymouth  pine,  the  Austrian  pine,  and  some  others,  there 
may  also  be  seen  in  May  and  June  similar  but  larger 
bladder-like  orange  vesicles  {/Ecidia)  bursting  through  the 
cortex  (Fig.  31) ;  and  here, again, careful  examination  shows 
the  darker  smaller  tpermogonia  in  patches  between  the 
/Ecidia.     These  also  arise  from  a  fungus-mycelium  in  the 


Fig.  32.— Blisters  {/Ecidia)  of  Peridermium  Pini  (var.  corticold)  on  a  branch 
of  the  Scotch  pine  :  some  of  the  .-Ecidia  have  already  burst  at  the  apex 
and  scattered  their  spores,  l>,  b  ;  the  others  are  still  intact.  (Natural 
size,  after  Hess  ) 

tissues  of  the  cortex,  whence  the  fungus  was  named  Peri- 
dermium Pini  (var.  corticola).  It  is  thus  seen  that  the 
fungus  Peridermium  Pini  was  regarded  as  a  parasite  of 
pines,  and  that  it  possessed  two  varieties,  one  inhabiting 
the  leaves  and  the  other  the  cortex  :  the  "  varieties  "  were 
so  considered,  because  certain  trivial  differences  were 
found  in  the  minute  structure  of  the  /Ecidia  and  Spermo- 
gonia. 

If  we  cut  thin  vertical  sections  through  a  leaf  and  one 
of  the  smallest  /Ecidia,  and  examine  the  latter  with  the 
microscope,  it  will  be  found  to  consist  of  a  mass  of  spores 


Fig.  33. — Vertical  section  through  a  very  young  sEcidium  of Peridermiutn 
Pini(vtxr.  acicola).  with  part  of  the  subjacent  tissue  i  f  the  leaf.  //,  the 
mycelium  of  the  parasitic  fungus  running  between  the  cells  of  the  leaf: 
immediately  beneath  the  epidermis  of  the  leaf,  the  enJs  of  the  hypha; 
give  rise  to  the  vertical  rows  of  sp  res  (A),  the  ou'ermost  of  which  (/) 
remain  barren,  and  form  the  membrane  of  the  blister-like  b>dy.  The 
epidermis  is  already  ruptured  at  /  by  the  pressure  of  the  young 
sEcidium,     (After  R.  Hartig  :  highly  magnified.) 

arranged  in  vertical  rows,  each  row  springing  from  a 
branch  of  the  mycelium  :  the  outermost  of  these  spores — 
i.e.  those  which  form  a  compact  layer  close  beneath  the 
epidermis — remain  barren,and  serve  as  a  kind  of  membrane 
covering  the  rest  (Fig.  33,/).  It  is  this  membrane  which 
protrudes  like  a  blister  from  the  tissues.  The  hyphae  of 
the  fungus  are  seen  running  in  all  directions  between  the 
cells  of  the  leaf-tissue,  and  as  they  rise  up  and  form  the 
vertical  chains  of  spores,  the  pressure  gradually  forces  up 
the  epidermis  of  the  leaf,  bursts  it,  and  the  mass  of  orange- 
vellow  powdery  spores  protrude  to  the  exterior  enveloped 


2Q3 


NA  TURE 


[July  26,  1888 


in  the  aforesaid  membrane  of  contiguous  barren  spores. 
If  we  examine  older  sEcidia,  it  will  be  found  that  this 
membrane  bursts  also  at  length,  and  the  spores  escape. 

Similar  sections  across  a  Spermogonium  exhibit  a 
structure  which  differs  slightly  from  the  above.  Here 
also  the  hyphae  in  the  leaf  turn  upwards,  and  send 
delicate  branches  in  a  converging  crowd  beneath  the 
epidermis  ;  the  latter  gives  way  beneath  the  pressure,  and 
the  free  tips  of  the  hyphae  constrict  off  very  minute  spore- 
like bodies.  These  minute  bodies  are  termed  Spermatid, 
and  I  shall  say  no  more  about  them  after  remarking  that 
they  are  quite  barren,  and  that  similar  sterile  bodies  are 
known  to  occur  in  very  many  of  the  fungi  belonging  to 
this  and  other  groups. 

Sections  through  the  sEtidia  and  Spermogonia  on  the 
cortex  present  structures  so  similar,  except  in  minute 
details  which  could  only  be  explained  by  lengthy  descrip- 
tions and  many  illustrations,  that  1  shall  not  dwell  upon 
them  ;  simply  reminding  the  reader  that  the  resemblances 
are  so  striking  that  systematic  mycologists  have  long 
referred  them  to  a  mere  variety  of  the  same  fungus. 

Now  as  to  the  kind  and  amount  of  damage  caused  by 
the  ravages  of  these  two  forms  of  fungus. 

In  the  leaves,  the  mycelium  is  found  running  between  the 
cells  (Fig.  33,  //),and  absorbing  or  destroying  their  contents : 
since  the  leaves  do  not  fall  the  first  season,  and  the  myce- 
lium remains  living  in  their  tissues  well  into  the  second  year, 
it  is  generally  accepted  that  it  does  very  little  harm.  At 
the  same  time,  it  is  evident  that,  if  very  many  leaves  are 
being  thus  taxed  by  the  fungus,  they  cannot  be  supplying 
the  tree  with  food  materials  in  such  quantities  as  if  the 
leaves  were  intact.  However,  the  fungus  is  remarkable  in 
this  respect — that  it  lives  and  grows  for  a  year  or  two  in  the 
leaves,  and  does  not  (as  so  many  of  its  allies  do)  kill  them 
after  a  few  weeks.  It  is  also  stated  that  only  young  pines  are 
badly  attacked  by  this  form  :  it  is  rare  to  find  dLcidia  on 
trees  more  than  twenty  years  or  so  old. 

Much  more  disastrous  results  can  be  traced  directly  to 
the  action  of  the  mycelium  in  the  cortex.  The  hyphae 
grow  and  branch  between  the  green  cells  of  the  true  cortex, 
as  well  as  in  the  bast-tissues  beneath,  and  even  make  their 
way  into  the  medullary  rays  and  resin-canals  in  the  wood, 
though  not  very  deep.  Short  branches  of  the  hyphae 
pierce  the  cells,  and  consume  their  starch  and  other  con- 
tents, causing  a  large  outflow  of  resin,  which  soaks  into  the 
wood  or  exudes  from  the  bark.  It  is  probable  that  this 
effusion  of  turpentine  into  the  tissues  of  the  wood,  cam- 
bium, and  cortex,  has  much  to  do  with  the  drying  up  of 
the  parts  above  the  attacked  portion  of  the  stem  :  the 
tissues  shrivel  up  and  die,  the  turpentine  in  the  canals 
slowly  sinking  down  into  the  injured  region.  The  drying 
up  would  of  course  occur  if  the  conducting  portions  are 
steeped  in  turpentine,  preventing  the  conduction  of  water 
from  below. 

The  mycelium  lives  for  years  in  the  cortex,  and  may  be 
found  killing  the  young  tissues  just  formed  from  the  cam- 
bium during  the  early  summer  :  of  course  the  annual  ring 
of  wood,  &c,  is  here  impoverished.  If  the  mycelium 
is  confined  to  one  side  of  the  stem,  a  flat  or  depressed 
spreading  wound  arises  ;  if  this  extends  all  round,  the 
parts  above  must  die. 

When  fairly  thick  stems  or  branches  have  the  mycelium 
on  one  side  only,  the  cambium  is  injured  locally,  and  the 
thickening  is  of  course  partial.  The  annual  rings  are 
formed  as  usual  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  stem,  where 
the  cambium  is  still  intact,  or  they  ars  even  thicker  than 
usual,  because  the  cambium  there  diverts  to  itself  more 
than  the  usual  share  of  food-substances  :  where  the 
mycelium  exists,  however,  the  cambium  is  destroyed,  and 
no  thickening  layer  is  formed.  From  this  cause  arise 
cancerous  malformations  which  are  very  common  in 
pine-woods  (Fig.  34). 

Putting  everything  together,  it  is  not  difficult  to  explain 
the  symptoms  of  the  disease.     The  struggle  between  the 


mycelium  on  the  one  hand,  which  tries  to  extend  all  round 
in  the  cortex,  and  the  tree  itself,  on  the  other,  as  it  tries 
to  repair  the  mischief,  will  end  in  the  triumph  of  the  fungus 
as  soon  as  its  ravages  extend  so  far  as  to  cut  off  the  water- 
supply  to  the  parts  above  :  this  will  occur  as  soon  as  the 
mycelium  extends  all  round  the  cortex,  or  even  sooner  if 
the  effusion  of  turpentine  hastens  the  blocking  up  of  the 
channels.     This  may  take  many  years  to  accomplish. 

So  far,  and  taking  into  account  the  enormous  spread 
of  this  disastrous  disease,  the  obvious  remedial  measures 
seem  to  be,  to  cut  down  the  diseased  trees — of  course  this 
should  be  done  in  the  winter,  or  at  least  before  the  spores 
come — and  use  the  timber  as  best  may  be  ;  but  we  must 
first  see  whether  such  a  suggestion  needs  modifving,  after 
learning  more  about  the  fungus  and  its  habits.  It  appears 
clear,  at  any  rate,  however,  that  every  diseased  tree 
removed  means  a  source  of  ^cidiospores  the  less. 

Probably  everyone  knows  the  common  groundsel,  which 
abounds  all  over  Britain  and  the  Continent,  and  no  doubt 
many  of  my  readers  are  acquainted  with  other  species  of 
the  same  genus  (Seneeio)  to  which  the  groundsel  belongs, 
and  especially  with  the  ragwort  {Seneeio  Jacobaa).  It 
has  long  been  known  that  the  leaves  of  these  plants,  and 
of  several  allied  species,  are  attacked  by  a  fungus,  the 
mycelium  of  which  spreads  in  the  leaf-passages,  and  gives 
rise  to  powdery  masses  of  orange-yellow  spores,  arranged 
in   vertical  rows   beneath    the    stomata :    these   powdery 


Fig.  34. — Section  across  an  old  pine-stem  in  the  cancerous  region  injured  by 
Peridermium  Pint  (var.  corticola).  As  shown  by  the  figures,  the  stem 
was  fifteen  years  old  when  the  ravages  of  the  fungus  began  to  affect  the 
cambium  near  a.  The  mycelium,  spreading  in  the  cortex  and  cambium 
on  all  sides,  gradually  restr.cted  the  action  of  the  latter  more  a  .d  more  l 
at  thirty  years  old,  the  still  sound  cambium  only  extended  half-way 
round  the  stem — no  w.:od  being  developed  on  the  opposite  side.  By 
the  time  the  tree  was  eighty  years  old,  only  the  small  area  of  cambium 
indicated  by  the  thin  line  marked  80  was  still  alive  ;  and  soon  after- 
wards the  stem  was  completely  "  ringed,"  and  dead,  all  the  tissues  being 
suffused  with  resin.     (After  Hartig.) 

masses  of  spores  burst  forth  through  the  epidermis,  but 
are  not  clothed  by  any  covering,  such  as  the  /Ecidia  of 
Peridermium  Pitii,  for  instance.  These  groups  of  yellow 
spores  burst  forth  in  irregular  powdery  patches,  scattered 
over  the  under  sides  of  the  leaves  in  July  and  August: 
towards  the  end  of  the  summer  a  slightly  different  form  ot 
spore,  but  similarly  arranged,  springs  from  the  same 
mycelium  on  the  same  patches.  From  the  differences  in 
their  form,  time  of  appearance,  and  (as  we  shall  see) 
functions,  these  two  kinds  of  spores  have  received  dif- 
ferent names.  Those  first  produced  have  numerous 
papillae  on  them,  and  were  called  Uredospores,  from  their 
analogies  with  the  uredospore  of  the  rust  of  wheat 
the  second  kind  of  spore  is  smooth,  and  is  called  the 
Teleatospore,  also  from  analogies  with  the  spores  producec 
in  the  late  summer  by  the  wheat-rust.  The  fungus  whicl 
produces  these  uredospores  and  teleutospores  was 
named,  and  has  been  long  distinguished  as,  Coleosporiuiii 
Senecio7iis  (Pers.).  We  are  not  immediately  interested  ii 
the  damage  done  by  this  parasite  to  the  weeds  which  it 
infests,  and  at  any  rate  we  might  well  be  tempted  tc 
rejoice  in  its  destructive  action  on  these  garden  pests 
is  sufficient  to  point  out  that  the  influence  of  the  myceliur 
is  to  shorten  the  lives  of  the  leaves,  and  to  rob  the  plant  of 
food  material  in  the  way  referred  to  .generally  in  my  last 
article. 

What  we  are  here  more  directly  interested  in  is  the 


July  26,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


299 


following.  A  few  years  ago  Wolff  showed  that  if  the  spores 
from  the  sEcidia  of  Peridermium  Pini  (var.  acicold)  are 
sown  on  the  leaf  of  Senecio,  the  germinal  hyphae  which 
grow  out  from  the  spores  enter  the  stotnata  of  the  Senecio 
leaf,  and  there  develop  into  the  fungus  called  Colcosporium 
Senecionis.  In  other  words,  the  fungus  growing  in  the 
cortex  of  the  pine,  and  that  parasitic  on  the  leaves  of  the 
groundsel  and  its  allies,  are  one  and  the  same  :  it  spends 
part  of  its  life  on  the  tree  and  the  other  part  on  the  herb. 

If  I  left  the  matter  stated  only  in  this  bald  manner,  it  is 
probable  that  few  of  my  readers  would  believe  the  wonder. 
But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  this  phenomenon,  on  the  one  hand, 
is  by  no  means  a  solitary  instance,  for  we  know  many  of 
these  fungi  which  require  two  host-plants  in  order  to 
complete  their  life-history  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  several 
observers  of  the  highest  rank  have  repeated  Wolff's  experi- 
ment and  found  his  results  correct.  Hartig,  for  instance, 
to  whose  indefatigable  and  ingenious  researches  we  owe 
most  that  is  known  of  the  disease  caused  by  the  Perider- 
Jiiium,  has  confirmed  Wolff's  results. 

It  was  to  the  brilliant  researches  of  the  late  Prof. 
De  Bary  that  we  owe  the  first  recognition  of  this  re- 
markable phenomenon  of  hetercecism — i.e.  the   inhabiting 


Fig.  35.  — A  spore  of  Feridertiiiuvt  Pini  germinating.  It  puts  forth  the 
long,  branched  germinal  hyphae  on  the  damp  surface  of  a  leaf  of 
Senecio,  and  one  of  the  branches  enters  a  stoma,  and  forms  a  mycelium 
in  the  leaf:  after  some  time,  the  mycelium  gives  rise  to  the  uredospores 
and  teleutospores  of  Colcosporinm  Senecionis.  (After  Tulasne  :  highly 
magnified.) 

more  than  one  host — of  the  fungi.  De  Bary  proved  that 
the  old  idea  of  the  farmer,  that  the  rust  is  very  apt  to 
appear  on  wheat  growing  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
berberry-bushes,  was  no  fable  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  that 
the  yellow  sEcidium  on  the  berberry  is  a  phase  in  the 
life-history  of  the  fungus  causing  the  wheat-rust.  Many 
other  cases  are  now  known,  e.g.  the  /Ecidium  abietinum, 
on  the  spruce  firs  in  the  Alps,  passes  the  other  part  of  its 
life  on  the  Rhododendrons  of  the  same  region.  Another 
well-known  example  is  that  of  the  fungus  Gymno- 
jporangium,  which  injures  the  wood  of  junipers  :  Oersted 
first  proved  that  the  other  part  of  its  life  is  spent  on  the 
leaves  of  certain  Rosaceas,  and  his  discovery  has  been 
repeatedly  confirmed.  I  have  myself  observed  the  follow- 
ing confirmation  of  this.  The  stems  of  the  junipers  so 
common  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Silverdale  (near  More- 
cambe  Bay)  used  to  be  distorted  with  Gymnosporangium, 
and  covered  with  the  teleutospores  of  this  fungus  every 
spring  :  in  July  all  the  hawthorn  hedges  in  the  neighbour- 
hood had  their  leaves  covered  with  the  ^Ecidium  form 
{formerly  called  Rcestelia),  and  it  was  quite  easy  to  show 
that  the  fungus  on  the  hawthorn  leaves  was  produced  by 


sowing  the  Gymnosporangium  spores  on  them.  Many 
other  well-established  cases  of  similar  hetercecism  could 
be  quoted. 

But  we  must  return  to  the  Peridermium  Pini.  It  wih 
be  remembered  that  I  expressed  myself  somewhat 
cautiously  regarding  the  Peridermium  on  the  leaves  (var. 
acicold).  It  appears  that  there  is  need  for  further  inves- 
tigations into  the  life-history  of  this  form,  for  it  has  been 
thought  more  than  probable  that  it  is  not  a  mere  variety 
of  the  other,  but  a  totally  different  species. 

Only  so  lately  as  1883,  however,  Wolff  succeeded  in 
infecting  the  leaves  of  Senecio  with  the  spores  of  Perider- 
mium Pini  (acicold),  and  developing  the  Coleosporium, 
thus  showing  that  both  the  varieties  belong  to  the  same 
fungus. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  foregoing  that  in  the  study  of 
the  biological  relationships  between  any  one  plant  which 
we  happen  to  value  because  it  produces  timber,  and  any 
other  which  grows  in  the  neighbourhood  there  may  be 
(and  there  usually  is)  a  series  of  problems  fraught  with 
interest  so  deep  scientifically,  and  so  important  economic- 
ally, that  one  would  suppose  no  efforts  would  be  spared  to 
investigate  them :  no  doubt  it  will  be  seen  as  time 
progresses  that  what  occasionally  looks  like  apathy  with 
regard  to  these  matters  is  in  reality  only  apparent 
indifference  due  to  want  of  information. 

Returning  once  more  to  the  particular  case  in  question, 
it  is  obvious  that  our  new  knowledge  points  to  the 
desirability  of  keeping  the  seed-beds  and  nurseries 
especially  clean  from  groundsel  and  weeds  of  that 
description  :  on  the  one  hand,  such  weeds  are  noxious  in 
themselves,  and  on  the  other  they  harbour  the  Coleosporium 
form  of  the  fungus  Peridermium  under  the  best  conditions 
for  infection.  It  may  be  added  that  it  is  known  that  the 
fungus  can  go  on  being  reproduced  by  the  uredospores  on 
the  groundsel-plants  which  live  through  the  winter. 

H.  Marshall  Ward. 

(To  be  continued.) 


EARTHQUAKES  AND  HOW  TO  MEASURE 
THEM.1 

PROF.  EWING  explained  that  the  study  of  earthquakes 
had  two  aspects,  one  geological  and  the  other 
mechanical,  and  it  was  of  the  latter  alone  that  his  lecture 
was  to  treat.  The  mechanical  student  of  earthquakes 
concerned  himself  with  the  character  of  the  motion  that 
was  experienced  at  any  point  on  the  earth's  crust,  and 
with  the  means  by  which  an  earthquake  spread  from  point 
to  point  by  elastic  vibration  of  rock  and  soil.  The  first 
problem  in  seismometry  was  to  determine  exactly  how  the 
ground  moved  during  an  earthquake,  to  find  the  amount 
and  direction  of  every  displacement,  and  the  velocity  and 
rate  of  acceleration  at  every  instant  while  the  shaking 
went  on.  He  was  to  deal  with  the  solution  of  that  problem, 
and  to  describe  some  of  the  results  which  had  been 
obtained  in  the  measurement  of  earthquakes  in  Japan, 
where  earthquakes  happened  with  a  frequency  sufficient 
to  satisfy  the  most  enthusiastic  seismologist.  Most  early 
attempts  to  reduce  the  observing  of  earthquakes  to  an 
exact  science  had  failed  because  they  were  based  on  a 
false  notion  of  what  earthquake  motion  was.  It  had  been 
supposed  that  an  earthquake  consisted  of  a  single  or  at 
least  a  prominent  jerk,  or  a  few  jerks,  easily  distinguishable 
from  any  minor  oscillations  that  might  occur  at  the  same 
time.  The  old  column  seismometer,  for  instance,  recom- 
mended in  the  Admiralty  Manual  of  Scientific  Inquiry, 
attempted  to  measure  what  was  called  the  intensity  of 
the  shock  by  means  of  a  number  of  circular  columns  of 
various  diameters  which  were  set  to  stand  upright  like 
ninepins  on  a  level  base.     It  was  expected  that  the  shock 

1  Abstract  of  a   Lecture  delivered   at  t^ie   Royal   Institution   on    Friday 
evening,  June  i,  by  Prof.  J.  A.  Ewing,  K.R.S. 


3oo 


NATURE 


[July  26,  1888 


would  overthrow  the  narrower  columns,  the  broadest  that 
fell  serving  to  measure  its  severity,  and  that  the  columns 
would  fall  in  a  direction  which  would  point  to  the  place 
of  origin  of  the  disturbance.  In  fact,  however,  such 
columns  fell  most  capriciously  when  they  fell  at  all,  and 
it  was  impossible  to  learn  anything  positive  from  their 
behaviour  in  an  earthquake.  The  reason  was  that  there 
was  no  single  outstanding  impulse :  an  earthquake  con- 
sisted of  a  confused  multitudinous  jumble  of  irregular 
oscillations,  which  shifted  their  direction  with  such 
rapidity  that  a  point  on  the  earth's  surface  wriggled 
through  a  path  like  the  form  a  loose  coil  of  string  might 
take  if  it  were  ravelled  into  a  state  of  the  utmost 
confusion.  The  mechanical  problem  in  seismometry  was 
to  find  a  steady-point — to  suspend  a  body  so  that  some 
point  in  it,  at  least,  should  not  move  while  this  compli- 
cated wriggling  was  going  on.  The  steady-point  would 
then  serve  as  a  datum  with  respect  to  which  the  movement 
of  the  ground  might  be  recorded  and  measured.  The 
simple  pendulum  had  often  been  suggested  as  a  steady- 
point  seismometer,  but  in  the  protracted  series  of  oscilla- 
tions which  made  up  an  earthquake  the  bob  of  a  pendulum 
might,  and  often  did,  acquire  so  much  oscillation  that,  far 
from  remaining  at  rest,  it  moved  much  more  than  the 
ground  itself.  The  lecturer  illustrated  this  by  showing 
the  cumulative  effect  of  a  succession  of  small  impulses 
on  a  pendulum  when  these  happened  to  agree  in  period 
with  the  pendulum's  swing.  The  fault  of  the  pendulum, 
from  the  seismometric  point  of  view,  was  its  too  great 
stability,  and  its  consequently  short  period  of  free  oscilla- 
tion. To  prevent  the  body  whose  inertia  was  to  furnish  a 
steady-point  from  acquiring  independent  oscillation,  the 
body  must  be  suspended  or  supported  astatically ;  in 
other  words,  its  equilibrium  must  be  very  nearly  neutral. 
Methods  of  astatic  suspension  which  had  been  used  in 
seismometry  were  described  and  illustrated  by  diagrams 
and  models,  in  particular  the  ball  and  block  seismometer 
of  Dr.  Verbeck,  the  horizontal  pendulum,  and  a  method 
of  suspension  by  crossed  cords  based  on  the  Tchebicheff 
straight-line  link-work. 

The  complete  analysis  of  the  ground's  motion  was 
effected  by  a  seismograph  which  resolved  it  into  three  com- 
ponents, two  horizontal  and  one  vertical,  and  recorded  each 
of  these  separately,  with  respect  to  an  appropriate  steady- 
point,  by  means  of  a  multiplying  lever,  on  a  sheet  of 
smoked  glass  which  was  caused  to  revolve  at  a  uniform 
rate  by  clock-work.  The  clock  was  started  into  motion 
by  the  action  of  the  earliest  tremors  of  the  earthquake  on 
a  very  delicate  electric  seismoscope,  the  construction  of 
which  was  shown  by  a  diagram.  In  this  way  a  record 
was  deposited  upon  the  revolving  plate  which  gave  every 
possible  particular  regarding  the  character  of  the  earth's 
motion  at  the  observing-station.  A  complete  set  of  the 
instruments  as  now  manufactured  by  the  Cambridge 
Scientific  Instrument  Company  was  shown  in  action. 
Prof.  Ewing  also  described  his  duplex  pendulum  seismo- 
graph, which  draws  on  a  fixed  plate  of  smoked  glass 
a  magnified  picture  of  the  horizontal  motion  of  the  ground 
during  an  earthquake.  Apparatus  was  shown  for  testing 
the  accuracy  of  the  seismographs  by  means  of  imitation 
earthquakes,  which  shook  the  stand  of  the  instrument,  and 
drew  two  diagrams  side  by  side  upon  the  glass  plate — one 
the  record  given  by  the  seismograph  itself,  and  the  other 
the  record  derived  from  a  fixed  piece  which  was  held  fast 
in  an  independent  support.  The  agreement  of  the  two 
recordswith  one  another  proved  how  very  nearly  motionless 
the  "  steady-point "  of  the  seismograph  remained  during 
even  a  prolonged  shaking  resembling  an  earthquake.  This 
test  was  applied  to  the  instruments  on  the  table,  and  the 
close  agreement  of  the  two  diagrams  was  exhibited  by  pro- 
jecting them  on  the  lantern-screen.  A  large  number  of 
autographic  records  of  Japanese  earthquakes  were  thrown 
on  the  screen,  including  several  which  have  been  already 
reproduced  in  this  journal  (Nature,  vol.  xxx.  p.  174,  vol. 


xxxi.  p.  581,  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  107)  ;  and  particulars  were  given 
of  the  extent  of  the  motion,  and  the  velocity  and  rate  of 
acceleration,  in  some  representative  examples.  To  deter- 
mine the  rate  of  acceleration  was  of  special  interest, 
because  it  measured  the  destructive  tendency  of  the 
shock.  The  lecturer  explained  that  some  of  the  seismo- 
grams  exhibited  on  the  screen  had  been  obtained  since  he 
had  left  Japan  by  his  former  assistant,  Mr.  Sekiya,  who 
now  held  the  unique  position  of  Professor  of  Seismology 
in  the  Imperial  Japanese  University.  Prof.  Sekiya  had 
recently  taken  the  pains  to  construct  a  model  representing, 
by  means  of  a  long  coil  of  copper  wire  carefully  bent  into 
the  proper  form,  the  actual  path  pursued  by  a  point  on 
the  earth's  surface  during  a  prolonged  and  rather  severe 
shaking.  This  model  of  an  earthquake  had  been  made 
by  combining  the  three  components  of  each  successive  dis- 
placement as  these  were  recorded  by  a  set  of  seismographs 
like  those  upon  the  lecture-table.  The  appearance  of 
Prof.  Sekiya's  model  (a  description  of  which  will  be  found 
in  Nature,  vol.  xxxvii.  p.  297)  was  shown  to  the  audience 
by  means  of  the  lantern. 

Prof.  Ewing  drew  attention  to  the  small  tremors  of  high 
frequency  which  characterized  the  beginnings  of  earth- 
quake motion,  and  which  were  apparent  in  a  number  of 
the  diagrams  he  exhibited.  These  generally  disappeared 
at  a  comparatively  early  stage  in  the  disturbance.  In  the 
early  portion  they  were  generally  found  at  first  alone, 
preceding  the  larger  and  and  slower  principal  motions  ; 
and  then  when  the  principal  motions  began,  small  tremors 
might  still  be  seen  for  some  time,  superposed  upon 
them.  In  all  probability  these  quick-period  tremors 
were  normal  vibrations,  while  the  larger  motions  were 
transverse  vibrations  ;  and  a  reference  to  the  theory  of 
the  transmission  of  vibrations  in  elastic  solids  served  to 
explain  why  the  quick-period  tremors  were  the  first  to  be 
felt.  The  whole  disturbance  went  on  for  several  minutes, 
with  irregular  fluctuations  in  the  amplitude  of  the  motion, 
and  with  a  protracted  dying  out  of  the  oscillations,  the 
period  of  which  usually  lengthened  towards  the  close. 
The  record  of  a  single  earthquake  comprised  some 
hundreds  of  successive  movements,  to  and  fro,  round 
fantastic  loops.  Each  single  movement  usually  occupied 
from  half  a  second  to  two  seconds.  Earthquakes  were 
quite  perceptible  in  which  the  greatest  extent  of  motion  was 
no  more  than  1/100  of  an  inch.  In  one  case,  on  the  other 
hand,  Prof.  Sekiya  had  obtained  a  record  in  which  the 
motion  was  as  much  as  an  inch  and  three-quarters.  Even 
that  was  in  an  earthquake  which  did  comparatively  little 
damage,  and  there  was  therefore  reason  to  expect  that  in 
a  severely  destructive  shock  (such  as  had  not  occurred 
since  the  present  system  of  seismometry  was  developed) 
the  motion  might  be  considerably  greater. 

Prof.  Ewing  concluded  his  lecture  by  pointing  out  that 
seismographs  might  find  practical  application  in  measuring 
the  stiffness  of  engineering  structures.  He  exhibited,  by 
the  lantern,  seismographic  records  he  had  recently  taken 
on  the  new  Tay  Bridge,  to  examine  the  shaking  of  the 
bridge  during  the  passage  of  trains.  The  instrument  had 
been  placed  on  one  of  the  great  girders,  two-thirds  of  a 
mile  from  the  Fife  end,  at  a  place  where  there  was  reason 
to  expect  the  vibration  would  be  a  maximum.  The  extent 
of  motion  was  remarkably  small.  It  was  less  than  an 
eighth  of  an  inch,  even  while  the  train  was  passing  the 
seismograph — a  fact  which  spoke  well  for  the  stiffness 
of  the  structure.  Nevertheless,  by  watching  the  index 
of  the  seismograph  he  had  been  able  to  tell  whenever 
a  train  came  on  at  the  Dundee  end  of  the  bridge,  a 
distance  of  1^  mile  from  the  place  where  the  instrument 
was  standing.  One  could  then  detect  a  vibratory  motion, 
the  extent  of  which  was  probably  not  more  than  1/500  of 
an  inch.  This  began  in  the  longitudinal  direction,  and 
for  some  time  longitudinal  vibration  only  could  be  seen. 
As  the  train  came  nearer,  lateral  vibration  also  began,  and 
the  amplitude  of  course  increased.    It  reached  a  maximum 


July  26,  1888] 


NATURE 


301 


when  the  train  was  close  to  the  seismograph,  and  con- 
tinued visible  until  the  train  had  passed  off  the  bridge  at 
the  other  end. 


DOES   PRECIPITATION    INFLUENCE     THE 

MOVEMENT  OF  CYCLONES? 
T  N  Prof.  Elias  Loomis's  first "  Contribution  to  Meteoro- 
1  logy,"  in  the  American  Journal  of  Arts  and  Science, 
he  examined  the  distribution  of  rain  around  152  storms 
(cyclones)  in  the  United  States,  in  order  to  determine 
whether  there  exists  any  relation  between  the  velocity  of 
a  storm's  progress  and  the  extent  of  the  accompanying 
rain  area.  He  found  that  "  the  average  extent  of  the 
rain  area  on  the  east  side  of  the  storm's  centre  is  500 
miles  ;  and  when  the  rain  area  extends  more  than  500 
miles,  the  storm  advances  with  a  velocity  greater  than  the 
mean  ;  but  when  the  extent  of  the  rain  area  is  less  than 
500  miles,  the  storm  advances  with  a  velocity  less  than  the 
mean."  In  his  twelfth  "Contribution"  he  examined  39 
storms  which  moved  with  exceptional  velocity  (1000  miles 
or  more  per  day)  and  found  that  "  the  rain  area  generally 
extended  a  great  distance  in  advance  of  the  storm  centre, 
the  average  distance  being  667  miles."  Finally,  Loomis 
examined  29  cases  of  those  abnormal  cyclones  in  the 
United  States  which  moved  toward  the  west.  He  says  : 
— "  In  nearly  every  case  we  find  a  fall  of  rain  or  snow  in 
the  region  toward  which  the  low  centre  advanced,  and  in 
most  of  the  cases  the  rainfall  was  unusually  great.  .  .  . 
It  may  be  inferred  from  these  comparisons  that  the  fall 
of  rain  or  snow  is  one  of  the  most  important  causes  which 
determine  the  abnormal  movements  of  areas  of  low 
pressure "  (ninth  memoir,  p.  44).  Ley  and  Abercromby 
state  that  in  Great  Britain  the  relation  of  the  weather  to 
the  cyclone  centre  is  the  same  whatever  the  path  of  the 
cyclone  ;  thus  when  storms  advance  toward  the  west  the 
greatest  cloud  development  and  rainfall  is  to  the  west  of 
the  cyclone  centre.  In  the  Proceedings  of  the  Royal 
Meteorological  Society,  vol.  xliii.,  Abercromby  gives  a  table 
showing  the  relation  between  the  intensity  of  "  trough 
phenomena "  and  the  velocity  of  cyclones.  This  table 
indicates  very  clearly  that  the  greater  the  velocity  of  the 
cyclone  the  more  marked  the  "trough  phenomena." 
Hence,  according  to  Abercromby's  definition  of  "  trough 
phenomena  "  the  heaviest  rain  and  cloud  areas  are  massed 
toward  the  front  of  rapidly  advancing  cyclones,  while 
immediately  after  the  passage  of  the  line  of  minimum 
pressure  the  sky  begins  to  show  signs  of  clearing.  This 
is  especially  well  marked  in  cyclones  passing  off  the  north- 
east coast  of  the  United  States.  When  the  cyclones  are 
moving  with  unusual  rapidity,  not  only  all  the  rain,  but 
almost  all  of  the  cloud  area  is  confined  to  the  front  half 
of  the  cyclone. 

Loomis  suggested  that  the  excess  of  rain  in  front  of 
rapidly  advancing  cyclones  was  one  of  the  causes  of  the 
rapid  advance  ;  but  when  investigating  heavy  rainfalls  in 
the  United  States  he  concludes  that  "  the  forces  which  im- 
part that  movement  to  the  air  which  is  requisite  to  an 
abundant  precipitation  of  vapour,  instead  of  deriving  in- 
creased strength  from  the  great  volume  of  rain,  rapidly 
expend  themselves  and  become  exhausted;"  and  after 
examining  certain  cyclones  which  were  accompanied  by 
no  rain  he  adds  :  "  So  that  it  seems  safe  to  conclude  that 
rainfall  is  not  essential  to  the  formation  of  areas  of  low 
barometer,  and  is  not  the  principal  cause  of  their  forma- 
tion or  of  their  progressive  movement."  Hann  arrives  at 
similar  conclusions  from  investigations  in  Europe.  After 
investigating  an  especially  heavy  rainfall  which  occurred 
in  Austria  and  vicinity  in  August  1880,  he  concludes 
thus : — "  The  appearance  of  a  barometric  minimum  in 
Hungary  occasioned  abnormal  and  extended  precipitation 
on  the  west  and  north-west  side  of  this  barometric  de- 
pression.    The  reaction  of  this  precipitation  on  the  position 


of  the  centre  of  the  depression  is  scarcely  perceptible.  .  .  . 
We  find,  therefore,  through  the  investigation  of  the  relative 
lowest  barometer  reading  in  its  behaviour  to  rainfall,  that 
our  former  conclusions  are  confirmed  "  (lxxxii.  Bunde  d. 
Wiss.  ii.  Ab.,  November  1880).  This  investigation  does 
not  necessarily  prove  that  precipitation  does  not  appre- 
ciably influence  the  movements  of  cyclones  in  general,  but 
at  least  suggests  that  in  the  first  cases  mentioned  above 
the  unequal  distribution  of  rain  around  rapidly  moving 
cyclones  was  not  the  cause,  but  the  result  of  the  cyclone's 
advance.  In  cyclones  which  move  very  slowly,  as  do 
tropical  cyclones,  the  air  ascends  almost  uniformly  around 
the  centre ;  but  when  cyclones  have  a  more  rapid  pro- 
gressive motion,  the  air  in  the  rear,  which  has  not  only  to 
enter,  but  to  follow  the  cyclone,  is  more  retarded  by 
friction  than  the  air  in  front,  and  hence  does  not  enter 
the  cyclone  so  freely,  so  that  the  formation  of  cloud  and 
rain  in  the  rear  is  retarded  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  a 
larger  volume  of  new  air  enters  the  progressing  cyclone 
in  front,  and  increases  the  amount  of  precipitation.  Thus, 
between  February  12  and  14,  a  cyclone  passed  across  the 
American  continent  with  the  exceptionally  high  velocity 
of  58  miles  per  hour.  During  its  passage  the  highest 
wind  velocity  reported  on  any  of  the  United  States 
Signal  Service  morning  weather  maps  was  40  miles  per 
hour,  occurring  immediately  in  the  rear  of  the  cyclone  at 
Father  Point,  Can.,  on  the  morning  of  the  14th.  At  none 
of  the  other  130  stations  did  the  maps  show  a  wind  velocity 
exceeding  30  miles  per  hour  during  the  passage  of  the 
cyclone.  This  is  an  example  of  many  similar  cases  which 
show  that  in  rapidly  moving  cyclones  the  air  in  the  rear 
near  the  earth's  surface  does  not  move  as  rapidly  as  the 
cyclone  itself.  Hence,  it  seems  evident  that  the  air  near 
the  surface  immediately  in  the  rear  of  these  cyclones  is 
not  air  which  has  followed  the  cyclone  near  the  surface, 
but  air  which  has  descended  from  above.  Espy  showed 
many  years  ago  that,  on  account  of  mechanical  heating  by 
compression,  no  descending  air  can  be  accompanied  by 
precipitation  ;  and  an  explanation  is  thus  afforded  why 
there  is  none,  or  but  little  cloud  and  precipitation  in  the 
rear  of  rapidly  moving  cyclones.  On  the  other  hand,  in 
order  that  a  cyclone  may  advance  rapidly,  there  must  be 
a  rapid  decrease  in  pressure,  and  consequently  a  rapid 
removal  of  the  air,  in  front  of  the  advancing  depression. 
Since,  according  to  the  normal  circulation  of  a  cyclone, 
there  is  an  inward  movement  near  the  earth's  surface 
and  an  upward  and  outward  movement  near  the  top,  this 
upward  and  outward  movement  is  necessarily  increased 
in  unusually  rapid-moving  cyclones,  and  hence  also  the 
cloudiness  and  precipitation  are  increased. 

Hourly  observations  of  cloud  movements  made  during 
the  day  hours  for  nearly  two  years  at  Blue  Hill  Observa- 
tory indicate  that  the  velocity  of  storm  movement,  and 
especially  the  variability  of  the  weather,  are  intimately 
connected  with  the  velocity  of  movement  of  the  general 
atmosphere. 

The  writer  is  hence  led  to  believe  that  the  main  cause 
of  rapid  cyclone  progression  is  an  unusually  rapid  drifting 
of  the  atmosphere  over  large  regions  ;  and  the  unequal 
distribution  of  rain  around  the  cyclone  is  due  to  the 
rapid  progress  of  the  cyclone. 

H.  Helm  Clayton. 

Blue  Hill  Observatory,  Boston,  June  18. 


NOTES. 

Mr.  John  Whitehead  returned  to  Labuan  in  safety  from 
his  second  expedition  to  Kina  Balu,  and  is  daily  expected  in 
England.  He  ascended  the  mountain  to  its  summit,  and  at- 
tained to  an  altitude  of  13,500  feet.  His  collection  will  contain 
many  novelties,  the  small  portion  sent  by  him  in  advance  to 
Mr.  Bowdler  Sharpe  exhibiting  many  curious  features.  The 
new  species  will  be  described  by  Mr.  Sharpe  in  the  forthcoming 


302 


NATURE 


\_July  26,  1888 


number  of  the  Ibis,  and  four  genera  and  twelve  species  appear 
to  be  quite  new  to  science.  Mr.  Whitehead  spent  altogether 
eight  months  on  the  mountain  of  Kina  Balu,  and  is  at  present 
known  to  have  dircovered  thirty-one  new  species  of  birds.  On 
his  last  expedition  he  met  with  fifteen  different  kinds  of  rodents, 
and  his  collections  of  reptiles  and  insects  are  also  very  large. 

Mr.  Alfred  Everett,  the  well-known  explorer  of  Borneo 
and  the  Philippine  Islands,  has  had  to  return  to  England  to 
recruit  his  health,  sorely  shattered  by  his  nineteen  years' 
residence  in  the  tropics.  He  has  brought  with  him  a  collection 
of  birds  and  animals,  amongst  which  are  apparently  many 
interesting  species.  He  also  discovered  in  the  Brunei  district 
the  nest  of  Machcerhamphus  alcinus,  the  curious  crepuscular 
Honey-Kite  of  the  East,  but  unfortunately  the  tree  in  which  it 
was  placed  proved  to  be  inaccessible.  This  remarkable  genus 
of  Hawks  occurs  in  the  Malayan  peninsula,  Borneo,  and  again 
in  New  Guinea.  It  has  an  Ethiopian  representative,  M. 
anderssoni,  which  inhabits  Damara  Land  and  Madagascar. 

The  summer  meeting  of  the  Institution  of  Mechanical  En- 
gineers will  be  held  in  Dublin  on  Tuesday,  31st  inst.,  and  the  two 
following  days,  under  the  presidency  of  Mr.  Edward  H.  Carbutt. 
An  influential  Committee  has  been  formed  for  the  reception  of 
the  Institution,  under  the  chairmanship  of  Lord  Rosse,  F.  R.  S. 
On  Friday,  August  3,  a  visit  will  be  paid  to  Belfast,  on  the 
invitation  of  a  local  Committee  presided  over  by  the  Mayor,  Sir 
James  H.  Haslett. 

The  half-yearly  general  meeting  of  the  Scottish  Meteoro- 
logical Society  was  held  in  the  hall  of  the  Royal  Scottish  Society 
of  Arts,  Edinburgh,  on  Monday,  July  23,  at  two  p.m.  The 
following  was  the  "  business"  : — (1)  Report  from  the  Council  of 
the  Society  ;  (2)  the  temperature  of  the  air  and  surface-water 
of  the  North  Atlantic,  by  H.  N.  Dickson  ;  (3)  the  climate  of 
the  Isle  of  Man,  by  A.  W.  Moore  ;  (4)  note  on  earth  currents 
on  Ben  Nevis,  in  connection  with  anticyclones,  by  R.  T. 
Omond  ;  (5)  St.  Elmo's  fire  observed  at  the  Ben  Nevis  Observa- 
tory, by  A.  Rankin.  Photographs  of  clouds,  &c,  from  Ben 
Nevis  were  exhibited. 

The  Berlin  Academy  has  granted  to  Dr.  R.  von  Lendenfeld 
the  sum  of  1000  marks  to  aid  him  in  investigating  the 
physiological  functions,  chiefly  the  digestion,  of  sponges. 

A -Hungarian  deputy,  M.  Hlavka,  has  given  a  sum  of 
200,000  florins  towards  the  establishment  of  a  Czeck  Academy 
of  Science  at  Prague. 

The  death  of  Prof.  H.  Carvill  Lewis,  in  the  full  vigour  of 
manhood  and  of  work,  will  be  a  painful  surprise  to  many  friends 
on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  He  died  of  typhoid  fever  at 
Manchester  on  July  21,  a  few  days  after  landing  in  England,  at 
the  beginning  of  a  journey  undertaken  in  continuance  of  his 
investigations  into  the  glacial  deposits  of  Europe. 

The  death  is  announced  of  Dr.  Ludwig  Julius  Budge,  the 
eminent  physiologist  and  anatomist.  He  was  born  at  Wetzlar, 
September  6,  181 1,  and  died  at  Greifswald  on  July  14. 

The  Geologists'  Association  have  issued  the  programme  of  a 
long  excursion  to  the  Forest  of  Dean,  Wye  Valley,  and  South 
Wales,   from  August  6  to  II. 

The  Revue  Internationale,  published  at  Rome,  contains 
a  description  of  the  eighth  centenary  of  the  University  of 
Bologna,  and  a  dignified  reply  to  the  criticisms  of  the 
correspondent  of  the  Times.  The  correspondent  maintained 
that  all  delegates  of  foreign  Universities,  including  American 
Colleges,    ought  to    have  received  honorary    degrees,    without 


saying  what  the  number  and  what  the  value  of  such  dis- 
tinctions would  have  been.  The  honorary  degree  was  given 
"  agli  scienziati  saliti  in  a/tissimafama,"  and  this  would  hardly 
apply  to  all  the  chosen  or  self-constituted  representatives  of  the 
world's  Universities.  We  quote  the  folowing  words  from  the 
article  in  the  Revue  International  for  July  : — "II  a  paru  dans  le 
Times  quelques  correspondances  tres  acerbes,  sans  grande  portee 
cependant,  etant  donne  le  caractere  du  journal.  En  lisant  le  Times, 
la  pensee  du  lecteur  se  reporte  souvent  instinctivement  a  ce  Sir 
John  Davenne,  qui,  au  dire  de  Ruffini,  etait  un  parfait  galant 
homme,  un  vrai  gentilhomme,  mais  auqucl  il  pouvait  arriver — 
un  peu  par  l'effet  de  son  caractere  individuel,  un  peu  par  l'efifet 
du  caractere  national — de  ne  pas  se  montrer  trop  impartial,  trop 
juste,  ni  trop  tempere  dans  ses  jugements." 

Despatches  have  been  received  from  Dr.  Nansen  announcing 
the  safe  departure  of  his  expedition  for  Greenland  from  the  Isa 
Fjord,  in  Iceland,  on  board  the  steam  whaler  Jason. 

An  astronomical  observatory  is  about  to  be  erected  within  the 
walls  of  the  Foreign  College  at  Pekin. 

A  correspondent  of  an  English  newspaper  published  in 
China  furnishes  the  following  account  of  the  new  foreign  College 
being  erected  at  Tientsin  by  the  Viceroy  Li  Hung  Chang  : — "  In 
coming  up  the  Peiho  to  Tientsin,  the  first  object  of  importance 
that  will  now  strike  the  eye  of  a  stranger  is  the  new  College 
building  which  is  being  erected  just  outside  the  mud  rampart  by 
the  Viceroy,  for  the  instruction  of  Chinese  youth  in  the  mysteries 
of  the  English  language  and  of  foreign  science.  This  is  a  massive 
edifice,  two  stories  high,  built  around  the  four  sides  of  a  square 
which  forms  a  large  interior  court  not  less  than  one  hundred 
feet  on  either  side,  around  which,  on  the  inner  sides  of  the 
buildings,  are  spacious  verandas.  The  construction  of  the 
building,  under  the  careful  supervision  of  a  capable  foreign 
engineer,  is  all  that  could  be  desired.  If  the  educational  results 
are  equal  to  what  has  been  accomplished  by  brick  and  mortar, 
the  Viceroy  will  have  great  occasion  to  be  proud  that  he  has 
been  privileged  to  start  such  an  institution.  It  was  hoped  that 
the  College  would  be  ready  for  opening  this  autumn,  but  there 
seems  little  prospect  that  it  can  be  opened  before  next  spring." 

It  is  reported  from  China  that  Dr.  Dudgeon,  of  Pekin,  has 
published  in  Chinese  a  work  on  anatomy  which  he  has  had  in 
preparation  for  some  years  ;  that  a  companion  work  on  materia 
medica  is  in  the  press,  with  treatises  on  physiology  and  photo- 
graphy, in  the  latter  of  which  the  dry  process  is  explained.  Dr. 
Dudgeon  is  also  preparing' bi-lingual  vocabularies  of  medical  and 
anatomical  terms. 

We  are  glad  to  learn  that  the  Mikado  of  Japan  has  been 
pleased  to  bestow  the  Order  of  the  Rising  Sun  on  Prof.  John 
Milne,  of  the  Imperial  University  of  Tokio,  the  well-known 
investigator  of  seismic  phenomena. 

Vol.  11.  Part  1  of  the  Journal  of  the  College  of  Science  of  the 
Japanese  Imperial  University,  contains  an  important  summar 
by  Prof.  Sekiya  of  the  results  of  seismometric  observations 
Tokio  during  two  years,  from  September  1885  to  September  i8L;, 
with  special  reference  to  the  measurements  of  vertical  motion 
The  observations  recorded  by  Prof.  Sekiya  were  for  the  mo: 
part  made  with  Prof.  Ewing's  seismographs,  some  on  the  sol 
marshy  ground  of  the  lower  part  of  the  city,  and  some  on  th 
stiff  soil  of  the  upper  parts.  Particulars  are  recorded  very  fully 
for  119  earthquakes  in  a  table  setting  forth  the  greatest  hori- 
zontal and  vertical  motion,  the  period  of  the  motion,  the 
maximum  velocity  and  rate  of  acceleration,  the  duration  of  the 
disturbance,  and  the  approximate  locality  of  the  origin.  At  the 
end  of  the  paper  the  results  are  collated,  and  averages  a 
deduced,    from    which    it    appears   that  the  greatest  horizont 


uy 

57, 

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I 


July  26,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


303 


motion  is  about  six  times  the  greatest  vertical  motion  in  those 
earthquakes  in  which  vertical  motion  was  sensible.  These, 
however,  formed  only  28  per  cent,  of  the  whole  number  re- 
corded. The  period  of  the  vertical  motion  was  little  more  than 
half  that  of  the  horizontal.  In  only  18  per  cent,  of  the  recorded 
shocks  was  the  extent  of  motion  greater  than  one  millimetre. 
The  paper  forms  the  most  extensive  collection  of  data  in  absolute 
seismometry  that  has  yet  been  published,  and  is  a  very  valuable 
contribution  to  seismology. 

According  to  a  telegram  sent  through  Reuter's  agency  from 
Yokohama  on  July  18,  a  volcanic  eruption  had  occurred  at 
Makamats  (?  Takamatsu).  Four  hundred  persons  are  reported 
to  have  been  killed  and  1000  injured. 

In  our  issue  of  the  6th  October  last  (vol.  xxxvi.  p.  546)  we 
drew  attention  to  the  useful  work  of  Mr.  Wragge,  the  Govern- 
ment meteorologist  of  Queensland,  in  issuing  daily  weather 
charts  for  Australasia.  The  entire  meteorological  observing- 
system  of  that  colony  is  in  course  of  reconstruction,  upon  the 
lines  adopted  by  the  Meteorological  Office  in  London  and  other 
similar  institutions  abroad,  and  Mr.  Wragge  invites  attention  to 
the  new  series  of  weather  charts  now  prepared  at  9b..  a.m. 
daily  (except  Sundays  and  holidays),  files  of  which  are  kept  at 
the  Meteorological  Office  and  at  the  office  of  the  agent  for 
Queensland,  both  in  Victoria  Street.  The  charts,  which  are  on 
a  large  scale,  contain  observations  received  by  wire  from  seventy- 
two  selected  observatories  distributed  over  the  Australian  con- 
tinent, Tasmania,  and  New  Zealand,  show  very  clearly  the 
general  atmospherical  conditions,  and  contain  besides  collated 
information  from  about  300  smaller  stations.  A  prominent 
feature  in  the  new  meteorological  service  is  the  preparation  of 
a  complete  digest  of  the  meteorological  conditions  of  each 
colony,  together  with  forecasts,  which  are  issued  about  5h.  p.m. 
to  the  press.  These  publications  have,  of  course,  a  special 
value  to  men-  of  science  generally,  while  to  those  interested  in 
agricultural  and  shipping  pursuits  they  have  a  practical  bearing 
hitherto  unequalled  in  Australia. 

The  Pilot  Chart  of  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean  for  July  shows 
that  no  severe  cyclonic  storms  entirely  crossed  that  ocean  in 
June,  but  two  or  three  depressions  were  formed  in  the  mid- 
Atlantic,  and  caused  gales  off  the  Irish  coast  from  the  8th  to  the 
1 2th  inclusive.  Much  fog  was  experienced  off  the  American 
coast,  north  of  Hatteras,  and  in  the  English  Channel,  and  in  the 
early  part  of  the  month  fog-banks  were  frequently  met  with  east 
of  the  40th  meridian.  Icebergs  and  field  ice  have  been 
encountered,  principally  off  the  eastern  and  southern  coasts  of 
Newfoundland.  A  few  bergs,  however,  have  been  seen  as  far 
south  as  the  43rd  parallel,  in  longitude  430  west.  The  chart  also 
contains  valuable  information  with  reference  to  the  West  India 
hurricanes  which  are  now  likely  to  be  encountered. 

In  the  Berlin  Aleteorologische  Zeitschrift  for  June,  Dr.  Hann 
gives  an  interesting  account  of  the  winter  temperature  of  Wer- 
chojansk  (Siberia),  deduced  from  several  years'  observations. 
The  town,  which  lies  in  the  valley  of  the  J  ana,  about  9  feet  above 
the  level  of  the  river,  in  latitude  670  34'  N.,  longitude  1330  51' 
E. ,  and  at  a  height  of  about  350  feet  above  the  sea,  has  the 
greatest  winter  cold  that  is  known  to  exist  upon  the  globe. 
Monthly  means  of  -  580  F.  occur  even  in  December,  a  mean 
temperature  which  has  been  observed  nowhere  else  in  the  Polar 
regions ;  and  minima  of  -  76°  are  usual  for  the  three  winter  months 
(December-February).  In  the  year  1886  March  also  had  a 
minimum  -77°,  and  during  that  year  December  and  January 
never  had  a  minimum  above  -  760,  while  in  January,  1885,  the 
temperature  of  -  890  was  recorded.  These  extreme  readings  are 
hardly  credible,  yet  the  thermometers  have  been  verified  at 
the  St.  Petersburg  Observatory.  To  add  to  the  misery  of  the 
inhabitants,  at  some  seasons  the  houses  are  inundated  by  the 
overflow  of  the  river.   The  yearly  range  of  cloud  is  characteristic 


of  the  climate  ;  in  the  winter  season  the  mean  only  amounts  to 
about  three-tenths  in  each  month. 

A  new  base  has  been  discovered  in  tea  by  Dr.  Kossel,  of 
Berlin.  It  appears  to  be  an  isomer  of  theobromine,  the  well- 
known  base  present  in  cocoa-beans,  possessing  the  same  empirical 
formula,  C7H8N4Oa,  but  differing  very  materially  in  physical 
and  certain  chemical  properties.  The  new  base,  to  which  has 
been  assigned  the  name  theophylline,  was  discovered  during 
the  investigation  of  large  quantities  of  tea-extract,  which,  after 
treatment  with  sulphuric  acid  to  remove  foreign  matters,  was 
saturated  with  ammonia-gas  and  precipitated  with  ammoniacal 
silver  solution.  The  silver  precipitate  was  then  digested  with 
warm  nitric  acid,  and,  on  cooling,  the  silve"  salt  which  separated 
out  was  filtered  off  and  the  filtrate  rendered  slightly  alkaline  with 
ammonia.  On  allowing  this  alkaline  liquid  to  stand  until  the 
next  day,  a  brownish  deposit  was  noticed,  which,  on  examina- 
tion, proved  to  be  the  silver  compound  of  a  new  base.  The  solu- 
tion was  therefore  further  concentrated,  and  a  second  and  much 
larger  yield  of  the  silver  salt  obtained.  This  was  next  decom- 
posed by  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  the  free  base  being  thus  obtained 
in  solution.  The  liquid,  after  removal  of  the  silver  sulphide  by 
filtration,  deposited  on  standing  a  small  quantity  of  xanthine, 
C5H4N402,  a  derivative  of  uric  acid,  whose  presence  in  tea  has 
previously  been  shown.  The  mother-liquors  were  afterwards 
treated  with  mercuric  nitrate  solution,  which  precipitated  the 
theophylline  in  the  form  of  a  mercury  compounl,  fron  which 
the  base  itself  could  readily  be  obtained  by  treatment  with  sul- 
phuretted hydrogen  as  before.  Analyses  of  the  theophylline 
obtained  after  purification  indicate  the  formula  C7H8N402, 
which  is  that  of  theobro  nine.  But  the  two  substances  are  cer- 
tainly not  identical  :  their  crystals  are  quite  distinct,  those  of 
theophylline  containing  one  molecule  of  crystal  water  which  is 
expelled  at  no0,  while  theobromine  crystallizes  anhydrous.  The 
crystals  also  are  totally  unlike  those  of  the  other  known  isomer 
of  theobromine,  paraxanthine,  from  which  theophylline  differs 
most  materially  in  its  behaviour  with  soda.  Again,  the  melting- 
points  of  the  three  isomers  are  considerably  removed  from  each 
other,  and  their  different  solubilities  in  water  are  conclusive 
proofs  of  their  different  internal  structures.  Theophylline  forms- 
a  well-crystallized  series  of  salts  with  the  mineral  acids,  and  with 
platinum,  gold,  and  mercury  chlorides  ;  and,  like  theobromine, 
yields  with  silver  nitrate  a  silver  substitution-compound, 
C7H7AgN402,  which,  as  may  be  concluded  from  the  above 
method  of  isolation,  is  readily  soluble  in  nitric  acid.  Finally, 
to  complete  the  proof  of  its  isomerism  with  theobromine,  which 
is  the  dimethyl  derivative  of  xanthine,  the  silver  compound  was- 
found  to  react  with  methyl  iodide  to  form  tri-methyl  xanthine, 
better  known  as  caffeine  or  theine,  the  remarkable  base  of  the 
coffee  and  tea  plants. 

In  a  letter  lately  submitted  to  the  Elliott  Society,  and  printed 
in  its  Proceedings,  Mr.  G.  W.  Alexander,  of  Charleston,  S.C., 
tells  a  strange  tale  of  a  humming-bird.  Mr.  Alexander  heard  in 
his  garden  what  he  knew  must  be  a  cry  of  pain  ;  and  going  to  a 
vine,  from  which  the  cry  seemed  to  proceed,  he  found  a  humming- 
bird "  struggling  violently,  but  unable  to  extricate  itself."  He 
took  it  in  his  hands,  and,  to  his  astonishment,  saw  that  it  was  in 
the  clutches  of  an  insect,  which  he  identified  as  a  mantis,  popu- 
larly known  in  those  parts  as  "Johnny-cock-horse."  "The 
bird,"  says  Mr.  Alexander,  "was  wounded  under  the  wing, 
upon  one  side  of  the  breast,  which  ha:l  evidently  been  lacerated 
with  the  powerful  mandibles  of  its  captor.  The  wound  looked 
ugly  enough  to  lead  me  to  fear  that  it  would  prove  fatal  ;  never- 
theless my  children  and  I  cared  for  it  as  tenderly  as  we  knew 
how,  but  we  found  it  difficult  to  administer  nourishment  to  a 
humming-bird.  So  at  night  I  placed  it  among  the  leaves  of  the 
vine — for  it  was  a  warm  night — and  in  the  morning  the  little 
sufferer  lay  deadion  the  ground  beneath." 


304 


NATURE 


{July  26,  1888 


A  SERIES  of  volumes  to  be  entitled  the  "  Fauna  of  British 
India,"  containing  descriptions  of  the  animals  found  in  British 
India  and  its  dependencies,  including  Ceylon  and  Burma,  is 
about  to  be  issued,  under  authority  from  the  Government.  For 
the  present  the  work  will  be  restricted  to  vertebrate  animals. 
The  editorship  has  been  intrusted  by  the  Secretary  of  State  for 
India  in  Council  to  Mr.  W.  T.  Blanford,  formerly  of  the  Geo- 
logical Survey  of  India,  and  the  printing  and  publication  to 
Messrs.  Taylor  and  Francis.  The  descriptions  of  vertebrates 
will  occupy  seven  volumes,  of  which  one  will  be  devoted  to 
mammals,  three  to  birds,  one  to  reptiles  and  Batrachians,  and 
two  to  fishes.  The  mammals  will  be  described  by  Mr.  Blan- 
ford, the  reptiles  and  Batrachians  by  Mr.  G.  A.  Boulenger,  of 
the  British  Museum,  and  the  fishes  by  Mr.  F.  Day,  Deputy 
Surgeon-General.  The  arrangements  for  the  volumes  on  birds 
are  nearly  complete,  and  there  is  every  probability  of  their  being 
undertaken  by  a  competent  Indian  ornithologist  very  soon. 
A  half-volume  of  mammals  will  be  issued  immediately.  It  is 
expected  that  one  or  two  volumes  will  be  published  each  year. 
The  work  will  be  illustrated  by  cuts. 

Messrs.  Sampson  Low  will  publish  shortly  the  "  Life  and 
Correspondence  of  Abraham  Sharp,"  the  Yorkshire  mathe- 
matician and  astronomer,  with  memorials  of  his  family,  by 
William  Cudworth.  The  work  will  be  illustrated  with  numerous 
drawings  specially  prepared  for  it.  Abraham  Sharp,  a  member 
of  an  ancient  family  at  Horton,  near  Bradford,  was  assistant 
in  1689  to  Flamsteed,  the  first  Astronomer-Royal,  and  designed 
and  fixed  the  mural  arc  and  other  astronomical  instruments 
with  which  the  Astronomer-Royal  made  his  observations  at 
Greenwich  Observatory.  He  also  computed  the  places  of 
many  of  the  fixed  stars  in  Flamsteed's  famous  "  Catalogue,"  and 
was  the  principal  means  of  completing  and  publishing  ihe  second 
and  third  volumes  of  the  "  Historia  Celestis,"  published  after 
Flamsteed's  death.  For  many  years  after  Abraham  Sharp  left 
the  Observatory,  a  correspondence  was  kept  up  between  him 
and  Flamsteed,  which  gives  much  insight  into  many  of  the 
scientific  events  of  the  period,  and  especially  refers  to  the 
difficulties  experienced  by  Flamsteed  in  the  publication  of  his 
great  work,  and  to  the  doings  of  his  contemporaries,  Sir  Isaac 
Newton,  Dr.  Halley,  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  and  others.  This 
correspondence  will  form  the  basis  of  Mr.  Cudworth's  work. 

The  third  number  of  vol.  vi.  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Bath 
Natural  History  and  Antiquarian  Field  Club  has  been  issued. 
Among  the  contents  are  the  following  papers  :  on  some  Ostracoda 
from  the  fullers'  earth  Oolite  and  Bradford  clay,  by  Prof.  T. 
Rupert  Jones,  F.R.S.,  and  C.  Davies  Sherborn  ;  landslips  and 
subsidences,  by  W.  Pumphery  ;  remarks  on  some  Hemiptera- 
Heteroptera  taken  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Bath,  by  Lieut.  - 
Colonel  Blathwayt  ;  recent  "  finds  "  in  the  Victoria  gravel  pit, 
by  the  Rev.  H.  H.  Winwood  ;  note  on  Webbina  irregularis 
(d'Orb.)  from  the  Oxford  clay  at  Weymouth,  by  C.  Davies 
Sherborn. 

Messrs.  William  Wesley  and  Son  have  issued  No.  90  of 
their  "Natural  History  and  Scientific  Book  Circular."  It  con- 
tains lists  of  works  relating  to  astronomy  and  mathematics. 

The  heat  in  Norway  this  summer  is  most  intense,  the  tem- 
perature exceeding  any  registered  this  century.  At  Christiania 
the  thermometer  has  several  times  registered  300  to  320  C.  in 
the  shade,  and  at  Nyborg,  in  the  Varanger  Fjord,  near  the  White 
Sea,  it  was  350  C.  at  the  end  of  June. 

On  July  15  a  remarkable  mirage  was  seen,  about  11  p.m., 
at  Hudiksvall,  on  the  Baltic.  It  represented  a  ship  going  down 
in  a  terribly  agitated  sea,  a  boat  being  on  the  point  of  putting 
off  from  the  vessel.     The  mirage  lasted  five  minutes. 


A  CURIOUS  ornithological  phenomenon  is  witnessed  at  Odder- 
nses,  in  the  south  of  Norway,  this  season,  the  ring  throstle 
(Tttrdus  torquatus)  nesting  there.  Generally,  the  bird  only 
breeds  in  the  extreme  north.  Prof.  Esmark  is  of  opinion  that 
the  present  unusual  occurrence  is  due  to  the  severity  of  the 
spring. 

During  the  spring  of  the  present  year  some  200  eider-fowl 
were  caught  in  fishermen's  nets  on  the  south  coast  of  Sweden. 

The  remains  of  several  prehistoric  canoes  have  been  found  at 
the  bottom  of  some  lakes  drained  off  in  uplands  in  Central 
Sweden.  They  were  made  by  the  hollowing  out  of  trunks  of 
trees  by  fire.  One  had  evidently  been  sunk  on  purpose,  being 
full  of  large  stones. 

An  unusually  large  skull  of  the  Rhinoceros  tichorrhinus  was 
lately  discovered  in  a  well-preserved  condition  at  Rixdorf,  near 
Berlin.  It  has  been  sent  to  the  Natural  History  Museum  of 
Berlin. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Green  Monkey  (Ctrcopithecus  callilrichus  9  ) 
from  West  Africa,  presented  by  Mrs.  Holden  ;  a  Rhesus 
Monkey  (Macacus  rhesus  £)  from  India,  presented  by  Mr. 
Herbert  C.  Oates  ;  two  Californian  Quails  (Callipepla  califor- 
nica  <5  $  )  from  California,  presented  by  Mrs.  Fanny  Lloyd  ;  a 
lesser  Kestrel  (Tinnunculus  cenchris)  European,  presented  by 
Mr.  Harold  Hanauer,  F.Z. S.  ;  two  ^Esculapian  Snakes  (Coluber 
cesculapii)  from  Germany,  presented  by  Mr.  P.  L.  Sclater, 
F.R.S.  ;  seven  Slender-fingered  Frogs  (Leptodactylus  pcntodac- 
tylus)  from  Dominica,  W.I.,  presented  by  Dr.  H.  A.  A. 
Nicholls  ;  two  American  Black  Bears  ( Ursus  americanus  6  Q  ) 
from  North  America,  a  Grey  Parrot  {Psittacus  erithacus,  white 
var.)  from  West  Africa,  an  /Esculapian  Snake  (Coluber  asculapii) 
from  Germany,  a  Tabuan  Parrakeet  (Pyrrhulopsis  tabuensis) 
from  the  Fiji  Islands,  deposited. 


ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR    THE 
WEEK  1888  JULY  29— AUGUST  4. 

/"pOR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing   at 
^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed. ) 

At  Greenwich  on  July  29 

Sun  rises,  4h.  22m.  ;  souths,  I2h.  6m.  ii'is. ;  sets,  I9h.  51m.  : 
right  asc.  on  meridian,  8h.  36"5m.  ;  decl.  180  36'  N. 
Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset.  16K.  23m. 
Moon  (at  Last  Quarter  July  30,  2oh.)  rises,  22h.  31m.*;  souths, 
4h.  46m.;  sets,  nh.  13m.:  right  asc.  on  meridian, 
ih.  I4"8m.  ;  decl.  2°  21'  N. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 

Planet.  Rises.  Souths.  Sets.  on  meridian. 

h.   m.  h.    m.  h.    m.  h.       m. 

Mercury..  2  48  ...  10  44  ..  18  40  ...  7  137  ...  20  26  N. 

Venus  ...  4  44  ...  12  28  ...  20  12  ...  8  57-9  ...  18  31  N. 

Mars  ...  12  43  ...  17  34  ...  22  25  ...  14  5-1  ...  13  55  S. 

Jupiter  ...  14  42  ...  19  6  ...  23  30  ...  15  37-8  ...  18  39  S. 

>aturn  ...  4  36   ...  12  19  ...  20  2  ...  8  491  ...  18  29  N. 

Uranus...  10  42  ...  iG   21  ...  22  0  ...  12  51*7  ...  4   52  S. 

Neptune..  23  44*...  7  31  ...  15  18  ...  4  o'8  ...  18  57  N. 

*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening. 


Comet  Sawerthal. 


h. 


Right  Ascension.  Declination 

h.  '.    m.  / 

164 


I      46 


53    4N. 
53  37 


July. 

29     ...     o 
Aug. 

2       ...       O 
July.  h. 

29     ...     21     ...     Mercury    at    greatest    elongation   from    the 
Sun  190  west. 
Aug. 

2     ...        1      ...      Saturn  in  conjunction  with  the  Sun. 


July  26,  1888] 


NATURE 


505 


Occultations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 

angles  from  ver- 

July.  Star.  Mag.  Disap.  Reap.         tex  to  right  for 

inverted  image, 
h.    m.  h.    m.  00 

31   ...  /Tauri      4  ...  23  44  ...     o  22f  ...  25  297 

Aug. 

2  ...  B.A.C.  1351    ...  6£  ...  2  20  ...     3     6     ...  112  205 

2   ...  63  Tauri 6  ...  2  44  near  approach  158  — 

4  ...   x3  Ononis        ...  6  ...  1  52  ...     2     4     ...  346  319 

4  ...   x4  Ononis        ...   5  ...  1   58  ...     2  36     ...  109  195 

t  Occurs  on  the  following  morning. 

Variable  Stars. 
Star.  R.A.  Decl. 

h.      m.  ,      .  h.   m. 

U  Cephei     o  52-4  ...  81   16  N.  ...  July  30,  20  30  m 

Aug.    4,  20    9  m 
Algol     3     0-9  ...  40  31  N.  ...  July  31,    2  24  m 

Aug.    2,  23  13  m 
U  Monocerotis  ...     7  25-5  ...    9  33  S.    ...     ,,       1,  M 

U  Canis  Minoris...     7  35-3  ...     8  39  N.  ...  July  31,  m 

U  Virginis 12  454...     6  10  N.  ...  Aug.    I,  M 

R  Hydra;     13  236  ...  22  42  S.    ...     ,,        1,  m 

S  Librae        1455-0...     8     4  S.    ...     ,,       2,2352//? 

U  Coronas    15  13-6  ...  32     3  N.  ...     ,,       2,    4    o  m 

U  Ophiuchi 17  10-9  ...     1  20  N.  ...  July  29,    3  36  m 

and  at  intervals  of       20     8 
W  Sagittarii        ...   17  57-9  ...  29  35  S.    ...  Aug.    1,     1     o  m 

Z  Sagittarii 18  14-8...  18  55  S.    ...     ,,       4,     1     o  M 

U  Sagittarii 18  25-3  ...  19  12  S.    ...July  30,    o     o  M 

S  Vulpeculae        ...   19  43*8  ...  27     1  N.  ...  Aug.    4,  tn 

V  Aquilae      1946-8...    o  43  N.  ...     „       2,     3     oJ/ 

R  Sagittte    20     9-0  ...  16  23  N.  ...     „       2,     '  m 

X  Cygni       20  390  ...  35   11  N.  ...     ,,       4,     1     o  m 

T  Vulpeculae       ...  20  467  ...  27  50  N.  ...     ,,       2,     2    o  /)/ 

>»       3>    3     °  m 

5  Cephei       22  25-0  ...  57  51  N.  ...  July  30,     2     o  M 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum. 


Near  8  Andromeda? 

The  Perseids 

Near  0  Persei 


Meteor- Showers. 
R.A.  Decl. 

..       7  ...  31  N. 
..     33  •••  55  N.  . 
.     48  ...  42  N.  . 
350  ...  52  N.  . 


Swift  ;  streaks. 
Swift  ;  streaks. 
Very  swift ;  streaks. 
Very  swift. 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 
The  Mittheiluiigcn  of  the  Vienna  Geographical  Society  for 
June  has  a  paper  by  Dr.  Hans  Meyer  on  the  German  East 
African  possessions  which  is  likely  to  attract  some  attention  at 
the  present  juncture.  No  attempt  is  made  to  give  either  the 
area  or  the  population  of  this  ill-defined  region,  which,  how- 
ever, is  stated  to  comprise  the  central  section  of  the  East  African 
coastlands,  terraces,  and  plateaux  for  a  distance  north  and  south 
of  about  550  geographical  miles,  and  150  east  and  west  between 
the  Swaheli  coast  and  the  water-parting  towards  the  Congo 
basin.  It  is  conterminous  towards  the  north  with  the  new 
British  East  African  protectorate,  from  which  it  is  separated  by 
a  conventional  line  passing  from  Lake  Victoria  Nyanza  in  an 
oblique  direction  along  the  north  foot  of  Mount  Kilima-Njaro  to 
the  coast  at  about  5"  S.  lat.  below  Mombasa.  Southwards  the 
frontier  is  marked  by  the  Rcvuma  River,  and  another  conven- 
tional line  running  thence  west  to  Lake  Nyassa,  while  on  the 
east  side  it  is  made  to  reach  the  Indian  Ocean,  thus  apparently 
absorbing  the  ten  mile  zone  of  coastlands  reserved  to  the  Sultan 
of  Zanzibar  by  the  Anglo-German  Convention  of  October  29, 
1886.  It  is  described  as  orographically  and  hydrographically 
the  most  diversified  region  in  the  whole  of  Africa,  including 
within  its  limits  the  highest  summit  (Kilima-Njaro)  as  well  as 
the  head-waters  of  streams  flowing,  north  to  the  Nile,  west  to  the 
Congo,  and  south  to  the  Zambesi  basin.  Hence  it  presents  a 
great  variety  of  climate  and  vegetal  ion,  but  nevertheless,  except 
in  a  few  favoured  spots,  it  is  not  to  be  compared  in  productive- 
ness with  the  rich  tropical  lands  of  the  Eastern  Archipelago.  Its 
prospects  as  a  future  field  of  German  colonial  enterprise  are 
spoken  of  in  depressing  terms.  Both  servile  and  free  labour  in 
the  interior  are  stated  to  be  alike  impracticable,  and  for  the 
present  at  least  it  will  be  impossible  to  develop  any  great  com- 
mercial activity  except  on  the  fertile  and  more  thickly-peopled, 
but  also  mostly  fever-stricken  coastlands.  Hence  a  foundation 
for  the  future  development  of  the  colony  is  stated  to  have  been 


laid  by  the  recently-accomplished  transfer  of  the  administration 
of  the  seaboard  from  the  Sultan  of  Zanzibar  to  the  German  East 
African  Company's  agents.  But  it  is  added  that  even  here, 
without  State  aid,  it  will  be  difficult  successfully  to  compete  with 
their  English  rivals,  who  have  been  longer  in  possession  of  the 
field,  and  who  have  at  their  disposal  more  capital  and  resources 
of  all  kinds. 


ELECTRICAL  NOTES. 
Kundt    {Phil.    Mag.,    July    1888)    has    determined    experi- 
mentally that  there  exists  a  proportionality  between  the  velocity 
of  light,  electric  conductivity,  and  conduction  of  heat  in  metals. 
The  velocity  of  red  light  is  proportionately  as  follows — 


Iron        14-9 

Nickel 12-4 

Bismuth  (crystallized)  10-3 


Iron      

...     i-8i 

Ntckel... 

...     2*17 

Bismuth 

...     261 

Silver       100 

Gold         71 

Copper  (impure)     ...       60 

Platinum 15-3 

The  order  is  the  same  for  heat  and  electricity.  These  figures 
were  obtained  in  each  instance  by  determining  the  index  of 
refraction  of  each  metal,  which  is  the  ratio  of  the  velocity  of 
light  in  vacuo  to  its  velocity  in  the  metal.  The  actual  indices 
obtained  were,  for  red  light — 

Silver       0-27 

Gold         0-38 

Copper    0-45 

Platinum 176 

Thus  the  velocity  of  light  in  silver  is  ten  times  that  in  bismuth. 
How  is  the  velocity  of  light  affected  by  temperature  ?  and  how 
is  it  changed  by  a  magnetic  field  ?  Kundt  proposes  to  examine 
these  points. 

Prof.  Elihu  Thomson  (U.S.A.)  states  that  he  has  observed 
as  many  as  six  lightning-flashes  very  quickly  following  each 
other  along  the  same  path.  He  kept  his  head  rapidly  wagging 
during  a  thunderstorm,  and  his  eyes  fixed  in  one  direction.  Most 
people  have  experienced  a  peculiar  throbbing  during  a  flash  of 
lightning  ;  and  a  succession  of  rapid  currents,  sometimes  forming 
letters,  are  observed  on  telegraphs.  A  lightning  discharge  may 
therefore  have  the  same  oscillatory  character  as  the  discharge  of 
a  Leyden  jar.  But  no  trace  of  such  an  effect  is  visible  in  the 
photographs  of  lightning-flashes  unless  it  be  the  mysterious  dark 
flashes  that  have  b_en  recorded. 

Chaperon  and  Mercadier  (Comptes  rendus,  cvii.,  June  4, 
1888)  have  shown  that  the  periodic  incidence  of  rays  of  light 
upon  a  cell  of  silver  sulphide,  H2SO.i,  and  bright  silver  produces 
sounds  in  a  telephone  by  the  corresponding  variations  of  E.  M.  F. 
They  call  the  effect  electro-chemical  radiophony.  The  cell 
copper-oxide,  sodium  chloride,  copper  al.-o  forms  an  electro- 
chemical radiophone. 

E.  G.  Acheson  {Electrical  World,  N.Y.,  July  7,  1888)  has 
made  some  very  useful  measurements  on  the  sparking  distance 
in  air  of  alternate  currents  used  in  electric  light  working.  He 
finds  that  it  varies  with  the  capacity  of  the  circuit  and  with  the 
cube   of  the   E.M.F.     It    is   expressed   by 

,/=    E'K 

a 

d  being  the  sparking  distance  in  inches,  E  and  K  being  in  B.A. 
units,  and  a  a  constant  =  135.  Two  thousand  volts,  with  0-0032 
microfarad  in  circuit,  sparked  about  o-2  inch,  and  1000  volts  about 
0'02  inch.  These  results  are  very  different  from  those  obtained  by 
Warren  De  la  Rue  with  his  great  battery,  who  found  that  with 
direct  currents  1200  volts  sparked  across  0012  inch  and  2400 
volts  across  o-02i  inch,  but  the  capacity  present  is  not  given. 

Another  of  Mr.  H.  Tomlinson's  remarkable  papers  appears 
in  the  Phil.  Mag.  for  July.     The  chief  remarkability  of  these 
papers  consists  in  their  diffuseness.     It  is  almost  impossible  to 
extract  the   new  facts  out  of  them.     His  terms   are   peculiar. 
What    is   "the    specific   heat    of    electricity"    which    changes 
sign     at    varying     temperatures  ?       The    conclusion     of    this 
long  paper  appears  to  be  that   the  temperature  at  which  per- 
manent   magnetism   begins    to   suddenly    disappear    is    not    the 
temperature    at    which   permanent    torsion   begins  to  suddenly 
disappear.      We  find  the  mechanical"  qualities,    viz.  hardness, 
i  elasticity,    linear  expansion,    internal  friction,    tensile  strength, 
j  molecular  structure,  torsion,  &c,  of  iron,  steel,  and  nickel  inex- 
tricably mixed  up  with  magnetic  susceptibility  and  retentiveness, 
electric  resistance  and  thermo-electric  conditions,  specific  and 
j  latent  heat,  and  varying  temperatures. 


306 


NATURE 


[July  26,  1888 


THE    PROGRESS    OF   THE  HENRY  DRAPER 
MEMORIAL} 

'"THE  additional  facilities  provided  by  Mrs.  Draper  have  per- 
mitted  a  considerable  extension  of  this  research  during  the 
past  year.  The  11-inch  refractor  belonging  to  Dr.  Draper,  and 
the  8-inch  photographic  telescope  provided  by  the  Bache  Fund, 
have  been  kept  at  work  throughout  every  clear  night.  The  28- 
inch  and  15-inch  reflectors  constructed  by  Dr.  Draper  have  been 
moved  to  Cambridge,  and  the  first  of  these  instruments  is  placed 
in  a  building  surmounted  by  a  dome  constructed  for  the  purpose. 
Experiments  are  now  in  progress  with  it,  and  it  will  probably 
soon  be  employed  regularly.  Four  assistants  take  part  in  making 
the  photographs,  one  of  whom  comes  to  the  Observatory  every 
clear  night  about  midnight,  and  keeps  the  8-inch  and  11-inch 
telescopes  in  use  until  interrupted  by  the  morning  twilight. 
Five  ladies  have  been  employed  in  the  measurements  and 
reductions. 

The  various  investigations  now  in  progress  are  described  in 
detail  below.  The  first  three  of  these,  including  the  photo- 
graphic work  of  the  8- inch  and  11 -inch  telescopes,  will  be 
finished  in  about  a  year.  It  is  accordingly  proposed  in  the 
autumn  of  1889  to  send  an  expedition  to  the  southern  hemi- 
sphere, probably  to  Peru,  and  there  complete  the  work  to  the 
South  Pole.  As  only  about  one  quarter  part  of  the  sky  is  too 
far  south  to  be  conveniently  observed  at  Cambridge,  it  is 
expected  that  the  photographs  needed  to  cover  this  portion  of 
the  sky  could .  be  obtained  in  two  years.  Each  investigation 
could  thus  be  extended  to  all  parts  of  the  sky  upon  the  same 
system. 

An  important  advance  has  been  made  by  the  recent  improve- 
ments in  the  manufacture  of  dry  plates.  The  M.  A.  Seed 
Company  of  St.  Louis  have  endeavoured  to  comply  with  our 
request  for  more  sensitive  plates,  an  1  have  gradually  increased 
their  sensitiveness,  so  that  they  now  furnish  us  with  plates 
measuring  27  on  their  scale,  while  a  year  ago  the  most  sensitive 
plates  were  only  numbered  21.  As  a  result,  stars  nearly  a 
magnitude  fainter  can  be  photographed,  and  the  number  of 
objects  which  can  be  examined  is  nearly  doubled.  A  careful 
study  will  shortly  be  made,  by  the  help  of  the  instruments 
described  below,  of  the  most  sensitive  plates  obtainable.  It  is 
hoped  that  makers  of  very  sensitive  plates  will  send  specimens 
to  Cambridge  for  trial.  The  demand  for  increased  sensitiveness 
is  so  great  not  only  here,  but  at  all  other  observatories  where  i 
stellar  photography  is  carried  on,  that  a  real  improvement  would 
be  widely  appreciated. 

Various  improvements  have  been  made  in  the  methods  of 
detecting  defects  in  the  photographic  processes.  Each  plate, 
when  it  is  taken  from  its  box,  is  exposed  to  a  standard  light  for 
exactly  one  second.  The  portion  of  the  flame  of  an  oil  lamp 
shining  through  a  small  circular  aperture  constitutes  the  standard 
light.  The  exposure  is  made  for  a  second  by  means  of  a 
pendulum,  which  allows  the  light  to  shine  on  the  plate  for  this 
interval  through  a  small  square  aperture.  When  the  plate  is 
developed,  a  dark  square  appears  near  its  edge,  whose  intensity 
measures  the  sensitiveness  of  the  plate,  and  also  serves  to  detect 
any  defect  in  its  development.  Passing  clouds,  or  a  variation  in 
the  clearness  of  the  sky,  are  detected  by  an  instrument  called 
the  Pole- Star  recorder.  It  consists  of  a  telescope  with  a  focal 
length  of  about  3  feet,  placed  parallel  to  the  earth's  axis.  An 
image  of  the  Pole-Star  is  formed  by  it,  and  allowed  to  fall  upon 
a  sensitive  plate,  describing  an  arc  of  a  circle,  which  is  inter- 
rupted whenever  clouds  pass.  The  plate  is  changed  every  day, 
and  the  instrument  is  closed  automatically  by  an  alarm-clock 
every  morning  before  the  twilight  begins.  Much  trouble  is 
experienced  from  the  deposition  of  moisture  on  the  objectives  of 
the  photographic  telescopes,  on  account  of  their  exposure  to  a 
large  portion  of  the  sky.  The  failure  of  some  of  the  earlier 
plates  may  be  due  to  this  cause.  Moisture  is  now  carefully 
looked  for,  and,  if  detected,  removed  by  gently  heating  the 
objectives.  Another  te-t  of  the  quality  of  the  plates  consists  in 
occasionally  exposing  a  plate  in  the  8-inch  telescope  to  the 
circumpolar  sky,  first  with  and  then  without  the  prism.  The 
trails  of  the  stars  near  the  Pole  and  the  spectra  of  the  brighter 
stars  are  thus  photographed.  A  comparison  of  the  intensity  of 
these  images  tests  the  condition  of  the  air,  the  instrument,  and 
the  plates. 

1  Extracted  from  t'le  "  Second  Annual  Report  of  trie  Photographic  Study 
of  Stellar  Spectra  conducted  at  the  Harvard  College  Observatory,"  Edward 
C.  Pickering,  Director.  With  2  Plates.  (Cambridge  :  John  Wilson  and 
Son,  University  Press,  1888.) 


The  various  investigations  will  now  be  described  in  order,  as 
in  the  last  Report. 

1.  Catalogue  of  Spectra  of  Bright  Stars.—  The  spectra  of  all 
the  brighter  stars  have  been  photographed  with  the  8- inch  tele- 
scope, giving  an  exposure  of  at  least  five  minutes  to  each.  Each 
plate  contains  from  two  to  four  regions  io°  square.  The  plates 
representing  the  region  north  of  -  250  were  divided  into  three 
series,  which  may  be  distinguished  as  polar,  zenith,  and  equa- 
torial. Each  region  is  contained  on  two  plates,  and  the  work 
has  been  repeated  in  two  successive  years,  so  that  at  least  four 
photographs  should  be  obtained  of  all  the  brighter  stars.  If  a 
plate  proved  poor,  it  was  repeated,  so  that  the  very  bright  stars 
will  appear  in  several  plates.  The  photographic  portion  of  this 
work  was  finished  last  November.  If  no  plates  had  been 
repeated,  36  polar,  72  zenith,  and  72  equatorial  plates  would 
have  been  required  each  year,  or  360  in  all.  The  actual  numbers 
of  plates  taken  and  measured  were  46,  120,  and  93,  total  259, 
the  first  year  ;  and  61,  209,  and  104,  total  374,  the  second  year  ; 
or  633  in  all.  In  the  later  work  the  number  of  zenith  plates 
was  doubled,  to  avoid  the  confusion  arising  when  several  ex- 
posures were  made  on  a  single  plate.  The  numbers  of  speclra 
measured  on  these  plates  were  2381,  3314,  and  2618,  total 
8313,  the  first  year;  and  7199,  8217,  and  4074,  total  I9,49°> 
the  second  year.  Two  plates  covering  the  immediate  vicinity  of 
the  North  Pole  contain  150  spectra.  The  whole  number  of 
spectra  is  therefore  27,953.  The  measurement  and  identification 
of  this  large  number  of  spectra  has  occupied  the  greater  portion 
of  the  time  of  the  corps  of  computers.  Each  plate  to  be  mea- 
sured was  placed  on  a  stand,  and  the  light  of  the  sky  was 
reflected  through  it  by  means  of  a  mirror.  The  approximate  co- 
ordinates of  each  spectrum  in  turn  were  then  read  off,  and  a 
careful  description  of  the  spectrum  was  given.  Besides  the  usual 
division  into  types,  each  additional  line  visible  was  recorded 
both  as  regards  its  position  and  intensity.  The  photographic 
intensity  of  the  brightest  portion  of  each  spectrum  was  also 
measured  by  means  of  a  photographic  plate,  dark  at  one  end  and 
light  at  the  other,  like  a  wedge  of  shade  glass.  When  the 
spectra  show  sudden  changes  in  brightness,  additional  measure- 
ments are  made.  This  portion  of  the  work  is  complete  only  for 
the  polar  plates  and  about  62  of  the  other  plates,  including 
1 2, 574  spectra.  The  identification  of  the  spectra  is  effected  either 
by  computation  from  its  co-ordinates,  or  by  laying  the  plate  upon 
the  maps  of  the  "  Durchmusterung,"  the  scale  being  the  same 
for  both.  All  the  plates  have,  however,  been  checked  by  the 
latter  method.  The  names  of  the  stars  are  then  taken  from  the 
"  Harvard  Photometry,"  "Uranometria  Argentina,"  or  "Durch- 
musterung," according  to  their  brightness  and  declination.  Their 
places  are  next  brought  forward  to  1900,  the  epoch  of  the  final 
catalogue.  As  the  intensity  of  the  photograph  of  a  given 
spectrum  will  vary  greatly  with  the  sensitiveness  of  the  plate, 
the  clearness  of  the  air,  and  the  rate  of  the  driving-clock,  all 
must  be  reduced  to  the  same  system.  The  scale  of  the  "  Harvard 
Photometry  "  is  adopted  for  this  purpose.  The  most  prevalent 
spectra  are  those  of  the  first  type,  in  which  the  K  line  is  too 
faint  to  be  visible.  After  applying  a  correction  for  the  declina- 
tion of  the  stars,  the  brightness  of  all  such  spectra  on  each  plate 
is  compared  with  the  photometric  magnitudes.  A  correction  is 
thus  derived  for  each  plate,  which  is  applied  to  all  the  spectra 
upon  it.  The  effect  of  colour,  so  far  as  it  varies  with  the  type 
of  spectrum,  is  thus  eliminated.  It  is  possible  that,  owing  to 
variations  in  temperature,  or  other  causes,  some  stars  may  be 
redder  or  bluer  than  others  having  the  same  type  of  spectrum. 

2.  Catalogue  of  Spectra  of  Faint  Stars. — Until  the  photo- 
graphs required  for  the  research  mentioned  above  were  com- 
pleted, the  time  of  the  8-inch  telescope  was  mainly  devoted  to 
them.  Since  then  it  has  been  used  principally  in  photographing 
the  fainter  stars.  An  exposure  of  one  hour  is  given  to  each 
portion  of  the  sky,  a  region  10°  square  being  included  upon  each 
plate.  Stars  as  far  south  as  -  250  can  be  advantageously  photo- 
graphed at  Cambridge,  and  the  plan  proposed  covers  this  region. 
The  plates  overlap,  so  that  the  region  north  of  -  200  will  appear 
on  at  least  two  plates.  The  southern  stars  are  only  photographed 
when  the  sky  is  unusually  clear.  Each  plate  is  examined,  and, 
if  unsatisfactory,  the  work  is  repeated.  If  all  were  good,  650 
plates  would  be  required.  Thus  far,  606  plates  have  been  taken, 
covering  339  of  the  desired  regions.  As  the  time  of  the  com- 
puters has  been  mainly  devoted  to  the  first  investigation  men- 
tioned above,  the  greater  portion  of  these  plates  have  not  been 
measured  or  reduced.  The  total  number  measured  is  105  plates, 
containing  6931  spectra,  of  which   94  plates  and  6293  spectra 


July  26,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


307 


have  been  reduced.  The  form  of  reduction  and  publication  will 
be  similar  to  the  catalogue  of  bright  stars,  except  that  it  will  be 
convenient  to  retain  the  "  Durchmusterung "  numbers  and 
places,  arranging  the  stars  in  the  order  of  the  zones  in  that 
catalogue.  It  is.  hoped  that  the  photographs  for  this  investiga- 
tion will  be  nearly  all  taken  by  the  autumn  of  1888,  and  the 
remainder  dining  the  following  year.  To  provide  for  a  possible 
increase  in  sensitiveness  of  the  plates,  precedence  is  given  to 
those  completely  covering  the  sky  once,  the  alternate  plates, 
covering  the  sky  the  second  time,  being  taken  later.  The 
actual  improvement  in  the  plates  shows  itself  by  an  increase  in 
the  number  of  spectra  in  this  second  series  of  plates.  In  some 
cases  over  three  hundred  stellar  spectra  appear  on  a  single 
plate. 

3.  Detailed  Study  of  the  Spectra  of  the  Brighter  Stars. — These 
spectra  are  obtained  by  placing  four  prisms,  having  an  angle  of 
about  1 50,  and  each  nearly  a  foot  square,  over  the  object-glass 
of  the  11-inch  telescope,  as  described  in  the  last  Report.  The 
increased  sensitiveness  of  the  plates  has  greatly  increased  the 
number  of  stars  bright  enough  to  produce  a  satisfactory  image  in 
this  way.  The  white  stars  of  the  first  type  give  good  images 
when  no  brighter  than  the  fourth  magnitude.  These  spectra  are 
about  4  inches  in  length.  An  improvement  has  been  made  in 
the  method  of  enlargement  with  a  cylindrical  lens  described  in 
the  last  Report.  When  such  a  lens  was  used  with  an  enlarging 
lens  having  a  small  aperture,  the  width  of  the  spectrum  was 
greatly  reduced  ;  with  a  large  aperture,  the  best  definition  could 
not  be  attained.  A  slit  perpendicular  to  the  axis  of  the  cylin- 
drical lens  is  accordingly  placed  over  it.  This  reduces  the  aper- 
ture in  one  direction  so  that  the  definition  of  the  lines  is  good, 
without  affecting  the  width  of  the  spectrum.  Slow  plates  are 
also  used  in  the  enlargements  to  increase  the  contrast.  Much 
more  brilliant  spectra  are  thus  obtained. 

4.  Faint  Stellar  Spectra. — As  stated  above,  the  28-inch 
reflector  constructed  by  Dr.  Draper  is  now  ready  for  use.  The 
difficulties  commonly  encountered  in  the  use  of  a  large  reflector 
have  been  met,  and  it  is  hoped  successfully  overcome.  A 
spectroscope  has  been  devised  for  this  instrument  which  will 
give  a  dispersion  about  equal  to  that  employed  in  the  first  and 
second  of  the  researches  described  above.  As  the  area  of  the 
aperture  of  this  telescope  is  about  eleven  times  that  of  the  8-inch 
telescope,  it  is  hoped  that  much  fainter  stars  can  be  photo- 
graphed with  it.  A  study  will  be  made  of  the  spectra  of  the 
variable  stars  of  long  period,  of  the  banded  stars,  and  of  other 
objects  having  peculiar  spectra. 

But  little  progress  has  been  made  with  the  other  investiga- 
tions proposed,  including  the  reduction  to  wave-lengths,  and 
the  study  of  the  approach  and  recession  of  the  stars.  It  seemed 
best  to  concentrate  our  work  on  the  researches  described  above, 
undertaking  the  other  investigations  as  soon  as  time  permitted. 

The  investigations  described  above  are  illustrated  by  a  plate. 
A  special  study  was  made  of  the  spectrum  nf  the  variable  star 
£  Persei.  A  variation  in  this  spectrum  would  have  an  important 
bearing  on  the  theory  that  the  diminution  in  light  is  due  to  an 
interposed  dark  satellite.  Spectra  of  this  star  at  minimum  were 
first  obtained  with  one  prism.  With  the  increased  sensitiveness 
of  the  plates  more  prisms  were  tried,  until  finally  good  spectra 
were  obtained  with  all  four  prisms  even  when  the  star  was  at  its 
minimum.  At  first  it  was  thought  that  a  variation  was  detected 
in  the  spectrum,  but  this  change  was  not  confirmed  under  more 
favourable  circumstances.  The  spectrum  of  this  star  on  February 
6,  1888,  when  at  its  full  brightness,  is  contrasted  in  the  plate 
with  the  spectrum  on  February  9,  1888,  when  the  star  was  at 
its  minimum.  A  careful  inspection  of  the  original  negatives 
failed  to  show  any  differences  in  the  spectra.  Twenty  lines  are 
visible  at  minimum,  all  of  which  are  seen  at  maximum.  The 
spectrum  of  a  Ononis  is  also  given.  Before  the  recent  increase 
in  the  sensitiveness  of  the  photographic  plates,  satisfactory 
photographs  could  not  be  obtained  of  the  spectrum  of  this  star, 
on  account  of  its  red  colour. 


I 


INFLUENCE  MACHINES} 

HAVE  the  honour  this  evening  of  addressing  a  few  remarks 
to  you  upon  the  subject  of  influence  machines  ;  and  the 
manner  in  which  I  propose  to  treat  the  subject  is  to  state  as 
shortly  as  possible,  first,  the  historical  portion,  and  afterwards 

Lecture  delivered  at  the  Royal  Institution,  by  Mr.    J.  Wimshurst,   en 
April  27,  1888. 


to  point  out  the  prominent  characteristics  of  the  later  and  the 
more  commonly  known  machines. 

In  1762,  Wilcke  described  a  simple  apparatus  which  produced 
electrical  charges  by  influence,  or  induction,  and  following  this 
the  great  Italian  man  of  science,  Alexander  Volta,  in  1775  gave  the 
electrophorus  the  form  which  it  retains  to  the  present  day.  This 
apparatus  may  be  viewed  as  containing  the  germ  of  the  principle 
of  all  influence  machines  yet  constructed. 

Another  step  in  the  development  was  the  invention  of  the 
doubler  by  Bennet  in  1786.  He  constructed  metal  plates  which 
were  thickly  varnished,  and  were  supported  by  insulating  handles, 
and  which  were  manipulated  so  as  to  increase  a  small  initial 
charge.  It  may  be  better  for  me  to  here  explain  the  process  of 
building  up  an  increased  charge  by  electrical  influence,  for  the 
same  principle  holds  in  all  of  the  many  forms  of  influence 
machines. 

This  Volta  electrophorus,  and  these  three  blackboards,  will 
serve  for  the  purpose.  I  first  excite  the  electrophorus  in  the 
usual  manner,  and  you  see  that  it  then  influences  a  charge  in  its 
top  plate  ;  the  charge  in  the  resinous  compound  is  known  as 
negative,  while  the  charge  induced  in  its  top  plate  is  known  as 
positive.  I  now  show  you  by  this  electroscope,  that  these 
charges  are  unlike  in  character.  Both  charges  are,  however,  small, 
and  Bennet  used  the  following  system  to  increase  them. 

Let  these  three  boards  represent  Bennet's  three  plates.  To 
plate  No.  1  he  imparted  a  positive  charge,  and  with  it  he  induced 
a  negative  charge  in  plate  No.  2.  Then  with  plate  No.  2  he 
induced  a  positive  charge  in  plate  No.  3.  He  then  placed  the 
plates  Nos.  1  and  3  together,  by  which  combination  he  had  two 
positive  charges  within  practically  the  same  space,  and  with  these 
two  charges  he  induced  a  double  charge  in  plate  No.  2.  This 
process  was  continued  until  the  desired  degree  of  increase  was 
obtained.  I  will  not  go  through  the  process  of  actually  building 
up  a  charge  by  such  means,  for  it  would  take  more  time  than  I 
can  spare. 

In  1787,  Carvallo  discovered  the  very  important  fact  that 
metal  plates  when  insulated  always  acquire  slight  charges  of 
electricity  ;  following  up  those  two  important  discoveries  of 
Bennet  and  Carvallo,  Nicholson  in  1788  constructed  an  apparatus, 
having  two  disks  of  metal  insulated  and  fixed  in  the  same  1  lane. 
Then,  by  means  of  a  spindle  and  handle,  a  third  disk,  also 
insulated,  was  made  to  revolve  near  to  the  two  fixed  disks, 
metallic  touches  being  fixed  in  suitable  positions.  Writh  this 
apparatus  he  found  that  small  residual  charges  might  readily  be 
increased.  It  is  in  this  simple  apparatus  that  we  have  the  parent 
of  influence  machines,  and  as  it  is  now  a  hundred  years  since 
Nicholson  described  this  machine  in  the  Phil.  Trans.,  I  think  it 
well  worth  showing  a  large-sir.ed  Nicholson  machine  at  work 
to-night. 

In  1823,  Ronalds  described  a  machine  in  which  the  moving 
disk  was  attached  to  and  worked  by  the  pendulum  of  a  clock. 
It  was  a  modification  of  Nicholson's  doubler,  and  he  used  it  to 
supply  electricity  for  telegraph  working.  For  some  years  after 
these  machines  were  invented  no  important  advance  appears  to 
have  been  made,  and  I  think-  this  may  be  attributed  to  the  great 
discoveries  in  galvanic  electricity  which  were  made  ?.bout  the 
commencement  of  this  century  by  Galvani  and  Volta,  followed  in 
1831  to  1857  by  the  magnificent  discoveries  of  Faraday  in 
electro-magnetism,  electro-chemistry,  and  electro-optics,  and  no 
real  improvement  was  made  in  influence  machines  till  i860,  in 
which  year  Varley  patented  a  new  form  of  machine. 

In  1865  the  subject  was  taken  up  with  vigour  in  Germany  by 
Toepler,  Holtz,  and  other  eminent  men.  In  1866,  Bertsch  in- 
vented a  machine,  but  not  of  the  multiplying  type  ;  and  in  1867, 
Sir  William  Thomson  invented  a  form  of  machine,  which,  for 
the  purpose  of  maintaining  a  constant  potential  in  a  Leyden  jar, 
is  exceedingly  useful. 

The  Carre  machine  was  invented  in  1868,  and  in  1880  the 
Voss  machine  was  introduced,  since  which  time  the  latter  has 
found  a  place  in  many  laboratories.  It  closely  resembles  the 
Varley  machine  in  appearance,  and  the  Toepler  machine  in 
construction. 

In  condensing  this  part  of  my  subject,  I  have  had  to  omit 
many  prominent  names  and  much  interesting  subject-matter,  but 
I  must  state  that,  in  placing  what  I  have  before  you,  many  of 
my  scientific  friends  have  been  ready  to  help  and  to  contribute  ; 
and,  as  an  instance  of  this,  I  may  mention  that  Prof.  Silvanus 
P.  Thompson  at  once  placed  all  his  literature  r  n.l  even  his  private 
notes  of  leference  at  my  service. 

I  will  now  endeavour  to  point  out  the  more  prominent  features 


?o8 


NA  TURE 


{July  26,  1888 


of  the  influence  machines  which  I  have  present,  and,  in  doing 
so,  I  must  ask  a  moment's  leave  from  the  subject  of  my  lecture 
to  show  you  a  small  machine  made  by  that  eminent  worker, 
Faraday,  which,  apart  from  its  value  as  his  handiwork,  so 
closely  brings  us  face  to  face  with  the  imperfect  apparatus 
with  which  he  and  others  of  his  day  made  their  valuable 
researches.     . 

The  next  machine  which  I  take  is  a  Holtz.  It  has  one  plate 
revolving,  the  second  plate  being  fixed.  The  fixed  plate,  as  you 
see,  is  so  much  cut  away  that  it  is  very  liable  to  breakage. 
Paper  inductors  are  fixed  upon  the  back  of  it,  while  opposite  the 
inductors,  and  in  front  of  the  revolving  plate,  are  combs.  To 
work  the  machine  (1)  a  specially  dry  atmosphere  is  required  ;  (2) 
an  initial  charge  is  necessary  ;  (3)  when  at  work  the  amount  of 
electricity  passing  through  the  terminals  is  great ;  (4)  the  direction 
of  the  current  is  apt  to  reverse  ;  (5)  when  the  terminals  are 
opened  beyond  the  sparking  distance  the  excitement  rapidly  dies 
away  ;  (6)  it  does  not  part  with  free  electricity  from  cither  of 
the  terminals  singly. 

It  has  no  metal  on  the  revolving  plates  nor  any  metal 
contacts  ;  the  electricity  is  collected  by  combs  which  take  the 
place  of  brushes,  and  it  is  the  break  in  the  connection  of  this 
circuit  which  supplies  a  current  for  external  use.  On  this  point 
I  cannot  do  better  than  quote  an  extract  from  p.  339  of  Sir 
William  Thomson's  "  Papers  on  Electro-statics  and  Magnetism," 
which  runs  : — "  Holtz's  now  celebrated  electric  ^machine,  which 
is  closely  analogous  in  principle  to  Varley's  of  i860,  is,  I  believe, 
a  descendant  of  Nicholson's.  Its  great  power  depends  upon  the 
abolition  by  Holtz  of  metallic  carriers  and  metallic  make-and- 
break  contacts.  It  differs  from  Varley's  and  mine  by  leaving  the 
inductors  to  themselves,  and  using  the  current  in  the  connecting 
arc." 

In  respect  to  the  second  form  of  Holtz  machine  I  have  very 
little  information,  for  since  it  was  brought  to  my  notice  nearly  six 
years  ago  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  either  one  of  the  machines 
or  any  person  who  had  seen  one.  It  has  two  disks  revolving  in 
opposite  directions  ;  it  has  no  metal  sectors  and  no  metal  contacts. 
The  "connecting  arc  circuit"  is  used  for  the  terminal  circuit. 
Altogether  I  can  very  well  understand  and  fully  appreciate  the 
statement  made  by  Prof.  Holtz  in  Uppenborris  Journal  of  May 
1881,  wherein  he  writes  that  "  for  the  purpose  of  demonstration 
I  would  rather  be  without  such  machines." 

The  first  type  of  Holtz  machine  has  now  in  many  instances 
been  made  up  in  multiple  form,  within  suitably  constructed  glass 
cases,  but  when  so  made  up  great  difficulty  has  been  found  in 
keeping  each  of  the  many  plates  to  a  like  excitement.  When 
differently  excited,  the  one  set  of  plates  furnished  positive 
electricity  to  the  comb,  while  the  next  set  of  plates  gave 
negative  electricity  :  as  a  consequence  no  electricity  passed  the 
terminals. 

To  overcome  this  objection,  to  dispense  with  the  dangerously 
cut  plates,  and  also  to  better  neutralize  the  revolving  plate 
throughout  its  whole  diameter,  I  made  a  large  machine  having 
twelve  disks  2  feet  7  inches  in  diameter,  and  in  it  I  inserted 
plain  rectangular  slips  of  glass  between  the  disks,  which  might 
readily  be  removed  ;  these  slips  carried  the  paper  inductors. 
To  keep  all  the  paper  inductors  on  one  side  of  the  machine  to  a 
like  excitement,  I  connected  them  together  by  a  metal  wire. 
The  machine  so  made  worked  splendidly,  and  your  late  Presi- 
dent, Mr.  Spottiswoode,  sent  on  two  occasions  to  take  note  of 
my  successful  modifications.  The  machine  is  now  ten  years  old, 
but  still  works  splendidly.  I  will  show  you  a  smaller-sized  one 
at  work. 

The  next  machine  on  which  I  make  observations,  is  the  Carre. 
It  consists  essentially  of  a  disk  of  glass  which  is  free  to  revolve 
without  touch  or  friction.  At  one  end  of  a  dicmeter  it  moves  near 
to  the  excited  plate  of  a  frictional  machine,  while  at  the  opposite 
end  of  the  dicmeter  is  a  strip  of  insulating  material,  opposite 
which,  and  also  opposite  the  excited  amalgam  plate,  are  combs 
for  conducting  the  induced  charges,  and  to  which  the  terminals 
are  metallically  connected  ;  the  machine  works  well  in  ordinary 
atmosphere,  and  certainly  is  in  many  ways  to  be  preferred  to  the 
simple  frictional  machine.  In  my  experiments  with  it  I  found 
that  the  quantity  of  electricity  might  be  more  than  doubled  by 
adding  a  segment  of  glass  between  the  amalgam  cushions  and 
the  revolving  plate.  The  current  in  this  type  of  machine  is 
constant. 

The  Voss  machine  has  one  fixed  plate  and  one  revolving  plate. 
Upon  the  fixed  plate  are  two  inductors,  while  on  the  revolving 
plate  are  six  circular  carriers.     Two  brushes  receive  'the   first 


portions  of  the  induced  charges  from  the  carriers,  which  portions 
are  conveyed  to  the  inductors.  The  combs  collect  the  remaining 
portion  of  the  induced  charge  for  use  as  an  outer  circuit,  while 
the  metal  rod  with  its  two  brushes  neutralizes  the  plate  surface 
in  a  line  of  its  diagonal  diameter.  When  at  work  it  supplies  a 
considerable  amount  of  electricity.  It  is  self-exciting  in  ordinary 
dry  atmosphere.  It  freely  parts  with  its  electricity  from  either 
terminal,  but  when  so  used  the  current  frequently  changes  its 
direction,  hence  there  is  no  certainty  that  a  full  charge  has  been 
obtained,  nor  whether  the  charge  is  of  positive  or  negative 
electricity. 

I  next  come  to  the  type  of  machine  with  which  I  am  more 
closely  associated,  and  I  may  preface  my  remarks  hy  adding  that 
the  invention  sprang  solely  from  my  experience  gained  by  con- 
stantly using  and  experimenting  with  the  many  electrical  machines 
which  I  possessed.  It  was  from  these  I  formed  a  working 
hypothesis  which  led  me  to  make  the  small  machine  now  before 
you.  The  machine  is  unaltered.  It  excited  itself  when  new 
with  the  first  revolution.  It  so  fully  satisfied  me  with  its 
performance  that  I  had  four  others  made,  the  first  of  which  I 
presented  to  this  Institution.  Its  construction  is  of  the  simplest 
character.  The  two  disks  of  glass  revolve  near  to  each  other, 
and  in  opposite  directions.  Each  disk  carries  metallic  sectors  ; 
each  disk  has  its  two  brushes  supported  by  metal  rods,  the  rods 
to  the  two  plates  forming  an  angle  of  90°  with  each  other. 
The  external  circuit  is  independent  of  the  brushes,  and  is  formed 
by  the  combs  and  terminals. 

The  machine  is  self-exciting  under  all  conditions  of  atmosphere, 
owing  probably  to  each  plate  being  influenced  by,  and  influencing 
in  turn  its  neighbour,  hence  there  is  the  minimum  surface  for 
leakage.  When  excited,  the  direction  of  the  current  never 
changes  ;  this  circumstance  is  due  probably  to  the  circuit  of  the 
metallic  sectors  and  the  make-and-break  contacts  always  being 
closed,  while  the  combs  and  the  external  circuit  are  supple- 
mental, and  for  external  use  only.  The  quantity  of  electricity 
is  very  large  and  the  potential  high.  When  suitably  arranged, 
the  length  of  spark  produced  is  equal  to  nearly  the  radius  of  the 
disk.  I  have  made  them  from  2  inches  to  7  feet  in  diameter, 
with  equally  satisfactory  results. 

I  have  also  experimented  with  the  cylindrical  form  of  I  he 
machine  ;  the  first  of  these  I  made  in  1882,  and  it  is  before  you. 
The  cylinder  gives  inferior  results  to  the  simple  disks,  and  is 
more  complicated  to  adjust.  You  notice  I  neither  use  nor  re- 
commend vulcanite,  and  it  is  perhaps  well  to  caution  my  hearers 
against  the  use  of  that  material  for  the  purpose,  for  it  warps  with 
age,  and  when  left  in  the  daylight  it  changes  and  becomes  useless. 

I  have  now  only  to  speak  of  these  larger  machines.  They  are 
in  all  respects  made  up  with  the  same  plates,  sectors,  and  brushes 
as  were  used  by  me  in  the  first  experimental  machines,  but  for 
convenience  sake  they  are  fitted  in  numbers  within  a  glass  case. 

This  machine  has  eight  plates  of  2  feet  4  inches  diameter ;  it 
has  been  in  the  possession  of  the  Institution  for  about  three  years. 

This  large  machine,  which  has  been  made  for  this  lecture,  has 
twelve  disks,  each  2  feet  6  inches  in  diameter.  The  length  of 
spark  from  it  is  13!  inches. 

During  the  construction  of  the  machine  every  care  was  taken 
to  avoid  electrical  excitement  in  any  of  its  parts,  and  after  its 
completion  several  friends  were  present  to  witness  the  fitting  of 
the  brushes  and  the  first  start.  When  all  was  ready  the  terminals 
were  connected  to  an  electroscope,  and  the  handle  was  moved, 
so  slowly  that  it  occupied  thirty  seconds  in  moving  one  half 
revolution,  and  at  that  point  violent  excitement  appeared. 

The  machine  has  now  been  standing  with  its  handle  secured 
for  about  eight  hours  ;  no  excitement  is  apparent,  but  still  it  may 
not  be  absolutely  inert  ;  of  this  each  one  present  may  judge, 
but  I  will  connect  it  with  this  electroscope,  and  then  move  the 
handle  slowly,  so  that  you  may  see  when  the  excitement  com- 
mences and  judge  of  its  absolutely  trustworthy  behaviour  as  an 
instrument  for  public  demonstration.  I  may  say  that  I  have 
never  under  any  condition  found  this  type  of  machine  to  fail  in 
its  performance. 

I  now  propose  to  show  you  the  beautiful  appearances  of  the 
discharge,  and  then  in  order  that  you  may  judge  of  the  relative 
capabilities  of  each  of  these  three  machines,  we  will  work  them 
all  at  the  same  time. 

The  large  frictional  machine  which  is  in  use  for  this  com- 
parison is  so  well  known  to  you  that  a  better  standard  could  not 
be  desired. 

In  conclusion  I  may  be  permitted  to  say  that  it  is  fortunate  I 
had  not  read  the  opinion  of  Sir  William  Thomson  and  Prof. 


July  26,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


309 


Holtz,  as  quoted  in  the  earlier  part  of  my  lecture,  previous  to  my 
own  practical  experiments.  For  had  I  read  such  opinions  from 
such  authorities  I  should  probably  have  accepted  them  without 
putting  them  to  practical  test.  As  the  matter  stands  I  have  done 
those  things  which  they  said  I  ought  not  to  have  done,  and  I 
have  left  undone  those  which  they  said  I  ought  to  have 
done,  and  by  so  doing  I  think  you  must  freely  admit  that  I  have 
produced  an  electric  generating  machine  of  great  power,  and 
have  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  physicist,  for  the  purposes  of 
public  demonstration,  or  original  research,  an  instrument  more 
trustworthy  than  anything  hitherto  produced. 


T 


NOTE  ON  THE  TARPON  OR  SILVER  KING 
(MEGALOPS  THRISSOIDES). 

HE  genus  Megalops  belongs  to  the  family  Clupeidae,  and, 
amongst  other  features,  is  characterized,  according  to  Dr. 
Giinther,1  by  an  oblong  compressed  body,  the  presence  of  a 
narrow  osseous  lamella  attached  to  the  mandibular  symphysis  and 
lying  between  the  halves  of  the  mandible.  Further,  the  latter  is 
prominent,  the  intermaxillary  short,  the  maxillary  forming 
the  lateral  part  of  the  mouth.  There  are  bands  of  villiform 
teeth  on  the  jaws,  vomer,  palatines,  pterygoid,  tongue,  and  base 
of  skull. 

The  interest  in  the  species  above-mentioned  has  been  con- 
siderably increased  of  late  by  the  fact  that  the  huge  fish  (between 
5  and  6  feet  in  length,  and  weighing  from  90  to  150  pounds)  can 
be  caught  by  rod  and  line,  and  I  am  much  indebted  to  Lady 
Playfair  for  giving  me  all  the  information  she  had  obtained  on 
the  subject  through  her  father  and  Mr.  W.  G.  Russell  of  Boston, 
United  States. 

The  tarpon  (Megalops  thrissoides)  frequents  the  Atlantic 
shores  of  North  America,  and  is  especially  found  "on  the 
western  or  Gulf  coast  of  Southern  Florida,  haunting  the  shallow 
bays  and  creeks  inside  the  bars  and  keys  which  stretch  along 
that  coast  ;  and  the  fishes  are  supposed  to  enter  by  the  passes 
from  the  outer  Gulf.2 

"  In  shape  the  tarpon  somewhat  resembles  the  salmon,  but, 
as  becomes  one  of  the  herring  tribe,  it  is  deeper  and  less  rounded, 
and  the  head  is  larger,  the  scales  (cycloid)  are  thick  and  large, 
more  than  an  inch  in  diameter"  (a  fine  scale  sent  by  Lady  Play- 
fair  measures  2\  inches  both  in  antero-posterior  and  transverse 
diameter),  "  and  the  exposed  portion  is  of  a  bright  silvery  hue, 
indeed  it  looks  as  if  it  had  been  dipped  in  silver  and  burnished  : 
hence  the  name  'silver  king.'  I  have  seen  specimens  weigh- 
ing from  50  to  137  pounds,  and  have  heard  of  none  above 
150  pounds. 

"The  tarpon  has  always  been  upon  the  Gulf  coast,  but 
was  formerly  captured,  as  the  sword-fish  is,  by  the  harpoon. 
In  1885,  however,  a  Mr.  Wood  undertook  successfully  to  secure 
the  fish  by  rod  and  reel.  .  .  .  About  150  have  been  caught  in 
this  manner  during  the  seasons  1885  and  1886,  the  time  being 
in  March  and  April,  perhaps  a  little  earlier  in  a  warm  season  : 
after  April  it  is  too  hot  for  fishing. 

"The  fish  is  caught  on  the  edge  of  the  channels  in  15  to  25 
feet  of  water  with  a  bait  of  (half  a)  mullet.  The  rod  should  be 
very  stiff,  not  more  than  9  feet  in  length,  such  as  is  used  for 
large  sea-bass,  and  the  line  strong,  but  fine  enough  to  carry 
200  to  250  yards  on  the  reel,  which  must  therefore  be  large  and 
heavy.  A  snood  or  gauging  of  about  3  feet  of  cod-line,  copper- 
wire,  or  chain,  should  be  fixed  to  the  hook  3  as  the  dental  apparatus 
of  the  fish  efficiently  combines  a  file  and  shears,  with  which  even 
a  double  cod-line  may  be  frayed  or  worn  off,  or,  severed  without 
a  sensible  strain. 

"The  tarpon  takes  the  bait  lying  on  the  bottom,  and  moves 
off,  swallowing  it,  until  he  is  struck,  and  the  moment  he  feels 
the  hook  he  is  out  of  the  water,  perhaps  3  or  6  feet  in  the  air, 
shaking  his  head  fiercely — as  does  the  black  bass — to  disengage 
the  hook,  and  then  begins  such  a  fight  as,  I  believe,  no  other  game 
fish  ever  shows.  It  frequently  leaps  with  a  clean  breach  twenty 
times  before  the  game  is  over,  and  so  close  that  it  occasionally 
sends  a  douche  over  the  boatmen  ;  while  in  one  instance  a  large 
one  made  a  run  of  100  yards,  the  whole  of  which  was  a  suc- 
cession of  frantic  leaps  and  plunges,  leaving  a  wake  like  that  of 
a  steamer.     The  same  fish  towed  my  boat,  with  three  men  in  it, 

"  Introduction  to  Fishes,"  pp   661-62. 

Extracted  from  a  description  (from  persona!  observation)  by  Mr.  W".  G. 
Russell,  of  Boston. 
i  Described  elsewhere  as  "  an  O'Shaughnessy  knobbed  10-0  hook." 


about  two  miles,  and,  after  more  than  an  hour's  hard  fight,  ended 
by  three  huge  leaps  out  of  the  water  amongst  some  mangrove- 
trees,  the  oysters  on  the  roots  of  which  cut  my  line,  so  that  we 
parted  company  after  a  close  and  protracted  intimacy." 

There  is  little  doubt,  from  the  foregoing  remarks,  that  the 
SDlendid  sport  of  tarpon-fishing  must  make  it  most  fascinating. 
In  April  1887,  indeed,  a  single  rod  caught  nine  fish  in  eleven 
days,  two  of  them  weighing  respectively  151  and  149  pounds,  and 
in  length  6  feet  4  inches,  and  6  feet  5  inches.  These  were  taken 
at  Punta  Rassa  on  the  western  coast  of  Florida,  the  total  weight 
of  the  catch  being  1042  pounds,  or  an  average  of  about  116  pounds 
for  each.  The  tarpon,  like  others  of  its  tribe,  has  the  advantage 
also  of  being  good  food.  W.  C.  McIntosh. 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

Bulletins  de  la  Societe  D1  Anthropologic  de  Paris,  tome 
dixieme,  4e  fascicule,  1887. — This  closing  number  for  the  last 
year  enumerates  the  various  presentations  made  to  the  Society 
since  the  previous  publication  of  the  Bulletins.  Among  the 
recent  communications  attention  is  due  to  M.  Boban's  report  of 
the  interesting  collection  of  North  American  flint  instruments 
presented  to  the  Society  by  the  Smithsonian  Institution.  They 
appear  to  be  almost  identical  with  those  existing  in  Europe, 
and  belonging  to  the  Stone  Age. — M.  Verneau,  on  present- 
ing various  stone  instruments  from  the  Canary  Isles,  drew 
attention  to  their  rude  forms,  due,  he  believes,  to  the  relatively 
brittle  character  of  the  basalt  and  obsidian  from  which  they  were 
cut.  The  few  specimens  of  polished  stone  belong  only  to 
Gomere  and  Canary  Proper,  and  are,  therefore,  conjectured  to 
have  been  introduced  by  some  of  the  numerous  North  African 
invaders  who  landed  on  those  islands. — M.  Andre  Sanson's 
paper  on  experimental  craniology  in  reference  specially  to  domes- 
tic animals,  which  he  considers  under  two  cephalic  types  only, 
viz.  the  dolicocephalic  and  the  brachycephalic,  is  directed  against 
the  systems  of  craniometry  and  anthropometry  at  present  in 
vogue.  M.  Fauvelle  took  a  leading  part  in  the  discussion  to 
which  the  paper  gave  rise,  and  gave  his  views  in  regard  to  the 
value  of  the  cephalic  index,  which  he  considered  to  have  been 
greatly  overestimated  by  Broca  and  his  followers.  These  re- 
marks, and  the  refutation  of  Broca  by  M.  Topinard,  form,  with 
M.  Sanson's  paper,  a  complete  exposition  of  the  various  views 
maintained  in  different  provinces  of  anthropological  science  in 
France. — Report  on  the  various  papers  presented  by  competitors 
for  the  Godard  Prize  in  1887,  by  M.  Moudiere.  —  On 
aphasia  and  its  history  since  the  original  observations  of 
Broca,  by  M.  M.  Duval. — On  the  distinctive  characteristics 
of  the  human  brain  considered  from  a  morphological 
point  of  view,  by  M.  le  Dr.  S.  Pozzi. — On  a  case  of  super- 
numerary digits  on  the  cubital  margin  of  each  hand,  by  Dr. 
Beranger. — On  the  morphological  variability  of  the  muscles 
under  the  influence  of  functional  variations,  by  Mme.  Clemence 
Royer. — On  the  abnormal  elongation  of  the  cuboides,  accom- 
panied by  the  pressure  of  a  round  pronator  in  a  horse,  by  M.  E. 
Cuyer. — On  the  tumulus  of  Kerlescan  at  Carnac,  by  M.  Gaillard. 
The  remains  of  this  interesting  monument,  with  its  double 
dolmens  similar  to  the  covered  allees,  known  as  "  Hunebeds  "  in 
Holland,  were  first  described  in  i860,  since  which  time  they 
have  suffered  so  much  from  neglect  and  wanton  injury  that  M. 
Gaillard  is  making  a  strong  appeal  to  the  Government  for  their 
protection. — Note  on  the  tumuli  of  a  covered  gallery,  examined 
in  1887,  near  Montigny  l'Engrain  (Aisne),  by  M.  Vauville,  and 
report  of  the  crania  found  there,  and  referred  to  the  Furfooz 
men  of  the  dolmen  age,  by  Dr.  Verneau.  The  preponderating 
character  of  these  crania  was  their  length  and  straightness. 
Several  bore  marks  of  cicatrised  wounds. — On  a  Quaternary 
equidean,  similar  to  the  kertag  of  Kirghis,  described  by  M. 
Poliakoff  under  the  the  name  of  Equtis  Przewalskii.  The 
description  of  the  kertag  with  its  short  and  straight  mane,  its 
relatively  large  head  and  inferior  height,  corresponds  remarkably 
well  with  the  numerous  representations  of  the  Quaternary 
equidean  found  in  different  parts  of  Western  Europe  among  the 
varied  debris  that  mark  the  site  of  primaeval  settlements.  In 
the  Magdelian  carvings  found  in  the  cavern  at  Arudy  among 
mammoth  bones,  special  prominence  is  given  to  the  thin,  rat- 
like character  of  the  tail  of  the  animal,  a  feature  that  is  very 
marked  in  the  kertag,  which  appears  to  be  the  nearest  living 
representative  of  the  horse  of  the  Quaternary  age. 


3io 


NA  TURE 


[July  26,  1888 


Bulletin  de  V Academic  Royale  de  Belgique,  May. —  On  the  new 
elements  of  the  orbit  of  Eucharis,  by  L.  de  Ball.  Continuing 
his  researches  on  the  elements  of  this  planet  (181),  the  author 
here  establishes  two  new  normal  positions  by  means  of  the 
observations  made  in  1886  and  1887.  He  also  revises  the  posi- 
tions of  the  comparison  stars,  and  resumes  the  calculation  of  the 
perturbations  caused  by  Jupiter,  Saturn,  and  Mars,  utilizing  for 
the  last  named  the  results  of  Asaph  Hall's  observations  on  the 
satellites. — Contribution  to  the  study  of  pulsation  in  the  lower 
animal  organisms,  by  Dr.  De  Bruyne.  The  results  are  given  of 
the  author's  studies  on  the  pulsating  function  of  an  encysted 
Protozoon  obtained  in  abundance  by  culture,  but  of  not  yet 
determined  family.  From  his  minute  observations  on  the  for- 
mation, development,  and  action  of  the  vesicle  endowed  with 
rhythmical  motion,  he  concludes  that  this  organ  has  no  com- 
munication with  the  periphery,  and  has  nothing  to  do  with  the 
digestive  function,  as  is  commonly  supposed,  but  is  a  true  organ 
of  respiration  and  circulation,  a  heart  and  lung  combined. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  May  31.—"  The  Conditions  of  the  Evolu- 
tion of  Gases  from  Homogeneous  liquids. "  By  V.  H.  Veley, 
M.A.,  University  College,  Oxford. 

In  Part  I.  an  account  is  given  of  the  effect  of  finely  divided 
particles  on  the  rate  of  evolution  of  gases  resulting  from  chemical 
changes ;  in  Part  II.  the  phenomenon  of  initial  acceleration,  as 
also  the  effect  of  variation  of  pressure  on  the  evolution  of  gases, 
is  discussed  ;  in  Part  III.  the  case  of  the  decomposition  of  formic 
acid  into  carbonic  oxide  and  water  is  investigated  under  constant 
conditions,  other  than  those  of  the  mass  of  reacting  substances 
and  of  temperature. 

Part  I. — It  is  found  that  the  addition  of  finely  divided  chemi- 
cally inert  particles  increases  the  rate  of  evolution  of  gases  from 
liquids  in  which  they  are  being  formed. .  The  effect  of  these 
particles  on  the  following  chemical  changes  is  investigated  : 
(i.)  the  decomposition  of  formic  acid  yielding  carbonic  oxide  ; 
(ii.)  the  decomposition  of  ammonium  nitrite  in  aqueous  solution 
yielding  nitrogen  ;  (iii.)  the  reduction  of  nitric  acid  into  nitric 
oxide  by  means  of  ferrous  sulphate  ;  (iv.)  the  decomposition  of 
ammonium  nitrate  in  a  state  of  fusion  producing  nitrous  oxide  ; 
and  (v.)  the  decomposition  of  potassium  chlorate  in  a  state  of 
fusion  producing  oxygen.  The  finely  divided  substances  used 
are  pumice,  silica,  graphite,  precipitated  barium  sulphate  and 
glass-dust. 

Part  II. — It  is  observed  that,  conditions  of  temperature  re- 
maining the  same,  the  rate  of  evolution  of  a  gas  from  a  liquid 
is  at  first  slow,  then  gradually  increases  until  it  reaches  a  maxi- 
mum, and  for  some  time  constant,  rate.  From  this  point  the  rate 
decreases  proportionally  to  the  diminution  of  mass.  This  is  ob- 
served in  the  cases  of  decomposition  of  formic  acid,  potassium 
ferrocyanide,  and  of  oxalic  acid  by  concentrated  sulphuric  acid, 
and  in  that  of  ammonium  nitrate.  It  has  previously  been  ob- 
served in  the  case  of  the  decomposition  of  ammonium  nitrite  in 
aqueous  solution.  The  same  phenomenon  repeats  itself  when 
the  temperature  is  temporarily  lowered  and  then  raised  to  its 
former  point,  and  also  to  a  more  marked  degree  when,  tem- 
perature remaining  the  same,  the  superincumbent  pressure  is 
suddenly  increased. 

The  reduction  of  pressure  from  one  to  a  fraction  of  an  atmo- 
sphere produces  no  permanent  effect  on  the  rate  of  evolution  of  a 
gis  from  a  liquid  ;  a  decrease  of  pressure,  however,  produces 
temporarily  an  increase  in  the  rate,  and  an  increase  of  pressure 
conversely  produces  temporarily  a  decrease  in  the  rate. 

Part  III. — The  case  of  the  decomposition  of  formic  acid  into 
carbonic  oxide  and  water  by  diluted  sulphuric  acid  is  studied 
with  the  aid  of  an  apparatus  by  means  of  which  the  temperature 
is  kept  constant  within  one-twentieth  of  a  degree.  It  is  shown 
that  the  rate  of  evolution  of  carbonic  oxide  is  expressible  by  the 
following  equation — 

log  (r  +  t)  +  log  r  —  log  c, 

in  which  r  is  the  time  from  the  commencement  of  the  observa- 
tions ;  t  is  the  interval  of  time  from  the  moment  of  commence- 
ment, and  that  at  which,  conditions  remaining  the  same,  the 
interval  of  time  required  for  unit  change  would  have  been  nil ; 
r  is  the  mass  at  the  end  of  each  observation,  and  c  is  a  constant. 


The  results  calculated  by  this  hypothesis  agree  with  those  ob- 
served, whether  the  interval  of  time  required  for  unit  change 
is  30  or  960  minutes.  The  curve  expressing  the  rate  of  chemical 
change  in  terms  of  mass  is  thus  hyperbolic  and  illustrative  of 
the  law — 

dr  r1- 


which  expresses  the  rate  at  which  equivalent  masses  act  upon  one 
another  ;  i/c  in  each  experiment  is  the  amount  of  each  unit  mass 
which  reacts  with  the  other  per  unit  of  time,  when  a  unit  mass 
of  each  substance  is  present.  Since,  then,  equivalent  masses 
take  part  in  the  change,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  at  first 
an  anhydride  of  formic  acid  is  produced,  which  is  subsequently 
decomposed  into  carbonic  oxide  and  water. 

The  change  may  thus  be  compared  to  the  production  of  ethyl 
formate  from  formic  acid  and  alcohol,  with  which  it  shows 
several  points  of  analogy. 

June  14.  —  "The  Electric  Organ  of  the  Skate.  Structure  and 
Development  of  the  Electric  Organ  of  liaia  radiata."  By  J.  C. 
Ewart,  M.D.,  Regius  Professor  of  Natural  History,  University 
of  Edinburgh.  Communicated  by  Prof.  J.  Burdon  Sanderson, 
F.R.S. 

The  first  part  of  this  paper  is  chiefly  devoted  to  a  comparison 
of  the  electric  organs  of  Raia  radiata,  Raia  batis,  and  Raia  cir- 
cularis.  It  is  shown  that  the  organ  in  the  species  radiata  differs 
in  many  respects  from  the  organ  in  the  twj  other  species,  and 
that  an  exhaustive  study  of  its  structure  and  development  is 
likely  to  throw  considerable  light  on  the  nature  of  electric  organs 
generally,  and  also  on  the  structure  of  the  motor  plates  of  muscles. 
While  Raia  batis  may  reach  a  length  of  over  180  cm.,  Raia 
radiata  seldom  measures  more  than  45  cm.  from  tip  to  tip,  and 
is  thus  only  about  half  the  size  of  a  large  Raia  circularis.  In  Raia 
radiata  the  electric  organ  is  absolutely  and  relatively  extremely 
small.  In  Raia  batis  the  electric  organ  may  be  60  cm.  in  length 
and  7  cm.  in  circumference  at  the  centre,  and  extend  from  the 
skin  to  the  vertebral  column,  but  in  an  adult  Raia  radiata  the 
organ  is  seldom  over  13  cm.  in  length  and  8  mm.  in  circumference, 
and  the  posterior  two-thirds  is  confined  to  a  narrow  cleft  between 
the  skin  and  the  great  lateral  muscles  of  the  tail.  Further,  the 
organ  of  Raia  radiata  consists  of  minute  shallow  cups,  which 
only  remotely  resemble  the  large  well-formed  electric  cups  of 
Raia  circularis.  In  the  latter  species  the  various  layers  of  the 
electric  cup  are  readily  comparable  to  the  more  important  layers 
of  the  electric  disk  of  Raia  batis,  but  in  Raia  radiata  the  electric 
cup  is  little  more  than  a  muscular  fibre,  with  one  end  expanded 
and  slightly  excavated  to  support  a  greatly  enlarged  motor  plate, 
in  which  terminate  numerous  nerve-fibres.  The  striated  layer  of 
Raia  batis  and  circularis,  which  consists  of  characteristic  lamellae, 
having  an  extremely  complex  arrangement,  is  entirely  absent 
from  Raia  radiata,  the  electric  layer  is  indistinct,  and  instead  of 
a  thick  richly  nucleated  cortex,  the  cup  is  merely  invested  by  a 
slightly  thickened  sarcolemma.  Further,  the  tissue  forming  the 
shallow,  thick-walled  cup,  both  in  its  appearance  and  consistency, 
closely  resembles  an  ordinary  muscular  fibre,  while  the  long  stem 
usually  remains  distinctly  striated  to  its  termination. 

In  the  second  part  of  the  paper  an  account  is  given  of  the 
development  of  the  electric  cups  of  Raia  radiata.  It  is  shown 
that  the  rate  of  development  compared  with  Raia  circularis, 
but  more  especially  with  Raia  batis,  is  extremely  slow.  The 
young  radiata  is  nearly  double  the  size  of  the  batis  embryo  before 
the  muscular  fibres  reach  the  "club"  stage,  and  the  long  nearly 
uniform  clubs,  instead  of  at  once  developing  into  rudimentary 
cups  as  is  the  case  in  batis,  assume  the  form  of  large  Indian  clubs. 
When  the  young  skate  reaches  a  length  of  about  35  cm.,  the 
long  secondary  clubs  begin  to  expand  anteriorly,  and  this  ex- 
pansion continues  until  a  fairly  well-moulded  cup  mounted  on  a 
long  delicate  stem  is  produced.  But  the  process  of  conversion 
is  scarcely  completed  when  the  skate  has  reached  a  length  of  40 
cm.,  i.e.  when  it  has  nearly  reached  its  full  size,  for  in  the 
species  radiata  a  length  of  50  cm.  is  seldom  if  ever  attained. 

The  cup-stage  having  been  eventually  reached,  the  stem,  which 
for  a  time  may  still  increase  in  length,  is  often  compressed  by 
two  or  more  cups  being  closely  applied  together,  and  part  of  the 
rim  of  the  cup  may  be  slightly  everted  or  projected  forwards, 
but  even  in  the  largest  specimens  of  Raia  radiata  examined  there 
was  never  any  indication  of  retrogressive  changes. 

The  small  size  of  the  electric  organ,  together  with  the  shallow- 
ness of  the  minute  cups  of  which  it  consists,  seems  at  first  to 
indicate  that  in  Raia  radiata  we  have  an  electric  organ  in  the 


July  26,  1 888] 


NATURE 


3" 


act  c  f  disappearing.     But  when  the  organ  of  the  species  radiata 
is  carefully  compared  with  the  organ  of  the  species  batis  and 
cimtlaris,  the  evidence  seems  to  point  in  an  opposite  direction, 
and  the  view  that  the  cups   of  Aaia  radiata  are  in  process  of 
being  elaborated  into  more  complex  structures,  such  as  already 
exist  in  Kaia  circulates,  is  apparently  confirmed  by  the  develop- 
mental record.     Were   the  electrical  organ  of  Kaia  radiata  a 
mere  vestige  of  a  larger  structure  which  formerly  existed,  we 
should  expect  to  find  the  motor  (electric)  plate  incomplete,  or 
only  occupying  a  portion  of  the  electric  cup  ;  and  the  nerves  pro- 
ceeding to  it,  either  few  in  number  or  undergoing  degenerative 
changes.     But  instead  of  this  we  have  a  relatively  large  bunch 
of  extremely  well-developed  nerves  proceeding   to   the    motor 
plate,    which  is  not  only  complete,  but  extends  some  distance 
over  the  rim  of  the  cup.     Further,  there  is  no  indication  of  the 
walls  of  the  cup  having  ever  consisted  of  extremely  complex 
\    lamellae,  such  as  we  have  in  Raia  circularis.     They  consist  of  a 
nearly  solid  mass  of  muscular  tissue,  scarcely  to  be  distinguished 
rom  the  unaltered  adjacent  muscular  fibres.     The  electric  cup 
of  Raia  radiata  may,  in  fact,  when  its  structure  alone  is  con- 
|    sidered,  be  said  to  be  a  muscular  fibre  which  has  been  enlarged 
at  one  end  to  support  a  greatly  overgrown  motor  plate.     But 
I    the  development  of  the  electric  cups  is  even  more  suggesiive 
I    than  their  structure.     Had  the  mu>cular  fibres  in  Raia  radiata 
I    assumed  the  fcrm  of  clubs  before  the  young  skate  escaped  from 
I    the  egg  capsule  ;  had  the  clubs  been  rapidly  transformed  into 
electric  cups  ;  and  had  the  cups  soon  after  reaching  completion 
(    begun  to  disappear,  the  evidence  in  favour  of  degeneration  would 
have  been  complete.     But,  as  has  been  indicated,  the  conversion 
of  the  muscular  fibres  into  an  electric  organ  is  late  in  beginning, 
ami  the  clubs  having  appeared,  pass  slowly  through  a  long  series 
<  f  intermediate  stages  before  they  eventually  assume  the  cup 
form.     Further,  as  has  already  been  mentioned,  in  the  largest 
I    specimens  of  Raia  radiata  examined  no  evidence  was  found  of 
retrogressive  changes,  either  in  the  cup  proper,  or  the  numerous 
nerves  passing  to  its  electric  plate.     Hence  it  may  be  inferred 
that    the   electric  organ  of  Raia   radiata,    notwithstanding   its 
apparent  uselessness  and  its  extremely  small  size,  is  in  a  state  of 
progressive  development. 

Edinburgh. 

Royal  Society,  June  18. — In  the  report  of  this  meeting 
the  title  of  a  paper  on  the  development  and  life-hi-tories  of  the 
food  and  other  fishes,  communicated  by  Prof.  W.  C.  Mcintosh 
and  Mr.  E.  E.  Prince,  was  inadvertently  omitted. 

July  2. —Prof.  Chrystal,  Vice-President,  in  the  chair. — 
Dr.  Ramsay  Traquair  read  a  paper  on  fossil  fishes  from 
the  Pnmpherston  oil-shale,  and  exhibited  specimens.  —  Dr. 
W.  Peddie  read  a  paper  on  the  effects  of  electromotive  force  and 
current-density  on  the  total  opposition  (due  to  resistance  of  the 
conductors,  reverse  electromotive  force,  &c. )  to  the  passage  of 
an  electric  current  through  a  liquid. — Mr.  George  Brook  de- 
scribed a  lucifer  like  crustacean  larva  from  the  West  Coast,  and 
also  communicated,  in  conjunction  with  Mr.  W.  E.  Hoyle,  a 
paper  on  the  metamorphosis  of  the  British  Euphansiidce. — Prof. 
Haycraft  and  Dr.  E.  W.  Carlier  read  a  paper  on  morphological 
changes  which  take  place  in  blood  during  coagulation. — Prof. 
Tait  submitted  a  paper  on  Laplace's  theory  of  the  internal 
pressure  in  liquids. 

July  9. — A  special  meeting  was  held,  Sir  Douglas  Maclagan, 
Vice-President,  in  the  chair. — Dr.  Berry  Hart  read  a  paper  on 
the  mechanism  of  the  separation  of  the  placenta  and  membranes 
during  labour.  —  Dr.  Woodhead  communicated  a  paper,  by  Dr. 
J.  W.  Martin,  on  the  pathology  of  cystic  ovary  ;  and  also  a 
paper,  by  Mr.  T.  A.  Helme,  on  histological  observations  on  the 
muscle,  fibre,  and  connective  tissue  of  the  uterus  during  preg- 
nancy and  the  puerperium. — Dr.  T.  G.  Nasmyth  read  a  paper 
on  the  air  in  coal-mines. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  July  16.— M.  Janssen,  President,  in 
the  chair.  —  Experiments  with  a  new  hydraulic  machine,  by  M. 
Anatole  de  Caligny.  This  apparatus  is  of  less  simple  structure 
than  the  valved  machine  with  oscillating  tube  already  described 
and  exhibited  by  the  inventor.  But  it  has  the  advantage,  under 
certain  conditions,  of  giving  relatively  better  results. — On  the 
planet  Mars,  by  M.  Perrotin.  These  remarks  are  made  in  con- 
nection with  the  four  sketches  referred  to  in  a  previous  com- 
munication, which  are  here  reproduced,  and  which  give  the 
appearance  of  the  planet  on  May  8,  1888,  June  12,  1888,  May 


21-22,  1886,  and  June  4,  1888.  The  two  first  show  the  new  canal 
A  and  that  of  the  north  polar  ice-cap,  the  second  also  giving  the 
smaller  canal  B  seen  for  the  first  time  on  June  12.  The  fourth 
shows  four  simple  and  three  double  canals,  all  clearly  defined. 
Two  of  the  latter  stretch  from  near  the  equator  along  the 
meridians  3300  and  $°  of  Schiaparelli's  chart  to  the  vicinity  of 
the  north  polar  ice-cap.  The  difference  is  very  striking, 
especially  in  the  region  of  Libya,  between  the  first  and  second 
of  this  year,  and  the  corresponding  No.  3  for  the  year  1886. 
— On  the  explanation  of  an  experiment  by  Joule  according  to  the 
kinetic  theory  of  gases,  by  M.  Ladislas  Natanson.  The  experi- 
ment in  question  occurs  in  vol.  i.  p.  183  of  Joule's  "  Scientific 
Papers."  From  the  considerations  here  advanced,  M.  Natanson 
concludes  that,  so  far  from  being  opposed  to  the  kineti  c  theory 
of  gases,  this  experiment  might  be  regarded  as  a  practical 
confirmation  of  the  law  determining  the  distribution  of  molecular 
velocities  discovered  by  Clerk  Maxwell,  and  generalized  by 
Boltzmann. — M.  Natanson's  paper  was  accompanied  by  a  r.ote 
from  M.  G.  A.  Hirn,  who  still  maintains  that  not  one  of  his  nine 
fundamental  objections  to  the  kinetic  theory  itself  has  yet  been 
answered,  and  consequently  that  this  theory  is  already  out  of  date. 
— On  the  thermic  conductibility  of  mercury  above  ioo°  C,  by  M. 
Alphonse  Berget.  In  continuation  of  a  previous  note  (Comptes 
rendus,  April  16,  1888),  the  author  here  gives  the  results  of  his 
studies  on  the  variation  in  the  thermic  conductibility  of  mercury 
between  ioo°  and  3000  C.  For  1°  he  finds  the  variation  in  the 
coefficient  of  thermic  conductibility  to  be  -  0*00045. — Measure- 
ment of  the  velocities  of  etherification  by  means  of  electric 
conductibilities,  by  M.  Negreano.  The  author  has  already 
shown  that  the  velocity  of  etherification  for  a  mixture  with 
equal  equivalents  of  alcohol  and  acetic  acid  may  be  measured  by 
determining  the  electric  resistance  of  the  liquid  by  Lippmann's 
electrometric  method.  In  the  present  communication  he  extends 
the  same  process  to  masses  of  alcoholic  reagents  or  acetic  acid 
differing  in  the  number  of  their  equivalents. — Observations 
respecting  some  recent  communications  from  M.  Sabatier  on  the 
chlorhydrate  of  cupric  chloride,  and  the  chlorhydrate  of  cobalt 
chloride,  by  M.  Engel.  While  insisting  on  his  admitted  claim 
to  priority,  the  author  points  out  that  there  are  two  distinct 
chlorhydrates  of  the  chloride  of  copper.  He  also  shows  that  the 
pale  blue  powdery  precipitate  observed  by  M.  Sabatier  is  not  a 
chlorhydrate  of  chloride,  but  a  hydrate  of  cobalt  chloride  — On 
the  elementary  composition  of  crystallized  strophan  thine,  by  M. 
Arnaud.  This  is  an  extract  from  Strophanthus  Kombe,  much 
used  by  the  Fans  of  West  Equatorial  Africa  for  poisoning  their 
spear-  and  arrow-heads.  The  formula  is  here  shown  to  be 
C31H48012,  its  elementary  composition  thus  showing  it  to  be  a 
close  homologue  of  the  wabain  (C^H^O^),  the  active 
principle  of  the  wabaio  plant  used  for  similar  purposes  by  the 
Somali  people. — Influence  of  the  temperature  of  fermentation  on 
the  production  of  the  higher  alcohols,  by  M.  L.  Lindet.  The 
experiments  here  described  seem  to  show  that  the  yield  of  the 
higher  alcohols  is  little  affected  by  varying  the  temperatures  of 
fermentation. — On  Fascicularia  radicans,  C.  Vig.,  a  new  type 
of  Anthozoa,  by  M.  Viguier.  This  little  specimen  of  an 
Alcyonium  was  lately  obtained  during  some  dredgings  in  the  port 
of  Algiers.  From  the  description  here  given  it  appears  to  be 
most  closely  related  to  the  Paralcyonia,  although  sufficiently 
distinct  to  form  an  independent  group  or  sub-family  of  the 
Fascicularia?. — M.  A.  d'Arsonval  describes  and  illustrates  a  new 
metal  self-regulating  stove,  which  is  intended  to  maintain  in- 
variable temperatures  by  the  exclusive  use  of  gas  and  water.  It 
is  specially  adapted  for  physiological  and  microbiological 
researches,  and  is  constructed  essentially  on  the  same  principle 
as  that  submitted  to  the  Academy  on  March  5,  1877. 

Berlin. 

Physical  Society  June  29. — Prof,  von  Helmholtz,  President, 
in  the  chair. — Dr.  R.  von  Helmholtz  exhibited  a  new  form  of 
bolometer  differing  from  that  used  by  Langley.  In  Langley's 
instrument  the  alterations  of  electrical  resistance  produced  by 
radiation  are  measured  by  introducing  the  exposed  bolometer 
into  one  arm  of  a  Whealstone  bridge  a  similar  one  protected 
from  the  light  being  introduced  into  the  second  arm  of  the  bridge, 
while  the  other  two  arms  contain  a  corresponding  resistance.  In 
the  new  bolometer  as  constructed  by  Siemens  and  Halske  all 
four  arms  of  the  bridge  are  composed  of  equal  wires  rolled  up 
into  a  coil  and  of  these  coils  1  and  3  are  illuminated,  while 
2  and  4  are  kept  dark,  and  then  coils  2  and  4  are 
illuminated,  and  1    and   3   kept   dark.     By  this  means  a  four- 


12 


NATURE 


{July  26,  1888 


fold  sensitiveness  of  the  bolometer  is  theoretically  obtained. 
All  four  coils  lie  inside  a  brass  tube,  and  by  turning  a  screw  at 
one  time  coils  1  and  3,  at  another  coils  2  and  4  are 
brought  opposite  the  opening.  In  comparing  the  speaker's 
experiments  with  those  of  Langley  it  appeared  that  the  latter's 
measurements  were  five  times  more  delicate  than  those  of  the 
speaker,  a  result  which  must  however  be  entirely  attributed  to 
the  fact  that  Langley's  galvanometer  was  twenty  times  more 
sensitive.  The  speaker  then  expounded  the  theoretical  efficiency 
and  conditions  of  perfect  sensitiveness  of  the  bolometer,  and 
compared  with  these  the  capabilities  of  a  thermopile.  Dr. 
Fritz  Kotter  discussed  some  new  instances  for  the  application  of 
the  Helmholtz-Kirchoff  theory  of  stationary  motion  of  fluids. 
Prof.  Gad  gave  some  explanations  in  connection  with  his  demon- 
stration of  the  phosphorescent  moss.  Prof.  Neesen  spoke  on 
an  ether  calorimeter  which  he  has  succeeded  in  constructing  in 
such  a  form,  after  many  experiments,  that  it  presents  many 
advantages,  when  compared  with  an  ice-calorimeter.  It  consists 
of  a  tube  for  the  reception  of  the  object  whose  heat  is  to  be 
measured  ;  this  tube  is  surrounded  with  a  layer  of  lamp-wick 
which  dips  into  ether  at  its  lower  end.  From  the  side  of  the 
outer  vessel  a  tube  passes  with  appropriate  bending  to  a  hori- 
zontal capillary  tube  containing  as  index  some  ether,  and  by  a 
parallel  capillary  tube  to  a  second  and  similar  calorimeter. 
After  the  index  has  been  adjusted,  its  movement,  as  resulting 
from  the  vaporisation  of  ether  due  to  the  warm  object,  indicates 
how  much  heat  has  been  given  up  to  the  wick  saturated  with 
ether.  The  sensitiveness  of  this  calorimeter  is  2000  greater  than 
that  of  an  ice-calorimeter.  The  speaker  has  determined  with 
this  instrument  the  specific  heat  of  platinum,  palladium  and 
copper,  and  also  the  heat  produced  by  the  passage  of  an  electric 
spark  between  a  metallic  point  and  a  mass  of  mercury  in  the 
tube  of  the  calorimeter.  The  results  were  very  satisfactory.  The 
special  advantage  of  this  instrument  consists  in  the  fact  that 
extremely  small  masses  of  any  substance  can  be  examined 
calorimetrically.  The  extreme  sensitiveness  of  the  apparatus 
makes  it  also  suitable  for  the  measurement  of  radiant  heat. 
The  speaker  has  additionally  examined  other  fluids  as  to  their 
suitability  for  a  vapour-calorimeter,  especially  alcohol. 

Physiological  Society,  July  6. — Prof.  Munk,  President,  in 
the  chair. — Prof.  Zuntz  described  a  simplified  method  of 
measuring  the  gaseous  interchange  during  respiration,  intended 
to  make  it  possible  to  introduce  such  measurements  into  the 
limits  of  clinical  observations  to  the  same  extent  that  urinary 
analysis  is  now  carried  out.  In  this  method  breathing  is  carried 
on,  the  nose  being  closed,  through  a  mouth-piece  which  is  con- 
nected by  very  mobile  valves  with  gasometers,  which  thus 
measure  the  volume  of  the  inspired  as  well  as  of  the  expired  air. 
Samples  of  the  expired  air  can  be  collected  at  any  desired 
intervals  of  time  and  the  amount  of  O  and  C02  which  they 
contain  determined  by  Hempel's  method.  The  burette  into 
which  the  gas  is  drawn  off  by  means  of  an  aspirating  apparatus 
connected  with  the  gas  meter,  is  connected  by  a  gutta-percha 
pipe  with  a  vertical  tube  which  is  partly  filled  with  water  :  the 
latter  not  only  permits  of  the  measurement,  at  atmospheric 
pressure,  of  the  volume  of  air  drawn  off,  but  also  provides  a 
means  of  forcing  it  out  of  the  burette  into  a  pipette  filled  with  a 
solution  of  caustic  potash,  in  which  the  absorption  of  the  C02 
speedily  takes  place.  By  lowering  the  tube  the  gas  is  allowed 
to  pass  into  the  burette  again,  and  the  reduction  in  its  volume 
gives  the  amount  of  C02  in  the  expired  air.  After  this  the  gas  is 
forced  into  a  pipette  which  contains  lumps  of  phosphorus  which 
absorb  all  the  oxygen  it  contains  in  five  or  six  minutes.  On 
passing  the  gas  again  back  into  the  burette,  the  further  diminu- 
tion in  its  volume  gives  the  amount  of  O  in  the  expired  air.  A 
new  sample  can  now  be  taken,  and  thus  the  expired  air  may  be 
tested  as  often  as  may  be  desired  for  its  contents  of  O  and  C02. 
Dr.  Loewy  has  carried  out  some  experiments  with  the  above 
apparatus  on  five  intelligent  persons  in  order  to  determine  the 
influence  of  digesting  activity  on  the  respiratory  interchange. 
The  respiratory  interchange  of  the  patients  was  determined  in 
the  morning  while  fasting  and  in  a  perfectly  quiescent  condition  ; 
as  soon  as  this  was  found  to  be  constant  they  received  doses  of 
5,  10  or  15  grains  of  Glaubersalt,  and  as  soon  as  the  action  of 
the  salt  had  manifested  itself  painfully,  and  increased  peristaltic 
action  had  set  in,  the  respiratory  interchange  was  again  deter- 
mined up  to  the  time  of  defaecation.  In  all  cases  the  gaseous 
interchange  was  increased,  more  oxygen  being  used  up  and  more 
carbonic  acid  given  out,  the  increase  being  between   7  and  30 


per  cent,  of  the  normal.  The  several  persons  behaved  very 
differently  in  this  respect  and  the  same  person  showed  marked 
differences  in  the  increase  of  respiratory  interchange  at  different 
times,  after  equal  doses  of  the  salt.  As  a  rule  the  increase  was 
proportional  to  the  amount  of  discomfort  experienced  by  the 
patient  in  the  lower  parts  of  the  body.  Dr.  Loewy  is  inclined 
to  attribute  the  increased  oxydational  interchange  to  the  greater 
activity  of  the  unstriated  muscles  of  the  alimentary  canal  ;  the 
increased  activity  of  its  mucous  membrane,  resulting  from  the 
presence  of  the  purgative,  appeared  to  have  no  influence. — 
Prof.  Munk  gave  an  account  of  his  experience  last  year  while 
using  catgut  as  a  ligature.  After  having  used  catgut  for  some 
time  as  a  substitute  for  silk,  with  excellent  results,  suddenly  bad 
results  began  to  follow  its  use,  so  that  each  ligature  was  accom- 
panied by  suppuration.  A  series  of  control  experiments  showed 
that  the  wounds  healed  well  when  silk  was  used,  but  never  did 
so  with  catgut,  and  inasmuch  as  the  above  change  was  first 
observed  after  obtaining  the  catgut  from  a  new  source  he  pro- 
ceeded to  obtain  the  article  again  from  the  original  source,  and  at 
once  found  it  worked  successfully  again.  No  matter  how  long 
the  second  sample  of  catgut  was  disinfected  its  use  was  always 
attended  with  suppuration.  Prof.  Munk  has  hence  reverted  to 
the  use  of  silk  ligatures,  and  urges  great  caution  in  the  use  of 
catgut  in  surgery. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  REC  EIVED. 

Parish  Patches  :  A.  N.  Simpson  (Buncle,  Arbroath). — The  Senses  and  the 
Will :  W.  Preyer,  translated  by  H.  W.  Brown  (Whittaker ).— A  New  Theory 
of  Necessary  Truths  :  Leonard  Hall  (Williams  and  Norgate).— Camping 
Out,  or  Holidays  under  Canvas  :  Gyp  ;  second  edition  (Simpkin). — A  Biblio- 
graphy of  Chemistry  for  the  year  1887  :  H.  C.  Bolton  (Washington).— 
Bericht  iiber  die  Thatigkeit  der  Botanischen  Section  der  Schlesischen 
Gesellschaft  im  Jahre  1887  :  Dr.  F.  Cohn.— On  the  Structure,  Development, 
and  Affinities  of  Trapella,  Oliv.,  a  New  Gsnusof  Pedalinaese  :  F.  W.  Oliver. 
— Bulletins  of  the  Philosophical  Society  of  Washington,  vols.  ix.  x. 
(Washington). — Proceeding,  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  vol.  xxv. 
No.  127  (Philadelphia). — Botanische  Jahrbiicher  fur  Systematic,  Pflanzen- 
geschichte,  und  Pflanzengeographie,  Zehnter  Band,  1  and  2  Heft  (Leipzig). 


CONTENTS.  page 

Scientific  Assessors  in  Courts  of  Justice 289 

Langley's  New  Astronomy.      By  A.  M.  Clerke   .    .    .    291 
Soaps  and  Candles.     By  Dr.    C.   R.    Alder  Wright, 

F.R.S 292 

India  in  1887 294 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Matthews  :     "  Incwadi    Yama  ;    or    Twenty    Years' 

Personal  Experience  in  South  Africa  " 295 

Bert:   "  First  Elements  of  Experimental  Geometry  "  .    295 
Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

The  Renewed  Irruption  of  Syrrhaptes. — Prof.  Alfred 

Newton,  F.R.S 295 

Dr.  Romanes'  Article  in  the  Contemporary  Reviexv  for 

June. — Edward  B.  Poulton 295 

The  Thunder- Axe. — Edward  Tregear 296 

The  Dispersion  of  Seeds  and  Plants.     {Illustrated.) — 

Consul  E.  L.  Layard 296 

Indian  Life  Statistics. — Dr.  Hyde  Clarke 297 

Timber,  and  some  of  its  Diseases.     X.     [Illustrated.) 

By  Prof.  H.  Marshall  Ward,  F.R.S 297 

Earthquakes  and  how  to  measure  them.     By  Prof. 

J.  A.  Ewing,  F.R.S 299 

Does    Precipitation    influence    the    Movement    of 

Cyclones?     By  H.  Helm  Clayton 301 

Notes 301 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for      the     Week      1888 

July  29— August  4 304 

Geographical  Noteb 305 

Electrical  Notes 305 

The  Progress  of  the   Henry  Draper  Memorial.     By 

Prof.  Edward  C.  Pickering 306 

Influence  Machines.     By  J.  Wimshurst 307 

Note  on  the  Tarpon  or  Silver  King  (Megalops  thris- 

soides).     By  Prof.  W.  C- Mcintosh,  F.R.S 309 

Scientific  Serials 309 

Societies  and  Academies 310 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received     ....    -312 


NA  TURE 


313 


THURSDAY,   AUGUST   2,    1! 


LORD  ARMSTRONG   ON  TECHNICAL 
EDUCATION. 

LORD    ARMSTRONG,  in    his    article   in    the   July 
number  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  brings  forward 
ideas  which,  he  tells  us,  have  long  been  incubating  in  his 
mind,  and  which  he  believes  to  be  in  accord  with  those  of 
many  employers  of  labour  who,  like  himself,  are  engaged 
in  manufacturing  pursuits  affording  scope  for  the  applica- 
tion of  technical  knowledge.     A  more  unfortunate  exposi- 
tion could  not  have  been  addressed  to  the  public  at  a  time 
when  so  many  are  earnestly  striving  to  impress  upon  the 
nation  the  importance  of  scientific  training  to  the  well- 
being  of  the  people.     It  is  not  that  we  do  not  cordially 
fcgree   with   Lord  Armstrong  in  many  of  his  remarks  ; 
what  we  object  to  is  the  indefinite  and  vague  character  of 
$iis  judgments  generally,  and  the  want  of  logic  which 
characterizes  many  of  his  criticisms  and  recommenda- 
tions :  in  every  paragraph  almost  we  recognize  that  we 
$,re  reading  the  words  of  a  true  representative  of  that 
remarkable  genus,  the  "  practical  "  Englishman,  who  un- 
doubtedly has  been  the  glory  of  his  race  in  the  past,  but 
threatens  to  be  its  destruction  in  the  near  future.     But  so 
outspoken  a  refusal  to  recognize  the  altered  conditions  of 
the  times,  by  one  who    occupies    the   highest   position 
among   engineers,  unfortunately  affords   clear  evidence 
that  we  are  making  but  little  progress  towards  "  organiz- 
ing victory  "  in  that  great  industrial  war  of  which  Huxley 
spoke  in  his  memorable  and  incisive  letter  to  the  Times 
early  in   1887,  in  words    of    deepest  import,  which  un- 
questionably should  serve  to  guide  us  pace  Lord   Arm- 
strong's   avowal :    "  As    to    whether    our    commerce  is 
to    be    saved   from    the   effects  of  foreign    competition 
by  a  wide  diffusion  of  technical  knowledge,  I  have  no 
faith  in  any  such   safeguard."     In   contrast  with  this  is 
Huxley's  emphatic  warning  : — "  I  do  not  think  I  am  far 
wrong   in  assuming  that  we  are  entering,  indeed  have 
already  entered,  upon  the  most  serious  struggle  for  exist- 
ence to  which  this  country  has  ever  been  committed  ;  and 
the  latter  years  of  the  century  promise  to  see  us  embarked 
in  an  industrial  war  of  far  more  serious  import  than  the 
military  wars  of  its  opening  years.     On  the  east,  the  most 
systematically  instructed   and  best  informed   people  in 
Europe  are  our  competitors  ;  on  the  west,  an  energetic 
sffshoot  of  our  own  stock,  grown  bigger  than  its  parent, 
nters  upon  the  struggle  possessed  of  natural  resources 
:o  which  we  can  make  no  pretension,  and  with  every 
irospect  of  soon  possessing  that  cheap  labour  by  which 
hey  may  be  effectually  utilized."     Surely  we  shall  elect  to 
bllow  Huxley's   advice   offered  to  us   in   the  sentence, 
'Many  circumstances  tend  to  justify  the  hope  that  we  may 
lold  our  own  if  we  are  careful  to  organize  victory,"  and 
ve  shall  not  be  content  to  rely  on  a  sufficient  number  of 
ielf-educated  men  of  genius   being  spontaneously  forth- 
:oming  to  supply  the  nation's  needs  :  indeed  there  can  be 
10  doubt  that  in  the  course  of  a  generation  or  two — if  we  can 
naintain  our  existence  unimpaired  so  long — every  effort 
nil  be  made  to  develop  the  faculties  of  each  member  of 
he  community  as  fully  as  circumstances  will  permit ;  but 
inless  some  grievous  reverse  of  fortune  should  lead  the 
Vol.  xxxviii. — No.  979. 


nation  suddenly  to  realize  its  position,  we  sadly  fear  that 
the  cause  of  educational  progress  has  too  many  lukewarm 
adherents,  holding  views  similar  to  those  expressed  by 
Lord  Armstrong,  for  it  to  make  much  immediate 
progress. 

Lord  Armstrong  says  very  truly  that,  although  there  is 
at  the  present  time  a  great  outcry  for  technical  education, 
very  few  people  have  any  distinct  idea  of  what  they  mean 
when  they  use  that  term,  or  any  definite  opinion  either 
as  to  the  class  of  persons  who  will  be  chiefly  benefited 
by  it,  or  as  to  the  time  of  life  at  which  it  ought  to  be 
acquired.  Speaking  of  the  meeting  recently  held  at  the 
Mansion  House  respecting  the  scheme  for  establishing 
Polytechnic  Institutes  in  London,  he  remarks  also  that 
the  speeches  then  delivered  were  rather  vague  and  inde- 
finite as  speeches  on  technical  education  generally  are  ; 
and  he  points  out  that,  by  using  the  more  comprehensive 
phrase  secondary  instead  of  technical  education,  Lord 
Salisbury  avoided  the  troublesome  but  not  unnecessary 
task  of  framing  a  correct  definition.  But  it  may  with  equal 
truth  be  said  of  Lord  Armstrong  that  he,  like  most  writers 
on  technical  education,  is  indefinite  and  vague  ;  and 
he  also  makes  no  attempt  to  give  a  definition  of 
technical  education.  In  fact,  his  article  is  nothing 
more  than  a  discursive  essay  on  the  subject  of  popular 
education  generally,  excluding  moral  and  religious 
questions. 

The  vagueness  which  characterizes  the  utterances  of 
most  speakers  and  writers  on  technical  education  is  un- 
doubtedly the  outcome  of  the  peculiarly  English  practice 
which  permits  men  to  speak  with  authority  who  have  no 
claim  whatever  to  be  heard  on  the  subject,  and  which 
leads  us  to  put  aside  those  who  really  are  experts  as  of  no 
account.  The  work  has  fallen  almost  entirely  into  the 
hands  of  philanthropists  and  politicians,  and  inquiries 
into  the  subject  have  been  handed  over  to  men  whose 
qualifications  for  the  work  in  too  many  cases  would  have 
been  regarded  in  any  other  country  but  England  as 
lamentably  insufficient.  At  the  recent  meetings  at  the 
Society  of  Arts  and  the  Mansion  House  there  was  a  con- 
spicuous absence  of  nearly  all  those  who  are  known  to 
have  been  most  active  in  carrying  on  the  real  work  of 
technical  education  and  who  are  able  to  speak  from  ex- 
perience. Yet,  if  the  public  are  to  be  properly  informed 
and  guided,  and  if  the  politicians  are  to  be  instructed  in 
their  duties,  it  is  imperative  that  others  besides  the  orna- 
mental and  amateur  members  of  the  body  of  technical 
educators  should  be  summoned  to  assist  in  the  movement. 
The  Times,  in  a  recent  article  on  Lord  Hartington's 
speech  at  the  meeting  of  the  Association  for  the  Pro- 
motion of  Technical  Education,  has  very  properly  called 
attention  to  the  importance  of  an  accurate  definition  of 
the  term  technical  education,  pointing  out  that  if  it  means 
that  kind  of  education  which  bests  fits  a  man  both 
mentally  and  bodily  for  technical  pursuits  requiring  skill 
and  intelligence  the  proposition  that  technical  education 
is  a  good  thing  is  self-evident ;  but  that  if  it  means  a 
particular  method  of  imparting  knowledge  on  technical 
subjects  then  it  is  open  to  many  of  the  criticisms  passed 
on  it  by  Lord  Armstrong.  Probably  the  majority  of  the 
public  are  at  present  of  opinion  that  to  technically 
educate  a  youth  is  to  teach  him  his  business — that 
technical  education  is  the  modern  equivalent  of  the  now 

P 


'4 


NA  TURE 


\August  2,  1888 


effete  apprenticeship  system.  This  came  out  very  clearly 
in  the  late  discussion  with  reference  to  the  introduction  of 
manual  training  into  schools,  to  which  objection  was  made 
by  many  artisans,  who  urged,  among  other  things,  that  if 
such  instruction  were  given  it  should  be  imparted  by  skilled 
artisans  and  not  by  the  teachers — entirely  failing  to  realize 
that  it  was  sought  to  introduce  manual  training  with  an 
educational  object,  for  the  purpose  of  cultivating  a  faculty 
hitherto  left  untrained,  and  not  for  the  purpose  of  teaching 
a  trade.  Authorities,  however,  we  believe,  are  mostly  of 
opinion  that  to  technically  educate  a  youth  is  to  teach 
him  to  understand  and  scientifically  follow  his  business, 
and  they  consider  that  only  so  much  of  the  actual  prac- 
tice should  be  learnt  by  the  student  who  is  being  technic- 
ally educated  as  will  suffice  to  afford  the  necessary  insight 
into  the  principles  on  which  the  practice  is  founded. 
Thus,  medical  men  have  long  been  technically  educated  : 
they  have  not  only  learnt  the  practice  of  their  profession, 
but  have  also  devoted  a  large  amount  of  time  to  the  study 
of  the  facts  and  scientific  principles  on  which  medical 
practice  is  based,  and  the  demands  upon  them  in  this 
latter  direction  have  been  much  increased  within  recent 
years.  Engineers  and  architects,  on  the  other  hand, 
hitherto  have  generally  not  been  technically  educated : 
entering  the  workshop  or  office,  they  have  been  left  to  j 
acquire  as  they  best  might  a  knowledge  of  the  scientific 
principles  underlying  their  professions,  their  atten- 
tion having  been  almost  entirely  devoted  to  acquiring 
manipulative  skill  and  a  knowledge  of  constructive 
details. 

It  is  difficult  to  understand  what  meaning  Lord  Arm- 
strong attaches  to  the  term  technical  education.  He  tells 
us  that  the  question  "  What  is  the  use  of  useful  know- 
ledge?" appears  to  him  to  present  in  a  quaint  form  a 
theme  of  a  very  debatable  nature  !  He  then  proceeds  to 
argue  that  success  in  the  world  depends  on  the  pos- 
session of  genius  ;  knowledge — well,  is  of  no  particular 
consequence  !  "  Many  people  imagine  that  genius  is 
kept  down  from  want  of  knowledge,  and  that  in  many 
cases  it  is  thus  lost  to  the  world.  This  I  entirely  dispute. 
Genius  is  irrepressible,  and  revels  in  overcoming  diffi- 
culties." But  even  the  genius  must  find  his  opportunity, 
and — nowadays  at  least— must  be  possessed  of  sufficient 
knowledge  to  be  able  to  take  advantage  of  the  oppor- 
tunity when  found.  Moreover,  as  the  world  progresses, 
opportunities  are  not  found  to  be  increasingly  numerous 
in  proportion  to  the  growth  of  the  population,  nor  do  the 
problems  diminish  in  difficulty  ;  and  no  reliance  can  be 
placed  upon  the  supply  of  genius  keeping  pace  with  the 
demand. 

Lord  Armstrong  thinks  that  the  well-known  dictum 
that  if  the  Romans  had  had  to  learn  Latin  they  never 
would  have  conquered  the  world,  is  suggestive  of  what 
our  loss  might  have  been  if  self-made  engineers  such 
as  Watt,  George  Stephenson,  Smeaton,  Brindley  and 
Telford,  had  frittered  away  their  energies  upon  inappro- 
priate studies  forced  upon  them  at.  school;  and  that 
generals  such  as  Wellington  and  Marlborough,  or  naval 
commanders  such  as  Nelson  and  Blake,  would  not  have 
directed  the  armies  and  navies  of  England  with  more 
effect  if  book  knowledge  had  been  crammed  into  them  at 
school.  But  to  argue  in  this  manner  is  to  entirely  pervert 
the  theme  of  technical  education  :  the  whole  object  of  its 


advocates  being  so  to  improve  the  entire  educational 
machine  that  all  inappropriate  studies  may  be  eliminated 
from  the  school  course,  and  every  provision  made  for 
developing  and  strengthening  the  faculties  generally ;  and 
even  Lord  Armstrong  admits  that  as  "  cheapness  of  pro- 
duction and  superiority  of  quality  will  decide  the  victory 
in  the  race  of  competition,  we  shall  improve  our  chance 
of  maintaining  a  foremost  place  if  by  early  training 
we  develop  the  mental  and  bodily  faculties  of  our 
people."  His  subsequent  words,  however,  "  but  not,  I 
think,  by  any  forced  or  indiscriminate  system  of  impart- 
ing knowledge,"  are  simply  incomprehensible,  as  no  one 
has  suggested  the  introduction  of  any  "  forced  and  in- 
discriminate system  "  ;  in  fact,  this  is  only  one  of  the  many 
cases  in  which  Lord  Armstrong  sets  up  an  image  of  his 
own  creation,  and  at  once  hastily  destroys  it.  When  he 
tells  us  that  he  does  not  "undervalue  technical  know 
ledge  voluntarily  acquired  as  a  means  to  an  end,  but  it  is 
the  brain-workers  and  not  the  hand-workers  who  will 
seek  to  attain  it  and  benefit  by  it,"  he  entirely  over- 
looks the  fact  that  one  great  object  of  technical  edu- 
cation is  to  associate  brains  with  hands  and  hands 
with  brains. 

We  have  no  space  left  to  discuss  Lord  Armstrong's 
extraordinary  views  with  reference  to  existing  facilities  for 
theacquisition  of  technical  knowledge  and  their  sufficiency. 
But  we  must  call  attention  to  his  contention  "  that  when 
Colleges  can  be  established  by  public  subscription  or 
private  munificence,  they  are  worthy  of  approval  and 
commendation  ;  but  where  the  State  or  local  governing 
bodies  have  to  furnish  money  for  education  in  relation  to 
national  industry,  they  must  look  to  attaining  the  required 
results  at  the  least  possible  expense,  and  I  am  inclined  to 
look  upon  Colleges  as  luxuries  in  education  rather  than 
necessaries."  In  marked  contrast  to  this  is  a  statement 
made  by  Sir  Henry  Roscoe  in  the  discussion  on  Mr.  Swire 
Smith's  paper  on  the  Technical  Education  Bill,  read 
at  the  Society  of  Arts  in  February  last.  Speaking  of  what 
the  Swiss  were  doing,  Sir  Henry  related  how,  a  few 
years  ago,  when  it  was  proposed  to  spend  ,£24,000  on  the 
erection  of  a  new  chemical  department  of  the  Zurich 
Polytechnicum,  some  of  the  Bundesrath  were  a  little 
startled  and  rather  objected  to  paying  so  large  a  sum, 
and  there  was  accordingly  in  Berne  some  opposition  ;  but 
the  Minister  of  Education  pointed  out  that  the  amount  of 
money  which  had  already  been  received  by  Switzerland 
from  the  men  who  had  studied  in  the  Polytechnic  School  al 
Zurich  had  amounted  to  ten  times  over  the  sum  he  was 
asking  for,  and  he  was  sure  that  the  money  would  be  welll 
spent,  and  in  a  short  time  recouped.  The  Swiss,  at  ali 
events — let  alone  the  Germans — therefore  do  not  look 
upon  Colleges  as  luxuries  rather  than  necessaries  ;  anc 
we  are  assured  that  if  comparison  were  made  of  the  work 
done  by  chemists  in  Swiss  laboratories  with  that  done  bj 
English  chemists,  the  result  would  not  be  to  the  credit  0: 
our  country.  We  should  like  Lord  Armstrong  to  tell  u.< 
—  is  he,  or  is  he  not,  content  to  see  this  country  reman- 
on  a  lower  intellectual  footing  than  Switzerland? 

Great  as  is  Lord  Armstrong's  reputation  as  a  mech 
anical  engineer,  we  trust  that  few  will  regard  him  as  ar 
"unimpeachable  authority"  in  the  matter  of  technica 
education  :  if  the  majority  remain  much  longer  of  hi: 
opinion,  then  is  the  fate  of  our  nation  sealed. 


Aiigust  2,  1 88 8 J 


NATURE 


3>5 


T 


EXPLORATIONS  AND  ADVENTURES  IN 
NEW  GUINEA. 

Explorations  and  Adventures  in  New  Guinea.  By- 
Captain  John  Strachan,  F.R.G.S.,  F.R.C.I.  (London: 
Sampson  Low,  Marston,  Searle,  and  Rivington,  1888.) 

HE  terrce  incognito?  of  the  world  are  year  by  year 
growing  less  ;  but  of  these  the  vast  island  continent 
of  New  Guinea  remains  as  to  much  of  its  coasts,  and 
almost  all  of  its  mountain  regions,  still  scantily  known 
and  explored.  The  elegantly  bound  volume  under  review 
is  the  latest  contribution  to  our  knowledge  of  the  shores 
of  this  tripartite  country.  To  the  explorer  who  adven- 
tures himself  into  this  most  insalubrious  territory,  even  if 
he  bring  back  with  him  but  small  additions,  we  are  under 
a  debt  of  gratitude,  if  so  be,  however,  that  his  record  be 
trustworthy,  and  an  honest  attempt  to  add  to  science 
geographical  or  biological. 

Captain  Strachan  is  a  master  mariner,  who  appears  to 
have  spent  several  years  on  the  New  Guinea  coasts,  in 
command  of  small  trading  vessels,  engaged  in  the 
collection  of  such  commercial  products  as  are  to  be 
obtained  from  the  natives,  and  has  made  a  bid  for  fame 
by  combining  with  his  ordinary  pursuits  the  role  of 
explorer.  The  narrative  before  us  it  would  be  unfair  to 
submit  to  too  rigid  a  criticism  as  a  literary  production, 
especially  as  the  author  disclaims  the  intention  of  aspiring 
to  "  literary  renown,"  but  relates  his  experiences  in  the 
"  homely  language  of  a  British  sailor."  Deprived  of  the 
expectation  of  a  literary  delicacy,  the  reader  has  a  right 
to  hope  for  a  more  or  less  satisfying  portion  of  new  facts 
and  observations,  as  the  raison  d'etre  of  the  work. 

The  book  divides  itself  into  two  portions  :  explorations  in 
the  Papuan  Gulf  within  the  British  Protectorate  ;  and  in 
Macluer  Inlet  (or  Gulf,  as  Mr.  Strachan  not  inappro- 
priately calls  it)  in  the  Dutch  territory  in  the  north-west. 

In  the  Papuan  Gulf,  Mr.  Strachan  claims  to  have 
ascended  the  Mia  Kasa  river,  and  to  have  discovered  and 
explored  Strachan  Island  and  Strachan  Country,  a  region 
lying  to  the  immediate  west  of  the  Fly  River.  He  has 
discovered  also  a  large  arm  of  the  Mia  Kasa,  christened 
by  him  the  Prince  Leopold  River,  which  incloses,  and  is 
the  western  boundary  of,  Strachan  Island.  The  name 
Prince  Leopold  River,  he  has  applied  also  to  the  Mia 
Kasa  above  its  junction.  Beyond  the  mere  statement, 
"the  Mia  Kasa  itself  was  discovered  by  Dr.  Samuel 
Macfarlane  as  far  back  as  1877,  and  was  named  by 
him  the  Baxter,"  Mr.  Strachan  makes  no  reference  to  the 
previous  exploration  of  the  river  made,  not  in  1877  but  in 
1875,  by  that  missionary,  who  ascended  it  for  sixty  miles 
in  the  Ellengowan  steamer,  and  for  thirty  miles  farther  in 
one  of  his  ship's  boats.  This  is  as  far  as,  if  not  farther 
than,  the  point  attained  by  Mr.  Strachan.  If  therefore  a 
new  name  had  to  be  applied,  only  the  western  arm,  now 
first  brought  to  our  knowledge,  ought  to  bear  the  name 
Prince  Leopold,  while  the  river  explored  by  Mr.  Mac- 
farlane should  be  known  as  the  Mia  Kasa  or  Baxter. 
Even  the  Prince  Leopold  River  is  indicated  in  Mac- 
farlane's  map.  Mr.  Strachan  has  indicated  a  number  of 
diverticula  extending  right  and  left  from  both  rivers,  but 
he  adds  little,  beyond  stating  it,  to  the  opinion,  long  held, 
though  yet  without  absolute  proof,  that  the  Mia  Kasa  and 
all  its  affluents  are  merely  canals  of  the  vast  delta  system 


of  the  Fly  River.     If  Mr.  Strachan  had  taken  the  trouble 
to  examine  the  work  of  his  predecessors,  he  could  scarcely 
have   deluded  himself   on    entering  the    mouth    of   its 
estuary  with  such  fancies  as  these :  "  During  the  whole 
day  I  could  not  help  thinking  that  we  were  not  sailing  on 
a  river  at  all ;  but  were  on  an  arm  of  the  sea,  which 
would,  in  all  probability,  extend  across  the  whole  island 
from  south-east  to  north-west,  opening  into  the  Arafura 
Sea  at  that  part   known  to  the  Dutch  as  the  Utanata 
River ;  and  I   built   a  good  many  castles  in  the  air  in 
consequence,  hoping  we  had   found   a   new  channel  to 
China  and  the  East " !     It  is  sufficient  to  state  that  the 
Utanata  River  rises  in  the  gorges  of  the  Charles  Lewis 
Range,  so  that  the  water-way  surmised  by  Mr.  Strachan 
to   exist  must  cross  the  spurs  of  that  range.      Nor  has 
he  any  better  basis  for  many  of  his  beliefs,  none  of  which 
appears   more   unfounded   than   that   given    on    p.    278, 
where  a  river  "  debouching  into  the  Arafura  Sea  opposite 
Providential   Bank,  will,  I  believe,  be  found  connected 
with  the  Fly  River  at  its  junction  with  the  Alice  River, 
discovered  by  D'Albertis"!    This  new  river  would  neces- 
sarily bisect  his  new  channel  to  China  !     We  have  unfor- 
tunately no  means  of  testing  the  accuracy  of  the  author's 
positions.    He  does  not  tell  us  on  what  base  his  survey  is 
constructed  ;  or  whether  it  is  established  by  astronomical 
observations,  or  from  assumed  points  on  the  Admiralty 
chart  fixed  by  sextant  angles  or  prismatic  bearings,  so  as  to 
gain  his  reader's  confidence  in  his  discoveries.     On  p.  41 
he  refers   to  a  large   tributary  as   being   "ninety  miles 
inland  which  I  named  the  Wallace";  while  on  p.   128, 
he  says,  "  at  a  distance  of  some  eighty  miles  the  Prince 
Leopold  again  divides  into  two  branches,  the  eastern  of 
which  is  the  Wallace,"  "  which  we  followed  [p.  42]  for  a 
distance   of    seventy  miles  through   the   same   class   of 
country."     If  we  test  this  distance  by  his  map,  we  find 
that  a  chain  thirty-five  miles  in  length,  would  extend  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Wallace  River  to  beyond  the  Fly  River. 
These  discrepancies  do  not  increase  our  confidence  in  the 
accuracy  of  Mr.  Strachan's  explorations.     He  describes 
the  country  in  this  region  in  the   most  glowing  terms, 
"  splendid  agricultural  country,"   "  well  watered,"   "  high 
land."     Other   travellers   have  reported  it  as  "  low  and 
swampy,"  while  D'Albertis  in  ascending  the  Fly,  found 
the  whole  country  for  some  hundreds  of  miles  low  and 
little  elevated  above  the  sea.     Such  glowing  advertise- 
ments   are  to   be  gravely   deprecated,   of  a    region   so 
malarious  that  few  Europeans  can  ever  be  able  to  settle  in  it 
as  their  home  ;  it  is  doubtful  whether  they  could  even  find 
it  habitable  during  the  wet  season.     While  abundance  of 
unoccupied  territory  exists  in  Australia,  richer  in  soil  and 
easier  of  access,  and  in  a  far  less  unhealthy  climate,  no 
wise  man  will  risk  his  capital  and  his  life  in  the  great 
delta  of  the  Fly  River.     The  natives  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Mia  Kasa  seem  to  have  so  threatened  the  little  party,  that 
they  had  to  abandon  their  lugger,  and  make  for  the  coast 
overland,  experiencing  some  hardships  by  the  way,  and 
eventually  the  loss  of  one  of  their  companions  by  drown- 
ing.   We  fear  few  will  be  able  to  appreciate  Mr.  Strachan's 
delicacy  in  forbidding,  "in  order  to  prevent   raising  a 
hostile  spirit  among  the  natives,"  his  "  weary,  worn  and 
starving  people,"  from   cutting   down  a  cocoa  nut   tree, 
during  their  retreat,  shortly  after  they  had  been  firing  on 
its  owners  with  their  Winchesters,  discharging  rockets  in 


316 


NATURE 


[August  2,  1888 


their  midst,  and  exploding  among  them  a  tin  case  con- 
taining twenty-five  pounds  of  gunpowder.  One  would 
think  that  if  their  hostility  had  not  been  excited  by  these 
gentle  tactics,  they  could  have  borne  also  with  equanimity 
the  appropriating  of  a  few  cocoanuts. 

The  second  part  into  which  this  record  of  exploration 
divides  itself,  is  really  little  more  than  the  log  of  a  trading 
cruise.  Except  the  claim  to  the  differentiation  of  a  few 
insignificant  islands,  no  piece  of  exploration  worthy  of  the 
name  abides  in  the  recollection  after  laying  down  the 
volume.  Macluer  Inlet  has  long  been  a  rendezvous  for 
trading  vessels,  and  Mr.  Strachan's  time  seems  to  have 
been  chiefly  devoted  to  collecting  nutmegs,  massoi  bark, 
tortoise-  and  pearl-shell  from  the  natives.  He  reached 
the  top  of  the  Gulf,  and  he  lays  evidently  great  store  by 
another  geographical  surmise  related  in  the  following 
words : — 

"  In  three  days  we  arrived  at  the  head  of  the  Gulf  and 
anchored  opposite  what  afterwards  proved  to  be  an 
island.  Here  two  channels,  one  to  the  north  and  the 
other  to  the  south,  debouch  into  the  inlet.  The  latter  we 
entered  and  followed  until  we  reached  a  bend,  at  a 
distance  of  not  more  than  three  miles  from  Gleevink 
[Geelvink]  Bay,  where  we  anchored. 

"  Here  the  channel  is  between  two  and  three  miles  in 
width,  and  the  depth  of  water  seven  fathoms.  My  charts 
showed  the  opposite  shore  to  be  entirely  unsurveyed  and 
faced  by  many  islands  ;  the  inhabitants  of  which  I  had 
reason  to  believe  were  hostile. 

"  These  considerations  decided  me  to  return,  although 
well  convinced  that  by  continuing  another  two  or  three 
miles  I  should  enter  the  broad  waters  of  Gleevink 
[Geelvink]  Bay."  , 

We  should  have  felt  more  confidence  in  this  conviction, 
if  the  author  had  given  the  data  on  which  he  grounds  his 
surmise,  if  only  to  allay  our  suspicions  that  this  is  not  a 
happier  guess  than  that  which  flashed  on  him  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Mia  Kasa  River.  He  makes  no  reference  to 
the  explorations  in  1873,  in  the  same  region,  of  Dr.  Meyer, 
who,  entering  the  Wapari  River  on  the  eastern  side,  in 
Geelvink  Bay,  and  ascending  mountains  over  1200  feet  in 
height,  descended  the  western  slope  till  he  struck  the 
Jakati  river  by  which  he  reached  the  shores  of  Macluer 
Inlet — a  route  which  must  have  led  him  across  the  wide 
channel  supposed  by  Mr.  Strachan  to  exist,  but  of  which 
no  mention  is  made  by  Dr.  Meyer.  Is  Mr.  Strachan 
quite  sure  about  his  position — especially  the  longitude  of 
his  turning  point  ? 

In  the  selection  of  his  crews  Mr.  Strachan  was  most  un- 
fortunate. They  appear  to  have  been  very  typical  beach- 
combers, against  whom  he  brings  charges  of  threaten- 
ing the  natives,  and  of  wantonly  shooting  their  dogs — 
deeds  which  are  very  characteristic  of  that  baneful  type 
of  humanity. 

In  his  natural  history  determinations  Mr.  Strachan  is 
very  often  considerably  afield  ;  but  he  makes  several 
interesting  observations  on  the  customs  of  the  people. 
One  or  two  illustrations  of  the  natives  are  given,  which 
appear  to  be  faithful  representations  of  the  tribes  of  the 
<hlta. 

The  book,  we  regret  to  say,  does  not  leave  a  very  satis- 
factory impression  on  the  reader  ;  there  are  numerous 
inaccuracies  and  too  many  discrepancies  between  the 
text    and   the    maps  ;    while   the    goody-goodyism    and 


buccaneering  brag  with  which  it  is  interlarded  are  insuf- 
ferably nauseous,  with  the  result  that  the  reader  loses 
what  confidence  he  might  otherwise  have  had  in  state- 
ments of  the  author  that  may  be  quite  accurate. 

In  noticing  this  volume  we  cannot  omit  to  draw  atten- 
tion to  a  subject  much  more  serious  than  its  poverty  of  fare. 
Mr.  Strachan  tells  us  he  was  denounced  in  New  South 
Wales  as  a  "  red-handed  murderer,  who  had  tramped 
through  New  Guinea  knee-deep  in  blood."  The  accusa- 
tions against  him  were  the  outcome  of  the  "  outrageous 
lying  "  of  one  of  his  own  party,  which  he  rebutted  by  a 
letter  to  the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies,  who 
caused  his  (Mr.  Strachan's)  letter  to  be  published  in  Sydney 
for  general  information.  We  may  probably  accept  the 
statements  made  against  himself  in  this  volume,  under 
his  own  hand,  as  at  least  not  "outrageous  lying."  Mr. 
Strachan  knew  fully  the  conditions  under  which  he 
and  his  party  had  permission  to  cruise  in  the  waters  of 
the  Protectorate  or  of  the  Dutch  Crown.  No  spirits, 
firearms,  gunpowder,  dynamite,  or  any  explosives  can  be 
landed  under  any  circumstances,  so  as  to  be  given  or  sold 
to  the  natives  ;  no  acquisition  of  land  on  any  account  is 
permitted  ;  and  above  all  a  just  treatment  of  the  natives 
is  a  si?ie  qua  non,  since  it  was  the  overacts  of  her 
subjects  that  compelled  Her  Majesty  to  take  under  her 
gracious  Protection  the  inhabitants  of  that  portion  of 
Papua,  now  generally  known  as  British  New  Guinea,  and 
for  which  the  name  of  Torresia  has  been  suggested.  On 
p.  80  is  recorded  this  little  episode  :  "  The  men  who  were 
so  fortunate  as  to  possess  muskets  were  very  eager  to 
obtain  ammunition  ;  but  this  the  law  distinctly  forbids 
the  white  man  either  to  give  or  to  sell  to  the  natives  under 

a   penalty   of  three   months  imprisonment Being 

anxious  to  accommodate  those  whose  kindness  to  me  had 
been  so  uniform,  I  was  placed  on  the  horns  of  a  dilemma, 
but  having  confidence  in  their  integrity,  and  being 
anxious  to  serve  them  while  keeping  within  the  strict 
letter  of  the  law  [!  !  !]  .  .  I  at  last  decided  to  place  the 
required  ammunition  on  my  cabin  table.  Having  done 
this  I  lit  my  pipe,  and  went  on  deck  to  give  some  orders 
to  my  officers.  On  my  return  the  natives  had  all  left  my 
cabin.  ...  I  missed  a  twenty-eight  pound  bag  of  No.  4 
shot,  half-a-dozen  half-pound  flasks  of  powder,  and  a  box 
of  caps."  This  is  not  the  only  occasion,  recorded  in  his 
book,  on  which  he  distributed  warlike  material.  In 
several  places  he  confesses  to  having  dispensed  gin  to 
the  natives,  and  presented  it  as  gifts  to  chiefs.  The  edict 
as  to  the  purchase  of  land  was  also  disregarded  in  the 
same  open  way.  He  purchased  Strachan  Island,  con- 
taining [only]  seven  hundred  and  fifty  square  miles,  by  a 
very  simple  transaction.  "  ''  Are  you  willing  that  I  come 
and  possess  this  island?'.  .  .  .They  all  signified 
their  willingness.  My  trade  was  opened  and  parcelled 
out  to  each  chief  according  to  the  number  of  people  in 
his  tribe.  I  told  them  the  name  was  Strachan  Island, 
and  by  this  name  the  natives  know  the  island  at  present.'' 
The  latter  amazing  statement  we  may  take  for  what  it  is 
worth  ;  but  it  would  have  been  very  instructive  to  have  had 
details  of  the  items  of  the  trade  paid  for  this  little  estate. 
The  document  would  probably  have  formed  a  companion 
to  the  valuable  inventory  given  in  the  late  Sir  Peter 
Scratchley's  journals  of  the  price  paid  by  certain  Australian 
pioneers  for  a  tract  of  land  the  size  of  a  large  English 


August  2,  1888] 


NATURE 


317 


county.  There  is  no  evidence  that  these  "chiefs"  owned 
the  land  they  were  selling,  nor  that  they  were  made 
aware  that  they  were  parting  for  ever  with  their  most 
cherished  possessions,  of  which  Mr.  Strachan  attempted 
to  claim  ownership  (Her  Majesty's  edict  notwithstanding) 
in  right  of  exploration  and  purchase.  While  in  Macluer 
Inlet,  the  author  resided  among  a  people  who  spoke  to 
some  extent  the  Malay  language.  The  quotations  with 
which  we  are  favoured  in  his  book,  not  to  mention  his  own 
admission  of  the  fact,  show  clearly  how  imperfect  his 
knowledge  of  that  language  (as  of  the  true  language  of 
the  region)  is.  Yet  from  a  conversation  he  overhears,  half 
of  which  only,  he  admits,  he  understood,  he  accuses  certain 
chiefs  of  Macluer  Inlet  of  slave-hunting,  and  in  the  most 
high-handed  and  unauthorized  manner,  carries  them  off 
prisoners  to  Gessir,  to  give  them  in  charge  to  the  Dutch 
authorities,  yet  does  not  do  so  (owing  to  stress  of 
weather),  which  under  the  grave  circumstances  he  ought 
to  have  done  when  the  weather  moderated.  Eventually, 
after  severe  cogitations  whether  he  should  not  himself 
inflict  punishment  on  them,  he  returns  them  to  their  homes, 
when  he  feels  "much  lighter  of  heart."  Shortly  after 
this,  he  sees  a  canoe  "  dodging  backwards  and  forwards 
among  the  islands  within  gun  shot  of  the  ship,"  and  is 
seized  with  a  panic  (as  he  often  was),  and  without  the 
flimsiest  evidence  of  a  hostile  intention  on  the  part  of  its 
occupants,  he  seized  a  "  long  range  rifle  "  and  fired  into 
it ;  "  they  then  began  paddling  rapidly,  and  although  I 
fired  many  shots  I  could  not  round  them  to."  Nor  are 
these  again  the  solitary  instances  of  most  illegal  acts 
performed  by  Mr.  Strachan  as  recorded  by  himself.  It  is 
doubtful,  also,  whether  the  removal  of  the  little  lad  whom 
he  brought  from  his  country  to  England  (and  whom  he 
appears  to  have  treated  with  the  greatest  possible  kind- 
ness) was  not  an  act  of  kidnapping.  Altogether,  it  is 
perhaps  not  surprising  that  the  natives,  as  Mr.  Strachan 
bemoans,  "  cannot  recognize  nor  appreciate  the  principles 
of  honesty  and  honour,"  so  exemplified. 

Her  Majesty's  Special  Commissioner  comes  in  for  a 
most  violent  and  unwarrantable  attack.  No  one  who 
reads  Mr.  Strachan's  own  admissions  will  wonder  that 
his  explorations  were  not  regarded  by  the  authorities 
with  all  the  favour  he  could  desire.  If  Mr.  Douglas 
had  had  the  facts  here  recorded  before  him,  he  must, 
we  fear,  instead  of  renewing  the  author's  permit,  have 
excluded  him  from  again  approaching  the  island.  The 
Commissioners  administering  the  Government  in  New 
Guinea  have  had  experience  enough  of  the  woes  that  flow 
not  to  the  natives  themselves  only,  but  to  unsuspecting 
Europeans  who  have  the  misfortune  to  follow  behind  (and 
have  paid,  too  often,  the  penalty  of  the' overacts  of)  such 
explorers  as  "Captain"  John  Strachan. 


MINES  UR  VE  YING. 
A  .Treatise  on  Mine- Surveying.     By  Bennett  H.  Brough, 
F.G.S.,  F.I.C.,  8vo.,  pp.   282  with   101  woodcuts,  two 
appendices  and  index.     (London :  Charles  Griffin  and 
Co.,  1888.) 

1V/T  R.  BROUGH,  who  for  many  years  has  been  giving 
■L'1  instruction  in  surveying  at  the  Royal  School  of 
Mines,  has  placed   the   mining  world   under   a    debt  of 


gratitude  to  him  by  the  issue  of  his  compact  manual* 
It  is  the  kind  of  book  which  has  long  been  wanted,  and 
often  asked  for,  not  only  by  mining  students,  but  also  by 
mine-agents  desirous  of  obtaining  more  knowledge  con- 
cerning a  material  branch  of  their  profession. 

The  book  is  divided  into  nineteen  chapters.  In  the 
first  the  author  dwells  upon  the  importance  of  mine- 
surveying  and  certainly  does  not  exaggerate  it.  Instances 
could  be  multiplied  showing  the  danger  to  life  and  the  loss 
of  valuable  mineral  from  the  want  of  accurate  plans.  A 
blot  in  British  legislation  does  not  escape  the  author's 
notice,  and  he  very  properly  regrets  that  the  agents  of 
ordinary  ore-mines  are  not  required  to  qualify  themselves 
by  examination  in  the  same  way  as  their  brethren  at 
collieries.  Considering  that  the  tin  miners  of  Cornwall 
have  a  rather  higher  death-rate  from  accidents  than 
colliers,  and  a  very  much  higher  death-rate  from  diseases 
induced  by  their  occupation,  it  does  seem  strange  that 
the  test  of  ability  imposed  in  one  case  should  be  entirely 
dispensed  with  in  the  other.  When  the  Metalliferous 
Mines  Regulation  Act  is  amended  we  may  hope  to  see 
this  anomaly  swept  away  Many  agents  of  ore-mines 
would  welcome  the  introduction  of  certificates  of  com- 
petency, because  a  Government  diploma  would  raise 
their  status  at  home  and  constitute  a  valuable  passport 
for  them  abroad. 

Four  chapters  are  devoted  to  surveying  with  the 
ordinary  miner's  dial,  of  which  various  forms  are 
described  ;  and  very  useful  hints  are  given  concerning 
sources  of  error  with  the  magnetic  needle,  which  would 
not  strike  tyros,  and  some  of  which  are  probably 
unknown  to  many  practised  surveyors.  The  important 
question  of  the  diurnal  and  secular  variation  of  the 
magnetic  needle  is  next  fully  dealt  with,  and  we  hope 
that  due  heed  will  be  paid  to  Mr.  Brough's  remarks,  for 
few  ordinary  diallers  are  aware  that  the  needle  may  vary 
10'  from  8  a.m.  to  1  p.m. 

The  theodolite  is  properly  recommended  for  cases 
where  great  accuracy  is  required,  and  much  useful  infor- 
mation is  afforded  upon  various  matters,  such  as  plotting, 
calculation  of  areas,  levelling,  connection  of  underground 
and  surface  surveys  and  methods  of  rapid  surveying  with 
the  tacheometer.  Faults  and  subsidences  are  discussed 
at  length,  and  careful  directions  are  given  concerning  the 
construction  and  copying  of  mine  plans.  Mr.  Brough 
insists  upon  neat  lettering,  but  curiously  enough  omits  all 
mention  of  stencil  plates  for  this  purpose. 

The  last  chapter,  dealing  with  the  application  of  the 
magnetic  needle  in  mining,  is  full  of  interesting  matter. 
We  have  good  descriptions  of  the  Swedish  and  American 
dip-compasses,  and  the  improved  methods  of  Brooks, 
Thale'n  and  Tiberg,  for  exploring  for  iron  ore ;  and  the 
author  exposes  the  clever  devices  of  unscrupulous  mine- 
sharks  for  misleading  intending  purchasers.  Between  the 
years  1868  and  1875  eighty-five  iron  mines  were  dis- 
covered in  the  State  of  New  Jersey  solely  by  the  magnetic 
needle,  and  in  many  cases  where  there  was  no  visible 
indication  of  ore  at  the  surface. 

Mr.  Macgeorge's  ingenious  appliances  for  ascertaining 
the  true  direction  taken  by  bore-holes,  which  frequently 
deviate  very  considerably  from  the  vertical,  attracted 
much  attention  at  the  Inventions  Exhibition,  where  they 
received   a  gold    medal.      Now    that    Mr.    Macgeorge's 


3i8 


NATURE 


{August  2,  1888 


method  is  described  in  a  text-book,  its  advantages  will 
become  more  generally  known. 

Mr.  Brough  deserves  much  praise  for  the  care  with 
which  he  has  searched  European  and  American  publica- 
tions so  as  to  bring  his  work  up  to  date,  and  there  is 
little  call  for  censure  save  upon  minor  points  which  do  not 
affect  the  general  value  of  the  text-book. 

It  is  time  that  some  one  should  enter  a  protest  against 
two  of  the  technical  terms  defined  by  the  author,  and 
frequently  met  with  in  the  reports  of  mining  experts,  viz. 
"  country  rock  "  and  "  gangue."  To  say  "  country  rock ' 
is  tautology.  The  word  "  country "  alone,  as  used  in 
Cornwall,  means  "surrounding  rock"  or  "enclosing 
rock,"  and,  if  the  provincialism  is  to  be  adopted,  there  is 
no  necessity  to  add  the  word  "  rock."  The  word  "  gangue  " 
is  objectionable,  because  it  has  come  to  us  through 
Frenchmen,  who  apparently  did  not  thoroughly  understand 
the  meaning  of  the  German  word  "  Gang."  "  Matrix," 
"  lodestuff,"  and  "  veinstuff "  are  better  words  than 
"gangue,"  which  might  well  be  allowed  to  drop  out  of 
mining  books,  especially  as  it  is  rarely  heard  at  mines. 

To  cite  the  china  clay  deposits  of  Cornwall  as  examples 
of  stockworks  is  unfortunate,  because  the  occurrence  in 
them  of  veins  bearing  workable  quantities  of  tin  ore  is  the 
exception,  not  the  rule. 

In  Chapter  VIII.  Mr.  Brough  says:  "In  1798 
Breithaupt,  of  Cassel,  invented  a  mine-surveying  instru- 
ment, which  he  called  an  astrolabium."  This  remark  is 
not  correct,  for,  as  the  author  well  knows,  the  astrolabe 
was  invented  by  the  ancients.  The  statement  should 
have  been  that  H.  C.  W.  Breithaupt  was  one  of  the  first 
to  put  an  astrolabe  upon  a  stand  and  use  it  for  surveying 
underground.  According  to  Mr.  Brough  the  theodolite 
has  been  employed  more  or  less  for  mine  surveys  since 
1836.  This  date  is  probably  correct  as  far  as  Germany 
is  concerned  ;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  a  mining  theodolite 
was  supplied  to  the  Imperial  Brazilian  Mining  Association 
four  years  earlier. 

The  description  of  Prof.  Borcher's  method  of  using 
magnets  for  ascertaining  the  precise  line  in  which  one 
should  continue  to  work  in  order  to  connect  two  drivages 
in  opposite  directions  which  are  approaching  each  other, 
is  not  so  clear  as  it  ought  to  be.  Mr.  Brough  omits  to 
explain,  in  reference  to  Fig.  101,  that  by  construction  the 
points  A,  B,  and  C  are  situated  upon  the  circumference 
of  a  circle,  the  centre  of  which  is  E  ;  and  the  confusion 
is  increased  by  the  statement  that  the  triangle  A  E  C  is 
"  equilateral,"  whereas  it  is  really  only  isosceles.  The 
consequence  is  that  the  reader  is  very  much  puzzled. 

However,  these  and  a  few  other  errors  can  easily  be 
corrected  in  a  second  edition,  which  is  likely  to  be 
required  before  many  years  are  past  ;  because,  as  soon 
as  the  book  becomes  known,  no  English-speaking  mine- 
agent  or  mining  student  will  consider  his  technical  library 
complete  without  it.  C.  Le  Neve  Foster. 

OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Charles  A.  ding's  Tours  and  Excursions  in  Great 
.Britain.  By  Stephen  F.  Smart.  (London :  United 
States  Exchange,  1888.) 

This  book  is  intended  in  the  first  instance  for  Americans, 

but  it  may  also  be  of  some  service  to  English  tourists. 

Taking  London  as  a  central  point — "  not  only  because  it  is 


the  most  notable  city  of  the  world,  but  because  it  is  the 
Mecca,  if  not  the  El  Medina,  of  trans-Atlantic  tourists, 
at  least " — the  author  describes  a  series  of  excursions, 
any  one  of  which  will  well  repay  the  trouble  of  those  who 
may  elect  to  follow  his  guidance.  He  also  describes 
various  tours  in  Wales  and  Scotland.  Mr.  Smart  has 
been  at  pains  to  make  himself  familiar  with  the  ground 
over  which  he  undertakes  to  lead  others,  and  the  infor- 
mation he  presents,  so  far  as  we  have  been  able  to  test 
it,  is  thoroughly  trustworthy.  Of  course,  no  one  who- 
wishes  to  obtain  a  full  account  of  any  particular  town  or 
district  will  think  of  consulting  this  little  book.  But 
as  a  general  sketch,  it  has  considerable  merits ;  and  it 
will  doubtless  help  many  American  visitors  to  make  the 
most  of  a  brief  visit  to  Great  Britain. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
of  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations,.] 

The  Supply  of  Bait  for  Sea-Fishermen. 

One  of  the  first  questions  of  practical  importance  with  which 
the  Marine  Biological  Association  has  to  deal  is  that  of  supply- 
ing the  long-line  fishermen  with  a  continuous  supply  of  bait  at 
a  cheap  rate.  Great  distress  is  often  occasioned  through  fisher- 
men being  unable  to  get  the  necessary  bait  for  their  long  lines. 
Mr.  Kobert  Bayly,  of  Plymouth,  a  governor  of  the  Marine 
Biological  Association,  has  generously  given  a  sum  of  .£500  to 
be  spent  on  investigations  on  the  bait  question,  and  the  Council 
have  instructed  me,  as  Director  of  the  Association,  to  consider 
the  best  means  of  spending  this  sum.  I  shall  therefore  bs  glad 
to  receive  any  suggestions  from  gentlemen  who  may  interest 
themselves  in  this  question,  or  to  consider  the  work  of  any 
investigator  already  in  the  field,  with  the  view  of  employing 
a  suitable  person  to  carry  out  a  series  of  observations  and 
experiments. 

Two  methods  appear  to  offer  a  solution  to  the  question.  Either 
the  animals  used  commonly  as  bait,  such  as  whelks,  mussels,  and 
squid,  may  be  reared  artificially  and  kept  in  confinement  till  re- 
quired, or  some  artificial  bait  may  be  invented  which  will  lure 
the  more  valuable  kinds  of  fish  to  the  hook. 

The  former  of  these  methods  has  been  successfully  practised  in 
France,  but  such  is  the  operation  of  the  English  laws  on  shore 
fisheries  that  there  is  very  little  prospect  of  its  being  possible  in 
England,  unless  those  laws  are  altered. 

The  second  method,  though  more  apparently  difficult,  is  the 
more  likely  to  attain  success.  Fish  are  undoubtedly  guided  by 
smell  and  taste  in  the  selection  of  their  food.  Some  are  known 
to  be  very  nice  about  the  kind  of  food  offered  to  them,  and  will 
only  take  certain  kinds  of  bait.  The  whelk  is  a  very  favourite 
morsel,  and  has  a  distinct  smell  and  taste  :  it  may  be  possible  to 
determine  by  analysis  the  essential  oil  or  whatever  it  may  be 
that  gives  this  odour,  and  to  imitate  it  sufficiently  well  to  deceive 
the  fish.  The  trade  is  able  to  imitate  successfully  the  bouquet 
of  wines  :  cannot  chemistry  produce  an  imitation  of  the  bouquet 
of  the  whelk  ?  G.  C.  Bourne. 

The  Laboratory,  Citadel  Hill,  Plymouth,  July  31. 


Geometric  Meaning  of  Differential  Equations. 

In  the  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal, 
1888,  p.  76,  Prof.  Asutosh  Mukhopadhyay  has  proposed  a  really 
excellent  mode  of  geometric  interpretation  of  differential  equa- 
tions in  general :  viz.  writing  the  equation  in  form  F  =  0,  the 
geometric  meaning  of  the  symbol  F  considered  as  a  magnitude 
(angle,  line,  area,  &c),  in  any  cui-ve  whatever  (wherein  F  is  of 
course  not  zero),  is,  if  possible,  to  be  formed  ;  then  the  geo- 
metric meaning  of  that  equation  obviously  is  that  the  quantity  F 
vanishes  right  round  every  curve  of  the  family  represented. 
This  is  the  most  direct  geometrical  interpretation  yet  proposed. 


August  2,  1888] 


NATURE 


3*9 


Three  examples  have  been  given  by  him,  all  very  neat.  Writing 
for  shortness  the  differential  equations  thus  — 

Circle,  R  =  o  ;  Parabola,  S  =  o  ;  Conic,  T  =  o, 

he  has  proved  (in  Journ.  As.  Soc.  Bengal,  vol.  Ivi.  p.  144,  and 
Nature,  vol.  xxxviii.  p.  173)  that  in  general  in  any  curve 
whatever, 

(1)  Tan.    z   of  aberrancy  =  qx.  R; 

(2)  Index  of  aberrancy  =  qt.  S  ; 

(3)  Radius  of  curvature  of  aberrancy  curve  =  t/3  .  T  ; 

where  qx,  q.2,  q3  are  certain  functions  in  general  finite.  Hence 
the  geometric  meaning  of  the  differential  equations  of  the  three 
curves  is  at  once 

(1)  Circle. — Angle  of  aberrancy  =  o  \  right    round 

(2)  Parabola. — Index  of  aberrancy  =  o  r      all    curves 

(3)  Conic. — Radius  of  curvature  of  aber-         I      of       each 

rancy  curve  =  o  ;      family. 

The  verbal  neatness  of  these  interpretations  can  hardly  be 
excelled. 

A  writer  (R.  B.  II.)  in  Nature,  vol.  xxxviii.  p.  197,  objects 
to  the  last  that  it  really  only  means  that  a  conic  is  a  conic  (be- 
cause its  aberrancy  curve  shrinks  into  the  centre) !  Now,  this 
is  precisely  what  was  to  be  expected  :  the  differential  equation 
of  a  curve  expresses  exactly  that  the  curve  of  some  family  which 
osculates  it  in  the  highest  degree  is  the  curve  itself.  Rut  the 
new  interpretation  puts  this  in  a  neat  form,  viz.  in  assigning  a 
meaning  to  the  magnitude  F,  which  differs  from  zero  in  general, 
and  whose  vanishing  at  all  points  of  every  curve  of  a  certain 
family  (say  conic)  indicates  a  property  of  high  generality  of 
those  curves. 

But  the  Professor  makes,  what  I  conceive  to  be,  the  mis- 
taken claim  (Proc.  As.  Soc.  Bengal,  1888,  p.  75,  et  sea.),  that  this 
mode  of  interpretation  is  the  only  true  one ;  and  further  that, 
accepting  this  mode  of  interpretation,  only  one  meaning  can  be 
attached  to  it  (p.  76,  1.  29,  op.  cit.). 

Now  it  must  be  observed  that  the  equal  ion  F  =  o  implies 
directly,  not  only  that  some  one  geometric  magnitude  F  vanishes, 
but  abo  that  every  geometric  magnitude  vanishing  with  F  (such 
as  «F,  a¥"\  sinF,  cvc.)  vanishes  right  round  every  curve  of  the 
family.  All  of  these  are  equally  good  geometric  interpretations 
of  the  same  kind  as  proposed. 

But  the  equation  F  =  o  also  implies,  more  or  less  directly, 
countless  theorems  of  position,  osculation,  &c.  All  of  these 
may  be  fairly  considered  geometric  meanings  of  that  equation. 
Thus,  attending  to  the  meaning  of  "aberrancy,"  the  results 
quoted  involve  directly — 

(1)  Circle. — Normal  coincides  with  diameters. 

(2)  Parabola. — Diameters  are  axes  of  aberrancy,  and  meet  at 
infinity. 

(3)  Conic. — Diameters  are  axes  of  aberrancy,  and  are  con- 
current (in  the  centre). 

Surely  these  are  also  true  geometric  interpretations. 

Lastly,  let  the  equation  F  =0  be  multiplied  by  any  of  its 

integrating  factors  fi,  and  write  for  shortness   /  fiFdx  =  <p.     It 

follows  that  <p  =  constant.  Hence,  since  the  number  of  in- 
tegrating factors  is  infinite,  another  (indirect)  geometric  inter- 
pretation arises,  viz.  that  all  the  geometric  magnitudes  <j>  are 
constant  right  round  every  curve  of  the  family. 

These  latter  general  modes  of  interpretation,  viz.  theorems  of 
position,  o?culation,  and  of  first  integrals  (<p  =  c),  I  had  given 
eleven  years  ago  (in  Quart.  Journ,  Math.,  vol.  xiv.  p.  226). 

To  the  last  of  these  the  Professor  has  objected  (p.  76  of  his 
paper  quoted),  that  it  is  not  an  interpretation  of  the  equation 
F  =  o  at  all,  but  only  of  its  fir.-t  integrals  <p  =  c.  This  is,  of 
course,  admitted.  But  it  is  worth  noting  that  the  connection 
between  the  two,  F  =  o,  <p  =  c,  is  so  very  close,  that  many 
will  accept  an  interpretation  of  the  latter  as  a  fair  (indirect) 
interpretation  of  the  former  also. 

In  fact,  since  F  =  o  is  equivalent  to  D.^  =  o,  the  former  is 
now  seen  to  mean  directly  that  there  is  no  variation  of  any  of 
the  magnitudes  <p  right  round  every  curve  of  the  family  ;  and 
this  is  a  strict  direct  interpretation  of  the  equation  F  =  o  itself. 
But  many  will  probably  prefer  the  shorter  phrase  <f>  =  constant, 
even  though  it  interprets  F  =  o  only  indirectly. 

There  is,  moreover,  a  slight  disadvantage  in  the  former  mode 
of  interpretation,  viz.  that  the  meaning  of  the  magnitude  F 
must  necessarily  be  sought  in  curves  other  than,  and  usually 
more  complex  than,  the  curves  denoted  by  F  =  o  ;  whereas  the 


interpretation  of  <p  =  c  only  requires  the  finding  a  meaning  for 
(p,  which  is  explained  in  my  paper  quoted  to  be  any  fundamental 
geometric  magnitude  of  the  curve  itself. 

Allan  Cunningham,  Lt.-Col.,  K.E. 

British  Earthworms. 

The  occurrence  of  any  new  animal  in  England  is  a  point  of 
some  interest,  however  humble  that  animal  may  be  ;  and,  in  order 
to  work  out  the  species  of  British  earthworms,  I  sent  a  letter  to 
the  Field  some  time  back,  requesting  readers  of  that  journal  to 
forward  me  specimens.  In  reply  I  received  a  large  number  of 
worms  from  various  people,  amongst  them  being  Mr.  F.  O. 
Pickard  Cambridge,  of  Hyde,  who  his  very  kindly  sent  me 
several  parcels  of  worms.  One  of  these  parcels  contained  some 
very  fine  gravel  taken  from  the  bed  of  a  stream,  together  with  a 
number  of  small  worms  about  l|  to  2  inches  in  length.  These 
turned  out  to  be  a  species  of  Allurus,  a  genus  formed  by  Eisen 
for  a  worm  in  which  the  male  pores  are  on  the  thirteenth  segment 
instead  of  on  the  fifteenth,  as  in  the  other  genera  of  the  family  Lum- 
bricidae.  Only  one  species  is  at  present  known,  viz.  A.  tetra'e  trus  ; 
it  is  of  a  beautiful  sienna  colour,  with  a  dull  orange  clitellum. 

I  wish  to  record,  for  the  first  time,  its  occurrence  in  England, 
and  also  to  draw  attention  to  the  fact  that  it  lives  below  water, 
at  any  rate  for  some  part  of  the  year.  Mr.  Cambridge  has  been 
most  obliging  in  giving  me  the  facts  as  to  the  place  in  which  he 
found  the  worms  :  they  occur  in  the  gravelly  bed  of  a  stream 
which  at  certain  times  of  the  year  runs  down,  so  low  as  to  leave 
small  gravelly  islands  2  or  3  inches  high.  In  these  islands  he 
found  Allurus  ;  but  he  finds  none  in  the  banks  of  the  stream. 
We  already  know  of  Criodrilus  as  being  a  thoroughly  aquatic 
earthworm,  living  in  the  muddy  beds  of  rivers  and  lakes  ;  and 
although  this  worm  has  not  yet  been  recorded  in  Great  Britain, 
I  see  no  reason  to  doubt  that  it  exists  here. 

I  should  add  that  Mr.  Beddard  has  informed  me  that  he  re- 
ceived a  specimen  of  Allurus  from  Lea,  Kent,  some  time  after 
I  received  these  from  Hyde.  It  has  been  recorded  also  from 
Sweden,  Italy,  and  Tenerife.  Wm,  B.  Benham. 

University  College. 


THE  SUN  MOTOR. 

INDIA,  South  America,  and  other  countries  interested 
in  the  employment  of  sun  power  for  mechanical 
purposes,  have  watched  with  great  attention  the  result  of 
recent  experiments  in  France,  conducted  by  M.  Tellier, 
whose  plan  of  actuating  motive  engines  by  the  direct 
application  of  solar  heat  has  been  supposed  to  be  more 
advantageous  than  the  plan  adopted  by  the  writer  of 
increasing  the  intensity  of  the  solar  rays  by  a  series  of 
reflecting  mirrors.  The  published  statements  that  "  the 
heat-absorbing  surface"  of  the  French  apparatus  presents 
an  area  of  215  square  feet  to  the  action  of  the  sun's  rays, 
and  that  "  the  work  done  has  been  only  43,360  foot- 
pounds per  hour,"  funvsh  data  proving  that  Tellier's 
invention  possesses  no  practical  value. 

The  results  of  protracted  experiments  with  my  sun 
motors,  provided  with  reflecting  mirrors  as  stated,  have 
established  the  fact  that  a  surface  of  100  square  feet 
presented  at  right  angles  to  the  sun,  at  noon,  in  the  lati- 
tude of  New  York,  during  summer,  develops  a  mechanical 
energy  reaching  1,850,000  foot-pounds  per  hour.  The 
advocates  of  the  French  system  of  dispensing  with  the 
"  cumbrous  mirrors "  will  do  well  to  compare  the  said 
amount  with  the  insignificant  mechanical  energy  repre- 
sented by  43,360  foot-pounds  per  hour  developed  by  215 
square  feet  of  surface  exposed  to  the  sun  by  Tellier, 
during  his  experiments  in  Paris  referred  to. 

The  following  brief  description  will  give  a  clear  idea  of 
the  nature  and  arrangement  of  the  reflecting  mirrors 
adopted  by  the  writer  for  increasing  the  intensity  of  the 
solar  heat  which  imparts  expansive  force  to  the  medium 
propelling  the  working  piston  of  the  motive  engine.  Fig. 
1  represents  a  perspective  view  of  a  cylindrical  heater, 
and  a  frame  supporting  a  series  of  reflecting  mirrors 
composed  of  narrow  strips  of  window-glass  coated  with 


320 


NATURE 


\August  2,  1888 


silver  on  the  under  side.  The  frame  consists  of  a  light 
structure  of  wrought  iron  or  steel,  provided  with  trans- 
verse ribs  as  shown  by  the  illustration,  each  rib  being 
accurately  bent  to  a  parabolic  curvature  whose  focus 
coincides  with  the  axis  of  the  cylindrical  heater.  It  needs 
hardly  be  stated  that  the  mirrors  supported  by  the  said 
transverse  ribs  continue  from  side  to  side  of  the  frame, 
which  accordingly  resembles  a  parabolic  trough  whose 
bottom  is  composed  of  mirrors.  It  will  be  readily  under- 
stood that  this  trough  with  its  bent  ribs  and  flat  mirrors 
forms  a  perfect  parabolic  reflector,  to  which  a  cylindrical 
heater,  as  stated,  may  be  attached  for  generating  steam 
or  expanding  the  gases  intended  to  actuate  the  piston  of 
the  motive  engine.  Regarding  the  mechanism  for  turning 
the  reflector  towards  the  sun,  engineers  are  aware  that 
various  combinations  based  on  the  principle  of  the 
"  universal  joint  "  may  be  employed. 

Concerning  previous  attempts  made  in  France  to  utilize 
solar  energy  for  mechanical  purposes,  it  is  well  known 
that  practical  engineers,  having  critically  examined 
Mouchot's  solar  engine,  which  M.  Tellier  proposes  to 
supersede,  find  that  it  is  incapable  of  developing 
sufficient  power  for  any  domestic  purpose.     Again,  the 


investigations  carried  out  by  order  of  the  French 
Government  to  ascertain  the  merits  of  Mouchot's  inven- 
tion show  that  irrespective  of  the  great  expense  of  silver- 
lined  curved  metallic  reflectors  for  increasing  the  insuffi- 
cient energy  of  direct  solar  radiation,  these  reflectors 
cannot  be  made  on  a  sufficient  scale  for  motors  having 
adequate  power  to  meet  the  demands  of  commerce  ;  nor 
is  it  possible  to  overcome  the  difficulty  of  rapid  wear  of 
the  delicate  silver  lining  of  the  metallic  reflectors  conse- 
quent on  atmospheric  influence,  which  after  a  few  hours  of 
exposure  renders  their  surfaces  tarnished  and  ineffective 
unless  continually  polished.  A  glance  at  the  accom- 
panying illustration  (Fig.  1)  shows  that  the  reflector  con- 
structed for  my  sun  motor  differs  altogether  from  that 
originated  by  Mouchot,  which  Tellier's  apparatus,  tested 
at  Paris,  was  intended  to  displace. 

Description  of  the  Illustrated  Reflector. 

(1)  The  mirrors  which  reflect  the  solar  rays  are  devoid 
of  curvature,  being  flat  narrow  strips  of  ordinary  window- 
glass,  cut  to  uniform  width  and  length,  perfectly  straight. 

(2)  The  under  sides  of  said  strips  are  coated  with  silver 
by  a  process  which  prevents  the  action  of  the  sun's  rays 


from  destroying  the  silver  coating  as  in  ordinary  looking- 
glasses. 

(3)  The  mirrors  supported  by  the  bent  metallic  ribs 
extending  from  side  to  side  of  the  parabolic  trough,  are 
held  down  by  the  heads  of  small  screws  tapped  into  the 
ribs.  Thin  slats  of  wood  may  be  introduced  between  the 
mirrors  and  the  ribs — an  expedient  of  some  importance 
in  localities  where  the  reflector  is  exposed  to  high  winds. 

(4)  It  needs  no  explanation  that  the  reflecting  surface 
of  the  mirrors  cannot  become  tarnished  by  atmospheric 
influence,  since  the  bright  side  of  the  silver  coating  is 
permanently  protected  by  the  glass  ;  hence  it  will  be  only 
necessary  to  remove  dust  from  the  mirrors,  an  operation 
readily  performed  by  feather  brushes  secured  to  light 
handles  of  suitable  length. 

(5)  The  frame  of  the  reflector,  being  composed  of  rolled 
bars  of  iron  or  steel,  requires  no  finish,  excepting  the  top 
of  the  transverse  ribs,  which  must  correspond  accurately 
with  a  given  parabolic  curvature.  It  should  be  observed 
that  the  needed  accuracy  is  readily  attained  by  a  cutting 
tool  guided  by  a  bar  of  proper  form. 

(6)  Regarding  cost  of  construction,  it  will  suffice  to 
state  that   manufacturers  of  glass,  both   in   the    United 


States  and  Germany,  supply  the  mirrors,  cut  to  exact  size 
and  silvered,  at  a  rate  of  60  cents,  per  square  foot,  the 
weight  being  106  pounds  per  100  square  feet.  Conse- 
quently the  cost  of  the  reflector  and  heater  for  the  sun 
motor  will  not  much  exceed  that  of  a  steam  boiler  and 
appurtenances,  including  chimney.  The  cost  of  the 
engine  apart  from  the  reflector,  will  not  be  greater  than 
that  of  an  ordinary  steam-engine. 

(7)  With  reference  to  durability,  it  will  be  evident  that 
the  light  metallic  frame  with  its  mirrors,  and  a  heater 
acted  upon  only  by  reflected  solar  heat,  will  last  much 
longer  than  steam  boilers  subjected  to  the  action  of  fire, 
soot,  and  corrosion. 

Let  us  now  briefly  consider  the  distinguishing  feature 
of  the  sun  motor — namely,  the  increase  of  the  intensity  of 
the  sun's  radiant  energy  by parallel  rays  andyfo/  reflecting 
surfaces  permanently  protected  against  atmospheric  in- 
fluence. It  has  been  supposed  that  the  lens  and  the 
curved  reflecting  surface,  by  converging  the  sun's  rays, 
could  alone  increase  the  intensity  of  radiant  heat.  But 
Newton's  demonstration,  showing  that  the  temperature 
produced  by  solar  radiation    is   "as  the  density  of  the 


August  2,  1 888 J 


NA  TURE 


321 


rays,"  taught  me  to  adopt  in  place  of  curved  surfaces  and 
converging  rays,  flat  surfaces  and  parallel  rays,  as  shown 
by  Fig.  2,  which  represents  a  transverse  section  of  part  of 
the  reflector.  The  direct  vertical  solar  rays,  it  will  be 
seen,  act  on  the  mirrors  ;  while  the  reflected  rays,  divided 
into  diagonal  clusters  of  parallel  rays,  act  on  the  heater, 
the  surface  of  which  will  thus  be  exposed  to  a  dense  mass 
of  reflected  rays,  and  consequently  raised  to  a  temper- 
ature exceeding  6oo°  F.  at  noon  during  ordinary 
sunshine. 

The  cost,  durability,  and  mechanical  energy  of  the  sun 
motor  being  thus  disposed  of,  it  remains  to  be  shown 
whether  the  developed  energy  is  continuous,  or  whether 
the  power  of  the  engine  changes  with  the  increase  and 
diminution  of  zenith  distance  and  consequent  variation 
of  atmospheric  absorption.  Evidently  an  accurate  know- 
edge   of  the  diathermancy  of  the  terrestrial  atmosphere 


is  indispensable  to  determine  whether  the  variation 
of  the  radiant  energy  is  so  great  that  the  develop- 
ment of  constant  power  becomes  impracticable.  Of 
course,  manufacture  and  commerce  demand  a  motor 
developing  full  power  during  a  modern  working  day 
of  eight  hours.  Observations  relating  to  atmospheric 
diathermancy  continued  during  a  series  of  years,  enable 
me  to  assert  that  the  augmentation  of  solar  intensity 
during  the  middle  of  the  day  is  so  moderate  that  by 
adopting  the  simple  expedient  of  wasting  a  certain 
amount  of  the  superabundant  heat  generated  while  the 
sun  is  near  the  meridian  (as  the  steam  engineer  relieves 
the  excess  of  pressure  by  opening  the  safety-valve)  a 
uniform  working  power  will  be  developed  during  the 
stipulated  eight  hours.  The  opening  of  the  safety-valve, 
however,  means  waste  of  coal  raised  from  a  great  depth 
at  great  cost,  and  possibly  transported  a  long  distance, 


while  the  radiant  heat  wasted  automatically  by  the  sun 
motor  is  produced  by  fuel  obtained  from  an  inexhaustible 
storehouse  free  of  cost  and  transportation. 

It  will  be  proper  to  mention  that  the  successful  trial  of 
the  sun  motor  described  and  illustrated  in  NATURE,  vol. 
xxxi.  p.  217,  attracted  the  special  attention  of  landowners 
on  the  Pacific  coast  then  in  search  of  power  for  actuating 
the  machinery  needed  for  irrigating  their  sun-burnt  lands. 
But  the  mechanical  detail  connected  with  the  concen- 
tration at  a  single  point  of  the  power  developed  by 
a  series  of  reflectors  was  not  perfected  at  the  time ; 
nor  was  the  investigation  relating  to  atmospheric  diather- 
mancy sufficiently  advanced  to  determine  with  precision 
the  retardation  of  the  radiant  heat  caused  by  increased 
zenith  distance.  Consequently  no  contracts  for  building 
sun  motors  could  then  be  entered  into,  a  circumstance 
which  greatly  discouraged  the  enterprising  Californian 
agriculturists  prepared  to  carry  out  forthwith  an  extensive 
system  of  irrigation.  In  the  meantime  a  simple  methcd 
of  concentrating  the  power  of  many  reflectors  at  a  given 
point  has  been  perfected,  while  the  retardation  of  solar 
energy  caused  by  increased  zenith  distance  has  been 
accurately  determined,  and  found  to  be  so  inconsiderable 
that  it  does  not  interfere  with  the  development  of  constant 
solar  power  during  the  eight  hours  called  for. 

The  new  motor  being  thus  perfected,  and  first-class 
manufacturing  establishments  ready  to  manufacture  such 
machines,  owners  of  the  sun-burnt  lands  on  the  Pacific 
coast  may  now  with  propriety  reconsider  their  grand 
scheme  of  irrigation  by  means  of  sun  power. 

John  Ericsson. 


THE  WHITE  RACE  OF  PALESTINE. 

ON  the  occasion  of  my  first  visit  to  Palestine  I  was 
struck  by  the  number  of  blue-eyed,  fair-haired 
children  whom  I  met  with  in  the  towns  and  villages, 
more  especially  in  the  mountainous  parts  of  the  country. 
At  the  t  me  I  supposed  them  to  be  the  descendants  of  the 
Crusaders  or  of  the  other  natives  of  Northern  Europe  who 
found  their  way  to  the  Holy  Land  during  the  Middle 
Ages.  But  a  new  light  has  recently  been  thrown  on  the 
matter  by  the  ethnological  observations  made  by  Mr. 
Flinders  Petrie  in  Egypt. 

The  winter  before  last  Mr.  Petrie  was  commissioned 
by  the  British  Association  to  take  casts  and  photographs 
of  the  ethnological  types  represented  on  the  Egyptian 
monuments,  and  to  note,  wherever  it  was  possible,  the 
colour  of  the  skin,  eyes,  and  hair.  It  was  not  the  first 
time,  however,  that  notes  of  the  kind  had  been  taken. 
Some  years  ago,  Osburn,  a  careful  observer,  had  noticed 
that  in  the  sculptures  of  Ramses  II.  at  Abu-Simbel  "  the 
Shasu  of  Kanana  "  were  depicted  with  blue  eyes,  and  red 
hair,  eyebrows,  and  beard,  and  the  Amaur  with  "  the  eyes 
blue,  the  eyebrows  and  beard  red."  As  "  the  Shasu  of 
Kanana  "  lived  a  little  to  the  south  of  Hebron,  while  the 
Amaur  are  the  Amorites  of  the  Old  Testament,  it  was 
clear  that  a  population  existed  in  Palestine  in  the 
fourteenth  century  before  our  era  which  had  all  the 
characteristics  of  the  white  race. 

Mr.  Petrie's  observations  have  abundantly  verified 
this  conclusion.  He  finds  that,  on  the  walls  of  a  Theban 
tcmb,  the  chief  of  Kadesh  on  the  Crontes  is  painted  with 
a  white  skin,  and  light  red-brown  hair.  Kadesh  was  the 
southern  capital  of  the  Hittites,  after  their  invasion  of 
Syria,  but  the  Egyptian  inscriptions  describe  it  as  being 
'' in  the  land  of  Amaur";  and  that  its  chief  must  have 
been  an  Amorite  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  Hittites 
are  depicted  with  yellow  or  orange  skins,  their  hair  being 
black,  and  their  eyes  dark. 

The  physiognomy  of  the  Hittites  and  Amorites,  more- 
over, differed  widely.  The  Egyptian  artists  agree  with 
the  native  Hittite  monuments  in  representing  the  former 


322 


NATURE 


\August  2,  1888 


with  ugly  protrusive  profile,  and  Mongoloid  features,  the 
hair  being  arranged  at  the  back  of  the  head  in  a  sort  of 
"  pig-tail."  The  Amaur  or  Amorites,  on  the  other  hand, 
are  a  handsome  people,  tall,  and  dolichocephalic,  with 
large  sub-aquiline  noses,  and  a  short  pointed  beard  at  the 
end  of  the  chin.  The  defenders  of  "  the  fort  of  Amaur" 
are  represented  as  having  been  burnt  a  light  pink-red  by 
the  action  of  the  sun.  Otherwise  the  skin  is  white  or 
"sallow." 

We  learn,  then,  from  the  ancient  monuments  of  Egypt 
that  a  portion  of  Palestine  was  occupied  by  a  white  race 
before  its  conquest  by  the  Israelites.  And  they  further 
inform  us  that  this  white  race  continued  to  exist  in  the 
country  after  the  conquest.  The  physical  characteristics 
of  the  captives  taken  by  Shishak  in  the  time  of  Rehoboam 
from  the  cities  of  Judah  have  Amorite  and  not  Jewish 
features.  There  is  nothing  in  common  between  them  and 
the  tribute-bearers  of  Jehu,  who  are  depicted  on  the  black 
obelisk  from  Nimroud,  now  in  the  British  Museum,  with 
faces  of  a  most  typically  Jewish  cast.  In  the  tenth 
century  before  our  era,  consequently,  the  bulk  of  the 
population  in  the  southern  part  of  Judaea  must  have  been 
of  Amorite  origin. 

It  is  not  wonderful,  therefore,  if  we  find  traces  of  the 
same  population  still  surviving  in  Palestine.  There  is  no 
need  of  explaining  their  existence  by  a  theory  of  their 
descent  from  the  Crusaders.  The  survival  of  the  ancient 
white  race  of  Palestine  is  parallel  to  the  survival  of  the 
ancient  white  race  of  Northern  Africa,  now  generally 
known  among  French  writers  under  the  name  of  Kabyles. 
The  Kabyles  were  at  one  time  imagined  to  be  the 
descendants  of  the  Vandals,  but  we  now  know  that  they 
have  inhabited  the  southern  coast  of  the  Mediterranean 
since  the  later  Neolithic  age.  They  are  the  Libyans  of 
antiquity,  represented  on  the  Egyptian  monuments, 
like  the  Amorites,  with  white  skins,  blue  eyes,  and 
dolichocephalic  skulls,  and  similarly  described  by  classical 
writers.  They  extended  into  Teneriffe  and  the  Canary 
Islands,  and  their  long-headed  skulls  have  been  disinterred 
from  the  dolmens  of  Northern  Africa. 

To  the  traveller  who  sees  them  for  the  first  time 
the  Kabyles  offer  a  striking  appearance.  Their  clear 
white  skins,  covered  with  freckles,  their  blue  eyes  and 
light  hair,  remind  him  of  the  so-called  "  Red  Kelts"  he 
has  met  with  in  an  Irish  village.  They  bear  a  high 
reputation  for  physical  courage  and  love  of  independence, 
though  at  the  same  time  they  seem  to  be  an  orderly 
people.  But  they  have  two  characteristics  which  they 
share  with  the  white  race  of  Northern  Europe.  They  are 
mountaineers,  the  climate  of  the  African  plains  being 
apparently  too  hot  for  them,  and  they  are  distinguished 
by  their  tall  stature. 

These  were  equally  the  characteristics  of  the  Amorites 
of  ancient  Palestine.  The  Jews  declared  that  their 
"  height  was  like  the  height  of"  the  cedar,"  the  Semitic 
tribes  by  the  side  of  them  seeming  to  be  but  "  grass- 
hoppers," and  the  iron  couch  of  Og,  the  Amorite  king  of 
Bashan,  preserved  at  Rabbath,  afterwards  the  capital  of 
Ammon,  excited  the  wonder  of  later  generations  on 
account  of  its  size. 

The  Amorites  also  occupied  the  whole  of  the  moun- 
tainous district  of  Syria  and  Palestine  from  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Kadesh  in  the  north  to  the  desert  southward 
of  Judah,  and  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Jordan  they 
founded  the  two  kingdoms  of  Bashan  and  Heshbon.  In 
the  mountains  of  Moab  and  Seir  they  formed  the  abori- 
ginal population,  partially  dispossessed  by  the  Semitic 
tribes  of  Moab,  Ammon,  and  Edom,  and  the  name  of 
Horile  under  which  they  went  in  Edom  is  best  explained 
as  meaning  "  white,"  in  contradistinction  to  the  Semitic 
Edomite  or  "red-man."  A  passage  in  the  Pentateuch 
(Numbers  xiii.  29)  expressly  states  that  along  with  the 
Hittites  and  Jebusites  they  inhabited  the  mountainous 
region,  while  the  Canaanites  dwelt  on  the  coast  and  the 


valley  of  the  Jordan.  That  Jebusite  simply  means  a 
cross  between  Hittite  and  Amorite  is  clear  from  the 
statement  of  Ezekiel  (xvi.  3,  4,  5)  that  Jerusalem,  whose 
old  name  of  Jebus  gave  rise  to  that  of  Jebusite,  was  born 
of  a  Hittite  mother  and  an  Amorite  father.  The  Egyp- 
tian monuments  bear  witness  to  the  same  "  interlocking  " 
of  Hittite  and  Amorite. 

There  is  yet  a  third  characteristic  which  has  been 
ascribed  to  the  white  race  of  Northern  Europe.  It  has 
been  brought  into  close  connection  with  the  dolmens 
which  cover  so  large  a  part  of  its  territory.  Faidherbe 
and  others  have  traced  a  continuous  line  of  dolmens  of 
similar  construction  along  the  northern  coast  of  Africa, 
through  Spain,  Portugal,  and  France,  into  the  British 
Isles.  No  one,  indeed,  who  has  examined  the  famous 
dolmens  of  Roknia,  in  Algeria,  can  fail  to  be  struck  by 
their  resemblance  to  the  sepulchral  cromlechs  of  our 
own  country.  If  they  are  really  due  to  the  genius  and 
influence  of  a  single  race,  it  would  seem  that  the  race 
moved  from  north  to  south,  since  the  objects  found  in 
the  dolmens  of  the  south  of  France  betray  a  more 
advanced  stage  of  culture  than  those  found  in  the 
north. 

The  chief  objection  hitherto  raised  against  ascribing 
these  dolmens  to  the  white  race  with  whom  they  are 
associated  has  been  that  similar  megalithic  monuments 
exist  in  Palestine.  Over  700  have  been  discovered  in 
Moab  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Jordan.  Major  Conder 
has  drawn  attention  to  others  in  the  basaltic  region  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  the  ancient  Dan,  and  though  none 
have  as  yet  been  observed  in  Judah,  this  is  probably  due 
to  the  fact  that  the  attention  of  travellers  has  not  been 
called  to  them.  I  have  myself  come  across  a  fine 
specimen  on  a  hill  to  the  south  of  Jenin  which  had  been 
overlooked  by  the  Palestine  Survey,  and  that  megalithic 
structures  once  existed  in  Judah  is  evident  from  the 
occurrence  in  the  Old  Testament  of  names  like  Gilgal  or 
"  Stone-circle,"  and  Ai  or  "cairn"  (Joshua  viii.  29).  It 
will  be  noticed  that  they  are  especially  plentiful  on  the 
eastern  side  of  the  Jordan,  where  the  two  chief  Amorite 
kingdoms  once  flourished.  Just  as  the  dolmens  of 
Northern  Africa  were  the  burial-places  of  the  ancestors  of 
the  Kabyles,  so  tradition  affirmed  that  the  Amorite  king 
of  Ai  had  been  buried  beneath  a  cairn  of  stones. 

The  discovery  that  the  Amorites  of  Palestine  were 
racially  allied  to  the  ancient  Libyans  opens  up  ethnolo- 
gical and  archaeological  questions  of  considerable  interest. 
These  cannot  be  touched  upon  here,  but  must  be  reserved 
for  a  future  occasion.  It  is  sufficient  for  the  present  to 
have  drawn  attention  to  a  new  and  curious  ethnological 
fact.  A  H.  Sayce. 


ENGINEERING  SCHOOLS. 

A  T  a  time  when  so  much  is  being  said  about  the  need 
J^*-  for  technical  education,  especially  in  engineering, 
the  following  letter  will  be  read  with  interest  : — 

Engineering  School,  Trinity  College,  Dublin, 
June  1888. 

Dear  Lord  Ashbourne,— As  you  have  requested  me 
to  draw  up  a  statement  of  the  claims  of  engineering 
schools  to  be  recognized  by  the  Civil  Service  Com- 
missioners as  affording  part  at  least  of  the  technical 
training  required  of  candidates  for  engineering  Civil 
Service  appointments,  I  send  you  the  following  account. 

Allow  me,  in  the  first  place,  to  state  that  I  am  not 
advocating  the  claims  of  our  Engineering  School  here  as 
in  any  way  distinct  from  that  of  many  other  excellent 
engineering  schools  that  exist.  For  instance,  the  Indian 
Government  is  so  fully  convinced  of  the  absolute  necessity 
for  a  proper  technical  school  training  for  engineers  that 
it  requires  all  candidates  for  Indian  engineering  appoint- 


August  2,  1888] 


NATURE 


323 


ments  to  go  through  Cooper's  Hill  Engineering  School  ; 
and  yet  the  Home  Civil  Service  do  not  in  any  way  even 
recognize  the  very  same  technical  training  given  to  other 
students  who  stay  at  home  as  of  any  value  at  all. 

The  instruction  given  in  engineering  schools  is  of  two 
kinds : — 

I.  Lectures  and  demonstrations  in  mathematics,  me- 
chanics, physics,  chemistry,  geology,  &c.  ;  and  in  the 
theory  and  practice  of  engineering,  surveying,  &c,  &c. 

II.  Practical  training — 

(a)  Practical  work  in  laboratories  and  workshops  in 
mechanics,  machines,  physics,  chemistry,  and  field-work 
in  geology. 

{b)  Drawing  and  office  work,  including  designing, 
making  out  specifications,  taking  out  quantities,  &c,  &c. 
(c)  Practical  surveying,  and  all  manner  of  field  work. 
\d)  Inspection  of  works  in  progress. 
It  will  be  observed  what  a  large  and  important  part  of 
the  training  given  in  a  school  cannot  be  obtained  in 
an  office  at  all.  All  the  instruction  in  mathematics, 
mechanics,  physics,  chemistry,  geology,  &c,  and  in  the 
theory  of  engineering,  and  all  the  important  practical 
laboratory  training  in  these  subjects,  can  only  be  obtained 
in  a  school  ;  and  unless  an  engineer  has  been  properly 
and  practically  taught  these  things  before  entering  on  his 
profession,  it  is  almost  certain  that  he  will  never  learn 
them.  In  the  other  more  especially  engineering  parts  of 
the  course  there  are  several  great  advantages  in  the 
school  course  over  the  office  course.  In  the  school,  in 
the  first  place,  the  student  is  under  the  constant  instruc- 
tion of  teachers  whose  time  is  devoted  to  instructing  the 
student,  and  explaining  to  him  the  principles  upon  which 
his  work  depends  ;  and,  in  the  second  place,  the  course  of 
instruction  covers  as  wide  a  range  of  subjects  as  is  con- 
sistent with  teaching  each  properly.  In  the  office,  in  the 
first  place,  the  apprentice  has  to  pick  up  what  instruction 
he  can,  and  is  generally  content  with  a  rule-of-thumb 
knowledge,  that  may  desert  him  at  any  really  critical 
juncture  ;  and,  in  the  second  place,  in  any  one  office  the 
work  is  yearly  becoming  more  specialized,  so  that  an 
apprentice  will  have  experience  of  only  a  small  range  of 
subjects,  and,  not  being  acquainted  with  the  theory  of 
even  these,  will  be  incompetent  to  engage  in  other  work. 

There  are,  of  course,  certain  things,  such  as  facility  in 
numerical  calculation,  and  perhaps  in  the  use  of  field- 
instruments,  acquaintance  with  the  details  of  specifica- 
tions in  a  particular  class  of  work,  familiarity  with  prices 
at  a  particular  time,  and  an  opportunity  of  seeing  designs 
carried  into  execution,  which  cannot  be  as  well  obtained 
in  school  as  on  works  The  object  of  a  school  being  to 
teach,  and  of  works  being  to  pay,  neither  can  completely 
supply  the  place  of  the  other.  As  a  course  of  technical 
training  for  a  young  engineer,  the  school  course  is  out  of 
all  proportion  the  more  important.  What  can  be  learnt 
from  the  office  course  will  certainly  be  acquired,  while 
what  can  be  learnt  from  the  school  course  will  hardly 
ever  be  acquired,  unless  learnt  before  beginning  the 
practice  of  his  profession.  In  this  age  of  technical  edu- 
cation it  is  practically  certain  that  in  a  few  years  no 
engineer  will  be  recognized  as  such  unless  he  has  had  a 
proper  technical  school  education,  just  as  in  the  medical 
profession  it  has  long  ago  been  recognized  that,  without 
a  proper  medical  school  education,  it  is  impossible  for  a 
doctor  to  learn  the  many  sciences  upon  which  the  suc- 
cessful practice  of  his  profession  necessarily  depends. 

Eminent  engineers  who  have  had  experience  of  students 
taught  in  engineering  schools  hold  opinions  similar  to 
those  here  enunciated.  Our  late  Professor  of  Engineering, 
Mr.  Crawford,  whose  engineering  experience  is  world- 
wide, is  of  this  opinion.  Mr.  Bindon  B.  Stoney,  Engineer 
to  the  Dublin  Port  and  Docks  Board,  is  of  the  ssme 
opinion.  Both  these  have  had  experience  of  school- 
trained  students,  and  think  that  the  proper  course  for  a 
young  engineer  to  pursue  is  to  go  through  a  course  of 


instruction  in  a  properly-equipped  school,  and  then  to  go 
for  a  year  on  works.  They  consider  that  a  year  on  works 
is  required  to  complete  the  education  of  an  engineer,  and 
they  think  that  a  short  time  on  works  is  quite  sufficient  for 
a  student  who  has  already  gone  through  an  engineering 
school.  Mr.  Stoney,  for  instance,  takes  students  who 
have  been  through  an  engineering  school  as  apprentices 
for  one  year,  although  he  will  not  take  untrained 
apprentices  for  so  short  a  term. 

Foreign  Governments  in  general  require  all  who  profess 
to  practise  as  engineers  to  go  through  a  proper  technical 
school  training,  and  it  is  a  serious  difficulty  in  the  way  of 
English  engineers  who  endeavour  to  obtain  employment 
on  the  Continent  that,  even  though  they  may  have  been 
trained  in  an  excellent  school,  yet  this  is  not  recognized 
by  foreign  Governments,  because  our  engineering  schools 
are  in  no  way  recognized  by  our  own  Government. 

The  Civil  Service  Commissioners  should  endeavour  to 
encourage  the  proper  scientific  training  of  the  engineers 
they  receive  into  the  public  service,  and  they  can  do  so  by 
recognizing  the  years  spent  in  an  engineering  school  as 
equivalent  to  the  same  number  of  years  of  the  technical 
training  that  is  now  required.  In  the  more  important 
appointments,  which  at  present  require  five  years' technical 
training,  the  candidate  would  have  to  supplement  his 
school  course  by  an  office  course  of  at  least  two  years  ; 
and  this,  in  the  opinion  of  eminent  engineers,  as  quoted 
above,  would  be  amply  sufficient.  In  the  case  of  the  less 
important  appointments,  the  school  training  is  probably 
much  better  than  what  satisfies  the  Commissioners  at 
present  ;  but  if  it  is  thought  that  the  special  qualifications 
of  an  office-trained  apprentice  are  essential,  they  can 
be  easily  secured  by  requiring  in  every  case  at  least  one 
year's  office  experience. 

The  Civil  Service  Commissioners  should,  before  recog- 
nizing any  engineering  school  as  giving  the  instruction 
qualifying  a  candidate  to  compete  for  an  appointment, 
inspect  the  school,  and  see  that  it  is  properly  equipped, 
and  has  the  means  and  teachers  required  to  teach  what  it 
professes.  For  instance,  in  some  schools  there  is  no 
special  instruction  in  architecture,  and  this  special  teaching 
should  be  required  of  any  school  that  was  recognized  as 
qualifying  candidates  for  specially  architectural  appoint- 
ments. Similarly,  in  the  case  of  mechanical  engineering, 
some  schools  have  not  the  means  of  teaching  it  properly, 
and  these  schools  should  not  be  recognized  as  qualifying 
candidates  for  specially  mechanical  engineering  appoint- 
ments. A  school  that  teaches  civil  engineering  should  be 
recognized  as  such,  and  only  as  such  ;  and  similarly,  one 
that  only  teaches  mechanical  engineering  should  be 
recognized  only  as  such  In  the  case  of  medical  appoint- 
ments, the  State  recognition  of  schools  is  already  fully 
carried  out,  so  that  there  can  be  no  insuperable  difficulty 
in  doing  the  same  in  the  case  of  the  engineering 
appointments. 

If  the  Civil  Service  Commissioners  require  further 
information  as  to  the  instruction  imparted  in  engineering 
schools,  it  would  be  well  for  them  to  inspect  University 
College,  London,  the  City  and  Guilds  of  London  Institute, 
and  Cooper's  Hill,  all  of  which  are  easy  of  access  from 
London  ;  and  if  they  require  further  information  they  had 
better  appoint  some  competent  Committee  to  inspect  and 
report  to  them  generally  as  to  the  training  given  in 
engineering  schools,  and  as  to  whether  they  give  a 
technical  training  that  the  Civil  Service  Commissioners 
would  recognize  as  equivalent  to  some  years  spent  in  an 
office;  and,  if -not,  how  the  schools  should  modify  their 
courses  so  as  to  give  this  instruction.  Statements  as  to 
the  nature  and  value  of  instruction  made  by  those 
interested  in  it  and  responsible  for  it  are  not  so  valuable 
as  independent  testimony. 

In  conclusion,  I  would  earnestly  press  upon  the  Civil 
Service  Commissioners  the  very  great  desirability  of  their 
encouraging  scientifically-trained  candidates  to  apply  for 


24 


NATURE 


[August  2, 


appointments  in  the  Civil  Service.  The  application  of 
scientific  principles  to  engineering  is  the  special  feature 
of  our  age,  and  instruction  in  these  principles,  and 
practical  training  in  their  application,  should  be  part  of 
the  training  of  every  engineer ;  and  this  can  only  be 
acquired  in  a  properly-equipped  school.  A  want  of 
familiarity  with  details  will  surely  be  remedied,  but  a 
want  of  scientific  knowledge  will  be  a  lasting  cause  of 
danger  to  the  public. 

Yours  very  truly, 

George  Francis  Fitzgerald. 


THE  GAPE   WORM  OF  FOWLS  (SYNGAMUS 
TRACHEALIS). 

IN  the  Bulletin  of  the  Buffalo  So-iety  of  Natural 
Sciences,  vol.  v.  No.  2,  1886-7,  is  a  paper  by  Dr. 
H.  D.  Walker,  which  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
noticed  in  this  country,  on  "  The  Gape  Worm  of  Fowls 
{Syngamus  irachealis)."  The  writer  claims  to  have  dis- 
covered that  the  common  earthworm  (Lumbricus  ter- 
restris)  is  the  intermediate  host  of  this  well-known 
parasite,  and  to  have  observed  it  in  all  stages  of  its 
development.  He  further  suggests  the  use  of  common 
salt  on  infected  poultry  runs  to  secure  the  extermination 
of  these  noxious  pests  by  destroying  the  worms  which 
harbour  and  distribute  them. 

The  series  of  experiments  by  which  he  has  arrived  at 
his  conclusions  are  interesting,  and  afford  strong  presum- 
tive  evidence  of  their  correctness.  The  earthworms  were 
carefully  dissected  and  examined,  the  embryonic  form  of 
Syngamiis  being  found  in  them,  "  differing  but  slightly  in 
structure,  so  far  as  can  be  discovered  from  the  embryo 
which  has  passed  through  one  moult  after  the  egg  has 
hatched  in  water." 

The  question  may  be  asked :  Why  should  it  differ  at 
all  if  it  is  the  same?  It  may  be  suggested  that  earth- 
worms are  themselves  subject  to  various  intestinal  para- 
sites and  that  the  embryonic  forms  of  many  species  and 
even  genera  are  scarcely  distinguishable  from  each  other; 
but  with  a  view  to  obtaining  corroborative  evidence  Dr. 
Walker  fed  some  chickens  with  worms  obtained  from  a 
place  where  Syngamiis  had  not  been  noticed.  These 
chickens  did  not  develop  the  gapes.  An  examination  of 
worms  from  this  spot  showed  them  to  be  free  from 
embryos  such  as  were  found  in  others.  The  double 
observation  certainly  points  to  the  probability  that  in  the 
first  instance  the  embryo  of  Syngamus  had  been  rightly 
recognized. 

Embryos  were  also  found  in  the  oesophagus  and  in  the 
lungs  of  birds  to  which  earthworms  taken  from  an  infected 
locality,  but  carefully  washed  and  cleansed  externally,  had 
been  given. 

The  only  link  apparently  wanting  to  complete  the  chain 
of  evidence  is  to  determine  the  manner  in  which  the 
parasite  (if  it  be  truly  the  embryo  of  Syngamus)  makes 
its  way  into  the  intestinal  canal  of  the  earthworm. 

Dr.  Walker  concludes  that  it  is  taken  in  with  its  food. 
His  evidence  upon  this  point  is  chiefly  negative.  Eggs  of 
Syngamus  were  placed  on  damp  earth  in  a  dish  to  which 
living  earthworms  were  added  a  fortnight  later.  After 
ten  days  chickens  were  fed  with  these  worms,  but  were  not 
attacked.  This  experiment  would  have  been  more  com- 
plete and  perhaps  conclusive  if  the  worms  had  been 
supplied  at  the  same  time  with  vegetable  food.  Unless 
the  worms  were  fed,  the  only  means  of  entry  for  the 
embryos  of  the  parasite  must  have  been  by  boring  through 
the  outer  integument  of  their  bodies,  which  is  not 
suggested. 

Dr.  Walker  notices  and  examines  somewhat  critically  a 
paper  by  Dr.  Pierre  Megnin,  published  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Entomological  Society  of  London  in  1883, 


in  which  the  author,  after  a  minute  inquiry  into  the 
history,  habits,  and  development  of  Syngamus  trachealis, 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  epidemic  of  gapes  is 
spread,  first  by  "  food  or  drink  which  has  become  infested 
with  eggs  or  embryos  ;  secondly,  (by)  the  diseased  birds 
themselves,  which  are  constantly  disseminating  the  eggs 
of  the  parasite  ;  and  therefore  all  other  living  agents, 
perfect  insects,  larvae,  or  mollusks  (for  example,  the  larvae 
of  ants,  which  are  the  habitual  food  of  young  pheasants, 
have  been  suspected,  with  some  appearance  of  reason) 
may  be  acquitted  of  any  share  in  spreading  the  disease." 
The  American  author  disputes  these  conclusions.  Admit- 
ting that  the  eggs  will  hatch  in  water,  and  that  the 
embryos  may  be  taken  in  by  birds  drinking  infected  water, 
he  finds  no  instance,  after  repeated  experiments,  in 
which  eggs  swallowed  by  a  bird  have  produced  the 
disease,  and  although  he  thinks  that  exceptional  cases 
might  occur,  he  concludes  that  the  instrumentality  of  the 
intermediate  host  is  not  ordinarily  dispensed  with.  This 
is  the  only  material  point  in  which  Walker  differs  from 
Megnin,  and  there  is  nothing  in  Walker's  discoveries  to 
impair  the  accuracy  of  Megnin's  observations,  so  far  as 
they  go.  Dr.  Walker's  observations  on  the  structure  and 
development  of  the  parasite  from  the  egg  through  its 
embryonic  stages  agree  substantially  in  all  other  respects 
with  those  of  Dr.  Mignin,  except  that  he  believes  "the  egg 
of  Syngamus  within  the  perfect  worm  just  arrived  at 
maturity  does  not  contain  a  developed  embryo,"  whereas 
Megnin  found  ''  embryos  quite  perfect  and  living  in  eggs 
not  yet  freed  from  the  decomposing  bodies  of  female 
Syngami  attached  to  the  tracheal  mucous  of  pheasants 
that' had  died  of  gapes." 

The  discovery  of  the  distribution  of  these  parasites 
through  the  instrumentality  of  earthworms,  which  are  un- 
doubtedly a  favourite  food  of  all  young  game  birds,  as 
well  as  of  domestic  fowls,  is  especially  interesting  to 
game  preservers,  and  the  theory  is  strongly  supported  by 
their  experience. 

First,  if,  as  Dr.  Megnin  believed,  the  eggs  could  be 
hatched  only  in  water,  a  gamekeeper  could  have  counted 
upon  reducing  to  a  minimum  the  risk  to  his  artificially- 
reared  birds  by  deprhing  them  of  water  and  feeding 
them  upon  food  carefully  moistened  with  pure  spring 
water  only,  or  more  conveniently,  upon  avater  that  had 
been  first  boiled.  Many  have  followed  this  rule  habi- 
tually and  with  good  results,  but  certainly  without  se- 
curing any  immunity  from  occasional  outbreaks  of  the 
"  gapes  disease."  Secondly,  all  who  have  had  any  exper- 
ience in  rearing  pheasants  or  paitridges,  or  have  observed 
the  growth  and  health  of  broods  of  the  young  of  these 
birds  in  a  wild  state,  must  have  noticed  that  very  dry 
summers  are  much  more  favourable  to  the  maturing  of 
full  broods  and  coveys  than  those  in  which  a  greater 
degree  of  moisture  prevails,  but  if  after  very  dry  weather 
copious  showers  or  very  heavy  dews  moisten  the  surface 
of  the  ground  when  the  birds  have  not  yet  attained  their 
full  growth,  an  outbreak  of  gapes  is  almost  certain  to 
follow,  and  is  very  rapid  in  its  effects.  So  long  as  the 
ground  is  hard  and  dry  earthworms  do  not  come  to  the 
surface,  but  whenever  it  becomes  sufficiently  moistened 
to  permit  them  to  throw  up  their  casts  and  to  reach  the 
surface,  all  species  of  birds  of  which  they  form  a  natural 
or  favourite  food  are  eager  to  seek  and  to  devour  them. 
The  birds  named  by  Dr.  Walker  as  those  in  which 
Syngamus  has  been  found  are,  with  the  single  exception 
of  the  swift,  all  worm-eating  birds.  He  does  not  mention 
on  what  authority  the  swift  is  included  in  the  list,  but  it  is 
difficult)  to  understand,  if  water  is  to  be  regarded  as  the 
only  medium  of  conveyance  for  this  parasitic  disease, 
why  many  other  birds  should  not  also  have  been  found 
to  be  affected  by  it.  We  believe  Dr.  W'alker's  discovery 
has  been  received  in  America  with  some  incredulity,  but 
apart  from  the  careful  observations  and  experiments  on 
which  he  relies,  the  accuracy  of  which  there  seems  to  be 


August  2,  1888] 


NATURE 


325 


no  good  reason  to  dispute,  the  field  experience  of  those 
who  have  had  the  best  opportunities  of  forming  an 
opinion  on  the  subject  would  tend  to  support  the  proba- 
bility that  his  conclusions  are  in  the  main  correct. 

Walsingham. 


NOTES. 

Men  of  science  will  be  glad  to  learn  that,  at  a  meeting  recently 
held  at  Dr.  George  Johnson's  house,  it  was  proposed  to  make 
Sir  William  Bowman  some  acknowledgment  of  the  appreciation 
in  which  he  is  held  on  account  of  his  high  character,  and  pro- 
fessional and  scientific  attainments.  A  portrait  of  himself  was 
suggested,  and  also,  possibly,  a  reprint  of  some  of  his  publica- 
tions. Dr.  George  Johnson,  Mr.  J.  W.  Hulke,  and  Prof. 
Burdon  Sanderson  undertook  to  see  Sir  William  Bowman,  and 
ask  his  acceptance  of  the  proposal.  This  consent  having  been 
received,  a  Provisional  Committee  was  at  once  constituted,  at 
whose  invitation  a  number  of  eminent  men  of  science  formed 
themselves  into  the  first  list  of  the  "Committee  of  the  Bowman 
Testimonial  Fund."  As  this  body  is  already  large  and  widely 
scattered,  the  practical  carrying  out  of  the  scheme  has  been 
relegated  to  a  Sub-Committee,  consisting  of  the  Treasurer  (Dr. 
George  Johnson),  the  Secretaries  (Dr.  W.  A.  Brailey  and  Dr. 
W.  H.  Jessop),  Mr.  Power,  and  Prof.  Klein.  It  is  not  pro- 
posed to  place  any  limit  in  either  direction  to  the  amounts  of 
individual  subscriptions,  though  the  Committee  are  generally  of 
opinion  that  large  subscriptions  will  be  found  unnecessary,  and 
that  the  compliment  is  a  greater  one  when  paid  by  a  longer  list 
of  comparatively  small  subscriptions.  They  also  hope  that  the 
funds  will  allow  the  distribution  of  a  good  reproduction  of  the 
portrait  to  subscribers  of  at  least  two  guineas.  Mr.  Frank  Holl, 
whose  sudden  death  is  deeply  deplored  by  all  who  interest 
themselves  in  English  art,  had  undertaken  to  paint  the  portrait. 

In  the  House  of  Commons  on  Tuesday  Sir  H.  Roscoe  asked 
the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  whether  the  astronomical 
instruments  for  the  international  photographic  survey  of  the 
heavens,  recommended  by  the  Royal  Societies  of  London  and 
Edinburgh  and  the  Board  of  Visitors  of  the  Greenwich  Observa- 
tory, the  estimates  for  which  had  been  forwarded  from  the 
Admiralty  some  months  since  to  the  Treasury,  were  yet  ordered  ; 
and,  if  not,  whether,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  all  the  thirteen 
•other  sets  of  instruments  were  ordered  by  foreign  and  colonial 
Governments  last  year,  and  consequently  the  British  Observa- 
tories would  be  placed  at  a  serious  disadvantage,  Her  Majesty's 
Government  would  be  prepared  to  put  the  necessary  amount  on 
the  Estimates  in  order  to  avoid  further  delay.  To  these  ques- 
tions the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  returned  the  following 
answer: — "The  astronomical  instruments  required  for  the 
international  photographic  survey  of  the  heavens  have  not  yet 
been  ordered,  and  the  House  will  soon  be  asked  to  vote  the 
necessary  funds.  It  is,  I  believe,  the  case  that  thirteen  instru- 
ments have  been  already  ordered  by  different  Powers  and  public 
bodies,  but  the  hon.  member  is  mistaken  in  supposing  that  all 
the  Powers  whose  co-operation  is  contemplated  have  as  yet 
ordered  their  instruments.  On  the  contrary,  two  of  the  Great 
Powers,  so  far  from  ordering  their  instruments,  have  not  yet 
definitely  declared  their  intention  to  take  part  in  the  work.  I 
do  not  think  there  is  any  cause  to  fear  that  Great  Britain  will  be 
behindhand  in  the  matter." 

Among  the  Civil  List  pensions  granted  during  the  year  ended 
June  20,  1888,  were  the  following  : — To  the  Rev.  F.  O.  Morris, 
in  recognition  of  his  merits  as  a  naturalist,  ;£ioo  ;  to  Mr. 
William  Kitchen  Parker,  F.R.S.,  in  recognition  of  his  services 
to  science  as  an  investigator,  .£100 ;  to  Mrs.  Balfour  Stewart, 
in  recognition  of  the  services  rendered  to  science  by  her  late 
husband,  £$0. 


The  summer  meeting  of  the  Institution  of  Mechanical 
Engineers  was  opened  at  Dublin  on  Tuesday.  In  his  Presi- 
dential address,  Mr.  Carbutt  did  not  confine  his  remarks  to 
purely  mechanical  subjects,  but  drew  the  attention  of  the 
members  to  some  statistics  relating  to  the  population  of  Ireland 
and  to  Irish  agriculture  and  industries.  Mr.  Carbutt  expressed 
a  decided  opinion  to  the  effect  that  more  money  should  be  spent 
in  Ireland  on  education,  and  especially  on  technical  education. 
"What  I  mean  by  technical  training,"  he  said,  "is  teaching 
children  to  use  their  hands  and  eyes,  and  also  giving  them  such 
practical  acquaintance  with  the  applied  sciences  as  may  bear 
upon  the  industrial  employments  in  their  district.  I  hope  the 
valuable  speech  on  the  need  of  technical  education,  made  by  the 
Marquess  of  Hartington  at  our  annual  dinner  in  May,  will  be 
widely  read.  I  may  refer  to  the  work  done  in  the  agricultural 
school  at  Glasnevin,  three  miles  out  of  Dublin,  of  which  Mr. 
Carrol  is  the  head.  To  this  school  is  attached  a  farm  of  180 
acres  for  teaching  practical  farming.  The  Munster  dairy  school, 
started  in  1880  with  a  farm  of  126  acres,  is  quite  full,  and 
frequently  has  to  refuse  pupils.  The  Government  grant  to  these 
two  schools  is  ^2671.  The  Baltimore  industrial  school,  the 
Public  Works  Commissioners  state,  will  practically  be  a  technical 
school  of  fishing.  The  Belfast  technical  school  is  very  successful 
in  training  pupils  in  flax  cultivation  and  spinning.  Dairy  schools 
have  been  established  twenty  years  in  Denmark,  Sweden, 
Germany,  and  Normandy.  Let  me  give  an  example  of  what  the 
result  has  been  in  Denmark.  A  Report  on  agricultural  dairy 
schools  has  been  lately  presented  to  Parliament  from  a  Depart- 
mental Commission  presided  over  by  Sir  R.  H.  Paget,  M.P., 
which  states  that  in  i860  the  British  Vice-Consul  at  Copenhagen 
reported  that  the  butter  made  in  that  country  was  execrably  bad. 
What  has  happened  ?  Denmark  has  now  ten  State-aided  dairy 
schools,  with  the  result  that  her  exports  of  butter  to  the  United 
Kingdom  have  increased  as  follows  : — 

1867     80,000  cwts.,  value  ^422,479 

1^77     210,322     „         ,,       i,347.79i 

1887     487,603     „         ,,       2,669,123 

In  France  theoretical  and  practical  lessons  in  agriculture  are  now 
given  every  week  in  the  primary  schools  ;  and  a  circular  has 
been  issued  inviting  the  municipalities  to  provide  for  every  dis- 
trict a  demonstration  plot  of  not  less  than  half  an  acre  for  the 
purpose  of  applying  the  principles  taught  in  the  school." 

Two  rather  striking  speeches  on  education  were  delivered  at 
the  Sorbonne  on  Monday  at  the  distribution  of  prizes  to  the  suc- 
cessful students  of  the  great  secondary  schools  of  Paris.  M. 
Blanchet,  Professor  of  History  at  the  Lycee  Charlemagne,  while 
expressing  a  high  opinion  of  the  value  of  the  ancient  classics  in 
education,  urged  that  methods  of  instruction  should  be  adapted 
to  the  actual  wants  of  the  present  day.  He  quoted  the  follow- 
ing passage  written  by  Fleury  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century  :  "It  seems  to  me  that  we  ought  to  accommodate  our 
studies  to  the  present  state  of  our  manners,  and  to  study  those 
things  which  are  of  use  in  the  world,  as  we  cannot  change  this 
use  so  as  to  accommodate  it  to  the  order  of  our  studies." 
"Truly,"  said  M.  Blanchet,  "these  old  pedagogues  were  great 
revolutionists.  What  is  new  in  the  history  of  French  pedagogism 
is  not  the  spirit  of  innovation  and  progress  but  that  of  routine." 
M.  Lockroy,  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  spoke  in  a 
similar  tone.  It  was  essential,  M.  Lockroy  pointed  out,  that 
Frenchmen  should  know  what  was  said  and  written  beyond  their 
frontiers.  Science  was  progressing  everywhere,  and  they  should 
be  able  to  follow  its  progress  abroad,  especially  in  Germany  and 
England.  That  was  one  reason  why  the  modern  languages  had 
such  a  strong  claim  on  the  young  of  this  generation.  M.  Lock- 
roy protested  against  the  notion  that  anyone  thought  of  destroy- 
ing Greek  and  Latin  studies.  But  these  studies  were  not  the 
only  solution  of  the  very  complicated  problem  of  modern  educa- 


326 


NA  TURE 


[August  2,  1888 


tion.  Accordingly,  he  had  thought  it  right  to  take  an  opportunity 
of  stating  that  the  problem  was  receiving  close  attention.  The 
University  was  anxious  to  study  it,  and  would  bring  to  the 
work  its  high  sentiment  of  duty,  and  its  passion  for  the  public 


On  Monday  Mr.  Howorth  asked  the  Under-Secretary  of  State 
for  Foreign  Affairs  whether,  in  view  of  the  continuous  and  de- 
plorable destruction  of  the  ancient  monuments  of  Egypt  by 
travellers  and  other?,  and  of  their  incomparable  value  and 
interest,  it  would  be  possible  to  appoint  some  Engineer  officer  to 
make  a  survey  of  those  monuments  and  to  have  custody  of  them 
in  future.  Sir  J.  Fergusson  replied  that  it  rested  with  the 
Egyptian  Government  to  take  the  necessary  measures.  A 
Special  Committee  had  been  appointed  to  consider  what  ought 
to  be  done  in  the  matter,  and  it  had  been  decided  to  levy  a 
small  fee  for  seeing  the  antiquities.  This  would  to  some 
extent  increase  the  sum  which  it  was  possible  to  devote  to  the 
preservation  of  ancient  monuments. 

There  is  no  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  great  variety  of 
uses  to  which  aluminium  might  be  applied  if  it  could  be  pro- 
duced in  sufficient  quantities  at  a  reasonable  cost.  Hitherto  it 
has  been  produced,  almost  entirely  in  France,  by  the  Deville 
process  ;  and  this  process  involves  so  considerable  an  expendi- 
ture that  the  results  have  been  by  no  means  satisfactory.  About 
seven  years  ago,  Mr.  H.  Y.  Castner,  of  New  York,  began 
experiments  in  that  city  with  a  view  to  improve  the  Devdle  pro- 
cess and  cheapen  the  cost  of  aluminium  by  reducing  the  cost  of 
producing  the  sodium  from  which  it  is  obtained.  Two  years 
since,  Mr.  Castner  erected  experimental  works  at  Lambeth, 
where  he  succeeded,  after  nearly  eighteen  months  of  further 
experimentation,  in  satisfying  a  number  of  men  of  science  and 
others  that  he  could  produce  sodium  at  one-fifth  and  aluminium 
at  one-third  of  the  cost  previou>ly  incurred.  A  company  was 
thereupon  formed  in  order  to  take  up  and  work  the  Castner 
patents.  In  October  last  the  foundation-stone  was  laid  of  new 
works  at  Oldbury,  near  Birmingham,  for  the  production  of  both 
sodium  and  aluminium  on  a  large  commercial  scale  ;  the  works 
were  virtually  completed,  and  the  successful  manufacture  of  these 
products  was  begun  about  a  fortnight  ago  ;  and  a  large  number 
of  gentlemen  were  invited  to  visit  the  works  on  Saturday  last, 
and  witness  the  processes  in  actual  operation.  Among  those 
who  accepted  the  invitation  to  be  pres  ent  were  the  Right  Hon. 
A.  J.  Balfour,  M,P.,  a  trustee  for  the  debenture-holders  ;  Sir 
Frederick  Abel,  C.B.,  F.R.S.  ;  Sir  Henry  Roscoe,  M.P., 
F.R.S.  ;  Lieut. -General  Sir  Andrew  Clarke,  G.C.M.G., 
C.B.  ;  Prof.  C.  Roberts-Austen,  F.R.S.,  of  the  Mint;  Prof. 
Dewar,  F.R.S.  ;  Dr.  Crookes,  F.R.S.  ;  Dr.  Hugo  Muller, 
F.R.S.  ;  Lord  Rayleigh,  F.R.S.  ;  Prof.  Huntingdon,  and 
others.  According  to  the  Times,  only  one  opinion  was  expressed 
by  the  gentlemen  who  visited  the  works — some  of  them  among 
the  highest  authorities  on  the  subject — as  to  the  practical 
success  of  all  the  operations  witnessed,  and  the  admirable 
arrangement  of  the  plant  employed.  Mr.  Castner  was  freely 
complimented  on  the  skill  and  success  with  which  he  had 
developed  his  system. 

Dr.  Hans  Reusch,  of  the  Norwegian  Meteorological  In- 
stitute, who  is  engaged  in  collecting  particulars  of  the  earth- 
quakes which  occur  in  Norway  yearly,  has  issued  his  report  for 
1887,  from  which  it  appears  that  earthquakes  are  far  more 
frequent  in  Norway  than  has  hitherto  been  imagined.  Reports 
were  received  of  twenty-three,  all  of  which  were  faint,  except 
three.  One  occurred  on  the  night  of  May  7  in  the  Bommel 
Islands,  on  the  west  coast,  and  was  accompanied  by  subterranean 
detonations,  another  in  the  Islands  of  Vsero  and  Rost,  at  the 
extreme  point  of  the  Lofodden  Group,  where  doors  and  win- 
dows clattered  and  the  slates  on  the  roofs  were  pitched  off. 
Again,  on  November  5,  a  severe  shock  of  earthquake  was  felt  at 


Bodo,  on  the  north-west  coast.  Of  the  minor  shocks  those  which 
frequently  occurred  on  the  Yttero  are  particularly  remarkable,  as 
this  island  lies  far  out  in  the  ocean,  off  the  coast  of  Sondfjord. 

The  International  Meteorological  Committee  will  hold  its 
fourth  meeting  at  Zurich  on  September  3.  This  will  be  the 
final  meeting  of  the  Committee  as  so  constituted.  For  various 
reasons  it  has  been  found  impracticable  to  organize  an  Inter- 
national Meteorological  Congress,  more  than  one  Government 
having  declined  to  take  part  in  such  an  assemblage.  It  is  prob- 
able that,  in  future,  occasional  meetings  will  be  held  of  a  body 
to  be  composed  of  the  chiefs  of  the  various  existing  meteoro- 
logical services,  to  whose  meetings  nothing  of  a  diplomatic 
character  will  attach.  The  arrangements  connected  with  such 
Conferences  have  yet  to  be  made. 

In  the  American  Meteorological  Journal  for  June,  Mr.  A.  L. 
Rotch  describes  the  meteorological  organization  of  Austria  and 
the  independent  observatories  in  connection  with  the  Central 
Institute  (not  including  those  of  the  Hungarian  service).  There 
is  a  regular  telegraphic  weather  service,  but  no  storm  warnings 
are  issued  ;  an  agricultural  service,  however,  exists  in  the 
summer  season.  The  pressure  at  the  high  mountain  stations  is 
reduced  to  the  level  of  2500  metres.  Mr.  G.  E.  Curtis  con- 
tributes an  article  on  the  trans-Mississippi  rainfall,  with 
reference  to  the  popular  belief  that  the  rainfall  is  increasing  in 
the  Middle  and  Western  States,  the  increase  being  attributed  to 
the  building  of  railroads  and  the  extension  of  cultivation. 
Whether  the  amount  of  rainfall  has  actually  increased  or  not 
does  not  appear  to  be  proved  ;  the  author  points  out,  however, 
that  the  breaking-up  and  tillage  of  the  soil  have  increased  its 
moisture,  and  with  the  growth  of  vegetation  there  have  come  an 
increased  humidity  of  the  atmosphere  and  a  more  general 
diffusion  of  rainfall.  As  an  evidence  of  this  result  it  is  stated 
that  the  streams  have  a  much  more  even  flow  than  formerly. 
Dr.  A.  Woeikof  offers  an  explanation  of  the  different  views  of 
Mr.  A.  Hazen  and.Dr.  Hann  as  to  the  general  "inversion  of 
temperature  "  in  areas  of  high  and  low  pressure.  Mr.  Hazen 
objects  that  the  statement  that,  during  the  passage  of  anti- 
cyclones, the  temperatures  on  high  mountains  are  high  in  winter,. 
is  not  applicable  to  Mount  Washington,  and  thus  no  law  at  all. 
Dr.  Woeikof  supports  Dr.  Hann's  views,  and  explains  that  the 
exception  pointed  out  by  Mr.  Hazen  may  be  due  to  the  different 
type  of  weather  in  the  Eastern  States  and  in  Europe,  and  to 
the  greater  rapidity  of  the  passage  of  anticyclones  in  the  former 
locality. 

Another  contribution  to  the  chemistry  of  the  rare  earths,, 
by  Drs.  Kriiss  and  Kiesewetter,  will  be  found  in  the  current 
number  of  the  Berichte.  The  somewhat  startling  results  pub- 
lished a  year  ago  by  Drs.  Kriiss  and  Nilson,  involving  as  they 
did  the  announcement  of  the  existence  of  a  large  number  of 
new  chemical  elements,  appear  to  receive  additional  confirma- 
tion by  this  subsequent  work  undertaken  by  the  two  former 
chemists.  They  are  not  yet  in  a  position  to  announce  the  com- 
plete isolation  of  any  one  of  these  new  elements,  but  so  much 
progress  has  been  made  in  this  direction  that  a  mixture  contain- 
ing only  two  of  them  in  any  quantity  has  been  arrived  at.  The 
task  of  separating  these  elementary  constituents  from  the  minerals 
which  have  hitherto  been  examined  appears,  in  the  face  of  the 
fact  that  their  properties  are  so  similar — their  known  salts  being 
almost  equally  soluble,  and  the  basicities  of  their  oxides  so 
nearly  alike — well-nigh  impossible.  But  the  results  of  the  exam- 
ination of  a  large  number  of  Scandinavian  minerals  show  that 
Nature  herself,  with  her  infinite  resource  of  time  and  circum- 
stance, has  partially,  possibly  in  some  yet  unknown  instance 
completely,  performed  this  long  and  laborious  operation  for  us. 
Different  minerals  from  the  same  place,  and  even  the  same 
mineral  from  different  localities,  are  shown  by  the  absorption- 
spectra  of  their  nitrates  to  consist  of  different  constituents 


, 


Atigust  2,  1888] 


NATURE 


327 


varying  quantities.  Hence,  by  extending  the  observations  over 
a  large  number  of  specimens  it  is  possible  to  find  a  few  which 
contain  only  a  small  number — one,  two,  or  three — of  these  new 
elements  in  any  considerable  quantity.  Working  upon  this 
piinciple,  Drs.  Kriiss  and  Kiesewetter  have  been  fortunate  in 
discovering  a  mineral,  yttro-titanite  of  Arendal,  the  absorption- 
spectrum  of  whose  nitrates  indicates  the  presence  in  large 
quantity  of  only  two  elements,  viz.  that  constituent  of  didymium 
termed  DiS,  and  the  constituent  X£  of  holmium.  The  bands 
of  these  elements  are  very  intense,  and  are  of  wave-lengths 
521  "5  and  452"6  respectively.  Sarmrium  is  entirely  absent,  but 
there  are  small  quantities  of  constituents  of  erbium  and  thulium 
present.  However,  the  DiS  and  X£  so  largely  preponderate, 
that  their  fractionation  is  being  undertaken.  This  happy  dis- 
covery goes  very  far  to  prove  the  accuracy  of  the  deductions 
made  by  Kriiss  and  Nilson,  which  have  caused  so  much  discus- 
sion in  chemical  circles  ;  for  of  the  elements  composing  the 
mixture  called  didymium  we  have  here  only  one  of  thetn,  and 
of  the  constituents  of  holmium  we  have  likewise  but  one  repre- 
sentative. Therefore  the  compound  nature  of  didymium  and 
holmium  may  now  be  taken  as  proved. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Scientific  Committee  of  the  Royal 
Horticultural  Society,  on  the  24th  ult.,  Dr.  Masters  showed 
ripe  fruits  of  the  Plymouth  strawberry,  grown  from  plants  pre- 
sented to  him  by  Mr.  G.  F.  Wilson.  This  curious  monstrosity 
is  an  alpine  strawberry,  in  which  all  the  parts  of  the  flower 
are  more  or  less  represented  by  leaves.  The  plant  was  men- 
tioned by  old  botanical  writers,  but  afterwards  disappeared,  or 
was  so  completely  overlooked  that  its  very  existence  was  as- 
sumed to  be  a  myth.  Of  late  years,  however,  the  plant  has 
reappeared  in  several  gardens,  and  the  correctness  of  the  old 
writers  has  been  vindicated. 

Plaster-of-Paris  models  of  the  bed  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
and  of  that  of  the  Carribean  Sea  have  been  sent  by  the  United 
States  Hydrographic  Office  to  the  Cincinnatti  Exhibition.  They 
were  made  by  Mr.  E.  E.  Court,  of  the  Hydrographic  Office  ;  and 
the  charts  from  which  they  were  constructed  were  carefully  revised 
by  Commander  J.  R.  Bartlett  and  Lieut.  J.  L.  Dyer,  respec- 
tively former  and  present  Hydrographer.  Science  suggests  that 
duplicates  or  even  photographs  of  these  models  would  be  of  very 
great  value  in  the  teaching  of  physical  geography.  That  of  the 
bottom  of  the  Atlantic  would,  says  our  American  contemporary, 
give  a  pupil  more  actual  instruct  ion  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour  than 
could  be  obtained  by  a  week's  study  of  descriptive  text.  This 
model,  it  seems,  shows  many  things  that  will  be  surprising  to 
almost  everybody  except  the  expert  hydrographer.  One  of  these 
is  the  great  height  of  many  of  the  small  islands  from  the  ocean's 
bed,  when  compared  with  their  area  either  above  the  surface  of 
the  water  or  where  they  rest  upon  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  This 
height  is  exaggerated  in  the  model  by  the  perpendicular  scale 
being  made  fifty  times  as  great  as  the  horizontal  scale  ;  but,  even 
allowing  for  that,  these  islands  stand  up  like  tall,  narrow,  trun- 
cated cones,  many  of  them  not  being  more  than  twice  as  far 
across  at  the  base  as  at  the  top. 

The  United  States  Fish  Commission  lately  sent  off  to 
•California  600  live  lobsters,  350  of  which  arrived  safely  at 
Sacramento.  Several  attempts  had  previously  been  made  to 
send  live  lobsters  across  the  North  American  Continent,  but  had 
failed.  In  the  present  instance,  as  we  learn  from  Science,  Colonel 
McDonald,  Fish  Commissioner,  personally  superintended  the 
packing  of  the  lobsters.  A  crate  or  box  devised  by  the  late 
Captain  Chester  was  used.  This  was  placed  within  another 
larger  box,  the  intervening  space  being  filled  with  pounded  ice. 
In  the  inner  box  the  lobsters  were  placed  between  layers  of  rock- 
weed,  which  at  times  was  moistened  with  sea-water.  Each  box 
had  an  independent  drain,  so  that  the  fresh  water  from  the 
melting  ice  could  not  «nter  the  lobster-box.     The  temperature 


of  the  latter  was  kept  at  45"  F.  A  Fish  Commission  car  was 
used,  the  boxes  along  the  side  of  it  serving  as  the  outer  box  of 
the  combination  described  above  ;  one  hundred  crates,  each  con- 
taining six  lobsters,  being  placed  in  them,  and  surrounded  v\  ith 
ice.  Each  morning  before  sunrise  a  careful  inspection  of  the 
lobsters  was  made,  and  those  that  had  died  were  removed.  The 
first  day  45  died  ;  the  second  clay,  55.  After  that  the  mortality 
was  much  less.  All  of  those  that  died  were  in  an  advanced 
state  of  shedding,  and  were  in  poor  condition  when  they  started. 
One  half  of  the  350  lobsters  that  arrived  safely  on  the  Pacific 
coast  were  placed  in  the  ocean  north  of  San  Francisco,  and  the 
other  half  south.  The  condition  of  the  water  in  that  region  is 
similar  to  that  of  the  Atlantic  off  the  Massachusetts  coast.  The 
temperature  is  about  the  same,  but  is  more  constant.  The 
lobster  on  the  Massachusetts  coast  crawls  out  into  deep  water  in 
the  summer,  where  the  temperature  is  low,  but  it  is  thought  that 
the  equable  temperature  of  the  Pacific  will  enable  the  lobster  in 
these  waters  to  spend  the  whole  year  in  one  spot. 

Ax  account  of  two  interesting  old  globes  in  the  library  of  the 
Middle  Temple  will  be  presented  in  the  next  volume  of  the 
Hakluyt  Society's  series.  These  globes,  one  terrestrial,  the  other 
celestial,  were  made  by  E.  Molyneux  in  1593,  and  were  the  first 
ever  produced  in  England.  The  geography  on  the  terrestrial 
globe  was  afterwards  brought  down  to  1603.  A  description  of 
the  globes  was  written  in  Latin  in  1593  by  Robert  Hughes,  a 
mathematician  of  the  period.  This  description  was  rendered  into 
English  by  Chilmead,  of  Oxford,  in  1623  ;  and  Chilmead's 
translation,  which  has  been  prepared  for  publication  by  Mr. 
Coote,  of  the  Map  Department  of  the  British  Museum,  will  form 
the  substance  of  the  forthcoming  volui  e.  The  editor  of  the 
volume  is  Mr.  Clements  Markham. 

The  Report  of  the  Council  of  the  North-Eastern  Sanitary 
Inspection  Association  for  1887-88 — the  fifth  financial  year  of  the 
Association — has  been  issued  at  Newcastle.  Excellent  work  is 
evidently  being  done  by  the  Association.  One  of  its  good  deeds 
has  been  the  formation  at  Newcastle  of  a  permanent  exhibition 
of  sanitary  appliances.  This  exhibition  was  fitted  up  at  con- 
siderable outlay  by  the  Association  as  well  as  by  exhibitors,  and 
is  open  daily,  free  to  the  public,  to  whom  it  has  proved  of  great 
value.  "  To  see  the  best  appliances  in  each  department 
properly  fitted,"  says  the  Report,  "and  to  have  any  explanation 
desired  freely  given,  where  there  is  nothing  on  sale,  are 
advantages  that  must  be  the  better  appreciated  the  more  widely 
they  are  known.  So  far  as  known,  there  is  no  better  permanent 
collection  in  the  Kingdom." 

In  the  Entomologist's  Monthly  Magazine  for  August,  Dr.  R. 
C.  R.  Jordan  presents  a  list  of  species  of  Lepidoptera  taken  by 
him  during  a  short  visit  to  jersey.  In  this  list  there  are  several 
species  which  have  not  hitherto  been  known  to  occur  in  the 
Channel  Islands.  Dr.  Jordan  proposes  that  a  Committee  of 
working  entomologists  should  be  formed  for  the  thorough 
investigation  of  all  orders  of  insects  inhabiting  these  islands. 

We  have  received  the  second  supplement  of  Mr.  John 
Wheldon's  Botanical  Catalogue.  It  includes,  besides  a  large 
number  of  books  relating  to  botanical  subjects,  many  important 
works  on  agriculture. 

The  Calendar  of  the  Heriot-Watt  College,  Edinburgh,  for 
the  session  1888-89,  has  been  issued;  and  it  is  satisfactory  to 
find  that  in  this  well-known  institution  provision  is  made  for 
that  higher  commercial  and  technical  education  about  which  so 
much  has  lately  been  said.  It  is  claimed  that  the  College  pos- 
sesses, in  its  lecture  theatres,  laboratories,  and  workshops,  every 
facility  for  preparing  young  men  for  work  as  merchants,  manu- 
facturers, or  engineers,  and  for  supplying  in  the  evening  such 
instruction  as  is  required  by  those  already  employed  in  such 
occupations. 


328 


NA  TURE 


[August  2,  1888 


At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  Wellington  Philosophical  Society, 
Mr.  J.  W.  Fortescue  spoke  of  the  rapid  increase  of  deer  that 
have  been  acclimatized  in  the  New  Zealand  mountains.  Having 
had  special  facilities  for  observing  these  creatures,  he  proceeded 
to  state  some  interesting  facts  a?  to  their  habits.  At  the  close 
of  his  address  Sir  James  Hector  asked  Mr.  Fortescue,  as  an 
expert  on  the  subject,  whether  the  chief  use  of  the  antlers  was 
not  so  much  for  fighting  as  for  facilitating  the  progress  of  the 
stag  through  dense  woods.  He  had  considerable  experience  with 
the  wapiti,  in  North  America,  and  found  that  by  throwing  up 
the  head,  thereby  placing  the  horns  along  the  back,  the  animals 
were  enabled  to  go  forward  with  great  rapidity  and  follow  the 
hinds.  He  asked  this,  as  it  had  been  stated  at  a  previous  meet- 
ing of  the  Society  that  the  antlers  tended  to  entangle  the  deer. 
Mr.  Fortescue  said  that  Sir  James  Hector  was  quite  correct  in 
stating  that  the  antlers  assisted  the  stags  in  penetrating  dense 
forests.  Mr.  Higginson  also  bore  out  this  statement  from  his 
experience  in  India. 

On  July  23,  at  1 1. 1 7  p.m.,  a  brilliant  meteor  was  seen  in  the 
province  of  Smaland,  in  Sweden.  At  Nexjo  it  was  seen  due 
east,  falling  perpendicularly  towards  the  horizon,  when  it  suddenly 
burst. 

During  the  month  of  June  severe  frosts  occurred  in  the  north 
of  Finland,  doing  great  damage  to  the  crops. 

Norwegian  hunters  returning  from  the  Arctic  regions  report 
much  ice  and  severe  storms. 

Zoological  Gardens  are  being  laid  out  in  Christiania  and 
Helsingfors. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Feline  Douroucouli  (Nyctipithecus  vociferans) 
from  Savanilla,  presented  by  Master  Lester  Ralph  ;  a  Crested 
Grebe  (Podiceps  cristalus),  British,  presented  by  Mr.  W. 
Nicholls  ;  a  Brazilian  Cariama  {Cariama  cristatd)  from  South- 
East  Brazil,  presented  by  Mr.  Fredrick  Rose,  jun.  ;  an  Indian 
Kite  {Mihus govindd)  from  India,  presented  by  Mrs.  Dean  ;  a 
Green  Turtle  {Chelone  viridis)  from  the  West  Indies,  presented 
by  Baron  Henry  de  Worms ;  a  Hawk's-billed  Turtle  (Chelone 
imbricatd)  from  the  Bahamas,  presented  by  Mr.  W.  T.  Manger  ; 
a  Corn  Snake  (Coluber  guttatus)  from  North  America,  presented 
by  Mr.  J.  Garnett  ;  a  Common  Viper  ( Vipera  berus),  British, 
presented  by  Mr.  F.  C.  Smith  ;  a  Virginian  Fox  (Cams  vir- 
ginianus  0 )  from  North  America,  deposited  ;  a  Derbian 
Screamer  (Chauna  derbiana)  from  the  Northern  Coast  of 
Columbia,  a  Prince  Albert's  Curassow  (Crax  alberti  ?  )  from 
Columbia,  four  Beautiful  Grass-Finches  (Poiphila  mirabilis), 
four  Gouldian  Grass- Finches  (Poephila  gouldice)  from  Australia, 
purchased;  two  Rose-coloured  Pastors  (Pastor  roseus)  from 
India,  received  in  exchange;  two  Collared  Fruit  Bats  \Cyno- 
nycteris  collaris),  two  Mule  Deer  (Cariacus  macrotis  $  ?  ),  a 
Canadian  Beaver  (Castor  canadensis),  a  Thar  (Capra  jemlaica), 
born  in  the  Gardens  ;  a  Brazilian  Cariama  (Cariama  cristata), 
bred  in  the  Gardens. 

OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

Variable  Stars. — Mr.  Sawyer  gives,  in  Nos.  174  and  176 
of  Gould's  Astronomical  yournal,  the  results  of  his  observations 
of  variable  stars  in  the  year  1887.  The  following  are  the 
observations  for  the  more  regular  variables  :— 

R  Virginis     M     June    17     Mag.  7- 1  Calculated  June  21 
S  Coronte      M     Apr.    19  71  Apr.     6 

R  Lyrae  M     Sept.     9  Aug.  31 

M     Oct.     15  Oct.    16 

m     Nov.    10  Nov.  16 

M     Nov.  29  Dec.     1 

The  calculated  dates  are  those  which  have  been  given  in  Nature 
in  the  column  heade  1  "  Astronomical  Phenomena."  U  Mono- 
cerotis  was  observed  at  maximum  on  Jan.  15,  March  4,  April  28  ; 


and  at  minimum  Feb.  18  and  April  6  ;  R  Scuti  was  observed  at 
maximum  on  Oct.  27,  and  at  minimum  on  Sept.  14  and  Nov.  23  ; 
W  Cygni  was  at  minimum,  mag.  67,  on  July  23  and  Dec.  8, 
and  at  maximum,  mag.  6t,  on  Sept.  13  ;  Mira  Ceti  was  at 
maximum,  mag.  4*4,  on  1886  December  30. 

Mr.  John  Tebbutt  reports  (Astr.  Nachr.,  No.  2849)  that 
77  Argus  has  undergone  a  notable  increase  of  brilliancy  of  late, 
as  he  observed  it  as  7-o  mag.  on  May  19  of  this  year  ;  whilst  on 
April  23,  1887,  it  was  only  7-5. 

Comet  1888  a  (Sawerthal). — The  following  ephemeris  for 
Greenwich  midnight  for  this  object  is  from  the  Dun  Echt 
Circular,  No.  157  : — 


R.A. 

Decl. 

Log  4. 

Logr. 

h.    m.    s. 

0        / 

Aug.  3     . 

.     i     3  26     . 

•     53  5i-6 

N.   . 

•■   0-3409    . 

.    0-3881 

5     • 

.125. 

•     54    5'5 

7     • 

•     1     0  35     . 

•     54  18-3 

..   0-3424    . 

•    0-3973 

9     • 

•     0  58  55     . 

•     54  30 'o 

11 

•    0  57    5     • 

•     54  40-5 

••    0-3439    . 

.    0-4062 

13     • 

•    0  55     s     . 

•     54  49-8 

15     • 

•    0  52  57     . 

•     54  57'8 

••   0-3455    • 

•    0-4149 

17     • 

.    0  50  40    . 

•     55    4'4 

19     • 

•    0  48  15     . 

•     55     97 

■•   0-3471 

•    0-4234 

21     . 

•    0  45  42     . 

•     55  13-6 

23     • 

.    0  43    2     . 

•     55  16-0 

N. 

•■    0-3489    . 

•    0-4316 

ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA  FOR  THE 
WEEK  1888  AUGUST  5-1 1. 

/~G*OR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  August  5 
Sunrises,  4I1.  33m. ;  souths,  I2h.  5m.  4f8s.  ;  sets,  19V1.  39m.  ; 

right    asc.    on    meridian,    9I1.    3  "6m.  ;    decl.    160  48'  N. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  l6h.  38m. 
Moon  (New  on  August  7,  i8h.)  rises,  ih.  57m.  ;  souths,  ioh.  8m.  -r 

sets,  i8h.    17m.  :  right  asc.  on  meridian,  7h.  5'8tn.;  decl. 

21°  12'  N. 


Right  asc. 

and  declination 

Planet.         R'ses. 

Souths.            Sets. 

on 

meridian. 

h. 

m. 

h.    m.           h.    m. 

h.      m. 

0       / 

Mercury..     2 

55 

..    IO  54   ...    18   53    ... 

7  5i'3 

...  20  47  N. 

Venus 5 

7 

..    12    35    ...    20      3    ... 

9  32-6 

...    16     2N. 

37 

..    17    21    ...    22      5    ... 

14  19-9 

...  15  17  s. 

Jupiter 14 

16 

..    18   40    ...    23      4    ... 

15  38-6 

...  18  44  S. 

Saturn 4 

13 

..  11  55  ...  19  37  ... 

8  527 

...   18  15  N. 

Uranus...   10 

16 

..  15  54  ...  21  32  ... 

12  52-7 

...     4  58S. 

Neptune..  23 

17* 

..     7    4  ..    14  51  ... 

4     i'3 

...   18  58  N. 

*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening. 

Aug.              h. 

6     ...       9 

Mercury  in  conjunction  with  and  o°  iS'  north 

of  the  Moon. 

7     ...     10 

Saturn  in  conjunction 

with  and  o°  16'  south 

of  the  Moon. 

7     •••     — 

Partial  eclipse  of  Sun 

:  visible 

as  little  more 

than  a  bare  contact  at  Greenwich,  beg'nning 

at  i8h.  49m.  and  ending  at 

9h.  6m. 

8     ...       9 

Venus  in  conjunction 

with  and  o°  42'  south 

of  the  Moon. 

10     ...     23 

Mercury  at  least  distance  from  the  Sun. 

Variable  Stars. 

Star. 

R.A.                Decl. 

h.      m.             0       / 

h.    m 

U  Cephei     .. 

0  52-4  ...  81   16  N. 

...  Aug. 

9,   19  49   * 

Algol" 

.     3    0-9  ...  40  31  N. 

...     ,, 

5,     20  2  m 

U  Hydrse     .. 

10  32  0  ...  12  48  S. 

,, 

II,               Af 

8  Librae 

14  55-0  ...    8     4  S. 

...     ,, 

9,  23  26  m 

U  Corona;    .. 
U  Opniuchi.. 

15  13*6  ...  32     3  N. 

,, 

9,     1  42  m 

17  10-9  ...     1  20  N. 

,, 

9,     1   16  m 

>> 

9,  21  24  m 

Z  Sagittarii... 

18  14-8  ...  18  55  S. 

,, 

8,    0    0  m 

8  Lyrae 

.   18  46-0  ...  33  14  N. 

...     ,, 

9,  21     0  M 

tj  Aquilse 

.   19  46-8  ...    0  43  N. 

,, 

6,  22     0  m 

X  Cygni 

.  20  39  0  ...  35  11  N. 

...     ,, 

8,     1     0  M 

T  Aquarii    ... 

20  440  ...    5  34  S. 

,, 

5,             M' 

T  Vulpeculae 

.  20  46-7  ...  27  50  N. 

11 

10,  23    0  M 

5  Cephei 

.  22  25-0  ...  57  51  N. 

...     ,, 

9,  20    0  M 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  tit  minimum. 


August  2,  1888] 


AATURE 


129 


Meteor-Showers. 

R.A. 

Decl. 

The 

ft 

•seids  .. 

...      44    . 

.  56  N.  . 

.  Max. 

Swi 

August 
t  ;  streak 

10. 

s. 

Near 

4 

Arietis 

...      44    . 
96    . 

•  25  N.  . 

.   72  N.  . 

.  Swift 

.    Slow. 

;  streaks. 

Near 

0 

Cygni 

...    293    . 

•  52  N.  . 

.    Rather  slow. 

ON  PARTIAL  IMPREGNATION} 

TOURING  our  researches  on  the  formation  of  polar-bodies 
(see  NATURE,  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  607)  we  made  the  following 
observations,  which  are  of  considerable  interest  in  connection 
with  the  theory  of  sexual  reproduction. 

As  we  were  able  to  show  that  parthenogenetic  eggs  form  only 
one  polar-body,  while  sexual  eggs  give  rise  to  two,  we  looked 
cut  principally  for  those  cases  in  which  both  kinds  of  eggs  are 
present  in  the  same  species. 

On  examining  the  sexual  eggs  ("  Dauereier")  of  certain 
species  of  Moina,  we  found,  to  our  astonishment,  that  even 
those  which  possessed  a  firm  vitelline  membrane,  and  in  which 
four  segmental  cells  were  already  present,  still  contained  a 
sperm-cell. 

We  first  of  all  took  this  to  be  a  supernumerary  spermatozoon 
which  had  penetrated  into  the  egg,  but  it  was  soon  apparent 
that  all  egg^  of  a  corresponding  stage  contained  a  similar  sperm- 
cell,  and  that  there  was  always  one  only.  Further  observations 
showed  us  that  we  had  had  here  to  do  with  a  case  of  partial 
impregnation.  Only  one  of  the  first  four  segmental  eel  s,  and  not 
the  entire  egg-cell,  becomes  united  -with  the  sperm-cell.  This  is 
the  case,  at  least,  in  Moina  faradoxa.  In  Moina  rectirostris, 
impregnation  must  occur  at  a  rather  later  stage,  for  in  this 
species  we  have  seen  eggs  in  which  the  first  four  segmental  cells 
were  again  ready  for  division,  and  still  the  sperm-cell  had  not 
fused  with  one  of  them. 

In  Moina  faradoxa  the  process  takes  place  as  follows: — Im- 
mediately after  the  extrusion  of  the  egg  into  the  brood-chamoer, 
it  is  a  naked  sausage-shaped  mass.  Jn  this  stage,  a  spermato- 
zoon penetrates  into  it  in  the  region  of  the  vegetative  pole,  and 
then  the  vitelline  membrane  becomes  formed,  and  prevents  the 
entrance  of  a  second.  The  germinal  vesicle  at  the  same  time 
becomes  transformed  into  the  first  polar-spindle,  which  lies  at 
the  surface  ;  the  first,  and  soon  afterwards  the  second  polar- 
body  then  becomes  constricted  off,  and  the  nucleus  of  the  ovum, 
surrounded  by  protoplasmic  particles,  migrates  to  the  centre  of 
the  egg.  which  has  by  this  time  contracted  to  the  usual  form. 
Now  follows  the  first  division  of  the  ovum,  which,  however, 
only  consists  in  a  se paration  of  these  first,  or,  as  we  will  call  them, 
secondary  egg-cells  in  the  centre  of  the  egg  ; — the  two  first  seg- 
mental cells  come  to  lie,  as  usual,  in  its  longitudinal  axis — one, 
which  is  always  recognizable  by  the  proximity  of  the  polar- 
bodies,  nearing  the  animal  pole,  the  other  the  vegetative  pole. 
The  sperm-cell  always  lies  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  latter, 
without,  however,  yet  becoming  united  with  it. 

Then  follows  a  second  division  of  the  segmental  cells,  toge- 
ther with  the  separation  of  the  daughter-cells  in  the  transverse 
direction.  There  are  now  four  star-shaped  daughter-cells  pre- 
sent, which  lie  at  an  almost  equal  distance  apart,  at  a  right 
angle  with  one  another.  The  sperm-cell  can  be  seen  near  one 
of  the  two  lower  (hi/item)  cells,  and  it  now  begins  to  show 
amoeboid  movements,  and  to  approach  the  segmental  cell,  a 
short  narrow  bridge  of  protoplasm  being  formed,  and  the  two 
cells  beginning  to  unite  with  one  another.  Fusion  then  follows, 
and  in  the  next  following  stage,  of  eight  segmental  cells,  no  sperm- 
tell  can  any  longer  be  see//  11/  the 

The  uniting  of  the  sperm-cell  with  the  cell-  and  nuclear- 
constituents  of  the  egg  thus  only  takes  place  after  the  embryonic 
development  has  already  advanced  to  the  four-celled  stage.  It 
would  naturally  be  of  great  interest  to  know  what  eventually 
becomes  of  those  segments  which  are  concerned  in  fertilization 
■ — that  is,  which  parts  of  the  embryo  are  formed  from  them.  A 
very  possible  supposition  is,  that  only  those  parts  of  the  egg 
become  fertilized  out  of  which  the  germ-cells  of  the  young 
animal  will  subsequently  be  formed.  This  conjecture  is  rendered 
by  no  means  improbable  by  the  fact  that  it  is  one  of  the  two 
segmental  cells  lying  at  the  vegetative  pole  of  the  ovum  which 

1  Translated  from  a  paper  by  A.  Weismann  and  C.  Ischikawa  (BtrickU 
iter  Naturforschenden  Gesellschaft  z/t  Freiburg  '7/>>->  l*d-  lv->  Heft  i, 
p.  51)  — W.  N.  P. 


becomes  fertilized  ;  for  it  is  from  these  cells,  according  to  Grob- 
ben*s  beautiful  discovery  with  regard  to  the  summer  eggs  of 
Moina,  that  the  germ-cells  arise.  At  a  future  time  we  hope  to 
be  able  to  speak  more  definitely  on  this  point  :  at  present  it  is 
only  necessary  to  add  that  we  are  studying  these  processes  in 
other  Daphnidce,  and  have  already  observed  a  similar  series  of 
stages  in  Sida  crystallina  to  those  above  described.  But  in 
this  case  fertilization  occurs  earlier,  in  the  two-celled  stage  of 
segmentation. 

Freiburg  i/B.,  December  12,  1887. 

P.  S. — In  the  continuation  of  the  above  observations  an- 
other case  has  presented  itself,  in  which  impregnation  does 
not  take  place  until  eight  segmental  cells  have  been  formed.  This 
happens  in  Daphnia  p/ilex.  Further  details  concerning  partial 
impregnation,  as  well  as  theoretical  support  of  the  facts  treated 
of  above,  we  reserve  for  a  future  occasion. 

May  21,  1888. 

Addendum   to  the  above  Note  on  Partial  I/z/p/rg/zalion,1   by 
Weismann  and  Ischikawa. 

Since  giving  a  short  abstract  of  the  observations  which 
led  us  to  the  conclusion  of  the  existence  of  partial  im- 
pregnation, we  have  continued  our  researches,  and  have 
come  to  the  conclusion  tint,  in  spite  of  the  entire  accuracy 
of  our  facts,  we  were  mistaken  as  to  the  explanation  of  the 
phenomena  described.  The  fusion  with  one  of  the  eight  first 
segmental  cells  does  indeed  take  place  regularly,  but  the  uniting 
cell  is  not  the  sperm- cell.  The  first  segmentation  nucleus  is 
here,  as  in  all  sexual  eggs,  formed  by  the  fusion  of  the  nucleus  of 
the  ovum  with  the  sperm-nucleus,  and  the  fusion  of  the  two 
cells  observed  by  us  at  a  later  stage  is  something  additional  to  the 
ordinary  impregnation.  That  this  is  the  case  is  quite  certain  : 
we  found  the  sperm-nucleus  and  its  subsequent  fusion  with  the 
egg-cell  to  occur  in  the  same  ova  in  which  we  could  prove  the 
presence  of  that  cell  which  we  at  first  took  to  be  the  sperm-cell. 

We  can  hardly  be  blamed  for  this  error  if  it  be  borne  in  mind 
that  we  found  this  cell,  without  exception,  in  every  egg  which  had 
just  passed  into  the  brood-chamber  ;  that  the  vitelline  membrane 
was  formed  directly  afterwards  ;  and  that,  on  the  other  hand,  a 
fusion  of  this  cell  with  one  of  the  first  eight  segmental  cells  lying 
at  the  vegetative  pole  of  the  egg  could  be  seen  in  all  ova  which 
we  possessed  of  this  stage,  viz.  in  five  species— two  species  of 
Moina,  two  of  Daphnia,  and  one  of  Polyphemus.  The  fact 
that  the  form  and  size  of  the  supposed  sperm- cell  differ  from 
those  of  the  sperm-cells  in  the  testis  of  the  corresponding  species 
was  indeed  an  objection  to  our  explanation  :  it  has,  in  fact, 
almost  the  same  size  and  shape  in  all  species.  But  the  sperm- 
cells  become  altered  as  soon  as  they  pass  into  the  egg,  and  it 
was  shown  some  time  ago  by  Fol  and  Hertwig,  and  more 
recently  by  Boveri,  that  the  sperm  nucleus  grows  considerably 
when  within  the  ovum.  Moreover,  in  one  of  the  species 
examined  {Polyphemus),  as  well  as  in  Bythotrephcs,  the  sperm- 
cell  is  extraordinarily  large,  and  in  both  these  species  we 
followed  the  entrance  of  the  tnormous  amceboid  sperm-cell  into 
the  ovum  by  means  of  sections,  step  by  step,  and  were  able  to 
convince  ourselves  of  its  essential  correspondence  with  the 
supposed  sperm-cell  in  the  eggs  of  o  her  species.  What  else 
could  this  cell  within  the  ovum  be,  if  it  were  not  the  sperm-cell? 
It  was  never  wanting,  and  on  the  other  hand  there  was  always 
one  only,  so  that  any  idea  of  its  being  a  parasitic  organism  was 
out  of  the  question.  Moreover,  the  two  polar  cells  were  always 
present,  so  that  it  could  not  be  mistaken  for  one  of  these.  And 
up  to  the  present  time  no  one  had  ever  seen  any  other  cell  but 
the  sperm -cell  within  the  ovum. 

We  should  hardly,  indeed,  have  discovered  our  error  so  soon, 
if  we  had  not  remembered  that  one  of  us  had  found  some  years 
ago  that  unimpregnated  sexual  eggs  of  Daphnidie  soon  become 
disintegrated, >  and  had  we  not  asked  ourselves  how  the  embryonic 
development  advanced  in  such  unimpregnated  eggs  before  dis- 
integration begins.  For,  as  we  believed  that  the  sperm-cell  was 
only  ready  for  conjugation  in  impregnated  eggs  after  they  had 
segmented  into  eight  parts,  it  was  to  be  expected  that  segmenta- 
tion would  take  place  up  to  this  stage  in  unimpregnated  ova,  and 
that  then  only  would  the  disintegration  begin.     Had  we  found 

1  Translated  from  the  proof  of  a  paper  to  appear  in  the  Berichte  der 
Naturforsch.  Geitllschaft  »u  Freiburg  HB.,  Bd.  iv.  Heft  2,  1888.— W.N.  1'. 

■  See  Weismann,  "  Beitrage  zur  Naturgeschicht-  der  Daphnoiden,'  iv.  ; 
"Ueberden  Einfluss  der  Begattung  aufdie  Erzeiiiung  von  Wintereiern," 
Zeitscli  f.    U'/'ss.  Zool.,  Bd.  xxviii.  p.  iq8  et  seq. 


33Q 


NATURE 


\_August  2,  1888 


it  otherwise,  and  did  the  first  stages  of  division  not  occur  in 
unfertilized  eggs,  we  should  have  supposed  that  the  sperm-cell 
present  in  the  ovum,  although  in  a  resting-stage,  had  some 
invisible  influence  over  it. 

It  was  possible,  however,  to  arrive  at  a  decision  on  this  point  ; 
'  for,  although  most  Daphnidoe  do  not  lay  their  eggs  if  copulation 
does  not  take  place  at  the  time  the  eggs  ripen,  in  one  species 
{Moina  paradoxa),  the  extrusion  of  the  ova  occurs  independ- 
ently of  copulation.  We  therefore  isolated  females  of  this 
species  which  contained  ripe  eggs  in  the  ovary,  and  examined 
them  when  they  had  passed  the  eggs  into  the  brood-chamber. 
How  great  was  our  astonishment  to  find  that  these  ova,  killed 
shortly  afterwards,  were  already  beginning  to  disintegrate,  and  a 
cell  corresponding  to  that  which  we  had  taken  fjr  the  sperm-cell 
was  present  in  each  of  them  !  At  first  we  considered  the 
possibility  of  copulation  having  taken  place  before  the  females 
were  isolated,  and  of  the  retention  of  the  sperm-cell,  which  had 
become  inactive,  in  the  brood  chamber.  But  sections  which  we 
made  through  nearly  ripe  ovarian  eggs  showed  us  that  the  sup- 
posed sperm-cell  was  already  present  in  them.  It  was  thus 
proved  that  this  cell  which  unites  with  one  of  the  eight  first 
segmental  cells  (we  will  for  the  present  call  it  the  "  conjugating- 
cell,"  Copulationszelle)  cannot  be  an  ordinary  sperm-cell  ;  and, 
moreover,  that,  besides  it,  an  active  sperm-cell  from  the  male, 
which  had  previously  escaped  our  notice,  passes  into  the  egg  in 
consequence  of  copulation.  In  fact,  this  true  spermatic  element 
was  found  after  renewed  examination  of  old  an  1  new  series  of 
sections  as  an  exceedingly  small  nucleus  in  the  yolk-mass.  It  is 
difficult  to  recognize,  but  nevertheless  may  plainly  be  traced 
passing  into  the  yolk,  and  finally  uniting  in  the  ordinary  manner 
with  the  nucleus  of  the  ovum. 

Thus  the  impregnation  of  these  ova  is  not  exceptional, 
inasmuch  as  a  normal  fusion  of  the  male  and  female  nuclei  takes 
place.  But.  besides  this  normal  conjugation  of  sperm-nucleus 
and  egg  nucleus,  another  fusion  of  cell-bodies  and  cell-nuclei 
occurs  between  the  enigmatical  "conjugating- cell,"  present 
already  in  ovarian  eggs,  and  one  of  the  eight  first  segmental 
cells  lying  at  the  vegetative  pole  of  the  ovum. 

It  will  oe  impossible  to  conjecture  as  to  the  meaning  of  this 
process  until  we  know  definitely  how  the  "  conjugating-cell " 
arises  :  at  present  we  are  not  able  to  state  anything  about  it 
with  certainty. 

We  intend  to  continue  our  observations,  and  hope  before  very 
long  to  have  more  to  say  on  this  subject. 

Freiburg  i/B.,  July  12,  1888. 


HOW  TO  INCREASE  THE  PRODUCE  OF 
THE  SOIL.1 


f  N  this  pamphlet  Prof.  Wagner  distinctly  asserts  the  power  of 
leguminous  cultivated  plants,  such  as  peas,  beans,  vetches, 
lupines,  and  clovers,  to  use  the  free  nitrogen  of  the  air  for 
pa rp  vses  of  nutrition.  As  this  conclusion  is  distinctly  at  issue 
with  the  opinions  of  the  Rothamsted  school,  it  revives  a  question 
of  deep  interest,  the  answer  to  which  has  varied  with  our  know- 
ledge from  time  to  time.  In  the  earlier  days  of  agricultural 
chemistry  the  "  mineral  theory  "  of  plant  nutrition  was  in  the 
ascendant.  According  to  this  theory  the  mineral,  earthy,  or  ash 
constituents  were  taken  from  the  soil,  while  the  gaseous,  com- 
bustible or  organic  portions  of  the  plant  were  derived  from  the 
air.  As  knowledge  progressed,  this  somewhat  bold  and 
sweeping  generalization  required  to  be  modified,  and  the 
most  usually  received  view  (in  this  country,  at  least)  for  some 
time  past  has  been  that  of  the  absorption  of  mineral  matter  and 
nitrates  from  the  soil,  and  of  carbonaceous  matter  from  the  air, 
and  to  a  limited  extent  from  the  soil  in  the  form  of  carbonic  acid 
gas  in  solution.  It  has  been  urged  that  proof  is  entirely  wanting 
of  the  alleged  power  of  plants  to  take  free  or  combined  nitrogen 
from  the  atmosphere,  while  the  intense  effect  of  nitric  nitrogen 
upon  growing  crops,  when  added  to  the  soil,  has  amply  proved 
that  the  soil  is  a  source  of  nitrogen,  and,  according  to  received 
views,  the  chief  or  only  source  of  nitrogen  to  growing  crops. 
The  results  obtained  by  Sir  John  Lawes,  Dr.  Gilbert,  and  Mr. 
Warrington  at  Rothamsted,  upon  the  cultivation  of  red  and 
Bokhara  clover,  have  been  considered  as  proving  that  the 
source  of  nitrogen  in  these  plants  was  not  the  atmosphere,  but 

1  "The  Increase  in  the  Produce  of  the  Soil  through  the  Rational  Use  of 
Nitrogenous  Manure."  By  Prof.  Paul  Wagner,  of  Darmstadt.  Translated 
toy  George  G.  Henderson.     (London  :  Whittaker  and  Co.,  1888.) 


the  soil  and  the  subsoil,  the  plants  having  been  found  to  send 
down  their  roots  some  fifty-four  inches  in  depth  into  sections  of 
the  soil  which,  although  out  of  reach  of  most  cultivated  plants, 
were  able  to  yield  sufficient  nitrogen  for  the  uses  of  these 
nitrogen-loving  plants.  Collectors  of  nitrogen  these  plants  are 
allowed  to  be  by  all,  but  at  Rothamsted  the  collection  is  con- 
sidered to  be  carried  on  in  the  deeper  layers  of  the  soil,  and  not 
to  extend  above  ground.  Prof.  Paul  Wagner  declares  that 
cultivated  plants  may  be  properly  divided  into  nitrogen  collectors 
and  nitrogen  consumes,  or  as  we  might  put  it,  into  nitrogen 
savers  and  nitrogen  wasters.  In  the  first  class  are  arranged  the 
various  members  of  the  Leguminosas  already  named.  At  a 
certain  stage  of  their  development  these  plants  acquire  the  power 
of  taking  all  their  nitrogen  from  the  air.  They  thus  become  a 
means  of  securing  fertilizing  matter  from  a  free  source,  and  are 
therefore  profitable.  In  the  second  class  are  placed  the  cereals, 
grains,  turnips,  flax,  &c,  all  of  which  are  able  to  take  next  to 
nothing  from  the  store  of  nitrogen  in  the  air,  but  which  waste 
the  nitrogen  of  the  soil,  and  must  take  from  it,  in  the  form  of 
nitrates,  all  the  nitrogen  they  contain.  In  the  pamphlet  under 
notice  no  proof  is  adduced  for  these  views,  but  reference  is  made 
to  the  detailed  investigations  carried  out  by  the  author.  Hellriegle, 
and  E.  von  Wolff.  These  views  must  be  considered  as  reactionary 
and  startling,  and  as  diametrically  opposed  to  the  current  of 
opinion  in  this  country  for  some  years  past. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  Prof.  Wagner  should  give 
considerable  prominence  to  a  feature  in  agricultural  practice 
which  has  almost  entirely  disappeared — green  crop  manuring. 
If  clovers,  lupines,  and  vetches,  extract  their  nitrogen  from  the 
supernatant  aerial  ocean,  and  are  able  to  supply  upwards  of  180 
pounds  of  atmospheric  nitrogen  per  acre  per  annum  continuously 
for  a  period  of  three  years,  no  easier  system  could  be  devised  for 
obtaining  the  necessary  nitrogen  for  fertilizing  purposes.  All 
that  is  required  is  to  secure  the  full  development  of  the  nitrogen 
collector  by  supplying  it  with  sufficient  water,  sufficient  phos- 
phoric acid,  potash  and  lime,  so  that  it  may  exert  its  powers 
upon  the  constantly  passing  stream  of  air — it  then  provides 
nitrogen  for  itself.  What  is  this  but  a  re-statement  of  the  old  • 
mineral  theory  applied  especially  to  the  Leguminosre? 

Prof.  Wagner's  views  upon  the  absorption  of  atmospheric 
nitrogen  and  his  consequent  recommendation  of  green  crop 
manuring,  are  the  two  principal  features  of  this  little  work.  In 
some  places  the  German  fault  of  verbiage  is  only  too  evident — 
whole  paragraphs  being  devoted  to  what  is  perfectly  self 
evident.  Still,  various  practical  suggestions  of  great  value  are 
made.  The  remarks  upon  the  proper  method  of  applying 
nitrate  of  soda  are  particularly  worthy  of  attention.  The  effect 
of  this  active  manure  in  developing  stem  and  leaf  rather  than 
flower  and  fruit  is  acknowledged,  but  only  as  a  consequence  of  • 
the  period  of  the  plant's  growth  when  it  is  applied. 

Nitrate  of  soda  enables  the  plant  to  seize  upon  the  stores  of 
phosphoric  acid,  potash  and  lime  in  the  soil,  and  the  effect  is 
rapid  growth.  This  effect  is  however  short  lived,  as  the  nitrate 
is  freely  movable  in  the  soil,  and  readily  finds  its  way  to  lower 
sections  when  it  is  no  longer  available.  The  case  is  therefore  as 
follows  : — Nitrate  of  soda  applied  in  February,  March,  or  April, 
is  employed  in  the  development  of  leaf  and  stem,  and  by  the 
time  the  period  has  arrived  for  grain  formation  it  is  spent.  If 
the  same  dressing  had  been  applied  later  in  the  history  of  the 
crop,  and  at  the  time  when  the  embryo  grain  was  being  formed, 
the  same  stimulus  would  have  been  given  towards  grain  forma- 
tion, which  under  ordinary  circumstances  takes  the  form  of  leaf 
and  stem  development.  The  practical  recommendation  based 
upon  the  consideration  is  to  apply  one-sixth  part  of  the  applica- 
tion in  autumn,  two-sixths  in  March,  and  the  remaining  three- 
sixths  in  May.  The  plant  is  to  be  fed  during  its  whole  life, 
and  not  only  at  the  period  when  it  is  forming  leaves  and  stem,  but 
especially  at  the  important  period  when  it  is  forming  fruit.  The 
remarks  upon  the  ripening  effects  of  superphosphate  upon  root 
crops  are  also  well  worthy  of  attention.  Excessive  quantities  of 
superphosphate  hasten  too  rapidly  the  processes  of  maturation, 
and  tell  against  prolongation  of  growth  into  the  late  autumn,  and 
this,  it  is  submitted,  accounts  for  the  occasionally  smaller  results 
obtained  by  the  use  of  phosphates  inla-ge  quantities  as  compared 
with  those  produced  by  more  moderate  dressings. 

Prof.  Wagner  comes  to  the  conclusion,  which  we  quite  agree 
in,  that  nitrogen,  phosphoric  acid,  and  potash  are  the  principal 
elements  of  fertility  that  require  to  be  added  to  soils.  The 
remaining  essential  substances,  although  equally  important  to 
the  well-being  of  the  plant,  are  usually  present  in  ample  quanti- 


August  2,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


33i 


ties  in  cultivated  soils.  We  might  be  disposed  to  eliminate  the 
potash  as  also  usually  sufficiently  prevalent.  The  fact  that  straw 
is  almost  invariably  returned  to  arable  land  is  in  itself  a  safe- 
guard against  the  exhaustion  of  potash  ;  and  the  considerable 
percentage  found  in  most  soils,  especially  those  of  argillaceous 
character,  points  to  the  same  conclusion.  The  farmer  has  then 
chiefly  to  consider  the  supply  of  phosphates  and  of  nitrates,  and, 
with  regard  to  these  two,  Prof.  Wagner  thinks  that  the  former 
ought  to  be  in  excess  of  what  is  required,  and  that  the  farmer 
should  equally  devote  his  attention  to  the  proper  supply  and 
application  of  nitrates  to  the  soil.  The  recommendation  that 
phosphates  should  be  in  excess  is  based  on  the  observation  that 
growth  is  seldom  regular.  It  depends  on  climatic  conditions,  and 
sometimes  is  arrested  by  drought  or  low  temperature  for  two  or 
three  weeks,  while  in  well  cultivated  and  well  fertilized  ground 
vegetation  makes  extraordinary  progress  in  three  or  four  days. 
The  supply  of  phosphates  ought  therefore  to  be  in  excess  of 
what  may  be  required  under  ordinary  conditions  of  growth,  and 
should  be  abundant  enough  to  supply  the  plant  under  the  most 
rapid  conditions  of  growth.  The  conclusion  is  that  phosphates 
may  be  applied  liberally  and  without  hesitation  or  limit,  i.e., 
without  scientific  accuracy.  The  case  of  nitrates  is  different,  as 
they  are  so  easily  available  and  so  freely  mobile  in  the  soil,  that 
the  plant  has  no  difficulty  in  appropriating  them.  The  nitrates 
probably  find  their  way  into  the  plant  before  they  are  required, 
and  are  stored  up  and  elaborated  gradually  as  the  plant  takes  up 
further  supplies  of  mineral  nutriment.  The  rapidity  with  which 
they  disappear  and  their  extraordinary  effect  mark  the  nitrates 
out  as  the  chief  object  of  study  in  manuring  land.  , 

John  Wrightson. 


THE  BURIAL  CUSTOMS  OF  THE  AINOS. 

A/TR.  BACHELOR,  to  whose  investigations  on  the  subject  of 
■*■"■*•  the  ,  Ainos  of  Yezo  we  have  frequently  referred,  writes,  in  a 
recent  issue  of  the  Japan  Weekly  Mail,  on  the  burial  customs  of 
this  race.  He  says  that  as  soon  as  a  person  dies,  a  blazing  fire  is 
made,  the  corpse  is  dressed  in  its  best  garments,  which  are  neatly 
laced  up,  and  is  laid  lengthways  on  the  right-hand  side  of  the 
fireplace.  The  relatives  and  friends  of  the  deceased  sit  around 
the  remaining  parts  of  the  fireplace,  and  usually  they  are  so 
numerous  as  to  fill  the  hut.  In  all  cases  many  sacred  symbols 
(inao)  are  made,  and  placed  around  the  hut  and  the  dead  body. 
Mr.  Bachelor  has  seen  the  corpse  of  a  woman  laid  out.  She 
was  well  dressed,  and  had  her  utensils  and  paraphernalia  about 
her  (the  rings  and  beads  being,  in  this  instance,  laid  upon  her 
bosom),  and  was  shod  with  pieces  of  white  calico  which  Mrs. 
Bachelor  had,  a  few  days  previously,  given  to  the  husband  of 
the  deceased  to  bind  up  his  wounded  foot.  Any  white  material 
seems  to  be  especially  welcome  to  the  Ainos  for  wrapping  up 
the  bodies  of  their  dead.  When  the  body  has  been  properly 
dressed,  and  when  the  necessary  eating-vessels  or  hunting  mate- 
rials are  placed  in  position,  a  cake  made  of  millet,  or  a  cup  of 
boiled  rice  and  some  wine,  are  placed  by  its  side,  and  the  spirit 
of  the  departed  is  supposed  to  eat  up  the  essence  of  these  things. 
Then  the  goddess  of  fire  is  implored  to  take  charge  of  the  spirit 
and  lead  it  safely  to  the  Creator  of  the  world  and  the  possessor 
of  heaven,  and  she  receives  various  messages  to  the  Deity  setting 
forth  the  praises  of  the  dead  and  extolling  his  many  virtues. 
Millet  cakes  and  wine  are  then  handed  round  to  every  member 
of  the  assembled  company,  and  each  of  them  offers  two  or  three 
drops  of  the  wine  to  the  spirit  of  the  dead,  then  drinks  a  little, 
and  pours  what  remains  before  the  fire  as  an  offering  to  the  fire- 
goddess,  to  whom  they  have  not  ceased  to  pray  ;  then  part  of 
the  millet  cake  is  eaten,  and  the  remainder  buried  in  the  ashes 
on  the  hearth,  each  person  burying  a  little  piece.  After  the 
burial  these  scraps  are  collected  and  carried  out  of  the  hut  and 
placed  before  the  east  window,  which  is  regarded  as  the  sacred 
place.  The  corpse  is  then  carefully  rolled  up  in  a  mat,  neatly 
tied  up,  attached  to  a  pole,  and  carried  to  the  grave  by  two  men. 
The  mourners  follow  after  the  corpse,  in  single  file,  each  carry- 
ing something  to  be  buried  in  the  grave,  the  men  leading  and 
the  women  following  them.  The  grave  is  from  2\  to  3^  feet 
deep,  and  round  the  inside  of  it  stakes  are  driven,  and  over 
them  and  at  the  bottom  of  the  grave  mats  are  placed.  Then 
the  body  is  laid  in  the  grave,  with  numerous  little  knick- 
knacks — cups,  rings,  beads,  a  saucepan  and  some  clothing  being 
buried  with  the  woman,  a  bow  and  quiver,  an  eating  and  a 
drinking  cup,  tobacco,  a  pipe,  a  knife  with  the  men,  and  play- 


things with  the  children.  These  things  are  always  broken 
before  being  put  into  the  grave,  and  it  is  noticeable  that  they 
are  not  usually  the  best  the  deceased  had  during  life.  Every- 
thing is  then  closely  covered  with  mats  ;  pieces  of  wood  are 
placed  so  as  to  form  a  kind  of  roof,  and  on  this  the  earth  is 
piled.  A  pole  is  generally  stuck  at  the  foot  of  the  grave  to 
mark  the  spot.  No  prayers  are  offered  up  during  burial.  The 
mourners  then  return  to  the  hut,  where  the  men  pray,  make 
inao,  i.e.  sacred  symbols,  eat,  drink,  and  get  drunk.  The  dead 
body  is  never  allowed  to  remain  in  the  house  longer  than  one 
day  ;  and,  once  the  funeral  is  over,  the  name  of  the  departed  is 
never  mentioned. 


UNIVERSITY  AND  ED UCA  TIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 

The  following  is  the  list  of  Scholarships,  prizes,  and 
Associateships  awarded  in  July  1888,  at  the  Normal  School  of 
Science  and  Royal  School  of  Mines,  South  Kensington,  for  the 
session  1887-88  : — 

First  Year's  Scholarships :  Samuel  H.  Studley,  Sydney 
Wood,  William  S.  Jarratt,  and  George  N.  Huntly.  Second 
Year's  Scholarships  :  Savannah  J.  Speak  and  William  Tate. 

Edward  Forbes  Medal  and  Prize  of  Books  for  Biology : 
Arthur  M.  Davies.  Murchison  Prize  of  Books  for  Geology  : 
William  Tate  and  Samuel  Truscott.  The  Murchison  Medal 
was  not  awarded.  Tyndall  Prize  of  Books  for  Physics  :  William 
Watson.  De  la  Beche  Medal  for  Mining  :  Edmund  L.  Hope. 
Bessemer  Medal  and  Prize  of  Books  for  Metallurgy  :  Harry  C. 
Jenkins.  Frank  Hatton  Prize  of  Books  for  Chemistry  :  James 
W.  Rodger. 

Prizes  of  Books  given  by  the  Science  and  Art  Department  : — 
Mechanics,  James  Whitaker ;  Astronomical  Physics,  William  S. 
Jarratt  and  William  Watson  ;  Practical  Chemistry,  James  W. 
Rodger  and  James  Young  ;  Mining,  John  M.  Beckwith.  The 
prize  for  Principles  of  Agriculture  and  Agricultural  Chemistry 
was  not  awarded. 

Associateships  (Normal  School  of  Science)  : — Mechanics,  1st 
Class  :  James  Whitaker  and  William  Kelsall.  Physics,  1st  Class  : 
Harry  E.  Hadley  and  Philip  L.  Gray;  2nd  Class:  Herbert 
Anderson  and  Philip  L.  Coultas.  Chemistry,  1st  Class  :  James  W. 
Rodger,  James  Young,  Barker  North,  and  Harold  E.  Hey;  2nd 
Class:  William  MacDonald,  George  Grace,  Francis  J.  Hardy, 
George  C.  McMurtry,  and  Henry  Sowerbulls.  Biology,  1st 
Class :  Arthur  M.  Davies.  Geology,  1st  Class  :  Thomas  H. 
Holland. 

Associateships  (Royal  School  of  Mines)  : — Metallurgy,  1st 
Class  :  Harry  C.  Jenkins,  Thomas  Clarkson,  and  William 
McNiell  ;  2nd  Class :  Alfred  Howard.  Mining,  1st  Class  : 
Edmund  L.  Hope,  John  M.  Beckwith,  James  A.  Chalmers, 
William  F. Thomas,  Sydney  Allingham,  Charles  G.  Thompson, 
John  Leechman;  Frederick  H.  P.  Creswell,  Ernest  Lichten- 
burg ;  2nd  Class  :  Ferdinand  F.  L.  Dielyrch,  Henry  L.  Lewis, 
Henry  B.  Budgett,  William  F.  Hamley,  and  Harold 
Macandrew. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  April  26.— "  On  the  Coagulation  of  the 
Blood."  Preliminary  Communication.  By  W.  D.  Halliburton, 
M.D.,  B. Sc,  Assistant  Professor  of  Physiology,  University 
College,  London.  Communicited  by  Prof.  E.  A.  Schafer, 
F.R.S.  (From  the  Physiological  Laboratory,  University 
College,  London.) 

The  present  research  was  directed  to  determining  the  nature 
of  the  ferment  that  produces  the  change  of  fibrinogen  into  fibrin. 

Some  preliminary  experiments  showed  that  the  following 
proteids  were  present  in  lymph  cells  (obtained  from  lymphatic 
glands). 

(1)  A  mucin-like  proteid  similar  to  that  described  by  Mieschcr 
in  pus  which  swells  up  into  a  jelly  like  substance  when  mixed 
with  solutions  of  sodium  chloride  or  magnesium  sulphate.  This 
is  a  nucleo-albumin. 

(2)  Two  g'obulins. 

(3)  An  albumin. 

The  Globulins. — There  is  a  small  quantity  of  a  globulin  which 


NATURE 


\_August  2,  1888 


enters  into  the  condition  of  a  heat  coagulum  at  about  500  C. 
The  most  abundant  globulin  is,  however,  one  which  resembles 
serum  globulin  in  its  heat  coagulation  temperature  (750  C),  and 
in  the  way  in  which  it  is  precipitated  by  saturation  with  salts,  or 
by  dialyzing  out  the  salts  from  its  solutions. 

The  term  serum  globulin  is  hardly  applicable  to  a  proteid  ex- 
isting in  lymph  cells  ;  hence  it  is  necessary  to  multiply  terms, 
and  to  designate  this  globulin  by  a  new  name,  viz.  cell  globulin. 
It  has,  moreover,  certain  characteristic  properties  which  will  be 
fully  dealt  with  later  on. 

The  Albumin  resembles  serum  albumin  in  its  properties.  It 
coagulates  at  73°  C.  It  is  present  in  very  small  quantities.  It 
may  be  provisionally  termed  cell  albumin. 

Having  thus  recognized  the  various  proteids  that  occur  in  the 
cells  of  lymphatic  glands,  my  next  endeavour  was  to  ascertain 
what  action,  if  any,  these  exerted  on  the  coagulation  of  the 
blood.  My  experiments  in  this  direction  have  been  mostly  per- 
formed with  salted  plasma.  The  blood  is  received  into  an 
approximately  equal  volume  of  saturated  sodium  sulphate  solu- 
tion. By  this  means  coagulation  is  prevented,  and  the  corpuscles 
settle.  On  subsequently  removing  the  supernatant  salted 
plasma,  and  diluting  it  with  four  or  five  times  its  bulk  of  water, 
coagulation  occurs  after  the  lapse  usually  of  several  hours  ;  but 
if,  instead  of  water,  a  solution  of  fibrin  ferment  be  used, 
coagulation  occurs  in  a  few  minutes. 

I  first  tried  to  prepare  fibrin  ferment  from  the  lymphatic 
glands  ;  these  were  freed  from  blood,  chopped  small,  and  placed 
under  absolute  alcohol  for  some  months  ;  they  were  then  dried 
over  sulphuric  acid,  powdered,  and  the  dry  powder  extracted 
with  water.  The  water  was  found  to  contain  the  fibrin  ferment. 
It  hastened  very  considerably  the  coagulation  of  salted  plasma. 
This  activity  was  destroyed  at  a  temperature  between  740  C.  and 
8o°  C.  The  watery  extract  gave,  moreover,  the  xanthoproteic 
reaction  ;  it  contained  also  some  sodium  chloride  and  phosphates 
which  it  had  dissolved  out  of  the  dried  glands. 

A  watery  or  saline  extract  of  fresh  glands  also  had  very  con- 
siderable clotting  powers  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  addition  of  a  few 
drops  of  such  an  extract  caused  diluted  salted  plasma  to  clot  in  a 
few  minutes,  which  otherwise  did  not  clot  until  after  the  lapse 
of  12-24  hours.  The  activity  of  this  extract  was  not  altered 
by  heating  to  700 ;  it  was  therefore  independent  of  the  nucleo- 
albumin  which  is  disintegrated  at  about  500  C,  or  of  the  globulin 
which  coagulates  at  that  temperature.  Its  activity  was  de- 
stroyed, however,  if  heated  above  750  C.  These  facts  show  that 
the  extracts  of  both  dried  and  fresh  glands  contain  a  substance 
which  has  the  same  properties  as  fibrin  ferment,  and  which, 
moreover,  is  rendered  inactive  at  the  temperature  at  which 
fibrin  ferment,  as  ordinarily  prepared  from  serum,  loses  its 
activity. 

The  next  question  which  I  investigated  was  whether  the 
ferment  action  was  dependent  upon,  or  independent  of,  the 
presence  of  the  proteids  of  the  cells.  An  extract  of  the  cells 
was  made  with  sodium  sulphate  solution,  and  saturated  with 
ammonium  sulphate  ;  the  precipitate  of  the  proteids  so  pro- 
duced was  filtered  off ;  the  proteid-free  filtrate  dialyzed  till  free 
from  excess  of  salt,  and  it  was  then  found  to  have  no  power  of 
hastening  coagulation.  The  precipitate  which  contained  all  the 
proteids  was  washed  by  saturated  solution  of  ammonium 
sulphate,  and  redissolved  by  adding  distilled  water  ;  this  solution 
hastened  the  coagulation  of  salted  plasma  very  considerably. 
This  experiment  showed  either  that  the  ferment  was  identical 
with  or  precipitated  with  the  proteids  in  the  extract.  It  was, 
moreover,  destroyed  at  a  temperature  at  which  these  proteids 
were  coagulated,  viz.  about  750  C. ;  there  are,  however,  in  the 
solution  two  proteids  which  are  coagulated  at  about  this  tem- 
perature, viz.  the  cell  globulin  and  the  cell  albumin.  The 
globulin  and  the  albumin  were  then  separated  from  one  another, 
and  it  was  fuinl  that  the  globulin  and  not  the  albumin  had  the 
properties  of  fibrin  ferment. 

After  I  had  performed  the  experiments  just  related,  the 
question  naturally  arose,  Is  this  cell  globulin  the  same  thing  as 
what  has  been  termed  fibrin  ferment  when  prepared  from  serum  ? 
From  the  experiments  which  were  performed  in  order  to  elucidate 
this  question  the  following  conclusions  were  drawn  : — 

(1)  Lymph  cells  yield  as  one  of  their  disintegration  products 
a  globulin  which  may  be  called  cell  globulin.  This  has  the 
properties  that  have  hitherto  been  ascribed  to  fibrin  ferment. 

(2)  Fibrin  ferment  as  extracted  from  the  dried  alcoholic  pre- 
cipitate of  blood  serum  is  found  on  concentration  to  be  a  globulin 
with  the  properties  of  cell  globulin. 


(3)  The  fibrin  ferment  as  extracted  by  saline  solutions  from 
"washed  blood  clot  "  is  a  globulin  which  is  also  identical  with 
cell  globulin. 

(4)  Serum  globulin  as  prepared  from  hydrocele  fluid  has  no 
fibrinoplastic  properties.  It  may  perhaps  be  better  termed 
plasma  globulin. 

(5)  Serum  globulin  as  prepared  from  serum  has  marked  fibrino- 
plastic properties.  This  is  because  it  consists  of  plasma  globulin, 
and  celi  globulin  derived  from  the  disintegration  of  white  blood 
corpuscles,  which  are  in  origin  lymph  cells. 

(6)  The  cause  of  coagulation  of  the  blood  is  primarily  the 
disintegration  of  the  white  blood  corpuscles  ;  they  liberate  cell 
globulin,  which  acts  as  a  ferment  converting  fibrinogen  into 
fibrin.  It  does  not  apparently  become  a  constituent  part  of  the 
fibrin  formed. 

This  confirmation  and  amplification  of  Hammarsten's  views 
concerning  the  cause  of  the  coagulation  of  the  blood  is  in  direct 
opposition  to  the  theories  of  Wooldridge,  which  may  be  stated 
as  follows  : — The  coagulation  of  the  blood  is  a  phenomenon 
essentially  similar  to  crystallization  ;  in  the  plasma  there  are 
three  constituents  concerned  in  coagulation,  A,  B,  and  C 
fibrinogen.  A  and  B  fibrinogen  are  compounds  of  lecithin  and 
proteid,  and  fibrin  results  from  the  transference  of  the  lecithin 
from  A  fibrinogen  to  B  fibrinogen.  C  fibrinogen  is  what  has 
hitherto  been  called  fibrinogen  ;  A  fibrinogen  is  a  substance 
which  may  be  precipitated  by  cooling  "peptone  plasma,"  and  on 
the  removal  of  this  substance  coagulation  occurs  with  great  diffi- 
culty. The  precipitate  produced  by  cold  consists  of  rounded 
bodies  resembling  the  blood-plates  in  appearance.  He  further 
found  that  other  compounds  of  lecithin  and  proteid,  to  which  he 
has  extended  the  name  of  fibrinogen,  exist  in  the  thymus  and 
other  organs,  in  the  fluid  of  lymph  glands,  and  in  the  stromata 
of  red  corpuscles  ;  these  substances  may  be  extracted  from  the 
organs  by  water,  and  precipitated  from  the  aqueous  extract  by 
acetic  acid,  and  on  redissolving  this  in  a  saline  solution,  and 
injecting  it  into  the  circulation  of  a  living  animal,  intravascular 
clotting  occurs  which  results  in  the  death  of  the  animal.  This 
form  of  fibrinogen  (?)  that  acts  thus  he  looks  upon  as  the  pre- 
cursor of  A  fibrinogen.  From  these  points  of  view  the  fibrin 
ferment  and  the  white  corpuscles  are  looked  upon  as  of  secondary 
import  in  causing  coagulation,  though  it  is  admitted  that  fibrin 
ferment  converts  C  fibrinogen  into  fibrin. 

The  Influence  of  Lecithin  in  the  Coagulation  of  the  Blood. — 
Lecithin  hastens  the  coagulation  of  blood -plasma,  which  has 
been  prevented  from  clotting  by  the  injection  into  the  cir- 
culation of  a  certain  quantity  of  commercial  peptone ;  but 
peptone  plasma,  as  I  shall  show  more  fully  in  the  next  section, 
differs  so  much  from  normal  plasma,  that  it  is  impossible  to  draw 
correct  conclusions  from  experiments  performed  with  it,  unless 
they  be  supported  by  confirmatory  evidence  on  solutions  of 
fibrinogen  and  pure  plasma,  such  as  one  obtains  from  a  vein,  or 
from  the  pericardial  sac,  and  lecithin  does  not  cause  coagulation 
in  such  cases. 

The  supposition  that  "fibrinogen  A"  acts  by  giving  up  its 
lecithin  to  "fibrinogen  B':  to  form  fibrin,  seems,  therefore,  to 
be  a  pure  assumption,  and  is  unsupported  by  analytical  evidence. 
Cell  globulin  contains  no  phosphorus,  and  can  therefore  contain 
no  lecithin. 

The  Precipitate  produced  by  cooling  Peptone  Plasma. — The  chief 
point  I  wish  to  urge  is  that  this  precipitate  is  obtained  on 
cooling  peptone  plasma  only,  and  from  no  other  form  of  plasma. 
I  have  repeatedly  attempted  to  obtain  such  a  precipitate  by 
cooling  to  o°  C.  pure  plasma  from  the  veins  of  the  horse,  salted 
plasma,  hydrocele  fluid,  and  pericardial  fluid,  but  in  all  cases 
with  a  negative  result.  It  therefore  occurs  in  peptone  plasma 
alone  ;  and  that  it  is  due  to  the  peptone  is  supported  by  the  fact 
that  if  one  takes  an  aqueous  solution  of  "  Witte's  peptone"  and 
cools  it  too°C,  a  precipitate  is  formed  consisting  of  rounded 
granules  very  similar  to  blood-tablets.  This  precipitate  more- 
over consists  of  hetero-albumose.  (Witte's  peptone  contains  a 
large  admixture  of  albumose.)  That  peptone  blood  does  differ 
in  one  other  important  particular  from  normal  blood,  viz.  in 
the  heat  coagulation  temperatures  of  its  proteids,  was  shown  by 
Wooldridge  himself.  It  is  on  these  grounds,  then,  that  I  hold 
we  cannot  regard  peptone  plasma  as  being  at  all  comparable  to 
normal  plasma. 

Intravascular  Coagulation. — No  doubt  the  crude  and  impure 
substance  introduced  into  the  veins  produces  intrava  cular  dot- 
ting ;  but  I  must  protest  against  the  extension  of  the  name 
fibrinogen  to  such  substances.     It  seems  to  me  it  would  be  just  as 


August  2,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


33. 


correct  to  call  a  piece  of  iron  wire  introduced  into  the  sac  of  an 
aneurysm  to  produce  coagulation  there,  a  fibrinogen. 

With  regard,  however,  to  these  tissue-fibrinogens  of  Woold- 
ridge,  I  think  we  may  venture  to  offer  a  suggestion  as  to  their 
real  nature,  or,  at  any  rate,  as  to  the  nature  of  one  of  their  con- 
stituents. From  the  last  paper  published  by  Wooldridge,  we 
find  that  they  are  imperfectly  soluble  in  water,  readily  precipi- 
tated by  acids,  and  soluble  in  excess  of  those  reagents  ;  that 
they  yield  on  gastric  digestion  a  substance  which  is  insoluble  and 
which  is  rich  in  phosphorus.  From  these  details  of  their 
properties,  I  think  we  may  draw  the  conclusion,  not  that  they 
contain  lecithin,  as  Wooldridge  affirms,  but  that  they  belong  to 
the  group  of  proteids  described  in  the  former  part  of  this 
paper  under  Hammarsten's  name  of  nucleo-albumin.  Nucleo- 
albumins  yield  when  poured  into  water  a  stringy  precipitate 
resembling  mucin,  and  in  a  former  paper  Wooldridge  speaks  of 
the  precipitate  of  his  tissue  fibrinogen  (precipitated  by  acetic 
acid)  as  being  a  bulky  one.  If  my  conjecture  is  correct,  it  would 
be  exceedingly  likely  that  when  a  saline  solution  of  such  a 
substance  was  injected  into  the  circulation,  it  would  form  strings 
of  a  slimy  mucinoid  description  in  the  vessels,  and  that  these 
would  form  the  starting-point  for  the  thrombosis  or  intravascular 
coagulation  that  ensues. 

May  3.  —  "  On  the  Induction  of  Electric  Currents  in  Conducting 
Shells  of  Small  Thickness. "     By  S.  H.  Burbury. 

(1)  Definition  and  Explanation  of  the  Notation  employed. — 
A  current-sheet  in  any  field  of  electric  currents  is  a  surface  to 
which  the  stream-lines  are  everywhere  tangential.  A  current- 
sliell  is  the  space  between  two  current-sheets  very  near  each 
other.  The  superficial  current  in  a  current-shell  is  the  quantity 
of  electricity  which  in  unit  time  crosses  unit  length  of  a  line 
drawn  on  either  sheet  perpendicular  to  the  current.  If  U,  V, 
W  be  the  components  of  superficial  current,  there  always  exists 
a  function,  <f>,  called  the  current  function,  such  that — 

dy  dz 

I,  m,  n  being  the  direction  cosines  of  the  normal.  This  function 
completely  determines  the  superficial  currents. 

The  corresponding  expressions  for  the  component  currents  per 
unit  of  area  are — 

dS  d*       dSd<l>     „ 
dz   dy       dy  dz 

where  S  and  *  are  any  two  functions  of  x,  y,  and  z. 
The  components  of  vector  potential  due  to  a  current-sheet 

F=//W/K"l-ȣ)- 

And  if  the  sheet  be  closed,  this  may  be  put  in  the  form — 

So  that  F,  G,  and  II  are  linear  functions  of  the  <p's  with 
coefficient  functions  of  the  co-ordinates. 

If  the  current-sheet  be  spherical,  the  vector  potential  is 
tangential  to  any  concentric  spherical  surface. 

The  electro-kinetic  energy  of  a  system  of  current-sheets  is — 

2T  =    ft  j  (FU  +  GV  +  HWJrfS 
over  all  the  sheets  ;  that  is —  , 

///<♦(- i  "•?)*>* 

if  the  surfaces  be  closed ;  and  if  fl  be  the  magnetic  potential, 
this  reduces  to  — 

-//♦*« 

da. 

denoting  the  space  variation  of  D.  per  unit  length   of  the 

normal   measured   outwards.     Also,    ,     is  shown  not  to  be  dis- 

dv 

continuous  in   passing  through  a  sheet   of  superficial  currents. 

T  is  expressible  as  a  quadratic  function  of  the  $>'s  with  coefficients 

functions  of  the  co-ordinates. 

(2)  Comparison  ruilh  Magnetic  Shells. — The  components  of 

vector  potential  due  to  a  magnetic  shell  placed  en  a  closed  sur- 


face, S,  with  variable  strength,  <p  (reckoned  as  positive  when 
the  positive  face  is  outwards),  are — 

r.?//.t(-it-.i)l* 

They  are,  then,  the  same  as  those  due  to  a  system  of  currents  on 
S  determined  by  <p  as  current  function.  Hence  the  magnetic 
induction  due  to  the  magnetic  shell  is  the  same  as  that  due  to 
the  corresponding  system  of  currents  at  any  point  in  free  space. 

(3)  If  fl0  denote  the  magnetic  potential  due  to  any  magnetic 
system  outside  of  S,  it  is  possible  to  determine  <p  so  that  a  shell 
of  strength  <f>  on  S  has,  at  all  points  on  or  within  S,  potential 
equal  and  opposite  to  n0.  General  determination  of  <p  to  satisfy 
this  condition.     The  solution  is  unique. 

(4)  Therefore,  also,  there  exists  a  system  of  currents  on  S, 
having  <p  for  current  function,  such  that  the  magnetic  force  due 
to  it  is  equal  and  opposite  to  that  due  to  the  external  system  at 
all  points  on  or  within  S.  This  system  is  called  the  magnetic 
screen  on  S  to  the  external  system.     Example  of  a  sphere. 

(5)  General  Solution  of  the  Problem  of  Induction,  Resistance 
not  being  yet  taken  into  account. — If  S0,  ClQ,  <p0,  Sec,  relate  to  a 
magnetic  system  outside  of  S,  O.  and  <£  to  S  and  superficial 
currents  upon  it,  the  whole  electro-kinetic  energy  is — 


dv 

dn 

dp 


(cin0      da\ 
\dv         dv) 


da' 
avj 

d£i- 
dv 


wsn 


dS. 


In  this  form,  T  has  as  many  variables — namely,  the  values  of 
<f> — as  it  has  degrees  of  freedom. 

If,  therefore,  the  external  system  be  continuously  varied,  the 
induced  current  on  S  will  be  given  by 


d 

dt 


that  is, 


that  is, 


■IT 
d(p 


fdn0     dn\ 

\  dv         dv) 


=  o  on  S, 


=  o  on  S, 


d  fdn0     da\ 

dv(d?+lit)  =  00nS- 


And  since  v2 


«dCl 


and  V2         =0  at  all  points  within  S 


dt 


it  follows  that  -  ,~  +         =  o  at  all  points  within  S. 


dn0 
dt 
ddn 
dJ 

That  is,  the  induced  currents,  on  their  creation,  are  the  mag- 
netic screen  to  the  time  variation  of  the  external  field.  This 
gives  the  law  of  formation  of  the  currents,  however  rapidly 
they  may  decay  by  resistance. 

(6)  Of  a  Solid  Conductor. — If  S  be  a  hollow  shell,  there  will, 
as  the  direct  result  of  induction,  be  zero  magnetic  force  at  all 
points  within  it.  Therefore,  if  it  be  filled  with  conducting 
matter  so  as  to  form  a  solid  conductor,  none  but  superficial 
currents  will,  as  the  direct  consequence  of  the  variation  of  the 
external  field,  be  induced  in  it.  But  as  the  superficial  currents 
decay  by  resistance,  their  variation  induces  currents  in  the  inner 
strata  of  the  solid,  so  that  in  time,  and  no  doubt  generally  in  a 
very  short  time,  the  solid  becomes  pervaded  by  currents.  The 
currents  penetrate  the  solid,  and  the  initial  rale  of  penetration 
can  be  calculated  under  certain  conditions  (see  post,  15). 

(7)  Of  the  Associated  Function. — If  F,  G,  H  be  the  compo- 
nents of  any  vector  which  satisfy 


</F 

dx 


dG 
dy 


+ 


dR 

dz 


=  o 


at  all  points  within  a  closed  surface,  S,  there  exists  a  function, \x> 
called  the  associated  function,  such  that  — 

*£, '  m  IF  +  »;G  +  «H  on  S, 

dv 

V2X  —  °  within  S. 

The  components  F,  G,  H  of  vector  potential  of  a  system  of 
closed  currents  outside  of  S  have  an  associated  function,  x>  on  S. 
dY  _  <IG 
dt '  dt 
function,  which  shall  be  denoted  by  ty. 


In  like  manner  - 


and   -  -,     have 
dt 


an    associated 


134 


NATURE     • 


[August  2,  1888 


(8)  If 


d¥ 


d_G 

dt' 


and  — 

dt 


relate  to  an  external  system  and  its 


magnetic  screen  on  S,  we  have 

d_   d¥  _  d    dG 
dt     dy        dt     dx 
whence  it  follows  that 

_  d¥_  _  dty        dG 
dt         dx  dt 

If,  therefore, 


;,  &c,  within  S, 


dy 


=    -r  .   C 


&c. 


_cl¥     _  dG     _  d¥L 
dt  '         dt  '         dt 
are  the  components  of  an  electromotive  force  within  S,  there  will 
form  on  S  a  distribution  of  statical    electricity  having  potential 
i/>,  and  forming  a  complete  electric  screen  to  the  external  system. 

(9)  Of  Self  inductive  Systems  of  Currents  on  a  Surface. — 
If  any  system  of  currents  in  a  conducting  shell  be  left  to  decay 
by  resistance,  uninfluenced  by  any  external  induction,  it  may  be 
the  case  that  they  decay  proportionally  ;  so  that,  if  U0,  V0,  W0 
denote  the  initial  values  of  the  component  currents,  their  values 
at  time  t    are   U  =  U0e  ~w,   V  =  V0e  _x',   W  =  W0e  ~xt,    and 

-j—  =  -  AU,  &c,  where  A  is  a  constant  proportional  to  the 

specific  resistance,  and  inversely  proportional  to  the  abso- 
lute thickness.  If  this  be  the  case,  the  system  is  defined  to 
be  self  inductive. 

(10)  By  Ohm's  law  we  have,  whether  the  system  be  self- 
inductive  or  not, — 

d¥       dii     o 
au  =  - I  ,  &c, 

dt        dx 

where  u  is  the  component  current  per  unit   of  area,  and  a  the 

specific  resistance. 

If  h  be  the  thickness  of  the  shell,  au  —  —  U,  and  the  equations 

h 
may  be  written — 

_  d¥  _    dty  _  dG   _   dty 

a  _         dt  dx  dt  dy ,  &c. 

h~  U  ~  V 

/F  ,'U'fi  A  ^ 

-y-  =  AF,  &c,  and    -   f-  = 
at  dx 

Ax,  where  %  ls  the  associated  function  to  F,  G,  and  H,  and  if'  to 

d¥        dG          ,        dll 
—  — , ,   and 

dt  dt  -      dt 

G  +  <*  H  +  ** 

dz  dy  dz 


If  the  system  be  self-inductive 


+  1* 


Therefore- 


h 


=  A 


=  A 


V 


W 


(il)  Now  if  we  assume  as  current  function  on  S  any  arbitrary 
function,  <j>,  we  thereby  determine  U,  V,  W,  and  therefore  also 
F,  G,  H,  and  x,  at  all  points  on  S.  It  will  not  be  generally 
true  that — 


dx 


G  + 


II  +  £ 

dy  _  dz. 


U 


w 


These  equations  constitute  a  condition  which  the  current  func- 
tion </>  must  satisfy  in  order  that  the  system  may  be  capable  of 
being  made  self-inductive.  Their  geometrical  interpretation  is 
that  the  tangential  component  of  vector  potential  of  the  currents 
in  the  sheet  coincide  with  the  current  at  every  point. 

If  (j>  be  chosen  to  satisfy  that  condition,  then  by  the  equation — 


AQ  (suppose) 


we  determine  h,    the  thickness    of  the   shell    at    every   point, 
necessary  to  make  the  shell  self-inductive,  i.e.  h  =  — - =-. 

(12)  Examples  of  Self-inductive  Systems. — 1.  S  a  sphere,  and 
<p  any  spherical  surface  harmonic  of  one  order.  Here  h  is  a 
constant. 

2.  S  a  surface  of  revolution  about  the  axis  of  z,  and  <p  a 
function  of  z  only. 

3.  Any  surface,  with  <f>  a  function  of  z  only,  if  x  is  independ- 


ent of  z.  Example  :  an  ellipsoid  whose  axes  are  the  axes  of 
co-ordinates,  and  <p  =  Az.  it  is  found  in  this  case  that  \p  cc  xy, 
and  therefore  the  necessary  condition  for  a  self-inductive  system 
is  satisfied  ;  and  also,  to  make  it  self-inductive,  h  varies  as  the 
perpendicular  from  the  centre  on  the  tangent  plane  at  the  point. 

(13)  Co-existence  of  Self-inductive  Systems. — If  any  number  of 
self-inductive  systems  be  created  in  the  same  shell,  each  decays 
according  to  its  own  law,  unaffected  by  the  others.  If  all  have 
the  same  value  of  A,  then,  as  the  effect  of  resistance  apart  from 
induction,  we  have 

Q    +  Afi  =  O, 
dt 

where  fi  is  the  magnetic  potential  of  the  whole  system. 

(14)  General  Property  of  Self  inductive  Systems. — If  an  ex- 
ternal system  so  vary  as  that  the  system  of  currents  in  the  shell 
S,  induced  at  any  instant,  shall  always  be  self-inductive,  and 
with  the  same  value  of  A,  we  have,  to  determine  the  currents  in 
the  shell  at  any  instant,  the  equation — 


dnn 


+ 


da 

dt 


+  An  =  o, 


from  which  fi  can  be  found,  if 

dn 


is  given. 


Example  1. — Let 


dt 


=  C, 


a  constant. 


In  this  case  we  find 


C 

n  =  - 

A 


If  C  be  very  great,  and  /  very  small,  this 

approximates  to  the  ideal  case  of  an  impulsive  force,  and   £1  be- 
comes equal  to  Ct,  and  is  independent  of  the  resistance.     If,  on 

Q 
the  other  hand,  \t  be  very  great,  we  have  fi  =  - ,  and  fl  varies 

A 

inversely  as  the  resistance. 

Example  2.  — Let  £10  =  A  cos  kt,  where  k  is  constant,  and  A 
independent  of  the  time,  but  a  function  of  position.     This  leads 

to  the  result —  

fi  =   -  A  sin  a  sin  kt  -  a, 

!10  +  fi  =  A  cos  a  cos  kt  -  a, 

at  all  internal  points.     Here,  o  is  the  retardation  of  phase,  and 

is  equal  to  cot  -1 

H  Gfik 

For  instance,  if  S  is  a  sphere  of  radius  a,  and  $  =  A  cos  /'/, 


Q 


2>l   + 


4ira 


— ,  and  the  result  obtained  agrees  with  that  given  by 


Prof.  Larmor  in  Phil.  Mag.,  January  1 1 
(15)  If  the  shell  be  infinitely  thin — 

Qhk 
a  —  sin  o  =   - — , 


the  same  phase  is  reached  in  the  inner  field  at  a  time  later  by 

£,  that  is,  -^-,   than    in  the  outer  field.     The  ratio  which  in 
k  a 

the  limit  h  bears  to  this  difference  of  time  is  — ,  and  is,  in  case 

of  a  solid  conductor,  the  initial  velocity  with  which  the  currents 
penetrate  the  solid. 

(16)  If  S  be  any  homogeneous  function  of  positive  degree  in 
x,  y,  and  z,  the  space  within  S  =  o  may  be  conceived  as  divided 
into  a  number  of  concentric  similar  and  similarly  situated  shells, 
each  between  two  surfaces  of  the  type  S  =  c  and  S  =  c  +  dc. 
Let  <f>  be  a  function,  which,  as  current  function,  gives  a  self- 
inductive  system  of  currents  in  each  shell  of  the  series,  if  made 
a  conductor.  Let  an  outer  shell  of  the  series  be  described  on  S, 
and  an  inner  shell  of  the  series  on  S'.  Let  currents  of  the  type  <f> 
be  generated  in  the  shell  S.     Let  u,  v,  za  be  the  functions — 


dS  dd> 
u  =   —     — T 


dS    dip     „ 
dy      dz 


[dz    dy 

Then  u,  v,  w  may  be  the  components  per  unit  of  area  of  a 
system  of  currents  in  the  shell  S.  And  since  this  system  is 
self-inductive, — 

djC 

dx 

Now  v2F  ="0,  and  V"X  =  o  at  all  points  within  S. 
If,  therefore, -y~u  =  o  at  all  points  within  S, 

dx' 
dx 


au  =  A  (  F  + 


on  S. 


au  =  A'(  F  +  -?  )  at  all  points  within  S. 


August  2,  1888] 


NA  JURE 


335 


That  is, 


'II 
dt 


dx 


,  &c,  on  S'. 


Therefore  the  creation  of  the  given  system  of  currents  on  S 
acts  as  an  electromotive  force  tending  to  produce  the  currents 
//,  r,  7v  with  reversed  signs  on  S'.  And  since  this  system  of 
currents  in  S'  is  self-inductive,  it  will  be  actually  generated  by 
induction.     As  an  example,  if 

f 


S  =  - 


b'  c- 


</S  di> 

ay     dz 


+     JL     *  O. 

dt 


dy' 
&>   — 

de 


and  <p  =  Kz, 

dS  dd> 

u  =  ~ 

dz   dy 

and  therefore  v"«  =  o. 

It  follows  that  the  creation  in  an  ellipsoidal  shell  of  thickness 
proportional  to  the  perpendicular  from  the  centre  on  the  tangent 
plane  of  a  system  of  currents  of  the  type  (f>  =  Az  generates  by 
induction  the  corresponding  system  of  currents  with  reversed  sign 
in  an  inner  concentric  similar  and  similarly  situated  ellipsoidal 
shell. 

(17)  Case  of  an  Infinite  Plane:  Aragds  Disk. — In  this  case, 
if  the  shell  be  of  uniform  thickness,  a  system  of  currents  in  it  will 
not  be  generally  self-inductive,  but  admits,  nevertheless,  of 
mathematical  treatment.  Suppose  the  plane  to  be  fixed,  and 
the  field  to  revolve  round  an  axis  perpendicular  to  it,  taken  for 
that  of  z,  with  uniform  angular  velocity,  w. 

Let  j'  be  the  normal  force  due  to  the  field,  y'  that  due  to  the 
induced  currents.     Then  we  have,  as  the  effect  of  induction, — 

dy 

dt 

As  the  effect  of  resistance— 

dy'   _    a    dy\ 

dt  2ir  dz 

and,  therefore,  for  the  whole  variation  of y' — 

dy        dy'         a   dy' 

dt         dt      ■    27r  dz  ' 

When  the  motion  is  steady — ■ 

dy  dv       dy' 

—     =  «  —  ,      i- 
dt  11B       dt 

6  being  the  angle  through  which  the  field  has  turned.     Hence— 

~'tfy       d/\  a_    d/ 

\dd    +dd  J         2ir  dz' 

a  result  which  agrees  with  Maxwell's  (23)  of  Art.  699. 

June  21. — "  Effects  of  Different  Positive  Metals,  &c,  upon  the 
Changesof  Potential  of  Voltaic  Couples."  ByDr.G.  Gore,  F.R.S. 

In  this  research  numerous  measurements  were  made,  and  are 
given  in  a  series  of  tables,  of  the  effects  upon  the  minimum- 
point  of  change  of  potential  of  a  voltaic  couple  in  distilled  water 
(Roy.  Soc.  Proa,  June  14,  1888),  and  upon  the  changes  of 
electro-motive  force  attending  variation  of  strength  of  its 
exciting  liquid  {ibid.),  obtained  by  varying  the  kind  of  positive 
and  of  negative  metal  of  the  couple,  and  by  employing  different 
galvanometers.  The  measurements  were  made  by  the  method 
of  balance  through  a  galvanometer,  with  the  aid  of  a  suitable 
thermo-electric  pile  (Birm.  Phil.  Soc.  Proa,  vol.  iv.  p.  130; 
The  Electrician,  1884,  vol.  xi.  p.  414).  The  kinds  of  galvano- 
meter employed  were,  an  ordinary  astatic  one  of  100  ohms 
resistance,  and  a  Thomson's  reflecting  one  of  3040  ohms 
resistance. 

The  following  were  the  proportions  of  hydrochloric  acid 
(HC1),  required  to  change  the  potential  of  different  voltaic 
couples  in  water  : — 

Table  I. — Hydrochloric  Acid. 
Astatic  Galvanometer. 

Zn  +  Pt  between  1  in  9,300,000  and  9,388,185 

Cd  +  Pt       „         1  ,,  574»°oo     ,,  637,000 

Mg  +  Pt       ,,         1,,  516,666    ,,  574,000 

Al   +  Pt       ,,         1  ,,  12,109     ,,  15,000 

Reflecting  Galvanometer. 
Zn  +  Pt  between  1  in  15,000,000  and  23,250,000 
Cd  +  Pt      .,,         1,,     1,162,500    ,,       1,550,000 
Mg  +  Pt       ,,         1  ,,        775,ooo     ,,         930,000 
Al    -J-  Pt       ,,  I  „  42,568     „  46,500 


With  iodine  and  the  astatic  galvanometer  the  following 
proportions  were  required  : — 

Table  II.— Iodine. 
Zn    +  Pt   between   1  in  3,100,000  and  3,521,970 
Mg  +  Pt        „         i   ,,      577,711     ,,        643,153 
Cd    +  Pt  ,,  1   ,,      2-0,431     ,,        224,637 

With  bromine  and  the  astatic  galvanometer  : — 
Table  III. — Bromine. 
Mg  +  Pt  between  I  in  310,000,000  and  344,444,444 
Zn  +  Pt        ,,       1  ,,      77,500,000     ,,     84,545,000 
Cd  +  Pt        ,,       1  ,,        3,470,112     ,,       3,875,000 
The   magnitudes  of    the    minimum    proportions   of  bromine 
required  to  change  the  potentials  of  the  three  couples  in  water 
varied  directly  as  the  atomic  weights  of  the  three  positive  metals. 
With  chlorine  the  following  were  the  minimum  proportions- 
required  :  — 

Table  IV.  —  Chlorine. 

With  the  Reflecting  Galvanometer. 

Mg  -i-  Pt  between  1  in  27,062,000,000  and  32,291,000,000 

With  ths  Astatic  Galvanometer. 

Mg  +  Pt  between  1  in  17,000,000,000  and  17,612,000,000 

Zn  +  Pt        ,,         1  ,,     1,264,000,000     ,,       1,300,000,000 

Zn  +  Au       ,,        1  ,,        518,587,360    ,,         550,513,022 

Cd  +  Pt        „        1  „  8,733,5*5     „  9,270,833 

Zn  +  Cd       ,,        1  ,,  55,436     „  76,467 

In  the  case  of  chlorine,    as   well   as    that   of  bromine,    the 

magnitudes  of  the  minimum  proportions  of  substance  required  to 

change  the  potential  of  magnesium-platinum,  zinc-platinum,  and 

cadmium-platinum,  varied  directly  as  the  atomic  weights  of  the 

positive  metals. 

The  examples  contained  in  the  paper  show  that  the  proportion 
of  the  same  exciting  liquid  necessary  to  disturb  the  potential  of 
a  voltaic  couple  in  water  varied  with  each  different  positive  or 
negative  metal,  and  that  the  more  positive  or  more  easily 
corroded  the  positive  metal,  or  the  more  negative  and  less 
easily  corroded  the  negative  one,  the  smaller  usually  was  the 
minimum  proportion  of  dissolved  substance  necessary  to  change 
the  potential. 

By  plotting  the  results  in  all  cases,  it  was  found  that  the  order 
of  change  of  potential,  caused  by  uniform  change  of  strength  of 
liquid,  varied  with  each  positive  metal. 

The  results  also  show  that  the  degree  of  sensitiveness  of  the 
arrangement  for  detecting  the  minimum-point  of  change  of 
potential  depends  largely  upon  the  kind  of  galvanometer 
employed. 

As  a  more  sensitive  galvanometer  enables  us  to  detect  a 
change  of  potential  caused  by  a  much  smaller  proportion  of 
material,  and  as  the  proportion  of  substance  capable  of  detection 
is  smaller  the  greater  the  free  chemical  energy  of  each  of  the 
uniting  bodies  (Roy.  Soc.  Proa,  June  14,  1888)  it  is  probable 
that  the  electromotive  force  really  begins  to  change  with  the 
very  smallest  addition  of  the  substance,  and  might  be  detected  if 
our  means  of  detection  were  sufficiently  sensitive,  or  the  free 
chemical  energy  of  the  uniting  bodies  was  sufficiently  strong. 

"The  Voltaic  Balance."     By  Dr.  G.  Gore,  F.R.S. 

A  New  and  Simple  Lecture  Experiment. — Take  two  small  clean 
glass  cups  containing  distilled  water  ;  simultaneously  immerse  in 
each  a  small  voltaic  couple,  composed  of  either  unamalgamated 
magnesium  or  zinc  with  platinum,  taking  care  that  the  two 
pieces  of  each  metal  are  cut  from  the  same  piece  and  are  per- 
fectly clean  and  alike.  Oppose  the  currents  of  the  two  couples 
to  each  other  through  a  sufficiently  sensitive  galvanometer,  so 
that  they  balance  each  other  and  the  needle  does  not  move. 
Now  dip  the  end  of  a  slender  glass  rod  into  a  very  weak  aqueous 
solution  of  chlorine,  bromine,  iodine,  or  hydrochloric  acid,  and 
then  into  the  water  of  one  of  the  cups.  The  voltaic  balance  is 
at  once  upset,  as  indicated  by  the  measurement  of  the  needle,, 
and  may  be  shown  to  a  large  audience  by  means  of  the  usual 
contrivances. 

The  chief  circumstance  to  be  noticed  is  the  extremely  great 
degree  of  sensitiveness  of  the  arrangement  in  certain  cases.  This 
is  shown  by  the  following  instances  of  the  minimum  proportions 
of  substance  required  to  upset  the  balance  with  an  ordinary 
astatic  galvanometer,  and  with  a  Thomson's  reflecting  one  cf 
3040  ohms  resistance. 

1.  Zinc  and  Platinum  with  Iodine.  —  With  the  astatic 
galvanometer,  between  1  part  of  iodine  in  3,100,000  and 
3>52I,97°  parts  of  water. 


33^ 


NATURE 


[August  2,  1888 


2.  Zinc  and  Platinum  -with  Hydrochloric  Acid. — With  the 
astatic  galvanometer,  between  1  in  9,300,000  and  9,388,185 
parts  ;  and  with  the  reflecting  one,  between  1  in  15,500,000  and 
23,250,000  parts. 

3.  Magnesium  and  Platinum  with  Bromine.  —  With  the 
astatic  galvanometer,  between  1  in  310,000,000  and  344,4/14,444 
parts. 

4.  Zinc  and  Platinum  with  Chlorine. — With  the  astatic 
galvanometer,  between  I  in  1,264,030,000  and  1,300,000,000 
parts. 

5.  Magnesium  and  Platinum  with  Chlorine. — With  the  astatic 
galvanometer,  between  I  in  17,000,000,000  and  17,612,000,000 
parts  ;  and  with  the  reflecting  one,  between  1  in  27,062,000,000 
and  32,291,000,000  parts  of  water. 

Every  different  soluble  substance  requires  a  different  propor- 
tion, and  with  unlike  substances  the  difference  of  proportion  is 
extremely  great.  With  solutions  of  neutral  salts,  the  proportion 
of  substance  required  to  upset  the  balance  is  large  ;  for  instance, 
with  chlorate  of  potash,  a  zinc-platinum  couple,  and  the  astatic 
galvanometer,  it  lay  between  1  part  in  221  and  258  parts  of 
water. 

The  degree  of  sensitiveness  of  the  balance  is  usually  greater, 
the  greater  the  degree  of  chemical  affinity  the  dissolved  substance 
has  for  the  positive  metal  and  the  less  it  has  for  the  negative 
one. 

By  first  bringing  the  balance  with  a  magnesium-platinum 
couple  and  the  astatic  galvanometer  nearly  to  the  upsetting-point 
by  adding  I  part  of  chlorine  to  17,612,000,000  parts  of  water, 
and  then  increasing  the  proportion  to  1  in  17,000,000,000,  the 
influence  of  the  difference,  or  of  1  part  in  500,000,000,000,  was 
distinctly  detected. 

"  Magnetic  Qualities  of  Nickel."  (Supplementary  Paper.) 
By  J.  A.  Ewing,  F.R.S.,  Professor  of  Engineering  in  University 
College,  Dundee. 

The  paper  is  a  supplement  to  one  with  the  same  title  by  Prof. 
Ewing  and  Mr.  G.  C.  Cowan,  which  was  read  at  a  recent  meet- 
ing of  the  Society.  It  describes  experiments,  conducted  under 
the  author's  direction  by  two  of  his  students,  Mr.  W.  Low  and 
Mr.  D.  Low,  on  the  effects  of  longitudinal  compression  on  the 
magnetic  permeability  and  retentiveness  of  nickel.  The  results 
are  exhibited  by  means  of  curves,  showing  the  relation  which 
was  determined  between  the  intensity  of  magnetisation  of  the 
metal  and  the  magnetising  force,  when  a  nickel  bar,  reduced  to 
approximate  endlessness  by  a  massive  iron  yoke  which  formed  a 
magnetic  connexion  between  its  ends,  was  magnetised  under 
more  or  less  stress  of  longitudinal  compression.  Corresponding 
curves  show  the  relation  of  residual  magnetism  to  magnetising 
force,  for  various  amounts  of  stress ;  and  others  are  drawn  to 
show  the  relation  of  magnetic  permeability  to  magnetic  induction. 
Initial  values  of  the  permeability,  under  very  feeble  magnetising 
forces,  were  also  determined.  The  experiments  were  concluded 
by  an  examination  of  the  behaviour  of  nickel  in  magnetic  fields 
•of  great  strength.  Magnetising  forces  ranging  from  3000  to 
13,000  C.G.  S.  units  were  applied  by  placing  a  short  bobbin  with 
a  narrow  neck  made  of  nickel  between  the  poles  of  a  large 
electromagnet,  and  it  was  found  that  these  produced  a  practical 
•constant  intensity  of  magnetisation  which  is  to  be  accepted  as 
the  saturation  value. 

Paris. 

Astronomical  Society,  June  6. — M.  Flammarion,  Presi- 
dent, in  the  chair. — Various  drawings  and  observations  were 
sent  by  MM.  Petit,  Rengel,  and  G.  Vallet. — M.  Flammarion  read 
a  paper  on  the  solar  eclipses  of  the  19th  century,  shewing  strong 
discrepancies  between  M.  Oppolzer's  charts  and  the  results  of 
observation.  Replying  to  M.  Oppert,  M.  Flammarion  said  he 
should  not  advise  historians  to  base  their  investigations  on  those 
•  charts. — M.  M.  Cornillon  sent  drawings  of  a  large  sunspot  from 
May  n  to  23.  M.  Schmoll  said  that  this  spot  was  just  on  the 
limits  of  visibility  to  the  naked  eye  from  May  16  to  18. — M. 
Gaudibert  sent  a  drawing  of  the  lunar  crater  Flammarion.  A 
fine  rill  traverses  this  crater,  and  extends  to  Reaumur  after  being 
interrupted  by  some  hills. — M.  Schmoll  related  an  observation 
of  the  lunar  crescent  on  May  12,  the  moon  being  42J  hours  old. 
Its  breadth  was  from  30''  to  35". — M.  Trouvelot  presented  to 
the  Society  a  series  of  celestial  photographs  offered  by  Prof. 
Pickering,  of  Harvard  College.  The  photograph  of  the  Pleiades 
is  specially  interesting,  and  shows  the  straight  trails  of  nebulous 
matter  which  form  such  a  striking  feature  in  the  last  negatives 
obtained  by  MM.  Henry. — Thanks  were  returned  to  Prof. 
Pickering,  who  was  unanimously  named  honorary  member  of  the    > 


Society  on  the  proposition  of  M.  Trouvelot  and  Colonel 
Laussedat. — Colonel  Laussedat  explained  his  method  of  com- 
puting solar  eclipses  graphically,  which  is  two  or  three  times 
more  rapid  than  the  usual  numerical  calculation. 

Amsterdam. 
Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  June  30. — M.  Beyerinck 
stated  the  results  he  has  obtained  from  experiments  on  hybrid- 
ism or  crossings  with  common  barley  {Hordeum  vidgare,  H) 
hexastichon,  H.  distichon,  II.  Zeocriton,  and  H.  trifurcatum. 
made  by  him  since  1884  on  a  large  scale,  and  illustrated  his 
subject  with  specimens,  some  dried  and  others  preserved  in 
spirits.  He  described  the  precautions  to  be  taken  in  such 
crossing  experiments,  and  deduced  the  following  conclusions  : — 
(1)  All  the  above-mentioned  sorts  of  barley  may  be  crossed 
with  facility,  indiscriminately.  (2)  The  hybrids  thus  obtained 
are  very  perfectly  self-fertile  ;  those  produced  from  H.  vidgare 
(fern.)  and  //.  distichon  (m.),  and  those  from  H.  vidgare  (fern.) 
and  H.  Zeocriton  (m.)  even  cleistogamous.  (3)  The  hybrids  of 
the  first  generation  partake  in  general  of  a  middle  shape  between 
the  two  parents.  An  exception  to  this  rule  was  made  by  those 
of  H.  nudum  (fern.)  and  H.  trifurcatum  (m.),  a  great  part  of 
which  proved  to  belong  to  the  not  expected  common  inter- 
mediate form  between  H.  vulgare  and  H.  distichon.  A  few 
specimens  belonged  to  the  expected  cor  nut um  form.  (4)  The 
seedlings  from  hybrids  obtained  by  self-fertilization  are  very 
various.  The  speaker  obtained,  besides  a  few  already  known 
ones,  some  quite  new  varieties.  It  was  remarkable  that  the 
third  generation  of  a  cross  between  H.  vulgare  (fern.)  and 
H.  Zeocriton  (m. )  produced  H.  hexastichon.  (5)  In  the  present 
summer,  a  cross  effected  in  1884  between//,  distichon  (fem. ) 
and  H.  trifurcatum  (m.)  produced  a  form  almost  completely 
without  awns. — M.  Fiirbringer  imparted  the  results  of  a  research 
made  by  M.  J.  F.  van  Bemmelen  into  the  origin  of  the  fore- 
limbs  and  of  the  lingual  muscles  in  reptiles. 

BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Electric  Lighting  ;  Its  Present  Position  and  Future  Prospects  :  Hammond 
and  Co.  (Whitehead,  Morris,  and  Liwe). — A  System  for  the  Construction  of 
Crystal  Models  on  the  Type  of  an  Ordinary  Pla.t  :  John  Gorham  (Spon). — 
An  Introduction  to  the  Science  and  Practice  of  Photography  :  Chapman 
Jones  (Iliffe  and  Sons). — Religion  and  Science  :  W.  Fitzgerald  (Hodges. 
Figgis,  and  Co.). — A  Practical  Decimal  System  for  Great  Britain  and  her 
Colonies  :  R.  T.  Rohde  (E.  Wilson). — The  Rothamsted  Experiments  on  the 
Growth  of  Wheat,  Barley,  and  the  Mixed  Herbage  of  Grass  Land  :  Prof. 
W.  Fream  (Horace  Cox). — Rock-Forming  Minerals:  Frank  Rutley  (T. 
Murby). — Smithsonian  Report,  1885,  Part  2  (Washington.  U.S.)— The 
Glasgow  and  West  of  Scotland  Technical  Col'ege  Calendar,  i883. 

CONTENTS.  pace 

Lord  Armstrong  on  Technical  Education 313 

Explorations  and  Adventures  in  New  Guinea    .    .    .    315 

Mine-Surveying.     By  C.  Le  Neve  Foster 317 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Smart  :  "  Charles  A.  Gillig's  Tours  and  Excursions  in 

Great  Britain" 318 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

The  Supply  of  Bait  for  Sea-Fishermen. — G.C.  Bourne    318 
Geometric     Meaning     of    Differential     Equations.  — 

Lieut.-Colonel  Allan  Cunningham,  R.E.      .    .    318 
British  Earthworms. — Dr.  Wm.  B.  Benham     .    .    .     319 
The     Sun     Motor.      {Illustrated.)      By     Major    John 

Ericsson 319 

The  White  Race  of  Palestine.   By  Prof.  A.  H.  Sayce    321 
Engineering    Schools.      By    Prof.    George    Francis 

Fitzgerald,  F.R.S 322 

The  Gape  Worm  of  Fowls  (Syngamvs  trachealis).     By 

Lord  Walsingham,  F.R.S. 324 

Notes      325 

Our  Astronomical  Co'.umn  : — 

Variable  Stars 328 

Gomet  1888  a  (Sawerthal) 32S 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for     the     Week      1888 

August  5-11      328 

On  Partial  Impregnation.     By  Prof.  A.  Weismann 

and  C.  Ischikawa 329 

How  to  increase  the  Produce  of  the  Soil.     By  Prof. 

John  Wrightson 330 

The   Burial   Customs   of  the   Ainos.      By    Rev.   J. 

Bachelor 331 

University  and  Educational  Intelligence 331 

Societies  and  Academies 331 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received     .    .    .    .    •   336 


NA  TURK 


337 


THURSDAY,   AUGUST   9,    1! 


THE  ZOOLOGICAL  RESULTS    OF    THE 
"CHALLENGER"  EXPEDITION. 

Report  on  the  Scientific  Results  of  the  Voyage  of  H.M.S. 
"  Challenger"  during  the  Years  1873-76,  under  the 
command  of  Captain  George  S.  Nares,  R.N.,  F.R.S., 
and  the  late  Captain  Frank  T.  Thomson,  R.N  Pre- 
pared under  the  superintendence  of  the  late  Sir  C. 
Wyville  Thomson,  Knt.,  F.R.S.,  and  now  of  John 
Murray,  one  of  the  Naturalists  of  the  Expedition. 
Zoology— Vols.  XXI 1 1.,  XXIV.,  and  XXV.  (Published 
by  Order  of  Her  Majesty's  Government,  1888.) 

THE  first  two  memoirs  in  Vol.  XXI 1 1,  are  Reports  on  the 
Pteropoda  by  Dr.  Paul  Pelseneer.  Dr.  Pelseneer's 
Report  on  the  Gymnosomatous  division  of  the  Pteropods 
was  published  in  Vol.  XIX.,  and  we  now  have  his  Report 
on  the  Thecosomata  and  one  on  the  anatomy  of  the 
whole  group. 

In  the  first  of  these  Reports  all  the  certainly  genuine 
species  at  present  described  are  enumerated,  and  full 
details  are  given  about  all  those  which  have  been  more 
or  less  imperfectly  described.  As  the  diagnoses  of  the 
families  and  genera  of  the  Pteropods  seem  to  have  been 
copied  from  originals  of  a  comparatively  early  date  and 
without  modification,  it  has  been  necessary  on  re-study 
to  re-write  these,  so  as  to  bring  them  up  to  the  level  of 
scientific  accuracy.  This  monographic  study  of  the  sub- 
group of  the  Thecosomata  has  been  based  not  only  on 
the  collections  made  by  the  Challenger,  but  on  those 
in  the  British  and  Brussels  Museums,  as  well  as  those  of 
several  private  collections.  Like  the  Gymnosomata,  these 
Thecosomata  are  pelagic  Mollusks,  .which  descend  to 
certain  depths  to  avoid  too  bright  a  light,  and  reascend 
to  the  surface  of  the  water  when  the  light  is  feeble  or 
absent,  and  when  the  sea  is  calm.  With  a  less  highly 
organized  alimentary  system  than  the  Gymnosomata,  the 
Thecosomata  content  themselves  with  humble  prey, 
feeding  mainly  on  Radiolaria,  Foraminifera,  Infusoria,  and 
even  on  some  of  the  lower  Algal  forms. 

The  Thecosomata  were  taken  alive  at  seventy  different 
stations,  and  while  they  include  twenty-eight  species, 
representing  all  the  known  genera,  they  have  all  been 
already  described.  Of  those  dredged  from  the  deep  sea, 
where  "  Pteropod  ooze"  was  found,  some  twenty- four 
species  could  be  distinguished,  of  which  one  was  new  to 
science.  The  total  number  of  Thecosomata  now  known 
amounts  to  forty-two. 

While  the  generic  titles  given  to  living  forms  amount 
to  thirty-four,  these  can  well  be  included,  according  to 
the  author,  in  the  following  eight :  — 

Cavolinia,  Abildgaard. 
Cymbulia,  Peron  and  Lesueur. 
Cymbuliopsis,  gen.  nov. 
Gleba,  Forskal. 

In  an  appendix  to  the  account  of  the  species  of  the  first 
two  of  these  genera,  some  account  is  given  of  the  forms 
described  by  A.  Adams  as  Agadina  stimpsoni,  and  A. 
gouldi,  which  are  proved  to  be  Gastropod  larvae. 

Shells  of  Thecosomata  have  not  been  found  in  a  greater 
Vol.  xxxviii.— No.  980. 


Limacina,  Cuvier. 
Peraclis,  Forbes. 
Clio,  Linn. 
Cuvierina,  Boas. 


depth  than  1950  fathoms.  Mr.  J.  Murray  attributes  this 
to  the  greater  proportion  of  carbon  dioxide  in  the  water 
at  greater  depths,  and  to  the  more  rapid  solution  of  the 
delicate  shells  in  sea-water  under  great  pressure. 

The  third  part  of  Dr.  Pelseneer's  Report  treats  of  the 
anatomy  of  the  whole  of  the  Pteropods.  With  it  this 
Report  is  now  the  most  comprehensive  treatise  in  exist- 
ence on  the  group.  As  a  result  of  his  studies  he  regards 
the  Pteropods  as  forming  not  a  primitive  group,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  a  recent  and  specialized  one — a  terminal 
group.  There  are  in  it  but  a  small  number  of  species  ; 
these  exhibit  only  a  slight  variability,  and  they  are  pro- 
foundly modified  in  adaptation  to  a  special  mode  of 
existence. 

Since  the  days  of  Cuvier  the  Pteropoda  have  been  re- 
garded as  forming  a  distinct  class  among  the  Mollusca, 
of  the  same  value  as  the  Cephalopoda,  Gastropoda,  &c.  ; 
but  Dr.  Pelseneer  regards  it  as  proved  that  they  are  but 
Gastropods,  in  which  the  adaptation  to  pelagic  life  has  so 
modified  their  external  characters  as  to  give  them  an 
apparent  symmetry  ;  that  even  among  the  Gastropods  they 
do  not  constitute  a  distinct  sub-class,  nor  even  an  order, 
that  they  belong  to  the  Euthyneura,  and  among  these  to  the 
Pectibranchiate  Opisthobranchs,  differing  less  from  these 
than  they  differ  from  the  other  Opisthobranchs.  The 
Thecosomata  and  Gymnosomata  are  two  independent 
groups,  not  having  a  common  origin,  the  former  having 
descended  from  the  Bulloidea,  and  the  latter  from  the 
Aplysioidea. 

These  Reports  are  illustrated  with  seven  plates. 
The  third  Report  in  this  volume  is  by  Prof.  G.  J.  All- 
man,  forming  the  second  part  of  his  memoir  on  the 
Hydroida.  The  author  has  taken  advantage  of  the 
opportunity  afforded  by  the  typical  character  of  the  col- 
lection to  make  it  the  basis  of  a  general  exposition  of 
Hydroid  morphology,  and  this  from  the  present  stand- 
point of  our  knowledge,  so  that  this  Report  is  not  a  mere 
mass  of  descriptive  and  distributional  details,  but  one 
which  will  have  an  abiding  interest  for  the  biologist. 

The  rare  occurrence  in  the  collection  of  British  species 
is  striking,  and  would  seem  to  indicate  a  peculiar  definite- 
ness  in  the  geographical  distribution  of  the  Hydroids. 

The  few  Gymnoblastic  Hydroids  in  the  collection  belong 
to  three  genera — Stylactis,  Eudendrium,  and  Monocau- 
los  ;  the  species  (M.  imperator),  by  which  the  last  genus 
is  represented,  being  perhaps  the  most  remarkable  Hy- 
droid obtained  during  the  Expedition.  The  stem,  though 
only  half  an  inch  in  thickness,  was  7  feet  in  height,  the 
hydranth  extending,  from  tip  to  tip  of  the  tentacles,  to  a 
width  of  9  inches,  so  that,  as  regards  size,  all  other 
Hydroids  sink  into  insignificance  when  compared  to  it  ; 
while  the  depth  of  about  4  statute  miles  from  which  it 
was  brought  up  adds  to  the  special  interest  of  this 
marvellous  animal. 

The  families  of  the  Calyptoblastea  were  numerously 
represented  in  the  collection,  and  among  those  of  which 
few  examples  had  hitherto  been  known  are  those  to 
which  belong  the  genera  Cryptolaria  and  Grammaria,  as 
well  as  a  new  and  interesting  genus,  Perisiphonia.  Idia, 
hitherto  only  known  by  the  poor  description  and  figure  of 
Lamouroux,  proved,  on  the  examination  of  good  speci- 
mens of  the  only  species,  /.  pristis,  Lamx.,  to  be  con- 
structed on  a  type  quite  unique  among  the  Hydroida. 

Q 


33* 


NATURE 


{August  9,  1888 


Among  other  families  largely  represented  was  that  of  the 
Haleciidae,  with  not  only  many  new  species,  but  with  a 
new  genus,  marked  by  the  phenomenon  that  the  colony 
is  provided  with  bodies  which  admit  of  close  comparison 
with  the  sarcostyles  and  sarcothecae  of  the  Plumularina?. 

The  curious  genus  Synthecium,  in  which  the  gonangia 
spring  from  within  the  cavity  of  the  hydrotheca,  is  repre- 
sented by  two  new  species,  both  from  the  Australian  seas. 
There  also  occur  fine  examples  of  the  remarkable  genus 
Thecocladium,  in  which  every  branch  of  the  colony 
springs,  like  the  gonangium  in  Synthecium,  from  within 
the  cavity  of  the  hydrotheca. 

As  regards  the  classification  of  the  Hydroida,  the 
author  acknowledges  that  the  time  for  a  complete  system 
has  not  yet  come,  such  a  one  should  include  not  only  all 
Hydroid  trophosomes  with  their  associated  gonosomes  ; 
but  all  the  existing  Hydromedusa?  should  have  been  traced 
to  their  respective  trophosomes,  there  are  however  many 
of  these  Hydromedusa?  not  so  traced,  though  we  may  be 
certain  that  their  trophosomes  exist.  Of  those  Hydro- 
medusa?  into  whose  life  history  a  polypoid  term  has  never 
apparently  been  intercalated,  a  separate  and  well  defined 
group  must  be  formed.  Thus  the  sub-orders  may  be  neatly 
defined  as  : — (1)  Gymnoblastea.  No  hydrotheca?  or  gon- 
angia. Nutritive  zooids  when  more  than  one  forming  per- 
manent colonies  Planoblasts  in  the  form  of  Anthomedusae. 
(2)  Calyptoblastea.  Hydranths  protected  by  hydrotheca?. 
Sexual  buds  protected  by  gonangia.  Nutritive  zooids 
forming  permanent  colonies.  Planoblasts  in  the  form  of 
Leptomedusae.  (3)  Eleutheroblastea.  No  hydrotheca? 
or  gonangia.  Nutritive  zooids  not  forming  permanent 
colonies.  No  differentiated  gonophores.  (4)  Hydro- 
corallia.  A  calcareous  corallum  (ccenosteum)  permeated 
by  a  system  of  ramified  and  inosculating  ccenosarcal 
tubes  from  which  the  hydranths  are  developed.  (5) 
Monopsea.  Free  Hydromedusa?  which  are  developed 
directly  from  the  egg  without  the  intervention  of  a  polypoid 
trophosome.  Auditory  clubs  with  endodermal  otolites  on 
the  umbrella  margin,  and  (6)  Rhabdophora  (Graptolites). 
Hydranths  replaced  by  sarcostyles.  Hydrocaulus 
traversed  by  a  chitinous  longitudinal  rod. 

Thirty-nine  plates  accompany  this  portion  of  Prof. 
Allman's  memoir,  the  enlarged  figures  on  these  are  all 
from  the  pencil  of  the  author,  while  the  figures  represent- 
ing the  forms  of  their  natural  size  have  been  for  the  most 
part  drawn  from  the  specimens  by  Miss  M.  M.  Daniel, 
and  transferred  to  the  stone  by  Mr.  Hollick. 

The  Report  taken  in  connection  with  the  previously 
published  one  on  the  legion  of  the  Plumularinae  con- 
stitutes a  most  comprehensive  and  valuable  history  of 
the  Hydroids  for  which  all  biological  students  will  feel 
their  indebtedness  to  the  author. 

The  fourth  Report  is  on  the  Entozoa,  by  Dr.  O.  von 
Linstow  of  Gottingen.  The  number  of  Entozoa  collected 
was  but  small,  and  chiefly  from  the  alimentary  tract  of 
birds  ;  four  new  species  of  Ascaris,  three  of  Filaria,  and 
one  of  Prothelmins,  among  the  Nematodes,  four  species  of 
Taenia,  and  two  of  Tetrabothrium  among  the  Cestoids, 
are  described  and  figured  in  the  two  plates  accompanying 
the  Report. 

The  fifth  Report,  also  a  short  one,  is  by  Edgar  A.  Smith, 
on  the  Heteropoda.  Although  no  new  species  are 
described,  several  are  indicated  of  which   the  material 


was  not  sufficient  to  enable  the  form  to  be  described  with' 
certainty. 

A  most  useful  and  wonderfully  complete  synonymic 
list  of  all  known  forms  of  the  group  is  given,  and  this 
Report  will  be  found  of  the  greatest  value  to  all  interested 
in  the  Heteropods. 

Vol.  XXIV.  contains  the  Report,  by  C.  Spence  Bate,. 
F.R.S.,  on  the  Crustacea  Macrura,  or  rather  on  the  larger 
portion  of  those  found  during  the  Expedition.  This 
Report  forms  a  volume  of  over  1030  pages,  which  is  bound 
up  separately  from  the  157  lithographic  plates;  and  in  the 
preparation  of  this  great  and  laborious  work  and  its- 
illustrations  Mr.  Spence  Bate  has  occupied  all  his  leisure 
during  the  last  ten  years. 

Of  the  enormous  mass  of  detail  in  this  volume  it  would 
be  impossible  to  give  within  our  limits  any  intelligible 
account ;  not  only  are  the  generic  and  specific  diagnoses 
given  with  minute  accuracy,  but  we  are,  in  addition, 
favoured  with  a  deeply  interesting  account  of  all  that  is 
known  as  to  the  developmental  stages  of  the  species  ;  for 
this  latter  purpose  the  notes  and  drawings  from  life  of  the 
late  Dr.  Willemoes  Suhm  have  been  largely  and  most  pro- 
perly used.  The  extreme  imperfection  of  the  records  of 
the  life-history  of  even  some  of  our  well-known  forms  is 
strongly  insisted  upon,  and  we  would  call  attention  to  the 
subject  in  the  hope  that  we  may  direct  the  energies  of 
some  of  our  younger  biologists  to  this  fertile  field  of 
research. 

The  great  and  recognized  experience  of  the  author  in 
all  that  concerns  this  section  of  the  Crustacea  makes  his 
opinions,  founded  on  so  large  a  knowledge,  as  to  the 
classification  thereof,  of  importance.  Accepting  the 
divisions  of  this  sub-order  of  the  Decapods,  called  by 
Huxley  Trichobranchiata  and  Phyllobranchiata,  though 
with  a  slightly  different  arrangement  of  some  of  the 
families,  the  author  follows  Dana  in  placing  the  Penaeidea 
in  a  separate  division,  with  the  name  Dendrobranchiata, 
"  while  the  Squillidae,  Mysidas,  &c— that  is,  the  Schizopoda 
originally,  and  later  the  Stomapoda  of  Latreille,  Milne 
Edwards,  and  De  Haan— are  arranged  under  the  head  of 
Anomobranchiata,  which  term  was  first  used  by  Dana 
and  afterwards  by  Heller ;  it  has  therefore  priority  of 
date,  and  is  less  liable  to  misconception  than  the  ternr 
Abranchiata"  of  Huxley  (p.  6).  Afterwards  we  find,  on  a 
review  of  the  forms  included  under  the  Dendrobranchiata, 
that  the  Schizopoda  may  be  regarded  as  an  aberrant 
group  of  this  tribe.  Prof.  Sars,  who,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, described  the  Schizopoda  of  the  Challenger 
Expedition  ("  Zool.  Reports,"  Part  37)  thought  "  it  more 
.appropriate  for  the  present  to  assign  to  this  group  the 
rank  of  a  distinct  tribe  or  sub-order,  there  being  several 
well-marked  characters  distinguishing  these  Crustacea 
rather  sharply  from  all  other  knovvn  Decapods."  Mr. 
Spence  Bate,  however,  thinks  "  that  with  the  exception  of 
the  variable  condition  of  the  pereiopoda,  the  several  genera 
do  not  possess  a  single  character  that  is  not  held  in  com- 
mon with  some  genus  of  the  Macrura,"  and  concludes 
from  excellent  reasons  given  in  detail  "  that  the  natural 
position  of  these  animals  is  that  of  an  aberrant  tribe 
of  the  Dendrobranchiata,  more  nearly  allied  to  the 
degraded  forms  of  the  Penaeidea  than  to  those  of  any  other- 
group"  (p.  472). 

Each  of  the  three  divisions  of  the  Macrura  are  divided! 


August  9,  1888] 


NATURE 


339 


into  two  sections — the  Aberrantia  and  the  Normalia.  In 
the  former  section  of  the  Trichobranchiata  the  family 
Galathaeidae  occurs,  which  will  form  the  subject  of  a 
Report  yet  to  appear  by  Prof.  J.  R.  Henderson. 

The  group  Aberrantia  of  the  division  Phyllobranchiata 
consists  of  several  tribes  and  families  that  in  their  adult 
condition  approach  more  nearly  to  the  characters  common 
to  other  divisions,  but  which  nevertheless  during  the  pro- 
gress of  development  pass  through  a  stage  common  to 
the  normal  Phyllobranchiate  Macrura.  This  aberrant 
group  has  long  been  known  to  biologists  under  the  name 
of  Anomura,  and  by  some  has  been  regarded  as  a  distinct 
order  of  Crustacea.  Here  it  is  however  regarded  as  a 
group  of  the  Phyllobranchiate  division  of  the  Macrura, 
"  for  undoubtedly  in  their  earlier  stages  they  pass  through 
a  morphological  change  that  is  essentially  Macrurous,  in 
which  the  scaphocerite  and  rhipidura  are  both  present 
as  well-devoloped  appendages,  the  latter  of  which  they 
never  entirely  lose." 

This  group  will  be  reported  on  by  Prof.  John  R. 
Henderson,  although  two  new  genera  and  several  new 
species  are  described  and  figured  in  the  present  Report. 

It  only  remains  to  mention  that  with  the  exception  of 
two  out  of  the  157  plates  all  have  been  lithographed  from 
the  original  drawings  of  Mr.  Spence  Bate.  By  this  fact 
the  value  of  this  Report  is  intensified,  as  the  author  has 
been  able  to  describe  and  figure  what  he  has  seen  with  a 
clearness  and  distinctness  which  far  surpasses  in  effect 
the  most  brilliant  work  of  the  cleverest  of  artists.  In  an 
appendix  Dr.  Hoek  gives  a  description,  with  figures,  of 
Sylon  challengeri,  a  new  parasite  Cirriped. 

Vol.  XXV.  also  contains  but  a  single  Report,  that  on 
the  Tetractinellida,  by  Prof.  W.  J.  Sollas.  Perhaps  no 
department  of  zoology  has  made  during  the  last  twenty 
years  such  rapid  progress  as  the  Sponges,  and  it  is  aston- 
ishing to  think  of  the  large  number  of  forms  that  have 
been  very  fully  examined  during  this  period.  Certainly  no 
group  has  benefited  more  largely  by  the  researches  made 
during  the  expedition  of  the  Challenger,  and  it  was  the 
greatest  good  fortune  that  the  collections  made  were 
submitted  to  such  excellent  workers  as  Polejaeff,  F.  E. 
Schulze,  Ridley,  Dendy,  and  Sollas.  The  joint  Reports 
of  these  authors,  and  the  splendid  series  of  illustrations 
which  accompany  them,  form  a  complete  history  of  this 
group  up  to  the  existing  state  of  our  knowledge,  a  history 
which  shows  the  worker  what  is  not  known  as  well  as 
what  is. 

The  last  of  these  Reports  treats  of  the  Tetractinellida, 
and  in  an  appendix  of  a  small  group  of  Monaxonida,  about 
the  exact  location  of  which  there  was  for  long  some  doubt. 
In  its  monographic  completeness  it  surpasses  all  the  other 
Reports  on  the  Sponges,  while  in  the  fullness  of  its 
morphological  details  it  may  well  serve  as  an  introduction 
>to  a  knowledge  of  all  the  orders. 

The  Tetractinellid  Sponges  of  the  Challenger  having 
been  well  preserved,  it  was  possible  to  make  a  thorough 
investigation  of  their  minute  anatomy,  a  work  involving 
an  enormous  amount  of  labour  in  the  cutting  of  thousands 
of  thin  sections,  and  the  separate  examination  of  most  of 
them.  The  number  of  species  and  varieties  obtained  by 
the  Challenger  was  87,  of  which  73  are  new  to  science. 
These  are  arranged  in  38  genera,  of  which  18  are  new. 
An  addition  there  are  221  species  mentioned,  making  the 


total  number  of  described  species  294,  and  of  accepted 
genera  81. 

Dividing  the  Sponges  into  the  two  classes  of  the  Mega- 
mastictora  (with  the  single  sub-class  Calcarea)  and 
Micromastictora,  the  latter  is  divided  into  the  three  sub- 
classes of  Myxospongiae  (Halisarca,  &c),  Hexactinellida, 
and  Demospongiae.  The  subdivision  of  this  last  may  be 
made  primarily  into  two  tribes  :  (1)  the  Tetractinellida, 
(2)  the  Monaxonida.  The  former  may  be  characterized 
as  Demospongiae  in  which  some  or  all  of  the  scleres  are 
tetraxons,  triaenes,  or  desmas.  The  name  Tetractinellida 
was  first  proposed  by  Marshall  (1876)  in  practically  the 
same  sense  as  it  is  used  now  by  Sollas. 

Into  the  details  of  the  sub-orders  and  families  of  this 
tribe  our  space  forbids  us  to  enter.  Their  descriptions, 
with  those  of  the  genera,  will  be  found  in  orderly 
sequence  in  the  introductory  chapter,  while  the  descrip- 
tions of  the  species  occupy  410  pages  of  the  Report. 

In  an  appendix  we  have  an  account  of  the  Sponges 
belonging  to  the  Spintharophorous  sub-order  of  the 
Monaxonida,  which,  under  the  impression  that  they  were 
more  nearly  related  to  the  Tetractinellida,  had  been 
omitted  from  Ridley  and  Dendy's  Report  of  the  Sponges 
of  this  tribe. 

The  figures  of  the  Sponges  on  the  forty-four  chromo- 
lithographic  plates  accompanying  the  Report  were  drawn 
by  the  well-known  artist,  T.  H.  Thomas,  R.C.A.  The 
Sponge  portraits  are  really  beautiful  studies  from  the 
originals.  The  figures  representing  structure  were  first 
traced  by  the  author  with  the  camera  lucida,  and  were 
then  drawn  by  Mr.  Thomas  direct  from  the  preparation 
under  the  microscope. 

MATTHEW  FONTAINE  MAURY. 
A  Life  of  M.  F.  Maury,  U.S.N,  and  C.S.N.     Compiled 
by    his    Daughter,  Diana    Fontaine    Maury    Corbin. 
(London:  Sampson  Low,  1888.) 

A  MEMOIR  of  the  illustrious  founder  of  the  science 
of  the  physical  geography  and  meteorology  of  the 
sea,  written  by  the  tender  and  loving  hand  of  his  daughter, 
cannot  fail  to  be  of  interest,  not  merely  to  that  section 
of  thinkers  and  workers  who  are  engaged  in  the  branch 
of  science  which  Maury  especially  cultivated  and  adorned, 
but  to  the  larger  world  who  appreciate,  and  are  bene- 
fited by,  the  perusal  of  the  biography  of  a  man  of  power- 
ful and  vitalizing  imagination,  disinterested  labour  for 
the  public  good,  self-denying  patriotism,  and  indomitable 
perseverance. 

Family  memoirs  are  too  often  apt  to  degenerate  into 
a  mere  panegyric  of  public  and  private  virtues,  coupled 
with  a  disinterment  of  private  matters  which  an  un- 
biassed stranger  would  have  too  much  tact  and  modesty 
to  expose,  and  which  often  destroy  all  the  effects  of  the 
accompanying  eulogy.  Mrs.  Diana  Corbin  has,  fortunately, 
succeeded  in  avoiding  these  pitfalls,  and  by  a  judicious 
blending  of  history,  correspondence,  and  extracts  from 
lectures,  has  enabled  the  reader  to  form  his  own  judgment 
of  the  merits  and  services  of  her  renowned  father. 

Descended  from  the  French  Huguenots  on  one  side, 
and  the  English  Protestants  on  the  other,  Maury  seems 
to  have  united  in  his  own  person  the  lively  imagination 
we  unconsciously  associate  with  the  former,  together  with 


34° 


NATURE 


[August  9,  1888 


the  somewhat  austere  and  unflinching  determination  of 
the  latter ;  and  it  was  by  the  rare  union  of  these  two 
qualities  that  he  was  enabled  to  vivify  the  dry  statistics 
which,  until  his  arrival,  lay  buried  in  the  log-books  on 
the  shelves  of  the  Hydrographic  Bureau  at  Washington, 
like  the  ooze  at  the  bottom  of  the  Atlantic. 

An  accidental  fall  from  a  tree,  early  in  life,  took  him 
from  the  farm  to  school  ;  and  a  subsequent  fall  from  a 
stage-coach,  which  permanently  crippled  him,  appears  to 
have  exercised  a  still  greater  effect  on  his  career  by  divert- 
ing him  from  his  active  physical  service  in  the  American 
Navy,  to  the  mental  study  of  the  scientific  branches  of 
the  profession.  His  appointment  to  the  Naval  Office 
at  Washington,  mainly  through  the  publication  of  his 
anonymous  "  Scraps  from  the  Lucky-bag,"  on  naval 
reform,  led  to  its  subsequent  development  into  what 
is  now  the  world-known  National  Observatory  and 
Hydrographical  Department  of  the  United  States.  Here 
it  was  that  he  inaugurated  his  "  sailing  directions," 
and  elaborated  his  famous  "  wind  and  current  charts," 
the  absolute  commercial  value  of  which,  in  shortening 
voyages,  was  soon  universally  recognized,  though,  as 
usually  happens,  most  tardily  by  his  own  country,  where, 
though  a  Bill  for  remunerating  their  author  to  the 
extent  of  ^5000  appears  to  have  been  brought  forward 
(unknown  to  Maury)  in  January  1855,  in  the  following 
month  he  was  virtually  placed  in  official  disgrace,  by 
being  retired  from  the  Active  Naval  List  and  having  his 
salary  reduced  to  ,£300. 

This  manifest  injustice  to  a  man,  whose  mind,  if  not 
body,  was  actively  engaged  in  the  highest  branches  of 
naval  service  to  his  country,  was,  after  persistent  vindica- 
tion of  his  rights,  repaired  in  1858,  when  he  was  pro- 
moted to  the  rank  of  Commander,  with  back  pay  from 
the  time  of  his  retirement. 

While  tabulating  the  observations  for  his  charts,  Maury 
fascinated  the  world  by  the  publication  of  the  "Physical 
Geography  of  the  Sea  and  its  Meteorology,"  a  book 
which,  although  some  of  its  conclusions — such  as  an 
open  sea  surrounding  the  North  Pole,  and  the  crossing 
of  the  winds  at  the  calm  belts — have  been  found  to  be 
untenable  in  the  light  of  more  recent  facts  and  research, 
still  remains  substantially  trustworthy,  and  certainly  un- 
equalled by  any  modern  treatise  embracing  the  same 
subjects.  It  would  be  difficult  to  adequately  estimate  the 
immense  contemporaneous  and  subsequent  value  of  such 
a  work,  written  in  the  charming  and  enthusiastic  style 
which  characterized  all  its  author's  productions.  The 
present  writer  traces  with  gratitude  his  first  attraction  to 
physical  geography  and  meteorology  to  this  delightful 
book,  of  which  most  truly  it  can  be  said,  that  it  realized 
Matthew  Arnold's  ideal  combination,  "  sweetness  and 
light." 

By  this  book,  Maury  not  only  taught  the  world,  but 
he  pleased  it  at  the  same  time,  and  he  accomplished 
this  rare  result,  without  pandering  in  any  way  to  mere 
popular  taste,  or  forsaking  the  platform  of  truth.  His 
popularization  of  a  subject  until  then  hardly  dreamed  of 
as  a  science  resulted  in  the  greatest  achievement  of  his 
life,  viz.  the  assembly,  chiefly  through  his  instrumentality, 
of  the  International  Meteorological  Congress  at  Brussels, 
in  1853,  which  marked  the  commencement  of  the  present 
co-operation  of  nations  in  the  work  of  both  marine  and 


land  meteorology.  Regarding  the  latter,  indeed,  Maury 
uttered  a  prediction,  on  p.  350  of  his  "  Physical  Geo- 
graphy," to  the  effect  that  "  the  greatest  move  that  can 
now  be  made  for  the  advancement  of  meteorology  is  to 
extend  this  system  of  co-operation  and  research  from  the 
sea  to  the  land,  and  to  bring  the  magnetic  telegraph 
regularly  into  the  service  of  meteorology." 

At  the  present  time,  when  the  old  question  between 
the  "  cyclonologists  "  so-called  and  the  "  aspirationists  " 
seems  likely  to  be  renewed  by  M.  Faye  and  some  of 
his  disciples,  it  is  interesting  to  notice  that  Maury  never 
accepted  either  the  purely  circular  doctrine  of  Reid,  or 
the  purely  radial  theory  of  Espy,  but  agreed  with  Thom 
and  Redfield  in  thinking  that  the  wind  in  a  true  cyclone 
blows  in  spirals,  and  he  gave  excellent  reasons  for  his 
belief. 

Maury's  study  of  marine  meteorology  and  physical 
geography  not  merely  aided  commerce  by  shortening 
passages,  but  enabled  him  to  give  material  assistance  to 
the  laying  of  the  first  Atlantic  cable  to  Europe ;  and,  in 
fact,  it  was  to  his  prediction  of  the  "  telegraphic  plateau," 
and  acute  suggestion  of  a  cord  instead  of  heavy  cable 
for  the  deep-sea  portion,  that  the  ultimate  success  of  this 
enterprise  was  mainly  due.  From  the  sea,  Maury  turned 
his  attention  to  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  land,  and  his 
ardent  espousal  of  the  cause  of  agricultural  meteorology, 
and  the  lecturing  tours  he  made  on  behalf  of  this  subject 
in  all  parts  of  the  States,  not  only  led  to  the  establishment 
of  the  present  magnificent  Weather  Bureau  of  the  United 
States,  but  incidentally  to  his  own  decease  through  the 
fatigue  and  exposure  thus  encountered. 

Maury's  early  religious  training  and  temperament  ap- 
pear to  have  exercised  a  large  influence  on  his  public  and 
private  life.  His  physical  geography  is  illustrated  by 
frequent  extracts  from  the  Book  of  Job,  and  is  instinct 
with  the  same  spirit  which  prompted  and  pervaded  the 
memorable  Bridgwater  Treatises.  The  following  extract 
from  his  address  to  the  University  of  the  South  will 
indicate  this  phase  of  his  mind  : — 

"  Astronomy  is  grand  and  sublime,  but  astronomy 
overpowers  with  its  infinities  and  overwhelms  with  its 
immensities.  Physical  geography  charms  with  its  won- 
ders, and  delights  with  the  benignity  of  its  economy. 
Astronomy  ignores  the  existence  of  man  ;  physical  geo- 
graphy confesses  that  existence,  and  is  based  on  the 
Biblical  doctrine  that  the  earth  was  made  for  man. 
Upon  no  other  theory  can  it  be  studied — upon  no  other 
theory  can  its  phenomena  be  reconciled." 

The  Civil  War  unfortunately  destroyed  the  continuity 
of  Maury's  work  at  Washington,  and  altered  the  whole 
course  of  his  subsequent  life.  Impelled  by  a  spirit  of 
pure  patriotism  towards  the  State  of  Virginia  which  had 
reared  him,  he  threw  up  his  post  in  the  North,  and 
devoted  himself  to  the  Southern  cause.  No  one  who 
reads  the  life  before  us,  and  his  "vindication  of  the  South 
and  of  Virginia "  in  the  appendix,  can  doubt  the  pure 
unselfishness  of  his  motives.  He  had  everything  to  lose, 
and  nothing  to  gain,  from  a  material  point  of  view,  by 
his  action,  and  well  he  knew  it.  Essentially  a  man  of 
peace,  and  deeply  attached  to  his  work  at  Washington,  i 
we  cannot  but  admire  his  voluntary  resignation  of  all  to  j 
a  sense  of  duty. 

His  scientific  abilities  being  directed  into  a  new  chan- 


August  9,  1888J 


NATURE 


34i 


nel,  led  to  the  development  of  the  electrical  torpedo,  by 
which  he  materially  aided  the  South,  and  which  he  after- 
wards introduced  into  Europe,  whither  he  was  sent  during 
the  war,  to  purchase  torpedo  materials. 

His  subsequent  connection  with  Mexico,  and  his 
scheme  for  emigrating  Southerners  thither,  though  de- 
signed with  a  view  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  his 
countrymen,  and  to  open  up  a  grand  country,  was  never 
approved  of  by  his  friends,  was  politically  a  mistake,  and 
terminated  abruptly  with  the  abandonment  of  the  country 
by  the  French,  and  the  assassination  of  the  Emperor 
Maximilian.  After  this  he  returned  to  England,  and, 
ultimately,  to  a  Professorship  in  Virginia. 

All  through  his  chequered  life  he  maintained  an  un- 
faltering devotion  to  meteorology,  and  his  latest  efforts 
were  directed  to  developing  a  comprehensive  system  of 
crop  and  weather  reports  throughout  the  States. 

The  perusal  of  this  interesting  book  leaves  us  with  a 
deep  impression  of  the  comprehensive  grandeur  and 
philanthropy  of  Maury's  mind.  A  rare  spirit  of  devotion 
to  science,  not  merely  for  the  pleasure  it  always  affords 
its  devotees,  but  for  the  good  it  could  achieve  in  the 
service  of  man,  pervaded  his  whole  life,  and  the  addi- 
tional record  here  presented  of  work  done  and  schemes 
initiated,  will  add  fresh  laurels  to  the  imperishable  fame 
of  its  subject.  E.  Douglas  Archibald. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Pflanzen-Teratologie.  Von  Maxwell  T.  Masters,  M.D., 
F.L.S.  Ins  Deutsche  iibertragen  von  Udo  Damraer. 
(Leipzig:  H.  Haessel,  1886.) 

It  will  be  satisfactory  to  English  botanists  to  find  that  a 
translation  of  Dr.  Masters's  classical  work  on  vegetable 
teratology  has  been  called  for  in  Germany.  The  present 
German  edition  is  not,  however,  simply  a  translation,  as  it 
has  received  many  additions  from  the  hand  of  the  author. 
The  work  is  thus  of  interest  to  English  as  well  as  to 
German  readers,  for  it  constitutes  the  most  complete 
account  in  any  language  of  abnormal  structures  in  plants. 
The  great  value  of  such  a  record  of  teratological  facts  will 
be  admitted  by  all  botanists,  however  much  they  may 
differ  as  to  the  morphological  significance  of  these 
phenomena. 

In  the  German  edition,  the  number  of  figures  in  the  text 
has  increased  from  218  to  243.  As  a  few  of  the  original 
woodcuts  have  been  omitted,  the  number  of  new  figures  is 
somewhat  greater  than  appears  from  the  total  increase. 
Besides  the  additional  woodcuts,  a  lithographed  plate 
has  been  added,  drawn  by  the  translator  from  original 
figures  of  Goschke  and  Magnus. 

Some  of  the  more  important  additions  to  the  original 
work  may  here  be  noticed.  At  p.  35  a  new  section  is  intro- 
duced, on  fasciation  of  the  root,  illustrated  by  a  woodcut 
(Fig.  8)  of  the  singularly  fasciated  aerial  roots  of  Aerides 
crispum.  Caspary's  view  that  only  a  single  growing  point 
takes  part  in  the  formation  of  each  fasciated  root  is 
cited. 

Fig.  66  (p.  155)  shows  a  proliferous  maleflower  of  a 
Begonia,  in  which  the  stamens  are  entirely  absent,  and 
replaced  by  flower-buds.  The  curious  case  of  the  develop- 
ment of  flower-buds  on  the  root  in  Pyrus  is  illustrated  by 
Fig.  91,  described  at  p.  188.  A  remarkable  abnormality 
in  a  Fuchsia  is  shown  in  Fig.  98  (p.  208).  Here  two 
stamens  (one  simple  and  the  other  branched)  have  arisen 
in  the  axils  of  a  pair  of  foliage-leaves,  which  are  adherent 
to  the  inferior  ovary.  On  p.  213  some  figures  have  been 
added  to  further  illustrate  the  formation  of  adventitious 


siliquae  in  Cruciferae  in  the  interior  of  the  normal  fruit.  In 
Figs.  131,  132,  and  133  (p.  257)  three  interesting  cases  of 
regular  peloria  in  orchids  are  shown. 

A  striking  instance  of  pistillody  of  the  stamens  in  a 
Begonia  is  figured  on  p.  353  (Fig.  178).  In  this  flower  the 
stamens  were  replaced  by  open  carpels  each  bearing  a 
large  number  of  marginal  ovules.  A  conspicuous  abnor- 
mality in  an  Anthurium  is  shown  in  Fig.  204  (p.  411), 
under  the  head  of  "  Polyphylly."  Here  a  great  number 
of  large  foliaceous  bracts  are  developed  on  the  spadix, 
completely  altering  the  character  of  the  inflorescence. 

Two  instances  of  polyandry  in  an  Odontoglossum  are 
represented  in  Figs.  213  and  214  (p.  439).  In  the  former 
of  these  cases  all  the  six  stamens  of  the  typical  Mono- 
cotyledonous  flower  are  present. 

It  should  be  mentioned  that  the  additional  woodcuts 
are  generally  reproductions  of  figures  originally  published 
by  the  author  in  the  Gardener's  Chronicle.  In  the 
plate  added  by  the  translator  the  most  interesting  figures 
are  perhaps  those  illustrating  a  remarkable  series  of 
abnormal  forms  of  the  foxglove,  the  number  of  parts  in 
a  whorl  varying  from  one  to  fourteen,  and  the  flower  in 
many  cases  being  actinomorphic  instead  of  zygomorphic. 
These  figures,  like  most  of  those  on  the  plate,  are  taken 
from  papers  by  Magnus. 

It  is  much  to  be  wished  that  the  numerous  observa- 
tions on  teratology  accumulated  by  Dr.  Masters  and  others 
since  1869  could  be  embodied  in  a  new  and  complete 
English  edition.  Until  this  wish  is  realized,  the  present 
German  edition  is  likely  to  remain  the  most  extensive 
treatise  on  the  subject.  D.  H.  S. 

Parish    Patches.      By  A.    Nicol   Simpson.      (Arbroath  : 
Thomas  Buncle,  1888.) 

This  volume  consists  of  a  series  of  short  essays,  each  of 
which  gives  expression  to  the  author's  delight  in  some 
particular  aspect  of  Nature.  He  presents  no  new  ideas 
or  observations,  but  he  has  so  warm  a  love  for  what  he 
calls  the  pastoral  side  of  life,  that  most  of  his  readers  will 
find  something  to  interest  them  in  his  glowing  descrip- 
tions of  scenes  which  appeal  strongly  to  his  sympathies. 
The  work  is  well  printed  on  good  paper  with  wide 
margins,  and  it  is  carefully  illustrated  by  engravings 
from  drawings  by  Mr.  John  S.  Fraser. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
of  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations.] 

Functionless  Organs. 

I  HAVF.  read  with  extreme  interest  the  abstract,  given  in  your 
number  of  July  26  (p.  310),  of  a  paper  by  Prof.  Ewart,  on  the 
"  Structure  and  Development  of  the  Electric  Organ  of  Raia 
radiata."  It  bears  upon  a  question  of  fundamental  importance 
in  biological  science.  Organic  nature  is  full  of  organs,  or  of 
structures,  which  are  either  wholly  or  partly  functionless.  Some- 
times they  are  called  "aborted"  ;  sometimes  "degenerated"  ; 
sometimes  "  rudimentary  "  ;  sometimes  "  representative. "  But 
under  whatever  namej  the  Darwinian  philosophy  almost  in- 
variably explains  them  as  structures,  or  parts  of  structures,  which 
must  have  once  been  useful,  and  have  become  functionless  by 
atrophy  or  disuse. 

This  is  a  natural  and  necessary  consequence  of  the  doctrine 
which  ascribes  all  organic  structures  to  utility  as  a  physical 
cause.  Utility  as  a  mental  purpose  is  kept  out  of  sight.  Utility 
in  this  last  sense  explains  rudimentary  structures  by  the  uses  or 
purposes  which  they  are  to  serve  in  the  future,  or  which,  at 
least,  they  are  capable  of  serving  in  the  future.  In  this  aspect 
rudimentary   structures   become   "prophetic  germs."      But  we 


342 


NATURE 


\_August  9,  1888 


now  know  that  Darwin  denounced  this  interpretation  of  them, 
and  saw  that  if  the  doctrine  of  prophetic  germs  could  be 
established,  his  own  theory  would  be  reduced  to  rubbish. 

Accordingly  the  more  advanced  Darwinians  always  consider 
functionless  organs  or  structures  as  relics  of  a  past  in  which 
they  were  useful.  They  are  never  interpreted  as  utilities  which 
are  yet  to  be. 

1  have  always  thought  that  if  the  doctrine  of  development  be 
true,  functionless  organs  must  be,  as  often  as  not,  the  germs  of 
potential  use,  and  not  necessarily  at  all  the  remains  of  past 
actual  use. 

What  we  want  in  this  great  question  is  physiological  facts  to 
indicate  the  one  interpretation  or  the  other.  Hitherto  I  have 
never  met  with  a  case  in  which  any  expert  interprets  function- 
less organs  as  structures  on  the  way  to  uc  Perhaps  no  organ  in 
any  creature  is  more  wonderful  than  the  electric  organs  of  certain 
fish.  Any  light  cast  upon  their  origin  is  a  light  cast  on  all  organic 
apparatus.  Here  we  have  a  case  in  which  a  distinguished 
physiologist  detects,  or  thinks  he  can  detect,  an  organ  in  process 
of  being  built  up  for  the  discharge  of  a  very  definite  and  peculiar 
function — a  function  for  which  it  is  not  yet  fit,  or  is  but  very 
imperfectly  fitted. 

This  fact  does  not  tell  against  development  or  evolution.  But 
it  does  tell,  and  tells  fatally,  against  the  element  of  fortuity, 
which  is  inseparable  from  the  idea  of  "natural  selection,"  and 
to  which  Darwin  attached  so  much  importance,  at  one  period  of 
his  life,  and  to  which  many  of  his  disciples  attach  equal  import- 
ance still.  The  fortuitous  element  is,  in  fact,  the  main  ground 
on  which  they  value  it.  But  everywhere,  in  reasoning  and  in 
observation,  it  is  breaking  down.  Argyll. 


"  Syrrhaptes  paradoxus." 

Concerning  Prof.  Newton's  remark  in  Nature,  July  26, 
p.  295,  on  the  occurrence  of  Syrrhaptes  paradoxus  in  France,  I 
beg  to  communicate  that  I  picked  the  following  dates  out  of 
several  journals  : — 

May  28  :  On  the  sand-downs  of  Noirmoutier,  Dieu,  and 
Olonne,  in  the  Vendee  (several  hundreds  ;  three  were  killed). 

May  31  :  Calais  (ten  specimens  ;  one  was  killed). 

Commencement  of  June:  Nantes,  Bretagne  (one  killed). 

Middle  of  June  :  North  of  the  country. 

I  am  sure  that  we  shall  get  much  more  news  from  France. 

Dresden,  August  2.  A.  B.  Meyer. 


The  Red  Spot  on  Jupiter. 

An  observation  with  my  10-inch  reflector,  power  252,  on 
August  5,  1888,  showed  the  red  spot  passing  the  planet's 
central  meridian  at  about  7I1.  48m.  Comparing  this  with  the 
first  observation  I  obtained  of  this  object  during  the  present 
opposition,  viz.  on  December  28,  1887,  at  2oh.  23m.,  I  find 
that  the  rotation-period  of  the  spot  during  the  22od.  nh. 
25m.  elapsed  during  the  period  referred  to  was  cjh.  55m. 
40-34s.  (533  rotations),  which  is  slightly  less  than  what  I  derived 
from  the  preceding  opposition,  1886-87,  when  the  figures  were 
9h.  55m.  40"5s.  (609  rotations). 

If  the  entire  interval  is  taken  between  observations  secured 
here  on  November  23,  1886,  and  August  5,  1888  (embracing 
620J  days),  I  find  that  the  mean  rotation-period  has  been 
9h.  55m.  39'7s.  (1500  rotations).  This  clearly  proves  that  the 
velocity  of  the  spot  is  increasing,  for  at  the  opposition  of 
1885-86  the  period  was  9I1.  55m.  41  "is.  (659  rotations),  and  it 
had  been  increasing  since  1879,  when  it  was  only  9I1.  55m.  34s. 
The  inference  now  seems  tenable  that  its  accelerated  motion 
may  so  reduce  the  rotation-period  in  a  few  years  that  it  will 
return  to  the  rate  it  had  in  1879.  There  is  also  great  prob- 
ability that  the  spot  is  affected  by  cyclic  variations,  the  period  of 
which  may  be  determined  by  further  observations. 

It  is  desirable  to  obtain  views  of  the  central  passages  of  the 
red  spot  as  late  as  possible  in  every  opposition.  A  good  tele- 
scope directed  to  the  planet  at  the  following  times  will  show  the 
spot  very  near  its  mid-transit  : — 


Milk  v.  Fire. 

In  Mr.  Rust's  note  in  Nature,  vol.  xxxvii.  p.  583,'  there 
is  mention  of  a  superstition  that  milk  alone  can  extinguish 
a  fire  kindled  by  lightning — a  belief  that  existed  in  Cambridge- 
shire, and  which  is  entertained  by  the  Sudan  Arabs. 

The  Sinhalese  (natives  of  Ceylon)  have  a  similar  belief  in  the 
efficacy  of  milk.  When  an  epidemic  such  as  small-pox  breaks 
out  in  a  village,  two  games  of  a  religious  character,  An-Edima 
'  (horn  pulling)  and  Pol-gchima  (striking  cocoa-nuts  together),  are 
played  in  public  for  a  couple  of  days.  Then  the  Kapurala  (lay 
priest),  and  those  who  have  taken  part  in  the  games,  go  in ,  pro- 
cession with  music,  &c,  to  every  house  in  the  village,  where 
arrangements  have  been  made  for  the  Kapurala's  reception.  ,  The 
house  and  grounds  are  cleaned  ;  the  inmates  wear  newly- washed 
clothes  ;  and  portions  of  the  "ceiling  and  floor  are  covered  with 
white  cloths.  A  lamp  is  lit  at  the  threshold  of  the  building.  The 
Kapurala  carries  an  earthen  pot  containing  either  cocoa-nut 
milk  or  water  medicated  with  saffron  leaves,  and  over  which 
charms  have  been  pronounced.  On  his  arrival  at  the  door  he 
chants  a  song  about  a  fire  in  Madurapura  (Madura,  South  India) 
which  was  quenched  by  the  goddess  Pattini  with  milk..  He  then 
pours  the  fluid  from  the  earthern  vessel  upon  the  lighted  lamp 
and  extinguishes  it.  \ . 

The  Sinhalese  use  the  expression  "  May  milk  be  poured  on 
him  [or  her],"  when  desiring  to  avert  from  some  one  an  impend- 
ing calamity,  or  to  counteract  a  curse  or  prophecy  of  evil 
pronounced  against  him. 

The  idea  of  employing  milk  to  quench  the  fire  of  an  epidemic 
(typified  by  the  flame  of  a  lamp),  and  the  idea  of  the  deity  pour- 
ing milk  on  an  individual  in  order  to  protect  him  from  malignant 
influences,  appear  to  be  somewhat  analogous  to  the  belief  that 
milk  alone  will  extinguish  a  conflagration  kindled  by  the  fire 
from  heaven.  F.  M.  Wickramasingha. 

Colombo  Museum,  Ceylon,  June  30. 


h.  m. 

h.  m. 

Aug.  12 

...  8  36 

Sept.  8 

...  6  2 

17   ... 

•••  7  45 

15   - 

...  6  51 

24   ... 

...  8  34 

20 

...  6  0 

29   ... 

•••  7  43 

27   ... 

...  6  49 

Sept.  3   ... 

•••  6  53 

Oct.   2 

-  5  58 

The  low  position  of  Jupiter  during  the  present  year  has  some- 
what hindered  the  successful  observation  of  his  more  delicate 
features,  and  during  the  next  opposition  of  1889  the  planet  will 
be  in  230  S.  declination,  so  that  the  study  of  his  surface  ought 
to  be  undertaken  in  southern  latitudes,  where  the  conditions  are 
more  favourable.  W.  F.  Denning. 

Bristol,  August  6. 


Circles  of  Light. 

The  appearance  described  below  was  visible  in  Penrith  and 
the  surrounding  district  on  Thursday,  the  2nd  inst.,  from  5  p.m. 
nearly  till  sunset.  Round  the  sun  as  centre,  at  a  distance  of 
about  280,  about  three-quarters  of  a  circle  of  light  were  visible,  the 
lowest  quarter  being  absent.  About  a  quarter  of  a  circle  of 
equal  size  touched  this  circle  at  its  highest  point.  In  the  region 
of  contact  of  the  circles  a  space  about  40  long  and  ^°  broad 
seemed  common  to  the  two  circles,  as  if  they  there  overlapped, 
and  this  part  was  very  bright,  and  bordered  with  red  on  the  side 
towards  the  sun.  The  remaining  parts  of  the  circles  were  faint, 
and  only  to  be  seen  when  the  disk  of  the  sun  was  hidden  by  some 
obstacle  ;  they  were  about  4°  wide. 

Edmund  Catchpool.    . 

Westleigh,  Weston-super-Mare,  August  6. 


Michell's  Problem. 

.  The  issue  of  Nature  of  July  19  (p.  272)  contains  a  com- 
munication from  Mr.  Sydney  Lupton  on  "  Michell's  Problem." 
I  regret  the  author  has  not  seen  my  paper  on  the  same  subject 
published  in  the  Philosophical  Magazine,  November  1887,  "On 
Random  Scattering  of  Points  on  a  Surface."  The  objections 
put  forward  by  the  late  Prof.  Forbes  to  the  argument  of  Michell 
concerning  the  physical  connection  of  double  stars  are  there 
analyze!,  and  it  is  shown  that  the  experiments  by  which  Prof. 
Forbes  assumed  to  invalidate  it  are  on  the  contrary  a  very 
decisive  experimental  proof  for  and  illustration  of  this  arguments 
Mr.  Lupton  says,  "  The  probability  of  exactly  uniform  distribu- 
tion i<  nil.  Michell,  however,  seems  to  assume  this  probability 
to  be  1,  or  certainty."  I  fully  agree  with  the  former  part  of  the 
statement.  But  never  did  Michell  assume  the  obviously  erro- 
neous view  on  the  distribution  of  stars  ascribed  to  him  by  Mr. 
Lupton  in  the  letter.  It  is  true  that  it  is  a  common  error — not 
only  of  the  0760;  fjLerpt]ro\ — to  confound  random  scattering  with 
uniform  distribution,  but  Michell  has  not  fallen  into  this  error. 
London,  August  3.  Joseph  Kleiber. 


August  9,  1888] 


NATURE 


343 


Cloud  Electric  Potential. 

Under  the  above  heading,  in  Nature  of  July  19  (p.  269), 
which  has  just  come  into  my  hands,  Mr.  E.  Douglas  Archibald 
•criticizes  a  statement  of  mine  in  Part  III.  of  "  Deschanel,"  re- 
specting electrified  drops  of  water  in  a  cloud.  The  following  is 
the  statement  : — 

"The  coalescence  of  small  drops  to  form  large  ones,  though 
it  increases  the  electrical  density  on  the  surfaces  of  the  drops, 
does  not  increase  the  total  quantity,  and  therefore  cannot '-directly 
influence  the  observed  potential." 

At  the  word  "therefore"  I  give  a  reference  to  a  previous 
section,  in  which  it  is  shown  that  the  potential  at  a  point  is  the 
sum  of  all  the  quotients  qjr,  q  denoting  an  element  of  the 
electricity  to  which  the  potential  is  due,  and  r  the  distance  of 
this  element  from  the  point  in  question.  Since  the  coalescence 
of  drops  is  without  effect  on  the  value  of  each  q  and  its  corre- 
sponding r,  it  cannot  affect  any  one  of  the  quotients  q/r,  whose 
sum  constitutes  the  potential. 

Mr.  Archibald's  criticism  is  : — 

"Surely  this  entirely  omits  the  fact  that  the  capacity  of  a  sphere 
is  equal  to  its  radius,  and  thus,  in  the  case  of  eight  equal  spheres 
coalescing  into  one,  not  merely  would  the  density  be  doubled, 
but  the  potential  of  the  same  quantity  would  be  increasedy^«r 
times. " 

This  criticism  rests  on  two  false  assumptions  : — 

First,  that  the  potential  of  a  drop  depends  on  its  own  charge  only, 
and  can  therefore  be  computed  by  dividing  its  charge  by  its  radius. 

Secondly,  that  the  potential  of  the  drops  (which  on  this  sup- 
position would  be  very  different  from  the  potential  at  a  point 
midway  between  two  drops)  can  be  identified  with  "the  observed 
potential."  J.  D.  Everett. 

Cushendall,  Co.  Antrim,  August  3. 


THE  ABSORPTION  SPECTRA  OF  CRYSTALS. 

A  LL  who  are  interested  in  the  difficult  work  now  going 
■£*-  forward  in  so  many  chemical  laboratories,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  nature  and  constitution  of  those  most 
complex  mixtures  known  as  "  rare  earths,"  and  who 
recognize  the  extremely  important  influence  which  the 
solution  of  this  subject  must  exert  upon  the  very  basis  of 
our  modern  chemistry,  will  gladly  welcome  a  new  and 
exquisite  means  of  investigation  which  M.  Becquerel  has 
recently  brought  to  light. 

As  the  reward  of  a  most  exhaustive  study  of  the 
changes  which  are  brought  about  in  a  beam  of  light  by 
its  passage  through  a  crystal,  M.  Becquerel  has  discovered 
the  key  by  means  of  which  he  is  enabled  to  interpret  the 
subtle  indications  which  the  issuing  rays  afford  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  molecules  among  which  they  have  been 
threading  their  way.  It  appears  at  first  sight  more  than 
wonderful  that  these  delicate  indications  can  have  led  to 
precisely  the  same  weighty  conclusions  as  those  arrived 
at  from  the  renowned  physico-chemical  researches  of 
Auer  von  Welsbach,  Lecoq  de  Boisbaudran,  Demarqay, 
Soret,  Crookes,  and  Kriiss  and  Nilson.  Yet  such  indeed 
is  the  case,  and  it  even  appears  likely  that  the  new  method 
may  be  carried  still  further  into  the  region  beyond  that 
which  has  up  to  the  present  been  reached  by  these 
experimenters. 

In  order  to  explain  the  nature  of  this  discovery,  it  will 
be  necessary  to  describe  the  experimental  steps  which 
have  led  M.  Becquerel  towards  it.  In  the  year  1866 
Bunsen  found  what  now  appears  to  be  the  germ  of  a  great 
principle — that  when  a  crystal  of  the  sulphate  of  the 
substance  didymium,  now  known  to  be  a  most  complex 
mixture,  was  traversed  by  a  beam  of  plane-polarized  light 
vibrating  at  an  angle  of  20°  to  the  horizontal  diagonal  of 
the  crystal,  the  absorption  spectrum  was  slightly  different 
from  that  which  was  obtained  when  the  ray  was  polarized  in 
a  plane  at  right  angles.  This  observation  did  not  attract 
much  attention  at  the  time,  it  being  considered  merely  as 
a  curious  manifestation  of  the  phenomenon  of  pleochroism. 

Sorby,  however,  in  1869  again  reopened  the  question, 
having  found  that   in  zircons  the   ordinary   and   extra- 


ordinary rays  presented  different  bands  of  absorption. 
Since  that  time  Becquerel  himself  has  shown  that  the 
same  applies  to  all  birefractive  crystals  which  give 
absorption  spectra. 

With  so  much  premised,  we  are  now  in  a  position  to 
consider  the  main  results  of  this  more  recent  investigation. 
They  may  be  very  briefly  summarized  as  follows  : — 

(1)  The  bands  in  the  absorption  spectra  of  all  crystals 
have  fixed  positions :  the  intensity  alone  varies  with  the 
direction  of  propagation  of  the  light. 

(2)  In  most  crystals,  the  principal  directions  of  absorp- 
tion coincide  with  the  directions  of  optical  elasticity. 

(3)  In  certain  crystals  the  directions  appear  to  be  very 
different  for  different  bands,  but  they  always  remain 
subject  to  the  conditions  imposed  by  the  crystalline 
symmetry  ;  thus  in  monoclinic  crystals  one  of  the  principal 
axes  of  absorption  always  coincides  with  the  axis  or 
symmetry,  and  the  other  two  rectangular  axes  are  situated 
in  the  plane  of  symmetry. 

Hence  it  appears  to  be  a  fact  that  the  absorption  of 
luminous  radiations  of  fixed  wave-length  admits  of  three 
directions  of  symmetry.  These  directions  appear  generally 
to  coincide  with  the  principal  directions  of  optical 
elasticity,  with  the  exception  of  certain  remarkable 
anomalies  in  particular  crystals.  Here,  however,  is  the 
whole  gist  of  the  matter.  Why  these  anomalies?  Just 
as  from  a  consideration  of  the  deviations  from  Boyle's 
law  physicists  have  learned  how  to  measure  the  size  of 
those  wonderfully  minute  entities  familiar  to  us  as  mole- 
cules, so  has  M.  Becquerel  extracted  a  most  important 
principle  out  of  the  anomalies  to  the  law  of  absorption 
in  crystals. 

It  appears  probable  that  absorption  may  be  due  to  a 
physical  phenomenon  dependent  upon  the  intermolecular 
movements.  The  intimate  relation  between  phosphor- 
escence and  absorption,  notably  in  the  compounds  of 
uranium  and  certain  of  the  rare  earths,  appears  to  show 
that  in  solids  and  liquids  the  radiations  absorbed  are 
those  which  vibrate  in  unison  with  the  molecular  move- 
ments. This  conception  is  in  fact  nothing  more  than  an 
extension  to  solids  and  liquids  of  the  well-verified  law  of 
the  absorption  by  incandescent  vapours. 

As  the  molecular  elasticity  varies  in  different  directions 
in  crystals  not  isotropic — that  is,  not  belonging  to  the  cubic 
system — so  will  the  absorption  vary  ;  and  if,  in  two 
isomorphous  substances,  the  directions  of  molecular 
elasticity  do  not  exactly  correspond,  the  directions  of 
different  absorption  in  the  two  substances  will  vary  in 
like  manner.  Now  it  is  quite  true  that  many  crystals  of 
isomorphous  substances— that  is  to  say,  substances  of 
analogous  chemical  constitution  crystallizing  in  similar 
forms — have  their  optic  axes  unequally  inclined. 

If  we  crystallize  two  such  substances  together,  in 
gradually  increasing  proportions  of  one  of  them,  we  find 
that  the  angle  between  the  optic  axes  in  the  mixed  crystals 
diminishes  progressively  until  it  reaches  zero,  after  which 
the  two  axes  again  diverge  in  a  plane  perpendicular  to 
their  original  plane.  Thus  can  we  cause  the  influence  of 
each  in  turn  to  preponderate. 

Each  chemical  substance  therefore  exerts  its  own  in- 
fluence, and  the  molecules  retain  the  optical  properties 
which  they  manifest  when  the  substance  crystallizes  alone. 
Hence  the  propagation  of  luminous  waves  is  the  resultant 
of  the  actions  which  each  of  the  molecules  composing 
the  crystal  exerts  upon  the  luminous  vibrations.  If  the 
directions  of  absorption  do  not  coincide  with  the  axes  of 
optical  elasticity,  it  indicates  the  presence  of  molecules  of 
different  substances  in  the  crystal.  From  these  considera- 
tions it  will  be  evident  that  the  anomalies  are  probably 
due  to  the  coexistence  in  the  same  crystal  of  different 
matters,  geometrically  isomorphous,  but  optically  unlike, 
and  which  from  the  absorption  point  of  view  behave  as  if 
each  were  alone.  The  use  of  the  spectroscope  will  there- 
fore enable  us  to  recognize  the  individuality  of  differently 


;44 


NA  TURE 


\_August  9,  1888 


absorbing  molecules  in  the  molecular  groupings,  which 
other  optical  methods  cannot  indicate  ;  for  the  absorption 
due  to  one  molecule  is  independent  of  that  of  a  neigh- 
bouring molecule,  while  the  phenomena  of  refraction  only 
show  resultant  effects. 

Further,  as  experiment  shows  that  in  most  crystalline 
substances  the  principal  directions  of  absorption  coincide 
with  the  principal  directions  of  optical  elasticity,  and  as  it 
is  probably  right  to  assume  that  each  molecule  is  subject 
to  the  same  laws  as  the  whole  of  the  crystal,  there  is  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  the  directions  of  symmetry  should 
be  different  in  the  molecule  and  in  the  crystal,  provided 
the  latter  presents  no  optical  anomaly.  One  can  there- 
fore assume  that  the  principal  directions  of  absorption  in 
the  molecules  themselves  coincide  with  their  axes  6f 
optical  elasticity,  and  that  in  mixed  crystals  the  anomalous 
directions  of  absorption  indicate  the  direction  of  the  optic 
axes  of  the  different  absorbing  substances.  If  this  is 
really  the  cause  of  the  anomalies  in  the  direction  of  certain 
bands,  each  group  of  anomalous  bands  ought  to  belong  to 
different  substances,  of  which  the  existence  in  the  crystal 
is  thus  revealed. 

To  prove  the  truth  of  this  beautiful  theory,  M.  Becquerel 
points  out  the  significant  fact  that  among  the  substances 
which  he  finds  to  be  characterized  by  anomalous  bands, 
several  have  been  separated  chemically  into  their 
components. 

We  have,  therefore,  in  the  observation  of  anomalous 
directions  of  absorption  a  new  method  of  spectral  analysis, 
a  method  of  determining  in  a  crystal  the  presence  of  iso- 
morphous  substances,  optically  dissimilar.  We  can  even 
go  further  still,  and  recognize  the  existence  of  different 
substances,  although  they  may  not  manifest  anomalous 
directions  of  absorption.  For,  suppose  the  same  bands 
are  noticed  to  occur  in  the  spectra  of  several  crystals  ;  if 
in  one  of  these  crystals  two  bands  become  maxima  or 
minima  at  the  same  time  for  the  same  direction  of  vibra- 
tion, and  if  in  another  crystal  one  of  them  disappears  for 
the  direction  which  renders  the  other  a  maximum,  one 
may  conclude  that  the  bands  are  due  to  two  different 
molecules. 

This  new  method  of  analysis  appears  to  be  specially 
suitable  for  use  in  unravelling  the  mystery  of  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  rare  earths.  If,  as  seems  now  almost  certain, 
they  consist  of  the  oxides  of  a  large  number  of  element- 
ary substances,  the  difficulty  experienced  in  separating 
them  points  to  the  fact  that  these  constituent  oxides  must 
resemble  each  other  closely.  It  is  therefore  most  prob- 
able that  their  salts  will  be  isomorphous,  and  the  crystals 
of  these  salts  may  consequently  be  expected  to  give 
absorption  spectra  of  great  interest  in  the  light  of  the 
foregoing  theory.  M.  Becquerel  has  therefore  subjected 
the  crystalline  salts  of  didymium  to  the  test  of  experi. 
ment,  with  the  important  result  that  several  substances 
have  been  detected  which  chemists  have  recently  isolated 
chemically  ;  and  also  new  substances  have  been  identified 
as  constituents,  of  which  chemical  methods  have  not  as 
yet  revealed  the  presence. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Auer  von  Welsbach,  by 
fractional  crystallization  of  the  double  nitrates  of  didy- 
mium and  ammonium,  obtained  two  solutions — one 
possessing  a  green  colour,  showing  almost  exclusively 
the  three  bands  X  <=  482,  469,  and  445,  and  which  he 
termed  praseodymium  ;  the  other  a  red  solution,  giving 
the  other  bands  of  the  didymium  mixture  except 
X  =  4755,  which  received  the  name  neodymium.  The 
study  of  the  absorption  spectrum  of  crystals  of  sulphate 
of  didymium  now  shows  that  the  two  groups  X  =  483-6- 
482*2  and  X  =  471*5-470,  which  have  anomalous  direc- 
tions to  a  remarkable  extent,  are  characteristic  of 
praseodymium,  while  most  of  the  bands  of  neodymium 
have  directions  quite  different.  Again,  on  examining 
these  same  groups  belonging  to  praseodymium  in  the 
crystals  of  double  nitrate  of  didymium  and  potassium, 


it  is  noticed  that  the  bands  which  appear  to  have  the 
same  principal  directions  in  the  sulphate  have  in  the 
double  nitrate  directions  quite  different,  characterizing 
two  distinct  substances.  Later  experiments  by  De- 
marc_ay  have  indeed  shown  the  possibility  of  chemically 
isolating  two  constituents — one  exhibiting  the  band  X  = 
469,  the  other  giving  the  bands  of  praseodymium. 

Hence  the  new  method  proves  a  most  valuable  test  of 
the  accuracy  of  chemical  work.  In  multiplying  the  ob- 
servations,.]^!. Becquerel  concludes  that  didymium  is,  as 
expected,  a  mixture  of  a  large  number  of  substances, 
chemically  different ;  among  the  identified  constituents 
are  almost  all  that  have  been  already  chemically  isolated, 
and  very  probably  others,  notably  one  substance  which 
is  characterized  by  the  band  X  =  5717. 

A  remarkable  confirmation  of  this  new  law  of  crystal 
absorption  was  obtained  in  the  following  way.  When  a 
crystal  of  the  sulphate  or  nitrate  of  didymium  is  dissolved 
in  water,  the  spectrum  of  absorption  of  the  solution  pre- 
sents curious  differences  from  that  of  the  crystal.  Certain 
bands  have  remained  permanent,  but  others  are  displaced, 
and  some  have  entirely  disappeared.  This  is  readily 
explained  if  one  admits  that  the  crystal  consisted  of  a 
mixture  of  compounds  unequally  acted  upon  by  water. 
The  most  interesting  fact,  however,  is  that  the  bands 
which  manifest  these  variations  are  precisely  those  which 
in  the  crystal  present  the  anomalies. 

In  conclusion,  we  see  that  by  the  employment  of  this 
new  method  of  analysis  we  are  enabled,  without  destroy- 
ing the  crystal,  as  is  necessary  in  chemical  analysis,  to 
recognize  the  presence  of  different  chemical  molecules  ; 
and  as  we  obtain  three  distinct  spectra  from  the  three 
directions  of  optical  elasticity,  the  method  is  one  of 
extreme  sensibility.  Every  investigator  likes  to  see  his 
work  confirmed,  and  in  this  most  difficult  field  of  the 
rare  earths  we  cannot  have  too  many  confirmations.  The 
more  points  of  the  compass  from  which  we  approach  it  the 
better,  for  we  are  sure  then  of  surrounding  and  finally  of 
grasping  the  truth  itself,  in  all  its  grand  simplicity. 

A.  E.  TUTTON. 


THE  NE  W  VEGE  TA  TION  OF  KRAKA  TA  O. 

'THE  great  volcanic  eruption  of  Krakatab  in  August 
-*■  1883  will  be  fresh  in  most  memories.  It  was  at 
one  time  reported  that  the  island  had  totally  disappeared, 
but  this  was  not  so.  Previous  to  the  eruption,  however, 
it  was  covered  with  a  luxuriant  vegetation,  no  trace  of 
which  existed  after  the  event. 

Dr.  M.  Treub,  the  Director  of  the  Botanic  Garden  at 
Buitenzorg,  Java,  when  at  Kew  last  year  informed  the 
writer  that  he  had  visited  the  island  the  previous  year, 
and  intended  publishing  the  results  of  his  botanical 
investigations.  This  he  has  now  done,1  and  as  the  deri- 
vation of  insular  floras  is  a  subject  of  great  interest  to 
many  persons,  the  substance  of  Dr.  Treub's  communica- 
tion deserves  a  place  in. Nature. 

The  existing  portion  of  Krakatab  Island  is  about  three 
miles  across,  and  has  the  form  of  a  mountain  rising  out 
of  the  sea.  On  one  side  it  is  nearly  perpendicular  almost 
to  the  summit  of  the  peak,  which  has  an  altitude  of  about 
2500  feet,  and  on  the  other  it  presents  a  steep  slope.  It 
is  situated  ten  miles  distant  from  the  Island  of  Sibesie, 
the  nearest  point  where  there  is  terrestrial  vegetation  ; 
twenty  miles  from  Sumatra,  and  twenty-one  miles  from 
Java.  Verlaten  and  Lang  Islands,  lying  much  nearer 
Krakatab,  were  utterly  desolated  and  denuded  of  their 
vegetation  by  the  great  catastrophe,  and  were  still 
absolutely  bare  in  1 886. 

With  regard  to  the  total  destruction  of  vegetable  life  in 
the  island,  Dr.  Treub  asserts  that  there  can  be  no  doubt : 

1  Annates  du  Jardin  Botanijne  de  Buitenzorg,   vii.  pp.  213-23,  with  a 
sketch  map. 


August  9,  1888] 


NATURE 


145 


the  most  durable  seed  and  the  best  protected  rhizome 
must  have  lost  all  vitality  during  the  intense  heat,  and 
not  a  germ  was  left.  The  whole  island  from  the  summit 
of  the  peak  down  to  the  water's  edge  is  now  covered  with 
a  layer  of  cinders  and  pumice  stone,  varying  from  one  to 
sixty  metres  in  thickness.  Furthermore,  the  possibility 
of  the  new  vegetation  having  been  conveyed  thither  by 
man  is  out  of  the  question,  because  the  island  is 
uninhabited,  uninhabitable,  and  difficult  of  access. 

Therefore,  the  present  vegetation  must  be  due  to  other 
agencies,  of  which  three  different  ones  may  have  operated 
— namely,  winds,  waves,  and  birds. 

Now,  as  to  the  composition  of  the  vegetation  met  with 
on  Krakatab  by  Dr.  Treub  in  June  1886,  nearly  three 
years  after  the  eruption,  the  bulk  consisted  of  ferns 
with  isolated  plants  of  Phanerogams,  both  on  the  shore 
and  on  the  mountain  itself.  Eleven  species  of  ferns  were 
collected,  and  some  of  them  were  already  common.  They 
are  all  species  of  wide  distribution,  and  it  may  be  of 
interest  to  give  their  names  :  Gymnogramme  calo- 
melanos,  Acrostichum  scandens,  Blechnum.  oricntale, 
Acrostichum  anreum,  Pteris  lotigifolia,  Nephrolepis  exal- 
tata,  Ncphrodium  calcaralum,  N.  jlaccidiim,  rteris 
aquilina,  P.  marginata,  mid  Onychium  auratum. 

It  is  not  at  all  surprising  that  the  spores  of  the  fore- 
going and  many  other  ferns  should  have  been  carried  to 
the  island  by  winds  ;  but,  as  Dr.  Treub  remarks,  it  is 
almost  incomprehensible  that  they  should  grow  under 
such  extraordinarily  disadvantageous  conditions.  Chem- 
ically and  physically  the  volcanic  matter  covering  the 
island  is  as  sterile  as  could  well  be,  yet  the  prothallia  of 
ferns  readily  developed.  A  closer  investigation,  however, 
revealed  the  fact  that  ferns  were  not  the  first  organisms 
in  the  new  vegetation  of  Krakatab,  the  cinders  and 
pumice-stone  being  almost  everywhere  covered  with  a 
thin  coating  of  Cya7iophyccce  (fresh-water  Alga?)  belonging 
to  the  genera  Lyngbya,  Tolypothrix,  &c, — altogether  six 
species.  The  presence  of  these  Alga?  gives  the  surface  of 
the  soil  a  gelatinous  and  hygroscopic  property,  in  the 
absence  of  which  Dr.  Treub  doubts  the  possibility  of 
fern-growth.  Thus  these  microscopic  organisms  prepare 
the  soil  for  the  ferns,  much  as  the  latter  provide  the  con- 
ditions under  which  the  seeds  of  Phanerogams  can 
germinate  and  grow. 

The  phanerogamic  element  (flowering  plants)  of  the  new 
vegetation  consisted,  on  the  shore,  of  young  plants  of 
Calophyllum  Inopliyllum,  Cerbera  Odollam,  Hernandia 
sonora,  Sccevola  Kcenigii,  Ipomoea  fies-caprce,  a  species  of 
Erythrina,  two  species  of  Cyperacece,  and  Gymnothrix 
elegans.  With  the  exception  of  Gymnothrix  elegans,  a 
common  grass  in  Java,  all  the  plants  named  are  among 
those  which  take  possession  of  newly-raised  coral  islands. 

In  the  interior  of  the  island,  on  the  mountain  itself, 
Dr.  Treub  discovered  Sccevola  Kcenigii,  Tournefortia 
argentea,  a  species  of  Wollastonia,  a  species  of  Senecio, 
two  species  of  Conyza,  Phragmites  Roxburghii,  and 
Gymnothrix  elegans. 

In  addition  to  the  foregoing  Phanerogams,  Dr.  Treub 
observed  on  the  sea-coast  seeds  or  fruits  of  Heritiera 
littoralis,  Terminalia  Catappa,  Cocos  nucifera,  Barring- 
tonia  speciosa,  and  Pandanus.  These  also  are  among  the 
commonest  sea-shore  and  coral  island  trees  throughout 
the  Malayan  Archipelago  and  Polynesia. 

A  more  interesting  record  of  the  processes  of  a  new 
flora  can  hardly  be  imagined,  especially  that  in  relation  to 
the  preparation  of  the  soil  by  microscopic  sporiferous 
plants.  Of  course  this  is  not  a  new  discovery  ;  but  it  is 
perhaps  the  first  actual  observation  of  the  renewal  of  the 
vegetation  of  a  volcanic  island. 

Dr.  Treub  intends  visiting  Krakata'b  again,  and  report- 
ing fully  on  the  progress  of  the  new  flora,  and  his  report 
will  doubtless  be  looked  forward  to  with  great  interest. 

W.  B.  Hemsley. 


THE  NON-CHINESE  RACES  OF  CHINA. 

A  VALUABLE  Report  which  has  just  been  laid  before 
-**■  Parliament  contains  an  account  of  a  journey  made 
by  Mr.  Bourne,  British  Consular  Agent  at  Chung-King  in 
Szechuen  province,  through  South-Western  and  Southern 
China,  to  study  certain  commercial  questions  in  these 
regions.  The  journey  lasted  193  days,  and  carried  the 
traveller  through  the  great  provinces  of  Yunnan,  Kwangsi, 
Kweichow,  and  Szechuen.  Mr.  Bourne  was  constantly 
brought  into  contact  with  various  non-Chinese  tribes  in- 
habiting these  provinces,  and  his  Report  contains  a  large 
amount  of  information  respecting  their  language  and 
habits.  He  also  devotes  a  special  appendix  to  them. 
He  says  that  there  is  probably  no  family  of  the  human 
race,  certainly  none  with  such  claims  to  consideration,  of 
which  so  little  is  accurately  known  as  the  non-Chinese 
races  of  Southern  China,  and  he  attributes  this  to  the 
"  perfect  maze  of  senseless  names"  in  which  the  subject 
has  been  involved  by  the  Chinese.  The  "  Topography  of 
the  Yunnan  Province,"  published  in  1836,  gives  a  cata- 
logue of  141  classes  of  aborigines,  each  with  a  separate 
name  and  illustration,  without  any  attempt  to  arrive  at  a 
broader  classification.  To  Mr.  Bourne  it  appeared  that 
before  the  tribes  could  be  scientifically  assigned  by 
ethnologists,  they  must  be  reduced  to  order  amongst 
themselves,  and  that  something  might  be  done  in  this 
direction  by  taking  a  short  vocabulary  and  obtaining  its 
equivalent  in  the  dialect  of  every  tribe  met  with,  when  a 
comparison  would  reveal  affinities  and  differences.  Ac- 
cordingly he  gives  twenty-two  vocabularies,  containing 
the  numerals  up  to  12,  20,  30,  100, 1000,  father,  mother, 
brother,  sister,  heaven,  gold,  hand,  foot,  sun,  dog,  horse, 
iron,  &c. — in  all,  thirty-six  words.  In  each  case  the  date, 
place,  the  name  by  which  each  tribe  calls  itself,  the  name 
by  which  the  Chinese  know  it,  and  the  name  by  which  it 
knows  the  Chinese,  is  given.  A  comparison  of  these 
vocabularies  and  a  study  of  Chinese  books  lead  him  to 
the  conviction  that,  exclusive  of  the  Tibetans,  there  are 
but  three  great  non-Chinese  races  in  Southern  China — 
the  Lolo,  the  Shan,  and  the  Miao-tsze.  The  vocabularies 
do  not  convey  the  whole  evidence  that  these  scattered 
people  respectively  speak  the  same  language,  for  the 
Lolo,  Shan,  and  Miao-tsze  are  all  languages  of  the 
Chinese  type  that  make  up  for  poverty  of  sound  by 
"  tones  "  ;  the  resemblance  is  much  more  striking  to  the 
ear  accustomed  to  these  distinctions  of  sound  than  when 
the  words  are  written  in  English,  when  the  similarity  of 
tone  is  lost.  Among  the  141  tribes  described  in  the 
Chinese  topography  of  Yunnan,  with  short  vocabularies 
of  the  principal  dialects,  there  are  very  few,  and  those 
unimportant,  that  cannot  be  identified  from  the  illustra- 
tions or  letterpress  as  belonging  to  one  or  other  of  the 
three  families  or  to  Tibetan.  As  to  the  names  of  these 
families,  Lolo  is  a  Chinese  corruption  of  Lulu,  the  name 
of  a  former  chieftain  of  the  people,  who  call  themselves 
Nersu,  and  has  come  to  stand  for  the  people  themselves. 
Shan  is  the  Burmese  term  adopted  by  Europeans  for  the 
people  who  call  themselves  "Tai,"  "  Pu-nong,"  &c. 
Miao-tsze,  a  Chinese  word,  meaning  "  roots,"  is  confined 
by  the  more  accurate  to  the  aborigines  of  Kweichow  and 
Western  Hunan. 

The  Lolos  were  formerly  called  by  the  Chinese 
the  "Tsuan  barbarians,"  a  name  taken  from  one  of 
their  chiefs.  They  call  themselves  Nersu,  and  the 
vocabularies  show  that  they  stretch  in  scattered  com- 
munities as  far  as  Ssu-mao,  and  along  the  whole  southern 
border  of  Yunnan.  They  are  also  said  by  the  Chinese  to 
be  found  on  the  Burmese  frontier.  In  a  topography  of 
Momien,  a  town  not  far  from  Bahmo,  in  the  extreme 
south-west  of  Yunnan,  the  following  information  is  given 
about  them,  which  is  at  least  surprising : — "  The  old 
Tsuan  (Lolo)  of  Mengshan  do  not  die.  When  old,  they 
grow  tails,  eat  men,  not  distinguishing  their  own  children, 


146 


NA TURE 


\August  9,  1888 


love  the  hills,  fear  the  abodes  of  men,  and  run  as  strongly 
as  wild  beasts.  The  natives  call  them  autumn  foxes. 
But,  still,  they  are  not  invariably  to  be  found."  Although 
it  is  not  yet  known  where  the  Lolo  came  from,  Mr.  Bourne 
gives  a  notion  of  their  present  habitat.  In  the  great  bend 
of  the  Yangtsze,  in  103°  E.  longitude,  between  that  river 
and  the  Anning,  the  Lolo  are  at  home  ;  there  they  live 
in  independence  of  China,  under  their  own  tribal  chiefs 
and  aristocracy.  Thence  they  extend  in  a  scattered 
manner  as  far  north  as  Wen-chuan,  in  latitude  310  15'  N., 
and  longitude  1030  30'  E.  To  the  west  they  extend  to 
the  Meikong  ;  to  the  south  they  are  found  occupying 
here  and  there  the  higher  ground,  until  the  plateau  breaks 
into  the  plain,  and  they  extend  eastward  to  Kweiyang. 
They  seem  to  be  more  numerous  as  Taliang  Shan,  their 
present  home,  is  approached,  and  they  form  much  the 
largest  part  of  the  population  of  North-Eastern  Yunnan 
and  North-Western  Kweichow.  Mr.  Bourne  adds  about 
thirty  names  by  which  different  tribes  of  Lolo  are  known 
to  the  Chinese. 

The  Shans  are  not  found  north-east  of  the  city  of  Yun- 
nan, but  they  inhabit  all  the  lower  levels  along  the  south 
Yunnan  border  ;  and  from  the  city  of  Kwang-nan  along 
Mr.  Bourne's  route  to  the  frontier  of  Kweichow  province, 
they  form  almost  the  whole  population.  They  must 
have  been  masters  of  the  Kwangsi  province  before  the 
Chinese,  as  some  of  the  Chinese  official  buildings  in 
the  province  are  said  to  have  been  erected  on  the  sites  of 
Shan  palaces.  It  would  be  interesting,  says  Mr.  Bourne, 
to  know  how  the  Shans  reached  Kwangsi,  whether 
through  Tonquin  or  across  the  Yunnan  plateau.  The 
Shans  in  Southern  Kweichow  are  undoubtedly  immi- 
grants from  Kwangsi,  and  did  not  cross  the  plateau.  The 
Shan  language  is  softer  than  Chinese  or  Lolo,  with  fewer 
gutturals  and  aspirates,  and  appears  easy  to  learn.  The 
numerals  show  a  curious  resemblance  in  sound  to  the 
Cantonese. 

The  Miao-tzse  apparently  are  divided  into  a  number  of 
tribes  speaking  dialects  of  one  language  which  is  of  the 
Chinese  sort.  They  occupy  at  present  Eastern  Kwei- 
chow and  Western  Hunan,  being  very  numerous  in  the 
south-east  of  the  former  province.  They  are  known  to 
the  Chinese  by  a  multitude  of  names,  but  always  with  the 
prefix  Miao. 

So  far  the  appendix  ;  but  scattered  throughout  Mr. 
Bourne's  elaborate  report  of  his  journey  there  are 
numerous  interesting  references  to  these  non- Chinese 
races.  Near  Maling,  in  Southern  Yunnan,  on  a  tributary 
of  the  Yangtsze,  he  came  on  a  sandstone  bluff  containing 
about  twenty  Mantzu  caves.  Most  of  the  entrances,  3  to 
4  feet  square,  are  cut  in  the  vertical  cliff  some  10  feet 
above  the  ground,  so  that  they  cannot  be  reached  without 
a  ladder.  The  face  of  the  cliff  is  adorned  in  6ne  or  two 
cases  by  sculptures  in  relief,  the  most  striking  being  a 
round  human  face.  The  valley  was,  no  doubt,  formerly 
the  head-quarters  of  a  Mantzu  tribe,  for  some  miles  lower 
down  the  site  of  the  castle  of  a  chief  is  pointed  out.  The 
sculptured  blocks  that  lie  about  bear  witness  to  a  con- 
siderable advance  in  civilization.  The  Lolos  are  described 
as  having  larger  and  more  irregular  features  than  the 
average  Chinese  ;  the  colour  of  the  skin  seems  much  the 
same,  but  the  eyes  were  deeper  sunk.  They  are  divided 
into  three  tribes,  known  as  the  black,  white,  and  dry 
Lolos — a  meaningless  distinction,  but  corresponding 
apparently  to  a  real  tribal  division.  They  believe  in  a 
future  state  of  retribution,  burn  the  dead,  worship  their 
ancestors  with  the  sacrifice  of  an  ox,  and  have  no  idols. 
Four  pieces  of  brown  paper  were  said  to  represent  the 
potentialities  of  the  other  world,  and  three  sticks  of 
bamboo  their  ancestors.  A  special  Lolo  vocabulary,  with 
the  written  characters,  procured  from  a.  per  ma,  or  tribal 
sorcerer,  in  Ssu-mao,  is  carefully  reproduced.  This 
sorcerer  was  able  to  read  his  prayer-book,  but  not  to 
explain  what  it  meant.     In  his  own  opinion  this  was  not 


important,  as  the  ritual  had  been  arranged  between  his 
ancestors  and  the  gods,  who  knew  very  well  what  was 
meant  so  long  as  he  read  the  right  section  and  gave  the 
characters  their  proper  sound. 

The  Report  it  should  be  added  contains  numerous 
and  comprehensive  tables  of  meteorological  observations 
and  levels,  although  the  rate  of  travelling  prevented 
anything  like  a  running  survey  being  made. 


THE  BATH  MEETING  OF  THE  BRITISH 
ASSOCIA  TION. 

'"PHIS  will  be  the  fifty-eighth  meeting  of  the  British 
-*-  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science. 
Twenty-four  years  ago — in  1864 — the  Association  met  at 
Bath  under  the  presidency  of  the  late  Sir  Charles  Lyell. 
So  many  other  names  are  now  missing,  that  the  retro- 
spect is  the  reverse  of  cheering.  Sir  Roderick  Murchison, 
Admiral  Fitzroy,  Dr.  Whewell,  Sir  John  F.  W.  Herschel, 
Sir  David  Brewster,  Dr.  William  Farr,  Prof.  Fawcett, 
Dr.  Livingstone,  Capt.  Maury,  and  Mr.  Scott  Russell,  are 
only  a  very  few  of  the  numerous  names  of  note  that  spring 
to  the  memory  in  connection  with  the  last  Bath  meeting. 

But  if  this  is  the  retrospect,  the  prospect  is  in  every- 
way most  satisfactory.  Under  the  genial  presidency  of 
Sir  Frederick  Bramwell,  with  the  aid  of  very  efficient 
local  officers,  a  thoroughly  successful  meeting  may  fairly 
be  looked  for.  Bath  has  the  advantage  of  a  good  position 
for  railway  facilities.  It  is  not  more  than  i\  hours  from 
London,  2  from  Exeter,  \\  from  Cardiff,  1^  from  Birming- 
ham, and  5^  from  Manchester.  The  endeavours  of  the 
Local  Executive  Committee  to  obtain  the  issue  of  cheap 
tickets,  as  usual,  have  been  crowned  with  success.  As 
Bath — strangely  enough — does  not  possess  a  Public  Hall, 
a  temporary  building,  to  serve  as  reception-room  and 
offices,  is  in  course  of  erection,  at  a  cost  of  some  £7°°- 
The  President's  address,  the  evening  discourses,  and  Sir 
John  Lubbock's  lecture  to  working  men  will  be  given  in 
the  Drill  Hall. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  say  anything  as  to  the  fitness  of 
Sir  Frederick  Bramwell  for  the  office  of  President.  The 
following  are  the  Presidents  of  the  Sections: — Mathe- 
matics and  Physics,  Prof.  Fitzgerald  ;  Chemistry,  Prof. 
Tilden ;  Geology,  Prof.  Boyd  Dawkins ;  Biology,  Mr. 
Thiselton  Dyer ;  Geography,  Sir  Charles  Wilson ;  Stat- 
istics, Lord  Bramwell ;  Mechanics,  Mr.  Preece  ;  Anthro- 
pology, General  Pitt-Rivers. 

Bath  itself  is  so  well  known  as  to  need  very  few  words. 
The  old  Roman  Bath  and  its  adjuncts,  recently  uncovered, 
with  other  remains,  will  of  course  excite  general  interest. 
Attention  will  also  be  given  to  the  new  buildings  erected 
by  the  Corporation  to  meet  the  increasing  demand  for  the 
Bath  waters.  On  every  side  the  city  is  surrounded  by 
objects  that  will  interest  the  geologist,  the  archaeologist, 
and  the  lover  of  the  picturesque.  Provisional  arrange- 
ments have  been  made  for  a  set  of  excursions— half- 
day,  on  Thursday,  September  6,  and  whole  day  on 
Saturday,  September  8— to  Stantonbury,  Stanton  Drew, 
Maes  Knoll  ;  Dyrham,  Sodbury  Camp,  Bannerdown  ; 
Stourton,  Pen  Pits,  Whitesheet,  Longleat  ;  Frome, 
Wells,  Glastonbury,  Cheddar,  Chepstow,  Tintern,  Box 
Quarries,  Cirencester,  Severn  Tunnel,  Tytherington, 
Thornbury,  Berkeley,  Ebbor  Gorge,  Wookey,  and 
elsewhere. 


PROF.  H.  CAR  FILL  LEWIS. 

THE  loss  to  the  geological  world  by  the  death  of  Prof. 
Henry  Carvill  Lewis  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-four,  and 
in  the  midst  of  his  work,  is  greater  than  they  may  realize,  as 
the  more  important  of  his  results  acquired  during  the  last 
three  years  have  not  been  fully  published.  When,  in 
1882,    he    began    to    study   the    glacial    phenomena    of 


August  9,  1888] 


NATURE 


o4/ 


Pennsylvania,  though  numerous  observations  had  been 
made  on  the  direction  of  the  striae  and  the  location  of  the 
moraines,  in  the  northern  part  of  the  States,  nothing  had 
been  attempted  towards  gathering  the  results  into  a  con- 
sistent whole,  or  tracing  the  limits  of  the  glaciation.  In 
that  year  he  succeeded  in  tracing  a  great  terminal  moraine 
from  New  Jersey  to  the  Ohio  frontier,  and  showing  that 
beyond  this  line  glaciation  was  absent,  while  within  it  the 
direction  of  the  motion  could  be  traced  as  well  by  the  striae 
as  by  the  derivation  of  the  boulders.  Of  the  truth  of  these 
views  he  succeed  in  convincing  almost  all  the  American 
geologists  who  had  studied  the  question.  Fired  by  his 
success  in  interpreting  the  glacial  phenomena  of  his 
native  country,  and  believing  that  the  same  key  might 
be  found  to  unlock  the  mysteries  of  European  glaciation, 
he  practically  threw  up  his  position  in  Philadelphia,  and 
devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  these  phenomena  in  Great 
Britain.  Devoting  his  summers  from  1885  to  the  work, 
he  visited — accompanied  by  his  wife,  whose  active  assist- 
ance he  constantly  enjoyed — almost  every  locality  in  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  where  striae  had  been  recorded  or 
moraines  were  likely  to  occur.  To  reduce  the  whole  of 
the  previous  observations  to  order  was  a  task  he  had  not 
yet  succeeded  in  completing,  but  which  he  boldly  under- 
took, and  to  continue  which  he  had  once  more  landed 
in  England.  Important  results  were,  however,  already 
obtained,  and  at  the  British  Association  last  year  he  gave 
English  geologists  the  firstfruits,  by  presenting  them  with 
a  map  of  England  in  which  he  had  traced  a  great  terminal 
moraine,  as  in  America,  on  the  north  of  which  the  striae 
and  the  dispersion  of  the  boulders  indicated  a  continuous 
ice-sheet,  while  to  the  south  the  various  glacial  deposits 
were  accounted  for  by  extra-morainic  lakes.  He  boldly 
advocated  the  view  of  the  ice  mounting  up  to  the  heights 
of  1 100  feet  in  Moel  Tryfaen  and  elsewhere,  where  the 
ice-sheet  had  crossed  the  sea,  declaring  that  anyone 
who  was  acquainted,  as  he  was,  with  the  far  greater 
results  of  ice-motion  in  Pennsylvania  would  have 
no  difficulty  in  accepting  this,  and  pointing  out  that  these 
localities  were  everywhere  on  the  line  of  the  great  terminal 
moraine.  So  startling  a  generalization  could  scarcely  be 
accepted  all  at  once,  and  there  were  many  things  to 
account  for  before  the  history  even  of  this  greatest  ice-sheet 
could  be  considered  complete.  Had  Prof.  Lewis  been  spared 
to  us,  he  was  prepared  to  devote  himself  to  the  completion 
of  this  work.  He  has  left  a  large  mass  of  notes  and  draw- 
ings bearing  on  it,  which  must  now  wait  for  some  Elisha 
capable  of  taking  up  his  mantle.  Everyglacialist  is  no  doubt 
more  or  less  satisfied  with  the  account  he  can  give  of  the 
glacial  history  of  his  own  district  ;  but  to  the  general  geolo- 
gist the  whole  has  hitherto  presented  a  chaos  of  conflicting 
histories,  fit  only  to  bewilder  him.  In  the  clear  account 
given  by  Prof.  Carvill  Lewis  of  one  great  portion  of  that 
history,  light  seemed  at  last  to  dawn,  and  the  hope  was 
raised  that  glacial  chaos  would  cease.  This  hope  now 
seems  quenched  for  a  time. 

Prof.  Lewis  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  November  16, 
1853,  and  took  his  B.A.  degree  in  1873  in  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania.  From  1879  to  1884  he  was  a  volunteer 
member  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  the  State.  In  1880 
he  was  elected  Professor  of  Mineralogy  in  the  Academy 
of  Natural  Sciences,  Philadelphia,  and  in  1883  Professor 
of  Geology  in  Haverford  College.  His  work  was  by  no 
means  confined  to  his  glacial  studies,  the  most  important 
of  his  minor  works  being  the  discovery  of  the  matrix  of 
the  diamond  in  an  ultra-basic  volcanic  rock  in  contact 
with  a  carbonaceous  tuff.  The  prediction  that,  if  such 
was  the  origin  of  diamonds,  they  might  be  found  in 
meteorites,  had  just  been  fulfilled  in  Russia  ;  and  he  had 
lately  visited  a  locality  in  Carolina,  where  the  same  con- 
ditions obtain,  but  had  not  proceeded  further  when  he 
was  stopped  by  death.  During  the  last  three  years  he 
spent  his  winters  in  Heidelberg,  studying  microscopic 
petrography  with  Prof.  Rosenbusch. 


Those  who  knew  him  personally,  were  charmed  with 
the  beautiful  frankness  of  his  nature^  his  love  of  truth, 
his  invariable  possession  of  a  reason  for  what  he  said, 
and  his  total  lack  of  pride  or  assumption  of  authority. 
They  saw  in  him  a  type  of  what  a  genuine  student  of 
Nature  should  be,  tempered  and  refined  by  general 
culture.  Few  who  knew  him  at  all  but  must  feel  they 
have  lost  a  friend,  and  an  example. 

He  married  in  1882,  and  leaves  a  wife  and  one 
daughter. 


SONXET* 
TO  A  HIGH   SOPRANO 

Accompanying  herself  on  the  Piano. 

THE  larks  who  sing  at  Heaven's  high  gate  despair 
To  match  thy  notes  so  piercing-sweet  and  true 
That,  pure  as  in  night's  hour  fresh-fallen  dew, 
Vouch  thou  art  good,  e'en  as  thou  art  most  fair.  ' 
Why  seek  with  gems  to  deck  thy  radiant  hair, 
Thy  flashing,  rushing,  fingers  to  indue 
With  rubies'  blaze  or  Opal's  orient  hue — 
Thou  canst  in  nobler  wise  thy  worth  declare. 
Oft  shall  the  rapt  enthusiast  in  his  cell 
Intent  on  Nature's  all-pervading  clue 
Pause,  to  bid  Memory  with  her  magic  spell 
Restore  that  heavenly,  loved,  lithe  form  to  view 
And  in  fond  fancy  hear  thy  voice  anew 
Till  life  to  gladness  breathes  its  last  farewell. 


New  College,  Oxford,  July  20. 


J.  J.  S. 


NOTES. 
The  annual  meeting  of  the  British  Medical  Association  was 
opened  at  Glasgow  on  Tuesday,  the  7th  vast.  Prof.  Gairdner, 
the  President,  delivered  an  address  on  "  The  Physician  as 
Naturalist."  Speaking  of  the  methods  of  education  necessary 
for  the  training  of  a  physician,  Prof.  Gairdner  urged  that  medical 
students  do  not  at  present  receive  adequate  instruction  in  physics. 
"  When  v/e  consider, "he  said,  "how  completely  modern  science 
has  demonstrated  the  subordination  of  living  bodies  and  physio- 
logical processes,  not  to  a  wholly  detached  set  of  laws  termed 
vital,  but  to  all  the  most  elementary  laws  of  matter;  and, 
further,  the  correlation  of  all  the  physical  forces  throughout  the 
universe,  so  that  the  living  body  and  its  environment  act  and 
react  on  each  other  throughout  infinite  space  and  time,  it  will  be 
readily  admitted,  I  think,  that  some  kind  of  systematized  in- 
struction in  physics,  and  not  a  mere  elementary  examination  in 
mechanics,  should  be  an  essential  part  of  an  education  with  a 
view  to  the  medical  profession.  And  when  we  further  consider 
that  most  of  the  great  advances  in  medical  diagnosis  in  the 
present  day,  through  the  stethoscope,  microscope,  laryngoscope, 
ophthalmoscope,  sphygmograph,  electricity  as  applied  to  muscle 
and  nerve,  &c,  involve  applications  of  pure  physics  which  are 
neither  remote  from  practice  nor  yet  very  easily  mastered  by  the 
beginner;  and  that,  in  the  case  of  electricity  and  other  phy.-ical 
reagents,  even  heat  and  cold,  &c,  we  are  every  day  extending 
the  domain  of  these  sciences  in  therapeutics,  and  still  more 
perhaps  in  preventive  medicine  and  sanitary  science,  their  claim 
for  an  extended  recognition  in  teaching  seems  to  be  enormously 
enhanced.  I  am  persuaded  that  in  a  very  few  years  the  physical 
laboratory  will  become  an  absolutely  essential  preliminary  step 
in  the  education  of  the  physician  of  the  future,  and  that  those 
who  have  not  undergone  this  training  will  be  hopelessly  distanced 
in  the  race." 

*  In  the  next  number  of  Nature  will  appear  the  Original  of  this  sonnet 
addressed  , 

To  a  Young  Lady  with  a  Contralto  Voice. 


348 


NATURE 


[August  9,  i 


The  Organizing  Committees  of  Sections  A  and  G  of  the 
British  Association  have  arranged  a  joint  discussion  on  lightning 
conductors,  to  be  held  at  the  Bath  meeting  in  September.  Mr. 
W.  H.  Preece,  F.R.  S.,  will  open  the  discussion,  and  Prof. 
Oliver  J.  Lodge,  F.R.S.,  willl  defend  the  position  he  laid  down 
this  year  before  the  Society  of  Arts. 

Agreeably  to  a  resolution  of  the  International  Congress  of 
Hydrology  and  Climatology  held  at  Biarritz,  in  October  1886, 
the  second  triennial  session  of  the  Congress  will  be  held  in 
Paris  next  year,  at  the  beginning  of  October,  in  connection  with 
the  Exhibition  there.  The  President  of  the  Committee  is  M.  E. 
Renou,  Vice-President  of  the  French  Meteorological  Society.  A 
preliminary  programme  has  been  issued,  setting  forth  the  questions 
to  be  discussed  under  (1)  scientific  hydrology  ;  (2)  medical  hydro- 
logy ;  and  (3)  climatology.  The  subscription  of  membership  is 
12  francs. 

The  new  Marine  Biological  Laboratory  at  Wood's  Holl, 
Massachusetts,  was  formally  opened  on  the  day  appointed, 
Tuesday,  July  17.  Several  members  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  a 
few  students,  and  a  half-dozen  or  more  of  guests  were  present,  and 
spent  the  morning  in  examining  the  new  building  and  its  equip- 
ment, and  in  visiting  the  laboratories  and  aquaria  of  the  United 
States  Fish  Commission.  At  two  o'clock  the  whole  party  dined 
at  Gardiner  Cottage — the  domestic  head-quarters  of  the  new 
enterprise — which  a  generous  citizen  of  Wood's  Holl,  Mr.  J.  S. 
Fay,  has  kindly  put  at  the  disposal  of  the  trustees.  Shortly  after 
three  o'clock  the  Director,  Dr.  C.  O.  Whitman,  delivered  in  the 
Laboratory  an  opening  address  upon  the  history  and  functions  of 
marine  biological  laboratories,  referring  especially  to  the  Penikese 
School  and  to  Prof.  Baird's  labours  in  this  direction.  Prof.  C. 
S.  Minot  then  said  a  few  words  on  behalf  of  the  trustees.  Some 
eight  or  ten  students  are  already  at  work  in  the  Laboratory  ;  and 
Science  says  that  the  responses  from  colleges  and  from  students 
make  it  certain  that  next  year  there  will  be  at  the  institution  a 
large  and  enthusiastic  gathering  of  investigators  and  students  in 
biology.  The  building,  according  to  Science,  appears  to  be 
admirably  adapted  to  its  purposes.  It  is  plainly  but  strongly 
built,  of  wood,  two  stories  high,  and  with  a  pitched  roof.  The 
roof  and  sides  are  covered  with  shingles,  unpainted.  There  is  a 
commodious  and  convenient  basement  under  the  western  half  of 
the  building,  intended  for  storage,  for  the  safe  keeping  of  alcohol, 
boats,  oars,  and  the  like.  The  lower  floor  of  the  Laboratory  is 
intended  for  beginners,  and  for  teachers  and  students  who  are 
learners  but  not  investigators.  The  upper  story  is  for  investi- 
gators only.  The  equipment  includes  work-tables,  specially 
designed,  and  placed  before  the  large  and  numerous  windows. 
Each  student  is  provided  with  a  Leitz  microscope,  a  set  of  re- 
agents, watch-glasses,  dissecting  pans,  and  the  dishes  and  other 
things  indispensable  to  good  work.  The  Laboratory  owns  boats, 
dredges,  nets,  and  other  tools  for  collecting.  A  small  library 
has  been  provided,  and,  under  the  progressive  and  efficient 
management  of  Dr.  C.  O.  Whitman  and  Mr.  B.  H.  Van  Vleck, 
a  season  that  promises  to  be  highly  successful,  and  most  im- 
portant in  the  history  of  American  biology,  has  been  auspiciously 
begun. 

Mr.  Henry  O.  Forbes,  the  New  Guinea  explorer,  author  of 
"The  Naturalist  in  the  Malay  Archipelago,"  has  been  selected 
by  the  London  Commission  to  succeed  the  late  Sir  Julius  von 
Haast  as  Director  of  the  Canterbury  Museum,  New  Zealand. 

Some  time  ago  a  good  deal  of  interest  was  aroused  by  a  con- 
troversy as  to  the  effects  of  light  on  water-colours.  The  Com- 
mittee of  Council  appointed  a  Committee  of  artists  to  consider 
the  subject ;  and  Dr.  W.  J.  Russell  and  Captain  Abney  were 
invited  to  investigate  the  scientific  aspects  of  the  question.  A 
Blue-book  has  just  been  issued,  containing  the  first  report  of 
these  two  gentlemen. 


We  regret  to  record  the  death  of  Miss  Glanville,  who  was 
well  known  in  South  Africa  as  the  Curator  of  the  Albany 
Museum,  Grahamstown,  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  This  clever  and 
accomplished  young  lady  discharged  her  duties  as  Curator  most 
conscientiously  and  ably,  and  did  much  to  promote  an  interest  in 
science  in  her  native  town  and  country. 

A  NEW  gas,  possessing  some  remarkable  properties,  has  been 
discovered  by  Prof.  Thorpe  and  Mr.  J.  W.  Rodger,  in  the 
research  laboratory  of  the  Normal  School  of  Science.  It  is  a 
sulpho-fluoride  of  phosphorus  of  the  composition  PSF3,  and  is 
termed  by  its  discoverers  thiophosphoryl  fluoride.  The  best 
method  for  its  preparation  consists  in  heating  pentasulphide  of 
phosphorus  with  lead  fluoride  in  a  leaden  tube.  It  may  also  be 
obtained  by  substituting  bismuth  fluoride  for  the  fluoride  of  lead, 
the  only  difference  between  the  two  reactions  being  that  the 
second  requires  a  higher  temperature  than  the  first.  Again, 
when  sulphur,  phosphorus,  and  lead  fluoride  are  gently  warmed 
together,  an  extremely  violent  reaction  occurs,  but  if  a  large 
excess  of  the  fluoride  of  lead  be  employed  a  tolerably  steady 
evolution  of  the  new  gas  occurs,  the  excess  of  the  lead  salt  appear- 
ing to  act  as  moderator.  It  is  an  interesting  fact,  throwing  con- 
siderable light  upon  the  constitution  of  the  sulpho-fluoride,  that 
it  may  be  obtained  by  heating  together  to  1500  C.  in  a  sealed 
tube  a  mixture  of  the  corresponding  chloride — thiophosphoryl 
chloride,  PSC13,  a  mobile  colourless  liquid — and  trifluoride  of 
arsenic.  The  simple  exchange  of  chlorine  for  fluorine  here  brings 
about  a  striking  physical  change,  from  a  highly  refracting  liquid 
to  a  colourless  gas.  And  now  for  the  remarkable  properties  of 
the  gas.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  spontaneously  inflammable.  If 
it  be  collected  over  mercury,  upon  which  it  exerts  no  action,  in  a 
tube  terminating  above  in  a  jet  and  stopcock,  and  the  latter  be 
slowly  turned  so  as  to  permit  of  its  gradual  escape,  the  gas 
immediately  ignites  as  it  comes  in  contact  with  the  air,  burning 
with  a  greenish-yellow  flame  tipped  at  the  apex  with  blue.  If, 
however,  a  wide  tube  containing  the  gas  standing  over  mercury 
be  suddenly  withdrawn  from  the  mercury  trough,  the  larger  mass  of 
gas  ignites  with  production  of  a  fine  blue  flash,  the  yellowish-green 
tint  again  being  observed  as  the  light  dies  away.  Thiophosphoryl 
fluoride  is  readily  decomposed  by  the  electric  spark  with  deposi- 
tion of  sulphur.  If  a  quantity  contained  in  a  tube  over  mercury 
be  heated  for  a  considerable  time,  complete  decomposition 
occurs,  sulphur  and  phosphorus  both  being  deposited  upon  the 
sides  of  the  tube  and  gaseous  silicon  tetrafluoride  left.  From  a 
spectroscopic  examination,  dissociation  was  shown  to  occur  at  the 
lowest  temperature  of  the  electric  spark.  The  gas  is  slowly  dis- 
solved by  water,  and  appears  to  be  somewhat  soluble  in  ether,  but 
alcohol  and  benzene  exert  no  solvent  action  upon  it.  Finally, 
the  colourless,  transparent  gas  was  reduced  to  a  liquid,  some- 
what resembling  the  sulpho-chloride,  by  means  of  Cailletet's 
liquefaction  apparatus. 

A  VOLCANIC  eruption,  which  began  on  August  3,  in  the  Island 
of  Vulcano,  one  of  the  Lipari  Group,  is  said  to  have  done  an  im- 
mense amount  of  injury.  The  greatest  damage  has  been  caused 
on  the  property  of  an  English  company  under  the  management 
of  Mr.  Harleau,  the  estate  being  completely  destroyed. 

We  have  received  the  Year-book  of  the  Meteorological 
Observations  of  the  Observatory  of  the  Madgeburg Journal  for 
the  year  1886,  being  the  fifth  of  the  series.  It  contains  obser- 
vations taken  three  times  daily,  with  means  and  monthly 
summaries  according  to  the  international  scheme,  hourly  obser- 
vations of  the  self-recording  instruments,  and  fac-similes  of  the 
sunshine  records  ;  also  additional  observations,  such  as  earth-tem- 
perature, evaporation,  underground  water,  &c. ,  as  in  previous 
years.  The  principal  alteration  is  the  omission  of  the  continuous 
barograms  :  these  are  now  given  only  in  cases  of  special  interest, 
owing  to  the  expense  of  the  reproduction.      We  have  already 


August  9,  1888] 


NATURE 


349 


expressed  our  approval  of  this  method  of  dealing  with  con- 
tinuous records,  as  opposed  to  the  costly  reproduction  of  the 
curves  in  their  entirety. 

THE  "Annuaire"  of  the  Municipal  Observatory  of  Montsouris 
for  the  year  1888,  just  published,  a  volume  of  612  pages,  i8mo, 
contains  a  large  amount  of  useful  information,  relating  to  the 
meteorology  of  Paris,  and  the  microscopical  examination  of  the 
organisms  in  the  air  and  water.  The  report  shows  that  the  site 
of  the  Observatory  is  favourable  for  determining  the  climate  of 
Paris  with  exactitude  ;  some  of  the  thermometric  differences 
between  Paris  and  Montsouris  are  very  marked.  The  amount 
of  rainfall  also  is  somewhat  greater  at  Montsouris,  owing  probably 
to  better,  exposure  than  at  Paris,  but  the  differences  are  not 
greater  than  are  frequently  found  with  gauges  placed  near  each 
other.  The  tables  contain  monthly  means  of  temperature  from 
the  year  1806,  and  of  rainfall  since  1689  ;  the  values  prior  to 
1873  are  those  referring  to  Paris.  Self- registering  thermometers 
were  first  used  in  1835  ;  up  to  this  date  the  minimum  tempera- 
tures were  taken  as  the  readings  at  sunrise,  and  the  maximum 
readings,  as  those  at  3  p.m.  The  yearly  extremes  of  temperature 
date  back  to  1699. 

We  learn  from  Science  that  the  famous  Bahia  or  Bendego 
meteorite,  described  by  Mornay  and  Wollaston  in  the  Philosophical 
Transactions  for  1816,  and  by  Spix  and  Martius  in  their 
"  Travels  in  Brazil,"  was  landed  in  Rio  de  Janeiro  on  June  15, 
and  is  now  in  the  collection  of  the  Brazilian  National  Museum. 
The  transportation  of  this  great  mass  of  iron,  whose  weight  was 
variously  estimated  from  six  to  nine  tons,  and  which  has  been 
found  to  weigh  5361  kilogrammes,  was  rendered  possible  by  the 
recent  completion  of  a  line  of  railroad  passing  within  115  kilo- 
metres of  the  Bendego  Creek,  where  it  has  lain  since  the 
unsuccessful  attempt  to  remove  it  to  Bahia  in  1785.  Credit  for 
the  removal  of  the  meteorite  is  due  chiefly  to  Chevalier  Jose 
Carlos  de  Carvalho,  who  gratuitously  took  charge  of  the 
technical  part  of  the  operation,  and  to  Baron  Guahy,  who  paid 
all  the  necessary  expenses.  The  Brazilian  Government  also 
cordially  associated  itself  with  the  undertaking.  After  about  three 
months  spent  in  preparing  material  and  in  studying  the  route  to  be 
traversed,  the  march  began  on  November  25,  1887,  and  the 
meteorite  was  placed  on  the  railroad  on  May  14  of  the  present 
year.  A  road  had  to  be  opened  for  this  special  purpose,  as  those 
existing  in  the  region  are  only  mule  paths  ;  and  over  one  hundred 
streams,  one  with  a  width  of  80  metres,  had  to  be  crossed  by 
temporary  bridges.  The  route  lay  over  several  chains  of  hills 
and  one  mountain  range,  in  which  an  ascent  of  265  metres  had 
to  be  overcome  with  a  grade  of  32  per  cent. 

The  Canadian  Institute,  Toronto,  has  issued  a  "sociological 
circular,"  asking  co-operation  in  the  task  of  collecting  trustworthy 
data  concerning  the  political  and  social  institutions,  customs, 
ceremonies,  &c,  of  the  Indian  people  of  the  Dominion.  Suit- 
able papers  upon  the  topics  indicated  will  be  published  in  the 
Institute's  Proceedings.  The  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  carries, 
free  of  charge,  packages  intended  for  the  Institute's  Museum, 
which  is  open  daily. 

The  Kew  Bulletin  for  the  months  of  November  1887  and 
January  1888  supplied  valuable  information,  derived  from 
official  sources,  respecting  the  capabilities  of  certain  colonies  for 
the  production  of  fruits.  The  Bulletin  for  November  1887  was 
wholly  devoted  to  a  comprehensive  report  on  the  fruits  of 
Canada.  The  Bulletin  for  January  1888  was  devoted  to 
reports  furnished  by  their  respective  Governments  on  the  fruits 
of  Victoria,  South  Australia,  Western  Australia,  Tasmania, 
New  Zealand,  Cape  Colony,  and  Mauritius.  In  the  Bulletin 
for  August,  just  issued,  the  publication  of  such  reports  is  con- 
tinued.    A  summary  of  information  is  presented  relating  to  the 


fruit  productions  and  fruit  resources  of  the  West  Indian  colonies 
—Jamaica,  Bahamas  Islands,  Barbados,  St.  Lucia,  St.  Vincent, 
Grenada,  Tobago,  Trinidad,  and  British  Guiana. 

The  Report  of  the  Comptroller-General  of  Patents,  Designs, 
and  Trade  Marks  for  the  past  year  states  that  the  total  number 
of  patents  applied  for  was  18,051,  being  an  increase  of  about 
900  on  the  year  before  ;  of  designs,  26,000  as  against  24,000  of 
the  preceding  year  ;  and  of  trade  marks,  10,586,  being  a  decrease 
of  91  from  the  preceding  year. 

The  American  Statistical  Association  publishes  some  inter- 
esting figures  on  the  amount  of  water-power  employed  in  the 
United  States.  In  1880  there  was- a  total  water-power  equal  to 
1,225,379  horse-power  used  for  manufacturing-purposes,  this 
being  35 '9  per  cent,  of  the  total  power  thus  employed  in  the 
States.  The  annual  value  of  the  water-power  thus  utilized  is 
set  down  at  24,000,000  dollars.  The  New  England  States 
alone  use  34*5  per  cent,  of  the  whole  water-power  of  the  coun- 
try, and  altogether  the  Atlantic  States  use  over  three-fourths  of 
the  whole. 

According  to  a  return  of  the  Board  of  Trade  on  sea-fisheries 
in  the  United  Kingdom,  the  total  amount  of  fish  landed  on  the 
English  and  Welsh  coasts,  exclusive  of  shell-fish  was,  in  1887, 
about  301,000  tons,  of  the  value  of  about  ,£3,780,000.  Shell- 
fish taken  in  that  year  were  of  the  value  of  ^3 24,000.  For  the 
year  1886  the  figures  were — fish  landed,  320,000  tons,  of  the 
value  of  ^"3,688,000,  and  shell-fish  of  the  value  of  ^269,000. 
Thus,  while  there  was  a  decrease  in  weight  of  about  19,000 
tons,  there  was  an  increase  in  value  of  about  ^90,000,  and  in 
the  shell-fish  an  increase  of  £SS>°°0' 

In  a  Report  of  M.  Renduel  to  the  French  Minister  of  Marine, 
he  attributes  the  gradual  decline  of  the  sprat-fisheries  of  France 
to  the  methods  hitherto  pursued  in  fishing.  The  sprat  seine- 
net,  he  says,  is  most  destructive.  When  thrown  out  fully,  as  is 
usually  the  case,  and  then  towed  towards  the  shore,  it  drags  the 
bottom  over  an  enormous  area,  and  brings  to  land  not  only  the 
sprats,  but  shoals  of  other  fish  not  yet  fully  developed,  and  quite 
unsalable.  The  French  newspapers  say,  with  a  little  pardon- 
able exaggeration  perhaps,  that  thousands  of  cubic  metres  of 
winter  fry,  which  would  give  in  summer  millions  of  cubic  metres 
of  edible  fish,  have  been  used  as  manure  in  the  fields,  in  order 
to  force  grass  and  cereals.  So  far  has  this  been  carried,  that 
the  non-migratory  fish  are  almost  exterminated  in  many  places. 

In  the  Report  of  the  British  Consul  at  Tunis  to  the  Foreign 
Office,  he  says  that  the  sponge  fishery  is  a  very  important  branch 
of  industry  in  that  country.  There  are  in  all  about  400  Greeks, 
7  500  Sicilians,  and  1400  natives  engaged  in  the  pursuit.  The 
diving  apparatus  was  formerly  in  use,  but  it  has  given  way  to  a 
kind  of  dredging  instrument  similar  to  that  used  in  the  oyster 
fishery.  The  same  Report  says  that  the  tunny  fishery  is  a 
monopoly  of  the  State.  The  fish  enter  the  Mediterranean  in 
the  spring,  and  one  body  of  them  strikes  the  coast  at  Cape  Bon. 
Here  the  net-fishing  begins.  The  boats  gather  around  the  nets, 
and  the  fish  are  harpooned  and  dragged  into  the  boats,  as  many 
as  600  being  thus  frequently  taken  in  one  haul.  They  are  then 
cut  up  and  preserved  in  olive-oil,  packed  in  tins  of  various  sizes, 
and  soldered  up.  About  three-fourths  of  the  fish  are  thus 
treated,  and  sent  away  to  Italy,  where  they  meet  a  ready  sale. 
The  rest  are  either  eaten  fresh,  or  salted  and  sent  away  to  Malta 
or  Sicily.  Between  200  and  300  men  are  engaged  in  this  work, 
which  is  of  the  annual  value  of  ;£ 20,000. 

Avery  rare  fish,  Plagyodus  {Alepisawus)  ferox,  has  just  been 
caught  in  the  Karlsofjord,  in  Iceland.  It  is  5  feet  9  inches  long, 
with  small  shark-like  fins,  those  on  the  back  being  about  a  foot 
in  length.  The  head  is  pointed,  and  the  teeth,  long  and  sharp. 
It  appeared  to  lie  asleep  on  the  surface  of  the  water,  and  a  fisher- 


35o 


NA  TURE 


[August  9,  1888 


man  caught  it  by  its  tail,  when  it  attempted  to  bite  him.  Prof. 
Liitken  states  that  hitherto  only  three  specimens  of  this  fish  have 
been  caught,  viz.  one  at  Madeira,  one  in  Greenland,  and  one 
previously  in  Iceland.  It  is  believed  that  this  is  the  mysterious 
fish  the  fax-dl,  i.e.  the  eel  with  a  mane,  of  which  the  Faroe 
fishermen  stand  in  such  awe. 

The  Assistant  Superintendent  of  the  Forest  Department  of 
Penang  has  tried  the  raising  of  mahogany-trees  from  seeds,  but 
with  what  success  is  not  yet  known.  He  also  tells  us  that  a 
trial  venture  in  cultivating  patchouli  has  proved  very  successful. 
Experiments  in  growing  olives,  oranges,  citrons,  &c,  have 
proved  encouraging,  and  trials  with  European  vegetables  show 
that  tomatoes,  carrots,  lettuce,  onions,  celery,  &c,  can  be 
successfully  cultivated  in  the  Straits  Settlements. 

In  "The  Fodder  Grasses  of  Northern  India,"  just  published 
at  Roorkee,  Mr.  J.  F.  Duthie  gives  an  instructive  account  of  the 
more  important  kinds  of  grasses  that  are  used  in  the  plains  of 
Northern  India  either  for  fodder  or  for  forage.  Several  of  the 
plains  species  extend  up  to  considerable  elevations  on  the 
Himalaya,  but  Mr.  Duthie  has  omitted  all  mention  of  those 
which  are  exclusively  Himalayan.  The  area  of  country  to  which 
the  work  refers,  and  which  coincides  with  that  over  which 
his  botanical  researches  generally  will  in  future  be  conducted, 
extends  from  the  north-west  frontier,  and  includes  the  Punjab, 
the  North- West  Provinces,  and  Oudh,  Sindh,  Rajputana,  Central 
India,  and  the  Central  Provinces. 

A  new  edition  of  the  Catalogue  of  Lewis's  Medical  and 
Scientific  Library  has  just  been  issued.  It  includes  a  classified 
list  of  subjects,  with  the  names  of  those  authors  who  have  dealt 
with  them. 

The  first  University  of  Siberia  has  just  been  opened  at  Tomsk. 
It  has  for  the  present  only  one  Faculty,  that  of  Medicine.  How 
urgently  necessary  the  establishment  of  this  Siberian  Faculty  of 
Medicine  has  become  may  be  seen  from  some  figures  sent  to  the 
Times  the  other  day  by  its  St.  Petersburg  Correspondent.  The 
practice  of  one  doctor  is  supposed  to  extend  over  each  of  the 
following  districts,  with  their  respective  populations  : — Tobolsk, 
129,785  square  versts,  110,323  inhabitants;  Akmolinsk,  87,833 
square  versts,  80,062  inhabitants;  Semipalatinsk,  85,705  square 
versts,  100,225  inhabitants.  In  short,  there  are  only  twenty-two 
doctors  over  an  enormous  territory  of  2,815,547  square  versts. 

In  the  article  "  Lord  Armstrong  on  Technical  Education,"  in 
our  last  issue,  an  unfortunate  slip  occurs  at  p.  314,  in  the  second 
column,  which  destroys  the  force  of  the  argument  :  ^74,000,  not 
^24,000,  should  have  been  stated  as  the  sum  which  it  was  pro- 
posed to  spend  on  the  erection  of  a  new  chemical  department 
of  the  Zurich  Polytechnicum. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Purple-faced  Monkey  {Semnopithecus  leuco- 
prymnus  $ )  from  Ceylon,  presented  by  Mr.  Martin  J.  Cole  ;  a 
Rhesus  Monkey  {Macacus  rhesus  A  )  from  India,  presented  by 
Mr.  Reginald  S.  Knott  ;  three  Black-eared  .Marmosets  (Hapale 
penicillatd)  from  South-East  Brazil,  presented  by  by  Mr.  T.  A. 
Deintje  ;  a  Chipping  Squirrel  ( Tamias  striatus)  from  North 
America,  presented  by  Mrs.  Matveiff;  a  Common  Squirrel 
(Sciurus  vulgaris)  British,  presented  by  Mr.  R.  Grant  Watson  ; 
a  Tayra  (Galictis  barbara  6  )  from  South  America,  presented  by 
Mrs.  J.  H.  Pollard  ;  a  Lesser  Sulphur-crested  Cockatoo  {Cacatua 
sulphured)  from  Moluccas,  presented  by  Mr.  J.  Wolfe  Barry  ;  a 
White-backed  Piping  Crow  {Gymnorhina  leuconola)  from. Aus- 
tralia, presented  by  Miss  Alice  Rutherford  ;  a  Herring  Gull 
{Larus  argentatus),  British,  presented  by  Mrs.  Huthwaite  ;  an 

Ashy-headed    Gull    {Larus    cirrhocephalus),     a    Bittern 

(Bulorides )  from  South  America,  presented  by  Dr.  A.  Boon, 


C.M.Z. S.  ;  a  Common  Kestrel  (Tinmcnculus  alaudarius), 
British,  presented  by  Mr.  W.  A.  W.  Jones ;  a  Smooth  Snake 
{Coronella  Icevis)  from  Hampshire,  presented  by  Mr.  E.  G. 
Meade- Waldo  ;  a  Rhesus  Monkey  {Macacus  rhesus  <J )  from 
India,  a  Common  Boa  {Boa  constrictor)  from  South  America,  an 
^Esculapian  Snake  {Coluber  ccsculapii)  from  Langenschvvalbach, 
Germany,  deposited. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

Encke's  Comet. — Encke's  comet  was  picked  up  at  the  Cape 
Observatory  on  August  3,  its  place  at  6h.  10m.  56'6s.  being 
recorded  as  R.A.  I2h.  12m.  59s.  ;  Decl.  170  27'  46"  S.  This 
compares  with  Dr.  Backlund's  ephemeris  {4str.  Nach.,  No. 
2843)  as  follows  :  O  -  C  ;  R.A.  +  4m.  43s.  ;  S.  Decl.  +  34'  52". 
The  ephemeris  for  the  next  few  days  runs  as  below  : — 


For  Berlin  Midnight. 


Aug. 


R.A. 

Decl. 

Log  r. 

Log  A. 

Bright 

h.    m.    s. 

0      / 

ness. 

10  . 

.13     9  20  . 

.  23  30-2  s. 

..  COO38  . 

.  9-8790  . 

..  0-69 

12  .. 

•  13  25  34  • 

.  24  56-1 

..  o-oi76  . 

.  9-8896  . 

..  0-62 

14  • 

•  1341  21  . 

.  26  1 1  '4 

..  0-0308  . 

.  9'90i4  • 

•0-55 

16  . 

•  13  56  36  ■ 

.  27  17*2 

••  0/0435  . 

•  9-9I42  • 

■•  0-49 

18  . 

.  14  11  21  . 

■  28  137 

•  •  00556  . 

•  9-9275  • 

••  0-44 

20  . 

.  14  25  28  . 

.  29    17 

..  0-0673  . 

•  9'94I5  • 

••  0-39 

22  . 

•  H  38  59  • 

.  29  41  9 

..  0-0785  . 

•  9'9559  • 

••  0-35 

24  .. 

.  14  51  52  . 

•  30  I5'4       • 

..  00893  • 

•  9-97o8  . 

..  0-31 

26  . 

.15    4  10  . 

•  30  427   ■    • 

..  0*0997  • 

•  9-9857  • 

..  0-27 

28  . 

•  15  15  54- 

•3i    5-3  S.  . 

..  0-1097  • 

.  0-0009  . 

..  0-24 

The  brightness  at  discovery  is  taken  as  unity. 

The  Mass  of  Titan. — The  values  which  have  been  deduced 
for  the  mass  of  Titan  by  different  astronomers  showing  a  wide 
diversity,  Mr.  G.  W.  Hill  has  undertaken,  in  Gould's  Astro- 
nomical Journal,  No.  176,  anew  determination  of  this  constant 
from  the  influence  of  Titan  on  the  motion  of  Hyperion. 
Assuming  Hyperion  to  be  in  opposition  to  Titan,  at  the  same 
time  that  it  is  in  perisaturnium,  then,  at  the  end  of  the  half- 
synodic  period — viz.  31 -8182806a1. — it  would  be  in  conjunction 
with  Titan  ;  and  but  for  the  action  of  Titan,  <f>,  the  angle  the  radius- 
vector  makes  with  the  direction  of  motion,  would  =  90°8'5i"'S5. 
But  the  influence  of  Titan  reduces  this  to  a  right  angle,  and  this 
effect  may  be  used  to  discover  the  mass  of  that  body.  Com- 
puting the  motion  of  the  line  of  apsides  during  the  half-synodic 
period  from  opposition  to  conjunction,  all  powers  but  the  first 
of  the  disturbing  force  being  neglected,  the  value  of  Aw  corre- 
sponding to  the  argument  3i-8i828d.  was  found  to  be  -2634" 
instead  of  -  5898",  as  given  by  observation.  The  mass,  there- 
fore, of  Titan  would  require  to  be  changed  from  1/10,000,  the 
value  assumed  at  first,  to  1/4466.  The  eccentricity  of  the  orbit 
of  Titan,  0028,  had  been  neglected,  and  that  of  Hyperion 
taken  as  o*i.  With  this  better  value  for  Titan's  mass,  the  path 
of  Hyperion  from  opposition  to  conjunction  is  then  traced  by 
mechanical  quadratures,  no  powers  of  the  disturbing  forces  being 
neglected.  The  two  unknowns  to  be  determined  were — the  velo- 
city with  which  Hyperion  should  start  from  opposition,  and  the 
mass  of  Titan  ;  and  the  two  determining  conditions — that  the 
conjunction  should  take  place  3l"8i828d.  after  opposition,  and 
that  Hyperion  must  be  then  moving  at  right  angles  to  its  radius- 
vector.  The  resulting  mass  is  found  to  be  1/4714,  and  the 
osculating  elements  of  Hyperion  at  opposition — 

Daily  n  =  6o963"-23942 
log  a  -  0-0823532 
e  —  0-0994706 

Prof.  Newcomb,  in  one  of  the  "Papers  for  the  Use  of  the 
American  Ephemeris,"  vol.  hi.,  part  3,  has  also  described  the 
perturbations  of  Hyperion  arising  from  the  action  of  Titan,  and 
deduced  the  mass  of  Titan  as  1/12,500,  but  Mr.  Hill  points  out 
hat  this  value  should  have  been  divided  by  3.  M.  Tisserand's 
value  from  a  similar  inquiry,  1/10,750  {Comptes  rendus,  tome 
ciii.  No.  9),  stands  out  in  strong  contrast  with  Prof.  Hill's  result.; 
but  Prof.  Ormond  Stone,  on  the  other  hand,  who  had  obtained 
a  larger  result,  has  more  lately,  after  correction  of  an  error  in 
his  investigation,  brought  it  down  to  a  value  closely  according 
with  that  of  Prof.  Hill. 


August  9,  1888] 


NATURE 


35i 


Assuming  the  diameter  of  Titan  as  o"'75— the  value  given 
independently  by  Schroeter,  Madler,  and  Struve — the  density  of 
the  satellite  would  be  about  one-third  that  of  the  earth.  Picker- 
ing's diameter,  deduced  from  photometric  observations  of  the 
satellite  on  the  assumption  that  its  albedo  was  equal  to  that  of 
the  primary,  would  involve  a  density  nearly  four  times  that  of 
the  earth.  It  would  seem  clear,  therefore,  that  Titan  possesses 
a  much  greater  density  than  Saturn,  but  that  its  surface  is  less 
highly  reflective. 

Names  of  MiNon  Planets. — Minor  planet  No.  276  has 
been  named  Adelheid,  and  No.  278  Paulina. 


ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR    THE 
WEEK  1888  AUGUST  12-18. 

/T70R  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  *•  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 
is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  August  12 

San  rises,  4I1.  43m.  ;  souths,  I2h.  4m.  43-8>. ;  sets,  icjh.  26m.  : 
right  asc.  on  meridian,  c,\\.  30-201.  ;  decl.  14""  47'  N. 
Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  i6h.  53m. 
Moon  (at  First  Quarter  August  14,  I7h.)  rises,  ioh.  14m.  ; 
souths,  16I1.  8m. ;  sets,  2ih.  49m.  :  right  asc.  on  meridian, 
I3h.  34 '5m.  ;  decl.  4°  16'  S. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 
on  meridian, 
h.       m 


Planet. 

Mercury. 
Venus  .. 
Mars  . . 
Jupiter  .. 
Saturn  .. 
Uranus.. 


Rises, 
h.   m. 

3  29 

5  29 

12  33 

13  50 
3  5i 
9  5° 

Neptune..   22  50* 


Souths, 
h.    m. 

11  18 

12  41 

17     9 

18 13 
II  31 

15  28 

6  37 


Sets, 
h.  m. 
19      7 

19  53 

21  45 

22  36 
19  11 
21  6 
14  24 


8  43-5 
10    6-4 

14  35"6 

15  40-0 

8  56-4 
12  537 

4     i-8 


19  18  N. 
13  ti  N. 
16  38  S. 
18  50  S. 

18     1  N. 

5     4  S. 

18  59  N. 


*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening. 


ug- 
13 


14 
15 


h. 
21 

4 
o 


Mars  in  conjunction   with  and  6°  49'  south 

of  the  Moon. 
Mercury  in  conjunction  with  and  0°  39'  north 

of  Saturn. 
Jupiter  in  conjunction  with  and  40  7'  south 

of  the  Moon. 

Variable  Stars. 


h.  m. 

Aug.  12,     3  12  « 

,,  16,    2  4  m 

,,  12,  M 

,,  18,  m 

,,  1 6,  23  o  m 

„  15,  23  35  m 

,,  14,     2  2  m 

,,  14,  22  10  m 

„  15,  » 

„  13.    3  o  m, 

,,  18,  m 

,,  12,  M 

,,  14,    2  o  m 

„  16,  23  o  m 

,,  18,     2  o  m 

,,  12,     o  o  m 

„  15,     4  oM 

,,  18,  22  o  m 

M signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum  ;  ;«2  secondary  minimum. 


Star. 

R.A. 
h.      m. 

Decl. 

A  Tauri 

••     3  54'5  • 

.12    IO  N 

R  Comae 

...   11  58-5- 

.  19  25  N 

S  Virginis    ... 

...   13  27-2  . 

.    6  37  S. 

S  Librae 

...  14  55-0. 

.    8     4  S. 

U  Coronae    ... 

...   15  13-6  . 

.32     3  N 

(J  Ophiuchi... 

...  17  10*9  . 

.     1  20  N 

R  Scuti 

...   18  41-5  . 

•    5  5o  S. 

&  Lyrae 

...   18  46-0  . 

•  33  14  N 

R  Lyrae 

...   18  51-9  . 

•  43  48  N 

T  Sagittarii... 

...   19    98  . 

.  17  10  S. 

V  Aquilae 

...   19  46-8  . 

.    0  43  N 

S  Sagittas     ... 

...   19  50-9  . 

.  16  20  N. 

X  Cygni 

...  20  39-0  . 

.35   1 1  N 

T  Vulpeculae 

...  20  467  . 

.  27  50  N 

3  Cephei 

...  22  25-0  . 

•  57  51  N- 

Meteor- Showers. 

R.A.          Decl. 

Near  7  Andromedae 

...     25  ...  42  N.  . 

.   Swift 

streaks 

The  Perseids 

...     6o  ...  56  N.  . 

j> 

>> 

Near  A  Persei 

...     60  ...  50  N.  . 

!» 

>f 

,,     CAurigae    ...     . 

..       73  ...  41  N.  . 

M 

>» 

.,     5  Draconis    ... 

...  290  ...  70  N.  . 

.  Swift ; 

short. 

THE  SCIENTIFIC  VALUE  OF   VOLAR  UK. 

HPHE  Committee  appointed  by  the  American  Philosophical 
*■  Society,  on  October  21,  1887,  to  examine  into  the  scientific 
value  of  Volapiik,  presented  the  following  Report  at  the  meeting 
of  the  Society  held  on  January  6,  1888: — 

Your  Committee  proposes,  first,  to  consider  the  desirability  of 
a  universal  language  ;  secondly,  what  should  be  its  character- 
istics ;  and,  thirdly,  whether  that  invented  by  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Schleyer,  called  by  him  Volapiik,  meets  the  requirements. 

I. — That  in  the  vastly  increased  rapidity  of  interchange  of 
thought  in  modern  times,  some  general  medium  of  intercom- 
munication would  be  welcome,  is  unquestioned.  Wherever 
there  are  close  commercial  relations  between  nations  speaking 
different  tongues,  such  media  are  sure  to  arise  from  the  neces- 
sities of  daily  life.  Thus,  the  Lingua  Franca  in  the  Mediterra- 
nean, and  "  pigeon  English  "  in  the  Chinese  ports,  are  dialects 
which  have  sprung  out  of  the  urgency  of  business  needs.  These 
mixed  languages  are  called  "jargons,"  an  I  have  a  very  high 
interest  to  the  scientific  linguist,  as  illustrating  the  principles  of 
the  evolution  of  human  speech.  The  English  language  is  a 
jargon  of  marked  type,  and  illustrates  what  was  stated  by  W. 
von  Humboldt  early  in  this  century,  that  from  such  crossings 
and  mingling  of  tongues  are  developed  the  most  sinewy  and 
picturesque  examples  of  human  language.  This  consideration 
shows  that  in  adopting  or  framing  a  universal  language  we  need 
not  hesitate  to  mould  it  from  quite  diverse  linguistic  sources. 

The  presence  of  a  number  of  these  jargons  in  different  parts 
of  the  world  testifies  to  the  desirability  for  some  one  simple 
form  of  discourse  which  could  be  of  general  adoption.  Another 
and  higher  testimony  to  the  same  effect  is  the  need  now  fre 
quently  and  loudly  expressed  for  a  uniform  terminology  in  the. 
sciences.  For  many  years  it  has  been  urged,  both  in  this  country 
and  in  Europe,  that  the  neologi  ms  required  by  the  sciences  be 
derived  according  to  a  uniform  plan  from  the  Greek,  and  that 
those  heretofore  obtained  from  Greek  or  Latin  be  brought  into 
one  general  form.  There  is  no  practical  difficulty  about  this 
except  that  which  arises  from  the  Chauvinism  of  some  nations 
which  are  blinded  by  egotism  or  narrow  notions  to  the  welfare 
of  the  whole.  Such  a  tendency  is  observable  in  Germany,  a 
country  once  noted  for  its  cosmopolitan  sympathies.  Its  medical 
teachers,  for  example,  have  of  late  frequently  dismissed  the 
terms  of  their  science  derived  from  the  Latin  and  Greek,  in 
order  to  substitute  in  their  place  long,  awkward,  and  inhar- 
monious Teutonic  compounds.  No  effort  at  a  uniform  inter- 
national scientific  terminology  can  be  successful  if  the  learned  in 
each  nation  be  governed  by  national  prepossessions. 

Another  obstacle  to  a  universal  tongue,  and  which  at  the 
same  time  is  a  cogent  argument  for  the  adoption  of  one,  is  the 
sentimental  love  of  local  dialects  and  forms  of  speech  by  those 
who  have  imbibed  them  in  infancy.  Today  there  are  active 
Societies  organized  for  the  preservation  of  the  Welsh,  the 
Armorican,  the  Basque,  the  Finnish,  and  the  Flemish.  For 
many  generations  nearly  all  learned  writings  in  Europe  were  in 
Latin.  In  the  eighteenth  century  the  Latin  threatened  to  be 
superseded  by  the  French.  The  Transactions  of  the  Academy 
of  Sciences  of  Berlin  were  in  French  ;  si  were  the  articles  by 
the  Russian  Professors  ;  and  in  th~  earlier  decades  of  the  present 
century  French  prevailed  in  the  Reports  of  the  Royal  Northern 
Society  of  Antiquaries,  and  inmostscientilic  publications  in  Slavic 
and  Northern  Teutonic  countries.  This  is  the  case  no  longer. 
Every  little  principality  claims  that  it  should  print  what  it  has 
to  tell  the  world  of  science  in  its  own  dialect,  and  claims  that 
the  world  of  science  should  learn  this  dialect.  Thus  we  have 
on  the  list  of  our  scientific  exchanges  publications  in  Roumanian 
and  Bohemian,  in  Icelandic  and  Basque,  in  Swedish  and  Hun- 
garian, in  Armenian  and  modern  Greek,  in  Japanese  and  in 
Portuguese,  without  counting  the  more  familiar  tongues.  Even 
a  linguist  by  profession,  such  as  Max  M tiller,  has  exclaimed 
against  the  very  Babel,  the  confusion  of  tongues,  which  exists 
in  modern  scientific  literature.  He  has  sounded  an  earnest 
appeal  to  the  learned  writers  of  the  world  to  express  themselves 
in  one  of  the  half-dozen  languages  which  every  roan  of  wide 
education  is  supposed  to  read— to  wit,  the  English,  French, 
German,  Spanish,  Italian,  or  Latin. 

But  even  with  the  advantage  of  a  well-developed  inter- 
national scientific  terminology,  it  is  a  good  deal  to  ask  of  a 
student  of  science  that  he  should  spend  the  time  to  acquire  a 
reading  knowledge  of  these  six  tongues.  In  many  cases  it  is 
wholly  impossible  for  lack  of  time.     But  time  could  always  be 


352 


NATURE 


\_August  9,  1 888 


spared  to  learn  one  language,  if  that  were  enough,  particularly 
if  this  one  were  exceptionally  simple  and  easy  in  its  grammar. 

Again,  the  commercial  and  travelling  world  demands  one 
tongue  only,  in  addition  of  course  to  that  which  its  members 
learn  in  infancy,  a  tongue  facile  to  acquire,  and  adaptable  to 
their  peculiar  wants.  The  time  is  not  far  off  when  one  system 
of  weights,  measures,  and  coinage,  one  division  of  time,  one 
code  of  international  law,  one  mode  of  quarantine  and  sanita- 
tion, one  costume,  will  prevail  throughout  the  civilized  world, 
and  along  with  this  unification  of  action  must  and  will  come  a 
unification  of  speech.  It  is  not  only  desirable,  it  is  certain  to 
arrive  ;  and,  as  beings  of  intelligent  self-consciousness,  looking 
before  as  well  as  after,  it  becomes  us  to  employ  our  faculties  to 
direct  the  course  of  events  so  that  this  one  universal  language 
be  not  left  to  blind  chance,  but  be  framed  and  adopted  of 
deliberate  choice,  and  with  the  wisest  consideration. 

II. — Convinced,  therefore,  that  the  time  is  ripe  for  the  pro- 
mulgation of  a  general  form  of  speech  for  the  civilized  members 
of  the  race,  we  will  now  inquire  what  should  be  the  require- 
ments of  such  a  tongue  to  merit  the  recommendation  of  this 
Society. 

We  begin  by  the  observation  that  the  Aryan  stock  is  now,  and 
has  been  for-2coo  years,  the  standard-bearer  of  the  civilization 
of  the  world  ;  hence,  a  universal  language  should  be  based  upon 
the  general  linguistic  principles  of  that  stock.  In  the  Aryan 
stock  the  six  principal  living  tongues  in  the  order  of  their  im- 
portance and  extent  may  be  ranged  as  follows  :  English,  French, 
German,  Spanish,  Italian,  Russian.  It  should  be  the  aim  of 
the  proposed  general  tongue  to  ally  itself  to  these  somewhat  in 
the  order  noted,  as  thus  being  more  readily  acquired  by  the 
greater  number  of  active  workers  in  the  world  at  the  present 
time. 

The  elements  of  all  languages  arrange  themselves  to  the 
linguist  under  three  headings — phonetics,  grammar,  and  lexico- 
graphy ;  in  other  words,  the  vocal,  the  formal,  and  the  material 
characteristics  of  the  tongue  ;  and  under  these  three  headings 
we  will  sketch  the  traits  which  should  make  the  projected 
universal  language. 

(i)  Phonetics. — We  believe  all  will  assent  to  the  following 
propositions  :— 

The  orthography  of  the  universal  language  should  be  absolutely 
phonetic. 

Every  letter  in  it  should  always  have  the  same  sound. 
This  sound  should  be  one  common  to  all  the  leading  Aryan 
languages,  and  hence  present  no  difficulty  to  a  person  speaking 
any  one  of  them. 

Diphthongs,  digraphs,  and  double  consonants  should  all  be 
omitted  as  misleading. 

The  meaning  should  never  depend  on  tone,  accent,  quantity 
of  vowels,  nor  rising  and  falling  inflections  of  the  voice.  All 
these  are  inadequate  and  unnecessary  expedients  of  the  linguistic 
faculty. 

The  vowels  should  be  limited  to  the  five  pure  vowels  :  a,  e,  i, 
o,  u,  pronounced  as  in  Italian,  and  all  impure  or  modified 
vowel  sounds,  as  the  German  a,  o,  if,  the  French  u,  the  English 
u  (as  in  use),  o  (as  in  not),  and  the  neutral  vowel  u  (in  but) 
should  be  discarded.  All  the  Aryan  tongues  named  possess 
the  five  pure  vowels,  but  not  all  the  impure  and  neutral 
vowels. 

In  the  consonantal  scheme  all  gutturals,  aspirates,  lisps,  and 
nasals  should  be  omitted.  Thus,  the  German  ch,  soft  or  hard, 
the  Spanish  z,  the  English  h  and  th,  the  French  n  ;  and  likewise 
all  double  consonantal  sounds,  like  the  Spanish  n,  11,  rr, 
the  German  kn,  pf,  the  Russian  schtsch,  the  Italian  zz,  cc,  &c, 
should  find  no  place.  Of  all  the  Aryan  languages  the  pure 
Castilian  Spanish  comes  the  nearest  to  such  an  ideal  phoneti- 
cism,  and  it  approaches  very  near  indeed,  a  few  consonantal 
heresies  and  the  accent  being  its  only  drawbacks. 

In  the  written  alphabet  of  such  a  language  there  should  be, 
and  there  would  be  no  occasion  for,  any  diacritical  marks  what- 
ever. The  so-called  Latin  or  Roman  handwriting  and  type 
should  be  employed,  but  with  the  omission  of  every  sign  which 
would  require  the  writer  to  take  his  pen  from  the  paper  in  the 
middle  of  a  word,  or  else  return  to  it  in  order  to  complete  it. 
Hence  the  i  should  have  no  dot  (as  is  the  case  in  German),  nor 
the/,  and  the  t  should  not  be  crossed.  No  accents  should  be 
needed,  and  no  apostrophes. 

The  sounds  of  the  language  should  not  only  be  easy,  they 
should  also  be  fairly  agreeable  to  the  ear  ;  and  combinations 
should  be  sedulously  avoided  which  in  any  of  the  leading 
tongues  have  indecorous  or  degrading  associations. 


Brevity  is  of  great  importance,  and  eacn  word  should  be 
reduced  to  its  simplest  discriminative  sound,  consistent  with 
sonorousness  and  lucidity. 

(2)  Lexicography. — The  vocabulary  of  the  universal  language 
should  be  based  primarily  on  the  vocabulary  which  is  common  to 
the  leading  Aryan  tongues.  There  are  1500  words  in  German 
which  are  almost  or  quite  the  same  in  English  ;  there  are  more 
than  this  number  common  to  English,  French,  Italian,  and 
Spanish.  A  selection  should  be  made  from  these  similar  or 
identical  word-forms  as  the  foundation  of  the  lexicon.  At  least 
a  thousand  words  in  common  use  will  be  found  to  be  the  same 
in  all  these  languages,  when  we  allow  for  the  operation  of 
simple  and  well-known  phonetic  laws.  Let  the  learner  be 
taught  these  laws,  and  he  will  at  once  know  a  good  share  cf  all 
the  more  usual  terms  of  daily  intercourse  in  this  new  language, 
and  he  will  pronounce  them  correctly  without  a  teacher,  because 
it  will  contain  no  sound  which  is  strange  to  his  ears,  and  each 
word  would  be  spelled  as  it  is  pronounced. 

This  existing  common  property  of  words,  once  assorted  and 
presented  in  the  orthography  above  set  forth,  would  form  one 
element  of  the  lexicon  ;  another  will  be  those  words  obtained 
from  an  international  scientific  terminology,  to  be  decided  upon 
by  the  Committees  of  International  Congresses,  appointed  for 
that  purpose. 

Commercial  and  business  terms  are  already  largely  the  same, 
and  there  would  be  little  difficulty  in  obtaining  a  consensus  of 
opinion  about  them  which  would  prevail,  because  it  is  of  direct 
pecuniary  advantage  to  business  men  to  have  such  a  uniformity. 

There  remain  the  terms  in  art,  literature,  poetry,  politics, 
imagination,  &c,  to  be  provided  for.  But  in  the  opinion  of 
this  Committee  it  does  not  seem  desirable  at  this  time  to  urge 
the  formation  of  a  vocabulary  which  would  be  exhaustive.  Much 
of  it  should  be  left  to  the  needs  of  the  future,  as  observed  and 
guided  by  the  International  Committees  who  should  have  the 
care  and  direction  of  the  universal  tongue.  These  Committees 
should,  by  common  consent,  hold  the  same  relation  to  it  that 
the  French  Academy  has,  in  theory  at  least,  to  the  French  lan- 
guage, enlarging  and  purifying  it  by  constant  and  well-chosen 
additions.  As  in  France,  each  writer  would  enjoy  the  privilege 
of  introducing  new  terms,  formed  in  accordance  with  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  tongue,  and  such  terms  would  be  adopted  or  not, 
as  they  should  recommend  themselves  to  other  writers  in  the 
same  field. 

(3)  Grammar. — By  far  the  greatest  difficulty  is  presented  by 
the  formal  or  grammatical  features  of  such  a  proposed  tongue. 

We  may  best  approach  this  part  of  our  task  by  considering 
how  the  grammatical  categories,  or  "parts  of  speech,"  as  they 
are  called,  are  treated  in  the  various  Aryan  tongues,  and  selecting 
the  simplest  treatment,  take  that  as  our  standard. 

It  may  indeed  be  inquired  whether  in  the  grammar  we  might 
not  profitably  pass  beyond  the  Aryan  group,  and  seek  for 
simpler  methods  in  the  Semitic,  Turanian,  African,  or  American 
languages.  But  it  is  a  sufficient  answer  to  this  to  say  that  there 
is  no  linguistic  process  known  to  these  remote  stocks  but  has  a 
parallel  in  some  one  of  the  Aryan  dialects  ;  and  if  such  a  pro- 
cess is  very  slightly  developed  in  these  dialects,  this  is  probably 
the  case  because  such  a  process  has  been  found  by  experience 
to  be  unsuited  to  the  modes  of  Aryan  thought. 

Returning  to  the  grammatical  categories  or  parts  of  speech, 
we  find  them  usually  classified  as  nine,  to  wit  :  articles,  noun, 
pronoun,  adjective,  verb,  adverb,  preposition,  conjunction, 
interjection. 

The  last  of  these,  the  interjection,  is  of  no  importance  ;  and 
as  for  the  first  of  them,  the  article,  we  find  that  the  Latin  and 
the  Russian  move  along  perfectly  well  without  it,  and  hence  we 
may  dismiss  it,  whether  article  definite  or  article  indefinite,  as 
needless  in  the  universal  language. 

The  adjective  in  Latin  has  gender,  number,  and  case,  and,  in 
most  living  Aryan  languages,  has  number  and  gender;  but  in 
English  it  has  neither,  and,  therefore,  true  to  the  cardinal  prin- 
ciples of  economy  in  the  formal  portions  of  speech,  in  the  uni- 
versal language  it  should  have  neither.  More  than  this,  in 
colloquial  English  and  German,  and  always  in  English  in  the 
comparative  degree,  there  is  no  distinction  between  the  adjective 
and  the  adverb ;  and  upon  this  hint  we  perceive  the  inutility 
of  the  distinction  and  dismiss  it  as  operose  only.  The  com- 
parison of  adjectives  should  be  by  words  equivalent  to  more  and 
most,  as  is  practically  the  case  in  the  Romance  languages,  and 
never  by  comparative  and  superlative  terminations,  as  in 
English  and  German,  as  our  endeavour  should  always  be  to 
maintain  the  theme  unchanged. 


August  9;  1888] 


NATURE 


353 


This  reduces  our  nine  parts  of  speech  to  six,  which  are  proved 
to  be  enough,  by  the  facts  quoted. 

The  noun  in  German  undergoes  changes  for  gender,  number, 
and  case.  Of  these  the  gender  in  all  Aryan  tongues,  except 
English  and  modern  Persian,  is  an  absurdity,  without  applica- 
tion to  the  object,  and  a  most  serious  impediment  to  learners. 
Grammatical  gender,  therefore,  should  be  absolutely  dismissed, 
and  material  gender  expressed  by  the  feminine  adjective  of  sex, 
as  in  English  and  most  American  languages  (bear,  she-bear,  rat, 
she-rat,  &c). 

The  Greek  has  a  singular,  a  dual,  and  a  plural  number.  The 
dual  has  dropped  out  of  modern  tongues,  and  in  many  instances 
the  plural  is  grammatical  only  and  not  material.  Indeed,  as  in 
most  American  languages,  so  often  in  English  and  German,  the 
plural  form  is  not  used  even  when  the  plural  number  is  meant. 
Thus,  we  say,  ten  head  of  steers,  six  dozen  herring,  sechszehn 
Stiick  Cigarren,  sechs  Uhr  Abends,  &c.  It  is  probable,  there- 
fore, that  both-  gender  and  number  could  be  usually  dispensed 
with  in  nouns. 

With  regard  to  the  case  of  nouns,  it  will  be  observed  that  the 
tendency  of  all  the  Teutonic  and  Romance  languages  has  been 
to  get  rid  of  them :  French  and  Spanish  have  succeeded  com- 
pletely ;  the  English  retains  the  genitive,  the  German  the 
nominative,  genitive,  dative,  and  accusative,  in  some  instances. 
The  cases  have  been  supplied  by  the  use  of  pronouns  and  pre- 
positions, and  we  shall  be  wise  to  respect  this  tendency  as 
indicative  of  linguistic  progress.  It  is  historically  clear  that  to 
attempt  to  restore  the  case-endings  of  nouns  would  be  to  steer 
directly  against  the  current  of  linguistic  evolution.  There  has 
even  been  an  effort  both  in  English  and  German  to  dispense 
with  the  genitive  by  substituting  a  possessive  pronoun  for  the 
case-ending,  as  "John  his  book,"  "  Ludwig  sein  Pferd"; 
while  the  Berlin  dialect  of  the  lower  classes  has  often  but  one 
termination  for  both  genitive  and  dative,  where  pure  German 
has  two. 

The  use  of  the  possessive  pronoun  to  indicate  the  genitive  is 
simple  and  logical ;  it  prevails  in  most  American  languages  and 
most  jargons  ;  and  is  quite  adapted  to  the  end.  In  fact,  some 
dialects,  such  as  the  French  Creole  of  Trinidad,  Martinique,  and 
St.  Thomas,  contain  no  pronominal  adjectives,  and  make  out  very 
well  by  placing  the  personal  pronoun,  like  any  other  attributive 
case,  after  the  noun,  as  liv  li,  "his  book,"  literally,  "book 
he."  It  might  be  queried  whether  the  universal  language  would 
not  gain  in  ease  and  simplicity  by  adopting  this  method  of 
placement. 

The  dative,  or  regime  indirecle,  could  be  supplied  in  a  similar 
manner  by  a  pronoun  in  an  oblique  form.  There  is  no  necessity 
for  more  than  two  oblique  cases  of  the  pronoun,  and  they  can 
be  added  to  all  nouns  as  a  substitute  for  prepositions,  when 
needed  for  clearness. 

The  pronouns  of  the  modern  tongues,  and  especially  of  their 
colloquial  dialects,  demonstrate  that  the  relative,  interrogative, 
and  demonstrative  forms  can  be  blended  without  loss  of 
lucidity.  The  German  der,  the  English  that,  are  both  relative 
and  demonstrative  ;  the  French  qui  and  ca  are  both  relative 
and  interrogative  in  Creole. 

The  reflexive  pronoun  is  used  very  unnecessarily  in  most 
modern  Aryan  tongues.  There  is  no  logical  propriety  in  the 
French  Je  me  casse  le  bras.  The  use  of  such  a  form  should  be 
greatly  restricted. 

The  verb  has  tense  and  mood,  number  and  person.  It  is  con- 
jugated in  all  Aryan  languages,  sometimes  regularly,  sometimes 
irregularly,  and  it  has  many  forms.  In  studying  its  history, 
however,  no  one  can  overlook  its  steady  tendency  towards  sim- 
plification of  the  form  of  the  theme  and  the  adoption  of  the 
periphrastic  method  of  conjugation,  or  that  by  auxiliaries.  By 
this  process  the  verb  loses  all  inflections  and  is  reduced  to  a 
single  form  ;  person  and  number  are  expressed  in  the  subject, 
tense,  and  mode  by  auxiliaries.  This  should  be  the  process 
adopted  by  the  universal  language,  with  perhaps  the  exception 
that  the  simple  past  and  future  might  be  expressed  by  termina- 
tions, every  verb  being  absolutely  regular.  The  future  termina- 
tion is  now  lost  in  English  and  German,  and  even  the  past 
termination  is  often  dispensed  with  in  both  tongues,  as  "  I  give, " 
''I  did  give,"  "  ich  that  geben  "  ;  but  as  both  are  vigorous  in 
the  cultivated  Romance  tongues,  these  formal  elements  mi<dit  be 
conceded. 

A  very  delicate  question  relates  to  the  substantive  verb  "to 
be."  Shall  we  omit  it  or  express  it?  The  Latin  rarely  intro- 
duces it,  and  there  are  numerous  tongues  in  which  it  has  no 


equivalent.  On  the  other  hand,  modern  Aryan  speech  has  de- 
veloped it  markedly  ;  the  Spanish  has  its  ser  and  estar,  the 
German  its  sein  and  werden,  expressive  of  shades  of  meaning 
included  in  our  verb  "  to  be."  This  prominence  of  the  expres- 
sions for  existence  seems  to  be  connected  with  marked  psycho- 
logical advances,  and  a  ripening  self-consciousness,  as  has  been 
lately  set  forth  by  a  profound  French  critic  of  language,  M. 
Raoul  de  la  Grasserie.  We  should  be  inclined,  therefore,  to 
respect  this  expression,  and  allow  it  in  a  universal  language  the 
prominence  it  enjoys  in  most  Aryan  tongues  of  modern  type. 

The  prepositions  offer  great  difficulties  in  modern  languages. 
The  most  of  them  can  be  omitted  by  making  all  verbs  which 
have  an  active  meaning  govern  their  object  <lirectly,  and  have 
the  direct  object  follow  the  verb  and  the  indirect  object  placed 
later  in  the  sentence.  The  phrase,  "  Give  to  the  child  a  spoon," 
would  be  just  as  intelligible  in  the  form  "  Give  spoon  child,"  if 
we  remember  that  the  direct  precedes  the  indirect  object. 

The  simplification  of  grammatical  forms  here  proposed  involves 
an  equal  simplification  in  syntax,  and  this  is  an  enormous  gain. 
But  it  involves  also  the  loss  of  freedom  of  position,  so  con- 
spicuous a  feature  in  Latin,  and  by  some  so  highly  esteemed. 
But  philosophically  considered,  this  freedom  of  position  is 
solely  a  rhetorical  and  artistic  gain,  not  a  logical  superiority. 
Grammarians  even  of  the  classical  tongues  are  perfectly  aware 
that  there  is  a  fixed  logical  arrangement  of  words  in  a  sentence, 
and  this,  and  this  alone,  is  the  only  arrangement  which  a  uni- 
versal language  should  adopt.  This  arrangement  may  be  briefly 
given  as  follows :  subject  before  predicate,  noun  before  its 
adjective,  verb  or  adjective  before  qualifying  adverbs,  immediate 
object  before  remote  object.  This  is  the  logical  course  of 
thought,  and  should  be  the  universal  form  of  expression.  It 
was  a  dubious  advantage  to  the  Greeks  and  Latins  that  their 
numerous  inflections  permitted  them  to  disregard  it. 

Those  languages  which  rely  largely  on  position  obtain  rhetorical 
grace  by  a  recognized  value  assigned  to  alterations  of  position  ; 
and  this  would  apply  equally  to  the  scheme  proposed. 

Other  questions  will  arise  in  the  projecting  of  a  universal 
language.  Shall  we  adopt  postpositions  as  well  as  preposi- 
tions? Shall  we  indicate  inflections  by  internal  vowel  changes? 
Shall  we  have  free  recourse  to  affixes,  suffixes,  and  infixes? 
Shall  we  postfix  conjunctions,  like  the  Latin?  Shall  we 
manufacture  entirely  new  roots  from  which  to  form  new  words 
and  derivatives? 

To  all  these  questions  your  committee  replies  with  an 
emphatic  negative.  All  such  processes  are  contrary  to  the 
spirit  which  has  pervaded  the  evolution  of  the  Aryan  languages 
for  the  last  two  thousand  years,  and  their  adoption  would 
violate  the  indicated  rules  for  the  formation  of  a  universal 
Aryan  speech. 

III.  In  applying  the  principles  which  have  been  above  set 
forth  to  the  creation  of  the  Rev.  Johann  Martin  Schleyer,  we 
find  something  to  praise  and  much  to  condemn  in  his  attempt. 

Mr.  Schleyer  first  published  a  sketch  of  his  proposed  uni- 
versal language  in  1878,  and  the  first  edition  of  his  grammar  in 
1880.  It  has  been  welcomed  with  applause  in  Germany,  and 
efforts  have  been  made  with  some  success  to  introduce  it  into 
P"  ranee,   England,  and  America. 

His  scheme  is  evidently  the  result  of  conscientious  labour  and 
thought,  and  he  manifests  a  just  appreciation  of  the  needs  of  the 
time ;  but  unfortunately  the  theory  of  construction  he  has 
adopted  is  in  conflict  with  the  development  of  both  the  Teutonic 
and  Romance  languages,  and  full  of  difficulties  to  the  learner. 

Beginning  with  its  phonetics,  we  find  that  he  has  retained  the 
impure  German  modified  vowels  a,  0,  it,  the  French  j  {dsch), 
as  well  as  the  aspirated  h  or  rough  breathing.  He  has  eight 
vowels  and  nineteen  consonants  where  five  vowels  and  sixteen 
consonants  should  suffice  ;  elsewhere  he  extends  his  alphabet  to 
thirty-seven  letters.  He  also  introduces  various  diacritical  marks 
indicating  accent,  tones,  vocal  inflection,  and  quantity,  all  of 
which  we  consider  needless  and  obstructive.  Double  consonants 
are  numerous,  and  the  Volapuk  is  both  written  and  printed 
with  underscoring  and  italic  letters,  necessary  to  facilitate  its 
comprehension.1 

The  lexicography  is  based  largely  on  the  English,  about  40 
per  cent,  of  the  words  being  taken  from  that  tongue,  with  pho- 
netic modifications.  These  modifications  do  not  regard  the 
other  Aryan  languages,  and  various  sounds  of  the  Volapuk 
alphabet  could  not  be  pronounced  by  a  member  of  any  Aryan 

1  These  remarks  are  based  upon  the  seventh  edition  of  Schleyer's  "  Mittlere 
Grammat.k  der  Universalsprache  Vulapiik"   Konstanz,  1887). 


354 


NATURE 


\_Avgust  9,  1888 


nation  without  special  oral  teaching.  This  we  regard  as  a  fatal 
•defect. 

Moreover,  many  words  are  manufactured  from  entirely  new 
radicals,  capriciously,  or  even  fantastically  formed,  and  this  we 
condemn. 

f^'The  article  is  omitted,  which  is  well ;  but  the  nouns  are  in- 
flected through  a  genitive,  dative,  and  accusative  case,  and  a 
plural  number.  The  signs  of  these  cases  are  respectively  a,  e,  i, 
and  of  the  plural  s. 

Diminutives,  comparatives,  and  superlatives  are  formed  by 
prefixes  and  suffixes,  and  on  the  same  plan  adverbs  are  formed 
from  adjectives,  and  adjectives  from  nouns.  Thus,  silef,  silver  ; 
silefik,  silvery  ;  sikfikiim,  more  silvery  ;  silefikiin,  most  silvery  ; 
silefiko,  silverly.  It  will  be  observed  that,  while  this  process  is 
not  dissimilar  to  that  once  frequent  in  the  Aryan  stock,  it  is  not 
analogous  to  that  which  the  evolution  of  that  stock  indicates  as 
its  perfected  form. 

In  the  conjugation  the  subject  follows  the  verb,  bin — ob,  I 
am  ;  where  bin  =  am,  ob  =  I.  This  we  object  to  as  contrary  to 
the  logical  arrangement  of  the  proposition.  We  are  surprised 
to  see  the  German  third  person  plural  (Sie)  retained  by  the 
author  as  a  "  courteous  "  form.  It  should  be  the  first  duty  of  a 
universal  language  to  reject  such  national  solecisms. 

The  tense  is  indicated  by  prefixes  a,  e,  i  for  the  imperfect, 
perfect,  and  pluperfect  active,  o  and  u  for  the  two  futures. 

The  passive  voice  has  the  prefix  p,  the  subjunctive  by  the 
suffix  la,  the  optative  and  imperative  by  the  suffix  b's,  the  infini- 
tive by  the  suffix  on.  Abstracts  are  formed  by  adding  iil,  as 
mon,  money ;  mortal,  love  of  money,  avarice.  These  suffixes 
are  to  be  placed  in  fixed  relations  to  the  root,  and  hence  often 
become  infixes. 

The  excessive  multiplication  of  forms  lends  to  Volapiik  an 
appearance  totally  un-Aryan.  The  verbal  theme  is  modified  by 
sixteen  suffixes  and  fourteen  prefixes.  There  are  a  "  durative  " 
tense,  and  a  "jus.dve"  mood,  conjunctive,  optative,  gerund,  and 
supine  forms,  all  indicated  by  added  syllables,  reminding  one 
■of  the  overloaded  themes  of  Turanian  tongues.  This  mechanism 
is  not  only  superfluous,  but  if  any  lesson  may  be  learned  from  the 
history  of  articulate  speech,  it  is  precisely  the  opposite  to  what 
the  universal  language  should  and  must  be. 

The  meaning  is  largely  derived  from  placement,  as  will  be 
■seen  in  the  following  example,  in  which  gudikos  is  the  neuter 
adverbial  noun  "goodness,"  das  Gute ;  plidos,  from  English 
"please,"  the  third  singular  indicative. 

Gndikbs  plidos  Code. 

Goodness  pleases  God. 

Plidos  Gode  qudik. 

It  pleases  God  the  good  (the  good  God). 

Plidbs  gudik  Gode. 

It  pleases  well  God. 

And  so  on.  It  is  acknowledged  by  the  author  that  obscurities 
may  easily  arise  from  these  transpositions,  and  there  is  much 
dependence  on  accents  and  tones. 

From  this  brief  comparative  examination  of  the  evolutionary 
'tendencies  of  the  Aryan  tongues  and  the  scheme  of  a  universal 
language  as  offered  in  the  works  of  Mr.  Schleyer,  it  is  plainly 
evident  that  the  two  are  in  absolute  opposition. 

Volapiik  is  synthetic  and  complex ;  all  modern  dialects  be- 
-come  more  and  more  analytic  and  grammatically  simple  ;  the 
formal  elements  of  Volapiik  are  those  long  since  discarded  as 
•outgrown  by  Aryan  speech  ;  its  phonetics  are  strange  in  parts 
to  every  Aryan ;  portions  of  its  vocabulary  are  made  up 
for  the  occasion  ;  and  its  expressions  involve  unavoidable 
obscurities.  With  an  ardent  wish  for  the  formation  and  adop- 
tion of  such  a  universal  tongue,  and  convinced  as  we  are  that 
now  is  the  time  ripe  for  its  reception,  we  cannot  recommend 
Volapiik  as  that  which  is  suited  to  the  needs  of  modern  thought. 
•On  the  contrary,  it  seems  to  us  a  distinct  retrogression  in 
linguistic  progress.  Nor  in  this  day  of  combined  activities  does 
it  appear  to  us  likely  that  any  one  individual  can  so  appreciate 
the  needs  of  civilized  nations  as  to  frame  a  tongue  to  suit  them 
all.  Such  a  task  should  be  confided  to  an  International 
Committee  from  the  six  or  seven  leading  Aryan  nationalities. 

In  conclusion,  your  Committee  would  respectfully  suggest  that 
it  would  eminently  befit  the  high  position  and  long-established 
reputation  for  learning  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society, 
to  take  action  in  this  matter,  without  delay,  and  to  send  an 
official  proposition  to  the  learned  Societies  of  the  world  to  unite 
in  an  International  Committee  to  devise  a  universal  language  for 
business,  epistolary,  conversational,  and  scientific  purposes.  As 
thetime  once  was  when  the  ancestors  of  all  Aryans  spoke  the 


same  tongue,  so  we  believe  that  the  period  is  now  near  when 
once  again  a  unity  of  speech  can  be  established,  and  this  speech 
become  that  of  man  everywhere  in  the  civilized  world  for  the 
purposes  herein  set  forth. 

Your  Committee  therefore  offers  the  following  resolution — 
Resolved, — That  the  President  of  the  American  Philosophical 
Society  be  requested  to  inclose  a  copy  of  this  Report  to  all 
learned  bodies  with  which  the  Society  is  in  official  relations,  and 
to  such  other  Societies  and  individuals  as  he  may  deem  proper, 
with  a  letter  asking  their  co-operation  in  perfecting  an  inter- 
national scientific  terminology,  and  also  a  language  for  learned, 
commercial,  and  ordinary  intercourse,  based  on  the  Aryan 
vocabulary  and  grammar  in  their  simplest  forms  ;  and  to  that 
end  proposing  an  International  Congress,  the  first  meeting  of 
which  shall  be  held  in  London  or  Paris. 

D.  G.  Brinton,  Chairman,  ) 

Henry  Phillips,  Jun.,       :•  Committee. 

Munroe  B.  Snyder,  ) 

The  following  Supplementary  Report  was  also  read  on  the 
same  occasion  : — 

The  former  Report  having  been  recommitted,  your  Commit- 
tee avails  itself  of  the  opportunity  to  explain  more  clearly  the 
aim  of  the  previous  paper,  to  meet  some  of  the  objections 
offered  against  particular  statements,  and,  at  the  request  of  seve- 
ral members,  to  enlarge  the  scope  of  the  Report,  so  as  to 
embrace  a  brief  consideration  of  the  two  other  universal  lan- 
guages recently  urged  upon  the  public,  the  "  Pasilengua "  of 
Steiner,  and  the  "international  language  "  of  Samenhof. 

The  aim  of  the  Committee  was  strongly  to  urge  the  desira- 
bility of  taking  immediate  steps  to  establish  a  universal  language, 
both  for  learned  and  general  purposes.  These  steps,  it  assever- 
ated, should  be  taken  by  the  learned  world  as  a  body  ;  the  form 
of  language  adopted  should  be  indorsed  by  the  scientific  Socie- 
ties of  all  nations  ;  by  their  recommendation  it  should  be  intro- 
duced into  schools  and  Universities,  and  competent  private 
teachers  would  soon  make  it  familiar  to  all  wh  >  would  have 
occasion  to  use  it.  The  Report  distinctly  states  that  it  is  in 
nowise  expected  that  this  international  language  will  supplant 
any  existing  native  tongue.  It  is  to  be  learned  in  addition  to 
the  native  tongue,  and  not  in  place  of  it. 

The  aim  of  the  grammatical  portion  of  the  Report  was  simply 
to  maintain  three  theses  :  first,  that  the  pronunciation  of  the 
proposed  tongue  should  be  so  simple  that  it  could  be  learned  by 
anyone  speaking  an  Aryan  language,  without  the  necessity  of 
oral  instruction  ;  secondly,  that  its  grammar  should  be  simplified 
to  the  utmost  ;  and  thirdly,  that  its  lexicon  should  be  based  on 
the  large  common  property  of  words  in  the  Aryan  tongues. 

Your  Committee  repeats  and  insists  that  these  are  the  indis- 
pensable requisites  to  any  such  proposed  international  tongue. 
It  does  not  insist  that  the  individual  suggestions  and  recom- 
mendations contained  in  the  Report  should  be  urged  at  all 
hazards.  They  were  advanced  rather  as  hints  and  illustrations, 
than  as  necessary  conditions.  Nevertheless,  they  were  not 
offered  hastily,  and  your  Committee  desires  to  refer  to  some  of 
the  main  arguments  advanced  against  them.  This  it  is  prepared 
for  the  better,  through  the  complaisance  of  Profs.  Seidenstickej 
and  Easton,  who  have  forwarded  to  the  Committee,  at  its 
request,  abstracts  of  their  remarks. 

Both  these  very  competent  critics  attack  the  principle  of 
deducing  the  grammar  of  the  proposed  language  from  the  latest 
evolution  of  Aryan  speech,  to  wit,  the  jargons.  Prof.  Seiden- 
sticker  accuses  such  a  grammar  of  "  poverty,"  and  adds:  "A 
higher  organism  is  of  necessity  more  complex  than  a  lower  one. 
Prof.  Easton  denies  that  the  later  is  the  better  form  ;  or,  to 
use  his  own  words,  "that  the  change  from  an  inflected  to  an 
analytic  tongue  marks  an  advance  in  psychologic  apprehension. 

These  criticisms  attack  a  fundamental  thesis  of  your  Com- 
mittee, and  as  they  doubtless  express  the  views  of  very  many, 
they  must  be  met. 

In  our  opinion,  they  rest  upon  a  radical  misconception  of  the 
whole  process  of  linguistic  evolution.  The  crucial  test  of  tl 
development  of  language  is  tbat  the  sentence  shall  express  the 
thought  intended  to  be  conveyed,  and  nothing  more.  When 
this  can  be  attained  simply  by  the  order  of  words  in  the  sentence, 
without  changes  in  those  words,  such  changes  are  not  merely 
useless,  they  are  burdensome,  and  impede  the  mind.  All  para- 
digmatic inflections,  whether,  of  nouns,  adjectives,  or  verbs,  are 
relics  of  lower  linguistic  organization,  of  a  barbaric  condition  of 
speech,  and  are  thrown  aside  as  useless  lumber  by  the  active 


August  9,  1888] 


NATURE 


155 


linguistic  faculty  in  the  evolution  of  jargons.  Compare  a  simple 
Latin  sentence  from  Cicero,  with  its  translation  into  English, 
which  is  a  jargon  of  marked  type,  and  note  how  much  is  dropped, 
and  with  what  judicious  economy:  "  Romanis  equitibus  liters 
afferuntur" — "Letters  are  brought  to  the  Roman  knights." 
One  word  here  will  serve  to  illustrate  all.  In  Latin  the  speaker 
must  think  of  the  adjective  Romanis  as  masculine,  not  feminine, 
or  neuter  ;  as  plural,  not  singular ;  as  a  dative,  not  a  nomina- 
tive, accusative,  or  vocative  form  ;  as  agreeing  in  all  these  points 
with  the  noun  it  qualifies  ;  and  finally,  as  of  the  first,  and  not 
of  the  second,  third,  or  of  some  irregular  declension.  All  this 
needless  labour  is  saved  in  the  English  adjective  Roman  by  the 
method  of  position  or  placement.  And  so  it  is  with  every  other 
word  in  this  sentence.  The  evidence,  both  from  theory  and 
from  history,  is  conclusive  that  the  progress  of  language,  linguis- 
tic evolution,  means  the  rejection  of  all  paradigms  and  inflections, 
and  the  specialization  of  the  process  of  placement. 

Prof.  Easton  maintains  that  this  method  (that  of  placement) 
"introduces  an  element  of  great  difficulty  into  the  language," 
and  also  doubts  the  acceptance  of  the  logical  order  stated  in  the 
Report. 

To  the  first  of  these  objections  the  obvious  answer  is  that  the 
method  of  placement  is  that  uniformly  adopted  in  all  jargons 
and  mixed  tongues,  which  is  positive  proof  that  it  is  the  least 
difficult  of  any  method  of  expressing  relation.  As  to  the  logical 
order  referred  to  by  the  Committee,  it  is  surprising  that  any 
exception  should  be  taken  to  it,  as  it  is  that  stated  in  the  common 
classical  text-books. 

Some  related  minor  points  remain  to  be  noticed.  In  oppos- 
ing vocal  inflection,  signs,  and  accents,  in  their  Report,  the 
Committee  referred  only  to  the  written,  not  to  the  spoken  lan- 
guage. The  phonetic  formation  proposed  is  insisted  upon  only 
to  the  extent  that  no  sound  should  be  introduced  which  would 
be  strange  to  the  six  leading  Aryan  languages.  The  substi- 
tution of  placement  for  prepositions,  which  they  recommended, 
was  meant  as  illustrative  merely.  The  particular  statement  that 
the  Berlin  dialect  (of  the  lower  class)  has  but  one  termination 
for  both  genitive  and  dative  is  upon  the  authority  of  Dr.  and 
Mis.  Seler,  of  Berlin,  the  former  a  professed  linguist,  the  latter 
born  and  raised  in  that  city.  The-  question  whether,  in  the 
German  expression,  seeks  Uhr  Abends,  the  word  Uhr  is  a  singu- 
lar form  with  a  plural  meaning,  is  contradicted  by  Prof.  Seiden- 
sticker  ;  but,  in  view  of  the  strictly  analogous  Spanish  expression, 
las  sets  horas  de  la  tarde,  the  Committee  maintains  its  original 
opinion. 

Passing  from  these  specific  animadversions,  there  were  some 
general  objections  which  should  be  answered.  Various  speakers 
maintained  that  the  project  of  an  international  language  is  im- 
possible of  realization  ;  others  asserted  that  it  was  unnecessary  ; 
others  that,  even  if  realised,  such  a  tongue  could  have  no  figurative 
or  artistic  wealth  of  resources. 

To  these  strictures  it  is  replied  that  within  eight  years  Vola- 
piik  is  claimed  to  have  acquired  100,000  students  ;  within  a 
month  it  has  attracted  attention  all  over  the  United  States ; 
within  a  week  a  number  of  German  merchants  have  announced 
to  their  foreign  correspondents  that  in  future  it  will  be  used  in 
their  business  communications.  If  this  is  the  case  with  so  im- 
perfect a  language,  backed  by  no  State,  no  learned  body,  not 
even  by  the  name  of  any  distinguished  scholar,  what  would  be  the 
progress  of  a  tongue  perfect  in  adaptation,  and  supported  by  all 
these  aids  to  its  introduction  ?  In  a  decade  it  would  be  current 
among  10,000,000  people.  That  it  would  be  barren  in  figurative 
meanings,  or  sterile  in  the  expression  of  the  loftier  sentiments, 
is  inconceivable,  because,  formed  though  it  would  be  of  de- 
liberate purpose,  the  inherent,  ever-active  linguistic  faculty  of 
the  race  would  at  once  seize  upon  it,  enrich  it,  mould  it,  and 
adapt  it  to  all  the  wants  of  man,  to  the  expression  of  all  his 
loves  and  hates,  his  passions  and  hopes. 

Your  Committee  closes  with  a  reference  to  the  remaining  two 
tongues  now  claimants  for  universal  adoption. 

The  "Pasilengua"  {Gemeinsprache,  "Tongue  of  All ")  was 
introduced  by  P.  Steiner,  in  1885,  with  a  small  grammar  and 
dictionary,  published  in  German.  The  "international  lan- 
guage "  of  Dr.  L.  Samenhof,  of  Warsaw,  is  an  arrival  of  the 
present  year,  and  is  explained  by  him  in  a  small  volume,  issued 
in  French,  in  his  native  city,  under  the  pseudonym  of  "  Dr. 
'Esperanto." 

Both  these  have  pursued  the  correct  path  in  the  formation  of 
their  vocabulary  ;  they  both  proceed  on  the  plan  of  collecting 
all  words  common  to  the  Aryan  languages,  changing  their  form  as 
little  as  possible  consistently  with  reducing  them  to  an  agreeable 


phoneticism,  and  when  the  same  word  has  acquired  diverse  sig- 
nifications, selecting  that  which  has  the  broadest  acceptation. 
The  plan  of  Dr.  Samenhof  is  especially  to  be  recommended  in 
this  respect,  and  may  be  offered  as  an  excellent  example  of 
sound  judgment.  It  is  remarkable,  and  remarkably  pleasant,  to- 
see  how  easy  it  is  to  acquire  the  vocabulary  of  either  of  these 
writers,  and  this  is  forcible  testimony  how  facile  it  would  be  to 
secure  an  ample  and  sonorous  stock  of  words,  practically  familiar 
to  us  already,  for  the  proposed  universal  tongue. 

Unfortunately,  the  alphabets  of  both  employ  various  dia- 
critical marks  and  introduce  certain  sounds  not  universal  to  the 
leading  Aryan  tongues.  These  blemishes  could,  however,  be 
removed  without  much  difficulty. 

It  is  chiefly  in  the  grammar  that  both  err  from  the  principles 
strenuously  advocated  by  your  present  Committee.  The  Pasi- 
lengua has  an  article  with  three  genders,  to,  ta,  te,  corresponding 
to  the  German  der,  die,  das ;  it  has  also  three  case-endings  to 
the  noun,  besides  the  nominative  form,  which  itself  changes 
for  singular  and  plural,  masculine  and  feminine.  In  the  verb 
the  tenses  are  formed  by  suffixes,  six  for  the  indicative,  four  for 
the  subjunctive  ;  while  a  number  of  other  suffixes  indicate 
participles,  gerunds,  imperatives,  &c. 

In  the  same  manner,  Dr.  Samenhof  expresses  the  relation  of 
the  elements  of  the  proposition  in  the  sentence  "  by  introducing 
prefixes  and  suffixes."  "All  the  varying  grammatical  forms, 
the  mutual  relation  of  words  to  each  other,  are  expressed  by  the 
union  of  invariable  words"  ("Langue  Internationale,"  p.  13). 
He  acknowledges  that  this  is  "  wholly  foreign  to  the  construc- 
tion of  European  [he  means  Aryan]  languages,"  but  claims  that 
it  yields  a  grammar  of  such  marvellous  simplicity  that  the  whole 
of  it  could  be  learned  in  one  hour.  In  reality,  it  is  what  is 
known  to  linguists  as  the  agglutinative  process,  and  is  found  in 
the  Ural-Altaic  tongues,  in  high  perfection. 

It  will  be  seen  at  once  that  the  grammatic  theories  of  both 
these  tongues  are  directly  in  opposition  to  that  advocated  in  the 
present  and  the  previous  Reports.  These  are  both  distinct  re- 
trogressions to  an  earlier,  less  developed,  and  more  cumbersome 
form  of  language  than  that  which  dispenses  with  paradigms  and 
inflections  of  all  kinds. 

Nevertheless,  these  repeated  efforts  go  to  show  that  an  inter- 
national language  is  needed,  that  it  is  asked  for,  that  it  is  coming, 
and  justify  the  propriety  of  this  Society,  which,  as  far  back  as 
the  second  decade  of  this  century,  marked  itself  as  a  leader  in 
linguistic  science,  taking  the  van  in  this  important  and  living 
question. 

After  discussion,  during  which  amendments  to  the  resolu- 
tion originally  proposed  by  the  Committee  were  offered  by 
Prof.  Cope  and  Mr.  Dudley,  the  Society  adopted  the  following 
resolution  by  a  unanimous  vote — 

Resolved, — That  the  President  of  the  American  Philosophical 
Society  be  requested  to  address  a  letter  to  all  learned  bodies 
with  which  this  Society  is  in  official  relations,  and  to  such  other 
Societies  and  individuals  as  he  may  deem  proper,  asking  their 
co-operation  in  perfecting  a  language  for  learned  and  commercial 
purposes  based  on  the  Aryan  vocabulary  and  grammar  in  their 
simplest  forms  ;  and  to  that  end  proposing  an  International 
Congress,  the  first  meeting  of  which  shall  be  held  in  London  or 
Paris. 


THE  LICK  OBSERVATORY. 

"\A/"E  reprint   from   the   Daily  Alia   California   the  following 
extracts  from   a  private  letter  from    Prof.  Holden    to   a 
gentleman  in  San  Francisco,  giving  details  regarding  the  first 
astronomical  observations  made  at  the  Lick  Observatory  : — 

"  The  Lick  Observatory  is  beginning  to  present  a  very  different 
appearance,  both  by  night  and  by  day,  from  the  one  it  lately  had 
during  its  period  of  construction.  At  night  the  windows  which 
have  been  so  long  dark  show  the  lamps  of  the  astronomers 
gleaming  through  them.  The  shutters  of  the  observing  slits  are 
open,  and  the  various  instruments  are  pointed  through  them  at 
the  sky.  The  actual  work  of  observing  has  begun,  and  the  pur- 
pose for  which  the  Observatory  was  founded — to  be  '  useful  in 
promoting  science  ' — is  in  the  way  of  being  accomplished.  Trof. 
Schaeberle,  late  of  Ann  Arbor,  has  commenced  the  lorfg  task 
which  has  been  assigned  lo  him — namely,  to  fix  with  the  very 
highest  degree  of  precision  possible  to  modern  science,  the 
position  of  the  '  fundamental  stars '  with  the  Rep::old  meridian, 
circle.     The  time-service  for  railway  use  is  now  conducted  by 


35^ 


NATURE 


[Azigust  9,  1888 


Mr.  Hill  (late  assistant  to  Prof.  Davidson),  which  leaves  Mr. 
Keeler  free  to  make  the  necessary  studies  of  the  great  star 
spectroscope,  which  is  one  of  the  most  important  accessories  of 
the  36-inch  equatorial.  Mr.  Barnard  is  assiduously  observing 
comets  and  nebulas  with  the  fine  12-inch  equatorial,  and  getting 
the .  photographic  appliances  in  readiness  to  be  used  with  the 
great  telescope.  He  has  already  discovered  twenty  new  nebulas, 
found  in  the  course  of  his  sweeps  for  new  comets.  To  show  you 
some  of  the  advantages  of  our  situation  here,  I  may  tell  you  that 
Prof.  Swift,  of  Rochester,  has  a  fine  16-inch  equatorial  by  Alvan 
Clark,  and  has  discovered  many  faint  nebulas  by  its  use.  Two 
nights  ago  Mr.  Barnard  was  examining  some  of  these  excessively 
faint  objects  by  means  of  the  12-inch  telescope  (which  gives  only 
a  little  more  than  half  the  light  of  Prof.  Swift's),  and  in  the  field 
of  view  where  Prof.  Swift  had  mapped  only  one  nebula  Mr. 
Barnard  found  three,  two  being,  of  course,  new.  This  is  due 
not  only  to  the  observer's  skill  and  keenness  of  eye,  but  in  great 
measure  to  the  purity  and  transparency  of  our  atmosphere  here. 

"The  Eastern  astronomers  have  given  up  the  observation  of 
Olbers's  comet,  which  is  now  only  about  7/100  as  bright  as  last 
year,  but  Mr.  Barnard  has  succeeded  in  following  it  up  to  last 
night,  when  it  finally  became  too  faint  to  be  seen  even  here. 
These  observations,  which  are  several  weeks  later  than  those  of 
other  Observatories,  are  of  real  value,  as  they  determine  a  larger 
arc  of  the  comet's  orbit,  and  enable  its  motion  to  be  fixed  with  a 
much  higher  degree  of  accuracy.  Mr.  Keeler  is  just  reducing 
his  observations  of  the  faint  satellites  of  Mars,  made  with  the 
large  telescope  during  the  past  months.  You  can  gain  some 
sort  of  an  idea  of  the  immense  advantage  of  the  great  telescope 
in  such  observations,  when  I  tell  you  that  the  brightness  of  the 
satellites  as  observed  by  him  was  only  about  one-sixth  of  their 
brightness  at  the  time  of  their  discovery.  We  can,  then, 
make  satisfactory  observations  of  objects  which  are  six  times 
fainter  than  those  very  minute  satellites  of  Mars  were  when 
Prof.  Hall  discovered  them  in  1877  with  the  great  telescope 
at  Washington.  I  am  becoming  familiar  with  the  performance 
of  the  large  telescope  and  learning  how  to  get  the  very  best 
work  from  it.  It  needs  peculiar  conditions  ;  but  when  all  the 
conditions  are  favourable  its  performance  is  superb.  I  am,  as 
you  know,  familiar  with  the  action  of  large  telescopes,  having 
observed  for  many  years  with  the  great  refractor  at  Washington, 
but  I  confess  I  was  not  prepared  for  the  truly  magnificent  action 
of  this,  the  greatest  of  all  telescopes,  under  the  best  conditions. 
I  have  had  such  views  of  the  bright  planets  (Mars  and  Jupiter), 
of  nebulas,  the  Milky  Way,  and  some  of  the  stars,  as  no  other 
astronomer  ever  before  had.  Jupiter,  especially,  is  wonderfully 
full  of  detail  that  I  had  not  begun  to  see  before.  The  disks  of 
his  moons  can  be  readily  noted  in  smaller  telescopes  ;  but  here 
they  are  full  and  round,  like  those  of  planets.  I  am  almost  of 
the  opinion  that  the  curve  of  Jupiter's  shadow  might  be  seen  on 
the  surfaces,  under  favourable  circumstances,  when  the  satellites 
suffer  eclipse.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  satellites  of 
Jupiter,  like  our  own  moon,  present  always  the  same  face  to 
their  planet.  This  can  be  studied  here  to  great  advantage  if 
the  disks  present  any  of  the  markings  which  are  reportedby 
other  observers. 

"  The  Milky  Way  is  a  wonderful  sight,  and  I  have  been  much 
interested  to  see  that  there  is,  even  with  our  superlative  power, 
no  final  resolution  of  its  finer  parts  into  stars.  There  is  always 
the  background  of  unresolved  nebulosity  on  which  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  stars  are  studded — each  a  bright,  sharp,  separate 
point.  The  famous  cluster  in  Hercules  (where  Messier  declared 
he  saw  '  no  star ')  is  one  mass  of  separate  individual  points. 
The  central  glow  of  nebulosity  is  thoroughly  separated  into 
points.  I  have  been  specially  interested  in  looking  at  objects 
which  are  familiar  to  me  in  other  telescopes  and  in  comparing 
our  views  with  the  drawings  made  by  Lord  Rosse  with  his  giant 
6  foot  reflector.  Theoretically,  his  telescope  should  show  more 
than  ours,  for  his  collected  the  most  light.  But  the  definition 
(sharpness)  of  his  is  far  behind  our  own,  as  we  constantly  see. 
For  example,  the  ring  nebula  in  Lyra  is  drawn  by  Lord  Rosse 
with  no  central  star.  At  Washington,  one  small  star  can  be  seen 
in  the  midst  of  the  central  vacuity,  but  here  we  are  sure  of  seeing 
three  such  at  least.  These  are  interesting  on  account  of  their 
critical  situation  in  the  nebula,  not  simply  as  stars. 

"  The  great  Trifid  and  Omega  nebula;  are  wonderful  objects 
here.  'Not  only  is  a  vast  amount  of  detail  seen  here  which  can- 
not be  seen  elsewhere,  but  the  whole  aspect  of  them  is  changed. 
Many  points  that  are  doubtful  with  other  telescopes  are  perfectly 
simple  and  clear  here.  I  have  always  considered  that  one  of  the 
great  practical  triumphs  of  this  telescope  would  be  to  settle, 


once  for  all,  the  doubts  that  have  arisen  and  that  will  arise  else- 
where. Now,  I  am  sure  that  we  shall  be  able  to  do  this,  and  in 
a  way  to  end  controversy. 

"  Of  course  you  understand  that  the  period  of  construction 
here  is  not  yet  quite  over,  though,  I  am  thankful  to  say,  it  is 
nearly  ended.  We  have  been  making  our  observations,  so  far, 
under  great  disadvantages,  and  now  that  we  see  the  way  out  of 
most  of  them,  and  look  forward  to  work  uninterrupted  by 
machinists  and  constructors,  we  begin  to  realize  the  opportunity. 
It  really  takes  time  to  understand  how  to  utilize  it  in  the  very 
best  way.  A  great  telescope  is  not  like  an  opera-glass,  which 
can  be  taken  out  of  one's  pocket,  and  which  is  at  once  ready  for 
use.  It  is  a  delicate  and  a  complicated  machine,  which  demands 
a  whole  set  of  favourable  conditions  for  its  successful  use. 
Every  one  of  these  conditions  has  to  be  studied  and  understood, 
so  that  it  can  be  commanded  and  maintained.  We  have  been 
busy  night  and  day  in  this  work,  and  in  completing  the  thousand 
arrangements  and  contrivances  which  are  essential  in  order  to 
turn  this  vast  establishment  from  a  museum  of  idle  instruments 
into  a  busy  laboratory,  where  the  inner  secrets  of  the  sky  are  to 
be  studied.  We  feel  sure  now  that  in  a  comparatively  short 
period  we  shall  be  in  full  activity.  In  the  meantime  every  one 
of  us  is  doing  his  best  under  the  conditions. 

"  We  expect  to  open  the  Observatory  to  visitors  every  Saturday 
night  from  7  to  10  o'clock,  beginning  next  Saturday,  July  14. 

"Edward  S.  Holden." 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

Studies  from  the  Biological  Laboratory  of  Johns  Hopkins 
University,  vol.  iv.  No.  4,  June  1888. — On  the  life-history  of 
Epenthesis  mccraydi  (n.  sp. ),  by  W.  K.  Brooks,  Ph.D.  (plates 
13-15).  In  June  1887,  Dr.  Brooks  found  at  Nassau,  in  the 
Bahamas,  a  few  specimens  of  a  Hydromedusa  belonging  to  the 
Eucopidas,  bearing  upon  each  one  of  its  four  reproductive  organs  a 
number  of  Hydroid  blastostyles  from  which  young  Medusa?  were 
produced  by  budding  ;  a  method  of  reproduction  which  has  no 
parallel  among  the  Hydroids,  if,  indeed,  it  occurs  elsewhere  in 
the  animal  kingdom.  While  in  their  endless  diversity  the  Hydro- 
medusas  present  nearly  all  imaginable  phases  of  development, 
yet  in  all  hitherto  recorded  cases  the  life-history  of  each  species 
from  the  egg  to  the  second  generation  of  eggs  is  a  history  of 
progression,  but  this  Nassau  Medusa  is  an  exception  to  the 
general  rule  ;  the  bodies  which  are  carried  on  the  reproductive 
organs  of  the  Medusa  are  true  blastostyles,  so  that  there  is  a  re- 
capitulation of  larval  stages  without  sexual  reproduction.  This 
remarkable  form  had  on  its  first  discovery  been  referred  to 
Oceania,  but  is  really  an  Epenthesis.  The  Medusas  carry  on 
their  reproductive  organs  campanularian  Hydroid  blastostyles, 
inclosed  in  chitinous  gonangia.  These  blastostyles  do  not  multi- 
ply by  budding  or  from  Hydroid  cormi,  although  they  produce 
Medusas  by  budding.  The  ectoderm  of  the  blastostyle  is  produced 
by  ordinary  gemmation,  and  is  directly  continuous  with  the 
ectoderm  of  the  Medusa,  but  its  endoderm  has  no  direct  com- 
munication with  the  medusal  endoderm,  its  germ-cells  arising  by 
the  process  termed  sporogenesis  by  Metschnickoff. — Observations 
on  the  development  of  Cephalopods  :  homology  of  the  germ- 
layers,  by  S.  Watase  (plates  16  and  17).  In  this  most  important 
paper  the  history  of  the  formation  of  the  germ-layers  is  traced, 
and  many  disputed  points  are  settled.  —  On  the  development  of 
the  Eustachian  tube,  middle  ear,  tympanic  membrane,  and  meatus 
of  the  chick,  by  Dr.  F.  Mall  (plates  18  and  19).  Confirms  Prof. 
His's  demonstration,  controverted  by  Fol  and  others,  that  the 
branchial  clefts  are  not  fissures. — On  the  branchial  clefts  of  the 
dog,  with  special  reference  to  the  origin  of  the  thymus  gland, 
by  Dr.  F.  Mall  (plates  19-21). — On  experiments  with  chitin 
solvents,  by  T.  H.  Morgan.  Recommends  the  Labaraque  solution 
(potassium  hyperchlorite)  as  a  solvent  for  chitin. 

Notes  from  the  Leyden  Museum,  vol.  x.  No.  3,  July  1888. — 
Among  the  longer  articles  may  be  mentioned  : — On  the  Erotylidas 
of  the  Leyden  Museum,  by  the  Rev.  H.  S.  Gorham.  About 
seventeen  are  new,  including  four  for  which  it  has  been  necessary 
to  make  new  genera.  — On  some  new  Phytophagous  Coleoptera 
from  Brazil,  by  M.  Jacoby. — On  the  Shrews  of  the  Malayan 
Archipelago,  by  Dr.  F.  A.  Jentink.  — On  the  habits  and  anatomy 
of  Opisthocomus  cristalus,  by  Dr.  C.  G.  Young.  In  this  paper 
there  are  no  references  to  the  various  memoirs  already  published 
on  the  anatomy  of  this  bird. — On  some  new  or  little-known 
Longicorns  (Pachyte.ria),  by  C.  Ritsema. — On  birds  from  the 
Congo  and  South- Western  Africa,    F.  B.ittikofer. 


August  9,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


357 


Revue  (T Anthropologie,  troisieme  serie,  tome  iii.  troisieme  fasc. 
(Paris,  1888). — Report  on  the  excavations  made  in  the  bed  of  the 
Liane  in  1887  in  laying  the  foundations  for  a  viaduct,  by  Dr. 
E.  T.  Hamy.  The  mouth  of  this  river,  which  is  now  filled  with 
alluvial  deposits,  was  in  earlier  times  a  vast  estuary  opening  into 
the  Channel  ;  and  in  the  recently  completed  excavations  there  has 
been  found  a  mingled  mass  of  animal  bones,  with  metal  and 
pottery  fragments,  belonging  to  all  historic  ages,  from  Roman 
times  to  our  own,  while  the  deep  underlying  strata  recall,  in  their 
general  character  and  appearance,  Quaternary  formations. 
Besides  these  remains,  several  pieces  of  a  human  skeleton  have 
been  found,  including  the  cranium,  which  is  considered  by  M. 
Hamy  and  other  anatomists  as  belonging,  in  regard  to  its  essential 
characteristics,  to  the  oldest  Quaternary  cranial  type.  A  slight 
degree  of  prognathism  is  the  only  feature  of  inferiority  which  it 
presents,  and  it  in  no  way  resembles  the  Negro  or  Negroid  form. 
The  remarkable  elongation  of  all  the  bony  parts  in  a  vertical 
direction  may  be  regarded  as  the  special  peculiarity  of  this  skull, 
of  which  M.  Hamy  gives  numerous  measurements,  based  on  the 
system  adopted  in  the  Crania  Ethnica. — Continuation  of  an 
essay  on  the  stratigraphic  palaeontology  of  man,  by  M.  Marcellin 
1  Joule.  The  larger  portion  of  this  paper  treats  of  the  actual 
condition  of  palaeontological  research  in  England,  and  describes 
at  length  the  numerous  directions  in  which  light  has  been  thrown 
by  recent  British  geologists  on  the  effect  of  glacial  action  in 
determining  the  character  and  forms  of  the  predominant  geo- 
logical features  of  the  British  Isles.  The  writer  gives  unqualified 
praise  to  the  labours  of  Ramsay,  Geikie,  and  others,  lamenting, 
however,  that  in  regard  to  numerous  important  points  the  views 
of  the  leading  English  palaeontologists  pre.-.ent  great  divergencies. 
In  the  second  part  of  his  essay  M.  Boule  passes  in  review  the 
results  obtained  by  recent  investigations  of  the  traces  existing  in 
the  Alps  of  recurring  and  intermittent  glacial  periods.  In  this 
inquiry  he  has  made  special  use  of  Herr  Penck's  great  work, 
"Mensch  und  Eiszeit  "  (1884),  in  which  the  strongest  evidence 
is  brought  forward  in  proof  of  more  than  one  advance  and 
retrogression  of  glaciers  in  the  valley  of  the  Iller,  and  at  other 
points  of  the  Alpine  range.  These  views  have  been  confirmed 
by  M.  Blaas,  and  quite  recently  (1887)  by  M.  Baltzer,  and  with 
few  exceptions  they  have  been  generally  adopted  by  Continental 
geologists ;  M.  Falsan,  Prof.  Favre,  of  Geneva,  and  one  or  two 
others  alone  refusing  to  renounce  the  theory  of  one  sole  glacial 
period,  while,  however,  they  admit  the  possibility  of  the  oldest 
glaciers  having  experienced  more  or  less  prolonged  phases  of 
advance  and  retreat. — The  latest  stages  of  the  genealogy  of  man, 
by  M.  Topinard.  This  paper  embodies  the  concluding  and  most 
important  of  the  lectures  delivered  by  the  Professor  at  the  Paris 
School  of  Anthropology.  Beginning  with  the  Lemuridse,  he 
treats  of  the  grounds  on  which  this  animal  family  has  been 
included  by  some,  as  Cuvier,  under  the  Quadrumana,  while 
Linnaeus,  Huxley,  Broca,  &c,  class  them  with  the  Primates.  To 
the  latter  view  M.  Topinard  adheres,  while  he  agrees  generally 
with  Prof.  Huxley  in  including  three  groups  under  the  Primates, 
viz.  man,  the  Simians,  and  the  Lemurians,  the  second  group 
being  separated  into  numerous  divisions  and  subdivisions.  M. 
Topinard's  paper  is  interesting  as  a  full  and  unbiassed  exposition 
of  the  various  hypotheses  advanced  by  the  leaders  of  modern 
biological  inquiry  as  to  the  descent  of  man.  While  he  freely 
expresses  his  personal  aversion  to  the  views  of  Vogt,  which 
evidently  point  to  the  Ungulata  as  supplying  the  point  of  de- 
parture from  which  the  primary  source  of  man's  descent  emanated, 
he  does  ample  justice  to  the  great  value  of  his  labours,  and 
acknowledges  the  benefit  which  he  has  derived  from  following 
the  paths  of  inquiry  inaugurated  by  the  daring  German  physicist. 
Having  minutely  described  the  various  anatomical  characteristics 
which  are  common  to  man  and  to  different  mammalian  families, 
he  gives  his  reasons  for  believing  that  our  descent  is  derived 
from  the  Simiadse  through  a  long  series  of  intermediate  forms  of 
more  or  less  strongly-marked  anthropomorphic  character,  dating 
back  to  the  Miocene  age,  when  a  divergence  from  the  common 
type  may  have  appeared,  which,  widening  in  the  course  of  count- 
less ages,  has  resulted  in  developing  in  man  the  perfect  brain,  and 
the  maximum  of  differentiation  in  the  extremities  which  give  him 
his  place  in  Nature. — On  palaeontology  in  Austria-Hungary,  by 
M.  M.  Homes.  The  study  of  the  prehistoric  remains  of  their 
country  is  of  recent  date  among  Austrians,  since  the  Anthropo- 
logical Society  of  Vienna,  the  only  one  as  yet  incorporated  by 
them,  owes  its  origin  to  Rokitansky,  and  was  only  founded  in 
1870.  Since  that  period,  however,  highly  important  results  have 
bee.i  obtained  from  carefully  conducted  explorations  in  Carinthia 
rnd  Carniola,  where  the  discovery  of  vast  burying-grounds  and 


lacustrine  stations  has  thrown  much  light  on  the  condition  and 
degree  of  civilization  of  primaeval  man  in  South-Eastern 
Germany.  In  Lower  Austria  almost  all  isolated  hills  and 
mountains  present  evidence  of  Neolithic  occupation,  many  of 
them  still  retaining  megalithic  remains.  Dr.  Hornes's  article 
is  especially  interesting  as  showing  what  extensive,  still  almost 
-untrodden  tracts  are  being  opened  to  palaeontologists  in  different 
parts  of  the  Slavonian  and  Czeck  provinces  of  Austria  ;  while  his 
summary  of  the  results  already  achieved,  and  his  remarks  on  the 
ethnographic  character  of  the  primitive  peoples  by  whom  these 
regions  were  occupied  in  prehistoric  times,  throw  consider- 
able light  on  a  hitherto  obscure  department  of  European 
palaeontology. 

SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  June  7. — "Note  on  some  of  the  Motor 
Functions  of  certain  Cranial  Nerves  (V,  VII,  IX,  X,  XI,  XII), 
and  of  the  three  first  Cervical  Nerves,  in  the  Monkey  (A/acacus 
sinicus)."  By  Charles  E.  Beevor,  M.D.,  F.R.C.P.,  and  Victor 
Horsley,  B. S.,  F. R.S.  (From  the  Laboratory  of  the  Brown 
Institution.) 

In  the  course  of  an  investigation  which  we  are  making  into  the 
cortical  representation  of  the  muscles  of  the  mouth  and  throat, 
we  have  experienced  considerable  difficulty  in  describing 
correctly  the  movements  of  these  parts,  especially  when  there 
was  any  question  of  bilateral  action  occurring. 

On  referring  to  text-books  we  failed  to  find  any  solution  of 
this  difficulty,  and  we  therefore  determined  to  make  a  few 
observations  of  the  movements  evoked  by  stimulating  the  several 
cranial  nerves  supplying  this  region  in  the  monkey,1  so  as  to  have 
a  definite  basis  whereon  to  ground  our  observations  of  the 
movements  obtained  by  stimulating  the  cortex. 

In  the  course  of  this  work  we  have  observed  several  facts 
which  do  not  harmonize  with  the  views  hitherto  generally 
received. 

The  results  are  summarized  as  follows  : — 

Method  of  Investigation. 

The  conclusions  we  have  arrived  at  are  based  almost 
entirely  upon  the  results  obtained  by  exciting  the  respective 
nerves  at  the  base  of  the  cranial  cavity  after  separating  them 
from  the  bulb. 

We  have  also  stimulated  the  nerves  outside  the  skull  in  the 
neck  both  before  and  after  division.  - 

In  every  case  the  animal  was  narcotized  with  ether.  In  all  we 
have  done  eight  experiments,  and  in  every  case  we  have 
operated  on  the  same  kind  of  monkey,  i.e.  Macacus  sinicus. 

The  nerves  were  in  each  case  raised  up  from  their  position  and 
stimulated  in  the  air  by  a  faradic  current  through  fine  platinum 
electrodes,  the  area  of  the  operation  having  been  gently  dried. 

The  current  employed  was  from  the  secondary  coil  of  an 
ordinary  du  Bois-Reymond  inductorium,  supplied  by  a  1  litre 
bichromate  cell.  The  experiment  was  carefully  begun  with  the 
secondary  coil  at  a  distance  of  30  cm.  from  the  primary,  this 
interval  being  very  rarely  diminished  to  more  than  15  cm.  (zero 
being  of  course  the  point  where  the  secondary  coil  completely 
overlaps  the  primary). 

Further  Observations  respecting  the  Examination  of  each  Nerve. 
A.   Cranial  Division. 

Vlh  Nerve. — Excitation  of  the  motor  root  of  the  trigeminus 
evoked  powerful  closure  of  the  jaws,  and  although  the  muscles 
of  one  side  only  were  in  action,  the  teeth  were  approximated 
without  any  lateral  deviation  of  the  lower  jaw. 

Vllth  Nerve. — The  motor  distribution  of  the  facial  nerve  has 
for  the  most  part  been  well  known  for  some  time.  However,  we 
consider  that,  unfortunately,  a  very  fundamental  error  respecting 
this  distribution  has  crept  into  the  text-books,  it  being  supported 
by  one  anatomical  authority  following  another,  and,  moreover, 
having  been  accepted  by  clinicians  as  an  important  aid  in  the 
differential  diagnosis  of  facial  paralysis.  We  refer  to  the  supposed 
supply  of  motor  fibres  from  the  facial  to  the  levator  palati 
through  the  superficial  petrosal  nerve. 

This   idea,2   upon   which   so   much   stress   has   been   laid,  is 

1  Previcus  observers  having  employed  animals  of  lower  orders. 

2  Without  definitely  supporting  this  view,  Gaskell  (Roy.  Soc.  Proc, 
vol.  xliii.  p.  390)  shows  that  some  large  ''  somatic"  nerve-fibres  leave  the  facial 
nerve  between  its  origin  from  the  bulb  and  its  exit  from  the  stylo- 
mastoid foramen.  He  suggests  that  some  of  them  may  possibly  form  a 
nerve  to  supply  the  levator  palati,  but  he  leaves  their  real  destination 
undetermined. 


358 


NATURE 


[August  9,  i 


entirely  hypothetical,  as  might  have  been  shown  at  any  time  by 
stimulating  the  facial  nerve  in  the  skull,  and  observing  the  soft 
palate. 

We  have  found  that  stimulation  of  the  peripheral  end  of  the 
■divided  facial  nerve  in  the  internal  auditory  meatus  failed  to 
•cause  even  with  most  powerful  currents  the  slightest  movement 
of  the  soft  palate,  although  the  face  was  thrown  into  violent 
spasm.  The  true  motor  nerve  supply  of  the  levator  palati  is, 
according  to  our  observations,  the  Xlth  nerve  {vide  infra). 

IXth  Ne7~ve.  Glossopharyngeal.—  After  exciting  this  nerve,  in 
addition  to  the  movements  of  the  pharynx,  which  we  attribute  to 
the  contraction  of  the  stylopharyngeus,  and  possibly  to  the 
middle  constrictor  of  the  pharynx,  we  have  observed  certain 
movements  of  the  palate,  as  follows  :— (i)  Stimulation  of  the 
nerve  while  beneath  the  stylo-hyoid  ligament  and  uncut,  gave  in 
two  instances  elevation  of  the  palate  on  the  same  side,  and  in 
one  instance  on  both  sides.  We  suppose  that  everyone  will 
consider  with  us  this  movement  to  be  reflex  in  origin,  but  we 
must  add  (2)  that  in  one  case  we  saw  elevation  of  the  palate  to 
the  same  side  when  exciting  the  peripheral  end  of  the  cut 
nerve.  In  this  latter  case,  perhaps,  the  result  may  be  explained 
by  the  close  neighbourhood  of  the  pharyngeal  plexus  and  the 
possible  e  cape  of  current  thereto,  and  under  any  circumstances 
this  is  but  a  single  exceptional  observation,  so  that  we  lay  no 
stress  upon  it.  Finally  we  never  saw  movement  of  the  soft 
palate  when  the  glossopharyngeal  nerve  was  stimulated  wiihin 
the  cranial  cavity. 

Xth  Nerve.  Vagus. — In  stimulating  the  uncut  nerve  outside 
the  skull,  below  the  level  of  its  junction  with  the  hypoglossal, 
rhythmical  movements  of  swallowing  were  produced,  which 
•occurred  at  the  rate  of  twenty-five  times  in  thirty-five  seconds. 

In  one  observation  all  the  constrictors  of  the  pharynx  were 
thiown  into  action,  when  the  peripheral  end  of  the  cut  nerve 
was  stimulated  outside  the  skull. 

The  rhythmical  movements  of  swallowing  obtained  by  stimu- 
lating this  nerve  must  be  due  to,  of  course,  the  simple  reflex,  the 
stimulus  acting  on  the  nerve  in  the  centripatal  direction,  and 
that  this  was  the  case  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  no  movement  was 
obtained  when  the  peripheral  end  of  the  cut  nerve  was  stimulated 
inside  the  skull. 

The  superior  laryngeal  branch  on  being  stimulated  gave 
rhythmical  movements  of  swallowing  at  the  rate  of  seventeen 
times  in  fifteen  seconds,  but  when  the  nerve  was  cut  and  its 
peripheral  end  stimulated,  only  very  slight  movement  was  pro- 
duced in  the  larynx,  evidently  by  contraction  of  the  crico-thyroid 
muscle. 

Xlth  Nerve.  Accessory  to  Vagus.— In  discussing  the  motor 
functions  of  the  Vllth  nerve,  we  stated  that  the  hitherto  received 
idea  of  the  soft  palate  being  supplied  by  the  facial  nerve  was, 
according  to  our  observations,  entirely  erroneous.  We  find  that 
the  levator  palati  is  supplied  entirely  by  the  Xlth  nerve.1 
When  the  peripheral  end  of  the  cut  nerve  was  stimulated  inside 
the  skull,  elevation  of  the  soft  palate  on  the  same  side  was 
invariably  seen.  The  path  by  which  the  fibres  from  this  nerve 
reach  the  palate  is  probably  through  the  upper  branch  of  the 
pharyngeal  plexus. 

Xllth  Nerve.  Hypoglossal— When  the  entire  nerve  was 
excited  outside  the  skull,  just  below  the  point  where  it  is  joined 
by  the  first  cervical  nerve,  the  tongue  was  flattened  posteriorly 
on  the  same  side,  and  the  tip  protruded  also  on  the  same  side, 
while  in  no  case  was  there  any  heaping  up  of  the  tongue. 

At  the  same  time  the  depressors  of  the  hyoid  bone  were 
thrown  into  action,  and  in  some  cases  this  dragging  downwards 
of  the  hyoid  completely  prevented  the  tongue  from  being 
protruded. 

The  movements  described  above  were  repeated  without  alter- 
ation when  the  peripheral  end  of  the  cut  nerve  was  excited  at 
the  same  place. 

It  must  be  particularly  noted  that  the  movements  of  the  tongue 
were  purely  uni-lateral,  and  this  was  proved  to  be  the  case 
beyond  doubt  by  two  experiments,  in  which  the  tongue  was 
divided  longitudinally  in  the  middle  line  to  the  hyoid  bone,  when 
the  movements  were  seen  to  be  entirely  confined  to  the  side 
stimulated. 

When  the  cut  nerve  was  excited  within  the  skull  a  different 
result  was  obtained,  the  tongue  was  flattened  behind,  and  pro- 
truded towards  the  same  side,  but  there  was  no  action  in  the 
depressors  of  the  hyoid. 

1  I  desire  to  add  here  that  Dr.  Felix  Semon,  in  the  course  of  some  experi- 
ments (unpublished),  performed  in  conjunction  with  myself,  found  that  in  the 
dog  the  levator  palati  was  innervated  by  the  Xlth  nerve.— V.  H. 


It  has  always  been  held  that  the  depressors  of  the  hyoid  bone 
receive  their  motor  nerve  supply  from  the  hypoglossal  through 
the  descendens  noni,  but,  as  will  be  shown  further  on,  according 
to  our  observation,  these  muscles  are  supplied  by  the  first  and 
second  cervical  nerves,  and  it  is  only  when  the  hypoglossal  is 
stimulated  below  the  point  where  it  is  joined  by  the  branch  from 
the  first  cervical  nerve,  that  any  movement  is  produced  in  the 
depressors  of  the  hyoid. 

B.   Spinal  Division. 
Our  observations  of  the   motor   functions  of  the  first   three 
cervical  nerves  as  regards  their  influence  on  the  hyoidean  muscles 
have  been  made  when  the  nerves  have  been  excited — 
(a)  In  the  spinal  canal. 

{b)  In  the  neck  immediately  upon  their  exit  from  between  the 
vertebral  transverse  processes. 

The  nerves  in  the  spinal  canal  were  separated  from  the  spinal 
cord  and  thoroughly  dried,  the  efficacy  of  the  precautions  taken 
against  spread  being  evidenced  by  the  difference  in  result 
obtained  by  exciting  each  root. 

The  effects  obtained  by  the  methods  a  and  b  were  identical. 
1st  Cervical  Nerve.  Branch  of  Union  with  the  Hypoglossal.— 
In  the  description  of  the  Xllth  cranial  nerve,  we  have  stated  as 
the  result  of  our  experiments  that  the  depressors  of  the  hyoid  bone 
are  not  thrown  into  action  when  this  nerve  is  stimulated  within 
the  skull.  On  carefully  dissecting  out  the  branch  from  the  1st 
cervical  nerve  to  the  hypoglossal  we  find  on  excitation  of  it  that 
there  is  no  movement  in  the  tongue,  but  the  depressors  of  the 
hyoid  bone  are  strongly  contracted.  Of  these  muscles  the 
sterno-hyoid  and  sterno-thyroid  were  always  especially  affected, 
while  the  omo-hyoid  was  less  frequently  seen  to  contract  and  in 
some  cases  not  at  all.  In  the  cases  where  this  muscle  contracted, 
in  one  experiment  the  anterior  belly  alone  acted,  and  when  both 
bellies  contracted  the  movement  in  the  anterior  was  in  excess  of 
the  posterior. 

J  2nd  Cervical.  Branch  to  the  Descendens  Noni. — On  stimu- 
lating this  nerve  the  depressors  of  the  hyoid  were  thrown  into 
action,  but  the  muscles  involved  were  not  affected  in  the  same 
way  as  was  the  case  with  the  1st  cervical  nerve.  The  muscle 
which  was  most  constantly  set  in  action  by  excitation  of  the  Ilnd 
cervical  nerve  was  the  omo-hyoid  and  especially  its  posterior 
belly.  The  sterno-hyoid  and  sterno-thyroid  also  took  part  in  de- 
pressing the  hyoid  bone,  but  it  was  especially  remarked  in  half 
the  cases,  that  their  action  was  notably  less  powerful  than  that  of 
the  omo-hyoid.  In  one  experiment  in  which  a  very  weak 
current  was  employed,  the  omo-hyoid  was  alone  seen  to  contract. 
We  are  consequently  led  to  conclude  that  while  the  sterno-hyoid, 
sterno-thyroid,  and  omo-hyoid  muscles  are  all  set  in  action  by 
excitation  of  the  1st  and  Ilnd  cervical  nerves,  the  first  two 
muscles  are  relatively  supplied  by  the  former  nerve,  while  the 
Ilnd  nerve  is  especially  connected  with  the  omo-hyoid  muscle. 

Descendens  Noni. — We  prefer  to  mention  here  the  results  of 
exciting  this  nerve,  inasmuch  as  we  regard  its  motor  fibres  to  be 
derived  entirely  from  the  1st  and  Ilnd  cervical  nerves.  This 
nerve  (ordinarily  regarded  as  a  branch  of  the  Xllth  cranial), 
when  stirhulated  above  its  junction  with  the  branch  from  the  Ilnd 
cervical  nerve,  produced  contraction  of  the  sterno-hyoid  and 
sterno-thyroid  muscles,  and  where  the  current  employed  was 
weak  there  was  no  contraction  of  the  omo-hyoid,  but  this 
movement  was  superadded  on  increasing  the  strength  of  the 
current. 

We  ought  here  to  mention  the  opinion  held  by  Volkmann  (loc. 
cit.)  that  fibres  ascend  to  the  hypoglossal  from  the  spinal  rami 
communicantes  by  the  descendens  noni. 

Illrd  Cervical  Nerve.  — On  stimulating  the  branch  from  this 
nerve,  which  forms  the  Ilnd  cervical  nerve  just  before  the  ansa 
thus  formed  is  connected  to  the  descendens  noni,  there  was  no 
action  seen  in  the  depressor  of  the  hyoid  bone  ;  it  therefore  seems 
certain  that  these  muscles  are  supplied  with  motor  fibres  solely  by 
the  branches  from  the  1st  and  Ilnd  cervical  nerves. 

June  14.  — "  On  Meldrum's  Rules  for  Handling  Ships  in  the 
Southern  Indian  Ocean."  By  Hon.  Ralph  Abercromby, 
F.R.Met.Soc.  Communicated  by  R.  H.  Scott,  F.R.S. 
The  results  of  this  paper  may  be  summarized  as  follows  :  — 
The  author  examines  critically  certain  rules  given  by  Mr.  C. 
Meldrum  for  handling  ships  during  hurricanes  in  the  South 
Indian  Ocean,  by  means  both  of  published  observations  and 
from  personal  inspection  of  many  unpublished  records  in  the 
Observatory  at  Mauritius.      The  result  confirms  the  value  of 


August  9, 


1888] 


NA  TURE 


359 


Mr.  Meldrum's  rules ;  and  the  author  then  develops  certain 
explanations,  which  have  been  partially  given  by  Meldrum,  adds 
slightly  to  the  rules  for  handling  ships,  and  correlates  the  whole 
with  the  modern  methods  of  meteorology. 

As  an  example,  a  hurricane  is  taken  which  blew  near  Mau- 
ritius on  February  11,  12,  and  13,  1861,  and  the  history  of 
every  ship  to  which  the  rules  might  apply  is  minutely  investi- 
gated. The  result,  dividing  Meldrum's  rules  shortly  into  three 
parts,  is  as  follows  : — 

Rule  1.  Lie  to  with  increasing  south-east  wind  till  the  baro- 
meter has  fallen  6-ioths  of  an  inch.  Seven  cases,  lule  right  in 
every  case. 

Rule  2.  Run  to  north-west  when  the  barometer  has  fallen 
6-ioths  of  an  inch.     Three  cases,  two  failures,  one  success. 

Rule  3.  Lie  to  with  increasing  north-east  or  east  wind,  and  a 
falling  barometer.     Seven  cases,  rule  right  in  every  instance. 

Rule  2  was  exceptionally  unfortunate  in  this  case,  as  the  path 
of  the  central  vortex  moved  in  a  very  uncommon  and  irregular 
manner.  At  the  same  time,  in  any  case,  it  appears  to  be  about 
equally  hazardous  to  follow  this  rule  or  to  remain  hove  to. 

The  following  new  statements  are  then  examined  in  detail  : — 

The  shape  of  all  hurricanes  is  usually  oval,  not  circular.  An 
elaborate  examination  is  made  of  hurricanes  on  60  different  days, 
in  18  different  tropical  cyclones  in  various  parts  of  the  world, 
with  the  following  results  : — 

(1)  Out  of  60  days,  cyclones  were  apparently  circular  on  only 
four  occasions,  and  then  the  materials  are  very  scanty. 

(2)  The  shape  was  oval  on  the  remaining  56  days,  but  the 
ratio  of  the  longer  and  shorter  diameter  of  the  ovals  very  rarely 
exceeded  2  to  1. 

(3)  The  centres  of  the  cyclones  were  usually  displaced  towards 
some  one  side.  No  rule  can  be  laid  down  for  the  direction  of 
displacement,  and  in  fact  the  direction  varies  during  the  pro- 
gress of  the  same  cyclone.  The  core  of  a  hurricane  is  nearly  as 
oval  as  any  other  portion. 

(4)  The  longer  diameter  of  the  ovals  may  lie  at  any  angle 
with  reference  to  the  path  of  the  cyclone ;  but  a  considerable 
proportion  lie  nearly  in  the  same  line  as  the  direction  of  the 
path. 

(5)  The  association  of  wind  with  the  oval  form  is  such  that 
the  direction  of  the  wind  is  usually  more  or  less  along  the  iso- 
bars, and  more  or  less  incurved.  This  is  the  almost  invariable 
relation  of  wind  to  isobars  all  over  the  world. 

From  an  examination  of  the  whole  it  is  proved  conclusively 
that  no  rule  is  possible  for  determining  more  than  approximately 
the  position  of  the  central  vortex  of  a  cyclone  by  any  observa- 
tions at  a  single  station. 

The  relation  of  a  hurricane  to  the  south-east  traie  is  then 
discussed,  and  it  is  shown  that  there  is  always  what  may  be 
called  "  a  belt  of  intensified  trade  wind  "  on  the  southern  side  of 
a  cyclone,  while  the  hurricane  is  mjving  westwards.  In  this 
belt  a  ship  experiences  increasing  south-east  winds  and  squalls 
of  rain,  with  a  falling  barometer,  but  is  not  within  the  true  storm 
field.  The  difficulties  and  uncertainties  as  to  handling  a  ship  in 
this  belt  are  greatly  increased  by  the  facts  that  the  longer  diame- 
ter of  the  oval  form  of  the  cyclones  usually  lies  east  and  west, 
and  that  there  is  no  means  of  telling  towards  which  side  of  the 
oval  the  vortex  is  displaced. 

The  greater  incurvature  of  the  wind  in  rear  than  in  front  of 
hurricanes  in  the  Southern  Indian  Ocean  is  next  considered,  and 
then  facts  are  collected  from  other  hurricane  countries  confirma- 
tory of  Meldrum's  rules  for  the  Mauritius. 

Knipping  and  Doberck  in  the  China  Seas  find  little  incurva- 
ture of  the  wind  in  front,  but  much  in  rear  of  typhoons. 

Mr.  Willson  finds  in  the  Bay  of  Bengal  that  north-east  winds 
prevail  over  many  degrees  of  longitude  to  the  north,  i.e.  in  front 
a  cyclone  ;  and  this  is  analogous  to  the  belt  of  intensified  trade 
so  characteristic  of  Mauritius  hurricanes. 

Padre  Vifiez  finds  at  Havana  that  the  incurvature  of  hurricane 
winds  is  very  slight  in  front,  and  very  great  in  rear. 

The  author  then  details  further  researches  on  the  nature  of 
cyclones,  which  bear  on  the  rules  for  handling  ships. 

(1)  Indications  derived  from  the  form  and  motion  of  clouds. 
It  is  shown  that  the  direction  of  the  lower  clouds  is  usually  more 
nearly  eight  points  from  the  bearing  of  the  vortex  than  the  sur- 
face wind  ;  but  as  the  direction  varies  with  the  height  of  the 
clouds,  and  as  this  height  can  only  be  estimated,  this  fact  is  not 
of  much  value. 

(2)  Looking  at  the  vertical  succession  of  wind  currents,  if  the 
march  of  the  upper  clouds  over  the  south-east  trade  is  more  from 


the  east,  then  the  cyclone  will  pass  to  the  north  of  the  observer  : 
but  if  the  upper  clouds  move  more  from  the  south  than  the 
surface  wind,  then  the  hurricane  will  pass  to  the  south  of  the 
observer. 

(3)  As  to  the  form  and  position  of  clouds :  so  soon  as  the 
upper  regions  commence  to  be  covered,  the  direction  in  which 
the  cirrus  veil  is  densest  gives  approximately  the  bearing  of  the 
vortex.  Later  on,  the  characteristic  cloud  bank  of  the  hurricane 
appears,  and  the  greatest  and  heaviest  mass  of  the  bank  will 
appear  sensibly  in  the  direction  of  the  vortex. 

The  irregular  motion  of  the  centre  of  a  cyclone  is  next  dis- 
cussed, and  it  is  shown  that  the  centre  often  twists  and  sways 
about,  in  some  cases  even  describing  a  small  loop. 

From  this  and  other  facts  it  is  shown  that  the  attempts  which 
have  been  made — 

(1)  To  estimate  the  track  of  a  cyclone  by  projection. 

(2)  To  estimate  the  distance  of  a  ship  from  the  vortex,  either 
by  taking  into  account  the  entire  absolute  fall,  or  by  noting  the 
rate  of  fall,  can  lead  to  no  useful  result. 

A  series  of  revised  rules  for  handling  ships  in  hurricanes  is 
given.  Comparing  these  with  the  older  oms  it  will  be 
remarked — 

(1)  That  the  rule  for  finding  approximately  the  bearing  of  the 
vortex  is  slightly  modified. 

(2)  That  the  great  rules  of  the  "laying  to"  tacks  remain 
unaltered. 

(3)  That  the  greatest  improvement  is  the  recognition  of  the 
position  and  nature  of  the  belt  of  intensified  trade  wind  on  the 
dangerous  side  of  a  hurricane,  where  a  ship  experiences  increas- 
ing wind,  without  change  of  direction,  and  a  falling  barometer. 
The  old  idea  that  such  conditions  show  that  a  vessel  is  their 
necessarily  exactly  on  the  line  of  advance  of  a  hurricane  is- 
erroneous.  She  may,  but  she  need  not  be  ;  and  under  no  cir- 
cumstances should  she  run  till  the  barometer  has  fallen  at  least 
6-ioths  of  an  inch. 

(4)  There  are  certain  rules  which  hold  for  all  hurricanes  ;  but 
every  district  has  a  special  series,  due  to  its  own  local  peculiari- 
ties. Those  for  the  South  Indian  Ocean  are  given  in  this- 
paper. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  July  23. — M.  Janssen,  President,, 
in  the  chair. — The  President  announced  the  death,  on  July  19, 
of  M.  H.  Debray,  member  of  the  Section  of  Chemistry,  whose 
name  will  always  be  remembered  in  connection  with  the  laws 
determining  the  tension  of  dissociation,  the  density  of  the  vapour 
of  sulphur,  and  other  researches  throwing  much  light  on  many 
obscure  chemical  phenomena. — Note  on  target  practice,  by  M. 
J.  Bertrand.  In  continuation  of  his  previous  communication 
(Comptes  rendus  of  February  6,  1888),  the  author  here  shows 
that  the  actual  results  of  1000  experimental  shots  correspond' 
closely  with  the  theory  as  expressed  by  the  general  equation 
klx*-  +  2\xy  +  k'1yl  =  H.  The  practice  was  at  a  distance  of 
200  metres  with  ten  rifles  of  like  model,  each  marksman  firing 
ten  shots  with  each  rifle.  —  Remarks  on  the  quantitative  analysis- 
of  nitrogen  in 'vegetable  soil,  by  MM.  Berthelot  and  G.  Andre. 
The  analysis  of  nitrogen  in  ground  containing  nitrates  presents 
some  apparent  difficulty.  But  the  results  of  the  researches  here 
described  show  that  in  the  case  of  ground  poor  in  nitrates,  the 
analysis  may  be  safely  and  rapidly  executed  with  a  blend  of  lime 
and  soda. — On  the  luminous  bridges  observed  during  the  transits 
and  occultations  of  the  satellites  of  Jupiter,  by  M.  Ch.  Andre. 
As  in  the  transits  of  Venus,  these  optical  phenomena  are  here 
shown  to  be  entirely  due  to  the  optical  surfaces  of  the  instruments 
modifying  the  direction  of  the  luminous  waves.  They  are,  in 
fact,  a  result  of  diffraction  in  the  instruments  of  observation. — 
Measurement  of  the  coefficients  of  thermic  conductibility  for 
metals,  by  M.  Alphonse  Berget.  The  author  here  applies  to  red 
copper,  brass,  and  iron,  the  same  method  he  has  already  adopted' 
for  mercury  (Comptes  rendus,  July  25,  1887,  and  July  16,  1888), 
with  the  following  results  :  red  copper,  h  =  1  0405  ;  brass, 
k  —  0*2625  ;  iron,  k  =  0*1587. — Magnetic  determinations  in  the 
basin  of  the  West  Mediterranean,  by  M.  Th.  Moureaux.  Having 
been  charged  by  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  to  collect  the 
elements  needed  for  the  preparation  of  magnetic  charts  for  this 
region,  the  author  obtained  in  the  period  from  April  19  to  June 
25,  1887,  as  many  as  ninety  measures  of  declination  and  fifty- 
nine  of  inclination  for  fifty-two  stations.  The  results  are  here 
tabulated  for  these  stations,  of  which  four  are  in  Corsica,  three 
in  Italy;  two  in  Malta,  one  in  Tripoli,  seven  in  Tunisia,  twenty- 


360 


NA  TURE 


{August  9,  1888 


five  in  Algeria,  one  in  Morocco,  eight  in  Spain,  and  one  in 
France.  In  a  future  communication  will  be  given  the  magnetic 
charts  constructed  from  these  observations. — Analysis  of  the 
Nile  waters,  by  M.  A.  Muntz.  At  the  request  of  M.  Antoine 
d'Abbadie,  the  author  has  examined  several  specimens  with  a 
view  to  determining  the  proportion  of  nitrates  contained  in  these 
marvellously  fertilizing  waters.  The  results  show  that,  while  the 
proportion  is  variable,  it  does  not  exceed  or  even  equal  that 
found  in  the  Seine  and  some  other  rivers.  The  analysis  gives 
4-02  mgr.  per  litre  for  nitric  acid,  which  is  derived  partly 
from  the  soil,  partly  from  the  tropical  rains  which  cause  the 
periodical  floods.  The  nitrates  are  not  regarded  as  the  chief 
cause  of  the  great  fertility  of  Egypt,  which  is  more  probably  due 
to  the  chemical  properties  of  the  sedimentary  matter  deposited  at 
each  recurring  inundation. —  Researches  on  some  salts  of  rhodium, 
by  M.  E.  Leidie.  The  author  here  determines  the  constituents 
and  formulas  of  the  chloronitrate  of  rhodium  and  ammonia,  the 
sulphate  of  rhodium  sesquioxide,  the  oxalates  of  rhodium  and 
potassium,  of  rhodium  and  sodium,  of  rhodium  and  ammonium, 
and  of  rhodium  and  barium.- — On  a  new  method  of  quantitative 
analysis  for  the  lithine  contained  in  a  large  number  of  mineral 
waters,  by  M.  A.  Carnot.  The  process  here  described  is  effected 
by  means  of  the  fluorides,  and  is  based  especially  on  their 
different  degrees  of  solubility. — On  the  chloride,  bromide,'  and 
sulphide  of  yttrium  and  sodium,  by  M.  A.  Duboin.  The 
paper  deals  with  the  preparation  and  properties  of  the  crystallized 
anhydrous  chloride  and  bromide  of  yttrium,  and  the  crystallized 
sulphide  of  yttrium  and  sodium. — On  the  quantitative  analysis  of 
glycerine  by  oxidation,  by  M.  Victor  Planchon.  A  detailed 
account  is  given  (with  further  applications)  of  Messrs.  Fox  and 
Wanklyn's  new  process  of  analysis,  based  on  the  fact  that 
glycerine,  oxidized  by  the  permanganate  of  potassa  in  a  strong 
alkaline  solution,  is  transformed  to  water,  carbonic  acid,  and 
oxalic  acid,  according  to  the  equation  given  in  the  Chemical 
Neivs  of  January  8,  1886.—  On  anagyrine,  by  MM.  E.  Haniyand 
N.  Gallois.  The  authors  claim  to  have  first  discovered  this 
extract  of  Anagyris  fcetida,  a  poisonous  leguminous  plant  ranging 
over  the  whole  of  the  Mediterranean  basin.  They  here  describe 
its  toxic  properties,  and  determine  the  formula  of  anagyrine  as 
C14H18N202. — Action  of  aniline  on  epichlorhydrine,  by  M.  Ad. 
Fauconnier.  Some  months  ago  the  author  announced  that  he 
had  obtained  by  the  action  of  aniline  on  epichlorhydrine  an 
oleaginous  base,  the  chlorhydrate  of  which  corresponds  to  the 
formula  C]5H20N2Cl2O.  He  has  since  prepared  this  base  in  the 
crystallized  state,  and  has  also  obtained  some  derivatives,  which 
have  enabled  him  to  determine  its  constitution  and  true  formula, 
C3H5(OH)(NH.C6H8)2.  Instead  of  dianilglycerine,  as  first 
suggested,  he  now  proposes  to  call  this  base  oxipropylene- 
diphenyldiamine,  which  has  the  advantage  of  indicating  its 
composition. — M.  Pierre  Zalocostas  describes  the  constitution  of 
spongine  ;  MM.  Arm.  Gautier  and  L.  Mourgues  deil  with  the 
volatile  alkaloids  of  cod-liver  oil  (butylatnine,  amylamine, 
hexylamine,  dihydrolutidine)  ;  M.  Massol  gives  a  process  for 
neutralizing  malonic  acid  by  means  of  the  soluble  bases  ;  and 
M.  H.  Moissan  describes  the  method  of  preparation  and  the 
properties  of  the  fluoride  of  ethyl. 

Berlin.  153    . 

Physiological  Society,  July  20. — Prof,  du  Bois-Reymond, 
President,  in  the  chair. — Dr.  Benda  explained  his  views  on  the 
structure  of  striated  muscle-fibres  in  connection  with  the  state- 
ments recently  laid  before  the  Society  by  van  Gehnchten.  He 
took  as  his  starting-point  the  wing-muscles  of  insects,  which  are 
composed  of  fibrillar  permeated  by  transverse  partitions  ;  each 
division  of  the  fibre  consists  of  a  hollow  cylinder  of  isotropic 
substance  filled  with  contractile  anisotropic  material.  The 
latter  shrinks  under  the  influence  of  reagents,  leaving  above  and 
below  a  disk  of  isotropic  substance.  In  the  muscles  of  the  body 
in  insects,  and  in  those  of  the  higher  animals,  the  isotropic  disks 
of  neighbouring  fibrillar  are  fused  into  continuous  layers,  between 
which  the  small  cylinders  of  anisotropic  substance  run  perpen- 
dicularly. When  the  muscles  are  resolved  by  the  action  of 
reagents  into  Bowman's  disks,  the  cleavage  of  the  fibrils  takes 
place  either  across  the  anisotropic  cylinders  or  the  isotropic 
disks. — Dr.  Heymans  spoke  on  the  relative  toxicity  of  oxalic, 
malonic,  succinic,  and  methyl-succinic  acids,  and  of  their  sodium 
salts.  He  had  been  requested  by  Prof.  Henry,  who  had  studied 
the  chemical  and  physical  properties  of  these  acids,  to  investigate 
the  relative  toxic  action  of  this  series  of  acids,  and  had  found 
that  the  strongest  acid — namely,  oxalic — was  the  most  poisonous. 


One  milligramme  of  this  acid  sufficed  to  kill  a  frog;  of  malonic  acid, 
whose  physiological  action,  as  well  as  that  of  methyl-succinic 
acid,  had  not  been  investigated,  2  to  3  mgr.  were  necessary;  of 
succinic  acid,  3  to  4  mgr.;  and  of  methyl-succinic  acid,  6  to  7  mgr. 
The  toxic  action  of  the  acids  diminished  thus  as  the  molecular 
weight  increased.  When  the  sodium  salts  of  these  acids  were 
used  instead  of  the  free  acids,  the  toxicity  was  the  same  in  the 
case  of  oxalic  acid,  but  was  much  less  in  the  case  of  the  other 
three  acids. — Dr.  Sklarek  gave  an  account  of  the  recently 
published  observations  of  Weismann  and  Ischikawa  on  partial 
impregnation  of  the  Daphnidse. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Symons's  British  Rainfall  1887  :  G.  J.  Symons  (Stanford). — Mediaeval 
Researches  from  Eastern  Asiatic  Sources,  2  vols.  :  E.  Bretschn eider  (Triibner). 
— My  Microscope,  second  edition  :  by  a  Quekett  Club  Man  (Roper  and 
Drowley). — The  Fauna  of  British  India,  Mammalia :  W.  T.  Iilanford 
(Taylor  and  Francis).  —  Schriften  der  Physikalisch-Okonomischen  Gesellschaft 
zu  Konigsberg  i.  Pr.,  1887  (Konigsberg). — Maps  Nos.  3  to  7  to  accompany 
Annual  Report  of  the  Geological  and  Natural  History  Survey  of  Canada, 
vol.  ii.  1886  (Dawson,  Montreal). — Fauna  der  Gaskohle  und  der  Kalksteine 
der  Permformation  Bohmens  ;  Band  ii.  Heft  3,  Die  Lurchfische,  Dipnoi  : 
Dr.  Ant.  Fritsch  (Prag).  —  Beobachtungs-Ergebmsse  der  Norvvegischen 
Polarstation  Bossekop  in  Alten,  ii.  Theil  (Grondahl,  Christiania). — The 
Education  of  the  Imagination:  C.  H.  Hinton  (Sonnenschein). — Many 
Dimensions,  C.  H.  Hinton  (Sonnenschein). — Die  Siisswasserbryozoen 
Bohmens:  J.  Kafka  (Prag).  —  Archives  Italiennes  de  Biologie,  Tome  x. 
Fasc.  i.  (Turin). — Journal  of  the  Trenton  Natural  History  Society,  No.  3 
(Trenton,  N.J.).  —  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  Impe'riale  des  Naturalistes  de 
Moscou,  No.  2,  i888(Moscou). — Transactions  of  the  New  Zealand  Institute, 
vol.  xx. ,  1887. 


CONTENTS.  page 

The    Zoological    Results    of    the    Challenger    Expe- 
dition        337 

Matthew  Fontaine  Maury.     By  E.  Douglas  Archi- 
bald        339 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Masters:  "  Pflanzen-Teratologie  " 341 

Simpson:   "  Parish  Patches  " 341 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

Functionless  Organs. — The  Duke  of  Argyll,  F.R.S.  341 

Syrrhaptes  paradoxus. — Dr.  A.  B.  Meyer 342 

Milk  v.  Fire. — F.  M.  Wickramasingha 342 

The  Red  Spot  on  Jupiter. — W.  F.  Denning     ...  342 

Circles  of  Light. — Edmund  Catchpool 342 

Michell's  Problem.— Joseph  Kleiber 342 

Cloud    Electric    Potential.— Prof.    J.    D.    Everett, 

F.R.S 343 

The   Absorption    Spectra    of   Crystals.      By  A.    E. 

Tutton 343 

The    New    Vegetation    of    Krakatao.      By    W.    B. 

Hemsley 344 

The  Non-Chinese  Races  of  China 345 

The  Bath  Meeting  of  the  British  Association    .    .    .  346 

Prof.  H.  Carvill  Lewis 346 

Sonnet 347 

Notes 347 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

Encke's  Comet 35° 

The  Mass  of  Titan 35° 

Names  of  Minor  Planets 3.5 l 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for      the     Week      1888 

August  12-18 35l 

The  Scientific  Value  of  Volapiik 351 

The  Lick  Observatory.     By  Prof.  Edward  S.  Holden  355 

Scientific  Serials 35^ 

Societies  and  Academies 357 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received     .   .   .   .    •  360 


NA  TURE 


361 


THURSDAY,   AUGUST    16,    1888. 


CEL  TIC  HE  A  THEN  DOM. 

The  Origin  and  Growth  of  Religion  as  Illustrated  by 
Celtic  Heathendom.  The  Hibbert  Lectures  for  1887.  By 
J.  Rhys.     (London:  Williams  and  Norgate,  1888.) 

PROF.  RHYS  has  made  an  important  contribution 
in  this  volume,  if  not  to  the  development  of 
religion  in  general,  at  all  events  to  the  study  of  Indo- 
European  mythology.  Almost  for  the  first  time,  the 
religious  legends  of  the  Kelts  have  been  subjected  to 
scientific  treatment,  and  the  resources  of  scientific 
philology  have  been  called  in  to  explain  them.  The 
Keltic  languages  and  mythology  have  long  been  a  happy 
hunting-ground  for  the  untrained  theorist  and  charlatan  : 
in  the  Hibbert  Lectures  for  1887  we  find  at  last  etymo- 
logies which  can  be  trusted,  and  a  method  of  investigation 
which  alone  can  lead  to  sound  results. 

The  method  employed  by  Prof.  Rhys  is  the  compara- 
tive method  of  science.  The  literature  of  the  Keltic 
nations  does  not  begin  until  after  the  triumph  of 
Christianity  ;  and  apart  from  a  few  Gaulish  inscriptions, 
and  the  questionable  assertions  of  Latin  or  Greek  writers, 
our  knowledge  of  Keltic  paganism  must  be  derived  from 
such  traces  of  it  as  we  may  detect  in  a  later  and  hostile 
literature.  These  traces  consist  for  the  most  part  of  the 
myths  and  legends  preserved  in  Irish  manuscripts  or 
Welsh  romances. 

By  comparing  the  Irish  and  Welsh  legends  one 
with  another,  and  analyzing  the  primitive  meaning 
of  the  proper  names  round  which  they  centre,  Prof. 
Rhys  has  attempted  to  recover  their  original  form 
and  signification,  verifying  his  conclusions  not  only 
by  an  appeal  to  etymology,  but  also,  wherever  it  is 
possible,  to  the  evidence  of  the  Gaulish  texts.  Without 
doubt,  a  considerable  number  of  his  conclusions  are 
merely  hypothetical,  and  in  some  cases  his  interpretations 
depend  on  the  exercise  of  the  same  Keltic  imagination 
as  that  which  inspired  the  old  story-tellers,  but,  on  the 
whole,  he  has  laid  a  broad  and  solid  foundation  of  fact, 
which  must  be  the  starting-point  of  all  future  researches 
in  the  same  field.  He  will  himself  be  the  first  to  acknow- 
ledge the  tentative  and  theoretical  character  of  much  of 
his  work  ;  indeed,  the  readiness  with  which  he  admits  in 
his  appendix  that  he  has  changed  his  opinion  in  regard 
to  certain  questions  is  a  witness  to  his  possession  of  the 
true  scientific  spirit,  which  is  always  open  to  conviction. 

The  lectures  appropriately  begin  with  an  account  of 
Gaulish  religion,  so  far  as  it  can  be  gathered  from  the 
scanty  evidence  of  the  monuments.  Then  follow  chapters 
on  the  Zeus  of  the  insular  Kelts,  as  well  as  on  the  Culture- 
hero  and  on  the  Sun-hero,  the  two  latter  of  whom  Prof. 
Rhys  endeavours  to  keep  apart,  though  the  attempt  does 
not  seem  to  me  to  be  more  successful  than  it  has  been  in 
the  case  of  other  mythologies.  The  suggestion,  indeed, 
that  the  Keltic  Culture-hero  may  have  been  a  deified 
man,  like  the  Norse  Woden,  the  Greek  Prometheus,  or  the 
Indian  Indra,  has  little  in  its  favour  ;  at  all  events,  if 
Inclra  or  Prometheus  were  of  human  origin,  the  Sun-god 
must  have  been  of  human  origin  also.  The  myths  told 
Vol.  xxxviii.— No.  981. 


about  "  the  Culture-hero  "  are  precisely  similar  in  charac- 
ter to  those  told  about  "  the  Sun-hero." 

The  last  lecture  is  occupied  with  those  figures  of  Keltic 
mythology  which  are  not  directly  connected  with  either  the 
beginnings  of  civilization  or  the  adventures  of  the  solar 
orb.  Here  Prof.  Rhys  has  done  important  service  for  the 
historian  by  sweeping  away  the  foundations  on  which  the 
so-called  early  history  of  Ireland  has  been  built.  The 
races  who  have  been  supposed  to  have  successively 
effected  a  settlement  in  the  island  belonged  to  the  world 
of  mythology.  The  Tuatha  de  Danann,  or  "Tribes  of  the 
goddess  Danu,"  were  long  remembered  to  have  been  the 
fairies;  the  Fomorians,  or  "submarine"  monsters,  were 
supernatural  beings  whose  home  was  beneath  the  sea  ; 
and  a  human  ancestry  is  denied  even  to  the  Fir-bolgs  or 
"  Men  of  the  Bag."  I  am  not  sure  that  Prof.  Rhys  does 
not  sometimes  go  too  far  in  refusing  an  historical  character 
to  the  personages  and  events  recorded  in  Keltic  tradition  ; 
the  recent  revelations  of  early  Greek  archaeology  are  a 
useful  warning  in  this  respect,  and  the  Keltic  Professor 
himself  is  obliged  to  admit  that  by  the  side  of  the 
mythical  Emrys  and  Vortigern  there  were  an  historical 
Ambrosius  and  an  historical  Vortigern.  A  story  must 
have  a  setting  in  time  and  place,  and  the  internecine 
quarrels  of  the  lively  Kelt  afforded  frequent  opportunities 
for  attaching  an  old  story  to  the  heroes  and  circumstances 
of  the  day.  It  is  not  so  many  years  ago  since  Atreus  and 
Agamemnon  were  relegated  to  the  domains  of  mythology  ; 
yet  we  now  know,  from  archaeological  exploration,  that 
the  legends  in  which  they  figured  were  based  on 
historical  fact. 

In  a  book  so  rich  in  new  ideas  and  information  it  is 
difficult  to  select  anything  for  special  notice.  Bearers  of 
the  name  of  Owen,  however,  will  be  interested  by  finding 
it  traced  back  to  the  Gaulish  agricultural  god  Esus, 
whose  name  is  connected  by  Prof.  Rhys  with  the  Norse 
dss,  "  a  god,"  and  the  Professor  is  to  be  congratulated  on 
his  discovery  of  the  origin  of  King  Lud,  the  Lot  of  the 
Arthurian  romances.  Lud  is  the  Welsh  Lludd,  in  Old 
Welsh  Lodens,  who  bears  the  title  of  Lludd  Llawereint> 
or  "  Lud  of  the  Silver  Hand."  The  initial  sound  of  Lludd, 
however,  is  due  to  that  of  the  epithet  so  constantly 
applied  to  him,  the  primitive  form  of  the  name  having 
been  Nudd,  which  appears  in  the  Latin  inscriptions  of 
Lydney  as  Nodens  or  Nudens,  a  sort  of  cross  between  the 
Roman  Mars  and  Neptune.  Nodens,  again,  was  the 
Irish  Sky-god,  "  Nuada  of  the  Silver  Hand,"  and  a  myth 
was  current  which  explained  the  origin  of  the  title. 

Equally  worthy  of  notice  is  what  Prof.  Rhys  has  to  tell 
us  about  "  the  nine-day  week"  of  the  ancient  Kelts.  He 
shows  that  like  the  Latins  they  made  use  of  a  week  of 
nine  nights  and  eight  days,  and  he  points  out  that  traces 
of  a  similar  mode  of  reckoning  time  are  to  be  found  in 
Norse  literature.  Whether  he  is  right  in  ascribing  the 
origin  of  such  a  week  to  a  habit  of  counting  the  fingers  of 
one  hand  admits  of  question,  and  I  do  not  see  how  the 
Irish  divinity  Maine  who  presided  over  the  day  of  the 
week  can  be  the  Welsh  Menyw,  if,  as  we  are  told,  Maine 
owes  his  origin  to  secht-main,  itself  borrowed  from  the 
Latin  septinuvia  or  seven-day  week.  Prof.  Rhys  believes 
that  he  has  found  a  further  resemblance  between  the 
calendar  of  the  primitive  Kelts  and  Scandinavians,  in  the 
fact  that  the  year  in  both  cases  began  at  the  end  of  the 

R 


362 


NA  TURE 


August  16, 


autumn.  But  no  argument  can  be  drawn  from  the  fact  in 
favour  of  the  theory  which  places  the  primaeval  seat  of  the 
Aryan  race  within  the  Arctic  Circle,  since  the  civil  year  of 
the  Jews  also  began  with  the  ingathering  of  the  harvest 
at  the  time  of  the  autumnal  equinox,  and  no  one  would 
propose  to  transfer  their  forefathers  to  the  distant  north. 

The  points  of  likeness  between  the  mythologies  and 
religious  conceptions  of  the  Kelts  and  Scandinavians,  to 
which  Prof.  Rhys  has  drawn  attention,  are  numerous  and 
striking.  How  many  of  them  go  back  to  an  age  when 
the  ancestors  of  the  Scandinavians  and  of  the  Aryan 
Kelts  still  lived  together  it  is  impossible  to  tell,  but  several 
of  them  can  most  easily  be  explained  as  due  to  borrowing. 
It  is  now  well  established  that  Norse  mythology  and 
religion  were  influenced  not  only  by  Christianity  but  also 
by  the  mythology  and  religion  of  the  Kelts,  with  whom 
the  Norsemen  came  into  contact  in  the  Hebrides,  in 
Ireland,  and  in  the  Channel  Islands,  and  in  a  comparison 
"between  Keltic  and  Scandinavian  legends  this  influence 
must  always  be  allowed  for. 

I  must  not  part  from  Prof.  Rhys's  learned  and  im- 
portant lectures  without  exercising  the  privilege  of  a 
reviewer  by  objecting  to  certain  of  his  conclusions. 
These  relate  to  the  Keltic  allusions  to  a  Deluge,  and 
to  the  stories  of  a  contest  between  the  gods  and  the 
monsters  of  the  lower  world.  Whatever  may  be  the 
origin  of  the  Keltic  myths  which  are  supposed  to  refer  to 
such  events,  they  cannot  be  compared  with  the  Indian 
legend  of  the  deluge  of  Manu  or  with  the  story  of  the 
conflict  between  \ht  gods  of  Olympos  and  the  Titans.  It 
has  long  since  been  pointed  out  by  Lenormant  that  the 
Indian  legend  was  borrowed  from  Babylonia  ;  and  it's  hero, 
Manu,  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  Kretan  Minos.  Apart 
from  the  unlikeness  of  the  vowel  in  the  first  syllable  of 
the  two  names,  Minos  seems  to  be  a  word  of  Phoenician 
origin.  The  conflict  between  the  gods  and  the  Titans, 
again,  has  now  been  traced  to  Babylonia.  Like  the  twelve 
labours  of  Herakles,  the  Babylonian  epics  have  been 
recovered  in  which  the  story  appears  in  its  earliest  form, 
before  it  was  passed  on  to  the  Greeks  through  the  hands 
of  the  Phoenicians.  The  Titans  and  Herakles  were 
alike  figures  of  Semitic,  and  not  of  Aryan,  mythology. 

I  have  left  myself  space  to  do  no  more  than  draw  atten- 
tion to  two  very  interesting  questions  suggested  by  Prof. 
Rhys's  lectures.  It  is  in  Scandinavian  rather  than  in 
Latin  mythology  that  he  finds  parallels  to  the  myths  and 
legends  of  the  Kelts.  Nevertheless,  linguistic  science 
teaches  us  that  the  Keltic  dialects  had  most  affinity  to 
Latin  and  not  to  the  Scando-Teutonic  languages.  Was 
Latin  mythology,  then,  so  profoundly  modified  by  some 
foreign  system  of  faith,  such  as  the  Etruscan,  as  to  have 
lost  a  considerable  part  of  its  original  character  even 
before  it  passed  under  the  influence  of  the  Greeks  ? 
Was  it,  in  fact,  Etruscanized  before  it  was  Hellenized  ? 
The  other  question  relates  to  the  causes  which  have 
reduced  the  gods  of  a  former  age  to  the  human  kings  and 
princes  of  later  Keltic  legend.  The  same  transformation 
characterizes  the  traditions  of  ancient  Persia,  as  it  also 
characterizes  Semitic  tradition.  In  the  case  of  Persia, 
such  unconscious  euhemerism  seems  to  have  been  brought 
about  by  a  change  of  creed.  Was  this  also  the  reason 
why  in  Keltic  story  the  ancient  Sky-god  became  Nuada 
ef  the  Silver  Hand  ?     If  so,  the  old  theology  would  have 


remained  practically  unchanged  until  the  conversion  of 
its  adherents  to  Christianity,  and  the  growth  of  most  of 
the  mythology  beneath  which  Prof.  Rhys  has  discovered 
the  forms  of  dishonoured  deities  would  have  taken  place 
in  the  centuries  which  immediately  followed  the  fall  of 
the  Roman  Empire.  They  are  the  same  centuries,  be  it 
remembered,  which  divide  the  history  of  Britain  into  two 
portions,  separated  from  one  another  by  a  veil  of  myth. 

A.  H.  Sayce. 


HAND-BOOK  OF  THE  AMARYLLIDE&. 
Hand-book  of  the  Amaryllidece.     By  J.  G.  Baker,  F.R.S. 
203  pp.     (London:  George  Bell,  1888.) 

SINCE  Herbert's  "  Amaryllidaceae,"  published  in  1837, 
there  has  not  been  any  work  brought  out  containing 
descriptions  of  all  or  approximately  all  the  species  of 
Amaryllidaceous  plants  until  the  appearance  of  this  little 
work.  Herbert's  volume  has  long  been  both  rare-  and 
out  of  date,  and  some  such  book  as  the  present  was  a 
desideratum.  Neither  could  anyone  be  found  who  has  a 
better  or  more  extensive  knowledge  of  the  bulbous  plants 
than  Mr.  Baker,  whose  monographs  of  the  Liliaceae  and 
Iridaceas  are  well  known  to  all  lovers  of  these  groups. 
The  work  before  us  is  the  result  of  twenty-three  years' 
study,  and  embodies  descriptions  drawn  up  not  only 
from  herbarium  material,  but  especially  from  living 
plants — some  grown  at  Kew  Gardens,  others  from  the 
conservatories  and  gardens  of  professional  and  amateur 
cultivators.  It  is  intended  as  a  working  hand-book  for 
gardeners  and  botanists,  and  as  such  seems  suited  for  its 
purpose. 

The  group  of  Amaryllideae  is  one  which  has  suffered  in 
popularity  from  the  modern  rage  for  Orchids.  A  glance  at 
the  volume  will  show  that  many  species  were  introduced 
into  cultivation  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  are 
now  quite  lost  from  our  gardens.  In  those  days  Cape  bulbs 
were  very  popular  ;  and  Masson  at  the  close  of  the  last 
century,  and  Cooper  and  others  in  later  years,  introduced 
many  beautiful  and  curious  plants  now  known  to  us  only 
by  their  dried  specimens  and  drawings.  Of  these  the 
curious  South  African  genus  Gethyllis  is  a  striking 
example,  six  out  of  the  nine  species  here  described  being 
only  known  from  Masson's  sketches  and  specimens, 
and  this  in  spite  of  the  numerous  careful  and  energetic 
collectors  we  have  now  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 

One  reason  for  this  disappearance  of  species  is  the  very 
narrow  limits  of  their  distribution  in  many  cases,  although 
it  appears  that  the  individuals  are  often  abundant  when 
the  right  locality  is  reached.  Witness,  for  example,  the 
little  Tapeinanthus  of  Spain  and  Morocco,  discovered  by 
Cavanilles  in  1794,  and  lost  again  till  two  years  ago, 
when  it  was  re-discovered  in  profusion  by  Mr.  Maw,  who 
has  stocked  our  gardens  with  it  ;  and  very  similar  are  the 
cases  of  the  strange  green-flowered  Narcissus  of  Gibraltar 
and  the  Lapiedra,  known  to  Clusius  as  early  as  1574,  and 
still  a  great  rarity  even  in  herbaria  at  the  present  day. 
When  it  is  remembered  that  these  three  plants  grow  in 
localities  close  to  our  own  shores,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
many  of  the  more  distant  South  African  species  figured  by 
Jacquin  in  his  sumptuous  works,  as  well  as  many  Andean 
and  Peruvian  species,  are  still  absent  from  our  gardens 
and  houses. 


August  i6,  1888] 


NATURE 


36; 


Besides  the  rarity  of  some  of  these  plants,  they  have  a 
habit  of  entirely  disappearing  after  flowering,  and  indeed 
in  many  cases  they  will  only  appear  at  irregular  and  long 
intervals,  which  also  conspires  to  make  them  difficult  to 
procure,  so  that  collectors  are  necessarily  anxious  to  know 
the  time  of  the  year  at  which  they  should  be  looked  for  in 
flower,  and  this  the  author  has  where  possible  added  to 
his  description. 

The  volume  includes,  besides  the  typical  Amaryllideae, 
the  Alstrcemeriae  and  Agaveae,  but  the  Hypoxideae  and 
Vellozieae  are  omitted  on  the  grounds  that  they  have  been 
elsewhere  fully  dealt  with.  This  we  think  a  pity,  as  it 
would  have  made  the  work  more  complete  to  have  included 
these  groups  ;  but  this  will  hardly  affect  cultivators,  with 
whom  the  Hypoxids  are  rarely  found  favourites  on  ac- 
count of  their  comparatively  insignificant  flowers  and 
general  similarity,  while  the  Vellozias,  though  they  would 
be  welcome  additions  to  our  stoves  on  account  of  their 
beautiful  flowers,  yet  baffle  our  gardeners  on  account  of 
their  bulkiness  and  slow  growth. 

In  the  Agaveae  it  will  be  noticed  that  of  many  species 
(in  fact,  nearly  one-third)  only  the  foliage  is  known.  For 
garden  purposes  perhaps  the  form  and  number  of  the 
leaves  may  be  sufficient,  at  least  for  identification  ;  but  it 
cannot  be  considered  satisfactory  to  publish  as  new 
species,  and  endow  with  scientific  names,  plants  of  which 
the  inflorescence  is  unknown.  The  author,  however,  has 
but  done  his  duty  in  incorporating  these  species  into  his 
work. 

One  may  hope  that  the  publication  of  this  compendium 
will  stimulate  our  amateur  gardeners  to  turn  their  atten- 
tion more  carefully  to  this  comparatively  neglected  group. 
Already  for  some  time  signs  have  not  been  wanting  to 
show  that  they  are  rising  into  favour  again  to  some 
extent.  The  Narcissi,  Hippeastrums,  and  Crinums  are 
undergoing  elaborate  cultivation  and  hybridization  by  the 
best  of  our  gardeners  with  the  highest  success,  and  if  this 
hand-book  contributes  to.  the  study  of  this  group  it  will 
have  done  its  work.  H.  N.  R. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 


T. 


Another  World;  or,  The  Fourth  Dimension.     By  A 

Schofield,  M.D.'  (London  :  Swan  Sonnenschein,  1888.) 
This  work  consists  of  seven  chapters.  The  first  four— the 
land  of  no  dimensions,  the  land  of  one  dimension,  the 
land  of  two  dimensions,  and  the  land  of  three  dimensions 
—consist  of  large  extracts  from  "  Flatland,"  with  a  run- 
ning commentary  upon  them,  bringing  out  their  salient 
facts.  Indeed,  had  not  "  Flatland  "  been  published,  the 
author  admits  his  own  book  would  not  have  been  written. 
In,  Chapter  V.,  the  land  of  four  dimensions  is  mathe- 
matically considered,  and  here  we  have  stated,  from 
analogy,  the  relations  of  a  being  in  one  dimension  with 
that  above  him  and  its  inhabitants,  e.g.  one  in  the  third 
dimension  (our  world)  with  the  fourth  ;  and  in  Chapter  VI. 
the  land  of  four  dimensions  is  considered  in  relation  to 
ours  of  three.  Chapter  VII.  considers  generally  the  land 
of  four  dimensions,  with  facts  and  analogies.  The  fourth 
dimension  is  not  discussed  on  the  lines  of  Mr.  Hinton's 
'"  What  is  the  Fourth  Dimension  ?"  but  after  the  mathe- 
matical side  of  the  question  has  been  considered,  our 
author  "  further  considers  the  actual  facts  around  us 
bearing  on  the  question,  and  compares  the  deduced  laws 
of  the  fourth  dimension  with  some  of  the  claims  of 
Christianity  as  stated  in  the  Bible."  Here  we  must  close 
our  notice — as  we  cannot  go  into  an  examination  of  these 


topics  in  our  columns — with  saying  that  there  is  much  of 
interest  in  the  pages  before  us,  and  for  some  readers  the 
speculations  of"  the  later  chapters  may  have  as  much 
interest  as  the  mathematical  certainties  of  the  earlier 
chapters  have  for  others. 

Euclid s  Method,  or  the  Proper  Way  to  Trent  on 
Geometry.  By  A.  H.  Blunt.  (Shepshed :  Freeman, 
1888.) 
This  booklet  consists  of  an  introduction  (pp.  3-10),  and 
the  method  of  treating  on  geometry  (pp.  10-23).  We  let 
the  writer  speak  for  himself: — "  In  this  small  work  I  have 
attempted  to  show  the  proper  way  to  treat  on  geometry, 
and  which  I  conceive  was  the  method  of  Euclid  ;  for  it 
will  be  seen  that  the  results  are  right  from  the  way  in 
which  they  are  arrived  at,  and  that  they  agree  with 
Euclid's  results.  It  is  certain,  I  think  none  will  deny, 
that  when  Euclid  composed  his '  Geometry,'  he  did  every- 
thing in  it  under  the  guidance  of  reason  and  knowledge 
of  what  the  true  method  consists  in  ;  but  since  he  has  not 
expressed  or  shown  those  reasons  (and  it  would  not  have 
been  proper,  nor  would  it  have  been  necessary  to  have 
done  so  in  his  '  Geometry '),  they  therefore  appear  to  have 
been  known  but  very  little  to  anyone  else  since  his  time, 
as  is  evident  from  the  expressions  and  unjust  fault- 
finding made  against  him  in  the  writings  of  modern 
geometers,  which  greatly  betray  their  own  ignorance  of 
the  true  method.  So  long  as  the  true  method  remains 
unknown,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  men  should 
busy  themselves  in  finding  faults  with  Euclid,  his  work 
being  so  complete  and  perfect  as  to  leave  them  but  little 
else  to  do.  Not  that  I  would  be  understood  to  mean 
that  his  works  ought  to  be  accepted  in  blind  submission 
as  everything  perfect,  or  that  no  faults,  if  there  are  any 
in  it,  ought  to  be  pointed  out";  and  so  on.  Ex pede 
Herculem  !  The  author's  remarks  are  made  sincerely, 
and  for  a  certain  order  of  mind  his  explanations  are  likely 
to  clear  up  many  points  in  the  Definitions.  It  is  to  these 
only  that  he  confines  his  attention  in  pp.  10-23,  ar>d  ne 
gives  good  reasons  why  Euclid  should  have  taken  them 
in  the  order  he  has  taken  them.  This  was  his  object  : 
write,  then,  Q.E.D.,  and  Vivat  Euclides  ! 

On  the  Distribution  of  Rain  over  the  British  Isles  during 
the  year  1887.  Compiled  by  G.  J.  Symons,  F.R.S. 
(London:  Edward  Stanford,  1888.)  !*aj 

Mr.  Symons's  "  British  Rainfall"  is  so  well  known  that 
we  need  only  say  of  the  present  issue  that  it  is  in  no 
respect  inferior  to  the  preceding  volumes  of  the  series. 
The  marked  characteristic  of  1887  was  the  prevalence  of 
droughts.  According  to  Mr.  Symons,  the  year  has  had 
no  equal  for  widespread  deficiency  of  rainfall  since  1788. 
Naturally,  therefore,  much  space  is  devoted  in  this  volume 
to  the  subject  of  droughts ;  and  in  one  chapter — on 
"  Historic  Droughts  "—he  has  brought  together,  from  a 
variety  of  sources,  a  large  amount  of  information  that 
ought  to  be  as  interesting  to  historians  as  to  meteorologists. 
In  the  preface  Mr.  Symons  calls  special  attention  to 
important  additions  which  have  been  made  to  our  know- 
ledge of  the  rainfall  of  the  Lake  District..  These  have 
resulted  from  a  grant  of  ^42  7s.  made  by  the  Royal 
Society  from  its  own  funds  in  1886.  , 

LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[T/ie  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
of  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations. ] 

The  "  Tamaron  "  of  the  Philippine  Islands. 

A  letter,  which  I  have  just  received  from  our  Corresponding 
Member,  the  energetic  traveller  and  naturalist,  Prof.  J.  B.  Steere, 


364 


NATURE 


{August  16,  1888 


of  Ann  Arbor,  Michigan,  U.S.A.,  announces  that  he  has  made 
a  remarkable  zoological  discovery  in  the  Philippine  Islands.  In 
the  interior  of  the  little-known  Island  of  Mindoro  he  has  pro- 
cured specimens  of  a  strange  animal,  which,  although  much 
talked  of  in  the  Philippines,  is  little,  if  at  all,  known  elsewhere. 
This  is  the  Tamarou  of  the  natives,  a  wild  species  of  the  family 
Bovidse,  allied  to  the  Anoa  of  Celebes,  which  Prof.  Steere 
proposes  to  call  Aiwa  mindorensis .  Its  general  colour  is  black, 
the  hairs  being  short  and  rather  fine.  A  greyish  white  stripe 
runs  from  near  the  inner  corner  of  the  eye  towards  the  base  of 
the  horn.  There  is  also  a  greyish  white  spot  above  the  hoof  on 
all  the  feet,  and  a  greyish  white  patch  on  the  inside  of  the  lower 
fore-leg.  The  height  of  the  male  at  the  shoulder  is  about  3 
feet  6  inches,  the  length  from  the  nose  to  the  base  of  the  tail 
about  6  feet  8  inches.  The  horns  are  about  14  inches  long. 
Prof.  Steere  obtained  two  males  and  one  female  of  this  animal, 
of  which  his  full  description  will  be  read  at  the  first  meeting  of 
the  next  session  of  the  Zoological  Society.  The  discovery  is  of 
much  interest,  as  giving  an  additional  instance  of  the  similarity 
between  the  faunas  of  Celebes  and  the  Philippines,  which  was 
already  evident  from  other  well-known  cases  of  parallelism 
between  the  natural  products  of  these  two  countries. 

P.    L.    SCLATER. 

Functionless  Organs. 

In  reference  to  the  Duke  of  Argyll's  letter,  I  should  wish  to 
say  that  I  am  not  aware  of  any  reason  for  regarding  the  electric 
organ  of  any  Skate  as  a  "  prophetic  structure,"  using  that  term 
in  the  sense  given  to  it  by  the  Duke.  And  I  should  be  very 
glad  if  he,  instead  of  confining  himself  to  a  simple  assertion 
that  it  is  so,  would  explain  the  reasons  which  lead  him  to  re- 
gard it  as  being  so.  It  might  then  be  possible  to  combat  those 
reasons. 

Further,  I  think  it  is  only  right  to  say  that  my  own 
observation  of  the  progress  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution  during 
the  last  quarter  of  a  century  leads  me  to  a  conclusion  dia- 
metrically opposed  to  the  Duke's  in  regard  to  the  balance  of 
evidence  in  favour  of,  or  opposed  to,  the  doctrine  of  creative 
design  in  variations  on  the  one  hand,  and  that  of  the  non- 
significance  of  variations  on  the  other  hand. 

I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  what  may  be  called  "pure" 
Darwinism — the  doctrine  of  the  origin  of  species  by  the  natural 
selection  in  the  struggle  for  existence  of  non-significant  con- 
genital variations — is  everywhere  being  more  completely  demon- 
strated by  reasoning  and  observation  as  the  single  and  sufficient 
theory  of  that  origin  ;  to  the  exclusion  of  Lamarckism,  and 
still  more  certainly  to  the  exclusion  of  any  vestige  of  the 
doctrine  of  design.  E.  Ray  Lankester. 

45  Grove  End  Road,  N.W.,  August  4. 


With  a  certain  class  of  thinkers,  when  endeavouring  to  dis- 
parage the  labours  of  Charles  Darwin,  no  argument  appears 
absurd.  Does  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  in  his  letter  which  appeared 
in  your  last  issue  (p.  341),  mean  to  imply  by  his  "  prophetic 
germs "  that  such  cases  as  the  mammae  in  the  male  indicate  a 
time  when  he  will  be  able  to  take  part  with  the  female  in  suck- 
ling the  young,  and  that  the  coccyx  is  prophetic  of  a  tail  to  the 
human  family,  or  that  a  time  is  approaching  when  the  rudiment- 
ary covering  of  hair  on  the  human  body  will  develop  into  a 
warm  coat  similar  to  that  of  the  bear  or  the  beaver  ?  For  myself, 
I  fail  to  see  how  a  "functionless  organ  "  can  build  itself  up. 
Perhaps  the  Duke  of  Argyll  will  explain.  J.  T.  Hurst. 

Raymond  Villa,  Geraldine  Road,  Wandsworth,  S.  W., 
.  August  11. 


Dr.  Romanes's  Article  in  the  "  Contemporary  Review." 

Absence  from  England  has  hitherto  prevented  me  from  seeing 
Mr.  Poulton's  letter  in  your  issue  of  July  26  (p.  295).  Having  just 
read  it,  I  am  not  a  little  surprised  that  he  should  have  deemed  it 
necessary  to  refer  me  to  the  titles  of  two  of  the  most  notorious 
essays  in  the  recent  literature  of  Darwinism.  Nor  can  I  fail  to 
wonder  that,  without  a  particle  of  evidence,  he  should  accuse 
any  man  of  "not  making  himself  acquainted  with  views  which 
he  professes  to  expiess." 

If  I  could  think  it  worth  while  to  discuss  a  somewhat  lengthy 
matter  with  a  cri  ic  of  this  kind,  it  would  be  easy  enough  to 
justify  the  incidental  remark  in  my  paper  to  which  he  has  drawn 
attention.      Hut  my  only  object  in  noticing  his  criticism  is  to 


observe  that,  if  its  tone  is  due  to  his  supposing  that  I  have  not 
sufficiently  appreciated  the  importance  of  his  own  experiments  in 
this  connection,  he  is  entirely  mistaken.  For,  although  I  do  not 
agree  with  his  theoretical  interpretation  of  them,  it  has  always 
appeared  to  me  that  the  experiments  themselves  are  among  the 
most  valuable  which  have  hitherto  been  made  regarding  the 
causes  of  variation.  But  it  has  also  appeared  to  me  that  my 
appreciation  of  their  importance  in  this  respect  depends  upon 
what  he  calls  "the  Lamarckian  conception,"  i.e.  a  conception 
which  he  expressly  repudiates.  Were  ic  not  for  the  attitude  of 
theory  which  he  thus  adopts,  of  course  I  should  not  have  alluded 
to  him  as  a  naturalist  who  concerns  himself  less  with  the  causes 
of  variation  than  the  other  (or  I  amarokian)  writers  whom  I  had 
occasion  to  name.  But,  as  the  matter  stands,  I  have  merely 
forestalled  the  expression  of  his  opinion  as  stated  by  himself, 
where  he  says  in  his  letter  to  you,  "  I  agree  with  Dr.  Romanes 
in  the  belief  that  my  work  does  not  throw  any  light  upon  the 
causes  of  variation." 

My  paper  was  concerned  only  with  the  opinions  of  others,  and 
I  nowhere  expressed  the  "belief"  thus  attributed  to  me.  In 
point  of  fact,  "the  Lamarckian  conception"  enables  me  to  hope 
that  work  of  the  kind  on  which  Mr.  Poulton  is  engaged  is  more 
calculated  than  any  other  to  throw  light  upon  the  problem  in 
question  ;  and  it  seems  to  me  a  curious  corroboration  of  the, 
remark  to  which  he  objects  that,  on  account  of  his  loyalty  to  the 
school  of  Weismann,  he  is  obliged  to  regard  his  own  experiments 
as  destitute  of  significance  in  this  respect. 

August  9.  George  J.  Romanes. 

Taxation  in  China. 

Nature  (vol.  xxxvii.  p.  269),  in  its  review  of  M.  Simon's 
"China:  its  Social,  Political,  and  Religious  Life,"  represents 
on  that  author's  authority  that  in  China  "taxation  is  very  light — ■ 
not  one-hundredth  part  of  what  it  is  in  F ranee,"  a  statement  so 
misleading  to  publicists,  so  illusive  to  economic  science,  that  I 
take  upon  myself  the  task  of  exposing  its  fallacy,  both  as  regards 
direct  and  indirect  taxation. 

Taking  for  illustration  the  amount  of  taxation  at  Ningpo  (M. 
Simon  was  the  efficient  Consul  of  his  country  at  that  port,  where 
he  won  golden  opinions  of  foreigners  generally,  and  natives  as 
well),  it  will  be  seen  that  he  has  been  led  into  egregious  errors 
by  incompetent  interpreters. 

M.  Simon  says  that  "  five  francs  per  hectare  is  the  utmost  that 
is  paid  for  the  best  land." 

From  municipal  archives  I  tabulate  the  following  relative  to 

the  three  qualities  of  rice  land  : — 

n     ...       rT        ,        Relative  Taxation 

Quality  of  Land.     Quandty  per  Mow. 

1st    60%     ...     $0.35 

2nd 25        ...       0.28 

3rd 15        •••       0-25 

Average       ...  100  0.291  4-4°  l-7& 

Six  mou  =  one  acre.     Fifteen  mou  =  one.  hectare. 

Hill  land,  $0. 13  per  mou.  From  the  second  quality  only  one 
crop  is  obtained. 

Instead,  therefore,  of  the  best  land  being  five  francs  per  hectare, 
it  is  (according  to  present  rate  of  exchange)  about  21  francs,  and 
for  the  average  about  1 7  francs  per  hectare. 

With  regard  to  indirect  taxation,  that  author  affirms  that  the 
Chinaman  has  no  excise  duties  to  pay.  So  far  from  that  being 
the  case,  his  octrois  {likin)  contribute  far  more  to  the  State 
demands  than  the  levies  on  his  land  ;  but  from  lack  of  trustworthy 
data,  that  is  altogether  an  incomputable  quantity. 

Nevertheless,  with  such  levies,  and  the  salt  gabel  und  so  forth, 
it  may  be  shown  that  the  Chinese  are  not  overburdened  with 
taxation  ;  albeit  to  imagine  that  their  taxation  is  "  not  one- 
hundredth  part  of  what  it  is  in  France "  is  sheer  economic 
Hallucination.  D.  J.  Macgowan. 

Wenchan,  June. 

Partial  Eclipse  of  August  7. 
The  above  eclipse  was  observed  at  Cambridge,  and  the  times 
of  contact  were  estimated  as  follows  : — 

h .   m.     s. 
First  contact     ...     6  44  50  G.M.T. 
Last  contact      ...     7     7  20        ,, 
At  the  time  of  greatest  eclipse,  6h.  56m.,   a  photograph  was 
taken    which    on  being  measured  gives  a  magnitude  of  about 


Taxation 

Taxation 

per  hectare. 

per  acre. 

$5-25     •• 

.      $2.IO 

4. 20 

1.68 

3-75     ■■ 

1.50 

August  1 6. 


1888] 


NA  TURE 


365 


0'02I,  but  this  is  only  a  rough  approximation.    The  co-ordinates 
of  the  Observatory  are — 

28  -6s.  E. 
52°  12'  10"  N. 

A.  C.  Crommelix. 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  August  10. 


Macclesfield  Observations. 

Many  years  ago,  in  studying  Rigaud's  "Bradley,"  I  was 
impressed  by  several  references  to  extensive  series  of  observa- 
tions with  transit  and  quadrant  made  at  the  observatory  of 
Shirbourn  Castle,  some  of  which  Bradley  evidently  thought 
worthy  of  comparison  with  his  own  inaccuracy.  It  has  often 
occurred  to  me  that  these  observations,  if  the  records  still  exist, 
may  well  be  worthy  of  as  thorough  a  reduction  as  has  been 
given  to  those  of  other  early  astronomers.  Perhaps  some  of 
your  readers  can  tell  us  something  about  these  records  of 
1 739-89.  Cleveland  Abbe. 

Washington,  July  30. 

A  Lunar  Rainbow. 

Wet  Mountain  Valley  in  Colorado  is  situated  some  8000 
feet  above  the  sea,  and  is  surrounded  by  mountains,  the  Sangre 
de  Cristo  Range,  on  the  western  side,  rising  to  some  14,000  feet 
in  its  highest  peaks.  For  the  last  few  days  we  have  had  a 
succession  of  thunderstorms — dark  clouds  pouring  forth  abundant 
rain — which  have  mostly  swept  along  the  range,  leaving  the 
valley  clear,  and  often  in  sunshine.  Last  night,  at  9  p.m.,  there 
passed  just  such  a  storm,  while  the  full  moon  shone  brightly  from 
the  east,  where  it  had  just  risen.  The  result  was  a  lunar  rainbow 
— part  only  of  the  arc,  a  distinct  band  of  light,  in  which  the 
several  colours  were  hardly  to  be  observed.  The  phenomenon, 
which  was  new  to  me  and  must  surely  be  rare,  lasted  only  about 
a  quarter  of  an  hour,  when  the  storm  passed  on. 

West  Cliff,  Colorado,  July  25.  T.  D.  A.  Cockerei.l. 


GLOBULAR  STAR  CLUSTERS. 

T3HYSICAL  aggregations  of  stars  may  be  broadly 
-*■  divided  into  "globular"  and  "irregular"  clusters. 
Although,  as  might  have  been  expected,  the  line  of 
demarcation  between  the  two  classes  is  by  no  means 
sharply  drawn,  each  has  its  own  marked  peculiarities. 
We  shall  limit  our  attention,  in  the  present  article,  to  the 
first  kind. 

The  particles  of  a  drop  of  water  are  not  in  more 
obvious  mutual  dependence  than  the  components  of  these 
objects — "  the  most  magnificent,"  in  the  elder  Herschel's 
opinion,  "  that  can  be  seen  in  the  heavens."  Were  there 
only  one  such  collection  in  the  universe,  the  probability  of 
its  separate  organization  might  be  reckoned  "  infinitely 
infinite :'  ;  and  no  less  than  one  hundred  and  eleven 
globular  clusters  were  enumerated  by  Sir  John  Herschel 
in  1864.  It  does  not,  however,  follow  that  the  systems 
thus  constituted  are  of  a  permanent  or  stable  character; 
the  configuration  of  most  of  them,  in  fact,  points  to  an 
opposite  conclusion. 

There  may,  of  course,  be  an  indefinite  number  of 
arrangements  by  which  the  dynamical  equilibrium  of 
a  "  ball  of  stars  "  could  be  secured  ;  there  is  only  one 
which  the  present  resources  of  analysis  enable  us  dis- 
tinctly to  conceive.  This  was  adverted  to,  many  years 
since,  by  Sir  John  Herschel.  Equal  revolving  masses, 
uniformly  distributed  throughout  a  spherical  space, 
would,  he  showed,  be  acted  upon  by  a  force  varying 
directly  as  the  distance  from  the  centre.  The  ellipses 
described  under  its  influence  would  then  all  have  an 
identical  period  ;  whatever  their  eccentricities,  in  what- 
ever planes  they  lay,  in  whatever  direction  they  were 
traversed,  each  would  remain  invariable ;  and  the 
harmony  of  a  system,  in  which  no  perturbations  could 
possibly  arise,  should  remain  unbroken  for  ever :  pro- 
vided only  that  the  size  of  the  circulating  bodies,  and  the 
range  of  their  immediate  and   intense  attractions,  were 


insignificant  compared  with  the  spatial   intervals  separ- 
ating them  ("  Outlines  of  Astronomy,"  9th  ed.,  p.  636). 

But  this  state  of  nice  adjustment  is  a  mere  theoretical 
possibility.  There  is  no  sign  that  it  has  an  actual  existence 
in  Nature.  The  stipulations,  upon  compliance  with  which 
its  realization  strictly  depends,  are  certainly  disregarded 
in  all  stellar  groups  with  which  we  have  any  close  acquaint- 
ance. The  components  of  these  are  neither  equal,  nor 
equally  distributed.  Central  compression,  more  marked 
than  that  due  simply  to  the  growth  in  depth  inward  of 
the  star  strata  penetrated  by  the  line  of  sight,  is  the  rule 
in  globular  clusters.  The  beautiful  white  and  rose-tinted 
one  in  Toucan  shows  three  distinct  stages  of  condensa- 
tion ;  real  crowding  intensifies  the  "  blaze "  in  the 
middle  of  the  superb  group  between  tj  and  £  Herculis  ; 
in  other  cases,  the  presence  of  what  might  be  called  a 
nuclear  mass  of  stars  is  apparent.  Here,  then,  the  "law 
of  inverse  squares"  must  enter  into  competition  with  the 
"  direct "  law  of  attraction,  producing  results  of  extra- 
ordinary intricacy,  and  giving  rise  to  problems  in  celestial 
mechanics  with  which  no  calculus  yet  invented  can 
pretend  to  grapple. 

Sir  John  Herschel  allowed  the  extreme  difficulty  of  even 
imagining  the  "  conditions  of  conservation  of  such  a  system 
as  that  of  to  Centauri  or  47  Toucani,&c,  without  admitting 
repulsive  forces  on  the  one  hand,  or  an  interposed  medium 
on  the  other,  to  keep  the  stars  asunder  "  ("  Cape  Obser- 
vations," p.  139).  The  establishment,  however,  in  such 
aggregations  of  a  "  statical  equilibrium,"  by  means  of  this 
"  interposed  medium,"  is  assuredly  chimerical.  The 
hypothesis  of  their  rotation  en  bloc  is  countenanced  by  no 
circumstance  connected  with  them.  It  is  decisively 
negatived  by  their  irregularities  of  figure.  These  objects 
are  far  from  possessing  the  sharp  contours  of  bodies 
whirling  round  an  axis.  Their  streaming  edges  betray  a 
totally  different  mode  of  organization. 

Globular  clusters  commonly  present  a  radiated  appear- 
ance in  their  exterior  parts.  They  seem  to  throw  abroad 
feelers  into  space.  Medusa-like,  they  are  covered  with 
tentacular  appendages.  The  great  cluster  in  Hercules 
is  not  singular  in  the  display  of  "hairy-looking,  curvi- 
linear" branches.  That  in  Canes  Venatici  (M  3)  has 
"  rays  running  out  on  every  side  "  from  a  central  blaze,  in 
which  "  several  small  dark  holes  "  were  disclosed  by  Lord 
Rosse's  powerful  reflectors  (Trans.  Roy.  Dublin  Society, 
vol.  ii.  p.  132,  1880)  ;  showing  pretty  plainly  that  the 
spiral  tendency,  visible  in  the  outer  regions,  penetrates  in 
reality  to  the  very  heart  of  the  system.  From  a  well- 
known  cluster  in  Aquarius  (M  2),  "  streams  of  stars 
branch  out,  taking  the  direction  of  tangents"  (Lord  Rosse, 
loc.  cit.  p.  162).  That  in  Ophiuchus  (M  12)  has  stragglers 
in  long  lines  and  branches,  noticed  by  the  late  Lord 
Rosse  to  possess  a  "  slightly  spiral  arrangement." 
Herschel  and  Baily  described  a  remarkable  group  in 
Coma  Berenices  (M  53)  as  "a  fine  compressed  cluster 
with  curved  appendages  like  the  short  claws  of  a  crab 
running  out  from  the  main  body"  (Phil.  Trans.,  vol.  cxxiii. 
p.  458). 

We  find  it  difficult  to  conceive  the  existence  of  "  streams 
of  stars"  that  are  not  flowing;  and  accordingly  the  per- 
sistent radial  alignment  of  the  components  of  clusters 
inevitably  suggests  the  advance  of  change,  whether  in  the 
direction  of  concentration  or  of  diffusion.  Either  the  tide 
of  movement  is  setting  inward,  and  the  "  clustering  power  " 
(to  use  Sir  William  Herschel's  phrase)  is  still  exerting 
itself  to  collect  stars  from  surrounding  space  ;  or  else  a 
centrifugal  impulse  predominates,  by  which  full-grown 
orbs  are  driven  from  the  nursery  of  suns  in  which  they 
were  reared,  to  seek  their  separate  fortunes,  and  lead  an 
independent  existence  elsewhere.  It  would  be  a  childish 
waste  of  time  to  attempt  at  present  to  arrive  at  any 
definite  conclusion  on  so  recondite  a  point  ;  but  if  the 
appeal  to  "  final  causes"  be  in  any  degree  admissible,  it 
may  be  pointed  out  that  mere  blank  destruction  and  the 


366 


NATURE 


{August  1 6,  1888 


eventual  collapse  of  the  system  would  seem  to  be  involved 
in  the  first  supposition,  while  the  second  implies  the 
progressive  execution  of  majestic  and  profound  designs. 

After  the  lapse  of  some  centuries,  photographic  mea- 
surements will  perhaps  help  towards  a  decision  as  to 
whether  separatist  or  aggregationist  tendencies  prevail  in 
clusters.  Allowance  will,  however,  have  to  be  made,  in 
estimating  their  results,  for  the  possible  movements  of 
recession  or  approach  of  the  entire  group  relatively  to  the 
solar  system,  by  which  perspective  effects  of  closing  up  or 
of  opening  out  would  respectively  be  produced. 

Inequalities  of  brightness,  to  the  extent  of  three  or  four 
magnitudes,  are  usually  perceptible  among  the  lustrous 
particles  constituting  these  assemblages.  Nor  are  their 
gradations  devoid  of  regularity  and  significance.  Gener- 
ally, if  not  invariably,  the  smaller  stars  are  gathered 
together  in  the  middle,  while  the  bright  ones  surround  and 
overlay  them  on  every  side.  Thus,  the  central  portion  of 
the  magnificent  Sagittarius  cluster  (M  22)  accumulates  the 
light  of  multitudes  of  excessively  minute  stars,  and  is 
freely  sprinkled  over  with  larger  stars.  The  effect,  which 
probably  corresponds  with  the  actual  fact,  is  as  if  a  globe 
of  fifteenth  magnitude  were  inclosed  in  a  shell  of 
eleventh  magnitude  stars,  some  of  these  being  naturally 
projected  upon  the  central  aggregation.  Sir  John  Herschel 
remarked  of  a  cluster  in  the  southern  constellation  of  the 
Altar  ("  Gen.  Cat."  4467) :  "  The  stars  are  of  two  magnitudes ; 
the  larger  run  out  in  lines  like  crooked  radii,  the  smaller 
are  massed  together  in  and  around  the  middle  "  ("  Cape 
Observations,"  p.  119).  A  similar  structure  was  noted 
by  Webb  in  clusters  in  Canes  Venatici  (M  3),  in  Libra 
(M  5),  and  in  Coma  Berenices  (M  53)  ("  The  Student,"  vol. 
i.  p.  460).  Here,  again,  we  seem  to  catch  a  glimpse,  from 
a  different  point  of  view,  of  a  law  connecting  growth  in 
mass  and  light  with  increase  of  tangential  velocity — con- 
sequently, with  retreat  from  the  centre  of  attraction  ;  and 
the  assumption  of  an  outward  drift  of  completed  suns 
gains  some  degree  of  plausibility. 

Irregularities  of  distribution  in  clusters  take  a  form,  in 
some  instances,  so  enigmatical  as  to  excite  mere  unspecu- 
lative  wonder.  At  Parsonstown,  in  1850,  three  "dark 
lanes,"  meeting  at  a  point  considerably  removed  from  the 
centre,  were  perceived  to  interrupt  the  brilliancy  of  the 
stellar  assemblage  in  Hercules.  They  were  afterwards 
recognized  by  Buffham  and  Webb,  and  are  unmistakable 
in  one  (at  least)  of  Mr.  Roberts's  recent  photographs  of 
that  grand  object.  The  clusters  in  Ophiuchus,  in  Canes 
Venatici,  and  in  Pegasus  ("  G.  C."  4670)  are  similarly  tun- 
nelled. Preconceived  ideas  as  to  the  mechanism  of 
celestial  systems  are  utterly  confounded  by  appearances 
not  easily  reconcilable,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  with  the 
prosecution  of  any  orderly  scheme  of  circulatory  move- 
ment. Even  if  absolutely  vacant,  the  extensive  clearings 
indicated  by  the  phenomenon  of  dusky  rifts,  must  of 
course,  in  globular  clusters,  be  partially  obliterated  by  the 
interposed  light  of  the  surrounding  star-layers.  They  can 
hence  become  perceptible  only  when  their  development  is 
most  fully  pronounced  ;  and,  in  a  less  marked  shape,  may 
exist  in  many  clusters  in  which  they  defy  detection. 

The  apparent  diameter  of  the  cluster  in  Hercules,  in- 
cluding most  of  its  branches,  is  8' ;  that  of  its  truly 
spherical  portion  may  be  put  at  5'.  But  since  the  sine  of 
an  angle  of  5'  is  to  radius  about  as  1  :  687,  it  follows  that 
the  real  diameter  of  this  globe  of  stars  is  1/687  of  its  dis- 
tance from  the  earth.  Assuming  this  distance  to  be  such 
as  would  correspond  to  a  parallax  of  1/20  of  a  second,  we 
find  that  the  more  compact  part  of  the  cluster  measures 
558,000,000,000  miles  across.  Light  occupies  about  thirty- 
six  days  in  traversing  it.  The  average  brightness  of  its 
components  may  be  estimated  at  the  twelfth  magnitude  ; 
for,  although  the  outlying  stars  are  of  the  tenth  and 
eleventh  ranks,  the  central  ones  are,  there  is  reason  to 
believe,  much  fainter.  The  sum  total  of  their  light,  if 
concentrated  into  one  stellar  point,  would  at  any  rate  very 


little  (if  at  all)  exceed  that  of  a  third  magnitude  star.  And 
one  third  magnitude  star  is  equivalent  to  just  4000  stars 
of  the  twelfth  magnitude.  Hence  we  arrive  at  the  con- 
clusion that  the  stars  in  the  Hercules  cluster  number  about 
4000  ;  and  that  Sir  William  Herschel,  in  estimating  them 
at  14,000,  erred  considerably  on  the  side  of  excess. 

If,  then,  4000  stars  be  supposed  uniformly  distributed 
through  a  sphere  558,000,000,000  miles  in  diameter,  an 
interval  of  28,365,000,000  miles,  or  more  than  ten  times 
the  distance  from  Neptune  to  the  sun,  separates  each  from 
its  nearest  neighbour.1  Under  these  circumstances,  each 
must  shine  with  about  one  thousand  times  the  lustre  that 
Sirius  displays  to  us.  Since,  however,  five  millions  of 
stars  even  of  this  amazing  brilliancy  would  be  needed  to 
supply  the  light  we  receive  from  the  sun,  the  general 
illumination  of  the  cluster  can  only  amount  to  a  soft 
twilight,  excluding,  it  is  true,  the  possibility  of  real  night 
on  any  globe  situated  near  its  centre. 

At  the  distance  conjecturally  assigned  to  this  cluster, 
our  sun  would  appear  as  a  seven  and  a  half  magnitude 
star  ;  it  would  shine,  that  is  to  say,  about  sixty-three  times 
as  brightly  as  an  average  one  of  the  grouped  objects. 
Each  of  these,  accordingly,  emits  1/63  of  the  solar  light ; 
and  if  of  the  same  luminosity,  relative  to  mass,  as  the  sun, 
it  exercises  just  1/500  of  the  solar  attractive  power.  The 
mass  of  the  entire  system  of  4000  such  bodies  is  thus 
equal  to  that  of  eight  suns.  This,  however,  may  be  re- 
garded as  a  minimum  estimate.  The  probabilities  are  in 
favour  of  the  cluster  being  vastly  more  remote  than  we 
have  here  assumed  it  to  be  ;  hence  proportionately 
more  massive,  and  composed  of  brighter  individual  bodies 
than  results  from  our  calculation.  Differences  of  distance 
are  alone  adequate  to  account  for  the  variety  of  texture 
observable  in  globular  clusters.  That  in  Aquarius,  for 
instance,  compared  by  Sir  John  Herschel  to  "  a  heap  of 
golden  sand,"  might  very  well  be  the  somewhat  coarse- 
grained Hercules  group  withdrawn  as  far  again  into 
space.  At  a  still  further  stage  of  remoteness,  the  appear- 
ance would  presumably  be  reached  of  a  stellar  throng  in 
the  Dolphin  ("  G.  C."  4585),  which,  with  low  powers,  might 
pass  for  a  planetary  nebula,  but  under  stronger  optical 
compulsion  assumes  the  granulated  aspect  of  a  true  cluster. 
And  many  such,  their  genuine  nature  rendered  impene- 
trable by  excessive  distance,  are  doubtless  reduced  to  the 
featureless  semblance  of  "  irresolvable  "  nebulae. 

But  there  are  real  as  well  as  apparent  diversities  in 
these  objects.  Although  smaller  and  more  compressed 
clusters  must,  on  the  whole,  be  more  remote  than  large, 
looser  ones,  yet  "  this  argument,"  Sir  William  Herschel 
remarked,  "  does  not  extend  so  far  as  to  exclude  a  real 
difference  which  there  may  be  in  different  clusters,  not 
only  in  the  size,  but  also  in  the  number  and  arrangement 
of  the  stars."  There  may  be  globular  clusters  with  com- 
ponents of  the  actual  magnitude  of  Sirius ;  others, 
optically  indistinguishable  from  them,  may  be  aggregated 
out  of  self-luminous  bodies  no  larger  than  Mars,  or  even 
than  Ceres,  or  Pallas.  There  is,  indeed,  a  strong  likeli- 
hood that  clusters  and  nebulae  form  an  unbroken  series — 
that  swarms  of  meteorites  are  connected  by  such  inter- 
minable gradations  with  swarms  of  suns,  as  to  admit  of  no 
impassable  barrier  being  set  up  between  them.2  The 
rifted  structure,  for  instance,  and  truncated  spectrum  of 
the  Hercules  cluster  bring  it  into  unmistakable  relations 
with  the  great  nebula  in  Andromeda  ;  yet  it  is  scarcely 
doubtful  that  the  one  object  is  an  assemblage  of  orbs 
eich  of  them,  quite  possibly,  the  rival  of  our  sun  in  lustre  ; 
and  the  other,  a  collection  of  what  we  can  only  describe  as 
cosmical  shreds  and  particles.  Further  analogies  emerge 
to  view  through  the  reproduction  in  many  nebulae  of  the 
"  hairy "  appendages  of  globular  clusters,  and  in  the 
spirality  of  arrangement   characteristic    of  both   classes 

1  See  J.  E.  Gore's  similar  calculation,  based,  however,  on  different  data 
from  those  assumed  above,  in  Journal  Liverpool  Astr.  Soc.  vol.  v.  p.  169. 

2  See  Mr.  Lockyer's  "  Bakerian  Lecture,"  p.  29. 


August  16,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


3^7 


of  object.  These  strange  and,  at  present,  unaccountable 
resemblances  will  probably  be  developed  and  possibly  be 
interpreted  by  future  investigations. 

A.  M.  Clerke. 


TIMBER,  AND  SOME  OF  ITS  DISEASES.1 

XI. 

T  T  may  possibly  be  objected  that  the  subject  of  the  pre- 
-*■  sent  paper  cannot  properly  be  brought  under  the  title 
of  these  articles,  since  the  disease  to  be  discussed  is  not  a 
disease  of  timber  in  esse  but  only  of  timber  in  posse  ; 
nevertheless,  while  acknowledging  the  validity  of  the 
objection,  I  submit  that  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  malady 
to  be  described  effects  such  important  damage  to  the 
young  plants  of  several  of  our  timber-trees,  and  that  it  is 
a  type  of  a  somewhat  large  class  of  diseases,  the  slight 
impropriety  in  the  wording  of  the  general  title  may  be 
overlooked. 

It  has  long  been  known  to  forest  nursery-men  that,  when 
the  seedling  beeches  first  appear  above  the  ground,  large 
numbers  of  them  die  off  in  a  peculiar  manner — they  are 
frequently  said  to  "  damp  off"  or  to  "rot  off."  A  large  class 
of  diseases  of  this  kind  is  only  toD  familiar,  in  its  effects, 
to  cultivators  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  Every  gardener, 
probably,  knows  how  crowded  seedlings  suffer,  especially 
if  kept  a  trifle  too  damp  or  too  shaded,  and  I  have  a  dis- 
tinct recollection  of  the  havoc  caused  by  the  "damping 
off"  of  young  and  valuable  Cinchona  seedlings  in  Ceylon. 
In  the  vast  majority  of  the  cases  examined, the"  damp- 
ing off"  of  seedlings  is  due  to  the  ravages  of  fungi 
belonging  to  several  genera  of  the  same  family  as  the  one 
{Phytophthora  infestans)  which  causes  the  dreaded  potato 
disease— i.e.  to  the  family  of  the  Peronosporeae — and  since 
the  particular  species  {Phytophthora  omnivord)  which 
causes  the  wholesale  destruction  of  the  seedlings  of  the 
beech  is  widely  distributed,  and  brings  disaster  to  many 
other  plants  ;  and  since,  moreover,  it  has  been  thoroughly 
examined  by  various  observers,  including  De  Bary,  Hartig, 
Cohn,  and  others,  I  propose  to  describe  it  as  a  type  of  the 
similar  forms  scattered  all  over  the  world. 

It  should  be  premised  that,  when  speaking  of  this  disease, 
it  is  not  intended  to  include  those  cases  of  literal  damping 
off  caused  by  stagnant  water  in  ill-drained  seed-beds,  or 
those  cases  where  insufficient  light  causes  the.  long-drawn, 
pale  seedlings  to  perish  from  want  of  those  nutrient  sub- 
stances which  it  can  only  obtain,  after  a  certain  stage  of 
germination,  by  means  of  the  normal  activity  of  its  own 
green  cotyledons  or  leaves,  properly  exposed  to  light,  air, 
&c.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that,  as 
conditions  which  favour  the  spread  of  the  disease  to  be 
described,  the  above  factors  and  others  of  equal  moment 
have  to  be  taken  into  account  ;  which  is  indeed  merely 
part  of  a  more  general  statement,  viz.  that,  to  understand 
the  cause  and  progress  of  a  disease,  we  must  learn  all  we 
can  about  the  conditions  to  which  the  organisms  are  ex- 
posed, as  well  as  the  structure,  &c,  of  the  organisms 
themselves. 

First,  a  few  words  as  to  the  general  symptoms  of  the 
disease  in  question.  In  the  seed-beds,  it  is  often  first 
noticeable  in  that  patches  of  seedlings  here  and  there 
begin  to  fall  over,  as  if  they  had  been  bitten  or  cut  where 
the  young  stem  and  root  join,  at  the  surface  of  the  ground  : 
on  pulling  up  one  of  the  injured  seedlings,  the  "  collar,"  or 
region  common  to  stem  and  root,  will  be  found  to  be 
blackened,  and  either  rotten  or  shrivelled,  according  to  the 
dampness  or  dryness  of  the  surface  of  the  soil.  Some- 
times the  whole  of  the  young  root  will  be  rotting  off  before 
the  first  true  leaves  have  emerged  from  between  the  coty- 
ledons ;  in  other  cases,  the  "collar"  only  is  rotten,  or 
shrivelled,  and   the  weight   of  the   parts   above   ground 

1  Continued  from  p.  29^. 


causes  them  to  fall  prostrate  on  the  surface  of  the  soil  ;  in 
yet  others,  the  lower  parts  of  the  stem  of  the  older  seed- 
ling may  be  blackened,  and  dark  flecks  appear  on  the 
cotyledons  and  young  leaves,  which  may  also  be  turning 
brown  and  shrivelling  up  (Fig.  36). 

If  the  weather  is  moist — e.g.  during  a  rainy  May  or 
June — the  disease  may  be  observed  spreading  rapidly  from 
a  given  centre  or  centres,  in  ever-widening  circles.  It  has 
also  been  noticed  that  if  a  moving  body  passes  across  a 
diseased  patch  into  the  neighbouring  healthy  seedlings, 
the  disease  in  a  few  hours  is  observed  spreading  in  its 
track.  It  has  also  been  found  that  if  seeds  are  again 
sown  in  the  following  season  in  a  seed-bed  which  had  pre- 
viously contained  many  of  the  above  diseased  seedlings, 
the  new  seedlings  will  inevitably  be  killed  by  this  "damp- 
ing off."  As  we  shall  see  shortly,  this  is  because  the  rest- 
ing spores  of  the  fungus  remain  dormant  in  the  soil  after 
the  death  of  the  seedlings. 


Fig.  35. — A  young  beech-seedling  attacked  by  Phytophthora.  omnivora:  the 
moribund  tissues  in  the  brown  and  black  patches  on  the  young  stem, 
cotyledons,  and  leaves,  are  a  prey  to  the  fungus,  the  mycelium  of  which 
is  spreading  from  the  different  centres.  The  horizontal  line  denotes  the 
surface  of  the  soil. 

In  other  words,  the  disease  is  infectious,  and  spreads 
centrifugally  from  one  diseased  seedling  to  another,  or 
from  one  crop  to  another  :  if  the  weather  is  moist  and 
warm — "muggy,"  as  it  is  often  termed — such  as  often 
occurs  in  the  cloudy  days  of  a  wet  May  or  June,  the  spread 
of  the  disease  may  be  so  rapid  that  every  plant  in  the 
bed  is  infected  in  the  course  of  two  or  three  days,  and  the 
whole  sowing  reduced  to  a  putrid  mass  ;  in  drier  seasons 
and  soils,  the  spread  of  the  infection  may  be  slower,  and 
only  a  patch  here  and  there  die  off,  the  diseased  parts 
shrivelling  up  rather  than  rotting. 

If  a  diseased  beech  seedling  is  lifted,  and  thin  sections 
of  the  injured  spots  placed  under  the  microscope,  it  will 
be  found  that  numerous  slender  colourless  fungus-filaments 
are  running  between  the  cells  of  the  tissues,  branching 
and  twisting  in  all  directions.     Each  of  these  fungus-fila- 


;68 


NATURE 


{August  1 6,  1888 


ments  is  termed  a  hypha,  and  it  consists  of  a  sort  of  fine 
cylindrical  pipe  with  very  thin  membranous  walls,  and 
filled  with  watery  protoplasm.  These  hyphae  possess  the 
power  of  boring  their  way  in  and  between  the  cell-walls 
of  the  young  beech  seedling,  and  of  absorbing  from  the 
latter  certain  of  the  contents  of  the  cells.  This  is  accom- 
plished by  the  hyphae  putting  forth  a  number  of  minute 
organs  like  suckers  into  the  cells  of  the  seedling,  and  these 
suckers  take  up  substances  from  the  latter  :  this  exhaustion 
process  leads  to  the  death  of  the  cells,  and  it  is  easy  to  see 
how  the  destruction  of  the  seedling  results  when  thousands 
of  these  hyphae  are  at  work. 

At  the  outer  parts  of  the  diseased  spots  on  the 
cotyledons  or  leaves  of  the  seedling,  the  above-named 
hyphae  are  seen  to  pass  to  the  epidermis,  and  make 
their  way  to  the  exterior :  this  they  do  either  by  passing 
out  through  the  openings  of  the  stomata,  or  by  simply 
boring  through  the  cell-walls  (Fig.  37).  This  process  of 
boring  through  the  cell- walls  is  due  to  the  action  of  a  solvent 
substance  excreted  by  the  growing  tip  of  the  hypha  :  the 


Fig.  37. — Portion  of  a  co:yledon  of  the  beech,  infested  with  Phytophthora 
omiiivora  :  the  piece  is  s^own  partly  in  vertical  section.  The  myce- 
lium, spreading  between  the  cells,  puts  forth  aerial  hyphae,  which  bore 
between  the  cells  of  the  epidermis,  b  and  d,  or  emerge  from  the  stomata, 
a,  and  form  coniiia  at  their  apices  :  the  various  stages  of  development 
are  shown.  On  other  hyphae,  between  the  cells  of  the  interior,  the 
oospores  are  formed  in  oogonia,  c  and  f.     (Highly  magnified.) 

protoplasm  secretes  a  ferment,  which  passes  out,  and 
enables  the  tip  to  corrode  or  dissolve  away  the  substance 
of  the  cell-walls.  It  is  also  characteristic  of  these  hyphae 
that  they  make  their  way  in  the  substance  of  the  cell-walls, 
in  what  is  known  as  the  "  middle  lamella  * :  in  this,  and 
in  what  follows,  they  present  many  points  of  resemblance 
to  the  potato-disease  fungus,  which  is  closely  allied  to 
Phytophthora  omnivora. 

The  hyphae  which  project  from  the  epidermis  into  the 
damp  air  proceed  to  develop  certain  spores,  known  as 
the  conidia,  which  are  capable  of  at  once  germinating 
and  spreading  the  disease.  These  conidia  are  essentially 
nothing  but  the  swollen  ends  of  branches  of  these  free 
hyphae  :  the  ends  swell  up  and  large  quantities  of  proto- 
plasm pass  into  them,  and  when  they  have  attained  a 
certain  size,  the  pear-shaped  bodies  fall  off,  or  are  blown 
or  knocked  off. 

Now  the  points  to  be  emphasized  here  are,  not  so 
much  the  details  of  the  spore-formation,  as  the  facts  that 


'  (1)  many  thousands  of  these  spores  may  be  formed  in 
the  course  of  a  day  or  two  in  warm,  damp  weather  ;  and 
(2)  any  spore  which  is  carried  by  wind,  rain,  or  a  passing 
object  to  a  healthy  seedling  may  infect  it  (in  the  way  to 
be  described)  within  a  few  hours,  because  the  spore  is 
capable  of  beginning  to  germinate  at  once  in  a  drop  of 
rain  or  dew.  A  little  reflection  will  show  that  this  explains 
how  it  is  that  the  disease  is  spread  in  patches  from  centres, 
and  also  why  the  spread  is  so  rapid  in  close,  damp 
weather. 

When  a  conidium  germinates  in  a  drop  of  dew  for 
instance,  the  normal  process  is  as  follows.  The  proto- 
plasm in  the  interior  of  the  pear-shaped  conidium  becomes 
divided  up  into  about  twenty  or  thirty  little  rounded 
naked  masses,  each  of  which  is  capable  of  very  rapid 
swimming  movements  ;  then  the  apex  of  the  conidium 
bursts,  and  lets  these  minute  motile  zoospores,  as  they  are 
called,  escape  (Fig.  38,  a). 

Each  zoospore  then  swims  about  for  from  half  an  hour 
to  several  hours  in  the  film  of  water  on  the  surface  of  the 
epidermis,  and  at  length  conies  to  rest  somewhere.  Let 
us  suppose  this  to  be  on  a  cotyledon,  or  on  the  stem  or 
root.     In  a  short  time,  perhaps  half  an  hour,  the  little 


Fig.  38. — Porcio'n  of  epidermis  of  a  beach-seedling,  on  which  the  conidia  of 
the  Phytophthora  have  fallen  and  burst,  a  and  d,  emitting  the  motile 
zoospores,  b,  which  s  »on  come  to  rest  and  germinate,  c,  by  putting 
forth  a  minute  germinal  hypha,  c.  e,  which  penetrates  between  the  cells 
of  the  epidermis,  e  and  f,  and  forms  the  mycelium  in  the  tissues  be- 
neath. At  d  a  ziospore  has  germinated,  without  escaping  from  the 
conidium.     (Highly  magn.fied  :  partly  after  De  Bary  and  Hartig.) 

zoospore  begins  to  grow  out  at  one  point — or  even  at  more 
than  one — and  the  protuberance  which  grows  out  simply 
bores  its  way  directly  through  the  cell-wall  of  the  seedling, 
and  forms  a  cylindrical  hypha  inside  (Fig.  38,  b,  c,  e,f) : 
this  hypha  then  branches,  and  soon  proceeds  to  destroy 
the  cells  and  tissues  of  this  seedling.  The  whole  process 
of  germination,  and  the  entrance  of  the  fungus  into  the 
tissues,  up  to  the  time  when  it  in  its  turn  puts  out  spore- 
bearing  hyphae  again,  only  occupies  about  four  days  during 
the  moist  warm  weather  in  May,  June,  and  early  in  July. 
We  are  now  in  a  position  to  make  a  few  remarks  which 
will  enable  practical  people  to  draw  helpful  conclusions 
from  what  has  been  stated.  Let  us  suppose  a  seed-bed 
several  feet  long  and  about  three  feet  wide,  and  containing 
some  thousands  of  young  beech  seedlings  :  then  suppose 
— by  any  means  whatever — that  a  single  conidium  of 
Phytophthora  omnivora  is  carried  on  to  a  cotyledon  of 
one  of  the  seedlings.  Let  us  further  assume  that  this 
occurs  one  warm  evening  in  May  or  June.  During  the 
night,  as  the  air  cools,  the  cotyledon  will  be  covered  with 
a  film  or  drops  of  water,  and  the  conidium  will  germinate, 
and   allow,  say,  thirty  zoospores   to  escape.     Now,  the 


Augtist  1 6,  1888] 


NATURE 


359 


average  size  of  a  conidium  is  about  1/400  of  an  inch  long 
by  about  1/700  of  an  inch  broad,  and  we  may  take 
the  zoospore  as  about  1/2000  of  an  inch  in  diameter  ;  thus 
it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  film  of  moisture  on  the  cotyledon 
is  to  a  zoospore  like  a  large  pond  or  lake  to  a  minnow, 
and  the  tiny  zoospores,  after  flitting  about  in  all  direc- 
tions, come  to  rest  at  so  many  distant  points  on  the 
cotyledon — or  some  of  them  may  have  travelled  abroad 
along  the  moist  stem,  or  along  a  contiguous  leaf,  &c. 
Before  daylight,  each  of  these  thirty  zoospores  may  have 
put  forth  a  filament  which  bores  between  the  cells  of  the 
cotyledon,  and  begins  to  grow  and  branch  in  the  tissues, 
destroying  those  cell-contents  which  it  does  not  directly 
absorb,  and  so  producing  the  discoloured  disease-patches 
referred  to.  Supposing  the  weather  to  remain  damp  and 
warm,  some  of  the  hyphae  may  begin  to  emerge  again 
from  the  diseased  and  dying  seedling  on  the  fourth  day 
after  infection — or  at  any  rate  within  the  week — and  this 
may  go  on  hour  after  hour  and  day  after  day  for  several 
weeks,  each  hypha  producing  two  or  more  conidia  within  a 
few  hours  of  its  emergence  ;  hence  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  conidia  may  be  formed  in  the  course  of  a  few  days,  and  if 
we  reflect  how  light  the  conidia  are,  and  how  their  zoospores 
can  flit  about  to  considerable  distances,  it  is  not  surprising 
that  many  of  them  are  shed  on  to  the  surrounding  seed- 
lings, to  repeat  the  story.  If  we  further  bear  in  mind  that 
not  only  every  puff  of  wind,  but  every  drop  of  rain,  every 
beetle,  or  fly,  or  mouse,  &c,  which  shakes  the  diseased 
seedling  may  either  shake  conidia  on  to  the  next  nearest 


Fig.  39. — An  oogonium  and  antheridium  of  Phytophthora  omnivora.  The 
oogonium  is  the  larger  rounded  body,  borne  on  a  branch  of  the  myce- 
lium :  it  contains  an  oosphere,  in  process  of  being  fertilized  by  the  proto- 
plasm of  the  antheridium  (the  smaller  body  applied  to  the  side  of  the 
oogonium).  The  antheridium  has  pierced  the  wall  of  the  oogonium,  by 
means  of  a  fertilizing  tube,  through  which  the  contents  pass  into  the 
oosphere,  converting  the  latter  into  an  oospore.  (Very  highly  magnified  : 
after  De  Bary.) 

seedlings  or  even  carry  them  further,  it  is  clearly  intelli- 
gible how  the  infection  is  brought  about,  and  spreads 
through  the  seed-bed,  gathering  strength,  as  it  were,  hour 
by  hour. 

But,  although  we  have  explained  the  rapid  infection  from 
plant  to  plant,  it  still  remains  to  see  how  it  is  that  if  we 
sow  the  seeds  in  this  bed  next  year,  the  seedlings  are 
almost  certain  to  be  generally  and  badly  attacked  with  the 
disease  at  a  very  early  stage. 

When  the  fungus-mycelium  in  the  cotyledons  and  other 
parts  of  the  diseased  seedlings  has  become  fully  developed, 
and  has  given  off  thousands  of  the  conidia' above  described, 
many  of  the  branches  in  the  dying  tissues  commence  to 
form  another  kind  of  spore  altogether,  and  known  as  an 
oospore,  or  egg-like  spore.  This  spore  differs  from  the 
conidium  in  size,  shape,  and  position,  as  well  as  in  its 
mode  of  development  and  further  behaviour,  and  if  it 
were  not  that  several  observers  have  seen  its  formation  on 
the  same  hyphae  as  those  which  give  rise  to  the  conidia, 
it  might  be  doubted  by  a  beginner  whether  it  really 
belongs  to  our  fungus  at  all.  As  it  is  absolutely  certain, 
however,  that  the  oospore  on  germination  gives  rise  to  the 
fungus  we  are  considering,  the  reader  may  rest  satisfied 
on  that  point. 

The  spore  in  question  is  formed  in  a  swelling  of  the 
free  end  of  a  branch  of  the  hypha  as  follows.     The  proto- 


plasm in  the  rounded  end  of  the  hypha  becomes  collected 
into  a  ball  (the  egg  cell  or  oosphere)  and  then  a  smaller 
branch  with  a  distinct  origin  applies  itself  to  the  outside 
of  this  rounded  swelling  and  pierces  its  wall  by  means 
of  a  narrow  tube :  protoplasm  from  the  smaller  branch 
{antheridium)  is  then  poured  through  the  tube  into  the 
"  egg-cell,"  which  thus  becomes  a  fertilized  "  egg-spore  " 
or  oospore.  This  oospore  then  acquires  a  very  hard  coat- 
ing, and  possesses  the  remarkable  peculiarity  that  it  may 
be  kept  in  a  dormant  state  for  months  and  even  a  year  or 
more  before  it  need  germinate  :  for  this  reason  it  is  often 
called  a  resting  spore.  It  has  been  found  that  about 
700,000  oospores  may  be  formed  in  one  cotyledon,  and  a 
handful  of  the  infected  soil  sufficed  to  kill  8000  seedlings. 

Now,  when  we  know  this,  and  reflect  that  thousands  of 
these  oospores  are  formed  in  the  rotting  seedlings  and  are 
washed  into  the  soil  of  the  seed-bed  by  the  rain,  it  is 
intelligible  why  this  seed-bed  is  infected.  If  seeds  are 
sown  there  the  next  spring,  the  young  seedlings  are 
attacked  as  soon  as  they  come  up.  These  oospores  are, 
in  fact,  produced  in  order  that  the  fungus  shall  not  die  out 
as  soon  as  it  has  exhausted  the  current  year's  supply  of 
seedlings  ;  whereas  the  conidia,  which  soon  lose  their 
power  of  germinating,  are  the  means  by  which  the  para- 
site rapidly  extends  itself  when  the  conditions  are  most 
favourable  for  its  development  and  well-being. 

It  has  already  been  mentioned  that  other  plants  besides 
the  beech  are  destroyed  by  the  ravages  of  this  fungus. 
Not  only  has  it  been  found  to  grow  on  herbaceous  plants, 
such  as  Sempervivum,  Clarkia,  and  many  others,  but  it 
habitually  attacks  the  seedlings  of  many  timber-trees,  such 
as,  for  instance,  those  of  the  spruce  and  silver  firs,  the 
Scotch  pine,  the  Austrian  and  Weymouth  pines,  the  larch, 
the  maples,  and  particularly  those  of  the  beech. 

It  is  obvious  that  this  makes  the  question  of  combating 
this  disease  a  difficult  one,  and  the  matter  is  by  no  means 
simplified  when  we  learn  that  the  fungus  can  live  for  a 
long  time  in  the  soil  as  a  saprophyte,  and  apart  from  the 
seedlings.  In  view  of  all  the  facts,  let  us  see,  however,  if 
anything  can  be  devised  of  the  nature  of  precautionary 
measures.  It  must  at  least  be  conceded  that  we  gain  a 
good  deal  by  knowing  so  much  as  we  do  of  the  habits  of 
this  foe. 

In  the  first  place,  it  will  occur  to  everybody  never  to 
use  the  same  seed-bed  twice  ;  but  it  may  be  added  that 
this  precaution  need  not  be  taken  as  applying  to  anything 
but  seeds  and  seedlings.  Young  plants,  after  the  first  or 
second  year,  are  not  attacked  by  the  fungus — or  rather 
are  attacked  in  vain,  if  at  all — and  so  the  old  beds 
may  be  employed  for  planting  purposes.  In  the  event 
of  a  patch  of  diseased  seedlings  being  found  in  the  seed- 
bed, as  in  our  illustration  quoted  above,  the  procedure  is 
as  follows  :  cover  the  whole  patch  with  soil  as  quietly  and 
quickly  as  possible,  for  obviously  this  will  be  safer  than 
lifting  and  shaking  the  spore-laden  plantlets.  If,  however, 
the  sharp  eye  of  an  intelligent  gardener  or  forester  detects 
one  or  two  isolated  seedlings  showing  the  early  stages  of 
the  disease,  it  is  possible  to  remove  the  single  specimens 
and  burn  them,  care  being  taken  that  the  fingers,  &c,  do 
not  rub  off  spores  on  to  other  seedlings. 

In  the  last  event,  the  beds  must  be  looked  to  every  day 
to  see  that  the  disease  is  not  spreading.  All  undue 
shading  must  be  removed,  and  light  and  air  allowed  free 
play  during  part  of  the  day  at  least  ;  by  such  precautions, 
carefully  practised  in  view  of  the  above  facts  and  their 
consequences,  it  is  quite  feasible  to  eradicate  the  disease 
in  cases  where  ignorant  or  stupid  mismanagement  would 
result  in  the  loss  of  valuable  plants  and  time.  In  the 
case  of  other  seedlings  also,  much  may  be  done  by 
intelligently  applying  our  knowledge  of  the  disease  and 
its  cause.  It  is  not  our  purpose  at  present  to  deal  with 
the  diseases  of  garden-plants,  &c,  but  it  may  be  remarked 
in  passing  that  in  the  large  majority  of  cases  the  "  damp- 
ing off  "  of  seedlings  is  due  to  the  triumphant  development 


3?o 


NATURE 


{August  1 6,  1888 


of  fungi  belonging  to  the  same  genus  as  the  one  we  have 
been  considering,  or  else  to  the  closely  allied  genus 
Pythium.  In  illustration  of  this  I  will  mention  one  case 
only. 

It  is  always  possible  to  obtain  well-grown  specimens  of 
the  fungus  Pythium  by  sowing  cress  seed  fairly  thick,  and 
keeping  the  soil  well  watered  and  sheltered.  Now  what 
does  this  mean  ?  Nobody  imagines  that  the  fungus  arises 
spontaneously,  or  is  produced  in  any  miraculous  manner  ; 
and  in  fact  we  need  not  speculate  on  the  matter,  for  the 
fact  is  that  by  keeping  the  crowded  cress  seedlings  moist 
and  warm  we  favour  the  development  of  the  Pythium 
(spores  of  which  are  always  there)  in  somewhat  greater 
proportion  than  we  do  the  development  of  the  cress.  In 
other  words,  when  the  cress  is  growing  normally  and 
happily  under  proper  conditions,  it  is  not  because  the 
Pythium  is  absent,  but  because  (under  the  particular 
conditions  which  favour  the  normal  development  of 
healthy  cress)  it  grows  and  develops  spores  relatively 
so  slowly  that  the  young  cress  seedlings  have  time  to 
grow  up  out  of  its  reach.  The  recognition  of  this  struggle 
for  existence  on  the  part  of  seedlings  is  of  the  utmost 
importance  to  all  who  are  concerned  with  the  raising  of 
plants.  H.  Marshall  Ward. 

NATURAL  SELECTION  AND  ELIMINATION} 

MR.  DARWIN'S  phrase,  "natural  selection,"  is  ap- 
plied to  such  processes,  other  than  those  involving 
the  agency  of  man,  as  result  under  Nature  in  the  survival 
of  the  fittest.  These  processes  fall  under  two  heads, 
which  have  not,  I  think,  been  sufficiently  distinguished. 
For  the  first  of  these  I  here  retain  the  word  selection;  for 
the  other  I  suggest  the  term  elimination. 

In  natural  selection  the  favourable  varieties  are  chosen 
out  for  survival :  in  natural  elimination  the  failures  or 
comparative  failures  are  weeded  out.  In  the  one,  Nature 
is  employing  conscious  agents  upon  the  upper  or  superior 
end  of  the  scale  :  in  the  other,  Nature  is,  through  con- 
scious or  unconscious  agencies,  at  work  on  the  lower  or 
inferior  end  of  the  scale. 

Variation  is  constantly  taking  place  ;  and  the  varia- 
tions may  be  favourable  or  unfavourable  or  neutral. 
Under  selection  the  favourable  variations  will  be  chosen 
out ;  the  unfavourable  and  the  neutral  may  go.  Under 
elimination  the  unfavourable  disappear  ;  the  favourable 
and  the  neutral  remain.  By  how  much  the  favourable 
variations  are  in  excess,  by  so  much  will  the  race  tend  to 
advance.  I  see  no  reason  why  neutral  variations  should 
be  eliminated,  except  in  so  far  as — in  the  keen  struggle 
for  existence — they  become  relatively  unfavourable. 

In  the  valuable  and  suggestive  paper  in  which  Mr.  G. 
J.  Romanes  dealt  with  physiological  isolation,  he  brought 
forward  the  inutility  of  specific  characters  as  one  of  the 
three  cardinal  difficulties  in  the  way  of  natural  selection 
considered  as  a  theory  of  the  origin  of  species.  So  long 
as  we  consider  selection  proper,  this  objection  is  valid. 
But  under  elimination  (by  far  the  more  potent  of  the  two) 
there  is  no  reason  why  specific  features  without  utilitarian 
significance  should  be  weeded  out.  Undoubtedly,  in  the 
long  run,  useful  variations  will  tend  more  and  more  to 
preponderate,  since,  the  longer  and  keener  the  struggle, 
the  greater  the  tendency  for  neutral  variations  to  become 
relatively  unfavourable.  And  this  conclusion  is  in  har- 
mony with  the  teachings  of  biology.  For,  as  Mr.  Romanes 
remarks,  ';  it  is  not  until  we  advance  to  the  more  import- 
ant distinctions  between  genera,  families,  and  orders  that 
we  begin  to  find,  on  any  large  or  general  scale,  unmis- 
takable evidence  of  utilitarian  meaning." 

Natural  elimination  is  intimately  associated  with  the 
struggle  for  existence,  which  may  indeed  be  regarded  as 
the  reaction  of  the  organic  world  called  forth  by  the 
action  of  natural  elimination.     The  struggle  for  existence 

1  Abstract  of  a  Paper  read  before  the  Bristol  Naturalists'  Society. 


is  the  result  of  a  threefold  process  of  elimination  (cf. 
"  Origin  of  Species,"  chap.  iii.).  First,  elimination  by 
the  direct  action  of  surrounding  conditions  ;  secondly, 
elimination  by  enemies  (including  parasites)  ;  and, thirdly, 
elimination  by  competition. 

Natural  selection  (in  the  narrower  sense  suggested)  is- 
a  much  rarer  process,  and  one  that  only  comes  into 
play  when  intelligence,  or  (since  it  may  be  objected 
that  selection  is  in  some  cases  instinctive)  when  the 
mind-element  comes  definitely  upon  the  scene  of  life. 
Perhaps  one  of  the  best  examples  is  the  selection  of 
flowers  and  fruits  by  insects  and  fruit-eating  animals. 
But  even  here  (at  least  in  the  case  of  flowers)  the  process 
of  elimination  also  comes  into  play  :  for  the  visitation  of 
flowers  by  insects  involves  cross-fertilization,  the  advant- 
ages of  which  Mr.  Darwin  so  exquisitely  proved.  So 
that  we  have  here  the  double  process  at  work,  the  fairest 
flowers  being  selected  by  insects,  and  those  plants  which 
failed  to  produce  such  flowers  being  eliminated  as  the 
relatively  unfit. 

If  we  turn  to  the  phenomena  of  what  Mr.  Darwin 
termed  "  sexual  selection,"  we  find  both  selection  and 
elimination  brought  into  play.  By  the  law  of  battle  the 
weaker  and  le^s  courageous  males  are  eliminated,  so  far 
as  the  continuation  of  their  kind  is  concerned.  By  the 
individual  choice  of  the  females,  the  finer,  bolder,  hand- 
somer, and  more  tuneful  wooers  are  selected. 

When  we  have  to  consider  the  evolution  of  human  folk, 
the  principle  of  elimination  is  profoundly  modified  by  the 
principle  of  selection.  Not  only  are  the  weaker  elimin- 
ated by  the  inexorable  pressure  of  competition,  but  we 
select  the  more  fortunate  individuals  and  heap  upon  them 
our  favours.  This  enables  us  also  to  soften  the  rigour  of 
the  blinder  law ;  to  let  the  full  stress  of  competitive 
elimination  fall  upon  the  worthless,  the  idle,  the  profli- 
gate, and  the  vicious  ;  but  to  lighten  its  incidence  on  the 
deserving  but  unfortunate. 

It  is  my  belief  that  our  views  of  evolution  gain  in  clear- 
ness by  the  separation  of  these  two  processes  by  which 
the  survival  of  the  fit  is  brought  about.  Whether  the 
use  of  the  term  "  natural  elimination  "  alongside  of  and  in 
subservience  to  "  natural  selection  "  would  be  of  service 
to  those  who  are  students  and  teachers  of  evolution 
doctrines,  I  must  leave  others  to  judge. 

C.  Lloyd  Morgan. 


THE   FAUNA  AND   FLORA  OF   THE  LESSER 
ANTILLES. 

ALTHOUGH  much  has  been  done  of  late  years,  both 
in  the  United  States  and  in  Europe,  towards  the 
investigation  of  the  fauna  and  flora  of  the  smaller  West 
Indian  Islands,  or  Lesser  Antilles,  as  it  is  better  to  call 
them,  much  remains  to  be  effected  before  we  can  be 
deemed  to  have  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  natural 
products  of  these  islands.  And  it  is  most  important  that 
steps  should  be  taken  to  remedy  this  deficiency  without 
further  delay.  As  the  tide  of  civilization  advances — more 
slowly,  perhaps,  it  is  true,  over  these  islands  than  in 
many  other  parts  of  the  world's  .surface — the  special 
peculiarities  which  each  individual  isla  nd  possesses 
among  its  animal  and  vegetable  indigens  are  fast 
becoming  overwhelmed  by  the  more  powerful  animals 
and  plants  that  accompany  the  inroads  of  civilized  man 
upon  the  wilderness  of  Nature.  As  in  other  places, 
where  settlers  from  Europe  arrive,  rats  and  mice  eat  out 
the  indigenous  animals,  and  exotic  weeds  starve  out  the 
native  plants.  It  is  therefore  most  desirable  that,  while 
there  is  yet  time,  exact  information  should  be  obtained  of 
the  flora  and  fauna  of  these  islands,  every  one  of  which 
seems  to  exhibit  features  more  or  less  peculiar  to  itself. 

This  subject  having  been  brought  before  the  Committee 
of  Section  D  at  the  Manchester  meeting  of  the  British 
Association  by  Mr.  Sclater,  a  grant  of  .£100  was  made  for 


August  1 6,  1888] 


NATURE 


37i 


the  purpose  of  initiating  investigations  in  this  direction. 
At  the  instance  of  the  same  gentleman,  a  similar  sum  was 
recently  obtained  out  of  the  Government  grant  administered 
by  the  Royal  Society,  shortly  after  which  the  separate 
Committees  appointed  to  administer  the  two  grants  agreed 
to  combine  for  the  purpose  "  of  reporting  on  the  present 
state  of  our  knowledge  of  the  zoology  and  botany  of  the 
West  India  Islands,  and  of  taking  steps  to  investigate 
ascertained  deficiencies  in  the  fauna  and  flora." 

The  joint  Committee  thus  formed  consists  of  Prof. 
Flower,  Mr.  Carruthers,  Mr.  Thiselton  Dyer,  Dr.  Giinther, 
Prof.  Newton,  Mr.  Sclater,  Dr.  Sharpe,  Lieut.-Col. 
Feilden,  and  Mr.  D.  Morris.  Prof.  Flower  has  been 
elected  Chairman  of  the  Committee  ;  Mr.  Thiselton  Dyer, 
Secretary  ;  and  Mr.  Sclater,  Treasurer. 

Lieut-Col.  Feilden  having  accepted  a  colonial  ap- 
pointment in  Barbados  will  be  in  future  resident  at 
Bridge-Town,  where  he  will  act  as  local  Secretary  of  the 
Committee,  while  Dr.  H.  A.  Alford  Nicholls,  F.L.S., 
C.M.Z.S.,  has  kindly  agreed  to  assist  in  the  same  capacity 
in  Dominica.  In  order  to  commence  their  investigations 
without  delay,  the  Committee  have  secured  the  services 
of  Mr.  George  A.  Ramage,  who  was  lately  associated 
with  Mr.  Ridley  in  his  expedition  to  the  island  of 
Fernando  Noronha,  and  has  since  been  collecting  in 
Pernambuco.  Mr.  Ramage  arrived  in  Dominica  in 
March  last,  and  has  proceeded  to  his  work  with  great 
zeal.  In  May,  after  passing  five  weeks  at  Laudat,  on  the 
right  bank  of  the  Roseau  River,  about  2000  feet  above 
the  sea-level,  he  moved  to  St.  Aroment,  an  estate  belong- 
ing to  Dr.  Nicholls,  just  above  Roseau,  which  he  found 
to  be  a  better  locality  for  getting  his  plants  dried.  At 
Laudat  he  met  with  great  difficulty  in  this  matter  on 
account  of  the  extreme  wetness  of  the  climate.  Writing 
in  May  last,  Mr.  Ramage  speaks  of  having  got,  besides 
his  plants,  "  a  good  lot  of  insects,  lizards,  small  snakes, 
and  land-molluscs."  Besides  these,  he  had  also  obtained 
three  specimens  of  Peripatus.  This  is  a  valuable  dis- 
covery, as  this  singular  organism  was  originally  dis- 
covered in  Dominica  by  Guilding  many  years  ago,  and. 
has  not  been  since  obtained  in  the  same  locality. 

After  exploring  Dominica,  Mr.  Ramage  will  probably 
receive  instructions  to  proceed  to  the  other  islands  of  the 
Leeward  group,  some  of  which  are  almost  entirely 
unworked  as  regards  their  animal  and  vegetable  life. 
Now  that  this  important  investigation  has  been  so  fairly 
started,  it  is  hoped  that  little  difficulty  will  be  experienced 
in  obtaining  further  assistance  from  the  British  Associa- 
tion and  the  Royal  Society.  It  should,  perhaps,  be 
mentioned  that  complete  sets  of  all  the  specimens 
obtained  will  be  placed  in  the  British  Museum  and  Kew 
Herbarium,  the  Directors  of  these  two  Institutions  being 
themselves  both  members  of  the  Committee. 


SONNET* 

TO  A  YOUNG  LADY  WITH   A  CONTRALTO   VOICE, 

On  her  singing,  on  a  warm  summer 's  afternoon,  without  accompani- 
ment,  save  the  music  of  the  birds  heard  through  the  open 
windows  of  the  author's  rooms  overlooking  the  beautiful 
garden  of  New  College,  Oxford,  the  old  English  ditty, 
"Deck  not  with  gems  that  lovely  form  for  me," 
in  which  occurs  the  line, 
"  Z  must  have  loved  thee  hadst  thou  not  been  fair." 

THE  startled,  ambushed,  nightingales  despair 
■*■       To  match  those  notes,  so  tender  sweet  and  low, 
That  poured  through  lips  where  Cupid  lays  his  bow 
Had  made  thee  loved  e'en  hadst  thou  been  less  fair. 

*  This  is  the  original  firm  of  the  sonnet,  published  in  the  preceding 
number  of  Nature,  which,  if  perhaps  superior  to  this  in  expression,  is  opan 
to  the  reproach  from  which  the  original  is  free,  pointed  out  to  the  author  by  his 
distinguished  friend,  the  great  Traveller  and  Orientalist  (the  translator,  too, 
of  Camoens'  sonnets),  Sir  Richard  Burton,  of  deviating  from  the  Petrarchian 
model  by  its  s;stett  having  one  rhyme  in  common  with  the  octave.     In  my 


What  need  hast  thou  with  gems  to  deck  thy  hair, 
Of  aught  of  wealth  Golconda's  mines  bestow, 
Rubies  or  pearls  rash  divers  seek  below  ! — 
Thou  canst  in  nobler  wise  thy  worth  declare. 
Oft  shall  thy  votary  in  his  cloistered  cell 
In  deep  research  of  Nature's  secret  clue 
Pause,  to  bid  Memory  with  her  magic  spell, 
Bring  back  thy  face  and  sweet  girl-form  to  view, 
And  in  fond  fancy  hear  thy  voice  anew 
Till  life  to  gladness  breathes  its  last  farewell. 
Athenaeum  Club,  July  25. 


J.  J.  S. 


NOTES. 
Next  year  there  will  be  in  Paris  what  promises  to  be 
a  splendid  Anthropological  Exhibition  under  the  auspices 
of  the  French  Ministry  of  Public  Instruction.  It  will  be  organ- 
ized by  Committees  representing  the  Society,  the  School,  and 
the  Laboratory  of  Anthropology  ;  and  an  appeal  for  aid  has 
been  addressed  to  all  who  are,  or  have  at  any  time  been,  con- 
nected with  one  or  other  of  these  institutions.  The  Exhibition 
will  include  objects  relating  to  all  branches  of  anthropological 
science. 

Captain  John  Ericsson,  who  retains  much  of  his  vigour  and 
youthful  activity,  celebrated  his  eighty-fifth  birthday  at  New  York 
on  Tuesday,  July  31.     The  King  of  Sweden  and  Norway  cabled 


"  Laws  of  Verse  "  (if  I  remember  right)  I  have  compared  the  octave  and 
sestett  of  a  sonnet  to  the  body  and  the  frame  or  bed  of  a  carriage  respectively. 
The  effect  of  a  rhyme  common  to  the  two  may  be  likened  to  that  of  driving 
in  a  spike,  which  converts  the  previous  springy  connection  of  the  two  parts  into 
a  fixture.  The  much  more  common  fault  of  English  sonnets  is  the  reverse  of 
this,  viz.  that  they  contain  too  many  distinct  rhymes  instead  of  too  few.  In 
the  form-build  of  the  two  sonnets  I  may  be  raid  to  have  discovered  a  locket 
artistically  adapted  to  receive  either  one  of  two  miniatures,  each  in  its  own  way 
equally  exquisite,  and  worthy  of  ineffable  regard  and  adoration.  I  left  the 
Subject  of  this  week's  sonnet  at  the  door  of  Magdalen  College  Chapel  to  attend 
the  evening  service  there,  and  early  the  next  morning,  as  it  now  reads,  with 
the  exception  of  changes  in  three  lines  only,  it  was  in  the  hands  of  her  parents. 
With  regard  to  the  punctuation  of  this  and  other  of  my  poetical  pieces,  I 
share  to  a  great  extent  the  opinion  of  the  late  deeply  regretted  Matthew 
Arnold,  that  in  poetical  composition  the  fewer  points  the  better:  grammatical 
or  (so  to  say)  choristic  points  as  such  should  never  be  introduced  except  when 
necessary  to  prevent  ambiguity  or  obscurity  of  meaning  :  consequently  there 
will  be  many  points  left  out  in  poetry  which  would  be  found  in  the  same  piece 
written  in  prose.  But  per  contra  I  hold  that  points  are  sometimes  useful  or 
even  necessary  in  poetry  which  would  not  be  found  in  prose,  viz.  to  mark  brief 
pauses  or  almost  insensible  musical  rests.  The  pointing  I  have  adopted  in 
the  line  from  last  week's  sonnet — 

Thy  flashing,  rushing,  fingers  to  indue  — 

affords  an  exemplification  of  this  latter  principle.  The  commas  on  each  side 
of  rushing  are  not  choristic  but  melodic,  and  w  mil  not  appear  in  prose. 

In  law  writings  no  points  at  all  are  introduced,  and  for  reasons  which  in  no 
wise  conflict  with  the  principles  referred  to  above. 

i°.  A  law  document  is  expected  and  ought  to  be  written  in  such  a  form  as 
to  he  insusceptible  of  an  equivocal  or  doubtful  construction. 

20.  No  one  expects  a  law  document  (unless  maybe  it  were  a  marriage 
certificate  or  deed  of  separation  by  mutual  consent)  to  have  much  music  in 
its  lines.  

One  of  the  ofrtcTal  readers  of  the  sonnet  contained  in  the  last  number  of 
Nature  has  written  to  me  to  say  that  he  cannot  seethe  sense  of  lines  3  and  4. 
The  answer  is,  I  think,  obvious.  In  the  human  organism  all  parts,  faculties, 
and  powers  are  connected  and  correlated.  Consequently  a  voice  whose  notes 
are  pure,  sweet,  and  tru-  affords  a  voucher(I  do  not  say  mathematical  proof, 
but  presumptiveevidence  which  may  be  accepted  in  the  absence  of  rebutting 
facts)  of  the  character  to  which  it  appertains  being  sweet,  pure,  and  true. 
But  sweetness,  purity,  and  truth  are  the  prime  ingredients  of  goodness. 
Therefore  notes  which  are  pure,  sweet,  and  true  vouch  for  the  goodness  of 
the  person  to  whom  the  voice  belongs.     Q.E.D. 

The  argument  in  the  text  is  put  in  the  form  of  an  enthymeme,  the  major 
premise—  All  persons  w'i"se  singing  notes  are  sweet,  pure,  and  true  offer  a 
presumption  that  they  are  good— being  suppressed.  It  is  notorious  that 
birds  instinctively,  and  therefore  011  the  surest  ground,  infer  the  worthiness 
(or  according  to  their  ethical  code  the  goodness)  of  their  partners  from  their 
superiority  in  s:>ng.  Witness  the  distic.i  from  a  sonnet  familiar  to  many  of 
my  readers— 

Like  foolish  bird  who  in  the  fowler's  cry 
Hears  ktr  loved  mate's  soft  amorous  melody 

If  I  am  wrong  in  supposing  so,  I  h  >pe  that  Mr.  Romanes,  or  any  other 
biologist  (if  such  there  be)  of  squal  skill  with  him  in  Darwinian  dialectics, 
will  set  me  right  in  this  point,  and  inform  the  readers  of  Nature  on  what 
other  intelligible  ground  can  be  explained  the  recourse  had  to  song  by  the 
male  bird  to  win  the  affections  of  his  mate.  If  such  be  the  case  with  birds, 
why  should  it  not  be  equally  true  of  the  sometimes  scarcely  less  volatile 
portion  of  the  human  race? 


372 


NATURE 


{August  1 6,  1888 


orders  (o  Consul- General  Bors  to  call  upon  the  eminent  engineer, 
and  convey  to  him  on  the  occasion  renewed  assurances  of  His 
Majesty's  esteem.  "  Consul-General  Bors,"  says  the  Neiv  York 
Daily  News,  "  was  only  too  happy  to  execute  this  commission, 
and  when  he  called  at  36  Beach  Street  to-day  to  deliver  the 
message  he  brought  with  him  a  beautiful  bouquet  that  delighted 
the  great  engineer  extremely  when  he  received  it.  He  very 
willingly  granted  Consul-General  Bors  an  audience,  and  thanked 
him  for  the  courteous  message  be  brought  from  his  Royal 
master.  Captain  Ericsson  has  a  wonderful  faculty  of  talking 
and  working  out  the  most  exact  mechanical  drawings  at  the  same 
time,  and  Mr.  Bors's  visit  did  not  interrupt  him  in  his  work  in 
the  least.  He  chatted  with  him  cheerily,  and  listened  with  an 
amused  smile  to  the  Consul's  expressions  of  wonder  at  his 
marvellous  health  and  mental  vigour. " 

The  Congress  for  the  study  of  tuberculosis,  lately  held  at 
Paris,  was  very  successful.  Numerous  and  important  papers 
were  read,  and  there  was  always  a  large  attendance  of  members. 
The  next  meeting  will  be  held  in  1890,  under  M.  Villemin's 
presidency. 

The  sixty-first  meeting  of  German  men  of  science  and 
physicians  will  be  held  in  Cologne  from  September  18  to  23 
next. 

Mr.  James  Stevenson,  late  Executive  Officer  of  the  United 
States  Geological  Survey,  died  at  Gilsey  House,  New  York,  on    j 
July  25.     He  was  born,  in  1840,  at  Maysville,  Kentucky. 

The  United  States  Senate  has  voted  to  pay  the  widow  of  the  | 
late  Prof.  Spencer  F.  Baird  50,000  dollars  in  recognition  of  his  1 
services  as  United  States  Fish  Commissioner. 

Last  year,  Bedford  College  sustained  a  great  loss  by  the 
death  of  Mr.  Shaen,  who  had  been  one  of  its  most  active  friends 
since  its  earliest  days  ;  and  a  wish  was  then  widely  expressed 
that  some  scheme  should  be  devised  which  should  permanently 
associate  his  name  with  Bedford  College.  The  Council  now 
propose  that  a  building  shall  be  erected  on  a  site  immediately 
behind  the  College,  and  that  it  shall  be  called  the  Shaen  Wing. 
In  this  building  there  would  be  good  laboratories  and  class- 
rooms, and  it  is  believed  that  the  premises  could  be  so  arranged 
as  to  provide  accommodation,  at  a  moderate  charge,  for  a  num- 
ber of  students.  It  would  be  hard  to  think  of  a  more  suitable 
memorial  of  Mr.  Shaen,  and  we  have  no  doubt  that  the  entire 
amount  necessary  for  the  carrying  out  of  the  plan  (^3000)  will 
soon  be  subscribed.  The  proposal  that  a  large  part  of  the  fund 
shall  be  devoted  to  science  laboratories  strikes  us  as  an  interest- 
ing and  hopeful  sign  of  the  times.  Bedford  College  has  done 
much  to  help  the  movement  for  supplying  women  with  better 
opportunities  of  study.  Of  the  452  women  who  have  passed 
the  various  examinations  of  the  London  University,  no  fewer 
than  123  have  been  students  of  this  institution  ;  and  about  one- 
third  of  the  present  students  are  working  for  these  examinations. 
It  may  be  reasonably  expected  that  when  the  new  laboratories 
are  opened  the  results  will  be  even  more  satisfactory  than  those 
now  achieved  ;  for  all  the  present  laboratories  are  adaptations 
of  former  class-rooms,  and,  being  deficient  in  light  and  space, 
are  but  imperfectly  fitted  for  the  purposes  for  which  they  are 
used. 

In  his  Report  on  the  technological  examinations  of  1888  Sir 
Philip  Magnus  says  that  in  the  present  year  there  has  again  been 
a  large  increase  in  the  total  number  of  candidates  examined.  In 
I887,  55°8  were  examined,  of  whom  3090  passed  ;  in  1888, 
6166  were  examined,  of  whom  3510  passed.  The  increase  in 
the  number  of  candidates  is  less  this  year  than  last  year,  being 
658  as  compared  with  744.  Examinations  have  been  held  this 
year  in  forty-nine  different  subjects,  in  seven  of  which  less  than 
ten  candidates  presented  themselves.     The  subjects  in  which  the 


least  number  of  candidates  presented  themselves  are  those  con- 
nected with  the  chemical  industries,  and  the  examiners  in  these 
subjects  generally  remark  that  few  of  the  candidates  are  found  to 
possess  that  combined  knowledge  of  scientific  principles  and  of 
technical  processes  which  is  desirable.  The  increase  in  the 
number  of  candidates  has  been  most  marked  in  cloth,  cotton, 
linen,  and  jute  manufacture,  in  plumbers'  work,  carriage- 
building,  carpentry  and  joinery,  and  in  brickwork  and  masonry. 
The  average  percentage  of  failures  has  fallen  from  43*8  to  43  1  ; 
and  from  the  separate  reports  of  the  examiners  it  appears  that  in 
most  subjects  there  is  a  distinct  improvement  in  the  quality  of 
the  candidates'  written  answers  and  practical  work.  Of  the 
3510  successful  candidates,  758,  or  21*6  percent.,  have  passed 
in  the  honours  grade,  as  against  21  'o.  per  cent,  last  year.  It 
appears  that  10,404  students  have  received  instruction  in  475 
registered  classes  connected  with  the  City  and  Guilds  of  London. 
Institute.  These  classes  were  in  183  different  towns  in  the 
United  Kingdom.  The  corresponding  numbers  for  the  previous 
year  were  8613  students,  365  classes,  and  121  towns.  These 
numbers  do  not  include  the  students  at  the  Finsbury  Technical 
College,  the  Yorkshire  College,  Leeds,  and  other  Colleges  the 
Professors  of  which  do  not  receive  grants  on  results,  and  the 
candidates  from  which  are  classed  as  "external"  candidates. 
Sir  Philip  Magnus  anticipates  that  with  the  establishment  of  new 
Polytechnic  Institutions  in  different  parts  of  London  there  will 
be  a  large  increase  in  the  numbt-r  of  students  in  the  technical 
classes  registered  by  the  Institute  and  in  the  number  of  candidates 
for  examination. 

In  the  Report,  for  the  year  1886-87,  presented  by  the  Board  of 
Managers  of  the  Observatory  of  Yale  University  to  the  President 
and  Fellows,  complaint  is  made  that  too  large  a  proportion  of 
the  clinical  thermometers  (foreign  or  American)  sent  to  the 
Observatory  for  verification  are  despatched  so  soon  after  their 
manufacture  that  the  corrections  given  are  liable  to  change 
with  a  year's  use.  "Physicians,"  says  Mr.  Robert  Brown, 
secretary  of  the  Observatory,  "would  obtain  much  more  exact 
indications  of  temperature  if,  estimating  the  probable  annual 
breakage,  they  would  provide  themselves  with  two  or  three 
years'  supply  of  well-made,  well-graduated  clinicals,  and  obtain 
tables  of  corrections  only  after  the  instruments  were  knozun  to 
have  attained  a  proper  age  of,  say,  one  or  two  years.  The  com- 
paratively small  demand  for  clinicals  whose  age  as  well  as  correc- 
tion is  certified,  seems  to  imply  that  the  medical  profession  is 
not  yet  generally  awake  to  the  exactitude  that  is  practicable  in 
ascertaining  body  temperature." 

The  seeder  Jason  has  arrived  in  Norway  from  the  Greenland 
coast,  and  reports  that  the  Expedition  under  Dr.  Fridtjof 
Nansen,  which  is  to  cross  Greenland  from  east  to  west,  left  that 
ship  on  July  17  in  latitude  65°  2'  N.  An  ice-belt  about  ten 
English  miles  in  width  separated  the  ship  from  the  shore,  but  it 
is  believed  that  the  members  would  have  no  trouble  in  cross- 
ing this,  the  floes  being  large.  Dr.  Nansen  intended  to  land  in 
the  Sermilik  Fjord,  which  is  inhabited.  Previous  attempts  at 
landing  had  failed  on  account  of  rain  and  fog. 

It  is  said  that  the  Cincinnati  Exposition  is  the  best  that  has 
been  held  in  America  since  the  great  one  at  Philadelphia  in 
1876.'  We  reprint  from  Science  the  following  account  of  it : — 
"  People  who  were  at  New  Orleans  in  1885  say  that  this  is 
enormously  superior  in  all  the  arts,  especially  upon  the  mech- 
anical and  industrial  side.  The  Exposition  covers  15  acres  in 
the  very  heart  of  the  city,  and  in  every  part  of  this  large  area 
one  meets  evidences  of  taste,  skill,  ingenuity,  and  perseverance 
in  adapting  means  to  ends,  which  form  a  series  of  apparently 
never-ending  surprises  as  one  passes  from  one  exhibit  to  another. 
The  Government  exhibits  are  all  good  and  all  characteristic. 
The  Smithsonian  Institution  and  the  Geological  Survey  exhibits 


August  1 6,  1888] 


NATURE 


373 


at  tract  crowds.  In  the  latter,  Prof.  F.  W.  Clark  has  some  trans- 
parent photographic  views,  represented  in  colours  by  some  new 
and  as  yet  undisclosed  process.  The  effect  is  wonderfully  natural 
and  beautiful,  and  if  it  is  found  to  be  durable  it  will  prove  a 
great  discovery.  The  very  fine  models  of  the  new  classes  of 
naval  vessels  now  building  attract  crowds  daily,  as  do  the  various 
forms  of  weapons  for  wholesale  slaughter,  in  case  we  ever  have 
another  war.  In  close  juxtaposition  are  the  ingenious  devices, 
for  saving  life  in  cases  of  shipwreck,  of  the  Life-saving  Service. 
The  Fish  Commission  exhibit  is  not  as  vet  complete.  In  such 
elaborate  displays,  requiring  much  preparatory  work,  more  time 
should  have  been  allowed  for  preparation.  The  Post  Office 
Department  and  the  Army  exhibits  are  also  incomplete,  but  a 
few  days  will  find  everything  in  order." 

The  native  birds  of  North  America,  which  were  supposed  to 
be  rapidly  disappearing,  reappeared  in  great  numbers  during  the 
spring  of  the  present  year.  This  was  first  noted  in  the  New 
York  papers,  and  was  promptly  credited  to  the  liberal  destruc- 
tion of  the  pugnacious  English  sparrow,  unable  to  withstand  the 
storm-beating  received  in  the  great  March  blizzard.  But  counter 
to  this  explanation,  says  Science,  comes  information  from  Illinois 
that  the  [attention  of  all  is  attracted  to  the  remarkably  large 
number  of  birds  that  are  to  be  seen.  The  groves,  the  woods, 
and  the  meadows  in  the  country,  and  the  many  trees  in  the  city, 
are  peopled  with  these  feathered  visitors.  The  oldest  inhabitant 
does  not  remember  to  have  seen  so  many  and  such  a  variety  of 
birds.     And  yet  the  great  blizzard  did  not  visit  Illinois. 

The  vapour-density  of  hydrofluoric  acid  has  been  subjected 
to  a  rigorous  re-examination  at  the  hands  of  Prof.  Thorpe  and 
Mr.  F.  J.  Hambly.  Prof.  Mallet  some  time  ago  showed  that, 
at  a  temperature  of  30°"5  C,  the  density  of  hydrofluoric  acid 
vapour  corresponded  to  a  molecule  of  the  composition  H.,F2  ; 
consequently  we  have  been  accustomed  to  think  of  this  substance 
as  consisting  of  ordinary  molecules  of  HF  at  higher  tempera- 
tures, and  of  condensed  molecules  of  H2F2  just  above  its  boiling- 
point.  But  we  have  recently  seen,  from  the  experiments  con- 
ducted in  Prof.  Victor  Meyer's  laboratory  upon  the  molecular 
nature  of  sulphur,  and  also  from  the  previous  investigations  con- 
cerning the  composition  of  the  molecules  of  the  chlorides  of 
aluminium,  tin,  and  iron,  that  our  older  ideas  as  to  the  formation 
of  condensed  molecules,  such  as  S6  or  Fe2Cl6,  at  particular 
temperatures  were  erroneous  ;  that  these  condensed  molecules 
were  not  capable  of  existence  throughout  any  notable  range 
of  temperature.  It  therefore  became  an  interesting  question 
whether  hydrofluoric  acid  would  not  behave  in  a  similar  manner. 
To  test  the  question  thoroughly,  fourteen  vapour-density  deter- 
minations, at  temperatures  ranging  from  26°-4  to  88°*3  C,  have 
been  carried  out  in  the  research  laboratory  of  the  Normal  School 
of  Science  by  means  of  an  elaborate  and  expensive  platinum 
apparatus.  The  first  necessity  was,  of  course,  the  pure  anhydrous 
acid.  This  was  freshly  prepared,  as  required  for  each  experi- 
ment, from  the  now  famous  double  fluoride  of  hydrogen  and 
potassium  ;  it  was  afterwards  re-distilled  from  the  platinum 
retort  through  the  density  apparatus,  which  was  placed  in  a  bath 
of  glycerol  heated  to  the  required  temperature.  The  vessel,  of 
known  capacity,  in  which  the  hydrofluoric  acid  was  eventually 
weighed  consisted  of  a  platinum  cylinder  completely  closed,  with 
the  exception  of  the  entrance  and  exit  tubes,  which  could  be 
closed  at  will  by  means  of  well-fitting  platinum  stopcocks  of 
skilful  workmanship.  The  whole  operations  could  thus  be  con- 
ducted in  platinum  throughout,  and  are,  therefore,  of  the  most 
trustworthy  character.  As  expected,  the  values  obtained  corre- 
spond to  molecular  weights  ranging  from  51  "19  at  26°4  to  20^58  at 
88° '3,  thus  showing  a  continuous  breaking  down  of  the  molecular 
grouping,  until,  finally,  we  arrive  at  the  stage  where  the  whole 
of  the  molecules  consist  simply  of  II F,   corresponding  to  the 


normal  density  of  20.  No  other  molecular  condition  than  this 
is  capable  of  existing  throughout  any  considerable  range  of  tem- 
perature. It  is  of  the  highest  interest  to  consider  what  happens 
below  260-4.  The  natural  inference  is  that  the  molecular  group- 
ing becomes  more  and  more  complex,  or  condensed,  until  we 
reach  a  point  where  the  substance  becomes  visible — a  liquid  ; 
while  still  further  condensation  eventually  brings  us  face  to 
face  with  a  solid. 

THE  Report  of  the  Conservator  of  Forests  in  Ceylon  for  the 
past  year  says  that  though  Sir  Joseph  Hooker  in  1873  called 
attention  to  the  rapid  destruction  of  forests  in  that  island,  no 
steps  were  taken  by  the  Government  till  1882.  In  that  year,  as 
a  result  of  a  report  of  Mr.  Vincent,  of  the  Indian  Forest  De- 
partment, the  Government  turned  its  attention  to  the  subject, 
and  in  1885  the  "  Forest  Ordinance  "  was  issued.  The  objects- 
of  this  Ordinance  were,  briefly,  to  select  suitable  areas  of  forest 
land  and  constitute  them  State  forests,  to  buy  off  any  interests 
which  private  individuals  might  have  in  those  lands,  to  place 
them  under  effective  protection,  and  generally  to  systematize  the 
forest  conservancy.  Even  now  the  Crown  forests  are  plundered 
in  a  wholesale  fashion  by  organized  bands  of  thieves,  but  it  is 
hoped  in  a  short  time  to  put  an  end  to  this,  and  make  the  forests 
of  Ceylon  as  remunera'ive,  comparatively  speaking,  as  those  of 
India,  where  they  produce  a  substantial  revenue.  Ruin  has 
threatened  the  Ceylon  forests,  just  as  it  threatened  the  forests  of 
Jinjira,  in  Western  India,  where  three-fourths  of  a  vast  forest 
forty  miles  long,  and  from  fifteen  to  a  hundred  miles  in  breadth, 
was  destroyed,  and  the  remainder  with  difficulty  saved. 

In  an  interesting  paper  on  ancient  tide-lore,  reprinted,  with  some 
other  papers  by  the  same  author,  from  the  Transactions  of  the 
New  Zealand  Institute,  Mr.  W.  Colenso,  F.R. S.,  describes  the 
old  belief  of  the  Maories  as  to  the  ebbing  and  flowing  of  the  sea. 
These  phenomena,  it  seens,  they  attributed  to  a  huge  ocean 
monster,  whose  home  was  low  down  in  the  depths  beyond  the 
horizon.  It  was  supposed  to  do  its  work  by  powerful  and 
regular  respiration,  or  ingurgitation  and  regurgitation  of  the 
water.  The  monster's  name  was  Parata  ;  and  any  one  over- 
taken by  great  misfortune  is  said  to  have  fallen  into  Parata's 
throat.  In  a  myth  relating  to  the  first  peopling  of  New  Zealand, 
one  of  the  chief  canoes,  named  the  Arawa,  is  represented  as 
being  carried  info  the  enormous  mouth  of  the  monster,  and  as 
being  with  difficulty  extricated  by  Ngatoroirangi,  the  courageous 
and  cunning  tohunga  (=  priest,  or  wise  man)  on  board,  who 
recited  his  powerful  charm  for  the  purpose.  The  words  of  this 
charm  or  spell  are  still  preserved. 

In  his  Report  to  the  Foreign  Office  on  the  agriculture  of  Yezo, 
the  British  Consul  at  Hakodadi  says  that  though  the  Ainos  are  a 
hunting  and  fishing  people,  yet  efforts  have  been  made  to  induce 
them  to  cultivate  the  soil.  In  1869  the  influx  of  Japanese  to  the 
fishing  grounds  reduced  them  to  great  straits.  This  appears  to 
have  continued  till  1882,  when  attention  was  drawn  to  their 
condition,  and  sums  of  money  were  distributed  amongst  them  to 
relieve  their  distress,  schools  were  built,  and  attempts  were  made 
to  teach  them  farming.  In  1886  the  money  gifts  were  stopped, 
but  the  efforts  to  teach  them  agriculture  continued,  and  at  the 
end  of  that  year  about  803  acres  were  cultivated  by  the  Ainos. 
The  Consul  remarks  that  it  is  impossible  to  tell  how  many  Ainos 
there  are  in  Japan,  from  their  carelessness  or  dislike  to  record 
the  births  and  deaths  ;  but  it  is  calculated  that  there  are  about 
3600  houses  in  Yezo — that  is,  about  14,000  people.  The 
general  impression  is  that  they  are  gradually  disappearing,  but 
obviously  the  Government  of  Japan  is  doing  all  it  can  to  aid  the 
Ainos,  and  to  foster  in  them  a  spirit  of  self-help. 

The  last  number  (Session  1887-88)  of  the  Madras  Journal  of 
Literature  and  Science  contains  the  first  part  of  a  treatise  by 
Prof.  Oppeit,  of  the  Presidency  College,  Madras,  on  the  original 
inhabitants  of  Bharatavarsa,    or  India,    whom  he  describes  as 


374 


NATURE 


{August  1 6,  1888 


Ganda-Dravidians.  This  term  the  learned  writer  explains  by 
saying  that  the  two  special  Ganda-Dravidian  terms  for  mountain 
are  mala  and  ko,  both  being  widely  used  and  prevalent  through- 
out India.  Those  tribes,  whose  names  are  derived  from  mala, 
he  calls  Dravidians,  and  those  whose  names  are  derived  from  ko, 
Gandians.  In  this  way  the  Mallas,  Malas,  Malavas,  Malayas, 
&c,  and  the  Koyis,  Kodulu,  Kondas,  Gondos,  Kuruvas,  &c, 
are  classified  as  Dravidians  and  Gandians  respectively.  The 
presence  of  the  Ganda-Dravidians  in  India  can  be  proved  at  a 
very  early  period  "  from  the  north-west  across  to  the  north-east, 
and  from  both  corners  to  the  furthest  south.  On  the  arrival  of 
the  Aryans  on  the  north-western  frontier,  the  Ganda-Dravidians 
are  already  found  in  flourishing  communities."  In  the  present 
instalment  of  his  work,  Prof.  Oppert  endeavours  to  prove  the 
antiquity  of  this  race,  especially  of  the  Dravidian  branch  ;  in 
the  next  he  will  treat  of  the  Gandians.  His  own  summary  of 
his  positions  in  the  concluding  section  is  to  this  effect  :  in  follow- 
ing the  ramifications  of  the  Dravidians  throughout  the  peninsula, 
he  points  out  the  connection  which  exists  between  several  tribes, 
apparently  widely  different  from  each  other ;  he  has  identified 
the  so-called  pariahs  of  Southern  India  with  the  old  Dravidian 
mountaineers,  and  establishes  their  relationship  with  a  number 
of  tribes  forming,  as  it  were,  the  first  layer  of  the  ancient 
Dravidian  stratum,  and  he  endeavours  to  show  that  various 
other  different  tribes  are  offshoots  of  the  Dravidian  race.  He 
thinks  also  that  much  that  is  now  considered  Aryan  in  name  and 
origin  must  be  regarded  as  originally  Dravidian.  The  various 
Dravidian  tribes  scattered  over  India  are  separately  introduced 
into  the  discussion  in  order  to  establish  their  mutual  kinship. 
Prof.  Oppert,  in  fact,  labours  to  restore  the  Dravidian  "  to  those 
rights  and  honours  of  which  he  has  so  long  been  deprived." 
The  spirit  in  which  he  has  undertaken  what  is  obviously  a  great 
work  is  sufficiently  evident  from  the  words  with  which  he  con- 
cludes the  present  article  : — "  My  errors,  too,  may  not  be  with- 
out use  if,  like  stranded  vessels,  they  serve  to  direct  the  explorer, 
warning  him  away  from  those  shoals  and  rocks  that  _beset  the 
inquirer  in  his  search  after  truth." 

In  the  Berlin  Meteorologische  Zeitschrift  for  July,  Dr.  E. 
Bruckner  discusses  the  meteorological  observations  of  the 
German  Polar  station  at  Kingua  Fjord  (Cumberland  Sound), 
and  also  of  the  stations  in  Labrador  and  South  Georgia,  in  the 
year  1882-83.  The  results  represent  three  distinct  types  of 
winter  climate.  Kingua  Fjord  has  a  calm,  severe  winter,  and 
cool  summer,  the  warmest  month  being  Augu-t,  whereas  July 
is  usually  the  warmest  month  in  Arctic  North  America.  In 
Labrador  the  cold  is  often  accompanied  by  stormy  west  winds, 
and  although  the  temperature  is  higher  than  at  Kingua  Fjord, 
the  cold  is  much  more  keenly  felt.  South  Georgia  naturally 
pat  takes  of  the  oceanic  character,  but  the  yearly  temperature, 
34°"5,  is  much  lower  than  at  the  neighbouring  stations  on  the 
coast  of  South  America,  in  the  same  latitude  (540  31'  S. ),  and  is 
the  lowest  yet  known  in  the  southern  hemisphere.  Dr.  P. 
Schreiber  contributes  an  instructive  article  on  the  question  of 
the  deduction  of  true  daily  means  of  temperature  from  three  or 
four  observations  daily.  He  gives  a  series  of  nine  combina- 
tions, and  their  results,  as  compared  with  twenty-four  hourly 
observations  at  Chemnitz.  The  result  shows  that  the  somewhat 
inconvenient  hours  of  6  a.m.,  2  and  10  p.m.,  give  the  nearest 
true  daily  temperature.  The  inquiry  is  interesting  as  bearing 
upon  the  question  of  the  necessity  of  continuing  the  expensive 
process  of  continuous  records  for  an  unlimited  period. 

Dr.  Buys  Ballot,  the  Director  of  the  Meteorological 
Institute  of  the  Netherlands,  has  published  an  excerpt  paper 
from  the  Proceedings  of  the  Amsterdam  Academy  of  Sciences, 
on  the  distribution  of  temperature  over  the  surface  of  the  earth. 
Instead  of  representing  the  temperatures  by  the  usual  method  of 
isothermal  lines,  he  gives  the  departures  for  each  50  of  latitude  and 


longitude  from  the  normal  temperature  at  the  equator,  by  means 
of  figures,  using  ordinary  and  thick  type  to  avoid  the  use  of  plus 
and  minus  signs.  The  variations  of  temperature  for  the  typical 
months  of  January  and  July,  and  for  the  year,  are  very  clearly 
shown  by  this  method.  The  work  is  also  accompanied  by 
maps,  connecting  by  curves  all  places  having  the  same  mean 
differences  of  temperature  in  the  summer  and  winter  months. 

Among  the  contents  of  the  new  number  of  the  Interna- 
tionales Archiv  fur  Ethnographie  (Band  i.  Heft  4)  we  may 
note :  a  Singapore  street  scene,  by  Prof.  G.  Schlegel  ;  a  paper, 
by  F.  Grabowsky,  on  certain  sacrificial  customs  in  Borneo  ; 
another,  by  J.  D.  E.  Schweltz,  on  South  Sea  relics  ;  and  various 
ethnographic  notes  from  Mecca,  by  G.  Snouck  Hurgronje.  All 
the  articles  are  admirably  illustrated  with  coloured  plates. 

Anew  autumn  edition  of  "Walks  in  Epping  Forest,"  by 
Percy  Lindley,  describing  portions  less  known  to  pedestrians,  is 
in  preparation.  Prof.  Boulger  has  contributed  to  the  same 
issue  some  notes  upon  the  recent  extensive  tree-felling  and 
"forestry"  operations  in  Epping  Forest. 

A  book  on  "The  General  Principles  of  Agriculture,"  by  A. 
Larbaletrier  (Reinwald),  has  just  been  published  in  Paris. 

Gegenbauer's  "  Human  Anatomy  "  is  being  translated  into 
French.  The  first  quarter  of  the  book  was  recently  published 
by  Reinwald. 

The  Odessa  Gazette  reports  the  discovery  of  the  remains  of  an 
ancient  town  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Volga.  These  remains 
are  traceable  over  an  area  about  two  miles  long,  by  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile  in  width.  The  place  has  been  visited  by  a 
deputation  from  the  Commission  of  Archives.  A  very  consider- 
able quantity  of  Arabian,  Persian,  and  Tartar  coins  has  been 
found  there,  besides  a  multitude  of  other  objects  which  bear 
witness  to  the  cultivated  state  of  the  inhabitants.  There  were 
remains  of  marble  blocks,  of  watercourses,  &c. 

An  exploring  party  of  eight  persons,  led  by  Lieut.  Israel, 
have  set  out  from  South  Australia  to  explore  the  country  north- 
east of  Newcastle  in  Western  Australia,  and  particularly  the 
territory  around  Lake  Moore  and  Lake  Manga.  The  objects  of 
the  expedition  are  said  to  be  partly  scientific  and  partly  com- 
mercial, and  the  funds  have  been  supplied  by  a  number  of 
Australian  capitalists. 

A  correspondent— who  says  that  everyone  who  looks 
through  the  series  of  photographs  of  lightning  in  the  possession 
of  the  Royal  Meteorological  Society  must  be  struck  with  the  fact 
that  many  of  the  flashes  exhibit  a  ribbon-like  structure,  while  the 
appearance  is  totally  absent  from  others — has  made  some  experi- 
ments in  order  to  ascertain  whether  a  similar  appearance  can  be 
produced  by  interposing  a  sheet  of  window-glass  between  a 
narrow  brightly-illuminated  slit  and  the  camera.  So  far  as  these 
experiments  have  yet  gone,  he  is  not  in  a  position  to  assert  that 
all  the  peculiar  band-like  appearances  can  thus  be  imitated,  but 
there  is  no  doubt,  he  asserts,  that  a  photograph  of  an  unribboned 
flash  taken  obliquely  through  a  window  must  exhibit  appearances 
very  similar,  if  not  identical. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Weeper  Capuchin  (Cebus  capuci>ius  (J)  from 
Brazil,  presented  by  Mr.  Haddan  ;  two  Common  Genets  {Genetta 
vulgaris)  from  West  Africa,  presented  by  Mr.  Philip  Lemberg  ■ 
three  Palm  Squirrels  {Sciurus  palmarum)  from  India,  presented 
by  Surgeon-Major  W.  G.  King ;  an  Orange-winged  Amazon 
(Ckrysatis  amazonica)  from  South  America,  presented  by  the 
Hon.  N.  L.  Melville  ;  two  Fulmar  Petrels  (Fulmarus  glacialis) 
from  St.  Ki'da,  presented  by  Mr.  W.  C.  Gilles  ;  a  Common 
Chameleon  (Chamaleon  vulgaris)  from  North  Africa,  presented 
by  Mr.  Underwood  ;  a  Macaque  Monkey  {Macaeus  cytumolgits  6  ) 
from  India,  an  Ocelot  (Felis  partialis),  a  Common  Rhea  (A'/iea 
americana)    from    South    America,    a    Ring-necked    Parrakeet 


August  1 6,  1888] 


NATURE 


375 


(Pabrornis  torqualus)  from  India,  a  Grey-breasted  Parrakeet 
(Bolborhynchus  tnonachus)  from  Monte  Video,  two  White- 
fronted  Amazons  (Ch-ysotis  leucocephalus)  from  Cuba,  two 
European  Tree  Frogs  {Hyla  arborea),  European,  deposited;  a 
Barraband's  Parrakeet  {Polytclis  barrabandi)  from  New  South 
Wales,  purchased ;  a  Mountain  Ka-Ka  {Nestor  nolabilis)  from 
New  Zealand,  received  in  exchange  ;  two  Canadian  Beavers 
(Castor  canadensis),  three  Gold  Pheasants  (Thaumalea  picta), 
bred  in  the  Gardens. 

OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 
Further  Cometary  Discoveries. — Mr.  W.  R.  Brooks, 
Smith  Observatory,  Geneva,  New  York,  discovered  a  new 
comet,  1888  c,  on  August  J.  The  place  for  8h.  4631.,  G.  M.T., 
on  August  7  is  given  as  R.A.  ioh.  5m.,  Deck  440  30'  N..  It 
was  observed  at  Vienna  on  August  9,  9I1.  53"5m.,  in  R.A. 
ich.  21m.  53s.,  Decl.  440  49'  26".  Faye's  comet  was  picked  up 
by  M.  Perrotin  at  the  Nice  Observatory  on  August  9,  its  place 
at  15I1.  I9"5m.,  Nice  M.T. ,  being  R.A.  5h.  om.  27-6s.,  Decl. 
200  o'  42"  N.  There  are  thus  four  comets  now  under  observa- 
tion. The  following  ephemeris,  supplied  in  the  Dun  Echt 
Circular,  No.  159,  is  'derived  from  Dr.  Kreutz's  ephemeris  for 
Faye's  comet  in  the  Astr.  Nachr.,  No.  2849,  the  time  of 
perihelion  passage  having  been  increased  by  2 '6  days. 

Ephemeris  for  Berlin  Noon. 


1S88 

R.A. 

Decl. 

1888 

R.A. 

Decl. 

h.     m. 

h.     m. 

Aug.  20  . 

•  5  285 

19  31  N. 

Sept.    5  . 

•  6    95 

17  58  N. 

24  . 

•  5  39o 

19  13 

9  • 

.  6  19-2 

1727 

28  . 

•  5  49 '4 

18  51 

13  • 

6286 

1654 

Sept.    I   . 

■  5  59-6 

18  26  N. 

17  • 

•  637-8 

16  18  N. 

Dr.  Backlund's  ephemeris  for  Encke's  comet,  given  in  the 
last  issue  of  Nature  (p.  350),  should  also  have  been  given  for 
Berlin  noon,  and  not  for  midnight.  The  resulting  error  of  the 
ephemeris  at  the  time  of  discovery  thus  becomes  O  -  C  , 
R.A.  +  8s.  ;  Decl.    -   l'% 

The  following  ephemeris,  by  Dr.  H.  Kreutz,  for  Brooks's  comet 
is  for  Berlin  midnight : — 

1888.  R.A.  Decl.  1888.  R.A.  Decl. 

h.    m.    s.        0       ,  h.  m.    s.  0      , 

Aug.  15    11    8    8  44  257  N.  I  Aug.  23  12    5  53  42  14-0  N. 

19   11  37  41  43  32'9  27  12  32  21  4033-4 


ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA  FOR  THE 
WEEK  1888  AUGUST  19-25. 
/ipOR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 
is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  August  19 

Sun  rises,  4h.  54m.  ;  souths,  I2h.  3m.  18  2s.  ;  sets,  19b.    12m.  : 

right    asc.    on    meridian,   9h.    564m.  ;     decl.    120  34'  N. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  17I1.  6m. 

Moon  (Full  on  August  21,  l6h.)rises,  i8h.  18m. ;  souths,  22h.  38m. ; 

sets,  3I1.   3m.*  :  right  asc.  on  meridian,  2oh.  32"6m. ;  decl. 


190  20'  s. 

Right  asc. 

and  declination 

Planet.         R.ses. 

Souths. 

Sets. 

on 

Tieridian. 

h.    m. 

h.    m. 

h.    m. 

h.      m. 

Mercury..     4  21    . 

•   11  47  • 

•    19    13    • 

•     9  40-3 

...   15  45  N. 

.   12  46  . 

•    19  41    • 

•   10  39"3 

...   10     3  N. 

Mars 12  30  .. 

•   16  58  ■ 

.    21    26    . 

.   14  52-2 

...   17  57  S. 

Jupiter. ...    13  26  .. 

.   17  4^  • 

.    22    IO    . 

•   15,41*9 

...   18  58  S. 

Saturn....     3  28  .. 

.   11     7  . 

.    18   46    . 

.      9     O'O 

...   17  47  N. 

Uranus  ...     9  24  .. 

.   15     1   . 

.    20   38    . 

•   12  54-9 

...     5  12  S. 

Neptune..   22  23*.. 

6  10  . 

13  57  • 

.      4      21 

...   18  59  N. 

Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 

Occultations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 

angles  from  ver- 

Aug.  Star.  Mag.  Disap.  Reap.  tex  to  right  for 

inverted  image, 
h.    m.  h.    m.  00 

O   58    ...      2    IO      ...    126   314 

20  17  near  approach  162    — 

21  46  ...  22  30     ...     29  320 
21   55  near  approach   172    — 


21   . 

21  . 

22  . 
22  . 

Aug. 
24 


34 

6 

5 

4i 


y  Capricorni 
50  Aquarii 
\p3  Aquarii 
*J<2  Aquarii 

h. 

1     ...    Mercury  in  superior  conjunction  with  the  Sun. 


Variable  Stars. 

Star. 

R.A. 
h.      m. 

Decl. 

h.    in. 

Algol     

3    0-9  . 

..  40  31  N. 

...  Aug.  23, 

0  55  *» 

!> 

25. 

21     1  1    •'. 

\  Tauri 

3  54"5  • 

.   12    10  N. 

>> 

20, 

0  57  m 

>» 

23. 

23  49  m 

T  Monocerotis    ... 

6  19-2  .. 

.    7    9N. 

,, 

25. 

4    0  M 

R  Canis  Minoris... 

7     2*6  .. 

.  10  12  N. 

...          ,, 

21, 

M 

8  Libras        

14  55-o  . 

.    8    4S. 

>» 

23. 

22  34  m 

U  Coronae    

15  13*6  • 

.32     3  N. 

,, 

22, 

21     7  m 

S  Herculis 

16  468  . 

.15     8N. 

...          || 

23. 

M 

U  Ophiuchi 

17  109  . 

.     1  20  N. 

>» 

19. 

2  48  m 

and  at  in 

tervals 

of 

20    8 

W  Sagittarii 

17  579  • 

•  29  35  S. 

...  Aug.  23, 

20     0  m 

U  Sagittarii 

18  25-3  . 

.  19  12  S. 

...     ,, 

23. 

1     0  m 

S  Sagittarii 

19  50'9  • 

.  16  20  N. 

>» 

19. 

23     0  M 

U  Cygni       

20  i6"i  . 

•  47  33  N. 

...     ,, 

20, 

m 

X  Cygni       

20  39  0  . 

•  35  1 1  N- 

>> 

22, 

2     0  M 

T  Vulpeculse 

20  467  . 

.  27  50  N. 

...     ,, 

19, 

20    0  M 

n 

20, 

21     0  m 

R  Vulpeculse 

20  59-4  .. 

•  23  23  N. 

21, 

M 

5  Cephei       

22  25-0  . 

■  57  5i  N. 

...     11 

25. 

22    0  M 

M 

signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum. 

Meteor-  Showers. 


R.A. 


Decl. 


Near  7  Camelopardalis. 


54  • 

.  71  N.  . 

..   Swift ;  streaks. 

290  . 

.  60  N.  . 

.   Bright     and    slow ; 
with  trains. 

GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

A  work  of  great  interest  in  the  history  of  early  European 
cartography  has  recently  been  published  by  Messrs.  Stevens  and 
Sons,  of  Great  Russell  Street,  and  the  manner  in  which  it  came 
to  be  compiled  is  not  a  little  curious.  One  of  the  most  famous 
of  the  early  European  cartographers  was  Johann  Schoner,  Pro- 
fessor of  Mathematics  at  Nuremberg  in  the  eirly  part  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  He  is  best  known  now  by  a  series  of 
terrestrial  globes  which  he  prepared,  one  about  15 15,  another  in 
1520,  and  a  third  in  1533,  all  three  of  which  are  still  preserved 
at  Frankfort,  Nuremberg,  and  Weimar  respectively.  Here,  so- 
far  as  cartography  is  concerned,  students  would  have  believed 
Schoner's  work  to  have  ceased,  were  it  not  for  a  small  Latin 
pamphlet  of  four  pages  which  existed  amongst  his  numerous 
writings,  and  which  was,  in  substance,  a  letter  to  a  high 
ecclesiastical  authority  of  Bamberg  descriptive  of  a  globe  on 
which  were  marked  the  discoveries  made  during  Magellan's  famous 
circumnavigation  of  the  globe.  Only  three  copies  of  this 
pamphlet  were  known  to  exist.  It  was  dated  1523,  and  it 
obviously  did  not  refer  to  the  globes  of  1515  or  1523,  for  these 
did  not  contain  any  references  to  the  discoveries'  in  question. 
Hence  it  was  assumed  that  another  globe,  between  1520  and 
1533  had  been  prepared  by  Schoner,  but  no  trace  of  this  could 
be  found,  and,  if  it  existed  at  all,  it  seemed  to  be  lost  for  ever. 
But  in  1885  the  late  well-known  bibliographer,  Mr.  Henry 
Stevens  ("of  Vermont")  found  in  the  catalogue  of  a 
Munich  bookseller  a  facsimile  of  a  globe  which  he  at 
once  recognized  as  the  long  lost  work  of  Schoner.  He 
promptly  purchased  it,  and  u'timately  it  found  its  way  into  the 
remarkable  collection  of  works  on  early  American  geography  and: 
history  made  by  Mr.  Kalbfleisch,  of  New  York,  where  it  still  is. 
But  Mr.  Stevens,  who  regarded  it  as  "  one  of  the  keys  to  unlock 
the  many  mysteries  of  early  American  geography,"  determined 
to  reproduce  Schoner's  letter  and  globe  in  facsimile,  and  to 
append  a  translation  and  an  introductory  sketch  of  the  early 
historical  geography  of  America.  While  still  labouring  at  this 
work  he  died,  but  his  son  took  it  up,  and,  aided  by  Mr.  C.  H. 
Coote,  of  the  Map  Department  of  the  British  Museum,  has  now 
succeeded  in  bringing  it  to  a  conclusion.  Schoner  himself  was 
entirely  indebted  for  his  knowledge  of  the  results  of  Magellan's 
voyage  to  a  letter  written  by  one  Maximilianus  Transylvanus, 
a  natural  son  of  the  Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Salzburg,  and 
then  employed  about  the  Court  of  the  Emperor  Charles  V., 
describing  for  his  father  the  expedition  in  question.  This 
pamphlet  is  styled  "  De  Molvccis,"  and  from  the  descriptions 
here  given,  Schoner  depicted  the  new  portions  of  his  globe,  or, 
in  his  own  words,  "being  desirous  to  make  some  small  addition 


376 


NATURE 


\_August  1 6,  1888 


to  this  wonderful  survey  of  the  earth,  so  that  what  appears  very 
•extraordinary  to  the  reader  may  appear  more  likely  when  thus 
illustrated,  I  have  been  at  the  pains  to  construct  this  globe." 
The  differences  between  this  and  former  globes  are  considerable, 
and  mark  a  great  advance  in  geographical  knowledge.  America, 
instead  of  being  broken  up  into  many  islands,  as  in  all  earlier 
globes,'is  shown  as  one  large  continent  of  tolerably  correct  shape  ; 
Florida  is  named  for  the  first  time  in  print;  "  the  Moluccas 
have  found  a  local  habitation  and  their  true  places,  as  well  as 
many  of  the  real  isles  of  the  sea,  while  all  the  monsters  and 
bogus  elements  of  American  geography  are  made  to  disappear." 

The  new  volume  issued  by  Mr.  Stevens  opens  with  a  long, 
learned,  and  most  interesting  introduction  by  Mr.  Coote,  on 
•early  American  geography  generally,  and  especially  on  the 
globes  and  maps  of  the  first  part  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Mr. 
Coote  also  narrates  the  life  of  Schoner,  and  furnishes  an 
estimate  of  his  services  to  geography.  One  of  his  discoveries 
relating  to  Schoner  is  that  the  place-name  Timiripa,  from 
which  he  dates  some  of  his  letters,  and  which  has  hitherto 
puzzled  all  students,  is  merely  the  translation  of  part  of  the  name 
of  a  small  parish  of  which  Schoner  was  pastor.  The  intro- 
duction is  followed  by  a  facsimile  of  Schoner's  letter  of  dedica- 
tion of  the  globe  to  the  Canon  of  Bamberg,  by  the  letter  of 
Maximilianus,  and  by  translations  of  both,  as  well  as  by  a 
bibliography  of  Schoner's  works.  But,  next  to  the  introduction, 
the  portion  of  the  book  which  will  receive  most  attention  will 
be  the  facsimiles  at  the  end,  which  are  as  follows:  (1)  the 
famous  Hunt-Lenox  globe,  attributed  to  1506-7  :  (2)  the  Bou- 
longer  globe,  supposed  to  have  been  executed  in  15 14-17  ;  (3) 
Schoner's  first  globe  of  1515  ;  (4)  his  second  globe  of  1520 ;  (5) 
the  third  globe  of  1523,  "being  the  earliest  geographical  docu- 
ment to  delineate  the  first  circumnavigation  of  the  earth  by  the 
Spaniards,  1519-22";  (6)  the  Portuguese  so-called  Cantino 
map  of  1502.  The  reproduction  of  the  letters  of  Schoner  and 
Maximilianus  Transylvanus  have  been  done  in  exact  facsimile 
by  the  phototypographic  process,  all  the  defects  and  peculiari- 
ties of  the  originals  appearing  with  faithful  minuteness.  The 
long-lost  globe  consists  of  twelve  gores,  and  its  distinguishing 
feature  is  a  line  drawn  completely  round  the  circumference, 
showing  the  route  of  Magellan's  fleet  in  the  first  circumnavigation 
df-the  earth. 

The  following  message  from  Mr.  Joseph  Thomson  and  Mr. 
Harved  Crichton-Browne,  transmitted  by  the  Eastern  Telegraph 
Company's  cable  from  Tangier,  has  been  sent  to  the  Royal 
Society,  the  Royal  Geographical  Society,  and  to  the  friends  of 
the  explorers  : — "  City  of  Morocco,  July  28. — We  returned  to 
Amsmiz  across  mountains,  safe  and  well,  July  24  ;  many  in- 
teresting geographical  and  geological  notes ;  so  far  successful 
beyond  our  expectations.  We  were  prevented  going  direct  from 
Glamoa  to  Gundaffy  by  tribal  revolt.  We  shall  start  on  August  6 
for  third  trip  across  the  Atlas,  further  south-west  this  time." 


M1 


THE  GASES  OF  THE  BLOOD} 


R.  PRESIDENT  AND  GENTLEMEN,— The  subject  I 
have  chosen  is  a  consideration  of  the  gaseous  constituents 
of  the  blood  in  relation  to  some  of  the  problems  of  respiration- 
This  has  been  selected  both  because  it  deals  with  a  province  of 
physiology  in  which  there  are  many  profound  problems  connected 
with  the  molecular  phenomena  of  life,  and  also  because  it  gives 
me  the  opportunity  of  illustrating  some  of  the  methods  of  physio- 
logical research.  I  purpose  to  treat  the  subject  chiefly  from  the 
physical  stand-point,  and  to  demonstrate  some  of  the  phenomena 
as  I  would  endeavour  to  do  to  a  class  of  students,  believing  that 
this  will  be  of  more  interest  to  many  of  my  audience  than  if  I 
placed  before  you  anything  like  an  encyclopaedic  account  of 
recent  researches.  I  cannot  help  adding  that  as  I  speak  in  the 
class-room  of  one  of  the  most  distinguished  physicists  of  the  day, 
1  feel  the  genius  of  the  place  is  hovering  over  me,  and  I  will  be 
impelled  to  guide  you  to  the  borderland  of  physics  and  of 
physiology.  It  is  in  this  territory  that  we  meet  with  the  most 
profound  questions  regarding  the  nature  of  vital  activity,  and  it 

1  Address  to  the  British  Medical  Association  at  its  annual  meeting  at 
Glasgow.  Delivered  on  August  10  in  the  Natural  Philosophy  class-room 
University  of  Glasgow,  by  John  Gray  McKendrick,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.SS.L. 
and  E.,  F.R.C.P.E.,  Professor  of  the  Institutes  of  Medicine  in  the  University 
of  Glasgow. 


is  here  that  the  physiologist  and  the  physicist  must  join  hands  in 
working  out  their  solution. 

Respiration  may  be  shortly  defined  as  the  function  or  group  of 
functions  by  which  an  interchange  occurs  between  the  gases 
formed  in  the  tissues  of  a  living  being  and  the  gases  of  the 
medium  in  which  it  lives.  It  is  interesting  to  take  a  brief  survey 
of  the  investigations  which  laid  the  foundations  of  our  know- 
ledge of  this  subject,  as  it  illustrates  to  us  the  fact  taught  by  the 
history  of  all  sciences  that  those  truths  which  we  now  regard  as 
elementary  were  at  one  time  unknown,  and  have  been  gained 
only  by  laborious  inquiry. 

The  oldest  writers  do  not  appear  to  have  had  any  clear  notions 
even  as  to  the  necessity  for  respiration.  Hippocrates  dimly 
recognized  that  during  breathing  a  spirilus  was  communicated 
to  the  body.  Many  of  the  older  anatomists,  following  Galen, 
thought  that  the  "  very  substance  of  the  air  got  in  by  the  vessels 
of  the  lungs  to  the  left  ventricle  of  the  heart,  not  only  to 
temperate  heat,  but  to  provide  for  the  generation  of  spirits." 
This  notion  of  cooling  the  blood  was  held  by  Descartes  (1596- 
1650)  and  his  followers,  and  seemed  to  them  to  be  the  chief,  if 
not  the  sole,  use  of  respiration.  In-  addition,  they  supposed  it 
aided  in  the  production  and  modulation  of  the  voice,  in  coughing, 
and  in  the  introduction  of  odours.  The  celebrated  Van  Helmont 
(1577-1664)  strongly  expresses  these  views,  and  attaches 
particular  importance  to  the  necessity  for  cooling  the  blood, 
which  otherwise  would  become  too  hot  for  the  body. 

About  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  clearer  notions 
began  to  prevail.  These  rested  partly  on  an  anatomical  and 
partly  on  a  physical  discovery.  Malpighi  (1621-94)  discovered 
that  the  minute  bronchial  tubes  end  in  air  vesicles,  or  mem- 
branous cavities,  as  he  termed  them,  on  the  walls  of  which,  in 
the  frog,  he  saw  with  his  simple  microscope  the  blood  flowing 
through  capillaries.  This  pulmonary  plexus  was  for  many  years 
termed  the"rete  mirabile  Malpighii. "  The  physical  observa- 
tions were  made  by  the  celebrated  Robert  Boyle  (1627-91),  who 
describes  in  his  treatise  entitled  "New  Experiments,  Physico- 
Mechanical,  touching  the  Spring  of  the  Air,"  published  in  1662, 
numerous  experiments  as  to  the  behaviour  of  animals  in  the 
exhausted  receiver  of  the  air-pump.  He  showed  that  the  death 
of  the  animals  "  proceeded  rather  from  the  want  of  air  than  that 
the  air  was  over-clogged  by  the  steam  of  their  bodies."  He  also 
showed  that  fishes  also  enjoyed  the  benefits  of  the  air,  for,  said 
he,  "there  is  wont  to  lurk  in  the  water  many  little  parcels  of 
interspersed  air,  whereof  it  seems  not  impossible  that  fishes  may 
make  some  use,  either  by  separating  it  when  they  strain  the 
matter  thorow  their  gills,  or  by  some  other  way." 

His  conclusion  is  "  that  the  inspired  and  expired  air  maybe 
sometimes  very  useful  by  condensing  and  cooling  the  blood  ; " 
but  "  I  hold  that  the  depuration  of  the  blood  in  that  passage  is 
not  only  one  of  the  ordinary  but  one  of  the  principal  uses  of 
respiration."  Thus,  by  the  use  of  the  air-pump,  invented  by 
Otto  von  Guericke  about  1650,  Boyle  was  able  to  make  a 
contribution  of  fundamental  importance  to  physiological 
science. 

He  also  first  clearly  pointed  out  the  real  cause  of  the  influx  of 
air  into  the  lungs.  The  older  anatomists,  from  Galen  downwards, 
held  that  the  lungs  dilated  actively,  and  thus  sucked  in  the  air ; 
and  there  was  much  controversy  as  to  whether  the  chest,  with 
the  contained  lungs,  resembled  a  pair  of  bellows,  which  was 
filled  because  it  was  dilated,  or  whether  the  lungs  resembled  a 
bladder,  which  is  dilated  because  it  is  filled.  Boyle  shows 
clearly  that  the  cavity  of  the  chest  is  actively  dilated,  and  that 
the  lungs  are  distended  because  the  "spring"  of  the  air  is  then 
less  on  their  outer  than  on  their  inner  surface.  This  simple  ex- 
planation was  not  generally  accepted,  because  the  minds  of 
Boyle's  contemporaries  were  under  the  influence  of  an  ancient 
idea  that  air  existed  in  the  cavity  of  the  chest  external  to  the 
lungs.  This  prevented  them  from  seeing  the  simplicity  and 
accuracy  of  Boyle's  explanation,  and  to  be  constantly  on  the 
outlook  for  some  mechanism  by  which  the  lungs  could  actively 
dilate.  Such  notions  were  held  by  Willis,  Malpighi,  and 
Erasmus  Darwin.  The  opinion  of  Darwin  is  shown  by  the 
following  passages  in  the  "  Zoonomia  "  : — 

"  By  the  stimulus  of  the  blood  in  the  right  chamber  of  the 
heart,  the  lungs  are  induced  to  expand  themselves,  and  the 
pectoral  and  intercostal  muscles  and  the  diaphragm  act  at  the 
same  time  by  their  associations  with  them."  And,  again,  "to 
those  increased  actions  of  the  air-cells  are  superadded  those  oi 
the  intercostal  muscles  and  diaphragm,  by  irritative  association. 

Boyle's  observations  were  published  in   1660,  and  in  1685  we 


August  1 6,  1888] 


NATURE 


377 


find  Boreili  (1608-79),  in  the  second  portion  of  his  great  work 
*' De  Motu  Animalium,"  giving  expression  to  very  clear  notions 
regarding  respiration.  Thus  in  the  eighty-second  proposition  he 
shows  that  the  lungs  are  not  the  effective  causes  of  respiration, 
but  are  passively  concerned  in  the  movements ;  and  in  the 
eighty-third  proposition  he  states  that  the  efficient  cause  of  in- 
spiration is  the  muscular  force  by  which  the  cavity  of  the  chest 
is  increased  and  permits  the  lungs  to  be  filled  by  the  elastic 
force  of  the  air.  Boreili  was  also  the  first,  as  shown  in  the 
eighty-first  proposition  of  his  work,  to  make  an  estimate  of  the 
quantity  of  air  expelled  by  a  single  expiration.  At  the  same 
time  he  attributed  calm  expiration  to  the  elastic  resiliency  of  the 
ribs,  and  he  pointed  out  that  the  deepest  expiration  could  not 
entirely  empty  the  lungs  of  air  (Propositions  92,  93,  and  94). 
Whilst  Boreili  thus  recognized  the  air  as  necessary  to  animal  life, 
he  naturally  failed  in  explaining  why  this  was  so,  being  unac- 
quainted with  the  composition  of  the  air  and  of  the  so-called 
"  fuligineous  vapours"  (carbonic  acid,  aqueous  vapour,  &c.) 
which  were  supposed  to  exist  in  expired  air. 

I  find,  in  a  work  by  Swammerdam  (1637-80),  dated  1667, 
and  entitled  "  Tractatus  Physico-Anatomico  Medicusde  Respira- 
tione  usuque  Pulmonum,"  at  pp.  20,  21,  a  description  of  an 
experiment  in  which  he  immersed  in  a  vessel  of  water  a  dog 
having  a  long  tube  inserted  in  the  trachea,  and  he  observed  the 
rise  and  fall  of  the  level  of  the  water  during  respiration.  This 
was  practically  the  method  followed  by  Boreili,  but  I  am  unable 
to  say  which  experiment  was  first  performed. 

Here  I  may  also  refer  to  the  curious  experiments  of  Sanctorius, 
Professor  of  Medicine  in  Padua,  who  flourished  from  1561  to 
1636,  as  being  probably  the  first  quantitative  estimate  of  sub- 
stances escaping  from  the  body.  Sanctorius  constructed  a  balance 
by  which  he  weighed  himself  repeatedly,  and  observed  what  he 
gained  by  food  and  what  he  lost  by  excretion.  The  results 
appeared  in  his  work  "  Ars  de  Statica  Medicina,"  published  in 
1614,  and  he  states  the  amount  of  matter  separated  by  pulmonary 
exhalation  at  about  half  a  pound  in  twenty-four  hours.  It  is  not 
easy  to  say  precisely  what  these  figures  represent,  and  therefore 
we  find  the  amount,  on  the  authority  of  Sanctorius,  differently 
stated  by  writers  during  the  next  century.  His  observations  are 
of  interest,  however,  as  being  a  distinct  step  in  physiological 
investigation. 

Among  the  contemporaries  of  Boyle,  Pascal,  Spinosa,  Barrow, 
Newton,  and  Leibnitz— all  men  of  the  first  intellectual  rank — 
was  Dr.  Robert  Hooke,  one  of  the  most  versatile  and  able  of 
scientific  thinkers.  Hooke  was  born  in  1635,  and  died  in  1703. 
One  of  the  founders  of  the  Royal  Society,  its  early  Proceedings 
show  that  there  was  scarcely  any  department  of  science  at  the 
time  to  which  he  did  not  make  important  contributions.  In 
particular,  he  showed  a  remarkable  experiment,  in  October  1667, 
to  the  Royal  Society.  This  experiment,  as  detailed  in  Lowthorp's 
"  Abstract  of  the  Philosophical  Transaction-,"  vol.  iii.  p.  67, 
showed  that  it  was  the  fre  h  air,  and  not  any  alteration  in  the 
capacity  of  the  lungs,  which  caused  the  renewal  of  the  heart's 
beat.  It  has  been  said  that  a  similar  experiment  was  performed 
by  Vesalius,  but  with  this  difference,  that,  whilst  Vesalius  observed 
the  fact,  he  failed  in  giving  a  rational  explanation.  He  supposed 
that  the  movements  of  the  lungs  affected  the  movements  of  the 
heart,  but  he  did  not  see,  as  Hooke  did,  that  the  heart  moved 
because  it  was  supplied  with  blood  containing  fresh  air.  Hooke's 
experiment  is  one  also  of  great  practical  importance  as  being  the 
basis  of  the  modern  practice  of  using  artificial  respiration  in  cases 
of  impending  asphyxia. 

We  thus  see  that  the  necessity  of  a  continual  supply  of  fresh 
air  was  recognized  as  being  essential  to  life.  It  was  further  sur- 
mised that  the  air  imparted  something  to  the  blOod,  and  received 
something  in  return  ;  but  no  further  advance  was  made  in  this 
direction  ur.til  the  researches  of  Mayow,  a  name  now  famous  in 
the  early  history  of  chemistry  and  of  physiology.  John  Mayow 
was  born  in  1645,  and  died  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-four.  His 
principal  work  was  published  in  Oxford  in  1674.  In  it,  by  many 
ingenious  experiments,  he  showed  that  combustion  diminishes 
the  volume  of  the  air  and  alters  its  qualities  ;  that  respiration 
also  affects  the  quality  of  the  air  ;  that  an  animal  will  die  if  kept 
in  a  confined  space  full  of  air — a  fact  to  be  explained,  according 
to  Mayow,  by  saying  that  the  animal  had  used  the  respirable 
portion  of  the  air,  and  that  the  residue  was  unfit  for  life  ;  and, 
finally,  he  showed  that  an  animal  suffers  if  placed  in  an  atmo- 
sphere the  qualities  of  which  have  been  injured  by  combustion. 
Further,  he  gave  the  name  of  "  nitro-aerial  spiritus"  to  the 
"principle"  in  the  air  which,    he  said,   had  to  do  with  life, 


muscular  action,  and  combustion.  Thus  he  no  doubt  came  near 
the  discovery  of  oxygen,  made  by  Priestley  nearly  a  century  later. 
It  would  be  difficult  to  estimate  the  enormous  influence  on 
theories  of  combustion  and  of  respiration  exerted  by  the  re- 
searches of  Hoyle,  Hooke,  and  Mayow.  They  prepared  the 
way  in  physiological  science  for  the  next  great  step— namely, 
the  identification  of  the  gaseous  elements  contained  in  respira- 
tion. The  dependence  of  progress  in  physiology  on  the  state 
of  scientific  opinion  regarding  chemical  and  physical  questions 
could  not  be  better  illustrated  than  in  the  history  of  physiologi- 
cal ideas  regarding  respiration.  Thus  the  researches  of  Boyle 
with  the  air-pump  did  much  to  explain  the  mere  mechanism  of 
breathing.  Hooke  made  this  even  more  apparent,  and  Mayow 
gave  greater  precision  to  the  idea  that  in  respiration  the  blood 
lost  something  and  gained  something.  It  is  difficult  to  deter- 
mine precisely,  after  the  lapse  of  time,  the  contributions  made 
by  each  of  these  distinguished  observers,  who  were  contem- 
poraries ;  but  I  would  venture  to  say  that  the  germ  of  the  ideas 
that  bore  fruit  in  the  minds  of  Hooke,  and  more  especially  of 
Mayow,  may  be  found  in  the  writings  of  Robert  Boyle. 

The  researches  of  Mayow,  indicating  the  existence  in  the  air 
of  a  "nitro-aerial  spiritus  "  necessary  to  life,  and  the  presence 
in  expired  air  of  something  deleterious  to  life,  did  not  imme- 
diately produce  the  fruits  one  would  have  expected.  At  first, 
his  writings  attracted  considerable  attention  ;  they  passed  through 
two  or  three  editions,  and  were  translated  for  Continental 
readers  ;  but  from  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
nearly  twenty  years  after  Mayow's  death,  they  passed  almost 
into  oblivion.  Thus  Hales  vaguely  refers  to  him  in  only  two 
instances,  and,  as  stated  by  Bostock,  "  in  the  discourse  delivered 
by  Sir  John  Pringle  before  the  Royal  Society,  upon  the  assign- 
ment of  Sir  Godfrey  Copley's  medal  to  Dr.  Priestley,  which 
commences  with  a  sketch  of  the  discoveries  that  had  been  made 
in  the  science  of  aerology,  previous  to  the  period  when  this 
philosopher  entered  upon  his  experiments,  the  name  of  Mayow 
is  not  mentioned." 

Mayow's  writings  were  first  again  brought  into  notice  in  this 
country  by  Reinhold  Forster,  who  gave  a  summary  of  Mayow's 
views  in  an  introduction  to  his  translation  of  Scheele's  essay  on 
"  Air  and  Fire." 

As  another  example  of  how  Mayow's  observations  were  neg- 
lected, it  may  be  pointed  out  that  Boerhaave  (1668-1738),  one 
of  the  most  learned  men  of  his  time,  states  that  he  cannot  ex- 
plain the  change  which  the  air  experiences  by  respiration  ;  and 
even  Haller,  in  his  great  work  "  Elementa  Physiologise  Corporis 
Hutnani,"  published  in  1766,  sums  up  his  knowledge  regarding 
expired  air  by  stating  that  it  is  combined  with  a  quantity  of 
water  and  a  noxious  vapour,  and  has  its  elasticity  diminished. 

The  next  step  in  the  physiology  of  respiration  was  the  dis- 
covery, in  1754,  of  carbonic  acid,  by  Joseph  Black,  then  Professor 
of  Medicine  and  Chemistry  in  this  University.  About  this  time 
there  was  much  discussion  in  the  medical  world  as  to  the  use  of 
lime-water  in  cases  of  stone  and  gravel.  It  was  supposed  that 
the  lime-water  dissolved  calculi,  and  assisted  in  expelling  them 
from  the  body.  A  discussion  arose  as  to  the  virtues  of  lime- 
water  produced  from  different  substances.  Two  Professors  in 
the  University  of  Edinburgh — Alston  and  Whytt — specially  in- 
vestigated the  subject,  and  Whytt  asserted  that  the  lime-water 
of  oyster-shell  lime  had  mere  power  as  a  solvent  than  the  lime- 
water  of  common  stone  lime.  This  led  Black  to  examine  the 
question.  "  I  therefore,"  says  he,  "conceived  hopes  that,  by 
trying  a  greater  variety  of  the  alkaline  earths,  some  kinds  might 
be  found  still  more  different  by  their  qualities  from  the  common 
kind,  and  perhaps  yielding  a  lime-water  still  more  powerful 
than  that  of  oyster-shell  lime." 

This  led  Black  to  his  celebrated  investigation  on  magnesia. 
He  showed  that  in  the  case  of  magnesia  alba  (carbonate  of 
magnesia)  the  disappearance  of  the  effervescence  on  treatment 
with  an  acid  after  heating  was  accompanied  by  a  loss  of  weight. 
The  substance  thus  given  off  he  called  "fixed  air,"  or  what  we 
now  term  carbonic  acid.  This  led  to  an  examination  of  the  salts 
of  lime,  and  in  1757  he  made  two  important  physiological  dis- 
coveries, namely  :  (1)  that  the  fixed  air  was  injurious  to  animal 
life ;  and  (2)  that  fixed  air  was  produced  by  the  action  of 
respiration.  These  important  observations  are  thus  described  in 
his  own  words  : — "  In  the  same  year,  however,  in  which  my  first 
account  of  these  experiments  was  published — namely,  1757 — I 
had  discovered  that  this  particular  kind  of  air,  attracted  by 
alkaline  substances,  is  deadly  to  all  animals  that  breathe  it  by 
the  mouth  and  nostrils  together ;  but  that  if  the  nostrils  were 


37& 


NATURE 


{August  1 6,  1888 


kept  shut,  I  was  led  to  think  that  it  might  be  breathed  with 
safety.  I  found,  for  example,  that  when  sparrows  died  in  it  in 
ten  or  eleven  seconds,  they  would  live  in  it  for  three  or  four 
minutes,  when  the  nostrils  were  shut  by  melted  suet.  And  I 
convinced  myself  that  the  chan  je  produced  on  wholesome  air  by 
breathing  it,  consisted  chiefly,  if  n  it  solely,  in  the  conversion  of 
part  of  it  into  fixed  air.  For  I  found  that  by  blowing  through  a 
pipe  into  lime-water,  or  a  solution  of  caustic  alkali,  the  lime  was 
precipitated,  and  the  alkali  was  rendered  mild.  I  was  partly 
led  to  these  experiments  by  some  observations  of  Dr.  Hales, 
in  which  he  says  that  breathing  through  diaphragms  of  cloth 
dipped  in  alkaline  solutions  made  the  air  last  longer  for  the 
purposes  of  life." 

Fifteen  years  afterwards — namely,in  1772 — Joseph  Priestley  exa- 
mined the  chemical  effects  produced  by  the  burning  of  c  indies 
and  the  respiration  of  animals  upon  ordinary  air  ;  and  he  made 
the  important  discovery  that,  after  air  had  lost  its  power  of  sup- 
porting combustion,  as  by  the  burning  of  candles,  this  property 
might  be  restored  by  the  agency  of  plants.  Pushing  his  experi- 
ments still  further,  he  found  that  air,  deteriorated  by  the 
breathing  of  animals,  might  again  become  suitable  for  respiration 
by  the  action  of  plants.  In  these  experiments  he  employed 
mice  for  ascertaining  how  far  an  air  was  impure  or  unfit  for 
respiration.  In  1774,  Priestley  obtained  oxygen  by  heating  red 
precipitate  by  means  of  the  sun's  rays  concentrated  by  a  burning- 
glass.  This  led  to  an  investigation  of  the  constitution  of  the 
atmosphere,  and  it  was  shown  that  it  was  not  a  homogeneous 
elementary  body,  but  consisted  of  two  gases,  and  that  its  con- 
stitution was  remarkably  uniform.  Priestley  snowed  that  by  fer- 
mentation, combustion,  the  calcination  of  metals,  and  respiration, 
the  air  lost  a  portion  of  one  of  its  constituents,  oxygen. 

Thus  the  chemical  researches  of  Black  and  Priestley  proved 
that  in  respiration  oxygen  was  consumed  and  carbonic  acid 
produced,  although  the  latter  fact,  owing  to  the  theoretical 
views  of  Priestley  as  to  phlogiston,  was  not  fully  appreciated 
by  him. 

Within  a  year  after  Priestley's  discovery,  a  paper  on  respira- 
tion was  written  by  Lavoisier  (1743-94),  in  which  he  showed 
that  Priestley  was  correct  in  stating  that  the  air  lost  oxygen  in 
breathing,  but  Lavoisier  specially  pointed  out  that  it  had  gained 
carbonic  acid.  No  doubt  Lavoisier  was  well  acquainted  with 
Black's  researches,  as  is  shown  by  the  correspondence  between 
these  distinguished  men.  Lavoisier  was  the  first,  however,  to 
make  a  quantitative  examination  of  the  changes  produced  in  the 
air  by  breathing.  In  1780,  he  performed  a  remarkable  experi- 
ment, in  which  a  guinea-pig  was  confined  over  mercury  in  ajar 
containing  248  cubic  inches  of  gas  consisting  principally  of 
oxygen.  In  an  hour  and  a  quarter  the  animal  breathed  with  much 
difficulty,  and,  being  removed  from  the  apparatus,  the  state  of 
the  air  was  examined.  Its  bulk  was  found  to  be  diminished  by 
8  cubic  inches,  and  of  the  remaining  240  inches,  40  were  absorbed 
by  caustic  potash,  and  consequently  consisted  of  carbonic  acid. 
Still  later,  he  performed  a  more  accurate  experiment,  giving 
quantitative  results.  During  1789  and  1790,  by  a  special  ap- 
paratus, Lavoisier  and  his  friend  Seguin  attempted  to  measure 
the  changes  in  the  air  produced  by  the  breathing  of  man.  These 
researches  are  not  of  value  so  much  for  the  results  they  gave  as 
for  the  method  employed.  Lavoisier  constructed  a  still  more 
elaborate  apparatus,  with  which  he  began  experiments.  This 
research,  however,  he  never  finished,  as,  in  1794,  he  fell  a 
victim  to  the  blind  fury  of  Robespierre.  It  is  narrated  that  he 
earnestly  requested  a  respite  of  a  few  days  to  give  him  time  to 
prepare  for  publication  the  results  of  his  investigations.  This 
was  denied,  and  thus  perished  one  of  the  greatest  scientific  sons 
of  France. 

Stephen  Hales  (1677-1761)  attempted  to  measure  the  amount 
of  aqueous  vapour  given  off  by  the  lungs  by  breathing  through  a 
flask  filled  with  wood-ashes,  which  absorbed  the  moisture,  and  he 
estimated  the  amount  at  about  20  ounces  in  twenty-four  hours. 
Similar  observations  were  afterwards  made  by  Menzies  and  by 
the  eminent  surgeon,  Mr.  Abernethy.  Lavoisier  also  attacked 
the  problem  by  an  indirect  method.  Thus  he  determined  the 
quantity  of  oxygen  consumed  and  of  carbonic  acid  produced, 
and,  assuming  that  the  amount  of  oxygen'  was  more  than 
sufficient  to  form  the  carbonic  acid,  he  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  excess  united  with  hydrogen  in  the  lungs,  and  passed 
off  as  water.  As  may  be  supposed,  this  method  gave  widely 
different  results. 

Various  other  attempts  were  made  to  estimate  the  amount  of 
the  respiratory  changes.  In  particular,  Sir  Humphry  Davy,  in 
March   1798,   investigated  the  physiological    action  of     nitrous 


oxide  gas.  In  this  research,  published  in  1800,  he  began  by 
observations  upon  animals  ;  and  observations  as  to  the  effect  of 
the  gas  on  life,  on  muscular  irritability,  on  the  action  of  the 
heart,  and  on  the  colour  of  the  blood  are  recorded  with  great 
precision.  He  then  passed  on  to  observations  on  the  respiration 
of  hydrogen,  and  this  led  him  to  a  repetition  of  the  experiments 
of  Lavoisier  and  Goodwin.  Next  he  subjected  himself  and  friends 
to  experiment,  and  recorded  a  number  of  interesting  physiological 
and  psychical  phenomena.  This  research  is  of  great  historical 
interest  as  being  the  first  leading  to  the  discovery  of  a  method 
of  producing  anaesthesia,  or  insensibility  to  pain,  by  breathing 
vapours  or  gases. 

Another  eminent  man  who  contributed  largely  to  the  physio- 
logy of  respiration  was  Lazarus  Spallanzani,  who  was  born  in 
1729  and  died  in  1799.  He  was  educated  under  the  direction  of 
the  Jesuits.  When  about  sixteen  years  of  age  he  went  to  Bologna, 
and  studied  at  that  University,  specially  under  the  tuition  of  his 
cousin,  Laura  Bassa,  a  woman  celebrated  in  her  day  for  eloquence 
and  scientific  knowledge,  and  who  was  then  a  Professor  in  the 
University.  His  biographer,  Senebier,  says  : — "  Under  the 
direction  of  this  enlightened  guide  he  learned  to  prefer  the  study 
of  Nature  to  that  of  her  commentators,  and  to  estimate  their 
value  by  comparing  them  with  the  originals  they  professed  to 
describe.  The  scholar  at  once  perceived  the  wisdom  of  these 
counsels,  and  quickly  experienced  their  happy  effects.  He 
evinced  his  gratitude  to  his  instructress  in  a  Latin  dissertation 
published  in  1765,  which  was  dedicated  to  Laura  Bassa,  and  in 
which  he  recounted  the  applauses  she  received  at  Modena  when, 
entering  the  hall,  where  her  pupil,  on  being  appointed  a 
Professor,  was  defending  a  thesis,  '  De  Lapidibus  ab  Aqua 
Resilientibus,'  she  opposed  it  with  the  graces  of  an  amiable 
woman  and  the  wisdom  of  a  profound  philosopher." 

Spallanzani  became  Profes  or  of  Logic,  Mathematics,  and 
Greek  in  Reggio  in  1754,  and  about  this  date  he  published  re- 
searches on  Infusoria.  In  1760,  he  became  Professor  in  the 
University  of  Modena.  In  1765,  he  showed  that  many  micro- 
scopic animalcula  were  true  animals,  and  in  1768  he  published 
his  celebrated  researches  on  the  reproduction  of  portions  of  the 
body  removed  from  worms,  snails,  salamanders,  and  toads.  He 
paid  special  attention  to  the  great  question  of  spontaneous 
generation,  showing  that  infusi  >ns  of  animal  and  vegetable  sub- 
stances exposed  to  a  high  temperature,  and  hermetically  sealed, 
never  produced  living  things.  He  also  investigated  respiration, 
more  particularly  in  invertebrates.  He  proved  that  many  such 
animals  breathed  by  means  of  the  skin  as  well  as  by  the  special 
breathing  organs.  He  placed  many  animals,  but  more  especially 
different  species  of  worms,  in  atmo  pheres  of  hydrogen  and 
nitrogen,  and  found  that,  even  in  these  circumstances,  carbonic 
acid  was  produced.  He  also  showed  the  production  of  carbonic 
acid  by  the  dead  bodies  of  such  animals,  and  reasoned  from  this 
that  the  carbonic  acid  was  produced  directly  from  the  dead 
tissues  and  not  from  the  action  of  the  oxygen  of  the  air.  He 
contrasts  the  respiration  of  cold-blooded  and  warm  blooded 
animals,  and  shows  the  peculiarities  of  respiration  in  hibernating 
animals.  Nor  were  these  by  any  means  superficial  observations. 
They  were  usually  quantitative,  and  by  the  use  of  the  eudio- 
meter, he  analyzed  the  air  before  and  after  respiration. 
Probably  the  most  important  contribution  made  by  Spallanzani 
to  the  subject  was  showing  what  he  states  in  the  following 
paragraph  : — 

"I  inquire  not  here  why  the  quantity  of  carbonic  acid  gas  was 
greater  in  azotic  and  hydrogen  gas  than  in  common  air.  I  shall 
only  conclude,  from  these  experiments,  that  it  is  clearly  proved 
that  the  carb  mic  acid  gas  produced  by  the  living  and  dead  snails 
in  common  air  resulted  not  from  atmospheric  oxygen,  since  an 
equal  and  even  a  greater  quantity  of  it  was  obtained  in  azotic  and 
hydrogen  gas  ;  consequently,  in  the  oxygen  gas  destroyed  by  the 
presence  of  these  animals,  its  base  alone  is  absorbed  by  them 
either  during  life  or  after  death." 

But  Spallanzani  supposed  that  the  carbonic  acid  thus  produced 
was  formed  by  digestion  in  the  stomach,  passed  through  the 
tissues,  and  was  then  exhaled.  Thus  he  missed  a  great  step  in 
discovery — namely,  that  the  carbonic  acid  is  produced  by  the 
tissues  themselves.  It  was,  however,  pointed  out  in  1823,  by  W. 
F.  Edwards,  in  his  work  on  the  "  Influence  of  Physical  Agents 
on  Life,"  that  the  amount  of  carbonic  acid  produced  by  animal 
breathing  was  too  great  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  amount  of 
oxygen  in  their  lungs  at  the  beginning  of  the  experiment,  or  by 
carbonic  acid  supposed  to  be  in  the  stomach.  The  importance  of 
this  observation  will  be  seen  when  we  discuss  the  phenomena  of 
the  breathing  of  the  tissues. 


August  1 6,  1888] 


NATURE 


379 


In  1809  the  subject  of  aquatic  breathing  was  investigated  with 
great  care  by  Provencal  and  Humboldt.  They  collected  and 
analyzed  the  gases  of  water  before  and  after  fishes  had  lived  in  it 
for  a  certain  time,  and  showed  that  oxygen  was  consumed  and 
carbonic  acid  produced  by  these  creatures. 

We  have  now  seen  how  gradually  knowledge  was  arrived  at  as 
to  the  respiratory  exchanges.  At  the  beginning  of  the  present 
century  it  was  recognized  that  expired  air  had  lost  oxygen, 
gained  carbonic  acid  and  aqueous  vapour,  and  had  become 
hotter.  Since  then  many  researches  have  been  carried  on  to 
determine  with  accuracy  the  quantities  of  these  substances.  In 
all  of  these,  as  shown  in  these  diagrams,1  the  method  followed 
has  been  to  draw  through  a  chamber  containing  the  animal  a 
steady  constant  stream  of  air,  the  quantity  and  composition  of 
which  is  known.  Thus,  suppose  a  certain  quantity  of  dry  air, 
free  from  carbonic  acid,  and  consisting  only  of  oxygen  and 
nitrogen,  is  passed  through  such  a  chamber.  In  the  chamber 
some  of  the  oxygen  is  consumed,  and  a  certain  amount  of 
carbonic  acid  and  of  aqueous  vapour  is  given  up  by  the  animal. 
The  air  is  drawn  onwards  through  bulbs  or  glass  tubes  contain- 
ing sub-tances  such  as  baryta-water,  to  absorb  the  carbonic  acid, 
and  chloride  of  calcium  or  sulphuric  acid,  to  absorb  the  aqueous 
vapour.  It  is  evident  that  the  increased  weight  of  these  bulbs 
and  tubes,  after  the  experiment  has  gone  on  for  some  time,  will 
give  the  amounts  of  carbonic  acid  and  aqueous  vapour  formed. 
Thus  Andral  and  Gavarret  in  1843,  Vierordt  in  1845,  Regnault 
and  Keiset  in  1849,  von  Pettenkofer  in  i860,  and  Angus  Smith 
in  1862,  determined  the  quantities  both  by  experiments  on  animals 
and  on  human  beings. 

The  results  are — first,  the  expired  air,  at  its  own  temper- 
ature, is  saturated  with  aqueous  vapour  ;  secondly,  the  expired 
air  is  less  in  volume  than  the  inspired  air  to  the  extent  of  about 
one-fortieth  of  the  volume  of  the  latter  ;  thirdly,  the  expired  air 
contains  about  4  per  cent,  more  carbonic  acid  and  from  4  to  5 
per  cent,  less  oxygen  than  inspired  air ;  fourthly,  the  total  daily 
excretion  of  carbonic  acid  by  an  average  man  amounts  to  800 
grammes  in  weight,  and  406  litres  in  bulk.  This  amount  of 
carbonic  acid  represents  2i8-i  grammes  of  carbon  and  581*9 
grammes  of  oxygen.  The  amount  of  oxygen,  however,  actually 
consumed  is  about  700  grammes  ;  so.  that  nearly  120  grammes  of 
oxygen  absorbed  are  not  returned  by  the  lungs,  but  disappear  in 
the  body.  It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  carbonic  acid 
escapes  by  the  skin  and  other  channels.  These  figures  may  be 
taken  as  averages,  and  are  subject  to  wide  variations  depending 
on  nutritional  changes. 

There  is,  however,  another  side  to  the  problem  of  respiration 
—  namely,  a  consideration  of  the  chemical  changes  involved  in 
the  process. 

According  to  Lavoisier,  respiration  was  really  a  slow  combus- 
tion of  carbon  and  of  hydrogen.  The  air  supplied  the  oxygen, 
and  the  blood  the  combustible '  materials.  The  great  French 
chemist,  however,  did  not  entirely  commit  himself  to  the  opinion 
that  the  combustion  occurred  only  in  the  lungs.  He  says  that  a 
portion  of  the  carbonic  acid  may  be  formed  immediately  in  the 
lung,  or  in  the  blood-vessels  throughout  the  body,  by  combina- 
tion of  the  oxygen  of  the  air  with  the  carbon  of  the  blood. 
Lavoisier's  opinions  were  understood  correctly  by  only  a  few 
of  his  contemporaries,  and  a  notion  prevailed  that,  according  to 
him,  combustion  occurred  only  in  the  lungs,  and  that  the  changes 
in  these  organs  were  the  main  sources  of  animal  heat.  Such  a 
notion,  however,  was  contrary  to  the  opinion  of  the  great  mathe- 
matician Lagrange,  announced  in  1791,  a  few  years  after  the 
first  publication  of  Lavoisier's  on  respiration.  Lagrange  saw 
that,  if  heat  vere  produced  in  the  lungs  alone,  the  temperature 
of  these  organs  might  become  so  high  as  to  destroy  them  ;  and 
he  therefore  supposed  that  the  oxygen  is  simply  dissolved  in  the 
blood,  and  in  that  fluid  combined  with  carbon  and  hydrogen, 
forming  carbonic  acid  and  aqueous  vapour,  which  were  then  set 
free  in  the  lungs.  It  will  be  observed  that  this  opinion  of 
Lagrange  in  1791  was  practically  the  same  as  that  stated  by 
Lavoisier  in  1789. 

Now,  if  the  production  of  carbonic  acid  in  a  given  time  de- 
pended upon  the  amount  of  oxygen  supplied  in  the  same  time, 
these  views  of  Lavoisier  and  Lagrange  would  be  correct  ;  but 
Spallanzani  had  shown  that  certain  animals  confined  in  an  atmo- 
sphere of  nitrogen  or  of  hydrogen  exhaled  carbonic  acid  to 
almost  as  great  an  extent  as  if  they  had  breathed  air.  He  was 
therefore  obliged  to  say  that  carbonic  acid  previously  existed  in  the 
body,  and  that  its  appearance  could  not  be  accounted  for  by  the 
x  Diagrams  exhibited  on  wall. 


union  of  oxygen  with  the  carbon  of  the.  blood.  Spallanzani 
therefore  thought  that  in  the  lung  there  was  simply  an  exhalation 
of  carbonic  acid  and  an  absorption  of  oxygen  These  views 
were  supported  by  the  experiments  of  W.  Edwards,  published 
in  1824.  Edwards  showed  that  animals  in  an  atmosphere  of 
hydrogen  produced  an  amount  of  carbonic  acid  not  to  be 
accounted  for  by  any  oxygen  supposed  to  exist  free  in  the  body. 
In  1830,  Collard  de  Martigny  performed  many  similar  experi- 
ments, and  stated  that  carbonic  acid  was  secreted  in  the 
capillaries  and  excreted  by  the  lungs.  This  opinion  was 
supported  by  Johannes  Miiller,  who  repeated  the  experiments  of 
Spallanzani. 

It  might  thus  be  said  that  two  theories  of  respiration  were 
before  physiologists — the  one,  that  combustion  occurred  in  the 
lungs  or  venous  blood,  furnishing  carbonic  acid  and  aqueous 
vapour,  which  were  exhaled  by  the  lungs  ;  the  other,  that  there 
was  no  such  combustion,  but  that  oxygen  was  absorbed  by  the 
lungs  and  carried  to  the  tissues,  whilst  in  these  carbonic  acid 
was  secreted,  absorbed  by  the  blood,  carried  to  the  lungs,  and 
there  exhaled.  Some  writers,  <oon  after  Lavoisier,  misunder- 
stood, as  I  have  already  stated,  the  opinions  of  that  distinguished 
man,  and  taught  that  in  the  lungs  themselves  there  was  a  separa- 
tion of  carbon,  which  united  immediately  with  the  oxygen  to 
form  carbonic  acid.  But  this  was  really  not  Lavoisier's  opinion  ; 
and  we  have  to  do,  therefore,  with  two  theories,  which  have 
been  well  named — the  theory  of  combustion,  and  the  theory  of 
secretion. 

The  difficulty  felt  by  the  older  physiologists  in  accepting  the 
secretion  theory  was  the  absence  of  proof  of  the  existence  of  free 
oxygen  and  carbonic  acid  in  the  blood.  This  difficulty  also  met 
those  who  rejected  the  notion  of  combustion  occurring  in  the 
lungs,  and  substituted  for  it  the  idea  that  it  really  occurred  in  the 
blood  throughout  the  body,  because,  if  this  were  true,  free  gases 
ought  to  be  found  in  the  blood.  Consequently,  so  long  as  physio- 
logists had  no  definite  knowledge  regarding  gases  in  the  blood, 
the  combustion  theory,  in  the  most  limited  sense,  held  its  ground. 
This  theory,  although  fruitful  of  many  ideas  regarding  respira- 
tion and  animal  heat,  was  abandoned  in  consequence  of  the 
evidence  afforded  by  two  lines  of  inquiry — namely,  researches 
regarding  the  gases  of  the  blood,  and  researches  as  to  the 
relative  temperature  of  the  blood  in  the  right  and  left  cavities 
of  the  heart. 

Let  me  first  direct  your  attention  to  the  gradual  development 
of  our  knowledge  regarding  the  gases  of  the  blood.  The  re- 
markable change  in  the  colour  of  the  blood  when  it  is  exposed 
to,  or  shaken  up  with,  air  was  observed  so  long  ago  as  in  1665 
by  Fracassati,  and  is  also  alluded  to  by  Lower  (1631-91),  Mayow, 
Cigna  (1773),  and  Hewson  (1774)  ;  but  Priestley  was  the  first  to 
show  that  the  increased  redness  was  due  to  the  action  of  the 
oxygen  of  the  air,  and  that  the  blood  became  purple  when  agi- 
tated with  carbonic  acid,  hydrogen,  and  nitrogen.  The  presence 
of  gas  in  the  blood  was  first  observed  about  1672  by  Mayow.  I 
find  in  a  paper  of  Leeuwenhoek  (1632-1723),  entitled  "The 
Author's  Experiments  and  Observations  respecting  the  Quantity 
of  Air  contained  in  Water  and  other  Fluids,"  published  in  1674, 
a  description  of  a  method  devised  by  this  ingenious  man  for  de- 
tecting the  existence  of  air  in  certain  fluids,  and  amongst  them 
in  the  blood.  It  consisted  of  a  kind  of  syringe,  by  which  he 
was  able  to  produce  a  partial  vacuum.  He  then  observed 
bubbles  of  gas  to  escape,  and  he  estimated,  in  the  case  of  human 
blood,  that  the  air  in  the  blood  amounted  to  1/1000  or  2/1000 
part  of  the  volume  of  the  blood.  He  argues,  from  this  interest- 
ing observation,  against  one  of  the  prevalent  medical  theories 
of  the  time,  that  various  diseases  were  caused  by  fermentations 
in  the  blood.  How,  said  he,  was  such  a  theory  consistent  with 
the  existence  of  so  sma'l  a  quantity  of  gas?  He  made  the 
mistake,  from  the  inefficiency  of  his  apparatus,  of  stating  that 
blood,  when  it  issues  from  the  veins,  contains  no  air. 

Gas  was  also  obtained  from  the  blood  in  1799  by  Sir  Humphry 
Davy,  in  1814  by  Vogel,  in  1818  by  Brand,  in  1833  by  Hoffmann, 
and  in  1835  by  Stevons.  On  the  other  hand,  John  Davy,  Berg- 
mann,  Johannes  Miiller,  Mitscherlich,  Gmelin,  and  Tiedemann 
failed  in  obtaining  any  gas.  The  first  group  of  observers,  either 
by  heating  the  blood,  or  by  allowing  it  to  flow  into  a  vacuum,  or 
by  passing  through  it  a  stream  of  hydrogen,  obtained  small 
quantities  of  carbonic  acid.  Sir  Humphry  Davy  was  the  first 
to  collect  a  small  quantity  of  oxygen  from  the  blood.  John 
Davy,  by  an  erroneous  method  of  investigation,  was  led,  in 
1828,  to  deny  that  the  blood  either  absorbed  oxygen  or  gave 
off  carbonic  acid.     He  was  shown  to  be  wrong,   in   1830,  by 


38o 


NATURE 


{August  1 6,  1888 


Christison,  who  devised  a  simple  method  of  demonstrating  the 
fact. 

So  long  as  the  evidence  in  favour  of  the  existence  of  gases  in 
the  blood  was  so  uncertain,  the  combustion  theory  of  respiration 
held  its  own.  At  last,  in  1836,  appeared  the  researches  of 
Heinrich  Gustav  Magnus,  latterly  Professor  of  Physics  and 
Technology  in  the  University  of  Berlin.  He  first  attempted  to 
drive  off  carbonic  acid  from  the  blood  by  a  stream  of  hydrogen, 
and  thus  obtained  as  much  as  34  cubic  centimetres  of  carbonic 
acid  from  62*9  cubic  centimetres  of  blood.  He  then  devised  a 
mercurial  air-pump,  by  which  it  was  possible  to  exhaust  a  re- 
ceiver to  a  much  greater  extent  than  could  be  done  by  the  ordinary 
air-pump.  When  blood  was  introduced  into  such  a  vacuum, 
considerable  quantities  of  carbonic  acid,  oxygen,  and  nitrogen 
were  obtained.  This  research  marks  an  epoch  in  physiological 
discovery,  as  it  threw  a  new  light  on  the  function  of  respiration 
by  demonstrating  the  existence  of  gases  in  the  blood. 

In  order  to  appreciate  the  value  of  this  evidence,  and  the 
method  employed,  let  me  direct  your  attention  to  the  laws  re- 
gulating the  diffusion  of  gases.  As  a  mass  of  gaseous  matter 
has  no  independent  form,  like  that  of  a  solid  body,  nor  a  fixed 
volume  like  that  of  a  liquid,  but  consists  of  an  enormous  number 
of  molecules  which,  in  consequence  of  their  mutual  repulsions, 
endeavour  more  and  more  to  separate  from  each  other,  it  is 
easy  to  see  that  if  two  masses  of  gas  are  brought  into  contact, 
they  will  mix — that  is,  their  molecules  will  interpenetrate,  until 
a  mixture  is  formed  containing  an  equal  number  of  the  molecules 
of  each  gas.  The  force  by  which  the  molecules  repel  each  other, 
and  by  which  they  exercise  pressure  in  all  directions,  is  known 
as  the  pressure  or  tension  of  the  gas.  It  is  evident  that  the 
greater  the  number  of  gas  molecules  in  a  given  space,  the  greater 
will  be  the  tension  of  the  gas,  and  from  this  it  follows  that  the 
tension  of  a  gas  is  in  the  inverse  proportion  to  its  volume  (this  is 
known  as  Boyle's  law).  Suppose  now  that  two  gases  are 
separated  by  a  porous  partition  ;  the  two  gases  will  mix,  and 
the  rapidity  of  the  diffusion  will  vary  according  to  the  specific 
weight  of  the  gases.  Thus  light  gases,  like  hydrogen  or  coal- 
gas,  will  diffuse  more  quickly  than  air,  or  chlorine,  or  carbonic 
acid. 

It  is  important  also  to  note  the  laws  regulating  the  absorption 
of  gases  by  fluids.  If  we  allow  a  little  water  to  come  into  con- 
tact with  ammonia  gas  above  mercury,  the  gas  is  rapidly 
absorbed  by  the  water  (1  volume  of  water  absorbs  730  volumes 
NH3)  all  the  gas  above  disappears,  and  in  consequence  of  this 
the  pressure  of  outer  air  drives  up  the  mercury  in  the  tube.  The 
higher  the  temperature  of  the  fluid  the  less  gas  it  absorbs.  At 
the  boiling-point  of  the  fluid  its  absorption  is  =  o,  because  at 
that  temperature,  the  fluid  itself  changes  into  gas.  The  power  of 
absorption  of  different  fluids  for  the  same  gas,  and  the  absorptive 
power  of  the  same  fluid  for  different  gases  fluctuates  between 
wide  limits.  Bunsen  defined  the  coefficient  of  absorption  of  a 
fluid  for  a  gas  as  that  number  which  represents  the  volume  of 
gas  (reduced  to  o°  and  760  mm.  barometric  pressure)  which  is 
taken  up  by  1  volume  of  the  fluid.  Thus  1  volume  of  distilled 
water  takes  up  the  following  volumes  : — 


Temp.  Cent. 

N. 

O. 

co2. 

Air. 

o° 

002 

0041 

1797 

OO25 

5 

o-oi8 

0036 

1*5 

0  022 

is 

0-015 

0-03 

1  -002 

ox>i8 

37 

— 

0'02 

0-569 

— 

Again,  1  volume  of  distilled  water  at  0°  C.  absorbs  0*00193 
volumes  of  hydrogen,  while  it  can  take  up  no  less  than  1180 
volumes  of  ammonia  ;  again,  I  volume  of  water  at  o°  C.  absorbs 
only  0-2563  volumes  of  olefiant  gas,  but  I  volume  of  alcohol,  at 
the  same  temperature,  will  take  up  as  much  as  3-595  volumes. 
The  volume  of  gas  absorbed  is  independent  of  the  pressure,  and 
the  same  volume  of  gas  is  always  absorbed  whatever  the  pressure 
may  happen  to  be.  But  as  according  to  Boyle's  law  the  density 
of  a  gas,  or  in  other  words  the  number  of  molecules  in  a  given 
space,  is  in  proportion  to  the  pressure,  and  as  the  weight  is 
equal  to  the  product  of  the  volume  and  the  density,  so  while  the 
volume  absorbed  always  remains  the  same,-  the  quantity  or 
weight  of  the  absorbed  gas  rises  and  falls  in  proportion  to  the 
pressure  (this  is  the  law  of  Dalton  and  Henry).  It  therefore 
follows  that  a  gas  is  to  be  considered  as  physically  absorbed 
by  a  fluid,  if  it  separates  from  it  not  in  volumes  but  in 
quantities,  the  weights  of  which  are  in  proportion  to  the  fall 
of  pressure. 

When  two  or  more  gases  form  an  atmosphere  above  a  fluid, 


the  absorption  takes  place  in  proportion  to  the  pressure  which 
each  of  the  constituents  of  the  mixture  would  exercise  if  it  were 
alone  in  the  space  occupied  by  the  mixture  of  gases,  because,  ac- 
cording to  Dalton's  law,  one  gas  does  not  exercise  any  pressure 
on  another  gas  intermingled  with  it,  but  a  space  filled  with  one 
gas  must  be  considered,  so  far  as  a  second  gas  is  concerned,  as  a 
space  containing  no  gas,  or  in  other  words  a  vacuum.  This 
pressure,  which  determines  the  absorption  of  the  constituents  of 
a  gaseous  mixture,  is  termed,  according  to  Bunsen,  the  partial 
pressure  of  the  gas.  The  partial  pressure  of  each  single  gas  in 
a  mixture  of  gases  depends,  then,  on  the  volume  of  the  gas 
in  question  in  the  mixture.  Suppose  atmospheric  air  to  be 
under  a  pressure  of  760  mm.  of  mercury,  then,  as  the  air 
consists    of   21  volumes  per  cent,    of  O   and   79  volumes    per 

76o    X     21 

cent,  of  N,  '- =  1596    mm.    of    mercury,    will    be    the 

100 

partial    pressure    under    which    the  oxygen    gas    is    absorbed, 

while  the  absorption  of  nitrogen  will  take  place  under  a  pres- 

?6o    X    70 

sure  of  '- '-?  =  600  mm.  of  mercury.     Suppose,  again,  that 

100 
above  the  fluid  containing  a  gas,  say  carbonic  acid,  which  has 
been  absorbed,  there  is  an  atmosphere  of  another  gas,  say  at- 
mospheric air,  then  as  carbonic  acid  exists  in  the  air  only  in 
traces,  its  tension  is  equal  to  zero,  and  carbonic  acid  will  escape 
from  the  fluid  until  the  difference  of  tension  between  the  carbonic 
acid  in  the  water  and  the  carbonic  acid  in  the  air  above  it  has 
been  balanced — that  is,  until  the  carbonic  acid  which  has  escaped 
into  the  air  has  reached  a  tension  equal  to  that  of  the  gas  still 
absorbed  by  the  fluid.  By  the  phrase  "  tension  of  the  gas  in  a 
fluid"  is  understood  the  partial  pressure  in  millimetres  of  mer- 
cury which  the  gas  in  question  has  to  exercise  in  the  atmosphere, 
when  no  diffusion  between  the  gas  in  the  fluid  and  the  gas  in 
the  atmosphere  takes  place. 

The  method  followed  by  Magnus  will  now  be  understood.  By 
allowing  the  blood  to  flow  into  an  exhausted  receiver  surrounded 
by  hot  water,  gases  were  set  free.  These  were  found  to  be  oxy- 
gen, carbonic  acid,  and  nitrogen.  He  further  made  the  important 
observation  that  both  arterial  and  venous  blood  contained  the 
gases,  the  difference  being  that  in  arterial  blood  there  was  more 
oxygen  and  less  carbonic  acid  than  in  venous  blood.  Magnus 
concluded  that  the  gases  were  simply  dissolved  in  the  blood,  and 
that  respiration  was  a  simple  process  of  diffusion,  carbonic  acid 
passing  out  and  oxygen  passing  in,  according  to  the  law  of 
pressures  I  have  just  explained. 

Let  us  apply  the  explanation  of  Magnus  to  what  occurs  in 
pulmonary  respiration.  Venous  blood,  containing  a  certain 
amount  of  carbonic  acid  at  the  temperature  of  the  blood  and 
under  a  certain  pressure,  is  brought  to  the  capillaries,  which  are 
distributed  on  the  walls  of  the  air- vesicles  in  the  lungs.  In  these 
air-vesicles,  we  have  an  atmosphere  at  a  certain  temperature  and 
subject  to  a  certain  pressure.  Setting  temperature  aside,  as  it 
may  be  assumed  to  be  the  same  in  the  blood  and  in  the  air-cells, 
let  us  consider  the  question  of  pressure.  If  the  pressure  of  the 
carbonic  acid  in  the  blood  be  greater  than  that  of  the  carbonic 
acid  in  the  air-cells,  carbonic  acid  will  escape  until  an  equi- 
librium is  established  between  the  pressure  of  the  gas  in 
the  blood  and  the  pressure  of  the  gas  in  the  air-cells.  Again, 
if  the  pressure  or  tension  of  the  oxygen  in  the  air-cells  be 
greater  than  that  of  the  oxygen  in  the  venous  blood,  oxygen 
will  be  absorbed  until  the  tensions  become  equal.  This 
theory  has  no  doubt  the  merit  of  simplicity,  but  it  will 
be  observed  that  it  depends  entirely  on  the  assumption  that 
the  gases  are  simply  dissolved  in  the  blood.  It  was  pointed 
out  by  Liebig  that,  according  to  the  experiments  of  Regnault  and 
Reiset,  animals  used  the  same  amount  of  oxygen  when  breathing 
an  atmosphere  composed  of  that  gas  alone  as  when  they  breathed 
ordinary  air,  and  that  the  vital  processes  are  not  much  affected 
by  breathing  the  atmosphere  of  high  altitudes  where  the  amount 
of  oxygen  taken  in  is  only  about  two-thirds  of  that  existing  at 
the  sea  level.  It  was  also  shown  at  a  much  later  date,  by  Ludwig 
and  W.  Muller,  that  animals  breathing  in  a  confined  space  of  air 
will  use  up  the  whole  of  the  oxygen  in  the  space,  and  it  is  clew 
that  as  the  oxygen  is  used  up  the  partial  pressure  of  the  oxygen 
remaining  must  be  steadily  falling.  Liebig  urged  the  view  that 
the  gases  were  not  simply  dissolved  in  the  blood,  but  existed  in  a 
state  of  loose  chemical  combination  which  could  be  dissolved  by 
the  diminished  pressure  in  the  vacuum,  or  by  the  action  of  other 
gase^.  He  also  pointed  out  the  necessity  of  accurately  deter- 
mining the  coefficient  of  absorption  of  blood  for  the  gases — that 
is,  the  amount  absorbed  under  a  pressure  0^760  mm.  of  mercury 


August  1 6,  1888] 


NATURE 


3S1 


Fie,  2 


Fig.  5 


Description  of  Figures. 


3. — Views  of  a  gas  pump  constructed  for  the  purpose  of  extracting  and  collecting  the  gasss  of  the  blood  and  suitable  for  the  physiological 
table.     These  views  have  been  correctly  drawn  on  the  scale  of  1  to  10  by  my  friend   the  Rev.  A.  Hanns  Geyer.*     Fig.  i,  front  view  :  a, 


Figs.  1,  2,  and  3. 
lecture 

glass  bulb  connected  by  horizontal  glass  tube  with  bulb  b  ;  this  tuba  guarded  by  stopcock  c.  By  elevating  u,  a  is  filled  with  mercury,  stopcock  of 
delivery  tube  Q  is  closed,  and  b  is  lowered  ;  a  is  thus  exhausted  and  air  is  drawn  into  it  by  tubes  e,  connected  by  G  with  drying  apparatus  and  blood 
chamber.  1,  permanent  barometer ;  j,  barometer  gauge  tube  connected  with  part  of  instrument  to  be  exhausted.  Both  1  and  j  dip  into  mercury 
trough  seen  below  ;  s,  a  glass  float  to  prevent  mercury  from  running  into  drying  apparatus  when  b  is  raised.  After  a  and  the  drying  apparatus  and 
the  blood  chamber  have  been  well  exhausted,  b  is  raised  and  mercury  may  be  allowed  to  pass  up  d,  and  then  the  apparatus  acts  as  a  Sprengel  pump 
by  the  three  tubes  e.  Fig.  2,  side  v.ew  of  apparatus:  sam:  references.  Fir.  3,  drying  apparatus,  placed  on  a  shelf  at  the  top  of  the  pump, 
consisting  of  h,  tubes  containing  solid  phosphoric  acid,  and  U-tube  p,  seen  in  Fig.  2,  containing  suIphurL  acid.  The  tube  k  passes  to  receiver.  In  the 
drawing  it  is  seen  to  be  connected  with  an  apparatus  suitable  for  projecting  the  spactrun  of  oxy-haemoglobin  by  lime  or  electris  light  on  screen; 
then  exhausting  the  blood  of  oxygen  and  showing  the  spectrum  of  reduced  haemoglobin,  l  and  vi,  froth  chambers  with  traps;  n,  parallel-sided 
chamber  for  blood  ;  o,  stopcock.  The  whole  prnip  is  modelled  on  one  1  obtained  about  ten  years  ago  from  Messrs.  Mawson  and  Swan,  of 
Newcastle,  but  it  has  been  much  altered  and  ad  led  to  so  as  to  make  it  suitable  for  physiological  demonstration.  It  is  evident  that  the  gases  can  be 
readily  obtained  for  analysis  by  driving  out  of  a  by  delivery  tube  q.     A  rough  demonstration  of  the  gises  cin  be  made  in  from  five  to  ten  minutes. 

1  The  pump  can   be    obtained   from   Mr.  W.  Potter,   glass-bbwer,    Physical  and  Physiological    Laboratories,    University  of  Glasgow,   who  will  give 
information  as  to  cost. 


:82 


NA  TURE 


\_August  1 6,  1888 


by  one  volume  of  the  gas  at  the  temperature  of  the  observation. 
The  next  important  observations  were  those  of  Fernet,  published 
in  1855  and  1857.  He  expelled  the  greater  part  of  the  gas  of 
the  blood  (dog)  by  passing  through  it  a  stream  of  hydrogen  and 
then  submitting  it  to  the  action  of  the  air-pump.  He  then  intro- 
duced into  the  apparatus  the  gas  under  a  given  pressure,  the 
absorption  coefficient  of  which  he  had  to  determine.  He  then 
estimated  the  amount  of  gas  absorbed,  under  different  pressures, 
and  found  in  the  case  of  oxygen  that  the  amount  absorbed  with 
gradually  decreasing  increments  of  pressure  was  greater  than 
what  would  have  been  the  case  had  it  been  in  accordance  with 
Dalton's  law  of  pressures.  The  oxygen  was  not  then  simply 
dissolved  in  the  blood.  Further,  Fernet  arrived  at  the  conclusion 
that  the  greater  portion  of  the  oxygen  was  in  a  state  of  combina- 
tion, whilst  a  small  amount  was  simply  dissolved  according  to 
Dalton's  law. 

It  is  evident,  then,  that  while  the  amount  of  oxygen  absorbed 
varies  with  the  pressure,  it  does  not  do  so  according  to  Dalton's 
law.  The  amount  decreases  slowly  with  pressures  below  atmo- 
spheric pressure,  and  it  increases  very  rapidly  with  pressures 
above  it.  It  is  when  the  pressure  in  the  vacuum  is  as  low  as 
one-thirtieth  of  an  atmosphere  that  the  oxygen  is  given  up,  and  this 
will  be  about  the  pressure  of  the  aqueous  vapour  in  the  apparatus 
at  the  temperature  of  the  room,  when  the  experiment  is  made. 
The  view  that  something  in  the  blood  is  chemically  united  to  the 
oxygen  is  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  serum  does  not  absorb 
much  more  oxygen  than  water  can  absorb,  so  that  blood  at  a 
temperature  of  300  C.  would  contain  only  about  2  volumes  per 
cent,  of  oxygen  gas  were  the  latter  simply  dissolved  in  the  fluid. 
It  can  also  be  shown  that  defibrinated  blood  takes  up  oxygen 
independently  of  the  pressure,  and  that  the  quantity  of  oxygen 
taken  up  by  defibrinated  blood  is  about  equal  to  the  quantity 
absorbed  by  a  solution  of  pure  haemoglobin  containing  as  much 
of  that  substance  as  exists  in  the  same  volume  of  blood. 

By  similar  experiments  made  with  carbonic  acid,  Fernet 
determined  that  the  greater  portion  of  it  was  in  a  state  of  loose 
chemical  combination,  whilst  a  small  amount  was  simply  dissolved 
according  to  the  law  of  pressures.  Experiments  with  blood  serum 
showed  similar  results  as  regards  carbonic  acid,  with  the  differ- 
ence that  the  coefficient  of  absorption  for  oxygen  was  much  less 
than  with  ordinary  blood.  He  therefore  concluded  that  nearly 
the  whole  of  the  carbonic  acid  was  chemically  retained  in  the 
fluid  of  the  blood,  whilst  nearly  the  whole  of  the  oxygen  was 
combined  with  the  red  blood  corpuscles.  He  then  proceeded  to 
investigate  whether  or  not  the  three  principal  salts  of  the  blood, 
carbonate  of  soda,  phosphate  of  soda,  and  chloride  of  sodium, 
in  any  way  influenced  the  absorption  coefficient  of  carbonic  acid. 
He  found  (1)  that  the  addition  of  these  salts  to  distilled  water  in 
the  proportion  in  which  they  exist  in  the  serum  slightly  diminishes 
the  absorption  coefficient ;  (2)  that  chloride  of  sodium  has  no 
influence  on  the  absorption  coefficient ;  and  (3)  that  carbonic 
acid  combines  with  the  carbonate  and  phosphate  of  soda. 

In  the  same  year  (1855)  Lothar  Meyer  published  the  results 
of  a  series  of  researches  of  the  same  nature.  Under  the  direction 
of  Bunsen,  the  blood  was  diluted  with  ten  times  its  bulk  of  water, 
and  the  gases  were  collected  by  boiling  the  liquid  in  vacuo  at  a 
very  gentle  heat ;  a  certain  amount  of  gas  was  thus  obtained. 
He  also  found  that  blood  absorbs  a  much  larger  quantity  of 
carbonic  acid  than  pure  water  at  the  same  temperature,  and  stated 
that  when  blood  was  exposed  to  oxygen  at  various  pressures  the 
quantity  of  that  gas  taken  up  might  be  regarded  as  consisting  of 
two  portions,  one  following  Dalton's  law  and  the  other  independent 
of  it. 

Further  researches  of  a  similar  kind  have  been  carried  out  by 
Setschenow,  Ludwig,  Alexander  Schmidt,  Bert,  Pfluger,  and 
others,  and  ingenious  methods  of  collecting  and  of  analyzing  the 
gases  have  been  devised.  To  Prof.  Pfluger  and  his  pupils,  in 
particular,  are  we  indebted  for  the  most  complete  series  of  gas 
analyses  on  record.  The  result  has  been  to  enable  us  to  give 
the  average  composition  of  the  gases  of  the  blood  as  follows. 
From  ico  volumes  of  dog's  blood  there  may  be  obtained — 


Oxygen. 

Arterial     18*4  to  22  6,  mean  20 
Venous       <        Mean  11*9 


Carbonic  Acid.    Nitrogen. 

30  to  40       I -8  to  2 

43  to  48       I -8  to  2 


the  gases  being  measured  at  0°  C.  and  760  mm.  pressure.  The 
venous  blood  of  many  organs  may  contain  less  than  1 1  '9  per  cent. 
of  carbonic  acid,  and  the  blood  of  asphyxia  may  contain  as  little 


as  1  volume  per  cent.  It  is  clear,  then,  that  the  gases  of  the 
blood  do  not  exist  in  a  state  of  simple  solution,  but  that  they  are 
largely  combined  with  certain  constituents  of  the  blood.  Take, 
for  example,  the  case  of  oxygen.  Berzelius  showed  long  ago 
that  100  volumes  of  water  will  absorb,  at  a  given  temperature 
and  pressure,  2  9  volumes  of  oxygen  ;  while,  in  the  same  cir- 
cumstances, 100  volumes  of  serum  will  absorb  3*1  volumes,  and 
ico  volumes  of  blood  will  absorb  96  volumes.  Something  in 
the  blood  must  have  the  power  of  taking  up  a  large  amount  of 
oxygen. 

( To  be  continued. ) 


THE  BATH  MEETING  OF  THE  BRITISH 
ASSOCIA  TION. 

THE  arrangements  for  the  Bath  meeting  of  the  British  Associa- 
-*-  tion  are  now  practically  completed.  The  Reception  Room, 
adjoining  the  Assembly  Rooms,  will  be  opened  on  Monday, 
September  3,  at  1  p.m.,  and  on  each  succeeding  week-day  till 
Thursday,  September  13,  at  8  a.m.  precisely  ;  on  Sunday,  Sep- 
tember 9,  from  8  to  10  a.m.,  and  from  3  to  6  p.m.  In  this 
building  will  be  the  offices  of  the  General  and  Local  Secretaries 
and  Treasurers,  a  post  office,  telegraph  office,  telephone,  ticket 
office,  lodgings,  inquiry,  excursion,  and  lost  property  offices, 
and  offices  for  the  supply  of  all  official  papers  and  programmes. 
There  will  also  be  lavatories,  cloak-rooms,  &c,  &c.  The 
Council  of  the  Association  will  meet  in  the  Guildhall. 

In  the  Reception  Room  there  will  be  offices  for  supplying 
information  regarding  the  proceedings  of  the  meeting.  The 
tickets  contain  a  map  of  Bath,  and  particulars  as  to  the  rooms 
appointed  for  the  Sectional  and  other  meetings.  A  list  of 
lodgings,  or  apartments,  with  prices,  &c,  and  also  information 
concerning  hotels,  and  other  similar  matters,  will  be  furnished 
by  the  Lodgings  Clerk  between  the  hours  of  9  a.m.  and  6  p.m. 
daily,  at  No.  13  Old  Bond  Street,  up  to  I  p.m.  on  Monday, 
September  3,  and  after  that  time  at  the  Reception  Room  between 
the  same  hours  daily. 

The  places  of  meeting,  &c,  will  be  in  the  Assembly  Rooms, 
the  Drill  Hall,  and  the  Guildhall.  The  Secretaries  of  Sections 
will  be  lodged  at  the  White  Lion  Hotel.  The  following  are  the 
Section  Rooms  : — A,  Mathematics,  St.  James's  Hall  ;  B, 
Chemistry,  Friends'  Meeting  House ;  C,  Geology,  Mineral 
Water  Hospital  ;  D,  Biology,  Mineral  Water  Hospital  ;  E, 
Geography,  Guildhall  ;  F,  Statistics,  Christ  Church  Hall  ;  G, 
Mechanics,  Masonic  Hall ;  H,  Anthropology,  Grammar  School ; 
Sub-Sections  C  and  D,  Blue-Coat  School. 

By  the  courtesy  and  liberality  of  the  Directors  of  the  Western 
Counties  and  South  Wales  Telephone  Company,  the  whole  of 
the  Section  Rooms  will  be  telephonically  connected  with  the 
Reception  Room,  and,  through  the  Telephone  Exchange,  with 
all  important  places  in  the  neighbourhood,  free  of  any  expense 
to  the  Local  Executive  Committee,  or  members  and  associates, 
for  the  meeting. 

The  first  general  meeting  will  be  held  on  Wednesday, 
September  5,  at  8  p.m.  precisely,  in  the  Drill  Hall,  when  Sir 
H.  E.  Roscoe,  M.P.,  F.R.S.,  will  resign  the  chair,  and  Sir 
Frederick  Bramwell,  F.R.S.,  President- Elect,  will  assume  the 
Presidency,  and  deliver  an  address.  According  to  the  Times, 
Sir  Frederick  is  sure  to  deal  pretty  largely  with  progress  in  the 
department  with  which  his  name  is  so  eminently  connected. 
With  regard  to  the  addresses  of  the  Presidents  of  Sections  the 
Times  makes  the  following  statement  :  —In  Section  A  (Mathe- 
matics and  Physics),  Prof.  Fitzgerald  is  President,  and  the 
subject  of  his  address  willj  probably  be  connected  with  Clerk- 
Maxwell's  theory  that  electric  and  magnetic  forces  are  produced 
by  the  same  medium  that  propagates  light,  and  some  recent 
experimental  proofs  of  that  theory.  In  Section  B  (Chemistry), 
Prof.  W.  A.  Tilden,  of  Birmingham,  is  President,  and  his 
address  will  be  concerned  with  the  history  of  the  teaching  ot 
chemistry  practically,  and  will  review  the  existing  provision  for 
efficient  teaching  of  chemistry  in  this  country.  This  will  be 
followed  by  some  discussion  of  the  methods  actually  used  or  pro- 
posed for  teaching  chemistry  either  as  a  constituent  part  of  a 
liberal  education  or  for  technical  purposes,  together  with  an 
endeavour  to  trace  the  causes  of  the  unproductiveness  of  the 
English  schools  in  respect  to  advanced  studies,  and  especially  in 
regard  to  the  results  of  original  resexrch.     Prof.    Boyd  Dawkins 


August  1 6,  1888] 


NATURE 


383 


is  President  of  Section  C  (Geology).  Among  other  points  which 
he  is  likely  to  discuss  will  be  the  following  : — That  .n  the  history 
of  life  on  the  earth  the  more  complex  forms  have  changed  more 
swiftly  than  the  simpler,  because  they  are  more  susceptible  to 
changes  in  their  environment.  That  in  the  Tertiary  age  the 
highest  of  all,  or  the  placental  mammals,  are  the  only  forms 
which  have  changed  with  sufficient  swiftness  to  mark  the  sub- 
divisions of  the  Tertiary  period.  They  alone  are  en  pleine 
evolution.  The  borderland  between  geology  and  history  will 
be  discussed,  and  the  present  series  of  events  shown  to  belong 
to  the  Tertiary  period.  The  place  of  man  in  the  geological 
record  will  be  considered  (pre-glacial).  The  impossibility  of 
fixing  historic  dates  for  geological  events  will  also  be  discussed. 
Outside  the  written  record  a  sequence  of  events  can  alone  be  made 
out,  in  which  we  are  ignorant  of  the  length  of  the  intervals. 
In  Section  D  (Biology),  of  which  Mr.  Thiselton  Dyer, 
Director  of  Kew  Gardens,  is  President,  no  doubt  we  may 
expect  some  of  those  discussions  on  subjects  of  general  biological 
interest  which  have  been  so  marked  a  feature  of  the  Section  since 
Prof.  Ray  Lankester  was  its  President  at  Southport.  Colonel 
Sir  Charles  Wilson  presides  over  Section  E  (Geography),  and 
his  address  will  deal  largely  with  the  commercial  aspects  of  geo- 
graphy. In  Section  F  (Economics),  of  which  Lord  Bramwell  is 
President,  the  Presidential  address  is  likely  to  be  biief,  and  will 
deal  with  the  general  principles  of  political  economy,  and  with 
socialism  in  particular.  Mr.  W.  H.  Preece,  of  the  Telegraph 
Department,  will  preside  over  Section  G  (Mechanical  Science). 
In  his  address  he  will  pass  under  review  the  various  practical 
applications  of  electricity,  with  the  introduction  of  nearly  all  of 
which  Mr.  Preece  has  been  more  or  less  associated.  He  will 
also  probably  say  something  about  the  present  views  of  the 
theory  of  electricity,  about  which  practical  electricians  and  pure 
physicists  are  at  entire  variance.  Finally,  in  Section  H  (Anthro- 
pology), the  address  of  the  President,  General  Pitt-Rivers,  is, 
like  Lord  Bramwell's,  likely  to  be  short. 

Discourses  will  be  delivered  in  the  Drill  Hall — on  Friday 
evening,  September  7,  by  Prof.  W.  E.  Ayrton,  F.R.  S.,  on  "  The 
Electrical  Transmission  of  Power";  on  Saturday  Evening, 
September  8  (to  "  the  operative  classes  "),  by  Sir  John  Lubbock, 
M.P.,  F.R.S.,  on  "The  Customs  and -Ideas  of  Savage  Races  "  ; 
on  Monday  evening,  September  10,  by  Prof.  T.  G.  Bonney, 
F.R.S.,  on  "The  Foundation  Stones  of  the  Earth's  Crust." 

The  Mayor  of  Bath  invites  the  members  and  associates  to  a 
conversazione  in  the  Assembly  Rooms  on  Thursday,  September 
6,  at  8.30  p.m.  The  Chairman  and  members  of  the  Local 
Executive  Committee  invite  the  members  and  associates  to  a 
conversazione  at  the  Assembly  Rooms,  on  Tuesday,  September 
11,  at  8.30  p.m.  On  this  occasion  the  Bath  Microscopical 
Society,  assisted  by  the  Bristol  Microscopical  Society,  have 
arranged  for  a  display  of  objects  in  the  various  departments  of 
natural  history,  &c.  No  special  cards  of  invitation  will  be 
issued  to  these  conversaziones,  but  all  members  and  associates 
will  be  admitted  on  presentation  of  their  tickets. 

The  concluding  general  meeting  will  be  held  on  Wednesday, 
the  12th  of  September,  at  2.30  p.m. 

On  Wednesday  and  Thursday,  the  5th  and  6th  of  September, 
there  will  be  an  exhibition  of  fruits,  flowers,  &c,  in  the  Sydney 
Gardens  ;  to  this  exhibition  all  members  and  associates  will  be 
admitted  on  presentation  of  their  tickets.  On  the  12th  and  13th 
of  September  there  will  be  a  horse  show  in  Bath  ;  but  on  this 
occasion  the  members  and  associates  will  have  no  special 
advantages. 

The  following  are  the  proposed  excursions,  arrangements  for 
which  are  in  active  progress  : — 

Saturday,  September  8.— Stanton  Bury,  Stanton  Drew,  Maes 
Knoll  :  Bannerdown,  Sodbury  Camp,  Dyrham,  Lansdown  :  Box 
Ouarries,  Corsham,  Lacock  Abbey  :  Bradford,  Farleigh  Castle, 
WraxaH  :  Cirencester,  Museum  and  College  :  Tytherington  and 
Thornbury :  Swindon,  G.  W.  Works :  Berkeley  Castle :  Wells,  via 
Maesbury  and  Shepton  Mallet,  Ebbor,  Wookey  Hole  :  Barry 
Docks  and  Cardiff. 

Thursday,  September  13. — Stonehenge,  Salisbury,  Wilton: 
Silbury,  Avebury,  Bowood,  Wansdyke,  Beckhampton  :  Stourton, 
Pen  Pits,  White  Sheet,  Longleat :  Frome  Valley,  Nunney 
Whateley :  Maesbury,  Wells,  Glastonbury,  Street  :  Sandford 
and  Banwell,  Churchill,  Dolbury,  Rowberrow,  Burrington,  the 
two  Charterhouses,  Mendip  Gorge,  Cheddar  Cliffs  :  Severn 
Tunnel,  Chepstow,  Tintern,  Wyndcliffe  :  Radstock,  Wellow, 
Littleton. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 

London. 

Entomological  Society,  August  1. — Dr.  D.  Sharp,  Presi- 
dent, in  the  chair. — Mr.  F.  D.  Godman,  F.R.S.,  exhibited 
a  large  number  of  species  of  Lepidoptera  and  Diptera 
recently  collected  for  him  in  Mexico  by  Mr.  Herbert  Smith. 
— Mr.  White  exhibited  parasites  bred  from  Bombyx  neustria, 
and  a  living  example  of  Heterodes  guyoni,  found  at  Dart- 
ford,  and  believed  to  have  been  introduced  with  Esparto 
grass  from  Tunis. — Mr.  Enock  exhibited  a  stem  of  barley, 
showing  the  appearance  of  the  plant  under  an  attack  of 
Hessian  fly. — Mr.  Stevens  exhibited  a  number  of  galls  collected 
at  Byfleet  in  July  last  ;  also  a  specimen  of  Coleophora  solitariella, 
with  ichneumons  bred  from  it. — Mr.  E.  Saunders  exhibited  a 
specimen  of  Catephia  alchymisla,  captured  at  St.  Leonards,  in 
June  last.  He  also  exhibited  specimens  of  a  rare  ant  {Anochetus 
ghiliani),  taken  at  Tangier  by  Mr.  G.  Lewis.  One  of  these  he 
had  submitted  to  Dr.  Emery,  of  Bologna,  who  thought  that, 
although  ocelli  were  present,  the  specimen  was  probably  inter- 
mediate between  a  worker  and  a  female,  and  that  possibly  the  true 
female  did  not  exist. — Mr.  Pascoe  exhibited  a  number  of  species 
of  Coleoptera  recently  collected  in  Germany  and  the  Jura  Moun- 
tains, and  read  a  note  correcting  the  synonymy  of  certain  species 
of  Brachycerns  recently  described  by  him  in  the  Transactions 
of  the  Society.  He  stated  that  the  corrections  had  been  sug- 
gested by  MM.  Peringuey  and  Aurivillius. — Prof.  Westwood 
communicated  a  paper  entitled  "A  List  of  the  Diurnal  Lepido- 
ptera collected  in  Northern  Celebes  by  Dr.  Sydney  Hickson, 
with  descriptions  of  new  species." 

Edinburgh. 

Royal  Society,  July  16. — Rev.  Prof.  Flint,  Vice-President, 
in  the  chair. — Dr.  Traquair  read  an  obituary  notice  of  Mr. 
Robert  Gray,  Vice-President. — A  paper  by  Prof.  C.  G.  Knott, 
Tokio  University,  on  some  relations  between  magnetism  and 
twist  in  iron  and  nickel,  was  submitted. — Mr.  R.  Kidston  com- 
municated a  paper  on  the  fossil  plants  in  the  Ravenhead  col- 
lection in  the  Liverpool  Museum. — Prof.  Crr.m  Brown  submitted 
an  investigation  by  Mr.  Alex.  Johnstone  on  the  action  of  car- 
bonic acid  water  on  olivine. — In  a  paper  discussing  the  question, 
Is  Talbot's  law  true  for  very  short  stimuli?  Dr.  G.  N.  Stewart, 
Owen's  College,  describes  experiments  designed  to  test  whether 
it  is  possible  to  make  the  luminous  stimuli  so  short  that  the 
separate  effects  cannot  be  summed.  He  was  able,  by  means  of 
a  rotating  mirror,  to  reduce  the  length  of  each  stimulus  to  some- 
thing like  1/8,000,000  sec.  Up  to  this  limit  he  could  detect  no 
variation  from  the  law. — Another  paper  by  Dr.  Stewart,  on 
some  colour  phenomena  observed  with  intermittent  stimulation 
with  white  light,  was  communicated.  When  light  of  moderate 
intensity  is  used,  and  the  rate  of  stimulation  gradually  increased, 
the  colour  is  seen  to  change  regularly  in  a  manner  which  can 
be  explained  on  the  assumption  that  the  curves  representing  the 
course  of  the  excitation  in  the  three  hypothetical  fibre-groups 
run  in  such  a  way  that  with  a  certain  length  of  stimulation  time 
the  violet  fibres  are  proportionally  more  stimulated  than  the 
others  ;  with  a  shorter  time  of  stimulation  the  green  fibres  are 
more  stimulated  ;  with  a  still  shorter  time,  the  red. — Dr.  H.  R. 
Mill,  Scottish  Marine  Station,  discussed  the  specific  gravity 
of  the  water  in  the  Firth  of  Forth  and  the  Clyde  sea-area. 
— Dr.  J.  Macdonakl  Brown  read  a  paper  on  arrested  twin 
development. — The  Chairman  made  some  remarks  in  closing  the 
session. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  July  30. — M.  Janssen,  President,  in 
the  chair.— On  the  relations  of  atmospheric  nitrogen  to  vege- 
table soil,  by  M.  Th.  Schlcesing.  The  conclusion  already 
arrived  at  from  previous  researches  (see  Comptes  rendus  for 
March  19  and  26,  1888)  is  fully  confirmed  by  the  results  of  the 
subsequent  series  of  experiments  here  described.  Whether  ex- 
posed to  renewed  contact  with  the  air,  or  kept  in  closed  vessels 
with  a  confined  but  oxygenated  atmosphere,  the  soil  with  which 
the  experiments  have  been  made  has  in  no  case  fixed  any  ap- 
preciable quantity  of  gaseous  nitrogen.  The  author  supplements 
this  communication  with  some  remarks  on  the  quantitative 
analysis  of  the  carbon  and  nitrogen  in  vegetable  earths.     The 


3§4 


NATURE 


[August  1 6,  1888 


main  object  of  these  remarks  is  to  enable  chemists  to  judge  for 
themselves  as  to  the  degree  of  confidence  his  conclusions  are 
entitled  to. — On  the  density  of  chlorine  and  on  the  vapour 
density  of  ferric  chloride,  by  MM.  C.  Friedel  and  J.  M.  Crafts. 
For  chlorine  the  mean  at  210  C.  is  here  determined  at  2^471, 
and  at  4400  C.  2'448,  while  between  3210  and  4420  C.  the  per- 
chloride  of  iron  is  shown  to  have  a  somewhat  constant  density 
corresponding  to  the  formula  Fe2Cl6. — On  the  vapour  density  of 
the  perchloride  of  gallium,  by  MM.  C.  Friedel  and  J.  M.  Crafts. 
According  to  Lecoq  de  Boisbaudran's  determinations  the  per- 
chloride of  gallium  (Ga2Cl6)  melts  at  75°\5  and  boils  at  2150  to 
220°.  Here  the  density  at  2370  and  3070  is  found  to  be  1 1  73 
and  io"6i  respectively,  or  somewhat  less  than  the  theoretic 
density.  Above  307°  it  diminishes  considerably,  falling  to  8° "5 
at  357°,  and  6°  6  at  440°. — On  the  gigantic  dimensions  of  some 
fossil  mammals,  by  M.  Albeit  Gaudry.  These  remarks  are 
made  in  connection  with  the  accurate  measurements  of  the  St. 
Petersburg  mammoth  {Elephas  primigenius)  supplied  by  Tilesius. 
The  skeleton,  a  photograph  of  which  has  recently  been  taken  by 
M.  Strauch,  is  3^42  metres  high  to  the  top  of  the  head,  as  com- 
pared with  the4-22  of  the  Durfort  skeleton  {Elephas  meridionalis) 
in  the  new  gallery  of  the  Paris  Museum.  Comparing  these  with 
the  remains-,  of  Dinotherium  giganteutn  and  other  monsters  of 
the  Upper  Miocene  and  later  epochs,  the  author  groups  the 
larger  extinct  mammals  according  to  their  dimensions  in  five 
classes,  as  follows  :  (1)  Dinotherium  giganteum  of  the  Upper 
Miocene,  Attica  ;  (2)  Elephas  antiquus  of  the  Quaternary,  neigh- 
bourhood of  Paris ;  (3)  Elephas  meridionalis  of  the  Upper 
Pliocene,  Durfort  (Gard)  ;  (4)  Mastodon  amcricanus,  of  the 
Quaternary,  United  States ;  (5)  Elephas  primigenius,  of  the 
Quaternary,  Siberia,  this  last  being  about  the  same  size  as  the 
living  elephants. — Observations  of  the  comet  1888  a,  by  M. 
Cruls.  These  observations  were  made  at  the  Imperial  Ob- 
servatory of  Rio  Janeiro  for  the  period  from  February  24  to 
April  2. — Positions  of  the  comet  1888  I.,  measured  with  the 
8-inch  equatorial  of  the  Observatory  of  Besancon,  by  M.  Gruey. 
The  positions  of  the  comet  and  comparison  stars  are  given  for 
the  period  from  June  7  to  June  19. — An  isochronous  regulator, 
by  M.  Baudot.  The  object  of  this  apparatus  is  to  maintain  at 
a  uniform  velocity  the  rotation  of  the  distributor  employed  by 
the  inventor  in  his  multiple  printing  telegraph  system,  despite 
the  variations  of  the  motor  power  and  those  of  the  resisting 
force  caused  by  the  action  of  the  several  parts  of  the  instru- 
ment, or  by  any  other  disturbing  element.  Its  action  consists 
in  introducing  into  the  motor  mechanism  a  resistance  varying 
automatically  whenever  necessary,  thus  maintaining  a  perfect 
equilibrium  between  the  total  motor  and  resisting  forces. — On  a 
telephone  with  closed  magnetic  field,  and  plaque  with  equal  con- 
centric cylindrical  sections,  by  M.  Krebs.  With  the  appliance 
here  described  the  vibrations  preserve  a  large  degree  of  ampli- 
tude, while  the  section  is  saturated  at  no  point  of  the  magnetic 
circuit.  These  dispositions  greatly  facilitate  the  construction  of 
powerful  instruments  of  all  sizes. — Magnetic  charts  of  the  West 
Mediterranean  basin,  by  M.  Th.  Moureaux.  The  magnetic 
charts  which  the  author  now  presents  to  the  Academy  have  been 
mainly  prepared  from  the  data  supplied  by  the  series  of  observa- 
tions described  in  the  last  number  of  the  Comptes  rendus.  They 
comprise,  besides  the  chief  islands,  the  whole  of  the  European 
seaboard  from  Cadiz  to  the  Strait  of  Messina,  and  the  North 
African  coast  between  Tangier  and  Tripoli. — The  storage  of 
electricity  and  thermodynamics,  by  M.  Gouy.  In  this  paper 
the  author  endeavours  to  connect  the  principle  of  the  preserva- 
tion of  electricity  with  the  general  laws  of  thermodynamics, 
taking  as  his  experimental  starting-point  the  first  law  of  electric 
actions. — On  the  electric  conductibility  of  mixtures  of  salts  in 
solution,  by  MM.  E.  Bouty  and  L.  Poincare.  In  the  present 
communication  the  authors  deal  mainly  with  the  special  case  of 
the  nitrates  of  potassa  and  soda,  their  object  being  to  ascertain 
whether  it  be  possible  to  deduce  the  electric  conductibility  of  a 
mixture  of  saline  solutions,  without  chemical  action,  from  the 
conductibility  of  each,  assuming  this  to  be  a  known  quantity. — 
On  the  production  of  ozone  by  electric  shocks,  by  MM.  Bichat 
and  Guntz.  Here  the  authors  propose  to  study  the  various 
circumstances  which  influence  the  production  of  ozone  by  means 
of  explosive  discharges.  The  results  obtained  show  that  the 
formation  of  ozone  is  primarily  connected  with  the  greater  or 
less  elevation  o'f  the  temperature  of  the  oxygen  under  the  action 
of  the  electric  shocks. — Notes  follow,  by  M.  A.  Carnot,  on  the 
lithine  present  in  mineral  waters  ;  by  M.  J.  Ribau,  on  a  method 


of  analyzing  and  separating  zinc  ;  by  M.  de  Forcrand,  on  the 
giycol-alcoholate  of  soda ;  by  M.  J.  Meunier,  on  a  dibenzoic 
ether  derived  from  mannite  ;  by  M.  E.  Gley,  on  the  comparative 
toxic  properties  of  wabaine  and  strophanthine ;  and  by  M. 
Prillieux,  on  an  efficaceous  treatment  of  black  rot,  a  disease  of 
the  vine  which  has  spread  from  America  to  France. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

The  Speaking  Parrots,  Part  4  :  Dr.  K.  Russ  (L.  U.  Gill).— British  Dogs, 
No.  22  :  H.  Dalziel  (L.  U.  Gill). — Challenger  Expedition  Reports — Zoology, 
vol.  xxvi.  (Eyre  and  Spottiswoode).  —  Contributions  to  the  Natural  History  of 
Alaska,  No.  2  :  L.  M.  Turnrr  (Washington)  — A  New  Theory  of  Parallels  ; 
C.  L.  Dodgson  (Macmillan). — Atlantic  Weather  Charts,  Part  4  (Eyre  and 
Spottiswoode). — Arithmetical  Exercises  and  Examination  Papers  :  H.  S. 
Hall  and  S.  R.  Knight' (Macmillan). — Entomology  f  r  Beginners:  Dr.  A. 
S.  Packard  (Holt,  New  York). — Catalog  der  Conchylien-Sanunlung,  Liefg. 
8:  F.  R.  Paetel  (Berlin).— The  Structure  and  Classificaiion  of  the  Meso- 
zoic  Mammalia:  H.  F.  Osborn  (Philadelphia).  —  Insect  Life  (Washington). 
— 11  Terremoto  nel  Vallo  Cosentino  del  3  Dicemb-e,  1887  :  G.  Agamennone 
(Roma). — Morphologisches  Jahrbuch,  Band  14,  Heft  1  (Williams  and  Nor- 
gate)  —  Annalen  der  Physik  und  Chemie,  1888.  No.  9  (Leirz  g).  —  Verhand- 
lungen  des  Naturhistorischen  Vereines,  5  Jahrg.  Erste  Halfte  (Bonn). — 
Annual  Report  of  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History,  Central  Park, 
New  York,  for  the  Year  1887-88. 


CONTENTS.  page 

Celtic  Heathendom.     By  Prof.  A.  H.  Sayce    ....  361 

Hand-book  of  the  Amaryllideae 362 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Schofield  :  "  Another  World  ;  or,  The  Fourth  Dimen- 
sion " • 363 

Blunt :  "Euclid's  Method,  or  the  Proper  Way  to  Teach 

Geometry "      363 

Symons  :    "  On    the  Distribution    of    Rain  over  the 

British  Isles  during  the  Year  1887  " 363 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

The  "Tamaron"  of  the  Philippine  Islands. — Dr.  P. 

L.  Sclater,  F.R.S 363 

Functionless  Organs. — Prof.    E.    Ray    Lankester, 

F.R.S.  ;  J.  T.  Hurst 364 

Dr.  Romanes's  Article  in  the  Contemporary  Review. — 

Prof.  George  J.  Romanes,  F.R.S 364 

Taxation  in  China.  —  Dr.  D.  J.  Macgowan    ....  364 

Partial  Eclipse  of  August  7. — A.  C.  Crommelin    .    .  364 

Macclesfield  Observations. — Prof.  Cleveland  Abbe  365 

A  Lunar  Rainbow. — T.  D.  A.  Cockerell 365 

Globular  Star  Clusters.     By  A.  M.  Clerke 365 

Timber,  and  some  of  its  Diseases.    XL    {Illustrated.) 

By  Prof.  H.  Marshall  Ward,  F.R.S 367 

Natural   Selection  and   Elimination.      By   Prof.  C. 

Lloyd  Morgan 370 

The  Fauna  and  Flora  of  the  Lesser  Antilles  ....  370 

Sonnet 371 

Notes 37' 

Our  Astronomical  Column  .- — 

Further  Cometary  Discoveries 375 

Astronomical     Phenomena    for     the     Week      1888 

August  19-25 375 

Geographical  Notes 375 

The   Gases  of  the  Blood.     I.     {Illustrated.)     By  Prof. 

John  Gray  McKendrick,  F.R.S 376 

The  Bath  Meeting  of  the  British  Association    ...  382 

Societies  and  Academies 383 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received     .    .    .   .    •  384 


NA  TURE 


385 


THURSDAY,  AUGUST   23,    ll 


BRITISH  PETROGRAPHY. 
British    Petrography  :     with     Special   Reference    to    tin: 
Igneous  Rocks.     By  J.  J.  Harris  Teall,   M.A.,   F.G.S. 
With    Forty-seven  Plates.     (London  :   Dulau  and  Co., 
1888.) 

THIS  handsome  volume,  with  its  beautifully  chromo- 
lithographed  plates,  supplies  a  want  that  has  long 
been  felt  in  English  scientific  literature.  It  was  scarcely 
fitting  that  in  this  country,  where  the  application  of  the 
microscope  to  the  study  of  thin  sections  of  rock  was  first 
suggested  and  practically  carried  out,  there  should  exist 
no  comprehensive  work  dealing  with  the  chief  varieties 
of  our  native  rocks,  as  illustrated  by  their  microscopic 
characters. 

In  its  general  appearance,  plan,  and  scope,  this  volume 
reminds  one  so  closely  of  the  "  Mineralogie  Micro- 
graphique  :  Introduction  a  l'Etude  des  Roches  Eruptives 
Franchises,"  of  MM.  Fouque'  and  Michel  Le"vy,  that  it  is 
scarcely  possible  to  avoid  a  comparison  between  the  two 
works.  Artistically,  the  forty-seven  plates  of  the  English 
treatise  may  perhaps  even  claim  superiority  over  the 
fifty-five  plates  in  the  French  work  ;  though  in  the  exact 
presentation  of  minute  but  characteristic  details,  and  in 
the  accuracy  of  tints  employed,  the  palm  must  in  some 
cases  be  awarded  to  the  latter.  There  are  some  plates  in 
the  volume  before  us,  however,  in  which  truthful  delinea- 
tion of  details  has  been  so  admirably  combined  with  a 
general  beauty  of  effect  as  practically  to  leave  nothing  to 
be  desired  in  work  of  this  class. 

Like  his  French  predecessors,  the  author  of  this  volume 
has  found  it  desirable  to  go  outside  of  the  country 
illustrated  for  a  few  of  his  types  of  igneous  rock.  A 
striking  testimony,  however,  to  the  variety  as  well  as  the 
beauty  of  our  native  rocks  is  found  in  the  circumstance 
that  it  has  been  possible  to  present  so  complete  a 
selection  of  the  chief  types  of  igneous  materials  without 
going  beyond  the  limits  of  the  British  Isles  except  in  two 
instances, — those,  namely,  of  the  Lherzolite  of  the  Ariege, 
and  of  the  Lencitic  rock  of  the  Eifel.  Nor  are  the 
varieties  of  British  igneous  rocks  by  any  means  exhausted 
in  the  illustrations  of  the  work  before  us.  The  rhyolites. 
which  perhaps  are  less  adequately  represented  than  some 
other  groups,  might  have  had  their  more  crystalline 
varieties  (Nevadites)  well  illustrated  by  the  beautiful 
rocks  of  Tardree,  Co.  Antrim,  while  examples  of  trachyte 
of  graphic-granite,  and  of  various  types  of  granulites  and 
"  trap-granulites,"  might  have  been  easily  obtained  from 
Scotland.  On  the  whole,  however,  we  think  the  author 
has  shown  excellent  judgment  in  his  selection  of  types, 
and  he  is  to  be  heartily  congratulated  upon  his  success  in, 
securing  accurate  drawings,  and  exact  reproductions  of 
those  drawings  by  the  process  of  chromolithography — 
results  which  we  are  assured  could  not  have  been 
attained  without  much  labour  and  extreme  care. 

Although  the    book  is  one  which    is    especially  note- 
worthy for  the  beauty  of  its  illustrations,  it  would  be  a 
mistake  to  suppose  that  it  belongs  to  that  class  of  works 
in  which  everything  else  is  sacrificed  to  showy  plates,  and 
Vol.  xxxv;.[.— No.  9S2. 


scientific  accuracy  is  regarded  as  merely  a  secondary 
object.  On  the  contrary,  the  author  has  clearly  devoted 
great  pains  to  the  perfecting  of  his  text,  which  constitutes 
in  itself  an  excellent  introduction  to  the  study  of  petro- 
graphy. Some  of  the  rocks  chosen  for  illustration 
have  already  been  described  by  other  authors,  and  in 
these  cases  Mr.  Teall,  while  doing  full  justice  to  the 
labours  of  his  predecessors  and  contemporaries,  has  not 
unfrequently  been  able  to  extend,  supplement,  or  correct 
their  results  by  the  light  of  more  recent  researches  ;  in  the 
case  of  rocks  which  have  not  been  previously  described, 
the  author  has  himself  investigated  their  chemical  and 
microscopical  characters,  in  some  instances  in  a  very 
complete  and  exhaustive  manner.  In  all  cases  he  has 
earned  the  gratitude  of  students  by  the  copiousness  of  his 
references  to  the  ever-growing  mass  of  literature  which 
deals  with  the  question  of  the  minute  structure  of  minerals 
and  rocks. 

While  MM.  Fouque  and  Levy  have  devoted  the  text  of 
their  work  to  a  systematic  description  of  the  various 
species  of  rock-forming  minerals,  and  especially  of  those 
characters  which  enable  us  to  recognize  them  when  seen 
in  thin  sections  under  the  microscope,  the  author  has 
aimed  rather  at  describing  the  rocks  themselves,  inci- 
dentally discussing  the  characters  of  each  species  of 
mineral  as  it  presents  itself  in  the  different  groups  of 
rocks.  This  plan,  while  attended  with  certain  advantages, 
may  perhaps  be  objected  to  on  the  ground  that  it  is  only 
possible  to  gather  the  whole  of  the  conclusions  of  the 
author  upon  any  particular  mineral  after  consulting  dif- 
ferent and  widely-separated  portions  of  the  book.  This 
is  rendered  more  easy,  however,  by  the  very  full  index 
which  is  supplied. 

The  work,  we  are  informed  in  the  preface,  was  com- 
menced as  a  serial  publication,  and  to  this  cause  probably 
must  be  ascribed  its  most  serious  defect  as  a  means  of 
instruction  :  this  is  the  absence  of  references  and  cross- 
references  between  the  text  and  the  atlas  of  plates ; 
these,  indeed,  constituting  two  practically  independent 
works.  Had  all  the  plates  been  before  the  author  during 
the  time  that  he  was  preparing  the  text,  he  would 
frequently  have  been  able  to  illustrate  his  remarks  upon 
the  minerals  and  structures  in  the  rocks  he  is  describing 
by  references  to  his  own  admirable  drawings.  To  the  same 
cause,  too,  we  must  ascribe  the  only  other  serious  blemish 
we  have  detected  in  the  book — a  rather  large  proportion 
of  misprints,  which,  though  usually  obvious  enough  to  the 
initiated,  may  occasion  considerable  embarrassment  to 
the  student. 

However  much  the  beginner,  taking  up  this  attractive 
volume,  may  be  delighted  with  the  mode  of  study  of 
which  it  aims  at  giving  an  exposition,  he  will  scarcely 
be  led  into  the  fatal  error  of  supposing  that  everything 
necessary  to  a  person  seeking  to  employ  the  method  is  a 
microscope  and  some  rock-sections.  The  author  makes 
it  perfectly  clear  that  unless  the  student  is  prepared  to  go 
through  a  certain  amount  of  preliminary  training,  the 
microscopic  examination  of  a  rock  is  more  likely  to  lead 
to  error  rather  than  to  truth.  So  much  knowledge  of 
crystallography  as  will  enable  the  observer  to  appreciate 
the  position  of  any  section  with  respect  to  the  axes  of  the 
crystal,  and  such  an  acquaintance  with  the  principles  of 
physical  optics  as  will  suffice  to  guide  him  in  interpreting 

6 


386 


NATURE 


\_August  23,  1888 


the  chief  phenomena  revealed,  when  either  plane  or  con- 
vergent polarized  light  are  employed,  are  absolutely  indis- 
pensable. But  in  addition  to  these  there  is  a  vast  mass  of 
knowledge,  which  has  been  gradually  acquired  and  is 
ever  increasing,  concerning  the  internal  peculiarities  of 
minerals,  especially  such  as  appear  in  the  varieties  that 
constitute  rocks,  and  with  respect  to  the  wonderful  series 
of  changes  which  they  undergo  when  exposed  to  different 
conditions  ;  and  the  more  of  this  kind  of  knowledge  the 
student  can  bring  to  the  investigation  of  a  rock  the  less 
liable  will  he  be  to  fall  into  error.  In  this  branch  of 
science,  as  in  every  other,  the  experience  which  can  only 
be  obtained  by  long-continued  study  of  the  subject  must 
always  supplement,  and  may  sometimes  even  supersede, 
the  results  obtained  by  the  application  of  rigid  rules  of 
of  procedure. 

As  a  suggestion  has  recently  been  made  in  the 
pages  of  Nature  that  all  which  is  required  to  secure 
a  uniform  and  uniformly-acceptable  classification  and 
nomenclature  of  rocks  is  that  some  master  of  the 
modern  methods  of  research  should  bring  in  a  sweeping 
"  reform  bill  "  on  the  subject,  it  may  be  well  to  quote  the 
author's  views  upon  petrographic  notation  and  classifica- 
tion. Writing  after  the  two  years  of  careful  labour 
devoted  to  the  preparation  of  this  work,  he  remarks  : — 

"  As  regards  the  classification  of  rocks,  I  am  sorry  to 
say  that  increasing  knowledge  has  not  tended  to  bring 
about  any  clearness  of  view.  The  more  rocks  are  studied 
the  less  they  seem  to  me  to  adapt  themselves  to  any 
classification  at  all  comparable  in  definiteness  with  the 
classifications  of  organic  bodies  and  mineral  substances. 
Rock-masses  often  vary  so  much  in  composition  and 
structure  that  any  scheme  of  classification  based  on  work 
done  in  the  laboratory  is  unsuitable  for  the  expression  of 
broad  geological  facts.  It  is  absolutely  impossible  to 
map  the  different  varieties  recognized  by  modern  petro- 
graphers.  The  conclusion  at  which  I  have  arrived  is 
that  the  necessity  for  giving  names  to  rocks  arises  rather 
from  work  done  in  the  field  than  from  work  done  in  the 
laboratory.  Rock  specimens  are  mineral-aggregates,  and 
may  be  described  as  such.  Rock-masses  are  integral 
portions  of  the  earth's  crust,  and  possess  a  certain 
amount  of  individuality  in  virtue  of  their  mode  of 
occurrence." 

With  these  remarks  we  very  cordially  agree.  Sys- 
tematic mineralogy  is  a  branch  of  natural-history  science ; 
for,  in  their  crystalline  forms  and  chemical  constitution, 
minerals  supply  safe  criteria  which  enable  us  to  define 
species  and  varieties,  and  also  permit  us  to  group  these  into 
larger  divisions.  But  most  petrographical  classifications 
seem  to  be  of  value  only  so  long  as  we  confine  our  atten- 
tion to  the  selected  fragments  that  fill  the  cases  in  a 
petrographical  museum.  In  the  field  one  type  is  often 
found  passing  into  another  which  the  mere  petrographer 
may  have  placed  in  a  totally  different  class. 

There  is  perhaps  just  now  a  danger  of  our  exaggerating 
the  importance  of  the  microscopic  method  as  applied  to 
the  study  of  rocks.  That  the  method  has  already  done 
much  in  enabling  us  to  follow  out  and  trace  the  effects  of 
the  slow  processes  of  change  within  the  earth's  crust,  and 
that  it  will  do  still  more  in  the  future,  no  one  can  doubt. 
But  when' it  is  sought  to  make  the  microscope  a  "court 
of  final  appeal"  in  geological  questions,  and  in  doing  so 
to  disregard  the  importance  of  field-observation,  we  per- 
ceive the  same  source  of  danger  as  is  now  perhaps  being 


experienced  in  connection  with  almost  every  branch  of 
natural-history  research.  It  must  be  remembered  that, 
while  the  microscope  enables  us  to  see  a  little  more  than 
the  naked  eye  or  the  pocket  lens,  yet  nevertheless, 
between  what  is  actually  seen  by  the  very  highest  powers 
of  our  microscopes  and  the  molecular  groupings  and 
reactions  which  give  rise  to  the  varied  phenomena  of  the 
mineral  kingdom,  there  is  room  for  almost  infinite  possi- 
bilities. We  accept  the  teaching  of  the  microscope  with 
all  thankfulness,  but  we  recognize  the  fact  at  the  same 
time  that  it  has  enabled  us  to  get  only  a  very  little 
nearer  to  the  heart  of  those  great  physical  problems 
which  we  aim  at  solving. 

In  congratulating  the  author  upon  the  completion  and 
publication  of  a  book  which,  as  we  learn  from  his  preface, 
has  occasioned  him  no  little  anxiety  as  well  as  so  much 
labour,  we  may  express  the  hope  that  his  project  of  treat- 
ing the  aqueous  and  metamorphic  rocks  in  the  same 
attractive  and  thorough  fashion  may  be  realized.  We 
cannot  conclude  this  notice  without  a  word  of  com- 
mendation for  the  excellent  glossary  of  terms  used  in 
describing  rocks,  which  has  been  supplied  by  Dr.  F.  H. 
Hatch,  and  will,  we  are  assured,  prove  of  the  greatest 
service  to  students.  John  W.  Judd. 

SILKWORMS. 
Silkworms.      ("  Young    Collector    Series.")      By    E.    A. 
Butler,  B.A.,  B.Sc,  Author  of  "  Pond  Life:    Insects," 
&c.     (London  :   Swan  Sonnenschein,  Lowrey,  and  Co  , 
1888.) 

THE  silkworm  is  so  familiar  an  insect  to  everyone,  and 
is  interesting  from  so  many  points  of  view,  that  we 
gladly  welcome  this  small  volume  from  the  pen  of  a  well- 
known  writer  on  popular  natural  history.  The  space 
which  can  be  allotted  to  this  subject  in  works  on  general 
zoology,  or  even  on  general  entomology,  is  necessarily 
small  ;  and  when  we  consider  that  a  whole  library 
could  be  written  on  the  history  and  structure  of  any 
single  insect,  a  book  dealing  almost  exclusively  with 
Bombyx  mori  should  be  a  useful  addition  to  our  ento- 
mological literature.  The  present  work  is  fairly  com- 
prehensive in  its  scope,  and  is  written  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  be  intelligible  to  everyone,  however  ignorant  of 
natural  history.  Numerous  woodcuts  are  added,  where - 
ever  they  seem  to  be  required  to  elucidate  the  text. 

Mr.  Butler  appears  to  be  adequately  acquainted  with 
his  subject,  and  we  have  glanced  through  his  book  with- 
out noticing  any  very  serious  errors,  or  meeting  with  many 
statements  which  we  felt  disposed  to  question.  But  we 
can  hardly  accept  the  inconceivable  narrative  which 
Mr.  Butler  has  copied  from  the  Entomologist  on 
pp.  78  and  79,  about  a  male  and  female  moth  being 
developed  upside  down  in  a  single  pupa  formed  by  a 
single  larva.  Until  more  instances  of  a  similar  nature 
are  recorded,  we  fancy  that  most  charitably-disposed 
people  will  be  inclined  to  imagine  that  some  extraordinary 
error  must  have  occurred.  In  this  case,  and  in  a  few 
others,  Mr.  Butler  quotes  his  authorities.  Although  it 
would  be  unfa'ir  to  expect  the  author  of  a  work  like  the 
present  to  quote  authorities  throughout,  we  think  that  it 
would  have  been  more  satisfactory  to  Mr.  Butler's  readers, 
especially  to  those  who  may  wish  to  go  further  into  the 
subject,  if  he  had  indicated  in  a  brief  preface  the  chief 


Augtist  23,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


|87 


sources  from  whence  he  had  derived  his  information, 
and  how  far  portions  of  it  were  based  upon  his  own 
observations. 

We  must  take  exception  to  one  statement  (on  p.  79) 
as  rather  too  sweeping.  "  Silk-producing  Lepidoptera 
belong  exclusively  to  two  families,  the  Bombyridir  and 
the  SaturniidcE."  All,  or  very  nearly  all,  Lepidoptera 
produce  more  or  less  silk  ;  but  even  if  we  understand 
Mr.  Butler  to  mean  "all  Lepidoptera  which  produce  silk 
of  economic  value,"  he  would  still  have  spoken  too  posi- 
tively, for  we  believe  that  various  species  belonging  to 
the  Lasiocampidce,  and  perhaps  to  other  families  of 
Bombyces,  have  been  used  as  silk-producers  in  various 
countries  ;  as,  for  example,  Libethra  cajani  in  Madagascar. 

Mr.  Butler  has  divided  his  work  into  six  chapters.  The 
first  treats  of  "  The  History  of  Silk  Culture,"  and  contains 
a  sketch  of  the  gradual  progress  of  silk-culture  and  manu- 
facture, and  of  the  introduction  of  these  industries  into 
one  country  after  another,  from  their  commencement 
in  China,  according  to  tradition,  about  2600  B.C.,  to  the 
present  time.  One  point  seems  to  have  been  overlooked, 
viz.  the  modern  origin  of  the  name  Morea  for  the  Pelo- 
ponnesus, and  its  derivation  from  the  mulberry-tree. 

The  second  chapter,  "  The  Silkworm  :  its  Form  and 
Life-History,"  deals  with  the  metamorphoses,  and  the 
external  structure  and  changes  of  the  insect  in  its  various 
stages.  The  mode  of  denuding  the  wings  to  examine 
the  neuration  ;  parthenogenesis,  and  other  incidental 
matters,  are  likewise  noticed.  Mr.  Butler  objects  to  the 
term  "  nervures  "  as  applied  to  the  branching  tubes  which 
traverse  the  wings  of  butterflies  and  moths  ;  but  we  may 
be  permitted  to  point  out  that  such  terms,  when  used  in 
a  purely  technical  and  conventional  manner,  though  fre- 
quently incorrect  in  themselves,  rarely  mislead  anyone. 

Chapter  III.,  "The  Silkworm:  its  Internal  Structure," 
treats,  of  course,  of  internal  anatomy.  Detailed  direc- 
tions are  given  for  dissecting  silkworms.  The  chapter 
closes  with  remarks  on  Lyonnet's  great  work  on  the 
anatomy  of  the  larva  of  the  goat-moth,  and  with  a  de- 
tailed explanation  of  the  position  of  Bombyx  mori  in  the 
system  of  Nature. 

Chapter  IV.,  "  The  Silkworm  :  its  Rearing  and  Manage- 
ment," notices  some  of  the  principal  races  of  silkworms, 
the  manner  of  rearing  them,  and  the  mode  of  preparing 
the  silk.  The  last  paragraph  briefly  alludes  to  some 
allied  species  of  true  Bombyx. 

Chapter  V.  deals  with  "  The  Silkworm  :  its  Diseases 
and  Imperfections."  The  three  most  serious  diseases, 
flaquerie,  muscardine  and  pebrine,  are  discussed  rather 
fully,  as  well  as  M.  Pasteur's  method  of  combating 
pebrine  by  microscopic  examination  of  brood  females. 

In  the  concluding  chapter  (VI.),  the  author  discusses 
"  Wild  Silkworms,"  many  of  which  he  figures.  His  treat- 
ment of  this  part  of  the  subject  is  necessarily  somewhat 
brief,  but  this  is  the  less  to  be  regretted,  as  those  who  wish 
for  further  information  will  probably  find  much  of  what 
they  require  in  Mr.  Wardle's  "  Hand-book  of  the  Collec- 
tion illustrative  of  the  Wild  Silks  of  India,  in  the  Indian 
Section  of  the  South  Kensington  Museum."  This  book 
was  published  by  the  Science  and  Art  Department  of  the 
Committee  of  Council  on  Education  in  1881  ;  and  though 
earlier  in  date,  it  will  be  found  a  most  useful  appendix  to 
Mr.  Butler's  work. 


Mr.  Butler  himself  may  fairly  be  congratulated  on  his 
success  in  compressing  so  large  an  amount  of  useful 
matter  as  his  book  contains  into  the  moderate  compass 
of  just  100  pages.  W.  F.  KlRBY. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Allgemeine  Geologie.  Von  Dr.  Karl  von  Fritsch,  Professor 
an  der  Universitat  in  Halle.  (Stuttgart  :  J.  Engelhorn, 
1888.) 

This  is  one  of  a  very  useful  series  of  volumes  which  is 
appearing  under  the  editorship  of  Dr.  Friedrich  Ratzel, 
with  the  title  of  "  Library  of  Geographical  Handbooks." 
As  the  subjects  of  glaciers  and  of  volcanoes  and  earth- 
quakes have  had  special  volumes  of  the  series  devoted  to 
their  discussion,  while  many  other  problems  of  geological 
interest  are  treated  of  in  separate  monographs,  such  as 
those  which  deal  with  the  geography  of  the  ocean,  and 
the  morphology  of  the  earth's  surface,  Dr.  von  Fritsch  has 
been  able  to  limit  the  scope  of  the  work  now  before  us  to 
certain  definite  lines  of  inquiry.  The  first  division  of  the 
book  is  devoted  to  "Geophysiography,"  or  a  discussion  of  the 
features  of  the  earth  as  a  member  of  the  solar  system,  and 
of  the  relations  of  the  atmosphere  and  ocean  to  the  litho- 
sphere  or  solid  crust  of  the  globe.  The  second  division, 
"  Geotektonik,"  deals  with  the  forms  and  relations  of  the 
rock-masses  that  build  up  the  solid  crust,  and  is  treated  with 
considerable  fullness,  the  illustrations  being  for  the  most 
part  new,  and  not  of  the  kind  which  find  a  place  in  the 
ordinary  text-books  of  geology.  In  the  third  part,  "  Geo- 
chemistry," or  chemical  geology,  we  have  a  short  sketch 
of  the  present  state  of  petrography,  or  the  description  of 
rocks,  followed  by  remarks  on  petrogeny,  or  the  theory  of 
their  origin.  It  would  be  unfair  to  expect,  in  the  175 
pages  at  the  author's  disposal,  anything  like  a  complete 
treatment  of  the  numerous  and  difficult  problems  presented 
by  petrological  science  at  the  present  day,  but  it  is  certainly 
possible  to  conceive  of  a  bolder  and  more  masterly  treat- 
ment of  the  whole  question  than  is  found  in  the  present 
work.  "  Geomechanik,"  or  physical  geology,  treats  of  the 
questions  usually  grouped  by  English  writers  under  the 
head  of  dynamical  geology  ;  and  the  fifth  and  concluding 
portion  of  the  work  is  devoted  to  "  Geogenie,"  or  a  general 
sketch  of  historical  geology.  The  work  is  of  interest  to 
English  students  and  teachers  of  geological  science,  as 
illustrating  the  general  methods  of  treatment  of  the  subject 
which  prevail  in  Germany.  Without  aiming  at  the  com- 
prehensive character  which  belongs  to  the  well-known 
treatises  of  Credner  and  Giimbel,  this  book  forms  an 
admirable  sketch  of  the  chief  facts  and  theories  of 
geological  science,  which  are  presented  always  in  an 
attractive  and  sometimes  in  a  somewhat  novel  manner. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
of  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communis 
cat  ions. ~\ 

Functionless  Organs. 

In  an  interesting  letter  which  appeared  in  Nature 
(p.  341),  under  the  above  title,  the  Duke  of  Argyll  brings 
forward  a  "doctrine  of  prophetic  germs"  as  explanatory  of 
certain  rudimentary  structures.  He  refers  particularly  to  the 
electrical  organ  of  the  skate,  which  he  regards  as  an  example  of 
such  a  germ.  The  doctrine  is  that  these  functionless  organs  are 
not  structures  which  have  been  useful,  but  are  endowed  with 
"  utilities  yet  to  be." 

In  the  lecture  which  I  gave  at  the  Royal  Institution,  on 
"  Electrical  Fishes,"  in  May  1887,  I  pointed  out,  in  discussing 
the  particular  instance  referred  to,   that   the  difficulty  suggested 


;88 


NATURE 


[August  23,  1888 


by  your  distinguished  correspondent  was  familiar  to  Mr.  Darwin, 
and  that  it  was  dealt  with  by  him  in  the  sixth  chapter  of  the 
"Origin,"  in  what  seemed  to  me  to  be  the  only  way  which  was 
then,  or  is  now,  possible.  We  should  learn  to  understand  it, 
he  said,  by  observing  "by  what  graduated  steps"  [electrical 
organs]  "have  been  developed  in  each  separate  group  of  fishes." 
By  this  I  understand  him  to  have  meant  that  what  we  require 
to  know  is,  under  what  conditions  the  development  of  electrical 
organs  has  actually  taken  place. 

On  morphological  grounds,  we  know  that  a  striped  muscular 
fibre  taken  together  with  its  nerve,  and  the  electrical  disk  of  the 
organ  of  the  skate  taken  together  with  its  nerve,  are  homologous 
structures — that  is,  that  they  are  made  up  of  corresponding  parts, 
and  have  corresponding  places  in  the  normal  order  of.  develop- 
ment ;  so  that  they  are  in  collateral,  not  in  sequential,  relation 
to  each  other.  In  other  words,  both  spring  from  the  same 
origin,  not  one  from  the  other ;  and  the  development  of  one  is 
quite  as  normal  as  of  the  other.  An  electrical  organ  is  no  more 
an  abnormal  muscle,  than  a  muscle  a  misdeveloped  electrical 
organ. 

In  accordance  with  Mr.  Darwin's  teaching,  external  condi- 
tions, whether  antecedent  or  collateral,  influence  development 
only  in  accordance  with  morphological  laws — that  is,  with  the 
normal  order  of  development.  In  the  present  instance  we  have 
some  knowledge  of  the  order,  but  the  conditions  are  unknown  ; 
and  what  we  have  to  do  is  to  ascertain  what  conditions  of  exist- 
ence have  given  predominance  to  one  order  rather  than  to  the 
other,  so  as,  in  certain  cases,  to  determine  the  development  of 
apparatus  for  producing  electrical  discharges  in  place  of  apparatus 
for  doing  mechanical  work.    • 

This  is  the  problem,  and  it  will  take  a  long  lime  to  in- 
vestigate it.  We  know  a  great  deal  more  now  than  Mr. 
Darwin  did  twenty- five  years  ago  about  the  structure,  develop- 
ment, and  mode  of  working  of  the  electrical  organ,  but  scarcely 
more  than  he  did  about  the  "why"  of  its  existence  in  such 
animals  as  the  skate.  Nor  shall  we  be  able  to  give  any  better 
account  of  it  until  time  and  opportunity  have  been  afforded  for 
the  examination  and  comparison  of  a  much  larger  number  of 
instances  than  are  at  present  accessible  to  us. 

I  need  only  add  a  word  as  to  his  Grace's  suggestion  that  the 
electrical  organ  of  the  skate  may  be  regarded  as  a  "  prophetic 
germ."  I  would  observe  that,  although  in  some  species  of  skate 
the  organ  is  imperfect,  it  shows  no  sign  of  incompleteness  in 
others,  and  therefore  cannot  be  properly  designated  a  germ.  As 
to  the  organ  being  prophetic,  I  am  not  sure  that  I  understand 
what  the  word  means.  If  the  prophecy  is  such  as  might  en- 
courage the  present  race  of  skates  to  hope  to  be  provided  at 
some  future  period  with  more  efficient  apparatus,  I  am  afraid 
that  any  such  expectation  on  their  part  would  be  illusory. 

Oxford,  August  15.  J.  Burdon- Sanderson. 


On  the  part  of,  I  believe,  a  very  large  class  of  unprofessional 
students  of  science  and  theology,  I  should  like  to  express  the 
profound  dissatisfaction,  not  unmingled  with  irritation,  with 
which  we  have  read  the  Duke  of  Argyll's  recent  contributions 
to  the  subject  of  evolution.  The  complete  collapse  of  the 
grave  charges  made  against  the  advocates  of  evolution  in  the 
article  entitled  "A  Great  Lesson"  in  the  September  (1887) 
number  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  is  too  well  known  to  need 
comment. 

The  letter  on  "  Functionless  Organs"  affords  another  in- 
stance of  the  illogical  and  dogmatic  style  with  which  we  are 
too  familiar.  Passing  over  any  notice  of  the  absolute  incon- 
ceivability of  any  cause  for  the  development  of  "  prophetic 
structures,"  the  Duke  of  Argyll  once  more  repeats  the  ex- 
ploded notion  that  "  the  element  of  fortuity  is  inseparable 
from  the  idea  of  natural  selection,"  whereas,  as  has  been 
proved  over  and  over  again,  the  ideas  of  fortuity  and  of  evolu- 
tion, of  which  process  natural  selection  is  so  integral  a  part, 
are  absolutely  incompatible.  But  perhaps  the  climax  is  reached 
in  the  following  quotation  :  "Hitherto  I  have  never  yet  met 
with  a  case  in  which  an  expert  interprets  functionless  organs 
as  structures  on  the  way  to  use."  Having  at  last  found  a 
solitary  case  which,  it  is  thought,  by  one  expert,  may  be  in- 
terpreted against  the  Darwinian  conception  of  evolution,  he 
immediately  jumps  to  the  conclusion  that  "  everywhere,  in 
reasoning  and  observation,   it  is  breaking  down." 

Apropos  of  Mr.  J.  G.  Hurst's  pertinent  queries  on  p.  364  of 
your  last  issue,  it  may  be  well  to  recall  the  Duke  of  Argyll's 


dictum  given  in  the  "Reign  of  Law,"  i.e.  that  in  man's  struc- 
ture "  there  is  no  aborted  member.  Every  part  is  put  to  its 
highest  use."  Samuel  F.  Wilson. 

Warsop,  August  18. 

Lamarckism  versus  Darwinism. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  Dr.  Romanes  has  not  written  any- 
thing which  can  be  considered  as  a  reply  to  my  letter.  Although 
Prof.  Weismann's  essays,  to  which  I  referred,  are  certainly  "two 
of  the  most  notorious  essays  in  the  recent  literature  of  Dar- 
winism," it  is  nevertheless  equally  certain  that  a  large  and 
important  part  of  their  contents  is  devoted  to  the  consideration 
of  the  causes  of  variation.  This  being  the  case,  I  may  safely 
leave  the  evidence  in  support  of  the  statement  in  my  first  letter  to 
anyone  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  read  p.  841  of  the  June  number 
of  the  Contemporary  Reviezo.  As  it  is  probable  that  many  people 
have  already  read  the  article  in  question,  and  that  others  may 
be  induced  to  do  so  as  a  result  of  this  correspondence,  I  think 
that  on  this  account  it  may  be  worth  while  for  Dr.  Romanes  to 
notice  the  criticism,  and  if  possible  to  show  that  his  remark 
about  Prof.  Weismann  is  intended  to  bear  some  other  than  its 
obvious  meaning. 

I  need  hardly  make  any  further  reference  to  the  second  and 
third  paragraphs  of  Dr.  Romanes's  letter,  for  I  have  already 
explained  my  position  in  my  first  letter.  I  need  only  reassert 
that  I  was  in  no  way  influenced  by  Dr.  Romanes's  remarks  or 
opinions  about  myself;  nor  am  I  concerned  to  allude  to  the 
personal  references  contained  in  his  letter,  except  to  express 
regret  if  anything  in  the  form  as  apart  from  the  substance  of  my 
first  letter  should  have  caused  the  annoyance  which  Dr.  Romanes 
takes  no  pains  to  conceal. 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  worth  while  to  draw  attention  to  the 
curious  coincidence  which  brings  into  the  same  number  of 
Nature  a  letter  from  Prof.  E.  Ray  Lankester,  containing  an 
expression  of  opinion  diametrically  opposed  to  that  of  Dr. 
Romanes  upon  the  interesting  question  of  Lamarck  versus 
Darwin.  Edward  B.  Poulton. 

Oxford,  August  17. 

With  reference  to  the  recent  revival  of  what  may  be  con- 
sidered as  "pure"  Lamarckism,  it  appears  to  me  of  importance 
that  those  who  have  followed  the  course  of  biological  work  and 
thought  in  this  direction  should  at  the  present  juncture  declare 
their  views  with  respect  to  the  interpretation  of  such  results  as 
those  obtained  by  Mr.  Poulton,  and  referred  to  by  Dr.  Romanes 
in  his  letter  of  August  9  (p.  364).  I  am  glad  of  the  present 
opportunity  of  discussing  this  matter,  because  Mr.  Poulton's  work 
is  to  a  large  extent  an  expansion  and  experimental  confirmation 
of  views  to  which  I  gave  expression  in  a  paper  published  in 
1873  (Proc.  Zool.  Soc,  p.  159).  I  have  no  desire  to  enter  into 
the  personal  question  as  to  whether  Dr.  Romanes  has  or  has 
not  made  himself  acquainted  with  Weismann's  essays,  but  I  must 
express  my  disappointment  that  he  has  not  given  us  a  more 
explicit  statement  concerning  the  precise  manner  in  which  he 
interprets  the  experiments  in  the  Lamarckian  sense.  For  my 
own  part  I  may  add  that  I  have  had  opportunities  of  witnessing 
Mr.  Poulton's  experiments  at  intervals  during  their  progress,  and 
of  discussing  their  bearings  with  him,  and  I  must  confess  that  I 
am  at  present  completely  at  a  loss  to  see  how  they  can  by  any 
means  be  interpreted  in  the  manner  Dr.  Romanes  suggests. 

The  conclusions  at  which  I  arrived  in  the  paper  referred  to 
may  be  very  briefly  summarized.  We  find  in  many  species  of 
insects,  &c,  a  variability  in  colour  which  is  distinctly  of  an 
adaptive  character,  enabling  the  insect  to  become  adapted  to 
a  variable  environment,  and  thus  being  obviously  advantageous 
to  the  possessors  of  such  a  faculty.  From  this  it  seemed  but  a 
natural  conclusion  that  such  a  power  of  adaptability  should  have 
been  conferred  by  the  usual  operation  of  the  law  of  the  survival 
of  the  fittest.  This  conclusion  I  ventured  to  draw  in  1873,  after 
carefully  considering  all  the  cases  which  I  could  collect.  But  in 
thus  grouping  what  I  called  at  the  time  "  variable  protective 
colouring"  among  the  biological  phenomena  capable  of  being 
regarded  as  the  result  of  the  action  of  natural  selection,  I  was 
careful  to  point  out  that  the  precise  mechanism  of  the  process  by 
which  this  adaptability  was  brought  about  remained  to  be 
investigated  for  each  case.  This  is  the  work  which  has  been  so 
admirably  carried  out  by  Mr.  Poulton  for  certain  Lepidopterous 
larvae,  pupaj,  and  cocoons,  and  the  results  which  he  has  obtained 
go  far  to  show  that  this  adaptability  in  colour  is  possessed  by  a 


August  23,  1888] 


NATURE 


389 


much  larger  number  of  species  than  was  formerly  suspected,  and 
that  the  modification  is  invariably  in  the  direction  of  protection. 
The  experiments  prove  also  that  the  stimulus  prompting  the 
colour  change  is  given  by  the  colour  of  the  surroundings,  but  the 
precise  means  by  which  the  stimulus  is  conveyed  to  the  pigment- 
secreting  cells  has  not  yet  been  made  out.  This  part  of  the 
work  is  no  doubt  the  most  difficult  to  deal  with  from  the 
experimental  side,  but  any  objection  to  the  Darwinian  explana- 
tion which  may  be  urged  from  the  point  of  view  of  our  ignorance 
of  the  nature  of  this  correlation  between  an  external  stimulus  and 
the  power  of  secreting  a  particular  colour  applies  with  equal  or 
greater  force  to  the  theory  of  "direct  action  "  upon  which  so  much 
stress  is  laid  by  the  new  Lamarckian  school.  The  difficulty  in  the 
way  of  completing  the  explanation  of  this  kind  of  action  is 
of  precisely  the  same  nature  as  that  which  meets  us  when  we 
attempt  to  explain  the  power  of  colour  adaptability  in  a  frog 
or  fish  as  depending  upon  a  colour  stimulus,  which  in  these  cases 
is  known  to  be  conveyed  through  the  eye.  All  that  is  con- 
tended for  is  that  the  power  of  adaptation  has  been  conferred  by 
natural  selection,  an  agency  capable  of  dealing  with  complex 
physiological  relationships  in  precisely  the  same  way  that  it 
deals  with  all  other  kinds  of  variations.  In  these  cases  of 
variable  protective  colouring  we  are  concerned  with  the  origin 
of  the  initial  variations  only  in  the  same  manner  that  we  are 
concerned  with  their  origin  in  ordinary  cases  of  protective 
resemblance.  Why  the  colour  variability  should  always  be 
restricted  to  the  limits  of  protective  shades  is  perfectly  intelli- 
gible from  the  purely  Darwinian  stand-point,  but  is,  as  it  appears 
to  me,  absolutely  devoid  of  meaning  if  we  accept  the  theory  of 
"  direct  action."  R.  Meldola. 

August  18. 


MODERN  VIEWS  OF  ELECTRICITY.' 
Part  IV.— Radiation. 

IX. 

SO  far  as  we  have  been  able  to  understand  and  explain 
electrical  phenomena,  it  has  been  by  assuming  the 
existence  of  a  medium  endowed  with  certain  mechanical 
or  quasi-mtc\\?ir\\ca.\  properties,  such  as  mobility,  incom- 
pressibility  or  infinite  elasticity  of  volume,  combined  with 
a  certain  amount  of  plasticity  or  finite  elasticity  of  shape. 
We  also  imagined  the  medium  as  composed  of  two 
opposite  constituents,  which  we  called  positive  and  negative 
electricity  respectively,  and  which  were  connected  in  such 
a  way  that  whatever  one  did  the  other  tended  to  do  the 
precise  opposite.  Further,  we  were  led  to  endow  each  of 
these  constituents  with  a  certain  amount  of  inertia,  and 
we  recognized  something  of  the  nature  of  friction  between 
each  constituent  and  ordinary  matter. 
Broadly  speaking  we  may  say— 

(1)  That  friction  makes  itself  conspicuous  in  the 
discussion  of  current-electricity  or  the  properties  of 
conductors,  and  that  the  laws  of  it  are  summarized  in  the 
statement  known  by  the  name  of  Ohm,  viz.  that  the 
current  through  a  given  conductor  is  proportional  to  the 
force  that  drives  it,  or  that  the  opposition  force  exerted 
by  a  conductor  upon  a  current  is  simply  proportional  to 
the  strength  of  that  current. 

(2)  That  elasticity  is  recognized  as  necessary  when 
studying  the  facts  of  electrostatics  or  the  properties  of 
insulators — electric  displacement  and  recoil,  or  charge 
and  discharge  :  the  laws  having  been  studied  by  Faraday, 
and  the  relative  pliability  (or  shearability  if  there  were 
such  a  word)  of  the  medium  in  different  substances  being 
measured  and  stated  in  terms  of  that  of  air  as  their  specific 
inductive  capacity,  K. 

(3)  That  inertia  is  brought  into  prominence  by  the 
facts  of  magnetism,  studied  chiefly  perhaps  by  Thomson, 
who  has  called  the  relative  density  of  the  medium  in 
different  substances  their  magnetic  permeability  or  mag- 
netic inductive  capacity  ;  the  ratio  of  its  value  for  any 
substance  to  its  value  for  common  air  being  called  p. 

(4)  That  the  dottbleness  of  constitution  of  the  medium 

1  Continued  from  vol.   xxxvii.  p.  368. 


— its  being  composed  of  two  precisely  opposite  entities — 
is  suggested  by  the  facts  of  electrolysis,  by  the  absence  of 
mechanical  momentum  in  currents  and  magnets,  and  by 
the  difficulty  of  otherwise  conceiving  a  medium  endowed 
with  rigidity  which  yet  is  perfectly  fluid  to  masses  of 
matter  moving  through  it. 

With  the  hypothesis  of  doubleness  of  constitution 
this  difficulty  disappears.  The  ether  as  a  whole  may  be 
perfectly  fluid  and  allow  bodies  to  pass  through  it  with- 
out resistance,  while  its  two  components  may  be 
elastically  attached  together  and  may  resist  any  forces 
tending  to  separate  them  with  any  required  rigidity.  It 
is  like  the  difference  between  passing  one's  hand  through 
water,  and  chemically  decomposing  it ;  it  is  like  the 
difference  between  waving  a  piece  of  canvas  about,  and 
tearing  it  into  its  constituent  threads. 

To  put  the  matter  boldly  and  baldly :  we  are  familiar 
with  the  conceptions  of  matter  and  of  ether,  and  it  is 
known  that  the  two  things  react  on  each  other  in  some 
way,  so  that  although  matter  appears  to  move  freely  through 
a  free  portion  of  the  ether,  yet  another  portion  appears 
to  move  with  matter  as  if  bound  to  it.  This  mode  of 
regarding  the  facts  is  as  old  as  Fresnel.  We  now  proceed 
a  step  further,  and  analyze  the  ether  into  two  constituents 
— two  equal  opposite  constituents — each  endowed  with 
inertia,  and  each  connected  to  the  other  by  elastic  ties  : 
ties  which  the  presence  of  gross  matter  in  general  weak- 
ens and  in  some  cases  dissolves.  The  two  constituents 
are  called  positive  and  negative  electricity  respectively, 
and  of  these  two  electricities  we  imagine  the  ether  to  be 
composed.  The  tie  between  them  is  dissolved  in  metals, 
it  is  relaxed  or  made  less  rigid  in  ordinary  insulators. 
The  specific  inductive  capacity  of  a  substance  means  the 
reciprocal  of  the  rigidity  of  its  doubly  constituted  ether. 

Let  us  call  this  rigidity  k,  so  that  k  =  -  . 

K 

The  neighbourhood  of  gross  matter  seems  also  to 
render  ether  more  dense.  It  is  difficult  to  suppose  that 
it  can  really  condense  an  incompressible  fluid,  but  it  may 
load  it  or  otherwise  modify  it  so  as  to  produce  the  effect 
of  increased  density.  In  iron  this  density  reaches  its 
highest  known  value,  and  in  all  substances  the  density  or 
inertia  per  unit  volume  of  their  ether  may  be  denoted  by 
fx,  and  called  their  magnetic  permeability. 

Let  it  be  understood  what  we  are  doing.  In  Part  I.  we 
discussed  effects  very  analogous  to  those  which  would  be 
produced  by  an  elastic  incompressible  medium  (roughly 
like  india-rubber  or  jelly).  In  Parts  II.  and  III.  we  dis- 
cussed effects  suggesting,  and  more  or  less  necessitating, 
the  idea  of  a  property  of  the  medium  very  analogous  to 
inertia  ;  and  we  were  also  led  to  postulate  a  doubleness 
of  constitution  for  the  medium,  so  that  shearing  strains 
may  go  on  in  it  and  yet  it  be  perfectly  fluid  as  a  whole.  We 
are  now  pushing  these  analogies  and  ideas  into  greater 
definiteness  and  baldness  of  statement.  We  already 
know  of  a  continuous  incompressible  fluid  filling  all 
space,  and  we  call  it  the  ether.  Let  us  suppose  that  it  is 
composed  of,  and  by  electromotive  force  analyzable  into, 
two  constituents  ;  let  these  constituents  cling  together 
with  a  certain  tenacity,  so  that  the  medium  shall  have  an 
electromotive  elasticity,  though  mechanically  quite  fluid  ; 
and  let  each  constituent  possess  inertia,  or  something  so 
like  inertia  as  to  produce  similar  effects.  Making  this  hypo- 
thesis, electrical  effects  are  to  a  certain  extent  explained. 
Not  ultimately  indeed — few  things  can  be  explained  ulti- 
mately— not  even  as  ultimately  as  could  be  wished  ;  for  the 
nature  of  the  connection  between  the  two  constituents  of 
the  ether  and  between  the  ether  and  gross  matter — the 
nature  of  the  force,  that  is,  and  the  nature  of  the  inertia — 
remains  untouched.  This  is  a  limitation  to  be  clearly 
admitted;  but  if  that  were  the  only  one — if  all  else  in  the 
hypothesis  were  true — we  should  do  well,  and  a  distinct 
step  would  have  been  gained.  It  is  hardly  to  be  hoped  that 
this  is  so — hardly  to  be  expected  that  the  bald  statement 


350 


NA  TURE 


\_August  23,  1888 


above  is  more  than  a  kind  of  parody  of  the  truth  ;  never- 
theless, supposing  it  only  a  parody,  supposing  what  we  call 
electromotive  elasticity  and  inertia  are  things  capable  of 
clearer  conception  and  more  adequate  statement,  yet, 
inasmuch  as  they  correspond  to  and  represent  a  real 
analogy,  and  inasmuch  as  we  find  that  a  medium  so  con- 
structed would  behave  in  a  very  electrical  manner,  and 
might  in  conjunction  with  matter  be  capable  of  giving  rise 
to  all  known  electrical  phenomena,  we  are  bound  to  follow- 
out  the  conception  into  other  regions,  and  see  whether  any 
other  abstruse  phenomena,  not  commonly  recognized  as 
electrical,  will  not  also  fall  into  the  dominion  of  this  hypo- 
thetical substance  and  be  equally  explained  by  it.  This  is 
what  we  shall  now  proceed  to  do. 

Before  beginning,  however,  let  me  just  say  what  I  mean 
by  "  electromotive  elasticity."  It  might  be  called  chemical 
elasticity,  or  molecular  elasticity.  There  is  a  well-known 
distinction  between  electromotive  force  and  ordinary 
matter-moving  force.  The  one  acts  upon  electricity, 
straining  or  moving  or,  in  general,  "displacing"  it  ;  the 
other  acts  upon  matter,  displacing  it.  The  nature  of 
neither  force  can  be  considered  known,  but  crudely  we 
may  say  that  as  electricity  is  to  matter  so  is  electromotive 
force  to  common  mechanical  force  :  so  also  is  electro- 
motive elasticity  to  the  common  shape-elasticity  or 
rigidity  of  ordinary  matter  :  so  perhaps,  once  more,  may 
electrical  inertia  be  to  ordinary  inertia. 

Inertia  is  defined  as  the  ratio  of  force  to  acceleration  ; 
similarly  electric  inertia  is  the  ratio  of  electromotive  force 
to  the  acceleration  of  electric  displacement.  It  is  quite 
possible  that  electric  inertia  and  ordinary  inertia  are  the 
same  thing,  just  as  electric  energy  is  the  same  with 
mechanical  energy.  If  this  were  known  to  be  so,  it 
would  be  a  step  upward  towards  a  mechanical  explana- 
tion ;  but  it  is  by  no  means  necessarily  or  certainly  so  ; 
and,  whether  it  be  so  or  not,  the  analogy  undoubtedly 
holds,  and  may  be  fruitfully  pursued. 

And  as  to  "  electromotive  elasticity,''  one  may  say  that 
pure  water  or  gas  is  electromotively  elastic,  though 
mechanically  limpid  ;  each  resists  electric  forces  up  to  a 
certain  limit  of  tenacity,  beyond  which  it  is  broken  ;  and 
it  recoils  when  they  are  withdrawn.  Glass  acts  in  the 
same  way,  but  that  happens  to  be  mechanically  elastic 
too.  Its  mechanical  elasticity  and  tenacity  have, 
however,  nothing  to  do  with  its  electric^  elasticity  and 
tenacity. 

One  perceives  in  a  general  way  why  fluids  can  be 
electrically,  or  chemically,  or  molecularly  elastic  :  it 
is  because  their  molecules  are  doubly  or  multiply  com- 
posed, and  the  constituent  atoms  cling  together,  while 
the  several  molecules  are  free  of  one  another.  Mechan- 
ical forces  deal  with  the  molecule  as  a  whole,  and  to 
them  the  substance  is  fluid  ;  electrical  or  chemical  forces 
deal  with  the  constituents  of  the  molecule,  setting  up 
between  them  a  shearing  strain  and  endeavouring  to  tear 
them  asunder.  To  such  forces,  therefore,  the  fluid  is 
elastic  and  tenacious  up  to  a  certain  limit.  Extend  this 
view  of  things  to  the  constitution  of  the  ether,  and  one  has 
at  least  a  definite  position  whence  to  further  proceed. 

It  may  be  convenient  and  not  impertinent  here  to  say 
that  a  student  might  find  it  a  help  to  re-read  Parts  I.  and 
II.  in  the  light  of  what  has  just  been  said:  remembering 
that,  for  the  sake  of  simplicity,  only  the  simple  fact  of  an 
elastic  medium  was  at  first  contemplated  and  insisted 
on  ;  no  attempt  being  made  to  devise  a  mechanism  for  its 
elasticity  by  considering  it  as  composed  of  two  con- 
stituents. Hence  the  manifest  artificiality  of  such  figures 
as  Fig.  6  (Nature,  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  559),  where  fixed  beams 
are  introduced  to  serve  as  the  support  of  the  elastic  con- 
nections. But  it  is  pretty  obvious  now,  and  it  has  been 
said  in  Part  III.,  that  a  closer  analogy  will  be  obtained 
by  considering  two  ^ets  of  beads  arranged  in  alternate 
parallel  rows  connected  by  elastic  threads,  and  displaced 
simultaneously  in  opposite  directions. 


Recovery  of  the  Medium  from  Strain. 
We  have  now  to  consider  the  behaviour  of  a  medium 
endowed  with  an  elastic  rigidity,  k,  and  a  density,  /*, 
subject  to  displacements  or  strains.  One  obvious  fact  is 
that  when  the  distorting  force  is  removed  the  medium 
will  spring  back  to  its  old  position,  overshoot  it  on  the 
other  side,  spring  back  again,  and  thus  continue  oscillating 
till  the  original  energy  is  rubbed  away  by  viscosity  or 
internal  friction.  If  the  viscosity  is  very  considerable,  it 
will  not  be  able  so  to  oscillate  ;  it  will  then  merely  slide 
back  in  a  dead-beat  manner  towards  its  unstrained  state, 
taking  a  theoretically  infinite  time  to  get  completely  back, 
but  practically  restoring  itself  to  something  very  near  its 
original  state  in  what  may  be  quite  a  short  time.  The 
recovery  may  in  fact  be  either  a  brisk  recoil  or  a  leak  of 
any  degree  of  slowness,  according  to  the  amount  of 
viscosity  as  compared  with  the  inertia  and  elasticity. 

The  matter  is  one  of  simple  mechanics.  It  is  a  case 
of  simple  harmonic  motion  modified  by  a  friction  pro- 
portional to  the  speed.  The  electrical  case  is  simpler 
than  any  mechanical  one,  for  two  reasons  :  first,  because 
so  long  as  capacity  is  constant  (and  no  variation  has 
yet  been  discovered)  Hooke's  law  will  be  accurately 
obeyed — restoring  force  will  be  accurately  proportional 
to  displacement  ;  secondly,  because  for  all  conductors 
which  obey  Ohm's  law  (and  no  true  conductor  is  known 
to  disobey  it)  the  friction  force  is  accurately  proportional 
to  the  first  power  of  velocity. 

There  are  two,  or  perhaps  one  may  say  three,  main 
cases.  First,  where  the  friction  is  great.  In  that  case 
the  recovery  is  of  the  nature  of  a  slow  leak,  according  to 
a  decreasing  geometrical  progression  or  a  logarithmic 
curve  ;  the  logarithmic  decrement  being  independent  of  the 
inertia,  and  being  equal  to  the  quotient  of  the  elasticity 
and  the  resistance  coefficients. 

As  the  resistance  is  made  less,  the  recovery  becomes 
quicker  and  quicker  until  inertia  begins  to  prominently 
assert  its  effect  and  to  once  more  lengthen  out  the  time  of 
final  recovery  by  carrying  the  recoiling  matter  beyond  its 
natural  position,  and  so  prolonging  the  disturbance  by 
oscillations.  The  quickest  recovery  possible  is  obtained 
just  before  these  oscillations  begin  ;  and  it  can  be  shown 
that  this  is  when  the  resistance  coefficient  is  equal  to 
twice  the  geometric  mean  of  the  elasticity  and  the  inertia. 
One  may  consider  this  to  be  the  second  main  case. 

The  third  principal  case  is  when  the  resistance  is  quite 
small,  and  when  the  recovery  is  therefore  distinctly  oscilla- 
tory. If  the  viscosity  were  really  zero,  the  motion  would 
be  simply  harmonic  for  ever,  unless  some  other  mode  of 
dissipating  energy  were  provided  ;  but  if  some  such  mode 
were  provided,  or  if  the  viscosity  had  a  finite  value, 
then  the  vibrations  would  be  simply  harmonic  with  a 
dying  out  amplitude,  the  extremities  of  all  the  swings 
lying  on  a  logarithmic  curve.  In  such  a  case  as  this,  the 
rate  of  swing  is  practically  independent  of  friction  ;  it 
depends  only  on  elasticity  and  inertia  ;  and,  as  is  well 
known  for  simple  harmonic  motion,  the  time  of  a  complete 
swing  is  27r  times  the  square  root  of  the  ratio  of  inertia 
and  elasticity  coefficients. 

Making  the  statement  more  electrically  concrete,  we 
may  consider  a  circuit  with  a  certain  amount  of  stored-up 
potential  energy  or  electrical  strain  in  it:,  for  instance,  a 
charged  Leyden  jar  provided  with  a  nearly  complete 
discharge  circuit.  The  main  elastic  coefficient  here  is 
the  reciprocal  of  the  capacity  of  the  jar:  the  more 
capacious  the  jar  the  more  "pliable"  it  is — the  less  force 
of  recoil  for  a  given  displacement, — so  that  capacity  is  the 
inverse  of  rigidity.  The  main  inertia  coefficient  is  that 
which  is  known  electrically  as  the  "  self-induction  "  of  the 
circuit  :  it  involves  the  inertia  of  all  the  displaced  matter 
and  ether,  of  everything  which  will  be  moved  or  disturbed 
when  the  jar  is  discharged.  It  is  not  a  very  simple  thing 
I  to  calculate  its  value  in  any  given  case  ;  still  it  can  be 
I  done,  and  the  general  idea  is  plain  enough  without  under- 


August  23,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


>9i 


standing  the  exact  function  and  importance  of  every 
portion  of  the  surrounding  space. 

Corresponding,  then,  to  the  well-known  simple  harmonic 

T  =  27r  v/-t>  we  have,  writing  L  for  the  self-induction 

or  inertia  of  the  circuit,  and  S  for  its  capacity  or  inverse 
rigidity  constant, 

T  =  27r^LS, 

This,  therefore,  is  the  time  of  a  complete  swing.  Directly 
the  jar  is  discharged,  these  oscillations  begin,  and  they 
continue  like  the  vibration  of  a  tuning-fork  until  they  are 
damped  out  of  existence  by  viscosity  and  other  modes  of 
dissipation  of  energy. 

But  now  just  consider  a  tuning-fork.  Suppose  its  sub- 
stance were  absolutely  unviscous,  would  it  go  on  vibrating 
for  ever?  In  a  vacuum  it  might :  in  air  it  certainly  would 
not.  And  why  not  ?  Because  it  is  surrounded  by  a 
medium  capable  of  taking  up  vibrations  and  of  propagat- 
ing them  outwards  without  limit.  The  existence  of  a 
vibrating  body  in  a  suitable  medium  means  the  carving 
of  that  medium  into  a  succession  of  waves  and  -the  trans- 
mission of  these  waves  away  into  space  or  into  absorbing 
obstacles.  It  means,  therefore,  the  conveyance  away  of 
the  energy  of  the  vibrating  body,  and  its  subsequent 
appearance  in  some  other  form  wherever  the  radiating 
waves  arc  quenched. 

The  laws  of  this  kind  of  wave-propagation  are  well 
known  ;  the  rate  at  which  waves  travel  through  the 
medium  depends  not  at  all  on  any  properties  of  the 
original  vibrating  body,  the  source  of  the  disturbance  ;  it 
depends  solely  on  the  properties  of  the  medium.  They 
travel  at  a  rate  precisely  equal  to  the  square  root  of  the 
ratio  of  its  elasticity  to  its  density. 

Although  the  speed  of  travel  is  thus  fixed  independently 
of  the  source,  the  length  of  the  individual  waves  is  not  so 
independent.  The  length  of  the  waves  depends  both  on 
the  rate  at  which  they  travel  and  on  the  rate  at  which 
the  source  vibrates.  It  is  well  known  and  immediately 
obvious  that  the  length  of  each  wave  is  simply  equal  to 
the  product  of  the  speed  of  travel  into  the  time  of  one 
vibration. 

But  not  every  medium  is  able  to  convey  every  kind  of 
vibration.  It  may  be  that  the  mode  of  vibration  of  a 
body  is  entirely  other  than  that  which  the  medium 
surrounding  it  can  convey  :  in  that  case  no  dissipation 
of  energy  by  wave-propagation  can  result,  no  radiation 
will  be  excited.  The  only  kind  of  radiation  which 
common  fluids  are  mechanically  able  to  transmit  is  well 
known  :  it  is  that  which  appeals  to  our  ears  as  sound. 
The  elasticity  concerned  in  such  disturbance  as  this  is 
mere  volume  elasticity  or  incompressibility.  But  electrical 
experiments  (the  Cavendish  experiment,1  and  Faraday's 
ice-pail  experiment)  prove  the  ether  to  be  enormously 
— perhaps  absolutely — incompressible  ;  and  if  so,  such 
vibrations  as  these  would  travel  with  infinite  speed  and 
not  carve  proper  waves  at  all. 

Conceivably  (I  should  like  to  say  probably)  gravitation 
is  transmitted  by  such  longitudinal  impulses  or  thrusts, 
and  in  that  case  it  is  nearly  or  quite  instantaneous  ;  and 
the  rate  at  which  it  travels,  if  finite,  can  be  determined 
by  a  still  more  accurate  repetition  of  the  Cavendish 
experiment  than  has  yet  been  made  ;  but  true  radiation 
transmitted  by  the  ether  cannot  be  of  this  longitudinal 
character.  The  elasticity  possessed  by  the  ether  is  of 
the  nature  of  rigidity  :  it  has  to  do  with  shears  and  distor- 
tions ;  not  mechanical  stresses,  indeed — to  them  it  is  quite 
limpid  and  resistless — but  electromotive  stresses  :  it  has  an 
electrical  rigidity,  and  it  is  this  which  must  be  used  in  the 
transmission  of  wave-motion. 

But  the  oscillatory  discharge  of  a  Leyden  jar  is  precisely 
competent  to  apply  to  the  ether  these  electromotive  vibra- 
tions :   it  will    shake  it  in  the  mode    suitable   for   it   to 

See  Maxwell's  "Electrical  Researches  of  Cavendish,"  p.  104  ;  see  also  p.  417. 


transmit  ;  and  accordingly,  from  a  discharging  circuil, 
waves  of  electrical  distortion,  or  transverse  waves,  will 
spread  in  all  directions  at  a  pace  depending  on  the 
properties  of  the  medium. 

Thus,  then,  even  with  a  circuit  of  perfect  conductivity 
the  continuance  of  the  discharge  would  be  limited,  the 
energy  would  be  dissipated  ;  not  by  friction,  indeed — there 
would  in  such  a  circuit  be  no  direct  production  of  heat — 
it  would  be  dissipated  by  radiation,  dissipated  in  the  same 
way  as  a  hot  body  cooling,  in  the  same  way  as  a  vibrating 
tuning-fork  mounted  on  its  resonant  box.  The  energy  of 
the  vibrating  body  would  be  transferred  gradually  to  the 
medium,  and  would  by  this  be  conveyed  out  and  away, 
its  final  destination  being  a  separate  question,  and 
depending  on  the  nature  and  position  of  the  material 
obstacles  it  meets  with. 

Velocity  of  Electrical  Radiation. 
The  pace  at  which  these  radiation-waves  travel  depends, 
as  we  have  said,  solely  on  the  properties  of  the  medium, 
solely  on  the  relation  between  its  elasticity  and  its  density. 
The  elasticity  considered  must  be  of  the  kind  concerned 
in  the  vibrations  ;  but  the  vibrations  are  in  this  case 
electrical,  and  so  electrical  elasticity  is  the  pertinent  kind. 
This  kind  of  elasticity  is  the  only  one  the  ether  possesses 
of  finite  value,  and  its  value  can  be  measured  by  electro- 
static experiments.  Not  absolutely,  unfortunately  :  only 
the  relative  elasticity  of  the  ether  as  modified  by  the 
proximity  of  gross  substances  has  yet  been  measured : 
its  reciprocal  being  called  their  specific  inductive  capacity, 
or  dielectric  constant,  K.  The  absolute  value  of  the  quan- 
tity K  is  at  present  unknown,  and  so  a  convention  has 
arisen  whereby  in  air  it  is  called  1.  This  convention  is 
the  basis  of  the  artificial  electrostatic  system  of  ur.ics. 
No  one  supposes,  or  at  least  no  one  has  a  right  to  sup- 
pose, that  its  value  is  really  1.     The  only  rational  guess 

at  its  value  is  one  by  Sir  William  Thomson,1  viz.   s — -• 

'  842  « 

Whether  known  or  not,  the  absolute  value  of  the  dielectric 
constant  is  manifestly  a  legitimate  problem  which  may 
any  year  be  solved. 

The  other  thing  on  which  the  speed  of  radiation  waves 
depends  is  the  medium's  density — its  electric  density,  if 
so  it  must  be  distinguished.  Here,  again,  we  do  not 
know  its  absolute  value.  Its  relative  or  apparent  amount 
inside  different  substances  is  measured  by  magnetic 
experiments,  and  called  their  specific  magnetic  capacity, 
or  permeability,  and  is  denoted  by  /*. 

Being  unknown,  another  convention  has  arisen,  quite 
incompatible  with  the  other  convention  just  mentioned, 
that  its  value  in  air  shall  be  called  I.  This  convention  is 
the  basis  of  the  artificial  electro-magnetic  system  of  units 
— volts,  ohms,  amperes,  farads,  and  the  like.  Both  of 
these  conventions  cannot  be  true  :  no  one  has  the  least 
right  to  suppose  either  true.  The  only  rational  guess  at 
ethereal  free  density  is  one  by  Sir  William  Thomson,  viz. 
9*36  X  io'1;). 

Very  well,  then  ;  it  being  clearly  understood  that  these 

two  great  ethereal  constants,  k  or      ,  and  /*,  are  neither  of 

K. 

them  at  present  known,  but  are  both  of  them  quite  know- 
able,  and  may  at  any  time  become  known,  it  remains  to 
express  the  speed  of  wave  transmission  in  terms  of  them. 
But  it  is  well  known  that  this  speed  is  simply  the  square 
root  of  the  ratio  of  elasticity  to  density,  or 

n  1 

This  then  is  the  speed  with  which  waves  leave  the 
discharging  Leyden  jar  circuit,  or  any  other  circuit  con- 
veying alternating  or  varying  currents,  and  travel  out 
into  space. 

Not  knowing  either,  k  or  /*,  we  cannot  calculate  this 

1  Trans.  R  S.  Edin.,  xxi.  Co  ;  see  also  article  "Ether,"  in  the  "Encyc. 
Brit." 


392 


NATURE 


\August  23,  1888 


speed    directly,   but   we   can   try   to   observe   it   experi- 
mentally. 

The  first  and  crudest  way  of  making  the  attempt  would 
be  to  arrange  a  secondary  circuit  near  our  oscillating 
primary  circuit,  and  see  how  soon  the  disturbance  reached 
it.  For  instance,  we  might  take  a  nearly  closed  loop, 
make  it  face  a  Leyden  jar  circuit  across  a  measured  dis- 
tance, and  then  look  for  any  interval  of  time  between  the 
spark  of  the  primary  discharge  and  the  induced  spark  of 
the  secondary  circuit,  using  a  revolving  mirror  or  what 
we  please.  But  in  this  way  we  should  hardly  be  able  to 
detect  any  time  at  all  :  the  propagation  is  too  quick. 

We  might  next  make  use  of  the  principle  of  the  electric 
telegraph,  viz.  the  propagation  of  a  disturbance  round  a 
single  circuit  from  any  one  point  of  origin.  Consider  a 
large  closed  circuit,  either  conveying  or  not  conveying  a 
current  :  introduce  at  any  one  point  a  sudden  change — 
a  sudden  E.M.F.,  for  instance,  or  a  sudden  resistance  if 
there  be  a  current  already.  Out  from  that  point  a  dis- 
turbance will  spread  into  the  ether,  just  as  happens  in  air 
when  a  blow  is  struck  or  gun-cotton  fired.  A  regular  suc- 
cession of  disturbances  would  carve  the  ether  into  waves  : 
a  single  disturbance  will  merely  cause  a  pulse  or  shock  ; 
but'the  rate  of  transmission  is  the  same  in  either  case, 
and  we  may  watch  for  the  reception  of  the  pulse  at  a 
distant  station.  If  the  station  has  to  be  very  distant  in 
order  to  give  an  appreciable  lapse  of  time,  a  speaking- 
tube  is  desirable  to  prevent  spreading  out  in  all  directions 
— to  concentrate  the  disturbance  at  the  desired  spot. 
What  a  speaking-tube  is  to  sound,  that  is  the  wire  of  the 
circuit — the  telegraph  wire — to  ethereal  pulses. 

It  is  a  curious  function,  this  of  the  telegraph  wire  :  it 
does  not  convey  the  pulses,  it  directs  them.  They  are 
conveyed  wholly  by  the  ether,  at  a  pace  determined  by 
the  properties  of  the  ether,  modified  as  it  may  be  by  the 
neighbourhood  of  gross  matter.  Any  disturbance  which 
enters  the  wires  is  rapidly  dissipated  into  heat,  and  gets 
no  further  ;  it  is  the  insulating  medium  round  it  which 
transmits  the  pulses  to  the  distant  station. 

All  this  was  mentioned  in  Part  III.,  and  an  attempt 
was  made  to  explain  the  mechanism  of  the  process,  and  to 
illustrate  in  an  analogical  way  what  is  going  on. 

The  point  of  the  matter  is  that  currents  are  not  propelled 
by  end-thrusts,  like  water  in  a  pipe  or  air  in  a  speaking- 
tube,  but  by  lateral  propulsion,  as  by  a  series  of  rotating 
wheels  with  their  axes  all  at  right  angles  to  the  wire  sur- 
rounding it  as  a  central  core,  and  slipping  with  more  or 
less  friction  at  its  surface.  This  is  characteristic  of  ether 
modes  in  general :  it  does  not  convey  longitudinal  waves 
or  end-thrust  pulses,  like  sound,  but  it  conveys  transverse 
vibrations  or  lateral  pulses,  like  light. 

Without  recapitulating  further,  we  can  perceive,  then, 
that  the  transmission  of  the  pulse  round  the  circuit  to  its 
most  distant  parts  depends  mainly  on  the  medium  sur- 
rounding it.  The  process  is  somewhat  as  follows  : — Con- 
sider two  long  straight  parallel  wires,  freely  suspended, 
and  at  some  great  distance  joined  together.  At  the  near 
end  of  each,  start  equal  opposite  electromotive  impulses, 
as  by  suddenly  applying  to  them  the  poles  of  a  battery  ; 
or  apply  a  succession  of  such  pulses  by  means  of  an 
alternating  machine.  Out  spread  the  pulses  into  space, 
starting  in  opposite  phases  from  the  two  wires,  so  that  at 
a  distance  from  the  wires  the  opposite  pulses  interfere  with 
each  other,  and  are  practically  non-existent,  just  as  but 
little  sound  is  audible  at  a  distance  from  the  two  prongs 
of  a  freely  suspended  tuning-fork.  But  near  the  wires, 
and  especially  between  them,  the  disturbance  may  be 
considerable.  To  each  wire  it  spreads  and  is  dissipated, 
and  so  a  fresh  supply  of  energy  goes  on  continually 
arriving  at  the  wires,  always  flowing  in  from  outside, 
to  make  up  the  deficiency.  If  the  wires  are  long  enough 
hardly  any  energy  may  remain  by  the  time  their  distant 
ends  are  reached  ;  but  whatever  there  is  will  still  be  crowd- 
ing in  upon  the  wires  and  getting  dissipated,  unless  by 


some  mechanism  it  be  diverted  and  utilized  to  effect  some 
visible  or  audible  or  chemical  change,  and  so  to  give  the 
desired  signal. 

Now  the  pace  at  which  this  transmission  of  energy 
goes  on  in  the  direction  of  the  wires  is  pretty  much 
the  same  as  in  free  space.  There  are  various  circum- 
stances which  can  retard  it ;  there  are  none  which  can 
accelerate  it.  The  circumstances  which  can  retard  it 
are,  first,  constriction  of  the  medium  by  too  great  proximity 
of  the  two  conducting  wires  :  as,  for  instance,  if  they  con- 
sisted of  two  flat  ribbons  close  together  with  a  mere  film  of 
dielectric  between,  or  if  one  were  a  small-bore  tube  and 
the  other  its  central  axis  or  core.  In  such  cases  as  this 
the  general  body  of  ether  takes  no  part  in  the  process,  the 
energy  has  all  to  be  transmitted  by  the  constricted  portion 
of  dielectric,  and  the  free  propagation  of  ethereal  pulses 
is  interfered  with  :  the  propagation  is  no  longer  a  true 
wave-propagation  at  all,  but  approximates  more  or  less 
closely  to  a  mere  diffusion  creep,  rapid  it  may  be,  and  yet 
without  definite  velocity,  like  the  conduction  of  heat  or  the 
diffusion  of  a  salt  into  water.  One  well-known  effect  of 
this  is  to  merge  successive  disturbances  into  one  another, 
so  that  their  individuality,  and  consequently  the  distinctness 
of  signalling,  is  lost. 

Another  circumstance  which  can  modify  rate  of  trans- 
mission of  the  pulses  is  ethereal  inertia  in  the  substance 
of  the  conducting  wires,  especally  extra  great  inertia,  as, 
for  instance,  if  they  are  made  of  iron.  For  the  dissipa- 
tion of  energy  does  not  go  on  accurately  at  their  outer 
surface  ;  it  has  usually  to  penetrate  to  a  certain  depth, 
and  until  it  is  dissipated  the  fresh  influx  of  energy  from 
behind  does  not  fully  occur.  Now,  so  long  as  the  value 
of  /x  for  the  substance  of  the  wires  is  the  same  as  that  of 
air  or  free  space,  no  important  retardation  is  thus  caused, 
unless  the  wires  are  very  thick  ;  but  directly  the  inertia  in 
the  substance  of  the  wires  is  one  or  two  hundred  times  as 
big  as  that  outside,  it  stands  to  reason  that  more  time  is 
required  to  get  up  the  needful  magnetic  spin  in  its  outer 
layers,  and  so  the  propagation  of  pulses  is  more  or  less 
retarded.  At  the  same  time  this  circumstance  does  not 
alter  the  character  of  the  propagation,  it  does  not  change 
it  from  true  wave  velocity  to  a  diffusion,  it  leaves  its 
character  unaltered  ;  and  so  the  signals,  though  longer 
in  coming,  may  arrive  quite  clear,  independent,  and  dis- 
tinct. It  is  much  the  same,  indeed,  as  if  the  density  of  the 
surrounding  medium  had  been  slightly  increased. 

These,  then,  are  the  main  circumstances  which  affect 
the  rate  of  transmission  of  a  pulse  from  one  part  of  a 
closed  circuit  to  another :  extra  inertia  or  so-called  mag- 
netic susceptibility  in  the  conducting  substance,  especially 
in  its  outer  layers  ;  and  undue  constriction  or  throttling  of 
the  medium  through  which  the  disturbance  really  has  to 
go.  Both  these  circumstances  diminish  rate  of  trans- 
mission, and  one  (the  last  mentioned)  modifies  the  law 
and  tends  to  obliterate  individual  features  and  to  destroy 
distinctness. 

Of  course,  besides  these,  the  nature  of  the  insulating 
medium  will  have  an  effect  on  the  rate  of  propagation, 
but  that  is  obvious  all  along ;  it  is  precisely  the  rate  at 
which  any  given  medium  transmits  pulses  that  we  want 
to  know,  and  on  which  we  are  thinking  of  making  experi- 
ments. If  we  use  gutta-percha  (more  accurately  the  ether 
inside  gutta-percha)  as  our  transmitting  medium  in  an 
experiment,  we  are  not  to  go  and  pretend  that  we  have 
obtained  a  result  for  air. 

The  circumstances  we  have  considered  as  modifying  the 
rate  of  transmission  are  both  of  them  adventitious  circum- 
stances, independent  of  the  nature  of  the  medium,  and 
they  are  entirely  at  our  own  disposal.  If  we  like  to 
throttle  our  medium,  or  to  use  thick  iron  wires,  we  can  do 
so,  but  there  is  no  compulsion  :  and  if  we  wish  to  make 
the  experiment  in  the  simplest  manner,  we  shall  do  no 
such  thing.  We  shall  use  thin  copper  wires  (the  thinner 
the  better),  arranged  parallel  to  one  another  a  fair  distance 


August  23,  1888J 


NATURE 


393 


apart,  and  we  shall  then  observe  the  time  which  an 
electromotive  impulse  communicated  at  one  end  takes  to 
travel  to  the  other.  Instead  of  using  two  wires,  we  may 
if  we  like  use  what  comes  to  much  the  same  thing,  viz.  a 
single  wire  suspended  at  a  reasonable  height  above  the 
ground,  as  in  a  common  land  telegraph.  Such  a  case  as 
this  is  much  the  same  as  if  two  wires  were  used  at  a 
distance  apart  equal  to  about  twice  the  height  above  the 
ground. 

The  experiment,  if  it  could  be  accurately  made,  would 
result  in  the  observation  of  a  speed  of  propagation  equal 
to  3  x  io10  centimetres  per  second.  The  actual  speed  in 
practice  may  be  less  than  this,  by  reason  of  the  various 
circumstances  mentioned,  but  it  can  never  be  greater. 
This,  then,  is  the  rate  of  transmission  of  transverse  im- 
pulses, and  therefore  of  transverse  waves,  through  ether 
as  free  as  it  can  be  easily  obtained. 

There  are  many  methods  known  to  physicists  by  which 
an  indirect  experimental  determination  of  this  velocity 
can  be  made.  These  methods  are  more  easily  practicable 
than  the  one  described :  they  directly  determine  the 
ratio  kin,  or,  what  is  the  same  thing,  the  product  K/X,  and 
.it  is  left  to  theory  to  say  that  this  is  really  the  velocity  of 
.electrical  pulses  in  free  ether.  It  is  unnecessary  to  say 
more  about  them  here.  Oliver  J.  Lodge. 

( To  be  continued)) 

A  HISTORY  OF  THE  AUGUST  METEORS. 

THE  August  meteor-shower  has  been  more  frequently 
-*■  observed  than  any  other  with  which  we  are 
acquainted,  and  the  modern  history  of  this  remarkable 
system  includes  many  interesting  circumstances.  It  has 
not,  in  recent  times,  given  us  displays  equal  in  grandeur 
to  periodical  swarms  like  the  Leonids  of  November  13 
and  Andromedes  of  November  27,  being  decidedly  less 
rich  in  point  of  numbers.  But  what  this  stream  lacks  in 
this  respect  is  compensated  for  by  the  annual  visibility  of 
the  shower  and  by  the  intense  brilliancy  of  some  of  its  indi- 
vidual members.  Every  year  the  August  meteors  present 
a  conspicuous  appearance  on  the  night  following  St. 
Lawrence's  Day,  and  fire-balls  of  excessive  lustre  are  now 
and  then  interspersed  with  the  smallest  perceptible 
shooting-stars  of  the  system.  The  Leonids  and  Andro- 
medes, which  have  rendered  the  month  of  November  so 
famous  in  meteoric  annals,  can  only  reappear  abundantly 
at  intervals  of  thirty-three  and  (probably)  thirteen  years, 
whereas  the  Perseids  of  August  are  unfailing  in  their 
.regular  apparitions  as  the  epoch  comes  round  each  year. 
On  the  night  of  the  10th  the  most  casual  observer  will  not 
fail  to  notice  the  surprising  frequency  of  shooting-stars, 
and  must  remark  their  occasional  brilliancy  and  the  per- 
sistency of  the  phosphorescent  after-glows  which  they 
generate  during  their  rapid  flights  amongst  the  fixed  stars. 

The  early  history  of  the  August  meteors  is  vague  and 
meagre  in  the  extreme.  Ancient  writings  are  significantly 
mute  as  to  the  scientific  aspect  of  meteor-showers. 
Doubtless  in  olden  times  these  phenomena  were  equally 
as  plentiful  as  at  present,  but  amid  the  ignorance  and 
superstition  which  prevailed  they  were  little  regarded. 
The  prominent  part  which  meteors  play  in  the  solar 
system  was  not  suspected,  hence  no  importance  was 
attached  to  their  appearance.  They  were  supposed  to  be 
mere  exhalations  uncontrolled  by  fixed  laws,  and  it  is 
entirely  due  to  modern  science  that  their  true  character 
has  been  revealed,  and  that  they  have  been  raised  to  the 
dignity  of  bodies  having  a  celestial  origin,  and  probably 
also  an  extensive  influence  throughout  the  wide  range  of 
astronomical  physics. 

But  former  records,  if  void  of  particulars  possessing  a 
scientific  utility,  are  yet  often  useful  in  supplying  dates. 
Many  old  references  to  meteor-showers,  though  very  im- 
perfect in  description,  are,  by  the  accordance  of  epoch, 
justly  assumed  to  have  been  early  exhibitions  of  the  very 


same  systems  as  those  which  have  furnished  some  of  the 
most  imposing  displays  of  recent  years.  In  the  catalogue 
of  315  meteoric  showers  compiled  by  Quetelet,  a  consider- 
able proportion  are  probably  identical  with  the  August 
Perseids,  and  below  we  give  the  dates,  up  to  a  century 
ago,  of  these :  — 


Year. 

Date. 

Year. 

Date. 

8ll 

July 

25 

926 

July    27-30 

820 

,, 

25-30 

933 

»     25-30 

824 

„ 

26-28 

1243 

Aug.    2 

830 

7) 

26 

145' 

„      7 

83.3 

tf 

27 

1709 

„      8 

8.35 

ft 

26 

1779 

,,      9  anc 

841 

,, 

25-30 

1781 

>•      8 

924 

PI 

27-30 

1784 

..      6 

925 

>> 

27-30 

1789 

„     10 

The  dates  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries  are  some- 
what different  from  those  in  later  years,  but  this  does  not 
negative  the  assumed  relation,  because  they  are  brought 
nearly  into  agreement  when  the  change  of  style  in  1752  is 
allowed  for.  This  proves  the  showers  to  have  really 
occurred  at  a  period  early  in  August  according  to  present 
reckoning.  There  may  also  be  a  slight  alteration  in  the 
epoch  of  the  swarm  due  to  a  shifting  of  the  node,  which, 
in  its  cumulative  amount  after  many  ages,  might  reach  a 
considerable  value.  For  the  reasons  assigned,  the  cele- 
brated shower  of  Leonids  which  now  takes  place  on 
November  13  was  observed  in  October  902,  and  again  on 
October  19,  1202,  October  22,  1366,  &c. 

Muschenbroek,  in  1762,  announced  the  general  fact 
that  he  had  observed  shooting-stars  to  be  more  plentiful 
in  August  than  in  any  other  month  of  the  year.  Further 
towards  the  close  of  the  century  this  was  in  part  confirmed 
by  the  apparition  of  many  meteors  on  August  8  and  9. 
In  1806  and  1812,  Dr.  Forster,  of  Clapton,  recorded  in 
his  ';  Calendar "  that  these  phenomena  were  unusually 
abundant  on  August  10,  and  in  the  latter  year  he  particu- 
larly noted  the  extraordinary  length  and  phosphorescent 
aspect  of  the  trains  left  in  their  wake.  Subsequently  the 
same  epoch  was  amply  corroborated  ;  and  in  1835, 
Quetelet  definitely  mentioned  the  9th  and  10th  of  August 
as  the  date  of  maximum  annual  display. 

On  August  9,  1837,  M.  Wartman,  of  Geneva,  observed 
82  of  these  meteors  between  9  p.m.  and  midnight.  In  the 
following  year,  on  August  10,  observations  were  made  at 
Geneva  and  at  Planchettes,  a  village  62  miles  north-east 
of  Geneva,  with  the  view  of  determining  the  heights  and 
velocities  of  the  meteors.  A  discussion  of  the  results 
showed  that  the  average  elevation  above  the  ground  was 
550  miles,  and  the  velocity  220  miles,  but  these  figures 
are  now  known  to  have  been  enormously  in  excess  of  the 
true  values. 

From  20  meteors  observed  in  August  1863,  Prof.  A.  S. 
Herschel  determined  the  mean  height  as  8r6  miles  at 
first  appearance  and  577  miles  at  disappearance,  and  the 
velocity  was  found  to  be  34*4  miles  per  second.  From  27 
meteors  similarly  observed  in  Italy  between  August  5  and 
10,  1864,  Secchi  derived  limiting  heights  of  766  and  497 
miles  ;  and,  averaging  these  with  the  results  obtained  by 
Prof.  Herschel  in  the  preceding  year,  we  get  78  to  54 
miles,  which  may  be  adopted  as  representative  values  for 
the  normal  heights  not  only  of  the  Perseids,  but  of 
shooting-stars  generally. 

Heis,  Schmidt,  Greg,  and  Herschel  were  amongst  the 
first  to  methodically  observe  the  August  meteor-shower 
and  determine  its  radiant  point  in  the  northern  region  of 
Perseus.  In  1863,  August  10,  an  unusual  display  was 
witnessed,  for  on  this  occasion  the  stream  seems  to  have 
attained  a  degree  of  intensity  not  recorded  either  before 
or  subsequently  to  that  year.  In  1871  there  was  also 
a  very  pronounced  and  abundant  appearance  of  these 
meteors.  In  Nature,  vol.  xx.  p.  457  (September  11, 
1879),  will  be  found  some  details  as  to  the  relative  number 
of  August  meteors  counted  in  different  years. 


194 


NATURE 


{August  23,  1888 


But  the  epoch  of  1866  is  perhaps  the  most  eventful  and 
interesting  of  all  in  the  history  of  this  notable  group. 
Signor  Schiaparelli,  of  Milan,  in  the  course  of  some  ob- 
servations of  the  Perseids,  was  led  to  take  up  the  investi- 
gation of  the  theory  of  shooting-stars.  Cautiously  sifting 
the  available  materials,  and  forming  deductions  from 
facts  indicated  by  the  best  authorities  on  the  subject,  he 
was  induced  to  the  belief  that  meteors  were  small  par- 
ticles composing  cosmical  clouds.  These  clouds  were, 
by  the  action  of  gravitation,  spread  out  into  streams,  and 
their  orbits  formed,  like  those  of  comets,  elongated  conic 
sections.  From  a  method  explained  by  Prof.  Erman,  he 
computed  the  orbital  elements  of  the  August  meteors 
and  of  certain  other  streams,  and,  comparing  them  with 
the  orbits  of  comets,  discovered  two  remarkable  coin- 
cidences between  the  system  of  Perseids  and  Comet  1 1 1. 

1862,  and  the  Leonids  and  Comet  I.  1866.  In  each  case 
the  paths  of  the  meteor  group  and  comet  were  identical, 
and  every  circumstance  favoured  the  inference  that  the 
two  phenomena  were  physically  identical,  the  meteors 
forming  the  dispersed  material  of  the  comet.  The  period 
of  the  Leonids  (November  13),  viz.  33}  years,  agreed 
precisely  with  that  of  their  supposed  parent  comet.  The 
period  of  the  August  display,  however,  remained  doubt- 
ful, the  ellipse  being  more  elongated  ;  but  Schiaparelli 
adopted  a  cycle  of  rather  more  than  100  years,  as  best 
satisfying  the  observations,  though  the  exact  period  is 
still  doubtful. 

Computation  showed  that  the  radiant  point  of  meteoric 
particles  following  the  track  of  Comet  III.  1862  would 
be  seen,  on  August  10,  at   R.A.  430,  Decl.  57*°  N.     In 

1863,  on  August  10,  Prof.  Herschel  had  observed  the 
meteors,  and  fixed  their  radiant  at  R.A.  44°,  Decl.  56°  N., 
a  wonderfully  close  agreement,  considering  the  difficul- 
ties attached  to  such  observations.  This,  and  other  co- 
incidences of  orbit,  removed  all  doubts  as  to  the  affinity 
of  meteors  and  comets  ;  and  later  evidence,  especially 
that  afforded  by  Biela's  comet  and  the  splendid  meteor- 
showers  of  November  27,  1872  and  1885,  has  afforded  con- 
vincing proofs  as  to  the  validity  of  the  theory  enunciated 
by  the  Italian  astronomer. 

Some  interesting  features  in  connection  with  the 
August  meteors  still,  however,  awaited  further  investiga- 
tion. The  visible  duration  of  the  shower  was  unknown. 
The  radiant  was  thought  to  be  diffused  over  a  region 
extending  from  Perseus  to  Cassiopceia.  Mr.  R.  P.  Greg, 
in  his  "Table  of  Radiants"  {Matithly  Notices*,  1872, 
p.  353),  places  it  over  the  area  from  R.A.  50°-25°,  Decl. 
440  N.,  to  R.A.  5o°-65°,  Decl.  56°  N.  ;  and  Serpieri  gave 
R.A.  5o°-3o°,  Decl.  49°-64°.  Mr.  J.  E.  Clark,  in  1874, 
undertook  the  projection  of  the  tracks  of  about  2000 
Perseids  described  in  the  "Luminous  Meteor  Reports" 
of  the  British  Association,  with  the  object  of  detecting 
motion  in  the  radiant  centre  on  successive  days  or  hours 
of  the  night,  but  without  definite  success,  though  the 
observations  suggested  a  progressive  motion  on  succeed- 
ing nights  similar  to  that  noticed  by  Prof.  Twining  in 
1859.  In  1877  the  shower  was  watched  by  the  writer  at 
Bristol  on  several  nights,  and  the  radiant  was  distinctly 
seen  to  take  up  a  fresh  position  with  every  change  of 
date.  It  moved  from  R.A.  40°,  Decl.  56°,  on  August  5, 
to  R.A.  60°,  Decl.  590  N.,  on  August  16.  The  fact  was  first 
announced  in  Nature  for  August  30, 1 877  (vol.  xvi.  p.  362), 
and  many  observations  in  subsequent  years  at  the  same 
station  have  fully  confirmed  the  shifting  of  the  radiant, 
and  indicated  the  long  duration  of  the  shower.  In  the 
following  table  will  be  seen  the  position  of  the  radiant  at 
intervals  of  five  days  : — 


July  8... 

13- 
19... 
23... 
28... 


0 

0 

3 

+ 

49 

11 

+ 

5o 

191+  51 

25 

+ 

52 

3i 

+ 

54 

2... 

-  36  +  55 

7... 

•••  42  +  57 

12... 

...  50  +  57 

17... 

...  60  +  58 

The  whole  duration  extends,  very  probably,  over  the 
forty-five  days  from  July  8  to  August  22,  and  in  the 
interval  the  radiant  moves  from  30  +  490  to  770  +  57°. 

This  cluster  is  evidently  one  of  enormous  width,  and 
has  doubtless  undergone  distortion  by  the  effect  of 
planetary  perturbation.  Some  interesting  facts  in  con- 
nection with  this  and  other  cometary  meteor  systems 
will  be  found  in  the  Sidereal  Messenger  for  April  and 
May  1886.  With  regard  to  the  August  meteor-shower, 
it  appears  that  a  certain  change  in  the  position  of  the 
radiant  ought  theoretically  to  occur  every  night,  but  the 
observed  displacement  does  not  well  accord  with  compu- 
tation. On  July  26  the  Perseid  radiant  is  about  4°,  and 
on  August  19  about  90,  from  the  radiant  of  its  derivative 
comet  (III.  1862)  ;  and  these  differences  are  doubtless  to 
be  referred  to  the  disturbances  exercised  upon  the  ori- 
ginal stream  by  the  attraction  of  the  earth.  At  every 
return  of  the  group  a  vast  number  of  the  particles  must 
obviously  pass  very  near  to  us  without  being  dissipated 
by  the  action  of  our  atmosphere,  and  the  paths  of  these 
will  be  affected  to  an  extent  that  must  alter  the  elements 
of  their  orbits. 

Though  the  period  of  the  August  meteors  has  not  yet 
been  precisely  ascertained,  there  is  no  question  that  the 
shower  exhibits  fluctuations  from  year  to  year  as  regards 
intensity,  and  that,  like  the  two  great  systems  of  Novem- 
ber, a  certain  cycle  regulates  its  most  brilliant  displays. 
Future  observations  will  determine  the  precise  form  of 
the  orbit.  The  return  of  Comet  III.  1862,  or  a  recur- 
rence of  the  very  rich  shower  of  August  1863,  will  decide 
the  matter,  but  as  the  orbit  is  one  of  considerable  eccen- 
tricity, several  generations  may  yet  elapse  before  the 
period  is  accurately  ascertained.  It  is  certain  that  many 
of  the  supposed  variations  in  the  perennial  intensity  of 
the  display  are  more  apparent  than  real,  because  the  suc- 
cessive returns  are  witnessed  under  different  conditions. 
Cloudy  or  misty  weather  sometimes  interrupts  observa- 
tion ;  moonlight  offers  another  impediment  ;  occasionally, 
also,  the  maximum  is  attained  in  daylight,  and  passes 
unheeded.  The  same  observer  is  not  always  enabled  to 
maintain  an  outlook  from  positions  equally  favourable  ; 
and  there  are  other  circumstances  which,  with  those  men- 
tioned, prove  the  difficulty  of  securing  a  series  of  observa- 
tions fairly  comparable  with  each  other.  Usually  about 
40  or  50  meteors  per  hour  may  be  counted  by  one 
observer  before  midnight  on  August  10,  but  in  the  early 
morning  hours  of  August  1 1  as  many  as  80  or  90, 
perhaps  more,  will  be  seen,  as  the  radiant  is  then 
higher  and  better  placed  for  the  visible  distribution  of 
its  meteors. 

"  The  August  meteors,"  though  a  general  term  capable 
of  being  applied  to  any  showers  observed  in  the  month  of 
August,  is  commonly  employed  in  special  reference  to 
the  Perseids  of  August  10.  There  are  large  numbers  of 
minor  displays  visible  in  the  same  month,  the  radiant 
points  of  which  are  scattered  profusely  over  the  firma- 
ment. There  are  certainly  more  than  100  showers  in 
contemporaneous  action  with  the  Perseids,  and  many  of 
these  are  now  pretty  well  known,  a  mass  of  observations 
having  accumulated  for  this  particular  epoch. 

In  the  present  year  the  great  August  shower  has  not 
been  especially  brilliant,  though  many  of  its  meteors 
have  appeared  under  their  customary  aspect.  At  Bristol, 
on  August  2,  42  shooting-stars  were  counted  during  the 
2^  hours  between  loh.  50m.  and  J3I1.  21m.,  and  14  of 
these  were  Perseids  from  a  centre  at  350  -f  54".  On 
August  5,  31  meteors  were  seen  in  a  similar  interval, 
including  11  Perseids.  On  August  8,  in  3  hours  from 
ioh.  to  i3h.,  36  meteors  were  observed,  and  among  these 
were  20  Perseids.  The  radiant,  both  on  the  2nd  and 
5th,  seemed  to  be  at  420  -+-  57".  The  few  subsequent  nights 
were  overcast,  but  on  the  13th  a  clear  sky  permitted 
watching,  and  during  the  34  hours  from  ioh.  to  13b.  30m. 
49  meteors  were  seen,  of  which  13  were  Perseids  from  a 


Atigust  23,  1888] 


NATURE 


195 


radiant  at  52°  +  57°.  On  August  14,  between  ioh.  and 
13I1.,  25  meteors  were  noted,  but  there  were  only  two 
Perseids  amongst  them. 

On  August  8,  Mr.  Booth,  at  Leeds,  watched  the  eastern 
sky  for  4*  hours,  and  saw  45  meteors,  including  25 
Perseids.  The  radiant  was  at  about  420  +  57i°,  ar>d  it  will 
be  observed  that  the  proportion  of  Perseids  to  the  total 
number  of  meteors  observed  was  the  same  as  noted  at 
Bristol  on  that  date.  On  August  13,  Mr.  Booth  recorded 
13  Perseids  from  a  radiant  at  51$°  +  56°,  thus  confirming 
the  displacement  observed  at  Bristol. 

On  August  10,  Mr.  G.  T.  Davis,  of  Theale,  near 
Reading,  reports  the  sky  was  clear  and  many  meteors 
were  visible  between  9.30  and  11  p.m.,  the  majority  being 
Perseids.  The  same  observer  recorded  a  number  of 
paths  on  August  5  and  8,  and  a  comparison  of  his  results 
with  similar  observations  at  Bristol  show  that  7  meteors 
were  doubly  observed  at  the  two  stations.  Their  heights, 
&C.j  were  computed  by  the  writer  as  follows  : — 


Date. 

)S38. 

Hour. 
G.M.T. 

Mag. 

.SPSS 

5        1- 

X  «  5 

0. 

X  -   u 
SB, 

to  u-5 

rt  55 

P 

Aug. 

h.    m. 

Miles. 

Miles. 

Miles. 

5  ■• 

.   IO    19    . 

••  i-3 

..  6q  . 

.    50   .. 

•  37  •• 

•    50  +  55    • 

••  27^ 

5  •■ 

.   IO   30    . 

••  3-4 

..  69  .. 

.   48   •• 

•  38  - 

•  39+57  • 

••  34 

5  - 

.  10  42  . 

••  3-4 

..  68  . 

.   48    •• 

.  24  .. 

•  43  +  51  • 

..  29 

8  .. 

.  10    6  . 

•  3-5 

..  70  .. 

•  59  •• 

.  28  .. 

.  66  +  56  . 

••  23 

8  .. 

.1010. 

•  3-4 

..  6S   .. 

•  52  .. 

•  38  •• 

3l9-»3  • 

..  20 

8  .. 

.  10  21   . 

••  3-3 

•  •  43  • 

.  28  .. 

.  26  .. 

.  40  +  60  . 

■•  M 

8  .. 

.  10  28  . 

•  4-4 

..  68  .. 

.  48  .. 

.  24  .. 

•  42  +  57  • 

-   33* 

The  close  agreement  in  the  heights  of  these  meteors 
(except  in  the  case  of  No.  6  in  the  list,  which  was 
much  nearer  the  earth's  surface  than  usual)  will  be 
noticed.  They  were,  with  the  exception  of  No.  6,  which 
belonged  to  a  radiant  in  Aquarius,  all  members  of  the 
August  meteor  system,  though  in  several  cases,  notably 
that  of  No.  4,  the  path,  as  observed  at  Reading,  was  not 
exactly  conformable  to  the  radiant  point  of  this  shower. 

The  recent  display  has  furnished  us  with  a  splendid 
fire-ball.  It  appeared  on  August  13  at  nh.  33m.,  and  was 
seen  by  Mr.  Booth  at  Leeds,  by  Mr.  Monck  at  Dublin,  by 
the  writer  at  Bristol,  and  by  several  observers  at  Birming- 
ham and  other  places.  When  near  its  disappearance  the 
fire-ball  acquired  such  brilliancy  that  it  lit  up  the  firmament 
like  a  vivid  flash  of  lightning,  and  in  the  latter  portion  of 
its  path  there  remained  a  comet-like  streak  which  at  Leeds 
and  Birmingham  continued  visible  for  three  minutes. 
The  descriptions  of  this  exceptionally  fine  meteor  are  in 
good  agreement.  It  traversed  a  course  above  Yorkshire 
at  normal  heights  ;  its  brilliant  streak  had  a  mean  eleva- 
tion of  53  miles  and  length  of  18  miles.  No  detonation 
appears  to  have  been  heard.  W.  F.  Denning. 


NOTES. 

It  is  proposed  by  the  Organizing  Committee  of  Section  B 
that  in  the  course  of  the  approaching  meeting  of  the  British 
Association  there  shall  be  a  discussion  in  ,that  Section  upon  the 
subject  of  "  Valency."  Prof.  Armstrong  will  open  the  debate, 
and  it  is  hoped  that  several  other  eminent  chemists  will  take 
part.  In  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  Bath  there  are  no 
industries  specially  interesting  to  chemists,  but  arrangements 
are  in  progress  by  which  it  is  hoped  that  members  will  be 
admitted  to  some  of  the  works  in  and  about  Bristol,  which  is 
only  ten  miles  away. 

The  autumnal  meeting  of  the  Iron  and  Steel  Institute  was 
opened  in  the  University,  Edinburgh,  on  Tuesday.  A  hearty 
reception  was  given  to  the  members  in  the  Senate  Hall  by  the 
Lord  Provost  (Sir  Thomas  Clark),  Sir  William  Muir  (Principal 
of  the  University),  Prof.  Armstrong  (the  honorary  secretary  of 


the  Reception  Committee),  and  other  dignitaries  and  officials  of 
the  University.  The  members  having  adjourned  to  the  Examina- 
tion Hall  of  the  University  to  begin  the  business  of  the  meeting, 
the  President,  Mr.  Daniel  Adamson,  announced  that  Sir  James 
Kitson  had  been  nominated  by  the  Council  as  the  President  for 
the  next  two  years,  and  he  hoped  that  that  would  meet  with  the 
approval  of  the  members.  The  Institute  had  intended,  he  said, 
to  go  to  America  for  their  next  autumnal  gathering,  but  the  visit 
had  been  postponed  until  1890,  as  that  was  considered  a  more  suit- 
able time,  especially  as  a  kind  invitation  had  been  given  them  to 
visit  Paris  next  year,  when  the  Exhibition  was  on.  They  would 
thus  have  an  opportunity  of  entertaining  their  American  friends. 
Sir  Lowthian  Bell  took  the  chair  while  a  paper  on  a  lever- 
testing  machine,  prepared  by  the  President,  was  discussed.  It 
described  in  detail  a  horizontal  compound  lever-testing  machine. 
Mr.  Wickslead  (Leeds),  Mr.  G.  C.  Hemming  (Yale  and  Towne 
Manufacturing  Company,  U.S.),  Mr.  Brown  (of  Brown  Brothers, 
Leith),  M.  Gautier  (Paris),  Mr.  Nursey  (London),  and  Sir 
Lowthian  Bell  took  part  in  the  discussion.  A  paper  on  man- 
ganese steel,  by  Mr.  R.  C.  Hadfield  (Sheffield),  proved  specially 
interesting,  as  it  formed  a  guide  to  the  exhibits  of  this  metal 
at  the   Glasgow  Exhibition. 

The  third  International  Congress  of  Inland  Navigation  was 
opened  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main  on  Monday.  It  began  with 
a  speech  from  the  President,  Herr  won  Botticher,  Minister  of 
State,  who  greeted  those  present  in  the  name  of  the  German 
Emperor.  The  Congress  is  divided  into  three  sections.  The 
first  studies  the  improvement  of  river  navigability,  the  best  kind 
of  boat  for  river  navigation,  and  the  best  means  of  propulsion 
for  boats.  The  second  section  occupies  itself  with  the  economic 
advantages  of  ship  canals  penetrating  into  the  interior  from  river 
mouths,  their  navigability,  and  keeping  in  good  order.  The 
third  deals  with  the  reform  of  the  statistics  of  interior  navigation, 
and  with  the  relations  between  agriculture  and  navigation. 

On  Monday  a  paper  by  Dr.  Gamaleia,  of  Odessa,  on 
the  cure  of  cholera  by  inoculation,  was  read  to  the  Paris 
Academy  of  Sciences  by  M.  Pasteur.  The  following  informa- 
tion on  the  subject  is  given  by  the  Paris  Correspondent  of  the 
Times.  It  appears  that  in  1886  Dr.  Gamaleia  came  to  Paris 
as  delegate  of  the  Odessa  doctors,  and  studied  the*  Pasteur 
method,  with  which  he  made  hirmelf  thoroughly  acquainted. 
On  his  return  to  Russia  various  institutions  were  founded  under 
his  care  for  the  cure  of  hydrophobia,  which  have  proved  very 
valuable.  Five  years  ago  M.  Pasteur  endeavoured  to  discover 
a  means  of  curing  cholera  by  inoculation.  At  his  request  a 
mission  was  sent  by  the  French  Government  to  Alexandria 
while  cholera  prevailed  there,  to  study  the  subject.  Dr. 
Lhuiller,  one  of  the  mission,  died  of  cholera,  and  M.  Pasteur 
did  not  press  the  continuance  of  the  investigations.  The  sub- 
ject, however,  was  taken  up  by  Dr.  Gamaleia,  who  has  dis- 
covered a  method  similar  to  that  of  M.  Pasteur,  by  which  it  is 
believed  cholera  can  be  cured  by  the  inoculation  of  the 
cholera  virus.  As  yet  experiments  have  only  been  made  on 
animals,  but  no  doubt  is  entertained  that  it  will  be  possible  to 
apply  in  a  short  time  the  same  process  to  man.  After  reading 
the  paper,  M.  Pasteur  stated  that  Dr.  Gamaleia  had  expressed 
his  readiness  to  repeat  the  experiments  at  Paris  in  presence  of  a 
committee  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  and  to  try  on  himself  the 
inoffensive  and  sufficient  dose  for  human  vaccination.  He  is 
ready  to  undertake  a  journey  into  countries  where  cholera  pre- 
vails to  prove  the  efficacy  of  his  method.  M.  Pasteur  added 
that  he  need  scarcely  say  that  he  accepted  with  the  greatest 
satisfaction  the  offer  made  by  Dr.  Gamaleia  to  conduct  the 
experiments  in  his  laboratory.  The  letter  was  referred  to  the 
committee,  which  has  a  prize  of  100,000  francs  in  its  hands  for 
a  cure  for  cholera,  and  it  was  arranged  that  the  experiments 
should  be  postponed  till  November. 


396 


NATURE 


[August  23,  1888 


We  have  already  called  attention  (p.  359)  to  the  address 
delivered  by  M.  Janssen  on  July  23,  at  the  French  Academy  of 
Sciences,  on  the  late  Jules  Henri  Debray.  M.  Debray  was 
born  at  Amiens  in  1827,  and  entered  the  Normal  School  in 
1847.  There  he  became  the  collaborator  of  the  illustrious 
Sainte-Claire  Deville,  with  whom  his  name  will  always  be 
intimately  associated.  As  M.  Janssen  said,  it  is  by  his  re- 
searches on  dissociation,  in  which  he  developed  M.  Deville's 
ideas,  that  M.  Debray  will  be  chiefly  remembered.  lie  suc- 
ceeded M.  Deville  at  the  Paris  Faculty  of  Sciences,  and  at  the 
Normal  School.  M.  Debray  was  also  assayer  to  the  "  Garan- 
tie  "  of  Paris,  Vice-President  of  the  Society  for  the  Encourage- 
ment of  National  Industry,  and  a  member  of  the  Higher  Council 
of  Public  Instruction  and  of  the  Consulting  Committee  of  Arts 
and  Manufactures.  He  was  considered  one  of  the  most  active 
and  distinguished  members  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences.  After 
a  short  illness  he  died  on  July  19. 

We  regret  to  record  the  death  of  Mr.  William  H.  Baily, 
Acting  Palaeontologist  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  Ireland.  He 
was  born  at  Bristol  in  1819.  In  1844,  having  held  for  some 
years  an  appointment  in  the  Bristol  Museum,  Mr.  Baily  was 
attached  by  the  late  Sir  Henry  de  la  Beche  to  the  Geological 
Survey  of  England.  He  acted  first  as  a  draughtsman,  and 
afterwards  as  assistant  naturalist  under  Edward  Forbes  and 
subsequently  under  Prof.  Huxley.  In  1857,  Mr.  Baily  was 
transferred  to  the  Irish  branch  of  the  Geological  Survey  as  Palae- 
ontologist, and  this  office  he  held  until  his  death.  He  was  also 
Demonstrator  in  Palaeontology  to  the  Royal  College  of  Science, 
Dublin.  Mr.  Baily  often  contributed  to  the  Proceedings  of  the 
Royal  Irish  Academy,  of  the  Linnean  and  Geological  Societies 
of  London,  of  the  Royal  Geological  Society  of  Dublin,  and  of 
various  kindred  Societies  in  Europe  and  the  United  States.  His 
most  important  work  was  his  "  Characteristic  British  Fossils," 
which  was  incomplete  at  the  time  of  his  death. 

Mr.  Seth  Green,  whose  death  from  paralysis  of  the  brain 
is  announced  from  New  York,  made  a  great  reputation  in  con- 
nection with  fish  culture  in  the  United  States.  Me  died  at  the 
age  of  seventy-one.  Mr.  Green  was  appointed  in  1868  one  of 
the  Fish  Commissioners  of  New  York,  and  soon  afterwards  was 
made  Superintendent  of  Fisheries  in  that  State.  He  was 
decorated  with  two  gold  medals  by  the  Societe  d'Acclimatation 
of  Paris.  Mr.  Green  was  the  author  of  "Trout  Culture,"  1870, 
and  "Fish  Hatching  and  Fish  Catching,"  1879. 

Neutral  chloride  of  platinum  has  been  obtained  in  fine  per- 
manent crystals  of  the  composition  PtCl4  .  4H0O  by  M.  Engel 
{Bulletin  de  la  Soc.  Chim.).  The  universally-employed  chloride 
of  platinum  is,  as  is  well  known,  in  reality  a  chloroplatinate, 
PtCl4  .  2HCI  .  6H20  ;  and  the  neutral  chloride  cannot  be 
obtained  from  it  by  merely  raising  its  temperature,  which  causes 
it  to  part  with  a  portion  of  its  chlorine  in  addition  to  the  hydro- 
chloric acid,  leaving  the  lower  chloride,  PtCl2.  Some  time  ago, 
however,  a  neutral  salt  was  prepared  by  Norton,  who  assigned 
to  it  the  formula  PtCl4  .  5H20.  Norton's  method  of  preparation 
consisted  in  the  addition  of  silver  nitrate  to  the  ordinary  com- 
mercial chloride  of  platinum  in  the  proportion  of  two  molecules 
of  the  former  to  one  of  the  latter.  The  composition  of  the  pre- 
cipitate appears  never  to  have  been  thoroughly  cleared  up,  but 
the  filtered  liquid  was  found  to  deposit  crystals  of  the  neutral 
chloride.  As  the  whole  subject  appeared  involved  in  a  certain 
amount  of  doubt,  Engel  has  repeated  Norton's  work,  and  finds 
that  the  neutral  chloride  is  obtained  under  these  conditions,  but 
that  the  crystals  contain  only  four  molecules  of  water  of  crystal- 
lization. The  reaction,  moreover,  is  shown  to  proceed  in  the 
following  manner : — 

PtCl4  .  2HCI  +  2AgN03  =  2AgCl  +  PtCl4  +  2HNO3. 
The  best  mode  of  preparing  the  neutral   chloride  of  platinum, 
according  to  Engel,  consists'  in  dissolving  in  a  solution  of  the 


chloroplatinate  the  necessary  quantity  of  oxide  of  platinum,  pre- 
pared by  Fremy's  method,  in  order  to  neutralize  the  excess  of 
hydrochloric  acid.  The  filtered  liquid,  on  evaporation,  then 
deposits  beautiful  crystals  of  PtCl(  .  4H20,  permanent  in  the 
air,  and  not  tat  all  deliquescent  like  the  chloroplatinate.  The 
composition  of  these  crystals  was  determined  both  by  weighing 
the  metallic  platinum  left  on  calcination  of  a  known  weight,  and 
by  estimation  of  the  chlorine  by  fusion  of  the  crystals  with  car- 
bonate of  potash  and  precipitation  with  silver  nitrate.  The 
water  was,  of  course,  given  by  difference.  In  spite  of  the  sta- 
bility of  the  chloroplatinate,  it  is  a  somewhat  curious  fact  that 
the  powdered  crystals  of  the  neutral  chloride  do  not  take  up 
hydrochloric  acid  gas  at  ordinary  temperatures.  At  about  50°  C, 
however,  the  chloride  partially  liquefies  under  the  influence  of  a 
dry  current  of  the  gas,  forming  the  chloroplatinate.  As  might 
be  expected  from  its  non-deliquescence,  the  new  chloride,  is  very 
much  less  soluble  in  water  than  is  the  ordinary  chloroplatinate. 

The  Portuguese  Government  has  given  notice  that  from. 
August  I  meteorological  signals  will  be  established  at  six 
semaphore  stations  along  its  coast,  between  the  River  Douro 
and  Cape  St.  Vincent,  and  shown  to  passing  vessels  requiring, 
information  as  to  the  state  of  the  weather  in  the  Bay  of  Biscay, 
at  Gibraltar,  and  at  Madeira.  Each  notice  will  indicate  the  time 
to  which  the  information  refers,  the  locality  to  which  it  has- 
reference,  and  the  direction  and  force  of  the  wind,  together 
with  any  other  particulars  which  the  Lisbon  Observatory  may 
consider  it  expedient  to  give.  The  signals  will  usually  be  made 
by  flags,  of  the  International  Code  of  Signals,  or  by  semaphore, 
when  colours  of  flags  would  not  be  easily  distinguished.  This 
useful  information  is  at  present  only  to  be  obtained  from  very 
few  countries. 

In  the  new  number  of  the  Journal  of  the  Anthropological 
Institute  there  is  an  interesting  note,  by  Mr.  Basil  Hall  Chamber- 
lain, on  the  Japanese  "go-hei,"  or  paper  offerings  to  the  Shinto 
gods.  It  has  been  thought  by  some  European  travellers  that 
the  Japanese,  prompted  by  equal  frugality  and  irreverence,  offer 
paper  to  their  gods  because  it  is  the  cheapest  article  at  hand. 
Mr.  Chamberlain  suggests  a  more  reasonable  explanation. 
Though  paper  is  now  used  in  the  ceremonies  of  the  Shinto  re- 
ligion, this  was  not  so  in  days  preceding  the  eighth  century  of 
the  Christian  era.  The  offerings  then  were  made  of  two  kinds 
of  cloth — a  white  kind  made  of  the  paper-mulberry  (Brousso- 
netia  papyrifera),  and  a  blue  kind  made  of  hemp.  Such  cloth 
was  the  most  precious  article  in  the  possession  of  a  population  to- 
whom  luxury  and  art  were  unknown.  Later  on,  when  Chinese 
civilization  had  brought  a  variety  of  manufactures  in  its  train,, 
hempen  cloth  ceased  to  be  regarded  as  a  treasure  worthy  of  the 
divine  acceptance ;  and,  frugality  perhaps  helping,  and  partly 
also  in  accordance  with  that  law  of  progress  from  the  actual  to- 
the  symbolical  which  characterizes  all  religions,  paper  began  to 
be  used  instead.  Mr.  Chamberlain  is  unable  to  determine  the 
date  of  the  change,  Shinto  having  suffered  such  an  eclipse  from, 
the  eighth  to  the  seventeenth  century  that  little  regarding  its 
mediaeval  history  has  been  preserved.  During  all  that  time, 
Buddhism  reigned  supreme.  Speaking  of  the  general  character 
of  Shinto  as  a  national  religion,  Mr.  Chamberlain  says  that 
even  native  commentators,  over  anxious  as  they  are  to  magnify 
everything  Japanese  at  the  expense  of  everything  foreign,  ac- 
knowledge that  it  has  no  moral  system,  no  body  of  views  of  any 
kind  save  worship  of  the  gods  who  were  the  ancestors  of  the- 
Imperial  House.  For  this  reason  Shinto  collapsed  utterly  at 
the  touch  of  Buddhism,  and  it  fails  to  support  itself  now,  when 
an  attempt  is  being  made  to  revive  it  for  political  purposes.  It 
has  nothing  in  it  that  appeals  to  the  religions  instincts  of  the 
people. 

Messrs.  George  Philip  and  Son  announce  that  they  have 
made   arrangements  for   the  publication  in   December  next  of 


August  23,  1888] 


NATURE 


397 


"The  Educational  Annual,"  a  handy  reference  volume  of  about 
200  crown  octavo  pages  on  educational  subjects,  which  is  likely 
to  prove  a  convenience  to  school  managers,  teachers,  and  others 
interested  in  the  promotion  of  national  education.  It  is  pro- 
posed to  review  elementary  education,  technical  education, 
agricultural  education,  industrial,  reformatory,  truant,  and 
ragged  schools,  secondary  education,  and,  generally,  the  purpose 
and  work  of  the  Education  Department,  the  Science  and 
Art  Department,  the  training  of  teachers,  and  the  teachers' 
organizations. 

Messrs.  Sonnenschein  and  Co.  will  issue  shortly  a  trans- 
lation of  Moritz  Hauptmann's  "  Nature  of  Harmony  and  Metre." 
The  work  consists  of  three  parts.  The  first  part  considers  the 
evolution  of  harmony  from  acoustics,  taking  as  basis  the 
Hegelian  theory  of  sound.  In  the  second  part  the  author  dis- 
cusses metre  and  rhythm,  which  are  respectively  analogous  to 
harmony  and  melody.  The  last  part  of  the  book  is  concerned 
with  the  union  of  metre  and  harmony — that  is,  harmony  and 
melody  in  concrete  combination  with  metre  and  rhythm. 

A  specimen  of  the  golden  mullet  (Mugil  aiiratus,  Risso), 
320  mm.  in  length,  has  been  caught  at  Stromstad,  on  the  south- 
west coast  of  Sweden.  Only  once  before  has  a  specimen  of  this 
fish  been  caught  on  the  Swedish  coast. 

The  authorities  of  the  Mason  Science  College,  Birmingham, 
have  issued  the  syllabus  of  day  classes  to  be  held  during  the 
session  1888-89. 

According  to  the  American  Naturalist,  the  proposed  site  of 
the  National  Zoological  Park  at  Washington  is  one  of  great 
beauty,  and  even  grandeur.  It  is  in  the  valley  of  Rock  Creek, 
just  beyond  the  city  limits,  and  at  two  points  walls  of  rock 
rise  to  a  height  of  over  80  feet.  The  Rock  Creek  will  afford 
what  the  American  Naturalist  describes  as  "unrivalled 
facilities  "  for  the  care  of  aquatic  mammals  and  birds  of  all 
kinds.  Nearly  the  whole  tract  is  covered  by  a  fine  growth  of 
forest  trees. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Bonnet  Monkey  (Macacus  sinicus  i  )  from 
India,  presented  Mr.  William  Norman  ;  a  Lesser  White-nosed 
Monkey  (  Cercopithecus  petaurista  $ )  from  West  Africa,  pre- 
sented by  Mr.  W.  Blandford  Griffith  ;  a  Tiger  (Felts  tigris  6  ) 
from  India,  presented  by  Sir  E.  C.  Buck,  C.M.Z.S.  ;  a  Bengal 
Cat  (Felis  bengalensis)  from  India,  presented  by  Mr.  W.  L. 
Sclater,  F.Z.S.  ;  a  Black  backed  Piping  Cro**  (Gymnorhina 
leuconota),  two.  Lead  beater's  Cockatoos  (Cacatua  leadbcateri) 
from  Australia,  a  Common  Magpie  (Pica  rustica),  four  Common 
Herons  (Ardca  cinerea),  British,  two  Himalayan  Monauls 
(Lophophorus  impeyanus  $  $  )  from  the  Himalayas,  two  Gold 
Pheasants  ( Thaumalea  picta  i  Q  ),  two  Silver  Pheasants 
(Euplocamus  nycthemerus  £  Q ),  two  Mandarin  Ducks  (.Ex 
galericulata)  from  China,  a  Javan  Pea-fowl  (Pavo  spicifer  &  ) 
from  Java,  two  Common  Pea-fowls  (Pavo  cristatus  <J  9 )  from 
India,  a  Rose-crested  Cockatoo  (Cacatua  moluccensis)  from 
Moluccas,  a  Hyacinthine  Macaw  (Ara  hyacinthina),  a  Blue 
and  Yellow  Macaw  (Ara  ararautia)  from  South  America,  a 
Great  Eagle  Owl  (Bubo  maximus),  European,  presented  by  Mr. 
Charles  Clifton,  F.Z.S.  ;  a  Bare-eyed  Cockatoo  (Cacatua 
gymnopis)  from  North  Australia,  presented  by  Mrs.  Fishlock  ; 
an  Imperial  Eagle  (Aquila  imperalis)  from  Morocco,  presented 
by  Mrs.  Ernest  H.  Forwood  ;  two  American  Box  Tortoises 
('/ crrapcne carinata),  two  Alligator  Terrapins  (Chelydra  serpen- 
tina), a  Speckled  Terrapin  (Clemmys  guttata),  four  Sculptured 
Terrapins  (Clemmys  insculpta)  from  North  America,  presented 
by  Prof.  O.  C.  Marsh,  C.M.Z.S.  ;  a  Horned  Lizard  (Phrynosoma 
cornutum)  from  North  America,  presented  by  Master  Howard 
Sexton  ;  six  Guinea  Pigs  (Cavia  porcellus,  var.),  presented  by 
Mr.   R.    F.    Bennett ;   a   Common    Kingfisher  (Alccdo  ispida), 


British,  deposited  ;  a  New  Zealand  Parrakeet  (Cyauorhamphus 
zcalanditz)  from  New  Zealand,  purchased  ;  two  Chinchillas. 
(Chinchilla  tanigera),  born  in  the  Gardens. 

OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

Comet  1888  c  (Brooks).— Dr.  H.  Kreutz  (.-/;/;-.  Nachr.,  No. 
2853)  has  computed  the  following  elements  and  ephemeris  for 
this  comet  from  observations  made  at  Vienna  on  August  9, 
and  at  Strassburg  on  August  10  and  II.  The  middle  place 
was  represented  closely. 

T  *s  1888  July  16,  1982,  Berlin  M.T. 

»  =  34  3690  ) 

&  =  94  59 '69  t  Mean  Eq.  1888*0. 
1  =  71  25-07  ) 
log  q  =  9 '92444 

•*"  =  [9"5I743]  r  •  sm  (v  +  229  57*12) 

y  =  [9-99943]  r  .  sin  (v  +  148  23-72) 

*  =  [9*97573]  r  .  sin  (v  +    59  24-32) 

Ephemeris  for  Berlin  Midnight. 

18E8.  R.A.  Decl.  Log  r.  Log  a.      Bright 

h.    m.    s.  o       /  ness. 

Aug.  23  ...  12    5  53  ...  42  14-0  N....  0-0390  ...  02201  ...  074. 

25  ...   12  19  20  ...  41  2fj-I 

27  ...   12  32  20  ...  40  33-4         ...  0-0568  ...  O2254  ...  0-67 

29  ...   I24450  ...  3936-5 

31  ...  12  56  49  ...  38  36-1  ...  00746  ...  02326  ...  o-6o 
Sept.  2  ...  13  8  17  ...  37  328 

4  ...  13  19  16  ...  36  27-2   ...  00921  ...  02413  ...  053, 

6  ...  13  2945  ...  35  199 

8  ...  13  39  46  ...  34  "*3  N....  0-1094  •••  02514  ...  0-47 
The  brightness  on  August  9  is  taken  as  unity. 

Yale  College  Observatory. — The  Reports  of  this  Obser- 
vatory for  the  last  two  years  have  recently  been  published.  That 
for  the  year  1886-87  notes  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Orray  T. 
Sherman,  who  had  charge  of  the  Thermometric  Bureau  up  to 
the  date  of  his  resignation  in  November  1886,  and  the  renewal 
of  subscriptions  for  the  support  of  the  work  with  the  heliometer 
for  another  period  of  three  years.  Prof.  Loomis  had  borne  the 
expense  of  printing  and  distributing  Dr.  Elkin's  memoir  upon 
the  Pleiades,  and  a  second  grant  of  600  dollars  had  been  made 
from  the  Bache  Fund  to  enable  Mr.  Asaph  Hall,  Jun.,  the 
Assistant  Astronomer  at  the  Observatory,  to  carry  on  his  obser- 
vations of  Titan  for  the  determination  of  the  mass  of  Saturn. 
Dr.  Elkin  had  continued  his  heliometer  measures  for  the  deter- 
mination of  the  mean  parallax  of  the  first  magnitude  stars  ;  and 
the  Report  for  1887-88  records  the  completion  of  this  work,  and 
gives  the  results  for  the  ten  stars  observed.  These  are  as 
follows  : — 


Aldebaran  +  o*i  16  ±  0029 
Capella  +  0*107  ±  0*047 
a  Ononis  -  0-009  ±  0*049 
Procyon  +  0*266  ±  0*047 
Pollux  +  0*068  ±  0047 


a  Leonis  +  0*093  "^  0*048 

Arcturus  +  0*018  ±  0022 

a  Lyras  +  0*034  ±  0*045 

a  Aquilae  +  0*199  "±"  °'°47 

a  Cygni  -  0*042  ±  0047 


The  probable  errors  include  an  estimation  of  the  probable  sys- 
tematic error  of  the  measures,  and  are  not  as  usual  confined  to 
the  mere  casual  error  of  observation. 

The  results  for  Procyon  and  a  Aquilae  are  in  close  accord  with 
those  obtained  by  Auwers  and  Wagner  for  the  first  star,  and  by 
W.  Struve  for  the  second  ;  and  that  for  Aldebaran  agrees  with 
Prof.  Asaph  Hall's  value  ;  the  value  found  by  O.  Struve — viz. 
-f  o""5i6 — would  appear,  therefore,  to  be  erroneous.  But  Dr. 
Elkin's  parallax  for  a  Lyrae  is  much  smaller  than  the  results 
which  have  been  hitherto  obtained  by  other  observers,  and 
which  give  in  the  mean  a  parallax  quite  five  times  as  great  as  he 
has  found.  But  the  most  remarkable  result  is  that  obtained  for 
Arcturus,  the  practically  insensible  parallax  of  which  seems  in 
such  strong  contrast  to  its  large  proper  motion.  Dr.  Elkin  is 
well  satisfied  that  the  parallax  of  this  star  is  extremely  small,  for 
his  value  depends  upon  eighty-nine  observations  and  on  five 
pairs  of  comparison  stars,  all  in  reasonable  agreement. 

The  mean  of  the  ten  parallaxes  gives  for  the  mean  parallax  of 
a  first  magnitude  star — 

+  o"-o89  ±  o"-oi5, 
a  result  according  well  with   the   values  deduced   by   Gylden 
(o"*o84)  and  Peters  (o"*io2). 


•398 


NATURE 


[August  23,  1888 


The  heliometer  is  at  present  engaged  on  a  triangulation  of 
stars  near  the  North  Pole  for  Prof.  Pickering,  but  the  last  three 
months  of  the  present  year  it  is  to  be  employed  in  the  deter- 
mination of  the  solar  parallax  during  the  extremely  favourable 
opposition  of  Iris.  Measures  of  the  diameters  of  the  sun  and  of 
Mars,  measures  of  certain  double  stars,  the  investigation  of  the 
parallaxes  of  6  B  Cygni,  and  of  181 15/22  Lalande,  are  amongst 
the  other  labours  of  the  Observatory.  Mr.  Hall  has  nearly 
completed  the  reduction  of  his  measures  of  Titan. 

Gravitation  in  the  Stellar  Systems. — Prof.  Asaph  Hall 
supplies  an  interesting  paper  on  "  The  Extension  of  the  Law  of 
Gravitation  to  Stellar  Systems,"  in  Gould  s  Astronomical  Journal, 
No.  177,  towhichDr.  Elkin's  new  value  of  the  parallax  of  Arcturus 
mignt  afford  a  most  striking  illustration.  Prof.  Hall  shows  that 
there  is  a  theoretical  difficulty  in  proving  the  law  of  Newton  for 
double  stars  which  we  cannot  overcome,  though  the  probability 
of  the  existence  of  this  law  can  be  increased  as  more  double 
star  orbits,  and  those  very  differently  situated,  are  determined. 
Still,  even  then,  before  the  universality  of  the  law  can  be 
inferred,  there  remains  the  difficulty  of  the  so-called  "runaway  " 
■stars,  like  Groom  bridge  1830,  stars  moving  through  space  with 
the  speed  of  a  comet  at  perihelion,  and  yet  with  no  visible 
attracting  body  near  them.  Of  these  Prof.  Hall  supplies  a  list. 
But  if  Dr.  Elkin's  value  of  the  parallax  of  Arcturus  be  accepted, 
that  star  would  outstrip  any  of  those  given  in  this  table.  For 
its  speed  in  the  direction  at  right  angles  to  the  line  of  sight 
would  be  373  miles  per  second,  a  speed  compared  with  which 
its  speed  in  the  line  of  sight,  as  given  by  Dr.  Huggins,  55 
miles  per  second,  becomes  small.  Prof.  Hall  concludes,  there- 
fore, that  though  Newton's  law  is  one  of  the  greatest  generaliza- 
tions of  science,  it  is  better  and  safer  "to  await  further 
knowledge  before  we  proceed,  as  Kant  has  done,  to  construct 
the  universe  according  to  this  law." 

ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA     FOR    THE 

WEEK  1888  AUGUST  26— SEPTEMBER  1. 
/"C*OR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 

*  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 
is  here  employed. ) 

At  Greemvich  on  August  26 
Sunrises,  5h.  5m.  ;  souths,  I2h.  im.  28*95.;  sets,  i8h.  57m.  : 
right  asc.  on  meridian,  ioh.  22-im.  ;  deck  id3  11'  N. 
Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  17I1.  19  m. 
Moon  (at  Last  Quarter  August  29,  I4h.)  rises,  2oh.  54m.*  ; 
souths,  3I1.  22m. ;  sets,  ioh.  2m.  :  right  asc.  on  meridian, 
ih.  4i-6m.  ;  decl.  5°  o'  N. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 
Planet.  Rises.  Souths.  Sets.  on  meridian. 

h.  m.      h.  m.     h.  ni.      h.   m.       „   , 

Mercury..  5  14  ...  12  13  ..  19  12  ...  10  33*8  ...  10  52  N. 

Venus  ...  6  14  ...  12  51  ...  19  28  ...  11  u-5  ...  6  42  N. 

Mars  ...  12  27  ...  16  48  ...  21  9  ...  15  9-6  ...  19  12  S. 

Jupiter...  13  2  ...  17  23  ...  21  44  ...  15  44-5  ...  19  S  S. 

Saturn  ...  3  6  ...  10  43  ...  18  20  ...  9  35  ...  17  33  N. 

Uranus...  8  59  ...  14  35  ...  20  11  ...  12  56*1  ...  5  20  S. 

Neptune..  21  56*...  5  43  ...  13  30  ...  4  2-3  ...  18  59  N. 

*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preced.ng  evening. 

Variable  Stars. 

Star.  R.A.  Decl. 

h.      m.  „        t  h.    rr.. 

R  Arietis     2     9-8  ...  24  32  N.  ...  Aug.  26,  M 

R  Ceti 2  20-3  ...    o  41  S.    ...     ,,     27,  M 

A.Tauri 3  545  ...  12  10N.  ...     ,,     27,  22  41  m 

TT  ^                   .                                                           "  31,  21   33  m 

U  Monocerotis    ...     7  25-5  ...    9  33  S.    ...     ,,  27,               m 

R  Virginis   1232-8...     7  36  N.  ...     „  31,              M 

S  Bobtis       14  19-1  ...  54  19  N.  ...     ,,  27,              M 

*  Librae         14  55-0  ...     8     4  S.    ...     ,,  30,  22     8  tn 

W  Scorpii    16     5*2  ...  19  51  S.    ...     ,,  28,              M 

W  Ophiuchi         ...    16  15-4  ...     7  26  S.    ...     ,,  28,              M 

R  Draconis 16  32^4  ...  67     o  N.  ...     ,,  30,              M 

U  Ophiuchi 17  10*9  ...     1  20  N.  ...     ,,  30,    o  2S  m 

,,  30,  20  36  m 

W  Sagittarii        ...   17  57-9  ...  29  35  S.    ...   ■ ,,  27,    o     o  M 

Z  Sagittarii 18  14-8...  18  55  S.    ...     ,,  27,     1     o  M 

,,  31,     o     O  m 

U  Sagittarii' 18  25-3...  19  12  S ,  26,    o     oM 

U  Lyrae 18  46-0  ...  33   14  N.  ...     ,.  26,     1     o  ;;/., 

R  Aquilae    19     10...    8     4  N.  ...     ,,  29,              m 

X  Cygni       20^39-0  ...  35   11  N.  ...  Sept.    1,     3     o  m 

M signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum  ;  m2  secondary  minimum. 


Occultation  of  Star  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 

angles  from,  ver- 

Aug.  Star.  Mag-         Disap.  Reap.         tex  to  right  for 

inverted  image, 
h.    m.  h.    m.  no 

26  ...  £J  Ceti       4     ...  23  20  ...     o  22t  ...     98  238 

t  Occurs  on  the  following  morning. 

Meteor- Showers. 

R.A.  Decl. 

6  ...    11  N.  ...  Swift. 

••     30  •■•   35  ^T- 
•  3°5  ■••  54  N.  ...  Swift,  bright.  Sept.  I. 

..  336  ...  58  N.  ...  Swift. 


Near  £  Trianguli 

»     33  Cygni 
.,     5  Ceohei 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

The  Times  printed  on  Tuesday  the  substance  of  communica- 
tions received  from  Mr.  Joseph  Thomson,  dated  from  the  city  of 
Morocco,  July  22.  Mr.  Thomson  writes  in  the  highest  spirits, 
and  with  evident  satisfaction  at  the  results  he  has  so  far  attained  ; 
for  much  of  the  country  through  which  he  has  had  to  pass  is  in 
a  state  of  rebellion,  and  the  local  authorities  have  done  more  to 
hinder  than  to  help  him.  Mr.  Thomson  sailed  from  Tangier  to 
Casablanca,  and  thence  travelled  overland  to  Mogadon  After 
three  weeks'  preparation  there  he  made  his  final  start,  and.  as  lie 
states,  soon  discovered  that  the  greatest  danger  to  his  success 
would  not  be  the  mountaineers  nor  even  the  opposition  of  the 
Government  officials,  but  the  half-dozen  men  who  formed  the 
personnel  of  his  small  party.  Mr.  Thomson's  past  experience  in 
Africa  enabled  him  to  deal  effectively  with  this  difficulty.  By  a 
series  of  surprises  and  cleverly-planned  excursions  he  has  been 
able  to  enter  the  mountain  fastnesses  of  Morocco  and  do  more 
than  any  previous  traveller  has  done.  From  Demnat  he  made 
two  extremely  interesting  trips  into  the  lower  ranges,  vi>iting 
some  remarkable  caves  and  equally  remarkable  ruins,  and  one  of 
the  most  wonderful  natural  bridge-aqueducts  in  the  world.  Geo- 
logically and  geographically  these  trips  are  alike  important.  They 
were  followed  by  a  dart  across  the  main  axis  of  the  Atlas  to  the 
district  of  Tiluit,  which  lies  in  the  basin  of  the  Draa.  Here  he 
spent  a  very  delightful  ten  days,  though  virtually  a  prisoner.  As 
the  tribes  further  west  on  the  southern  slope  were  in  revolt,  Mr. 
Thomson  was  compelled  to  return  to  the  northern  plains. 
Starting  once  more,  he  crossed  the  mountains  by  a  pass  a  little 
south  of  Jebel  Tizsm,  ascended  by  Hooker,  and  reached  Gindafy 
safely.  He  was  able  to  make  a  trip  up  a  wonderful  canon, 
which  he  declares  rivals  those  of  America  for  depth  and  grandeur, 
and  ascended  a  mountain,  where  he  and  his  party  were  confined 
to  their  tents  until  it  suited  them  to  go  back  to  their  starting- 
point.  Here,  unfortunately,  Mr.  Thomson's  young  companion, 
Mr.  Crichton  Browne,  was  stung  by  a  scorpion,  and  they  were 
compelled  to  return,  happily  by  a  new  route.  Though  laid  up 
for  a  period,  fortunately  in  time  Mr.  Crichton  Browne  recovered. 
From  his  previous  starting-point  Mr.  Thomson  scored  another 
great  triumph.  He  crossed  the  mountains  once  more,  and 
ascended  with  no  small  danger  and  difficulty  the  highest  peak  of 
the  Atlas  Range  north  of  Amsiviz,  a  height  of  12,500  feet — the 
highest  peak,  by  1500  feet,  ever  attained.  This  he  describes  as 
the  most  interesting  of  all  his  trips,  and  he  enjoyed  it  thoroughly, 
though  he  had  to  sleep  on  the  ground  and  was  glad  to  make  a 
meal  on  walnuts.  On  his  return,  Mr.  Thomson  deemed  it 
advisable  to  go  into  the  town  of  Morocco  to  recruit  and  wait  the 
arrival  of  further  supplies  from  the  coast.  He  intended  to 
resume  work  in  a  few  days  after  the  date  of  his  letter.  He 
proposed  first  to  make  for  the  Urika  River  and  penetrate  the 
mountains  up  its  course.  He  will  then  work  his  way  round  to 
Mogador,  which  hs  expects  to  reach  about  the  end  of  August. 
There  probably  his  work  of  exploration  will  end,  though  he  may 
make  one  Or  two  short  trips  into  the  interior  and  down  to  Agadir. 
The  return  route  to  Tangier  will  probably  be  from  Mogador  to 
the  city  of  Morocco,  thence  to  Mazagan  on  the  coast,  and  on  to 
Casablanca  and  Rabat.  Then  he  will  leave  the  sea  again  and  go 
to  Mequinez  and  Fez,  reaching  Tangier  about  the  end  ot  the 
year.  The  Times  understands  that  his  contributions  to  various 
branches  of  science,  especially  to  botany,  will  be  of  the  highe 
value. 

A  LETTER    from    Cayenne    to    the     Temps    states    that 
Coudreau,  who  has  recently  explored  Guiana,   arrived  there  last 
month  after  having   travelled  for  eleven  months  in  the  wester 
range  of  the  Tumuc-Humac  Mountains,  between  the  sourc 


: 

last 
western 
ource  of 


August  23,  1888] 


NATURE 


399 


the  Itany  and  that  of  the  Camopy..  Starting  by  the  Maroni, 
M.  Coudreau,  after  having  gone  up  the  Itany  and  explored  the 
region  which  it  waters,  came  down  to  the  coast  by  Maronimi- 
(  rique,  which  is  a  very  large  tributary  of  the  Maroni  River.  M. 
Cooareatr  is  the  first  Frenchman  who  has  passed  a  consecutive 
winter  and  summer  in  theTumuc-Humac  Mountains,  and  though 
lie  did  not  himself  suffer  very  much  from  the  effects  of  the 
expedition,  the  same  cannot  be  said  of  his  companions,  as  the 
Only  European  who  accompanied  him  was  brought  near  to  death's 
:  by  fever,  from  which  most  of  the  natives  also  suffered.  M. 
Ireau  escaped  with  nothing  worse  than  rheumatism,  and  he 
that  the  climate  of  the  Western  Tumuc-Humac  is  not  bad. 
The  result  of  1200  observations  taken  by  him  puts  the  mean 
temperature  at  700,  and  the  country  is  a  magnificent  one  ;  but 
the  difficulty  of  reaching  it  is  very  great  owing  to  the  uncertainty 
of  communication  with  the  coast.  M.  Coudreau  and  his  com- 
panions, when  they  had  exhausted  their  provision-,  had  to  go 
and  live  out  in  the  open  with  the  Indians,  leading  the  same  kind 
of  existence,  and  depending  for  food  upon  the  game,  fish,  and 
fruit  that  they  could  shoot,  fish,  and  gather.  For  eight  months 
M.  Coudreau  lived  the  regular  native  life,  and  he  had  become 
su  accustomed  to  it  that  he  was  very  popular  with  the  Rucuy- 
ennes,  whose  language  he  had  learned  to  speak,  and  he  induced 
the  pamenchi  (captain)  of  the  tribe  and  four  of  his  lieutenants  to 
accompany  him  to  Cayenne,  where  their  arrival  created  a  great 
sensation,  as  the  people  of  the  town  did  not  believe  in  their 
existence.  M.  Gerville-Reache,  the  Governor  of  the  colony, 
received  them  with  great  hospitality,  and  made  them  several 
presents.  The  most  important  fact  brought  out  by  M.  Coudreau 
is  the  existence  in  Upper  Guiana,  which  is  acknowledged  French 
territory,  of  sixteen  new  Indian  tribes,  forming  a  group  of  at  least 
20,000  persons  ;  and  these  Indians  are  not,  as  was  supposed, 
mere  nomads,  living  upon  the  produce  of  th?ir  guns  and  fishing- 
nets,  but  are  sedentary  in  their  habits,  and  have  attained  a  certain 
degree  of  civilization.  M.  Coudreau  is  about  to  start  on  a  fresh 
expedition  to  the  Appruague  and  the  Oyapack,  and  does  not 
expect  to  get  back  before  next  spring. 


THE  GASES  OF  THE  BLOOD} 

II. 

piIE  next  step  was  the  discovery  of  the  important  part  per- 
formed in  respiration  by  the  colouring  matter  of  the  red  blood 
corpuscles.  Chemically,  these  corpuscles  consist  of  about  30  or 
40  per  cent,  of  solid  matter.  These  solids  contain  only  about  1 
per  cent,  of  inorganic  salts,  chiefly  those  of  potash  ;  whilst  the 
remainder  are  almost  entirely  organic.  Analysis  has  shown  that 
100  parts  of  dry  organic  matter  contain  of  haemoglobin,  the 
colouring  matter,  no  less  than  90-54  per  cent.  :  of  proteid  sub- 
stances, 8-67  ;  of  lecithin,  0-54;  and  of  cholesterine,  0*25.  The 
colouring  matter,  haemoglobin,  was  first  obtained  in  a  crystalline 
state  by  Funke  in  1853,  and  subsequently  by  Lehmann.  It  has 
been  analyzed  by  Hoppe-Seyler  and  Carl  Schmidt,  with  the 
result  of  showing  that  it  has  a  perfectly  constant  composition. 
Hoppe-Seyler's  analysis  first  appeared  in  1868.  Ic  is  now  well 
known  to  be  the  most  complicated  of  organic  substances,  having 
a  formula,  as  deduced,  from  the  analyses  I  have  just  referred  to, 
by  Preyer  (1871),  of 

0600"96oNi54FeS30179. 

In  1862,  Hoppe-Seyler  noticed  the  remarkable  spectrum  pro- 
duced by  the  absorption  of  light  by  a  very  dilute  solution  of 
blood.  Immediately  thereafter,  the  subject  was  investigated  by 
Prof.  Stokes,  of  Cambridge,  and  communicated  to  the  Royal 
Society  in  1864.  If  white  light  be  transmitted  through  a  thin 
stratum  of  blood,  two  distinct  absorption  bands  will  be  seen. 
One  of  these  bands  next  D  is  narrower  than  the  other,  has  more 
sharply  defined  edges,  and  is  undoubtedly  blacker.  "  Its  centre," 
as  described  by  Dr.  Gamgee  ("Physiological  Chemistry," 
p.  97),  "corresponds  with  wave-length  579,-  and  it  may 
conveniently  be  distinguished  as  the  absorption  band,  o,  in 
the  spectrum  of  oxyhemoglobin.  Tne  second  of  the  absorption 
bands— that  is,  the  one  next  to  E — which  we  shall  designate 
0,   is  broader,   has  less  sharply  defined  edges,   and  is  not    so 

1  Address  to  the   British   Medical  Association  at  its  annual  meeting  at 
Glasgow.     Delivered  on  August  10  in  the  Natural  Philosophy  class-room 
University  ofGlasg ,w,  by  John  Gray  McKendrick,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.SS.L'    | 
a?4,E-'  F-RC.P.E.,  Professor  of  the  Institutes  of  Medicine  in  the  University 
of  Glasgow.     Continued  from  p.  382.  I 

2  Dr.  Gamgee  gives  the  measurements  of  the  wave-lengths  in  millionths     ' 
not  in  ten-mil lionths  of  a  millimetre.  ( 


dark  as  o.  Its  centre  corresponds  approximately  to  wave- 
length 553  -8.  On  diluting  very  largely  with  water,  nearly 
the  whole  of  the  spectrum  appears  beautifully  clear,  except 
where  the  two  absorption  bands  are  situated.  If  dilution  be 
pursued  far  enough,  even  these  disappear  ;  before  they  disappear 
they  look  like  faint  shadows  obscuring  the  limited  part  of  the 
spectrum  which  they  occupy.  The  last  to  disappear  is  the  band 
a.  The  two  absorption  bands  are  seen  most  distinctly  when  a 
stratum  of  1  cm.  thick  of  a  solution  containing  1  part  of  haemo- 
globin in  iooo  is  examined  ;  they  are  still  perceptible  when  the 
solution  contains  only  1  part  of  haemoglobin  in  10,000  of  water.  'r 
Suppose,  on  the  other  hand,  we  begin  with  a  solution  of  blood! 
in  ten  times  its  volume  of  water  ;  we  then  find  that  such  a  solu- 
tion cuts  off  the  more  refrangible  part  of  the  spectrum,  leaving 
nothing  except  the  red,  "or,  rather,  those  rays  having  a  wave- 
length greater  than  about  600  millionths  of  a  millimetre."  On. 
diluting  further,  the  effects,  as  well  described  by  Prof.  Gamgee, 
are  as  follows  :  —  "If  now  the  blood  solution  be  rendered  much 
more  dilute,  so  as  to  contain  8  per  cent,  of  haemoglobin,  on 
examining  a  spectrum  1  centimetre  wide  the  spectrum  becomes 
distinct  up  to  Fraunhofer's  line  D  (wave-length  589) — that  is,  the 
red,  orange,  and  yellow  are  seen,  and  in  addition  also  a  portion  of 
the  green,  between  b  and  F.  Immediately  beyond  D,  and  between 
it  and  />,  however  (between  wave-lengths  595  and  518),  the 
absorption  is  intense. " 

These  facts  were  observed  by  Hoppe-Seyler.  Prof.  Stokes 
made  the  very  important  contribution  of  observing  that  the  spec- 
trum was  altered  by  the  action  of  reducing  agents.  Hoppe-Seyler 
had  observed  that  the  colouring  matter,  so  far  as  the  spectrum 
was  concerned,  was  unaffected  by  alkaline  carbonates,  and  caustic 
ammonia,  but  was  almost  immediately  decomposed  by  acid--,  and 
also  slowly  by  caustic  fixed  alkalies,  the  coloured  product  of 
decomposition  being  hnsmatin,  the  spectrum  of  which  was  known. 
Prof.  Stokes  was  led  to  investigate  the  subject  from  its  physio- 
logical interest,  as  may  be  observed  on  quoting  his  own  words 
in  the  classical  research  already  referred  to.  "  But  it  seemed  to 
me  to  be  a  point  of  special  interest  to  inquire  whether  we  could 
imitate  the  change  of  colour  of  arterial  into  that  of  venous  blood, 
on  the  supposition  that  it  arises  from  reduction.1' 
He  found  that — 

"If  to  a  solution  of  proto-sulphate  of  iron  enough  tartaric 
acid  be  added  to  prevent  precipitation  by  alkalies,  and  a  small 
quantity  of  the  solution,  previously  rendered  alkaline  by  either 
ammonia  or  carbonate  of  soda,  be  added  to  a  solution  of  blood, 
the  colour  is  almost  instantly  changed  to  a  much  more  purple- 
red  as  seen  in  small  thicknesses,  and  a  much  darker  red  than 
before  as  seen  in  greater  thickness.  The  change  of  colour  which 
recalls  the  difference  between  arterial  and  venous  blood  is  striking 
enough,  but  the  change  in  the  absorption  spectrum  is  far  more 
decisive.  The  two  highly  characteristic  dark  bands  seen  before 
are  now  replaced  by  a  single  band,  somewhat  broader  and  less 
sharply  defined  at  its  edges  than  either  of  the  former,  and  occupy- 
ing nearly  the  position  of  the  bright  band  separating  the  dark 
bands  of  the  original  solution.  The  fluid  is  more  transparent 
for  the  blue  and  less  so  for  the  green  than  it  was  before.  If  the 
thickness  be  increased  till  the  whole  of  the  spectrum  more  re- 
frangible than  the  red  be  on  the  point  of  disappearing,  the  last 
part  to  remain  is  green,  a  little  beyond  the  fixed  line  l>,  in  the  case 
of  the  original  solution,  and  blue  some  way  beyond  F,  in  the  case 
of  the  modified  fluid." 

From  these  observations,  Prof.  Stokes  was  led  to  the  important 
conclusion  that — 

"The  colouring  matter  of  blood,  like  indigo,  is  capable  of 
existing;  in  two  states  of  oxidation,  distinguishable  by  a  differ- 
ence of  colour  and  a  fundamental  difference  in  the  action  on  the 
spectrum.  It  may  be  made  to  pass  from  the  more  to  the  less 
oxidized  by  the  action  of  suitable  reducing  agents,  and  recovers 
its  oxygen  by  absorption  from  the  air. " 

To  the  colouring  matter  of  the  blood  Prof.  Stokes  gave  the 
name  of  cruorine,  and  described  it  in  its  two  states  of  oxidation. 
as  scarlet  cruorine  and  purple  cruorine.  The  name  haemoglobin, 
given  to  it  by  Ploppe-Seyler,  is  generally  employed.  When, 
united  with  oxygen  it  is  called  oxyhemoglobin,  and  when  in, 
the  reduced  state  it  is  termed  reduced  haemoglobin,  or  simply 
haemoglobin. 

The  spectroscopic  evidence  is,  therefore,  complete.  Hoppe- 
Seyler,  Hiifner,  and  Preyer  have  shown  also  that  pure  crystallized 
haemoglobin  absorbs  and  retains  in  combination  a  quantity  of 
oxygen  equal  to  that  contained  in  a  volume  of  blood  holding  the 
same  amount  of  haemoglobin.  Thus,  1  gramme  of  hemoglobin 
absorbs  1*56  cubic  centimetre  of  oxygen  at  o°  C.  and  760  milli- 


400 


NATURE 


[August  23,  1888 


metres  pressure  ;  and,  as  the  average  amount  of  haemoglobin  in 
blood  is  about  14  per  cent.,  it  follows  that  I  '56  x  14  =  21 -8 
cubic  centimetres  of  oxygen  would  be  retained  by  100  cubic 
centimetres  of  blood.  This  agrees  closely  with  the  fact  that 
about  20  volumes  of  oxygen  can  be  obtained  from  100 
volumes  of  blood.  According  to  Pfliiger,  arterial  blood  is  satu- 
rated with  oxygen  to  the  extent  of  nine-tenths,  while  Hiifner 
gives  the  figure  at  fourteen-fifteenths.  By  shaking  blood  with 
air,  its  oxygen  contents  can  be  increased  to  the  extent  of  from 
1  to  2  volumes  per  cent. 

These  important  researches,  the  results  of  which  have  been 
amply  corroborated,  have  given  an  explanation  of  the  function 
of  the  red  blood  corpuscles  as  regards  respiration.  The  haemo- 
globin of  the  venous  blood  in  the  pulmonary  artery  absorbs 
oxygen,  becoming  oxyhaemoglobin.  This  is  carried  to  the 
tissues,  where  the  oxygen  is  given  up,  the  haemoglobin  being 
reduced.  Thus,  the  colouring  matter  of  the  red  blood  corpuscles 
is  constantly  engaged  in  conveying  oxygen  from  the  lungs  to  the 
tissues.  Probably  the  union  of  haemoglobin  with  oxygen,  and 
its  separation  from  it,  are  examples  of  dissociation— that  is,  of  a 
■chemical  decomposition  or  synthesis,  effected  entirely  by  physical 
conditions  ;  but  data  regarding  this  important  question  are  still 
wanting.  If  the  union  of  oxygen  with  the  colouring  matter  is 
an  example  of  oxidation,  it  must  be  attended  with  the  evolution 
of  heat,  but,  so  far  as  I  know,  this  has  not  been  measured.  In 
co-operation  with  my  friend,  Mr.  J.  T.  Bottomley,  I  have  recently 
been  able  to  detect,  by  means  of  a  thermo-electric  arrangement, 
a  rise  of  temperature  on  the  formation  of  oxyhemoglobin. 
We  mean  to  prosecute  our  researches  in  this  direction.  If 
heat  were  produced  in  considerable  amount,  the  arterial  blood 
returned  from  the  lungs  to  the  left  auricle  would  be  hotter  than 
the  blood  brought  to  the  right  auricle  by  the  veins.  This,  how- 
ever, is  not  the  case,  as  the  blood  on  the  right  side  of  the  heart 
is  decidedly  warmer  than  the  blood  on  the  left — a  fact  usually 
accounted  for  by  the  large  influx  of  warm  blood  coming  from  the 
liver.  The  heat-exchanges  in  the  lungs  are  of  a  very  complicated 
kind.  Thus,  heat  will  be  set  free  by  the  formation  of  oxyhemo- 
globin ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  will  be  absorbed  by  the 
escape  of  carbonic  acid,  and  by  the  formation  of  aqueous  vapour, 
and  a  portion  will  be  used  in  heating  the  air  of  respiration. 
The  fact  that  the  blood  in  the  left  auricle  is  colder  than  that  of 
the  right  auricle  is,  therefore,  the  result  of  a  complicated  series 
of  heat-exchanges,  not  easy  to  follow. 

Our  knowledge  as  to  the  state  of  the  carbonic  acid  in  the 
blood  is  not  so  reliable.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  certain  that 
almost  the  whole  of  the  carbonic  acid  which  may  be  obtained 
exists  in  the  plasma.  Defibrinated  blood  gives  up  only  a  little 
more  carbonic  acid  than  the  same  amount  of  serum  of  the  same 
blood.  Blood  serum  gives  up  to  the  vacuum  about  30  volumes 
per  cent,  of  carbonic  acid  ;  but  a  small  part — according  to 
Pfliiger,  about  6  volumes  per  cent. — is  given  up  only  after 
adding  an  organic  or  mineral  acid.  This  smaller  part  is  che- 
mically bound,  just  as  carbonic  acid  is  united  to  carbonates, 
from  which  it  can  be  expelled  only  by  a  stronger  organic  or 
mineral  acid.  The  ash  of  serum  yields  about  one-seventh  of  its 
weight  of  sodium  ;  this  is  chiefly  united  to  carbonic  acid  to  form 
carbonates,  and  a  part  of  the  carbonic  acid  of  the  blood  is  united 
to  those  salts.  It  has  been  ascertained,  however,  that  defibrin- 
ated blood,  or  even  serum  containing  a  large  number  of  blood 
corpuscles,  will  yield  a  large  amount  of  carbonic  acid,  even 
without  the  addition  of  an  acid.  Thus,  defibrinated  blood  will 
will  yield  40  volumes  per  cent,  of  carbonic  acid — that  is,  34 
volumes  which  would  be  also  given  up  by  the  serum  of  the  same 
blood  (without  an  acid),  and  6  volumes  which  would  be  yielded 
after  the  addition  of  an  acid.  Something,  therefore,  exists  in 
defibrinated  blood  which  acts  like  an  acid  in  the  sense  of  setting 
free  the  6  volumes  of  carbonic  acid.  Possibly  the  vacuum  may 
cause  a  partial  decomposition  of  a  portion  of  the  haemoglobin, 
and,  as  suggested  by  Hoppe-Seyler,  acid  substances  may  thus 
be  formed. 

But  what  is  the  condition  of  the  remaining  30  volumes  per 
cent,  of  carbonic  acid  which  are  obtained  by  the  vacuum  alone? 
A  portion  of  this  is  probably  simply  absorbed  by  the  serum  ;  this 
part  escapes  in  proportion  to  the  decrease  of  pressure,  and  it  may 
be  considered  to  be  physically  absorbed.  A  second  part  of  this 
carbonic  acid  must  exist  in  chemical  combination,  as  is  indicated 
by  the  fact  that  blood  serum  takes  up  far  more  carbonic  acid 
than  is  absorbed  by  pure  water.  On  the  other  hand,  this  chemicai 
combination  is  only  a  loose  one,  because  it  is  readily  dissolved  by 
the  vacuum.  There  cah  be  no  doubt  that  a  part  of  this  carbonic 
acid  is  loosely  bound  to  carbonate  of  soda,  Na2C03,  in  the  serum, 


probably  to  acid  carbonate  of  soda,  NaIIC03.  This  compound 
exists  only  at  a  certain  pressure.  On  a  fall  of  pressure,  it  de- 
composes into  sodium  carbonate  and  carbonic  acid,  the  latter 
becoming  free.  A  third  part  of  this  carbonic  acid  is  probably 
loosely  bound  chemically  to  disodium  phosphate,  Na2HP04,  a 
salt  which  also  occurs  in  the  blood  serum.  Fernet  has  shown 
that  it  binds  two  molecules  of  carbonic  acid  to  one  molecule  of 
phosphoric  acid.  This  salt  occurs  in  considerable  quantity  only 
in  the  blood  of  Carnivora  and  Omnivora,  while  in  that  of 
Herbivora,  such  as  in  the  ox  and  calf,  only  traces  exist.  It 
cannot  be  supposed  in  the  latter  instances  to  hold  much  carbonic 
acid  in  chemical  combination.  There  must  exist,  therefore, 
other  chemical  substances  for  the  attachment  of  the  carbonic 
acid  of  the  blood,  and  it  has  been  suggested  that  a  part  may 
be  connected  with  the  albumin  of  the  plasma. 

According  to  Zuntz,  the  blood  corpuscles  themselves  retain  a 
part  of  the  carbonic  acid,  as  the  total  blood  is  able  to  take  up  far 
more  carbonic  acid  out  of  a  gaseous  mixture  rich  in  carbonic  acid, 
or  consisting  of  pure  carbonic  acid,  than  can  be  absorbed  by  the 
serum  of  the  same  quantity  of  blood.  No  compound,  however,  of 
carbonic  acid  with  the  blood  corpuscles  is  known. 

The  nitrogen  which  is  contained  in  the  blood  to  the  amount  of 
from  I  "8  to  2  volumes  per  cent.,  is  probably  simply  absorbed,  for 
even  water  is  able  to  absorb  to  2  volumes  per  cent,  of  this  gas. 

If  we  then  "regard  the  blood  as  a  respiratory  medium  having 
gases  in  solution,  we  have  next  to  consider  what  is  known  of  the 
breathing  of  the  tissues  themselves.  Spallanzani  was  undoubtedly 
the  first  to  observe  that  animals  of  a  comparatively  simple  type 
used  oxygen  and  gave  up  carbonic  acid.  But  he  went  further, 
and  showed  that  various  tissues  and  animal  fluids,  such  as  the 
blood,  the  skin,  and  portions  of  other  organs,  acted  in  a  similar 
way.  These  observations  were  made  before  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century,  but  they  appear  to  have  attracted  little  or  no 
attention  until  the  researches  of  Georg  Liebig  on  the  respiration 
of  muscle,  published  in  1850.  He  showed  that  fresh  muscular 
tissue  consumed  oxygen  and  gave  up  carbonic  acid.  In  1856, 
Matteucci  made  an  important  advance,  by  observing  that  mus- 
cular contraction  was  attended  by  an  increased  consumption  of 
oxygen,  and  an  increased  elimination  of  carbonic  acid.  Since 
then,  Claude  Bernard  and  Paul  Bert,  more  especially  the  latter, 
have  made  numerous  observations  regarding  this  matter.  Paul 
Bert  found  that  muscular  tissue  has  the  greatest  absorptive 
power.  Thus  we  arrive  at  the  grand  conclusion  that  the  living 
body  is  an  aggregate  of  living  particles,  each  of  which  breathes 
in  the  respiratory  medium  passing  from  the  blood. 

As  the  blood,  containing  oxygen  united  with  the  colouring 
matter  (haemoglobin),  passes  slowly  through  the  capillaries,  fluid 
matter  transudes  through  the  walls  of  the  vessels,  and  bathes  the 
surrounding  tissues.  The  pressure  or  tension  of  the  oxygen  in 
this  fluid  being  greater  than  the  tension  of  the  oxygen  in  the 
tissues  themselves,  in  consequence  of  the  oxygen  becoming  at 
once  a  part  of  the  living  protoplasmic  substance,  oxygen  is  set 
free  from  the  haemoglobin,  and  is  appropriated  by  the  living 
tissues,  becoming  part  of  their  protoplasm.  Whilst  alive,  or  at 
all  events  whilst  actively  discharging  their  functions,  as  in  the 
contraction  of  a  muscle,  or  in  those  changes  we  term  secretion  in 
a  cell,  the  living  protoplasm  undergoes  rapid  decompositions, 
leading  to  the  formation  of  comparatively  simple  substances. 
Amongst  these  is  carbonic  acid.  As  it  has  been  ascertained  that 
the  tension  of  the  carbonic  acid  in  the  lymph  is  less  than  its 
tension  in  venous  blood,  it  is  difficult  at  first  sight  to  account  for 
the  absorption  of  carbonic  acid  by  venous  blood  ;  but  its  tension 
is  higher  than  that  of  carbonic  acid  in  arterial  blood,  and  it  must 
be  remembered  that  the  lymph  has  had  the  opportunity,  both  in 
the  connective  tissue  and  in  the  lymphatic  vessels,  of  modifying 
its  tension  by  close  contact  with  arterial  blood.  Strassburg 
fixes  the  tension  of  the  carbonic  acid  intthe  tissues  as  equal  to 
45  mm.  of  mercury,  while  that  of  the  venous  blood  is  only 
41  mm.  We  may  assume  that  as  the  carbonic  acid  is  set  free,  it 
is  absorbed  by  the  blood,  uniting  loosely  with  the  carbonates  and 
phosphates  of  that  fluid,  thus  converting  it  from  the  arterial  into 
the  venous  condition.     This  constitutes  respiration  of  tissue. 

In  connection  with  the  respiration  of  tissue,  as  determined  by 
the  analysis  of  the  blood  gases  and  of  the  gases  of  respiration, 
there  arises  the  interesting  question  of  the  ratio  between  the 
amount  of  oxygen  absorbed  and  the  amount  of  carbonic  acid  pro- 
duced, and  very  striking  contrasts  among  animals  have  thus  been 
determined.  Thus  in  Herbivora  the  ratio  of  the  oxygen  absorbed 
to  the  carbonic  acid  produced,  or  the  respiratory  quotient,  as  it 
is  termed  by  Pfliiger,  ^?  amounts  to  from  o*    to  10,  while  in 


August  23,  1888]  ' 


NATURE 


401 


Carnivore  it  is  from  075  to  o'8.     Omnivora,  of  which  man  may 

be  taken  as  the  example,  come  between         -  =  o'87.    Thequo- 

0 
tient  is  greater  in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  carbohydrate  in  the 
diet,  whether  the  animals  are  Carnivora,  Herbivora,  or  Omnivora. 
The  respiratory  quotient  becomes  the  same,  about  075,  in  starv- 
ing animals,  a  proof  that  the  oxidations  are  kept  up  at  the  cost  of 
the  body  itself,  or,  in  other  words,  the  starving  animal  is  car- 
nivorous. The  intensity  of  respiration  in  different  animals  is 
well  shown  in  the  following  table,  in  which  the  amount  of 
oxygen  used  is  given  per  kilogramme  of  body-weight  per  hour 
(Dr.  Immanuel  Munk,  "  Physiologie  des  Menschen  und  der 
Siingethiere,"  1888,  p.  82J. 

Respiratory 
Animal.  O  in  grammes.  ^O.?"'' 

o"' 
Cat     1007         077 

D°g 1*183            075 

Rabbit            0-918         o'Q2 

Hen 1  -300         0-93 

Small  singing  birds  ...  11-360         078 

Frog 0-084         063 

Cockchafer    ...          ...  1 '019  ...          ...  -o'8i 

Man 0-417         0-78 

Horse             0563         0*97 

Ox     0*552  ...          ...  0-98 

Sheep             ...           ..  0-490  ...          ...  0-98 

Smaller  animals  therefore  have,  as  a  rule,  a  greater  intensity  of 
respiration  than  larger  ones.  In  small  singing  birds  the  intensity 
is  very  remarkable,  and  it  will  be  seen  that  they  require  ten  times 
as  much  oxygen  as  a  hen.  On  the  other  hand,  the  intensity  is 
low  in  cold-blooded  animals.  Thus  a  frog  requires  135  times 
less  oxygen  than  a  small  singing  bird.  The  need  of  oxygen  is 
therefore  very  different  in  different  animals.  Thus  a  guinea-pig 
soon  dies  with  convulsions  in  a  space  containing  a  small  amount 
of  oxygen,  while  a  frog  will  remain  alive  for  many  hours  in  a  space 
quite  free  of  oxygen.  It  is  well  kn  >wn  that  fishes  and  aquatic 
animals  generally  require  only  a  small  amount  of  oxygen,  and 
this  is  in  consonance  with  the  fact  that  sea-water  contains  only 
small  quantities  of  this  gas.  Thus,  according  to  the  elaborate 
researches  of  my  friend,  Prof.  Dittmar,  on  the  gases  of  the  sea- 
water  brought  home  by  the  Cha/Ienger  Expedition,  collected  in 
many  parts  of  the  great  oceans,  and  from  varying  depths  : — "  The 
ocean  can  contain  nowhere  more  than  15 '6  c.c.  of  nitrogen,  or 
more  than  8"i8  c.c.  oxygen  per  litre  ;  and  the  nitrogen  will  never 
fall  below  8-55  c.c.  We  cannot  make  a  similar  assertion  in  re- 
gard to  the  oxygen,  because  its  theoretical  minimum  of  4-30  c.c 
per  litre  is  liable  to  further  diminution  by  processes  of  life  and 
putrefaction  and  processes  of  oxidation  "  (Dittmar,  Proceedings 
of  Phil.  Soc.  of  Glasgow,  vol.  xvi.  p.  61).  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
a  sample  of  water  from  a  depth  of  2875  fathoms  gave  only 
o*6  c.c.  per  litre  of  oxygen,  while  one  from  a  depth  of  1500 
fathoms  gave  2-04  c.c.  per  litre.  Taking  I5°C.  as  an  average 
temperature,  one  litre  of  sea-water  would  contain  only  5-31  c.c. 
of  dissolved  oxygen— that  is,  about  0-5  c.c.  in  100  c.c.  Contrast 
this  with  arterial  blood,  which  contains  20  c.c.  of  oxygen  in 
100  c.c.  of  blood,  or  there  are  about  forty  times  as  much  oxygen 
in  arterial  blood  as  in  sea- water.  At  great  depths  the  quantity 
of  oxygen  is  very  much  less,  and  yet  many  forms  of  life  exist  at 
these  great  depths.  Fishes  have  been  dredged  from  a  depth  of 
2750  fathoms,  where  the  amount  of  oxygen  was  probably  not 
so  much  as  o'o6  c.c.  per  100  c.c,  or  300  times  less  than  that 
of  arterial  blood.  Making  allowance  for  the  Smaller  quantity  of 
oxygen  in  the  blood  of  a  fish  than  that  of  a  mammal,  it  will  still 
be  evident  that  the  blood  of  the  fish  must  contain  much  more 
oxygen  than  exists  in  the  same  volume  of  sea- water.  No  doubt 
we  must  remember  that  the  water  is  constantly  renewed,  and  that 
the  oxygen  in  it  is  in  the  state  of  solution,  or,  in  other  words, 
in  a  liquid  state.  But  the  question  remains,  where  do  these  deep- 
sea  creatures  obtain  the  oxygen  ?  Probably  by  a  method  of 
storage.  Biot  has  found  in. the  swimming-bladder  of  such  fishes 
70  volumes  per  cent,  of  pure  oxygen,  a  gas  in  which  a  glowing 
splinter  of  wood  is  relit.  This  oxygen  probably  oxygenates  the 
blood  of  the  fish  when  it  plunges  into  the  dark  and  almost  airless 
depths  of  the  ocean. 

Aquatic  breathers,  however,  if  they  live  in  a  medium  contain- 
ing little  oxygen,  have  the  advantage  that  they  are  not  troubled 
with  free  carbonic  acid.  One  of  the  most  striking  facts  discovered 
by  the  Challenger  chemists  is  that  sea-water  contains  no  free 


carbonic  acid,  except  in  some  situations  where  the  gas  is  given 
oli  by  volcanic  action  from  the  crust  of  the  earth  forming  the 
sea-bed.  In  ordinary  sea-water  there  is  no  free  carbonic  acid, 
because  any  carbonic  acid  formed  is  at  once  absorbed  by  the 
excess  of  alkaline  base  present.  Thus  the  fish  breathes  on  the 
principle  of  Fleuss's  diving  apparatus,  in  which  the  carbonic  acid 
formed  is  absorbed  by  an  alkaline  solution.  There  is  nothing 
new  under  the  sun.  The  fish  obtains  the  oxygen  from  the  sea- 
water,  no  doubt,  by  the  chemical  affinity  of  its  haemoglobin, 
which  snatches  every  molecule  of  oxygen  it  may  meet  with, 
while  it  gets  rid  of  its  carbonic  acid  easily,  because  there  is  not 
only  no  tension  of  carbonic  acid  in  the  sea-water  to  prevent  its 
escape,  but  there  is  always  enough  of  base  in  the  sea-water  to 
seize  hold  of  the  carbonic  acid  the  moment  it  is  formed.  If  we 
could  get  rid  of  the  carbonic  acid  of  the  air  of  expiration  as 
easily,  we  could  live  in  an  atmosphere  containing  a  much  smaller 
percentage  of  oxygen. 

I  have  now  placed  before  you  the  generally  accepted  doctrines 
regarding  the  chemical  and  physical  problems  of  respiration. 
But  one  has  only  to  examine  them  closely  to  find  that  there  are 
still  many  difficulties  in  the  way  of  a  satisfactory  explanation  of 
the  function.  For  example,  is  the  union  of  haemoglobin  with 
oxygen  a  chemical  or  a  physical  process  ?  If  oxyhemoglobin  is 
a  chemical  substance,  how  can  the  oxygen  be  so  readily  removed 
by  means  of  the  air-pump  ?  On  the  other  hand,  if  it  is  a 
physical  combination,  why  is  the  oxygen  not  absorbed  according 
to  the  law  of  pressure  ?  It  is  important  to  note  that,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  haemoglobin  absorbs  a  quantity  of  oxygen  nearly  constant 
for  ordinary  temperatures,  whatever  may  be  the  amount  of  oxy- 
gen present  in  the  mixture  of  gases  to  which  it  is  exposed.  This 
is  true  so  long  as  the  amount  of  oxygen  does  not  fall  below  a 
certain  minimum,  and  it  clearly  points  to  the  union  of  the  haemo- 
globin with  the  oxygen  being  a  chemical  union.  Suppose  we 
diminish  the  amount  of  oxygen  in  the  air  breathed,  the  partial 
pressure  of  the  gas  is  of  course  also  diminished,  but  it  is  evident 
that  we  might  diminish  the  total  pressure  instead  of  diminishing 
the  amount  of  oxygen.  To  avoid  difficulties  in  respiration,  when 
one  is  obliged  to  breathe  an  air  deficient  in  oxygen,  we  ought  to 
increase  the  pressure  at  which  the  air  is  breathed  ;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  to  avoid  danger  in  breathing  air  under  a  low 
pressure,  we  ought  theoretically  to  increase  the  richness  of  the 
air  in  oxygen.  Thus,  with  a  pressure  of  760  mm.  the  air  should 
contain,  as  it  normally  does,  21  per  cent,  of  oxygen,  while  with 
a  pressure  of  340  mm.  it  should  contain  46  per  cent.,  and  with 
a  pressure  of  250  mm.  it  should  contain  as  much  as  63  per  cent. 
On  this  basis  a  pressure  of  5  atmospheres  should  be  associated 
with  an  atmosphere  containing  about  3  per  cent,  of  oxygen.  By 
increasing  the  pressure,  we  increase  the  quantity  of  oxygen  by 
weight  in  a  given  volume. 

The  explanation  is  that  in  all  of  these  cases  the  partial  pressure 
of  the  oxygen  is  nearly  the  same — that  is,  not  far  from  157  mm. 
of  mercury,  and  the  general  law  is  that  for  all  kinds  of  breathing 
the  pressure  of  the  oxygen  should  be  nearly  that  of  the  oxygen 
in  ordinary  atmospheric  air.  Whilst  the  absorption  of  oxygen 
by  the  haemoglobin  has  nothing  directly  to  do  with  the  pressure, 
it  is  striking  that  any  atmosphere  contains  enough  oxygen  by 
weight  for  the  haemoglobin  in  the  blood,  when  the  partial 
pressure  of  the  oxygen  is  near  157  mm.  On  each  side  of  this 
median  line  life  can  be  supported  with  considerable  differences 
of  pressure.  Thus  the  pressure  may  be  gradually  reduced  until 
the  point  of  the  dissociation  of  oxyhemoglobin  is  reached — that 
is  to  say,  down  to  about  TV  of  an  atmosphere.  On  the  other 
hand,  animals  may  breathe  an  atmosphere  containing  two  or 
three  times  the  normal  amount  of  oxygen  without  appearing  to 
be  affected.  This  was  first  noticed  by  Regnault  and  Reiset,  and 
the  observation  has  been  much  extended  by  Paul  Bert.  The 
latter  distinguished  physiologist  found  that  an  increase  even  up 
to  8  or  10  atmospheres  did  not  produce  any  apparent  effect, 
but  on  reaching  the  enormous  pressure  of  20  atmospheres,  death, 
with  severe  tetanic  convulsions,  was  the  result.  He  also  showed 
that  the  additional  increment  of  oxygen  absorbed  by  the  blood 
under  the  influence  of  each  atmosphere  of  added  pressure  was 
very  small.  Thus,  with  a  pressure  of  I  atmosphere  the  amount 
of  oxygen  absorbed  by  the  blood  was  about  20  per  cent,  by 
volume,  a  pressure  of  2  atmospheres  caused  an  increase  of 
only  o'9  per  cent.,  of  3  atmospheres  07  per  cent,,  of  4  atmo- 
spheres o"6  per  cent.,  of  5  atmospheres  0-5  per  cent.,  of  6 
atmospheres  o"2  per  cent.,  of  7  atmospheres  o"2  per  cent.,  of  8 
atmospheres  o-i  per  cent.,  of  9  atmospheres  o-i  percent.,  and 
of  10  atmospheres  o'i  per  cent.  Thus  from  1  atmosphere  to  10 
atmospheres  the  increase  was  only  to  the  extent  of  3-4  per  cent., 


402 


NATURE 


\August  23,  1888 


so  that  the  blood  now  contained  23-4  per  cent,  by  volume  instead 
of  20  per  cent.  These  facts  indicate  that  when  all  the  haemo- 
globin has  been  satisfied  with  oxygen  it  becomes  indifferent, 
within  limits,  to  any  additional  oxygen  that  may  be  forced  into 
the  blood  under  pressure,  and  thus  the  blood  of  animals  breathing 
an  atmosphere  richer  in  oxygen  than  ordinary  air  is  not  more 
highly  oxygenated  than  normal  blood.  The  practical  result  also 
follows  that  it  is  of  no  use  in  the  treatment  of  disease  to  cause 
patients  to  breathe  an  atmosphere  richer  in  oxygen  than  ordinary 
air,  because,  at  ordinary  atmospheric  pressure,  no  more  oxygen 
can  thus  be  caused  to  enter  the  blood,  and  if  it  be  desirable  to 
hyperoxygenate  the  blood,  this  can  only  be  done  by  breathing 
oxygen,  under  a  pressure  of  three  or  four  atmospheres,  in  a 
chamber  in  which  the  body  of  the  patient  is  subjected  to  the 
same  pressure. 

In  this  connection  it  is  important  to  notice  the  enormous  ab- 
sorptive surface  for  oxygen  presented  by  the  red  blood  corpuscles 
of  man.  There  are  about  5,000,000  red  corpuscles  in  each 
cubic  millimetre.  Each  corpuscle  has  a  superficial  area  of 
0*000128  square  millimetre.  Taking  the  blood  in  the  body  of 
a  man  of  average  size  at  4/5  litres,  that  is  4,500,000  cubic  milli- 
metres, the  number  of  corpuscles  is  about  22,500,000,000,000, 
and  this  would  give  a  superficial  area  of  2,880,000,000  square 
millimetres,  or  2880  square  metres,  or  about  315 1  square  yards 
— that  is  to  say,  the  absorptive  area  of  the  blood  corpuscles  is 
equal  to  that  of  a  square  having  each  side  about  56  yards.  The 
haemoglobin  in  a  red  blood  corpuscle  amounts  to  about  \%  of  its 
weight.  The  blood  of  a  man  of  average  size  may  be  taken  at 
4536  grammes,  or  about  10  pounds.  Such  blood  contains  about 
i3-o83  per  cent,  of  haemoglobin,  and  4536  grammes  will  con- 
tain about  593  grammes  of  haemoglobin,  or  about  ii  pound. 
As  regards  the  iron,  which  is  supposed  to  be  an  essential  consti- 
tuent of  haemoglobin,  100  grammes  of  blood  contain  00546 
gramme.  It  follows  that  the  total  amount,  4536  grammes, 
contain  about  2-48  grammes,  or  nearly  39  grains.  Twenty-five 
minims  of  the  tinctura  ferri  perchloridi  contain  about  1  grain 
of  pure  iron,  so  it  will  be  seen  that  not  many  doses  are  required 
to  introduce  into  the  body  an  amount  of  iron  as  large  as  exists 
in  the  whole  of  the  blood. 

The  absorption  of  oxygen,  therefore,  probably  takes  place  as 
follows  :  the  inspired  air  is  separated  in  the  alveoli  of  the  lung 
by  delicate  epithelial  cells  and  the  endothelial  wall  of  the 
pulmonary  capillaries  from  the  blood  which  circulates  in  the 
latter.  The  exchange  of  gas  takes  place  through  these  thin 
porous  membranes,  so  that  the  velocity  of  the  transit  must  be 
practically  instantaneous.  As  the  oxygen  is  bound  loosely  to 
the  haemoglobin  of  the  corpuscles,  the  laws  of  diffusion  can  have 
only  a  secondary  influence  on  its  passage,  and  only  so  far  as  it 
has  to  pass  into  the  plasma  so  as  to  reach  the  blood-corpuscles. 
The  plasma  will  absorb,  at  35°  C,  about  2  volumes  per  cent.,  if 
we  take  the  coefficient  absorption  of  the  plasma  as  equal  to  that 
of  distilled  water.  Many  of  the  blood  corpuscles  of  the  pulmon- 
ary blood  have  just  returned  from  the  tissues  with  their  haemo- 
globin in  the  reduced  state,  and  the  latter  at  once  withdraws 
oxygen  from  the  plasma.  In  an  instant  more  oxygen  passes  out 
of  the  pulmonary  air  into  the  plasma,  from  which  the  oxygen  is 
again  quickly  withdrawn  by  the  haemoglobin  of  the  corpuscles, 
and  so  on.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that,  if  the  oxygen  did  not 
exist  in  loose  chemical  combination,  it  would  only  be  absorbed, 
and  its  amount  would  depend  on  the  barometrical  pressure  at 
the  moment,  and  would  follow  each  fluctuation  of  pressure 
through  a  range,  say,  of  one-fourteenth  of  the  total  pressure. 
Such  an  arrangement  could  not  fail  in  affecting  health.  If,  on 
ascending  a  high  mountain,  say  15,000  to  20,000  feet  above  the 
level  of  the  sea,  the  pressure  sank  to  nearly  one-half,  the  blood 
would  then  contain  only  half  its  normal  quantity  of  oxygen,  and 
disturbances  in  the  functions  of  the  body  would  be  inevitable. 
High-flying  birds,  soaring  in  regions  of  the  air  where  the 
pressure  falls  below  half  an  atmosphere,  would  suffer  from  want 
of  oxygen  ;  but  in  deep  mines  and  on  high  mountains  men  and 
animals  live  in  a  state  of  health,  and  the  quick-breathing  bird 
has  a  sufficient  amount  of  oxygen  for  its  marvellous  expenditure 
of  energy,  because  the  amount  of  oxygen  in  the  blood  is  inde- 
pendent of  the  factor  which  exercises  an  immediate  influence  on 
the  gas  contents  of  the  fluid— namely,  the  partial  pressure. 
Kempner  has  also  proved  that  so  soon  as  the  amount  of  oxygen 
in  the  respiratory  air  sinks  only  a  few  per  cent,  below  the 
normal,  the  consumption  of  oxygen  by  the  tissues  and  the  forma- 
tion of  carbonic  acid  also  fall  in  consequence  of  the  processes  of 
oxidation  in  the  body  Decoming  less  active. 

■It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that,  in  certain  circumstances,  tissues 


and  even  organs  may  continue  their  functions  with  little  or  no 
oxygen.  Thus,  as  quoted,  Max  Marckwald,  in  his  work  on  the 
"  Innervation  of  Respiration  in  the  Rabbit  "  (translated  by 
T.  A.  Haig,  with  introduction  by  Dr.  McKendrick  ;  Blackie 
and  Son,  1888):  "  Kronecker  and  MacGuire  -found  that  the 
heart  of  the  frog  pulsates  just  as  powerfully  with  blood  deprived 
of  its  gases  as  with  that  containing  oxygen,  while  the  blood  of 
asphyxia,  or  blood  containing  reduced  haemoglobin,  soon  stops 
its  action." 

Further,  Kronecker  has  found  that  dogs  bear  the  substitution 
of  two-thirds  to  even  three-fourths  of  their  blood  by  06  per- 
cent, solution  of  common  salt,  and  Von  Ott  withdrew  14/15 
of  the  blood  of  a  dog,  and  replaced  the  same  with  serum  from 
the  horse,  free  from  corpuscles.  For  the  first  day  or  two  after 
the  transfusion  the  dog  had  only  1/55  part  of  the  normal 
number  of  red  blood  corpuscles,  so  that  it  had  only  1/55  part 
of  its  normal  amount  of  oxygen.  But  this  dog  showed  no 
symptoms  except  weakness  and  somnolency,  nor  did  it  suffer 
from  distress  of  breathing,  a  remarkable  fact  when  we  consider 
that  the  blood  of  an  asphyxiated  dog  still  contains  3  per  cent,  of 
oxygen,  and  that  it  may  show  great  distress  of  breathing  when 
there  is  still  one-sixth  part  of  the  normal  amount  of  oxygen  in 
its  blood. 

The  conditions  regulating  the  exchange  of  carbonic  acid  are 
quite  different.  We  have  seen  that  the  carbonic  acid  is  almost 
exclusively  contained  in  the  blood  plasma,  the  smaller  part  being 
simply  absorbed,  and  the  greater  part  chemically  bound,  a  portion 
existing  in  a  fairly  firm  combination  with  a  sodic  carbonate  of 
the  plasma,  and  another  portion  in  a  loose,  easily  decomposable 
combination  with  the  acid  sodium  carbonate,  and  a  third  portion 
with  the  sodium  phosphate  Carbonic  acid  is  contained  in  air 
only  in  traces,  and  its  tension  in  the  air  is  almost  nothing.  The 
air  contained  in  the  lungs  is  not  wholly  expelled  by  each  respira- 
tion, but  a  part  of  the  air  of  expiration,  rich  in  carbonic  acid, 
always  remains  in  the  lung.  It  is  evident,  then,  that  by  the  mixing 
of  the  air  of  inspiration  with  the  air  in  the  alveoli,  the  latter  will 
become  richer  in  oxygen  and  poorer  in  carbonic  acid.  The  air 
in  the  alveoli,  however,  will  always  contain  more  carbonic  acid 
than  atmospheric  air.  Pfliiger  and  Wolff  berg  have  found  the 
amount  of  carbonic  acid  in  alveolar  air  to  be  about  3  "5   volumes 

\  'c   x  760 

per  cent.,  therefore  its  tension  will  be  — —      =27  mm.   of 

100 

mercury.  The  tension  of  the  carbonic  acid  in  the  blood  of  the 
right  ventricle  (which  may  be  taken  as  representing  venous 
pulmonary  blood)  amounts,  according  to  Strassburg,  to  5-4  per 
cent.  —  41  mm.  of  mercury,  and  is  14  mm.  higher  than  that  in 
the  alveoli.  Carbonic  acid  will,  therefore,  pass  by  diffusion 
from  the  blood  into  the  alveolar  air  until  the  tension  of  the 
carbonic  acid  has  become  the  same  in  the  blood  and  in  alveolar 
air.  Before  the  state  of  equilibrium  is  reached,  expiration  begins 
and  removes  a  part  of  the  air  out  of  the  alveoli,  so  that  the 
tension  of  the  carbonic  acid  again  becomes  less  than  that  in  the 
blood.  During  the  expiration  and  the  following  pause,  the 
elimination  of  carbonic  acid  continues.  This  physical  arrange- 
ment has  the  advantage  for  diffusion,  that  by  expiration  the  whole 
air  is  not  driven  out  of  the  lungs,  for,  if  expiration  had  emptied 
the  lungs  of  air,  the  diffusion  would  have  ceased  altogether 
during  expiration  and  the  following  pause,  and  diffusion  have 
been  possible  only  during  inspiration.  There  would  thus  have 
been  an  incomplete  separation  of  the  carbonic  acid  from  the 
pulmonary  blood.  But  as  air  remains  in  the  lungs,  the  stream 
of  diffusion  between  pulmonary  blood  and  pulmonary  air  goes  on 
steadilv,  and  fluctuations  occur  only  in  regard  to  its  velocity 
(Munk). 

Any  account  of  the  gaseous  constituents  of  the  blood  would  be 
incomplete  without  a  reference  to  the  ingenious  theory  recently 
advanced  by  Prof.  Ernst  Fleischl  von  Marxow,  of  Vienna, 
and  explained  and  illustrated  in  his  work  "  Die  Bedeutung  des 
Herzschlages  fiir  die  Athmung  ;  Eine  Neue  Theorie  des  Respira- 
tion,'"' a  work  distinguished  alike  by  the  power  of  applying  a  pro- 
found knowledge  of  physics  to  physiological  problems,  and  by  a 
keen  and  subtle  dialectic.  The  author  starts  with  the  antagonistic 
statements  that  of  all  animal  substances,  haemoglobin  is  the  one 
which  possesses  the  greatest  affinity  for  oxygen,  or  that  sub- 
stances exist  in  the  animal  body  which,  at  least  occasionally,  have 
a  greater  chemical  affinity  for  oxygen  than  haemoglobin  possesses. 
If  the  tissues  have  a  greater  affinity  for  oxygen  than  haemoglobin 
has,  how  is  it  that  in  the  blood  of  animals  that  have  died  of 
asphyxia  there  is  still  a  considerable  quantity,  in  some  cases  as 
much  as  5  volumes  per  100  volumes,  of  oxygen  ?  It  is  well  known 
■  that  the  blood  of  such  animals  invariably  shows  the  spectrum  ot 


August  23,  iSSS] 


NATURE 


403 


oxyhemoglobin.  The  tissues,  then,  do  not  use  up  all  the  oxygen 
of  the  oxyhemoglobin,  and  they  cannot,  therefore,  have  a  stronger 
affinity  for  the  oxygen  than  haemoglobin  has.  On  the  other  hand, 
as  the  tissues  undoubtedly  seize  hold  of  the  oxygen,  and  rob  the 
hemoglobin  of  it,  it  would  appear  as  if  they  really  had  a  stronger 
affinity  for  the  oxygen.  There  is  thus  a  contradiction  according 
to  Fleischl  von  Marxow,  and  it  shows  that  our  theories  as  to  the 
ultimate  chemical  changes  of  respiration  are  not  valid. 

It  might  be  objected  at  this  point  that  the  death  of  an  animal 
from  asphyxia,  while  oxygen  still  remains  in  its  blood,  is  no  proof 
that  the  tissues  have  lost  their  power  of  removing  oxygen  from 
oxyhemoglobin.  It  only  indicates  that  certain  tissues,  probably 
those  of  the  nervous  centres,  require  more  oxygen  than  is  supplied 
to  them  ;  and,  therefore,  this  part  of  the  bodily  mechanism  is 
arrested,  with  the  result  of  somatic  death.  Other  tissues  still  live, 
and  use  up  oxygen  so  long  as  their  vitality  lasts.  At  the  same 
time,  I  am  willing  to  admit  that  it  is  a  striking  circumstance  that 
the  nervous  tissues  stop  working  before  they  have  exhausted  every 
atom  of  oxygen  in  the  blood. 

But  if  tissues  have,  as  all  admit,  an  affinity  for  oxygen,  and  if, 
at  the  same  time  we  grant,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  that  this 
affinity  is  not  strong  enough  to  dissociate  the  oxygen  from  the 
oxyhemoglobin,  can  we  perceive  any  physical  action  which 
would,  in  the  first  place,  perform  the  work  of  dissociation,  and 
then  present  the  oxygen  to  the  tissues  in  a  form  in  which  they 
would  readily  take  it  up  ?  Ernst  Fleischl  von  Marxow  holds  that 
he  has  discovered  such  an  action  or  agency  in  the  stroke  of  the 
heart.  He  founds  his  theory  on  some  remarkable  experiments, 
which  may  be  readily  repeated  with  an  ordinary  tight-fitting 
hypodermic  syringe.  (1)  Immerse  the  syringe  wholly  in  water, 
so  as  to  exclude  air.  Place  one  finger  over  the  nozzle,  draw  up 
the  piston  for  about  half  the  length  of  the  syringe,  and  then 
suddenly  remove  the  finger  from  the  nozzle.  The  water  will  rush 
in,  and  gas  will  be  given  off  in  considerable  amount,  the 
water  being  quite  frothy  for  a  short  time.  This  is  what  one 
would  expect.  (2)  Then  carefully  empty  the  syringe  of  air  and 
gently  draw  it  half  full  of  water  ;  then  place  the  finger  on  the 
nozzle  and  draw  the  piston  up  a  little,  so  as  to  leave  a  vacuum 
above  the  water.  In  these  circumstances  a  few  large  bubbles  of 
gas  will  come  off,  but  the  water  will  not  froth.  (3)  Empty  the 
syringe  thoroughly,  fill  it  half  full  of  water,  raise  it  obliquely  so 
that  the  knob  at  the  end  of  the  handle  of  the  piston  is  above  the 
water,  strike  the  knob  sharply  with  a  piece  of  wood,  using  the 
latter  as  a  mallet ;  then  draw  the  piston  up  a  little,  so  as  to 
leave  a  vacuum  above  the  fluid.  You  will  now  observe  that  so 
large  an  amount  of  gas  is  given  off  as  to  cause  the  fluid  to  froth. 
In  this  experiment,  the  percussion  stroke  has  evidently  altered 
the  mode  in  which  the  gas  escapes  when  a  vacuum  has  been 
formed  above  it.  These  experiments  may  also  be  done  by  using 
a  long  barometer  tube,  with  a  stop-cock  at  one  end,  and  an 
india-rubber  tube  communicating  with  a  movable  mercury 
cistern  (a  bulb)  at  the  other.  By  lowering  and  depressing  the 
bulb,  a  Torricellian  vacuum  may  be  formed,  and  water  may  be 
admitted,  as  with  the  syringe.  Of  the  effects  of  percussion,  in 
these  circumscances,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  and  the  experiments 
are  extremely  interesting  from  the  physical  point  of  view. 
Fleischl  von  Marxow  holds  that  when  gases  are  dissolved  in  fluids 
the  condition  is  analogous  to  the  solution  of  crystalloids.  If  a 
fluid  containing  gas  is  shaken,  more  especially  by  a  sudden  sharp 
stroke,  the  close  connection  between  the  molecules  of  the  fluid 
and  of  the  gas  is  rent  asunder,  and  the  gas  molecules  lie  outside 
and  between  the  molecules  of  fluid.  A  shock,  therefore,  con- 
verts a  real  solution  into  a  solution  in  which  the  fluid  and 
gaseous  molecules  are  in  juxtaposition  ;  and,  if  a  vacuum  is 
formed  soon  after  the  stroke,  small  bubbles  of  gas  make  their 
appearance  more  readily  than  if  a  stroke  had  not  been  given. 

He  then  applies  this  theory  to  the  phenomena  of  the  circulation 
and  of  respiration.  Starting  with  the  query  why  the  stroke  of 
the  heart  should  be  so  sudden  and  violent,  when  a  much  slower 
and  more  prolonged  rhythmic  movement  would  have  been 
sufficient  to  keep  up  the  tension  in  the  arterial  system  on  which 
the  movement  of  the  fluid  depends,  he  boldly  advances  the 
opinion  that  it  serves  for  the  separation  of  the  gases.  The  blood 
is  kept  in  motion  by  a  series  of  quick,  sudden  strokes,  because, 
for  the  taking  up  of  the  oxygen  by  the  tissues,  and  the  elimination 
of  carbonic  acid  by  the  lungs,  it  is  not  sufficient  that  the  blood 
runs  steadily  through  the  systemic  and  pulmonary  circulations  ; 
and,  therefore,  a  short,  hard  stroke  is  given  to  it  immediately 
before  it  enters  the  lungs  and  immediately  after  it  has  left  the 
lungs.  These  strokes  liberate  the  gases  from  a  state  of  solution, 
and  they  become  mixed  with  the  fluid  in  a  state  of  fine  dispersion. 


This  condition  of  fine  dispersion  is  favourable  for  the  elimination 
cf  the  carbonic  acid  by  the  lungs,  and  for  the  using  up  of  oxygen 
by  the  tissues. 

Fleischl  v6n  Marxow  then  proceeds  to  state  that  loose  chemical 
combinations  may  also  be  dissolved  by  shocks,  the  gas  passing 
into  a  condition  of  fine  molecular  dispersion,  and  that  a  quick 
repetition  of  the  shocks  prevents  a  recombination.  As  examples 
of  such  loose  combinations,  he  cites  oxyhemoglobin  and  the 
compounds  of  carbonic  acid  with  the  salts  of  the  plasma.  It  is 
here,  in  my  opinion,  that  the  theory  fails,  from  want  of  experi- 
mental evidence,  There  is  no  proof  that  shocks,  such  as  those 
of  the  contraction  of  the  right  and  left  ventricles,  can  liberate 
gases  from  loose  chemical  combinations  such  as  those  with  which 
we  have  to  deal,  and  it  is  somewhat  strained  to  point  to  the 
explosion  of  certain  compounds  excited  by  strong  mechanical 
shocks  or  by  vibratory  impulses. 

Some  of  the  applications  of  the  theory  are  very  striking.  For 
example,  Fleischl  von  Marxow  suggests  that  asphyxia  occurs 
before  the  oxygen  has  disappeared  from  the  blood,  because  it  is 
held  by  the  haemoglobin  so  firmly  that  the  tissues  cannot  obtain 
it.  Thus  suppose  no  oxygen  is  admitted  by  respiration.  It  is 
well  known  that  all  the  blood  in  the  body  passes  through  the 
heart  and  lungs  in  the  time  of  one  complete  circulation — that  is, 
in  about  twenty  seconds  ;  and  we  have  it  on  the  authority  of 
Pfliiger  that  in  this  time  one-third  of  the  oxygen  is  used  up  by  the 
tissues.  According  to  the  percussion  theory,  the  stroke  of  the 
left  ventricle  arterializes  the  blood — that  is,  liberates  the  oxygen 
from  the  haemoglobin — and  this  arterialized  blood  is  carried  to  the 
tissues.  The  haemoglobin  does  not  get  sufficient  time  to  recom- 
bine  with  the  oxygen,  because  of  the  successive  strokes  of  the 
heart  and  the  vibrating  thrill  kept  up  in  the  arterial  ramifications. 
The  free  oxygen  is  used  up  by  the  tissues  in  the  capillary  circula- 
tion, to  the  extent  of  one-third.  After  leaving  the  capillaries,  the 
two-thirds  of  oxygen  again  recombine  with  the  haemoglobin,  and 
in  this  condition  return  to  the  heart,  along  with  one-third  of 
haemoglobin  that  has  lost  its  oxygen.  In  ordinary  circumstances 
this  one-third  would  again  obtain  oxygen  from  the  alveoli  of  the 
lungs  ;  but  if  all  the  oxygen  there  has  been  used  up,  of  course  it 
cannot  obtain  any  oxygen.  The  blood  flows  from  the  lungs  to 
the  left  ventricle,  when  it  is  again  arterialized,  and  again  sent  out 
through  the  arteries  ;  but  as  there  is  now  a  large  amount  of  free 
hemoglobin  present  in  the  capillary  circulation,  it  will  seize  hold 
of  a  part  of  the  oxygen,  and  the  tissues  will  obtain  less  than  the 
usual  supply.  With  each  successive  circulation,  the  amount  of 
oxygen  available  for  the  tissues  will  become  less  and  less,  until 
the  tissues  receive  none,  because  all  the  oxygen  set  free  by  each 
beat  of  the  left  ventricle  is  seized  hold  of  in  the  capillary  circula- 
tion by  the  reduced  hemoglobin.  The  tissues  die  from  want  of 
oxygen,  because  there  is  too  much  reduced  hemoglobin  present, 
a  substance  having  a  greater  affinity  for  oxygen  than  the  tissues 
possess,  a  result  that  would  probably  occur,  as  in  drowning,  in 
the  time  of  six  or  eight  complete  circulations — that  is,  in  three  or 
four  minutes. 

Time  will  not  allow  me  to  refer  further  to  this  ingenious 
theory,  which  still  requires  the  proof  that  such  shocks  as  those 
of  the  heart  can  liberate  gases  from  the  compounds  that  exist  in 
the  blood.  In  my  opinion,  Fleischel  von  Marxow  exaggerates 
the  importance  of  the  shock,  while  he  under-estimates  the 
evidence  of  the  spectroscope,  which  always  shows  the  spectrum 
of  oxyhemoglobin  even  in  arterial  blood  drawn  from  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  heart,  and  kept  from  contact  with  the  air.  Nor 
can  I  accept  his  statement  that  the  force  of  the  stroke  of  the 
heart  is  practically  the  same  in  all  classes  of  warm-blooded 
animals,  and  one  can  hardly  imagine  the  feeble  stroke  of  the 
left  ventricle  of  a  mouse  would  be  sufficient  to  liberate  the 
oxygen  from  the  oxyhemoglobin  of  its  blood.  Further,  it  may 
be  urged  that  the  conditions  of  the  experiments  with  the  syringe 
are  very  unlike  those  of  the  circulation,  more  especially  in  the 
fact  that  the  walls  of  the  syringe  are  rigid,  while  those  of  the 
heart  and  vessels  are  yielding  and  elastic  Again,  when  an 
organ  is  supplied  with  a  solution  of  oxyhemoglobin  from  a 
pressure  bottle,  by  a  process  of  transfusion,  the  tissues  will 
reduce  the  oxyhemoglobin,  and  take  up  the  oxygen  without  any 
kind  of  percussion  action  being  brought  into  play. 

Physiologists,  however,  cannot  but  treat  with  the  greatest 
respect  the  experiments  and  reasoning  of  a  physicist  so  able  as 
Fleischel  von  Marxow  is  known  to  be,  and  the  theory  will  be 
thoroughly  tested  in  every  detail.  I  may  be  allowed  to  contri- 
bute an  expression  of  deep  interest  in  this  brilliant  speculation, 
and  to  say  that  I  entirely  agree  with  its  author  in  accepting  the 
suggestions  of  teleology  in  the  investigations  of  such  problems. 


404 


NATURE 


\_Augtist  23,  1888 


While  the  rigid  investigation  of  facts  is  no  doubt  one  of  the  great 
methods  of  science,  we  must  not  forget  that  by  asking  questions  as 
to  the  use  or  value  of  a  particular  physiological  arrangement,  we 
may  obtain  light  as  to  the  road  along  which  investigations  are 
to  be  pursued.  This  is  the  guiding  star  of  Fleischl  von  Marxow's 
speculation,  and  it  has  led  him  and  other  physiologists  to 
scrutinize  anew  the  theories  of  respiration  now  in  vogue. 

In  this  address  we  have  had  abundant  evidence  of  the  fact  that 
physiology,  in  the  solution  of  some  of  her  problems,  depends  en- 
tirely upon  the  methods  of  chemistry  and  physics.  The  air-pump, 
the  special  advantages  of  the  mercurial  air-pump,  the  methods 
devised  for  collecting  and  analyzing  the  gases  of  the  blood,  the 
spectroscope,  have  all  contributed  important  facts  to  our  know- 
ledge of  respiration.  The  narrative  placed  before  you  also  illus- 
trates in  a  striking  manner  the  relation  of  modern  physiology  to 
the  physiology  of  our  forefathers.  The  latter  were  engaged  in 
observing  and  explaining  the  more  obvious  phenomena,  whilst 
the  modern  physiologists  are  pushing  their  researches  further,  and 
are  endeavouring  to  study  the  hidden  phenomena,  which,  like  a 
second  order,  lie  behind  these.  I  need  scarcely  add  that  even  the 
results  of  modern  research  are  not  to  be  regarded  as  final. 
Although  we  see  a  little  further  and  more  clearly  than  those  who 
went  before,  there  is  still  uncertainty  as  to  fact  and  obscurity  as 
to  explanation  in  most  departments  of  physiological  science,  and 
not  least  as  regards  the  function  of  respiration.  Enough  has 
been  said  to  show  that  in  the  study  of  respiratory  mechanisms  we 
meet  with  numerous  examples  of  the  same  wonderful  adaptation 
of  organic  structure  to  physical  conditions  as  may  be  traced  in 
the  mechanism  of  the  eye  and  of  the  ear.  The  structure  of  a 
lung  or  of  a  gill  is  just  as  much  adapted  for  the  play  of  the 
physical  laws  regulating  gases  as  the  retina  is  tuned  to  the 
vibrations  of  the  ether,  or  as  the  organ  of  Corti  responds 
sympathetically  to  the  waves  of  musical  tone. 

List  of  Experiments  in  illustration  of  the  Lecture. 

1.  Appearance  of  blood  after  having  been  shaken  with  carbonic 
acid. 

2.  Appearance  of  blood  after  having  been  shaken  with 
hydrogen . 

3.  Appearance  of  blood  after  having  been  shaken  with 
nitrogen. 

4.  Appearance  of  blood  after  having  been  shaken  with  oxygen. 

5.  Fac-siniile  model  of  Leeuwenhoek's  syringe,  by  which  gases 
were  first  demonstrated  in  the  blood. 

6.  Absorption  of  ammonia  by  water. 

7.  Gases  escaping  from  water  in  Torricellian  vacuum. 

8.  Gases  escaping  from  blood  in  Torricellian  vacuum. 

9.  Spectrum  of  oxyhemoglobin  shown  by  electric  light. 

10.  Spectrum  of  reduced  haemoglobin  ;  the  reduction  effected 
by  ammonium  sulphide. 

1 1.  Spectrum  of  oxyhaemoglobin  changing  into  that  of  reduced 
haemoglobin  by  heating  blood  in  vacuo. 

12.  Demonstration  of  a  new  gas-pump  for  the  physiological 
lecture  table  (Figs.  1,  2,  and  3). 

13.  Demonstration  of  the  use  of  Pfliiger's  gas-pump. 

14.  Collection  of  blood-gases  and  demonstration  of  the 
existence  of  carbonic  acid  and  of  oxygen. 

15.  Carbonic  acid  collected  from  a  solution  of  carbonate  of 
soda  in  vacuo. 

16.  Method,  by  use  of  thermo-electric  piles  with  galvano- 
meter, of  observing  thermal  changes  attending  formation  of 
oxyhemoglobin. 

17.  Demonstration  of  Fleischl  von  Marxow's  experiment?,  not 
with  a  syringe,  but  with  the  fluid  in  a  Torricellian  vacuum  so 
arranged  as  to  receive  a  shock. 

Dr.  McKendrick  asks  us  to  direct  the  attention  of  our  readers 
to  a  statement  in  his  address  which  he  wishes  to  correct.  He 
stated  :  "  If  the  union  of  oxygen  with  the  colouring  matter  is  an 
example  of  oxidation,  it  must  be  attended  with  the  evolution  of 
heat,  but,  so  far  as  I  know,  this  has  not  been  measured."  He 
then  referred  to  a  method  by  which  Mr.  J.  T.  Bottomley  and  he 
had  been  able  to  observe  the  heat  produced.  Dr.  McKendrick 
was  not  then  aware  of  an  important  research  on  this  subject 
conducted  in  187 1  by  his  friend  Dr.  Arthur  Gamgee,  and  con- 
tained in  a  Report  to  the  British  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science  in  1871.  Dr.  Gamgee,  both  by  the  use  of 
thermometers  and  by  thermo-electric  arrangements,  demonstrated 
the  important  fact  that  an  evolution  of  heat  accompanies  the 
union  of  oxygen  with  haemoglobin,  and  in  the  Report  referred  to 
there  is  ample  evident  that   the  research  was  conducted  with 


great  skill  and  with  an  appreciation  of  the  difficulties  to  be 
surmounted.  He  arrived  at  the  conclusion  "  that  the  mean  rise 
of  temperature  during  the  absorption  of  oxygen  amounted  to 
o°'0976  C.  The  maximum  heating  found  was  o°iu  C,  and 
the  minimum  oc-o83  C." 


MOLECULAR  PHYSICS:  AN  ATTEMPT  AT  A 
COMPREHENSIVE  DYNAMICAL  TREAT- 
MENT OF  PHYSICAL  AND  CHEMICAL 
FORCES.1 

I. 

'"FHE  author  states  that  his  attention  was  drawn  to  the 
subject  in  the  first  place  by  personal  intercourse  with 
Sir  William  Thomson,  and  by  his  opening  address  to  the  Mathe- 
matical and  Physical  Section  of  the  British  Association  at  the 
Montreal  meeting  in  1884,  followed  by  the  study  of  the  litho- 
graphed report  of  his  lectures  on  "  Molecular  Dynamics"  at  the 
Johns  Hopkins  University. 

The  opening  paragraph  of  the  paper  contains  a  restatement  of 
the  portions  of  Thomson's  theory  applicable  to  the  explanation 
of  optical  phenomena.  Thomson  did  not  succeed  in  arriving  at 
a  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  fact  that  metallic  reflection  and 
double  refraction  are  accompanied  by  little  or  no  dispersion. 
The  author  believes  that  he  has  overcome  this  difficulty  by  a 
more  complete  discussion  of  the  formulae  by  expansion  in  series. 
He  then  proceeds  to  apply  the  theory  to  the  explanation  of 
chemical  phenomena  on  a  purely  dynamical  basis,  and  arrives 
at  a  method  of  determining  the  spectrum  of  a  compound  from 
the  spectra  of  its  constituents. 

The  second  portion  of  the  paper  is  quite  independent  of  the 
first,  and  also  of  Thomson's  theories,  except  that  it  gives  a  com- 
plete explanation  of  the  manner  in  which  the  ether  vibrations 
can  be  taken  up  by  the  molecules  of  a  body. 

The  author  endeavours  to  explain  electrical  phenomena  by 
transverse  vibrations  of  the  ether,  which  are  very  small  com- 
pared to  the  diameter  of  a  molecule  or  of  an  atom,  and  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  and  interesting  results  of  his  investigation 
is  that  the  theory  leads  to  Weber's  law  expressing  the  mutual 
action  of  two  electric  currents,  subject  to  a  restriction  which 
excludes  exactly  those  cases  the  consideration  of  which  led 
Helmholtz  to  the  conclusion  that  the  law  was  untenable.  A 
further  confirmation  of  the  theory  is  given  by  its  explanation  of 
a  number  of  other  phenomena,  such  as  fluorescence,  magnetism, 
and  diamagnetism,  and  the  electro-magnetic  rotation  of  the 
plane  of  polarization. 

Part  I. — Light,  Heat,  and  Chemical  Affinity. 
§  1.  —  T/ze  Internal  Structure  of  Molecules. - 

The  ether  is  assumed  to  fill  the  whole  of  space,  and  to  be 
everywhere  of  equal  elasticity  and  density.  It  is  further  assumed 
that,  with  respect  to  vibrations  of  periods  comparable  with  those 
of  light-waves,  the  ether  behaves  like  a  perfectly  elastic  solid  ; 
while  with  respect  to  slower  vibrations,  such  as  those  due  to  the 
motion  of  gaseous  molecules,  it  behaves  like  a  perfect  fluid,  so 
that  the  molecules  can  traverse  it  freely. 

A  molecule  is  supposed,  on  Thomson's  3  theory,  to  consist  of 
a  solid  core  inclosed  within  a  series  of  spherical  shells.  Between 
the  core  and  the  innermost  shell  there  is  supposed  to  be  an 
elastic  action  of  a  nature  which  might  be  represented  by  a  series 
of  symmetrically  disposed  elastic  springs. 

A  similar  elastic  action  is  supposed  to  take  place  between 
every  pair  of  adjacent  shells,  and  also  between  the  outermost 
shell  and  the  external  ether. 

Let  j  be  the  number  of  shells  in  a  molecule,  and  let  their 
masses,  beginning  with  the  outermost  one,  be 

Mi  M_a  M; 

47T-        4TT-  47T" 

The  centres  of  the  core  and  shells  may  be  supposed  to  lie  in  a 
straight  line  and  to  be  capable  of  oscillations  along  this  line. 
The  elastic  force  between  each  pair  of  shells  is  assumed  to  be  pro- 
portional to  the  relative  displacement  of  their  centres  ;  and  that 
between  the  outermost  shell  and  the  external  ether,  proportional 

1  A  Paper  read  before  the  Physico-Economic  Society  of  Konigsberg,  by 
Prof.  F.  Lindemann,  on  April  5,  1888. 

2  The  author  generally  uses  the  term  molecule  to  denote  either  an  atom 
or  a  molecule  except  when  he  is  considerirg  chemical  compounds. — G.  W.  T. 

3  "  Lectures  on  Molecular  Dynamics  and  the  Wave  Theory  of  Light,"  by 
Sir  William  Thomson.     (Baltimore,  1884.) 


August  23,  1888] 


NATURE 


405 


to  the  displacement  of  the  centre  relatively  to  the  external  ether. 
Let  xv  x2,  .  .  .  xj,  be  the  absolute  displacement  of  the/shells, 
and  £  the  displacement  of  the  ether  ;  and  let  cx,  c.,,  .  .  .  cj,  be 
the  magnitudes  of  the  elastic  forces.  We  then  have  the  following 
equations  : — 

JV1  -t    (t  JC-t    /  w  \  /  \ 

.  .  .(1) 


4^ 


Let  the  point  £  have  a  periodic  motion  given  by 


I 


(2) 


Then  this  motion  will  gradually  be  communicated  to  the  centres 
of  Ihe  shells  in  a  manner  which  has  been  fully  worked  out  by 
Thomson.  The  value  of  T  will  vary,  and  after  a  certain 
interval  a  steady  condition  will  be  arrived  at  in  which  all  the 
points  will  have  periodic  motions,  so  that 


Xi  =  at-  cos 


awt 
T 


(3) 


where  T  is  now  arbitrary. 

Writing  ax  =  M,/T2  -  a  -c*  +  i,  equations  (1)  give 

-  CA  «  «.  -    c«; 


_  y 


which  may  be  written  in  the  form — 


c£     mx  I  Kx2-T2 


K22R2    , 
K2-T2 


K/Ry 


"J  ,1    .  (4) 
K,-2  -  T2/      w 


The  constant  Rt  represents  the  ratio  of  the  energy  of  the 
shell  mi  to  the  total  energy  of  the  system.  The  quantity  Kj  is 
determined  by  the  condition  that  when  T  =  Kj  the  ether 
remains  at  rest,  or  £  =  o  ;  and  it  may  be  called  a  critical  period 
of  the  molecule,  which  will  accordingly  have  /  critical  periods, 
and  the  molecule  may  undergo  vibrations  corresponding  to  any 
or  all  of  them  simultaneously  without  affecting  the  external 
ether. 

Instead  of  this  somewhat  artificial  structure,  the  molecule 
may  be  regarded  as  consisting  of  a  sphere  filled  with  continuous 
matter  of  density  varying  with  the  radius,  the  density  having 
different  values  for  each  of/'  assigned  values  of  the  radius,  but 
though  this  would  be  a  simpler  physical  representation,  it  would 
lead  to  great  difficulties  in  the  mathematical  treatment,  though 
the  results  would  necessarily  be  of  a  similar  nature  to  those 
obtained  for  the  discrete  molecule,  and  it  is  therefore  preferable 
to  retain  this  representation. 

To  apply  the  theory  to  transparent  media  let  Mz/4ir2  represent 
the  thickness  instead  of  the  mass  of  a  shell,  and  let  p/4*2  and 
//4tt';  be  the  density  and  elasticity  respectively  of  the  ether. 

The  vibrations  of  the  ether  will  then  be  given  by  the 
equation 

y  dt-  dx1 


(5) 


And  the  vibrations  of  the  outermost  shell  will,  in  virtue  of  the 
assumptions  which  have  been  made,  be  connected  with  those  of 
the  neighbouring  ether  particle  £  by  an  equation  of  the  form 


a*/**;^-©^ 


df- 


dx 


(6) 


in  which  cx  only  differs  from  its  former  value  by  an  unimportant 
factor.  The  axis  of  x  is  here  supposed  to  be  perpendicular  to 
the  line  of  centres,  or  diameter,  of  the  molecule. 

Suppose  a  light -wave  in  a  direction  perpendicular  to  this  axis, 
and  given  by  the  equation 


\ 


-<z-t) 


(7) 


to  strike  the  molecule  ;  then  on  the  assumption  that  within  a 
definite  interval  only  one  wave  strikes  the  molecule,  or  that  the 
diameter  of  the  molecule  is  small  in  comparison  with  the  wave- 


M    = 


length,  where  /*  is  the  index  of  refraction  of  the  medium,  and 
v  the  velocity  of  the  wave  in  it,  equation  (6)  gives  the  equation 

expressing  the  index  of  refraction  as  a  function  of  the  period  of 
vibration  of  the  ray.  For  waves  of  period  equal  to  one  of  the 
critical  periods  of  the  molecule,  jj.  becomes  infinite,  so  that  the 
medium  is  opaque  for  such  waves,  which  are  entirely  absorbed 
in  increasing  the  energy  of  the  internal  vibrations  of  the  mole- 
cules. The  critical  periods  of  the  molecule  are  therefore  the 
vibration-periods  of  the  dark  lines  of  its  absorption  spectrum. 

§  2. — The  Index  of  Refraction  as  a  Function  of  the 
Wave-Length. 

As  a  preliminary  to  the  more  general  investigation,  it  will  be 
advisable  to  trace  the  dependence  of  the  index  of  refraction  upon 
the  period  of  vibration  in  the  simple  cases  /  =  1  and/  =  2. 

For/  =  1  the  molecule  will  consist  of  a  core  and  a  single 
shell,  and  equation  (8)  will  reduce  to 

t  -  fil!  -  c*Jt      K2R 

/  /     "  ~lmx    K2  -  T2    *" 


F 


(9) 


Writing 

P    - 
I 


-  ii- 
/ 


ft  - 


lmx 


T2 


(10) 
(11) 


this  may  be  written  in  the  form 

j(K2  -  x)  =  (a  +  $x)  (K2  -  x)  +yx2 

the  equation  of  a  hyperbola  having  the  asymptotes 

x  =  Kx2,  y  =  (0  -  i)x  +  a  -  7K2 

The  former  represents  the  single  critical  period,  and  the  latter 
practically  determines  by  its  direction  whether  the  index  of 
refraction  increases  or  diminishes  as  T,  the  period  of  vibration, 
increases,  and  this  the  more  exactly  the  more  nearly  the  curve 
coincides  with  its  asymptotes — that  is,  the  more  nearly  the  value 
of  its  determinant,  which  reduces  to  -  7K2/4  approaches  the 
value  zero. 

There  will  therefore  be  three  cases  to  consider — 

(a)  |8  -  y  >  o,  /u  increases  as  T  increases. 

(d)  0  -  7  =  o,  fi  approximately  constant. 

(c)  j8  -  7  ■<  o,  /j.  diminishes  as  T  increases. 

There  will  be  two  expansions  for  fi-  in  powers  of  T,  viz.  : 
For  T  <  K, 

'L^T-'-fl    -   I' 
lmx  \  K2 


+ 


K* 


+  &c 


=  1  -SXT2 


I        I 
For  T  >  K, 

/x2  =  o  +  fix 


T* 


&c 


} 

■}    ■    (12) 


yx 


K- 


1  +  -  -  + 


k:  + 


&c, 


_  p    ,    cy-KHl  _  fj 


f+- 


//«! 


+ 


U' 

^2K8R 


<-iK2R\  Ti 
m,    I 


I  + 


K2 


+   &c. 


(12a) 


The  coefficient  of  T2  must  be  very  small  in  order  that  the 
formulae  may  be  in  accordance  with  experimental  results. 

Both  the  equations  (12)  and  (12a)  give,  as  a  first  approxi- 
mation to  the  relation  between  wave-length  and  period  of 
vibration  in  the  medium  considered —    . 


=  VK^7     M 


But  A  is  approximately  proportional  to  T,  so  that 

f  = A  +  B*2  +  *£b' 


where  \0  is  the  wave-length  corresponding  to  the  period  T  =  K. 
This  agrees  with  the  results  of  Helmholtz's  theory,  and  with 
experiment.1 
For  values  of  T  not  in  the  neighbourhood  of  K,  the  hyperbola 

1  x  Wullner's  "  Experimental-Physik,"  vol.  ii.  p.  161,  fourth  edition. 


406 


NATURE 


\August  23,  1888 


may  be  replaced  by  its  non-vertical  asymptote,  and  then  it  follows 
from  (u)  that 

-Px^R  _  c}fT  _  Cl«K'R\ 
mx     / 


f  + 


v .  .  (13a) 


lmx  I 

the  right-hand  expression  consisting  of  the  first  two  terms  of 
(12a).  Wheny  =  2,  or  the  molecule  consists  of  a  core  and  two 
shells,  equation  (8)  becomes 

f  =  t  ~±y  t2  _  a!£  /  Ki2Ri    •    k,*r9 


1 


/wx    \  Kt2 


T8       K. 


-  TV 


:i4) 


y  —  a  +  0x  + 


yx- 


+ 


8x2 


Kj2  -  x      1Q  -  x 


where 


x,  y,  a,  0,  y,  have  the  same  meanings  as  before,  and 
8  =  -  c12'R2llm1.  The  curve  is  therefore  of  the  third  order  with 
two  vertical  asymptotes,  x  ss  Kx,  and  x  =  K2,  and  a  third  given 
by  the  equation 

y  =  a  -  yYLf  -  8K22  +  (£  -  7  -   S)x  .    .    .  (15) 

If  the  curve  nearly  coincides  with  its  asymptotes,  1*2  will  be 
given  approximately  in  terms  of  T2  by  (15),  except  near  the 
critical  periods,  and  as  before  there  will  be  three  cases,  viz.  : — 

(a)  /8  —  y  —  8  >  o,  /u.  increases  as  T  increases. 
{b)  $  —  y  -  8  =  o,  /j.  approximately  constant. 
(V)  £  -  y  —  8  <  o,  fx  diminishes  as  T  increases. 

Near  the  critical  periods  /x2  will  always  diminish  as  T 
increases. 

When  the  condition  (a)  is  fulfilled,  and  the  curve  does  not 
approximately  coincide  with  its  asymptotes,  /j,  may  continue  to 
decrease  as  T  increases  throughout  the  whole  branch  of  the 
curve  between  the  two  vertical  asymptotes,  the  curve  running 
from  the  upper  left-hand  to  the  lower  right-hand  side. 

The  expansions  in  powers  of  T  will  be  different  for  the  three 
branches,  viz.  :  — 

For  T  <  Ktt 

8  \  ,   _J  y  8 


H~  =  a  +  px  +  x- 


For  T  >  K2, 

/u2  =  a  -  7KX2  -  8K22  + 


f&j+nK7  +  Kv 


+  &c. 


(16) 


-  y  -  5)  x 

-  1  (7Ki8  +  SK„6)  +  &c 
xl 

For  Kx  <  T  <  K2, 

(J  -  a  -  7KX2  +  (j8  -  7)  x  - 
8x3        7I 


(7V  +  SK24) 
.    .    .    .  (16a) 


7^2 


8x2 

K2 


7K/ 


+ 


Kx< 


+  &c. 


(16*) 


The  first  terms  of  {16a)  are  identical  with  the  right-hand  side 
of  (15),  and  therefore  if  the  curve  nearly  coincides  with  its 
asymptotes,  it  will  closely  approximate  to  the  curve  (14),  except 
near  the  critical  periods.  This  explains  why  Cauchy's  expansion 
of  (j?  in  descending  powers  of  T,  or  of  X,  gives  approximately 
correct  results.  In  this  expansion  the  coefficient  of  T2  vanishes 
if  the  asymptote  is  parallel  to  the  axis  of  x,  viz.  if  .3  =  7  +  8, 
or  if 

mx  =  ^(IVRi  +  K22R2) (17) 

If  8  =  o  it  reduces  to  the  preceding  case  ;  the  curve  breaking 
up  into  the  asymptote  x  =  K2'2,  and  a  hyperbola.  If  7  =  o  it 
breaks  up  into  the  asymptote  x  =  K.x2  and  a  hyperbola. 

In  general,  with  a  greater  number  of  critical  periods,  if  the 
curve  is  of  the  order  n,  it  will  have  n  —  1  vertical,  and  one  other 
asymptote.  To  the  left  of  the  first  vertical  asymptote  and  to  the 
right  of  the  last  there  will  be  a  hyperbolic  branch,  and  between 
every  two  of  them  will  be  a  branch  of  the  curve  proceeding  from 
the  upper  left-hand  to  the  lower  right-hand  side,  either  falling 
continuously  or  reaching  a  minimum,  then  rising  to  a  maximum, 
and  again  falling  and  approaching  the  next  asymptote.  There 
will  be  n  distinct  expansions  for  /r  in  powers  of  T2,  one  for  each 
branch  of  the  curve.  In  many  cases  the  curve,  except  near  the 
critical  periods,  will  approximately  coincide  with  its  non-vertical 
asymptote,  and  there  will  then  ,be  the  three  cases,  (a),  [b),  (c), 
to  consider,  as  in  the  previous  examples. 

§  3. — Dispersion  and  Reflection. 
It  is   well  known  that  the  spectrum  of  light  of  a  given  kind 
depends   on   the  function  of  T2  serving"  to  express  <**.      The 


dispersion  in  a  refracting  medium  will  be  designated  as  normal 
when,  except  near  the  critical  periods,  /r  diminishes  without 
limit  as  T2  increases,  and  anomalous  when  /j.'2  increases  without 
limit,  or  passes  through  a  series  of  maxima  and  minima.  In 
the  first  case  the  colours  of  the  spectrum  will  appear  in  their 
"  natural  "  order,  the  smaller  values  of  T2  corresponding  to  the 
blue,  and  the  larger  values  to  the  red  end  of  the  spectrum.  In 
the  examples  considered  in  §  2  the  dispersion  will  accordingly 
be  normal  in  case  (c),  and  anomalous  in  case  (d),  while  in  case 
(l>)  the  spectrum  will  be  compressed  into  a  line. 

When  the  dispersion  is  anomalous  throughout,  the  colours 
will  appear  in  the  inverse  of  the  natural  order,  but  it  will  be 
otherwise  when  it  is  alternately  normal  and  anomalous. 

Consider,  for  example,  the  non-vertical  asymptote  in  case  (c). 
Then  if  there  are  only  two  critical  periods  there  will  be  to  the 
left  of  the  asymptote  x  =  Kx2,  a  hyperbolic  branch,  along 
which  ju2  will  decrease  continuously,  giving  normal  dispersion  at 
the  blue  end  of  the  spectrum  above  the  axis  of  x.  Below  this 
axis  jjt  will  be  negative,  and  therefore  /j.  will  be  imaginary,  so 
that  light  of  the  corresponding  period  wili  be  entirely  reflected 
by  the  medium.  From  the  point  of  intersection  of  the  branch 
of  the  curve  with  the  axis  of  x  to  the  point  x  =  Kj2  there  will 
therefore' be  a  dark  space  or  absorption  band.  To  the  right  of 
this  point  /u2  will  again  decrease  from  positive  infinity  to  a 
minimum. 

Suppose  this  to  be  at  a  position  for  which  x  =  p  above  the 
axis  of  x,  the  curve  will  then  rise  to  a  maximum,  say  for  .r  =  q. 
For  p  <  T2  <  q  the  light  will,  then  be  more  strongly  refracted 
than  for  T2  <;  /,  and  therefore  the  corresponding  colours  will 
be  displaced,  and  may  overlap  the  colours  for  which  T2  <  p. 
There  will  therefore  be  a  dark  band  at  the  part  of  the  spectrum 
which  should  be  occupied  by  them,  but  this  is  not  now  an 
absorption  band,  and  may  be  made  to  disappear  by  further 
dispersion.  For  T2  <;  q  the  dispersion  will  be  normal  up  to 
the  intersection  of  the  branch  with  the  axis  of  x,  from  which  a 
dark  band  will  extend  to  the  point  x  =  K„-,  after  which  the 
dispersion  will  again  become  normal. 

Phenomena  of  this  kind  have  been  observed  by  Kundt  and 
others,  and  the  fact  that  they  follow  from  the  formulae  was 
considered  by  Thomson  to  afford  important  confirmation  of  the 
theory.  In  fact,  taking  T  proportional  to  A,  the  preceding 
equations  do  not  differ  essentially  from  those  obtained  from 
quite  different  phenomena  by  Sellmayer,  von  Helmholtz, 
Lommel,  and  Ketteler,  and  which  have  been  shown  to  be  in 
complete  accordance  with  experiment.1 

Sir  William  Thomson,  in  his  Baltimore  lectures,  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  according  to  his  theory  metallic  reflection  would 
necessarily  cause  dispersion.  This  would  be  the  case  if  there 
were  only  a  single  expansion  for  fi1,  but  in  the  case  of  most  of 
the  metals  there  are  so  many  lines,  distributed  over  the  whole 
spectrum,  that  there  is  no  reason  for  selecting  any  one  in 
preference  to  the  others.  The  fact  that  all  the  colours  are 
reflected  to  practically  the  same  extent,  which  means  that  jir 
must  be  a  negative  constant,  may  be  completely  explained  by 
the  assumptions  that  the  corresponding  curve  of  the  wth  order 
approximates  very  closely  to  its  ;/  asymptotes,  and  that  the 
single  non-vertical  asymptote  is  very  nearly  parallel  to  the  axis 
p  —  o.  The  essential  portion  of  the  curve  may  then  be  replaced 
by  its  horizontal  asymptote,  as  in  the  cases  previously  con- 
sidered, in  which  J3  -  7  and  0  -  7  -  8  respectively  were 
assumed  to  be  nearly  zero.  The  non-existence  of  dispersion 
does  not  therefore  afford  an  objection  to  the  theory. 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  by  a  suitable  choice  of  the  disposable 
constants,  the  curve  may  be  made  to  practically  coincide  with 
its  asymptotes,  for  consider  the  curve  of  the  third  order  given 
by  (14).     This  may  be  written  in  the  form 

(K-f-x)  (K22-x)  (y-a-Px)  =  yx\Kf  - x)  +  8x-(Kx2 - x) : 

or 

(K^ - x)  (K22 -x)(y-a- px  +  7KX2  +  8K22  +  yx  +  Sx) 

=  x3  (7  +  8  -  7K;2  -  8K22)  -  x  (7V  +  8K24) 

+  KfK23  (7K12  +  8K22), 

and  it  is  evident  that  when  K:2  and  K22  are  given,  the  right- 
hand  member  may  be  made  to  vanish  by  taking  7  and  8  small 
enough,  and  the  required  condition  will  then  be  fulfilled,  since 
the  left-hand  member  equated  to  zero  represents  the  three 
asymptotes. 

1  See  Wiillner,  "  Experimental- Physik,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  io5  and  169,  fourth 
edition.  An  outline  of  the  various  theories  of  reflection  and  refraction 
will  b^  f  jund  in  the  British  Association  Reports  for  i335  and  1S87. 


August  23,  1888] 


NATURE 


407 


§  4. — Spectra  of  Luminous  Gases. 

It  was  first  shown  by  Kirchhoff  that  glowing  gases  emit  light 
of  the  same  wave  length,  and  therefore  also  of  the  same  period, 
as  that  which  they  absorb. 

In  the  modern  theory  of  gases  it  is  assumed  that  the  molecules 
of  a  luminous  gas  move  over  a  certain  distance,  the  length  of 
the  "  free  path,"  in  straight  lines,  until  they  collide  with  other 
molecules,  or  with  the  sides  of  the  containing  vessel,  when  they 
move  off  rectilinearly  in  another  direction. 

At  every  collision  the  molecule  is  subjected  to  an  elastic 
impulse  in  a  direction  passing  through  its  centre,  causing 
internal  elastic  vibrations.  The  periods  of  these  vibrations 
could,  on  the  analogy  of  a  corresponding  problem  in  the  theory 
of  elasticity,  be  calculated  from  a  transcendental  equation,  if  the 
interior  of  the  molecule  were  uniformly  filled  with  matter  ; 
according  to  Thomson's  theory  of  molecular  structure  they  are 
determined  a  priori,  being  the  critical  periods  of  the  molecule. 
In  fact,  during  the  collisions  the  external  shells  only  are  in 
contact,  but  the  surrounding  ether  remains  unaffected,  and 
therefore  the  external  vibrations  must  be  of  such  a  nature  that 
I  =  o  (§  1),  which  is  the  condition  determining  the  critical 
periods.  But  according  to  §  1  these  periods  determine  the 
wave-length  of  the  light  absorbed.  Thus  Kirchhoff's  law  is  a 
consequence  of  the  theory. 

It  has  hitherto  been  assumed  that  the  vibrations  in  a  molecule, 
arising  from  the  collisions,  take  place  along  a  fixed  diameter, 
and  therefore  that  the  vibrations  due  to  one  encounter  are  not 
disturbed  by  a  later  one  in  another  direction.  If  the  tempera- 
ture or  the  density  of  the  gas  is  so  great  that  the  encounters 
follow  one  another  very  rapidly,  the  investigation  of  §  1  is  no 
longer  applicable,  and  light-waves  of  other  than  the  critical 
periods  will  be  emitted.  If  a  second  encounter  takes  place  only 
after  the  vibration  due  to  the  first  has  nearly  subsided,  the 
period  of  the  emitted  light  will  only  differ  slightly  from  a  critical 
period.  As  the  density  and  temperature  increase,  the  bright 
lines  will  therefore  gradually  increase  in  width.1  If  a  molecule 
receives  impulses  in  different  directions  in  rapid  succession,  very 
few  of  the  vibrations  will  have  the  critical  periods,  and  therefore 
the  dark  spaces  between  the  bright  lines  will  ultimately  dis- 
appear, and  the  spectrum  become  continuous,  as  is  well  known 
to  be  experimentally  true. 

§  5. — Applications  to  the  Theory  of  Heat, 

It  will  be  of  interest  to  see  what  explanation  Thomson's  mole- 
cular hypothesis  can  give  of  the  manner  in  which  the  velocity  of 
gaseous  molecules  can  be  increased  by  the  action  of  heat,  as  has 
been  assumed  in  what  precedes. 

The  energy  due  to  the  internal  molecular  vibrations  cannot 
possibly  exceed  a  definite  maximum  value,  for  the  amplitudes 
and  therefore  the  velocities  of  the  centres  of  the  shells  must  have 
fixed  upper  limits,  since  the  shells  must  remain  one  within  the 
other.  This  maximum  may  be  attained  either  for  vibrations  of 
a  single  critical  period,  or  of  all  the  critical  periods.  Suppose 
this  maximum  value  to  have  been  nearly  reached,  then  any 
further  disturbance  of  the  internal  equilibrium,  tending  to 
increase  the  amplitude  of  motion  of  one  of  the  centres  beyond 
the  maximum  value  possible  while  the  centre  of  gravity  remains 
fixed,  will  necessarily  displace  the  centre  of  gravity,  whether 
the  disturbance  be  due  to  a  wave  of  light  or  to  a  mechanical 
impulse. 

This  leads  to  the  general  and  fundamental  proposition  that 
"  A  molecule  will  begin  to  move  as  soon  as  the  energy  of  its 
internal  vibrations  has  attained  its  maximum  value,  supposing 
the  external  influences  to  which  the  attainment  of  the  maximum 
is  due  continue  to  act.2 

The  internal  equilibrium  of  a  molecule  may  be  disturbed 
I  either  by  light  or  heat,  the  disturbance  in  the  case  of  light  being 
due  to  its  action  on  the  critical  periods  of  the  molecule.  A 
medium  will  therefore  be  heated  when  traversed  by  light-rays  ; 
the  rays  of  the  critical  periods  set  the  molecular  shells  in  vibra- 
I  tion,  and  when  the  internal  energy  has  reached  its  maximum 
value,  the  centres  of  gravity  of  the  molecules  will  begin  to  move, 
and  this  motion  will  be  perceived  as  heat. 

This  result  may  be  expressed  by  saying  that  the  characteristic  constant 
C {  of  the  molecule  is  a  function  of  the  temperature.  It  is  preferable  to  regard 
the  ideal  spectrum,  whether  due  to  emission  or  absorption,  as  something 
definitely  fixed  ;  external  circumstances  merely  assisting  or  hindering  its 
formation. 

2  Sir  W.  Thomson  also  points  out  ("  Lectures,"  p.  280)  that  a  considerable 
ncrease  in  the  internal  vibrations  of  a  molecule  must  set  it  in  motion,  and 
th,rcrric  cav.se  a  produc'.ion  of  heat. 


The  energy  of  internal  motions  therefore  accounts  for  a  portion 
of  the  internal  work  of  the  mechanical  theory  of  heat. ' 

The  external  work  is  effected  by  the  motion  of  the  centres  of 
gravity  of  the  atoms,  and  this  takes  place  in  different  and  known 
ways  in  solid,  liquid,  and  gaseous  bodies.  Heat  may  act  on  a 
medium  either  by  radiation  or  conduction.  Radiant  heat  differs 
from  light  only  in  its  action  on  our  senses,  so  that  what  has  been 
said  about  light  will  apply  also  to  radiant  heat.  In  the  case  of  con- 
duction of  heat  the  process  is  exactly  the  reverse.  The  external 
work  of  the  medium  emitting  the  heat  will,  be  transmitted 
directly  to  the  medium  receiving  it  by  contact— that  is,  by  collisions 
of  molecules. - 

The  disturbance  of  the  internal  equilibrium  of  the  molecules  is 
here  merely  a  secondary  effect,  but  in  this  case  also  the  internal 
energy  will  gradually  increase  to  the  maximum  value.3 

The  emission  of  light  by  a  sufficiently  heated  solid  is  explained 
as  in  the  case  of  gases,  but  the  spectrum  in  the  case  of  the  solid 
is  continuous. 

Just  as  the  action  of  heat  may  produce  such  violent  molecular 
motion  as  to  cause  the  emission  of  all  possible  kinds  of  light,  so 
the  action  of  light  may  produce  a  molecular  motion  giving  rise 
to  a  special  kind  of  light.  This  will  only  happen,  however, 
when  the  molecule  (owing  to  specially  favourable  values  of  the 
constants  ct\  and  inl)  is  specially  susceptible  to  some  among  its 
critical  periods.  In  this  way  the  phenomenon  of  fluorescence 
may  be  explained.  G.  W.  DE  Tunzelmann. 

(To  be  continued.) 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  June  21.  — "  On  the  Determination  of  the 
Photometric  Intensity  of  the  Coronal  Light  during  the  Solar 
Eclipse  of  August  28-29,  1886.  Preliminary  Notice."  By 
Captain  W.  de  W.  Abney,  C.B.,  R.E.,  F.R.S.,  and  T.  E. 
Thorpe,  Ph.D.,  F.R.S. 

Attempts  to  measure  the  brightness  of  the  corona  were  made 
by  Pickering  in  1870,  and  by  Langley  and  Smith,  independently, 
in  1878,  with  the  result  of  showing  that  the  amount  of  emitted 
light  as  observed  at  various  eclipses,  may  vary  within  compara- 
tively wide  limits.  These  observations  have  been  discussed  by 
Harkness  ("  Washington  Observations  for  1876,"  Appendix  III.) 
and  they  are  again  discussed  in  the  present  paper.  Combining 
the  observations,  it  appears  that  the  total  light  of  the  corona  in 
1878  was  C072  of  that  of  a  standard  candle  at  1  foot  distance, 
or  3  "8  times  that  of  the  full  moon,  oro-ooooo69  of  that  of  the  sun. 
It  further  appears  from  the  photographs  that  the  coronal  light 
varied  inversely  as  the  square  of  the  distance  from  the  sun's  limb. 
Probably  the  brightest  part  of  the  corona  was  about  15  times 
brighter  than  the  surface  of  the  full  moon,  or  37,003  times  fainter 
than  the  surface  of  the  sun. 

The  instruments  employed  by  the  authors  in  the  measurement 
of  the  coronal  light  on  the  occasion  of  the  solar  eclipse  of  August 
28-29,  1886,  were  three  in  number.  The  first  was  constructed 
to  measure  the  comparative  brightness  of  the  corona  at  different 
distances  from  the  moon's  limb.  The  second  was  designed  to 
measure  the  total  brightness  of  the  corona,  excluding  as  far  as 
possible  the  sky  effect.  The  third  was  intended  to  measure  the 
brightness  of  the  sky  in  the  direction  of  the  eclipsed  sun.  In 
all  three  methods  the  principle  of  the  Bunsen  photometric  method 
was  adopted,  and  in  each  the  comparison-light  was  a  small  glow- 

1  The  discrepancies  occurring  in  the  determination  of  the  atomic  weights 
of  gases  may  therefore  be  explained  by  assuming  that  internal  work  is  done 
by  the  motions  of  ths  atoms,  instead  of  assuming,  as  would  otherwise  be 
necessary,  that  the  internal  work  is  only  done  by  the  motions  of  the 
molecules  and  a  decrease  in  the  attractive  force  between  them.  For 
"motion  of  the  atoms"  we  should  have  to  substitute  "motion  of  the  inner 
spherical  shells." 

2  For  the  method  of  deducing  the  differential  equation  of  heat-conduction 
from  these  considerations,  see  F.  Neumann,  "  Vorlesungen  tiber  die  Theorie 
der  Elasticitat,"  §  59. 

3  Dulong's  law  of  atomic  heat  gives  some  information  respecting  the 
relative  value  of  this  maximum.  This  law  states  that  the  quantity  of 
internal  work  due  to  heating  is  approximately  the  same,  at  any  rate  when  in 
the  gaseous  state,  for  elementary  bodies  which  are  ordinarily  sjlid  or  liquid, 
a  given  number  of  atoms  always  requiring  the  same  quantity  of  heat  to 
produce  a  given  rise  of  temperature.  It  follows,  then,  that  for  these 
elements  the  maximum  internal  energy  is  very  nearly  the  same.  Carbon, 
silicon,  sulphur,  and  phosphorus  behave  exceptionally  in  this,  as  in  many 
other  respects,  and  the  law  is  not  generally  true  for  the  elements  which  are 
ordinarily  gaseous.  Since  the  maximum  value  of  the  internal  energy  de- 
pends on  the  diameter  of  the  molecule,  as  well  as  on  the  constants  t ,  and  m? 
it  may  perhaps  be  concluded  that  the  diameter  of  the  molecules  of  these 
elements  are  approximately  equal. 


4o8 


NATURE 


[August  23,  1888 


lamp  previously  standardized  by  a  method  already  described  by 
one  of  the  authors  in  conjunction  with  General  Festing.  In  the 
first  two  methods  the  photometer-screen  was  fixed,  the  intensity 
of  the  comparison-light  being  adjusted  by  one  of  Varley's  carbon 
resistances  ;  in  the  third  the  glow-lamp  was  maintained  at  a  con- 
stant brightness,  the  position  of  the  screen  being  adjusted  along 
a  graduated  photometer  bar,  as  in  the  ordinary  Bunsen  method. 
Full  details  of  the  construction  of  the  several  pieces  of  apparatus 
are  given  in  the  original  paper. 

The  observations  during  the  eclipse  were  made  at  Hog  Island, 
a  small  islet  at  the  south  end  of  Grenada,  in  lat.  12°  o'  N.  and 
lon^  61°  43'  45"  W.,  with  the  assistance  of  Captain  Archer  and 
Lieutenants  Douglas  and  Bairnsfather  of  H.M.S.  Faniome. 
The  duration  of  totality  at  the  place  of  observation  was  about 
230  seconds,  but  measurements  were  possible  only  during  160 
seconds,  at  the  expiration  of  which  time  the  corona  was  clouded 
over.  A  careful  discussion  of  the  three  sets  of  measurements 
renders  it  almost  certain  that  the  corona  was  partially  obscured 
by  haze  during  the  last  100  seconds  that  it  was  actually  visible. 
Selecting  the  observations  made  during  the  first  minute,  which 
are  perfectly  concordant,  the  authors  obtain  six  measurements  of 
the  photometric  intensity  of  the  coronal  light  at  varying  distances 
from  the  sun's  limb,  from  which  they  are  able  to  deduce  a  first 
approximation  to  the  law  which  connects  the  intensity  of  the 
light  with  the  distance  from  the  limb. 

The  observations  with  the  integrating  apparatus  made  inde- 
pendently by  Lieutenants  Douglas  and  Bairnsfather,  agree  very 
closely.  It  appears  from  their  measurements  that  the  total  light 
of  the  corona  in  the  1886  eclipse  was — 

Douglas 0-0123  standard  candle 

Bairnsfather  ....  0-0125  ,, 


Mean 


00124 


at  a  distance  of  1  foot. 

In  comparing  these  observations  with  those  made  during  the 
1878  eclipse,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  conditions  of  ob- 
servation on  the  two  occasions  were  widely  different.  The 
observations  in  the  West  Indies  were  made  at  the  sea's  level,  in 
a  perfectly  humid  atmosphere  and  with  the  sun  at  no  greater 
altitude  than  190.  Prof.  Langley,  in  1878,  observed  from  the 
summit  of  Pike's  Peak  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  at  an  altitude 
of  14,000  feet,  in  a  relatively  dry  atmosphere  and  with  the  sun 
at  an  altitude  of  390. 

From  observations  on  the  transmission  of  sunlight  through 
the  earth's  atmosphere  (Abney,  Phil.  Trans.,  A,  clxxviii  (1887), 
251)  one  of  the  authors  has  developed  the  law  of  the  extinction 
of  light,  and,  by  applying  the  necessary  factors,  it  is  found  that 
the  intensity  of  the  light  during  the  1886  eclipse,  as  observed  at 
Grenada,  is  almost  exactly  half  of  that  of  which  would  have 
been  transmitted  from  a  corona  of  the  same  intrinsic  brightness 
when  observed  at  Pike's  Peak.  Hence  to  make  the  observations 
of  Prof.  Langley  comparable  with  those  of  the  authors,  the 
numbers  denoting  the  photometric  intensity  of  the  corona  in  1878 
must  be  halved.  The  result  appears,  therefore,  that  whereas  in 
1878  the  brightness  of  the  corona  was  0-0305  of  a  standard 
candle  at  a  distance  of  1  foot,  in  1886  it  was  only  0-0124  of  a 
candle  at  the  same  distance.  Several  of  the  observers  of  the 
West  Indian  eclipse  (including  one  of  the  authors)  were  also 
present  at  the  eclipse  of  1878,  and  they  concur  in  the  opinion 
that  the  darkness  during  the  1886  eclipse  was  very  much  greater 
than  in  that  of  1878.  The  graduations  on  instruments,  chrono- 
meter faces,  &c,  which  were  easily  read  in  1878,  were  barely 
visible  in  1886.  In  explanation  of  this  difference  in  luminous 
intensity  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  1878  eclipse  was  not 
very  far  removed  from  a  period  of  maximum  disturbance,  whereas 
in  1886  we  were  approaching  a  period  of  minimum  disturbance. 

Paris.  ■ 
Academy  of  Sciences,  August  6. — M.  Janssen,  Presi- 
dent, in  the  chair.— Fresh  experiments  on  the  fixation  of 
nitrogen  by  certain  vegetable  soils  and  plants,  by  M.  Berthelot. 
These  researches,  made  with  three  different  kinds  of  argil- 
laceous soil  and  with  plants  of  the  leguminous  family,  fully 
confirm  the  results  of  previous  studies.  The  fundamental 
fact  that  both  plants  and  soil  absorb  nitrogen  under  the 
most  diverse  conditions  is  now  placed  beyond  all  reasonable 
doubt.  So  certain  does  the  author  consider  this  conclusion, 
that  he  declines  all  further  discussion  on  the  subject  of  certain 
recent  negative  osperiments  carried  out  under  defective  condi- 


tions.—On  a  recent  change  in  the  views  of  meteorologists  regard- 
ing gyratory  movements,  by  M.  H.  Faye.  The  author  claims 
that  the  new  school  of  meteorologists,  represented  by  Messrs. 
Loomis,  Meldrum,  and  Douglas  Archibald  (see  Nature, 
June  14,  p.  149),  shows  a  tendency  to  accept  his  conclusions  on 
certain  points  at  issue.  These  authorities  already  admit  that  the 
cyclonic  movements  originate,  not  on  the  surface  of  the  earth 
as  had  long  been  contended,  but  in  the  higher  atmospheric 
regions,  a  position  irreconcilable  witli  their  hypothesis  of  an 
ascending,  but  in  full  accordance  with  M.  Faye's  view  of  a 
descending  motion. — Summary  of  the  solar  observations  made 
at  the  Royal  Observatory  of  the  Collegio  Romano  during  the 
second  quarter  of  1888,  by  M.  P.  Tacchini.  These  observations 
show  an  increase  of  the  solar  spots  in  May  and  June,  and  of  the 
protuberances  in  April.  The  general  inference  is  that  the  rela- 
tion between  these  two  orders  of  phenomena  is  less  intimate 
than  might  be  supposed  from  previous  observations.— On  a  new 
apparatus  for  studying  the  friction  of  fluids,  by  M.  M.  Couette. 
This  method,  differing  from  those  of  Coulomb  and  Poiseuille 
hitherto  employed,  is  based  on  the  principle  indicated  by  Dr. 
Margules  in  1881  {Wiener  Berichte,  2nd  series,  vol.  Ixxxiii.  p. 
588).  It  has  the  advantage  of  controlling  Navier's  theory  for 
very  thin  tubes  and  slow  discharge,  and  of  operating  on  gases  at 
constant  pressure.— On  levulose,  by  MM.  E.  Jungfleisch  and 
L.  Grimbert. — On  the  malonates  of  potassa  and  soda,  by  M. 
G.  Massol.— On  the  hydrates  of  methane  and  ethylene,  by  M. 
Villard. — On  experimental  tetanus,  by  M.  Rietsch.— M.  A.  de 
Schulten  describes  a  process  by  which  he  has  succeeded  in  pro- 
ducing the  crystallized  anhydrous  sulphates  of  cadmium  and  zinc 
(artificial  zincosite)  ;  and  M.  A.  Poincare  shows  how  are  pro- 
duced the  barometric  movements  corresponding  to  the  displace- 
ment of  the  moon  in  declination.  -The  present  number  contains 
the  text  of  the  address  delivered  by  the  President,  M.  Janssen,  at 
the  unveiling  of  the  monument  raised  by  the  city  of  Tours  to 
the  memory  of  General  Meusnier  on  July  29,  1S88. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Nature  and  the  Bible  :  J.  Davis,  2nd  edition  (Houlston).— Earth  Know- 
ledge Part  2  :  W.  J.  Harrison  and  H.  R.  Wakefield  (Blackie).— The  Ele- 
mentary Geometry  of  Conies :  C.  Taylor,  5th  edition  (Bell).— The  Bacon- 
Shakspere  Question  :  C.  Stopes  (Johnson).— Curve  Pictures  of  London  :  A. 
B.  MacDowall  (Low).— Great  Circle  Sailing:  R.  A.  Proctor  (Longmans).— 
Fifty  Years  of  Economic  Botany  :  J.  W.  Ellis— Journal  of  the  Royal 
Microscopical  Society,  August  (Williams  and  Norgate).— Proceedings  of  the 
Liverpool  Geological  Society,  vol.  v.  Part  4  (Liverpool).— Brain,  Part  42 
(Macmillan).— Bulletin  de  l'Academie  Royale  des  Sciences  de  Belgique, 
1888,  No.  7  (Brussels).— Quarterly  Journal  of  the  Geological  Society, 
August  (Longmans).— MeteorologischeBeobachtungen  in  Deutschland,  1886 
(Hamburg). 


CONTENTS.  page 

British    Petrography.      By    Prof.    John    W.    Judd, 

p  p  o 385 

Silkworms.     By  W.  F.  Kirby    ............    386 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Von  Fritsch  :  "  Allgemeine  Geologie        3°7 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

Functionless  Organs.— Prof.  J.  Burdon-Sanderson, 

F.R.S.  ;  Samuel  F.  Wilson 387 

Lamarckism  versus  Darwinism.— Edward  B.  Poul- 

ton  ;  Prof.  R.   Meldola,  F.R.S 3»8 

Modern  Views  of  Electricity.    IX.   By  Prof.  Oliver  J. 

Lodge,  F.R.S •    - •    •    3»9 

A    History    of  the    August    Meteors.      By   W.    F. 

Denning - 

Notes \ 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

Comet  1888  c  (Brooks) \ 

Yale  College  Observatory 2 

Gravitation  in  the  Stellar  Systems 39s 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for      the     Week    1888 

August  26— September  1      3 

Geographical  Notes •    •    •    •    •    •    ; 

The  Gases  of  the  Blood.     II.     By  Prof.  John  Gray 

McKendrick,  F.R.S .-    •    : 

Molecular  Physics  :  an  Attempt  at  a  Comprehensive 
Dynamical  Treatment  of  Physical  and  Chemical 

Forces.     I.     By  Prof.  F.  Lindemann 4 

Societies  and  Academies 4°7 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received     .    .   .   .   •    4°» 


NA  TURE 


409 


THURSDAY,   AUGUST   30,    il 


THEORETICAL   GEOLOGY. 

Theoretische  Geologie.  Von  Dr.  E.  Reyer,  A.  O.  Prof, 
der  Geologie  an  der  Universitat  Wien.  (Stuttgart, 
E.  Schweitzerbart'sche  Verlagshandlung,  1888.) 

IT  would  be  most  unfair  to  compare  the  work  before  us 
with  any  of  the  numerous  treatises  on  geological 
science  which  have  during  recent  years  made  their 
appearance  in  England,  Germany,  and  France.  The 
author's  aim,  as  defined  in  his  preface,  has  been  not  so 
much  to  give  a  well-proportioned  summary  of  the  ascer- 
tained facts  of  the  science,  as  to  prepare  an  historical  and 
critical  review  of  the  ideas  that  have  been  put  forward 
concerning  the  fundamental  principles  of  geology.  To 
find  a  parallel  to  the  present  essay,  indeed,  we  should 
have  to  go  back  to  the  "  Philosophic  der  Geologie " 
of  Vogelsang,  or  even  to  the  works  of  Lyell  and  Von 
Hoff. 

Those  who  are  familiar  with  Dr.  Reyer's  earlier  works 
— "  Die  Euganeen  :  Bau  und  Geschichte  eines  Vulcanes," 
and  "  Beitrag  zur  Fysik  der  Eruptionen  und  der  Eruptiv- 
Gesteine " — will  be  prepared  to  find  the  problems  of 
geology  treated  by  the  author,  not  only  with  great  fullness 
of  knowledge,  but  with  a  remarkable  freedom  from  the 
influence  of  traditional  modes  of  thought  ;  and  they  will 
not  be  disappointed  by  the  perusal  of  the  present  volume. 
Since  the  period  when  his  earlier  works  appeared,  Dr. 
Reyer  has  travelled  very  extensively,  and  has  had  the 
fortunate  opportunity  of  studying  those  splendid  mani- 
festations of  terrestrial  forces  which  are  found  in  the 
Western  Territories  of  the  United  States.  Everywhere 
the  reader  of  this  volume  is  enabled  to  profit  by  these 
widened  experiences  of  its  author. 

In  his  preface,  Dr.  Reyer  expresses  a  regret  that  there 
does  not  exist  in  Germany  the  same  class  of  private 
students  of  science  as  is  found  in  this  country  ;  for  to  the 
labours  of  men  who  have  been  alike  free  from  the  con- 
servative pedantry  of  the  professor  and  from  the  shallow 
pretensions  of  the  mere  dilettante,  he  justly  ascribes  a 
very  great  part  of  the  credit  of  advancing  geological 
science  in  England.  The  author  instances  the  names  of 
Hopkins  and  Herschel,  but  no  one  acquainted  with  the 
history  of  geology  will  fail  to  add  those  of  Hutton,  Sir 
James  Hall,  William  Smith,  Scrope,  De  la  Beche, 
Conybeare,  Lyell,  Darwin,  Godwin-Austen,  Sorby,  and  a 
host  of  others.  Regret  has  sometimes,  and  not  un- 
justifiably, been  expressed  that  the  moulding  of  geological 
thought  has,  during  recent  years,  fallen  more  completely 
into  the  hands  of  those  who  may  be  called  professional 
geologists— a  result  which  is  perhaps  a  necessary  con- 
sequence of  the  more  specialized  nature  of  the  study  at 
the  present  day  ;  but  we  trust  that  the  day  is  very  far 
distant  when  the  advance  of  geological  knowledge  in 
England  will  be  wholly,  or  indeed  mainly,  dependent 
on  the  labours  of  those  engaged  in  teaching  or  in  making 
geological  maps. 

Dr.  Reyer  seems  to  hold  that  it  is  almost  impossible 
that  physical  geology  and  palaeontology  should  be  cul- 
tivated  and   taught   by    the   same    individual,   and    he 
Vol.  xxxviii.— No.  983. 


advocates  the  practical  divorce  of  these  two  branches 
of  science.  It  would  not  be  difficult  to  point  out  objec- 
tions to  this  course  and  serious  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  its  adoption  ;  such  difficulties  must  arise  in  the  case 
of  rocks  which  are  wholly  or  in  part  made  up  of  the 
remains  of  organisms,  and  in  connection  with  questions 
concerning  the  physical  conditions  under  which  certain 
rock-masses  have  been  accumulated,  when  these  can  only 
be  adequately  discussed  after  the  nature  of  the  organic 
remains  inclosed  in  them  has  been  taken  into  account. 
Nevertheless,  no  one  will  contest  the  author's  right  to 
limit  the  scope  of  his  own  discussions  to  purely  physical 
problems  ;  and,  indeed,  Dr.  Reyer  has  found  himself 
compelled  to  confine  the  present  volume  to  the  questions 
more  or  less  directly  connected  with  igneous  activity 
upon  the  globe,  leaving  the  problems  more  especially 
connected  with  the  waters  of  the  globe  and  those  of 
cosmical  geology  for  future  sections  of  the  work. 

Commencing  with  an  account  of  the  explosive  action  of 
volcanoes  and  of  the  circumstances  connected  with  the 
outflow  of  lava  from  them,  the  author,  enlarging  the  scope 
of  the  inquiry  pursued  in  his  former  works,  proceeds  to 
discuss  the  physical  problems  involved  in  these  remarkable 
phenomena.  Observations  made  in  recent  years  upon  the 
absorption  of  gases  by  molten  metals  and  other  sub- 
stances, and  the  phenomena  attending  the  escape  of  the 
gases  from  such  magmas,  are  fully  described  ;  and  the 
bearing  of  these  facts  upon  the  problems  of  vulcanology 
are  clearly  pointed  out.  English  readers  will  be  pleased 
to  find  a  German  treatise  in  which  "  Elevation-craters " 
have  finally  disappeared,  and  scarcely  less  gratified  to 
read  our  author's  conviction,  very  clearly  expressed,  that 
the  modified  characters  of  the  older  lavas,  as  well  as  the 
apparent  deficiency  of  volcanic  products  among  the  older 
geological  formations,  are  due  to  secondary  changes,  and 
that  there  is  no  real  ground  for  the  supposed  absence  of 
granitic  rocks  among  the  igneous  products  of  the  younger 
geological  periods.  We  are  glad,  too,  to  notice  that  Dr. 
Reyer  recognizes  the  value  and  importance  of  the  obser- 
vations of  Scrope  and  Darwin  upon  the  banded  structure 
produced  in  viscid  lavas  ;  though  we  think  he  fails  to 
appreciate  the  full  bearing  of  these  facts  when  he  after- 
wards proceeds  to  discuss  the  important  question  of  the 
origin  of  foliation. 

In  the  discussion  of  the  problems  connected  with  the 
folding  and  faulting  of  rock-masses,  during  mountain- 
making,  Dr.  Reyer  exhibits  the  fullest  knowledge  and 
impartiality.  To  the  labours  of  Henry  Rogers  and  other 
American  geologists,  who  nearly  fifty  years  ago  worked 
out  the  structure  of  the  Appalachians  with  such  remark- 
able skill  and  geological  insight,  he  renders  full  justice, 
and  not  less  to  the  observations  of  their  able  successors 
who  have  in  recent  years  shown  what  singular  variations 
from  the  normal  structure  of  mountain  masses  exist  in 
the  Western  Territories  of  their  country.  It  is  a  fortunate 
circumstance  that  the  eastern  and  western  portions  of  the 
United  States  should  present  such  perfect  examples  of 
the  diverse  structures  found  in  mountain  ranges,  and  that 
the  geologists  of  that  country  have  proved  themselves  so 
capable  of  dealing  with  the  grand  but  difficult  problems 
presented  for  their  study.  But  at  the  same  time  our 
author  has  fully  set  forth  the  value  of  the  researches  of 
Lory,  Baltzer,   Heim,  and  others,  who  have  shown  that 


4io 


NA  TURE 


[August  30,  1 88b 


the  structures  found  in  the  Appalachians  are  equally 
characteristic  of  the  Alps,  and  the  more  denuded 
mountain  chains  of  Central  and  Northern  Europe.  In 
explaining  the  causes  of  regional  or  mechan:cal  meta- 
morphism,  Dr.  Reyer  fully  appreciates  the  importance  of 
the  experimental  researches  of  Tresca,  Daubree,  and 
Spring ;  while  he  fails  not  to  point  out  the  important 
additions  and  confirmation  of  the  theory  of  "  mechanical 
metamorphism,"  which  are  furnished  by  the  microscopical 
investigations  of  Lossen,  Lehmann,  and  other  recent 
authors  on  the  subject. 

Seismology,  the  study  of  earthquake  phenomena,  is 
usually  treated  by  the  writers  of  text-books  as  a  branch  of 
vulcanological  science  ;  but  we  agree  with  the  author  in 
regarding  it  rather  as  connected  with  the  great  move- 
ments of  earth-masses.  It  finds  an  appropriate  place  in 
this  work  between  the  chapters  dealing  with  dislocations 
of  the  earth's  crust,  and  those  devoted  to  the  great  secular 
movements  of  the  earth's  surface. 

In  a  work  like  the  present,  devoted  to  a  discussion  of 
problems  of  the  greatest  difficulty,  many  of  which  are  far 
from  ripe  for  solution,  some  of  the  views  of  the  author 
will  be  sure  to  challenge  criticism  and  others  to  provoke 
dissent.  Every  unprejudiced  reader  will  admit,  however^ 
that  Ur.  Reyer's  presentation  of  his  views  upon  these 
problems  is  characterized  not  only  by  much  originality  of 
thought,  but  by  a  studious  fairness  of  manner.  The 
citation  of  original  authorities  in  every  case  is  a  most 
praiseworthy  feature  of  the  work,  and  those  writers  from 
whom  the  author  differs  have  no  cause  to  complain,  as  is 
too  often  the  case,  that  he  has  not  even  tried  to  understand 
their  arguments.  Nowhere  does  there  exist  such  a  rich 
storehouse  of  facts  and  observations  bearing  upon  the  great 
questions  of  geology  as  in  the  volume  before  us,  and  we 
cannot  doubt  that  the  completion  of  Dr.  Reyer's  important 
work  will  mark  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  science,  and 
at  the  same  time  constitute  an  important  starting-point 
for  further  advances.  J.  W.  J. 


A  GUIDE  TO  THE  LICK  OBSERVATORY. 
Hand-book  of  the  Lick  Observatory  of  the   University  0/ 
California.      By   Edward    S.     Holden,    LL.D.      (San 
Francisco  :  The  Bancroft  Company,  1888.) 

THERE  are  two  classes  of  readers  to  whom  this  little 
book  ought  to  be  especially  welcome — namely, 
those  who  propose  to  visit  California,  and  those  who  do 
not  so  propose.  Travellers  will  miss  from  it  no  useful 
item  of  information.  They  are  told  where  to  lodge, 
what  to  wear,  how  to  get  themselves  conveyed  to 
their  destination,  what  to  look  at  and  admire.  They 
are  put,  moreover,  in  the  proper  frame  of  mind  for 
approaching  an  astronomical  sanctuary.  The  coldest 
and  dullest  can  hardly  under  such  guidance  remain 
utterly  apathetic  and  unintelligent.  The  general  in- 
terest of  the  work,  on  the  other  hand,  is  sufficiently 
attested  by  a  glance  at  the  table  of  contents.  It 
includes  a  "  Sketch  of  the  Life  of  James  Lick,"  the 
founder  of  the  Observatory,  a  history  of  the  institution, 
descriptions  of  the  buildings  and  instruments,  with  sec- 
tions on  "  The  Work  of  an  Observatory,"  "  Telescopes,'' 
"  Astronomical  Photography,"  "  Clocks  and  Time-keep- 
ing," and  "  The  Principal  Observatories  of  the  World." 


On  none  of  these  subjects  are  there  many,  on  some  there 
is  no  one  entitled  to  speak  with  greater  authority  than 
Prof.  Holden.  Nor  is  there  a  second  astronomer  in  the 
world  whose  utterances — so  far  as  they  are  an  index  to 
his  intentions — are  at  present  of  higher  moment  to 
science.  The  future  course  of  observation  largely  de- 
pends upon  his  use  of  the  vast  opportunities  placed  in  his 
hands.  A  colossal  experiment  is  being  tried  at  Mount 
Hamilton  ;  its  upshot  will  lay  down  the  lines  of  astro- 
nomical effort  for  many  a  decade  to  come.  For  results 
govern  the  star-gazing,  no  less  than  every  other  section 
of  mankind. 

Prof.  Holden  vainly,  we  fear,  seeks  to  disabuse  the 
public  of  its  fixed  idea  that  "  an  astronomer's  business  is- 
to  watch  the  heavens  go  by  and  to  '  make  discoveries.' 
Exactly  what  these  discoveries  are,"  he  goes  on  to  say, 
"  is  usually  not  stated,  but  unless  a  sufficient  number  are 
forthcoming  the  astronomer  is  held  to  be  blameworthy." 
The  Lick  Observers,  however,  possess  a  unique  advan- 
tage in  the  value  of  their  negative  results.  "  What  we 
cannot  see  with  our  telescope,  the  most  powerful  of  all, 
in  our  elevated  situation,  the  best  in  the  world,  need  not 
be  looked  for  with  inferior  telescopes  in  less  favoured 
situations." 

Celestial  photography  is  evidently  designed  to  be 
vigorously  prosecuted  on  Mount  Hamilton.  "  One  of  the 
principal  objects  of  the  Observatory,"  we  are  told,  "  will 
be  to  make  a  photographic  map  of  the  heavens,  by  means 
of  the  large  telescope  and  its  photographic  objective."  If 
carried  out  on  the  scale  which  appears  to  be  indicated, 
this  will  indeed  be  a  gigantic  undertaking.  Its  plan  is 
doubtless  not  yet  definitely  laid  down,  but  exposures  of 
three  hours  are  spoken  of.  On  Mount  Hamilton,  two 
hundred  nights  in  the  year — just  double  the  low-level 
allowance  — can  be  counted  on  as  fit  for  such  work  ;  yet 
even  so,  twenty-five  years  should  elapse  before  the  whole 
sky  could  be  once  covered  by  plates  each  embracing  four 
square  degrees,  and  exposed  during  three  hours.  And 
the  resulting  priceless  record  would  lose,  unless  obtained 
in  duplicate,  great  part  of  the  value  properly  belonging 
to  it. 

The  time-service  of  the  Lick  Observatory  has  been  for 
some  time  completely  organized.  Every  railway-clock  in 
the  Southern  Pacific  States  is  now  regulated  from  Mount 
Hamilton.  Any  watch  in  San  Francisco  can  be  set  by 
the  beats  of  the  Lick  standard  clock,  rendered  audible  by 
telephone  at  a  distance  of  sixty  miles.  The  time  distri- 
buted is  the  "  Pacific  standard,"  which  is  6m.  343s. 
faster  than  the  Mount  Hamilton  local  time.  Numerous 
plans  and  illustrations  enhance  the  usefulness  of  the 
"  Guide  to  the  Lick  Observatory."  A.  M.  C. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Curve  Pictures  of  London  for  the  Social  Reformer.  By 
Alex.  B.  Macdowall,  M.A.  (London  :  Sampson  Low, 
]888.) 
This  little  volume  ought  to  be  of  great  service  to  all  who 
interest  themselves  practically  in  questions  relating  to 
social  reform  in  London.  It  presents  by  means  of 
diagrams  a  large  amount  of  trustworthy  information  about 
population  ;  density  of  population  ;  birth,  marriage,  and 
death  rates  ;  early  marriages  ;  death  by  disease  ;  suicides  ; 
drunkenness;  licensed  houses;  apprehensions;  felonies; 


August  30,  1888] 


NATURE 


411 


pauperism  ;  education  ;  illiteracy  ;  prices  of  commodities  ; 
and  prices  of  wheat.  Students  who  may  wish  to  know 
the  recent  history  of  London  with  regard  to  any  one 
of  these  subjects  will  at  once  find  what  they  want  by 
turning  to  the  diagram  or  diagrams  referring  to  the 
matter.  Opposite  each  diagram  are  short  notes  indi- 
cating clearly  and  concisely  what  the  curves  appear  to 
teach,  and  directing  the  reader  to  the  original  sources 
from  which  the  facts  are  taken.  It  is  impossible  to  turn 
over  these  pages  without  feeling,  as  the  author  does,  that 
if  some  improvement  of  the  social  condition  of  London  is 
discernible  it  is,  after  all,  but  meagre.  Probably,  too, 
most  people  who  make  themselves  familiar  with  the  results 
he  has  so  carefully  classified,  and  rendered  so  easily  in- 
telligible, will  agree  with  him  that  in  dealing  with  the 
social  problem  we  as  a  people  are  apt  to  think  too  much 
about  cure,  and  too  little  about  prevention.  "  Year  by 
year,"  says  Mf.  Macdowall  in  his  interesting  preface,  "we 
reap,  somewhat  sadly,  our  weedy  crop  ;  but  we  leave  the 
weed-roots  in  the  ground.  To  use  another  figure,  we 
contend  in  a  vigorous  way  with  the  waters  of  a  domestic 
deluge,  but  omit  to  turn  off  the  tap  from  which  they 
come." 

A  System  for  the  Construction  of  Crystal  Models.  By 
John  Gorham,  M.R  C.S.Eng.,  &c.  (London  and  New 
York:  E.  and  F.  N.  Spon,  1888.) 

The  author  of  this  book  expounds  an  ingenious  method 
of  making  models  in  paper  by  plaiting  together  three  or 
four  strips  cut  into  the  form  of  a  succession  of  the  crystal 
faces.  The  book  consists  mainly  of  figures,  which  show 
how  these  plaits  are  to  be  drawn,  and  the  order  in  which 
they  are  to  be  interwoven  for  some  of  the  primitive  forms 
in  the  different  systems. 

It  does  not  appear  that  the  models  are  more  easily  or 
neatly  made  by  this  than  by  the  more  familiar  methods, 
but  they  have  one  real  advantage  in  their  portability, 
since  they  may  at  any  time  be  unfolded  into  a  flat  sheet. 
The  method  would,  however,  be  somewhat  awkward 
when  applied  to  complicated  combinations. 

Some  of  the  simple  forms  are  omitted  in  the  descrip- 
tion?, e.g.  the  icositetrahedron,  pentagonal  dodecahedron, 
&c,  and  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  remark  that  the  four- 
faced  cube  is  not  a  form  assumed  by  some  varieties  of 
quartz  (p.  8).  We  hesitate  to  believe  the  author  serious 
in  his  suggestion  that  a  natural  cube  may  actually  grow 
by  plaiting  itself  from  three  zones  of  molecular  laminae, 
"  each  endowed  with  a  force  compelling  it  to  bend  at  a 
right  angle  at  given  intervals." 


LETTERS    TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
of  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations.,] 

Functionless  Organs. 

I  have  only  just  seen  Nature  for  August  16  and  23  (pp.  364 
and  387).  In  both  these  there  are  letters  which  attribute  to  me 
personally  the  assertion  that  the  electric  organs  in  "the  skate" 
are  functionless,  and  are  "on  the  way  to  use" — not  aborted  or 
degenerated  from  former  use.  I  made  no  such  assertion.  My 
letter  on  the  subject  referred  to  a  verdict  given  on  this  question 
in  respect  to  one  particular  species  [A'aia  radiala)  by  Prof. 
Ewart  inNATUREof  July26  (p.  310).  I  refer  Prof.  Ray  Lankester 
to  the  paper  of  Prof.  Ewart,  communicated  to  the  Royal  Society 
through  Prof.  J.  Burdon-Sanderson.  As  the  result  of  an  elabo- 
rate argument,  founded  on  anatomical  details,  the  author  con- 
•cludes  that  the  "cups  of  Raia  radiala  are  in  process  of  being 
elaborated  into  more  complex  structures";  and  again,  "that 
the  electric  organ  of  Raia  radiata,  notwithstanding  its  apparent 
uselessness  and  its  extremely  sma'l  size,  is  in  a  sta'e  of  progressive 
•development." 


This  is  not  my  conclusion,  but  the  conclusion  of  an  expert, 
who  gives  his  reasons,  and  differs  from  Prof.  Ray  I.ankester  in 
having,  apparently,  no  preconceived  theory  to  support. 

If  the  doctrine  of  evolution  be  true — that  is  to  say,  if  all 
organic  creatures  have  been  developed  by  ordinary  generation 
from  parents — then  it  follows  of  necessity  that  the  primeval 
germs  must  have  contained  potentially  the  whole  succeeding 
series.  Moreover,  if  that  series  has  been  developed  gradually 
and  very  slowly,  it  follows  also,  as  a  matter  of  necessity,  that 
every  modification  of  structure  must  have  been  functionless  at 
first,  when  it  began  to  appear.  On  this  theory  it  seems  to  me 
to  be  not  a  matter  of  argument,  but  a  matter  of  certainty,  that 
all  organic  nature  must  have  been  full  of  structures  "on  the 
rise,"  as  well  as  of  others  on  the  decline. 

Why  is  this  not  recognized?  Because  organs  "on  the  rise" 
cannot  be  due  to  utility  as  a  physical  cau-e,  but  mu-t  be  due  to 
utility  as  an  end  yet  to  be  attained.  This  is  what  I  mean  by  a 
"prophetic  germ."  We  now  know  that  Darwin  resisted  and 
rejected  this  idea,  at  least  at  one  time  of  his  lite,  as  fatal  to  his 
own  theory  of  natural  selection.  And  so  it  is,  if  natural  selec- 
tion is  made  to  account  for  structures  before  they  are  presented 
for  selection  to  act  upon.  But  this  is  obviously  nonsense.  Things 
cannot  be  selected  until  they  have  been  first  produced.  Nor 
can  any  structure  be  "selected  by  utility  in  the  struggle  for 
existence  "  until  it  has  not  only  been  produced,  but  has  been  so 
far  perfected  as  to  be  actually  used. 

If  Prof.  Ray  Lankester  will  explain  how  "natural  selection  " 
can  act  upon  "congenital  variations"  which  he  calls  "non- 
significant"— i.e.  which  are  not  yet  of  any  actual  use — and  if  he 
will  explain  how  this  action  can  afford  "  the  single  and  sufficient 
theory  of  the  origin  "  of  (as  yet)  useless  variations,  he  will  have 
accomplished  a  great  triumph  in  logic  and  philosophy. 

Meantime,  I  adhere  to  that  view  of  all  organs  which  is 
indelibly  in  pressed  on  our  very  forms  of  speech,  and  is  notably 
expressed  in  Prof.  Buidori-Sanderson's  letter  in  Nature  of 
August  23.  He  speaks  of  electric  organs  as  "an  apparatus  for 
producing  electric  discharges."  This  is  exactly  correct.  They 
are  "  apparatuses"  for  a  special  purpose  or  function  ;  and  like 
all  other  apparatuses,  they  have  to  be  prepared  through  embryotic 
stages  in  which  they  are  not  capable  of  use.  I  have  been  long 
looking  for  some  actual  case  in  which  experts  should  recognize 
an  organ  "  on  the  rise."  Prof.  Ewart's  is  the  first  I  have  seen. 
I  am  not  responsible  for  his  facts,  or  for  his  reasoning.  But  the 
mere  fact  of  such  a  view  being  taken  by  an  eminent  man  in  a 
responsible  position  is  a  circumstance  highly  significant. 

The  recognitionof  even  one  case  wdl  be  the  recognition  of  anew 
idea — new,  at  least,  in  its  application,  and  new  in  its  wide  signi- 
ficance of  interpretation.  Jt  will  be  the  counterpart  in  actual 
observation  of  that  strategic  movement  in  abstract  reasoning 
which  has  recently  led  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  to  expose  the  fal- 
lacies involved  in  the  phrase  "natural  selection,"  and  in  his 
own  neater  and  adroiter  form  of  it,  "  survival  of  the  fittest." 

Argyll. 


I  have  read  with  much  interest  the  report  in  Nature  of  July 
26  (p.  310)  of  Prof.  Ewart's  very  remarkable  paper  on  the  electric 
organ  of  the  skate,  and  the  Duke  of  Argyll's  letter  on  the  same 
subject  in  Nature  of  August  9  (p.  341).  The  Duke  is  manifestly 
right,  that  a  single  proved  instance,  such  as  Prof.  Ewart  here  en- 
deavours to  make  out,  of  an  organ  which  has  been  evolved,  or  i;; 
in  process  of  evolution,  while  not  in  a  state  of  functional  activity, 
would  be  sufficient  to  disprove  Darwinism  as  a  complete  theory  ; 
for  if  all  perfectionment  is  due  to  the  two  causes  of  exercise 
through  habit  and  natural  selection  among  variations,  it  is 
obvious  that  no  improvement  can  be  effected  which  is  not 
immediately  useful. 

I  believe  that  the  animal  kingdom,  and  in  all  probability  the 
vegetable  kingdom  also,  are  full  of  organs  which  cannot  have 
been  evolved  by  anything  like  a  Darwinian  process,  because 
their  immature  states  cannot  have  been  in  functional  activity. 
In  my  work  on  "  Habit  and  Intelligence  "  (2nd  edition,  Mac- 
millan,  1879),  chapters  xvii.,  xviii.,  and  xix.,  I  have  enumerated 
some  of  these.  The  strongest  part  of  the  argument  is,  1  think, 
that  derived  from  the  brain  of  man.  It  has  been  pointed  out  by 
Wallace,  the  naturalist  who  was  near  anticipating  Darwin  in  the 
theory  of  natural  selection  as  applied  to  the  rest  of  the  organic 
creation,  that  the  brain  of  savage  man  has  attained  a  develop- 
ment which  is  out  of  all  proportion  larger  than  can  correspond  to 
the  mental  development  which  is  united  with  it — in  other  word?, 
the  brain  of  savage  man  is  nearly  equal  to  that  of  civilized  man, 


4I2 


NA  TURE 


\_August  30,  188S 


while  his  mental  development  is  very  far  inferior  ;— so  that,  as 
Wallace  remarks,  "  the  idea  is  suggested  of  a  surplusage  of 
power;  of  an  instrument  beyond  the  wants  of  its  possessor." 
And  if  it  is  true,  as  I  believe  it  is,  that  the  brain  of  savage  man 
finds  its  special  activity  in  the  formation  and  use  of  language, 
this  does  not  solve  but  only  transforms  the  difficulty  ;  for 
language  itself  must  in  prehistoric  times  have  attained  a  develop- 
ment far  in  advance  of  the  intellectual  wants  of  those  who  formed 
it,  because  the  same  languages,  with  comparatively  few  additions 
to  the  vocabulary  and  no  further  grammatical  development,  still 
suffice  for  the  wants  of  their  civilized  descendants  ;  whereas,  on 
Darwinian  principles,  language  could  not  be  evolved  beyond  the 
intellectual  needs  of  those  speaking  it. 

There  are  also  many  cases  in  the  lower  creation  where  struc- 
ture appears  to  have  been  developed,  not  as  the  result  of 
function  but  in  anticipation  of  function  ;  just  as  a  ship  is  built  on 
the  land  for  the  purpose  of  afterwards  floating  on  the  water. 
I  cannot  occupy  your  space  with  details  of  these,  but  will 
enumerate  those  of  which  the  evidence  seems  tolerably  distinct. 
All  the  Hydrozoa  are  probably  descended  from  a  form  re- 
sembling the  Hydra,  between  which  and  the  Medusae  there  is  a 
gradation,  though  not  quite  unbroken.  Once  the  Medusa  is 
produced  and  swims  away  from  the  plant-like  stem  that  bore  it, 
its  powers  of  wandering,  and  dispersing  its  eggs  widely,  will  give 
its  species  a  great  advantage  in  the  struggle  for  existence.  But 
how  can  any  natural  selection  effect  the  evolution  of  the  Medusa 
while  it  is  still  imperfect,  and  sheds  its  eggs  without  leaving  the 
parent  stem  ? 

M  tiller,  in  his  "  Facts  for  Darwin,"  says  of  the  transition  from 
the  Zoea  to  the  Mysis  form  in  the  metamorphoses  of  a  species  of 
Peneus,  or  prawn,  that  "the  long  abdomen,  which  just  before 
was  laboriously  dragged  along  as  a  useless  burden,  now,  with  its 
powerful  muscles,  jerks  the  animal  through  the  water  in  a  series 
of  lively  jumps."  The  Nauplius,  which  is  the  form  in  which 
this  Peneus  leaves  the  egg,  has  no  abdomen  ;  this  is  acquired 
when  the  Nauplius  develops  into  a  Zoea,  and  consists  of 
segments  which  appear  between  the  body  and  the  tail  of  the 
Nauplius.  Midler's  account  seems  to  show  that  this  abdomen  is 
developed  before  it  is  useful  to  the  animal,  and  for  the  purpose 
of  becoming  useful  further  on  in  its  development.  It  is  to  be 
observed  that  in  this  case,  as  in  that  of  the  Medusa,  the 
entire  evolution  goes  on  amid  the  same  surroundings  :  unlike  the 
case  of  Batrachia  and  most  insects,  there  is  no  change  of  the 
conditions  of  life  to  accompany  the  transformation  and  to  help 
to  account  for  it.  The  same  remark  applies  to  the  development 
of  the  star-fish  out  of  the  Bipinnaria,  and  of  the  sea-urchin  out  of 
the  Pluteus — two  of  the  most  wonderful  metamorphoses  known. 
The  development  of  the  lungs  of  the  Balrachian  out  of  the 
swim-bladder  of  the  fish  is  an  adaptive  modification,  and  presents 
no  special  difficulty.  But  in  the  cellular  and  spongy  texture  of 
the  swim-bladder  of  many  Ganoid  fishes,  there  appears  to  be  a 
preparation  for  future  transformation  into  lungs.  This,  however, 
is  a  point  on  which  it  would  not  be  right  to  lay  much  stress. 
But  it  is  different  with  the  development  of  the  fin  of  the  fish  into 
the  leg  of  the  Batrachian.  The  intermediate  state  appears  to  be 
preserved  in  the  fin-rays — -we  can  scarcely  call  them  fins — of 
Lepidosiren.  The  single  fin-ray  of  Ceratodus  has  in  Lepidosiren 
lost  its  membrane,  and  consequently  become  inefficient  as  a  fin, 
without  being  in  any  degree  efficient  as  a  le^,  or  acquiring  any 
vestige  of  a  foot  ;  such  a  change  cannot  be  beneficial  to  an 
animal  which  is  still  a  fish  and  lives  a  fish's  life  ;  it  can  be  inter- 
preted, so  far  as  I  see,  only  as  a  preparation  for  the  ultimate 
development  of  feet  and  legs.  This  development,  however,  does 
not  appear  to  have  been  actually  attained  by  any  descendant  of 
Lepidosiren  ;  for  its  scaly  covering,  and  the  peculiarity  of  its 
nostrils,  go  far  to  forbid  the  supposition  that  the  Batrachia  can 
be  its  descendants. 

Another  instance  of  the  same  kind  is  that  of  those  Ascidian 
larvre  which  are  the  probable  origin  of  the  Vertebrata.  Of 
what  use  can  the  dorsal  groove  and  the  notochord  be  to  those 
minute  and  lowly  organized  animals  themselves?  They  appear 
capable  of  interpretation  only  as  the  preparation  for  a  vertebral 
column  and  a  spinal  cord  to  be  afterwards  evolved.  But  the 
strongest  instance  of  the  kind  which  I  know  of,  except  that  of 
the  brain  of  man,  is  the  existence  of  pneumatic  bones  (that  is  to 
say,  bones  hollowed  out  for  lightness,  like  those  of  flying  birds) 
among  Dinosaurians  (see  Prof.  Cope's  paper  on  Megadactylus 
probyzelus  ?.s  reported  in  Nature,  vol.  i.  p.  347).  The  re- 
semblances of  the  skeleton  appear  to  prove  that  birds  must 
be  descended  from    Dinosaurians.       No    Dinosaurian   had   the 


power  of  flight,  yet  here  is  a  character  useful  oily  to  flying 
animals,  and  interpretable  only  as  a  preparation  for  a  power  of 
flight  to  be  afterwards  evolved. 

Were  a  competent  anatomist  and  morphologist  to  search  for 
them,  the  entire  organic  world  would  probably  be  found  to  be 
full  of  such  instances  of  what  I  call  structure  in  anticipation  of 
function.  Joseph  John  Murphy. 

Belfast,  August  22. 

It  is  evident  from  the  letter  of  the  Duke  of  Argyll  under  this 
heading  in  your  issue  of  August  9  (p.  341).  that  he  has  alto- 
gether misconstrued  some  of  the  main  biological  principles 
which  Darwin  promulgated  ;  and  it  also  appears  as  if  the  entire 
neglect  of  certain  important  items  which  received  due  consider- 
ation in  the  "  Origin  of  Species"  is  either  done  with  purpose, 
or  else  is  simply  an  effect  of  obscuration.  In  either  case,  the 
fallacious  interpretation  may  be  due  to  the  polemical  style  in 
which  his  Grace  is  usually  wont  to  distinguish  himself,  and  the 
strong  bias  imported  into  the  treatment  has«rendeied  a  true 
representation  of  the  conclusions  he  assails  altogether  impossible. 
Exception  must  be  taken  to  the  very  setting  forth  of  the  pre- 
mises of  the  Duke's  argument.  "Sometimes,"  he  says,  the 
organs  "are  called  'aborted,'  sometimes  'degenerated,'"  &c. 
This  certainly  is  so  for  no  less  a  reason  than  that  sometimes 
they  «;vaborted,  while  at  other  times  they  are  "representative," 
or  sometimes,  again,  they  are  incipient  organs.  So  variously, 
indeed,  are  the  organs  affected,  that  Darwin  found  it  in  some 
cases  extremely  difficult  to  pronounce  respecting  them.1  The 
uninitiated  in  the  subject  would  naturally  infer,  from  the  letter 
in  question,  that  Darwin  had  never  devoted  any  of  his  pages  to 
the  discussion  of  those  organs  which  he  generally  spoke  of  as 
"nascent"— a  term  which  the  Duke,  for  the  purposes  of  his 
argument,  ignores.  There  is,  moreover,  nothing  in  any  way 
new  suggested  by  him  in  his  communication. 

The  special  case  referred  to,  for  instance,  is  simply  one  of  the 
difficult  problems  which  Darwin  set  himself,  in  the  "Origin  of 
Species,"  to  solve,  and  respecting  which  he  concluded,  from  his 
knowledge  of  all  the  facts  then  available,  that  "as  we  know 
nothing  about  the  habits  and  structure  of  the  progenitors  of  the 
existing  electric  fishes  [of  the  various  non-related  types  dealt 
with],  it  would  be  extremely  bold  to  maintain  that  no  service- 
able transitions  are  possible  by  which  these  organs  might  have 
been  gradually  developed"  ("Origin,"  sixth  edition,  p.  150). 
Whilst  in  the  "Descent"  a  long  section  is  devoted  to  the 
citation  of  instances  of  homologous  rudimentary  structures  in 
man.  and  functionless  organs  generally  are  amply  treated  upon 
elsewhere — compare  the  various  references  in  "  Variation,"  and 
also  "Origin"  (pp.  108-12).  In  some  instances  they  are  deter- 
mined to  be  vestigial,  though  for  the  most  part  they  can  only 
be  so  recognized  in  their  ancestral  relation. 

Although  Prof.  Ray  Lankester,  in  his  interesting  chapter  on 
"Degeneration"  ("Nature  Series"),  aptly  remarked,  "  We  have 
as  possibilities  either  balance,  or  elaboration,  or  degeneration,"  I 
am  inclined  to  think — in  agreement,  probably,  with  the  Duke — 
that  in  that  paper  perhaps  too  much  weight  was  attached  to  the 
last-named  process.  Perhaps  it  was  due  to  the  expressed  desire 
of  calling  attention  to  Dr.  Dohrn's  treatise  on  the  subject  ;  but, 
after  all,  it  is  simply  a  view  that  is  taken  respecting  certain 
important  facts,  and  whether  an  organ  in  a  transitional  state  is 
progressing  or  retrogressing  is  a  matter  which  relates  chiefly  to 
time,  and  does  not  invalidate  the  fact  of  the  change  that  is  in 
process  of  evolution.  It  has  not,  however,  been  satisfactorily 
proved,  so  far  as  I  can  find,  that  the  limited  digitation  in  Bipes 
and  Seps  is  the  result  of  atrophy,  as  decidedly  stated  by  Prof. 
Lankester  ;  but  as  I  am  uninformed  respecting  the  ontogeny— 
upon  which  everything  depends— of  these  reptilian  forms,  I 
may  be  wrong  in  questioning  this  point. 

Instances  of  transitional  and  incipient  organs,  rare  though  they 
may  be,  have,  therefore,  been  fully  considered  by  Darwin  in  his 
volumes  ;  but  we  may,  speaking  more  generally,  truly  say  that 
the  entire  development  hypothesis  is  a  recognition  of  the 
structural  deformation  of  nascent  organs,  which  are  ever  being 
reconstituted,  mainly  in  a  progressive  direction.  The  dimculty 
of  actually  observing  an  organ  in  process  of  development 
was  acknowledged  by  Darwin  to  be  considerable,  partly  on 
account  of  the  slow  rate   of  progression,    and   partly   because 

1   '-It  is  often   difficult   to  distinguish  between  rudimentary  and  nascent 
organs;   for  we  can  judge  only  by  analogy  whether  a  pare  1;  capab.e  of 
further  development,  in  which  case  alone  it  deserves  to  be  called  nascent 
"Origin,"  sixth  edition,  p.  398). 


August  30,  1888] 


NATURE 


4*3 


"nascent  organs  will  rarely  have  been  handed  down,  .  . .  for  beings 
with  any  important  organ  but  little  developed  will  generally 
have  been  supplanted  by  their  descendants  with  the  organ  well 
developed"  ("  Life  and  Letters,"  vol.  ii.  p.  214).  If,  however, 
the  Duke  of  Argyll  is  prepared  to  furnish  a  chapter  upon  the 
evidences  of  "prophetic  germs,"  with  which  he  appears  to  be 
extensively  acquainted,  he  will  confer  a  favour  upon  the  waiting 
scientific  world  by  publishing  it. 

With  regard  to  the  utility  of  rudimentary  organs,  the  Duke 
has  perverted  entirely  the  doctrine  given  by  Darwin,  who 
certainly  did  not  ascribe  "all  organic  structures  to  utility  as  a 
physical  cause,"  while  even  if  that  were  the  case,  the  doctrine 
of  prophetic  germs  is  in  no  way  opposed  to  it.  In  his  lengthy 
letter  to  Lyell,  which  probably  the  Duke  has  in  his  mind, 
Darwin  remarks  : — "A  nascent  organ,  though  little  developed, 
as  it  has  to  be  developed,  must  be  useful  in  every  stage  of 
development.  As  we  cannot  prophesy,  we  cannot  tell  what 
organs  are  now  nascent "("  Life,"  ii.  p.  213).  This  observa- 
tion, before  it  can  be  properly  understood,  however,  requires  to 
be  amplified  by  reference  to  the  full  text  from  which  it  was 
abstracted,  in  which  the  following  remarks  also  occur : — "In 
many  cases  we  are  far  too  ignorant  to  be  enabled  to  assert  that 
a  part  or  organ  is  so  unimportant  for  the  welfare  of  a  species 
that  modifications  in  its  structure  could  not  have  been  slowly 
accumulated  by  means  of  natural  selection.  In  many  other 
cases  modifications  are  probably  the  direct  result  of  the  laws  of 
variation,  or  of  growth,  independent  of  any  good  having  thus 
been  gained  "  ("Origin,"  pp.  165-66).  Yet  natural  selection 
"will  never  produce  in  a  being  any  structure  more  injurious 
than  beneficial  to  that  being  "  (p.  162),  and  Darwin  fully  held 
that  it  does  not  necessarily  lead  to  "absolute  perfection,"  which, 
indeed,  would  almost  amount  to  a  denial  of  the  necessity  of 
variation.  Furthermore,  "useful  organs,  however  little  they 
may  be  developed,  unless  we  have  reason  to  suppose  that  they 
were  formerly  mure  highly  developed,  ought  not  to  be  con- 
sidered as  rudimentary.  They  may  be  in  a  nascent  condition, 
and  in  a  progress  towards  further  development.  Rudimentary 
organs,  on  the  other  hand,  are  either  quite  useless  ...  or 
almost  useless  ;  .  .  .  they  cannot  have  been  produced  through 
variation  and  natural  selection,  which  act  solely  by  the  preserva- 
tion of  useful  modifications.  They  have  been  partially  retained 
by  the  power  of  inheritance,  and  relate  to  a  fjrmer  state  of 
things"  (et  seq  ,  '  Origin,"  p.  398). 

The  above  references  I  have  quoted  somewhat  fully,  because 
they  appenr  to  me  to  present  a  complete  disavowal  of  the  two 
assertions  made  by  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  namely  (1)  that  the 
physical  cau-e  of  all  organic  structures  is  ascribed  to  utility  ; 
and  (2)  that  functionless  organs  "are  never  interpreted  as 
utilities  which  are  yet  to  be."  William  White. 

August  18. 


Lamarckism  versus  Darwinism. 

Mr.  Poulton  says  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  I  have  not  written 
anything  which  can  be  considered  as  a  reply  to  his  previous 
letter.  But  this  is  exactly  what  I  did.  In  that  letter  he  merely 
made  the  bald  statement  that  I  had  not  acquainted  myself  with 
the  views  of  Prof.  Weismann,  which  I  had  "  professed  to 
express."  This  statement  I  denied,  and  what  further  "reply" 
it  admits  of  I  must  leave  Mr.  Poulton  to  explain. 

Regarding  his  present  suggestion,  that  it  would  be  well  for  me 
to  justify  a  remark  in  the  (  ontemporary  Review,  which  he  chal- 
lenged, I  can  only  repeat  that  1  have  no  desire  to  continue  a 
correspondence  which  was  opened  in  the  manner  alluded  to. 
And,  in  repeating  this  plain  statement,  I  am  as  far  as  ever  from 
experiencing  any  of  the  "annoyance"  which  he  says  I  have 
taken  no  pains  to  conceal.  Unless  by  annoyance  he  means  sur- 
prise, I  am  at  a  loss  to  understand  why  he  should  suppose  that 
I  entertain  any  feeling  of  the  kind. 

Prof.  E.  Nay  Lankester's  views  "upon  the  interesting  question 
of  Lamarck  Versus  Darwin  "  are,  of  course,  well  known  to  all 
biologists  ;  but  I  think  it  is  somewhat  too  strong  a  statement  to 
say  that  they  are  "  diametrically  opposed  "  to  mine.  No  doubt 
he  has  been  more  influenced  by  Prof.  Weismann's  recent 
theories  ;  but  I  feel  sure  he  would  agree  with  me  that  the  time 
has  not  yet  come  for  the  formation  of  any  matured  "opinion" 
upon  this- subject. 

Prof.  Meldola  is  kind  enough  to  express  disappointment  that  I 
have  not  given  a  more  explicit  statement  of  my  views  on 
the  theoretical  bearings  of  Mr.  I'oulton's  experiments.    The  tone 


of  this  invitation  induces  me  to  comply  with  his  request.  But 
in  order  to  do  so  it  will  be  necessary  to  go  at  considerable  length 
into  the  whole  question  of  "  Lamarckism  versus  Darwinism." 
As  this  has  now  become  a  very  extensive  and  somewhat  involved 
question,  I  cannot  feel  that  the  correspondence  columns  of 
Nature  afford  a  suitable  place  for  its  discussion.  But  I  will 
bear  the  matter  in  mind,  and,  as  soon  as  other  work  shall  have 
been  cleared  off,  will  publish  an  essay  upon  the  whole  subject. 
Mr.  Poulton,  too,  will  ihen  find  that  it  is  easy  enough  to  "notice 
the  criticism,"  without  requiring  "to  show  that  his  [my]  remark 
about  Prof.  Weismann  is  intended  to  bear  some  other  than  its 
obvious  meaning." 

Meanwhile,  I  should  like  to  represent  how  undesirable  it  is  to 
employ  phraseology  which  associates  the  name  of  Darwin  with 
the  post-Darwinian  theories  which  are  in  question.  Here,  for 
instance,  we  have  a  correspondence  headed  "  Lamarckism  Tersus 
Darwinism"  where  the  title  ought  to  be  "Darwinism  versus 
Weismannism  "  ;  and  while  on  the  one  hand  Prof.  Meldola 
speaks  of  "  the  recent  revival  of  'pure'  Lamarckism,"  on  the 
other  he  alludes  to  Prof.  Weismann's  interpretations  as  those 
which  belong  to  "the  purely  Darwinian  stand-point."  The 
consequence  of  this  kind  of  writing  is  that  anyone  who,  like  my- 
self, still  retains  unmodified  the  Darwinism  of  Darwin  himself, 
is  ticketed  as  a  follower  of  Lamarck.  Therefore,  if  only  as  a 
matter  of  historical  accuracy,  and  in  order  to  avoid  confusion  in 
non- biological  circles,  it  seems  to  me  that  such  terms  ought  to  be 
avoided.  Most  people  will  always  understand  that  "Darwin- 
ism ''  is  intended  to  meav  the  theory  of  evolution  as  held  by 
Darwin,  yet  this  is  just  the  very  thing  that  it  is  not  intended  to 
mean  by  your  other  correspondents:  the  more  "pure"  their 
"Darwinism,"  the  further  does  it  depart  from  the  doctrine 
of  evolution  as  presented  in  the  "Origin  of  Species."  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  there  has  been  no  "recent  revival  of  'pure' 
Lamarckism  "  :  there  has  merely  been  a  question  raised  as  to 
whether  the  amount  of  Lamarckism  which  was  sanctioned  by 
Darwin  may  not  be  dispensed  with.  Now,  not  only  is  this 
question,  as  already  remarked,  post-Darwinian  in  its  origin,  but 
the  speculations  which  have  given  rise  to  it  are  ultra- Darwinian 
in  their  object  :  they  aim  at  establishing  for  natural  selection  a 
sole  and  universal  sovereignty  which  was  never  claimed  for  it 
by  Darwin  himself.  Far  be  it  from  me  to  pre-judge  a  question 
which  must  assuredly  involve  a  large  amount  of  future  research  ; 
but  however  this  question  may  eventually  be  decided,  there  is 
no  need  to  confuse  the  issues  by  the  use  of  historically  in- 
accurate terms.  The  school  of  Weismann  may  properly  be 
called  Neo-Darwinian  :  pure  Darwinian  it  certainly  is  not. 

George  J.  Romanes. 

Geanies,  Ross-shire,  N.B.,  August  26. 

A  Substitute  for  Carbon  Disulphide  in  Prisms,  &c. 

It  may  be  worth  mentioning  that  the  highly-refractive  liquid, 
phenyl-thiocarbimide  (molecular  formula,  CBH5NCS),  to  which 
I  drew  attention  some  little  time  ago  at  a  meeting  of  the  Physical 
Society  (see  Nature,  vol.  xxxvii.  p.  165),  can  now  be  obtained 
as  an  ordinary  article  of  commerce  from  Schuchardt,  of  Gorlitz, 
and  Kahlbaum,  of  Berlin. 

I  have  recently  again  determined  its  refractive  indices  for  dif- 
ferent rays,  but  the  values  (when  allowance  is  made  for  temper- 
ature) do  not  appreciably  differ  from  my  former  results,  or  from 
those  given  by  Nasini  [Atti  R.A.  dei  Lyncei,  June  20,  1886)  for 
the  substance  which  he  calls  "  iso-solfocianato-fenilico,"  as  Dr. 
Gladstone  has  kindly  mentioned  to  me  since  the  meeting.  Thus, 
taking  rays  near  the  ends  of  the  visible  spectrum,  I  find  (at  a 
temperature  of  io°  C.) — 


Fraunhofer  line. 

Index  of  redaction. 

B* 

i-6j9 

G 

1707 

The  coefficient  of  dispersion,  calculated  from  the  above  values, 
is  o-o68,  rather  higher  than  even  that  of  carbon  disulphide  for 
the  same  rays,  which  is  0*062. 

Phenyl-thiocarbimide  seems,  in  fact,  to  have  about  the  highest 
refractive  and  dispersive  power  of  any  fairly  permanent  co'ourless 
liquid  known  at  present.  Carbon  disulphide,  though  colourless 
when  pure,  is  apt  to  turn  yellow  with  age  and  exposure  to  light, 
and  monobromonaphthalene  has  an  incurably  yellow  colour  (as 
also  has  mercury  barium  iodide),  which  of  course  implies  an 
absorptive  action  on  the  more  refrangible  part  of  the  spectrum. 

*  Not  A,  a*  pri  ted  in  Nature  {toe.  cit.).     The  index  for  A  is  i'6^[2. 


4H 


NA  TURE 


[Augttst  30,  1888 


Dense  glass  shows  the  same  defect,  besides  its  great  liability  to 
become  tarnished. 

Another  advantage  possessed  by  phenyl -thiocarbimide  is  its 
very  high  boiling-point,  viz.  2220  C.  It  is  practically  non- 
volatile at  ordinary  temperatures,  and  a  lighted  match  may  be 
put  into  it  without  setting  it  on  fire.  It  has,  of  course,  the 
pungent  smell  characteristic  of  all  the  mustard-oils  (to  which 
class  it  belongs)  ;  but  this,  from  the  slight  volatility  of  the 
substance,  gives  no  practical  inconvenience. 

It  dissolves  iodine  freely,  but,  from  the  complexity  of  its 
molecule,  we  cannot  expect  it  to  be  so  diathermic  as  carbon 
disulphide.  It  also  readily  dissolves  metacinnamene  (one  of  the 
most  highly-refractive  resinous  substances  that  I  have  been  able 
to  meet  with  ;  fxn  =  1  "6,  nearly),  and  the  viscous  solution  is  use- 
ful in  determining  refractive  indices  by  Wollaston's  total  reflexion 
method,  or  Bertrand's  modification  of  it. 

It  can  be  safely  used  in  the  ordinary  hollow  prisms,  as  it  has 
no  action  on  the  mixture  of  isinglass  and  sugar  with  which  these 
prisms  are  cemented.  H.  G.  Madan. 

Eton  College,  August  28. 

Michell's   Problem. 

I  HAVE  read  with  considerable  interest  the  short  letter  in 
Nature  of  August  9  (p.  342),  in  which  Mr.  Joseph  Kleiber 
refers  to  a  paper  of  his  own  on  the  controversy  between  Michell 
and  Forbes,  and  notices  what  lie  believes  to  be  a  mistake  in  my 
paper  of  July  19  (p.  272).  Mr  Kleiber  shows  that  the  experiments 
of  Forbes  on  random  distribution  by  scattering  rice  over  a  chess- 
board, and  also  some  additional  experiments  of  his  own  on 
numbers  taken  successively  from  a  table  of  logarithms,  are  in 
accordance  with  the  ordinary  formula  ior  finding  the  probable 
number  of  squares  containing  r  grains,  where  m  is  the  number 
of  squares  and  n  the  total  number  of  grains  — 

tnpr—  m  \n  (i/m)r(i  -  i/m)"~r/\r  \n-r. 

He  concludes  that  "the  theory  of  probabilities  does  not  affirm 
that  '  a  perfectly  uniform  and  symmetrical  disposition  of  stars 
over  the  sky  would  (if  possible)  be  that  which  could  alone  afford 
no  evidence  of  causation  or  any  interference  with  the  laws  of 
random.'  " 

Forbes,  throughout  his  paper,  is  not  attempting  to  controvert 
either  the  theory  of  probabilities,  of  which  he  himself  makes 
frequent  use,  or  the  result  arrived  at  by  Michell  and  Struve,  but 
only  Michell's  method  of  applying  the  theory  of  probabilities 
to  prove  his  point.  Hence  it  seems  to  me  that  Mr.  Kleiber's 
paper  is  not  so  convincing  as  he  takes  it  to  be  ;  one  may  agree 
with  his  experiments,  mathematics,  and  conclusion,  without 
admitting  the  truth  of  Michell's  argument. 

Mr.  Kleiber's  second  objection  is,  I  think,  founded  on  a  mis- 
conception due  possibly  to  too  great  regard  on  my  part  for  the 
exigencies  of  your  space.  As  an  example  of  distribution,  I 
suggest  a  number  of  stars  shot  at  random  from  the  centre  upon 
the  interior  surface  of  a  sphere.  The  idea  may  be  roughly  repre- 
sented by  the  explosion  of  a  small  uniform  shell  of  shot  in  the 
centre  of  a  globe  lined  with  clay.  I  then  attempt  to  prove  that 
the  chance  of  exactly  uniform  distribution  is  nil,  and  proceed  : 
"  Michell,  however,  seems  to  assume  this  probability  to  be  1, 
or  certainty."  Mr.  Kleiber  strongly  repudiates  any  such  assump- 
tion on  the  part  of  Michell.  It  is  always,  I  admit,  a  little 
doubtful  to  attribute  to  anyone  an  opinion  which  is  not  dis- 
tinctly stated,  but  to  Forbes,  as  well  as  to  myself,  the  assump- 
tion seems  to  be  clear.  For  if  the  distribution  is  not  uniform, 
and  any  groups  of  stars  are  formed,  Michell's  argument  applies 
in  its  entirety,  and  he  would  prove,  of  course  with  greater  or 
less  probability,  a  posteriori  that  the  arrangement  is  due  to  a 
cause,  while  a  priori  from  the  datum  of  shooting  out  at  random, 
the  distribution  is  due  to  chance.  Sydney  Lupton. 


Remarkable  Rainbows. 

On  Saturday,  at  3.15  p.m.,  there  was  a  very  brilliant  primary 
rainbow,  and  a  faint  secondary  bow  above.  Inside  the  primary, 
at  first  to  the  right  of  the  centre,  afterwards  over  the  entire 
centre,  were  two  other  very  faint  bows,  their  colours  in  the 
same  order  as  those  of  the  primary,  but  with  no  distinguishable 
red,  the  violet  of  the  upper  bow  seeming  to  touch  the  orange  of 
the  bow  below  in  each  case.  Green  was  the  most  striking  colour 
in  the  two  inner  bows,  whose  breadth  appeared  equal  to  each 
other,    but  considerably  less  than  that  of  the  primary ;  part  of 


this  effect  being  due  to  the  loss  of  the  red,  probably  all  the 
remainder  to  irradiation.  The  perfect  primary  arch  lasted  fifteen 
minutes  ;  an  arc  of  the  eastern  side  half  an  hour.  The  sun 
being  comparatively  high,  the  centre  of  the  arch  was  low,  and 
the  bow  looked  flat.  There  was  no  wind,  and  many  of  the 
rain-drops  were  large,  others  mere  dots. 

At  5.5,  during  a  thunder-shower,  there  was  a  fairly  bright 
primary  with  perfect  arch,  and  two  faint  arcs  of  a  secondary 
bow,  but  I  saw  no  trace  of  inner  bows.  This  primary  differed  in 
height  and  brightness  from  the  other,  and  the  rain  was  a 
downpour  of  heavy  drops. 

Judging  by  relative  brightn  -ss,  the  inner  bows  should  seldom 
be  seen.  L.  J.  H. 

Rock  Ferry,  August  27. 

I  have  been  unable  to  send  sooner  the  following,  which  you 
may  perhaps  think  worth  inserting  in  Nature. 

On  the  18th  of  July,  at  7.30  p.m.,  I  saw  a  most  remark- 
able rainbow.  A  sudden  light  fell  on  the  book  I  was  reading, 
so  powerful  that  I  thought  it  must  be  some  neighbouring  house 
on  fire.  It  was  a  rainbow  coming  across  the  mountains  opposite 
(Savoie),  and  ending  in  the  lake  just  at  the  "  Bee  de  Peilz," 
which  some  of  your  readers  will  know.  It  was  only  a  section 
of  the  rainbow,  and  was  not  continued  in  any  other  part  of  the 
sky,  and  it  was  so  small  a  section  that  it  scarcely  appeared  bent, 
but  looked  like  a  fiery  column  coloured  as  a  rainbow,  but  having 
the  peculiarity  of  not  sJioiving  the  mountain  through  it :  it  cut  it 
sheer  off,  and  yet  the  mountain  was  looking  unusually  dark, 
and  indeed  the  brilliancy  of  the  sunset  was  such  that  all  came 
out  in  strong  relief.  The  sky  was  covered  with  stormy  c'ouds 
with  breaks  of  brightness,  and  above  this  column  they  hung  in 
golden  radiance  such  as  only  painting  could  faintly  convey  an 
idea  of.  Certainly  I  never  saw  so  beautiful  or  curious  a  sight. 
It  lasted  about  six  minutes.  M.  C.  C. 

La  Tour  de  Peilz,  August  17. 


Sun  Columns. 

I  have  nevtr  before  seen  the  phenomenon  of  sun  columns  in 
such  splendour  as  on  the  nth  inst.  The  day  wa-;  very  hot,  the 
wind  a  pretty  stiff  westerly  one,  and  the  sky  perfectly  cloudless. 
After  sunset,  which  (according  to  the  calendar)  took  place  at 
7h.  27m.  p.m.,  several  sun  columns  became  visible.  They  were 
seen  to  grow  in  length,  and  at  7I1.  40m.  they  extended  over  the 
whole  sky.  The  columns  were  five  in  number,  and  pretty 
regularly  distributed,  so  that  one  passed  through  the  zenith,  two 
on  the  north,  and  two  on  the  south  of  it  at  equal  distances.  A 
very  small  cloud  was  visible  at  that  time  in  the  west-north-west. 
The  colour  of  the  shades  was  dark  blue,  and  their  width  in 
the  zenith  from  2°  to  40.  The  lighted  parts  of  the  sky  had  a 
pale  violet  colour.  The  rays  extended  over  the  whole  sky  like 
meridians  on  a  globe,  and  all  five  columns  were  seen  to  meet  in 
one  point  in  the  east-south-east,  about  5°  above  the  horizon. 
The  phenomenon  could  be  seen  well  in  all  its  extension,  as  I 
watched  it  from  a  hill  688  metres  above  the  sea-level.  The 
intensity  of  the  colour  of  the  colu  ims  was  at  its  highest  at 
7h.  45m.  (Prague  local  time),  and  it  disappeared  at  7I1.  50m. 

I  hope,  Sir,  that  you  will  be  able  to  mention  this  not  very 
common  phenomenon  in  the  columns  of  Nature. 

St.  Benigna,  Bohemia,  August  14.  B.  Brauner. 


Meteor. 

The  most  brilliant  meteor  I  have  ever  seen  flashed  across  the 
sky  h  re  from  east  to  west,  about  7.  IO  p.m.  on  the  30th  ult.  I 
was  riding  along  a  dark  road,  looking  downwards,  when 
suddenly  the  road  was  so  brightly  lit  up  that  I  thought  the 
lamp-lighter  had  lit  another  lamp.  Seeing  neither  lamp  nor 
lamp-lighter,  I  looked  up,  just  in  time  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the 
meteor.  It  was  of  an  intense  white  colour,  with  a  train  or  track 
of  white  behind  it.  When  about  450  above  the  horizon,  it 
appeared  to  burst  like  a  sky-rocket,  but  not  so  violently.  It 
lasted  about  two  seconds.  H.  W.  L.  HlME. 

Coonoor,  Madras,  August  1. 

P.  S. — August  2.  Since  writing  my  letter  of  yesterday  I  am 
informed  by  Lieut.  M.  de  Montmorency,  Hampshire  Regiment, 
that  the  meteor  I  mentioned  burst  with  a  loud  noise.  I  can  only 
suppose  that  the  noise  of  my  horse's  hoofs  prevented  me  from 
hearina  it.— H.  W.  L.  H. 


August  30,  1888] 


NATURE 


4i5 


Fire-ball  of  August  13 — August  Meteors. 

A  comparison  of  several  good  observations  of  this  brilliant 
visitor  shows  that  the  point  of  its  first  appearance  was  over  a 
place  near  Masham,  in  Yorkshire,  at  a  height  of  79  miles.  The 
disappea ranee  occurred  over  Gisburn,  in  the  same  county,  after 
the  meteor  had  traversed  a  course  of  about  48  miles,  and  when 
it  had  descended  to  within  47  miles  of  the  earth's  surface.  It 
was  directed  to  a  point  covered  by  the  River  Mersey  a  few  miles 
west  of  Liverpool. 

By  a  clerical  error  the  figures  representing  the  real  paths  of 
three  of  the  seven  doubly-observed  meteors  seen  on  August  5 
and  8  last  (Nature,  August  23,  p.  395)  were  incorrectly  stated. 
The  lengths  of  Nos.  1,  3,  and  7  in  the  list  should  be  41,  41, 
and  36  miles  respectively. 

Including  the  fire-ball  mentioned  above,  the  mean  length  of 
path  of  eight  meteors  seen  during  the  present  month  was  37 
miles.  Seven  of  these  bodies  were  Perseids,  with  an  average 
radiant  at  460  +  570,  which  nearly  corresponds  with  the  best 
determinations  for  the  emanating  centre  of  this  shower. 

W.  F.  Dewing. 

Bristol,  August  25. 


Sonorous  Sand  in  Dorsetshire. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  know  that  I  have  discovered  the 
existence  of  "  musical  "  sand  on  the  sea-beach  at  a  spot  between 
Studland  Bay  and  Poole  Harbour. 

This  sand,  though  not  emitting  sounds  quite  so  loud  as  those 
produced  in  the  Eigg  sand,  answers  all  the  usual  tests,  r.nd  gives 
out  a  distinct  note  when  walked  upon  or  when  agitated  by  the 
hand  or  a  stick. 

Briefly,  I  may  state  that  I  have  been  investigating  the  pheno- 
menon for  the  last  two  years,  and  that  an  examination  of  this 
Dorsetshire  sand  gives  fresh  evidence  in  support  of  my  theory 
(shortly  to  be  published)  as  to  the  cause  of  the  sounds.  I  may 
add  that  I  had  reasons  for  thinking  that  the  sand  on  this  par- 
ticular beach  ought  to  be  sonorous  under  cerlain  favourable 
conditions,  but  that  I  had  visited  it  before  without  success. 

It  is  now  over  thirty  years  since  Hugh  Miller  discovered  this 
sand  at  Eigg,  and  up  to  the  present  instance  I  am  not  aware  that 
it  has  again  been  found  in  any  other  part  of  Europe. 

Cecil  Carus-Wilson. 

Bournemouth,  August  18. 


A  Column   of  Dust. 

The  following  account  of  a  somewhat  unusual  phenomenon 
may  not  be  uninteresting  to  some  of  your  readers.  As  Mr.  Emil 
Trechmann,  lecturer  at  Bangor  University,  and  myself  were 
walking  in  the  vicinity  of  Stockton-on-Tees  on  Sunday  last, 
about  half-past  one  o'clock,  we  observed  a  small  column  of  dust 
to  rise  suddenly  on  the  road  about  40  or  50  yards  in  front  of  us. 
There  was  not  a  breath  of  wind  stirring  at  the  time,  yet  it  was 
evidently  raised  by  the  action  of  what  would  popularly  be  called  a 
small  whiriwind.  This  column  of  dust  moved  quickly  across  the 
road,  ceasing  when  it  reached  the  other  side  ;  and  had  the 
incident  terminated  there,  we  should  doubtless  have  exhibited  a 
passing  surprise  and  have  forgotten  about  it.  Fortunately,  how- 
ever, there  was  a  hay-field  on  the  other  side  of  the  road,  and  we 
presently  saw  several  large  wisps  of  hay  lifted  off  the  tops  of 
some  haycocks,  to  the  amount  of  perhaps  a  small-sized  armful, 
and  carried  across  the  fields  for  a  distance  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
or  more,  at  the  height  of  40  or  50  feet. 

Trivial  as  the  incident  may  seem,  it  was  to  us  singularly 
startling  and  impressive,  and  it  was  easy  to  imagine  how,  in  a 
superstitious  age,  such  phenomena  would  be  attributed  to  super- 
natural agency.  The  mind  instantly  recurred  to  stories  of 
witches  transporting  haystacks  through  the  air,  and  it  was 
difficult  not  to  believe  that,  with  increased  force  of  current 
almost  an)  thing  rui^ht  have  been  carried  aloft  in  a  similar 
way. 

The  atrrosphere  remained  perfectly  undisturbed  for  at  least  five 
minutes  after  the  occurrence,  when  a  single  "sough"  of  wind 
passed  by,  and  it  then  resumed  its  former  stillness.  The  general 
aspect  of  the  weather  was  somewhat  thunderous,  th  mgh  it 
remained  fine  until  night. 

Hugh  Taylor. 

20  Fraser  Terrace,  Gateshead- on -Tyne,  August  22. 


THE    INTERNATIONAL    GEOLOGICAL 
CONGRESS. 

T7XACTLY  ten  years  have  passed  since  the  Intcr- 
■*— '  national  Geological  Congress  held  its  first  meeting 
It  was  on  the  29th  of  August,  1878,  that  the  Congress  was 
inaugurated  at  the  Palace  of  the  Trocadero  in  Paris  ; 
this  meeting  having  been  the  direct  result  of  a  suggestion 
made  by  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Science  at  Buffalo,  on  the  close  of  the  Philadelphia 
Exhibition  of  1876.  A  Committee  was  then  formed,  with 
Prof.  James  Hall,  of  Albany,  as  President,  and  Dr.  Sterry 
Hunt  as  Secretary,  for  the  purpose  of  organizing  an 
International  Congress  of  Geologists  to  be  held  in  Paris 
during  the  Universal  Exhibition  in  1878.  The  prime 
object  of  the  Congress  was  to  discuss,  and  if  possible 
settle,  questions  of  geological  classification  and  nomen- 
clature, and  to  formulate  rules  for  securing  uniformity  in 
geological  cartography.  The  original  American  Com- 
mittee— Comitc  fondateur — applied  in  due  course  to  the 
Geological  Society  of  France  for  assistance  in  carrying 
their  suggestions  into  effect,  and  an  influential  organizing 
Committee  was  formed  in  Paris,  under  the  presidency  of 
Prof.  Hubert.  By  the  action  of  this  Committee  the 
arrangements  were  carried  to  a  successful  issue.  The 
Paris  Congress  numbered  304  members  ;  it  apnointed 
Committees  for  the  unification  of  stratigraphical  and 
pala?ontological  nomenclature,  and  for  systematizing  the 
colours  and  signs  on  geological  maps.  Ultimately  its 
proceedings  were  published  in  a  Compte  rendu  of  313 
pages. 

After  an  interval  of  three  years,  the  Congress  held 
its  second  session.  This  was  in  Bologna,  under  Prof. 
Capellini  as  President.  One  of  the  chief  results  of  this 
meeting  was  the  nomination  of  a  Committee  for  the 
purpose  of  preparing  an  International  Geological  Map 
of  Europe,  on  a  scale  of  1  to  1,500,000.  On  this  Com- 
mittee, as  at  present  constituted,  Germany  is  represented 
by  Prof.  Beyrich  and  M.  Hauchecorne,  France  by  M. 
Oauhrde,  Great  Britain  by  Mr.  Topley,  Austria-Hungary 
by  M.  Mojsisovics,  Italy  by  M.  Giordano,  Russia  by  M. 
Karpinsky,  and  Switzerland  by  Prof.  Renevier.  The 
Report  of  the  Bologna  meeting  was  issued  as  a  handsome 
volume  of  660  pages.1 

As  the  meetings  of  the  Congress  are  triennial,  the  next 
gathering  was  due  in  1884,  but  an  outbreak  of  cholera 
on  the  Continent  rendered  it  advisable  to  postpone  the 
session  for  another  year.  It  was  therefore  in  1885  that 
the  Congress  assembled  for  the  third  time — Berlin  being 
the  place  of  meeting,  and  Prof.  E.  Beyrich  the  President. 
The  meeting  was  eminently  successful,  but  it  is  to  be 
regretted  that  no  official  volume,  containing  a  full  report 
of  the  proceedings,  has  yet  been  published. 

Three  years  have  again  passed,  and  the  Congress  is 
about  to  hold  its  fourth  session.  London  has  been  selected 
as  the  meeting-place,  and  by  permission  of  the  Senate  of 
the  University  of  London  the  sittings  will  be  held  in  the 
University  buildings  in  Burlington  Gardens.  The  first 
general  assembly  of  the  Congress  will  take  place  in  the 
theatre  of  the  University  at  8  o'clock  on  Monday 
evening,  September  17,  when  the  inaugural  address  will 
be  delivered  in  French  by  Prof.  Prestwich,  as  President. 
French  is  the  official  language  of  the  Congress,  but 
considerable  latitude  is  allowed  in  the  discussions,  and 
much  English  and  German  will  probably  be  spoken  at 
the  forthcoming  meetings. 

On  Tuesday  morning  the  Congress  will  meet  at 
10  o'clock,  for  the  purpose  of  discussing  questions  bear- 
ing upon  geological  nomenclature  and  classification.  A 
full  and  valuable  Report  on  these  subjects  will  be  pre- 
sented by  the  American  Committee.  This  Report,  which 
has  been  printed  in  advance,  forms  a  volume  of  220 
pages,  edited  by  Prof.  Persifor  Frazer.     Although  written 

1  For  report  of  the   Bologna  Congress  see  Natcre,  vol.  xxv.  p.  34. 


416 


NA TURE 


[August  30.  1888 


in  English,  a  French  abstract  has  been  prepared  by  Prof. 
Dewalque,  the  Secretary  of  the  General  Committee 
on  Unification  of  Nomenclature  ;  and  copies  of  this 
abstract  will  be  distributed  at  the  meeting.  The  English 
Committee,  under  the  presidency  of  Prof.  T.  McK. 
Hughes,  will  also  present  its  revised  Report,  which  is 
now  being  printed,  .and  forms  a  substantial  work. 

Opportunity  will  be  given  on  Tuesday  afternoon  for 
visiting  the  British  Museum,  where  the  fine  collections 
illustrative  of  prehistoric  archaeology  will  be  examined 
under  the  guidance  of  Mr.  A.  W.  Franks. 

On  Wednesday  morning  the  sitting  will  be  occupied 
with  the  discussion  of  a  subject  which  has  of  late  years 
been  warmly  debated  in  geological  circles — the  nature 
and  origin  of  the  crystalline  schists.  Special  authorities 
on  this  subject  have  been  invited  to  contribute  short 
memoirs  which  have  been  printed  in  advance.  As  copies 
of  these  papers  will  be  distributed  to  the  members,  the 
communications  may  be  taken  as  read  and  the  time  of 
the  meeting  occupied  only  in  their  discussion.  The 
volumes  of  papers  entitled  "  Etudes  sur  les  Schistes 
Crystallins,"  contains  the  following  communications  : — 
"  Les  Schistes  Cristallins,"  by  Dr.  Sterry  Hunt  ;  '"  Zur 
Klassification  der  krystallinischen  Schiefer,"  by  Prof. 
A.  Heim,  of  Zurich  ;  "  Sur  la  Constitution  et  la  Structure 
des  Massifs  de  Schistes  Cristallins  des  Alpes  Occi- 
dentales,"  by  Prof.  C.  Lory,  of  Grenoble;  "Bemerkungen 
zu  einigen  neueren  Arbeiten  iiber  krystallinisch-schiefrige 
Gesteine,"  by  Prof.  J.  Lehmann,  of  Kiel  ;  "  Sur  l'Origine 
des  Terrains  Cristallins  Primitifs,"  by  M.  Michel-LeVy,  of 
Paris;  "The  Archaean  Geology  of  the  Region  North-West 
of  Lake  Superior,"  by  A.  C.  Lawson,  of  the  Geological 
Survey  of  Canada  ;  "  On  the  Crystalline  Schists  of  the 
United  States  and  their  Relations,"  by  various  members 
of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey  ;  and  a  paper  by 
M.  K.  A.  Lossen,  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  Prussia.  The 
group  of  papers  contributed  by  the  United  States  Survey 
contains  first  an  "  Introduction,"  by  Major  J.  W.  Powell, 
the  Director,  followed  by  a  paper  on  "  The  Crystalline 
Schists  of  the  Lake  Superior  District,"  by  the  late  R.  D. 
Irving,  and  T.  Chamberlin  and  C.  R.  Van  Hise  ;  this  is 
succeeded  by  a  sketch  of  "  The  Crystalline  Schists  of  the 
Coast  Ranges  of  California,"  by  G.  F.  Becker,  and  a  brief 
description  of  "  The  Crystalline  Rocks  of  Northern  Cali- 
fornia and  Southern  Oregon,"  by  Captain  C.  E.  Dutton. 

Wednesday  afternoon  will  be  devoted  to  a  visit  to  the 
Natural  History  Department  of  the  British  Museum 
where  the  visitors  will  be  received  by  Prof.  Flower,  as 
Director  of  the  establishment. 

On  Wednesday  evening  the  Congress  will  be  received 
by  Dr.  A.  Geikie,  as  Director-General  of  the  Geological 
Survey,  at  the  Museum  of  Practical  Geology  in  Jermyn 
Street.  With  the  view  of  illustrating  the  subjects  that  will 
have  been  discussed  at  the  morning  sitting,  it  is  proposed 
that  during  the  evening  a  series  of  microscopic  sections 
showing  the  structure  of  the  crystalline  schists  shall  be 
exhibited  on  the  screen,  by  means  of  the  lime-light,  in 
the  theatre  of  the  Museum. 

At  10  o'clock  on  Thursday  morning  the  Congress  will 
re-assemble  in  the  University  theatre,  and  proceed  to 
the  discussion  of  questions  bearing  upon  the  International 
Map  of  Europe.  The  Map  Committee  will  present  its 
Report,  and  exhibit  specimen  sheets  illustrating  the 
character  of  the  work.  In  the  afternoon  the  members 
will  make  excursions  in  various  directions.  One  party 
will  visit  Windsor  and  Eton,  where  they,  will  be  enter- 
tained by  the  masters  of  Eton  College  ;  another  party 
will  visit  Kew,  and  be  received  by  Mr.  Thiselton  Dyer, 
as  Director  of  the  Royal  Gardens  ;  other  members  will 
go  down  the  river  to  Erith  and  Crayford  for  the  purpose 
of  examining  the  brick-earths  and  gravels  of  the  Thames 
valley  ;  while  otheis  will  probably  visit  Watford  and 
St.  A'bans. 

At  the  meeting  on   Friday  morning  the  discussion  on 


nomenclature  and  classification,  and  on  the  coloration 
of  maps,  will  be  resumed.  In  the  evening  there  will  be 
a  reception  at  the  rooms  of  the  Geological  Society  at 
Burlington  House,  by  Dr.  W.  T.  Blanford,  as  President 
of  the  Society.  An  evening  reception,  the  date  of  which 
is  not  yet  fixed,  will  also  be  held  by  Prof.  Prestwich,  the 
President  of  the  Congress.  The  concluding  business  of  the 
Congress,  mostly  of  a  formal  character,  will  be  taken  at 
Saturday  morning's  sitting. 

By  permission  of  the  Council  of  the  Zoological  Society, 
the  Society's  Gardens  in  Regent's  Park  will  be  open  free 
to  members  of  the  Congress,  not  only  during  the  week  of 
the  meetings  but  (after  1  o'clock)  on  Sundays,  September 
16  and  23. 

Several  geological  excursions  have  been  organized  for 
the  week  following  the  London  session.  One  of  these, 
which  promises  to  be  extremely  popular,  is  to  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  under  the  direction  of  Messrs.  W.  Whitaker, 
J.  Starkie  Gardner,  A.  Strahan,  and  H.  Keeping.  By 
invitation  of  Sir  Charles  Wilson,  this  party  will  also  visit 
the  offices  of  the  Ordnance  Survey  at  Southampton.  An- 
other interesting  excursion  is  to  North  Wales  under  Dr.  H. 
Hick?,  assisted  by  Prof.  J.  H.  Blake  for  Anglesey,  and  by 
Mr.  G.  H.  Morton  for  the  Carboniferous  Limestone  of 
Llangollen.  A  third  excursion  is  planned  to  East  York- 
shire, under  the  direction  of  Mr.  T.  W.  Woodall  and  Mr. 
C.  Fox-Strangways,  assisted  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Hudleston, 
for  some  of  the  Colitic  series.  Mr.  G.  H.  Lamplugh  for 
the  Flamborough  Chalk,  and  Mr.  Hugh  Bell,  for  the 
mines  and  iron-works  of  Middlesborough.  West  York- 
shire will  also  be  visited  bv  a  partv  under  the  guidance  of 
Mr.  J.  E.  Marr  and  Mr.  R  H.  Tiddeman.  Finally,  an 
excursion  to  East  Anglia  has  been  organized  under  Mr. 
F.  W.  Harmer  (Mayor  of  Norwich)  and  Mr.  Clement 
Reid,  assi-ted  for  the  older  Pliocene  beds  of  Suffolk  by 
Dr.  J.  E.  Taylor,  of  the  Ipswich  Museum.  A  guide-book 
containing  geological  descriptions  of  the  localities  about 
to  be  visited,  written  in  French  and  illustrated  by 
coloured  geological  maps,  is  in  course  of  preparation,  and 
will  be  presented  to  the  members  of  the  Congress.  To 
this  guide-book  Mr.  Topley  has  contributed  a  sketch  of 
the  geology  of  the  various  railway  routes  by  which 
foreigners  will  reach  London. 

The  great  interest  taken  in  the  forthcoming  meeting  is 
attested  by  the  fact  that  already  between  500  and  600 
members  have  been  registered.  The  list  includes  nearly 
all  the  most  distinguished  geologists  on  the  Continent 
and  in  America,  many  of  whom  will  arrive  in  time  to  be 
present  at  the  Bath  meeting  of  the  British  Association 
during  the  week  preceding  the  opening  of  the  Congress. 
It  is  known  that  many  of  these  geologists  will  bring  with 
them  collections  of  minerals,  rocks,  and  fossils,  for  exhibi- 
t'on  in  the  temporary  Museum  which  will  be  formed  in 
the  library  of  the  University  of  London,  and  which 
promises  to  be  one  of  the  most  interesting  features  of  the 
meeting.  On  the  whole,  there  can  be  no  question  that 
the  success  of  the  forthcoming  session  of  the  Congress 
is  abundantly  assured. 

MODERN  VIEWS  OF  ELECTRICITY} 

Part  IV.— Radiation. 

x. 

IT  AVING  now  described  a  possible  method  of  measur- 
■*-  -*-  ing  the  velocity  of  electric  wave  propagation,  and 
therefore  of  at  least  the  ratio  of  the  two  ethereal  constants 
k  and  ft,  by  an  experiment  on  the  different  parts  of  one 
enormously  large  and  properly  chosen  circuit :  return  to 
the  consideration  of  the  ordinary  small  discharging 
Leyden  jar  or  other  alternating  current  circuit  of  a 
moderate  size,  it  may  be  a  few  yards  or  a  foot  or  an  inch 
in  diameter. 

If  the  alternating  currents  are  produced  artificially 

^Continued  from  r.  393. 


lly  bv 


Azigust  30,  1888] 


NATURE 


4i7 


some  form  of  alternating  machine,  their  frequency  is,  of 
course,  arbitrary  ;  but  if  they  be  automatically  caused  by 
the  recoil  of  a  given  Leyden  jar  in  a  given  circuit,  their 
frequency  is,  as  we  have  already  said, 


1 


per  second  ; 


where  L  is  the  electrical  inertia  or  self-induction  of  the 
circuit,  and  where  S  is  the  capacity  or  reciprocal  of  the 
elasticity   constant  of  the  jar. 

It  is  not  convenient  here  to  go  into  the  determination 
of  the  quantity  L,  but  roughly  one  may  say  that  for  an 
ordinary  open  single-loop  circuit  it  is  a  quantity  somewhat 
comparable  with  twelve  or  fifteen  times  its  circumference 
multiplied  by  the  constant  fi. 

The  value  of  S  has  to  do  with  the  area  and  thickness 

A 

of  the  condenser,  being,  as  is  well  known,      ■    multiplied 

by  the  constant  K. 

The  product  LS  contains  therefore  two  factors,  each 
of  linear  dimensions,  expressing  the  sizes  of  circuit 
and  jar,  and  likewise  contains  a  factor  ^K  expressing 
the  properties  of  the  surrounding  medium.  Hence,  so 
far  as  the  ether  is  concerned,  the  above  expression 
for  frequency  of  vibration  demands  only  a  knowledge  of 
the.  product  of  its  two  constants  K  and  p,  and  since  this 
is  known  by  the  previous  velocity  experiment,  it  is  easy  to 
calculate  the  rate  of  oscillation  of  any  given  condenser 
discharge.  It  is  also  easy  to  calculate  the  wave-length  ; 
for  if  there  are  n  waves  produced  per  second,  and 
each  travels   with  the   velocity  v,  the    length   of    each 

•     71 
wave  is  -. 
n 

Hence  the  wave-length  is  2ir  „  /(  -  .   —  Y 

Now,  if  we  go  through  these  numerical  calculations  for 
an  ordinary  Leyden  jar  and  discharger,  we  shall  find 
waves  something  like,  say,  50  or  100  yards  long.  They 
may  plainly  be  of  any  length,  according  to  the  size  of  the 
jar  and  the  size  of  the  circuit.  The  bigger  both  these  are 
the  longer  will  be  the  waves. 

A  condenser  of  1  microfarad  capacity,  discharging 
through  a  coil  of  self-induction  1  secohm,  will  give  rise 
to  ether  waves  1900  kilometres  or  1200  miles  long. 

A  common  pint  Leyden  jar  discharging  through  a  pair 
of  tongs  may  start  a  system  of  ether  waves  each  not 
longer  than  about  15  or  20  metres. 

A  tiny  thimble-sized  jar  overflowing  its  edge  may 
propagate  waves  only  about  2  or  3  feet  long. 

The  oscillations  of  current  thus  recognized  as  setting  up 
waves  have  only  a  small  duration,  unless  there  is  some 
means  of  maintaining  them.  How  long  they  will  last 
depends  upon  the  conductivity  of  the  circuit  ;  but  even  in 
a  circuit  of  infinite  conductivity  they  must  die  out  if  left 
to  themselves,  from  the  mere  fact  that  they  dissipate  their 
energy  by  radiation.  One  may  get  100  or  1000,  or  perhaps 
even  100,000,  perceptible  oscillations  of  gradually  de- 
creasing amplitude,  but  the  rate  of  oscillation  is  so  great 
that  their  whole  duration  may  still  be  an  extremely  small 
fraction  of  a  second.  For  instance,  to  produce  ether 
waves  a  metre  in  length  requires  300,000,000  oscillations 
per  second. 

To  keep  up  continuous  radiation  naturally  requires  a 
supply  of  energy,  and  unless  it  is  so  supplied  the  radiation 
rapidly  ceases.  Commercial  alternating  machines  are 
artificial  and  cumbrous  contrivances  for  maintaining  elec- 
trical vibrations  in  circuits  of  finite  resistance,  and  in 
despite  of  loss  by  radiation. 

In  most  commercial  circuits  the  loss  by  radiation  is 
probably  so  small  a  fraction  of  the  whole  dissipation  of 
energy  as  to  be  practically  negligible  ;  but  one  is,  of  course, 
not  limited  to  the  consideration  of  commercial  circuits  or 
to  alternating  machines  as  at  present  invented  and  used. 


It  may  be  possible  to  devise  some  less  direct  method — 
some  chemical  method,  perhaps — for  supplying  energy  to 
an  oscillating  circuit,  and  so  converting  what  would  be  a 
mere  discharge  or  flash  into  a  continuous  source  of 
radiation. 

So  far  we  have  only  considered  ordinary  practicable 
electrical  circuits,  and  have  found  their  waves  in  all  cases 
pretty  long,  but  getting  distinctly  shorter  the  smaller  we 
take  the  circuit.  Continue  the  process  of  reduction  in 
size  further,  and  ask  what  sized  circuit  will  give  waves 
6000  tenth-metres  (three-fifths  of  a  micron,  or  25  millionths 

of  an  inch)  long.  We  have  only  to  put  2tc      /(  —  .  _  j     = 

o"oooo6,  and  we  find  that  the  necessary  circuit  must  have 
a  self-induction  in  electro-magnetic  units,  and  a  capacity 
in  electrostatic  units,  such  that  their  geometric  mean  is 
io-3  centimetre  (one-tenth  of  a  micron).  This  gives  us  at 
once  something  of  atomic  dimensions  for  the  circuit,  and 
suggests  immediately  that  those  short  ethereal  waves  which 
are  able  to  affect  the  retina,  and  which  we  are  accustomed 
to  call  "  light,"  may  be  really  excited  by  electrical 
oscillations  or  surgings  in  circuits  of  atomic  dimensions. 

If  after  the  vibrations  are  once  excited  there  is  no  source 
of  energy  competent  to  maintain  them,  the  light  production 
will  soon  cease,  and  we  shall  have  merely  the  temporary 
phenomenon  of  phosphorescence  ;  but  if  there  is  an  avail- 
able supply  of  suitable  energy,  the  electrical  vibrations 
may  continue,  and  the  radiation  may  become  no  longer  an 
evanescent  brightness,  but  a  steady  and  permanent  glow. 

Velocity  of  Electrical  Radiation  compared  with  Velocity 
of  Light. 

We  have  thus  imagined  the  now  well-known  Maxwellian 
theory  of  light,  viz.  that  it  is  produced  by  electrical 
vibrations,  and  that  its  waves  are  electrical  waves. 

But  what  justification  is  there  for  such  an  hypothesis 
beyond  the  mere  fact  which  we  have  here  insisted  on,  viz. 
that  waves  in  all  respects  like  light-waves  except  size,  i.e. 
transverse  vibrations  travelling  at  a  certain  pace  through 
ether,  can  certainly  be  produced  temporarily  in  practicable 
circuits  by  familiar  and  very  simple  means,  and  could  be 
produced  of  exactly  the  length  proper  to  any  given  kind  of 
light  if  only  it  were  feasible  to  deal  with  circuits  ultra- 
microscopic  in  size  ?  The  simplest  point  to  consider  is  : 
Does  light  travel  at  the  same  speed  as  the  electrical  dis- 
turbances we  have  been  considering?  We  described  one 
method  of  measuring  how  fast  electrical  radiation  travels 
in  free  space,  and  there  are  many  other  methods :  the 
result  was  300,000  kilometres  per  second. 

Methods  of  measuring  the  velocity  of  light  have  long 
been  known,  and  the  result  of  those  measurements  in 
free  space  or  air  is  likewise  300,000  kilometres  a  second. 
The  two  velocities  agree  in  free  space.  Hence  surely 
light  and  electrical  radiation  are  identical. 

But  there  is  a  further  test.  The  speed  of  electrical 
radiation  was  not  the  same  in  all  media :  it  depended  on 
the  electrical  elasticity  and  the  ethereal  density  of  the 
transparent  substance  ;  in  other  words,  it  was  equal  to 
the  reciprocal  of  the  geometric  mean  of  its  specific 
inductive  capacity  and  its  magnetic  permeability — 

_        I 
v  ~  7(K# 

Now,  although  the  absolute  value  of  neither  K  nor  /x 
is  known,  yet  their  values  relatively  to  air  are  often 
measured  and  are  known  for  most  substances. 

Also,  it  is  easy  to  compare  the  pace  at  which  light  goes 
through  any  substance  with  its  velocity  in  free  space  :  the 
operation  is  called  finding  the  refractive  index  of  a  sub- 
stance. The  refractive  index  means,  in  fact,  simply  the 
ratio  of  the  velocity  of  light  in  space  to  its  velocity  in  the 
given  substance.  The  reciprocal  of  the  index  of  refrac- 
tion is  therefore  the  relative  velocity  of  light.  Calling 
the   index  of  refraction   n,   therefore,   we   ought,   if  the 


4i8 


NATURE 


[August  2>o,  1888 


electrical  theory  of  light  be  true,  to  find  that  n2  =  Kfi ; 
or  that  the  index  of  refraction  of  any  substance  is  the 
geometric  mean  of  its  electrostatic  and  magnetic  specific 
capacities. 

That  this  is  precisely  true  for  all  substances  cannot  at 
present  be  asserted.  There  are  some  substances  for 
which  it  is  very  satisfactorily  true  :  there  are  others 
which  are  apparent  exceptions.  It  remains  to  examine 
whether  they  are  not  only  apparent  but  real  excep- 
tions, and,  if  so,  to  what  their  exceptional  behaviour 
is  due. 

It  must  be  understood  what  the  essential  point  is.  It 
has  been  proved  by  various  methods,  and  with  greater 
approach  to  exactness  as  the  accuracy  of  the  methods  is 
improved,  that  electrical  disturbances — such  as  the  long 
waves  emitted  by  any  alternating  machine — travel  through 
air  or  free  space  with  exactly  the  same  velocity  as  light  ; 
in  other  words,  that  there  is  no  recognizable  difference 
in  speed  between  waves  several  hundred  miles  long  and 
waves  so  small  that  a  hundred  thousand  of  them  can  lie 
in  an  inch.  This  is  true  in  free  ether,  and  it  is  a  remark- 
able fact.  If  it  proves  anything  concerning  the  structure 
of  the  ether,  it  proves  that  it  is  continuous,  homogeneous, 
and  simple  beyond  any  other  substance  ;  or  at  least  that 
if  it  does  possess  any  structural  heterogeneity,  the  parts 
of  which  it  is  composed  are  so  nearly  infinitesimal  that  a 
hundred  miles  and  the  hundred-thousandth  of  an  inch 
are  quantities  of  practically  the  same  order  of  magnitude 
so  far  as  they  are  concerned  :  its  parts  are  able  to  treat 
all  this  variety  of  wave-length  in  the  same  manner. 

But  directly  one  gets  to  deal  with  ordinary  gross  matter 
we  know  that  this  is  certainly  not  the  case.  Ordinary 
matter  is  composed  of  molecules  which,  though  small, 
are  far  from  being  infinitesimal.  Atoms  are  much  smaller 
than  light-waves,  indeed,  but  not  incomparably  smaller. 
Hence  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that  the  ether  as  modified 
by  matter  will  be  modified  in  a  similarly  heterogeneous 
manner  ;  and  will  accordingly  not  be  able  to  treat  waves 
of  all  sizes  in  the  same  way. 

The  speed  of  all  waves  is  retarded  by  entering  gross 
matter,  but  we  should  expect  the  smallest  waves  to  be 
retarded  most.  The  phenomenon  is  well  marked  even 
within  the  range  of  such  light-waves  as  can  affect  the 
retina  :  the  smaller  waves — those  which  produce  the 
sensation  of  blue — are  more  retarded,  and  travel  a  little 
slower,  through,  say,  glass  or  water,  than  the  somewhat 
larger  ones  which  produce  the  sensation  of  red.  This 
phenomenon  has  long  been  known,  and  is  called  dis- 
persion. Hence  it  is  not  easy  to  say  at  what  rate  waves 
a  few  inches  or  a  few  yards  or  miles  long  ought  to  travel, 
by  merely  knowing  at  what  rale  the  ultra-microscopic 
light-waves  travel. 

But  there  is  even  more  to  be  said  than  this.  There  is 
not  only  dispersion,  there  is  selective  absorption  possessed 
by  matter  :  not  only  does  it  transmit  different-sized  waves 
at  different  rates,  but  it  absorbs  and  quenches  some 
much  faster  than  others.  Few  substances,  perhaps  none, 
are  equally  transparent  to  all  sizes  of  waves.  Glass,  for 
instance,  which  transmits  readily  the  assortment  of  waves 
able  to  affect  the  retina,  is  practically  quite  opaque  to 
waves  a  few  hundred  times  longer  or  shorter.  And 
whenever  this  selec'iva  absorption  occurs,  the  laws  of 
dispersion  are^extraordinary — so  extraordinary  that  the 
dispersion  is  often  spoken  of  as  "anomalous";  which  of 
course  means,  not  that  it  is  lawless,  but  that  its  laws  are 
unknown.  Dispersion  in  any  case  is  an  obscure  and 
little  understood  subject,  but  dispersion  modified  by 
selective  absorption  is  still  worse.  Until  the  theory  of 
dispersion  is  better  understood,  no  one  is  able  to  say  at 
what  speed  waves  of  any  given  length  ought  to  travel. 
One  can  only  examine  experimentally  at  what  rate  they 
do  travel.  This  has  been  done  for  long  electrical  waves,  and 
it  has  been  done  for  short  light-waves  :  in  the  case  of  some 
substances  the  speedy  is  the  same,  in  the  case  of  others  it 


is  different.  But  that  the  speed  should  be  different  is,  as 
I  have  now  explained,  very  natural,  and  can  by  no  means 
be  twisted  into  an  admission  that  light-waves  and 
electrical  waves  are  not  essentially  identical.  That  the 
speed  of  both  should  agree  at  all  is  noteworthy  ;  the 
agreement  appears  to  be  exact  in  air,  and  practically 
exact  in  such  simple  substances  as  sulphur,  and  in  the 
class  of  hydrocarbons  known  as  paraffins  ;  whereas  in 
artificial  substances  like  glass,  and  in  organic  substances 
like  fats  and  oils,  the  agreement  is  less  perfect. 

So  much  for  the  vital  question  of  the  speed  at  which 
electrical  and  optical  disturbances  travel.  In  some  cases 
the  speeds  are  accurately  the  same,  in  no  case  are  they 
entirely  different  ;  and  in  those  cases  where  the  agreement 
is  only  rough,  an  efficient  and  satisfactory  explanation  of 
the  difference  is  to  hand  in  the  very  different  lengths  of 
wave  which  have  at  present  been  submitted  to  experiment. 
To  compare  t^e  speeds  properly,  we  must  either  learn  to 
shorten  electrical  waves,  or  to  lengthen  light-waves,  or 
both,  and  then  compare  the  two  things  together  when  of 
the  same  size. 

It  cannot  be  seriously  doubted  that  they  will  turn  out 
identical. 

Manufacture  of  Light. 

The  conclusions  at  which  we  have  arrived,  that  light  is 
an  electrical  disturbance,  and  that  light-waves  are  excited 
by  electric  oscillations,  must  ultimately,  and  may  shortly, 
have  a  practical  import. 

Our  present  systems  of  making  light  artificially  are 
wasteful  and  ineffective.  We  want  a  certain  range  of 
oscillation,  between  7000  and  4000  billion  vibrations  per 
second  :  no  other  is  useful  to  us,  because  no  other  has 
any  effect  on  our  retina  ;  but  we  do  not  know  how  to 
produce  vibrations  of  this  rate.  We  can  produce  a 
definite  vibration  of  one  or  two  hundred  or  thousand  per 
second,  in  other  words,  we  can  excite  a  pure  tone  of 
definite  pitch  ;  and  we  can  command  any  desired  range  of 
such  tones  continuously  by  means  of  bellows  and  a  key- 
board. We  can  also  (though  the  fact  is  less  well  known) 
excite  momentarily  definite  ethere  d  vibrations  of  some 
million  per  second,  as  I  have  at  length  explained ;  but  we 
do  not  at  present  seem  to  know  how  to  maintain  this  rate 
quite  continuously.  To  get  much  faster  rates  of  vibration 
than  this  we  have  to  fall  back  upon  atoms.  We  know 
how  to  mike  atoms  vibrate :  it  is  clone  by  what  we  call 
"heating"  the  substance,  and  if  we  could  deal  with  indi- 
vidual atoms  unhampered  by  others,  it  is  possible  that  we 
might  get  a  pure  and  simple  mode  of  vibration  from  them. 
It  is  possible,  but  unlikely  ;  for  atoms,  even  when  isolated, 
have  a  multitude  of  modes  of  vibration  special  to  them- 
selves, of  which  only  a  few  are  of  practical  use  to  us,  and 
we  do  not  know  how  to  excite  some  without  also  the 
others.  However,  we  do  not  at  present  even  deal  with 
individual  atoms  ;  we  treat  them  crowded  together  in  a 
compact  mass,  so  that  their  modes  of  vibration  are  really 
infinite. 

We  take  a  lump  of  matter,  say  a  carbon  filament  or  a 
piece  of  quick-lime,  and  by  raising  its  temperature  we 
impress  upon  its  atoms  higher  and  higher  modes  of 
vibration,  not  transmuting  the  lower  into  the  higher  but 
superposing  the  higher  upon  the  lower,  until  at  length  we 
get  such  rates  of  vibration  as  our  retina  is  constructed  for, 
and  we  are  satisfied.  But  how  wasteful  and  indirect  and 
empirical  is  the  process.  We  want  a  small  range  of  npid 
vibrations,  and  we  know  no  better  than  to  make  the  whole 
series  leading  up  to  them.  It  is  as  though,  in  order  to  sourd 
some  little  shrill  octave  of  pipes  in  an  organ,  we  wero 
obliged  to  depress  every  key  and  every  pedal,  and  to  blow 
a  young  hurricane. 

I  have  purposely  selected  as  examples  the  more  perfect 
methods  of  obtaining  artificial  light,  wherein  the  waste 
radiation  is  only  useless,  and  not  noxious.  But  the  old- 
fishioijed  plan   was  cruder  even  than  this,  it   consisted 


August  30,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


419 


simply  in  setting  something  burning  :  whereby  not  only 
the  fuel  but  the  air  was  consumed,  whereby  also  a  most 
powerful  radiation  was  produced,  in  the  waste  waves  of 
which  we  were  content  to  sit  stewing,  for  the  sake  of  the 
minute,  almost  infinitesimal,  fraction  of  it  which  enabled 
us  to  see. 

Everyone  knows  now,  however,  that  combustion  is  not 
a  pleasant  or  healthy  mode  of  obtaining  light ;  but  every- 
body does  not  realize  that  neither  is  incandescence  a 
satisfactory  and  un wasteful  method  which  is  likely  to 
be  practised  for  more  than  a  few  decades,  or  perhaps 
a  century. 

Look  at  the  furnaces  and  boilers  of  a  great  steam-engine 
driving  a  group  of  dynamos,  and  estimate  the  energy 
expended  ;  and  then  look  at  the  incandescent  filaments  of 
the  lamps  excited  by  them,  and  estimate  how  much  of 
their  radiated  energy  is  of  real  service  to  the  eye.  It  will 
be  as  the  energy  of  a  pitch-pipe  to  an  entire  orchestra. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  a  boy  turning  a  handle 
could,  if  his  energy  were  properly  directed,  produce  quite 
as  much  real  light  as  is  produced  by  all  this  mass  of 
mechanism  and  consumption  of  material. 

There  might,  perhaps,  be  something  contrary  to  the  laws 
of  Nature  in  thus  hoping  to  get  and  utilize  some  specific 
kind  of  radiation  without  the  rest,  but  Lord  Rayleigh  has 
shown  in  a  short  communication  to  the  British  Association 
at  York  :  that  it  is  not  so,  and  that  therefore  we  have  a 
right  to  try  to  do  it. 

We  do  not  yet  know  how,  it  is  true,  but  it  is  one  of  the 
things  we  have  got  to  learn. 

Anyone  looking  at  a  common  glow-worm  must  be  struck 
with  the  fact  that  not  by  ordinary  combustion,  nor  yet  on 
the  steam-engine  and  dynamo  principle,  is  that  easy  light 
produced.  Very  little  waste  radiation  is  there  from  phos- 
phorescent things  in  general.  Light  of  the  kind  able  to 
affect  the  retina  is  directly  emitted,  and  for  this,  for  even 
a  large  supply  of  this,  a  modicum  of  energy  suffices. 

Solar  radiation  consists  of  waves  of  all  sizes,  it  is  true  ; 
but  then  solar  radiation  has  innumerable  things  to  do 
besides  making  things  visible.  The  whole  of  its  energy 
is  useful.  In  artificial  lighting  nothing  but  light  is  desired  ; 
when  heat  is  wanted  it  is  best  obtained  separately,  by 
combustion.  And  so  soon  as  we  clearly  recognize  that  light 
is  an  electrical  vibration,  so  soon  shall  we  begin  to  beat 
about  for  some  mode  of  exciting  and  maintaining  an 
electrical  vibration  of  any  required  degree  of  rapidity. 
When  this  has  been  accomplished,  the  problem  of  artificial 
lighting  will  have  been  solved.  Oliver  J.  LODGE. 

{To  be  continue. 1.) 


S  TORM    I VA  RXINGS. 

'"TWENTY-EIGHT  years  ago,  M.  Le  Verrier  wrote  to 
*■  the  Astronomer-Royal  at  Greenwich  inviting  the 
co  operation  of  this  country  in  his  scheme  for  giving 
warning  of  storms  by  announcing  them  and  following 
their  course  by  telegraph  as  soon  as  they  appear  at  anv 
point  of  Europe,  and  in  the  following  year  (1861)  Admiral 
FitzRoy  established  his  system,  giving  notice  of  storms 
before  they  actually  strike  our  coast.  Notwithstanding  the 
success  which  has  attended  these  efforts,  storms  sometimes 
overtake  us  before  warning  of  their  approach  can  be  given, 
and  every  endeavour  to  increase  our  foreknowledge  of  their 
movements  should  be  gladly  welcomed.  Since  the  vear 
i860  much  additional  light  has  been  thrown  upon  the  sub- 
ject by  the  systematic  publication  of  synchronous  charts, 
such  as  those  commenced  by  the  late  Captain  Hoffmeyer, 
Director  of  the  Danish  Meteorological  Institute.  Several 
attempts  have  also  been  made  to  utilize  the  Atlantic 
cables  with  the  object  of  giving  warning  of  storms  leaving 
the  American    coast    or   met   with  by   the  fast  steamers 

'    B.A.  Report,  i8Sr,  p.  526. 


bound  to  the  United  States  ;  but  these  efforts  have  hitherto 
met  with  little  success  from  want  of  sufficient  knowledge  of 
the  conditions  existing  over  the  Atlantic, many  storms  pass- 
ing wide  of  the  British  Isles,  others  originating  in  mid-ocean 
or  dying  out  there.  Of  the  endeavours  to  connect  our  know- 
ledge of  the  weather  over  the  Atlantic  with  the  reports  re- 
ceived from  the  two  shores,  the  labours  of  Captain  Hoffmeyer 
as  explained  in  "  Etudes  sur  les  Tempeies  de  l'Atlantique 
septentrional :'  (Copenhagen,  1SS0),  and  recent  publica- 
tions of  M.  Ldon  Teisserenc  de  Bort  in  the  Annates  of  the 
Central  Meteorological  Office  of  Erance,  deserve  especial 
attention.  With  the  view  of  utilizing  the  American 
weather  reports  for  the  purpose  of  improving  European 
weather  predictions,  M.  de  Bort  has  made  an  investiga- 
tion of  the  mean  positions  of  high  and  low  pressures  in 
the  northern  hemisphere  for  all  winters  since  1838,  and 
he  shows  how  these  great  centres  of  atmospheric  action 
correspond  to  different  types  of  weather,  that  during  each 
season  these  centres  are  limited  in  number,  and  that  each 
of  them  when  displaced  still  lies  within  a  definite  area. 

During  the  winter  season,  for  instance,  the  maxima  are 
arranged  as  follows  : — (i)   The  maximum  of  Asia,  which 
generally    includes   two    parts,   one   being   near    Irkutsk, 
the  other  either  in  Siberia  or  Russia,  one  of  the  positions 
being  usually  to  the  south-west  of  Tobolsk.     (2)  The  maxi- 
mum of  Madeira,  which   is  also  sometimes  split  up  into 
two  parts,  one  being  over  the  ocean  and  the  other  over 
Switzerland  and  Central  Europe,  or  joining  with  a  part  of 
the  high  pressures  of  Asia.     (3)   The  Bermuda  maximum, 
which  is  often  found  over  the  east  of  the  United  States 
or  even  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Nova  Scotia,     (.1)  The 
continental  maximum  of  America,  which  usually  lies  over 
the  mountainous  parts.     (5)  The  Polar  maximum,  which 
appears    over    Greenland,    Iceland,    or    Norway.      With 
respect  to  the  minima,    there  are  (1)   the  low   pressure 
situated  over   the  north  of  the  Atlantic,  which  may  be 
called   the  Iceland  minimum  ;  (2)  a  minimum  which  is 
mostly  to  be  found  in  America,  generally  over  the  region 
of  the  Great  Lakes  ;  and  (3)   a  minimum  which  appears 
to  belong  to  the  Arctic  Ccean,and  whose  centre  generally 
lies  near  Nova  Zembla.     These  mean  positions  are  laid 
down  in  recent  barometrical  charts,  such  as  those  of  the 
Meteorological  Office  and  other  institutions.   The  maxima 
and  minima    may   combine  respectively,  but   there   are 
scarcely  any' conditions  where  at  least  three  centres  of 
high  pressure  and  two  centres  of  low  pressure  are  not  to 
be  found  between  China  and  California,  and  between  the 
equator  and  8ocN.  latitude.     When  the  positions  of  the 
high   and  low  pressures  are  well  known,  we  may  proceed 
like  the  naturalist,  and  discover,  by  the  examination  of 
some  portions,  those  that  are  wanting  to  the  whole.    The 
introduction  of  this  method  into  meteorology  has  a  direct 
application  in  the  prediction  of  weather.    The  telegraphic 
reports  now  received  allow  of  the   construction  on  one 
hand  of  the  isobaric  chart  over  Europe  (which  ought  to  be 
extended  as  far  as  Asia),  and  the  isobars  in  their  general 
features  over  the  United  States  ;  between  the   two  there 
remains  the  great  unknown  of  the  Atlantic.     Now  by  a 
methodical  discussion  of  the  isobars  of  the  two  shores  of 
the  ocean  we  ought  to  be  able  to  reconstitute  the  conditions 
over   the    Atlantic    with    a   great   amount   of  probability. 
But  how  are  we  to  know  that  there  are  not  two  or  three 
centres  of  depression  over  the  ocean,  for  the  number  of 
depiessions  is  not  limited  ?  Evidently  this  is  very  difficult  ; 
but  for  the  object  in  view — viz.  to  reconstruct  the  general 
features  of  the   isobars  with  sufficient  accuracy  to  make 
use  of  the  data  for  forecasting  the  weather  in  Europe — the 
difficulty  is  not  so  great.      In  fact,  either  the  depressions 
are  grouped  so  as  to  be  only  the  subsidiary  disturbances 
of  a  great   minimum,   and    in    this  case   the   position   of 
the  minimum  may  be  indicated,  which  is  the  important 
point,  or  they  are  completely  separated,  forming  distinct 
systems  of  low   pressure,  and  then  the  trace  of  them  is 
found  in  the  isobars  on  the  coasts,  and  often  even  in  the 


420 


NATURE 


[August  30,  1 888 


arrangement  or  the  number  of  the  maxima  situated  over 
the  Continent. 

The  essential  condition  for  successfully  constructing 
the  isobars  is  a  knowledge  of  the  various  types  that  pre- 
sent themselves,  so  that  we  may  discover  by  a  simple 
inspection  of  the  charts  of  Europe  and  America  what 
general  type  is  in  question.  We  will  give  two  examples 
in  which  M.  de  Bost  shows  that  the  reconstruction  of 
the  general  chart  according  to  this  method  would  have 
enabled  him  to  foretell  two  important  storms. 

On  December  2,  1886,  the  general  conditions  were  as 
shown  in  Chart  No.  1. 

"  By  confining  our  attention  to  the  indications  given 
solely  by  the  chart  of  Europe,"  he  writes,  ''  we  might 
expect  in  France  cold  weather  with  cloudy  sky  and  sleet 
showers.  On  the  4th,  a  depression  which  was  foretold  on 
the  3rd  had  spread  over  the  British  Isles,  where  it  brought 
bad  weather ;  but  the  barometer  rose  rapidly  over  the 
west  of  Europe.  Supposing  that  the  high  pressures  would 
extend  over  Central  Europe,  we  might  expect  a  spell  of 
fine  and  cold  weather.  Instead  of  that  a  rapid  fall  of 
the  barometer  occurred  over  the  north  of  Europe,  and 
the  wind  shifted  to  south-west.  On  the  7th  and  8th  this 
condition  was  intensified,  and  one  of  the  most  violent 
storms  that  we  have  experienced  for  a  long  time  struck 
us,  the  barometer  at  Mullaghmore  falling  to  27*45  inches." 


go     100 


80       60         40        20 


20         40        SO        SO        100 


120        WO        SO        60        40        20  0         20        40        60 

Chart  No    i. — 762  mm.  =  30 'o  inches. 


80        100 


of  the  month  the  existence  of  an  area  of  high  pressure 
over  the  west  of  Europe,  and  it  appears  to  extend  to  some 
distance  over  the  ocean  ;  low  pressures  are  observed  over 
the  north  of  the  Continent.  This  condition  persists,  with 
rather  cold  weather,  and  on  the  7th,  in  France,  a  continua- 
tion of  dry  weather  is  foretold.  In  England,  the  forecast 
bears  principally  on  the  consequences  of  the  move- 
ment of  a  small  barometric  minimum  which  exists  over 
Scotland. 

On  the  8th  a  complete  change  of  system  occurred  ;  an 
important  depression  reached  Europe  over  Portugal,  and 
the  low  pressure  extended  over  the  north  of  the  British  Isles. 
This  depression  did  not  fail  to  bring  a  storm  from  the 
north-east.  While  the  situation  in  Europe  was  considered 
as  fairly  stable,  and  the  low  pressures  of  the  north  of 
Europe  were  considered  to  be  chiefly  in  operation,  an 
important  minimum  which  was  advancing  from  the  cen- 
tral part  of  the  ocean  suddenly  appeared,  and  produced 
a  complete  change  of  conditions.  And  yet  the  predictions 
of  the  European  meteorologists  were  certainly  the  only 
ones  that  could  have  been  made  from  the  study  of  the 
various  daily  weather  reports.  But  if  we  construct  the 
chart  of  the  5th  of  October,  we  shall  recognize  that  a 
centre  of  low  pressure  was  very  close  to  the  south-west  of 
Spain,  and  was  directly  threatening  Europe.  A  mere 
glance  at  the  Chart  No.  2  would  have  been  sufficient  to 


120       WO       80       60   40       SO        0       20       40       60       SO      100 


If  we  refer  to  the  general  charts,  and  particularly  to  the 
chart  of  December  2,  we  shall  see  that  the  barometric 
maximum  of  Asia  is  in  its  place,  and  that  over  the  United 
States  there  is  a  large  area  of  high  pressure.  This  is 
rather  extended,  and  leaves  no  room  for  the  low  pressure 
of  the  region  of  the  Lakes  except  in  the  vicinity  of  New- 
foundland. As  there  is  also  a  rather  important  baro- 
metrical maximum  to  the  west  of  Europe,  we  conclude 
that  very  important  low  pressures  must  exist  over  the 
ocean  off  the  American  coast.  Under  these  conditions, 
in  order  to  have  fine  weather,  it  is  necessary  that  the  area 
of  low  pressure  of  Central  Europe  should  shift  towards 
Siberia,  so  as  to  allow  the  maximum  to  advance  over  our 
regions.  On  the  5th,  the  increase  of  the  high  pressure  of 
Asia  towards  St.  Petersburg  and  Finland  clearly  indicates 
that  the  area  of  low  pressure  cannot  shift  in  its  entirety 
towards  the  East.  The  rise  of  the  barometer  over  the  west 
of  Europe  must  not  therefore  be  taken  as  a  sign  of  lasting 
fine  weather,  but  as  the  result  of  the  approach  of  the  low 
pressure  from  the  ocean.  From  these  conditions  M.  de 
Bort  shows  that  the  forecast  to  be  drawn  for  Western 
Europe  was  entirely  opposite  to  that  which  resulted  from 
the  study  of  the  conditions  over  Europe  alone. 

Another  example  of  the  utility  of  the  construction  of  the 
charts  over  the  ocean  is  afforded  by  the  very  sudden 
change  of  weather  that  occurred  on  the  8th  of  October, 
1887  (Chart  No.  2). 

The  European  weather  charts  indicate  at  the  beginning 


change  entirely  the  weather  forecasts  in  Western  Europe, 
and  would  have  given  ample  warning  of  the  approach  of 
the  storm  of  the  8th. 

As  to  the  reasons  which  would  allow  us  to  trace  the 
isobars  over  the  Atlantic  in  the  way  they  are  represented 
on  the  chart ;  the  importance  of  the  barometric  maximum 
situated  over  the  British  Isles  and  the  west  of  Europe  is 
such  that  we  must  infer  from  it  that  the  normal  maximum 
of  Madeira  was  displaced.  This  conclusion  was  confirmed 
by  the  observations  from  Madeira,  where  the  barometer 
was  below  29/9  inches,  with  a  south-east  wind.  Secondly, 
there  were  no  important  low  pressures  in  America,  there- 
fore these  must  exist  over  the  ocean  and  near  Europe,  as 
the  observations  from  Nova  Scotia  show  higher  pressures 
than  those  from  Canada.  Everything  concurs,  therefore, 
in  indicating  with  certainty  the  presence  of  a  large  baro- 
metric minimum  over  the  centre  of  the  ocean,  and  the 
importance  of  this  indication  for  the  prediction  of  the 
weather  in  Europe  cannot  be  contested. 

From  these  examples  M.  de  Bort  concludes— (1)  that, 
with  the  aid  of  telegraphic  reports  from  America,  and 
the  knowledge  of  what  is  taking  place  over  Europe  and 
Siberia,  we  can  trace  the  isobars  over  the  ocean  with 
much  chance  of  success  ;  (2)  this  trace  being  made,  we 
may  take  useful  advantage  of  it  to  reveal  the  true 
character  of  the  general  condition  of  the  atmosphere, 
which  our  charts,  limited  to  Europe  and  the  British  Isles 
alone,  are  powerless  to  indicate. 


August  30,  r  888] 


NA  TURE 


42r 


SONNET* 

Commemorative  of  an  Incident  which  occurred  in  St.  Margaret's 
Church,  Westminster,  en  August  9,  1888. 

BEFORE  the  altar  Man  and  Maid  they  stood, 
On  altar-step  as  Man  and  Wife  then  kneeled- 
Its  Heaven-lent  strains  the  sacred  Organ  pealed, 
Moulding  thoughts,  hopes,  and  passions  as  it  would, 
Till  all  hearts  swam  in  one  melodious  flood.  # 

When  as  rapt  Fancy  wandered  far  a-field 
Lo  !  Eve's  fresh  bower  stood  to  her  sight  revealed 
Where  hung  upon  the  spray  a  pure  white  bud — 
The  bride's  half-sister  on  her  nurse's  breast- 
Fair-writ  indenture  of  prevenient  Mind, 
An  Imogene  stole  back  from  far  Dream-land 
(Spirit  of  womanhood  by  a  child  possessed  !) 
O'er  whose  soft  gaze,  as  Ocean  deep,  inclined 
My  lips  with  reverence,  kissed  her  dimpled  hand. 

New  College,  Oxford,  August  26.  J.  J.  S. 


NOTES. 

Prof.  Piazzi  Smyth  has  resigned  the  office  of  Astronomer- 
Royal  for  Scotland,  and  no  one  who  takes  the  trouble  to  read 
the  second  appendix  to  a  paper  on  "  The  Edinburgh  Equatorial  in 
1887,"  contributed  by  him  lately  to  the  Proceedings  of  the  Royal 
Society  of  Edinburgh,  and  now  reprinted,  will  be  surprised  at 
his  decision.  Before  he  consented  to  join  in  the  project  of  the 
Board  of  Visitors,  about  1870,  of  applying  to  the  Government 
for  a  large  equatorial,  Prof.  Piazzi  Smyth  pointed  out  that  such 
an  instrument,  even  if  once  set  up  complete,  would  require 
further  expenditure  year  after  year  to  keep  it  fully  efficient,  and 
that  the  working  with  it  would  be"  so  peculiarly  onerous  and 
responsible  that  the  salaries  of  the  officers  of  the  Royal  Obser- 
vatory, Edinburgh,  already  acknowledged  to  be  at,  or  below, 
starvation  point,  should  be  raised  more  nearly  to  the  level  of 
those  of  other  Observatories  or  of  any  ordinary  Government 
offices.  He  was  told  that  all  that  was  most  certainly  right,  and 
would  be  brought  about  ;  and  the  Board  of  Visitors  did  most 
honourably  proceed  to  frame  a  scheme  providing  for  a  modest 
addition  not  only  to  the  observers'  salaries,  but  to  the  available 
income  of  the  Observatory,  to  be  expended  by  the  Astronomer 
in  instrumental  repairs,  experiments,  and  improvements  at  his 
discretion.  Under  these  promising  circumstances  he  acted  with 
the  Board  in  their  application  for  a  large  equatorial.  The 
instrument  was  in  part  set  up,  under  the  authority  of  the  Office 
of  Works,  in  1872  ;  but  in  the  following  year,  when  the  election 
was  found  very  incomplete,  the  scheme  of  the  Board  of  Visitors 
for  increasing  the  salaries  and  available  income  of  the  Observa- 
tory to  a  point  sufficient  to  finish,  maintain,  and  work  the  instru- 
ment, was  suddenly  and  finally  disallowed.  A  Committee, 
appointed  in  1876  by  Mr.  (now  Lord)  Cross  to  investigate  the 
matter,  reported  for  a  series  of  financial  improvements  similar 
to  those  suggested  by  the  Board  of  Visitors  ;  but  the  Home 
Secretary  declined  to  listen  to  his  own  Committee.  Another 
Committee  was  appointed  in  1879.  This  Committee  did  not 
admit  the  Astronomer  to  its  council,  and  limited  its  inquiries  to 
the  equatorial.  It  advised  certain  improvements,  and  obtained 
a  grant  for  executing  them  ;  but  the  grant  either  still  remains 
in  the  possession  of  the  Office  of  Works  or  has  lapsed  to  the 
Treasury — a  fact  which  is  the  less  to  be  regretted  as  the  sum 
was  absurdly   inadequate.       It  would    be  hard  to  match  this 

*  This  sonnet  would  furnish  an  unrivalled  new  situation  and  a  noble  sub- 
ject for  a  young  painter  wiih  lofty  aims  (if  such  there  be  among  us)  to  depict. 
In  the  church  invited  to  participate  in  the  sacred  rite  were  Star-gazers, 
Wonder-workers,  and  Magi  (the  Darwins.  the  Thomsons,  and  the  Cayleys), 
who  may  be  supposed  in  the  person  of  their  representative  to  be  doing 
homage  to  the  Suirit  of  Womanhcod  incarnated  in  the  infant  held  in  the 
arms  of  her  proud  and  comely  nurse,  from  whom  I  learned  that  the  child's 
name  wai  Imogene. 


wretched  tale  in  any  other  civilized  country  ;  and  we  can  scarcely 
expect  that  science  will  c  mtinue  to  flourish  in  Great  Britain  if 
its  claims  are  to  be  treated  with  so  much  contempt.  Prof.  Piazzi 
Smyth,  having  withdrawn  from  his  position  at  Edinburgh,  retires 
to  Clova,  Ripon,  where  he  will  c  mtinue  bis  astronomical  studies. 
Warm  appreciation  of  his  services  during  the  forty-three  years 
in  which  he  has  held  office  has  been  expressed  on  behalf  of  the 
Secretary  for  Scotland,  and  by  the  Senatus  Academicus  of  the 
University  of  Edinburgh. 

The  British  Archaeological  Association,  of  which  the  Marquess 
of  Bute  is  this  year  the  President,  began  its  sittings  in  Glasgow 
on  Monday.  Although  this  is  the  forty-fifth  annual  Congress,  it  is 
the  first  occasion  on  which  the  Association  has  crossed  the 
border. 

The  Association  of  Public  Sanitary  Inspectors  of  Great 
Britain  held  on  Saturday,  by  invitation  of  the  Mayor  (Alderman 
Martin),  a  public  conference  on  sanitation  in  the  Royal  Pavilion, 
Brighton.  An  address  by  Mr.  Edwin  Chadwick,  the  President, 
who  could  not  be  present  on  account  of  his  advanced  age,  was 
read  by  Dr.  B.  W.  Richardson.  The  address  presented  an 
interesting  general  view  of  the  recent  progress  of  sanitation  in 
this  country. 

Mr.  William  Chappell,  F.S.A.,  who  died  on  the  20th 
inst.  at  his  residence  in  Upper  Brook  Street,  was  known  chiefly 
for  his  efforts  to  popularize  old  English  music  ;  but' he  deserves 
to  be  remembered  also  as  an  ardent  student  of  music  in  its 
scientific  aspects.  He  had  a  wide  and  accurate  knowledge  of 
the  natural  laws  on  which  the  principles  of  musical  composition 
are  based,  and  his  book  on  the  History  of  Music,  both  as  an 
Art  and  as  a  Science,  is  of  great  value.  Mr.  Chappell  was 
seventy-eight  years  of  age. 

Mr.  P.  H.  Gosse,  F.R.  S. ,  the  well-known  zoologist,  died  at 
hi-;  residence,  St.  Marychurch,  Torquay,  on  the  23rd  inst.,  at 
the  age  of  seventy-eight.  Mr.  Gosse  was  elected  a  Fellow  of 
the  Royal  Society  in  1856. 

Mr.  William  A.  Croffut  has  been  appointed  executive 
officer  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  in  the  place  of 
the  late  Mr.  James  A.  S^ev^nson.  Mr.  Croffut  is  a  well-known 
journalist,  and  Science  anticipates  that  he  will  fill  with  success 
the  difficult  position  in  which  he  is  placed. 

Captain  H.  Fabritius,  of  the  Norwegian  Hydrographical 
Office,  is  engaged  during  the  present  summer  in  the  steamer 
Professor  Hausteen  in  making  hydrographical  researches  on 
the  west  coast  of  Norway,  similar  to  those  of  last  year. 
The  course  followed  is  from  Malangeit  southwards,  soundings 
being  taken  at  about  every  mile  to  a  distance  of  some  sixty 
miles  from  the  coast. 

Several  recent  shocks  of  earthquake  are  reported  from 
Norway  and  Sweden.  In  the  former  country  an  earthquake 
shojk  of  great  severity  was  felt  in  various  parts  of  Hardanger,  on 
the  west  coast,  shortly  after  midnight  on  July  17.  Houses 
were  shaken,  and  furniture  was  thrown  down.  In  one  place  three 
shocks  were  felt.  The  earthquake  was  accompanied  by  loud 
subterranean  rumblings.  Its  area  seems  to  have  been  very 
limited  :  in  places  only  a  few  miles  distant  no  trace  of  disturb- 
ance was  perceived.  On  July  28,  about  3  a.m.,  a  very  severe 
shock  of  earthquake  was  felt  along  a  great  portion  of  the 
northern  Baltic  shore  of  Sweden.  At  Hernosand,  Ornskoldsvik. 
and  Lungon,  the  shocks  are  reported  as  particularly  severe, 
houses  shaking,  &c.  In  some  places  two  or  three  shocks  were 
felt,  lasting,  so  correspondents  maintain,  several  minutes.  In 
every  place  loud  subterranean  detonations  were  heard.  Again, 
on  the  evening  of  August  17,  during  a  hurricane,  a  severe 
earthquake  shock  was  felt  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Ystad  in 
Scania,  in  the  extreme  south  of  Sweden. 


422 


NA  TURE 


\August  30,  1888 


On  the  morning  of  August  17,  about  3  a.m.,  a  remarkable 
phenomenon  attracted  attention  at  the  Island  of  Riigen,  in  the 
Baltic.  A  deep  rumbling  out  at  sea  was  heard,  and  soon 
afterwards  two  enormous  waves  approached  from  the  north- 
west, breaking  over  the  shore  and  doing  considerable  damage  to 
small  craft.  At  the  time  the  sea  was  calm,  and  there  was 
no  wind. 

On  the  night  of  July  31  a  brilliant  meteor  was  seen  at  Lin- 
koping,  in  Swede  1,  going  in  a  north-westerly  direction.  It 
finally  burst,  the  fragments  appearing  to  fall  near  the  railway 
park. 

Symons's  H&mtkty  Meteorological  Magazine  for  August  con- 
tains an  interesting  summary  of  the  climate  of  the  British  Empire 
during  1887.  Comparing  with  the  summary  for  1886,  Stanley, 
Falkland  Isles,  takes  the  place  of  London,  as  the  dampest  station. 
Adelaide  has  the  highest  shade  temperature,  iii°"2  ;  the  highest 
temperature  in  the  sun,  1640  ;  and  is  the  driest  station.  Winni- 
peg has  the  lowest  shade  temperature,  -42°'7,  and  the  greatest 
yearly  range,  1 350  9.  Bombay  has  the  greatest  rainfall,  and 
Malta  the  least,  and  also  the  least  cloud.  Although  the 
maximum  shade  temperatures  in  Australia  exceed  those  in  India, 
the  average  maxima  of  the  latter  far  exceed  those  of  Australia. 

The  Pilot  Chart  of  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean  for  August 
shows  that  although  the  weather  over  that  ocean  was  generally 
fine  and  very  mild  during  July,  a  number  of  depressions  were 
generated,  and  produced  gales  over  the  trans- Atlantic  routes. 
The  most  violent  was  one  which  developed  on  June  27,  in  about 
latitude  420  and  longitude  52",  teaching  our  coats  on  July  4.  A 
wind  force  as  high  as  II  of  the  Beaufort  scale  was  recorded 
during  its  course.  Dense  continuous  fog  wras  encountered  over 
and  to  the  westward  of  the  Grand  Banks.  Large  quantities  of 
ice  have  been  reported  as  far  west  as  the  60th  meridian.  The 
tracks  of  all  the  most  notable  August  hurricanes  on  record  are 
plotted  on  the  chart,  and  show  where  these  dangerous  cyclones 
are  likely  to  be  eneo.mterei.  A  supplementary  chart  showing 
the  derelicts  in  the  North  Atlantic,  gives  also  the  complete 
history  up  to  date  of  the  great  log  raft  which  was  abandoned 
last  December.  This  most  dangerous  obstruction  to  navigation 
consisted  of  about  27,000  trunks  of  trees  bound  together,  and 
measured  560  feet  long.  Thousands  of  the  great  logs  of  which 
it  was  composed  are  still  drifting  over  the  commercial  routes. 

In  the  American  Meteorological  Journal  for  July,  Lieut. 
Glassford  describes  a  new  wind  vane  in  use  at  the  California 
State  University.  The  design  is  said  to  possess  novel  advant- 
ages, such  as  supporting  all  the  weight  upon  a  point,  like  a 
compass-card,  an  oil  vessel  into  which  paddles  dip  to  lessen  the 
suddenness  of  vibration,  &c.  It  may  here  be  mentioned  that 
anemometers  with  liquid  brakes  have  also  been  made  in  this 
country.  Mr.  Rotch  contributes  an  article  on  the  Observatory 
on  the  Santis,  in  Switzerland.  The  observations  of  this  moun- 
tain station  are  regularly  published  in  the  Annalen  of  the  Swiss 
d  entral  Meteorological  Office.  Mr.  F.  Waldo  gives  an  abstract 
of  the  results  of  comparisons  of  several  of  the  combined  cistern- 
syphon  barometets,  known  as  the  Wild- Fuess  check  barometers. 
These  portable  instruments  have  been  for  some  time  in  use  in 
Russia,  and  some  of  them  are  now  introduced  into  the  United 
States  Signal  Service.  The  full  account  of  the  comparisons  was 
prepared  for  the  Chief  Signal  Officer's  Report,  but  is  not  yet 
printed. 

Dr.  G.  N.  Stewart,  Owens  College,  sent  recently  to  the 
Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh  a  preliminary  communication  on 
the  electrolytic  decomposition  of  proteids.  He  pointed  out 
that  it  is  an  important  question  whether  the  conduction  of 
electricity  by  animal  tissues  is  mainly  or  entirely  electrolytic.  If 
it  is  mainly  electrolytic,,the  further  question  becomes  interesting, 


What  are  the  electrolytes?  The  inquiry  is  thus  brought  into- 
relation  with  the  whole  of  electro-physiology  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  whole  of  electro-therapeutics  on  the  other,  and,  at  the 
present  moment,  it  gains  special  interest  from  the  practical  point 
of  view,  in  connection  with  the  recent  introduction  of  strong 
currents  into  gynecological  treatment.  The  investigation  is  as 
yet  far  from  being  complete,  and  Dr.  Stewart  is  at  present 
carrying  on  the  experiments.  In  the  case  of  egg-albumen  it  has 
been  found  that  the  resistance  at  any  given  temperature  is  not 
changed  by  coagulation,  but  that  it  is  enormously  increased  by 
dialysis.  The  conclusion  is  that  it  is,  mainly  at  any  rate,  by  the 
electrolysis  of  the  simple  inorganic  constituents  that  the  current 
passes. 

A  third  edition  of  Prof.  Silvanus  P.  Thompson's  "  Dynamo- 
Electric  Machinery  "  (E.  and  F.  N.  Spon)  has  just  been  issued. 
Most  of  the  treatise  has  been  rewritten  for  this  edition,  and  much 
new  matter  has  been  added. 

The  University  College  of  North  Wales  has  issued  its  Calendar 
for  the  year  1888-S9. 

In  the  Annual  Report,  for  the  year  1887,  of  the  Trustees  of 
the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History,  Central  Park,  New 
York  City,  it  is  stated  that  the  collections  of  this  Museum  are 
now  valued  at  the  sum  of  about  600,000  dollars.  "  It  is  but 
right  to  say,"  add  the  Trustees,  "  that  of  this  large  amount  your 
Trustees  have  been  the  main  contributors.  The  necessity  of 
adding  to  these  collections  increases  as  time  goes  on,  and  it  is 
hoped  that  more  of  our  citizens  will  take  an  earnest  and  in- 
creased interest  in  our  Museum,  and  so  aid  the  Trustees  in  making 
this  institution  what  it  should  be  and  what  our  city  has  a  right  to 
expect— the  great  museum  of  the  country." 

In  a  letter  written  on  board  the  seal-ship  Jason  in  the  Denmark 
Sound,  Dr.  Nansen  draws  attention  to  the  scarcity  of  seals  on 
the  coast  of  Greenland  in  recent  years.  Only  ten  years  ago  the 
animals  were  so  plentiful  and  tame  that  thousands  could  be 
"clubbed"  with  the  greatest  ease,  whereas  now  they  have  be- 
come scarce  and  shy.  Dr.  N  an;-en  is  of  opinion  that  the  ruth- 
less persecution  of  these  animals  since  1876,  when  the  first  sealer 
appeared  in  the  Denmark  Sound,  has  caused  them  to  alter  their 
habits.  Formerly  they  were  found  on  the  edge  of  the  drift- 
ice,  where  they  were  safe  from  their  only  enemy,  the  Polar 
bear,  though  falling  an  easy  prey  to  the  sealer.  Now  they 
gather  on  the  ice  close  to  the  shore,  whither  vessels  cannot 
penetrate,  and  where  they  are,  at  all  events,  safe  from  one 
enemy.  This,  says  Dr.  Nansen,  was  fully  demonstrated  on 
several  occasions,  particularly  on  July  2,  when  seals  were  seen 
lying  in  thousands  close  under  the  shore  to  the  north  and  north- 
east as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach  from  the  mast  head.  To  the 
north  especially  the  ice  was  for  miles  one  mass  of  dark  animals. 
Dr.  Nansen  advocates  a  closer  preservation  of  the  seal.  The 
seal  fishery  was  a  failure  this  year,  and  sealers  report  that  the 
ice-masses  were  enormous. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  three  Black-headed  Lemurs  [Lemur  brunneus) 
from  Madagascar,  presented  by  Captain  J.  Bonneville  ;  a  Ring- 
tailed  Coati  (IVaszta  ruja)  from  South  America,  presented  by 
Captain  James  Smith  ;  a  Razorbill  (Alca  tonla),  British,  pre- 
sented by  Mr.  T.  H.  Nelson  ;  a  Nightingale  {Daulias  luscinia), 
British,  presented  by  Mr.  J.  Young  ;  an  American  Wild 
Turkey  [Meleagris  gallo-pavo  6  )  from  North  America,  presented 
by  Mr.  F.  J.  Coleridge  Boles ;  a  Raven  (Corvus  corax),  British, 
presented  by  Mr.  F.  Steinhoff;  two  Pallas's  Sand  Grouse 
{Syrrhaptes  paradoxus),  bred  in  Fifeshire,  N.B.,  presented  by 
Mr.  Alexander  Speedie  ;  a  Macaque  Monkey  {Macacits  cynomol 
gits  &  )  from  India,  a  Lesser  White-nosed  Monkey  [Cercjpit/iecus 
peta arista    9  )  from  West  Africa,  a  Vulpine  Squirrel  (Sciurus 


August  30,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


423 


r.ulpimti)  from  North  America,  deposited  ;  two  Great  White 
Herons  (.-Infra  alba),  European,  purchased  ;  a  Moor  Monkey 
(Sent  nop  i  thee  its  niaitrus)  from  Java,  a  Malabar  Squirrel  (Sriwus 
maximus)  from  Tndia,  a  Red-bellied  Squirrel  (Sciimts  variegatus) 
from  Vera  Cruz,  a  Sclater's  Curassow  (Cra.v  sclatcri  Q  )  from 
South  America,  a  River  Jack  Viper  {Vipcra  rhinoceros^  from 
West  Africa,  received  in  exchange  ;  a  Wapiti  Deer  {Cervits 
canadensis  6  ),  five  Brazilian  Teal  (Qucrqitcdula  brasi/iens/s),  two 
Chilian  Pintails  {Dafila  spini-auda),  two  Triangular  Spotted 
Pigeons  {Columba  guinea),  three  Chinese  Blue  Magpies 
{Cyanopolius  ryanus)  bred  in  the  Gardens. 

OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 
The  SrECTKUM  ok  R  Cygni.— The  Rev.  T.  E.  Espin,  in 
Circular  No.  21  of  the  Wolsingham  Observatory,  reports  that 
he  observed  a  remarkably  bright  line  (apparently  F)  in  the 
spectrum  of  this  star  on  August  13.  The  observation  was  con- 
firmed on  August  22,  on  which  night  Dr.  Copeland  also 
observed  the  bright  line  and  determined  its  position.  Duner's 
observations  of  this  star  in  1879,  1880,  and  1882  showed  it  as 
possessing  a  feebly-marked  spectrum  of  the  third  (Secchi's)  type. 
A  change  would  therefore  seem  to  have  taken  place  in  this  star. 
Place  for  18870,   R.A.  19I1.  33m.  49s.,  Deck  490  57''o  N. 

Milan  Double-Star  Observations. — Prof.  Schiaparelli 
has  recently  published,  in  No.  xxxiii.  of  the  Publications  of  the 
Royal  Observatory  of  Brera,  the  results  of  his  measures  of  465 
systems  of  double  stars  made  with  the  fine  8-inch  Merz  refractor 
of  that  Observatory  in  the  eleven  years  1875-85.  The  observa- 
tions are  nearly  4000  in  number,  and  are  for  the  most  part 
of  stars  of  small  distances,  i.e.  less  than  5",  apart,  the  binaries 
in  rapid  motion  receiving  especial  attention.  'I  he  measures 
nre  grouped  together  into  four  parts,  the  stars  of  the  Dorpat  and 
Pulkowa  catalogues  forming  the  first  two,  then  follow  stars  dis- 
covered by  Burnham,  and  those  of  other  discoverers  are  grouped 
together  in  the  last.  Besides  these  detailed  results  of  the 
measures  made  with  the  old  8- inch,  with  which  Prof.  Schia- 
parelli has  done  so  much  excellent  work  in  the  east,  there  are 
given  in  an  appendix  mean  results  for  a  number  of  the  closest 
pairs  as  measured  with  the  new  18-inch  refractor.  Prof.  Schia- 
parelli seems  well  satisfied  with  the  performance  of  this  new 
instrument,  and  records  the  discovery  that  the  principal  star  of 
2  1273,  e  Hydrse,  is  itself  a  very  close  double,  a  fact  that  had 
hitherto  escaped  notice,  notwithstanding  the  number  of  obser- 
vations which  have  been  made  with  vari  ms  telescopes  upon  the 
star.  The  magnitudes  of  the  two  components  of  the  new 
double  are  4  and  5  "5,  and  the  distance  is  o"-2  or  o"*25. 
The  earlier  part  of  the  volume  contains  a  detailed  description  of 
the  optical  performance  of  the  8-inch  refractor,  a  discussion  of 
the  errors  of  the  micrometer  and  of  the  accidental  errors  of 
observation,  a  determination  of  the  systematic  errors  of  observa- 
tion, and  a  very  full  comparison  with  Dembowski's  measures. 
The  differences  in  the  determination  of  position-angle  due  to 
the  varying  inclination  of  the  line  joining  the  two  stars  to  the 
line  of  the  observer's  eyes  are  also  investigated,  but  the  reversion 
prism  was  not  used.  Prof.  Schiaparelli  finds  that  on  the  whole 
his  measures  of  distance  are  free  from  systematic  errors  due 
to  personality,  but  his  position-angles  have  a  tendency  to  be 
small  as  compared  with  those  of  other  observers. 

Amongst  the  notes  to  some  of  the  more  interesting  stars  is  one 
on  OS  285  in  which  a  correction  of  180°  is  suggested  to  the 
angles  of  Englemann  and  Perrotin  in  1883  and  18S5,  the  star 
being  supposed  to  have  passed  rapidly  through  periastron  in  the 
long  period  from  1865  to  1883,  in  which  it  was  unobserved.  All 
the  observations  would  then  be  satisfied  by  an  ellipse  of  100 
years  of  revolution.  2  2367  and  2  2525  are  noted  as  appearing 
as  single  stars  with  the  18-inch  refractor  in  1887. 

Excke's  Comet. — Mr.  John  Tebbutt,  Windsor,  New  South 
Wales,  informs  us  that  he  picked  up  this  object  on  the  evening 
of  July  8.  Its  place  as  observed  closely  accorded  with  that 
given  in  Dr.  Backlund's  ephemeris. 

ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA  FOR   THE 
WEEK  1888  SEPTEMBER  2-8. 
(T^  OR   the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing   at 
Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 
is  here  employed.) 


At  Greenwich  on  September  2 
Sun  rises,  5h.  17m.  ;  souths,  uh.  59  n.  2f6s.  ;  sets.  i8h.  42T1    : 

right    asc.    on    meridian,    ioh.    47  *6m.  ;    deck    70  40'  N. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset.   I7h.  31m. 
Moon  (New  on  September  6,  5k.)  rises,  oh.  39m. :  souths,  8h.  49m.; 

sets,  i6h.   55m.  :  right  asc.  on  meridian,  7I1.  37"2m. ;  deck 

200  54'  N. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 
Planet.         Rtses.  Souths.  Sets.  on  meridian. 

h.     m.  h.     m.  h.     m.  h.      tn.  n       , 

Mercury..  6     2  ...  12  33  ...  19     4  ...  n  21*6  ...     5  28  N. 

Venus 6  9$  ...  12  55  ...  19  15  ...  n  43'3  •••     3  I2  N- 

Mars 12  26  ...  16  39  ...  20  52  ...  15  278  ...  20  24  S. 

Jupiter. ...  12  38  ...  16  58  ...  21    18  ...  15  47'5  ...    19  19  S. 

Saturn....  2  43  ...  10  19  ...  17  55   ...  9     6-9  ...    17  19  N. 

Uranus...  8  33  ...  -14  9  ...  19  45  •■•  I2  57*5  •••     5  29  S. 

Neptune..  21   28*...  5  15  ..  13     2  ...  4     2-4  ...   18  59  N. 

*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening. 

Occullations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 

angles  from  ver- 

Sept.  Star.  Mag.  Disap.  Reap.  tex  to  ric;ht  for 

inverted  image, 
h.    m.  h.     m.  0         o 

2  ...  61  Geminorum ..   6     ...     o     4    ..     o  50     ...     84  216 

3  ...  B.A.C.  2854   ...  6     ...     4  54  nearapproach   135    — 

Sept.  h.  .  o       - 

4     ...        1      ...     Saturn  in  conjunction  with  and  o   34  south 

of  the  Moon. 
7     ...       O     ...     Mercury  in  conjunction  with  and  30  46': south 

of  the  Moon. 
7     ...       7     ...     Venus  in  conjunction  with  and  30  32'  south 

of  the  Moon. 

Variable  Stars. 
Star.  RA.  Decl. 

h.      m.  „  h.    m. 

A  Tauri 3  54'5  •••  *2   IO  N-  •••  Sept.    4,  20  26  m 

C  Geminorum       ...     6  57-5  ...  .20  44  N.  ...     ,,       8,21     ow 
5  Librae         14   550...     8     4S 6,21   42  tn 

V  Ophiuchi 16  20-5  ...  12   10  S.    ...     ,,       6,  M 

U  Ophiuchi 17   10-9  ...     I  20  N ,       4,     1    15  m 

„  21  22  m 

W  Sagittarii        ...   17  57'9  •••  29  35  &•  ■••     »  8,  1  o  m 

B  Lyra? 18  46^0  ...  33  14  P*.  •••     „  7>  23  °  1Hi 

RLyrs        18  51-9  ...  43  48  N.  ...     „  2,              M 

S  Vulpecuke       ...   19  43'8  ...  27  1  N.  ...     ,,  2,             M 

V  Aquilse      19  46-8  ...    o  43  N.  ...     ,,  7,  o  o  M 

R  Sagittce    20     90  ...  16  23  N.  ...     ,,  6,               in 

X  Cygni   ...  ...  20  39-0  ...  35  1 1  N.  ...  ,,  5,  3  o  M 

T  Vulpecuke   ...  20  467  ...  27  50  N.  ...  ,,  2,  3  o  M 

5  Cephei   22  25-0  ...  57  51  N 4,  1  o  m 

^/signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum  ;  >n2  secondary  minimum. 

Meteor-  Showt  rs. 
R.A.  Decl. 


Near  Algol  ... 
,,  e  Lyrae  ... 
,,     #  Piscium 


43 
282 

345 


39  N. 
42  \~. 

1  N. 


Swift  ;  streaks. 
Swift ;  bright. 
Slow  ;  bright. 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

The  current  number  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Geo- 
graphical Society  contains  the  report  of  his  first  year's  work  by 
Mr.  Mackinder,  the  Reader  in  Geographv  to  the  University  of 
Oxford,  whose  appointment  is  due  to  the  Society.  He  describes 
the  year  as  one  of  reconnoitre  and  preparation  ;  neverthele-s  he 
delivered  forty-two  ordinary  lectures  in  the  University,  and  one 
public  lecture  ;  in  each  of  the  three  terms  he  lectured  for  seven 
weeks  twice  a  week,  having  two  courses  going  on  side  by  side 
on  different  days,  to  one  of  which  he  imparted  a  scientific,  to 
the  other  an  historical  bias.  The  notices  were,  by  permission  of 
the  Board  of  Faculties,  published  in  the  lists  of  two  separate 
Faculties— Natural  Science  and  Modern  History.  On  the  scientific 
side  the  lectures  have  been  on  the  principles  of  geography— "a 
review  of  the  subject  not  m-rely  physical,  yet  taking  the  feature, 
and  not  the  region,  as  the  basis  of  classification."  This  course 
has  not  been  so  well  attended  as  the  other,  but  Mr.  Mackinder 
congratulates  himself  that  he  has  never  been  wholly  without  an 
audience,  "a  fate  not  altogether  unknown  just  now  to  Oxford 
Professors  and  Readers."  On  the  historical  side  the  lectures  were 
on  the  geography  of  Central  Europe,  and  the  influence  of  physi- 
cal features  on  man's  movements  and  settlements.      "  My  aim  is 


424 


NA  TURE 


\_Atigust  30,  1888 


to  furnish  general  instruction  to  as  large  a  number  as  will  favour 
me  with  their  attention  ;  and  also  to  have  always  round  me  two 
or  three  whom  we  may  style  specialists.  I  can  only  say  that  I 
now  see  a  very  fair  prospect  of  obtaining  the  latter.  It  may  be 
well  to  place  on  record  my  humble  opinion,  that  the  best  pre- 
liminary training  for  a  geographical  specialist  is  sound  grounding 
in  general  science,  and  superadded  to  this  an  elementary  know- 
ledge of  history.  I  have  found  by  experience  that  it  is  exceed- 
ingly hard  to  give  the  necessary  scientific  knowledge  to  an 
historian" — a  somewhat  hard  saying  for  the  historians.  In  the 
coming  academical  year  the  lectures  will  be  on  the  physical 
geography  of  continents,  the  geography  of  the  British  Isles,  and 
the  historical  geography  of  North  America.  As  Extension 
Lecturer,  Mr.  Mackinder  has  delivered  102  lectures  on  geo- 
graphy and  physiography  at  various  towns  throughout  the 
country. 

In  the  August  number  of  the  Scottish  Geographical  Magazine, 
Mr.  Forbes  reports  on  his  attempts  to  reach  the  Owen  Stanley 
Peak,  and  incidentally  describes  the  moving  adventures  by 
flood  and  field  of  his  last  expedition.  Although  not  successful, 
owing  to  more  than  one  unexpected  mishap,  in  reaching  his 
goal,  he  claims  that  the  results  accomplished  so  far.  have  not 
been  few  or  inconsiderable.  Large  additions  have  been  made  to 
botanical  and  some  to  zoological  science  ;  an  extensive  series 
of  meteorological  observations  has  been  tabulated,  and  a  tract 
of  country  has  been  mapped  for  the  first  time.  Mr.  Ravenstein 
briefly  describes  the  recent  explorations  in  the  territories  of  the 
African  Lakes  Company  between  Nyassa  and  Tanganyika.  Both 
these  papers  are  accompanied  by  excellent  maps.  Archdeacon 
Maples,  of  the  Universities  Mission  to  Central  Africa,  gives  a 
detailed  account  of  Lukoma,  the  principal  island  in  Lake 
Nyassa,  which,  although  only  \\  miles  long  by  2\  broad,  has 
a  population  of  2500,  or  about  220  to  the  square  mile,  in 
consequence  of  its  comparative  freedom  from  war.  "  Ula,"  or 
witchcraft,  of  the  kin  1  described  by  Mr.  Rider  Haggard  with 
such  graphic  force  in  one  of  his  earlier  works,  prevails,  and  is  a 
curse  to  the  island.  Herr  Metzger  contributes  a  most  interesting 
paper  on  the  scientific  work  lately  done  in  the  Dutch  East  Indies, 
based  mainly  on  recent  Government  publications  and  those  of 
various  learned  Societies  in  Holland  and  Java. 

The  current  number  of  the  Deutsche.  Geographische  Blatter 
contains  two  papers  of  considerable  geographical  and  ethno- 
logical interest.  The  fbst,  by  Herr  August  Fitzau,  is  devoted  to 
the  little-known  region  of  the  north-west  African  seaboard 
between  Morocco  and  the  Senegal  River.  After  an  historical 
survey  of  the  various  attempts  made  to  found  European  settle- 
ments in  this  region,  the  writer  describes  in  deta"il  the  sections  of 
the  coast  between  Agadir  and  Cape  Juby,  and  thence  to  Saint 
Louis.  He  then  deals  with  the  Western  Sahara  in  general,  and 
especially  with  the  ethnological  relations  of  the  regions  south  of 
the  Atlas  and  north  of  the  Senegal  River,  arriving  at  the  general 
conclusion  that,  although  Arabic  has  become  the  dominant 
language,  the  old  Berber  or  Hamitic  is  still  the  prevailing 
ethnical  element,  variously  modified  by  Semitic  and  Negro 
influences.  In  the  second  paper  the  distinguished  traveller  and 
ethnologist,  Dr.  O.  Finsch,  gives  a  sympathetic  and  permanently 
valuable  account  of  the  life  and  work  of  the  late  Mikluho- 
Maclay,  to  wdiom  anthropological  science  is  so  much  indebted 
for  his  profound  studies  of  the  Malayan,  Papuan,  Negrito, 
Melanesian,  and  Australian  races.  The  memoir  is  very  com- 
plete, including  a  detailed  account  of  the  naturalist's  travels  with 
their  scientific  results,  his  vast  ethnological  collections  and 
the  zoological  stations  founded  by  him,  and  concluding  with 
a  full  descriptive  catalogue  of  his  numerous  geographical, 
anthropological,  and  zoological  writings. 

The  July  number  of  the  Bollettino  of  the  Italian  Geographical 
Society  is  mainly  occupied  wiih  Leonardo  Fea's  recent  explora- 
tions in  Tenasserim.  The  chief  points  visited  were  the  curious 
"Farm  Caves"  in  the  M  lulmein  district,  and  Mount  Mulai 
(Moolaee)  in  the  Dona  Range.  This  peak,  culminating  paint  of 
Tenasserim  (6300  feet),  was  reached  and  ascended  to  its  summit 
after  a  journey  full  of  difficulties  and  hardships,  which  followed 
the  course  of  the  Jeeayng-Myit  and  its  great  southern  tributary, 
the  Unduro,  as  far  as  Meetan  in  460  N.,  980  30'  E.  From 
Meetan  the  route  struck  north  to  Tagata  and  Mulai  through  the 
hilly  territory  of  the  little-known  Ayaeen  Karens.  Of  this 
tribe  Signor  Fea  gives  an  interesting  account,  and  he  was  also 
successful  in  securing  a  large  zoological  c  Election,  including 
450  skins  of  birds,  over  400  mammals,  many  hundred  reptiles, 
batrachians,    and   fishes,     besides    numerous    insects,    spiders, 


mollusks,  and  other  small  animals.  These  treasures  go  to  enrich 
the  valuable  zoological  materials  already  brought  together  in  the 
Natural  History  Museum  founded  at  Genoa  by  the  Marquis 
Giacomo  Doria.  The  paper  is  accompanied  by  a  map  of  the 
region  explored,  as  well  as  by  several  original  sketches  by  the 
naturalist  himself.  The  Marquis  Doria  has  added  a  useful  list 
of  the  various  memoirs  that  have  appeared  in  connection  with 
Signor  Fea's  geographical  and  biological  researches  in  Burmah 
during  the  last  four  years. 

The  most  important  amongst  recent  explorations  in  Indo- 
China  are  those  undertaken  by  the  Vice-Consul  for  France  at 
Luang  Prabang,  the  capital  of  an  outlying  region  of  Siam  of  the 
same  name,  and  itself  situated  on  the  Mekong.  M.  Pavie,  the 
official  in  question,  has  since  succeeded  in  reaching  Tonquin  from 
this  place  by  two  different  routes,  the  most  practicable  apparently 
being  that  to  the  north-east  along  the  valley  of  the  Namseng, 
a  tributary  of  the  Mekong,  and  then  across  the  mountains  forming 
the  watershed  of  the  Mekong  and  Songkoi,  or  Red  River  of 
Tonquin,  to  the  valley  of  Nam  Tay  or  Black  River,  dawn  which 
M.  Pavie  proceeded  to  Sontay  and  Hanoi. 

At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  Swedish  Geographical  and 
Anthropological  Society,  Baron  H.  von  Schwerin  gave  an 
account  of  his  late  expedition  to  the  Congo  and  West  Africa, 
extending  over  a  period  of  nearly  two  years,  and  under- 
taken at  the  instance  of  the  Swedish  Government.  He  had 
proceeded  in  a  steamer  as  far  up  the  Congo  as  Stanley 
Falls,  and  then  up  the  Kassai,  the  principal  tributary 
of  the  former.  Next  he  had,  in  the  company  of  his 
countryman,  Lieut.  C.  Hakansson,  explored  the  basin  of  the 
Inkissi,  another  tributary  of  the  Congo,  and  from  Banana  made 
an  excursion  into  the  land  of  the  Mushirongi,  south  of  the 
mouth  of  the  river,  a  country  never  hitherto  visited  by  any 
European.  After  a  journey  to  Angola  and  Mossamedes,  on  the 
west  coast,  a  journey  performed  in  a  sailing-vessel,  and  ex- 
tending as  far  north  as  Cape  Negro,  he  made  an  excursion  into 
the  lands  of  Kakongo  and  Kabinda,  situated  to  the  north  of  the 
mouth  of  the  Congo,  which  had  also  hitherto  been  considered 
closed  to  Europeans.  The  heat  on  the  Congo  was  not  so 
excessive  as  was  generally  imagined.  A  temperature  above 
35°  C.  was  rare,  but  what  were  particularly  enervating  and 
exhausting  were  the  steadiness  of  the  high  temperature  and  the 
total  absence  of  cooling  breezes,  whether  in  the  shade  or  at 
night,  and,  more  than  either,  the  exce  sive  humidity  of  the  air. 
He  considered  the  climate  of  the  Congo  one  of  the  healthiest  in 
Africa.  Finally,  Dr.  Schwerin  gave  an  account  of  his  discovery 
on  the  promontory  south  of  the  Congo  River  of  the  remains  of 
the  marble  pillar  raised  there  in  1484  by  Diego  Cam  in  com- 
memoration of  the  discovery  of  this  mighty  river,  and  destroyed 
by  the  Dutch  in  the  sixteenth  century.  The  speaker  also 
exhibited  a  large  and  valuable  collection  of  scientific  objects 
gathered  in  Africa. 

NOTES  ON  METEORITES. 

I. 

Their  Fall  and  Physical  Characteristics. 

PERUSAL  of  the  Chinese  annals — which  reach  back  to  the 
year  644  before  our  era,  and  are  still  models  of  patient 
record — or  of  the  mucn  more  irregular  and  less  complete  ones  of 
the  Western  world,  shows  in  the  most  definite  manner  that 
since  the  very  commencement  of  human  history,  from  time  to 
time  falls  of  bodies  on  to  the  earth  from  external  space  have  been 
noticed.  Biot  has  traced  in  Ma-tuan-lin  the  record  of  sixteen 
falls  from  the  date  before  mentioned  to  A. D.  333. 

The  earliest  fall  recorded  in  Europe,  however,  transcends  in 
antiquity  anything  the  Chinese  can  claim,  dating  as  it  does  from 
1478  B.C.  It  happened  in  Crete,  but  the  record  is  much  more 
doubtful  than  that  of  the  falls  in  705  and  654  B.C.,  noted,  the 
first  by  Plutarch,  and  the  second  by  Livy. 

But  in  466  B.C.  occurred  a  fall  at  A  egos  Potamos,  in  Thrace, 
concerning  which  the  Chronicles  of  the  Parian  marbles,  Plutarch, 
and  Pliny  all  give  us  information.  It  was  of  the  size  of  two 
mill-stones,  and  equal  in  weight  to  a  full  waggon-load.1  Later, 
there  fell  in  Phry^ia,  in  about  the  year  2-4  B.C.,  a  stone  famous 
through  long  ages,  which  was  preserved  there  for  many  genera- 
tions. It  was  described  as  "  a  black  stone,  in  the  figure  of  a 
cone,  circular  below  and  ending  in  an  apex  above."  It  was 
worshipped  by  the  ancients  as  Cybele,  the  mother  of  the  gods, 
1  Humboldt,  "  Cosmos,"  Otte's  translation,  vol.  i.  p.  103. 


A 


August  30,  1888] 


NATURE 


425 


and  was  transferred  to  Rome,  as  an  oracle  had  announced  that 
the  possession  of  it  would  secure  continual  prosperity  to  the 
State.1 

In  more  modern  times  we  have  records  of  various  falls  of  these 
bodies.  The  following — a  few  out  of  a  very  great  number- — either 
possess  a  national  interest  or  are  the  statements  of  eye-witnesses. 
In  England  there  fell  a  stone  in  the  afternoon  of  Decenber 
l3>  J795-  A  labourer  happened  to  be  working  near  Wold 
Cottage,  Thwing,  Yorkshire,  when  this  stone  fell  within  a  few 
yards  of  him.  On  digging  the  stone  out  of  the  ground  it  was 
found  to  have  penetrated  a  foot  of  soil  and  half  a  foot  of  chalk  rock, 
and  to  weigh  56  pounds.  The  inhabitants  of  the  neighbouring 
villages  likened  the  explosion  to  the  firing  of  guns  at  sea,  while 
in  two  of  them  the  sounds  were  so  distinct  of  something  rushing 
through  the  air  towards  Wold  Cottage  that  some  of  the  people 
went  to  see  if  anything  extraordinary  had  happened. 

The  next  account  is  from  Ireland.      It  is  the  narrative  of  an 
eye-witness  of  a  fall  of  meteorites  in  the  county  of  Limerick. 

''Friday  morning,  the  10th  of  September,  1813,  being  very 
calm  and  serene,  and  the  sky  clear,  about  9  o'clock,  a  cloud  appeared 
in  the  east,  and  very  soon  after  I  heard  eleven  distinct  reports 
appearing  to  proceed  thence,  somewhat  resembling  the  discharge 
of  heavy  artillery.  Immediately  after  this  followed  a  considerable 
noise  not  unlike  the  beating  of  a  large  drum,  which  was  suc- 
ceeded by  an  uproar  resembling  the  continued  discharge  of 
musketry  in  line.  The  sky  above  the  place  whence  this  noise 
appeared  to  issue  became  darkened  and  very  much  disturbed, 
making  a  hissing  noise,  a  id  from  thence  appeared  to  issue  with 
great  violence  different  masses  of  matter,  which  directed  their 
course  with  great  velocity  in  a  horizontal  direction  towards  the 
west.  One  of  these  was  observed  to  descend  ;  it  fell  to  the 
earth,  and  sank  into  it  more  than  a  foot  and  a  half,  on  the  lands 
of Scagh,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Patrick's  Well,  in  the  county 
of  Limerick.  It  was  immediately  dug  up,  and  I  have  been 
informed  by  those  that  were  present,  and  on  whom  I  could  rely, 
that  it  was  then  warm  and  had  a  sulphurous  smell.  It  weighed 
about  17  pounds,  and  had  no  appearance  of  having  been  fractured 
in  any  part,  for  the  whole  of  its  surface  was  uniformly  smooth  and 
black,  as  if  affected  by  sulphur  or  gunpowder.  Six  or  seven 
more  of  the  same  kind  of  masses,  but  smaller,  and  fractured,  as  if 
shattered  from  each  other  or  from  larger  ones,  descended  at  the 
same  time  with  great  velocity  in  different  places  between  the 
lands  of  Scagh  and  the  village  of  Adare.  One  more  very  large 
mass  passed  with  great  rapidity  and  considerable  noise  at  a  small 
distance  from  me ;  it  came  to  the  ground  on  the  lands  of  Brasky, 
and  penetrated  a  very  hard  and  dry  earth  about  2  feet.  This 
was  not  taken  up  for  two  days  ;  it  appeared  to  be  fractured  in 
many  places,  and  weighed  about  65  pounds !  Its  shape  was  rather 
round,  but  irregular.  It  cannot  be  ascertained  whether  the 
small  fragments  which  came  down  at  the  same  time  corresponded 
with  the  fractures  of  this  large  stone  in  shape  or  number,  but  the 
unfractured  part  of  the  surface  has  the  same  appearance  as  the 
one  first  mentioned.  There  fell  also  at  the  same  time,  or.  the 
lands  of  Faha,  another  stone,  which  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  part  of  or  separated  from  any  other  mass  ;  its  skin  is 
smooth  and  blackish,  of  the  same  appearance  with  the  first  men- 
tioned ;  it  weighed  ab  at  74  pounds  ;  its  shape  was  very  irregular, 

for  its  volume  was  very  heavy It  was  about  three 

miles  in  a  direct  line  from  the  lands  of  Brasky,  where  the  very 
large  stone  descended,  to  the  place  where  the  small  ones  fell  in 
Adare,  and  all  the  others  fell  intermediately  ;  but  they  appeared 
to  descend  horizontally,  and  as  if  discharged  from  a  bomb  and 
scattered  in  the  air."  • 

The  fall  of  the  meteorite  of  1885,  near  Mazapil,  in  Mexico, 
was  thus  described  by  an  eye-witness  vouched  for  by  Prof. 
Bonilla: —  3 

"It  was  about  nine  in  the  evening  when  I  went  to  the  corral 
to  feed  certain  horses,  when  suddenly  I  heard  a  loud  hissing 
noise,  exactly  as  though  something  red  hot  was  being  plunged 
into  cold  water,  and  almost  instantly  there  followed  a  somewhat 
loud  thud.  At  once  the  corral  was  covered  with  a  phos- 
phorescent light  and  suspended  in  the  air  were  small  luminous 
sparks  as  though  from  a  rocket.  I  had  not  recovered  from  my 
surprise  when  I  saw  this  luminous  air  disappear,  and  there  re- 
mained on  the  ground  only  such  a  light  as  is  made  when  a  match 
is  rubbed.     A  number  of  people  from  the  neighbouring  houses 

See  British  Museum  Introduct'on  to  the  Study  of  Meteorites,  p.  17. 
Quoted  by  Ma  Icelyne,   "Lecture  Notts  0.1  Meuoritts,"  Natuke,  1-75, 
vol    x.i.  p.  485. 

3  Natuke,  vol.  xxxv.  p.  572. 


came  running  toward  me, and  they  assisted  me  to  quiet  the  horses, 
which  had  become  very  much  excited.  We  all  asked  each  other 
what  could  be  the  matter,  and  we  were  afraid  to  walk  in  the 
corral  for  fear  of  getting  burned.  When,  in  a  few  moments,  we 
had  recovered  from  our  surprise,  we  saw  the  phosphorescent  \[>ht 
disappear,  little  by  little,  and  when  we  had  brought  lights  to  look 
for  the  cause,  we  found  a  hole  in  the  ground  and  in  it  a  ball  of 
fire.  We  retired  to  a  distance,  fearing  it  would  explode  and 
harm  us.  Looking  up  to  the  sky  we  saw  from  time  to  time 
exhalations  or  stars, '  which  soon  went  out,  but  without  noise.  We 
returned  after  a  little,  and  found  in  the  hole  a  hot  stone,  which 
we  could  barely  handle,  which  on  the  next  day  we  saw  looked 
like  a  piece  of  iron  ;  all  night  it  rained  stars,  but  we  saw  none 
fall  to  the  ground,  as  they  seemed  to  be  extinguished  while  still 
very  high  up." 

The  next  record  of  the  phenomena  attending  a  fall  in  the 
United  States  (though  the  observer  quoted  did  n  jt  actually  see 
the  fall)  is  taken  from  a  lecture  by  Prof.  Newton  : — 2 

"  '  The  observers,'  he  says,  '  who  stood  near  to  the  line  of  the 
meteor's  flight,  were  quite  overcome  «ith  fear,  as  it  seemed  to 
come  down  upon  them  with  a  rapid  increase  of  size  and  brilliancy, 
many  of  them  wishing  for  a  place  of  safety,  but  not  having  the 
time  to  seek  one.  In  this  fright  the  ani  rials  tojk  a  part,  horses 
shying,  rearing,  and  plunging  to  get  away,  and  dogs  retreating 
and  barking  with  signs  of  fear.  The  meteor  gave  out  several 
marked  flashes  in  its  course,  one  more  noticeable  than  the  rest. 
.  .  .  Thin  clouds  of  smoke  and  vapour  followed  in  the  track  of 
the  meteor.  .  .  .  From  one  and  a  half  to  two  minutes  after  the 
dazzling,  terrifying,  and  swiftly  moving  mass  of  light  had  ex- 
tinguished itself  in  live  sharp  flashes,  five  quickly  recurring 
reports  were  heard.  The  volume  of  sound  was  so  great  that  the 
reverberations  seemed  to  shake  the  earth  to  its  foundations  ; 
buildings  quaked  and  rattltd,  and  the  furniture  that  they  con- 
tained jarred  about  as  if  shaken  by  an  earthquake  ;  in  fact,  many 
believed  that  an  earthquake  wa<  in  progress.  Quickly  succeed- 
ing, and  blended  with  the  explosions,  came  hollow  bellowings 
and  rattling  sounds,  mingled  with  clang,  and  clash,  and  roar,  that 
rolled  away  southward,  as  if  a  tornado  of  fearful  power  was 
retreating  upon  the  meteor's  path.' 

"  About  800  pounds  of  stones,  nearly  200  in  number,  have  been 
picked  up  in  a  region  seven  miles  by  four,  a  little  east  of  the  end 
of  the  meteor's  path,  which  without  any  doubt  came  from  the 
meteor.  Some  were  picked  up  on  the  surface  of  the  frozen  ground. 
One  was  found  on  the  top  of  a  snow-bank,  and  about  40  feet 
away  were  marks  of  a  place  where  it  had  first  struck  the  ground. 
Some  were  ploughed  up  in  the  spring.  The  two  largest  found, 
of  74  pounds  and  48  pounds,  fell  by  the  roadside,  and  a  law- 
suit-, to  "settle  whether  they  were  the  property  of  the  finder  as 
being  wild  game,  or  of  the  owner  of  the  lands  adjacent  as 
being  real  estate,  was  decided  in  favour  of  the  owner  of  the 
land." 

In  some  cases  of  observed  falls  the  rate  of  movement  of  the 
meteorite  through  the  air  has  been  determined,  or  concomitant 
circumstances  have  enabled  it  to  be  roughly  estimated. 

The  velocities  have  been  widely  different.  Before  they  are 
stated,  s  me  terms  of  comparison  may  be  given  : — 

Railway  trains     

Flight  of  swallow 

Projectiles     

Sound  

■*  )  Movement  \ 


Venus 
Karth 
Mars 


Orbit 


Metres  per 

Miles  an 

second 

hour. 

27  nearly 

60 

30  to  40 

67  to  92 

300  to  400 

670  to  920 

335 1  nearly 

750 

48,900 

109,358 

36,78o 

83 162 

30,43° 

68,052 

24,650 

55.135-5 

The  highest  velocity  of  flight  through  the  air  has  been  that  of 
the  Stannern  meteorites,  45  miles  a  second.  The  lower  part  of 
the  flight  of  the  Iowa  meteorite  was  performed  at  12  miles  a 
second. 

In  only  a  few  cases  have  the  velocities  been  observed  to  be 
very  great  at  the  earth's  surface,  the  retarding  effect  of  the 
passage  through  the  atmosphere  being  considerable.  Some  have 
buried  themselves  deeply  in  the  ground,  and  one  (New  Concord) 
broke  a  railway-sleeper.  Several  meteorites  have  fallen  so 
rapidly  that  the  sound  of  the  explosion  fotlcnved  them.  But 
generally  the  rate  is  so  slow  that  they  are  not  broken  on  striking 

1  The  meteor  fell  during  a  star-shower. 
*  Nature,  vol.  xix.  p.  315. 


426 


NA  TURE 


\August  30,  1888 


the  surface,  and  some  that  fell  at  Hessle  on  ice  only  rebounded 
without  cracking  it. 

These  bodies,  when  they  fall  under  such  conditions  that  they 
can  be  picked  up  and  examined,  are  called  meteorites.  The 
first  thing  that  strikes  one  when  looking  for  the  first  time  at 
these  meteorites,  is  that  their  general  form  has  the  character  of 
being  essentially  fragmentary,  indicating  that  what  we  see  is  the 
result  of  a  fracture. 

The  next  point  observed  is  that  there  is  a  very  great 
difference  between  the  interior  and  exterior  appearances  of 
these  bodies.  That  this  is  caused  by  the  heat  and  friction  to 
which  the  exterior  surface  is  exposed  is  proved  by  what  was 
noticed  in  the  case  of  a  meteorite  that  fell  at  Butsura  in  1861. 
Fragments  of  this  stone  were  picked  up  three  or  four  miles 
apart,  and,  with  the  exception  of  one  corner,  the  original 
meteorite  has  been  built  up  again  by  piecing  the  fragments 
together.  The  faces  fit  perfectly.  Important  pieces  of  this 
meteorite  are  in  the  British  Museum,  and  these  are  all  coated 
with  the  cru  t  to  which  reference  has  been  made.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  another  of  these  fragments  not  coated  fits 
another  also  not  coated.  Hence,  to  quote  Prof.  Ma-kelyne, 
Jt  We  can   assert  that   this  aerolite  acouiied,  after  coming  into 


our  atmosphere,  a  .'coriated  and  blackened  surface  or  incrusta- 
tion. The  first  explosion  drove  the  fragments  first  alluded  to 
asunder,  and  these  became  at  once  incrusted  on  their  broken 
surfaces  ;  but  others  which  were  separated  afterwards,  probably 
on  the  last  of  the  three  explosions,  had  not  sufficient  velocity 
left  [the  heat  being  at  the  same  time  reduced]  to  cause  their 
incrustation  in  the  same  manner  as  was  the  case  with  the 
fragments  previously  severed."  l 

The  supposition  is  that  the  temperature  is  practically  high 
enough  to  melt  the  meteorite,  and  that  its  surface  as  we 
see  it  after  it  has  fallen  does  not  in  all  cases  represent  the 
surface  exposed  to  the  air  during  the  whole  of  the  flight,  but 
that  it  represents  the  last  surface.  The  meteorite  may  have 
been  twenty  limes  bigger,  but  the  rest  may  have  been  melted  off 
like  tallow  would  be,  so  that  finally  there  is  very  little  visible 
effect  towards  the  interior,  as  the  melting  is  more  rapid  than 
the  conduction.  The  thinness  of  the  so  called  varnish,  then,  is 
caused  by  the  air-molecules  carrying  away  the  re-ults  of  fusion 
as  fast  as  the  heat  penetrates  towards  the  interior,  so  leaving 
01  ly.  as  a  rule,  a  very  thin  film  behind. 

This  crust  is  usually  dull,  but  sometimes,  as  in  the  Strmnern 
meteorite,    bright  and  shining,  like  a  coating  of  black  varnish. 


Fig.  i. — Mazapil  Meteoric  Iron  (f  natural  s'ze),  showing  thumb-marks 


^Sorby,1  en  examining  with  a  microscope  a  thin  section  of  a 
meteorite,  cut  perpendicular  to  the  crust,  found  that  it  is  a  true 
black  glass  filled  with  small  bubbles,  and  that  the  contrast 
between  it  and  the  main  mass  of  the  meteorite  is  as  complete  as 
possible,  the  junction  between  them  being  sharply  defined,  except 
when  portions  have  been  injected  a  short  distance  between  the 
crystals.  He  writes:  --  "  We  thus  have  a  most  complete  proof  of  the 
conclusion  that  the  black  cru.-t  was  due  to  the  true  igneous  fusion 
of  the  surface  under  conditions  which  had  little  or  no  influence  at 
a  greater  depth  than  1/100  of  an  inch.  In  the  case  of  meteorites 
of  different  chemicd  composition,  the  black  crust  has  not  re- 
tained a  tuie  glassy  character,  and  is  s  mietimes  1/50  of  an 
inch  in  thickness,  consisting  of  two  very  distinct  layers,  the 
internal  showing  panicles  of  iron  which  have  been  neither  melted 
nor  oxidi/.ed,  and  the  external  showing  that  they  have  been 
oxidized  and  the  oxide  melted  up  with  the  surrounding  stony 
matter.  Taking  everything  into  consideration,  the  microscopical 
structure  of  the  crust  agrees  perfectly  well  with  the  explanation 
usually  adopted,  but  rejected  by  some  authors,  that  it  was  formed 
by  the  fusion  of  the  external  surface,  and  was  due  to  the  very 

''On  the  Structure  and  Origin  of  Meteorite;,"  Natuhk,  vol.  xv.  p.  495. 


rapid  heating  which  takes  place  when  a  body  moving  with 
planetary  velocity  rushes  into  the  earth's  atmosphere— a  heating 
so  rapid  that  the  surface  is  melted  before  the  heat  has  time  to 
penetrate  beyond  a  very  short  distance  into  the  interior  of 
the  mass." 

In  some  cases  close  under  the  crust  is  found  a  mixture  of  the 
minerals  troilite,  asmanite,  and  bronzite,  of  an  unaltered  light- 
brown  colour,  although  they  turn  deep  black  when  raised  to  a 
temperature  slightly  above  that  at  which  lead  melts. - 

The  crust  or  varnish  of  the  meteorite  in  many  cases  contains 
numerous  furrows  and  ridges,  so  that  it  is  not  equally  thick. 
This  effect  is  caused,  as  it  is  supposed,  by  its  motion  through 
the  air  in  a  fixed  position,  the  forward,  part  of  the  meteorite,  in 
regard  to  its  line  of  motion,  being  most  liquefied,  and  tli 
flowing  unequally  towards  the  hinder  part. 

A  very  special  study  of  the  results  of  the  passage  through  the 
air  is  a  desideratum.  Thus,  in  the  case  of  the  Tennessee  iron, 
which  fell  from  a  cloudless  sky  (and  which  therefore  fell  with  a 
low  velocity?},  the  outer  surface  is  elaborately  reticulated,  edges 


"  Lecture  Notes,"  toe.  cit.  p.  487. 
Fl.ght,  "  History  cf  Meteorite*,"  p. 


August  30,  1888J 


NA  TURE 


427 


of  thin  laminae  of  metal  inclined  at  angles  of  60'  traversing  it. 
Hence  no  fusion  of  the  superficial  layer  took  place.1 

Another  peculiarity  of  the  surface  is  that  it  is  generally  covered 
with  small  depressions  called  "  thumb-marks,"  as  they  have  been 
likened  to  the  impressions  that  one  makes  when  pressing  some 
such  substance  as  putty  with  one's  lingers.  The  cause  of  these 
thumb-marks  is  unknown,  but  they  have  been  found  to  bear  a 
close  resemblance  to  marks  which  have  been  noticed  on  grains 
of  gunpowder  blown  out  on  firing  large  guns. 

A  possible  cause  of  these  pittings  'is  thus  suggested  by  Prof. 
Maskelyne:  —  "'The  aerolite  comes  into  our  atmosphere  from 
regions  in  which  the  temperature— '  the  cold  .of  space '—may 
range  as  low  as  140'  C.  below  zero  ;  and  though  the  mass,  from 
the  absorption  of  solar  heat,  would  possess  a  temperature  much 
above  this,  it  would  nevertheless  be  intensely  cold,  and  conse- 
quently more  brittle  than  at  ordinary  temperatures  ;  and  hence, 
on  its  entering  our  atmosphere,  the  heat  it  instantaneously  ac- 
quires on  its  outer  portion  expands  this,  and  tends  to  tear  it 
away,  so  as  to  dissever  the  exterior  from  the  interior,  which 
continues  to  be  relatively  contracted  by  the  intensity  of  the  cold 
which  the  aerolite  brings  with  it  from  space.  The' consequence 
is,  first,  that  little  bits  of  the  stone  spring  out  all  over  it,  leaving 
those  curious  little  holes  or  pit-marks  which  are  characteristic  of 
a  meteorite  ;  and  every  now  and  then,  as  the  heat  penetrates, 
larger  masses  split  away,  of  which  interesting  evidence  is  afforded 
by  the  meteorite,  for  instance,  that  fell  at  Butsura  on  May  12 
1861."  '       ' 

On  this  it  may  be  remarked  that  the  pittings  are  common  to 
irons  and  stones,  while  the  above  explanation  only  applies  to 
stones. 

It  is  not  a  little  worthy  of  notice  that  the  pitting  does  not 
always  appear  on  all  the  surfaces.  In  the  ease  of  a  meteorite 
which  fell  in  Kentucky  in  1877,  one  portion  of  it  is  very  extensively 
and  regularly  pitted,  while  the  rest  is  comparatively  smooth. 
The  crust  is  dull  black,  and  is  as  perfect  as  when  the  stone 
fell.  There  was  a  fresh  broken  spot  of  two  or  three  square 
centimetres,  which  was  evidently  made  prior  to  the  fall,  for  a 
few  small  specks  of  the  melted  matter  adhered  to  the  surface.- 

These  meteorites,  which  we  can  thus  examine,  are  in  all  prob- 
ability, for  the  most  part,  remnants  of  larger  bodies  which   had 
enough  substance  in  them  to  stand  the  wear  and  tear  of  getting 
j   through  our  atmosphere. 

The  fragments  picked  up  even  from  the  most  extensive 
falls  have  appeared  to  those  who  have  witnessed  or  who  have 
subsequently  studied  the  phenomena  to  be  out  of  all  proportion 
small  to  the  violence  and  magnitude  of  the  explosive  and 
luminous  effects  observed. 

The  origin  of  the  concomitant  phenomena  so  universally 
recorded  is  not  far  to  seek. 

Supposing  a  meteorite  passing  towards  the  earth  through  the 
atmosphere,  what  sort  of  effects  are  we  to  expect  to  find?  It 
passes,  as  we  have  already  seen,  very  rapidly  into  the  earth's 
atmosphere,  which  consists  of  molecules  with  a  certain  mean 
free  path,  and  the  temperature  and  pressure  of  which  depend 
upon  the  encounters  between  these  molecules. 

When  we  come  to  condder  the  general  velocity  of  movement 
■"these  molecules,  we  find  that  the  big  molecule.'  the  meteorite, 
is  travelling  towards  the  earth  about  fifty  times  faster.  The 
Result  is  that  there  is  a  tremendous  crowding  of  air,  so  to  speak, 
in  front  of  the  meteorite,  a  tremendous  pressure  and  therefore  a 
tremendous  temperature  brought  about  by  its  passage.  There  is 
a  partial  vacuum  behind  which  subsequently  has  to  lie  filled  up 
by  the  transit  of  the  molecules  round  the  meteorite  itself  from 
the  front  part  to  the  back. 

We  have  therefore  conditions  for  producing  most  violent 
action  upon  the  meteorite,  both  by  pressure  and  temperature  ; 
it  may  be  crushed  by  the  pressure  to  which  it  is  subjected,  it  may- 
be melted  by  the  heat  produced  by  the  circulation'  of  the  mole- 
cules rushing  past  it.  We  may  therefore  have  violent  incan- 
e  and  explosion,  and  as  we  have  the  air  molecules  rushing 
violently  fro  11  front  to  rear  we  shall  have  almost  the  noise 
of  a  thunderstorm  added  to  the  sudden  luminosity  resembling 
lightning. 

The  observers  of  actual  falls  have  heard  other  special  noises, 
due,  not  to  the  explosion  itself,  but  to  the  rapid  passage  of  the 
meteorites  through  the  air,  from  the  "  ping"  of  a  rifle  bullet  to 
the  hum  of  a  locomotive,  sounds  which  have  been  likened  to  the 
tearing  of  linen,  the  lowing  of  cattle,  the  Happing  of  wings. 

We    can    best    study    the    differences    in     the    structure     of 
meteorites  by  preparing  a  polished  section.      In  some  cases  this 
1  Flight,  op.  cit.  p.  108.  2  Ibid.  p.  200. 


has  a  distinctly  metallic  look.  We  find,  in  fact,  a  metallic  frag- 
ment composed  almost  entirely  of  iron,  but  with  a  certain  amount 
of  nickel. 

The  nickel  in  the  iron  meteorites  causes  them  to  have  a  whitish 
appearance,  and  it  is  in  this  way  that  they  have  been  mistaken 
for  silver  when  found,  the  nickel  preventing  the  outer  surfaces 
from  rusting  as  is  the  case  with  an  ordinary  iron. 

By  taking  a  polished  section,  and  exposing  it  to  the  action 
of  an  acid  or  bromine,  we  obtain  what  have  been  called  the 
"figures  of  Widmansiatten."  These  figures  are  more  or  less 
complicated,  and  remarkable  for  their  extreme  regularity.  They 
are  due  to  the  inequality  of  the  action  of  the  acid  on  the  various 
constin:  .its  of  the  polished  surface  ;  these  being  various  alloys  of 
iron  and  nickel. 

In  other  specimens  the  characteristic  is  that  the  metal, 
instead  of  being  continuous  as  in  those  previously  referred  to, 
appears  to  have  existed  once  as  a  spongy  paste,  and  to  have 
included  fragments  of  stony  matter,  so  that  in  the  section,  in- 
stead o(  getting  the  pure  metallic  lustre  all  along,  we  only  get 
it  here  and  there.       We  pass  from  metal  to  metal  ///is  stone. 

Iq  yet   other  specimens   we  get    another  generic  case  repre- 
sented in  which  the  stone  is  the   main   point  and  the  metal   the 
exception,  the  metal  appearing  as  excessively  small  granule- 
thai  in  the  final  term  of  the  series  we  come  to  almost  pure  stone 
with  no  iron  to  speak  of. 

In  :he  case  of  the  stones,  not  only  does  the  meteorite  itself 
give  the  idea  of  a  fragment,  as  in  the  case  of  the  irons,  but  the 
internal  structure  of  many  of  them  shows  that  the  whole 
meteorite  is  composed  of  fragments,  giving  the  characteristics  of 
a  brecciated  rock  made  up  of  pieces  cemented  together. 


Fig    2. — Stction  of  Mazapil  Meteoric  Iron  (natural  size),  showing 
Wid.nanstiittun  figures. 

Further,  these  constituent  particles,  as  pointed  out  by  Sorby, 
are  often  themselves  mere  fragments,  although  the  entire  body 
before  being  broken  may  originally  have  been  only  one  fortieth 
or  one-fiftieth  of  an  inch  in  diameter. 

On  examining  thin  sections  of  stony  meteorites  by  means  of 
polarized  light,  they  are  found  to  be  crystallized  throughout,  the 
interference  tints  colouring  the  different  crystals  of  which  the 
sections  are  composed,  thus  showing  the  crystalline  character  of 
the  whole.  The  stony  part  of  both  siderolites  and  aerolites  is 
almost  entirely  crystalline,  and  presents  a  peculiar  "  ch  ndritic" 
structure,  which  make  meteorites  differ  from  ordinary  terrestrial 
rocks  ;  the  loose  grains  in  these  are  found  to  be  mote  or  less 
aggregated  in  little  spherules,  and  of  similar  mineral  to  those 
which  inclose  them. 

These  spherules,  or  chondroi — their  sizes  varying  very  con- 
siderably, some  of  which  can  be  seen  only  under  a  microscope, 
while  others  are  as  large  as  a  cherry — are  found  embedded  in  a 
matrix,  made  up,  as  it  appears,  of  minute  splinters  such  as 
would  result  from  the  disintegration  of  other  chondroi. 

While  the  chondroi  in  terrestrial  rocks  such  as  perlite, 
obsidian,  pitchstone,  and  in  many  diorites,  are  radiate- hbrous, 
those  occurring  in  meteorites  are  but  rarely  so,  and  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  fibres  within  the  spherule  is  eccentric.  While  the 
meteoritic  chondroi  als  >  consist  of  the  same  ingredients  as  the 
matrix,  and  often  differ  from  it  only  in  being  more  coarsely 
g-anular,  the  chondroi  of  terresinal  rocks  are  differently 
constituted  from  the  matrix.1 

The   weight   of  meteorites   varies   very  considerably,    ranging 

from  tons  to  very  small  specimens.     It  not  only  depends  on  their 

volume  but  on  their  chemical  composition,  as  so  i,e  of  '.he  stony 

oneshavea  low  density  while  oiheis  are  nearly  pure  metal. 

The   largest   meteorites  of  which  mention  is  made  are  those 

1  Ibid.  p.   141. 


428 


NATURE 


[August  30,  1888 


of  Otumpa  (province  of  Tucuman,  South  America),  an  iron 
weighing  thirty  tons ;  of  Durango  (Mexico),  nineteen  tons  ; 
and  of  Cranbourne,  Australia  (now  in  the  British  Museum), 
which  weighs  over  three  tons. 

The  Nejed  iron,  the  largest  which  has  been  seen  to  fall, 
weighs  nearly   130  pounds. 

Considering  the  very  considerable  number  of  falls  which  have 
taken  place,  the  number  of  irons  which  have  been  seen  to  fail  is 
remarkably  small.     They  are  as  follows  : — 

Agram,  1 75 1. 

Tennessee,  1835. 

Braunau,  1847. 

Victoria  West  (South  Africa)  1862. 

Nejed,  1863. 

Nidigullam  (Madras)  1870. 

Rowton,  Shropshire,  1876. 

Mazapil,  1885. 

Cabin  Creek,  1886. 
The  following  table  contains  a  list  of  some  of  the  larger 
meteorites,  besides  those  mentioned  above,  which  have  been  found 
from  time  to  time,  with  the  locality  of  their  fall  and  their  weights 
in  grammes  (1000  grammes  =  2"2  pounds  avoirdupois  (nearly), 
and  1,018,181  grammes  (nearly)  =  1  ton)  :  — 

Siderites —  Weight  in  grammes. 

Bahia,  Brazil 6,350,000 

Charcas,  Mexico     780,003 

Tucuman,  Argentine  Republic,  South  America  637,000 
The  Butcher  Iron,  Desert  of  Bolson  de  Mapimi, 

Mexico       253,632 

Toluca  Valley,  Mexico        91,007 

Cocke    County   (Cosby's     Creek),    Tennessee, 

U.S.A.      ...     ...     52,325 

Rancho  de  la  Pila,  nine  leagues  east  of  Durango, 

Mexico       46,512 

Obernkirchen,  near  Biickeburg,  Germany       ...  35>366 

Carthage,    Smith  County,   Tennessee,    U.S.A.  24,570 
Siderolites — 

Imilac,  Desert  of  Alacama,  South  America     ...  227,328 

Estherville,  Em '.net  County,  Iowa,  U.S.A.     ...  116,487 
A  erolites — ■ 

Wold  Cottage,  Thwing,  Yorkshire 20,111 

Pultusk,  Poland 18,007 

Butsura  (Qutahar  Bazaar),  Bengal,  India         ...  13,071 

Knyahinya,  near  Nagy  Berezna,  Hungary       ...  13,053 

Dnrala,  N.  W.  of  Kurnal,  Punjab,  India         ...  12,588 

Dhurmsala,  Kangra,  Punjab,  India 12,407 

Nellore  (Yatoor),  Madras,  India       11,287 

Classification  of  Meteorites. 
Meteorites  have  been  arranged  into  three  classes  :  first,  masses 
of  iron  alloyed  with  nickel,  which  have  been  called  by 
Maskelyne,  aero-siderites  (aer,  air,  and  sideros,  iron)  or  briefly 
siderites ;  secondly,  those  which  are  almost  wholly  composed  of 
stone,  and  called  aerolites  {aer,  air,  and  litkos,  stone) ;  and, 
thirdly,  those  which  are  composed  of  stone  and  iron  in  more  or 
less  equal  quantities,  consisting  of  a  spongy  mass  of  iron  inter- 
laced with  stony  matter  like  that  of  the  aerolites,  and  called 
siderolites  or  meso-siderites. 
M.  Daubree's  general  classification  of  meteorites  is  as  follows  :  — 
(  Not    contain-  ) 

ing  stony      \      Holosideres 

matter         \ 


Containing 
metallic  iron 


Containing 

iron  with 

stony  matter 


The  iron  con- 
stituting a 
i  matrix   which 

encases  stony 
\  grains 

The  iron 
existing  in  the 
form  of  grains 
among    stony 
matter 


Syssideres 


Sporado- 
sideres 


Not    contain-  ) 

i   ing  metallic    > Asideres 

\  iron  1 

This  brings  us  to  consider  the  chemistry  of  these  messengers 
•from  the  celestial  spaces.  J.  Norman  Lockyek. 

^     {To  be  continued.) 


THE  GLASGOW  AND   WEST  OF  SCOTLAND 

TECHNICAL  COLLEGE. 
A  T  the  present  time,  when  so  much  is  being  said  and  done  in 
connection  with  technical  education,  and  so  many  new 
institutions  are  being  founded,  it  may  interest  the  readers  of 
Nature  to  learn  how  some  old  ones  have  been  reorganized  to 
enable  them  more  adequately  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the 
times.  The  Glasgow  and  West  of  Scotlnnd  Technical  College 
was  founded  by  an  Order  of  the  Queen  in  Council,  dated 
November  26,  1886,  according  to  a  scheme  framed  by  the 
Commissioners  appointed  under  the  provisions  of  the  Educational 
Endowments  (Scotland)  Act,  1882,  whereby  Anderson's  College, 
the  Young  Chair  of  Technical  Chemistry  in  connection  with 
Anderson's  College,  the  College  of  Science  and  Arts,  Allan 
Glen's  Institution,  and  the  Atkinson  Institution,  were  placed 
under  the  management  of  one  governing  body.  A  cansiderable 
amount  of  interest  is  attached  to  the  histories  of  these  institu- 
tions, of  which  a  few  of  the  chief  dates  may  be  mentioned. 

Anderson's  College  was  founded  by  John  Anderson,  M.A., 
F.  R.S.,  Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy  in  the  University  of 
Glasgow,  who,  by  his  will,  dated  May  7,  1795,  bequeathed  the 
whole  of  his  property,  with  a  few  trifling  exceptions,  "  to  the 
public  for  the  good  of  mankind  and  the  improvement  of  science, 
in  an  institution  to  be  denominated  '  Anderson's  University,' 
and  to  be  managed  by  eighty-one  trustees."  The  endowment 
included  a  general  museum,  library,  and  valuable  philosophical 
apparatus;  and  the  intention  of  the  founder  was  to  provide  a 
complete  circle  of  liberal  and  scien:ific  education  suitable  for  all 
classes,  and  adapted  to  the  wants  and  circumstances  of  the 
period,  but  the  design  was  never  fully  carried  out.  The 
Andersonian  Institution  or  University  was  incorporated  on 
June  9,  1796,  and  it  has  numbered  among  its  Professors  some 
distinguished  men.  Of  these  may  be  named  Dr.  Garnett,  Dr. 
George  Hirkbeck,  Dr.  Andrew  Ure,  and  Thomas  Graham,  who 
afterwards  became  Master  of  the  Mint.  The  Medical  School 
attained  considerable  importance,  attracting  students  from  all 
parts  of  the  country,  and  sending  forth  a  number  of  medical 
practitioners — many  of  whom  have  attained  to  eminence,  and  a 
few  to  great  distinction,  in  their  profession.  On  the  foundation 
of  the  Glasgow  and  West  of  Scotland  Technical  College,  the 
Medical  School  of  Anderson's  College  was  placed  under  a 
separate  governing  body,  and  provision  is  being  made  for  its 
removal  to  other  buildings. 

In  the  year  1870,  Dr.  James  Young,  of  Kelly  and  Durraj 
settled  in  trust  the  sum  of  ,£10.500  for  the  purpose  of  establish- 
ing a  Chair  of  Technical  Chemistry,  to  be  called  "The  Young 
Chair  of  Technical  Chemistry  in  connection  with  Anderson's 
University,"  and  on  the  organization  of  the  Glasgow  and  Wefl 
of  Scotland  Technical  College,  Dr.  Young's  testamentary 
trustees  conveyed  to  the  governors  of  the  College  the  Young 
Laboratory  Buildings,  situated  in  John  Street,  Glasgow.  Various 
other  endowments  were  given  at  different  times  to  Anderson's 
University.  In  1861,  Mr.  John  Freeland,  residing  at  Nice, 
mortified  the  sum  of  .£7500  to  secure  the  delivery,  annually  or 
periodically,  of  "  separate  courses  of  popular  lectures  on  the 
three  following  subjects,  or  any  one  of  them,  namely  (1) 
Chemistry;  (2)  Mechanical  and  Experimental  Physics  ;  and  (3) 
Anatomy  and  Physiology,"  and  in  1871  he  made  a  further  gift  of 
^"5000  to  the  University.  In  1866,  Mr.  William  Euing, 
insurance  broker  in  Glasgow,  settled  in  trust  the  sum  of  ^3000 
for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  delivery  of  courses  of  popular 
lectures  in  Anderson's  University  upon  the  history  and  theory 
of  music,  and  upon  the  lives  of  eminent  musicians  ;  and  also 
upon  such  branches  of  acoustics  as  may  be  connected  with  and 
illustrate  the  science  and  practice  of  music.  By  his  will  he 
bequeathed  his  whole  musical  library  to  the  University,  along 
with  ^1000  for  the  purpose  of  building  a  fire-proof  room  for  its 
accommodation,  besides  the  sum  of  ^"200  to  print  a  catalogue. 
Mr.  Euing  also  left  the  University  the  sum  of  £6000  for 
general  purposes  ;  and  ^150,  the  interest  of  which  is  to  he 
applied  in  providing  prizes  in  connection  with  the  Lectureship 
on  Music  instituted  by  him.  In  1876,  through  the  liberality  of 
a  few  friends,  a  Chair,  of  A|  plied  Mechanics,  with  a  suitable 
endowment,  was  founded. 

The  College  of  Science  and  Arts  was  the  direct  successor  of 
the  Mechanics'  In  titution,  which  owed  its  origin  to  the  popular 
lectures  begun  in  1800  by  Dr.  Birkbeck  in  Anderson's  Uni- 
versity, and  continued  by  his  successor.  In  1823  a  number  of 
students  attending  the  e  mechanics'  classes  resolved  to  sever 
their  connection    with   Anderson's    University,    and   thereafter 


August  30,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


429 


formed  the  Glasgow  Mechanics'  Institution,  of  which  Dr. 
Birkbeck  became  the  first  President.  He  also  became  President 
of  the  Mechanics'  Institution  in  London,  which  was  opened  in 
November  1823,  on  the  same  plan  as  that  of  Glasgow,  after 
which  the  system  rapidly  extended  over  the  Kingdom.  In 
1879  the  Institution  was  reorganized,  and  two  years  later  the 
name  was  changed  to  "College  of  Science  and  Arts,  Glasgow," 
from  which  time  the  commercial  classes  were  discontinued,  and 
the  College  classes  entirely  devoted  to  the  teaching  of  science 
and  its  applications,  more  especially  to  engineering. 

Allan  Glen's  Institution  was  founded  under  the  will  of  Allan 
Glen,  wright  in  Glasgow,  dated  1847-48,  and  was  intended  to 
afford  gratuitous  education  to  about  fifty  boys,  sons  of  tradesmen 
or  persons  in  the  industrial  classes  of  society.  In  1876  the 
Institution  was  reorganized,  and  it  became  a  high-class  secondary 
school  for  boys  who  are  intended  for  industrial  and  mercantile 
pursuits.  The  trustees  fitted  up  a  laboratory,  lecture-room, 
apparatus-room,  and  workshops  in  the  school,  which  soon 
became  well  known  for  the  good  secondary  technical  instruction 
which  it  afforded. 

The  Atkinson  Institution  never  really  had  an  active  existence, 
and  the  interest  of  the  money  which  was  left  by  Thomas 
Atkinson,  bookseller  and  stationer  in  Glasgow,  is  now  to  be 
used  in  providing  bursaries  for  the  students  attending  the  Glasgow 
and  West  of  Scotland  Technical  College. 

Provision  is  made  under  the  scheme  for  the  further  endowment 
of  the  College  by  annual  subsidies  out  of  the  funds  of  the 
Glasgow  City  Educational  Endowments  Board  and  the  Hutche- 
scn's  Educational  Trust.  These  subsidies  are  fixed  in  the 
special  schemes  for  these  Boards  at  not  less  than  .£800  and 
^1400  respectively. 

By  the  scheme  drawn  out  by  the  Educational  Endowments 
(Scotland)  Commissioners,  the  institutions  above  referred  to 
have  been  amal  >amated  and  placed  under  the  management  of 
one  governing  body,  which  has  been  selected  from  among  the 
representatives  of  the  old  institutions  and  from  various  public 
bodies  in  Glasgow.  The  problem  which  the  governing  body 
had  to  solve  was  to  arrange  a  number  of  hitherto  competing 
and  to  a  certain  extent  opposing  institutions  into  something  like 
a  homogeneous  unity.  Of  course  under  the  circumstances  it  is 
not  to  be  expected  that  a  perfect  scheme  can  at  once  be  evolved, 
but  on  the  whole  it  will  be  found  that  a  fairly  good  arrangement 
has  been  made.  Allan  Glen's  School  is  being  extended,  and  is 
intended  to  be  a  secondary  technical  school  for  boys  to  sixteen 
years  of  age  ;  while  Anderson's  College,  the  Young  Chair,  and 
the  College  of  Science  and  Arts  form  the  College  proper. 
For  entrance  to  this,  students  under  sixteen  years  and  all  those 
who  intend  to  go  in  for  any  of  the  diploma  courses  are  required 
to  pass  an  examination,  but  this  is  not  so  difficult  as  to  exclude 
those  who  are  likely  to  benefit  by  the  work  of  the  College 
classes.  The  diploma  of  the  College  will  be  awarded  in  the 
following  departments  of  study:  (1)  Civil  Engineering;  (2) 
Mechanical  Engineering  ;  (3)  Naval  Architecture  ;  (4)  Electrical 
Engineering  ;  (5)  Architecture  ;  (6)  Chemical  Engineering  ;  (7) 
Metallurgy;  (8)  Mining  Engineering;  (9)  Agriculture.  Each 
course  extends  over  three  years,  the  subjects  of  instruction  in 
the  first  year  being  common  to  all,  while  in  the  second  and 
third  years  the  subjects  are  arranged  to  suit  the  special  depart- 
ments selected  by  the  students.  There  are  three  sets  of 
examinations  for  the  diploma :  (1)  at  the  end  of  the  first 
session,  in  the  scientific  subjects  of  the  first  year's  course  ;  (2) 
at  the  end  of  the  second  session,  in  the  modern  language  and 
the  general  subject  selected  by  the  student ;  (3)  at  the  end  of 
the  third  session,  in  the  main  subject  of  the  department  selected 
by  the  candidate.  This  examination  will  be  partly  by  written 
papers  and  partly  oral,  and  v/ill  be  of  such  a  nature  as  not  only 
to  test  the  candidate's  knowledge  of  the  main  subject,  but  also 
of  the  various  subsidiary  subjects  included  in  the  course.  When 
the  subject  admits  of  it,  laboratory  work  will  form  an  essential 
part  of  the  examination.  Lastly,  each  candidate  will  be  required 
to  work  out  a  design,  with  specifications  and  estimates,  from 
data  which  will  be  supplied.  Such  examinations  should  test  a 
student's  real  knowledge  of  a  subject,  and  his  power  of  applica- 
tion to  the  solution  of  the  problems  which  arise  in  every-day 
life. 

The  evening  classes  cf  the  College  are  conducted  chiefly  ac- 
cording to  the  arrangements  of  the  Science  and  Art  Department, 
and  of  the  City  and  Guilds  of  London  Institution,  and  they  are 
arranged  in  the  following  courses  :  (1)  Mechanical  Engineering  ; 
(2)  Naval  ArchLecture  ;  (3)  Electrical  Engineering ;  (4)   Archi- 


tecture ;  (5)  Building  Construction  ;  (6)  Mining  ;  (7)  Metallurgy  ; 
(8)  Agriculture  ;  (9)  Chemical  Industries  ;  (10)  Textile  In- 
dustries ;  (11)  Art  Industries;  (12)  Commerce.  In  each  of 
these  departments  there  are  two  grades  of  certificates,  senior 
and  junior,  the  latter  being  within  the  reach  of  all  apprentices. 
Students  who  have  obtained  the  senior  certificate  for  the  evening 
cla  ses  may  obtain  the  diploma  for  the  day  curriculum  by  attend- 
ing the  third  year's  course  in  the  corresponding  department  of 
the  curriculum  and  passing  the  necessary  examinations.  In 
connection  with  both  the  day  and  evening  classes  of  the  College, 
there  are  a  considerable  number  of  scholarships  and  bursaries  ; 
and  in  addition  the  governors  have  power  to  remit  in  whole  or 
in  part  the  fees  of  artisans  and  others  who  are  desirous  of 
attending  the  day  classes,  and  require  aid  for  obtaining  the 
education  therein  provided.  In  order  to  encourage  systematic 
study  this  privilege  will  only  be  afforded  to  students  who  have 
obtained  the  senior  certificate  of  the  College.  Arrangements 
are  thus  made  which  should  enable  all  really  deserving  students 
to  pass  from  the  lowest  evening  class  to  the  highest  classes  at 
the  College,  or  the  University  ;  for  the  students  who  obtain 
bursaries  will  have  the  option  of  going  to  the  University  or 
of  remaining  at  the  Technical  College. 

Allan  Glen's  School  is  being  considerably  enlarged,  and 
new  class-rooms,  drawing-offices,  and  workshops  are  being 
added,  and  the  curriculum  of  the  school  has  been  re-written 
to  suit  these  enlargements.  The  elementary  department  is 
being  gradually  curtailed,  and  will  ultimately  be  dropped,  so 
as  to  allow  of  the  whole  space  being  available  for  the  secondary 
department.  In  this  department  there  are  five  classes,  in  the  first 
three  of  which  are  given  the  elements  of  a  good  general  edu- 
cation, with  the  scientific  side  more  fully  developed  than  is  the 
case  in  ordinary  schools.  In  the  fourth  and  fifth  classes  the 
work  is  of  a  more  special  nature,  and  in  the  last  year  the 
attention  of  the  students  is  directed  either  to  mechanical  and 
electrical  engineering  or  to  chemistry.  By  the  time  they 
have  completed  the  course,  they  ought  thus  to  be  in  a  position 
to  enter  on  their  apprenticeship  in  the  workshops  with  advantage 
to  themselves,  as  well  as  to  their  employers. 

During  the  past  year  the  number  of  students  who  attended 
the  day  classes  of  the  College  was  168,  and  the  evening  classes 
1 771,  and  the  number  of  scholars  in  Allan  Glen's  School  was 
439,  or  a  total  of  2378,  which  shows  that  technical  education 
is  being  taken  advantage  of  to  a  considerable  extent  in  Glasgow. 
One  good  feature  in  the  arrangement  of  the  College  is  that 
advantage  is  taken  of  other  institutions  in  so  far  as  their  classes 
can  be  utilized  for  the  different  curricula.  For  instance,  in  the 
day  classes  the  University,  and  in  the  evening  classes  the 
Athenaeum  and  School  of  Art  and  Haldane  Academy,  make  up 
some  of  the  deficiencies  of  the  Technical  College.  The  re- 
sources of  each  institution  are  thus  fully  utilized,  and  there  is  no 
unnecessary  waste  of  energy  or  money  in  maintaining  duplicate 
classes.  Henry  Dyer. 


UNIVERSITY  AND  EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 

Department  of  Science  and  Art. — The  following  is  the 
list  of  candidates  successful  in  the  competition  for  the  Whitworth 
Scholarships  and  Exhibitions,  1888: — 1.  Scholarships,  tenable  for 
three  years  (^125  ayeareach)  :Jas.  Whitaker,  22,  student,  Nelson, 
Lancashire  ;  James  Mair,  22,  engineer,  Glasgow  ;  C.  Humphrey 
Gilbert,  22,  engineer  student,  Nottingham  ;  John  Calder,  21, 
mechanical  engineer,  Glasgow.  2.  Exhibitions,  tenable  for  one 
year  (^"ioo  each)  :  Harry  Bamford,  22,  engineering  student,  Old- 
ham ;  JohnHarbottle,  21,  draughtsman,  Newcastle-on-Tyne;  John 
Taylor,  21,  engineer,  Glasgow  ;  John  Dalglish,  24,  mechanical 
draughtsman,  Paisley  ;  Archibald  S.  Younger,  23,  engineer 
student,  North  Shields ;  Joseph  Butterworth,  22,  engineer, 
Rochdale  ;  George  A.  Burls,  21,  mechanical  draughtsman, 
Greenwich ;  Charles  H.  Kilby,  20,  engineer  apprentice,  Crewe  ; 
Charles  K.  Pinder,  21,  engineer  student,  Bristol  ;  Robert  Dumas, 
22,  engineer,  Glasgow  ;  Charles  L.  E.  Heath,  21,  fitter  appren- 
tice, Devonport  ;  Charles  Forbes,  21,  engine  fitter  apprentice, 
Glasgow  ;  benjamin  Young,  23,  electrical  engineer  apprentice, 
Belfast ;  Edward  Y.  Terry,  23,  engine  fitter,  Devonport  ; 
William  J.  Collins,  23,  draughtsman,  Woolwich  ;  John  H.  B. 
Jenkins,  21,  assistant  analytical  chemist,  New  Swindon  ;  John 
I.  Fraser,  24,  apprentice  engineer,  Glasgow  ;  Henry  E.  Cheshire, 
24,  fitter,  Crewe  ;  Oscar  Brown,  23,  pattern  maker,  Plumstead  ; 


43° 


NATURE 


\August  30,  1888 


Henry  Elliott,  25,  mechanical  engineer,  Glasgow  ;  (^"50  each)  Jas. 
H.  Binfield,  23,  engineer  student,  Preston  ;  George  U.  Wheel  sr, 
20,  engineer  apprentice,  London ;  William  Day,  22,  fitter, 
Wolverton  ;  Samuel  Lea,  25,  turner,  Crewe  ;  Evan  Parry,  22, 
engineer  student,  Bingor ;  Thomas  O.  Mein,  23,  engineer, 
Stratford,  E.  ;  Benjamin  Conner,  23,  apprentice  engineer, 
Glasgow  ;  Thomas  J.  Bourne,  23,  marine  engineer,  Tunbridge 
Wells  ;  George  Ravenscroft,  25,  fitter.  Crewe  ;  Thomas  F. 
Parkinson,  22,  engineer  student,  Bury,  Lancashire. 

The  following  is  the  list  of  successful  candidates  for  Royal 
Exhibitions,  National  Scholarships,  and  Free  Studentships, 
1888  : — National  Scholarships  :  John  B.  Coppock,  23,  student, 
Nottingham  ;  James  G.  Lawn,  20,  mining  surveyor,  Barrow-in- 
Furness  ;  Herbert  Grime,  19,  teacher,  Manchester;  Alfred 
Stansfield,  17,  student,  Bradford  ;  John  Eustice,  24,  engine 
fitter,  Camborne  ;  Edwin  Wilson,  19,  student,  Bradford  ; 
Lionel  M.  Jones,  18,  student,  Llanelly  ;  Joseph  Jefferson,  20, 
student,  Bradford  ;  Henry  T.  Bolton,  15,  student,  Newcastle- 
on-Tyne  ;  Ben.  Howe,    18,   student,  Manchester  ;   John  Yates, 

20,  draughtsman,  Manchester;  Harry  Cavendish,  17,  student, 
Manchester.  Royal  Exhibitions  :  Thomas  S.  Fraser,  17,  labora- 
tory assistant,  Glasgow ;  Benjamin  Young,  23,  electrical 
engineer  apprentice,  Belfast  ;  James  Harrison,  29,  shoemaker 
(rivetter),  Northampton  :  John  D.  Crabtree,  16,  student,  Brad- 
ford ;  Joseph  Burton,    19,   student,   Manchester  ;  John  Taylor, 

21,  engineer,  Glasgow  ;  Joseph  Husband,  17,  student,  Sheffield. 
Free  Studentships  :  Thomas  Bcatham,  16,  student,  Newcastle- 
on-Tyne  ;  Charles  H.  Kilby,  20,  engineer  apprentice,  Crewe  ; 
George  H.  Gough,  17,  student,  Bristol  ;  Henry  E.  Cheshire, 
24,  fitter,  Crewe  ;  Ernest  W.  Rees,  20,  engineer  apprentice, 
Carnarvon  ;  Stanley  H.  Ford,  17,  student,  Bristol. 

University  College,  London.— Gilchrist  Engine,  ring 
Scholarships. — An  entrance  scholarship  will  be  offered  next  month 
(September).  The  valueis  ^35  per  annum,  tenable  during  two 
years,  and  the  competition  is  limited  to  those  who  have  not  pre- 
viously been  students  of  the  College,  and  who  will  not  complete 
their  nineteenth  year  before  October  1.  Every  candidate  must 
declare  his  intention  of  taking,  at  least,  the  two  first  years  of 
one  of  the  engineering  courses,  and  the  second  payments  will 
depend  upon  his  success  during  the  first  year  and  the  arrange- 
ments he  makes  for  the  second  year's  study.  The  subject  of  the 
examination  will  be  mathematics,  and  any  two  or  more  of  the 
following  five  subjects  :  mechanics,  mechanical  drawing,  an 
essay  on  a  given  subject,  French  or  German,  and  the  use  of 
tools.  A  senior  scholarship  of  ^80  will  be  awarded  at  the  close 
of  the  session.  Candidates  must  have  attended  College  classes  in 
the  following  subjects  during  the  whole  of  the  session  :  applied 
mathematics,  physics,  engineering,  engineering  drawing,  and 
geology.  The  results  of  the  class  examinations  will  decide  the 
obtainment  of  the  scholarship,  providing  sufficient  merit  has 
been  shown  to  justify  the  award.  There  are  also  entrance  and 
other  exhibitions  and  scholarships  given  at  University  College 
for  mathematics,  physics,  chemistry,  classics,  German,  French, 
art,  Greek,  Hebrew,  jurisprudence  and  political  economy, 
philosophy  of  mind  and  logic,  English  literature,  medicine, 
surgery,  pathology,  and  physiology. 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

The  Quarterly  Journal  of  Microscopical  Science  for  July  1888 
contains  the  following: — On  Haploiiscus  pi^er,  a  new  pelagic 
organism  from  the  Bahamas,  by  W.  F.  R.  Weldon,  M.  A. 
(plate  1).  The  body  is  ellipsoidal  in  outline,  the  antero-posterior 
diameter  being  the  shortest  ;  in  an  average  specimen  the  long 
diameter  measured  1-3  mm.,  the  short  I'l  mm.  The  dorsal  surface 
is  slightly  convex,  the  ventral  flat,  but  concave  on  muscular  con- 
traction. There  is  a  cuticular  body  wall  ;  a  muscle  layer  on  the 
ventral  surface  ;  the  innermost  body  layer  is  a  protoplasmic  tunic, 
embedded  in  which  are  numerous  mucous  glands  opening  through 
the  cuticle.  At  the  anterior  end  of  the  body,  embedded  in  the 
protoplasmic  tunic,  is  the  brain.  The  alimentary  tract  occupies 
the  centre  of  the  body.  It  has  an  oval  opening  :  the  tract  itself 
consists  largely  of  protoplasm,  which  even  protrudes,  pseudopodia- 
like,  from  the  oval  opening.  A  pair  of  ovaries  and  a  testis  are 
present.  Yellow  cells  are  scattered  quite  irregularly  throughout 
the  body.  The  systematic  position  is  doubtful.  The  author 
suggests  that  it  may  be  a  free-living  Cestode.— On  the  true  teeth 
and  on   the  horny  plates  of  Ornithorhynchus,  by  E.  B.  Poulton, 


M.A.  (plates  2-4).  The  species  of  Ornithorhynchus  have 
always  been  described  as  without  true  teeth  ;  bat,  as  is  well  known, 
they  possess  eight  horny  plates — two  on  each  side  of  each  jaw. 
True  teeth  are,  however,  developed  at  an  early  stage  beneath  the 
horny  plates  ;  there  are  certainly  three  on  each  upper  maxilla, 
and  while  two  only  have  been  proved  to  exist  on  each  of  the 
lower  maxilla,  it  seems  extremely  probable  that  an  additional 
pair  will  be  found.  The  position  and  structure  of  these  teeth 
are  eminently  mammalian,  and  are  treated  of  in  detail.  The 
horny  plates  gradually  intrude  into  the  alveoli  of  the  true  teeth, 
which,  ceasing  to  come  to  the  surface,  are  absorbed,  so  that  in  the 
adult  animal  the  bone  and  the  under  surface  of  the  epithelium 
are  in  close  proximity.— Note  on  the  fate  of  the  blastopore  in 
Rana  tewporaria,  by  H.  Sidebotham  (plate  5).  Differs  from 
Balfour  in  concluding  that  the  neural  folds  do  not  inclose  the 
blastopore,  the  closure  of  the  blastopore  being  effected  subse- 
quently to  the  meeting  of  the  neural  folds  ;  and  still  more  from 
Spencer,  inasmuch  as  the  anus  is  not  derived  from  a  persistent 
blastopore,  but  is  formed  from  an  independent  proctodieal 
invagination. — Morphological  studies  :  No.  1,  the  parietal  eye  of 
the  Cyclostome  fishes,  by  Dr.  J.  Beard  (plates  6  and  7).  Describes 
the  parietal  eye  in  the  Amnocoetes  of  P.tromyzon  planeri  in  its 
adult  form,  also  in  Myxine. — On  some  Oigopsid  cuttle-fish,  by 
F.  Ernest  Weiss  (plates  S-10).  A  very  interesting  study  of 
some  Mediterranean  cuttle-fish. — On  the  organ  of  Verrill  in 
Loligo,  by  M.  Laurie  (plate  11).  An  examination  of  the  structure 
of  this  organ  proved  it  to  be  glandular. 

In  the  Journal  of  Botany  for  July,  Mr.  George  Murray 
begins  a  list  of  the  Marine  Algae  of  the  exceedingly  rich  West 
Indian  region  ;  Mr.  F.  J.  Hanbury  describes  some  forms  new 
to  Britain  of  the  very  difficult  genus  Hicracium  ;  and  Mr.  W.  B. 
Grove  a  new  genus  of  Fungi,  Pimina,  belonging  to  the  I  lyphomy- 
cetes,  parasitic  on  another  Fungus  on  the  leaves  of  passion-flowers 
near  Dublin. 

In  the  Botanical  Gazette  for  June,  Mr.  Charles  Robertson 
begins  a  paper  having  for  its  object  an  attempt  to  explain 
the  origin  of  the  zygomorphic  form  in  flowers,  on  the  principle  of 
natural  selection.  Herr  A.  F.  Foerste  describes  a  number  of 
structures  adapted  to  cross-fertilization  in  American  flowers  ;  and 
Mr.  F.  H.  Knowlton  a  new  fossil  Chara  from  the  Lower  Tertianes 
in  Utah. 

American  Journal  of  Science,  July. — Upon  the  relation  which 
the  former  orbits  of  those  meteorites  that  are  in  our  collections, 
and  that  were  seen  to  fall,  had  to  the  earth's  orbit,  by  H.  A. 
Newton.  We  printed  this  paper  on  July  12  (p.  250). — History  of 
changes  in  the  Mount  Loa  craters  (continued),  by  James  D.  Dana. 
This  paper  deals  mainly  with  Mokuaweoweo,  the  summit  crater 
of  Mount  Loa.  The  history  is  given  of  its  eruptions  from  1832 
to  1888,  and  the  subject  is  illustrated  with  three  plates,  giving 
maps  of  the  island  of  Hawaii  and  of  Mokuaweoweo  with  two 
views  of  a  lava  fountain  at  the  eruption  of  January  1887.  The 
paper  is  followed  by  a  communication  from,  W.  T.  Brigham  and 
J.  M.  Alexander  on  the  summit-crater  of  Mount  Loa  in  1880 
and  1885. — On  an  explanation  of  the  action  of  a  magnet  on 
chemical  action,  by  Henry  A.  Rowland  and  Louis  Bell.  These 
researches  have  reference  to  Prof.  Ken, sen's  di-covery  that  mag- 
netism has  a  remarkable  action  on  the  deposition  of  copper  from 
one  of  its  solutions  on  an  iron  plate,  and  to  Prof.  E.  L.  Nichols's 
inquiry  into  the  action  of  acids  on  iron  in  a  magnetic  field. 
Their  conclusions  differ  from  those  of  Nichols,  inasmuch  as  they 
give  the  exact  mathematical  theory  of  the  action,  while  Nichols 
gives  no  theory,  and  does  not  notice  the  action  of  points.— 
Wave-like  effects  produced  by  the  detonation  of  gun-cotton,  by 
Charles  E.  Monroe.  It  is  suggested  that,  in  the  curious  pheno- 
mena here  described,  a  means  may  be  found  for  distinguishing 
between,  and  perhaps  measuring  the  effects  of,  different  deton- 
ating explosives. — A  mode  of  reading  mirror  galvanometers,  &c, 
by  Dr.  R.  W.  Willson.  Although  less  accurate  than  that  of 
telescope  and  scale,  the  method  here  proposed  is  stated  to  be 
often  more  convenient. — Bertrandite  from  Mount  Antero, 
Colorado,  by  Samuel  L.  Penfield.  The  specimen  of  this  rare 
mineral  here  studied  was  selected  from  some  materials  collected 
last  summer  at  Mount  Antero,  in  the  search  for  specimens  of 
phenacite.  Its  hardness  is  determined  at  6-7,  and  specific 
gravity  2 '598  ;  while  analysis  yielded  SiO,,  5 1  '8  ;  BeO,  39'6; 
H20,  8 '4  ;  CaO,  1  o. — W.  VV.  Dodge  determines  some  localities 
of  post-Tettiary  and  Tertiary  fossils  in  Massachusetts;  E.  O. 
Hovey  describes  a  Cordierite  gneiss  from  Connecticut  ;  and  W. 
Hallock  has  a  short  note  on  the  flow  of  solids. 


August  30,  1888] 


NATURE 


43i 


The  original  articles  in  the  Nttovo  Giornalc  Botanico  Italiano 
for  July  comprise  a  description,  with  plate,  of  a  singular  proli- 
ferous specimen  of  an  Agpricus\  by  Signor  U.  Martelli  ;  a  sum- 
mary of  the  characters  of  twenty-two  of  the  principal  varieties  of 
the  vine  grown  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Arezzo,  by  Signor  L. 
Macchiati  ;  and  contributions  to  the  flora  of  Massana,  by  9ignor 
U.  Martelli.  In  the  Reports  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Italian 
Botanical  Society,  is  an  interesting  article  by  Signor  G.  Arcaogeli, 
on  Kefir,  an  alcoholic  and  effervescing  drink,  prepared  in*  the 
Caucasus  by  the  fermentation  of  cows'  milk.  The  author  con- 
firms the  statement  of  previous  observers  that  in  the  fermented 
liquid  there  are  always  found  a  Saccharomytes  very  closely  allied 
to  S.  cerevisice,  and  several  Schizomycetes.  The  organism  of  the 
latter  class  described  by  previous  writers  as  Dispora  cawasica, 
and  regarded  as  peculiar  to  this  kind  of  fermentation,  he  identified 
with  Bacillus  subtilis,  which  is  accompanied  by  B.  acid*  larttci. 
Signors  Martelli  and  Macchiati  contribute  papers  on  the  fresh- 
water diatoms  of  the  district  of  Modena. 

Revue  a  Anthropologic,    troisieme    serie,   tome  iii.,  quatrieme 
fasc.  (Paris,  1888).— Continuation  of  the  stratigraphic  palaeonto- 
logy of  man,  by  M.  M.  E-oule.     In  this  essay  the  writer  treats 
of  the    most    recently   established    conclusions     regarding    the 
chronological  order  of  the  erratic  deposits  of  the  valleys  of  the 
Rhone,  the  Saone,  and  the  Ain,  which  belong  to  the  Quaternary 
and  the  Upper  and  Middle  Pliocene  ages.     He  agrees  with  the 
generally  accepted  opinion  that    the   existence    of   interglacial 
deposits  has  been  established  by  scientific  evidence,  while  the 
identity  of  the  animals  and  plants  everywhere  found  in  these  beds 
prove   that    they  must  be  nearly  contemporaneous.     The  dis- 
covery last  year  by  M.  Tardy  of  a  stone  implement  of  the  Saint- 
Acheul  type,  which  was  embedded  in  the  alluvial  banks  of  the 
Ain,    and   near  intact    moraine-;,    would    seem  to  connect    the 
presence  of  man  with  oik  of  these  interglacial  periods,  while  Dr. 
Penck  has  shown  that  each  retrogression  of  a  glacier  corresponds 
to  a  period  of  alluvial  deposit  in  valleys.     Passing  from  the  Alps 
to  the  Pyrenees,  M.  Boule,  again  following  the  same  authority, 
shows  that,  while  in  the  former  region  there  is  at  many  points 
evidence  of  repeated  glaciation,  in  the  latter  the  moraines  rest 
directly  on  ancient  rocks.     Numerous  other  difficulties  surround 
the  question  of  glaciation  in  the  Pyrenean  range,  and  the  interest 
of  M.  Boule's  essay  depends  largely  upon  the  care   with   which 
he  has  sifted  the  evidence  derived  from  the  numerous  writers  to 
whom  he  refers  ;  and  the  English  student  will  find  this  section 
of  his  work  a  useful  guide  to  the  bibliography  of  the  subject  in 
regard  to  Auvergne,  as  well  as  to  the  Swiss  and   French  Alps. 
—  The  Afghans,  by  M.  L.  Rousselet.     The  excessive  admixture 
of  races  which  is  to  be  found  in  the  land  of  the  Afghans  is  con- 
sidered by  the  author  as  one  of  the  most  curious  features  of  their 
ethnic  history.     The  physic  \\  characteristics  of  the  Afghans  of 
il  and  Candahar  point  to  an  Aryan  origin,  and  would  seem 
to  ally    them    with  the  Sikhs  and  Rajputs  of  North- Western 
India  ;  while  the  occasional  appearance  among  the  inhabitants  of 
the  larger  cities  of  what  is   commonly  known  as  the  Jewish  type 
of  face  is,  according  to  M.    Rousselet,  sufficiently  explained  by 
the  important  part  which  from  the  earliest  period  of  Islamism 
Arabs  have  taken  iii  converting  the  Afghans  to  the  faith  of  the 
Prophet.      From  Chinese  authorities  we  learn,  moreover,   that 
before  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century  invaders  of  a  Turcoman 
race  had  entered  the  land  of  the   Afghans,  and  subjugated  some 
of  its  tribes.  .  In  the  tenth  century  another  Turcoman  invasion 
confirmed  the  domination  of  the  Mohammedans,  and  since  then 
the  Koran  has  constituted  the  national  code  ;  but,  although  of  the 
Sunnite  sect,  the  upper  classes  adhere  to  the  tongue  of  their 
heretical  neighbours,  the  Chiite  Persians.   The  theory  advocated 
by  many  English  writers,  that  the  Afghans  are  descended  from 
the  ten  lost  tribes  of  Israel,  is  treated  by  the  writer  as  unworthy 
of  all  serious  consideration.     He  cannot  see  in   this  people,  of 
variously  composed  ethnic  elements,  anything  that  demands  the 
establishment  of  a  fan-fetched  theory  to  explain  their  history  or 
character  ;  but  he  thinks  that,  in  spite  of  their  want  of  national 
cohesion,  they  may — through  their  love  of  freedom,  the  independ- 
ence secured  to  them  by  their  geographical  position,   and  their 
warlike  instincts— at  n'o  very  distant  dale  be  called  upon  to  decide 
the  fate  of   India. — Contributions  to   the  history  of  anomalous 
muscles  of  the  neck  and  back,  *>y  M.  Ledouble.   In  this  paper  the 
examples  cited  of  such  anomalies  have   been    principally  taken 
from  the  printed  reports  of  Mr.  John  Wood,  Profs.   Macalister, 
Flower,  Huxley,  &c.  —Notes  on  the  Departement  de  l'Ain,   by 
Dr.  Aubeit.     These  notes  supply  an  interesting  account  of  the 
mode  of  formation  and  nature  of  the  innumerable  ponds  and 


marshes  which  long  gave  so  peculiar  a  •  character  to  the 
di-tncts  of  Dombes,  Bresse,  and  Bugey,  in  which  the  great  pre- 
ponderance of  standing  waters  has  been  for  centuries  a  source 
of  poverty  and  disease  to  the  unfortunate  inhabitants.  The 
existence  of  Mich  vast  a-eas  of  more  or  less  deep  still-waters  is 
dependent  upon  a  geological  cause  which  must  always  have  been 
in  force,  since  they  owe  their  origin  to  the  impermeability  of 
the  soil  beneath  them  ;  but  it  would  appear  that  prior  to  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  when  the  process  of  so-called 
evolage  and  asscc  was  first  established  in  these  districts,  the 
country  was  healthier  and  m  re  populous  than  it  has  been  in 
more  recent  times.  This  system — which  consists  in  drawing  off 
the  waters  of  certain  ponds  every  third  year,  and  sowing  the  wet 
ground  with  barley  and  oats  after  the  vast  accumulations  of  fish 
have  been  cleared  off— naturally  gives  rise  to  mephitic  effluvia, 
inducing  malarian  diseases.  These  and  other  evils  due  to  the 
system  of  evolage  had  the  effect  of  gradually  reducing  the  popu- 
lation lo  twenty-four  inhabitants  to  the  square  kilometre,  and 
giving  an  average  longevity  of  less  than  twenty-one  years.  This- 
state  of  things,  which  reached  its  maximum  about  the  middle  of 
this  century,  has  been  steadily  improving  since  the  draining  of 
the  ponds  has  been  systematically  taken  in  hand.  At  the  pre- 
sent time  6000  hectares  of  land  have  already  been  recovered,  and, 
while  fevers  have  diminished,  the  tables  of  conscription  show 
that,  whereas  in  some  cantons  the  numbers  of  rejections  among 
the  recruits  were  from  80  to  90  per  cent,  between  1837  and  1847,. 
they  had  fallen  between  1S72  and  1886  to  below  10  per  cent. 
Dr.  Aubert's  notes  supply  an  interesting  commentiry  on  the 
practical  importance  of  applying  scientific  knowledge  to  the 
elucidation  and  modification  of  the  physical  condition  of  the 
soil,  even  where  this  seems  to  be  dependent  on  apparently  un- 
alterable geological  causes.— The  formula  for  reconstructing  the 
human  figure  in  accordance  with  dimensions  of  the  long  bones,. 
by  M.  Topinard.  This  is  little  more  than  a  critique  of  Dr. 
Beddoe's  paper  on  the  stature  of  the  ancient  races  of  England. 

Rivista  Scientifico-Inditstriale,  June  30. — Note  on  microscopy 
(continued),  by  Prof.  Aser  Poli.  After  a  rapid  survey  of  the 
various  improvements  or  modifications  introduced  by  Huyghens, 
Campani,  Ramsden,  and  other  oculists,  the  author  proceeds  to 
examine  critically  the  suggestions  recently  made  by  Mr.  E.  M. 
Nelson  in  connection  with  Campani's  eye-piece  (Journal  of  the 
Royal  Microscopical  Society,  1887,  p.  928).  By  a  simple  calcula- 
tion, in  which  numerals  are  substituted  for  letters  in  the  well- 
known  formula,  he  shows  that  the  theory  is  directly  opposed 
to  Mr.  Nelson's  statement.  The  assertion  is  also  questioned 
thai  his  theoretical  conclusions  have  been  confirmed  by  practical 
experiment. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  August  13. — M.  Janssen,  President, 
in  the  chair. — Remarks  in  connection  with  the  "  Connaissancedes 
Temps  p  >ur  1890  "  (212th  ye  ;r  of  publication),  presented  to  the 
Academy  by  M.  Bouquet  de  la  Grye.  Amongst  the  improvements 
and  additions  made  to  this  volume  are  :  the  semi-diameter  of  the 
sun,  the  duration  of  its  transit,  the  parallax  and  aberration  for  every 
day  in  the  year,  the  conditions  of  visibility  of  Saturn's  ring,  and 
tables  for  calculating  the  phases  of  the  solar  eclipses  for  every 
point  on  the  surface  of  the  globe.  By  means  of  certain  typo- 
graphical expedients,  all  these  additions  have  been  made  without 
increasing  the  size  of  the  volume. — On  a  general  property  cf 
elastic  solid  bodies,  by  M.  Maurice  Levy.  A  demonstration  is 
offered  of  the  following  theorem  :  If  two  systems  of  forces  in 
equilibrium  be  successively  applied  to  an  elastic  solid  body, 
whether  isotropous  or  crystallized,  free  or  not  (and  consequently 
to  a  system  of  similar  bodies  connected  together  in  any  way), 
then  the  sum  of  the  work  produced  by  the  forces  of  one  of  thc-**- 
systems,  for  the  elastic  displacements  due  to  the  other,  is  equal 
to  the  sum  of  the  work  produced  by  the  forces  of  the  latter  for 
the  elastic  displacements  due  to  the  first. — On  the  influence 
exercised  by  antipyretic  substances  on  the  quantity  of  glycogen 
contained  in  the  muscles,  by  MM.  R.  Lepine  and  Ported.  In 
a  previous  note  {Complcs  lendus  for  April  3,  1888),  the  authors 
showed  that  antipyretic  substances  act  as  an  impediment  to  the 
transformation  of  the  hepatic  glycogen  into  sugar.  They  now 
give  the  results  of  their  further  researches  on  the  influence 
exercised    by    the    antipyrine    and    acetanilide    in    determining 


432 


NA  TURE 


\_August  50,  1888 


the  proportion  of  glycogen  contained  in  the  muscles.  Com- 
pared with  healthy  animals,  those  intoxicated  with  these  sub- 
stances have  an  excess  of  muscular  glycogen  varying  from  28 
to  30  per  cent. — On  the  precautions  required  to  be  taken  in 
order  to  secure  good  photographs  of  lightning,  by  M.  Ch. 
Moussette.  An  experiment  is  described,  which  is  intended  to 
show  that  the  defective  photographs  of  electric  discharges  are 
mainly  due  to  the  vibrations  communicated  to  the  apparatus  by 
the  trembling  of  the  ground,  the  force  of  the  wind,  or  the  crash 
of  the  thunder.  Hence,  in  order  to  obtain  good  impressions, 
these  disturbing  elements  should  be  neutralized  to  the  utmost. — 
Observations  of  Brooks's  new  comet,  made  at  the  Paris  Observa- 
tory with  the  equatorial  of  the  West  Tower,  by  M.  G.  Bigour- 
dan.  This  comet  was  discovered  by  Mr.  Brooks  at  the  new 
Observatory  of  Geneva,  State  of  New  York,  on  August  7,  1888. 
It  was  faintly  visible  in  Paris  on  August  9,  and  the  present 
observations  were  taken  on  the  three  following  days. — On 
amorphous  antimony,  by  M.  F.  Herard.  The  author  has  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  directly  the  allotropic  modification  of  anti- 
mony indicated  by  Gore,  and  resulting  from  the  decomposition 
of  a  chloride,  bromide,  or  iodide  of  antimony.  It  takes  the 
form  of  a  gray  powder  containing  987  per  cent,  of  antimony, 
with  density  6  22  at  0°  C. ,  and  point  of  fusion  about  6140, 
whereas  crystallized  antimony  melts  at  about  4400. — On  four  new 
titanates  of  zinc,  by  M.  Lucien  Levy.  Since  his  communication 
{Comptcs  rendiK,  vol.  cv.  p.  378)  on  a  trititanate  of  zinc  obtained 
by  means  of  fluorides,  the  author  has  obtained  four  other  titan- 
ates by  fusing  titanic  acid  with  mixtures  of  zinc  and  potassa 
sulphates  These  titanates  are  here  described,  analvzed,  and 
reduced  to  their  proper  formulas,  — M.  A.  Duponchel  has  a  note 
on  a  24-years'  cycle  of  periodicity  in  the  oscillations  of  tempera- 
ture on  the  surface  of  the  globe,  based  on  the  records  of  mean 
temperatures  in  Paris  from  the  year  1765  to  1783,  and  from 
1804  to  the  present  time. 

August  20. — M.  Janssen  in  the  chair. — Note  on  the  adoption 
of  a  legal  hour  in  France,  by  M.  Bouquet  de  la  Grye.  The 
Commission  appointed  in  January  by  the  Bureau  des  Longi- 
tudes to  inquire  into  the  best  means  for  establishing  a  common 
legal  hour  sent  in  its  Report  on  June  4,  and  the  Bureau  has  now 
invited  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  to  support  a  project 
of  law  intended  to  give  effect  to  the  recommendations  of  the 
Commission. — On  inoculation  against  Asiatic  cholera,  by  Dr. 
N.  Gamaleia.  The  substance  of  this  paper  has  already  appeared 
in  the  last  number  of  Nature  (p.  395). — Observations  of  Faye's 
comet,  rediscovered  at  Nice  on  August  9,  by  M.  Perrotin.  The 
observations  here  recorded  were  taken  on  August  9  and  10,  when 
the  comet  was  faintly  visible,  showing  a  slight  central  condensa- 
tion with  enveloping  nebulosity  of  circular  form,  and  nearly  1' 
in  extent. — Observations  of  Brooks's  new  comet,  made  at  the 
Observatory  of  Nice  with  the  o"38m.  Gautier  equatorial,  by  M. 
Charlois.  The  observations  are  for  August  9  and  10,  when  the 
comet  had  a  brightness  equal  to  that  of  a  star  of  the  9th  or  10th 
magnitude,  with  a  faint  tail  about  5'  long  ;  position-angle,  270°. 
—  On  the  satellites  of  Mars,  by  M.  E.  Dubois.  The  two 
satellites  discovered  by  Asaph  Hall  on  August  11  and  17,  1877, 
have  since  been  observed  by  several  astronomers,  and  their 
elliptic  elements  recorded  in  the  Annuaire  dtt  Bureau  des 
Longitudes.  How  have  they  hitherto  escaped  observation, 
notwithstanding  the  favourable  conditions  presented  for  detecting 
them  ?  It  is  suggested  that  Phobos  and  Deimos,  as  they  have 
been  named,  may  perhaps  be  two  small  members  of  the  telescopic 
planetary  zone  between  Mars  and  Jupiter,  which  have  recently 
been  drawn  within  the  influence  of  Mars. — Provisional  laws 
determining  the  subsidence  of  the  land  in  certain  parts  of 
France,  by  M.  C.  M.  Goulier.  A  comparison  of  the  altitudes 
recorded  by  former  and  recent  surveys  seems  to  indicate  a 
progressive  sinking  of  the  surface  in  the  direction  from  south  to 
north,  where  the  discrepancy  amounts  to  078m.  Although  the 
available  data  are  still  insufficient  to  determine  the  laws  regu- 
lating this  vertical  movement,  it  appears  no  longer  doubtful  that 
subsidence  and  upheaval  take  place  not  only  along  the  seaboard, 
but  also  in  the  interior  of  the  continents  to  a  much  greater 
extent  than  has  hitherto  been  suspected. — On  the  vapour- 
tensions  of  solutions  made  in  alcohol,  by  M.  F.  M.  Raoult. 
His  further  experiments  here  described  enable  the  author  to 
generalize  the  law  already  formulated  by  him  {Comptes  rendits, 
May  23,  1887)  to  the  effect  that  one  molecule  of  a  non-saline 
fixed  substance  dissolved  in  100  molecules  of  any  volatile  liquid, 
diminishes  its  vapour-tension  by  a  constant  quantity  correspond- 
ing to  about  o-oio5  of  its  value. — Experiment  on  the  treatment 


of  the  potato  disease,  by  M.  Prillieux.  A  mixture  of  6  parts 
of  the  sulphate  of  copper  and  6  of  lime  to  100  of  water  (the 
"  Bordeaux  broth  ")  has  been  applied  with  complete  success  to 
some  potato  plants  at  Joinville-le-Pont  attacked  by  Peronospora. 
But  to  be  efficacious  the  remedy  must  be  applied  either  as  a 
prophylactic  or  in  the  early  stages  of  the  disease. 

BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

The  Building  of  the  British  Isles:  A.  J.  Jukes-Browne  (George  Bell). — 
Annales  de  l'Observatoire  Imperial  de  R.o  de  Janeiro,  tome  iii.  ;  Passage 
de  Venus,  1882  (Rio  de  Janeiro). — Planetary  and  Stellar  Studies:  J.  K. 
Gore  (Roper  and  Drowley).  —  History  of  Modern  Philosophy  ;  Descartes  and 
his  School :  K.  Fischer,  translated  by  J.  P  Gordy  (Unwin). — Encyklopaedie 
der  Naturwis=enschaften,  Erste  Abthg.,  Liefg.  55,  56,  57;  Zweite  Abthg., 
Liefe.  48 (Williams  &  Norgate). — iii.  Jahresbericht  (1887)  der  Ornithologischen 
Beobachtungstationen  im  Konigreich  Sachsen  :  Dr.  A.  B.  Meyer  und  Dr.  F. 
Helm  (Dresden). — The  Species  of  Ficus  of  the  Indo-Malayan  and  Chinese 
C  'untries,  Part  2  :  G.  King  (Calcutta). — A  New  Era  of  Thought :  C.  H.  Hinton 
(Sonnenschein). — The  Nature  of  Harmony  and  Metre  :  M.  Hauptmann  ; 
translated  and  edited  by  W.  E.  Heathcote  (Sonnenschein). —Magi  etical 
and  Meteorological  Observations  made  at  the  Government  Observatory, 
Bombay.  1886  ( Bombay) — The  Princ.ples  of  Manure  and  Luxuriance  in 
Plant  Life :  W.  K.  b'ulleylove  (Birmingham). — A  Propos  des  Chatiments 
dans  l'Education  :  F.  Hement  (Paris). — Ino  Chukei,  the  Japanese  Surveyor 
and  Cartographer:  C.  G.  Knotr. — Anniversary  Address  delivered  to  the 
Royal  S  ictety  of  New  South  Wales.  May  2,  1888:  C.  S.  WilKinson.— Pro- 
ceed.ngs  of  the  Liverpool  Naturalists'  Field  Club,  1887  ( Liverpool). — Boletin 
de  la  Academia  Nacional  de  Ciencias  en  Cordoba,  Tomo  x.  Ent.  20-. 
(Buenos  Aires). — Third  Annual  Report  of  the  City  of  London  College  Science. 
Society,  1887-83  (L  ndon). — Abstract  of  Proceedings  of  the  South  London 
Entom  (logical  and  Natural  History  Society,  1888  (London). — Journal  of 
Physiology,  August  (Cambridge). 


CONTENTS.  pa.-e 

Theoretical  Geology 409 

A  Guide  to  the  Lick  Observatory 410 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Macdowall  :   "  Curve  Pictures  of  London  for  the  Social 

Reformer 410 

Gorham  :   "A  System  for  the  Construction  of  Crystal 

Models" 411 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

Functionless     Organs. — The      Duke      of     Argyll, 
F.R.S.  ;    Joseph     John     Murphy;     William 

White 411 

Lamarckism    versus    Darwinism. — Prof.    George  J. 

Romanes,  F.R.S 413 

A  Substitute  for  Carbon  Disulphide  in  Prisms,  &c. — 

H.  G.  Madan 413 

Michell's  Problem. — Sydney  Lupton 414 

Remarkable  Rainbows. — L.J.  H.  ;  M.  C.  C.     ...  414 

Sun  Columns. — Dr.  B.  Brauner 414 

Meteor. — Lieut.-Colonel  H.  W.  L.  Hime,  R.A.    .  414 
Fire-bail   of   August    13 — August  Meteors. — W.    F. 

Denning 415 

Sonorous     Sand     in      Dorsetshire. — Cecil     Carus- 

Wilson 415 

A  Column  of  Dust. — Hugh  Taylor      415 

The  International  Geological  Congress 415 

Modern  Views  of  Electricity.    X.    By  Frof.  Oliver  J. 

Lodge,  F.R.S 416 

Storm  Warnings.     {With  Charts.) 419 

Sonnet 421 

Notes 421 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

The  Spectrum  of  R  Cy^ni 423 

Milan  Double- Star  Observations 423 

Encke's  Comet 423 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for      the     Week     1888 

September  2-8 423 

Geographical  Notes 423 

Notes  on  Meteorites.   I.    {Illustrated.)    By  J.  Norman 

Lockyer,   F.R.S 424 

The    Glasgow   and   West    of    Scotland   Technical 

College.     By  Henry  Dyer 428 

University  and  Educational  Intelligence 429 

Scientific  Serials 43° 

Societies  and  Academies 431 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received     .   .    .   .    *  432 


NA TURE 


433 


THURSDAY,   SEPTEMBER  6,    ii 


GEOLOGICAL  NOMENCLA  TURE. 

Les  Dislocations  de  IVcorce  terrestre  :  Essai  de  Definition 
et  dc  Nomenclature.  Texte  en  francais  et  en  allemand  ; 
Synonymie  en  francais,  allemand,  et  anglais.  Par 
Emm.  de  Margerie  et  Dr.  Albert  Heim.  Public*  aux 
frais  de  la  fondation  de  X.  Schnyder  de  Wartensee. 
(Zurich  :  J.  Wurster  and  Co.,  1888.) 

AT  the  meeting  of  the  International  Congress  of 
Geologists  which  is  to  be  held  in  London  during 
the  autumn  of  the  present  year,  many  praiseworthy 
attempts  will  doubtless  be  made  to  bring  about  some 
kind  of  uniformity  in  the  nomenclature  adopted  by 
workers  in  different  countries.  It  is  doubtful,  however, 
whether  any  conferences  or  discussions  are  more  likely  to 
contribute  to  this  much-desired  object  than  the  work  now 
before  us.  The  writers  of  this  essay  are  singularly  well 
qualified  for  the  important  task  they  have  undertaken. 
Prof.  Heim,  of  Zurich,  the  author  of  the  well-known 
"  Mechanismus  der  Gebirgsbildung,"  and  other  works  on 
orographic  geology,  is  responsible,  as  we  are  informed  in 
the  preface,  for  the  scientific  discussions  ;  while  M. 
Margerie  has  taken  charge  of  the  literary  portion  of  the 
work — a  task  for  which  a  wide  knowledge  of  geological 
literature  in  many  languages  so  admirably  fits  him. 

The  book  was  prepared  for  press  in  1885  and  1886,  but 
considerable  difficulties  were  found  in  the  way  of  its 
publication ;  there  fortunately  exists,  however,  at  the 
disposal  of  the  Municipal  Library  of  Zurich,  a  fund 
bequeathed  by  the  late  Xavier  Schnyder  von  Wartensee, 
a  musical  composer,  the  yearly  proceeds  of  which 
may  be  devoted  to  the  publication  of  scientific  works. 
The  proceeds  of  this  fund  for  the  present  year  having 
been  very  judiciously  applied  to  defray  the  cost  of  the 
book  before  us,  the  printing  was  undertaken  by  the  well- 
known  firm  of  Wurster  and  Co.  M.  Margerie  has  added 
a  supplement  bringing  the  work  as  nearly  as  possible 
down  to  the  date  of  publication,  but  is  compelled  to  state 
his  regret  in  the  preface  that  some  valuable  memoirs 
bearing  upon  the  questions  discussed  (and  notably  Mr. 
Mellard  Reade's  "Origin  of  Mountain  Ranges,"  which  was 
some  time  ago  noticed  in  NATURE)  did  not  reach  him  in 
time  to  be  utilized  as  he  could  have  wished.  In  spite  of 
these  frankly  acknowledged  omissions,  however,  every- 
one who  uses  this  work — and  it  is  one  which  is  almost  in- 
dispensable to  the  student  of  the  ever-accumulating  mass 
of  geological  literature — will  acknowledge  the  thorough- 
ness with  which  the  scientific  literature  of  our  own  country 
and  of  the  United  States,  as  well  as  of  France,  Germany, 
Italy,  and  Scandinavia,  has  been  ransacked  by  the 
indefatigable  authors. 

The  work  is  divided  into  three  principal  sections,  the 
first  dealing  with  the  dislocations  resulting  from  vertical 
movements  of  the  earth's  crust,  the  second  with  those 
produced  by  horizontal  thrusts,  and  the  third  with  the 
internal  results  of  the  deformation  of  rock-masses.  Excep- 
tion may  be  taken  to  this  distribution  of  the  subject,  and 
indeed  no  classification  of  the  phenomena  that  could 
possibly  be  suggested  would  be  likely  to  command  univer- 
sal assent,  yet  we  think  no  better  arrangement  of  the 
Vol.  xxxviii. — No.  984. 


matter  contained  in  this  work  could  have  been  well 
devised.  Although  there  are  not  wanting  cases  in  which 
we  find  links  between  the  comparatively  simple  vertical 
displacements  of  little-disturbed  areas  and  the  com- 
plicated over-folding  and  over-faulting  of  mountain  ranges 
yet  in  the  majority  of  cases  the  ordinary  faults  of  the 
former  and  the  grand  and  exaggerated  reversed  faults  of 
the  latter  are  as  distinct  in  their  distribution  as  they 
appear  to  have  been  in  their  mode  of  origin. 

In  the  first  section,  the  general  characteristics  of 
ordinary  faults  are  discussed,  as  well  as  the  classification 
of  the  different  types  of  such  faults  and  of  simple  flexures, 
and  then  the  modes  of  grouping  of  such  faults  and  their 
mode  of  origin  are  considered.  As  many  of  the  English, 
French,  and  German  terms  employed  in  the  definition  of 
faults  have  originated  with  miners,  and  are  of  a  pro- 
vincial character,  the  exact  sense  in  which  they  are  used 
cannot  be  found  explained  even  in  the  best  dictionaries  ; 
hence  a  very  great  service  is  rendered  to  the  geological 
reader  by  the  care  and  thoroughness  with  which  the 
authors  of  this  essay  have  sought  out  and  explained  the 
synonymous  words  in  the  three  languages. 

It  is  when  we  come  to  the  second  section  of  the  work, 
however,  that  we  are  impressed  with  the  fullest  sense  of 
our  indebtedness  to  MM.  Heim  and  Margerie  for  removing 
obstacles  to  the  mutual  appreciation  by  the  geologists 
of  different  countries  of  the  labours  of  their  fellow- 
workers. 

More  than  forty  years  ago  the  brothers  Rogers,  in 
working  out  the  geology  of  Pennsylvania,  first  showed 
what  are  the  essential  features  in  the  structure  of  great 
mountain  ranges.  They  described  with  great  clearness 
the  succession  of  great  folds,  "  the  axis-planes  "  of  which 
had  been  pushed  over  into  a  nearly  horizontal  position  ; 
and  others  in  which,  by  a  still  further  movement,  fracture 
had  taken  place  along  the  axis-plane  of  the  folds,  leading 
to  the  upper  limbs  of  the  heeled-over  and  compressed 
arches  being  driven  bodily  for  vast  distances  over  the 
lower  limbs.  They  described  one  of  these  exaggerated 
reversed  faults  or  overthrusts  in  Pennsylvania  as  extend- 
ing along  a  line  twenty  miles  in  length,  with  a  displace- 
ment of  five  miles,  while  another  similar  rent  was  traced 
in  Virginia  for  the  distance  of  eighty  miles.  Henry 
Rogers  saw  clearly  how  these  great  dislocations  enable 
us  to  explain  the  "  fan-structure  "  and  other  remarkable 
appearances  that  had  been  described  by  De  Saussure, 
Studer,  and  other  pioneers  in  the  study  of  Alpine  geology ; 
while  James  Hall,  Dana,  Vose,  and  other  American  geo- 
logists found  in  the  structure  of  the  Appalachians  a  key 
to  the  great  problem  of  the  origin  of  mountain  chains. 
More  recently  the  investigation  of  the  Western  Terri- 
tories of  the  United  States  has  supplied  the  able 
geologists  of  America  with  many  beautiful  and  instructive, 
illustrations  of  the  same  phenomena. 

The  light  thrown  upon  the  structure  of  mountain 
chains  by  the  study  of  the  Appalachians  soon  began  to 
influence  the  geologists  of  the  Old  World.  Lory,  Baltzer, 
Heim,  and  others,  showed  that  in  Dauphiny  and  in 
Switzerland  "over-folding"  and  " over-faulting "  are  the 
great  characteristics  of  Alpine  structure,  and  they  added 
much  to  our  knowledge  of  the  causes  by  which  these 
structures  are  produced. 

At  the  outset  of  these  investigations  upon  the  structure 

U 


434 


NA TURE 


[Sept.  6,  1888 


and  origin  of  mountain  chains,  English  geologists  were 
conspicuous  not  only  by  the  clearness  of  their  views  but 
by  the  skilful  manner  in  which  they  applied  the  new 
principles  to  the  explanation  of  our  own  mountain  masses, 
especially  those  of  the  Scottish  Highlands.  Daniel 
Sharpe  demonstrated  the  essential  points  of  resem- 
blance between  the  structure  of  the  mountains  of 
Scotland  and  those  of  Southern  Europe  ;  while  Scrope 
and  Darwin  went  still  further  in  insisting  that  the 
intimate  structure  or  foliation  of  the  rock-masses  of 
our  own  and  other  mountain  chains  must  be  attributed 
to  the  mechanical  effects  of  the  great  movements  to  which 
they  have  been  subjected.  Unfortunately  the  great 
influence  of  Murchison,  backed  as  it  was  by  the  authority 
of  the  officers  of  the  Geological  Survey,  threw  back 
the  advance  of  English  geology  in  this  direction 
for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century.  The  doctrines 
that  the  rocks  of  the  Highlands  were  in  an  essentially 
undisturbed  condition,  and  that  in  them  the  planes 
of  stratification  and  foliation  were  coincident,  were 
backed  by  such  a  weight  of  authority,  that  for  a  time  they 
overbore  all  opposition.  To  the  labours  of  Prof.  Lapworth 
we  are  indebted  for  initiating  the  great  reaction  against 
the  mischievous  teachings  of  this  school  ;  while  Messrs. 
Peach  and  Home  have  more  than  atoned  for  the  evil 
done  by  their  predecessors,  by  the  energy  and  zeal  with 
which  they  have  sought  to  neutralize  the  effects  of  those 
teachings.  It  is  a  fortunate  circumstance  that  these 
patient  researches  have  been  carried  on  in  the  very 
districts  which  had  been  appealed  to  as  affording  the 
strongest  support  to  the  erroneous  interpretations. 

In  the  second  section  of  the  work  before  us  the  various 
terms  employed  by  Rogers  and  the  American  geologists, 
by  Lory,  Baltzer,  Heim,  Sues?,  Brogger,  Reusch,  and  other 
Continental  writers,  as  well  as  by  Lapworth,  Geikie, 
Peach,  and  Home,  are  all  brought  into  clear  relation  with 
one  another.  Where  necessary  the  complicated  effects  of 
great,  mountain  movements  are  illustrated  by  sketches, 
and  the  most  invaluable  aid  is  thus  afforded  to  the  student 
who  seeks  to  make  himself  acquainted  with  and  to  com- 
pare the  remarkable  results  attained  by  the  workers  in 
distant  areas.  Especially  interesting  are  the  observations 
upon  the  intricate  phenomena  displayed  in  cases  where 
rocks  that  have  been  sheared  and  foliated  during  one 
period  of  mountain-making  are  subjected  to  a  second 
process  of  the  >ame  kind  at  a  long  subsequent  period. 
We  regret  that  the  space  at  our  command  forbids  us 
from  following  the  authors  into  some  of  these  interesting 
questions. 

The  important  problems  connected  with  the  changes 
in  the  internal  structure  of  rocks  resulting  from  the  move- 
ments to  which  they  have  been  subjected  occupy  the 
authors  only  so  far  as  is  necessary  to  fix  the  terms  that 
shall  be  employed  in  describing  the  effects  produced. 
The  relative  merits  of  such  terms  as  "pressure  meta- 
morphism," proposed  by  Prof.  Bonney  ;  of  "  pressure- 
fluxion,"  by  the  late  Prof.  Carvill  Lewis  ;  of  "  dislocations- 
metamorphism,"  by  Prof.  Lossen  ;  of  "  mechanical 
metamorphism,"  by  Baltzer  ;  of  "  metamorphism  by 
friction,"  by  Gosselet  ;  and  finally,  of  "  dynamo-meta- 
morphism,"  recently  suggested  by  Prof.  Rosenbusch,  are 
all  impartially  considered.  Whatever  be  the  term 
eventually  chosen  to  express  the  important  effects  pro- 


duced by  the  internal  movements — the  "flowing" — of  rock- 
masses,  we  can  only  rejoice  that  the  ideas  so  ably 
advocated  long  ago  by  Scrope  and  Darwin  are  now 
beginning  to  meet  with  such  wide  and  general  recognition. 
Problems  which  in  the  days  of  these  pioneers  of  geological 
thought  were  absolutely  insoluble  are  now  brought  within 
the  range  of  practical  research.  Lehmann,  Lossen,  and  a 
host  of  other  workers  are  showing  us  how  by  the  applica- 
tion of  microscopic  methods  the  paramorphic  changes 
and  the  mutual  chemical  reactions  of  minerals  in  a  rock 
subjected  to  external  stresses  and  internal  movements  may 
be  clearly  followed  step  by  step  ;  while  the  physical  in- 
vestigations of  Daubree,  Tresca,  and  Spring  afford  to  us 
the  promise  that  the  actual  causes  of  the  phenomena  so 
carefully  observed  will  not  long  remain  hidden  from  our 
view. 

The  numerous  workers  in  all  the  great  centres  of 
thought,  whose  attention  and  study  are  now  concentrated 
upon  these  grand  and  fascinating  problems,  will  welcome 
the  work  before  us  as  supplying  a  want  that  has  been 
widely  and  deeply  felt.  John  W.  Judd. 


LETTERS    TO    THE  EDITOR. 

The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  ret  tern,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
of  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations,,] 

Lamarckism  versus  Darwinism. 

In  his  first  letter  Dr.  Romanes  stated  that  I  had  accused  him 
without  evidence.  In  the  second  letter  he  repeats  the  statement 
in  other  words.  The  answer  to  both  statements  will  be  found 
in  my  last  letter. 

Dr.  Romanes  will  not  have  replied  to  my  first  letter  until  he 
explains  or  expresses  regret  for  his  unfairness  to  Dr.  Weismann. 

Oxford,  September  3.  Edward  B.  Poulton. 


The  Zodiacal  Light  and  Meteors. 

I  have  had  the  opportunity  of  looking  at  Mr.  Maxwell  Hall's 
letter  (Nature,  vol.  vii.  p.  204),  referred  to  by  Mr.  Mattieu 
Williams  (May  31,  p.  102),  and  find  that  it  will  not  in  the  least 
bear  out  the  suggestion  made  by  the  latter.  Hall's  observation 
was  evidently  not  of  any  "spurious  zodiacal  light,"  but  of  the 
ordinary  zodiacal  light  in  the  form  called  by  some  writers  the 
"zodiacal  band,"  though  perhaps  especially  bright.  Its  position, 
also,  as  observed  by  Hall,  was  quite  different  from  that  which 
could  be  occupied  by  a  stream  of  meteors  from  Biela's  comet. 

As  regards  Hall's  theory,  which  he  there  propounds  for  the 
form  of  the  zodiacal  light,  it  has  not  met  with  acceptance,  as 
writers  in  general  consider  the  ordinary  theory  of  the  zodiacal  light, 
viz.  that  it  consists  of  a  continuous  disk,  whether  of  meteors  or 
any  other  substance,  in  which  the  sun  is  central,  is  sufficient  to 
account  for  the  appearances  described  by  Maxwell  Hall  and 
other  observers.  T.  W.  Backhouse. 

Sunderland,  August  31. 


THE  SERVICES  OF  CA  THOLIC  MISSIONARIES 
IN  THE  EAST  TO  NATURAL  SCIENCE. 


M 


ARMAND  DAVID,  the  well-known  Lazarist  mis- 
sionary and  man  of  science,  has  published  a  series  of 
articles  in  the  recent  numbers  of  Les  Missions  Catholique 
of  Lyons  on  the  services  rendered  to  the  natural  sciences 
by  the  missionaries  in  the  Far  East.  The  following  is  a 
summary  of  these  long  and  instructive  articles. 


I 


Sept.  6,  1 888 J 


NATURE 


435 


It  is  a  common  mistake  that  Catholic  missionaries  are 
engaged  in  proselytizing,  and  in  proselytizing  only.  Un- 
doubtedly the  original  motive  has  been  to  convert  pagan 
nations  to  Christianity  ;  but,  as  will  be  shown,  they  have 
worked  in  other  channels  with  very  great  success. 
Accounts  of  scientific  work  like  that  of  the  writer  are  not 
common,  because  the  missionaries  are  so  few  that  they 
have  very  little  time  to  devote  to  anything  outside  their 
religious  duties.  The  advantages  of  missionaries  preceding 
the  ordinary  travellers  are  well  known,  and  have  been 
recognized  by  various  learned  Societies.  It  is,  however, 
of  Eastern  Asia  in  particular  of  which  M.  David  pro- 
poses to  treat—that  is,  of  China,  which  contains  a  third 
part  of  the  population  of  the  earth,  and  which  is  attracting 
more  and  more  attention  every  day.  The  enemies  of  the 
Catholic  clergy  compare  the  present  missionaries  in  China 
very  unfavourably  with  the  Jesuits  who  shone  at  Pekin  in 
the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries.  It  is  undoubted 
that  the  Jesuit  fathers  of  Pekin  bore  an  exceedingly  high 
reputation  in  science  and  art,  and  that  they  produced 
very  considerable  results  in  almost  every  branch  of 
human  knowledge.  They  completed  the  most  colossal 
geographical  work  that  has  ever  yet  been  seen,  by 
making  a  complete  chart  of  the  Chinese  Empire.  The 
"  Lettres  Ediliantes,"  the  "'Memoires  des  Missionaires 
Je'suites  de  Pekin,'"  the  great  works  of  Father  Duhalde 
and  of  Father  de  Madia  show  the  immense  mass  of  ! 
matter  they  have  written  upon  almost  every  subject 
relating  to  the  Chinese  Empire.  But,  it  is  asked,  why 
speak  of  the  great  achievements  of  the  past  ?  They  only 
accentuate  the  total  absence  of  any  scientific  labours  at  the 
present  time  in  China.  M.  David  has  several  answers  to 
this  question,  (i)  Formerly  the  Academies  and  learned 
Societies  of  Europe  could  communicate  only  with  the 
missionaries  on  questions  relating  to  China  ;  no  other 
travellers  had  then  found  their  way  into  the  Celestial 
Empire  ;  and  it  was  to  aid  this  communication  that  the 
Catholic  kings  helped  the  missionaries  with  their  protec- 
tion and  their  money,  as  well  as  from  religious  motives. 
(2)  The  missionaries  knew  that  they  were  compelled,  in 
order  to  get  permission  to  remain  in  China,  to  make  their 
services  indispensable  to  the  emperor  ;  and  thus  they  put 
all  their  knowledge  and  skill  at  his  service.  (3)  Whilst 
only  a  small  number  of  missionaries  thus  resided 
at  Pekin,  and  gained  and  kept  the  confidence  of  the 
emperor  by  their  pursuit  of  astronomy,  geography, 
and  the  arts,  the  rest,  by  the  favour  in  which  their 
brethren  stood,  got  permission  to  preach  throughout 
China. 

St.  Francis  Xavier,  the  apostle  of  India,  died  without 
being  able  to  enter  China.  Father  Ricci,  who  entered  it 
in  1580,  led  to  Pekin  quite  a  phalanx  of  eminent  men,  to 
occupy  the  posts  of  honour  near  the  emperor.  These 
high  positions  did  not,  however,  prevent  the  missionaries 
from  labouring  in  the  cause  of  Christianity,  and  founding 
many  Christian  establishments.  Amongst  them  were  the 
Fathers  Verbiest,  Schall,  de  Premare,  Gaubel,  Amyot, 
and  many  others.  The  suppression  of  the  Jesuit  order 
stopped  their  work  in  China,  and  the  Lazarists,  who  were 
sent  to  succeed  them,  and  who  had  in  their  ranks  men 
like  MM.  Raux,  Ghislain,  Hanna,  and  Lamiot,  were 
themselves  soon  swept  away  by  a  revolution.  The 
persecution  soon  became  general  in  China,  and  some 
priests  who  were  able  to  elude  the  edicts  and  remain  in 
the  country  at  the  cost,  very  often,  of  their  lives,  were  fully 
occupied  without  attending  to  scientific  studies.  The 
same  was  the  case  with  their  immediate  successors,  who 
were  sent  by  various  Societies  to  collect  and  stiengthen 
the  scattered  congregations.  Afterwards  when  the  Anglo- 
French  expedition  procured  freedom  of  conscience  for  the 
Christians  and  liberty  for  the  missionaries  to  remain  in 
China,  things  were  very  different  from  what  they  had  been 
under  the  Emperors  Kang-hi  and  Kien-lung.  The  thread 
of  the  scientific  labours  of  the  old  fathers  at  Pekin  could 


not  be  picked  up.  For,  on  the  one  hand,  China  was  now 
in  communication  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  had  not 
the  need  nor  the  desire  to  have  recourse  to  the  missions 
for  their  learned  and  scientific  men  ;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  Christian  missionaries  and  their  flocks  now 
enjoyed  toleration,  and  the  priests  had  nothing  to  gain 
by  imitating  their  great  predecessors  in  gaining  the 
favour  of  the  emperor.  Besides,  European  diplomatists 
did  not  look  with  a  favourable  eye  on  the  influence  that 
would  be  acquired  by  priests  over  the  emperor  if  they 
accepted  official  posts.  The  Jesuit  fathers,  however,  who 
had  returned  to  China  when  their  suppression  had  been 
annulled,  did  not  completely  separate  themselves  from 
their  former  studies,  but  continued  them  as  far  as  their 
changed  condition  would  allow.  For  example,  in  their 
college  of  Zikawei,  near  Shanghai,  they  succeeded  in 
establishing  a  very  important  meteorological  observatory, 
whence  Father  Dechevrens  regularly  sends  his  observa- 
tions to  the  men  of  science  all  over  the  world  ;  natural 
history  owes  much  to  the  persevering  labours  of  Father 
Heude,  who  has  published  a  work  on  the  "  Mollusques 
fluviatiles  et  terrestres"  of  Central  China,  and  others  on 
the  stags  and  tortoises  of  China.  The  able  draughtsman, 
Father  Rhatouis,  helped  Father  Heude  by  drawing  the 
excellent  illustrations  of  these  books,  some  of  which  were 
printed  in  the  Jesuit  establishment  in  China.  In  other 
parts  of  the  country,  many  of  these  missionaries  give 
themselves  up  to  forming  and  sending  to  our  Museums 
collections  of  plants  and  animals.  At  Kwei-chow,  Abbe 
Perny,  of  the  Foreign  Missions,  put  together  a  very 
interesting  collection  of  plants,  which,  with  other  articles 
of  value,  he  has  presented  to  the  Jardin  des  Plantes.  He 
introduced  into  France  the  great  silk-worm  that  bears  his 
name  {Attacus  pernyi),  and  which  already  is  reared  in  the 
open  air  on  the  oak-trees  of  the  more  temperate  regions 
of  France.  On  his  return  from  China,  Abbe  Perny  pub- 
lished a  Chinese  grammar  and  vocabulary,  and  many 
works  on  the  productions  of  the  Far  East.  From  Tibet, 
Mgr.  Chauveau  and  his  successor,  Mgr.  Biet,  and  above 
all  M.  Desgodins,  have  sent  to  Europe  many  precious 
documents  and  several  collections  of  animals,  which  give 
us  an  idea  of  the  physical  condition  of  that  almost  im- 
penetrable region.  M.  Furet  in  Japan,  M.  Larnaudie  in 
Siam,  M.  Pourthie  in  Corea,  and  M.  Bon  in  Tonquin,  and 
several  others,  have  all  in  the  respective  countries  of  their 
adoption  studied  the  geography  and  the  natural  history,, 
and  have  sent  their  scientific  collections  to  enrich  our  public 
and  private  establishments.  At  Yun-nan,  M.  Delavay,  of 
the  Foreign  Missions,  has  given  up  for  many  years  all  his 
available  time  to  the  study  of  the  plants  of  this  unexplored 
province  with  the  most  remarkable  zeal  and  success.  The 
plants  which  he  has  already  sent  to  the  French  Museum 
are  the  most  important  that  have  ever  been  sent  from 
China  to  Europe,  and  botanists  are  surprised  at  the 
number  of  new  species  they  contain.  An  account  of  these 
new  species  has  been  prepared  by  M.  Frauchet,  and  will 
shortly  be  published  in  a  big  octavo  volume.  M.  David 
prides  himself  on  being  the  cause  of  M.  Delavay  following 
these  botanical  pursuits  which  have  so  enriched  science. 
They  met  accidentally  at  Hong-Kong,  and  after  some 
trouble  M.  David  succeeded  in  inducing  him  to  become  a 
correspondent  of  the  Jardin  des  Plantes.  The  Professors 
of  that  establishment  have  been  so  satisfied  with  the 
labours  of  M.  Delavay  that  they  have  sent  him  one-  of 
their  decorations  with  several  money  grants  to  help  him 
to  continue  his  fruitful  researches.  A  few  facts  will  show 
the  value  of  the  labours  of  this  gentleman.  Formerly  only 
four  or  five  Chinese  representatives  of  the  class  Rhododi  n- 
dran  were  known,  but  the  new  species  found  by  M. 
Delavay,  added  to  those  found  by  M.  David  at 
Moupinn,  amount  to  forty-five.  So,  only  one  Chinese 
primrose  was  known,  but  now  more  than  thirty  new 
pecies  have  been  classified  by  M.  Delavay.  Other  mis- 
sionaries besides  those  of  China  are  actively  engaged  in 


436 


NATURE 


$j$ept.  6,  i 


the  cause  of  science  ;  for  example,  Father  Montrouzier  has 
studied  the  fauna  of  several  of  the  islands  of  Oceania,  and 
Fathers  Duparquet,  Augouard,  and  Le  Roy,  have  sent 
from  Africa  many  valuable  collections.  Our  Museums 
and  our  naturalists  have  also  received  from  the  interior  of 
America  many  objects  more  or  less  important,  but  chiefly 
many  remarkable  Coleoptera  and  Lepidoptera  from  MM. 
Sipolis,  Gaujon,  and  Dorme,  French  Lazarists,  who 
are  quite  at  the  head  of  the  ardent  collectors  in  the 
New  World.  To  return  to  China,  through  the  good 
offices  of  the  Franciscan  missionaries  of  Shen-si,  M. 
Romanet  du  Cailland  was  able  to  obtain  and  introduce  to 
France  several  new  species  of  vine  which  have  been 
cultivated  under  the  names  Vitis  Romaneti,  Vitis  Pag- 
nuccii,  Spinovitis  Davidis.  This  last  species  was  found 
by  M.  David  in  a  wild  state  in  the  central  mountains  of 
Tsin-lin,  and  is  notable  for  having  its  stems  covered  with 
thorns.  In  spite  of  its  somewhat  aromatic  flavour,  it  is 
well  adapted  for  wine-making. 

M.  David  then  proceeds  to  particularize  his  own 
labours,  and  before  doing  so  he  gives  a  short  history  of  his 
life,  into  which  we  shall  not  follow  him.  Shortly  after  the 
Anglo-French  expedition  to  China  he  was  ordered  by  his 
superiors  to  proceed  to  that  country.  Before  setting  out 
he  was  advised  by  several  members  of  the  Institute, 
amongst  them  being  MM.  Stanislas  Julien,  E.  Milne- 
Edwards,  Elie  de  Beaumont,  and  Decaisne,  to  make 
periodical  reports.  When  he  had  settled  down  at  Pekin 
in  the  year  1862,  he  began  to  explore  the  surroundings  of 
Pekin  to  prepare  materials  for  a  natural  history  collection, 
and  to  send  reports  and  specimens  to  the  Jardin  des 
Plantes.  His  first  consignment  of  plants  and  animals  was 
highly  praised  by  the  authorities  of  this  institution,  and 
grants  of  money  were  sent  him  to  help  him  to  proceed. 
The  increasing  importance  of  the  results  obtained  in 
China  made  the  Professors  of  the  Museum  believe  that  it 
was  an  Eldorado  for  naturalists,  and  accordingly  they 
begged  the  Superior-General  of  the  Lazarists  to  permit 
M.  David  to  explore  the  lesser-known  provinces  of  China. 
M.  Etienne  consented  readily,  chiefly  because  the  request 
was  made  through  the  Government  itself ;  and  the 
Minister  of  Public  Instruction  officially  styled  M.  David's 
proposed  journey  a  scientific  mission,  and  supplied  the 
necessary  funds.  With  regard  to  the  collections  sent 
home  by  him,  he  says  that  only  zoologists  can  appreciate 
the  great  work  of  M.  Milne-Edwards,  entitled  "  Recherches 
sur  les  Mammiferes,"  which,  with  the  exception  of  a  single 
species,  treats  of  Chinese  animals.  The  greater  portion 
of  these  were  sent  by  M.  David,  the  new  species  alone 
amounting  to  sixty-five.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  of 
these  is  the  Semnopithecus  roxellana,  a  curious  monkey 
with  a  nose  very  much  turned  up  and  a  green  face,  with 
his  back  ornamented  with  long  brown  and  white  hair, 
whose  haunts  are  in  the  cold  forests  of  Tibet.  It  is  a 
sort  of  counterpart  of  the  long-nosed  monkeys  of  Borneo. 
Besides  this  animal,  China  supplied  two  others,  one  of 
which  was  capable  of  bearing  the  severe  winters  of  the 
north  of  Tchely,  to  which  point  its  habitat  extends. 
Another  important  discovery  of  the  Tibetan  region  is 
the  extraordinary  Ursus  mclanoleucus,  for  which  there  was 
no  generic  name.  The  Ailuropus  meiatioleucus  appears 
to  be  of  great  rarity  in  the  very  small  region  it  inhabits. 
All  the  Museums  of  the  world  envy  the  Jardin  des  Plantes 
the  possession  of  four  specimens — the  only  ones  M. 
David  met.  In  Tibet  also  he  saw  the  Nectogale 
eiegans,  a  new  kind  of  aquatic  insectivorous  animal,  the 
hair  of  which  assumes  all  the  colours  of  the  rainbow  when 
the  little  creature  is  in  the  water.  He  also  secured  several 
varieties  of  this  animal.  In  the  lofty  forests  of  Moupinn 
he  found  the  Budorcas,  a  large  ruminant  of  a  grayish- 
white  colour,  with  no  tail  and  with  immense  horns.  The 
hunters  of  the  country  regard  this  animal  as  the  tiger  is 
regarded  in  India.  In  spite  of  its  heavy  build  it  scrambles 
over  the  most  rugged  rocks  as  lightly  as  a  chamois.     In 


almost  every  district  in  China  he  came  on  some  treasure. 
The  deer  with  large  hoofs  and  a  long  tail  (Elaphi/rus 
davidianus)  is  now  pretty  well  known  ;  but  the  species  is, 
unfortunately,  threatened  with  extinction  in  China.  In 
the  genus  Mus  alone  he  got  twenty-seven  species.  He 
noted  down  two  hundred  species  of  Mammiferce,  and  in 
this  number  there  are  hardly  five  or  six,  omitting  the 
domestic  species,  which  appear  identical  with  their 
species  in  Europe.         * 

With  regard  to  the  birds  of  China,  M.  David  has 
prepared,  with  the  help  of  M.  G.  Masson,  a  book  on 
them,  in  which  he  recognizes  807  species  either  living  in 
China  or  coming  there  regularly.  Amongst  the  greatest 
novelties  he  mentions  the  large  Lophophorus  of  Tibet, 
which  lives  at  a  height  of  above  12,000  feet;  the  three 
known  Crossoptilon,  of  which  one  is  white,  another  blue, 
and  the  third  black  and  white  ;  the  Tragopan,  with  a  large 
many-coloured  band  around  the  throat,  and  its  head 
ornamented  with  two  very  thin,  blue,  and  fleshy  horns  ; 
two  Eulophes,  crested  pheasants,  which  are  the  most 
appreciated  dish  by  gourmands  ;  the  sacred  pheasant, 
with  a  tail  over  six  feet  long  ;  the  Amherst  pheasant,  now 
become,  like  the  preceding,  a  common  bird  in  the  parks  ; 
and  a  new  species  of  pheasant,  dark-coloured,  and  always 
living  under  trees.  All  these  birds,  and  hundreds  of  others 
from  the  same  source,  are  exhibited  in  the  French 
Museum.  Some  of  them,  according  to  the  method 
common  among  naturalists,  are  named  after  the  dis- 
coverer. Thus  the  Cygnus  davidi,  a  very  rare  swan 
with  red  legs,  and  the  Pterorhinus  davidi,  a  kind 
of  mocking-bird  captured  in  the  woods  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Pekin  ;  the  Sygrnium  davidi,  a  nocturnal 
rapacious  bird  of  Tibet,  described  by  Mr.  Sharp,  of 
the  British  Museum.  M.  H.  Milne-Edwards,  \ Pro- 
fessor at  the  Sorbonne,  has  also  affixed  M.  David's 
name  to  two  new  species  which  he  has  described, 
Carpddacus  davidianus  and  Oreopneuste  armandi.  China 
has  not  our  sparrow,  chaffinch,  goldfinch,  or  linnet ;  our 
warbler,  redbreast,  and  nightingale  are  unknown  ;  their 
thrushes,  blackbirds,  tomtits,  and  crows,  differ  very  much 
from  ours.  In  fact,  speaking  generally,  there  is  only 
about  one-fifth  of  the  Chinese  birds  found  in  Europe,  and 
the  greater  part  of  these  are  very  different  in  the  two 
regions.  The  Eastern  Gallince,  Insectivores,  and  Rapaces, 
have  scarcely  any  species  like  them  in  our  continent.  A 
very  remarkable  fact  is  that  we  find  certain  groups  of 
birds  within  certain  narrow  limits  where  they  are  repre- 
sented by  numerous  species,  whilst  they  are  totally  absent 
from  all  other  parts  of  the  earth,  even  from  those  parts 
where  it  would  be  quite  possible  for  them  to  live.  Thus 
there  are  forty  kinds  of  the  beautiful  pheasant  class,  all 
grouped  around  Tibet,  while  there  is  not  a  single  member 
of  the  class  in  any  other  quarter  of  the  globe.  So  the 
Crateropodes,  of  which  there  are  thirty  or  forty  species  in 
China,  do  not  appear  to  have  any  representatives  in 
Europe.  These  and  other  facts  furnish  M.  David  with 
what  he  considers  unanswerable  objections  to  the  theory 
that  they  were  all  created  ab  origine.  Is  it  not  more 
reasonable,  he  asks,  to  admit  that  the  principal  types 
of  plants  and  animals  having  once  appeared  on  earth, 
where  and  when  it  pleased  Providence,  have  undergone 
slow  variations  which  have  divided  them  by  degrees  into 
species  and  varieties  ?  America  has  upwards  of  four 
hundred  species  of  humming-birds,  while  there  is  not  a 
single  other  specimen  in  the  rest  of  the  tropical  world, 
where  those  little  creatures  could  live  equally  well.  Every 
class  of  the  animal  kingdom,  he  says,  furnishes  similar 
examples  and  analogous  facts. 

The  subject  of  reptiles,  Batrachia,  and  fishes,  which  M. 
David  only  worked  up  slightly,  has  been  carefully  pursued 
by  M.  Dumeril,  Dr.  Savage,  and  M.  E.  Blanchard.  The 
last-named  gentleman  described  before  the  Academy  of 
Sciences,  under  the  name  of  Sieboldia  davidtana,  an 
immense  salamander  which  lives  on  fish  and  crabs  in  fresh 


Sept.  6,  1888] 


NATURE 


437 


water.  A  skeleton  of  a  salamander,  more  or  less  resem- 
bling this  one,  has  recently  been  found  in  Germany,  where 
it  was  taken  for  a  fossil  man.  It  is  the  insect  world  which 
supplied  M.  David  with  the  greatest  novelties.  Great 
though  the  collections  sent  to  Europe  are,  they  are  but  a 
small  fraction  of  the  riches  in  entomology  that  China  sup- 
plies. The  Coleoptera  have  been  described  by  M.  Fair- 
maire,  formerly  President  of  the  French  Entomological 
Society,  and  the  Lepidoptera  by  M.  Oberthur,  of  Rennes, 
who  has  the  finest  collection  in  France,  and  perhaps  in 
the  world.  Amongst  insects,  more  even  than  amongst 
animals  and  plants,  there  is  a  large  number  called  by  the 
names  of  the  missionaries  who  sent  specimens  of  them  to 
Europe.  For  example,  Cicindela  desgodinsii,  Carabus 
delavayi,  Cychrus  davidi,  Nebria  chaslei,  Enoplotrupes 
largeteani,  Donatio,  provosti,  &c,  in  Coleoptera  ;  and  in 
butterflies,  Anthocharis  bieti,  Armandia  thaidina,  &c. 
With  regard  to  the  vegetable  kingdom,  the  first  important 
work  we  have  on  the  Chinese  flora  has  been  finished  this 
year,  and  styled  "  Plantae  Davidianae."  It  has  been  printed 
at  the  expense  of  the  State,  and  is  in  two  quarto  volumes, 
illustrated  with  forty-five  very  fine  plates,  and  contains 
a  description  of  all  the  new  species  of  plants  in  M.  David's 
collection,  and  an  enumeration  of  all  the  plants  collected  by 
him.  The  collection  contains  a  small  proportion  only  of 
the  plants  of  China.  It  should  only  be  regarded  as  a  mere 
skeleton  of  the  magnificent  vegetation  of  the  east-central 
provinces,  but  it  contains  the  greater  portion  of  the  plants 
to  the  north  of  the  empire  and  in  the  Mongolian  mountains. 
Collections  made  by  English  and  Russian  collectors  do 
not  include  many  of  the  specimens  found  by  M.  David. 
Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  find  was  the  Davidia 
mvolncrata—a.  pretty  tall  tree  with  large  leaves,  for  the 
introduction  of  which  an  English  amateur  has  offered  a 
big  prize.  Our  European  plants  are  not  at  all  common  in 
the  East.  No  trefoils  are  found  in  China,  nor  heather,  nor 
broom.  There  are  also  many  plants  there  which  have  no 
representatives  in  Europe,  but  which  have  representa- 
tives in  America,  as,  Pavia,  Bignonia,  Aralia,  Dielytra. 
Northern  China,  with  its  dry  climate,  its  cold  winter,  as 
cold  as  that  of  Upsala,  and  its  summer  as  warm  as  that 
of  Senegal,  has  a  poor  and  little-varied  vegetation  when 
compared  with  the  centre  and  west  of  the  empire.  The 
number  of  Phanerogams  collected  by  M.  David  in  the 
north  of  China  did  not  exceed  1500  species,  and  he  doubts 
if  there  are  many  more. 

In  geography  and  geology,  besides  several  occasional 
reports,  the  "Archives  du  Museum  "have  published  full 
accounts  of  his  first  and  second  journeys  of  exploration. 
These  voluminous  writings  are  merely  journals  written 
for  some  friends,  for  whom  he  wrote  day  by  day  everything 
that  seemed  worthy  of  attention,  whether  botanical,  geo- 
logical, or  geographical,  in  the  extensive  regions  which  for 
five  years  he  travelled  over.  Itinerary  charts,  striking 
altitudes,  up  to  15,000  feet,  the  direction  and  importance  of 
rivers  and  mountain  chains,  the  position  of  the  lesser  known 
towns  and  countries,  and  of  the  coal  and  metal  mines- 
all  have  been  noted  down  by  him.  From  the  writings  of 
M.  David,  M.  Elise"e  Reclus  took  many  of  his  observations 
on  the  Chinese  Empire  in  vol.  vii.  of, I  his  "  Geographie 
Universelle,"  and  especially  the  natural  history  portion  of 
that  volume.  Similarly  Baron  Richthofen  has  derived 
much  of  the  information  in  his  work  on  geology  from  M. 
David.  In  Mongolia  M.  David's  guide  was  Sambdat- 
chiemda,  the  famous  ex-lama  described  by  M.  Hue,  and 
this  leads  M.  David  to  speak  of  the  lamas,  and  tell  some 
stories  about  them. 

M.David  describes  a  curious  meteorological  phenomenon 
observed  by  him  when  crossing  the  top  of  a  mountain 
about  5500  feet  high.  A  storm  had  just  passed,  and  a 
little  rain  had  fallen.  The  clouds  were  heavy,  and  lay  on 
the  numerous  .peaks  below  his  feet  like  an  immense  sea 
of  silvery  white.  Little  by  little  the  masses  of  clouds 
began  to  move  and  to  split  up  here  and  there.  ..They  rose 


slowly  and  soon  came  to  the  right  of  M.  David,  who  was 
journeying  from  south  to  north.  The  wind  was  blowing 
from  the  west,  and  when  the  clouds  reached  the  summit 
of  the  mountain  they  could  not  pass  over  on  account  of 
the  opposition  of  the  wind,  and  there  they  rested,  a  huge 
mass  of  opaque  clouds.  The  sun  was  setting  on  the 
horizon,  and  threw  the  image  of  M.  David  on  the  wall  of 
white  clouds,  where  it  was  surrounded  by  two  rainbows, 
or  rather  two  complete  concentric  circles.  This  pheno- 
menon lasted  nearly  half  an  hour.  M.  David  had  been 
six  months  in  Mongolia  when  the  revolt  of  the  Mussulmans 
broke  out  and  prevented  him  from  penetrating  as  far  as 
Koukounoor,  and  even  beyond  it,  as  was  his  intention. 
These  high  Mongolian  plateaux  are  of  aboutthree  thousand 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  The  population  is  very 
sparse,  and  the  fauna  and  flora  but  little  varied.  The 
remarkable  animals  most  frequently  seen  in  this  region 
are  the  souslik,  or  yellow  antelope,  a  kind  of  little  marmot 
analogous  to  the  prairie  dog  of  America,  a  brownish 
weevil,  and  a  curious  lizard  with  round  head  (Phryno- 
cephalus)  which  is  seen  everywhere  rolling  its  tail  in 
regular  cadences.  During  the  summer  the  open  country 
is  covered  either  with  the  blue-flowered  iris,  or  with  the 
liquorice  (Glycyrrhiza  echinatd)  or  the  yellow  rose.  M. 
David  found  in  Mongolia  in  a  wild  state,  but  very  rare,  a 
pretty  flowering  tree,  which  the  Pekinese  cultivate  as  an 
ornamental  plant  {Xanthoceras  sorbi folia),  and  which  he  in- 
troduced into  France  with  much  success.  In  his  journey 
he  satisfied  himself  of  the  existence  of  wild  camels,  some 
of  which  were  afterwards  captured  by'the  Russian  traveller 
Prjevalski.  M.  David  spent  twenty-five  months  in 
Western  China.  He  had  intended  to  spend  three  years, 
but  his  health  broke  down.  In  that  time  he  travelled 
over  2500  leagues.  He  returned  thence  to  Tien-tsin, 
fortunately  for  him  after  the  massacres  had  taken  place,  his 
boat  having  been  delayed  on  the  way. 

THE    AUSTRALASIAN    ASSOCIATION   FOR 
THE  ADVANCEMENT  OF  SCIENCE. 

Sydney,  July  1888. 

THE  formation  of  this  Association,  which  already 
gives  promise  of  being  a  great  success,  was  first 
suggested  by  Prof.  Liversidge,  of  the  Sydney  University, 
during  the  Exhibition  in  Sydney  in  1879,  but  matters  at 
that  time  not  being  considered  quite  ripe  for  it,  the 
formation  of  the  Association  was  again  brought  forward 
through  the  press  in  the  year  1884.  It  was  then  suggested 
that,  as  it  did  not  seem  likely  that  the  British  Association 
would  see  their  way  to  visit  Australia  during  the  Centen- 
nial year,  an  Australasian  Association  should  be  formed, 
on  the  same  lines  as  the  British  Association,  in  order  to 
bring  about  a  federation  or  union  of  the  members  of  the 
various  scientific  Societies  throughout  Australasia. 

It  was  also  suggested  that  the  first  general  meeting 
should  be  held  in  Sydney  on  the  one  hundredth  anni- 
versary of  the  foundation  of  the  colony,  as  it  was  at 
that  time  thought  there  would  be  an  International 
Exhibition  in  Sydney  to  celebrate  that  event.  In  further- 
ance of  this  object  a  preliminary  meeting  of  delegates 
was  held  in  Sydney  in  November  1886,  the  project  having 
met  with  the  approbation  and  support  of  almost  all  the 
learned  and  scientific  Societies  of  Australasia. 

As  this  meeting  the  formation  of  the  Australasian 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  was  agreed 
to  unanimously,  the  rules  of  the  British  Association 
being  adopted  until  the  first  general  meeting,  which  it 
was  decided  should  be  held  in  Sydney  during  the  year 
1888. 

In  accordance  with  another  resolution  passed  at  the 
meeting  of  delegates,  the  election  of  officers  for  the  year 
took  place  in  March  of  the  present  year,  Mr.  H.  C.  Russell, 
F.R.S.,  Government  Astronomer,  being  elected  President, 


433 


NATURE 


{Sept.  6,  1888 


Sir  Edward  Strickland,  K.C.B.,  Hon.  Treasurer,  and 
Prof.  Liversidge,  F.R.S.,  and  Dr.  George  Bennett,  Hon. 
Secretaries. 

The  formation  of  the  Council  was  afterwards  proceeded 
■with,  each  learned  or  scientific  Society  electing  one  repre- 
sentative for  every  hundred  of  its  members  ;  and  the  Chief 
Justice,  Minister  for  Public  Instruction,  the  Chancellor 
and  Vice-Chancellor  of  the  Sydney  University,  the  Mayor 
of  Sydney,  and  the  Presidents  of  the  Royal  Societies  in 
other  colonies  were  elected  Vice-Presidents  for  the  year. 

The  Presidents  of  Sections  were  then  elected,  the 
gentlemen  chosen  being  all  resident  in  other  colonies 
than  New  South  Wales ;  whilst  the  Secretaries  of 
Sections,  as  a  matter  of  necessity,  were  elected  from 
amongst  residents  in  Sydney. 

The  Association  is  hence  thoroughly  Australasian  in 
its  character,  and  the  succeeding  general  meetings  are 
to  take  place  in  turn  in  the  capitals  of  the  other  colonies, 
the  executive,  officers  being  elected  year  by  year  by  the 
colony  in  which  the  meeting  is  held. 

The  first  general  meeting  is  to  be  held  at  the  Sydney 
University,  the  opening  ceremony,  at  which  His  Excel- 
lency the  Governor  will  be  present,  taking  place  on 
Tuesday  evening,  August  28,  when  the  Presidential 
address  will  be  delivered. 

On  the  following  day  the  Sectional  meetings  for  the 
reading  and  discussion  of  papers  will  commence,  and  it  is 
thought  that  the  principal  portion  of  the  business  will 
close  with  the  end  of  the  week. 

Up  to  the  present  time  the  titles  of  about  ninety  papers 
have  been  sent  in  by  gentlemen  of  distinction  in  science, 
literature  and  art,  in  the  different  colonies,  and  it  seems 
probable  that  this  number  will  be  considerably  increased 
before  the  meeting. 

It  may  therefore  be  anticipated  that  the  nature  of  the 
work  done  by  the  Association  during  the  first  year  of  its 
existence  will  be  of  a  highly  important  and  useful  character. 

The  more  solid  work  of  the  meeting  is  to  be  lightened 
by  excursions  to  various  places  of  interest  to  geologists, 
botanists,  and  others  ;  and  efforts  are  being  made  to 
provide  for  the  entertainment  and  comfort  of  visiting 
members,  as  far  as  possible,  so  that  they  may  spend  their 
time  to  the  best  advantage. 

The  various  steamship  companies  have  arranged  to 
carry  members  proceeding  to  Sydney  to  attend  the 
meeting  at  a  reduction  of  20  per  cent,  on  the  ordinary 
rates,  and  it  is  anticipated  that  liberal  concessions  will 
also  be  granted  in  the  railway  fares. 

The  rules,  as  already  mentioned,  are  practically  the 
same  as  those  of  the  British  Association,  and  all  who  join 
the  Association  before  the  first  general  meeting  in 
August  next  become  original  members,  without  entrance 
fee,  the  subscription  of^i  entitling  members  to  receive 
the  publications  of  the  Association  gratis. 

The  number  of  members  at  the  end  of  July  exceeded 
400. 


PROFESSOR   RUDOLF  JULIUS  EMANUEL 
CLA  USIUS. 

T)  Y  the  death  of  Prof.  Clausius,  which  occurred  on 
-*-*  August  24  last,  science  has  lost  another  member  of 
the  great  triumvirate — Rankine,  Clausius,  and  Thomson — 
who,  upon  the  foundation  laid  by  the  experimental  work 
of  Davy  and  Rumford,  the  theoretical  suggestions  of 
Mohr,  Seguin,  Mayer,  and  Colding  (which,  though  rest- 
ing on  imperfect  data  and  defective  reasoning,  were  the 
lesults  of  real  scientific  insight),  and  the  splendid  experi- 
mental investigations  of  Joule,  founded  and  built  up  the 
great  structure  known  as  the  science  of  thermodynamics. 
Clausius  was  born  at  Coslin,  in  Pomerania,  on  January 
2,  1822.  While  yet  at  school  in  Berlin,  he  gave  unmis- 
takable evidence  of  the  bent  of  his  mind  towards  mathe- 


matics and  physics,  and  on  the  completion  of  his  Uni- 
versity course  he  became  Privatdocent  in  the  University 
of  Berlin  and  Instructor  in  Natural  Philosophy  at  the 
School  of  Artillery.  He  very  soon  gave  evidence  of  his 
power  as  an  original  worker,  and  some  of  his  earliest 
papers — "  On  the  Nature  of  those  Constituents  of  the 
Atmosphere  by  which  the  Reflection  of  the  Light  within 
it  is  effected,"  and  "  On  the  Blue  Colour  of  the  Sky,  and 
the  Morning  and  the  Evening  Red" — contributed  to  Pog- 
gendorff's  Annalen,  were  selected  for  translation  in  the 
first  volume  of  Taylor's  "  Scientific  Memoirs." 

In  1857  he  was  appointed  Professor  of  Natural  Philo- 
sophy at  the  Polytechnic  School  of  the  Helvetic  Con- 
federacy at  Ziirich.  Here  he  continued  his  researches  in 
various  branches  of  physics,  and  among  these  we  may 
mention,  to  give  some  idea  of  the  extent  and  variety  ot 
his  investigations,  "  The  Influence  of  Pressure  on  the 
Freezing-point,"  "  The  Mechanical  Equivalent  of  an 
Electric  Discharge,  and  the  Heating  of  the  Conducting- 
wire  which  accompanies  it,"  "  Electrical  Conduction  in 
Electrolytes,"  and  "  The  Effect  of  Temperature  on 
Electric  Conductivity."  He  also  published  some  short 
papers  on  some  purely  mathematical  questions,  sug- 
gested, however,  by  physical  problems,  and  some  papers 
dealing  with  points  of  what  is  generally  known  as  physical 
chemistry. 

His  attention  was  then  directed  towards  the  dynamical 
theory  of  gases,  owing  to  the  light  which  it  appeared 
capable  of  throwing  upon  questions  of  thermodynamics. 
The  dynamical  or  kinetic  theory  of  gases,  which  has 
received  such  extensive  developments  at  the  hands  of 
Clerk  Maxwell,  Boltzmann,  and  others,  was  originally 
suggested  by  J.  Bernouilli  about  the  middle  of  the  last 
century  ;  but  it  was  Clausius  who  first  placed  it  upon  a 
secure  scientific  basis.  In  1866  he  published  a  most  im- 
portant paper  "  On  the  Determination  of  the  Energy  and 
Entropy  of  a  Body"  (translated  in  the  Philosophical 
Magazine),  in  which  the  very  valuable  and  suggestive 
conception  of  the  entropy  of  a  body  was  first  set  forth. 

In  1 869  he  was  appointed  Professor  of  Natural 
Philosophy  in  the  University  of  Bonn. 

Among  more  recent  papers  of  great  importance  we 
may  mention  the  following,  all  of  which  have  been  trans- 
lated in  the  Philosophical  Magazine :  — "  On  a  New- 
Fundamental  Law  of  Electrodynamics  "  ;  '-On  the  Be- 
haviour of  Carbonic  Acid  in  relation  to  Pressure,  Volume, 
and  Temperature";  "On  the  Theoretic  Deteimination 
of  Vapour-pressure  and  the  Volumes  of  Vapour  and 
Liquid";  "On  the  Different  Systems  of  Measures  for 
Electric  and  Magnetic  Quantities";  "On  the  Employ- 
ment of  the  Electrodynamic  Potential  for  the  Determina- 
tion of  the  Ponderomotive  and  Electromotive  Forces"; 
"  On  the  Theory  of  Dynamo-electrical  Machines";  and 
"  On  the  Theory  of  the  Transmission  of  Power  by 
Dynamo-electrical  Machines." 

When  we  consider  the  far-reaching  and  fundamental 
character  of  these  and  many  other  investigations,  and  the 
very  wide  field  which  they  cover,  we  cannot  but  wonder 
at  the  marvellous  energy  of  the  great  physicist  who  has 
passed  from  among  us.  The  Royal  Society  catalogue 
contains  a  list  of  no  less  than  seventy-seven  papers  pub- 
lished up  to  1873,  and  those  published  subsequently  bring 
the  total  number  up  to  considerably  over  a  hundred. 

In  addition  to  these  there  is  his  great  treatise  on  "  The 
Mechanical  Theory  of  Heat,"  of  which  the  first  volume 
was  published  in  1864,  and  a  smaller  work,  "  On  the 
Potential  Function  and  the  Potential." 

It  would  be  impossible  to  discuss  in  detail  the  portions 
of  thermodynamics  specially  worked  out  by  Clausius,  as 
his  work  is  throughout  closely  interwoven  with  that  ot 
Rankine  and  Thomson,  but  it  will  be  of  interest  to  quote 
the  following  from  Prof.  Rankine,  who  in  his  paper  "  On 
the  Economy  of  Heat  in  Expansive  Machines,"  l  says  :- 

1  "  Rankine's  Miscellaneous  Scientific  Papers,"  p.  300. 


Sept.  6,  1888] 


NATURE 


439 


"  Carnot  was  the  first  to  assert  the  law  that  the  ratio  of 
the  maximum  mechanical  effect  to  the  whole  heat  expended 
in  an  expansive  machine  is  a  /unction  solely  of  the  two 
temperatures  at  which  the  heat  is  respectively  received 
and  emitted,  and  is  independent  of  the  nature  of  the 
working  substance.  But  his  investigations,  not  being 
based  on  the  principle  of  the  dynamical  convertibility  of 
heat,  involve  the  fallacy  that  power  can  be  produced  out 
of  nothing. 

"  The  merit  of  combining  Carnot's  law,  as  it  is  termed, 
with  that  of  the  convertibility  of  heat  and  power  belongs 
to  Mr.  Clausius  and  Prof.  William  Thomson  ;  and  in  the 
shape  into  which  they  have  brought  ;t,  it  may  be  stated 
thus :  The  maximum  proportio?i  of  heat  converted  into 
expansive  power  by  any  machine  is  a  function  solely  of 
the  temperatures  at  which  heat  is  received  and  emitted  by 
the  working  substance,  which  function  for  each  pair  of 
temperatures  is  the  same  for  all  substances  in  Nature." 

None  will  regret  the  loss  of  Prof.  Clausius  more 
keenly  than  the  students  of  the  University  of  Bonn, 
where  he  formed  a  centre  of  attraction  not  only  as 
a  great  investigator,  but  as  a  teacher  of  almost  un- 
rivalled ability.  The  secret  of  his  powers  as  a 
teacher  may  easily  be  guessed  from  the  study 
of  his  published  papers  and  treatises.  Their  great 
characteristic  is  the  direct  insight  which  they  give  into 
the  very  heart  of  the  physical  principles  under  discussion. 
The  author,  while  showing  himself  a  master  of  mathe- 
matical methods,  ever  keeps  the  physical  meaning  of  the 
symbols  before  the  eye  of  the  reader,  and  never  allows  his 
analysis  !to  carry  him  away  into  the  regions  of  mere 
mathematical  ingenuity.  In  this  he  was  a  worthy  compeer 
of  some  of  our  own  great  mathematical  physicists,  like 
Thomson  and  Maxwell,  and  the  greater  part  of  his  work 
has  the  additional  advantage,  for  the  majority  of  students, 
of  being  effected  by  the  aid  of  comparatively  simple 
analysis. 

In  1868,  Prof.  Clausius  was  elected  a  Foreign  Member 
of  the  Royal  Society,  and  in  1879  he  was  presented  with 
the  Copley  Medal,  the  highest  distinction  at  the  disposal 
of  the  Society.  He  was  decorated  with  various  civil 
Prussian  and  Bavarian  orders  ;  and  after  the  Franco- 
German  war,  during  which  he  had  volunteered  to  serve  as 
caretaker  of  the  wounded,  he  received  the  German 
decoration  of  the  Iron  Cross,  and  the  French  decoration 
of  the  Legion  of  Honour. 

G.  W.  DE  TUNZELMANN. 


THE  BRITISH  ASSOCIATION. 

Wednesday  Night. 
THE  meeting  of  the  British  Association  which  opens 
-■■  to-night,  after  twenty-four  years'  absence,  in  Bath, 
will  be  the  fifty-eighth.  At  the  meeting  of  1864,  the 
President  was  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  and  the  occasion  was 
rendered  memorable  by  the  presence  at  once  of  Dr. 
Livingstone  and  Bishop  Colenso,  both  at  the  time  filling 
a  large  space  in  the  public  eye.  Though  a  vast  majority 
of  the  members  of  the  Association  would  prefer  to  visit 
Bath  to  either  Birmingham  or  Manchester,  the  latter  towns 
possess  in  Owens  College  and  the  Town  Hall  buildings 
which  offer  greater  conveniences  for  the  meeting  of  a 
scientific  Congress.  In  Bath  the  Sections  will  be  some- 
what scattered.  The  Physical  Science  Section  meets  at 
the  St.  James's  Hall ;  the  Mechanical  Section  in  the 
Masonic  Hall ;  the  Chemical  Section  in  the  Friends' 
Meeting-House  ;  Geology  and  Biology  are  housed  at  the 
Mineral  Water  Hospital,  with  the  Blue  Coat  School  for 
the  sub-sections  ;  Geography  at  the  Guildhall,  and  Anthro- 
pology at  the  Grammar  School ;  while  the  President's 
address  and  some  of  the  popular  lectures,  as  well  as  the 
concluding  general  meeting,  will  be  delivered  at  the  Drill 
Hall.     The  Mayor  gives  a  conversazione  to-morrow  in  the 


Assembly  Rooms,  and  the  Chairman  and  Local  Committee 
give  another  on  Tuesday.  A  large  number  of  foreign 
visitors,  especially  geologists  for  the  International  Geo- 
logical Congress  to  be  held  in  London  on  the  17th  inst., 
are  expected.  Amongst  those  already  arrived  are  Prince 
Roland  Bonaparte;  Profs.  Dufont,  Gilbert,  Capellini, 
Stephenson,  Lory,  von  Koenen,  Frazer,  Kalkowsky,  and 
Waagen. 

The  retiring  President,  Sir  Henry  Roscoe,  M.P.,  F.R.S., 
in  introducing  Sir  Frederick  Bramwell,  the  President- 
Elect,  spoke  as  follows:  — 

"  My  Lords,  Ladies,  and  Gentlemen, — Four-and-twenty 
eventful  years  in  the  history  of  science  have  passed 
away  since  the  British  Association  last  visited  the 
city  of  Bath.  Those  of  us  who  were  present  here 
in  1864  will  not  soon  forget  that  memorable  meet- 
ing. It  was  presided  over,  as  you  all  will  re- 
member, by  that  veteran  geologist,  that  great  fore- 
runner of  a  new  science  of  life,  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  of 
beloved  and  venerated  memory.  Yes,  ladies  and  gentle- 
men, it  was  he  who  prepared  the  way  by  his  recognition 
of  the  true  history  of  our  globe  for  the  even  more  illus- 
trious Darwin.  It  was  he  who  pointed  out  that  the  causes 
which  have  modified  the  earth's  crust  in  the  past  are,  for 
the  most  part,  those  which  are  now  changing  the  face  of 
Nature.  Lyell  was  a  typical  example  of  the  expositor  of 
Nature's  most  secret  processes.  His  work  was  that  of  an 
investigator  of  science  pure  and  undefiled,  and  as  such, 
his  life  and  labours  stand  for  ever  as  an  example  to 
all  those  who  love  Science  for  her  own  sake. 

"  But  the  far-seeing  founders  of  this  our  British  Associa- 
tion were  as  fully  alive  to  the  fact  as  we,  in  perhaps  our  more 
utilitarian  age,  can  be,  that,  just  as  man  does  not  live  by 
bread  alone,  so  it  is  not  only  by  purely  scientific  discovery 
that  the  nations  progress,  or  that  science  advances.  They 
knew  as  well  as  we  do  that  to  benefit  humanity  the  appli- 
cation of  the  results  of  scientific  research  to  the  great 
problems  of  every-day  life  is  a  necessity.  Hence  our 
founders,  whilst  acknowledging  that  the  basis  of  our 
Association  can  only  be  securely  laid  upon  the  principles 
of  pure  science  in  its  various  branches,  recognized  the 
importance  of  the  application  of  those  principles  in  the 
establishment  of  a  Section  which  should  represent  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  outcomes  of  the  activity  and  force 
of  the  nation— a  Section  of  Engineering.  It  is  therefore 
meet  and  right  that  in  due  proportion  this  great  depart- 
ment of  our  scientific  edifice — a  department  which, 
perhaps,  more  than  any  other,  has  effected  a  revolution 
in  our  modern  social  system — should  be  represented  in 
our  Presidential  chair. 

"  Twenty-four  years  ago  it  was  pure  science  that 
we  honoured  in  Sir  Charles  Lyell  :  to-day  it  is 
applied  science  to  which  we  show  our  respect  in 
the  person  of  Sir  Frederick  Bramwell.  It  would  ill 
become  me,  engaged  as  I  have  been  in  the  study 
of  subjects  far  removed  from  those  which  fill  the 
life  of  an  active  and  successful  engineer,  to  venture  on 
this  occasion  on  a  eulogium  upon  the  work  of  my  succes- 
sor, still  less  is  it  in  my  mind  to  draw  any  comparison  as 
to  the  relative  importance  to  be  attached  to  the  work  of 
the  investigator,  such  as  Lyell,  and  to  that  of  him  who 
applies  the  researches  of  others  to  the  immediate  wants 
of  mankind.  It  is  enough  for  me,  as  I  am  sure  it  will  be 
for  you,  to  remember  that  both  classes  of  men  are  needed 
for  the  due  advancement  of  science,  and  to  rejoice  that  as 
in  former  years  the  names  of  Fairbairn,  of  Armstrong, 
and  of  Hawkshaw,  have  adorned  our  list  of  Presidents, 
so  in  the  present  instance,  this  branch  of  science,  which 
represents  lines  of  human  activity  rendered  illustrious 
by  the  labours  of  many  great  Englishmen,  is  to-day 
represented  by  our  eminent  President. 

"  I  have  the  honour  of  requesting  Sir  Frederick  Bramwell 
to  take  the  chair,  and  to  favour  us  with  the  Presidential 
address." 


44Q 


NA  TURE 


{Sept.  6,  1888 


Inaugural  Address  by  Sir  Frederick  Bramweix, 
D.C.L.,  F.R.S.,  M.Inst.C.E.,  President. 

The  late  Lord  Iddesleigh  delighted  an  audience,  for  a  whole 
evening,  by  an  address  on  "Nothing."  Would  that  I  had  his 
talents,  and  could  discourse  to  you  as  charmingly  as  he  did  to 
his  audience,  but  I  dare  not  try  to  talk  about  "  Nothing."  I  do, 
however,  propose,  as  one  of  the  two  sections  of  my  address,  to 
discourse  to  you  on  the  importance  of  the  "  Next-to-Nothing." 
The  other  section  is  far  removed  from  this  microscopic  quantity, 
as  it  will  embrace  the  "  Eulogy  of  the  Civil  Engineer,"  and  will 
point  out  the  value  to  science  of  his  works." 

I  do  not  intend  to  follow  any  system  in  dealing  with  these 
two  sections.  I  shall  not  even  do  as  Mr.  Dick,  in  "David 
Copperfield,"  did — have  two  papers,  to  one  of  which  it  was 
suggested  he  should  confine  his  memorial  and  his  observations 
as  to  King  Charles's  head.  The  result  is,  you  will  find,  that  the 
importance  of  the  next-to-nothing,  and  the  laudation  of  the  civil 
engineer,  will  be  mixed  up  in  the  most  illogical  and  haphazard 
way,  throughout  my  address.  I  will  leave  to  such  of  you  as  are 
of  orderly  minds,  the  task  of  rearranging  the  subjects  as  you  see 
fit,  but  I  trust — arrangement  or  no  arrangement — that  by  the 
time  I  have  brought  my  address  to  a  conclusion  I  shall  have 
convinced  you  that  there  is  no  man  who  more  thoroughly  appre- 
cia'es  the  high  importance  of  the  "next-to-nothing"  than  the 
civil  engineer  of  the  present  clay,  the  object  of  my  eulogy  this 
evening. 

If  I  may  be  allowed  to  express  the  scheme  of  this  address  in 
modern  musical  language,  I  will  say  that  the  "next-to-nothing" 
"  motive  "  will  commonly  usher  in  the  "praise-song"  of  the 
civil  engineer  ;  and  it  seems  to  me  will  do  this  very  fitly,  for  in 
many  cases  it  is  by  the  patient  and  discriminating  attention  paid 
to  the  effect  of  the  "  next-to-nothing  "  that  the  civil  engineer  of 
the  present  day  has  achieved  some  of  the  labours  of  which  I 
now  wish  to  speak  to  you. 

An  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  is  necessarily 
one  of  such  broad  scope  in  its  objects,  and  is  so  thoroughly 
catholic  as  regards  science,  that  the  only  possible  way  in  which 
it  can  carry  out  those  objects  at  all  is  to  segregate  its  members 
into  various  subsidiary  bodies,  or  sections,  engaged  on  particular 
branches  of  science.  Even  when  this  division  is  resorted  to,  it 
is  a  hardy  thing  to  say  that  every  conceivable  scientific  subject 
can  be  dealt  with  by  the  eight  Sections  of  the  British  Associa- 
tion. Nevertheless,  as  we  know,  for  fifty-seven  years  the  Asso- 
ciation has  carried  on  its  labours  under  Sections,  and  has  earned 
the  right  to  say  that  it  has  done  good  service  to  all  branches 
of  science. 

Composed,  as  the  Association  is,  of  a  union  of  separate  Sec- 
tions, it  is  only  right  and  according  to  the  fitness  of  things  that, 
as  time  goes  on,  your  Presidents  should  be  selected,  in  some 
sort  of  rotation,  from  the  various  Sections.  This  year  it  was 
felt,  by  the  Council  and  the  members,  that  the  time  had  once 
more  arrived  when  Section  G — the  Mechanical  Section — might 
put  forward  its  claim  to  be  represented  in  the  Presidency  ;  the 
last  time  on  which  a  purely  engineering  member  filled  the  chair 
having  been  at  Bristol  in  1875,  when  that  position  was  occupied 
bv  Sir  John  Hawkshaw.  It  is  true  that  at  Southampton,  in 
1882,  our  lamented  friend,  Sir  William  Siemens,  was  President, 
and  it  is  also  true  that  he  was  a  most  thorough  engineer  and 
representative  of  Section  G  ;  but  all  who  knew  his  great  scien- 
tific attainments  will  probably  agree  that  on  that  occasion  it 
was  rather  the  Physical  Section  A  which  was  represented,  than 
ihe  Mechanical  Section  G. 

I  am  aware  it  is  said  Section  G  does  not  contribute  much  to 
pure  science  by  original  research,  but  that  it  devotes  itself  more 
to  the  application  of  science.  There  may  be  some  foundation 
for  this  assertion,  but  I  cannot  refrain  from  the  observation 
that,  when  engineers  such  as  Siemens,  Rankine,  Sir  William 
Thomson,  Fairbairn,  or  Armstrong,  make  a  scientific  discovery, 
Section  A  says  it  is  made,  not  in  the  capacity  of  an  engineer, 
and  therefoie  does  not  appertain  to  Section  G,  but  in  the  capa- 
city of  a  physicist,  and  therefore  appertains  to  Section  A — an 
illustration  of  the  danger  of  a  man's  filling  two  positions,  of 
which  the  composite  Prince-Bishop  is  the  well-known  type. 
Rut  I  am  not  careful  to  labour  this  point,  or  even  to  dispute 
that  Section  G  does  not  do  much  for  original  research.  I  do  not 
agree  it  is  a  fact,  but,  for  the  purposes  of  this  evening,  I  will 
concede  it  to  be  so.  But  what  then?  This  Association  is  for 
the  "A  Ivancement  of  Science  " — the  advancement,  be  it  remem- 
bered ;  and  I  wish  to  point  out  to  you,  and  I  trust  I  shall 
i-ucceed  in  establishing,  that  for  the  advancement  of  science  it  is 


absolutely  necessary  there  should  be  the  application  of  science, 
and  that,  therefore,  the  Section,  which  as  much  as  any  other 
(or,  to  state  the  fact  more  truly,  which  more  than  any  other)  in 
the  Association  applies  science,  is  doing  a  very  large  share  of  the 
work  of  advancing  science,  and  is  fully  entitled  to  be  periodically 
represented  in  the  Presidency  of  the  whole  Association. 

I  trust  also  I  shall  prove  to  you  that  applications  of  science, 
and  discoveries  in  pure  science,  act  and  react  the  one  upon  the 
other.  I  hope  in  this  to  carry  the  bulk  of  my  audience  with 
me,  although  there  are  some,  I  know,  whose  feelings,  from  a 
false  notion  of  respect  for  science,  would  probably  find  vent  in 
the  "toast"  which  one  has  heard  in  another  place — this 
"toast"  being  attributed  to  the  pure  scientist — "Here's  to 
the  latest  scientific  discovery  :  may  it  never  do  any  good  to 
anybody  !  " 

To  give  an  early  illustration  of  this  action  and  reaction, 
which  I  contend  occurs,  take  the  well-worn  story  of  Galileo, 
Torricelli,  and  the  pump-maker.  It  is  recorded  that  Galileo 
first,  and  his  pupil  Torricelli  afterwards,  were  led  to  investigate 
the  question  of  atmospheric  pressure,  by  observing  the  failure  of 
a  pump  to  raise  water  by  "suction,"  above  a  certain  level. 
Perhaps  you  will  say  the  pump-maker  was  not  applying  science, 
but  was  working  without  science.  I  answer,  he  was  unknow- 
ingly applying  it,  and  it  was  from  that  which  arose  in  this 
unconscious  application  that  the  mind  of  the  pure  scientist  was 
led  to  investigate  the  subject,  and  thereupon  to  discover  the 
primary  fact  of  the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere,  and  the  sub- 
sidiary facts  which  attend  thereon.  It  may  appear  to  many  of 
you  that  the  question  of  the  exercise  of  pressure  by  the  atmo- 
sphere should  have  been  so  very  obvious,  that  but  little  merit  ought 
to  have  accrued  to  the  discoverer  ;  and  that  the  statement, 
once  made,  must  have  been  accepted  almost  as  a  mere  truism. 
This  was,  however,  by  no  means  the  case.  Sir  Kenelm  Digby, 
in  his  "Treatise  on  the  Nature  of  Bodies,"  printed  in  1658, 
disputes  the  proposition  altogether,  and  says,  in  effect,  he  is 
quite  sure  the  failure  of  the  pump  to  raise  water  was  due  to 
imperfect  workmanship  of  some  kind  or  description,  and  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  pressure  of  the  air  ;  and  that  there  is  no 
reason  why  a  pump  should  not  suck  up  water  to  any  height. 
He  cites  the  boy's  sucker,  which,  when  applied  to  a  smooth 
stone,  will  lift  it,  and  he  says  the  reason  why  the  stone  follows 
the  sucker  is  this.  Each  body  must  have  some  other  body  in 
contact  with  it.  Now,  the  stone  being  in  contact  with  the 
sucker,  there  is  no  reason  why  that  contact  should  be  broken 
up,  for  the  mere  purpose  of  substituting  the  contact  of  another 
body,  such  as  the  air.  It  seems  pretty  clear,  therefore,  that 
even  to  an  acute  and  well-trained  mind,  such  as  that  of  Sir 
Kenelm  Digby,  it  was  by  no  means  a  truism,  and  to  be  forth- 
with accepted,  when  once  stated,  that  the  rise  of  water  on  the 
"suction  side"  of  a  pump  was  due  to  atmospheric  pressure.  I 
hardly  need  point  out  that  the  pump-maker  should  have  been  a 
member  of  "  G."  Galileo  and  Torricelli,  led  to  reflect  by  what 
they  saw,  should  have  been  members  of  "  A  "  of  the  then 
"Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science." 

But,  passing  away  from  the  question  of  the  value  of  the 
application  of  science  of  a  date  some  two  and  a  half  centuries 
ago,  let  us  come  a  little  nearer  to  our  own  times. 

Electricity  (known  in  its  simplest  form  to  the  Greeks  by  the 
results  arising  from  the  friction  of  amber,  and  named  therefrom  ; 
afterwards  produced  from  glass  cylinder  machines,  or  from  plate 
machines;  and  produced  a  century  ago  by  the  "influence" 
machine)  remained,  as  did  the  discoveries  of  Volta  and  Galvani. 
the  pursuit  of  but  a  few,  and  even  the  brilliant  experiments  of 
Davy  did  not  suffice  to  give  very  great  impetus  to  this  branch  of 
physical  science. 

Ronalds,  in  1823,  constructed  an  electric  telegraph.  In  1837 
the  first  commercial  use  was  made  of  the  telegraph,  and  from 
that  time  electrical  science  received  an  impulse  such  as  it  had 
never  before  experienced.  Further  scientific  facts  were  dis- 
covered ;  fresh  applications  were  made  of  these  discoveries. 
These  fresh  applications  led  to  renewed  vigour  in  research,  and 
there  was  the  action  and  reaction  of  which  I  have  spoken.  In 
the  year  1871  the  Society  of  Telegraph- Engineers  was  esta- 
blished. In  the  year  1861  our  own  Association  had  appointed 
a  Committee  to  settle  the  question  of  electrical  standards  of 
resistance,  which  Committee,  with  enlarged  functions,  con- 
tinued its  labours  for  twenty  years,  and  of  this  Committee  I  had 
the  honour  of  being  a  member.  The  results  of  the  labours  of 
that  Committee  endure  (somewhat  modified,  it  is  true),  and  may 
be  pointed  to  as  one  of  the  evidences  of  the  value  of  the  work 
done   by  the  British  Association.      Since  Ronalds's  time,  how 


Sept.  6,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


441 


vast  are  the  advances  which  have  been  made  in  electrical  com- 
munication of  intelligence,  by  land  lines,  by  submarine  cables 
all  over  the  world,  and  by  the  telephone  !  Few  will  be 
prepared  to  deny  the  statement,  that  pure  electrical  science  has 
received  an  enormous  impulse,  and  has  been  advanced  by  the 
commeicial  application  of  electricity  to  the  foregoing,  and  to 
purposes  of  lighting.  Since  this  latter  application,  scores,  I  may 
say  hundreds,  of  acute  minds  have  been  devoted  to  electrical 
science,  stimulated  thereto  by  the  possibilities  and  probabilities 
of  this  application. 

In  this  country,  no  doubt,  still  more  would  have  been  done 
if  the  lighting  of  districts  from  a  central  source  of  electri- 
city had  not  been,  since  1882,  practically  forbidden  by  the 
Act  passed  in  that  year.  This  Act  had  in  its  title  the  facetious 
statement  that  it  was  "to  facilitate  electrical  lighting" — ■ 
although  it  is  an  Act  which,  even  modified  as  it  has  been  this 
year,  is  still  a  great  discouragement  of  free  enterprise, 
and  a  bar  to  progress.  The  other  day  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Commons  was  saying  to  me:  "I  think  it  is  very 
much  to  our  discredit  in  England  that  we  should  have  allowed 
ourselves  to  be  outrun  in  the  distribution  of  electric  lighting 
to  houses,  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  United  States,  and  by  those 
of  other  countries."  Looking  upon  him  as  being  one  of  the 
authors  of  the  "  facetious  "  Act,  I  thought  it  pertinent  to  quote 
the  case  of  the  French  parricide,  who,  being  asked  what  he  has  to 
say  in  mitigation  of  punishment,  pleads,  "  Pity  a  poor  orphan  " — 
the  parricide  and  the  legislator  being  both  of  them  authors  of 
conditions  of  things  which  they  affect  to  deplore.  I  will  say  no 
more  on  this  subject,  for  I  feel  that  it  would  not  be  right  to  take 
advantage  of  my  position  here  to-night  to  urge  political 
economy  views,  which  should  be  reserved  for  Section  F.  I  will 
merely,  and  as  illustrative  of  my  views  of  the  value  of  the  ap- 
plication of  science  to  science  itself,  say  there  is  no  branch  of 
physics  pursued  with  more  zeal  and  with  more  happy  results 
than  that  of  electricity,  with  its  allies,  and  there  is  no  branch  of 
science  towards  which  the  public  look  with  greater  hope  of  prac- 
tical benefits  ;  a  hope  that,  I  doubt  not,  will  be  strengthened 
after  we  have  had  the  advantage  of  hearing  one  of  the  ablest 
followers  of  that  science,  Prof.  Ayrton,  who,  on  Friday  next,  has 
been  good  enough  to  promise  to  discourse  on  "The  Electrical 
Transmission  of  Power." 

One  of  the  subjects  which,  as  much  as  (or  probably  more 
than)  any  other,  occupies  the  attention  of  the  engineer,  and 
therefore  of  Section  G,  is  that  of  (the  so-called)  prime  movers, 
and  I  will  say  boldly  that,  since  the  introduction  of  printing  by 
the  use  of  movable  type,  nothing  has  done  so  much  for  civiliza- 
tion as  the  development  of  these  machines.  Let  us  consider 
these  prime  movers — and,  first,  in  the  comparatively  humble 
function  of  replacing  that  labour  which  might  be  performed  by 
the  muscular  exertion  of  human  beings,  a  function  which  at  one 
time  was  looked  upon  by  many  kindly  but  short-sighted  men  as 
taking  the  bread  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  labourer  (as  it  was 
called  ,  and  as  being  therefore  undesirable.  I  remember  re- 
visiting my  old  schoolmaster,  and  his  saying  to  me,  shaking  his 
head  :  "  So  you  have  gone  the  way  I  always  feared  you  would, 
and  are  making  things  of  iron  and  brass,  to  do  the  work  of  men's 
hands." 

It  must  be  agreed  that  all  honest  and  useful  labour  is  honour- 
able, but  when  that  labour  can  be  carried  out  without  the 
exercise  of  any  intelligence,  one  cannot  help  feeling  that  the 
result  is  likely  to  be  intellectually  lowering.  Thus  it  is  a  sorry 
thing  to  see  unintelligent  labour,  even  although  that  labour  be  use- 
ful. It  is  but  one  remove  from  unintelligent  labour  which  is  not 
useful  ;  that  kind  of  labour  generally  appointed  (by  means  of 
the  tread-wheel  or  the  crank)  as  a  punishment  for  crime. 
Consider  even  the  honourable  labour  (for  it  is  useful,  and  it  is 
honest)  of  the  man  who  earns  his  livelihood  by  turning  the 
handle  of  a  crane,  and  compare  this  with  the  labour  of  a  smith, 
who,  while  probably  developing  more  energy  by  the  use  of  his 
muscles,  than  is  developed  by  the  man  turning  the  crane-handle, 
exercises  at  the  same  time  the  powers  of  judgment,  of  eye,  and 
of  hand  in  a  maimer  which  I  never  see  without  my  admiration 
being  excited.  I  say  that  the  introduction  of  prime  movers  as  a 
mere  substitute  for  unintelligent  manual  labour  is  in  itself  a  great 
aid  to  civilization  and  to  the  raising  of  humanity,  by  rendering  it 
very  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  for  a  human  being  to  obtain  a 
livelihood  by  unintelligent  work — the  work  of  the  horse  in  the 
mill,  or  of  the  turnspit. 

But  there  are  prime  movers  and  prime  movers — those  of  small 
dimensions,  and  employed  for  purposes  where  animal  power  or 
human  power  might  be  substituted,  and  those  which  attain  ends 


that  by  no  conceivable  possibility  could  be  attained  at  all  by  the 
exertion  of  muscular  power. 

Compare  a  galley,  a  vessel  propelled  by  oars,  with  the  modern 
Atlantic  liner  ;  and  first  let  us  assume  that  prime  movers  are 
non-existent,  and  that  this  vessel  is  to  be  propelled  galley-fashion. 
Take  her  length  as  some  6co  feet,  and  assume  that  place  be 
found  for  as  many  as  400  oars  on  each  side,  each  oar  worked  by 
three  men,  or  2400  men  ;  and  allow  that  six  men  under  these 
conditions  could  develop  work  equal  to  one  horse-power:  we 
should  have  400  horse-power.  Double  the  number  of  men,  and 
we  should  have  800  horse-power,  with  4800  men  at  work,  and  at 
least  the  same  number  in  reserve,  if  the  journey  is  to  be  carried 
on  continuously.  Contrast  the  puny  result  thus  obtained  with  the 
19,500  horse-power  given  forth  by  a  large  prime  mover  of  the 
present  day,  such  a  power  requiring,  on  the  above  mode  of  cal- 
culation, 117,000  men  at  work,  and  .117,000  in  reserve;  and 
these  to  be  carried  in  a  vessel  less  than  600  feet  in  length.  Even 
if  it  were  possible  to  carry  this  number  of  men  in  such  a  vessel, 
by  no  conceivable  means  could  their  power  be  utilized  so  as  to 
impart  to  it  a  speed  of  twenty  knots  an  hour. 

This  illustrates  how  a  prime  mover  may  not  only  be  a  mere 
substitute  for  muscular  work,  but  may  afford  the  means  of 
attaining  an  end  that  could  not  by  any  possibility  be  attained  by 
muscular  exertion,  no  matter  what  money  was  expended  or  what 
galley-slave  suffering  was  inflicted. 

Take  again  the  case  of  a  railway  locomotive.  From  400  to 
600  horse-power  developed  in  an  implement  which,  even  includ- 
ing its  tender,  does  not  occupy  an  area  of  more  than  fifty  square 
yards,  and  that  draws  us  at  sixty  miles  an  hour.  Here  again, 
the  prime  mover  succeeds  in  doing  that  which  no  expenditure  of 
money  or  of  life  could  enable  us  to  obtain  from    muscular  effort. 

To  what,  and  to  whom,  are  these  meritorious  prime  movers 
due  ?  I  answer :  To  the  application  of  science,  and  to  the 
labours  of  the  civil  engineer,  using  that  term  in  its  full  and 
proper  sense,  as  embracing  all  engineering  other  than  military. 
I  am,  as  you  know,  a  civil  engineer,  and  I  desire  to  laud  my 
profession  and  to  magnify  mine  office  ;  and  I  know  of  no  better 
means  of  doing  this  than  by  quoting  to  you  the  definition  of 
"civil  engineering,"  given  in  the  Charter  of  the  Institution  of 
Civil  Engineers — namely,  that  it  is  "the  art  of  directing  the 
great  sources  of  power  in  Nature  for  the  use  and  convenience  of 
man."  These  words  are  taken  from  a  definition  or  description 
of  engineering  given  by  one  of  our  earliest  scientific  writers  on 
the  subject,  Thomas  Tredgold,  who  commences  that  description 
by  the  words  above  quoted,  and  who,  having  given  various 
illustrations  of  the  civil  engineer's  pursuits,  introduces  this 
pregnant  sentence  : — 

"  This  is,  however,  only  a  brief  sketch  of  the  objects  of  civil 
engineering,  the  real  extent  to  which  it  may  be  applied  is  limited 
only  by  the  progress  of  science  ;  its  scope  and  utility  will  be 
increased  with  every  discovery  in  philosophy,  and  its  resources 
with  every  invention  in  mechanical  or  chemical  art,  since  its 
bounds  are  unlimited,  and  equally  so  must  be  the  researches  of 
its  professors." 

"  The  art  of  directing  the  great  sources  of  power  in  Nature 
for  the  use  and  convenience  of  man."  Among  all  secular 
pursuits,  can  there  be  imagined  one  more  vast  in  its  scope,  more 
beneficent,  and  therefore  more  honourable,  than  this?  There 
are  those,  I  know— hundreds,  thousands— who  say  that  such 
pursuits  are  not  to  be  named  as  on  a  par  with  those  of  literature  ; 
that  there  is  nothing  ennobling  in  them  ;  nothing  elevating ; 
that  they  are  of  the  earth  earthy ;  are  mechanical,  and  are 
unintellectual,  and  that  even  the  mere  bookworm,  who,  content 
with  storing  his  own  mind,  neither  distributes  those  stores  to 
others  nor  himself  originates,  is  more  worthily  occupied  than  is 
the  civil  engineer. 

1  deny  this  altogether,  and,  while  acknowledging,  with  grati- 
tude, that,  in  literature,  the  masterpieces  of  master  minds  have 
afforded,  and  will  afford,  instruction,  delight,  and  solace  for  all 
generations  so  long  as  civilization  endures,  I  say  that  the  pur- 
suits of  civil  engineering  are  worthy  of  occupying  the  highest 
intelligence,  and  that  they  are  elevating  and  ennobling  in  their 
character. 

Remember  the  kindly  words  of  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  who 
said,  when  condemning  the  uncharitable  conduct  of  the  mere 
bookworm,  "I  make  not,  therefore,  my  head  a  giave,  but  a 
treasure  of  knowledge,  and  study  not  for  mine  own  sake  only, 
but  for  those  who  study  not  for  themselves."  The  engineer  of 
the  present  day  finds  that  he  must  not  make  his  "head  a  grave," 
but  that,  if  he  wishes  to  succeed,  he  must  have,  and  must 
exercise,   scientific  knowledge  ;  and  he  realizes  daily  the  truth 


442 


NATURE 


[Sept.  6,  1888 


that  those  who  are  to  come  after  him  must  be  trained  in  science, 
so  that  they  may  readily  appreciate  the  full  value  of  each 
scientific  discovery  as  it  is  made.  Thus  the  application  of 
science  by  the  engineer  not  only  stimulates  those  who  pursue 
science,  but  adds  him  to  their  number. 

Holding,  as  I  have  said  I  do,  the  view  that  he  who  displaces 
unintelligent  labour  is  doing  good  to  mankind,  I  claim  for  the 
unknown  engineer  who,  in  l'ontus,  established  the  first  water- 
wheel  of  which  we  have  a  record,  and  for  the  equally  unknown 
engineer  who  first  made  use  of  wind  for  a  motor,  the  title  of 
pioneers  in  the  raising  of  the  dignity  of  labour,  by  compelling 
the  change  from  the  non-intelligent  to  the  intelligent. 

With  respect  to  these  motors — wind  and  water — we  have 
two  proverbs  which  discredit  them:  "Fickle  as  the  wind," 
"Unstable  as  water." 

Something  more  trustworthy  was  needed — something  that  we 
were  sure  of  having  under  our  hands  at  all  times.  As  a  result, 
science  was  applied,  and  the  "fire"  engine,  as  it  was  first 
called,  the  "steam"  engine,  as  it  was  re-named,  a  form  of 
"heat  "  engine,  as  we  now  know  it  to  be,  was  invented. 

Think  of  the  early  days  of  the  steam-engine — the  pre- Watt 
days.  The  days  of  Papin,  Savory,  Newcomen,  Smeaton  ! 
Great  effects  were  produced,  no  doubt,  as  compared  with  no 
fire  engine  at  all  ;  effects  so  very  marked  as  to  extort  from  the 
French  writer,  Belidor,  the  tribute  of  admiration  he  paid  to  the 
"  fire"  engine  erected  at  the  Fresnes  Colliery  by  English  engin- 
eers. A  similar  engine  worked  the  pumps  in  York  Place  (now 
the  Adelphi)  for  the  supply  of  water  to  portions  of  London.  We 
have  in  his  work  one  of  the  very  clearest  accounts,  illustrated  by 
the  best  engravings  (absolute  working  drawings),  of  the  engine 
which  had  excited  his  admiration.  These  drawings  show  the 
open-topped  cylinder,  with  condensation  taking  place  below 
the  piston,  but  with  the  valves  worked  automatically. 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that,  noteworthy  as  such  a  machine 
was,  as  compared  with  animal  power,  or  with  wind  or  water 
motors,  it  was  of  necessity  a  most  wasteful  instrument  as  regards 
fuel.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  in  these  days  how,  for  years,  it 
could  have  been  endured  that  at  each  stroke  of  the  engine  the 
chamber  that  was  to  receive  the  steam  at  the  next  stroke  was 
carefully  cooled  down  beforehand  by  a  water  injection. 

Watt,  as  we  know,  was  the  first  to  perceive,  or,  at  all  events, 
to  cure,  this  fundamental  error  which  existed  prior  to  his  time 
in  the  "fire"  engine.  To  him  we  owe  condensation  in  a 
separate  vessel,  the  doing  away  with  the  open-topped  cylinder, 
and  the  making  the  engine  double-acting  ;  the  parallel  motion  ; 
the  governor ;  and  the  engine-indicator,  by  which  we  have 
depicted  for  us  the  way  in  which  the  work  is  being  performed 
within  the  cylinder.  To  Watt,  also,  we  owe  that  great  source 
of  economic  working — the  knowledge  of  the  expansive  force  of 
steam  ;  and  to  his  prescience  we  owe  the  steam-jacket,  without 
which  expansion,  beyond  certain  limits,  is  practically  worthless. 
I  have  said  "prescience  "—fore-knowledge — but  I  feel  inclined 
to  say  that,  in  this  case,  prescience  maybe  rendered  "  pre- 
Science,"  for  I  think  that  Watt  felt  the  utility  of  the  steam- 
jacket,  without  being  able  to  say  on  what  ground  that  utility 
was  based. 

I  have  already  spoken  in  laudatory  terms  of  Tredgold,  as 
being  one  of  the  earliest  of  our  scientific  engineering  writers, 
but,  as  regards  the  question  of  steam-jacketing,  Watt's  prescience 
was  better  than  Tredgold's  science,  for  the  latter  condemns  the 
steam-jacket,  as  being  a  means  whereby  the  cooling  surfaces  are 
enlarged,  and  whereby,  therefore,  the  condensation  is  increased. 

I  think  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  engineers  wh">,  since 
Watt's  days,  have  produced  machines  of  such  marvellous 
power — and,  compared  with  the  engines  of  Watt's  days,  of  so 
great  economy — have,  so  far  a-  principles  are  concerned,  gone 
upon  those  laid  down  by  Watt.  Details  of  the  most  necessary 
character — necessary  to  enable  those  principles  to  be  carried  out — 
have,  indeed,  been  devised  since  the  days  of  Watt.  Although 
it  is  still  a  very  sad  confession  to  have  to  make,  that  the  very 
best  of  our  steam-engines  only  utilizes  about  one- sixth  of  the 
work  which  resides  (if  the  term  may  be  used)  in  the  fuel  that  is 
consumed,  it  is,  nevertheless,  a  satisfaction  to  know  that  great 
economical  progress  has  been  made,  and  that  the  6  or  7  pounds 
of  fuel  per  horse-power  per  hour  consumed  by  the  very  best 
engines  of  Watt's  days,  when  working  with  the  aid  of  condensa- 
tion, is  now  brought  down  to  about  one-fourth  of  this  consump- 
tion ;  and  this  in  portable  engines,  for  agricultural  purposes, 
working  without  condensation — engines  of  small  size,  developing 
only  20  horse-power  ;  in  such  engines  the  consumption  has  been 
reduced  to  as  little  as  1  "85  pound  per  brake  horse-power  per 


hour,  equal  to  I  "65  pound  per  indicated  horse-pcwer  per  hour, 
as  was  shown  by  the  trials  at  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society's 
meeting  at  Newcastle  last  year — trials  in  which  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  participating. 

In  these  trials  Mr.  William  Anderson,  one  of  the  Vice- 
Presidents  of  Section  G,  and  I  were  associated,  and,  in  making 
our  report  of  the  results,  we  adopted  the  balance-sheet  system, 
which  I  suggested  and  used  so  long  ago  as  1873  (see  vol.  lii., 
pp.  154  and  155,  of  the  Minutes  of  Proceedings  of  the  Institu- 
tion of  Civil  Engineers"),  and  to  which  I  alluded  in  my  address 
as  President  of  Section  G  at  Montreal. 

I  have  told  you  that  the  engineer  of  the  present  day  appreciates 
the  value  of  the  "next-to-nothings."  There  is  an  old  house- 
keeping proverb  that,  if  you  take  care  of  the  farthings  and  the 
pence,  the  shillings  and  the  pounds  will  take  ca:-e  of  themselves. 
Without  the  balance-sheet  one  knows  that  for  the  combustion  of 
1  pound  of  coal,  the  turning  into  steam  of  a  given  quantity  of 
water  at  a  given  pressure  is  obtained.  It  is  seen,  at  once,  that 
the  result  is  much  below  that  which  should  be  had,  but  to 
account  for  the  deficiency  is  the  difficulty.  The  balance-sheet, 
dealing  with  the  most  minute  sources  of  loss — the  farthings  and 
the  pence  of  economic  working — brings  you  face  to  face  with 
these,  and  you  find  that  improvement  must  be  sought  in  paying 
attention  to  the  "next-to-nothings." 

Just  one  illustration.  The  balance-sheet  will  enable  you  at  a 
glance  to  answer  this  among  many  important  questions  :  Has 
the  fuel  been  properly  burnt — with  neither  too  much  air,  nor 
too  little? 

At  the  Newcastle  trials  our  knowledge  as  to  whether  we  had 
the  right  amount  of  air  for  perfect  combustion  was  got  by  an 
analysis  of  the  waste  gases,  taken  continuously  throughout  the 
whole  number  of  hours'  run  of  each  engine,  affording,  therefore, 
a  fair  average.  The  analysis  of  any  required  portion  of  gases 
thus  obtained  was  made  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour's  time  by  the  aid 
of  the  admirable  apparatus  invented  by  Mr.  Stead,  and,  on  the 
occasion  to  which  I  refer,  manipulated  by  him.  In  one  instance 
an  excess  of  air  had  been  supplied,  causing  a  percentage  of  loss 
of  6'34  In  the  instance  of  another  engine  there  was  a  deficiency 
of  air,  resulting  in  the  production  of  carbonic  oxide,  involving  a 
loss  of  4  per  cent.  The  various  percentages  of  loss,  of  which 
each  one  seems  somewhat  unimportant,  in  the  aggregate 
amounted  to  28  per  cent.,  and  this  with  one  of  the  best  boilers. 
This  is  an  admirable  instance  of  the  need  of  attention  to 
apparently  small  things. 

I  have  already  said  that  we  now  know  the  steam-engine  is 
really  a  heat  engine.  At  the  York  meeting  of  our  Association  I 
ventured  to  predict  that,  unless  some  substantive  improvement 
were  made  in  the  steam-engine  (of  which  improvement,  as  yet, 
we  have  no  notion),  I  believed  its  days,  for  small  powers,  were 
numbered,  and  that  those  who  attended  the  centenary  of  the 
British  Association  in  1931  would  see  the  present  steam-engines 
in  museums,  treated  as  things  to  be  respected,  and  of  antiquarian 
interest  to  the  engineers  of  those  days,  such  as  are  the  open- 
topped  steam  cylinders  of  Newcomen  and  of  Smeaton  to  our- 
selves. I  must  say  I  see  no  reason,  after  the  seven  years  which 
have  elapsed  since  the  York  meeting,  to  regret  having  made 
that  prophecy,  or  to  desire  t>  withdraw  it. 

The  working  of  heat  engines,  without  the  intervention  of  the 
vapour  of  water,  by  the  combustion  of  the  gases  arising  from 
coal,  or  from  coal  and  from  water,  is  now  not  merely  an  esta- 
blished fact,  but  a  recognized  and  undoubted,  commercially 
economical,  means  of  obtaining  motive  power.  Such  engines, 
developing  from  1  to  40  horse-power,  and  worked  by  the 
ordinary  gas  supplied  by  the  gas  mains,  are  in  most  extensive 
use  in  printing-works,  hotels,  clubs,  theatres,  and  even  in  large 
private  houses,  for  the  working  of  dynamos  to  supply  electric 
light.  Such  engines  are  also  in  use  in  factories,  being  some- 
times driven  by  the  gas  obtained  from  "culm"  and  steam,  and 
I  are  giving  forth  a  horse-power  for,  it  i;  stated,  as  small  a 
consumption  as  I  pound  of  fuel  per  hour. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  remind  you — but  let  me  do  it — that, 
although'  the  saving  of  half  a  pound  of  fuel  per  horse-power 
appears  to  be  insignificant,  when  stated  in  that  bald  way,  one 
realizes  that  it  is  of  the  highest  importance  when  that  half-pound 
turns  out  to  be  33  per  cent,  of  the  whole  previous  consumption 
of  one  of  those  economical  engines  to  which  I  have  referred. 

The  gas-engine  is  no  new  thing.  As  long  ago  as  1807  a  M. 
de  Rivaz  proposed  its  use  for  driving  a  carriage  on  ordinary 
roads.  For  anything  I  know,  he  may  not  have  been  the  first 
proposer.  It  need  hardly  be  said  that  in  those  days  he  had  not 
illuminating  gas  to  resort  to,  and  he  proposed  to  employ  hydro- 


Sept.  6,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


443 


gen.  A  few  years  later  a  writer  in  Nicholson  s  Journal,  in  an 
article  on  "Flying  Machines,"  having  given  the  correct  state- 
ment that  all  that  is  needed  to  make  a  successful  machine  of  this 
description  is  to  find  a  sufficiently  light  motor,  suggests  that  the 
direction  in  which  this  may  be  sought  is  the  employment  of 
illuminating  gas,  to  operate  by  its  explosion  on  the  piston  of  an 
engine.  The  idea  of  the  gas-engine  was  revived,  and  formed 
the  subject  of  a  patent  by  Barnett  in  the  year  1838.  It  is  true 
this  gentleman  did  not  know  very  much  about  the  subject,  and 
that  he  suggested  many  things  which,  if  carried  out,  would  have 
resulted  in  the  production  of  an  engine  which  could  not  have 
worked  ;  but  he  had  an  alternative  proposition  which  would 
have  worked. 

Again,  in  the  year  1861,  the  matter  was  revived  by  Lenoir, 
and  in  the  year  1865  by  Hugon,  both  French  inventors.  Their 
engines  obtained  some  considerable  amount  of  success  and 
notoriety,  and  many  of  them  were  made  and  used  ;  but  in  the 
majority  of  cases  they  were  discarded  as  wasteful  and  uncertain. 
The  Institution  of  Civil  Engineers,  for  example,  erected  a 
Lenoir  in  the  year  1S68,  to  work  the  ventilating  fan,  but  after  a 
short  time  they  were  compelled  to  abandon  it  and  to  substitute 
an  hydraulic  engine. 

At  the  present  time,  as  I  have  said,  gas-engines  are  a  great 
commercial  success,  and  they  have  become  so  by  the  attention 
given  to  small  things,  in  popular  estimation — to  important 
things,  in  fact,  with  which,  however,  I  must  not  trouble  you. 
Messrs.  Ctossley  Brothers,  who  have  done  so  much  to  make 
the  gas-engine  the  commercial  success  that  it  is,  inform  me  that 
they  are  prosecuting  improvements  in  the  direction  of  attention 
to  detail,  from  which  they  are  obtaining  greatly  improved 
results. 

But,  looking  at  the  wonderful  petroleum  industry,  and  at  the 
multifarious  products  which  are  obtained  from  the  crude  material, 
is  it  too  much  to  say  that  there  is  a  future  for  motor  engines, 
worked  by  the  vapour  of  some  of  the  more  highly  volatile  of 
these  products — true  vapour — not  a  gas,  but  a  condensable  body, 
capable  of  being  worked  over  and  over  again?  Numbers  of 
such  engines,  some  of  as  much  as  4  horse-power,  made  by  Mr. 
Yarrow,  are  now  running,  and  are  apparently  giving  good  re- 
sults ;  certainly  excellent  results  as  regards  the  compactness  and 
lightness  of  the  machinery.  For  boat  purposes  they  possess  the 
great  advantage  of  being  rapidly  under  way.  I  have  seen  one 
go  to  work  within  two  minutes  of  the  striking  of  the  match  to 
light  the  burner. 

Again,  as  we  know,  the  vapour  of  this  material  has  been  used 
as  a  gas  in  gas-engines,  the  motive  power  having  been  obtained 
by  direct  combustion. 

Having  regard  to  these  considerations,  was  I  wrong  in  pre- 
dicting that  the  heat  engine  of  the  future  will  probably  be  one 
independent  of  the  vapour  of  water?  And,  further,  in  these 
clays  of  electrical  advancement,  is  it  too  much  to  hope  f  r  the 
direct  production  of  electricity  from  the  combustion  of  fuel? 

As  the  world  has  become  familiar  with  prime  movers,  the 
de.-ire  for  their  employment  has  increased.  Many  a  householder 
could  find  useful  occupation  for  a  prime  mover  of  J  or  ^  horse- 
power, working  one  or  two  hours  a  day  ;  but  the  economical 
establishment  of  a  steam-engine  is  not  possible  until  houses  of 
very  large  dimensions  are  reached,  where  space  exists  for  the 
engine,  and  where,  having  regard  to  the  amount  of  work  to  be 
done,  the  incidental  expenses  can  be  borne.  Where  this  cannct 
be,  either  the  prime  mover,  with  the  advantages  of  its  use,  must 
be  given  up  as  a  thing  to  be  wi-hed  for,  but  not  to  be  procured, 
or  recourse  must  be  had  to  some  other  contrivance — say  to  the 
laying  on  of  power,  in  some  form  or  another,  from  a  central 
source.  •  ' 

I  have  already  incidentally  touched  upon  one  mode  of  doing 
this — namely,  the  employment  of  illuminating  gas,  as  the  work- 
ing agent  in  the  gas-engine  ;  but  there  are  various  other  modes, 
possessing  their  respective  merits  and  demerits — all  ingenious, 
all  involving  science  in  their  application,  and  all  more  or  less  in 
practical  use — such  as  the  laying  on  of  special  high-pressure 
water,  as  is  now  being  extensively  practised  in  London,  in  Hull, 
and  elsewhere.  Water  at  7C0  pounds  pressure  per  inch  is  a 
most  convenient  mode  of  laying  on  a  large  amount  of  power, 
through  comparatively  small  pipes.  Like  electricity,  where, 
when  a  high  electromotive  force  is  used,  a  large  amount  of 
energy  may  be  sent  through  a  small  conductor,  so  with  water, 
under  high  pressure,  the  mains  may  be  kept  of  reasonable 
diameters,  without  rendering  them  too  small  to  transmit  the 
power  required  through  them 


Power  is  also  transmitted  by  means  of  compressed  air,  an 
agent  which,  on  the  score  of  its  ability  to  ventilate,  and  of  its 
cleanliness,  has  much  to  recommend  it.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
is  an  agent  which,  having  regard  to  the  probability  of  the 
deposition  of  moisture  in  the  form  of  "snow,"  requires  to  be 
worked  with  judgment. 

Again,  there  is  an  alternative  mode  for  the  conveyance  of 
power  by  the  exhaustion  of  air — a  mode  which  has  been  in 
practical  use  for  over  sixty  years. 

We  have  also  the  curious  system  pursued  at  Schaffhausen, 
where  quick-running  ropes  are  driven  by  turbines,  these  being 
worked  by  the  current  of  the  River  Rhine  ;  and  at  New  York, 
and  in  other  cities  of  the  United  States,  steam  is  laid  on  under 
the  streets,  so  as  to  enable  domestic  steam-engines  to  be  worked, 
without  the  necessity  of  a  boiler,  a  stoker,  or  a  chimney,  the 
steam  affording  also  means  of  heating  the  house  when  needed. 

Lastly,  there  is  the  system  of  transmitting  power  by  electricity, 
to  which  I  have  already  adverted.  I  was  glad  to  learn,  only 
the  other  day,  that  there  was  every  hope  of  this  power  being 
applied  to  the  working  of  an  important  subterranean  tramway. 

These  distributions  from  central  sources  need,  as  a  rule, 
statutory  powers  to  enable  the  pipes  or  wires  to  be  placed  under 
the  roads  ;  and,  following  the  deplorable  example  of  the  Elec- 
trical Facilities  Act,  it  is  now  the  habit  of  the  enlightened  Cor- 
poration and  the  enterprising  town  clerk  of  most  boroughs  to  say 
to  capitalists  who  are  willing  to  embark  their  capital  in  the  plant 
for  the  distribution  of  power  from  a  central  source — for  their 
own  profit  no  doubt,  but  also,  no  doubt,  for  the  good  of  the 
community — "We  will  oppose  you  in  Parliament,  unless  you 
will  consent  that,  at  the  end  of  twenty-one  years,  we  may  acquire 
compulsorily  your  property,  and  may  do  so,  if  it  turns  out  to  be 
remunerative,  without  other  payment  than  that  for  the  mere 
buildings  and  plant  at  that  time  existing."  This  is  the  way 
English  enterprise  is  met,  and  then  English  engineers  are 
taunted,  by  Englishmen — often  by  the  very  men  who  have  had  a 
share  in  making  this  "boa-constrictor"  of  a  "  Facilities  Act" — 
that  their  energy  is  not  to  be  compared  with  that  which  is  to  be 
found  in  the  United  States  and  other  countries.  Again,  how- 
ever, I  must  remember  that  I  am  not  addressing  Section  F. 

There  is  one  application  of  science,  by  engineers,  which  is  of 
extreme  beauty  and  interest,  and  that  cannot  be  regarded  with 
indifference  by  the  agriculturists  of  this  country.  I  allude  to  the 
heat-withdrawing  engines  (I  should  like  to  say,  "cold- pro- 
ducers," but  I  presume,  if  I  did,  I  should  be  criticized),  which 
are  now  so  very  extensively  used  for  the  importation  of  fresh 
meat,  and  for  its  storage  when  received  here.  It  need  hardly  be 
said,  that  that  which  will  keep  cool  and  sweet  the  carcasses  of 
sheep  will  equally  well  preserve  milk,  and  many  other  perishable 
articles  of  food.  We  have  in  these  machines  daily  instances 
that,  if  you  wish  to  make  a  ship's  hold  cold,  you  can  do  it  by 
burning  a  certain  quantity  of  coals — a  paradox,  if  ever  there 
was  one. 

In  this  climate  of  ours,  where  the  summer  has  been  said  to 
consist  of  "three  hot  days  and  a  thunderstorm,"  there  is  hardly 
need  to  make  a  provision  for  cooling  our  houses,  although  there 
is  an  undoubted  need  for  making  a  provision  to  heat  them. 
Nevertheless,  those  of  us  who  have  hot-water  heating  arrange- 
ments for  use  in  the  winter  would  be  very  glad  indeed  if,  without 
much  trouble  or  expense,  they  could  turn  these  about,  so  as  to 
utilize  them  for  cooling  their  houses  in  summer.  Mr.  Loftus 
Perkins,  so  well  known  for  his  labours  in  the  use  of  very  high- 
pressure  steam  (600  to  ioco  pounds  on  the  inch),  and  also  so  well 
known  for  those  most  useful  high- pressure  warming  arrangements 
which,  without  disfiguring  our  houses  by  the  passage  of  large 
pipes,  keep  them  in  a  state  of  warmth  and  comfort  throughout 
the  winter,  has  lately  taken  up  the  mode  of,  I  will  say  it,  pro- 
ducing "cold"  by  the  evaporation  of  ammonia,  and,  by  improve- 
ments in  detail,  has  succeeded  in  making  an  apparatus  which, 
without  engine  or  pumps,  produces  "cold"  for  some  hours  in 
succession,  and  requires,  to  put  it  in  action,  the  preliminary 
combustion  of  only  a  few  pounds  of  coke  or  a  few  feet  of  gas. 

As  I  have  said,  our  climate  gives  us  but  little  need  to  provide 
or  employ  apparatus  to  cool  our  houses,  but  one  can  well  imagine 
that  the  Anglo- Indian  will  be  glad  to  give  up  his  punkah  for 
some  more  certain,  and  less  draughty,  mode  of  cooling. 

I  now  desire  to  point  out  how,  as  the  work  of  the  engineer 
grows,  his  needs  increase.  New  material,  or  better  material  of 
the  old  kind,  has  to  be  found  to  enable  him  to  carry  out  these 
works  of  greater  magnitude.  At  the  beginning  of  this  century, 
stone,   brick,   and  timber  were   practically  the   only  materials 


444 


NATURE 


{Sept.  6,  1888 


employed  for  that  which  I  may  call  standing  engineering  work 
— i.e.  buildings,  bridges,  aqueducts,  and  so  on — while  timber, 
cast  iron,  and  wrought  iron  were  for  many  years  the  only  avail- 
able materials  for  the  framing  and  principal  parts  of  moving 
machines  and  engines,  with  the  occasional  use  of  lead  for  the 
pipes  and  of  copper  for  pipes  and  for  boilers. 

As  regards  the  cast  iron,  little  was  known  of  the  science 
involved  (or  that  ought  to  be  involved)  in  its  manufacture.  It  was 
judged  of  by  results.  It  was  judged  of  largely  by  the  eye.  It  was 
"white,"  it  was  "mottled,"  it  was  "gray."  It  was  known  to 
be  "  fit  for  refining,"  fit  for  "  strong  castings,"  or  fit  for  castings 
in  which  great  fluidity  in  the  molten  metal  was  judged  to  be  of 
more  importance  than  strength  in  the  finished  casting.  With 
respect  to  wrought  iron,  it  was  judged  of  by  its  results  also.  It 
was  judged  of  by  the  place  of  its  manufacture — but  when  the 
works  of  the  district  were  unknown,  the  iron,  on  being  tested, 
was  classed  as  "good  fibrous,"  although  some  of  the  very  best 
was  "steel-like,"  or  "bad,"  "hot-short,"  or  "cold-short."  A 
particular  district  would  produce  one  kind  of  iron,  another 
district  another  kind  of  iron.  The  ore,  the  flux,  and  the  fuel 
were  all  known  to  have  influence,  but  to  what  extent  was  but 
little  realized  ;  and  if  there  came  in  a  new  ore,  or  a  new  flux,  it 
might  well  be  that  for  months  the  turn-out  of  the  works  into 
which  these  novelties  had  been  introduced  would  be  prejudiced. 
Steel  again— that  luxury  of  the  days  of  my  youth — was  judged 
by  the  eye.  The  wrought  bars,  made  into  "blister"  steel  by 
"cementation,"  were  broken,  examined,  and  grouped  accord- 
ingly. Steel  was  known,  no  doubt,  to  be  a  compound  of  iron 
and  carbon,  but  the  importance  of  exactness  in  the  percentage 
was  but  little  understood,  nor  was  it  at  all  understood  how  the 
presence  of  comparatively  small  quantities  of  foreign  matter 
might  necessitate  the  variation  of  the  proportions  of  carbon. 
The  consequence  was  that  anomalous  results  every  now  and  then 
arose  to  confound  the  person  who  had  used  the  steel,  and,  falsify- 
ing the  proverb  "true  as  steel,"  steel  became  an  object  of 
distrust.  Is  it  too  much  to  say  that  Bessemer's  great  invention 
of  steel  made  by  the  "  converter,"  and  that  Siemens's  invention 
of  the  open-hearth  process,  reacted  on  pure  science,  and  set 
scientific  men  to  investigate  the  laws  which  regulate  the  union  of 
metals  and  of  metalloids?  and  that  the  labours  of  these  scientific 
men  have  improved  the  manufacture,  so  that  steel  is  now 
thoroughly  and  entirely  trusted  ?  By  its  aid  engineering  works 
are  accomplished  which,  without  that  aid,  would  have  been 
simply  impossible.  The  Forth  Bridge,  the  big  gun,  the 
compound  armour  of  the  ironclad  with  its  steel  face,  the  pro- 
jectile to  pierce  that  steel  face — all  equally  depend  upon  the 
"  truth  "  of  steel  as  much  as  does  the  barely  visible  hair-spring 
of  the  chronometer  which  enables  the  longitude  of  the  ship 
in  which  it  is  carried  to  be  ascertained.  Now,  what  makes 
the  difference  between  trustworthy  and  untrustworthy  steel 
for  each  particular  purpose  ?  Something  which,  until  our  better 
sense  comes  to  our  aid,  we  are  inclined  to  look  upon  as  ridicu- 
lously insignificant — a  "next-to-nothing."  Setting  extraneous 
ingredients  aside,  and  considering  only  the  union  of  iron  and 
carbon,  the  question  whether  there  shall  be  added  or  deducted 
one-tenth  of  1  per  cent,  (pardon  my  clumsy  way  of  using  the 
decimal  system)  of  carbon  is  a  matter  of  great  importance  in  the 
resulting  quality  of  the  steel.  This  is  a  striking  practical 
instance  of  how  apparently  insignificant  things  may  be  of  the 
highest  importance.  The  variation  of  this '  fraction  of  a  per- 
centage may  render  your  boiler  steel  untrustworthy,  may  make 
the  difference  between  safety  in  a  gun  and  danger  in  a  gun,  and 
may  render  your  armour-piercing  projectile  unable  to  pierce  even 
the  thinnest  wrought-iron  armour. 

While  thus  brought  incidentally  to  the  subject  of  guns,  let  me 
derive  from  it  another  instance  of  the  value  of  small  things.  I 
have  in  my  hand  a  piece  of  steel  ribbon.  It  is  probable  that 
only  those  who  are  near  to  me  can  see  it.  Its  dimensions  are 
one-fourth  by  one-six'eenth  of  an  English  inch,  equal  to  an 
area  of  one  sixty-fourth  of  a  square  inch.  This  mode  of  stating 
the  dimensions  I  use  for  the  information  of  the  ladies.  To 
make  it  intelligible  to  my  scientific  friends,  I  must  tell  them 
that  it  is  approximately  "00637  of  a  metre  by  approximately 
•00159  of  a  metre,  and  that  its  sectional  area  is  "0000101283  (also 
approximately)  of  a  square  metre.  This  insignificant  (and 
speaking  in  reference  to  the  greater  number  of  my  audience), 
practically  invisible  piece  of  material — that  I  can  bend  with  my 
hand,  and  even  tie  into  knots — is,  nevertheless,  not  to  be 
despised.  By  it  one  reinforces  the  massive  and  important- 
lookiDg  A-tube  of  a  9 "2-inch  gun,  so  that  from  that  tube  can  be 


projected  with  safety  a  projectile  weighing  380  pounds  at  jjj 
velocity,  when  leaving  the  muzzle,  of  between  one-third  and 
one-half  of  a  mile  in  a  second,  and  competent  to  traverse  nearly 
\i\  miles  before  it  touches  the  ground.  It  may  be  said,  "  What 
is  the  use  of  being  able  to  fire  a  projectile  to  a  distance  which 
commonly  is  invisible  (from  some  obstacle  or  another)  to  the 
person  directing  the  gun  ?  "  I  will  suggest  to  you  a  use.  Imagine 
a  gun  of  this  kind  placed  by  some  enemy  who,  unfortunately, 
had  invaded  us,  and  had  reached  Richmond.  He  has  the  range- 
table  for  his  gun  ;  he,  of  course,  is  provided  with  our  Ordnance 
maps,  and  he  lays  and  elevates  the  gun  at  Richmond,  with  the 
object  of  striking,  say,  the  Royal  Exchange.  Suppose  he  does 
not  succeed  in  his  exact  aim.  The  projectile  goes  100  yards  to 
one  side  or  to  the  other ;  or  it  falls  250  yards  short,  or  passes 
250  yards  over  ;  and  it  would  be  "bad  shooting  "  indeed,  in  these- 
days,  if  nearly  every  projectile  which  was  fired  did  not  fall  some- 
where within  an  area  such  as  this.  In  this  suggested  parallelo- 
gram of  100,000  square  yards,  or  some  20  acres,  there  is  some 
rather  valuable  property  ;  and  the  transactions  which  are  carried 
on  are  not  unimportant.  It  seems  to  me  that  business  would 
not  be  conducted  with  that  calmness  and  coolness  which  are 
necessary  for  success,  if,  say,  every  five  minutes,  a  380-pound  shell 
fell  within  this  area,  vomiting  fire,  and  scattering  its  walls  in 
in  hundreds  of  pieces,  with  terrific  violence,  in  all  directions. 
Do  not  suppose  I  am  saying  that  similar  effects  cannot  be  ob- 
tained from  a  gun  where  wire  is  not  employed.  They  can  be. 
But  my  point  is,  that  they  can  also  be  obtained  by  the  aid  of 
the  insignificant  thing  which  I  am  holding  up  at  this  moment — 
this  piece  of  steel  ribbon,  which  looks  more  suitable  for  the 
framework  of  an  umbrella. 

I  have  already  spoken  to  you,  when  considering  steel  as  a  mere 
alloy  of  iron  and  carbon,  as  to  the  value  of  even  a  fraction  of  1 
per  cent,  of  the  latter  ;  but  we  know  that  in  actual  practice  steel 
almost  always  contains  other  ingredients.  One  of  the  most  pro- 
minent of  these  is  manganese.  It  had  for  years  been  used,  in 
quantities  varying  from  a  fraction  of  1  per  cent,  up  to  2*5  per  cent., 
with  advantages  as  regards  ductility,  and  as  regards  its  ability  to 
withstand  forging.  A  further  increase  was  found  not  to  augment 
the  advantage  :  a  still  further  increase  was  found  to  diminish  it  ; 
and  here  the  manufacturer  stopped,  and,  so  far  as  I  know,  the 
pure  scientist  stopped,  on  the  very  reasonable  ground  that  the  point 
of  increased  benefit  appeared  to  have  been  well  ascertained,  and 
that  there  could  be  no  advantage  in  pursuing  an  investigation 
which  appeared  only  to  result  in  decadence.  But  this  is  another 
instance  of  how  the  application  of  science  reacts  in  the  interests 
of  pure  science  itself.  Oneof  our  steel  manufacturers,  Mr.  Hadfieldr 
determined  to  pursue  this  apparently  barren  subject,  and  in- 
doing  so  discovered  this  fact — that,  while  with  the  addition  of 
manganese  in  excess  of  the  limit  before  stated,  and  up  to  as 
much  as  7  per  cent.,  deterioration  continued,  after  this  latter 
percentage  was  passed  improvement  again  set  in. 

Again,  the  effects  of  the  addition  of  even  the  very  smallest 
percentages  of  aluminium  upon  the  steel  with  which  it  may  be 
alloyed  are  very  striking  and  very  peculiar,  giving  to  the  steel 
alloy  thus  produced  a  very  much  greater  hardness,  and  enabling 
it  to  take  a  much  brighter  and  more  silver-like  polish.  Further, 
the  one-twentieth  part  of  1  per  cent,  of  aluminium,  when  added 
to  molten  wrought  iron,  will  reduce  the  fusing-point  of  the  whole 
mass  some  500°,  and  will  render  it  extremely  fluid,  and  thus- 
enable  wrought  iron  (or  what  are  commercially  known  as  "  mitis  " 
castings  of  the  most  intricate  character)  to  be  produced. 

No  one  has  worked  more  assiduously  at  the  question  of  the 
effect  of  the  presence  of  minute  quantities,  even  traces,  of  alloys 
with  metals  than  Prof.  Roberts- Austen,  and  he  appears,  by 
his  experiments,  to  be  discovering  a  general  law,  governing  the 
effect  produced  by  the  mixture  of  particular  metals,  so  that,  ill 
future,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  when  an  alloy  is,  for  the  first  time,  to- 
be  attempted,  it  will  be  possible  to  predict  with  reasonable 
certainty  what  the  result  will  be,  instead  of  that  result  remaining 
to  be  discovered  by  experiment. 

I  have  just,  incidentally,  mentioned  aluminium.  May  I  say 
that  we  engineers  look  forward,  with  much  interest,  to  all  pro- 
cesses tending  to  bring  this  metal,  or  its  alloys,  within  possible 
commercial  use? 

One  more  instance  of  the  effect  of  impurities  in  metals.  The 
engineer  engaged  in  electrical  matters  is  compelled,  in  the  course 
of  his  daily  woik,  frequently  to  realize  the  importance  of  the 
"next  to-n'othing."  One  striking  instance  of  this  is  afforded  by 
the  influence  which  an  extremely  minute  percentage  of  impurity 
has  on  the  electrical   conductivity  of  copper  wire ;    this  con- 


Sept.  6,  1888] 


NATURE 


445 


ductivity  being  in  some  cases  reduced  by  as  much  as  50  per  cent., 
in  consequence  of  the  admixture  of  that  which,  under  other 
circumstances,  would  be  looked  upon  as  insignificant. 

Reverting  to  the  question  of  big  guns.  According  to  the 
present  mode  of  manufacture,  after  we  have  rough-bored  and 
turned  the  A-tube  (and  perhaps  I  ought  to  have  mentioned 
that  by  the  A-tube  is  meant  the  main  piece  of  the  gun,  the 
innermost  layer,  if  I  may  so  call  it,  that  portion  which  is  the  full 
length  of  the  gun,  and  upon  which  the  remainder  of  the  gun  is 
built  up) — after,  as  I  have  said,  we  have  rough-bored  and  turned 
this  A-tube,  we  heat  it  to  a  temperature  lying  between  certain 
specified  limits,  but  actually  determined  by  the  behaviour  of 
samples  previously  taken,  and  then  suddenly  immerse  it  per- 
pendicularly into  a  well  some  60  feet  deep,  full  of  oil,  the  oil  in 
this  well  being  kept  in  a  state  of  change  by  the  running  into  it, 
at  the  bottom,  of  cold  oil  conveyed  by  a  pipe  proceeding  from 
an  elevated  oil  tank.  In  this  way  the  steel  is  oil-hardened,  with 
the  result  of  increasing  its  ultimate  tensile  strength,  and  also 
with  the  result  of  raising  its  so-called  elastic  limit.  In  perform- 
ing this  operation  it  is  almost  certain  that  injurious  internal 
strains  will  be  set  up — strains  tending  to  produce  self-rupture  of 
the  material.  Experiments  have  been  carried  out  in  England, 
by  Captain  Andrew  Noble,  and  by  General  Maitland  of  the 
Royal  Gun  Factory,  by  General  Kalakoutsky,  in  Russia,  and 
also  in  the  United  States,  to  gauge  what  is  the  value,  as  repre- 
sented by  dimensions,  of  these  strains,  and  we  find  that  they 
have  to  be  recorded  in  the  most  minute  fractions  of  an  inch,  and 
yet,  if  the  steel  be  of  too  "high  "  a  quality  (as  it  is  technically 
called),  or  if  there  has  been  any  want  of  uniformity  in  the  oil- 
hardening  process,  these  strains,  unless  got  rid  of  or  ameliorated 
by  annealing,  may,  as  I  have  said,  result  in  the  self-rupture  of 
the  steel. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  getting  rid  of  these  strains  by  annealing, 
a  process  requiring  to  be  conducted  with  great  care,  so  as  not 
to  prejudice  the  effects  of  the  oil-hardening.  But  take  the  case 
of  a  hardened  steel  projectile,  hardened  so  that  it  will  penetrate 
the  steel  face  of  compound  armour.  In  that  case  annealing  cannot 
be  resorted  to,  for  the  extreme  hardness  of  the  projectile  must  not 
be  in  the  least  impaired.  The  internal  strains  in  these  projectiles 
are  so  very  grave  that  for  months  after  they  are  made  there  is  no 
security  that  they  will  not  spontaneously  fracture.  I  have  here  the 
point  of  an  8-inch  projectile,  which  projectile  weighs  210  pounds  ; 
this  with  others  was  received  from  the  makers  as  long  ago  as  March 
of  this  year,  and  remained  an  apparently  perfect  and  sound  pro- 
jectile until  about  the  middle  of  August — some  five  months  after 
delivery,  and,  of  course,  a  somewhat  longer  time  since  manu- 
facture— and  between  August  6  and  8  this  piece  which  I  hold 
in  my  hand,  measuring  35  inches  by  3J  inches,  spontaneously 
flew  off  from  the  rest  of  the  projectile,  and  has  done  so  upon 
a  surface  of  separation  which,  whether  having  regard  to  its 
beautiful  regularity,  or  to  the  conclusions  to  be  drawn  from  it 
as  to  the  nature  of  the  strains  existing,  is  of  the  very  highest 
scientific  interest.  Many  other  cases  of  self-rupture  of  similar 
projectiles  have  been  recorded. 

Another  instance  of  the  effect  of  the  "next-to-nothing  "  in  the 
hardening  and  tempering  or  annealing  of  steel.  As  we  know, 
the  iron  and  the  carban  (leaving  other  matters  out  of  considera- 
tion) are  there.  The  carbon  is  (even  in  tool-steel)  a  very  small 
proportion  of  the  whole.  The  steel  may  be  bent,  and  will 
retain  the  form  given  to  it.  You  heat  it  and  plunge  it  in  cold 
water  ;  you  attempt  to  bend  it  and  it  breaks  ;  but  if,  after  the 
plunging  in  cold  water,  you  temper  it  by  carefully  reheating  it, 
you  may  bring  it  to  the  condition  fit  either  for  the  cutting-tool 
for  metal,  or  for  the  cutting-tool  for  wood,>  or  for  the  watch- 
spring  ;  and  these  important  variations  of  condition  which  are 
thus  obtained  depend  upon  the  "  next-to-nothing"  in  the  tem- 
perature to  which  it  is  reheated,  and  therefore  in  the  nature  of 
the  resulting  combination  of  the  ingredients  of  which  the  steel  is 
composed. 

Some  admirable  experiments  were  carried  out  on  this  subject 
by  the  Institution  of  Mechanical  Engineers,  with  the  assistance 
of  one  of  cur  Vice-Presidents,  Sir  Frederick  Abel,  and  the 
subject  has  also  been  dealt  with  by  an  eminent  Russian 
writer. 

There  is,  to  my  mind,  another  and  very  striking  popular 
instance  (if  I  may  use  the  phrase)  of  the  importance  of  attention 
to  detail— that  is,  to  the  "next-to-nothing."  Consider  the 
bicycles  and  tricycles  of  the  present  day — machines  which 
afford  the  means  of  healthful  exercise  to  thousands,  and  which 
will,    probably   within    a  very    short  time,   prove  of  the  very 


greatest  possible  use  for  military  purposes.  The  perfection  to  which 
these  machines  have  been  brought  is  almost  entirely  due  to  strict 
attention  to  detail  ;  in  the  selection  of  the  material  of  which  the 
machines  are  made  ;  in  the  application  of  pure  science  (in  its 
strictest  sense)  to  the  form  and  to  the  proportioning  of  the  parts, 
and  also  in  the  arrangement  of  these  various  parts  in  relation 
the  one  to  the  other.  The  result  is  that  the  greatest  possible 
strength  is  afforded  with  only  the  least  possible  weight,  and  that 
friction  in  working  has  been  reduced  to  a  minimum.  All  of  us 
who  remember  the  hobby-horse  of  former  years,  and  who  con- 
trast that  machine  with  the  bicycle  or  tricycle  of  the  present  day, 
realize  how  thoroughly  satisfactory  is  the  result  of  this  attention 
to  detail — this  appreciation  of  the  "next-to-nothing." 

Let  me  give  you  another  illustration  of  the  importance  of 
small  things,  drawn  from  gunnery  practice. 

At  first  sight  one  would  be  tempted  to  say  that  the  density  of 
the  air  on  the  under  side  of  a  shot  must,  notwithstanding  its  mo- 
tion of  descent,  be  so  nearly  the  same  as  that  of  the  air  upon  the 
upper  side  as  to  cause  the  difference  to  be  unworthy  of  con- 
sideration, but  we  know  that  the  projectiles  from  rifled  guns  tend 
to  travel  sideways  as  they  pass  through  the  air,  and  that  the 
direction  of  their  motion,  whether  to  the  right  or  to  'the  left, 
depends  on  the  '  hand  '  of  the  rifling.  We  know  also,  that  the 
friction  against  liquid  or  against  gaseous  bodies  varies  with  the 
densities  of  these  bodies,  and  it  is  believed  that,  minute  as  is 
the  difference  in  density  to  which  I  have  referred,  it  is  sufficient 
to  determine  the  lateral  movement  of  the  projectile.  This  lateral 
tendency  must  be  allowed  for,  in  these  days  of  long  ranges,  in 
the  sighting  and  laying  of  guns,  if  we  desire  accuracy  of  aim,  at 
those  distances  at  which  it  is  to  be  expected  our  naval  engage- 
ments will  have  to  be  commenced,  and  perhaps  concluded.  We 
can  no  longer  afford  to  treat  the  subject  as  Nelson  is  said  to  have 
treated  it,  in  one  of  his  letters  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Admiralty, 
who  had  requested  that  an  invention  for  laying  guns  more  ac- 
curately should  be  tried.  Nelson  said  he  would  be  glad  to  try 
the  invention,  but  that,  as  his  mode  of  fighting  consisted  in 
placing  his  ship  close  alongside  that  of  the  enemy,  he  did  not 
think  the  invention,  even  if  it  were  successful,  would  be  of  much 
use  to  him. 

While  upon  the  question  of  guns,  I  am  tempted  to  remark 
upon  that  which  is  by  no  means  a  small  thing  (for  it  is  no  less 
than  the  rotation  of  the  earth),  which  in  long-distance  firing  may 
demand  attention,  and  that  to  an  extent  little  suspected  by  the 
civilian. 

Place  the  gun  north  and  south,  say  in  the  latitude  of  London, 
and  fire  a  12-mile  round  such  as  I  have  mentioned,  and  it  will  be 
found  that,  assuming  the  shot  were  passing  through  a  vacuum,  a 
lateral  allowance  of  more  than  200  feet  must  be  made  to  com- 
pensate for  the  different  velocity  of  the  circumference  of  the 
earth  at  12  miles  north  or  south  of  the  place  where  the  gun  was 
fired,  as  compared  with  the  velocity  of  the  circumference  of  the 
earth  at  that  place  itself — the  time  of  flight  being  in  round 
numbers  one  minute. 

At  the  risk  of  exciting  a  smile,  I  am  about  to  assert  that  en- 
gineering has  even  its  poetical  side.  I  will  ask  you  to  consider 
with  me  whether  there  may  not  be  true  poetry  in  the  feelings  of 
the  engineer  who  solves  a  problem  such  as  this  : — Consider  this 
rock,  never  visible  above  the  surface  of  the  tide,  but  making  its 
presence  known  by  the  waves  which  rise  around  it  :  it  has  been 
the  cause  of  destruction  to  many  a  noble  vessel  which  had  com- 
pleted, in  safety,  its  thousands  of  leagues  of  journey,  and  was, 
within  a  few  score  miles  of  port,  then  dashed  to  pieces  upon  it  ! 
Here  is  this  rock.  On  it  built  a  lighthouse.  Lay  your  founda- 
tions through  the  water,  in  the  midst  of  the  turmoil  of  the  sea ; 
make  your  preparations  ;  appear  to  be  attaining  success,  and 
find  the  elements  are  against  you,  and  that  the  whole  of  your  pre- 
liminary works  are  ruined  or  destroyed  in  one  night  ;  but  again 
commence,  and  then  go  on  and  go  on  until  at  last  you  conquer  ; 
your  works  rise  above  ordinary  tide-level  ;  then  upon  these  sure 
foundations,  obtained  it  may  be  after  years  of  toil,  erect  a  fair 
shaft,  graceful  as  a  palm  and  sturdy  as  an  oak  ;  surmount  it  with 
a  light,  itself  the  produce  of  the  highest  application  of  science  ; 
direct  that  light  by  the  built-up  lens,  again  involving  the  highest 
application  of  science ;  apply  mechanism,  so  arranged  that  the 
lighthouse  shall  from  minute  to  minute  reveal  to  the  anxious 
mariner  its  exact  name  and  its  position  on  the  coast.  When  you 
have  done  all  this,  will  you  not  be  entitled  to  say  to  yourself, 
"  It  is  I  who  have  for  ever  rendered  innocuous  this  rock  which 
has  been  hitherto  a  dread  source  of  peril  "  ?  Is  there  no  feeling, 
do  you  think,  of  a  poetical  nature  excited  in  the  breast  of  the 


446 


NA  TURE 


[Sept.  6,  1888 


engineer  who  has  successfully  grappled  with  a  problem  such  as 
this? 

Another  instance  :  the  mouth  of  a  broad  river,  or,  more  pro- 
perly speaking,  the  inlet  of  the  sea,  has  to  be  crossed  at  such  a 
level  as  not  to  impede  the  passage  of  the  largest  ships.  Except 
in  one  or  two  places  the  depth  is  profound,  so  that  multiple 
foundations  for  supporting  a  bridge  become  commercially  im- 
possible, and  the  solution  of  the  problem  must  be  found  by 
making,  high  in  the  air,  a  flight  of  span  previously  deemed 
unattainable.  Is  there  no  poetry  here?  Again,  although  the 
results  do  not  strike  the  eye  in  the  same  manner,  is  there  nothing 
of  poetry  in  the  work  that  has  to  be  thought  out  and  achieved 
when  a  wide  river  or  an  ocean  channel  has  to  be  crossed  by  a 
subterranean  passage  ?  Works  of  great  magnitude  of  this  char- 
acter have  been  performed  with  success,  and  to  the  benefit  of 
those  for  whose  use  they  were  intended.  One  of  the  greatest 
and  most  noble  of  such  works,  encouraged,  in  years  gone  by,  by 
the  Governments  of  our  own  country  and  of  France,  has  lately 
fallen  into  disfavour  with  an  unreasoning  public,  who  have  not 
taken  the  pains  to  ascertain  the  true  state  of  the  case. 

Surely  it  will  be  agreed  that  the  promotion  of  ready  intercourse 
and  communication  between  nations  constitutes  the  very  best  and 
most  satisfactory  guarantee  for  the  preservation  of  peace  :  when 
the  peoples  of  two  countries  come  to  know  each  other  intimately, 
and  when  they,  therefore,  enter  into  closer  business  relations, 
they  are  less  liable  to  be  led  away  by  panic  or  by  anger,  and 
they  hesitate  to  go  to  war  the  one  with  the  other.  It  is  in  the 
interests  of  both  that  questions  of  difference  which  may  arise 
between  them  should  be  amicably  settled,  and  having  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  each  other,  they  are  less  liable  to  misunderstand, 
and  the  mode  of  determination  of  their  differences  is  more 
readily  arranged.  •  Remember,  the  means  of  ready  intercourse 
and  of  communication,  and  the  means  of  easy  travel,  are  all  due 
to  the  application  of  science  by  the  engineer.  Is  not  therefore 
his  profession  a  beneficent  one  ? 

Further,  do  you  not  think  poetical  feeling  will  be  excited  in 
the  breast  of  that  engineer  who  will  in  the  near  future  solve  the 
problem  (and  it  certainly  will  be  solved  when  a  sufficiently  li^ht 
motor  is  obtained)  of  travelling  in  the  air — whether  this  solution 
be  effected  by  enabling  the  self-suspended  balloon  to  be 
propelled  and  directed,  or  perhaps,  belter  still,  by  enabling 
not  only  the  propulsion  to  be  effected  and  the  direction  to  be 
controlled,  but  by  enabling  the  suspension  in  the  air  itself  to  be 
attained  by  mechanical  means  ? 

Tale  other  functions  of  the  civil  engineer— functions  which, 
after  all,  are  of  the  most  important  character,  for  they  contribute 
directly  to  the  prevention  of  disease,  and  thereby  not  only  pro- 
long life,  but  do  that  which  is  probably  more  important — afford 
to  the  population  a  healthier  life  while  lived. 

In  one  town,  about  which  I  have  full  means  of  knowing,  the 
report  has  just  been  made  that  in  the  year  following  the  comple- 
tion of  a  comprehensive  system  of  sewerage,  the  deaths  from 
zymotic  diseases  had  fallen  from  a  total  of  740  per  annum  to  a 
total  of  372— practically  one-half.  Has  the  engineer  no  inward 
satisfaction  who  knows  such  results  as  these  have  accrued  from 
his  work  ? 

Again,  consider  the  magnitude  and  completeness  of  the  water- 
supply  of  a  large  town,  especially  a  town  that  has  to  depend 
upon  the  storing  up  of  rain  water  :  the  prevision  which  takes 
into  account,  not  merely  the  variation  of  the  different  reasons  of 
the  year,  but  the  variation  of  one  year  from  another  ;  that,  having 
collated  all  the  stored-up  information,  determines  what  must  be 
the  magnitude  of  the  reservoirs  to  allow  for  at  least  three  con- 
secutive dry  years,  such  as  may  happen  ;  and  that  finds  the  sites 
where  these  huge  reservoirs  may  be  safely  built. 

All  the.-e — and  many  other  illustrations  which  I  could  put 
before  you  if  time  allowed — appear  to  me  to  afford  conclusive 
evidence  that,  whether  it  be  in  the  erection  of  the  lighthouse  on 
the  lonely  rock  at  sea  ;  whether  it  be  in  the  crossing  of  rivers,  or 
seas,  or  arms  of  seas,  by  bridges  or  by  tunnels ;  whether  it  be 
the  cleansing  of  our  towns  from  that  which  is  foul  ;  whether  it  be 
the  supply  of  pure  water  to  every  dwelling,  or  the  distribution  of 
light  or  of  motive  power  ;  or  whether  it  be  in  the  production  of 
the  m'ghty  ocean  steamer,  or  in  the  spanning  of  valleys,  the 
piercing  of  mountains,  and  affording  the  firm,  secure  road  for  the 
express  train  ;  or  whether  it  be  the  encircling  of  the  world  with 
telegraphs — the  work  of  the  civil  engineer  is  not  of  the  earth 
earthy,  is  not  mechanical  to  the  exclusion  of  science,  is  not 
unintellectual ;  but  is  of  a  most  beneficent  nature,  is  consistent 
with  true  poetical  feeling,  and  is  worthy  of  the  highest  order  of 
intellect. 


SECTION  A. 

MATHEMATICAL   AND    PHYSICAL    SCIENCE. 

Opening  Address  by  Prof.  G.  F.  Fitzgerald,  M.A., 
F.R.S.,  President  of  the  Section. 

The  British  Association  in  Bath,  and  especially  we  here  in 
Section  A,  have  to  deplore  a  very  great  loss.  We  confidently 
anticipated  profit  and  pleasure  from  the  presence  in  this  chair  of 
one  of  the  leading  spirits  of  English  science,  Dr.  Schuster.  We 
deplore  the  loss,  and  we  deplore  the  cause  of  it.  It  is  always 
sad  when  want  of  strength  makes  the  independent  dependent, 
and  it  is  doubly  sad  when  a  life's  work  is  thereby  delayed  ;  and 
to  selfish  humanity  it  is  trebly  sad  when,  as  in  this  case,  we 
ourselves  are  involved  in  the  loss.  And  our  loss  is  great.  Dr. 
Schuster  has  been  investigating  some  very  important  questions. 
He  has  been  studying  electric  discharges  in  gases,  and  he  has 
been  investigating  the  probably  allied  question  of  the  variations 
of  terrestrial  magnetism.  We  anticipated  his  matured  pro- 
nouncements upon  these  subjects,  and  also  the  advantage  of  his 
very  wide  general  information  upon  physical  questions,  and  the 
benefit  of  his  judicial  mind  while  presiding  here. 

As  to  myself,  his  substitute,  I  cannot  express  how  much 
gratified  I  feel  at  the  distinguished  honour  done  me  in  asking 
me  to  preside.  It  has  been  one  of  the  ambitions  of  my  life  to 
be  worthy  of  it,  and  I  will  do  my  best  to  deserve  your  con- 
fidence ;  man  can  do  no  more,  and  upon  such  a  subject  "the 
less  said  the  soonest  mended." 

I  suppose  most  former  occupants  of  this  chair  have  looked 
over  the  addresses  of  their  predecessors  to  see  what  sort  of  a 
thing  was  expected  from  them.  I  find  that  very  few  had  the 
courage  to  deliver  no  address.  Most  have  devoted  themselves 
to  broad  general  questions,  such  as  the  relations  of  mathematics 
to  physics,  or  more  generally  deductive  to  inductive  science. 
On  the  other  hand,  several  have  dealt  each  with  his  own 
specialty.  On  looking  back  over  these  addresses  my  attention 
was  specially  arrested  by  the  first  two  pa^-t  Presidents  of  this 
Section  whose  bodily  presence  we  cannot  have  here.  They 
were  Presidents  of  Section  A  in  consecutive  years.  In  1874, 
Provost  Jellett  occupied  this  chair  ;  and  in  1875,  Prof.  Balfour 
Stewart  occupied  it.  Foth  have  gone  from  us  since  the  last 
meeting  of  this  Association.  Each  gave  a  characteristic 
address.  The  Provost,  with  the  clearness  and  brilliancy  that 
distinguished  his  great  intellect,  plunged  through  the  deep  and 
broad  questions  surrounding  the  mechanism  of  the  universe, 
and  with  impassioned  earnestness  claimed  on  behalf  of  science 
the  right  to  prosecute  its  investigations  until  it  attains,  if  it  ever 
does  attain,  to  a  mechanical  explanation  of  all  things.  This 
intrepid  honesty,  to  carry  to  their  utmost  the  principles  of 
whose  truth  he  was  convinced,  the  utter  abhorrence  of  the 
shadow  of  double-dealing  with  truth,  was  eminently  character- 
istic of  one  whom  all,  but  especially  we  of  Trinity  College, 
Dublin,  will  long  miss  as  a  lofty  example  of  the  highest 
intellectual  keenness  and  honesty,  and  mourn  as  the  truest- 
hearted  friend,  full  of  sympathy  and  Chri.-tian  charity.  In 
1875,  Prof.  Stewart  gave  us  a  striking  example  of  the  other  class 
of  address  in  a  splendid  exposition  of  the  subject  he  did  so  much 
to  advance — namely,  solar  physics.  He  brought  together  from 
the  two  great  storehouses  of  his  information  and  speculation  a 
brilliant  store,  and  displayed  them  here  for  the  advancement  of 
science.  Him,  too,  all  science  mourns.  Though,  from  want  of 
personal  acquaintance,  I  am  unequal  to  the  task  of  bringing 
before  you  his  many  abilities  and  great  character,  you  can  each 
compose  a  fitting  epitaph  for  this  well-known  great  one  of  British 
science.  In  this  connection  I  am  only  expressing  what  we  all 
feel  when  I  say  how  well  timed  was  the  Royal  bounty  recently 
extended  to  his  widow.  At  the  same  time,  the  niggardly  re- 
cognition of  science  by  the  public  is  a  disgrace  to  the  enlighten- 
ment of  the  nineteenth  century.  What  Chancellor  or  General 
with  his  tens  of  thousands  has  done  that  for  his  country  and 
mankind  that  Faraday,  Darwin,  and  Pasteur  have  done?  The 
"public"  now  are  but  the  children  of  those  who  murdered 
Socrates,  tolerated  the  persecution  of  Galileo,  and  deserted 
Columbus. 

In  a  Presidential  address  on  the  borderlands  of  the  known 
delivered  from  this  chair  the  great  Clerk  Maxwell  spoke  of  it  as 
an  undecided  question  whether  electro-magnetic  phenomena  are 
due  to  a  direct  action  at  a  distance  or  are  due  to  the  action  of  an 
intevening  medium.  The  year  1888  will  be  ever  memorable  as 
the  year  in  which  this  great  question  has  been  experimentally  de- 
cided by  Hertz  in  Germany,  and,  I  hope,  by  others  in  England. 


Sept.  6,  1888] 


NATURE 


447 


It  has  been  decided  in  favour  of  the  hypothesis  that  these  actions 
take  place  by  means  of  an  intervening  medium.  Although  there 
is  nothing  new  about  the  question,  and  although  most  workers 
at  it  have  long  been  practically  satisfied  that  electro-magnetic 
actions  are  due  to  an  intervening  medium,  I  have  thought  it 
worth  while  to  try  and  explain  to  others  who  may  not  have 
considered  the  problem,  what  the  problem  is  and  how  it  has 
been  solved.  A  Presidential  address  such  as  this  is  not  for 
specialists — it  is  for  the  whole  Section  ;  and  I  would  not  have 
thought  of  dealing  with  this  subject,  only  that  its  immediate 
consequences  reach  to  all  the  bounds  of  physical  science,  and 
are  of  interest  to  all  its  students. 

We  are  all  familiar  with  this,  that  when  we  do  not  know  all 
about  something  there  are  generally  a  variety  of  explanations  of 
what  we  do  know.  Whether  there  is  anything  of  which  there 
are  in  reality  a  variety  of  explanations  is  a  deep  question, 
which  some  have  connected  with  the  freedom  of  the  will,  but 
which  I  am  not  concerned  with  here.  A  notable  example  of 
the  possibility  of  a  variety  of  explanations  for  us  is  recorded  in 
connection  with  an  incident  said  to  have  occurred  in  the  neigh- 
bouring town  of  Clifton,  where  a  remarkable  meteorological 
phenomenon,  as  it  appeared  to  an  observing  scientist,  was 
explained  by  others  as  a  bull's-eye  lantern  in  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Pickwick.  Another  kind  of  example  is  the  old  explanation  of 
water  rising  in  a  pump,  that  "Nature  abhors  a  vacuum,"  as 
compared  with  the  modern  one.  Nowadays,  when  we  know  as 
little  about  anything,  we  say,  "  It  is  the  property  of  electricity 
to  attract."  This  is  really  little  or  no  advance  on  the  old  form, 
and  is  merely  a  way  of  stating  that  we  know  a  fact  but  not  its 
explanation.  There  are  plenty  of  cases  still  where  a  variety  of 
explanations  are  possible.  For  example,  we  know  of  no  experi- 
ment it  in  crucis  to  decide  whether  the  people  I  see  around  me  are 
conscious  or  are  only  automata.  There  are  other  questions 
which  have  existed,  but  which  have  been  experimentally  de- 
cided. The  most  celebrated  of  these  are  the  questions  between 
the  caloric  and  kinetic  theories  of  heat,  and  between  the  emis- 
sion and  undulatory  theories  of  light.  The  classical  experiments 
by  which  the  case  has  been  decided  in  favour  of  the  kinetic 
theory  of  heat  and  the  undulatory  theory  of  light  are  some  of 
the  most  important  experiments  that  have  ever  been  performed. 
When  it  was  shown  that  heat  disappeared  whenever  work  ap- 
peared, and  vice  versd,  and  so  the  caloric  hypothesis  was  dis- 
proved ;  when  it  was  shown  that  light  was  propagated  more 
slowly  in  a  dense  medium  than  in  a  rare,  the  sciences  of  light 
and  heat  were  revolutionized.  Not  but  that  most  who 
studied  the  subjec:  had  given  their  adhesion  to  the  true 
theory  before  it  was  finally  decided  in  general  es:imation. 
In  fact,  Rumford's  and  Davy's  experiments  on  heat,  and 
Young  and  Fresnel's  experiments  on  light,  had  really 
decided  these  questions  long  before  the  erroneous  views 
were  finally  abandoned.  I  hope  that  science  will  not 
be  so  slow  in  accepting  the  results  of  experiment  in  respect  of 
electro-magnetism  as  it  was  in  the  case  of  light  and  heat,  and 
that  no  Carnot  will  throw  back  science  by  giving  plausible 
explanations  on  a  wrong  hypothesis.  Rowland's  experiment 
proving  an  electro-magnetic  action  between  electric  charges 
depending  on  their  absolute  and  not  relative  velocities  has 
already  proved  the  existence  of  a  medium  relative  to  which  the 
motion  must  take  place,  but  the  connection  is  rather  meta- 
physical, and  is  too  indirect  to  attract  general  attention.  The 
importance  of  these  striking  experiments  was  that  they  put  the 
language  of  the  wrong  hypothesis  out  of  fashion.  Elementary 
text-books  that  halted  between  two  opinions,  and,  after  the 
manner  of  text-books,  leant  towards  that  enunciated  in  pre- 
ceding text-books,  had  all  perforce  to  give  prominence  to  the 
true  theory,  and  the  whole  rising  generation  began  their 
researches  from  a  firm  and  true  stand-point.  I  anticipate  the 
same  results  to  follow  Hertz's  experimental  demonstration  of  a 
medium  by  which  electromagnetic  actions  are  produced.  Text- 
books which  have  gradually  been  invoking  lines  of  force,  in  some 
respects  to  the  aid  of  learners  and  in  others  to  their  bewilderment, 
will  now  fearlessly  discourse  of  the  stresses  in  the  ether  that 
cause  electric  and  magnetic  force.  The  younger  generation  will 
see  clearly  in  electro-magnetic  phenomena  the  working  of  the 
all-pervading  ether,  and  this  will  give  them  a  firm  and  true 
stand-point  for  further  advances. 

And  now  I  want  to  spend  a  short  time  in  explaining  to  you 
how  the  question  has  been  decided.  An  illustrative  example 
may  make  the  question  itself  clearer,  and  so  lead  you  to  under- 
stand the  answer  better.     In  colloquial  language  we  say  that 


balloons,  hot  air,  Sec,  rise  because  they  are  light.  In  old  times 
this  was  stated  more  explicitly,  and  therefore  much  more  clearly. 
It  was  said  that  they  possessed  a  quality  called  "levity." 
"Levity"  was  opposed  to  "heaviness."  Heaviness  made 
things  tend  downwards,  levity  made  things  tend  upwards.  It 
was  a  sort  of  action  at  a  distance.  At  least,  it  would  have 
required  such  an  hypothesis  if  it  had  survived  until  it  was  known 
.that  heaviness  was  due  to  the  action  of  the  earth.  I  expect 
levity  would  have  been  attributed  to  the  direct  action  of  heaven. 
It  was  comparatively  recently  in  the  history  of  mankind  that  the 
rising  of  hot  air,  flames,  &c,  was  attributed  to  the  air.  Every- 
body knew  that  there  was  air,  but  it  was  not  supposed  that  the 
upward  motion  of  flames  was  due  to  it.  We  now  know  that  this 
anrl  the  rising  of  balloons  are  due  to  the  difference  of  pressure  at 
different  levels  in  the  air.  In  a  similar  way  we  have  long  known 
that  there  is  an  ether,  •  an  all-pervading  medium,  occupying  all 
known  space.  Its  existence  is  a  necessary  consequence  of  the 
undulatory  theory  of  light.  People  who  think  a  little,  but 
not  much,  sometimes  ask  me,  "Why  do  you  believe  in  the 
ether?  What's  the  good  of  it?"  I  ask  them,  "What 
becomes  of  light  for  the  eight  minutes  after  it  has  left  the  sun 
and  before  it  reaches  the  earth  ?  "  When  they  consider  that,  they 
observe  how  necessary  the  ether  is.  If  light  took  no  time  to 
come  from  the  sun,  there  would  be  no  need  of  the  ether.  That 
it  is  a  vibratory  phenomenon,  that  it  is  affected  by  matter  it  acts 
through — these  could  be  explained  by  action  at  a  distance  very 
well.  The  phenomena  of  interference  would,  however,  require 
such  complicated  and  curious  laws  of  action  at  a  distance  as 
practically  to  put  such  an  hypothesis  out  of  court,  or  else  be  purely 
mathematical  expressions  for  wave  propagation.  In  fact,  any- 
thing except  propagation  in  time  is  explicable  by  action  at  a 
distance.  It  is  the  same  in  the  case  of  electro-magnetic  actions. 
There  were  two  hypotheses  as  to  the  causes  of  electro-magnetic 
actions.  One  attributed  electric  attraction  to  a  property  of  a 
thing  called  electricity  to  attract  at  a  distance,  the  other  at- 
tributed it  to  a  pull  exerted  by  means  of  the  ether,  somewhat  in 
the  way  that  air  pushes  balloons  up.  We  do  not  know  what  the 
structure  of  the  ether  is  by  means  of  which  it  can  pull,  but 
neither  do  we  know  what  the  structure  of  a  piece  of  india-rubber 
is  by  means  of  which  it  can  pull  ;  and  we  might  as  well  ignore 
the  india-rubber,  though  .we  know  a  lot  about  the  laws  of  its 
action,  because  we  do  not  know  its  structure,  as  to  ignore  the 
ether  because  we  do  not  know  its  structure.  Anyway,  what  was 
wanted  was  an  experiment  to  decide  between  the  hypothesis  of 
direct  action  at  a  distance  and  of  action  by  means  of  a 
medium.  At  the  time  that  Clerk  Maxwell  delivered  his 
address  no  experiment  was  known  that  could  decide  between 
the  two  hypotheses.  Specific  inductive  capacity,  the  action 
of  intervening  matter,  the  delay  in  telegraphing,  the  time 
propagation  of  electro-magnetic  actions  by  means  of  conducting 
material — these  were  known,  but  he  knew  that  they  could  be 
explained  by  means  of  action  at  a  distance,  and  had  been  so 
explained.  Waves  in  a  conductor  do  not  necessarily  postulate 
action  through  a  medium  such  as  the  ether.  When  we  are 
dealing  with  a  conductor  and  a  thing  called  electricity  running 
over  its  surface,  we  are,  of  course,  postulating  a  medium  on  or 
in  the  conductor,  but  not  outside  it,  which  is  the  special  point  at 
issue.  Clerk  Maxwell  believed  that  just  as  the  same  air  that 
transmits  sound  is  able  by  differences  of  pressure — i.e.  by  means 
of  its  energy  per  unit  volume — to  move  bodies  immersed  in  it,  so 
the  same  ether  that  transmits  light  causes  electrified  bodies  to 
move  by  means  of  its  energy  per  unit  volume.  He  believed  this, 
but  there  was  no  experiment  known  then  to  decide  between  this 
hypothesis  and  that  of  direct  action  at  a  distance.  As  I  have 
endeavoured  to  impress  upon  you,  no  experimentum  crucis 
between  the  hypotheses  is  possible  except  an  experiment  proving 
propagation  in  time,  either  directly,  or  indirectly  by  an  experi- 
ment exhibiting  phenomena  like  those  of  the  interference  of 
light.  A  theorist  may  speak  of  propagation  of  actions  in  time 
without  talking  of  a  medium.  This  is  ail  very  well  in  mathe- 
matical formulae,  but,  as  in  the  case  of  light  we  must 
consider  what  becomes  of  it  after  it  has  left  the  sun  and 
before  it  reaches  the  earth,  so  every  hypothe-is  assuming 
action  in  time  really  postulates  a  medium  whether  we  talk 
about  it  or  not.  There  are  some  difficulties  surrounding  the 
complete  interpretation  of  some  of  Hertz's  experiments.  The 
conditions  are  complicated,  but  I  confidently  expect  that  they 
will  lead  to  a  decision  on  most  of  the  outstanding  questions  on 
the  theory  of  electro-magnetic  action.  However,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  he  has  observed  the  interference  of  electro-magnetic 


448 


NATURE 


{Sept.  6,  1888 


waves  quite  analogous  to  those  of  light,  and  that  he  has  proved 
that  electro-magnetic  actions  are  propagated  in  air  with  the 
velocity  of  light.  By  a  beautiful  device  Hertz  has  produced 
rapidly  alternating  currents  of  such  frequency  that  their  wave- 
length is  only  about  2  metres.  I  may  pause  for  a  minute  to 
call  your  attention  to  what  that  means.  These  waves  are 
propagated  three  hundred  thousand  kilometres  in  a  second.  If 
they  vibrated  three  hundred  thousand  times  a  second,  the  waves 
would  be  each  a  kilometre  long.  This  rate  of  vibration  is  much 
higher  than  the  highest  audible  note,  and  yet  the  waves  are 
much  too  long  to  be  manageable.  We  want  a  vibration  about 
a  thousand  times  as  fast  again  with  waves  about  a  metre  long. 
Hertz  produced  such  vibrations,  vibiating  more  than  a  hundred 
million  times  a  second.  That  is,  there  are  as  many  vibra- 
tions in  one  second  as  there  are  seconds — in  a  day?  No, 
far  more.  In  a  week  ?  No,  more  even  than  that.  The  pen- 
dulum of  a  clock  ticking  seconds  would  have  to  vibrate  for  four 
months  before  it  would  vibrate  as  often  as  one  of  Hertz's  vibrators 
vibrates  in  one  second.  And  how  did  he  detect  the  vibrations 
and  their  interference  ?  He  could  not  see  them  ;  they  are 
much  too  slow  for  that ;  they  should  go  about  a  million  times 
as  fast  again  to  be  visible.  He  could  not  hear  them  ;  they  are 
much  too  quick  for  that.  If  they  went  a  million  times  more  slowly 
they  would  be  well  heard.  He  made  use  of  the  principle  of 
resonance.  You  all  understand  how  by  a  succession  of  well- 
timed  small  impulses  a  large  vibration  may  be  set  up.  It  ex- 
plains many  things,  from  speech  to  spectrum  analysis.  It  is 
related  that  a  former  Marquess  of  Waterford  used  the  principle 
to  overturn  lamp-posts — his  ambition  soared  above  knocker- 
wrenching.  So  that  it  is  a  principle  known  to  others  besides 
scientific  men.  Hertz  constructed  a  circuit  whose  period  of 
vibration  for  electric  currents  was  the  same  as  that  of  his 
generating  vibrator,  and  he  was  able  to  see  sparks,  due  to  the 
induced  vibration,  leaping  across  a  small  air-space  in  this  re- 
sonant circuit.  The  well-timed  electrical  impulses  broke  down 
the  air-resistance  just  as  those  of  my  Lord  of  Waterford  broke 
down  the  lamp-post.  The  combination  of  a  vibrating  generating 
circuit  with  a  resonant  receiving  circuit  is  one  that  I  spoke  of  at 
the  meeting  of  the  British  Association  at  Southport  as  one  by 
which  this  very  question  might  be  studied.  At  the  time  I  did 
not  see  any  feasible  way  of  detecting  the  induced  resonance  :  I 
did  not  anticipate  that  it  could  produce  sparks.  By  its  means, 
however,  Hertz  has  been  able  to  observe  the  interference  between 
waves  incident  on  a  wall  and  the  reflected  waves.  He  placed  his 
generating  vibrator  several  wave-lengths  away  from  a  wall,  and 
placed  the  receiving  resonant  circuit  between  the  generator  and 
the  wall,  and  in  this  air-space  he  was  able  to  observe  that  at 
some  points  there  were  hardly  any  induced  sparks,  but  at  other 
and  greater  distances  from  his  generator  they  reappeared,  to  dis- 
appear again  in  regular  succession  at  equal  intervals  between  his 
generator  and  the  wall.  It  is  exactly  the  same  phenomenon  as 
what  are  known  as  Lloyd's  bands  in  optics,  which  are  due  to  the 
interference  between  a  direct  and  a  reflected  wave.  It  follows 
hence  that,  just  as  Young's  and  Fresnel's  researches  on  the  inter- 
ference of  light  prove  the  undulatory  theory  of  optics,  so  Hertz's 
experiment  proves  the  ethereal  theory  of  electro-magnetism.  It 
is  a  splendid  result.  Henceforth  I  hope  no  learner  will  fail  to 
be  impressed  with  the  theory — hypothesis  no  longer — that  electro- 
magnetic actions  are  due  to  a  medium  pervading  all  known 
space,  and  that  it  is  the  same  medium  as  the  one  by  which  light 
is  propagated,  that  non-conductors  can,  and  probably  always  do, 
as  Prof.  Poynting  has  taught  us,  transmit  electro-magnetic  energy. 
By  means  of  variable  currents  energy  is  propagated  into  space 
with  the  velocity  of  light.  The  rotation  of  the  earth  is  being 
slowly  stopped  by  the  diurnal  rotation  of  its  magnetic  poles. 
This  seems  a  hopeful  direction  in  which  to  look  for  an  explanation 
of  the  secular  precession  of  terrestrial  magnetism.  It  is  quite 
different  from  Edlund's  curious  hypothesis  that  free  space  is  a 
perfect  conductor.  If  this  were  true,  there  would  be  a  pair  of  great 
antipoles  outside  the  air,  and  terrestrial  magnetism  would  not  be 
much  like  what  it  is,  and  I  think  the  earth  would  have  stopped 
rotating  long  ago.  With  alternating  currents  we  do  propagate 
energy  through  nonconductors.  It  seems  almost  as  if  our  future 
telegraph-cables  would  be  pipes.  Just  as  the  long  sound-waves 
in  speaking-tubes  go  round  corners,  so  these  electro-magnetic 
waves  go  round  corners  if  they  are  not  too  sharp.  Prof.  Lodge 
will  probably  have  something  to  tell  us  on  this  point  in  connec- 
tion with  lightning-conductors.  The  silvered  glass-bars  used  by 
surgeons  to  conduct  light  are  exactly  what  I  am  describing. 
They  are  a  glass,  a  non-conducting,  and  therefore  transparent, 


bar  surrounded  by  a  conducting,  and  therefore  opaque,  silver 
sheath,  and  they  transmit  the  rapidly  alternating  currents  we  call 
light.  There  would  not  be  the  same  difficulty  in  utilizing  the 
energy  of  these  electro-magnetic  waves  as  in  utilizing  radiant 
heat.  Having  all  the  vibrations  of  the  same  period  we  might 
utilize  Hertz's  resonating  circuits,  and  in  any  case  the  second  law 
of  thermodynamics  would  not  trouble  us  when  we  could 
practically  attain  to  the  absolute  zero  of  these,  as  compared  with 
heat,  long- period  vibrations. 

We  seem  to  be  approaching  a  theory  as  to  the  structure  of  the 
ether.  There  are  difficulties  from  diffusion  in  the  simple  theory 
that  it  is  a  fluid  full  of  motion,  a  sort  of  vortex-sponge.  There 
were  similar  difficulties  in  the  wave  theory  of  light  owing  to  wave 
propagation  round  corners,  and  there  is  as  great  a  difficulty  in 
the  jelly  theory  of  the  ether  arising  from  the  freedom  of  motion 
of  matter  through  it.  It  may  be  found  that  there  is  diffusion,  or 
it  may  be  found  that  there  are  polarized  distributions  of  fluid 
kinetic  energy  which  are  not  unstable  when  the  surfaces  are 
fixed  :  more  than  one  such  is  known.  Osborne  Reynolds  has 
pointed  out  another,  though  in  my  opinion  less  hopeful,  direction 
in  which  to  look  for  a  theory  of  the  ether.  Hard  particles  are 
abominations.  Perhaps  the  impenetrability  of  a  vortex  would 
suffice.  Oliver  Lodge  speaks  confidently  of  a  sort  of  chemical 
union  of  two  opposite  kinds  of  elements  forming  the  ether.  The 
opposite  sides  of  a  vortex- ring  might  perchance  suit,  or  maybe 
the  ether,  after  all,  is  but  an  atmosphere  of  some  infra-hydrogen 
element :  these  two  latter  hypotheses  may  both  come  to  the  same 
thing.  Anyway  we  are  learning  daily  what  sort  of  properties  the 
ether  must  have.  It  must  be  the  means  of  propagation  of  light ; 
it  must  be  the  means  by  which  electric  and  magnetic  forces 
exist ;  it  should  explain  chemical  actions,  and,  if  possible, 
gravity. 

On  the  vortex-sponge  theory  of  the  ether  there  is  no  real 
difficulty  by  reason  of  complexity  why  it  should  not  explain 
chemical  actions.  In  fact,  there  is  every  reason  to  expect  that 
very  much  more  complex  actions  would  take  place  at  distances 
comparable  with  the  size  of  the  vortices  than  at  the  distances  at 
which  we  study  the  simple  phenomena  of  electro-magnetism. 
Indeed,  if  vortices  can  make  a  small  piece  of  a  strong  elastic 
solid,  we  can  make  watches  and  build  steam-engines  and  any 
amount  of  complex  machinery,  so  that  complexity  can  be  no 
essential  difficulty.  Similarly  the  instantaneous  propagation  of 
gravity,  if  it  exists,  is  not  an  essential  difficulty,  for  vortices  each 
occupy  all  space,  and  they  act  on  one  another  simultaneously 
everywhere.  The  theory  that  material  atoms  are  simple  vortex- 
rings  in  a  perfect  liquid  otherwise  unmoving  is  insufficient,  but 
with  the  innumerable  possibilities  of  fluid  motion  it  seems  almost 
impossible  but  that  an  explanation  of  the  properties  of  the  uni- 
verse will  be  found  in  this  conception.  Anything  purporting  to 
be  an  explanation  founded  on  such  ideas  as  "an  inherent 
property  of  matter  to  attract,"  or  building  up  big  elastic  solids 
out  of  little  ones,  is  not  of  the  nature  of  an  ultimate  explanation 
at  all  ;  it  can  only  be  a  temporary  stopping-place.  There  are 
metaphysical  grounds,  too,  for  reducing  matter  to  motion  and 
potential  to  kinetic  energy. 

These  ideas  are  not  new,  but  it  is  well  to  enunciate  them  from 
time  to  time,  and  a  Presidential  address  in  Section  A  is  a  fitting 
time.  Besides  all  this,  it  has  become  the  fashion  to  indulge  in 
quaint  cosmical  theories  and  to  dilate  upon  them  before  learned 
Societies  and  in  learned  journals.  I  would  suggest,  as  one  who 
has  been  bogged  in  this  quagmire,  that  a  successor  in  this  chair 
might  well  devote  himself  to  a  review  of  the  cosmical  theories 
propounded  within  the  last  few  years.  The  opportunities  for 
piquant  critiefsm  would  be  splendid. 

Returning  to  the  sure  ground  of  experimental  research,  let  us 
for  a  moment  contemplate  what  is  betokened  by  this  theory  that 
in  electro-magnetic  engines  we  are  using  as  our  mechanism  the 
ether,  the  medium  that  fills  all  known  space.  It  was  a  great 
step  in  human  progress  when  man  learnt  to  make  material 
machines,  when  he  used  the  elasticity  of  his  bow  and  the  rigidity 
of  his  arrow  to  provide  food  and  defeat  his  enemies.  It  was  a 
great  advance  when  he  learnt  to  use  the  chemical  action  of  fire  , 
when  he  learnt  to  use  water  to  float  his  boats  and  air  to  drive 
them  ;  when  he  used  artificial  selection  to  provide  himself  with 
food  and  domestic  animals.  For  two  hundred  years  he  has  made 
heat  his  slave  to  drive  his  machinery.  Fire,  water,  earth,  and 
air  have  long  been  his  slaves,  but  it  is  only  within  the  last  few 
years  that  man  has  won  the  battle  lost  by  the  giants  of  old,  has 
s'iatched  the  thunderbolt  from  Jove  himself,  and  enslaved  the 
all-pervading  ether. 


Sept.  6,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


449 


SECTION  C. 

GEOLOUY. 

Opening  Address  by  W.  Boyd  Dawkins,  M.A.,  F.R.S., 
P.G.S.,  F.S.A.,  Prokessok  ok  Geology  and  Pale- 
ontology   in    Owens    College,  President  01 

Section. 

In  taking  the  chair  occupied  twenty-four  years  ago  in  this 
place  by  my  honoured  master,  Prof.  Phillips,  I  have  been  much 
perplexed  as  to  the  most  fitting  lines  on  which  to  mould  my 
address.  It  was  open  to  me  to  deal  with  the  contributions  to 
our  knowledge  since  our  last  meeting  in  Manchester  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  place  before  you  an  outline  of  our  progress  during 
the  last  twelve  months.  But  this  task,  difficult  in  itself,  is  ren- 
dered still  more  so  by  the  special  circumstances  of  this  meeting, 
attended,  as  it  is,  by  so  large  a  number  of  distinguished  geo- 
logists, assembled  from  nearly  every  part  of  the  world  for  the  pur- 
poses of  the  Geological  Congress.  It  would  be  presumptuous  of 
me,  in  the  presence  of  so  many  specialists,  to  attempt  to  sum- 
marize and  co-ordinate  their  work.  Indeed,  we  stand  too  near  to 
it  to  be  able  to  see  the  true  proportions  of  the  various  parts.  I 
will  merely  take  this  opportunity  of  offering  to  our  visitors,  in 
the  name  of  this  Section  and  of  English  geologists  in  general,  a 
hearty  welcome  to  our  shores,  feeling  that  not  only  will  our 
science  be  benefited  enormously  by  the  simplification  of  geological 
nomenclature,  but  that  we  ourselves  shall  derive  great  advantage 
by  a  closer  personal  contact  than  we  have  enjoyed  hitherto. 

Our  science  has  made  great  strides  during  the  last  twenty-four 
years,  and  she  has  profited  much  from  the  development  of  her 
sisters.  The  microscopic  analysis  of  the  rocks  has  opened  out  a 
new  field  of  research,  in  which  physics  and  chemistry  are  in 
friendly  rivalry,  and  in  which  fascinating  discoveries  are  being 
made  almost  day  by  day  as  to  metamorphism,  and  the  crushing 
and  shearing  forces  brought  to  bear  upon  the  cooling  and  con- 
tracting crust  while  the  earth  was  young.  The  deep-sea  explora- 
tions have  revealed  the  structure  and  the  deposits  of  the  ocean 
abysses  ;  and  the  depths  supposed  to  be  without  life,  like  the 
fabled  deserts  in  the  interior  of  Africa,  are  now  known  to  teem 
with  varied  forms  glowing  with  the  richest  colours.  From  a 
comparison  of  these  deposits  with  the  stratified  rocks  we  mav 
conclude  that  the  latter  are  marginal,  and  deposited  in  depths 
not  greater  than  1000  fathoms,  or  the  shore  end  of  the  Globi- 
gerina  ooze,  and  most  of  them  at  a  very  much  less  depth,  and 
that  consequently  there  is  no  proof  in  the  geological  record  of  the 
ocean  depths  having  ever  been  in  any  other  than  their  present 
places. 

In  North  America  the  geological  survey  of  the  Western  States 
has  brought  to  light  an  almost  unbroken  series  of  animal  remains, 
ranging  from  the  Eocene  down  to  the  Pleistocene  age.  In  these 
we  find  the  missing  links  in  the  pedigree  of  the  horse,  and 
sufficient  evidence  of  transitional  forms  to  cause  Prof.  Flower  to 
restore  to  its  place  in  classification  the  order  Ungulata  of  Cuvier. 
These  may  be  expected  to  occupy  the  energies  of  our  kinsmen  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  for  many  years,  and  to  yield  further 
proof  of  the  truth  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution.  The  use  of 
this  word  reminds  me  how  much  we  have  grown  since  1864, 
when  evolution  was  under  discussion,  and  when  biological, 
physical,  and  geological  laboratories  could  scarcely  be  said  to 
have  existed  in  this  country.  Truly  may  the  scientific  youth  of 
to-day  make  the  boast — 

"  We  are  much  better  off  than  our  fathers  were  ; "  while  we,  the 
fathers,  have  the  poor  consolation  of  knowing  that  when  they 
are  fathers  their  children  will  say  the  same  of  them.  There  is 
reason  to  suppose  that  our  science  will  advance  more  swiftly  in 
the  future  than  it  has  in  the  past,  because  it  has  more  delicate  and 
precise  methods  of  research  than  it  ever  had  before,  and  because 
its  votaries  are  more  numerous  than  they  ever  were. 

In  1864  the  attention  of  geologists  was  mainly  given  to  the 
investigations  of  the  later  stages  of  the  Tertiary  period.  The 
bent  of  my  pursuits  inclines  me  to  revert  to  this  portion  of 
geological  inquiry,  and  to  discuss  certain  points  which  have 
arisen  during  the  last  few  years  in  connection  with  the  classifi- 
catory  value  of  fossils,  and  the  mode  in  which  they  may  be  best 
used  for  the  co-ordination  of  strata  in  various  parts  of  the  world. 

The  principle  of  homotaxy,  first  clearly  defined  by  Prof. 
Huxley,  has  been  fully  accepted  as  a  guiding  principle  in  place 
of  synchronism  or  contemporaneity,  and  the  fact  of  certain 
groups  of  plants  and  animals  succeeding  one  another  in  a  definite 


order,  in  countries  remote  from  each  other,  is  no  longer  taken  to 
imply  that  each  was  living  in  the  various  regions  at  the  same 
time,  but  rather,  unless  there  be  evidence  to  the  contrary,  that 
they  were  not.  While,  however,  there  is  a  universal  agreement 
on  this  point  among  geologists,  the  classifieatory  value  of  the 
various  divisions  of  the  vegetable  and  animal  kingdoms  is  still 
under  discussion,  and,  as  has  been  very  well  put  by  my  pre- 
decessor in  this  chair  at  Montreal,  sometimes  the  evidence  of  one 
class  of  organic  remains  points  in  one  direction,  while  the 
evidence  of  another  class  points  in  another  and  wholly  different 
direction,  as  to  the  geological  horizon  of  the  same  rocks.  The 
flora,  put  into  the  witness-box  by  the  botanist,  says  one  thing, 
while  the  Mollusca  or  the  Vertebrata  say  another  thing  in  the 
hands  of  their  respective  counsel.  There  seems  to  be  a  tacit 
assumption  that  the  various  divisions  of  the  organic  world  present 
the  same  amount  of  variation  in  the  rocks,  and  that  consequently 
the  evidence  of  every  part  of  it  is  of  equal  value. 

It  will  not  be  unprofitable  to  devote  a  few  minutes  to  this 
question,  premising  that  each  case  must  be  decided  on  its  own 
merits,  without  prejudice,  and  that  the  whole  of  the  evidance  of 
the  flora  and  fauna  must  be  considered.  We  will  take  the  flora 
first. 

The  Cryptogamic  flora  of  the  later  Primary  rocks  shows  but 
slight  evidence  of  change.  The  forests  of  Britain  and  of  Europe 
generally,  and  of  North  America,  were  composed  practically  of 
the  same  elements — Sigillaria,  Calamites,  and  conifers  allied  to 
the  Ginkho — throughout  the  whole  of  the  Carboniferous  (16,336 
feet  in  thickness  in  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire)  and  Devonian 
rocks,  and  do  not  present  greater  differences  than  those  which 
are  to  be  seen  in  the  existing  forests  of  France  and  Germany. 
They  evidently  were  continuous  both  in  space  and  lime,  from 
their  beginning  in  the  Upper  Silurian  to  their  decay  and  ultimate 
disappearance  in  the  Permian  age.  This  disappearance  was 
probably  due  to  geographical  and  climatic  changes,  following  the 
altered  relations  of  land  to  sea  at  the  close  of  the  Carboniferous 
age,  by  which  Secondary  plants,  such  as  Voltzla  and  Walchia, 
were  able  to  find  their  way  by  migration  from  an  area  hitherto 
isolated.  The  Devonian  formation  is  mapped  off  from  the 
Carboniferous,  and  this  from  the  Permian,  but  to  a  slight  degree 
by  the  flora,  and  nearly  altogether  by  the  fauna.  While  the 
fauna  exhibits  great  and  important  changes,  the  flora  remained 
on  the  whole  the  same. 

The  forests  of  the  Secondary  period,  consisting  of  various 
conifers  and  cycads,  also  present  slight  differences  as  they  are 
traced  upwards  through  the  Triassic  and  Jurassic  rocks,  while 
remarkable  and  striking  changes  took  place  in  the  fauna,  which 
mark  the  division  of  the  formations  into  smaller  groups.  As  the 
evidence  stands  at  present,  the  cycads  of  the  Lias  do  not  differ  in 
any  important  character  from  those  of  the  Oolites  or  the  Wealden, 
and  the  Salisburia  in  Yorkshire  in  the  Liassic  age  is  very  similar 
to  that  of  the  Island  of  Mull  in  the  Early  Tertiary,  and  to  that 
(Salisburia  adiantifolia)  now  living  in  the  open  air  in  Kew 
Gardens. 

Nor  do  we  find  evidence  of  greater  variation  in  the  Dicotyle- 
donous forests,  from  their  first  appearance  in  the  Cenomanian 
stage  of  the  Cretaceous  rocks  of  Europe  and  America,  through 
the  whole  of  the  Tertiary  period  down  to  the  present  time.  In 
North  America,  the  flora  of  the  Dakota  series  so  closely  re- 
sembles the  Miocene  of  Switzerland,  that  Dr.  Heer  had  no  hesi- 
tation in  assigning  it  in  the  first  instance  to  the  Miocene  age. 
It  consists  of  more  than  a  hundred  species,  of  which  about  one- 
half  are  closely  allied  to  those  now  living  in  the  forests  of  North 
America — sassafras,  tulip,  plane,  willow,  oak,  poplar,  maple, 
beech,  together  with  Sequoia,  the  ancestor  of  the  giant  redwood 
of  California.  The  first  palms  also  appear  in  both  continents  at 
this  place  in  the  geological  record. 

In  the  Tertiary  period  there  is  an  unbroken  sequence  in  the 
floras,  as  Mr.  Starkie  Gardner  has  proved,  when  they  are  traced 
over  many  latitudes,  and  most  of  the  types  still  survive  at  the 
present  day,  but  slightly  altered.  If,  however,  Tertiary  floras 
of  different  ages  are  met  with  in  one  area,  considerable  differ- 
ences are  to  be  seen,  due  to  progressive  alterations  in  the  climate 
and  altered  distribution  of  the  land.  As  the  temperature  of  the 
northern  hemisphere  became  lowered,  the  tropical  forests  were 
pushed  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  equator,  and  were  replaced  by 
plants  of  colder  habit  from  the  northern  regions,  until  ultimately, 
in  the  Pleistocene  age,  the  Arctic  plants  were  pushed  far  to 
the  south  of  their  present  habitat.  In  consequence  of  this,  Mr. 
Gardner  concludes  that  "it  is  useless  to  seek  in  the  Arctic 
regions  for  Eocene  floras  as   we  know  them  in  our  latitudes,  for 


45P 


NATURE 


[Sept.  6,  1888 


during  the  Tertiary  period  the  climatic  conditions  of  the  earth 
did  not  permit  their  growth  there.  Arctic  fossil  floras  of  tem- 
perate and  therefore  Miocene  aspect  are,  in  all  probability,  of 
Eocene  age,  and  what  has  been  recognized  in  them  as  a  newer 
or  Miocene  facies  is  due  to  their  having  been  first  studied  in 
Europe  in  latitudes  which  only  became  fitted  for  them  in  Miocene 
times.  When  stratigraphical  evidence  is  absent  or  inconclusive, 
this  unexpected  persistence  of  plant  types  or  species  throughout 
the  Tertiaries  should  be  remembered,  and  the  degrees  of  latitude 
in  which  they  are  found  should  be  well  considered  before 
conclusions  are  published  respecting  their  relative  age." 

This  view  is  consistent  with  that  held  by  the  leaders  in  botany 
— Hooker,  Dyer,  Saporta,  Dawson,  and  Asa  Gray  (whose 
recent  loss  we  so  deeply  deplore) — that  the  North  Polar  region 
is  the  centre  of  dispersal,  from  which  the  Dicotyledons  spread 
over  the  northern  hemisphere.  If  it  be  true — and  I,  for  one, 
am  prepared  to  accept  it — it  will  follow  that  for  the  co-ordination 
of  the  subdivisions  of  the  Tertiary  strata  in  various  parts  of  the 
world  the  plants  are  uncertain  guides,  as  they  haye  been  shown 
to  be  in  the  case  of  the  Primary  and  Secondary  rocks.  In  all 
cases  where  there  is  a  clash  of  evidence,  such  as  in  the  Laramie 
lignites,  in  which  a  Tertiary  flora  is  associated  with  a  Cretaceous 
fauna,  the  verdict,  in  my  opinion,  must  go  to  the  fauna.  They 
are  probably  of  the  same  geological  age  as  the  deposit  at 
Aix-la-Chapelle. 

I  would  remark,  further,  before  we  leave  the  floras  behind  us, 
that  the  migration  of  new  forms  of  plants  into  Europe  and 
America  took  place  before  the  arrival  of  the  higher  types  in  the 
fauna,  after  the  break-up  of  the  land  at  the  close  of  the  Car- 
boniferous period,  and  after  the  great  change  in  geography  at 
the  close  of  the  Neocomian.'  The  Secondary  plants  preceded 
the  Secondary  vetebrates  by  the  length  of  time  necessary  for 
the  deposit  of  the  Permian  rocks,  and  the  Tertiary  plants  pre- 
ceded the  Tertiary  vertebrates  by  the  whole  period  of  the  Upper 
Cretaceous. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  fauna. 

Prof.  Huxley,  in  one  of  his  many  addresses  which  have  left 
their  mark  upon  our  science,  has  called  attention  to  the  persist- 
ence of  types  revealed  by  the  study  of  palaeontology,  or,  to  put 
it  in  other  words,  to  the  singularly  little  change  which  the 
ordinal  groups  of  life  have  undergone  since  the  appearance  of 
life  on  the  earth.  The  species,  genera,  and  families  present  an 
almost  endless  series  of  changes,  but  the  existing  orders  are  for 
the  most  part  sufficiently  wide,  and  include  the  vast  series  of 
fossils  without  the  necessity  of  framing  new  divisions  for  their 
reception.  The  number  of  these  extinct  orders  is  not  equally 
distributed  through  the  animal  kingdom.  Taking  the  total 
number  of  orders  at  108,  the  number  of  extinct  orders  in  the 
Invertebrata  amounts  only  to  6  out  of  88,  or  about  7  per  cent., 
while  in  the  Vertebrates  it  is  not  less  than  12  out  of  40,  or 
30  per  cent.  These  figures  imply  that  the  amount  of  ordinal 
change  in  the  fossil  Vertebrates  stands  to  that  in  the  Inverte- 
brata in  the  ratio  of  30  to  7.  This  disproportion  becomes  still 
more  marked  when  we  take  into  account  that  the  former  had 
less  time  for  variation  than  the  latter,  which  had  the  start  by 
the  Cambrian  and  Ordovician  periods.  It  follows  also  that  as 
a  whole  they  have  changed  faster. 

The  distribution  of  the  extinct  orders  in  the  animal  kingdom, 
taken  along  with  their  distribution  in  the  rocks,  proves  further 
that  some  types  have  varied  more  than  others,  and  at  various 
places  in  the  geological  record.  In  the  Protozoa,  Porifera,  and 
Vermes  there  are  no  extinct  orders  ;  among  the  Ccelenterates 
one — the  Rugosa  ;  fin  the  Echinodermata  three — Cystideans, 
Edriasterida,  and  Blastoidea ;  in  the  Arthropoda  two — the 
Trilobita  and  Eurypterida.  All  these,  with  the  solitary  ex- 
ception of  the  obscure  order  Rugosa,  are  found  only  in  the 
Primary  rocks.  Among  the  Pisces  there  are  none  ;  in  the 
Amphibia  one  ;  the  Labyrinthodonts  ranging  from  the  Car- 
boniferous to  the  Triassic  age.  Among  the  Reptilia  there  are  at 
least  six  of  Secondary  age — Ple-iosauria,  Ichthyosauria,  Dicyno- 
dontia,  Pterosauria,  Therioclontia,  Deinosauria ;  in  the  Aves 
two— the  Saururae  and  Odontornithes,  also  Secondary.  In  the 
Mammalia  the  Amblypoda,  Tillodontia,  Condylarthra,  and 
Toxodontia  represent  the  extinct  orders — the  three  first  Early 
Tertiary,  and  the  last  Pleistocene.  It  is  clear,  therefore,  that, 
while  the  maximum  amount  of  ordinal  variation  is  presented  by 
the  Secondary  Reptilia  and  Aves,  all  the  extinct  orders  in  the 
Tertiary  are  Mammalian. 

If  we  turn  from  the  extinct  orders  to  the  extinct  species,  it 
will  also  be  found  that  the  maximum  amount  of  variation  is 


presented  by  the  plants,  and  all  the  animals,  excapting  the 
Mammalia,  in  the  Primary  and  Secondary  periods. 

The  general  impression  left  upon  my  mind  by  these  facts  is 
that,  while  all  the  rest  of  the  animal  kingdom  had  ceased  to 
present  important  modifications  at  the  close  of  the  Secondary 
period,  the  Mammalia,  which  presented  no  great  changes 
in  the  Secondary  rocks,  were,  to  quote  a  happy  phrase 
of  Prof.  Gaudry,  "en  pleine  evolution"  in  the  Tertiary 
age.  And  when,  further,  the  singular  perfection  of  the  record 
allows  us  to  trace  the  successive  and  gradual  modifications 
of  the  Mammalian  types  from  the  Eocene  ta  the  close 
of  the  Pleistocene  age,  it  is  obvious  that  they  can  be 
used  to  mark  subdivisions  of  the  Tertiary  period,  in  the 
same  way  as  the  reigns  of  kings  are  used  to  mark  periods  in 
human  history.  In  my  opinion  they  mark  the  geological 
horizon  with  greater  precision  than  the  remains  of  the  lower 
members  of  the  animal  kingdom,  and  in  cases  such  as  that  of 
Pikermi,  where  typical  Miocene  forms,  such  as  Deinotheria,  are 
found  in  a  stratum  above  an  assemblage  of  marine  shells  of 
Pliocene  age,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  Mammalia  are  of  greater 
value  in  classification  than  the  Mollusca,  some  of  the  species  of 
which  have  been  living  from  the  Eocene  down  to  the  present  day. 

Vet  another  important  principle  must  be  noted.  The  fossils 
are  to  be  viewed  in  relation  to  those  forms  now  living  in  their 
respective  geographical  regions.  The  depths  of  the  ocean  have 
been  where  they  are  now  since  the  earliest  geological  times, 
although  continual  geographical  changes  have  been  going  on  at 
their  margins.  In  other  words,  geographical  provinces  must  have 
existed  even  in  the  earlier  geological  periods,  although  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  they  did  not  differ  so  much  from  each  other 
as  at  the  present  day.  It  follows  from  this  that  the  only  just 
standard  for  comparison  in  dealing  with  the  fossils,  and  especially 
of  the  later  rocks,  is  that  which  is  offered  by  the  fauna  and  flora  of 
the  geographical  province  in  which  they  are  found.  The  non- 
recognition  of  this  principle  has  led  to  serious  confusion.  The 
fauna,  for  example,  of  the  Upper  Sivalik  formation  has  been 
very  generally  viewed  from  the  European  stand-point  and  placed 
in  the  Miocene,  while,  judged  by  the  stand-point  of  India,  it  is 
really  Pliocene.  A  similar  confusion  has  followed  from  taking 
the  Miocene  flora  of  Switzerland  as  a  standard  for  the  Tertiary 
flora  of  the  whole  of  the  northern  hemisphere. 

It  now  remains  for  us  to  see  how  these  principles  may  be 
applied  to  the  co-ordination  of  Tertiary  strata  in  various  parts 
of  the  world.  In  1880  I  proposed  a  classification  of  the  Euro- 
pean Tertiaries,  in  which,  apart  from  the  special  characteristic 
fossils  of  each  group,  stress  was  laid  on  the  gradual  approxima- 
tion of  various  groups  to  the  living  Mammalia.  The  definitions 
are  the  following  : — 


Divisions. 


Characteristics. 


1.   Eocene,   or  that  in  which  the     Extinct  orders, 
higher  Mammalia  (Eutheria)  now  on     Living  orders  and  families, 
the  earth  were  represented  by  allied     No  living  genera, 
forms  belonging  to  existing  orders 
and  families. 

Oligocene. 


2.  Miocene,  in  which  the  alliance 
between  fossil  and  living  Mammals 
is  closer  than  before. 


Living  genera. 
No  living  species. 


3.   Pliocene,     in     which      living     Living  species  few. 
species  of  Mammals  appear.  Extinct      species      predo- 

minant. 


4.   Piistocene,    in     which    living 
species  of  Mammals  preponderate. 


Living  species  abundant. 
Extinct  species  present. 
Man  present. 


5.  Prehistoric,  or  that  period  out-  Man  abundant. 

side    history    in    which    Man    has  Domestic  animals  present, 

multiplied  exceedingly  on  the  earth  Wild  Mammals  in  retreat. 

and  introduced  the  domestic  animals.  One  extinct  Mammal. 

6.  Historic,  in  which  the  events     Records, 
are  recorded  in  history. 

These  definitions  are  of  more  than  European  significance. 
The  researches  of  Leidy,  Marsh,  and  Cope  prove  that  they 
apply  equally   to   the   Tertiary  strata  of  North  America.     The 


Sept.  6,  1888] 


NATURE 


45i 


Wasatch  Bridger  and  Uinta  strata  contain  representatives  of  the 
orders  Cheiroptera  and  Insectivora,  the  suborders  Artio-  and 
Perissodactyla,  and  the  families  Vespertilionidas  and  Tapiridae  ; 
but  no  living  genera.1  The  Mammalia  are  obviously  in  the 
same  stage  of  evolution  as  in  the  Eocenes  of  Europe,  although 
there  are  but  few  genera,  and  no  species  common  to  the  two. 

The  White  River  and  Loup  Fork  groups  present  us  with  the 
living  genera  Seiurus,  Castor,  Hyslrix,  RJiiuoccros,  Dicotyles, 
and  others  ;  but  no  living  species,  as  is  the  case  with  the 
Miocenes  of  Europe.  In  the  Pliocenes  of  Oregon  the  first 
living  species  appear,  such  as  the  Beaver,  the  Prairie  Wolf,  and 
two  Rodents  ( Thomomys  clusiiis  and  T.  talpoides),  while  in  the 
Pleistocene  river  deposits  and  caves,  from  Eschscholtz  Bay  in 
the  north  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  in  the  south,  there  is  the  same 
grouping  of  living  with  extinct  species  as  in  Europe,  and  the 
same  evidence  in  the  glaciated  regions  that  the  Mammalia 
occupied  the  land  after  the  retreat  of  the  ice. 

If  we  analyze  the  rich  and  abundant  fauna  yielded  by  the 
caves  and  river  deposits  both  of  South  America  and  of  Australia, 
it  will  be  seen  that  the  Pleistocene  group  in  each  is  marked  by 
the  presence  of  numerous  living  species  in  each,  the  first  being 
remarkable  for  their  gigantic  extinct  Edentata,  and  the  second 
for  their  equally  gigantic  extinct  Marsupials. 

The  admirable  work  of  Mr.  Lydekker  allows  us  also  to  see 
how  these  definitions  apply  to  the  fossil  Mammalia  of  India. 
The  Miocene  fauna  of  the  Lower  Sivaliks  has  yielded  the  living 
genera  Rhinoceros  and  Manis,  and  no  living  species. 

The  fauna  of  the  Upper  Sivaliks,  although  it  has  only  been 
shown,  and  that  with  some  doubt,  to  contain  one  living 
Mammal,  the  Nilghai  {Boselaphns  tragocanuliis),  stands  in  the 
same  relation  to  that  of  the  Oriental  Region  as  that  of  the 
Pliocenes  of  Europe  to  that  of  the  Palaearctic  Region,  and  is 
therefore  Pliocene.  And  lastly,  the  Narbada  formation  presents 
us  with  the  fust  traces  of  Palaeolithic  Man  in  India  in  association 
with  the  living  one-horned  Rhinoceros,  the  Nilghai,  the  Indian 
Buffalo,  two  extinct  Hippopotami,  Elephants,  and  others,  and  is 
Pleistocene. 

It  may  be  objected  to  the  Prehistoric  and  Historic  divisions  of 
the  Tertiary  period  that  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  properly 
fall  within  the  domain  of  geology.  It  will,  however,  be  found 
that  in  tracing  the  fauna  and  flora  from  the  Eocene  downwards 
to  the  present  day  there  is  no  break  which  renders  it  possible  to 
stop  short  at  the  close  of  the  Pleistocene.  The  living  plants 
and  animals  were  in  existence  in  the  Pleistocene  age  in  every 
part  of  the  world  which  has  been  investigated.  The  European 
Mollusca  were  in  Europe  in  the  Pliocene  age.  The  only 
difference  between  the  Pleistocene  fauna,  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  Prehistoric,  on  the  other,  consists  in  the  extinction  of  certain 
of  the  Mammalia  at  the  close  of  the  Pleistocene  age  in  the  Old 
and  New  Worlds,  and  in  Australia.  The  Prehistoric  fauna  in 
Europe  is  also  cha'acterized  by  the  introduction  of  the  ancestors 
of  the  present  domestic  animals,  some  of  which,  such  as  the 
Celtic  shorthorn  {Bos  longifrons),  sheep,  goat,  and  domestic 
hog,  reverted  to  a  feral  condition,  and  have  left  their  remains  in 
caves,  alluvia,  and  peat-bogs  over  the  whole  of  the  British  Isles 
and  the  Continent.  These  remains,  along  with  those  of  Man  in 
the  Neolithic,  Bronze,  and  Iron  stages  of  culture,  mark  off  the 
Prehistoric  from  the  Pleistocene  strata.  There  is  surely  no 
reason  why  a  cave  used  by  Palaeolithic  Man  should  be  handed 
over  to  the  geologist,  while  that  used  by  men  in  the  Prehistoric 
age  should  be  taken  out  of  his  province,  or  why  he  should  be 
asked  to  study  the  lower  strata  only  in  a  given  section,  and  leave 
the  upper  to  be  dealt  with  by  the  archaeologist.  In  these  cases 
the  ground  is  common  to  geo'ogy  and  archaeology,  and  the  same 
things,  if  they  are  looked  at  from  the  stand-point  of  the  history 
of  the  earth,  belong  to  the  first,  and,  if  from  the  stand-point  of 
the  history  of  Man,  to  the  second. 

If,  however,  there  be  no  break  of  continuity  in  the  series  of 
events  from  the  Pleistocene  to  the  Prehistoric  ages,  still  less  is 
there  in  those  which  connect  the  Prehistoric  with  the  period 
embraced  by  history.  The  historic  date  of  a  cave  or  of  a  bed 
of  alluvium  is  as  clearly  indicated  by  the  occurrence  of  a  coin  as 
the  geological  position  of  a  stratum  is  defined  by  an  appeal  to  a 
characteristic  fossil.  The  gradual  unfolding  of  the  present  order 
of  things  from  what  went  before  compels  me  to  recognize  the 
fact  that  the  Tertiary  period  extends  down  to  the  present  day. 
The  Historic  period  is  being  recorded  in  the  strata  now  being 

1  The  genus  Vesperugo  has  not  been  satisfactorily  determined.— Cope, 
"Report   cf  Gejl.   Survey  of  the    Territories:    Tertiary    Vertebrata,"    i., 

i8?4. 


formed,  exactly  in  the  same  way  as  the  other  divisions  of  the 
Tertiary  have  left  their  mark  in  the  -crust  of  the  earth,  and 
history  is  incomplete  without  an  appeal  to  the  geological  record. 
In  the  masterly  outline  of  the  destruction  of  Roman  civilization 
in  Britain  the  historian  of  the  English  Conquest  was  obliged  to 
use  the  evidence,  obtained  from  the  upper  strata,  in  caves  which 
had  been  used  by  refugees  from  the  cities  and  villas  ;  and  among 
the  materials  for  the  future  history  of  this  city  there  are,  to  my 
mind,  none  more  striking  than  the  proof,  offered  by  the  silt  in 
the  great  Roman  bath,  that  the  resort  of  crowds  had  become  so 
utterly  desolate  and  lonely  in  the  ages  following  the  English 
Conquest  as  to  allow  of  the  nesting  of  the  wild  duck. 

I  turn  now  to  the  place  of  Man  in  the  geological  record,  a 
question  which  has  advanced  but  little  since  the  year  1864.  Then, 
as  now,  his  relation  to  the  glacial  strata  in  Britain  was  in  dis- 
pute. It  must  be  confessed  that  the  question  is  still  without  a 
satisfactory  answer,  and  that  it  may  well  be  put  to  "  a  suspense 
account."  We  may,  however,  console  ourselves  with  the  reflec- 
tion that  the  River-drift  Man  appears  in  the  Pleistocene  strata 
of  England,  France,  Spain,  Italy,  Greece,  Algiers,  Egypt, 
Palestine,  and  India  along  with  Pleistocene  animals,  some  of 
which  were  pre-glacial  in  Britain.  He  is  also  proved  to  have 
been  post-glacial  in  Britain,  and  was  probably  living  in  happy, 
sunny,  southern  regions,  where  there  was  no  ice,  and  therefore 
no  Glacial  period,  throughout  the  Pleistocene  age. 

It  may  further  be  remarked  that  Man  appears  in  the  geological 
record  where  he  might  be  expected  to  appear.  In  the  Eocene 
the  Primates  were  represented  by  various  Lemuroids  {Adapts, 
PPecrolemur,  and  others)  in  the  Old  and  New  Worlds.  In  the 
Miocene  the  Simiadae  {P)ryopithecits,  Pliopithecus,  Oreopithecus) 
appear  in  Europe,  while  Man  himself  appears,  along  with  the 
living  species  of  Mammalia,  in  the  Pleistocene  Age,  both  in 
Europe  and  in  India. 

The  question  of  the  antiquity  of  Man  is  inseparably  connected 
with  the  further  question  :  "  Is  it  possible  to  measure  the  lapse  of 
geological  time  in  years  ?  "  Various  attempts  have  been  made, 
and  all,  as  it  seems  to  me,  have  ended  in  failure.  Till  we  know 
the  rate  of  causation  in  the  past,  and  until  we  can  be  sure  that  it 
has  been  invariable  and  uninterrupted,  I  cannot  see  anything  but 
failure  in  the  future.  Neither  the  rate  of  the  erosion  of  the  land 
by  sub-aerial  agencies,  nor  its  destruction  by  oceanic  currents, 
nor  the  rate  of  the  deposit  of  stalagmite  or  of  the  movement  of 
the  glaciers,  has  as  yet  given  us  anything  at  all  approaching  a 
satisfactory  date.  We  only  have  a  sequence  of  events  recorded 
in  the  rocks,  with  intervals  the  length  of  which  we  cannot 
measure.  We  do  not  know  the  exact  duration  of  any  one  geologi- 
cal event.  Till  we  know  both,  it  is  surely  impossible  to  fix  a  date, 
in  terms  of  years,  either  for  the  first  appearance  of  Man  or  for 
any  event  outside  the  written  record.  We  may  draw  cheques 
upon  "  the  bank  of  force"  as  well  as  "on  the  bank  of  time." 

Two  of  my  predecessors  in  this  chair,  Dr.  Woodward  and 
Prof.  Judd,  have  dealt  with  the  position  of  our  science  in  relation 
to  biology  and  mineralogy.  Prof.  Phillips  in  1864  pointed  out 
that  the  later  ages  in  geology  and  the  earlier  ages  of  mankind 
were  fairly  united  together  in  one  large  field  of  inquiry.  In 
these  remarks  I  have  set  myself  the  task  of  examining  that  side 
of  our  rcience  which  looks  towards  history.  My  conception  of 
the  aim  and  results  of  geology  is  that  it  should  present  a  uni- 
versal history  of  the  various  phases  through  which  the  earth  and 
its  inhabitants  have  passed  in  the  various  periods,  until  ultimately 
the  story  of  the  earth,  and  how  it  came  to  be  what  it  is,  is 
merged  in  the  story  of  Man  and  his  works  in  the  written  records. 
Whatever  the  future  of  geology  may  be,  it  certainly  does  not 
seem  likely  to  suffer  in  the  struggle  for  existence  in  the  scientific 
renascence  of  the  nineteenth  century. 


NOTES. 

Major-General  Prjevalsky  started  on  Thursday  last  on  his 
fifth  journey  of  exploration  in  Tibet,  with  the  intention  of  pene- 
trating, if  possible,  into  Lhassa,  the  capital.  The  General,  with 
his  officers  and  Cossacks,  will  this  time  take  advantage  of  the 
new  Central  Asian  railway  as  far  as  Samarcand,  whence  they 
will  proceed  to  Semiretchinsk,  and  so  to  the  Tibetan  table-lands. 
General  Prjevalsky  will,  it  is  thought,  on  this  occasion  have  the 
best  chance  ever  afforded  him  of  entering  the  forbidden  residence 
of  the  Dalai  Lama. 


452 


NATURE 


{Sept.  6,  1888 


Colonel  Heaviside,  of  the  Indian  Survey  Department,  has 
retired  after  more  than  twenty  years'  service  in  the  Department, 
during  which  he  had  charge  of  several  important  geodetic  and 
geographical  operations,  notably  the  completion  and  extension 
of  the  series  of  pendulum  observations  formerly  carried  on  by 
Captain  Basevi. 

A  serious  earthquake,  which  was  felt  throughout  both  islands, 
occurred  in  New  Zealand  on  the  morning  of  the  1st  instant. 
There  were  five  distinct  shocks,  extending  over  the  space  of 
nearly  half  an  hour.  At  Christchurch  the  spire  of  the  Cathedral 
was  destroyed,  and  other  buildings  were  damaged.  The  in- 
habitants at  first  fled  from  their  homes,  but  returned  later  when 
the  danger  appeared  over.  Another  shock  has  since  been  re- 
ported from  Westport,  on  the  south-west  coast  of  the  Nelson 
district. 

During  the  month  of  August  at  the  Granton  Marine  Station, 
the  use  of  which  was  kindly  granted  by  Dr.  Murray  of  the 
Challenger,  Mr.  Patrick  Geddes  and  Mr.  T.  Arthur  Thomson 
conducted  a  class  of  over  thirty  students  of  both  sexes — teachers, 
medical  students,  and  others  from  various  parts  of  Scotland  and 
England — through  a  course  of  lectures  and  laboratory  work  in 
botany  and  zoology.  The  work  at  Granton  was  supplemented 
by  visits  to  the  Botanical  Gardens,  Museum,  &c,  and  by  field 
and  marine  excursions,  including  a  day's  dredging  in  the  Firth  of 
Forth.  This  is  the  second  year  of  the  course,  and  it  is  meant  to 
be  continued  in  future  years. 

A  correspondent  of  the  Daily  News  gives  the  following 
account  of  the  recent  eruption  of  Bandai-San  in  Northern 
Japan  : — "  The  rumbling  and  trembling  of  the  earth  have  now 
stopped,  but  the  mountain  still  belches  forth  smoke,  and  there  are 
evidences  that  mighty  subterranean  forces  are  still  at  work.  The 
place  where  the  disaster  occurred  has  been  and  is  greatly 
changing,  mountains  have  risen  where  there  were  none  before, 
and  large  lakes  appearing  where  once  there  were  only  rice  fields. 
This  being  so,  it  is  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that  guides  can 
be  procured,  as  none  can  tell  where  a  road  now  leads  and  how 
far  it  is  passable.  Landmarks  are  obliterated,  and  villages  which 
but  a  week  ago  nestled  among  the  rich  and  plentiful  vegetation 
of  the  mountain-side  are  now  beneath  twenty  feet  of  ash  and 
cinders.  The  wounded  are  receiving  treatment  in  the  school- 
house  at  Inawashiro,  but  their  condition  is  terrible.  Some  have 
fractured  skulls,  the  majority  broken  limbs,  while  others  are 
fearfully  burned.  Five  villages  have  been  totally  buried.  The 
state  of  the  bodies  recovered  resembles  the  appearance  of  victims 
of  a  huge  boiler  explosion.  Many  are  cut  to  pieces,  and  others 
parboiled,  so  that  it  is  difficult  to  distinguish  sex.  But  the  most 
ghastly  sights  which  met  the  eye  of  the  helpers  were  bodies 
dangling  on  the  branches  of  blackened  and  charred  trees. 
Thrown  into  the  air  by  the  awful  violence  of  the  eruption,  their 
descent  had  in  many  cases  been  arrested  by  the  trees,  and  there 
the  victims  hung,  their  bodies  exposed  to  the  'cruel  and  well- 
nigh  ceaseless  rain  of  red-hot  cinders  and  burning  ashes.  From 
appearances  death  speedily  relieved  them  from  their  agony,  yet, 
short  as  the  time  was,  their  sufferings  must  have  been  past  belief. 
In  other  places  flesh  hangs  from  the  branches  of  trees  as  paper 
from  London  telegraph  wires.  Bandai-San  is  composed  of  five 
separate  peaks,  of  which  the  largest  is  called  Great  Bandai.  The 
second  is  a  perfectly  smooth  mountain.  The  third  is  called 
Kushigamine,  and  is  the  second  in  height.  The  fourth  is  called 
the  Middle  or  Northern  Bandai,  and  is  the  one  which  broke  forth ; 
while  the  fifth,  which  is  called  the  Small  Bandai,  is  close  to  the 
fourth.  Great  Bandai  is  only  covered  with  white  ashes,  but  No.  2 
has  been  greatly  shaken,  while  all  the  trees  above  the  centre  of  the 
mountain  have  been  destroyed.  From  No.  3  large  stones  and 
boulders  have  been  hurled  to  the  bottom,  and  from  half-way  down 
the  mountain  its  sides  are  covered  with  bluish  earth.     No.  4, 


from  which  the  eruption  really  occurred,  has  been  entirely 
blown  away,  the  lighter  pieces  ejected  from  it  being  swept  away 
over  the  neighbouring  mountains,  whilst  the  heavier  pieces  were 
carried  some  five  or  seven  miles,  and  have  formed  a  table-land  at 
its  base,  covered  with  stones  and  ashes.  No  report  has  been 
received  as  to  any  foreigners  having  been  within  the  fatal  region 
at  the  time  of  the  occurrence." 

M.  Chevreul  entered  his  103rd  year  last  week.  On  Tues- 
day he  was  able  to  walk  through  the  Sanitary  Exhibition  at  the 
Palace  of  Industry. 

The  twenty-fifth  annual  meeting  of  the  British  Pharmaceutical 
Association  is  being  held  in  Bath  this  week.  On  Monday  evening 
the  President,  Mr.  F.  Baden  Benger,  and  other  officers  of  the 
Conference  held  a  reception  at  the  Grand  Hotel,  followed  by  a 
conversazione.  The  opening  meeting  took  place  on  Tuesday 
morning.  The  Presidential  address  dealt  largely  with  the  pro- 
gress of  the  Association  since  its  establishment,  and  with  the 
preliminary  education  of  pharmacists. 

The  thirty-seventh  meeting  of  the  American  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Science  was  held  at  Cleveland,  Ohio,  on 
August  15  and  following  days.  Science  states  that  the  meetings 
were  not  as  well  attended  as  in  past  years,  but  the  whole 
gathering  was  nevertheless  successful.  The  largest  attendance 
of  members  appears  to  have  been  303.  The  scientific  depart- 
ments at  Washington  were  well  represented,  and  the  most 
prominent  scientific  men  of  the  country  were  present.  According 
to  the  secretary's  report,  the  financial  condition  of  the  Association 
is  excellent.  The  research  fund,  consisting  of  the  contributions 
of  life  members,  amounts  to  more  than  4400  dollars.  The 
subject  of  the  address  of  Prof.  Langley,  the  retiring  President, 
was  the  history  of  the  theory  of  radiant  heat,  which  we  hope  to 
reprint  in  extenso,  if  space  permits,  on  a  future  occasion.  Prior 
to  the  meeting,  advantage  was  taken  of  the  presence  of  a  number 
of  American  geologists  to  take  the  preliminary  steps  for  the 
establishment  of  an  American  Geological  Society.  In  its  general 
report  of  the  meeting,  Science  refers  specially  to  a  lecture 
delivered  by  Prof.  Stanley  Hall.  "It  was  the  first  time  that 
the  new  psychology  had  been  given  a  place  on  the  programme  of 
the  Association.  .  .  .  Prof.  Hall  gave  a  brief  review  of  the 
scope  of  experimental  psychology.  He  dwelt  on  the  researches 
made  in  the  study  of  psychologic  physiology,  and  on  the 
functions  of  brain  and  nerves  ;  he  mentioned  the  methods  of 
psychophysic  inquiries,  and  the  important  bearing  of  ethnological 
studies  upon  psychological  questions.  He  concluded  his  sketch, 
which  was  listened  to  with  the  greatest  attention,  with  a  reference 
to  the  study  of  hypnotism,  which  is  one  of  the  most  promising 
fields  of  psychic  research."  Major  Powell  is  the  President  for 
the  current  year,  and  Prof.  Mendenhall  for  next  year. 

Mr.  Cook,  the  President  of  the  Section  of  Geology  and 
Geography,  took  for  the  subject  of  his  address  the  International 
Geological  Congress,  and  the  part  of  American  geologists  in  it. 
He  recalls  the  fact  that  in  1876  the  Association  originated  the 
Congress  of  Geologists  in  Paris  in  1878  for  the  settling  of  obscure 
points  relating  to  geological  classification  and  nomenclature ; 
since  that  time  similar  Congresses  have  been  held  in  Bologna 
and  Berlin,  and  one  is  about  to  be  held  in  London,  but,  says 
Mr.  Cook,  a  meeting  of  the  Congress  must  be  held  in  the 
United  States,  and  American  geology  must  be  fully  represented, 
before  any  conclusion  can  be  reached  which  will  be  accepted  by 
the  scientific  world,  and  therefore  an  attempt  will  be  made  at 
the  London  Congress  to  have  the  meeting  of  189 1  held  in  the 
United  States.  The  discussion  on  the  important  topics  here 
mentioned  should  not  be  regarded  as  closed  until  after  the 
American  meeting,  and  he  defines  the  business  of  American 
geologists,  prior  to  the  meeting,  to  be  the  preparation  of  a  case 
which  will  fairly  "present  the  claims  of  American  geology  to 
representation  in  a  general  system  of  geology. " 


Sept.  6,  1888] 


NATURE 


453 


The  Session  of  the  Central  Institution  of  the  City  and  Guilds 
of  London  Institute  will  commence  on  October  2.  The  Cloth- 
workers',  Siemens's,  Mitchell,  and  Institute's  Scholarships  will  be 
competed  for  at  an  examination  held  on  September  25  to  28- 
According  to  the  Annual  Report  for  the  past  year  there  has 
again  been  a  large  increase  in  the  total  number  of  candidates 
examined.  In  1887,  5508  were  examined,  of  whom  3090  passed  ; 
in  1888,  6166  were  examined,  of  whom  3510  passed.  The 
number  of  centres  increased  in  the  same  period  from  216  to  240, 
while  another  subject,  viz.  practical  bread-making,  was  added 
to  the  list  of  subjects,  which  now  number  49.  This  year, 
for  the  second  time,  examinations  were  held  in  New  South 
Wales,  candidates  presenting  themselves  from  Sydney,  Bathurst, 
and  Newcastle.  The  worked  papers,  as  well  as  specimens  of  the 
hand-work  of  the  candidates,  were  forwarded  to  this  country  in 
time  for  the  inclusion  of  the  results  in  the  present  Report.  The 
number  of  colonial  candidates  has  increased  from  48  to  51,  and 
the  number  of  those  who  have  passed  from  31  to  34.  10,404 
students  were  receiving  instruction  in  the  United  Kingdom  in 
475  classes,  in  183  different  towns.  Last  year  the  corresponding 
numbers  were  8613  students,  365  classes,  and  121  towns  ;  and 
these  figures  do  not  include  the  students  at  the  Finsbury 
Technical  College,  the  Yorkshire  College,  Leeds,  and  other 
Colleges  the  Professors  of  which  do  not  receive  grants  on  results, 
and  the  candidates  from  which  are  classed  as  "external."  With 
the  establishment  of  new  Polytechnic  Institutions  in  different 
parts  of  London,  it  is  anticipated  that  there  will  be  a  large 
increase  in  the  number  of  students  in  the  technical  classes 
registered  by  the  Institute  and  in  the  number  of  candidates  for 
examination.  In  most  of  the  chemical  subjects  the  number  of 
candidates  is  diminishing,  and  the  majority  have  received  their 
instruction  in  institutions  which  obtain  no  help  from  the  Institute 
by  way  of  payment  on  results. 

The  most  interesting  paper  in  the  recent  number  of  the 
Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Society  of  Bombay  is  Mr. 
Fawcett's  account  of  the  Saoros  or  Sowrahs  of  the  Ganjam 
Hill  Tracts.  A  good  deal  of  Mr.  Fawcett's  paper  is  devoted 
to  the  investigation  of  the  religious  ideas,  sacrifices,  and  funeral 
rites  of  the  Saoros,  and  his  account  furnishes  an  interesting 
illustration  of  several  well-known  phenomena  of  early  forms  of 
religious  belief.  The  objects  of  worship  fall  into  two  classes  : 
malevolent  deities,  such  as  Jalia,  Kanni,  and  Laukan,  the  sun, 
and  ancestral  spirits.  Every  human  being  possesses  a  kulba, 
or  soul,  which  departs  from  the  body  at  death,  but  which  still 
retains  the  ordinary  tastes  of  the  Saoro — e.g.  for  tobacco  and 
liquor — and  which  must  be  satisfied,  or  it  will  haunt  the  living. 
In  the  more  primitive  parts  of  the  country,  everything  a  man 
possesses — weapons,  cloths,  his  reaping-hook,  and  some  money 
— are  burnt  with  him  ;  but  this  is  falling  out  of  use.  A  hut  is 
built  for  the  kulba  to  dwell  in,  and  food  is  placed  there  ;  but 
the  more  important  ceremony  is  the  guar,  which  occurs  later, 
the  great  feature  of  which  is  the  erection  of  a  stone  to  the 
memory  of  the  deceased.  Near  each  village,  clusters  of  such 
stones,  standing  upright  in  the  ground,  may  be  seen.  The  guar 
gives  the  kulba  considerable  satisfaction  ;  but  it  is  not  quite 
satisfied  till  the  karja  is  celebrated  :  this  being  a  great  bien- 
nial feast  to  the  dead,  when,  after  the  sacrifice  of  many  buffaloes 
and  the  consumption  of  much  liquor,  every  house  in  which 
there  has  been  a  death  is  burnt  ;  the  kulba  is  finally  driven 
away  to  the  jungle  or  the  hill-side.  Sacrifices  are  made  to 
appease  deities  or  kulbas  who  have  done  harm,  and  in  every 
paddy-field,  when  the  paddy  is  sprouting,  as  well  as  at  harvest, 
an  offering  of  a  goat  must  be  made.  It  does  not  appear,  how- 
ever, that  human  sacrifice,  once  so  common  among  the  Khonds, 
was  ever  practised  by  the  Saoros.  Like  all  other  savages,  the 
Saoros  have  their  priests,  or  diviners,  called  kudangs,  whose 
occupation   seems    to  be  partly  hereditary.     The  kudang,   like 


the  modern  medium,  is  able  to  interview  the  spirit  of  the  de- 
ceased and  to  ascertain  his  wishes.  The  method  of  divination* 
usually  practised  is  that  of  dropping  from  a  leaf-cup  grains  of 
rice,  uttering  the  name  of  a  deity  as  each  falls,  and  so  ascertain- 
ing which  divinity  is  the  cause  of  the  disease  or  other  calamity. 
A  similar  practice  has  long  been  known  to  be  in  force  among 
the  Khonds,  though  Mr.  Fawcett  does  not  mention  the  fact. 
An  account  is  given  of  an  exorcism  witnessed  by  the  author,  in 
the  case  of  a  boy  who  had  suffered  much  from  fever,  which  was 
supposed  to  be  caused  by  the  sun.  The  kudang  told  Mr. 
Fawcett  afterwards  that  he  had  given  the  deity  a  good  talking, 
to  and  turned  him  out.  "  No  fear  of  that  deity  returning  to  the 
boy  after  what  he  had  said  to  him  !  "  The  kudangs,  however, 
it  must  be  added,  generally  work  like  ordinary  mortals,  and 
even  when  they  are  called  in  to  officiate  as  priests  they  do  not 
seem,  from  the  account  given  of  their  fasting  and  exertions,  to- 
get  their  rewards  for  nothing. 

Europe  cannot  compete  with  the  United  States  in  the  lofti- 
ness of  its  stations  for  taking  meteorological  observations.  There 
are  only  two  stations  on  the  European  continent  which  reach  any 
very  great  height,  being  about  10,000  feet  and  1 1,000  feet  re- 
spectively.  Among  the  stations  in  America  is  Pike's  Peak, 
which  has  an  'altitude  of  14,100  feet — or  only  about  1600  feet 
lower  than  the  summit  of  Mont  Blanc — and  exceeding  by  more 
than  3000  feet  any  meteorological  station  in  Europe.  These 
great  heights  are  much  more  accessible  in  the  United  States  than 
in  Europe,  there  being  five  stations  in  America  where  a  height  of 
11,000  feet  or  more  is  reached  by  railroads  built  fo  facilitating 
mining  work.  The  highest  of  those  in  North  America  Mount 
Lincoln,  in  Colorado,  the  mining  works  on  which  are  14,297  feet 
above  the  sea-level,  and  it  has  a  meteorological  station  conducted 
by  Harvard  College.  Another  station  is  placed  part  way  up  the 
mountain,  at  a  height  of  13,500  feet.  In  the  Andes  Range,  in 
Peru,  continuous  meteorological  observations  are  also  carried  on, 
the  loftiest  point  for  this  purpose  being  14,300  feet  above  the 
level  of  the  sea. 

A  correspondent  of  the  Daily  News  in  Lucerne  sends  to 
that  paper  an  account  of  an  electric  mountain  railway — the  first 
of  its  kind — which  has  recently  been  opened  to  the  public  at  the 
Burgenstock,  near  Lucerne.  Hitherto  it  has  been  considered 
impossible  to  construct  a  funicular  mountain  railway  with  a 
curve  ;  but  the  new  line  up  the  Burgenstock  has  achieved  that 
feat  under  the  superintendence  of  Mr.  Abt,  the  Swiss  electrical 
engineer.  The  rails  describe  one  grand  curve  formed  upon  an- 
angle  of  1 12°,  and  the  journey  is  made  as  steadily  and  smoothly 
as  upon  any  of  the  straight  funiculars  previously  constructed.  A 
bed  has  been  cut,  for  the  most  part  out  of  the  solid  rock,  in  the 
mountain-side  from  the  shore  of  the  Lake  of  Lucerne  to  the 
height  of  the  Burgenstock — 1330  feet  above  its  level,  and  2860 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  The  total  length  of  the  line  is 
938  metres,  and  it  commences  with  a  gradient  of  32  per  cent., 
which  is  increased  to  58  per  cent,  after  the  first  400  metres,  and 
this  is  maintained  for  the  rest  of  the  journey.  A  single  pair  of 
rails  is  used  throughout,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  yards  at 
half  distance  to  permit  the  two  cars  to  pass.  Through  the  op- 
position of  the  Swiss  Government,  each  car  is  at  the  present  time 
only  allowed  to  run  the  half  distance,  and  they  insist  upon  the 
passengers  changing,  in  order,  as  they  say,  to  avoid  collision  or 
accident.  A  number  of  journeys  were  made  up  and  down 
the  mountain  in  company  with  an  engineer,  and  the  experience 
is  sufficient  to  prove  that  the  prohibition  is  altogether  unneces- 
sary. The  motive  power,  electricity,  is  generated  by  two  dynamos*- 
each  of  25  horse-power,  which  are  worked  by  a  water-wheel  of 
125  horse-power,  erected  upon  the  River  Aar  at  its  mouth  at 
Buochs  three  miles  away.  Only  one  man  is  required  to  manage 
the  train,  and  the  movement  of  the  cars  is  completely  under  his 
control.     One  dynamo  is  sufficient  to  perform  the  work  of  haul- 


454 


NA  TURE 


[Sept.  6,  1888 


ing  up  and  letting  down  the  cars  containing  fifty  or  sixty  person?. 
At  the  end  of  the  journey,  completed  in  about  fifteen  minutes, 
at  an  ordinary  walking  speed,  the  car  moves  gently  against  a 
spring  buffer,  and  is  locked  by  a  lever,  without  noise  and  without 
jolting  the  passengers.  This  interesting  undertaking  has  been 
carried  out  at  a  cost  of  ,£"25,000. 

Mr.  E.  T.  Dumple,  writing  in  the  Geological  Bulletin  of 
Texas,  brings  out  a  very  interesting  fact,  and  one  which  may 
shed  some  light  upon  the  question  of  who  were  the  builders  of 
the  shell-mounds  of  the  coast  regions  of  Texas.  During  the 
great  storm  of  1886,  which  so  nearly  destroyed  Sabine  Pass,  one 
of  these  shell-mounds,  which  was  near  a  certain  house  on  the 
river-bank,  and  the  loeality  of  which  was  exactly  known,  was 
destroyed  or  carried  away  by  the  violence  of  the  waves,  and 
rebuilt  nearly  half  a  mile  farther  up  stream  than  it  formerly 
stood.  It  is  therefore  possible  that  these  so-called  Indian  shell- 
mounds,  which  are  composed  almost  entirely  of  shells,  with 
fragments  of  pottery,  and  sometimes  a  crumbling  bone  or  two, 
were  not  built,  as  has  been  supposed,  by  Indian  tribes  who  lived 
on  shell-fish,  but  are  entirely  due  to  the  action  of  the  water  ;  and 
the  presence  of  the  Indian  relics  may  be  easily  accounted  for  by 
remembering  that  these  mounds  are  usually  found  in  low  ground, 
and,  being  high  and  dry,  would  naturally  be  selected  as 
camping-places  by  the  Indians  in  their  hunting  and  fishing 
expeditions. 

The  Vienna  Correspondent  of  the  Times  records  a  curious 
relic  of  mediaeval  superstition  in  Austria.  The  Burgomaster  of 
Zuraki,  in  Galicia,  has  just  instituted  a  prosecution  before  the 
Criminal  Court  of  Solotwina  against  a  man  named  Jean 
Kowale-ink  for  having,  "by  his  malicious  sorceries  and  incanta- 
tions, caused  a  hailstorm  to  devastate  the  fields  of  Zuraki  on  July 
28."  The  damages  occasioned  by  Kowalesink's  uncanny  power 
over  the  elements  are  laid  at  6000  florins. 

We  are  glad  to  report  that  the  Central  Meteorological  Ob- 
servatory of  Mexico  has  recommenced  the  publication  of  its 
Boletin  Menstial,  and  in  a  more  convenient  form  than  before. 
This  publication  had  been  discontinued  since  December  18S5 ' 
It  contains  only  a  summary  of  the  observations  made  at  twenty 
or  thirty  stations,  but  the  hope  is  expressed  that  the  publication 
of  the  observations  made  at  certain  hours  will  be  soon  under- 
taken, and  that  the  arrears  will  also  be  taken  up,  as  the 
observations  have  been  regularly  made.  The  Bulletins  for  the 
first  five  months  of  this  year  have  been  received. 

The  Report  of  the  Meteorological  Commission  of  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope,  for  the  year  1887,  states  that  "  the  whole  service 
has  assumed  a  satisfactory  character."  Monthly  and  yearly 
summaries  are  given  for  twenty-nine  stations,  and  for  a  large 
number  of  rainfall  stations.  As  an  inducement  to  observers, 
they  are  presented  with  the  instruments  with  which  they  have 
made  a  series  of  satisfactory  observations  for  a  continuous  period 
of  five  years.  Summarized  reports  are  sent  daily  to  each  coast 
port,  and  are  there  entered  on  a  sketch-map  for  the  benefit  of 
the  seafaring  community.  We  observe,  however,  that  in  count- 
ing the  number  of  wet  days,  a  rainy  day  is  taken  as  one  upon 
which  o  03  inch  is  recorded,  whereas  a  quantity  of  o'oi  inch  is 
the  standard  generally  adopted  in  this  country.  The  Commission 
express  the  hope  that  in  time  they  may  be  able  to  issue  storm 
warnings. 

In  June  last  an  interesting  archaeological  discovery  was  made 
at  Sdnderby,  on  the  west  coast  of  Jutland.  It  consisted  of 
about  thirty  urns  of  clay  found  in  a  moss  at  a  depth  of 
3  feet.  They  occupied  an  area  4  feet  wide  and  10  feet  long. 
Formerly  there  was  a  shallow  lake  here.  Most  of  the  vessels 
rested  upon  rough  stones,  but  there  was  no  trace  of  stone  walls 
or  roof ;  they  varied  from  2  to  8  inches  in  height.     In  most  of 


them  layadies  and  remnants  of  calcined  bones,  whilst  the  bottom 
was  lined  with  some  reed-like  kind  of  grass.  Some  of  the  urns 
had  lids,  but  others  appear  to  have  been  placed  in  the  earth  open. 
Most  of  them  were  very  simple  in  form,  with  smooth  sides,  but 
on  some  of  the  larger  there  were  three  knobs  at  the  sides,  and 
attempts  at  rough  ornamentation.  No  metal  or  stone  implement 
was  found.  In  the  same  moss  some  huge  oak  trunks  were  also 
dug  out. 

A  Kiel  schoolmaster,  Herr  Spiedt,  has  excavated  a  so  called 
"Viking  mound"  in  the  south  of  Jutland,  close  to  the  old 
frontier  between  Denmark  and  Prussia.  In  the  eastern  edge 
remains  of  a  skeleton  were  found,  and  in  the  centre  an  oaken 
coffin,  nailed  with  iron  nails,  containing  the  skeleton  of  a  tall 
powerful  man  was  found  ;  but  no  ornaments,  weapons,  or  objects 
of  any  kind.  The  head  pointed  to  the  north-west.  It  was  close 
to  this  mcund  that  a  Runic  stone  was  found  some  years  ago  with 
the  following  inscription  in  runes:  "King  Svein  set  (raised) 
stone  after  (on  the  death  of)  Skarde,  his  homestead  companion 
(probably  meaning  boy  companion),  who  travelled  west,  and 
died  in  Hedeby."  King  Svein  is  the  famous  King  Svein  with 
the  Double  Beard,  who  ascended  the  thrones  of  England  and 
Denmark  on  the  death  of  his  brother,  King  Canute,  and  his 
friend  was  one  Skarde,  who  fought  for  him  in  this  country. 
Hedeby  was  the  ancient  name  for  the  town  of  Schleswig.  It  is 
believed  that  the  skeleton  is  that  of  Skarde. 

The  "Class-book  of  Elementary  Chemistry,"  which  Mr.  W. 
W.  Fisher,  Aldrichian  Demonstrator  of  Chemistry  at  Oxford,  is 
preparing  for  the  Clarendon  Press  Series,  is  nearly  ready,  and 
will  be  published  in  a  few  days. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Small  Hill  Mynah  (Gracula  religiose)  from 
India,  presented  by  Mr.  Alexander  Robertson ;  a  Common 
Sheldrake  (Tadorna  vulpanser),  British,  presented  by  the  Rev. 
H.  H.  Slater ;  an  Avocet  {Recurvirostra  avocetta)  from  Holland, 
presented  by  Mr.  J.  Hoogerduyn  ;  two  Common  Chameleons 
{Chamceleon  vulgaris)  from  North  Africa,  presented  by  Mr.  J. 
Alfred  Lockwood  ;  a  Sea  Anemone  {Bolvara  eques),  a  British 
Coral  (Caiyophyllaca,  sp.  inc.)  from  British  Seas,  presented  by 
the  Marine  Biological  Station,  Plymouth,  per  Mr.  G.  C. 
Bourne  ;  a  Brown  Bear  {Ursus  arctos  6  ),  European,  a  White- 
backed  Piping  Crow  (Gymnorhina  leuconotd)  from  Australia, 
twelve  Mandarin  Ducks  (/Ex  galcriculata,  6  S  ,6  9  )  from  China, 
deposited  ;  two  White-headed  Parrots  (Pionus  senilis)  from 
Mexico,  four  Oyster-catchers  (Himantopus  ostralrgus)  from 
Holland,  purchased. 


ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR    THE 
WEEK  1888  SEPTEMBER  9-15. 

/"C*OR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  September  9 
Sun  rises,  5h.  28m.  ;  souths,  nh.  57m.  i'8s. ;  sets,  i8h.  26m.  : 

right   asc.    on  meridian,    nh.    i2-9m.  ;     deck    50   4'    N. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  I7h.  43m. 
Moon  (at  First  Quarter  September  12,  22h.)  rises,   9h.   19m.; 

souths,  14I1.  55m. ;  sets,  2oh.  19m.  :  right  asc.  on  meridian, 

I4h.  ii'im.  ;  deck  7°  48'  S. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 
Planet.  Rises.  Souths.  Sets.  on  meridian. 

h.   m.  h.    m.  h.    m.  h.       m.  o        / 

Mercury..  6  45  ...  12  49  ...  18  53  ...  12  47  ...  o  2  N. 
Venus  ...  6  57  ...  12  59  ...  19  1  ...  12  14-9  ...  o  23  S. 
Mars  ...  12  25  ...  16  30  ...  20  35  ...  15  467  ...  21  30  S. 
Jupiter  ...  12  16  ...  16  34  ...  20  52  ...  15  51-0  ...  19  31  S. 
Saturn  ...  2  21  ...  9  55  ...  17  29  ...  9  IO-2  ...  17  5  N. 
Uranus...  8  8  ...  13  43  ...  19  18  ...  12  58-9  ...  5  38  S; 
Neptune..  21  1*...  4  48  ...  12  35  ...  4  2-4  ...  18  59  N. 
*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening. 


Sept.  6,  1888] 


NATURE 


455 


Occultation  of  Star  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 

angles  from  ver- 

Sept.  Star.  Mag.        Disap.  Reap.        tex  to  right  for 

inverted  image, 
h.    m.  h.      m.  on 

14  ...  50  Sagittarii     ...  6     ...  22  58  ...     o     4+  ...   134  308 

t  Occurs  on  the  following  morning. 
Sept.  h. 

11     ...     10     ...     Mars  in  conjunction  with  and   6°  7'  south 

of  the  Moon. 
11     ...     10     ...     Jupiter  in  conjunction  with  and  30  55'  south 

of  the  Moon. 
11     ...     14     ...     Mars  in  conjunction  with  and  20  12'  south 
of  Jupiter. 

Variable  Stars. 
Star.  R.A.  Decl. 

h.      m.             o       -  "•  "">• 

Algol    3    o-9  ...  40  31  N.  ...  Sept.  12,    2  37  m 

,,  14,  23  25  m 

C  Geminorum       ...     6  57 *5  ...  20  44  N.  ...     ,,  13,  21  o  M 

U  Monocerotis    ...     7  25^5  ...    9  33  S.    ...     ,,  15,  M 

Z  Virginis    14     4-3  ...  12  46  S.    ...     ,,  9,  M 

S  Librae        14  55-0  ...    8     4  S.    ...     ,,  13,21  16  m 

U  Coronse    15  13-6  ...  32     3  N.  ...     ,,  9,     3  23  m 

U  Ophiuchi 17  10*9  ...     1  20  N.  ...     ,,  9,    2  o  m 

and  at  intervals  of       20  8 

W  Sagittarii        ...   17  57-9  ...  29  35  S.    ...  Sept.  15,  15  oM 

T  Herculis 18     4*9  ...  31     o  N.  ...     ,,  13,  m 

B  Lyrse 18  46*0  ...  33  14  N.  ...     ,.  14,    4  o  M 

V  Aquilse      19  46*8  ...    o  43  N.  ...     ,,  14,    4  o  M 

S  Sagittae     19  50*9  ...  16  20  N.  ...     ,,  11,     3  o  m 

,,  14,    3  o  A/ 

X  Cygni       20  39-0  ...  35  11  N.  ...     ,,  15,    4  o  m 

T  Vulpeculae       ...  20  467  ...  27  50  N.  ...     ,,  II,    o  o  M 

,,  12,     2  o  m 

S  Cephei     21  36-6  ...  78     7  N.  ...     ,,  9,  m 

5  Cephei      22  25-0  ...  57  51  N.  ...     ,,  II,    o  o  M 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  in  minimum. 

Meteor- Showers. 
R.A.  Decl. 

Near  e  Persei 
,,     o  Tauri 


60  . 

•  37  N.  . 

..   Swift ;  streaks 

72  . 

.   15  N. 

..   Swift ;  streaks 

54  • 

.  38  N.  . 

..  Very  swift. 

GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 
The  elaborate  Report  of  Mr.  Bourne  on  his  journey  in  South- 
western China,  which  has  recently  been  laid  before  Parliament, 
and  to  which  we  referred  recently  in  connection  with  the 
ethnology  of  the  non-Chinese  races  of  this  region,  is  of  much 
geographical  interest.  Part  of  Mr.  Bourne's  journey  was  already 
traversed  in  the  reverse  direction  by  Mr.  A.  R.  Colquhoun, 
and.  described  by  him  in  his  well-known  work,  "Across 
Chryse."  This  observation  applies  to  the  route  from  Yunnan 
Fu,  the  capital  of  the  province  of  that  name,  to  Ssu-mao,  and 
thence  along  the  Tonquin  frontier  to  Nanning  on  the  West  or 
Canton  River.  But  Mr.  Bourne  traversed  the  region  between 
Chung-king  and  Yunnan  Fu,  which,  however,  as  it  lies  on  one 
of  the  high  roads  across  China  into  Burma,  is  not  unfamiliar  to 
Western  readers,  and  he  also  crossed  diagonally  the  province 
of  Kweichow — one  of  the  least  known  provinces  in  the  Chinese 
Empire — from  Nanning  in  Kwangsi  to  Chung-king  in  Szechuen. 
Here  he  travelled  along  unbeaten  tracks  for  many  weeks  ;  but 
even  where  travellers  had  been  before — and  at  best  European 
travellers  in  Southern  and  South-Western  China  are  extremely 
few  and  far  between — his  intimate  knowledge  of  China  and  the 
Chinese,  and  the  advantages  which  his  official  mission  gave 
him,  make  his  observations  of  exceptional  value.  He  has  also 
established  the  connection  between  the  rivers  of  Northern 
Tonquin  and  the  river  system  of  Southern  China.  In  regard  to 
the  seven  route-sketches,  which  accompany  the  Report,  of  the 
different  sections  of  the  journey,  Mr.  Bourne  explains  that 
although  the  rate  of  travel  (about  20  milts  a  day)  precluded  the 
idea  of  a  running  survey,  it  was  easy  to  take  notes  of  the 
prominent  features  of  the  country,  as  he  walked  nearly  the  whole 
way.  These  notes,  which  took  the  form  of  route-sketches, 
would,  with  an  occasional  position  determined  astronomically, 
have  made  it  possible  to  give  a  much  better  idea  of  the  c  mntry 
than  the  maps  convey  ;  but  his  record  of  astronomical  observa- 
tions, "which  had  cost  him  many  a  night's  vigil,"  and  portions 


of  his  route-sketches,  were  lost  on  the  occasion  of  some  riots  in 
Chung-king,  during  which  his  house  was  attacked  and  looted. 
But  the  route-sketches  of  the  last  part  of  the  journey  were 
fortunately  saved,  and  supply  materials  for  a  better  map.  There 
is  likewise  a  vast  number  of  careful  meteorological  observations. 
It  is  to  be  feared  that  the  instinctive  repulsion  of  the  natural 
man  to  Blue-books,  regardless  of  their  c  mtents,  will  prevent 
Mr.  Bourne's  Report  from  receiving  the  attention  which  it 
deserves.  On  a  moderate  computation,  it  would  furnish 
materials  for  half  a  dozen  works  of  travel  such  as  those  with 
which  the  public  is  made  acquainted  every  year,  which  have 
their  little  day  and  cease  to  be.  We  have  to  go  back  to  the 
Reports  of  Mr.  Bourne's  predecessors,  Messrs.  Baber  and 
Hosie,  to  find  any  record  of  travel  in  China  of  equal  interest 
and  value. 

Science  reports  that  two  important  Expeditions  left  Rio  de 
Janeiro  in  June  for  exploration  and  work  in  two  of  the  least- 
known  parts  of  the  Brazilian  territory.  The  first,  sent  out  by 
the  Ministry  of  War,  under  the  command  of  Captain  Bellar- 
mino  Mendonca,  is  to  open  a  road  from  the  town  of  Guarapuaba, 
on  the  frontier  of  the  settled  portion  of  the  province  of  Parana, 
to  the  confluence  of  the  Rivers  Parana  and  Iguassu,  and  to  found 
a  military  colony  at  the  latter  point.  A  road  is  also  to  be  opened 
along  the  Parana  River  from  the  mouth  of  the  Iguassu  to  the 
navigable  portion  of  the  river  above  the  Sete  Quedas  Fall,  and 
from  this  point  to  Guarapuaba,  via  the  valley  of  the  Piquiri. 
The  founding  of  a  colony  at  the  mouth  of  the  Iguassu,  where 
the  Argentines  are  already  establishing  themselves,  will,  aside 
from  its  military  importance,  prove  of  great  value  in  peopling 
the  valley  of  the  Upper  Parana,  which  has  been  deserted  since 
the  time  of  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits.  By  means  of  the  Lower 
Parana  the  colony  will  have  free  water  communication  with 
Buenos  Ayres  and  other  markets  of  the  Argentine  Republic, 
where  two  of  its  natural  products,  lumber  and  matte,  will  find  a 
ready  sale.  This  will  give  at  once  to  the  proposed  colony  a 
commercial  importance  far  beyond  that  of  a  purely  military 
station,  and  will  doubtless  lead  to  the  rapid  spread  of  population 
along  the  Upper  Parana  and  its  tributaries,  with  their  hundreds 
of  miles  of  navigable  waters.  The  second  Expedition,  consist- 
ing of  three  military  engineers,  Capt.  Lourenco  Telles,  and 
Lieuts.  Miranda  and  Villeray,  is  sent  out  under  the  auspices  of 
the  Sociedade  de  Geographia  de  Rio  de  Janeiro,  the  expenses 
being  borne  by  the  Ministry  of  Agriculture.  It  is  to  proceed  to 
Cuiaba  in  the  province  of  Mato  Grosso,  pass  by  land  to  the 
head-waters  of  the  Paranapinga,  and  descend  that  river  and  the 
Sao  Manoel  or  Tres  Barras  to  the  Tapajos,  returning  to  Rio  de 
Janeiro  via  Para  by  the  Tapajos  and  Amazonas.  This  explora- 
tion will  thus  be  a  valuable  complement  to  that  of  the  Tapajos 
by  Chandless,  as  the  Sao  Manoel  and  Paranapinga  are  almost 
absolutely  unknown. 

The  current  number  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Geo- 
graphical Society  opens  with  a  paper  by  Commodore  Markham 
on  Hudson's  Strait  as  a  navigable  channel,  which  is  a  condensed 
narrative  of  former  voyages  from  the  time  of  Sebastian  Cabot, 
coupled  with  an  account  of  the  author's  own  observations. 
Commodore  Markham  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Strait  is 
perfectly  navigable  and  free  from  ice  in  August  and  later  in  the 
season.  Mr.  Portman  has  a  most  interesting  paper  on  the  Little 
Andamans,  while  General  Walker  discusses  the  well-worn  theme 
of  the  hydrography  of  South-Eastern  Tibet.  The  Persian  farsakk 
cannot  be  of  much  value  as  a  precise  measure  of  length,  for  in 
a  very  learned  paper,  which  concludes  the  number,  General 
Houtum  Schindler,  of  the  Persian  Telegraph  Service,  concludes 
that  it  is  3*915  miles,  while  in  a  footnote  he  gives  the  estimates 
of  eight  other  authorities  all  differing  from  his  own  and  from 
each  other. 

The  first  number  of  vol.  ix.  of  the  Bulletin  of  the  Paris 
Geographical  Society  is  occupied  with  M.  Maunoir's  annual 
summary  of  the  progress  of  geography  and  exploration  during 
18S7.  The  work  is  as  full  and  careful  as  these  annual  reviews  by 
the  same  author  usually  are.  The  second  number  is  wholly 
devoted  to  a  record  of  the  commemoration  of  the  centenary  of 
the  death  of  Laperouse.  The  grand-nephew  of  the  great 
navigator  writes  on  his  private  life,  and  reproduces  a  number  of 
his  private  and  official  letters.  Lieutenant  Courcel  describes 
his  voyage,  and  Yice-Admiral  Paris  recounts  the  history  of  the 
discovery  of  the  remains  of  the  expedition.  The  appendixes 
contain  numerous  papers  relating  to  Laperouse  and  his  com- 
panions, including  a  bibliography  of  works  relating  to  the  hero 
himself. 


456* 


NATURE 


[Sept.  6,  1888 


NOTES   ON  METEORITES.1 

II. 

Chemical  Analysis. 

^X7E  have  seen  that  the  main  difference  between  the  specimens 
"  *  of  these  bodies  which  have  been  collected  is  that  some  of 
them  are  mainly  iron,  some  of  them  are  mainly  stone,  and  that 
there  is  a  passage  between  these  two  conditions  represented  by 
falls  in  which  we  have  a  paste  of  iron  including  stony  fragments. 

We  have  now  to  enter  into  some  points  connected  with  their 
■chemical  constitution  somewhat  more  in  detail. 

Of  the  chemical  elements  which  are  at  present  recognized 
as  such,  about  one-fourth  are  found  by  chemical  analysis  to 
■exist  in  meteorites.  These,  according  to  the  tables  given  by 
Maskelyne,-  Fletcher,3  Smith,  and  others  are  as  follows  : — 

Those  that  occur  most  constantly  are  : — 

Hydrogen  Carbon 

Iron  Oxygen 

Nickel  Silicon 

Magnesium  Phosphorus 

Cobalt  4  Sulphur ; 

Copper  4 

Manganese 

Calcium 

Aluminium 

-while    the    following    occur     less    frequently    or     in     smaller 
quantities  : — 


Lithium 

Sodium 

Potassium 

Strontium 

Titanium 

Chromium 

Tin 


Arsenic 
Antimony 
Chlorine 
Nitrogen. 


Of  these  elementary  bodies  only  hydrogen,  nitrogen,  and 
■carbon  occur  in  an  elementary  condition. 

Hydrogen  and  nitrogen  are  asserted  to  be  occluded  as  gases 
by  the  stones.  Carbon  exists  both  in  the  form  of  graphite  and 
diamond. 

From  the  above  lists  it  will  be  seen  that  among  the  elements 
most  common  in  meteorites  are  recognized  many  which  have  a 
very  wide  distribution  and  exist  in  great  quantities  in  the  surface 
and  envelopes  of  our  planet.  But  this  is  true  only  of  the 
elements. 

Many  mineral  compounds  terrestrially  common  are  absent ; 
perhaps  the  most  striking  case  of  all  is  the  absolute  absence 
of  free  quartz,  whether  crystallized  or  not,  from  meteorites,  while 
terrestrially  it  is  the  most  prevalent  compound  known,  and 
enters  into  the  composition  of  such  common  rocks  as  trachyte, 
felsite,  syenite,  gneiss,  and  granite. 

Again,  many  of  the  chemical  combinations  met  with  are  un- 
known to  terrestrial  mineralogy.  The  chemical  compounds 
found  in  meteorites  which  are  new  to  our  mineralogy  may  be 
briefly  referred  to.  Some  are  combinations  with  sulphur,  as 
follows  : — 


Sulphur 


+     Iron 

+     Calcium 
(  Calcium       ) 
}  Titanium     \ 

J Iron  j 

(^  Chromium  J 


+ 


=  Troilite 
—  Oldhamite 

=  Osbornite 
=  Daubreelite. 


Phosphides  of  iron  and  nickel,  forming  varieties  of  so-called 
schreibersite,  are  met  with. 

It  has  already  been  stated  that  carbon  in  some  form  or  other 
exists  in  most  meteorites.  Some  of  them  are  partly  composed 
of  this  element  compounded  with  hydrogen  and  oxygen. 

This  exists  as  a  white  or  a  yellowish  crystallizable  matter,  soluble 

1  Continued  from  p.  428. 

2  Nature,  vol.  xh.  p.  505. 

3  "  Introduction  to  Study  of  Meteorites,"  p.  30. 

4  With  regard  to  the  presence  of  cobalt  and  copper,  Dr.  L.  Smith  says 
H"  Mineralogy  and  Chemistry,"  p.  352): — "In  every  analysis  that  I  have 
made  of  meteoric  irons  (over  one  hundred  different  specimens)  cobalt  has 
i>een  invariably  found,  along  with  a  minute  quantity  of  copper." — Flight, 
"  History  of  Meteorites,"  p.  164. 


in  ether  and  partly  so  in  alcohol,  and  exhibiting  the  characters 
and  the  composition  of  one  or  more  hydrocarbonaceous  bodies 
with  high  melting-points. 

The  meteorites  of  Alais  and  Cold  Bokkeweld  are  instances  of 
this  group.  The  former  is  of  a  black  colour  both  internally  and 
externally,  is  combustible,  and  contains  sulphates  of  magnesium, 
calcium,  sodium,  and  potassium,  which  are  all  soluble  in  water. 
The  latter,  after  being  experimented  upon,  left  a  residue  which 
gave  out  a  very. bituminous  smell  ;  this  substance  was  yellow, 
and  it  was  found  that  it  was  only  another  form  of  carbon  in 
a  state  of  intimate  mixture,  amounting  to  about  1  '6j  per  cent. 

Some  carbonaceous  stones  are  dark  gray  in  colour,  have  little 
lustre,  and  are  soft  ;  they  contain  no  visible  meteoric  iron,  but 
an  abundance  of  light  gray  rounded  bodies,  among  which  are 
occasionally  some  with  a  dull  metallic  lustre  and  of  a  greenish- 
yellow  colour,  and  others  of  a  dark  gray  compact  substance  and 
of  earthy  character.1 

Various  alloys  of  nickel  and  iron  also  occur. 

The  different  alloys  which  play  the  most  important  part  have, 
according  to  Meunier,  the  following  composition  : — 

Formula. 

Fe6Ni 

Fe10Ni 
Fe14Ni 
Fe16Ni 

Among  other  minerals  we  may  name — 
Lawrencite,  protochloride  of  iron  ; 
Maskelynite,  with  the  composition  of  labradorite  ; 
Silica  (as  asmanite). 

We  now  come  to  the  common  ground. 

The  following  compounds  are  identical  in  composition  and 
crystallographic  character  with  minerals  found  on  our  globe  : — 


Density 

Taenite 

...      7-380 

Plessite 

...      7-850 

Kamacite ... 

...       7-652 

Braunine  ... 

...         (?) 

Magnetic  pyrites 
Magnetite 
Chromite 
Silicates,  viz. — 


Fe7S8. 
Fe304. 

(Fe,Cr)304. 


Olivine  varieties. 
Enstatite  and  bronzite. 
Diopside  and  augite. 
Anorthite  and  labradorite. 
Breunnerite. 

Among  gaseous  compounds,  the  oxides  of  carbon  have  been 
detected  in  many  meteorites,  and  it  is  asserted  that  these  gases 
have  been  occluded  by  them  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
elementary  gases  hydrogen  and  nitrogen. 

In  the  "irons"  we  deal  chiefly  with  nickel-iron,  magnesium, 
manganese,  and  copper,  as  metals. 

In  the  "stones"  we  deal  with  combinations  of  magnesium, 
iron,  oxygen,  and  silicon.  One  of  the  most  usual  substances 
is  called  olivine,  and  sometimes  the  olivine  is  in  a  slightly 
changed  form,  in  which  the  quantity  of  iron  is  increased, 
and  we  get  bronzite.  Nickel-iron,  manganese,  and  other 
substances  are  also  found  in  the  stones. 

Chemical  analysis  of  the  irons  has  established  in  them,  taken 
as  a  whole,  the  existence  of  the  following  mineral  species. 

(1)  The  general  metallic  mass,  which  consists  of  certain  alloys, 
in  which  iron  and  nickel  predominate  to  such  an  extent  that  the 
term  nickel-iron  is  by  common  consent  applied  to  it. 

The  nickel-iron  is  an  alloy  or  compound  special  to  meteorites, 
and  the  irons  are  chiefly  composed  of  it.  The  tracery  to  which 
I  have  referred,  observed  on  the  metallic  surface  heated  with 
acids,  was  discovered  by  Widmanstatten.  The  figures  are 
caused  by  the  crystallization  of  the  mass  :  with  the  iron  and 
nickel  magnesium  is  always  associated,  so  that  zve  get  magnesium 
in  all  meteoric  irons  as  well  as  in  the  stones. 

(2)  Compounds  of  iron  and  carbon,  principally  campbelline 
and  chalypite  (Fe.2C). 

(3)  Troilite  (FeNi)7S8,  generally  appearing  as  kidney-shaped 
masses. 

(4)  Schreibersite  (Fe4Ni2P). 

(5)  Graphite. 

(6)  Stony  grains,  generally  magnesium  and  iron  silicates. 

(7)  Occluded  gases. 

1  Flight,  0/.  at.  p.  2ii. 


Sept.  6,  1888] 


NATURE 


457 


(8)  The  crust  or  varnish.  This  has  been  found  to  be  due 
entirely  to  the  oxidation  of  the  metal.  The  formula  of  the  crust 
of  the  Toluca  meteorite  is  Fe203(FeNi)0,  according  to  Meunier. 

The  quantities  of  occluded  gases  vary  considerably.  Hydro- 
gen is  the  first  to  come  out  when  a  vacuum  is  produced,  and  in 
the  cold — that  is,  when  the  tube  containing  the  meteorite  is  not 
heated. 

Thus,  Graham  found  in  the  Lenarto  meteorite,  and  in  a 
comparative  experiment  with  clean  horse-shoe  nails  made  of 
iron  : — 1 


Hydrogen 

Carbonic  oxide... 
Carbonic  acid    ... 
Nitrogen    

Meteorite. 
...      85-68 
...        446 

..'.        9'86               '. 

Nails. 
350 

50 '3 
77 
7'o 

IOCVO 

Chondriiic — 

IOO  OO 

(a)  Non-carbonaceous 

Mallet   subsequently   found   in    the    meteorite   picked  up  in 
Augusta  County — 2 


Hydrogen 

...         85-68 

Carbonic  oxide  ... 

4-46 

Nitrogen 

9-86 

Dr.  A.  Wright  subsequently  determined  the  composition  of 
the  gases  given  off  at  different  temperatures,  using  the  Iowa 
meteorite.     The  results  were  as  follows  : — 

Nitrogen 


Hydrogen. 

Carbonic  oxide. 

Carbonic  acid 

Cold     ...     . 

•       49 

14 

••     35 

At  ioo°  C.  . 

4  "54 

O  (?) 

..     95-46     . 

At  200°  C.  . 

5'86 

1-82 

..     92-32     . 

Red  heat 

•       87-53 

O 

••      5-56     • 

As  regards  the  so-called  occluded  gases,  iron  and  stony  meteor 
ites,  according  to  Wright,  show  a  marked  distinction.  While 
the  gases  of  the  Lenarto  iron  contained  85-68  per  cent,  of 
hydrogen,  those  obtained  from  cosmical  masses  of  the  stony  kind, 
such  as  the  Iowa  meteorite,  are  characterized  by  the  presence  of 
carbonic  acid,  which  constitutes  nine-tenths  of  the  gas  evolved 
at  the  temperature  of  boiling  water,  and  about  one -half  of  that 
given  off  at  a  low  red  heat. 

This  view  of  Wright's  has  been  called  in  question  by  Mallet, 
who  refers  to  his  examination  of  the  gases  of  the  iron  of  Augusta 
Co.,  Virginia,  where  the  ratio  of  the  oxides  of  carbon  to  hydro- 
gen is  4-3,  and  to  his  having  pointed  out  in  1872  that  hydrogen 
could  no  longer  be  regarded  as  the  characteristic  gaseous  ingredient 
of  meteoric  iron.3 

In  the  siderites,  the  iron  varies  from  80  to  98  per  cent.,  and 
the  nickel  from  6  to  10  per  cent.  Sometimes  the  nickel  is  found 
in  larger  quantities,  as  in  the  iron  of  d'Octibbeha  Co.,  Mississipi, 
found  in  the  year  1854,  which  contained  as  much  as  59  per  cent., 
while  the  iron  was  only  37  per  cent. 

There  is  a  singular  circumstance  connected  with  the  varnish  of 
stony  meteorites  which  was  observed  by  Reinsch  in  the  meteorite 
of  Krahenberg.  The  grains  of  metallic  iron  and  troilite  con- 
tained in  the  varnish  show  no  signs  of  oxidation.  In  the  meteorite 
of  Morbihan,  also,  grains  of  nickel-iron  project  not  only  through 
the  smooth  inner  but  also  the  rough  outer  crust.  It  has  been 
suggested  that  the  surface  of  these  meteorites  was  vitrified  before 
it  entered  our  air,  or  at  all  events  those  lower  strata  of  it  in 
which  oxygen  is  abundant.4 

In  many  cases  minute  chemical  analysis  has  been  most  useful 
in  showing  that  meteorites  which  have  been  found  in  different 
localities  really  belong  to  the  same  fall. 

Prof.  Nordenskjold,  on  examining  the  Stalldalen  meteorites 
(Sweden,  June  28,  1876),  found  that  they  resembled  some  eight 
or  nine  others  which  he  had  before  examined,  although  they 
were  entirely  unconnected  as  regards  their  date  of  appearance  ; 
and  that  together  they  would  form  a  well-marked  group,  but 
which,  he  observes,  will  probably  be  found  to  be  only  one 
among  many  similar  groups  of  aerolites  which  will  hereafter  be 
detected. 

The  following  short  table  brings  together  in  a  compact  form 
the  chief  substances  met  with  in  meteorites.     It  will  indicate  the 

1  Graham,  "Chemical  and  Physical  Researches,"  p.  283. 

2  Chemical  News,  June  21,  1872. 

3  Flight,  op.  cit  p.  80. 

4  Flight,  Geol.  Mag.,  January  1875. 


(B)  Carbonaceous 


Non-chondritic- 


cause  of  the  continued  reference  to  the  speetra  of  magnesium 
iron,  and  manganese  in  what  follows. 

Siderites. 

Nickel-iron,  manganese,  copper. 

Troilite  =  FeS. 

Graphite. 

Schreibersite  =  iron  and  nickel  phos- 
phide, with  which  magnesium  is- 
always  associated. 

Daubreelite  =  iron  and  chromium 
sulphide. 

Siderolites. 

..  Olivine  =  chrysolite  =  peridot  = 
(MgFe)204Si  =  Si02  41-3,  MgO 
50-9,  FeO  7-7. 

Enstatite  Mg03Si  =  Si02  60,  MgO 
40. 

Bronzite  =  enstatite,  in  which  some 
magnesium  is  replaced  by  iron. 

Nickel-iron,  manganese. 

Troilite. 

Chromite  =  iron  protoxide  32, 
chromium  sesquioxide  68,  +  alu- 
minium and  magnesium. 

Augite  =  pyroxene,  Si02  55,  CaO 
23,  MgO  16,  MnO  0*5,  FeO  4. 

Silicate  of  calcium,  sodium,  and 
aluminium. 

Carbon  in  combination  with  H  and  O. 

Sulphates  of  Mg,  Ca,  Na,  and  K. 

Troilite. 

Olivine. 

Enstatite. 

Bronzite. 

Augite. 

Anorthite 

Spectral  Analysis. 

It  is  imperative  that  we  should  know  what  spectroscopic 
phenomena  are  presented  by  meteorites  when  they  are  exposed 
to  temperatures  either  high  or  low,  such  that  luminous  effects 
are  produced,  however  the  heat  which  is  associated  with 
luminosity  is  caused. 

To  this  end  a  great  many  investigations  have  been  made,  and 
one  method  of  investigation  has  been  the  following. 

A  small  portion  of  any  particular  meteorite,  or  still  better 
some  dust  or  filings  is  inserted  in  an  end-on  tube,  which  is 
placed  in  front  of  a  spectroscope,  so  that  a  spectroscopic  record 
of  the  luminosity  may  be  obtained.  The  tube  is  at  the  same 
time  attached  to  a  Sprengel  pump,  so  that  in  this  way  a  vacuum 
can  be  obtained,  and  is  supplied  with  poles,  so  that  an  electric 
current  can  be  sent  through  it.  Supposing  that  such  bodies  as 
meteorites  exist  in  free  space,  we  must  understand  that  they 
exist  practically  in  a  vacuum,  so  that  it  is  a  fair  thing  to  begin 
the  laboratory  work  by  getting  as  nearly  a  vacuum  as  possible. 
The  next  thing  to  do  is  to  try  the  effect  of  the  lowest  tem- 
perature, and  for  that  purpose  the  central  part  of  the  tube 
containing  the  little  fragments  is  heated  by  a  Bunsen  burner. 

If  any  effect  is  produced  by  this  application  of  heat  it  will 
after  some  little  time  be  evidenced  by  the  commencement  of  a 
spectrum  or  by  some  change  in  the  pre-existing  one.  What  has 
been  found  is  that  there  is  scarcely  any  meteorite  which  can  be 
examined  in  this  way  which  does  not  give  off  a  sufficient  quantity 
of  hydrogen  to  allow  the  hydrogen  spectrum,  when  a  feeble 
electric  current  is  made  to  travel  along  the  tube,  to  be  very 
beautifully  visible. 

If  the  temperature  of  the  meteoric  particles  is  kept  sufficiently 
low,  we  see  practically  the  spectrum  of  hydrogen  alone.  That 
is  a  demonstration  of  the  very  well  known  fact  that  with  those 
bodies  generally  acknowledged  to  enter  into  the  composition  of 
meteorites,  hydrogen  is  always  associated. 

If  under  these  same  conditions  the  temperature  is  increased, 
the  spectrum  of  carbon  begins  to  be  visible,  indicating  that 
associated  with  the  hydrogen  there  is  some  compound  or  com- 


458 


NA  TURE 


[Sept.  6,  1888 


pounds  of  carbon  in  the  meteorite  which  require  a  higher 
temperature  to  bring  them  out,  but  which  come  out  when  that 
higher  temperature  is  employed.  The  carbonaceous  structure  of 
some  meteorites  has  already  been  determined  on  other  grounds. 

If  we  carry  the  heating  a  little  further  still,  and  instead  of 
leaving  the  particles  relatively  cold  and  dark  while  the  current  is 
passing  we  apply  a  higher  temperature  outside  the  tube  by 
means  of  the  Bunsen  burner,  then  we  get  the  luminous  vapours  of 
some  constituents  of  the  meteorite  added  to  the  spectra  of 
hydrogen  and  carbon. 

What  luminous  vapours  do  we  get  first,  and  which  last?  The 
experiment  is  a  very  interesting  one,  and  may  certainly  be 
carried  on  in  a  tube  such  as  that  described  until  a  pretty  con- 
siderable development  of  the  spectrum  is  obtained.  The  first 
substance  which  makes  itself  visible  obviously  after  the  hydrogen 
and  carbon  when  particles  of  a  meteorite  are  treated  in  this  way 
is  magnesium  derived  from  the  olivine,  that  substance  which 
exists  in  the  greatest  quantity  in  the  stones,  and  in  the  schreiber- 
site,  which  exists  in  the  irons. 

From  such  a  method  of  research  as  this  we  can  pass  to  one  in 
which,  by  means  of  the  oxy-coal-gas  flame,  we  can  determine 
the  spectrum  of  any  vapour  given  off,  provided  any  vapour  is 
given  off,  at  a  still  higher  temperature.  That  work  has  been 
done,  and  the  main  result  is  that  in  the  case  of  an  "  iron,"  the 
first  substance  to  make  its  appearance  is  manganese,  and  the  next 
substance  to  make  itself  obvious  is  iron. 

Here  a  very  important  remark  must  be  made.  The  substance 
which  will  give  us  the  predominant  spectrum  at  lowest  tempera- 
ture must  be  that  substance  the  volatility  of  which  at  that 
temperature  is  greatest.  If,  however  complicated  the  chemical 
constitution  of  one  of  these  meteorites  may  be,  there  is  one 
substance  which  volatilizes  out  of  it  more  readily  than  another 
at  a  low  temperature,  that  substance  will  be  the  first  to  give  us 
its  characteristic  spectrum  at  that  temperature — and  in  fact  we 
may  get  the  spectrum  of  that  substance  alone,  although  its  per- 
centage in  the  meteorite  may  be  extremely  small.  It  is  therefore 
an  important  result  to  find  that  in  meteorites  in  which  the 
quantity  of  iron  is  very  considerable  it  is  always  the  manganese 
that  makes  itself  visible  first,  because  its  volatility  is  greater  than 
that  of  iron.  The  point  to  bear  in  mind  is  that  when  we  pass  to 
the  temperature  of  the  oxy-coal-gas  flame  we  get  predominant 
evidence  of  the  existence  of  manganese,  and  afterwards  of  iron. 

Many  diagrams  of  observations  made  in  this  way  have  been 
constructed  of  the  oxy-coal-gas  flame  of  meteorites  and  of  olivine, 
and  not  only  the  flame  but  the  "glow," — glow  being  the  name 
given  to  the  luminosity  produced  in  the  tube  under  the  conditions 
stated.  There  are  some  points  of  similarity,  and  other  points  of 
difference.  One  of  the  results  which  is  most  constant  is  a  line  at 
500  on  the  wave-length  scale  which  appears  to  run  through  all  the 
observations  until  we  come  to  deal  with  such  meteorites  as  the 
Limerick  and  Nejed.  On  the  other  hand  some  lines  and  flutings 
do  not  make  their  appearance  generally. 

If  we  wish  to  extend  our  inquiry  into  the  function  of  a  still 
higher  temperature  we  can  use  the  electric  arc  ;  that  also  has 
been  done.  For  this  purpose  specimens  of  iron  meteorites  have 
been  cut  into  poles,  the  spectra  of  which  have  been  observed 
and  photographed,  so  that  the  vapours  produced  have  been 
the  vapours  of  the  pure  iron  meteorites  ;  that  is  to  say,  a  small 
portion  of  a  meteorite  lias  not  been  placed  in  an  impure  carbon 
pole,  so  that  the  impurities  of  the  carbon  would  be  observed 
and  photographed  with  the  pure  vapours  of  the  meteorites.  In 
addition  to  this  method — in  the  case  of  the  stony  meteorites — the 
lower  pole  after  its  spectrum  has  been  well  studied  has  been 
utilized  in  this  way :  the  upper  pole  remaining  constant  as  an 
iron  pole,  pretty  big  particles  of  various  stony  meteorites  have 
been  inserted  into  the  lower  pole,  and  the  added  result  has  been  re- 
corded. Further,  composite  photographs  of  the  spectra  of  many 
meteorites  have  been  obtained.  Half  a  dozen  different  stony 
meteorites  have  been  rendered  incandescent  by  their  insertion 
into  the  lower  pole  during  the  exposure  of  a  single  photographic 
plate. 

It  is  pretty  obvious  that  if  we  can  get  detailed  information  on 
such  points  as  these,  and  provided  there  are  meteorites  in  space 
at  the  temperatures  at  which  we  are  able  to  determine  their 
spectra  in  the  laboratory,  such  data  should  be  of  extreme  value, 
for  at  present  we  know  of  no  reason  why  the  spectra  should 
differ  according  to  locality. 

J.  Norman  Lockyer. 

( To  be  continued. ) 


MOLECULAR  P//YS/CS :  AN  ATTEMPT  AT  A 
COMPREHENSIVE  DYNAMICAL  TREAT- 
MENT OF  PHYSICAL  AND  CHEMICAL 
FORCES.1 

II. 

§  6.   Double  Refraction. 

A  CCORDING  to  the  theories  both  of  Fresnel  and  of  Neu- 
■^  mann,  double  refraction  is  explained  on  the  assumption 
that  the  elasticity  of  the  ether  in  crystals  which  exhibit  this 
phenomenon  is  different  in  different  directions.  The  elasticity 
is  proportional  to  the  square  of  the  velocity  of  propagation, 
and  if  a,  b,  c  are  the  ratios  of  the  elasticities,  parallel  to 
the  principal  axes  of  the  crystal,  of  the  ether  within  it  to  its 
density,  the  velocity  in  any  direction  o,  13,  7  will  be  given  by  the 
equation — 

v-  =  a1  cos2  o  +  b~  cos2  ]3-f  c!  cos2  7  .    .    .    .  (18) 

According  to  the  author's  theory,  the  elasticity  of  the  ether  is 
the  same  in  every  direction,  so  that  any  difference  in  the  velo- 
cities of  propagation  in  different  directions  must  be  due  to  the 
mutual  action  between  the  ether  and  the  molecules  of  the  crystal 
being  a  function  of  the  direction,  and  therefore  the  values  of  the 
quantities  ci  for  the  molecules  of  the  crystal,  and  hence  also  the 
value  of  fi,  must  depend  on  the  direction. 

Assuming,  for  simplicity,  that  the  molecules  have  a  single 
shell  only,  it  follows  from  (8)  and  (9)  that — ■ 

2=J_=  p  _  ^T2 

v-       I 


I 


1  + 


T" 


-  ( 1    -  c« 


lia  -rT-Ti  +c   Ti     ^Ri    V 


(19) 


where  /Cj2  =  m1/(c1  +  cs)  and  Ra  =  «j/*i2fci  +  c„). 

Let  the  values  of  Ci  and  /*  for  a  second  direction  be  a"L  and  /j.1, 
then 


^    =  ~ 


I 


r* 


("'  +  ",>C7T?-'P) 


(20) 


Now,  as  Thomson  has  pointed  out,  the  dispersion  accompany- 
ing double    refraction  is  of  very  small    amount,   so    that    the 

difference  ,u2  -  fi1'  must  be  sensibly  independent  of  T. 

If  T  were  less  than  k,  (j?  -  (j.1-  would,  from  (12),  be  propor- 
tional to  TJ.  It  must  therefore  be  assumed  that  the  critical 
period  is  at  the  extreme  blue  end  of  the  spectrum,  which  will 
give  T  greater  than  kx  for  all  the  rays.     Then  from  (12a) — 


ft 


1"  c\"»h 


l{cx  +  c2f       /{Cii  +  ^1)2 
V1       l       cl+c2  +  c^  +  c.OT 

2  l2  * 

+    CJ , C-l fn±-   + (21) 

(ct  +  c2)*>    (q1  +  ^)3  /T» 

In  order  that  the  coefficient  of  T2  may  be  small,  c1  and  ej 
must  be  small  and  nearly  equal.  The  other  terms  of  the  series 
will  then  be  also  very  small,  especially  if  T  is  large  in  com- 
parison with  mlt  and  the  series  may,  to  a  first  approximation, 
be  replaced  by  its  constant  term. 

Now  let  it  be  assumed  that  the  manner  in  which  cx  and  <r2 
depend  on  the  direction  a,  fl,  7,  is  determined  by  an  equation  of 
the  form — 


(22) 


I  — L_  \  —  d  cos2  «  +  Co  cos2  y3  +  C3  cos2  7 
Vj  +  c%' 

Then  from  (19)  and  (12a) — 

v  =  —  —  (  -  _  — 1  Cx  )  cos-  a  +  (  —  -  — x  Co  )  cos-  £ 
pr       \  P       p         '  \  p        P      '  / 

+  ( *  C, )  cos-  7, 

\p         p      V 

an  equation  of  the  same   form  as  (18),  and  which  therefore  gives 
a  wave-surface  identical  with  Fresnel's.     It  must,  of  course,  be 

1    A  Paper  read  before  the  Physico-Economic  Society  of  Kon'gsberg,  by 
Prof.  F.  Lindemann,  on  April  5,  i838.     Continued  from  p.  407. 


Sept.  6,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


459 


assumed  that  the  axes  of  the  molecules  in  the  crystal  are  all 
parallel. 

Thomson  arrived  at  a  different  result,  which  the  author  attri- 
butes to  his  having  assumed  the  product  of  the  denominators 

cx  +  c2  -  mJT2  and  cxl  +  c2    -    „]   to  be  sensibly  a  constant, 

and  therefore  considered  only  the  manner  in  which  T  enters  into 
the  numerators. 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  similar  results  will  be  obtained  for 
molecules  consisting  of  any  number  of  shells. 

§  7.   Spectra  of  Chemical  Compounds. 

In  considering  chemical  compounds  it  is  necessary  to  make  a 
clear  distinction  between  atoms  and  molecules,  and  henceforward 
the  author  uses  the  term  atom  to  denote  a  system  of  shells  such 
as  is  described  in  §  I,  and  employs  the  term  molecule  only  for  a 
combination  of  two  or  more  atoms  having  their  external  shells 
close  together.  The  author  restricts  his  investigations  to  di- 
atomic molecules. 

A  molecule  will  then  be  capable  of  executing  stationary  vibra- 
tions without  disturbing  the  ether,  similar  to  those  of  an  atom, 
and  will  therefore  also  have  its  critical  periods  ;  but  their  values, 
in  the  case  of  the  molecule,  will  depend  on  the  direction  of  the 
disturbance.  A  diatomic  molecule  may  be  considered  approxi- 
mately as  consisting  of  a  series  of  concentric  prolate  spheroidal 
shells  having  their  longer  axes  coincident  with  the  lines  joining 
the  centres  of  the  spheres. 

There  will  be  two  principal  series  of  critical  periods,  corre- 
sponding respectively  to  disturbances  propagated  in  the  direction 
of  the  longest  axis  or  of  any  of  the  shortest  axes.  If  the  direc- 
tion of  propagation  of  a  disturbance  differs  slightly  from  one  of 
these  axes,  the  corresponding  lines  of  the  spectrum  will  only  be 
slightly  displaced,  and  in  this  way  well-defined  bright  lines  will 
be  replaced  by  bright  bands  sharply  defined  on  one  side  and 
indistinctly  on  the  other.  If  two  of  these  bands  overlap  on 
their  indistinct  sides,  a  band  may  be  produced  of  equai 
brightness  throughout,  and  having  both  its  sides  sharply 
defined. 

This  gives  an  explanation  "of  the  well-known  experimental 
fact  that  the  spectra  of  chemical  compounds  usually  consist  of 
bright  fluted  bands,  sometimes  accompanied  by  distinct  bright 
lines,  and  riot  of  bright  lines  only.  Conversely,  if  the  spectrum 
of  a  gas  contains  bright  bands,  it  will  be  natural  to  infer  that  it 
is  a  chemical  compound.  This  would  lead  us  to  suppose  that 
oxygen,  sulphur,  nitrogen,  phosphorus,  carbon,  and  silicon  are 
really  compound  bodies — a  conclusion  which  receives  independent 
confirmation  from  other  points  of  view. 

The  theory  does  not  lead  to  any  simple  law,  such  as  has  often 
been  sought  after,  for  determining  the  spectrum  of  a  compound 
from  the  spectra  of  its  constituents,  but  it  throws  a  good  deal  of 
light  on  the  subject  generally. 

The  differential  equations  to  determine  the  motions  of  the 
shells  within  an  atom  differ  from  equations  (1)  only  in  virtue  of 
the  core  itself  being  supposed  to  be  in  motion,  so  that  the  last  of 
these  equations  will  become — 


4tt-    dt- 


=  Cj  (xj  _  1  -  Xy)  -  cj  + 1  {Xj  -  xj  + 1) 


(23) 


the  difference  consisting  only  in  the  presence  of  xj  +  i,  which  was 
supposed  equal  to  zero  in  equations  (1). 

If  we  discard  the  assumption  that  the  mass  of  the  core  is  so 
great  relatively  to  that  of  the  shells  in  an  atom  that  the  centre  of 
gravity  of  the  system  may  be  identified  with  that  of  the  core,  the 
condition  x, -4  \  =  o  will  be  replaced  by  the  more  general  one — 

mix1  +  m^c%  +  .    .    .  +  my +ix/+.i  =  6  .    .    .  (24) 

which  determines  the  value  of  d-xj  +  ^dt-,  which  is  wanting  in 
the  system  (23). 

From  (2),  (3),  an!  (23)  we  obtain  the  system — 


—  ril  =  a^x\  +  c-2X-2 

™~     C.-y-X-y     —    il„~\  .)    "J"     t*l*V'} 


.(25) 


where,  as  before,  at-  —  mt/T2  -  a  -  c,-  +  i. 

These,  together  with  (24),  form  a  set  of/  +  I  linear  equations, 
which  are  sufficient  to  determine  the  7+1  unknown  quantities 
xv  x.2,  .   .   .  Xj  4 1  in  terms  of  the  given  quantities  |  and  T2. 


Replacing  £,  m,  x,  c,  j  by  77,  n,  y,  e,  k  respectively,  we  obtain 
a  similar  set  of  equations  to  determine  the  vibrations  of  the 
second  atom.  If  the  outer  shells  of  these  two  atoms  are  in 
contact,  xl  must  be  equal  to  ylt  unless  the  disturbance  is  such 
as  to  effect  a  separation,  xt  and  y,  being  corresponding  displace- 
ments from  the  common  centre  of  gravity.  Writing  x  for  the 
common  displacement  of  the  shells  in  contact,  equations  (25) 
assume  the  form — 

-  cYri  =  b^x  +  e»y« 

-  e.2x  =  b,y.2  +  e&t 


-  e^y,  -1  =  bKyK  +  em+\yt 


The  condition  that  the  common  centre  of  gravity  of  the  two 
atoms  may  remain  at  rest  will  therefore  be — 

(«!  +  n^)x  +  m2x2  +  m3x3  +  .    .    .  +  mj  4 1  xj  4 1 

+  'i-j.y-i  +  •  •  .  +«,+ij,+i  =0.  .  .  .  (27) 

(25),  (26),  and  (27)  form  a  system  of  j  +  k  +  I  equations  to 
determine  the  same  number  of  unknowns,  x,  x.2,  .  .  .  Xj±u 
r].2  .  ,  .  77*41,  in  terms  of  the  known  quantities  {,  77,  and  'P. 
£  is  determined  as  before  by  equation  (2),  and  gives  the  vibration  of 
the  ether  at  the  point  where  the  ray  impinges  on  the  first  atom. 
The  axis  of  a  molecule  may  be  at  any  angle  with  the  impinging 
ray,  and  77  will  give  the  ether  vibration  at  the  point  where  a  ray 
parallel  to  the  first  strikes  the  second  atom.  For  a  given  period 
and  wave-length,  £  and  77  will  therefore  in  general  be  in  different 
phases. 

In  the  case  of  vibrations  parallel  to  the  axis  of  the  molecule 
we  shall  have  £  =  77,  supposing  all  the  parallel  rays  impinging 
on  the  molecule  to  be  in  the  same  phase.  The  ratio  „r/£,  re- 
quired for  the  determination  of  n"  will  then  be  the  quotient  of 
the  second  and  first  minors  (viz.  the  coefficients  of  zix  ahd  tc)  of 
the  determinant  of  order  j  +  k  +  2  given  below,  in  which  the 
first  row  is  completed  by  arbitrary  quantities. 


u 

*l 

"2 

"3 

u4  .   . 

•    •  "7  +  1 

Vn 

'3 

v\   •     • 

.    ■   P«+i 

0    m1  +  n1 

m.2 

m3 

m4 .  . 

•    •  mJ  +  1 

U2 

"3 

;/4  .    . 

.    -  «<  4 1 

'■'l 

ax 

C2 

0 

0  .  . 

.    .      0 

O 

O 

0   .    . 

.    .     0 

0 

c2 

a.2 

'3 

0  .  . 

.    .      0 

O 

O 

0   .    . 

.    .     0 

0 

0 

^ 

«3 

''4  •  • 

.    .      0 

0 

O 

0   .    . 

.    .     0 

0 

0 

0 

O 

0    .  . 

•    •  O'  +  i 

0 

O 

0   .    . 

.    .     0 

'1 

h 

0 

O 

0    .  . 

.    .      0 

H 

O 

0   .    . 

.    .     0 

0 

''2 

0 

O 

0    .  . 

.    .      0 

h 

''3 

0    .    . 

.    .     0 

0 

0 

0 

O 

0    .  . 

.    .      0 

e% 

h 

e4  .    . 

.    .     0 

This  will  always  be  the  case  applicable  to  the  determination  of 
the  light  emitted  by  a  molecule. 

The  equation  |  =  o,  which  determines  the  critical  periods  of 
the  molecule,  will  then  be  obtained  by  equating  the  coefficient 
of  u  to  zero,  and  as  a*  and  hi  are  linear  functions  of  T-2,  the 
resulting  equation  will  be  of  the  order  j  +  k.  Therefore,  for 
vibrations  parallel  to  the  axis,  the  number  of  critical  periods  of 
a  diatomic  molecule  is  equal  to  the  sum  of  the  numbers  of 
critical  periods  of  its  constituent  atoms.  This  number  may  be 
diminished  if  x  =  o  while  xj£  and  u2  remain  finite. 

If  a  single  ray  only  is  considered,  as  at  the  limits  of  illumina- 
tion, 77  may  be  taken  equal  to  zero  for  any  given  value  of  | ;  it 
is  only  necessary  to  put  ex  =  o  in  the  first  column  of  the  deter- 
minant.    This  will,  however,  not  affect  the  equation  £  =  o. 

If  the  impinging  ray  is  parallel  to  the  axis  of  the  molecule, 
in  which  case  the  vibrations  will  be  perpendicular  to  it,  the  two 
atoms  will  be  differently  affected  by  the  vibrations  of  the  ether, 
for,  in  the  case  of  the  first  atom,  |  is  again  determined  by  (2), 
or  more  generally  by  the  equation — 


£  =  «cos(-t    -_J 


where  X  is  the  abxissa  of  the  atom  ;  and  if  r  and  S  are  the  radii 
of  the  two  atoms  we  shall  have  for  the  second  atom — 


it  =  a  cos  ( 

V  T 


X  +  r  +  s 
A 


) 


Now  the  r.tdii  of  the  atoms  are  supposed  to  be  very  small 


460 


NATURE 


[Sept.  6,  1888 


■comparison  with  the  wave-length  \,  so  that  |  and  tj  will  be  nearly 
■equal,  and  therefore  we  may  write — 

r  +  s 


U<=*    j 


I  + 


tan 


(¥-!)! 


As  a  first  approximation  we  may  take  |  =  77,  and  then  the 
vibrations  will  be  the  same  as  those  parallel  to  the  axis.  Since, 
however,  the  centre  of  gravity  remains  fixed,  the  vibration  must 
be  a  pendulous  one  about  this  centre,  which  introduces  a  fresh 
set  of  considerations.  The  proper  vibrations  of  the  molecule 
would  still  be  given  by  £  —  o  and  17  =  o,  but,  owing  to  the 
pendulous  vibration,  these  would  not  completely  determine  the 
motion.  The  difference  in  the  action  of  light  in  different  direc- 
tions, and  the  corresponding  fluted  nature  of  the  spectrum,  would 
appear  to  depend  essentially  on  considerations  of  this  kind.1 

In  the  case  of  a  triatomic  molecule,  we  obtain  three  sets  of 
linear  equations  of  the  same  form  as  (25)  and  (26),  together  with 
one  of  the  form  (27)  ;  it  is,  however,  unnecessary  to  pursue  this 
further. 

§  8.  Production  of  Chemical  Compounds  by  the  Effect  of  Light 
and  Heat. 

When  an  atom  of  any  gas  strikes  in  its  course  against  an  atom 
of  some  other  gas,  the  question  which  presents  itself  is  whether 
the  two  will  unite  to  form  a  single  molecule  or  not.  The  internal 
equilibrium  of  each  atom  will  be  disturbed  by  the  impact,  so  that 
the  resultant  of  the  internal  forces  of  the  system  formed  by  the 
two  atoms  will  in  general  have  a  value  different  from  zero.  Let 
this  resultant  be  transferred  parallel  to  itself  until  it  passes 
through  the  centre  of  gravity,  as  is  allowable  from  a  theorem  of 
dynamics,  then  it  will  increase  its  velocity  of  translation.  The 
total  energy  of  the  system  must,  however,  remain  constant,  so 
that  the  energy  of  the  internal  atomic  vibrations  must  be 
diminished  by  exactly  the  same  amount  as  that  by  which  the 
energy  of  the  motion  of  the  centre  of  gravity  is  increased. 
After  the  impact  the  internal  vibrations  will  at  first  be  of  a  very 
irregular  character  ;  but  under  the  action  of  the  light  rays  they 
will  ultimately  attain  a  condition  of  stationary  equilibrium, 
supposing  such  to  be  possible  with  the  diminished  energy. 
When  it  is  possible  its  stability  will  be  greater,  the  greater 
the  diminution  in  the  internal  energy. 

Consider,  for  example,  the  formation  of  hydric  chloride  gas 
by  the  action  of  light  on  a  mixture  of  chlorine  and  hydrogen, 
accompanied  as  it  is  by  a  measurable  development  of  heat. 
Both  these  gases  exhibit  strong  bright  lines  in  the  blue  portion 
of  the  spectrum,  and,  in  the  case  of  hydrogen,  also  in  the  ultra- 
violet. Vibrations  of  corresponding  critical  periods  will  therefore 
easily  be  excited,  which  will  greatly  increase  the  internal  energy 
of  the  atoms.  When  an  atom  of  chlorine  now  impinges  upon 
one  of  hydrogen,  they  will  remain  in  contact  for  a  finite, 
though  exceedingly  short  interval.  During  this  interval  the 
mechanical  theorem  relative  to  the  motion  about  the  centre  of 
gravity  is  applicable,  since  there  will  be  no  external  forces  acting 
on  the  pair  of  atoms  during  their  common  rectilinear  motion. 
Let  it  be  assumed  further  that  the  energy  of  the  molecule  formed 
by  the  union  of  the  two  atoms  is,  under  the  existing  conditions, 
less  than  the  sum  of  their  separate  energies,  viz.  that  the  critical 
vibrations  of  the  molecule  are  less  sensitive  to  the  action  of  light 
than  those  of  the  separate  atoms,  then  the  spherical  atomic  shells 
will  tend  to  execute  resultant  vibrations  proper  to  the  molecule 
according  to  §  7,  so  that  the  chlorine  and  hydrogen  will  unite  to 
form  hydric  chloride.  No  energy  can  of  course  be  lost,  so  that 
the  difference  between  the  internal  energy  of  the  molecules 
and  that  of  the  separate  atoms  will  be  added  to  that  of  the 
translatory  motion,  and  will  therefore  become  sensible  in  the 
form  of  heat. 

It  will  be  noted  that  no  special  chemical  affinity  between 
chlorine  and  hydrogen  has  to  be  assumed,  but  two  elements  may 
be  said  to  have  a  chemical  affinity  whenever  the  energy  of  the 
resultant  molecular  vibration  is,  under  the  given  conditions,  less 
than  that  of  the  separate  atomic  vibrations.2 

1  Bunsen's  observations  (Poggendorff's  Annalen,  vol.  cxxviii.)  on  crystals 
of  certain  didymium  salts  show  that  there  is  actually  a  difference  in  the 
absorption  of  light  in  different  directions. 

2  A  chemical  compound  may  therefore  be  regarded  as  produced  in  a  manner 
similar  to  the  variation  of  a  species  on  the  Darwinian  theories  of  adaptation 
and  natural  selection.  A  species  undergoes  variation  such  as  to  increase  its 
suitability  to  its  environment.  In  exactly  the  same  way  two  atoms  will  unite 
to  form  a  molecule,  when  they  thereby  become  less  sensitive  to  the  influence 
of  their  surroundings  than  they  woutd  be  separately.  Accidental  conditions 
are  of  no  more  importance  in  determining  the  formation  of  chemical  com- 
pounds, than  the  voluntary  actions  of  individuals  in  determining  the  variation 
of  a  species. 


The  given  conditions  may  depend  on  light,  heat,  or  electro- 
motive force,  though  the  consideration  of  the  last-named  may  be 
eliminated  (see  §  16).  An  example  of  the  action  of  heat  is  given 
by  the  formation  of  water  from  hydrogen  and  oxygen.  The 
hydrogen  burns  with  a  blue  flame.  Both  the  elements  give 
bright  lines  in  the  red  portion  of  the  spectrum,  hydrogen  at  6562, 
and  oxygen  at  6171,1  so  that  their  internal  energy  can  easily  be 
increased  by  the  action  of  heat,  so  that  combination  will  take 
place,  and  this  is  accompanied  by  a  considerable  development  of 
heat.  Water  being  a  very  stable  compound  with  respect  to  the 
action  of  heat,  we  should  expect  it  to  give  chiefly  blue  lines. 
This  has  not  hitherto  been  proved  by  direct  experiment,  but  it 
appears  to  be  indicated  by  the  blue  Colour  and  intense  heat  of  the 
hydrogen  flame. 

Since  the  heat  of  combustion  which  is  usually  developed  during 
the  formation  of  oxides  arises  from  a  diminution  in  the  internal 
energy  of  the  atoms,  we  should  infer  that  (1)  the  stability  of  an 
oxide  will  be  greater  the  greater  its  heat  of  combustion  ;  (2)  the 
spectrum  of  the  oxide  will  not  extend  so  far  towards  the  red  end 
of  the  spectrum  as  the  spectra  of  the  constituents. 

The  former  inference  is  confirmed  by  the  researches  of  Favre 
and  Silbermann  ;  the  latter  is  found  to  be  justified  for  the  oxides 
of  aluminium,  lead,  carbon,  copper,  and  strontium  (the  ultra-red 
portion  of  the  spectrum  in  the  case  of  strontium  should  be 
specially  noted),  but  it  cannot  be  expected  to  hold  good  so 
universally  as  the  former. 

§  9    Molecular  Theory  of  Chemistry. 

In  modern  chemistry  the  term  molecule  is  used  to  denote  the 
smallest  mass  of  a  substance  which  can  exist  separately.  This 
conception  of  a  molecule  is  essentially  different  from  that  set 
forth  in  §  7  of  this  paper.  The  chemical  molecule  may  be 
simply  an  atom,  as  in  the  cases  of  mercury  and  cadmium,  but 
this  is  not  the  case  for  the  molecules  considered  by  the  author. 
On  the  author's  theory,  each  atom  is  supposed  capable  of  separate 
existence,  which  agrees  with  chemical  phenomena  when  the 
atoms  are  considered  in  the  isolated,  or  so-called  nascent  condi- 
tion, but  appears  to  be  in  conflict  with  them  in  that  Mariotte's 
(Boyle's)  law,  and  the  comparison  of  the  weights  of  equal 
volumes  of  various  elements  in  the  gaseous  state,  appear  to  point 
to  the  conclusion  that  their  chemical  molecules  consist  of  two  or 
more  atoms. 

This  only  applies  to  elements  in  the  gaseous  state  and  under 
the  ordinary  conditions  of  pressure  and  temperature,  and  it  is 
quite  conceivable  that  in  high  vacua  and  at  a  high  temperature, 
as  for  example  in  a  Geissler  tube,  the  atoms  of  diatomic  molecules 
may  exist  separately,  a  dissociation  taking  place  similar  to  that 
which  is  invariably  found  to  occur  in  the  case  of  chemical  com- 
pounds under  similar  circumstances  (see  §  10).  The  ordinary 
hypothesis  must  therefore  be  regarded  as  simply  expressing  that 
under  ordinary  circumstances  the  atoms  of  diatomic  molecules 
tend  to  unite  in  pairs  to  form  chemical  molecules. 

According  to  §  8,  it  must  therefore  be  assumed  that  the  diatomic 
molecules  of  certain  elements  are  less  sensitive  to  the  external 
influences  of  light  and  heat  than  the  separate  atoms,  and  that 
the  internal  energy  of  such  a  molecule  is  less  than  the  sum  of  the 
internal  energies  of  its  two  constituent  atoms.  Suppose  that  £  is 
again  determined  by  (2)  and  that  xi  =  m  cos  2-irt/T,  then  the 
quantities  a;  must  be  determined  from  the  equations  (25)  and 
(24).     The  internal  energy  of  an  atom  will  therefore  be 

E  =  ■!(*«! a,2  +  m2a.2*  +  .    .    .  +  mj+iaj  +  i2). 

The  energy  of  a  second  atom  of  the  same  substance  under 
identical  external  conditions  will  have  the  same  value.  If  the 
two  atoms  are  placed  in  contact,  the  new  values  of  xi  must  be 
determined  from  (25),  (26),  and  (27).  In  this  case,  however,  we 
have  yi  —  xi,  ai  —  bi,  a  =  ei,  mi  =  mt  so  that  (26)  and  (27) 
become  identical,  and  (27)  reduces  to  (24),  with  the  distinction, 
however,  that  the  quantities  xi  now  represent  the  displacements 
relatively  to  the  common  centre  of  gravity,  instead  of  relatively 
to  the  centre  of  gravity  of  the  single  atom.  It  therefore  follows 
that,  approximately,  the  critical  vibration  periods  of  a  molecule 
consisting  of  two  similar  atoms  will  be  identical  with  those  of  the 
separate  atoms. 

Now  the  energy  of  the  molecule  is  just  double  that  of  either 
of  the  constituent  atoms,  so  that  the  union  of  the  atoms  cannot 
be  due  to  a  decrease  in  the  internal  energy.  It  is  easy  to  under- 
stand, however,  that  when  two  atoms  have  once  combined  they 

■  Se:  B;A.  Reports,  12:4,  x38s,  en  I  :886. 


Sept.  6,  1888]  1 


NATURE 


461 


will  not  separate  again,  except  under  special  circumstances  ;  but 
so  far  the  fact  that  different  gases  behave  differently  in  this 
respect  remains  unexplained.  If  two  spherical  bodies  collide, 
they  will  remain  in  contact  only  if  perfectly  inelastic,  otherwise 
they  will  fly  off  in  opposite  directions. 

In  the  latter  case  the  elastic  forces  are  due  to  the  displacement 
of  the  molecules  of  the  spheres  from  their  positions  of  equi- 
librium. If  the  colliding  bodies  are  two  of  Thomson's  atoms, 
similar  elastic  forces  will  be  called  into  play  by  a  displacement 
of  their  outer  shells.  If  the  mass  mx  of  each  of  the  outer  shells 
is  very  large  compared  with  that  of  the  inner  ones,  the  outer  shells 
will  remain  nearly  at  rest  after  the  collision,  while  the  inner  ones 
will  be  thrown  into  violent  vibration  ;  indeed  it  follows  from  (24) 
that  *j  will  be  very  small.  The  atoms  will  therefore  behave 
very  nearly  as  if  they  were  inelastic,  and  may  remain  long 
enough  in  contact  to  assume  a  new  condition  of  equilibrium  by 
uniting  to  form  a  single  molecule.  Exactly  the  reverse  will 
happen  if  m1  is  small  compared  with  the  mass  of  the  inner 
shells. 

We  must  therefore  assume  that  in  diatomic  chemical  molecules 
the  masses  of  the  outer  shells  are  very  large  compared  to  the 
sums  of  the  masses  of  the  interior  shells,  while  in  the  monatomic 
molecules  the  masses  of  the  outer  shells  are  comparatively 
small. 

We  might  now  inquire  why  it  is  that  in  general  more  than 
two  atoms  do  not  unite  in  this  manner.  To  which  the  answer 
is  that  the  more  complicated  the  structure  of  a  molecule,  the  more 
easily  will  it  be  broken  up  by  the  impacts  of  other  molecules. 
We  must  therefore  assume  that  in  the  case  of  diatomic 
molecules  the  violence  and  frequency  of  the  impacts,  even  under 
ordinary  circumstances,  are  sufficient  to  break  up  any  molecules 
which  may  be  formed  containing  more  than  two  atoms  ;  while  in 
the  case  of  other  elements,  such  as  arsenic  and  phosphorus,  the 
impacts  are  unable  to  break  up  the  tetratomic  molecules,  even  at 
the  high  temperature  of  vaporization. 

In  virtue  of  these  considerations  it  appears  that  the  formation 
of  a  chemical  compound,  such  as  hydric  chloride,  is  not  such  a 
simple  process  as  it  was  supposed  to  be  in  §  7.  The  impacts 
will  frequently  produce  diatomic  molecules  of  hydrogen  and  of 
chlorine  respectively.  The  final  condition  of  equilibrium  will, 
however,  be  arrived  at  on  the  same  principle  as  before — namely, 
that  the  molecules  of  hydric  chloride  are  the  least  sensitive  to 
the  action  of  light.  Tetratomic  molecules  of  hydric  chloride, 
will  not  be  permanently  formed,  as  the  impacts,  increased  in 
violence  and  frequency  by  the  heat  developed,  will  break  them 
1  up.     Similar  considerations  apply  to  the  formation  of  water. 

The  formation  of  these  simple  compounds  is,  therefore,  accom- 
panied by,  and  due  to  the  simultaneous  breaking  up  of  the 
original  diatomic  molecules  of  the  elements  present. 

Double  decompositions  will  take  place  in  an  exactly  similar 
manner,  and  considerations  of  the  same  kind  apply  to  solid  and 
liquid  bodies,  in  which,  however,  the  impacts  will  be  very  much 
less  frequent. 

We  also  see  that  the  broadening  of  the  bands  in  the  spectrum 
of  a  gas,  especially  when  due  to  a  lowering  of  temperature,  does 
not  necessarily  show  that  the  gas  is  a  compound,  as  it  may  be 
due  to  the  union  of  previously  dissociated  similar  atoms  into 
molecules. 

§  10.  Dissociative  Action  of  Light  and  Heat. 

The  fact  that  the  same  compounds  which  are  formed  by  the 
action  of  heat  are  again  broken  up  when  the  temperature  is 
further  increased,  and,  indeed,  the  dissociation  of  every  chemical 
compound  at  a  sufficiently  high  temperature,  is  in  apparent  con- 
tradiction to  the  conclusions  of  §  8.  In  the  case  of  compounds 
formed  by  the  action  of  light  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  internal 
energy  due  to  the  action  of  heat  may  be  greater  than  that  of  the 
atoms  at  the  same  temperature.  In  general,  it  may  be  that 
when  the  two  constants  c,  (§  1)  combine  to  form  one,  the  corre- 
sponding critical  vibrations  are  only  produced  at  a  much  higher 
temperature,  and  may  then  give  rise  to  dissociation.  Since, 
however,  all  compounds  are  dissociated  at  sufficiently  high 
temperatures,  there  must  be  some  other  causes  at  work.  We 
may  suppose  that  in  gases  at  very  high  temperatures  the  mole- 
cules are  broken  up  simply  by  the  violence  of  the  impacts,  and 
this  process  would  be  facilitated  by  the  molecules  not  being 
spherical  in  form. 

The  dissociative  action  of  light  observed  in  certain  cases  cannot 
of  course  have  a  similar  general  explanation,  and  must  not  be 
attributed  to  special  chemical  properties  of  light  of  certain  wave- 


lengths, but  to  the  values  of  the  internal  constants  of  the 
molecules  being  of  a  kind  specially  favourable  to  such  action. 
Thus,  as  the  author  points  out,  we  are  led  to  the  point  of  view 
expressed  by  Lockyer,1  as  follows  : — 

"  The  causes  which  are  given  in  the  text -books,  showing  us 
the  maxima  of  heat,  light,  and  chemical  action,  are,  I  fancy, 
merely  causes  showing  us,  as  it  were,  the  absorption  spectra  of 
those  substances  by  which  the  maxima  have  been  determined — 
whether  they  be  lamp-black,  the  coating  of  the  retina,  or  salts  of 
silver,  and  are  really  altogether  independent  of  the  nature  of 
light." 

§  II.  Fluorescence. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  in  §  4  how  critical  vibrations  may  be 
excited  in  a  molecule  by  external  disturbances,  causing  the  mole- 
cule to  emit  light  of  a  certain  wave-length.  The  disturbance  was 
supposed  to  be  due  to  the  action  of  heat,  but  from  what  has 
gone  before  it  is  clear  that  they  may  be  produced  by  ether 
vibrations  if  only  the  molecule  or  atom  is  very  sensitive  to  light 
vibrations.  For  as  soon  as  the  impa'ct  of  light  waves  of  a 
certain  (critical)  vibration  period  has  raised  the  internal  energy 
of  the  molecule  to  its  maximum  value,  the  molecule  itself—that 
is  to  say,  its  centre  of  gravity — will  begin  to  execute  vibrations  ; 
the  different  molecules  will  strike  against  one  another,  and  the 
result  of  these  encounters  will  be  to  produce  vibrations  of  the 
other  critical  periods  of  the  molecule,  which  will  be  different 
from  the  vibration  period  of  the  impinging  light. 

The  substance  will  therefore  emit  rays  different  from  those 
which  have  fallen  upon  it.  As  a  matter  of  fact  some  substances 
having  such  special  sensitiveness  have  been  observed,2  and  are 
known  as  fluorescent  substances.  The  phenomena  of  fluorescence 
must  therefore  be  attributed  to  the  absorption  of  light,  as  was 
pointed  out  by  Stokes. 

A  fluorescent  body  is  to  be  regarded  as  one  in  which  the 
molecular  constants  cz-  have  such  values  that  the  corresponding 
light  vibrations  can  be  easily  excited  by  external  impulses. 
Fluorescent  substances  must,  in  agreement  with  Stokes's  con- 
clusions, be  regarded  as  being  exceptionally  sensitive. 

The  theory  does  not  lead  to  the  law  which  has  usually  been 
asserted,  that  the  emitted  light  must  necessarily  be  of  longer 
wave-length  than  the  impinging  light,  and  therefore  the  theory 
is  not  inconsistent  with  Lommel's  observations  on  naphthalan 
red. 

Fluor-spar  exhibits  the  phenomena  of  fluorescence  to  an  ex- 
ceptional degree.  It  may  be  that  fluorine  itself  is  exceptionally 
sensitive  to  the  action  of  light,  and  that  the  formation  of  the 
mineral  has  not  altogether  destroyed  this  sensitiveness.  If  this 
be  so,  it  would  explain  the  impossibility  of  preventing  fluorine 
from  entering  into  combination  with  any  substance  with  which  it 
is  in  contact.  G.  W.  DE  Tunzelmann. 

( To  be  continued. ) 


THE  FORESTRY  SCHOOL  LN  SPAIN. 

IN  a  Report  to  the  Foreign  Office  which  has  just  been  published 
the  British  Ambassador  at  Madrid  states  that  Mr.  Gosling, 
First  Secretary  to  the  Embassy,  has  had  the  opportunity  of 
studying  the  excellent  School  of  Forestry  established  at  the 
Escurial,  and  as  great  interest  is  now  taken  in  forestal  science  in 
England,  and  as  efforts  are  being  made  to  establish  a  British 
National  School  of  Forestry,  he  sends  the  information  collected 
by  Mr.  Gosling  at  an  institution  which,  he  thinks,  is  well 
adapted  as  a  type  for  a  similar  institution  in  England. 

Forestal  legislation  in  Spain  dates  as  far  back  as  the  close  of 
the  fifteenth  century -that  is,  in  the  reign  of  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella — and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  reckless  destruction 
of  the  rich  forests  was  checked  from  time  to  time  by  Royal 
ordinances.  At  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century  Madrid  was 
surrounded  by  dense  forests  ;  in  fact,  the  city  arms— a  bear 
climbing  up  a  green  tree — bear  out  the  old  chroniclers  when 
they  speak  of  the  forests  which  lay  around  the  city,  which 
must  have  existed  in  the  time  of  Charles  V.  So  far  is  this  from 
being  the  case  at  present  that  for  the  most  part  the  districts 
around  Madrid  are  treeless  and  unproductive,  and  as  a  conse- 
quence exposed  to  the  furious  mountain  storms,  and  unsheltered 
in  the  scorching  summer,  whence  comes  the  extreme  unhealthi- 

1  "Studies  in  Spectrum  Analysis,"  p.  no. 

a  Thomson  mentioned,  "Lectures  on  Molecular  Dynamics,  p.  280,  that 
his  theory  of  absorption  would  account  for  the  phenomena  of  fluorescence, 
but  he  did  not  follow  up  the  subject,  j 


462 


NA  TURE 


[Sept.  6,  1888 


ness  for  any  person  with  a  delicate  constitution.  While  Spanish 
rule  in  South  America  carefully  protected  the  forests  from  de- 
struction, it  permitted  this  to  go  on  almost  unchecked  at  home. 
Towards  the  end  of  the  last  century  the  great  agrarian  lawyer 
and  reformer,  Jovellanos,  who  was  the  first  to  call  the  attention 
of  Spain  to  the  disastrous  effects  which  were  being  produced  by 
the  want  of  supervision  of  the  forests,  wrote  a  pamphlet  entitled 
"Informe  de  la  Sociedad  economica  de  Madrid,  al  real  y 
supremo  Consejo  de  Castilla,  en  el  expediente  de  ley  agraria 
extendido  por  su  individuo  de  numero  Don  Melchor  Caspar  de 
Jovellanos  a  nombre  de  la  Santa  encargada  de  su  formation,  y 
con  arreglo  a  sus  opiniones."  This  pamphlet  paved  the  way  for 
the  present  excellent  system  of  forestry.  Special  ordinances  were 
passed  in  the  year  1835  for  the  foundation  of  a  school  of  forest 
engineers,  but  at  the  time  no  practical  steps  were  taken  ;  but  ten 
years  later,  when  domestic  troubles  had  to  some  extent  passed 
away,  the  "  Escuela  especial  de  Ingenieros  de  Montes  "  (School 
of  Forestry)  was  firmly  established  and  was  followed  by  the 
formation  of  a  corps  of  forest  engineers.  The  first  School  of 
Forestry  was  situated  at  Villaviciosa,  not  far  from  Madrid,  and 
was  under  the  control  of  Senor  Bernardo  de  la  Torre  Rojas,  who 
is  still  styled  "  el  padre  de  la  Escuela  Espaiiola  de  Montes."  In 
1869  the  school  was  transferred  from  Villaviciosa  to  the  Escurial, 
part  of  which  had  been  granted  by  the  Government  in  the  pre- 
ceding year  for  that  purpose.  This  institution  is  now  under  the 
direction  of  Senor  Bragat  y  Vinals,  and  there  are  nine  professors 
and  three  assistants  under  him,  all  of  whom  must  have  served 
five  years  on  the  staff  of  forest  engineers.  The  annual  salaries 
of  these  officers  amount  to  ^1400,  and  appear  in  the  annual 
Budget  of  the  Minister  of  "  Fomento,"  which  Department 
includes  public  works,  industry  and  commerce,  agriculture, 
public  instruction.  The  total  yearly  cost  of  the  school  is  ^"1700. 
The  following  are  the  subjects  taught  by  the  professors,  each 
group  having  a  professor:  (1)  forestal  legislation  ;  (2)  political 
economy,  forestal  meteorology;  (3)  applied  mechanics  and 
forestal  construction  ;  (4)  topography  and  geodesy;  (5)  chemistry, 
mineralogy,  and  geology  (applied)  ;  (6)  botany  ;  (7)  sylviculture, 
(8)  zoology  and  forestal  industries  ;  (9)  classification  of  forests 
and  their  valuation.  The  instruction  is  free,  but  the  books  and 
instruments  are  charged  for.  The  vacation  depends  on  circum- 
stances. If  the  practical  work  is  completed,  the  months  of 
August  and  September  are  given  ;  four  days  in  December  and 
three  during  the  Carnival  are  given — that  is,  in  all  about  nine 
weeks.  The  number  of  students  is  practically  unlimited.  The 
school  is  open  to  all  who  pass  the  preliminary  examina- 
tion— that  is,  to  all  who  show  proficiency  in  Spanish  and  Latin 
grammar,  geography,  and  Spanish  history,  elements  of  natural 
history,  of  theoretical  mechanics,  geometry,  and  its  relations  to 
projections  and  perspective,  physics,  chemistry,  lineal,  topo- 
graphical, and  landscape  drawing,  and  an  elementary  know- 
ledge of  French  and  German.  Immediately  on  entrance  to  the 
school,  particular  attention  is  paid  to  topography,  chemistry 
(practical),  and  mathematics  (applied).  The  topography  course 
includes  the  object  of  topography,  and  the  difference  between  it 
and  geodesy  ;  the  rules  of  triangulation  and  methods  of  demon- 
strating the  physical  characteristics  of  the  ground  under  survey  ; 
chart  and  plan  drawing  ;  and  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  use 
of  the  instruments  used  in  forestal  topography.  The  course  in 
chemistry  is  very  wide,  including  every  detail  of  the  applied 
science  appertaining  to  botany,  mineralogy,  and  sylviculture. 
In  the  school  is  a  very  fine  collection  of  chemical  apparatus  and 
instruments,  including  those  of  Bunsen,  Dupasquier,  Gay- 
Lussac,  Donovan,  &c.  Every  kind  of  instrument  required  in 
applied  mechanics  is  also  here.  There  is  a  very  good  library  of 
books  attached  to  the  school,  comprising  about  3000  volumes  on 
mathematics  and  the  physical  sciences,  natural  history,  language, 
literature,  and  history,  arts  and  manufactures,  &c.  During  the 
first  year  the  studies  are  topography,  differential  and  integral  cal- 
culus, descriptive  geometry,  applied  mathematics,  and  chemistry. 
In  the  second  year  the  subjects  are  mechanics,  geodesy,  meteoro- 
logy, climatology,  construction,  and  drawing  ;  in  the  third  year, 
mineralogy  and  applied  zoology,  applied  geology,  botany,  and 
sylviculture  ;  in  the  fourth  year,  kilometry,  scientific  classifica- 
tion of  forests,  forest  industries,  law,  and  political  economy.  On 
the  completion  of  this  four  years'  course,  the  successful  candi- 
dates are  appointed  to  the  staff  of  forest  engineers.  This  corps 
consists  of  3  general  inspectors,  15  district  inspectors,  40  chief 
engineers  of  the  first  class,  50  chief  engineers  of  the  second  class, 
60  second  engineers  of  the  first  class,  and  70  of  the  second  class. 
There  are  also  25  assistants  of  the  first  class,   350  of  the  second 


class,  and 420  foremen  planters.  The  salaries  of  the  six  grades 
of  engineers  are  respectively  ^500,  ^400,  ^300,  ,£260,  ,£200, 
^160,  besides  an  active  service  allowance  of  £1  a  day  to 
inspectors,  16.?.  a  day  to  chief  engineers,  and  12s.  a  clay  to  the 
others.  The  country  is  divided  into  46  forestal  departments,  the 
forest  in  each  case  being  under  the  care  of  a  chief  engineer,  but 
the  inspecting  officers  reside  in  Madrid. 


SCIENTIFIC  SEXiALS. 

American  Journal  of  Science,  August. — History  of  the  changes 
in  the  Mount  Loa  craters  ;  Part  2,  on  Mokuaweoweo,  or  the 
summit  crater  (continued),  by  James  D.  Dana.  The  subjects 
here  considered  are  (1)  the  times  and  time-intervals  of  eruptions 
and  of  summit  illuminations  or  activity,  with  reference  to 
periodicity,  relations  to  seasons,  variations  in  activity  since 
1843,  and  lastly  the  changes  in  the  depth  of  the  crater  ;  (2)  the 
ordinary  activity  within  the  summit  crater  ;  (3)  causes  of  the 
ordinary  movements  within  the  crater.  Among  the  general 
conclusions  are  the  rejection  of  any  law  of  periodicity,  and  the 
apparently  established  fact  that  the  inland  waters  supplied  by 
precipitation  are  the  chief  source  of  the  vapours  concerned  in 
Hawaiian  volcanic  action.  Then  follows  Part  3,  dealing  with 
the  characteristics  and  causes  of  eruptions  ;  metamorphism  under 
volcanic  action  ;  the  form  of  Mount  Loa  as  a  result  of  its 
eruptions  ;  the  relations  of  Kilauea  to  Mount  Loa  ;  lastly, 
general  volcanic  phenomena. — The  Fayette  County  (Texas) 
meteorite,  by  J.  E.  Whitfield  and  G.  P.  Merrill.  The  specimen 
was  found  about  ten  years  ago  on  the  Colorado  River  near  La 
Grange,  Fayette  County.  It  weighs  about  146  kilogrammes,  and 
analysis  shows  that  the  rocky  portion  consists  essentially  of 
olivine  and  enstatite  with  some  pyrrhotite.  It  belongs  to  the 
class  to  which  G.  Rose  has  given  the  name  of  "  chondrites,  1 
and  its  most  striking  feature  is  its  fine  and  compact  texture. 
exceeding  that  of  any  similar  meteorite  known  to  the  authors.-— 
Evidence  of  the  fossil  plants  as  to  the  age  of  the  Potomac 
formation,  by  Lester  F.  Ward.  From  these  researches  it  ap- 
pears that  no  Jurassic  species,  but  many  strongly  Jurassic  types, 
occur.  The  Wealden  furnishes  the  largest  number  of  identical 
species,  after  which  follow  the  Cenomanian  and  Urgoman.  All 
these  formations  also  yield  many  allied  species,  which,  however, 
are  most  abundant  in  the  Oolitic.  Altogether  the  flora  would 
appear  to  be  decidedly  Cretaceous,  but  probably  not  higher  than 
the  Wealden  and  Neocomian. — E.  II.  Hall  describes  some 
experiments  carried  on  for  over  three  years  at  Harvard  College 
on  the  effect  of  magnetic  force  on  the  equipotential  lines  of  an 
electric  current ;  and  Thomas  M.  Chathard  gives  the  analyses  of 
the  waters  of  some  Californian  and  other  North  American 
alkali  lakes. 

Memoires  de  la  Societe  a" Anthropologic,  tome  troisieme 
(Paris,  1888). — This  volume  contains  an  exhaustive  trea 
Dr.  Nicolas  on  automatism  in  voluntary  acts  and  movements, 
The  author,  who  is  an  ardent  opponent  of  the  materialistic  and 
atheistic  views  common  to  many  of  his  scientific  brethren,  is 
especially  anxious  to  call  attention  to  questions  such  as  those  of 
which  he  here  treats,  and  which  have  hitherto  been  little  con- 
sidered in  France.  The  main  conclusion  that  he  draws  from  the 
accumulated  mass  of  facts,  which  he  has  borrowed  principally 
from  the  labours  of  British  and  German  biologists,  is  that  the 
superiority  of  an  animal  in  the  scale  of  being  is  determined  by 
the  degree  of  liberty  which  it  enjoys  in  controlling  reflex  actions, 
and  directing  automatic  reactions. — Contribution  to  the  study  of 
anomalies  of  the  muscles,  by  M.  Ledouble.  The  principal 
subjects  here  treated  of  are  the  variations  in  the  iliac,  costal,  and 
spinal  processes  of  the  latissimus  dorsi  muscle. — Philosophy, 
considered  from  an  anthropological  point  of  view,  by  Dr. 
Fauvelle.  Although  the  writer  passes  in  review  the  various 
schools  of  philosophy  which  have  sprung  up  in  various  periods 
of  time,  his  purpose  is  rather  to  follow  the  gradual  evolution  of 
philosophic  thought  from  the  first  appearance  of  man,  than  to 
recount  its  history.  Pointing  out  that  comparative  anatomy  and 
physiology  teach  us  that  intelligence  depends  directly  on  the 
number  and  degree  of  differentiation  of  the  cerebral  cellules,  he 
asks  whether  we  must  assume  that  these  have  reached  their 
utmost  limits  of  development,  or  whether  new  manifestations  ol 
cerebral  perfection  may  not  be  reserved  for  man  ?  According  to 
his  views,  religions  of  all  forms,  and  speculative  philosophy,  have 
equally  had  the  effect  of  impeding  every  kind  of  independent 
intellectual  labour,  and  have  thus  in  different  parts  of  the  universe 


Sept.  6,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


46. 


and  in  different,  ages  applied  successive  checks  to  cerebral  evolu- 
tion, which  Dr.  Fauvelle  regards  as  identical  with  human  pro- 
gress.— On  the  hand  and  figure  of  native  East  Indians,  by 
Dr.  Mugnier.  In  this  exhaustive  article  the  author  gives 
elaborate  measurements  based  on  his  own  observations  of  the 
maxima  and  minima  and  the  means  of  every  part  of  the  hand 
specially,  and  of  the  body  generally,  in  the  six  principal  Asiatic 
races,  with  tables  of  comparative  measurements  of  Europeans. 
From  these  it  is  seen  that  the  absolute  size  of  the  hand  among 
Asiatics  is  less  than  in  Europeans,  the  Japanese  approximating 
most  closely  to  the  estimates  given  for  the  latter,  while  the 
Malays  exhibit  the  lowest  maximum.  In  regard  to  stature,  and 
relative  proportions  of  figure,  all  Asiatics  are  inferior  to  Europeans, 
the  Japanese  presenting  the  greatest  divergence,  while  the  Arabs 
of  Yemen  approximate  most  nearly  to  the  general  means  of 
European  races. — An  anthropological  and  ethnographic  study  of 
the  kingdom  of  Cambodia,  by  Dr.  E.  Maurel.  Shaded  maps 
of  the  territorial  divisions  of  Indo-China  from  the  seventh  century 
to  the  present  time  curiously  illustrate  the  varying  supremacy  of 
Siamese,  Laos,  and  Cambodian  tribes  in  that  portion  of  the  Far 
East  which  lies  between  the  China  Sea  and  the  Indian  Ocean. 
The  rapidity  with  which  alluvial  deposits  are  formed  would  seem 
to  justify  the  author's  assertion  that  the  territories  now  known  as 
Cochin-China  and  South  Cambodia  are  of  recent  geological 
origin,  and  were  possibly  submerged  till  near  the  dawn  of 
actual  historical  ages.  Interesting  information  is  supplied  as  to 
the  effect  on  the  land,  and  the  habits  and  pursuits  of  the  people, 
of  the  regular  inundations  to  which  the  country  is  exposed  by  the 
overflow  of  the  Mekong,  the  great  river  which,  rising  in  East 
Tibet,  flows  southward  till  it  divides  into  three  branches  in  the 
heart  of  Cambodia,  and  ultimately  forms  the  important  inland 
sea  of  Toule  Sap,  whose  area  exceeds  3000  kilometres  before  the 
return  of  the  current  temporarily  diminishes  its  volume.  The 
orography  and  the  climatology  of  the  district  are  carefully  treated, 
but  the  materials  seem  still  wanting  for  supplying  us  with  any 
exact  dataas  to  the  numbers  and  ethnic  character  of  the  population. 
— Platycnemia  in  man  and  the  Anthropoda,  by  M.  Manouvrier. 
After  describing  the  actual  anatomical  characters  of  this  peculiar 
lateral  flattening  of  the  tibial  bone,  the  writer  considers  the 
grounds  on  which  this  condition  has  been  regarded  as  a  character 
of  inferiority  by  which  certain  prehistoric  and  other  ancient 
races  would  seem  to  show  their  affinity  to  the  anthropomorpha. 
This  opinion  he  absolutely  rejects,  and  finally  asserts,  as  the 
result  of  his  comparative  anatomical  investigations  of  fossil  and 
recent  Iftrise,  that  platycnemia  has  existed  and  still  exists  among  the 
most  different  human  races,  although  it  is  of  very  rare  occurrence 
among  certain  savage  peoples,  as  the  Negroes  of  Africa,  and  the 
Indians  of  California.  He  denies  that  it  is  a  special  simian 
characteristic,  since,  notwithstanding  its  frequent  occurrence  in 
the  chimpanzee  and  gorilla,  it  does  not  present  the  same  features 
in  them  as  in  man,  and  finally  he  believes  that,  even  if  it  were 
originally  transmitted  from  some  at  boreal  anthropoid,  it  has  been 
maintained  simply  by  the  activity  of  an  essentially  human 
function,  its  survival  being  most  frequent  among  nations  and 
tribes  addicted  to  hunting  and  fishing,  or  compelled  by  sudden 
and  great  differences  of  elevation,  or  extreme  inequalities  of  the 
surface,  to  make  exertions  in  ascending  and  descending  steep 
heights,  by  which  the  tibial  bones  are  continuously  and  often 
violently  exercised.  Finally,  platycnemia  manifests  itself  only 
in  the  human  and  anthropoid  adult,  the  young  being  free  from  it. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
Sydney. 
Royal  Society  of  New  South  Wales,  May  2.— Annual 
Meeting. — C.  S.  Wilkinson,  Government  Geologist,  President, 
in  the  chair. — The  report  stated  that  twenty-four  new  members 
had  been  elected  during  the  year,  and  the  total  number  on  the 
roll  on  April  30  was  482. — Dr.  Michael  Foster,  F.R.S.,  Pro- 
fessor of  Physiology,  University  of  Cambridge,  had  been  elected 
an  honorary  member. — During  the  year  the  Society  held  nine 
meetings,  at  which  the  following  papers  were  read:— Presi- 
dential Address,  by  Christopher  Rolleston,  C.M.G. — Recent 
work  on  flying  machines,  by  L.  Hargrave. — Some  N.S.  W. 
tan-substances,  Parts  1,  2,  3,  and  4,  by  J.  H.  Maiden. — Notes 
on  the  experience  of  other  countries  in  the  administration  of 
their  water  supply,  by  II.  G.  McKinney.— Notes  on  some  in- 
clusions observed  in  a  specimen  of  the  Queensland  opal,  by 
D.  A.  Porter.  —The  influence  of  bush  fires  in  the  distribution 


of  species,  by  Rev.  R.  Collie. — Origin  and  mode  of  occurrence 
of  gold-bearing  veins  and  of  the  associated  minerals,  by  Jonathan 
Seaver. — Results  of  observations  of  comets  vi.  and  vii.,  1886,  at 
Windsor,  N. S.W.,  by  John  Tebbutt.—  Port  Jackson  silt  beds, 
by  F.  B.  Gipps. — On  the  presence  of  fusel  oil  in  beer,  by  W.  M. 
Hamlet. — Autographic  instruments  used  in  the  development  of 
flying  machines,  by  Lawrence  Hargrave. — The  Medical  Section 
held  seven  meetings,  fourteen  papers  being  read  ;  the  Sanitary 
Section  four  meetings,  five  papers  read  ;  and  the  Microscopical 
Section  held  eight  meetings. — The  Clarke  Medal  for  the  year 
1S88  had  been  awarded  to  the  Rev.  J.  E.  Tenison-Woods  ;  the 
Society's  bronze  medal  and  money  prize  of  ^25  had  been  awarded 
to  Mr.  Jonathan  Seaver  for  his  paper  on  the  origin  and  mode 
of  occurrence  of  gold-bearing  veins  and  of  the  associated  minerals; 
and  the  Council  has  since  issued  the  following  list  of  subjects, 
with  the  offer  of  the  medal  and  a  prize  of  ^25,  for  each  of  the 
best  researches,  if  of  sufficient  merit ;  (to  be  sent  in  not  later  than 
May  1,  1888)  anatomy  and  life-history  of  the  Echidna  and 
Platypus  ;  anatomy  and  life-history  of  Mollusca  peculiar  to 
Australia  ;  the  chemical  composition  of  the  products  from  the 
so-called  kerosene  shale  of  New  South  Wales  ;  (to  be  sent  in  not 
later  than  May  1,  1889)  on  the  chemistry  of  the  Australian 
gums  and  resins  ;  on  the  aborigines  of  Australia  ;  on  the  iron 
ore  deposits  of  New  South  Wales  ;  list  of  the  marine  fauna  of 
Port  Jackson,  with  descriptive  notes  as  to  habits,  distribution, 
&c.  ;  (to  be  sent  in  not  later  than  May  I,  1890)  influence  of  the 
Australian  climate,  general  and  local,  in  the  development  and 
mollification  of  disease  ;  on  the  silver  ore  deposits  of  New  South 
Wales  ;  on  the  occurrence  of  precious  stones  in  New  South 
Wales,  with  a  description  of  the  deposits  in  which  they  are 
found. — The  Chairman  read  the  Presidential  Address,  and  the 
officers  and  Council  were  elected  for  the  ensuing  year. — A  com- 
pressed air-engine  for  driving  a  flying  machine  was  exhibited  by 
Mr.  L.  Hargrave.  The  engine  weighed  only  2  lbs.  7  oz.  ; 
cylinder,  1  \  inch  diameter  ;  stroke,  2  inches.  The  receiver  for 
the  compressed  air  was  o-2i  cubic  feet  capacity,  made  of  TV-inch 
steel,  single  riveted  and  brazed.  The  bursting  pressure  was 
900  lbs.,  working  pressure  500  lbs.,  and  reduced  pressure 
900  lbs.,  per  square  inch.  There  would  be  9200  foot-pounds 
available  for  work  ;  this  power  would  have  to  be  expended  in 
from  half  to  three-quarters  of  a  minute.  The  charged  receiver 
weighed  6  lbs.  12  oz.,  wood  and  paper  work  about  2  lbs.  A 
small  Richards's  indicator  had  been  made  for  adjusting  the 
piston-valve.  The  machine  was  intended  for  a  flight  of  200 
yards. 

June  6. — Sir  Alfred  Roberts,  President,  in  the  chair. — The 
Chairman  announced  that  the  Council  had  awarded  the  Society's 
medal  and  prize  of  ^"25  to  the  Rev.  J.  E.  Tenison-Woods  for 
his  paper  upon  the  anatomy  and  life-history  of  Mollusca  pecu- 
liar to  Australia. — The  following  papers  were  read  : — Notes  on 
some  minerals  and  mineral  localities  in  the  northern  districts  of 
New  South  Wales,  by  D.  A.  Porter. — Forest  destruction  in 
New  South  Wales,  and  its  effect  on  the  flow  of  water  in  water- 
courses, and  on  the  rainfall,  by  W.  E.  Abbott. — The  increasing 
magnitude  of  77  Argus,  by  II.  C.  Russell,  F. R.S. — On  a 
simple  plan  of  easing  railway  curves,  by  W.  Shellshear. — Indi- 
genous Australian  forage  plants  (exclusive  of  grasses),  including 
plants  injurious  to  stock,  by  J.  H.  Maiden. 

July  4.- — Sir  Alfred  Roberts,  President,  in  the  chair.— A  dis- 
cussion took  place  upon  Mr.  W.  E.  Abbott's  paper  on  forest 
destruction  in  New  South  Wales,  and  its  effect  on  the  flow  of 
water  in  watercourses  and  on  the  rainfall,  read  at  the  preceding 
meeting.  The  general  result  of  the  discussion  was  to  the  effect 
that  the  destruction  of  forests  had  no  appreciable  effect  on  the 
rainfall. — The  following  papers  were  read  : — On  an  improve- 
ment in  anemometers,  by  H.  C.  Russell,  F.R.  S. — -On  the 
anatomy  and  life-history  of  Mollusca  peculiar  to  Australia,  by 
the  Rev.  J.  E.  Tenison-Woods,  in  which  the  author  gave 
evidence  as  to  the  existence  of  eyes  in  the  skulls  of  many 
Australian  Mollusca. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  August  27. — M.  Janssen,  President, 
in  the  chair. — Observations  relative  to  a  previous  communication 
on  a  general  property  of  elastic  solid  bodies,  by  M.  Maurice 
Levy.  The  author's  attention  has  been  called  by  M.  Boussinesq 
to  the  fact  that  the  final  formula  of  his  note  inserted  in  the 
Comptcs  rtndui  of  August  13  is  found  in  Prof.  Betti's  lectures  on 
the  theory  of  electricity.  He  consequently  points  out  that  the 
theorem,  which  forms  the  chief  object  of  that  note,  must  also  be 
accredited  to  the  same  illustrious  geometrician. — Observations  of 


464 


NATURE 


{Sept.  6,  1888 


Brooks's  comet  made  at  the  Observatory  of  Algiers  with  the 
o'5o  m.  telescope,  by  MM.  Trepied,  Sy,  and  Renaux.  The 
observations  are  for  the  period  from  August  11  to  August  15  in- 
clusive. On  the  former  date  the  brilliancy  of  the  nucleus  was 
about  equal  to  that  of  a  star  of  the  tenth  magnitude  ;  diameter  of 
nebulosity  about  1',  with  faint  tail  in  the  direction  of  the  diurnal 
movement.—  Observations  of  Faye's  comet  made  at  the  Observa- 
tory of  Nice,  by  M.  Perrotin.  These  observations  were  made  on 
August  11,  14,  and  17. — On  some  experiments  with  the  marine 
telephone,  by  M.  A.  Banare.  These  experiments  were  carried 
out  by  order  of  the  Minister  of  Marine,  at  Brest,  by  means  of 
the  apparatus  to  which  the  author  has  given  the  name  of 
"hydrophone."  Sounds  emitted  by  various  sonorous  instru- 
ments, such  as  bells,  whistles,  and  trumpets,  were  distinctly 
heard,  that  of  a  bell  weighing  150  kilogrammes  at  a  distance  of 
5200  metres.  The  experiment,  with  a  ship  under  way  also  gave 
favourable  results,  and  here  also  the  ringing  of  a  bell  was  clearly 
detected  at  a  distance  of  1400  metres  simultaneously  with  the 
noise  of  the  engine  and  screw  of  the  tug. — On  the  remains 
and  zoological  affinities  of  Testudo  pcrpiniana,  a  gigantic  fossil 
turtle  of  the  Perpignan  Pliocene  epoch,  by  M.  P.  Fischer.  This 
magnificent  specimen,  discovered  by  M.  A.  Donnezan,  and  de- 
scribed by  M.  Ch.  Deperet,  has  recently  been  acquired  by  the 
Palaeontological  Department  of  the  Paris  Museum.  A  compara- 
tive study  of  the  remains  (various  parts  of  the  carapace)  leads  to 
the  conclusion  that  it  must  have  been  a  gigantic  species  of  a 
living  African  group  {Testitdo  partialis,  sulcata).  Its  affinities 
with  the  gigantic  turtles  at  present  confined  to  the  Aldabra 
Islands  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  the  Galapagos  in  the  Pacific, 
do  not  appear  to  have  been  established.  Its  relations  with  the 
Chersites  of  South  Europe  are  also  doubtful,  so  that  it  may  be 
considered  as  a  Pliocene  survival  in  the  south  of  France  of  an 
older  land  fauna  of  an  African  type.  Its  ancestors  may  perhaps 
be  found  amongst  the  large  turtles  discovered  by  M.  Gaudry  in 
the  Mount  Leberon  beds,  but  which  are  known  only  by  some 
fragments  of  the  carapace. — The  Secretary  announced  the  death 
of  Herr  Rudolf  Clausius,  Corresponding  Member  of  the  Section 
for  Mathematics,  who  died  at  Bonn  on  August  24. 

Berlin. 

Physiological  Society,  August  3. — Prof,  du  Bois  Reymond, 
President,  in  the  chair. — Dr.  A.  Konig  gave  an  account  of 
researches  which  he  had  carried  out,  in  conjunction  with  Dr. 
Brodhun,  for  the  experimental  testing  of  Fechner's  psycho- 
physical law  in  its  relationship  to  the  sense  of  sight.  In  the 
case  of  lights  whose  brightness  varied  between  the  limits  -j^and 
200000  of  the  unit  used,  it  was  necessary  to  measure  at  six 
different  points  of  the  spectrum — that  is  to  say,  for  six  different 
kinds  of  monochromatic  light — the  minimum  change  of  intensity 
which  could  be  appreciated  as  a  change  at  all.  The  experiments 
were  carried  out  on  the  trichromatic  eye  of  the  speaker  and  the 
dichromatic  eye  of  Dr.  Brodhun.  The  observer  sat  in  a  dark 
chamber,  into  which  the  eye  end  of  the  observing  telescope 
projected,  and  was  able,  by  the  rotation  of  a  handle,  to  vary  the 
relative  b  Tightness  of  the  upper  and  lower  half  of  the  field  of 
vision  until  the  difference  was  just  perceptible.  The  field  of 
vision  was  illuminated  by  a  double  slit,  through  which  the  pure 
spectral  red,  orange,  yellow,  green,  blue,  or  violet  light  could  be 
admitted.  The  upper  half  of  the  slit  was  fixed,  while  the  lower 
half  could  be  widened  or  narrowed  by  the  observer,  and  the 
amount  of  the  alteration  in  width  of  the  slit  observed  and 
recorded  by  an  assistant.  The  source  of  light  used  was  a 
gas-burner  with  zirconium  light.  Several  thousand  separate 
observations  were  made,  from  which  it  was  found  that  the 
several  colour-systems  have  no  influence  on  the  sensitiveness  to 
differences  in  brightness  of  lights ;  the  values  obtained  in  the 
case  of  Dr.  Konig's  eye  were  identical  with  those  obtained  for 
Dr.  Brodhun's.  The  shape  of  the  curve  which  expressed  the 
percentage  relationship  of  the  leact  possible  perceptible  change 
in  intensity  (expressed  as  an  ordinate)  to  the  intensity  of  the 
light  itself  (expressed  as  an  abscissa)  was  the  same  for  all  the 
above  six  colours,  differing  only  in  the  case  of  lights  of  minimal 
intensity.  The  curve  was  not  a  straight  line  for  all  intensities 
of  light  which  were  investigated,  as  it  should  be  according  to 
Fechner's  law.  In  the  case  of  the  greatest  and  least  intensities 
of  light  it  was  found  that  the  smallest  increase  of  intensity  which 
was  just  perceptible  was  greater  than  in  the  case  of  medium 
intensities  of  light.  With  weak  illumination  the  curve  for  lights 
of  greater  wave-length,  such  as  red,  orange,  and  yellow,  was 
steeper  than  for  lights  of  shorter  wave-length.      From  this  the 


speaker  pointed  out  that  the  divergence  in  the  curves  of  sensi- 
tiveness to  varying  intensities  commences  with  that  intensity  at 
which,  according  to  Purkinje,  the  subjective  sensitiveness  to 
lights  of  different  kinds  changes  as  their  intensity  is  diminished, 
and  in  the  same  way  as  does  the  sensitiveness  to  varying 
intensities.  The  speaker  concluded  with  some  interesting 
considerations  respecting  the  zero-point  of  the  curve  and  the 
negative  parts  of  the  abscissae. — Dr.  Uhthoff  gave  an  account  of 
experiments  made  with  a  view  to  determining  the  amount  of 
change  in  wave-length  of  spectral  lights  which  are  necessary  to 
produce  the  least  perceptible  difference  in  their  colour.  The 
object  of  the  experiments  was  to  subject  the  results  obtained  by 
Drs.  Konig  and  Dieterici  to  a  renewed  testing,  in  answer  to 
objections  which  had  been  raised  against  them.  Using  the 
same  apparatus,  but  a  different  method,  he  had  confirmed  their 
results.  He  also  found,  as  Pearce  had  clone  in  1883,  that  the 
sensitiveness  to  change  of  colours  is  greatest  for  yellow  and  blue, 
and  least  for  red  and  green. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Beginner's  Guide  to  Photography.  2nd  edition  (Perken). — A  Bibliography 
of  the  Foraminifera  from  1565  to  1888  :  C.  D.  Sherborn  (Dulau). — Hand 
buch  der  Palaeontologie,  i.  Abtheilung,  Pala^ozoologie,  iii.  Band,  2  Liefg. 
(Munchen). — Dr.  H.  G.  Bronn's  Klassen  und  Ordnungen  des  Thier-Reichs, 
Erster  Band.  Protozoa,  47,  48,  u.  49,  Liefg.  :  Dr.  O.  Butschli  (Leipzig).— A 
Text-book  of  Euclid's  Elements.  Parts  1  and  2,  containing  Books  i.-vi.  : 
H.  S.  Hall  and  F.  H.  Stevens  (Macmillan). — Catalogue  of  the  Fossil  Rep- 
tilia  and  Amphibia  in  the  British  Museum  (Natural  History),  Part  1  :  R. 
Lydekker (London). — Forschungsreise  S. M.S.  Gazelle,  iv.  Theil,  Kotanik 
Algen:  Prof.  Dr.  E.  Askenasy  (Berlin). — Journal  of  the  Chemical  Society, 
September  (Gurney  and  Jackson. 


CONTENTS.  page 

Geological  Nomenclature.    By  Prof.  John  W.  Judd, 

F.R.S 433 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

Lamarckism  versus  Darwinism. — Edward  B.  Poul- 

ton 434 

The  Zodiacal  Light  and  Meteors.— T.  W.  Back- 
house   434 

The  Services  of  Catholic  Missionaries  in  the  East 

to  Natural  Science 434 

The  Australasian  Association  for  the  Advancement 

of  Science 437 

Professor  Rudolf  Julius  Emanuel  Clausius.     By  G. 

W.  de  Tunzelmann 438 

The    British  Association 439 

Inaugural    Address   by    Sir    Frederick    Bramwell, 

D.C.L.,  F.R.S.,  M.Inst.C.E.,  President      ...    440 
Section    A. — Mathematical   and    Physical  Science. — 
Opening    Address   by    Prof.   G.    F.    Fitzgerald, 

M. A.,  F.R.S. ,  President  of  the  Section 446 

Section  C. — Geology. — Opening  Address  by  W. 
Boyd  Dawkins,  M.A.,  F.R.S.,  F.G.S.,  F.S.A., 
Professor  of  Geology  and  Palaeontology  in  Owens 

College,  President  of  the  Section 449 

Notes 451 

Astronomical     Phenomena    for     the     Week    1888 

September  9-15 454 

Geographical  Notes 455 

Notes  on  Meteorites.     II.     By  J.  Norman  Lockyer, 

F.R.S 4S6 

Molecular  Physics :  an  Attempt  at  a  Comprehensive 
Dynamical  Treatment  of  Physical  and  Chemical 

Forces.     II.     By  Prof.  F.  Lindemann  t 458 

The  Forestry  School  in  Spain 461 

Scientific  Serials 462 

Societies  and  Academies 463 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received    .   .   .   .   •    464 


NA  TURE 


465 


EXPERIMENTS    ON    THE    GROWTH    OF 
WHEA  T. 

The  Rothamsled  Experiments  on  the  Growth  of  Wheat, 
Barley,  and  the  Mixed  Herbage  of  Grass  Land.  By 
William  Fream,  B.Sc.  Lond.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of 
Natural  History  in  the  College  of  Agriculture, 
Downton.  (London:  Horace  Cox,  Field  Office,  1888.) 
T^HE  long  series  of  reports  which  have  emanated  from 
-i  Rothamsted  since  1847,  and  which  lie  buried  to 
most  readers  in  the  Journals  of  the  Royal  Agricultural 
Society,  as  well  as  in  those  of  our  more  purely  learned 
Societies,  have  long  needed  an  editor.  Back  numbers  of 
serials  are  not  particularly  attractive  to  the  modern  reader. 
The  laborious  papers  by  Sir  John  Lawes  and  his  in- 
defatigable colleague  Dr.  Gilbert  would  have  run  some 
little  danger  of  being  buried  alive  had  not  an  able  editor 
and  exponent  been  found.  Happily,  Dr.  Fream  possessed 
the  necessary  knowledge  and  discrimination  for  this  task, 
and,  with  the  entire  concurrence  of  the  original  investi- 
gators, the  upshot  is  a  valuable  digest  of  a  certain  section  of 
[the  results  obtained — namely,  those  relating  to  the  cereals 
and  the  grasses.  The  volume  is  adapted  for  reference 
rather  than  for  rapid  reading,  although  the  sections  upon 
the  influence  of  climate  on  the  cultivation  of  wheat,  and 
upon  the  home  produce,  imports,  and  consumption  of 
wheat,  are  less  close  in  fibre,  and  may  be  scanned  with 
greater  ease.  The  book  is,  in  fact,  rather  for  students 
than  for  the  omnivorous  reader,  but  nevertheless  appeals 
to  a  very  large  constituency.  All  landlords,  land  agents, 
land  farmers,  as  well  as  agricultural  students  (now  a 
i  numerous  class),  will  welcome  it  as  giving,  in  a  compendious 
form,  and  in  digested  condition,  matter  which  is  scattered 
I  through  many  periodicals. 

The  results  of  continuous  wheat  and  barley  growing 
year  after  year  upon  the  same  land — without  manure  of 
lany  kind,  with  annual  dressings  of  dung,  with  annual 
dressings  of  nitrogenous  manures,  with  annual  dressings 
of  mineral  manures,  and  with  annual  dressings  of  mixed 
nitrogenous  and  mineral  manures — are  all  given.  The 
ijfact  that  wheat  and  barley  have  been  grown  for  forty 
years  in  succession  without  manure  upon  the  same  land, 
I while  the  entire  straw  and  grain  have  been  removed, 
is  in  itself  striking,  and  still  more  singular  is  it  that  the 
average  produce  during  all  these  years  is  equal  to  the 
average  yield  of  Australia,  and  exceeds  that  of  many  of 
the  United  States  of  America.  It  is  also  noteworthy  that 
the  yield  of  the  last  crop  comprised  in  these  reports — 
that  of  1883 — is  13!  bushels  per  acre,  or  within  one- 
fourth  bushel  of  the  average  during  the  entire  period  of 
forty  years.  With  regard  to  manures,  minerals  alone 
have  added  very  slightly  to  the  unmanured  produce  ; 
whereas,  manures  containing  nitric  acid  alone,  or  some 
easily  nitrifiable  compound  of  nitrogen,  have  considerably 
increased  the  crop.  Manures  consisting  of  potash,  phos- 
phoric acid,  and  nitrogen  in  the  form  of  ammonia  salts 
or  nitrates,  are  able  to  grow  heavy  crops  of  wheat  con- 
tinuously. It  is  clearly  shown  that  such  compounded 
fertilizers,  containing  both  the  mineral  and  nitrogenous 
constituents  of  plant  food,  can  grow  crops  superior  to 
Vol.  xxxviii. — No.  985. 


what  are  produced  by  annual  dressings  of  fourteen  tons 
per  acre  of  farmyard  manure.  Also  the  proportion  of 
the  nitrogen  applied  which  is  made  use  of  by  the  growing 
crops  is  much  higher  in  the  case  of  the  artificial  fertilizers 
than  in  the  case  of  the  farmyard  manure.  A  larger  pro- 
portion, in  fact,  of  the  nitrogen  applied  is  recovered  by 
the  crop  in  the  case  of  the  artificial  dressings.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  residuary  effect  of  nitrogen  applied  in 
combination  with  carbon  (as  in  farmyard  manure)  is 
much  greater  than  in  the  case  of  applications  of  prepared 
salts  of  ammonia  or  of  nitric  acid. 

The  ease  with  which  fertility  can  be  kept  up  by 
artificial  applications  forms,  in  the  opinion  of  many 
agriculturists,  a  reason  for  discarding  the  more  cumbrous 
method  of  keeping  up  the  fertility  of  land  by  means  of 
live  stock  and  the  dung-cart.  But  it  must  be  remembered 
that  no  artificial  manure  accumulates  fertility  in  a  soil 
like  farmyard  manure,  and  its  nitrogen,  being  liberated 
gradually,  is  available  over  a  long  series  of  years,  and 
especially  so  at  those  seasons  of  the  year  in  which 
vegetation  is  most  in  need  of  it. 

The  grass  experiments  are  of  great  interest.  First,  we 
have  the  different  quantities  of  hay  produced  by  various 
dressings  of  manurial  substances  ;  but  more  remarkable 
are  the  changes  brought  about  in  the  species  of  grasses 
predominating  on  various  plots  by  the  influence  of 
fertilizers  applied  during  a  long  series  of  years.  On 
the  plot,  for  example,  to  which  ammonia  salts  have 
been  continuously  applied  for  thirty  years,  the  total 
number  of  the  species  originally  extant  has  been  much 
reduced,  three-quarters  of  the  produce  being  composed 
of  Fesluca  ovina  and  Agrosiis  vulgaris.  The  leguminous 
herbage  has  disappeared.  On  the  plot  manured  con- 
tinuously with  superphosphate,  the  number  and  relative 
predominance  of  the  plant  species  is  much  the  same 
as  without  manure,  with  a  prevalence  of  Lathyrus 
pratensis  among  the  Leguminosas,  and  an  increase  of 
Ranunculus  repens,  R.  bulbosus,  Achillea  Millefolium, 
and  Rumex  Acetosa.  Again,  when  ammonia  salts  and 
mixed  mineral  manures  are  applied,  Poapratensis  becomes 
the  prevailing  grass.  These  examples  must  suffice  to  show 
the  great  changes  wrought  by  continuous  applications,  and 
the  principle  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  under  regulated 
alterations  of  the  environment. 

Complicated  and  multifarious  as  are  these  experiments, 
the  general  conclusions  for  the  guidance  of  agriculturists 
are  reducible  to  a  few  simple  deductions.  Thus  the 
superior  excellence  of  nitrate  of  soda  as  a  fertilizer  for 
cereals  and  for  grasses  is  distinctly  shown.  The  necessity 
of  nitrogenous  manures,  such  as  nitrate  of  soda  and 
ammonia  salts,  as  means  of  bringing  out  or  developing 
the  effect  of  the  so-called  mineral  manures,  such  as  potash 
and  phosphates,  is  constantly  proved.  The  comparatively 
small  value  of  many  constituents  of  plants  (owing  to 
their  already  existing  in  sufficient  quantities  in  most 
soils),  such  as  soda,  magnesia,  and  silica,  is  also  placed 
beyond  doubt.  The  residual  effect  of  farmyard  manure, 
and  its  consequent  power  of  not  only  keeping  up  but 
indefinitely  increasing  the  fertility  of  a  soil,  are  points 
greatly  in  its  favour  ;  while  the  slowness  of  its  action,  and 
the  very  small  proportion  of  its  nitrogen  which  appears 
to  be  recoverable  at  any  particular  time,  are  considerations 
which  weigh  against  it.     The  residual  effect  of  mineral 

x 


466 


NATURE 


{Sept. 


dressings  applied  many  years  ago  as  affected  and  brought 
out  by  continuous  dressings  of  nitrogenous  manures  is 
another  significant  fact  ;  while  the  evanescent  effect  of 
nitrates  applied  as  salts  contrasts  unfavourably  with  the 
continued  effects  of  nitrogenous  matter  in  organic  com- 
bination with  carbon.  Prof.  Fream's  book  is  a  sub- 
stantial addition  to  agricultural  literature,  and  it  is  satis- 
factory to  find  that  the  editing  of  such  important  results 
has  been  carried  out,  with  the  "  kind  and  ready  "  assistance 
of  Sir  John  Lawes  and  Dr.  Gilbert,  by  one  who  brings 
sound  scientific  attainments  to  bear  upon  a  stupendous 
number  of  observations  made  during  a  series  of  forty 
years.  There  is  room  for  a  second,  if  not  a  third  volume, 
as  the  experiments  upon  the  cultivation  of  the  root  crops, 
the  leguminous  crops,  and  the  elaborate  researches  made 
at  Rothamsted  upon  the  fattening  of  animals,  are  not 
touched  in  this  first  instalment. 


THE  JAPANESE  VOLCANIC  ERUPTION. 

THE  Times  of  Tuesday  contains  a  long  letter  from  its 
Japan  Correspondent  describing  the  scene  of  the 
recent  volcanic  explosion  in  the  Bandai-san  region  in 
Northern  Japan.  This  is  the  first  account  by  a  foreign 
eye-witness  that  has  reached  the  outside  world.  The  writer 
appears  to  have  started  immediately  from  Tokio  for  the 
scene  of  the  disaster,  where  he  spent  four  days  going  care- 
fully over  the  ground,  examining  the  phenomena  connected 
with  the  outburst,  and  hearing  the  stories  of  the  survivors. 
The  communication  which  is  the  result  of  these  investiga- 
tions, and  which  was  evidently  written  while  the 
powerful  impression  left  by  the  scene  of  awful  desolation 
was  still  fresh  in  the  writer's  mind,  is  probably  one  of  the 
most  graphic  and  detailed  accounts  of  the  immediate 
results  of  a  stupendous  volcanic  explosion  that  has  ever 
been  published.  Bandai-san  is  a  mountain  about  5800  feet 
high,  and  has  shown  no  sign  of  activity  for  about  eleven 
hundred  years.  On  its  north-eastern  flank  was  a  sub- 
ordinate peak  known  as  Little  Bandai-san,  which  rose 
directly  above  a  group  of  three  solfataras. 

At  about  8  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  July  15  (here,  as 
throughout  almost  the  whole  of  this  article,  we  quote  the 
Times  Correspondent),  almost  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye, 
Little  Bandai-san  was  blown  into  the  air  and  wiped  out  of 
the  map  of  Japan.  A  few  minutes  later  its  debris  had 
buried  or  devastated  an  area  about  half  the  size  of 
London.  A  dozen  or  more  of  upland  hamlets  had  been 
overwhelmed  in  the  earthen  deluge,  or  wrecked  by  other 
phenomena  attending  the  outburst.  Several  hundreds  of 
people  had  met  with  sudden  and  terrible  death.  Scores 
of  others  had  been  injured  ;  and  the  long  roll  of  disaster 
included  the  destruction  of  horses  and  cattle,  damming  up 
of  rivers,  and  laying  waste  of  large  tracts  of  rice-land  and 
mulberry-groves.  A  small  party  was  organized  in  Tokio 
to  visit  the  scene.  As  the  travellers  approached  the 
mountain,  they  were  told  that  twenty  miles  in  a 
straight  line  from  Bandai-san  no  noise  or  earth- 
quake was  experienced  on  the  15th,  but  mist  and 
gloom  prevailed  for  about  seven  hours,  the  result  of  a 
shower  of  impalpable  blue-gray  ash,  which  fell  to  a  depth 
of  half  an  inch,  and  sorely  puzzled  the  inhabitants.  An 
ascent  of  about  3000  feet  was  made  to  the  back  of  the 
newly-formed  crater,  so  as  to  obtain  a  clear  view  of  it  and 
of  the  country  which  had  been  overwhelmed.  Only  on 
nearing  the  end  of  the  ascent  were  they  again  brought 
face  to  face  with  signs  of  the  explosion.  Here,  besides 
the  rain  of  fine  gray  ashen  mud  which  had  fallen  on  and 
still  covered  the  ground  and  all  vegetation,  they  came  upon 
a  number  of  freshly-opened  pits,  evidently  in  some  way  the 
work  of  the  volcano.  Ascending  the  last  steep  rise  to  the 
ridge  behind  Little  Bandai-san,  signs  of  the  great  disaster 


grew  in  number  and  intensity.  "  Foetid  vapours  swepl 
over  us,  emanating  from  evil-looking  pools.  Great  tree; 
torn  up  by  their  roots  lay  all  around  ;  and  the  whole  face 
of  the  mountain  wore  the  look  of  having  been  withered  by 
some  fierce  and  baleful  blast.  A  few  minutes  further  anc 
we  had  gained  the  crest  of  the  narrow  ridge,  and  now,  foi 
the  first  time,  looked  forth  upon  the  sight  we  had  cometc 
see.  I  hardly  know  which  to  pronounce  the  mon 
astonishing,  the  prospect  that  now  opened  before  oui 
eyes  or  the  suddenness  with  which  it  burst  upon  us.  Tc 
the  former,  perhaps,  no  more  fitting  phrase  can  be  appliec 
than  that  of  absolute,  unredeemed  desolation — so  intense 
so  sad,  and  so  bewildering,  that  I  despair  of  describing  i 
adequately  in  detail.  On  our  right,  a  little  above  us,  rose 
the  in-curved  rear  wall  of  what,  eight  days  before,  hac 
been  Sho-Bandai-san,  a  ragged,  almost  sheer,  cliff,  falling 
with  scarce  a  break,  to  a  depth  of  fully  600  feet.  In  fron 
of  this  cliff  everything  had  been  blown  away  and  scatterec 
over  the  face  of  the  country  before  it  in  a  roughly  fan 
shaped  deposit  of  for  the  most  part  unknown  depth- 
deep  enough,  however,  to  erase  every  landmark  and  con 
ceal  every  feature  of  the  deluged  area.  At  the  foot  of  th< 
cliff,  clouds  of  suffocating  steam  rose  ceaselessly  anc 
angrily,  and  with  loud  roaring,  from  two  great  fissures  ir 
the  crater  bed,  and  now  and  then  assailed  us  with  theii 
hellish  odour.  To  our  eyes,  the  base  denuded  by  the 
explosion  seemed  to  cover  a  space  of  between  three  anc 
four  square  miles.  This,  however,  can  only  be  rougr 
conjecture.  Equally  vague  must  be  all  present  attempt; 
to  determine  the  volume  of  the  disrupted  matter.  Yet,  i 
we  assume,  as  a  very  moderate  calculation,  that  the  mear 
depth  of  the  debris  covering  the  buried  area  of  thirty 
square  miles  is  not  less  than  15  feet,  we  find  that  the 
work  achieved  by  this  last  great  mine  of  Nature's  firing 
was  the  upheaval  and  wide  distribution  of  no  fewer  thai: 
700,000,000  tons  of  earth,  rocks,  and  other  ponderous 
material.    The  real  figure  is  probably  very  much  greater.' 

The  desolation  beyond  the  crater,  and  the  mighty  mass 
thrown  out  by  the  volcano  which  covered  the  earth  were 
almost  incredible.  "  Down  the  slopes  of  Bandai-san,  across 
the  valley  of  the  Nakasegawa,  choking  up  the  river,  and 
stretching  beyond  it  to  the  foot-hills  five  or  six  miles  away. 
spread  a  vast  billowy  sheet  of  ash-covered  earth  or  mud. 
obliterating  every  foot  of  the  erstwhile  smiling  landscape. 
Here  and  there  its  surface  was  dotted  or  streaked  with 
water.  Elsewhere  the  eye  rested  on  huge  disordered 
heaps  of  rocky  debris,  in  the  distance  resembling  nothing 
so  much  as  the  giant  concrete  block  substructure  of 
some  modern  breakwater.  It  was  curious  to  see  on  the 
farther  side  the  sharp  line  of  demarcation  between  the 
brown  sea  of  mud  and  the  green  forests  on  which  it  had 
encroached  ;  or,  again,  the  lakes  formed  in  every 
tributary  glen  of  the  Nakasegawa  by  the  massive  dams 
so  suddenly  raised  against  the  passage  of  their  stream 
waters.  One  lake  was  conspicuous  among  the  rest.  It 
was  there  that  the  Nakasegawa  itself  had  been  arrested  at ; 
its  issue  from  a.  narrow  pass  by  a  monster  barrier  of  dis- 
rupted matter  thrown  right  across  its  course.  Neither; 
living  thing  nor  any  sign  of  life  could  be  descried  over  the; 
whole  expanse.  All  was  dismally  silent  and  solitary. 
Beneath  it,  however,  lay  half  a  score  of  hamlets,  and 
hundreds  of  corpses  of  men,  women,  and  children,  who 
had  been  overtaken  by  swift  and  painful  deaths." 

Near  by  two  houses,  built  for  the  accommodation  of 
visitors  to  the  hot  springs  were  overwhelmed,  and  a, 
little  lower  down  two  spa-hamlets  were  absolutely  buried 
in  mud.  From  various  indications,  especially  a  com-  i 
parison  of  the  places  destroyed  with  those  saved,  it; 
appears  that  the  disruptive  force  must,  in  the  main,  have 
been  directed  outwards  from  the  hill-face  at  a  consider- 
able inclination  to  the  vertical.  On  no  other  hypothesis 
is  it  possible  to  account  for  some  of  the  most  startling 
phenomena,  for  the  great  distances  reached  by  the  waves 
oi'jtjectamenta,  and  for  the  incredibly  brief  intervals  that 


Sept.  13,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


467 


elapsed  between  the  short-lived  explosion  and  the  sub- 
mersion of  large  tracts  many  miles  away  from  the  crater. 
It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed  that  the  havoc  wrought 
by  the  volcano's  fury  was  limited  to  the  fall  of  disrupted 
matter,  or  to  the  area  covered  by  it.  Besides  the  rain'  of 
scalding  earth  and  mud,  heated  rocks  and  stones,  sand, 
and  hot  softly-falling  ashes,  there  were  the  awful  shocks 
of  the  explosion,  accompanied  by  winds  or  whirlwinds, 
which  every  survivor  describes  as  of  intense  and  extra- 
ordinary vehemence.  Nowhere,  of  course,  were  the  effects 
of  these  concomitants  more  fierce  than  on  the  heights  of 
Bandai-san.  The  forests  on  the  unburied  slopes  above 
and  near  the  crater  presented  a  weird  spectacle.  In 
these  hardly  a  stick  was  left  standing.  As  if  some  giant 
reaper  had  mown  down  whole  acres  with  a  sweep  of 
his  sickle,  the  trees  lay  literally  in  hundreds  on  the 
ground,  all  felled  in  a  direction  away  from  the  crater, 
stripped  of  branches,  leaves,  and  even  of  their  bark, 
and  twisted  into  the  most  grostesque  contortions. 

One  day  was  given  to  exploring  the  buried  area  at  its 
lower  levels  in  the  valley  of  the  Nakasegawa,  and  also 
the  outskirts  of  the  volcanic  deluge.  At  one  place,  a 
secondary  earth-wave,  issuing  from  the  crater  by  a  lateral 
gap,  had  rushed  swiftly  down  the  mountain-side,  burying 
a  large  party  of  grass-cutters  and  horses,  and  reaching, 
but  only  half  destroying,  the  little  hamlet  of  Mine.  Its 
energy  seems  to  have  exactly  spent  at  this  point.  It  was 
strange  to  see  the  great  wall  of  earth  and  stones,  with 
its  vertical  face  some  7  or  8  feet  high,  brought  up  all- 
standing,  as  it  were,  by  a  frail  farm  outbuilding.  A  yet 
stranger  sight  was  it  to  see  the  enormous  masses  of  rock 
that  were  strewn  about  on  the  surface  of  the  neighbour- 
ing field  of  mud.  One  of  them,  which  was  measured, 
weighed  at  least  200  tons.  Higher  up,  on  the  far  side  of 
the  river,  a  couple  of  large  villages,  in  which,  though  not 
reached  by  any  mud-stream,  not  a  house  was  whole, 
many  had  been  levelled  to  the  ground  ;  others  were 
tottering  on  the  verge  of  destruction  ;  and  of  the  rest,  all 
were  cracked,  mutilated,  unroofed,  twisted,  tilted  up,  or 
otherwise  injured  or  partially  wrecked.  A  scene  of  more 
ruthless  and  utter  desolation  could  hardly  be  conceived. 
Beyond  this,  the  route  entered  upon  the  great  earth-field 
visible  from  the  heights  of  Bandai-san.  Nothing  could 
convey  a  more  vivid  idea  of  the  destructive  forces  that 
were  let  loose  upon  that  doomed  region  than  a  sight  of 
the  wild  chaos  of  earth,  rock,  and  mud  which  now  reigns 
over  its  surface.  The  whole  effect  in  some  places  is 
much  as  if  a  raging  sea  of  those  materials,  on  a 
gigantic  scale,  had  been  suddenly  congealed  and  made 
to  stand  still.  At  one  spot  there  is  a  long  mud  precipice, 
said  by  some  observers  to  be  fully  200  feet  high. 

Although  the  little  village  of  Nagasaka  was  compara- 
tively uninjured,  nearly  all  its  able-bodied  inhabitants 
lost  their  lives  in  a  manner  which  shows  the  extraordinary 
speed  with  which  the  mud-stream  flowed.  When  Little 
Bandai-san  blew  up,  and  hot  ashes  and  sand  began  to 
fall,  the  young  and  strong  fled  panic-stricken  across  the 
fields,  making  for  the  opposite  hills  by  paths  well  known 
to  all.  A  minute  later  came  a  thick  darkness,  as  of 
midnight.  Blinded  by  this,  and  dazed  by  the  falling 
debris  and  other  horrors  of  the  scene,  their  steps,  prob- 
ably also  their  senses,  failed  them.  And  before  the 
light  returned  every  soul  was  caught  by  a  swift  bore  of 
soft  mud,  which,  rushing  down  the  valley  bed,  over- 
whelmed them  in  a  fate  more  horrible  and  not  less  sudden 
than  that  of  Pharaoh  and  his  host.  None  escaped  save 
those  who  stayed  at  home— mostly  the  old  and  very  young. 

From  the  stories  told  by  the  survivors,  as  well  as  from 
his  own  observations,  the  writer  sketches  the  following 
sequence  of  events  connected  with  the  outburst  :— 

It  seems  clear  from  every  account  that  one  of  the  most 
terrible  features  of  the  catastrophe  must  have  been  its 
appalling  suddenness.  Though  there  had  been,  it  is  said, 
slight  shocks  of  earthquake  for  a  couple  of  days  before, 


and,  according  to  some  witnesses,  strange  subterranean 
rumblings  and  suspicious  variations  in  the  temperature 
and  volume  of  the  hot  springs,  these  caused  no  grave 
alarm.  Nothing  worthy  to  be  called  a  serious  warning 
occurred  until  about  7.30  a.m.  on  the  15th.  Then  came 
a  violent  earthquake,  followed  a  quarter  of  an  hour  later 
by  a  second,  yet  more  intense.  Ten  minutes  after  there 
ensued  throes  of  such  terrible  severity  that  the  ground 
heaved  and  fell,  people  were  thrown  down,  and  houses 
demolished  or  wrecked.  To  all  it  seemed  that  their  last 
hour  had  come.  Instantly  upon  this  arose  a  fearful  noise, 
described  by  some  as  like  that  of  a  hundred  thunders,  by 
others  as  the  most  unearthly  sound  that  ever  startled  the 
ears  of  men.  Little  Bandai-san  was  seen  to  be  lifted 
bodily  into  the  air  and  spread  abroad,  and  after  it 
leaped  forth  tongues  of  flame  and  dense  dark  clouds  of 
vapour  of  ejectamoita.  Of  the  ensuing  phenomena  it  is 
hard  to  gain  any  clear  idea  from  the  tales  of  the  distracted 
survivors.  Apparently,  however,  a  quick  succession  of 
reports,  accompanied  by  violent  earth-throes  and  winds 
of  hurricane  force,  lasted  for  about  a  minute.  Then  began 
the  shower  of  ashes,  dust,  hot  water,  and  leaves.  The 
light  quickly  faded  as  the  exploded  matter  spread  over  the 
firmament,  so  that  day  was  soon  changed  into  night,  and 
did  not  return  for  a  space  of  several  minutes.  Meanwhile, 
the  avalanches  of  earth  and  mud  must  have  already  done 
much  of  their  deadly  work.  The  interval  between  the 
explosion  and  the  arrival  of  the  mud-torrent  which  swept 
past  that  hamlet  cannot  have  been  more  than  from  ten 
to  fifteen  minutes.  Before  the  light  was  restored,  all  the 
flower  of  the  village  had  been  swallowed  up.  How  that 
long  journey  of  some  ten  miles  from  the  crater  had  been 
performed  by  the  mud  at  such  an  astonishing  speed  it  is 
impossible  to  say.  There  is  evidence  that  in  places  the 
earth-flow  lasted  for  about  an  hour.  But  in  the  above 
we  have  the  clearest  proof  that  some  at  least  of  the 
destroying  matter  was  hurled  over  the  country  at  railroad 
speed,  even  after  being  deflected  through  wide  angles 
from  its  original  line  of  motion. 

We  may,  perhaps,  hope  to  learn  something  hereafter 
that  will  throw  a  clear  light  on  the  immediate  cause  of  the 
explosion  (the  agent,  it  cannot  be  doubted,  was  steam),  on 
the  approximate  volume  of  the  projected  matter,  on  the 
partiality  of  the  effects,  and  on  the  many  and  most  be- 
wildering mysteries  connected  with  the  propagation  and 
distribution  of  the  earth-waves,  rocks,  &c.  Meanwhile 
we  hive  before  us  the  fact  that  a  massive  mountain  peak 
has  been  blown  to  bits  by  an  explosion  within  its  bowels 
powerful  enough  to  toss  many  hundred  millions  of  tons 
of  material  high  into  the  air,  and  to  change  the  face  of 
nature  over  an  area  of  some  thirty  square  miles.  While 
whole  forests  were  levelled  by  the  shock,  the  disrupted 
matter  dammed  up  rivers,  deluged  and  drowned  the  land 
and  crops,  and  buried  a  dozen  hamlets.  Earthquakes 
and  coups  de  vent  added  their  quota  to  the  work  of 
destruction.  Nearly  600  people  perished  by  horrible 
deaths  in  their  mountain  homes  and  valleys.  Four  times 
that  number  have  been  reduced  to  destitution  or  dire 
poverty.  With  one  possible  exception,  it  is  the  gravest 
disaster  of  its  class  that  has  happened,  even  in  that  land 
of  volcanoes,  since  the  famous  eruption  of  Asamayama  in 
1783,  and  it  cannot  but  be  ranked  among  the  most  startling 
volcanic  explosions  of  which  history  has  any  record. 

It  is  interesting  to  know  that  experts  are  already  at  work 
investigating  some  of  the  problems  here  sketched  out  by 
the  Times  Correspondent,  and  happily  Japan  is  well  pro- 
vided with  experts  in  the  science  of  seismology,  at  their 
head  being  Prof.  Milne,  the  leading  seismologist  of  the 
day.  Seeing  also  the  countenance  given  to  the  study  of 
these  phenomena  by  the  Japanese  Government,  it  may  be 
anticipated  that  no  volcanic  eruption  of  modern  times 
will  have  been  so  carefully  and  scientifically  investigated 
as  this  of  Bandai-san,  as  none  has  been  so  graphically 
and  eloquently  described. 


468 


NATURE 


{Sept.  13,  1888 


CALCULATION  OF  RANGES,  ETC.,  OF 
ELONGATED  PROJECTILES. 
T7ROM  time  to  time  it  has  been  suggested  to  me  that 
-*-  some  reduction  in  the  coefficients  of  resistance 
deduced  from  my  experiments  made  in  1867-68,  is 
required  to  adapt  them  for  use  in  connection  with  the 
improved  guns  of  more  recent  times.  I  do  not  agree 
with  those  suggestions.  My  coefficients  were  most  care- 
fully deduced  from  experiments  made  with  ogival-headed 
shot  fired  at  very  low  elevations  so  as  to  secure  ranges  of 
about  500  or  600  yards,  and  the  observations  were  made 
near  the  gun.  The  5-inch  gun  was  a  remarkably  good 
gun,  and  from  the  numerous  records  it  gave  had  a  pre- 
ponderating effect  on  the  final  result  ;  while  an  un- 
steady shot  cut  only  a  few  screens,  and  had  a  very 
trifling  influence.  It  seems,  therefore,  that  the  co- 
efficients were  derived  from  shot  moving  very  nearly  in 
the  direction  of  their  axes.  I  have  applied  these  co- 
efficients to  calculate  ranges  for  comparison  with  Com- 
mander May's  (R.N.)  range-table  for  the  12-inch  muzzle- 
loading  gun  (based  on  practice  1885)  ;  muzzle  velocity, 
1892  f.s.  ;  "jump,"  6  minutes. 

Elevation  i°  2°  3°  4° 

Exp.  range         ...         1200     2267     3200    4057  yards. 
Calc.  range         ...         1206     2249     3192    4039       „ 

Difference       ...  +6     -18       -8     - 18 

I  will  now  do  the  same  for  the  4-inch  breech-loading 
gun,  which  was  the  gun  chosen  by  the  authorities  to  be 
used  in  testing  my  coefficients  on  a  long  range  ;  muzzle 
velocity,  1900  f.s.  ;  range-table  founded  on  experiments 
made  in  1884  ;  "jump,"  6  minutes. 

Elevation  io  2°  30  ,0 

Exp.  range        ...         1086     181 1     2400     2917  yards. 
Calc.  range       ...         1049     1817     2410     2895        ,, 


Difference 


-37       +6     +10 


Thus  it  appears  that  my  coefficients  give  very  satis- 
factory results  when  applied  under  the  conditions  of  the 
original  experiments.  Commander  May's  table  stops  at 
a  range  of  4000  yards.  As  the  elevation  of  the  4-inch 
gun  was  gradually  increased,  the  calculated  ranges  fell 
shorter  and  shorter  of  the  experimental  ranges.  At  an 
elevation  of  150  the  calculated  range  was  6364  yards,  and 
the  experimental  range  6608  yards,  giving  a  difference 
of  244  yards.  The  explanation  of  this  seems  to  me  to 
be  as  follows  : — 

When  an  elongated  shot  is  fired  from  a  rifled  gun  at 
high  elevations,  the  shot  endeavours  to  preserve  the 
parallelism  of  its  axis.  This  causes  the  axis  of  the  shot 
to  become  sensibly  inclined  to  the  direction  of  the  motion 
of  its  centre  of  gravity.  Thus  the  pressure  of  the  air 
acts  from  below  and  raises  the  shot  bodily,  so  as  to  give 
its  trajectory  an  increased  elevation.  This  would  naturally 
increase  the  range  of  the  shot.  After  a  short  time  the 
shot  inclines  sideways,  as  explained  by  Magnus,  and  the 
shot  continues  to  move  with  its  axis  inclined  to  the  direc- 
tion of  its  motion,  which  is  the  cause  of  the  lateral  "  drift " 
of  the  shot.  This  shot  having  had  its  axis  so  much  in- 
clined to  the  direction  of  its  motion,  would  encounter  a 
greater  resistance  from  the  air  than  another  shot  fired 
at  a  lower  elevation,  because  this  latter  would  move  with 
its  axis  more  nearly  in  the  direction  of  its  motion. 

Hence  it  is  clear  that,  in  order  to  apply  any  rational 
correction  to  the  calculated  ranges  for  high  elevations, 
it  would  be  necessary  slightly  to  increase  both  (1)  the 
elevation,  and  (2)  the  values  of  the  coefficients  of 
resistance. 

Major  Mackinlay,  R.A.,  warns  us  that  the  published 
range-tables  are  not  to  be  "blindly  followed,"  a  very 
necessary  caution,  when  it  is  considered  that  we  cannot 
be  quite  certain  about  the  muzzle  velocity,  the  "jump," 
the  elevation,  and  the  precise  form  of  the  head.  The  height 
of  the  barometer  is  seldom  mentioned.      My  only  sur- 


prise is  that  such  good  agreement  between  calculation  and 
experiment  should  be  found  as  above.  The  only  question 
seems  to  be  whether  it  is  worth  while  to  trouble  about  the 
correction  of  calculated  ranges  for  high  velocities  and 
high  elevations,  when  the  reason  for  some  little  dis- 
crepancy is  so  evident.  But  to  reduce  coefficients  would 
be  to  make  matters  worse. 

Having  been  requested  to  calculate  the  range  of  a  9^2- 
inch  shot  weighing  380  pounds,  fired  at  an  elevation  of 
400  with  a  muzzle  velocity  of  2360  f.s.,  I  could  not  feel  satis- 
fied till  I  had  completed  the  calculation  of  a  range-table 
for  elevations  o°  to  45 °  on  a  horizontal  plane  27  feet  below 
the  muzzle.  I  give  the  result.  Gravity  and  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  air  were  considered  constant.  The  air  was 
supposed  to  be  at  rest,  and  the  shot  was  assumed  to  move 
in  the  direction  of  its  axis  ;  head  ogival,  struck  with  a 
radius  of  \\  diameter.  When  the  results  of  experiment 
are  published  I  shall  be  ready  to  discuss  the  matter,  but 
there  are  so  many  things  uncertain  at  heights  of  10,000, 
15,000  feet,  &c,  that  I  doubt  whether  any  theoretical 
advantages  will  result.  It  will,  however,  be  interesting 
to  know  what  can  be  done  in  an  extremity. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  ranges  go  on  increasing  up  to 
an  elevation  of  450,  and  would  probably  go  on  beyond  an 
elevation  of  500  before  reaching  a  maximum. 


Height 

Time 

Angle 

Striking 

Velocity. 

Horizontal 

:vation. 

Range, 

of 

of 

of 

Striking 

Vertex. 

Flight. 

Descent. 

Velocity. 

0 

Yards. 

Feet. 

Seconds. 

0       1 

f.s. 

y.s. 

O 

969 

O 

1  "3 

1    4 

2,154 

718 

I 

2,U5 

25 

30 

1  35 

1,931 

643 

2 

3.416 

94 

5"! 

2  47 

1,708 

569 

3 

4,6ll 

237 

7-1 

4  20 

1,528 

508 

4 

5,600 

343 

9'4 

5  52 

1,399 

464 

5 

6,475 

517 

1 1 -4 

7  38 

1,291 

426 

6 

7,271 

716 

I3'4 

9  3o 

1,200 

395 

7 

7,999 

937 

i5'3 

11  28 

1,128 

368 

8 

8,669 

1,180 

17-1 

1328 

1,075 

349 

9 

9,291 

i,445 

18-9 

1528 

1,040 

334 

10 

9,876 

i,73i 

20  "6 

1723 

1,022 

325 

11 

[0,430 

2,036 

22 -3 

19    9 

1,015 

320 

12 

[0,952 

2,360 

23-9 

2054 

1,009 

3H 

13 

[1,448 

2,703 

25-5 

22  38 

1,003 

3°9 

14 

[1,922 

3,065 

27*0 

24  21 

998 

303 

15 

[2,379 

3,443 

28-5 

26    2 

993 

297 

16 

2,804 

3,835 

30-0 

2740 

990 

292 

17 

[3.217 

4,242 

3f5 

29  15 

987 

287 

18 

3,618 

4,663 

33  0 

3048 

985 

282 

19 

4,007 

5,o99 

34*4 

32  19 

984 

277 

20 

4,385 

5,550 

35 '9 

33  48 

984 

273 

21 

4,75o 

6,015 

37  "3 

35  15 

985 

268 

22 

5,103 

6,489 

38-8 

3640 

987 

264 

23 

5,445 

6,970 

40*2 

38    3 

990 

260 

24      i 

5,775 

7,459 

41  "6 

3924 

993 

256 

25       1 

6,092 

7,956 

43 'o 

4041 

996 

252 

26 

6,398 

8,461 

44 '4 

41  54 

1,000 

248 

27 

6,691 

8,974 

457 

43    2 

1,004 

245 

28 

[6,973 

9,494 

47-1 

44    6 

1,009 

242 

29 

7,242 

10,022 

48-4 

45    7 

1,014 

239 

3° 

[7,5oi 

10,558 

497 

46    5 

1,019 

236 

3i 

[7,747 

11,102 

51  0 

47    1 

1,025 

233 

32      i 

7,98i 

11,654 

52-2 

47  56 

1,031 

230 

33 

8,203 

12,214 

535 

4850 

1,037 

228 

34 

8,413 

12,782 

547 

49  43 

1,044 

225 

35 

8,612 

13,357 

56-0 

50  35 

1,051 

222 

36       l 

8,799 

I3,94i 

57-2 

5i  27 

1,058 

220 

37 

8,973 

14,534 

58-5 

5218 

1,065 

217 

38 

9,136 

15,136 

597 

53    8 

1,072 

214 

39 

9,287 

15,747 

61 'O 

53  58 

1,079 

212 

40 

[9,426 

16,368 

62-2 

54  47 

1,086 

209 

41 

9,553 

17,001 

63 '4 

55  36 

1,092 

206 

42 

[9,668 

17,646 

647 

5624 

1,099 

203 

43 

9,772 

18,302 

65  9 

57  " 

1,105 

200 

44 

9,864 

18,969 

67'! 

57  57 

1, in 

197 

45 

9,944 

19,648 

68-3 

58  43 

1,117 

193 

F 

Bashforth. 

Sept.  13,  1888] 


NATURE 


469 


THE  BRITISH  ASSOCIATION. 

Bath,  Tuesday  Evening. 
CO  far  as  numbers  are  concerned,  the  Bath  meeting 
•^  has  been  below  the  average.  The  number  of  tickets 
sold  has  been  about  50  less  than  2000.  This  is  a  marked 
contrast  to  last  year's  meeting,  which  beat  the  record  ; 
and  is  even  less  by  some  hundreds  than  the  former  Bath 
meeting.  But  then  it  should  be  remembered  that  that 
meeting  presented  attractions  of  an  unusual  kind :  the 
lion-hunters  who  form  so  large  a  section  of  these  annual 
gatherings  had  such  prey  presented  to  them  as  Living- 
stone, Burton,  and  Speke.  As  will  be  seen,  the  diminished 
attendance  has  told  to  some  extent  on  the  grants,  several 
of  which  have  had  unfortunately  to  be  reduced  below  the 
sums  originally  proposed  and  approved  of.  All  sorts  of 
reasons  have  been  put  forward  to  account  for  the  compara- 
tively small  attendance,  and  probably  there  is  a  little  truth 
in  each.  Probably  the  excursions  have  had  as  much  to  do 
with  it  as  anything  else  ;  those  of  Saturday  presented  few 
attractions,  except  that  to  the  Severn   Tunnel  and  the 

j  Barry  Docks.     Curiously  enough,  however,  scarcely  any- 
one entered  for  that  excursion,  and  had  the  enterprising 

J  secretaries  of  Section  G  not  taken  it  in  hand,  it  would  have 
fallen  through.     As  it  was,  it  turned  out  one  of  the  most 

■  successful  of  Saturday's  excursions.     Small  as  the  attend- 
ance has  been,  the  accommodation  of  the  town  has  been 

■  strained,  and  several  of  the  guests  of  the   Local  Com- 
imittee  speak  somewhat  disrespectfully  of  their  quarters. 

I  But  the  Local  Committee  have  done  their  best, 
Band  they  have  no  reason  to  be  dissatisfied  with  their 
[jsuccess.  The  reception-room  accommodation  has  cer- 
tainly been  limited,  and  members  have  missed  the 
smoking-room,  refreshment- rooms,  and  other  amenities 
with  which  they  were  indulged  at  Manchester  last  year. 
Fortunately  the  weather  has  been,  on  the  whole,  good,  so 
that  people  have  not  greatly  felt  the  want  of  indoor  accom- 
modation. Notwithstanding  the  small  attendance,  the 
crush  at  the  two  soirees  was  excessive,  mainly  arising  from 
the  smallness  of  the  Assembly  Rooms.  The  Drill  Hall 
has  proved  satisfactory  for  all  the  public  lectures.  Sir 
Frederick  Bramwell's  address  was,  as  might  have  been 
expected,  received  with  universal  appreciation  ;  while  the 
public  lectures  were  all  well  attended.  Prof.  Ayrton's 
address  on  the  transmission  of  power  was  so  highly 
^appreciated  that  he  has  been  asked  to  repeat  it  for  the 
penefit  of  the  working  classes.  Tickets  for  Sir  John 
Lubbock's  lecture  to  the  "  working  classes  "  were  so  greatly 
in  demand,  that  many  of  those  for  free  distribution  were 
being  sold  throughout  the  town  at  2s.  6c/.  and  5^. 

One  of  the  great  attractions  at  the  present  meeting  has 
been  the  recently  unearthed  Roman  baths.  They  are  in 
almost  complete  preservation  ;  the  lead  lining  and  lead 
piping  nearly  perfect,  the  steps,  the  columns,  the  carvings, 
in  wonderful  preservation,  the  whole  probably  forming  a 
more  complete  specimen  of  this  class  of  Roman  work 
than  exists  anywhere  else.  Even  greater,  however,  has 
been  the  excitement  over  the  phonograph  and  grapho- 
phone.  Crowds  have  been  besieging  Section  G  in  order 
to  see  and  hear  the  wonderful  little  cylinders  ;  and  daily 
receptions  have  been  given  both  by  Colonel  Gouraud  and 
Mr.  Edmunds  of  the  rival  instruments.  Each  has  its 
strong  body  of  partisans,  but  the  general  result  seems  to 
be  that  law  and  not  science  will  be  the  final  arbiter  of  the 
merits  of  the  two. 

In  the  ordinary  work  of  the  Sections  there  have  been 
various  exciting  episodes.  The  discussion  between 
Sections  B  and  D,  on  the  chemistry  of  certain  physio- 
logical processes,  was  one  of  great  importance,  and  it  is 
hoped  it  will  be  well  reported.  The  discussion  on  stays 
and  waist-bands  was  probably  more  entertaining  than 
instructive  ;  while  that  on  coral-reefs,  though  valuable, 
suffered  from  the  absence  of  some  of  the  leading  authori- 
ties on   the  subject.     The  discussion  in   Section   H,  on 


the  few  remarks  by  Mr.  Park  Harrison  on  the 
question  ''What  is  a  Nation?"  had  somewhat  of  a 
political  flavour  about  it.  It  was  taken  part  in  by 
General  Pitt-Rivers,  Sir  John  Lubbock,  Prof.  Sayce,  and 
Dr.  John  Evans.  Another  discussion  which,  like  the  papers 
on  the  phonograph  and  graphophone,  nearly  emptied 
the  other  Sections,  was  that  on  lightning-conductors,  on 
Tuesday,  in  Section  G.  These  various  discussions,  com- 
bined with  the  fact  that  so  many  foreign  geologists  were 
present  in  Section  C,  have  contributed  to  keep  the  second 
Bath  meeting  up  to  a  good  average. 

It  seems  to  be  generally  admitted  that  the  Presidential 
Address  in  Section  D,  by  Mr.  Thiselton  Dyer,  was  the 
weightiest  from  a  scientific  point  of  view.  It  was  the 
longest,  all  the  addresses  this  year  being  marked  by 
brevity.  Some  little  amusement  has  been  caused  by  the 
very  modified  admission  made  by  Sir  William  Thomson, 
in  his  paper  in  Section  A,  on  "A  Simple  Hypothesis  for 
Electro-magnetic  Induction  of  Incomplete  Circuits," that, 
after  all,  Clerk  Maxwell  may  have  been  to  some  extent 
not  altogether  wrong. 

The  meeting  next  year  will  be  presided  over  by  Prof. 
Flower.  Leeds  will  receive  the  Association  in  1890,  while 
Edinburgh  and  Cardiff  compete  for  the  honour  of  a  visit 
in  1 89 1  ;  there  can  be  little  doubt  of  the  result  if  the 
Corporation  and  the  University  of  Edinburgh  give 
snbstantial  evidence  of  their  zeal. 

The  following  is  the  list  of  grants  which  have  been 
allotted  by  the  General  Council  : — 

A. — Mathematics  and  Physics.  £ 

Ben  Nevis  Observatory          ...          ...          ...          ...  ...  50 

Electrical  Standards   ...          ...          ...         ...         ...  ...  100 

Electrolysis      ...          ...         ...         ...          ...          ...  ...  20 

Solar  Radiation           ...         ...          ...          ...         ...  ...  10 

Differential  Gravity  Meter     ...          ...          ...          ...  ...  10 

Uniform  Nomenclature  in  Mechanics          ...          ...  ...  10 

Calculating  Tables  of  Certain  Mathematical  Functions  ...  10 
Seasonal  Variations  in  the  Temperature  of  Lakes,  Rivers, 

and  Estuaries       ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  ...  30 

B. — Chemistry. 

The  Influence  of  the   Silent  Discharge  of  Electricity  on 

Oxygen  and  other  Gases  ...  ...  ...  ...  10 

Methods  of  Teaching  Chemistry      ...  ...  ...  ...  10 

Oxidation  of  Hydracids  in  Sunlight  ...         ...  ...  10 

C.  —  Geology. 

Geological  Record      ...         ...         ...         ...  ...  ...  80 

Erratic  Blocks              ...          ...          ...          ...  ...  ...  10 

Volcanic  Phenomena  of  Japan          ...          ...  ...  ...  25 

Volcanic  Phenomena  of  Vesuvius    ...          ...  ...  ...  20 

Fossil  Phyllopoda  of  the  Palaeozoic  Rocks  ...  ...  20 

Higher  Eocene  Beds  of  the  Isle  of  Wight  ...  ...  ...  15 

Fossil  Plants  of  the  Tertiary  and  Secondary  Beds  of  the 

United  Kingdom             ...          ...          ...  ...  ...  15 

D.  — Biology. 

Zoology  and  Botany  of  the  West  India  IslanJs  ...  ...  100 

Marine  Biological  Association          ...          ...  ...  ...  200 

Flora  of  China             ...          ...          ...         ...  ...  ...  25 

Naples  Zoological  Station     ...         ...          ...  ...  ...  100 

Physiology  of  the  Lymphatic  System           ...  ...  ...  25 

To  Improve  and  Experiment  with  ft  Deep-sea  Tow-net  for 

opening  and  closing  under  Water            ...  ...  ...  10 

Natural  History  of  the  Friendly  Islands     ...  ...  ...  100 

E. — Geography. 
Geography  and  Geology  of  the  Atlas  Ranges        ...         ...     100 

F. — Economic  Science  and  Statistics. 

Precious  Metals  in  Circulation  ..         ...  ....  ...       20 

Variations  in  the  Value  of  the  Monetary  Standard  ...        10 

G.—Afechanical  Science. 

Investigation  of  Estuaries  hy  means  of  Models      ...  ...     100 

Development  of  Graphic  Methods  in  Mechanical#  Science       25 


47o 


NA  TURE 


[Sept. 


0> 


1888 


H. — Anthropology.  £ 

Effect  of  Occupations  on  Physical  Development    ...          ...  20 

North-Western  Tribes  of  Canada    ...          ...          ...          ...  150 

Editing   a  New  Edition  of  Anthropological    Notes   and 

Queries         ...          ...         ...          ...          ...          ...         ...  50 

Calculating  the  Anthropological  Measurements  taken  at 

Bath 5 

Exploration  of  Roman  Baths  at  Bath          ...          ...          ...  100 

Characteristics  of  Nomad  Tribes  of  Asia  Minor    ...          ...  30 

Eor  carrying  on  the  Work  of   the  Corresponding  Societies 

Committee  ...         ...          ...          ...         ...         ...          ...  20 


Total 


^'1645 


SECTION    B. 


CHEMICAL    SCIENCE. 


Opening  Address  by  Prof.  William  A.  Tildf.n,    D.Sc. 
Lond.,  F.R.S.,  F.C.S.,  President  of  the  Section. 

.  A  part  of  the  duty  which  devolves  upon  the  President  of  a 
Section  of  the  British  Association  consists  in  delivering  an 
address,  and  the  knowledge  that  a  pretty  full  liberty  of  choice 
is  permitted  in  regard  to  the  selection  of  a  subject  is  the  only 
source  of  comfort  which  serves  to  alleviate  the  onerous  nature  of 
the  task. 

It  seemed  to  me  that  the  time  is  gone  by  when  an  attempt  to 
review  progress  over  the  whole  field  of  chemical  science  is  likely 
to  be  useful  or  even  possible,  and  an  account  of  what  is  being 
done  within  the  narrow  limits  of  those  parts  of  the  science  to 
which  I  have  been  able  to  give  special  attention  would  be  ill- 
adapted  to  the  character  of  a  speech  addressed  to  the  members 
of  the  Section  collectively.  The  fact  that  at  the  la^t  meeting  of 
the  Association  a  Committee  was  appointed  to  inquire  into  the 
methods  at  present  adopted  for  teaching  chemistry  suggested 
that,  as  I  had  not  been  able  to  accept  an  invitation  to  join  this 
Committee,  I  might  make  use  of  this  opportunity  for  contributing 
to  the  discussion.  The  first  report  of  the  Committee  will  be 
received  with  much  interest  by  the  Section.  As  might  be 
expected,  it  embodies  the  expression  of  many  varieties  of 
opinion. 

The  existence  of  chemistry  as  a  department  of  science  not 
merely  requiring  the  observation  of  facts  that  are  to  be  made 
useful,  but  seeking  in  the  accumulated  stores  of  observation  to 
discover  law,  is  a  thing  of  comparatively  recent  growth.  I  low 
chemistry  arose  out  of  alchemy  I  need  not  remind  you,  but  the 
connection  between  the  study  of  chemistry  and  that  of  medicine, 
and  the  maintenance  of  this  connection  down  to  even  the  pre- 
sent generation,  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  a  large  number  of 
men  who  have  become  eminent  as  chemists  bega-t  their  career 
in  the  surgery  or  the  pharmacy.  Black,  Davy,  Berzelius,  Wol- 
laston,  Wohler,  Wurtz,  Andrews,  and  W.  A.  Miller  began  by 
the  study  of  medicine,  whilst  Scheele,  H.  Rose,  and  the  great 
names  of  Liebig  and  Dumas  are  to  be  found  in  the  long  roll  of 
those  who  received  their  earliest  notions  of  chemistry  in  the 
pharmaceutical  laboratory.  Chemistry  has  been  gradually 
emancipated  from  these  associations  with  enormous  advantage 
to  both  sides.  So  long  as  technical  purposes  alone  were  held  in 
view  a  scientific  chemistry  could  not  exist,  but  no  sooner  did  the 
study  take  an  independent  form  and  direction  than  multitudes  of 
useful  applications  of  the  facts  discovered  beeame  apparent. 

It  is  only  within  a  comparatively  few  years,  however,  that 
universities,  in  this  country  at  least,  have  ceased  to  deal  with 
chemistry  as  a  kind  of  poor  relation  or  humble  follower  of  medi- 
cine, and  have  permitted  her  to  emerge  from  the  cellars  of  a 
museum  or  school  of  anatomy  and  have  given  her  a  commodious 
dwelling  in  the  fair  light  of  day. 

In  the  old  time  such  instruction  in  chemistry  as  was  given  in 
the  universities  and  mining  or  technical  schools  seems  to  have 
taken  the  form  of  lectures  read  by  the  Professor,  and  access  to  a 
laboratory  for  practical  manipulation  seems  to  have  been  a  high 
privilege  accorded  only  under  exceptional  circumstances  to  the 
few.  We  are  told,  for  example,  that  when  Liebig  went  to  Paris 
in  1823  he  applied  to  Gay-Lussac  for  practical  instruction  at 
first  without  success,  and  that  admission  to  the  laboratory  of  the 
Ecole  Polytechnique  was  ultimately  granted  him  only  through 
the  intervention  of  Von  Humboldt. 

In  a  great  many  cases  the  student  of  chemistry  must  have 


been  almost  entirely  dependent  upon  private  study,  though  books 
were  scarce  and  materials  more  co-tly  than  now.  Davy,  for 
example,  seems  to  have  had  no  instruction  whatever  previous  to 
his  appointment  as  assistant  to  Dr.  Beddoes  at  the  Pneumatic 
Institute  at  Bristol. 

Doubtless,  therefore,  the  recollection  of  his  own  early  dil' 
culties  when  seeking  instruction  contributed  largely  to  influence] 
Liebig  in  the  establishment  of  the  laboratory  in  the  Univer- itv 
of  Giessen,  and  in  the  adoption  of  the  principles  which  guided  ! 
his  teaching  there.  For  the  fir.-,t  time  in  the  history  of  chemistry  j 
students  met  not  merely  to  listen  to  the  discourse  of  a  pn 
concerning  his  own  experiments  and  conclusions,  but  to  examine! 
for  themselves  the  basis  of  the  theories  taught,  to  learn  the  ] 
processes  of  analysis,  and  by  independent  investigation  to  extend  t 
the  boundaries  of  existing  knowledge. 

The  fame  of  the  new  school  spread  fast  and  far,  and  soon 
men  from  every  part  of  the  civilized  world  assembled  to  share 
in  the  advantages  offered.  The  influence  of  the  new  method 
can  be  estimated  when  we  reflect  that  nearly  all  the  now  passing 
generation  of  chemists  in  England  and  America  obtained  the 
greater  part  of  their  training  in  Liebig's  laboratory  ;  and  as  a 
large  number  of  them  have  been  teachers,  it  may  be  assumed 
that  they  transplanted  into  their  own  countries  the  methods  they 
had  learnt  from  the  great  German  master. 

It  was  not  till  184.6,  long  after  the  school  at  Giessen  had  risen 
into  fame,  that  in  England  a  sense  of  our  deficiencies  in  respect 
to  provision  for  teaching  chemistry  was  felt  strongly  enough  to 
lead  to  the  establishment  of  a  College  of  Chemistry.  At  that  | 
time  the  Professor  of  Chemistry  at  Oxford  was  also  Professor  of 
Botany.  At  Cambridge  it  was  thought  praise  and  boast  enough 
that  the  occupant  of  the  chair  of  chemistry  had,  during  more 
than  thirty  years,  frequently  resided  at  the  University  and  every! 
year  gave  a  course  of  lectures.  The  Jacksonian  professorship' 
was  not  then,  as  now,  in  the  possession  of  a  chemist.  University 
College,  London,  had  at  this  period  a  very  distinguished  man 
in  the  chair  of  chemistry,  but  it  was  only  in  1848  that  a  com-i 
modious  laboratory  was  provided  by  public  subscription,  raised 
in  commemoration  of  the  services  of  Dr.  Birkbeck  in  promoting 
popular  education.  In  that  year  Fownes  was  appointed  to  co- 
operate with  Graham  in  the  work  of  teaching,  though  his  pre- 
mature death  soon  after  left  but  little  time  for  the  fulfilment  of 
the  rich  promise  of  his  earlier  years.  At  Manchester,  John 
Owens  had  died  in  1846,  leaving  the  bulk  of  his  estate  for  the 
purpose  of  establishing  a  university  in  Manchester,  but  as  yet 
the  Owens  College  was  not. 

The  foundation  of  the  College  of  Chemistry  in  1846  was 
therefore  an  event  of  supreme  importance  in  the  history  of 
chemical  teaching  in  this  country ;  and  though  at  the  time  some 
dissatisfaction  was  expressed  at  the  choice  of  the  professor 
selected  to  direct  the  work,  who,  though  a  distinguished  pupil 
of  Liebig,  was  not  an  Englishman,  all  British  chemists  now 
concur  in  believing  the  choice  to  have  been  a  most  fortunate 
one.  The  great  majority  of  my  contemporaries  having  begun, 
continued,  or  ended  their  studies  in  Oxford  Street,  they  and  all; 
who  have  come  under  Dr.  Hofmann's  teaching  know  how  vast 
was  his  capacity  for  work  and  how  marvellous  was  the  power 
he  possessed  of  communicating  his  own  enthusiasm  to  his 
pupils. 

Since  the  time  of  which  I  have  been  speaking  the  means  of 
instruction  in  science  in  England  have  multiplied  enormously. 
In  University  College,  London,  founded  in  1828,  and  in  Owen< 
College,  Manchester,  founded  in  1851,  not  only  have  chairs  ol 
chemistry  existed  from  the  fir>t,  but  they  have  been  occupied  by 
a  succession  of  chemists  of  the  highest  eminence.  But  long 
after  1846  the  whole  of  the  serious  teaching  of  scientific  chemistry 
was  accomplished  at  the  College  of  Chemistry,  and  it  was  nigh 
upon  twenty  years  before  the  Manchester  school  began  to  attract 
considerable  notice. 

In  1872-73  the  movement  set  in  which  has  resulted  in  the 
erection  of  colleges  for  higher  instruction  at  a  number  of  im- 
portant  English  and  Welsh  towns.  These,  together  with  the 
pre-existent  Queen's  Colleges  in  Ireland  and  the  Univer 
more  ancient  foundation  in  the  three  kingdoms,  are  for  the  most 
part  provided  with  pretty  good  laboratories  and  a  competent  staff. 
We  have  also  the  Normal  School  of  Science  and  the  Institute 
raised  by  the  City  and  Guilds  of  London  at  South  Kensington. 
and  its  Associate  College  at  Finsbury.  England  is  therefore  at 
the  present  time  as  well  provided  with  places  of  instruction  foi 
the  study  of  chemistry  as  any  country  in  the  world. 
•'  And  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  professors  or  head>  of 


I 


Sept.  13,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


47i 


chemical  schools  in  the  colleges  and  "universities  of  the  United 
Kingdom  have  shown  by  their  own  activity  in  research  that  they 
ire  qualified  tc-  give  instruction  of  the  highest  kind,  and  are 
eady  to  train  young  chembts  in  the  art  as  well  as  in  the  theory 
)f  their  subject. 
It  is  therefore  no  longer  true  that  a  student  desiring  to  become 

I  scientific  chemist  must  needs  choose  between  a  single  institu- 
ion  in  London  and  another  in  Manchester,  or  must  seek  the 
nstruction  which  he  cannot  get  at  home  in  the  laboratory  of  a 
oreign  university.  As  an  element  in  a  liberal  education  the 
msition  of  chemistry  is  also  considerably  in  advance  of  what  it 
Iras  twenty  years  ago. 

It  is  nevertheless  true   that   increased  opportunities  for  study, 

considerable  supply  of  capable  teachers,  and  an  enormous  body 

if  students,    have  not    produced    such    an    amount    of  original 

nvestigation,   or  even  of  accurate  analytical  work,    as    might 

My  be  expected.      A   full  and   complete  explanation  of 

II  the  influences  which  contribute  to  this  result  would  be 
ifficult  ;  but  I  think  the  apparent  inactivity  of  the  chemical 
chools  in  this  country  is  not  generally  the  fault  of  the  pro- 
essors,  but  is  chargeable  in  the  main  to  the  ignorance,  and 
artly  to  the  indifference,  of  the  public.  There  exists  as  yet  no 
itelligent  feeling  in  favour  of  learning,  nor  indeed  in  favour  of 
ny  sort  of  education,  unless  there  is  expectation  of  direct 
rturns  in    the    form   of  obvious   practical    results.       It    is    this 

Inch  animates  the  present  popular  movement  in  favour  of 
3-called  "  technical  "  education.  That  part  of  the  attention 
f  the  nation  which  can  be  spared  from  the  contemplation  of 
rish  affairs  is  concentrated  upon  the  problem  of  how  to  make 
very  little  boy  learn  the  rudiments  of  chemistry,  whether  he 
kes  it  or  not,  whilst  there  are  comparatively  few  people  in- 
vested in  the  question  of  how  to  provide  means  and  instruction 
>r  those  who  are  capable  and  desirous  of  attaining  to  a  mastery 
f  the  subject.  Moreover,  the  public  have  not  yet  grasped  this 
nth,  that,  so  far  as  chemistry  is  concerned,  it  is  of  very  little 
msequence  to  the  great  metallurgical  and  chemical  industries 
nether  the  workpeople  do  or  do  not  know  a  little  chemistry, 
lough  it  is  important  that  they  should  be  intelligent  enough  to 
bey  orders.  What  is  wanted  is  that  every  manufacturer  and 
lanager  should  himself  be  an  accomplished  engineer  and 
lemist,  trained  to  observe,  to  reason,  and  to  solve  problems 
»r  himself. 

In  the  case  of  chemistry  this  absence  of  sentiment  in  favour  of 
mcentration  and  thoroughness,  and  the  demand  for  super- 
ciality,  if  only  it  can  be  had  wholesale,  tells  in  a  variety  of 
ays.  The  governing  bodies  who  control  the  various  colleges 
id  universities,  and  the  public  generally,  cannot  understand 
tat  good  and  useful  work  is  being  done  unless  it  can  be  shown 
i  the  form  of  passes  at  examinations.  Though  T  most  firmly 
dieve  in  the  necessity  for  examinations,  serious  mischief  begins 
hen  they  are  regarded  as  the  end  itself,  and  not  as  mere 
cidents  in  the  student's  career  towards  the  end,  which  should 
;  knowledge. 

In  respect  to  chemistry  this  is  the  disadvantage  which  attends 
ie  operation  of  such  a  system  as  that  of  the  Science  and  Art 
epartment,  or  of  any  system  under  which  certificates  in  con- 
:ction  with  individual  subjects  are  granted  on  easy  terms. 
special  objection  I  also  feel  to  such  expressions  as  "  advanced," 
;ed  in  reference  to  a  particular  stage,  so  commonly  misunder- 
ood  as  they  are  by  the  student  and  his  friends,  and  operating 
;ainst  his  further  progress. 

Reflect  also  upon  the  fact  that  there  are  only  two  or  three 
illeges  in  this  country  which  can  boast  of  more  than  one 
of  chemistry.  In  nearly  all  cases  one  man  is  called 
x>n  to  discharge  the  duty  of  teaching  classes  both  elementary 
id  advanced,  in  pure  and  applied  chemistry,  inorganic  and 
ganic,  theoretical  ami  practical.  This  is  a  kind  of  thing 
hich  kills  specialism,  and  without  specialists  we  can  have 
)t  only  no  advance,  but  no  efficient  teaching  of  more  than 
diments. 

That  teachers  ought  to  engage  in  research  at  all  is  by  no 
cans  clear  to  the  public  and  to  those  representatives  of  the 
iblic  who  are  charged  with  the  administration  of  these  new 
Stitutions.  This  was  illustrated  very  painfully  a  few  years 
;o  by  the  conditions  under  which  professors  were  engaged  at  a 
rtain  college  founded,  according  to  the  declaration  of  its 
■omoters,  "by  the  people  for  the  people,"  wherein  it  was 
mounced  in  round  terms  that  original  research  was  not 
anted,  as  the  college  was  "  for  the  good  of  the  many  and  not 
r  the  advantage  of  the  few."     This  example  of  ignorance  is 


only  remarkable  by  reason  of  its  audacity.  Probably  many 
people  hold  a  similar  view,  though  few  are  bold  enough  to 
declare  it. 

Without  going  far  into  the  discussion  of  the  general  question, 
which  is  a  large  one,  I  may  perhaps  be  allowed  to  offer  a  few 
remarks  for  the  consideration  of  any  of  my  audience  who  may 
perchance  incline  towards  that  opinion. 

It  is  only  when  a  teacher  occupies  himself  with  research  that 
the  most  complete  guarantee  is  given  that  he  is  interested  in  his 
subject  and  that  he  is  a  learner.  A  popular  mistake  consists  in 
regarding  a  professor  as  a  living  embodiment  of  science — 
complete,  infallible,  mysterious  ;  whereas  in  truth  he  is,  or 
ought  to  be,  only  a  senior  student  who  devotes  the  greater  part 
of  his  time  to  extending  and  consolidating  his  own  knowledge 
for  the  benefit  of  those  who  come  to  learn  of  him,  not  only  what 
lies  within  the  boundaries  of  the  known,  but  how  to  penetrate 
into  the  far  greater  region  of  the  unknown.  Moreover,  the 
man  who  has  no  intellectual  independence,  and  simply  accepts 
other  people's  views  without  challenge,  is  pretty  certain  to  make 
the  stock  of  knowledge  with  which  he  sets  out  in  life  do  service 
to  the  end.  That  one  may  be  fitted  to  form  a  sound  judgment 
concerning  new  theories  he  must  be  familiar  with  the  methods 
by  which  progress  is  accomplished.  The  work  of  investigation 
then  reacts  beneficially  upon  the  work  of  teaching  ;  that  is  why 
teachers  should  be  encouraged,  nay  even  required,  to  investigate, 
and  not  because  their  discoveries  may  haply  prove  to  be 
practically  useful. 

Of  course  it  may  be  said  that  there  have  been  distinguished 
investigators  who  could  not  teach,  but  the  converse  is  not  true  ; 
every  teacher  who  has  attained  to  eminence  as  a  teacher,  who 
has  drawn  men  after  him,  who  has  founded  a  school  of  thought, 
and  has  left  his  mark  upon  his  generation,  has  been  an  industrious 
worker  in  research  of  some  kind.  All  teachers  cannot  be  ex- 
pected to  reach  the  same  high  standard,  but  this  is  the  ideal 
after  which  all  must  strive,  or  fail  utterly. 

The  fact  that  there  is  as  yet  little  demand  among  school- 
masters for  high  attainments  in  chemistry  is  another  reason  why 
so  little  is  accomplished  in  the  chemical  schools.  Here,  again, 
the  public  is  really  to  blame.  It  is  disgraceful  that  in  all  classes 
of  schools,  even  where  chemistry  is  supposed  to  be  taught,  there 
are  but  few  places  where  serious  employment  is  found  for  the 
well-trained  chemist.  I  could  point  to  several  schools  which 
claim  the  position  of  first-rate,  where  chemistry  is  taught  by 
masters  who  have  never  studied  the  subject  at  all,  but  who  are, 
I  suppose,  allowed  the  traditional  "  ten  minutes'  start"  with  the 
book.  Would  the  head  masters  of  such  places  dare  to  employ  a 
person  to  teach  mathematics  who  did  not  know  the  four  first 
rules  of  arithmetic,  or  another  to  teach  Latin  who  had  not  even 
got  through  the  accidence?  I  fancy  not.  This,  however,  is 
without  exaggeration  the  exact  parallel  of  the  position  in  which 
chemistry  is  placed  in  the  majority  of  schools.  I  have  heard  the 
excuse  that  there  is  a  lack  of  competent  teachers.  Of  course 
the  demand  and  the  supply  will  react  upon  each  other.  When 
you  offer  a  reasonable  stipend,  reasonable  accommodation  for 
teaching  effectively,  reasonaob  leisure  for  the  master's  own 
studies,  and  a  position  on  the  staff  not  inferior  to  that  of  the 
classical  and  mathematical  masters,  I  believe  that  then,  but  not 
till  then,  there  will  be  as  many  good  school  teachers  of  chemistry 
as  there  are  of  other  subjects. 

I  could  point  to  other  prominent  schools  where  the  chemistry 
and  other  branches  of  science  are  taught  by  a  peripatetic  South 
Kensington  teacher,  who  arrives  weekly  with  his  box  of  tricks. 
Not  long  ago  I  was  invited  to  distribute  the  prizes  given  in 
connection  with  the  evening  classes  in  a  town  not  far  from  Birm- 
ingham, and  I  took  the  opportunity  of  advising  the  teachers 
present  on  the  occasion  to  read.  One  of  them  said  to  me  after- 
wards, "  When  do  you  suppose  I  can  read  ?  I  am  engaged  in 
going  round  to  my  schools  from  nine  in  the  morning  till  ten  at 
night."  People  of  this  kind  do  the  greater  part  of  the  so-called 
science  teaching  sustained  by  the  Science  and  Art  Department, 
and  the  worthy  town  councillors  and  committees  who  employ 
them  think  that  these  are  the  people  who  are  going  to  help  the 
British  manufacturer  in  his  struggle  against  foreign  competition 
under  the  guidance  of  the  highly-trained  chemists  from  the 
German  universities.  This  would  be  ludicrous  if  it  were  not  so 
very  serious. 

There  is  an  opportunity  at  the  present  time  of  correcting  some 
of  these  mistakes,  but  no  advantage  is  being  taken  of  it.  I  refer 
now  to  the  "technical  schools"  which  arc  springing  up  every- 
where.    There  may  be  a  few  competent  teachers  of  chemistry 


472 


NATURE 


{Sept. 


o> 


1888 


employed  in  some  of  them,  but  I  find  it  difficult  to  think  of  many 
examples.  The  sort  of  person  who  is  put  in  charge  of  these 
places  is  usually  a  schoolmaster,  who  is  allowed,  sometimes  even 
after  his  appointment,  to  get  a  short  course  of  qualitative 
analysis  in  order  to  enable  him  to  obtain  a  certificate  which 
will  entitle  him  to  earn  grants  from  the  Science  and  Art 
Department. 

And  manufacturers  are  much  to  blame.  Instead  of  employing 
trained  chemists,  the  greater  number  of  those  who  want  chemical 
assistance  are  satisfied  to  engage  the  services  of  boys  who  have 
been  to  an  evening  class  for  a  winter  or  two. 

The  difficulty  of  finding  a  satisfactory  career  in  connection  with 
the  subject  also  accounts  for  the  fact,  which  I  fear  must  be 
admitted,  that  chemistry  does  not  attract  its  due  share  of  the 
intellect  of  the  nation.  Clever  young  men  can  usually  do  better 
at  the  law,  in  medicine,  or  in  commerce,  than  in  teaching 
chemistry  or  in  manufactures  in  which  chemical  skill  is  appli- 
cable. So  badly  educated  are  many  of  the  young  men  who 
commence  the  study  with  professional  objects  in  view,  that  it  is 
quite  impossible  to  teach  them  anything  beyond  routine  analysis, 
if  so  much. 

I  heard  lately  from  a  friend  of  mine  a  story  of  a  young  groom 
in  his  employ  who  cannot  read  or  write  ;  and  who  declines  to  be 
taught  to  read  on  the  ground  that,  considering  himself  preity 
smart,  he  is  afraid  that  "learning  might  dull  him.1'  This  idea 
seems  to  be  rather  prevalent  among  certain  classes  of  people, 
but  I  can  assure  those  who  wish  to  be  chemists  that  some 
familiarity  with  the  rule  of  three,  and  such  a  command  of  English 
as  will  enable  them  to  understand  words  of  more  than  one 
syllable,  will  be  no  obstacle  to  the  acquisition  of  chemical 
knowledge. 

Three  years  has  hitherto  been  regarded  as  the  normal  period 
of  study.  The  question  arises,  can  a  young  man,  previously 
well  educated,  expect  to  become  an  accomplished  chemist, 
competent  to  apply  his  knowledge  usefully,  by  giving  the  whole 
of  his  time  to  study  during  three  years  ?     1  believe  not. 

By  reason  of  the  enormous  development  of  science  the  position 
of  the  student  of  chemistry  is  nowadays  very  different  from  what  it 
was  thirty  years  ago.  Since  that  time  we  have  not  only  got  a 
few  new  elements,  a  matter. of  small  importance  in  itself,  but 
new  views  of  the  nature  of  the  elements  and  of  their  mutual 
relations.  This  could  hardly  have  come  about  but  for  the  re- 
cognition of  the  law  of  Avogadro  as  a  fundamental  principle, 
upon  which  we  rely  as  the  ultimate  criterion  by  which  the  true 
distinction  between  so-called  equivalent  weights  and  molecular 
ratios  has  been  established.  By  the  gradual  evolution  of  ideas 
having  reference  successively  to  electro-chemical  relations  of 
elements  and  compounds,  the  theory  of  types,  and  atomicity  or 
valency,  we  have  arrived  at  notions  of  chemical  constitution 
based  upon  the  hypothesis  of  the  orderly  linking  together  of 
atoms.  Thirty  years  ago  isomerism  had  scarcely  attracted 
notice,  and  carbon  compounds  were  only  just  beginning  to  be 
arranged  in  homologous  series.  The  general  use  at  the  present 
day  of  the  language  of  the  molecular  kinetic  theory  shows  how 
deeply  this  theory  influences  our  ideas  of  the  internal  constitu- 
tion of  matter.  Within  the  period  referred  to,  dissociation  has 
been  studied  and  a  vast  body  of  thermo-chemical  data  have  been 
accumulated.  And  although  the  larger  portion  of  the  results  of 
this  work  still  await  interpretation,  dynamical  ideas  of  chemical 
action  are  now  generally  accepted.  We  have  also  new  methods 
of  investigation,  including  spectroscopic  analysis  with  all  its  vast 
train  of  results. 

When  I  began  chemistry  many  of  these  subjects  and  others 
had  not  been  heard  of.  Of  course  we  had  our  difficulties,  and  I 
well  remember  the  puzzles  met  with  in  the  endeavour  to  refer 
compounds  to  their  appropriate  types,  also  the  consternation 
caused  in  the  student's  mind  and  the  confusion  in  his  note-book 
by  the  successive  changes  in  the  atomic  weights  of  carbon, 
oxygen,  sulphur,  and  the  metals.  But  on  the  whole  there  was 
much  less  to  learn. 

It  has  always  been  thought  essential  that  a  student  of  chemistry 
should  have  some  knowledge  of  physics.  It  is  now  more  than 
ever  necessary  that  this  knowledge  should  be  extensive,  sound, 
and  based  upon  a  good  foundation  of  mathematics.  Thirty  years 
ago  a  hundred  pages  of  Fownes  contained  all  that  was  thought 
necessary,  but  no  one  nowadays  could  be  satisfied  with  that.  It 
is  now  asserted  that  a  young  chemist  who  expects  to  find  a  career 
in  industrial  chemistry  should  also  have  learnt  drawing,  and  more 
important  still  that  he  should  have  a  good  general  knowledge  of 
mechanics,  steam,  and  building  construction.    I  suppose  everyone 


will  agree  in  adding  French  and  especially  German.   You  see  how 
the  requirements  expand. 

The  inference  from  all  this  is  that  it  now  takes  longer  to  make 
a  chemist  than  formerly.  This  is  a  point  of  considerable  practical 
importance. 

My  estimate  that  a  well-educated  and  intelligent  young  man 
will  now  require  five  years  for  the  study  of  chemistry  and 
accessory  subjects  before  he  is  likely  to  be  of  much  use  will  not 
appear  extravagant. 

Here  one  may  remark  that  in  order  to  become  a  chemist  it  is 
before  all  things  necessary  to  study  chemistry.  If  the  greater 
part  of  a  student's  time  is  to  be  taken  up  with  other  things,  it  is 
not  very  clear  how  this  is  to  be  done. 

A  reform  all  round  is  wanted.  The  mathematics,  modern 
languages,  and  drawing  properly  belong  to  the  antecedent 
school  period,  and  I  believe  the  Institute  of  Chemistry  would 
greatly  promote  the  interests  of  the  profession  if  it  would  impose 
upon  candidates  for  the  Associateship  not  only  a  three  years' 
course  of  training  with  an  examination  in  practical  chemistry  at 
the  end,  but  a  severe  examination  in  mathematics,  in  the 
English,  French,  and  German  languages,  and  perhaps  drawing, 
before  matriculation  or  registration. 

A  consideration  of  the  present  position  of  the  student  of 
chemistry  leads  naturally  to  a  review  of  the  methods  of  teaching 
the  subject.  Speaking  broadly,  I  suppose  nearly  all  professional 
chemists  who  have  had  the  advantage  of  systematic  training  have, 
up  to  the  present  time,  passed  through  very  much  the  same  kind 
of  course.  This  consists,  as  everybody  knows,  very  largely  of 
analytical  work,  qualitative  and  quantitative,  preceded  or 
followed  by  the  preparation  of  a  number  of  definite  chemical 
compounds,  besides  practice  in  certain  very  necessary  physical 
determinations,  e.g.  relative  density  of  solids,  liquids,  and  gases, 
melting-points,  boiling-points,  and  so  forth.  There  seems  now 
to  be  a  disposition  in  some  quarters  to  depart  from  this  time- 
honoured  curriculum  in  favour  of  a  course  in  which  the  student 
is  early  engaged  in  some  semblance  of  investigation,  and  in 
which  he  is  encouraged  to  attack  difficult  problems,  which  from 
their  fundamental  importance  offer  considerable  temptation.  I 
venture  to  express  a  hope  that  this  will  not  be  carried  too  far. 
Already  we  are  in  danger  of  losing  the  art  of  accurate  analysis. 
One  constantly  meets  with  young  chemists  who  are  ready  enough 
to  discuss  the  constitution  of  benzene,  but  who  cannot  make  a 
reliable  combustion.  And,  according  to  my  own  experience, 
attempts  at  research  among  inexperienced  chemists  become 
abortive  more  frequently  in  consequence  of  deficient  analytical 
skill  than  from  any  other  cause. 

One  modification  I  should  gladly  see  generally  adopted.  I 
think  an  unnecessary  amount  of  time  is  often  spent  upon 
qualitative  mineral  analysis,  and  an  acquaintance  with  the 
properties  of  common  and  important  carbon  compounds  ought 
to  be  acquired  at  an  early  stage.  Quantitative  work  might  with 
advantage  be  taken  up  sooner  than  usual.  By  that,  however,  I 
mean  serious  work,  in  which  good  methods  are  used  and  every 
effort  made  to  secure  accuracy.  I  do  not  believe  in  the  use  of 
rough  methods  because  they  are  easy  ;  the  use  of  such  leads  the 
student  to  be  satisfied  with  approximations,  which,  after  all,  he 
will  learn  soon  enough  are  all  that  is  possible  to  man.  I  am  very 
glad  to  know  that  I  have  the  support  of  one  of  my  predecessors 
in  this  chair  (Sir  Henry  Roscoe),  whose  opinion  will  carry  far 
greater  weight  than  mine,  in  deprecating  premature  efforts  to 
engage  students  in  research.1 

But  though  it  does  not  appear  to  me  to  be  wise  to  encovra^e 
beginners,  without  sufficient  experience  or  manipulative  skill,  t.> 
attempt  original  work,  one  of  the  best  possible  exercises  pre- 
paratory to  original  work  is  to  select  suitable  memoirs,  and  no-, 
only  to  read  them  but  to  work  conscientiously  through  the  whole 
of  the  preparations  and  analyses  described,  following  the  i 
structions  given.  Many  of  Dr.  Hofmann's  papers  afford  excellent 
examples.  So  also  do  the  writings  of  Dr.  Perkin  and  Dr. 
Frankland,  besides  those  of  many  other  chemists  which  could 
easily  be  selected  by  the  teacher. 

An  intelligent  student,  possessing  the  requisite  preliminary 
knowledge,  would  obtain  much  instruction  by  repeating  the 
work  contained  in  such  papers  as  the  following,  for  example  :- 
Emerson  Reynolds  on  the  missing  sulphur  urea  (J.  Chem.  Soc 
1869,  i.)  ;  Fittig  and  Tollens  on  the  synthesis  of  hydrocarbons 
of  the  benzol  series  {Liebig's  Annalen,  1864,  exxxi.  303)  ;  1- 
Claisen  and  Pupils  on  the  introduction    of  acid   radicles  into 


1  See  Address  to  Section  B,  Montreal  meeting. 


Sept.  13,  1888J 


NATURE 


473 


ketones,  &c.  {Rerichte,  xx. );  Lawson  and  Collie  on  the  action 
of  heat  on  salts  of  tetramethyl-atnmonium  (J.  Chem.  Soc, 
June  1888)  ;  Thorpe  and  Hambly  on  manganic  trioxide  (J. 
Chem.  Soc,  March  1888)  ;  besides  many  others,  including 
papers  on  analytical  processes.  To  such  as  these  there  might 
subsequently  be  added  the  determination  of  an  atomic  weight  on 
the  model  of  one  of  the  best  masters,  as  a  discipline  which  could 
not  fail  to  be  impressive,  and  full  of  instruction. 

When  chemistry  is  taught,  not  with  professional  or  technical 
objects  in  view,  but  for  the  sake  of  educational  effects,  as  an 
ingredient  in  a  liberal  education,  the  primary  object  is  to  make 
the  pupil  observe  and  think.  But  with  young  students  it  is  very 
important  to  proceed  slowly,  for  chemistry  is  really  a  very 
difficult  subject  at  first,  owing  to  the  variety  of  strange  material  s 
with  uncouth  names.  To  reason  from  particulars  to  generals  is 
for  the  unpractised  always  a  difficult  process,  and  in  chemistry 
this  is  specially  the  case.  With  young  students  it  is,  in  my 
experience,  preferable  to  adopt  a  somewhat  dogmatic  style, 
which  should  of  course  be  exchanged  for  a  more  cautious  one  as 
the  pupil  proceeds. 

Thus  the  law  of  Avogadro  can  only  be  given  at  first  as  a 
recognized  physical  law,  without  much  explanation,  since 
the  full  apprehension  of  the  evidence  upon  which  it  rests 
can  only  be  secured  at  a  late  s-tage  of  the  learner's  progress. 
There  is  of  course  great  advantage  in  the  use  of  an  inductive 
method  if  only  it  is  employed  judiciously.  Otherwise  the  result 
is  only  confusion. 

A  number  of  papers,  pamphlets,  and  text-books  have  lately 
appeared,  professing  to  teach  the  principles  of  the  science  practic- 
ally and  by  new  methods.  Most  of  these  turn  out,  upon  inspec- 
tion, to  be  very  old  methods  indeed,  but  there  is  a  small  residue 
of  distinctly  original  character  which  are  sure  to  attract,  as  they 
deserve,  considerable  attention.  The  systems  I  refer  to  pro- 
vide a  series  of  problems  which  the  pupils  are  called  upon  to 
solve.  According  to  this  plan  the  student  is  not  allowed  peace- 
ably to  examine  the  properties  of  oxygen  or  sulphur  which  he 
now  sees  for  the  first  time.  He  must  weigh,  and  measure,  and 
observe,  and  then  infer.  All  this  coming  at  once  upon  the  head 
of  a  beginner  seems  to  me  to  be  well  fitted  to  drive  him  to 
despair. 

I  well  remember  the  first  experiment  in  chemistry  I  ever 
made.  It  consisted  in  dissolving  zinc  in  diluted  sulphuric  acid 
in  an  evaporating  dish,  lighting  with  a  match  the  bubbles  of 
hydrogen  as  they  rose,  and  afterwards  leaving  the  solution  to 
crystallize.  I  was  about  sixteen,  and  the  bubbles  of  gas,  as  well 
as  the  crystals  I  afterwards  got,  interested  me  very  much.  If  at 
that  time  I  had  been  made  to  weigh  the  zinc  and  acid,  and 
measure  the  hydrogen  with  the  object  of  answering  some 
question  about  the  composition  of  zinc  and  hydrogen  sulphates, 
I  should  have  been  pretty  much  in  the  position  of  a  boy  ignorant 
of  geometry  shut  up  with  the  propositions  of  Euclid  and  ordered 
to  give  the  demonstrations. 

I  think  when  we  recall  such  a  fact  as  that  Priestley,  who 
discovered  oxygen  in  1774,  failed  to  the  end  of  his  days  to  under- 
stand the  process  of  combustion,  and  actually  wrote,  in  1800,  a 
pamphlet  in  defence  of  "phlogiston,"  we  ought  not  to  be  sur- 
prised when  young  people,  though  born  a  century  later,  fail  to 
perceive  at  once  the  full  significance  of  facts  to  which  they  are 
introduced  for  the  first  time.  At  the  outset  you  cannot  reasonably 
expect  a  young  student  both  to  observe  accurately  and  infer 
justly.  These  two  things  must  be  kept  separate  at  first,  and  for 
this  reason  among  others  I  believe  that  attempts  to  make  young 
students  verify  for  themselves  the  fundamental  propositions  of 
chemistry  will  not  be  successful.  One  has  only  to  trace  the  origin 
of  one's  own  convictions  in  reference  to  any  important  fact  or 
principle  to  perceive  that  they  very  seldom  spring  into  existence 
suddenly,  but  almost  always  commence  in  vagueness  and  hesita- 
tion, acquiring  consistency  and  solidity  only  as  the  result  of 
accumulated  experience. 

I  will  not  pretend  to  determine  what  may  be  included  within 
the  wide  circle  of  the  functions  of  the  British  Association  ;  but  I 
think  I  cannot  be  mistaken  in  assuming  that  the  advancement  of 
science  is  dependent  in  no  small  degree  upon  the  provision  for 
the  efficient  teaching  of  science.  I  have  traced  an  outline  of 
what  has  been  done  in  the  past,  and  have  endeavoured  to  show 
in  what  respects  I  think  we  are  deficient  at  the  present  time.  No 
matter  how  ardent  may  be  the  aspirations,  how  earnest  the 
endeavours  of  the  few,  progress  will  be  slow  unless  they  are 
sustained  by  the  sympathy  of  the  many.  On  one  principle  the 
public  must  surely  insist,  that  only  those  shall  be  allowed  to 
teach  who  know. 


SECTION  D. 


BIOLOGY. 

Opening   Address  by   W.   T.    Thiselton-Dyer,   C.M.G., 
M.A.,  B.Sc.,  F.R.S.,  F.L.S.,  President  of  the  Section. 

Before  we  commence  the  formal  business  of  the  Section,  I 
propose  to  invite  your  attention  to  several  points  which  have 
suggested  themselves  to  me  from  a  consideration  of  the  present 
position  and  progress  of  the  study  of  botany  in  this  country. 

It  is  not  so  very  long  ago  that  at  English  Universities,  at  least, 
the  pursuit  of  botany  was  regarded  rather  as  an  elegant  accom- 
plishment than  as  a  serious  occupation.  This  is  the  more  remark- 
able because  at  every  critical  point  in  the  history  of  botanical 
science  the  names  of  our  countrymen  will  be  found  to  occupy  an 
honourable  place  in  the  field  of  progress  and  discovery.  In  the 
seventeenth  century,  Hooke  and  Grew  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
cell-theory,  while  Millington,  by  discovering  the  function-  of 
stamens,  completed  the  theory  of  the  flower.  In  the  following 
century,  Morison  first  raised  ferns  from  spores,  Lindsay  detected 
the  fern  prothallus,  Ray  laid  the  foundations  of  a  natural  classi- 
fication, Hales  discovered  root-pressure,  and  Priestley  the 
absorption  of  carbon  dioxide  and  the  evolution  of  oxygen  by 
plants.  In  the  early  part  of  the  present  one  we  have  Knight's 
discovery  of  the  true  cause  of  geotropism,  Daubeny's  of  the  effect 
upon  the  processes  of  plant-life  of  rays  of  light  of  different 
refrangibility,  and,  finally,  the  first  description  of  the  cell-nucleus 
by  R.  Brown.  I  need  not  attempt  to  carry  the  list  through  the 
last  half-century.  I  have  singled  out  these  discoveries  as  striking 
landmarks,  the  starting-points  of  important  developments  of  the 
subject.  It  is  enough  for  my  purpose  to  show  that  we  have 
always  had  an  important  school  of  botany  in  England,  which  has 
contributed  at  least  its  share  to  the  general  development  of  the 
science. 

I  think  at  the  moment,  however,  we  have  little  cause  for 
anxiety.  The  academic  chairs  throughout  the  three  kingdoms 
are  filled,  for  the  most  part,  with  young,  enthusiastic,  and  well- 
trained  men.  Botany  is  everywhere  conceded  its  due  position  as 
the  twin  branch  with  zoology  of  biological  science.  We  owe  to 
the  enlightened  administration  of  the  Oxford  University  Press 
the  possession  of  a  journal  which  allows  of  the  prompt  and 
adequate  publication  of  the  results  of  laboratory  research.  The 
excellent  work  which  is  being  done  in  every  part  of  the  botanical 
field  has  received  the  warm  sympathy  of  our  colleagues  abroad. 
I  need  only  recall  to  your  recollection,  as  a  striking  evidence  of 
this,  the  remarkable  gathering  of  foreign  botanists  which  will 
ever  make  the  meeting  of  this  Association  at  Manchester  a 
memorable  event  to  all  of  us.  The  reflection  rises  sadly  to  the 
mind  that  it  can  never  be  repeated.  Not  many  months,  as  you 
know,  had  passed  before  the  two  most  prominent  figures  in  that 
happy  assemblage  had  been  removed  from  us  by  the  inexorable 
hand  of  death.  In  Asa  Gray  we  miss  a  figure  which  we  could 
never  admit  belonged  wholly  to  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic. 
In  technical  botany  we  recognized  him  as  altogether  in  harmony 
with  the  methods  of  work  and  standard  of  excellence  of  our  own 
most  distinguished  taxonomists.  But,  apart  from  this,  he  had 
that  power  of  grasping  large  and  far-reaching  ideas,  which,  I  do 
not  doubt,  would  have  brought  him  distinction  in  any  branch  of 
science.  We  owe  to  him  the  classical  discussion  of  the  facts  of 
plant  distribution  in  the  northern  hemisphere  which  is  one  of 
the  corner-stones  of  modern  geographical  botany.  He  was  one 
of  the  earliest  of  distinguished  naturalists  who  gave  his  adhesion 
to  the  theory  of  Mr.  Darwin.  A  man  of  simple  and  sincere 
piety,  the  doctrine  of  descent  never  presented  any  difficulty  to 
him.  He  will  remain  in  our  memories  as  a  figure  endowed  with 
a  sweetness  and  elevation  of  character  which  may  be  compared 
even  with  that  of  Mr.  Darwin  himself. 

In  De  Bary  we  seem  to  have  suffered  no  less  a  personal  loss 
than  in  the  case  of  Gray.  Though,  before  last  year,  I  do  not 
know  that  he  had  ever  been  in  England,  so  many  of  our 
botanists  had  worked  under  him  that  his  influence  was  widely 
felt  amongst  us.  And  it  may  be  said  that  this  was  almost  equally 
so  in  every  part  of  the  civilized  world.  His  position  as  a  teacher 
was  in  this  respect  probably  unique,  and  the  traditions  of  his 
methods  of  work  must  permanently  affect  the  progress  of  botany, 
and,  indeed,  have  an  even  wider  effect.  This  is  not  the  occasion 
to  dwell  on  each  of  his  scientific  achievements.  It  is  sufficient 
to  say  that  we  owe  to  him  the  foundations  of  a  rational  vegetable 
pathology.  He  first  grasped  the  true  conditions  of  parasitism  hi 
plants,  and  not  content  with  working  out  the  complex  phases  of 
the  life-history  of  the  invading  organism,  he  never  lost  sight  of 


474 


NA  TURE 


[Sept. 


the  conditions  which  permitted  or  inhibited  its  invasion.  He 
treated  the  problem,  whether  on  the  side  of  the  host  or  of  the 
parasite,  as  a  whole — as  a  biological  problem,  in  fact,  in  the 
widest  sense.  It  is  this  thorough  grasp  of  the  conditions  of  the 
problem  that  gives  such  a  peculiar  value  to  his  last  published 
book,  the  "Lectures  on  Bacteria,"  an  admirable  translation  of 
which  we  owe  to  Prof.  Balfour.  To  this  I  shall  have  again  to 
refer.  I  must  content  myself  with  saying  now,  that  in  this  and 
all  his  work  there  is  that  note  of  highest  excellence  which 
consists  in  lifting  detail  to  the  level  of  the  widest  generality. 
To  a  weak  man  this  is  a  pitfall,  in  which  a  firm  grasp  of  fact  is 
lost  in  rash  speculation.  But  when,  as  in  De  Bary's  case,  a  true 
scientific  insight  is  inspired  by  something  akin  to  genius,  the 
most  fruitful  conceptions  are  the  result.  Yet  De  Bary  never 
sacrificed  exactness  to  brilliancy,  and  to  the  inflexible  love  of 
truth  which  pervaded  both  his  work  and  his  personal  intercourse 
we  may  trace  the  secret  of  the  extraordinary  influence  which  he 
exerted  over  his  pupils. 

As  the  head  of  one  of  the  great  national  establishments  of  the 
country  devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  systematic  botany,  I  need 
hardly  apologize  for  devoting  a  few  words  to  the  present  position 
of  that  branch  of  the  science.  Of  its  fundamental  importance  I 
have  myself  no  manner  of  doubt.  But  as  my  judgment  may 
seem  in  such  a  matter  not  wholly  free  from  bias,  I  may  fortify 
myself  with  an  opinion  which  can  hardly  be  minimized  in  that 
way.  The  distinguished  chemist,  Prof.  Lothar  Meyer,  perhaps 
the  most  brilliant  worker  in  the  field  of  theoretical  chemistry, 
finds  himself,  like  the  systematic  botanist,  obliged  to  defend  the 
position  of  descriptive  science.  And  he  draws  his  strongest 
argument  from  biology.  "  The  physiology  of  plants  and 
animals,"  he  tells  us,  "requires  systematic  botany  and  zoology, 
together  with  the  anatomy  of  the  two  kingdoms  :  each  speculative 
science  requires  a  rich  and  well-ordered  material,  if  it  is  not  to 
lose  itself  in  empty  and  fruitless  fantasies."  No  one,  of  course, 
supposes  that  the  accumulation  of  plant  specimens  in  harbaria  is 
the  mere  outcome  of  a  passion  for  accumulating.  But  to  do 
good  systematic  work  requires  high  qualities  of  exactitude, 
patience,  and  judgment.  As  I  had  occasion  to  show  at  the  Linnean 
centenary,  the  world  is  hardly  sensible  of  the  influence  which  the 
study  of  the  subject  has  had  on  its  affairs.  The  school  of  Jeremy 
Bentham  has  left  an  indelible  mark  on  the  social  and  legislative 
progress  of  our  own  time.  Mill  tells  us  that  "  the  proper 
arrangement  of  a  code  of  laws  depends  on  the  same  scientific 
conditions  as  the  classifications  in  natural  history ;  nor  could 
there,"  he  adds,  "  be  a  better  preparatory  discipline  for  that 
important  function  than  the  principles  of  a  natural  arrangement, 
not  only  in  the  abstract,  but  in  their  actual  application  to  the 
class  of  phenomena  for  which  they  were  first  elaborated,  and 
which  are  still  the  best  school  for  learning  their  use."  He 
further  tells  us  that  of  this  Jeremy  Bentham  was  perfectly 
aware,  and  that  his  "  Fragment  on  Government"  contains  clear 
and  just  views  on  the  meaning  of  a  natural  arrangement  which 
reflect  directly  the  influence  of  Linnaeus  and  Jussieu.  Mill  him- 
self possessed  a  competent  knowledge  of  systematic  botany,  and 
therefore  was  well  able  to  judge  of  its  intellectual  value.  For 
my  part,  I  do  not  doubt  that  precisely  the  same  qualifications 
of  mind  which  made  Jeremy  Bentham  a  great  jurist,  enabled  his 
nephew  to  attain  the  eminence  he  reached  as  a  botanist.  As  a 
mere  matter  of  mental  gymnastic,  taxonomic  science  will  hold 
its  own  with  any  pursuit.  And,  of  course,  what  I  say  of  botany 
is  no  less  true  of  other  branches  of  natural  history.  Mr.  Darwin 
devoted  eight  or  nine  years  to  the  systematic  study  of  the 
Cirrifedia.  "No  one,"  he  himself  tells  us,  "has  a  right  to 
examine  the  question  of  species  who  has  not  minutely  described 
many."  And  Mr.  Huxley  has  pointed  out,  in  the  admirable 
memoir  of  Mr.  Darwin  which  he  has  prepared  for  the  Royal 
Society,  that  "the  acquirement  of  an  intimate  and  practical  know- 
ledge of  the  process  of  species-making  ..."  was  "of  no  less 
importance  to  the  author  of  the  '  Origin  of  Species  '  than  was 
the  bearing  of  the  Cirripede  work  upon  the  principles  of  a 
natural  classification." 

At  present  the  outlook  for  systematic  botany  is  somewhat  dis- 
couraging. France,  Germany,  and  Austria  no  longer  possess 
anything  like  a  school  in  the  subject,  though  they  still  supply 
able  and  distinguished  workers.  That  these  are,  however,  few, 
may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  it  is  difficult  to  fill  the  place  of 
the  lamented  Eichler  in  the  direction  of  the  Botanic  Garden  and 
Herbarium  at  Berlin.  Outside  our  own  country,  Switzerland  is 
the  most  important  seat  of  general  systematic  study,  to  which 
three  generations  of  De  Candolles  have  devoted  themselves.  The 


most  active  centres  of  work  at  the  moment  are,  however,  to  be 
found  in  our  own  country,  in  the  United  -States,  and  in  Russia. 
And  the  reason  is,  in  each  case,  no  doubt  the  same.  The  enor- 
mous area  of  the  earth's  surface  over  which  each  country  holds 
sway  brings  to  them  a  vast  amount  of  material  which  peremptorily 
demands  discussion. 

No  country,  however,  affords  such  admirable  facilities  for  work 
in  systematic  botany  as  are  now  to  be  found  in  London.  The 
Linnean  Society  possesses  the  Herbarium  of  Linnaeus  ;  the 
Botanical  Department  of  the  British  Museum  is  rich  in  the  col- 
lections of  the  older  botanists  ;  while  at  Kew  we  have  a  constantly 
increasing  assemblage  of  material,  either  the  results  of  travel 
and  expeditions,  or  the  contributions  of  correspondents  in 
different  parts  of  the  Empire.  A  very  large  proportion  of  this 
has  been  worked  up.  But  I  am  painfully  impressed  with  the 
fact  that  the  total  of  our  available  workers  bears  but  a  small 
proportion  to  the  labour  ready  to  their  hands. 

This  is  the  more  a  matter  of  concern,  because  for  the  few  official 
posts  which  are  open  to  botanists  at  home  or  abroad  a  practical 
knowledge  of  systematic  botany  is  really  indispensable.  For  suit- 
able candidates  for  these  one  naturally  looks  to  the  Universities. 
And  so  far,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  in  great  measure  one  looks  in  vain. 
It  would  be,  no  doubt,  a  great  impulse  to  what  is  undoubtedly  an 
important  branch  of  national  scientific  work  if  Fellowships  could 
occasionally  be  given  to  men  who  showed  some  aptitude  for  it. 
But  these  should  not  be  mere  prizes  for  undergraduate  study, 
but  should  exact  some  guarantee  that  during  the  tenure  of  the 
Fellowship  the  holder  would  seriously  devote  himself  to  some 
definite  piece  of  work.  At  present,  undoubtedly,  the  younger 
generation  of  botanists  show  a  disposition  to  turn  aside  to  those 
fields  in  which  more  brilliant  and  more  immediate  results  can  be 
attained.  Their  neglect  of  systematic  botany  brings  to  some 
extent  its  own  Nemesis.  A  first  principle  of  systematic  botany 
is  that  a  name  should  denote  a  definite  and  ascertainable  species 
of  plant.  But  in  physiological  literature  you  will  find  that  the 
importance  of  this  is  entirely  overlooked.  Names  are  employed 
which  are  either  not  to  be  found  in  the  books,  or  they  are  alto- 
gether misapplied.  I  call  to  mind  the  case  of  an  English 
physiologist  who  wrote  a  highly  ingenious  paper  on  the  move- 
ment of  water  in  plants.  He  was  content  to  refer  to  the  plant 
upon  which  he  experimented  as  the  "bay-laurel."  I  ascertained 
that  the  plant  he  really  used  was  the  cherry-laurel.  Now  the 
bay  is  truly  a  laurel,  while  the  cherry-laurel  is  a  plum.  Anyone 
repeating  his  experiments  would  therefore  be  led  wholly  astray. 
But  if  proper  precautions  are  taken  to  ascertain  the  accurate 
botanical  name  of  a  plant,  no  botanist  throughout  the  civilized 
world  is  at  a  loss  to  identify  it. 

But  precision  in  nomenclature  is  only  the  necessary  apparatus- 
of  the  subject.  The  data  of  systematic  botany,  when  properly 
discussed,  lend  themselves  to  very  important  generalizations. 
Perhaps  those  which  are  yielded  by  the  study  of  geographical 
distribution  are  of  the  most  general  interest.  The  mantle  of 
vegetation  which  covers  the  surface  of  the  earth,  if  only  we  could 
rightly  unravel  its  texture,  would  tell  us  a  good  deal  about  geo- 
logical history.  The  study  of  geographical  distribution,  rightly 
handled,  affords  an  independent  line  of  attack  upon  the  problem 
of  the  past  distribution  of  land  and  sea.  It  would  probably 
never  afford  sufficient  data  for  a  complete  independent  solution 
of  the  problem  ;  but  it  must  always  be  extremely  useful  as  a 
check  upon  other  methods.  Here,  however,  we  are  embarrassed 
by  the  enormous  amount  of  work  which  has  yet  to  be  accom- 
plished. And  unfortunately  this  is  not  of  a  l<ind  which  can  be 
indefinitely  postponed.  The  old  terrestrial  order  is  fast  passing 
away  before  our  eyes.  Everywhere  the  primitive  vegetation  is 
disappearing  as  more  and  more  of  the  earth's  surface  is  brought 
into  cultivation,  or,  at  any  rate,  denuded  of  its  forests. 

A  good  deal,  however,  has  been  done.  We  owe  to  the 
indomitable  industry  of  Mr.  Bentham  and  of  Sir  Ferdinand 
Mueller  a  comprehensive  flora  of  Australia,  the  first  large  area 
of  the  earth's  surface  of  which  the  vegetation  has  been  com- 
pletely worked  out.  Sir  Joseph  Hooker,  in  his  retirement,  has 
pushed  on  within  sight  of  completion  the  enormous  work  of 
describing  so  much  of  the  vast  Indo-Malayan  flora  as  is  com- 
prised within  the  British  possessions.  To  the  Dutch  botanists 
we  owe  a  tolerably  complete  account  of  the  Malayan  flora 
proper.  But  New  Guinea  still  remains  botanically  a  tirra 
incognita,  and  till  within  the  last  year  or  two  the  flora  of  China 
has  been  an  absolute  blank  to  us.  A  Committee  of  the  British 
Association  (whose  report  will  be  presented  to  you)  has,  with  the 
aid  of  a  small  grant  of  money,  taken  in  hand  the  task  of  gather- 


Sept.  13,  1888] 


NATURE 


475 


ing  up  the  scanty  data  which  are  available  in  herbaria  and  else- 
where. This  has  stimulated  European  residents  in  China  to 
collect  more  material,  and  the  fine  collections  which  are  now 
being  rapidly  poured  in  upon  us  will,  if  they  do  not  overwhelm 
us  by  their  very  magnitude,  go  a  long  way  in  supplying  data  for  a 
tentative  discussion  of  the  relations  of  the  Chinese  flora  to  that 
of  the  rest  of  Asia.  I  do  not  doubt  that  this  will  in  turn  explain 
a  good  deal  that  is  anomalous  in  the  distribution  of  plants  in 
India.  The  work  of  the  Committee  has  been  practically  limited 
to  Central  and  Eastern  China.  From  the  west,  in  Yunnan,  the 
French  botanists  have  received  even  more  surprising  collections, 
and  these  supplement  our  own  work  in  the  most  fortunate 
manner.  I  have  only  to  add,  for  Asia.  Bossier's  "  Flora 
Orientalis,"  which  practically  includes  the  Mediterranean  basin. 
But  I  must  not  omit  the  invaluable  report  of  Brigade-Surgeon 
Aitchison  on  the  collections  made  by  him  during  the  Afghan 
Delimitation  Expedition.  This  has  given  an  important  insight 
into  the  vegetation  of  a  region  which  had  never  previously  been 
adequately  examined.  Nor  must  I  forget  the  recent  publication 
of  the  masterly  report  by  Prof.  Bayley  Balfour  on  the  plants 
collected  by  himself  and  Schweinfurth  in  Socotra,  an  island 
with  which  the  ancient  Egyptians  traded,  but  the  singularly  anom- 
alous flora  of  which  was  almost  wholly  unknown  up  to  our  time. 

The  flora  of  Africa  has  been  at  present  but  imperfectly  worked 
up,  but  the  materials  have  been  so  far  discussed  as  to  afford  a 
tolerably  correct  theory  of  its  relations.  The  harvest  from  Mr. 
Johnston's  expedition  to  Kilimanjaro  was  not  as  rich  as  might 
have  been  hoped.  Still,  it  was  sufficient  to  confirm  the  con- 
clusions at  which  Sir  Joseph  Hooker  had  arrived,  on  very  slender 
-data,  as  to  the  relations  of  the  high-level  vegetation  of  Africa 
generally.  The  flora  of  Madagascar  is  perhaps,  at  the  moment, 
the  most  interesting  problem  which  Africa  presents  to  the 
botanist.  As  the  rich  collections,  for  which  we  are  indebted  to 
Mr.  Baron  and  others,  are  gradually  worked  out,  it  can  hardly 
be  doubted  that  it  will  be  necessary  to  modify  in  some  inspects 
the  views  which  are  generally  received  as  to  the  relation  of  the 
island  to  the  African  continent.  My  colleague,  Mr.  Baker, 
communicated  to  the  York  meeting  of  the  Association  the  results 
which,  up  to  that  time,  he  had  arrived  at,  and  these  subsequent 
material  has  not  led  him  to  modify.  The  flora  as  a  whole  presents 
a  large  proportion  of  endemic  genera  and  species,  pointing  to 
isolation  from  a  very  ancient  date.  The  tropical  element  is, 
however,  closely  allied  to  that  of  Tropical  Africa  and  of  the 
Mascarene  Islands,  and  there  is  a  small  infusion  of  Asiatic  types 
which  do  not  extend  to  Africa.  The  high-level  flora,  on  the 
other  hand,  exhibits  an  even  closer  affinity  with  that  temperate 
flora  the  ruins  of  which  are  scattered  over  the  mountainous 
regions  of  Central  Africa,  and  which  survives  in  its  greatest 
•concentration  at  the  Cape. 

The  American  botanists  at  Harvard  are  still  systematically 
carrying  on  the  work  of  Torrey  and  Gray  in  the  elaboration  of 
the  flora  of  Northern  America.  The  Russians  are,  on  their 
part,  continually  adding  to  our  knowledge  of  the  flora  of 
Northern  and  Central  Asia.  The  whole  flora  of  the  North 
Temperate  Zone  can  only  be  regarded  substantially  as  one. 
The  identity  diminishes  southwards  and  increases  in  the  case  of 
the  Arctic  and  Alpine  regions.  A  collection  of  plants  brought 
us  from  high  levels  in  Corea  by  Mr.  James  might,  as  regards  a 
■large  proportion  of  the  species,  have  been  gathered  on  one  of  our 
own  Scotch  hills. 

We  owe  to  the  munificence  of  two  English  men  of  science  the 
organization  of  an  extensive  examination  of  the  flora  and  fauna 
of  Central  America  and  the  publication  of  the  results.  The 
work,  when  completed,  can  hardly  be  less  expensive  that  of  the 
results  of  the  Ckallntgtr  voyage,  which  has  severely  taxed  the 
liberality  of  the  English  Government.  The  problems  which 
geographical  distribution  in  this  region  presents  will  doubtless  be 
found  to  be  of  a  singularly  complicated  nature,  and  it  is  im- 
pissible  to  over-estimate  the  debt  of  gratitude  which  biologists 
of  all  countries  must  owe  to  Messrs.  Godman  and  Salvin  when 
their  arduous  undertaking  is  completed.  I  am  happy  to  say 
that  the  botanical  portion,  which  has  been  elaborated  at  Kew,  is 
all  but  finished. 

In  South  America,  I  must  content  myself  with  referring  to  the 
great  "Flora  Hrasiliensis,"  commenced  by  Martius  half  a 
century  ago,  and  still  slowly  progressing  under  the  editor-hip  of 
Prof.  Urban,  at  Berlin.  Little  discussion  has  yet  been  attempted 
of  the  mass  of  material  which  is  enshrined  in  the  mighty  array 
of  volumes  already  published.  But  the  travels  of  Mr.  Ball  in 
South    America  have  led  him  to   the   detection  of  some  verv 


interesting  problems.  The  enormous  pluvial  denudation  of  the 
ancient  portions  of  the  continent  has  led  to  the  gradual  blending 
of  the  flora  of  different  levels  with  sufficient  slowness  to  permit 
of  adaptive  changes  in  the  process.  The  tropical  flora  of 
Brazil,  therefore,  presents  an  admixture  of  modified  temperate 
types  which  gives  to  the  whole  a  peculiar  character  not  met 
with  to  the  same  degree  in  the  tropics  of  the  Old  World.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  comparatively  recent  elevation  of  the  southern 
portion  of  the  continent  accounts,  in  Mr.  Ball's  eyes,  for  the 
singular  poverty  of  its  flora,  which  we  may  regard  indeed  as  still 
in  progress  of  development. 

The  botany  of  the  Challenger  Expedition,  which  was  also 
elaborated  at  Kew,  brought  for  the  first  time  into  one  view  all 
the  available  facts  as  to  the  floras  of  the  older  oceanic  islands. 
To  this  was  added  a  discussion  of  the  origin  of  the  more  recent 
floras  of  the  islands  of  the  Western  Pacific,  based  upon  material 
carefully  collected  by  Prof.  Moseley,  and  supplemented  by  the 
notes  and  specimens  accumulated  with  much  judgment  by  Dr. 
Guppy.  For  the  first  time  we  were  enabled  to  get  some  idea 
how  a  tropical  island  was  furnished  with  plants,  and  to  dis- 
criminate the  littoral  element  due  to  the  action  of  oceanic 
currents  from  the  interior  forest  almost  wholly  due  to  frugivorous 
birds.  The  recent  examination  of  Christmas  Island  by  the 
English  Admiralty  has  shown  the  process  of  island  flora-making 
in  another  stage.  The  plants  collected  by  Mr.  Lister  prove,  as 
might  be  expected,  to  be  closely  allied  to  those  of  Java.  But 
the  effect  of  isolation  has  begun  to  tell  ;  and  I  learn  from  my 
colleague,  Prof.  Oliver,  that  the  plants  from  Christmas  Island 
cannot  be  for  the  most  part  exactly  matched  with  their  congeners 
from  Tava,  but  yet  do  not  differ  sufficiently  to  be  specifically 
distinguished.  We  have  here,  therefore,  it  appears  to  me,  a 
manifest  case  of  nascent  species. 

The  central  problem  of  systematic  botany  I  have  not  as  yet 
touched  upon  :  this  is  to  perfect  a  natural  classification.  Such 
a  classification,  to  be  perfect,  must  be  the  ultimate  generalization 
of  every  scrap  of  knowledge  which  we  can  bring  to  bear  upon  the 
study  of  plant  affinity.  In  the  higher  plants  experience  has  shown 
that  we  can  obtain  results  which  are  sufficiently  accurate  for  the 
present  without  carrying  our  structural  analysis  very  far.  Yet  even 
here,  the  correct  relations  of  the  Gymnosperms  would  never 
have  been  ascertained  without  patient  and  minute  microscopic 
study  of  the  reproductive  processes.  Upon  these,  indeed,  the 
correct  classification  of  the  Vascular  Cryptogams  wholly  depends, 
and  generally,  as  we  descend  in  the  scale,  external  morphology 
becomes  more  and  more  insecure  as  a  guide,  and  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  minute  structure  and  life  history  of  each 
organism  becomes  indispensable  to  anything  like  a  correct  deter- 
mination of  its  taxonomic  position.  The  marvellous  theory  of 
the  true  nature  of  lichens  would  never  have  been  ascertained  by 
the  ordinary  methods  of  examination  which  were  held  to  be 
sufficient  by  lichenologists. 

The  final  form  of  every  natural  classification — for  I  have  no 
doubt  that  the  general  principles  I  have  laid  down  are  equally 
true  in  the  field  of  zoology— must  be  to  approximate  to  the 
order  of  descent.  For  the  theory  of  descent  became  an  irresistible 
induction  as  soon  as  the  idea  of  a  natural  classification  had  been 
firmly  grasped. 

In  regard  to  flowering  plants  we  owe,  as  I  have  said,  the  first 
step  in  a  natural  classification  to  our  own  great  naturalist,  John 
Ray,  who  divided  them  into  Monocotyledons  and  Dicotyledons. 
The  celebrated  classification  of  Linnaeus  was  avowedly  purely 
artificial.  If  was  a  temporary  expedient,  the  provisional 
character  of  which  no  one  realized  more  thoroughly  than  him- 
self. He,  in  fact,  himself  gave  us  one  of  the  earliest  outlines  of 
a  truly  natural  system.  Such  a  system  is  based  on  affinity,  and 
we  know  of  no  other  explanation  of  affinity  than  that  which  is 
implied  in  the  word— namely,  common  parentage.  No  one  finds 
any  difficulty  in  admitting  that,  where  a  number  of  individual 
organisms  closely  resemble  one  another,  they  must  have  been 
derived  from  the  same  stock.  I  allow  that,  in  ca«es  where 
external  form  is  widely  different,  the  conclusion  to  one  who  is 
not  a  naturalist  is  by  no  means  so  obvious.  But  in  such  cases  it 
rests  on  the  profound  and  constant  resemblance  of  internal  points 
of  structure.  Anyone  who  studies  the  matter  with  a  perfectly 
open  mind  finds  it  impossible  to  draw  a  line.  If  genetic  rela- 
tionship or  heredity  is  admitted  to  be  the  explanation  of  affinity 
in  the  most  obvious  case,  the  stages  are  imperceptible  by  which 
the  same  conclusion  is  seen  to  be  inevitable  when  the  evidence 
is  fairly  examined,  even  in  cases  where  at  the  first  glance  it 
seems  least  likely. 


476 


NATURE 


[Sept. 


vD> 


1888 


This  leads  me  to  touch  on  the  great  theory  which  we  owe  to 
Mr.  Darwin.  That  theory,  I  need  hardly  say,  was  not  merely 
a  theory  of  descent.  This  had  suggested  itself  to  naturalists  in 
the  way  I  have  indicated  long  before.  What  Mr.  Darwin  did 
was  to  show  how  by  perfectly  natural  causes  the  separation  of 
living  organisms  into  races  which  at  once  resemble  and  yet  differ 
from  one  another  so  profoundly  came  about.  Heredity  explains 
the  resemblance  ;  Mr.  Darwin's  great  discovery  was  that  varia- 
tion worked  upon  by  natural  selection  explained  the  difference. 
That  explanation  seems  to  me  to  gather  strength  every  day,  and 
to  continually  reveal  itself  as  a  more  and  more  efficient  solvent 
of  the  problems  which  present  themselves  to  the  student  of 
natural  history.  At  the  same  time,  I  am  far  from  claiming  for  it 
the  authority  of  a  scientific  creed  or  even  the  degree  of  certainty 
which  is  possessed  by  some  of  the  laws  of  astronomy.  I  only 
affirm  that  as  a  theory  it  has  proved  itself  a  potent  and  invalu- 
able instrument  of  research.  It  is  an  immensely  valuable  induc- 
tion ;  but  it  has  not  yet  reached  such  a  position  of  certitude  as  has 
been  attained  by  the  law  of  gravitation  ;  and  I  have  myself,  in 
the  field  of  botany,  felt  bound  to  protest  against  conclusions 
being  drawn  deductively  from  it  without  being  subjected  to  the 
test  of  experimental  verification.  This  attitude  of  mine,  which 
I  believe  I  share  with  most  naturalists,  must  not,  however,  be 
mistaken  for  one  of  doubt.  Of  doubt  as  to  the  validity  of  Mr. 
Darwin's  views  I  have  none  :  I  shall  continue  to  have  none  till 
I  come  across  facts  which  suggest  doubt.  But  that  is  a  different 
position  from  one  of  absolute  certitude. 

It  is  therefore  without  any  dissatisfaction  that  I  observe  that 
many  competent  persons  have,  while  accepting  Mr.  Darwin's 
theory,  set  themselves  to  criticize  various  parts  of  it.  But  I 
must  confess  that  I  am  disposed  to  share  the  opinion  expressed 
by  Mr.  Huxley,  that  these  criticisms  really  rest  on  a  want  of  a 
thorough  comprehension. 

Mr.  Romanes  has  put  forward  a  view  which  deserves  the 
attention  due  to  the  speculations  of  a  man  of  singular  subtlety 
and  dialectic  skill.  He  has  startled  us  with  the  paradox  that 
Mr.  Darwin  did  not,  after  all,  put  forth,  as  I  conceive  it  was  his 
own  impression  he  did,  a  theory  of  the  origin  of  species,  but 
only  of  adaptations.  And  inasmuch  as  Mr.  Romanes  is  of 
opinion  that  specific  differences  are  not  adaptive,  while  those 
of  genera  are,  it  follows  that  Mr.  Darwin  only  really  accounted 
for  the  origin  of  the  latter,  while  for  an  explanation  of  the 
former  we  must  look  to  Mr.  Romanes  himself.  For  my  part, 
however,  I  am  altogether  unable  to  accept  the  premises,  and 
therefore  fail  to  reach  the  conclusion.  Specific  differences, 
as  we  find  them  in  plants,  are  for  the  most  part  indubitably 
adaptive,  while  the  distinctive  characters  of  genera  and  of  higher 
groups  are  rarely  so.  Let  anyone  take  the  numerous  species  of 
some  well-characterized  English  genus — for  example,  Ramincti- 
lus ;  he  will  find  that  one  species  is  distinguished  by  having 
creeping  stems,  one  by  a  tuberous  root,  one  by  floating  leaves, 
another  by  drawn-out  submerged  ones,  and  so  on.  But  each 
possesses  those  common  characters  which  enables  the  botanist 
almost  at  a  glance,  notwi'hstanding  the  adaptive  disguise,  to 
refer  them  to  the  common  genus  Raminculus.  It  seems  to  me 
quite  easy  to  see,  in  fact,  .why  specific  characters  should  be 
usually  adaptive,  and  generic  not  so.  Species  of  any  large 
genus  must,  from  the  nature  of  things,  find  themselves  exposed 
to  anything  rather  than  uniform  conditions.  They  must  acquire, 
therefore,  as  the  very  condition  of  their  existence,  those  adaptive 
characters  which  the  necessities  of  their  life  demand.  But  this 
rarely  affects  those  marks  of  affinity  which  still  indicate  their 
original  common  origin.  No  doubt  these  were  themselves  once 
adaptive,  but  they  have  long  been  overlaid  by  newer  and  more 
urgent  modifications.  Still,  Nature  is  ever  conservative,  and 
these  reminiscences  of  a  bygone  history  persist  ;  significant 
to  the  systematic  botanist  as  telling  an  unmistakable  family 
story,  but  far  removed  from  the  stress  of  a  struggle  in  which 
they  no  longer  are  called  upon  to  bear  their  part. 

Another  episode  in  the  Darwinian  theory  is,  however,  likely 
to  occupy  our  attention  for  some  time  to  come.  The  biological 
world  now  looks  to  Prof.  Weismann  as  occupying  the  most 
prominent  position  in  the  field  of  speculation.  His  theory  of 
the  continuity  of  the  germ-plasm  has  been  put  before  English 
readers  with  extreme  lucidity  by  Prof.  Moseley.  That  theory,  I 
am  free  to  confess,  I  do  not  find  it  easy  to  grasp  clearly  in  all 
its  concrete  details.  At  any  rate,  my  own  studies  do  not  furnish 
me  with  sufficient  data  for  criticizing  them  in  any  adequate  way. 
It  is,  however,  bound  up  with  another  theory — the  non-inherit- 
ance of  acquired  characters— which  is  more   open    to   general 


discussion.  If  with  Weismann  we  accept  this  principle,  it 
cannot  be  doubted  that  the  burden  thrown  on  natural  selection 
is  enormously  increased.  But  I  do  not  see  that  the  theory  of 
natural  selection  itself  is  in  any  way  impaired  in  consequence. 

The  question,  however,  is,  Are  we  to  accept  the  principle  ? 
It  appears  to  me  that  it  is  entirely  a  matter  of  evidence.  It  is 
proverbially  difficult  to  prove  a  negative.  In  the  analogous  case 
of  the  inheritance  of  accidental  mutilations,  Mr.  Darwin  con- 
tents himself  with  observing  that  we  should  be  "cautious  in 
denying  it."  Still,  I  believe  that,  though  a  great  deal  of  pains 
has  been  devoted  to  the  matter,  there  is  no  case  in  which  it  has 
been  satisfactorily  proved  that  a  character  acquired  by  an  organ- 
ism has  been  transmitted  to  its  descendants  ;  and  there  is,  of 
course,  an  enormous  bulk  of  evidence  the  other  way. 

The  consideration  of  this  point  has  given  rise  to  what  has 
been  called  the  new  Lamarckism.  Now,  Lamarck  accounted 
for  the  evolution  of  organic  Nature  by  two  principles — the  tend- 
ency to  progressive  advancement  and  the  force  of  external  cir- 
cumstances. The  first  of  these  principles  appears  to  me,  like 
Nageli's  internal  modifying  force,  to  be  simply  substituting  a 
a  name  for  a  thing.  Lamarck,  like  many  other  people  before 
him,  thought  that  the  higher  organisms  were  derived  from  others 
lower  in  the  scale,  and  he  explained  this  by  saying  that  they  had 
a  tendency  to  be  so  derived.  This  appears  to  me  much  as  if  we 
explained  the  movement  of  a  train  from  London  to  Bath  by 
attributing  it  to  a  tendency  to  locomotion.  Mr.  Darwin  lifted 
the  whole  matter  out  of  the  field  of  mere  transcendental  specu- 
lation by  the  theory  of  natural  selection,  a  perfectly  intelligible 
mechanism  by  which  the  result  might  be  brought  about.  Science 
will  always  prefer  a  material  moans  operandi  to  anything  so  vague 
as  the  action  of  a  tendency. 

Lamarck's  second  principle  deserves  much  more  serious  con- 
sideration. To  be  perfectly  fair,  we  must  strip  it  of  the  crude 
illustrations  with  which  he  hampered  it.  To  suggest  that  a  bird 
became  web-footed  by  persistently  stretching  the  skin  between 
its  toes,  or  that  the  neck  of  a  giraffe  was  elongated  in  the  per- 
petual attempt  to  reach  the  foliage  of  trees,  seems  almost  repug- 
nant to  common-sense.  But  the  idea  that  changes  in  climate 
and  food — i.e.  in  the  conditions  of  nutrition  generally — may 
have  some  slow  but  direct  influence  on  the  organism  seems,  on  a 
superficial  view,  so  plausible,  that  the  mind  is  very  prone  to  accept 
it.  Mr.  Darwin  has  himself  frankly  admitted  that  he  thought 
he  had  not  attached  sufficient  weight  to  the  direct  action  of  the 
environment.  Yet  it  is  extremely  difficult  to  obtain  satisfac- 
tory evidence  of  effects  produced  in  this  way.  Hoffmann  ex- 
perimented with  much  pains  on  plants,  and  the  results  were 
negative.  And  Mr.  Darwin  confessed  that  Hoffmann's  paper 
had  "  staggered  "  him. 

Organic  evolution  still,  therefore,  seems  to  me  to  be  explained 
in  the  simplest  way  as  the  result  of  variation  controlled  by  natural 
selection.  Now,  both  these  factors  are  perfectly  intelligible 
things.  Variation  is  a  mere  matter  of  every-day  observation, 
and  the  struggle  for  existence,  which  is  the  cause  of  which 
natural  selection  is  the  effect,  is  equally  so.  If  we  state  in  a 
parallel  form  the  Lamarckian  theory,  it  amounts  to  a  tendency 
controlled  by  external  forces.  It  appears  to  me  that  there  is  no- 
satisfactory  basis  of  fact  for  either  factor.  The  practical  supe- 
riority of  the  Darwinian  over  the  Lamarckian  theory  is,  as  a 
working  hypothesis,  immeasurable. 

The  new  Lamarckian  school,  if  I  understand  their  views  cor- 
rectly, seek  to  re-introduce  Lamarck's  "tendency."  The  fact  has 
been  admitted  by  Mr.  Darwin  himself  that  variation  is  not. 
illimitable.  No  one,  in  fact,  has  ever  contended  that  any  type, 
can  be  reached  from  any  point.  For  example,  as  Weismann 
puts  it,  "  Under  the  most  favourable  circumstances,  a  bird  can 
never  become  transformed  into  a  mammal."  It  is  deduced  from 
this  that  variation  takes  place  in  a  fixed  direction  only,  and  this 
is  assumed  to  be  due  to  an  innate  law  of  development,  or,  as 
Weismann  has  termed  it,  a  "phyletic  vital  force."  But  the 
introduction  of  any  such  directive  agency  is  superfluous,  because 
the  limitation  of  variability  is  a  necessary  consequence  of  the 
physical  constitution  of  the  varying  organism. 

It  is  supposed,  however,  by  many  people  that  a  necessary  part 
of  Mr.  Darwin's  theory  is  the  explanation  of  the  phenomenon 
of  variation  itself.  But  really  this  is  not  more  reasonable  than 
to  demand  that  it  should  explain  gravitation  or  the  source  of 
solar  energy.  The  investigation  of  any  one  of  these  phenomena 
is  a  matter  of  first-rate  importance.  But  the  cause  of  variation 
is  perfectly  independent  of  the  results  that  flow  from  it  when 
subordinated  to  natural  selection. 


Sept.  13,  1888] 


NATURE 


477 


Though  it  is  difficult  to  establish  the  fact  that  external  causes 
promote  variation  directly,  it  is  worth  considering  whether 
they  may  not  do  so  indirectly.  Weismann.  like  Lamarck  before 
him,  has  pointed  out,  as  others  have  also  done,  the  remarkable 
persistence  of  the  plants  and  animals  of  Egypt  ;  and  the  evi- 
dence of  this  is  now  even  stronger.  We,  at  Kew,  owe  to  the 
kindness  of  Dr.  Schweinfurth,  a  collection  of  specimens  of  plants 
from  Egyptian  tombs,  which  are  said  to  be  as  much  as  4000 
years  old.  They  are  still  perfectly  identifiable,  and,  as  one  of 
coy  predecessors  in  this  chair  has  pointed  out,  they  differ  in  no 
respect  from  their  living  representatives  in  Egypt  at  this  day. 
The  explanation  which  Lamarck  gave  of  this  fact  "  may  well," 
says  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  "  lay  claim  to  our  admiration."  He 
attributed  it,  in  effect,  to  the  persistence  of  the  physical  geo- 
graphy, temperature,  and  other  natural  conditions.  The  ex- 
planation seems  to  me  adequate.  The  plants  and  animals,  we 
may  fairly  assume,  were,  4000  years  ago,  as  accurately  adjusted 
to  the  conditions  in  which  they  then  existed  as  the  fact  of  their 
persistence  in  the  country  shows  that  they  must  be  now.  Any 
deviation  from  the  type  that  existed  then  would  either,  there- 
fore, be  disadvantageous  or  indifferent.  In  the  former  case  it 
would  be  speedily  eliminated,  in  the  latter  it  would  be  swamped 
by  cross-breeding.  But  we  know  that  if  seeds  of  these  plants 
were  introduced  into  our  gardens  we  should  soon  detect  varieties 
amongst  their  progeny.  Long  observation  upon  plants  under 
cultivation  has  always  disposed  me  to  think  that  a  change  of 
external  conditions  actually  stimulated  variation,  and  so  gave 
natural  selection  wider  play  and  a  better  chance  of  re-establish- 
ing the  adaptation  of  the  organism  to  them.  Weismann  ex- 
plains the  remarkable  fact  that  organisms  may  for  thousands  of 
years  reproduce  themselves  unchanged  by  the  principle  of  the 
persistence  of  the  germ-p!asm.  Yet  it  seems  hard  to  believe 
that  the  germ-plasm,  while  enshrined  in  the  individual  whose  race 
it  is  to  perpetuate,  and  nourished  at  its  expense,  can  be  wholly 
indifferent  to  all  its  fortunes.  It  may  be  so,  but  in  that  case  it 
would  be  very  unlike  other  living  elements  of  organized  beings. 

I  am  bound,  however,  to  confess  that  I  am  not  wholly  satis- 
fied with  the  data  for  the  discussion  of  this  question  which 
practical  horticulture  supplies.  That  the  contents  of  our  gardens 
do  exhibit  the  re-ults  of  variation  in  a  most  astonishing  degree 
no  one  will  dispute.  But  for  scientific  purposes  any  exact 
account  of  the  treatment  under  which  these  variations  have 
occurred  is  unfortunately  usually  wanting.  A  great  deal  of  the 
most  striking  variation  is  undoubtedly  due  to  wide  crossing,  and 
these  cases  must,  of  course,  be  eliminated  when  the  object  is  to 
test  the  independent  variation  of  the  germ-plasm.  Hoffmann, 
whose  experiments  I  have  already  referred  to,  doubts  whether 
plants  do  as  a  matter  of  fact  vary  more  under  cultivation  than  in 
their  native  home  and  under  natural  conditions.  It  would  be 
very  interesting  if  this  could  be  tested  by  the  concerted  efforts 
of  two  cultivators,  say,  for  example,  in  Egypt  and  in  England. 
Let  some  annual  plant  be  selected,  native  of  the  former  country, 
and  let  its  seed  be  transmitted  to  the  latter.  Then  let  each 
cultivator  select  any  variations  that,  arise  in  regard  to  some  given 
character ;  set  to  work,  in  fact,  exactly  as  any  gardener  would 
who  wanted  to  "improve''  the  plant,  but  on  a  preconcerted 
plan.  A  comparison  of  the  success  which  each  obtained  would 
be  a  measure  of  the  effect  of  the  change  of  the  environment  on 
variability.  If  it  proved  that,  as  Hoffmann  supposed,  the 
change  of  conditions  did  not  affect  what  we  may  call  the  rate  of 
variation,  then,  as  Mr.  Darwin  remarks  in  writing  to  Prof. 
Semper,  "the  astonishing  variations  of  almost  all  cultivated 
plants  must  be  due  to  selection  and  breeding  from  the  varying 
individuals.  This  idea,"  he  continues,  "crossed  my  mind 
many  years  ago,  but  I  was  afraid  to  publish  it,,  as  I  thought  that 
people  would  say,  '  How  he  does  exaggerate  the  importance  of 
selection.'  "  From  an  independent  consideration  of  the  subject 
I  also  find  my  mind  somewhat  shaken  about  it.  Yet  I  feel 
disposed  to  say  with  Mr.  Darwin,  "I  still  must  believe  that 
changed  conditions  give  the  impulse  to  variability,  but  that  they 
act  in  most  cases  in  a  very  indirect  manner." 

Whatever  conclusions  we  arrive  at  on  these  points,  everyone 
will  agree  that  one  result  of  the  Darwinian  theory  has  been  to 
give  a  great  impulse  to  the  study  of  organisms,  if  I  may  say  so, 
as  "going  concerns."  Interesting  as  are  the  problems  which 
the  structure,  the  functions,  the  affinity,  or  the  geographical  dis- 
tribution of  a  plant  may  afford,  the  living  plant  in  itself  is  even 
more  interesting  still. 

Every  organ  will  bear  interrogation  to  trace  the  meaning  and 
origin  of  its  form  and  the  part  it  plays  in  the  plant's  economy. 


That  there  is  here  an  immense  field  for  investigation  there  can 
be  no  doubt.  Mr.  Darwin  himself  set  us  the  example  in  a  series 
of  masterly  investigations.  But  the  field  is  well-nigh  inex- 
haustible. The  extraordinary  variety  of  form  which  plants 
exhibit  has  led  to  the  notion  that  much  of  it  may  have  arisen 
from  indifferent  variation.  No  doubt,  as  Mr.  Darwin  has 
pointed  out,  when  one  of  a  group  of  structures  held  together  by 
some  morphological  or  physiological  nexus  varies,  the  rest  will 
vary  correlatively.  One  variation  then  may,  if  advantageous, 
become  adaptive,  while  the  rest  will  be  indifferent.  But  it 
appears  to  me  that  such  a  principle  should  be  applied  with  the 
greatest  caution  ;  and  from  what  I  have  myself  heard  fall  from 
Mr.  Darwin,  I  am  led  to  believe  that  in  the  later  years  of  his 
life  he  was  disposed  to  think  that  every  detail  of  plant  structure 
had  some  adaptive  significance,  if  only  the  clue  could  be  found 
to  it.  As  regards  the  forms  of  flowers  an  enormous  body  of  in- 
formation has  been  collected,  but  the  vegetative  organs  have  not 
yielded  their  secret  to  anything  like  the  same  extent.  My  own 
impression  is  that  they  will  be  found  to  be  adaptive  in  innu- 
merable ways  which  at  present  are  not  even  suspected.  At  Kew 
we  have  probably  a  larger  number  of  species  assembled  together 
than  are  to  be  found  anywhere  on  the  earth's  surface.  HereT 
then,  is  ample  material  for  observation  and  comparison.  But 
the  adaptive  significance  will  doubtless  often  be  found  by  no- 
means  to  lie  on  the  surface.  Who,  for  example,  could  possibly 
have  guessed  by  inspection  the  purpose  of  the  glandular  bodies 
on  the  leaves  of  Acacia  sphatrocephala  and  on  the  pulvinus  of 
Cecropia  peltata  which  Belt  in  the  one  case,  and  Fritz  Midler  in 
the  other,  have  shown  to  serve  as  food  for  ants  ?  So  far  from 
this  explanation  being  far-fetched,  Belt  found  that  the  former 
"tree  is  actually  unable  to  exist  without  its  guard,"  which  it 
could  not  secure  without  some  attraction  in  the  shape  of  food. 
One  fact  which  strongly  impresses  me  with  a  belief  in  the  adap- 
tive significance  of  vegetative  characters  is  the  fact  that  they 
are  constantly  adopted  in  almost  identical  forms  by  plants  of 
widely  different  affinity.  If  such  forms  were  without  significance- 
one  would  expect  them  to  be  infinitely  varied.  If,  however, 
they  are  really  adaptive,  it  is  intelligible  that  different  plants 
should  independently  avail  themselves  of  identical  appliances 
and  expedients. 

Although  this  country  is  splendidly  equipped  with  appliances 
for  the  study  of  systematic  botany,  our  Universities  and  Colleges 
fall  far  behind  a  standard  which  would  be  considered  even 
tolerable  on  the  Continent  in  the  means  of  studying  morpho- 
logical and  physiological  botany  or  of  making  researches  in 
these  subjects.  There  is  not  at  the  moment  anywhere  in 
London  an  adequate  botanical  laboratory,  and  though  at  most 
of  the  Universities  matters  are  not  quite  so  bad,  still  I  am  not 
aware  of  any  one  where  it  is  possible  to  do  more  than  give  the 
routine  instruction,  or  to  allow  the  students,  when  they  have 
passed  through  this,  to  work  for  themselves.  It  is  not  easy  to- 
see  why  this  should  be,  because  on  the  animal  side  the  accom- 
modation and  appliances  for  teaching  comparative  anatomy  and 
physiology  are  always  adequate  and  often  palatial.  Still  less- 
explicable  to  me  is  the  tendency  on  the  part  of  those  who  have 
charge  of  medical  education  to  eliminate  botanical  study  from 
the  medical  curriculum,  since  historically  the  animal  histologists 
owe  everything  to  botanists.  In  the  seventeenth  century,  as  I 
have  already  mentioned,  Hooke  first  brought  the  microscope  to 
the  investigation  of  organic  structure,  and  the  tissue  he  examined 
was  cork.  Somewhat  later,  Grew,  in  his  "  Anatomy  of  Plants," 
gave  the  first  germ  of  the  cell-theory.  During  the  eighteenth 
century  the  anatomists  were  not  merely  on  a  hopelessly  wrong, 
tack  themselves,  but  they  were  bent  on  dragging  botanists  into 
it  also.  It  was  not  till  1837,  a  little  more  than  fifty  years  ago, 
that  Henle  saw  that  the  structure  of  epithelium  was  practically 
the  same  as  that  of  the  parenchyma  plantarum  which  Grew  had 
described  150  years  before.  Two  yea*-s  later  Schwann  pub- 
lished his  immortal  theory,  which  comprised  the  ultimate  facts 
of  plant  and  animal  anatomy  under  one  view.  But  it  was  to  a 
botanist,  Von  Mohl,  that,  in  1846,  the  biological  world  owed 
the  first  clear  description  of  protoplasm,  and  to  another  botanist,. 
Cohn  (1851),  the  identification  of  this  with  the  sarcode  of 
zoologists. 

Now  the  historic  order  in  discovery  is  not  without  its  sig- 
nificance. The  path  which  the  first  investigators  found  most 
accessible  is  doubtless  that  which  beginners  will  also  find  easiest 
to  tread.  I  do  not  myself  believe  that  any  better  access  can  be 
obtained  to  the  structure  and  functions  of  living  tissues  than  by 
the  study  of  plants.     However,  I  am  not  without  hopes  that  the 


478 


NATURE 


{Sept. 


1888 


serious  study  of  botany  in  the  laboratory  will  be  in  time  better 
cared  for.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  claim  for  it  a  position  of  the 
greatest  importance  in  ordinary  scientific  education.  All  the 
essential  phenomena  of  living  organisms  can  be  readily  demon- 
strated upon  plants.  The  necessary  appliances  are  not  so 
costly,  and  the  work  of  the  class  room  is  free  from  many  diffi- 
culties with  which  the  student  of  the  animal  side  of  biology  has 
to  contend. 

Those,  however,  who  have  seriously  devoted  themselves  to  the 
pursuit  of  either  morphological  or  physiological  botany  need  not 
now  be  wholly  at  a  loss.  The  splendid  laboratory  on  Plymouth 
Sound,  the  erection  of  which  we  owe  to  the  energy  and  en- 
thusiasm of  Prof.  Ray  Lankester,  is  open  to  botanists  as  well  as 
to  zoologists,  and  affords  every  opportunity  for  the  investigation 
of  marine  plants,  in  which  little  of  late  years  has  been  done  in 
this  country.  At  Kew  we  owe  to  private  munificence  a  com- 
modious laboratory  in  which  much  excellent  work  has  already 
been  done.  And  this  Association  has  made  a  small  grant  in 
aid  of  the  establishment  of  a  laboratory  in  the  Royal  Botanic 
Garden  at  Peradeniya,  in  Ceylon.  It  may  be  hoped  that  this 
will  afford  facilities  for  work  of  the  same  kind  as  has  yielded 
Dr.  Treub  such  a  rich  harvest  of  results  in  the  Buitenzorg 
Botanic  Garden  in  Java. 

Physiological  botany,  as  I  have  already  pointed  out,  is  a  field 
in  which  this  country  in  the  past  has  accomplished  great  things. 
It  has  not  of  late,  however,  obtained  an  amount  of  attention  in 
any  way  proportionate  to  that  devoted  to  animal  physiology.  In 
the  interests  of  physiological  science  generally,  this  is  much  to 
be  deplored  ;  and  I  believe  that  no  one  was  more  firmly  con- 
vinced of  this  than  Mr.  Darwin.  Only  a  short  time  before  his 
death,  in  writing  to  Mr.  Romanes  on  a  book  that  he  had  recently 
been  reading,  he  said  that  the  author  had  made  "  a  gigantic 
oversight  in  never  considering  plants  :  these  would  simplify  the 
problem  for  him."  This  goes  to  the  root  of  the  matter.  There 
is,  in  my  judgment,  no  fundamental  biological  problem  which  is 
not  exhibited  in  a  simpler  form  by  plants  than  animals.  It  is 
possible,  however,  that  the  distaste  which  seems  to  exist  amongst 
our  biologists  for  physiological  botany  may  be  due  in  some 
measure  to  the  extremely  physical  point  of  view  from  which  it 
has  been  customary  to  treat  it  on  the  Continent.  It  is  owing  in 
great  measure  to  the  method  of  Mr.  Darwin's  own  admirable 
researches  that  in  this  country  we  have  been  led  to  a  more 
excellent  way.  The  work  which  has  been  lately  done  in 
England  seems  to  me  full  of  the  highest  promise.  Mr.  Francis 
Daiwin  and  Mr.  Gardiner  have  each  in  different  directions 
shown  the  entirely  new  point  of  view  which  may  be  obtained  by 
treating  plant  phenomena  as  the  outcome  of  the  functional 
activity  of  protoplasm.  I  have  not  the  least  d6ubt  that  by  pur- 
suing this  path  English  research  will  not  merely  place  vegetable 
physiology,  which  has  hitherto  been  too  much  under  the  influence 
of  Lamarckism,  on  a  more  rational  basis,  but  that  it  will  also 
sensibly  react,  as  it  has  done  often  before,  on  animal  physiology. 

There  is  no  part  of  the  field  of  physiological  botany  which 
has  yielded  results  of  more  interest  and  importance  than  that 
which  relates  to  the  action  of  ferments  and  fermentation  ;  and  I 
could  hardly  give  you  a  better  illustration  of  the  purely  biological 
method  of  treating  it.  I  believe  tbat  these  results,  wonderful 
and  fascinating  as  they  are,  afford  but  a  faint  indication  of  the 
range  of  those  that  are  still  to  be  accomplished.  The  subject  is 
one  of  extreme  intricacy,  and  it  is  not  easy  to  speak  about  it 
briefly.  To  begin  with,  it  embodies  two  distinct  groups  of 
phenomena  which  have  in  reality  very  little  which  is  essential  in 
common. 

What  are  usually  called  ferments  are  perhaps  the  most  re- 
markable of  all  chemical  bodies,  for  they  have  the  power  of  effect- 
ing very  profound  changes  in  the  chemical  constitution  of  other 
substances,  although  they  may  be  present  in  very  minute  quantity ; 
but,  and  this  is  their  mo>t  singular  and  characteristic  property, 
they  themselves  remain  unchanged  in  the  process.  It  may  be 
said  without  hesitation  that  the  whole  nutrition  of  both  animals 
and  plants  depends  on  the  action  of  ferments.  Organisms  are 
incapable  of  using  sdIIcI  nutrient  matter  for  the  repair  and 
extension  of  their  tissues  ;  this  must  be  first  brought  into  a  soluble 
form  before  it  can  be  made  available,  and  this  change  is  generally 
brought  about  by  the  action  of  a  ferment!  .  Animal  physiology 
has  long  been  familiar  with  the  part  played  by  ferments,  and 
it  may  be  said  that  no  small  part  of  the  animal  economy  is  made 
up  of  organs  required  either  for  the  manufacture  of  ferments  or 
for  the  exposure  of  ingested  food  to  their  action.  It  may  seem 
strange  at  first  sight  to  speak   of    analogous  processes   taking 


place  in  plants.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  plant  nutrition 
includes  two  very  distinct  stages.  Certain  parts  of  plants  build 
up,  as  everyone  knows,  from  external  inorganic  materials  sub- 
stances which  are  available  for  the  construction  of  new  tissues. 
It  might  be  supposed  that  these  are  used  up  as  fast  as  they  are 
formed.  But  it  is  not  so  ;  the  life  of  the  plant  is  not  a  continuous 
balance  of  income  and  expenditure.  On  the  contrary,  besides 
the  general  maintenance  of  its  structure,  the  plant  has  to  provide 
from  time  to  time  for  enormous  resources  to  meet  such  exhausting 
demands  as  the  renewal  of  foliage,  the  production  of  flowers, 
and  the  subsequent  maturing  of  fruit. 

In  such  cases  the  plant  has  to  draw  on  an  accumulated  store 
of  solid  food  which  has  rapidly  to  be  converted  into  the  soluble 
form  in  which  alone  it  is  capable  of  passing  through  the 
tissues  to  the  seat  of  consumption.  And  I  do  not  doubt  for  my 
part  that  in  such  cases  ferments  are  brought  into  play  of  the 
same  kind  and  in  the  same  way  as  in  the  animal  economy. 
Take  such  a  simple  case  as  a  potato-tuber.  This  is  a  mass  of 
cellular  tissue,  the  cells  of  which  are  loaded  with  starch.  We 
may  either  dig  up  the  tuber  and  eat  the  starch  ourselves,  or  we 
may  leave  it  in  the  ground,  in  which  case  it  will  be  consumed 
in  providing  material  for  the  growth  of  a  potato-plant  next  year. 
But  the  processes  by  which  the  insoluble  starch  is  made  avail- 
able for  nutrition  are,  I  cannot  doubt,  closely  similar  in  either 
case. 

When  we  inquire  further  about  these  mysterious  and  all- 
important  bodies,  the  answer  we  can  give  is  extremely  inade- 
quate. It  is  very  difficult  to  obtain  them  in  amount  sufficient 
for  analysis,  or  in  a  state  of  purity.  We  know,  however,  that  they 
are  closely  allied  to  albuminoids,  and  contain  nitrogen  in  vary- 
ing proportion.  Papain,  which  is  a  vegetable  ferment  derived 
from  the  fruit  of  the  papaw,  and  capable  of  digesting  most 
animal  albuminoids,  is  said  to  have  the  same  ultimate  composi- 
tion as  the  pancreatic  ferment  and  as  peptones,  bodies  closely 
allied  to  proteids ;  the  properties  of  all  three  bodies  are,  how- 
ever, very  different.  It  seems  clear,  nevertheless,  that  ferments 
must  be  closely  allied  to  proteids,  and,  like  these  bodies,  they 
are,  no  doubt,  directly  derived  from  protoplasm. 

I  need  not  remind  you  that,  unlike  other  constituents  of  plant 
tissues,  protoplasm,  as  a  condition  of  its  vitality,  is  in  a  constant 
state  of  molecular  activity.  The  maintenance  of  this  activity 
involves  the  supply  of  energy,  and  this  is  partly  derived  from 
the  waste  of  its  own  substance.  This  "self-decomposition  "  of 
the  protoplasm  liberates  energy,  and  in  doing  so  gives  rise  to  a 
number  of  more  stable  bodies  than  protoplasm.  Some  of  these 
are  used  up  again  in  nutrition  ;  others  are  thrown  aside,  and  are 
never  drawn  again  into  the  inner  circle  of  vital  processes.  In 
the  animal  organism,  where  the  strictest  economy  of  bulk  is  a 
paramount  necessity,  they  are  promptly  got  rid  of  by  the  pro- 
cess of  excretion.  In  the  vegetable  economy  these  residual  pro- 
ducts usually  remain.  And  it  is  for  this  reason,  I  may  point 
out,  that  the  study  of  the  chemistry  of  plant  nutrition  appears 
to  me  of  such  immense  importance.  The  record  of  chemical 
change  is  so  much  more  carefully  preserved ;  and  the  prob- 
ability of  our  being  able  to  trace  the  course  it  has  followed  is 
consequently  far  more  likely  to  be  attended  with  success. 

This  preservation  in  the  plant  of  the  residual  by-products  of 
protoplasmic  activity  no  doubt  accounts  for  the  circumstance 
which  otherwise  is  extremely  perplexing — the  profusion  of  sub- 
stances which  we  meet  with  in  the  vegetable  kingdom  to  which 
it  is  hard  to  attribute  any  useful  purpose.  It  seems  probable 
that  ferments,  in  a  great  many  cases,  belong  to  the  same  cate- 
gory. I  imagine  that  it  is  in  some  degree  accidental  that  some 
of  them  have  been  made  use  of,  and  thus  the  plant  has  been 
able  to  temporarily  lock  up  accumulations  of  food  to  be  drawn 
upon  in  future  phases  of  its  life  with  the  certainty  that  they 
would  be  available.  Without  the  ferments  the  key  of  the 
storehouse  would  be  lost  irretrievably. 

Plants,  moreover,  are  now  known  to  possess  ferments,  and 
the  number  will  doubtless  increase,  to  which  it  is  difficult  t< 
attribute  any  useful  function.  Papain,  to  which  I  have  already 
alluded,  abounds  in  the  papaw,  but  it  is  not  easy  to  assign  to 
it  any  definite  function  ;  still  less  is  it  easy,  on  teleological 
grounds,  to  account  for  the  rennet  ferment  contained  in  tl 
fruits  of  an  Indian  plant,  Withania  coagu'ans,  and  admirably 
investigated  by  Mr.  Sheridan  Lea. 

Having  dwelt  so  far  on  the  action  of  ferments,  we  may  now 
turn  to  fermentation,  and  that  other  kind  of  change  in  organic 
matter  called  "putrefaction,"  which  is  known  to  be  closely 
allied  to  fermen'ation.     Ferments  and  fermentation,  as  I  have 


Sept.  13,  1 888  J 


NATURE 


479 


already  remarked,  have  very  little  to  do  with  one  another ;  and 
it  would  save  confusion  and  emphasize  the  fact  if  we  ceased  to 
speak  of  ferments  but  used  some  of  the  alternative  names  which 
have  teen  proposed  for  them,  such  as  zymases  or  enzymes. 

The  classical  case  of  fermentation,  which  is  the  root  of  our 
whole  knowledge  of  the  subject,  is  that  of  the  conversion  of 
sugar  into  alcohol.  Its  discovery  has  everywhere  accompanied 
the  first  stages  of  civilization  in  the  human  race.  Its  details  are 
now  taught  in  our  text-books  ;  and  I  should  hardly  hope  to  be 
excused  for  referring  to  it  in  any  detail  if  it  were  not  necessary 
for  my  purpose  to  draw  your  attention  more  particularly  to  one 
or  two  points  connected  with  it. 

Let  us  trace  what  happens  in  a  fermenting  liquid.  It  becomes 
turbid,  it  froths  and  effervesces,  the  temperature  sensibly  in- 
creases ;  this  is  the  first  stage.  After  this  it  begins  to  clear,  the 
turbidity  subsides  as  a  sediment  ;  the  sugar  which  the  fluid  at  first 
contained  has  in  great  part  disappeared,  and  a  new  ingredient, 
alcohol,  is  found  in  its  place. 

It  is  just  fifty  years  ago  that  the  great  Dutch  biologist  Schwann 
made  a  series  of  investigations  which  incontrovertibly  demon- 
strated that  both  fermentation  and  putrefaction  were  due  to  the 
presence  of  minute  organisms  which  live  and  propagate  at  the 
expense  of  the  liquids  in  which  they  produce  as  a  result  these 
extraordinary  changes.  The  labours  of  Pasteur  have  confirmed 
Schwann's  results,  and — what  could  not  have  been  foreseen — 
have  extended  the  possibilities  of  this  field  of  investigation  to 
those  disturbances  in  the  vital  phenomena  of  living  organisms 
themselves  which  we  include  under  the  name  of  "disease,"  and 
which,  no  one  will  dispute,  are  matters  of  the  deepest  concern 
to  every  one  of  us. 

Now,  at  first  sight,  the  conversion  of  starch  into  sugar  by 
means  of  diastase  seems  strikingly  analogous  to  the  conversion 
of  sugar  into  alcohol.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  phenomena 
have  been  so  long  associated  But  it  is  easy  to  show  that  they 
are  strikingly  different.  Diastase  is  a  chemical  substance  of 
obscure  composition  it  is  true,  but  inert  and  destitute  of  any  vital 
properties,  nor  is  it  affected  by  the  changes  it  induces.  Yeast, 
on  the  other  hand,  which  is  the  active  agent  in  alcoholic 
fermentation,  is  a  definite  organism  ;  it  enormously  increases 
during  the  process,  and  it  appears  to  me  impossible  to  resist  the 
conclusion  that  fermentation  is  a  necessary  concomitant  of  the 
peculiar  conditions  of  its  life.  Let  me  give  you  a  few  facts 
which  go  to  prove  this.  In  the  first  place,  you  cannot  ferment 
a  perfectly  pure  solution  of  sugar.  The  fermentable  fluid  must 
contain  saline  and  nitrogenous  matters  necessary  for  the  nutri- 
tion of  the  yeast  protoplasm.  In  pure  sugar  the  yeast  starves. 
Next,  Schwann  found  that  known  protoplasmic  poisons  by 
killing  the  yeast-cells,  would  prohibit  fermentation,  lie  found 
the  same  result  to  hold  good  of  putrefaction,  and  this  is  the 
basis  of  the  w  hole  theory  of  antiseptics.  Nor  can  the  action  of 
yeast  be  attributed  to  any  ferment  which  the  yeast  secretes.  It 
is  true  that  pure  cane-sugar  cannot  be  fermented,  and  that  yeast 
effects  the  inversion  of  this,  as  it  is  called,  into  glucose  and 
laevulose.  It  does  this  by  a  ferment  which  can  be  extracted  from 
it,  and  which  is  often  present  in  plants.  But  you  can  extract 
nothing  from  yeast  which  will  do  its  peculiar  work  apart  from 
itself.  Ilelmholtz  made  the  crucial  experiment  of  suspending  a 
bladder  full  of  boiled  grape-juice  in  a  vat  of  fermenting  must  ; 
it  underwent  no  change  ;  and  even  a  film  of  blotting-paper  has 
been  found  a  sufficient  obstacle  to  its  action.  We  are  driven, 
then,  necessarily  to  the  conclusion  that  in  the  action  of  "fer- 
ments" or  zymases  we  have  to  do  with  a  chemical — i.e.  a  purely 
physical  process  ;  while  in  the  case  of  yeast  we  encounter  a  purely 
physiological  one. 

How,  then,  is  this  action  to  be  explained  ?,  Pasteur  has  laid 
stress  on  a  fact  which  had  some  time  been  known,  that  the  pro- 
duction of  alcohol  from  sugar  is  a  result  of  which  yeast  has  not 
the  monopoly.  If  ripening  fruits,  such  as  plums,  are  kept  in  an 
atmosphere  free  from  oxygen,  Berard  found  that  they,  too, 
exhibit  this  remarkable  transformation  ;  their  sugar  is  converted 
appreciably  into  alcohol.  On  the  other  hand,  Pasteur  has  shown 
that,  if  yeast  is  abundantly  supplied  with  oxygen,  it  feeds  on  the 
sugar  of  a  fermentable  fluid  without  producing  alcohol.  But, 
under  the  ordinary  circumstances  of  fermentation,  its  access  to 
oxygen  is  practically  cut  off;  the  yeast,  then,  is  in  exactly  the 
same  predicament  as  the  fruit  in  Berard's  experiment.  Sugar  is 
broken  up  into  carbon  dioxide  and  alcohol  in  an  amount  far  in 
excess  of  the  needs  of  mere  nutrition.  In  this  dissociation  it 
can  be  shown  that  an  amount  of  energy  is  set  free  in  the  form  of 
heat  equal  to  about  one-tenth  of  what  would  be  produced  by  the 


total  combustion  of  an  equivalent  amount  of  grape-sugar.  If 
the  protoplasm  of  the  yeast  could,  with  the  aid  of  atmospheric 
oxygen,  completely  decompose  a  unit  of  grape-sugar,  it  would 
get  ten  times  as  much  energy  in  the  shape  of  heat  as  it  could 
get  by  breaking  it  up  into  alcohol  and  carbon  dioxide.  It 
follows,  then,  that  to  do  the  same  amount  of  growth  in  either 
case,  it  must  break  up  ten  times  as  much  sugar  without  a  supply  of 
oxygen  as  with  it.  And  this  throws  light  on  what  has  always 
been  one  of  the  most  remarkable  facts  about  fermentation— the 
enormous  amount  of  change  which  the  yeast  manages  to  effect  in 
proportion  to  its  own  development. 

There  are  still  two  points  about  yeast  which  deserve  attention 
before  we  dismiss  it.  When  a  fermenting  liquid  comes  to  contain 
about  14  per  cent,  of  alcohol,  the  activity  of  the  yeast  ceases, 
quite  independently  of  whether  the  sugar  is  used  up  or  not.  In 
other  cases  of  fermentation  the  same  inhibiting  effect  of  the 
products  of  fermentation  is  met  with.  Thus,  lactic  fermentation 
soon  come-;  to  an  end  unless  calcium  carbonate  or  some  similar 
substance  be  added,  which  removes  the  lactic  acid  from  the 
solution  as  fast  as  it  is  formed. 

The  other  point  is  that  in  all  fermentations,  besides  what  may- 
be termed  the  primary  products  of  the  process,  other  bodies  are 
produced.  In  the  case  of  alcoholic  fermentation  the  primary 
bodies  are  alcohol  and  carbon  dioxide  ;  the  secondary,  succinic 
acid  and  glycerine.  Delpino  has  suggested  that  these  last 
are  residual  products  derived  from  that  portion  of  the  fer- 
mentable matter  which  is  directly  applied  to  the  nutrition  of  the 
protoplasm. 

Yeast,  itself  the  organism  which  effects  the  remarkable 
changes  on  which  I  have  dwelt,  is  somewhat  of  a  problem.  It 
is  clear  that  it  i-;  a  fungus,  the  germs  of  which  must  be  ubiqui- 
tous in  the  atmosphere.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  the  simple 
facts,  which  are  all  we  know  about  it,  constitute  its  entire 
life-history.  It  is  probably  a  transitory  stage  of  some  more 
complicated  organism. 

1  can  only  briefly  refer  to  putrefaction.  This  is  a  far  more 
complex  process  than  that  wdiich  I  have  traced  in  the  case  of 
alcoholic  fermentation.  In  that,  nitrogen  is  absent,  while  it  is  an 
essential  ingredient  in  albuminoids,  which  are  the  substances 
which  undergo  putrefactive  changes.  But  the  general  principles 
are  the  same.  Here,  too,  we  owe  to  Schwann  the  demonstration 
of  the  fact  that  the  effective  agents  in  the  process  are  living 
organisms.  If  we  put  into  a  flask  a  putrescible  liquid  such  as 
broth,  boil  it  for  some  time,  and  during  the  process  of  boiling 
plug  the  mouth  with  some  cotton-wool,  we  know  that  the  broth 
will  remain  long  unchanged,  while  if  we  remove  the  wool 
putrescence  soon  begins.  Tyndall  has  shown  that,  if  we 
conduct  the  experiment  on  one  of  the  high  glaciers  of  the  Alps, 
the  cotton-wool  may  be  di-pensed  with.  We  may  infer,  then, 
that  the  germs  of  the  organisms  which  produce  putrefaction  are 
abundant  in  the  lower  levels  of  the  atmosphere  and  are  absent 
from  the  higher.  They  are  wafted  about  by  currents  of  air  ; 
but  they  are  not  imponderable,  and  in  still  air  they  gradually 
subside.  Dr.  Lodge  has  shown  that  air  is  rapidly  cleared  of 
suspended  dust  by  an  electric  discharge,  and  this,  no  doubt, 
affords  a  simple  explanation  of  the  popular  belief  that  thunderous 
weather  is  favourable  to  putrefactive  changes. 

Cohn  believes  that  putrefaction  is  due  to  due  to  an  organism 
called  Bacterium  termo,  which  plays  in  it  the  same  part  that 
yeast  does  in  fermentation.  This  is  probably  too  simple  a 
statement  ;  but  the  general  phenomena  are  nevertheless  similar. 
There  is  the  same  breaking  down  of  complex  into  simpler 
molecules  ;  the  same  evolution  of  gas,  especially  carbon  dioxide  ; 
the  same  rise  of  temperature.  The  more  or  less  stable  products 
of  the  process  are  infinitely  more  varied,  and  it  is  difficult,  if  not 
impossible,  to  say,  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge, 
whether  in  most  cases  they  are  the  direct  outcome  of  the  putre- 
factive process,  or  residual  products  of  the  protoplasmic  activity 
of  the  organisms  which  induce  it.  Perhaps,  on  the  analogy  of 
the  higher  plants,  in  which  some  of  them  also  occur,  we  may 
attribute  to  the  latter  category  certain  bodies  closely  resembling 
vegetable  alkaloids  ;  these  are  called  ptomaines,  and  are  extremely 
poisonous.  Besides  such  bodies,  Bacteria  undoubtedly  generate 
true  ferments  and  peculiar  colouring-matters.  But  there  are  in 
most  cases  of  putrefaction  a  profusion  of  other  substances, 
which  represent  the  various  stages  of  the  breaking  up  of  the 
complex  proteid  molecule,  and  are  often  themselves  the  outcome 
of  subsidiary  fermentations. 

These  results  are  of  great  interest  from  a  scientific  point  of 
view.     But  their  importance  at  the  present  moment  in  the  study 


480 


NATURE 


{Sept.  13,  1888 


of  certain  kinds  of  disease  can  hardly  be  exaggerated.  I  have 
already  mentioned  Henle  as  having  first  found  the  true  clue  to 
animal  histology  in  the  structure  of  plants.  As  early  as  1840 
the  same  observer  indicated  the  grounds  for  regarding  con- 
tagious diseases  as  due  to  living  organisms.  I  will  state  his 
argument  in  the  words  ofDe  Bary,  whose  "Lectures  on  Bacteria," 
the  last  work  which  we  owe  to  his  gifted  hand,  I  can  confidently 
recommend  to  you  as  a  luminous  but  critical  discussion  of  a  vast 
mass  of  difficult  and  conflicting  literature. 

It  was,  of  course,  clear  that  contagion  must  be  due  to  the  com- 
munication of  infectious  particles  or  contagia.  These  contagia, 
although  at  the  time  no  one  had  seen  them,  Henle  pointed  out, 
""  have  the  power,  possessed,  as  far  as  we  know,  by  living 
creatures  only,  of  growing  under  favourable  conditions,  and  of 
multiplying  at  the  expense  of  some  other  substance  than  their 
own,  and  therefore  of  assimilating  that  substance."  Henle  en- 
forced his  view  by  comparison  with  the  theory  of  fermentation, 
which  had  then  been  promulgated  by  Schwann.  But  for  many 
years  his  views  found  no  favour.  Botanists,  however,  as  in  so 
many  other  cases,  struck  on  the  right  path,  and  from  about  the 
year  1850  steady  progress,  in  which  De  Bary  himself  took  a 
leading  part,  was  made  in  showing  that  most  of  the  diseases  of 
plants  are  due  to  parasitic  infection.  The  reason  of  this  success 
■was  obvious  :  the  structure  of  plants  makes  them  more  accessible 
to  research,  and  the  invading  parasites  are  larger  than  animal 
•contagia.  On  the  animal  side  all  real  progress  dates  from  about 
i860,  when  Pasteur,  having  established  Schwann's  theory  of 
fermentation  on  an  impregnable  basis,  took  up  Henle's  theory 
of  living  contagia. 

The  only  risk  now  is  that  we  may  get  on  too  fast.  To  put 
the  true  theory  of  any  one  contagious  disease  on  as  firm,  a  basis 
as  that  of  alcoholic  fermentation  is  no  easy  matter  to  accomplish. 
But  I  believe  that  this  is,  notwithstanding  a  flood  of  facile 
speculation  and  imperfect  research,  slowly  being  done. 

There  are  two  tracts  in  the  body  which  are  obviously  accessible 
to  such  minute  organisms  as  Bacteria,  and  favourable  for  their 
•development.  These  are  the  alimentary  canal  and  the  blood. 
In  the  case  of  the  former  there  is  evidence  that  every  one  of  us 
possesses  quite  a  little  flora  of  varied  forms  and  species.  They 
seem  for  the  most  part,  in  health,  to  be  comparatively  innocuous  ; 
•indeed,  it  is  believed  that  they  are  ancillary  to  and  aid  digestion. 
But  it  is  easy  to  see  that  other  kinds  may  be  introduced,  or  those 
already  present  may  be  called  into  abnormal  activity,  and 
fermentative  processes  may  be  set  up  of  a  very  inconvenient 
kind.  These  may  result  in  mere  digestive  disorder,  or  in  the  pro- 
duction of  some  of  those  poisonous  derivatives  of  proteids  of 
which  I  have  spoken,  the  effect  of  which  upon  the  organism 
may  be  most  disastrous. 

The  access  of  Bacteria  to  the  blood  is  a  far  more  serious 
•matter.  They  produce  phenomena  the  obvious  analogy  of  which 
to  fermentative  processes  has  led  to  the  resulting  diseases  being 
called  zymotic.  Take,  for  example,  the  disease  known  as 
■"  relapsing  fever."  This  is  contagious.  After  a  period  of 
incubation,  violent  fever  sets  in,  which  lasts  for  something  less 
than  a  week,  is  then  followed  by  a  period  of  absence,  to  be  again 
followed  in  succession  by  one  or  more  similar  attacks,  which 
-ultimately  cease.  Now  you  will  observe  that  the  analogy  to  a 
fermentative  process  is  very  close.  The  period  of  incubation  is 
the  necessary  interval  between  the  introduction  of  the  germ  and 
its  vegetative  multiplication  in  sufficient  numbers  to  appreciably 
affect  the  total  volume  of  the  blood.  The  rise  in  temperature 
and  the  limited  duration  of  the  attack  are  equally,  as  we  have 
seen,  characteristic  of  fermentative  processes,  while  the  bodily 
exhaustion  which  always  follows  fever  is  the  obvious  result  of  the 
dissipation  by  the  ferment  organisms  of  nutritive  matter  destined 
for  the  repair  of  tissue  waste.  During  the  presence  of  this  fever 
there  is  present  in  the  blood  an  organism,  Spirochete  obermeieri, 
so  named  after  its  discoverer.  This  disappears  when  the  fever 
subsides.  It  is  found  that  if  other  individuals  are  inoculated 
with  blood  taken  from  patients  during  the  fever  attack,  the 
disease  is  communicated,  but  that  this  is  not  the  case  if  the 
inoculation  is  made  during  the  period  of  freedom.  The  evidence, 
then,  seems  clear  that  this  disease  is  due  to  a  definite  organism. 
The  interesting  point,  however,  arises,  why  does  the  fever  recur, 
and  why  eventually  cease  ?  The  analogy  of  fermentation  leads 
to  the  hypothesis  that,  as  in  the  case  of  yeast,  tne  products  of  its 
action  inhibit  after  a  time  the  further  activity  of  the  Spirochete. 
The  inhibiting  substance  is,  no  doubt,  eventually  removed  par- 
tially from  the  blood  by  its  normal  processes  of  depuration, 
and  the  surviving  indiv  duals  of  Spirochete  can  then  continue 


their  activity,  as  in  lactic  fermentation.  With  regard  to  the  final 
cessation  of  the  disease,  there  are  facts  which  may  lead  one  to 
suppose  that  in  this  as  in  other  cases  sufficient  of  the  inhibiting 
substance  ultimately  remains  in  the  organism  to  protect  it 
against  any  further  outbreak  of  activity  on  the  part  of  the 
Spirochete. 

Here  we  have  an  example  of  a  disease  which,  though  having 
a  well-marked  zymotic  character,  is  comparatively  harmless.  In 
anthrax,  which  is  known  to  be  due  to  Bacillus  anthracis,  we  have 
one  which  is,  on  the  contrary,  extremely  fatal.  I  need  not  enter 
into  the  details.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  there  is  reason  to 
believe  that  the  Bacillus  produces,  as  one  of  those  by-products  of 
protoplasmic  destruction  to  which  I  have  already  alluded,  a 
most  virulent  poison.  But  the  remarkable  thing  is  that  this 
Bacillus,  which  can  be  cultivated  externally  to  the  body,  if  kept 
at  a  heightened  temperature,  can  be  attenuated  in  its  virulence. 
It  drops,  in  fact,  the  excretion  of  the  poison.  It  is  then  found 
that,  if  injected  into  the  blood,  it  does  no  mischief,  and,  what  is 
more  extraordinary,  if  the  Bacillus  in  its  most  lethal  form  is 
subsequently  introduced,  it  too  has  lost  its  power.  The  explana- 
tion of  the  immunity  in  this  case  is  entirely  different  from  that 
which  was  suggested  by  a  consideration  of  the  facts  of  relapsing 
fever.  The  researches  of  Metschnikoff  have  led  to  the  hypothesis 
that  in  the  present  case  the  white  blood-corpuscles  destroy  the 
Bacillus.  When  they  first  come  into  contact  with  these  in  their 
virulent  form,  they  are  unable  to  tbuch  them.  But  if  they  have 
been  educated  by  first  having  presented  to  them  the  attenuated 
form,  they  find  no  difficulty  in  grappling  with  the  malignant. 
This  is  a  very  remarkable  view.  I  should  not  have  put  it  before 
you  had  there  not  been  solid  reasons  for  regarding  the  idea 
of  the  education  of  protoplasm  with  scientific  respect.  The 
Plasmodia  of  the  Myxomycetes,  which  consist  of  naked  proto- 
plasm, are  known  to  become  habituated  to  food  which  they  at 
first  reject,  and  the  researches  of  Beyerinck  on  the  disease  known 
as  "gumming"  in  plants  have  apparently  shown  that  healthy 
cells  may  be  taught,  as  it  were,  to  produce  a  ferment  which 
otherwise  they  would  not  excrete. 

If  Metschnikoff's  theory  be  true,  we  have  a  rational  explana- 
tion of  vaccination  and  of  preventive  inoculation  generally.  It 
is  probably,  however,  not  the  only  explanation.  And  the  theory 
of  the  inhibitive  action  upon  itself  of  the  products  of  the  ferment- 
organism's  own  activity  is  still  being  made  the  basis  of  experi- 
ment. In  fact,  the  most  recent  results  point  to  the  possibility 
of  obtaining  protection  by  injecting  into  the  blood  substances 
artificially  obtained  entirely  independent  of  the  organisms  whose 
development  they  inhibit. 

It  is  impossible  for  me  to  touch  on  these  important  matters  at 
any  greater  length,  but  I  doubt  if  the  theory  of  fermentation,  as 
applied  to  the  diseases  of  organisms,  has  as  yet  more  than 
opened  its  first  page.  It  seems  to  me  possible  that,  besides  the 
rational  explanation  of  zymotic  diseases,  it  may  throw  light  on 
others  where,  owing  to  abnormal  conditions,  the  organism, 
as  in  the  case  of  Berard's  plums,  is  itself  the  agent  in  its  own 
fermentative  processes. 

And  now  I  must  conclude.  I  have  led  you,  I  am  afraid,  a 
too  lengthy  and  varied  a  journey  in  the  field  of  botanical  study. 
But  to  sum  up  my  argument.  I  believe  I  have  shown  you  that 
at  the  bottom  of  every  great  branch  of  biological  inquiry  it  has 
never  been  possible  to  neglect  the  study  of  plants  ;  nay,  more, 
that  the  study  of  plant-life  has  generally  given  the  key  to  the  true 
course  of  investigation.  Whether  you  take  the  problems  of 
geographical  distribution,  the  most  obscure  points  in  the  theory 
of  organic  evolution,  or  the  innermost  secrets  of  vital  phenomena, 
whether  in  health  or  disease,  not  to  consider  plants  is  still,  in  the 
words  of  Mr.  Darwin,  "  a  gigantic  oversight,  for  these  would 
simplify  the  problem." 

SECTION  E. 

GEOGRAPHY. 

Opening  Address  by  Colonel  Sir  C.  W.  Wilson,  R-E. 
K.C.B.,  K.C.M.G.,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  F.R.G.S., 
Director-General  of  the  Ordnance  Survey,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Section. 

On  opening  the  present  session  of  the  Geographical  Section 
of  the  British  Association  I  cannot  refrain  from  alluding  to  the 
last  occasion,  now  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  upon  which 
it  met  in  this  city.  The  chair  was  then  filled  by  one  to  whom  I, 
in  common  with  others  of  the  younger  generation  of  that  day, 


Sept.  13,  1888] 


NATURE 


481 


must  ever  owe  a  deep  debt  of  gratitude  for  many  kindly  words  of 
advice  and  encouragement.  Then,  as  now,  popular  interest 
centred  in  Africa,  and  Sir  Roderick  Murchison,  on  taking  the 
chair,  was  accompanied  by  a  group  of  distinguished  African 
explorers.  Some  amongst  us  may  remember  the  enthusiastic 
greeting  accorded  to  Livingstone,  and  the  heart-felt  sorrow 
caused  by  the  announcement  that  the  gallant,  chi%ralrous  officer, 
whose  name  will  ever  live  in  history  as  the  discoverer  of  the 
sources  of  the  Nile,  had  been  cut  off  in  the  fullness  of  his  strength 
and  vigour. 

The  African  travellers  who  have  honoured  us  with  their 
presence  to-day,  have  shown  the  same  pluck,  the  same  persever- 
ance, the  same  disregard  of  personal  risk  and  comfort  as  their 
predecessors.  One  African  traveller,  a  distinguished  officer  of 
the  German  army,  who  hoped  to  have  been  with  us,  has  this 
year  been  awarded  the  highest  honour  which  the  Royal  Geo- 
graphical Society  can  confer — its  gold  medal.  Lieut.  Wissman, 
who  possesses  all  Livingstone's  indomitable  courage,  his  con- 
stancy of  purpose,  and  his  kindly  feeling  towards  the  natives, 
has  twice  crossed  Africa,  in  its  widest  extent,  without  firing  a 
shot  in  anger.  He  returned  recently  to  Europe,  filled,  like  the 
great  English  traveller,  with  indignation  at  the  atrocities  per- 
petrated by  the  Arabs  on  the  blacks  ;  and  eager  to  find  means, 
if  such  there  be,  of  putting  an  end  to,  or  at  least  mitigating,  the 
unspeakable  horrors  of  the  slave  trade.  He  is  now  organizing 
an  expedition  which  has  the  double  object  of  opening  up  the 
territory  in  Eastern  Africa  that  falls  within  the  sphere  of  Ger- 
man influence,  and  of  bearing  relief  to  Emin  Pasha.  In  both 
enterprises  we  may  heartily  wish  him  "  God  speed  !  " 

The  light  thrown  upon  the  interior  of  the  Dark  Continent  is 
the  most  striking  feature  of  geographical  exploration  during  the 
last  twenty-five  years  ;  and  it  is  really  the  work  of  the  last  eleven 
years,  for  it  was  only  in  1877  that  Mr.  Stanley,  by  his  remarkable 
journey,  gave  a  new  continent  to  the  world.  If  Sir  Roderick 
Murchison  were  now  alive  he  would  feel  more  than  gratified  at 
results  which  have  been  so  largely  clue  to  his  initiative.  I  pro- 
pose, presently,  to  return  to  the  interesting  subject  of  Africa ; 
but  I  would  first  draw  attention  to  the  influence  which  the 
natural  features  of  the  earth's  surface  have  had,  and  are  still 
having,  in  conjunction  with  other  causes,  on  the  trade  routes 
and  commercial  relations  between  the  West  and  the  East,  and 
more  especially  with  India. 

The  great  civilizations  of  high  antiquity  appear  to  have  risen 
and  expanded  in  four  riverain  districts  :  Chinese  in  the  basins  of 
the  Hoang-ho  and  the  Yang-tse-kiang  ;  Hindu  in  those  of  the 
Indus  and  the  Ganges  ;  Chaldsean  and  Assyro-Babylonian  in 
those  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  ;  and  Egyptian  in  that  of  the 
Nile.  India  is  separated  from  China,  on  the  one  hand,  by 
rugged,  lofty  mountain  ranges,  and  the  high- lying  plateau  of 
Tibet  ;  and  from  Mesopotamia,  on  the  other,  by  the  Sulei- 
man Mountains  and  the  Perso-Afghan  plateau.  Intercom- 
munication between  these  early  seats  of  man's  activity  must, 
therefore,  have  been  of  slow  growth.  From  Mesopotamia,  on 
the  contrary,  there  is  easy  access  to  the  Nile  basin  by  way  of 
Syria  and  Palestine,  and  there  are  indications  of  traffic  between 
these  districts  at  a  very  remote  period.  Inquiry  into  the  causes 
which  first  led  to  intercommunication  and  into  the  means  by 
which  it  was  effected  is  needlesss.  Desire  of  gain,  lust  of  power, 
were  as  much  a  part  of  human  nature  in  the  earliest  ages  as  they 
are  now-  The  former  induced  the  pioneers  of  commerce  to  feel 
their  way  across  trackless  deserts,  and  to  brave  the  hidden 
dangers  of  the  sea ;  and  for  nearly  three  hundred  years  it  led 
gallant  men  to  seek  a  way  to  the  wealth  of  India  through  the 
ice-laden  seas  of  the  Arctic  region.  The  latter  brought  the 
great  empires  of  Assyria  and  Egypt  into  hostile  conflict,  and 
carried  Alexander  to  the  banks  of  the  Oxus  and  the  Indus  ;  and 
it  is  largely  answerable  for  the  land-hunger  of  European  States 
in  our  own  generation. 

Nations  rise,  fall,  and  disappear,  but  commerce  extends  in 
ever-widening  circles,  and  knows  no  limits.  Efforts  are  con- 
stantly being  made  to  discover  and  open  up  new  fields  of  com- 
mercial activity  and  to  connect  the  great  centres  of  commerce  by 
quicker  and  shorter  trade  routes.  The  earliest  traffic  was  con- 
ducted by  land  :  men  travelled  together  in  caravans  for  mutual 
protection,  and  rested  where  food  and  water  were  to  be  obtained  ; 
at  the  most  important  of  these  halting-places  cities  were  founded. 
As  trade  extended,  it  became  necessary  to  carry  goods  through 
independent  tribes  or  countries  which  often  insisted  on  retaining 
the  transit  trade  in  their  own  hands,  and  this  led  to  the  rise  of 
cities  at  points  convenient  for  the  transfer  of   loads  and  the 


exchange  of  commodities  of  one  country  for  those  of  another. 
Generally  speaking  this  early  overland  trade  was  coextensive 
with  the  geographical  limit  of  the  camel.  Next  in  order  to  land 
traffic  came  that  by  water,  first  on  rivers,  then  on  the  sea  ;  and 
cities  naturally  sprang  up  at  places  on  the  coast  where  the  mer- 
chandise brought  down  the  rivers  in  boats  could,  conveniently 
and  safely,  be  transferred  to  galleys  or  ships  suitable  for  coasting. 
After  a  knowledge  of  the  monsoons  had  been  acquired,  men 
began  to  trust  themselves  to  the  open  sea  ;  the  ships  were  im- 
proved, and  a  system  was  established  under  which  voyages  were 
made,  with  great  regularity,  at  cer'ain  seasons  of  the  year,  so 
that  advantage  might  be  taken  of  the  periodic  winds.  Increased 
knowledge  of  the  globe,  improvements  in  the  art  of  shipbuilding, 
and  the  invention  of  the  steam-engine,  have  gradually  led  to  the 
ocean  traffic  of  the  present  day,  conducted  by  large  steamers 
which,  regardless  of  wind  and  tide,  follow  the  most  direct  course 
from  one  point  to  another.  The  trade  routes  of  the  world  are 
subject  to  two  great  modifying  influences,  one  physical,  the 
other  political.  The  inland  trade  of  India,  for  instance,  can 
only  reach  Central  Asia  and  the  West  by  way  of  Herat  or 
Bamian  ;  caravan  roads  across  the  deserts  of  Asia  and  Africa 
must  follow  lines  of  springs  or  wells  ;  climatic  conditions  render 
all  Polar  routes  impracticable  ;  and  the  removal  of  a  physical 
obstacle,  by  the  construction  of  the  Suez  Canal,  is  now  causing 
a  remarkable  redistribution  of  the  channels  of  commerce.  So, 
too,  disturbance  of  traffic  by  war,  or  its  designed  destruction  by 
conquerors ;  and  great  political  changes,  such  as  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Persian  Emuire,  the  rise  of  Rome,  the  disruption  of 
the  Roman  Empire,  and  the  advent  of  the  Arabs  to  power  in 
Wsstern  Asia,  divert  trade  from  its  accustomed  routes  and  force 
it  into  new  channels,  to  the  ruin  of  some  cities  and  States  and 
the  enrichment  of  others.  The  general  tendency  of  trade  so 
diverted  is  to  seek,  where  possible,  a  maritime  route,  for  water 
transport  is  not  only  less  costly  but  less  liable  to  interruption 
than  land  transport. 

India,  partly  from  its  geographical  position,  partly  from  the 
character  of  its  people,  has  always  played  a  passive  role  in  com- 
merce, and  allowed  the  initiative  in  commercial  enterprise  to 
rest  with  the  West.  The  greatest  advantages  have  always  been 
derived  from  the  possession  of  the  trade  between  the  East  and 
the  West,  and  from  a  remote  period  the  nations  of  the  world 
have  contended  for  this  rich  prize.  One  State  after  another  has 
obtained  and  lost  the  prize  ;  England  now  holds  it,  but  if  she 
is  to  keep  what  she  has  obtained  there  must  be  a  far  closer  study 
than  there  has  hitherto  been  of  geography  and  terrestrial  phe- 
nomena in  their  relation  to  commerce.  Trade  between  the 
East  and  the  West  may  be  divided  into  three  periods  :  the  first, 
during  which  the  limits  of  Oriental  commerce  were  the  eastern 
and  south-eastern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  closed  with  the 
foundation  of  Carthage  about  800  B.C.  ;  the  second,  or  Mediter- 
ranean period,  ended  in  the  fifteenth  century  ;  the  third,  or 
Oceanic  period,  has  lasted  to  the  present  day.  In  the  first 
period  there  were  two  principal  lines  of  traffic  :  the  southern  sea 
route,  following  the  coast  line,  and  the  northern  land  route, 
traversing  Asia  in  its  whole  extent  from  east  to  west.  There 
are  indications  of  communication  between  China  and  the  West 
so  early  as  2698  B.C.  ;  and  in  2353  B.C.  an  embassy  arrived  in 
China  from  a  country  which  is  supposed  to  have  been  Chaldsea. 
There  is  also  an  early  notice  of  caravan  traffic  in  the  company 
of  Ishmaelites,  bearing  spicery,  and  balm,  and  myrrh  to  Egypt, 
to  whom  Joseph  was  sold  (Genesis  xxxvii.  25-28).  The  earliest 
maritime  people  to  appreciate  the  value  of  trade  between  the 
East  and  West  were,  apparently,  those  living  along  the  south 
coast  of  Arabia.  Happily  situated  between  the  Persian  Gulf 
and  the  Red  Seaj  and  separated  by  vast  deserts  from  the  great 
nations  of  Asia,  the  Sabaeans  were  free  from  those  alternations 
of  industry  and  war  which  are  so  unfavourable  to  commercial 
pursuits  ;  for  centuries  they  possessed  the  commerce  of  India, 
and  they  became  famous  for  their  opulence  and  luxury.  Sabaean 
ships  visited  Ceylon  and  the  Malabar  coast,  and  Saba;an  mer- 
chants supplied  Indian  goods  to  Mesopotamia  and  Syria,  as 
well  as  to  Egypt  and  Ethiopia.  The  ships  trading  to  the  Per- 
sian Gulf  discharged  their  cargoes  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Euphrates  ;  whence  the  traffic  passed  partly  by  river,  partly  by 
land,  to  the  coast  towns  of  Syria  and  Palestine,  and  through  the 
Syrian  and  Cilician  gates  to  Mazaca  {Kaisariyeh),  and  Pterium 
{Boghazkeui)  ;  from  the  last  place  Indian  goods  found  their  way 
to  Sardis  and  Sinope.  The  ships  visiting  the  Red  Sea  landed 
goods  at  Elath,  at  the  head  of  the  gulf  of  Akabah,  for  carriage 
by  land  to  Tyre  and  Sidon,  and  on  the  western  shores  of  the 


482 


NATURE 


[Sept. 


3) 


Red  Sea  for  transmission  to  Meroe,  Thebes,  and  Memphis.  At 
the  same  time  silks  from  China,  and  gems  from  India,  were 
carried  overland  to  Chaldrea  and  Assyria;  and  Bactra  (Balkh), 
"the  mother  of  cities,"  rose  and  flourished  at  the  central  point 
of  the  transit  trade.  Egypt,  with  no  timber  for  shipbuilding,  a 
distrust  of  all  foreigners,  especially  when  they  came  by  sea,  and 
a  settled  dislike  of  maritime  pursuits  amongst  her  people,  long 
neglected  the  opportunities  afforded  by  her  favourable  geo- 
graphical position.  Tyre,  Sidon,  and  other  Phoenician  towns, 
reached  by  easy  roads  from  the  Euphrates  and  the  Red  Sea, 
and  from  their  situation  commanding  the  Mediterranean,  be- 
came centres  of  distribution  for  Indian  goods  ;  and  the  Phoeni- 
cians, gradually  extending  their  operations  to  the  Red  Sea, 
traded  with  the  ports  of  Southern  Arabia,  and  even  ventured  to 
the  shores  of  India.  It  was  in  this  first  period  that  the  Jewish 
kingdom  reached  its  widest  extent.  During  the  long  wars  of 
David's  reign  the  Jews  obtained  possession  of  the  land  routes 
over  which  the  rich  products  of  India  were  carried  to  Tyre  and 
Sidon  ;  and  Solomon  did  all  in  his  power,  by  building  Tadmor 
in  the  Wilderness  (Palmyra),  by  improving  the  port  of  Elath, 
and  by  carrying  out  other  great  works,  to  protect  and  facilitate 
the  transit  trade  from  which  such  large  profits  were  derived. 
The  Jews  do  not  appear  to  have  been  the  actual  carriers,  but 
many  of  them  no  doubt,  following  the  example  of  their  merchant- 
king,  engaged  in  commercial  pursuits,  and  wealth  poured  into 
the  kingdom  so  that  silver  was  made  to  be  as  stones  in 
Jerusalem. 

In  the  early  portion  of  the  second  period  the  commercial 
prosperity  of  the  Phoenicians  reached  its  culminating  point. 
Their  colonies  dotted  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  their 
ships  passed  the  "Pillars  of  Hercules"  to  Great  Britain  and 
the  western  shores  of  Africa,  and  floated  on  the  waters  of  the 
Red  Sea,  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  the  Indian  Ocean.  The  sea- 
borne trade  of  the  known  world  was  in  their  hands  ;  wealth 
flowed  into  their  cities,  and  in  the  markets  of  Tyre  tin  from 
Cornwall  and  amber  from  the  Baltic  were  exposed  for  sale  with 
the  silks,  gems,  and  spices  of  the  far-distant  Easf.  The  decline 
of  Phoenicia  dates  from  the  establishment  of  the  Persian  Empire 
in  the  sixth  century  B.C.,  and  after  the  capture  of  Tyre  by 
Alexander  its  commerce  gradually  passed  into  the  hands  of  the 
Greeks.  The  Persian  policy  of  closing  the  Persian  Gulf  to 
commerce  forced  the  Indian  traffic  along  the  land  routes. 
Babylon,  which  had  become  the  emporium  of  Eastern  trade, 
declined,  whilst  Susa  and  Ecbatana  were  enriched  by  the  transit 
trade  which  passed  through  them  and  crossed  the  whole  extent 
of  the  empire  to  the  Mediterranean  ports.  The  policy  of  Alex- 
ander was  to  secure  the  carrying  and  distribution  trade  of  the 
world  to  the  Greeks ;  and  with  this  object  he  founded  Alex- 
andria, and  intended,  had  he  lived,  to  restore  Babylon  to  her 
former  splendour.  Ptolemy,  his  successor  in  Egypt,  used  every 
means  in  his  power  to  draw  trade  to  Alexandria,  and  the  new 
city  soon  rose  to  opulence  and  splendour.  The  Greek  mer- 
chants obtained  their  Indian  goods  from  the  Arab  traders  whom 
they  met  in  the  ports  of  Southern  Arabia  ;  they  landed  them  at 
Myos  Hormos  and  Berenice  on  the  western  shore  of  the  Red 
Sea,  carried  them  by  camel  across  the  desert,  and  floated  them 
clown  the  Nile  and  by  canal  to  Alexandria,  whence  they  were 
distributed  to  the  neighbouring  parts  of  Africa  and  the  coasts  of 
the  Mediterranean.  This  trade  route  remained  unaltered  until 
Egypt  became  a  Roman  province.  Another  stream  of  com- 
merce passed  by  way  of  the  Persian  Gulf  to  Seleucia  on  the 
Tigris,  and  thence,  partly  by  water  and  partly  by  land,  through 
Aleppo  to  Antioch  and  Seleucia  at  the  mouth  of  the  Orontes  ; 
and  a  third  followed  the  ancient  highway  from  Central  Asia  to 
the  ports  of  the  Euxine  and  /Egean  Seas. 

After  the  rise  of  Rome  all  trade  routes  were  directed  upon  the 
Imperial  City,  which  became  a  centre  of  distribution  for  the  mer- 
chandise of  the  East.  The  Greeks  still  monopolized  the  sea- 
borne trade  ;  and  those  of  Egypt,  recognizing  the  advantage  of 
their  geographical  position,  took  the  direct  trade  to  India  into 
their  hands,  and  extended  their  voyages  to  Kattigara,  the  port 
of  the  Sinae,  in  the  Gulf  of  Tongking.  Alexandria  became  the 
commercial  capital  of  the  Roman  Empire,  the  distributing 
centre  of  the  world  for  Indian  and  Asiatic  goods,  and  a  place  of 
such  wealth  that  one  of  the  merchants  is  said  to  have  been  able 
to  maintain  an  army.  At  the  same  time  the  old  ports  of  Tyre, 
Beirut,  Antioch,  Ephesus,  Byzantium,  and  Trebizonde  main- 
tained their  position  as  termini  of  the  land  traffic.  The  extent 
of  the  intercourse  between  the  East  and  the  West  during  the 
Roman  Empire  is  shown  by  the  embassy  of  the  Seres  (Chinese) 


to  Rome  in  the  reign  of  Augustus,  and  by  the  several  embassies 
to  China,  which  followed  that  sent  by  Marcus  Aurelius  in 
166  A.D.,  until  the  Arab  Empire  interposed  ;  as  well  as  by  the 
fact  that  in  the  time  of  Pliny  the  Roman  imports  from  Asia  each 
year  were  valued  at  100,000,000  sesterces  (about  ;£8oo,oco). 
Trade  followed  well-established  routes  which  remained  in  use, 
with  but  slight  modification,  till  the  fifteenth  century.  There 
were  three  principal  lines  of  communication  through  Central 
Asia,  all  leading  from  China  across  the  Desert  of  Gobi.  The 
northern  ran  to  the  north  of  the  Thien-Shan  by  Lake  Balkash 
to  the  Jaxartes  (Syr  Darya] ;  the  central  passed  along  the 
southern  slopes  of  the  Thien-Shan  and  crossed  the  mountains 
by  the  Terek  Pass  to  Samarcand  and  the  Oxus  (Amu  Darya)  ; 
and  the  southern  passed  over  the  Pamir  and  through  Badakhshan 
to  Balkh.  The  northern  route  apparently  vent  on  from  the 
Jaxartes,  through  Khiva,  to  the  Caspian,  which  it  crossed,  and 
then  ran  on  to  the  Black  Sea.  Even  at  this  early  period  trade 
filtered  round  the  northern  shores  of  the  Caspian,  and  later, 
during  the  Middle  Ages,  there  was  a  well-established  trade 
route  in  this  direction  through  Khiva  to  Novgorod  and  the 
Baltic,  by  which  the  northern  countries  received  Indian  goods. 
From  the  Oxus  region  reached  by  the  central  and  southern  lines 
there  were  two  routes  to  the  West.  One  passed  through  Merv, 
crossed  the  Caspian,  ascended  the  Araxes  to  reach  Artaxates 
and  Trebizonde,  or  to  descend  the  Phasis  (Rion)  to  Poti,  and 
then  coasted  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea  to  Byzantium.  The 
other  also  passed  through  Merv,  and,  running  along  the  northern 
frontier  of  Per.da,  reached  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea  through 
Artaxates,  or  continued  on  through  Mesopotamia,  Syria,  and 
Asia  Minor  to  Byzantium.  •  The  land  trade  from  India  passed 
through  the  Bamian  Pass  to  Balkh,  and  through  Kandahar  and 
Herat  to  Merv  or  Sarrakhs  lu  join  the  great  stream  of  Central 
Asian  traffic.  The  greater  portion  of  the  carrying  trade  on 
these  long  lines  was  in  the  hands  of  the  people  dwelling  between 
the  Jaxartes  and  the  Oxus,  who  had  their  centre  at  Samarcand  ; 
and  these  Sogdians,  or  Asi  as  they  are  called  in  the  Chinese 
annals,  fearing  lest  they  should  lose  the  profit  on  the  transit 
trade,  threw  every  obstacle  in  the  way  of  direct  communication 
between  China  and  the  Roman  Empire.  The  difficulties  which 
thus  interrupted  the  land  traffic  gave  an  impetus  to  the  trade  by 
sea,  and  so  benefited  Alexandria  and  the  c  ties  in  the  Persian 
Gulf.  The  sea  trade  at  this  time  was  carried  by  way  of  the 
Persian  Gulf  and  the  Red  Sea.  In  the  first  case  the  cargoes 
were  landed  at  some  port  on  the  Euphrates  or  Tigris,  whence 
the  goods  were  carried  by  river  and  caravan  up  the  valleys  of 
those  rivers  and  then  through  Syria  to  Beirut  and  Antioch,  and 
through  Asia  Minor  to  Ephesus,  Smyrna,  Constantinople,  and 
Samsun.  In  the  second  case  the  merchandise  was  landed  either 
near  Suez,  whence  it  was  conveyed  by  caravan,  canal,  and  river 
to  Alexandria,  and  at  a  later  date  to  Pelusium,  or  at  the  head 
of  the  Gulf  of  Akabah  for  transport  to  Syria  and  Palestine.  The 
sea  trade  was  to  a  great  extent  a  coasting  trade,  and  it  appears 
to  have  been  shared  by  the  Greeks  and  the  Arabs,  and  perhaps 
by  the  Chinese,  whose  junks  were  to  be  seen  at  Hira,  on  the 
Euphrates,  in  the  fifth  century. 

On  the  disruption  of  the  Roman  Empire  the  Byzantines,  with 
their  capital  situated  on  the  confines  of  Europe  and  Asia, 
naturally  became  the  intermediaries  between  the  East  and  the 
West,  and  they  retained  this  position  until  the  maritime  towns  of 
Italy,  France,  and  Spain  became  sufficiently  strong  to  engage  in 
direct  trade  with  the  Mediterranean  ports  to  which  the  produce 
of  the  East  found  its  way.  Until  the  seventh  century  the  Sas- 
sanians  held  the  lines  of  communication  by  land,  and  they  did 
all  they  could  to  prevent  Eastern  produce  from  being  carried  over 
any  other  roads  than  those  passing  through  their  territory  or  by 
any  other  hands  than  theirs.  In  the  sixth  century  they  allowed 
an  exchange  of  produce  between  the  East  and  the  West  to  take 
place  at  only  three  points  :  Artaxates  for  goods  arriving  from 
Central  Asia  ;  Nisibis  for  those  from  Central  Asia  and  by  the 
Tigris  route  ;  and  Callinicum  (Rakka)  for  those  coming  by  way 
of  the  Persian  Gulf  and  the  Euphrates.  Justinian  attempted  to 
free  Oriental  commerce  from  its  dependence  on  the  Sassanians 
by  opening  up  new  trade  routes.  The  Sogdian  silk  merchants 
passed,  outside  of  Persian  territory,  round  the  north  end  of  the 
Caspian  to  meet  those  of  Byzantium  on  the  shores  of  the  Sea  of 
Azdv  and  the  Black  Sea  ;  the  products  of  India  were  obtained 
from  Ethiopian  traders  at  Adulis,  on  the  Red  Sea  ;  and  Greek 
navigators,  taking  advantage  of  the  monsoons,  sailed  direct  from 
the  southern  end  of  the  Red  Sea  to  the  Malabar  coast  and 
Ceylon. 


Sept.  13,  1888] 


NATURE 


48; 


In  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries  the  Arabs  overran  the  whole 
of  Central  Asia,  and  the  carrying  trade  by  sea  and  by  land  pa-sed 
into  their  hands.  Profound  modifications  were  thus  introduced 
into  the  commercial  intercourse  between  the  East  and  the  West. 
All  land  traffic  from  the  East  was  directed  upon  Baghdad,  which 
became  the  distributing  centre  whence  goods  were  despatched  by 
the  ancient  trade  routes  to  the  West,  and  which  almost  rose  to 
the  splendour  of  Babylon.  On  the  sea  the  Arabs  regained  their 
old  reputation  ;  they  sailed  direct  from  the  Red  Sea  to  Cape 
Comorin,  and  from  Ceylon  to  the  Malay  Peninsula,  and  extended 
their  voyages  to  Kanpu,  on  a  delta  arm  of  the  Yang-tse-Kiang  ; 
they  established  factories  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  and,  in  the  eighth 
century,  were  so  numerous  in  Canton  as  to  be  able  to  attack  and 
pillage  that  city.  Their  only  rivals  were  the  Chinese,  whose 
junks  visited  the  Euphrates  and  Aden,  and  brought  silks  and 
spices  to  the  Malabar  coast  to  be  there  exchanged  for  the  raw 
material  and  manufactures  of  the  West. 

The  Eastern  produce  brought  by  the  Arabs  to  the  ports  of  the 
Mediterranean  was  conveyed  to  Europe  by  the  merchants  of 
Venice,  Genoa,  Pisa,  and  other  towns,  who  also  traded  to  Con- 
stantinople and  the  Black  Sea.  Venice  from  its  geographical 
position  was  well  adapted  to  be  the  intermediary  between  the 
East  and  Central  Europe,  and  even  before  the  rise  of  Islam  a 
large  share  of  the  carrying  trade  of  the  Mediterranean  had  fallen 
into  its  hands  through  the  apathy  and  luxurious  indolence  of  the 
Byzantines.  It  is  unnecessary  to  trace  the  rise  of  Venice  or  dis- 
cuss the  impetus  given  by  the  Crusades  to  commercial  intercourse 
between  the  East  and  Western  Europe  ;  it  will  be  sufficient  to 
note  that  in  the  first  quarter  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  carrying 
trade  of  the  Mediterranean  was  wholly  in  the  hands  of  the  Vene- 
tians, and  Venice  had  become  the  distributing  centre  for  all 
Europe.  Venetian  fleets,  well  guarded  by  war  galleys,  sailed  at 
stated  times  for  Constantinople  and  the  Black  Sea  ;  for  Syria  and 
Egypt  ;  for  France  :  for  Spain  and  Portugal,  and  for  Holland. 
Prom  the  ports  in  those  countries,  as  well  as  from  Venice  herself, 
the  products  of  the  East  were  carried  inland  over  well-defined 
trade  routes,  and  cities  such  as  Pavia,'Niirnberg,  and  Bruges, 
the  emporium  of  the  Hanseatic  League,  rose  to  importance  as 
entrepots  of  Eas'ern  commerce. 

The  victorious  advance  of  the  Turks,  the  fall  of  Constantinople, 
the  piracy  in  the  Mediterranean,  and  the  termination  of  all  inter- 
course with  China  on  the  decline  of  the  Mongol  dynasty  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  combined  with  other  circumstances  to  turn 
men's  minds  towards  the  discovery  of  a  more  convenient  way  to 
the  East.  India  was  the  dream  of  the  fifteenth-century  merchant, 
and  how  to  reach  it  by  a  direct  sea  voyage  was  the  problem  of 
the  day.  The  problem  was  solved  when  Yasco  de  Gama  reached 
the  shores  of  India  on  May  20,  1498  ;  and  its  solution  was  due 
to  the  wise  policy  of  a  great  grandson  of  Edward  III.,  Prince 
Henry  of  Portugal,  "the  Navigator,''  who  unfortunately  died 
before  success  was  attained.  The  discovery  of  the  Cape  route 
was  no  mere  accident,  but  the  result  of  scientific  training,  deep 
study,  careful  preparation,  and  indomitable  perseverance.  Prince 
Henry  having  determined  to  find  a  direct  sea  route  to  India,  in- 
vited the  most  eminent  men  of  science  to  instruct  a  number  of 
young  men  who  were  educated  under  his  own  eye,  and  in  a  few 
years  he  made  the  Portuguese  the  most  scientific  navigators  in 
Europe.  The  Miccessful  voyage  of  Vasco  de  Gama  soon  produced 
important  results  ;  the  saving  in  freight  by  the  direct  sea  route 
was  enormous,  and  when  it  became  generally  known  that  the  pro- 
ducts of  the  East  could  be  obtained  much  cheaper  in  Lisbon  than 
anywhere  else,  that  city  became  the  resort  of  traders  from  every 
part  of  Europe.  From  Lisbon,  Indian  commodities  were  carried 
to  Antwerp,  which  soon  became  the  emporium  of  Northern 
Europe.  By  these  changes  the  trade  of  Venice  was  almost 
annihilated,  and  Lisbon  became  the  richest  commercial  city  in 
Europe.  The  \enetians  had  endeavoured  to  confine  commerce 
within  its  existing  limits,  and  to  keep  to  the  trade  routes  then  in 
use.  They  had  never  made  any  attempt  to  enlarge  the  sphere  of 
nautical  and  commercial  enterprise,  and  the  consequence  was 
that  their  ablest  seamen,  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  adventure, 
took  service  in  the  Western  States.  When  the  Cape  route  was 
discovered,  instead  of  attempting  to  secure  a  share  in  the  direct 
sea  trade,  they  entered  into  an  alliance  with  the  Sultan  of  Egypt 
to  crush  the  Portuguese,  and  built  a  fleet  for  him  at  Suez  which 
was  defeated  by  Almeida  in  1508.  After  this  defeat  the  trade  of 
Venice  soon  passed  away. 

Since  the  discovery  of  the  Cape  route  there  has  been  one  long 
struggle  for  the  possession  of  the  commerce  of  India  ;  who  should 
be  the  carriers  and  distributors  of  Indian  commodities  was  for 


more  than  two  and  a  half  centuries  a  much  contested  point 
amongst  the  maritime  nations  of  the  West.  At  first  there  seems 
to  have  been  a  general  acquiescence  in  the  claim  of  the  Spaniards 
and  Portuguese  to  a  monopoly  of  the  southern  sea-route--,  and 
this  led  to  those  heroic  efforts  to  find  a  north-east  or  north-west 
passage  to  India  which  have  so  greatly  added  to  our  geographical 
knowledge.  Failure  in  this  direction  was  followed  by  attempts 
to  reach  India  by  the  Cape  in  the  face  of  the  hostile  attitude  of 
Spain  and  Portugal.  The  mighty  events  which  in  turn  trans- 
ferred wealth  and  commerce  from  Lisbon  to  Antwerp,  Amster- 
dam, and  the  banks  of  the  Thames  are  matter  of  history,  and  it 
is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  at  the  close  of  the  Napoleonic 
wars  England  remained  undisputed  mistress  of  the  sea,  and  had 
become  not  only  the  carrier  of  all  ocean-borne  traffic,  but  the 
distributing  centre  of  Indian  goods  to  the  whole  world.  A 
period  of  keen  competition  for  a  share  in  the  commerce  of  India 
has  again  commenced  amongst  the  States  of  Europe,  and  symp- 
toms of  a  coming  change  in  the  carrying  and  distributing  trade 
have  been  increasingly  apparent  since  Africa  was  separated  from 
Asia,  nearly  twenty  years  ago,  by  the  genius  of  M.  de  Lesseps. 

The  opening  of  the  Suez  Canal,  by  diverting  trade  from  the 
Cape  route  to  the  Mediterranean,  has  produced  and  is  still  pro- 
ducing changes  in  the  intercourse  between  the  East  and  the  West 
which  affect  this  country  more  nearly,  perhaps,  than  any  other 
European  State.     The  changes  have  been  in  three  directions. 

First.  An  increasing  proportion  of  the  raw  material  and 
products  of  the  East  is  carried  direct  to  Mediterranean  ports, 
by  ships  passing  through  the  Canal,  instead  of  coming,  as  they  once 
did,  to  England  for  distribution.  Thus  Odessa,  Trieste,  Venice, 
and  Marseilles  are  becoming  centres  of  distribution  for  Southern 
and  Central  Europe,  as  Antwerp  and  Hamburg  are  for  the 
North  ;  and  our  merchants  are  thus  losing  the  profits  they 
derived  from  transmitting  and  forwarding  Eastern  goods  to 
Europe.  It  is  true  that  the  carrying  trade  is  still,  to  a  very  great 
extent,  in  English  hands  ;  but  should  this  country  be  involved  in 
a  European  war,  the  carrying  trade,  unless  we  can  efficiently 
protect  it,  will  pass  to  otheis,  and  it  will  not  readily  return. 
Continental  manufacturers  have  always  been  heavily  handi- 
capped by  the  position  England  has  held  since  the  com- 
mencement of  the  century,  and  the  distributing  trade  would 
doubtless  have  passed  from  us  in  process  of  time.  The  opening 
of  the  Canal  has  accelerated  the  change,  to  the  detriment  of 
English  manufactures,  and  consequently  of  the  national  wealth  ; 
and  it  must  tend  to  make  England  less  and  less  each  year  the 
emporium  of  the  world.  We  are  experiencing  the  results  of  a 
natural  law  that  a  redistribution  of  the  centres  of  trade  must 
follow  a  rearrangement  of  the  channels  of  commerce. 

Second.  The  diversion  of  traffic  from  the  Cape  rou'e  has  led 
to  the  construction  of  steamers  for  special  trade  to  India  and  the 
East  through  the  Canal.  On  this  line  coaling-stations  are 
frequent,  and  the  seas,  excepting  in  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  are  more 
tranquil  than  on  most  long  voyages.  The  result  is  that 
an  inferior  type  of  vessel,  both  as  regards  coal-stowage, 
speed,  endurance,  and  seaworthiness,  has  been  built.  These 
"  Canal  wallahs,"  as  they  are  sometimes  called,  are  quite  unfitted 
for  the  voyage  round  the  Cape,  and  should  the  Canal  be  blocked 
by  war  or  accident  they  would  be  practically  useless  in  carrying 
on  our  Eastern  trade.  Since  the  Canal  has  deepened  they  have 
improved,  for  it  has  been  found  cheaper  to  have  more  coal- 
stowage,  but  they  are  still  far  from  being  available  for  the  long 
voyage  round  the  Cape.  Had  the  Canal  not  been  made,  a  large 
number  of  fine  steamers  would  gradually  have  been  built  for  the 
Cape  route,  and  though  the  sailing-ships  which  formerly  carried 
the  India  and  China  trade  would  have  held  their  own  longer, 
we  should  by  this  time  have  had  more  of  the  class  of  steamer 
that  would  be  invaluable  to  us  in  war  time,  and  our  trade  would 
not  have  been  liable,  as  it  is  now,  to  paralysis  by  the  closing  of 
the  Canal. 

Third.  Sir  William  Hunter  has  pointed  out  that,  since  the  open- 
ing of  the  Canal,  India  has  entered  the  market  as  a  competitor 
with  the  British  workman  ;  and  that  the  development  of  that 
part  of  the  Empire  as  a  manufacturing  and  food-exporting 
country  will  involve  changes  in  English  production  which  must 
for  a  time  be  attended  by  suffering  and  loss.  Indian  trade  has 
advanced  by  rapid  strides,  the  exports  of  merchandise  have 
risen  from  an  average  of  57  millions  for  the  five  years  preceding 
1874  to  88  millions  in  1884,  and  there  has  been  an  immense 
expansion  in  the  export  of  bulky  commodities.  Wheat,  which 
occupied  an  insignificant  place  in  the  list  of  exports,  is  now  a 
great  staple  of  Indian  commerce,  and  the  export  has  risen  since 


4*4 


NATURE 


{Sept.  13,  1888 


1873  from  if  to  21  million  hundredweights.  It  is  almost  im- 
possible to  estimate  the  ultimate  dimensions  of  the  wheat  trade, 
and  it  is  only  the  forerunner  of  other  trades  in  which  India 
is  destined  to  compete  keenly  with  the  English  and  European 
producers. 

The  position  in  which  England  has  been  placed  by  the  opening 
of  the  Canal  is  in  some  respects  similar  to  that  of  Venice  afcer 
the  discovery  of  the  Cape  route  ;  but  there  is  a  wide  difference 
in  the  spirit  with  which  the  change  in  the  commercial  routes  was 
accepted.  Venice  made  no  attempt  to  use  the  Cape  route,  and 
did  all  she  could  to  prevent  others  from  taking  advantage  of  it : 
England,  though  by  a  natural  instinct  she  opposed  the  construc- 
tion of  the  Canal,  was  one  of  the  first  to  take  advantage  of  it 
when  opened,  and  so  far  as  the  carrying  trade  is  concerned  she 
has  hitherto  successfully  competed  with  other  countries. 

It  is  only  natural  to  ask  what  the  result  of  the  opening  of  the 
Panama  Canal  will  be.  To  this  it  may  be  replied  that  the  Canal, 
when  completed  as  a  maritime  canal,  without  locks,  will  promote 
commercial  intercourse  between  the  eastern  and  western  coasts 
of  America  ;  will  benefit  merchants  by  diminishing  distances, 
and  reducing  insurance  charges  ;  and  possibly  divert  the  course 
of  some  of  the  trade  between  the  East  and  West ;  but  it  will 
produce  no  such  changes  as  those  which  have  followed  the 
construction  of  the  Suez  Canal. 

The  increasing  practice  of  the  present  day  is  for  each  maritime 
country  to  import  and  carry  the  Indian  and  other  commodities 
it  requires,  and  we  must  be  prepared  for  a  time  when  England 
will  no  longer  be  the  emporium  of  Eastern  commerce  for  Europe, 
or  possess  so  large  a  proportion  as  she  now  does  of  the  carrying 
trade.  So  great,  however,  is  the  genius  of  the  English  people 
for  commercial  enterprise,  and  so  imbued  are  they  with  the 
spirit  of  adventure,  that  we  may  reasonably  hope  loss  of  trade 
in  one  direction  will  be  compensated  by  the  discovery  of  new 
fields  of  commercial  activity.  The  problem  of  sea-carriage  has 
virtually  been  solved  by  the  construction  of  the  large  ocean 
steamers  which  run  direct  from  port  to  port  without  regard  to 
winds  or  currents  ;  and  the  only  likely  improvement  in  this 
direction  is  an  increase  of  speed  which  may  possibly  rise  to  as 
much  as  thirty  knots  an  hour.  The  tendency  at  present  is  to 
shorten  sea-routes  by  maritime  canals  ;  to  construct  canals  for 
bringing  ocean-going  ships  to  inland  centres  of  industry  ;  and  to 
utilize  water  carriage,  wherever  it  may  be  practicable,  in  pre- 
ference to  carriage  by  land.  For  a  correct  determination  of  the 
lines  which  these  shortened  trade  routes  and  great  maritime 
canals  should  follow,  a  sound  knowledge  of  geography  and  of 
the  physical  condition  of  the  earth  is  necessary  ;  and  instruction 
in  this  direction  should  form  an  important  feature  in  any  educa- 
tional course  of  commercial  geography.  The  great  problem  of 
the  future  is  the  inland  carrying  trade,  and  one  of  the  immediate 
commercial  questions  of  the  day  is,  Who  is  to  supply  the 
interiors  of  the  great  continents  of  Asia  and  Africa,  and  other 
large  areas  not  open  to  direct  sea  traffic  ?  Whether  future 
generations  will  see 

"  The  heavens  fill  with  commerce,  argosies  of  magic  sails. 
Pilots  of  the  purple  twilight,  dropping  down  with  costly  bales," 

or  some  form  of  electric  carriage  on  land,  may  be  matter  for 
speculation  ;  but  it  is  not  altogether  impossible  to  foresee  the 
lines  which  inland  trade  must  follow,  and  the  places  which  must 
become  centres  of  the  distributing  trade,  or  to  map  out  the 
districts  which  must,  under  ordinary  conditions,  be  dependent 
upon  such  centres  for  their  supply  of  imported  commodities. 
The  question  of  supplying  European  goods  to  one  portion  of 
Central  Asia  has  been  partially  solved  by  the  remarkable  voyage 
of  Mr.  Wiggins  last  year,  and  by  the  formation  of  the  company 
of  the  "Phoenix  Merchant  Adventurers."  Mr.  Wiggins  started 
from  Newcastle-on-Tyne  for  Yeniseisk,  the  first  large  town  on 
the  Yenisei,  some  2000  miles  from  the  mouth  of  that  river,  and 
within  a  few  hundred  versts  of  the  Chinese  frontier.  On  the  9th 
of  October,  1887,  he  cast  anchor  and  landed  his  cargo  in  the  heart 
of  Siberia.  The  exploit  is  one  of  which  any  man  might  well  be 
proud,  but  in  Mr.  Wiggins's  case  there  is  the  additional  merit 
that  success  was  the  result  of  conviction  arrived  at  by  a  strict 
,  method  of  induction,  that  the  Gulf  Stream  passed  through  the 
Straits  into  the  Kara  Sea,  and  that  its  action,  combined  with 
that  of  the  immense  volume  of  water  brought  down  by  the  Obi 
and  Yenisei,  would  free  the  sea  from  ice  and  render  it  navigable 
for  a  portion  of  each  year.  The  attempts  of  England  to  open 
up  commercial  relations  with  the  interior  of  Africa  have  too 
often  been   marked   by  want,   if   not  open  contempt,  of  geo- 


graphical knowledge,  and  by  a  great  deficiency  of  foresight  ; 
but  the  competition  with  Germany  is  forcing  this  country  to  pay 
increased  attention  to  African  commerce,  and  the  formation  of 
such  companies  as  the  British  East  African  Company,  the 
African  Lakes  Company,  and  the  Royal  Niger  Company  is  a 
happy  omen  for  the  future. 

Another  branch  of  the  subject  to  which  attention  may  be 
brief  y  directed  is  the  fact  that  it  is  becoming  increasingly  evident 
that  manufactures  cannot  profitably  be  carried  on  at  a  distance 
from  the  source  of  the  raw  material  and  the  destination  of  the 
products.  In  India,  for  instance,  where  the  first  mill  for  the 
manufacture  of  cotton  yarn  and  cloth  was  set  up  in  1854,  there 
are  now  over  100  cotton  and  jute  mills  with  22,000  looms 
and  2,000,000  spindles  ;  and  similar  changes  are  taking  place 
elsewhere. 

I  am  afraid  that  I  have  frequently  travelled  beyond  the  sphere 
of  geography.  My  object  has  been  to  draw  attention  to  the 
supreme  importance  to  this  country  of  the  science  of  commercial 
geography.  That  science  is  not  confined  to  a  knowledge  of  the 
localities  in  which  those  products  of  the  earth  which  have  a 
commercial  value  are  to  be  found,  and  of  the  markets  in  which 
they  can  be  sold  with  the  greatest  profit.  Its  higher  aims  are 
to  divine,  by  a  combination  of  historical  retrospect  and  scientific 
foresight,  the  channels  through  which  commerce  will  flow  in  the 
future,  and  the  points  at  which  new  centres  of  trade  must  arise 
in  obedience  to  known  laws.  A  precise  knowledge  of  the  form, 
size,  and  geological  structure  of  the  globe ;  of  its  physical 
features  ;  of  the  topographical  distribution  of  its  mineral  and 
vegetable  products,  and  of  the  varied  forms  of  animal  life, 
including  man,  that  it  sustains  ;  of  the  influence  of  geographical 
environment  on  man  and  the  lower  animals  ;  and  of  the  climatic 
conditions  of  the  various  regions  of  the  earth,  is  absolutely 
essential  to  a  successful  solution  of  the  many  problems  before 
us.  If  England  is  to  maintain  her  commanding  position  in  the 
world  of  commerce,  she  must  approach  these  problems  in  the 
spirit  of  Prince  Henry  the  Navigator,  and  by  high  scientific 
training  fit  her  sons  to  play  their  part  like  men  in  the  coming 
struggle  for  commercial  supremacy.  The  struggle  will  be  keen, 
and  victory  will  rest  with  those  who  have  most  fully  realized  the 
truth  of  the  maxim  that  "Knowledge  is  power." 

I  may  add  that  if  there  is  one  point  clearer  than  another  in  the 
history  of  commerce  it  is  this :  that  when  a  State  cannot 
effectually  protect  its  carrying  trade  in  time  of  war,  that  trade 
passes  from  it  and  does  not  return.  If  England  is  ever  found 
wanting  in  the  power  to  defend  her  carrying  trade,  her  fate  will 
only  too  surely,  and  I  might  almost  say  justly,  be  that  of  Venice, 
Spain,  Portugal,  and  Holland. 

I  will  now  ask  you  to  turn  your  attention  for  a  few  moments  to 
another  subject — Africa.  In  1864,  Sir  Roderick  Murchison  alluded 
to  the  great  continent  in  the  following  terms  :  "  Looking  at  the 
most  recent  maps  of  Africa,  see  what  enormous  lacuna  have  to 
be  filled  in,  and  what  va^t  portions  of  it  the  foot  of  the  white 
mau  has  never  trodden."  It  was  then  impossible  to  give  a 
general  sketch  even  of  the  geography  of  Equatorial  Africa. 
Tanganyika  and  Nyassa  had  been  discovered,  and  Speke  and 
Grant  had  touched  at  a  few  points  on  the  southern,  western,  and 
northern  shores  of  the  Victoria  Nyanza ;  but  we  were  still  in 
ignorance  of  the  drainage  and  form  of  the  immense  tract  of 
country  between  the  Tanganyika  Lake  and  the  Zambesi  ;  and 
the  heart  of  Africa,  through  which  the  mighty  Congo  rolls,  was 
as  much  unknown  to  us  as  the  centre  of  America  was  to  our 
ancestors  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century.  There  are  now 
few  school-boys  who  could  not  give  a  fairly  accurate  sketch  of 
the  geography  of  Central  Africa  ;  and  a  comparison  of  the  maps 
published  respectively  in  1864  and  1888  will  show  how  rapidly 
the  lacuna  of  which  Sir  Roderick  complained  are  being  filled  in. 
There  is  still  much  to  be  done,  and  it  is  precisely  in  one  of  the 
few  blank  spots  left  on  our  maps  that  the  man  who  may  well  be 
called  the  Columbus  of  Africa  has  so  mysteriously  disappeared. 
The  discovery  of  the  course  of  the  Congo  by  Stanley  has  been 
followed  by  results  not  unlike  those  which  attended  the  discovery 
of  America  by  Columbus.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth 
century  Africa  has  become  to  Europe  what  America  was  in  the 
sixteenth  century.  Events  march  more  rapidly  now  than  they 
did  then,  and  the  efforts  of  the  maritime  nations  of  Europe  to 
secure  themselves  some  portion  of  African  territory  and  some 
channel  through  which  they  can  pour  their  products  into  Cen- 
tral Africa  are  rapidly  changing  the  condition  of  the  Dark 
Continent. 

The  roads  over  which  the  land  trade  of  Equatorial  Africa  now 


Sept.  13,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


485 


passes  from  the  coast  to  the  interior  are  mere  footpaths,  described 
by  Prof.  Drummond,  in  his  charming  book  "  Tropical 
Africa,"  as  being  "  never  over  a  foot  in  breadth,  beaten  as  hard 
us  adamant,  and  rutted  beneath  the  level  of  the  forest  bed  by 
centuries  of  native  traffic.  As  a  rule  these  footpaths  are 
marvellously  direct.  Like  the  roads  of  the  old  Romans,  they 
run  straight  on  through  everything,  ridge  and  mountain  and 
valley,  never  shying  at  obstacles,  nor  anywhere  turning  aside  to 
breathe.  Yet  with  this  general  straightforwardness  there  is  a 
singular  eccentricity  and  indirectness  in  detail.  Although  the 
African  footpath  is  on  the  whole  a  bee-line,  no  fifty  yards  of  it 
are  ever  straight.  And  the  reason  is  not  far  to  seek.  If  a  stone 
is  encountered,  no  native  will  ever  think  of  removing  it.  Why 
should  he  ?  It  is  easier  to  walk  round  it.  The  next  man  who 
comes  that  way  will  do  the  same.  .  .  .  Whatever  the  cause,  it 
is  certain  that  for  persistent  straightforwardness  in  the  general, 
and  utter  vacillation  and  irresolution  in  the  particular,  the 
African  roads  are  unique  in  engineering."  No  country  in  the 
world  is  better  supplied  with  paths ;  every  village  is  connected 
with  some  other  village,  every  tribe  with  the  next  tribe,  and  it  is 
possible  for  a  traveller  to  cross  Africa  without  once  being  off  a 
beaten  track.  The  existence  nearly  everywhere  of  a  wide  coast 
plain  with  a  deadly  climate,  and  the  difficulties  attending  land 
transport  in  a  country  where  the  usual  beasts  of  burden,  such  as 
the  camel,  the  ox,  the  horse,  and  the  mule,  cannot  be  utilized, 
will  probably  for  many  years  retard  the  development  of  the  land 
trade.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Congo  with  its  wide  reaching 
arms,  the  Niger,  the  Nile,  the  Zambesi,  the  Shire,  and  the  great 
lakes  Nyassa,  Tanganika,  and  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Nyanzas 
offer  great  facility  for  water  transport,  and  afford  easy  access  to 
the  interior  without  traversing  the  pestilential  plains.  Already 
steamers  ply  on  most  of  the  great  waterways — each  year  sees 
some  improvement  in  this  respect  ;  and  a  road  is  in  course  of 
construction  from  Lake  Nyassa  to  Tanganyika  which  will  tend, 
if  Arab  raiders  can  be  checked,  to  divert  inland  traffic  from 
Zanzibar  to  Quilimane,  and  will  become  an  important  link  in 
what  must  be  one  of  the  great  trade  routes  in  the  future.  It  is 
possible,  I  believe,  with  our  present  knowledge  of  Africa,  and  by 
a  careful  study  of  its  geographical  features,  to  foresee  the  lines 
along  which  trade  routes  will  develop  themselves,  and  the  points 
at  which  centres  of  trade  will  arise  ;  but  I  have  already  detained 
you  too  long,  and  will  only  venture  to  indicate  Sawakin, 
Mombasa,  Quilimane,  or  some  point  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Zambesi,  and  Delagoa  Bay,  as  places  on  the  east  coast  of  Africa 
which,  from  their  geographical  position,  must  eventually  become 
of  great  importance  as  outlets  for  the  trade  of  the  interior. 

The  future  of  Africa  presents  many  difficult  problems,  some  of 
which  will  no  doubt  be  brought  to  your  notice  during  the 
discussion  which,  I  trust,  will  follow  the  reading  of  the  African 
papers  ;  and  there  is  one  especially — the  best  means  of  putting 
an  end  to  slave  hunting  and  the  slave-trade — which  is  now 
happily  attracting  considerable  attention.  It  is  surely  not  too 
much  to  hope  that  the  nations  which  have  been  so  eager  to  annex 
African  soil  will  remember  the  trite  saying  that  "  Property  has 
its  duties  as  well  as  its  rights,"  and  that  one  of  the  most 
pressingly  important  of  the  duties  imposed  upon  them  by  their 
action  is  to  control  the  fiends  in  human  form  who,  of  set  purpose, 
have  laid  waste  some  of  the  fairest  regions  of  the  earth,  and 
imposed  a  reign  of  terror  throughout  Equatorial  Africa. 


NOTES. 

We  regret  to  announce  that  Dr.  Peter  Griess  died  very 
suddenly  at  Bournemouth  on  Thursday  last  week,  apparently 
from  an  attack  of  apoplexy.  A  very  skilful  manipulator,  en- 
thusiastically devoted  to  his  science,  a  patient  and  unwearying 
worker,  his  death  will  deprive  chemical  science  of  one  of  its 
brightest  ornaments.  He  will  be  chiefly  remembered  for  his 
discovery  of  the  diazo-compounds,  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
classes  of  substances  known  to  chemistry. 

A  telegram  from  the  city  of  Mexico  states  that  on  the  night 
of  the  6th  instant  there  occurred  the  heaviest  shocks  of 
earthquake  ever  recorded  in  the  city.  The  houses  swayed,  the 
walls  cracked,  and  people  rushed  into  the  streets  to  pray. 
There  was  for  a  few  moments  much  apprehension.  The 
phenomenon  was  preceded  by  high  winds  and  dust-storms. 


A  frightful  cyclone,  involving  great  destruction  of  pro- 
perty and  loss  of  life,  took  place  at  Havannah  on  the  4th  instant. 
It  is  stated  to  have  been  the  most  severe  experienced  in  the 
West  Indies  for  many  years  past. 

The  inaugural  address  of  St.  Thomas's'  Hospital  will  be 
delivered  in  the  theatre  on  Monday,  October  1,  at  3  p.m.,  by 
Dr.  Cullingworth. 

The  sixth  course  of  twelve  lectures  and  demonstrations  for 
the  instruction  of  sanitary  inspectors  will  be  delivered  at  the 
Parkes  Museum  on  Tuesdays  and  Fridays  at  8  p.m.,  com- 
mencing with  the  25th  instant.  The  lectures  will  deal  with 
sanitary  subjects  generally,  and  will  be  delivered  by  the  leading 
men  in  the  various  branches— Sir  Douglas  Galton,  Profs. 
Corfield  and  Henry  Robinson,  Drs.  Poore,  Louis  Parkes,  and 
Charles  Kelly,  Messrs.  Wynter  Blyth,  Boulnois,  Cassal,  and 
Sykes.  A  nominal  fee  of  five  shillings  will  be  charged,  and 
students  attending  the  course  will  be  granted  free  admission  to 
the  Parkes  Museum  and  Library  during  September,  October, 
and  November.  The  last  course  was  attended  by  over  ninety 
students,  and  it  is  proposed  to  repeat  it  twice  each  year  to  suit 
the  requirements  of  persons  preparing  for  the  examinations  of  the 
Sanitary  Institute,  as  well  as  of  others  desirous  of  obtaining  a 
practical  knowledge  of  sanitary  requirements  and  regulations. 

The  September  issue  of  the  Kew  Bulletin  continues  the  notes 
on  colonial  fruit,  including  a  long  and  most  interesting  report 
on  the  fruits  of  the  Island  of  Dominica.  There  is  also  a  report 
from  the  British  Political  Officer  at  Bahmo  on  the  india-rubber 
trade  of  the  Mogaung  district  of  Upper  Burma.  The  rubber 
forests,  though  worked  by  Chinese,  are  owned  by  the  Kachins, 
a  tribe  inhabiting  the  borderland  between  Burma  and  China. 

We  have  received  Parts  2  and  3  of  the  second  volume  of  the 
Journal  of  the  College  of  Science  of  the  Imperial  University  of 
Japan.  The  former  opens  with  a  paper  by  Dr.  Koto  "  On  the 
so-called  Crystalline  Schists  of  Chichibu,"  a  district  lying  north- 
west of  Tokio,  and,  geologically  speaking  ,  a  region  complete  in 
itself,  and,  according  10  Dr.  Koto,  typical  of  the  geological 
formation  of  the  rest  of  Japan.  The  essay,  which  is  accom- 
panied by  five  plates,  occupies  the  greater  part  of  the  number. 
Prof.  Okubo  gives  a  brief  account  or  the  botany  of  Sulphur 
Island,  a  volcanic  and  uninhabited  island  off  the  Japanese  coast. 
Dr.  Ijima  and  Mr.  Murata  describe  some  new  cases  of  the  occur- 
rence of  Bothriocephahts  liguloides,  Lt.  No.  3  is  filled  with  the 
account  of  a  magnetic  s  rvey  of  all  Japan,  carried  out  by  order 
of  the  President  of  the  Imperial  University,  the  authors  being 
Profs.  Knott  and  Tanakadate.  The  paper,  which  is  an  elaborate 
one,  is  divided  into  five  sections  :  (1)  historical  retrospect,  and 
general  description  of  the  aim  and  methods  of  the  survey  ;  (2) 
particular  account  of  the  equipment  and  modes  of  operation  of 
the  northern  party  ;  (3)  the  same  details  for  the  southern  party  ; 

(4)  final  reduction  of  the  observations,  and  general  conclusions  ; 

(5)  comparison  of  resu!  s  with  those  of  previous  observers.  In 
an  appendix,  Prof.  Knott  gives  an  exceedingly  interesting 
sketch  of  Ino  Tadayoshi,  a  Japanese  surveyor  and  cartographer 
of  the  latter  half  of  the  last  century. 

The  current  number  of  the  Westminster  Reviezv  contains  an 
article  by  Mr.  Gundry,  entitled  "China  ;  A  New  Departure,"  the 
"departure"  in  question  being  the  introduction  of  mathematics 
into  the  curriculum  of  subjects  in  the  competitive  examinations 
upon  which  the  whole  system  of  Chinese  administration  is  based. 
Various  methods  have  been  proposed  from  time  to  time  to 
bring  Chinese  students  into  touch  with  Western  learning.  Prince 
Kung,  who  was  Prime  Minister  in  1866,  suggested  the  erection 
of  a  special  deparment  presided  over  by  foreign  professors  for 
the  study  of  "  mathematics,"  that  term  being  obviously  meant 
to  include  all  branches  of  physical  science.     This  was  done,  but 


486 


NA  TURE 


{Sept. 


j> 


iSSi 


public  opinion  was  not  ripe  for  the  change,  and  the  result  was 
failure.  In  1875  •*  was  proposed,  not  to  instruct  Chinese  in 
Western  learning,  but  to  teach  foreigners  the  ancient  lore  of 
China,  and  thus  enable  them  to  qualify  for  offi<!e.  This  plan  was 
not  tried.  Then  students  were  sent  abroad  to  be  educated, 
but  they  became  demoralized,  and  returned  totally  out  of 
sympathy  with  their  national  traditions.  Last  year  the  Censors, 
who  till  then  were  the  opponents  of  all  innovation,  advocated 
alterations  in  the  educational  system,  and  the  Cabinet,  presided 
over  by  Prince  Chun,  the  father  of  the  reigning  Emperor,  there- 
upon reported  in  favour  of  introducing  mathematics  into  the 
competitive  examinations.  For  the  first  time,  then,  provision 
has  been  made  for  spreading  through  the  empire  a  knowledge  of 
Western  science,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  ultimate 
result  must  be  a  complete  revolution  in  Chinese  thought.  The 
influence  of  a  remote  past  will  be  diminished,  the  necessity  for 
change  recognized,  and  intimacy  with  "barbarian  "  learning  will 
do  away  with  the  present  prejudices  against  the  "barbarians" 
themselves.  But  these  advantages  must  not  be  over-estimated. 
Though  the  necessity  for  studying  foreign  science  is  admitted, 
widespread  and  intense  prejudice  has  to  be  conquered,  and  a 
new  generation  will  probably  have  arisen  before  the  full  effect  of 
the  innovation  is  felt. 

In  the  last  number  of  the  Essex  Naturalist  (vol.  ii.,  Nos.  7 
and  8,  p.  113),  Prof.  Meldola  announces  that  he  has  at  length 
detected  the  scent  emitted  by  the  male  moth  Herminia  larsipen- 
nalis.  It  has  long  been  known  that  this  insect  possessed  fan- 
like structures  on  the  front  legs,  and  it  had  been  surmised  that 
these  were  secondary  sexual  characters.  The  detection  of  the 
scent  now  places  the  function  of  these  organs  beyond  doubt, 
and  it  is  of  interest  to  add  that  the  odour  has  been  recognized  as 
similar  to  that  of  artificial  essence  of  jargonelle  pear — that  is,  to 
amyl  acetate.  Some  of  the  males  of  South  American  butterflies, 
which  are  provided  with  elaborate  scent  organs,  according  to 
Fritz  Midler,  give  off  a  distinct  odour  of  vanilla. 

The  Oderzeitung  reports  the  finding  in  the  Lossow  district, 
near  Frankfort-on-the-Oder,  of  about  thirty  clay  vessels  of 
various  sizes  and  patterns,  some  urns,  some  pots,  deep  saucers, 
flasks,  &c.  They  were  filled  with  the  ashes  of  burnt  corpses 
mixed  with  sand.  The  colour  was  a  brownish-yellow  ;  some 
were  broken,  and  the  fractures  showed  that  coal  ashes  had  been 
mixed  with  the  clay  of  which  they  were  made.  Some  bronze 
needles  were  found  with  them,  being  finished  at  the  top  in  a 
semicircular  shape.  The  vessels  seemed  to  have  been  formed 
on  a  lathe,  tolerably  smooth,  regular  in  shape,  and  only  slightly 
baked.  The  largest  were  about  30  centimetres  in  diameter  at 
the  widest  part,  and  26  centimetres  high.  The  ornaments  were 
either  triangles  or  semicircles,  scratched  on  the  surface  with 
points  impressed  on  the  surface.  Possibly  the  site  where  they 
were  found  was  a  refuge  and  a  place  of  sacrifice  in  old  German 
times. 

We  have  received  the  Calendar  of  the  University  College, 
Dundee,  for  the  forthcoming  session,  together  with  reports  on 
the  work  of  the  past  year.  The  progress  seems  to  have  been  of 
the  usual  satisfactory  character.  A  department  of  dyeing  and 
bleaching  has  been  added  since  the  last  session. 

An  interesting  article  has  been  published  in  the  Cologne 
Gazette  from  the  pen  of  Herr  Gerhard  Rohlfs,  the  African 
explorer,  in  which  the  German  plans  for  rescuing  Emin  Pasha 
are  subjected  to  an  exhaustive  criticism.  Herr  Rohlfs  is  of 
opinion  that  the  proposed  expedition  may  attain  its  ends  if  the 
preliminary  preparations  are  properly  and  not  too  slowly  con- 
ducted, and  if  thei  necessary  sum  of  money  is  subscribed ;  all 
that  Emin  Pasha  can  want  being  guns,  small  cannon,  ani 
ammunition.  The  advance  of  the  expedition  must  take  place 
slowly  and  methodically,  and  depots,  commanded  by  Germans, 


should  be  established  on  the  road  at  intervals  from  one  another 
represented  by  from  six  to  eight  clays'  march.  From  Bagamoyo 
to  Mutansige  a  distance  of  1500  kilometres  has  to  be  covered 
without  leaving  German  territory.  From  Mutansige  to  Wadelai 
the  distance  is  400  kilometres.  The  expeditionary  force  need 
not  include  more  than  100  Germans,  but,  as  it  must  be  sent 
out  at  once  if  it  is  to  do  any  good,  State  aid  becomes  absolutely 
necessary.  A  considerable  sum  is  required.  Herr  Rohlfs  esti- 
mates that  the  expedition  conducted  by  Stanley  to  the  relief  of 
Livingstone  cost  2,000,000  marks,  and  the  process  of  obtain- 
ing the  sum  needed  by  subscription  is  far  too  slow.  As  this 
expedition,  adds  Herr  Rohlfs  in  conclusion,  is  likely  to  assist  in 
consolidating  German  colonial  enterprise  in  Africa,  no  sacrifice 
should  be  spared  for  carrying  it  into  execution. 

We  have  received  from  the  Deutsche  Seewarte  at  Hamburg 
vol.  ix.  of  Meteorologische  Beobachtungen  in  Deutschland,  con- 
taining the  observations,  for  1886,  made  at  twenty- five  stations 
of  the  second  order,  in  accordance  with  the  proposal  of  the 
Meteorological  Congress  at  Vienna,  1873,  that  each  country  should 
publish  the  individual  observations  for  a  certain  number  of 
places.  We  observe,  however,  from  the  preface  that  in  future  the 
Central  Office  at  Berlin  will  undertake  the  publication  of  some  of 
these  observations.  The  volume  also  contains  hourly  observa- 
tions for  four  stations,  and  a  summary  of  the  storms  experienced 
on  the  German  coasts.  These  useful  statistics  of  storms  have 
been  regularly  published  since  1878. 

The  Meteorological  Section  of  the  Report  of  the  Governor  of 
St.  Helena  on  the  state  of  the  colony  for  the  past  year  is 
interesting,  if  brief: — "The  year  under  review  was  dry;  the 
rainfall  at  Longwood,  .where  Napoleon  lived,  was  2874  inches. 
No  lightning  has  occurred  since  1878,  and  storms  are  unknown." 

We  have  received  the  Report  and  Proceedings  of  the  Bristol 
Naturalists'  Society  for  the  past  year.  The  members  number 
224,  which  seems  satisfactory  all  things  considered,  yet  the 
Council  are  far  from  content.  They  urge  that  more  cordial 
recognition  and  extended  support  might  be  expected  in  a  city 
like  Bristol,  at  a  time  when  science  holds  so  commanding  a 
position  for  a  Society  which  aims  at  promoting  original 
scientific  research,  and  at  the  same  time  presenting  its  results  in 
a  form  intelligible  to  the  general  public,  and  accordingly  members 
are  urged  to  make  the  benefits  of  the  Society  as  widely  known 
as  possible,  while  a  conversazione  is  to  be  held  next  month  with  a 
view  to  directing  public  attention  afresh  to  its  objects  and  claims. 
Sic  itur  ad  aslra :  it  is  thus  that  a  strong  and  successful  Natural 
History  Society  is  founded.  The  contents  of  the  Proceedings 
are  attractive  and  varied,  chief  amongst  them  being  a  "geo- 
logical reverie  "  on  the  Mendips,  by  Prof.  Lloyd  Morgan.  An 
Engineering  Section  was  last  year  added  to  the  Society,  and  its 
papers  are  also  published.  Looking  to  this  number  of  the 
Proceedings  it  appears  to  us  that  the  Council  have  much  reason 
to  be  proud  of  the  Society,  although  perhaps  it  would  not  be 
quite  prudent  to  say  this  in  the  Annual  Report,  when  more  members 
are  required,  and  the  balance  with  the  treasurer  has  fallen  very 
low.  We  cannot  believe  that  so  excellent  a  Society,  which  does 
much"  good  work  with  such  small  funds,  can  lack  abundant 
support  in  a  district  such  as  Bristol  and  its  vicinity. 

From  the  Parliamentary  paper  which  has  just  been  issued 
on  the  British  Museum,  it  appears  that  the  total  number  of 
persons  admitted  to  view  the  collections  has  undergone  a  very 
great  diminution  within  the  past  few  years.  In  the  year  1S82 
there  were  767,402  visitors  to  the  general  collections,  as  against 
501,256  in  1887.  This  diminution  is  more  than  accounted  for  by 
the  transfer  of  the  natural  history  collections  to  South  Kensing- 
ton, for  we  find  that  in  the  latter  year  there  were  358, 178  visitors 
to  the  Cromwell  Road  collections,  being  an  increase  of  8o,oco 
over  the  number  admitted  in  1882.     With  regard  to  the  number 


Sept.  13,  1888] 


NATURE 


487 


of  visitors  to  particular  departments  for  the  purpose  of  study  or 
research  it  has  increased  from  146,891  in  1882  to  182  778  in 
18S7  to  the  reading-room,  from  1452  in  1885  (when  the  room 
was  opened)  to  11,802  in  1887  to  the  newspaper-room,  and  from 
from  2709  in  1882  to  14,238  in  1887  to  the  various  departments 
in  the  new  building  in  Cromwell  Road.  The  students  who 
frequent  the  reading-room  will  agree  with  the  principal 
librarian's  remarks  as  to  the  inadequacy  of  the  accommodation 
of  that  room,  and  will  hope  that  his  recommendation  to  provide 
a  separate  room  for  "  the  throng  of  readers  for  general  in- 
formation "  may  be  speedily  carried  out.  Amongst  the  more 
important  donations  to  the  Museum  during  the  past  year  were 
the  following  :  stone  implements  from  Japan  and  Greenland, 
ancient  Peruvian  pottery  and  masks,  presented  by  the  trustees  of 
the  late  Mr.  Christy  ;  a  collection  of  Andamanese  objects  from 
the  Colonial  Exhibition,  by  M.  V.  Portman  ;  a  valuable  collection 
of  ethnological  objects  from  the  Nicobar  Islands,  by  E.  H.  Man  ; 
a  remarkable  collection  of  objects  of  the  Late  Celtic  period, 
found  in  graves  at  Aylesford  ;  a  large  collection  of  stone  imple- 
ments from  Japan,  presented  by  Sir  Alexander  Cunningham. 
The  arrangement  of  many  of  the  sections  in  the  ethnographical 
gallery  has  been  altered  in  the  past  year.  Thus  several  sections 
of  Asiatic  islands  have  been  revised  to  make  room  for  the 
two  large  series  from  the  Andaman  and  Nicobar  Islands. 
Amongst  the  Oriental  and  ethnographical  acquisitions  during 
the  year  were  the  following  :  a  collection  of  Indian  antiquities, 
consisting  of  relic  caskets  of  various  kinds  with  various  Buddhist 
sculptures,  &c,  presented  by  General  Sir  Alexander  Cunning- 
ham ;  a  number  of  antiquities  from  Siam  and  Burma,  presented 
by  E.  M.  Satow  ;  seventy-six  specimens  of  Chinese  porcelain  with 
armorial  devices,  presented  by  the  Rev.  F.  Warre  ;  a  number  of 
ethnographical  specimens  collected  in  the  Pacific  Islands  by 
H.  J.  Veitch  ;  and  an  extensive  collection  of  specimens  from 
New  Guinea,  including  models  of  houses,  boats,  &c,  collected 
by  H.  H.  Romilly,  and  presented  by  the  Queensland  Com- 
missioners of  the  Colonial  and  Indian  Exhibition. 

With  regard  to  the  natural  history  collections  great  progress 
has  been  made  in  the  arrangement  and  description.  Two  cases 
have  been  placed  on  the  floor  of  the  Great  Hall,  illustrating 
general  laws  in  natural  history.  The  specimens  in  one  case  have 
been  presented  by  Mr.  Henry  Seebohm,  and  show  that  what  are 
regarded  as  two  distinct  species  of  crows  (the  Corvus  comix  and 
the  Corvus  corone)  may  unite  and  produce  offspring.  The 
second  case  illustrates  the  effect  of  domestication  on  pigeons.  The 
great  collection  of  birds,  which  was  formed  chiefly  by  the  late 
Marquess  of  Tweeddale,  has  been  given  to  the  Museum  under  cer- 
tain conditions  by  Mr.  R.  G.  Wardlaw-Ramsay,  together  with 
his  large  ornithological  library.  The  collection  comprises  nearly 
40,000  bird-skins,  and  is  particularly  valuable  to  the  Museum,  as 
it  is  very  rich  in  birds  of  the  Philippine  Islands,  Andaman 
Islands,  &c,  in  which  the  Museum  was  very  deficient.  A  col- 
lection of  butterflies,  anthropological  objects,  skins  of  birds  and 
mammals,  sent  from  Wadelai  by  Emin  Pasha,  has  reached  the 
Museum.  The  Commissioners  present  at  the  Indian  and  Colonial 
Exhibition  gave  some  fine  specimens  of  the  flora  of  Australia  and 
New  Zealand.  The  zoology  department  is  now  overcrowded, 
270,000  specimens  having  been  added  in  the  space  of  four 
years. 

The  King  of  Italy,  acting  on  the  recommendation  of  the 
Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  has  issued  a  decree  regulating  the 
manner  in  which  Italy  proposes  to  celebrate  the  fourth  centennial 
of  the  discovery  of  America  by  Columbus.  This  will  consist 
mainly  in  the  publication  of  the  collected  works  of  the  great 
navigator,  and  of  all  the  documents  and  charts  which  will  throw 
any  light  upon  his  life  and  voyages.  This  will  be  accompanied 
by  a  biography  of  the  works  published  in  Italy  upon  Columbus 
and  the  discovery  of  America  from  the  earliest  period  down  to 


the  present  time.  The  head  of  the  Royal  Commission  charged 
with  the  preparation  of  this  edition  is  Cesare  Correnti,  President 
of  the  Italian  Historical  Institute;  and  among  its  members  are 
Signors  Amari,  Cantu,  and  Desimoni,  and  the  Marquis  Doria. 
An  appropriation  of  12,000  lire  has  been  made  to  cover  the 
expenses  of  this  work,  which  is  now  fairly  undertaken  for  the 
first  time.  Various  editors  have  published  portions  of  the 
writings  of  Columbus,  as  Navarrete  the  'account  of  his  voyages, 
and  Major  his  letters  ;  but  no  one  has  yet  collected  all  his 
writings  into  a  single  edition,  though  an  index  to  them  was 
published  in  1864. 

The  British  Consul  at  Chicago  in  a  recent  report  refers  to 
an  interesting  experiment  in  some  of  the  Western  States  in 
afforestation.  He  says  that  in  the  vast  prairies  of  the  western  half 
of  Dakota,  Nebraska,  and  Kansas,  the  eastern  part  of  Colorado, 
and  in  the  plains  of  Dakota  and  Wyoming,  there  is  an  almost 
total  absence  of  trees,  and  hence  the  moisture  is  very  deficient.  In 
the  forest  regions  and  amongst  the  mountains,  lumber  and  firewood 
have  rapidly  decreased  from  the  reckless  way  in  which  old  and 
young  trees  have  been  cut.  This  waste  has  been  restrained  by 
various  Acts,  principally  by  the  Timber  Culture  Law,  which 
regulates  the  disposal  of  lands.  In  Nebraska,  fifteen  years  ago, 
a  voluntary  movement  was  started  for  the  encouragement  of 
planting  and  forestry  in  general,  and  one  day  in  the  year,  called 
"Arbor  Day,"  was  set  apart  for  that  purpose.  On  that  day 
trees  are  planted  by  prominent  persons,  and  by  the  local  bodies. 
This  example  has  been  followed  by  almost  every  other  State 
named  above,  and  "Arbor  Day"  is  now  a  public  holiday  in 
those  regions,  the  date  being  fixed  by  the  Governor.  So  great  has 
been  the  progress  that  in  Kansas  alone  there  are  now  no  less  than 
250,000  acres  of  artificial  forest.  The  kind  of  trees  planted 
varies  very  much  with  the  district  and  the  taste  of  the  planters. 
White  elm  is  said  to  be  the  best  tree,  being  of  rapid  growth  and 
yet  hardy.  Oak,  walnut,  maple,  elm,  ash,  catalpa,  pine,  tulip- 
tree,  linden,  and  others,  have  all  been  found  lo  flourish. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Squirrel  Monkey  {Chrysothrix  sciurea)  from 
Guiana,  presented  by  Mr.  George  Miles  ;  a  Rhesus  Monkey 
{Macacus  rhesus  9  )  from  India,  presented  by  Mr.  J.  Witham  ; 
a  Kinkajou  {Cercoleptes  caudivolvulus)  from  Venezuela,  presented 
by  Dr.  A.  Batchelor,  F.R.C.S.  ;  a  Black-backed  Jackal  {Canis 
mesomelas  0  )  from  South  Africa,  presented  by  Lieut.  Lionel  de 
Lautour  Wells,  R.N.  ;  a  Roseate  Cockatoo  {Cacatua  roseicapilla) 
from  Australia,  presented  by  Mrs.  J.  de  la  Mare  ;  a  Sulphur  and 
White-breasted  Toucan  {Ramphastos  vitellinus)  from  Rio  Negro, 
presented  by  Dr.  C.  E.  Lister;  an  Alligator  {Alligator  mississip- 
piensis)  from  Florida,  presented  by  Mr.  Michael  Millard  ;  two 
Sharp-nosed  Crocodiles  {Crocodilus  acuius)  from  Nicaragua, 
presented  by  Mr.  E.  A.  Williams  ;  a  Common  Viper  ( Vipera 
berus),  British,  presented  by  Colonel  C.  S.  Sturt ;  a  Grey  Lemur 
( Hapalcmur  griseus)  from  Madagascar,  received  in  exchange  ;  a 
Barbary  Wild  Sheep  {Ovis  tragclafrhtts  9)  from  North  Africa, 
deposited  ;  a  Brazilian  Cariama  (Cariama  crislata)  bred  in  the 
Gardens. 


ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA  FOR  THE 
WEEK  1888  SEPTEMBER  16-22. 

/"L70R  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
\*~  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 
is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  September  16 
Sun  rises,  5h.  39m.  ;  souths,  nh.  54m.  34'6s.  ;  sets,  18I1.  10m.  : 

right    asc.    on    meridian,    nh.    38-0111.;     decl.    2°   23'  N. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  I7h.  54m. 
Moon  (Full  on   September  20,    5I1.)  rises,    i6h.  57m.  ;  souths, 

2ih.  25m.;  sets,  2h.  om.*:  right  asc.  on  meridian,  2lh.  io'2m.; 

decl.  1 70  45'  S. 


488 


NATURE 


[Sept. 


df 


1888 


Right  asc. 

and  declination 

Planet. 

Rises. 

Souths. 

Sets. 

on 

neridian. 

h.     m. 

h.    m. 

h.     m. 

h.      m. 

Mercury.. 

7  24  .. 

.    13      I    . 

.    18    38    • 

.    12  44'2 

...     5    8S. 

7  20  .. 

•   13     3  • 

.    18   46    . 

.    12  46 -4 

...     3  58  S. 

Mars 

12  23  .. 

.   16  22  . 

.    20    21     . 

•   16     6-5 

...  22  29  S. 

Jupiter. . . . 

11  54  .. 

.   16  11   . 

.    20    28    . 

•  15  55"° 

...   19  45  S. 

Saturn 

1  57  •• 

•     9  30  • 

•  17     3  • 

•     9  i3'4 

...   16  52  N. 

Uranus . . . 

7  43  •• 

•   13  17  • 

.  18  51  . 

•  13    0-5 

...     5  47  S. 

Neptune.. 

20  33*.. 

.     4  20  . 

.12     7  . 

•     4     2-3 

...   18  58  N. 

*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 

Occultations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 


Corresponding 

angles  from  ver- 

Sept.                   Star. 

Mag. 

Disap. 

Reap. 

tex  to  right  for 
inverted  image. 

h.    in. 

h.    m. 

0         0 

16  ...   30  Capricorni  . 

.  6     .. 

.    21    47    ... 

23      I 

...    128   287 

19  ...  B.A.C.  8274   . 

.  6     .. 

20  56  near  approach   176    - 

Sept.               h. 

19      ...         4      ... 

Mercury  in  conjunction  with  and  i°40'  south 

of  Venus. 

22      ...       15      ... 

Sun  in  equator. 

Variable  Stars. 

Star. 

R.A. 

Decl. 

h. 

m. 

t 

h.    m. 

U  Cephei     

.     O 

52-4  •• 

.  81   16  N. 

...  Sept 

2i,    4  54J/ 

T  Arietis      

.       2 

42*1   .. 

17     3  N. 

,, 

2i,              m 

Algol    

•     3 

0'9  .. 

.  40  31  N. 

,, 

17,  20  15  m 

R  Leporis 

4  54-5  - 

14  59  S. 

,, 

18,             m 

T  Monocerotis    .. 

.     6 

I9-2  .. 

7    9N. 

J  J 

21,    3     0  M 

C  Geminorum 

.     6 

57'5   •• 

20  44  N. 

,, 

19,     0     O  m 

S  Canis  Minoris  .. 

•     7 

26-6  .. 

8  33  N. 

,, 

19,              M 

S  Cancri      

8 

37*5  •• 

19  26  N. 

,, 

22,     1   11  m 

V  Bootis      

•   14 

253  ■• 

39  22  N. 

}» 

22,             m 

U  Coronae 

•  15 

13-6  .. 

32     3  N. 

,, 

16,     1     6  m 
22,  22  48  m 

S  Librae       

15 

15-0  .. 

19  59  S. 

,, 

22,             M 

S  Scorpii     

16 

II'O  .. 

22  37  S. 

,, 

16,             M 

U  Ophiuchi 

17 

10*9  .. 

1  20  N. 

...          || 

19,    322  « 

R  Scuti        

18 

41*5  •■ 

5  5o  S. 

,, 

19,    '         M 

0  Lyrae 

.  18 

46*0  .. 

33  14  N. 

,. 

20,    21        O    111. , 

77  Aquilae      

•  19 

46-8  .. 

0  43  N. 

,, 

18,  23     O  m 

T  Vulpeculse 

20 

467  .. 

27  50  N. 

>> 

19,  21    0  m 

20,  23    0  M 

W  Cygni      

21 

3I-8-. 

44  53  N. 

,, 

20,             M 

5  Cephei      

22 

25*0  ... 

57  51  N. 

...          ,, 

20,    3     0  tn 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum  ;  m2  s 

econdary 

minimum. 

Meteor-Showers. 

R.A. 

Decl. 

Near  e  Tauri  ... 

..      64 

...    21  N.    . 

..  Swift 

;  streaks. 

„     7?  Aurigae 

-     74 

...  41  N.  . 

..   Sept. 

21.      Swift  : 

streaks. 

,,     x  Orionis 

..     89 

...   18  N.  . 

..   Very 

swift. 

98 

...  44  N.  . 

. .  Very  swift ;  streaks. 

SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  September  3. — M.  Janssen,  Presi- 
dent, in  the  chair. — Microbism  and  abscess,  by  M.  Verneuil. 
The  ordinary  type  of  abscess  is  studied  in  connection  with  the 
new  light  thrown  on  the  subject  by  microbic  researches  on 
suppuration.  The  almost  constant  presence  of  the  micro-organisms 
described  by  Klebs,  Pasteur,  and  others,  shows  that  they  are  in 
all  probability  the  real  and  exclusive  cause  of  pyogenesis,  a  con- 
clusion placed  almost  beyond  doubt  by  the  fact  that,  when 
introduced  into  ihe  animal  system,  these  organisms  invariably 
produce  suppuration  and  abscesses.  A  classification  is  given  of 
the  microbes  in  question,  which  are  divided  into  two  distinct 
groups:  (1)  pyogenic  microbes,  properly  so  called,  which  are 
normally  present,  such  as  the  orange,  lemon,  white,  and  other 
yarieties  of  Micrococcus  and  Diplococcus  ;  (2)  those  which  occur 
irregularly  in  the  purulent  matter,  but  which  may  exist  normally 
in  the  system  apart  from  any  pyogenic  symptoms  or  centres  of 


suppuration — various  kinds  of  Bacteria,  Vibriones,  Bacilli,  &c.  A 
classification  follows  of  abscesses  themselves,  based  on  the 
etiology  of  pyogenesis  as  well  as  on  their  pathological  anatomy 
and  physiology. — Inscription  giving  the  details  of  a  lunar  eclipse, 
by  M.  Oppert.  This  inscription,  the  text  of  which  was  first 
published  by  Strassmaier  in  the  Zeitschrift  fur  Assyriologie, 
vol.  ii  ,  is  referred  to  the  year  24  B.C.,  232  of  the  era  of  the 
Arsacides.  It  describes  the  eclipse  as  having  been  predicted  by 
the  astronomer  Uruda  (Orodes),  and  as  taking  place,  as  predicted, 
in  the  month  of  Nisan,  on  the  13th  night,  at  the  hour  of 
5  and  51  parts,  which  is  reduced  to  Monday,  March  23, 
9h.  30m.  p.m.,  Paris  meantime. — The  fluorescent  compounds  of 
chromium  and  manganese,  by  M.  Lecoq  de  Boisbaudran.  These 
substances  are  studied  and  prepared  synthetically  with  a  view  to 
determining  their  several  degrees  of  oxidation. — Note  on  the 
position  of  some  points  on  the  Brazilian  seaboard,  extracted 
from  a  memoir  of  the  Commissao  de  Longitudes,  by  M. 
Cruls.  The  places,  whose  positions  are  here  astronomically 
determined  by  the  officers  attached  to  the  Brazilian  Hydrographic 
Service,  are  Cape  Frio,  oh.  4m.  34*055.  (with  probable  error 
o-i2s.),  east  of  Rio  de  Janeiro;  and  Santos,  oh.  12m.  33-44s. 
(with  probable  error  o'20s.),  west  of  Rio  de  Janeiro. — On  the 
measurement  of  the  refraction  indices  of  crystals  with  double 
axis,  by  M.  Charles  Soret.  These  measurements  are  here 
effected  by  the  observation  of  the  limiting  angles  of  total 
reflection  on  any  facets. — Physiological  action  of  the  chloride  of 
ethylene  on  the  cornea,  by  M.  Raphael  Dubois.  In  a  previous 
paper  (Comptes  rendus,  vol.  civ.,  No.  26,  1887)  the  author 
showed  that  the  chloride  of  ethylene  (C2H4C12)  introduced  in 
any  way  into  the  system  produces  in  the  dog,  several  hours  after 
waking,  an  opacity  of  the  cornea  of  a  very  remarkable  character. 
Here  he  studies  the  nature  of  this  phenomenon,  and  determines 
the  mechanism  by  which  it  is  produced. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Eclectic  Physical  Geography:  R.  Hinman  (Cincinnati). — Solutions  of  the 
Examples  in  an  Elementary  Treatise  on  Conic  Sections  :  C.  Smith  (Mac- 
millan). — Chart  for  Great  Circle  Sailing.  Nos.  1  and  2  :  R.  A.  Proctor 
(Stanford). — Les  Tremblements  de  Terre  :  F.  Fouque  (Bailliere,  Paris)  — 
Die  Structur  und  Zusammensetzung  der  Meteoreisen,  Liefg.  1,  2,  3:  A. 
Brez'.na  and  E.  Cohen  (Stuttgart). — The  Speaking  Parrots,  Part  5  :  Dr. 
K.Russ  (U.  Gill). -The  Flowering  Plants  of  Wilts:  Rev.  T.  A.  Preston 
(Wilts  Archaeological  and  Natural  Historv  Society). — Results  of  Experi- 
ments at  Rothamsted  on  the  Growth  of  Root  Crops  :  J.  H.  Gilbert. — 
Memoranda  of  the  Origin,  Plan,  and  Results  of  the  Field  and  other  Experi- 
ments at  Rothamsted. — On  Infant  Feeding  and  the  Value  of  Preparations  of 
Pure  Alpine  Milk  :  Dr.  Nachtigal  (Ridgway). — Proceedings  of  the  Bristol 
Naturalists'  Society,  vol.  v.  Part  3  (Bristol). — Proceedings  of  the  American 
Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  New  Serie?,  vol.  xv.  Part  1  (Boston). — 
Meteorological  Record,  vol.  vii.  No.  28  (Stanford). — -Quarterly  Journal  of 
the  Royal  Meteorological  Society,  July  (Stanford). 


CONTENTS.  page 

Experiments  on  the  Growth  of  Wheat 465 

The  Japanese  Volcanic  Eruption 466 

Calculation    of   Ranges,    &c,    of   Elongated    Pro- 
jectiles.    By  Rev.  F.  Bashforth 468 

The   British  Association 469 

Section  B — Chemical  Science. — Opening  Address  by 
Prof.  William  A.  Tilden,  D.Sc.  Lond.,  F.R.S., 

F.C.S.,  President  of  the  Section 470 

Section  D — Biology. — Opening  Address  by  W.  T. 
Thiselton-Dyer,  C.M.G.,  M.A.,  B.Sc,  F.R.S., 

F.L.S.,  President  of  the  Section 473 

Section  E  —  Geography.  —  Opening  Address  by 
Colonel  Sir  C.  W.  Wilson,  R.E.,  K.C.B., 
K.C.M.G.,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  F.R.G.S., 
Director-General  of  the  Ordnance  Survey,  President 

of  the  Section 480 

Notes 4S5 

Astronomical     Phenomena    for     the     Week    1888 

September  16-22 487 

Societies  and  Academies    . 488 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 488 


NA  TURE 


489 


THURSDAY,   SEPTEMBER   20,    ii 


A   TEXT-BOOK  OF  PHYSIOLOGY. 

A  Text-book  of  Physiology.  By  J.  G.  McKendrick,  M.  D. 
LL.D.,  F.R.S.  Including  "Histology,"  by  Philipp 
Stohr,  M.D.  In  Two  Volumes.  Vol.  I.  General 
Physiology.  (Glasgow :  MacLehose  and  Sons. 
London:    Macmillan  and  Co.     1888.) 

THE  present  volume  deals  with  the  general  principles 
of  biology,  the  chemistry  of  the  body,  the  early 
stages  of  development,  the  microscope,  and  the  methods 
of  microscopical  research,  the  histology  of  the  tissues  and 
the  physiology  of  muscle.  It  is  no  doubt  very  difficult  to  say 
what  should  and  what  should  not  be  included  in  a  text-book 
of  physiology.  The  primary  object  is  to  explain  as  much 
as  we  can  of  the  phenomena  of  the  animal  organism  by 
physical  and  chemical  laws.  To  understand  such  an 
explanation,  a  knowledge  of  chemistry,  physics,  and  of 
the  structure  of  the  organism  is  essential.  These  sub- 
jects are  treated  of  in  special  text-books  which  do  not 
contain  any  physiology,  and  their  introduction  into  a 
work  devoted  to  this  subject  cannot  fail  to  exert  an 
injurious  influence  on  the  full  exposition  of  the  actual 
state  of  the  science. 

The  present  work  is  noticeable  for  the  large  amount  of 
subsidiary  matter  which  has  been  introduced,  rather  than 
as  being  a  very  complete  account  of  modern  physiology. 
The  book  is,  however,  intended  by  its  author  to  aid  the 
student  to  an  intelligent  knowledge  of  physiology,  or 
rather,  of  all  the  subjects  which  are  commonly  dealt 
with  by  lecturers  on  physiology.  It  supplies  the  physical 
and  chemical  information  more  immediately  required  in 
physiological  problems ;  it  explains  the  methods  by 
which  the  more  important  results  have  been  obtained  ; 
and  it  gives  a  general  insight  into  important  biological 
facts. 

Considering  the  very  wide  range  of  subjects,  the  choice 
of  matter  has  been  very  well  adapted  to  the  object  in 
view,  and  the  book  will  doubtless  find  a  larger  circle  of 
readers  than  the  Professor's  own  class,  for  which  it  is 
especially  intended.  However,  the  degree  to  which  the 
various  sections  have  been  brought  up  to  date  is  very 
unequal.  Some  of  the  subjects  have  evidently  been 
thoroughly  worked  up,  whilst  others  appear  to  have  been 
chiefly  compiled  from  existing  and  not  wholly  modern 
text-books.  In  a  work  of  this  character,  unless  the 
author  be  endowed  with  almost  superhuman  industry, 
such  a  result  is  inevitable,  and  is  fully  foreseen  by  the 
author  himself. 

The  section  devoted  to  the  general  structure  and 
physiology  of  the  cell,  the  phenomena  of  fertilization, 
and  the  modern  views  on  heredity,  will  certainly  be  much 
appreciated.  General  biological  knowledge  of  this  kind 
is  often  eagerly  sought  for  by  the  student,  and  not  always 
readily  obtainable. 

The  microscope  and  the  methods  of  microscopical 
research  are  very  good  and  modern,  but  this  is  a  sub- 
ject which  is  hardly  expected  in  a  text-book  of  physiology. 
The  histology  of  the  tissues  calls  for  no  special  comment. 

In    connection    with    the    physiology   of    muscle,   the 
object  and  use  of  the  graphic  method  is  explained  with 
Vol.  xxxviii.— No.  986. 


great  care,  very  clear  and  good  illustrations  being  given 
of  the  apparatus  used.  Muscle  physiology  itself  is  treated 
in  considerable  detail,  to  which  is  added  the  physiology 
of  the  electrical  organ  in  fishes,  containing  the  recent 
researches  of  Prof.  Sanderson  and  Mr.  Gotch.  The 
physiology  of  smooth  muscle  is  very  scantily  touched  on, 
and  the  figures  in  connection  with  the  heat  produced  by 
muscle  are  not  correct ;  nor  is  any  reference  made  to  the 
observations  of  Ludwig  and  Meade  Smith,  on  the  heat 
produced  in  the  mammalian  muscle  when  tetanized 
under  different  conditions  of  blood-supply.  Surely  they 
are  much  more  to  the  point  than  the  observations  of 
Billroth  and  Fick,  which  are  only  applicable  to  the 
organism  as  a  whole. 

The  best  feature  in  the  chemical  part  of  the  work  is 
the  introduction  of  sections  on  the  general  chemical  pro- 
cesses of  the  organism  and  on  fermentation.  With  regard 
to  the  former,  the  paragraph  devoted  to  reduction — as  an 
important  chemical  process  of  the  organism — is  too  short : 
the  interesting  observations  of  Ehrlich  on  the  reducing 
powers  of  the  tissues  (as  shown  by  the  injection  of 
alizarin-blue,  endophenol-white)  are  surely  worthy  of 
mention.  The  undoubted  fact  that  the  blood  of  asphyxi- 
ated animals  contains  reducing  substances  is  not  alluded 
to,  nor  is  the  role  which  modern  physiological  chemists 
ascribe  to  these  reducing  substances  in  producing  nascent 
oxygen,  and  so  bringing  about  the  oxidations  of  the 
tissues,  pointed  out  with  sufficient  clearness.  Fermenta- 
tion is  considered  in  its  historic  aspect,  and  from  its 
chemical  and  biological  sides.  The  history  of  organized 
ferments  is  adequately  treated,  as  are  also  the  early  and 
important  observations  of  Pasteur.  What  we  actually 
know  about  the  relationship  of  enzymes  and  organized 
ferments  is  not  clearly  expressed,  no  account  being  given 
of  the  researches  of  Musculus,  Lea,  and  others,  which 
have  shown  that  enzymes  can  be  obtained  from  organized 
ferments.  Nor  is  the  question  of  the  chemical  nature  of 
enzymes  sufficiently  discussed. 

The  remainder  of  the  section  of  chemistry  contains 
numerous  defects.  Thus  a  long  chapter  is  devoted  to  the 
signification  of  chemical  formulae,  but  we  are  later  told  of 
the  albumins  that  their  "  chemical  constitution  oscillates 
round  the  following  :  Cs^yN^O^S.''  No  mention  is 
made  of  the  observations  of  Schmiedeberg,  Drechsel,  or 
Grubler,  on  artificial  albumin  crystals— observations  of 
the  highest  importance  for  all  future  work  on  proteids. 
The  accounts  given  of  casein,  mucin,  and  nuclein 
are  not  in  accordance  with  our  present  knowledge. 
The  chemical  relations  of  indigo  are  given  in  detail, 
but  the  indican  of  the  urine  is  said  to  have  the 
formula  C2aH31N017,  and  no  mention  is  made  of  indoxyl 
potassium  sulphate.  So  with  uric  acid,  nothing  is  said 
about  the  most  important  facts  of  Horbaczewski  and  E. 
Ludwig  on  the  formation  of  uric  acid  from  glycocoll 
and  urea,  which  correspond  so  well  with  Strecker's  view 
of  uric  acid  as  a  body  analogous  with  hippuric  acid  (the 
benzoic  acid  being  replaced  by  cyanic),  and  with  the 
remarkable  physiological  fact  observed  by  Wohler,  that 
calves,  as  long  as  they  feed  on  milk,  excrete  only  uric 
acid,  and  no  hippuric,  whilst  the  reverse  is  the  case  when 
they  take  to  a  vegetable  diet.  Again,  in  regard  to  the 
formation  of  uric  acid,  two  extremely  important  researches, 
have  been  made — that  of  Schroeder  on   the  influence  of 

Y 


49o 


NATURE 


\_Sept.  20,  1888 


ammonia  salts  in  producing  uric  acid  in  birds,  and  the 
remarkable  confirmation  of  this  by  Minkowski,  who 
found,  after  extirpation  of  the  liver,  the  uric  acid  of  the 
bird's  urine  replaced  by  ammonia. 

The  subject  most  fully  treated  is  that  of  the  pigments, 
but  here  again  the  important  works  of  Nencki  and  Sieber 
on  haemoglobin  and  its  derivatives,  find  no  mention.  A 
work  like  the  present  is  necessarily  a  compromise.  It 
does  not  give  so  equable  and  well-judged  an  account  of 
what  it  is  important  to  know  in  physiology  as  might  be 
expected  from  the  reputation  of  the  author  and  the  size 
of  the  book  ;  but  it  shows  the  judgment  of  an  experienced 
teacher  in  endeavouring  to  make  every  subject  perfectly 
intelligible  and  in  leaving  no  branch  of  physiological 
science  untouched.  L.  C.  Wooldridge. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

The  Mind 0/ the  Child.  Part  I.  The  Senses  and  the  Will ; 
Observations  concerning  the  Mental  Development  of  the 
Human  Being  in  the  First  Year  of  Life.  By  W.  Preyer, 
Professor  of  Physiology  in  Jena.  Translated  from  the 
original  German  by  H.  W.  Brown.  "  International  Edu- 
cation Series."  (New  York  :  Appleton  and  Co.  London  : 
Whittaker  and  Co.      1888). 

It  is  with  no  small  satisfaction  that  we  notice  the  issue  of 
this  work  in  the  English  language.  It  has  already 
remained  much  too  long  in  the  German  and  French 
tongues  only  ;  and  it  speaks  ill  for  the  enterprise  of 
British  publishers  that  now  the  name  of  Appleton  appears 
upon  the  cover.  For,  although  comparisons  as  a  rule  are 
invidious,  in  the  present  instance  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  work  in  question  holds  the  first  place  in  the 
literature  of  the  subject  with  which  it  deals.  And  since 
the  study  of  infant  psychology  was  inaugurated  by  M. 
Taine  and  Mr.  Darwin,  it  has  become  so  popular  a 
branch  of  scientific  literature  that  an  English  translation 
of  "  Die  Seele  des  Kindes  "  must  be  an  assured  success, 
even  from  a  commercial  point  of  view. 

In  the  case  of  a  book  already  so  well  known,  it  is 
needless  to  say  much  by  way  of  analysis.  We  must 
remark,  however,  that  the  present  volume  comprises  only 
Parts  I.  and  II.  of  the  original — the  remainder  being 
reserved  for  publication  as  a  second  volume.  Hence  the 
instalment  of  the  translation  now  before  us  deals  only 
with  the  senses  and  the  will  ;  the  next  instalment  having 
to  treat  of  the  intellect,  and  all  supplementary  matter. 
As  everyone  who  has  read  the  original  is  aware,  Prof. 
Preyer  has  devoted  himself  to  his  subject  with  an  assiduity 
and  a  thoroughness  which  only  an  assured  conviction  of 
its  importance  could  inspire.  And,  in  the  result,  his 
patiently  continuous  observation,  his  skilled  intelligence 
as  a  well-read  psychologist,  together  with  his  high  attain- 
ments as  a  professed  physiologist,  combine  to  render  his 
work,  not  only  as  before  remarked  the  most  important, 
but  also  in  many  respects  the  most  interesting,  that  has 
hitherto  appeared  upon  the  subject  of  psychogenesis. 
Therefore  we  recommend  this  work  to  all  our  English 
readers  as  the  best  that  they  can  procure  on  "  the  mind 
of  the  child  " — and  this  whether  their  interest  in  such  a 
mind  be  scientific  only  or  likewise  parental. 

G.  J.  R. 

Arithmetical  Exercises.  By  H.  S.  Hall,  M.A.,  and  S.  R. 
Knight,  B.A.     (London  :  Macmillan  and  Co.,  188S.) 

In  this  book  we  have  a  collection  of  examples  comprising 
about  eighty  progressive  miscellaneous  exercises  and  a 
set  of  fifty  papers  taken  from  such  examinations  as  the 
London  University,  Oxford  and  Cambridge  Local,  Pre- 
vious Cambridge,  Army  Preliminary,  &c.     The  examp'es 


are  judiciously  chosen,  and  great  care  seems  to  have 
been  taken  to  make  the  work  as  "progressive  as  possible. 
An  appendix  is  added,  consisting  of  two  hundred 
graduated  questions  in  logarithms  and  mensuration,  pre- 
ceded by  a  list  of  the  numerical  constants  and  formulae 
used  in  the  latter.  The  answers  to  the  examples  are  all 
collected  together  at  the  end. 

An  Elementary  Treatise  on  Mensuration.  By  E.  T. 
Henchie.  (London  :  School  Books  Publishing  Com- 
pany, 1888.) 

In  this  work  we  have  an  excellent  treatise  for  those  who 
are  about  to  begin  the  study  of  this  subject.  All  reference 
to  trigonometry  has  purposely  been  avoided,  and  the 
author  has  in  the  second  chapter  added  the  enunciations 
of  Euclid's  propositions  which  bear  on  the  work,  together 
with  an  explanation  of  each. 

Plain  rectilinear  figures,  curvilinear  areas,  the  circle, 
surfaces  and  volumes  of  solids,  are  dealt  with  in  turn, 
and  each  chapter  is  accompanied  by  a  set  of  illustrative 
examples  thoroughly  worked  out  and  explained,  followed 
by  a  separate  set  to  be  worked  out  by  the  student.  Land 
surveying  forms  the  subject  of  the  eighth  chapter,  in 
which  are  described  the  various  instruments  with  the 
methods  of  using  them.  The  figures  throughout  are  very 
clear,  and*  the  shading  used  in  those  of  the  chapter  on 
solids  is  excellent.  The  book  concludes  with  a  set  of 
miscellaneous  examples,  making  in  all  about  1260, 
together  with  the  answers  to  the  above. 


LETTERS    TO    THE  EDITOR, 

The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
of  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations.] 

Lamarckism   versus  Darwinism. 

I  had  hoped  that  my  previous  letter  might  have  closed  this 
correspondence,  but  Mr.  Poulton's  reply  suggests  to  me  the  pro- 
priety of  making  one  additional  remark.  This  is,  that  while 
writing  the  sentence  in  the  Contemporary  Review  to  which  he 
ha*  taken  exception,  it  never  occurred  to  me  that  anyone  would 
gather  from  it  that  I  intended  to  disparage  the  work  of  an 
eminent  man,  who  happens  to  be  also  a  personal  friend.  But, 
as  this  appears  to  be  the  impression  conveyed  to  Mr.  Poulton,  I 
should  not  like  to  allow  his  statement  of  it  to  pass  unnoticed.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  no  one  can  appreciate  more  thoroughly  than  I  do 
the  extensive  knowledge,  the  clearness  of  thought,  and  the 
great  powers  of  original  research  which  are  now  being  so 
conspicuously  displayed  by  Prof.  Weismann. 

From  the  first  it  has  been  sufficiently  obvious  to  me  how  the 
present  misunderstanding  arose  ;  and  if,  in>tead  of  affirming 
that  I  was  ignorant  of  Prof.  Weismann's  writings,  Mr.  Poulton 
had  begun  as  he  has  ended,  by  asking  me  to  "explain"  my 
remark  with  reference  to  them,  of  course  I  should  at  once 
have  done  so.  However,  as  stated  in  my  last  letter,  it  is  my 
intention  at  no  very  distant  date  to  deal  with  the  whole  question 
of  so-called  "Lamarckism  versus  Darwinism"  ;  and,  therefore, 
my  only  object  in  this  communication  is  to  stop  from  going 
further  the  impression  that  I  hold  in  light  esteem  the  highly 
important  achievements  of  Prof.  Weismann. 

George  J.  Romanes. 

Geanies,  Ross-shire,  September  8. 


Mr.  Gulick  on  Divergent  Evolution. 
Mr.  Gulick's  paper  on  this  subject  appears  in  the  last 
number  of  the  Journal  of  the  Linnean  Society  as  having  been 
"  communicated  by  Alfred  Russel  Wallace,  F.L.S."  It  may 
therefore  be  s-upposed  that  I  recommended  its  publication,  or 
that  I  agree  with  its  main  argument  ;  and  as  this  is  not  the 
case,  I  ask  permission  to  say  a  few  words  on  the  subject  in  the 
columns  of  Nature. 


Sept.  20,  1888J 


NA  TURE 


491 


In  1872,  Mr.  Gulick  sent  me  his  paper  on  "Diversity  of 
Evolution  under  One  Set  of  External  Conditions,"  requesting 
me,  if  I  thought  fit,  to  communicate  it  to  the  Linnean  Society. 
As  the  paper  contained  a  body  of  very  interesting  facts  observed 
by  the  author,  I  had  no  hesitation  in  recommending  it's  accept- 
ance by  the  Society,  although  I  did  not  agree  with  the  conclusions 
Mr.  Gulick  drew  from  his  facts. 

Last  year  Mr.  Gulick  sent  me  the  manuscript  of  his  present 
paper,  informing  me  that  it  was  the  result  of  long-continued  study 
of  the  subject,  and  asking  me  to  forward  it  to  the  Linnean  Society. 
I  did  so,  writing  to  the  Secretary  that  T  had  not  read  the 
paper  through,  and  did  not  undertake  the  responsibility  of 
recommending  it  for  acceptance. 

Having  now  read  the  paper  in  print,  I  find  very  little  in  it 
that  I  can  agree  with.  I  can  discover  in  it  no  additional  facts 
beyond  those  which  were  set  before  us  in  the  former  paper 
sixeen  years  ago,  while  there  is  an  enormous  body  of  theoretical 
statements,  many  of  which  seem  to  me  erroneous,  and  a  highly 
complex  classification  of  the  conditions  under  which  the  separa- 
tion or  isolation  of  individuals  of  a  species  takes  place,  with  a 
new  and  cumbrous  terminology,  neither  of  which,  in  my  opinion, 
adds  to  our  knowledge  or  comprehension  of  the  matter  at  issue. 

As  in  almost  every  page  of  this  long  paper  I  find  statements 
which  seem  to  me  to  be  either  disputable  or  positively  erroneous, 
any  extended  criticism  of  it  is  out  of  the  question  ;  but  I  wish  to 
call  attention  to  one  or  two  points  of  vital  importance.  Mr.  Gulick's 
alleged  discovery  is,  "the  law  of  cumulative  divergence  through 
cumulative  segregation  "  (p.  212).  He  maintains  that  any  initial 
variation,  if  isolated  by  any  of  the  causes  he  has  enumerated,  but 
remaining  under  identically  the  same  environment,  will  increase 
till  it  becomes  in  time  a  specific  or  even  a  generic  divergence, 
and  this  without  any  action  whatever  of  natural  selection.  Now 
if  this  is  a  fact  it  is  a  mo^t  important  and  fundamental  fact,  equal 
in  its  far-reaching  significance  to  natural  selection  itself.  I 
accordingly  read  the  paper  with  continual  expectation  of  finding 
some  evidence  of  this  momentous  principle,  but  in  vain.  There 
is  a  most  elaborate  discussion  and  endless  refined  subdivisions  cf 
the  varied  modes  in  which  the  individuals  constituting  a  species 
may  be  kept  apart  and  prevented  from  intercrossing,  but  no 
attempt  whatever  to  prove  that  the  result  of  such  complete  or 
partial  isolation  is  "  cumulative  divergence."  The  only  passage 
which  may  perhaps  be  considered  such  an  attempt  at  proof  is 
that  on  p.  219,  where  he  supposes  an  experiment  to  be  made, 
and  then  gives  us  what  he  thinks  "  experienced  breeders"  will 
assure  us  would  be  the  result.  In  this  experiment,  however, 
there  is  to  be  constant  selection  and  reassortment  of  each  brood, 
yet  he  asserts  that  "there  is  no  selection  in  the  sense  in  which 
natural  selection  is  selection  "  ;  by  which  he  appears  to  mean  that 
the  selection  is  by  "  separation  "  not  by  "extermination."  This, 
however,  seems  to  me  to  be  a  distinction  without  a  difference. 

Again,  in  the  various  illustrations  of  how  "  cumulative  segre- 
gation "is  brought  about,  natural  selection  must  always  come 
into  play — as  in  the  case  of  a  change  in  digestive  powers,  and 
consequent  adoption  of  a  different  food  (p.  223),  leading  to  par- 
tial isolation  ;  and  such  cases  are  exactly  what  is  contemplated 
by  Darwin  in  his  brief  statement  of  the  effects  of  "divergence  of 
character"  ("Origin,"  pp.  86-90),  while  the  concurrence  of 
"isolation  "  as  a  factor  is  fully  recognized  at  pp.  81-83  of  the 
same  work  (6th  edition). 

It  appears  to  me  that  throughout  his  paper  Mr.  Gulick  omits 
the  consideration  of  the  inevitable  agency  of  natural  selection, 
arising  from  the  fact  of  only  a  very  small  proportion  of  the  off- 
spring produced  each  year  possibly  surviving.  Thus  when,  at 
p.  214,  he  states  that  "  the  fact  of  divergence  in  any  case  is  not 
a  sufficient  ground  for  assuming  that  the  diverging  form  has  an 
advantage  over  the  type  from  which  it  diverges,"  he  omits  from 
all  consideration  the  fact  that  at  each  step  of  the  divergence 
there  was  necessarily  selection  of  the  fit  and  the  less  fit  to  sur- 
vive ;  and  that  if,  as  a  fact,  the  two  extremes  have  survived,  and 
not  the  intermediate  steps  which  led  to  one  or  both  of  them,  it 
is  a  proof  that  both  had  an  advantage  over  the  original  less 
specialized  form.  Darwin  explains  this  in  his  section  on  "  Ex- 
tinction caused  by  Natural  Selection"  (p.  85).  On  the  whole, 
I  fail  to  see  that  Mr.  Gulick  has  established  any  new  principle, 
either  as  a  substitute  for,  or  in  addition  to,  natural  selection  as 
set  forth  by  Darwin.  Others,  however,  may  think  differently  ; 
and  I  shall  be  glad  if  any  naturalists  who  have  studied  Darwin's 
works  will  point  out,  definitely,  in  what  way  this  paper  extends 
our  knowledge  of  the  mode  in  which  species  have  originated. 

Alfred  R.  Wallace. 


The  Death  of  Clausius. 

I  do  not  know  by  what  unfortunate  accident  it  happened 
that  I  did  not  hear  of  the  death  of  the  great  Clausius  until  after 
the  meeting  of  the  British  Association.  I  write  this  in  order  to 
explain  how  I  neglected  to  express  the  sorrow  of  the  scientific 
world  in  Britain  in  the  loss,  and  our  sympathy  with  the  scientific 
world  in  Germany.  It  is  not  the  part  of  a  young  disciple  like 
mc  to  eulogize  the  giants  of  the  passing  generation,  but  I  regret 
greatly  that  any  appearance  of  want  of  appreciation  of  the 
labours  of  o:ie  of  the  most  brilliant  lights  of  the  nineteenth 
century  should  attach  to  British  science  owing  to  my  silence. 

Geo.  Fkas.  Fitzgerald. 

Trinity  College,  Dublin,  September  15. 


The  March  Storms. 

The  accounts  of  March  storms  in  England  which  reach  us 
lead  me  to  think  that  it  would  be  interesting  to  note  the  follow- 
ing. On  March  13,  barometers  in  Western  Australia  had  fallen 
suddenly  o-20  inch  ;  the  cyclone  passed  rapidly  eastward  along  the 
south  coast  of  Australia.  On  the  15th  we  had  a  heavy  gale  of 
wind  at  Sydney  ;  the  anemometer  showed  55  miles  an  hour. 
Lake  George  was  so  disturbed  that  the  observer  was  wind-bound 
in  the  small  house  which  holds  the  recording  machine  for  several 
days,  and  the  tidal  register  at  Sydney  shows  considerable  dis- 
turbance like  earthquake-waves  during  the  15th,  16th,  and  17th. 
On  the  15th  the  level  of  the  Sydney  transit  instrument  was 
found  to  have  changed  suddenly  since  the  14th,  o''7,  the  western 
pier  having  fallen.  A  tidal  wave  reached  New  Guinea  and 
New  Britain  on  the  13th  ;  at  the  latter  place  it  is  supposed 
to  have  risen  40  feet.  H.  C.  Russell. 

Sydney  Observatory,  July  26. 


INTERNA  TIONAL   ME TEOROLOG  Y. 

THE!  International  Meteorological  Committee  held  a 
-*-  meeting  at  Zurich,  in  the  Polytechnikum,  from  the 
3rd  to  the  5th  of  this  month.  All  the  members  were 
present.  The  most  important  point  on  which  action  was 
taken  was  the  subject  of  future  meetings  to  beheld  instead 
of  Meteorological  Congresses  organized  by  diplomatic 
means.     The  following  was  the  resolution  adopted  : — 

"  The  Committee,  in  view  of  the  circumstance  that  the 
assembling  of  an  international  meeting,  of  the  same 
character  as  the  Congresses  of  Vienna  and  Rome,  presents 
great  difficulties,  considers  that  the  commission  it  received 
at  Rome  is  exhausted,  and  that  it  ought  to  dissolve  itself. 

"  At  the  same  time,  in  order  to  continue  the  relations 
between  the  different  meteorological  organizations,  which 
have  been  productive  of  such  good  results  during  a  series 
of  years,  the  Committee  appoints  a  small  bureau  with  the 
duty  of  using  its  best  endeavours  to  bring  about,  at  some 
convenient  time,  an  international meetingof  representatives 
of  the  different  Meteorological  Services." 

By  a  subsequent  resolution  the  bureau  was  made  to 
consist  of  the  President  and  Secretary  of  the  Committee 
(Prof.  Wild  and  Mr.  Scott). 

Among  other  matters  on  which  action  was  taken  may 
be  mentioned  : — 

Cloud  Classification. — It  was  decided  that  the  proposals 
of  Messrs.  Hilclebrandsson  and  Abercromby  were  not  ripe 
enough  to  be  recommended  for  general  adoption. 

Meteorological  I  /formation  from  Travellers. — On  the 
motion  of  Dr.  Hann  certain  rules  were  laid  down,  to  be 
recommended  to  all  Geographical  Societies,  &c,  as  to  the 
conditions  which  must  be  observed  in  order  to  render 
published  records  of  meteorological  observations  of  any 
real  service  to  meteorology.  These  relate  to  instruments 
and  their  corrections,  exposure,  methods  of  calculation, 
&c,  &c. 

The  Committee  finally  dissolved  itself. 

Robt.  H.  Scott. 

Meteorological  Office,  September  19. 


492 


NA  TURE 


[Sept.  20,  1 


THE  NORWEGIAN  GREENLAND 
EXPEDITION. 

INFORMATION  having  been  received  by  the  sealer 
Jaso?i  of  the  Norwegian  Expedition  under  Dr. 
Fridtjof  Nansen,  which  is  to  attempt  traversing  Green- 
land from  the  east  coast  to  the  west  coast,  having  left 
that  vessel  on  July  17  in  lat.  65°  2'  N.,  and  by  this  time 
is  no  doubt  fairly  on  its  way  across  the  inland  ice,  some 
particulars  of  the  plan  and  aim  of  this  expedition,  fur- 
nished by  the  leader  himself,  will  doubtless  prove  of 
interest,  and  tend  to  correct  various  erroneous  statements 
which  have  appeared. 

When  leaving  the  Jason,  an  ice-belt  about  ten  miles 
in  width  separated  the  vessel  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Sermilik  Fjord,  and  the  Expedition  was  seen  to  make 
good  progress,  either  walking  over  the  ice  or  rowing 
through  it,  and  at  6  a.m.  it  was  out  of  sight.  It  was  Dr. 
Nansen's  intention  to  land  in  this  fjord,  which  is  in- 
habited, and  proceed  to  the  bottom,  where  he  would 
attempt  to  ascend  to  the  inland  ice  plateau.  The  moun- 
tains around  the  fjord  are  very  steep,  and  upwards  of 
6000  feet  in  height,  but  still  this  spot  was  recommended 
by  the  Danish  explorer,  Captain  Holm,  as  the  most  suit- 
able. It  is  agreed  by  all  competent  authorities  that  once 
on  the  inland  ice  plateau  the  rest  of  the  journey  will  be 
comparatively  easy,  Dr.  Nansen  and  his  followers  pur- 
posing to  journey  on  the  so-called  Norwegian  Ski  across 
the  smooth  snowy  surface  of  the  inland  ice.  These 
adjuncts  of  locomotion  are  highly  recommended  by 
Baron  Nordenskiold  in  land  journeys  in  the  Arctic 
regions  ;  and  as  a  proof  of  their  utility  it  may  be  men- 
tioned that  when  on  the  inland  ice  in  1883,  the  two 
Lapps  in  his  train  were  sent  forward,  and  covered  in 
fifty-seven  hours  twice  as  much  ground  as  the  rest  of  the 
expedition  in  twenty-seven  days.  Before,  however,  de- 
scribing these  means  of  locomotion  on  snow,  a  brief 
reference  to  the  members  of  the  Expedition  should  be 
made. 

The  Expedition,  for  which  there  were  thirty-five  volun- 
teers, including  one  Englishman,  consists  of  Dr.  Fridtjof 
Nansen,  of  the  Bergen  Museum,  leader  ;  Lieutenant  in  the 
Norwegian  army,  Herr  O.  C.  Dietrichson  ;  Herr  Otto  Sver- 
drup,  an  officer  in  the  Norwegian  mercantile  marine  ;  and 
Herr  Kristian  Kristiansen,  a  land-owner  ;  with  two  Lapps, 
Samuel  Bulto  and  Oie  Ravna,  the  latter  of  whom  was 
"on  view"  at  the  Exhibition  in  London  in  1883.  All 
the  members  are  men  in  their  best  years,  powerful,  and 
accustomed  to  hardships  of  all  kinds,  and  last,  not  least, 
experts  in  the  craft  of  Skilobning,  or  Norwegian  mode  of 
journeying  on  snow.  This  mode  is  entirely  different  from 
that  practised  in  Canada  under  the  name  of  "  snow- 
shoeing,"  and  therefore  deserves  special  mention.  The 
Ski,  or  snow  "  runners,"  as  they  might  more  justly  be 
called,  are  long  strips  of  carefully  selected  pine-wood 
without  a  flaw,  those  used  by  Dr.  Nansen  being  about 
8  feet  in  length,  1  inch  in  thickness,  and  4  inches  in 
width.  In  the  middle  is  a  leather  strap  covered  with 
sheep's  wool  for  the  foot,  and  a  slight  catch  for  the  heel, 
whilst  the  edges  are  (in  this  particular  case)  protected 
by  means  of  a  steel  band.  The  wood  has  been  carefully 
seasoned  and  soaked  in  tar  to  prevent  the  penetration  of 
moisture,  whilst  underneath  the  Ski  are  lined  with 
reindeer  skin,  the  hair  of  which  gives  the  runner  a  better 
"grip"  on  the  snow  when  going  up  hill.  In  front  they 
are  pointed  and  bent  slightly  upwards,  so  as  to  pass 
more  easily  over  obstacles.  A  good  pair  of  Ski  will,  when 
carefully  prepared,  have  the  elasticity  almost  of  a  Toledo 
blade,  and  jumps  of  25  or  30  feet,  when  such  may  be 
necessary  in  the  mountains,  are  frequently  performed  by 
good  Ski  men,  without  breaking  their  Ski.  The  most 
remarkable  feats  of  agility  are  performed  by  experts  on 
these  means  of  locomotion  ;  in  fact,  many  a  Norwegian 
is  as  much  at  home  on  his  Ski  as  a  Red  Indian  on  his 


horse.  As  to  the  progress  made  on  Ski,  it  is  simply 
astounding,  a  good  runner  on  dry  snow,  and  across  a  fair 
country,  being  capable  of  covering  a  hundred  miles  a 
day,  and  down  hill  the  speed  rivals  that  of  the  fastest 
express.  Dr.  Nansen  and  his  party,  who  are  all  cele- 
brated for  their  achievements  in  the  Ski  sport,  carry  with 
them  nine  pairs  of  these.  For  the  conveyance  of  pro- 
visions he  has  with  him  five  hand  sledges  of  novel 
construction,  being  only  half  the  weight  of  those  gener- 
ally carried  in  Arctic  journeys.  They  are  9  feet  long, 
and  2  feet  wide,  greatly  curved  at  both  ends,  and  shod 
with  steel  bands,  whilst  at  the  back  is  a  steering-pole. 
The  weight  is  25  pounds.  Dr.  Nansen  had  occasion  to  test 
the  quality  of  one  of  these  sledges  when  travelling  last 
winter  alone  across  Norway  on  Ski,  from  Eidsfjord  to 
Nummedal,  a  distance  of  about  fifty  miles.  The  adop- 
tion of  this  kind  of  sledge  has  been  made  at  the  instance 
of  Baron  Nordenskiold,  who,  during  his  journey  across 
the  inland  ice,  found  those  then  used  too  heavy.  The 
Expedition  is  also  provided  with  a  tent,  brown  in  colour, 
in  order  to  afford  a  rest  to  the  eye  on  the  vast  dazzling 
snow-fields,  and  it  may  be  separated  into  five  pieces, 
each  forming  a  sail  for  the  boats.  Naturally  it  was 
absolutely  necessary  that  the  baggage  of  the  Expedition 
should  be  as  small  as  possible,  consequently  only  what 
is  absolutely  required  has  been  included,  such  as  the  usual 
scientific  apparatus,  a  camera,  cooking  utensils,  and  pro- 
visions, the  latter  consisting  chiefly  of  pemmican,  meat 
cakes  and  biscuits,  preserves,  tea,  chocolate,  &c.  Every 
article  carried  has  been  specially  prepared,  some  in 
Christiania,  and  others  in  Copenhagen,  London,  and 
Paris.  One  article  which  previous  Greenland  Expedi- 
tions have  been  much  in  want  of  are  Alpine  ropes  for  use 
in  climbing,  and  these  have  been  specially  made  for 
Dr.  Nansen  in  London. 

Having  reached  the  inland  ice  plateau,  Dr.  Nansen 
purposes  travelling  in  a  north-westerly  direction,  with 
Disco  Bay  on  the  west  coast  for  his  goal,  as  further 
south  the  land  is  intersected  by  deep  fjords  and  moun- 
tains, which  may  cause  difficulties  in  crossing.  The 
distance  from  coast  to  coast  is  estimated  at  425  miles, 
and  allowing  for  a  rate  of  progress  of  only  fifteen  miles  a 
day,  the  whole  journey  should  be  accomplished  in  about 
thirty  days.  The  leader  considers  it  a  great  advantage  to 
cross  from  east  to  west,  and  not  vice  versa  as  previously 
attempted,  as  in  the  former  case  provisions  need  only  be 
carried  for  one  journey,  the  west  coast  being  well  pro- 
vided in  this  respect.  The  most  serious  obstacles  expected 
by  Dr.  Nansen  on  the  inland  ice  are  crevices  in  the  ice, 
which  are  formed  by  the  water  from  the  melting  snow, 
and  wet  snow.  The  former  he  intends  to  attempt  evading 
by  sending  the  Lapps  forward  as  scouts,  and  on  the 
latter  Canadian  snow-shoes  will  be  used,  as  in  wet 
snow  the  Ski  are  of  little  use,  the  snow  clogging  to  them 
and  retarding  progress.  It  is,  however,  expected  that  at 
this  season  the  snow  will  be  crisp  and  dry.  It  should 
also  be  mentioned  that  by  crossing  from  east  to  west  the 
Expedition  will  have  the  advantage  of  travelling  continually 
down  an  incline,  as  the  country  slopes  gradually  down 
from  a  height  of  6000  feet  on  the  east  coast  to  only  a  few 
hundred  on  the  west  coast,  whilst  the  wind  also  nearly 
always  blows  from  that  quarter. 

Dr.  Nansen  further  anticipates  that  the  curious  lofty 
basalt  rocks  of  Disco  Island  will  be  seen  a  good  way 
inland,  and  serve  as  a  landmark. 

As  regards  the  scientific  aspects  of  the  expedition,  not 
too  great  results  may  be  expected,  although  Dr.  Nansen 
has  especially  qualified  for  his  task,  and  visited  Green- 
land some  years  ago  ;  as  with  the  means  at  his  disposal, 
and  in  view  of  the  mode  of  travelling,  the  number  of 
members  and  the  weight  of  the  baggage  had  to  be  scrictly 
limited.  However,  the  leader  feels  confident  that  it  will 
contribute  in  some  degree  to  solve  the  scientific  problems 
facing  us  in  that  continent,  which  has  always  had  such 


Sept.  20,  1888 J 


NA  TURE 


493 


fascination  to  the  geographer,  geologist,  and  botanist  in 
particular,  and  may  lead  to  the  despatch  of  an  Expedition 
on  a  larger  scale  and  with  a  wider  scientific  scope. 

It  may  be  of  interest  here  briefly  to  recall  the  attempts 
which  have  been  made  from  time  to  time  to  cross  the 
Greenland  continent. 

As  is  well  known,  Greenland  has  never  been  crossed 
by  human  being,  although  there  is  a  tradition,  confirmed 
by  Holm  and  Garde,  that  a  young  girl  from  Pikiudelek, 
on  the  east  coast,  driven  from  home  by  cruelty,  wandered 
on  foot  across  the  ice  to  the  west  coast.  However,  in 
modern  times  many  attempts  have  been  made,  as,  for 
instance,  by  Dalager  (a  Dane),  Dr.  John  Rae,  Messrs. 
Whymper  and  Brown,  Messrs.  Jensen,  Kornerup,  and 
Groth,  and  Nordenskiold  in  1870  and  1883.  All  of  these 
attempts  were  failures,  with  the  exception  of  that  of 
Nordenskiold  in  1883  referred  to,  when  he  succeeded,  in 
lat.  68£°  N.,  in  reaching  75  miles  inland,  and  his  two 
Lapps  140  miles  further,  or  215  miles,  i.e.  a  little  more 
than  half  the  width  of  the  country.  Finally,  we  have  the 
scantily-known  wandering,  in  June  of  last  year,  of  Mr. 
Peary,  an  Amerian  engineer,  and  Herr  Maigaard,  a 
Dane,  who  claim  to  have  reached  about  100  miles  inland 
on  the  ice  from  Jakobshavn,  and  reached  an  elevation  of 
about  7000  feet  above  the  sea  ;  but  the  weather  was 
unfavourable.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  this  elevation  is 
far  higher  than  that  recorded  by  Nordenskiold  a  little 
further  south,  viz.  about  6000  feet. 

It  is  impossible  to  close  this  resume  of  Dr.  Nansen's 
plans  without  referring  to  the  much-disputed  theory 
of  there  being,  if  not  a  fertile  interior  somewhere  in 
Greenland,  at  all  events  land  free  from  ice  and  snow,  as 
advocated  by  Nordenskiold,  but  which  he  failed  to  find. 
We  have  it  however  now,  on  the  authority  of  Dr.  Nansen, 
that  in  spite  of  this  failure  the  famous  Swedish  explorer 
is  still  of  opinion  that  such  conditions  may  exist  some- 
where to  the  north  or  south  of  the  track  followed  by 
himself.  Dr.  Nansen  also  supports  this  theory,  which  is, 
leaving  the  "  Fdhn "  wind  theory  out  of  the  question, 
based,  firstly,  on  the  circumstance  that  the  reindeer  herds 
on  the  west  coast  disappear  from  the  coast  in  the  summer, 
when  it  is  surmised  that  they  proceed  to  this  interior 
"  oasis,"  as  it  has  been  termed  ;  and,  secondly,  on  the 
discovery  by  Nordenskiold  of  reindeer  horn  far  in  on  the 
ice  ;  thirdly,  the  theory  is  claimed  to  be  supported  by 
the  fact  of  Nordenskiold's  two  Lapps  having  in  the  middle 
of  Greenland  seen  two  ravens  coming  from  the  north  to 
"  have  a  look  at  them,"  and  return  in  the  same  direction. 
Hence,  it  is  maintained,  some  ice-free  land  must  exist 
further  north.  But  as  to  the  wanderings  of  the  reindeer, 
such  take  place  every  summer  in  Norway,  when  the 
animals  repair  to  the  glaciers  in  order  to  escape  from  their 
dread  tormentors  the  gadfly  and  the  heat.  It  is,  however, 
curious  that  the  Greenlanders  themselves,  as  well  as  the 
Eskimo,  according  to  Captain  Holm,  firmly  believe  in  an 
ice-free  and  populated  interior,  the  inhabitants  of  which 
are  of  enormous  stature,  fierce,  and  dangerous  magicians, 
and  it  is  this  latter  belief  which  is  the  cause  of  the  natives 
refusing  to  act  as  guides  or  participate  in  explorations  of 
the  interior.  The  east  coast  natives  by  the  way  maintain, 
too,  that  Scoresby  Sound  in  the  extreme  north  (Holm, 
"East  Coast  Expedition,  1883-85")  is  a  fjord  separating 
Greenland  from  the  rest  of  the  Arctic  regions  ;  that  once 
a  Greenlander  sailed  through  it  from  west  to  east,  and 
that  near  its  southern  shores  resides  a  warlike  tribe  of 
Greenlanders. 

It  was  Dr.  Nansen's  intention  to  have  attempted  to 
land  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Scoresby  Sound,  where  no 
European  has  ever  set  foot,  but  it  was  impossible  to  get 
further  north  than  Cape  Dan  on  account  of  ice.  It  should 
be  mentioned  that  the  present  expedition  is  in  a  great 
degree  due  to  the  munificence  of  Herr  Augustus  Game* I, 
of  Copenhagen,  who  despatched  Lieutenant  Hovgaard's 
Arctic   Expedition   of    1880,  and  has  received  valuable 


assistance  from  such  Greenland  explorers  as  Nordenskiold, 
Rink,  Holm,  Ryder,  and  Marigaard,  as  well  as  the  Royal 
Geographical  Society. 

If  all  goes  well,  it  may  return  to  Europe  before  the  last 
vessel  leaves  Greenland  at  the  end  of  September. 

If  successful,  it  cannot  fail  to  throw  some  further  light 
upon  the  interesting  scientific  problems  of  that  mystic 
northern  continent,  and  incite  other  explorers  to  follow  in 
Dr.  Nansen  and  his  colleagues'  footsteps. 


THE  CENTENARY  OF  THE  CALCUTTA 
BOTANIC  GARDEN. 

THE  Report  of  Dr.  George  King,  the  Superintendent 
*  of  the  Botanic  Garden  of  Calcutta,  for  the  past  year 
gives  a  brief  history  of  the  work  of  that  institution  during 
the  century  of  its  existence,  which  has  just  been  com- 
pleted. The  suggestion  for  its  foundation  was  made  to 
the  Government  in  Calcutta  in  1786  by  Colonel  Robert 
Kyd,  then  Superintendent  of  the  East  India  Company's 
dockyard  at  Kidderpore.  The  adoption  of  the  proposal 
was  urged  upon  the  Board  in  London  by  the  Governor- 
General,  and  upon  their  sanctioning  it  a  large  piece  of 
land  at  Shalimar  was  chosen  as  the  site,  and  Colonel  Kyd 
was  elected  the  first  Superintendent.  He  held  the  post 
till  his  death  in  1793.  At  the  outset  it  was  understood 
that  the  Garden  was  to  be  made  a  source  of  information 
for  the  Company's  servants,  and  a  place  in  which  ex- 
periments could  be  made  on  those  exotics  which  were  of 
economic  value.  It  was  also  intended  to  be  a  horticul- 
tural and  agricultural  garden,  which  would  assist  in 
introducing  indigenous  Indian  products  to  new  markets. 
The  earliest  efforts  of  Colonel  Kyd  were  directed  to  the 
introduction  of  trees  yielding  nutmeg,  cloves,  and  cinna- 
mon, and  to  attempt  to  cultivate  them.  This,  however, 
was  a  failure,  the  climate  being  shown  to  be  quite  un- 
suitable to  them.  The  equatorial  fruits,  such  as  mango- 
steen  and  breadfruit  were  tried  with  a  similar  result,  and 
also  the  temperate  fruits  of  Europe,  and  thus  at  an  early 
stage  it  was  demonstrated  that  any  such  effort  was  quite 
useless.  Colonel  Kyd  introduced  tea  cultivation,  and  in 
this  he  was  highly  successful,  and  it  was  owing  to  his 
efforts  that  the  tea-industry  has  become  one  of  the  most 
important  in  India.  On  the  death  of  Colonel  Kyd,  Dr. 
William  Roxburgh,  the  Company's  Botanist  in  Madras, 
was  appointed  to  the  post,  and  continued  in  it  till  1814. 
He  was  an  ardent  botanist,  and  was  the  first  who  attempted 
to  draw  up  a  systematic  account  of  the  plants  of  India. 
His  Flora  hidica  contained  descriptions  of  all  the  indi- 
genous plants  he  had  met,  and  also  of  the  exotics  in 
cultivation  at  Calcutta.  This  book  was  not  published 
till  1832,  and  it  was,  till  Sir  Joseph  Hooker  commenced 
his  work  on  the  "  Flora  of  British  India"  in  1872,  the  only 
book  from  which  a  good  knowledge  of  Indian  plants 
could  be  acquired.  Besides  his  "  Flora  Indica,"  Roxburgh 
published  "  Plantae  Coromandalianae,"  descriptions  of 
three  hundred  of  the  most  representative  plants  on  the 
Coromandel  Coast.  Dr.  Roxburgh,  who  left  India  on 
account  of  failing  health,  was  succeeded  by  Dr.  Buchanan- 
Hamilton,  who  collected  a  mass  of  information  about 
the  fauna  and  flora  of  India,  a  portion  of  which  he 
published  in  his  own  name,  but  the  greater  part  was 
issued  in  Montgomery  Martin's  "  History,  Topography, 
and  Statistics  of  Eastern  India."  In  1817,  Dr.  Wallich 
became  Superintendent.  Wallich  was  a  most  energetic 
man,  and  during  his  term  of  office  he  made  collections 
in  Kumaon,  Nepal,  Tenasserim,  Singapore,  Penang,  and 
other  places.  His  collections  of  dried  plants  were  taken 
by  him  to  London,  and  after  their  classification  they  were 
distributed  to  the  chief  botanical  institutions  in  Europe. 
Dr.  Wallich  published  three  fine  volumes,  "  Plantar 
Asiatics  Rariores,"  illustrated  with  excellent  figures.  On 
Dr.  Wallich's  retirement  in  1846,  Dr.  Hugh  Falconer,  who 


494 


NA TURE 


[Sept.  20,  1888 


is  well  known  on  account  of  his  researches  on  the  Sivalik 
fossil  Mammalia,  succeeded  to  the  post.  Dr.  Thomas 
Thomson,  the  co-worker  of  Sir  Joseph  Hooker  in  the 
collection  and  distribution  of  an  extensive  East  Indian 
Herbarium,  was  the  next  Superintendent.  His  successor, 
Dr.  Thomas  Anderson,  died  in  1870  from  disease  con- 
tracted when  labouring  to  introduce  the  quinine-yielding 
Cinchonas  into  the  Himalayas.  This  latter  work — that  is, 
the  cultivation  of  the  Cinchonas  of  the  Andes — has  been  a 
great  success.  The  Garden  authorities,  in  connection  with 
the  Agri-Horticultural  Society  of  India,  made  great 
and  successful  efforts  to  improve  the  quality  of  Indian 
cotton,  and  to  push  its  sale  and  that  of  jute  in  the  European 
markets.  The  united  bodies  also  imported  better  kinds  of 
sugar-cane  from  the  West  Indies,  and  thus  improved  the 
quality  and  the  amount  of  the  sugar-crop  in  India.  The 
various  Superintendents  made  from  time  to  time  ex- 
periments in  the  cultivation  of  plants  and  products  of 
economic  value,  as,  for  instance,  tapioca,  india-rubber, 
sarsaparilla,  aloes,  cocoa,  and  many  others.  Many  of  the 
various  kinds  of  exotics  now  grown  in  India  have  been 
introduced  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  Garden, 
and  the  authorities  have  shown  to  the  inhabitants  of  India 
the  advantages  of  better  systems  of  cultivation  than  they 
previously  pursued. 

In  the  year  1 864  the  Garden  was  devastated  by  a  terrible 
cyclone,  and  the  few  plants  that  escaped  the  general  ruin 
were  very  much  thinned  by  another  cyclone  which  a  few 
years  after  burst  over  Calcutta.  In  fact,  at  the  present 
moment  there  are  in  the  Garden  only  a  few  trees,  including 
the  great  banyan,  which  were  there  in  1867.  When  the 
shade  of  the  trees  was  thus  removed,  the  weed  Imperata 
cylindrica  spread  rapidly  over  the  whole  Garden,  and  when 
Dr.  King  was  appointed  to  be  Superintendent  of  the 
Garden,  in  1871,  he  found  it  in  rather  a  sorry  plight.  By 
the  assistance  that  the  local  authorities  gave  him  he  was 
enabled  to  plant  it  afresh,  to  lay  it  out  for  landscape  effect, 
to  form  ornamental  ponds,  and  to  build  the  Herbarium 
and  conservatories.  The  most  noticeable  feature  from 
a  botanical  stand-point  is,  of  course,  the  Herbarium.  On 
Dr.  Wallich  dispersing  in  1828  the  splendid  collection  of 
dried  plantc,  the  foundations  of  another  were  laid.  Almost 
every  botanical  student  in  India  has  contributed  to  the 
present  collection,  and  also  many  specimens  have  been 
sent  from  Europe.  Of  course  it  is  above  all  an  Indian 
Herbarium,  but  there  are  also  good  collections  of  plants 
from  Asia  Minor,  Persia,  Japan,  and  South-Eastern  Asia. 
In  fact,  in  all  but  African  and  American  plants  it  is  a  very 
representative  collection.  For  the  last  fifty  years  there 
has  been  a  constant  exchange  of  specimens  with  Kew 
Gardens,  and  to  Sir  William  Hooker,  and  Sir  Joseph 
Hooker,  and  Mr.  Thiselton  Dyer,  the  Herbarium  owes 
some  of  its  choicest  specimens.  Exchanges  have  also 
been  systematically  made  with  the  British  Museum 
Herbarium,  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  Paris,  the  Imperial 
Gardens  at  Berlin  and  St;  Petersburg,  and  with  the 
institutions  at  Ceylon,  Java,  and  Saharanpore,  and  many 
of  the  best-known  botanists  have  been  among  the  most 
active  contributors. 

During  the  past  year  the  collection  of  dried  plants  has 
been  largely  increased,  the  most  noteworthy  additions 
baing  those  collected  by  Dr.  Aitchison  with  the  Afghan 
Boundary  Commission,  and  those  by  Dr.  Giles  during 
the  Gilgit  expedition,  the  latter  having  been  sent  from 
Kew.  From  Kew  were  also  received  many  specimens 
of  Singapore  and  Penang  plants.  Many  plants  from 
Central  Asia  were  sent  by  the  Director  of  the  Imperial 
Garden  at  St.  Petersburg,  and  a  Natal  collection  was 
sent  from  Durban.  Four  hundred  named  species  from 
Mexico,  a  large  box  of  dried  plants  from  New  Guinea,  a 
quantity  of  plants  from  Sikkim,  trees  from  the  Khasia 
Hills,  specimens  from  the  North-Western  Himalayas, 
and  from  Southern  India,  were  among  the  many  collec- 
tions presented  to  the   Garden  in  the  past   year.     The 


Government  Botanist  of  Perak,  Father  Scortechini,  who 
had  been  sent  by  Sir  H.  Low,  came  to  the  Garden  in 
November  to  study,  so  that  he  might  arrange  his  collec- 
tions, but  he  died  shortly  after  his  arrival.  During  the 
year  8064  plants  were  received  and  46,109  given  out; 
903  packets  of  seeds  were  received,  and  2534  distributed. 
Dr.  King  concludes  his  Report  by  saying  that  the 
acclimatized  English'  potatoes  have  everywhere  turned 
out  badly  the  past  season. 


THE  BRITISH  ASSOCIATION. 
SECTION  G. 

MECHANICAL    SCIENCE. 

Opening  Address  by  William  Henry  Preece,  F.  R.S., 
M.Inst.C.E.,  &c,  President  of  the  Section. 

"Canst  thou  send  lightnings,  that  they  may  go,  and 
say  unto  thee,  Here  we  are  ? "  were  pregnant  words 
addressed  to  Job  unknown  centuries  ago.  They  express  the 
first  recorded  idea  in  history  of  the  potentiality  of  electricity  to 
minister  to  the  wants  of  mankind.  From  Job  to  Franklin  is  a 
long  swing  in  the  pendulum  of  time.  It  was  not  until  that 
American  philosopher  brought  down  atmospheric  electricity  by 
his  kite-string  in  1747,  and  showed  that  we  could  lead  it  where 
we  willed,  that  we  were  able  to  answer  the  question  addressed 
to  the  ancient  patriarch.  Nearly  another  century  elapsed  before 
this  mysterious  power  of  Nature  was  fairly  conquered.  It  has 
been  during  this  generation,  and  during  the  life  of  the  British 
Association,  that  electricity  has  been  usefully  employed  ;  and  it 
is  because  I  have  taken  a  subordinate  position  in  inaugurating 
nearly  all  of  its  practical  applications,  that  I  venture  to  make  the 
developments  of  them  the  text  of  my  address  to  this  Section. 

People  are  singularly  callous  in  ma'.ters  affecting  their  own 
personal  safety :  they  will  not  believe  in  mysteries,  and  they 
ridicule  or  condemn  that  which  they  do  not  understand.  The 
Church  itself  set  its  face  against  Franklin's  "  impious  "  theories, 
and  he  was  laughed  to  scorn  by  Europe's  scientific  sons  ;  and 
even  now,  though  Commissions  composed  of  the  ablest  men  of 
the  land  have  sat  and  reported  on  Franklin's  work  in  England, 
France,  and  nearly  every  civilized  nation,  the  public  generally 
remains  not  only  ignorant  of  the  use  of  lightning-conductors, 
but  absolutely  indifferent  to  their  erection,  and,  if  erected, 
certainly  careless  of  their  proper  maintenance.  I  found  in  a 
church  not  very  far  from  here  the  conducter  leaded  into  a  tomb- 
stone, and  in  a  neighbouring  cathedral  the  conductor  only  a  few 
inches  in  the  ground,  so  that  I  could  draw  it  out  with  my  hand. 
Although  I  called  the  attention  of  the  proper  authorities  to  the 
absolute  danger  of  the  state  of  affairs,  they  remained  in  the  same 
condition  for  years. 

Wren's  beautiful  steeple  in  Fleet  Street,  St.  Bride's,  was  well- 
nigh  destroyed  by  lightning  in  1764.  A  lightning-rod  was  fixed, 
hut  so  imperfectly  that  it  was  again  struck.  In  July  last  (1887) 
it  was  damaged  because  the  conductor  had  been  neglected,  and 
had  lost  its  efficiency. 

As  long  as  points  remain  points,  as  long  as  conductors  remain 
conductors,  as  long  as  the  rods  make  proper  connection  with  the 
earth,  lightning  protectors  will  protect  :  but  if  points  are  allowed 
to  be  fused,  or  to  corrode  away  ;  as  long  as  bad  joints  or  faulty 
connections  are  allowed  to  remain  ;  as  long  as  bad  earths,  or  no 
earths  exist,  so  iong  will  protectors  cease  to  protect,  and  they 
will  become  absolute  sources  of  clanger.  Lightning-conductors,  if 
properly  erected,  duly  maintained,  and  periodically  inspected,  are 
an  absolutesourceof  safety;  but  if  erected  by  the  village  blacksmith, 
maintained  by  the  economical  churchwarden,  and  never  insp  cted 
at  all,  a  loud  report  will  some  day  be  heard,  and  the  beautiful 
steeple  will  convert  the  churchyard  into  a  new  geological 
formation. 

We  have  not  yet  acquired  that  mental  confidence  in  the 
accuracy  of  the  laws  that  guide  our  procedure  in  protecting 
buildings  from  the  effects  of  atmospheric  electrical  discharges 
which  characterizes  most  of  the  practical  applications  of  elec- 
tricity. Some  of  our  cherished  principles  have  only  very 
recently  received  a  rough  shaking  from  the  lips  of  Prof. 
Oliver  Lodge,  F.R.S.,  who,  however,  has  supported  his  brilliant. 
expeiiments  by  rather  fanciful  speculation,  and  whose  revolu- 
tionary conclusions  are  scarcely  the  logical  deduction  from   his 


Sept.  20,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


495 


novel  premises.     The  whole  subject  is  going  to  be  thoroughly 
discussed  at  this  meeting. 

We  are  now  obtaining  much  valuable  information  about  the 
nature  of  lightning  from  photography.  We  learn  that  it  does 
not,  as  a  rule,  take  that  zigzag  course  conventionally  used  to 
represent  a  flash  on  canvas.  Its  course  is  much  more  erratic  and 
sinuous,  its  construction  more  complicated,  and  pictures  have 
been  obtained  of  dark  flashes  whose  raison  d'etre  has  not  yet 
been  satisfactorily  accounted  for.  The  network  of  telegraph 
wires  all  over  the  country  is  peculiarly  subject  to  the  effects  of 
atmospheric  electricity,  but  we  have  completely  mastered  the 
vagaries  of  lightning  discharges  in  our  apparatus  and  cables. 
Accidents  are  now  very  few  and  far  between. 

The  art  of  transmitting  intelligence  to  a  distance  beyond  the 
reach  of  the  ear  and  the  eye,  by  the  instantaneous  effects  of 
electricity,  had  been  the  dream  of  the  philosopher  for  nearly  a 
century,  when  in  1837  it  was  rendered  a  practical  success  by  the 
commercial  and  far-sighted  energy  of  Cooke,  and  the  scientific 
knowledge  and  inventive  genius  of  Wheatstone.  The  metallic 
arc  of  Galvani  (1790)  and  the  developments  of  Volta  (1796)  had 
been  so  far  improved  that  currents  could  be  generated  of  any 
strength  ;  the  law  of  Ohm  (1828)  had  shown  how  they  could  be 
transmitted  to  any  distances  ;  the  deflection  of  the  magnetic 
needle  by  Oersted  in  1819,  and  the  formation  of  an  electro- 
magnet by  Ampere  and  Sturgeon,  and  the  attraction  of  its 
armature,  had  indicated  how  those  currents  could  be  rendered 
visible  as  well  as  audible. 

Cooke  and  Wheatstone  in  1837  utilized  the  deflection  of  the 
needle  to  the  right  and  the  left  to  form  an  alphabet.  Morse 
used  the  attraction  of  the  armature  of  an  electro-magnet  to 
raise  a  metal  style  to  impress  or  emboss  moving  paper  with 
visible  dots  and  dashes.  Steinheil  imprinted  dots  in  ink  on  the 
different  sides  of  a  line  on  paper,  and  also  struck  two  bells  of 
different  sound  to  affect  the  ear.  Breguet  reproduced  in  minia- 
ture the  actual  movements  of  the  semaphore,  then  so  much  in 
use  in  France  ;  while  others  rendered  practical  the  favourite  idea 
of  moving  an  indicator  around  a  dial,  on  which  the  alphabet  and 
the  numerals  were  printed,  and  causing  it  to  dwell  against  the 
symbol  to  be  read — the  A,  B,  C  instrument  of  Wheatstone  in 
England,  and  of  Siemens  in  Germany.  Wheatstone  conceived 
the  notion  of  printing  the  actual  letters  of  the  alphabet  in  bold 
Roman  type  on  paper — a  plan  which  was  made  a  perfect  success 
by  Hughes  in  1854. 

At  the  present  moment  the  needle  system  of  Cooke  and 
Wheatstone,  as  well  as  the  A,  B,  C  dial  telegraph,  are  very  largely 
used  in  England  on  our  railways  and  in  our  smaller  post-offices.  The 
Morse  recorder  and  the  Hughes  type-printer  are  universally  used 
on  the  Continent ;  while  in  America  the  dot-and-dash  alphabet  of 
Morse  is  impressed  on  the  consciousness  through  the  ear  by  the 
sound  of  the  moving  armature  striking  against  the  stops  that 
limit  its  motion.  In  our  larger  and  busier  offices  the  Morse 
sounder  and  the  bell  system,  as  perfected  by  Bright,  are  very 
largely  used,  while  the  Press  of  this  country  is  sup  jlied  with  news 
which  is  recorded  on  paper  by  ink  dots  and  dashes  at  a  speed 
that  is  almost  fabulous. 

Sir  Willian  Thomson's  mirror — the  most  delicate  form  of  the 
needle  system — where  the  vibratory  motions  of  an  imponder- 
able ray  of  light  convey  words  to  the  reader  ;  and  his  recorder, 
where  the  wavy  motion  of  a  line  of  ink  spirted  on  paper  by  the 
frictionless  repulsion  of  electricity  perform,  the  same  function,  are 
exclusively  employed  on  our  long  submarine  cables. 

Bakewell,  in  1848,  showed  how  it  was  possible  to  reproduce 
facsimiles  of  handwriting  and  of  drawing  at  a  distance  ;  and,  in 
1879,  E.  A.  Cowper  reproduced  one's  own  .handwriting,  the 
moving  pen  at  one  station  so  controlling  the  currents  fl  jwing  on 
the  line  wire  that  they  caused  a  similar  pen  to  make  similar 
motions  at  the  other  distant  station.  Neither  of  these  plans, 
the  former  beautifully  developed  by  Caselli  and  D'Arlincourt, 
and  the  latter  improved  by  Robertson  and  Elisha  Gray,  have  yet 
reached  the  practical  stage. 

The  perfection  of  telegraphy  has  been  attained  by  that  chief 
marvel  of  this  electrical  age — the  speaking  telephone  of  Graham 
Bell.  The  reproduction  of  the  human  voice  at  a  distance, 
restricted  only  by  geographical  limits,  seems  to  have  reached 
the  confines  of  human  ingenuity  ;  and  though  wild  enthusiasts 
have  dreamt  of  reproducing  objects  abroad  visible  to  the  naked 
eye  at  home,  no  one  at  the  present  moment  can  say  that  such  a 
thing  is  possible,  while  in  face  of  the  wonders  that  have  been 
done  no  one  dare  say  that  it  is  impossible. 

The  commercial  business  of  telegraphy,  when  our  thoughts 


and  wishes,  orders  and  wants,  c  >uld  be  transmitted  for  money, 
was  inaugurated  in  this  country  by  the  establishment  of  the 
Electric  Telegraph  Company  in  1846,  and  until  iS7oit  remained 
in  the  hands  of  private  enterprise,  when  ir  was  purchased  by  the 
Government,  and  placed  under  the  sole  control  of  the  Postmaster- 
General.  It  has  hem  the  fashion  to  decry  the  terms  of  purchase 
of  the  various  undertakings  then  at  work  by  those  who  have  not 
understood  the  question,  and  by  those  who,  being  politically 
opposed  to  the  Government  in  power  at  the  time,  saw  all  their 
acts,  not  only  through  a  glass  darkly,  but  through  a  reversing 
lens.  A  business  producing  ,£550,000  per  annum  was  bought 
at- twenty  years'  purchase,  and  that  business  has  now  increased 
to  £2, 000,000  per  annum.  6,000,000  messages  per  annum 
have  increased  to  52,000,000. 

Every  post-office  has  been  made  a  telegraph -office,  every 
village  of  any  size  has  its  wire  ;  messages  which  used  to  cost 
12.?.  6d.  are  now  sent  for  6d.  ;  a  tariff  which  was  vexatious  from 
its  unfair  variation  is  now  uniform  over  the  United  Kingdom, 
and  no  one  can  justly  complain  of  error  or  delay  in  the  trans- 
mission of  their  messages.  Silly  complaints  are  sometimes 
inserted  in  the  Press,  of  errors  which  the  most  elementary  know- 
ledge of  the  Morse  alphabet  would  detect,  and  little  credit  is 
given  to  the  fact  that  the  most  perfect  telegraph  is  subject  to 
strange  disturbances  from  terrestrial  and  atmospheric  causes 
which  admit  sources  of  error  beyond  the  control  of  the  tele- 
graphist. A  flash  of  lightning  in  America  may  cause  an  extra 
dot  in  Europe,  and  man  may  become  war.  An  earthquake  in 
Japan  may  send  a  dash  through  France,  and  life  would  become 
wife.  A  wild  goose  flying  against  a  telegraph  wire  might  drive 
it  into  momentary  contact  with  another  wire,  and  sight  might 
become  night.  Everyone  should  know  his  Morse  alphabet, 
and  people  should  learn  how  to  write.  Nine-tenths  of 
the  errors  made  are  due  to  the  execrable  calligraphy  of  the 
present  day.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  ninety-nine  cases  out  of  a 
hundred,  the  telegraphist  delivers  to  the  editor  of  a  newspaper 
"  copy  "  far  more  accurate  than  the  first  proof  of  his  own  leader 
submitted  by  the  printer.  The  quantity  of  news  transmitted  is 
enormous  :  an  average  of  1,538,270  words  are  delivered  per  day. 
The  recent  Convention  in  Chicago,  when  the  Republican  party 
of  the  United  States  nominated  their  candidate  for  the 
Presidentship,  created  so  much  business  that  every  American 
paper  has  chronicled  this  big  thing  as  unique.  500,000  words 
were  sent  on  one  night ;  but  we  in  England,  when  Mr.  Glad- 
stone introduced  his  celebrated  Home  Rule  Bill  on  April  8, 
1886,  sent  from  the  Central  Telegraph  Office  in  London 
1,500,000  words. 

The  growth  of  business  has  led  to  vast  improvement  in  the 
carrying  capacity  of  the  wires.  Cooke  and  Wheatstone  required 
five  wires  for  their  first  needle  instrument  to  work  at  the  rate  of 
four  words  per  minute.  One  wire  can  now  convey  six  messages 
at  ten  times  the  speed.  The  first  Morse  apparatus  could  work 
at  about  five  words  a  minute  :  we  now  transmit  news  at  the  rate 
of  600  words  a  minute.  In  1875  it  was  thought  wonderful  to 
transmit  messages  to  Ireland  at  80  words  a  minute.  When  I 
was  recently  in  Belfast  I  timed  messages  coming  at  the  rate  of 
461  words  a  minute.  Duplex  working— that  is,  two  messages 
travelling  on  the  same  wire  at  the  same  time  in  opposite  direc- 
tions, the  invention  of  Gintl,  of  Vienna — is  now  the  normal 
mode  of  working  ;  Edison's  quadruplex  is  common  ;  and  the 
Delany  system  of  multiplex  working  is  gradually  being  intro- 
duced, by  which  six  messages  are  indiscriminately  sent  in  either 
direction.  The  telegraphic  system  of  England  has  been  brought 
to  the  highest  pitch  of  perfection.  We  have  neither  neglected 
the  inventions  of  oth?r  countries,  nor  have  we  been  chary  of 
exercising  inventive  skill  ourselves,  and  we  have  received  our 
full  meed  of  that  reward  which  is  always  freely  bestowed  on  a 
British  Government  official,  neglect  and  abuse.  All  parts  of 
the  civilized  world  are  now  united  by  submarine  cables.  The 
Times  every  morning  has  despatches  from  every  qmrter  of  the 
globe,  giving  the  news  of  the  previous  day.  110,000  miles  of 
cable  have  been  laid  by  British  ships,  and  nearly  £40,000,000 
of  British  capital  have  been  expended  by  private  enterprise  in 
completing  this  grand  undertaking.  A  fleet  of  37  ships  is  main- 
tained in  various  oceans  to  lay  new  cables  and  to  repair  breaks 
and  faults  as  they  occur — faults  that  arise,  anong  other  causes, 
from  chafing  on  coral  reefs,  ships'  anchors,  the  onslaught  of 
insects,  and  earthquakes.  The  two  cables  connecting  Australia 
and  Java  were  recently  simultaneously  broken  by  an  earthquake. 
The  politician,  unmindful  of  the  works  of  the  engineer,  is 
apt  to  apply  to  the  credit  of  his  own  proceedings  the  growing 


496 


NATURE 


[Sept.  20,  1888 


prosperity  of  the  world.  The  engineer,  however,  feels  that 
steam  and  electricity  in  his  hands  have  done  more  to  economize 
labour,  to  cheapen  life,  to  increase  wealth,  to  promote  inter- 
national friendship,  to  alleviate  suffering,  to  ward  off  war,  to 
encourage  peace,  than  all  the  legislation  and  all  the  verbosity  of 
the  politician. 

The  railways  of  this  country  are  entirely  dependent  for  the 
conduct  of  their  traffic  on  the  telegraph,  and  the  security  of  their 
passengers  is  mainly  due  to  the  working  of  the  block  system.  A 
railway — say  between  London  and  Bath — is  broken  up  into 
certain  short  sections,  and  only  one  train  is  allowed  on  one  sec- 
tion at  one  time.  The  presence,  motion,  and  departure  of  trains 
are  announced  and  controlled  by  electric  signals,  and  the  out-door 
signals  are  governed  by  these  electric  signals.  There  are  few 
more  interesting  places  to  visit  than  a  well-equipped  signal-box 
on  one  of  our  main  railways.  The  signalman  is  able  to  survey 
the  lines  all  around  and  about  him  by  aid  of  his  electric  signals  ; 
he  can  talk  by  telegraph  or  by  telephone  to  his  neighbours  and 
his  station-master  ;  he  learns  of  the  motion  of  the  trains  he  is 
marshalling  by  the  different  sounds  of  electric  bells  ;  he  controls 
his  out-door  signals  by  the  deflection  of  needles,  or  the  movement 
of  miniature  semaphores  ;  he  learns  the  true  working  of  his  distant 
signals  by  their  electrical  repetition  ;  machinery  governs  and 
locks  every  motion  he  makes,  so  that  he  cannot  make  a  mistake. 
The  safety  of  railway  travelling  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that, 
while  in  the  five  years  ending  1878  thirty-five  people  were  killed 
annually  from  cause*  beyond  their  own  control,  in  the  five  years 
ending  1887  the  average  has  been  reduced  to  sixteen.  One 
person  is  killed  in  35,000,000  journeys  made  by  train.  Wherever 
we  are  dependent  on  human  agency  we  are  subject  to  human 
error,  and  a  serious  accident  very  recently  at  Hampton  Wick 
has  shown  how  the  most  perfect  machinery  may  be  rendered 
valueless  to  protect  life  when  perversity,  thoughtlessness,  or 
criminality  enter  as  factors  into  the  case. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Association  in  Plymouth  in  1877,  I  was 
able  for  the  first  time  in  this  country  to  show  the  telephone  at 
work.  Since  then  its  use  has  advanced  with  giant  strides. 
There  are  probably  a  million  instruments  at  work  now  through- 
out the  civilized  world.  Its  development  has  been  regularly 
.chronicled  at  our  meetings.  As  far  as  the  receiving  part  of  the 
apparatus  is  concerned,  it  remains  precisely  the  same  as  that 
which  I  brought  over  from  America  in  1877  ;  but  the  transmitter, 
ever  since  the  discovery  of  the  microphone  by  Hughes  in  1878, 
has  been  entirely  remodelled.  Edison's  carbon  transmitter  was 
a  great  step  in  advance  ;  but  the  modern  transmitters  of  Moseley, 
Berliner,  D'Arsonval,  De  Jongh,  leave  little  to  be  desired.  The 
disturbances  due  to  induction  have  been  entirely  eliminated,  and 
the  laws  regulating  the  distance  to  which  speech  is  possible  are 
so  well  known,  that  the  specification  of  the  circuit  required  to 
connect  the  Land's  End  with  John  o'  Groats  by  telephone  is  a 
simple  question  of  calculation.  A  circuit  has  been  erected  be- 
tween Paris  and  Marseilles,  6oo  miles  apart,  with  two  copper 
wires  of  6J  gauge,  weighing  540  pounds  per  mile,  and  conversa- 
tion is  easily  maintained  between  those  important  cities  at  the 
cost  of  three  francs  for  three  minutes.  One  scarcely  knows 
which  fact  is  the  more  astounding — the  distance  at  which  the 
human  voice  can  be  reproduced,  or  the  ridiculously  simple  ap- 
paratus that  performs  the  reproduction.  But  more  marvellous 
than  either  is  the  extreme  sensitiveness  of  the  instrument  itself, 
for  the  energy  contained  in  one  heat  unit  (gramme-water-degree) 
would,  according  to  Pellat,  maintain  a  continuous  sound  for 
10,000  years. 

The  influence  which  electric  currents  exert  on  neighbouring 
wires  extend  to  enormous  distances,  and  communication  between 
trains,  and  ships  in  motion,  between  armies  inside  and  outside 
besieged  cities,  between  islands  and  the  main-land,  has  become 
possible  without  the  aid  of  wires  at  all,  by  the  induction  which 
is  exerted  through  space  itself.  On  the  Lehigh  Valley  Railway, 
in  the  United  States,  such  a  system  of  telegraphing  without 
wires  is  in  actual  daily  use. 

The  conduct  of  the  telephonic  business  in  England  is  still  in 
the  hands  of  those  who  hold  the  patents,  and  who  maintain  a 
most  rigid  monopoly.  These  patents  have  only  a  short  period 
to  run,  and  when  they  expire  we  may  expect  to  find  that  England 
will  not  occupy  the  very  retired  position  she  holds  now  as  a 
telephone  country.  Stockholm  has  more  subscribers  than 
London  ;  there  are  15,000  subscribers  in  and  about  New  York, 
while  the  number  in  London  is  only  4851. 

Electric  lighting  has  become  popular,  not  alone  from  the 
beauty  of  the  light  itself,  but  from  its  great  hygienic  qualities  in 


maintaining  the  purity  and  coolness  of  the  air  we  breathe.  The 
electric  light  need  not  be  more  brilliant  than  gas,  but  it  must  be 
more  healthy.  It  need  not  be  cooler  than  a  wax  candle,  but  it 
must  be  brighter,  steadier,  and  more  pleasant  to  the  eye.  In 
fact,  it  can  be  rendered  the  most  perfect  artificial  illuminant  at 
our  disposal,  for  it  can  illumine  a  room  without  being  seen 
directly  by  the  eye  ;  it  can  be  made  absolutely  steady  and  uni- 
form without  irritating  the  retina  ;  it  does  not  poison  the  air  by 
carbonic  acid  and  carbonic  oxide,  or  dirty  the  decorations  by 
depositing  unconsumed  carbon  ;  it  does  not  destroy  books  or 
articles  of  vertu  and  art  by  forming  water  which  absorbs  sulphur 
acids  ;  and  it  does  not  unnecessarily  heat  the  room. 

In  our  Central  Savings  Bank  in  London  it  has  been  found, 
after  two  years'  experience  of  electric  lighting,  that  the  average 
amount  of  absences  from  illness  has  been  diminished  by  about 
two  days  a  year  for  each  person  on  the  staff.  This  is  equivalent 
to  a  gain  to  the  service  of  the  time  of  about  eight  clerks  in  that 
department  alone.  Taking  the  cost  at  the  "overtime"  rate 
only,  this  would  mean  a  saving  in  salaries  of  about  ^640  a  year. 
The  cost  of  the  installation  of  the  electric  light  was  .£3349,  and 
the  annual  cost  of  working  ^700  per  annum,  say  a  total  annual 
cost  of  ^1034.  The  cost  of  the  gas  consumed  for  lighting 
purposes  was  about  ^700  a  year,  so  that  on  the  whole  there 
was  a  direct  saving  of  something  like  ^266  a  year  to  the 
Government,  besides  the  material  advantage  of  the  better  work 
of  the  staff  resulting  from  the  improved  atmospheric  conditions 
under  which  their  work  is  done. 

The  production  of  light  by  any  means  implies  the  consumption 
of  energy,  and  this  can  be  measured  in  watts,  or  the  rate  at 
which  this  energy  is  consumed.  A  watt  is  Tj5  part  of  a  horse- 
power. It  is  a  very  convenient  and  sensible  unit  of  power,  and 
will  in  time  replace  the  meaningless  horse- power. 

One  candle  light  maintained  by  tallow   .    .    .     absorbs  124  watts. 

,,  ,,  wax      ....,,  94  ,, 

,,  ,,  sperm       .    .    .    ,,  86  ,, 

,,  ,,  mineral  oil           ,,  80  ,, 

,,  ,,  vegetable  oil    .     ,,  57  ,, 

,,  ,,  coal  gas    .    .    .     „  68  ,, 

,,  ,,  cannel  gas    .    .    ,,  48  ,, 

,,  ,,  electricity  (glow) ,,  3  ,, 

,,  ,,  electricity  (arc)    ,,  55  >» 

The  relative  heat  generation  of  these  illuminants  may  be  estimated 
from  these  figures. 

Though  the  electric  light  was  discovered  by  Davy  in  1810,  it 
was  not  until  1844  that  it  was  introduced  into  our  scientific 
laboratories  by  Foucault  ;  it  was  not  until  1878  that  Jablochkoff 
and  Brush  showed  how  to  light  up  our  streets  effectually  and 
practically  ;  it  was  not  until  1881  that  Edison  and  Swan  showed 
how  our  homes  could  be  illuminated  softly  and  perfectly.  Un- 
preparedness  for  such  a  revolution  produced  a  perfect  panic  among 
gas  proprietors ;  inexperience  in  the  use  of  powerful  electric 
currents  resulted  in  frequent  failure  and  danger  ;  speculation  in 
financial  bubbles  transferred  much  gold  from  the  pockets  of  the 
weak  to  the  coffers  of  the  unscrupulous  ;  hasty  legislation  in  1882 
restricted  the  operations  of  the  cautious  and  the  wise  ;  and  the 
prejudice  arising  from  all  these  causes  has  perhaps  fortunately, 
delayed  the  general  introduction  of  electricity  ;  but  now  legislation 
has  been  improved,  experience  has  been  gained,  confidence  is 
being  restored,  and  in  this  beautiful  town  of  Bath  fifty  streets  are 
about  to  be  lighted,  and  we  see  everywhere  around  and  about  us 
in  our  English  homes  the  pure  glow-lamp  replacing  filthy  gas 
and  stinking  oil.  The  economical  distribution  of  the  electric  cur- 
rent over  large  areas  is  annually  receiving  a  fresh  impetus.  The 
expensive  systems  defined  in  the  Act  of  Parliament  of  1882  have 
entirely  disappeared.  Hopkinson  in  England,  and  Edison  in 
America,  showed  how  a  third  wire  reduced  the  weight  of  copper 
needed  by  66  per  cent.  Gaulard  andGibbs  in  1882  showed  how 
the  conversion  of  alternate  currents  of  high  electromotive  force 
to  currents  of  low  electromotive  force  by  simple  induction  coils 
would  enable  a  mere  telegraph  wire  to  convey  sufficient  electricity 
to  light  a  distant  neighbourhood  economically  and  efficiently. 
Lane  Fox  in  1879  showed  how  the  same  thing  could  be  done  by 
secondary  batteries  ;  and  Plante,  Faure,  Sellon,  and  Parker  have 
done  much  to  prove  how  batteries  can  be  made  to  solve  the 
problem  of  storage  ;  while  King  and  Edmunds  have  shown  how 
the  distribution  by  secondary  batteries  can  be  done  as  economic- 
ally as  by.  secondary  generators.  The  Grosvenor  Gallery  Com- 
pany in  London  have  proved  the  practicability  of  the  secondary 
generator    principle   by   nightly   supplying   24,000    glow-lamps 


Sept.  20,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


497 


scattered  over  a  very  wide  area  of  London.  The  glow-lamp  of 
Edison,  which  in  188 1  required  5  watts  per  candle,  has  been  so 
far  improved  that  it  now  consumes  but  z\  watts  per  candle.  The 
dynamo,  which  in  the  same  year  weighed  50,000  pounds,  absorbed 
150  horse  power,  and  cost  ^'4000  for  1 000  lamps,  now  weighs 
14,000  pounds,  absorbs  1 10  horse-power,  and  costs  ^500  for  the 
same  production  of  external  energy  ;  in  other  words,  its  com- 
mercial output  has  been  increased  nearly  six  times,  while  its 
prime  cost  has  been  diminished  eight  times. 

The  steam-engine  has  received  equal  attention.  The  economy 
of  the  electric  light  when  steam  is  used  depends  almost  entirely 
on  the  consumption  of  coal.  With  slow-speed  low-pressure 
engines  one  kilowatt  (1000  watts,  1^  horse-power)  may  consume 
12  pounds  of  coal  per  hour  ;  in  high-speed  high-pressure  triple- 
expansion  engines  it  need  not  consume  more  than  I  pound  of 
coal  per  hour.  Willans  and  Robinson  have  actually  delivered 
from  a  dynamo  one  kilowatt  by  the  consumption  of  2  pounds  of 
coal  per  hour,  or  by  the  condensation  of  20  pounds  of  steam. 

There  is  a  great  tendency  to  use  small  economical  direct-acting 
engines  in  place  of  large  expensive  engines,  which  waste  power 
in  countershafting  and  belts.  Between  the  energy  developed  in 
the  furnace  in  the  form  of  heat,  and  that  distributed  in  our  rooms 
in  the  form  of  light,  there  have  been  too  many  points  of  waste 
in  the  intermediate  operations.  These  have  now  been  eliminated 
or  reduced.  Electricity  can  now  be  produced  by  steam  at  3^. 
per  kilowatt  per  hour.  The  kilowatt-hour  is  the  Board  of  Trade 
unit  as  defined  by  the  Act  of  1882,  for  which  the  consumer  of 
electric  energy  has  to  pay.  Its  production  by  gas-engines  costs 
6d.  per  kilowatt  hour,  while  by  primary  batteries  it  costs  35.  per 
kilowatt-hour.  The  Grosvenor  Gallery  Company  supply  currents 
at  7j</.  per  kilowatt-hour  ;  a  20  candle-power  lamp  consuming  3 
watts  per  candle,  and  burning  1200  hours  per  annum,  expends 
82,000  watt-hours  or  82  kilowatt-hours,  and  it  costs,  at  7\d.  per 
unit,  50^.  per  annum.  If  the  electricity  be  produced  on  the 
premises,  as  is  the  case  in  the  Post  Office,  in  the  House  of 
•Commons,  and  in  many  large  places,  it  would  cost  20s.  di.  per 
annum.  I  have  found  from  a  general  average  under  the  same 
circumstances  and  for  the  same  light  in  the  General  Post  Office 
in  London  that  an  electric  glow-lamp  costs  22^.  and  a  gas-lamp 
i8x.  per  annum.  The  actual  cost  of  the  production  of  one  candle 
.light  per  annum  of  1000  hours  is  as  follows  :  — 


Sperm  candles 
Gas  (London) 
Oil  (petroleum)     . 
Electricity  (glow) 
Electricity  (arc)     . 


The  greatest  development  of  the  electric  light  has  taken  place 
■on  board  ship.  Our  Admiralty  have  been  foremost  in  this  work. 
All  our  warships  are  gradually  receiving  their  equipment.  Our 
ocean-going  passenger  ships  are  also  now  so  illumined,  and  per- 
haps it  is  here  that  the  comfort,  security,  and  true  blessedness  of 
the  electric  light  are  experienced. 

Railway  trains  are  also  being  raoidly  fitted  up.  The  express 
trains  to  Brighton  have  for  a  long  time  been  so  lighted,  and  now 
several  northern  railways,  notably  the  Midland,  are  following 
suit.  Our  rocky  coasts  and  prominent  landfalls  are  also  having 
their  lighthouses  fitted  with  brilliant  arc  lamps,  the  last  bein^ 
St.  Catherine's  Point,  on  the  Isle  of  Wight,  where  60,000  candles 
throw  their  bright  beams  over  the  English  Channel,  causing  many 
an  anxious  mariner  to  proceed  on  his  way  rejoicing. 

Eontaine  showed  in  Vienna,  in  1873,  that  a  dynamo  was  re- 
versible— that  is,  if  rotated  by  the  energy  of  a  moving  machine, 
it  would  produce  electric  currents ;  or,  if  rotated  by  electric  cur- 
rents, it  would  move  machinery.  Amelectric  current  is  one  form 
-of  energy.  If  we  have  at  one  place  the  energy  of  falling  water, 
we  can,  by  means  of  a  turbine  and  a  dynamo,  convert  a  certain 
portion  of  the  energy  of  this  falling  water  into  an  electric  current. 
We  transmit  this  current  through  proper  conductors  to  any  other 
place  we  like,  and  we  can  again,  by  means  of  a  motor,  convert 
the  energy  of  the  cunent  into  mechanical  energy  to  do  work  by 
moving  machinery,  drawing  tram-cars,  or  in  any  other'way.  We 
can  in  this  way  transmit  and  utilize  50  per  cent,  of  the  energy  of 
the  falling  water  wherever  we  like.  The  waste  forces  of  Nature 
are  thus  within  our  reach.  The  waterfalls  of  Wales  may  be 
utilized  in  London  ;  the  torrents  of  the  Highlands  may  work  the 
tramways  of  Edinburgh  ;  the  wasted  horse-power  of  Niagara  may 
light  up  New  York.     The  falls  of  Bushmills  actually  do  work 


the  tramway  from  Portrush  to  the  Giant's  Causeway,  and  those 
of  Bessbrook  the  line  from  Newry  to  Bessbrook. 

The  practicability  of  the  transmission  of  energy  by  currents  is 
assured,  and  the  economy  of  doing  this  is  a  mere  matter  of 
calculation.  It  is  a  question  of  the  relative  cost  of  the  trans- 
mission of  fuel  in  bulk,  or  of  the  transmission  of  energy  by  wire. 
Coal  can  be  delivered  in  London  for  12s.  per  ton.  The  mere 
cost  of  the  up-keep  of  a  wire  between  Wales  and  London  to 
deliver  the  same  amount  of  energy  would  exceed  this  sum  ten- 
fold. For  long  distances  the  transmission  of  energy  is  at  present 
out  of  the  question.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  for 
many  purposes  within  limited  areas  the  transmission  of  energy  by 
electricity  would  be  very  economical  and  effective.  Pumps  are 
worked  in  the  mines  of  the  Forest  of  Dean,  cranes  are  moved  in 
the  works  of  Easton  and  Anderson  at  Erith,  lifts  are  raised  in 
banks  in  London  ;  water  is  pumped  up  from  wells  to  cisterns  in 
the  house  of  Sir  Erancis  Truscott,  near  East  Grinstead  ;  ventila- 
tion is  effected  and  temperature  lowered  in  collieries  ;  goods, 
minerals,  and  fuel  can  be  transmitted  by  telpherage. 

The  transmission  of  power  by  electricity  is  thus  within  the 
range  of  practice.  It  can  be  distributed  during  the  day  by  the 
same  mains  which  supply  currents  for  light  by  night.  Small 
industries,  such  as  printing,  watch-making,  tailoring,  boot- 
making,  can  be  cheaply  supplied  with  power.  It  is  thus  brought 
into  direct  competition  with  the  distribution  of  power  by  steam 
as  in  America,  or  by  air-pressure  as  in  Paris,  or  by  high-pressure 
water  as  in  London  ;  and  the  relative  advantages  and  economies  of 
each  system  are  simple  questions  of  calculation.  When  that  evil 
day  arrives  that  our  supply  of  natural  fuel  ceases,  then  we  may 
look  to  electricity  to  bring  to  our  aid  the  waste  energies  of 
Nature — the  heat  of  the  sun,  the  tidal  wave  of  the  ocean,  the 
flowing  river,  the  roaring  falls,  and  the  raging  storm. 

There  is  a  mode  of  transport  which  is  likely  to  create  a  revolu- 
tion in  the  method  of  working  tramways.  A  tramcar  carries  a 
set  of  accumulators  which  supplies  a  current  to  work  a  motor 
geared  to  a  pair  of  wheels  of  the  car.  The  weight,  price,  day's 
work,  and  life  of  the  accumulator  is  curiously  the  same  as  the 
weight,  price,  day's  work,  and  life  of  horseflesh  ;  but  the  cost  of 
maintenance,  the  liability  to  accident,  and  the  chances  of  failure 
are  much  less.  Although  very  great  improvements  in  batteries 
have  been  made,  and  they  are  now  really  practical  things, 
sufficient  experience  in  tramcar  working  has  not  yet  been  obtained 
to  say  that  we  have  reached  the  proper  accumulator.  Nor  have 
we  yet  acquired  the  best  motor  and  mode  of  gearing  ;  but  very 
active  experiments  are  being  carried  out  in  various  countries, 
and  nothing  can  prevent  their  ultimate  success. 

The  property  which  the  electric  current  possesses,  of  doing 
work  upon  the  chemical  constitution  of  bodies  so  as  to  break  up 
certain  liquid  compounds  into  their  constituent  parts,  and 
marshal  these  disunited  niDlecules  in  regular  order,  according  to 
a  definite  law,  upon  the  surfaces  of  metals  in  contact  with  the 
liquid  where  the  current  enters  and  exists,  has  led  to  immense 
industries  in  electro-metallurgy  and  electro-plating.  The  extent 
of  this  industry  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  there  are 
172  electro-platers  in  Sheffield  and  99  in  Birmingham.  The 
term  electro-metallurgy  was  originally  applied  to  the  electro- 
deposition  of  a  thin  layer  of  one  metal  on  another  ;  but  this  is 
now  known  as  electro-plating. 

1°  '^39>  Jacobi  in  St.  Petersburg  and  Spencer  in  Liverpool  laid 
the  foundations  of  all  we  know  of  these  interesting  arts.  Copper 
was  deposited  by  them  so  as  to  obtain  exact  reproductions  of 
coins,  medals,  and  engraved  plates.  The  first  patents  in  this 
country  and  in  France  were  taken  out  by  Messrs.  Elkington, 
of  Birmingham,  who  still  occupy  the  foremost  position  in  the 
country. 

The  fine  metals,  gold  and  silver,  are  deposited  in  thin  layers 
on  coarser  metals,  such  as  German  silver,  in  immense  quantities. 
Christofle,  of  Paris,  deposits  annually  six  tons  of  silver  upon 
articles  of  use  and  of  art.  and  if  the  surfaces  so  electro-plated  were 
spread  out  continuously  they  would  cover  140  acres. 

The  whole  of  the  copper  plates  used  in  Southampton  for  the 
production  of  our  splendid  Ordnance  Survey  maps  are  deposited 
by  copper  on  matrices  taken  from  the  original  engraved  plates, 
which  are  thus  never  injured  or  worn,  are  always  ready  for 
addition  or  correction,  while  the  copies  may  be  multiplied  at 
pleasure  and  renewed  at  will. 

Nickel-plating,  by  which  the  readily  oxidizable  metals  like  iron 
are  coated  with  a  thin  layer  of  the  more  durable  material  nickel, 
is  becoming  a  great  industry  ;  the  trappings  of  harness,  the 
exposed  parts  of  machinery,  the  fittings  of  c)  cles  and  carriages, 


49s 


NATURE 


[Sept.  20,  1888 


and  innumerable  articles  of  daily  use,  are  being  rendered  not  only 
more  durable  but  more  beautiful. 

The  electro-deposition  of  iron,  as  devised  by  Jacobi  and  Klein, 
in  the  hands  of  Prof.  Roberts- Austen,  F.R.S.,  is  giving  very 
interesting  results.  The  dies  for  the  coins  which  were  struck  at  our 
Mint  on  the  occasion  of  the  Jubilee  of  the  Queen  were  modelled 
in  plaster,  reproduced  in  intaglio  by  the  electro- deposition  of 
copper,  and  on  these  copper  moulds  hard  excellent  iron  in  layers 
of  nearly  yT  of  an  inch  was  deposited. 

The  exact  processes  of  measurement,  which  have  led  to  such 
vast  improvement  in  our  telegraphic  systems,  have  scarcely  yet 
penetrated  into  this  field  of  electrical  industry,  and  little  is  known 
at  present  of  the  exact  relations  of  current  and  electromotive 
force  with  respect  to  surfaces  of  contact,  rate  of  deposit,  and 
resistance  of  liquids.  Captain  Sankey,  R.E.,  of  the  Ordnance 
Survey  Department,  has  done  some  useful  work  in  this  direction. 

The  extraction  of  metals  from  their  ores  by  deposition  has 
received  wide  application  in  the  case  of  copper.  In  1871, 
Elkington  proposed  to  precipitate  copper  electrolytically  from 
the  fused  sulphide  of  c  *pper  and  iron  known  to  the  copper 
smelter  as  "regulus."  Thin  copper  plates  were  arranged  to 
receive  the  deposited  copper,  while  the  foreign  metals,  including 
gold  and  silver,  fell  to  the  bottom  of  the  solution,  the  process 
bein^  specially  applicable,  it  was  supposed,  to  regulus  containing 
small  quantities  of  the  precious  metals. 

The  electrical  purification  of  copper  from  impure  "blister 
copper"  or  "  blade  copper"  has  also  made  great  progress,  and 
special  dynamos  are  now  made  which  will,  with  an  expenditure 
of  100  horse-power,  precipitate  18  tons  of  copper  per  week. 
The  impure  metal  is  made  to  form  the  anode  in  a  bath  of 
sulphate  of  copper,  the  metal  being  deposited  in  the  pure  form 
on  a  thin  copper  cathode. 

It  was  not  very  long  ago  considered  very  economical  to 
absorb  o  85  horse-power  in  depositing  1  pound  of  copper  per 
hour,  but  now  the  same  work  can  be  done  with  0*3  horse- 
power. Mr.  Parker,  of  Wolverhampton,  has  done  good  work 
in  this  direction,  and  his  dynamos  in  Messrs.  Bjlton's  works  have 
revolutionized  this  process  of  purification. 

Both  at  Swansea  and  Widnes,  immense  quantities  of  copper, 
in  spite  of  the  restrictive  operations  of  the  Copper  Syndicate, 
are  being  produced  by  electro-deposition.  Copper  steam- 
pipes  for  boilers  are  now  being  built  up  of  great  firmness, 
fine  texture,  and  considerable  strength,  by  Mr.  Elmore,  at 
Cockermouth,  by  electro-deposition  on  a  rotating  mandril  in  a 
tank  of  sulphate  of  copper.  By  this  process  one  ton  of  copper 
requires  only  a  little  more  than  one  ton  of  coal  to  raise  the 
requisite  steam  to  complete  the  operation. 

It  ha-;  been  shown  that  the  electrolytic  separation  of  silver 
from  gold  by  similar  methods  is  perfectly  practicable.  The 
value  of  the  material  to  be  dealt  with  may  be  gathered  from  the 
fact,  communicated  to  the  Gold  and  Silver  Commission  now 
sitting,  that  nearly  90,000,000  ounces  of  silver  are  annually 
produced,  and  the  greater  portion  of  this  amount  contains 
sufficient  gold  to  render  refining  remunerative.  Although  the 
old  acid  process  of  "parting  "  gold  and  silver  remains  practically 
undisturbed,  there  seems  no  reason  to  doubt  that  in  the  future 
electricity  will  render  us  good  service  in  this  direction,  as  it  has 
already  in  the  purification  of  copper. 

There  is  not  much  actual  progress  to  report  in  the  extraction 
of  gold  from  its  ores  by  electrical  agency.  The  conversion  of 
gold  into  chloride  of  gold  by  the  direct,  or  indirect,  action  of 
chlorine  is  employed  on  a  very  large  scale  in  [Grass  Valley] 
California  and  elsewhere.  This  fact  has  led  to  well-directed 
efforts  to  obtain,  by  electrolytic  action,  chlorine  which  should 
attack  finely-divided  gold  suspended  (with  the  crushed  ore)  in 
the  solution  from  which  the  chlorine  was  generated,  the  gold,  so 
converted  into  soluble  chloride,  then  being  deposited  on  a 
cathode.  The  process  would  seem  to  be  hopeful,  but  is  not  as 
yet  a  serious  rival  to  the  ordinary  chlorination  method. 

In  the  amalgamation  of  gold  ores  much  is  expected  from  the 
possibility  of  keeping  clean,  by  the  aid  of  hydrogen  set  free  by 
the  electric  current,  the  surfaces  of  amalgamated  plates. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  late  Sir  W.  Siemens  considered 
that  the  electric  arc  might  render  good  service  in  the  fusion  of 
metals  with  high  melting-points,  and  he  actually  succeeded  in 
melting  96  ounces  of  platinum  in  ten  minutes  with  his  electrical 
furnace.  The  experiments  were  interrupted  by  his  untimely 
death  ;  but  in  the  hands  of  Messrs.  Cowles  the  electric  arc  pro- 
duced by  5000  amperes  and  500  horse-power  is  being  employed 
on  a  very  large   scale    for   the   isolation    of  aluminium   (from 


corundum),  which  is  immediately  alloyed  {in  situ)  with  copper 
or  iron,  in  the  presence  of  which  it  is  separated. 

The  heating  power  of  large  currents  has  been  used  by  Elihu 
Thomson  in  the  United  States,  and  by  Bernardos  in  Russia,  to 
weld  metals,  and  it  is  said  to  weld  steel  without  affecting  its 
hardness.  It  has  even  been  proposed  to  wekl  together  in  one 
continuous  metallic  mass  the  rails  of  our  railways,  so  as  to 
dispense  entirely  with  joints. 

The  production  of  chlorine  for  bleaching  and  of  iodine  for 
pharmaceutical  purposes,  the  economical  production  of  oxygen, 
are  also  processes  now  dependent  on  the  electrolytic  effect  of  the 
electric  current. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  enumerate  the  various  general 
purposes  to  which  electricity  is  applied  to  minister  to  our  wants 
and  to  add  to  our  comforts.  Everyone  appreciates  the  silent 
efficiency  of  the  trembling  electric  bell,  while  all  will  sooner  or  later 
derive  comfort  from  the  perennially  self-winding  electric  clock. 
Correct  mean  time  is  distributed  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land  by  currents  derived  from  Greenwich 
Observatory.  Warehouses  and  shops  are  fitted  with  automatic 
contact  pieces,  which,  on  any  undue  increase  of  temperature  due 
to  fire,  create  an  alarm  in  the  nearest  fire-station  ;  and  at  the 
corner  of  most  streets  a  post  is  found  with  a  face  of  glass,  which 
on  being  broken  enables  the  passer-by  or  the  watchful  and  active 
policeman  to  call  a  fire-engine  to  the  exact  spot  of  danger.  Our 
sewers  are  likely  to  find  in  its  active  chemical  agency  a  power  to 
neutralize  offensive  gases,  and  to  purify  poisonous  and  dangerous 
fluids.  The  germs  of  diseases  are  attacked  and  destroyed  in 
their  very  lairs.  The  physician  an  1  the  surgeon  trust  to  it  to 
alleviate  pain,  to  cure  disease,  to  effect  organic  changes  beyond 
the  reach  of  drugs.  The  photographer  finds  in  the  brilliant 
rays  of  the  arc  lamp  a  miniature  sun  which  enables  him  to  pursue 
his  lucrative  business  at  ni>  ht,  or  during  the  dark  and  dismal 
hours  of  a  black  November  fog  in  Eondon. 

We  learn  from  the  instructive  and  interesting  advertising 
columns  of  our  newspaper  that  "  electricity  is  life,"  and  we 
may  perhaps  read  in  the  more  historical  portion  of  the  same 
paper  that  by  a  recent  decision  of  the  New  York  Parliament, 
"  electricity  is  death."  It  is  proposed  to  replace  hanging  by  the 
more  painless  and  sudden  application  of  a  powerful  electrical 
charge  ;  but  those  who  have  assisted  at  this  hasty  legislation 
would  have  done  well  to  have  assured  themselves  of  the 
practical  efficacy  of  the  proposed  process.  I  have  seen  the 
difficulty  of  killing  even  a  rabbit  with  the  most  powerful  induc- 
tion coil  ever  made,  and  I  know  those  who  escaped  and 
recovered  from  the  stroke  of  a  lightning  discharge. 

The  fact  that  the  energy  of  a  current  of  electricity,  either 
when  it  flashes  across  an  air  space,  or  when  it  is  forced  through 
high  resistance,  assumes  the  form  of  heat  of  very  high  tempera- 
ture led  early  to  its  employment  for  firing  charges  of  gunpowder  ; 
and  for  many  civil,  military,  and  naval  purposes  it  has  become 
an  invaluable  and  essential  agent.  Wrecks  like  that  of  the  Royal 
George  at  Spithead  were  blown  up  and  destroyed  ;  the  faces  of 
cliffs  and  quarries  are  thrown  down  ;  the  galleries  of  mines  and 
tunnels  are  excavated  ;  obstructions  to  navigation  like  the 
famous  Hell  Gate,  near  New  York,  have  been  removed  ;  time- 
guns  to  distribute  correct  time  are  fired  by  currents  from 
Greenwich  at  1  p.m.  In  the  operations  of  war,  both  for  attack 
and  defence,  submarine  mining  has  become  the  most  important 
branch  of  the  profession  of  a  soldier  and  a  sailor.  Big  guns, 
whether  singly  or  in  broadside,  are  fired  ;  and  torpedoes,  when 
an  enemy's  ship  unwittingly  is  placed  over  them,  are  exploded 
by  currents  of  electricity. 

An  immense  amount  of  research  has  been  devoted  to  design 
the  best  form  of  fuse,  and  the  best  form  of  generator  of  electricity 
to  use  to  explode  them.  Gun  tubes  for  firing  consist  of  a  short 
piece  of  very  fine  wire  embedded  in  some  easily  fusible  com- 
pound, while  the  best  form  of  fuse  is  that  known  as  the  Abel 
fuse,  which  is  composed  of  a  small,  compact  mass  of  copper 
phosphide,  copper  sulphide,  and  potassium  chlorate.  The  prac- 
tice in  the  use  of  generators  is  very  various.  Some,  like  the 
Austrians,  lean  to  the  high-tension  effects  of  static  electricity  ; 
others  prefer  magneto-machines  ;  others  use  the  dynamo  ;  while 
we  in  England  cling  with  much  fondness  to  the  trustworthy 
battery.  Since  the  electric  light  has  also  become  such  a  valuable 
adjunct  to  war  purposes,  it  is  probable  that  secondary  batteries 
will  become  of  immense  service.  The  strong  inductive  effects  of 
atmospheric  electricity  are  a  source  of  great  danger.  Many 
accidental  explosions  of  fuses  have  occurred.  An  experimental 
cable  with  a  fuse  at  one  end  was  laid  below  low  water  mark 


Sept.  20,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


499 


along  the  bank  of  the  Thames  at  Woolwich.  The  fuse  was  ex- 
ploded during  a  heavy  thunderstorm.  The  knowledge  of  the 
causes  of  a  danger  is  a  sure  means  for  the  production  of  its 
removal,  or  of  its  reduction  to  a  minimum.  Low-tension  fuses 
and  metallic  circuits  reduce  the  evils  of  lightning,  but  have  not 
removed  them.  Should  war  unhappily  break  out  again  in 
Enrrpe,  submarine  mining  will  play  a  very  serious  part  ;  and, 
paradoxical  as  it  may  appear—  as  has  been  suggested  by  the 
French  Ambassador,  M.  Waddington — its  very  destructiveness 
may  ultimately  prove  it  to  be  a  powerful  element  of  peace. 

It  seems  incredible  that,  having  utilized  this  great  power  of 
Nature  to  such  a  wide  and  general  extent,  we  should  be  still  in  a 
state  of  mental  fog  as  to  the  answer  to  be  given  to  the  simple 
question — What  is  Electricity  ?  The  engineer  and  the  physicist 
are  completely  at  variance  on  thi^  point.  The  engineer  regards 
electricity,  like  heat,  light,  and  sound,  as  a  definite  form  of 
•energy,  something  that  he  can  generate  and  destroy,  something 
that  he  can  play  with  and  utilize,  something  that  he  can  measure 
and  apply.  The  physicist — at  least  some  physicists,  for  it  is 
difficult  to  find  any  two  physicists  that  completely  agree  with 
each  other — regard  electricity  as  a  peculiar  form  of  matter  per- 
meating all  space  as  well  as  all  substances,  together  with  the 
luminiferous  ether,  which  it  permeates  like  a  jelly  or  a  sponge. 
Conductors,  according  to  this  theory,  are  holes  or  pipes  in  this 
jelly,  and  electrical  generators  are  pumps  that  transfer  this 
hypothetical  matter  from  one  place  to  another.  Other  physicists, 
following  Edlund,  regard  the  ether  and  electricity  as  identical  ; 
and  some,  the  disciples  of  Helmholtz,  consider  it  as  an  integral 
constituent  of  Nature,  each  molecule  of  matter  having  its  own 
definite  charge,  which  determines  its  attraction  and  its  repulsion. 
All  attempts  to  revive  the  Franklinian,  or  material,  theory  of 
electricity,  have,  however,  to  be  so  loaded  with  assumptions,  and 
so  weighted  with  contradictions,  that  they  completely  fail  to 
Temove  electricity  from  the  region  of  the  mysterious.  It.  is 
already  extremely  difficult  to  conceive  the  existence  of  the  ether 
itself  as  an  infinitely  thin,  highly  elastic  medium,  filling  all  space, 
employed  only  as  the  vehicle  of  those  undulat'  ry  motions  that 
give  us  light  and  radiant  heat.  The  material  theory  of  electricity 
requires  us  to  add  to  this  another  incomprehensible  medium 
•embedded  or  entangled  in  this  ether,  which  is  not  only  a  medium 
for  motion,  but  which  is  itself  moved.  The  practical  man,  with 
his  eye  and  his  mind  trained  by  the  stem  realities  of  daily  ex- 
perience, on  a  scale  vast  compared  with  that  of  the  little  world 
■of  the  laboratory,  revolts  from  such  wild  hypotheses,  such 
unnecessary  and  inconceivable  conceptions,  such  a  travesty  of 
the  beautiful  simplicity  of  Nature. 

He  has  a  clear  conception  of  electricity  as  something  which 
has  a  distinct  objective  existence,  which  he  can  manufacture  and 
sell,  and  something  which  the  unphilosophic  and  ordinary  mem- 
ber of  society  can  buy  and  use.  The  physicist  asserts  dog- 
matically :  "  Electricity  may  possibly  be  a  form  of  matter — it  is 
not  a  form  f'f  energy."  The  engineer  says  distinctly:  "Elec- 
tricity is  a  form  of  energy — it  is  not  a  form  of  matter  ;  it  obeys 
the  two  great  developments  of  the  present  generation — the 
mechanical  theory  of  heat  and  the  doctrine  of  the  conservation  of 
energy."  There  must  be  some  cause  for  this  strange  difference 
of  views.  It  is  clear  that  the  physicist  and  the  engineer  do  not 
apply  the  term  electricity  to  the  same  thing.  The  engineer's 
electricity  is  a  real  form  of  energy  ;  the  speculative  philosopher's 
electricity  is  a  vague  subjective  unreality  which  is  only  a  mere 
factor  of  energy  and  is  not  energy  itself.  This  factor,  like  force, 
gravity,  life,  must,  at  any  rate  for  the  prespnt,  remain  unknow- 
able. It  is  not  known  what  force  is  ;  neither  do  we  know  what 
is  nutter  or  gravity.  The  metaphysician  is  even  doubtful  as 
regards  time  and  space.  Our  knowledge  of  these  things  com- 
mences with  a  definition.  The  human  mind  is  so  unimpression- 
able, or  language  is  so  poor,  that  writers  often  cannot  agree  even 
on  a  definition.  The  definition  of  energy  is  capacity  for  doing 
work.  We  practical  men  are  quite  content  to  start  from  this 
fiducial  line,  and  to  affirm  that  our  electricity  is  a  something 
•which  has  a  capacity  for  doing  work  ;  it  is  a  peculiar  form  of 
energy.  The  physicist  may  speculate  as  much  as  he  pleases  on 
the  other  side  of  this  line.  He  may  take  the  factors  of  energy, 
aud  mentally  play  with  them  to  his  heart's  content  ;  but  he  must 
not  rob  the  engineer  of  his  term  elec  ricily.  It  is  a  pity  that  we 
cannot  settle  our  difference  by  changing  the  term.  Physicists 
might  leave  the  term  e'cc'ricity  to  the  form  of  energy,  which  is  an 
objective  reality,  and  which  the  ordinary  mortal  understands  ; 
while  engineers  would  be  quite  content  if  speculative  physicists 
and  enthusiastic  mathematicians  would  call  their  subjective  un- 
reality, their  imaginary  electrical  matter,  by  some  other  term.   If 


it  be  necessary  to  mentally  create  some  imaginary  matter  to 
fulfil  the  assumptions  and  abstractions  of  their  mathematical 
realizations,  let  them  call  it  coulombism  or  electron,  and  not 
appropriate  the  engineer's  generic  and  comprehensive  term 
electricity.  The  engineer  finds  the  motions  of  existing  matter 
and  of  the  ether  quite  sufficient  to  meet  all  his  requirements,  and 
to  account  for  all  those  phenomena  which  are  called  electrical. 

It  seems  paradoxical  to  assert  that  two  unrealities  can  form  a 
reality,  or  that  two  subjective  ideas  can  become  an  objective  one  ; 
but  it  must  be  remembered  that  in  all  electrical  phenomena  that 
which  makes  them  real  and  objective  is  derived  from  without. 
The  motion  that  renders  an  electrical  phenomenon  evident  is  im- 
parted to  it  from  some  other  form  of  energy.  The  doctrine  of 
the  conservation  of  energy  aserts  that  energy  is  never  destroyed, 
it  is  only  transformed — work  must  be  done  to  render  it  evident. 
No  single  electrical  effect  can  be  adduced  which  is  not  the  result 
of  work  done,  and  is  not  the  equivalent  of  energy  absorbed. 
The  engineer's  notion  of  work — something  done  against  resist- 
ance ;  and  of  power — the  rate  at  which  this  change  of  condition 
is  effected — are  the  key-stones  to  the  conception  of  the  character 
of  those  great  sources  of  power  in  Nature  whose  direction  to  the 
uses  and  convenience  of  man  is  the  immediate  profession  of  those 
who  generally  assemble  together  in  Section  G  of  the  British 
Association  to  discuss  the  "practical  application  of  the  most 
important  principles  of  natural  philosophy,  which  has,  in  a  con- 
siderable degree,  realized  the  anticipations  of  Bacon  and  changed 
the  aspect  and  state  of  affairs  in  the  whole  world." 

I  cannot  pretend  to  have  given  a  survey  of  all  the  practical 
applications  of  electricity.  I  have  but  briefly  indicated  the  pre- 
sent area  covered  by  the  new  and  rapidly-growing  industry. 
Five  million  people  upon  the  globe  are  now  dependent  on  the 
electric  current  for  their  daily  bread.  Scarcely  a  week  passes 
without  some  fresh  practical  application  of  its  principles,  and  we 
seem  to  be  only  on  the  shore  of  that  sea  of  economy  and  bene- 
ficence w  hich  expands  with  every  new  discovery  of  the  properties 
of  electricity,  and  spreads  already  beyond  the  mental  grasp  of 
any  one  single  worker. 

NOTES. 

The  Geological  Congress  held  its  first  meeting  on  Tuesday. 
This  week  we  print  the  President's  address  and  one  of  the  papers 
referring  to  one  of  the  most  important  points  to  be  considered  by 
the  Congress — that  of  the  Crystalline  Schists. 

Intelligence  has  been  received  of  the  murder  of  Major 
Barttelot,  Mr.  Stanley's  principal  lieutenant,  by  some  of  his 
followers  when  on  the  way  from  Stanley  Falls  with  reinforcements 
for  his  chief. 

The  sudden  death  of  Mr.  R.  A.  Proctor  was  announced  from 
New  York  about  a  week  ago.  In  addition  to  his  writings  on  various 
subjects  for  which  his  name  is  so  widely  known,  he  made  some 
contributions  to  the  science  of  astronomy.  Some  of  his  books, 
such  as  "Saturn  and  its  System,"  his  various  star  atlases,  and 
others  we  might  name,  have  a  permanent  value.  Elected  a 
Fellow  of  the  Royal  Astronomical  Society  in  1866,  he  was 
for  a  considerable  number  of  years  the  most  prolific  contributor 
to  the  Monthly  Notices.  In  1871  he  was  elected  to  the  Council, 
and  in  the  following  year  was  appointed  the  Secretary. 
The  determination  of  the  rotation-period  of  Mars,  a  chart 
of  Mars  from  the  collation  of  a  large  number  of  drawings, 
a  long  series  of  papers  on  transits  of  Venus,  especially  the  tran- 
sits of  1874  and  1882,  and  a  yet  more  important  series  on  the 
distribution  of  stars  and  nebulae,  were  communicated  to  the 
Astronomical  Society  during  these  years.  It  was  in  connection 
with  this  last  series  that  his  greatest  single  work  for  science  was 
carried  out,  viz.  the  copying  of  the  324, 198  stars  cf  Argelander's 
"Survey  of  the  Northern  Heavens, "  on  an  "equal  surface" 
projection  chart,  a  work  that  involved  400  hours  of  the  most 
unremitting  labour.  Mr.  Proctor  was  born  at  Chelsea,  in  March 
1834,  and  was  educated  at  King's  College,  London,  of  which  he 
was  Honorary  Fellow,  and  at  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge, 
where  he  won  a  Scholarship.  He  obtained  his  degree  of  B.A. 
in  i860,  and  his  name  appears  as  twenty-third  in  the  Wrangler's 
List. 


500 


NATURE 


{Sept.  20,  1888 


An  evening  class  in  organic  chemistry,  adapted  to  the 
requirements  of  candidates  for  the  second  B.  Sc.  examination  of 
London  University,  will  be  held  at  the  Birkbeck  Institution  in 
Chancery  Lane  during  the  ensuing  session,  under  the  direction  of 
Mr.  Frank  Gossling,  B.  Sc.  This  is  said  to  be  the  first  session 
in  which  an  evening  class  of  this  character  has  been  attempted. 

The  Times  publishes  the  following  interesting  letter  from  Sir 
William  Thomson  :— "In  the  Times  of  to-day  (Sept.  14)  I  see  a 
slight  mistake  regarding  myself.  A  British  Association  correspon- 
dent says  : — '  Sir  William  Thomson  in  one  paper  cautiously  made 
what  must  be  regarded  as  a  somewhat  noteworthy  admission  with 
reference  to  Clerk-Maxwell's  fundamental  theory  of  electro- 
magnetic induction  for  incomplete  circuits.  He  considered 
Maxwell's  fundamental  assumption  "not  wholly  tenable."  In  all 
his  previous  utterances  on  the  subject  Sir  William  has  described 
Maxwell's  views  on  this  point  as  completely  untenable.'  The 
paper  referred  to  by  your  correspondent  is  my  very  first  public 
utterance  on  the  subject.  An  uncorrected  proof  of  it  in  print 
contained  the  words  'wholly  untenable,'  which  I  altered  to  'not 
wholly  tenable '  in  reading  it  to  the  Section.  The  fact  is,  I  had 
always  believed  in  the  possibility  and  probability  of  Maxwell's 
assumption  (he  only  gave  it  himself  as  probable  or  possible)  until 
a  few  months  ago,  when  I  saw  what  seemed  to  me  reasons  for 
wholly  discarding  it ;  but  two  days  of  the  British  Association 
before  my  paper  was  read  gave  me  the  inestimable  benefit  of 
conversation  with  others  occupied  with  the  same  subject,  and  of 
hearing  Prof.  Fitzgerald's  presidential  address  in  Section  A,  by 
which  I  was  helped  to  happily  modify  my  opinion.  In  your 
leading  article  of  to-day  I  do  not  think  you  quite  do  justice  to 
the  British  Association  and  its  objects.  Your  remarks  would  be 
wholly  just,  and,  if  I  may  be  allowed  to  say  so,  very  useful  criti- 
cism, if  the  British  Association  were  an  institution  for  teaching 
ascertained  scientific  results  to  its  members,  or  '  an  annual 
setting  forth  of  scientific  wares.'  Its  object  is  the  advancement 
of  science.  It  contributes  to  this  object  in  a  manner  altogether 
peculiar  to  itself,  by  bringing  together  from  all  parts  of  the  world 
persons  engaged  in  scientific  investigation,  and  giving  them  facilities 
for  helping  one  another  in  their  work,  and  being  helped  in  it  by 
what  they  see  and  hear.  No  one  not  following  the  course  of 
scientific  progress,  generally  or  in  some  particular  department, 
can  fully  understand  how  much  of  practical  impulse  is  owing  to 
the  British  Association  for  the  contributions  made  in  the  course 
of  the  year  to  the  scientific  societies  and  magazines,  in  which 
achieved  results  of  scientific  investigation  are  recorded  and 
published." 

In  the  last  issue  of  the  Transactions  of  the  Seismological 
Society  of  Japan,  Prof.  Milne  discusses  the  effects  of  earth- 
quakes on  animals.  The  records  of  most  great  earthquakes 
refer  to  the  consternation  of  dogs,  horses,  cattle,  and  other 
domestic  animals.  Fish  also  are  frequently  affected.  In  the 
London  earthquake  of  1749,  roach  and  other  fish  in  a  canal 
showed  evident  signs  of  confusion  and  fright  ;  and  sometimes 
after  an  earthquake  fish  rise  to  the  surface  dead  and  dying. 
During  the  Tokio  earthquake  of  1880,  cats  inside  a  house  ran 
about  trying  to  escape,  foxes  barked,  and  horses  tried  to  kick 
down  the  boards  confining  them  to  their  stables.  There  can, 
therefore,  be  no  doubt  that  animals  know  something  unusual 
and  terrifying  is  taking  place.  More  interesting  than  these  are 
the  observations  showing  that  animals  are  agitated  just  before 
an  earthquake.  Ponies  have  been  known  to  prance  about  their 
stalls,  pheasants  to  scream,  and  frogs  to  cease  croaking  suddenly 
a  little  time  before  a  shock,  as  if  aware  of  its  coming.  The 
Japanese  say  that  moles  show  their  agitation  by  burrowing. 
Geese,  pigs,  and  dogs  appear  more  sensitive  in  this  respect  than 
other  animals.  After  the  great  Calabrian  earthquake  it  is  said 
that  the  neighing  of  a  horse,  the  braying  of  an  ass,  or  the  cackle 
of  a  goose  was  sufficient  to  cause  the  inhabitants  to  fly  from  their 


houses  in  expectation  of  a  shock.  Many  birds  are  said  to  show 
their  uneasiness  before  an  earthquake  by  hiding  their  heads 
under  their  wings  and  behaving  in  an  unusual  manner.  At  the 
time  of  the  Calabrian  shock  little  fish  like  sand-eels  {Cirricelli), 
which  are  usually  buried  in  the  sand,  came  to  the  top  and  were 
caught  in  multitudes.  In  South  America  certain  quadrupeds, 
such  as  dogs,  cats,  and  jerboas,  are  believed  by  the  people  to 
give  warning  of  coming  danger  by  their  restlessness  ;  sometimes 
immense  flocks  of  sea-birds  fly  inland  before  an  earthquake,  as 
if  alarmed  by  the  commencement  of  some  sub-oceanic  dis- 
turbance. Before  the  shock  of  1835  in  Chili  all  the  dogs  are 
said  to  have  escaped  from  the  city  of  Talcahuano.  The  ex- 
planation offered  by  Prof.  Milne  of  this  apparent  prescience  is 
that  some  animals  are  sensitive  to  the  small  tremors  which  pre- 
cede nearly  all  earthquakes.  He  has  himself  felt  them  some 
seconds  before  the  actual  earthquake  came.  The  alarm  of 
intelligent  animals  would  then  be  the  result  of  their  own 
experience,  which  has  taught  them  that  small  tremors  are 
premonitory  of  movements  more  alarming.  Signs  of  alarm  days 
before  an  earthquake  are  probably  accidental  ;  but  sometimes 
in  volcanic  districts  gases  have  emanated  from  the  ground  prior 
to  earthquakes,  and  have  poisoned  animals.  In  one  case  large 
numbers  of  fish  were  killed  in  this  way  in  the  Tiber,  and  at 
Follonica,  on  the  morning  of  April  6,  1874,  "the  streets  and 
roads  were  covered  with  dead  rats  and  mice.  In  fact,  it  seemed 
as  if  it  had  rained  rats.  The  only  explanation  of  the  phenomenon- 
was  that  these  animals  had  been  destroyed  by  emanations  of 
carbon  dioxide." 

The  Animals'  Institute,  which  was  opened  this  season  for  the 
reception  of  patients,  has  already  more  than  verified  its  founders'" 
fears  that  much  suffering  amongst  the  animals  belonging  to  the 
poorer  classes  existed  without  proper  surgical  treatment.  The 
gratuitous  advice  daily  given  is  taken  full  advantage  of,  and  the 
hospital  accommodation  for  the  worst  cases  is  now  too  small  to 
admit  the  great  number  of  horses,  dogs,  cats,  and  other  animals 
requiring  treatment.  A  supplementary  institution  is  wanted — a 
sanatorium  in  the  suburb-; — where  cases  requiring  prolonged 
treatment  can  be  kept.  Such  an  addition,  if  the  preliminary 
expenses  were  forthcoming,  can,  it  is  stated,  be  made  quite  self- 
supporting.  The  scheme  is  to  be  placed  on  a  practical  basis  at 
a  meeting  to  be  held  in  the  Committee-room  of  the  Animals' 
Institute,  9  Kinnerton  Street,  Belgrave  Square. 

A    Committee    of   the   American   Association    presented   a 
report  at  the  last  meeting  on  the  teaching  of  physics  in  schools, 
which  was  very  fully  discussed  by  both  the  Mathematical  and 
Physical  Sections.     The  following  is  a  summary  of  the  recom- 
mendations : — (1)  It  is  the  opinion  of  the  Committee  that  in- 
struction in  physics  may  begin,  with  profit,  in  what  is  generally 
known   as   the    "grammar   school."     At    the  same  time  it   is 
decidedly  opposed  to  any  general  recommendation  that  it  must 
begin  there  or  in  the  primary  school.     Here,  perhaps  more  than 
anywhere  else,  nearly  everything  depends  upon  the  teacher.   One 
who  has  a  strong  liking  for  and  a  good  knowledge  of  physics 
will  be  tolerably  certain  to  succeed,    while   another   not   thus 
equipped  for  the  work  is  equally  certain  to  fail.       (2)  When 
taught  in  the  grammar  school  and  by  a  competent  teacher,  it 
should  be  done  mainly  by  and  through  illustrative  experiments. 
These  may  be  of  the  simplest  character,  involving  and  exhibit- 
ing some  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  science  ;   and  they 
should  generally  be  made   by  the  teacher,  the  pupils  being  en- 
couraged to  repeat,  to  vary,  and  to  extend.       (3)  In  any  discus- 
sion of  the  character  of  instruction  in  physics  in  the  high  school, 
I  one  fact  of  the  utmost  importance  must  not  be  lost  sight  of.     It 
!  h  that  a  large  majority  of  the  young  people  who  are  educated  in 
!  the  public  schools  receive  their  final  scholastic  training  in  the 
I  high  school.     Its  course  of  study  must  be  in  harmony  with  this 
]  fact,  such  provision  as  may  be  made  for  those  who  continue  their 


Sept.  20,  1 888] 


NA  TURE 


501 


studies  in  college  or  university  being  merely  incidental.  It  is 
important  that  the  student  should  be  made  acquainted,  if  only  to 
a  limited  extent,  with  the  methods  of  physical  investigation, 
and  that  he  should  be  able  himself  to  plan  and  carry  out  an 
attack  upon  some  of  the  simpler  problems  of  the  science.  It  is 
believed  that  these  two  very  desirable  ends  can  be  reached  without 
giving  an  undue  share  of  the  time  and  energy  of  the  pupil  to 
the  subject.  Assuming  the  high-school  course  to  consist  of  four 
years  of  three  terms  each,  it  is  recommended  that  the  study  of 
physics  should  begin  not  earlier  than  the  third  year  ;  that  it 
should  continue  through  one  year,  three  hours  a  week  being  de- 
voted to  it,  not  including  the  time  necessary  for  the  preparation 
of  the  lesson  ;  and  that  during  the  first  two  terms  the  work 
should  be  text -book  work,  accompanied  by  illustrative  experi- 
ments performed  by  the  instructor,  and  made  as  complete  as  his 
facilities  will  allow,  while  the  last  term  should  be  devoted  to 
simple  laboratory  exercises.  (4)  As  to  the  requirements  in 
physics  for  admission  to  college,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  the 
course  indicated  above  should  be  required  for  admission  to  any 
and  all  courses  in  the  college.  (5)  In  reference  to  the  mini- 
mum course  in  physics  for  undergraduate  students  in  the  college, 
it  seems  important  to  avoid  the  mistake  of  asking  too  much. 
In  many  institutions,  and  especially  where  the  elective  system 
largely  prevails,  it  is  possible  at  present  for  students  to  receive  a 
degree  and  yet  be  almost  absolutely  ignorant  of  the  principles  of 
physics.  It  is  the  judgment  of  the  Committee  that  a  knowledge 
of  this  subject  constitutes  one  of  the  necessary  and  essential 
elements  of  a  liberal  education,  and  a  minimum  course  of  three 
hours  per  week  for  one  year  is  recommended.  What  is  usually 
known  as  the  junior  year  is  most  desirable  for  this  work,  as  at 
that  time  the  student  is  sufficiently  mature  and  has  acquired  the 
necessary  training  in  mathematics  to  enable  him  to  make  the  best 
of  what  he  does.  It  is  recommended  that  this  course  consist 
entirely  of  text-book  and  recitation  work,  with  lectures  fully  and 
completely  illustrated  on  the  professor's  table.  The  report  is 
signed  by  T.  C.  Mendenhall,  William  A.  Anthony,  H.  S.  Corbait, 
and  F.  H.  Smith. 

A  CORRESPONDENT  of  the  Times  calls  attention  to  the  new 
light  now  shown  from  the  St.  Catherine's  Point  Lighthouse  in_  the 
Isle  of  Wight.  Prior  to  May  I  of  this  year  the  light  exhibited 
at  this  station  was  described  in  the  Admiralty  list  of  lights  as 
fixed,  dioptric,  of  the  first  order.  That  is,  it  was  a  steady  light 
produced  by  means  of  a  six-wick  concentric  oil-burner  and  re- 
fracting lenses,  the  intensity  of  the  naked  flame  being  equal  to 
about  730  candles.  At  the  present  moment  an  electric  light  is 
being  shown  at  St.  Catherine's,  the  full-power  intensity  of  which 
was  recently  stated  by  Captain  Sydney  Webb,  the  Deputy 
Master  of  the  Trinity  House,  to  be  equal  in  illuminating  power 
to  rather  more  than  7,000,000  candles.  Every  half-minute,  in 
fact — for  the  light  now  revolves — a  mighty  flash  of  five  seconds' 
duration  sweeps  around  the  sea,  and  is  visible  at  distances  that 
seem  incredible.  To  effect  this  improvement  a  commodious 
engine-room  has  been  added  to  the  establishment,  containing 
three  steam-engines  of  12  horse-power  each,  and  two  magneto- 
electric  machines  of  the  De  Meritens  type.  Two  of  the  engines 
are  intended  to  work  for  lighting  purposes,  the  third  being  meant 
to  work  the  fog-signal.  As  a  precaution  against  break-down, 
everything  is  in  duplicate  at  least,  with  an  oil  light  in  reserve  at 
well.  The  only  other  lighthouses  on  the  coast  of  England  as 
which  the  light  is  produced  by  means  of  electricity  are  Souter 
Point,  on  the  coast  of  Durham,  between  the  mouths  of  the 
Tyne  and  the  Wear  ;  the  South  Foreland,  and  at  the  Lizard,  on 
the  Cornish  coast.  But  the  St.  Catherine's  light  is  ten  times 
more  powerful  than  the  best  of  them,  the  one  on  Souter  Point. 
It  is,  in  fact,  one  of  if  not,  as  is  believed,  actually  the  most 
intensely  brilliant  light  in  existence,  and  one  which  the  coun- 
try as  a  maritime  nation  may  certainly  feel  proud  to  see  on  its 
shores. 


On  the  25th  ult.  the  ascent  of  Mount  Elburz  was  successfully 
made  from  the  eastern  side  by  Baron  Ungern  Sternberg.  In 
notifying  the  event  to  the  Tiflis  Geographical  Society,  the  Baron 
wrote  : — "  We  set  out  at  II,  and  crossed  the  glaciers  Iriktchat, 
Atrium,  and  Djelkaoughenkes,  hitherto  deemed  impassable. 
At  an  altitude  of  15,200  feet,  I  discovered  an  enormous  crater. 
We  passed  three  nights  on  the  mountain  at  the  different  heights 
of  9000,  14,760,  and  17,840  feet.  At  the  last  height  we  passed 
through  a  terrific  snowstorm.  Breathing  was  not  attended  with 
any  great  difficulty.  The  health  of  my  men  has  been  good.  I 
descended  by  the  southern  side  between  Azaou  and  the  Terek.' 

The  last  number  of  the  Mittheilungen  of  the  Vienna  Geo- 
graphical Society  has  an  account  by  Dr.  Svoboda,  surgeon  of 
the  Austrian  man-of-war  Aurora,  of  a  visit  of  that  ship,  in  1886, 
to  the  Nicobar  Islands.  This  archipelago  is  usually  divided 
into  three  groups: — (1)  The  northern  islands,  including  Batti 
Malive  and  Kar  Nicobar,  which  are  thickly  populated,  some  of 
them  being  flat  and  some  mountainous  and  covered  with  jungle. 
Kar  Nicobar  has  an  extensive  trade  with  Ceylon,  Burmah, 
Singapore,  and  other  places,  as  many  as  between  forty  and  fifty 
vessels  touching  there  annually  ;  in  fact,  its  harbour  is  never 
without  a  number  of  ships.  The  sole  industry  of  the  inhabitants 
is  the  manufacture  of  a  kind  of  earthenware  vessels,  which  they 
export  to  the  other  islands.  Other  articles  of  trade  are  "birds'- 
nest  soup"  and  "sea-slug  soup."  The  two  other  groups  of 
islands  are  (2)  the  southern  islands,  including  Great  and  Little 
Nicobar,  and  (3)  the  central  islands,  comprising  Teressa, 
Chowra,  Katchall,  Bompoka,  and  many  others.  The  inhabit- 
ants of  these  groups  of  islands  are  divided  into  classes  by  Dr. 
Svoboda — namely,  the  Shab-Dwa,  the  inhabitants  of  the  coast, 
and  the  Shom-Pen,  the  inhabitants  of  the  interior.  The  first 
class  resemble  the  inhabitants  of  Siam  and  Burmah,  but  are,  in 
general,  lighter  in  colour  than  these  latter.  Both  men  and 
women  are  repulsive  in  appearance,  though  they  are  generally 
well  formed.  The  men  wear  very  long  hair,  and  are,  as  a  rule, 
weak  and  inactive.  Visitors  to  the  islands  find  it  almost  im- 
possible to  see  the  young  unmarried  women,  so  closely  are  they 
kept  from  the  eyes  of  strangers.  Prior  to  the  visit  of  Dr. 
Svoboda,  nothing  appears  to  have  been  known  of  the  Shom-Pen, 
or  inhabitants  of  the  interior.  They  are  completely  isolated 
from  the  outer  world,  and  are  very  simple  in  their  habits.  The 
men  wear  the  ordinary  loin-cloth,  and  the  women  a  short  skirt, 
usually  their  own  manufacture,  and  the  only  personal  ornaments 
they  have  are  small  pieces  of  bamboo  in  their  ears,  and  neck- 
laces of  variously  coloured  glass  beads  or  ribbons  many  feet  in 
length.  Malaria  is  very  prevalent  in  all  the  islands,  especially 
in  October  and  November,  when  the  weather  is  hot  and  dry. 
Dr.  Svoboda  gives  a  short  historical  and  geographical  sketch  of 
the  islands,  which  now  have  a  population  of  about  6000  souls. 
The  Arabs  appear  to  have  been  the  earliest  visitors,  and  Portu- 
guese vessels  used  to  call  there  frequently  ;  indeed,  many 
Portuguese  words  are  in  common  use  amongst  the  natives. 

A  paper  was  recently  read  before  the  French  Academy  of 
Sciences  by  ',M.  Emile  Lavasseur  on  the  "  Centenarians  now 
living  in  France."  The  first  reports  collected  gave  the  number 
of  persons  who  had  attained  100  years  and  upwards  as  184,  but 
on  these  being  thoroughly  sifted  no  less  than  101  were  struck  out, 
leaving  83,  but  even  of  these  there  were  no  fewer  than  67  who 
could  not  furnish  adequate  proof  of  their  reputed  age.  In  16 
cases,  however,  authentic  records  of  birth  or  baptism  were  found, 
including  that  of  a  man  born  in  Spain,  and  baptized  August  20, 
1770.  His  life  was  spent  almost  wholly  in  France.  All  the 
other  centenarians  were  reputed  to  be  between  100  and  105 
years  of  age,  with  the  exception  of  a  widow  claiming  to  be  112 
years  old.  Of  the  83  persons  said  to  be  centenarians  women 
formed  a  large  majority,  the  proportion  being  52  women  to  31 
men.     There  were  but    few   married    couples,   6  male  and   16 


502 


NATURE 


[Sept.  20,  1888 


female  celibates,  23  widowers,  and  41  widows.  One  of  the  latter 
was  Madame  Rostkowski,  103  years  of  age.  She  enjoys  a  pen- 
sion of  60  francs  a  month,  allowed  her  by  the  French  Government 
in  consideration  of  her  late  husband's  military  services.  More 
centenarians  exist  in  the  south-western  departments,  than  in  the 
rest  of  the  Republic,  while  the  basin  of  the  Garonne— from  the 
Pyrenees  to  the  Puy  de  Dome— contains  as  many  as  all  the  rest 
■of  France  put  together.  M.  Lavasseur  finds  that  the  chances  of 
a  person  in  the  nineteenth  century  reaching  100  years  of  age  are 
one  in  18,800. 

In  a  recent  number  of  La  Nature  Colonel  Hennebert,  of  the 
Belgian  army,  describes  underground  forts  which  have  come 
into  use  in  Belgium,  as  one  of  the  principal  methods  of  national 
defence.  One  of  these  underground  forts  is  like  an  enlarged  mole- 
hill, and  is  built  of  concrete.  Measuring  50  metres  in  length  by 
from  30  to  40  in  width,  it  is  about  12  metres  below  the  surface 
of  the  ground,  and  its  greatest  height  above  the  earth  is  no 
more  than  3  or  4  metres.  It  presents  the  appearance  of  an 
elliptical  cap  placed  on  the  ground,  and  is  scarcely  visible  to  the 
■eye  of  an  observer.  At  the  centre  of  this  artificial  rock  are 
three  armoured  towers,  each  with  two  heavy  guns.  There  are 
also  four  small  .'"oris,  which  are  pulled  in  and  run  out  at  pleasure, 
each  armed  with  two  rapid-firing  guns.  At  three  suitable 
places  there  are  armoured  points  of  observation,  from  two  of 
which  at  night  the  electric  light  can  be  flashed  to  watch  the 
operations  of  the  enemy.  Below  this  surface  the  earth  is 
hollowed  out  in  the  form  of  a  huge  well  with  armoured  sides, 
which  is  divided  up  into  sections,  each  part  protected  with 
heavy  armour,  one  part  for  provisions  and  ammunition,  another 
for  machinery,  which  includes  the  dynamos  and  accumulators 
for  the  lighting  of  the  whole  fort,  hydraulic  machines  for  working 
the  movable  turrets  and  sending  them  ammunition,  pumps  for 
■supplying  these  machines  with  water,  and  a  series  of  ventilators 
to  keep  the  air  pure.  Communication  with  the  outer  world  is 
made  by  a  subterranean  gallery,  the  length  of  which  varies 
according  to  surrounding  circumstances.  The  ceiling  of  this 
gallery  is  from  8  to  10  metres  below  the  surface.  To  gain 
access  to  the  fort  an  hydraulic  piston  is  worked,  and  this  raises  a 
ladder  which  runs  along  the  whole  length  of  the  fort,  and 
lowers  the  door  of  the  outlet,  which  is  protected  by  armour 
20  centimetres  in  thickness,  and  is  under  the  fire  of  two  of  the 
movable  forts.  All  movements,  such  as  changes  of  guard, 
arrivals  of  supplies,  &c,  are  reported  by  telephone  or  telegraph. 
The  guard  does  not  work  the  hydraulic  piston,  except  at  com- 
mand, and  when  the  sentries  in  one  of  the  movable  forts  have 
reconnoitred  the  visitors.  Finally,  the  gallery  communicating 
with  the  outer  world  is  strongly  fortified  by  an  armoured  door 
■defended  by  two  mitrailleuses.  One  of  the  greatest  objections 
by  generals  to  forts,  that  they  absorb  numbers  of  men  who  are 
wanted  in  the  field,  cannot  be  urged  against  these  subterranean 
forts,  for  the  garrison  consists  of  thirty  or  forty  mechanics  and 
specialists  only,  whose  absence  would  not  appreciably  weaken 
the  regiment  from  which  they  are  drawn.  The  cost  of  one  of 
these  forts  is  only  about  ,£100,000. 

A  correspondent  of  the  Ti?nes  gives  an  interesting  descrip- 
tion of  the  Brunig  Railway,  which  has  recently  been  opened 
between  Lucerne  and  Bernese  Oberland.  The  gradient  is  in 
places  very  steep,  being  as  much  as  1  in  8  ;  aud  on  this  account 
special  precautions  had  to  be  taken  both  in  the  up  and  the 
down  journeys.  Generally  speaking,  the  Rigi  system  has  been 
adopted.  The  locomotive  turns  a  cog-wheel  which  runs  on  a 
toothed  rack  placed  between  the  rails,  and  so  the  train  slowly 
travels,  or  rather  is  dragged,  up  hill.  The  cog-wheel  is  stopped 
and  the  engine  works  in  the  ordinary  way  when  a  moderate 
gradient  or  a  level  piece  is  met  with.  To  check  the  too  rapid 
descent  of   the  trxin,   the  engine  is   fitted  with    a    pneumatic 


counter-pressure  action  brake,  which  of  itself  is  sufficient  to  stop 
the  train.  Besides  this,  each  vehicle  in  the  train  is  fitted  up 
with  a  cog-wheel  and  rack  similar  to  those  used  in  the  ascent, 
with  drums  on  the  axle  to  which  clip-brakes  are  applied.  By 
these  appliances  the  speed  can  be  regulated  and  the  train  stopped 
at  any  moment.  There  was  another  danger,  however,  incident 
to  all  steep  railways,  to  be  encountered — namely,  the  risk  to  the 
couplings  during  an  ascent.  Though  the  brakes  on  each 
vehicle  would  probably  be  sufficient  in  such  a  case,  yet  it  was 
thought  fit  to  take  further  precautions.  When  the  train  is  at 
rest,  the  brake  is  kept  fully  applied  by  heavy  weights.  These 
weights  are  lifted  by  steam-power,  which  is  conveyed  from  the 
engine  in  flexible  tubes.  If  a  coupling  breaks,  the  flexible  tube 
conveying  the  steam  also  breaks,  and  the  weights  fall  down 
automatically  and  check  the  motion  of  the  carriages.  It  only 
remains  to  say  that  the  gauge  is  a  very  narrow  one,  being  only 
1  metre. 

THE  American  Meteorological  Journal  for  August  contains  : — 
(1)  An  article  by  C.  C.  McCaul,  on  the  climatic  effects  of  the 
Chinook  wind  in  South  Alberta,  the  country  of  the  great  cattle 
ranges  in  Canada,  extending  from  lat.  49°  to  the  Red  Deer 
River  to  the  northwards,  and  from  the  Rocky  Mountains,  on  the 
west,  to  about  140  miles  east.  The  Chinook  wind  blows  from 
west  to  south-west,  in  varying  degrees  of  strength  ;  and  the 
thermometer  often  rises  in  a  few  hours  from  200  below  to  400 
above  zero,  while  the  snow,  which  may  have  been  a  foot  deep 
in  the  morning,  disappears  before  night.  (2)  A  sketch  of  Prof. 
Abbe's  work,  with  a  portrait.  He  was  appointed  to  the 
Weather  Bureau  at  Washington  in  January  187 1,  and  at  once 
urged  the  desirability  of  establishing  the  State  weather  services 
which  now  form  so  important  a  part  of  the  policy  of  the  Signal 
Service.  Among  the  many  recommendations  of  Prof.  Abbe  we 
may  mention  the  establishment  of  a  "  Scientific  and  Study 
Division,"  which  was  formed  early  in  1SS1,  and  the  compilation 
of  a  Meteorological  Bibliography  which,  although  still  unpub- 
lished, has  grown  to  considerable  dimensions.  (3)  Mr.  A.  L. 
Rotch  continues  his  description  of  the  meteorological  service  in 
Switzerland. 

We  have  received  from  Dr.  G.  Hellmann,  of  the  German 
Meteorological  Office,  an  account  of  the  torrential  rainfall  of 
August  2  to  3  last,  which  caused  disastrous  inundations  of  some 
of  the  Silesian  tributaries  of  the  Oder.  The  storm  lasted  from 
15  to  18  hours,  during  which  time  nearly  8  inches  of  rain  fell 
over  a  large  district,  and  more  or  less  affected  Galicia,  Bohemia, 
and  Poland.  These  heavy  rains  do  not  seem  to  have  been 
caused  by  the  same  storm  which  gave  us  \\  inch  of  rain  in 
London,  on  August  1  to  2,  but  by  a  distinct  subsidiary 
depression  which  gradually  formed  over  Germany  on  the  2nd, 
and  moved  away  towards  the  Baltic. 

Messrs.  Swan  Sonnenschein  and  Co.  have  the  following 
works  on  natural  history  and  science  in  the  press: — "The 
Nature  of  Harmony  and  Metre,"  by  Moritz  Hauptmann,  trans- 
lated and  edited  by  W.  E.  Heathcote,  M.A.  ;  "  Atlas  of  Fossil 
Conchology,"  being  the  original  steel  plates  in  Brown's  "  Fossil 
Conchology,"  with  descriptive  letterpress;  "The  Naturalist  in 
Siluria,"  by  Captain  Mayne  Rtid,  illustrated;  "  Land  and 
Fresh-Water  Shells,"  by  Dr.  J.  W.  Williams;  "An  Intro- 
duction to  Zoology,"  by  B.  Lindsay;  "The  Wanderings  of 
Plants  and  Animals,"  by  Prof.  Victor  Hehn,  edited  by  J.  S. 
Stallybrass. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  two  Central  American  Agoutis  (Dasrfrocta 
isthmica),  obtained  by  purchase  ;  a  Large  Hill  Mynah  {Graeula 
intermedia)  from  India,  presented  by  Lieut.-Col.  R.  Thompson  ; 
a  White-backed  Piping   Crow    {Cymhorhiua    lenconota)    from 


Sept.  20,  1888] 


NATURE 


Australia,  presented  by  Mr.  R.  Hall  ;  two  White  fronted 
Amazons  (Chrysolis  leucocephald)  from  Cuba,  a  Prince  Albert's 
Curassow  \Crax  alberti)  from  Columbia,  a  Mexican  Guan 
{Penelope  pur purascens),  obtained  by  purchase  ;  a  Herring  Gull 
(Lams  argcntatus\  British,  presented  by  the  Marchioness  of 
Cholmondeley  ;  a  Tuberculated  Iguana  (Igicaita  tiiberculata) 
from  Brazil,  presented  by  Mr.  H.  E.  Blandford  ;  a  Chameleon 
{Chavuelcon  titlgnris),  three  Lacertine  Snakes  {Ccelopeltis 
lacerlina),  and  two  Horseshoe  Snakes  (Zamenis  kippocrepis) 
from  Morocco,  presented  by  Mr.  Herbert  E.  White. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

Comet  1888  c  (Brooks).— Dr.  H.  Kreutz  has  more  recently 
computed  for  this  comet  more  exact  elements  than  those  which 
he  had  obtained  from  the  observations  of  August  9,  10,  and 
ir.  These  later  elements  are  based,  on  observations  made  at 
Vienna  on  August  9,  at  Hamburg,  August  14  and  24,  and 
at  Strassburg,  August  19 ;  aberration  and  parallax  being 
corrected  for. 


T  =  1! 


July  3 1  "25 1 1 5,  Berlin  M.T. 


a,  =     59  19     25] 
ft  =  101   32  50T   •   Mean  Eq.  1$ 
t   =     74  12  137  ) 
log  f  =  9  -95 5456 


Error  of  middle  places  (O  —  C), 


August  14 
19 


AA  COS  B  = 


-  3'5;   A0  = 

+  3'3; 


-  3'2 

-  3*4 


Prof.  A.  Krueger  (Astr.  Nach.,  No.  2855)  nas  computed  the 
following  ephemeris  for  Berlin  midnight  from  the  foregoing  : — 


R.A. 


Decl. 


Sept. 


Log  r.  Log  6, 

01084  •••  0-23IO 
0-1242  ...  0-2456 


Bright- 
ness. 
O45 


1457  40  ...  21  137  N. 

!5  5  34  •••  I9  44-I 

15  13  7  ...  iS  16-4   ...  0-1242  ...  0-2456  ...  0*39 

15  20  22  ...  16  51-0 

15  27  19  ...  15  27-9  N....  0-1395  ...  0-2611  ...  0*34 


The  brightness  on  August  9  is  taken  as  unity. 

On  August  11  the  comet  was  observed  at  the  Observatory  of 
Algiers,  and  the  nucleus  was  estimated  as  being  about  equal  in 
brightness  to  a  star  of  the  tenth  magnitude  ;  the  nebu^sity  was 
about  1'  in  diameter,  and  there  was  a  faint  tail  in  the  direction 
of  the  diurnal  movement.  Prof.  L.  Boss,  observing  the  comet 
at  Albany,  N.V.,  estimated  it  on  August  10  as  of  mag.  9,  and 
on  August  19,  in  bright  moonlight,  as  mag.  11.  The  tail  on 
August  10  was  estimated  as  10'  in  length,  and  was  of  the 
same  breadth  as  the  hend. 

Discovery  of  a  New  Comet,  i858«?.— Mr.  E.  E.  Barnard, 
formerly  of  Nashville,  Tennessee,  now  at  the  Lick  Observatory, 
discovered  a  new  comet  on  September  3  at  oh.  33m.  G.M.T., 
R.A.  6h.  52m.  16s.,  Decl.  io°  59'  N.  The  comet  is  described 
as  circular,  1'  in  diameter,  of  the  eleventh  magnitude,  with 
tolerably  well-defined  nucleus,  but  with  no  tail.  Dr.  Kobold 
observed  it  at  Strassburg  on  September  5  at  13I1.  44-1111. 
G.  M.T.,  R.A.  6h.  52m.  15s.,  Decl.  io°  49'  33"  N. 

Comet  1888  d  (Faye).— Placing  the  perihelion  passage  of  this 
comet  as  2*6od.  later  than  given  in  Dr.  Moller's  elements,  an 
alteration  according  well  with  the  observations  at  Nice,  August 
9-17,  Dr.  H.  Kreutz  has  computed  (Aitr.  Nach.,  No.  2856)  the 
following  ephemeris  for  it  for  Berlin  midnight  : — 


Sept. 


..  6 
••  7 
•    7 


R.A. 

h.  m.  s. 

6  47  41  ... 

6  51  59  - 

56  12  ... 

o  21  ... 

4  24  ... 


Decl. 

i°5  36  N. 
15  16 

14  56 

14  35 

14  14  N. 


Log  r. 
0-2472  .. 
0-2489  .. 


Log  A. 
0-2244 


Bright 
ness. 

•  »"33 


02177  ...  1-36 


The  brightness  on  August  9  is  taken  as  unity. 


02509  ...  o-2iio  ...  1  "39 


ASTRONOMICAL 
WEEK   1 88c 


5C3 


THE 


PHENOMENA    FOR 
SEPTEMBER  23-29. 

/T70R  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed. ) 

At  Greenwich  on  September  23 
Sun  rises,  5h.  50m.  ;  souths,  nh.  52m.  6-75.;  sets,  I7h.  54m.  : 

right   asc.    on    meridian,    I2h.    3'lm.  ;     decl.    o°    20'    S. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  l8h.  6m. 
Moon  (at  Last  Quarter  September  28,  9h.)  rises,  I9h.   18m.*; 

souths,  2h.   om. ;  sets,  8h.  54m.  :  right  asc.  on  meridian, 

2h.  9  -5m.  ;  decl.  70  44'  S. 


Planet. 

Mercury. 
Venus  . . 
Mars  .. 
Jupiter  .. 
Saturn  ... 
Uranus.. 
Neptune- 


Rises, 
h.  m. 

7  56 

7  42 

12  21 

11  33 

1  34 

7  18 

20    5* 


Souths. 
h.   m. 

13   IJ 

13  7 
16  15 

15  48 
9    6 

12  51 
3  52 


Sets. 

h.  m. 

l8  24 

18  32 

20  9 

20  3 

16  38 

18  24 

11  39 


Right  asc.  and  declination 

on  meridian, 
h.       m.  .        , 


13  2IO 
13  l8-2 
l6   26  9 

15  593 
9  164 

13  2-0 
4    20 


9  53  S. 

7  30  S. 
23  20  S. 
19  59  S. 
16  40  N. 

5  57  S. 
18  57  N. 


*  Indicates  that  the  risins  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening 
Occultation  of  Star  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 


Sept. 


28    . 

Sept. 

23 


Star. 


Mag.         Disap. 

h.    m. 
.4      ...    22   20 


Reap. 

h.    m. 
23    II 


Corresponding 
angles  from  ver- 
tex to  right  for 
inverted  image. 


C2  Geminorum...  4     ...   22  20  ...  23  11     ...     55  245 

h. 
..     22     ...     Mercury  at  greatest  distance  from  the  Sun. 


Star. 

U  Cephei     ... 
C  Geminorum 

T  Ursse  Majoris 

R  Bootis 

8  Librae 

U  Coronae    ... 

U  Ophiuchi  .. 

Z  Sagittarii... 

B  Lyras 

S  Sagittae     ...     . 
X  Cygni 
T  Vulpeculae 


Variable  Stars. 
R.A.  Decl. 

h.      m. 

o  52-4 
6  57-5 


..  81  16  N. 

..  20  44  N. 


Sept. 


12  31-3  .. 
14  32-3  •• 

14  55  "o  •• 

15  13*6  .. 

17  10-9  ... 

18  14-8  ... 

18  46-0  ... 

19  5o-9  ... 

20  39-0  ... 
20  467  ... 


60  6N. 

27  13  N. 

8  4  S. 

32  3  N. 
1  20  N. 

18  55  S. 

33  14  N. 
16  20  N. 
35  11  N. 
27  50  N. 


h. 

m. 

26, 

4 

33  m 

24, 

0 

oAf 

29, 

4 

0  m 

28, 

m 

27, 

m 

27, 

20 

24  m 

29, 

20 

31  m 

25, 

20 

34  m 

2+, 

10 

0  M 

24, 

2 

oM 

27. 

21 

0  m 

29, 

5 

0  m 

28, 

19 

0  M 

29. 

20 

0  m 

23, 

3 

18  m 

26, 

3 

12  m 

27, 

3 

oM 

30   . 

.   18  N. 

105   . 

.   50  N.  . 

..  Very  swift 

290  .. 

.  70  N.  . 

.   Swift. 

Y  Cygni   20  476  ...  34  14  N.  ...  „ 

5  Cephei   22  25-0  ...  57  51  N.  ...  ,', 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum. 
Meteor-  Showers. 
R.A.  Decl. 

Near  o  Arietis 
,,     8  Draconis    ... 


THE    INTERNATIONAL    GEOLOGICAL 
CONGRESS} 

["  DEEPLY  regret  that,  in  consequence  of  his  state  of  health, 
Prof.  Huxley  is  unable  to  be  present  to-day  to  bid  you 
welcome  to  England.  But  if  one  voice  is  here  wanting,  let  me 
assu  e  you  that  the  unanimous  voice  of  English  geologists  unites 
in  the  same  sentiment,  and  also  thanks  you,  gentlemen,  our 
foreign  colleagues,  for  having  responded  in  a  manner  so  flatter- 
ing to  the  invitation  of  English  geologists  to  meet  this  year  in 
London.  For  in  this  assembly  there  are  representative  geologists 
from  Germany,  Austria,  Belgium,  Denmark,  Spain,  France, 
Holland,  Hungary,  Italy,  Norway,  Portugal,  Roumania,  Russia, 
Sweden,  Swizerland,  as  well  as  from  the  United  States,  Canada, 
Mexico,  the  West  Indies,  the  Argentine  Republic,  and  Aus- 
tralasia. From  all  these  countries  eminent  and  illustrious  men 
honour  us  with  their  presence,  and  are  here  to  aid  us  by  their 

*  Inaugural    Address   delivered   by  P.of.  J.  Prestwich.  President  of  the 
Congress,  on  September  17,  1888.     (Translated  from  the  French.) 


504 


NA  TURE 


{Sept.  20, 


knowledge  in  the  discussion  of  the  questions  brought  before  the 
International  Congress.  The  number  of  geologists  present  on 
this  its  fourth  meeting  indicates  the  continued  and  deep  interest 
that  they  take  in  it. 

Among  the  more  permanent  officers  are  the  Secretaries  of  the 
Congress  and  of  its  Committees  to  whose  important  and  gratuitous 
services  we  are  so  deeply  indebted.  We  have  unfortunately  to 
deplore  the  untimely  death  of  one  amongst  them — M.  Charles 
Fontannes — and  we  lose  on  this  occasion  the  benefit  of  his  long 
experience  and  valuable  aid. 

According  to  custom,  our  discussions  are,  as  in  the  diplomatic 
world,  held  in  French  ;  but  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  entente 
cordiale  will  be  better  maintained  than  it  sometimes  is  in  the 
other  case,  where  such  councils  have  not  always  succeeded  in 
avoiding  strife.  If  I  may  be  permitted  to  speak  after  an  expe- 
rience of  half  a  century,  an  etttente  of  the  most  cordial  character 
between  us  English  geologists  and  our  colleagues  and  friends 
abroad  has  been  during  these  long  years  the  normal  condition. 
May  these  friendly  and  loyal  relations  prove  a  legacy  to  our 
science  for  all  time.  These  friendly  meetings  were,  however, 
only  occasional,  so  that  the  opportunities  for  personal  inter- 
change of  ideas  were  few.  But  more  lately,  instead  of  discuss- 
ing unsettled  questions,  each  nationality  apart,  the  happy  idea 
arose  of  submitting  certain  questions,  which  concern  us  all,  to 
the  arbitration  of  this  General  Council.  In  this  manner  the 
different  national  centres  of  our  science,  which  have  each  their 
local  colouring  and  their  special  experience,  are  enabled  to  com- 
bine the  results  arrived  at  in  a  wider  and  more  uniform  manner 
than  if  each  apart  worked  out  its  ideas,  based  necessarily  on 
more  restricted  observations.  Nevertheless,  in  giving  to  our 
science  the  uniformity  of  terms  and  of  classification  which  is  so 
necessary,  care  must  be  taken  not  to  draw  lines  too  tight,  such 
as,  instead  of  developing,  might  retard  its  progress.  It  is  desir- 
able that  these  lines  should  be  so  elastic  as  to  adjust  themselves 
to  the  rapid  development  we  have  reason  to  expect  in  geological 
science.  It  is  highly  necessary  that  we  should  agree  upon  the 
colours  and  symbols  to  be  used  for  the  different  strata,  rocks, 
and  disturbances  that  the  terrestrial  crust  presents  to  us,  but 
petrology  is  still  far  from  being  placed  on  firm  foundations,  and 
the  synchronism  of  the  beds,  even  between  near  countries,  is 
not  always  easy  to  determine  with  exactitude,  and  still  less 
between  distant  countries.  Let  us  then  try  to  avoid  that  error 
of  Congresses — of  arrogating  an  infallibility  which  is  little  in 
accordance  with  the  progress  of  science. 

Let  me  now  say  a  few  words  upon  what  the  Congress  has 
already  accomplished,  and  on  what  remains  to  be  done. 

At  Bologna,  Prof.  Capellini  gave  the  history  of  the  Congress 
so  fully  that  there  is  no  need  that  I  should  speak  of  it  unless  it 
be  to  remind  you  that  the  idea  of  the  Congress  originated  in 
America  at  the  Exhibition  of  Philadelphia  in  1876,  and  doubt- 
less this  idea,  as  well  as  that  of  the  Exhibition  itself,  was  only 
the  expression  of  a  desire  that  had  been  very  generally  felt  for 
some  time,  to  treat  certain  questions  of  science  and  art,  not  only, 
so  to  speak,  in  a  national  family  reunion,  but  in  a  cosmopolitan 
reunion — to  treat  the  great  questions  that  concern  all  humanity, 
as  belonging  to  the  whole  civilized  world,  and  for  the  purposes 
of  discussion,  to  make  of  the  various  nationalities  a  brotherhood, 
established  on  their  common  interests  and  their  common  weal. 

The  Paris  Congress. — At  the  first  Congress,  which  met 
in  Paris  in  1878,  the  primary  questions  of  nomenclature  and 
of  classification  were  sketched  out,  as  well  as  the  unification 
of  geological  works  with  regard  to  colours  and  figures,  so 
that  in  all  countries  their  signification  should  be  the  same. 
A  proposal,  which  was  at  first  well  received,  was  to  make 
use  of  the  solar  spectrum,  and  to  adopt  the  three  primary 
colours — red,  blue,  and  yellow — for  the  three  divisions  of 
the  first  rank  of  Primary,  Secondary,  and  Tertiary  rocks ; 
that  the  subdivisions  of  the  second  order  should  be  dis- 
tinguished by  shades  of  these  colours,  and  those  of  the  third 
order  by  hatchings  of  these  same  colours.  But  subsequently  this 
scale  was  found  to  be  too  restricted,  and  at  Bologna  and  Berlin 
several  modifications  and  complementary  colours  were  intro- 
duced, although  always  retaining  to  a  certain  degree  the  original 
idea.  As  a  corollary  it  has  been  suggested  that  the  labels  of 
fossils  should,  as  has  already  been  done  in  several  Museums,  be 
of  the  same  colour  as  that  used  for  the  strata  from  which  they 
come,  and  that  thus  one  would  at  a  glance  see  the  horizon  and 
age  of  the  fossil. 

As  to  the  question  of  unification  of  nomenclature  for  the  great 
divisions  of  the  eartrris  crust,   it  was  felt  that  it  is  in  the  first 


place  essential  that  there  should  be  perfect  agreement  about  the 
terms  in  use,  and  therefore  that  a  dictionary  of  geology  compris- 
ing the  etymology  or  the  origin  of  each  geological  name,  its 
synonym  in  other  languages,  a  definition  in  French,  and  a 
demonstrative  figure  after  the  manner  of  technological  diction- 
aries, would  be  of  very  great  use.  The  publication  of  such  a 
work,  which  ought  to  be  in  at  least  six  languages,  was  strongly 
supported.  Finally,  the  consideration  of  the  foregoing  questions 
was  referred  to  the  International  Commissions  to  report  upon  to 
the  meeting  of  the  Bologna  Congress. 

With  regard  to  the  classification  of  the  strata,  memoirs  were 
received  upon  the  Pre-Cambrian  rocks,  and  on  the  nomenclature 
of  the  Palaeozoic  strata  of  North  America  ;  on  the  limits  of  the 
Carboniferous  and  Permian  in  various  parts  of  Europe  and  in 
America  ;  on  the  relations  of  the  zones  of  extinct  Vertebrates  in 
North  America  and  in  Europe  ;  these  two  last  memoirs  being 
accompanied  by  valuable  lists  of  Invertebrates,  plants,  and 
reptiles  of  different  countries.  These  memoirs  raised  very  im- 
portant stratigraphical  and  palseontological  questions  with  regard 
to  the  wide  distribution  of  families  and  of  genera.  Each  of  the 
faunas  of  the  primary  divisions  of  geological  periods  has  been  in 
part  recognized  as  occurring  at  the  same  time  in  the  two 
continents — in  Europe  and  in  North  America  :  and  Prof.  Cope 
has  been  led  to  inquire  whether  the  organic  types  proceed  from 
a  special  centre  from  which  ihey  have  spread  ;  or  whether  the 
same  types  of  generic  structure  have  appeared  independently  at 
different  points  of  the  surface  of  the  globe  ;  and  if  so,  whether 
they  are  contemporary  or  of  varying  periods.  These  synchronous 
appearances  form  a  subject  full  of  mystery,  from  whatsoever  side 
they  may  be  viewed.  The  geological  record  is  at  present  too  in- 
complete for  the  problem  to  be  solved.  In  each  country  there 
are  gaps  that  can  only  be  filled  by  aid  of  continued  observations 
in  the  other  parts  of  the  world.  One  of  the  most  useful  functions 
of  the  Congress  is  to  encourage  these. 

The  classification  of  Quaternary  deposits  was  also  discussed 
in  relation  to  the  remarkable  history  of  the  caves  of  Central 
France ;  the  glacial  deposits  and  dunes  of  Holland ;  the 
Tertiary  beds  of  Portugal,  which  are  limited  to  the  Miocene  and 
Pliocene  ;  the  Tertiary  eruptive  rocks  of  Hungary,  viewed  as 
to  whether  there  is  not  a  certain  relation  between  the  minera- 
logical  constitution  and  the  relative  age  of  the  various  trachytic 
types. 

The  Congress  was  also  occupied  with  some  high  physical 
questions,  such  as  those  of  the  deformations  and  fractures  of  the 
earth's  crust ;  the  strike  and  dip  of  faults  and  of  chains  of 
mountains  ;  the  origin  of  volcanoes,  and  the  probable  causes  of 
great  earthquakes  ;  the  structure  of  the  Alps,  and  the  folds  of  the 
Chalk. 

Less  in  connection  with  the  fundamental  objects  of  the  Con- 
gress, but  having  nevertheless  an  interest  of  their  own,  were  the 
memoirs  on  the  feldspars,  on  the  alteration  of  the  superficial  de- 
posits, on  the  use  of  the  polarizing  microscope,  on  the  conductivity 
of  heat  in  rocks,  and  other  special  subjects. 

The  Bologna  Congress. — In  the  handsome  volume  of  the 
Proceedings  of  the  Session  at  Bologna,  will  be  found  the  Report 
of  the  International  Jury  appointed  to  judge  the  competing 
memoirs  on  the  unification  of  colours  and  geological  signs, 
towards  which  the  King  of  Italy  generously  gave  5000  francs  to 
be  awarded  to  the  best  memoir  considered  practically  applicable. 
Six  memoirs  were  received,  of  which  the  three  selected  for  the 
award  are  published  with  coloured  illustrations  which  leave 
nothing  to  be  desired.  The  authors  of  these  papers  were  of  opinion 
that  although  the  solar  spectrum  offers  a  very  advantageous  fixed 
base,  the  scale  of  colours  is  insufficient,  and  that  it  would  be 
necessary  to  introduce  complementary  colours,  or  those  having 
relation  to  the  primary  colours.  The  divisions,  in  short,  of  the 
sedimentary  strata  are  so  numerous  that  it  will  be  necessary,  not 
only  to  employ  those  colours,  but  also  several  shades  of  the  same, 
or  different  hatchings,  in  reserving  rose  colour  for  the  crystalline 
Archaean  schists.  For  the  eruptive  rocks,  they  all  agreed  to  use 
dark  and  bright  tints  of  red,  green,  and  purple,  the  intensity  of 
which  will  render  them  to  be  readily  distinguishable  from  the 
primary  colours  of  the  sedimentary  rocks  and  from  the  clear 
colour  of  the  schists.  It  was  attempted  to  distinguish  the  acid 
and  basic  rocks,  both  with  respect  to  their  penological  com- 
position and  their  age,  by  the  use  of  different  tints  of  the  same 
colours  in  coloured  dots,  or  by  hatchings  of  various  patterns,  and 
with  the  letters  of  the  Greek  alphabet.  Thus  it  is  proposed  to 
show  by  signs  the  principal  varieties  of  granitic,  porphyrinic, 
trachytic,   andesitic,  and  basaltic  rocks,  &c.  ;  but  the  varieties 


Sept.  20,  1888] 


NATURE 


505 


are  so  numerous  that  one  hardly  knows  where  to  draw  the  limits  ; 
according  to  one  plan,  the  use  of  seventy-six  signs  and  hatchings 
would  be  required.  You  will  be  able  to  judge  of  the  various 
methods  proposed  by  the  fine  plates  which  illustrate  the  Reports. 
The  sections  given  of  some  of  the  mountains  of  Switzerland, 
and  others  which  serve  as  specimens,  have  an  excellent  effect. 
Conventional  signs  are  also  made  use  of  to  indicate  the  strike  and 
dip  of  the  strata,  faults,  fossiliferous  localities,  sources  of  cold, 
thermal,  and  mineral  springs,  travertines,  quarries,  mines,  &c.  A 
geological  map  will  thus  be  a  veritable  hieroglyphic  chapter,  with 
a  universal  signification. 

As  a  result  of  the  discussions  at  Bologna,  and  with  a 
view  to  a  practical  application,  it  was  decided  to  publish  a 
geological  map  of  Europe  on  the  scale  of  1/1,500,000,  in  which 
the  scale  of  colours  used  would  be  that  definitely  adopted  by  the 
Congress.  This  map,  of  which  the  execution  is  well  advanced, 
is  under  the  direction  of  a  Committee  at  Berlin. 

With  respect  to  the  unification  of  geological  terms,  Reports 
were  received  from  nine  National  Committees,  viz.  from  Austria, 
Belgium,  Spain,  Portugal,  France,  Great  Britain,  Hungary, 
Italy,  Russia,  and  Switzerland.  Besides  these,  eleven  have  been 
received  from  individual  members.  It  can  be  well  imagined 
that  with  so  many  opinions  they  were  not  all  in  agreement,  but 
with  the  good  will  shown  by  everyone,  although  there  were 
differences  on  points  of  detail,  they  were  almost  unanimous  on 
the  essential  points,  and  a  preliminary  general  agreement  was 
arrived  at  for  the  stratigraphical  terms,  such  as  system,  group, 
series,  stage  ;  and  for  chronological  terms,  such  as  era,  epoch, 
age,  &c,  leaving  to  future  Congresses  the  consideration  of  certain 
subordinate  points.  This  subject  reminds  me,  gentlemen,  of  a 
difficult  question  which  has  yet  to  be  faced.  If  your  resolutions 
are  carried  by  the  votes  of  all  the  members  of  Congress,  the 
result  must  be  affected  by  the  varying  number  of  the  nationalities 
in  the  changing  places  of  meeting.  For  example,  at  Bologna 
there  were  149  Italian  members  and  19  English  ;  at  Berlin  there 
were  163  Germans  and  II  English  ;  here,  on  the  contrary,  we 
are  .  .  .  English  and  .  .  .  foreign  geologists.  Therefore,  if 
all  vote,  the  opinion  of  the  seat  of  the  Congress  may  too  much 
preponderate  unless  you  find  means  of  placing  some  limits 
upon  it. 

Thanks  to  the  loyalty  of  the  Bologna  Council,  the  greater 
number  of  the  resolutions  were  carried  unanimously,  a  few 
only  were  referred  to  various  Committees  for  future  con- 
sideration. 

With  respect  to  the  stratigraphical  divisions  it  was  resolved  : — 

(1)  That  the  term  "group"  should  be  applied  to  each  of  the 
great   divisions   of   Primary,    Secondary,    and    Tertiary   rocks. 

(2)  That  the  subdivisions  of  these  groups  should  be  named 
"systems."  You  have  thus  a  Primary  or  Palaeozoic  group, 
and  the  Silurian  system,  the  Jurassic  system.  (3)  As  to  the 
divisions  of  first  order  of  the  systems,  the  term  "  series  "  was 
applied  (the  Oolitic  series)  ;  to  those  of  the  second  order,  the 
term  "stage"  (the  Bajocian  stage)  ;  and  to  those  of  the  third 
order  the  word  "  zone  "  (the  zone  of  Ammonites  humpkresianus). 
The  unity  of  the  stratified  masses  is  the  stratum  or  bed.  With 
regard  to  a  word  much  in  use  in  England,  and  dating  from  the 
primary  period  of  geology — the  word  "formation,"  the  majority 
of  the  Congress  decided  not  to  employ  it  in  the  sense  of  terrain 
in  French,  as  we  do,  but  only  in  the  sense  of  origin  or  mode  of 
formation,  and  so  on.  It  is  necessary,  therefore,  to  seek  some 
word  to  replace  with  us  the  familiar  terms  of  "Chalk  formation," 
"  London  Clay,"  &c. 

For  the  chronological  divisions  corresponding  with  the  strati- 
graphical, it  was  proposed  that  (1)  "era'.'  should  correspond 
with  "group,"  as  the  Primary  era,  the  Secondary  era;  (2) 
"period  "with  "system,"  as  the  Silurian  period,  the  Creta- 
ceous period  ;  (3)  "  epoch"  with  "series,"  as  the  Lower  Oolitic 
epoch,  the  Lower  Cretaceous  epoch;  "  age  "  with  "bed,"  as 
the  Portlandian  age,  the  Bathonian  age,  &c. 

On  the  subject  of  colours  and  signs,  the  final  decision  was 
remitted  to  the  Committee  of  the  Geological  Map  ;  and  with 
regard  to  the  rules  to  be  followed  in  the  nomenclature  of  species, 
it  was  resolved  that  the  name  attached  to  each  genus  and  to 
each  species  should  be  that  by  which  they  have  been  earliest 
known,  on  the  condition  that  the  characters  of  the  genus  and 
species  have  been  published  and  clearly  defined.  The  priority 
not  to  date  beyond  Linnaeus,  twelfth  edition,  1 766. 

There  were  only  four  special  and  local  memoirs  presented  to 
the  Congress  at  Bologna,  and  these  were  in  support  of  collections 
and  documents  exhibited. 


The  Berlin  Congress. — The  official  Proceedings  of  this  ses- 
sion having  only  been  issued  during  the  last  few  days,  were  not 
available  when  this  address  was  prepared.  I  have  therefore  had 
recourse  for  information  to  the  independent  notices  of  Messrs. 
Penevier,  Klebs,  Choffat,  Frazer,  Blanford,  and  Dewalque. 
At  Berlin,  special  attention  was  given  to  the  construction  of  the 
geological  map,  of  which  the  Committee,  profiting  by  the  liberty 
given  to  it  by  the  Bologna  Congress,  revised  the  colours  for  the 
sedimentary  series  in  the  following  manner  : — 

1.  Recent  deposits  (Alluvium,  &c.)  Very  pale  cream  colour. 

2.  Quaternary  (Diluvium)    Naples  yellow. 

3.  Tertiary     Various  shades  of  yellow. 

4.  Cretaceous         Green  tints  and  hatchings. 

5.  Jurassic       Blue  tints. 

6.  Triassic      Violet  tints  and  dots. 

7.  Permian  and  Carboniferous    ...  Gray  tints  and  hatchings. 

8.  Devonian Brown  tints. 

9.  Silurian      Grayish-green  tints. 

10.  Archaean    Rose  tints. 

And  for  the  ten  divisions  of  eruptive  rocks,  various  brilliant  and 
dark  red  tints  and  points. 

In  the  use  of  monograms  to  accentuate  the  tints,  it  was  de- 
cided to  employ  Latin  initials  for  the  sedimentary  deposits,  and 
Greek  initials  for  the  eruptive  rocks. 

It  is  on  this  plan  that  the  large  and  grand  geolo<jical  map  of 
Europe  in  course  of  execution  at  Berlin  is  to  be  coloured,  and  of 
which  the  publication  will  realize  one  of  the  principal  practical 
objects  of  the  Congress — the  unification  of  the  colours  employed 
in  geology. 

As  to  stratigraphical  unification,  the  Congress  adopted,  for  the 
most  part,  the  resolutions  passed  at  Bologna.  But  the  French 
and  Portuguese  Committees  proposed  to  substitute  the  term 
"series  "for  "  group  "  in  the  first  and  third  great  divisions  of 
sedimentary  strata  ;  thus,  instead  of  Primary  group,  Secondary 
group,  &c,  it  will  be  Primary  series,  Secondary  series,  &c. 
The  word  "group"  will  then  take  the  place  of  divisions  of 
systems,  such  as  Oolitic  group  instead  of  series.  This  replacement 
will  perhaps  recommend  itself  to  many  of  us. 

Further,  the  Committees  were  not  unanimous  on  the  proposi- 
tion to  substitute,  for  the  various  existing  terminations  of  systems, 
homophone  terminations  in  ic.  Instead  of  speaking  of  the 
Eocene,  Cretaceous,  Carboniferous,  Silurian,  &c. ,  system,  it  was 
proposed  to  use  the  terms  Eocenic,  Cretacic,  Carbonic,  Siluric, 
&c,  system.  Is  it  essential  thus  to  change  the  ancient  ensigns 
of  our  science  ?  Etymology  is  lost,  and  signification  destroyed. 
It  is  well  to  have  these  terminations  for  things  positive,  such  as 
the  crystalline  and  eruptive  rocks — for  example,  granitic  rocks, 
porphyritic  rocks,  basaltic  rocks — for  here  it  indicates  their  charac- 
ters ;  but  can  we  subject,  or  is  it  needful  to  subject,  several 
series  of  deposits  that  have  no  character  in  common  to  the  same 
rigid  rule,  from  the  circumstance  that  they  all  come  under  the 
same  ideal  classificatory  name  ?  This  question  will  be  discussed, 
and  it  is  for  you,  gentlemen,  to  judge  what  solution  may  be  the 
most  advisable. 

Among  other  subjects,  gentlemen,  that  you  will  have  to  con- 
sider, is  that  of  the  classification  of  the  Cambrian  and  Silurian 
strata.  According  as  these  two  great  systems  have  been  taken  in 
descending  or  ascending  order,  the  boundary  between  the  two 
has  been  placed  lower  or  higher,  because  the  discordances 
between  the  series  are  rare,  and  the  palaeontological  chain 
between  the  two  systems  is  but  little  interrupted.  In  England, 
Sedgwick,  who  commenced  from  below,  found  himself  stopped 
by  no  discordance  until  he  reached  the  Mayhill  Sandstone, 
whereas  Murchison,  who  commenced  from  above,  saw  no  reason 
to  stop  until  Palaeozoic  life  failed  him  ;  he  hesitated,  therefore, 
where  to  place  his  base  line.  In  the  same  way,  in  those 
countries  where  they  followed  Murchison,  whose  classification 
was  better  known,  the  stratigraphical  barriers  were,  according 
to  the  partisans  of  the  one,  passed  over  ;  whilst,  according  to  the 
partisans  of  the  other,  there  was  an  absence  of  palaeontological 
proofs.  .  In  this  country — their  native  stratigraphical  country — 
the  Cambrian  and  Silurian  occupy  comparatively  a  small  area  ; 
and  it  is  only  since  the  death  of  their  founders  that  the  palaeonto- 
logical proofs  have  been  increased  to  an  extent  sufficient  to  bring 
out  clearly  their  distinctive  characters.  These  two  systems  are 
found  elsewhere  (especially  in  America,  where  it  is  a  question 
whether  they  should  be  associated  with  a  Taconic  system),  either 
better  developed,  or  with  special  characters  which  may  help  to 


506 


NA  TURE 


{Sept.   20,    1888 


determine  more  precisely  their  mutual  relations.  It  is  here, 
again,  gentlemen,  that  the  knowledge  that  you  bring  from  many 
parts  of  the  world  may  aid  us  in  throwing  light  on  this  difficult 
subject. 

Amon^  the  other  questions  which  preceding  Congresses  have 
not  decided,  are  : — 

(1)  The  relation  between  the  Carboniferous  and  the  Permian. 

(2)  Between  the  Rhsetic  and  the  Jurassic. 

(3)  Between  the  Tertiary  and  the  Quaternary. 

When  there  is  m  interruption  in  the  continuity  of  the  strata, 
and  no  discordant  stratification,  the  systems  pass  one  into 
another  without  apparent  break,  like  the  colours  of  the  solar 
spectrum  ;  but,  as  you  all  know,  if  one  link  is  wanting,  the  chain 
is  broken,  and  the  line  of  separation  of  the  disunited  beds  be- 
comes sharply  defined.  If,  for  example,  the  Caradoc  should  be 
absent  in  the  Cambrian-Silurian,  or  the  Pliocene  should  be  want- 
ing in  the  Tertiary,  there  would  be  between  these  systems  a 
break  which  would  give  the  necessary  relief  to  the  superimposed 
strata.  The  primary  colours  of  the  spectrum  are  not  less  dis- 
tinctive because  they  pass  one  into  the  other  with  intermediate 
shades  ;  nor  does  it  follow  that,  because  there  are  passage-beds, 
the  systems  form  one  whole.  There  must  be,  somewhere, 
passage-beds  between  them,  as  there  are  between  the  colours. 

Apart  from  these  international  questions,  the  Berlin  Congress 
was  occupied  with  several  special  memoirs,  but  we  are  yet  with- 
out particulars,  and  besides,  whatever  may  be  their  interest, 
they  concern  us  less  for  the  moment  than  international  questions. 
Among  others  of  the  latter,  a  great  palscontological  project  has 
been  mooted,  and  the  Congress  has  appointed  a  Commission  of 
distinguished  palaeontologists  to  co-operate  towards  its  realiza- 
tion. A  work  is  proposed,  on  the  plan  of  the  "  Enumerator  et 
Nomenclator"  of  Brown,  and  of  the  "Prodrome"  of  Alcide 
d'Orbigny  ;  but  such  is  the  progress  that  palaeontology  has  made, 
that  at  present,  for  the  enumeration  of  all  the  known  fossils,  of 
animals  as  well  as  plants,  a  publication  of  some  fifteen  large 
volumes  would  be  required.  A  work  of  this  kind  will  make  a 
handsome  pendant  to  the  large  polyglot  dictionary  of  geological 
terms,  projected  at  Bologna. 

Such,  gentlemen,  are  some  of  the  questions  and  subjects  that 
you  have  to  consider.  You  have  to  revise  and  to  settle,  when 
possible,  questions  already  discussed,  and  also  to  discuss  new 
problems.  Among  the  latter  there  is  especially  the  funda- 
mental question  of  the  crystalline  schists — a  subject  remarkable 
for  the  great  progress  that  it  ha~  made  during  the  last  few  years, 
and  the  entirely  new  aspect  that  it  is  assuming  ;  for  it  is  evident 
at  present  that  it  is  not  only  a  chemical  question  of  meta- 
morphism  by  heat,  but  that  it  is  a  subject  which  entails  ques- 
tions of  weight,  pressure,  and  motion,  which  necessitate  a  wide 
co-operation,  and  the  combined  efforts  of  the  physicist,  the 
chemist,  the  petrologist,  and  the  stratigraphist. 

Although  the  greater  number  of  the  subjects  considered  by 
the  Congress  are  eminently  practical  and  positive,  they  also  in- 
clude theoretical  questions  of  the  highest  interest.  The  classi- 
fication of  the  strata  and  their  synchronism  over  great  areas, 
which  you  have  to  determine,  rest  both  upon  stratigraphy  and 
upon  palaeontology.  In  order  to  adjust  their  precise  relation, 
you  have  to  note  the  identities  as  well  as  the  differences  of  fossil 
species,  and  to  know  if  the  order  of  the  beds  in  distant  countries 
follows  a  synchronous  order  or  is  only  homotaxial.  In  the  one 
case,  we  can  hardly  expect  to  find  similar  species  ;  in  the  other, 
the  identity  of  species  may  be  taken  as  a  proof  to  the  contrary, 
unless  it  may  be  supposed,  as  Edward  Forbes  thought,  that 
species  have  had  more  than  one  centre  of  origin. 

To  solve  these  problems  you  have  to  trace  the  dawn  of  life, 
the  appearance,  the  duration,  and  the  disappearance  of  species, 
and  the  source  from  which  they  come.  Are  we  to  believe  in 
the  evolution  of  species,  or  are  we  to  regard  them  as  shoots  of 
short  duration,  and  the  genera  or  families  as  the  branches  or 
permanent  trunks?  If  I  have  ventured  to  touch  upon  these 
problems  of  fact  and  theory,  it  is  not  to  express  an  opinion,  but 
merely  to  point  out  how  vast  the  field  is,  and  how  many 
fellow-labourers  and  how  long  is  the  time  required  to  make  all 
the  necessary  studies. 

It  must  not  be  thought  that  when  the  fundamental  questions 
of  fact  are  determined  the  work  of  the  Congress  approaches 
completion.  General  agreement  on  these  international  questions 
will  only  smooth  the  way,  and  one  can  foresee  in  the  cosmopolitan 
problems  of  theory  already  considered,  and  in  many  others  that 
cannot  fail  to  arise,  what  will  occupy  in  a  long  and  useful  future 
all  the  efforts  of  this  International  Congress. 


ON  THE  CONSTITUTION  AND  STRUCTURE 
OF  THE  CRYSTALLINE  SCHISTS  OF  THE 
WESTERN  ALPS} 

TEN  years  have  elapsed  since  Prof.  Lory  first  formulated  his 
views  on  the  crystalline  schists  of  the  Western  Alps,  at  the 
Congres  International  de  Geologie  held  in  Paris  in  1878.  These 
he  subsequently  developed  at  the  Reanion  de  la  Societe  Geo- 
logique  de  France  at  Grenoble  in  1881.  Since  then  further 
work  in  the  field  has  strikingly  confirmed  these  views,  and  Frof. 
Lory  has  taken  aivantage  of  the  opportunity  given  by  the 
invitation  of  the  Organizing  Committee  of  the  Geological 
Congress  to  summarize  briefly  the  more  important  facts,  derived 
from  the  study  of  the  Western  Alps,  that  have  a  direct  bearing 
on  the  general  question  of  the  crystalline  schists. 

The  crystalline  schists  appear  in  the  Alps  in  massifs  of  greater 
or  less  extent,  protruding  through  the  sedimentary  formations. 
These  massifs  are  distributed  in  two  principal  zones,  arched  in 
agreement  with  the  general  curvature  of  the  Alps.  These  the 
author  proposes  to  designate  the  first  Alpine  '.one,  or  Mont-  Blanc 
zone,  and  the  fourth  Alpine  zone,  or  Monte-Rosa  zone.  The  inter- 
mediate zones  (se  ond  and  third  Alpine  zones)  are  of  less  im- 
portance, the  outcrops  being  rare  and  of  small  extent.  As  they 
resemble  the  fourth  zone  in  their  principal  characters,  they  are 
treated  in  its  connection. 

(1)  The  fourth  Alpine  zone,  or  zone  of  Monte- Rosa,  is  by  far  the 
largest.  In  it  the  crystalline  schists  are  exposed  over  the  greater 
part  of  the  Italian  slopes,  and  skirt  the  plain  from  Cuneo  to 
Lake  Maggiore.  Their  stratification  is  often  nearly  horizontal, 
and  always  conformable  with  the  sedimentary  formations  (Trias 
or  Jura)  resting  upon  them. 

It  is  subsequent  to  the  deposition  of  these  Secondary  rocks 
and,  very  probably,  even  much  later— in  Tertiary  times — that 
this  part  of  the  Alps  has  been  fashioned  into  mountains  by 
the  lateral  pressure  resulting  from  the  gradual  subsidence  of  the 
vast  regions  represented  by  the  plains  of  Italy  and  the  basin  of 
the  Adriatic.  The  result  of  these  i  oportant  dynamic  processes 
was  the  formation  of  a  complex  of  great  folds,  which  are  often 
much  complicated  by  faulting. 

The  succession  of  the  different  groups  of  crystalline  schists  in 
this  zone  is  conformable  to  the  order  indicated,  long  since,  by 
Cordier.  It  is  necessary  to  point  out,  however,  that  this  upper 
group — that  of  the  taleites  (talc-schists) — contains  talc  only  as 
an  accessory  constituent ;  the  unctuous  (talcoid)  aspect  being  due, 
in  reality,  to  the  presence  of  certain  indistinctly  cleavable  and 
fibrous  varieties  of  mica,  especially  sericite.  These  schists  may 
be  termed  sericite-schists  or,  abbreviated,  serischists.  In  the 
purer  varieties  they  are  of  a  nacreous  white  or  clear  gray  colour  ; 
but  by  the  addition  of  chlorite  they  assume  greenish  tints  and  pass 
into  chloritic  and  quartzose  schists — the  chloritoschists  which 
attain  so  great  a  development  in  the  whole  of  the  Western  Alps. 
Alternating  frequently  with  these  rocks  are  hornblendic  schists, 
of  which  the  development  is  very  variable.  In  certain  parts  of 
the  Italian  Alps,  however,  especially  between  Ivrea  and  Domo 
d'Ossola,  they  become  predominant. 

This  upper  division  of  the  crystalline  schists  is  characterized 
by  a  more  or  less  pronounced  green  tint,  due  to  the  presence  of 
chlorite  or  hornblende,  which  recalls  the  name  pietre  zvnli, 
given  to  these  and  other  schists  by  Gastaldi  and  several  other 
Italian  geologists. 

Below  the  chloritic  and  hornblendic  schists  occurs  a  large 
series  of  mica-schists,  with  which  are  intercalated,  in  conform- 
able bedding,  cipolin-limestones  (ealeaires  cipolins),  granular 
dolomites,  and  pure  saccharoidal  limestones,  alternating  with 
mica-schists  and  evidently  forming  part  of  the  same  formation. 

The  mica-schists  become  charged  with  felspar  and  pass  thus 
into  gneiss,  with  which  they  alternate.  Black  and  white  micas 
are  a-sociated  in  these  rocks.  In  proportion  as  the  series  is 
descended,  orthoclase  becomes  more  abundant,  and  the  gneisses 
predominate  with  a  foliation  which  decreases  until  they  pass 
into  granitoid  gneiss,  in  which  the  foliation  disappears,  but 
the  broader  features  of  stratification  remain  visible.  This  is 
well  shown  in  the  section  of  the  Simplon  massif,  where  the 
gorges  of  the  Diveria  are  hollowed  out,  to  a  depth  of  700 
metres,  in  the  horizontal  beds  of  the  granitoid  gneiss  known  as 
the  gneiss  of  Antigorio. 

1  "Sur  la  Constitution  et  la  Structure  des  Massifs  de  Sohistes  Cristallins 
des  Alpes  Occidentales,"  par  M  le  Professeur  Ch.  Lory.  "  Etudes  sur  les 
Schistes  Cristallins."  London,  1888.  (Abstracted  from  the  French  by  Dr. 
F.  H.  Hatch.) 


Sept.  20,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


50; 


Prof.  Lory  does  not  recognize  in  the  Monte-Rosa  zone  any  beds 
belonging  to  the  Carboniferous  ;  and  he  believes  that  the  crystal- 
line chistsof  this  part  of  the  Alps  have  been  exposed  during 
the  whole  of  Palaeozoic  times,  without  having  been  disturbed 
from  their  primitive  horizontal  position.  They  have  gradually 
subsided  during  the  Triassic  period.  The  lower  stages  of  this 
formation  are  not  much  developed  in  this  zone  ;  but  the  upper 
stage,  represented  by  the  schistes  lustres,  have  acquired  an 
enormous  thickness. 

These  Triassic  beds  are  characterized  by  a  remarkably  crystal- 
line texture.  The  limestones  and  dolomites  which  form  the 
middle  stage  are  granular  and  saccharoidal,  and  inclose  authigenic 
crystals  of  albite.  The  schistes  lustres  are  composed  in  great 
part  of  crystallized  minerals  (quartz,  mica,  tourmaline,  garnets, 
&C.),  which  are  also  certainly  authigenic.  This  crystalline 
condition  is  uniform  and  constant,  and  independent  of  all 
dislocations  and  c  ntortions  which  the  beds  have  subsequently 
undergone. 

The  crystalline  character  of  the  sedimentary  formations  may 
be  of  assistance  in  understanding  the  origin  of  the  crystalline 
schists.  The  foliation  is  generally  parallel  to  stratification,  the 
latter  being  always  very  distinct.  Characters  so  uniform  cannot 
be  explained  by  the  phenomena  of  slaty  cleavage  and  crystalliza- 
tion under  the  influence  of  local  mechanical  actions.  It  is  rather 
a  general,  universal,  and  original  crystallization  of  the  primitive 
rocks,  which  took  place  anterior  to  the  deposit  of  all  sedimentarv 
formations. 

The  most  important  element  of  Prof.  Lory's  third  zone  are 
anthracitic  sandstones.  These  sandstones  belong  to  the  Upper 
Coal-measures  (houiller  supirieur).  The  boundary  between  them 
and  the  crystalline  schists  is  usually  marked  by  a  fault.  But 
sometimes,  as  at  the  bridge  of  St.  Andre,  near  the  railway 
station  at  Modane,  the  latter  appear  under  the  sandstones,  and 
then  the  foliation  of  the  crystalline  schists  is  conformable  with 
the  bedding  of  the  Carboniferous  sandstones.  At  this  and  other 
localities  there  occur  in  the  lower  portions  of  these  sandstones 
conglomerates  formed  of  slightly  rolled  fragments  of  crystalline 
schists,  identical  with  those  which  crop  out  in  the  neighbourhood. 
It  is  therefore  evident  that  the  foliation  and  cry.  tallization  of  the 
crystalline  schists  must  be  earlier  than  the  Carboniferous  period. 
Conglomerates,  composed  of  fragments  of  the  most  diversified 
rocks  from  th,e  crystalline  schists,  occur  in  the  Upper  Trias,  in  the 
Lias  {Col du  Gold),  and  in  the  Nummulitic  Eocene  {massif  des 
End  mbres).  Each  of  these  conglomerates  contains  fragments  of 
all  the  preceding  formations.  Since  these  rolled  pebbles  have 
the  characteristic  structure,  crystalline  or  foliated,  of  the  rocks 
they  are  derived  from,  and  since  the  foliation  of  the  pebbles 
has  no  uniform  direction  in  the  conglomerates,  it  follows  that 
the  foliated  or  crystalline  texture  of  the  rocks  of  these  various 
formations  is,  each  for  each,  of  earlier  origin  than  the  deposition 
of  that  which  overlies  it,  and  absolutely  independent  of  the  power- 
ful mechanical  actions  which  only  fashioned  these  formations 
into  mountains  subsequently  to  the  Eocene  period. 

Again,  all  the  formations,  from  the  Trias  to  the  Eocene, 
contain  microscopic  crystals  of  silicates  (felspars,  mica,  quartz, 
tourmaline),  which  ate  of  contemporaneous  origin  with  the  rocks 
containing  them,  and  do  not,  therefore,  owe  their  existence  to 
any  of  the  dynamic  processes  which  have  subsequently  acted 
upon  this  part  of  the  Alps. 

Since  these  silicates,  which  are  identical  with,  or  very 
analogous  to,  those  of  the  crystalline  schists,  were  formed  in 
the  Secondary  and  Tertiary  deposits  independently  of  all 
eruptive  actions  or  special  emanations,  and  anteriorly  to  all 
dynamic  processes,  it  is  unnecessary  for  the  explanation  of  'he 
origin  of  the  primitive  crystalline  schist.,  to  assume  physical 
conditions  absolutely  different  from  those  of  the  Secondary  or 
Tertiary  periods. 

In  the  remote  epoch  in  which  these  schists  were  formed  there 
were  no  terrestrial  features,  and  consequently  no  detiital  forma- 
tions. The  existence  of  organisms  in  a  universal  ocean,  warmer 
and  more  heavily  charged  with  saline  matters  than  actual  seas,  was 
not  yet  possible  ;  and  there  resulted  combinations  of  crystallized 
minerals,  the  formation  of  which  in  later  times  became  more 
local  and  restricted.  But  even  as  late  as  Tertiary  times  we  still 
find  traces  of  analogous  reactions  in  the  deposits  of  those  remark- 
able fiords  of  the  Pocene  period  which  extend  over  a  part  of  the 
actual  site  of  our  Alpine  chains. 

(2)  Prof.  Lory's  first  Alpine  zone,  or  Mont-Blanc  zone,  com- 
prises, in  Switzerland,  the  masdfs  of  the  Bernese  Alps  and  of  St. 
Gothard  ;  in  Savoy,  those  of  the  Aiguilles  Rouges  and  of  Mont- 
Blanc  ;  the  chain  of  Belledonne  ;  the  small  massif  of  Rocheray, 


near  St.-Tean-deMaurienne  ;  the  massif  at  Rousses,  in  Oisans  ; 
the  massif 'of  Pelvoux,  between  Drac  and  Durance  ;  finally,  the 
massif  of  the  Maritimes  Alps,  between  the  Col  de  l'Argentiere 
and  the  Col  de  Tende. 

The  characteristic  feature  common  to  all  these  massifs  consists 
in  the  crystalline  schists  composing  them  being  nearly  always 
highly  inclined  or  almost  vertical.  They  do  not  appear  to  pre- 
sent the  regular  structure — the  great  anticlinal  folds  of  the  Monte- 
This  indicates  that  fat  Mont- Blanc  zone  is  really  the 
ancient  part  of  the  orogenic  system  of  the  Alps,  and  that  i's 
structure  has  resulted  from  the  dislocations  of  different  epochs. 

Anthracitic  sandstones  occur  also  in  this  zone,  but  they  are 
less  developed  and  less  continuous  than  in  the  third  zone,  and, 
as  indicated  by  their  plant  remains,  are  of  more  recent  date,  being 
intermediate  between  the  Coal-measures  of  Rive-de-Gier  and 
those  of  Saint- Etienne. 

On  the  western  slope  of  this  zone  traces  of  dislocations, 
anteiior  to  the  deposition  of  these  Carboniferous  sandstones,  can 
be  recognized.  They  are  indicated  by  clear  unconformities  at 
various  p.  ints  in  the  Mure. basin  and  other  places.  But  on  the 
eastern  slope  of  the  same  zone  the  Carboniferous  sandstones  and 
the  crystalline  schists  are  generally  conformable. 

These  Carboniferous  sandstones  of  the_//V.v/  zone,  like  those  of 
the  third,  are  accompanied  by  conglomerates  containing  numerous 
fragments  of  foliated  crystalline  schists,  of  which  the  petro- 
g  aphical  characters  are  identical  with  those  of  the  underlying 
crystalline  rocks.  These  conglomerates  are  well  known  on  both 
western  and  eastern  slopes  (poudingues  of  Yalorsine,  Grandes- 
Rousses,  &C.)  Since  the  Carboniferous  sandstone  on  the  eastern 
slope  is  conformable  with  the  crystalline  schists,  the  existence  of 
large  fiagments  of  the  schists  in  these  conglomerates,  clearly 
demonstrates  that  their  foliation  is  anterior  to  all  dislocations 
which  have  affected  the  massif.  It  was  after  the  deposition  of 
the  anthracitic  sandstone,  between  the  Carboniferous  and  Triassic 
periods,  that  the  principal  dislocations  took  place,  which  have 
upheaved  and  contorted  the  crystalline  schists  and  the  anthracitic 
sandstones  of  the  first  zone.  Wherever  the  Triassic  beds  appear 
nearly  horizontal  they  rest,  in  conformable  stratification,  on  the 
upturned  edges  of  tne  older  formations,  whether  anthracitic 
sandstones  or  crystalline  schists. 

The  horizontal  position  of  numerous  shreds  of  Secondary  rocks 
to  be  found  at  very  variable  heights  indicates  the  character  of  the 
dislocations  which  have  taken  place  at  more  recent  periods  in  this 
part  of  the  Alps.  The  ancient  formations,  already  upheaved  and 
contorted  before  the  deposition  of  the  Trias,  have  behaved  like 
rigid  masses,  and  have  not  lent  themselves  to  the  newer  folding. 
They  have  been  traversed  by  faults  ;  and  displacements  have 
taken  place  along  the  planes  of  fracture,  while  at  the  same  time 
following  the  divisional  planes  of  stratification.  The  Secondary 
rocks,  on  the  other  hand,  have  behaved  like  flexible,  and  even, 
when  argillaceous,  like  plastic  bodies.  They  have  only  been  com- 
pletely fractured  by  the  more  important  major  faults  ;  everywhere 
they  have  moulded  themselves  by  multiplex  folding  to  the  new 
forms  of  their  dislocated  base.  This  flexible  covering  has  slipped 
into  the  depressions  formed  by  the  subsidence,  due  to  dislocation, 
of  certain  parts  of  its  base.  In  this  way  the  Secondary  rocks  pre- 
sent themselves  on  the  Hanks  of  the  Alpine  valleys  in  beds  which 
are  inclined  and  contorted  in  repeated  folds,  contrasting  thus  with 
the  uniform  curvature  of  the  ancient  rocks. 

The  powerful  mechanical  actions  resulting  from  these  disloca- 
tions of  the  first  Alpine  zone  have  often  superinduced,  in  the 
argillaceous  limestones  of  the  Lias,  phenomena  of  "stretching,"' 
lamination,  and,  above  all,  a  slaty  cleavage  in  a  direction  different 
from  that  of  stratification.  As  to  the  crystalline  schists,  of  which 
the  plication  took  place  at  the  end  of  the  Carboniferous  aiul 
before  the  Triassic  period,  the  more  recent  dislocations  have 
destroyed  the  regularity  of  their  anticlinal  and  synclinal  folds. 
Along  the  axes  of  the  anticlinal  ruptures,  or  following  the  bands 
of  mica-schists— that  part  of  the  crystalline  schists  which  offers 
least  resistance — occurred  the  subsidences  which  have  given  rise 
to  the  actual  Alpine  valleys  ;  it  is  following  these  directions,  and 
nearly  always  following  the  old  synclinal  folds,  that  the  ancient 
rocks  have  been  cut  up  into  massifs,  separated  by  the  bands  of 
depression,  where  the  Secondary  rocks,  adapting  themselves  to 
the  new  forms  assumed  by  their  base,  have  descended  while 
undergoing  plication  ;  and  their  beds,  highly  inclined  and  often 
curiously  folded,  clothe  the  lateral  walls  of  these  depressions. 
The  valley  of  Chamonix  and  l'Allee  Blanche,  the  Combe  d'Olle, 
the  lower  valley  of  the  same  stream,  at  Allemont,  and  that  of 
Bourg-d'OisaDS,  are  examples  of  this  type  of  longitudinal  Alpine 
valleys  of  the  Mont- Blanc  zone. 


5o8 


NATURE 


{Sept.  20,  1888 


The  massifs  of  crystalline  schists  represented  in  this  zone  are 
large  remnants  which  have  remained  standing  in  ruins,  the  other 
parts  of  the  primitive  rocks  having  subsided  either  en  masse, 
following  great  faults,  or  in  detail,  by  a  series  of  small  slides, 
following  the  numerous  joints,  or  the  divisional  planes  of 
bedding.  Not  one  of  them  represents  a  regular  and  complete 
anticlinal  fold. 

The  various  types  of  crystalline  schist  comprised  in  the  Mont- 
Blanc  zone  succeeded  one  another  in  the  same  order  as  in  the 
Monte-Rosa  zone.  They  are  also  divided  into  two  groups  :  the 
upper  group — sericitic,  chloritic,  and  hornblendic  schists ;  and 
the  lower  group — mica-schists  and  true  gneisses. 

In  the  lower  group  there  is  a  tendency  towards  the  granitoid 
structure,  and  the  rocks  appear  more  or  less  massive,  but  yet  in 
the  main  stratiform.  They  become  rich  in  white  mica,  and 
assume  a  granulitic  texture.  These  phenomena  are  developed 
along  the  anticlinal  axes. 

The  crystalline  schists  of  the  upper  group  have  a  tendency  to 
become  richer  in  felspar  the  nearer  one  approaches  the  intra- 
Alpine  limit  of  the  zone.  It  seems  that  this  corresponds  with  the 
direction  in  which  alkaline  emissions,  accompanying  the  formation 
of  these  rocks,  took  place,  the  same  direction  afterwards  becoming 
that  of  the  great  limiting  fault  of  the  zone.  The  schists -pass 
thus  into  chloritic  gneisses  similar  to  those  occurring  near  the 
station  at  Modane  {third  zone),  or  to  the  gneiss  of  Arolla  {fourth 
zone)  ;  sometimes  also  into  granitoid  gneisses,  both  chloritic  and 
hornblendic,  as,  for  instance,  at  Cevins,  in  Tarantaise. 

The  tenacity  of  the  chloritic  and  hornblendic  schists,  which 
is  generally  much  superior  to  that  of  the  mica-schists  and  true 
gneisses,  and  their  tendency  to  develop  felspar,  which  gives  theui 
greater  consistency,  explain  the  important  role  played  by  these 
rocks  in  the  constitution  of  the  culminating  ridges  and  steeper 
massifs  of  the  first  zone.  In  the  Mont-Blanc  massif  and  in  the 
eastern  portion  of  the  Pelvoux  massif  these  "needles"  and 
abruptly  culminating  ridges  characterize  the  type  of  rock  known  j 
as  protogine.  This  name,  the  etymological  sense  of  which  must  be 
forgotten,  has  been  created  to  designate  the  type  of  rocks  which 
predominates  in  the  principal  ridge  of  Mont-Blanc.  The  special 
character  of  these  rocks  consists  in  the  mica  being  penetrated  and 
partly  replaced  by  chlorite.  The  granitoid  protogine  always 
contains  two  felspars — orthoclase  and  oligoclase,  part  of  the 
orthoclase  being  usually  replaced  by  microcline. 

Prof.  Lory  thinks  the  protogine  belongs  to  the  upper  group — 
that  of  the  chloritic  schists.  In  that  case  Mont-Blanc  cannot  be 
regarded  as  a  central  arch  of  elevation,  and  its  "fan-structure" 
becomes  simply  a  very  sharp  synclinal  fold  of  the  crystalline 
schists  of  the  upper  group,  isolated  by  two  faults,  along  which 
they  have  subsided,  while  acquiring  a  U-shaped  fold. 

In  the  Velv oux-massif  the  protogine  is  even  more  largely 
developed  than  at  Mont-Blanc.  Here  also  it  is  stratiform,  and 
alternates  with  chloritic  gneisses  like  those  of  the  western  parts 
of  the  massif  A  series  of  anticlinal  and  synclinal  folds, can  be 
made  out.  The  anticlines  correspond  to  the  Vallon  des  Etages, 
the  Barre  des  Escrins  (west  slope),  and  the  Combe  d'Alefroide  ; 
and  the  synclines  to  the  Combe  de  la  Pilatte,  the  eastern  slope  of 
the  Escrins  (Glacier  Noir),  and  the  summits  of  Mont-Pelvoux. 

From  observations  made  near  Bourg-d'Oisans,  the  author 
arrives  at  the  conclusion  that  the  protogine  has  originated  by  a 
modification  of  the  chloritic  schists.  During  their  formation,  a 
considerable  increase  in  their  felspathic  constituent  was  produced 
by  granulitic  emissions  which  took  place  through  the  gneiss  and 
mica-schists. 

Like  other  important  features  in  the  structure  of  the  Eastern 
Alps  this  replacement  of  chloritic  schists  by  protogine  follows 
the  intra-Alpine  limit  of  the  Mont-Blanc  zone,  which  limit  is 
marked  by  the  great  fault-line  which  can  be  traced  over  60  lieues, 
from  Vallonise  to  Airolo.  This  must  have  been  the  direction  in 
which  took  place  those  granulitic  emissions,  which,  without 
giving  birth  to  true  eruptive  masses,  have  modified  the  character 
of  the  old  gneiss  and  mica-schists  and  developed  in  the  chloritic 
and  hornblendic  schists  the  felspathic  character  which  dis- 
tinguishes the  granitoid  rock  known  as  protogine. 


THE  ELECTRIC  TRANSMISSION  OF  PO  WER.1 

"YyHAT  is  power,  and  why  should  we  wish  to  transmit  it? 

Power  has   one  very  definite   meaning   in   science,   and 

several   rather   vague   meanings  in  practice.     We   speak  of  a 

1  Lecture  delivered  by  Prof.  Ayrton,  F.R.S.,  at  the  Diill  Hall,  Bath,  on 
Friday,  September  7,  1888. 


powerful  athlete,  the  power  of  the  law  ;  we  sing  of  the  power 
of  love  ;  we  say  knowledge  is  power,  and  so  on,  using  the  word 
in  several  different  senses.  Now,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  a 
general  audience  feels  a  little  anxious  as  to  what  troubles  may 
be  in  store  for  it  when  a  lecturer  begins  by  being  painfully  exact, 
my  telling  you  that  by  power  an  engineer  understands  the  rate 
of  doing  work  will  not,  I  hope,  make  you  fear  that  my  remarks 
will  bristle  with  technicalities. 

When  you  walk  upstairs  you  exert  power — only,  perhaps,  the 
one-twentieth  of  a  horse  when  you  go  up  slowly,  talking  to  other 
people.  But  when  you  run  upstairs  because  you  have  forgotten 
something  that  you  intended  to  bring  down,  then  your  exertions 
represent,  perhaps,  the  one-tenth  of  a  horse-power.  You  only 
get  to  the  top  of  the  stairs  in  either  case,  but  the  breathless 
sensation  of  running  fast  upstairs  tells  you  that  the  more  quickly 
you  go  the  harder  you  are  working.  A  person  exercises  power 
in  the  engineer's  sense  when  he  exerts  himself  physically,  and 
the  greater  the  exertion  the  greater  the  power.  The  exercise  of 
power  by  the  ruling  classes,  however,  is  unfortunately  not 
necessarily  accompanied  by  any  exertion,  physical  or  mental. 

Probably  the  most  familiar  example  of  exerting  power  at  a 
distance — that  is,  of  transmitting  power — is  pulling  a  handle 
and  ringing  a  bell  in  another  room.  I  pull  the  handle,  exerting 
myself  slightly,  and  as  the  result  the  bell  at  the  other  end  of  the 
platform  rings.  Were  not  this  such  a  very  familiar  operation  I 
would  call  it  experiment  No.  I.  You  have  doubtless  all  of  you 
performed  this  experiment  several  times  to-day,  and — what  is  all 
important  with  an  experiment — performed  it  successfully. 

And  yet  it  was  not  until  just  one  hundred  years  ago  that  it 
dawned  on  people  that  if  one  person,  A,  wanted  to  attract  the 
attention  of  another  person,  B,  the  place  where  the  bell  ought 
to  sound  was  where  B  was,  and  not  where  A  was.  Indeed,  in 
many  English  villages  down  to  the  present  day  the  knocker 
principle  of  attracting  attention  is  alone  resorted  to,  with  the 
result  which  you  may  remember  happened  when  Mr.  Pickwick 
was  staying  in  Bath  at  lodgings  in  the  Royal  Crescent,  and  Mr. 
Dowler  undertook  to  sit  up  for  Mrs.  Dowler,  but  "  made  up  his 
mind  that  he  would  throw  himself  on  the  bed  in  the  back  room 
and  think — not  sleep,  of  course.  .  .  .  Just  as  the  clock  struck 
three  there  was  blown  into  the  crescent  a  sedan-chair  with  Mrs. 
Dowler  inside,  borne  by  one  short  fat  chairman  and  one  long 
thin  one.  .  .  .  They  gave  a  good  round  double  knock  at  the 
street  door.  .  .  .  'Knock  again,  if  you  please,'  said  Mrs. 
Dowler,  from  the  chair.  'Knock  two  or  three  times,  if  you 
please.'  The  short  man  stood  on  the  step  and  gave  four  or  five 
most  startling  double  knocks  of  eight  or  ten  knocks  a-piece, 
while  the  long  man  went  into  the  road  and  looked  up  at  the 
windows  for  a  light.  Nobody  came — it  was  as  silent  and  as 
dark  as  ever."  But  the  tall  thin  man,  you  may  remember, 
"kept  on  perpetually  knocking  double  knocks  of  two  loud 
knocks  each,  like  an  insane  postman,"  till  Mr.  Winkle,  waking 
up  from  a  dream  "that  he  was  at  a  club  where  the  chairman 
was  obliged  to  hammer  the  table  a  good  deal  to  preserve 
order,"  met  with  the  catastrophe  which  the  readers  of  "  Pickwick  " 
will  remember. 

This  episode  shows  what  comes  of  having  plenty  of  power  and 
no  means  of  transmitting  it. 

tut  if  some  houses  can  still  dispense  with  mechanical  or  other 
methods  of  transmitting  power,  even  to  ring  bells,  factories  cannot. 
The  looms,  the  lathes,  or  whatever  the  machinery  used  in  the 
factory  may  be,  must  either  be  worked  by  hand  or  foot  in  the 
old  style,  or  it  must  be  connected  with  the  steam-,  gas-,  or  water- 
engine  in  the  new.  On  entering  a  large  factory  you  see  lines  of 
rapidly-rotating  shafting,  and  a  net-work  of  rapidly- revolving 
belting,  all  employed  in  transmitting  power.  As  a  contrast  to 
this,  I  now  throw  on  the  screen  a  photograph  of  Sir  David 
Salomon's  workshop  at  Tunbridge  Wells,  in  which  every 
machine  is  worked  by  a  separate  electric  motor,  thus  saving  to  a 
great  extent  the  loss  of  power  that  usually  accompanies  the 
mechanical  transmission. 

In  America  there  are  6000  electromotors  working  machinery; 
in  Great  Britain  hardly  100. 

But  it  is  not  only  in  transmitting  the  power  from  the  steam-, 
gas-,  or  water-engine  of  a  factory  to  the  various  machines 
working  in  it,  that  electricity  can  be  utilized.  An  incredible 
amount  of  power  is  daily  running  to  waste  in  this  and  other 
countries  because  many  of  the  rapid  streams  of  water  are  too  far 
away  from  towns  for  their  power  to  have  been  hitherto  utilized. 

The  holiday  tourist,  when  admiring  the  splashing  water 
dashing  over  the  stones,  hardly  realizes  that  the  money  loss  is  as 
if  the  foam  were  composed  of  flakes  of  silver. 


Sept.  2C,  1888] 


NATURE 


509 


If  we  take  as  a  low  estimate  that  a  large  well-made  steam- 
engine  burns  only  2  pounds  of  coal  per  horse-power  per  hour, 
the  coal  consumption  which  would  be  equivalent  to  the  waste  of 
power  at  Niagara  would  exceed  150,000,000  tons  per  annum, 
which  at  only  55.  or  6s.  per  ton  means  some  ^"40,000,000 
sterling  wasted.  And  descending  from  big  things  to  small,  the 
River  Avon,  flowing  through  Bath,  which,  so  far  from  being  a 
roaring  cataract,  especially  in  dry  weather,  pursues  its  course 
with  only  a  respectable  orderly  swish,  still  represents  a  certain 
amount  of  lost  power.  It  has  been  estimated  that  from  25  to 
130  horse-power  runs  to  waste  at  the  Bathwick  Weir  behind  the 
Guildhall,  depending  on  the  season.  If  we  take  as  an  all-round 
average  that  the  fall  of  this  weir  represents  50  horse-power,  and 
that  a  steam-engine  producing  this  power  burns  150  pounds  of 
coal  per  hour,  it  follows  that  with  steam  coal  at  165.  per  ton — 
the  price  at  Bath — the  waste  at  Bathwick  Weir  represents  an 
income  of  ^450  per  annum,  not  a  princely  fortune,  it  is  true, 
but  too  large  to  be  utterly  thrown  away  as  at  present. 

This  state  of  things  will  I  hope,  however,  be  shortly  remedied, 
for,  as  you  will  see  from  the  large  map  on  the  wall,  it  is  proposed 
to  put  up  eighty-one  electric  arc  lamps  throughout  the  streets  of 
Bath,  and  to  supply  the  50  horse-power  required  for  these  lamps 
by  the  fall  of  the  Bathwick  Weir,  supplementing  the  fall  with  a 
steam-engine  at  dry  seasons. 

The  next  large  diagram  shows  the  use  that  Lord  Salisbury 
has  made  of  the  River  Lea  to  electrically  light  Hatfield  House, 
and  to  supply  electric  motive  power  to  the  various  machines 
working  on  his  estate.  The  following  diagram  shows  the  course 
of  the  Portrush  electric  railway,  six  and  a  half  miles  long, 
which  is  worked  by  the  Bushmill  Falls,  situated  at  about  one 
mile  from  the  nearest  point  of  the  railway.  And  lastly,  this 
working  model  on  the  table,  kindly  lent  me  by  Dr.  E.  Hopkin- 
son,  as  well  as  the  diagram  on  the  wall,  represent  the  Bessbrook 
and  Newry  electric  tramway,  a  little  over  three  miles  in  length, 
which  is  also  worked  entirely  by  water  power,  the  turbine  and 
dynamo  which  convert  the  water  power  into  electric  power  being 
at  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile  from  the  Bessbrook  terminus. 
[Model  electric  railway  shown  in  action.] 

The  newspapers  of  last  week  contained  a  long  account  of  the 
spiral  electric  mountain  railway  that  has  just  been  opened  to 
carry  people  up  the  Burgenstock,  near  Lucerne,  and  worked  by 
the  River  Aar,  three  miles  away,  so  that  we  see  electric  traction 
worked  by  distant  water  power  is  extending.  But,  splendid  as 
are  these  most  successful  uses  of  water  power  to  actuate  distant 
electromotors,  it  is  but  a  stray  stream  here  and  there  that  has 
yet  been  utilized,  and  countless  wealth  is  still  being  squandered 
in  all  the  torrents  all  over  the  world. 

The  familiarity  of  the  fact  makes  it  none  the  less  striking,  that, 
while  we  obtain  in  a  laborious  way  from  the  depths  of  the 
earth  the  power  we  employ,  we  let  run  to  waste  every  hour  of 
our  lives  many  many  times  as  much  as  we  use. 

It  is  also  a  well-established,  time-honoured  fact  that  large 
steam-engines  can  be  worked  much  more  economically  than 
small  ones,  and  that  therefore  if  it  were  possible  to  economically 
transmit  the  power  from  a  few  very  large  steam-engines  to  a 
great  number  of  small  workshops  there  would  be  a  great  saving 
of  power,  as  well  as  a  great  saving  of  time  from  the  workmen 
in  these  many  small  workshops  having  only  to  employ  this 
power  for  various  industrial  purposes,  instead  of  having  to 
stoke,  clean,  repair,  and  generally  attend  to  a  great  number  of 
small,  uneconomical  steam-engines. 

When  delivering  the  lecture  which  I  had  the  honour  to  give 
at  the  meeting  of  the  British  Association  at  Sheffield  nine  years 
ago,  I  entered  fully  into  Prof.  Perry's  and  my  own  views  on  this 
subject,  and  therefore  I  will  not  enlarge  on  them  now.  You 
can  all  realize  the  difference  between  the  luxury  of  merely 
getting  into  a  train  instead  of  having  to  engage  post-horses  ;  of 
being  able  to  send  a  telegram  instead  of  employing  a  special 
messenger  ;  or  being  able  to  turn  on  a  gas  tap  and  apply  a  match 
when  you  want  a  light,  instead  of  having  to  purchase  oil  and  a 
wick,  and  trim  a  lamp.  Well,  a  general  supply  of  power  to 
workshops  is  to  the  manufacturer  what  a  general  supply  of  light 
or  a  general  supply  of  post-office  facilities  is  to  the  householder  : 
it  is  all  part  of  the  steady  advance  of  civilization  that  leads  the 
man  of  to-day  to  go  to  the  tailor,  the  shoemaker,  the  baker, 
the  butcher,  instead  of  manufacturing  his  own  mocassins  and 
lassoing  a  buffalo  for  dinner.  And  in  case  any  of  you  may  be 
inclined  to  think  that  we  have  gone  far  enough  in  these  new- 
fangled notions,  and  we  are  all  perhaps  prone  to  fall  into  this 
mistake  as  we  grow  older,  let  me  remind  you  that  while  each 
age  regards  with  justifiable  pride  the  superiority  of  its  ways  to 


those  of  its  ancestors,  that  very  age  will  appear  but  semi- 
civilized  to  its  great-grandchildren.  Let  us  accept  as  an 
undoubted  fact  that  a  general  distribution  of  power  would 
enable  the  wants  of  civilized  life  to  be  better  satisfied,  and 
therefore  would  greatly  benefit  industry. 

There  are  four  methods  of  transmitting  power  to  a  distance  : 
(1)  by  a  moving  rope  ;  (2)  by  air  compressed  or  rarefied  at  one 
end  of  a  pipe  operating  an  air  motor  at  the  other  end;  (3)  by 
water  forced  through  a  pipe  working  a  water  motor  ;  (4)  by 
electricity. 

We  have  an  example  of  the  transmission  of  power  through  a 
short  distance  by  an  endless  belt  or  rope  in  the  machine  geared 
together  by  belts  on  this  platform,  and  in  the  rotatory  hair- 
brushes at  Mr.  Hatt's  establishment  in  the  Corridor,  Bath.  At 
Schaffhausen,  and  elsewhere  in  Switzerland,  the  principle  is 
employed  on  a  large  scale.  Spain  and  other  countries  use  it  in 
connection  with  their  mining  operations  ;  and  lastly,  wire  ropes 
replace  horses  on  many  hilly  tramways.  Do  not  look,  however, 
for  the  wire  rope  of  the  Bath  cable  tramways,  for  cable  is  only 
to  be  found  painted  on  the  sides  of  the  cars. 

For  short  distances  of  a  mile  or  so  there  is  no  system  of 
transmitting  power  in  a  straight  line  along  the  open  country  so 
cheap  to  erect,  and  so  economical  of  power  as  a  rapidly -moving 
endless  rope  ;  but  the  other  systems  give  much  greater  facilities 
for  distributing  the  power  along  the  line  of  route,  are  much  less 
noisy,  and  far  surpass  wire  rope  transmission  in  economy  when 
the  rope  must  move  somewhat  slowly,  as  in  tramway  traction,  or 
when  the  distance  is  considerable  over  which  the  power  is 
transmitted,  or  when  the  line  of  route  has  many  bends. 

In  the  same  sense  that  an  ordinary  house-bell  may  be  con- 
sidered as  a  crude  example  of  the  transmission  of  power  by  a 
moving  rope,  the  pneumatic  bell  at  the  other  end  of  the  hall 
which  I  now  ring  by  sending  a  puff  of  air  through  the  tube  is  a 
crude  example  of  the  transmission  of  power  by  compressed  air. 
[Pneumatic  bell  rung.]  Compressed  air  is  employed  to  work 
from  a  distance  the  boring-machines  used  in  tunnelling.  The  con- 
tinuous vacuum-brakes  used  on  many  of  the  railways  are  also 
probably  familiar  to  you,  and  the  pneumatic  system  of  transmit- 
ting power  to  workshops  is  shortly  to  be  tried  on  a  fairly  large 
scale  at  Birmingham. 

But  distribution  of  power  by  water  pressure  is  the  plan  that 
has  hitherto  found  most  favour  in  this  country.  That  little  water 
motor  at  the  other  end  of  the  platform  rapidly  revolves  when  I 
work  this  garden  syringe,  and  serves  as  a  puny  illustration  of  the 
transmission  of  water  pressure.  [Experiment  shown.]  Pressure 
water  has  been  employed  for  years  on  a  large  scale  at  Hull  for 
distributing  power ;  also  by  Mr.  Tweddle,  as  a  means  of  com- 
municating a  very  large  amount  of  power  through  a  flexible  tube 
to  tools  that  have  to  be  moved  about  ;  but  the  grandest  illustration 
of  this  principle  is  the  vast  system  of  high-pressure  mains  that 
have  been  laid  throughout  London,  as  you  will  see  from  the 
photograph  that  I  now  project  on  the  screen  of  the  map  kindly 
lent  me  by  Mr.  Ellington. 

The  economy  of  this  system  is  so  marked  and  the  success  that 
has  attended  its  use  is  so  great  that,  did  I  not  feel  sure  that 
electricity  offers  a  grander  system  still,  it  would  be  with  fear  and 
trembling  that  I  should  approach  the  subject  of  this  evening, 
the  "  Electric  Transmission  of  Power."  Punch  drew  six  years 
ago  the  giant  Steam  and  the  giant  Coal  looking  aghast  at  the 
suckling  babe  Electricity  in  its  cradle.  That  baby  is  a  strong 
boy  now  ;  let  the  giant  Water  look  to  its  laurels  ere  that  boy 
becomes  a  man.  For  the  electric  transmission  of  power  even 
now  bids  fair  to  surpass  all  other  methods  in  (1)  economy  in 
consumption  of  fuel ;  (2)  more  perfect  control  over  each  indi- 
vidual machine,  for  see  how  easily  I  can  start  this  electric  motor, 
and  how  easily  I  can  vary  its  speed  [experiment  shown]  ;  (3) 
ability  to  bring  the  tool  to  the  work  instead  of  the  work  to  the 
tool — this  rapidly-rotating  polishing-brush,  with  its  thin  flexible 
wires  conveying  the  power,  I  can  handle  as  easily  as  if  it  were  a 
simple  nail-brush  ;  (4)  in  greater  cleanliness,  no  small  benefit  in 
this  dirty,  smoky  age ;  (5)  and  lastly,  there  is  still  one  more 
advantage  possessed  by  this  electric  method  of  transmitting  power 
that  no  other  method  can  lay  claim  to — the  power  which  during 
the  day-time  may  be  mainly  used  for  driving  machinery  can,  in 
the  easiest  possible  way,  be  used  during  the  night  for  giving 
light.  I  turn  this  handle  one  way,  and  the  electric  current 
coming  by  one  of  these  wires  and  returning  by  the  other  works 
this  electromotor ;  now  I  turn  the  handle  the  other  way,  and 
the  current  which  comes  and  returns  by  the  same  wires  as  before 
keeps  this  electric  lamp  glowing.    [Experiment  shown.] 

It  might  be  said  that  the  transmission  of  power  by  coal-gas, 


5>o 


NA  TURE 


{Sept.  20,  1 8  88 


which  I  have  excluded  from  my  list,  fulfils  this  condition,  but  so 
also  does  the  transmission  of  power  by  a  loaded  coal-waggon. 
In  both  these  cases,  however,  it  is  fuel  itself  that  is  transmitted, 
and  not  the  power  obtained  by  burning  the  fuel  at  a  distant 
place. 

Let  us  study  this  electric  transmission  a  little  in  detail.  I  pull 
this  handle,  and  the  bell  at  the  other  end  of  the  room  rings;  but 
in  this  case  there  is  no  visible  motion  of  anything  between  the 
handle  and  the  bell.  [Electric  bell  rung  by  an  electric  current 
produced  by  pulling  the  handle  of  a  very  small  magneto-electric 
machine.]  Whether  I  ring  the  bell  by  pulling  a  wire,  or  by 
sending  an  air  puff,  or  by  generating  an  electric  current  by  the 
exertion  of  my  hand,  the  work  necessary  for  ringing  the  bell  is 
done  by  my  hand  exactly  as  if  I  took  up  a  hand-bell  and  rang  it. 
In  each  of  the  three  cases  I  put  in  the  power  at  one  end  of  the 
arrangement,  and  it  produces  its  effect  at  the  other.  In  the 
electric  transmission  how  does  this  power  travel  ?  Well,  we  do 
not  know.'  It  may  go  through  the  wires,  or  through  the  space 
outside  them.  But  although  we  are  really  quite  in  the  dark  as 
to  the  mechanism  by  means  of  which  the  electric  power  is  trans- 
mitted, one  thing  we  do  know  from  experience,  and  that  is  this  : 
given  any  arrangement  of  familiar  electrical  combinations,  then 
we  can  foretell  the  result. 

Our  knowledge  of  electrical  action  in  this  respect  resembles 
our  knowledge  of  gravitation  action.  The  only  thing  quite 
certain  about  the  reason  why  a  body  falls  to  the  ground  is  that 
we  do  not  know  it  ;  and  yet  astronomical  phenomena  can  be  pre- 
dicted with  marvellous  accuracy.  I  mention  the  analogy,  since 
some  people  fancy  because  the  answer  to  that  oft-repeated 
question,  "What  is  electricity?"  not  only  cannot  be  given 
exactly,  but  can  only  be  guessed  at  in  the  haziest  way,  even  by 
the  most  able,  that  therefore  all  electric  action  is  haphazard.  As 
well  might  the  determinations  of  a  ship's  latitude  at  sea  be 
regarded  as  a  mere  game  of  chance  because  we  have  not  even  a 
mental  picture  of  the  ropes  that  pull  the  earth  and  sun  together. 

This  power  of  producing  an  action  at  a  ditance  of  many  yards, 
or  it  may  be  many  miles,  by  the  aid  of  electricity  without  the 
visible  motion  of  any  substance  in  the  intervening  space  is  by  no 
means  new.  It  is  the  essence  of  the  electric  telegraph  ;  and 
electric  transmission  of  power  was  employed  by  Gauss  and 
Weber  when  they  sent  the  first  electric  message.  I  am  trans- 
mitting power  electrically  whether  I  now  work  this  small  model 
needle  telegraph  instrument,  or  whether  I  turn  this  handle  and 
set  in  motion  that  little  electric  fan.     [Experiment  shown.] 

But  until  about  ten  years  ago  the  facility  that  electricity  gave 
for  producing  signals  almost  instantaneously  at  a  great  distance 
was  the  main  thing  thought  of.  The  electric  power  consumed 
for  sending  the  telegraph  messages  was  so  small,  the  amount  of 
power  lost  en  rotite  comparatively  so  valueless,  that  the  telegraph 
engineer  had  no  need  to  trouble  himself  with  those  considerations 
that  govern  us  to-day  when  we  are  transmitting  power  large 
enough  to  work  a  factory  or  an  electric  tramway.  Although 
there  are  as  many  as  22,560  galvanic  cells  at  the  Central  Tele- 
graph Office,  London,  which  cost  some  thousands  annually  to 
keep  in  order,  what  is  that  compared  with  the  salaries  of  all  the 
3089  superintendents,  assistants,  telegraph-clerks,  messengers, 
and  the  maintenance  of  the  1150  telegraph  lines  that  start  from 
the  Central  Office  ? 

In  all  the  last  three  systems  in  my  list  some  form  of  power, 
such  as  flowing  water,  or  the  potential  energy  stored  up  in  coal, 
wood,  zinc,  or  other  fuel,  has  initially  to  be  utilized.  This  power 
is  given  to  some  form  of  air,  water,  or  electric  pump,  which  trans- 
fers the  air  power  to  the  air,  water,  or  electricity,  by  which  it  is 
conveyed  to  the  other  end  of  the  system.  There  it  is  re-con- 
verted into  useful  mechanical  power  by  means  of  an  air,  water, 
or  electric  motor. 

You  will  observe  that  I  class  together  air,  water,  and  electricity  ; 
by  that  I  do  not  mean  to  imply  that  electricity  is  a  fluid,  although 
in  many  respects  it  acts  like  a  fluid — like  a  fluid  of  very  little 
mass,  however ;  or,  odd  as  it  may  seem,  like  a  fluid  moving 
extremely  slowly,  for  electricity  goes  round  sharp  corners  with 
perfect  ease,  and  without  any  of  the  phenomena  of  momentum  pos- 
sessed by  rushing  water.  But  what  I  particularly  wish  to  impress 
on  you  by  classing  air,  water,  and  electricity  together  is  that  electri- 
city is  not,  as  some  people  seem  to  think,  a  something  that  can  be 
burnt  or  in  some  way  used  up  and  so  work  got  out  of  it.  Elec- 
tricity is  no  more  a  source  of  power  than  a  bell-wire  is,  electricity 
is  a  marvellously  convenient  agent  for  conveying  a  push  or  a  pull 
to  a  great  distance,  but  it  is  not  by  the  using  up  of  the  electricity 
that  electric  lights  burn  or  that  electromotors  revolve.       It  is  by 


the  electricity  losing  pressure,  exactly  as  water  loses  head  when 
turning  the  miller's  wheel  as  it  flows  down  hill,  that  work  is  done 
electrically. 

This  model  shows,  in  a  rough,  symbolical  way,  what  takes 
place  in  the  transmission  of  power  whether  by  air,  water,  or 
electricity.  [Model  shown.]  The  working  stuff,  whichever  of  the 
three  it  may  be,  is  first  raise  d  in  pressure  and  endowed  with 
energy,  symbolized  by  this  ball  being  raised  up  in  the  model  ; 
it  then  gradually  loses  pressure  as  it  proceeds  along  the  tube  or 
wire  which  conveys  it  to  the  other  end  of  the  system,  the  loss  of 
pressure  being  accompanied  by  an  increase  of  speed  or  by  its 
giving  up  power  to  the  tube  or  wire  and  heating  it.  This  is 
shown  in  the  model  by  the  ball  gradually  falling  in  its  course. 
At  the  other  end  there  is  a  great  drop  of  pressure  corresponding 
with  a  great  transference  of  power  from  the  working  stuff  to  the 
motor,  and  finally  it  comes  back  along  the  return  pipe  or  wire, 
losing,  as  it  returns,  all  that  remains  of  the  pressure  given  to  it 
inkially  by  the  pump.  The  ball  has,  in  fact,  come  back  to  its 
original  level. 

The  problem  of  economically  transmitting  power  by  air, 
water,  or  electricity  is  the  problem  of  causing  one  or  other  of 
these  working  stuffs— air,  water,  or  electricity — to  economically 
perform  the  cycle  I  have  described. 

In  each  of  the  four  stages  of  the  process — (1)  transference  of 
power  to  the  working  substance  at  the  pump  ;  (2)  conveyance 
of  power  to  the  distant  place  ;  (3)  transference  of  power  from 
the  working  substance  to  the  motor  at  the  distant  place ; 
(4)  bringing  back  the  working  substance — there  is  a  loss  of 
power,  and  the  efficiency  of  the  arrangement  depends  on  the 
amount  of  these  four  losses.  The  losses  may  be  shortly  called 
(1)  loss  at  the  pump  ;  (2  and  4)  loss  on  the  road;  (3)  loss  at 
the  motor. 

Until  1870  the  pump  most  generally  employed  for  pumping 
up  electricity  and  giving  it  pressure  was  the  galvanic  battery — 
scientifically  an  extremely  efficient  converter  of  the  energy  in 
fuel  into  electric  energy,  only  unfortunately  the  only  fuel  a 
battery  will  burn  is  so  expensive.  A  very  perfect  fire-place,  in 
which  there  was  very  complete  combustion,  and  very  little  loss 
of  heat,  but  which  had  the  misfortune  that  it  would  only  burn 
the  very  best  wax  candles,  would  be  analogous  with  a  battery. 
The  impossibility  of  using  zinc  as  fuel  to  commercially  work 
electromotors  has  been  known  for  the  last  half-century,  and  the 
matter  was.  very  clearly  put  in  an  extremely  interesting  paper 
"On  Electro-magnetism  as  a  Motive  Power,"  read  in  1857  by 
Mr.  Hunt  befpre  the  Institution  of  Civil  Engineers,  a  copy  of 
which  has  been  kindly  lent  me  by  Dr.  Silvanus  Thompson. 
Prof.  William  Thomson  (Glasgow) — I  quote  from  the  dis- 
cussion on  the  paper— -put  the  matter  very  pithily  by  show- 
ing that,  even  if  it  were  possible  to  construct  a  theoretically 
perfect  electromotor,  the  best  that  could  be  hoped  for,  if  it 
worked  with  a  Daniell's  battery,  would  be  the  production  of 
a  one  horse-power  by  the  combustion  of  2  pounds  of  zinc 
per  hour,  whereas  with  a  good  actual  steam-engine  of  even 
thirty  years  ago,  one  horse-power  could  be  produced  by  the 
combustion  of  exactly  the  same  weight  of  the  much  cheaper 
fuel  coal.  This  argument  against  the  commercial  employment 
of  zinc  to  produce  electric  currents  is  irresistible,  unless — and 
this  is  a  very  important  consideration,  which  is  only  beginning  to 
receive  the  attention  it  deserves — unless,  I  say,  the  compound  of 
zinc  formed  by  the  action  of  the  battery  can  be  reduced  again 
to  metallic  zinc  by  a  comparatively  inexpensive  process,  and 
the  zinc  used  over  and  over  again  in  the  battery.  If  the  com- 
pound of  zinc  obtained  from  the  battery  be  regarded  as  a  waste 
product,  then  it  would  be  much  too  expensive  to  work  even 
theoretically  perfect  electromotors,  if  they  were  existent,  by 
consuming  zinc.  Suppose,  however,  a  process  be  devised  by 
means  of  which  burnt  zinc  can  be  unburnt  with  an  expenditure 
comparable  with  the  burning  of  the  same  weight  of  coal,  then  it 
might  be  that,  although  coal  would  still  form  the  basis  of  our 
supply  of  energy,  the  consumption  of  zinc  batteries  might  be  an 
important  intermediary  in  transforming  the  energy  of  coal, 
economically,  into  mechanical  energy. 

While,  then,  some  experimenters  are  aiming  at  possibly  increas- 
ing the  working  power  of  a  ton  of  coal  to  eight  times  its  pres 
value  by  earnestly  seeking  for  a  method  of  converting  the  ener 
it  contains  directly  into  electric  energy  without  the   interventi 
of  a  wasteful  heat  engine,  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  in 
cheap  unburning  of  oxidized  metal  may  lie  another  solution. 

The  solution  of  this  latter  problem  is  quite  consistent  with  ti 
principles  of  the  conservation  and  dissipation  of  energy,  sir 


Sept.  20,  1888] 


NATURE 


5" 


the  heat  required  to  theoretically  unburn  1  pound  of  zinc  is  only 
one-seventh  ot'  that  given  out  by  the  burning  of  1  pound  of  coal. 
Further,  it  involves  no  commercial  absurdity  like  that  found  in 
the  calculations  given  in  the  prospectuses  of  many  primary 
battery  companies,  which  are  based  on  zinc  oxide,  a  material  used 
in  the  manufacture  of  paint,  maintaining  its  present  price  even  if 
thousands  of  tons  were  produced.  Unless  all  those  who  use 
primary  batteries  on  this  expectation  intend  to  have  the  painters 
doing  up  their  houses  all  the  year  round,  they  will  find  themselves 
possessed  of  the  stock-in-trade  of  an  oil  and  colourman  on  a 
scale  only  justified  by  a  roaring  business  in  paint. 

Now  about  waste  No.  3,  the  waste  of  power  at  the  motor. 
That  also  is  gone  into  fully  in  the  discussion  on  Mr.  Hunt's  paper, 
and  Mr.  Robert  Stephenson  concluded  that  discussion  by 
remarking  "that  there  could  be  no  doubt,  from  what  had  been 
said,  that  the  application  of  voltaic  electricity  in  what  ever  shape 
it  might  be  developed  was  entirely  out  of  the  question  com- 
mercially speaking.  .  .  .  The  power  exhibited  by  electro- 
magnets extended  through  so  small  a  space  as  to  be  practically 
useless.  A  powerful  electro-magnet  might  be  compared  for  the 
sake  of  illustration  to  a  steam-engine  with  an  enormous  piston, 
but  with  an  exceedingly  short  stroke.  Such  an  arrangement  was 
well  known  to  be  very  undesirable." 

And  this  objection  made  with  perfect  justice  against  the 
electromotors  of  thirty  years  ago  might  also  have  been  made  to  all 
the  machines  then  existing  for  the  mechanical  production  of  electric 
currents.  I  have  two  coils  of  wire  at  the  two  sides  of  the 
platform  joined  together  with  two  wires.  I  move  this  magnet 
backwards  and  forwards  in  front  of  this  coil,  and  you  observe 
the  magnet  suspended  near  the  coil  begins  to  swing  in  time  with 
my  hand.  [Experiment  shown.]  Here  you  have  in  its  most 
rudimentary  form  the  conversion  of  mechanical  power  into 
electric  power,  and  the  re-conversion  of  electric  power  into 
mechanical  power  ;  but  the  apparatus  at  both  ends  has  the 
defects  pointed  out  by  Mr.  Hunt  and  all  the  speakers  in  the 
discussion  on  his  paper — the  effect  diminishes  very  rapidly  as 
the  distance  separating  the  coil  from  the  moving  magnet 
increases. 

As  long  as  electromotors  as  well  as  the  machines  for  the  pro- 
duction of  electric  currents  had  this  defect,  the  electric  transmis- 
sion of  power  was  like  carrying  coals  to  Newcastle  in  a  leaky 
waggon.  You  would  pay  at  least  i6j.  a  ton  for  your  coals  in  Bath, 
lose  most  of  them  on  the  way,  and  sell  any  small  portion  that 
had  not  tumbled  out  of  the  wagg6n  for,  say,  Is.  a  ton  at  Newcastle 
— a  commercial  speculation  not  to  be  recommended. 

A  very  great  improvement  in  electromotors  was  made  by 
Pacinotti  in  i860,  but  although  his  new  form  of  electromotor 
was  described  in  1864  it  attracted  but  little  attention,  probably 
because  any  form  of  electromotor,  no  matter  how  perfect,  was 
commercially  almost  useless  until  some  much  more  economical 
method  of  producing  electric  currents  had  been  devised  than  the 
consumption  of  zinc  and  acids.  Pacinotti's  invention  removed 
from  motors  that  great  defect  that  had  been  so  fully  emphasized 
by  the  various  speakers  at  the  reading  of  Mr.  Hunt's  paper  in 
1857.  When  describing  his  motor  in  the  Nuovo  Cimento  in 
1864,  he  pointed  out  that  his  principle  was  reversible,  and  that  it 
might  be  used  in  a  mechanical  current  generator.  This  idea  was 
utilized  by  Gramme  in  1870,  who  constructed  the  well-known 
Gramme  dynamo  for  converting  mechanical  into  electric  power — 
a  machine  far  more  efficient  than  even  Pacinotti  had  contemplated 
— and  gave  the  whole  subject  of  electrical  engineering  a  vigorous 
forward  impulse.  Every  subsequent  maker  of  direct-current 
dynamos,  or  motors,  has  followed  Gramme's  example  in  utilizing 
the  principle  devised  by  Pacinotti,  which  was  as  follows.  In  all 
the  early  forms  of  dynamos  or  motors  there  were  a  number  of 
magnets  and  a  number  of  coils  of  wire,  the  magnets  moving  re- 
latively to  the  coils,  or  the  coils  relatively  to  the  magnets,  as  you 
see  in  this  rather  old  specimen  of  alternate-current  dynamo.  To 
produce  magnetism  by  a  large  number  of  little  magnets  is  not 
economical,  and  Pacinotti's  device  consisted  in  arranging  a 
number  of  coils  round  a  ring  in  the  way  shown  in  the  large 
wooden  model  [model  shown],  so  that  they  could  all  be  acted  on 
by  one  large  magnet.  Instead  of  frittering  away  his  magnetism, 
Pacinotti  showed  how  it  could  be  concentrated,  and  thus  he  led 
the  way  to  dynamos  and  motors  becoming  commercial  machines. 
Pacinotti's  science,  engineered  by  Gramme,  not  only  made 
electric  lighting  commercially,)  possible,  but  led  to  electricity 
being  used  as  a  valuable  motive  power.  '  It  was  in  their  work 
that  the  electric  transmission  of  power  in  its  modern  sense  sprang 
into  existence. 


Quite  recently  an  improvement  in  the  same  direction  has  been 
introduced  into  alternate-current  dynamos  by  Mr.  \V.  N.  Mordey, 
for  he  has  replaced  the  many  magnets  of  the  ordinary  alternate- 
current  dynamos  with  one  large  magnet,  and  so  with  his  alter- 
nator weighing  41  hundredweight,  which  you  see  in  this  hall, 
he  has  succeeded  in  obtaining  at  a  speed  of  650  revolutions  per 
minute  an  output  of  53*6  horse-power  with  a  high  efficiency. 

It  may  be  convenient  to  mention  at  this  stage  the  very  valuable 
work  that  has  been  done  by  the  Drs.  Hopkinson,  Mr.  Crompton, 
Mr.  Kapp,  and  others,  in  the  improving  of  dynamos  and  motors 
by  applying  scientific  principles  in  the  construction  of  these 
machines.  Were  I  lecturing  on  dynamos  and  motors  instead  of 
on  the  electric  transmission  of  power,  I  would  explain  to  you 
how,  by  putting  more  iron  into  the  rotating  armature,  as  it  is 
called,  and  less  wire  on  it,  by  shortening  the  stationary  magnet, 
and  generally  by  concentrating  the  magnetic  action,  these  con- 
structors have  raised  the  commercial  efficiency  of  these  machines 
to  actually  as  high  as  between  93  and  94  per  cent.  ;  further, 
how,  by  recognizing  the  force  of  the  general  principles  laid  down 
by  Prof.  Perry  and  myself,  as  to  the  difference  that  should  exist  in 
the  construction  of  a  motor  and  a  dynamo,  Messrs.  Immisch 
have  succeeded  in  constructing  strong,  durable  electromotors 
weighing  not  more  than  62  pounds  per  effective  horse- power 
developed. 

The  subject  is  so  entrancing  to  me,  the  results  commercially 
so  important,  that  I  am  strongly  tempted  to  branch  off,  but  the 
inexorable  clock  warns  me  that  I  mu  t  concentrate  my  remarks 
as  they  have  concentrated  the  magnetic  action. 

87^  per  cent,  of  the  power  put  into  an  Edison- Hopkinson 
dynamo  has  actually  been  given  out  by  the  motor  spindle  when 
50  horse-power  was  being  transmitted.  How  does  this  compare 
with  the  combined  efficiencies  of  an  air-pump  and  an  air-motor, 
or  of  a  water-pump  and  a  water-motor  ?  I  understand  that  in 
either  of  these  cases  60  per  cent,  is  considered  a  very  satis- 
factory result.  As  far,  then,  as  the  terminal  losses  are  concerned, 
electric  transmission  of  power  is  certainly  superior  to  air  or  water 
transmission. 

{To  be  continued.) 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

The  Proceedings  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and 
Sciences  for  the  year  May  1887-88  contains  many  important  papers. 
Among  them  we  may  mention  one  on  the  relative  values  of  the 
atomic  weights  of  hydrogen  and  oxygen,  by  Prof.  J.  P.  Cooke 
and  Mr.  Richards,  and  a  catalogue  of. all  recorded  meteorites,  by 
Prof.  Huntington.  The  volume  also  contains  papers  on  the 
existence  of  oxygen,  carbon,  and  certain  other  elements  in  the 
sun  ;  the  first  two  of  these  papers  are  chiefly  remarkable  for  the 
absence  of  reference  to  the  literature  of  the  subjects,  and  it  is 
charitable  to  suppose  that  this  proceeds  from  the  authors' 
ignorance. 

Bulletin  de  VAcademie  Royale  dc  Belgique,  June  30. — On  the 
physical  aspect  of  Mars  during  the  opposition  of  1888,  by  L. 
Niesten.  An  image  of  the  planet  taken  by  the  author  on  May  5 
shows  that  the  so-called  continent  was  again  visible,  which  M. 
Perrotin  had  reported  as  having  disappeared  during  the  opposi- 
tion of  1886.  Analogous  though  less  marked  modifications  in 
the  form  and  colour  of  the  spots  seem  to  imply  that  these 
changes  are  periodical.  The  paper  is  illustrated  by  two  success- 
ful photographs  of  the  planetary  disk,  showing  its  appearance  on 
April  29  and  May  5,  1888. — Fresh  researches  on  the  optic  origin 
of  the  spectral  rays  in  connection  with  the  undulatory  theory  of 
light,  by  C.  Fievez.  A  new  interpretation  of  the  spectral  rays 
is  here  offered  by  the  author,  who  regards  spectral  phenomena  as 
a  particular  case  of  optical  interferences.  According  to  this  view 
luminous  rays  would  produce  at  a  given  point  of  the  spectrum  a 
vibratory  movement,  whose  intensity  might  be  maximum  or 
minimum  according  as  one  of  the  rays  follows  another  by  an  even 
or  uneven  number  of  half  wave-lengths.  A  spectrum  presenting 
dark  or  bright  rays  would  always  proceed,  not  from  a  luminous 
source,  but  from  at  least  two  different  sources.  It  would  thus 
indicate  the  nature  of  the  rays,  whose  undulatory  movement  was 
disturbed  by  the  simultaneous  action  of  the  various  luminous 
sources.  M.  Fievez  concludes  that  Kirchhoff  s  absorption  theory 
does  not  alone  suffice  to  explain  the  observed  facts,  which  may 
also  be  interpreted  by  means  of  the  undulatory  theory  of  light. 
His  views  are  supported  by  a  number  of  ingenious  and  skilfully 
executed  experiments  in  spectral  analysis. 


512 


NATURE 


{Sept.  20,  1888 


Rendiconti  del  Reale  Istituto  Lombardo,  July. — Contribution 
to  the  study  of  unilateral  hallucinations,  by  Prof.  A.  Raggi. 
Reference  is  made  to  two  cases  of  what  may  be  called  "one- 
sided" hallucination,  in  one  of  which  the  left  ear,  in  the  other 
the  left  eye,  was  affected,  the  corresponding  organs  on  the 
opposite  side  remaining  perfectly  sound.  The  complex  character 
of  the  phenomena  described,  as  well  as  their  distinctly  psycho- 
logical nature,  left  no  doubt  that  these  were  cases  of  true 
hallucination,  although  a  subordinate  influence  in  their  production 
might  possibly  be  attributed  to  the  state  of  the  organs  themselves. 
On  the  other  hand,  mention  was  made  of  a  somewhat  doubtful 
case  of  double  hallucination  as  connected  with  the  same  order  of 
mental  phenomena. 

Bulletin  de  V Academie  Imperiale  des  Sciences  de  St.  Pkersbourg, 
tome  xxxii.,  No.  2. — On  the  regularity  of  the  structure  of  conti- 
nents, by  A.  Karpinsky  (in  German).— On  a  journey  to  the 
Karaites  of  the  western  provinces  of  Russia,  by  W.  Radloff  (in 
German).  Those  of  Troki  in  Lithuania,  Lntsk,  and  Kovno,  are 
speaking  a  Turkish  dialect  with  a  considerable  admixture  of 
Polish,  Lithuanian,  and  White-Russian  words. — Supplementary 
notes  with  regard  to  the  catalogue  of  stars  published  by  the 
Pulkova  Observatory,  by  O.  Backlund. — Researches  into  the 
energy  of  chemical  combination,  by  N.  Beketoff  (in  French), 
being  a  continuation  of  former  researches,  now  extended  to 
potassium  and  lithium  oxides. — On  the  polarization-photometer 
and  its  application  to  technical  purposes,  by  H.  Wild. — On  the 
influence  of  iodoform  and  iodine  on  the  isobutylate  of  natrium, 
by  A.  Gorboflf  and  A.  Kessler. — Notes  on  the  new  edition  of  the 
"  Mi'jar  i  Jamali,"  published  at  Kazan  in  1887,  byC.  Salemann, 
with  a  plate  showing  the  kinship  of  various  Persian  dialects  (all 
in  German). 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  September  10. — M.  Des  Cloizeaux 
in  the  chair. — Remark  on  a  point  in  the  theory  of  secular 
irregularities,  by  M.  F.  Tisserand.  The  reference  is  to  Le 
Verrier's  statement  regarding  the  stability  of  the  planetary 
system,  in  connection  with  a  certain  position  between  Jupiter 
and  the  sun,  determined  at  about  double  the  distance  of  the 
earth  from  the  sun.  An  attempt  is  made  to  ascertain  whether 
there  exists  an  analogous  position,  in  which  the  originally  slight 
eccentricity  of  the  orbit  of  a  small  mass  might  gradually  assume 
proportions  calculated  to  disturb  the  general  equilibrium  of  the 
system. — The  French  vines,  by  M.  A.  Chatin.  The  treatment 
is  described,  by  which  a  vineyard  at  Meyzieux,  Isere,  has  been 
preserved,  like  a  green  oasis,  in  the  midst  of  the  wilderness 
created  round  about  by  the  combined  attacks  of  Phylloxera, 
mildew,  and  black  rot.  The  treatment  consists  partly  in  a 
systematic  process  of  nippings  (eborgnements),  partly  in  the  ap- 
plication of  a  strong  manure,  including  granulated  phosphorus 
and  products,  with  a  base  of  nitrogen,  potassa,  and  lime. — 
Degrees  of  oxidation  in  the  fluorescent  compounds  of  chromium 
and  manganese  (continued),  by  M.  Lecoq  de  Boisbaudran. 
Several  experiments  are  described  tending  to  show  that  the 
pink  compound  is  the  real  cause  of  the  fluorescence. — Observa- 
tions of  Barnard's  new  comet,  made  at  the  Paris  Observatory 
(equatorial  of  the  West  Tower),  by  M.  G.  Bigourdan.  This 
comet,  discovered  on  September  2  at  the  Lick  Observatory, 
showed  on  September  5  a  round  nebulosity  from  1'  to  i''5  in 
diameter,  with  somewhat  stellar  nucleus  of  1 1 '5-12  magnitude, 
not  occupying  the  centre  of  the  nebulosity. — Positions  of  Brooks's 
comet  (August  7,  1888),  measured  at  the  Observatory  of  Be- 
sancon,  by  M.  Gruey.  The  observations  are  for  August  9-12, 
when  the  magnitude  varied  from  7  to  9. — On  the  planet  Mars, 
by  M.  Perrotin.  These  remarks  are  made  in  connection  with 
four  new  designs  of  Mars,  forming  a  sequel  to  those  published 
in  the  Comptes  rendus  of  July  16.  They  still  show  the  two 
canals — one  simple,  one  double — running  from  the  equatorial 
region  nearly  along  the  meridian  towards  the  North  Pole.  A 
new  canal  is  also  revealed  which  presents  the  appearance  of  a 
straight  dark  band  traversing  the  white  Polar  ice-cap. — On  the 
chlorides  of  indium,  by  MM.  L.  F.  Nilson  and  Otto  Pettersson. 
To  the  previously-determined  trichloride,  InCl3  the  authors  here 
add  three  distinct  and  stable  chlorides.  These  are  a  trichloride, 
InCl3,  a  dichloride,  InCl2,  and  a  monochloride,  InCl,  showing 
that  a  metal  of  the  third  group  in  the  natural  system  of  the 
elements  may  act  as  a  mono-,  a  di-,  and  a  tri-valent  in  clearly- 
defined   combinations. — On   the   part   played   by  symbiosis   in 


certain  luminous  marine  animals,  by  M.  Raphael  Dubois.  In 
previous  communications  the  authors  showed  that  the  funda- 
mental reaction  necessary  to  produce  animal  luminosity  was  of 
the  same  order  as  those  effected  under  the  action  of  the  ferments. 
Their  further  studies  of  Bacillus  pholas  and  Bacterium  pelagia, 
the  respective  parasites  of  Pholas  dactylus  and  Pelagia  noctiluca, 
enable  them  to  reconcile  their  theory  of  photogenous  fermenta- 
tion with  the  hypothesis  of  the  oxidation  of  a  phosphorated  sub- 
stance, as  proposed  by  some  biologists.  These  researches  also 
help  to  explain  how  marine  phosphorescence  may  be  caused  by 
the  disintegration  of  marine  animals,  and  how  this  phenomenon 
may  cease  or  reappear,  and  assume  various  degrees  of  intensity, 
according  to  circumstances. — On  the  myelocytes  of  the  Inverte- 
brates, by  M.  Joannes  Chatin.  Hitherto  spoken  of  as  present 
in  the  organism  of  the  Vertebrates  alone,  the  author  here  shows 
that  the  myelocyte  formation  occurs  also  in  the  Invertebrates. 
He  makes  it  evident  that  they  cannot  be  assimilated  to  free 
nuclei,  but  represent  true  cellules  normally  constructed,  with  all 
their  essential  parts.  He  further  points  out  that  the  intimate 
structure  and  real  nature  of  the  myelocytes  may  be  studied 
much  more  conveniently  in  the  lower  than  in  the  higher 
organisms. — On  Heterodera  schachtii,  by  M.  Willot.  In  con- 
nection with  his  recent  communication  (Comptes  rendus, 
August  3),  on  the  destruction  of  this  micro-organism  by  sea- 
water,  the  author  points  out  that  Dr.  Strubell,  of  the  University 
of  Erlangen,  has  independently,  but  subsequently,  made  the 
same  discovery. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Chambers's  Encyclopaedia,  vol.  ii.,  new  edition  (Chambers). — British  Dogs, 
No.  23  :  H.  Dalziel  (Upcott  Gill) — The  Constants  of  Nature,  Part  1,  A 
Table  of  Specific  Gravity  for  Solids  and  Liquids  :  F.  W.  Clarke  (Washirg- 
ton). — Index  to  the  Literature  of  the  Spectroscope  :  A.  Tuckerman  (Washing- 
ton).— Biologia  Centrali-Americana  :  Insecta — Coleoptera,  vol.  i.  Part  2  :  D..j 
Sharp. — The  Electrical  Engineer,  vol.  i. — Examples  and  Examination 
Papers  in  Elementary  Physics:  W.  Gallatly  (Geo.  Bell).  —  Massage  and 
Allied  Methods  of  Treatment,  2nd  edition  :  H.  Tibbits  (Churchill).— British 
Mosses.  2  vols.,  new  edition  :  F.  E.  Tripp  (Geo.  Bell). — Memorial  of  Asa 
Gray  (Cambridge.  Mass.) — Index  to  the  Literature  of  Columbium,  1801  t<H 
1887:  F.  W.  Traphagen  (Washington). — Annals  of  Botany,  August  (Frowde). 


CONTENTS.  pack 

A     Text-book      of      Physiology.      By     Dr.     L.     C. 

Wooldridge 489 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Preyer  :   "  The  Mind  of  the  Child" 490 

Hall  and  Knight  :    "  Arithmetical  Exercises  "  .    .    .    .    490 
Henchie  :  "  An  Elementary  Treatise  on  Mensuration  "    490 
Letters  to  the  Editor: — 

Lamarckism  versus  Darwinism. — Prof.    George   J. 

Romanes,  F.  R.S 490 

Mr.  Gulick  on  Divergent  Evolution. — Dr.  Alfred  R. 

Wallace 490 

The   Death  of  Clausius.— Prof.  Geo.   Fras.   Fitz- 
gerald, F.R.S 491 

The  March  Storms.— H.   C.  Russell,  F.R.S.  .    .    .    491 
International    Meteorology.     By    Robt.    H.     Scott, 

F.R.S 491 

The  Norwegian  Greenland  Expedition 492 

The  Centenary  of  the  Calcutta  Botanic  Garden     .    493 
The  British  Association  ■ — 

Section  G — Mechanical    Science. — Opening  Address 
by   William   Henry  Preece,    F.R.S.,   M.Inst. 

C.  E. ,  President  of  the  Section 494 

Notes 499 1 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

Comet  1888  c  (Brooks) 503 

Discovery  of  a  New  Comet,  1888  e 503 

Comet  1888  d  (Faye) | 

Astronomical     Phenomena    for     the     Week    1888 

September  23-29 

The    International  Geological  Congress.     By  Prof. 

J.  Prestwich,  F.R.S 

On  the  Constitution  and  Structure  of  the  Crystal- 
line Schists  of  the  Western  Alps.     By  Prof.  Ch. 

Lory 

The    Electric    Transmission    of    Power.     By   Prof. 

Ayrton,   F.R.S 

Scientific  Serials 

Societies  and  Academies 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 


NA  TURE 


513 


THURSDAY,   SEPTEMBER   27,   ii 


THE  FA  UNA  OF  BRITISH  INDIA. 

The  Fauna  of  British  India,  including  Ceylon  and  Burma. 
"  Mammalia."  By  W.  T.  Blanford,  F.R.S.  Part  I. 
Published  under  the  authority  of  the  Secretary  of 
State  for  India  in  Council.  (London  :  Taylor  and 
Francis,  1888.) 

AMONG  the  various  methods  which  may  be  adopted 
in  the  composition  of  zoological  monographs,  the 
two  most  prevalent  are  those  in  which  either  the  natural 
group  or  the  geographical  region  is  taken  as  the  basis. 
A  particular  section  of  the  animal  kingdom  may  be 
selected,  and  the  structure,  history,  affinities,  varieties, 
and  distribution  of  its  members  worked  out,  or  a  parti- 
cular region  of  the  earth's  surface  may  be  taken,  and  the 
whole  of  its  varied  inhabitants  described. 

Monographs  of  groups  and  of  fauna  both  have  their 
value,  and  the  success  obtained  in  undertaking  one  or 
the  other  will  depend  much  upon  the  special  facilities  of 
the  investigator.  From  a  strictly  scientific  point  of  view 
the  former  generally  produce  the  best  result.  There  is 
more  cohesion,  or  naturalness,  so  to  speak,  in  such  a 
group,  whether  genus,  family,  or  order ;  and  anyone 
seriously  endeavouring  to  trace  the  modifications  of  its 
members  through  all  known  forms,  especially  if  the 
extinct  can  be  united  with  the  existing,  has  a  better 
chance  of  getting  a  complete  comprehension  of  the  rela- 
tions of  all  the  parts  of  his  subject  than  one  who  has  to 
deal  with  the  disjointed  fragments  of  a  large  number  of 
groups,  brought  by  various  circumstances  together  upon 
one  part  of  the  earth's  surface — work,  moreover,  in  many 
parts  of  which  he  must  necessarily  be  largely  dependent 
upon  the  labours  of  others. 

On  the  other  hand,  for  practical  convenience,  faunistic 
works  are  in  greater  demand  than  monographs  on  groups, 
especially  if  they  treat  of  regions  so  important  to  the 
educated  and  civilized  world  as  British  India.  We  may 
even,  in  such  a  case,  allow  the  weight  of  social  and 
political  rather  than  purely  scientific  boundaries  in 
defining  the  range  of  the  territory  comprehended  in  the 
work.  There  is  a  very  natural  and  laudable  desire  on 
the  part  of  the  large  and  continually  increasing  number 
of  residents  and  travellers  in  our  Indian  Empire  to 
obtain  some  definite  knowledge  of  the  varied  and  inter- 
esting forms  of  animal  life  by  which  they  are  surrounded, 
and  it  is  gratifying  to  see  that  the  Government  of  that 
great  dependency  has  recognized  its  responsibility  in  this 
matter,  and  has  given  its  authority  to  the  preparation 
of  a  series  of  descriptive  manuals  on  Indian  zoology. 
The  limits  adopted  for  the  fauna  are  those  of  the 
dependencies  of  India,  with  the  addition  of  Ceylon, 
which,  although  British,  is  not  under  the  Indian  Govern- 
ment. Within  the  limits  thus  defined  are  comprised  all 
India  proper  and  the  Himalayas,  the  Punjab,  Sind,  Balu- 
chistan, all  the  Kashmir  territories,  with  Gilgit,  Ladak? 
&c,  Nepal,  Sikhim,  Bhutan,  and  other  Cis-Himalayan 
States,  Assam,  the  countries  between  Assam  and  Burma, 
such  as  'the  Khdsi  and  Naga  Hills  and  Manipur,  the 
Vol.  xxxviii.— No.  987. 


whole  of  Burma,  with  Karennee  and  Tenasserim,  and  the 
Mergui  Archipelago,  and,  lastly,  the  Andaman  and  the 
Nicobar  Islands.  Afghanistan,  Kashgaria,  Tibet,  Yunnan, 
Siam,  and  the  Malay  Peninsula  south  of  Tenasserim  are 
excluded.  A  few- States,  such  as  Nepal  and  Bhutan,  at 
present  not  accessible  to  Europeans,  are  comprised, 
because  it  would  be  difficult  to  leave  them  out :  scarcely 
an  animal  occurs  in  either  not  found  also  in  British 
territories  or  in  protected  States  such  as  Sikhim. 

For  the  present  it  is  proposed  to  restrict  the  publication 
to  the  Vertebrata,  and  to  complete  the  work  in  seven 
volumes  of  about  500  pages  each.  One  of  these  volumes 
will  contain  the  Mammals,  three  will  be  required  for  the 
Birds,  one  for  the  Reptiles  and  Batrachians,  and  two  for 
the  Fishes.  The  authorship  of  the  volumes  on  Fishes  has 
been  undertaken  by  Mr.  F.  Day,  CLE.  ;  t'ie  Reptilia  and 
Batrachia  will  be  described  by  Mr.  G.  A.  Boulenger  ; 
whilst  the  Birds  will,  it  is  hoped,  be  taken  in  hand  by  Mr. 
E.  W.  Oates,  author  of  the  "  Birds  of  British  India."  The 
editorship  of  the  whole  has  been  intrusted  to  Mr.  W.  T. 
Blanford,  F.R.S.,  than  whom  few  men  could  be  found 
better  qualified  for  such  an  undertaking.  Long-continued 
employment  in  connection  with  the  Geological  Survey  of 
India  has  made  him  familiar  with  the  natural  features  of 
every  part  of  the  country  ;  his  qualifications  as  a  field 
naturalist  have  been  abundantly  displayed  in  the  published 
results  of  his  scientific  excursions  to  Persia  and  Abyssinia  ; 
and  he  has  had  recently,  during  several  years' residence  in 
London,  ample  opportunity  of  examining  and  comparing 
all  that  bears  upon  the  subject,  which  is  gathered  together 
or  recorded  in  our  national  collections  and  libraries  at 
home. 

Mr.  Blanford  has  himself  undertaken  the  volume 
describing  the  Mammals,  and  has  now  given  us  the  first 
part  as  an  instalment,  consisting  of  250  pages,  and  con- 
taining the  orders  Primates,  Carnivora,  and  Insectivora. 
Notwithstanding  the  great  advance  that  this  work  shows 
over  that  of  Jerdon,  published  twenty-one  years  ago, 
especially  in  scientific  method,  critical  discrimination  of 
specific  distinctions,  and  attention  to  the  rules  of  nomen- 
clature, in  all  of  which  it  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired,  it 
is  still  interesting  to  observe  how  much  remains  to  be 
done,  even  in  such  a  comparatively  well-worn  field  as  the 
Mammals  of  India,  and  how  insufficient  even  our  largest 
collections  still  are  for  perfecting  such  a  work.  For 
instance,  the  materials  for  a  critical  and  exhaustive 
examination  of  the  interesting  genus  of  monkeys,  Semno- 
pithecus,  are  obviously  wanting  at  present.  Fourteen 
species  of  the  genus  are  assigned  by  the  author  to  British 
India,  but  doubts  are  expressed  as  to  the  real  distinction 
of  several  of  them,  the  characters  of  which  are  taken  from 
an  extremely  limited  number  of  examples,  and  it  is  stated 
that  very  little  is  known  of  their  breeding  habits  and  life- 
history  in  general.  The  variations,  habits,  and  geo- 
graphical distribution  of  the  smaller  Felidce  and  Viverrid^e 
offer  an  interesting  field  for  future  investigators,  though 
Mr.  Blanford  has  done  much  to  clear  away  the  confusion 
in  which  the  synonymy  of  these  groups  had  been 
involved  by  previous  and  less  careful  and  conscientious 
workers.  The  account  of  the  Insectivora  has  been 
derived  largely  from  Mr.  Dobson's  excellent  monograph 
of  that  order,  the  concluding  still  unpublished  part  of 

z 


*14 


NA  TURE 


[Sept.  27,  i6bS 


which,  containing  the  Soricidce,  has  been  placed  by  the 
author  at  Mr.  Blanford's  disposal  for  the  purpose. 

The  complete  though  condensed  accounts  of  the  habits 
of  the  animals  described,  whenever  they  are  known  on 
good  authority,  will  make  the  work  popular  even  with  not 
strictly  scientific  readers  ;  but  all  padding  made  up  of 
ill-authenticated,  fanciful,  or  exaggerated  stories,  or  of 
personal  narratives  of  sport  and  adventure,  has  been 
carefully  excluded,  as  becomes  the  character  of  such  a 
work  as  this  is  intended  to  be. 

One  of  the  most  difficult  questions  that  always  arises 
in  editing  a  work  on  natural  history  is  that  relating  to 
the  number  and  nature  of  the  illustrations  most  suitable 
for  its  purpose.  Figures  are,  without  doubt,  a  great  help 
to  all  classes  of  readers,  and.  other  things  being  equal,  the 
more  numerous  and  better  they  are  the  more  useful  the 
book.  But  then  comes  in  the  question  of  cost,  the  bear- 
ings of  which  have  carefully  to  be  considered  from  a 
business  point  of  view.  A  book  that  is  intended  to  have 
a  fairly  extensive  distribution  must  not  be  overweighted 
in  this  respect,  or  much  of  its  utility  will  be  lost.  Mr. 
Blanford  has  evidently  considered  it  best  to  sacrifice 
something  of  artistic  effect  and  uniformity  of  character 
in  his  illustrations,  for  the  sake  of  increasing  their  num- 
ber and  keeping  the  work  within  moderate  compass  as  to 
price.  With  regard  to  the  spirited  little  sketches  of  the 
external  forms  of  animals,  many  of  which  are  taken  from 
the  unpublished  drawings  of  Colonel  Tickell  and  Mr. 
Hodgson  in  the  possession  of  the  Zoological  Society,  the 
work  of  the  Typographic  Etching  Company  answers  its 
purpose  sufficiently  well ;  but  we  cannot  say  the  same  of 
the  figures  of  the  skulls,  which  compare  badly  with  wood- 
cuts, of  which  a  sufficient  number  (mostly,  if  not  all, 
borrowed  from  other  works)  are  introduced  to  make  the 
contrast  somewhat  striking.  These,  however,  are  minor 
blemishes,  which,. we  trust,  are  compensated  by  economy 
in  production,  and  consequent  advantage  to  the  purchaser 
of  the  work  ;  but  the  absence  of  scale  to  the  figures, 
which  is  sometimes  embarrassing,  is  an  omission  which 
might  easily  have  been  rectified. 

The  general  form  and  typography  of  the  work  are  all 
that  can  be  desired,  and  we  cordially  welcome  it  as  an 
instalment  of  what  promises  to  be  not  only  a  most  valu- 
able aid  to  the  knowledge  of  the  natural  history  of  one 
of  the  most  important  portions  of  our  Empire,  but  also  a 
standard  contribution  to  zoological  science  in  general. 

W.  H.  F. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Flora  of  the  North-East  of  Ireland.  By  S.  A.  Stewart 
and  the  late  T.  H.  Corry.  Pp.  331.  (Cambridge: 
Macmillan  and  Bowes,  1888). 

Local  "  Floras "  have  not  been  produced  at  the  same 
rate  in  Ireland  as  in  England,  but  Irish  botanists  are 
beginning  to  exercise  more  activity  in  this  direction. 
It  is  true  that  there  previously  existed  a  catalogue  of  the 
plants  of  this  region,  together  with  localities  of  the  rarer 
ones,  in  Dickie's  "  Flora  of  Ulster  "  (1864) ;  and  the  twelfth 
district  of  Moore  and  More's  "  Contributions  towards  a 
Cybele  Hibernica"  (1866)  is  conterminous  with  the  area 
of  the  book  under  consideration  ;  but  both  of  these  works 
are  incomplete,  and  imperfect  in  regard  to  what  are  termed 
"  critical  species." 


The  present  book,  we  are  informed  in  the  preface,  is  an- 
attempt  to  give  a  full  and  trustworthy  account  of  the  native 
vegetation  of  the  counties  of  Down,  Antrim,  and  Derry  ; 
an  undertaking  that  was  projected  some  years  since  by  the 
late  T.  H.  Corry,  M.A.,  and  the  surviving  editor.  The 
lamentable  and  premature  death  of  Mr.  Corry  by  drown- 
ing, together  with  his  friend  and  companion  Mr.  Dickson, 
in  Lough  Gill,  on  a  botanizing  excursion  in  1883,  will  be 
remembered  by  most  botanists.  This  sad  event  consider- 
ably retarded  the  appearance  of  the  work,  as  Mr.  Stewart's 
duties  as  Curator  of  the  Belfast  Museum  left  him  little 
time  for  the  task. 

A  brief  history  of  botanical  discovery,  and  the  biblio- 
graphy of  what  has  been  published,  precede  equally  short 
paragraphs  on  the  geography,  geology,  climate,  &c, 
of  the  country.  Then  follows  the  enumeration,  which 
includes  803  flowering  plants  and  ferns,  293  mosses,  and 
73  liverworts.  Babington's  "  Manual  of  British  Botany," 
which  contains  1524  vascular  plants  in  the  entire  British 
flora,  has  been  taken  as  the  standard  of  the  "  Flora  of  the 
North-East  of  Ireland,"  though  deviations  in  nomenclature 
have  been  made — in  accordance  with  the  rules  of  priority,, 
Mr.  Stewart  explains. 

The  volume  is  a  small  and  handy  one,  not  overladen 
with  localities,  which  is  a  distinct  advantage  over  many 
similar  works ;  but  it  has  also  certain  defects,  which,  if 
pointed  out,  may  possibly  be  remedied  in  a  later  edition. 
In  the  first  place,  there  is  no  map  of  the  country,  a  serious 
curtailment  of  its  possible  usefulness.  Another  defect, 
only  the  initial  letter  of  the  generic  name  is  carried 
forward  from  page  to  page,  though  there  is  invariably 
ample  space  to  repeat  the  name  in  full  ;  therefore  it  is 
necessary  to  turn  back  to  the  beginning  of  the  genus  to> 
ascertain  what  is  intended.  The  same  thing  is  noticeable 
in  the  index. 

With  regard  to  the  purely  literary  part  of  the  workr 
more  particularly  that  relating  to  the  priority  and  author- 
ship of  names,  it  would  obviously  have  been  better  had 
the  author  adhered  strictly  to  the  la^t  edition  of  Babington's 
"  Manual "  or  the  last  edition  of  the  "  London  Catalogue," 
for  this  part  of  the  subject  is  just  now  in  a  transitional  stage, 
andwithout  avery  complete  botanical  libraryit  isimpossible 
to  do  more  than  add  to  the  existing  confusion.  We  have 
no  sympathy  with  those  who  adhere  strictly  to  the  "  law 
of  priority,"  because  it  entails  endless  changes  of  familiar 
names,  and  sacrifices  convenience  without  any  correspond- 
ing advantage.  The  fall  of  one  genus  often  carries  several 
others  with  it,  and  until  the  whole  of  the  literature  of 
binominal  botany  has  been  thoroughly  examined  there  is 
no  saying  where  the  changes  will  stop.  At  the  same  time, 
if  it  is  to  be  done,  it  should  be  done  thoroughly,  once 
for  all. 

Having  turned  up  at  random  about  half-a-dozen  names 
concerning  which  there  was  some  ambiguity,  we  found 
that  the  author  was  wrong  in  each  instance.  Thus,  "  Nas- 
turtium palustre  (Willd.),  D.C.,"  should  be  N.  terrestre,. 
B.  Br.  ;  "  Lepidium  Smithii  (Linn.),  Hooker,"  =  L.  hetero- 
phyllum,  Benth.  ;  "Hypericum  tetraptcrum,  Fries,"  = 
H.  quadrat  um,  Stokes  ;  "  Lotus  pilosus,  Beeke  (L.  major,. 
Sm),"  =  L.  uli^inosus,  Schkuhr,  and  so  on  to  the  end. 
Whether  the  older  names  here  cited  are  the  oldest  of  all' 
for  the  plants  in  question  under  the  accepted  genera  is 
uncertain.  Somebody  some  day  may  find  names  for  some 
of  these  plants  a  week  or  two  older,  and  then  comes 
another  change  ! 

More  interesting  are  some  of  the  local  names  cited  by 
Stewart,  such  as  Tormenting  Root  {Potentilla  Torme?itilla), 
Mashcorns  {Potentilla  Anserina),  Rose-noble  {Scrophu- 
laria  nodosa),  and  Well- ink  {Veronica  Beccabungd). 
Britten  and  Holland  have  all  these  names,  or  nearly  the 
same.  Thus,  mascorns,  and  other  variations,  for  the  same 
plant  in  Scotland 

W.  B.  H. 


Sept.  27,  1888J 


NATURE 


5'5 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
reuctcd  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
■of  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations,,] 

Electric  Fishes. 

While  I  was  fishing  for  cod  the  other  day  off  Walmer,  I 
took  up  in  my  hand  a  small  whiting  pout  that  was  flopping  about 
in  the  bottom  of  the  boat,  when  I  received  what  appeared  to  me 
a  slight  though  distinct  electric  shock  in  the  palm  of  my  hand, 
which  made  me  exclaim  at  once,  "  That  fish  has  given  me  an 
■electric  shock."  On  asking  the  fisherman  (seventy  years  of  age) 
if  he  had  known  of  such  a  thing  occurring  before,  he  said  that 
he  had  "heard  tell  of  it,"  and  on  inquiring  further  I  found  that 
he  was  referring  to  whiting  pout  and  not  to  any  other  fish.  He 
had  never,  however,  noticed  anything  of  the  kind  himself. 

It  will  be  interesting  to  know  if  any  of  your  correspondents 
•can  confirm  the  observation.  W.  H.  Corfield. 

Savile  Row,  W.,  September  22. 


gave  a  good  result  in  Eigg.  The  form  and  composition  of  the 
sand-grains  differ  considerably  in  the  two  localities.  It  seems 
probable  that  sand  of  this  character  occurs  in  more  localities  than 
hitherto  supposed.  K. 

Torquay,   September  8. 


Sonorous  Sands. 

The  communication  of  Mr.  Cecil  Carus-Wilson  in  Nature 
of  August  30  (p.  415),  induces  us  to  state  that  we  are  rapidly 
bringing  to  completion,  and  preparing  for  publication,  an  ex- 
haustive study  of  "  Sea,  Lake,  River,  and  Desert  Sands  "  in  their 
geological,  physical,  and  chemical  aspects.  Our  researches  have 
■extended  over  a  period  of  six  years,  and  are  based  on  studies 
made  in  the  field,  in  the  laboratory,  and  with  the  microscope,  and 
•will  be  found  to  embrace  many  novel  facts  and  original  views. 
We  have  collected  in  person,  by  correspondence,  and  with  the 
nid  of  the  Life  Saving  Service  of  the  United  States,  and  of  the 
'Smithsonian  Institution,  several  hundred  specimens  of  sands  and 
silts  from  localities  in  America,  Europe,  Africa,  and  Asia : 
these  we  have  subjected  to  systematic  examination  and  have 
tabulated  the  result-. 

The  interesting  phenomena  of  "  musical  sands,"  so  called, 
have  also  been  made  special  objects  of  our  investigations,  result- 
ing in  the  discovery  of  many  new  localities,  and  of  novel 
properties,  as  well  as  of  the  circumstances  connected  with  the 
origin,  production,  and  extinction  of  the  sonorous  qualities  from 
which  these  i.ands  receive  their  name.  Furthermore,  we  have 
traced  the  history  of  musical  sands  through  the  literature  of  many 
■centuries,  and  have  brought  together  from  widely  scattered 
sources  memoirs  and  notices  of  both  scientific  and  popular 
interest.  Throughout  our  work  the  bibliography  of  the  subject 
has  not  been  neglected,  and  we  have  availed  ourselves  of  the 
photographic  art  for  the  purposes  of  illustration.  We  beg  leave 
to  make  this  preliminary  announcement  because  our  researches 
have  been  lengthened  far  beyond  our  expectations,  and  their 
publication  (save  in  a  few  abstracts  in  the  Proceedings  of  the 
American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science) 
unavoidably  delayed. 

With  regard  to  the  occurrence  of  musical  sand  in  Europe,  the 
existence  of  which  is  unknown  to  Mr.  Carus-Wilson,  we  may  add 
that  we  have  specimens  from  various  localities,  and  the  literature 
■of  the  subject  is  accessible  to  everyone. 

II.  Carrington  Bolton. 
Alexis  A.  Julien. 

London  and  New  York,  September  1. 


Your  correspondent  in  Nature  of  the  30th  ult.  (p.  415), 
'mentions  a  sea-beach  in  Dorsetshire  as  the  only  place  in  the 
Kingdom,  besides  the  Island  of  Eigg,  where  "musical"  sand 
is  known  to  occur.  This  summer  I  found  the  sand  in  Lunan 
Bay  (Forfarshire)  to  be  distinctly  sonorous.  The  sound  occurred 
on  moving  the  foot  across  the  sand,  or  moving  a  walking-stick 
or  the  finger.  The  sound  was  little  inferior  to  that  in  Eigg.  The 
attention  of  a  fisherman  having  been  directed  to  the  circumstance, 
he  informed  me  they  were  quite  aware  of  the  occurrence,  and  that 
the  sound  was  frequently  much  louder  than  on  the  day  I  was 
there  ;  depending,  I  presume,  on  the  state  of  the  sand  and  of 
the  atmosphere.  He  also  mentioned  that  the  sound  occurs  in 
the  sand  of  Montrose  Bay.  I  observed  that  the  best  result  was 
got  where  the  sand  was  moderately  dry,  and  that  little  or  no 
•effect  was  produced  with  such  a  greater  degree  of  moisture  as 


THE  LATE  ARTHUR  BUCHHEIM. 

T  HAVE  been  requested,  and  feel  it  a  melancholy  satis- 
*•  faction,  to  notice  in  the  columns  of  Nature  the 
premature  decease  on  the  9th  inst.,atthe  age  of  twenty-nine, 
of  Mr.  Arthur  Buchheim,  for  many  years  Mathematical 
Master  at  the  Manchester  Grammar  School. 

He  was  educated  at  the  City  of  London  School,  whence 
he  proceeded  to  Oxford,  and  gained  an  open  Scholarship 
at  New  College  there.  He  was  a  favourite  pupil  of  the  late 
Henry  Smith,  my  distinguished  predecessor  in  the  Savilian 
Professorship  of  Geometry,  who  always  spokeof  him  as  the 
most  promising  young  mathematician  that  had  appeared  in 
the  University  of  Oxford  for  a  long  series  of  years.  1 
am  not  able  to  speak  of  his  earlier  work  as  an  original 
investigator,  but  know  and  value  highly  his  contributions 
to  the  great  subject  which  engaged  the  principal  part  of 
my  own  attention  during  the  transition  period  between 
my  residence  in  Baltimore  and  at  Oxford,  and  to  which  I 
have  given  the  name  of  Universal  Algebra.  He  was 
a  man  of  singular  modesty  and  goodness  of  heart,  which 
made  him  beloved  by  all  who  were  brought  into  connec- 
tion with  him.  Had  his  life  been  spared,  I  think  we  may 
safely  say  of  him  what  Newton  said  of  Horrocks,  that  "  we 
should  have  known  something  "  of  what  may  now  probably 
remain  long  unknown. 

His  life,  it  is  to  be  feared,  may  have  been  shortened  by 
his  intense  application  to  study,  as  after  the  arduous 
labour  of  the  day  he  would  sit  up  at  night  to  study  lan- 
guages such  as  Sanskrit,  Persian,  Chinese,  and  Russian, 
almost  any  one  of  which  was  sufficient  in  itself  to  occupy 
his  undivided  attention. 

After  leaving  Oxford  he  studied  for  some  time  under 
Prof.  Klein  at  Leipzig.  This  episode  in  his  life  no  doubt 
contributed  to  widening  his  intellectual  horizon,  but  at 
the  same  time  had  the  unfortunate  effect  of  getting  him 
out  of  the  style  of  ordinary  English  University  Examin- 
ations, in  consequence  of  which  he  abstained,  although 
strongly  pressed  by  the  authorities  to  do  so,  from  offering 
himself  as  a  candidate  for  a  vacant  Fellowship  at  the 
College  of  which  he  was  a  Scholar. 

He  comes  of  an  intellectual  stock,  his  father  being  the 
well-known  Prof.  C.  A.  Buchheim,  of  King's  College, 
London. 

Up  to  the  last,  after  he  had  been  obliged  from  ill 
health  to  resign  his  appointment  at  Manchester,  he  con- 
tinued in  harness,  and  made  a  communication  to  the 
London  Mathematical  Society  at  the  monthly  meeting 
in  May  or  June  last. 

I  have  been  furnished  with  a  list  of  his  published 
papers,  fourteen  in  number,  up  to  the  year  1885  (ex- 
clusive), of  which  four  appeared  in  the  Proceedings  of 
the  London  Mathematical  Society,  eight  in  the  Cambridge 
Messenger  of  Mathematics,  one  in  the  American  Journal 
of  Mathematics,  and  one  (November  1884)  in  the  Philo- 
sophical Magazine.  This  last  was  entitled,  "  On  Prof. 
Sylvester's  Third  Law  of  Motion,"  with  which,  I  regret 
to  say,  I  was  previously  unacquainted. 

"  The  three  laws  of  motion"  of  which  it  forms  one  were 
formulated  by  me  in  one  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  Circulars, 
and  it  is  a  proof  of  the  keenness  of  his  research,  that  the 
subject  of  this  notice  (probably  the  only  mathematician  in 
Europe)  should  have  made  himself  so  well  acquainted 
with  them  as  to  be  able  to  write  an  independent  paper  on 
the  subject.  They  have  no  direct  connection  (except  in 
a  Hegelian  l  sense)  with  mechanical  principles,  but  are 

1  By  which  I  mean  that  sense  according  to  which  motion  in  space  is 
to  be  regarded  as  only  a  particular  (visualized)  instance  of  change  in  tutu. 


i6 


NATURE 


{Sept.  27,  1888 


three  cardinal  principles  in  my  Theory  of  Universal 
Algebra,  between  which  and  Newton's  Three  Laws  of 
Motion  I  considered  that  1  had  succeeded  in  establishing 
a  one-to-one  correspondence.  J.  J.  Sylvester. 

Athenaeum  Club,  September  22. 


THE  BRITISH  ASSOCIATION. 

SECTION  H. 

anthropology. 

Opening  Address  by  Lieutenant-General  Pitt-Rivers, 
D.C.L.,  F.R.S.,  F.G.S.,  F.S.A.,  President  of  the 
Section. 

I. 

Having  been  much  occupied  up  to  within  the  last  week  in 
my  own  special  branch  of  anthropology,  and  in  bringing  out  the 
second  volume  of  my  excavations  in  Dorsetshire,  which  I  wished 
to  have  ready  for  those  who  are  interested  in  the  subject  on  the 
occasion  of  this  meeting,  I  regret  that  I  have  been  unable  to 
prepare  an  address  upon  a  general  subject  as  I  could  have  wished 
to  do,  and  am  compelled  to  limit  my  remarks  to  matters  on 
which  I  have  been  recently  engaged.  Also,  I  wish  to  make  a 
few  observations  on  the  means  to  be  taken  to  promulgate  anthro- 
pological knowledge  and  render  it  available  for  the  education  of 
the  masses. 

Taking  the  last-mentioned  subject  first,  I  will  commence  with 
anthropological  museums,  to  which  I  have  given  attention  for 
many  years.  In  my  judgment,  an  institution  that  is  dedicated  to 
the  Muses  should  be  something  more  than  a  store,  it  should 
have  some  backbone  in  it.  It  should  be  in  itself  a  means  of 
conveying  knowledge,  and  not  a  mere  repository  of  objects  from 
which  knowledge  can  be  culled  by  those  who  know  where  to 
look  for  it.  A  national  museum,  created  and  maintained  at  the 
public  expense,  should  be  available  for  public  instruction,  and 
not  solely  a  place  of  reference  for  savants. 

I  do  not  deny  the  necessity  that  exists  for  museum  stores  for 
the  use  of  students,  but  I  maintain  that,  side  by  side  with  such 
stores,  there  should  in  these  days  exist  museums  instructively 
arranged  for  the  bem  fit  of  those  who  have  no  time  to  study, 
and  for  whom  the  practical  results  of  anthropological  and  other, 
scientific  investigations  are  quite  as  important  as  for  savants. 

The  one  great  feature  which  it  is  desirable  to  emphasize  in 
connection  with  the  exhibition  of  archaeological  and  ethnological 
specimens  is  evolution.  To  impress  upon  the  mind  the  con- 
tinuity and  historical  sequence  of  the  arts  of  life,  is,  without 
doubt,  one  of  the  most  important  lessons  to  be  inculcated.  It 
is  only  of  late  years  that  the  development  of  social  institutions 
has  at  all  entered  into  the  design  of  educational  histories.  And 
the  arts  of  life,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  have  never  formed  part  of 
any  educational  series.  Yet  as  a  study  of  evolution  they  are  the 
most  important  of  all,  because  in  them  the  connecting  links 
between  the  various  phases  of  development  can  be  better 
displayed. 

The  relative  value  of  any  subject  for  this  purpose  is  not  in 
proportion  to  the  interest  which  attaches  to  the  subject  in  the 
abstract.  Laws,  customs,  and  institutions  may  perhaps  be 
regarded  as  of  greater  importance  than  the  arts  of  life,  but  for 
anthropological  purposes  they  are  of  less  value,  because  in  them, 
previously  to  the  introduction  of  writing,  the  different  phases  of 
development,  as  soon  as  they  are  superseded  by  new  ideas,  are 
entirely  lost  and  cannot  be  reproduced  except  in  imagination. 
Whereas  in  the  arts  of  life,  in  which  ideas  are  embodied  in 
material  forms,  the  connecting  links  are  in  many  cases  preserved, 
and  can  be  replaced  in  their  proper  sequence  by  means  of 
antiquities. 

For  this  reason  the  study  of  the  arts  of  life  ought  always  to 
prece'de  the  study  of  social  evolution,  in  order  that  the  student 
may  learn  to  make  allowance  for  missing  links,  and  to  avoid 
sophisms  and  the  supposition  of  laws  and  tendencies  which  have 
no  existence  in  reality. 

To  ascertain  the  true  causes  for  all  the  phenomena  of  human 
life  is  the  main  object  of  anthropological  research,  and  it  is 
obvious  that  this  is  better  done  in  those  branches  in  which  the 
continuity  is  best  preserved. 

In  the  study  of  natural  history,  existing  animals  are  regarded 
as  present  phases  in  1he  development  of  species,  and  their  value 


to  the  biological  student  depends,  not  so  much  on  their  being  of 
the  highest  organism,  as  on  the  palfeontological  sequence  by 
which  their  history  is  capable  of  being  established.  In  the  same 
way  existing  laws,  institutions,  and  arts,  wherever  they  are 
found  in  their  respective  stages  of  perfection,  are  to  be  regarded 
simply  as  existing  strata  in  the  development  of  human  life,  and 
their  value  from  an  anthropological  point  of  view  depends  on 
the  facilities  they  afford  for  studying  their  history. 

If  I  am  right  in  this  view  of  the  matter,  it  is  evident  that  the 
arts  of  life  are  of  paramount  importance,  because  they  admit  of 
being  arranged  in  cases  by  means  of  antiquities  in  the  order  in 
which  they  actually  occurred,  and  by  that  means  they  serve  to 
illustrate  the  development  of  other  branches  which  cannot  be  so 
arranged,  and  the  continuity  of  which  is  therefore  not  open  to 
visual  demonstration  for  the  benefit  of  the  unlearned. 

It  is  now  considerably  over  thirty  years  since  I  first  began  to 
pay  attention  to  this  subject.  Having  been  employed  in  experi- 
menting with  new  inventions  in  fire-arms,  submitted  to  H.M. 
Government  in  1852-53,  I  drew  up  in  1858  a  paper  which  was 
published  in  the  United  Service  Journal,  showing  the  continuity 
observable  in  the  various  ideas  submitted  for  adoption  in  the 
army  at  that  time. 

Later,  in  1867-68-69,  I  published  three  papers,  which,  in 
order  to  adapt  them  to  the  institution  at  which  they  were  read,  I 
called  "Lectures  on  Primitive  Warfare,"  but  which,  in  reality, 
were  treatises  on  the  development  of  primitive  weapons,  in 
which  it  was  shown  how  the  earliest  weapons  of  savages  arose 
from  the  selection  of  natural  forms  of  sticks  and  stones,  and 
were  developed  gradually  into  the  forms  in  which  they  are  now 
used.  I  al.-o  traced  the  development  of  the  forms  of  implements 
of  the  Bronze  Age  and  their  transition  into  those  of  the  Iron  Age. 
These  papers  were  followed  by  others  on  the  same  subject  read 
at  the  Royal  Institution  and  elsewhere,  relating  to  the  develop- 
ment of  special  branches,  such  as  early  modes  of  navigation, 
forms  of  ornament,  primitive  locks  and  keys,  the  distribution  of 
the  bow,  and  its  development  into  what  I  termed  the  composite 
bow  in  Asia  and  America,  and  other  subjects. 

Meanwhile  I  had  formed  a  museum,  in  which  the  objects  to 
which  the  papers  related  were  arranged  in  developmental  order. 
This  was  exhibited  by  the  Science  and  Art  Department  at 
Bethnal  Green  from  1874  to  1878,  and  at  South  Kensington 
from  that  date  to  1885  ;  and  a  catalogue  ra/sonnev/a.s  published 
by  the  Department,  which  went  through  two  editions.  After 
that,  wishing  to  find  a  permanent  home  for  it,  where  it  would 
increase  and  multiply,  I  presented  it  to  the  University  of  Oxford, 
the  University  having  granted  5^10,000  to  build  a  museum  to 
contain  it.  It  is  there  known  as  the  "  Pitt-Rivers  Collection," 
and  is  arranged  in  the  same  order  as  at  South  Kensington.  Prof. 
Moseley  has  devoted  much  attention  to  the  removal  and  re- 
arrangement of  it  up  to  the  time  of  his  recent,  but  I  trust  only 
temporary,  illness,  which  has  been  so  great  a  loss  to  the  Univer- 
sity, and  which  has  been  felt  by  no  one  connected  with  it  more 
than  by  myself,  for  whilst  his  great  experience  as  a  traveller  and 
anthropologist  enabled  him  to  improve  and  add  to  it,  he  has  at 
the  same  time  always  shown  every  disposition  to  do  justice  to  the 
original  collection.  Since  Prof.  Moseley's  illness  it  has  been  in 
the  charge  of  Mr.  H.  Balfour,  who,  I  am  sure,  will  follow  in  the 
steps  of  his  predecessor  and  former  chief,  and  will  do  his  best  to 
enlarge  and  improve  it.  He  has  already  added  a  new  series  in 
relation  to  the  ornamentation  of  arrow  stems,  which  has  been 
published  by  the  Anthropological  Institute.  It  appears,  how- 
ever, desirable  that  the  same  system  should  be  established  in 
other  places,  and  with  that  view  I  have  for  some  time  past  been 
collecting  the  materials  for  a  new  museum,  which,  if  I  live  long 
enough  to  complete  it,  I  shall  probably  plant  elsewhere. 

Before  presenting  the  collection  to  Oxford  I  had  offered  it  to 
the  Government,  in  the  hope  that  it  might  form  the  nucleus  of  a 
large  educational  museum  arranged  upon  the  sy.-tem  of  develop- 
ment which  I  had  adopted.  A  very  competent  Committee  was 
appointed  to  consider  the  offer,  which  recommended  that  it 
should  be  accepted,  but  the  Government  declined  to  do  so  ;  one 
of  the  reasons  assigned  being  that  some  of  the  authorities  of  the 
British  Museum  thought  it  undesirable  that  two  ethnographica* 
museums  should  exist  in  London  at  the  same  time  ;  this,  how 
ever,  entirely  waives  the  question  of  the  totally  different  object 
that  the  two  museums  (at  least  that  part  of  them  which  relates  I 
ethnographical  specimens)  are  intended  to  serve. 

The  British  Museum,  with  its  enormous  treasures  of  art, 
itself  only  in  a  molluscous  and  invertebrate  condition  of  develop 
ment.     For  the  education  of  the  masses  it  is  of  no  use  whatev* 


Sept.  27,  1888] 


NATURE 


517 


It  produces  nothing  but  confusion  in  the  minds  of  those  who 
wander  through  its  long  galleries  with  but  little  knowledge  of 
the  periods  to  which  the  objects  contained  in  them  relate.  The 
necessity  of  storing  all  that  can  be  obtained,  and  all  that  is  pre- 
sented to  them  in  the  way  of  specimens,  precludes  the  possibility 
of  a  scientific  or  an  educational  arrangement. 

By  the  published  returns  of  the  Museum  it  appears  that  there 
has  been  a  gradual  falling  off  in  the  number  of  visitors  since  1882, 
when  the  number  was  767,873,  to  1887,  when  it  had  declined  to 
501,256.  This  may  be  partly  owing  to  the  increased  claims  of 
bands  and  switchbacks  upon  public  attention,  but  it  cannot  be 
owing  to  the  removal  of  the  Natural  History  Museum  to  South 
Kensington,  as  has  been  suggested,  because  the  space  formerly 
occupied  1  y  those  collections  at  Bloomsbury  has  been  since 
filled  with  objects  of  greater  general  interest,  and  the  galleries 
have  been  considerably  enlarged. 

The  Science  and  Art  Department  at  South  Kensington  has 
done  much  for  higher  education,  but  for  the  education  of  the 
masses  it  is  of  no  more  use  than  the  British  Museum,  for  the 
same  reason,  that  its  collections  are  not  arranged  in  sequence, 
and  its  galleries  are  not  properly  adapted  for  such  an  arrange- 
ment. Besides  these  establishments,  annual  exhibitions  on  a 
prodigious  scale  have  been  held  in  London  for  many  years,  at  an 
enormous  cost,  but  at  the  present  time  not  the  slightest  trace  of 
these  remain,  and  I  am  not  aware  of  any  permanent  good  that 
has  resulted  from  them.  If  one-tenth  of  the  cost  of  these 
temporary  exhibitions  had  been  devoted  to  permanent  collections, 
we  should  by  this  time  have  the  finest  industrial  museum  in  the 
world.  Throughout  the  whole  series  of  these  annual  temporary 
collections,  only  one,  viz.  the  American  department  of  the 
Fisheries  Exhibition,  was  arranged  upon  scientific  principles, 
and  that  was  arranged  upon  the  plan  adopted  by  the  National 
Museum  at  Washington.  It  appears  probable  from  the 
experience  of  the  present  year  that  these  annual  exhibitions  are 
on  the  decline.  Large  iron  buildings  have  been  erected  in 
different  places,  some  of  which  would  meet  all  the  requirements 
of  a  permanent  museum.  The  Olympia  occupies  3 \  acres,  the 
Italian  Exhibition  as  much  as  7  acres.  There  can  be  little 
doubt,  I  think,  that  the  long  avenues  of  potted  meats  and  other 
articles  of  commonplace  merchandise,  which  now  constitute  the 
chief  part  of  the  objects  exhibited  in  these  places,  must  before 
long  cease  to  be  attractive,  and  must  be  replaced  by  something 
else,  and  in  view  of  such  a  change  I  venture  to  put  in  a  plea  for 
a  National  Anthropological  Museum  upon  a  large  scale,  using  the 
term  in  its  broadest  sense,  arranged  stratigraphically  in  concentric 
rings.  It  is  a  large  proposal,  no  doubt,  but  one  which, 
considering  the  number  of  years  I  have  devoted  to  the  sub- 
ject, I  hope  I  shall  not  be  thought  presumptuous  in  submitting 
for  the  consideration  of  the  Anthropological  Section  of  this 
Association. 

The  Palaeolithic  period  being  the  earliest,  would  occupy  the 
central  ring,  and  having  fewer  varieties  of  form  would  require 
the  smallest  space.  Next  to  it  the  Neolithic  and  Bronze  Ages 
would  be  arranged  in  two  concentric  rings,  and  would  contain, 
besides  the  relics  of  those  periods,  models  of  prehistoric  monu- 
ments, bone  caves,  and  other  places  interesting  on  account  of 
the  prehistoric  finds  that  have  been  made  in  them.  After  that, 
in  expanding  order,  would  come  Egyptian,  Greek,  Assyrian,  and 
Roman  antiquities,  to  be  followed  by  objects  of  the  Anglo-Saxon, 
Frank ish,  and  Merovingian  periods  ;  these  again  in  develop- 
mental outward  expansion  would  be  surrounded  by  mediaeval 
antiquities,  and  the  outer  rings  of  all  might  then  be  devoted 
to  showing  the  evolution  of  such  modern  arts  as  coutd  be  placed 
in  continuity  with  those  of  antiquity. 

In  order  that  the  best  objects  might  be  selected  to  represent 
the  different  periods  and  keep  up  the  succession  of  forms  which 
would  constitute  the  chief  object  of  the  Museum,  I  would  confine 
the  exhibition  chiefly  to  casts,  reproductions,  and  models,  the 
latter  being,  in  my  opinion,  a  means  of  representing  primitive 
arts,  which  has  not  yet  been  sufficiently  made  use  of,  but  which 
in  my  own  small  local  museum  at  P'arnham,  Dorsetshire,  I  have 
employed  to  a  considerable  extent,  having  as  many  as  twenty- 
three  models,  similar  to  those  now  exhibited,  of  places  in  which 
things  have  been  found  within  an  area  of  two  miles. 

_  The  several  sections  and  rings  would  be  superintended  by 
directors  and  assistants,  whose  function  it  would  be  to  obtain  re- 
productions and  models  of  the  objects  best  adapted  to  display 
the  continuity  of  their  several  arts  and  periods  ;  and  the  arts 
selected  for  representation  should  be  those  in  which  this  continuity 
could  be  most    persistently    adhered   to.     Amongst   these  the 


following  might  be  named  :  pottery,  architecture,  house  furniture, 
modes  of  navigation,  tools,  weapons,  weaving  apparatus,  painting, 
sculpture,  modes  of  land  transport  and  horse  furniture,  ornamen- 
tation, personal  ornament,  hunting  and  fishing  apparatus,  machin- 
ery, fortification,  modes  of  burial,  agriculture,  ancient  monuments' 
domestication  of  animals,  toys,  means  of  heating  and  of  providing 
liidit,  the  use  of  food,  narcotics,  and  so  forth. 

Miscellaneous  collections  calculated  to  confuse  the  several 
series,  and  having  no  bearing  on  development,  should  be  avoided, 
but  physical  anthropology,  relating  to  man  as  an  animal,  might 
find  its  place  in  the  several  sections. 

I  have  purposely  avoided  in  my  brief  sketch  of  this  scheme 
giving  unnecessary  details.  Any  cut-and-dried  plan  would  have 
to  be  greatly  altered,  according  to  the  possibilities  of  the  case, 
when  the  time  for  action  arrived.  My  object  is  to  ventilate  the 
general  idea  of  a  large  Anthropological  Rotunda,  which  I  have 
always  thought  would  be  the  final  outcome  of  the  activity  which 
has  shown  itself  in  this  branch  of  science  during  the  last  few 
years,  and  which  I  have  reason  to  believe  is  destined  to  come 
into  being  before  long.  In  such  an  institution  the  position  of 
each  phase  of  art  development  shows  itself  at  once  by  its  distance 
from  the  centre  of  the  space,  and  the  collateral  branches  would 
be  arranged  to  merge  into  each  other  according  to  their 
geographical  positions. 

The  advantages  of  such  an  institution  would  be  appreciated, 
not  by  anthropologists  and  archaeologists  only.  It  would  adapt 
itself  more  especially  to  the  limited  time  for  study  at  the  disposal 
of  the  working  classes,  for  whose  education  it  is  unnecessary  to 
say  that  at  the  present  time  we  are  all  most  deeply  concerned. 
Although  it  is  customary  to  speak  of  working  men  as  uneducated, 
education  is  a  relative  term,  and  it  is  well  to  remember  that  in 
all  that  relates  to  the  material  arts  they  have,  in  the  way  of 
technical  skill  and  handicraft,  a  better  groundwork  for  appre- 
ciating what  is  put  before  them  than  the  upper  classes.  That 
they  are  able  to  educate  themselves  by  means  of  a  well-arranged 
Museum,  my  own  experience,  even  with  the  imperfect  arrange- 
ments that  have  been  at  my  command,  enables  me  to  testify. 
Anything  which  tends  to  impress  the  mind  with  the  slow  growth 
and  stability  of  human  institutions  and  industries,  and  their 
dependence  upon  antiquity,  must,  I  think,  contribute  to  check 
revolutionary  ideas,  and  the  tendency  which  now  exists,  and 
which  is  encouraged  by  some  who  should  know  better,  to  break 
drastically  with  the  past,  and  must  help  to  inculcate  Conservative 
principles,  which  are  urgently  needed  at  the  present  time,  if  the 
civilization  that  we  enjoy  is  to  be  maintained  and  to  be  permitted 
to  develop  itself. 

The  next  subject  to  which  I  would  draw  your  attention  is  the 
present  working  of  the  Act  for  the  Preservation  of  Ancient 
Monuments,  with  the  carrying  out  of  which  I  have  been 
intrusted  during  the  last  five  years. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  speak  of  the  measures  that  have  been  taken 
in  other  countries  which  have  preceded  us  in  the  work  of  pro- 
tecting ancient  monuments.  Their  system  of  land  tenure  and 
division  of  property  is  different  from  ours,  and  the  same  measures 
are  not  equally  applicable. 

In  1882  a  Bill  was  passed  through  Parliament  known  as  the 
Ancient  Monuments  Act,  to  enable  those  who  desired  to  do  so, 
to  place  the  ancient  monuments  belonging  to  them  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Government,  and  to  make  it  illegal  for  future 
owners  or  others  to  destroy  them  :  also  to  enable  local  magis- 
trates to  punish  summarily,  with  a  fine  of  ^5  or  imprisonment 
for  one  month,  offences  committed  under  the  Act.  No  power  is 
taken  to  compel  any  owner  to  place  his  monument  under  the 
Act,  but  provision  is  made  for  a  small  annual  expenditure  in 
order  to  preserve  the  monuments  offered  voluntarily  by  their 
owners.  A  schedule  of  certain  monuments  was  attached  to  the 
Act,  without  the  consent  of  the  owners,  merely  to  indicate  the 
monuments  to  which  the  Act  applied,  but  these,  like  any  ethers, 
had  to  be  voluntarily  offered  before  the  Government  could 
accept  them.  Any  other  monuments  not  in  the  schedule  could 
be  accepted,  but  only  after  the  offer  of  them  had  been  laid  forty 
days  before  Parliament,  in  order,  I  presume,  that  the  country 
might  not  become  charged  with  the  preservation  of  monuments 
that  were  unworthy  of  protection. 

In  November  1882,  I  was  asked  by  Lord  Stalbridge,  in  a 
complimentary  letter,  written  by  desire  of  the  Prime  Minister, 
to  undertake  the  office  of  Inspector,  intimating  at  the  same  time 
that  my  position  as  landowner  would  place  me  in  a  favourable 
position   for  dealing  with  other  landowners  to  whom  the  monu- 


5i8 


NATURE 


{Sept.  27,  1888 


ments  belonged,  and  I  accepted  the  post,  hoping  to  render  a 
public  service,  not,  perhaps,  sufficiently  considering  the  difficulties 
that  I  should  have  to  encounter,  and  the  amount  of  time  that 
would  have  to  be  devoted  to  it. 

A  permissive  Act  naturally  implies  that  there  is  some  one  in 
the  country  who  desires  to  make  use  of  it ;  whereas,  as  a  fact, 
no  owner  has  voluntarily  offered  any  monument  to  be  put  under 
the  Act,  except  one  to  whom  I  shall  refer  again  presently  :  all 
have  had  to  be  sought  out  and  asked  to  accept  the  Act,  and  of 
the  owners  of  scheduled  monuments  the  larger  number  have 
refused. 

Sir  John  Lubbock  was  chiefly  instrumental  in  passing  the  Bill 
through  Parliament,  although  in  the  condition  in  which  it 
actually  passed  it  was  not  his  Bill.  He  had  proposed  to  make 
the  Act  compulsory  in  the  case  of  some  of  the  more  important 
monuments,  but  the  proposal  had  been  overruled  on  the  ground 
of  its  being  an  improper  interference  with  private  ownership. 

Being  a  member  of  the  Liberty  and  Property  Defence  League, 
I  have  lately  received  a  list  of  fifty-five  measures  which  have 
been  brought  before  Parliament  in  the  session  of  1888,  which 
that  body  have  thought  it  desirable  to  oppose  on  account  of  their 
interference  with  private  property,  nearly  every  one  of  which 
would  have  dealt  more  hardly  with  the  owners  of  property  than 
the  Ancient  Monuments  Act  would  have  done  had  it  been  made 
compulsory.  But  all  these  measures  have  been  proposed  by 
members  of  Parliament  with  the  view  of  catching  the  votes  of 
particular  constituencies,  whereas  the  ancient  monuments  have 
no  votes  to  give  and  very  few  people  to  vote  for  them.  Sir 
John  Lubbock,  finding  that  the  Act  in  its  approved  stage  was 
purely  permissive,  and  not  believing,  as  he  told  me  at  the  time, 
that  anyone  would  voluntarily  make  use  of  it,  naturally  being 
unwilling  to  put  his  own  prop  erty  at  a  disadvantage,  by  being 
the  only  person  to  come  under  it,  at  first  refused  to  include  his 
own  monuments,  and  it  was  only  after  I  had  obtained  others, 
and  success  appeared  probable,  that  he  consented  to  put  Silbury 
Hill  under  the  Act. 

Finding  myself  involved  in  the  matter,  I  have  done  what  I 
could  to  work  it  out,  and  with  some  success. 

(To  be  continued.) 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  GEOLOGICAL 
CONGRESS. 

'THE  fourth  session  of  the  International  Geological 
-*•  Congress  began  on  Monday  evening,  September 
17,  in  the  theatre  of  the  University  of  London,  Burling- 
ton Gardens  ;  meetings  were  held  throughout  the  week, 
and  the  session  was  formally  closed  on  Saturday, 
September  22.  In  another  form  and  in  different  places 
the  Congress  may  be  regarded  as  continuing  throughout 
this  week,  for  five  excursions  have  been  organized  to 
various  parts  of  England  ;  those  to  North  Wales  and  the 
Isle  of  Wight  are  largely  attended,  whilst  smaller  numbers 
have  gone  to  East  Anglia,  to  East  Yorkshire,  and  to  West 
Yorkshire. 

At  the  opening  meeting  on  Monday  evening  the  Council 
was  chosen  as  follows  :-■  Hon.  President :  T.  H.  Huxley. 
President:  J.  Prestwich.     Past  Presidents  :  G.  Capellini, 

E.  Beyrich.  Vice-Presidents  :  Germany,  K.  von  Zittel ; 
Australia, *F.  Liversidge  ;  Austria,  M.  Neumayr;  Belgium, 
G.  Dewalque  ;  Canada,  T.  Sterry  Hunt  ;  Denmark,  *M. 
Johnstrup  ;  Spain,  J.  Vilanova-y-Piera  ;  United  States,  P. 
Frazer  ;  France,  A.  de  Lapparent ;  Great  Britain,  W.  T. 
Blanford,  A.  Geikie,  *T.  McK.  Hughes  ;  Hungary,  J.  von 
Szabo  ;  India,  *H.  B.  Medlicott  ;  Italy,  F.  Giordano  ; 
Norway,   H.  Reusch  ;  Holland,  K.  Martin  ;  Portugal,  J. 

F.  N.  Delgado ;  Roumania,  G.  Stefanescu  ;  Russia,  A. 
Inostranzeff ;  Sweden,  O.  Torell  ;  Switzerland,  E,  Rene- 
vier.  General  Secretaries :  J.  W.  Hulke,  W.  Topley. 
Secretaries :  C.  Barrois,  C.  Fornasini,  C.  Le  Neve  Foster, 
C.  Gottsche,  A.  Renard,  G.  H.  Williams.  Treasurer  : 
F.  W.  Rudler.  Other  Members  of  the  Council :  T.  G. 
Bonney,  A.  Briart,  E.  Cohen,  *H.  Credner,  *E.  Dupont, 


J.  Evans,  W.  H.  Flower,  A.  Gaudry,  J.  Gosselet,  M.  von 
Hantken,  W.  Hauchecorne,  A.  Heim,  *J.  Hooker,  A. 
Issel,  J.  W.  Judd,  *R.  Lepsius,  C.  Lory,  *A.  Michel-Le'vy, 
T.  Macfarlane,  O.  C.  Marsh,  E.  von  Mojsisovics,  J. 
S.  Newberry,  S.  Nikitin,  *R.  Owen,  A.  Pilar,  F.  von 
Richthofen,  T.  Schmidt,  D.  Stur,  T.  Tschernicheff,  E. 
Van  den  Broeck,  C.  O.  Walcott.  (Those  marked  *  were 
not  present  at  the  meeting.) 

The  President  then  delivered  his  address  in  French. 
An  English  translation  of  this  has  already  appeared  in 
Nature.  The  meetings  commenced  each  morning  at  10.30, 
and  lasted  till  about  I  o'clock.  Meetings  of  the  Council 
were  held  each  morning  at  9.30.  The  proch-verbai  of 
each  meeting  both  of  Council  and  Congress  was  printed, 
and  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  members  at  the  opening 
of  the  succeeding  meeting.  At  various  times  meetings 
of  the  International  Commissions  on  Nomenclature,  and 
the  Geological  Map  of  Europe,  and  of  various  Committees 
appointed  by  the  Council,  were  also  held. 

In  the  afternoons  there  were  visits  to  the  British 
Museum,  in  Bloomsbury,  and  to  the  Natural  History 
Museum,  South  Kensington  ;  also  to  Kew,  Windsor  and 
Eton,  Erith  and  Crayford.  In  the  evenings  there  were 
three  receptions  :  on  Monday,  by  the  President  of  the 
Congress,  in  the  library  of  the  University,  fitted  up  as  a 
temporary  Geological  Museum  ;  on  Wednesday,  by  the 
Director-General  of  the  Geological  Survey,  in  the 
Museum  of  Geology,  Jermyn  Street ;  on  Friday,  by  the 
President  of  the  Geological  Society,  in  the  rooms  of  that 
Society. 

Three  invitations  for  the  fifth  meeting  of  the  Congress 
in  1 891  were  received  from  America — from  Philadelphia, 
New  York,  and  Washington.  Philadelphia  was  chosen. 
A  Committee  of  American  geologists  was  appointed  to 
take  such  steps  as  it  thought  necessary  to  make  the 
arrangements  for  this  meeting.  The  Committee  consisted  of 
Messrs.  J.  Hall,  Dana,  Newberry,  Frazer,  Gilbert,  Hunt, 
Marsh,  and  Walcott. 

The  general  opinion  is  that  the  Congress  was  a  com- 
plete success.  So  far  as  members  go,  this  is  evidently 
the  case,  as  it  was  more  largely  attended  than  any 
previous  meeting,  both  by  home  and  by  foreign  geologists. 
As  regards  the  number  of  members  inscribed  from  the 
country  in  which  the  Congress  meets,  it  is  not  easy  to 
make  comparisons,  because  many  join  as  members  who 
have  no  claim  to  be  considered  geologists.  No  doubt 
this  was  more  largely  the  case  in  London  than  at  any 
previous  meeting.  But  the  numbers  of  foreign  visitors 
may  fairly  be  compared,  and  may  be  taken  as  affording  a 
sufficient  gauge  of  the  relative  importance  of  each  meet- 
ing. These  stand  as  follows:  Paris  (1878),  no;  Bologna 
(1881),  75  ;  Berlin  (1885),  92  ;  London  (1888),  142. 

The  success  of  such  a  gathering  may,  however,  be 
reckoned  on  other  lines,  and  here  opinions  on  the  subject 
may  differ.  Those  who  hold  that  the  first  duty  of  such  a 
Congress  is  to  formulate  rules  and  to  fix  nomenclature 
may  well  feel  some  disappointment  ;  for  although  excellent 
discussions  took  place,  and  the  general  feeling  was  often 
evident,  no  formal  vote  on  any  such  subject  was  taken. 
It  was  generally  felt  that  votes  from  such  mixed  as- 
semblages have  no  value.  They  can  only  carry  weight  when 
taken  on  some  fixed  principle,  not  dependent  upon  the 
accidents  of  place  and  nationalities  which  vary  from  time  to 
time  as  the  Congress  meets  in  different  countries.  A  Com- 
mittee was  formed  to  consider  this  matter.  To  its  report, 
and  to  the  general  results  of  the  Congress,  we  shall  refer 
again  next  week.  But  upon  one  point  there  can  be  no 
difference  of  opinion  :  that  is,  the  immense  advantage 
resulting  from  the  meeting  together  of  men  from  different 
nations,  engaged  in  similar  pursuits,  who  can  personally 
discuss  subjects  upon  which  they  are  at  work.  The  friend- 
ships thus  formed  bear  fruit  long  after  the  dicussions  and 
votes  of  the  formal  meetings  are  forgotten. 


Sept.  27,  1888] 


NATURE 


5'9 


ON  CRYSTAL! INE  SCHISTS} 

I. 

§  I.  ASa  preliminary  to  the  study  of  the  schistose  or  stratiform 
f^  crystalline  rocks,  it  is  desirable  to  consider  the  wider 
question  of  the  origin  of  crystalline  rocks  in  general,  which  are 
•often  named  Primary  or  Primitive  Rocks  to  distinguish  them 
from  those  derived  therefrom  by  mechanical  or  chemical  dis- 
integration. The  designation  of  "crystalline  rocks  "  is  defective, 
inasmuch  as  we  find,  associated  with  masses  having  a  right  to 
this  title,  and  geologically  confounded  with  them,  other  rocks, 
such  as  serpentine,  obsidian,  perlite,  and  others,  which  are  not 
crystalline  in  character,  but  colloidal,  or,  to  use  the  designation 
of  Breithaupt,  porodic.  The  primary  rocks,  then,  including 
both  crystalline  and  porodic  masses,  may  be  divided  geologically 
into  three  categories  : — 

(1)  Masses  rmre  or  less  distinctly  stratiform,  including  the 
fundamental  granite,  gneisses,  micaceous  and  hornblendic 
schists,  and  all  others  formed,  according  to  the  views  of  the 
Wernerian  school,  by  slow  deposition  in  an  aqueous  liquid 
at  the  earth's  surface.  These  we  call  Indigenous  Rocks. 
(2)  Masses  which  have  strong  mineralogic  resemblances  with 
the  last,  but  appear  to  have  been  formed  by  slow  deposition 
among  pre-existing  rocks,  in  which  they  occur  as  veins  or 
■secondary  masses,  and  which  we  have  consequently  designated 
Endogenous  Rocks.  (3)  Masses  which  have  resemblances,  both 
mineralogic  and  geognostic,  with  the  endogenous  rocks,  but  are 
distinguished  therefrom  by  the  fact  that  they  appear  to  have 
attained  their  present  position  not  by  slow  deposition,  but  as  the 
result  of  displacements  which  took  place  while  they  were  in  a 
more  or  less  liquid  or  plastic  state.  These  masses,  which  we 
designate  Exotic  Rocks,  are,  as  we  shall  endeavour  to  show, 
to  be  regarded  (whatever  their  geological  age)  either  a~  more  or 
Jess  modified  portions  of  the  original  plutonic  material  of  the 
globe,  or  as  displaced  portions  of  indigenous  or  endogenous 
rocks,  and  thus  in  either  case  belong  to  the  primary  class. 

§  2.  Without  taking  into  account  those  who,  like  Eehmann 
in  the  last  century,  maintained  that  the  indigenous  crystalline 
masses,  which  he  called  primitive  rocks,  were  created  as  we 
now  see  them,  we  may  say  that  the  geologists  of  our  own  time 
are  divided  into  two  classes  :  those  who  admit  for  the  indigenous 
rocks  (1)  an  igneous  or  plutonic  origin,  (2)  an  aqueous  or  neptu- 
nian  origin.  Among  the  plutonists  properly  so  called  there  are, 
moreover,  two  schools,  one  of  which  regards  the  foliated  struc- 
ture which  characterizes  the  crystalline  schists  as  due  to  the 
lamination  of  an  igneous  mass  exposed  to  strong  pressure  during 
its  extrusion  through  the  already  solidified  terrestrial  crust.  For 
this  school,  in  fact,  the  crystalline  schists,  not  less  than  the 
granites,  the  trachytes,  and  the  basalts,  are  eruptive  rocks.  This 
manner  of  explaining  the  oiigin  of  the  crystalline  schists,  ad- 
vanced by  Poulett  Scrope  in  1825,  and  since  frequently  resusci- 
tated, we  have  named  the  exoplutonic  or  volcanic  hypothesis. 
For  the  other  plutonist  school,  these  same  crystalline  schists  are 
the  products  of  the  consolidation,  beneath  a  crust  already  formed 
by  superficial  cooling,  of  the  igneous  matter  of  the  globe  ;  the 
schistose  structure  being  the  result  either  of  currents  established 
in  the  still  liquid  and  heterogenous  material,  or  of  a  segregation 
therein  during  cry  tallization.  To  the  views  of  this  second 
plutonist  school  we  have  given  the  name  of  the  cinioplutoiiic 
hypothesis. 

§  3.  The  neptuni>ts  are  also  divided  into  several  schools. 
Werner  and  his  disc:ples  believed  that  the  crystalline  rocks,  both 
granitic  and  schistose,  had  been  successively  deposited  from  a 
universal  ocean,  which  they  imagined  to  have  been  a  chaotic 
liquid  holding  in  solution  the  elements  of  all  the  primitive  rocks. 
We  have  called  this  derivation  by  slow  crystallization  from  a 
primordial  liquid  chaos,  the  chaotic  hypothesis.  In  this  purely 
neptunian  hyp  ^thesis,  the  action  of  a  heated  interior  of  the  earth 
did  not  enter,  but  certain  plutonists,  admitting  this  notion,  have 
imagined  a  thermochaotic  hypothesis.  This  was  advanced  by 
l'oulett  Scrope,  in  1825,  as  the  complement  of  his  exoplutonic 
hypothesis,  and  subsequently  sustained  by  De  la  Beche  and 
Daubree. 

Another  neptunist  school,  which  also  held  plutonic  views, 
was  that  of  Hutton,  who  supposed  that  the  crystalline  rocks  now 
known  to  us  have  been  formed  by  the  consolidation  and  crystal- 
lization,  through  the    agency  of  internal    heat,    of  sediments 

1  Translated  by  the  author  from  his  essay  on  "  Les  Schistes  Cristallins." 
presented  to,  and  published  in  French  by,  the  International  Gaol  >gical 
congress  in  London,  1888.    The  footnote  to  §  5  has  bsen  ad  Jed  in  translating 


arranged  by  water  at  the  bottom  of  the  seas,  these  sediments 
being  the  detritus  either  of  endoplutonic  or  of  exoplutonic  rocks. 
The  defect  of  this  explanation,  which  we  call  the  met  amorphic 
hypothesis,  is  that  it  does  not  take  into  account  the  chemical 
changes  suffered  by  most  silicated  mineral  species  during  the 
process  of  disintegration  of  the  crystalline  rocks  and  their  con- 
version into  sands  and  clays.  The  production  of  species  such  as 
the  feldspars,  the  micas,  hornblende,  &c,  as  the  result  of  a  re- 
crystallization  of  sediments  which  do  not  contain  the  elements  of 
these  minerals,  demands  the  additional  supposition  of  chemical 
changes  brought  about  either  by  substitution  or  by  simple  addi- 
tion. In  this  manner,  attempts  have  been  made  to  explain  sup- 
posed transformations,  often  very  surprising,  among  which  may 
be  noted,  not  only  the  conversion  of  siliceous  and  argillaceous 
sediments  into  feldspathic  and  hornblendic  rocks,  but  that  of 
limestones  into  gneiss  and  other  feldspathic  and  siliceous  rocks 
and  also  the  conversion  of  these,  as  well  as  of  diabases  and 
diorites,  into  serpentine,  or  into  crystalline  limestone.  This  view, 
which  we  have  called  the  metasomatic  hypothesis,  is,  in  the 
minds  of  many  geologists,  confounded  with  the  metamorphic 
hypothesis  of  Hutton,  of  which  it  is,  to  a  certain  extent,  the 
indispensable  complement. 

§  4.  Of  all  these  hypotheses,  that  of  Werner,  which  considered" 
the  primaeval  chaos  as  a  watery  liquid  holding  in  solution  the 
materials  necessary  for  the  formation  of  all  the  crystalline  rocks, 
appears  to  us  the  one  nearest  the  truth.  It  is  certain,  however, 
that  in  the  present  state  of  our  chemical  knowledge  we  cannot 
admit  the  simultaneous  existence  of  all  these  materials  in  solu- 
tion, even  at  the  elevated  temperature  supposed  by  the  ther- 
mochaotic hypothesis.  We  have,  however,  endeavoured  to 
reconcile  with  known  facts  the  view  that  a  great  part  of  all 
the  primary  rocks,  including  both  the  granites  and  the  crys- 
talline schists,  have  at  one  time  been  in  the  state  of  aqueous 
solution,  through  the  action  of  processes  which  have  operated 
without  cessation  from  the  Primary  period.  This  explanation, 
which  we  have  elsewhere  set  forth  in  detail,  after  a  critical 
examination  of  the  other  hypotheses  already  mentioned,  we  have 
named  the  crenitic  hypothe.-is,  from  the  Greek  Kpfyt],  fountain  or 
spring. 

Starting  from  the  conception  of  a  liquid  globe  of  igneous 
origin,  the  solidification  of  which  commenced  at  the  centre,  we 
find  in  its  exterior  portion — the  last  to  solidify — the  source  of  all 
the  known  terrestrial  rocks  ;  in  other  words,  the  veritable 
mineral  protoplasm.  This  material  we  suppose  to  have  been, 
from  the  time  of  its  superficial  cooling,  exposed  to  the  action  of 
water  and  the  atmospheric  gases,  while  it  was  at  the  same  time 
heated  from  below  by  the  internal  warmth,  and  penetrated  to  a 
greater  or  less  depth  by  watery  solutions.  These,  under  the 
influence  of  the  existing  thermal  differences,  must  have  estab- 
lished a  circulation  between  the  surface  and  the  deeper  portions 
of  the  protoplasmic  mass,  which,  as  the  result  of  crystallization 
and  cooling,  had  already  become  porous.  From  the  abundant 
outflow  of  thermal  waters  thus  produced  is  derived  the  name 
"crenitic,"  given  alike  to  the  mineral  deposits  formed  by  them 
and  to  the  present  hypothesis.  The  action  of  these  waters, 
removing  from  the  protoplasmic  material  silica,  alumina,  and 
potash,  and  bringing  to  it  at  the  same  time  lime,  magnesia,  and 
soda,  must  have  necessarily  altered  by  degrees  the  composition  of 
this  porous  mass,  heated  from  below,  penetrated  by  aqueous 
solutions,  and  rendered  more  or  less  plastic  in  parts.  In  the 
changing  mass,  moreover,  took  place  processes  of  crystallization, 
followed  by  partial  separations  determined  by  differences  in 
specific  gravity  between  the  species  thus  formed.  In  this  way 
were  produced  various  types  of  plutonic  rocks,  which  may  justly 
be  called  Primary,  since  they  are  more  or  less  modified  portions 
of  the  original  protoplasmic  material. 

§  5.  The  dissolving  action  of  the  circulating  waters  continued 
without  interruption  from  a  very  remote  period  in  the  history  of 
the  globe,  and,  extending  eventually  to  depths  equal  to  very 
many  kilometres,  while  giving  rise  to  the  immense  thickness  of 
crenitic  rocks  which  cover  the  surface  of  the  protoplasmic  mass, 
must  necessarily  have  effected  a  great  diminution  therein.  This 
decrease  of  volume  beneath  the  crenitic  covering  must  have 
resulted  in  movements  giving  rise  to  the  more  or  less  marked 
corrugations  everywhere  met  with  in  the  earlier  layers  of  the 
crenitic  envelope — movements  which  have  continued,  though 
with  decreasing  force,  through  all  geological  periods.  Moreover, 
the  accumulated  weight,  alike  of  crenitic  deposits  and  of 
mechanical  sediments,  would  bring  about  at  length  the  displace- 
ment, in  a  plastic  state,  of  poriions  of  the  primitive  mass,  as  well 


520 


NA  TURE 


{Sept.  27,  1888 


as  of  parts  of  the  crenitic  layers  themselves,  in  the  form  of  erup- 
tive rocks,  forming  not  only  plutonic  masses,  but  those  which  we 
have  designated  as  pseiuioplutonic— that  is  to  say,  masses  of 
crenitic  origin  which  present  the  geognostic  characters  of  plutonic 
rocks.  Such  are  apparently  the  trachytes  and  the  truly  eruptive 
granites.  Eruptions  of  these  two  classes  of  rocks  seem  to  have 
been  rare  in  the  more  ancient  periods,  but  in  later  times  they 
have  played  an  important  part  in  the  transfer  of  mineral  matters 
from  the  depths  to  the  surface  of  the  globe,  while  at  the  same 
time  the  crenitic  activity  has  progressively  decreased.  Without 
questioning  the  effect  of  the  slow  contraction  through  the 
secular  cooling  of  the  heated  anhydrous  and  solid  nucleus  of  the 
globe,  we  believe  that  the  diminution  of  volume  of  its  more 
superficial  and  hydrated  portions  by  the  crenitic  process,  a*  well 
as  by  plutonic  eruptions,  has  played  a  very  important  part  in 
geological  dynamics.1 

§  6.  According  to  the  hypothesis  just  set  forth,  it  follows  that 
the  production  alike  of  the  crenitic  and  the  plutonic  rocks,  as  the 
result  of  the  transformations  of  a  primitive  material  presumed  to 
be  of  igneous  origin,  has  been  subjected  to  constant,  regular, 
and  definite  laws.  It  shows,  in  fact,  a  mineralogical  evolution 
which  has  determined  the  order,  the  composition,  and  the  suc- 
cession of  the  crenitic  masses  of  the  terrestrial  crust,  as  well  as 
the  composition  of  the  plutonic  masses  of  the  various  geological 
periods.  In  the  study  of  the  successive  groups  of  crenitic  rocks 
we  must  take  into  account  the  intervention  in  the  crenitic  pro- 
cess alike  of  the  soluble  and  the  insoluble  products  of  the  aerial 
decomposition  both  of  more  ancient  crenitic  rocks  and  of  plutonic 
masses,  as  well  as  the  effects,  both  direct  and  indirect,  of  the 
products  of  organized  beings.  It  results  from  the  influence  of 
all  these  secondary  agencies  which  have  intervened  in  the  course 
of  the  crenitic  process,  that  the  fundamental  granite,  as  the  most 
ancient  crenitic  r^ck,  presents  chaiacters  of  uniformity  and  of 
universality  which  do  not  reappear  in  the  less  ancient  crenitic 
terranes.  These,  in  fact,  already  begin  to  show  indications  of 
a  passage  to  the  new  order  of  things,  and  were  thus,  in  the 
language  of  the  Wernerian  school,  called  Transition  rocks. 

As  a  farther  result  of  this  mineralogical  evolution  in  the  history 
of  the  crenitic  rocks,  we  find  that  certain  aluminiferous  silicates 
rarely  met  with  at  a  given  period,  at  length  become  more 
abundant  and  finally  predominate.  For  this  reason  it  follows 
that  in  the  mineral  kingdom,  as  in  the  organic  kingdoms, 
generalizations  which  have  for  their  object  chronological  classi- 
fications, should  be  founded  upon  the  character  of  a  group  taken 
in  its  integrity,  and  not  upon  the  characters  of  exceptional 
species.  For  the  rest,  ii  is  to  be  remarked  that  non-aluminiferous 
species,  such  as  the  pr  >toxyd  silicates,  quartz,  carbonate  of  lime, 
and  oxides  of  iron  are  found,  with  small  variations,  in  the  crenitic 
masses,  whether  indigenous  or  endogenous,  alike  of  earlier  and 
of  later  periods. 

It  is  evident  that  the  operations  of  solution  and  of  aqueous 
deposition,  as  well  as  those  of  decomposition  and  sub-aerial 
decay,  went  on  in  the  Primary  and  Transition  periods  under 
geographical  conditions  which  did  not  differ  greatly  from  those 
of  the  Secondary  and  Tertiary  periods.  The  marks  of  erosion, 
of  contemporaneous  movements,  and  of  deposition  in  discordant 
stratification  are  met  with  at  different  horizons  in  the  indigenous 
terranes  of  the  Primary  as  well  as  in  those  of  the  Secondary  ages  ; 
offering  iu  both  cases  local  and  accidental  interruptions  of  the 
normal  order  of  mineralogical  development. 

§  7.  The  various  granitic,  quartzose,  and  calcareous  vein- 
stones, including  metalliferous  lodes,  not  less  than  the  veins  and 
geodes  of  zeolitic  minerals,  are  examples  of  endogenous  masses 
formed  by  the  crenitic  process.  The  production  of  zeolites  and 
of  other  silicates  by  the  action  of  thermal  waters,  and  the 
formatiun  of  zeolitic  species  in  the  deep-sea  ooze,  are  examples 
of  the  same  crenitic  action  continued  to  our  own  time.  As  is 
shown  by  the  studies  of  the  action  of  our  modern  thermal 
springs,  the  surrounding  solid  matters  co-operate  with  those  in 
solution  in  the  production  of  new  mineral  species.  We  must 
not  overlook  the  part  which  is  often  played  by  infiltrating  waters 
in  producing  local  transformations  in  sediments,  thereby  giving 
rise  to  the  production  of  crystalline  species  in  the  midst  of 
detrital  rocks.  Pressure  alone  appears  in  certain  cases  to  pro- 
duce similar  results,  all  of  which  cases  are  often  insisted  upon 
in  support  of  the  application  of  the  metamorphicand  metasomatic 
hypotheses  to  the  origin  of  the  primary  rocks. 

1  Besides  the  removal  <  f  all  the  silica  and  alumina  found  in  the  crenitic 
rocks  must  be  added  the  diminution  of  porosity  in  the  protoplas  nic  mass  and 
the  probable  formation  of  more  condensed  species  than  those  or.ginally 
contained  therein.  > 


The  granitic  veins,  composed  essentially  of  orthoclase  and 
quartz,  which  are  found  not  only  among  gneisses  and  mica- 
schists,  but  among  basic  plutonic  rocks  alike  of  Palasozoic  and 
of  Mesozoic  age,1  help  us  to  understand  the  conditions  which 
in  times  of  greater  crenitic  activity  gave  rise  to  the  production 
of  the  gneisses  and  the  fundamental  granite,  both  of  which, 
according  to  our  hypothesis,  are  essentially  neptunian  and 
crenitic  in  their  origin.  These  same  indigenous  and  endo- 
genous crenitic  rocks  have  furnished  the  greater  part  of  the 
materials  for  the  Secondary  rocks.  We  have  already  indicated 
concisely,  in  §  4,  our  explanation  of  the  origin  of  the  true 
plutonic  rocks,  as  the  result  of  modifications  which  have  taken 
place  in  the  midst  of  the  protoplasmic  mass. 

§  8.  We  mu-t  not  lose  sight  of  the  important  part  played  by 
water  in  plutonic  and  volcanic  phenomena,  nor  the  fact  that  it  can 
exist  under  strong  pressure,  at  high  temperatures,  in  combination 
with  silicated  rocks.  From  this  union  there  result  hydrated 
compounds,  which  are  mope  fusible  than  the  anhydrous  rocks, 
and  which  are  decomposed  in  the  transformations  that  take 
place  during  the  cooling,  with  diminution  of  pressure,  which 
accompanies  the  eruption  of  these  materials.  The  water  thus 
set  at  liberty  may  be  disengaged  in  the  form  of  vapour,  and  with 
it  certain  other  volatile  matters  which  are  met  with  in  volcanic 
emanations.  In  other  cases,  however,  m  der  a  high  pressure 
still  maintained,  and  at  a  temperature  above  the  critical  point  of 
vaporization,  the  water  may  be  liberated  in  the  state  of  a  dense 
polymeric  vapour,  holding  in  solution,  in  accordance  with  late 
observations,  mineral  matters,  which,  through  cooling,  are  at 
length  deposited  either  from  the  vapour  itself  or  from  the  liquid 
resulting  from  its  condensation,  in  the  form  of  crystalline  species. 
Superheated  aqueous  vapours  may  thus  play  a  part  closely  akin 
to  that  of  thermal  waters,  and  one  which  must  be  regarded  as 
itself  belonging  to  the  crenitic  process. 

The  greater  part  of  the  questions  here  noticed  have  already  been 
discussed  in  detail  by  the  author  in  his  volume  entitled  "Mineral 
Physiology  and  Physiography  "  (Boston,  1886).  especially  in  the 
three  chapters  on  the  Origin,  the  Genetic  History,  and  the 
Decay  of  Crystalline  Rocks  (pp.  68-277.) 

II. 

§  9.  In  another  chapter  of  the  volume  just  mentioned  the 
author  treats  of  the  History  of  l're-Cambrian  Rocks  (pp. 
402-25),  and  endeavours  to  resume  in  a  few  pages  the  results 
of  his  attempts  through  a  period  of  forty  years  to  arrive  at  a 
subdivision  and  a  nomenclature  of  these  terranes,  which  com- 
prise both  the  Primary  and  the  Transition  systems  of  Werner. 
It  must  suffice  for  the  present  to  indicate  in  a  succinct  manner 
the  conclusions  already  reached. 

I.  Laurentian.  —  Under  this  name,  proposed  and  adopted 
by  the  author  in  1854,  is  included  the  ancient  gneissic  terrane 
met  with  in  the  Laurentide  and  the  Adirondack  Mountains,  as 
well  as  in  parts  of  the  great  Atlantic  belt,  and  in  the  Rocky 
Mountains  in  central  North  America.  To  this  same  series  the 
author  has  also  referred  the  similar  gneisses  of  Great  Britain 
and  of  Scandinavia,  as  well  as  the  ancient  or  central  gneiss  of 
the  Alps.  Beginning  with  our  first  studies  in  Canada  in  1847, 
we  indicated  the  existence  in  this  ancient  gneissic  system  of  two 
subdivisions,  the  lower  being  described  as  consisting  of  granitoid 
gneiss  (to  be  confounded  with  the  fundamental  granite),  to 
which  succeeds  (in  discordant  stratification)  another  gneissic 
series,  also  granitoid,  and  frequently  hornblendic,  with  which 
are  intercalated  quartzites  and  crystalline  limestones,  often  with 
serpentine.  These  two  subdivisions,  which  we  may  provisionally 
call  Lower  Laurentian  and  Upper  Laurentian,  have  been  de- 
scribed respectively  as  the  Ottawa  gneiss  and  the  Grenville 
series.  To  prevent  any  misconception,  it  should  be  noted  that 
the  name  of  Upper  Laurentian  was  for  a  time  given  by  Logan 
to  the  terrane  subsequently  designated  Labradorian,  and  after- 
wards dorian.  It  is  therefore  by  a  mistake  that  some  have 
wished  to  retain  as  the  designation  of  the  upper  division  of  the 
Laurentian  terrane,  the  name  of  Middle  Laurentian. 

1  We  have  elsewhere  described  the  granitic  veins  inclosed  in  the  diabases 
which  themselves  traverse  the  Ordovician  limestones  of  Montreal  in 
Canada.  These  veins,  having  sometimes  a  thickness  of  three  decimetres,  are 
coaisely  crystalline  and  drusy,  and.  besides  quanz  and  orth.clase,  contain,  as 
accidental  minerals,  sodaltte,  nephelite,  cancrinite,  amphibole,  acmite. 
biotite,  and  magnetite.  Veins  composed  essentially  of  pink  orthoclase  and 
quartz,  often  ace  mpanied  by  zeolitic  minerals,  are  found  in  similar  con- 
ditions inclosed  in  the  diabases  which  are  contemporaneous  with  the 
Mesozoic  sandstonesof  Hoboken,  near  New  York  In  both  cases  the  endo- 
genous and  crenitic  origin  of  the  granitic  veins  does  not  admit  of  any  doubt. 
See  for  details  the  author's  ''Mineral  Physio'ogy  and  Physiography" 
(Boston,  1886),  pp.  121-37. 


Sept.  27,  1888] 


NATURE 


521 


II.  Nor ian. — The  terrane  thus  designated  by  the  author  in 
1870  is  composed  in  great  part  of  those  stratiform  rocks  having 
a  base  of  anorthic  feldspars,  to  which  has  been  given  the  name 
of  norite.  This  terrane,  however,  includes  intercalated  strata  of 
gneiss,  of  quartzite,  and  of  crystalline  limestone,  all  of  which 
resemble  closely  those  of  the  Upper  Laurentian.  These  norite 
rocks,  which  are  sometimes  called  gabbros,  are  not  to  be  con- 
founded with  the  very  distinct  gabbros  of  the  Huronian  terrane. 
nor  yet  with  certain  plutonic  rocks  having  with  them  certain 
mineralogical  resemblances.  The  facies  of  the  norites  serves  to 
distinguish  them. 

III.  Arvonian. — This  terrane  is  composed  in  great  part  of 
petrosiliceous  rocks,  which  pass  into  quartziferous  porphyries. 
With  them,  however,  are  intercalated  certain  hornblendic  rocks, 
sericitic  schists,  quartzites,  oxides  of  iron,  and,  more  rarely, 
crystalline  limestone.  Th  s  terrane,  indicated  for  the  first  time 
as  distinct  by  Dr.  Henry  Hicks,  in  Wales,  in  1878,  and  named 
by  him,  is  regarded  by  Mr.  Charles  Hitchcock  as  constituting 
in  North  America  the  lower  portion  of  the  Huronian. 

IV.  Huronian. — This  name  was  given  by  the  author  in 
1855  to  a  terrane  already  recognized  in  North  America,  where 
it  rests  in  discordant  stratification  either  upon  the  Laurentian 
gneiss  or  upon  the  Arvonian  petrosilex.  It  includes,  besides 
quaitzose,  epidotic,  chloritic,  and  calcareous  schists,  masses  of 
serpentine,  and  of  lherzolite,  together  with  euphotides,  which 
represent  heroin  the  norites  of  the  Norian  terrane,  often  con- 
founded with  them  under  the  common  name  of  gabbro.  This 
Huronian  terrane  is  greatly  developed  in  the  Alps,  where  it 
constitutes  the  series  of  the  greenstones  ox  pietre  verdi. 

V.  Montalban. — The  studies  of  von  Hauer  in  the  Eastern 
Alps,  published  in  1868,  and  those  of  Gerlach  on  the  Western 
Alps,  published  in  the  year  following,  agree  in  recognizing  in 
these  regions  two  gneissic  terranes — namely,  an  older  or  ancient 
central  gneiss,  and  a  younger  or  recent  gneiss  ;  this  last,  which  is 
petrographically  very  distinct  from  the  old  gneiss,  being  accom- 
panied by  micaceous  and  hornblendic  schists.  The  studies  of 
Gastaldi,  published  in  1871,  and  those  of  Neri,  in  1874,  while 
confirming  the  results  of  von  Hauer  and  of  Gerlach,  furnish  us 
with  further  details  respecting  these  terranes  and  their  litho- 
logical  characters.  It  should  here  be  remarked  that  all  of  these 
observers  appear  to  agree  in  placing  the  horizon  of  the  pietre 
verdi  (Huronian)  between  the  ancient  gneiss  (Laurentian)  and 
the  recent  gneiss. 

Before  becoming  acquainted  with  the  first  results  of  these 
observers,  the  writer,  from  his  own  studies  in  North  America, 
was  led  to  precisely  similar  conclusions,  and  in  1870  announced 
the  existence  of  a  series  of  younger  gneisses  very  distinct  from 
the  old  Laurentian  gneisses,  and  accompanied  by  crystalline 
limestones  and  by  micaceous  and  hornblendic  schists.  To  this 
younger  terrane,  on  account  of  its  great  development  in  the 
White  Mountains  of  New  Hampshire,  he  gave  in  1871  the 
name  of  Montalban.  This  series  appears  to  be  identical  with 
the  younger  gneiss  of  the  Alps  ;  the  so-called  Hercynian  gneisses 
and  mica  schists  of  Bavaria ;  the  granulites,  with  dichroite- 
gneiss,  mica-schists,  and  lherzolite  of  the  Erzgebirge  in  Saxony  ; 
and  similar  rocks  in  the  Scottish  Highlands.  The  Mont- 
alban terrane  in  North  America  contains  not  only  crystalline 
limestones,  but  beds  of  lherzolite  and  of  serpentine,  resembling 
in  this  respect  the  Huronian  and  the  Laurentian.  It  is  in  this 
series,  in  North  America  at  least,  that  are  found  the  chief  part 
of  the  veins  or  endogenous  masses  of  granite,  which  carry 
beryl,  tourmaline,  and  the  ores  of  tin,  of  uranium,  of  tantalum, 
and  of  niobium. 

Gastaldi,  in  an  essay  published  in  1874,,  declares  that  "the 
pietre  verdi  properly  so  called"  is  found  between  "  the  ancient 
porphyroid  and  fundamental  gneiss "  and  "the  recent  gneiss, 
which  latter  is  finer-grained  and  more  quartzose  than  the  other." 
This  younger  gneiss  he  also  describes  as  a  gneissic  mica-schist, 
and  as  a  very  micaceous  gneiss  passing  into  mica-schist,  and  often 
hornblendic;  the  two  gneissic  series  being,  according  to  him, 
easily  distinguished  the  one  from  the  other.  To  these  two  divi- 
sions, superior  to  the  ancient  gneiss — that  is  to  say,  the  tme 
pietre  verdi  and  the  younger  gneiss — Gastaldi  adds  a  third  division, 
still  more  recent.  This  highest  division  contains  considerable 
masses  of  strata  called  by  him  argillaceous  schists,  and  other- 
wise lustrous,  lalcose,  micaceous,  and  sericitic  schists.  Asso- 
ciated with  these  are  also  found  quartzites,  statuary  and 
cipolin  marbles,  with  dolomite,  karstenite,  and  sometimes  horn- 
blendic rocks  and  serpentines,  the  presence  of  which  in  this 
division,  and  also  among  the  recent  gneisses,  as  well  as  "in  the 


pietre  verdi  proper,"  was  regarded  by  Gastaldi  as  justifying  the 
name  of  "the  pietre  verdi  zone,"  often  given  by  him  to  the 
whole  of  this  tripie  group  of  crystalline  schists,  which  he  recog- 
nized as  younger  than  the  central  gneiss.1 

VI.  Taconian. — This  third  division,  to  which  Gastaldi  did 
not  give  a  distinctive  name,  has,  as  is  well  known,  a  very  in- 
teresting history  in  Italian  geology.  A  terrane  having  the  same 
horizon  and  the  same  mineralogical  characters  is  found  developed 
on  a  grand  scale  in  North  America,  where  it  includes  quartzites, 
often  schistose,  and  sometimes  flexible  and  elastic,  with  crystal- 
line limestones  yielding  both  statuary  and  cipolin  marbles.  It 
also  contains  deposits  of  magnetite  and  of  hematite,  as  well  as 
important  masses  of  limonite,  which  is  epigenic  in  some  cases  of 
pyrites,  and  in  others  of  chalybite,  two  species  which  form,  by 
themselves,  large  masses  in  the  undecayed  strata.  This  same 
terrane  contains,  moreover,  roofing-slates,  as  well  as  lustrous 
unctuous  schists,  ordinarily  holding  damourite,  sericite,  or  pyro- 
phyllite,  but  including,  occasionally,  chlorite,  steatite,  and  horn- 
blendic rocks  with  serpentine  and  ophicalcite.  We  also  find 
among  these  schists,  which  are  met  with  at  several  horizons  in 
the  terrane,  layers  which  are  visibly  feldspathic,  with  others  of 
ill-defined  character,  which,  however,  are  converted  into  kaolin 
by  sub-aerial  decay.  These  same  schists  furnish  remarkable 
crystals  of  rutile,  and  also  tourmaline,  cyanite,  staurolite,  garnet, 
and  pyroxene.  This  terrane,  which,  moreover,  appears  to  be 
diamond-bearing,  was  described  in  1859  by  the  late  Oscar 
Lieber,  under  the  name  of  the  Itacolumitic  group.  Eaton 
already,  in  1832,  had  pi  iced  the  quartzites  and  the  limestones, 
which  form  the  lower  members  of  this  group,  in  the  Primitive 
division.  The  argillites  in  the  upper  part  of  the  group  were 
regarded  as  the  inferior  member  of  his  Transition  division,  and 
were,  according  to  him,  overlain  unconformably  by  the  fossili- 
ferous  graywacke  (First  Graywacke),  made  the  upper  member  of 
this  same  Transition  division.  In  1842,  Ebenezer  Emmons  in- 
cluded in  what  he  then  named  the  'Laconic  system  the  whole 
of  this  crystalline  series,  to  which  he  added  the  graywacke  ;  but 
in  1844  he  separated  this  latter,  in  which  he  had  meanwhile 
found  a  trilobitic  fauna,  and  gave  it  the  name  of  Upper  Taconic  ; 
the  inferior  and  crystalline  portions  being  the  Lower  Taconic. 
Many  years  of  study  have  shown  me  that  this  upper  division  is 
entirely  independent  of  the  Lower  Taconic,  with  which  the 
fossil iferous  graywacke  series  is  found  in  contact  only  in  certain 
localities,  while  in  many  others  it  rests  directly  upon  more 
ancient  crystalline  terranes.  Seeing,  morever,  that  the  Lower 
Taconic  is  found  without  this  graywacke,  in  a  great  number  of 
localities,  from  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  as  far  as  Alabama 
to  the  south,  and  as  far  as  Lake  Superior  to  the  west  ;  and 
recognizing  also  the  fact  that  the  Upper  Taconic  is  really  a 
part  of  the  Cambrian  (as  was  avowed  by  Emmons  himself  in 
i860),  the  author  proposed  in  1878  to  limit  the  use  of  the  term 
Taconic  to  the  crystalline  infra-Cambrian  series  which  forms  the 
Lower  Taconic  of  Emmons  and  the  Itacolumitic  group  of  Lieber, 
and  to  call  it  the  Taconian  terrane. 

The  history  of  the  various  attempts  made  by  the  partisans  of 
the  metamorphic  school  to  establish  a  more  recent  origin  for  the 
Taconian  is  a  curious  one.  Various  American  geologists,  adopt- 
ing for  the  most  part  stratigraphical  arguments,  have  successively 
referred  it  to  the  Cambrian,  Ordovician,  Silurian,  Carboniferous, 
and  Triassic  horizons.  It  is,  however,  to  be  noted  that  these 
same  geologists  have  also  maintained  the  Palaeozoic  age  of  the 
greater  part  of  the  other  crystalline  terranes  of  North  America, 
comprising  the  Montalban,  the  Huronian,  the  Arvonian,  and  a 
part  of  the  Laurentian  itself.  The  want  of  any  conception  of  the 
principle  of  mineralogical  development  in  the  history  of  the 
crystalline  schists,  conjoined  with  the  difficulties  arising  from  the 
stratigraphical  complications  met  with  at  many  points  along  the 
eastern  border  of  the  great  North  American  Palaeozoic  basin,  has 
helped  to  confirm  the  belief  of  many  American  geologists  in  the 
hypotheses  of  the  metamorphic  and  metasomatic  s:hools.3 

§  10.  The  mineralogical  resemblances  which  exist  between  the 
various  crystalline  terranes  above  mentioned  are  easily  recognized. 

1  This  question  is  discussed  at  length  by  the  writer  ("  Mineral  Physiology 
and  Physiography."  pp.  457-96)  in  a  study  of  the  geology  of  the  Alps  and 
the  Apennines,  and  of  the  serpentines  of  Italy.  See  als  >  his  paper  on 
"  Gastaliii  and  Italian  Geology,"  containing  a  hitherto  unpublished  letter 
from  Gasnldi,  in  the  Geological  Magazine  for  December  1887. 

2  The  reader  who  wishes  to  follow  this  question  will  find  it  discussed  with 
much  detail  in  the  volume  already  cited  "Mineral  Physiology  and  Physio- 
graphy "  (pp.  517-686)  under  the  title  of  "  The  Taconic  Question  in  Geology." 
It  is  also  treated,  with  some  new  facts,  in  the  American  Naturalist  for 
February,  March,  and  April,  1887,  in  an  article  entitled  "  The  Taconic 
Question  Restated." 


522 


NA  TURE 


[Sept.  27,  1888 


The  type  of  rocks  characterized  by  orthoclase,  appearing  in  the 
fundamental  granite  and  the  granitoid  gneisses  of  the  Lauren- 
tian,  is  again  found  in  the  quartziferous  porphyries  of  the 
Arvonian,  in  the  Montalban  gneisses,  and,  though  less  distinctly, 
in  the  feldspathic  rocks  of  the  Taconian.  The  non-magnesian 
micas,  rare  in  the  fundamental  granite  and  the  Laurentian 
gneisses,  appear  abundantly  in  the  Montalban  gneisses  and  mica- 
schists,  as  well  as  in  the  lustrous  schists  which  are  found  in  the 
Huronian  and  the  Taconian,  and  which  predominate  in  the 
latter.  It  is  further  to  be  remarked  that  the  simple  silicates  of 
alumina,  such  as  andalusite,  cyanite,  fibrolite,  and  pyrophyllite, 
as  yet  unknown  in  the  more  ancient  terrane=,  are  abundant  in 
the  Montalban,  and  are  also  found  in  the  Taconian.  At  the 
same  time,  crystalline  limestones,  oxides  of  iron,  and  calcareous 
and  magne=ian  silicates,  are  met  with  in  every  terrane  above  the 
fundamental  granite. 

The  chemical  and  mineralogical  differences  between  these 
various  terranes  are  more  remarkable  than  the  resemblances,  a 
fact  which,  however,  has  not  prevented  some  observers  from 
confounding  the  younger  with  the  older  gneisses.  Again,  the 
resemblances  between  the  Huronian  and  Taconian  terranes  led 
the  late  Prof.  Kerr,  in  North  Carolina  to  refer  the  latter  terrane 
to  the  Huronian.  Moreover,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Lakes  Superior 
and  Huron,  where  we  find  alike  Laurentian,  Nr.rian,  Huronian, 
Montalban,  .and  Taconian,  the  outcrops  of  this  last  were  con- 
founded with  the  Huronian  by  Murray  and  by  other  observers. 
In  1873,  however,  the  author,  distinguishing  between  the  two, 
gave  to  the  Taconian  in  this  region  the  provisional  name  of  the 
Animikie  series.  It  was  not  until  later  that  he  recognized  the 
fact  that  this  series,  which  is  here  found  in  certain  localities 
resting  unconformably  upon  the  Huronian,  is  no  other  than  the 
Taconian.  Emmons,  on  the  contrary,  who  had  long  known  the 
existence  in  this  region  of  what  he  called  the  Lower  Taconic, 
believed  that  the  terrane  to  which  the  author  gave,  in  1855,  the 
name  of  Huronian,  was  identical  with  this  same  Lower  Taconic 
or  Taconian.  The  differences  between  these  two  terranes  in  the 
basin  of  Lake  Superior,  first  noted  by  Logan  and  later  by  the 
author,  are  clearly  brought  out  by  the  recent  studies  of 
Rominger. 

Upon  all  these  different  terranes,  including  the  Taconian, 
there  rests  in  discordant  stratification  in  this  region  a  vast  series 
of  sandstones  and  conglomerates,  with  contemporary  basic  plu- 
tonic  rocks,  the  whole  remarkable  by  the  presence  of  metallic 
copper.  This  series,  which  had  been  alternately  confounded 
with  the  Huronian  and  the  Taconian  on  the  one  hand,  and  with 
the  trilobitic  sandstones  of  the  Cambrian  on  the  other,  was  for  the 
first  time  separated  by  the  author  in  1873,  under  the  name  of  the 
Keweenaw  group,  a  term  changed  by  him  in  1876  to  that  of  the 
Keweenian  terrane.  It  still  remains  to  be  decided  whether  this 
series,  upon  which  rest  unconformably  these  same  trilobitic  sand- 
stones, should  form  a  part  of  the  Cambrian,  or  should  constitute 
a  distinct  terrane  between  the  Taconian  and  the  Cambrian. 

§  11.  In  submitting  to  his  colleagues  of  the  International  Geo- 
logical Congres?  this  summary  of  his  conclusions,  based  on  over 
forty  years  of  study,  the  author  takes  the  liberty  to  state  that  the 
notions  here  advanced  as  to  the  origin,  the  chemical  and  minera- 
logical history,  the  subdivision,  and  the  nomenclature  of  crystal- 
line rocks,  are  for  the  most  part  the  generalizations  of  a  single 
observer.  He  now  offers  them  as  a  first  attempt  at  a  classifica- 
tion of  the  indigenous  rocks,  and  at  the  same  time  as  an  exposi- 
tion of  his  crenitic  hypothesis,  and  of  the  mineralogical  evolution  of 
the  globe,  which  he  conceives  to  have  determined  the  succession 
and  the  chemical  nature  of  the  masses  which  he  has  named 
crenitic,  as  well  as  those  of  plutonic  masses.  He  feels  at  the 
same  time  that  his  work  is  far  from  complete,  and  that  to  others 
must  now  be  left  the  task  of  correcting  and  finishing  it. 

As  a  large  part  of  these  results,  so  far  as  regards  geognostic 
classification,  appeared  for  the  first  time  in  the  Reports  of  the 
Geological  Survey  of  Canada,  the  author  may  be  permitted  to 
say,  in  closing,  that  the  first  publications  made  by  that  Geo- 
logical Survey  on  the  crystalline  rocks  of  Canada — that  is  to  say, 
the  reports  of  progress  for  the  years  1845  and  1846,  were  pre- 
pared by  him,  and  published  in  1847,  from  the  notes  and  the 
collections  made  by  Logan  and  by  Murray  in  the  two  years 
previous.  Moreover,  all  the  statements  relating  to  the  minera- 
logy, the  lithology,  or  the  chemical  composition  of  the  rocks 
of  Canada,  which  are  found  in  the  official  reports  from  1847  to 
1872,  when  the  author  resigned  his  position  as  a  member  of  the 
Geological  Survey  of  Canada,  were  written  bv  him  or  under  his 
personal  direction.        .  T.  Sterry  Hunt. 


SOME  QUESTIONS  CONNECTED  WITH  THE 
PROBLEM  PRESENTED  BY  THE  CRYS- 
TALLINE SCHISTS,  TOGETHER  WITH 
CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  THEIR  SOLUTION 
FROM   THE  PALAEOZOIC  FORMA  TIONS.1 

'T",HE  question  of  the  "crystalline  schists"  still  presents  so 
many  unsolved  difficulties,  and  the  views  of  contempo- 
raneous fellow-workers  diverge  herein  so  widely,  that  an 
attempt  at  unanimous  agreement  on  the  points  at  issue  must  at 
present  be  regarded  as  premature.  This  assuredly  does  not 
prevent  our  taking  counsel  together,  interchanging  observations, 
and  endeavouring  to  gain  solid  ground,  whence  a  future  solution 
can  be  aimed  at.  Each  geologist  will  approach  such  a  con- 
sultation in  a  way  differing  in  accordance  with  his  own 
experience. 

I  can  only  contribute  experience  gained  by  the  study  of  the 
metamorphic  crystalline  schists,  belonging  to  the  PaLcozoic 
formations,  that  have  been  proved  to  have  resulted)  from  the 
action  of  contact  or  dynamic  metamorphism  on  eruptive  or 
stratified  rocks,  the  latter  including  the  tuffs.  The  direct  appli- 
cation of  this  experience  to  all  Arcrnean  crystalline  schists 
appears  to  me  premature— i.e.  rather  a  thema  probandum  than 
probatum.  Doubtless  there  are  cases — as,  for  instance,  in  the 
so-called  flasergabbros  or  zobtenites,  which,  apparently,  must  be 
regarded  as  quite  analogous  to  the  alteration  of  the  diabases  in 
the  Pala'ozoic  formations.  Indeed,  the  same  essential  features 
which  Lehmann  has  described  in  the  development  of  the  Saxon 
"flasergabbros"  have  been  demonstrated  by  Teall  in  the  Lizard 
gabbros,  G.  H.  Williams  in  the  Baltimore  gabbros,  and  Hans 
H.  Reusch  in  Norway.  But  Hans  H.  Reusch  also  mentions 
bedded  gabbros^  as  well  as  eruptive  flasergabbros,  differing  thus 
from  Lehmann  ;  while  Credner  and  Roth  appear  by  no  means 
willing  to  concede  all  that  is  contained  in  Lehmann's  book. 
This  fundamental  difference  must,  however,  be  noticed  :  Lehmann 
holds  the  Archaean  schists  half  for  metamorphosed  sediments, 
half  for  interbedded  or  injected  eruptive  rocks  ;  and  although  I 
cannot  agree  with  or  follow  Lehmann  in  every  detail  (and,  above 
all,  lay  more  stress  upon  the  altered  tuffs),  still  on  the  whole  I 
can  but  support  him  in  this  view.  Roth,  on  the  other  hand, 
holds  all  the  Archaean  crystalline  schists— limestones,  quartzite, 
gneiss,  mica-schist,  amphibolite,  &c. — for  schistose,  plutonic 
(only  in  form  not  eruptive)  rocks  {Erstarrungskrusle) ;  finally, 
Credner  holds  the  majority  of  the  crystalline  schists,  including 
granite-gneiss  and  flaser-gabbro,  for  the  normal  stratified  sedi- 
ments of  a  primeval  ocean,  their  crystalline  nature  being  essentially 
not  due  to  metamorphism. 

I  have  dwelt  thus  at  length  on  this  point  in  order  to  demon- 
strate that  there  exist  numerous  controversies  even  on  those 
questions  that  admit  of  solution  by  reason  of  the  most  undoubted 
pseiidomorphic  changes  (hornblende  after  diallage,  hypersthene, 
augite  ;  zoisite,  epidote,  actinolite,  quartz,  albite  after  lime-soda 
feldspar),  and  by  reason  of  the  presence  of  the  01  iginal  eruptive 
structure. 

My  stand -point  is  identical  with  that  expressed  by  Carl 
Friedrich  Naumann  in  the  following  words  :  My  task  above  all 
else  is  to  study  the  metamorphism,  with  respect  both  to  substance 
and  to  structure,  ofthefossiliferous  sediments  and  the  eruptive  rocks, 
together  with  the  tuffs  intercalated  therein.  Much  has  already 
been  done,  especially  with  respect  to  contact-metamorphism, 
which  is  more  sharply  defined  than  regional  or  dynamic  meta- 
morphism. There  remains,  however,  much  to  answer,  es- 
pecially as  the  primary  structures  of  original  schistose  eruptive 
rocks  and  the  structure  and  substance  of  certain  very  common 
sedimentary  rocks  (as,  for  instance,  the  greywackes,  the  so- 
called  gieywacke-schists,  or  the  majority  of  the  tuffs)  are 
still  too  little  known  to  afford  a  firm  basis  for  the  study  of 
metamorphic  processes. 

Still  the  detailed  solution  of  the  following  question  would  be 
of  no  little  value  for  the  study  of  the  Archaean  schists  :  — 

(1)  What  material  agreement  or  difference  exists  between  the 

1  "  Einige  Fragen  zur  Losung  des  Problems  der  krystallinischen  Schiefer, 
nebst  Beitiagen  zu  deren  Beantwortung  aus  dem  Palaoz^icum,"  von  Prof. 
Dr.  R.  A.  Lossen.  "  Etudes  sur  les  Schistes  cristallins,"  1888.  Published 
by  the  International  Geological  Congress  in  London,  1888.  (Translated  from 
the  German  by  Dr.  F.  H.  Hatch.) 

2  Giving  a  s  mewhat  wide  meaning  to  the  word  "gabbro";  he  now  says, 
"dioritic  rock,"  "altered  gabbro  and  diabase."  In  the  Hartz  the  interest-. 
ing  gabbro-district  of  Hartzburg  presents,  among  numerous  other  varieties, 
some  which  show  layers  alternately  richer  in  plagioclase  and  diallage  (bronzite) 
or  present  _/?rt.tcr-structure  with  biotite.  and  possess  thus  a  bedded-like  but 
1  ot  a  true  I  edited  parallel  structure.     These  r^cks  are  true  erupiive  gabbros. 


Sept.  27,  1 888 J 


NATURE 


523 


results  of  metamorphism  due  to  the  contact  of  granite  with 
fossiliferous  sediments  and  the  eruptive  rocks  intercalated 
therein,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Archaean  schists  on  the  other? 
For  such  a  comparison  useful  data  are  furnished  by  the 
Hartz.  These  mountains,  consisting  of  fossiliferous  sediments 
and  the  most  diversified  eruptive  rocks,  already  plicated  at 
the  Coal-measure  period,  represent  a  fairly  average  section 
of  the  earth's  crust,  i.e.  although  there  is  no  axis  of  crystalline 
schists,  the  strata,  together  with  diabases,  keratophyres,  and 
the  accompanying  tuffs,  are  considerably  depressed  between 
highly  elevated  plutonic  rocks  (granite,  gabbro,  &c). 

The  contact-zones  around  the  gabbro  and  granite  present  the 
following  authigenic  minerals  :  quartz,  orthoclase,  albite, 
plagioclase,  biotite,  muscovite,  hornblende,  actinolite,  augite, 
bronzite,  chlorite,  epidote,  garnet,  vesuvian,  tourmaline,  axinite, 
wollastor.ite,  cordierite,  sphene,  spinel,  andaludte,  rutile,  mag- 
netite, hematite,  titaniferous  iron  ore,  magnetic  pyrites  (pyrro- 
thine),  and  other  sulphur  ores,  calcite,  fluorite,  apatite  ;  and  con- 
tinued investigations  will  easily  add  others  to  the  list,  as,  for 
instance,  anatase,  zoisite,  lithionite,  lepidolite,  corundum,  silli- 
manite,  cyanite,  graphite — indeed,  the  four  last-mentioned 
minerals  have  already  been  detected  in  certain  mineral  aggrega- 
tions in  post-granitic  dykes  of  the  Hartz,  that  probably  are  to  be 
referred  to  metamorphic  influence.  But  not  only  do  these  minerals 
show  great  resemblance  to  thosi  which  are  most  frequently  present 
in  ArcJucau  crystalline  schists ;  their  combination  to  definite- 
mineral  aggregates  and  rocks  also  makes  the  analogy  even  more 
complete.  In  the  normal  gneisses,  which  are  derived,  with  great 
diversity  of  structure,  from  the  culm-greywaekes  and  the  grey- 
wacke  schists  0/  the  Oberhartz,  in  contact  with  granite  and  gabbro, 
are  intercalated  cordierite-  and  garnet-gneisses  and  augite-  {or 
bronzite-)  bearing  gneisses,  which  are  produced  by  the  alteration  of 
schistose  and  calcareous  sediments.  Saccharoidal  quartziles  are 
clearly  produced  by  the  recrystallization  of  Carboniferous  or 
Devonian  lydites  (Kieselschiefer)  ;  and  it  is  very  difficult  to  dis- 
tinguish these  from  rocks  produced  by  the  contact-metamorphism 
of  nearly  pure  quartz-sandstone  (Quarzitsandsleine).  Horn- 
stones  (corneenue),  which  contain  garnet,  amphibole,  augite  (or 
bronzite),  schorl,  andalusite,  apatite,  as  well  as  orthoclase  and 
plagioclase,  are  found  replacing  mica-schists  and  phyllites.  The 
thin  limestone-seams  in  the  Leaver  Devonian  (Hercynian),  Upper 
Devonian,  and  the  Culm-measure?,  are  partly  metamorphosed 
to  compact  or  phanero-crystalline  "  lime-silicate-hornstones," 
containing  garnet  or  other  allied  silicates — vesuvian,  epidote, 
malacolite,  cordierite,  amphibole,  sphene,  &c. ,  in  places  also 
fluorite  or  axinite,  and  corresponding  to  the  garnet-rocks, 
epidote-rocks,  pyroxenites,  ecklogites,  &c,  of  the  Archaean 
formation. 

In  part,  however,  they  have  undergone  marmorosis,  while 
being  impregnated  with  garnet  or  other  silicates  and  locally 
with  ores  ;  even  anthraconite  is  not  altogether  absent  from  these 
marbles.  Amphibolites  are  in  part  also  derived  from  calcareous 
sediments ;  those,  however,  that  contain  felspar  (plagioclase) 
in  any  essential  quantity  can  be  demonstrated  to  result  from 
the  contact-metamorphism  of  pre-granilic,  Devonian,  ami  Car- 
boniferous diabases  that  have  been  plicated  and  metamorphosed  in 
common  zvith  the  strata.  Further,  there  are,  in  the  granite  and 
gabbro  contact-zones,  alteration- products  of  the  diabase  that  are 
rich  in  biotite  ;  and  other  pre-granitic  eruptive  masses,  such  as  the 
augite- keratophyres  and  the  augite-orthophyres,  show  a  great 
abundance  of  biotite,  which  is  associated  with  a  recrystallization 
of  the  orthoclase  and  of  a  part  of  the  augite.  This  biotite  is 
certainly  developed  at  the  expense  of  chlorite  derived  from 
auyite  or  primary  hornblende. 

Schistose  rocks  with  more  abundant  biotite,  that  are  locally 
present  among  the  more  dominant  massive  rocks,  bear  the 
strongest  resemblance  to  garnetiferous  mica-schists.  In  the 
porphyroids  of  the  Hartz,  which  occur  both  within  and  without 
the  contact-zones,  we  mainly  find  sericitic  muscovite ;  beyond 
the  contact-zone  it  occurs  in  such  abundance  as  to  produce  very 
schistose  sericite  rocks,  which,  on  the  other  hand,  are  here  also 
derived  directly  from  the  porphyritic  massive  rocks.  These 
porphyroids  I  regard,  from  my  present  stand-point,  as  the 
metamorphosed  pre-granitic  tuffs  of  quartz-keratophyres  and 
quartz-porphyries.  To  these  tuffs  are  perhaps  related  certain 
hornstones,  very  rich  in  orthoclase,  which  occur  in  the  granite 
contact-zone  with  Devonian  and  Carboniferous  siliceous  schists 
(equivalents  of  Adinole  ?). 
Other  questions  are  : — 
(2)  What  differences  exist  in  the  order  of  crystallization  of  the 


minerals    which    compose    granites,    quartz-diorites,    gabbrds, 
diabasec,  in  short  holo-  and  phanero-crystalline  eru|  tive  rocks, 
and  that  of  the  secondary  minerals   produced  in  the  contact' 
1  metamorphism  of  these  eruptive  rocks? 

This   question  must  \s  the  more  carefully  answered,  as,  in 
I  spite  of  the  rich  material  so  excellently  collected  and  cleverly 
•  arranged  for  the  use  of  science  by  H.   Rosenbusch,  the  order 
I  of  crystallization  of  the  eruptive  rocks  is  not  yet   firmly  estab- 
lished.    A  certain  degree  of  regularity  is  undeniable  ;  but,  on 
the  one  hand,  the  chemical  law  is,  as  Ligorio  has  demonstrated, 
more  intricate  than  that  formulated  by  Rosenbusch  ;  and  on  the 
other,  the  order  varies  quite  unaccountably  with  alterations  in 
the  physical  conditions  of  consolidation   (compare  granite  and 
pegmatite). 

(3)  Is  the  ophitic  (diabase-)  structure  under  all  circumstances  the 
structure  of  an  eruptive  rock,  or  are  there  undoubted  sedimentary 
rocks  possessing  a  similar  structure? 

(4)  It  has  been  proved  that  graphic  granite,  as  micro-  and  macro- 
pegmatite,  forms  an  integral  part  of  true  eruptive  rocks,  espe- 
cially of  granite  and  its  porphyritic  modification.  Since  graphic 
granite  is  very  common  among  the  gneisses,  the  question  arises 
whether  it  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  true  eruptive  rock,  or  whether 
such  occurrences  can  be  proved  to  have  been  produced  by 
thermal  action,  or  even  lateral  secretion,  in  the  sense  of  a  partial 
solution  of  the  neighbouring  rocks. 

Even  if  it  be  admitted  that  all  minerals  can  be  produced,  by  a 
suitable  variation  of  the  conditions,  either  by  consolidati  >n,  by 
separation  from  aqueous  solutions,  or  by 'sublimation,  still  it 
does  not  follow,  to  my  mind,  that  all  the  structures  that  com- 
bine minerals  to  regular  aggregates,  can  be  produced  in  like 
manner  in  these  three  modes  of  formation.  It  seems  to  me  that 
such  structures  — as,  for  instance,  the  ophitic  (diabasic)  or  the 
pegmatitic  (to  say  nothing  of  the  structures  which  are  deve- 
loped in  rocks  containing  glass  or  other  base) — that  have  been 
demonstrated  to  be  characteristic  of  rocks  of  undoubted  eruptive 
origin,  must  rather  be  regarded  as  indicating  an  origin  by  con- 
solidation from  a  magmatic  condition,  so  long  as  contrary  proofs 
are  not  forthcoming.  No  one,  to  my  knowledge,  has  ever  main- 
tained that  the  ophitic  or  diabasic  structure  can  be  of  sedimentary 
origin  ;  but  gabbros  have  been  claimed — wrongly,  as  I  believe — 
as  sediments,  in  spite  of  the  close  relation  of  their  structure  to 
that  of  the  diabases. 

As  regards  graphic  granite  (or  macro-pegmatite),  the  case  is 
somewhat  different. 

The  frequent  occurrence  of  such  masses  in  gneiss  has  created 
the  notion  that  they  are  integral  components  of  the  sediment- 
ary gneisses.  And  this  view  is  maintained,  although  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  these  pegmatitic  masses  can  be  clearly 
seen  filling  vein-like  cavities,  while  another  part  make  up  lenti- 
cular patches  that  follow,  more  or  less,  the  dip  and  strike  of  the 
schists.  The  occurrence  of  simple  aggregates  of  quartz  and 
feldspar,  that  are  of  thermal  origin,  must*  then,  in  accordance 
with  one's  experience  of  regional  and  contact-metamorphism,  be 
unconditionally  conceded  ;  while  the  absence  of  such  aggregates 
in  the  greywackes  appears  to  me  to  absolutely  disprove  a  deve- 
lopment by  lateral  secretions.  It  is  therefore  not  inconceivable 
that  the  pegmatitic  aggregates  represent,  so  to  speak,  the  quint- 
essence of  the  gneiss,  exuded  into  primary  cracks.  At  the  same 
time,  great  caution  is  to  be  recommended  ;  for,  since  the  intro- 
duction of  the  microscope,  micropegmatite  has,  little  by  little, 
been  recognized  as  an  essential  constituent  of  numerous  acid  and 
basic  (with  Si02  per  cent,  as  low  as  48)  rocks.  The  veins  of 
graphic  granite  in  the  Hartzburg  gabbro  have  been  held  by 
some  for  segregation-veins.  They  are,  however,  demonstrably 
apophyses  of  the  eruptive  granite  ;  indeed,  the  principal  mass  of 
granite  in  the  Brocken  massif  is,  in  the  main,  micropegmatitic. 
The  banded  stnicture,  with  bilateral  symmetry,  of  many  peg- 
matites, which  has  been  compared  to  that  of  many  mineral 
veins,  is  no  proof  of  their  non-eruptive  nature.  The  augites, 
felspars  and  other  minerals  of  lavas  present  banded  structures 
with  variable  chemical  composition  :  banded  structure  with  a 
chemical  composition  varying  from  that  of  diabase  to  granite- 
porphyry,  is  shown  by  compound  eruptive  dykes,  as  has 
lately  been  well  shown  by  Bucking,  in  the  Thiiringerwald 
("Jahrb.  d.  kgl.  preuss.  Geol.  Landesanst.  f.  1887,"  p.  no, 
et  set/. ).  Even  the  drusy  character  and  the  richness  in  minei'als 
presented  by  the  central  portion  of  many  pegmatite-dykes  finds  its 
analogy  in  the  external  shells  of  true  eruptive  granites,  which 
may,  however,  be  complicated  by  the  influence  of  thermal  actions, 
accompanying,  or  subsequent  to,  eruption.     Giant  spherulites, 


524 


NATURE 


[Sept.  27,  1888 


of  a  decimetre  diameter,  composed  of  macropegmatite,  enveloping 
a  porphyritic  Carlsbad  twin  of  potash-feldspar  (orthoclase  or 
microcline),  that  occur  in  the  granite  of  the  Riesengebirge, 
repeat,  on  the  large  scale,  the  microscopic  characters  of  the 
micropegmatite  of  certain  quartz-  and  granite  porphyries  (the 
granophyre  of  Rosenbusch).  All  these  phenomena  compel  the 
assumption  that  at  least  a  part  of  the  pegmatites  are  of  indubit- 
ably eruptive  origin,  and  arouse  in  us  the  question  whether  this 
structure  is  not  to  be  brought  into  connection  with  the  origin  of 
the  gneisses. 

(5)  What  are  the  differences  between  the  primary  structures 
{due  to  consolidation)  of  the  plutonic  and  volcanic  rocks  and  the 
structures  of  (a)  the  crystalline  sediments,  (b)  the  metamorphic 
rocks  in  contact  with  granite,  (c)  the  crystalline  schists? 

(6)  What  reliable  characters  have  we,  to  distinguish  crystalline 
grains  developed  in  situ  from  clastic  grains,  in  cases  where  they 
occur,  side  by  side,  in  one  and  the  same  rock  ? 

The  answer  to  this  question  has  already  frequently  been 
attempted,  among  others  in  the  most  praiseworthy  manner  by 
A.  Wichmann.  It  requires,  however,  a  fresh  solution  based 
on  the  latest  experiences.  The  safest  test  of  the  authigenic, 
non-clastic  nature  of  a  grain  is  doubtless  the  presence  in  it  of 
enclosures  of  minerals  that  are  also  present  in  the  rock  as 
authigenic  constituents.  External  form  and  internal  molecular 
relations,  in  consequence  of  pressure-phenomena,  can,  how- 
ever, be  very  misleading.  Hard  minerals,  especially,  occur 
in  clastic  sand  in  very  sharp  crystals  (quartz,  tourmaline, 
zircon,  &c). 

(7)  Are  the  views  of  those  authors  justifiable,  who  conceive 
certain  gneisses  or  porphyroid  crystalline  schists  to  have  been 
produced  by  the  injection  of  a  granitic  magma,  in  discontiuuo, 
between  the  schists  {Schiefer)  ? 

(8)  If  the  views  expressed  in  the  preceding  question  are  justi- 
fiable, how  are  the  gneisses  and  porphyroids,  produced  by  the 
addition  of  granite  in  diicontinuo  to  slaty  sediments,  to  be 
distinguished  (a)  from  true  eruptive  granite  or  its  porphyritic 
modification,  both  having,  under  the  influence  of  pressure,  under- 
gone a  "phyllitic"  modification  ;  (b)  from  slaty  sediments  in 
which  aggregates  or  crystals  of  silicates  have  been  deposited 
from  water  (quartz  and  feldspar)? 

(9)  What  differences  can  be  established  in  mineral  composition 
and  structure  between  a  true  eruptive  granite  and  an  indubitably 
stratified  (not  simply  jointed  or  cleaved)  so-called  "  Lagergranil" 
or  granite-gneiss  ? 

An  amalgamation  of  eruptive  g>-anite  with  the  mineral 
aggregates  of  the  rocks  in  contact  has,  according  to  my  experience 
taken  place  in  some  cases  ;  but  I  have  not  yet  observed  an 
undoubted  discontinuity  in  such  granitic  material.  It  is  much  to 
be  desired  that  the  French  geologists  (for  instance,  Michel- Levy 
and  Charles  Barrois),  who  defend  the  views  formulated  in  Ques- 
tions 7  and  8,  would  enlighten  us  by  good  drawings  of  macro-  or 
microscopic  sections,  as  to  how  far  in  this  difficult  question  an 
incontestable  separation  of  injected  iruptive  grani'e  from  meta- 
morphic gneiss  is  possible.  This  would,  without  doubt,  facilitate 
the  solution  of  Question  9.  Unanimity  on  this  point  will  scarcely 
be  obtained  without  a  careful  structural  diagnosis,  which,  of 
course,  must  be  supported  by  serviceable  material,  self-collected 
in  the  field. 

(10)  Are  there  any  absolute  material  and  structural  differences 
between  metamorphic  rocks  of  the  granite  contact-zone  (horn- 
stones,  corneenne,  &c,  cp.  Question  1)  and  rocks  affected  by 
regional  or  dynamic  {Dislocations-)  metamorphism  ?  or  are  such 
differences  only  relative,  and  what  are  they? 

The  exact  solution  of  this  question  requires,  above  all,  the 
assumption  that  only  such  occurrences  shall  be  submitted  to  con- 
sideration that  are  unmistakably  connected  with  visible  eruptive 
rocks.  It  should  also  not  be  forgotten  that  rocks  which  have 
originally  undergone  contact-metamorphism  have,  in  some  cases, 
stibsequently  lost  their  peculiar  characteristics  in  consequence  of 
the  influence  of  regional  metamorphism.  With  this  qualification 
I  am  personally  inclined  to  concede  only  a  relative  and  not 
absolute  differences.  I  am  guided  in  this,  not  only  by  my 
experience  in  the  Hartz,  which  has  made  me  acquainted  with 
the  remai  kable  variation  of  the  metamorphic  rocks  in  contact 
with  granite,  according  as  they  occur  just  outside  the  contact- 
zone  or  in  its  outer,  middle,  or  inner  division  ;  or  again 
according  as  they  belong  to  the  impenetrated  but  eroded  mantle 
of  the  eruptive  cores,  or  to  masses,  of  greater  or  smaller  extent, 
that  have  sunk  deep  in  between  the  eruptive  masses  and  have 
been  covered  up  by  them.     The  rocks  occurring  thus  differently 


vary  between  a  phyllitic  clay-slate  and  gneiss,  while  the  main 
mass  of  the  slate-  and  grauwacke-hornstones  present  little 
resemblance  to  the  crystalline  schists.  In  the  classic  region  of 
the  Erzgebirge,  however,  there  occur,  according  to  the  careful 
investigation  of  our  Saxon  colleagues,  compact  hornstone-likc 
or  even  conglomeratic  greyivacke  gneisses  (the  mica-trap  of  older 
writers)  that  present  this  analogy  in  a  complete  degree. 
The  same  analogy  is  presented  by  Gosselet's  Lower  Devonian 
" corneile"  (to  be  distinguished  from  cornienne,  the  product 
of  contact-metamorphism)  from  the  regionally  metamorphic 
Ardennes  of  Belgium.  Again,  the  Lcnver  Devonian  fossiliferous 
tediments  of  the  Ardennes,  containing  garnets,  hornblende,  and 
graphite,  that  are  so  well  known  through  A.  Renard's  admirable 
descriptions  and  drawings,  remind  one  of  hornstone,  although 
no  contact  with  eruptive  rocks  has  been  observed  affecting  either 
them  or  the  Cambrian garnetiferous  "  Wetzschiefer"  of  Vielsalme. 
The  association  of  such  hornstone-like  rocks  with  those  of  the 
usual  phyllitic  type  of  regional  metamorphism  recalls  the 
occurrence  of  lime  silicate-hornstones  in  the  outermost  zone 
(beyond  the  zone  of  the  "  Knotenschiefer "  around  the  granite 
of  the  Rammberg.  Whatever  explanation  of  these  phenomena 
may  be  given — Gosselet  is  decidedly  in  favour  of  dynamic 
metamorphism  as  opposed  to  a  latent  contact-metamorphism — 
at  least  this  is  evident,  that  important  contributions  to  the 
question,  here  formulated,  can  be  furnished  by  the  Ardennes. 


ON  THE  CLASSIFICA  TION  OF  THE 
CR  YS  TA  LLINE  SCHIS  TS} 

"T^HE  most  important  constituent  of  the  earth's  crust — the 
-*■  crystalline  schists — has  remained,  with  respect  to  their 
field-relations  and  their  origin,  the  most  shrouded  in  dark- 
ness. The  difficulties  thaf  bar  the  way  are  quite  excep- 
tional. We  have  frequently  to  deal  with  rocks  that  have 
undergone  subsequent  alteration,  without  being  able  to  determine 
their  original  constitution,  and  without  being  able  to  explain  the 
nature  of  the  change.  We  have,  as  it  were,  to  deal  with  an 
equation  with  two  unknowns — we  cannot  solve  it. 

At  the  present  time  we  meet  with  a  number  of  attempts  to 
classify  the  crystalline  schists,  mainly  according  to  petrological 
characters,  in  stratigraphical  groups.  I  regard  these  attempts 
as  premature,  for  this  reason  :  microscopists  are  unfortunately 
very  behindhand  in  the  exact  investigation  of  the  crystalline 
schists,  and  of  the  half-clastic,  half-crystalline  sediments.  The 
purpose  of  these  lines  is  to  direct  attention  to  another  difficulty 
which  has  not  yet  received  sufficient  consideration,  but  which 
bars  the  way  to  every  attempt  of  that  kind — namely,  the 
mechanical  metamorphism  during  mountain-formation. 

That,  by  the  plication  of  the  Alps,  the  constitution  of  the  rocks 
has  been  completely  changed,  is  most  directly  proved  by  an  ex- 
amination of  the  sedimentary  rocks  ;  becau-e  the  latter  can  be 
also  studied  in  an  unaltered  condition  in  adjacent  localities.  The 
commonest  changes  met  with  here  in  connection  with  folding 
are  : — 

Deformation  of  fossils,  pebbles,    or  crystals  (compression  in 
one  direction,  extension  in  another) 
Cleavage  ( Transversalschiefa ting). 
Cleavage  with  linear  extension. 
Puckering. 

Internal  formation  of  breccias  and  cementing  of  the  same  by 
secretions. 

Internal  formation  of  innumerable  slickensides,  so  as  to 
change  the  whole  structure. 

Scaly  structure,  produced  by  the  compression  of  oolitic 
structure. 

Alteration    of    hematite    and   limonite    into    magnetite,     in 
connection  with  cleavage. 
Marmorosis  of  the  limestones. 

Formation  of  confusedly  "kneaded"  structures  {KnetsU-uc- 
turen). 

Development  of  new  minerals  (garnet,  staurolite,  mica)  in 
places  that  have  undergone  crushing. 

Now,  sedimentary  rocks,  metamorphosed  in  the  above  way, 
are  frequently  found  in  extremely  narrow  synclinal  zones,  nipped 
in    between   rocks   belonging   to   the   crystalline   schists.      The 

1  "Zur  ^Classification  der  krystallinischen  Schiefer,"  von  Prof.  Dr.  Albert 
Heim.  "Etudes  -ur  les  Schistes  Cristallins."  Published  by  the  Inter- 
national Geological  Congress  in  London,  1888.  (Translated  from  the  German 
by  Dr.  F.  H.  Hatch.) 


Sept.  27,  1888] 


NATURE 


525 


Alpine  zones,  which  consist  mainly  of  crystalline  schists,  are 
termed  antral  massifs.  Such  intercalations  of  mechanically 
metamorphosed  sediments  with  the  crystalline  schists  are  very 
frequently  to  be  observed  at  the  ends  of  the  strike  of  the  central 
massifs,  and  between  the  central  massifs ;  they  are  not  rare  even 
in  the  interior  of  the  central  massifs.  The  crystalline  schists 
and  metamorphosed  sediments  not  only  present  the  fame  strati- 
graphical  position,  but  also  similar  characters  in  other  respects. 
The  cleavage  of  the  sedimentary  rocks  may  be  continued  in  the 
same  direction  into  the  crystalline  schists  ;  and  similar  contor- 
tions may  traverse  both  :  in  the  latter,  as  in  the  former,  a  marked 
linear  extension  in  the  same  or  but  slightly  deviating  direction 
may  be  present  :  calcareous  patches  in  the  crystalline  schists  are 
crystalline  and  granular,  and  contain  layers  of  mica-scales  which 
have  undergone  extension,  precisely  as  in  the  neighbouring 
Jurassic  limestones,  &c,  &c.  From  these  facts  we  see  that 
in  these  crystalline  schists  we  have  not  to  deal  with  rocks  of 
original  constitution,  but  that  both  these  rocks  and  the 
sediments  have  undergone  similar  mechanical  metamorphism. 
The  only  difficulty  in  dealing  with  the  schists  is  contained  in  the 
fact  that  we  are  never  in  a  position  to  describe  the  original  ap- 
pearance of  the  rock  before  it  underwent  the  mechanical 
metamorphism. 

Now  it  is  in  the  crystalline  schists  that  the  plications  of  the 
earth's  crust  are  most  potently  developed.  The  isoclinal  and 
fan-shaped  folds,  the  wedging  and  "kneading  together"  at  the 
contact  with  the  sediments— in  short,  all  these  high  forms  of  dis- 
location, which  are  the  earliest  to  modify  the  inner  structure  of 
rocks,  are  to  be  found  in  the  crystalline  zones  of  the  Alps.  They 
are  most  highly  developed  in  the  northern  series  of  the  central 
massifs  (Mont  Blanc,  Aiguille  Range,  Finsteraar-w^j-?/; 
GotthaxA- massif,  SWvTette-massif,  &c). 

At  first  sight  it  appears  as  if  the  crystalline  schists  and  the 
true  sediments,  in  the  Alps,  were  separated  by  a  constant  un- 
conformity;  but  frequently  even  recent  sediments  are  found 
folded  in,  parallel  with  the  crystalline  schists.  Again  the 
sediments  often  take  the  position  of  a  central  massif;  indeed,  it 
seems  as  if  a  great  part  of  several  of  the  central  massifs  consisted 
of  Palaeozoic  sediments.  On  the  other  hand,  in  the  southern 
central  massi/s  of  the  Central  Alps,  we  see  the  crystalline  schists 
lying  in  all  respects  like  the  sediments. 

Those  who  have  worked  in  these  parts  of  the  Alps  will 
have  remarked  how  often  the  mechanical  crushing  under- 
gone by  the  rocks  obliterates  the  limits  of  stratigraphical  and 
petrographical  characters,  and  how  many  rocks  have  become 
confused  thereby  in  their  development  {Ausbildungsweise). , 
Such  changes  can  sometimes  be  directly  proved  to  be  the  result 
of  local  crushing  ;  sometimes,  however,  they  are  regional,  and 
then  passages  into  the  unaltered  rock  are  difficult  to  trace.  All 
degrees  of  change  by  earth-movements  are  to  be  found,  from  a 
slight  alteration  of  the  structure  up  to  complete  metamorphism. 
In  hundreds  of  places  one  does  not  know  whether  one  has  to 
deal  with  the  residual  traces  of  original  bedding  or  with 
a  cleavage  ( Transversalschieferung,  Quetschungsschieferung) 
that  has  completely  obliterated  the  original  structures.  In 
many  cases  it  is  impossible  to  distinguish  between  a  schistose 
structure  (Schieferung),  superinduced  by  earth-movements,  and 
one  that  is  original.  Schistose  structures  which  cross  one 
another  are  by  no  means  rare.  Whether  the  more  pronounced 
or  the  less  definite  one  is  then  the  original  is  often  not  to  be 
decided.  Even  an  exact  microscopical  examination  will  often 
not  suffice  to  distinguish  between  structures  resulting  from  crush- 
ing and  lateral  deformation,  and  the  fluxion-structure  of  an 
eruptive  rock.  It  is  certain  that  a  structural  modification  by 
•earth-movements  has  everywhere  taken  place  where  linear  ex- 
tension abounds.  The  latter  is  never  original.  In  such 
crystalline  schists  with  linear-parallel  structure  there  are  often 
elongated,  ragged  mica-scales.  The  linear  extension  can  go 
as  far  as  the  development  of  rod-like  separation  {stenglige 
Absonderung). 

Are  there  any  rocks  left  in  the  central  massifs  of  the  Alps 
which  have  undergone  no  change  in  structure  during  the 
orogenetic  processes? 

The  metamorphism  can  penetrate  still  deeper. 

Enormous  zones,  for  instance,  in  the  interior  of  the  Finsteraar- 
massif  that  were  formerly  held  to  be  true  crystalline  schists, 
prove  to  be  originally  clastic  rocks  of  the  Carboniferous  period 
that  have  been  squeezed  into  schists,  and  pervaded  by 
secondary  mica.  Conglomeratic  rocks  of  the  Verrucano  group, 
and  clay-slates,  nipped  into  the   central  massif,    have    become 


crystalline,  schistose,  and  even  gneissose.  They  can  scarcely  be 
distinguished,  in  the  field  and  in  the  hand-specimen,  from 
crushed  gneisses  pervaded  by  sericite.  Granites  can  be  proved, 
locally  and  perhaps  also  regionally,  to  have  been  compressed 
into  gneisses.  Gneisses,  having  a  different  position  relatively 
to  the  pressure,  have  locally  become  granitoid.  Massive 
eruptive  felsite-porphyries  have  become  felsite-schists.  Mica- 
schists  have  been  dragged  out;  their  quartz  grains  ground 
down  ;  and  the  whole  converted  into  a  rock  that  one  would  be 
inclined  to  describe  as  a  sandy  clay-slate.  Even  l.iassic  slates 
with  fossils  have  been  converted  into  garnetiferous  mica-schists, 
staurolite-schists,  &c.  The  boundary  between  the  old  crystalline 
schists  and  real  sediments  in  the  Alps  has,  by  such  processes 
of  dynamic  metamorphism,  been  obliterated,  and  the  proper 
character  of  the  rock  so  altered  as  to  render  recognition  impos- 
sible. When  we  see,  in  true  sediments,  new  minerals  developed 
by  the  progress  of  the  mechanical  metamorphism  (magnetite  in 
the  crushed  Oolitic  ironstone  of  the  Winctgalle,  garnet  in  the 
Beleuonite-slates  of  Scopi),  the  question  arises,  for  the  crystalline 
schists  of  this  and  neighbouring  regions — Which  minerals  are 
original,  and  which  have  been  produced  subsequently,  by 
orogenetic  processes  ? 

We  arrive  at  this  conclusion : —  The  constitution  of  the  crystallim 
schists  in  the  Alps  has  been  much  changed  by  the  orogenetic  pro- 
cess (dynamic  metamorphism).  Original  material  and  material 
mechanically  produced  at  a  later  period,  are  often  not  to  be  separated 
from  one  another. 

Besides  these,  the  Alps  present  other  difficulties  that  stand 
in  the  way  of  the  recognition  of  a  stratigraphical  grouping  of  the 
crystalline  schists.  The  field-relations  are  trequently  so  intricate, 
that  often  it  is  very  difficult  to  decide  what  originally  lay  under 
and  what  above ;  and  whether  the  enormous  thickness,  for 
instance,  of  many  gneiss-complexes,  is  real,  or  merely  produced 
by  repetitions  of  the  folding,  the  folds  being  concealed  by 
cleavage. 

It  follows  that,  if,  on  the  basis  of  petrographical  relations,  a  gene- 
ral stratigraphy  of  the  crystalline  schists  is  to  be  attempted,  this 
must  never  take  place  as  the  result  of  observations  made  in  plicated 
regions  of  the  earth' s  crust ;  districts  must  rather  be  chosen  which 
are  not  influenced  by  disturbances  of  the,  Alpine  character.  In  the 
question  of  the  stratigraphy  of  true  crystalline  schists,  the  Alpine 
geologist  is  not  in  the  position  to  furnish  material  of  essential 
value  ;  he  must  rather  wait  for  the  results  of  the  workers  in 
other  regions,  in  order  to  be  able  to  apply  them  to  his  own 
district.  The  dislocations  of  fractured  regions  have,  in  the  main, 
left  unaltered  the  constitution  of  the  tocks.  There,  then,  the 
crystalline  schists  can  be  studied  in  their  unaltered  condition. 
There  also  they  lie  in  flatter  and  more  regular  bedding  ;  and  a 
stratigraphical  sequence  is  sooner  to  be  found  than  in  the  Alps. 


ON  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  PRIMITIVE 
CRYSTALLINE  ROCKS} 

T  N  this  paper  the  author  briefly  summarizes  the  ideas  prevailing 
on  the  origin  of  the  crystalline  schists,  and  throws  a  doubt 
on  the  current  opinion  that  the  primitive  rocks  have  been  formed 
by  the  direct  crystallization  of  their  constituents.  He  divides 
his  treatise  into  two  parts  :  (1)  stratigraphical  considerations  ; 
(2)  the  mode  of  association  of  the  component  minerals. 

(1)  Stratigraphical  Considerations.— The  primitive  crystalline 
rocks  form  the  fundamental  floor  upon  which  lie  the  earlier 
detrital  deposits,  their  schistosity  being  often  parallel  to  the 
stratification  of  the  latter. 

Although  composed  mainly  of  acid  gneisses,  the  primitive 
rocks  present  countless  variations  in  chemical  and  mineralogical 
composition  ;  they  include  very  basic  representatives,  such  as 
the  amphibolites,  pyroxenites,  peridotites,  cipolines,  and  dolo- 
mites, <&c.  These  intercalations  are  always  parallel  to  the 
schistosity  :  they  form  elongated  lenticular  patches,  of  which 
the  greater  axis  is  in  the  direction  of  the  general  banding. 

At  the  same  time,  their  relative  homogeneity  in  composition 
is  shown  by  comparison  of  sequences  established,  not  only  jn 
Europe,  but  also  in  the  United  States  and  the  rest  of  the  world. 
Acid  gneisses  predominate  at  the  base  ;  then  come  frequent 
intercalations   of  mica-schists  and  leptynites,    with    which  are 

1  "  Sur  l'Origine  des  Terrains  Cristallins  Primitifs,"  by  M.  A.  Michel- 
LeVy,  Bull.  Soc.  Geol.  France.  3e  serie,  t.  xvi.  p.  102,  1888.  Published  by 
the  International  Geological  Congress  in  London,  1888.  (Abstracted  froTi 
the  French  by  Dr.  F.  H.  Hatch.) 


526 


NATURE 


{Sept.  27,  1888 


associated  amphibolites  and  cipolines.  Above  this  first  division 
chloride  and  sericitic  mica  schists  are  developed,  alternating 
occasionally  with  amphibolitic  layers.  This  second  stage  is 
succeeded  by  a  series  which  also  comprises  hornblendic  and 
augitic  {comes  vertes)  schists,  but  includes,  further,  the  first 
detrital  deposits.  At  every  horizon  there  is  a  gradual  passage 
from  the  one  stage  to  the  other.  The  first  detrital  deposits 
alternate  with  sericitic  and  chloritic  schists  ;  and  even  as  far  up 
as  in  the  Cambrian,  large  bands  of  felspathic  schists,  which  can 
scarcely  be  distinguished  from  the  more  ancient  gneisses,  are 
developed  in  connection  with  the  intrusion  of  granite. 

The  primitive  rocks  are,  as  first  pointed  out  by  the  author, 
injected  and  penetrated  by  ancient  eruptive  rocks.  This 
phenomenon  is  al  o  to  be  observed  in  the  earlier  detrital  schists. 

Rolled  pebbles  and  fragments  of  gneiss,  mica-schist,  &c, 
have  been  repeatedly  found  in  the  granitic  and  granulitic  gneisses 
of  various  localities.  The  author's  own  observations  lead  him 
to  compare  these  phenomena  with  those  in  which  rounded  balls 
have  been  inclosed  in  a  truly  eruptive  granite.  In  numerous 
cases,  in  which  fragments  of  gneisses  have  been  enclosed  in  other 
gneisses,  he  has  always  been  able  to  prove  that  the  enclosing 
rock  is  much  more  felspathic  than  the  inclosed  fragments. 

These  facts  cannot,  therefore,  be  advanced  in  support  of  the 
detrital  origin  of  true  gneisses. 

(2)  Mode  of  Association  of  the  Component  Minerals. — The 
mineralogical  composition  of  the  gneisses  and  of  the  schistose 
basic  rocks  associated  with  them,  is  nearly  identical  with  that 
of  the  granular  eruptive  rocks  ;  and  all  the  types  of  the  older 
eruptive  rocks  have  their  representatives  in  the  schistose  series. 

A  great  analogy  therefore  exists  between  the  natural  forces 
instrumental  in  the  production  of  the  two  series. 

Speaking  generally,  the  older  eruptive  rocks  are  rigorously 
homogeneous  over  vast  areas  :  fragments  of  these  rocks  are 
everywhere  comparable  to  one  another.  This  homogeneity  is 
reproduced  in  the  schistose  series  ;  but  it  is,  so  to  speak,  periodic, 
and  one  must  first  know  the  orientation  before  comparing 
fragments  taken  from  a  distance. 

The  structure  of  the  gneisses  presents  a  series  of  successive 
crystallizations,  accompanied  by  mechanical  phenomena  and  a 
cementing  of  the  dislo&ated  components.  The  author,  while 
seeing  in  these  phenomena  the  traces  of  a  series  of  metamor- 
phic  actions,  followed  by  the  injection  of  foreign  material,  does 
not  wish  to  deny  the  additional  intervention  of  secondary 
mechanical  actions.  But,  whatever  theoretic  explanation  be 
adopted,  the  facts  are  well  established,  and  irreconcilable  with 
the  assumption  of  a  preliminary  mixing  of  the  magma  of  the 
schistose  rocks,  and  therefore  with  the  hypothesis  of  a  primordial 
origin. 

The  author  then  proceeds  to  demonstrate  at  some  length  that 
the  intimate  structure  of  the  gneisses  is  identical  with  that  of 
sedimentary  schists  modified  by  contact  metamorphism,  and 
finally  injected  by  eruptive  rocks. 

Microscopic  studies  have  disclosed  the  minute  liquid  inclusions 
contained  by  the  quartz  of  the  gneisses.  Zirkel  and  Kalkowsky 
have  made  the  interesting  observation  that  the  streams  of  in- 
clusions are  restricted  to  the  central  portions  of  the  quartz-grains 
and  are  not  prolonged  to  the  periphery  ;  and  De  Lapparent 
adduces  this  fact  as  a  proof  that  the  grains  have  not  been  derived 
from  a  pre-existing  rock.  But  this  argument  is  overthrown 
by  the  fact  that  the  quartz-grains  in  the  Cambrian  micaceous 
schists,  which  are  of  indisputably  detrital  origin,  present  exactly 
the  same  phenomenon.  It  admits,  moreover,  of  a  very  simple  ex- 
planation. These  quartz-grains,  of  clastic  origin,  have  undergone 
subsequent  enlargement  by  the  assimilation  of  secondary  quartz, 
which  tends  also  to  give  them  an  exterior  crystalline  form.  This 
secondary  quartz  is  poor  in  liquid  inclusions,  and  encloses  scales 
of  black  mica  and  other  minerals. 

General  Considerations  and  Hypotheses  on  the  Origin  of  the 
Primitive  Rocks.  — Among  the  hypotheses  advanced  to  explain  the 
origin  of  gneiss,  the  author  discusses  the  two  that  have  found 
the  most  general  acceptance.  The  first,  which  is  now  somewhat 
abandoned  but  has  the  merit  of  perfect  clearness,  makes  the 
gneisses  the  result  of  a  kind  of  conflict  between  water  and  the 
primary  molten  magma  of  the  earth.  The  other  explanation, 
which  is  more  vague,  accords  to  the  gneisses  a  sedimentary 
origin.  They  are  the  deposits  of  a  kind  of  supersaturated  sea, 
which  precipitated  on  to  its  floor  the  successive  crystalline  bands 
which  characterize  the  gneisses.  Note  that  this  hypothesis 
presupposes  a  floor — an  unknown  substratum. 

(1)  Geologists  originally  supposed  that  the  first  substratum  was 


formed  by  the  granites  which  are  found  cropping  out  over  such 
vast  areas.  Detailed  studies  have  shown,  however,  that  the 
granites  are  younger  than  the  gneisses  which  they  traverse, 
inject,  and  displace.  Even  the  most  ancient  among  them  are  at 
least  younger  than  the  first  detrital  schists. 

It  is  therefore  to  the  gneisses,  distinctly  banded  and  alternating 
in  their  lower  beds  with  mica-schists,  that  this  mixed  origin — 
this  rdle  d'ecumes  pnmordiales— must  be  attributed. 

Has  this  substratum  of  the  terrestrial  crust  ever  been  seen  in 
the  most  disturbed  regions? 

Cordier  supposed  that  terrestrial  refrigeration  was  constantly 
increasing,  in  the  downward  direction,  the  thickness  of  the  first 
solid  crust.  If  we  could  descend  through  the  earth's  crust,  we 
should  pass  successively  through  rocks  of  increasing  basicity  until 
we  should  find,  enveloping  the  still  incandescent  nucleus  of 
impure  iron,  a  rock  analogous  to  lherzolite. 

A  serious  objection  to  this  is  the  fact  that  a  descending  order 
of  basicity  is  not  borne  out  by  the  stratigraphical  relations  of  the 
gneisses.  Lherzolite  is  found  erupted  through  the  primitive 
rocks  ;  and  the  basic  peridotites  are  intercalated  moderately  high 
up  in  the  gneissic  series. 

From  the  purely  speculative  point  of  view  it  is  improbable 
that  the  first  products  of  consolidation  did  not  receive  a  thorough 
mixing,  rendering  the  rock  homogeneous,  and  preventing  the 
formation  of  those  numerous  micaceous  membranes  so  charac- 
teristic of  the  primitive  rocks.  If  these  first  products  were  acid, 
as  there  is  reason  to  suppose,  the  first  substratum  must  have 
constituted  a  massive  and  homogeneous  granite.  It  is  on  a  floor 
of  this  kind  that  the  precipitation  of  the  atmospheric  waters 
must  have  prepared  the  elements  of  the  first  detrital  rocks — the 
first  arkoses. 

(2)  The  second  explanation — the  successive  crystallization  of 
bands  of  gneiss  from  the  waters  of  a  universal  sea— encounters 
similar  difficulties.  It  appears  to  the  author  irreconcilable 
with  the  structure  of  the  gneissic  rocks.  The  continuous  mem- 
branes of  mica,  and  the  almost  vein-like  appearance  of  the 
quartz  and  felspar,  do  not  accord  with  the  notion  of  con- 
cretionary deposits  that  this  hypothesis  requires,  supposing  the 
supersaturated  liquid  to  have  been  in  a  state  of  perfect  tran- 
quillity. If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  suppose  that  there  existed 
local  agitations  due  to  the  unequal  distribution  of  high  temper- 
atures, the  remarkable  periodic  homogeneity  of  the  gneisses 
becomes  inexplicable. 

From  a  consideration  of  these  facts  and  hypotheses  the  author 
arrives  at  the  conclusion  that  the  veritable  and  primary  sub- 
stratum of  the  terrestrial  crust  is  not  visible  ;  that  this  substratum 
has  undergone  much  alteration  ;  finally,  that  the  so-called  primi- 
tive rocks  are  a  complex  of  eruptive  rocks,  later  than  the  gneisses, 
and  of  rocks  which  are  really  detrital,  but  which  have  undergone 
excessive  metamorphism. 

The  eruptive  rocks,  by  which  the  primitive  rocks  have  been 
injec.ed,  are  later  than  the  beginning  of  the  Cambrian.  They 
were  produced  in  extraordinary  abundance  in  the  later  por- 
tion of"  this  period  :  granites,  diabases,  diorites,  norites,  and 
lherzolites. 

In  discussing  the  primary  causes  of  the  eruption  of  these 
rocks,  the  author  mentions  that  Lehmann  and  others  of  the 
German  school,  are  inclined  to  seek  them  in  the  partial  trans- 
mutation into  heat  of  the  mechanical  work  performed  during 
the  intense  periods  of  contortion  undergone  by  the  earth's  crust. 
The  author  himself  refers  them  to  manifestations  of  the  internal 
heat  of  the  globe,  the  great  earth-movements  having  simply 
effected  the  ascension  and  injection  of  the  eruptive  magmas. 


NOTES. 
By  the  death  of  Mr.  Jameson  on  the  Upper  Congo,  science 
has  lost  a  most  promising  young  naturalist.  The  collections 
made  by  him  some  years  ago  in  Borneo  were  never  described, 
but  we  believe  that  in  that  island  Mr.  Jameson  met  with  many 
species  of  birds  since  obtained  by  other  travellers.  His  expedi- 
tion to  Mashoona  Land  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  some 
interesting  new  species  of  birds,  and  an  elaborate  paper  was 
written  on  his  collection  by  Captain  Shelley  in  the  Ibis  for 
1882.  A  small  number  of  birds  has  also  been  sent  by  him  from 
the  Aruwimi  River  to  his  friend  Mr.  Bowdler  Sharpe,  who  has 
been  waiting  for  further  collections  before  writing  an  account  of 


Sept.  27,  1888] 


NATURE 


527 


them.  We  do  not  know  whether  any  further  consignments  ar 
on  their  way  from  the  district  where  Mr.  Jameson  was  stationed 
for  many  months  with  the  late  Major  Barttelot.  He  described 
the  country  as  a  disappointing  locality  for  the  collector,  the 
few  birds  obtained  by  him  being  merely  the  ordinary  Congo 
species. 

We  regret  also  to  have  to  record  the  death  of  Mr.  T.  II. 
Potts,  a  well-known  New  Zealand  ornithologist.  Mr.  Potts's 
name  has  been  connected  wiih  the  natural  history  of  New 
Zealand  for  a  number  of  years,  and  his  observations  on  the 
nesting  and  life-history  of  the  birds  of  his  native  country  are 
among  the  most  interesting  contributions  to  the  Transactions  of 
the  New  Zealand  Institute. 

We  have  received  a  communication  from  Herr  Gamel.  of 
Copenhagen,  the  equipper  of  the  Norwegian  Expedition  to 
Greenland,  in  which  he  informs  us  that  if  the  undertaking  has 
been  successfully  accomplished  the  members  of  the  Expedition 
should  be  on  board  the  sailing-ship  Pern,  which  was  to  leave 
Disco  Bay  on  September  16,  and  is  due  in  Copenhagen  in  the 
middle  of  October.  If  not  on  board  this  vessel,  the  Expedition 
will  have  to  remain  in  Greenland  until  next  spring,  as  this  is  the 
last  ship  leaving,  and  no  news  will  be  obtainable  from  Greenland 
till  then. 

We  learn  from  the  Scotsman  that  the  fishery  cruiser  H.M.S. 
/(7^'rt/  lately  left  Granton  on  a  scientific  expedition,  which  will 
include  a  cruise  of  several  weeks  in  the  North  Sea  and  a  visit  to 
the  Baltic.  The  chief  object  in  view  is  to  collect  data  likely  to 
throw  more  light  on  various  questions  which,  when  solved,  will 
admit  of  a  better  understanding  of  the  movements  of  the  edible 
fishes  and  of  the  myriads  of  minute  organisms  on  which  they 
feed.  The  Expedition  is  under  the  direction  of  Dr.  John  Gibson, 
of  the  University  of  Edinburgh  Chemical  Laboratory,  who  is 
accompanied  by  Dr.  Hunter  Stewart  and  Mr.  Maitland  Gibson, 
also  from  the  University  of  Edinburgh. 

Many  students  of  science  will  regret  to  learn  that  the 
Naturforscher  has  ceased  to  appear.  The  last  number  is  dated 
September  23. 

Preparations  have  been  made  for  effecting  the  proposed 
connection  between  the  Observatory  of  Paris  and  Greenwich. 
It  is  expected  that  this  will  lead  in  the  end  to  the  acceptance  of 
the  Greenwich  meridian  by  French  astronomers. 

The  General  Omnibus  Company  in  Paris  has  introduced  into 
its  service  the  electricity  supplied  by  the  Electric  Storage 
Company.  The  carriages  run  from  the  Arc  de  Triomphe  to 
Courbevoie,  a  distance  of  about  two  miles.  Each  of  the  two 
fore-wheels  is  put  into  rotation  by  a  separate  dynamo,  over 
which  the  driver  exerts  control.  The  velocity  is  somewhat 
greater  than  that  obtained  with  horses. 

Three  new  sulpho- chlorides  of  mercury  have  been  isolated 
by  Drs.  Poleck  and  Goercki,  of  Breslau.  Every  student  of 
chemical  analysis  is  familiar  with  the  peculiar  changes  of  colour 
which  occur  when  a  solution  of  mercuric  chloride  is  precipitated 
by  sulphuretted  hydrogen  gas  ;  how  that  the  precipitate  at  first 
is  perfectly  white,  shortly  passes  to  a  yellow,  and  then  rapidly 
darkens,  becoming  orange,  brownish-red,  and  finally,  when 
excess  of  the  gas  has  been  led  through  the  solution,  perfectly 
black.  The  white  compound  first  formed  was  shown  so  long  ago 
as  1828  by  Rose  to  consist  of  a  sulpho-cbloride  of  the  composi- 
tion 2lIgS  .  HgCl2  ;  but  the  further  changes  appear  never  to  have 
been  hitherto  thoroughly  investigated.  The  Breslau  chemists, 
after  fully  confirming  the  composition  of  the  white  substance, 
now  show  that  the  darkening  is  due  to  the  formation  of  suc- 
cessive higher  sulpho-chlorides,  3HgS  .  HgCl2,  4HgS  .  HgCl2,  j 


5HgS  .  HgCl2 ;  the  final  product  being,  of  course,  the  sulphide 
of  mercury,  HgS,  itself.  This  has  long  been  supposed  to  be 
the  case,  and  it  is  very  satisfactory  to  have  these  various  sulpho- 
chlorides  at  last  isolated.  It  may  readily  be  .een,  however,  that 
by  simply  passing  the  current  of  sulphuretted  hjdrogen  until  the 
precipitate  became  of  any  particular  tint,  one  would  never  be 
able  to  isolate  these  higher  compounds,  the  mixture  becoming 
more  complicated  every  minute.  The  method  adopted,  after 
many  fruitless  attempts,  consisted  in  completely  precipitating  in 
various  experiments  quantities  of  mercuric  chloride  correspond- 
ing to  three,  four,  and  five  molecules  respectively  ;  the  precipitates 
were  in  each  case  tr  nsleued  to  a  ila>k  fitted  with  inverted 
condenser,  and  digested  for  some  time  with  a  fresh  quantity  of 
the  chloride  corresponding  to  another  molecule.  The  first 
product,  3lIgS  .  HgClo,  possessed  a  brownish  col  ur,  and  the  two 
higher  ones  more  and  more  nearly  approximated  to  the  black  of 
the  pure  sulphide  of  mercury.  In  each  case  the  filtrate  w  as 
found  to  be  free  from  quicksilver  and  chlorine,  proving  that  the 
extra  molecule  of  the  chloride  had  in  each  case  combined,  and 
analysis  showed  that  the  precipitates  really  possessed  the  com- 
positions above  indicated.  These  sulpho-ch'.orides,  moreover, 
are  very  stable  ;  they  are  almost  perfectly  insoluble  in  water, 
and  may  be  digested  with  water  in  sealed  tubes  at  2000  C. 
without  undergoing  any  change.  They  are  also  insoluble  in 
both  hydrochloric  and  nitric  acids,  but  dissolve  in  the  mixture  of 
the  two  known  as  aqua  regia.  They  were  finally  shown  to  be 
distinct  chemical  compounds,  and  no  mere  mechanical  mixtures 
of  sulphide  and  chloride,  by  the  peculiar  action  of  potassium 
iodide  upon  them.  It  may  therefore  be  considered  that  the 
question  of  the  action  of  sulphuretted  hydrogen  upon  mercuric 
chloride  has  now  been  definitely  settled. 

Prof.  H.  A.  Hazen,  of  the  Signal  Service,  Washington,  has 
compiled  a  "Hand-book  of  Meteorological  Tables,"  containing 
in  a  convenient  form  all  the  reductions  needed  for  current  work, 
omitting  those  not  now  generally  used,  such  as  Reaumur  tem- 
peratures, &c.  Several  of  the  tables  are  new,  or  re-computed 
in  their  present  form  after  some  years'  experience  of  the  author 
in  their  use.  The  table  for  reduction  of  barometrical  observations 
to  sea-level  has  been  extended  to  8000  feet.  Among  the  useful 
additions  we  may  mention  formulae  and  tables  for  the  determina- 
tion of  mean  wind  direction,  and  for  the  conversion  of  wind 
velocities  from  miles  per  hour  to  metres  per  second,  and  vice 
versa.  The  latest  determination  of  the  metre  is  used  in  all 
linear  tables. 

On  the  night  of  September  5  a  brilliant  meteor  was  seen  at 
Bolmen,  in  Smaland,  in  Sweden.  It  first  went  in  a  straight 
line  from  east  to  west,  when  it  suddenly  altered  its  course,  falling 
to  the  earth  with  a  dull  report.     Its  colour  was  bluish-white. 

Snow  and  frost  are  reported  from  several  parts  of  Sweden, 
whilst  flocks  of  birds  have  been  seen  migrating  southwards. 

The  preservation  of  the  eider  on  the  south  coast  of  Sweden 
has  had  the  most  beneficial  results,  considerable  flocks  of  these 
birds  being  now  often  seen. 

Two  runic  stones  have  been  discovered  at  Sorunda,  in  Sweden. 

The  Swedish  Consul  at  Eskefjord,  in  Iceland,  writing  at  the 
end  of  August,  states  that  although  the  fjord  was  free  from  ice 
there  were  still  large  masses  of  drift-ice  along  the  east  and  north 
coasts,  which  were  practically  unapproachable  for  vessels.  There 
was  also  much  drift-ice  in  Denmark  Sound.  The  cod  and 
herring  fisheries  had  been  good. 

A  Norwegian  naturalist,  Herr  L.  Ucherman,  draws  atten- 
tion to  the  peculiarly  green  waters  of  certain  rivers  in  Norway, 
emanating  from  those  snow-fields  which  never  melt,  and  describes 
the  colour  as  due  to  certain  green  Algoe  on  old  snow.  In  support 
of  this  he  mentions  that,  when  walking  acrcss  old  snow  in  the 


528 


NATURE 


[Sept.  27,  1888 


highest  parts  of  Norway  this  summer,  he  noticed  that  foot- 
prints a  sumed  a  greenish  hue,  which  was  not  the  case  with 
new  snow.  It  has  generally  been  assumed  that  the  snow  Algae, 
so  »  ell  known  in  higher  latitudes,  did  not  as  a  rule  flourish  on 
snow  in  Norway. 

The  Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge  will  publish 
shortly  a  "  Star  Atlas,"  containing  maps  of  all  stars  from  1  to 
6"5  mag.  between  the  North  Pole  and  34°  south  declination, 
and  of  all  nebula?  and  star  clusters  in  the  same  region  which  are 
visible  in  telescopes  of  moderate  powers.  The  explanatory  text, 
by  Dr.  Hermann  J.  Klein,  has  been  translated  and  adapted  for 
English  readers  by  Mr.  Edmund  McCiure. 

Messrs.  Crosby  Lockwood  and  Son  will  publish  during 
the  ensuing  season  the  following  works  bearing  on  science  : — 
"The  Metallurgy  of  Gold,"  a  practical  treatise  on  the  metal- 
lurgical treatment  of  gold-bearing  ores,  including  the  processes 
of  concentration  and  chlorination,  and  the  assaying  and  refining 
of  gold,  by  M.  Eissler,  formerly  Assistant  Assayer  of  the  United 
States  Mint,  San  Francisco  ;  with  90  illustrations.  "  Practical 
Surveying,"  a  text-book  for  students  preparing  for  examinations 
or  the  colonies,  by  George  W.  Usill,  A.M.I.C.E.  ;  with 
upwards  of  330  illustrations.  "Tables,  Memoranda,  and 
Calculated  Results  for  Farmers,  Agricultural  Students,  Graziers, 
Surveyors,  Land  Agents,  Auctioneers,  &c,"  with  a  new 
system  of  farm  book- keeping,  selected  and  arranged  by  Sidney 
Francis  ;  waistcoat  pocket  size.  Also  the  following  new  volumes 
in  Lockwood's  series  of  "Handy-books  for  Handicrafts  "  : — 
"  The  Model  Engineer's  Handy-book,"  a  practical  manual, 
embracing  information  on  the  tools,  materials,  appliances,  and 
processes  employed  in  constructing  model  steam-engines,  by  P. 
N.  Hasluck  ;  with  about  one  hundred  illustrations  and  working 
drawings  (in  the  press).  "The  Clock  Jobber's  Handy-book," 
a  practical  manual,  embracing  information  on  the  tools, 
materials,  appliances,  and  processes  employed  in  cleaning, 
adjusting,  and  repairing  clocks,  by  P.  N.  Hasluck  ;  with  about 
one  hundred  illustrations.  "  The  Cabinet  Worker's  Handy- 
book,"  a  practical  manual  embracing  information  on  the  tools, 
materials,  appliances,  and  processes  employed  in  cabinet  work, 
by  P.  N.  Hasluck  ;  with  about  one  hundred  illustrations. 

In  an  interesting  paper  presenting  a  concise  history  of  the 
acclimatization  of  the  Salmonidse  in  Tasmania,  Mr.  P.  S. 
Seager  claims  that  success  has  been  secured  in  the  thorough 
and  unquestioned  establishment  of  salmon  trout  and  brown 
trout,  both  of  which  species  are  now  abundant  in  Tasmania. 
The  establishment  of  the  true  salmon  is  still  to  some  extent  a 
matter  of  uncertainty.  "  It  must,  however,  be  borne  in  mind," 
says  Mr.  Seager,  "that  more  than  one  specimen  submitted  for 
scientific  examination  to  Dr.  Gunther  and  others  have  been  pro- 
nounced S.  salar,  aud  that  Sir  Thomas  Brady  has  publicly  stated 
his  belief  that  specimens  shown  to  him  are  of  the  sam;  species. 
In  speaking  of  them  commercially,  Sir  Thomas  states  tha1  such 
specimens  in  a  salmon-producing  country  would  be  accepted  as 
salmon  without  a  doubt."  This  being  so,  Mr.  Seager  is  of 
opinion  that  the  establishment  of  S.  salar  in  Tasmania  may 
almost  be  regarded  as  an  accomplished  fact. 

Advices  from  the  Philippine  Islands,  via  Hong  Kong  and 
Yokohama,  received  at  Queenstown  from  New  York  on  Saturday 
morning  last,  state  that  over  300  lives  were  lost  in  those  islands 
by  the  eruption  of  an  old  volcano,  named  Mayon,  at  the  latter 
end  of  July.  Several  hundreds  of  houses  were  also  destroyed 
by  the  lava  and  a>hes,  and  the  natives  were  in  a  state  of  panic. 
Volcanoes  in  the  islands  of  the  Bissayar  group  were  also  in  a 
violent  state  of  eruption,  and  it  is  thought  there  has  been  a 
terrible  loss  of  life. 

The  Artisans'  Classes  at  the  Royal  Victoria  Hall  will  reopen 
on  Monday,   October  I.     Among  the  subjects  taught  will   be 


arithmetic,  physiology,  physiography,  shorthand,  chemistry 
astronomy,  mechanics,  machine  drawing,  and  electricity.  Many 
of  the  classes  are  in  connection  with  the  Science  and  Art 
Department. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during 
the  past  week  include  two  Vulpine  Phalangers  {Phalangista 
vulpina  Q  o  )  from  Australia,  presented  by  Mr.  J.  M.  Kirby  ;  a 
Suricate  (Surieala  letradactyla)  from  South  Africa,  presented  by 
Lieut.  Lionel  de  Latour  Wells,  R.N.  ;  a  Common  Teal  (Quer- 
quedula  crecca  9 ),  British,  presented  by  Mr.  Bergman  ;  an 
European  Pond  Tortoise  {Emys  europeca),  European,  presented 
by  Master  William  Reed  ;  a  Robben  Island  Snake  (Coronella 
phocarum)  from  South  Africa,  presented  by  the  Rev.  G.  H.  R. 
Fisk,  C.M.Z.S.  ;  an  Ourang-outang  {Simia  satyrus  9  )  from 
Borneo,  a  Ruffed   Lemur  (Lemur  var.'us)  from   Madagascar,  a 

Larger  Hill  Mynah  (Graeula  intermedia)  from  India,    two 

Tree  Ducks  (Dmdrocygna )  from   the  Celebes?  deposited; 

a Capuchin  (Ceous 9  )  from  Brazil,   two  Brush-tailed 

Kangaroos  (Petrogale  pcnicillata  6  o )  from  Australia,  pur- 
chased ;  a  Chinese  Goose  (Anser  cygnoides  0  )  from  China, 
received  in  exchange. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

Comet  1888  £  (Barnard). — The  comet  discovered  by  Bar- 
nard on  September  2  is  increasing  in  brightness,  but  is  still  a 
faint  object.  M.  Bigourdan  describes  it  on  September  5  as 
showing  a  round  nebulosity  from  1'  to  l'"5  in  diameter,  with  a 
fairly  stellar  nucleus,  of  magnitude  \\\  or  12.  The  nebulosity 
was  not  quite  symmetrical  with  regard  to  the  nucleus,  but  was 
most  developed  in  the  direction  of  position-angle  20°.  The  fol- 
lowing elements  are  by  Dr.  A.  Berberich  from  observations 
madeatStrassburg,  September  4  and  8,  and  Dresden.  September^ 
(Aslr.  Nach.,  No.  2858)  :— 

T  —  1889  January  29-0959,  Berlin  M.T. 

co  =  341  43  27'g  ) 

a  =  358     6  20-8  '•   Mean  Eq.  i888x>. 
1  =  166  20  28*2  ) 
log  (/  xs  0-252291 
Error  of  middle  place  (O  -  C).     A\  =  - 


A£ 


Epliemeris  for  Berlin  Midnight. 
Decl.  Log  r. 


R.A.  Decl.                  Log  r.           Log  a.  Bright- 

h.    m.    s.  o      /  ness- 

Sept.  30...    640    1...  8  37-7  N....  03694  ...  0-3326  ...  2-27 

Oct.     2...    63754...  823-4 

4  •••    6  35  33  ...  8    8-4       ...  0-3637  ...  03081  ...  2-59 

6  ...    6  32  56  ...  7  52-6 

8...    630    2...  7359      ...  0-3580  ...  02822  ...  3'oo 

10  ...    6  26  48   ..  7  18-^ 

12...    62314...  6  59-5  N.    .  0-3523  ...  02550  ...  3-51 

The  brightness  on  September  2  has  been  taken  as  unity. 

Prof.  Krueger  has  deduced  very  similar  elements  to  the  above,, 
using  an  observation  made  at  Hamburg  on  September  13  instead 
of  that  made  at  Dresden. 

Comets  Brooks  and  Faye. — The  following  ephemerides  for 
these  two  comets  are  in  continuation  of  those  given  in  Nature 
for  September  20  (p.  503),  and  are  by  Dr.  H.  Kreutz  :— 


Comet  1888  c  (Brooks). 
1888.  R.A.  Decl. 

h.    m.     s.  o         / 

Sept.  30  ...  15  30  41  ...  14  47-4  N. 
Oct.      2  ...  15  37  15  ...  13  28-2 

4  •••  15  43  35  •••  I2  n'6 
6  ...  15  49  42  ...  10  570 

8  ■•    15  55  35  •••  9  463 

10  ...  16  1   16  ...  8  377 

12  ...  16  6  46  ...  7  31-7 

14  ...  16  12     6  ...  6  28-2 

16  ...  16  17  18  ...  5  27-1  N. 


Comet  i883rf(Faye). 

R.A.  Decl. 

h.    m.    s.  0       1 

7     6  24   ...  14     3  N. 

7   10  19   ...  13  4' 

7  14    8  ...  13  19 

7  17  51   ...  12  56 

7  21  29  ...  12  3} 

7  25     o  ...  12  10 

7  28  25  ...  n  47 

7  31  43  ...  11   23 

7  34  55  •••  10  59  N. 


Comet  Brooks  is  slowly  decreasing  in  brightness,  but  Comet 
Faye  is  brightening. 


Sept.  27,  1888J 


NA  TURE 


529 


ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR     THE 
WEEK  1888  SEPTEMBER  30- OCTOBER  6. 

/"pOR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 
is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  September  30 

Sun  rises,  6h.  im.  ;  souths,  nh.  49m.  46"2s.  ;  sets.  17b.  38m.  : 
right  asc.  on  meridian,  I2h.  28 '4m.  ;  decl.  3°4'S.  Sidereal 
Time  at  Sunset,  i8h.  18m. 

Moon  (New  on  October  5,  15?).)  rises,  23!).  22m.*;  souths, 
7h.  30m. ;  sets,  15V1.  32m. :  right  asc.  on  meridian,  8h.  8-om. ; 
200  22'  N. 


decl. 

Planet. 

Mercury . . 

Venus 

Mars 

Jupiter 

Saturn 

Uranus  ... 
Neptune.. 


Right  asc.  and  declination 


Rises. 

Souths. 

Sets. 

on 

meridian. 

h.    m. 

h.    m. 

h.     m. 

h.      m. 

0      / 

8  25  . 

.    13    16    . 

.  18    7  • 

•  13  55'2 

...    14     2  S. 

8    5  •• 

.    13    12    . 

.  18  19  . 

•  13  50-4 

...    10  55  S. 

12  20  .. 

.    l6      9    . 

.  19  58  . 

•  16  47-9 

...  24     I  S. 

11   11   .. 

•    15    25    . 

•  19  39  •• 

.   16    4'i 

...  20  13  s. 

1  10  .. 

.     8  41  . 

.   16  12  . 

.     9  19-2 

...  16  28  N. 

6  53  - 

•  12  25  .. 

•  17  57  » 

•  13    3'6 

...     6     7  S. 

19  37*- 

•     3  24  •• 

11   11   .. 

•     4     17 

...  18  56  N. 

*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening. 
Ocadtation  of  Planet  and  Star  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 


Oct. 

I 

3 
Oct. 
I 


Star. 

Saturn 
/  Leon  is   . 

h. 
•  •      15      ••• 


Corresponding 

angles  from  ver- 

Disap. 

Reap. 

tex  to  right  foi 
inverted  image. 

h.    m. 

h.    m. 

0           n 

15  59  •• 

•   16  49 

...  no  288 

30.. 

•     3  52 

...     55  199 

Mag. 


Saturn  in  conjunction  with  and  o°  55'  south 
of  the  Moon. 


Variable  Stars. 


Star. 
U  Cephei     ... 

S  Arietis 
Algol    

1<  Persei 

C  Geminorum 

R  Cancri 

5  Ursae  Majoris 
U  Ophiuchi... 

W  Sagittarii 

6  Lyrae 

R  Lyrae 

S  Sagittae     ... 
X  Cygni 
T  Vulpeculae 
Y  Cygni 


R.A. 


Decl. 


0  52-4  ...  81    16  N. 

1  58-6  ...  II    59  N. 
3    0-9  ...  40  31  N. 


3  22-9 

6  57-5 

8  io-4 

12  391 

17  10*9 

17  57*9 

18  46^0 

18  51-9 

19  5o-9 

20  39-0 
20  467 
20  47  6 


35  17  N. 
20  44  N. 
12  4  N. 
61  42  N. 
1  20  N. 

29  35  S. 

33  14  N. 
43  48  N. 
16  20  N. 
35  11  N. 
27  50  N. 

34  14  N. 


Oct. 


Sept. 
Oct. 


,  Sept. 

Oct. 

.  Sept. 

.Oct. 

•     »> 

Sept. 
Oct. 


1, 

6, 
4. 
2, 
5. 
3o» 
4, 


5  Cephei       22  25^0  ...  57  51  N.  ...  Sept. 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum  ;  w2  secondary 


30,  21 

5»  22 

30,  19 

3.  19 

3. 

5°.  21 

3.    5 

3.    5 

2,    3 

5,    3 

30,  21 

minimum. 


13  m 

52  vi 

M 

20  m 

8  m 

M 

oM 

M 

m 

20  m 

6  m 

o   »l 

o  w2 
m 
o  M 
oM 
o  M 
o  in 
o  m 
o  m 


Near  rj  Aurigae 


Meteor-  Showers. 
R.A.         Decl. 

-     75*  •••  41°  N. 

225   ...   52  N. 


Swift  ;     streaks. 

October  2. 
Bright  ;     slow. 

October  2. 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

Lieut.  Wissmann,  who  is  to  command  the  German  Emin 
Pasha  Expedition,  has  already  done  much  excellent  work  in 
Africa,  for  which  he  received  one  of  the  medals  of  the  Royal 
Geographical  Society  a  few  months  ago.  In  his  hands  the 
interests  of  science  are  sure  to  be  attended  to.  The  Expedition 
will  consist  of  two  contingents,   which  will    proceed    through 


German  East  Africa  by  the  south  shore  of  Victoria  Nyanza  to 
the  region  between  that  lake  and  the  Albert  Nyanza.  That  the 
Expedition  is  sure  to  meet  with  difficulties  is  evident  from  the 
telegrams  which  are  almost  daily  appearing  from  Berlin  and 
from  Zanzibar.  The  whole  coast  region  is  rising  against  the 
Germans,  and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  Lieut.  Wissmann  will  have 
to  proceed  through  a  practically  hostile  country  all  the  way  to 
Wadelai.  It  is  a  pity  that  in  the  matter  of  Emin  Pasha,  which 
interests  all  Europe,  Germany  and  England  could  not  work 
hand  in  hand. 

The  new  American  Geographical  Society  recently  founded  at 
Washington,  and  including  the  most  eminent  geologists  and 
geographers  of  the  United  States,  has  already  held  several  meet- 
ings, and  begun  work  in  earnest.  It  has  been  resolved  that  the 
Society  will  undertake  the  task  of  bringing  out  a  new  physical 
atlas  of  the  United  States,  and  for  this  purpose  it  has  appointed 
a  c>mmittee  of  specialists  to  proceed  with  the  undertaking. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  Dr.  Meyer's  Expedition  to  Kiliman- 
jaro has  met  with  opposition  in  traversing  Usambara,  and  has 
been  compelled  to  return  to  the  coast.  Dr.  Meyer,  who  was 
accompanied  by  Lenz's  former  companion,  Dr.  Baumann, 
intended  to  make  a  thorough  survey  of  the  whole  region  around 
Kilimanjaro,  which,  it  will  be  remembered,  he  recently  scaled 
to  within  a  few  hundred  feet  of  the  summit.  The  Chief  Semboja, 
who  is  reported  to  have  attacked  the  Expedition,  has  hitherto 
been  on  friendly  terms  with  the  whites.  He  is  a  great  friend  of 
the  missionaries  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  and  Mr.  H. 
H.  Johnston,  in  his  book  on  Kilimanjaro,  speaks  in  highly 
favourable  terms  of  him,  and  was  indeed  indebted  to  him  for 
many  friendly  services.  It  is  to  be  feared,  therefore,  that  the 
Germans  have  shown  some  want  of  tact  in  dealing  with  the 
Usambara  peop'.e.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  Dr.  Meyer  may  be 
able  to  resume  his  journey,  and  carry  out  the  objects  of  his 
expedition. 

The  last  number  of  the  Izvestia  of  the  Russian  Geographical 
S  >ciety  will  be  welcome  to  geographers,  as  it  contains  a  chapter 
from  the  work  of  Przevalsky,  now  in  print,  about  his  fourth 
journey  to  Central  Asia.  All  discoveries  made  during  that 
journey  are  summed  up  in  this  chapter,  and  the  relations  of  the 
mountain  ridges,  mapped  by  the  Russian  traveller  to  other  h'lly 
tracts,  formerly  known,  or  explored  by  Mr.  Carey,  are  shown.  We 
hope  that  this  chapter,  the  chief  one  of  the  whole  work,  will 
soon  be  translated  into  English.  After  giving  a  general  sketch  of 
the  Kuen-lun  Mountains,  M.  Przevalsky  describes  his  journey 
along  the  Zaisan-saih;  River,  the  ridges  of  Tsaidam,  "  Columbus  " 
and  "  Moscow,"  the  Lake  Unfreezing,  Przevalsky's  ridge,  and  the 
"  Windy  Valley,"  which  offers  an  advantageous  route  to  China  ; 
as  also  the  return  journey,  the  excursion  to  the  Khatyn-zan 
River,  the  pas- age  across  the  Altyn-tagh,  and  the  return  to  Lake 
Lob- nor.  The  forty  pages  covered  by  the  article  are  a  rich 
mine  of  geographical  information.  The  same  number  of  the 
Izvestia  contains  an  abstract  from  A.  D.  Carey's  "  Journey  to 
East  Turkistan,"  with  a  map. 

The  remarkable  facts  communicated  by  M.  Yadrintseff 
as  to  the  drying  up  of  lakes  in  Siberia  have  induced  the 
Russian  Geographical  Society  to  take  decisive  steps  for  the 
exploration  of  the  lakes  of  the  Empire.  A  great  number  of 
copies  of  an  instruction  by  Dr.  Forel,  of  Lausanne,  have  been 
sent  out  to  correspondents  of  the  Society,  as  also  a  programme 
for  collecting  data  on  the  subject,  and  it  is  hoped  that  in  a  year 
or  two  most  valuable  data  will  thus  be  gathered. 

In  the  last  number  of  Pettrmann's  Mitteilungen,  Herr  J- 
Menges  raises  once  more  the  question  of  the  possibility  of  utiliz- 
ing the  African  elephant.  Herr  Menges  points  out  that  there 
is  strong  evidence  that  the  elephant  was  made  use  of  in  ancient 
times  in  Africa,  and  asserts  that  no  serious  attempt  has  been 
made  in  modern  times  to  subdue  it  to  the  uses  of  humanity.  He 
maintains  that  it  is  quite  as  docile  as  the  Indian  elephant,  and 
much  stronger,  and  that  if  it  could  be  really  tamed  and  trained 
to  work,  it  would  be  of  immense  utility  in  the  opening  up  of 
Africa.  But,  unless  some  protection  is  accorded  to  the  African 
elephant,  Herr  Menges  believes  that  by  the  end  of  next  century 
it  will  be  quite  extinct.  We  are  therefore  glad  to  notice  that 
the  British  East  African  Company  will  take  special  means  for 
the  protection  of  the  animal,  and  they  might  very  well  make 
some  attempt  to  prove  whether  or  not  it  is  capable  of  being 
tamed. 


5  So 


NATURE 


{Sept.  27,  1888 


NOTES   ON  METEORITES! 

III. 

Identity    of    Origin    of    Meteorites,   Luminous 
Meteors,  and  Falling  Stars. 

TT  is  very  fortunate  for  science  that  many  of  the  meteorites  so 
■^  carefully  preserved  in  our  museums  have  been  seen  to  fall. 
This  being  so  we  possess  full  accounts  of  the  accompanying 
phenomena  and  effects. 

These  comprise  the  most  vivid  luminosity  ;  visible  and  audible 
explosions,  in  some  cases  heard  over  thousands  of  square 
miles  of  country,  and  at  times  a  long  train  in  the  sky  indicating 
the  meteor  path,  which  sometimes  remains  visible  for  hours. 

Now  precisely  similar  effects  have  been  noted  when  nothing 
has  reached  the  earth's  surface  ;  and  in  the  thousands  of  records 
of  the  phenomena  presented  by  luminous  meteors,  fire-balls, 
bolides,  or  shooting  or  falling  stars  as  they  have  been  variously 
called,  we  have  the  links  which  connect  in  the  most  complete 
manner  the  falls  of  actual  irons  and  stones  from  heaven  with  the 
tiniest  trail  of  a  shooting  or  falling  star,  tine  etoile  qui  file,  qui 
file,  et  disparail. 

The  heavy  masses  fall  by  virtue  of  their  substance  resisting  the 
friction  of  the  air,  the  grains  are  at  once  burnt  up  and  fill  the 
upper  regions  of  the  earth's  atmosphere  with  meteoric  dust. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  weights  of  meteorites  which  have  actu- 
ally fallen  vary  between  many  tons  and  a  few  ounces,  the  latter 
being,  in  all  probability,  fragments  shattered  by  the  explosion. 
In  the  case  of  some  shooting-stars,  the  actual  weight  involved 
has  been  estimated  by  Prof.  Herschel  as  low  as  two  grains,  not 
one  out  of  twenty  estimated  by  hi  in  exceeding  a  pound. 

It  may  appear  impossible  that  such  atoms  should  produce  the 
brilliant  effects  observed,  but  Prof.  Herschel  has  calculated  that 
a  single  grain  moving  at  the  rate  of  30  miles  a  second  represents 
3.  dynamical  energy  of  55,675  foot-pounds.  This  energy  is  con- 
verted by  the  resistance  of  our  grosser  air  into  heat,  as  the  motion 
of  a  projectile  is  converted  into  heat  by  its  impact  on  the  target ;- 
and  hence  the  combustion  of  the  matter  of  the  meteorite,  and 
perhaps  even  the  incandescence  of  the  air  through  which  it 
rushes  with  such  lightning  velocity.  This  luminosity  com- 
mences often  at  a  height  of  80  miles,  and  sometimes  even 
higher,  in  regions  where  the  atmosphere  must  be  excessively 
rare. 

Could  these  little  bodies  pierce  our  envelope  as  readily  as  do 
their  larger  cousins,  the  meteoric  stones  and  meteoric  irons,  we 
should  certainly  have  the  advantage  of  placing  them  in  our 
museums  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  bombardment — the  feu- 
de  ciel — might  be  one  to  which  the  feu-d'enfer  of  all  terrestrial 
artillery  would  be,  in  the  gross  total  of  results,  as  mere  child's 
play. 

But  the  identity  of  such  phenomena  as  these  is  by  no  means 
the  only  line  of  evidence  demonstrating  the  connection  now  in 
question. 

Proof  from  the  Chemistry  of  Fire-balls. 

The  spectral  appearances  observed  with  meteors,  fire-balls, 
and  shooting-stars,  which  explode  and  produce  luminous  effects, 
are  entirely  in  harmony  with  those  observations  on  the  spectra  of 
meteorites  to  which  I  have  referred. 

The  observations,  so  far  as  they  have  gone,  have  given  decided 
indications  of  magnesium,  sodium,  lithium,  potassium,  and  of 
*ihe  carbon  flutings  seen  in  comets. 

Prof.  Herschel  and  Herr  Konkoly  have  both  noticed  that  in 
the  generality  of  cases  the  lines  of  magnesium  (one  of  the 
-constituents  of  the  olivine)  show  themselves  first  in  the  or- 
dinary meteor  or  falling  star,  and  the  beautiful  green  light  which 
is  so  often  associated  with  these  falling  bodies  is  due  to  the 
incandescence  of  the  vapour  of  magnesium. 

The  following  quotations  from  Konkoly  and  Prof.  Herschel 
are  among  the  authorities  which  may  be  cited  for  the  above 
statement  : — 

"  On  August  12,  13,  and  14  I  observed  a  number  of  meteors 
with  the  spectroscope;  amongst  others,  on.  the  12th,  a  yellow 
fire-ball  with  a  fine  train,  which  came  directly  from  the  Perseid 
radiant.  In  the  head  of  this  meteor  the  lines  of  lithium  were 
clearly  seen  by  the  side  of  the  sodium  line.  On  August  13,  at 
ioh.  46m.  ios.,  I  observed  in  the  north-east  a  magnificent  fire- 

1  Continued  from  p.  458. 

2  The  particles  of  iron  in  a  large  projectile,  after  impact,  which  is  accom- 
panied by  a  flash  of  light,  are  usually  brought  to  a  dark  blue  colour,  which 
•would  correspond  to  about  555°  F..  but  the  momentary  heat  imparted  is 
certainly  greater  ihan  rhis. 


ball  of  emerald-green  colour,  as  bright  as  Jupiter,  with  a  very 
slow  motion.  The  nucleus  at  the  first  moment  only  showed  a 
very  bright  continuous  spectrum  with  the  sodium  line  ;  but  a 
second  after  I  perceived  the  magnesium  line,  and  I  think  I  am 
not  mistaken  in  saying  those  of  copper  also.  Besides  that,  the 
spectrum  showed  two  very  faint  red  lines."  x 

"  A  few  of  the  green  '  Leonid '  streaks  were  notic  ed  in  No 
vember  (1886)  to  be,  to  all  appearances,  monochromatic,  or  quite 
undispersed  by  vision  through  the  refracting  prisms  ;  from  which 
we  may  at  least  very  probably  infer  (by  later  discoveries  with 
the  meteor-spectroscope)  that  the  prominent  green  line  of  mag- 
nesium forms  the  principal  constituent  element  of  their  greenish 
light."2 

Again,  later  on  in  the  same  letter,  Prof.  Herschel  mentions 
Konkoly's  observation  of  the  bright  b  line  of  magnesium,  in 
addition  to  the  yellow  sodium  line,  in  a  meteor  on  July  26,  1873. 
I  again  quote  from  Prof.  Herschel  :  — 

"  On  the  morning  of  October  13  in  the  same  year,  Herr  von 
Konkoly  again  observed  with  Browning's  meteor-spectroscope 
the  long-enduring  streak  of  a  large  fire-ball,  which  was  visible  to 
the  north-east  of  O'Gyalla.  It  exhibited  the  yellow  sodium  line 
and  the  green  line  of  magnesium  very  finely,  besides  other 
spectral  lines  in  the  red  and  green.  Examining  these  latter 
lines  closely  with  a  star-spectroscope  attached  to  an  equatorial 
telescope,  Herr  von  Konkoly  succeeded  in  identifying  them 
by  direct  comparison  with  the  lines  in  an  electric  Geissler-tube 
of  marsh-gas.  They  were  visible  in  the  star-spectroscope  for 
eleven  minutes,  after  which  the  sodium  and  magnesium  lines 
still  continued  to  be  very  brightly  observable  through  the 
meteor-spectroscope.'' 3 

An  ither  series  of  observations4  gives  continuous  spectra  for 
the  nucleus,  and  two  trains  with  sodium,  and  a  third  with 
sodium  and  a  predominant  green  band,  which  was  doubtless  b  of 
magnesium,  the  meteor  itself  being  of  emerald-green  colour. 

In  cases  where  the  temperature  has  been  higher,  the  bright 
line  spectrum  of  iron  has  been  associated  with  the  bright  lines 
of  magnesium  in  the  spectrum  of  the  falling  star,  so  that  the 
two  suiostances  which  are  among  the  chief  constituents  of  stones 
and  irons— precisely  the  two  substances  which  we  should  expect 
to  find — are  actually  those  which  have  been  observed. 

The  two  lines  which  Konkoly  supposes  are  probably  due  to 
copper  will,  I  expect,  be  found  to  be  iron  lines  when  other 
observations  are  made  of  the  spectra  of  meteors. 

These  spectral  appearances  are  naturally  associated  with 
colours,  and  again  we  find  that  the  colours  of  the  trail,  when 
meteorites  have  fallen,  closely  resemble  thjse  observed  when  no 
fall  has  been  observed. 

Green  is  a  tolerably  common  colour,  especially  in  slow-moving 
fire-balls  about  equal  to  Venus  in  lustre.  These  generally  leave 
a  short  trail  of  red  sparks. 

About  10  per  cent,  of  all  shooting-stars  show  a  distinct 
colour,  the  most  usual  being  orange  or  red,  the  slowly-moving 
ones  generally  being  red.  The  larger  ones,  or  those  with  the 
longest  trails,  often  turn  from  orange  to  bluish-white,  like  burn- 
ing magnesium.  Sometimes  the  change  is  very  sudden  and 
startling.5 

A  purple  or  mauve  tint,  like  that  given  by  copper,  is  sometimes 
seen. 

Proof  from  the  Aurora. 

When  we  come  to  consider  the  number  of  meteorites  which 
fall  upon  the  earth  daily  we  shall  find  that  it  is  enormous  ;  and 
this  being  so,  if  we  can  trace  this  dust  in  the  air,  or  after  it  has 
fallen,  or  both,  if  chemical  examination  shows  it  to  be  identical 
with  that  of  meteorites,  we  shall  be  supplied  with  another 
argument  which  can  be  used  in  support  of  the  fact  that  the 
bodies  which  produce  the  dust  are  meteoric  in  their  origin. 

One  must  suppose  that  these  meteors  in  their  passage  through 
the  air  break  into  numerous  fragments,  that  incandescent 
particles  of  their  constituents,  including  nickel,  iron,  manganese, 
and  the  various  silicates  of  iron,  are  thrown  off,  and  that  these  or 
the  products  of  their  combustion  eventually  fall  to  the  surface  as 
almost  impalpable  dust,  among  which  must  be  magnetic  oxide  o 
iron  more  or  less  completely  fused.  The  luminous  trains  of 
falling  stars  are  probably  due  to  the  combustion  of  these  innu- 
merable particles,  resembling  the  sparks  which  fly  from  a  ribbon 
of  iron  burnt  in  oxygen,   or  the  particles  of   the  same 

1  Ko-.koly,  Obsei-vatory,  vol.  iii.  157. 

2  Herschel,  letter  to  Nature,  vol.  xxiv.  p.  507. 

3  Ibid.     See  also  Astr.  Nach.,  No.  2014. 

4  Monthly  Notices,  vol.  xxxiii.  p.  575. 

5  Corder,  Monthly  Notices,  vol.  xl.  p.    13 


Sept.  27,  1888] 


NATURE 


53i 


thrown  off  when  striking  a  flint.  It  is  known  that  such  particles 
in  burning  take  a  spherical  form,  and  are  surrounded  by  a  layer 
of  black  magnetic  oxide. 

How  are  we  to  trace  this  dust  in  the  air  ?  It  is  well  known 
that  at  times  the  air  is  electrically  illuminated,  not  only  by  the 
flashes  of  lightning  which  pass  along  its  lower  levels,  but  by 
so-called  "auroral  "  displays  in  its  higher  reaches. 

It  is  now  many  years  since  the  idea  was  first  thrown  out  that 
the  aurora  was  in  some  way  connected  with  shoooting-stars. 

M.  Zenger  has  prepared  a  catalogue  of  aurora  observed  from 
1800  to  1877,  in  which  he  shows  an  apparent  connection  between 
the  brightest  displays  and  the  appearance  of  large  numbers  of 
shooting-stars. 

M.  Denza  noted  the  same  connection  on  November  27, 
1872,  and  remarked  that  he  had  noticed  it  before. 

Admiral  Wrangel,  as  quoted  by  Humboldt,  observed  that  in 
the  auroras  so  constantly  seen  on  the  Siberian  coast,  the  passage 
of  a  meteor  never  failed  to  extend  the  luminosity  to  parts  of  the 
sky  previously  dark.1 

It  is  clear  that  in  such  a  case  as  this  the  spectroscope  is  the 
only  chemical  aid  applicable,  and  it  has  long  been  recognized 
that  the  spectrum  observed  is  not  the  spectrum  of  the  con- 
stituents of  the  atmosphere,  as  we  can  study  it  in  our 
laboratories. 

The  spectrum,  however,  strictly  resembles  that  seen  in  the 
"glows,"  to  which  reference  has  been  made  ;  if  the  factors 
present  in  both  cases  are  meteor  dust,  low  pressure,  and  feeble 
electric  currents,  the  resulting  phenomena  should  not  be  dis- 
similar. 

The  results  of  recent  inquiries  certainly  justify  us,  therefore, 
in  concluding  that  the  upper  reaches  of  the  atmosphere  contain 


particles  giving  us  the  spectra  of  magnesium,   manganese,  iron, 
and  carbon. 

The  natural  origin  is  the  dust  of  those  bodies  which  are  con- 
tinually entering  those  regions,  and  hence  the  proof  afforded  by  the 
spectroscopic  observation  of  shooting-stars,  that  they  are  identical 
in  chemical  composition  with  meteorites,  is  strengthened  by  these 
auroral  observations,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  origin  of  tfc< 
auroral  spectrum  is  placed  beyond  all  doubt. 

Proof  from  the  Fallen  Dust. 

It  is  universally  recognized  that  the  atmosphere  holds  in 
suspension  an  immense  number  of  very  minute  particles  of 
organic  and  inorganic  origin.  These  must  be  either  dust  taken 
up  by  aerial  currents  from  the  ground — the  re;ult  of  volcanic 
action — or  extra-terrestrial  bodies.  Many  scientiric  men,  among 
whom  we  may  mention  Ehrenberg.  Daubree,  Reichenbach, 
Nordenskjokl,  Tissandier,  Murray,  and  Renard,  have  studied 
this  problem.  Dust  collected  in  various  places  at  different  times 
has  been  examined  with  a  view  of  determining  whether  its  origin 
was  meteoric.  In  many  cases,  in  which  chiefly  definite  iron 
chondroi  have  been  observed,  the  evidence  has  seemed  very 
strong  in  favour  of  the  view. 

It  is  at  once  obvious  that  the  detection  of  such  dust  which 
falls  on  the  general  surface  of  the  land  is  hopeless,  and  that  that 
which  is  collected  on  snow  in  inhabited  countries  containing 
foundries  and  the  like  is  doubtful. 

But  a  considerable  advance  of  this  question  has  recently  been 
made  in  studying  the  deep-sea  deposits  collected  by  the 
Challenger  Expedition.  Messrs.  Murray  and  Renard,1  in  giving 
the  results  of  their  researches,   point   out  that  at  the  greatest 


sea  level 


~oced  clay 

Fig.  3.—  Section  of  ccean  showing  red  clays  at  depths  of  3000   fathoms  (18,000  feet). 


depths  of  the  ocean  furthest  from  land,  the  sea  bottom  is  very 
different  from  that  nearer  the  coast  lines. 

Under  these  necessary  conditions  of  exceeding  slow  deposition 
and  absence  from  ordinary  sources  of  contamination,  it  is  clear 
that  the  problem  can  be  attacked  under  the  best  conditions. 

We  read  : — "The  considerable  distance  from  land  at  which 
we  find  cosmic  particles  in  greatest  abundance  in  deep-sea 
deposits,  eliminates  at  once  objections  which  might  be  raised 
with  respect  to  metallic  particles  found  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
inhabited  countries.  On  the  other  hand,  the  form  and  character 
of  the  spherules  of  extra-terrestrial  origin  are  essentially  different 
from  those  collected  near  manufacturing  centres.  These  mag- 
netic spherules  have  never  elongated  necks  or  a  cracked  surface, 
like  tho^e  derived  from  furnaces,  with  which  we  have  carefully 
compared  them.  Neither  are  the  magnetic  spherules  with  a 
metallic  centre  comparable  either  in  their  form  or  structure  to 
those  particles  of  native  iron  which  have  been  described  in  the 
eruptive  rocks,  especially  in  the  basaltic  rocks  of  the  north  of 
Ireland,  of  Iceland,  &c."  1 

Messrs.  Murray  and  Renard  then  state  on  what  they  rely  in 
support  of  their  view  that  many  of  the  particles  thus  obtained 
from  great  depths  are  of  cosmic  origin  :  — 

"  If  we  plunge  a  magnet  into  an  oceanic  deposit,  especially  a 
red  clay  from  the  central  parts  of  the  Pacific,  we  extract  par- 
ticles, some  of  which  are  magnet ie  from  volcanic  rocks,  and  to 
which  vitreous  matters  are  often  attached ;  others  again  are 
quite  isolated,  and  differ  in  most  of  their  properties  from  the 
former.  The  latter  are  generally  round,  measuring  hardly  o '2  mm., 
generally  they  are  smaller,  their  surface  is  quite  covered  with  a 
brilliant  black  coating,  having  all  the  properties  of  magnetic 
oxide  of  iron  ;  often  there  may  be  noticed  upon  them  cup- like 
depressions  clearly  marked.  Jf  we  break  down  these  spherules 
in  an  agate  mortar,  the  brilliant  black  coating  easily  falls  away, 
and  reveals  white  or  gray  metallic  malleable  nuclei,  which  may 

1  "Cosmos"  (OtteO,  vol.  i.  p.  114. 


be  beaten  out  by  the  pestle  into  thin  lamellae.  This  metallic 
centre,  when  treated  with  an  acidulated  solution  of  sulphate  of 
copper,  immediately  assumes  a  coppery  coat,  thus  showing  that 
it  consists  of  native  iron.  But  there  are  some  malleable  metallic 
nuclei  extracted  from  the  spherules  which  do  not  give  this 
reaction,    they  do  not    take   the   copper   coating.        Chemical 


V~**" 


Fig. 


Fig. 


4-  *ig.  5- 

Fig.  4.  —  Black  spherule  with  metallic  nucleus  (60  :  1).  This  spherule, 
covered  with  a  coaling  of  black  shining  magnetite,  represents  the  most 
frequent  shape.  The  depression  here  shown  is  often  found  at  the  surface 
of  these  spherules.  From  2375  fathoms.  South  Pacific. 
Fig.  5. — black  spherule  with  metallic  nucleus  (60  :  1).  The  black  external 
coating  of  magnetic  oxide  has  been  broken  away  to  show  the  metallic 
centre,  represented  by  the  clear  part  at  the  centre.  From  31^0  fathoms, 
Atlantic. 

reaction  shows  that  they  contain  cobalt  and  nickel ;  very  prob- 
ably they  constitute  an  alloy  of  iron  and  these  two  metals,  such 
as  is  often  found  in  meteorites,  and  whose  presence  in  large 
quantities  hinders  the  production  of  the  coppery  coating  on  the 
iron.     G.  Rose  has  shown  that  this  coating  of  black  oxide  of 

'  "  On  the  Microscopic  Characters  of  Volcanic  Ashes  and  Cosmic  Dust 
and  their  Distribution  in  Deep-sea  Deposits,"  Proc.  R.S.K.,  and  Nature, 
vol.  xxix.  p.  585. 


532 


NA  TURE 


[Sept.  2j, 


iron  is  found  on  the  periphery  of  meteorites  of  native  iron,  and 
its  presence  is  readily  understood  when  we  admit  their  cosmic 
origin.  Indeed  these  meteoric  particles  of  native  iron,  in  their 
transit  through  the  air,  must  undergo  combustion,  and,  like 
small  portions  of  iron  from  a  smith's  anvil,  be  transformed 
either  entirely  or  at  the  surface  only  into  magnetic  oxide,  and 
in  this  latter  case  the  nucleus  is  protected  from  further  oxidation 
by  the  coating  which  thus  covers  it." 

We  are  next  shown  that  these  metallic  chondroi  occur  with  stony 
chondroi,  so  that  if  the  interpretation  of  a  cosmic  origin  for  the 
magnetic  spherules  with  a  metallic  centre  be  not  considered 
established  in  a  manner  absolutely  beyond  question,  it  almost 
becomes  so  when  we  take  into  account  their  association  with  the 
silicate  spherules,  never  found  in  rocks  of  a  terrestrial  origin. 
These  are  thus  described  : — 

"Among  the  fragments  attracted  by  the  magnet  in  deep-sea 
deposits  we  distinguish  granules  slightly  larger  than  the  spherules 
with  the  shining  black  coating  above  described.  These  are 
yellowish-brown,  with  a  bronze-like  lustre,  and  under  the  micro- 
scope it  is  noticed  that  the  surface,  instead  of  being  quite 
smooth,  is  grooved  by  thin  lamellae.  In  size  they  never  exceed 
a  millimetre,  generally  they  are  about  0*5  millimetre  in  diameter ; 
they  are  never  perfect  spheres,  as  in  the  case  of  the  black 
spherules  with  a  metallic  centre  ;  and  sometimes  a  depression 
more  or  less  marked  is  to  be  observed  in  the  periphery.  When 
examined  by  the  microscope,  we  observe  that  the  lamellae  which 
compose  them  are  applied  the  one  against  the  other,  and  have 
a  radial  eccentric  disposition.  It  is  the  leafy  radial  structure 
(radialbldttrig),  like  that  of  the  chondres  of  bronzite,  which  pre- 
dominates in  our  preparations.  We  have  observed  much  less 
rarely  the  serial  structure  of  the  chondres  with  olivine,  and 
indeed  there  is  some  doubt  about  the  indications  of  this  last 
type  of  structure.  Fig.  6  shows  the  characters  and  texture  of 
one  of  these  spherules  magnified  twenty-five  diameters." 


Fig.  6. — Chondros.  Spherule  of  bronzite  (25  :  1)  from  3500  fathoms  in  the 
Central  South  Pacific,  showing  many  of  the  peculiarities  belonging  to 
chondres  of  bronzite  or  enstatite. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  that,  associated  with  these  chondroi  in 
the  red  muds  at  the  greatest  depths  in  the  ocean,  are  found 
manganese  nodules  in  enormous  numbers.  If  a  section  be  made 
of  one  of  these,  a  number  of  concentric  layers  will  be  observed 
arranged  around  a  central  nucleus — the  same  as  in  a  urinary 
calculus.  When  the  peroxide  of  manganese  is  removed  by 
strong  hydrochloric  acid,  there  remains  a  clayey  skeleton  which 
still  more  strongly  resembles  a  urinary  calculus,  according  to 
Mr.  Murray. 

This  skeleton  contains  crystals  of  olivine,  quartz,  augite,  mag- 
netite, or  any  other  materials  which  were  contained  in  the  clay 
from  which  the  nodule  was  taken.  In  the  process  of  its  deposi- 
tion around  a  nucleus,  the  peroxide  of  manganese  has  inclosed 
and  incorporated  in  the  nodule  the  clay  and  crystals  and  other 
materials  in  which  the  nucleus  was  embedded.  The  clayey 
skeleton  thus  varies  with  the  clay  or  ooze  in  which  it  was  formed. 
Those  from  a  fine  clay  usually  adhere  well  together  ;  those  from 
a  globigerina  ooze  have  an  areolar  appearance  ;  those  from  a 
clay  with  many  fine  sandy  panicles  usually  fall  to  pieces.  Mr. 
Murray  attributes  the  origin  of  these  nodules  entirely  to  the 
decomposition  of  volcanic  rocks  : — 

"Wherever  we  have  pumice  containing  much  magnetite, 
olivine,  augite,  or  hornblende,  and  these  apparently  undergoing 
decomposition  and  alteration,  or  where  we  have  evidence  of 
great  showers  of  volcanic  ash,  there  we  find  the  manganese  in 
greatest  abundance. ^  This  correspondence  between  the  distribu- 


tion of  the  manganese  and  volcanic  debris  appears  to  me  very 
significant  of  the  origin  of  the  former.  I  regard  the  manganese, 
as  we  find  it,  as  one  of  the  secondary  products  arising  from  the 
decomposition  of  volcanic  minerals. 

"Manganese  is  as  frequent  as  iron  in  lavas,  being  usually  asso- 
ciated with  it,  though  in  very  much  smaller  amount.  In  mag- 
netite and  in  some  varieties  of  augite  and  hornblende  the  protoxide 
of  iron  is  at  times  partially  replaced  by  that  of  manganese. 

"  In  the  manganese  of  these  minerals  and  in  the  carbonic  acid 
and  oxygen  of  ocean  waters  we  have  the  requisite  conditions  for 
the  decomposition  of  the  minerals,  the  solution  of  the  manganese, 
and  its  subsequent  deposition  as  a  peroxide."  1 

These  nodules  have  been  examined  in  the  same  way  as  the 
meteoric  dust.  Naturally  the  chief  manganese  fluting  (the  chief 
auroral  line)  has  been  seen. 

The  question  arises,  therefore,  whether  the  origin  of  these 
deep-sea  concretionary  deposits  of  iron  and  manganese,  which  are 
unrepresented  in  any  deep-sea  geological  deposit,  may  not  be  in 
part,  even  if  in  small  part,  meteoritic,  and  represent,  like  the 
chondroi,  another  form  of  fallen  dust. 

Proof  from  Similar  Velocities. 

Again,  the  meteorites,  as  we  have  seen,  enter  our  atmosphere 
with  very  different  velocities.  The  same  thing  happens  with 
falling  stars,  which  on  this  account  have  been  divided  into  three 
classes  as  follows  : — 

Class  I.   Swift,  streak-leaving  meteors. 
II.   Slow,  with  trains  of  sparks. 
III.  Small,  quick,  short-pathed,  sometimes  with  streaks. 

It  has  also  been  determined  that  the  luminous  effect  which  is 
common  to  the  fall  of  a  meteorite  or  the  appearance  of  a  shooting- 
star  begins  at  about  the  same  height.  In  fact,  we  have  in 
meteorites,  large  fire-balls,  and  shooting-star-;,  a  progression  both 
with  regard  to  the  height  at  which  they  become  visible  and  the 
nearness  to  the  earth  at  which  their  luminosity  is  extinguished. 

The  actual  determination  of  these  heights  was  commenced  by 
two  Gottingen  students — Brandes  and  Benzenberg — in  1798,  at 
the  suggestion  of  Chladni,  with  the  result  that  the  upper  reaches 
of  the  earth's  atmosphere  were  found  to  be  pierced  by  bodies 
entering  it  with  planetary  velocities. 

Profs.  Herschel  and  Newton  were  the  first  to  discuss  the 
data  accumulated  on  this  subject,2  while,  as  early  as  1864,  Father 
Secchi  made  use  of  the  electric  telegraph  in  securing  simultaneous 
observations.3  The  results  of  these  combined  inquiries  may  be 
thus  shown  in  the  case  of  shooting-stars  :  — 


Beginning. 

End. 

Height  in 

Height  in 

Author 

miles. 

miles. 

Europe  and  America,  ) 

70I 

•       54*2 

..       H. 

1 798-1863           \ 

•••         73'5         ■ 

.       506 

N 

Italy,  1864 

...         746         . 

•       497 

S 

Average 


727 


51-5 


In  Herschel's  values  fire-balls  are  excluded,  and  hence  the 
limits  are  narrower.4  Fire-balls  often  arrive  within  20  miles 
of  the  earth's  surface,  and  then  the  concussion  is  of  nearly  the 
same  intensity  whether  stones  fall  or  not. 

Such  determinations  as  these,  when  the  observations  can  be 
depended  upon,  can  be  made  with  the  greatest  nicety  and  by 
graphical  methods.  One  of  the  earliest  employed — a  description 
of  which  will  give  a  fair  idea  of  the  investigation — is  due  to 
Colonel  Laussedat.5 

The  observations  stating  the  path  of  each  meteor  among  the 
stars  having  been  obtained,  a  12-inch  celestial  globe  is  "recti- 
fied "  in  the  usual  manner  for  the  place  and  time.  In  this  way 
we  get  first  the  azimuth  and  altitude  of  the  beginning  and  end 
of  each  trail.  This  is  done  for  each  place  at  which  the  same 
meteor  is  observed. 

The  results  are  then  plotted  on  a  large-scale  map,  on'which  the 
altitudes  and  longitudes  of  the  places  of  observation  and  the 
distances  between  them  can  be  determined.  The  scale  of  the 
map  permits  the  height  of  the  intersection  of  the  lines  of  sight  to 
be  at  once  found,  and  the  agreement  or  disagreement  of  the  obse 
vations  can  be  noticed,  thus  allowing  the  worst  observations 
be  rejected. 

1  Murray,  Nature,  vol.  xv.  p.  340. 

2  Herschel,   B.A.   Report,    1863,  p.   328  ;    Newton,   Silliniari  s  Joxrn 
2nd  series,  vol   xxxvii.,  July  1864. 

3  Bull.  Meteor.,  vol.  iii.  p.  67. 

4  Monthly  Notices,  vol.  xxv.  p.  159. 

5  Com/ytes  remlus,  vol.  lviii.  p.  1100,  1864. 


Sept.  27,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


533 


By  taking  such  observations  as  these  in  different  places  it  is 
possible  not  only  to  determine  the  height  at  which  they  enter  but 
the  velocity  with  which  they  pass  through  the  upper  regions  of 
the  air,  even  supposing  they  do  not  eventually  get  to  the  bottom. 
The  lowest  velocity  determined  up  to  the  present  time  is  some- 
thing like  2  miles  per  second  ;  the  maximum  is  something  like 
50  miles  a  second  ;  but  we  may  say  that  the  average  rate  of 
movement  is  30  miles  a  second,  which  is  about  150  times  faster 
than  a  shell  leaving  one  of  our  most  powerful  guns. 

J.  Norman  Lockyer. 
( To  be  contimied.) 

THE  ELECTRIC  TRANSMISSION  OF  PO  \VER> 
II. 

"PHE  next  point  to  consider  is  the  loss  of  pov\er  on  the  road 
A  between  the  dynamo  at  the  one  end  and  the  motor  at  the  other. 
This  problem  was  perhaps  seriously  attacked  for  the  first  time  in 
the  discussion  of  a  paper  read  by  Messrs.  Higgs  and  Brittle  at 
the  Institution  of  Civil  Engineers  in  1878,  and  that  problem  was 
considered  in  some  detail  theoretically  and  experimentally  at  the 
lecture  I  gave  during  the  meeting  of  the  British  Association  in 
Sheffield  in  the  following  year.  It  was  then  shown  that,  since 
the  power  developed  by  the  generator  and  motor  depended  on 
the  product  of  the  current  into  the  electric  pressure,  while  the 
loss  when  power  was  transmitted  through  a  given  wire  depended 
on  the  square  of  the  current  and  was  independent  of  the  electric 
pressure,  the  economical  transmission  of  power  by  electricity  on  a 
large  scale  depended  on  the  use  of  a  very  large  electric  pressure  and 
a  small  current,  just  as  the  economic  transmission  of  much  power 
by  water  depended  on  the  use  of  a  very  large  water  pressure  and  a 
small  flow  of  water.  At  that  time  it  was  not  thought  possible 
to  construct  a  small  dynamo  to  develop  a  very  large  electric 
pressure)  or  potential  difference  as  it  is  technically  called,  and 
therefore  it  was  proposed  to  join  up  many  dynamos  in  series  at 
the  one  end  and  many  lamps  or  electromotors  in  series  at  the 
other,  and  to  transmit  the  power  by  a  very  small  current,  which 
passed  through  all  the  dynamos  and  all  the  lamps  in  succession, 
one  after  the  other. 

You  have  an  example  to-night  of  the  realization  of  this 
principle  in  the  fifteen  arc  lamps  that  are  all  in  series  outside 
this  Drill  Hall,  and  are  worked  with  a  small  current  of  only  6 '8 
amperes,  as  indicated  in  the  wall  diagram  ;  and  a  further  example 
in  the  thirty  arc  lamps  at  the  Bath  Flower  Show,  which  are  also 
all  worked  in  series  with  the  small  cm  rent  passing  through 
them ;  but  it  is  known  now  how  to  produce  a  large  potential 
difference  with  a  single  dynamo,  so  that  a  single  Thomson- 
Houston  dynamo  belonging  to  Messrs.  Laing,  Wharton,  and 
I  )own  supplies  the  current  for  each  of  the  two  circuits. 

The  electric  pressure,  or  potential  difference,  between  the 
terminals  of  any  arc  lamp  is  not  high,  but  it  is  between  the  main 
wires  near  the  dynamo  as  well  as  between  these  wires  and  the 
ground.  How  far  does  this  lead  to  the  risk  of  sparks  or  un- 
pleasant shocks  ?  That  is  a  point  that  can  be  looked  at  in  a 
variety  of  ways.  First,  there  is  the  American  view  of  the  matter, 
which  consists  in  pointing  out  to  people  exactly  what  the  danger 
is,  if  there  be  any,  and  training  them  to  look  out  for  themselves  : 
let  ordinary  railway  trains,  say  the  Americans,  run  through  the 
streets,  and  let  horses  learn  to  respect  the  warning  bell.  Next, 
there  is  the  semi-paternal  English  sy.-tem,  which  cripples  all 
attempts  at  street  mechanical  locomotion,  because  we  are  con- 
servative in  our  use  of  horses,  and  horses  are  conservative  in 
their  way  of  looking  at  horseless  tramcars.  Lastly,  there  is  the 
foreign  paternal  system,  which,  carried  to  its  limit,  would  pro- 
hibit the  eating  of  dinners  because  so  ne  people  have  at  some 
time  choked  themselves,  and  would  render  going  to  bed  a  penal 
offence  because  it  is  in  bed  that  most  people  have  died. 

We  laugh  a  good  deal  at  the  rough-and-ready  manner  adopted 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  The  Americans,  no  doubt, 
are  very  ignorant  of  the  difficulties  that  properly-minded  people 
would  meet  with,  but  it  is  a  blissful  ignorance  where  it  is  folly 
to  be  wise.  Every  English  electrician  who  has  travelled  in 
America  comes  back  fully  impressed  with  their  enterprise  and 
their  happy-go-lucky  success.  They  have  twenty-two  electric 
tramways,  carrying  some  4,000,000  passengers  annually,  to  our 
four  electric  tramways  at  Portrush,  Blackpool,  Brighton,  and 
Bessbrook.  Why,  New  York  city  alone,  Mr.  Rechenzaun  tells 
me,  possesses  300  miles  of  ordinary  tramway  track,  and  Phila- 
delphia 430  miles,  so  there  is  more  tramway  line  in  these  two 

1  Lecture  delivered  by  Prof.  Ayrton,  F.R.S.,  at  the  Di ill  Hall,  Bath,  on 
Friday,  September  7,  :888.     Cont.nued  from  p.  511. 


cities  than  in  the  whole  of  the  United  Kingdom  put  together. 
Now  there  would  be  no  difficulty  in  proving,  to  anyone  un- 
familiar with  railway  travelling,  that  to  go  at  50  miles  an  hour 
round  a  curve  with  only  a  bit  of  iron  between  him  and  eternity 
would  be  far  too  risky  to  be  even  contemplated.  And  yet  we 
do  go  in  express  trains,  and  even  80  miles  an  hour  is  beginning 
to  be  considered  not  to  put  too  great  a  demand  on  the  funds  of 
life  insurance  companies.  The  American  plan  of  basing  a  con- 
clusion on  experience  rather  than  on  anticipations  is  not  a  bad 
one  ;  and  if  we  follow  that  plan,  then,  taking  into  account  that 
there  are  75,000  arc  lights  alight  every  night  on  the  Thomson- 
Houston  high-potential  circuits  throughout  the  world,  and  the 
comparatively  small  number  of  people  that  have  suffered  in  con- 
sequence (not  a  single  person,  I  am  assured,  outside  the  com- 
panies' staffs)  we  are  compelled  to  conclude  that  high  potential 
now  is  what  30  miles  an  hour  was  half  a  century  ago — uncanny 
rather  than  dangerous. 

But  it  is  possible  to  use  a  very  large  potential  difference 
between  the  main  wires  by  means  of  which  the  electric  power  is 
economically  conveyed  a  considerable  distance,  and  transformed 
into  a  very  small  potential  difference  in  the  houses  where  it  is 
utilized.  An  electric  transformer  is  equivalent  to  a  lever,  or 
wheel  and  axle,  or  any  other  of  the  so-called  mechanical  powers. 
You  know  that  a  large  weight  moving  through  a  small  distance 
can  raise  a  small  weight  through  a  large  distance  ;  there  is  no 
gain  in  the  amount  of  work,  but  only  a  transformation  of  the 
way  in  which  the  work  is  done.  A  large  weight  moving  through 
a  small  distance  is  analogous  with  a  high  potential  difference  and 
a  small  current,  while  a  small  weight  moving  through  a  large 
distance  is  analogous  with  a  small  potential  difference,  and  a 
large  current,  and  an  electric  transformer  is  for  the  purpose  of 
effecting  the  transformation  with  as  little  loss  as  possible,  so  that 
what  is  lost  in  potential  difference  may,  as  far  as  possible,  be  all 
gained  in  current. 

Electrical  transformation  may  be  effected  by  (1)  alternate 
current  transformers,  (2)  motor-dynamos,  (3)  accumulators,  or 
secondary  batteries,  (4)  direct-current  transformers.  Of  these 
apparatus,  the  eldest  by  far  is  the  alternate-current  transformer, 
as  it  is  merely  the  development  of  the  classical  apparatus  in- 
vented by  Faraday  in  1831,  and  familiar  to  many  of  you  as  the 
Ruhmkorff,  or  induction-coil.  A  combination  of  a  motor  and 
dynamo  was  suggested  by  Gramme  in  1874.  Accumulators  are 
the  outcome  of  Plante's  work,  while  direct-current  transformers 
are  quite  modern,  and  not  yet  out  of  the  experimental  stage. 

After  studying  the  literature  on  this  subject,  it  appears,  as  far 
as  I  have  been  able  to  judge,  that  the  first  definite  proposal  to 
use  a  high  potential  difference  in  the  street  mains,  and  transform 
down  to  a  low  potential  difference  in  the  houses,  was  made  in 
the  lecture  given  by  me  at  the  meeting  of  the  British  Associa- 
tion in  Sheffield  in  1879,  on  which  occasion  I  explained  and 
showed  in  action  the  motor-dynamo  principle  suggested  by  Prof. 
Perry  and  myself.  The  apparatus  on  the  platform  is  not  unlike 
that  shown  on  the  former  occasion  :  an  Immisch  motor  working  at 
500  volts,  and  with  a  current  of  6'8  amperes,  is  geared  direct  to  a 
Victoria  Brush  dynamo  giving  five  times  that  current,  and  we 
will  now  use  this  larger  current  to  produce  an  electric  fire. 
[Experiment  shown.]  Messrs.  Paris  and  Scott  have  combined 
the  motor  and  dynamo  into  one  machine,  which  they  have 
kindly  lent  me,  and  by  means  of  which  we  are  now  transforming 
about  700  volts  and  6 '8  amperes  into  100  volts  and  about  40 
amperes  used  to  light  that  group  of  sunbeam  incandescent  lamps 
or  work  these  motors.      [Experiment  shown.] 

Lastly,  here  is  a  working  illustration  of  the  double  transform- 
ation proposed  by  MM.  Deprez  and  Carpentier  in  1881,  by 
means  of  which — while  the  potential  difference  between  the 
mains  may  be  2000  or  10,000  volts,  if  you  like — not  merely  is 
the  potential  difference  in  the  house  so  low  that  you  could  hardly 
feel  anything  if  you  touched  the  wires,  but,  in  addition,  there 
is  the  same  security  against  shocks  in  the  dynamo-room.  This 
alternate-current  machine  is  producing  about  50  volts,  which  is 
transformed  up  to  2000  volts  by  means  of  this  transformer.  At 
the  other  end  of  the  platform,  by  means  of  a  similar  transformer, 
the  2000  volts  is  transformed  down  again  to  50  volts,  em- 
ployed to  light  that  cluster  of  low-voltage  incandescent  lamps. 
[Experiment  shown.]  For  the  use  of  this  apparatus  I  am 
indebted  to  the  kindness  of  the  Anglo-American  Brush  Company. 

In  this  experiment  there  is,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  still  more  trans- 
formation than  that  I  have  yet  mentioned,  because,  whereas  in 
actual  practice  the  alternate-current  dynamo,  as  well  as  the  small 
dynamo  used  to  produce  the  current  for  magnetizing  the  electro- 
magnets in  the  alternate-current  dynamo,  would  be  worked  by 


534 


NATURE 


{Sept.  27,  1888 


a  steam,  gas,  or  water  engine,  I  am  working  them  both  by 
electromotors,  since  a  steam-engine  or  a  water-wheel  would  be  an 
unsuitable  occupant  of  the  Drill  Hall.  Practically,  then,  a 
steam-engine  on  the  land  belonging  to  the  Midland  Railway 
Company,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Lower  Bristol  Road,  is  driving 
a  Thomson- Houston  dynamo;  this  is  sending  a  small  current 
working  these  high-voltage  constant-current  Immisch  motors. 
The  motors  being  geared  with  low-voltage  dynamos  the  potential 
•difference  is  transformed  down,  the  first  alternate-current  trans- 
former transforms  it  up  again,  and  the  second  alternate-current 
transformer  ttansforms  it  down  again,  so  that  there  are  in  fact 
three  transformations  taking  place  in  this  experiment  on  the 
platform  before  you.  For  the  benefit  of  the  electricians  present, 
I  may  mention  that  the  two  motors  are  running  in  series,  and 
that  their  speed  is  kept  constant  by  means  of  a  centrifugal 
governor  which  automatically  varies  the  number  of  the  convolu- 
tions of  the  field  magnet  that  are  being  utilized  at  any  moment. 
In  fact,  since  the  dynamo  maintains  the  current  constant  that  is 
passing  through  each  motor,  the  function  of  the  governor  may 
be  regarded  as  that  of  proportioning  the  potential  difference 
maintained  at  the  terminals  of  either  motor  to  the  load  on  the 
motor  at  any  moment. 

A  vast  district  in  London,  extending  from  Regent's  Park  on 
the  north  to  the  Thames  on  the  south,  from  the  Law  Courts 
on  the  east  to  Hyde  Park  on  the  we>t,  has  over  20,000  in- 
candescent lamps  scattered  over  it  all  worked  from  the  Grosvenor 
Gallery  in  Bond  Street  by  meins  of  alternate-current  trans- 
formers which  convert  the  2000  volts  maintained  between  the 
street  mains  into  100  volts  in  the  houses,  and  this  London 
Electric  Supply  Company  have  arranged  for  a  vast  extension  of 
this  system  to  be  worked  from  Deptford. 

In  America,  alternate-current  transformers  are,  due  to  the 
remarkable  enterprise  of  Mr.  Westinghouse,  used  to  light 
120,000  incandescent  lamps  in  sixty-eight  towns.  In  fact  the 
electric  lighting  of  a  whole  town  from  a  central  station  begins  to 
-excite  less  astonishment  than  the  electric  lighting  of  a  single 
house  did  ten  years  ago. 

The  efficiency  of  a  well-made  alternate-current  transformer  is 
very  high,  being  no  less  than  96*2  per  cent,  when  the  transformer 
is  doing  its  full  work,  and  89/5  per  cent,  when  it  is  doing  one- 
quarter  of  its  full  work,  according  to  the  experiments  made  by 
our  students.  It  certainly  does  seem  most  remarkable,  and  it 
reflects  the  highest  praise  on  the  constructors  of  electrical 
machinery,  that  motive  power  can  be  converted  into  electrical 
power,  electrical  power  at  low  pressure  into  electrical  power  at 
high  pressure,  or  electrical  power  at  high  pressure  into  electrical 
power  at  low  pressure,  or,  lastly,  electrical  power  into  motive 
power,  in  each  case  with  an  efficiency  of  not  less  than  94  per 
•cent. 

As  a  further  illustration  of  the  commercial  importance  of  this 
electric  transformation  I  will  show  you  some  experiments  on 
electric  welding,  one  of  the  latest  developments  in  electrical 
•engineering.  To  weld  a  bar  of  iron  one  square  inch  in  section 
requires  a  gigantic  current  of  some  13,000  amperes.  To  convey 
this  current  even  a  few  yards  would  be  attended  with  a  great 
•waste  of  power  ;  consequently,  while  an  enormous  current  is 
passed  through  the  iron  to  be  welded,  only  a  comparatively  small 
•current  is  transmitted  along  the  circuit  from  the  dynamo  to  the 
welding  apparatus.  Mr.  Fish,  the  representative  of  Prof. 
Elihu  Thomson,  of  America,  to  whom  this  apparatus  is  due, 
will  be  so  kind  as  to  first  show  us  the  welding  together  of  two 
bars  of  square  tool  steel,  the  edge  of  each  bar  being  %  of  an  inch, 
and  the  operation  is,  as  you  see,  entirely  completed  in  some 
fifteen  seconds.  For  this  experiment  an  alternate  current  of  20 
amperes  will  be  produced  by  the  dynamo  at  the  other  side  of  the 
Lower  Bristol  Road,  and  this  current  will  be  converted  by  the 
transformer  on  the  platform  into  one  of  9000  amperes,  large 
enough  for  12,000  of  these  incandescent  lamps  if  they  were 
placed  in  parallel  and  the  current  divided  among  them.  He 
•will  next  try  welding  some  thicker  bars,  and  lastly  he  proposes 
welding  together  two  pieces  of  aluminium  which  it  is  extremely 
■difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  weld  in  any  other  way.  The  bars, 
as  you  see,  are  in  each  case  pressed  together  end  on,  and,  in 
•consequence  of  the  electric  resistance  of  the  very  small  gap 
between  the  bars  being  much  higher  than  that  of  the  bars 
themselves,  the  current  makes  the  ends  of  the  bars  plastic  long 
before  it  even  warms  the  whole  bar,  so  that  I  can,  as  you  see, 
hold  the  bar  at  a  distance  of  three  or  four  inches  from  where 
the  weld  has  been  made  without  experiencing  any  marked  sense 
of  warmth.  The  heat  is,  in  fact,  applied  exactly  where  we 
require  it,  the  temperature  can  be  adjusted  with  the  greatest 


nicety  so  as  not  to  burn  the  steel,  and  the  softening  of  the  bar  is 
effected  throughout  its  entire  cross-section.  Hence  a  very  good 
weld  indeed  can  be  made  by  end  pressure.  We  have  to  thank 
Mr.  Fish,  not  merely  for  showing  us  these  most  interesting 
experiments  on  electric  welding,  but  for  supplying  the  electric 
power  for  many  of  the  experiments  I  have  been  showing  you, 
and  for  the  electric  lighting  of  the  Drill  Hall. 

To  Mr.  Snell,  the  representative  of  Mr.  Immisch,  our  best 
thanks  are  clue  for  his  having  devoted  several  days  in  arranging  the 
two  high- voltage,  constant-current  motors,  to  drive  the  dynamos 
with  that  constancy  of  speed  which  you  observe.  This  ingenious 
telpher  model,  to  which  I  shall  refer  presently,  is  the  handi- 
work of  Mr.  Bourne,  and  considering  that  it  has  had  to  be 
hastily  taken  to  pieces,  and  hastily  put  together  again,  it  is 
surprising  that  it  works  as  well  as  it  does.  An  ordinary  watch 
is  a  very  trustworthy,  steady-going  machine,  but  if  one  had  to 
take  it  to  pieces  hastily,  and  as  hastily  to  put  it  together  again, 
one  might  expect  it  to  lose.  Indeed,  if  you  or  I  had  to  do  it, 
we  should  not  be  surprised  if  it  did  not  go  at  all,  and  so  was 
only  right  twice  every  twenty-four  hours. 

For  the  arrangements  of  the  models  and  the  smaller  experi- 
ments, as  well  as  for  the  admirable  execution  of  many  of  the 
diagrams,  our  best  thanks  are  due  to  Mr.  Raine. 

Did  time  allow  I  should  like  to  describe  to  you  to  what  per- 
fection the  system  of  economical  distribution  with  accumulators, 
originally  proposed  by  Sir  William  Thomson  in  188 1  and  shown 
in  its  very  simplest  form  in  the  wall  diagram,  has  been  brought 
by  Mr.  King,  the  engineer  to  the  Electrical  Power  Storage 
Company ;  how  the  cells  when  they  are  fully  charged  are 
automatically  disconnected  from  the  charging  circuit,  and  elec- 
trically connected  with  the  discharging  circuit  ;  how  the  electric 
pressure  on  the  discharging  or  house  mains  is  automatically 
kept  constant,  so  that  the  brightness  of  the  lamps  is  unaffected  by 
the  number  turned  on  ;  and  how  cells  that  are  too  energetic  have 
their  ardour  automatically  handicapped,  and  not  allowed  to  give 
more  current  than  is  being  supplied  by  the  less  active  ones. 

During  the  last  few  months  fierce  has  been  the  battle  raging 
among  the  electricians,  the  war-cry  being  "alternate-current 
transformers  versus  accumulators,"  while  the  lookers-on,  with  that 
better  view  of  the  contest  that  they  are  proverbially  said  to  possess, 
have  decided  that  the  battle  is  a  drawn  one.  Neither  system  is 
the  better  under  all  circumstances  :  if  the  district  to  be  lighted  be 
a  very  scattered  one,  use  alternate-current  transformers  by  all 
means  ;  but  if  the  houses  to  be  lighted  are  clustered  together  at  a 
distance  from  the  supply  of  power,  then  the  storing  property 
possessed  by  accumulators,  which  enables  the  supply  of  electric 
power  to  far  exceed  the  capacity  of  the  dynamos  and  engines  in 
the  busiest  part  of  the  twenty-four  hours,  will  win  the  battle  for 
accumulators.  Any  direct-current  system  of  distribution  such  as 
is  furnished  by  accumulators  has  also  the  very  great  advantage 
that  it  lends  itself  to  the  use  of  the  very  efficient  electromotors 
which  I  have  been  using  this  evening.  Alternate-current  motors 
do  exist,  but  they  are  still  in  the  experimental  stage,  and  are  not 
yet  articles  of  commerce. 

Secondary  batteries  have  caused  much  heart-burning,  for  their 
users,  from  the  apparent  fickleness  of  their  complex  chemical  ac- 
tion, yet  but  imperfectly  understood.  But  we  have  at  length  been 
taught  what  is  good  and  what  is  bad  treatment  for  them  ;  and 
after  years  of  brave  persevering  application  on  the  part  of  the 
Electrical  Power  Storage  Company,  that  forlorn  hope  the 
secondary  battery  has  become  one  of  the  most  useful  tools  of  the 
electrical  engineers  ;  and  secondary  cells,  some  of  which,  thanks 
to  the  kindness  of  that  Company,  I  am  using  here  to-night  to 
supply  power  for  lamps  and  motors,  may  now  be  trusted  to 
have  a  vigorous  long  life.  That  Company,  I  learn,  undertake 
henceforth  to  keep  their  cells  in  order,  when  used  for  central 
station  work,  for  12^  per  cent,  per  annum,  and  I  understand 
that  they  have  such  confidence  in  them  that  they  anticipate 
making  no  little  money  by  incurring  this  insurance  office  re- 
sponsibility. It  is  not,  then,  surprising  that  the  Chelsea  Supply 
Company  have  decided  to  use  secondary  batteries  on  a  large 
scale  for  the  economical  distribution  of  light  and  power  in  their 
district. 

Oliver  Goldsmith  said,  more  than  a  hundred  yeirs  ago,  in  his 
"  Life  of  Richard  Nash,  Esquire  ":  "  People  of  fashion  at  Bath, 
.  .  .  when  so  disposed,  attend  lectures  on  the  arts  and  sciences, 
which  are  frequently  taught  in  a  pretty  superficial  manner,  so  as 
not  to  tease  the  understanding,  while  they  afford  the  imagina- 
tion some  amusement."  I  want  not  to  be  superficial,  yet  I 
must  not  tease  your  understanding,  and  so  we  will  not  lose  our- 
selves in  technical  details.     If,  however,  my  remarks  have  led 


Sept.  27,  1888] 


AWTL'kJi 


535 


you  to  appreciate  the  vast  economical  importance  of  using  very 
large  electric  pressures,  and  to  grasp  that,  by  substituting  2000 
volts  for  50  volts,  when  transmitting  a  certain  amount  of  electric 
power,  the  current  can  be  reduced  to  the  one-fortieth  part,  and 
the  waste  of  power,  when  transmitted  along  a  given  length  of  a 
given  wire  to  the  one-fortieth  of  the  one-fortieth — that  is,  to  the 
one  sixteenth-hundredth  part — your  imagination  will  have  been 
kindled  as  well  as  amused. 

With  a  loss  on  the  road  of  only  11  per  cent.,  M.  Deprez  has, 
by  using  6ooo  volts,  transmitted  52  horse-power  over  a  distance 
of  about  37  miles  through  a  copper  Wire  only  one-fifth  of  an 
inch  in  diameter.  A  piece  of  the  actual  conductor  he  employed 
I  hold  in  my  hand  :  the  copper  wire  is  coated  with  an  insulated 
material,  and  then  with  a  leaden  tubing,  so  that  the  outside  may 
be  touched  with  perfect  impunity,  in  spite  of  the  high  potential 
difference  employed.  M.  Deprez's  dynamo  and  motor  were  not 
nearly  as  efficient  as  he  could  make  them  now,  so  that  his  ter- 
minal losses  were  unnecessarily  great,  and  the  efficiency  of  the 
whole  arrangement,  wonderful  as  it  was,  was  not  so  startling  as 
it  would  otherwise  have  been.  I  have  told  you  that  the  loss  in 
dynamo  and  motor  has  actually  been  reduced  to  only  12A  per 
cent.  ;  so  that,  if  a  dynamo  and  motor  of  this  efficiency  had 
been  used  by  M.  Deprez,  the  total  loss  in  the  whole  transmission 
over  37  miles  would  have  been  under  25  per  cent.  Indeed,  by 
using  only  1250  volts,  Mr.  Brown  has  succeeded  in  transmitting 
50  horse-power  supplied  by  falling  water  at  Kriegstetten  to 
Solothun,  in  Switzerland,  five  miles  away,  with  an  entire  loss 
in  the  dynamo,  motor,  and  the  five  miles  of  going  and  returning 
wire  of  only  25  per  cent.  ;  so  that  three-quarters  of  the  total 
power  supplied  by  the  water  at  Kriegstetten  was  actually 
delivered  to  machinery  at  Solothun,  five  miles  away. 

In  less  than  twenty  years,  then,  from  Gramme's  practical 
realization  of  Pacinotti's  invention,  we  have  power  transmitted 
over  considerable  distances  by  electricity  with  only  a  total  loss  of 
25  per  cent,,  whereas  the  combined  loss  in  an  air-pump  and  air- 
motor  or  in  a  water-pump  and  water-motor  is  40  per  cent,"  irre- 
spective of  the  additional  loss  by  friction  or  leakage  that  occurs 
en  route.  We  cannot  help  feeling  that  we  are  rapidly  arriving 
at  a  new  era,  and  that  it  will  not  merely  be  for  the  inauguration 
of  the  quick  transmission  of  our  bodies  by  steam,  or  the  quick 
transmission  of  our  thought  by  telegraph,  but  for  the  economical 
transmission  of  power  by  electricity,  that  the  Victorian  age  will  be 
remembered. 

I  showed  you  a  little  while  ago  an  electric  fire.  Was  that  a 
mere  toy,  or  had  it  any  commercial  importance  ?  To  burn  coal, 
to  work  dynamos,  and  to  use  the  electric  current  to  light  your 
houses  and  your  streets  is  clean  and  commercial ;  to  use  the 
current  to  warm  your  rooms  clean  but  wasteful,  on  account  of 
the  inefficiency  of  the  steam-engine.  But  when  the  dynamos  are 
turned  by  water  power  which  would  otherwise  be  wasted,  the 
electric  current  may  be  economically  used,  not  merely  to  give 
light,  but  also  to  give  heat.  And  when  the  electric  transmission 
pf  power  becomes  still  more  perfect  than  at  present,  even  to  burn 
coal  at  the  pit's  mouth  where  it  is  worth  a  shilling  a  ton  may,  in 
spite  of  the  efficiency  of  the  steam-engine  being  only  one-tenth, 
be  the  most  economical  way  of  warming  distant  towns  where 
coal  would  cost  20s.  a  ton.  Think  what  that  would  mean  ! 
—  no  smoke,  no  dust,  a  reform  effected  commercially  which 
the  laws  of  the  land  on  smoke  prevention  are  powerless  to  bring 
about,  a  reform  effected  without  the  intervention  of  the  State, 
and  therefore  dear  to  the  hearts  of  Englishmen. 

I  am  aware  that  this  idea  of  burning  coal  at  the  pit's  mouth 
and  electrically  transmitting  its  power  has  quite  recently  been 
stated  to  be  commercially  impracticable.  But;  is  that  quite  so 
certain? — for  in  1878  it  was  stated  that,  although  telephones  might 
do  very  well  for  America,  they  certainly  would  never  be  intro- 
duced into  Great  Britain,  as  we  had  plenty  of  boys  who  were 
willing  to  act  as  messengers  for  a  few  shillings  a  week.  The 
phonograph  was  also  declared  to  be  worked  by  a  ventriloquist, 
and  electric  lighting  on  a  large  scale  was  proved  to  be  too 
expensive  a  luxury  to  be  ever  carried  out.  Putting  a  Conserva- 
tive drag  on  the  wheels  is  a  very  good  precaution  to  take  when 
going  down  hill,  but  it  is  out  of  place  in  the  up-hill  work  of 
progress. 

To-day  the  electric  current  is  used  for  countless  purposes.  Not 
only  is  it  used  to  weld,  but  by  putting  the  electric  arc  inside  a 
closed  crucible,  smelting  can  be  effected  with  a  rapidity  and 
ease  quite  unobtainable  with  the  ordinary  method  of  putting  the 
fire  outside  the  crucible.  If  one  had  pointed  out  a  few  years 
ago  that  it  was  as  depressing  scientifically  to  put  a  fire  outside  a 
crucible  when  you  wanted  to  warm  the  inside,  as  Joey  Ladle,  the 


cellarman,  found  it  depressing  mentally  "to  take  in  the  wine 
through  the  pores  of  the  skin,  instead  of  by  the  conwivial  channel 
of  the  throttle,"  who  would  have  believed  that  in  1S88,  a  500 
horse-power  dynamo  would  be  actually  employed  to  produce  an 
electric  arc  inside  a  closed  crucible  in  the  manufacture  of 
aluminium  bronze. 

But,  of  all  the  many  commercial  uses  to  which  the  electric 
current  may  be  put,  probably,  after  the  electric  light,  electric 
traction  has  most  public  interest.  The  English  are  a  commercial 
people,  but  they  are  also  a  humane  people  ;  and  when,  as  in 
this  case,  their  pockets  and  their  feelings  are  alike  touched, 
surely  they  will  be  Radicals  in  welcoming  electric  traction,  what- 
ever may  be  their  political  sentiments  on  other  burning  topics  of 
the  day.  It  is  not  a  nice  thing  to  feel  that  you  are  helping  to- 
reduce  the  life  of  a  pair  of  poor  tramway  horses  to  three  or  four 
years  :  it  would  be  a  very  nice  thing  to  be  carried  in  a  tramcar 
for  even  a  less  fare  than  at  present.  Now,  while  it  costs  6d.  or 
jd.  to  run  a  car  one  mile  with  horses,  it  only  costs  t,<i.  or  4*/.  to 
propel  it  electrically.  1 1  deed,  from  the  very  minute  details  that 
have  recently  been  published  of  the  four  months'  expenses 
of  electrically  propelling  thirty  cars  at  7A  miles  an  hour  along 
a  12-miles  tramway  line  in  Richmond,  Virginia,  it  would 
appear  that  the  total  cost — inclusive  of  coal,  oil,  water,  engin- 
eers, firemen,  electricians,  mechanicians,  dynamo  and  motor 
repairers,  inspectors,  lint  men,  cleaners,  lighting,  depreciation 
on  engine,  boiler,  cars,  dynamos,  and  line-work — has  been  only 
\\d.  per  car  per  mile.  This  is  indeed  a  low  price;  let  us 
hope  that  it  is  true.  The  tramway  is,  no  doubt,  particularly 
favourable  for  propelling  cars  on  the  parallel  system  (that  is,  the 
system  in  which  the  current  produced  by  the  dynamo  is  the  sum- 
of  the  currents  going  through  all  the  motors  on  the  cars)  without 
a  great  waste  of  power  being  produced  by  a  very  large  current 
having  to  be  sent  a  very  long  distance,  becau>e  the  tramway 
track  is  very  curved,  and  the  dynamo  is  placed  at  the  centre  of 
the  curve,  with  feeding-wires  to  convey  the  current  from  the 
dynamo  to  all  parts  of  the  track.  But  even  in  the  case  of  a 
straight  tramway  line  with  a  dynamo  only  at  one  end,  it  is- 
quite  possible  to  obtain  the  same  high  economy  in  working  by 
employing  a  large  potential  difference  and  by  sending  a  small 
current  through  all  the  trains  in  series,  instead  of  running  the 
trains  in  parallel,  as  is  done  on  the  Portrush,  Blackpool, 
Brighton,  and  Bessbrook  tramways. 

This  series  system  of  propelling  electric  trains  was  oddh 
enough  entirely  ignored  in  all  the  discussions  that  have  taken 
place  this  year  at  the  Institution  of  Civil  Engineers,  and  at  the 
Institution  of  Mechanical  Engineers,  regarding  the  relative  cost 
of  working  tramways  by  horses,  by  a  moving  rope,  and  by 
electricity  ;  and  yet  this  series  system  is  actually  at  work  in- 
America,  as  you  will  see  from  an  instantaneous  photograph 
which  I  will  now  project  on  the  screen,  of  a  series  electric  tram- 
way in  Denver,  Colorado  ;  and  a  series  electric  tramway  12 
miles  long,  on  which  forty  cars  are  to  be  run,  is  in  course  of 
construction  in  Columbus,  Ohio.  The  first  track  on  which 
electric  trams  were  run  in  series  was  the  experimental  telpher 
line,  erected  in  Glynde  in  1883  under  the  superintendence  of 
the  late  Prof.  Fleeming  Jenkin,  Prof.  Perry,  and  myself,  for  the 
automatic  electric  transport  of  goods.  A  photograph  of  this 
actual  line  is  now  projected  on  the  screen.  The  large  wall 
diagram  shows  symbolically,  in  the  crudest  form,  our  plan  of 
series  working  :  the  current  follows  a  zigzag  path  through  the 
contact  pieces,  and  when  a  train  enters  any  section  the  contact 
piece  is  automatically  removed,  and  the  current  now  passes 
through  the  motor  on  that  train,  instead  of  through  the  contact 
piece.  The  Series  Electrical'Traction  Syndicate,  whom  we  have 
to  thank  for  the  model  stries  tramway  on  which  the  two  cars  are 
now  running,  are  now  developing  our  idea,  but  it  has  received 
its  greater  development  in  the  States,  where  the  Americans  are 
employing  it,  instead  of  spending  time  proving,  a  priori,  that 
the  automatic  contact  arrangements  could  never  work.  Mental 
inertia,  like  mechanical  inertia,  may  be  defined  in  two  ways. 
Inertia  is  the  resistance  to  motion — that  is-  the  English  definition  : 
but  inertia  is  also  the  resistance  to  stopping — that  is  the  American 
definition. 

In  addition  to  the  small  waste  of  power,  and  consequent 
diminished  cos-t  of  constructing  the  conductors  that  lead  the 
current  into  and  out  of  the  passing  trains,  the  series  •-ys^m  has 
another  very  marked  advantage.  Some  years  ago  we  pointed 
out  that  when  an  electric  train  was  running  down  hill,  or  when  it 
was  desired  to  stop  the  train,  there  was  no  necessity  to  apply  a 
brake  and  waste  the  energy  of  the  moving  train  in  friction, 
because  the  electric  motor  could  by  turning  a  handle  be  con- 


536 


NA  TURE 


[Sept.  27,  1888 


verted  into  a  dynamo,  and  the  train  could  be  slowed  or  stopped 
by  its  energy  being  given  up  to  all  the  other  trains  running  on 
the  same  railway,  so  that  the  trains  going  down  hill  helped  the 
trains  going  up  hill,  the  stopping  trains  helped  the  starting 
trains.  At  that  time  we  suggested  detailed  methods  for  carrying 
out  this  economical  mutual  aid  arrangement  whether  the  trains 
were  running  on  the  parallel  or  on  the  series  system.  But  there 
is  this  difference,  that,  whereas  on  the  parallel  system  it  is  only 
when  a  train  is  running  fairly  fast  that  it  can  help  other  trains, 
the  series  system  has  the  advantage  that,  when  a  motor  is 
temporarily  converted  into  a  dynamo  by  the  reversal  of  the  con- 
nections of  its  stationary  magnet,  the  slowing  train  can  help  all 
the  other  trains  even  to  the  very  last  rotation  of  its  wheels. 
Brakes  that  save  the  power  instead  of  wasting  it  are  of  purely 
English  extraction,  but  their  conception  has  recently  come 
across  the  Atlantic  with  such  a  strong  Yankee  accent  that  it 
might  pass  for  having  been  born  and  bred  in  the  States. 

Economy  is  one  feature  that  gives  electric  traction  the  right 
to  claim  your  attention  ;  safety  is  another.  This  model  telpher 
line  worked  on  "  the  post  head  contact"  system  is  so  arranged 
that  no  two  trains  ever  run  into  one  another,  for,  in  addition  to 
each  of  the  three  trains  being  provided  with  an  automatic 
governor  which  cuts  off  electric  power  from  a  train  when  that 
train  is  going  too  fast,  the  line  is  divided  into  five  sections  con- 
nected together  electrically  in  such  a  way  that  as  long  as  a  train 
is  on  any  section,  A,  no  power  is  provided  to  the  section  B 
behind,  so  that  if  a  train  comes  into  section  B,  it  cannot  move  on 
as  long  as  the  train  in  front  is  on  section  A.  [Three  trains  shown 
running  on  a  model  telpher  line  with  four  automatic  locks.  ] 
Whenever  a  train — it  may  be  even  a  runaway  electric  locomotive 
—  enters  a  blocked  section,  it  finds  all  motive  power  withdrawn 
from  it  quite  independently  of  the  action  of  signalmen,  guard,  or 
engine-driver,  even  if  either  of  the  latter  two  men  accompanied 
the  train,  whioh  they  do  not  in  the  case  of  telpherage  :  no  fog, 
nor  colour-blindness,  nor  different  codes  of  signals  on  different 
lines,  nor  mistakes  arising  from  the  exhausted  nervous  condition 
of  overworked  signalmen,  can  wiih  our  system  produce  a  col- 
lision. Human  fallibility,  in  fact,  is  eliminated.  While  the 
ordinary  system  of  blocking  means  merely  giving  an  order  to 
stop — and  whether  this  is  understood  or  intelligently  carried  out 
is  only  settled  by  the  happening  or  non-happening  of  a  sub- 
sequent collision — our  automatic  block  acts  as  if  the  steam  were 
automatically  cut  off;  nay,  it  does  more  than  this  :  it  acts  as  if 
the  fires  were  put  out  in  an  ordinary  locomotive  and  all  the  coal 
taken  away,  since  it  is  quite  out  of  the  power  of  the  engine-driver 
to  re-start  the  electric  train  until  the  one  in  front  is  at  a  safe 
distance  ahead. 

The  photograph  now  seen  on  the  screen  shows  the  general  ap- 
pearance of  the  Glynde  telpher  line,  which  has  recently  been  much 
extended  in  length  by  its  owners,  the  Sussex  Portland  Cement 
Company  ;  and  a  telpher  line  with  automatic  blocking  on  the 
broad  principles  I  have  described  is  about  to  be  constructed 
between  the  East  Pool  tin-mine  in  Cornwall  and  the  stamps. 
There  will  be  four  trains  running-,  each  consisting  of  thirty-three 
skeps  containing  three  hundredweight  each,  so  that  the  load 
carried  by  each  train  will  be  about  five  tons. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  mention  that  the  last  difficulty  in 
telpherage,  which  consisted  in  getting  a  proper  adhesion  between 
the  driving-wheels  of  the  locomotive  and  the  wire  rope,  has  now 
been  overcome.  The  history  of  telpher  locomotives  is  the  his- 
tory of  steam  locomotives  over  again,  except  that  we  never  tried 
to  fit  the  electric  locomotives  with  legs,  as  was  proposed  in  the 
early  days  for  -  team  locomotives.  It  is  a  tedious  discouraging 
history,  but  it  is  so  easy  to  be  wise  when  criticizing  the  past,  so 
difficult  to  be  wise  when  prospecting  the  future.  Gripping- 
wheels  of  all  kinds,  even  the  india-rubber  tires  used  for  the  last 
three  years,  have  all  been  abandoned  in  favour  of  simple,  slightly 
loose,  cheap  iron  tires,  which  wear  for  a  very  long  time,  and 
give  a  very  perfect  grip  when  the  bar  supporting  the  electro- 
motor is  so  pivoted,  pendulum-wise,  'to  the  framework  of  the 
locomotive  that  the  weight  of  the  motor  no  longer  makes  the  loco- 
motive jump  in  passing  the  posts,  as  it  did  until  quite  recently. 

After  several  years  of  experimenting,  we  have  in  telpherage, 
I  venture  to  think,  at  last  a  perfectly  trustworthy,  and  at  the  same 
time  a  most  economical,  method  of  utilizing  distant  steam-  or 
water-power  to  automatically  transport  our  goods,  and  in  time 
it  may  even  be  our  people,  over  hills  and  valleys,  without  roads 
or  bridges,  and  without  interfering  with  the  crops  or  the  cattle, 
or  the  uses  to  which  the  land  may  be  put  over  which  the  telpher 
trains  pursue  their  snake-like  way  :  we  have,  in  fact,  the  luxury 
of  ballooning,  with»ut  its  dangers. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 

Paris. 
Academy  of  Sciences,  September  17. — M.  Des  Cloizcaux 
in  the  chair. — Complement  to  the  theory  of  overfalls  stretching 
right  across  the  bed  of  a  water-course  (weirs,  mill-races,  and  the 
like),  by  M.  J.  Boussinesq.  In  supplement  to  the  theory  worked 
out  in  the  Comptes  rendus  of  July  4,  October  10  and  24,  1887, 
the  author  here  deals  with  the  discharge  as  influenced  by  the 
velocities  of  the  currents  at  the  overfall. — On  M.  Levy's  recent 
communication  on  the  subject  of  Betti's  theorem,  by  M.  E. 
Cesaro.  This  theorem,  which  plays  an  essential  part  in  Betti's 
"  Teoria  dell'  Elasticita,"  is  practically  that  of  Green,  which  is 
capable  of  such  manifold  applications,  and  which  M.  Levy  has 
shown  to  admit  of  so  many  interesting  corollaries  in  grapho- 
statics.  In  the  present  paper  M.  Cesaro  confines  himself  to 
proving  that  the  formula  of  Laplace,  giving  the  velocity  of  sound 
in  rectilinear  elastic  mediums,  is  itself  a  consequence  of  Betti's 
fruitful  theorem. — Compressibility  of  the  gases,  by  M.  E.  H. 
Amagat. — On  the  chlorides  of  gallium,  and  on  the  value  of 
the  elements  of  the  aluminium  group,  by  MM.  Nilsson  and 
Otto  Pettersson.  Here  are  studied  the  two  different  chlorides 
Ga2C]fi  (or  GaCl3)  and  GaCU,  as  determined  by  M.  Lecoq 
de  Boisbaudran,  the  discoverer  of  gallium.  The  combinations 
are  also  given  that  are  formed  with  chlorine  by  the  elements 
of  the  third  group  of  the  natural  system,  whose  chlorides 
have  so  far  been  studied.  It  is  pointed  out  that  aluminium  and 
gallium  displace  three  atoms,  indium  two,  and  thallium  one  of 
hydrogen  of  the  hydrochloric  gas.  In  this  group,  with  the  increase 
of  the  atomic  weight  the  elements  show  an  evident  tendency  to 
form  several  combinations  with  chlorine. — On  ferrous  chloride 
and  the  chlorides  of  chromium,  by  MM.  Nilsson  and  Otto 
Pettersson.  The  preparation  and  properties  are  described  of 
ferrous  chloride,  and  of  the  two  known  chromium  chlorides — 
the  trichloride,  CrCl3,  and  the  bichloride,  CrCl2- — Papers  were 
comjnunicated  by  M.  Rene  Chevrel  on  the  great  sympathetic 
nervous  system  of  bony  fishes  ;  by  M.  Alexandre  Vitzou  on  the 
incomplete  intercrossing  of  the  nerve- fibres  in  the  optic  chiasma 
of  the  dog  ;  and  by  MM.  Raphael  Dubois  and  Leo  Vignon  on 
the  physiological  action  of  para-  and  metaphenylene-diamine. 


CONTENTS.  page 

The  Fauna  of  British  India 513 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Stewart  and    Corry  :  Flora  "   of  the  North-East  of 

Ireland" 514 

Letters  to  the  Editor: — 

Electric  Fishes.— W.  H.  Corfield 515 

Sonorous  Sands. — H.  Carrington  Bolton  and  Alexis 

A.  Julien;  K 515 

The  Late  Arthur  Buchheim.   By  Prof.  J.  J.  Sylvester, 

F.R.S 515 

The  British  Association  : — 

Section  H — Anthropology. — Opening  Address  by 
Lieut. -General  Pitt-Rivers,  D.C.L.,  F.R.S., 
F.G.S.,  F.S.  A. .President  of  the  Section.     I.    .    .    516 

The  International  Geological  Congress 518 

On   Crystalline    Schists.      By  Dr.   T.   Sterry  Hunt, 

F.R.S 519 

Some  Questions  connected  with  the   Problem  pre- 
sented by  the  Crystalline   Schists,  together  with 
Contiibutions  to  their  Solution  from  the  Palaeo- 
zoic Forma-ions.     By  Prof.  K.  A.  Lossen    ....    522 
On  the  Classification  of  the  Crystalline  Schists.     By 

Prof.  Albert  Heim      524 

On  the  Origin  of  the   Primitive  Crystalline  Rocks. 

By  A.  Michel-Levy 525 

Notes 526 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

Comet  1888  e  (Barnard) S2§ 

Comets  Brooks  and  Faye 52^ 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for     the     Week    1888 

September  30— October  6 529 

Geographical  Notes      .    .  .  529 

Notes    on    Meteorites.      III.      {Illustrated.)      By   J. 

Norman  Lockyer,  F.R.S 53° 

The  Electric  Transmission  of  Power.     II.     By  Prof. 
Ayrton,  F.R.S 533 

~™ 


NA  TURE 


537 


THURSDAY,   OCTOBER   4,    1888. 


DE  TERMINANTS. 

Teoria  Elemental  de  las  Determinantes  y  sus  principales 

aplicaciones   al  Algebra  y   la    Geometrla.     Por    Fdlix 

Amore'tti    y    Carlos    M.     Morales.       (Buenos    Ayres : 

Jmprenta  de  M.  Biedma,  1888.) 
"  Q?  O ME  books,"  says  Bacon,  "  may  be  read  by  deputy, 

*~-}  and  extracts  made  of  them  by  others  ;"  and,  at  any 
rate  so  far  as  English  readers  are  concerned,  the  work 
now  under  review  belongs  to  this  category.  A  very  con- 
siderable portion  of  it  is  taken  up  with  translations  of 
selected  passages  from  Muir's  "Treatise  on  the  Theory  of 
Determinants,"  of  which  the  following  is  a  sample  : — 

"  Teorema  III. —  Toda  determinante  centrosime'trica  del 
of  den  in\esimo  es  igual  &  la  diferencia  de  los  cuadrados  de 
dos  sumas  de  determinantes  menores  del  orden  m<;"'w" 
formadas  con  las  m.  primer  as  jilas." 

"  En  efecto  ;  el  producto  de  las  dos  determinantes 
factores,  por  ejemplo,  D  y  D',  en  el  caso  del  pa>rafo  37, 
es  igual  a 

MD  +  D'P-KD-D'PJ, 
y  si  D  y  D'  se  desarrollan  en  funcidn  de  determinantes  de 
elementos  monomios  (22),  las  determinantes  de  una  de  las 
expresiones  son  iguales  a  las  de  la  otra.     Luego  queda 
demostrado  el  teorema." 

The  above  is  almost  word  for  word  the  same  as  §  138 
of  Muir's  "  Treatise,"  which  we  subjoin  for  the  sake  of 
comparing  the  translation  with  the  original : — 

"  A  centro- symmetric  determinant  of  the  2m'*  order  is 
expressible  as  the  difference  of  the  squares  of  two  sums  of 
minors  of  the  m"'  order  formed  from  the  first  m  rows. 

"  The  product  of  the  two  factors,  D  and  D'  say,  in 
the  first  case  of  §  137  is  equal  to 

{i(D  +  D')}2-U(D-D')P, 

and  when  D  and  D'  are  expanded  (§  29)  in  terms  of 
determinants  with  monomial  elements,  the  determinants 
in  the  one  expansion  are  in  magnitude  the  same  as  those 
in  the  other  :  hence  the  theorem." 

We  notice  that  Muir's  formula  is  incorrectly  printed  in 
the  translation  ;  but  it  is  only  fair  to  add  that  such 
inaccuracies  are  rarely  met  with  in  the  volume  before  us, 
which  is  more  free  from  misprints  than  the  first  editions  of 
mathematical  books  usually  are.  The  translators  do  not 
appear  to  have  caught  the  exact  meaning  of  the  words 
"  are  in  magnitude  the  same  as,"  which  they  have  changed 
into  "  son  iguales  a\"  Quantities  which  are  the  same  in 
magnitude  (though  differing,  it  may  be,  in  sign)  they  call 
equal,  and  are  consequently  forced  to  translate  the  words 
"  are  equal  "  by  "  son  iguales  y  del  mismo  signo  "  as  they 
have  done  elsewhere  in  more  than  one  place.  But  a  much 
worse  mistranslation  (also  from  Muir)  occurs  on  p.  85, 
where  the  single  word  "  es  "  is  used  as  the  equivalent  of 
"  contains  the  term."  A  worse  mistake  than  this  one 
could  not  have  been  committed,  even  by  those  who, 
according  to  Hudibras,  "translate, — 

Though  out  of  languages,  in  which 
They  understand  no  part  of  speech." 

The  above   extract   is  taken  from  the  second  of  the 
three  distinct  portions,  or  books,  into  which  the  "  Teoria 
Vol.  xxxviii. — No.  988. 


Elemental "  is  divided.  The  first  of  these  books  has  to 
do  with  determinants  in  general,  the  second  (consist- 
ing mainly  of  translations  from  Muir)  treats  of  deter- 
minants of  special  form,  and  the  third  is  reserved  for 
algebraical  and  geometrical  applications.  The  nomen- 
clature adopted  in  the  second  book  differs  in  some  par- 
ticulars from  that  employed  by  Muir.  Thus  our  authors 
do  not  follow  him  in  substituting  "  adjugate  "  for  the  more 
euphonious  and  more  familiar  adjective  "  reciprocal,"  and 
they  agree  with  Scott  and  others  in  calling  those  deter- 
minants "orthosymmetrical"  which  Muir  names  "  per- 
symmetric."  We  think  that  their  name  "  determinante 
lirmisimetrica "  is  a  distinct  improvement  on  the  old 
"  zero-axial  skew  determinant,"  but  we  cannot  see  any 
special  reason  for  speaking  of  determinants  in  which  all 
the  elements  in  one  row  are  equal  to  unity  as  "  deter- 
minantes multiples,"  and  we  do  not  consider  that  the  fact 
of  the  equality  of  all  the  elements  in  the  principal  diagonal 
of  any  skew  determinant  is  of  sufficient  importance  to 
necessitate  the  use  of  the  distinctive  appellation  " pseudo- 
simetrica  "  to  denote  such  a  skew  determinant. 

The  second  book  contains  most  of  the  principal 
properties  of  the  various  kinds  of  symmetrical  deter- 
minants, and  of  Pfaffians,  alternants,  circulants,  and 
continuants,  but  not  of  compound  or  functional  deter- 
minants :  these  are  mentioned,  but  their  properties  are 
not  investigated.  The  short  chapter  devoted  to  them 
merely  defines  compound  determinants,  Jacobians, 
Hessians,  and  Wrouskians,  and  then  concludes  abruptly 
with  these  words  :  "  Por  mds  interesantes  que  sean  estas 
formas,  la  indole  de  esta  obra  no  permite  entrar  en  el 
estudio  de  ellas,  para  el  cual  se  recomienda  especialmente 
el  notable  tratado  del  profesor  R.  Scott,  •  Determinants/ 
Cambridge,  1880." 

Here  our  remarks  on  the  second  book  (which  finishes 
with  this  sentence)  would  come  to  a  close  if  we  did 
not  wish  to  correct  a  mistake  into  which  the  authors 
have  fallen  as  to  the  origin  of  the  name  continuants. 
These  they  say  (see  p.  112)  "  se  denominan  continuantes, 
por  sugestidn  del  profesor  Sylvester."  The  real  facts  of 
the  case  are  these.  Prof.  Sylvester  was  the  first  to 
discover  the  forms  called  continuants,  to  which  he  gave 
the  name  of  cumulants.  It  was  Muir  who  suggested  the 
name  continuant  "as  an  exceedingly  suitable  and 
euphonious  abbreviation  for  continued-fraction  deter- 
minant" and  as  a  "  short  literal  translation  of  the 
equivalent  term  Kettenbruch-Determinante ;  which  is  the 
received  name  in  Germany"  (vide  American  fournal of 
Mathematics,  vol.  i.  p.  344 :  letter  from  Mr.  Muir 
to  Prof.  Sylvester  on  the  word  continuant,  September  4, 
1878). 

Of  the  third  book  we  have  very  little  to  say.  It  is  nice 
easy  reading  for  young  beginners,  and  teaches  them  how 
to  solve  systems  of  linear  equations,  how  to  perform 
eliminations  by  means  of  Euler's,  Bezont's  as  modified  by 
Cauchy,  or  Sylvester's  dialytic  method,  and  how  to  cal- 
culate the  roots  common  to  two  equations  or  the  double 
roots  of  a  single  equation.  There  is  a  short  chapter  in 
which  some  of  the  most  simple  properties  of  the  resultant 
of  two  equations  are  explained.  The  last  chapter  in  the 
book  is  the  only  geometrical  one  ;  its  principal  contents 
are  determinant  expressions  for  the  area  of  a  triangle,  a 
quadrilateral,  and  a  polygon,  in  terms  of  the  co-ordinates 

A  A 


03< 


NA  TURE 


[Oct.  4,  1888 


of  their  respective  vertices,  and  some  simple  trigono- 
metrical formulas.  On  p.  173,  in  this  chapter,  we 
notice  a  curious  misprint :  in  each  of  three  successive 
formulae  (the  usual  expressions  for  the  sine,  cosine,  and 
tangent  of  half  an  angle  of  a  triangle  in  terms  of  its 
sides)  a  capital  V  takes  the  place  of  the  sign  of  the 
square  root. 

The  opening  paragraph  of  the  first  book  tells  us  of  the 
origin  of  determinants,  citing  as  evidence  of  their  inven- 
tion by  Leibnitz  his  celebrated  letter  to  L'Hopital,  dated 
April  28,  1693.  Their  re-discovery  by  Cramer  in  1750, 
and  the  rule  (for  the  solution  of  a  system  of  linear  equa- 
tions) which  still  bears  his  name,  are  next  mentioned  ; 
but  authors  of  a  more  modern  date  are  summarily 
dismissed  with  the  following  brief  notice : — 

"  Desde  el  tiempo  de  Cramer  la  teoria  de  las  determin- 
antes  ha  hecho  notables  progresos  debido  a  los  trabajos 
de  Vandermonde,  Laplace,  Gauss,  Cauchy,  Jacobi, 
Sylvester,  Muir,  Baltzer  y  otros,  no  habiendo  rama  de  las 
matematicas  en  que  no  haya  sido  aplicada  con  ventaja." 

We  are  not,  however,  left  entirely  in  the  dark  as  to  the 
contributions  to  the  theory  made  by  these  writers  ;  for 
some  theorems  are  called  by  the  names  of  their  respective 
authors,  and  a  large  number  of  others  have  these  names 
indicated  in  brackets.  For  instance,  the  proposition 
which  concludes  the  third  chapter  in  the  first  book  is 
thus  enunciated  : — 

"  Descomponer  una  determinante  de  orden  n6s[mo  en 
una  suma  de  productos  formados  cada  uno  de  una 
determinante  de  orden  ^Csimo  y  de  una  determinante  de 
orden  [« -^Jcsimo  /  Laplace  } ." 

This  is  immediately  preceded  by — 

"Teorema  de  Cauchy. — Si  se  elige  una  fila  y  una 
columna  de  una  determinante  cualquiera,  el  elemento 
comiin  de  ellas  multiplicado  por  el  respectivo  comple- 
ment algebraico,  mas  la  suma  de  productos  obtenidos 
multiplicando  el  producto  de  un  elemento  de  la  fila  y  de 
la  columna  por  su  respectivo  complemento  algebraico,  es 
equivalente  a  la  determinante  dada." 

The  way  in  which  these  two  propositions  are  treated  in 
the  present  work  will  serve  to  exemplify  the  methods 
employed  by  its  compilers  for  imparting  knowledge  to 
their  readers.  The  proof  of  Laplace's  theorem  given  by 
Scott,  in  §  5,  chap.  iii.  of  his  "  Determinants,''  is  clearer 
than  any  other  we  are  acquainted  with  ;  but  it  depends 
on  some  of  the  properties  of  alternate  numbers.  It  is 
true  that  these  properties  are  of  the  simplest  kind,  but 
then  the  notion  of  alternate  numbers  is  a  highly  abstract 
one,  quite  as  much  so  as  the  idea  of  a  four-dimensional 
space.  In  order,  therefore,  to  convey  a  clear  conception 
of  Laplace's  theorem  to  students  of  average  capacity, 
our  authors  have  turned  it  into  a  problem,  and,  by  con- 
sidering what  Prof.  Sylvester  calls  a  simple  diagrammatic 
case,  have  shown  how  this  problem  can  be  solved,  thereby 
bringing  the  theorem  within  the  grasp  of  those  whose 
minds  are  as  yet  unprepared  to  revel  luxuriously  in  such 
abstractions  as  the  alternate  numbers. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  proof  of  Cauchy's  theorem 
and  the  illustrative  example  appended  to  it  have  been 
reproduced,  with  only  some  slight  vertal  alterations,  from 
§  62  of  Muir's  "  Determinants,"  where  the  theorem  in 
question  is  presented  in  a  form  eminently  adapted  for 
elementary  instruction* 


The  first  book  ends  with  a  rule  for  the  division  of 
determinants,  which  may  be  briefly  stated  thus :  To 
divide  |«ln|  by  \b\x\  assume  the  quotient  to  be  |.t-ln|  and 
equate  each  element  of  the  determinant  formed  by 
multiplying  \xln\  and  \frln\  to  the  corresponding  element 
of  KJ. 

The  values  of  the  elements  xu,  xn,  ....  xnn,  of  the 
assumed  quotient  |.vln|  will  then  be  determined  by  solving 
a  system  of  equations  of  the  form 

*ii  xin  +  K  *m  +....+  K  xim  =  ann. 

The  article  containing  this  rule  should  be  expunged 
from  all  future  editions  of  the  work.  Its  practical  inutility 
becomes  apparent  when  we  remember  that,  on  solving 
the  system  of  equations  to  which  it  leads,  each  x  is  found 
in  the  form  of  the  quotient  of  two  determinants  ;  so  that 
we  have  to  perform  many  divisions  instead  of  one.  Those 
who  are  practically  engaged  in  the  work  of  mathematical 
tuition  in  the  University  of  Buenos  Ayres  will  doubtless 
be  able  to  suggest  other  improvements,  and  if  these 
suggestions  are  attended  to,  students  in  that  University 
will  possess  in  the  second  edition  of  the  "  Teoria 
Elemental  "  an  introduction  to  the  theory  of  determinants 
written  in  their  own  language  and  suited  to  their  require- 
ments. 

In  some  respects  we  do  not  desire  to  see  any  im- 
provement. The  appearance  of  the  book  is  as  attractive 
as  good  paper,  wide  margins,  and  a  bold  clear  type  can 
make  it.  The  authors  have  chosen  for  their  motto  the 
appropriate  quotation  from  Sylvester  :  "  For  what  is  the 
theory  of  determinants  ?  It  is  an  algebra  upon  algebra  ; 
a  calculus  which  enables  us  to  combine  and  foretell  the 
results  of  algebraical  operations,  in  the  same  way  as 
algebra  enables  us  to  dispense  with  the  performance  of 
the  special  operations  of  arithmetic."  The  table  of 
contents  is  a  model  of  completeness,  and  gives  the 
enunciations  of  the  theorems  in  full  instead  of  merely 
indicating  the  pages  and  articles  in  which  they  occur. 
The  volume  ends  with  a  selected  list  of  treatises  on 
determinants  "  que  pueden  servir  de  texto  y  que  son 
dignas  de  especial  mencion."  This  will  be  of  use  to 
students  who  only  want  to  be  told  what  authors  they 
should  read,  for  the  names  mentioned  are  few  and  well 
chosen  ;  while  those  whose  object  is  to  improve  their 
acquaintance  with  the  bibliography  of  determinants  may 
fully  satisfy  their  desire  by  consulting  the  two  papers  by 
Muir  in  the  Quarterly  Journal  of  Mathematics  (one  of 
them  published  in  1881,  the  other  in  1886)  to  which 
reference  is  made. 

Responding  to  the  invitation — "  agradecenamos  las 
indicaciones  que  se  nos  hicieran  sobre  omisiones  6  errores 
que  no  hubieramos  advertido  " — we  call  attention  to  a  slight 
misprint  in  this  reference,  in  which  the  word  '"  Quarterly  " 
has  been  mis-spelt  "  Quaterly."  With  the  exception  of 
those  previously  mentioned,  no  other  erratum  has  come 
under  our  notice. 

OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

The  Geological  History  of  Plants.    By  Sir  J.  W.  Dawson, 
C.M.G.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  &c.    8vo,  pp.  290.    With  Illus- 
trations. "  International  Scientific  Series."      (London  : 
Kegan  Paul,  Trench,  and  Co.,  1888.) 
THIS  book  gives,  in  a  connected  form,  a  summary  of  the 
development  of  the  vegetable  kingdom  in  geological  time. 


Oct.  4,   1888] 


N.A  TURE 


539 


Though  likely  to  be  of  use  to  geologists  and  botanists,  the 
treatment  is  sufficiently  popular  to  be  intelligible  to  the 
general  reader.  The  floras  of  the  successive  geological 
formations  are  treated  of  in  turn,  from  the  oldest  rocks 
down  to  comparatively  recent  times.  The  two  longest 
chapters  in  the  book  are  devoted  to  the  vegetation  of  the 
Devonian  and  Carboniferous  ages  respectively,  much  of 
the  matter  here  traversed  having  formed  the  subject  of 
numerous  scientific  memoirs  by  the  author.  In  the  body 
of  the  work,  accounts  of  the  morphology  and  minute 
anatomy  of  the  various  plant-remains  are  given,  with 
speculations  as  to  their  affinities,  and  in  many  cases 
restorations  are  attempted,  illustrated  by  figures.  The 
more  special  details  as  to  classification,  &c,  are  wisely 
placed  in  small  type  as  a  series  of  notes  at  the  end  of  each 
chapter.  The  last  chapter  in  the  book  consists  of  an 
interesting  essay  on  the  general  laws  of  origin  and  migra- 
tions of  plants.  Many  of  the  woodcuts  leave  much  to  be 
desired,  more  especially  those  dealing  with  histological 
subjects.  These  are,  for  the  most  part,  scrappy  and 
insufficiently  described,  and  convey  little  to  the  mind. 
Comparisons  between  fossil  remains  and  recent  plants 
are  often  rendered  valueless  by  strange  inaccuracies  as  to 
the  morphological  value  of  the  parts  so  compared.  Thus 
the  leaves  of  Marsilca  (pp.  60  and  67)  are  described  as 
being  in  whorls  and  cuneate  in  form,  and  in  Aaolla  and 
Salvinia  the  leaves  are  "  frondose  and  more  or  less  pin- 
nate in  their  arrangement."  SpenopJiyllum,  which  pos- 
sesses wedge-shaped  leaves  arranged  in  verticels  on  the 
stem,  is  set  down  as  of  probable  Rhizocarpian  affinity,  on 
this  mistaken  comparison  between  its  leaves  and  the 
leaflets  r>i  Mar silea  !  Much  confusion  also  arises  from  a 
careless  use  of  the  terms  sporocarp,  sporangium,  macro- 
and  micro-spore,  antheridium,  &c,  in  connection  with 
certain  small  bodies  found  in  the  Erian  and  Carboniferous 
beds,  and  conceived  by  the  author  to  be  the  reproductive 
bodies  of  a  rich,  then-existing  Rhizocarpian  flora.  Though 
there  are  many  points  in  which  palasobotanists  may  not 
be  at  one  with  the  author — such  as  the  reference  of  so 
many  Palaeozoic  forms  to  Rhizocarps — the  volume  will  be 
of  service,  especially  to  those  to  whom  the  larger  treatises 
are  not  available. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[  The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  nuder- 
take  to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  fart 
of  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations.] 

Prophetic  Germs. 

I  have  but  just  returned  from  abroad,  and  have  hastened  to 
read  the  number  of  Nature  for  August  30.  I  find  that  the 
Duke  of  Argyll  in  his  letter  of  that  date  makes  some  remarks 
which  call  for  a  few  words  from  me.  The  Duke  is  not, 
it  appears,  prepared  to  defend  the  theory  that  the  electric 
organ  of  Kaia  ladiata  is  a  "  prophetic  germ."  He  refers  me 
to  the  paper  of  Prof.  Ewart  on  this  subject,  whose  opinion  he 
quotes  and  accepts.  I  am  not  sure  how  far  Prof.  Ewart  himself 
had  considered  the  significance  of  the  view  which  he  put  forward 
in  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  rudimentary  electric  organs  of 
skates ;  but  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  there  are  no  facts  which 
have  been  made  known  at  present,  either  by  earlier  observers  or 
by  Trof.  Ewart,  with  regard  to  the  electric  organ  of  skatts,  which 
necessitate  such  a  theory  of  prophetic  germs  as  that  imagined  by 
the  Duke  of  Argyll,  or  which  can  be  shown  to  be  inconsistent 
with  the  doctrine  of  progressive  development  by  the  natural 
selection  of  fortuitous  congenital  variations.  If  the  Duke  of 
Argyll  will  point  out  such  facts,  he  will  have  made  a  contribu- 
tion of  some  value  towards  the  understanding  of  the  laws  of 
organic  evolution. 

In  a  subsequent  portion  of  his  letter  the  Duke  of  Argyll 
states:  "If  Prof.  Ray  Lankester  will  explain  how  'natural 
selection'  can   act  upon  'congenital  variations,'  which  he  calls 


'  non-significant' — i.e.  which  are  not  yet  of  any  actual  use — and 
if  he  will  explain  how  this  action  can  afford  '  the  single  and 
sufficient  theory  of  the  origin '  of  (as  yet)  useless  variations, 
he  will  have  accomplished  a  great  triumph  in  logic  and 
philosophy." 

I  am  unwilling  to  entertain  the  notion  that  the  Duke  of  Argyll 
has  intentionally  constructed  the  above  sentence  by  garbled  quota- 
tions from  my  previous  letter  in  order  to  produce  the  false 
impression  that  1  have  maintained  such  a  view  as  to  the  action 
of  natural  selection.  At  the  same  time,  I  will  observe  that  the 
method  of  discussion  adopted  by  the  Duke — namely,  that  of 
half  quoting  the  opinion  which  he  attributes  to  an  opponent  and 
desires  to  render  illogical  in  the  judgment  of  otl  er-s — is,  to  say 
the  least  of  it,  objectionable.  It  becomes  easy  when  this  method 
of  partial  re-stateir,ent  is  adopted  for  the  disputant  to  insert 
words  of  his  own  mixed  with  the  words  of  his  opponent,  and 
thus  to  misrepresent  the  latter's  statement  by  unconsciously 
fabricating  what  the  poet  has  condemned  as  the  worst  of 
fabrications — namely,  one  which  is  half  a  truth. 

The  point  of  the  sentence  which  I  have  above  quoted  from 
the  Duke  of  Argyll's  letter  depends  upon  the  unwarrantable 
introduction  on  his  part  after  the  quotation  of  the  word  "non- 
significant "  of  certain  words  in  explanation  of  that  word.  The 
Duke  is  kind  enough  to  say  that  by  "non-significant"  I  mean 
"  which  are  not  yet  of  any  actual  use."  1  have  not  had  any 
private  communications  with  the  Duke  of  Argyll  upon  this 
matter,  and  am  at  a  1  66  to  understand  how  he  should  have  come 
to  think  that  he  knows  that  this  was  what  I  meant  by  the  word 
"non-significant."  Py  whatever  process  he  arrived  at  that 
conclusion  I  regret  to  have  to  say  that  it  is  absolutely  erroneous. 
My  meaning  was  nothing  of  the  kind,  and  I  was  under  the 
impression  that  I  had  stated  with  sufficient  clearness  what 
my  meaning  was.  It  appears  that  I  did  not  state  it  clearly 
enough  for  all  readers.  I  called  the  congenital  variation 
which  survives  in  the  struggle  for  existence  "  non-significant"  in 
regard  to  its  origin  and  not  in  regard  to  its  survival.  It  was,  I 
think,  clear  to  most  readers  that  1  was  distinguishing  between 
the  Lamarckian  theory  of  variation  as  due  to  the  transmission  of 
parental  acquired  characters  and  the  Darwinian  theory  of  varia- 
tion as  due  to  a  "shaking  up  "  of  the  germ-plasma  at  the  union 
of  egg-cell  and  sperm-cell.  The  variation — that  is,  the  departure 
of  a  young  animal  or  plant  from  the  normal  character  of  the 
species — would  be,  if  it  could  be  traced  to  the  transmission 
from  a  parent  of  a  character  acquired  by  that  parent  in  adap- 
tation to  the  environment,  significant  ;  that  is  to  say,  it  would 
have  significance  for  the  adjustment  of  the  species  in  its  very 
origin  in  the  parent.  On  the  other  hand,  the  thousand  and  one 
slight  or  considerable  departures  from  the  mean  specific  form 
which  occur  in  every  possible  direction  in  a  brood  of  young  fish 
or  other  organisms  are  "non-significant."  They  are  due  to  a 
long-precedent  disturbance  of  the  germ-plasma  when  the  form  of 
the  organi-m  was  undeveloped.  No  possible  reaction  of  adjust- 
ment can  be  imagined  which  could  produce  adaptation  in  the 
structure  of  an  animal  or  plant  developed  from  a  germ,  if  it 
be  a  proviso  that  such  adaptation  is  to  have  relation  to  a  physical 
cause  of  disturbance  which  once  acted  upon  the  germ  whilst  the 
adaptational  results  are  to  come  into  effective  existence  in  the 
developed  product  of  the  germ.  Hence  I  am  led  to  speak  of 
congenital  variations  as  "non-significant"  in  relation  to  the 
disturbing  causes  which  produce  them. 

The  proposition  that  congenital  variations  are  selected  when 
they  are  not  yet  of  any  actual  use  is  an  absurdity  which  the 
Duke  of  Argyll  had  no  justification  whatever  for  suggesting  as 
likely  to  be  defended  by  me,  and  one  which  he  arrives  at  by 
misrepresenting  the  meaning  of  the  adjective  "  non-significant." 
As  a  matter  of  course,  some  one  combination  of  congenital 
variations  is  "  significant  "in  the  sense  which  the  Duke  of  Argyll 
chooses  to  give  to  that  word — a  sense  in  which  I  do  not  employ 
it  :  someone  combination  of  congenital  variations  in  each  gener- 
ation survives  because  it  is  "significant"  in  the  sense  of  being 
useful.  It  is  a  common  fallacy  to  suppose  that  natural  selection 
is  only  operative  in  producing  iicm  species  ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is 
never  in  abeyance,  but  is  equally  as  active  in  maintaining  an 
existing  form  as  in  producing  a  new  one. 

With  regard  to  the  origin  of  useless  variations  and  the  general 
question  of  uselessness,  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  your  columns 
should  be  given  over  to  an  exposition  of  the  common-places  of 
Darwinism.  It  is  to  be  noted,  firstly,  that  we  have  no  right  to 
conclude  that  a  structure  is  useless  to  the  organism  in  which  it 
occurs  because  the  Duke  of  Argyll  is  unable  to  see  in  what  way 


540 


NATURE 


[Oct.  4,  1888 


it  is  useful  ;  secondly,  we  have  established  the  great  principle  of 
"  correlation  of  growth,"  which  is  a  brief  way  of  stating  that  in 
organisms  there  is  such  an  intricate  binding  together  of  the 
mechanism  that  when  one  part  varies  other  parts  vary  con- 
comitantly— so  that  a  useful  variation  of  the  beak  or  eyelid  of  a 
bird  (for  example)  may  necessitate  a  concomitant  and  perfectly 
useless  variation  in  the  toe-nails  or  the  tail-feathers  ,  thirdly, 
useless  structures  undoubtedly  exist  owing  to  the  potency  of 
heredity,  which  is  of  such  strength  that  long  after  a  structure  has 
ceased  to  be  a  matter  of  selection  it  is  transmitted  from  genera- 
tion to  generation,  though  dwindled  in  size  and  more  or  less 
imperfect  in  structure. 

I  think  there  will  be  no  difficulty  by  reference  to  one  or  other 
of  the  three  considerations  above  stated  in  disposing  of  cases  of 
so-called  "uselessness,"  or  "prophetic"  functionless  organs 
"  on  the  way  to  use,"  which  the  Duke  of  Argyll  may  find  to  be 
stumbling-blocks  in  the  way  of  his  faith  in  Darwin,  if  he  will 
submit  them  one  by  one  for  pulverization,  though  I  am  afraid 
the  process  will  not  interest  your  readers. 

September  31.  E.  Ray.Lankester. 


A  Shadow  and  Halo. 

A  FEW  evenings  ago,  whilst  walking  down  a  sloping  pasture, 
with  the  moon  shining  brightly  at  an  altitude  of  about  20° 
behind  me,  and  with  no  visible  dew  nor  fog,  yet  with  heavy 
dew  on  the  grass,  I  noticed  that  the  shadow  of  my  head  and 
shoulders  was  very  sharply  defined,  but  that  it  was  surrounded 
by  a  halo  of  light,  and  that  this  halo  or  nimbus  increased  in 
brightness  as  my  shadow  was  lengthened  out  because  of  the 
increasing  slope ;  and  not  only  was  the  brightness  increased, 
but  it  extended  now  to  my  hips.  That  this  was  due  to  the 
greater  depth  of  moist  air  through  which  the  moon's  light  passed, 
by  reason  of  the  increase  of  the  slope,  I  think  was  proved  by 
the  fact  that  in  the  neighbourhood  of  a  high  hedge,  which 
would  to  some  extent  alter  the  conditions,  this  halo  nearly 
wholly  disappeared.  At  one  time  I  thought  that  my  eyes  were 
deceiving  me  concerning  this  appearance,  the  contrast  of  the 
dark  shadow  with  the  surrounding  brightly  illuminated  grass 
giving  rise  to  the  appearance  above  mentioned,  but,  by  holding 
up  my  hand  so  as  to  cut  off  the  view  of  the  shadow,  I  still  saw 
the  brighter  light  which  surrounded  it,  and  this  brightness  still 
increased  or  decreased  in  intensity  as  the  slope  on  which  I  took 
up  my  position  was  greater  or  less.  There  was  no  casting  of  a 
shadow  on  a  fog-bank,  as  there  was  no  fog  at  all,  but  rather 
the  air  was  particularly  clear.  I  noticed  this  phenomenon  three 
nights  in  succession.  I  shall  be  glad  to  know  if  any  other 
amongst  your  readers  has  noticed  this  occurrence,  and  will 
explain  it.  E.  W.  P. 

Tamworth,  September  29. 

Sonorous  Sands. 

Referring  to  Mr.  Cams- Wilson's  letter  recording  the  sup- 
posed discovery  of  musical  sand  in  Dorsetshire,  I  may  mention 
that  about  two  .years  ago  the  late  Admiral  E.  J.  Bedford  sent 
me  three  boxes  of  musical  sand,  one  of  them  being  labelled, 
"Musical  sand;  Studland  Bay,  Dorset,  1885  ;  sonorous  when 
collected."  I  am  not  aware  whether  Admiral  Bedford  himself 
discovered  the  sonorous  properties  of  this  sand,  but  it  is  clear 
that  he  was  well  acquainted  with  both  the  sand  and  its  character 
in  1885.  A.  R.  Hunt. 

Torquay,  September  27. 


THE  REPORT  OF  THE  KRAKA  TAO 
COMMITTEE  OF  THE  ROYAL  SOCIETY. 

I. 

A  FTER  an  interval  which  has  been  prolonged  partly 
■*"*■  by  the  unexpected  continuance  of  the  subsequent 
atmospheric  phenomena,  and  partly  through  other  circum- 
stances incidental  to  publishing,  the  Report  on  the  great 
eruption  of  the  volcanic  island  of  Krakatab  in  August 
1883  is  now  before  the  world. 

Every  Committee  is  bound  to  issue  a  Report  of  some 
kind,  but  it  rarely  falls  to  the  lot  of  a  Committee  to  deal 
-with  anything  at  once  so  stupendous  in  its  character  and 


far-reaching  in  its  consequences  as  the  eruption  which  not 
only  figuratively,  but  literally,  vibrated  through  the  world 
on  August  27, 1883. 

We,  in  these  islands,  may  boast  of  our  Essex  earth- 
quakes, and  of  the  frequent  little  tremors  to  which  a 
certain  district  in  Perthshire  is  subject  ;  but  few  of  us, 
or  our  immediate  neighbours,  can,  from  our  local  expe- 
rience, form  the  faintest  conception  of  the  terrific  sub- 
terranean powers  which  ordinarily  manifested  themselves 
in  the  volcanic  region  of  which  Krakatab  may  be  fitly 
termed  the  focus. 

The  first  accounts  which  reached  us  by  telegram,  in- 
accurate though  they  were  bound  to  be  as  regarded  details, 
were  scarcely  exaggerations  in  point  of  magnitude  ;  and, 
indeed,  the  cataclysm  in  this  case  rose  superior  to  all 
artificial  modes  of  transmission,  by  announcing  the  very 
date  and  hour,  if  not  minute,  of  its  culminating  explosion 
through  a  series  of  air-waves,  which  recorded  themselves 
no  less  than  four  times  on  every  automatically  recording 
barometer  throughout  the  world. 

Three  other  distinct  and  abnormal  phenomena  were  : 
(1)  the  immense  distance  to  which  the  sound-waves  were 
propagated  (altogether  transcending  anything  hitherto  on 
record  ;  (2)  the  immense  local  height,  destructive  power, 
and  subsequent  wide  diffusion  of  the  accompanying  sea- 
waves,  which  in  this  case  were  not,  as  is  usually  the  case, 
due  to  earthquake  action  ;  (3)  the  simultaneous  occur- 
rence in  the  Javan  and  Indian  area,  and  subsequently 
rapid  extension,  first  round  the  equatorial  zone,  and, 
finally,  to  the  whole  world,  of  a  most  remarkable  group 
of  optical  phenomena,  including  coloured  suns,  lurid  and 
prolonged  glows  at  twilight,  large  corona?  round  the  sun 
and  moon,  and  a  peculiar  cirriform  haze  which  was 
evidently  connected  in  some  way  with  these  and  the 
eruption. 

It  was  plain,  in  the  face  of  these  preliminary  facts,  that 
the  collection  and  discussion  of  such  a  grand  series  of 
exceptional  phenomena  gratuitously  evolved  out  of 
Nature's  own  laboratory,  could  not  fail  to  be  of  service 
to  science,  and  that  while  the  more  local  features  and 
practical  results  of  the  episode  might  be  left  to  the  Dutch 
Government,  to  whom  the  district  belonged,  its  attendant 
and  subsequent  phenomena  deserved  permanent  record 
in  the  pages  of  scientific  history. 

On  this  basis,  a  Committee  of  the  Royal  Society  was 
appointed  on  January  17,  1884,  in  the  following  terms  : — 

"  That  a  Committee,  to  consist  of  Sir  F.  Evans,  Prof. 
Judd,  Mr.  Norman  Lockyer,  Mr.  R.  H.  Scott,  General 
Strachey,  and  Mr.  G.  J.  Symons,  with  power  to  add  to 
their  number,  be  appointed  to  collect  the  various  accounts 
of  the  volcanic  eruption  at  Krakatab  and  attendant  phe- 
nomena in  such  form  as  shall  best  provide  for  their 
preservation  and  promote  their  usefulness." 

The  subsequent  expansion  of  the  Committee  by  co- 
operation of  additional  members,  and  the  substitution  of 
one — Captain  Wharton — in  consequence  of  the  death  of 
Sir  Frederick  Evans,  is  detailed  in  the  preface. 

The  main  object  of  the  Committee  was  thus  to  collect 
facts  and  reduce  them  into  a  systematic  and  useful  form. 
While  this  has  been  its  primary  object,  it  has  been 
thought  advisable  to  enlarge  upon  the  original  basis  of 
the  Report,  and,  while  giving  a  resume1  of  all  the  leading 
opinions,  especially  those  relating  to  the  debated  question 
of  the  relation  of  the  optical  phenomena  to  the  eruption, 
to  enter  at  some  length  into  a  discussion  of  the  facts  thus 
systematized.  Though  it  is  hardly  to  be  expected  that 
everybody  will  agree  with  the  deductions  arrived  at  by 
each  author,  and  though  it  has  been  impossible  to  avoid 
omissions  in  a  work  embracing,  in  its  latter  sections, 
observations  extending  over  three  years,  and  a  literature 
of  its  own,  the  main  facts  have  not  only  been  recorded, 
but,  as  the  Chairman,  Mr.  G.  J.  Symons,  says,  can  be 
readily  verified. 


Oct.  4,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


54i 


Although,  therefore,  as  time  progresses,  and  human 
knowledge  changes  and  enlarges,  some  of  the  conclusions 
drawn  by  the  authors  of  the  Report  may  be  modified  or 
reversed,  the  value  and  permanence  of  the  facts  and 
opinions  quoted,  will  be  secured  by  the  unusual  care 
which  Mr.  Symons  has  taken  to  verify  all  the  references 
and  quotations. 

The  work  is  divided  into  five  parts  : — 

I.  On  the  volcanic  phenomena  of  the  eruption,  in- 
cluding the  nature  and  distribution  of  the  ejecta,  by  Prof. 
Judd,  F.R  S. 

II.  On  the  air-waves  and  sounds  caused  by  the  erup- 
tion, prepared  under  the  direction  of  Lieut.-General  R. 
Strachey,  F.R.S. 

III.  On  the  seismic  sea-waves  caused  by  the  eruption, 
by  Captain  W.  J.  L.  Wharton,  R.N.,  F.R.S. 

IV.  On  the  unusual  optical  phenomena  in  the  atmo- 
sphere which  began  in  1883  and  continued  in  part  up  to 
1886  inclusive,  and  which  included  coloured  suns,  twilight 
effects,  coronal  appearances  round  sun  and  moon,  sky 
haze,  &c,  by  the  Hon.  F.  A.  Rollo  Russell  and  Mr.  E. 
Douglas  Archibald.     And 

V.  A  short  discussion  of  the  magnetical  and  electrical 
phenomena,  by  Mr.  G.  M.  Whipple. 

Prof.  Judd  commences  by  pointing  out  how  peculiarly 
favourable  for  the  gigantic  outburst  was  the  position 
occupied  by  Krakatao.  The  marked  linear  arrangement 
of  the  volcanoes  of  Java  and  Sumatra  points  to  the  exist- 
ence of  a  corresponding  great  fissure  in  the  earth's  crust ; 
while  across  the  Straits  of  Sunda  lies  another  line  of 
weakness,  along  which  five  volcanoes  have  been  thrown 
up  at  different  epochs.  KrakataT)  lies  precisely  at  the 
intersection  of  these  lines.  It  is  therefore  a  position 
where  volcanic  action,  once  having  commenced,  might 
be  expected  to  display  itself  on  its  grandest  and  most 
intense  scale. 

The  history  of  Krakatao,  as  traced  by  Prof.  Judd, 
shows  that,  both  in  dimensions  and  activity,  it  may  be 
considered  to  have  been  one  of  the  largest  and  most  de- 
structive volcanic  craters  in  the  world.  At  one  time,  "  its 
circumference,  at  what  is  now  the  sea-level,  could  not 
have  been  much  less  than  twenty-five  miles,  and  its  height 
above  the  same  datum  plane  was  perhaps  not  less  than 
10,000  to  12,000  feet." 

Then,  at  some  unknown  period,  a  terrible  outburst 
seems  to  have  occurred,  far  transcending  the  present  one, 
which  completely  eviscerated  the  volcano,  and  reduced  it 
to  the  condition  of  a  basal  wreck  of  three  islands,  one  of 
which  contained  Rakata,  a  basaltic  lava  cone  from  which 
the  island  derived  its  name,  and  two  smaller  parasitical 
cones  ;  while  the  other  two  represented  the  relics  of  the 
original  crater,  formed  of  the  same  material  as  the  latter, 
viz.  enstatite  dacite.  The  relatively  inconspicuous  cha- 
racter of  Rakata,  and  the  adjacent  cones  and  islets,  as 
well  as  the  absence  of  any  serious  volcanic  action  since 
1680,  seem  to  have  warded  off  any  suspicions  which 
might  have  been  entertained  by  the  inhabitants  on  the 
adjacent  coasts  regarding  either  the  former  grandeur  of 
the  volcano  or  the  possible  renewal  of  its  activity, 
certainly  on  such  a  scale  as  was  witnessed  on  August  27, 
1883.     . 

Nature,  however,  rarely  displays  its  grandest  effects 
without  giving  premonitory  warnings,  and,  in  volcanic  and 
seismic  phenomena  more  particularly,  by  exhibiting  the 
culminating  outburst  as  the  cumulative  result  of  an  aggre- 
gation of  small  and  continuously  operating  hypogenic 
causes. 

For  some  years  prior  to  1883,  earthquakes  had  been  of 
frequent  occurrence  in  the  vicinity,  one  of  which  destroyed 
the  lighthouse  on  Java's  First  Point,  and  was  felt  even  in 
North  Australia,  while  on  May  20  and  21  an  eruption 
proceeded  from  Perboewatan,  the  most  northern  of  the 


three  craters  which  occupied  the  place  of  the  original 
prehistoric  volcano,  and  the  same  that  was  in  erup- 
tion in  1680.  This  eruption,  though  only  of  a  relatively 
mild  (Strombolian)  type,  compared  with  its  successor,  was 
yet  sufficiently  striking  to  be  accountable  for  some  of  the 
sporadic  sky  effects  which,  as  we  shall  see,  were  noticed 
in  its  vicinity  during  and  for  some  little  time  after  its 
occurrence.  For  example,  the  captain  of  the  German 
ship  Elizabeth,  when  passing  through  the  Straits  on 
May  20,  observed  the  height  of  the  smoke  column  as  it 
issued  from  the  volcano  to  be  over  30,000  feet,  and  found 
dust  fall  on  his  ship  when  it  was  more  than  300  miles 
distant ;  while,  according  to  Verbeek,  the  writer  of  the 
Dutch  Report,  the  sounds  were  heard  not  merely  at 
Batavia  and  Buitenzorg,  100  miles  off,  but  even  at 
Singapore,  which  is  518  miles  away. 

After  this  relatively  minor,  though  absolutely  violent 
eruption,  a  period  of  intermittent  and  subordinate  activity 
prevailed,  during  which  two  other  dormant  cones  re- 
opened, the  decrease  in  violence  being  thus  probably 
made  up  for  by  the  larger  area  in  eruption.  Finally,  after 
a  period  of  growing  intensity — a  fact  which  was  attested 
by  observations  at  Batavia  and  on  board  ships  passing 
through  the  Straits — the  entire  volcano  appears,  on 
August  26,  to  have  passed  from  the  moderate  (Strom- 
bolian) stage  to  the  paroxysmal  (Vesuvian)  stage. 

It  would  be  unnecessary  to  recapitulate  the  accounts 
given  of  this  terrific  outburst,  which  lasted  from  2  p.m.  on 
Sunday,  August  26,  to  the  evening  of  August  27,  and 
reached  its  culmination  at  about  10  o'clock  on  the  latter 
day.  The  originals  read  like  romances  from  the  "Arabian 
Nights,''  though  to  attempt  to  adequately  describe  such  a 
chaos  would  need  the  pen  of  a  Dante  coupled  with  the 
pencil  of  a  Dore".  The  salient  features  were  ( 1)  the  unusual 
height  to  which  the  smoke  column  was  observed  to 
ascend,  viz.  seventeen  miles,  by  Captain  Thomson,  of  the 
Medea — the  nearest  approach  to  which  on  any  former 
occasion  seems  to  have  been  thirteen  miles  at  the  eruption 
of  Graham's  Island  (Julia)  in  1831  ;  (2)  the  extraordinary 
violence  of  the  detonations;  and  (3)the  accompanying  atmo- 
spheric and  electric  phenomena.  With  respect  to  this  latter 
point,  the  volcano  was,  in  fact,  a  frictional  hydro-electric 
generator  of  electricity  on  the  largest  possible  scale. 

One  of  the  most  important  deductions  arrived  at  by 
Prof.  Judd  from  a  study  of  this  and  other  eruptions  is  the 
precise  part  played  by  water  in  aiding  eruption. 

It  appears  to  be  often  thought  that  both  slow  percola- 
tion and  the  rapid  introduction  of  water  into  reservoirs  of 
lava  are  the  direct  causes  of  eruption  ;  but  Prof.  Judd 
shows  that,  while  the  percolation  of  water  is  one  of  the 
contributory  causes,  it  is  not  the  primary  cause,  which  he 
attributes,  when  discussing  the  nature  of  the  materials 
ejected,  to  "the  disengagement  [by  heat]  of  volatile 
substances  actually  contained  in  those  materials."  . 

According  to  this,  which  may  be  termed  the  "  cart- 
ridge" doctrine  of  eruption  (the  lava  representing  both 
the  powder  and  shot),  the  action  of  inrushes  of  sea- 
water,  such  as  occurred  in  the  present  case,  by  chilling  the 
surface  of  the  lava,  and  augmenting  the  tension  of  the 
imprisoned  gases,  caused  '"  a  check  and  then  a  rally," 
analogous  to  what  occurs  in  a  geyser  when  sods  are 
thrown  into  it.  Prof.  Judd  attributes  the  excessively 
violent  nature  of  the  last  stages  of  the  great  eruption  of 
Krakatao  to  this  "  check  and  rally  action,"  caused  by  the 
dissolution  after  evisceration  of  the  crateral  framework  of 
the  volcano,  and  the  consequent  admission  of  the  sea  in 
large  quantities,  a  circumstance  to  which  its  position 
rendered  it  peculiarly  accessible. 

Prof.  J  udd  considers  the  "  excessively  violent  though  short 
paroxysms  with  which  it  terminated  "  to  be  the  special 
feature  by  which  the  eruption  of  Krakatao  differed  from 
others  of  similar  rank.  These,  while  characterized  by  a 
larger  quantity  of  materials  ejected,  present  no  parallel  to 


542 


NA TURE 


[Oct.  4,  1888 


the  final  "  exhaustive  explosions  of  abnormal  violence," 
together  with  the  vast  sea  and  air  waves,  and  the 
subsequent  optical  phenomena,  which  accompanied  that 
of  KrakataT). 

Prof.  Judd  next  deals  with  the  nature  of  the  materials 
ejected,  and  draws  attention  to  the  different  physical  cha- 
racters presented  by  the  lavas  ejected  from  Krakatab  at 
different  epochs,  the  final  compact  lavas  of  1883  being  por- 
phyritic  pitchstone,  and  obsidian,  containing  about  70  per 
cent,  of  silica,  and  so  nearly  identical  chemically  with  those 
of  some  of  the  earlier  outpourings  as  to  suggest  refusion. 

The  heavier  lava   dust   which  fell  in   Java   and  was 
examined  by  numerous  geologists,  including  Prqf.  Judd 
himself,  exhibits  a  peculiarity  which  he  considers  to  be 
without  precedent,  in  that  it  contains  almost  every  variety 
of  feldspar  crystals.    The  base  in  which  these  crystals  was 
found  to  be  embedded  presents    great  differences  in  its 
fusibility,  the  pitchstone  melting  with  great  difficulty,  and 
the  obsidian  with  ease.     This  latter  point,  in  combination 
with  other  circumstances,  leads  Prof.  Judd  to  one  of  the 
most    important    of    his    conclusions,    viz.    as    to    how 
eruptions   come  to  differ  not  merely  in  magnitude  but  in 
quality  :  for  example,  how  a  volcano  such  as  Krakatab  at 
one  time  emits  massive  and  viscous  lava-streams  as  it  did 
in  former  times  ;    at  another,  pours  forth  a  more   liquid 
lava  ;  and  again,  as  on   this  occasion,  bursts   out   with 
explosive  violence  into  an  eruption  in  which  most  of  the 
lava  is  converted  into  pumice.     He  considers  that  the 
older  lavas  have  been  chonically  acted  on  by  water  which 
has  slowly  percolated  through  the  crust  in  the    vicinity, 
and  that  the  new  compounds  thus  produced  are  not  only 
more  readily  fusible,  but   more   easily   convertible    into 
pumice.     Volcanic  action  is  thus  concluded  to  be  brought 
about  not  directly  by  the  physical  action  of  externally 
derived  water,  but  by  changes  in  the  physical  properties  of 
rocks  chemically  altered  through  the  medium  of  such  water. 
In   connection    with   the    optical   effects   which    were 
witnessed  subsequent  to  the  eruption,  and  which  are  found 
to  be  connected  chiefly  with  the  finer  solid  ejecta,  Prof. 
Judd  finds  evidence,  both  from  a  study  of  the  Krakatab 
pumice   as   well   as  the  finer  dust  which    fell   at   great 
distances,  that  by  the  unusual  violence  of  the  explosions 
during   the  major  outburst  a  large  quantity  of  the  very 
finest  threads  and  dust  of  volcanic  glass  was  thrown  out 
into  the  higher  atmospheric  regions,  where  it  might  re- 
main suspended  for  very  long  periods.     He  also  points 
out  that  the  absence  of  any  sign  of  materials  characteristic 
of  Krakatab  in  the  rainfall  of  distant  places  is  no  evidence 
against  their  wide  diffusion,  since  the  most  characteristic 
substance  in  the  Krakatab  dusts  was  rhombic  pyroxene, 
and  this  by  reason  of  "its  high  specific  gravity  and  its 
slight  friability  would  be  among  the  first  to  fall." 

Prof.  Judd  brings  his  section  to  a  close  by  a  general 
review  of  the  circumstances  which  have  led  him  to  adopt 
the  view  already  enunciated  regarding  the  cause  of 
volcanic  action,  viz.  that  the  liquidity  of  a  lava  and  the 
violence  of  an  eruption  depend  on  the  extent  to  which  the 
lava  has,  as  it  were,  been  hydrated  under  the  influence  of 
slow  aqueous  percolation.  Lavas  of  precisely  the  same 
composition,  and  at  the  same  temperature  may  vary 
greatly  in  their  eruptive  action  simply  by  the  changes 
thus  effected  in  their  fusion-points.  This  refined  form  of 
the  volcanic  theory,  which  is  put  forward  by  Prof.  Judd, 
appears  to  show  that  the  Vesuvian  stage  of  eruption  is  a 
paroxysmal  form  of  earth  sickness,  due  to  lava  gases  in- 
directly generated  by  water  action,  while  the  quiet  out- 
pourings both  from  cones  and  fissures  which  have  taken 
place  so  widely  both  in  the  past  and  present  ages,  repre- 
sent the  more  normal  welling  up  of  lava  which  has  been 
less  altered  by  water  action.  For  this  reasonable 
deduction  and  the  clearer  insight  afforded  into  the 
modus  operandi  of  volcanic  and  seismic  phenomena, 
we  are,  without  doubt,  indebted  to  Krakatab. 
( To  be  continued.) 


THE  BRITISH  ASSOCIATION. 

SECTION  H.1 

anthropology. 

Opening  Address  by  Lieutenant-General  Pitt-Rivers, 
D.C.L.,  F.R.S.,  F.G.S.,  F.S.A.,  President  of  the 
Section. 

II. 

The  accompanying  map  of  Great  Britain  shows  the  monu- 
ments that  I  have  been  the  means  of  obtaining  by  the  consent 
of  their  owners. 

The  Pictish  Tower  at  Mousa  in  the  Shetlands,  which  is  well 
known  to  be  the  best  preserved  monument  of  this  class  in  the 
country,  has  been  included  by  the  owner,  Mr.  Bruce,  and  some 
necessary  repairs  have  been  done  to  it  by  the  Government.     In 
the  Orkneys  the  owners  of  the  scheduled  monuments  declined  to 
make  use  of  the  Act,  but  they  are  well  looked  after.     The  same 
applies  to  the  Bass  of  Inverurie,  the  Vitrified  Fort  on  the  hill  of 
Noath,  the  Pillar  Stones  at  Newton,   in  the  Garioch,  and  the 
British  settlement  at   Harefaulds,  in   Lauderdale,  which  latter, 
however,    is    in    such     ruinous     condition    that    the    remains 
of    it    are    scarcely    worth    preserving.       The    Suenos     Stone 
near     Forres ;      the     Cairns     at     Clava,     on     the     banks     of 
the  Nairn  ;  the  Cat-stane  at   Kirkliston;  the   Burgh  of  Click- 
anim,   have  also  been  withheld  by  their  owners,  but  most  of 
them  are  very  well  taken  care  of.     The  Cairns  at  Minnigaff  were 
nearly  destroyed  before  they  were  scheduled,  and  are  not  worth 
preserving.     The  inscribed  stone  in    St.  Vigean's  churchyard  is 
preserved  in  the  pdrch  of  the  church,  but  it  is  not  included.   On 
the  other  hand,  Edin's  Hall,  the  largest  and  most   southern  of 
the  remains  of  the  Pictish  Towers  in  Berwickshire,  has  been 
included   by  Mr.   J.    S.   Fraser-Tytler ;    the   Black  and   White 
Catherthuns   have    been   added   by  Miss  Carnegy   Arbuthnot ; 
both  these  are  large  camps  having  ramparts  of  stones  and  earth- 
works round  them,  and  they  are  described  in  General  Roy's 
work.     The  Pictish  Towers  at   Glenelg  have  been  included  by 
Mr.  James  Bruce  Bailey  ;  they  are  in  a  very  bad  state  of  repair, 
and  have  been  propped  up  by  the  Government.     The  inscribed 
stones  at  Laggangairn,  New  Luce,  have  been  included  by  Lord 
Stair  ;  they  are  at  a  great  distance  from  any  road  or  habitation, 
and  the  protection  afforded  them,  beyond  the  powers  contained 
in  the  Act,  must  be  regarded  as  nominal.     The  Peter's  stone, 
on  the  road  from   Wigton  to  Whithorn,  has  not  been  added  ;  it 
is  an  important  stone,   and  is  in  a  dangerous  position  ;   it  has 
already  suffered  damage,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  it  will  be  included 
hereafter.     The  chapel  on  the  Isle  of  WThithorn,  supposed  to  be 
that  built  by  St.  Ninian,  has  been  included  by  Mr.  R.  Johnstone 
Stewart  ;  this  was  not  in  the  schedule.     The  Pillars  of  Kirk- 
madrine  have  been  included  by  Mrs.    Ommaney   McTaggart  ; 
they  are  the  earliest  Christian  monuments  in  the  country.     I 
suggested  that  Government  should  contribute  towards  building 
a  small  chapel  to  contain  them,  which  has  been  done.     The 
Cross   at   Ruthwell,   with    its  remarkable    runes,   which    were 
gradually  being  destroyed  and  covered  with   lichen,  so  that  its 
inscription  could  not  be  read,  has  also  been  added.     I  suggested 
that  the  Government  could  contribute  towards  building  an  annex 
to  the  neighbouring  church  to  contain  it,  which  has  been  done. 
This   was   not   in   the    schedule.       The    cup-marked    rock    of 
Drumtrodden,   Wigtonshire,   has  been   added    by  Sir  Herbert 
Maxwell,  and  Government  has  granted  a  certain  sum  towards 
building  a   shed    over    it    to    preserve    it.      It  was  not  in  the 
schedule,    but    is   a   good   example    of  its    class.       Barsalloch 
Fort,  Wigtonshire,  the  Moat  Hill  of  Druchtag,  the  Drumtrodden 
standing    stones,   Wigtonshire,    have   also   been   added  by  Sir 
Herbert  Maxwell.     St.  Ninian's  Cave,  with  its  early  Christian 
crosses,  has  been  included  by  Mr.  Johnstone  Stewart.     In  the 
Island  of  Lewis  the  remarkable  standing  stones  in  the  form  of  a 
cross  at  Callernish,  and  the    Broch   at    Carloway,  have  been 
added  by  Lady  Matheson.     This  latter  is,  next   to  Mousa,  the 
best   Pictish  tower  in  the  country.     In  Cumberland,  the  Stone 
Circle  on  Castle  Rigg  has  been  put  under  the  Act  by  Miss 
Edmondson.      In    Westmoreland,    Arthur's    Round  Table,   an 
earthen  circle  with  a  ditch  in  the  interior,  and  Mayborough,  a 
large  circle  with  an  embankment  of  stones  and  the  remains  of  a 
stone  circle  within,  has  been  included  by  Lord  Brougham.     In 
Derbyshire,  Arborlow,  a  large  circle  similar  to   Arthur's   Round 
Table,  with  the  remains  of  a  stone  circle,  the  stones   of  which 
are  prostrate,  and  a  large  tumulus  near   it,  has  been  added  by 

1  Continued  from  p.  518. 


Oct.  4,  1888] 


NATURE 


543 


the  Duke  of  Rutland.  Hob  Hurst's  House,  and  the  Circle  on 
Eyam  Moor,  which  also  has  a  large  cairn  close  to  it,  have  been 
included  by  the  Duke  of  Devonshire,  and  the  Nine  Ladies,  a 
circle  of  small  stones  on  Stanton  Moor,  by  Major  Thornhill. 
In    Gloucestershire,    Uleybury,    a    long    barrow    with    a    well- 


preserved  stone  chamber,  has  been  added  by  Colonel  Kingscote. 
In  Oxfordshire,  the  Rollrich  stones  have  been  included  by  Mr. 
J.  Reade.  In  Kent,  Kit's  Coty  House  by  Mr.  Brassey,  which 
is  the  remains  of  a  long  barrow,  the  traces  of  which  can  be  seen, 
with  part  of  the  stone  chamber  remaining.      In  Somerset,  th« 


ETLAND 
ISLANDS 


MONUMENTS 

UNDER 

THE   ANCIENT 

MONUMENTS  ACT, 
UP  TO  J887. 


rSILBCRY  H/LL 

^BARROW,  WESTKENNET  -KITt 

the'cwe™"™  °RE" 
sroNer  :.tm.Emi  bar.ioiv 


'  ZTONES,  WINTERBOURX- 
CREY  MARE  AND  COLTS 
CIRCLE,  KIHGSTON  RUSSELL 


Stone  Circles  at  Stanton  Drew,  by  Mrs.  S.  B.  Coates,  and  the 
Cove  there  by  Mr.  Fowler  ;  the  chambered  tumulus  at  Stoney 
Littleton  by  Lord  Hylton.  It  Wiltshire,  the  long  barrow  at 
West  Kennet  by  the  Rev.  R.  M.  Ashe,  and  Silbury  Hill  by 
Sir  John  Lubbock.     In  Dorsetshire,  the  chambered  long  barrow, 


called  the  Grey  Mare  and  Colts,  near  Gorweil,  by  Mr.  A.' 15. 
Sheridan  ;  the  circle  of  Nine  Stones  near  Bridehead  Park* by 
Mr.  R.  Williams  ;  the  Stone  Circle  on  Kingston  Russell  l-'armoby 
the  Duke  of  Bedford  ;  and  in  Wales  the  Pentre  Evan  crom- 
lech, one  of  the  largest  in  the  country,  by  Lord  Kensington— 


544 


NATURE 


\Oct.  4,  1888 


making  in  all  thirty-six  which  have  been  placed  under  the 
Act  with  the  consent  of  their  owners.  All  these  and  many 
others  have  been  surveyed  ;  plans,  drawings,  and  sections  have 
been  made  of  them,  which  are  contained  in  the  book  now  upon 
the  table,  which  is  open  for  the  inspection  of  the  members.  I 
hope  to  publish  these  shortly.  Besides  these  monuments  which 
are  included  under  the  Act,  a  good  deal  of  useful  work  has  been 
done  by  communicating  with  the  owners  of  other  monuments, 
without  using  the  Act. 

I  think  it  speaks  well  for  the  landowners  that  so  many  should 
have  been  willing  to  accept  the  Act,  considering  that  so  few  of 
them  take  much  interest  in  antiquities.  There  is  not  a  more 
public-spirited  body  in  the  world  than  the  much-abused 
landowners  of  England. 

Those  who  have  refused  have  generally  done  so  on  the  grounds 
that  they  wish  to  remain  responsible  for  their  own  monument.", 
and  I  think  I  may  say,  from  my  own  observations,  that  there  is 
very  little  damage  to  prehistoric  monuments  going  on  at  the 
present  time.  Public  opinion  has  done  more  than  any  Act  of 
Parliament  could  do,  and  it  appears  to  me  that  it  is  generally 
known  throughout  the  country  that  any  wilful  damage  to  the 
monuments  would  be  universally  condemned. 

But  it  is  well  to  consider  the  operation  of  the  Act,  and  how 
it  may  be  improved.  The  provision  which  makes  it  illegal, 
ever  after,  to  destroy  the  monuments  that  are  now  placed  under 
the  Act  by  their  owners,  and  to  enable  magistrates  to  punish 
offenders  summarily,  appears  to  me  excellent,  and  worthy  to  be 
retained.  But  there  are  defects  to  which  it  would  be  well  to 
give  attention.  By  the  present  Act,  the  Government  are  made 
responsible  for  all  the  monuments  that  are  included,  which 
entails  expense  ;  and  as  members  of  Parliament  generally  take 
very  little  interest  in  ancient  monuments,  and  the  great  object 
of  the  Government  must  always  be  to  curtail  expenditure, 
additions  to  the  list  are  not  as  a  rule  encouraged.    ■ 

I  last  year  obtained  eleven  new  monuments,  but  I  was  told 
that  this  was  too  many,  and  that  some  must  be  omitted,  so  I 
selected  three  of  the  least  important,  and  they  have  not  been 
included.  This,  1  think,  is  objectionable ;  the  two  provisions 
of  the  Act  which  I  have  mentioned  should  be  applied  as  widely 
as  possible.  If  the  provision  making  Government  responsible 
for  the  preservation  of  the  whole  of  them  is  altered,  there  will 
be  no  inducement  on  the  part  of  the  authorities  to  reduce  the 
number  to  be  included.  At  present  local  archaeologists  wash 
their  hands  of  the  matter,  thinking  that  there  is  a  Government 
Inspector  whose  business  it  is  to  look  after  the  monuments. 
This  is  a  mistake  ;  the  proper  function  of  the  Inspector  is 
simply  to  look  after  the  monuments  that  are  included,  and  to 
advise  the  Commissioners— not  to  obtain  new  monuments  for 
the  Act.  I  have  done  so  because  I  was  charged  in  a  special 
manner  with  the  organization  and  working  of  the  Act  on  its  first 
introduction,  but  it  is  beyond  the  proper  functions  of  the 
Inspector.  I  have  done  it  as  a  private  individual  who  takes  an 
interest  in  the  subject,  and  any  other  private  individual  may  do 
the  same.  Moreover,  it  is  impossible  for  an  Inspector  to  stand 
sentry  over  all  the  monuments  that  are  put  under  the  Act.  The 
police  are  requested  to  look  after  them  as  well  as  they  can,  but 
damage  must  occasionally  be  done  which  local  archaeologists 
are  in  a  better  position  to  ascertain  and  to  remedy,  using  the 
provisions  of  the  Act  for  the  purpose. 

It  may  be  that  my  position  as  a  landowner,  as  Lord  Stalbridge 
said  in  his  letter  asking  me  to  take  the  appointment,  may  have  had 
some  effect  in  enabling  me  to  persuade  some  of  the  other  land- 
owners, but  you  cannot  insure  always  having  a  landowner  for 
an  Inspector,  and  it  is  desirable  now  to  put  the  Act  on  a  working 
footing.  It  is  much  to  be  wished  that  local  Archaeological 
Societies  should  be  made  to  feel  themselves  responsible  both  for 
the  inclusion  of  monuments  under  the  Act,  and  their  preserva- 
tion afterwards  ;  the  Act  arms  them  with  full  powers  for  the 
purpose  if  they  think  proper  to  use  it. 

At  present  no  Archaeological  Society  has  rendered  any  assist- 
ance whatever,  but  Sir  Herbert  Maxwell,  in  Galloway,  has  not. 
only  offered  his  own  monuments,  he  has  persuaded  his  neigh- 
bours to  do  the  same.  What  Sir  Herbert  Maxwell  can  do, 
others  equally  public -spirited  can  do  also,  if  it  is  clearly  under- 
stood that  it  rests  wuh  them  to  take  action  in  the  matter,  and  I 
think  it  should  rest  with  them,  because,  being  local,  they  can 
do  more  than  a  single  Inspector  charged  with  the  supervision  of 
the  whole  of  the  monuments  of  Great  Britain.  I  think  that  the 
Government  should  continue  to  appropriate  a  small  sum  (it  is 
now  under  .£200  a  year)  to  apply  to  such  purposes  as  may  be 


thought  desirable,  such  as  building  sheds  to  preserve  the  monu- 
ments, but  that  they  should  not  necessarily  be  held  responsible 
for  all  the  monuments  placed  under  the  Act,  and  that,  the  Bill 
being  a  permissive  one,  it  should  rest  with  the  public  to  make 
use  of  it  or  not,  as  they  may  think  proper.  If  there  is  no  demand 
for  the  preservation  of  monuments,  there  is  no  reason  why  the 
country  should  be  saddled  with  the  expense  of  it.  If  there  is  a 
demand,  let  those  who  are  interested  use  the  law  on  the  subject 
as  they  use  any  other  to  prosecute  delinquents.  I  think,  also, 
the  provision  that  the  new  monuments  before  being  included 
should  rest  forty  days  before  Parliament  might  be  advantageously 
abolished.  The  First  Commissioner,  with  the  practical  know- 
ledge of  the  Inspector,  is  fully  competent  to  decide  upon  the 
monuments  to  be  included.  It  is  evident  that,  if  it  were  desired 
to  save  any  monument  that  might  be  threatened,  the  forty  days 
would  afford  ample  time  to  enable  the  destruction  to  be  carried 
out  before  the  Act  could  be  applied.  With  these  alterations  I 
think  the  Act  would  take  root  in  the  country  and  produce  better 
results.  Of  one  thing,  however,  I  feel  certain  :  that,  as  long  as 
the  owner  of  a  monument  takes  an  interest  in  it,  he  is  the  best 
person  that  the  public  can  look  to  for  the  preservation  of  it. 

In  conclusion  it  may  perhaps  interest  the  meeting  if  I  say  a 
few  words  upon  the  results  of  my  recent  excavations  on  the 
borders  of  Dorset  and  Wilts,  upon  which  I  have  been  at  work 
for  the  last  eight  years,  the  detailed  account  of  which  is  recorded 
in  the  two  quarto  volumes  extending  to  541  pages  and  159  plates, 
the  last  of  which  is  just  completed. 

I  have  excavated  numerous  barrows  of  the  Bronze  Age  near 
Rushmore,  about  half-way  between  Salisbury  and  Blandford. 
Winkelbury  Camp  has  been  examined  and  sections  cut  through 
the  ramparts  ;  an  Anglo-Saxon  cemetery  near  it  has  been  dug 
out,  and  two  Romano-British  villages  thoroughly  explored,  the 
positions  of  which  are  shown  on  the  map  now  exhibited  on  the 
walls,  a  reduced  facsimile  of  which  is  given  on  p.  545. 

In  recording  these  excavations  I  have  acted  on  the  principle 
that  views  upon  anthropological  subjects  are  constantly  on  the 
change,  as  our  imperfect  knowledge  of  the  early  inhabitants  of 
the  country  increases,  and  that  when  the  records  of  excavations 
are  confined  to  opinions  and  results,  it  is  probable  that  those 
facts  only  which  coincide  with  the  theories  current  at  the  time 
receive  the  prominence  they  deserve. 

The  requirements  of  the  future  demand  that  everything  should 
be  recorded  and  tabulated  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  of  easy  access 
hereafter.  I  have  therefore  established  a  system  of  relic  tables  in 
which,  without  confusing  the  text  and  making  it  unreadable,  every 
object,  however  small  and  apparently  trivial,  is  inserted,  and  the 
great  majority  of  them  are  figured  in  the  plates. 

It  would  occupy  too  much  time  to  enter  into  details  on  the 
present  occasion.  The  result  has  been  to  show  by  a  computation 
from  the  bones  of  twenty-eight  individuals,  found  buried  in  pits  in 
the  villages,  that  the  Romanized  Britons  of  this  district  were  an 
exceedingly  small  race,  having  an  average  stature  of  not  more  than 
5  feet  2 '6  inches  for  the  males,  and  4  feet  io"9  inches  for  the 
females  ;  that  the  tallest  man  was  only  5  feet  7 '8  inches,  and  he 
was  an  inch  and  a  half  taller  than  the  next  tallest  man. 

In  head  form,  the  great  majority  of  twenty-six  skeletons 
measured  were  mesaticephalic  and  mostly  coffin-shaped,  but 
three  were  hyper-dolichocephalic  and  two  brachycephalic, 
which  shows  that  the  head  form  approached  that  of  the 
Neolithic,  long-barrow  people,  with  a  probable  admixture  of 
either  Roman  or  Bronze  Age  types. 

The  stature  is  slightly  less  than  that  given  by  Thurnam  for  the 
long-barrow  people  of  this  district,  but  Dr.  Garson  informs  me 
that,  in  a  paper  which  he  will  read  at  this  meeting,  he  will  show 
that  the  height  of  the  Romano-Britains  whom  I  have  discovered 
tallies  as  nearly  as  possible  with  that  of  some  long-barrow 
bones  found  near  Devizes.  All  are,  of  course,  shorter  than  the 
skeletons  of  the  Bronze  Age,  two  of  which  I  have  found  in 
the  same  locality,  and  which  are  of  the  usual  tall  stature  and 
round-headed  types  of  that  people. 

The  Romano- Britons  are  also  considerably  shorter  than  the 
skeletons  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  found  in  the  cemetery  at 
Winkelbury,  which  are  described  in  my  second  volume. 

The  problem,  therefore,  with  respect  to  these  Romanized 
Britons  appears  to  be  this  :  Are  they  the  descendants  of  the 
long-barrow  people,  and  do  they  owe  their  small  stature  to 
that  circumstance,  or  is  their  small  size  to  be  attributed  to  their 
largest  men  having  been  drafted  away  into  the  Roman  legions 
abroad  ? 


Oct.  4,  1888] 


NATURE 


545 


Prof.  Rolleston  examined  a  number  of  skeletons  from  a 
cemetery  at  Frilford,  which  he  believed  to  be  Romanized 
Britons,  and  found  that  they  were  of  large  size,  but  in  my 
address  to  the  Royal  Archaeological  Institute  at  Salisbury,  last 
year,  I  expressed  some  doubt  about  the  period  of  these  skeletons, 
and  in  a  paper  since  published  by  Dr.  Beddoe  I  see  that  he 
rejects  the  evidence  of  their  being  Romano-  Britons  upon  the 
same  ground  that  I  had  doubted  it,  and  he  quotes  Barnard 
Davies  and  Thurnam  for  the  occurrence  of  other  skeletons  of 
these  people  of  the  same  or  nearly  the  same  stature  as  those  of 
the  villages  that  I  have  explored. 

We  are  therefore  evidently  beginning  to  accumulate  reliable 
information  about  these  people,  whose  physical  peculiarities  are 
less  known  to  us  than  any  other  prehistoric,  or  rather  non- 
historic,  race  that  has  contributed  to  the  population  of  this 
country. 

Thurnam  shewed  that  the  large-sized,  round-headed   Belga: 


probably  penetrated  no  further  westward  than  the  borders  of  the 
district  I  am  speaking  of,  and  that  the  bowl  barrows  and  the 
long  barrows  of  the  Stone  Age  predominated  to  the  westward 
of  it. 

Since  the  present  volume  of  my  excavations  was  in  print,  I 
have  quite  recently  made  another  discovery  of  considerable 
interest  bearing  upon  this  question. 

J  okerley  Dyke  is  an  ancient  intrenchment  which  cuts  across 
the  old  Roman  road  from  Old  Sarum  to  Badbury  Rings.  It  is 
an  earthwork  of  considerable  magnitude,  with  a  ditch  on  the 
north-east  side  of  it.  It  appears  to  have  originally  occupied  all 
the  open  downland  spaces  intervening  between  the  ancient 
woods,  which  latter  probably,  by  means  of  felled  trees,  afforded 
sufficient  defence  without  earthworks.  It  extends  with  its 
dependencies  and  detached  prolongations  more  or  less  all  the 
way  from  White  Sheet  Hill,  on  the  north-west,  to  Blagdon  Hill, 
on  the  southeast,  a  distance  of  about  nine  miles.    Its  origin  and 


MAP  SHEWING  THE  AREA  FORMERLY  OCCUPIED  BY  CRANBORNE  CHASE, 
WITH  THE  ANTIQUITIES  CONTAINED  IN  IT. 


SCALE    OF   MILES. 


use  have  been  frequently  discussed  by  archaeologists,  but  no  one 
lias  hitherto  assigned  a  right  date  to  it.  I  have  now  cut  two 
broad  sections  through  it  on  either  side  of  the  Roman  road, 
models  of  which  are  exhibited,  with  the  result  of  proving  that  it 
is  late  Roman,  or  post-Roman,  and  is  of  the  same  date  as  the 
villages  ;  Roman  coins,  to  the  amount  of  500,  of  late  date,  ex- 
tending to  Constantinus  and  Gratianus,  and  pottery,  having  been 
found  in  both  sections,  all  through  the  rampart,  down  to  the 
old  surface  line.  It  appears  that  the  dyke  had  been  cut  through 
ground  occupied  at  an  earlier  date  by  the  Romanized  Britons, 
and  that  in  forming  the  ditch  they  threw  up  the  refuse  from  the 
habitations  to  form  the  bank,  including  the  scattered  coins  and 
pottery.  A  human  skeleton  of  similar  character  to  those  found 
in  the  villages  was  also  discovered  beneath  the  old  surface  line 
in  one  of  the  sections,  the  old  surface  line  being  clearly  marked 
over  it,  showing  that  it  had  been  buried  there  before  the  rampart 
was  thrown  over  it.  From  this  it  appears  probable  that  this 
<lyke   was  thrown   up   to   defend  the  Romano- British   villages 


that  are  situated  to  the  westward  or  rear  of  it,  from  an  attack 
from  the  east,  and  that  this  must  in  all  probability  have  been  done 
at  the  time  when  the  Saxon  invaders  were  pressing  upon  them 
from  the  eastward. 

This  discovery  throws  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  history  of  this 
part  of  the  country  at  that  time,  and  shows  that  the  Britons  must 
have  made  a  stout  defence  against  their  Anglo-Saxon  conquerors, 
sufficient  perhaps  to  account  for  the  apparent  predominance  of 
British  blood  which  has  been  noticed  amongst  the  existing 
population  of  the  district. 

Wansdyke,  which  runs  from  a  spot  not  far  to  the  north  of  the 
Bokerley  Dyke  in  the  direction  of  Bath,  has  the  same  defensive 
attitude  as  Bokerley,  and  the  examination  of  it,  which  it 
is  proposed  to  make,  will  show  whether  or  not  it  is  of  the 
same  period. 

The  observations  of  Dr.  Beddoe  and  other  physical  anthropo- 
logists upon  the  present  population  of  the  country  show  that 
the, 'people  of  the  South- West  of  England  are,  as  a  rule,  shorter 


546 


NATURE 


[Oct.  4}  1888 


and  darker  than  those  to  the  eastward,  and  my  own  observations 
upon  the  people  of  this  particular  district  will,  when  they  are 
systematized,  tend  to  define  the  area  of  this  ethnical  frontier 
more  precisely.  It  would  be  a  remarkable  result  if  it  should 
hereafter  be  shown  that  the  physical  changes  observable  in  the 
distribution  of  the  existing  population  are  in  any  way  coincident 
with  these  lines  of  defensive  earthworks  of  the  Roman  or  post- 
Roman  age  :  and  if  it  should  be  further  shown  that  the  same 
physical  characteristics  have  persistently  belonged  to  the  people 
of  this  region  ever  since  the  time  of  the  Neolithic  folk  of  the  long 
barrows,  we  shall  find  ourselves  in  the  presence  of  anthropological 
deductions  of  some  value  in  their  bearing  on  the  history  of 
England.  1  purposely  avoid  speaking  with  confidence  upon  this 
point,  feeling  certain  that  the  necessary  evidence  for  deciding  the 
question  lies  buried  in  the  soil  of  the  district,  and  will  hereafter 
be  unearthed.  I  shall  resume  the  inquiry  as  soon  as  the  harvest, 
if  such  it  can  be  called  this  year,  is  over  ;  but  without  bias,  and 
with  a  mind  prepared  to  throw  over  any  preconceived  hypothesis 
the  moment  it  shows  itself  to  be  untenable. 


Section  A — Mathematical  and  Physical  Science. 

Members  of  the  Mathematical  and  the  Mechanical   Section 
had   a   meeting   in    the    rooms   of  Section   A    for   the   special 
purpose  of  discussing  the  question  of  lightning-conductors.    The 
chair  was  occupied  by  Prof.  G.  F.  Fitzgerald,  President  of  the 
Mathematical  and  Physical  Science  Section. 

Mr.  W.  H.  Preece,  President  of  the  Mechanical  Section, 
opened  the  discussion,  and  said  that  if  we  wanted  to  know  any- 
thing about  atmospherical  electricity,  we  had  to  go  back  to  the 
works  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  ico  years  ago.  Up  to  1870  there 
were  absolutely  no  rules  for  the  guidance  of  those  who  desired 
to  erect  lightning-conductors  for  the  protection  of  buildings.  In 
that  year  a  great  Conference  was  held  on  the  subject,  and  the 
result  of  its  deliberations  was  published  in  a  book,  and  included 
a  set  of  rules  for  the  construction  of  conductors.*  We  had  since 
had  great  experience  of  them.  He  had  under  his  supervision 
no  fewer  than  500,000  lightning-conductors.  Some  time  ago  a 
lectureship  on  atmospheric  electricity  was  founded  in  memory 
of  Dr.  Mann,  who  experimented  on  the  protection  of  buildings 
in  South  Africa.  Prof.  Oliver  J.  Lodge  was  selec.ed  as  the 
lecturer,  but,  instead  of  cracking  up  the  work  of  the  Conference, 
he  took  the  other  line,  and,  if  his  statements  were  true,  lightning- 
conductors  would  be  of  no  use,  and  no  buildings  would  be  safe 
in  a  thunderstorm.  Prof.  Lodge  had  committed  himself  to 
fallacies  which  it  was  now  his  duty  to  bring  before  the  meeting. 
The  Professor  assumed  that  a  lightning-rod  formed  part  of  the 
flash.  Well,  it  did  not.  Nobody  had  ever  seen  a  flash  of 
lightning  strike  a  conductor.  The  function  of  a  conductor  was 
to  prevent  the  possibility  of  the  building  being  struck  by  the 
flash.  If  it  should  be  struck,  there  was  some  defect  in  the 
construction  of  the  conductor.  Lightning  did  not  go  careering 
wildly  about,  but  passed  along  a  path  prepared  for  it.  There 
was  another  fallacy,  viz.  that  a  flash  of  lightning  was  instanta- 
neous. There  was  no  proof  of  that.  We  saw  a  flash  of  light, 
which  indicated  the  path  of  the  discharge,  but  how  long  the  dis- 
charge lasted  we  did  not  know.  There  were  invisible  flashes  of 
lightning,  which  was  proved  by  the  fact  that  persons  had  been 
killed  under  trees  when  there  was  no  visible  flash.  He,  however, 
came  to  that  conclusion  from  the  effect  on  telegraph-wires,  where 
there  were  currents  of  sensible  duration,  showing  that  the  flash 
was  not  instantaneous.  The  next  part  was  the  hardest  to  discuss. 
It  was  the  assertion  that  lightning  was  oscillatory  in  its  charac- 
ter ;  that  it  did  not  go  direct  from  the  cloud  to  the  earth,  but 
went  flashing  backwards  and  forwards  with  considerable  fre- 
quency. This  assertion  was  based  more  on  mathematical  reason 
than  on  absolute  observation,  and  engineers  had  no  great  respect 
for  mathematical  development  unless  it  were  confirmed  by  abso- 
lute experiment.  The  facts  against  the  theory  were  that  electro- 
magnets were  affected  for  a  considerable  duration  of  time  by 
lightning-flashes.  Iron  and  steel  were  affected,  and  he  had 
heard  letters  of  the  alphabet  signalled  along  the  telegraph-wires 
by  a  flash — the  letter  R  which  needed  three  signs,  C  which 
needed  four,  and  there  was  a  case  on  record  of  G,  which  needed 
eight  signs.  Under  those  circumstances  the  flash  could  not  be 
oscillatory  unless  the  oscillations  were  very  infrequent.  A  dis- 
charge from  condensers  or  Leyden  jars  might  be  oscillatory,  but 
they  were  dealing  with  flashes  of  lightning.  While  he  was 
attacking  Prof.  Lodge  in  that  way,  he  must  say  that  no  one  had 
worked  harder  or  more  honestly  in  the  matter.     Prof.  Lodge 


had  made  experiments,  and  they  were  correct,  from  which  he 
deduced  that  the  self-induction  of  copper  was  greater  than  that 
of  iron.  He  also  had  repeated  these  experiments,  but  his  deductions 
were  just  the  opposite.  There  was  no  doubt  the  Professor  was  on 
the  brink  of  a  discovery.  He  had  started  a  fresh  hare,  which 
electricians  must  follow  up  and  kill.  Self-induction  was  called 
up  to  explain  all  the  phenomena  which  they  did  not  understand, 
and  he  inclined  to  think  it  was  very  much  what  the  Americans 
called  a  bug.  In  the  telegraph  science  they  had  known  it  for 
many  years,  and  called  it  electro-magnetic  inertia.  The  next 
fallacy  was  that  most  conductors  did  not  protect  any  area,  but  it 
was  known  from  evidence  that  they  did.  He  preferred  to  stand 
upon  the  experience  of  the  past  rather  than  upon  Prof.  Lodge's- 
mathematical  assumptions.  There  was  a  tendency  to  hasty 
generalization  among  mathematicians,  but  there  could  be  no 
doubt  that  the  experiments  of  Prof.  Lodge  and  others  were 
opening  their  minds  to  the  true  nature  of  electricity,  and  that 
they  would  in  time  be  able  to  speak  of  the  mechanical  character 
of  electricity.  They  wanted  to  know  where  the  energy  came 
from  which  was  so  destructive  in  a  flash  of  lightning.  Aqueous 
vapour  condensed  and  falling  as  rain  at  the  rate  of  1  millimetre 
per  acre  per  hour  developed  an  energy  of  600  horse-power  per 
acre.  There  was  the  creation  of  the  energy  which  only  wanted 
further  development  to  turn  into  a  source  of  electrical  energy. 
He  felt  convinced  that  the  result  of  that  discussion  would  be  to 
establish  the  truth  of  the  position  taken  up  by  the  Lightning- 
Rod  Conference,  and  would  bring  to  the  front  what  they  were 
all  anxious  to  see,  the  true  theory  of  electricity  shadowed  forth 
by  Prof.  Fitzgerald  in  his  opening  a  1  dress,  and  that  would  make 
this  meeting  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  electricity. 

Prof.  Oliver  J.  Lodge  said  he  had  no  lightning-conductors 
under  his  supervision,  and  all  his  conclusions  were  formed  from 
experiments,  and  if  they  were  correct  very  few  buildings  were 
effectively  and  thoroughly  protected  at  the  present  time ;  and, 
further,  if  his  views  were  correct,  lightning-rods  would  in  the 
future  cost  very  much  less  than  now.  The  term  electro- magnetic 
inertia  seemed  to  imply  that  they  knew  more  than  they  did,  s-> 
he  preferred  self-induction  until  they  attained  to  knowledge. 
Mr.  Preece  said  that  no  properly-constructed  rod  ever  failed, 
but  in  the  report  to  the  Conference  there  were  a  number 
of  entire  failures  named.  He  had  made  s  >me  very  careful 
experiments  in  which  he  provided  alternative  courses  for  an 
electric  current,  and  he  found  that  it  required  less  electromotive 
force  to  send  the  current  along  a  thin  iron  wire  than  along  a 
thick  copper  one.  According  to  Mr.  Preece,  the  object  of  the 
conductor  was  to  prevent  a  flash  of  lightning,  but  rods  were 
struck  and  melted.  The  conductor  had  two  functions  to  perform 
— to  act  as  a  point  and  prevent  a  flash  if  it  could,  and  to  carry  off 
a  flash  when  it  could  not  help  receiving  one.  The  electric  charge 
had  some  energy,  and  they  could  not  hocus-pocus  it  out  of 
existence.  It  might  be  better  to  let  it  dribble  away  slowly  down 
a  bad  conductor  than  to  let  it  rush  headlong  down  a  good  one. 
The  length  of  flash  was  a  question  for  the  consideration  of 
meteorologists,  and  the  duration  of  flashes  was  a  point  on  which 
the  same  gentlemen  might  do  good  work.  He  had  seen  flashes 
which  appeared  to  last  two  or  three  seconds,  but  he  thought 
they  must  have  been  a  succession  of  flashes.  The  fact  that 
flashes  deflected  the  compass-needle  did  not  prove  that  they 
were  not  oscillatory,  nor  did  it  prove  anything  as  to  their 
duration.  A  momentary  flash  might  produce  the  same  effects. 
There  was  the  question  of  a  flash  magnetizing  a  bar  of  steel. 
An  oscillating  current  was  able  to  do  that ;  although  Prof.  Ewing 
used  an  oscillating  current  to  demagnetize  steel.  The  discharge 
of  a  Leyden  jar  caused  an  oscillating  current.  The  charging 
was  like  lifting  a  pendulum  rod  suspended  freely  at  one 
end.  When  the  jar  was  discharged  it  was  like  releasing 
the  pendulum  ;  it  must  oscillate,  and  so  must  the  electricity, 
and  its  oscillation  would  vary  in  accordance  with  the  friction 
and  other  modifying  causes.  The  greater  the  electro-magnetic 
inertia,  the  more  certainly  would  there  be  oscillation.  With 
regard  to  the  protection  of  areas,  the  area  which  Mr.  Preece 
imagined  as  protected  was  so  small  that  they  might  give  it 
him  without  discussion.  There  was,  however,  in  his  opinion 
no  sure  area  of  protection.  Mr.  Preece  might  have  pressed 
him  hard  on  the  question  of  the  conditions  of  a  flash.  He 
(the  speaker)  had  assumed  that  the  flash  behaved  as  electricity 
did  in  an  experiment.  The  cloud,  however,  was  not  like  the 
tinfoil  of  a  Leyden  jar ;  it  was  made  up  of  globules  with 
spaces  between  them,  and  a  discharge  might  be  more  like  that 
of  a  spangled  jar,  or  might  be  dribbled  away  a  bit  at  a  time,  and 


Oct.  4,  1888J 


NA  TURE 


547 


not  by  great  rushes.  But  they  could  not  assume  that  it  would 
always  do  so,  and  must  prepare  for  the  occurrence  of  a  great 
rush.  The  true  character  of  lightning  must  be  discovered  by 
observing  lightning,  and  not  by  experiments  in  a  laboratory. 
The  spark  of  one  induction-coil  at  a  considerable  distance 
would  start  another  one  sparking  merely  by  its  light.  From 
that  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  when  there  was  a  very 
bright  flash  of  lightning,  it  must  involve  very  important  con- 
sequences. There  was  no  doubt  that  it  would  cause  discharges  all 
<i\xr  the  neighbouring  area,  and  so  he  would  say  that  areas  of 
protection  were  misleading,  and  if  a  flash  had  that  effect,  they 
liad  better  be  without  it  if  possible. 

The  Hon.  Ralph  Abercromby,  who  showed  a  number  of 
photographs  of  lightning  flashes,  said  there  was  no  absolute 
evidence  in  the  photographs  of  flashes  of  lightning  following 
each  other  rapidly  on  exactly  the  same  path.  There  was,  how- 
ever, distinct  evidence  of  the  tendency  of  lightning- flashes  to 
occur  parallel  to  each  other.  There  seemed  to  be  a  tendency  in 
lightning  flashes  to  be  ramified,  to  give  off  threads  all  round  the 
main  fla^h.  Photography  gave  conclusive  evidence  that  flashes 
were  not  so  instantaneous  as  was  generally  supposed.  It 
showed  that  the  flash  did  not  always  jump  from  a  cloud  straight 
to  the  earth,  but  sometimes  went  meandering  through  the  air 
and  tying  itself  into  knots,  so  that  it  could  not  be  so  instantaneous 
as  was  imagined.  He  was  of  opinion  that  lightning-clouds  were 
generally  more  than  500  feet  high,  but  ligh'ningwas  rarely  much 
higher  than  10,000  feet  high.  By  this  he  did  not  mean  that 
lightning  might  jump  10,000  feet  from  the  cloud  to  the  earth  ; 
but  that  at  an  altitude  of  10,000  feet  on  a  mountain-side  a 
thunderstorm  was  usually  Mow  the  observer. 

Lord  Rayleigh  said  that,  although  some  mathematicians  were 
unpractical,  yet  it  was  to  mathematics  one  must  go  to  find 
the  results  of  known  causes  under  new  circumstances.  He  had 
no  special  knowledge  of  lightning-conductors,  but  from  his 
general  acquaintance  with  electricity  he  should  say  that  Prof. 
Lodge's  experiments  could  hardly  fail  to  have  a  most  important 
practical  application  to  lightning-conductors  in  the  future.  Mr. 
Preece  spoke  of  the  development  of  energy  by  the  condensation 
of  vapour  into  water,  but  the  question  was  to  find  how  some  of 
that  energy  came  to  take  the  electrical  form. 

Sir  \V.  Thomson  said  that  mathematicians  never  pre- 
dicted that  the  Atlantic  cable  could  not  be  laid,  but  a 
■celebrated  engineer  did  so.  He  thought  Prof.  Lodge  was 
in  the  American  stage  of  inertia  and  Mr.  Preece  in  the 
English  stage.  He  believed  that  if  Prof.  Lodge  proceeded 
with  his  experiments  he  would  confirm  his  discovery  that  iron 
wire  was  a  better  conductor  than  copper.  Self-induction  was 
in  the  air,  and  they  were  talking  of  nothing  else.  He  thought 
Mr.  Abercromby's  idea  as  to  the  duration  was  correct.  It 
^eemed  to  him  probable  that  it  was  the  sound  of  one  spark 
which  caused  another  rather  than  the  light.  There  was  the 
photograph  giving  three  parallel  flashes.  It  would  be  well  if 
some  experiments  could  be  made  to  discover  whether  flashes 
occurring  like  that  were  simultaneous  or  followed  one  another, 
being  started  by  the  light  or  sound  vibrations  of  the  first.  It 
was  rather  startling  to  find  that  a  lightning-rod  had  protecting 
power  over  so  small  an  area,  and  he  would  like  to  ask  Mr.  Preece 
whether  copper  had  been  experimentally  proved  to  be  better 
than  iron.  They  could  come  to  one  conclusion  from  what  they 
heard — namely,  that  houses  made  of  sheet  iron  would  be  the 
safest  possible  places  in  a  thunderstorm.  The  question  of  the 
effect  of  self-induction  on  statical  discharges  was  a  very  import- 
ant one.  He  suggested  as  a  class  experiment  the  discharge  of 
a  Leyden  jar  through  a  number  of  students  (1)  when  they  were 
arranged  in  zigzag  rows,  so  as  to  have  no  self-induction  in  the 
path  of  the  discharge  ;  and  (2)  when  they  stood  in  a  circle,  so 
that  the  self-induction  of  the  path  was  a  maximum.  The  students 
should  stand  on  insulating  material.  He  thought  the  result  of 
>uch  an  experiment  would  be  to  show  that  the  students  in  the 
middle  of  the  chain  would  feel  the  effect  of  the  discharge  far 
less  in  the  second  instance  than  in  the  first.  With  reference  to 
the  reports  as  to  the  occurrence  of  globular  lightning,  he  be- 
lieved them  to  be  much  exaggerated,  and  expressed  an  opinion 
that  the  whole  effect  might  be  a  physiological  optical  delusion. 
Reiss  experimented  some  forty  years  ago  on  the  question  of 
magnetism  by  jar  discharges,  and  found  that  the  direction  of 
superficial  magnetization  sometimes  was  the  one  to  be  expected, 
sometimes  the  opposite  one.  IIe»suggested  new  experiments  as 
to  the  influence  of  the  rate  of  oscillation  on  the  result.  The 
mest  efficient  protection  for  gunpowder  against  lightning  would 


be,  he  thought,  to  put  it  in  a  house  whose  exterior  was  entirely 
of  iron  and  to  put  no  lightning-rod  on  it. 

Prof.  Rowland  observed  that  the  conditions  of  Prof.  Lodge's 
experiments  were  scarcely  the  same  as  those  of  actual  lightning, 
and  he  pointed  out  that  the  length  of  the  spark  was  no  measure 
of  the  resistance  of  the  conductor.  Further,  he  showed  some 
effects  in  Mr.  Abercromby's  photographs  which  were  probably 
due  to  the  astigmatism  in  the  lens  of  the  camera. 

M.  de  Fonvielle,  who  spoke  in  French,  observed  that  Sir 
William  Thomson  had  said  most  eloquently  that  Mr.  Preece  was 
taking  the  English  side  of  the  question  and  Mr.  Lodge  the 
American  side,  but  he  must  say  that  Sir  William  Thomson  him- 
self had  taken  the  French  side,  and  he  had  proposed  a  revolu- 
tionary system  which  consisted  in  the  building  of  iron  houses. 
He  took  the  liberty,  though  being  a  Frenchman,  to  disagree 
with  the  great  electrician,  and  to  stand  with  Mr.  Preece  as  an 
English  conservative,  with  reference  to  lightning-conductors. 
Lord  Rayleigh  said  that  mathematicians  and  physicists  should 
unite  together,  but  he  supposed  that  Lord  Rayleigh  would  agree 
with  him  in  remarking  that  Mr.  Preece  was  realizing  that 
alliance  in  a  very  remarkable  manner,  for  on  the  one  hand  he 
dealt  with  a  large  number  of  experiments  and  observations  of 
natural  facts,  and  on  the  other  hand  he  introduced  statistics,  or 
rather  the  calculation  of  probabilities,  which  was  one  of  the 
highest  branches  of  mathematics.  The  experiments  made  in 
laboratories  were  different  from  tho^e  which  were  presented  by 
Xature  only  so  far  as  they  were  conducted  on  very  widely 
different  scales.  On  the  previous  day,  in  that  hall,  M.  Janssen 
had  proved  by  his  observations  on  the  action  of  oxygen  on  the 
composition  of  the  electric  light  that  in  many  phenomena  there 
was  a  coefficient  behind.  He  congratulated  them  on  the  aid  they 
were  now  receiving  from  photography.  He  should  advise  the 
meeting  to  delay  its  opinion  for  the  time  until  the  completion  in 
Paris  of  the  Eiffel  Tower,  whkh  would  be  the  most  extra- 
ordinary lightning-conductor  in  existence,  being  1000  feet  high. 
He  must,  moreover,  ptate  that  Paris  was  practically  free  from 
calamities  produced  by  lightning.  They  had  erected  a  sufficient 
number  of  lightning-rods,  according  to  the  principles  so  admir- 
ably advocated  by  Mr.  Preece,  and  that  was  a  strong  evidence 
that  Mr.  Preece  was  altogether  travelling  in  the  right  direction, 
quite  irrespective  of  any  mathematical  or  physical  demonstration. 

Prof.  George  Forbes  said  thai  Mr.  Preece  did  not  mean  to 
pay  that  mathematicians  came  to  wrong  conclusions  when  they 
had  all  the  right  data,  but  that  they  sometimes  came  to  a  con- 
clusion without  taking  all  the  data  into  consideration.  Prof. 
Lodge  had  come  to  say  that  if  iron  was  not  better  than  copper, 
it  was  at  least  as  good  ;  but  they  could  not  be  quite  prepared  to 
accept  that,  because  the  experiments  might  be  tried  in  instances 
more  nearly  approaching  the  natural  conditions,  and  in  that 
case  it  was  quite  possible  that  copper  would  be  found  to  be 
the  best. 

Sir  f.  Douglass  said  that  his  experience  of  lighthouses  pro- 
tected by  lightning-rods  covered  a  space  of  forty  years,  and  v.  as 
comforting  to  the  members  of  the  Lightning- Rod  Committee. 
He  never  knew  a  rod  fulfilling  the  conditions  he  prescribed  to 
fail  in  protecting  the  lighthouse  and  adjoining  buildings. 

Mr.  J.  Brown  suggested  the  use  of  a  revolving  camera  in 
taking  photographs,  in  order  to  separate  flashes,  and  thus  see  if 
each  is  single  or  not. 

Mr.  Sidney  Walker  said  that  anything  which  would  cheapen 
lightning-conductors  would  be  gladly  welcomed.  In  the  cases 
where  damage  had  occurred,  he  believed  that  the  result  was  due 
to  a  defect  in  the  conductor.  He  pointed  out  that  iron  would  not 
stand  the  weather  so  well  as  copper,  and  that,  besides,  it  would 
be  affected  by  the  gases  at  the  top  of  a  factory  or  similar  place. 

Mr.  G.  J.  Symons  said  he  had  investigated  every  accident  by 
lightning  of  which  he  could  hear,  and  had  so  got  valuable 
experience.  The  conclusion  left  on  his  mind  was  that  if  people 
would  erect  conductors  precisely  in  accordance  with  the  rales 
laid  down  by  the  Conference,1  and  fulfilling  all  the  conditions, 
they  would  be  absolutely  safe.  Where  accidents  occurred  to 
buildings  with  conductors,  there  was  a  reasonable  explanation  to 
be  found.  Prof.  Lodge's  experiments  were  laboratory  experi- 
ments, and  to  get  the  real  facts  they  must  have  something  on  a 
much  larger  scale,  perhaps  by  a  series  of  interrupted  conductors 
on  posts  on  the  tops  of  some  of  those  high  hills  where  storms 
frequently  occurred.  With  regard  to  protected  areas,  there 
were  only  two  cases  en  record,  and  those  doubtful,  of  anything 
being  struck  within  a  protected  area. 

1  Report  of  the  Lightning-Rod  Conference  (Sp.n,  1882). 


548 


NATURE 


[Oct.  4,  1888 


Dr.  Walker  said  he  saw  an  obelisk  on  top  of  a  hill  struck. 
The  top  was  knocked  off,  and  the  fluid  came  from  the  steps  of 
the  monument  at  fourteen  different  points,  ploughing  up  the 
ground,  and  breaking  rock  at  100  feet  distance. 

Mr.  Wood  thought  the  black  flash  shown  in  one  of  the 
photographs  was  due  to  the  reflection  of  one  of  the  other 
flashes. 

Lord  Rayleigh  said  Stokes  attributed  that  to  the  combination 
of  gases  in  the  path  of  the  flash  causing  an  opaque  stratum.  . 

Prof.  Lodge  said  he  could  not  understand  why  a  conductor 
should  have  such  a  good  earth.  Why  did  not  three  points  do 
at  the  bottom  as  well  as  at  the  top  ?  If  properly  constructed 
conductors  never  failed,  how  was  it  that  the  hotel  at  Brussels 
was  burnt,  for  that  was  considered  protected  in  the  most 
orthodox  way?  He  would  not  say  that  conductors  were  of  no 
use  ;  they  were  of  great  use,  but  not  absolutely  certain.  In  his 
experiment  he  was  bound  to  adopt  the  plan  he  did,  because  the 
experiments  could  not  be  done  in  any  other  way.  It  was  only 
the  outer  surface  of  the  conductor  which  conducted,  and 
there  was  no  particular  good  in  the  centre  of  a  rod.  A 
tube  would  do  as  well,  and  would  be  all  the  better  if  opened  out 
into  a  flat  bar,  and  yet  better  than  that  would  be  a  strand  of 
wires.  Iron  buildings,  to  be  safe,  must  have  perfect  connections, 
for  the  smallest  gap  might  give  off  a  spark.  That  was  the 
danger  in  houses  supplied  with  gas  ;  if  the  fluid  travelled  along 
the  pipes  and  came  to  a  gap,  a  spark  and  a  fire  might  result. 

Mr.  Preece  said  the  points  between  Prof.  Lodge  and  himself 
were  reduced  to  a  very  small  compass  indeed.  He  himself  had 
always  been  a  great  advocate  of  iron  on  account  of  its  cheapness. 
The  use  of  copper  caused  needless  expense  in  the  erection  of 
lightning-conductors.  He  believed  every  private  house  could  be 
protected  in  accordance  with  the  recommendations  of  the  Con- 
ference for  £1,  if  people  would  buy  a  coil  of  stranded  iron  wire 
a  quarter  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  with  the  finial  points,  and  have 
that  put  up. 

The  President  summed  up  the  discussion,  and  said  the 
principal  thing  for  them  to  pay  attention  to  was  that  prevention 
was  better  than  cure.  There  could  be  very  little  doubt  that  the 
presence  of  a  considerable  number  of  conductors  afforded  a  great 
deal  of  protection  to  the  area  in  which  it  existed,  as  was  shown 
in  the  instance  of  Paris.  It  was  desirable,  if  possible,  that  the 
whole  country  should  be  overed  with  conductors  to  prevent  the 
discharge  of  flashes.  There  was  no  doubt  that,  though  there 
might  be  room  for  improvement  in  the  conductors,  they  had  on 
the  whole  been  right. 


THE    INTERNATIONAL    GEOLOGICAL 
CONGRESS.1 

II. 

T  N  order  to  understand  the  present  status  of  the  Con- 
■*■  gress,  and  to  forecast  its  probable  future,  we  must 
briefly  note  the  work  done  at  the  two  preceding  meetings, 
and  compare  that  with  the  general  results  of  the  meeting 
just  closed.  At  Bologna  the  greater  part  of  the  time  was 
occupied  with  discussions  upon  the  exact  meanings  to  be 
attached  to  various  geological  terms,  and  upon  the  general 
principles  which  should  guide  us  in  geological  classifica- 
tion. Certain  rules  were  then  laid  down,  which  probably 
few  authors  have  consistently  followed,  and  which  it  is 
unlikely  will  be  universally  adopted.  At  Berlin  the  dis- 
cussions turned  more  upon  precise  questions  of  classifica- 
tion, especially  those  relating  to  the  sedimentary  rocks  ; 
upon  the  lines  by  which  various  groups  of  strata  should 
be  marked  off ;  and,  in  some  cases,  upon  the  names  by 
which  these  groups  should  be  known.  This  change  of 
procedure  was  necessitated  by  the  progress  made  with 
the  international  geological  map  of  Europe;  the  material 
for  such  discussion  on  classification  having  been  provided 
in  the  shape  of  Reports  from  various  national  Committees, 
of  which  that  from  England,  presented  by  Prof.  Hughes, 
was  by  far  the  most  complete. 

At  the  London  meeting  the  classification  of  the  Cambrian 
and  Silurian  strata  was  fully  discussed  ;  and  two  other 
questions,  only  lightly  touched  upon  before,  were  here 

1  Continued  from  p.  526. 


considered  in  some  detail— the  nature  and  origin  of  the 
crystalline  schists,  and  the  upper  limit  of  the  Tertiary 
system. 

In  Bologna  numerous  votes  were  taken, in  Berlin  several, 
but  in  London  none  The  English  geologists  were  in  a 
majority  sufficiently  large  to  carry  any  point  upon  which 
they  were  fairly  well  agreed,  but  no  attempt  was  made  to 
test  this  ;  and  Prof,  de  Lapparent,  in  presenting  a  Report 
from  the  Committee  appointed  by  the  Council  to  con- 
sider the  question  of  voting,  paid  a  generous  tribute  to  the 
English  members  for  their  self-restraint.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  adoption  of  this  Report  marks  an 
important  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  Congress,  and 
that  resolutions  hereafter  voted  will  carry  more  weight 
than  those  which  at  present  stand  on  its  records.  It 
recommended  that  members  of  the  country  in  which  the 
Congress  meets  should  vote  separately  from  the  foreign 
geologists  :  if  the  votes  of  the  two  groups  agree,  the  ques- 
tion will  betaken  as  settled  ;  if  they  disagree,  the  further 
consideration  of  the  question  will  be  postponed.  The 
resolution  further  recommended  that  votes  should  not  be 
taken  on  questions  which  are  purely  theoretical — such 
questions  to  be  simply  discussed,  and  various  views  ob- 
tained ;  and  that  decisions  of  the  Congress  should  only 
refer  to  the  more  practical  questions. 

Two  Commissions  of  the  Congress  have  existed  since 
the  Bologna  meeting — that  on  the  Map  of  Europe,  and 
that  on  Nomenclature  and  Classification.  The  work  ot 
the  former  is  plainly  marked  out,  and  much  has  yet 
to  be  done.  The  other  Commission  has,  however, 
in  many  respects  served  its  purpose  :  it  has  obtained 
Reports  from  the  various  national  Committers,  most 
of  which  have  been  ably  summarized  by  Prof.  Dewalque. 
The  future  work  of  the  Congress  will  partly  lie  in 
discussing  these  Reports,  and  in  deciding  such  questions 
in  general  classification  as  may  apply  to  wide  dis- 
tricts, leaving  minor  points  to  be  worked  out  by  each 
country  for  itself.  A  Commission  was  therefore  appointed 
with  altered  and  somewhat  wider  powers  ;  its  functions 
will  more  fully  shape  themselves  at  the  Congress  in 
Philadelphia.  As  the  future  progress  of  the  Geological 
Congress  lies  so  much  in  the  hands  of  this  Commission, 
it  may  be  desirable  to  record  here  the  names  of  its  mem- 
bers, which  are  to  some  extent  the  same  as  those  already 
given  (p.  519)  for  the  Council  of  the  London  meeting, 
but  there  are  some  additions  and  changes: — Germany, 
Zittel  ;  Australia,  Liversidge ;  Austria,  Neumayr ;  Belgium, 
Dewalque ;  Bulgaria,  Zlatoski  ;  Canada,  R.  Bell ;  Den- 
mark, Johnstrup  ;  Spain,  Vilanova  ;  United  States,  Hall  ; 
France,  de  Lapparent  ;  Great  Britain,  Hughes  ;  Hungary, 
Szabd  ;  India,  Blanford  ;  Italy,  Capellini  ;  Mexico,  Cas- 
tillo;  Norway,  Kjerulf;  Netherlands,  Calker  ;  Portugal, 
Delgado  ;  Argentine  Republic,  Brackenbusch  ;  Roumaniar 
Stefanescu  ;  Russia,  Inostranzeff ;  Sweden,  Torell ;  Swit- 
zerland, Renevier.  Prof.  Capellini  was  elected  President 
of  the  Commission  ;  and  Prof.  Dewalque,  Secretary. 

The  Report  upon  the  Map  of  Europe  was  presented  to 
the  Congress  by  Dr.  W.  Haucbecorne.  This  stated  the  pro- 
gress which  is  being  made.  Four  or  five  sheets  of  Central 
Europe  will  be  ready  for  publication  during  the  next  two 
years,  and  it  has  been  decided  to  publish  the  sheets  as 
completed,  each  with  its  own  title  and  index,  instead  of 
waiting  for  the  completion  of  the  whole  of  Europe,  as 
was  at  first  intended.  A  proof  sheet  (C  iv.),  containing 
a  large  part  of  Northern  Germany,  was  exhibited  ;  on 
this  there  are  twenty-four  different  tints  for  the  sediment- 
ary formations,  three  for  the  Archaean,  and  nine  for  the 
eruptive  rocks.  The  map  is  on  the  scale  of  1  :  1,500,000, 
and  will  consist  of  forty-nine  sheets.  One  colour  is  taken 
for  each  great  group — Cretaceous,  green  ;  Jurassic,  blue  -r 
&c.  The  subdivisions  are  shown  by  various  modifica- 
tions of  these  colours.  As  a  rule,  the  lower  subdivisions 
are  shown  by  the  darker  tints,  so  that  the  map  may  be 
read  with  more  facility  than  is  usually  the  case  with  geo- 


Oct.  4,  1888] 


NATURE 


549 


logical  maps.  The  map  of  the  British  Isles  was  handed 
in  for  publication  at  the  closing  meeting.  Very  little  time 
was  given  to  the  map  in  the  public  sessions  of  the  Congress, 
but  the  Map  Commission  had  three  long  sittings,  the  results 
of  which  will  be  printed  in  the  official  Report.  The  most 
important  points  arrived  at  were  the  adoption  of  the  term 
Pleistocene  for  the  index  of  the  map  (the  German  term 
"  guar tar"  to  be  bracketed  with  this)  ;  the  separation  of 
the  modern  deposits  from  the  Pleistocene,  and  the  map- 
ping of  the  latter  wherever  practicable,  the  underlying 
formations  (where  known)  to  be  distinguished  by  coloured 
lines;  in  modern  eruptive  rocks  (those  of  volcanoes  now 
active  or  only  recently  extinct)  the  stratified  volcanic  tuffs 
are  to  be  distinguished  from  the  cinders  and  the  scoriae. 

M.  Karpinski  has  been  the  representative  of  Russia  on 
the  -Map  Commission.  On  thisoccasion  he  was  not  present, 
his  place  being  taken  by  MM.  Nikitin  and  Tschernicheff. 
The  latter  submitted  an  important  note  on  the  crystalline 
schists  of  the  Ural  Mountains,  which  would  have 
enlivened  the  discussion  upon  this  question  in  the  public 
meetings  of  the  Congress.  He  states  that  the  crystalline 
schists  of  the  Urals  contain  limestones  with  a  distinct 
hercynian  fauna,  and  also  that  the  schists  pass  horizon- 
tally into  Devonian  strata.  It  is  probable  that  in  cases 
of  this  kind  (and  similar  cases  elsewhere  were  referred  to 
in  the  public  discussion)  the  schists  will  be  represented  by 
the  colour  denoting  their  presumed  age,  whilst  their 
present  lithological  character  will  be  denoted  by  coloured 
lines.  Iff.  Nikitin  raised  a  point  which  is  important  in 
many  parts  of  Europe,  but  which  is  especially  so  in 
Russia — that  is,  the  necessity  of  distinguishing  transition- 
beds.  He  instanced  the  Volgian  beds,  which  link  the 
Jurassic  with  the  Cretaceous  ;  the  Tartarian,  between  the 
Permian  and  the  Trias  ;  and  others,  spoken  of  by  M. 
Nikitin  as  Permo-Carboniferous,  which  link  the  Permian 
to  the  Carboniferous.  These  transition-beds  occupy 
immense  areas  in  Russia,  and  cannot  well  be  fitted  into 
the  existing  classification. 

The  discussion  on  the  crystalline  schists  occupied  the 
whole  of  the  sitting  on  Wednesday,  and  part  of  that  on 
Friday.  The  material  for  this  discussion  had  been  pro- 
vided by  a  collection  of  papers  printed  in  advance  and 
distributed  at  the  opening.  Translations  from  parts  of 
this  polyglot  pamphlet  have  now  appeared  in  Nature. 
Essays  in  English  were  also  contributed  by  five  officers  of 
the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  with  an  introduction 
by  Major  Powell  ;  and  by  Mr.  Lawson,  of  the  Geological 
Survey  of  Canada.  One  by  Reusch,  on  Norway,  also  in 
English,  was  received  too  late  for  printing  in  the  pamphlet, 
but  it  will  appear  in  the  full  Report  of  the  Congress. 

This  discussion  derived  additional  value  from  the  fine 
collection  of  rocks,  maps,  lectures,  &c,  illustrating  this 
particular  subject  close  at  hand  in  the  temporary  Museum. 
The  Geological  Survey  exhibited  a  large  collection  of 
rocks,  maps,  sections,  &c,  illustrating  the  North- West,  the 
Central,  and  the  Southern  Highlands  of  Scotland  ;  im- 
portant collections  of  British  rocks  were  also  exhibited  by 
Bonney,  Blake,  Hicks,  Callaway,  Cole,  Hatch,  Rutley, 
Wunsch,  and  others;  foreign  rocks  were,  exhibited  by 
Bell  from  Canada,  Delgado  from  Portugal,  Torell  from 
Sweden,  Reusch  from  Norway,  Giordano  and  Mattirolo 
from  Italy  ;  whilst  maps,  drawings,  models,  &c,  illus- 
trating the  discussion,  were  exhibited  by  Teall,  Baltzer, 
Cadell,  Ricketts,  Lapworth,  and  others.  Spe:ial  mention 
should  be  m  ide  of  the  spknlid  <o  lection  exhibited  by 
Heim,  illustrating  the  deformation,  crushing,  &c,  which 
the  rocks  of  the  Alps  have  undergone.  All  these  ex- 
hibits are  described  in  the  Catalogue  (54  pages  with 
supplement  of  4  pages).  Several  members  of  the  Con- 
gress assisted  in  the  arrangement  of  this  Museum,  but  its 
success  was  chiefly  due  to  the  labours  of  Dr.  Hinde,  Mr. 
Teall,  and  Mr.  Rudler. 

In  the  foregoing  notes  we  have  not  attempted  to 
summarize    the   discussions.     These    were    reported    at 


some  length  in  the  Times  and  in  other  papers.  We  have 
preferred  to  devote  the  space  at  our  disposal  to  a  general 
survey  of  the  meeting,  and  to  note  some  points  of  im- 
portance which  could  not  well  be  included  in  a  formal 
report  of  daily  proceedings.  As  already  stated,  the  dis- 
cussions may  by  some  be  held  to  have  led  to  no  definite 
result,  inasmuch  as  no  vote  was  taken  and  therefore  no 
formal  decision  of  the  Congress  can  in  future  be  appealed 
to.  But  the  great  value  of  such  meetings  lies  in  the 
opportunity  afforded  for  personal  discussion  and  the  inter- 
change of  opinions,  not  only  in  the  public  sessions,  but  in 
the  more  easy  and  informal  conversations  over  the  exhibits 
in  the  Museum,  in  the  corridors  and  reading-room,  and 
at  the  friendly  and  social  gatherings  which  made  so 
pleasant  a  feature  of  the  London  meeting.  We  have  no 
doubt  that  the  general  result  of  this  meeting  on  geological 
opinion  and  progress  will  be  at  least  as  good  as  that  of 
any  which  has  gone  before. 

The  London  Congress  was  particularly  fortunate  in  its 
place  of  meeting.  Within  the  walls  of  the  University  of 
London  there  was  ample  accommodation  for  all  the  re- 
quirements of  the  Congress,  whilst  close  at  hand  were  the 
Jermyn  Street  Museum  and  the  rooms  of  the  Geological 
Society.  Unfortunately  the  Honorary  President,  Prof. 
Huxley,  was  kept  away  by  ill-health  ;  Prof.  Hughes,  who 
has  done  so  much  for  the  Congress  in  England,  was  also 
unable  to  attend.  The  early  death  of  M.  Fontannes,  who 
has  so  ably  reported  the  proceedings  of  previous  meetings, 
is  a  great  loss  to  the  Congress,  and  many  fears  were  ex- 
pressed that  his  place  could  not  be  adequately  filled  ;  but 
the  labours  of  Messrs.  Hulke  and  Foster  in  the  Council, and 
of  Barrois  and  Renard  at  the  meetings,  resulted  in  fuller 
reports  than  have  appeared  of  any  previous  Congress. 


REMARKS  ON  SOME  OF  THE  MORE  RECENT 
PUBLICATIONS  DEALING  WITH  THE 
CRYSTALLINE  SCHISTS.1 

TN  acceding  to  the  invitation  of  the  Geological  Congress  to 
-^  contribute  to  the  discussion  of  the  crystalline  schists,  the 
author  expresses  his  regret  that  his  time  has  not  allowed  him  to 
throw  new  light  by  fresh  observation  on  the  points  of  con- 
troversy. Other  labours  have  for  a  long  time  completely 
occupied  him  ;  so  that  he  has  only  been  able  to  occasionally 
assist  with  advice  a  younger  fellow-worker,  Herr  Emil  Danzig, 
of  Rochlitz,  in  his  researches  on  the  Saxon  granulites.  This 
work,  which  has  but  recently  been  brought  to  a  close,  and  has 
been  placed  at  the  disposition  of  the  members  of  the  Congress, 
is  recommended  to  the  notice  of  those  fellow-workers  who  are 
interested  in  these  matters,  for  in  it  the  granulite  question  has 
been  completely  treated  and  advanced  another  stage. 

Prof.  Lehmann  still  takes  his  stand  on  the  results  furnished 
him  four  years  ago  by  his  investigations  on  the  old  crystalline 
schists. 

The,  on  the  whole,  favourable  reception  of  those  investiga- 
tions assuredly  indicates  that  the  right  path  has  been  struck,  and 
that  an  extension  of  our  views  on  the  crystalline  schists  has 
resulted  from  them.  This  is  also  proved  by  the  fact  that  these 
views  have  also  been  successfully  applied  in  other  places.  That 
in  many  cases  the  opinions  advocated  by  the  author  have  not 
been  rendered  quite  correctly,  cannot  excite  surprise.  Such 
misconceptions  were  scarcely  to  be  avoided. 

Prof.  Lehmann  strenuously  opposes  the  notion  that  his 
generalizations  were  made  without  due  consideration,  and  draws 
attention  to  certain  criticisms  to  which  his  work  has  been  recently 
subjected. 

As  is  well  known,  the  controversy  on  the  Saxon  granulites 
turns  on  the  question,  whether  their  plainly  developed  parallel 
structure  is  to  be  regarded  as  true  bedding  in  the  sense  of  sedi- 
mentary deposition,  or  as.  of  eruptive  or  plutonic  origin.  The 
same  questions  arise  in  the  discussion  of  all  other  districts  in 
which  crystalline  schists  occur ;  the  solution,  however,  will  by 
no  means  always  be  the  same.     It  is  beyond  doubt  that  a  whole 

•  "  Bemerkungen  zu  einigen  neueren  Arbeiten  iiher  Krystallinisch- 
schiefrige  Gesteine,"  by  Prof.  J.  Lehmann.  Published  by  the  International 
Geological  Congress,  London,  188S.  (Abstracted  from  the  German  by  Dr. 
F.  H.  Hatch.) 


55o 


NATURE 


[Oct.  4,  1888 


series  of  crystalline  schists  are  of  sedimentary  origin,  and  it  is  a 
matter  to  be  decided  by  detailed  investigation  which  are  to  be 
considered  as  sedimentary  and  which  as  eruptive  or  plutonic. 
The  results  obtained  by  the  author  in  the  investigation  of  the 
Saxon  "  Granulitgebirge"  and  some  adjacent  districts  do  not 
therefore  claim  universal  application. 

The  tentative  interpretations  given  by  him  were  arrived  at  by 
the  close  obcervation  of  the  field-relations  of  the  rocks  in  question 
during  a  geological  survey  extending  over  several  years  ;  and  it 
■can  now  only  be  a  question  in  how  far  the  interpretation,  which 
has  been  recognized  with  certainty  as  correct  fcr  a  series  of 
phenomena,  can  be  applied  to  other  phenomena  intimately 
related  to  them.  The  author  admits  that  here  and  there  he  has 
gone  somewhat  too  far  in  his  tentative  interpretation.  It  was 
scarcely  possible,  in  so  difficult  a  question  as  the  '*  granulite 
question,  '  which  to-day  has  not  yet  reached  its  final  limits,  to 
go  just  so  far  that  later  experience  should  find  nothing  to  modify. 
But  the  description  of  the  author's  work  by  J.  Roth  (in  a  paper 
on  "Zobtenite,"  read  before  the  Berlin  Akademie  der  Wissen- 
'  schaften  on  June  23  of  last  year)  as  "  a  marvellous  agglomeration 
of  the  most  daring  hypotheses  "  is  scarcely  justifiable. 

In  Prof.  Lehmann's  investigations  on  the  crystalline  schists  it 
has,  for  the  first  time,  been  shown  in  the  greatest  detail  that  their 
present  condition  cannot  be  original,  but  must  be  one  that  has 
been  influenced  by  the  dynamic  processes  accompanying  mountain- 
building.  He  is  far  from  maintaining,  however,  that  similar 
observations  had  not  already  been  made ;  and  he  readily 
acknowledges  that  eminent  investigators  of  the  crystalline 
schists,  such  as  Kjerulf  and  Michel- Levy,  had,  at  a  much 
earlier  period,  made  such  observations.  What  is  new  is  the 
mode  and  method  in  which  the  author  utilizes  his  observations. 
Researches  of  this  kind  were  sunk  into  oblivion  :  the  theory  of 
the  sedimentary  origin  of  the  crystalline  schists  had  become  the 
ruling  dogma  ;  and  the  Eozoon  canadense  had  also  made  its 
appearance  in  Europe. 

Roth,  in  the  paper  referred  to,  maintains  his  old  position, 
according  to  which  the  crystalline  schists,  including  the  phyllites, 
are  plutonic  and  unaltered  formations. 

The  evidence  advanced  by  him  to  prove  that  the  stratiform 
gabbros,  which  he  terms  zobtenite,  cannot  be  numbered  with 
the  eruptive  rocks  is  insufficient.  The  occasional  observation  of 
conformable  relations  with  other  crystalline  schists  is  inadequate. 
This  does  not,  however,  hinder  Roth  from  regarding  it  as  proved 
that  the  Zobten  rock  cannot  be  eruptive.  The  isolated  patches 
of  the  old  rocks  that  crop  out  in  Silesia  are  unfortunately 
extremely  confused.  The  stratigraphical  relations  of  these  rocks, 
which  are  very  highly  metamorphosed,  cannot  be  utilized  to 
support  either  view,  and  no  hope  is  to  be  entertained  of  more 
favourable  exposures  in  the  future. 

Prof.  Lehmann's  views  on  the  Saxon  granulites  have,  in  the 
main,  been  confirmed  by  the  before-mentioned  work  of  Herr  E. 
Danzig.  This  work  again  shows  how  confused  are  the  field - 
relations  in  the  granulite-district,  and  that  few  exposures  permit 
of  an  indisputable  solution. 

In  the  northern  half  of  the  Saxon  district  the  granulite  assumes 
a  granular  structure,  and  acquires  a  marked  similarity  «o  some 
"  bedded"  granites.  These  points  have  received  especial  atten- 
tion from  Herr  E.  Danzig.  He  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  in 
many  places  no  sharp  line  can  be  drawn  between  granulite  and 
granite  ;  further,  that  rocks,  which  belong  undoubtedly  to  the 
granulites,  present,  like  the  granitic  gneisses  occurring  in  the 
granulite-complex and interbedded  with  mica-schists,  thecharacter 
of  eruptive  masses.  They  contain  included  fragments,  and  im- 
pregnate these  as  well  as  their  immediate  neighbourhood.  The 
supposition  formulated  by  Prof.  Lehmann  at  the  close  of  his 
researches  in  this  district  is  thus  confirmed — namely,  that  the 
Saxon  granulite  is  a  granite  massif,  which  has  been  influenced  in 
structure  and  composition  by  dynamic  metamorphism. 

This  confirmation  of  his  work  induces  the  author  to  explain 
why  he  cannot  accept  the  views  advocated  by  E.  Reyer  in  his 
newly-published  work  on  "Theoretical  Geology."  Reyer  holds 
the  Saxon  granulite- waj«/ for  "a  mass,  of  eruptive  granite 
(Massencrguss),  mantled  over  by  '  tuffogenic  '  sediments 
{granulite),  through  which  granite  dykes  a*-e  extruded  from 
the  central  mass ;  while  granite  sheets  (Flankencrgiisse)  are 
intercalated  between  its  beds."  Reyer  might  have  gathered 
from  the  author's  work  that  the  Saxon  granulites  are,  in  the 
main,  by  no  means  highly  metamorphosed  :  on  the  contrary, 
they  deviate  very  little,  in  part  not  at  all,  from  the  original 
structure  of  eruptive  granite  rocks. 


But  apart  from  this,  and  without  dwelling  on  the  fact  that  we 
know  absolutely  nothing  of  the  rocks  underlying  the  Saxon 
granulites,  the  supposition  that  the  alternation  of  mica-schists 
with  granulite  or  granitic  gneisses  has  been  produced  by  an 
accumulation  of  successive  lateral  eruptions  {Flankenergiisse)  and 
precipitated  sediments,  cannot  hold  good. 

The  theoretical  considerations  of  Reyer,  the  utility  of  which 
is  gladly  recognized  by  the  author,  and  which  in  many  cases 
can  be  supported  by  direct  observation,  must  not  be  allowed  to 
prejudice  our  judgment.  The  actual  facts  must  first  be  estab- 
lished, and  in  so  doing  we  do  not  encounter  the  streaky  and 
platy  structures  which  characterize  the  direction  of  movement  in 
magmas.  We  see,  in  truth,  something  quite  different.  The 
"bedded"  granite  presents  no  zones  of  consolidation  that 
follow  closely  the  surrounding  slates  ;  we  see  rather  an  extra- 
ordinarily uniform  mass  of  granite  at  first  traversing,  in  a  dyke- 
like manner,  the  slates,  but  afterwards  insinuating  itself  between 
them,  in  both  cases  enclosing  fragments  of  the  t raver.-  ed  rock. 
Where  the  granite  was  intruded  as  a  dyke  these  fragments  lie 
without  order,  but  where  it  forms  a  sheet  the  flat  pieces  are, 
almost  without  exception,  arranged  parallel  to  the  walls  of  the 
dyke.  We  are  accustomed  to  regard  granite,  occurring  as  a  dyke, 
as  younger  than  the  rock  in  which  was  formed  the  crack  along 
which  the  molten  rock  ascended,  without  wishing  to  deny  that 
it  has  existed,  from  the  very  beginning,  deeply  hidden  in  the 
bowels  of  the  earth,  and  is  therefore,  in  reality,  older  than  the 
slates  it  traverses.  But  it  has  become  customary  to  observe 
the  convention  ;  indeed,  it  is  necessary  to  do  so  if  we  do  not 
wish  to  be  involved  in  universal  chaos. 

For  the  "bedded"  granite  it  is  no  simple  matter  to  prove 
that  it  is  younger  than  its  hanging  wall.  Attentive  examinaiion 
shows  that  the  apparently  conformable  boundary  has  no  such 
very  conformable  course  ;  that,  further,  the  apparently  sedi- 
mentary beds  are  sometimes  distinctly  detached,  and  turn  out  to 
be  loose  masses  ;  finally,  a  whole  series  of  detailed  phenomena 
show  that  wherever  there  have  been  dislocations,  the  granite  has 
followed  the  opening  and  has  impregnated  the  slates.  How  far 
such  an  impregnation  can  be  assumed  to  have  taken  place  is  a 
matter  for  personal  experience. 

In  the  granite  dykes  the  inclusions  and  the  boundary  surfaces 
of  the  slates  present  exactly  the  same  phenomena  ;  only  in  this 
case  the  fragments  do  not  all  present  a  parallel  arrangement. 

One  would  be  driven  to  deny  the  possibility  of  strata  or  slate- 
masses  being  split  parallel  to  their  stratification  or  their  bedding, 
if  we  were  to  deny  that  the  "bedded"  granites  do  not  as  much 
constitute  a  case  of  intrusion  along  cracks  as  do  the  obliquely- 
running  granite  dykes.  Why  should  there  not  be,  among  such  a 
number  of  granite  dykes  that  run  unconformably,  some  that  have 
been  formed  by  the  in-filling  of  cracks  (of  seldom  more  than 
400  metres  width)  that  follow  the  divisional  planes  of  strati- 
fication or  cleavage  ?  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  these  were 
cavities,  the  wide  sweeping  arches  of  which  were  supported  by 
the  rigidity  of  the  lateral  rock-masses  :  as  fast  as  the  slates  were 
separated  the  granite  forced  in  its  way,  and  filled  up  the  crack 
as  soon  as  it  was  developed. 

This  separation  along  parallel  divisional  planes  and  intimate 
impregnation  with  eruptive  material,  which  can  be  followed  in 
the  minutest  details  with  the  greatest  clearness,  arouse  the  ques- 
tion as  to  whether  the  same  phenomena  have  assumed  greater 
dimensions— dimensions  that  would  still  be  trivial  in  comparison 
with  the  masses  erupted.  The  author  has  described  several 
exposures  in  the  Saxon  granulite  district  that  render  any  other 
interpretation  impossible. 

Kjerulf,  Michel- Levy,  and  others  have  described  very  similar 
relations  among  eruptive  masses.  Michel-  Levy  has  quite  recently 
given  expression  to  his  opinions  in  a"  Note  sur  l'origine  des 
terrains  cristallins  primitifs,"  and  in  a  "  Note  sur  les  roches 
eruptives  et  cristallines  des  montagnes  du  Lyonnais."  His 
statement  to  the  effect  that  the  audior  and  a  portion  of  the 
German  school  assume  a  development  of  heat  by  the  plication  of 
the  earth's  crust  is,  so  far  as  the  author  is  concerned,  incorrect. 
On  the  contrary,  he  has  shown  that  a  c  nvn-sion  of  motion 
into  heat  has  left  ro  visible  traces.  He  is  quite  at  one  with 
the  French  investigator  as  to  the  origin  of  the  heat  in  the  earth's  J 
crust. 

The  chief  requisite  in  the  discussion  of  the  crystalline  schists,  | 
is  never  to  leave  the  solid  ground  of  facts,  and  to  pay  particular 
attention  to  the  collecting  of  these.     If  the  statements  of  some 
authors  are  examined,  it  must  awake  astonishment  to  see  with 
what  positiveness  statements  are  made,  which,  although  of  the  j 


Oct.  4,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


55* 


greatest  importance  for  the  proper  judgment  of  thti  genesis  of 
rocks,  do  not  correspond  in  the  least  to  the  facts,  and  by  a  little 
attention  might  easily  have  been  avoided.  The  author  has 
already  had  occasion  to  disprove  the  non-occurrence  of  frag- 
ments of  clay-slate  in  the  phyllite-gneiss  of  Goldkronach  in  the 
Fichtelgebirge,  as  maintained  by  Giimbel.  A  few  hours'  search 
sufficed  to  collect  the  clearest  examples  of  abruptly  fractured 
and  injected  enclosures  From  this  occurrence  Giimbel  drew 
widely  generalized  conclusions.  Whether  it  is  enclosed  frag- 
ments or  concretions  that  are  contained  by  a  rock,  is  assuredly  of 
the  greatest  importance  for  its  proper  explication. 

The  author  then  refers  to  the  Ober-Mittweida  conglomerate. 
Roth  has  described  the  pebble-like  fragments  enclosed  in  this 
rock,  as  concretions.  The  author  cannot  agree  with  him  in  this 
determination,  and  gives  his  reasons,  which  are  mainly  based  on 
petrographical  considerations,  why  he  does  not  do  so. 

It  will  hardly  be  denied  that  dynamic  processes  involved  in 
mountain-building,  be  the  latter  referred  to  whatever  cause  one 
wdl,  have  not  only  not  been  without  influence  on  the  structure 
of  the  ricks  already  in  existence,  but  have  also  considerably 
influenced  the  distribution  and  the  intrusion  of  the  eruptive 
mas  es.  The  observations  which  the  author  has  published 
on  the  gabbros  of  the  Saxon  granulite  district,  on  banded 
granulites,  on  the  conglomerates  of  the  Saxon  Erzgebirge  that 
have  been  metamorphosed  to  mica-schists,  and  on  Bavarian 
"  Pfahlschiefer,"  have  not  been  refuted,  although  their  re- 
examination would  not  have  been  attended  by  any  especial 
difficulties. 

The  author  then  concludes  by  expressing  the  wish,  that,  in  the 
further  study  of  the  crystalline  schists,  metamorphosed  sedi- 
ments, which  can,  it  is  true,  be  altered  to  true  mica-schists,  but 
never  to  true  gneisses  of  uniform  structure,  should  be  kept  dis- 
tinct from  those  mica-schists  of  which  we  do  not  know  the 
origin,  and  from  the  true  granitic  gneisses.  If  this  be  not  done, 
the  false  conclusion  is  inevitable  that  sediments  pass  through 
mica-schists  into  gneisses.  Metamorphosed,  gneiss  like  sedi- 
ments, in  which  allothigenic  minerals  like  feldspar  are  associated 
with  authigenic  quartz  and  mica,  and  which  are,  to  the  author's 
mind  incorrectly,  often  designated  gneiss,  should  be  described 
as  gneissose  greywacke,  or  as  gneiss-greywacke.  Some  such 
divisional  line  must  be  drawn  if  we  are  to  obtain  any  enlighten- 
ment on  the  structure  and  origin  of  districts  composed  of  crystal- 
line schists  and  massive  rocks.  Dubious  schists  should  be 
represented  by  a  neutral  colour,  and  not  lumped  in  with  the 
gneisses.  The  designation  gneiss  is  meaningless  as  long  as 
the  most  diversified  crystalline  and  semi-crystalline  schists  are 
included  under  it. 

Gneisses,  to  the  author's  mind,  are  granites  possessing  a 
parallel  structure,  which  is  partly  original,  partly  the  result  of 
a  more  or  less  intense  pressure  during,  or  subsequent  to,  consoli- 
dation. Whatever  else  may  be  said,  gneisses  and  granites  are 
things  that  belong  to  the  same  category,  and  the  author  cannot 
reconcile  himself  to  their  separation,  with  respect  to  origin. 

It  cannot  be  natural  to  arrange  in  separate  penological 
categories  eruptive  granites  and  non-eruptive  granites  (gneisses), 
eruptive  diorites  and  non-eruptive  diorites,  eruptive  gabbros  and 
non-eruptive  gabbros,  and  to  treat  them  from  distinct  points  of 
view.  Plutonic  rocks  do  not  differ  from  the  similarly  com- 
posed eruptive  rocks,  because  they  have  not  left  the  place  in 
which  they  were  formed. 

How  the  origin  of  the  plutonic  rocks  is  to  be  conceived — 
whether  as  the  primordial  terrestrial  crust,  or  as  produced  by 
the  melting  down  or  diagenesis  of  sediments,  the  latter  supposi- 
tion involving  logically  a  similar  origin  for  a  part,  at  least,  of 
the  eruptive  rocks — are  questions  of  which  the  answers  are  at 
present  less  pressing,  and  which,  with  certitude,  we  shali  probably 
never  solve. 


THE  STRATIGRAPH1CAL  SUCCESSION  OF 
THE  CAMBRIAN  FAUNAS  IN  NORTH 
AMERICA.1 

J\     REVIEW  of  the  opinion  of  American   geologists   on  the 

succession  of  the  Cambrian    faunas  shows  that  all  have 

followed  the  scheme  published  by  Sir  William  Logan  in   1855 

*  Abstract  of  remarks  made  by  Chas.   B.  Walcott,  of  the  United  States 
Geological    Survey,    before    the    meeting    of    the     International    G< 
Congress  in  London,  in  the  course  of  discussion  on  the  Cambrian  System, 
on  September  18,  1888. 


(Geological  Survey,  Newfoundland),  in  placing  the  Para- 
doxides  fauna  at  the  base,  and  then  in  succession  the  Olenellus 
and  Dicellocephalus  or  Olenus  faunas. 

The  discovery  of  Olatcllus  Kicrulfi  beneath  the  Paradoxides 
zone  in  Sweden  led  me  to  re-examine  the  section  of  Cambrian 
rocks  in  New  York,  and  finally  to  go  to  Newfoundland.  After 
long  search,  I  found  a  complete  unbroken  section  on  Manuel's 
Brook,  Conception  Bay,  that  showed  the  following  conformable 
series :  — 


Archrean  Gneisses. 

1.  Conglomerate  resting  unconformably  upon  a  ... 

2.  Sandstone,  shale,  and  impure  limestone  with 

Olenellus   Breggeri?  and  sixteen  species  of 
the  Olenellus  fauna    ... 

3.  (  deenish  argillaceous  shale 

4-   Red  „  ,,  

5.   Limestone 

0.    Greenish  argillaceous  shales  with  an  abundant 
Paradoxides  fauna  at  summit 

7.  Dark  argillaceous  shales,  Paradoxides,  Micro- 

discus  punciatus,    Agraulus,    Conocoryphe, 
&c,  &c,  near  base    ... 

8.  Alternating  bands  of  shale  and  sandstone,  with 

Orthis  in  great  abundance    ... 


35 


25 

4°- 

4 


Total 


270 

295 

400 

1071 


X. 


All   strata   unaltered    and! 


Dip   of  strata,    120    to    15° 
undisturbed. 

The  above  section  proves  that  in  North  America,  as  in 
Sweden,  the  Olenellus  fauna  is  beneath  the  Paradoxides  fauna. 
This  changes  the  American  scheme  of  classification  of  the 
Cambrian  system,  and  places  it  in  harmony  with  that  of  Europe. 
The  Olenellus  fauna  in  America  includes  42  genera  and  112 
species,  and  I  now  recall  4  genera  and  20  species  from  Europe 
not  known  in  America,  which  give  a  fauna  of  46  genera  and  132 
species  beneath  the  Paradoxides  zone. 

The  following  table  exhibits  the  succession  of  the  terranes  as 
now  known  in  America  : 

Table  I. — Lower  Silurian  [Ordovician)  System. 
Subdivision.  Terranes.  Faunas. 


Upper  Cambrian 


Middle  Cambrian 


cs       Lower  Cambrian 


(  Potsdam,  Knox, 

<  Tonto,  Belle  Isle, 
(  &c. 

I  St.  John, 
■    Avalan, 
(  Braintree. 
1  Georgia, 

<  Prospect, 

(  Terra  Nova. 


Dicellocephalus 
or  Olenus. 


Paradoxides. 


-Olenellus. 


A  comparison  of  typical  sections  of  the  Cambrian  system  gives 
the  following  :  — 

Table  II. 


Sweden. 


Wale 


Newfound- 
land. 


Olenus  zone.  Olenus  /one.   Olenus  zone. 


Xew  York. 


Olenus  zone. 


Paradoxides    Paradoxides 
/one.  zone. 


Paradoxides 


Rocky 
Mountains. 


Olem 


Olenellus 
zone. 


Unknown. - 


Olenellus 
zone. 


Represented  by  Represented 

other    genera  by  other 

than       Para-  genera  than 

doxides.  Paradoxides. 


Olenellus  /one.     Olenellus  zone 


It  affords  me  pleasure  to  recognize  the  work  of  the  Swedish 
geologists,  and  to  fully  coincide  with  their  results,  and  thus 
firmly  establish  on  the  two  continents  the  true  order  of 
succession  of  the  oldest  known  Palaeozoic  fauna. 

1   Name  proposed  for  new  species  of  Olenellus. 
After   this  paper  was    read,   Prof.    Lapworth  showed   me  specimens  of 
Olenellus  like  O.  BrSggeri,  from  Shropshire. 


552 


NA  TURE 


{Oct.  4,  1888 


NOTES. 
We  regret  to  have  to  record  the  death  of  the  well-known 
traveller,  Mr.  William  Gifford  Palgrave.  He  died  in  his  sixty- 
third  year  at  Montevideo,  where  he  was  British  Minister.  Mr. 
Palgrave  will  be  remembered  chiefly  as  the  author  of  the  famous 
*' Narrative  of  a  Year's  Journey  through  Central  and  Eastern 
Arabia,  1862-63,"  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  fascinating  books 
of  travel  of  modern  times. 

Dr.  Carnelly,  of  University  College,  Dundee,  has  been 
appointed  Professor  of  Chemistry  at  the  University  of  Aberdeen, 
in  the  room  of  Dr.  Brazier,  who  has  resigned. 

The  Emperor  of  Japan  has  conferred  the  Order  of  the  Rising 
Sun,  of  the  Fourth  Class,  on  Mr.  Thomas  Alexander,  Pro- 
fessor of  Engineering,  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  for  services  in 
the  Imperial  University  of  Japan. 

Mr.  Edgar  Thurston,  Superintendent  of  the  Government 
Museum,  Madras,  expects  to  arrive  in  England  early  in  October. 
We  understand  that  Mr.  Thurston  has  made  some  valuable 
collections  of  corals  and  other  marine  animals. 

Dr.  Latham  will  deliver  the  Harveian  oration  at  the  Royal 
College  of  Physicians  on  Thursday,  October  18,  at  4  o'clock. 

The  Exhibition  held  by  the  Photographic  Society  of  Great 
Britain  was  opened  on  Monday  at  5A  Pall  Mall  East.  It  will 
remain  open  daily,  and  on  Monday,  Wednesday,  and  Saturday 
evenings,  until  November  14.  Every  Monday  evening  trans- 
parencies will  be  shown  with  the  Society's  optical  lantern. 

The  French  Government  has  reorganized  its  system  of  war 
aerostation.  Henceforward  the  activity  of  the  director  of  this 
department  will  be  chiefly  concentrated  on  the  manufacture  of 
captive  balloons  for  the  several  corps  iVarmee  and  fortifications. 

Within  a  month  a  new  central  station  for  the  electric  light 
will  be  opened  at  the  Palais  Royal,  Paris,  for  the  shops,  the 
galleries,  the  Conseil  d'Etat,  the  Cour  des  Comptes,  the  Theatre 
Francais,  and  the  Palais  Royal.  The  building  of  the  cave  in 
which  the  engines  are  to  be  placed  in  the  courtyard  is  almost 
finished. 

On  Tuesday  the  seventh  International  Congress  of  Americanists 
was  opened  at  Berlin,  in  the  large  hall  of  the  Rathhaus,  before 
a  brilliant  gathering  of  archaeologists.  The  opening  address  was 
delivered  by  Herr  von  Gossler,  Minister  of  Public  Worship, 
who  warmly  welcomed  his  hearers  in  the  name  of  the  German 
Emperor  and  the  Prussian  Government,  and  referred  to  the 
distinguished  services  rendered  by  the  brothers  Humboldt  in 
unfolding  the  secrets  of  the  New  World.  The  Congress  will 
sit  till  Saturday. 

At  the  recent  meeting  of  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science,  Dr.  Daniel  G.  Brinton  read  an  interest- 
ing and  suggestive  paper  on  the  alleged  Mongoloid  affinities  ot 
the  American  race.  He  held  that  the  asserted  Mongolian  or 
Mongoloid  connection  of  the  American  race  cannot  be  proved 
either  by  linguistics  or  by  physical  resemblances.  Speaking  ot 
the  typical,  racial  American  culture,  he  maintained  that  it  is  as 
far  as  possible,  in  spirit  and  form,  from  the  Mongolian.  "  Com- 
pare," said  Dr.  Brinton,  "the  rich  theology  of  Mexico  or  Peru 
with  the  barren  myths  of  China.  The  theory  of  government,  the 
method  of  house-construction,  the  position  of  woman,  the  art  of 
war,  are  all  equally  diverse,  equally  un-Mongolian.  It  is  use- 
less to  bring  up  single  art-products  or  devices,  such  as  the 
calendar,  and  lay  stress  on  certain  similarities.  The  doctrine  of 
the  parallelism  of  human  development  explains  far  more  satis- 
factorily all  these  coincidences.  The  sooner  that  Americanists 
generally,  and  especially  those  in  Europe,  recognize  the  absolute 
autochthony  of  native  American  culture,  the  more  valuable  will 
their  studies  become. " 


The  following  changes  have  recently  taken  place  in  the 
editing  of  German  botanical  journals.  The  place  of  Prof,  de 
Bary,  as  editor  of  the  Botanische  Zeitung,  has  been  supplied  by 
Prof.  Graf  zu  Solms-Laubach,  of  Tubingen,  who  has  recently 
succeeded  the  late  Dr.  Eichler  in  the  Botanical  Chair  at  Berlin  ; 
he  will  act  in  conjunction  with  the  late  Prof,  de  Bary's  coadjutor, 
Dr.  Wortmann.  Dr.  Kohl,  of  Marburg,  has  associated  himself 
with  Dr.  Uhlworm  in  the  editorship  of  the  Botanisches  Central- 
blatt,  in  the  place  of  Dr.  W.  J.  Behrens,  who  has  been  com- 
pelled to  relinquish  the  editorship  from  the  pressure  of  other 
engagements.  r 

The  interesting  and  valuable  reports  on  colonial  fruit,  which 
have  been  appearing  in  the  Kcio  Bulletin,  are  continued  in 
the  October  number.  Much  information  is  given  as  to  fruit  in 
Sierra  Leone,  the  Gold  Coast,  Lagos,  Natal,  Malta,  Cyprus, 
Ceylon,  the  Straits  Settlements,  and  St.  Helena. 

The  late  Mr.  Samuel  Miller,  of  Lynchburg,  bequeathed  to 
the  University  of  Virginia  100,000  dollars,  the  income  from 
which  was  to  be  expended  for  "the  advancement  of  agriculture 
as  a  science  and  as  a  practical  art  by  the  instruction  therein,  and 
in  the  sciences  connected  therewith,  of  the  youth  of  the  country." 
A  part  of  the  income  is  to  be  used  to  maintain  the  work  in  agri- 
cultural chemistry  already  carried  on  at  the  University  ;  but, 
according  to  Science,  the  larger  portion  of  the  income  will  be 
spent  in  promoting  instruction  and  research  in  biology.  A 
biological  laboratory  is  being  fitted  up,  and  the  equipment  has 
been  ordered.  The  instruction  will  be  by  lectures,  with  associated 
laboratory  work,  and  will  cover  general  biology,  zoology,  com- 
parative anatomy,  and  biology  applied  to  agriculture.  The 
Professor-elect  is  Mr.  Albert  H.  Tuttle,  recently  Professor  of 
Biology  in  the  Ohio  State  University  at  Columbus. 

An  interesting  gas,  allene,  the  isomer  of  allylene,  the  second 
member  of  the  acetylene  series  of  hydrocarbons,  has  been 
obtained  in  the  pure  state,  and  its  constitution  thoroughly 
investigated,  by  Messrs.  Gustavson  and  Demjanoff,  of  Moscow. 
Very  little,  and  that  contradictory,  has  hitherto  been  published 
concerning  this  gaseous  hydrocarbon,  which  differs  so  remark- 
ably from  ordinary  allylene,  and  yet  is  represented  by  the  same 
empirical  formula,  C3H4.  The  new  method  of  obtaining  it  i 
very  simple,  consisting  in  the  action  of  zinc  dust  upon  an 
alcoholic  solution  of  dibrom-propylene.  Practically  one  starts 
with  glyceryl  tribromide,  C3H5Br3,  allowing  it  to  gradually 
drop  from  a  stoppered  funnel  into  a  flask  containing  pieces  of 
caustic  potash,  and  connected  with  a  condenser.  The  flask  is 
heated  in  a  paraffin  bath  to  about  1500  C,  when  the  propylene 
dibromide  distils  over  as  an  oil  of  acrolein-like  odour.  When 
the  requisite  quantity  of  the  glyceryl  tribromide  has  been  added, 
the  temperature  is  allowed  to  sink  to  1300,  and  water  run  into  the 
flask.  On  continuing  the  distillation  the  rest  of  the  oil  passes 
over  in  the  steam.  The  dried  and  re-distilled  oil  is  then  used 
for  the  preparation  of  allene.  It  is  allowed  to  slowly  pass  in 
drops  into  a  second  flask  furnished  with  an  upright  condense 
and  containing  zinc  dust  and  80  per  cent,  alcohol.  The  flasi 
heated  in  a  water-bath,  and  after  about  twenty  drops  of 
dibromide  have  entered,  the  evolution  of  gas  begins,  and 
be  nicely  regulated  by  the  speed  of  dropping.  The  gas  p; 
by  a  leading  tube  from  the  condenser,  and  may  be  stored  over 
water  in  a  gas-holder,  being  far  less  soluble  than  allylene.  The 
gaseous  allene  thus  obtained  is  colourless,  has  a  peculiar  smell, 
reminding  one  of  its  isomer,  and  burns  with  a  smoky  flame. 
Unlike  allylene,  however,  it  yields  no  precipitate  with  ammo- 
niacal  copper  or  silver  solutions,  but  gives  white  precipitates 
with  aqueous  solutions  of  mercury  salts.  It  combines  rapidly, 
under  considerable  rise  of  temperature,  with  bromine,  forming  a 
colourless  tetrabromide,  C3H4Br4,  liquid  at  ordinary  temperatures 
with  a  camphor-like  odour,  but  condensing  to  a  crystalline 


I 


Oct.  4,  1888] 


NATURE 


553 


at  —  180.  In  this  respect,  again,  it  differs  from  the  tetrabromide 
of  allylene,  which  remains  liquid  when  surrounded  by  a  freezing 
mixture.  The  constitution  was  finally  proved  to  be  CH2~ 
C— CH2,  as  expected,  the  tetrabromide  being,  consequently, 
CH2Br — CBr2 — CH2Br;  while  allylene  possesses  the  consti- 
tution CH3 — C=CH,  being,  in  fact,  methyl  acetylene,  its 
tetrabromide  being,  therefore,  CH3 — CBrj — CHBr2,  a  substance 
very  different  from  the  tetrabromide  of  allene. 

Invitations  have  been  issued  to  each  maritime  nation  to  send 
one  or  more  delegates  to  attend  an  International  Maritime  Con- 
ference to  meet  in  Washington  on  April  17,  1889.  The 
objects  of  the  Conference  will  be  to  revise  the  regulations  con- 
cerning vessels  at  sea,  to  adopt  a  uniform  system  of  signals  to 
indicate  the  direction  in  v-hich  vessels  are  moving  in  fog,  snow, 
or  thick  weather,  and  at  night,  to  convey  warnings  of  approaching 
storms  and  other  important  information,  and  to  formulate  regu- 
lations for  the  prevention  of  collisions.  The  importance  of  the 
subject  is  so  great  that  a  full  attendance  of  delegates  is  expected. 

In  the  Archiv  der  natunvissenschaftl.  I.andesdurchforschung 
von  Bbkmen,  Band  vi.  No.  5,  1888,  is  a  valuable  memoir  by 
Prof.  Franz  Klapalek  under  the  title  "  Untersuchungen  iiber  die 
Fauna  der  Gewasser  Bohmens,  Part  1,  Metamorphose  der 
Trichopteren,"  in  which  the  transformations  of  nearly  twenty 
species  of  Bohemian  caddis-flies  are  detailed,  with  illustrative 
figures  and  copious  introductory  general  remarks  on  the  internal 
and  external  anatomy  of  the  larvae  and  pupae.  The  author  states 
that  the  larv*  may  be  divided  into  two  sections,  which  he  terms 
«* raupenfb'rmige  "  and  "  cainpodeoid"  respectively,  and  which 
correspond  pretty  nearly  with  the  divisions  "  inaequipalpia  "  and 
•'aequipalpia  "  employed  by  systematists  for  the  perfect  insects. 
Prof.  Klapalek  has  been  very  successful  in  breeding  these  insects, 
a  matter  always  attended  with  difficulty,  more  especially  with 
those  forms  that  inhabit  rapid  streams  and  torrents.  A  further 
series  of  observations  will  appear  next  year. 

Some  interesting  prehistoric  remains  have  been  discovered  near 
Basingstoke.  Six  urns  have  been  disinterred,  and  stone  imple- 
ments of  very  rude  form  have  been  found  in  the  field  in  immediate 
relation  with  the  vessels,  although  none  have  actually  been  dis- 
covered buried  with  the  pottery.  The  site  of  the  interments  is  a 
field  adjoining  Dummer  Clump,  a  conspicuous  landmark  in  the 
parish  of  Dummer,  and  near  Kempshott  Park,  the  seat  of  Sir 
Nelson  Rycroft,  who  is  the  owner  of  the  estate.  A  shepherd 
was  pitching  hurdles,  when  the  bar  came  in  contact  with  a  large 
stone,  which,  on  being  removed,  was  found  to  have  covered  two 
very  rudely-formed  vessels,  of  which  the  under  one  was  pro- 
nounced by  Dr.  S.  Andrews,  of  Basingstoke,  to  contain  human 
bones  which  had  undergone  incineration.  Subsequently,  an- 
other urn  was  removed,  of  a  much  coarser  character,  bearing  a 
band  round  the  base  of  the  rim  ornamented  with  sunken  dots. 
All  the  vessels  are  hand-made  and  apparently  fire-baked,  and 
the  larger  ones  have  suffered  some  damage  from  the  plough, 
which  must  have  repeatedly  passed  over  them. 

The  new  number  of  the  Intcrnationahs  Archil'  fiir  Ethno- 
graphic (Band  i.  Heft  5)  will  fully  maintain  the  reputation  of 
this  excellent  periodical.  Among  the  contents  are  an  article  on 
arrows  from  Torres  Straits,  by  Dr.  M.  Uhle ;  a  note  on  a 
singular  mask  from  Boissy  Island,  North-East  New  Guinea,  and 
queries  on  the  lizard  in  the  folk-lore  of  Australasia,  by  Prof. 
H.  H.  Giglioli  ;  and  a  paper  on  the  chewing  of  the  betel -nut, 
by  F.  Grabowsky.  The  coloured  illustrations,  as  usual,  are 
admirable. 

Fishing  is  to  be  resumed  this  season  at  the  Sild  oyster- 
banks,  on  the  coast  of  Jutland,  which  have  been  preserved  for  six 
years.  The  oysters  are  reported  to  be  plentiful  and  in  splendid 
condition. 


The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during 
the  past  week  include  a  Grivet  Monkey  (Cercopithecus  griseo- 
viridis  6  )  from  North-East  Africa,  presented  by  Lord  Archibald 
Campbell  ;  a  Rhesus  Monkey  {Macacus  rhesus  0  )  from  India, 
presented  by  Major  Dudley  Buckle,  R.  A.  ;  a  Bonnet  Monkey 
(Macacus  sinicus  $)  from  India,  presented  by  Mr.  G.  C. 
Gosling  ;  two  Sooty  Mangabey  Monkeys  (Cercocebus  fuliginosus 
9  Q  )  from  West  Africa,  presented  by  Mr.  Edward  Felton,  R.E.  ; 
an  Ocelot  (Felts  pardalis  <$ )  from  Pernambuco,  presented  by 
Mr.  E.  Percy  Bates ;  a  Weka  Rail  ( Ocydromus  australis)  from 
New  Zealand,  presented  by  Mr.  H.  Lindsay  ;  a  Rose  crested 
Cockatoo  (Cacatua  molucccnsis)  from  Moluccas,  presented  by 
Miss  Eve  ;  a  Puffin  (Fraterctila arctica)  from  Cornwall,  presented 
by  Mr.  J.  Muir  Drew  ;  a  Common  Snake  ( Tropidonotus  natr/x), 
a  Common  Slowworm  (Anguis  fragilis),  British,  presented  by 
Mr.  P.  S.  Hutchinson  ;  a  Common  Viper (Vipcra  bertts),  British, 
presented  by  Mr.  A.  H.  N.  Smith  ;  four  European  Tree  Frogs 
(Hylaarborea),  European,  presented  by  Mr.  Lionel  A.  Williams  ; 
two  Grivet  Monkeys  (Cercopithccus  griseo  viridis  $  )  from  North- 
East  Africa,  deposited  ;  a  White-backed  Trumpeter  (Psophia 
Icucopierd)  from  the  Upper  Amazons,  received  in  exchange; 
two  Collared  Fruit  Bats  (Cynonycteris'  collaris),  an  Axis  Deer 
(Cervus  axis  $  ),  a  Canadian  Beaver  (Castor  canadensis),  four 
Chilian  Pintails  (Dafila  spinicauda),  bred  in  the  Gardens. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

The  Satellites  of  Mars. — These  faint  objects  have  been 
successfully  observed,  during  the  late  opposition,  with  the  great 
telescope  of  the  Lick  Observatory.  The  building  operations 
prevented  the  observations  being  carried  on  systematically,  but 
measures  of  distance  and  position  of  one  or  both  satellites  were 
obtained  on  nine  evenings  between  April  9  and  April  28,  and 
Phobos  was  seen  as  late  as  July  18,  when  the  theoretical  bright- 
ness of  Mars  was  but  one-tenth  of  what  it  was  at  the  opposition 
of  1877,  or  one-fifth  of  what  it  will  be  at  the  coming  opposition 
of  1890.  A  preliminary  reduction  of  the  observations  gives  the 
following  corrections  to  the  times  of  elongations  as  given  by  Mr. 
Marth  in  the  Monthly  Notices  of  the  Royal  Astronomical  Society, 
and  by  the  American  Nautical  Almanac  respectively  : — 


Marth. 

American  N.A 

h. 

h. 

Phobos 

+  0-427 

-   033 

Deimos 

+  0'020 

+  o'3S 

Mr.  Keeler,  who  made  the  observations,  remarks  (Astr. 
Joum.,  No.  178)  that,  so  far  as  his  estimates  of  the  bright- 
ness of  the  satellites  go,  they  support  Prof.  Pickering's  conclusion 
that  Deimos  is  one  haif-magnitu4e  brighter  when  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  planet  than  when  on  the  western. 

Total  Lunar  Eclipse  of  January  28. — No.  4  of  vol.  xviii* 
of  the  Annals  of  the  Harvard  College  Observatory  contains  an 
account  of  the  observations  made  there  of  the  eclipse  of  the 
moon  of  January  28.  The  observations  were  of  three  classes — 
first,  of  the  occultations  of  Dr.  Dollen's  list  of  stars  ;  secondly, 
of  the  variation  in  the  actinic  brightness  of  the  moon  ;  and 
thirdly,  the  search,  by  means  of  photography,  for  a  possible 
lunar  satellite.  In  this  second  inquiry  Mr.  W.  H.  Pickering 
found  that  the  photographic  brightness  of  the  full  earth  was 
236  times  as  great  as  that  of  the  full  moon,  equivalent  to  an 
albedo  of  1  7  times  that  of  the  moon.  The  diminution  in  bright- 
ness ascribed  to  the  moon  during  eclipse  is  most  remarkable, 
Mr.  Pickering  giving  the  uneclipsed  full  moon  as  1,400,000 
times  as  bright  as  during  the  central  phase,  or  about  twice 
the  ratio  existing  between  the  sun  and  full  moon.  In  the 
search  for  the  satellite  a  succession  of  photographs  were 
taken,  the  telescope  being  made  to  follow  the  moon's  motion  as 
closely  as  possible,  so  that  the  stars  were  represented  by  short 
trails.  A  satellite  would  have  left  a  trad  inclined  to  the  star 
trails  and  of  a  different  length.  The  result  of  the  search  was 
negative,  and  as  a  satellite  of  the  tenth  magnitude,  would  have 
been  registered  on  the  plates,  it  appears  probable  that  the 
moon  has  no  satellite  more  than  200  metres  in  diameter,  unless 
it  was  involved  in  the  shadow  of  the  earth  during  the  eclipse,  or 


554 


NATURE 


[Oct.  4,  1888 


was  very  dark,  or  was  moving  with  the  same  speed  amongst  the 
stars  as  the  moon,  but  in  the  opposite  direction,  in  which  case 
it  would  have  been  mistaken  for  a  star. 

Photometric  Observations  of  Asteroids.— It  has  fre- 
quently been  suggested  that  the  asteroids,  shining  by  reflected 
light,  and  subject,  it  might  be  assumed,  only  to  variations  the 
amount  of  which  could  be  calculated  for  any  required  date,  would 
prove  specially  useful  as  standards  of  brightness  in  the  photo- 
metric observation  of  the  fainter  stars.  Mr.  Henry  M.  Park- 
hurst  has  carried  out  recently  a  series  of  observations  on  several 
of  these  bodies,  which  throws  considerable  light  on  their  suit- 
ability for  such  a  purpose.  His  method  of  observation  was  to 
note  the  time  which  the  asteroid  took  to  disappear  after  passing 
a  transit-wire,  the  telescope  being  stationary,  and  the  light  of 
the  asteroid  or  comparison-star  suffering  diminution  either  by  a 
wedge  or  more  frequently  by  a  deflector — a  piece  of  glass  with 
nearly  parallel  sides,  placed  in  the  telescope  tube,  about  one- 
seventh  of  the  way  from  the  focus,  and  covering  half  the  field. 
The  results  of  Mr.  Farkhurst's  observations,  which  embraced 
eighteen  asteroids,  and  extended  over  nearly  nine  months — 
April  to  December  1887 — are  given  in  No.  3  of  vol.  xviii. 
of  the  Annals  of  the  Harvard  College  Observatory,  and  show 
that  the  asteroids  are  not  appreciably  self-luminous,  and  that 
the  sun  undergoes  no  noteworthy  fluctuations  in  light  in  periods 
of  a  few  days  ;  nor,  as  a  comparison  with  observations  made  in 
some  former  years  would  indicate,  in  more  lengthened  periods. 
But  they  also  show  that  the  phase-correction  is  not  covered  by 
allowing  simply  for  the  decrease  in  the  area  illuminated— a  further 
correction  is  needed,  and  one  peculiar  to  each  asteroid.  In  two 
case-,  also,  Harmonia  and  Iris,  several  of  the  observations 
stand  out  in  strong  contrast  to  the  rest,  and  appear  to  indicate  a 
variation  due  to  axial  rotation,  the  planet  probably  being 
irregular  in  shape,  or  its  surface  in  reflecting  power.  No  varia- 
tion depending,  as  in  the  case  of  Saturn's  ring,  on  the  position 
of  the  asteroid  in  its  01  bit,  and  the  relative  position  of  the  earth, 
has  been  noticed,  but  this  inquiry  has  only  been  extended  to  the 
four  asteroids  first  discovered.  The  mean  error  of  an  observa- 
tion, when  the  special  phase  correction  and  probable  variations 
due  to  rotation  have  been  allowed  for,  appears  to  be  less  for  an 
asteroid  than  for  the  fixed  stars,  the  mean  error  of  an  observa- 
tion of  the  solar  illumination  in  the  inquiry  referred  to  above 
being  given  as  o-n6m. 

New  Catalogue  of  Variable  Stars.  — Nos.  179  and  180 
of  Gould's  Astronomical  Journal  contain  a  new  catalogue  of 
variable  stars  by  Mr.  S.  C.  Chandler.  Mr.  Chandler  is  not 
only  a  diligent  observer  of  variable  stars,  the  discoverer  of 
several,  and  a  zealous  computer  of  the  elements  of  their  varia- 
tions, but  several  years  ago  undertook  an  important  and  much- 
needed  work,  viz.  the  complete  study  of  the  bibliography  of 
known  and  suspected  variables.  This  cttalogue  coming  from 
his  hand,  therefore,  will  be  especially  valuable,  and  the  more 
welcome  since  it  is  thirteen  years  since  Schonfeld  published  his 
second  catalogue.  Mr.  Chandler  puts  it  forward  as  merely  a 
preliminary  publication,  a  second  more  definitive  being  designed 
to  follow  as  soon  as  the  investigations  now  in  hand  shall  have 
been  completed.  The  present  catalogue  is  no  mere  compilation. 
Almost  every  star  in  it  visible  from  the  latitude  of  Boston  has  been 
observed  by  Mr.  Chandler,  who  has  also  gathered  together  and 
discussed  every  available  published  observation.  The  calalogue 
embraces  225  stars,  and  of  these  the  variations  of  160  are  dis- 
tinctly periodic  ;  for  12  the  periodic  character  is  ill-defined,  14 
are  irregular,  12  are  Novae,  and  the  remainder  have  been  too 
little  observed  for  the  character  of  the  variation  to  be  properly 
known.  Of  the  160  periodic  stars,  the  elements  of  124  are  the 
results  of  Mr.  Chandler's  own  work,  22  are  Schonfeld's,  and  14 
those  of  other  computers  after  Mr.  Chandler  had  carefully  con- 
firmed them.  A  point  sure  to  lead  eventually  to  an  important 
advance  in  our  knowledge  of  the  cause  of  variation  has  received 
much  attention  from  Mr.  Chandler,  viz.  the  systematic  perturba- 
tions shown  by  so  many  of  the  periods,  and  a  table  is  given  of 
these  inequalities  for  26  stars.  A  useful  novelty  is  introduced  in 
the  numeration  of  the  stars  of  the  catalogue,  for,  in-tead  of  giving 
them  consecutive  numbers,  each  is  distinguished  by  a  number 
equivalent  to  one-tenth  of  its  R.A.  for  the  mean  equinox  of 
1900*0,  expressed  in  seconds  of  time,  thus  securing  that  the 
numeration  need  not  be  disturbed  by  fresh  discoveries. 

Minor  Planet  No.  275. — This  object  has  been  named 
Sapientia. 


ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR    THE 
WEEK  1888  OCTOBER  7-13. 

/"pOR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
'  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed.) 

•    At  Greenwich  on  October  7 
Sun  rises,  6h.  13m.  ;  souths,  nh.  47m.  40#2s. ;  sets,  I7h.  22m.  : 

right   asc.    on   meridian,    I2h.    53"9jx  ;    decl.    50  46'    S. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  i8h.  29m. 
Moon    (at    First    Quarter   October   12,    5h.)    rises,   8h.    18m. : 

souths,  I3h.  38m. ;  sets,  i8h.  46m. 

nh.  44-6m.  ;  decl.  10°  51'  S. 

Planet.          Rises.  Souths.  Sets, 

h.   m.  h.    m.  h.    m. 

Mercury..     8  47  ...  13   19  ...  17  51  ...  14  257  ...  17  24  S. 

Venus   ...     8  27  ...  13  17  ...  18     7  ...  14  23-4  ...  14  7  S. 

Mars     ...   12  18  ...  16     3  ...  19  48  ...  17     9-5  ...  24  33  S. 

Jupiter  ...   10  50  ...  15     2  ...  19  14  ...  16     9-2  ...  20  28  S. 

Saturn  ...     0  46  ...  b  16   ...  15  46  ...  9  21  8  ...  16  17  N. 

Uranus...     6  27  ...  11   59  ...  17  31  ...  13     5-2  ...  6  17  S. 

Neptune..    19  10*...  2  56  ...  10  42  ...  4     1*3  ...  18  54  N. 

*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening. 

Occultations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 


right  asc.  on  meridian, 

Right  asc.  and  declination 
on  meridian, 
h.       m.  „        . 


Oct. 

11  . 

12  , 

13  • 

Oct 

7 


Star. 

B.A.C.  6524  ... 
B.A.C.  6889  ... 
20  Capricorni ... 
h. 


Mag. 

6i 

6 

6 


Disap. 
h.    m. 

20  35 
19  53 
19    5 


Reap. 

h.  m. 
21  17 
21  6 
19   55 


angles  from  ver- 
tex to  right  for 
inverted  image. 

...  72  O 
...  IIO  3II 
••■    153   24O 


4     ...     Venus  in  conjunction  with  and  50  6'  south 
of  the  Moon. 

7  ...       5     ...     Mercury  in  conjunction  with  and  8°  8' •' juth 

of  the  Moon. 

8  ...       6     ...     Mercury    at    greatest    elongation   from    the 

Sun  250  west. 

9  ...        1     ...     Jupiter  in  conjunction  with  and  30  33'  south 

of  the  Moon. 
9     ...     22     ...     Mercury  in  conjunction  with  and  30  9'  south 

of  Venus. 
10     ...       3     ...     Mars  in  conjunction  with  and  4°  38'  south 

of  the  Moon. 
10     ...      13     ...     Uranus  in  conjunction  with  the  Sun. 

Saturn,  October  7. — Outer  major  axis  of  outer  ring  =  38" "9  : 
outer  minor  axis  of  outer  ring  =  9"'8  :  southern  surface  visible. 
Variable  Stars. 


Star. 

R.A. 

Decl. 

h.      m. 

t 

h. 

m. 

U  Cephei     ... 

...      O  52-4  .. 

8l 

16  N. 

...  Oct. 

99 

6, 
11, 

3 

3 

52  m 
32  m 

Algol    

...     3    0-9  .. 

40 

31  N. 

5, 
7, 

1 

21 

8  m 
57  m 

R  Aurigae    ... 

...     5  iS-3- 

53 

28  N. 

...           ,, 

7, 

m 

T  Monocerotis 

...     6  19*2  .. 

7 

9  N. 

,  , 

10, 

5 

0  m 

U  Monocerotis 

...     7  25-5  ... 

9 

33  S. 

j, 

12, 

M 

S  Cancri 

...     8  37-5  -. 

19 

26  N. 

...            || 

11, 

0 

27  m 

R  Crateris   ... 

...   10  55'i  ••• 

17 

43  S. 

,, 

7, 

m 

U  Ophiuchi... 

...  17  10-9  .. 

1 

20  N. 

,, 

11, 

19 

0  m 

&  Lyrae 

...  18  46*0  .. 

33 

14  N. 

...            J) 

7, 

0 

0  M 

S  Sagittarii  ... 

...  19  12-9  .. 

l9 

14  S. 

5  > 

11. 

M 

S  Vulpeculae 

...   19  43-8  ... 

27 

1  N. 

j  , 

ii» 

m 

X  Cygni 

...   19  46-3  ■• 

32 

38  N. 

j, 

9, 

n\ 

7)  Aquilae 

...   19  46-8  .. 

0 

43  N. 

99 

12, 

21 

0  M 

R  Sagittae    ... 

...  20    90  .. 

16 

23  N. 

jj 

11, 

m 

T  Vulpeculse 

...  20  467  .. 

27 

50  N. 

...          |j 

12, 

2 

oM\ 

Y  Cygni 

...  20  47'6  .. 

34 

14  N. 

|| 

8, 
11, 

3 
3 

0  m  1 
0  m  ' 

5  Cephei 

...  22  25*0  .. 

57  5i  N. 

...       H 

7, 

20 

Oil/ 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  m  mi 

nimum. 

Meteor- Showers. 

R.A. 

Decl. 

&  1 

Near  tj  Persei 

42° 

55  N. 

...     SI 

ow. 

,,      8  Geminorum       ...    102 

34  N. 

...      Swift; 

streaks.    1 

135 

80  N. 

...      Swift; 

streaks,    i 

,,     k  Cephei 

305 

77  N. 

Slow; 

faint. 

Oct.  4,  1 888] 


NA  TU'RE 


555 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

A  telegram  from  Mr.  Joseph  Thomson,  dated  Mogador, 
September  io,  reports  that  he  has  been  successful  beyond  ex- 
pectation in  his  exploration  of  the  Atlas  Mountains.  He  left 
Morocco  city  on  August  27,  and  after  being  driven  back  from 
the  Urika  Valley  to  the  south-east  of  the  city,  he  proceeded 
eastwards,  and  succeeded  in  crossing  the  range  southwards  from 
Imintanut  into  the  Sus  district.  From  Rezaya  he  ascended  the 
main  range  to  nearly  13,000  feet.  Mr.  Thomson  intended  to 
return  to  Hava  for  a  few  clays,  and  afterwards  to  proceed  north- 
wards to  Fez,  Mequinez,  and  Tangier,  returning  home  about 
the  middle  of  December. 

The  Report  for  1887  of  H.M.'s  Special  Commissioner  for 
British  New  Guinea,  contains  information  of  considerable  geo- 
graphical interest.  This  is  especially  the  case  with  the  Report 
of  Deputy-Commissioner  Milman,  who  has  charge  of  the  western 
district,  lying  between  the  Dutch  boundary  and  the  Aird  River. 
Mr.  Milman  refers  to  the  discoloration  of  the  sea  about  the  coast 
between  Talbot  Island  and  the  Fly  River,  due,  doubtless,  to  the 
vast  bodies  of  fresh  water  that  empty  into  the  sea  from  the  Fly,  Tait, 
Katoer,  Mai-Kassa,  and  other  rivers.  The  Fly  River,  as  far  as  it  has 
been  ascended  by  Mr.  Milman,  is  thickly  populated  with  a  purely 
agricultural  and  hunting  people,  living  in  large  communities  ; 
while  some  houses  in  the  villages  are  over  200  feet  in  length.  As 
the  river  is  ascended,  traces  of  careful  cultivation  are  seen  here 
and  there  on  the  banks,  the  gardens  or  plantations  being  kept 
free  from  weeds,  and  planted  with  crotons  and  other  bright- 
leaved  shrubs  between  the  bananas  or  other  fruit-trees,  besides 
being  systematically  irrigated  by  dykes  cut  at  regular  inter- 
vals, which,  filling  at  high  water,  remain  full  as  the  water 
recedes.  About  60  or  70  miles  above  Soomaioot  several  large 
creeks  or  rivers  join  the  main  river,  but  whether  they  are 
flowing  into  the  river,  or  only  form  other  mouths  of  this  vast 
system,  remains  to  be  proved.  The  shores  of  the  Fly  River,  as 
far  as  Mr.  Milman  ascended,  are  uniformly  low,  but  owing  to 
its  great  width  he  is  inclined  to  think  they  are  not  subject  to 
inundation.  A  tidal  wave  or  bore,  according  to  Mr.  Milman, 
ascends  the  river,  but  only  on  the  right  bank,  which  accounts 
for  previous  visitors  not  having  noticed  it.  A  marauding  tribe 
coming  from  the  westwards  have  been  in  the  habit  of  making 
attacks  on  the  people  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Sabai  Island, 
but  the  exact  locality  they  come  from  is  a  mystery.  Their 
language  and  customs  are  entirely  different  from  those  of 
the  Sabai  Island  people.  They  had  probably  never  seen 
a  white  man  until  the  Rev.  E.  B.  Savage  (who  happened 
to  be  at  Sabai  when  their  lights  were  seen  on  the  mainland) 
fearlessly  visited  their  camp,  and  tried  to  hold  some  intercourse 
with  them.  He  describes  them  as  a  much  lighter  race  than  the 
jrest  of  the  New  Guinea  native^,  and  as  having  long  straight 
hair,  while  some  of  them  have  their  nasal-bone  pierced  in  three 
places,  into  which  are  introduced  pieces  of  bone  or  shell.  They 
appeared  entirely  unacquainted  with  fire-arms.  Civilization  has  so 
Far  advanced  at  Port  Moresby  that  a  reading-room  has  been 
erected,  in  which  the  Times  and  other  English  journals  are  kept, 
a  hotel  has  been  opened,  and  a  supply  of  water  laid  on  by  means 
of  pipes  to  the  native  village. 

A  Russian  scientific  explorer,  M.  K.  Nossilof,  has  recently 
returned  to  Archangebk  from  Novaya  Zemlya,  where  he 
spent  a  year,  from  the  summer  of  1887  to  August  1888.  He  has 
brought  with  him  rich  botanical,  zoological,  and  mineralogical 
collections,  and  means  to  return  to  the  island  soon,  as  he  has 
resolved  to  devote  five  years  to  its  exploration.  M.  Nossilof  is 
reported,  to  have  discovered  beds  of  iron,  copper,  coal,  gold, 
and  sulphur,  some  of  which,  he  believes,  could  be  profitably 
worked.  Among  other  results  obtained  by  him  are  many  in- 
teresting observations  on  the  animal,  especially  the  bird,  life  of 
the  island,  thirteen  months'  meteorological  observations,  surveys 
covering  2500  square  kilometres  of  land,  observations  on  the 
ice- conditions  of  the  east  and  west  coasts,  and  125  kilometres 
of  coast  survey.  He  has,  moreover,  discovered  three  new 
islands.  .  During  the  winter  and  spring,  M.  Nossilof  undertook 
excursions  into  the  Kara  Sea,  and  he  hopes  by-and-by  to 
undertake  a  series  of  soundings  as  far  as  the  River  Yenissei. 
In  the  coming  winter  he  intends  to  fix  his  station  at  the 
east  end  of  Matotshkin  Schar,  and  to  establish  there  a  second 
meteorological  station,  making  excursions  along  the  coast  and 
into  the  interior. 


ELECTRICAL  NOTES. 

The  Volta  Prize  of  50,000  francs  has  been  awarded  by  the 
French  Institute  to  M.  Gramme  for  his  labours  in  introducing  and 
perfecting  the  continuous-current  dynamo.  The  prize  is  given  to 
the  inventor  who  has  formed  a  memorable  epoch  in  the  history 
of  electricity.  M.  Gramme  is  a  Belgian  by  birth,  but  a  Parisian 
by  residence.  He  is  entirely  a  self-taught,  self-made  man. 
Although  Gramme  was  anticipated  by  Pacinotti,  his  invention 
was  entirely  independent,  and  Pacinolti's  was  completely  dormant, 
and  would  probably  have  remained  hidden  and  unknown  but  for 
Gramme's  success.  No  one  will  contend  that  the  prize  has  not 
been  richly  deserved. 

Considerable  attention  has  recently  been  drawn  to  some 
experiments  by  Chappuis  and  Maneuvrier,  in  Paris,  on  the  de- 
composition of  water  by  alternate  currents.  It  is  well  to  point 
out  that  the  whole  question  was  thoroughly  threshed  out  by  Sir 
W.  Thomson  in  1853,  and  his  paper  in  the  June  number  of  the 
Philosophical  Magazine  of  that  year  gives  all  that  is  necessary  to 
know  on  the  subject.  Jamin,  in  1882,  showed  how  electrolysis 
could  be  performed  by  alternate  currents  by  inserting  an  arc  in 
circuit,  the  opposing  E.M.F.  of  the  arcs  producing  a  partial  recti- 
fication of  the  alternate  currents.  Mr.  J.  F.  Kelley  has  just 
repeated  the  experiment  in  Newark,  U.S.A. 

Mr.  Lowrie  (B.  A.,  1888),  showed  how  the  insertion  of  an 
opposing  E.M.F.  in  an  alternating-current  circuit  enables  electro- 
lysis to  be  effected  and  how  it  could  be  utilized  to  measure  the 
electrical  energy  consumed  in  electric  light  installations.  If  a 
decomposing  cell  of  copper  sulphate,  and  a  constant  E.M.F. 
such  as  a  secondary  cell,  be  inserted  in  the  circuit,  the  current  in 
one  direction  is  assisted,  while  that  in  the  reverse  direction  is 
opposed,  and  the  cell  is  acted  upon  by  the  difference  :  an  average 
current  flowing,  depositing  copper  at  the  same  rate  as  if  no  alter- 
nate currents  were  present.  0*23544  gramme  of  copper  is  deposited 
per  kilowatt-hour,  or  every  gramme  of  copper  deposited  means 
4'205  kilowatt-hours  expended. 

Prok.  Evving  [Philosophical  Magazine,  September  1888)  has 
published,  with  additions,  the  paper  read  by  him  and  Mr.  Low  at 
the  Manchester  B.  A.  meeting,  on  the  influence  of  a  plane  of 
transverse  section  on  the  magnetic  permeability  of  an  iron  bar. 
A  joint  between  two  portions  of  an  iron  core  possesses  distinct 
magnetic  resistance  even  when  the  surfaces  are  true  planes. 
Compression  reduces  this  resistance  in  the  rough  faces  and 
eliminates  it  when  the  faces  are  true  planes.  In  all  cases  the 
resistance  greatly  diminished  as  the  point  of  saturation  was 
approached.  A  film  of  gold  leaf  interposed  between  the  faces 
and  compressed  has  only  a  very  little  injurious  effect.  Compres- 
sion, however,  reduces  the  permeability  of  the  solid  core  for 
moderate  magnetizing  forces,  though  the  contrary  effect  occurs 
when  the  magnetization  is  strong.  Villari  found  the  same 
reversal  in  the  case  of  longitudinal  pull,  but  in  the  opposite 
direction. 

Lord  Rayleigh  (B.  A.,  1S88)  has  been  endeavouring  to 
discover  if  an  electric  current  flowing  through  an  electrolyte 
causes  the  velocity  of  light  to  vary  through  the  liquid.  He 
experimented  with  dilute  sulphuric  acid.  The  result  was  negative 
within  the  range  of  the  experiment,  which  was  extremely  delicate. 
In  H2S04  diluted,  one  ampere  per  >quare  centimetre  does  not 
alter  the  velocity  of  light  by  one  part  in  thirteen  millions,  or  by 
15  metres  per  second. 

It  is  estimated  that  in  the  United  States  there  are  5351  electric 
light  plants  and  stations  working  192,500  arc  and  1,925,000 
glow  lamps,  and  consuming  460,000  horse-power.  There  are 
thirty-four  electric  railways,  138  miles  in  length,  run  over  by 
223  motor  cars  using  4180  horse-power. 

Sir  William  Thomson  (B.  A.,  1888)  dealt  with  the 
diffusion  of  rapidly  alternating  electric  currents  in  the  substance 
of  homogeneous  conductors.  The  surface  is  affected  first,  and 
the  depth  to  which  the  di-turbance  penetrates  depends  on  the 
frequency  of  the  alternations.  With  a  frequency  of  150  per 
second  a  cylindrical  copper  conductor  is  said  to  be  penetrated  to  a 
depth  of  3  mm.  Hence,  if  this  be  true,  conductors  for  powerful 
alternating  currents  such  as  are  used  in  the  Gaulard  and  Gibbs 
system,  should  be  tubes  or  flat  bars  with  a  thickness  of  6  mm. 

Trouvelot  has  by  photography  obtained  effects  which  lead 
to  the  conclusion  that  flashes  of  lightning  may  last  several 
seconds.  He  gave  his  apparatus  a  slight  horizontal  displace- 
ment, and  found  a  broad  ribbon-shaped  band  on  his  plate. 


556 


NATURE 


[Oct.  4, 


NOTES  ON  METEORITES.1 

IV. 

Meteorites  are  Bodies  which,  like  the  Earth  itself,  revolve  round 
the  Sun. 

"\X/"E  have  seen  that  the  phenomena  which  accompany  meteorites 
entering  our  air,  whether  they  are  soon  burnt  up  and  give 
rise  only  to  the  appearance  of  a  shooting  or  falling  star,  or 
whether  they  are  bulky  enough  to  withstand  the  melting  process 
till  they  reach  the  earth's  surface,  are  similar.  We  are  now  in 
a  position  to  discuss  the  origin  of  all  these  phenomena  on  the 
assumption  that  they  have  a  common  cause. 

It  is  not  so  many  years  ago  since  the  planetary  spaces  were 
supposed  to  be  untenanted  by  anything  more  tangible  than  that 
mysterious  fluid  called  ether.  This  notion  is  exactly  represented 
by  the  French  equivalent  for  those  spaces,  le  vide  planetaire. 
Hence,  not  to  mention  imagined  supernatural  causes — such  as 
that,  for  instance,  embodied  in  the  tradition  that  Saint  Lawrence, 
on  the  anniversary  of  his  martyrdom  (August  10),  shed  burning 
tears — the  cause  of  the  phenomenon  was  ascribed  to  atmospheric 
perturbations,  exhalations  of  sulphur,  ignes  fatui,  and  so  forth.  An 
account  of  the  August  shower  of  1857,  even,  published  in  the 
Bulletin  de  F  Academie  Royale  de  Belgique,  is  accompanied  by  a 
minute  record  of  rain,  temperature,  atmospheric  electricity,  &c. 
Leaving  out  of  consideration  the  opinions  of  the  ancients, 
among  whom  Anaxagoras  and  Seneca  may  be  especially  men- 
tioned, as  being  in  favour  of  a  cosmical  origin,  it  may  be  pointed 
out  that  Kepler2  regarded  meteorites  and  shooting-stars  as  akin, 
and  derived  both  from  the  ethereal  regions. 

Halley  was  the  next  to  express  an  opinion  that  shooting-stars 
were  of  cosmical  origin,  but  to  Chladni  belongs  the  credit  of 
having  broached  the  theory  which  modern  observations  have  so 
abundantly  justified.  This  theory  was  that  space  was  full  of  the 
matter  which,  attracted  by  the  earth,  entered  its  atmosphere, 
accompanied  by  luminous  effects  only  in  some  cases,  and  by 
actual  falls  of  the  matter  in  others.3  The  general  acceptance  of 
this  view  was  retarded  by  Laplace  and  others,  who  saw  a  more 
probable  origin  for  the  phenomena  by  suppo-ing  meteorites  to 
be  masses  shot  out  of  lunar  volcanoes.  The  first  step  in  the 
demonstration  of  such  an  origin,  which  is  now  universally 
accepted,  was  made  when  Chladni,4  in  1794,  showed  that 
no  known  terrestrial  agency  was  capable  of  producing  masses 
like  the  meteorites  which  had  been  seen  to  fall.  At  his  and 
Lichtenbergh's  suggestion,  Brandes  and  Benzenberg  in  1798 
showed  that,  whatever  they  appear  to  do,  shooting-stars  never 
shoot  upwards,  but  always  downwards  towards  the  earth.  At 
the  same  time  he  showed  the  similarity  of  phenomena  presented 
by  fire-balls,  shooting-stars,  and  the  fall  of  meteorites,  to  which 
we  have  already  called  attention.  He  subsequently  returned 
to  and  strengthened  this  view.5 

"  Should  it  be  asked  how  such  masses  originated,  or  by  what 
means  they  were  brought  into  such  an  insulated  position,  this 
question  would  be  the  same  as  if  it  were  asked  how  the  planets 
originated.  Whatever  hypothesis  we  may  form,  we  must  either 
admit  that  the  planets,  if  we  except  the  many  revolutions  which 
they  may  have  undergone,  either  on  or  near  their  surface,  have 
always  been  since  their  first  formation,  and  ever  will  be,  the 
same  ;  or  that  Nature,  acting  on  created  matter,  possesses  the 
power  to  produce  worlds  and  whole  systems,  to  destroy  them,  and 
from  their  materials  to  form  new  ones.  For  the  latter  opinion 
there  are,  indeed,  more  grounds  than  the  former,  as  alternations 
of  destruction  and  creation  are  exhibited  by  all  organized  and  un- 
organized bodies  on  our  earth  ;  which  gives  us  reason  to  suspect 
that  Nature,  to  which  greatness  and  smallness,  considered  in 
general,  are  merely  relative  terms,  can  produce  more  effects  of 
the  same  kind  on  a  larger  scale. 

"But  many  variations  have  been  observed  on  distant  bodies, 
which,  in  some  measure,  render  the  last  opinion  probable  ;  for 
example,  the  appearing  and  total  disappearing  of  certain  stars, 
when  they  do  not  depend  upon  periodical  changes.  If  we  now 
admit  that  planetary  bodies  have  started  into  existence,  we  can- 
not suppose  that  such  an  event  can  have  otherwise  taken  place, 
than  by  conjecturing  that  either  particles  of  matter,  which  were 
before  dispersed  throughout   infinite  space,  in   a   more  soft  and 

1  Continued  fro-ri  p.  533.  2  "Opera,"  ed.  Fritsch,  vol.  vi.  p.  157. 

3  "  Ueber  den  Ursprang  der  von  Pallas  gefundenen  Eisenmassen,"  p.  24. 

4  His  paper  on  the  Pallas  iron  is  abstracted  in  Phil.  Mag.,  Tiliock's  Series, 
vol.  ii.,  1798. 

5  See  Phil.  ■fl/a£".,Srillock,  vol.  ii.  p.  225,  et  seq. 


chaotic  condition,  have  united  together  in  large  masses,  by  the 
power  of  attraction  ;  or  that  new  planetary  bodies   have  been 
formed  from  the  fragments  of  much  larger  ones  that  have  been 
broken  to  pieces,  either  perhaps  by  some   external   shock,  or  by 
an  internal  explosion.     Let  whichever  of  these  hypotheses  be  the 
truest,  it  is  not  improbable,  or  at  least  contrary  to  nature,  if  we 
suppose  that  a  large  quantity  of  such  material  particles,  either  on 
account  of  their  too  great  distance,  or  because  prevented  by  a 
stronger  movement  in  another  direction,  may  not  have  united 
themselves  to  the  larger  accumulating  mass  of  a  new  world  ;  but 
have  remained  insulated,  and,  impelled  by  some  shock,  have  con- 
tinued their  course  through  infinite  space,  until  they  approach  so 
near  to  some  planet  as  to  be  within  the  sphere  of  its  attraction, 
and    then   by  falling  down   to  occasion  the   phenomena   before 
mentioned.  ■      ■  ...... 

"  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  iron  is  the  principal  component- 
part  of  all  the  masses  of  this  kind  hitherto  discovered  ;  that  it 
is  found  almost  everywhere  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  as  a  com- 
ponent part  of  many  substances  in  the  vegetable  and  animal 
kingdom  ;  and  that  the  effects  of  magnetism  give  us  reason  to 
conclude  that  there  is  a  large  provision  of  it  in  the  interior  parts 
of  the  earth.  We  may  therefore  conjecture  that  iron  in  general 
is  the  principal  matter  employed  in  the  formation  of  new  planetary 
bodies  ;  and  is  still  farther  probable  by  this  circumstance,  that 
it  is  exclusively  connected  with  the  magnetic  power,  and  also  on 
account  of  their  polarity  may  be  necessary  to  these  bodies.  It  is 
also  probable,  if  the  above  theory  be  just,  that  other  substances 
contained  in  such  fallen  masses,  such  as  sulphur,  siliceous  earth, 
manganese,  &c,  may  be  peculiar,  not  to  our  globe  alone,  but 
may  belong  to  the  common  materials  employed  in  the  formation 
of  all  planetary  worlds  " 

This   paper   of  Chladni's,    it   will  be    seen,    dates  from  just 
before  the  beginning  of  the  present  century. 

The  subject  was  invested  with  a  new  interest  in  1799,  when 
the  great  Humboldt,  who  was  then  travelling  in  South  America, 
saw  an  enormous  quantity  of  shooting-stars  covering  the  sky. 
In  his  long  account  of  the  shower  in  his  "  Personal  Narra- 
tive," he  states  that,  from  the  beginning  of  the  phenomenon, 
there  was  not  a  space  in  the  firmament  equal  in  extent  to  three 
diameters  of  the  moon  that  was  not  filled  at  every  instant  with 
bolides  and  falling  stars  ;  while  he  was  locally  informed  that  j 
during  a  previous  display  in  1766  the  inhabitants  of  Cumanal 
had  beheld  the  neighbouring  volcano,  Cayamba,  veiled  for  an 
hour  by  a  similar  display. 

In  the  next  display,  observed  in  the  year  1833,  240,000  meteors 
were  computed  by  Arago  to  have  been  visible  above  the  horizon 
of  Boston  on  the  morning  of  November  13  ;  while  Mr. 
Baxendell,  who  observed  the  shower  from  the  west  coast  of 
Mexico,  states  that  "the  number  of  meteors  seen  at  once  often 
equalled  the  apparent  number  of  the  fixed  stars  seen  at  a  glance."  j 
Olmsted,  when  he  had  witnessed  the  shower  of  1833  (a  shower 
heralded  and  followed  by  less  brilliant  displays  in  1831-32  and 
1834-35-36),  and  when,  moreover,  he  had  compared  the 
phenomena  with  those  recorded  by  Humboldt  and  Bonpland  in: 
1799,  announced  the  view  which  has  since  been  so  brilliantly 
confirmed — that  the  appearances  are  due  to  the  passage  of  the 
earth  through  a  storm,  so  to  speak,  of  planetary  bodies. 

This  was  the  first  blow  given  to  le  vide  planetaire.  Space, 
instead  of  being  empty,  was  full  of  bodies,  some  of  them 
being  congregated  into  rings,  each  body  composing  the  rinr. 
revolving  like  a  planet  round  the  sun.  In  fact,  these  rings  may 
be  compared  to  tangible  orbits  ;  indeed,  they  almost  realize  tht 
schoolboy's  idea  of  an  orbit,  as  a  considerable  part  of  the  path  V 
occupied  by  a  string  of  little  planets,  while  in  the  case  of 
earth's  orbit,  for  instance,  each  point  of  the  path  is  occupie 
succession  only. 

Still  Olmsted  did  not  accept  the  view  that  the  falling  s 
were  of  the  same  nature  as  meteorites. 

Olmsted  also  noted  that,  however  numerous  the  falling 
might    be,   or  in    whatever  direction    they  appeared,   or   w! 
ever    the   apparent  lengths  of  their  paths,   the   lines  of  m 
of  these  paths,  retraced  along  the  sky,  nearly  all  found  a  com 
focus  of  emanation  or  visual  crater  of  projection  among  the  fi 
stars.      This  has  since  been  called  the  radiant  point. 

The   most  salient  fact,  noticed  even  by  those  who  did  not 
its  significance,  during  the  subsequent  display  in  1866,  was 
all  the  meteors  seemed  to  come  from  the  same  region  of  the 
Among  all  those  seen  by  myself  from  11  p.m.  on  Tuesday  ti 
a.m.  on  Wednesday  morning,  two  only  were  exceptions  to  tn 
general  direction.     In  fact,   there  was  a   region   in  which  tli 


,1 


Oct.  4,  1888] 


NATURE 


557 


meteors  appeared  trainless,  and  shone  out  for  a  moment  like  so 
many  stars,  because  they  were  directly  approaching  us.  Near 
this  spot  they  were  so  numerous,  and  all  so  foreshortened,  and 
for  the  most  part  faint,  that  the  sky  at  times  put  on  almost  a 
phosphorescent  appearance.      As  the   eye   travelled   from  this 


region  the  trains  became  longer,  those  being  longest  as  a  rule 
which  first  made  their  appearance  overhead,  or  which  rended 
westward.  Now,  if  the  paths  of  all  had  been  projected  back- 
wards, they  would  have  all  intersected  in  one  region,  and  that 
region  the  one  in  which  the  most  foreshortened  ones  were  seen. 


Fig.  7. — The  radiant  point  of  the  November  meteors. 


Fig-  8. — Radiant  point  oflong  duration  (October-November),  Denning. 


So  decidedly  did  this  fact  come  out  that  there  were  moments  in 
which  the  meteors  belted  the  sky  like  the  meridians  on  a  terres- 
trial globe,  the  pole  of  the  globe  being  represented  by  a  point  in 
the  constellation  Leo.  In  fact,  they  all  seemed  to  radiate  from 
that  point,  and  radiant  point,  as  we  have  seen,  is  precisely  the 


name  given  to  it  by  astronomers.  Vanishing  point,  if  the  bull 
were  permissible,  is  a  term-  which  would  represent  the  fact 
rather  than  the  appearance  which  is  an  effect  of  perspective  ;  and 
hence  we  gather  that  the  paths  of  the  meteors  are  parallel, 
or   nearly  so,    and  that  they  come  therefore   from  one  point 


558 


NATURE 


{Oct.  4,  1 888 


in  the  sky.  The  point  from  which  they  proceed  in  the  case  of 
the  swarm  we  are  now  considering  lies  in  the  constellation  Leo, 
situated  in  longitude  1420  and  latitude  8°  30' N.,  according  to 
Prof.  Newton. 

The  radiants  are  generally  of  short  duration,  but  Mr.  Denning 
has  shown  that  there  are  cases  in  which  falling  stars  emanate 
from  the  same  part  of  the  sky  for  long  periods  of  time. 

One  of  these  long-duration  radiants  between  Auriga  and 
Taurus  is  shown  in  the  accompanying  illustration  (Fig.  8). 

The  next  point,  first  brought  to  light  by  Olmsted,  was  that 
during  a  display  the  radiant  point  moves  with  the  stars  across 
the  heavens.  This  is  another  strong  argument  in  favour  of  the 
cosmical  theory. 

Meteors  which  are  singly  and  occasionally  observed,  as  we 
have  seen,  are  called  sporadic  meteors,  but  in  addition  to  these, 
which  we  may  reckon  to  see  every  night,  there  are  at  certain 
times  of  the  year  very  well  known  falls  ;  so  well  known  that  we 
can  say  at  once  that  on  the  10th  or  nth  of  next  August  more  falling 
stars  will  be  seen  than  are  ordinarily  visible.  These  are  termed 
systematic  meteors,  and  those  to  which  we  have  just  referred 
as  appearing  in  November  are  of  this  class. 

From  1833  to  1863  evidence  was  rapidly  accumulated  indicat- 
ing that  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  shooting-stars  observed 
were  not  sporadic,  but  really  systematic — that  is  to  say,  that  at 
certain  periods  of  the  year  meteors  might  be  expected  to  diverge 
from  their  appearance  in  a  particular  part  of  the  sky,  and  in 
greater  numbers  from  that  part  than  from  elsewhere. 


Fig.  9. — Position  of  the  long-duration  radiant  among  the  stars. 

During  these  years  a  considerable  number  of  radiant  points 
had  been  made  out,  and  therefore  the  existence  of  a  considerable 
number  of  streams  or  swarms  had  been  suggested  if  not  estab- 
lished. In  1863,  -Prof.  H.  A.  Newton  used  these  facts  to 
strengthen  the  cosmical  hypothesis. 

The  observations  of  Humboldt,  modern  observations,  so  to 
speak,  were  repeated,  as  we  have  seen,  in  1833,  on  the  same  day 
(or  one  day  later)  of  the  same  month  on  which  Humboldt  had 
made  his  observation  in  1799,  and  again  one  day  later  in  1866 
there  was  a  recurrence  of  the  same  thing.  Now  these  dates  are 
separated  by  an  equal  interval  of  thirty-three  years.  The  idea 
of  periodicity  was  therefore  suggested  both  for  this  and  other 
displays,  and  gave  rise  to  so  great  an  interest  in  this  question 
that  an  inquiry  was  set  afoot  as  to  whether  falls  had  been  seen 
before  at  previous  intervals  of  thirty-three  years,  or  whether  it 
was  a  new  thing  seen  first  by  Humboldt  in  1799,  or  possibly  by 
the  Cumanese  in  1766. 

Prof.  Newton  took  up  the  inquiry,  and  was  soon  able  to  show 
that  the  various  chronicles  of  star-showers  from  the  very  earliest 
times,  when  properly  discussed,  indicated  that  the  streams 
suggested  by  the  observations  since  1833  had  really  at  variously- 
recurrent  intervals  since  the  beginning  of  astronomical  observa- 
tion given  indications  of  their  existence.1  He  especially  indicated 
such  cases  of  constant  recurrences  of  showers  in  April,  August, 
November,  and  December. 

1  Silliwaris  Journal,  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  1^6,  1863. 


The  discussion  of  the  dates  of  these  showers  in  the  early 
records  showed  a  constant  slow  change  of  date  in  one  direction 
or  the  other.  This  obviously  demonstrated  that  the  showers 
were  independent  of  the  tropical  year  —that  is  to  say,  of  the 
earth's  motion  round  the  sun  ;  and  it  is  difficult  to  understand 
how  a  more  definite  proof  of  their  cosmical  origin  could  be 
afforded. 

We  may  conveniently  confine  our  remarks  on  this  point  to 
the  inquiries  relating  to  the  "Leonid"  swarm  of  meteorites 
which  gives  rise  to  the  November  display. 

Newton  and  others  found  that  we  possess  records,  dating 
from  A.D.  902,  showing  that  about  every  thirty- three  years  since 
that  time  the  heavens  have  been  hung  with  gold.  The  Arab 
historian,  Abu-1'Abbas  ad-Dimashki,  chronicled  the  November 
star-shower  of  the  year  1202  of -our  era  in  the  following  words, 
the  while  Chinese  astronomers  carefully  watched  the  constella- 
tions in  which  the  meteors  appeared  and  vanished  from  the 
sight  : — 

"  In  the  year  599,  on  the  last  day  of  Muharram,  stars  shot 
hither  and  thither,  and  flew  one  against  another  like  a  swarm  of 
locusts ;  this  phenomenon  lasted  until  daybreak  ;  people  were 
thrown  into  consternation,  and  made  importunate  supplications 
to  God  the  most  High  ;  there  was  never  the  like  seen  except  on 
the  coming  out  of  the  messenger  of  God — on  whom  be  bene- 
diction and  peace." 

This  table  for  the  November  display,  from  Prof.  Newton, 
shows  what  the  result  of  searching  the  old  records  was  : — 

Epochs  of  November  Star-Showers. 


Year. 

Day  on  which  the  star- 

Paris  dates 

shower  was  seen. 

and  hours. 

d.     h. 

902 

October 

13 

12    17 

j     931 

16 

14    IO 

I     934 

14 

13    17 

I002 

15 

14    IO 

IIOI 

17 

l6    17 

I202 

19 

18    14 

1366 

23 

22    17 

1533 

25 

24    14 

1602 

28  2      .. 

27    IO 

I698 

...     November 

9 

8  17 

1799 

12 

11   21 

(1832 

13 

12  16 

I  1833           .- 

13 

12  22 

1863-68    ... 

14 

13  14 

These  ancient  records  enabled  Prof.  Newton  to  place  the 
planetary  nature  of  the  November  ring  beyond  all  doubt. 

It  is  evident  that  if  this  ring  crosses  our  orbit  in  a  certain  defi- 
nite point  in  space,  our  earth  will  always  traverse  it  when  it  occu- 
pies the  same  definite  point  of  its  orbit  with  regard  to  the 
stars,  provided  the  ring  does  not  change  its  place.  But 
our  ordinary  year,  called  the  tropical  year,  is  affected  by 
the  precession  of  the  equinoxes,  as  it  is  measured  from  equinox 
to  equinox,  so  that  we  do  not  measure  it  by  the  stars,  but  by  an 
empirical  point  called  the  first  point  of  the  sign  Aries,  which 
is  actually  at  the  present  moment  in  the  constellation  Pisces.  If 
we  refer  the  recorded  star-showers  to  the  sidereal  year,  or  a  fixed 
equinox,  we  should  find  an  almost  absolute  identity  in  the  dates 
of  their  appearance  if  there  were  no  perturbation,  but  we  shall 
see  subsequently  that  there  is  perturbation,  and  this  is  a  final 
demonstration  of  cosmical  origin. 

If  there  is  a  swarm  of  meteorites  falling  in  any  particular 
direction  towards  the   plane  of  the   ecliptic    these   meteorit 
will  take  little  account  of  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes 
the  tropical  year  ;   the  earth  must  take  the  meteorites  as 
finds  them.     The  one  great  jump  in  the  table  was  due  to 
alteration  of  the  calendar,  as  there  was  a  difference  of  twelve  da 
between   the  old   and   new   reckoning.     Prof.    Newton,    Pi- 
Adams,  and  others  have  given  a  complete  demonstration  tl 
from  the  year  902  a  swarm  of  meteorites  has  been  encounte 
by  the  earth  every  thirty-three  years  or  thereabouts,  and  nea 
in  the  same  part  of  her  orbit  round  the  sun. 

By  a  study  of  the  position  and  lie  of  the  earth  in  her  orbit 
can  see  from  what  part    of    space  these   meteors,  these 
numerous  swarms,  come.     Suppose,  for  instance,   that  at 

1  H.  A.  Newton,  Bui.  Ac.  R.  Belg.,  xvii.  No.  6. 

2  In  many  countries  the  change  from  old  to  new  style  was  made  in 
interval  commencing  frcm  1582  in  Spain,  Portugal,  and  Ilaly. 


Oct.  4,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


559 


part  of  the  earth's  orbit  there  is  a  stream  of  meteorites  plunging 
down  nearly  vertically  towards  the  ecliptic  ;  the  earth  in  passing 
through  them  would  receive  the  greatest  number  of  blows  on  its 
exterior  atmosphere  on  the  hemisphere  above  the  plane  of  the 
ecliptic  at  the  time,  while  the  other  hemisphere  would  be 
entirely  sheltered,  so  that  the  direction  of  the  fall  would  be 
capable  of  demonstration  by  a  consideration  of  the  earth's 
direction  and  the  relation  of  its  surface  to  the  plane  of  the 
ecliptic  at  the  time. 

The  observations  indicate  that  these  bodies  are  moving 
towards  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic,  from  its  northern  side,  into 
that  part  of  it  through  which  the  earth  passes  in  her  annual 
journey  in  November  ;  they,  in  fact,  are  moving  round  the  sun 
in  an  orbit  inclined  at  a  not  very  large  angle — 17" — to  the  plane 
of  the  earth's  orbit. 

Similarly,  we  might  observe  the  August  ring  rising  from  one 
of  its  nodes,  situated  in  the  point  of  the  earth's  orbit  occupied 
by  our  planet  on  August  10,  not  at  a  slight  angle  like  the 
November  ring,  but  at  an  angle  of  790  or  8o°. 

It  is  important  to  make  this  point  quite  clear. 

Let  us  conceive  the  sun  and  earth  to  be  half  immersed  in  an 
infinite  ocean  which  will  represent  to  us  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic, 
and  let  us  further  for  greater  simplicity  assume  that  the  earth's 
motion  round  the  sun  (in  a  direction  contrary  to  the  hands  of 
a  watch)  is  performed  in  a  circular  path  with  the  sun  at  the 
centre  ;  let  us,  moreover,  suppose  the  earth's  path,  or  orbit,  to 
be  marked  by  buoys,  remembering  that  astronomers  define  the 
position  of  a  heavenly  body  in  the  plane  by  stating  its  longi- 
tude— that  is,  its  angular  distance,  reckoning  from  right  to  left, 
from  a  particular  start-point,  as  seen  from  the  sun  ;  and  its 
latitude — that  is,  its  angular  height  above  the  plane  as  seen  from 
the  same  body. 

Now,  if  it  were  possible  to  buoy  various  points  of  the  earth's 
orbit  in  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic  in  the  convenient  manner 
before  suggested,  we  should  see  the  meteor-ring  of  "Leonids" 
meeting  the  waves  of  our  hypothetical  ocean,  at  a  slight  angle 
(17°),  at  the  point  of  the  earth's  orbit  occupied  by  our  planet  on 
November  14,  the  point  where  they  pierce  them  being  called 
the  node.  Where  the  other  node  lies,  where  the  meteorites 
cross  the  plane  again,  we  do  not  exactly  know  ;  we  only  know 
that  they  do  not  cross  our  orbit  ;  if  they  did,  another  star-shower 
would  occur  in  May. 

Let  us  inquire  into  this  point  a  little  more  clossly.  Let  us, 
in  imagination,  connect  the  earth  and  sun  by  a  straight  line  ; 
at  any  moment  the  direction  of  the  earth's  motion  will  be  at 
right  angles  to  that  line  (or  a  tangent  to  its  orbit) ;  therefore,  as 
longitudes  are  reckoned,  as  we  have  seen,  from  right  to  left,  the 
motion  will  be  directed  to  a  point  900  of  longitude  behind  the 
sun.  The  sun's  longitude  at  noon  on  November  14  was  232°, 
within  a  few  minutes  ;  900  from  this  gives  us  1420,  which,  as  we 
have  seen,  is  precisely  the  longitude  of  the  radiant  point.  This, 
then,  is  proof  positive  enough  that  in  longitude  at  least  the 
meteoric  hail  was  fairly  directed  against,  and  as  fairly  met  by, 
ihe  earth. 

But  it  will  be  asked,  If  the  radiant  point  is  situated  in  lati- 
tude 8°  30',  how  comes  it  that  the  inclination  of  the  ring  is  stated 
lobe  1 70  ?  should  it  not  rather  be  8°  30'?  To  this  question 
we  may  reply  by  another  :  How  comes  it  that,  when  we  are 
hurrying  through  a  shower,  we  always  incline  an  umbrella  at  a 
less  angle  with  the  ground  than  that  formed  by  the  falling  rain  ? 
The  answer  is  the  same  in  both  cases.  In  the  case  of  the 
meteorites,  if  our  motion  in  one  direction  differs  little  from 
heirs,  they  appear  to  us  to  fall  at  an  angle  which  is  also  almost 
precisely  half  of  their  real  one. 

Similar  ancient  records  relating  to  star-showers  seen  in  March 
ind  April,  and  July  and  August,  showed  that  the  earth's  longitude 
vas  always  the  same  when  thty  were  observed,  if  it  was  raferred 
o  a  fixed  equinox.  The  constant  longitude  for  the  star-showers 
mciently  recorded  to  have  taken  place  in  March-April  corresponds 
o  April  20*id.,  1850,  and  for  a  like  number  seen  in  July-August, 
\ugust  9  od.,  1850. 

Forms  and  dimensions  of  the  orbit  of  the  August  meteors,  all 
>f  them  very  steeply  inclined  to  the  ecliptic,  were  calculated 
imong  the  many  combined  observations  and  determinations  of 
leights  of  those  meteors  made  at  German  Observatories  to  con- 
lude  their  longitudes,  in  the  years  following  the  great  November 
howers  of  1832-33,  by  the  German  astronomer,  Erman.  Bui 
m  exact  valae  of  their  velocity  was  still  wanting',  and  from 
n  approximate  measure  of  the  velocity  of  the  "  Perseids," 
Attained  from  observations  of  a  fine  meteor  of  the  shower   in 


America  on  August  10,  186 1,  Prof.  H.  A.  Newton  found 
elements  of  the  ring,  concluding  it  to  be  not  far  from  circular  in 
forrr,  and  nearly  perpendicular  in  its  plane  to  the  ecliptic. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  longitude  for  the  showers  re- 
corded in  October-November  advances  along  the  ecliptic 
from  a  fixed  equinox  with  a  uniform  motion  of  52"  per  annum. 
Such  a  motion  as  this  must  be  due  to  planetary  perturbation,  and 
hence  we  are  in  presence  of  cosmical  phenomena. 

It  is  to  an  American  astronomer,  Prof.  Newton,  that  we  owe 
the  first  investigation  into  the  constitution  of  the  November 
ring.1  He  first  considered  the  question  whether  the  ring  is 
of  uniform  density,  and  whether  it  lies  merely  near  our  orbit  ; 
the  variation  in  the  brilliancy  of  the  showers  being  caused  by 
the  action  of  the  planets  and  moon  on  the  earth  and  ring — the 
greatest  perturbation  of  the  earth  being  9000  miles  each  way— 
sometimes  throwing  us  into  the  ring,  sometimes  causing  us  to 
pass  it  without  meeting  it.  He  has  shown,  however,  that  the 
ring  cannot  be  of  uniform  density  throughout,  but  that,  on  the 
other  hand,  in  one  part  of  it  there  is  a  clustering  together  of  the 
little  bodies  of  which  it  is  composed — a  few  stragglers  being 
scattered  along  the  rest  of  its  circuit. 

From  other  considerations  he  showed  that  the  meteors 
revolve  round  the  sun  in  a  direction  opposed  to  the  earth's 
motion,  the  most  probable  time  of  revolution  being,  according 
to  his  first  view,  354'62i  days,  our  own  being  accomplished 
in  365 '256  days.     This  is  the  same  as  saying  that  the  annual 

motion  of  the  group  is  I  +    — —    revolutions.   Consequently,  the 

centre  of  the  group  is  brought,  on  this  view,  into  contact  with 
the  earth  once  in  every  133  years,  but  the  earth  passes  very  near 
the  centre  four  times  in  this  interval. 

On  this  view  the  orbit  of  the  swarm  would  be  nearly  circular. 

With  regard  to  the  rings  generally,  Prof.  Newton  made  out 
in  1865 -'  (1)  that  all  the  sporadic  shooting-stars  cannot  belong 
to  a  narrow  ring  which  has  a  diameter  approaching  in  size  that  of 
the  earth  ;  and  (2)  that  a  large  portion  of  the  meteorites,  when 
they  meet  the  earth,  are  travelling  faster  than  it,  or  else  that  the 
sporadic  meteors  form  a  series  of  radiants  at  some  distance  from 
the  ecliptic,  and  hence  come  from  a  series  of  rings  considerably 
inclined  to  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic.  t 

Further,  he  pointed  out  that  the  distribution  of  the  orbits  of 
the  meteorites  must  be  one  or  other  of  the  following  : — 

(1)  They  may  form  rings  passing  near  the  earth's  orbit  at 
many  points  along  its  circuit  (sporadic  meteors  may  be  outliers 
of  such  a  ring). 

(2)  They  may  form  a  disk  in  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic. 

(3)  They  may  be  distributed  at  random  like  the  orbits  of 
comets.  J.  Norman  Lockyer. 

{To  be  continued.) 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

American  Journal  of  Science,  September. — Cambrian  fossils 
from  Mount  Stephens,  North- West  Territory  of  Canada,  by 
Charles  D.  Walcott.  The  fossils  here  studied  were  first  dis- 
covered last  year  by  Otto  J.  Klotz,  and  partly  described  by  Dr. 
C.  Romiger.  A  comparison  with  specimens  from  the  Middle 
Cambrian  Terrane  of  Central  Nevada  shows  that  the  two  faunas 
are  identical,  and  that  consequently  the  Mount  Stephens  remains 
should  be  referred  to  about  the  horizon  of  the  upper  portion  of 
the  Middle  Cambrian  system.  Other  discoveries  near  the 
Kicking  Horse  Pass  on  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  seem  to 
show  that  this  fauna  extends  all  along  the  western  side  of  the 
great  Keweenawan  continental  area  from  Southern  Nevada  far 
into  British  America. — History  of  changes  in  the  Mount  Loa 
crateis  (continued),  by  James  D.  Dana.  Here  are  studied  the 
relations  of  Kilauea  to  Mount  Loa,  arguments  being  advanced 
to  establish  the  independent  origin  of  the  former,  contrary  to  the 
author's  earlier  views  on  the  subject.  But  his  old  conclusion  is  con- 
firmed that  volcanoes  are  not  safety-valves,  but  are  rather  indexes 
of  danger,  pointing  out  the  parts  of  the  earth's  crust  that  are 
most  subject  to  earthquakes.  A  contrast  is  also  drawn  between 
volcanoes  of  the  Mount  Loa  and  Vesuvius  types,  the  discharges 
of  the  former  being  almost  exclusively  outflows,  those  of  the 
latter  upthrows  of  cinders  combined  with  lava-streams. — On  the 
formation  of  deposits  of  oxides  of  manganese,  by  F.  P.  Dunning- 
ton.  The  main  object  of  this  paper  is  to  show  that  manganese 
sulphate   has   probably   taken    a    very   important    part    in    the 

1  Silli man's  Journal,  Nos.  111  and  112. 

2  Ibid.,  vol.  x.\x  x. 


560 


NATURE 


[Oct.  4,  1888 


formation  of  deposits  of  manganese  ore. — Maxwell's  theory  of 
the  viscosity  of  solids  and  certain  features  of  its  physical  veri- 
fication, by  Carl  Barus.  These  researches  tend  to  show  that 
Maxwell's  theory  is  a  version  of  Williamson's  theoiy  of 
etherification  and  of  Clausius's  theory  of  electrolysis.  The 
transition  made  is  from  unstable  groupings  of  atoms  to  unstable 
groupings  of  molecules.  But  while  preserving  minutely  all  the 
essentials  of  Maxwell's  argument,  the  experiments  here  described 
go  one  step  further,  showing  that  viscosity  is  a  phenomenon 
evoked  by  certain  changes  of  molecular  structure,  the  inherent 
nature  of  which  is  ultimately  chemical. — On  the  origin  of 
primary  quartz  in  basalt,  by  Joseph  P.  Iddings.  Here  are 
described  certain  specimens  of  basalt  occurring  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  Rio  Grande  Canon,  which  exhibit  a  remarkable  number  of 
porphyritic  grains  of  quartz.  A  theory  is  proposed  to  account 
for  the  possible  origin  of  this  porphyritic  quartz. — Mineralogical 
notes,  by  Geo.  F.  Kunz.  Here  are  studied  some  specimens 
of  phenacite  and  quartz  pseudomorphs  from  Maine,  a  variety  of 
transparent  oligoclase  and  a  cyanite  from  North  Carolina,  an 
apatite  from  New  York,  and  an  aragonite  pseudomorph  from 
Arizona. — An  appendix  of  42  pages  contains  a  complete  list  of 
the  late  Asa  Gray's  writings,  chronologically  arranged  and  dis- 
posed in  three  categories:  (1)  scientific  works  and  articles, 
1834-83  ;  (2)  botanical  notices  and  book  reviews,  1841-87  ; 
(3)  biographical  sketches,  obituaries,  &c,  1842-88. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 

London. 

Entomological  Society,  September  5. — Dr.  D.  Sharp, 
President,  in  the  chair. — Dr.  Sharp  mentioned  that  he  had 
received,  through  Prof.  Newton,  a  collection  of  Coleoptera  from 
St.  Kilda,  consisting  of  Caralms  catenulatus  (1),  Nebria  brevi- 
collis  (12),  N.  gyllenhalii  (3),  Calathus  cisteloides  (20),  Pristony- 
chus  terricola  (1),  Plerostichus  nigrita  (71),  Pt.  niger  (31), 
Amara  aulica  (4),  Ocypus  olens  (1).  The  species  being  nearly 
all  large  Geodephaga,  he  thought  probably  that  many  other 
Coleoptera  inhabited  the  island.  He  remarked  that  these 
specimens  showed  no  signs  of  depauperation,  but  were  scarcely 
distinguishable  from  ordinary  English  specimens. — Mr.  South 
exhibited  a  melanic  Aplecta  nelndosa  from  Rotherham,  bred  with 
five  others  of  ordinary  form,  and  an  albino  of  the  same  species 
from  Devonshire  ;  a  very  curious  dark  variety  of  Pi 'ttsia  gamma  ; 
two  dark  varieties  of  Eubolia  limitata  from  Durham  ;  Dicro- 
rhampha  consortana  from  North  Devon. — Mr.  Champion  exhib- 
ited Harpalus  citpreus,  Leptusa  testacea,  and  Cathormiocerus 
maritimus  from  Sandown,  Isle  of  Wight. — Mr.  Elisha  exhibited 
the  following  Microlepidoptera  :  CEneana  atricapitana,  turio- 
nana,  Juliana,  derasana,  capreana,  pomonana,  taken  off  Sorbits 
aucuparia  ;  sodaliana,  zephyrana,  trigeminana  ;  also  Schiffer- 
mulleriella  horridella,  alpella,  fuscoaurella,  therinella,  and 
semidecandrella,  on  Cerastium  tctrandrum. — Mr.  Jacoby  ex- 
hibited three  boxes  of  Coleoptera,  collected  partly  by  Mr. 
Fruhstroffer,  containing  some  rare  Cetoniadce,  Faussida,  &c. — 
Mr.  E.  Saunders  exhibited  Amblytylus  delicatus,  Perr.,  a  new 
British  bug,  taken  at  Woking. — Mr.  Jacoby  mentioned  that  he 
had  taken  the  larva  of  Vanessa  cardui  on  a  narrow  white-leaved 
plant  in  his  garden. — Mr.  Enock  mentioned  that  out  of  a  batch 
of  two  males  and  six  females  of  the  Hessian  Fly  kept  together, 
all  six  females  had  laid  fertile  eggs,  so  that  each  male  must  have 
impregnated  more  than  one  female. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  September  24. — M.  Des  Cloizeaux 
in  the  chair. — Generalization  of  a  theorem  of  Gauss,  by  M.  J. 
Bertrand.  This  theorem  is  thus  expressed  :  Whatever  be  the 
attracting  body,  the  mean  value  of  the  potential  at  the  different 
points  of  a  sphere  is  equal  to  the  relative  potential  at  the  centre 
of  the  sphere.  The  demonstration  supposes  the  sphere  to  be 
exterior  to  the  attracting  body,  and  the  present  paper  deals  with 
the  theorem  when  this  condition  is  not  fulfilled,  and  it  is  shown 
that  by  substituting  for  the  full  sphere  a  spherical  surface  the 
theorem  still  holds  good. — Complement  to  the  theory  of  over- 
falls, by  M.  J.  Boussinesq.  Various  applications  are  given  to 
the  theory  established  in  the  previous  paper  (Comptes  rendus, 
September  17,  p.  513)  regarding  the  influence  exercised  on  the 
discharge  by  the  velocity  of  the  current  at  the  overfall. — Obser- 
vations of  Brooks's  comet  (August  7),  and  of  Barnard's  comet 
(September  2),  made  with  the  C38  m.  equatorial  at  the  Obser- 
vatory  of  Bordeaux,    by    MM.    G.    Rayet   and    Courty.     The 


observations  for  Brooks's  comet  are  for  the  period  from  September 
5-17,  those  for  Barnard's  comet  from  September  11-17. — 
On  the  physiological  action  of  Ilcdwigia  balsamifera,  by  MM. 
E.  Gaucher,  Combemale,  and  Marestang.  This  plant,  which 
has  been  classified  and  described  by  Descourtilz  ("Flore  des 
Antilles,"  iii.  p.  263),  belongs  to  the  family  of  the  Terebinth- 
acese,  and  grows  in  the  West  Indies.  The  experiments  on 
guinea-pigs  and  rabbits  here  described  show  that  the  alcoholic 
extract  from  the  bark  of  stem  and  root  is  highly  toxic,  a  dose  of 
o-i6r  gramme  proving  fatal.  The  aqueous  extract  is  less  toxic 
than  the  alcoholic,  but  both  produce  rapid  and  considerable 
lowering  of  the  temperature,  paralysis,  and  convulsions,  spread- 
ing progressively  from  the  lower  part  of  the  marrow  to  the 
rachidian  bulb. 

BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Lessons  in  Elementary  Physic?,  new  edition  :  Balfour  Stewart  (Macmillan). 
— Ungdomsskrifter,  Forsta  Seritn,  Korsta  Haftet  :  Carl  von  Linnes  (Stock- 
holm).— The  Frog.  3rd  edition  :  A  Milnes  Marshall  (Cornish,  Manchester). 
— Primer  of  Micro-Petr  >logy  :  W.  Mawer  (London). — Memory:  F.  W. 
Edridge-Green  (Bailliere). — Mathematischen  Theorien  der  Planeten-Beweg- 
ungen  :  Dr.  O.  Dziobek  (Barth,  Leipzig). — Examples  in  Physics :  D.  E. 
Jones  (Macmillan). — A  Text-bosk  of  Physiology,  5th  edition.  Part  1  :  M. 
Foster  (Macmillan). — The  Centre  of  the  Central  Sea  :  J.  N.  Emra  (Regan 
Paul). — Johannes  Kepler  und  der  Tellurisch-Kosmische  Magnetismus  :  Dr. 
S.  Giinther  (Wien) — Synopsis  of  the  Vertebrate  Fauna  of  the  Puerco  Series: 
E.  J).  Cope  (Philadelphia). — Morphologisches  Jahrbuch,  14  Band,  2  Heft : 
C.  Gegenbanr  (Leipzig). — Zeitschrift  fur  Wissenschaftliche  Zoologie,  xlvii. 
Band,  1  Heft  (Leipzig). — Geological  Record  for  1S80-84  :  Topley  and  Sher- 
born  (Taylor  and  Francis). — The  Calendar  of  the  University  College  of 
Wales,  Aberystwyth,  1888-S9  (Cornish,  Manchester). — The  Analyst's  Labora- 
tory Companion:  A.  E.  Johnson  (Churchill). — Memoirs  and  Proceedings  of 
the  Manchester  Literary  and  Philosophical  Society.  4th  series,  vol.  1  (Man- 
chester).— Photography  for  All  :  W.  J.  Harrison  (Iliffe). — Ornamental  Water- 
fowl :  Hon.  Rose  Hubbard  (Simpkin)  — Jahrbuch  der  Meteorologischen 
Beobachtungen  der  Wetterwartt  der  Magdeburgischen  Zeitung,  Jarhgang 
vi.  1887  (Magdeburg). — Proceedings  and  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society 
of  Canada  for  the  Year  1887,  vol.  v.  (Dawson,  Montreal). — Catalogue  of 
Variable  Stars  :  S.  C.  Chandler  (Lynn,  Mass.) — Report  on  the  Condition  of 
Growing  Crops,  &c,  August  (Washington). — La  Zoologia  de  Colon  :  J.  I.  de 
Armas  (Habana). — Vierteljahrs-Wetter-Rundschau,  Band  i.  Heft  3  and  4 
(Mittler.  Berlin). — Journal  of  Morphology,  vol.  ii.  No.  1  (Ginn,  Boston). — 
Mind,  October  (Williams  and  Norgate). — -Journal  of  Anatomy  and  Physio- 
logy, October  (Williams  and  Norgate). — The  Geological  Magazine,  October 
(Tri'ibner). 

CONTENTS.  page 

Determinants 537I 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Dawson:   "  The  Geological  History  of  Plants "  .    .    .    538 
Letters  to  the  Editor : — 

Prophetic     Germs.— Prof.     E.     Ray     Lankester, 

F.R.S 539: 

A  Shadow  and  Halo.— E.  W.  P 540 j 

Sonorous  Sands. — A.  R.  Hunt 540I 

The  Report  of  the  Krakatao  Committee  of  the  Royal 

Society.     I 54c' 

The  British  Association  ; — 

Section  H — Anthropology. — Opening  Address  by 
Lieut.-General  Pitt-Rivers,  D.C.L.,  F.R.S., 
F.G.S.,   F.S.A.,   President  of  the  Section.      II. 

{With  Maps) 542k 

Section  A. — Mathematical  and  Physical  Science  .    .    .    54^! 

The  International  Geological  Congress.     II 54c 

Remarks  on  some  of  the  more  Recent  Publications 
dealing  with  the  Crystalline  Schists.     By  Prof.  J. 

Lehmann 54' 

The    Stratigraphical    Succession    of   the  Cambrian 
Faunas  in  North   America.      By  Prof.    Chas.    B. 

Walcott 551 

Notes 55: 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

The  Satellites  of  Mars 55. 

Total  Lunar  Eclipse  of  January  28 55. 

Photometric  Observations  of  Asteroids 55. 

New  Catalogue  of  Variable  Stars 55 

Minor  Planet  No.  275 55. 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for      the     Week    1888 

October  7-13 55, 

Geographical  Notes 55 

Electrical  Notes 55 

Notes     on    Meteorites.      IV.      (Illustrated.)     By  J. 

Norman  Lockyer,  F.R.S 551 

Scientific  Serials 55 

Societies  and  Academies 56 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 561 


NA  TURE 


561 


THE  ZOOLOGICAL   RESULTS    OF   THE 
"CHALLENGER"  EXPEDITION. 

Report  on  the  Scientific  Results  of  the  Voyage  of  H.M.S. 
"  Challenger''''  during  the  Years  1873-76,  under  the 
command  of  Captain  George  S.  Nares,  R.N,  F.R.S., 
(ind  the  late  Captain  Frank  T.  Thomson,  R.N.  Pre- 
pared under  the  superintendence  of  the  late  Sir  C. 
Wyville  Thomson,  Knt.,  F.R.S.,  and  now  of  John 
Murray,  one  of  the  Naturalists  of  the  Expedition. 
Zoology— Vol.  XXVI.  Published  by  Order  of  Her 
Majesty's  Government.  (Printed  for  Her  Majesty's 
Stationery  Office,  and  sold  by  Eyre  and  Spottiswoode, 
1888.) 

rPHE  first  memoir  in  Vol.  XXVI.  is  the  second  part  of 
-L  the  Report  on  the  Crinoidea  collected  during  the 
voyage,  and  is  by  Dr.  P.  Herbert  Carpenter.  The  first 
part  treated  of  the  ;Stalked  Crinoids  :  this  treats  of  the 
Comatulidae. 

Since  Midler's  well-known  memoir  on  the  genera  and 
species  of  the  Comatulidae,  no  systematic  work  on  this 
interesting  group  has  until  now  made  its  appearance. 
Several  new  species  have  no  doubt  during  these  forty 
years  been  described,  but  with  the  publication  of  each 
the  subject  became  more  and  more  confused,  and  the 
painstaking  and  laborious  revision  of  the  known  species 
forms  by  no  means  the  least  important  portion  of  the 
present  memoir.  In  it  we  find  the  result  of  many  years' 
careful  study  of  the  "  Comatulae,"  based  not  only  on  the 
collections  made  by  the  Challenger,  but  on  those  made  by 
other  Expeditions  in  various  seas,  and  on  the  examination 
of  almost  all  the  types  to  be  found  in  European  or 
American  Museums. 

Lamarck's  familiar  and  appropriate  name  Comatula  is 
retained  by  the  author  as  the  name  of  a  family  of  Neo- 
crinoids,  which  now  contains  six  genera  with  recent 
species,  viz.  Antedon,  Actinometra,  Atelecrinus,  Eudio- 
crinus,  Promachocrinus,  and  Thaumatocrinus :  of  these 
genera  over  180  species  are  now  known,  a  large  advance 
beyond  the  35  species  referred  to  by  Miiller,  and  of  the 
former  number  88  are  described  in  detail  as  new  from 
the  Challenger  collections.  The  author  remarks  that  even 
this  large  number  is  considerably  lower  than  that  men- 
tioned in  his  preliminary  Report,  but  adds  that  the  large 
experience  gained  by  the  examination  of  numerous  speci- 
mens has  obliged  him  often  to  write  under  one  specific 
name  forms  which  at  first  had  seemed  most  distinct. 

This  Report  is  morphological,  as  naturally  the  oppor- 
tunity was  wanting  for  dealing  with  details  of  development. 
We  have  first  a  general  introduction,  in  which  there 
is  a  sketch  of  the  progress  made  from  the  days  of  de 
Freminville  ;  next  a  chapter  on  the  centro-dorsal  plate 
and  calyx,  in  which  there  is  no  lack  of  controversial 
matter.  The  errors  of  Vogt  and  Yung  might  better 
have  been  referred  to  in  footnotes,  and  the  continuance 
of  the  author's  descriptions  would  not  then  have  been 
interrupted.  It  scarcely  concerns  the  reader  who  is 
studying  Carpenter  to  know  what  "  the  student  of  Vogt 
and  Yung"  would  or  would  not  learn  from  their  writings. 
Vol.  xxxviii. — No.  989. 


The  chapter  on  the  geographical  and  bathymetrical 
distributions  is  an  important  one.  Our  present  knowledge 
of  the  recent  species  is  too  imperfect  for  any  generaliza- 
tion respecting  their  geographical  distribution  or  the 
origin  of  specific  types.  The  species  occur  in  immense 
abundance  over  certain  large  areas,  such  as  the  Caribbean 
Sea,  and  more  especially  the  Eastern  Archipelago  and 
Australasia.  The  species  of  other  seas  have  been  made 
known  to  us  by  the  dredgings  of  the  Challenger ;  and  other 
collections,  both  from  the  Arctic  and  sub-Arctic  seas  and 
from  the  Southern  Indian  Ocean,  have  yielded  some  valu- 
able information.  Although  abundant  near  the  coasts  in  the 
Arctic  Ocean  and  on  both  sides  of  the  North  Atlantic,  no 
species  has  been  dredged  at  a  greater  depth  than  800 
fathoms  in  the  Atlantic,  nor  were  any  forms  met  with  in 
either  of  the  Challenger' s  two  traverses  of  the  North  Atlantic  ; 
and,  while  one  species  is  recorded  from  Madeira  and  the 
Canaries,  none  have  as  yet  been  found  at  the  Azores, 
Cape  Verdes,  or  Bermudas.  The  two  Mediterranean 
species  range  as  far  north  as  Scotland.  In  the  Florida 
Channel,  and  in  the  Caribbean  Sea,  Comatulae  abound. 
None  are  known  from  the  African  coast,  between  Cape 
Verde  and  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  except  one  species  met 
with  at  the  equatorial  island  Rolas.  The  only  Actinometra 
common  to  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  is  found  at  St. 
Paul's  Rocks.  Some  few  of  the  Caribbean  species  ex- 
tend therefrom  down  the  South  American  coasts  to  Cape 
Frio  ;  while,  in  mid-Atlantic,  species  have  been  dredged 
at  moderate  depths  off  Ascension,  St.  Helena,  and  Tristan 
d'Acunha.  Closely  allied  to  the  North  Atlantic  species 
are  those  found  at  Heard  Island  and  Kerguelen.  Various 
species  are  found  at  Simon's  Bay,  Natal,  Madagascar, 
Mauritius,  Seychelles,  Zanzibar,  Red  Sea,  Kurrachee, 
Ceylon,  Bay  of  Bengal ;  while  in  the  seas  of  the  great 
Eastern  |  Archipelago  they  occur  in  most  bewildering 
confusion.  No  species  as  yet  have  been  taken  on  the 
coasts  of  New  Zealand — though  one  or  two  approach  the 
East  Cape  of  the  North  Island — nor  at  Tasmania.  Two 
species  are  recorded  from  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  and 
single  species  are  known  to  occur  at  Chili  and  Peru ;  but 
there  are  none  apparently  on  the  western  shores  of  North 
America.  In  the  Pacific  the  species  are  extremely  rare. 
While  essentially  littoral  forms,  three  species  were  found 
at  depths  of  from  345  to  755  fathoms,  from  the  green  mud 
off  the  Japanese  coasts  ;  and  one,  Antedon  abyssicola, 
from  a  depth  of  2900  fathoms,  at  Station  244  in  the  North 
Pacific. 

So  far  as  present  knowledge  goes,  the  Comatulidae  first 
appeared  in  the  time  of  the  Middle  Lias,  and  were  thus 
of  later  date  than  the  Pentacrinidas  ;  they  were  fairly 
abundant  in  the  Jurassic  and  Cretaceous  epochs ,  espe- 
cially so  at  certain  periods.  The  recent  forms  occupy 
an  immensely  more  extended  area  than  the  extinct  ones, 
for,  with  the  exception  of  a  species  of  Antedon  from 
Algiers,  and  another  from  Syria,  no  fossil  Comatulid  has 
been  found  out  of  Europe,  not  even  in  the  Indian  Ter- 
tiaries,  otherwise  so  rich  in  Echinoderm  remains  ;  and 
while  none  are  to  be  found  in  America,  it  is  not  with- 
out interest  to  note  that  Pentacrinoid  remains  are  very 
common  at  certain  horizons  of  the  Jura  Trias  over  wide 
areas  of  the  western  territories,  thereby  indicating  that 
the  conditions  of  that  age  were  not  altogether  unfavour- 
able to  the  existence  of  Crinoid   life.     The  Middle  Lias 

B  B 


562. 


NA  TORE 


[Oct.  ii,  18S8 


of  France  contains  two  species  of  Antedon,  the  oldest  yet 
known,  and  the  genus  occurs  together  with  Actinometra, 
in  the  Lower  Oolites  of  both  France  and  England  ;  while 
if  Bonrgueticrinus  ooliticus,  McCoy,  is  a  Thiolliericrinus, 
as  supposed  by  de  Loriol,  then  it  is  the  earliest  known 
species  of  this  remarkable  genus. 

The  fifth  chapter  is  on  the  classification  of  the  family, 
and  is  followed  by  the  descriptions  of  the  specimens.  In 
a  seventh  chapter  there  is  a  detailed  account  of  the 
bathymetrical  distribution,  and  a  station  list  of  all  the 
"  Comatulaa  "  which  were  obtained  by  the  various  British 
Expeditions  for  deep-sea  exploration  between  the  years 
1868-82.  Appended  to  this  is  a  list  of  all  the  known 
living  species  of  Comatulae,  with  their  distribution  in  depth 
and  space.  As  to  the  latter,  all  the  principal  stations  are 
given.  In  the  analysis  of  this  list  (p.  383)  the  total 
number  of  living  species  is  given  at  180,  but  from  the  list 
itself  there  would  seem  to  be  188  species.  Possibly  the 
seven  additional  species  of  Antedon  and  the  one  species 
of  Actinometra  named  but  not  described  may  account 
for  this  discrepancy.  The  Report  is  accompanied  by 
seventy  plates. 

In  congratulating  the  author  on  the  successful  accom- 
plishment of  his  onerous  task,  we  allude  to  his  apology  for 
the  delay  in  its  publication  to  state  our  conviction  that  none 
such  was  needed.  Investigations  like  those  here  recorded 
might  be  more  quickly  accomplished  were  it  possible  to 
devote  to  them  the  whole  working  hours  of  the  investi- 
gator's life  ;  but  when  instead  they  have  to  be  carried 
on  during  the  hours  of  rest  from  arduous  profes- 
sional duties,  hours  that  might  more  prudently  have  been 
devoted  to  repose,  the  case  becomes  quite  different,  and 
the  wonder  to  us  is  that  so  much  has  been  done  within 
the  time. 

The  second  memoir  in  the  volume  is  a  Report  by  Sir 
Wm.  Turner  on  the  Seals  collected  during  the  voyage.  In 
the  first  volume  of  these  Reports,  Sir  W.  Turner's  Report 
on  the  Bones  of  the  Cetacea  which  had  been  collected  by 
the  Expedition  appeared.  In  the  present  Report.we  have 
detailed  descriptions  of  the  species  of  Macrorhinus, 
Leptonychotes,  Otaria,  and  Arctocephalus,  procured  at 
the  Kerguelen  and  Heard  Islands,  off  the  Falklands,  in 
Messier  Channel,  and  at  Juan  Fernandez.  This  is  fol- 
lowed by  an  outline  of  the  classification  of  the  Pinnipedia, 
in  which  the  diagnoses  of  all  the  genera  and  those  of 
most  of  the  known  species  are  given. 

In  a  third  part  there  is  a  description  of  the  brain  of  the 
elephant  seal  and  of  the  walrus,  with  a  comparison  of  the 
convolutions  of  the  brain  of  the  seals  and  walrus  with 
those  of  the  brains  of  the  Carnivora,  and  of  apes  and 
of  man.  Part  IV.  gives  an  account  of  the  visceral 
anatomy  of  the  elephant  seal.  In  an  appendix  there  is 
an  elaborate  account  by  Dr.  W.  C.  Strettell  Miller  of  the 
myology  of  the  Pinnipedia.  Ten  plates  accompany  this 
Reptfrt. 

The  third  and  last  memoir  in  this  volume  is  an 
exceedingly  interesting  supplement  to  his  Report  on  the 
Actiniaria,  by  Prof.  Richard  Hertwig. 

This  supplement  contains  a  description  of  additional 
specimens  fouad  from  time  to  time  as  the  various  other 
groups  of  marine  forms  were  being  worked  out.  Amongst 
the  material  occurred  species  previously  described,  but  en- 
abling in  a  few  cases  fresh  details  to  be  added.     Several, 


however,  represented  new  and  interesting  genera,  but  in 
some  cases  the  material  was  in  so  bad  a  state  of  pre- 
servation as  to  preclude  description.  Prof.  R.  Hertwig's 
Report  was  published  in  1882,  and  since  then  Andres's 
monograph  of  the  Actiniaria  has  appeared.  Some 
criticisms  on  his  classification  preface  the  description 
of  the  new  species  ;  and  a  synopsis  of  the  Hexaetinias 
according  to  Hertwig's  views,  is  given. 

In  the  description  of  genera  and  species  we  find  an  ac- 
count of  a  new  species  of  Moseley's  genus  Corallimorphus, 
C.  obtectus.  It  was  found  at  Station  157,  and  on  it  Hert- 
wig in  his  Report  had  chiefly  based  his  description  of 
C.  rigidus,  Mos.,  the  type  specimen  of  which  latter  has 
now  been  found.  A  new  genus,  Ilyanthopsis,  is  established 
for  a  single  specimen  from  the  Bermudas  ;  it  seems  in 
shape  intermediate  between  Aiptasia  and  Anemonia  ;  it 
was  attached.  Aulorchis  is  a  new  genus  belonging  to  the 
group  of  forms  devoid  of  tentacles,  the  specimen  (A. 
paradoxd)  was  found  at  Station  299,  at  a  depth  of  2160 
fathoms.  With  the  assistance  of  Dr.  Erdmann,  a  revision 
of  the  Zoanthese  is  given,  based  on  an  examination  of  the 
condition  of  the  ccenenchyma,  arrangement  of  mesen- 
teries, structure  of  sphincter,  condition  of  integument, 
and  colonial  formation.  The  solitary  forms  are  relegated 
to  Sphenopidae,  the  colonial  to  Zoanthidae,  of  which  five 
genera — Zoanthus  (Cuv.,  p.p.),  Mammilifera  (Lesueur), 
Epizoanthus  (Verrill),  Polythoa  (Lamx.),  and  Corticifera 
(Lesueur) — are  recognized.  In  an  appendix  a  new  genus 
and  species  is  described,  Stephanidium  schulzii,  found 
off  Zebu,  which  appears  to  belong  to  the  Zoanthese,  but 
differs  in  the  absence  of  incrustations  and  the  non- 
formation  of  a  colony. 

We  notice  one  defect  in  this  memoir,  that  the  references 
to  the  authorities  for  known  genera  and  species  are 
omitted.  There  are  four  plates  representing  the  new 
forms. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

A  Bibliography  of  the  Foraminifera,  Recent  and  Fossil, 
from  1565  to  1888.  By  C.  Davies  Sherborn,  F.G.S. 
Pp.  i.-viii.  and  1-152.     (London:  Dulauand  Co.,  1888.) 

The  attention  of  naturalists  for  many  years  has  been 
drawn  to  the  minute  animals  of  the  sea,  and  with  increas- 
ing interest  as  they  have  become  better  known  by 
researches  as  well  in  abyssal  as  in  shallow  waters.  Their 
fossil  representatives  have  also  long  been  noticed  and  ex- 
tensively sought  for  in  very  many  strata  of  different  ages 
in  various  parts  of  the  world. 

The  Foraminifera  are  among  these  multitudinous  objects 
of  interest  to  the  microscopist,  and  through  him  to  the 
naturalist  in  general,  and  the  geologist  in  particular. 

The  simplicity  of  structure  in  the  Foraminifera,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  their  manifold  and  indeed  interminable 
varieties  of  form,  often  symmetrically  elegant,  have  given 
rise  to  numerous  namings  and  descriptions,  often  without 
adequate  figures.  Hence  their  nomenclature  has  been 
confused  among  the  multitude  of  authors  who  have  eitht 
mentioned,  or  more  fully  treated  of,  these  minut 
organisms.  Consequently,  for  a  basis  in  determining  tl 
relative  value  of  the  so-called  species,  their  right  names 
and  order  of  discovery,  a  bibliography  of  the  Foraminifera 
having  long  been  desiderated,  was  attempted  by  differer 
writers  in  1 848/1 854,  1858,1859,  1878, 1884, and  1886-8  ;  but 
each  ofthese  catalogues  was  imperfect.  We  are  pleased 
to  be  able  to  say  that  a  complete  list  of  the  books  and 
papers  treating  of  Foraminifera  is  now  before  us,  combin- 


Oci   ii,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


i<53 


ing  accuracy  and  fullness  of  detail  as  to  title,  author,  date, 
size,  and  place  of  publication.  A  short  note  of  explanation 
or  pertinent  remark  is  in  many  cases  added  to  the  entries 
of  the  rare  and  little-known  publications.  Mr.  Sherborn 
thus  enumerates  about  700  authors,  with  full  title  of  book 
or  memoir,  carefully  systematic  abbreviation  of  titles  of 
periodicals,  and  place  of  publication  as  given  in  the 
originals.  Notices  and  general  reviews  having  original 
information  are  included.  Mr.  Sherborn  has  examined 
all  the  works  he  has  catalogued,  with  very  few  exceptions, 
and  these  are  properly  marked  "  not  seen."  The  authors 
most  prolific  of  memoirs  are  Brady,  Carpenter,  Carter, 
Dawson,  De  la  Harpe,  D'Orbigny,  Ehrenberg,  Folin, 
Fornasini,  Giimbel,  Haeusler,  Hantken,  Karrer,  Jones, 
Munier-Chalmas,  Neugeboren,  Parker,  Reuss,  Robertson, 
Schlumberger,  Schultze,  Seguenza,  Soldani,  Stache,  Ter- 
quem,  Terrigi,  Uhlig,  Van  den  Broeck,  Wallich,  and 
Williamson.  Former  lists  have  evidently  been  carefully 
collated  and  corrected :  and  the  life-dates  (birth  and 
death)  of  deceased  authors  have  been  entered  as  far  as 
possible. 

Several  of  the  older  papers  are  now  catalogued  for  the 
first  time,  such  as  "  Camerarius's  papers,  1712  and  1717  ; 
Klein's,  1754;  Schroeter's,  1803  ;  and  Wulfen's,  1791  "  ; 
we  also  find  "  the  correction  of  the  hitherto  inaccurate 
references  to  Spengler's  papers  ;  the  original  place  of 
publication  of  Modeer's  letter  to  Soldani  ;  and  Ricca's 
'  Discorso,'  with  the  engraved  portrait  of  Soldani  " ;  and, 
"  among  those  of  scientific  importance, . .  .  the  earlier  issue 
of  Fichtel  and  Moll  (which  carries  back  their  scientific 
names  five  years) ;  D'Orbigny's  list  of  the  Foraminifera 
of  the  Vienna  Basin,  published  by  J.  von  Hauer  seven 
years  before  the  full  description  appeared ;  the  note  on 
D'Orbigny's  '  Planches  inddites  '  ;  Boue's  paper  on  the 
Nummulites  ;  and  Silvestri's  rare  and  interesting  paper 
on  Soldani's  '  Testaceographia.'  For  the  first  time,  too, 
an  endeavour  has  been  made  to  enumerate  the  important 
memoirs  published  by  the  Hungarian  authors  with  some 
approach  to  completeness." 

The  whole  work  has  been  conscientiously  done,  with 
scrupulous  exactness  ;  and  the  industrious  author  has 
made  it  a  labour  of  love  for  several  years,  since  he  began 
to  study  Foraminifera.  Having  so  full  a  knowledge  of 
the  subject,  he  might  with  advantage,  we  venture  to 
think,  give  further  aid  to  students  and  others  by  publish- 
ing an  index  and  synonymy  of  all  the  recorded  genera 
and  species  of  Foraminifera. 

In  the  preface  to  the  bibliography,  Mr.  Sherborn  fully 
acknowledges  the  help  he  has  received  from  his  many 
friends  at  home  and  abroad  ;  and  he  refers  to  such 
analogous  and  collateral  bibliographies  as  have  been  aids 
in  his  research.  This  work  will  without  doubt  be  fully 
appreciated  by  biologist  and  palaeontologist  ;  and  we 
cordially  agree  with  the  author  in  his  remark  that  "  sincere 
thanks  are  due  to  Mr.  F.  Justen  (Dulau  and  Co.),  to 
whose  generosity  and  scientific  sympathies  I  owe  the 
publication  of  my  manuscript."  T.  R.  J. 

Earth  Knowledge.  Part  II.  By  W.  J.  Harrison,  F.G.S., 
and  H.  R.  Wakefield.  (London  :  Blackie  and  Son, 
1888.) 
This  book,  in  conjunction  with  the  companion  volume 
issued  a  few  months  ago,  is  chiefly  intended  for  the  use  of 
students  preparing  for  the  Science  and  Art  Department's 
examinations  in  Physiography.  The  book  is  far  toosmall  for 
its  subject,  and  in  consequence,  only  very  bare  outlines  of 
the  different  branches  of  the  subject  can  be  given,  and 
much  is  omitted  which  we  should  expect  to  find.  It  is 
scarcely  possible,  for  instance,  to  give  an  adequate 
amount  of  information  about  the  sun  in  half  a  dozen 
small  pages  ;  yet  the  authors  have  attempted  to  do  this, 
and  the  result  is  what  might  be  expected — namely,  a  very 
scanty  chapter.  No  mention  is  made  of  the  fact  that 
the  corona  is  of  variable  form,  and  since  only  one  draw- 


ing is  given,  a  student  would  be  likely  to  infer  that  its 
form  is  constant.  Again,  the  possibility  of  observing 
prominences  whenever  the  sun  is  visible,  and  the  pecu- 
liarities and  variability  of  sun-spot  spectra  are  not  touched 
upon  at  all.  No  chapter  on  the  sun  can  be  regarded 
as  complete  which  does  not  treat  of  the  various  solar 
phenomena  in  relation  to  the  sun-spot  period. 

Again,  the  classification  of  stars  according  to  their 
spectra  (p.  78)  is  not  treated  nearly  so  fully  as  its  import- 
ance demands.  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  there 
are  two  distinct  kinds  of  red  stars,  one  giving  indi- 
cations of  metallic  fluting  absorption,  and  the  other  of 
carbon  absorption,  we  are  simply  told  that  in  the  red 
stars  the  lines  are  more  numerous  than  in  stars  like 
Arcturus  (p.  79). 

On  p.  126  we  read: — "Although  the  sun's  mass  is  so 
very  much  greater  than  that  of  the  moon — being  nearly 
sixty  million  times  as  great — yet  the  tide-producing  force 
of  the  sun  is  only  about  seven-sixteenths  that  of  the 
moon,  because  the  sun  is  nearly  400  times  farther  off  the 
earth  than  the  moon."  Although  this  statement  is  quite  true, 
a  little  further  explanation  is  necessary  to  make  it  consis- 
tent with  the  arithmetical  fact  that  sixty  millions  is  greater 
than  the  square  of  400.  It  is  only  fair  to  say,  however, 
that  the  importance  of  considering  the  differential  attrac- 
tions of  the  sun  and  moon  on  opposite  sides  of  the  earth, 
instead  of  the  total  attractions,  is  well  brought  out  with 
regard  to  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes. 

On  the  whole,  the  drawings  are  excellent,  but  that  on 
p.  29,  showing  the  action  of  the  spectroscope,  is  rather 
misleading  ;  we  would  remind  the  authors  that  the  slit  is 
usually  placed  in  the  principal  focus  of  the  collimating 
lens,  and  that  there  is  nothing  to  converge  the  rays  of 
light  to  a  point  inside  the  tube. 

Without  the  aid  of  a  well-informed  teacher,  the  book 
is  far  from  sufficient  to  fulfil  the  purpose  for  which  it  has 
been  written. 

An  Introdtiction  to  the  Science  and  Practice  of  Photo- 
graphy. By  Chapman  Jones,  F.I.C.,  F.C.S.  (London  : 
Iliffe  and  Son,  1888.) 
We  have  here  quite  a  new  departure  from  the  ordinary 
books  on  photography,  the  subject  being  treated  not  from 
the  mechanical  but  from  the  scientific  point  of  view,  and 
the  author  has  succeeded  in  placing  before  us  a  very 
useful  work. 

The  volume  is  divided  into  three  parts.  The  first  con- 
sists of  fifteen  chapters,  the  more  important  among  them 
treating  of  the  transmission  and  intensity  of  light,  reflec- 
tion by  plane  and  concave  mirrors,  refraction  of  light 
and  the  forms  and  properties  of  lenses,  &c,  concluding 
with  a  chapter  on  the  spectroscope,  colour-sensitiveness, 
and  the  absorption  of  light.  In  Part  II.  are  described 
various  forms  of  cameras,  camera-stands,  exposure- 
shutters,  followed  by  some  very  interesting  chapters  on 
the  history  and  special  properties  of  the  many  and  various 
forms  of  lenses.  Part  III.  consists  of  twenty-four  chapters 
extending  over  100  pages,  in  which  are  described  the 
manufacture  of  collodion  and  gelatino-bromide  plates, 
and  all  the  different  modes  of  developing,  printing,  toning 
&c,  including  carbon-printing,  Woodburytype,  and  other 
photo-mechanical  processes. 

In  the  appendix  are  tables  of  English  weights  and 
measures,  and  a  comparison  of  them  with  the  metrical 
system,  preceded  by  an  explanation  of  the  methods  of 
testing  lenses.  The  volume  is  well  illustrated,  and  the 
varied  information  contained  in  it  ought  to  give  it  a  wide 
circulation. 

Numerical  Examples  in  Practical  Mechanics  and  Machine 

Design.   By  Robert  G.  Blaine,  M.E.   (London  :  Cassel) 

and  Co.,  Limited,  1888). 

In  this  volume  there   is  an  excellent   collection   of  ex- 

a  np'.es,  the  teaching  power  of  which   has  already  been 


5^4 


NATURE 


\Oct.  ii,  1888 


tried  by  students  attending  the  lectures  at  the  Finsbury 
Technical  College,  who,  as  is  stated  in  the  preface, 
written  by  Prof.  John  Perry,  have  worked  through  them 
and  obtained  "a  real  good  working  knowledge  of  the 
application  of  the  principles  of  mechanics  and  machine 
design ;  .  .  .  their  knowledge  was  always  ready  for  use." 

The  examples,  as  a  rule,  are  thoroughly  practical,  and 
may  be  taken  as  illustrating  Prof.  J.  Perry's  book  on 
"  Practical  Mechanics,"  and  Prof.  Unwin's  book  on 
"  Machine  Design." 

To  make  the  volume  more  complete,  useful  rules  and 
constants,  together  with  tables  of  sines,  cosines,  tangents, 
and  cotangents,  of  angles  from  1°  to  450,  are  added, 
concluding  with  a  table  of  the  squares,  cubes,  square 
roots,  cube  roots,  and  reciprocals  of  all  numbers  from  1 
to  100,  and  of  approximate  fifth  roots  from  1  to  1000. 

A  Text-book  of  Physiology.  By  M.  Foster,  F.R.S- 
Fifth  Edition.  Part  I.  comprising  Book  I.  (London  : 
Macmillan  and  Co.,  1888.) 

This  work  was  originally  published  in  1876,  and  it  has  be- 
come so  widely  known  that  we  need  not  now  do  much  more 
than  note  the  appearance  of  the  first  instalment  of  a  new 
edition.  In  this  edition— the  fifth— considerable  changes 
and  additions  have  been  made.  The  changes,  however, 
do  not  affect  the  character  of  the  book  ;  and  Prof.  Foster 
explains  that  the  additions,  with  the  exception  of  the 
histological  paragraphs,  are  caused,  not  by  any  attempt  to 
add  new  matter  or  to  enlarge  the  general  scope  of  the  work, 
but  by  an  effort  to  explain  more  fully  and  at  greater  length 
what  seem  to  him  to  be  the  most  fundamental  and  most 
important  topics.  He  has  introduced  some  histological 
statements,  not  with  the  view  of  in  any  way  relieving  the 
student  from  the  necessity  of  studying  distinct  histological 
treatises,  but  in  order  to  bring  him  to  the  physiological 
problem  with  the  histological  data  fresh  in  his  mind. 
Hence  in  dealing  with  the  several  histological  points 
the  author  has  confined  himself  to  matters  having  a 
physiological  bearing.  This  first  part  will  be  followed  as 
soon  as  possible  by  the  second  and  third  parts. 

The  Analysts  Laboratory    Companion.      By  Alfred    E. 

Johnson.  (London  :  J.  and  A.  Churchill,  1888.) 
During  the  past  four  years,  Mr.  Johnson  has  had  in  every- 
day use  in  the  laboratory  a  manuscript  book  of  factors 
and  tables.  The  work  grew  by  constant  additions,  made 
as  required  ;  and  in  the  end,  as  he  explains  in  the  preface, 
it  became  complete  enough  to  encourage  him  in  the  belief 
that  it  might  prove  useful  to  analysts  generally.  Accord- 
ingly he  has  issued  the  present  little  volume,  and  no 
doubt  he  is  right  in  thinking  that  the  large  amount  of 
labour  involved  in  the  calculation  of  the  many  original 
tables  here  published  may  be  found  to  save  much  of  the 
time  otherwise  required  by  the  analyst  in  working  out  the 
results  of  analysis.  For  the  convenience  of  students  not 
well  acquainted  with  logarithms,  of  which  he  has  made  free 
use,  he  has  given  an  account  of  them,  adding  examples 
fully  worked  out  and  chosen  so  as  to  include  and 
explain  the  difficulties  generally  felt  in  connection  with 
this  subject. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
of  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations,,] 

Prophetic  Germs. 

I  regret  to  find  that  I  put  an  erroneous  interpretation  upon 

the  phrase    "non-significant   organs,"  as  used  by  Prof.    Ray 

Lankester.     I  never  doubted  that  it  meant  organs  or  structures 

which  were  non-significant  in  respect  to  actual  use;  that,   in 


short,  it  was  his  phrase  for  what  other  men  have  variously  called 
aborted  or  rudimentary  organs.  He  now  explains  that  "  non- 
significant," in  his  terminology,  means  any  variation  from 
hereditary  forms  which  is  fortuitous — as  unknown  in  respect  to 
its  origin  as  it  is  in  respect  to  its  actual  or  future  use.  Although 
I  see  no  value  in  this  phrase  as  descriptive  of  anything  that 
exists,  I  see  great  value  in  Prof.  Ray  Lankester's  admission  that 
natural  selection  cannot  act  upon  any  structure  which  is  not 
already  developed  up  to  the  stage  of  actual  use.  This  is  really 
all  I  want  for  my  previous  argument,  because  all  organs  what- 
ever do  actually  pass  through  rudimentary  stages  in  which  actual 
use  is  impossible.  In  no  possible  case,  therefore,  can  selection 
explain  the  origin  of  any  organic  structure.  I  rejoice  to  find  Prof. 
Ray  Lankester  denouncing  as  "an  absurdity  "  the  idea  that ' '  con- 
genital variations  are  selected  when  they  are  not  of  any  actual 
use."  It  must  therefore  be  quite  according  to  the  admitted 
constitution  and  course  of  Nature  that  we  should  find  organs 
" on  the  rise, "  as  well  as  organs  "on  the  wane."  AH  germs 
must  be  prophetic  of  their  future  use,  so  long  as  they  are  in 
germinal  stages  ;  and,  if  evolution  be  true,  the  world  ought 
always  to  have  been  full  of  them,  and  ought  to  be  full  of  them 
now,  unless  the  creative  or  evolutionary  work  has  been  arrested, 
at  least  locally,  and  for  a  time.  Argyll. 

Inveraray,  Argyllshire,  October  8. 


The   Geometric  Interpretation  of   Monge's  Differential 
Equation  to  all  Conies. 

With  reference  to  the  remarks  of  "  R.  B.  H."  (Nature, 
June  28,  p.  197)  on  my  interpretation  of  the.  differential  equa- 
tion to  all  conies,  I  wish  to  point  out  that  the  objections  he 
seems  to  take  do  not  appear  to  be  well  founded.  The  difficulty 
he  finds  is  that  the  geometrical  interpretation  given  amounts  to 
the  fact  that  "  a  conic  is  a  conic."  But  it  is  easy  to  see  that 
there  is  no  peculiarity  in  this  ;  it  arises  simply  from  the  well- 
known  fact  that  all  the  geometrical  properties  of  any  given 
figure  are  inter-dependent  :  one  of  them  being  given,  the  others 
may  be  deduced  as  legitimate  consequences  from  it.  "  R.  B.  H." 
takes  the  proposition  which  constitutes  my  interpretation,  and 
then,  coupling  it  with  the  other  theorem  that  the  osculating 
conic  of  any  conic  is  the  given  conic,  comes  to  the  conclusion 
that  a  conic  is  a  conic,  and,  apparently,  he  takes  it  to  be  very 
strange  ;  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  given  any  two  properties  of  a 
conic  (or  of  any  other  curve),  we  can  only  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  conic  is  a  conic  (or  that  the  given  curve  is  what  it  pro- 
fesses to  be).  Take,  for  example,  the  geometric  interpretation 
of  the  differential  equation  of  all  right  lines,  which  is  q  =  o  ;  it 
simply  means  that  the  curvature  vanishes  at  every  point  of  every 
right  line,  which  is  equivalent  to  the  fact  that  a  straight  line  is 
not  curved,  or  that  a  straight  line  is  a  straight  line.  There  is 
certainly  nothing  strange  in  this  :  it  is  the  legitimate  effect  of 
the  process  employed.  Would  "  R.  B.  H.,"  on  this  ground, 
reject  the  geometrical  interpretation  of  the  differential  equation 
of  all  straight  lines  ?  Surely  the  process  is  nothing  but  a  piece 
of  quite  unobjectionable  verification.  Similarly,  the  differential 
equation  of  all  circles,  (1  +p''-)r-  3pq'2  =  o,  means  that  the 
angle  of  aberrancy  vanishes  at  every  point  of  every  circle.  Com- 
bining this  with  the  self-evident  proposition  that  the  normal  and 
the  axis  of  aberrancy  coincide  in  the  case  of  a  circle,  we  may; 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  a  circle  is  a  circle  ;  but  I  submit  that; 
this  is  really  a  verification,  and  surely  no  ground  for  rejecting  j 
the  interpretation.  Indeed,  the  question  whether  such  processes 
are  to  be  regarded  as  verifications  or  not  seems  to  me  to  be 
much  the  same  question  whether  every  syllogism  is  a  pctitio 
principii  or  not.  But  as  I  have  elsewhere,  in  the  papers  referred 
to  in  my  last  letter  (p.  173,  ante),  fully  discussed  what  a 
geometrical  interpretation  properly  ought  to  be,  I  need  not 
enlarge  further  on  this  point. 

As  to  the  difficulty  which  "  R.  B.  H."  feels  in  drawing  a 
curve  at  every  point  of  which  the  radius  of  curvature  vanishes, 
I  may  remark  that  this  is  a  "limiting  case,"  and  the  matter 
becomes  clear  when  my  interpretation  is  paraphrased  thus : 
"If  the  radius  of  curvature  of  the  aberrancy  curve  of  a  given( 
curve  vanishes  at  every  point,  that  curve  degenerates  into  a 
conic." 

Finally,  I  fail  to  see  why  an  interpretation  is  to  be  rejected, 
simply  because  the  property  it  enunciates  happens  to  admit  of 
an  easy  verification.  The  conic  has  an  infinite  number  of  proper- 
ties, and  the  chief  difficulty  in  discovering  the  geometrical  inter- 
pretation of  its  differential  equation  has  been  to  find  out  which 


I 


Oct.  ii,  1888] 


NATURE 


56; 


of  these  numerous  properties  is  adequately  and  most  appropriately 
represented  by  the  Mongian  equation.  The  question  has  been, 
what  fact  in  the  history  of  the  conic,  if  I  may  say  so,  is  most 
intimately  associated  with  the  vanishing  of  the  Mongian  ;  end 
that  fact,  I  believe,  is  given  in  my  interpretation.  Wnether  the 
fact  admits  of  an  easy  verification  or  not  seems  to  me  to  be 
wholly  foreign  to  the  question. 

Calcutta,  July  27.  ASUTOSH  MUKHOFADHYAY. 


Upper  and  Lower  Wind  Currents  over  the 
Torrid  Zone. 

After  my  arrival  in  China  in  1883,  I  made  inquiries,  among 
persons  who  had  kept  meteorological  registers,  concerning  the 
direction  from  which  clouds  usually  come  here,  but  was  told 
that  they  came  from  all  directions  without  any  apparent  order. 
But  the  observations  made  during  January  1884,  printed  in  the 
Weather  Report  published  on  February  II,  showed  at  once 
clearly  that  the  lower  clouds  came  from  the  east,  and  that  the 
directions  veered  with  increasing  height,  the  highest  clouds 
coming  from  the  west,  as  explained  in  the  text  of  the  Annual 
Weather  Report  published  on  February  17,  1885.  This  might 
have  been  expected  in  analogy  with  what  obtains  in  cyclones, 
as  the  trade-wind  blows  into  the  calm  belt  as  if  this  were  the 
centre  of  a  depression  drawn  out  to  extend  round  the  whole 
earth  near  the  equator. 

The  Hon.  R.  Abercromby,  to  whom  my  Reports  were  sent 
without  delay,  convinced  himself  of  the  truth  of  those  remarks 
during  a  tour  round  the  world,  and  addressed  a  letter  to  Nature 
on  the  subject  on  October  26,  1885,  but  it  is  of  importance  that 
the  subject  should  be  investigated  at  fixed  observatories  within 
the  tropics,  where  hardly  enough  attention  has  hitherto  been 
paid  to  the  movements  of  clouds,  to  judge  from  what  has  hitherto 
been  published. 

In  the  Annual  Weather  Report  for  1885,  it  is  stated  that,  from 
June  to  September  inclusive,  cirri  come  from  two  different  direc- 
tions— from  about  north-east  while  a  typhoon  is  in  existence 
somewhere,  their  direction  often  backing  from  about  east  to 
north  while  the  centre  of  the  typhoon  is  yet  over  700  miles 
away  ;  and  from  about  west  when  there  are  no  signs  of  a  typhoon. 
But  cirri  are  rarely  seen  in  summer  except  before  typhoons, 
through  whose  agency  vapour  is  evidently  carried  up  to  the 
higher  regions  of  the  atmosphere.  It  is,  however,  to  be  expected 
that  the  existence  of  the  southerly  monsoon  (caused  by  the  low 
barometer  in  the  northern  part  of  the  Chinese  Empire)  during 
the  summer  to  some  extent  influences  the  movements  of  the 
:louds. 

The  following  table  exhibits  from  four  years'  observations 
1884  to  1887  inclusive)  the  average  directions  from  which  the 
wind  comes  at  the  Observatory,  about  150  feet  above  M.S. L., 
ind  at  the  Peak  about  1850  feet  above  M.S.L.,  as  well  as  the 
iverage  directions  from  which  the  upper  and  lower  clouds 
:ome,  but  the  difference  between  the  latter  is  so  great  that 
ntermediate  directions  will  be  missed  : — 


Obs. 


January   ... 
February... 
March     . . . 

E  11  N 

E  15  N 

E    4N 

April 

May 

June 

E  3  N 
E  11  S 
E51  s 

July 

August    . . . 
September 
October  ... 

E46  s 
E  72  S 
E  12  N 
E  15  N 

November 

E28N 

December 

E  26  N 

Peak. 

..  E  IO  N 
..  E  17  N 
..  E  17  S 
..  E  30  S 
..  E.44  s 
..  E67  S 
..  E87  S 

S 
..  E    1  N 
..  E    8N 
..  E  19  N 
..  E  18  N 


Lower  C.         Upper  C. 


...  Eby  S 
...  EbyN 
..     ESE 
...      SE 
...     SSE 
...  S  by  E 
...  S  by  E 

S 
...     ESE 
...  EbyN 
...    ENE 
...  EbyN 


W  by  S 
W 

Why  S 
Why  S 
WNW 

NNW 
NE 
NE 
NNE 
Wby  S 
W  by  S 
WSW 


Mean  ...  E  6  S  ...  E  22  S  ...  E3o°S  ...  W33°N 
If  an  observer  outside  the  earth  were  to  determine  the  period 
f  this  planet's  rotation  by  observing  spots  formed  by  clouds,  he 
yould  obtain  different  values  according  to  the  level  of  the  respec- 
ive  cloud-layer,  just  as  we  obtain  different  values  for  the  period 
f  rotation  of  Jupiter  from  observations  of  different  classes  of 
pots.  In  the  case  of  the  earth,  the  observation  of  the  highest 
louds  near  the  equator  might  possibly  furnish  a  value  of  the 
leriod  too  short  by  a  tenth,  and  there  is  no  doubt  it  would  be 
lifferent  nearer  the  Poles.  W.  DoBERCK. 

Hong  Kong  Observatory,  August  II. 


The  Natural  History  of  the  Roman  Numerals. 

Some  time  ago  I  had  the  pleasure  of  reading  in  your  journal 
(vol.  xxxvi.  p.  555)  an  interesting  article  by  Mr.  Lymburn  on 
the  above  subject.  In  this  the  writer  shows  the  probable  evolu- 
tion of  the  X  ten>  from  the  \J  hand,  and  thence  the  broad 
arrow,  ^\.  As  the  Scandinavians  used  this  arrow  sign,  calling  it 
tiroxtyr,  as  an  equivalent  for  "J"  jn  the  Runes  (see  Taylor,  "  The 
Alphabet,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  18),  it  is  therefore  connected  with  the 
Greek  tau,  the  headless  cross,  the  X  °f  tne  Semitic  languages. 
I  have  no  doubt  that  many  of  your  readers  take  an  interest  in 
anything  bearing  on  this  subject.  This  is  my  apology  for  calling 
their  attention  to  an  article  published  in  the  last  volume  of 
Transactions  of  the  New  Zealand  Institute,1  wherein  I  break 
new  ground  by  showing  that  the  word  tau  was  known  in  Poly- 
nesia as  a  cross,  as  ten,  and  probably  as  meaning  "writing." 

I  have  given,  in  the  different  dialects  of  New  Zealand,  Samoa, 
Tonga,  Hawaii,  &c,  the  meanings  of  the  word,  and  shown  its 
entry  into  other  compound  words.  A  brief  precis  runs  as 
follows  : — 

Tatau  (la-tau)  is  the  Tahitian  word  which  Cook  brought  to 
us,  and  is  better  rendered  by  his  spelling  tattow  than  by  our 
English  tattoo.  In  Maori,  tatau  means  to  count,  to  repeat  one 
by  one  ;  but  in  Hawaiian  it  means  to  write,  to  make  letters 
upon,  to  print  as  upon  tapa  (native  cloth)  as  in  former  times. 
In  this  Hawaiian,  tau  means  to  dot,  to  fix  the  boundaries  of  a 
land  or  country,  to  give  publicity  to  a  thing.  In  Tahitian,  tatau 
means  not  only  to  tattoo,  but  to  count,  number  ;  in  Samoan, 
tau  is  to  count,  and  in  Marquesan,  tatau  to  reckon.  In  com- 
position, too,  it  enters  into  many  words,  such  as  teacher,  pupil, 
genealogy,  &c,  and  it  seems  impossible  but  that  the  tattooing 
(at  one  time  done  in  "  three-marks  "  and  arrow-heads)  meant 
some  kind  of  character  or  script. 

As  to  the  numeral  "ten,"  I  bring  some  interesting  evidence 
which  I  cannot  condense. 

As  to  the  figure  of  the  cross  being  used  as  a  sacred  sign, 
there  are  innumerable  evidences  to  that  effect  in  the  Poly- 
nesian islands  ;  notably  that  the  Southern  Cross  is  called  in 
Tahitian  tau-ha  ("four-cross"),  and  that  the  cross  X  was  tne 
taboo  sign  in  front  of  Hawaiian  temples.  I  have  since  learnt 
that  in  the  Solomon  Islands  the  cross  taboos  anything  to  the 
chief. 

Wellington,  N.Z.,  August  5.  Emv.  Tregear. 


Indian  Life  Statistics. 

Though  several  weeks  have  now  elapsed  since  Dr.  Hyde 
Clarke's  inquiry  about  the  effects  of  lucky  and  unlucky  times 
and  seasons  upon  the  Indian  birth-rate  was  published  (in 
Nature  of  July  26,  p.  297),  none  of  your  readers  in  England 
who  happen  to  be  acquainted  with  India  have  come  forward  to 
answer  it.  I  therefore  write  to  point  out  that,  though  the  times 
of  Hindu  marriages  are  to  a  very  great  extent  controlled  by 
supposed  lucky  or  unlucky  days,  months,  or  years,  these  have 
nothing  whatever  to  do  with  variations  in  the  birth-rate,  for  the 
usual  age  of  marriage  of  girls  is  from  eight  to  ten  years,  and 
child-bearing  at  the  earliest  does  not  commence  before  twelve  or 
thirteen. 

With  regard  to  the  Holi  and  other  religious  festivals,  I  have 
it  on  the  authority  of  Mr.  J.  C.  Nesfield,  Inspector  of  Schools 
in  Oudh,  who  has  made  a  life-long  study  of  Hindu  castes  and 
their  customs,  that,  whatever  the  origin  and  primary  significance 
of  the  Holi  may  have  been,  it  is  not  now  connected  in  any 
special  manner  with  the  multiplication  of  the  species.  The 
religious  ceremony  to  which  the  Hindu  looks  for  the  furtherance 
of  his  desire  for  offspring  is  the  Durga  Pujah,  or  worship  of  the 
consort  of  Shiva,  which  is  the  occasion  of  the  annual  family 
reunion  all  over  Bengal.  In  the  Upper  Provinces  a  totally 
different  festival  is  celebrated  at  the  same  time  of  the  year— the 
Ram  Lila,  a  sort  of  dramatic  performance  or  mystery-play, 
commemorating  the  expedition  of  Rama  to  Ceylon  for  the  re- 
covery of  his  lost  wife  ;  but  Mr.  Nesfield  says  that  during  the 
Ram  Lila  some  member  of  every  family  is  specially  set  apart  to 
conduct  a  ceremonial  worship  of  Kali,  or  Durga,  ending  with 
the  sacrifice  of  a  male  kid,  and  that  the  object  of  this  ceremony 
is  to  obtain  the  favour  of  Kali  and  her  consort  for  the  continu- 

1  Trans.  N.Z.  Inst.,  vol.  xx.,  "Ancient  Alphabets  in  Polynesia,"  by  E 
Tregear,  F.R.G.S.     (London  :  Triibner  and  Co.) 


566 


NATURE 


[Oct.  ii,  1888 


ance  of  the  family.  Now  the  Durga  Pitjah  and  its  equivalent 
ceremony  in  Upper  India  occur  in  October,  i.e.  at  the  beginning 
of  the  healthy  season  with  abundant  food-supplies.  This  is  one 
more  instance  of  the  perfect  adaptation  of  the  Hindu  religious 
calendar  to  the  natural  changes  of  the  seasons. 

Allahabad,  September  9.  S.  A.  Hill. 


A  Shell  Collector's  Difficulty. 

Can  any  of  your  readers  help  me  in  the  following  case  ?  I 
am  a  shell-collector,  and  my  minute  and  delicate  species  {Dip- 
lommatina  and  such  like)  are  kept  in  glass  tubes.  1  have  lately 
observed  that  some  of  the  tubes  in  the  cabinets  were  becoming 
opaque  ;  a  milky  efflorescence  seemed  clouding  the  inside 
surface.  I  found  the  same  thing  in  a  box  containing  about 
100  that  I  had' placed  on  one  side.  I  then  opened  a  box  of  500 
which  had  never  been  unpacked  since  they  were  received,  some 
four  years  ago.  All  these  are  more  or  less  affected  !  I  then 
opened  a  third  box,  from  another  maker,  and  in  this  500  I 
observed  many  beginning  to  be  affected.  What  can  be  the 
reason  ?  Each  of  these  tubes  is  tightly  corked,  and  I  see  the 
glass  under  the  cork  is  not  affected.  I  have  tried  various  means 
to  restore  the  clearness  without  avail.  I  have  boiled  some,  and 
roasted  some  in  the  sun,  steeped  others  in  alcohol,  oil,  &c.  ; 
nothing  seems  to  do  any  good.  Can  any  of  your  scientific  readers 
divine  the  cause,  and  suggest  a  remedy  ?  E.  L.  La  YARD. 

British  Consulate,  Noumea. 


"  Fauna  and  Flora  of  the  Lesser  Antilles." 

In  the  article  on  this  subject  in  Nature  of  August  16  (p. 
371),  it  is  stated  that  Guilding  discovered  a  Peripatus  in 
Dominica  many  years  ago.  This  is,  I  believe,  an  error,  for 
Guilding's  Peripatus  julijorme  was  found  by  him  in  St.  Vincent, 
an  island  to  the  south  of  Dominica,  and  the  first  specimen  of 
Peripatus  found  in  this  island  was,  I  understand,  the  one  now  in 
the  British  Museum,  taken  home  by  Mr.  G.  Angas. 

The  rediscovery  of  the  Dominica  Peripatus  is  rather  curious. 
In  1883-84,  at  the  special  request  of  Prof.  Moseley,  I  searched 
for  the  animal  in  all  likely  places,  but  did  not  succeed  in  finding 
any  specimens.  At  that  time  Prof.  Moseley  and  I  were  not 
aware  of  Mr.  Angas's  discovery.  I  mentioned  my  non-success  to 
Mr.  Ramage,  and  asked  him  to  look  out  for  the  interesting 
animal,  and,  strange  to  say,  soon  afterwards  his  boy  brought 
him  three  specimens,  but  Mr.  Ramage  has  not  been  able  to  ob- 
tain any  more.  I  employed  the  same  boy  after  Mr.  Ramage  had 
left  Laudat,  and  he  brought  me  two  specimens,  and  said  that  he 
could  find  no  more  although  he  had  searched  for  several  days. 
These  two  I  sent  to  Prof.  Moseley  at  Oxford.  A  few  weeks 
ago  another  specimen  was  brought  to  me  from  the  windward  (or 
eastern)  side  of  the  island  by  the  same  boy,  who  found  it  about 
300  feet  above  the  sea,  not  far  from  the  coast.  Laudat  is  on  the 
leeward  side,  at  an  elevation  of  about  2000  feet  above  the  sea, 
and  on  the  margin  of  the  virgin  forest.  The  six  specimens  of  the 
Dominica  Peripatus  recently  found  may  not  belong  to  a  new 
species,  but  the  rarity  of  the  animal  is  interesting.  Had  it  been 
common  in  any  degree,  Mr.  Ramage  and  I  must  have  found  it,  but 
neither  of  us  has  succeeded  in  doing  so. 

Mr.  Ramage,  who  has  been  labouring  with  unflagging  zeal, 
leaves  to-day  for  St.  Lucia,  but  he  will  return  here  later  on  in  the 
year,  so  as  to  continue  his  botanical  work.  His  specimens  of  the 
forest  flora  form,  I  believe,  the  most  complete  collection  that  has 
yet  been  made  in  the  island,  and  his  enthusiastic  work  deserves 
recognition.  H.  A.  Alford  Nicholls. 

Dominica,  West  Indies,  September  15. 


Sun  Columns. 

With  reference  to  the  simultaneous  appearance  of  five  sun 
columns  described  by  Mr.  Brauner  (August  30,  p.  414),  the 
following  descriptions  of  three  different '  manifestations  of  the 
phenomenon  may  perhaps  be  of  interest. 

April  19,  1887,  7.25  to  7.37  p.m.,  calm,  sky  clear  except 
a  smoky  grayish  haze  low  on  the  western  horizon,  behind 
which  the  sun  had  set.  The  solar  rays  concentrated  into  one 
perpendicular  continuous  beam  of  uniform  diameter  with  the  sun, 
and  reaching  to  an  altitude  of  about  20°.  The  beam  sharply 
define1,    and  of  a  reddish  tint  strong  enough  to  be   detected 


behind  the  haze.  Near  the  summit  a  few  tinted  strips  of  fine 
cloud  forming  an  angle,  and  giving  the  whole  the  appearance, 
as  described  by  the  person  who  called  my  attention  to  it,  of  "a 
ship's  mast  and  yards."     No  trace  of  side  rays  visible. 

June  10,  1888,  8  to  8.25  p.m.,  sun  set  below  horizon  ;  to  an 
altitude  of  about  lo°,  sky  comparatively  clear,  only  a  little  cirro- 
stratus  ;  above  this,  to  an  altitude  of  200,  the  cirro-stratus  much 
more  dense,  and  in  this  part  only  was  a  sun  column  distinctly 
visible,  terminating  abruptly,  and  showing  no  trace  in  the  cirro- 
cumulus  above.  In  the  lower  io°  there  was  also  no  evidence  of 
the  column.  It  was  at  first  of  an  old  gold  colour,  then  gradually 
changed  to  a  deeper  red  by  8. 15  p.m.,  when  the  clouds  on  both 
sides  were  suffused  with  the  same  tint,  and  by  8.27  it  had 
disappeared. 

These  two  cases  I  observed  from  my  own  residence  ;  the  third 
has  been  communicated  to  me  by  Mr.  W.  Manning,  who  was 
chief  officer  of  the  ship  Balm  ore  when  he  witnessed  the 
phenomenon.  Not  having  access  to  the  ship's  log,  he  could  not 
give  me  the  exact  date  and  position,  but  it  was  some  four  or  five 
years  ago,  "  in  about  250  or  30°  S.  lat.,  and  from  120°  to  1300  W. 
long.,  during  the  first  dog  watch  (4  to  6  p.m.),  observed  the  sun 
at  an  altitude  of  about  25°  of  a  dull  red  colour,  with  all  its  rays 
apparently  drawn  together  and  forming  a  pillar  of  light  reaching 
from  the  sun  down  to  the  horizon,  and  about  the  sun's  diameter 
in  breadth."  Mr.  Manning  told  me  that  of  all  the  curious  sights 
he  had  seen  at  sea  none  had  been  so  impressed  on  his  mind  as 
this  sun  pillar. 

These  are  instances  of  continuous  pillars  from  the  sun  upwards 
and  downwards,  one  showing  the  half  furthest  from  the  sun 
only.  Hy.  Harries. 

Rosebank,  Hounslow,  September  28. 


THE  REPORT  OF  THE  KRAKATAO 
COMMITTEE  OF  THE  ROYAL  SOCIETY} 

II. 

A  N  appendix  to  Prof.  Judd's  section  on  the  geologica 
^*-  aspects  of  the  eruption  embraces  a  series  of  data 
collected  by  Dr.  Meldrum,  F.R.S.,  of  Mauritius,  regarding 
the  falls  of  dust  and  the  occurrence  of  masses  of  pumice 
throughout  the  Indian  Ocean  in  1883-84,  which  he  hac 
already  communicated  to  the  British  Association  in  1 
Mr.  Scott's  prefatory  note  thereon  shows  that  while  such 
data  are  of  value  in  exhibiting  the  immense  magnitude  0 
the  eruption  they  cannot  help  to  throw  much  fresh  ligh 
upon  the  question  of  the  Indian  superficial  oceanic  circu- 
lation, since  the  pumice  was  evidently  affected  almost  as 
much  by  the  motion  of  the  air  as  by  that  of  the  water 
Thus,  while  a  comparison  of  the  two  maps  reveals  a  genera 
westerly  drift  in  the  direction  of  the  well-known  left 
handed  circulatory  system  of  the  Southern  Indian  Ocean,  « 
detached  phalanx  of  pumice  masses  offthe  north-west  coas 
of  Australia  in  1884  (in  the  second  map)  shows,  as  Mr 
Scott  observes,  a  probable  drift  thither  "  before  the  north 
west  monsoon  which  would  prevail  in  those  seas  fron 
November  1883  to  March  1884." 

In  one  other  point,  however,  apart  from  their  genera 
interest,  these  data  are  valuable  in  confirming  the  genera 
westerly  trend  of  all  the  ejecta  at  the  time  of  the  eruptior 
— a  fact  whose  significance  becomes  subsequently  st 
marked  when  dealing  with  the  spread  of  the  op  ' 
phenomena. 

In  the  plates  of  geological  sections  which  are  appe 
to  this  Part  attention  should  be  paid  to  (3)  (4)  (5)  ( 
Plate  4,  in  whch  natural  and  artificial  pumice  and 
from    Krakatab  are  compared,  since   they  have  an 
portant  bearing  on  Prof.  Judd's  conclusions. 

Part  II.  of  the  Report,  which  deals  with  the  air  w 
and  sounds  caused  by  the  principal  eruption  of  Krakata"; 
on  August  26  and  27,  was  prepared,  under  the  directioi 
of   Lieut-General  Strachey,    F.R.S.,  principally   by  Mi, 
R.  H.  Curtis,  of  the  Meteorological  Office. 

The  air-waves,  as  apart  from  actual  sounds,  were 
of   the  most    extraordinary  features  of  this    unique 

1  Continued  from  p.   54;. 


Oct.  ii,  1888] 


NATURE 


5^7 


burst ;  for,  while  it  is  possible  that  similar  waves  were 
propagated  through  the  atmosphere  during  great 
eruptions  in  former  years,  these  appear  to  be  the  only 
instances  recorded  of  anything  of  the  kind  on  such  a 
vast  scale  since  the  establishment  of  continuous  self- 
recording  barometers. 

That  air-waves  caused  by  the  sudden  expansion  of 
the  erupting  gases  could  leave  a  perceptible  record  on  all 
the  barometer  traces  as  far  as  the  antipodes  of  Krakatab, 
is  of  itself  a  sufficiently  remarkable  fact,  but  that  such 
waves  could  record  their  passage  back  and  forwards  no 
less  than  seven  times,  is  a  circumstance  which  even  now, 
five  years  after  its  occurrence,  fills  us  with  astonishment. 
A  selection  of  forty-seven  stations  has  been  made,  which, 
as  far  as  possible,  represent  the  habitable  world  ;  and 
the  times  of  passage  of  the  wave  from  Krakatab  to  the 
antipodes  and  from  the  latter  back  to  Krakatab  have  been 
deduced  by  comparing  the  significant,  and  in  many  cases 
similarly-shaped,  notches  in  the  barometer  traces. 

Of  course,  where,  as  in  the  present  case,  the  form  of  the 
wave  itself  was  complicated,  gradually  became  deformed, 
and  was  traceable  for  no  less  than  127  hours  from  its 
commencement.perfect  accuracy  in  determining  the  precise 
moments  of  passage  of  the  various  phases  could  scarcely 
be  expected.  Yet  it  is  evident  on  the  face  of  it  that  a 
very  high  degree  of  accuracy  has  been  attained,  by  which 
not  only  can  the  precise  moment  of  the  great  outburst 
be  determined  by  the  simple  process  of  calculating  back- 
wards, but  also  certain  variations  of  velocity  be  traced 
in  portions  of  the  wave  which  took  different  routes  over 
the  globe. 

The  general  pace  at  which  the  air-wave  spread  outwards 
in  concentric  circles  from  Krakatab  as  a  centre,  was  700 
miles  per  hour,  which  is  slightly  less  than  the  velocity  of 
sound  at  zero  Fahrenheit,  viz.  723  miles.  The  entire  circuit 
of  the  globe  and  back  was  thus  made  in  about  thirty-six 
hours.  Also,  by  a  careful  comparison  of  times  and 
probable  errors,  the  probable  moment  of  the  greatest 
explosion  is  calculated  to  have  been  2h.  56m.  G.M.T.,  or 
9h.  58m.  local  time,  on  the  morning  of  August  27.' 

This  great  explosion  appears  to  have  been  not  only  the 
culminating  point  of  the  Krakatab  eruption  (the  pre- 
ceding minor  outbursts  appearing  as  a  mere  roughening 
of  the  barometer  scale,  or  a  series  of  moderate  oscillations 
on  that  of  the  gasometer  at  Batavia),  but  owing  to  its 
surpassing  intensity,  a  feature  altogether  peculiar  to  this 
eruption,  and  one  by  which  it  will  always  be  distinguished 
from  others,  such  as  that  of  Asama  (Japan)  an  J  Skaptar 
Jokull  in  1783,  or  Tamboro  in  1815,  which,  in  respect  of 
the  amount  of  material  ejected  in  the  form  of  lava,  and 
other  effects,  appear  to  have  equalled  if  not  exceeded  it. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  results  of  this  discussion 
of  the  Krakatab  air-wave  has  been  the  discovery  of  its 
variation  of  speed  according  as  it  travelled  with  or  against 
the  earth's  rotation.  As  a  general  fact  it  may  be  said 
that  such  variation  is  plainly  traceable  to  the  prevalent  drift 
of  the  winds. 

Thus  in  the  extra-tropics  the  wave  moving  from  west 
to  east  was  accelerated,  and  that  from  east  to  west 
retarded,  by  about  14  miles  per  hour  ;  while  within  the 
tropics  the  wave  which  passed  through  Mauritius  and 
Loanda  was  affected  in  a  precisely  reverse  manner,  the 
passage  eastwards  being  retarded,  while  that  westwards 
was  comparatively  unaffected,  the  amount  corresponding 
to  an  east  to  west  wind  of  about  10  miles  an  hour.  It  is 
at  least  curious  to  notice,  that  on  p  35  of  the  "  Motions 
of  Solids  and  Fluids,"  by  Prof.  Ferrel  (Washington,  1882), 
the  value  of  the  due  E.  to  W.  component  of  the  trades 
between  15°  N.  and  S.  lat.  is  given  as  10  miles  per  hour, 
while  the  mean  of  the  W.  to  E.  component  of  the  anti- 
trades for  latitude  45°  at  the  earth's  surface  and  a  height 
of  3  miles  above  it,  is  exactly  14^  miles  per  hour. 

1  This  differs  by  only  4  minutes  from  ioh.  2m.,  the  epoch  determined  from 
fewer  data  by  M.  Verbeek. 


The  greatest  general  retardation  took  place  in  the 
Southern  Ocean,  possibly  owing  to  the  low  temperature  of 
the  southern  hemisphere  in  August.  All  these  points  are 
very  distinctly  shown  in  the  diagrams. 

As  regards  the  actual  sounds,  the  facts  are  without  pre- 
cedent. The  unvarnished  record  reads  like  a  fairy  tale. 
When  we  are  told  that  at  distances  of  over  2000  miles 
from  the  volcano,  the  noise  was  like  the  firing  of  heavy 
guns,  and  that  at  numerous  points  of  the  Indian  Ocean 
steamers  were  despatched  in  search  of  supposed  vessels 
in  distress,  we  are  prepared  to  accept  with  less  hestitation 
the  numerous  other  collateral  evidences  of  the  enormous 
explosive  energy  which  generated  them. 

The  area  over  which  the  sounds  were  heard  is  roughly 
estimated  at  one-thirteenth  of  the  entire  surface  of  the 
globe.  In  other  words,  it  was  nearly  equal  to  Europe  and 
Africa  together,  or  slightly  exceeded  that  of  both  Americas. 
All  these  details  are  illustrated  by  numerous  diagrams. 

Part  III.,  by  Captain  W.  J.  L.  Wharton,  R.N.,  F.R.S., 
deals  with  the  so-called  seismic  sea  waves  generated  during 
the  eruption  ;  one  of  which  not  only  dealt  death  and  destruc- 
tion all  over  the  Straits  of  Sunda,  but  travelled  as  far  as 
Cape  Horn,  and  possibly  the  English  Channel. 

It  appears  that  there  were  two  sorts  of  waves  generated 
— one  of  long  period  (two  hours),  which  alone  recorded 
itself  on  the  automatic  gauges  and  travelled  to  great 
distances ;  and  others  of  much  shorter  period,  which 
were  mostly  confined  to  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the 
volcano. 

The  only  hypothesis  by  which  the  facts  can  be  recon- 
ciled, according  to  Captain  Wharton,  is  that  at  the  time  of 
the  greatest  explosion, at  10  o'clock  on  August  27, "waves 
of  both  characters  would  be  more  or  less  synchronously 
formed,"  the  longer  wave  being  caused  by  upheaval,  and 
the  shorter  ones,  which  caused  the  destructive  effects  in 
the  Straits  of  Sunda,  by  the  displacement  due  to  ejected 
masses  or  fragments  of  the  volcano  falling  into  the  sea  all 
round  it. 

In  proof  of  upheaval,  which  appears  to  be  the  only 
probable  cause  of  the  longer  wave,  Captain  Wharton  cites 
the  generally  shallowed  condition  of  the  sea  immediately 
surrounding  Krakatab,  especially  on  the  northern  side. 

We  cannot,  however,  help  observing  that,  according  to 
Prof.  Judd,  the  geological  evidence  is  entirely  against 
upheaval  throughout  the  area  ;  and  the  formation  of  the 
new  shoals  and  islands  is  attributed  by  him  solely  to  the 
piling  up  on  the  sea  floor  of  the  coarser  matter,  including 
the  framework  of  the  volcano,  which  was  ejected  during 
the  explosive  outbursts.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  indeed, 
that  during  the  eruption  there  was  no  trace  of  any  local 
seismic  disturbance  such  as  might  be  supposed  to  accom- 
pany an  upheaval  of  the  ground.  A  variety  of  peculiar 
effects  were  witnessed,  such  as  clocks  stopped,  lamps 
broken,  and  houses  cracked,  but  all  of  these  were  traceable 
to  air  and  not  earth  vibrations. 

The  precise  cause,  therefore,  of  the  long  wave  will,  as 
Captain  Wharton  says,  "  ever  remain  to  a  great  extent  un- 
certain." One  fact,  however,  remains  clear — that  both  it 
and  its  minor  predecessors  were  distinctly  connected  wit! 
corresponding  explosions  from  the  crater,  which  recorded 
themselves  in  unmistakable  language  on  the  gasometer 
pressure-gauge  at  Batavia.  Whatever  the  precise  proxi- 
mate cause,  therefore-— whether  slow  upheaval,  according  to 
Cap:ain  Wharton,  or  the  impact  of  falling  matter,  according 
to  Prof.  Judd— the  action  commenced  with  each  explosion. 
The  height  of  the  local  manifestation  of  the  great  wave 
at  10  o'clock  is  estimated  to  have  been  50  feet,  though  in 
places  where  it  reached  the  shore  it  appears  to  have  run 
up  to  70  feet. 

The  terribly  destructive  effects  of  these  shorter  "  super- 
seismic"  waves,  of  which  this  one  appears  to  have  been 
the  greatest,  are  amply  detailed  in  M.  Verbeek's  Report, 
and  the  accompanying  views  of  the  localities  visited. 
They   reached   the   above    majestic  height   only  in  the 


568 


NATURE 


[Oct.  ii,  1888 


immediate  vicinity  of  the  volcano,  rapidly  falling  off  in 
size  at  a  comparatively  short  distance  from  the  Sunda 
Straits. 

The  longer  waves,  with  the  original  period  of  two  hours, 
are  traced  by  automatic  and  eye  observations  to  have 
proceeded  mainly  in  a  westerly  direction  from  Krakatab, 
being  noticeable  at  Ceylon,  all  over  the  western  part  of 
the  Indian  Ocean,  the  south  coasts  of  Africa  and  South 
America,  the  west  coast  of  Australia,  and  possibly — though 
the  evidence  is  not  free  from  doubt — as  far  as  the  west  coast 
of  France  and  the  entrance  to  the  English  Channel.  In 
other  directions,  such  as  the  China  Sea,  the  Pacific,  and 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  they  do  not  seem  to  have  been  felt, 
the  supposed  indications  not  being  compatible  in  any  way 
with  the  times  and  distances. 

As  a  general  result,  it  may  be  said  that  the  mean  depths 
deduced  by  the  formula  V  =  v 'gh,  from  the  best  data  for 
the  speed  of  the  waves,  corresponded  fairly  with  that 
given  by  the  soundings,  but  in  nearly  every  case  the  formula 
gave  a  smaller  depth  than  the  soundings.  This  and  other 
circumstances  lead  us  to  conclude,  not  so  much  that  the 
formula  is  incorrect,  but  that,  with  so  few,  and  in  some  cases 
such  badly  placed,  automatic  gauges,  and  from  such  com- 
plex oscillations  as  seem  to  have  occurred  in  many  of  those 
discussed  in  this  section,  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  arrive 
at  anything  but  a  very  rough  approximation  to  the  mean 
depths.  The  shelving  of  the  bottom  near  land,  which  in 
many  cases  is  not  well  determined,  and  the  possible  exist- 
ence of  ridges  in  mid-ocean,  constitute  obstacles  to  a 
determination  of  mean  depth,  which  is  all  the  passage  of 
such  waves  can  indicate.  In  so  far,  however,  as  they  yield 
an  approximate  check  of  this  kind  on  soundings,  their 
observation  ought  to  be  encouraged  by  the  establishment 
of  more  automatic  gauges  in  suitable  spots. 

One  very  peculiar  feature  of  the  Krakatab  long  waves 
is  that,  while  their  original  period  when  leaving  Krakatab 
was  two  hours,  they  became  subdivided  (possibly  by  an 
interpolated  series  caused  by  reflection  from  the  coast  of 
Java)  into  waves  of  half  this  period  ;  and,  by  the  time  they 
reached  the  North  Atlantic,  into  waves  of  about  one-quarter 
of  this  period.  Their  consecutive  oscillations  could  thus 
only  be  identified  with  those  of  the  original  oscillations 
by  doubling  or  quadrupling  the  observed  periods. 

Although  at  great  distances  from  Krakatab  the  height 
of  the  largest  long  wave  was,  as  might  be  expected,  only  a 
few  inches  ;  at  such  comparatively  remote  places  through 
the  more  open  route  to  the  west  as  Ceylon  and  Mauritius, 
the  higher  and  shorter  waves  made  their  presence  felt 
to  heights  of  several  feet,  and  created  considerable 
astonishment  as  well  as  damage  in  these  localities. 

Like  the  air  and  sound  waves,  the  occurrence  of 
seismic  waves  on  such  a  scale  and  over  such  a  wide  area 
appears  to  have  been  quite  unprecedented  ;  and  their  dis- 
cussion, like  that  of  the  former,  will  in  the  present  case 
probably  yield  results  of  considerable  value  to  hydrography 
as  well  as  other  branches  of  science. 

{To  be  continued.) 

FOUND  A  TIONS  OF  CORAL  REEFS. 

THE  following  extract  from  a  letter  from  Captain 
Aldrich,  R.N.,  H.M.  surveying-ship  Egeria,  now 
employed  in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  is  interesting  from  several 
points  of  view. 

"  .  .  .  .  The  following  morning  at  daylight  (July  10)  we 
picked  up  268  fathoms  (volcanic  rock)  some  considerable 
distance  southward  of  the  Pelorus  Reef.  This,  again,  will 
involve  a  further  search.  Twelves  miles  to  the  northward 
the  depth  was  444,  and  two  subsequent  soundings  at  five- 
mile  intervals  gave  713  (ooze)  and  888  (ooze).  From  here 
the  soundings  continued  to  grow  shoaler,  until  in  lat. 
22°  51'  S.,  long.  1760  26'  W.,  we  sounded  in  335  fathoms 
(cinder),  being   close   to  the    assigned    position   of   the 


Pelorus  Reef.  The  water  deepened  again  to  719  (cinder), 
when  we  hove  to  for  the  night.  On  July  11  we  continued 
about  this  position,  the  shoalest  sounding  being  246.  On 
the  12th  we  continued  the  search,  and  by  following  up  at 
quarter-mile  intervals  struck  95  fathoms  late  in  the  after- 
noon. Prepared  a  beacon,  and  the  following  day  (July 
13),  after  excellent  star  observations,  sounded  and  shoaled 
as  yesterday,  and  when  the  men  were  standing  by  to  slip 
the  beacon,  discoloured  water  was  reported  from  the 
mast-head  ;  it  was  almost  immediately  seen  from  the 
deck,  and  by  9  a.m.  the  beacon  was  dropped  in  24  fathoms, 
with  a  stretch  of  light-greenish  water  extending  in  a 
northerly  and  southerly  direction  for  about  half  a  mile. 
The  whalers  were  lowered,  and  remained  all  day  in  this 
green  water. 

"  Meantime  more  discoloured  water  was  reported  from 
aloft,  and  I  sent  Mr.  Kiddle  up  with  his  glasses,  and  he 
verified  the  report  ;  so,  leaving  the  boats  on  the  Pelorus, 
I  went  with  the  ship,  and,  after  going  two  miles,  I  made 
out  the  small  streak  from  the  poop.  It  had  remained 
as  steady  as  possible,  and  had  every  appearance  of  being 
a  very  small  shoal.  The  ship  was  taken  to  within  100 
yards  of  it,  and  the  dingy  lowered  to  get  a  sounding  on 
it  ;  no  bottom,  however,  could  be  got,  so  the  ship  was  put 
in  the  middle  of  it  and  a  sounding  of  150  (no  bottom) 
obtained.  A  bucket  of  this  water  was  drawn  and  a 
bottle  of  it  preserved,  but  I  do  not  see  anything  in 
it  to  account  for  the  light  greenish  colour,  and  it  may 
be  that  the  colouring  matter  may  not  lie  actually  on  the 
surface  ;  the  fact  remains,  that  this  small  patch  was 
sighted  at  very  nearly  three  miles  distance  from  aloft, 
and  that  even  when  within  100  yards  of  it  I  believed  it  to 
be  shoal- water,  and  that  a  sounding  of  150  (no  bottom) 
was  actually  obtained  in  the  middle  of  it.  On  our  return 
to  the  Pelorus,  I  was  not,  therefore,  much  astonished  when 
I  found  that  no  very  shoal  water  had  been  got  by  the  boats. 
The  ship  was  anchored  in  14  fathoms,  not  far  from  the 
beacon,  and  the  wire  machines  put  into  the  whalers,  and 
a  search  on  bearings  from  the  standard  compass  and 
mast-head  angles  carried  on  during  the  afternoon  and  on 
the  next  day,  July  14.  Nothing  less  than  14,  however, 
was  got,  and  I  am  under  the  impression  that  nothing  less 
is  to  be  met  with,  as  the  bottoms  are  loose  ashes  and 
cinder  ;  so  that,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Graham  Shoal, 
there  may  have  been  a  shoal  quite  recently  which  does  \ 
not  exist  now.  I  think  that  had  there  been  anything 
dangerous  about  it  we  should  have  seen  it,  as  anchoring 
in  14  fathoms  mid- ocean  caused  many  inquiring  eyes  tc 
be  cast  around 

"  Another  curious  thing  about   the  greenish  water  is 
that  I  went  over  it  all  in  the  ship  ;  and  the  line  between 
it  and  the  dark  water  was  most  distinct.    Moreover,  th(j 
shoalest  sounding  of  14  fathoms  was  not  found  in  thci 
light  water,  but  in  the  dark  water  alongside  it.     Then1 
was  no  sign  of  coral  among  the  bottoms  brought  up.  .  . 
My  attention  was  pretty  well  occupied  at  this  time,  and  if. 
did  not  occur  to  me  to  do  more  than  have  a  bucket  oj. 
the  water  drawn  from  the  green  colour  to  preserve,  whicl 
has  been  done.   Afterwards,  I  much  regretted  that  I  did  noj 
get  specimens  from  different  depths,  as  certainly  this  is ; 
most  curious  instance  of,  in  one  case,  picking  up  a  shoa 
from  the  existence  of  some  colouring  matter,  not  coral 
and,  in  the  other,  of  being  almost  positive  that  a  shoa 
existed  where  an  actual  sounding  proved  it  not  to  do  sc 
I  can  quite  excuse  a  man  reporting  a  shoal  under  suet; 
circumstances,  and  it  may  be  that  a  good  many  of  th 
reported  dangers  have  come  on  the  charts  in  this  way.  .  . 

The  position  of  the  Pelorus  Reef  referred  to  is  in  la 
23°  S.,  long.  1760  25'  W.,  about  forty  miles  south  c 
Pylstaart  Island,  which  is  volcanic.  The  reef  was  origir 
ally  reported  in  1861  by  H.M.S.  Pelorus,  Commodor 
Seymour  (now  Lord  Alcester),  the  ship  passing  within  on(. 
third  of  a  mile  of  it,  when  breakers  were  distinctly  seen. 


It  I 


Oct.  ii,  1888] 


NATURE 


569 


Lord  Alcester  assures  me  that  there  was  no  doubt  of 
the  breakers,  otherwise  it  might  be  thought  that  the 
deceptive  appearance  that  misled  Captain  Aldrich,  also 
misled  the  officers  of  the  Pelorus. 

It  thus  appears  probable  that,  as  in  some  other  cases 
(of  which  the  Graham  Island  in  the  Mediterranean  is 
perhaps  best  known),  the  cinders  and  ashes  which  formed, 
and  still  form,  the  summit  of  the  volcanic  mound  origin- 
ally thrown  up,  are  being  by  wave-action  gradually  swept 
away,  and  will  continue  to  be  so  removed  until  the  top  of 
the  bank  is  reduced  below  the  limit  of  such  action,  or,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  Graham  Shoal,  the  solid  rock  is  laid 
bare. 

If  so,  it  is  another  case  of  the  preparation  of  a  suitable 
foundation  for  coral  builders  by  a  process  directly  the 
reverse  of  that  of  building  up  by  marine  organisms  on 
mounds  that  have  failed  to  reach  the  surface,  suggested 
by  Mr.  John  Murray  to  be  the  principal  method. 

It  remains  for  those  who  have  made  submarine  erup- 
tions their  study  to  say  whether  a  mound  raised  in  the 
sea  is  covered  with  loose  matter  in  a  sufficient  percentage 
of  cases  to  justify  this  mode  of  coral-foundation-making 
being  given  an  important  place  amongst  others. 

In  the  latest  known  cases  of  islands  so  formed,  viz. 
Steers  and  Calmeyer  Islands,  thrown  up  near  Krakatab  in 
1883,  and  Falcon  Island,  which  appeared  in  1885  in  the 
Tonga  Group,  the  surface  structure  was  loose.  The  two 
former  very  shortly  disappeared  below  the  level  of  the  sea. 
What  is  happening  to  the  latter  is  not  known,  as  it  is 
seldom  sighted;  but  1  from  its  volume  and  height  (290 
feet)  the  process  of  reduction,  even  if  no  compact  nucleus 
exists  above  water,  must  be  slow. 

The  deceptive  appearance  of  the  masses  of  minute 
organisms  which  floated  in  the  vicinity  of  the  bank  is  no 
doubt  an  abundant  source  of  false  reports.  These  clouds 
of  matter  are  commoner  in  inclosed  and  calmer  waters, 
like  the  Red  Sea,  than  in  open  oceans,  where  they  are  so 
much  more  liable  to  be  dispersed  by  the  waves  before 
they  can  accumulate  to  any  size.  The  assistance  they 
afforded  in  this  instance  to  the  searchers  is  remarkable, 
and  so  far  as  I  know  unique,  as  they  are  generally  found 
in  deep  water.  W.  J.  L.  Wharton. 


RECENT  VISIT  OF   NATURALISTS    TO    THE 
GALAPAGOS. 

CAPTAIN  J.  M.  DOW  has  placed  at  my  disposal 
the  subjoined  short  account  of  a  visit  recently  paid 
to  the  Galapagos  Group  by  the  United  States  steamer 
Albatross,  which  will,  I  am  sure,  be  of  much  interest  to 
naturalists.  P.  L.  Sc  later. 

U.S.  Commission  of  Fish  and  Fisheries, 

Steamer  "  Albatross"  Acapulco,  Mexico, 

April  24,  1888. 
Captain  J.  M.  Dow,  Panama. 

My  Dear  Sir,— Thinking  that  you  might  like  to  know 
something  of  the  results  of  our  trip  to  the  Galapagos,  I 
take  this  opportunity  of  writing. 

Leaving  Panama  on  the  morning  of  March  30,  we  made 
during  that  day  six  hauls  of  the  trawl  in  depths  from 
7  to  51  fathoms.  These  gave  us  fine  results,  including 
many  species  with  which  you  are  doubtless  familiar. 
The  fishes  included  species  of  Upeneis,  Arius,  Poly- 
nemus,  Aphronitia,  Serranus,  Selene,  Prionotus,  Hamil- 
ton, Synodus,  Tetrodon,  Ophidium,  Scicena,  Micropogon, 
Lophius.  We  were  delighted  to  see  Thalasophryne 
and  two  allied  species.  The  number  of  shells,  Crus- 
tacea, &c,  was  almost  innumerable.  The  care  of  so 
much  material  kept  us  very  busy.  The  next  day  we 
sounded  off  Cape  Mala,  and  found  the  depth  to  be  1927 
fathoms.  No  more  dredging  was  done  until  we  neared 
the  Galapagos  on,April  3,  when  we  made  a  haul  in  1 379 


fathoms,  where  the  amount  of  material  obtained  was 
small,  although  it  included  some  very  good  things.  At 
the  islands  we  made  visits  to  eight  of  the  principal  ones, 
Most  of  our  days  were  spent  on  shore,  beginning  early  in 
the  morning,  and  oftentimes  bird-skinning  and  other  work 
was  prolonged  far  into  the  night.  The  islands  presented  a 
very  inhospitable  look  along  the  shores,  with  the  black 
lava  cropping  about  everywhere  ;  but  in  two  of  them 
(Chatham  Island  and  Charles  Island)  the  interior  was 
extremely  fertile  and  pleasant.  Collecting  was  always 
difficult ;  but,  with  the  co-operation  of  officers  and  men, 
we  obtained  a  great  quantity  of  material.  We  naturally 
looked  to  the  birds  first,  on  account  of  Darwin's  previous 
work  there.  We  have  over  250  good  bird-skins,  besides 
several  hundred  specimens  in  alcohol,  and  a  few  skeletons. 
Of  the  fifty-seven  species  before  reported  from  there,  we 
obtained  examples  of  fifty  or  more,  and  we  have,  in 
addition,  several  which  are  apparently  new  to  science. 
We  hope,  with  our  material,  to  settle  some  of  the  curious 
problems  of  these  islands. 

We  secured  specimens  of  all  the  reptiles  which  have 
been  before  found  there,  and  also  hope  that  we  have  two 
or  three  new  lizards.  The  tortoises  excited  great  interest, 
and  it  would  please  you  to  see  the  many  large  ones  which 
are  now  crawling  about  our  decks.  We  expect  now  that 
we  shall  be  able  to  raise  them  in  the  States. 

Fishing  was  good  at  all  of  our  anchorages,  and  we  all 
had  sport  in  catching  fishes  over  the  ship's  side.  We 
got  between  thirty  and  forty  species  in  all,  including  a 
large  brown  "  grouper,"  which  is  there  caught  and  salted 
for  the  Ecuador  market. 

One  night,  while  running  from  one  island  to  another, 
we  stopped  and  drifted  for  a  while,  and  put  the  electric 
light  over  the  side.  Besides  many  small  things,  large 
sharks  came  around  in  great  numbers.  More  than  twenty 
were  seen  at  once,  and  I  know  that  the  sight  would  have 
pleased  you.  We  all  regretted  that  you  were  not  with 
us.  Notwithstanding  the  necessity  for  rapid  work,  good- 
fellowship  always  prevailed  as  usual.  I  hope  that  some 
time  you  may  take  a  trip  with  me  on  the  Albatross,  and 
see  how  we  do  it. 

Hoping  that  this  will  not  prove  too  long  an  account  for 
you, 

I  remain, 

Yours  very  sincerely, 

Leslie  A.  Lee. 


THE  BRITISH  ASSOCIATION. 

Section  A — Mathematical  and  Physical  Science. 

A  Simple  Hypothesis  for  Electro-magnetic  Induction  of  In- 
complete Circuits ;  with  Consequent  Equations  of  Electric 
Motion  in  Fixed  Homogeneous  or  Heterogeneous  Solid  Matter, 
by  Sir  William  Thomson. 

(1)  To  avoid  mathematical  formulas  till  needed  for  calculation 
consider  three  cases  of  liquid  l  motion  which  for  brevity  I  call 
Primary,  Secondary,  Tertiary,  defined  as  follows : — Half  the 
velocity  in  the  Secondary  agrees  numerically  and  directionally 
with  the  magnitude  and  axis  of  the  molecular  spin  at  the 
corresponding  point  of  the  Primary ;  or  (short,  but  complete, 
statement)  the  half  velocity  in  the  Secondary  is  the  spin  in  the 
Primary,  and  (similarly)  half  the  velocity  in  the  Tertiary  is  the 
spin  in  the  Secondary. 

(2)  In  the  Secondary  and  Tertiary  the  motion  is  essentially 
without  change  of  density,  and  in  each  of  them  we  naturally, 
therefore,  take  an  incompressible  fluid  as  the  substance.  The 
motion  in  the  Primary  we  arbitrarily  restrict  by  taking  its  fluid 
also  as  incompressible. 

(3)  Helmholtz  first  solved  the  problem — Given  the  spin  in 
any  case  of  liquid  motion,  to  find  the  motion.  His  solution 
consists  in  finding  the  potentials  of  three  ideal  distributions  of 
gravitational  matter  having  densities  respectively  equal  to  1/4/ir 
of  the  rectangular  components  of  the  given  spin  ;  and,  regarding 

1  I  use  "  liquid  "  for  brevity  to  signify  incompressible  fluid. 


57o 


NATURE 


Oct.  ii.  1888 


for  a  moment  these  potentials  as  rectangular  components  of 
velocity  in  a  case  of  liquid  motion,  taking  the  spin  in  this  motion 
as  the  velocity  in  the  required  motion.  Applying  this  solution 
to  find  the  velocity  in  our  Secondary  from  the  velocity  in  our  Ter- 
tiary, we  see  that  the  three  velocity  components  in  our  Primary 
are  the  potentials  of  three  ideal  distributions  of  gravitational 
matter  having  their  densities  respectively  equal  to  1/4T  of  the 
three  velocity  components  of  our  Tertiary.  This  proposition  is 
proved  in  a  moment,1  in  §  5  below,  by  expressing  the  velocity 
components  of  our  Tertiary  in  terms  of  those  of  our  Secondary, 
and  those  of  our  Secondary  in  terms  of  those  of  our  Primary  ; 
and  then  eliminating  the  velocity  components  of  Secondary,  so 
as  to  have  those  of  Tertiary  directly  in  terms  of  those  of  Primary. 

(4)  Consider  now,  in  a  fixed  solid  or  solids  of  no  magnetic 
susceptibility,  any  case  of  electric  motion  in  which  there  is  no 
change  of  electrification,  and  therefore  no  incomplete  electric 
circuit,  or,  which  is  the  same,  any  case  of  electric  motion  in 
which  the  distribution  of  electric  current  agrees  with  the  distri- 
bution of  velocity  in  a  case  of  liquid  motion.  Let  this  case, 
with  velocity  of  liquid  numerically  equal  to  4ir  times  the  electric 
current  density,  be  our  Tertiary.  The  velocity  in  our  corre- 
sponding Secondary  is  then  the  magnetic  force  of  the  electric 
current  system  ;2  and  the  velocity  in  our  Primary  is  what  Max- 
well 3  has  well  called  the  "electro-magnetic  momentum  at  any 
point"  of  the  electric  current  system  ;  and  the  rate  of  decrease 
per  unit  of  time,  of  any  component  of  this  last  velocity  at  any 
point,  is  the  corresponding  component  of  electromotive  force,  due 
to  electro-magnetic  induction  of  the  electric  current  system  when 
it  experiences  any  change.  This  electromotive  force,  combined 
with  the  electrostatic  force,  if  there  is  any,  constitutes  the  whole 
electromotive  force  at  any  point  of  the  system.  Hence  by  Ohm's 
law  each  component  of  electric  current  at  any  point  is  equal  to 
the  electric  conductivity  multiplied  into  the  sum  of  the  corre- 
sponding component  of  electrostatic  force  and  the  rate  of 
decrease  per  unit  of  time  of  the  corresponding  component  of 
velocity  of  liquid  in  our  Primary. 

(5)  To  express  all  this  in  symbols,  let  («j,  vv  iv{),  (u.2,  v.lt  7v?), 
and  (7/3,  v3,  w3)  denote  rectangular  components  of  the  velocity 
at  time  t,  and  point  (x,  y,  z)  of  our  Primary,  Secondary,  and 
Tertiary.     We  have  (§  1) — 


dwx 
dy 

dv1 
'    dz* 

du-. 

d7a} 
dx 

dx 

dul 

(I) 

dw2 
dy 

dx' 

v  -  du*  - 

dWz 
dx 

7(.'3  =     _    ' 

dx 

du2 
dy 

.(2) 

Eliminating  u2,  v„,  zv2  from  (2)  by  (1),  we  find — 

'    _    d   /£*,  +  dz\  +  dw\ 

3       dx  \  dx        dy         dz  J 

S+SKSft* <» 


But,  by  our  assumption  (§  2)  of  incompressibility  in  the  Primary — 
dy 


d«x        dux        div1 

dx        dy         dz  ™ 


Hence  (3)  becomes — 

ti3  =  -  v'3*/!,     v.A  =  -  v"vv     «j  =  -  v2^  .    .    .  (5) 

where,  as  in  Article  xxvii.  (November  1846)   of  my  "  Collected 
Papers  "  (vol.  i. ) — 

d2     ,     d-     ,     d2 

V2=    ,^r  +  -,  o  +-72 (6)4 

dxA       dy       dz  v  ' 

This  (5)  is  the  promised  proof  of  §  3. 

(6)  Let  now  u,  v,  w  denote  the  components  of  electric  current 
at  (x,  y,  z)  in  the  electric  system  of  §  4  ;  so  that — 

4Ttt  =  «3=  -▼"«! ;  4ttv  =  vz=  -V*t^;  4irw  =  w3—  -  v2^  .  (7) 
which,  in  virtue  of  (4),  give — 


du    ,    dv    ,    div 

_  +  _  +  —    =0 

dx        dy        dz 


(8) 


1  From  Poisson's  well-known  elementary  theorem,  V2V  =  -  ^wp. 

2  "Electrostatics  and  Magnetism,"  §  517  (Postscript)  (c). 

3  "Electricity  and  Magnetism,"  §§  585,  604. 

4  Maxwell,  for  o.uaternionic  reasons,  takes  v2  the  negative  of  mine. 


Hence  the  components  of  electromotive  force  due  to  change  of 
current,  being,  (§  5) — 

_  du3  _  dv3         dw3 
~dP        M*         dt% 

are  equal  to — 

„du  ndv     M   „_*d-cu                          .  v 

at  dt                dt 

and  therefore  if  ¥  denote  electrostatic  potential,  we  have,  for  the 
equations  of  the  electric  motion  (§  5) — 


_^du       dV\ 
V  -—  -    —    ;  v  = 

dt        dx) 


I  /      ndw      dV\ 
dt        dz) 


.*dv 
dt 


d* 
dy 


.(10) 


where  k  denotes  \\%ir  of  the  specific  resistance. 

(7)  As  y  is  independent  of  t,  according  to  §  4,  we  may, 
conveniently  for  a  moment,  put — 

«  +  4?=«i    v+"=»;    w+dZ=y.    .    .(11) 
KdX  Kdy  Krtz 

and  so  find,  as  equivalents  to  (9) — 

^=vV);   dl  =  vH«fi);  ^  =  v>7)  .  .(12) 

The  interpretation  of  this  elimination  of  "V  may  be  illustrated 
by  considering  for  example  a  finite  portion  of  homogeneous 
solid  conductor,  of  any  shape  (a  long  thin  wire  with  two  ends, 
or  a  short  thick  wire,  or  a  solid  globe,  or  a  lump  of  any  shape, 
of  copper  or  other  metal  homogeneous  throughout)  with  a  constant 
flow  of  electricity  maintained  through  it  by  electrodes  from  a 
voltaic  battery  or  other  source  of  electric  energy,  and  with  proper 
appliances  over  its  whole  boundary,  so  regulated  as  to  keep  any 
given  constant  potential  at  every  point  of  the  boundary  ;  while 
currents  are  caused  to  circulate  through  the  interior  by  varying 
currents  in  circuits  exterior  to  it.  There  being  no  changing 
electrification  by  our  supposition  of  §  4,  V  can  have  no 
contribution  from  electrification  within  our  conductor  ;  and 
therefore,  throughout  our  field — 

V-¥  =  o (13) 

which,  with  (8)  and  (11),  gives — 


da       d$ 

dx       dy 


dz 


•(14) 


Between  (12)  and  (14)  we  have  four  equations  for  three  unknown 
quantities.  These,  in  the  case  of  homogeneousness  (k  constant), 
are  equivalent  to  only  three,  because  in  this  case  (14)  follows 
from  (12)  provided  (14)  is  satisfied  initially,  and  proper  surface 
condition  is  maintained  to  prevent  any  violation  of  it  from 
supervening.  But  unless  k  is  constant  throughout  our  field,  the 
four  equations  (12)  and  (14)  are  mutually  inconsistent ;  from 
which  it  follows  that  our  supposition  of  unchangingness  of 
electrification  (§  4)  is  not  generally  true.  An  interesting  and 
important  practical  conclusion  is,  that  when  currents  are  induced 
in  any  way,  in  a  solid  com  oosed  of  parts  having  different  electric 
conductivities  (pieces  of  copper  and  lead,  for  example,  fixed 
together  in  metallic  contact),  there  must  in  general  be  changing 
electrification  over  every  interface  between  these  parts.  This 
conclusion  was  not  at  first  obvious  to  me  ;  but  it  ought  to  be  so 
by  anyone  approaching  the  subject  with  mind  undisturbed  by 
mathematical  formulas. 

(8)  Being  thus  warned  off  heterogeneousness  until  we  come 
to  consider  changing  electrification  and  incomplete  circuits,  let 
us  apply  (10)  to  an  infinite  homogeneous  solid.  As  (8)  holds 
through  all  space  according  to  our  supposition  in  §  4,  and  as  k 
is  constant,  (13)  must  now  hold  through  all  space,  and  therefore 
"V  =  o,  which  reduces  (10)  to — 


I    _  0  du 

1      ..do 

=  -  V  -  —  ; 

v  =  -  v  -     - 

k            dt 

K                dt 

•  dw 

V  -3 


(•! 


These   equations  express   simply   the  known  law  of  elect 
magnetic  induction.      Maxwell's  equations   (7)  of  §  783   of 
"  Electricity  and  Magnetism,"  become,  in  this  case — 


fi(4nC  +  KdY"=v-u,S:c (11 

\  dij  at 


which  cannot  be  right,  I  think  (?  ?  ?),  according  to  any  conceivable 
hypothesis  regarding  electric  conductivity,  whether  of  metals,  or 


Oct.  ii,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


57' 


„._,  (dlt        dv        (fcc^ 
\dx      dy       dz 


stones,  or  gums,  or  resins,  or  wax,  or  shell- lac,  or  gutta-percha, 
or  india-rubber,  or  glasses,  or  solid  or  liquid  electrolytes  ; 
being,  as  seems  (?)  to  me,  vitiated  for  complete  circuits,  by  the 
curious  and  ingenious,  but,  as  seems  to  me,  not  wholly  tenable, 
hypothesis  which  he  introduces,  in  §  610,  for  incomplete 
circuits. 

(9)  The  hypothesis  which  I  suggest  for  incomplete  circuits 
and  consequently  varying  electrification,  is  simply  that  the 
components  of  the  electromotive  due  to  electro-magnetic  induc- 
tion are  still  /\.irv'-dujdt,  Sec.  Thus  for  the  equations  of 
motion  we  have  simply  to  keep  equations  (10)  unchanged, 
while  not  imposing  (8),  but  instead  of  it  taking — 

')'*+• (,6) 

where  "v"  denotes  the  number  of  electrostatic  units  in  the 
electro-magnetic  unit  of  electric  quantity.  This  equation  ex- 
presses that  the  electrification  of  which  "V  is  the  potential 
increases  and  diminishes  in  any  place  according  as  electricity 
Hows  more  out  than  in,  or  more  in  than  out.  We  thus  have 
four  equations  (10)  and  (16)  for  our  four  unknowns,  u,  v,  7V,  ¥; 
and  I  find  simple  and  natural  solutions  with  nothing  vague,  or 
difficult  to  understand,  or  to  believe  when  understood,  by  their 
application  to  practical  problems,  or  to  conceivable  ideal  prob- 
lems ;  such  as  the  transmission  of  ordinary  or  telephonic  signals 
along  submarine  telegraph  conductors  and  land-lines,  electric 
oscillations  in  a  finite  insulated  conductor  of  any  form,  trans- 
ference of  electricity  through  an  infinite  solid,  &c.  This,  how- 
ever, does  not  prove  my  hypothesis.  Experiment  is  required 
for  informing  us  as  to  the  real  electro-magnetic  effects  of  in- 
complete circuits,  and  as  Helmholtz  has  remarked,  it  is  not  easy 
to  imagine  any  kind  of  experiment  which  could  decide  between 
different  hypotheses  which  may  occur  to  anyone  trying  to 
evolve  out  of  his  inner  consciousness  a  theory  of  the  mutual 
force  and  induction  between  incomplete  circuits. 

On  the  Transference  of  Electricity  within  a  Homogeneous  Solid 
Conductor,  by  Sir  William  Thomson. — Adopting  the  notation 
and  formulas  of  my  previous  paper,  and  taking  p  to  denote  4*- 
times  the  electric  density  at  time  t,  and  place  (x,  y,  z),  we 
have  — 


V'-f  = 


du      dv      dw\, 
dx      dy       dz 


•(17) 


and,  eliminating  //,  v,  to,  ¥  by  this  and  (16)  from  (io),  we  find, 
on  the  assumption  of  k  constant — 


at 


vV  = 


d'-p 

dt- 


»"aW 


(18) 


The  settlement  of  boundary  conditions,  when  a  finite  piece  of 
solid  conductor  is  the  subject,  involves  consideration  of  u,  v,  w,  and 
for  it,  therefore,  equations  (17)  and  (12)  must  be  taken  into  ac- 
count ;  but  when  the  subject  is  an  infinite  homogeneous  solid, 
which,  for  simplicity,  we  now  suppose  it  to  be,  (18)  suffices.  It  is 
interesting  and  helpful  to  remark  that  this  agrees  with  the  equa- 
tion for  the  density  of  a  viscous  elastic  fluid,  found  from  Stokes's 
equations  for  sound  in  air  with  viscosity  taken  into  account ;  and 
that  the  values  of  u,  v,  w,  given  by  (17)  and  (10),  when  p  has 
been  determined,  agree  with  the  velocity  components  of  the 
elastic  fluid  if  the  simple  and  natural  enough  supposition  be 
made  that  viscous  resistance  acts  only  against  change  of  shape, 
and  not  against  change  of  volume  without  change  of  shape. 

For  a  type- solution  assume — 

_  7.1TX  2iry  2irz  ,      . 

P  =  Ah"'/fcos         cos     ,     cos  ....  (10} 

a  b  c  y/ 

ind  we  find,  by  substitution  in  (18) — 

k  "v"2 

r  -  l#  +  -jT-  =  °    (20) 

where — 

v T >*/+(?* p*  *) («) 

Hence,  by  solution  of  the  quadratic  (20)  for  q— 

[In  the  communication  to  the  Section  numerical  illustrations 
■  non-oscillatory  and  of  oscillatory  discharge  are  given.] 


Five  Applications  of  Fourier's  Law  of  Diffusion,  illustrated 
by  a  Diagram  of  Curves  with  Absolute  Numerical  Values,  by 
Sir  William  Thomson. — (1)  Motion  of  a  viscous  fluid  ;  (2)  closed 
electric  currents  within  a  homogeneous  conductor ; '  (3)  heat ; 
(4)  substances  in  solution  ;  (5)  electric  potential  in  the  conductor 
of  a  submarine  cable  when  electro-magnetic  inertia  can  be 
neglected.2 

r.  Fourier's  now  well-known  analysis  of  what  he  calls  the 
"  linear  motion  of  heat  "  is  applicable  to  every  case  of  diffusion 
in  which  the  substance  concerned  is  in  the  same  condition  at  all 
points  of  any  one  plane  parallel  to  a  given  plane.  The  differ- 
ential equation  of  diffusion,3  for  the  case  of  constant  diffusivity, 
k,  is — 

dv  _    d-v 
It  ~  Kdx^ 

where  v  denotes  the  "quality"  at  time  t  and  at  distance  x  from 
a  fixed  plane  of  reference.  This  equation,  stated  in  words,  is 
as  follows  : — Rate  of  augmentation  of  the  "quality"  per  unit 
of  time  is  equal  to  the  diffusivity  multiplied  into  the  rate  of 
augmentation  per  unit  of  space  of  the  "quality." 

The  meaning  of  the  word  "quality"  here  depends  on  the 
subject  of  the  diffusion,  which  may  be  any  one  of  the  five  cases 
referred  to  in  the  title  above. 

2.  If  the  subject  is  motion  of  a  viscous  fluid,  the  "quality" 
is  any  one  of  three  components  of  the  velocity,  relative  to  rect- 
angular rectilineal  co-ordinates.  But  in  order  that  Fourier's 
ditfusional  law  may  be  applicable,  we  must  either  have  the 
motion  very  slow,  according  to  a  special  definition  of  slowness  ; 
or  the  motion  must  be  such  that  the  velocity  is  the  same  for  all 
points  in  the  same  stream-line,  and  would  continue  to  be  steadily 
so  if  viscosity  were  annulled  at  any  instant.  This  condition  is 
satisfied  in  laminar  flow,  and  more  generally  in  every  case  in 
which  the  stream-lines  are  parallel  straight  lines.  It  is  also 
satisfied  in  the  still  more  general  case  of  stream-lines  coaxal 
circles  with  velocity  the  same  at  all  points  at  the  same  distance 
from  the  axis.  Our  present  illustration,  however,  is  confined 
to  the  case  of  laminar  flow,  to  which  Fourier's  ditfusional  laws 
for  what  he  calls  "linear  motion"  (as  explained  above  in  §  1) 
is  obviously  applicable  without  any  limitation  to  the  greatness 
of  the  velocity  in  any  part  of  the  fluid  considered  (though  with 
conceivably  a  reservation  in  respect  to  the  question  of  stability4). 
In  this  case  the  "quality"  is  simply  fluid  velocity. 

3.  If  the  subject  is  electric  current  in  a  non-magnetic  metal, 
with  stream-lines  parallel  straight  lines,  the  "quality"  is  simply 
current-density,  that  is  to  say,  strength  of  current  per  unit  of 
area  perpendicular  to  the  current.  The  perfect  mathemical5 
analogy  between  the  electric  motion  thus  defined,  and  the  cor- 
responding motion  of  a  viscous  fluid  defined  in  §  2  was  accentu- 
ated by  Mr.  Oliver  Heaviside  in  the  Electrician,  July  12,  1884  ; 
and  in  the  following  words  in  the  Philosophical  Magazine  for 
1886,  second  half-year,  p.  135: — "Water  in  a  round  pipe  is 
started  from  rest  and  set  into  a  state  of  steady  motion  by  the 
sudden  and  continued  application  of  a  steady  longitudinal  drag- 
ging or  shearing  force  applied  to  its  boundary.  This  analogue 
is  useful  because  everyone  is  familiar  with  the  setting  of  water 
in  motion  by  friction  on  its  boundary,  transmitted  inward  by 
viscosity."  Mr.  Heaviside  well  calls  this  analogue  "useful." 
It  is,  indeed,  a  very  valuable  analogy,  not  merely  in  respect  to 
philosophical  consideration  of  electricity,  ether,  and  ponderable 
matter,   but  as  facilitating  many  important  estimates,  particu- 

1  This  subject  is  essentially  the  "electro-magnetic  induction  "  of  Henry 
and  Faraday.  It  is  essentially  different  from  the  "  diffusion  of  electricity" 
through  a  solid  investigated  by  Ohm  in  his  celebrated  paper  "  Die  Galvan- 
ische  Kette  maihematisch  bearbeitet,"  Berlin,  1827;  tranlated  in  Taylor's 
"Scientific  Memoirs,"  vol.  ii.  Part  8,  "The  Galvanic  Circuit  investigated 
Mathematically,"  by  Dr.  G.  S.  Ohm.  In  Ohm's  work  electro-magnetic 
induction  is  not  taken  into  account,  nor  does  any  idea  of  an  electric  analogue 
to  inenia  appear.  The  electromotive  force  considered  is  simply  that  due  to 
the  difference  of  electrostatic  potential  in  different  parts  of  the  circuit,  un- 
satisfactorily, and  even  not  accurately,  explained  by  wha',  speaking  in  his 
pre-Green;an  time,  he  called  ''the  electroscopic  force  cf  the  body,"  and  de- 
fined or  explained  as  "the  force  with  which  the  electroscope  is  repelled  or 
attracted  by  the  body  ;"  the  electroscope  being  "a  second  movable  body  of 
invariable  electric  condition." 

3  This  subject  belongs  to  the  Ohmian  electric  diffusion  pure  and  simple, 
worked  out  by  aid  of  Green's  theory  of  the  capacity  of  a  Leyden  jar  (see 
"  Mathematical  and  Physical  Paper,"  vol.  ii.  Art.  73*. 

3  See  "Mathematical  and  Physical  Papers,"  vol.  ii.  Art.  72. 

4  See  "Stability  of  Fluid  Mction,"  §  28,  Philosophical  Magazine, 
August  1887. 

5  It  is  essentially  a  mathematical  analogy  only  ;  in  the  same  sense  as  the 
relation  between  the  ''uniform  motion  of  heat"  and  the  mathematical 
theory  of  electticity,  which  I  gave  in  the  Cambiidge  Mathematical  Journal 
forty-six  years  ago,  and  which  now  consiitutes  the  first  article  of  my 
•'  Electrostatics  and  Magnetism,"  is  a  merely  mathematical  analogy. 


572 


NA  TURE 


[Oct.  ii,  i 


larly  some  relating  to  telephonic  conductors  and  conductors  for 
electric  lighting  on  the  "  alternate-current  "  system.  In  a  short 
article  to  be  included  in  vol.  iii.  of  my  collected  papers,  which  I 
hope  will  soon  be  published,  I  intend  to  describe  a  generaliza- 
tion, with,  as  will  be  seen,  a  consequently  essential  modification 
of  this  analogy,  by  which  it  is  extended  to  include  the  mutual 


induction  between  conductors  separated  by  air  or  other  insu- 
lators, and  currents  in  solids  of  different  conductivity  fixed 
together  in  contact. 

4.  If  the  subject  is  heat,  as  in  Fourier's  original  development 
of  the  theory  of  diffusion,  the  "quality"  is  temperature. 

5.  If  the  subject  is  diffusion   of  matter,    the   "quality"  is, 


Diagram  showing  Progress  of  Laminar  Din  1  kk>> 


density  of  the  matter  diffused,  or  deviation  of  density  from  some 
mean  or  standard  density  considered.  It  is  to  Fick,  thirty-three 
years  ago  Demonstrator  of  Anatomy,  and  now  Professor  of 
Physiology  in  the  University  of  Zurich,  that  we  owe  this  appli- 
cation of  Fourier's  diffusional  theory,  so  vitally  important  in 
physiological  chemistry  and  physics,  and  so  valuable  in  natural 


philosophy  generally.  When  the  substance  through  which  the 
diffusion  takes  place  is  fluid,  a  very  complicated  but  practically 
important  subject  is  presented  if  the  fluid  be  stirred.  The  ex- 
ceedingly rapid  progress  of  the  diffusion  produced  by  vigorous 
up-and-down-stirring,  causing  to  be  done  in  half  a  minute  the 
diffusional  work  which  would  require  years  or  centuries  if  the 


Oct.  ii,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


573 


fluid  were  quiescent,  is  easily  explained  ;  and  the  explanation  is 
illustrated  by  the  diagram  of  curves,  §  7  below,  with  the  time- 
values  given  for  sugar  and  common  salt.  Look  at  curve  No.  I, 
and  think  of  the  corresponding  curve  with  vertical  ordinates 
diminished  in  the  ratio  of  1  to  40.  The  corresponding  diffusion 
would  take  place  for  sugar  in  1 1  seconds,  and  for  salt  in  3^ 
seconds.  The  case  so  represented  would  quite  correspond  to  a 
streaky  distribution  of  brine  and  water  or  of  syrup  and  water,  in 
which  portions  of  greatest  and  least  salinity  or  saccharinity  are 
within  half  a  millimetre  of  one  another.  This  is  just  the  condi- 
tion which  we  see,  in  virtue  of  the  difference  of  optic  refractivity 
produced  by  difference  of  salinity  or  of  saccharinity,  when  we 
stir  a  tumbler  of  water  with  a  quantity  of  undissolved  sugar  or 
salt  on  its  bottom.  If  water  be  poured  very  gently  on  a  quantity 
of  sugar  or  salt  in  the  bottom  of  a  tumbler  with  violent  stirring 
up  guarded  against  by  a  spoon — the  now  almost  extinct  Scottish 
species  called  "  toddy  ladle  "  being  the  best  form,  or,  better 
still,  a  little  wooden  disk  which  will  float  up  with  the  water ; 
and  if  the  tumbler  be  left  to  itself  undisturbed  for  two  or  three 
weeks,  the  condition  at  the  end  of  17  x  io5  seconds  (twenty  days) 
for  the  case  of  sugar,  or  54.x  io5  seconds  (six  days)  for  salt, 
will  be  that  represented  by  No.  10  curve  in  the  diagram. 

6.  If  the  subject  be  electricity  in  a  submarine  cable,  the 
"quality"  is  electric  potential  at  any  point  of  the  insulated 
conductor.  It  is  only  if  the  cable  were  a  straight  line  that  x 
would  be  (as  defined  above)  distance  from  a  fixed  plane  :  but 
the  cable  need  not  be  laid  along  a  straight  line  ;  and  the  proper 
definition  of  x  for  the  application  of  Fourier's  formula  to  a  sub- 
marine cable  is  the  distance  along  the  cable  from  any  point  of 
reference  (one  end  of  the  cable,  for  example)  to  any  point  of  the 
cable.  For  this  case  the  diffusivity  is  equal  to  the  conductivity 
of  its  conductor,  reckoned  in  electrostatic  units,  divided  by  the 
electrostatic  capacity  of  the  conductor  per  unit  length  insulated 
as  it  is  in  gutta-percha,  with  its  outer  surface  wet  with  sea-water, 
which,  in  the  circumstances,  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  perfect  con- 
ductor. For  demonstration  of  this  proposition  see  vol.  ii. 
Art.  lxxiii.  (1855)  of  my  collected  papers. 

7.  Explanation  of  Diagram  showing  Progress  of  Laminar 
Diffusion. — In  each  curve— 


NP  = 


v*-. 


run 


where  x  denotes  the  number  of  centimetres  in  ON,  and  i  the 
"curve-number."  The  curves  are  drawn  directly  from  the 
values  of  the  integral  given  in  Table  III.,  appended  to  De 
Morgan's  article  "On  the  Theory  of  Probabilities,"  "Ency- 
clopaedia Metropolitana,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  483-84. 


NP  denotes  the  "quality  " 
(defined  below) 


at  distance  =  ON  from  initia 
surface  or  interface, 

and  at  time  equal  in  seconds  to 
["  curve-number  "]-  divided 
by  sixteen  times  the  diffus- 
ivity in  square  centimetres 
per  second. 


Subject  of  Diffusion. 


Motion  of  a  viscous  fluid 


Closed  electric  currents  within 
a  homogeneous  conductor 

Heat         


Substance  in  solution 


Electric  potential  in  the  con- 
ductor of  a  submarine 
cable 


'  Quality"  (  represented  by  ,',,  NP). 


Ratio  of  the  velocity  at  N  to 
the  constant  velocity  at  O 

Current-density 


Ratio  of  temperature  minus 
mean  temperature  to  mean 
temperature 

Ratio  of  density  minus  mean 
density  to  mean  density 

Ratio  of  potential  at  N  to 
constant  potential  at  end  O 


KXAMI'I.I  S. 

' '  Curve-number. " 

Time  in  Seconds. 

•  i  I  liffusion. 

I 

27056 

Zinc  sulphate  through  water 

I 

25720 

Copper  sulphate  through 
water 

I 

170OO 

Sugar  through  water 

I 

54OO 

Common  salt  through  water 

5 

1 180 

Heat  through  wood 

5 

Il8 

Laminar  motion  of  water  at 
10°  C. 

5 

30 

Laminar  motion  of  air 

5 

71 

Heat  through  iron 

5 

I  31 

Heat  through  copper 
Electric  current  in  a  homo- 
geneous   non-magnetic 
conductor  : 

10 

0-0488 

Copper 

10 

OOO40 

Lead 

IO 

OOO38 

German  silver 

IO 

0-0023 

Platinoid 

1,000,000,000 

2-15 

Electric  potential  in  the 
Direct  U.S.  Atlantic 
Cable 

Prof.  G.  II.  Darwin  sent  a  paper  On  the  Mechanical  Con- 
ditions of  a  Swarm  of  Meteorites  and  on  Theories  of  Cosmogony. 
— This  is  an  abstract  of  a  communication  made  to  the  Royal 
Society,  in  which  the  author  proposes  to  apply  the  principles  of 
the  kinetic  theory  of  gases  to  the  case  of  a  swarm  of  meteorites 
in  space.  In  the  author's  theory  the  individual  meteorites  are 
considered  to  be  analogous  to  the  molecules  of  the  gas  ;  and  thus 
a  swarm  of  meteorites,  in  the  course  of  conglomeration  into  a 
star,  possesses  mechanical  properties  analogous  to  those  of  a  gas. 
Lockyer  and  others  have  expressed  their  conviction  that  the 
present  condition  of  the  solar  system  is  derived  from  an  accretion 
of  meteorites,  but  the  idea  of  fluid  pressure  seems  necessary  for 
the  applicability  of  any  theory  like  the  nebular  hypothesis. 
The  author  then  proposes  to  reconcile  the  nebular  and  meteoric 
theories  by  showing  that  the  laws  of  fluid  pressure  apply  to  a 
swarm  of  meteorites.  The  case  of  a  globular  swarm  of  equal- 
sized  meteorites  is  considered,  and  then  the  investigation  is 
extended  to  the  case  in  which  the  meteorites  are  of  various 
sizes  ;  the  latter  extension  does  not  affect  the  nature  of  the  proof, 
and  only  slightly  modifies  the  result.  In  the  case  of  a  swarm  of 
meteorites  condensing  under  the  mutual  attraction  of  its  parts, 
the  author  shows  that  the  larger  meteorites  will  tend  to  settle 
towards  the  centre  of  condensation,  and  that  consequently  the 
mean  size  of  the  meteorites  will  decrease  from  the  centre  towards 
the  outside  of  the  swarm. 


NOTES. 
We  mentioned  some  time  ago  that  the  executors  of  the  late 
Sir  William  Siemens,  desiring  to  have  his  biography  authori- 
tatively published,  had  placed  its  preparation  in  the  hands  of 
Dr.  William  Pole,  F.R.S.,  Honorary  Secretary  of  the  Institu- 
tion of  Civil  Engineers,  who  had  long  been  a  personal  friend  of 
Sir  William  and  his  family.  The  work  is  now  finished,  and  will 
be  published  immediately,  in  one  volume,  by  Mr.  Murray.  It 
will  be  followed  by  other  volumes,  containing  reprints  of  Sir 
William's  most  important  scientific  papers,  lectures,  and 
addresses,  edited  by  his  secretary,  Mr.  E.  F.  Bamber. 

All  who  take  an  interest  in  questions  relating  to  technical 
education  have  reason  to  be  grateful  to  the  Goldsmiths' 
Company  for  the  way  in  which  it  has  associated  itself  with  the 
movement  for  the  establishment  of  technical  and  recreative 
institutes  in  South  London.  By  an  act  of  splendid  generosity  it 
has  secured  that  there  shall  soon  be  a  great  centre  of  technical 
instruction  at  New  Cross.  Subject  to  the  sanction  of  Parlia- 
ment, which  will  of  course  be  readily  granted,  the  following 
proposal  has  been  accepted.     Out  of  the  surplus  funds  of  the 


574 


NA  TURE 


[Oct. 


ii.  i 


City  parochial  charities,  the  Charity  Commissioners  are  to 
acquire  the  buildings,  with  seven  acres  of  land,  at  present  occu- 
pied by  the  Royal  Naval  School  at  New  Cross  ;  and  from  the 
same  source  they  will  set  apart  an  endowment  of  .£2500  Per 
annum.  This  will  be  met  by  the  Goldsmiths'  Company  by  the 
appropriation  out  of  their  corporate  funds  (not  trust  funds,  but  funds 
over  which  they  have  absolute  control)  of  an  annual  endowment 
of  a  similar  amount — a  gift  equal  to  a  sum  of  ^85, coo.  It  is 
intended  that  the  new  Institute  shall  be  called  "  The  Goldsmiths' 
Company's  (New  Cross)  Institute." 

It  is  satisfactory  to  learn  that  all  the  scientific  work  connected 
with  the  Fishery  Board  for  Scotland  is  now  absolutely  in  the 
hands  of  a  small  Committee,  of  which  Prof.  Ewart  is  convener, 
and  that  the  Board  has  at  last  a  scientific  secretary.  A  Special 
Committee  on  Bait,  appointed  by  the  Secretary  for  Scotland, 
began  its  sittings  on  Monday. 

The  first  meeting  of  the  Council  of  the  Sanitary  Institute, 
which  has  recently  been  incorporated,  was  held  at  the  Parkes 
Museum  last  Friday.  Sir  Douglas  Galton,  K.C.B.,  F.R.S.,  was 
unanimously  appointed  Chairman  of  the  Council,  and  Mr.  G.  J. 
Symons,  F.  R.  S.,  the  registrar.  The  Institute  is  founded  to 
carry  on  the  work  of  the  amalgamated  Sanitary  Institute  of 
Great  Britain  and  the  Parkes  Museum,  and  it  was  decided  to 
hold  the  Institute's  first  examination  for  local  surveyors  and 
inspectors  of  nuisances  on  November  8  and  9.  A  programme 
of  lectures  for  the  winter  session  is  being  prepared.  A  letter 
was  read  from  the  Charity  Commissioners  saying  that  they 
considered  that  the  new  Institute  was  likely  to  prove  a  powerful 
means  for  the  diffusion  of  sanitary  knowledge,  and  promising  to 
place  at  its  disposal,  for  the  delivery  of  lectures,  the  buildings 
which  the  Commissioners  propose  to  establish  in  various  parts  of 
London. 

The  delegates  to  the  International  Bureau  of  Weights  and 
Measures  are  hard  at  work  at  the  Pavilion  de  Ereteuil,  near  St. 
Cloud.  They  are  taking  steps  to  verify  the  "  prototype  metres  " 
which  have  been  executed  at  the  expense  of  the  French 
Government,  and  are  to  be  delivered,  to  the  various  nations 
which  have  ordered  them.  The  expenditure  of  this  establish- 
ment, which  is  supported  by  contributions  from  several  nations, 
amounts  to  ^"4000.  The  head  of  the  administration  is  M. 
Broch,  a  Norwegian  astronomer  and  meteorologist.  Turkey 
is  nominally  one  of  the  subscribing  nations,  but  she  has  never 
contributed  a  farthing  to  the  funds  of  the  Bureau,  and  some  time 
ago  the  other  nations  were  obliged  to  subscribe  a  supplementary 
sum  to  make  good  the  deficiency. 

The  School  of  Art  Wood-carving,  City  and  Guilds  Institute, 
Exhibition  Road,  South  Kensington,  has  been  re-opened  after 
the  usual  summer  vacation,  and  we  are  requested  to  state  that 
one  or  two  of  the  free  Studentships  in  the  evening  classes 
maintained  by  means  of  funds  granted  to  the  school  by  the 
Institute  are  vacant.  To  bring  the  benefits  of  the  school  within 
the  reach  of  artisans,  a  remission  of  half-fees  for  the  evening 
class  is  made  to  artisan  students  connected  with  the  wood- 
carving  trade.  Forms  of  application  for  the  free  Studentships 
and  any  further  particulars  relating  to  the  school  may  be 
obtained  from  the  manager. 

Ten  lectures  on  "  Electricity  in  the  Service  of  Man  "  are  to 
be  delivered  by  Mr.  W.  Lant  Carpenter,  under  the  auspices  of 
the  London  Society  for  the  Extension  of  University  Teaching,  at 
the  Chelsea  Town  Hall.  They  will  be  delivered  on  Fridays  at 
8  p.m.  The  inaugural  lecture,  on  electrical  energy  and  its  uses, 
will  be  given  on  October  12,  when  Sir  Henry  Roscoe  will  take 
the  chair. 

The  sixth  session  of  University  College,  Dundee,  was  opened 
by  a  public  address  by^  Prof.  Ewing  in  the  College  Hall  last 


Saturday  evening.  Prof.  Ewing  gave  an  interesting  account  of 
the  progress  which  has  lately  been  made  in  the  teaching  of 
science  in  Dundee. 

Herr  Hernsheim,  the  German  Consul  at  Matupi,  one  of 
the  South  Sea  Islands,  has  presented  his  native  town,  Mayence, 
with  an  ethnological  collection  which  gives  an  interesting  picture 
of  the  manners,  customs,  and  conditions  of  life  of  the  inhabitants 
of  the  Bismarck  Archipelago,  and  the  Caroline,  Marshall, 
Pelew,  and  Solomon  Groups. 

Towards  the  cost  of  the  University  just  opened  in  Tomsk, 
Count  Demidoff  contributed  ^9000,  M.  Cybulsky  £7500, 
and  the  State  the  balance,  ^"22,000.  M.  Sibiriakoff  has  made  a 
donation  of  ^"8500  for  scientific  Scholarships. 

The  Hon.  A.  C.  Houen,  a  Norwegian  resident  at  Rome,  has 
presented  the  Christiania  University  with  ^6500  for  the  pur- 
pose of  founding  scientific  Scholarships.  He  recently  gave  the 
same  institution  ,£10,000  for  a  like  object. 

At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  Geographical  Society  of  Stock- 
holm, Dr.  F.  Svenonius  read  a  paper  on  the  origin  and  present 
state  of  the  glaciers  of  Europe,  dividing  them  into  Alpine, 
Greenland,  and  Scandinavian.  Referring  to  the  latter,  Dr. 
Svenonius  stated  that  the  glaciers  of  Sweden,  to  which  he  had 
devoted  years  of  rstudy,  were  far  more  important  than  was 
generally  imagined.  They  could  be  divided  into  some  twenty 
different  groups,  all  being  situated  between  67"  and  68^°  lat. 
N.,  i.e.  between  the  sources  of  the  Pile  River  and  Lake  Torne. 
They  number  upwards  of  one  hundred,  and  cover  a  total  area  of 
at  least  400  square  kilometres.  The  largest  is  the  Sorjik  group, 
the  area  of  which  is  between  65  and  75  square  kilometres. 

THEgreat  "Bibliography  of  Meteorology,"  at  which  Mr.  C.  J. 
Sawyer,  of  the  United  States  Signal  Service,  has  been  working 
for  some  years,  is  now  completed.  It  comes  down  to  the  year 
1881,  inclusive;  and  Mr.  Sawyer  estimates  that  it  contains 
50,000  independent  titles.  General  Greely,  the  Chief  Signal 
Officer,  is  anxious  that  the  work  should  be  printed  ;  and  in  his 
last  Annual  Report  he  pointed  out  that,  if  this  were  done,  future 
international  co-operation  would  probably  secure,  by  a  system 
of  rotation,  from  the  various  European  Governments,  the  pub- 
lication of  a  series  of  supplements  which  would  keep  the  world 
abreast  of  the  steadily- increasing  volume  of  meteorological 
publicaticns. 

The  Administration  Report  of  the  Meteorological  Reporter 
to  the  Government  of  Bengal  for  the  year  1887-88  states  that  it 
has  been  decided  to  submit,  for  two  years  only,  brief  accounts 
of  the  principal  points,  while  every  third  year  a  detailed  Report 
is  to  be  prepared.  The  present  Report  is  the  first  of  the  trien- 
nial series.  The  most  important  changes  during  the  year  have 
been  in  the  storm-signal  service.  Until  recently,  regular  storm- 
signals  were  not  allowed  by  the  port  authorities  to  be  displayed 
in  Calcutta,  so  that  ships  on  several  occasions  left  their  safe 
anchorage  in  the  port,  and  were  proceeding  down  the  river, 
before  they  became  aware  of  the  display  of  storm-signals.  This 
condition  has,  however,  been  completely  changed  during  the 
year  1887-88,  and  signals  are  now  shown,  by  orders  of  the 
Bengal  Reporter,  in  Calcutta,  and  have  been  extended  to  all 
the  ports  from  the  south  of  Burmah  down  to  the  extreme  south 
of  the  Madras  Presidency,  or,  roughly  speaking,  he  has  to  warn 
a  coast-line  of  about  2400  miles  in  length.  His  work  and  responsi- 
bility have  therefore  been  very  decidedly  increased.  The  obser- 
vations for  the  weather  service  are  now  taken  at  8  a.m.  instead 
of  10  am.  The  advantage  of  this  change,  for  the  issue  of 
storm-warnings  in  useful  time,  is  obvious. 

The  Pilot  Chart  of  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean  for  September 
shows  that  the  weather  during  August  was  generally  fine  over 


Oct.  ii,  1888] 


NATURE 


575 


that  ocean.  Gales  of  varying  force,  however,  occurred  about 
once  a  week  over  the  steam-ship  routes.  On  the  13th  and 
14th  a  depression  moved  along  the  coast  of  New  England,  and 
reached  Newfoundland  on  the  15th  ;  from  this  position  it  moved 
to  the  eastward,  and  appears  to  have  reached  this  country.  No 
other  storm  crossed  the  ocean  entirely.  Less  fog  was  en- 
countered than  is  usual  during  August,  and  with  the  exception 
of  a  tew  bergs  in  the  Straits  of  Belleisle  no  ice  was  reported 
during  the  month. 

M.  G.  Rollin,  of  the  French  Meteorological  Office,  has 
published  in  the  Annales  of  that  institution  a  valuable  article 
entitled  "  Remarks  on  Synoptic  Charts."  He  has  carefully 
examined  clay  by  day  the  movements  of  the  atmosphere,  with 
the  view  of  determining  the  possibility  of  predicting  the  arrival 
of  storms  coming  from  the  Atlantic.  His  experience  of  the 
American  telegrams  coincides  with  that  arrived  at  in  this  country, 
that  they  cannot  at  present  be  turned  to  practical  use  in  weather 
prediction.  But  he  has  made  a  serious  attempt  to  render  them 
useful  in  the  future,  by  the  establishment  of  certain  types  which 
connect  the  weather  of  the  Atlantic  with  that  of  the  adjacent 
continents,  and  he  finds  that  many  conditions,  without  being 
actually  identical,  are  sufficiently  alike  to  be  classified  together. 
His  concluding  remarks,  however,  show  that  much  further  in- 
vestigation is  necessary  before  any  definite  rules  can  be  laid 
down,  and  that  the  atmospheric  changes  are  often  so  rapid  that 
the  difficulties  of  weather  prediction  on  the  exposed  coasts  of 
Europe  are  likely  to  remain  very  great  for  a  long  time  to  come. 

A  beautiful  crystalline  substance  of  much  theoretic  interest 
was  exhibited  at  the  recent  Bath  meeting  by  its  discoverer, 
Prof.  Emerson  Reynolds,  F. R. S.,  of  Dublin  University.  Its 
mode  of  formation  and  analysis  prove  that  it  is  Si(NHC6H5)4, 
or  silicotetraphenylamide.  It  is  the  first  well-defined  compound 
in  which  silicon  is  exclusively  united  with  the  nitrogen  of 
amidic  groups,  and  is  formed  by  the  action  of  excess  of  phenyl- 
amine  on  silicon  tetrabromide.  The  new  compound  crystallizes 
from  carbon  disulphide  in  fine  transparent,  colourless  prisms, 
which  melt  sharply  at  1320.  When  heated  in  vacuo,  aniline 
distils  over,  and  a  residue  is  obtained  which  appears  to  be  the 
silicon  analogue  of  carbodiphenylimide.  Considering  the  im- 
portant part  which  silicon  plays  in  Nature,  and  its  close  resem- 
blance to  carbon — which  affords  a  large  number  of  important 
nitrogen  compounds — it  is  surprising  that  little  is  yet  known  of 
the  relations  of  silicon'and  nitrogen.  The  investigation  of  the 
new  substance  is  likely  to  throw  much  light  on  this  general 
question. 

At  the  same  meeting  Prof.  Emerson  Reynolds  also  exhibited 
a  number  of  new  silicon  compounds  of  a  different  type  from  that 
above  noticed.  They  were  obtained  by  the  action  of  silicon 
tetrabromide  on  the  primary  thiocarbamide  and  some  of  its 
derivatives.  The  products  are  addition  compounds :  that  ob- 
tained with  the  primary  thiocarbamide  has  the  formula 
(H4N2CS)8SiBr4,  and  analogous  compounds  were  formed  with 
allyl,  phenyl,  and  diphenyl-thiocarbamides.  The  allyl  product  is 
a  colourless  and  very  viscous  liquid,  the  others  are  vitreous 
solids  at  ordinary  temperature.  When  the  primary  thiocarbamide 
compound  is  dissolved  by  ethylic  alcohol,  it  is  decomposed,  and 
affords  tetra-  and  tri-thiocarbamide  derivatives  free  from  silicon. 
The  first  of  these  products  is  a  fine  crystalline  substance,  whose 
formula  is  (H5N2CS)4NBr  ;  the  second  is  a  sulphinic  compound, 
(II5N2CS)3Br.  C2H5Br.  Prof.  Reynolds  succeeded  in  effecting 
the  synthesis  of  the  first  compound  by  the  direct  union  of 
thiocarbamide  with  ammonium  bromide,  and  subsequently  pro- 
duced a  series  of  similar  bodies  by  substituting  for  ammonium 
bromide  the  bromides,  iodides,  and  chlorides  of  ammonium 
bases.  Although  the  derivatives  of  thiocarbamide  are  very 
numerous,  only  those  were  known  which  result  from  one  or  two 


molecules  of  the  amide  ;  but  the  existence  of  the  new  compounds 
exhibited  by  Prof.  E.  Reynolds  proves  that  thiocarbamide  can 
afford  much  more  highly-condensed  products. 

An    important    quantitative    reaction    between    iodine    and 
arseniuretted  hydrogen   has  recently  been   investigated  by  Dr. 
Otto  Brunn.  During  a  series  of  attempts  to  completely  eliminate 
arseniuretted  hydrogen    from   sulphuretted  hydrogen    prepared 
from  materials  containing  arsenic,  it  was  found  that  this  could 
be  completely  effected  by  passing  the  mixture  over  a  layer  of 
iodine.     The  mixed  gases  were  first  dried  by  passage  through  a 
calcKim  chloride  tube,  and  were  then  led  through  a  tube  12  mm. 
wide,  containing  the  layer  of  powdered  iodine  ;  a  plug  of  glass 
wool    moistened    with  potassium    iodide   to  remove  vapour   of 
iodine  was  placed  at  the  end  of  the  layer,  and  attached  to  the 
extremity  of  the  tube  were  a  couple  of  flasks  containing  lead 
acetate  solution   to  absorb  the  sulphuretted  hydrogen.     On  re- 
moving the  iodine  tube  and  heating  the  issuing  gas  in  the  usual 
drawn   out  form  of  hard  glass  tube,  a  fine  mirror  of  metallic 
arsenic  was  deposited,  but   after  insertion  of  the  iodine  tube  not 
a  trace  of  deposit  was  obtained,  while  a  yellow  coating  of  iodide 
of  arsenic  was  formed  upon  the  surface  of  the  iodine.     This  led 
Dr.  Brunn  to  experimentally  determine  whether   the    reaction 
was    quantitative    or    not.      Equal   volumes   of  a   mixture   of 
hydrogen  and   arseniuretted  hydrogen  were  passed  in  two  suc- 
cessive experiments  through  a  solution  of  silver  nitrate  in  the 
one  case,  and  over  a  layer  of  iodine  25  cm.  long  in  the  other. 
As  is  well  known,  silver  nitrate  is  quantitatively  reduced  by  the 
hydride  of  arsenic  to  metallic  silver,  the  arsenic  being  oxidized 
to  arsenious  acid.      It  was  found  that  the  amount  of  arsenic 
absorbed  by  the  iodine  was  exactly  equal  to   that  absorbed  by 
the  silver  nitrate,  and  hence  the  iodine  reaction  is  happily  found 
to  be  also  a  quantitative  one.     Chemists  have  therefore  a  ready 
means  of  freeing  both  hydrogen  and  sulphuretted  hydrogen  from 
the  last   traces  of   this  most  objectionable  hydride  of  arsenic. 
It  was  finally  shown  that  hydride  of  antimony  behaves  in  a 
precisely  similar  manner  with  iodine. 

The  Trustees  of  the  Australian  Museum  have  issued  their 
Report  for  1887.  The  total  number  of  visitors  was  122,799,  as 
against  127,231  in  1886.  This  Museum  is  open  on  Sundays 
from  2  o'clock  to  5,  and  the  privilege  seems  to  be  much  ap- 
preciated. The  average  daily  attendance  throughout  the  year 
was  330  on  week-days  and  709  on  Sundays.  The  collections  of 
the  Museum  are  being  steadily  increased,  mainly  by  purchases, 
exchanges,  and  donations,  but  also  by  collecting  and  dredging 
expeditions  sent  out  by  the  authorities  of  the  institution.  An 
expedition,  under  the  charge  of  Messrs.  Cairn  and  Grant,  to 
the  Bellenden  Ker  Ranges,  in  Northern  Queensland,  resulted  in 
obtaining  for  the  Museum  about  sixty-eight  species  (198  speci- 
mens) of  birds,  and  eleven  species  (thirty-five  specimens)  of 
mammals,  seven  of  which  are  new  to  the  Museum,  and  three 
are  new  to  science  ;  besides  a  number  of  insects  and  other  In- 
vertebrates. The  Trustees  were  enabled  also  during  the  year  to 
send  an  Expedition  to  Lord  Howe  Island,  in  company  with  the 
Visiting  Magistrate,  Mr.  H.  T.  Wilkinson.  The  Ethnological 
Hall  referred  to  in  last  year's  Report  has  been  fitted  up  with 
cases,  and  the  valuable  ethnological  collections,  mostly  acquired 
during  recent  years,  are  arranged  there.  The  Trustees  anticipate 
that  this  will  prove  to  be  "  not  the  least  interesting  portion  of 
the  Museum." 

An  interesting  "  Hand-book  of  Sydney  "  has  been  published 
for  the  use  of  the  members  of  the  Australasian  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science.  The  editor  is  Mr.  W.  M.  Hamlet, 
Government  Analyst,  Sydney.  His  object  is  to  give  an  epitome 
of  the  history,  meteorology,  geology,  flora,  and  fauna  of  Sydney 
and  the  surrounding  neighbourhood,  together  with  a  brief 
account  of  the  commerce  and  industries  which  have  grown  up 
in  the  mother  country  of  Australia  during  the  first  half-century. 


576 


NATURE 


[Oct.  ii,  1888 


The  Royal  Society  of  Canada  has  issued  its  Proceedings  and 
Transactions  during  the  year  1887.  This  is  the  fifth  volume 
of  the  series.  Among  the  papers  (some  of  which  are  in 
French)  we  may  note  the  following  :  the  Eskimo,  by  Franz 
Boas;  notes  and  observations  on  the  Kwakiool  people  of 
the  northern  part  of  Vancouver  Island,  and  adjacent  coasts,  made 
during  the  summer  of  1885,  with  a  vocabulary  of  about  seven 
hundred  words,  by  George  M.  Dawson  ;  on  the  Indians  and 
Eskimos  of  the  Ungava  District,  Labrador,  by  Lucien  M. 
Turner  ;  on  a  specimen  of  Canadian  native  platinum  from  British 
Columbia,  by  G.  Christian  Hoffmann  ;  microscopic  petrography 
of  the  drift  of  Central  Ontario,  by  A.  P.  Coleman  ;  Michel 
Sarrazin  :  materiaux  pour  servir  a  l'histoire  de  la  science  en 
Canada,  by  the  Abbe  Laflamme  ;  a  review  of  Canadian  botany 
from  the  first  settlement  of  New  France  to  the  nineteenth  century, 
by  D.  P.  Penhallow  ;  illustrations  of  the  fauna  of  the  St.  John 
group,  by  G.  F.  Matthew  ;  squirrels,  their  habits  and  intelligence, 
with  especial  reference  to  feigning,  by  T.  Wesley  Mills. 

The  first  volume  of  the  "  Geological  Record,"  for  1880-84 
(inclusive),  has  just  been  published.  The  second  volume  is  partly 
in  type,  and  will  be  ready  by  the  end  of  the  year.  The  editors 
are  Mr.  W.  Topley  and  Mr.  C.  Davies  Sherborn.  Three  altera- 
tions have  been  made  in  this  issue  of  the  "Record."  Titles  only  are 
given  ;  physical  geology  is  all  included  under  one  heading, 
instead  of  three  as  heretofore  ;  supplements  are  abolished,  titles 
omitted  from  previous  years  appearing  in  the  main  text. 

According  to  the  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Council  on 
Education  (England  and  Wales)  for  the  past  year,  the  class 
subjects  under  the  head  of  "  Elementary  Science  "  have  practic- 
ally not  been  taught  in  the  elementary  schools  throughout  the 
country.  Only  thirty-nine  schools  have  taken  up  any  of  these 
subjects,  while  geography,  for  instance,  has  been  taught  in  12,035 
schools.  With  regard  to  the  training  colleges  for  teachers  it  has 
of  late  years  been  arranged  that  success  in  the  examinations 
in  science  held  by  the  Science  and  Art  Department  should  be 
reckoned  in  fixing  the  students'  places  in  the  class  list  of  candi- 
dates for  certificates  as  teachers  of  public  schools.  It  is  curious 
that  in  the  training  colleges  in  Wales— Bangor,  Carmarthen,  and 
Carnarvon — not  a  single  student  presented  himself  in  mathematics, 
theoretical  mechanics,  ^animal  physiology,  or  inorganic  chemistry; 
and  out  of  713  male  students  who  passed  the  examinations  in 
science  under  the  Science  and  Art  Department  before  entering 
training  colleges  in  the  country  only  seven  passed  in  applied 
mechanics,  nine  in  organic  chemistry,  and  six  in  botany.  Amongst 
the  female  students  who  passed  the  Science  and  Art  Department, 
animal  physiology  and  physiography  were  the  favourite  subjects, 
while  not  one  passed  in  applied  mechanics,  only  one  in  theoretical 
mechanics,  and  three  in  organic  chemistry. 

We  have  received  a  copy  of  "Rural  School  Education  in 
Agriculture  (Scotland),"  the  opening  lecture  delivered  to  an 
agricultural  class  of  rural  teachers  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh 
by  Prof.  Robert  Wallace.  At  the  outset  he  gives  a  short  history 
of  agricultural  education  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh  (the 
Chair  was  founded  in  1790),  and  comments  on  the  fact  that  the 
students  attending  his  classes  are  rural  schoolmasters  from  every 
county  in  Scotland.  Last  year  a  Government  grant  of  ^300  to 
the  University  enabled  the  Senate  to  arrange  special  classes  for 
his  hearers.  The  students,  he  says,  are  not  intended  to  be 
farmers.  They  are  to  be,  so  to  speak,  literary  experts  on  agri- 
cultural matters,  who  are  to  direct  the  minds  of  lads  in  rural 
districts  into  proper  channels,  and  to  stir  up  amongst  them  an 
intelligent  curiosity  as  to  the  animal  and  plant  life  around  them. 
A  suggestion  made  by  Prof.  Wallace  as  to  the  formation  of 
libraries  for  the  help  of  the  rural  teachers  is  worthy  of  attention. 
Each  of  these  libraries  should  have  a  cyclopaedia  of  agriculture, 
and  one  guinea  a  year  should  be  expended  on  each  to  provide 
some  leading  agricultural  periodical.     This  is  all  that  would  be 


absolutely  necessary.      He  also  advocates  the  changing  of  the 
text-books  at  present  in  use  in  agricultural  classes  in  Scotland. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Patas  Monkey  (Cercopithecus  patas  9)  from 
West  Africa,  presented  by  Master  Lewis  Levy  ;  a  Drill  Baboon 
{Cynocephalus  leucophceus  §)  from  West  Africa,  presented  by 
the  Rev.  G.  H.  Richardson ;  a  Rhesus  Monkey  (Macacus 
rhesus  $)  from  India,  presented  by  Miss  Jessie  Bone  ;  a  Com- 
mon Marmoset  (Hapale  jacchus)  from  Brazil,  presented  by  Miss 
Maud  Bryden  ;  a  Ring-tailed  Coati  (Nasua  rufa  $)  from 
Demerara,  presented  by  Mr.  Robert  Sentonally ;  two  Grey 
Ichneumons  (Herpestes  griseus  <j  5)  from  India,  presented 
respectively  by  Mr.  A.  Cresser  and  Miss  Alice  Rutherford  ; 
two  West  African  Love  Birds  {Agapornis  pullaria)  from  West 
Africa,  presented  by  Miss  Ethel  Levy ;  a  Salt-water  Terrapin 
(Clemmys  terrapin)  from  North  America,  presented  by  Mr. 
Nicholas  Fen  wick  Hele  ;  four  Blue-bearded  Jays  (Cyanocorax 
cyanopogon)  from  |Para,  a  Violaceous  Night  Heron  (Nycticorax 
violaceus)  from  South  America,  purchased  ;  a  Laughing 
Kingfisher  (Dacelo  gigantea)  from  Australia,  deposited. 

OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

The  Light-Curve  of  U  Ophiuchi.—  Mr.  S.  C.  Chandler 
investigated  the  light-curve  of  this  most  interesting  variable 
about  a  year  ago  (Nature,  vol.  xxxvii.  p.  36),  and  found  evi- 
dence of  a  slight  shortening  of  the  period.  Mr.  Chandler's 
light-curve  also  showed  an  irregularity  in  the  increase  of  light 
after  minimum,  similar  to  that  which  Schonfeld  had  already 
exhibited  in  the  light-curves  of  Algol  and  S  Cancri — a  diminu- 
tion, that  is,  in  the  speed  of  recovery  almost  amounting  to  a 
short  halt.  It  is  evident  that  it  is  of  great  importance  to  decide 
whether  this  irregularity  is  due  merely  to  'some  personality  of 
the  observer,  or  is  truly  characteristic  of  the  star's  variation,  for 
in  the  latter  case  it  would  be  difficult  to  reconcile  it  with  the 
view  now  generally  held  that  the  variability  of  stars  of  the  Algol 
type  is  due  to  the  transit  of  a  dark  satellite.  Mr.  Sawyer  has 
recently  published  {Gould's  Astronomical  Journal,  No.  177)  the 
light-curve  from  his  own  observations,  which  are  527  in 
number,  made  on  57  nights,  and  involve  1 135  comparisons.  Mr. 
Sawyer's  curve  shows  an  irregularity  similar  to  but  slighter  than 
that  of  Mr.  Chandler's,  but  the  retardation  takes  place  sooner 
after  the  minimum,  and  the  mean  of  the  two  curves  gives 
an  almost  perfectly  symmetrical  curve  for  both  decrease  and 
recovery.  It  would  seem  likely,  therefore,  that  for  this  star 
at  least  this  curious  irregularity  is  a  purely  subjective  one,  and 
the  regularity  of  the  mean  curve  would  seem  to  afford  con- 
firmation to  the  satellite  theory. 

Comets  Brooks  and  Faye. — The  following  ephernerides  are 
in  continuation  of  those  given  in  Nature,  vol.  xxxviii.  p.  503, 
and  p.  528  : — 

Comet  1888  c  (Brooks).  Comet  1888  d  (Faye). 

1888.  R.A.  Decl.  R.A.  Decl. 

h.     m.     s.  o        /  h.    m.    s.  o        / 

Oct.    15  ...  16  14  43  ...  5  57-4  N.  7  33  20  ...  11   11  N. 

17  ...  16  19  50  ...  4  57-6  7  36  29  ...  10  47 
19  ...  16  24  49  ...  4  01  7  39  32  ...  10  23 
21  ...  16  29  38  ...  3  4-8  7  42  28  ...  9  59 
23  ...  16  34  22  ...  2  n-9  7  45  17  ...  9  35 
25  ...  16  38  58  ...   1  218  7  47  59  ...  9  11 

27  ...   16  43  28  ...  o  32-8  N.  7  50  34  ...     8  47  N. 

Comet  1888  e  (Barnard). —Mr.  W.  R.  Brooks  discovered 
this  comet  independently  on  the  following  morning  to  that  on 
which  Mr.  Barnard  discovered  it  at  Mount  Hamilton. 

Ephemeris  for  Berlin  Midnight  (continued  from  Nature, 

vol.  xxxviii.  p.  528). 
1888.  R.A.  Decl.  Log  r.  Log  A.      Bright- 

h.    m.    s.  o      /  ness. 

Oct.    12...    62314...    6  59-5  N...  0-3523  ...  0-2550  ...  351 
14  ...    6  19  19  ...    6  39-7 
16  ...    6  14  58  ...    6  186       ...  0*3466  ...  0-2265  ...  4*io 

18  ...    6  10  12  ...    5  562 

20...    6    4  57--    5  32'4       ...  0-3410  ...  0-1972  ...  4*80 
22...    55912...    5    7-1 

24...    55255...    440-3  N....  0-3354  ...  0-1672  ...  5-60 
The  brightness  on  September  2  has  been  taken  as  unity. 


Oct.  ii,  1888] 


NATURE 


577 


ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR    THE 
WEEK  1888  OCTOBER  14-20. 

/"C*OR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  October  14 

Sun  rises,  6h.  25m.  ;  souths,  Ilh.  45m.  54'5s.  ;  sets,  I7h.  7m.  : 

right  asc.  on  meridian,  13I1.  197m.  ;  decl.  8°  25'  S.  Sidereal 

Time  at  Sunset,  l8h.  42m. 
Moon   (Full   on   October  19,   2ih.)  rises,   15I1.  33m.  ;   souths, 

2oh.  13m.;  sets,  ih.  im.*:  right  asc.  on  meridian,  2ih.  48 "6m.; 

decl.  15°  42'  S. 


Right  asc.  and  declination 

Planet. 

Rises. 

Souths. 

Sets. 

on  meridian. 

h.     m. 

h.    m. 

h.     m. 

h.      m.                0 

Mercury . . 

8  57  •• 

•    13    15    •• 

•  17  33  • 

.   19  49-1   ...   19  37  S. 

8  49  •• 

•    13   23    . 

•  17  57  • 

.  14  57-1  ...  17    4S. 

Mars 

12  15  .. 

•  15  57  • 

•  19  39  • 

.  17  31-6  ...  24  53  S. 

Jupiter 

10  29  .. 

.  14  40  . 

■  18  51  • 

.  16  147  ...  20  43  S. 

Saturn 

0  22  .. 

.     7  51  . 

.   15  20  . 

.     9  24*2  ...   16     7  N. 

Uranus  ... 

62.. 

•   n  33  • 

•   17     4  • 

..   13    6-9  ...     6  28  S. 

Neptune.. 

18  42*.. 

.     2  28  . 

10  14  . 

..     4    07  ...   18  53  N. 

*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 

Occultatiotis  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 
angles  from  ver- 
tex to  right  foi 
inverted  image, 
o         o 

...  66  49 
...  203  — 
...     63  338 


Oct. 

16  . 
16  . 
20   . 

Oct. 
20 


Star. 

74  Aquarii 
B.A.C.  8214 
fi  Ceti 


Mag. 

.  6 
.  6\ 

■  4 


Disap. 
h.    m. 

o  57 
21  21 
23  39 


Reap. 


O  4lt 


h. 
21 


t  Occurs  on  the  following  morning. 
...     Mercury  stationary. 


Variable  Stars. 


Star. 


R.A. 


U  Cephei     

Mira  Ceti    

T  Monocerotis  .. 
U  Geminorum'  ... 
R  Camelopardalis. 

T  Ophiuchi 

U  Ophiuchi 

Z  Sagittarii 

8  Lyrse 

R  Lyrae        , 

n  Aquilae      

T  Vulpeculae 

Y  Cygni       


o  52-4  .. 
2  137  .. 

6  19*2  .. 

7  48-5  •• 
14  261  .. 

16  27-3  .. 

17  10*9  .. 

18  14-8  .. 
18  46-0  .. 

18  51-9  .. 

19  46*8  .. 

20  467  .. 
20  47  6  .. 


Decl. 

81  16  N. 

3  29  S. 

7    9N. 
22  18  N. 

84  20  N. 

15  54  S. 
1  20  N. 

18  55  S. 

33  14  N. 

43  48  N. 
■  o  43  N. 
.  27  50  N. 
•  34  14  N. 


Oct. 


5  Cephei      22  25-0  ...  57  51  N.  ...     ,, 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum. 

Meteor- Showers. 
R.A.  Decl. 


h. 

16,    3 

15. 

18,  3 
15. 
17, 
18, 

16,  19 

17,  19 

19,  22 
18, 

20,  1 
20,  23 
14.  3 
17,  3 
20,  3 
16,  23 


II   m 

•  M 

oM 

M 

M 

M 

46  m 

oM 

oM 

M 

oM 

oM 

o  m 

o  m 

o  m 

o   1)1 


Near  {'  Ceti    

...     30  . 

•     9 

N.     . 

Slow  ; 

trained. 

,,     «  Arietis 

...     42 

.   20 

N.     . 

..     Swift. 

,,     v  Orionis 

...     90  . 

•   15 

N.     . 

.     The  0 

■ionids. 

,,     C  Geminorum 

...   105  .. 

.  22 

N.'    . 

.      Swift  ; 

streaks. 

GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

We  notice  in  the  last  number  of  the  Izvestia  of  the  East 
Siberian  Geographical  Society  (vol.  xix.  1),  a  most  interesting 
note,  by  L.  A.  Jaczewski,  on  the  geological  results  of  the  last 
Sayan  expedition.  The  immense  border-ridge  of  the  great 
plateau  of  East  Asia,  which  stretches  from  the  sources  of  the 
Iya  to  Lake  Baikal,  was  very  little  known.  Many  explorers 
have  visited  the  valleys  of  the  Irkut  and  Oka  which  flow  at 
its  northern  base,  but  very  few  have  crossed  it,  and  if  they 
crossed  the  huge  ridge,  it  was  mostly  to  the  north  of  Lake 
Kosogol,  where  a  broad  passage  is  opened  from  the  lowlands  to 
the  high  plateau.     The  Expedition  of  MM.  Prein  and  Jaczews 


crossed  it  at  three  different  places,  and  thus  obtained  an  insight 
into  its  geological  structure.  As  to  its  age,  it  appears  that  lime- 
stones, most  probably  Silurian,  lie  almost  undisturbed  at  its 
northern  base,  so  that  the  hypothesis  as  to  the  great  plateau 
having  been  a  continent  since  the  Laurentian  or  Huronian 
epochs  is  thus  confirmed.  We  notice  also  that,  besides 
Munku  Sardyk,  3500  metres  high,  there  are  in  the  Sayan  at  least 
three  or  four  summits  of  nearly  the  same  height ;  and  that,  viewed 
from  the  south  on  the  banks  of  the  Kirlygoi  stream,  it  appears 
as  a  massive  wall,  700  metres  high,  having  a  direction  from  the 
north-west  to  the  south-east.  As  to  the  complex  ramifications 
of  the  Sayan,  they  are  chiefly  due  to  a  most  extensive  action  of 
atmospheric  agencies,  as  was  foreseen  by  Tchersky.  Most 
interesting  observations  were  made  as  to  the  formerly  quite 
unknown  glaciers  of  the  northern  slope,  where  they  have  the 
shape  of  narrow  glaciers  descending  down  a  very  steep  slope  and 
taking  their  origin  amidst  wide  snow-fields.  Their  lower  ex- 
tremities reach  a  lower  level  than  on  the  southern  slopes.  As  to 
the  former  extension  of  glaciers,  which  was  maintained  by  Kro- 
potkin,  but  doubted  on  account  of  prevailing  theoretical  concep- 
tions as  to  the  non-glaciation  of  Siberia,  M.  Jaczewski  found 
plenty  of  striae  and  striated  boulders  which  made  him  consider 
that  glaciers  formerly  extended  to  a  level  of  1500  metres  on  the 
northern  slope,  and  1 700  metres  on  the  southern  slope  turned 
towards  the  plateau. 

The  French  Maritime  Survey  is  sending  a  special  mission  to 
map  the  coasts  of  Madagascar.  The  officers  will  leave  Paris  in 
a  few  days,  and  are  busy  at  the  St.  Maur  Magnetic  Observatory 
regulating  their  instruments  for  this  purpose. 


ELECTRICAL  NOTES. 

Prof.  Fitzgerald  (B.  A.  Address,  Section  A),  in  drawing 
attention  to  Hertz's  experiments,  has  done  the  greatest  possible 
service  to  electrical  science.  Hertz  not  only  proves  the  existence 
of  the  ether,  but  the  fact  that  an  electric  field  is  due  to  the  oscil- 
latory motions  of  the  ether.  Everyone  who  has  the  means  will 
probably  be  repeating  these  experiments.  The  Electrician  is 
publishing  a  capital  resume  of  Hertz's  work  by  Mr.  De  Tunzel- 
mann.  Prof.  Fitzgerald  himself  had  predicted  this  result  at 
Southport  in  1882,  and  Prof.  Oliver  Lodge  has  actually  measured 
these  wave-lengths — the  shortest  ether  wave  measured  being 
3  yards — by  extremely  simple  and  beautiful  experiments. 

Acheson  (Nature,  July  26,  p.  305)  is  pursuing  in  Pittsburg 

his  inquiry  into  the   influence  of  the  disruptive  discharges  of 

powerful    alternating    currents.        He     confirms     his    formula, 

E3  x  K 

=  d,  d  being  the  sparking  distance  in  inches  and  a  a 

constant,  and  finds  for 

Dielectric.  Sparks  between  a. 

Air points  .         135 

Air points  and  wire      .         263 

Paraffin  and  cotton  ...  ,,  .      5822 

Ozite  and  cotton  ....  ,,  7759 

Ozite  is  a  residuum  of  petroleum. 

Lenard  and  Howard  (Electrotechnik  Zeitschrift,  July  1888), 
have  succeeded  in  making  flat  spirals  of  pure  bismuth  which,  in 
the  magnetic  field,  vary  in  resistance  from  10  to  20  ohms,  accord- 
ing to  the  strength  of  the  field,  and  form  a  good  practical  mode 
of  roughly  measuring  its  intensity  as  suggested  by  Leduc. 

Dr.  Borgman,  of  St.  Petersburg  (Phil.  Mag.,  September 
1888),  has  been  experimenting  on  the  transmission  of  electric 
currents  through  air  when  flames  or  points  are  used  as  elec- 
trodes. Some  years  ago,  Prof.  Hughes  showed  many  of  his 
friends  similar  experiments  with  telephones,  but  for  some  reason 
or  other  he  has  never  published  the  results.  The  experiments 
were  extremely  interesting,  as  indeed  are  those  of  Borgman, 
who  finds  a  difference  in  the  surface  resistance  of  the  cathode 
and  anode  flames.  He  attributes  much  to  the  influence  of  light 
as  studied  by  Hertz,  Hallwachs,  Wiedemann  and  Ebert,  and 
Arrhenius.  These  results  have  a  very  important  bearing  on  the 
new  views  of  electrical  action  that  are  following  from  the 
inquiries  of  Fitzgerald,  Hertz,  Lodge,  and  others. 

An  extremely  suggestive  and  very  original  paper  was  read  at 
the  British  Association  by  Prof.  Hicks,  "On  a  Vortex  Ana- 
logue of  Static  Electricity."  Attractions,  repulsions,  lines  of 
force,  charge,  positive  and  negative  electrification,   induction, 


578 


A7  A  TURE 


[Oct.  11,  1888 


strains  of  dielectrics — all  the  main  phenomena  of  static  electricity 
admit  of  explanation  on  the  basis  of  hollow  vortices  in  the  ether. 
Moreover,  the  theory  is  applicable  to  chemical  valency  and  to 
Faraday's  law  of  electrolysis.  It  places  Faraday's  ideal  lines 
of  force  on  a  basis  of  reality,  and  it  adds  one  more  nail  to  the 
coffin  of  the  material  theory  of  electricity  which  it  is  to  be  hoped 
has  now  been  safely  buried. 

During  a  thunderstorm  which  lately  burst  over  Barcelona, 
the  captive  balloon  in  the  Exhibition  was  struck  by  a  lightning  - 
flash  and  destroyed.  The  connecting-rope  was  probably  of 
wire. 

The  lightning-conductor  discussion  at  the  Bath  meeting  of 
the  British  Association  has  raised  the  question  of  the  oscillatory 
character  of  the  Leyden  jar  discharge.  This  was  suggested  by 
Helmholtz,  in  1852,  as  an  explanation  of  the  fact  observed  by 
Faraday,  that  when  electrolysis  of  water  took  place  through  a 
Leyden  jar  discharge  passing  through  it,  the  gases  at  each  elec- 
trode were  mixed  H  and  O.  It  was  proved  by  Thomson,  in 
1853,  that  if  self-induction  existed  in  the  discharging  circuit 
it  must  occur,  and  the  oscillations  were  actually  observed  by 
Feddersen.  The  fact  that  needles  and  iron  bars  are  magnetized 
militates  rather  against  the  theory,  but  Prof.  Ewing  {Electri- 
cian, October  5,  p.  712)  suggests  that  oscillations  in  which  the 
period  lengthens  while  their  amplitude  decays  would  account 
for  magnetization  in  layers. 


MOLECULAR  PHYSICS:  AN  ATTEMPT  AT  A 
COMPREHENSIVE  DYNAMICAL  TREAT- 
MENT OF  PHYSICAL  AND  CHEMICAL 
FORCES} 

III. 

Part  II.—  Electricity  and  Magnetism. 

§  12.   Electrostatic  Attraction. 

'"PHOMSON'S  investigations,  considered  in  §  1  (August  23, 
p.  404),  rest  on  the  assumption  that  the  diameter  of  a 
molecule  or  atom  is  indefinitely  small  in  comparison  with  the 
wave-length  of  the  light,  and  therefore  the  conclusions  do  not 
hold  good  for  light-vibrations  of  such  small  wave-length  as  to 
be  comparable  with  the  molecular  diameters.  The  consideration 
of  vibrations  of  this  kind  shows  that  they  give  rise  to  what  are 
called  electrical  phenomena. 

These  vibrations,  like  the  former,  will  affect  the  internal 
energy  of  the  molecules,  and  the  molecules  will  also  have 
critical  periods  with  respect  to  them.  But  instead  of  assuming, 
as  before,  that  within  a  finite  but  very  short  interval,  only  one 
wave  impinges  upon  a  molecule,  it  must  now  be  assumed  that 
an  indefinitely  large  number  of  waves  impinge  upon  the  mole- 
cule at  the  same  time,  and  that  the  effect  of  these  waves  is  of  a 
constant  character.  Suppose  a  sphere  of  a  diameter  differing 
only  by  an  indefinitely  small  amount  from  that  of  a  molecule,  to 
be  separated  from  the  ether,  and  let  vibrations  of  short  wave- 
length impinge  upon  it  from  a  fixed  point,  P.  The  first  step 
will  be  to  determine  the  energy,  due  to  these  vibrations,  of  the 
ether  within  the  sphere. 

Let  r0  be  the  least  and  rx  the  greatest  distance  of  P  from  the 
spherical  surface.  The  energy  will  be  inversely  proportional  to 
the  square  of  the  distance,  so  that,  where  k  is  a  constant,  the 
energy  of  the  vibrating  ether  within  the  sphere  will  be  — 


k5 


surface  of  the  sphere  of  radius  R*,  the  total  energy  of  the  ether 
within  the  space  considered  will  be  proportional  to — 


hfa+hl4'^ 


where  5  =  i\  -  ;-0,  and  r  lies  between  r0  and  rr 

Now  consider  a  finite  space  bounded  by  spherical  surfaces  of 
radii  Fx0  and  R,  having  their  common  centre  at  P,  and  by  a  cone 
with  its  vertex  at  P,  and  suppose  it  to  be  filled  with  spheres  of 
diameters  indefinitely  near  to  those  of  molecules.;  then  a  finite 
number  of  concentric  spherical  surfaces  may  be  inserted  between 
the  two  bounding  spheres,  at  distances  equal  to  ths  diameter  of 
a  molecule.  The  number  of  small  spheres  between  any  pair  of 
these  spherical  surfaces  will  be  proportional  to  the  spherical  I 
surface  included  within  the  cone,  so  that,  if  da*  is  the  element  of  I 

v,'  ^ T?aP?r  read  b5fore  the  Physico-Economic  Society  of  Konigsberg,  by   i 
1  rot.  *.  Lindemann,  on  April  5,  i838.     Continued  from  p.  461. 


If,  however,  we  assume  that  the  small  spheres  are  not  suf- 
ficiently numerous  to  completely  fill  the  space,  but  that  they 
may  all  be  arranged  along  a  circular  arc  of  radius  R,  then  R," 
in  these  denominators  must  be  replaced  by  R„  so  that,  writing 
dR  for  5,  we  find  for  the  total  energy — 

Ko 
where  dx  dy  dz  represents  an  element  of  volume  in  the  most 
general  form.       We  therefore    obtain  the  following  important 
result :  — 

If  a  portion  of  space  infinitely  large  in  proportion  to  the  dia- 
meter of  a  molecule  contains  a  number  of  spheres  of  the  size  of 
a  molecule,  so  sparsely  scattered  that  they  can  all  be  arranged 
on  a  surface  within  the  space,  then  the  total  energy  of  the  ether 
within  all  these  spheres  will  be  the  same  as  if  the  space  were 
completely  occupied  by  the  spheres,  and  the  energy  of  each 
element  of  space  were  inversely  proportional  to  the  first  power 
of  the  distance  of  the  element  from  the  point  P. 

Now  suppose  these  spheres  to  be  replaced  by  molecules  with 
a  similar  scattered  distribution,  then  the  vibrations  correspond- 
ing to  their  critical  periods  will  increase  their  energy,  while 
vibrations  of  different  period  will  traverse  the  space  unaltered, 
and  therefore  the  molecules  may  still  be  regarded  as  specially 
susceptible  to  certain  vibrations  of  very  short  period,  just  as  in 
the  case  of  luminous  vibrations.  Let  KR"1  be  the  energy  of  the 
ether  within  the  space  occupied  by  the  molecules,  then  the 
ponderable  portions  of  the  molecules  will  have  their  energy  in- 
creased by  an  amount  0KR"1,  where  0  is  a  proper  fraction — 
that  is  to  say,  a  force  varying  inversely  as  the  square  of  the 
distance  will  act  on  the  ponderable  molecules. 

Now,  it  was  shown  in  §  1  that  for  comparatively  slow  mole- 
cular motions  the  ether  behaves  like  a  perfect  fluid,  and  there- 
fore it  follows  from  the  principles  of  hydrodynamics  that  the 
molecules  must  move  in  the  direction  in  which  the  energy  of  the 
surrounding  ether  diminishes  most  rapidly — that  is,  towards  P  ; 
for  the  increase  in  the  energy  of  a  molecule  a;  it  approaches  P 
must  be  accompanied  by  a  decrease  in  the  energy  of  the  ether 
surrounding  it. 

It  therefore  follows  that  the  vibrations  of  very  short  wave- 
length proceeding  from  P  will  have  the  same  effect  as  if  P  had 
a  charge  of  electricity,  which  suggests  that  electrostatic  pheno- 
mena may  be  due  simply  to  these  vibrations  in  the  ether,  and  it 
will  be  found  that  further  investigation  confirms  this  conclusion. 
For  the  sake  of  brevity,  the  internal  energy  of  a  molecule  due 
to  vibrations  of  the  short  wave-length  here  considered  will 
henceforth  be  called  electrical  energy,  and  a  molecule  will 
be  said  to  be  electrically  excited  when  its  electrical  energy 
differs  from  zero.  The  demonstration  given  in  §  5  (p.  407),  that 
there  is  a  maximum  value  for  the  possible  internal  energy  of  a 
molecule,  will  apply  also  to  the  present  case,  so  that  there  will 
be  a  maximum  possible  value  of  the  electrical  energy  of  a  mole- 
cule, depending  upon  the  values  of  the  constants  which  deter- 
mine its  internal  constitution.  This  result  leads  to  the  following 
proposition  :  — 

Two  electrically  excited  particles  will  attract  each  other  when 
the  electrical  energy  of  either  one  of  them  is,  under  the  existing 
circumstances,  susceptible  of  further  increase.  In  the  opposite 
ca^e  there  will  be  repuls'on. l 

The  truth  of  the  latter  pirtion  of  the  preceding  proposition 
is  easily  seen,  for  if  two  equally  excited  particles,  or  two  excited 
to  the  maximum  amount,  were  to  approach  each  other,  the 
energy  of  the  intervening  ether  would  increase  in  the  direction 
of  motion,  for  the  ether  at  a  point  in  the  neighbourhood  of  one 
of  the  particles  would  receive  an  increase  of  energy  from  the 
approach  of  the  other,  while  there  could  be  no  absorption  of 
energy  by  the  molecule.  This  would,  however,  be  in  contra- 
diction with  the  law  of  hydrodynamics  according  to  which  the 
motion  takes  place  in  the  direction  of  decreasing  energy. - 

1  The^ction  of  electrified  glass  and  sealing-wax  on  each  other  and  on 
pith-balls  is  easily  explained  from  this.  The  difference  between  pjsitive 
and  negative  electricity  being  merely  relative,  appears,  toj,  to  re:nove  a 
good  many  difficulties  in  the  explanation  of  electrostatic  phenomena. 

2  We  therefore  assume  the  truth  of  Maxwell's  the  >rv  that  light-vibrations 
exert  a  pressure  in  the  direction  of  propagation  ("  Electricity  and  Mag- 
netism," §  792)  :  this  will  only  be  modified  when  the  vib-ations  are  abjjrbed 
by  the  ponderable  molecules. 


Oct. 


1 1 


iSSSJ 


NATURE 


579 


To  determine  exactly  the  conditions  for  attraction  and  repul- 
sion respectively,  let  M  be  the  electrical  energy,  at  unit  distance, 
of  a  vibration  proceeding  from  1',  then  the  energy  at  the  distance 
R  is  MR  1,  as  far  as  its  effect  on  a  molecule  is  concerned.  Sup- 
pose a  portion,  •MR"1,  of  this  to  be  absorbed  where  €  is  a 
proper  fraction,  then  the  repulsive  force  will  be  proportional  to 
the  negative  differential  coefficients  of  (i  -  i)MR"',  and  there  will 
be  at  the  same  time  an  attractive  force  proportional  to  the  dif- 
ferential coefficient  of  cMR'1.  The  total  repulsive  force  will 
therefore  be  proportional  to  (i-2e)MR~-;  its  maximum  value 
will  be  attained  for  e  ==  o  ;  it  will  be  zero  for  t  =  ^  j  it  will  be 
attractive  for  «  >  }4,  and  the  attractive  force  will  reach  its 
maximum  value  f c  r  e  =  I — that  is  to  say,  when  the  whole  of  the 
energy  is  absorbed.  This  may  take  place  when  the  two 
attracting  or  repelling  particles  are  of  the  same  substance.  The 
expressions  for  these  forces  contain,  in  addition  to  R,  a  factor  M 
depending  only  on  the  attracting  particle,  and  a  factor  I  -  2e 
depending  only  on  the  attracted  particle.  In  the  same  way  the 
second  particle  will  exert  upon  the  first  P  a  force  proportional 
to  (i  -  27j)NR"'J,  where  17  depends  only  on  the  first  particle,  and 
N  only  on  the  second.  The  electrostatic  potential  of  the  mutual 
acti<  n  will  therefore  be — 


(1   -  26)(I   -  27?)MN 

R 


(28) 


M  and  N  measure  the  electricity  radiated  from  the  two 
particles  respectively— that  is  to  say,  the  excess  of  the  internal 
electrical  excitation  of  the  two  particles  over  that  of  the  sur- 
rounding ether.  This  excess  may  be  negative,  and  therefore 
two  unelectrified  particles  may  repel  each  other  (when  e  =  o, 
77  =  o)  provided  the  surrounding  medium  is  excited.  The  next 
step  would  be  to  determine  the  further  motion  of  an  attracted  or 
repelled  electrified  particle,  but  since  electricity  in  motion  behaves 
quite  differently  from  electricity  at  rest,  as  will  be  shown  to  follow 
from  the  author's  theory,  the  consideration  of  this  problem  must 
be  postponed,  but  it  may  be  noted  here  that  an  attracted  particle 
can  only  continue  to  approach  the  attracting  particle  so  long  as 
its  maximum  energy  has  not  been  attained.  They  may  therefore 
either  continue  to  approach  until  they  come  into  contact,  or  may 
cease  to  approach  at  a  certain  critical  distance.  The  latter 
possibilitydoesnot  seem  allowable  accordingto  experience,  and  in 
fact  is  found  to  be  excluded  when  the  motion  is  more  fully  con- 
sidered, and  the  author  merely  mentions  it  in  this  place  to  call 
attention  to  its  relation  to  the  objections  brought  by  von 
Helmholtz  against  Weber's  theory. 

Attempts  have  already  been  made  to  explain  Newtonian 
gravitation  from  electrostatic  actions.1  The  attempt  to  explain 
gravitation  in  this  manner  derives  additional  interest  from  the 
author's  theory  of  electrostatic  action,  according  to  which  the 
earth  receives  from  the  sun's  rays,  not  only  heat  and  light,  but 
also  electrical  energy. 

The  theory  of  planetary  motion  should  be  capable  of  being 
derived  from  the  laws  of  electro-dynamics,  and  the  author's 
theory  may  therefore  possibly  prove  of  great  value  for  the 
explanation  of  the  phenomena  of  terrestrial  magnetism,  of 
meteorology,  and  may  perhaps  also  throw  some  light  upon  the 
natt  r_-  of  comets. 

§  13.  Electro-dynamie  Potential  of  Two  Currents. 
Electrostatic  action  may  be  compared,  according  to  the 
author's  theory,  with  heat  radiation,  since  both  series  of  pheno- 
mena are  due  to  the  transference  of  energy  from  the  ether 
to  ponderable  molecules.  Similarly,  heat  conduction  may 
be  compared  with  electrical  conduction.  A  body  will  be 
defined  as  a  conductor  when  its  molecules,  in  virtue  of 
specially  favourable  values  of  its  critical  periods  and  other 
constants,  are  so  sensitive  to  electrical  energy  as  to  easily  absorb 
the  maximum  amount  of  internal  energy,  after  which  the  centres 
of  gravity  of  the  molecule  will  begin  to  execute  exceedingly  small 
vibrations,  which  will  be  transmitted  from  molecule  to  molecule, 
accompanied  by  an  absorption  of  electrical  energy  by  each  mole- 
cule, in  exactly  the  same  way  that  the  molecules  become 
luminous  by  the  absorption  of  energy  in  the  form  of  heat  vibra- 
tions.    Conduction,  then,  will  take  place?  by  electrostatic  radia- 

1  By  Mossotti.  for  example,  in  1836;  see  Zollner's  "  Wissenschaftliche 
Abhandlungen,"  vol.  ii.  p.  417  ([-'■  "z «•  '  '-V>  ■  <>"  P-  lf'  '*  **?•»  WWUS 
hypotheses  regarding  action  at  a  distance  are  collected  together,  but  the 
author  state*  that  he  does  not  agree  with  Zollner's  criticisms  on  them.  See 
also   Maxwell's   "  Electricity  and    Magnetism,"  Aiticles  37,  59,  et  «</.,  ar.d 

846  Ct  SCij. 


tion  from  molecule  to  molecule.1  Those  substances,  on  the  other 
hand,  in  which  the  molecules  absorb  with  difficulty  the  maximum 
amount  of  electrical  energy,  or  in  which  internal  electrical  vibra- 
tions are  only  excited  with  difficulty,   will  be  non-conductors. 

The  energy  of  an  electrical  vibration  is  inversely  proportional 
to  the  square  of  the  period  of  vibration,  and  therefore  to  the 
square  of  the  wave-length,  A.  A  very  good  conductor  (and  these 
alone  are  con-idered  in  electro-dynamics)  must  have  a  very  large 
number  of  critical  wave-lengths  lying  so  close  together  that  their 
sum  may  be  represented  by  a  definite  integral.  Let  \l  be  the 
smallest,  and  A.,  the  greatest,  of  the  electrical  wave-lengths  to  be 
considered  in  any  given  case,  then  the  internal  electrical  energy 
of  the  molecule  will  be  proportional  to 

/    'aX  =   r   -  -L  =  -"  ~  A| 

J  Ai\2         A,        Aa  Ar 

where  A1  is  a  value  of  A  lying  between  Ax  and  A2.  Owing  to  the 
number  of  critical  wave-lengths  being  necessarily  very  large, 
A„  -  Ax  will  be  a  finite  quanity  in  comparison  with  A1.  We 
therefore  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  the  total  internal  electrical 
energy  of  a  molecule  of  a  good  conductor  is  inversely  proportional 
to  a  certain  mean  critical  wave-length  A1. 

If  we  now  make  the  assumption  that  the  electrified  particles 
are  moving  relatively  to  each  other  with  a  given  velocity,  their 
mutual  electrostatic  action  will  be  modified  in  the  same  manner 
as  if  the  wave-length  of  the  elec:rical  vibration  proceeding  from 
each  of  them  were  increased  or  diminished  by  an  amount  AA. 
Let  c  be  the  velocity  of  light,  and  p  the  relative  velocity  of  the 
two  electrified  particles,  in  the  direction  of  the  line  joining 
them,  then  we  know  that  AA  =  \p/c.  Let  r  be  the  initial  distance 
between  the  particles,  and  E/>A  =  M/r  the  initial  electrostatic 
potential  of  one  due  to  the  presence  of  the  other,  then  during  the 
motion  it  will  be — 


E 
r{\  +  AA) 


M 


r\   1  +  £ 


+ 


Let  ds  be  the  element  of  length  of  the  first  conductor,  and  ds' 
that  of  the  second,  and  let  9  and  9'  be  the  angles  which  they 
make  with  the  joining  line,  then — 


ds  „       ds'         a, 

-  cos  6  -        cos  9 
dt  dt 


.(29) 


To  determine  the  mutual  action  of  the  two  current  elements, 
each  element  must  be  assumed  to  consist  of  a  pair  of  molecules, 
one  of  which  has  transmitted  electrical  energy  to  the  other  with- 
out having  itself  received  a  fresh  supply,  an  assumption  in  com- 
plete accordance  with  the  representation  of  a  molecule  as  consist- 
ing of  a  series  of  distinct  shells,  and  which  takes  the  place  of  the 
assumption  usually  made  that  at  each  moment  the  quantities  of 
positive  and  negative  electricity  on  every  current-element  are 
equal.  The  two  original  elements  will  repel  each  other  if  the 
internal  energy  is  electrically  excited  to  an  equal  extent,  or  to 
the  maximum  amount  possible  in  each.  In  order  to  fix  the  ideas 
this  may  be  assumed  to  be  the  case  in  what  follows. 

Let  1,  2,  represent  the  two  molecules  of  the  ^element  ds,  and 
1',  2',  those  old/,  then  the  mutual  potential  of  "the  two  elements 
will  be  represented  by  the  sum — 

P2a-  +  P12<  +  Pr,  +  Pu< ; 

where  Pa  represents  the  mutual  potential  of  two  molecules  i 
and  k.  The  author  takes  the  potential  such  that  its  positive 
differential  coefficient  in  any  direction  is  equal  to  the  component 
of  force  in  that  direction,  and  therefore  we  have — 


Pltf 


M 


I   -  r  +  r-. 


M 


/       ds  cos  9 
r[  1  +  - 
\       dt     c 


Pi-.=-: 


) (30) 

_M/       ds  cos0  ,/ds  cos  9V-  _      \        ,     x 

<\~7\     *    <-■       *2    C     )     '")  "'u 

_     M/      J/  cos (,'     Us'  cosfl'V  +\ ...( 32) 
?/cos*\     r\        dt    c      ^\dt     c      )  J     Ki 


M 


dt      e 


I'..- 


M 


(33) 


1    ECundt  has  recently  shown  that   heat  conduction  is  probably  effected  in 
a  similar  manner  (Sitzungsberichte  der  Berliner  Akmdtmie,  1888,  p.  271). 


58o 


NATURE 


[Oct.  ii,  1888 


The  constant  M,  according  to  (28),  depends  on  the  two  current 
elements,  and  measures  the  electrical  energy  of  the  medium 
between  them. 

In  (30)  6  =  o,  77  =  o  ;  in  (31)  e  =  o,  93  =  1  ;  in  (32)  e  =  1, 
T)  =  o;  in  (33)  e  =  1,  7j  =  i.1 

Substituting  for  p  its  value  from  (29),  and  neglecting  the 
second  and  higher  powers,  we  find  for  the  electro-dynamic 
potential  of  the  two  current  elements — 

2M 
dV  —      ,  cos  6  cos  0'  dsds' (34) 

C" 

which  gives  for  the  potential  of  two  closed  circuits — 


V 


-*// 


M  cos  0  cos  6'  dsds'  . 


•(35) 


where  M  is  an  electrostatic  constant  and  c  the  velocity  of  light. 

In  the  case  of  closed  circuits  we  know  that  the  value  of  V 
remains  unchanged  if  cos  0  cos  0'  is  replaced  by  cos  (as,  ds'), 
and  therefore  we  arrive  at  Neumann's  expression  for  the  mutual 
potential  of  two  closed  circuits,  namely — 

V  =  A /  /m  cos  (ds.ds')  dsds' (36) 

These  expressions  for  V  have  been  obtained  by  neglecting  the 
second  and  higher  powers  of  p/c,  \jc  .  ds/dt,  and  i/c  .  ds'/dt ; 
moreover,  the  dependence  of  the  energy  on  the  wave-length  was 
only  expressed  in  terms  of  a  mean  value,  \' ;  so  that  the  ex- 
pressions are  only  to  be  considered  as  approximately  true.  It 
is  evident  that  they  cannot  hold  good  if  either  of  the  quantities 

P>  y  >  or       become  equal  to  or  greater  than  the  velocity  of  light — 
dt        dt 

that  is  to  say,  both  the  relative  and  absolute  velocities  of  the 

particles  must  be  less  than  that  of  light ;  and  it  will  be  shown  in 

what  follows  that  this  limitation  is  of  the  utmost  importance. - 

§   14.   Weber  s  Fundamental  Law. 
von   Helmholtz  has  investigated  the  mutual  potential  of  two 
current  elements  on  the  assumption  that  it  is  of  the  form — 

— --J  (1   +  k)  cos  (ds,ds')  +  (1  -  k)  cos  6  cos  6'  Ydsds'. 

Putting  k  =  -  1,  this  expression  agrees  with  Weber's  law  and 
also  with  (34),  showing  that  the  author's  theory  leads  to  Weber's 
law.  In  fact,  putting  6  =  o,  A'  =  ir,  and  ds  =  ds'  —  dr/2,  and 
taking  the  sum  3  of  the  electrostatic  and  electro-dynamic  poten- 
tials, we  arrive  at  Weber's  expression  for  the  potential  of  the 
two  particles,  namely — 

and  the  author's  expression  for  d  V  leads  to  Weber's  expression 
for  the  repulsion  between  two  particles,  namely — 

r*  I         2c1  \dt  J         c*  df  J  ' 
von  Helmholtz's  objections  against  Weber's  law  must  now  be 
considered,  and  his  own  examples  may  be  taken.4 

1  All  the  electric  rays  proceeding  from  2  will  not  be  absorbed  by  1'  unless 
(§  12)  the  two  conduc  tors  are  of  the  same  material  ;  if  they  are  of  different 
material,  e  and  11  can  only  approximately  assume  the  value  unity,  and  there- 
fore the  expression  (35)  will  only  give  an  approximate  value  of  the  mutual 
potential.  From  a  physical  point  of  view,  it  would  perhaps  be  more  reason- 
able to  assume  that  the  particles  in  the  elements  ds  and  ds'  respectively, 
instead  of  being,  one  strongly  electrified  and  one  unelectrified,  are  distri- 
buted in  an  approximately  regular  manner  throughout  all  the  intermediate 
stages.  In  this  case  the  sum  of  the  four  expressions  (3o)-(33)  will  have  to 
be  replaced  by  a  double  integral,  of  which  this  sum  will  be  the  mean  value. 

*  These  conditions  are  known  experimentally  to  be  fulfilled,  for  while  the 
velocity  of  light  is  about  300,000  kilometres  a  second,  that  of  electricity  in 
wires  is,  according  to  Fizeau,  Gounelle,  Frohlich,  and  W.  Siemens,  from 
100,000  to  260,000  kilometres  a  second,  See  Sir  W.  Thomson,  "  Mathe- 
matical and  Physical  Papers,". vol.  ii.  p.  131,  and  Wullner's  "  Experimental 
Physik,"  vol.  iv.  p.  403,  4th  edition.  According  to  the  author's  theory, 
the  propagation  of  electric  waves  in  vacuo  must  take  place  with  the  velocity 
of  light  ;  but  the  theory  would  not  be  affected  if  the  velocity  in  air  were 
found  to  be  different.  See  vonHelmholtz, "  WissenschaftlicheAbhandlungen," 
vol.  ii.  p.  629  et  seq.  In  fact.  Hertz  has  found  this  velocity  to  be  distinctly 
greater  than  that  of  \\gh.t(Sitziingsberickte  der  Berliner  Akademie,  Febru- 
ary 1888).  The  increase  may  be  due  to  the  electrical  excitation  of  the  air 
particles,  and  their  consequent  repulsive  action  on  one  another.  With 
respect  to  electro-dynamic  determinations  of  the  constant  c,  see  Himstedt, 
Wiedemann's  Annalen,  vols,  xxviii.  and  xxix. 

3  See  Riemann,  "  Schwere,  Electricitat,  und  Magnetismus,"  §§  96  and  97. 
It  should  be  noted  that  Riemann  uses  c  to  denote  the  velocity  of  light  mul- 
tiplied by  a/2.  It  may  also  be  noted  that  the  author  uses  ds/dt  and  ds'ldt  to 
denote  the  velocity  of  propagation  of  an  electrical  disturbance,  and  not 
directly  that  of  a  molecule. 

*  "  Wissenschaftliche  Abhandlungen,"  vol.  ii.  p.  636  et  seq.  The  two  equa- 
tions which  follow  may  be  interpreted  as  meaning  that  the  quantity  of 
electricity  in  motion  depends  on  r,  which  is  in  agreement  with  §  12. 


Suppose  a  ponderable  electrified  particle  of  mass  /j.  to  be  re- 
pelled by  a  stationary  quantity  of  electricity  at  the  origin,  in  the 
direction  of  the  joining  line  r.  Let  a  force  R  of  the  ordinary 
kind  act  on  the  m.iss  p  so  as  to  diminish  r,  then  the  differential 
equation  of  motion  of  the  electrified  particle  will  be — 

d-r       M  I  I   fdr\"  , 

or,  putting  M 


£*» 


PV.C-- 


fx{\ 


rjdt-    .     r-  I  2c\dt)  ) 


+  R. 


Choosing  the  initial  circumstances,  so  that  t  =  o,  when  the 
velocity  and  the  work  done  by  R  are  both  zero,  and  supposing 
that  r  then  has  the  value  r,  the  principle  of  conservation  of 
energy  gives — 

■  K*-|)(£)'=M(K)+* 


where 


m 


Jo      dt 


If,  now,  R;-2<  -  M,  von  Helmholtz  points  out  that  the  moving 
particle  must  always  approach  the  stationary  one  ;  its  velocity 
meanwhile  increases  without  limit  until,  for  a  distance  r  =  p 
(the  so-called  critical  distance,  see  §  12),  it  becomes  infinite,  so 
that  a  finite  force  can  give  an  infinitely  great  velocity  to  a 
mass  ft  by  a  finite  expenditure  of  work.  This  impossible  result 
is  not,  however,  a  consequence  of  the  author's  theory,  owing 

to  the  limitations  stated  at  the  end  of  §  13.    For  if  the  velocity  . — 

at 

increases  without  limit,  it  must   exceed  that  of  the  velocity  of 

light,  and  then  Weber's  law  ceases  to  hold  good. 

It  would  be  easy,  by  expanding  the  four  previously-considered 
j  partial  potential  expressions,  in  terms  of  c/p,  c/ds/dt,  and 
c I  ds'jdt,  to  obtain  a  law  for  the  further  motion  ;  but  there  is  no 
object  in  doing  so,  as  it  will  be  seen  from  what  follows  that  this 
new  law  would  again  only  hold  up  to  a  certain  limit  not  far 
removed  from  the  first. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  doubtful  whether,  when  moving  so 
rapidly,  the  ponderable  molecules  could  traverse  the  ether 
without  resistance.  In  the  second  place,  the  electrical  energy 
transferred  from  the  fixed  origin  to  the  moving  particle  has  been 
assumed  to  be  inversely  proportional  to  the  wave-length,  and 
the  latter  has  been  regarded  as  varying  gradually  within  the 
given  limits.  This  was  allowable  for  good  conductors,  since 
their  molecules  must  be  specially  sensitive  to  electrical  dis- 
turbance, and  therefore  have  a  very  large  number  of  very  small 
critical  periods.  With  the  very  great  velocity  assumed,  the 
wave-lengths  of  the  disturbances  proceeding  from  the  origin  will 
be  greatly  shortened  before  acting  on  the  mass  /*.  It  will  follow, 
therefore,  that  only  such  vibrations  will  cause  electrical  excita- 
tion which  already  have  so  great  a  wave-length  that  they  will 
really  appear  as  light,  or  ultra-violet,  vibrations,  and  not  as 
electrical  vibrations.  Now,  in  the  case  of  all  known  substances, 
these  critical  wave-lengths  do  not  come  together  in  great  num- 
bers, and  therefore  cannot  be  treated  as  forming  a  continuous 
series. 

If  such  rays  are  emitted  from  the  origin,  they  can  only  give 
rise  to  electrical  excitation  by  separate  impulses,  and  will  there- 
fore only  cause  a  slight  temporary  variation  in  the  acceleration 
of  the  particle  fj.  due  to  the  steady  action  of  the  force  R. 

We  may  therefore  conclude  that  a  particle  easily  susceptible 
of  electric  excitation  will  be  electrified  if  it  is  made  to  approach 
a  source  of  light  with  very  great  velocity,  and  this  the  more 
readily,  the  higher  the  refrangibility  of  the  light  from  the  source. 
The  requisite  velocity  must  exceed  that  of  light  by  a  definite 
amount. 

The  author  is  not  aware  that  this  conclusion  has  as  yet  been 
directly  verified  by  any  experimental  evidence,  unless  Hertz's 
observations  of  the  effect  of  light  on  the  electric  spark x  may  be 
explained  in  this  way,  but  it  is  indirectly  supported  by  the 
phenomena  observed  in  Geissler  tubes,  as  will  be  shown  below. 
Consider,  moreover,  the  motion  of  the  particle  n  away  from  the 
origin  at  an  equally  great  velocity,  then  electrical  waves  proceed- 
ing from  the  origin  will  be  lengthened,  and  act  on  the  particle 
as  light  waves,  causing  it  to  glow.  This  electric  glow  will  first 
appear  of  a  blue  colour,  gradually  passing  through  the  various 
colours  of  the  spectrum  towards  the  red,  as  the  velocity  further 

1  Sitznngsberichtc  der  BerlinerAkademie,  1887,  pp.  487  and  895. 


Oct,  ii,  1888] 


NATURE 


581 


increases,  and  of  this  electric  glow  many   instances  could   be 
cited,  both  in  Nature  and  in  the  laboratory. 

Consider,  in  the  first  place,  the  glow  surrounding  a  point  from 
which  an  electric  discharge  is  taking  place.     By  means  of  the 
electrical  repulsion,  the  density  of  the  air  immediately  surround- 
ing the  point  will  be  so  far  diminished  that  a  single  air-particle 
will  be  able  to  traverse  a  sensible  distance  with  a  very  great 
velocity,  and  therefore  give  rise  to  the  glow.     Here  it  is  not  a 
question  of  particles  becoming  electrically  excited  by  radiation 
from   the  point,  but  of  those  which  are   electrified  by  actual 
contact  with  it.     As  soon  as   they  have  lost  some  of  their  elec- 
trical  energy   they   will   again   become   sensitive   to    electrical 
radiation.     There  must  therefore  be  a  dark  space  immediately 
surrounding  the  point,  and  outside  this  an  electric  glow,  which 
explains  a   well-known   phenomenon    always   observed   in  the 
rarefied  atmosphere  of  a  Geissler  tube.     The  stratification  can 
also  be  explained  very  simply,  for  the  glow  causes  a  diminution 
in  velocity,   for  when  the   electrical  waves   from  the  positive 
electrode  give  rise  to  luminous  instead  of  electrical  vibrations 
in  the  particles  of  gas,  the  repulsion  will  be  diminished,  and 
therefore  the  velocity  will  gradually  become  less  than  that  of 
light,   when   the  particle  will    again  become   sensitive   to   the 
electrical  radiation.     The  velocity  will  therefore  again  increase 
until   the  glow  appears  again,  thus  giving  rise  to  a  stratified 
appearance.     The  velocity  in  the  glowing  layers  will  naturally 
be  greatest  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  positive  electrode,  and 
here,   therefore,  light  will  be  given  off  of  all  the  colours  cor- 
responding to  the  critical  periods  of  the  gas  contained  in  the 
tube,  which  is  in  accordance  with  observation.     According  to 
the  author's  theory,  the  electrical  excitation  takes  place  by  the 
transference  of  ponderable  gas  molecules  from  the  positive  to 
the   negative   electrode.      After   they   have  parted   with   their 
electrical  energy  to  the  latter,  they  will  return  in  an  unelectrified 
condition   to   the    positive  electrode    to   which   they  will    be 
attracted,  and  at  the  same  time  repelled  from  the  negative  elec- 
trode.    There  will  be  no  dark  space  surrounding  the  negative 
electrode,  because  the  particles  leaving  it  will  have  little  or  no 
electrification.     The  velocity  of  the   returning   molecules  will 
increase  as  they  approach  the  positive  electrode,  so  that  there 
can  be  no  further  transformation  of  electrical   into   luminous 
energy.     In  very  high  vacua  the  velocity  of  the  returning  par- 
ticles  may   become   great   enough   for  electrical  energy  to  be 
excited  in  them  by  the  red  glow  of  the  positive  pole,  by  which 
their  velocity  will  be  still  further  increased.     The  velocity  of  the 
returning  particles  will  in  this  case  ultimately  become  so  much 
greater  than  that  of  the  luminous  molecules  moving  away  from 
the  positive   electrode  as   to  cause  a  sensible  increase  in  the 
density  of  the  gas  surrounding  it.     The  result  of  this  will  be  to 
prevent  the  formation  of  the  positive  glow,  and  the  whole  tube 
will  become  filled  by  the  negative  glow.     The  density  in  the 
neighbourhood    of   the   negative    electrode   will    therefore   be 
diminished,  and  the  returning  molecules  will  leave  it  with  still 
greater  velocity.     If  both  electrodes  are  at  one  end  of  the  tube, 
the  molecules  returning  towards  the  positive  electrode  will  be 
deflected  by  the  layer  of  dense  gas  surrounding  it,  against  the 
sides   of  the   tube,    giving   rise   to   fluorescent  phenomena,  as 
explained  in  §  11  (September  6,  p.  461).      If  the  complicated 
phenomena  which  have  recently  been  observed  in  Geissler  tubes 
by  Crookes  and  Hittorf  can  be   thus  simply   explained,  it  will 
afford  an  important  confirmation  of  the  author's  theory. 

These  considerations  may  be  applied  to  the  explanation  of 
many  cosmical  phenomena,  such  as  the  aurora  and  the  light  of 
comets.  It  is  quite  possible  that  the  particles  of  a  comet's  tail 
moving  with  great  velocity  towards  the  sun  may  become 
electrified  by  means  of  the  sun's  light. 

The  formulce  previously  obtained  are  applicable  to  the  deter- 
mination of  the  motion  of  an  electrified  particle,  in  the  case  in 
which  no  proper  luminous  vibrations  are  given  off  from  the 
origin,   or  where  these    may  be  neglected,  for    the   equations 

dr 
(29)  to  (33)  give  in  this  case  for  —  =  c,  r  —  r0,    9fc  =  9t0,  and 

at 
consequently — 

!('  -  #■  =  m(f  "  9 +  ** 

2  L\dt)  ~  C" A  "  r         r0        dr 

rdt 


Also — 


+  91  -  % 


And  dr\dt  can  hence  only  become  infinite  when  the  positive 
quantity  5t  becomes  infinite,  or  r  —  o.  von  Helmholtz's 
objections,  therefore,  do  not  apply  to  this  equation. 

§  15. — Electrical  Excitation. 

The  foregoing  theory  easily  explains  the  different  methods  of 
electrical  excitation. 

(1)  The  friction  of  two  bodies  sets  their  molecules  into 
vibration,  which  appears  in  the  form  of  heat.  The  resulting 
impacts  of  neighbouring  molecules  will  most  readily  excite 
internal  vibrations  of  the  critical  periods,  for  which  they 
are  specially  sensitive.  If  the  molecules  are  exceptionally 
sensitive  to  vibrations  of  very  short  periods,  they  will  be 
easily  electrified,  the  process  being  exactly  analogous  to 
the  production  of  luminous  vibrations  by  heating  gases,  as  de- 
scribed in  §  4  (August  23,  p.  407).  Electro-positive  bodies 
will  be  those  which  are  most  sensitive,  and  these  will,  according 
to  the  theory,  attract  other  less  electrified  bodies.  In  the 
ordinary  frictional  electrical  machine  the  glass  will  therefore  be 
more  strongly  excited  than  the  rubber.  The  explanation  of  the 
collecting  action  of  points  on  the  prime  conductor  is  given  by 
the  consideration  that  at  a  point  the  molecules  are  more  fully 
exposed  to  the  electrical  radiation  from  the  glass  plate,  and 
being  electrically  excited  by  this  radiation  communicate  their 
electrification  to  the  prime  conductor  by  conduction,  as  explained 
in  §  13. 

(2)  Electrification  by  the  action  of  heat  takes  place  in  the 
same  manner,  and  it  is  clear  that  the  molecules  in  crystals,  being 
regularly  disposed  with  their  axes  in  definite  directions,  will  be 
electrified.  Thermo-electrical  currents  are  also  explained.  For 
if  one  of  the  junctions  of  a  circuit  consisting  of  two  dissimilar 
metals  is  heated,  the  more  sensitive  metal  will  receive  more 
electrical  energy  than  the  other,  and  give  rise  to  a  positive 
current.  The  potential  difference  at  the  junction  will  depend 
on  the  internal  constants  of  the  molecules  in  the  two  metals,  so 
that  we  cannot  expect  to  be  able  to  express  it  by  any  simple 
general  law. 

(3)  Electrification  by  simple  contact  of  two  dissimilar  metals 
is  not  so  easily  explained  if  the  effects  of  heat,  pressure,  and 
friction  are  excluded.  It  is,  however,  possible  that  the  close 
contact  of  differently  vibrating  molecules  may  disturb  the  internal 
and  therefore  the  external  energy,  and  thus  give  rise  to  electri- 
fication. The  electrification  of  similar  metals  by  contact  could 
be  explained  in  the  same  way. 

(4)  Electrification  by  chemical  action  is  completely  explained 
by  the  author's  theory,  the  production  of  electrical  vibrations  by 
this  means  being  exactly  analogous  to  the  similar  production  of 
heat-  and  light-vibrations.  Such  chemical  action  must,  in  the 
author's  opinion,  play  an  important  part  in  the  galvanic  cell, 
though  contact  electrification  may  also  have  a  share  in  the 
action.     The  contact  between  copper  and  sulphuric   acid,  for 

1  example,  is  a  very  intimate  one.  At  ordinary  temperatures  the 
molecules  of  both  substances  will  be  in  motion.  When  two 
different  molecules  collide,  their  internal  equilibrium  will  be 
destroyed,  and  they  will  therefore,  according  to  §  8  (September  6, 
p.  460)  form  a  chemical  compound,  provided  the  critical  vibrations 
of  the  compound  are,  at  the  given  temperature,  less  easily  excited 
than  those  of  the  separate  elements,  which  we  must  assume  to  be 
the  case,  from  the  strong  chemical  affinity  which  is  experimentally 
known  to  exist  between  copper  and  sulphuric  acid.  During 
this  process  electrification  will  take  place  if  the  maximum 
internal  electrical  energy  is  less  for  the  compound  than  for  the 
constituents,  exactly  as  hydrogen  in  combining  with  oxygen  to 
form  water  produces  light,  and  chlorine  in  combining  with 
hydrogen  to  form  hydric  chloride  produces  heat.  The  electricity 
set  free  will  be  carried  away  by  the  copper,  the  latter  being  a 
good  conductor.  The  accumulation  of  electricity  in  the  copper 
is  prevented,  however,  by  its  being  used  up  again  in  forming  a 
chemical  compound  with  the  zinc. 

G.   W.   DE  TUNZELMANN. 

(  To  be  continued. ) 

COMPRESSIBILITY  OF  WA  TER,  SALT  W A  TER, 
MERCURY,  AND  GLASSY 

T^HE  pressures  employed  in  the  experiments  ranged  from  150 

-*■    to  450  atmospheres,  so  that  results  given  below  for  higher  or 

lower  pressures  [and  inclosed  in  square  brackets]  are  extrapolated. 

x  Extracted,  with  the  sanction  of  Dr.  Murray,  from  a  Report  by  Prok 
Tait,  now  in  type  for  a  forthcoming  volume  of  the  Challenger  publications. 


582 


NATURE 


[Oct. 


1 1 


A  similar  remark  applies  to  temperature,  the  range  experimentally 
treated  for  water  and  for  sea-water  being  only  o°  to  .15°  C.  Also 
it  has  been  stated  that  the  recording  indices  are  liable  to  be 
washed  down  the  tube,  to  a  small  extent,  during  the  relief  of 
pressure,  so  that  the  results  given  are  probably  a  little  too  small. 

Compressibility  of  mercury,  per  atmosphere COOOO036 

,,  ,,  gla^S         CTOO0O02O 

Average  compressibility  of  fresh  water  per  atmosphere — 


[At  lowpressures 520  .  10" 

For  1  ton  =  152*3  atm.  504 

2  ,,   =  304-6     ,,  490 

3  »    =  456-9     »  478 


355  .  TO'9/  +  3  .  10-9/2] 
360  4 

365  5 

370  6 


The  term  independent  of  I  (the  compressibility  at  0°  C.)  is  of 
the  form — 

I0"7(520  -   17/  +  f), 

where  the  unit  of  p  is  1S2'3  atmospheres  (1  ton-weight  per 
square  inch).  This  must  not  be  extended  in  application  much 
beyond  p  =  3,  for  there  is  no  warrant,  experimental  or  other, 
for  the  minimum  which  it  would  give  at  p  =  8*5. 

The  point  of  minimum  compressibility  of  fresh  water  is 
probably  about  6o°  C.  at  atmospheric  pressure,  but  is  lowered 
by  increase  of  pressure. 

As  an  approximation  through  the  whole  range  of  the  experi- 
ments we  have  the  formula — 


o-ooi86 


I  - 


2L 

400 


f2 
1 0000 


)'. 


36  +  J> 

while  the  following  formula  exactly  represents  the  average  of  all 
the  experimental  results  at  each  temperature  and  pressure — 

to"7(52o  -  17/  +  pi)  -  io_9(355  +  ip)t  +  io-9(3  +  fY1- 

Average  compressibility  of  sea*water  (about  o-92  of  that  of 
fresh  water) — 

481  .  io-7  -  340  .  io_!V 

462 

447-5 


J  [At  low  pressures 
For  1  ton 

2!   ,, 

3    ». 


34o 
320 

305 

295 


io"9;2] 


-  437-5 
Term  independent  of  / — 

io"7(48i  ~  21*25/  +  2'25/2). 
Approximate  formula  — 

S^U9(i  -JL  +     fi   \ 
38  +  p  \       150     10000/ 

Minimum  compressibility  point,  probably  about  560  C.  at 
atmospheric  pressure,  is  lowered  by  increase  of  pressure. 

Average  compressibility  of  solutions  of  NaCl  for  the  first  p 
tons  of  additional  pressure  at  o°  C.  : — 

o '00186 

36  +  p  +  s' 

where  s  of  NaCl  is  dissolved  in  100  of  water. 

Note  the  remarkable  resemblance  between  this  and  the  formula 
for  the  average  compressibility  of  fresh  water  ato°  C,  and/  -f  s 
tons  of  additional  pressure. 

[Various  parts  of  the  investigation  seem  to  favour  Laplace's 
view  that  there  is  a  large  molecular  pressure  in  liquids.  In  the 
text  it  has  been  suggested,  in  accordance  with  a  formula  of  the 
kinetic  theory  of  gases,  that  in  water  this  may  amount  to  about 
36  tons-weight  on  the  square  inch.  In  a  similar  way  it  would 
appear  that  the  molecular  pressure  in  salt  solutions  is  greater 
than  that  in  water  by  an  amount  directly  proportional  to  the 
quantity  of  salt  added.] 

Six  miles  of  sea,  at  loc  C.  throughout,  are  reduced  in  depth 
620  feet  by  compression.  At  o°  C.  the  amount  would  be  about 
663  feet,  or  a  furlong.  (This  quantity  varies  nearly  as  the 
square  of  the  depth).  Hence  the  pressure  at  a  depth  of  6  miles 
is  nearly  1000  atmospheres. 

The  maximum-density  point  of  water  is  lowered  about  3°  C. 
by  150  atmospheres  of  additional  pressure. 

From  the  heat  developed  by  compression  of  water  I  obtained 
a  lowering  of  30  C.  per  ton-weight  per  square  inch. 

From  the  ratio  of  the  volumes  of  water  (under  atmospheric 
pressure)  at  0°  C,  and  40  C,  given  by  Despretz,  combined  with 
my  results  as  to  the  compressibility,  I  found  3°'i7  C.  ;  and  by 
direct  experiment  (a  modified  form  of  that  of  Hope)  2°7  C. 


The-  circumstances  of  this  experiment  make  it  certain  that  the 
last  result  is  too  small. 

Thus,  at  ordinary  temperatures,  the  expansibility  of  water  is 
increased  by  the  application  of  pressure. 

In  consequence,  the  heat  developed  by  sudden  compression  of 
water  at  temperatures  above  4°  C.  increases  in  a  higher  ratio 
than  the  pressure  applied ;  and  water  under  40  C.  may  be 
heated  by  the  sudden  application  of  sufficient  pressure. 

The  maximum  density  coincides  with  the  freezing-point  at 
-  2°-4  C,  under  a  pressure  of  2"  14  tons. 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

In  the  Journal  of  Botany  for  August  and  September,  a  con- 
siderable portion  is  occupied  by  the  continuation  of  papers,  to 
which  reference  has  already  been  made — Messrs.  Britten  and 
Boulger's  biographical  index  of  British  and  Irish  botanists, 
and  Mr.  G.  Murray's  catalogue  of  the  marine  Alga;  of  the 
West  Indian  region. — Mr.  W.  H.  Beeby  records  an  addition 
to  the  British  Phanerogamic  flora  in  Callitriche  polymorpha. — 
Mr.  A.  Fryer  has  some  critical  remarks  on  Potamogetpn  Jluitans. 
—A  number  of  new  ferns  from  Western  China,  and  from  Mani- 
pur,  in  India,  are  described  by  Mr.  J.  G.  Baker  and  Colonel 
Beddome. 

The  numbers  of  the  Botanical  Gazette  for  June-August  con- 
tain quite  an  unusual  number  of  articles  of  general  interest. 
Bryologists  will  find  a  description  of  eight  new  species  of  moss 
from  North  America,  each  illustrated  by  a  plate  ;  in  fact,  the 
plates  in  these  three  numbers  are  very  numerous  and  excellent. 
— Mr.  Chas.  Robertson  discusses  the  origin  of  zygomorphic 
(lowers  from  the  point  of  view  of  evolution. — Of  flowering 
plants,  we  have  descriptions  of  new  species  from  Western 
America  (chiefly  Umbelliferae)  and  from  Guatemala,  by  Messrs. 
Coulter  and  Rose  and  Mr.  J.  D.  Smith. — Mr.  F.  C.  Newcombe 
describes  the  mode  of  dissemination  of  the  spores  of  Equisetum 
in  the  splitting  of  the  sporange  and  the  carriage  of  the  spores 
by  means  of  the  elaters. — Mr.  A.  F.  Forste  describes  (with  a 
plate)  the  adaptation  to  cress-fertilization  in  various  species. 

American  Journal  of  Mathematics,  1888  (Baltimore,  Johns 
HopkinsUniversity).- — The  object  of  M.  R.  Liouville's paper, "  Sur 
les  lignes  geodesiques  des  surfaces  a  courbure  constante,"  with 
which  vol.  x.  No.  4  opens,  is  stated  by  him  to  be  "  d'indiquer 
la  signification  geometrique  des  equations  differentielles  du 
second  ordre  ayant  leur  integrale  geneiale  lineaire  par  rapport 
aux  constantes  arbitraires,  et  de  former  leurs  invariants  pour 
toutes  les  substitutions  qui  ne  changent  point,  soit  l'inconnue, 
soit  la  variable  independante  "  (pp.  283-292). — The  following 
memoir,  on  the  primitive  groups  of  transformations  in  space 
of  four  dimensions,  by  James  M.  Page,  is  likely  to  be  very 
serviceable,  as  it  is  the  first  continuous  account  in  English  of  the 
researches  of  Sophus  Lie  on  the  theory  of  groups  of  trans- 
formations. Lie  himself  has  developed  the  theory  in  a  series 
of  papers  which  date  from  1873,  and  has  not  published  any  con- 
nected work  on  the  subject  (pp.  293-346). — W.  C.  L.  Gorton 
writes  on  line  congruences.  He  treats  the  subject  by 
quaternions,  and  obtains  all  Rummer's  results  (Crelle,  vol.  lvii. ), 
and  is  enabled  by  his  method  to  carry  out  certai.i  steps  which 
are  only  indicated  by  this  writer  (pp.  34.6-367). — The  volume 
closes  with  a  notelet  by  Prof.  Franklin,  entitled  "  Some 
Theorems  concerning  the  Centre  of  Gravity."  This  contains 
"almost  instantaneous"  proofs  of  Lagrange's  two  theorems  on 
the  centre  of  gravity. 

With  vol.  xi.  No.  1,  we  have  what  strikes  us  as  being  an 
admirable  likeness  of  the  great  French  mathematician,  Charles 
Hermite.  We  have  previously  expressed  our  pleasure  at 
this  new  departure  of  the  editors  of  this  journal,  and  hope 
their  catering  for  mathematicians  will  meet  with  material 
approval. — The  first  communication  is  a  memoir  on  a  new 
theory  of  symmetric  functions,  by  Captain  P  A.  Mac- 
mahon,  R.  A.  This  prolific  young  mathematician  is  doing  ex- 
cellent work,  and  the  pages  of  the  journal  are  just  suited  to 
present  his  results  in  the  most  effective  form.  The  paper  fa 
intimately  connected  with  a  recent  one,  by  the  same  writer,  com- 
municated to  the  London  Mathematical  Society,  in  which  he 
gives  a  sketch  of  an  extension  of  the  algebra  of  the  theory  of 
symmetrical  functions,  and  establishes  the  basis  of  a  wide  de- 
velopment.    "  The  main  object  of  the  memoir  is  to  show  clearly 


Oct.  ii,  iSSSJ 


NA  TURE 


583 


the  proper  place  of  the  '  symmetric  function  tables '  as  studied 
by  Hirsch,  Cay  ley,  Durfee,  and  others,  in  the  algebra  of  such  func- 
tions ;  to  point  out  that  the  fact  of  their  existence  depends  upon 
a  wide  theorem  of  algebraic  reciprocity  which  leads  to  an  equally 
wide  theorem  of  algebraic  expressibility,  and  that  they  are  a 
particular  case,  and  not  the  most  important  case  from  the  point 
of  view  of  application,  of  a  system  of  such  tables"  (pp.  1-36). — 
Prof.  W.  \\  .  Johnson  contributes  a  paper  on  the  integrals  in 
series  of  binomial  differential  equations  (pp.  37-54).  "  Binomial 
equation"  is  here  used  in  Boole's  sense. — Some  interesiing  geo- 
metrical results  are  given  in  the  next  paper,  by  M.  d'Ocagne, 
"  Sur  certaines  courbes  qu'on  peut  adjoindre  aux  courbes  planes 
pour  l'etude  de  leurs  proprietes  infinitesimales  "j|  (pp.  55-70). 
—  Prof.  Cayley  closes  the  number  with  an  instalment  on  the 
surfaces  with  plane  or  spherical  curves  of  curvature  (pp.  71-98). 
The  paper  is  a  reproduction  in  a  compact  form,  with,  additional 
developments,  of  papers  by  Bonnet  {Journal  de  I ) Ecole  Polyt., 
t.  xx.,  1853,  pp.  117-306),  and  Serret  (Liouville,  t.  xviii.,  1853, 
pp.  1 13-162). 

Englers  Jahrbiicher,  vol.  viii.  Part  5,  contains  : — Contributions 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  Cupuliferae,  by  K.  Prantl.  The  author 
concludes  that  the  segments  of  the  cupule  are  not  themselves 
leaves,  but  outgrowths  of  the  axis  covered  with  leaves,  and  that, 
with  the  exception  of  this  peculiarity,  the  male  and  female 
catkins  are  similarly  constructed.  His  views  will  be  stated  in 
Engler's  "  Die  Naturliche  Pflanzenfamilien,"  for  which  this  paper 
was  a  preparatory  study. — A  revision  of  Bentham  and  Hooker's 
"Genera  Plantarum,"  and  "  Florae  Columbian  specimia  selecta," 
by  H.  Karsten. — The  rest  of  the  number  is  taken  up  with 
abstracts  of  botanical  papers,  and  the  list  of  the  more  important 
works  on  classification  and  geographical  botany  published  in  the 
year  1886. 

Vol.  ix.  contains  the  following  articles  : — On  the  roots  of  the 
Aracese,  by  Max  Lierau.  An  investigation  of  the  roots  of  about 
130  species  from  46  genera  of  this  natural  order,  leads  the  author 
to  the  result  that  those  histological  characters  by  which  the  stem 
and  leaf  of  the  several  sub-orders  of  Engler  are  distinguished 
recur  also  in  the  roots,  and  thus  these  organs,  though  performing 
the  most  various  physiological  functions,  have  constant  characters 
of  systematic  value. — In  his  contributions  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  Capparidacea.-,  Dr.  Ferd.  Pax  discusses  the  questions  of  (1) 
the  part  taken  by  the  axis  in  the  construction  of  the  flower  ;  (2) 
the  relation  of  the  Capparidoideae  to  the  Cleomoideje,  in  respect 
of  the  andrcecium.  He  concludes  that  the  disk,  androphore,  and 
gynophore,  are  of  axial  nature,  and  not  the  result  of  coalescence 
of  sporophylls  ;  further,  that  the  construction  of  the  andrcecium 
is  uniform  throughout  the  order,  being  based  upon  the  presence 
of  two  dimerous  whorls,  increased  often  very  greatly  by  duplica- 
tion.— Observations  on  the  organization  and  biological  conditions 
of  northern  tree's,  by  F.  W.  C.  Areschoug. — Specilegium 
canariense,  by  H.  Christ.  —  Dr.  Marloth  gives  an  interesting 
account  of  the  morphology,  anatomy,  and  biology  of  the  Naras 
(Acanthosicyos  horrida,  Welw. )  of  the  south-west  coast  of  Africa, 
and  of  observations  of  the  peculiar  property  of  the  fruit  in  pro- 
moting the  coagulation  of  milk. — On  the  flora  of  the  German 
East-Asiatic  Protectorate,  by  K.  Schumann. — Contributions  to 
the  morphology  and  classification  of  the  Ranunculaceae,  by  K. 
Prantl.  The  author  distinguishes  "honey-leaves"  {Honig- 
bliiltcr)  from  the  perianth,  defining  them  as  "floral  leaves,  the 
chief  function  of  which  is  the  secretion  of  honey,  and  which  have 
been  produced  from  stamens  independently  of  the  differentia- 
tion of  the  perianth  into  calyx  and  corolla  "  :  thus  he  would 
describe  the  corolla  of  Ranunculus  as  consisting  of  such  "  honey- 
leaves,"  while  the  calyx  would  be  regarded  as  a  simple  perianth 
The  greater  part  of  the  paper  is  occupied  by  the  classification  of 
the  species  within  the  genera. — New  contributions  to  the  flora 
of  Greenland,  by  Eug.  Warming.  — Contributions  to  the  know- 
ledge of  the  walnut  {Jnglans  regia,  L. )  by  Dr.  M.  Kronfeld, 
with  two  plates. — A  posthumous  paper,  by  Dr.  Hillebrand, 
descriptive  of  the  vegetation  of  the  Sandwich  Islands. — Orchi- 
daceae  herbarii  Dcm.-J  Arechavatetae  det.  et  descr.,  by  F. 
Kriinzlin. — Dr.  A.  Breitfeld,  in  a  paper  on  the  anatomical 
structure  of  the  leaves  of  the  Rhododendroideae,  attempts  to 
rank  anatomical  details  with  the  characters  of  flower  and  fruit,  in 
the  classification  of  the  group,  and  finds  the  most  useful 
characters  in  the  epidermis. — On  continuous  and  saltatory  varia- 
tion, by  Franz- Krasan. — Biographical  notices  on  some  of  the 
collectors  and  authors  named  in  the  "  Plantae  Ryddeanas,"  by 
F.  a  on  Herder. — Marine  Algre  of  Puerto-Rico,  by  Dr.  F.  Hauck. 


— In  addition  to  the  above  original  treatises,  the  volume  for  the 
year  contains  a  list  of  the  papers  of  1887  on  the  classification, 
description,  and  geological  distribution  of  plants,  as  well  as 
abstracts  of  the  most  important  of  these. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 

Sydney. 

Linnean  Society  of  New  South  Wales,  July  25. — 
Dr.  J.  C.  Cox,  Vice-President,  in  the  chair. — The  following 
papers  were  read  : — The  insects  of  King's  Sound  and  its  vicinity, 
part  2,  by  William  Macleay.  This  paper  contains  a  list  of  all 
the  Lamellicorn  insects  in  the  collection  made  by  Mr.  Froggatt 
in  the  West  Kimberley  district.  Of  the  seventy-six  species 
recorded,  fifty-nine  are  described  as  new,  but  are  all  referable  to 
known  genera.  The  genera  most  numerous  in  species  are  Onlho- 
phagus  and  Heteronyx.  The  sub-family  Cetoniides  is  repre- 
sented by  four  species  only. — Catalogue  of  the  known  Coleoptera 
of  New  Guinea,  &c,  part  2,  by  George  Masters,  Curator  of  the 
Macleay  Museum.  Part  2  of  this  catalogue,  comprising  the 
Tetramerous  and  Trimerous  divisions,  amounting  to  about  lioo 
species,  completes  the  list  of  Coleoptera  hitherto  described  from 
the  region  under  consideration.  The  total  number  of  species 
recorded  is  2079. — Malaysian  land  and  fresh-water  Mollusca,  by 
Rev.  J.  E.  Tenison-Woods.  After  some  introductory  remarks 
on  the  extent  and  physical  geography  of  the  region  under  con- 
sideration, and  on  the  characteristic  features  of  its  land  and 
fresh-water  Mollusca,  the  author  gives  a  list  of  about  400  species 
indigenous  to  the  Malay  Peninsula  in  the  States  south  of  Keddah, 
and  the  Indian  Archipelago,  not  including  the  Philippines  and 
New  Guinea.  A  bibliographical  list  is  appended.  —  Mr.  Ogilby 
exhibited  a  specimen  of  a  deep-sea  fish  (Chlcrophthalmns  nigri- 
pennis),  originally  described  by  Dr.  Giinther  in  the  Ann.  oj 
Nat.  Hist.,  1878,  and  figured  in  vol.  xxii.  of  the  "  Challenger 
Reports."  The  original  specimens  were  taken  by  the  Challenger 
naturalists  off  Twofold  Bay,  in  120  fathoms  ;  the  specimen  ex- 
hibited was  captured  quite  recently  off  Port  Jackson  in  70 
fathoms,  the  only  other  occasion  on  which  the  species  has  been 
met  with  since  its  discovery. — Mr.  Ogilby  also  exhibited  a 
photograph  of  Acatithias  Blainvillii,  not  hitherto  recorded  from 
New  South  Wales,  and  one  of  a  variety  of  AcanlhoJiiius 
lit  tor  ens,  originally  described  by  Forster  in  "  Cook's  Voyage," 
the  former  having  been  taken  in  deep  water  off  Port  Jackson, 
the  latter  under  stones  between  tide-marks  at  Lord  Howe 
Island. — Mr.  Brazier  exhibited  a  spherical  stone,  about  ^  inch  in 
diameter,  found  in  the  crop  of  a  Goura  pigeon  (C.  Albertisi, 
Salvad.),  from  Hall  Sound,  New  Guinea.  Also  a  tube  of  fresh- 
water shells  (Segmentina  australiensis,  E.  A.  Smith),  from 
Waterloo  Swamps. — Mr.  MacDonald  showed  under  the  micro- 
scope an  interesting  exhibit  of  Rotifers  (Megalotrocha  sp. ),  living 
in  clusters  on  pond  weed. — Mr.  Burnell  exhibited  two  living 
slow-worms  (Typhlops  nigrescens),  from  Wentworthville,  near 
Parramatta. — Mr.  Deane  exhibited  a  remarkable  excrescence  on 
a  root  of  Monotoca  elliptica,  found  by  Mr.  J.  F.  Fitzhardinge  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Sydney ;  a  specimen  of  an  apodal  lizard 
{Delma  impar)  found  by  Mr.  C.  F.  Price,  of  Arable,  near 
Cooma,  where  the  species  is  said  to  be  abundant  in  basaltic 
country ;  and  examples  of  concretionary  nodules  occurring 
abundantly  in  a  slaty  rock  in  a  cutting  near  Bredbo  on  the 
Goulburn  to  Cooma  Railway. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  October  1.— M.  Des  Cloizeaux  in 
the  chair. — Relative  values  of  the  two  constituents  of  the  force  dis- 
played in  the  stroke  of  a  bird's  wing,  deduced  from  the  direction 
and  insertion  of  the  fibres  of  the  great  pectoral  muscle,  by  M. 
Marey.  Of  the  forces  in  question,  one,  as  shown  in  previous 
communications,  equals  the  weight  of  the  bird  and  enables  it 
to  resist  gravitation,  the  other  is  horizontal  and  enables  it  to 
resist  the  air.  From  a  study  of  the  disposition  of  the  muscular 
fibres  of  the  breast,  the  author  now  infers  that  the  latter  force, 
contrary  to  the  general  opinion,  is  much  greater,  and  may  even 
be  double  that  of  the  former. — Positions  of  Barnard's  comet 
(September  2,  1888)  measured  at  the  Observatory  of  Besancon 
with  the  o-22  m.  equatorial,  by  M.  Gruey.  The  observations 
cover  the  period  from  September  5-15. — Observations  of  Saver- 


5^4 


NATURE 


\_Oct.  ii,  1888 


thal's  comet  (1888,  I.)  made  with  the  038  m.  equatorial  at  the 
Observatory  of  Bordeaux,  by  MM.  G.  Rayet  and  Courty.     The 
observations  range  from  April  4  to  July  12. — Potential  energy 
of  the  gravitation  of  a  planet,   by  M.   O.    Callandreau.     The 
object  of  this  note  is  to  show  that  the  potential  energy  of  a 
planet's   gravitation— in  other  words,   the  power  of  attraction 
displayed  in  drawing  the  molecules  from  boundless  space  to 
their  present  position — may  be  approximately  calculated  if  its 
dimensions,  mass,  and  angular  velocity  of  rotation  be  known, 
irrespective  of  the  law  of  internal  densities. — On  actino-electric 
phenomena,  by  M.  E.   Bichat.     The  passage  of  electricity  of 
high  or  feeble  tension  is  known  to  be  greatly  facilitated  when 
the  electrified  body  is  illumined  by  very  refrangible  radiations. 
In  a  previous  communication  it  was  shown  that  in  Stoletow's 
experiment  the  substitution  of  a  sheet  of  water  for  the  metallic 
plate  produces  no  deviation  of  the  galvanometer,  which  seems 
to  prove  that  the  electricity?  is  not  transmitted  by  conduction. 
This  inference  is  confirmed  by  the  experiments  here  described. 
— On  some  new  electric  phenomena  produced  by  radiations,  by 
M.  Auguste  Righi.     In  continuation  of  previous  researches,  the 
author  here  reports  a  series  of  further  results  connected  with  the 
same  order  of  phenomena. — On  the  employment  of  the  sulphite 
of  soda  in  photography,  by  M.  Paul   Poire.     The  process  here 
described  has  the  advantage  of   avoiding  the  cloudiness  pro- 
duced by  the  prolonged  action  of  the  carbonate.     Plates  left 
forty-five  minutes  in  the  bath  acquire  a  continual  increase  of 
intensity  without  presenting  the  least  appearance  of  cloudiness. 
— On  the  land  locomotion  of  reptiles  and  four-footed  Batrachians 
compared  with  that  of  Mammalian  quadrupeds,  by  M.  G.  Carlet. 
The  locomotion  of   frogs,  toads,  lizards,  and  the  like  is    de- 
scribed as  a  peculiar  action,  somewhat  analogous  to  the  trot  of 
quadrupeds,  and   exactly  like   that   of  two   men   walking  one 
behind  the  other  with  contrary  step.     It  is  a  sort  of  slow  trot, 
without  any  suspension  of  the  body  in  the  air. — M.  Carlet  com- 
municates  a   supplementary  paper   in   illustration  of  the  same 
subject,  on  the  locomotion  of  an  insect  rendered  tetrapod  by 
deprivation  of  the  two  middle  legs.     The  experiment  explains 
the  persistence  in  all  these  organisms  of  the  six  legs,   which 
appear  to  be  not  merely  useful,  but  even  necessary  to  secure 
stability  and  rapid   locomotion. — A  series  of  papers  are  con- 
tributed by  MM.  Philippe  Thomas,  P.  Fliche,  and  Bleicher,  on 
the  petrified  vegetation  of  Tunis.     These  fossils  are  shown    to 
belong  to  the  same  Pliocene  formation,  and  to  be  otherwise 
closely  analogous   to  the  well-known   petrified   forests  in    the 
neighbourhood  of  Cairo.     Specimens  of  a  like  character    have 
been  picked  up  in  Algeria  and  other  parts  of  Mauritania,  render- 
ing it  highly  probable  that  the  whole  of  North  Africa,  from  the 
Mediterranean  to  the  verge  of  the   Sahara,  was  covered  with  a 
somewhat  uniform  vegetation  in  Pliocene  times. 

Stockholm. 

Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  September  12. — Demonstra- 
tion of  a  proposition,  which  touches  upon  the  question  of  the 
stability  of  the  planetary  system,  by  Prof.  Gylden. — The  same 
exhibited  a  calculating  machine  made  by  Herr  Sorensen. — On  a 
paper  by  Baron  von  Camerlander  in  Vienna,  on  the  fall  of 
meteoric  dust  in  some  parts  of  Austria  in  February  this  year,  by 
Baron  Nordenskiold. — The  same  exhibited  a  new  mineral  from 
Pojsberg,  which  he  had  named  Brandtit. — On  crystals  of 
native  lead  from  Pojsberg,  by  Herr  A.  Hamberg. — On  two  new 
chlorides  of  indium,  and  on  the  density  of  the  vapour  of  the 
chlorides  of  indium,  gallium,  iron,  and  chromium,  by  Profs. 
Nilsson  and  Pettersson. — On  the  theory  of  the  numbers  and 
functions  of  Bernoulli,  based  on  a  system  of  functional  equations, 
by  Dr.  Berger. — On  change  of  the  sea-level  at  Altenfiord,  by 
Commodore  Littiehook. — On  some  definite  integrals,  by  Dr.  C. 
F.  Lindman. — Contributions  to  the  theory  of  a  singular  solution 
of  a  partial  differential  equation  with  two  independent  variables, 
by  Dr.  J.  M  oiler. — Observations  on  the  condensation  of  the 
vapour  of  water  in  a  humid,  electrical  atmosphere,  by  Herr  G.  A. 
Andree. — On  a  species  of  Annelida  living  with  hermit  crabs, 
by  Dr.Wire'n. — On  some  derivates  of  a-/3-dichlor-naphthaline, 
by  Herr  P.  Hellstrbm. — On  the  former  occurrence  of  Felis 
catus  in  Scania,  by  Prof.  Qvennerstedt. —  On  Dahllit,  a  new 
mineral  from  Bamle,  in  Norway,  by  Prof.  W.  C.  Brogger  and 
Herr  H.  Backstrom. — On  the  freezing-point  of  dilute  aqueous 
solutions,  by  Dr.  S.  Arrhenius. — Galvanometric  measurements 
on  the  influence  that  is  exercised  by  an  electric  spark  on  another 
spark,  by  Dr.  C.  A.  Mebius. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Untersuchungen  zur  Morphologie  und  Systematic  derVogel;  I.  Specieller 
Theil,  II.  Allgemeiner  Theil  :  Max  Fiirbringer  (T.  Van  Holkema, 
Amsterdam). — Fossils  of  the  British  Islands  ;  Vol.  i.  Palaeozoic  :  R.  Ether- 
idge  (Clarendon  Press). — A  Class-book  of  Elementary  Chemistry  :  W.  W. 
Fisher  (Clarendon  Press). — General  Report  on  the  Operations  of  the  Survey 
of  India  Department  during  1886-87  (Calcutta). — Fourfold  Root  and  Will  in 
Nature  :  A.  Schopenhauer  (Bell). — University  College,  Liverpool,  Calendar 
for  the  Session  1888-89  (Holden,  Liverpool). — Papers  and  Proceedings  of  the 
Royal  Society  of  Tasmania  for  1887  (Tasmania). — Laboratory  Manual  of 
General  Chemistry:  R.  P.  Williams  (Ginn,  Boston). — An  Introduction  to 
Practical  Inorganic  Chemistry  :  W.  Jago  (Longmans). — Les  Formes  du 
Terrain,  Texte  et  Planches:  G.  de  la  Not  and  E.  de  Margerie  (Paris).— 
The  International  A  nnual  of  Anthony's  Photographic  Bulletin  (Green- 
wood).—A  Catalogue  of  the  Moths  of  India,  Part  3  :  E.  C.  Cotes  and 
C.  Swinhoe  (Calcutta). — Sixth  Annual  Report  of  the  Fishery  Board  for 
Scotland,  for  the  year  1887  ;  Three  Parts  (Edinburgh). — Instruction  in 
Photography ;  eighth  edition  :  Captain  W.  de  W.  Abney  ( Piper  and 
Carter).— The  Metallurgy  of  Gold  :  M.  Eissler(Lockwood). — Key  to  Lock's 
Arithmetic  for  Schools:  Rev.  R.  G.  Wavson  (Macmil  Ian). — Report  on  the 
Eruption  of  Tarawera  and  Rotomahana,  N.Z.  :  A.  P.  W.  Thomas  (Wel- 
lington, N.Z.).  —  Die  Schwankungen  der  Hocharmenischen  Seen  Seit  1800: 
Dr.  R.  Sieger  (Wien). — Bulletin  du  Comite  International  Permanent  pour 
l'Execution  Photographique  de  la  Carte  du  Ciel.  2e  Fascicule  (Gauthier- 
Villars,  Paris). — Die  Fossde  Pflanzen-Gattung  Tylodendron :  H.  Potonie 
(Berlin). — Ueber  den  Einfluss  niederer  Sauerstoffpressungen  auf  die  Beweg- 
ungen  des  Protoplasmas :  J.  Clark  (Berlin). — Der  FeuerstofF:  L.  Mann 
(Berlin). — The  Minerals  of  New  York  County,  U.S.A.  (New  York). — 
Journal  of  the  Chemical  Society,  October  (Gurney  and  Jackson).  —  Bulletin 
de  l'Academie  Imperiale  des  Sciences  de  St.  Petersbourg,  tome  xxxii. 
Nos.  2  and  4. 

CONTENTS.  page 

The  Zoological  Results  of  the  Challenger  Expedition    56* 
Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Sherborn  :    "A  Bibliography  of   the    Foraminifera, 

Recent  and  Fossil,  from  1565  to  1888  " 562 

Harrison  and  Wakefield:  "Earth  Knowledge  "...    563 
Jones  :  "  An  Introduction  to  the  Science  and  Practice 

of  Photography " 563 

Blaine:  "  Numerical  Examples  in  Practical  Mechanics 

and  Machine  Design" .    563 

Foster:  "  A  Text-book  of  Physiology  " 564 

Johnson:   "  The  Analyst's  Laboratory  Companion  "  .    564 
Letters  to  the  Editor : — 

Prophetic  Germs.— The  Duke  of  Argyll,  F.R.S.     .    564 
The  Geometric  Interpretation  of  Monge's  Differential 
Equation  to  all  Conies. — Prof.  Asutosh  Mukho- 

padhyay 564 

Upper  and  Lower  Wind  Currents  over   the   Torrid 

Zone. — Dr.  W.  Doberck 565 

The   Natural    History    of   the    Roman    Numerals. — 

Edw.  Tregear 565 

Indian  Life  Statistics. — S.  A.  Hill 565 

A     Shell-Collector's     Difficulty.  —  Consul     E.     L. 

Layard f. 566 

"  Fauna  and  Flora  of  the  Lesser  Antilles. " — H.  A. 

Alford  Nicholls 566 

Sun  Columns. — Hy.  Harries 566 

The  Report  of  the  Krakatao  Committee  of  the  Royal 

Society.     II 566 

Foundations  of   Coral  Reefs.      By  Capt.  W.  J.   L. 

Wharton 568 

Recent  Visit  of  Naturalists  to  the  Galapagos.     By 

Dr.  P.  L.  Sclater,  F.R.S.  ;  Leslie  A.  Lee     ....    569 
The  British  Association  s — 

Section     A — Mathematical     and    Physical     Science. 

( With  a  Diagram. ) ,09 

Notes 573 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

The  Light-Curve  of  U  Ophiuchi 576 

Comets  Brooks  and  Faye 576 

Comet  1888  e  (Barnard) 576 

Astronomical    Phenomena    for     the     Week    1888 

October  14-20 577 

Geographical  Notes 577 

Electrical  Notes 577 

Molecular  Physics :  an  Attempt  at  a  Comprehensive 
Dynamical  Treatment  of  Physical  and  Chemical 

Forces.     III.     By  Prof.  F.  Lindemann      578 

Compressibility  of  Water,  Salt  Water,  Mercury,  and 

Glass.     By  Prof.  P.  G.  Tait 581 

Scientific  Serials 582 

Societies  and  Academies 5^3 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 584 


NA  TURE 


585 


THURSDAY,   OCTOBER    18,    iJ 


APPLICATIONS  OF  DYNAMICS   TO  PHYSICS 
AND  CHEMISTRY. 

Applications  of  Dynamics  to  Physics  and  Chemistry. 
By  J.  J.  Thomson,  M.A.,  F.R.S.,  Cavendish  Professor 
of  Experimental  Physics,  Cambridge.  (London  : 
Macmillan  and  Co.,  1888.) 

THIS  is  one  of  the  most  original  books  on  mathe- 
matical physics  which  has  appeared  for  a  long 
time.  Prof.  J.  J.  Thomson  has  elaborated  a  method  of 
very  wide  scope,  and  has  applied  it  to  a  large  number  of 
problems  of  very  different  kinds.  A  reader  of  the  work 
must  perforce  be  struck  not  only  with  the  mathematical 
ability  of  the  author,  but  with  the  wide  extent  of  learning 
which  enables  him  to  illustrate  his  theme  by  recent 
researches  in  nearly  every  branch  of  physics  and  physical 
chemistry. 

The  method  employed  is  so  essentially  mathematical 
that  it  is  not  easy  to  describe  it  without  the  use  of 
symbols.  As,  however,  it  is  a  matter  of  considerable 
importance  that  those  who  are  studying  by  means  of 
experiment  the  phenomena  discussed  by  Prof.  Thomson 
should  have  some  idea  as  to  the  progress  already  made  in 
their  theoretical  explanation,  it  may  be  well  to  give  an 
account  of  the  general  principles  which  he  has  used. 

In  ordinary  dynamics  it  is  necessary  to  specify  the 
positions  of  the  members  of  a  system  of  bodies  of  which 
the  movements  or  mutual  actions  are  under  considera- 
tion. This  is  done  by  means  of  co-ordinates,  which 
define  their  positions  at  a  given  time  with  respect  to 
certain  given  lines  or  surfaces.  If  the  system  is  in  motion, 
the  values  of  these  quantities  change  with  the  time,  and 
thus  the  co-ordinates  may  be  regarded  as  possessing 
velocities. 

The  difference  between  the  kinetic  and  potential 
energies  of  the  system  (which  is  called  the  Lagrangian 
function)  can  be  expressed  in  terms  of  the  co-ordinates 
and  their  velocities,  and  if  this  is  done  the  magnitude  of 
the  force  which  is  acting  on  the  system  and  tending  to 
increase  the  value  of  any  particular  co-ordinate  can  be 
deduced  from  it.  If  no  such  force  is  acting,  it  follows 
that  a  certain  relation  between  the  co-ordinates  and  their 
velocities  must  be  satisfied. 

This  is  a  perfectly  general  dynamical  method,  which 
could  be  directly  applied  to  the  complex  system  of  atoms 
and  ether  by  which  the  physical  phenomena  displayed 
by  any  given  body  are  produced,  if  it  were  not  for 
difficulties  which  Prof.  Thomson  has  attempted,  as  far  as 
may  be,  to  overcome. 

In  the  first  place,  the  dynamical  method  presupposes 
a  knowledge  of  the  relative  positions  of  the  members  of 
the  system,  i.e.  of  its  geometry,  and  we  cannot  at  present 
express  "  such  things  as  the  distributions  of  electricity 
and  magnetism,  for  example,"  in  terms  of  the  relative 
positions  or  movements  of  atoms  and  ether. 

In  the  next  place,  even  when  we  can  express  certain 

physical  states  in  terms  of  quantities  which  completely 

describe   all   that  we  can  observe,  it  is  certain  that  in 

general  they  would  not  suffice  to  describe  completely  the 

Vol.  xxxviii. — No.  990. 


state  of  the  body  if  we  had  the  power  of  noting  every 
detail  of  its  molecular  structure. 

Using  theorems  due  to  Thomson  and  Tait  and  to 
Larmor  respectively,  Prof.  J.  J.  Thomson  shows  that  the 
second  difficulty  may  be  overcome  if  the  co-ordinates  of 
the  values  of  which  we  are  ignorant  do  not  enter  into  the 
expressions  for  the  kinetic  energy  of  the  system.  It  then, 
however,  becomes  necessary  to  modify  the  Lagrangian 
function,  but  this  new  form  is  such  that  when  it  is  ex- 
pressed in  terms  of  any  variable  quantities  and  their 
"velocities"  they  satisfy  the  mathematical  condition  to 
which  a  true  geometrical  co-ordinate  and  its  velocity  are 
subject.  If  L'  is  the  modified  Lagrangian  function,  and  q 
any  one  of  a  series  of  quantities,  q1}  q2,  .  .  . ,  in  terms  of 
which  and  of  their  velocities  it  can  be  expressed,  then — 
d  dU_  dV^ 
dt      dq       dq 

The  term  co-ordinate  is  thus  used  by  Prof.  Thomson  in 
the  generalized  sense  of  any  quantity  in  terms  of  which  and 
of  its  velocity  the  modified  Lagrangian  function  can  be 
expressed,  and  he  assumes  that  as  far  as  the  phenomena 
under  consideration  are  concerned  the  state  of  a  body 
may  be  described  by  four  different  types  of  co-ordinates. 
These  specify  (1)  the  position  in  space  of  any  bodies  of 
finite  size  which  may  be  in  the  system  ;  (2)  the  strains  in 
the  system  ;  (3)  its  electrical,  and  (4)  its  magnetic  state. 

The  most  general  expression  for  the  Lagrangian 
function  is  then  formed.  It  may  contain  terms  of  various 
kinds.  Prof.  Thomson  goes  through  them  one  by  one, 
determines  what  the  physical  consequences  of  the  exist- 
ence of  each  would  be,  and  if  these  are  found  to  be 
contrary  to  experience  concludes  that  the  term  in  question 
does  not  exist. 

Thus,  for  instance,  it  can  be  shown  that  if  there  were 
a  term  containing  a  product  of  the  velocities  of  a  geo- 
metrical and  an  electrical  co-ordinate,  an  electrical 
"  current  would  produce  a  mechanical  force  proportional 
to  its  square,  so  that  the  force  would  not  be  reversed  if 
the  direction  of  the  current  was  reversed."  As  this  and 
other  similar  deductions  are  all  opposed  to  experience, 
no  such  term  can  exist. 

A  similar  method  is  applied  to  the  coefficients  of  the 
terms  which  are  shown  to  be  possible.  Thus  a  term 
exists  which  contains  the  squares  of  the  velocities  of  the 
geometrical  co-ordinates.  It  corresponds  to  the  expres- 
sion for  the  ordinary  kinetic  energy.  Prof.  Thomson 
inquires  whether  the  kinetic  energy  depends  only  on  the 
geometrical  co-ordinates,  or  whether  it  also  varies  with 
the  electrical  state  of  the  various  members  of  the  system. 
The  answer  is  given  by  means  of  an  investigation  of  his 
own  {Phil.  Mag.,  April  1881),  in  which  he  has  shown 
that  the  kinetic  energy  of  a  small  sphere,  of  mass  ;;;,  and 
radius  a,  charged  with  e  units  of  electricity,  and  moving 
with  a  velocity  v,  is — 

2       fjLl'- 
15 

where  fi  is  the  magnetic  permeability  of  the  dielectric 
surrounding  it.  The  effect  of  the  electrification  is  there- 
fore the  same  as  if  the  mass  had  received  an  increment, 
which,  however,  numerical  calculation  shows  is  too  small 
to  be  observed.  It  is,  nevertheless,  important  that  the 
mutual  relationship  between  ordinary  kinetic  energy  and 

c  c 


f: 


m  + 


a    ) 


586 


NATURE 


{Oct.  1 8, 


electrification  should  be  recognized,  as  it  follows  that  the 
speed  with  which  electrical  oscillations  are  propagated 
across  any  medium  will  be  diminished  by  the  presence 
of  conductors  moving  about  in  it.  "Thus,  if  the  electro- 
magnetic theory  of  light  is  true,  the  result  we  have  been 
discussing  has  an  important  bearing  on  the  effect  of  the 
molecules  of  matter  on  the  rate  of  propagation  of  light." 

It  would  take  too  long  to  follow  the  author  in  detail 
through  the  interesting  discussion  which  is  pursued  on 
these  lines.  Another  example  must  therefore  suffice. 
The  specific  inductive  capacity  of  a  dielectric  depends 
upon  the  strain,  and  it  follows  that  the  distribution  of  stress 
which  Maxwell  supposes  to  exist  in  the  electric  field  is 
supplemented  by  another,  which  is  due  to  the  relation 
between  inductive  capacity  and  strain.  Maxwell's  dis- 
tribution will  be  the  same  for  all  dielectrics,  but  Quincke 
has  shown  that  though  most  dielectrics  expand  when 
placed  in  an  electric  field,  the  fatty  oils  contract.  In 
these  cases  the  effects  of  what  may  be  called  the  sup- 
plementary distribution  are  contrary  to,  and  greater  than, 
those  produced  by  Maxwell's  stress. 

Phenomena  which  depend  on  temperature  are  specially 
discussed,  and  an  interesting  conclusion  with  respect  to 
thermo-electricity  may  be  noted.  It  is  that  from  the 
heat  developed  by  a  current  at  a  junction  of  two  dissimilar 
metals  we  can  derive  information  as  to  that  part  only  of 
the  electromotive  force  which  depends  upon  the  tempera- 
ture. Hence  the  Peltier  effect  can  throw  no  light  upon 
the  absolute  difference  of  potential  between  two  different 
metals. 

A  chapter  is  devoted  to  the  calculation  of  "  the 
Lagrangian  function  in  the  simplest  case,  when  the  body 
is  in  a  steady  state,  when  it  is  free  from  all  strain  except 
that  inseparable  from  the  body  at  the  temperature  we 
are  considering,  and  when  it  is  neither  electrified  nor 
magnetized."  Two  forms  are  found,  which  hold  for  the 
gaseous  and  the  liquid  or  solid  states  respectively.  The 
general  principle  is  also  laid  down,  that,  "when  the 
physical  environment  of  a  system  is  slightly  changed, 
and  the  consequent  change  in  the  mean  Lagrangian  func- 
tion increases  as  any  physical  process  goes  on,  then  this 
process  will  have  to  go  on  further  in  the  changed  system 
before  equilibrium  is  reached  than  in  the  unchanged  one, 
while  if  the  change  in  the  mean  Lagrangian  function 
diminishes  as  the  process  goes  on  it  will  not  have  to 
proceed  so  far." 

As  an  example  of  this  we  may  take  the  effect  of  a 
charge  of  electricity  on  the  vapour-pressure  of  a  liquid. 
If  a  spherical  drop,  of  radius  a,  surrounded  by  a  medium 
of  specific  inductive  capacity  K,  is  charged  with  e  units  of 
electricity,  its  potential  energy  is  increased  by  e2/2Ka,  and 
thus  electrification  changes  the  mean  Lagrangian  function 
by  the  amount  -e2/2Ka.  Prof.  Thomson  quotes  experi- 
ments by  Blake  to  prove  that  when  an  electrified  liquid 
evaporates  the  vapour  is  not  electrified,  so  that  the  charge 
e  is  unaffected  by  evaporation,  while  the  radius  a  of  course 
diminishes.  On  the  whole,  then,  evaporation  algebraically 
diminishes  the  term  —  e2/2Ka,  and  therefore  it  will  not 
proceed  so  far  as  before  the  liquid  was  electrified.  Thus 
electrification  diminishes  the  vapour-tension  by  an  amount 
which  is  limited  by  the  insulating  power  of  the  air.  The 
maximum  effect  is  about  equal  in  magnitude,  though 
opposite  in  sign,  to^that  due  to  a  curvature  of  a  quarter  of 


a  centimetre.  The  suggestion  is  made  that  we  should 
therefore  expect  an  electrified  drop  of  rain  to  be  larger 
than  an  unelectrified  one,  so  that  this  effect  may  help  to 
produce  the  large  drops  of  rain  which  fall  in  thunder- 
storms. The  principle  also  leads  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  density  of  saturated  aqueous  vapour  in  the  presence 
of  air  is  greater  than  if  no  other  gas  is  present,  and  thus, 
apart  from  other  causes,  rain- drops  would  form  more 
easily  when  the  barometer  is  failing  than  when  it  is 
rising. 

The  properties  of  dilute  solutions  are  discussed  at 
length,  and  the  Lagrangian  function  is  calculated  in 
accordance  with  the  views  of  Van  't  Hoff  on  the  assump- 
tion that  the  molecules  of  a  salt  in  a  dilute  solution 
behave  as  though  they  were  in  the  gaseous  state. 

The  results  obtained  cannot  be  considered  favourable 
to  the  view  that  the  effects  of  solution  are  capable  of 
being  stated  in  such  simple  terms.  Rontgen  and 
Schneider's  experiments  on  the  compressibility  of  saline 
solutions  prove  that  the  decrease  in  the  compressibility  is 
sometimes  more  than  a  hundred  times  greater  than  that 
calculated  on  the  above  assumptions.  The  author  also 
points  out  that  the  rise  in  the  osmometer,  which  is 
explained  as  due  to  the  pressure  of  the  dissolved  salt,  may 
be  capable  of  other  interpretations,  and  that  at  present 
the  indications  of  the  instrument  must  be  considered 
ambiguous. 

Enough  has  perhaps  been  said  to  give  an  idea  of  the 
method  and  scope  of  Prof.  J.  J.  Thomson's  work. 

It  is  possible  that  some  of  the  experimental  results 
which  are  quoted  require  fuller  confirmation  than  they 
have  as  yet  received,  but  if  the  work  is  regarded  as  a 
text-book  of  mathematical  physics  this  is  a  very  minor 
defect.  The  author  has  developed  a  method  of  wide 
scope,  and  it  is  important  that  its  applications  should  be 
fully  illustrated,  even  if  the  data  assumed  are  not  in  all 
cases  unexceptionable. 

The  book  literally  bristles  with  novel  suggestions  and 
points  of  interest.  An  explanation  of  the  fact  recently 
discovered  by  Mr.  Shelford  Bidwell,  that  iron  becomes 
shorter  when  the  magnetizing  force  is  very  great  ;  the 
effect  of  surface-tension  on  electromotive  force  ;  chemical 
action  in  thin  films  ;  the  effect  of  a  neutral  gas  on  dissocia- 
tion— these  are  some  of  the  subjects,  in  addition  to  those 
which  have  already  been  mentioned,  upon  which  we  light 
on  turning  over  the  pages  haphazard. 

That  it  will  make  the  study  of  physics  and  chemistry 
easier  is  only  in  one  sense  true.  Nihil  tetigit  qaorf  noti 
ornavit  may,  as  applied  to  Prof.  J.  J.  Thomson,  be  freely 
translated,  that  he  hardly  mentions  any  law  of  physics 
except  to  complicate  it  with  correction  terms. 

From  a  more  serious  point  of  view,  however,  it  is 
difficult  to  over-estimate  the  value  of  the  establishment  of 
the  less  obvious  connections  between  phenomena. 

On  many  points,  such  as  Quincke's  and  Bidwell's  obser- 
vations on  the  changes  of  magnitude  produced  in  the 
electric  and  magnetic  fields  respectively,  experiment 
needed  the  support  of  theory,  and  Prof.  J.  J.  Thomson 
points  out  causes  to  which  the  observed  effects  may  be 
due.  Almost  daily,  conscientious  experimentalists  are 
spending  time  and  ability  in  the  detailed  examination  of 
facts  which  they  cannot  explain,  and  which  they  can  only 
hope  to  explain  by  the  most  minute  investigations.  In  the 


Oct.  1 8,  1888] 


NATURE 


#7 


cases  just  mentioned  the  labour  was  well  spent,  but  in 
others  it  is  practically  thrown  away  in  the  attempt  to 
pierce  a  labyrinth  the  clue  to  which  can  be  found  only  by 
mathematics.  Prof.  J.  J.  Thomson's  book  ought  to  be 
carefully  studied  by  all  physicists,  and  especially  investi- 
gators who  have  discovered  what  they  believe  to  be  a  new 
fact.  In  many  cases  it  will  suggest  possible  explanations 
which  may  prevent  long  and  wearisome  groping  in  the 
dark. 

The  author  is  to  be  warmly  congratulated  on  his  work, 
which  is  an  achievement  of  a  high  order,  and  which  will 
add  to  his  already  great  reputation  as  a  mathematical 
physicist. 


RECENT  WORKS  ON  ORNITHOLOGY. 

Argentine  Ornithology.  By  P.  L.  Sclater,  M.A.,  F.R.S., 
&c,  and  W.  H.  Hudson,  C.M.Z.S.  Vol.  I.,  pp.  i.-xvi., 
1-208,  pis.  i.-x.     (London  :  R.  H.  Porter,  1888.) 

British  Birds :  Key  List.  By  Lieut.-Colonel  L.  Howard 
Irby.     Pp.  1-58.     (London:  R.  H.  Porter,  1888.) 

Biidsnesting  and  Bird-skinning :  A  Complete  Description 
0/  the  Nests  and  Eggs  of  Birds  which  breed  in  Britain. 
By  Edward  Newman.  Second  Edition.  Revised  and 
re-written,  with  directions  for  their  collection  and 
preservation ;  and  a  chapter  on  Bird-skinning,  &c. 
By  Miller  Christy.  Pp.  i.-xii.,  1-138.  (London:  T. 
Fisher  Unwin,  1888.) 

DR.  SCLATER  AND  MR.  HUDSON  have  combined 
their  forces  to  produce  one  of  the  best  books  ever 
written  on  South  American  ornithology.  Each  is  a 
master  of  his  own  portion  of  the  subject,  for  no  one  is 
better  acquainted  with  neotropical  ornithology  than  Dr. 
Sclater,  and  Mr.  Hudson  has  been  known  for  many  years 
as  one  of  the  best  living  observers  of  the  habits  of  birds 
in  the  field.  The  scheme  of  the  book,  therefore,  leaves 
nothing  to  be  desired,  and  the  whole  of  the  "get-up,"  as 
regards  paper,  print,  and  illustrations  (the  latter  a  matter 
of  course  when  Mr.  Keulemans  is  the  artist),  is  about  as 
good  as  it  is  possible  to  be,  and  reflects  the  greatest 
credit  on  the  publisher. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  features  of  the  work  will 
doubtless  be  the  introduction,  which  will  appear  in  the 
second  volume,  when  it  will  be  possible  to  form  some 
accurate  notion  of  the  relations  of  the  avifauna  of  the 
Argentine  Republic  with  that  of  the  neighbouring  States, 
a^comparison  which  will  doubtless  be  of  importance  to 
all  naturalists  who  are  interested  in  the  somewhat  com- 
plicated natural  areas  of  the  neotropical  region.  At 
present  the  genera  and  species  peculiar  to  the  region 
treated  of  by  the  authors  seem  to  be  few  in  number,  and 
they  would  appear  to  be  limited  to  the  more  western 
portions  of  the  country,  especially  the  district  of  Tucuman. 

It  would  be  easy  to  give  many  extracts  from  Mr. 
Hudson's  charming  writings  on  the  habits  of  the  birds, 
with  the  life-history  of  many  of  which  he  is  as  familiar  as 
we  are  in  England  with  that  of  many  of  our  British  birds, 
while  his  travels  have  enabled  him  in  many  instances  to 
give  an  account  of  species  both  in  their  summer  and 
winter  homes.  To  any  naturalist  visiting  Argentina  this 
book  will  be  of  the  highest  value,  the  descriptions  given 
by  Dr.  Sclater  being  short  and  concise,  but  sufficient  for 
the  identification  of  species,  while  he  is  to  be  congratulated 


also  on  the  success  with  which  he  has  contrived  to 
attach  an  English  name  to  each  bird.  Everyone  who 
has  tried  to  do  this,  when  writing  on  exotic  birds,  knows 
how  difficult  it  is  to  invent  English  titles  for  species 
which  have  no  counterpart  in  European  nomenclature  ; 
and  we  must  acknowledge  that  the  names  are  a  great 
improvement  on  some  of  the  zoology  "as  she  is  taught" 
at  our  Zoological  Gardens.  Should  some  of  the  names 
bestowed  upon  animals  in  the  "  Zoo  "  ever  be  adopted  in 
general  works  of  travel,  we  might  expect  to  find  such 
truthful  anecdotes  as  the  following  : — 

"  The  insolent  behaviour  of  one  of  the  animals  con- 
siderably annoyed  us,  from  its  persistent  habit  of  making 
'  long  noses '  at  us.  On  shooting  a  specimen  we  dis- 
covered that  it  was  a  Rude  Fox(C«///'.y  rudis)j'  &c.,&c. 

"  Some  interesting  little  creatures  now  came  in  sight, 
dancing,  apparently  in  perfect  time,  across  the  glade. 
They  proved  to  be  Pleasant  Antelopes  {Tragelaphus 
gratus),"  &c,  &c. 

"  Just  as  I  was  emerging  from  a  thicket  I  managed  to 
trip  over  something  which  brought  me  heavily  to  the 
ground.  I  fancied  that  I  had  fallen  over  a  ttee-stump, 
but  on  careful  examination,  it  proved  to  be  an  Incon- 
venient Curassow  [Crax  incominoda)  which  had  somehow 
got  in  my  way,"  &c,  &c. 

.  In  his  useful  little  work,  a  "  Key  List  to  British  Birds," 
Colonel  Irby  has  supplied  a  real  want— a  handy  pocket- 
book,  giving  just  the  diagnostic  characters  of  every 
species.  It  is  a  desirable  supplement  to  the  "List  of 
British  Birds"  published  by  the  British  Ornithologists' 
Union,  which  dealt  with  the  nomenclature  of  the  various 
species,  but  which  might  also  with  advantage  have  con- 
tained diagnoses,  such  as  Colonel  Irby's  industry  has  now 
supplied. 

What  Colonel  Irby  has  done  for  the  birds,  Mr.  Miller 
Christy  does  for  the  eggs  of  British  birds,  and  it  is  certain 
that  with  this  little  work  in  his  hands  the  young  student 
can  gain  a  very  good  idea  of  the  eggs  which  are  likely  to 
be  met  with  in  England.  The  call  for  this  second  edition 
of  the  late  Mr.  Newman's  work  shows  apparently  that 
there  are  a  good  many  egg-collectors  in  this  country, 
notwithstanding  the  prohibitions  of  an  Act  of  Parliament ; 
nor  can  we  state  with  truth  that  there  is  any  falling  oft"  in 
the  number  of  students  of  the  egg-collection  in  the  British 
Museum  since  the  Wild  Birds  Preservation  Act  became  law. 
To  the  chapter  on  bird-skinning  we  would  add  a  practical 
hint  that  before  commencing  operations  a  tiny  wisp  of 
wool  should  be  inserted  into  the  palate  of  the  specimen. 
This  greatly  prevents  the  risk  of  discharge  from  the 
nostrils,  and  saves  many  a  skin  from  being  draggled  and 
spoilt.  The  American  method  of  enveloping  the  prepared 
skin  in  wadding  is  also  far  preferable  to  our  method  of 
fastening  a  paper  band  round  the  specimen. 

R.  BOWDLKR  SHARPE. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Mechanics.      By    Edward     Aveling,     D.Sc.      (London  : 
Chapman  and  Hall,  Limited,  1888)., 

Tins  is  the  first  of  four  treatises  on  mechanics  and 
experimental  science,  published  to  meet  the  requirements 
ot  candidates)  in  the  matriculation  examination  of  London 
University.  The  volume  before  us  contains  a  great 
number  of  numerical  examples  and  exercises  for  students, 
and  twenty  jages  are  devoted  to  specimen  examination 


588 


NATURE 


\0ct.  1 8,  1888 


papers  of  various  kinds.  The  author's  language  is  very 
inexact  if  compared  with  the  language  of  Thomson  and 
Tait's  "  Natural  Philosophy,"  or  Dr.  Lodge's  text-book. 
It  reads  as  if  a  shorthand-writer  had  taken  notes  of 
lectures,  and  the  lecturer  had  published  them  after 
hasty  correction.  This  inexactness  is  visible  in  almost 
every  definition  in  the  book.  We  read  of  velocities 
acting  and  accelerations  working.  New  magnitudes  are 
introduced  ;  thus,  "  the  intensity  of  a  force  is  like  the 
temperature  of  a  body.  It  is  measured  by  the  velocity 
communicated,  apart  altogether  from  the  mass  to  which  it 
is  communicated."  "  But  the  quantity  of  a  force  is  like 
the  amount  of  heat  in  a  body.  Force-quantity  is  measured 
by  the  product  of  the  velocity  communicated  and  the 
mass  to  which  it  is  communicated"  (p.  103).  In  defining, 
if  he  can  be  said  to  define,  "  impressed  force,"  the  author 
uses  expressions  such  as  "  so  that  when  we  speak  or  read 
of  an  accelerating  force,/ or  g,  or  9/8  or  32*2,  or  a  per 
second  per  second." 

This  book  would  certainly  not  be  recommended  by  us 
to  any  student  who  is  desirous  of  obtaining  a  know- 
ledge of  mechanics ;  but,  for  all  we  know,  it  may 
very  well  serve  the  purpose  for  which  its  author  has 
designed  it.  It  is  a  book  written  for  candidates  in  certain 
examinations  by  a  successful  candidate.  The  author  has 
introduced  side  lines  to  catch  a  student's  eye,  and  we 
think  this  a  very  clever  contrivance.  Thus  there  is  the 
side  line  "  Pressure  "  (p.  2),  and  the  student  is  directed  to 
get  off  by  memory :  "  When  a  body  is  prevented  from 
falling  towards  the  earth  by  the  hand  or  by  a  table,  e.g., 
the  body  exerts  a  certain  pressure  upon  the  hand  or  the 
table."  It  is  interesting  to  know  from  such  an  authority 
as  Dr.  AveKng  that  this  is  the  sort  of  definition  which 
satisfies  an  examiner,  and  it  seems  to  us  that  a  study  of 
this  book  by  examiners  would  lead  to  very  useful  results. 

Solutions  of  the  Examples  in  an  Elementary  Treatise 
on  Conic  Sections.  By  Charles  Smith,  M.A.  (London  : 
Macmillan,  1888.) 

Mr.  Smith  has  been  well  advised  in  drawing  up  this  col- 
lection of  elegant  solutions  to  the  examples  in  his 
"  Conies."  His  treatise  is  just  now  in  the  full  tide  of  suc- 
cess, and  seems  likely  to  maintain  its  position  for  some 
time  yet  before  a  better  one  drives  it  into  the  background. 
This,  then,  is  just  the  time  when  such  aid  as  is  here  fur- 
nished is  most  acceptable  to  teachers,  "  many  of  whom," 
as  we  have  more  than  once  stated  in  these  columns,  and 
as  the  author  here  testifies,  "  can  ill  afford  time  to  write 
out  detailed  solutions  of  the  questions  which  prove  too 
difficult  for  their  pupils."  We  have  compared  many  of 
the  solutions  here  given  with  our  own  (in  manuscript),  and 
find  that  new  light  is  thrown  on  some  by  Mr.  Smith's 
thorough  command  of  the  latest  methods.  We  have 
detected  here  and  there  a  trifling  error,  which  may  per- 
haps cause  momentary  trouble  to  a  self-taught  student, 
but  there  is  sufficient  detail  given  to  enable  the  reader, 
on  careful  perusal,  to  make  the  required  correction.  In 
some  cases  more  than  one  solution  is  given :  this  is  a 
good  feature.  The  possessor  of  the  text-book  and  of  the 
"Solutions"  occupies  a  strong  position,  and  should  be 
able  to  attain  considerable  skill  in  this  particular  branch 
of  mathematics. 

The  Beginner's  Guide  to  Photography.  By  a  Fellow  of 
the  Chemical  Society.  (London:  Perken,  Son,  and 
Rayment,  1888. 

This  is  a  second  edition,  revised  and  enlarged,  of  an 
elementary  guide  for  those  commencing  the  art  of  photo- 
graphy. In  it  will  be  found  practical  hints  as  regards 
the  choice  of  apparatus,  and  a  good  explanation  of  the 
whole  process  of  photographic  manipulation,  written  in 
a  manner  which  for  beginners  leaves  nothing  to  be 
desired. 

An  article  on  "Exposure"  has  been  added  by  Mr.  H  . 


S.  Platts,  including  tables  and  directions,  and  the  latter, 
if  carried  out  by  the  amateur,  ought  to  give  him  good 
results.    • 

There  are,  also,  chapters  on  the  production  of  lantern- 
slides,  enlarging,  and  photomicrography,  and  the  book 
concludes  with  a  collection  of  the  illustrations  referred  to 
in  it.  . 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  nnder- 
take  to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
of  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations. ] 

Prophetic  Germs. 
In  his  letter  of  October  8,  the  Duke  of  Argyll  says  that  he 
sees  great  value  in  my  statement  (which  he  improperly  terms  an 
"admission"),  that  natural  selection  cannot  act  upon  any 
structure  which  is  not  already  developed  up  to  the  stage  of  actual 
use.  He  says,  "  This  is  really  all  I  want  for  my  previous  argu- 
ment, because  all  organs  whatever  do  actually  pass  through  rudi- 
mentary stages  in  which  actual  use  is  impossible."  Here  we 
have  the  Duke's  case  in  a  nutshell.  It  is  easily  dealt  with. 
Firstly,  what  the  Duke  terms  an  "  admission  "  on  my  part  is  an 
essential  and  explicitly  stated  element  of  Mr.  Darwin's  own 
exposition  of  his  theory.  Secondly,  it  is  necessary  for  the  Duke 
to  demonstrate  not  that  "all  organs  whatever,"  but  that  some 
organs  "  do  actually  pass  through  rudimentary  stages  in  which 
actual  use  is  impossible." 

The  stages  here  alluded  to  are — if  I  understand  correctly — 
ancestral  stages,  not  stages  in  the  embryological  development  of 
the  individual. 

I  feel  bound  to  state  that  I  do  not  know  of  any  facts  in  the 
history  of  either  animals  or  plants  which  lead  me  (or,  I  may  say, 
which  have  led  any  important  number  of  the  vast  army  of  writers 
and  observers  on  these  subjects)  to  the  conclusion  that  any  exist- 
ing active  organ  has  passed  through  rudimentary  stages  in  which 
actual  use  is  impossible,  if  we  set  aside  such  cases  as  may  be 
explained  by  correlation  of  growth  or  by  the  persistence  of 
vestiges  of  formerly  useful  structures. 

If  the  Duke  of  Argyll  can  show  that  any  one  organ  has  or 
"must  have"  passed  through  such  useless  stages  (not  explicable 
as  due  to  correlation  of  growth  nor  as  inherited  vestiges),  he 
ought  at  once  to  do  so.  Mr.  Darwin,  in  his  severe  testing  of  his 
own  theory,  tried  to  find  such  cases,  and  did  not  find  them.  What 
are  they  ?  My  own  opinion  is  that  they  do  not  exist,  and  that  the 
Duke's  case  collapses.  E.  Ray  Lankester. 


A  New  Australian  Mammal. 

A  few  days  ago,  through  the  kindness  of  Mr.  A.  Molineux, 
of  Adelaide,  a  small  mole-like  animal,  which  appears  to  be 
new  to  science,  was  forwarded  to  the  South  Australian  Museum. 
It  was  found  on  the  Idracowie  cattle-station,  at  a  distance,  I 
understand,  of  about  100  miles  from  the  Charlotte  Waters 
Telegraph  Station,  on  the  overland  line  from  Adelaide  to  Port 
Darwin  ;  but  the  exact  circumstances  of  its  capture  are  not  yet 
to  hand.  The  collector,  however,  reports  that  it  must  be  of 
rare  occurrence,  as,  on  questioning  the  aboriginals  of  the  locality, 
there  was  only  one  old  woman  who  said  she  had  seen  it  before, 
and  that  upon  a  single  occasion. 

It  is  evidently  an  underground  burrowing  animal  resembling 
somewhat  the  Cape  mole  (Chrysochloris)  in  its  general  external 
appearance,  »but  differing  in  many  respects. 

The  total  length  is  13  cm.,  inclusive  of  the  tail,  which  is  2  cm. 
long.  The  head,  relatively  shorter  than  Chrysochloris,  has  a 
rounded  muzzle,  the  dorsal  surface  of  which  is  covered  by  a 
horny  shield.  Nostrils  transversely  slit-like.  No  eyes  visible, 
the  skin  passing  uninterruptedly  over  the  ocular  region  ;  but  on 
reflecting  the  skin  on  one  side  of  the  face  a  small  circular  pig- 
ment spot  is  visible  in  the  position  of  the  eye.  No  apparent 
bony  orbit.  Tongue  fleshy,  broad  at  the  base,  and  tapering  to 
a  blunt  point.  No  external  ears  ;  but  the  ear-openings  distinct, 
1  mm.  wide,  and  covered  over  with  fur. 

The  fore-limbs  are  short,  resembling  somewhat  those  of  a 
mole;  but  the  manus  is  folded,  so  that  the  large  nails  of  the 
fourth  and  fifth  digits  only  are  visible  in  the  natural  position  of 


Oct.  iS,  1 888] 


NATURE 


589 


the  limbs.  Of  these  nails  the  fourth  is  15  mm.  long  and  of  a 
uniform  width  of  4  mm.,  ending  very  bluntly  ;  the  fifth  is  very 
slightly  shorter  than  the  fourth,  broad  at  the  base  (8  mm.), 
tapering  rapidly  to  a  blunt  point,  the  two  together  forming  an 
outline  rather  like  that  of  a  goose-mussel  (Lepas).  The  nails  of 
the  third,  second,  and  first  digits,  very  much  smaller,  form  a 
series  gradually  diminishing  in  size  in  the  order  named,  and  con- 
stitute a  second  row  on  the  inside  of  the  fourth  and  fifth,  by 
which,  as  stated,  they  are  completely  concealed  from  view. 
What  corresponds  to  the  palm  is  the  cleft  between  the  two  rows 
of  digits. 

The  hind-limbs  are  also  short,  with  the  soles  turned  outwards. 
What  appears  to  be  the  fifth  (anterior)  digit  is  very  short,  with  a 
short,  broad,  and  strong  nail  ;  the  fourth  is  armed  with  a  long 
(7  mm.)  narrow,  curved,  and  sharp  claw,  while  the  claws  of  the 
third,  second,  and  first  are  broad,  flat,  rounded  at  their  points, 
and  joined  together  by  a  membrane  which  extends  nearly  to 
their  points.  On  the  sole  there  is  a  hard,  elongated,  horny 
tubercle  crossing  it  transversely. 

The  tail,  2  cm.  long,  and  5  mm.  wide  at  the  insertion,  tapers 
to  3mm.,  and  terminates  in  a  knob-like  tip. 

About  15  mm.  in  front  of  the  vent  (?  cloaca)  there  is  a  pouch 
in  the  integument  about  4  mm.  wide,  with  the  opening  directed 
backwards  and  having  a  depth  in  a  forward  direction  of  from 
4-5  mm.  The  surface  of  this  pouch  is  devoid  of  hair,  but 
the  bare  area  is  surrounded  by  thick  fawn-coloured  fur,  with  a 
slightly  reddish  tint  ;  it  is  possible,  however,  that  this  reddish 
tint  is  due  wholly  or  in  part  to  some  ferruginous-looking  sand 
which  is  much  mixed  up  with  the  fur.  The  body  generally, 
with  the  exception  of  the  lower  two-thirds  of  the  tail,  which  is 
bare,  is  covered  with  fur  of  a  rather  lighter  tint. 

With  regard  to  the  internal  parts,  it  is  unfortunate  that  the 
specimen  came  to  us  completely  eviscerated,  and  in  a  bad  state 
of  preservation  generally  ;  but  in  a  small  part  of  the  lower 
bowel  which  was  left,  remains  of  ants  were  found.  The  bowel 
terminates  at  a  wide  vent  (?  cloaca),  and  I  can  find  no  trace  of  a 
separate  genital  aperture,  nor  of  such  openings  into  the  supposed 
cloaca. 

I  have  hot  yet  had  time  to  examine  with  minuteness  the 
skeleton,  which  unfortunately  is  also  considerably  damaged, 
especially  about  the  occipital  region  ;  but  from  a  cursory  examina- 
tion of  the  recently-skinned  body,  I  can  note  the  following 
points,  with,  I  believe,  accuracy^: — 

Cranium  relatively  large  ;  no  bony  orbits  ;  zygomatic  arches 
present ;  well-developed  shoulder-girdles  with  slender  clavicles  ; 
pectoral  muscles  large  ;  pelvis  large  and  strong,  with  a  rather 
wide  symphysis  pubis,  but  no  epipubic  bones,  either  actual  or 
rudimentary  ;  ribs,  14 ;  angle  of  lower  jaw  markedly  inflected. 
The  teeth  are  peculiar,  and  require  a  more  extended 
description  than  I  can  give  at  present,  but  the  formula  appears 
to  he — 

ilc  I,  m  6h  t*LH 
31        5V    /  i,  m 

This,  however,  may  require  some  modification,  as  just  posterior 
and  external  to  the  premolar  (or  first  molar)  of  the  right  ramus 
of  the  mandible  there  is  a  small  rudimentary  conical  tooth, 
which  is  not  to  be  found  on  the  opposite  side,  nor  at 
corresponding  positions  in  the  maxilla. 

I  do  not  pretend  to  be  a  zoological  expert,  but  1  cannot  help 
being  struck  with  the  resemblance  both  of  the  lower  jaw  and  of 
the  general  characters  of  the  teeth  to  the  pictures  of  the  jaws  of 
Amphitherium  as  figured  in  various  osteological  works.  I  am 
now  endeavouring  to  obtain  other  specimens,  .and  meanwhile  am 
having  careful  drawings  made  of  the  various  parts  of  the  present 
example  of  what  appears  to  be  a  remarkably  curious  and  inter- 
esting animal  even  in  this  land  of  strange  and  antique  types. 

E.  C.  Stirling. 

The  University,  Adelaide,  South  Australia,  August  29. 


Nomenclature  of  Determinants. 

Nature  of  October  4  opens  with  a  review  of  a  book  on 
"Determinants"  by  two  pupils  of  Prof.  Valentin  Balbin, 
whose  energy  and  enthusiasm  have  done  so  much  for  mathe- 
matics in  the  University  of  Buenos  Ayres.  In  regard  to  the 
naming  of  the  various  special  forms  of  determinants,  your  re- 
viewer says  : — "  The  nomenclature  adopted  in  the  second  book 
differs  in  some  particulars  from  that  employed  by  Muir.  Thus, 
our  authors  do  not  follow  him  in  substituting  '  adjugate '  for  the 


4 

4/ 


more  euphonious  and  more  familiar  adjective  '  reciprocal,' and 
they  agree  with  Scott  and  others  in  calling  those  determinants 
'  orthosymmetricil '  which  Muir  names  'persymmetric.'  We 
think  that  their  name  '  determinante  heniisiinrtrica '  is  a 
distinct  improvement  on  the  old  '  zero-axial  skew  determinant,' 
but  ..." 

Now,  as  I  have  gone  on  a  definite  principle  in  the  selection 
of  the  technical  terms  used  in  my  book,  and  as  I  believe  that 
this  principle  is  one  which  receives  very  general  approval  among 
students  of  science,  I  shall  be  glad  if  you  will  allow  me  to  direct 
attention  to  it.  It  is  that,  unless  very  strong  reasons  to  the 
contrary  can  be  adduced,  the  first  name  given  to  a  scientific 
object  or  concept  should  not  be  departed  from.1  In  more 
aphoristic  form,  the  multiplication  of  synonyms  is  a  great  evil. 
Judged  by  this  principle,  the  terms  "  adjugate,"  "  persymmetric," 
and  "skew  "  deserve  the  place  I  have  given  them.  "  Adjugate," 
as  applied  to  a  determinant,  was  a  generation  old  before 
"reciprocal"  was  proposed;  and — what  is  no  mean  additional 
recommendation — it  carries  with  it  the  sanction  of  the  highly- 
honoured  names  of  Gauss  and  Cauchy.  To  outweigh  these 
claims  there  is  very  little  to  be  said  for  the  rival  word.  It  is 
not  more  appropriate  ;  indeed,  the  kind  of  connection  to  be 
indicated  does  not  involve  the  idea  of  reciprocity  at  all.  It  is 
true,  as  your  reviewer  says,  that  "reciprocal  "  is  a  more  familiar 
word  ;  but  the  use  of  a  familiar  word  in  a  new  and  therefore 
unfamiliar  sense  is  surely  not  to  be  commended.  In  regard  to 
"  persymmetric,"  similar  language  may  be  employed.  It  was 
proposed  by  Sylvester,  and  was  in  use  for  years  by  him  and 
others  before  "  otthosymmetric "  made  its  appearance.  The 
latter  is  not  an  etymological  mongrel,  but  it  is  also  not  one 
whit  more  appropriate  than  the  word  it  seeks  to  supplant,  and 
it  is  the  unfortunate  parent  of  the  monster  "  doppelt-orthosym- 
metrisch."  It  never  was  heard  in  England  until  1880,  and  I 
regret  that  my  friend  Mr.  Scott  should  have  seen  cause  to  in- 
troduce it.  As  for  the  third  word,  "skew,"  the  arguments  in 
its  favour  are  still  stronger.  The  determinant  in  question  was 
called  "skew"  in  English  and  "gauche"  in  French,  by  Cayley, 
ai  far  back  as  1846;  and  these  words,  and  their  German  and 
Italian  equivalents,  are  to  be  found  employed  in  scores  of 
original  memoirs  by  the  highest  mathematicians.  "  Hemisym- 
metric"  is  but  of  yesterday,  and,  so  far  as  I  know,  has  never 
been  used  by  any  mathematician  of  note. 

Is  it  merely  a  proof  of  the  decadence  of  our  insularity  to  find 
a  welcome  given  by  Englishmen  to  terms  of  foreign  coinage 
which  have  been  wantonly  proposed  to  displace  the  original 
words. of  Cayley  and  Sylvester?  and  what  does  it  prove  to  find 
Germans,  who  at  first  derided  the  tropical  luxuriance  of  Syl- 
vester's nomenclature,  now  out-Heroding  Herod  without  having 
Sylvester's  exculpating  accompaniment  of  tropical  luxuriance  of 
ideas  ? 

Your  reviewer's  protest  against  Dostor's  introduction  of  "mul- 
tiple determinants  "  I  cordially  support,  and  only  wish  that  he 
had  taken  space  to  show  the  numerous  absurdities  connected 
therewith.  Thomas  Muir. 

Beechcroft,  Both  well,  N.B. 

A  Shadow  and  a  Halo. 

"  E.  W.  F."  may  see  the  phenomenon  he  describes  any  sunshiny 
morning  or  bright  moonlight  night,  when  the  dew  is  heavy  on 
the  grass.  The  halo  being  caused  by  reflection  at  a  small  angle 
of  the  sun  or  moonlight  from  the  wet  surfaces  of  the  blades  of 
grass,  enhanced  by  contrast  with  the  dark  shadow  (and  having 
nothing  to  do  with  moist  air),  its  brightness  would  no  doubt  be 
increased  by  the  foreshortening  and  consequent  apparent  com- 
pression of  the  reflecting  surfaces  on  the  slope.  The  neighbour- 
hood of  a  high  hedge  would  diminish  it  by  lessening  radiation, 
and  the  consequent  cooling  of  the  grass  and  deposition  of  dew 
upon  it. 

Nature  naturally  takes  no  account  of  moral  analogies,  of 
which  Nature  herself  is  full.  Else  one  might  note  that  a  man 
never  sees  a  halo  round  his  own  head  unless  he  tuins  his  back 
to  the  light.  B.  W.  S. 

Hampstead  Heath,  October  6. 

Often  and  often  in  walking  or  riding  over  the  chalk  downs 
of  Wiltshire  or  Hertfordshire  I  have  observed  a  bright  halo 
surrounding  the  shadow  of  my  head.     This  is  usually  cast  by  sun 

1  The  introduction  of  "  cominuant  "  may  seem  to  do  violence  to  this 
principle  ;  but  the  letter  referred  to  by  ;  o.ir  revitwer  will  shew  the  opposite. 


590 


NA  TURE 


[Oct.  18,  1888 


or  moon  in  bright  clear  weather,  and  extends  with  a  radius  of 
about  three  times  the  shadow's  diameter  around  the  head  alone. 
It  is  probably  due  to  diffraction  of  light-waves,  an  explanation  of 
which  at  length  may  be  read  in  Glazebrook's  "  Optics"  and  in 
other  text-books.  But  your  correspondent  omits  the  most  ex- 
traordinary character  of  the  phenomenon.  It  is  a  curious  fact 
that  any  man  can  see  the  light  around  the  shadow  of  his  own 
head,  but  never  about  theshadow  of  another.  Fesv  people  notice 
this  halo,  but  when  once  pointed  out  to  them,  they  tell  me  they 
frequently  observe  it.  It  is  particularly  clear  when  thrown  across 
a  valley  from  one  ridge  to  another  on  the  opposite  side.  I  have 
puzzled  over  this  spectral  brightness  for  five  years,  and  never 
found  an  explanation  of  the  fact  that  no  one  can  see  anyone's 
halo  but  his  own.  I  have  delayed  writing  to  Nature  until 
cause  and  effect  could  both  be  given,  but  they  are  not  forthcoming. 

Another  curious  appearance  is  a  rainbow  thrown  by  sunlight 
on  black  sound  ice,  probably  due  to  polarization  by  crystals.  On 
the  one  occasion  when  I  saw  it  on  a  pond,  I  had  no  time  to 
observe  details.     Has  anyone  seen  the  like?  A.  S.  Eve. 

Marlborough  College. 

Nesting  Habit  of  the  House  Sparrow. 

I  should  be  glad  to  know  if  any  of  your  correspondents  have 
noticed  a  nesting  habit  of  the  house  sparrow  {Passer  domestiais) 
which  I  have  very  frequently  observed  in  this  part  of  New  Zea- 
land. In  many  of  the  deep  cuttings  in  our  roads  and  in  the 
cliffs  upon  our  river-banks,  where  the  formation  is  a  light 
pumiceous  sand,  these  birds  are  in  the  habit  of  burrowing  holes 
similar  to  those  of  the  sand-martin  (Hiriuido  riparia).  In  some 
cases  I  have  found  these  burrows  by  measurement  to  be  as  much 
as  6  feet  in  depth. 

Can  this  be  a  recently  acquired  habit,  and  will  it  not  have  an 
influence  upon  the  anatomical  development  of  the  bird  ? 

Waihou,  Auckland,  N.Z.,  September  5.         G.  L.  Grant. 

Sonorous  Sands. 

I  notice  a  letter  from  my  friend  Mr.  A.  R.  Hunt  in  your 
issue  of  last  week,  and  add  a  line  to  say  that  the  sand  which  our 
common  friend,  the  late  Admiral  Bedford,  gave  him  was,  probably, 
of  my  collecting. 

I  found  that  the  sand  in  Studland  Bay  is  sonorous,  during  a 
visit  to  Swanage,  in  1869,  and  was,  for  many  years,  in  such  con- 
stant communication  with  the  late  Admiral  Bedford,  exchanging 
notes  and  specimens,  that  I  think  I  must  have  given  him  the 
sonorous  sand  in  question,  though  I  cannot  remember  the 
circumstance. 

Anyway,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  dry  sands  of  Studland 
Bay  are  powerfully  sonorous.  Walking  with  my  son  and  a 
young  friend  of  his  across  the  bay  in  July  1869,  we  all  amused 
ourselves  by  kicking  the  musical  dust  before  us,  the  two  younger 
pairs  of  heels  getting  quite  a  volume  of  sound  out  of  the 
performance.  '    D.  Pidgeon. 

Holmwood,  Putney  Hill,  October  6. 


A  Shell  Collector's  Difficulty. 

If  Mr.  Layard  will  discard  "  tightly-corked  tubes"  altogether, 
and  keep  his  minute  shells  in  open-ended  sections  of  glass  tube, 
lightly  closed,  at  top  and  bottom,  with  cotton-wool,  he  will  have 
no  more  trouble  from  "milky  efflorescence,"  which  will  not 
form  in  presence  of  the  "  thorough  draft  "  he  will  thus  establish 
in  his  cabinet.  D.  Pidgeon. 

Holmwood,  Putney  Hill,  October  13. 


Yorkshire  Geological  and   Polytechnic  Society. 

In  accordance  with  a -request  made  "by  the  Council  of  the 
Yorkshire  Geological  and  Polytechnic  Society,  I  am  compiling 
a  history  of  the  past  fifty  years'  work  of  the  Society,  and  in- 
cluding in  it  biographical  notices  of  some  of  its  principal 
members.  Amongst  the  latter  was  the  Rev.  W.  Thorp,  who 
for  several  years  held  the  office  of  Honorary  Secretary,  and 
took  great  interest  in  the  Society.  He  was  at  one  time  vicar  of 
Womersley,  and  afterwards  removed  to  Misson.  Unfortunately 
I  can  obtain  no  records  of  his  life.  Can  any  of  your  readers 
assist  me?  Any  information  will  be  gratefully  received  and 
duly  acknowledged.     I  believe  Mr.  Thorp  died  about  1857. 

Chcvinedge,  Halifax,  October  15.  James  \V.  Davis. 


MODERN  VIEWS  OF  ELECTRICITY.^ 
Part  IV. — Radiation. 

XI. 

\  \  7K  have  next  to  consider  what  happens  when  electrical 
*  *       waves  encounter  an  obstacle. 

Mechanism  of  Electric  Radiation. 

In  forming  a  mental  image  of  an  electrical  wave,  we 
have  t.">  note  that  three  distinct  directions  are  involved. 
There  is  (1)  the  direction  of  propagation—the  line  of 
advance  of  the  waves  ;  (2)  the  direction  of  the  electric  dis- 
placements, at  right  angles  to  this  ;  and  (3)  the  direction 
of  the  magnetic  axis,  at  right  angles  to  each  of  the  other 
two. 

One  may  get  a  rough  mechanical  idea  of  the  process  of 
electrical  radiation  (at  any  rate  in  a  plane)  by  means  of 
the  cog-wheel  system  already  used  in  Part  III.  Imagine 
a  series  of  elastic  wheels,  in  one  plane,  all  geared  together, 
and  let  one  of  them  be  made  to  twist  to  and  fro  on 
its  axis  ;  from  it,  as  centre,  the  disturbance  will  spread 
out  in  all  directions,  each  wheel  being  made  to  oscillate 
similarly  and  to  transmit  its  oscillation  to  the  next.  Look- 
ing at  what  is  happening  at  a  distance  from  the  source, 
we  shall  see  the  pulses  travelling  from  left  to  right ;  the 
electrical  displacement,  such  as  it  is,  being  up  and  down  ; 
and  the  oscillating  axes  of  the  wheels  being  to  and  fro,  or 
at  right  angles  to  the  plane  containing  the  wheels.  The 
electric  displacement  is  small,  because  the  positive  and 
negative  wheels  gearing  into  one  another  move  almost 
equally,  and  accordingly  there  is  the  merest  temporary 
balance  of  one  above  the  other,  due  to  the  elastic  "give''  of 
the  wheels.  The  magnetic  oscillations,  on  the  other  hand, 
are  all  in  one  sense,  the  positive  wheels  rotating  one  way 
and  the  negative  the  other  :  all  act  together,  and  so  the 
magnetic  oscillation  is  a  more  conspicuous  fact  than  the , 
electric  oscillation.  Hence  it  is  often  spoken  of  as 
electro-magnetic  radiation  rather  than  as  electric  radia- 
tion. But  the  energy  of  the  electrostatic  strain  is  just  as 
great  as  that  of  the  electro-magnetic  motion  ;  in  fact  the 
energy  alternates  from  the  potential  to  the  kinetic  form, 
or  vice  versa,  at  every  quarter  swing,  just  like  every  other 
case  of  vibration. 

Prof.  Fitzgerald,  of  Dublin,  has  devised  a  model  of  the 
ether,  which  by  help  of  a  little  artificiality  represents  the 
two  kinds  of  displacement — the  electric  and  magnetic — 
very  simply  and  clearly. 

His  wheels  are  separated  from  one  another  by  a  certain 
space,  and  are  geared  together  by  elastic  bands.  They 
thus  turn  all  in  one  direction,  and  no  mention  need  be 
made  of  positive  and  negative  electricity  as  separate 
entities. 


0 

I    i 

V 

V  > 
w 

Fig.  48. —  F.tigerald's  Ether  Model.  A  set  of  brass  wheels  connected  by 
co  nmon  elastic  bands.  If  the  bands  are  taken  off  any  region,  it  becomes 
a  perfect  conductor,  int )  which  disturbances  cannot  penetrate. 

But,  the  wheels  being  massive,  a  rotatory  disturbance 
given  to  one  takes  time  to  spread  through  the  series,  at 
a  pace  depending  on  the  elasticity  of  the  bands  and  the 
inertia  of  the  wheels  ;  and  during  the  period  of  accelera- 
tion one  side  of  every  elastic  is  stretched,  while  the  other 
side  is  relaxed  and  therefore  thickened.  This  thickening 
of  the  elastics  goes  on  in  one  direction,  and  corresponds 
to  an  electric  displacement  in  that  direction  ;  the  direc- 
tion being  perpendicular  both  to  the  direction  of  advance 
of  the  disturbance  and  to  the  axes  of  the  wheels.  A  row 
of  wheels  corresponds  to  a  section  of  a  wave-front  ;  the 

1  Continued  from  p.  419. 


Oct.  18,  1888] 


NATURE 


59i 


displacements  of  india-rubber  and  the  rotating  axes,  i.e. 
the  electric  and  the  magnetic  disturbances,  both  lie  in 
the  wave-front. 

Clerk  Maxwell's  originally  suggested  representation 
was  not  unlike  this.1  It  consisted  of  a  series  of  massive 
wheels,  connected  together  not  by  a  series  of  elastic 
bands  but  by  a  row  of  elastic  particles  or  "  idle  wheels." 
These  particles  represented  electricity  ;  their  displacement 
during  the  period  of  acceleration  corresponding  to  the 
one-sided  thickening  of  the  elastic  bands  in  Fitzgerald's 
model. 

I  have  proposed  to  contemplate  a  double  series  of 
wheels  geared  directly  into  one  another,  and  representing 
positive  and  negative  electricity  respectively,  because  it 
seems  to  me  that  so  many  facts  point  to  the  existence  of 
these  two  entities,  and  because  then  no  distinction  has  to 
be  drawn  between  one  part  of  the  medium  which  is  ether, 
and  another  part  which  is  electricity,  but  the  whole  is 
ether  and  the  whole  is  also  electricity  ;  while,  neverthe- 
less, a  much-needed  distinction  can  be  drawn  between  a 
motion  of  the  ether  as  a  whole,  and  a  relative  motion  of 
its  component  parts — a  distinction  between  forces  able  to 
move  ether,  i.e.  to  displace  the  centre  of  gravity  of  some 
finite  portion  of  it,  and  forces  which  shear  it  and  make 
its  components  slide  past  each  other  in  opposite  senses  : 
these  latter  forces  being  truly  electromotive. 

If  it  be  asked  how  the  elasticity  of  the  ether  is  to  be 
explained,  we  must  turn  to  the  vortex  sponge  theory, 
suggested  by  Mr.  Hicks 2  (principal  of  Firth  College,  Shef- 
field), and  recently  elaborated  by  Sir  William  Thomson.3 
But  this  is  too  complicated  a  matter  to  be  suited  for  popu- 
lar exposition  just  at  present.  It  must  suffice  to  indicate  that 
the  points  here  left  unexplained  are  not  necessarily  at  the 
present  time  unexplainable,  but  that  the  explanations 
have  not  yet  been  so  completely  worked  out  that  an  easy 
grasp  can  be  obtained  of  them  by  simple  mechanical  illus- 
trations and  conceptions.  At  the  same  time,  the  general 
way  in  which  motion  is  able  to  simulate  the  effects  of 
elasticity  will  be  found  popularly  illustrated  in  Sir 
William  Thomson's  article  "  Elasticity  "  in  the  "  Ency- 
clopaedia Britannica"  ;  and  the  fact  that  elastic  rigidity 
of  a  solid  can  be  produced  by  impressing  motion  on  a 
homogeneous  and  otherwise  structureless  fluid  must  be 
regarded  as  one  of  the  most  striking  among  his  many 
vital  discoveries. 

We  have  seen  that  to  generate  radiation  an  electrical 
oscillation  is  necessary  and  sufficient,  and  we  have 
attended  mainly  to  one  kind  of  electric  oscillation,  viz. 
that  which  occurs  in  a  condenser  circuit  when  the  distri- 
bution of  its  electricity  is  suddenly  altered— as,  for 
instance,  by  a  discharge.  But  the  condenser  circuit  need 
not  be  thrown  into  an  obviously  Leyden-jar  form  ;  one 
may  have  a  charged  cylinder  with  a  static  charge 
accumulated  mainly  at  one  end,  and  then  suddenly  re- 
leased. The  recoil  of  the  charge  is  a  true  current,  though 
a  weak  one  ;  a  certain  amount  of  inertia  is  associated  with 
it,  and  accordingly  oscillations  will  go  on,  the  charge 
surging  from  end  to  end  of  the  cylinder  like  the  water  in 
a  tilted  bath  suddenly  levelled. 

In  a  spherical  or  any  other  conductor,  the  like  electric 
oscillations  may  go  on  ;  and  the  theory  of  these  oscilla- 
tions has  been  treated  with  great  mathematical  power 
both  by  Mr.  Niven  and  by  Prof.  Lamb.4 

Essentially,  however,  the  phenomenon  is  not  distinct 
from  a  Leyden  jar  or  condenser  circuit,  for  the  ends  of 
the  cylinder  have  a  certain  capacity,  and  the  cylinder  has 
a  certain  self-induction  ;  the  difficulty  of  the  problem  may 
be  said  to  consist  in  finding  the  values  of  these  things  for 
the  given  case.     The  period  of  an  oscillation  may  still  be 

*  Phit  Mag.,  April  i86r. 

grit.  Assoc.  Report,  1885,  Aberdeen,  p.  930. 
3  B.A.   Report,   1887,   Manchester,  p.   4E6.      Also  Phil.  Mag.,  October 


4  Phil.  Trans., 
Proa,  April  1884 


1881  and  1883.     Also  by  Prof.  J.  J.  Thomson,  Math.  Soc. 


written  27r,N/(LS);  only,  since  L  and  S  are  both  very 
small,  the  "frequency"  of  vibration  is  likely  to  be  excessive. 
And  when  we  come  to  the  oscillation  of  an  atomic  charge 
the  frequency  may  easily  surpass  the  rate  of  vibration 
which  can  affect  the  eye.  The  damping  out  of  such 
vibrations,  if  left  to  themselves,  will  be  also  a  very  rapid 
process,  because  the  initial  energy  is  but  small. 

But  whether  the  charge  oscillates  in  a  stationary  con- 
ductor, or  whether  a  charged  body  vibrates  as  a  whole,  it 
equally  constitutes  an  alternating  current,  and  can  equally 
well  be  treated  as  a  source  of  radiation.  Now,  when  we 
were  considering  the  subject  of  electrolysis  we  were  led  to 
think  of  molecules  as  composed  of  two  atoms  or  groups 
of  atoms,  each  charged  with  equal  quantities  of  opposite 
kinds  of  electricity.  Under  the  influence  of  heat  the 
components  of  the  molecules  are  set  in  vibration  like  the 
prongs  of  a  tuning-fork,  the  rate  of  vibration  depending  on 
and  being  characteristic  of  the  constants  of  the  particular 
molecule.  The  atoms  being  charged,  however,  their 
mechanical  oscillation  is  necessarily  accompanied  by  an 
electric  oscillation,  and  so  an  electric  radiation  is  excited 
and  propagated  outwards.  These  vibrations  would  appear 
to  be  often  of  the  frequency  suited  to  our  retina,  hence  these 
vibrating  atoms  indirectly  constitute  our  usual  source  of 
light.  The  "frequency"  of  the  visible  radiation  can  be 
examined  and  determined  by  optical  means  (some  form  of 
interference  experiment,  usually  a  diffraction  grating),  and 
hence  many  of  the  rates  of  vibration  possible  to  the  atoms 
of  a  given  molecule  under  given  circumstances  become 
known,  and  this  is  the  foundation  of  the  science  of 
spectroscopy. 

It  is  possible  that  the  long  duration  of  some  kinds  of 
phosphorescence  may  be  due  to  the  atoms  receiving 
indirectly  some  of  the  ethereal  disturbance,  and  so  pro- 
longing it  by  their  inertia,  instead  of  leaving  it  to  the  far 
less  inertia  of  the  ether  alone.  It  is  possible  also  that  the 
definite  emissivity  of  some  fluorescent  substances  is  due  to 
periods  of  vibration  proper  to  their  atoms,  which,  being 
disturbed  in  an  indirect  way  by  receipt  of  radiation,  re- 
emit  the  same  radiation  in  a  modified,  and,  as  it  were, 
laden  manner. 

To  get  some  further  idea  concerning  the  way  in  which 
an  oscillating  charge  or  an  oscillating  charged  body  can 
propagate  radiation,  refer  back  to  Fig.  39,  Part  III. 
(Nature,  vol.  xxxvii.  p.  346),  and  imagine  the  rack 
oscillating  to  and  fro.  It  will  produce  rotatory  oscillation 
in  the  wheels  gearing  into  it,  these  again  in  the  next, 
and  so  on.  If  the  wheel-work  were  rigid,  the  propaga- 
tion would  go  on  at  infinite  speed  to  the  most  distant 
wheels,  but  if  it  be  elastic  then  the  pace  of  propagation 
depends  on  the  elasticity  and  the  density  in  a  way  we 
have  already  said  enough  about.  The  line  of  rack 
is  the  direction  of  electric  oscillation,  the  axes  of  the 
wheels  the  direction  of  magnetic  or  rotatory  oscilla- 
tion, and  at  right  angles  to  both  these  is  the  direction 
of  advance  of  the  waves.  True,  the  diagram  is  not  a 
space  representation,  it  is  a  mere  section,  and  a  very 
crude  suggestion  of  a  mechanical  analogy  to  what  may  be 
taking  place. 

The  wheels  being  perfectly  geared  together  and  into  the 
rack  represent  an  insulator  or  dielectric  :  there  is  no  slip 
or  frictional  dissipation  of  energy— in  other  words,  there 
are  no  true  electric  currents.  The  electric  oscillation  is  a 
mere  displacement  oscillation  due  to  elasticity  and  tem- 
porary give  of  the  elastic  wheels,  whereby  during  each 
era  of  acceleration  they  are  thrown  slightly  into  the  state 
represented  in  Fig.  46  (vol.  xxxvii.  p.  367)  as  contrasted 
with  Fig.  37  {ibid.  p.  345). 

Effects  of  encountering  a  New  Medium. 

Now  contemplate  an  advancing  system  of  waves,  and 
picture  their  encounter  with  an  obstacle  ;  say,  a  medium 
of  greater  density,  or  less  elasticity,  or  both.  If  the  new 
medium  is  a  perfect  insulator,  it  must  be  considered   as 


592 


NATURE 


{Oct.  1 8,  1888 


having  its  wheels  thoroughly  geared  up  both  with  them- 
selves and  with  those  of  the  initial  medium,  so  that  there 
is  no  slip  or  dissipation  of  energy  at  the  surface.  In  this 
case  none  of  the  radiation  will  be  lost  :  some  will  be  re- 
flected and  some  transmitted  according  to  ordinary  and 
well-known  mechanical  laws.  The  part  transmitted  will 
suddenly  begin  to  travel  at  a  slower  pace,  and  hence  if  the 
incidence  were  oblique  would  pursue  a  somewhat  different 
path.  Also,  at  the  edges  of  the  obstacle,  or  at  the  boundary 
of  any  artificially  limited  portion  of  the  wave,  there  will 
be  certain  effects  due  to  spreading  out  and  encroaching 
on  parts  of  the  medium  not  lying  in  the  direct  path. 
These  refraction  and  diffraction  effects  are  common  to  all 
possible  kinds  of  wave  propagation,  and  there  is  nothing 
specially  necessary  to  be  said  concerning  electrical  radia- 
tion on  these  heads  which  is  not  to  be  found  in  any  work 
on  the  corresponding  parts  of  optics. 

Concerning  the  amount  and  direction  of  the  reflected 
vibrations  there  is  something  to  be  said  however,  and 
that  something  very  important ;  but  it  is  no  easy  subject 
to  tackle,  and  I  fear  must  be  left,  so  far  as  I  am  concerned, 
as  a  distinct,  but  perhaps  subsequently-to-be  filled-up, 
gap. 

If  the  gearing  between  the  new  medium  and  the  old 
is  imperfect,  if,  for  instance,  there  were  a  layer  of  slip- 
pery wheels  between  them,  representing  a  more  or  less 
conducting  film,  then  some  of  the  radiation  would  be 
dissipated  at  the  surface,  not  all  would  be  reflected  and 
transmitted,  and  the  film  would  get  to  a  certain  extent 
heated.  By  such  a  film  the  precise  laws  of  reflection 
might  be  profoundly  modified,  as  they  would  be  also  if  the 
transition  from  one  medium  to  another  were  gradual  in- 
stead of  abrupt.  But  all  these  things  must  remain  for  the 
present  part  of  the  unfilled  gap. 

Electric  Radiation  encounteri?ig  a  Conductor. 

We  will  proceed  now  to  the  case  of  a  conducting 
obstacle — that  is,  of  waves  encountering  a  medium  whose 
electrical  parts  are  connected,  not  by  elasticity,  but  by 
friction.  It  is  plain  here  that  not  only  at  the  outer  layer 
of  such  a  medium,  but  at  every  subsequent  layer,  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  slip  will  occur  during  every  era  of  accelera- 
tion, and  hence  that  in  penetrating  a  sufficient  thickness 
of  a  medium  endowed  with  any  metallic  conductivity 
the  whole  of  the  incident  radiation  must  be  either  reflected 
or  destroyed  :  none  can  be  transmitted. 

Refer  back  to  Fig.  43  (vol.  xxxvii.  p.  347),  and  think  of 
the  rack  in  that  figure  as  oscillating.  Through  the  cog- 
wheels the  disturbance  spreads  without  loss,  but  at  the 
outer  layer  of  the  conducting  region  A  B  c  D  a  finite  slip 
occurs,  and  a  less  amount  of  radiation  penetrates  to  the 
next  layer,  efgh,  and  so  on.  Some  thickness  or  other, 
therefore,  of  a  conducting  substance  must  necessarily 
be  impervious  to  electric  radiation  :  that  is,  it  must  be 
opaque. 

Conductivity  is  not  the  sole  cause  of  opacity.  It  would 
not  do  to  say  that  all  opaque  bodies  must  be  conductors. 
But  conductivity  is  a  very  efficient  cause  of  opacity,  and 
it  is  true  to  say  that  all  conductors  of  electricity  are 
necessarily  opaque  to  light  ;  understanding,  of  course, 
that  the  particular  thickness  of  any  homogeneous  sub- 
stance which  can  be  considered  as  perfectly  opaque  must 
depend  on  its  conductivity.  It  is  a  question  of  dissipation, 
and  a  minute  but  specifiable  fraction  of  an  original  dis- 
turbance may  be  said  to  get  through  any  obstacle. 
Practically,  however,  it  is  well  known  that  a  thin,  though 
not  the  thinnest,  film  of  metal  is  quite  impervious  to  light. 

When  one  says  that  conductivity  is  not  the  sole 
cause  of  opacity,  one  is  thinking  of  opacity  caused  by 
heterogeneity.  A  confused  mass  of  perfectly  trans- 
parent substance  may  be  quite  opaque ;  witness  foam, 
powdered  glass,  chalk,  &c. 

Hence,  though  a  transparent  body  must  indeed  be  an 
insulator,  the  converse  is  not  necessarily  true.  An  insulator 


need  not  necessarily  be  transparent.  A  homogeneous 
flawless  insulator  must,  however,  be  transparent,  just  as 
a  homogeneous  and  flawless  opaque  body  must  be  a 
conductor. 

These,  then,  are  the  simple  connections  between  two 
such  apparently  distinct  things  as  conducting  power  for 
electricity  and  opacity  to  light  which  Maxwell's  theory 
points  out ;  and  it  is  possible  to  calculate  the  theoretical 
opacity  of  any  given  simply- constructed  substance  by 
knowing  its  specific  electric  conductivity. 

Fate  of  the  Radiation. 

To  understand  what  happens  to  radiation  impinging 
on  a  conducting  body  it  is  most  simple  to  proceed  to  the 
limiting  case  at  once  and  consider  a  perfect  conductor. 
In  the  case  of  a  perfect  conductor  the  wheels  are 
connected  not  even  by  friction  ;  they  are  not  connected  at 
all.  Consequently  the  slip  at  the  boundary  of  such  a 
conductor  is  perfect,  and  there  is  no  dissipation  of 
energy  accompanying  it.  The  blank  space  in  Fig.  38 
(vol.  xxxvii.  p.  345),  represented  a  perfectly  conduct- 
ing layer.  Ethereal  vibrations  impinging  on  a  perfect 
conductor  practically  arrive  at  an  outer  confine  of  their 
medium :  beyond  there  is  nothing  capable  of  trans- 
mitting them  ;  the  outer  wheels  receive  an  impetus 
which  they  cannot  get  rid  of  in  front,  and  which  they 
therefore  return  back  the  way  it  came  to  those  behind 
them  with  a  reversal  of  phase  :  the  radiation  is  totally 
reflected.  It  is  like  what  happens  when  a  sound-pulse 
reaches  the  open  end  of  an  organ-pipe  ;  like  what  happens 
when  sound  tries  to  go  from  water  to  air  ;  like  the  last  of 
a  row  of  connected  balls  along  which  a  knock  has  been 
transmitted  ;  and  our  massive  elastic  wheels  are  able  to 
represent  the  reversal  of  phase  and  reflection  quite 
properly. 

The  reflected  pulses  will  be  superposed  upon  and 
interfere  with  the  direct  pulses,  and  accordingly  if  the 
distances  are  properly  adjusted  we  can  have  the  familiar 
formation  of  fixed  nodes  and  stationary  waves. 

The  point  of  main  interest,  however,  is  to  notice  that  a 
perfect  conductor  of  electricity,  if  there  were  such  a  thing, 
would  be  utterly  impervious  to  light :  no  light  could 
penetrate  its  outer  skin,  it  would  all  be  reflected  back  :  the 
substance  would  be  a  perfect  reflector  for  ethereal  waves  of 
every  size. 

Thus  with  a  perfect  conductor,  as  with  a  perfect  non- 
conductor, there  is  no  dissipation.  Radiation  impinging  on 
them  is  either  all  refracted  or  some  reflected  and  some 
transmitted.  It  is  the  cases  of  intermediate  conductivity 
which  destroy  some  of  the  radiation  and  convert  its 
ethereal  vibrations  into  atomic  vibrations,  i.e.  which 
convert  it  into  heat. 

The  mode  in  which  radiation  or  any  other  electrical 
disturbance  diffuses  with  continual  loss  through  an  im- 
perfect conductor  can  easily  be  appreciated  by  referring 
to  Fig.  43  again.  The  successive  lines  of  slip,  A  B  c  D, 
efgh,  &c,  are  successive  layers  of  induced  currents. 
An  electromotive  impulse  loses  itself  in  the  production  of 
these  currents,  which  are  successively  formed  deeper  and 
deeper  in  the  material  according  to  laws  of  diffusion. 

If  the  waves  had  impinged  on  one  face  of  a  slab,  a 
certain  fraction  of  them  would  emerge  from  the  other  face — 
a  fraction  depending  on  the  thickness  of  the  slab  accord- 
ing to  a  logarithmic  or  geometrical-progression  law  of 
decrease.  Oliver  J.  Lodge. 

{To  be  continued?) 

PRESENT  POSITION  OF   THE  MANUFAC- 
TURE OF  ALUMINIUM. 
THE  recent  opening  of  new  works  for  the  manufacture 
of   aluminium  at   Oldbury,    near    Birmingham,    is 
distinctly   an    epoch  in    the   history   of  this    interesting 
metal. 


Oct.  1 8,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


593 


The  first  practical  steps  for  the  manufacture  of  alu- 
minium were  taken  in  France,  following  the  discoveries 
of  W  older  and  of  Deville,  and  that  country  has  retained 
the  monopoly  of  its  production  up  to  the  present  time. 
Aluminium  was  first  obtained  in  a  pure  state  in  the 
year  1854  by  St.  Claire  Deville  whilst  working  in  the 
laboratory  of  the  Normal  School,  Paris,  with  a  totally 
different  object.  Some  pounds  of  this  metal  which  were 
shown  at  the  Paris  Exhibition  of  1855  had  been  made  at 
the  chemical  works  of  Javel ;  subsequently  larger  plant 
was  put  up  at  some  works  at  Glaciere  ;  later  on  we  find 
the  manufacture  in  an  improved  form  transferred  to 
Nanterre  ;  and  soon  afterwards  it  was  removed  to  the 
position  in  which  it  has  ever  since  remained,  viz.  at 
Salindres,  at  the  works  at  that  time  belonging  to  Messrs 
Merle  and  Co.,  but  now  carried  on  by  Messrs.  Pechiney 
and  Co. 

Shortly  after  Deville  obtained  aluminium  by  reducing 
the  chloride  with  sodium,  he  also  succeeded  in  isolating 
it  by  electrolyzing  the  double  chloride  of  aluminium 
and  sodium  in  a  state  of  fusion.  Many  attempts  have 
been  made  to  improve  this  method,  but  although  within 
the  last  year  or  two  works  have  been  put  up  both  in 
Germany  and  in  France  which  are  stated  to  be  able  to 
produce  aluminium  at  a  comparatively  cheap  rate,  there 
is  no  trustworthy  evidence  to  show  that  they  can  compete 
with  the  sodium  process.  On  the  face  of  it  there  appears 
no  reason  why  aluminium  should  not  be  economically 
manufactured  in  this  way,  since  it  is  an  undoubted  fact 
that  it  can  be  done  in  the  case  of  magnesium.  There 
are,  however,  difficulties  in  getting  aluminium  to  de- 
posit in  a  satisfactory  condition  which  do  not  occur  with 
magnesium. 

Recently,  by  applying  electricity  in  a  totally  different 
way,  alloys  of  aluminium  have  been  manufactured  on  a 
comparatively  large  scale  in  America  by  Messrs.  Cowles 
Bros.  Works  for  the  purpose  are  also  being  opened  by 
them  in  England.  This  process,  it  will  be  remembered, 
consists  in  passing  a  powerful  current  between  two  carbon 
electrodes  embedded  in  a  mixture  of  alumina,  charcoal, 
and  the  other  metal  required  for  the  alloy.  By  this  pro- 
cess aluminium  in  an  unalloyed  form  has  not  yet  been 
obtained,  at  any  rate  commercially. 

Some  fourteen  years  ago,  Messrs.  Bell  Bros.,  of  New- 
castle-on-Tyne,  erected  works  to  manufacture  aluminium 
by  means  of  sodium  ;  but,  after  incurring  great  expense, 
they  abandoned  the  attempt,  partly  owing  to  difficulties 
experienced  in  obtaining  it  sufficiently  pure  for  the  manu- 
facture of  alloys,  and  partly  because  they  were  unsuccess- 
ful in  getting  it  used  on  a  sufficiently  large  scale.  Another 
factory  put  up  in  Berlin  was  similarly  abandoned,  almost 
as  soon  as  erected. 

In  America,  a  few  years  ago,  Colonel  Frismuth  sold 
aluminium,  which,  he  stated,  was  made  by  an  improved 
sodium  process  of  his  invention  ;  he  did  not,  however, 
reduce  the  price,  and  his  claims  have  not  been  substan- 
tiated. The  same  thing  may  be  said  of  the  Aluminium 
Company  which  was  started  about  the  same  time  in  this 
country  to  work  the  patents  of  Mr.  Webster,  of  Birm- 
ingham. It  is,  however,  by  this  Company,  after  having 
undergone  reconstruction,  that  the  process  is  now  being 
worked  which  warrants  our  opening  statement  that  ;i 
fresh  epoch  has  been  reached  in  the  manufacture  of 
aluminium. 

The  process  in  question  is  the  outcome  of  experiments 
commenced  some  six  or  seven  years  ago  by  Mr.  H.  Y. 
Castner  in  New  York.  He  appears  to  have  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  aluminium  could  only  be  satisfactorily  pro- 
duced by  means  of  sodium,  and  he  accordingly  commenced 
work  to  try  and  improve  and  cheapen  the  manufacture 
of  sodium.  Having  obtained  what  he  considered  suf- 
ficiently satisfactory  results,  he  came  over  to  this  country 
about  two  years  ago,  and  erected  experimental  works  at 
Lambeth,  where,  after  further  trials,  he  succeeded  in  de- 


monstrating that  he  was  really  able  to  produce  sodium 
at  a  much  cheaper  rate  than  had  before  been  possible  ; 
in  fact,  it  appears  he  is  able  to  produce  sodium  at  less 
than  is.  a  pound,  whereas  it  had  previously  cost  about  4^. 
This  success  led  to  the  erection  of  works  at  Oldbury, 
which  have  been  recently  completed,  and  are  now  in 
successful  operation. 

In  the  process  hitherto  employed  to  produce  sodium,  an 
intimate  mixture  of  carbonate  of  soda,  lime,  and  charcoal 
is  first  calcined  at  a  red  heat,  and  this  having  been  trans- 
ferred to  small  wrought-iron  cylinders  (mercury-bottles  or 
large  gas-piping  being  commonly  used),  it  is  heated  to 
about  1500°  C,  when  the  metal,  having  become  reduced 
to  the  metallic  state,  distils  over,  and  is  condensed  in  a 
fiat  iron  mould.  In  practice,  this  method  is  found  to  be 
defective  both  mechanically  and  chemically. 

At  least  half  the  ultimate  cost  of  production  results 
from  the  wear  and  tear  of  the  furnace,  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  retorts  or  cylinders  by  the  comparatively  high 
temperature.  Looking  at  it  from  the  chemical  point  of  view, 
we  find  the  condition  of  things  almost  as  bad;  little,  if 
any,  more  than  40  per  cent,  of  the  sodium  actually  in 
the  charge  being  obtained  in  the  metallic  state. 

All  these  difficulties  arise  from  the  presence  of  lime  in 
the  charge,  the  lime  being  added  to  stiffen  the  mixture, 
and  so  prevent  the  charcoal  from  separating  from  the 
soda.  But  the  thickening  of  the  charge,  which  for  one 
reason  is  so  desirable,  is  equally  objectionable  for  others. 
It  is  the  thickening  of  the  charge  which  necessitates 
the  use  of  small  cylinders  and  a  high  temperature  :  the 
material  being  a  bad  conductor,  it  could  not  otherwise  be 
sufficiently  heated.  Another  important  difficulty  in  the 
old  process  arose  from  the  presence  of  carbonic  oxide  in 
the  gases  produced  in  the  reactions.  Sodium  vapour, 
when  near  its  condensing-point,  reacts  upon  carbonic 
oxide,  forming  a  black  refractory  material  which  is 
exceedingly  explosive.  This  is  particularly  the  case 
with  potassium,  and  is  the  principal  reason  why  potassium 
is  so  much  dearer  than  sodium. 

Mr.  Castner  originated  the  idea  of  weighting  the  par- 
ticles of  carbon,  thus  doing  away  with  the  necessity  of 
adding  lime.  The  practical  results  of  this  modification 
in  the  method  of  manufacturing  sodium  are  very  far- 
reaching  and  important.  The  charge  being  perfectly 
fluid,  it  is  no  longer  necessary  to  employ  such  a  high 
temperature,  since  there  is  a  continuous  circulation  of 
fresh  material  to  the  sides  of  the  crucible,  where  the 
temperature  is  sufficiently  high  to  set  up  the  reactions  by 
which  the  sodium  is  reduced  to  the  metallic  state.  For 
the  same  reason  large  crucibles  can  be  used  instead  of 
small  cylinders.  Also,  the  temperature  of  the  operation 
being  reduced  from  about  1400"  C.  to  about  800'  C,  cast 
iron  or  cast  steel  may  be  used  for  the  containing  vessels 
instead  of  wrought  iron. 

The  carbon  particles  are  weighted  by  means  of  iron. 
The  iron  is  first  obtained  in  a  fine  state  of  division  by 
reducing  oxide  of  iron — "purple  ore"  being  generally 
used  for  the  purpose — in  "  producer  gas,"  a  mixture  of 
carbonic  oxide  and  hydrogen.  The  finely-divided  iron 
thus  obtained  is  stirred  into  molten  pitch,  which  is  then 
cooled  and  broken  up  into  lumps.  The  next  operation 
consists  in  heating  these  lumps  in  crucibles,  whereby  a 
coke  is  produced  containing  carbon  and  iron  in  the  pro- 
portion of  about  30  :  70  ;  this  material,  technically  called 
"carbide,"  having  been  ground  up  very  fine,  is  incor- 
porated with  certain  proportions  of  caustic  soda  and  car- 
bonate of  soda,  and  the  mixture  is  charged  into  large 
crucibles,  where  it  is  heated  until  the  violent  effervescence, 
due  to  the  escape  of  carbonic  acid  and  hydrogen,  which 
takes  place  at  first,  has  subsided.  These  crucibles  are 
provided  with  holes  at  the  bottom,  closed  by  movable 
plugs.  When  the  effervescence  has  ceased,  the  charge, 
in  a  liquid  state,  is  run  out  into  smaller  crucibles  and 
transferred  to  the  furnace  in  which  the  distillation  of  the 


594 


NATURE 


[Oct.  1 8,  1888 


sodium  is  to  take  place.  The  preliminary  heating  takes 
about  half  an  hour,  and  the  actual  distillation  about  an 
hour  and  a  half. 

The  lid  of  the  crucible,  to  which  is  attached  the  con- 
densing arrangement  consisting  of  an  iron  pipe  dipping 
into  an  iron  box,  is  fixed  in  the  furnace  ;  it  has  a  convex 
rim  which  makes  a  joint  with  the  grooved  top  of  the 
crucible,  with  the  assistance  of  a  little  powdered  lime. 
The  crucibles  are  raised  and  lowered  by  means  of 
hydraulic  power,  the  work  of  removing  a  crucible  from 
the  furnace  and  replacing  it  by  another  being  done  with 
great  rapidity. 

The  reaction  which  takes  place  may  be  represented  by 
the  formula — 

6NaHO  +  FeC2  =  2Na.2C03  +  6H  +  Fe  +  2Na. 

This  formula  is  made  up  in  reality  of  several  taking  place 
pari  passu.  The  main  point  is  that  it  clearly  expresses 
the  final  result.  It  will  be  observed  that  no  carbonic 
oxide  is  given  off,  and  the  difficulties  already  referred  to, 
caused  by  the  presence  of  that  gas,  are  got  rid  of.  The 
iron  is  recovered,  and  used  over  and  over  again  by  coking 
it  with  fresh  tar. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  refer  here  to  the  arrangements  for 
the  production  of  the  double  chloride  of  aluminium  and 
its  reduction  by  sodium,  as  no  special  novelty  is  claimed 
for  them. 

Mr.  Castner  has  shown  great  technical  skill  in  devising 
the  plant  used  throughout  the  works,  and  they  are  in 
every  way  a  great  advance  on  anything  of  the  kind 
attempted  before. 

A  novel  feature  is  that  hydrochloric  acid,  for  the  manu- 
facture of  the  double  chloride,  is  obtained  direct  by  means 
of  pipes  from  Messrs.  Chance's  glass-works,  which  are 
contiguous,  and  the  carbonate  of  soda  resulting  from 
the  operation  in  which  sodium  is  produced  is  similarly 
conveyed  to  Messrs.  Chance's,  to  be  there  purified  and 
crystallized. 

The  estimated  possible  output  of  these  works  is  stated 
to  be  500  pounds  of  aluminium  and  1500  pounds  of  sodium 
per  day.  The  cost  of  manufacture  of  aluminium  has 
hitherto  been  between  30^.  and  40.?.  per  pound.  By  Castner's 
process  it  is  stated  that  it  can  be  produced  at  15^.  That 
this  is  so  there  is  but  little  reason  to  doubt ;  and  it  is  a 
substantial  and  important  reduction,  which  will  enable 
aluminium  to  be  used  much  more  largely  than  has  hitherto 
been  possible.  Still,  before  it  can  be  very  largely  used, 
the  price  will  have  to  be  further  considerably  brought 
down  ;  and  it  is  much  to  be  hoped  that  Mr.  Castner's 
success  will  stimulate  him  and  others  to  work  with  this 
end  in  view. 


THE  QUEEN'S  JUBILEE  PRIZE  ESS  A  Y  OE 
THE  ROYAL  BOTANIC  SOCI ETY  OF  LONDON. 

TDROBABLY  the  last  of  the  Jubilee  productions  has 
■*■  seen  the  light  by  the  appearance  of  an  article  in 
the  Quarterly  Record  of  the  Royal  Botanic  Society  of 
London  for  the  three  months  ending  March  last  under  the 
title  of  "  Fifty  Years  of  Economic  Botany."  The  article  in 
question  forms  the  essay  to  which  the  Council  of  the 
Royal  Botanic  Society  has  awarded  its  gold  meial  and  a 
purse  of  fifty  guineas.  The  author  is  Mr.  John  W. 
Ellis,  L.R.C.P.  It  needs  only  a  casual  glance  to  discover 
how  deficient  this  short  essay  is,  not  oniy  in  consequence 
of  the  numerous  omissions  of  very  important  plants  and 
products,  but  also  on  account  of  the  imperfect  information 
given  under  many  of  the  headings.  Thus  the  writer  tells 
his  readers  that  China  grass  and  rhea  are  two  distinct 
fibres  furnished  by  allied  plants,  the  former  by  Ba>hmeria 
ttivea  and  the  latter  by  B.  tcnacissima,  while  the  fact  is 
that  China  grass  and  rhea  are  one  and  the  same  thing, 


B.  tenacissima  being  a  synonym  of  B.  ttivea.  In  a  casual 
reference  to  "  Moong  "  fibre  the  author  is  apparently  quite 
ignorant  of  the  fact  that  its  botanical  source  is  Sacc'harum 
munja,  Roxb.  New  Zealand  flax  {Pkormiutn  tenax)  is 
introduced  under  textiles,  but  why  is  not  apparent,  for  the 
author  concludes  his  paragraph  as  follows — "  Not  having 
been  introduced  during  the  period  to  which  this  essay 
refers,  any  further  mention  of  this  interesting  fibre— for 
which  it  has  frequently  been  attempted  to  find  a  place  in 
the  British  market— is  unnecessary."  Why  "  gun  cotton 
and  its  derivatives"  should  occupy  a  special  chapter  it  is 
difficult  to  say,  seeing  that  this  explosive  substance  is  not 
a  direct  product  of  the  vegetable  kingdom  ;  the  author 
however  apparently  looks  upon  it  as  a  much  more 
important  vegetable  product  than  the  species  of  cinchona, 
the  ipecacuanha,  coca,  jalap,  or  the  multitude  of  new  drugs 
that  have  occupied  such  a  prominent  place  in  men's  minds 
for  the  last  twenty  years.  The  success  that  has  attended 
the  acclimatisation  of  the  cinchonas  in  our  Indian 
possessions,  whither  they  were  introduced  some  twenty  or 
thirty  years  since,  when  there  was  a  great  fear  lest  the 
supply  of  bark  from  South  America  should  fail  because 
of  the  great  demand,  and  the  consequent  reduction  in 
the  price  of  quinine  from  a  guinea  to  its  present  price  of 
two  shillings  per  ounce,  are  facts  of  sufficient  importance, 
one  would  think,  to  be  noted  in  any  record  of  the  progress 
of  useful  plants.  And  the  same  might  also  be  said  with 
regar  J  to  Erythroxylon  Coca,  considering  to  what  purpose 
cocaine  is  now  being  put,  but  the  author— a  member  of 
the  medical  profession — has  apparently  a  wholesome  dread 
of  drugs,  and  for  once  has  ignored  all  consideration  of 
them.  He  seems  to  have  been  content  to  consult  very 
old  books  for  his  facts  throughout  and  to  have  completely 
passed  over  modern  authorities  ;  consequently  his  state- 
ments are  both  antiquated  and  incorrect. 

The  old  name  of  Siphonia  elasticd  is  quoted  for  the 
Para  rubber  plant  instead  of  the  now  better  known  name 
of  Hevea  brasiliensis.  Balata  is  referred  KoSapota  MulUri 
instead  of  Mimusops  globosa,  and  we  read  that  Mr. 
Jenman's  report  on  the  Balata  Forests  of  British  Guiana 
issued  in  1885  "  will  probably  assist  in  developing 
a  demand  for  this  material,"  while  the  fact  is  th  t 
balata  has  been  going  down  in  the  estimation  of  manu- 
facturers since  that  date  in  consequence  of  it  having  been 
found  not  to  be  durable  when  exposed  to  the  air  ;  manu- 
factured articles  made  from  it  cracked  on  the  surface,  and 
the  inner  portion  lost  its  tenacity,  so  that  some  manu- 
facturers have  given  up  its  use  entirely.  The  Dika  plant 
of  W.  Trop.  Africa,  which  has  long  been  identified  with 
the  Simarubeous  plant  {/rvingia  Barteri),  is  referred  to 
under  the  very  old  name  of  Mcuigifera  Gabonensis,  a 
genus  belonging  to  the  natural  order  Anacardiacta;. 
Again  carapa  or  croupee  oil  of  West  Africa  is  said  to  be 
obtained  from  the  seeds  of  Carapa  gtiittecnsis  and  crab 
oil  of  British  Guiana  from  Carapa  guianensis.  These 
two  were  combined  by  Prof.  Oliver  under  C.  guyanensis 
in  the  "  Flora  of  Tropical  Africa"  so  far  back  as  1868. 

These  are  only  a  few  illustrations  of  the  general  un- 
trustworthiness  of  the  essay,  the  circulation  of  which,  k 
is  hoped,  will  not  be  large. 


THE  ZODIACAL   LIGHT. 

"C^ROM  the  days  of  Cassini  a  connection  between  the 
-*-  zodiacal  light  and  sun-spots  has  been  suggested. 
In  some  recent  discussions  it  is  denied.  But,  so  far  as  1 
am  able  to  discover,  the  long  series  of  observations  by 
Heiss  and  Weber,  extending  from  1847  to  1883,  afford 
the  first  opportunity  to  attack  the  question. 

The  result  is  in  the  diagram  before  you.  The  broken 
line  represents  Wolfs  well-known  series  of  relative  sun- 
spot  numbers,  the  jagged  full  line  the  mean  elongations 


Oct.  1 8,  1888] 


NATURE 


595 


of  the  apparent  apex  of  the  zodiacal  light  from  the  sun. 
It  will  be  seen  that  each  sun-spot  minimum  corresponds 
with  a  maximum  of  the  zodiacal  light,  and  each  sun-spot 
maximum  with  a  minimum  of  the  zodiacal  light.  The 
minimum  in  1870  must  be  considered  as  masked  by  the 
forces  tending  to  produce  the  enormous  maximum  of 
1876.  It  will  be  noticed,  too,  that  when  the  sun-spot 
phenomena  are  more  extensive,  as  in  1850  and  1870,  the 
following  zodiacal  light  phenomena  are  also  more  exten- 
sive ;  where  the  sun-spot  phenomena  are  less,  as  in  i860, 
the  following  zodiacal  light  phenomena  are  less  extensive  ; 
and  per  contra,  when  the  zodiacal  light  phenomena  are 
extensive,  as  in  1880,  the  sun-spot  phenomena  are  less 
extensive.  As  far  as  this  series  goes,  the  correlation 
seems  to  be  complete. 

We  may  gain  some  insight  into  the  relation  by  tabu- 


lating the  various  spectroscopic  observations  in  their 
order  in  the  sun-spot  cycle.  Thus  we  have  Lias,  for  four 
years  during  the  rise  in  the  sun-spot  period,  observing 
only  a  faint  continuous  spectrum  ;  Respighi  and  Lockyer, 
just  after  sun-spot  maximum,  one  bright  line  ;  Vogel,  the 
same  ;  Smyth,  Seech i,  Pringle,  about  the  same  date,  no 
spectrum,  or  only  a  continuous  spectrum  ;  Tacchini,  pos- 
sibly a  bright  line  ;  Wright,  three  years  after  maximum, 
generally  only  a  continuous  spectrum, — three  times  a 
bright  line  ;  Burton,  fourth  year  after  sun-spot  maximum, 
continuous  spectrum  ;  generally  a  bright  line  ;  Arcimis, 
five  years  after  sun-spot  maximum,  continuous  spectrum 
and  two  bright  lines' (1480  K  and  2270  K).  It  would 
seem,  therefore,  that  the  zodiacal  light  is  more  gaseous  at 
sun-spot  minimum,  and  only  slightly,  if  at  all  gaseous,  at 
and  near  sun-spot  maximum. 


Ww~  ■  /: 


a                  ,  1 

^        „"        /  l 

a     90   -       ;  I 

**             -           I  \ 

I  \ 


?    80  —    /  \ 

\         -    , 
2*    70    — 


;       V 

/        \ 

/         \ 

/  \ 

I  \ 

1  \j 


1        \     \ 


\  1 

\  1 


>l    1    1    1  I8l50i    1    1    iV8l55i/  l    1    1  I8l60i    1    1 


\  / 

\  / 

\  / 

\         I 


>,    ii    1     1  I8l70i     1     1     1  I8l75l 


1  18801     1     1     1 


Comparison  of  zodiacal  light  elongations  with  Wolfs  relative  sun-spot  numbers. 


The  same  story  is  told  by  the  disturbances  suffered  by 
Encke's  comet.1 

We  would  consider,  therefore,  the  zodiacal  light  a 
locus  of  condensation. 

One  may  notice,  too,  that  the  light  appears,  in  common 
with  the  frequency  of  aurone  and  the  diurnal  range  of  the 
declination-needle,  to  be  affected  by  a  disturbance  of 
longer  period.  But  for  the  present  we  must  restrain  our- 
selves from  the  connections  with  terrestrial  and  cosmical 
physics  with  which  the  matter  teems,  and  ask— what  is 
the  principal  object  of  this  communication — that  those 
wh:>  ire  not  observing  will  observe,  and  that  those  who 
have,  or  know  of  the  places  of  concealment  of,  any 
observations,  will  kindly  call  them  to  our  attention. 

Baltimore,  Md.  O.  T.  Sherman. 

1  Goiihi's  Astronomical  Journal. 


CHEMISTRY  AT    THE    BRITISH 
ASSOCIA  HON. 

IT  was  hardly  to  be  expected  that  the  proceedings  of 
the  Chemical  Section  of  the  British  Association  would 
be  as  remarkable  at  Bath  as  at  Manchester.  Nevertheless, 
at  Bath  some  interesting  discussions  took  place,  and  some 
valuable  papers  were  read. 

The  President's  Address  was  listened  to  with  great 
interest,  and  formed  a  fitting  introduction  to  the  dis- 
cussion, which  afterwards  took  place,  on  the  teaching  of 
chemistry. 

In  the  "Report  of  the  Committee  on  the  Action  of 
Light  on  the  Hydracids,  in  Presence  of  Oxygen,"  read  by 
Dr.  Richardson,  some  experiments  were  described,  in 
continuation  of  those  read  before   the    Association  last 


596 


NA  TURE 


{Oct.  18,  1888 


year.       The  influence  of  traces  of  free  chlorine  and  of 
moisture  on  the  course  of  the  reaction  was  investigated. 

In  connection  with  the  "  Report  of  the  Committee  on 
the  Properties  of  Solutions,"  read  by  Dr.  Nicol,  a  new 
apparatus  for  determining  solubilities  at  temperatures 
below  ioo°  was  shown.  Excellent  results  had  been  ob- 
tained, owing  to  the  very  intimate  mixture  of  the  salt  and 
solvent. 

Dr.  Johnstone  Stoney  exhibited  to  the  Section  a  dia- 
gram illustrating  the  logarithmic  law  of  the  atomic  weights. 
Many  curious  relations  are  brought  out  by  its  means.  If, 
as  seems  probable,  the  logarithmic  law  be  a  law  of  Nature, 
there  appear  to  be  three  elements  lighter  than  hydrogen. 
Prof.  Sterry  Hunt,  in  his  paper  on  "  The  Study  of 
Mineralogy,"  advocated  a  system  of  mineralogy,  based 
on  the  successive  forms  which  are  imposed  upon  matter  : 
(1)  the  chemical  form  or  composition  ;  (2)  the  minera- 
logical  form,  or  physical  state ;  (3)  the  crystalline  form, 
being  the  most  accidental. 

Some  speculations  suggested  by  Van  't  Hoff's  hypo- 
thesis were  put  forward  by  Mr.  J.  E.  Marsh,  attention 
being  drawn  to  certain  compounds,  which  appear  to  be 
geometrical  isomers. 

The  same  author,  in  another  paper,  suggested  a  new 
constitutional  formula  for  camphoric  acid. 

On  the  Friday  morning  an  interesting  and  well-attended 
discussion  (at  which  the  members  of  Section  D  were 
present)  was  opened  by  Prof.  Michael  Foster,  on  the 
"  Chemical  Problems  presented  by  Living  Bodies."  In 
the  course  of  his  remarks  he  suggested  several  subjects 
for  chemical  investigation,  such  as  the  exact  chemical 
difference  of  certain  proteids,  the  changes  which  occur 
in  the  curdling  of  milk  and  the  clotting  of  blood,  and,  to 
the  biologist,  the  all-important  question  of  the  relation 
in  which  water  stands  to  the  organism. 

An  animated  discussion  followed,  in  which  several 
chemists  and  biologists  took  part.  In  reply  to  Prof. 
Thiselton  Dyer's  question,  as  to  whether  the  processes 
employed  by  chemists  had  any  connection  with  those 
which  take  place  in  Nature,  Prof.  Armstrong  cited  several 
cases  in  which  the  chemical  changes  occurring  in  Nature 
bore  a  suggestive  relation  to  those  brought  about  in  the 
laboratory. 

In  their  paper  on  the  "  Incompleteness  of  Combustion 
on  Explosion,"  Prof.  H.  B.  Dixon  and  H.  W.  Smith  show 
that,  on  exploding  a  mixture  of  oxygen  and  hydrogen  in 
a  long  tube,  a  considerable  residue  of  gas  is  obtained, 
which  is  still  explosive.  Experiments  were  made  to  arrive 
at  the  cause  of  the  phenomenon,  and  an  explanation  is 
suggested. 

A  new  gas-analysis  apparatus  was  shown  by  Dr.  Nicol, 
which  combined  the  advantages  of  the  Hempel  appar- 
atus with  the  means  of  using  mercury  and  of  readily 
performing  explosions. 

Dr.  Bott  exhibited  a  modification  of  a  vapour-density 
apparatus,  previously  described,  which  can  be  employed 
at  any  temperature  or  pressure. 

On  the  Saturday  morning  Prof.  Dunstan  read  the 
u  Report  of  the  Committee  on  the  Teaching  of  Chemistry,'' 
which  was  followed  by  a  paper  on  "  Chemistry  as  a  School 
Subject,"  by  the  Rev.  A.  Irving. 

In  the  ensuing  discussion,  which  was  confined  to  the 
teaching  of  chemistry  in  schools,  many  of  the  speakers 
seemed  to  agree  with  the  opinions  quoted  in  the  report, 
viz. — 

(1)  That  chemistry  should  be  taught  in  schools, 
first,  and  mainly,  on  account  of  the  mental  training  it 
affords ;  and,  secondly,  for  the  sake  of  it's  applications, 
and  its  direct  bearing  on  the  facts  of  every-day  life. 

(2)  The  chief  difficulties  met  with  in  teaching  seem  to 
be  those  which  arise  from  (i.)  defective  organization  and 
considerations  of  expense  ;  (ii.)  the  lower  value  attached 
to  chemistry  in  comparison  with  other  subjects  of  the 
school  curriculum  ;  (iii.)  the  time  which  is  devoted  to  the 


subject ;  (iv.)  preparation  for  various  examinations  ;  (v.) 
absence  of  good  text-books  ;  (vi.)  dearth  of  properly- 
qualified  teachers. 

(3)  The  older  plans  of  teaching  are  felt  to  require 
modification. 

The  Committee  ask  for  reappointment. 
A  discussion  on  "  Valency"  was  opened  on  Monday  by 
Prof.  Armstrong.  The  question  of  constant  and  variable 
valency  was  referred  to  in  connection  with  such  com- 
pounds as  chloroplatinic  acid,  &c,  and  a  few  new  terms 
were  introduced.  The  constitution  of  such  bodies  as 
tetra-methyl-ammonium  iodide  was  considered.  Dr. 
Morley  drew  attention  to  the  influence  which  one  element 
in  a  compound  often  has  in  modifying  the  properties  of 
another  not  immediately  adjacent  to  it.  Chemists  were 
advised  to  study  the  facts  connected  with  the  question 
carefully  before  speculating. 

Later  on,  Mr.  Veley  described  an  ingenious  arrange- 
ment he  had  invented  for  studying  the  action  of  acids  on 
copper,  under  simple  conditions. 

The  closing  sitting  was  opened  by  Prof.  Armstrong, 
who  read  the  "Report  of  the  Committee  on  Isomeric 
Naphthalene  Derivatives."  It  was  shown  that  the  exist- 
ence of  all  the  known  dichlor-naphthalenes  can  only  be 
explained  by  the  use  of  space-formulae. 

In  a  "  Note  on  the  Molecular  Weight  of  Caoutchouc 
and  other  Bodies,"  Dr.  J.  H.  Gladstone  and  W.  J. 
Hibbert  attempted  to  apply  Raoult's  method  to  the 
determination  of  very  high  molecular  weights,  with  fair 
results. 

.  Some  interesting  compounds  of  silicon  with  thio- 
carbamide  and  with  aniline  were  exhibited  and  described 
by  Prof.  Emerson  Reynolds,  together  with  several  other 
new  thio-carbamide  compounds.  An  account  of  these 
exhibits  was  given  in  Nature  last  week  (p.  575). 

Dr.  Richardson,  in  his  paper  on  "  The  Action  of  Light 
on  Water-colours,"  drew  attention  to  the  very  important 
part  played  by  moisture  in  assisting  their  decomposition. 
Colours  are  divided  into  two  groups  :  (1)  those  which 
bleach  under  the  combined  influence  of  light,  air,  and 
moisture ;  (2)  those  on  which  light  exerts  a  reducing 
action,  which  is  independent  of  the  air,  and  in  some  cases 
takes  place  in  the  absence  of  moisture. 

A  paper  on  "  Pyrocresols,"  by  Dr.  W.  Bott  and  J.  B. 
Miller,  was  illustrated  by  specimens  of  a  large  number  of 
derivatives  of  o-pyrocresol,  amongst  them  being  two  new 
azo  colouring-matters. 

With  the  reading  of  this  paper  the  proceedings 
terminated. 

By  the  courtesy  of  several  chemical  manufacturers  in 
the  neighbourhood,  the  members  of  the  Section  were 
enabled,  during  the  course  of  the  meeting,  to  visit 
several  works  where  interesting  operations  were  being 
carried  on. 


GEOLOGY  AT  THE  BRITISH  ASSOCIATION. 

THE  most  important  geological  work  done  at  Bath  this 
year  related  to  volcanic  and  earthquake  phenomena. 
Dr.  Johnston-Lavis  gave  an  account  of  the  recent  eruption 
in  Vulcano,  and  read  the  letter  which  has  already  appeared 
in  the  Times  from  Mr.  Narliau,  a  deeply  interested  and 
much-injured  witness  of  the  whole  occurrence.  The  chief 
features  seem  to  have  been  the  ejection  of  very  large 
blocks  to  a  great  distance— one,  measuring  10  yards  in 
length,  having  been  found  three-quarters  of  a  mile  from 
the  crater — and  the  occurrence  of  flames,  probably  caused 
by  the  combustion  of  sulphur  deposits.  This  paper 
was  illustrated  by  lantern  photographs  taken  by  Dr. 
Tempest  Anderson  three  months  before  the  event.  The 
latter  gentleman  also  exhibited  photographs  of  Vesuvius, 
Stromboli,  and  Etna,  showing  different  phases  of  eruption. 


Oct.  1 8,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


597 


Dr.  Lavis  presented  a  report  on  Vesuvius,  describing 
various  new  sections  cut  through  the  tuffs  and  lavas  of 
Vesuvius  and  the  Phlegrean  fields.  The  report  an- 
nounced the  completion  of  the  author's  map  of  Vesuvius, 
and  claimed  to  have  established  that  the  volcanic  activity 
of  the  mainland  had  followed  a  regular  course  south- 
wards. The  same  author  announced  the  discovery  of 
leucite  in  a  lava  from  Etna,  and  in  another  paper  attri- 
buted the  conservation  of  heat  in  volcanic  chimneys  to 
latent  heat  set  free  on  the  passage  of  magma  from  a 
vitreous  to  a  crystalline  condition.  Among  the  other 
papers  were  one  by  Dr.  Claypole,  who  pointed  out  that  in 
many  places,  and  notably  in  the  Appalachians,  strata 
had  been  forced  up  from  a  depth  greater  than  five  miles, 
the  supposed  depth  of  the  "  layer  of  no  strain  "  ;  and  one 
by  Mr.  Logan  Lobley,  who  attributed  (1)  the  formation 
of  lava  to  heat  in  the  earth's  interior  inducing  chemical 
action,  (2)  its  ejection  to  the  expansion  due  to  change 
from  a  solid  to  a  fluid  state,  and  (3)  explosive  eruption 
to  the  access  of  sea-  and  land-water  to  the  volcanic  focus. 
In  the  discussion  a  good  deal  of  misunderstanding 
seemed  to  arise  from  the  confusion  of  "zone  of  no 
strain"  with  "zone  of  no  cooling." 

Prof.  J.  Milne  gave  tables  to  show  the  distribution  of 
Japanese  earthquakes  in  connection  with  years,  seasons, 
months,  and  hours  of  the  day.  Further  tables  proved  that 
the  majority  of  earthquakes  coincide  with  a  high  baro- 
meter, and  that  they  are  more  frequent  when  the  glass  is 
falling  or  rising,  than  when  it  is  steady.  Earth-tremors 
are  almost  always  associated  with  strong  wind. 

The  local  interest  centred  round  papers  on  the  Oolitic 
and  Carboniferous  rocks.  Mr.  Horace  Woodward  united 
the  Cotteswold,  Bridport,  and  Yeovil  Sands  under  the 
name  of  Midford  Sands  ;  thought  that  the  fullers'  earth 
should  be  grouped  with  the  Great  Oolite  which  its 
upper  beds  sometimes  replaced  ;  and  preferred  to  divide 
the  Portlandian  in  Britain  into  an  upper  division,  in- 
cluding the  Portland,  Tisbury,  and  Swindon  stone,  and  a 
lower  division,  to  hold  the  Portland  Sand  and  Hartwell 
Clay. 

A  very  interesting  communication  from  Mr.  Whitaker 
described  the  occurrence  of  the  Bath  Oolite  at  a  depth  of 
1081  feet  in  the  Streatham  boring,  the  author  hoping  that 
the  boring  would  be  continued  on  the  chance  of  meeting 
some  porous  rock  under  this  which  might  have  tapped  off 
the  Lower  Greensand  waters.  Even  if  this  did  not  take 
place,  he  trusted  that  the  boring  might  be  continued  for 
purely  scientific  purposes,  and  as  another  opportunity  of 
testing  the  question  of  coal  under  London. 

Mr.  Wethered  correlated  the  Lower  Carboniferous 
limestone  of  Gloucestershire  with  the  Tuedian  and  Calci- 
ferous  series  of  the  north  of  England  ;  and  Mr.  Handel 
Cossham  described  a  series  of  trial  shafts  and  headings 
which  proved  the  existence  of  a  reversed  fault  with  very 
low  hade  on  the  northern  part  of  the  Bristol  coal-field  :  the 
effect  of  the  faulting  of  the  strata  was  nearly  to  double 
the  known  coal  resources  in  the  western  part  of  the  field. 
A  similar  overthrust,  bringing  Carboniferous  limestone  to 
rest  in  dolomitic  conglomerate  at  Tytherington  was 
described  by  Mr.  Winwood  ;  and  Mr.  Ussher  called  in 
similar  faults  to  explain  the  position  of  the  Vobster  lime- 
stone patches  in  Somerset.  The  latter  author  considered 
the  Watcombe  terra-cotta  clay  to  be  of  Triassic  age. 

There  were  a  few  papers  on  the  Archaean  rocks,  but 
little  that  was  new  was  brought  forward.  Dr.  Persifor 
Frazer  considered  that  the  central  rocks  of  the  nucleal 
ranges  of  the  Antilles  were  Archaean  ;  and  Dr.  Irving 
summed  the  evidence  for  life  in  this  system,  and  found  it 
wanting. 

Mr.  Bell's ''  Report  on  the  Manure  Gravels  of  Wexford" 
concluded  that  these  were  immediately  pre-glacial  in  age, 
and  that  the  Killiney  gravels,  and  the  marls,  clays,  and 
brick-earths  of  the  coast  were  of  later  date.  Mr.  Clement 
Reid  recorded  Betula  nana,  Salix  polaris,  and  5.  myr- 


sinites  from  the  lacustrine  deposit  of  Hoxne,  to  prove 
that  it  was  formed  in  a  severe  climate  preceded  by  a 
warmer  one  in  which  yew,  bur-reed,  and  cornel  flourished. 
A  lengthy  report  from  Dr.  Crosskey  on  new  erratic  blocks 
in  Yorkshire,  Essex,  Lancashire,  and  Leicestershire,  was 
followed  by  a  paper  on  a  high-level  boulder-clay  (700  feet) 
in  the  Midlands,  in  which  the  same  author  inclined  to  the 
theory  that  it  was  floated  from  the  nearest  glacier  and 
deposited  by  ice-foot  and  icebergs.  Mr.  Shore  recorded 
Neolithic  flakes  and  a  hammer-stone  found  in  peat 
below  the  tidal  alluvium  at  the  Southampton  new  dock 
excavation  ;  and  Mr.  Lamplugh's  report  on  the  old  sub- 
glacial  sea-beach  at  Bridlington  gave  proof  of  some 
remarkable  changes  in  the  physical  geography  of  the 
Yorkshire  coast  since  the  time  of  its  formation. 

Amongst  the  palaeontological  work  was  Prof.  Rupert 
Jones's  "  Report  on  the  Palaeozoic  Phyllopods  "  ;  and  Prof. 
Williamson's  on  the  Carboniferous  flora,  in  which  the 
author  showed  that  the  central  vascular  bundle  of  the 
Carboniferous  Cryptogams  contained  a  germ  which  deve- 
loped into  a  persistent  pith,  while  portions  of  the  medul- 
lary tissue  assumed  the  functions  of  a  cambium.  Dr. 
Irving  described  experiments  to  show  that  the  vigour  of 
plant  life  is  increased  until  the  percentage  of  C02  in  the 
atmosphere  equals  the  oxygen  ;  and  Mr.  Whidborne 
briefly  described  many  new  species  of  Cephalopoda, 
Gasteropoda,  Crustacea,  and  Conchifera  from  the  De- 
vonian of  various  localities.  An  important  communication 
was  made  by  Mr.  H.  F.  Osborn,  who  traced  back  the 
Mammalian  teeth  to  the  tritubercular  and  thence  to  the 
triconodont  type,  and  proposed  a  new  nomenclature 
based  on  this  principle.  Prof.  Gaudry  commented  on 
the  gigantic  size  of  some  Tertiary  Mammalia,  Prof. 
Seeley  on  an  Ichthyosaurus  from  Africa,  and  Prof.  Marsh 
on  the  classification  of  the  Dinosaurs.  Mr.  Smith  Wood- 
ward and  Prof.  Bassani  dealt  with  fish-remains  from 
the  Chalk,  London  Clay,  and  Lower  Miocene. 

Among  the  petrological  papers  we  may  note : — Dr. 
Sterry  Hunt  on  mineralogical  evolution,  in  which  the 
author  attempted  to  correlate  chemical  resistance  with 
hardness,  and  this  with  condensation,  in  minerals  ;  and  to 
show  that  the  greater  stability  of  those  (silicates)  which 
belong  to  the  more  condensed  types  was  shown  in  their 
superior  resistance  to  decay.  Dr.  Sterry  Hunt  concludes 
that  the  great  successive  groups  of  stratiform  crystalline 
rocks  mark  necessary  stages  in  the  mineralogical  evolu- 
tion of  the  planet.  Mr.  Joly  decolorized  beryl  at  3570  C., 
and  has  discovered  twelve-sided  basal  prisms  of  iolite  in 
the  Dublin  granite.  Prof.  Seeley  raised  a  discussion  on 
Oolitic  structure,  in  which  Dr.  Gilbert  instanced  the 
formation  of  recent  Oolites  in  the  Great  Salt  Lake.  Prof. 
Blake  presented  a  long  report  on  the  Anglesey  rocks,  in 
which  he  described  the  passage  of  dolerites  into  horn- 
blende and  glaucophane  schists,  and  then  into  slate-like 
rocks  ;  and  of  gabbros  into  talcose  schists.  Mr.  Watts 
described  an  igneous  succession  in  Shropshire  from  old 
acid  andesites  through  younger  dolerites  into  picrites, 
without  any  break  in  the  sequence  ;  and  Dr.  Persifor 
Frazer  exhibited  and  described  some  curious  specimens 
of  glassy  and  spherulitic  oligoclaseand  quartz  with  peculiar 
optical  properties.  Though  not  precisely  belonging  to 
this  Section,  some  clay  models  exhibited  and  described 
by  Dr.  Ricketts  may  here  be  mentioned,  in  which,  by 
vertical  pressure  in  the  centre,  reversed  folds  and  inverted 
faulting  had  been  produced.  The  author  attempted  to 
apply  this  method  to  explain  the  folding  and  cleavage  of 
the  Silurian  slates  in  Wales. 


NOTES. 

Some  time  ago  Lord  Crawford  offered  to  present  to  Scotland 
his  valuable  collection  of  astronomical  instruments  at  Dun  Echt, 
on  condition  that  suitable  accommodation  should  be  provided 


598 


NATURE 


{Oct.  1 8,  1888 


for  it,  and  that  it  should  be  managed  for  the  public  benefit.  The 
Secretary  for  Scotland,  we  are  glad  to  learn,  has  accepted  Lord 
Crawford's  offer  ;  and  the  Treasury  has  agreed  to  provide  means 
for  the  erection  of  the  necessary  buildings.  A  committee  of 
scientific  men  is  engaged  in  examining  different  sites  around 
Edinburgh  which  seem  suitable  for  the  erection  of  a  national 
Observatory  ;  and,  according  to  the  Edinburgh  Correspondent  of 
the  Times,  the  choice  seems  to  lie  between  the  Braid  Hills  and 
the  Blackford  Hill,  both  of  which  are  on  the  south  side  of  the 
city.  The  same  writer  says  that  two  proposals  have  been  made 
for  utilizing  the  old  Observatory  on  the  Calton  Hill — the 
one  that,  after  the  instruments  have  been  repaired,  the  place 
should  be  used  as  a  popular  Observatory  ;  the  other,  that  it 
should  be  attached  to  the  Heriot-Watt  Technical  College  for 
class-work  in  connection  with  the  lectureship  on  astronomy 
there. 

The  Mercers'  Company,  one  of  the  oldest  and  wealthiest  of 
the  City  Companies,  is  thinking  of  establishing  an  Agricultural 
College.  A  correspondent  of  the  Times  says  it  proposes  to 
devote  ,£60,000  to  this  object.  According  to  the  same  autho- 
rity, the  intention  is  that  the  College  shall  be  in  Wiltshire,  and 
that  there  shall  be  attached  a  farm  of  considerable  extent,  in 
which  the  pupils  may  practically  apply  the  knowledge  they 
gain,  the  institution  being  intended  to  benefit  the  sons  of 
farmers  and  others  who  will  be  dependent  on  the  successful 
culture  of  land  for  their  future  livelihood.  The  sum  of  ^60,000 
contributed  by  the  Company  would,  it  is  hoped,  be  supple- 
mented by  a  liberal  donation  from  the  Charity  Commissioners, 
and  the  Company  would  of  necessity  be  prepared  to  provide  an 
adequate  endowment. 

The  new  laboratories  at  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  which  are 
now  open  to  all  students  of  chemistry,  comprise  general  labora- 
tories for  instruction  in  elementary  chemistry,  and  quantitative 
and  research  laboratories.  The  latter  are  provided  with  all 
modern  appliances,  and  have  special  rooms  attached  for  analysis 
of  gas  and  water,  for  assaying,  and  for  ultimate  organic  analysis. 
The  laboratories  are  under  the  general  direction  of  Prof.  Emerson 
Reynolds,  F.R.S. 

A  statue  of  Ampere  was  unveiled  on  October  9,  at  Lyons, 
his  native  place.  The  ceremony  took  place  before  the  President 
of  the  French  Republic  ;  and  M.  Cornu,  a  member  of  the  French 
Academy  of  Sciences,  delivered  an  elaborate  address,  in  which  he 
spoke  of  the  importance  of  Ampere's  discoveries. 

The  Council  of  the  Institution  of  Civil  Engineers  has  issued 
a  list  of  subjects  upon  which,  among  others,  original  com- 
munications are  invited  for  reading  and  discussion  at  the 
ordinary  meetings,  and  for  printing  in  the  minutes  of  proceedings 
of  the  Institution.  For  approved  papers  the  Council  has  the 
power  to  award  premiums,  arising  out  of  special  funds  bequeathed 
for  the  purpose. 

The  Society  of  German  Engineers  offers  a  prize  of  5000  marks 
(;£25°)  f°r  {he  best  essay  containing  a  critical  estimate  of  ex- 
perimental investigations  concerning  the  passage  of  heat  through 
heated  surfaces,  in  its  relation  to  material,  form,  and  position  of 
the  latter,  as  well  as  to  the  kind,  temperature,  and  motion  of  the 
heated  substances.  Competitors  are  to  forward  their  treatises  to 
the  General  Secretary  of  the  Society  by  December  31,  1890. 

The  Tokio  Mathematical  and  Physical  Society  proposes,  in 
order  to  commemorate  the  tenth  anniversary  of  its  foundation, 
to  award  a  prize  not  exceeding  20  yen  (£4.)  in  value  for  the 
best  original  paper  on  the  properties  of  the  so-called  asymptotic 
curves,  and  the  relations  (if  any)  existing  between  these  curves 
and  straight  lines  on  a  surface— in  particular,  an  algebraic 
surface. 


Several  influential  Chinese  have  subscribed  large  sums  ot 
money  to  aid  in  establishing  a  zoological  garden  at  Shanghai. 
At  present  the  institution  will  be  merely  a  commercial  under- 
taking, but  it  is  hiped  that  ultimately  the  State  will  take  it  over. 
Amongst  others,  the  Governor  of  Formosa  has  promised  his 
help  in  the  collection  of  specim  ens. 

In  the  last  issue  of  the  Journal  of  the  Russian  Chemical 
and  Physical  Society  there  is  an  interesting  article  on  Prof. 
S.  A.  Wroblewski,  whose  death  at  Cracow  we  lately  re- 
corded. While  a  student  of  the  Kieff  University,  Wroblewski 
took  part  in  the  Polish  insurrection  of  1863,  and  was  exiled 
to  Siberia,  where  he  had  to  remain  for  six  years.  During  his 
term  of  exile  he  elaborated  a  new  cosmical  theory,  which  on 
his  return  he  hastened  to  submit  to  German  men  of  science. 
Helmholtz  received  the  young  man  cordially,  but  advised  him  to 
make  at  the  Berlin  laboratory  certain  experiments  which  would 
convince  him  of  the  erroneousness  of  his  ideas.  Wroblewski  at 
once  began  earnest  physical  and  chemical  work,  and  never 
afterwards  spoke  of  the  theory  of  his  youth.  In  1874  he  went 
to  Strasburg,  and  there  he  published  his  first  serious  work, 
"  Ueberdie  Diffusion  der  Gase  durch  absorbirende  Substanzen." 
The  flattering  opinion  expressed  about  this  work  by  Maxwell  in 
Nature  encouraged  Wroblewski  to  continue  physical  work  on 
the  same  lines.  He  was  offered  the  Chair  of  Physics  at  the 
Cracow  University,  and  the  authorities  of  that  institution  gave 
him  permission  to  spend  a  year  at  Paris  in  the  laboratory  of 
Sainte-Claire  Deville,  before  beginning  his  University  teaching. 
There  Wroblewski  discovered,  in  the  course  of  his  work  on  the 
saturation  of  water  with  carbonic  anhydride  under  strong 
pressures,  the  hydrate  of  carbonic  oxide,  and  that  discovery 
became  the  starting-point  of  a  series  of  works  on  the  condensa- 
tion of  gases.  His  capital  discoveries,  made  in  association  with 
M.  Olszanski,  which  resulted  in  the  condensation  of  oxygen, 
azote,  and  hydrogen,  are  well  known.  He  was  making  pre- 
parations for  an  elaborate  volume  on  the  condensation  of 
hydrogen,  when  he  perished  by  accident.  While  working  late 
in  the  night  in  his  laboratory,  he  fell  asleep,  and  in  his  sleep  he 
overthrew  a  kerosene  lamp.  His  clothes  began  to  burn,  and  the 
wounds  thus  received  resulted  four  days  later  in  death.  The 
Journal  gives  a  complete  list  of  Wroblewski's  works. 

An  interesting  archaeological  discovery  has  been  made  in  the 
tidal  river  Hamble,  near  Botley,  Hants.  A  boathouse  is  being 
built  at  the  point  of  the  junction  of  the  Curdridge  Creek  on  the 
river,  some  distance  above  the  spot  where  there  is  a  still  existing 
wreck  of  a  Danish  man-of-war.  While  the  mud  and  alluvial  soil 
were  being  re  noved  to  make  sufficient  waterway,  something 
hard  was  encountered,  which  on  being  carefully  uncovered 
proved  to  be  a  portion  of  a  prehistoric  canoe.  It  is  about 
12  feet  long  by  2J  feet  wide,  beautifully  carved,  and  in  a  fairly 
good  state  of  preservation. 

The  other  day  a  peasant  at  Vestervang,  in  West  Jutland, 
found  a  splendid  piece  of  amber  in  a  marl  pit,  weighing  i^ 
pound. 

M.  Hallez  has  published,  in  the  first  number  of  the  Revue 
Bio  'og'aue  du  Nordde  la  France,  an  interesting  paper  on  the  natural 
scavengers  of  various  beaches  of  Northern  France.  At  Boulogne, 
the  species  Nassa,  which  is  very  abundant,  performs  the  useful 
office  of  destroying  all  dead  animal  relics.  At  Portel,  Nassa  is 
scarce,  but  Eurydice  pulchra  is  very  abundant,  and  takes  the 
business  in  hand.  At  Cape  Alprech,  there  are  neither  Eurydice 
nor  Nassa,  but  Ligia  oceanica  fulfils  their  duties.  At  Equihen, 
the  ;e  duties  are  undertaken  by  numerous  Orchestic?.  It  is  worth 
noting  that  these  four  points  are  quite  close  to  each  other. 

The  chemistry  of  the  modern  advantageous  method  of  manu- 
facturing   chloroform    from   acetone  and  bleaching-powder  has 


Oct.  1 8,  1888] 


NA  TV  RE 


599 


formed  the  subject  of  the  successful  researches  of  Messrs. 
Ornclorff  and  Jessel.  The  first  stage  of  the  reaction  is  found  to 
consist  in  the  formation  of  methyl  chloral,  CH;,  .  CO  .  CC13, 
which  is  subsequently  acted  upon  by  the  hydrate  of  calcium 
formed  at  the  same  time,  with  production  of  chloroform  and 
calcium  acetate.  The  changes  are  expressed  by  the  following 
equations  :  — 

2CH3  .  CO  .  CII3  +  6CaOCl.,  =  2CH3  .  CO  .  CC13 

+  3Ca(OH)2  +  3CaCl2; 

2CH3  .  CO  .  CCI3  +  Ca(OH),  =  2CHCIS  +  Ca(C2H30,),. 

Calculated  from  these  equations,  the  yield  of  chloroform  should 
be  206  per  cent,  of  the  weight  of  acetone  employed.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  process  has  now  reached  such  a  state  of 
perfection  that  as  much  as  188  per  cent,  is  actually  obtained  in 
the  best  manufactories. 

Another  rich  yield  of  new  organic  compounds  has  been  ob- 
tained  by  M.    Paul    Adam  by   an   application   of  the   famous 
aluminium    chloride    reaction    to    the    hydrocarbon    diphenyl, 
C6H5.  C(iH5.     The  number  of  new  substances  which  have  been 
synthesized  by  use  of   this  reaction  since  its   introduction    by 
Messrs.  Friedel  and  Crafts  must  now  be  enormous,  and  its  value 
in  assisting  the  completion  of  the   fabric  of  descriptive  organic 
chemistry  cannot  be  over-estimated.     The  method  of  treatment 
consists  in  mixing  the  substance  to  be  acted  upon,  in  this  case 
diphenyl,  with  aluminium  chloride  in  a  flask  connected  with  an 
inverted  condenser,  to  the  end  of  which  is  attached  a  bent  tube 
arranged  so  as   to  dip  beneath    the  surface   of   mercury.      If 
necessary,  just  sufficient   heat  is  applied  in  order  to  keep  the 
mixture  in  the  liquid  state  ;  when  this  is  effected  the  haloid  com- 
pound of  the  radical  to  be  introduced  is  allowed  to  slowly  enter 
from  a  dropping  funnel.     Hydrochloric  or  hydrobromic  acid  is 
at  once  disengaged,  the  gas  coming  off  steadily  and  readily  in- 
dicating the  progress  of  the  reaction,  which  results  in  the  sub- 
stitution of  the  radical  for  hydrogen  of  the  original  substance. 
On  completion  of  the  reaction  it  is  only  necessary  to  place  the 
mass  in  water,  so  as  to  decompose  the  aluminium  chloride,  when 
the   black  liquid  becomes  decolorized  and  the  new   substance 
separates  as  a  colourless  liquid  or  crystalline  solid.   When  methyl 
chloride,  CH3C1,  is  allowed  to  act  in  this  way  upon  diphenyl  in 
presence  of  aluminium  chloride,  M.  Adam  finds  that  the  chief 
product  is  methyl-diphenyl,  C6H6  .  C6H4  .  CH3,  in  which  the 
methyl  group  occupies  the  meta  position.     This  new  body  is  a 
highly  refractive  colourless  liquid,  boiling  about  2Ji°-2'jf  C, 
and  remaining  liquid  as  low  as  -21°.     It  is  isomeric  with  Dr. 
Carnelley's  para-compound,  the  only  one  hitherto  known.     The 
ethyl   and   methyl  ethers  were   readily  obtained   by   the  usual 
methods,     and    from     the     latter    yellow     syrupy     substance, 
C6H5—  CfiH4—  CH,-—  OCH3,  was  obtained  by  the  action  of 
gaseous   hydriodic    acid,    a   highly    interesting   body,   C6H5  — 
C6H4  —  CH2  —  OH,  the  alcohol   of  the  series,    phenyl-benzyl 
alcohol,  a  very  viscid  liquid  which  eventually  crystallized.     The 
mono-methyl  derivative,  however,  was  not  the  only  product  of 
the   primitive   reaction,    for  M.    Adam  also  succeeded  in   iso- 
lating a  dimethyl  phenyl,  C12H8(CH3)2,  boiling  at  2840-290°. 
Moreover,  a   similar   series  of  derivatives  were  next   obtained 
containing  ethyl  instead  of  methyl ;   and  finally  the  synthesis  of 


the 


C6H4v 

hydrocarbon  fluorene,    |        yCH2,  discovered  by  Berthelot 
C6H4 


in  coal-tar,  was  effected  by  acting  in  a  similar  manner  with 
methylene  dichloride,  CH2C12,  upon  diphenyl  in  presence  of  the 
accommodating  aluminium  chloride. 

An  interesting  discussion  on  "Bird  Pests  of  the  Farm"  is 
printed  in  the  current  number  of  the  Zoologist,  All  the  writers 
who  take  part  in  the  discussion  agree  that  the  habits  of  rooks 
have  for  some  time  been  undergoing  a  remarkable  change. 
Formerly,  rooks  lived  chiefly  on  grubs  and  worms.  Their  supply  of 
this  kind  of  food  has  been  greatly  diminished  by  better  farming, 


draining,  and  other  improvements ;  and  at  the  same  time  the 
birds  have  largely  increased  in  numbers.  Consequently  they 
have  been  obliged  to  look  for  new  sources  of  food-supply.  They 
do  very  serious  injury  to  cultivated  crops,  and  devour  enormous 
quantities  of  the  eggs  of  game-birds.  Mr.  II.  II.  Scott  says 
that  during  nesting-time,  in  districts  where  there  are  large 
rookeries,  the  heather  on  the  moors  and  the  fences  in  the  fields 
are  searched  by  rooks,  yard  by  yard,  for  these  eggs.  Mr.  Gilbert 
Millar,  head-keeper  to  Mr.  Creswell,  of  Harehope  Hall,  Aln- 
wick, testifies  that  twenty-five  or  thirty  years  ago  rooks  were 
rarely  known  to  take  eggs  ;  "  but,"  he  adds,  "  they  have  turned 
gradually  worse  every  year  since  then,  and  now  they  have  become 
a  perfect  pest  and  take  all  the  early  nests.  Not  one  out  of  every 
twenty  early  nests  that  I  have  known  of,  these  last  few  years,  has 
escaped  them."  Pheasants'  nests  are  sometimes  built  in  rookeries, 
but,  oddly  enough,  they  are  safer  there  than  outside,  as  rooks 
never  seem  to  look  for  them  under  their  own  nests. 

At  the  general  meeting  of  the  Council  of  the  French 
Meteorological  Office,  Admiral  Cloue,  Vice-President,  stated 
that  the  service  of  weather  forecasts  during  the  past  year  had 
reached  90  per  cent,  of  successes,  a  figure  never  before  surpassed. 
The  number  of  climatological  stations  from  which  reparts  are 
regularly  received  is  143.  Among  the  foreign  stations  we 
observe  that  two  are  being  established  in  Madagascar.  As  an 
encouragement  to  observers  on  board  ship,  sixteen  gold  medals 
were  presented  during  the  year,  for  the  best  log-books  received. 
Telegrams  from  America  are  regularly  received,  and  include 
reports  of  storms,  &c,  met  by  ships  in  the  Atlantic.  M.  Mascart 
stated  that  the  work  of  the  Departmental  Commissions  continued 
to  improve  each  year,  and  that  now  there  were  only  six  depart- 
ments which  had  not  special  Commissions.  M.  Vaussenat  gave 
an  interesting  account  of  the  observation  of  thunderstorms  and 
of  the  photography  of  clouds  and  lightning  on  the  Pic-du-Midi, 
and  M.  Janssen  urged  the  importance  of  cloud  photography  at 
regular  intervals,  and  of  a  systematic  study  of  cloud  formations 
and  modifications. 

The  Meteorological  Report  of  the  Straits  Settlements  for  the 
year  1887  contains,  in  addition  to  the  usual  monthly  and  annual 
summaries  at  the  four  principal  Observatories  :  (1)  a  tabular 
statement  of  the  mean  annual  and  monthly  rainfall  at  Singapore 
from  1869  to  1887  ;  and  (2)  charts  showing  the  mean  annual 
range  of  various  elements  at  Singapore  from  1870  to  1887.  The 
year  1887  has  presented  little  that  is  striking  or  anomalous. 
The  rainfall  of  the  colony,  which  is  represented  by  thirty-nine 
stations,  has  been  more  than  in  the  previous  year. 

THE  Royal  Society  of  Tasmania  has  issued  its  Papers  and 
Proceedings  for  1887.  Among  the  papers  we  may  note  the 
following  :  description  of  new  rare  Tasmanian  Hepaticie,  by 
B.  Carrington  and  W.  H.  Pearson  ;  on  the  acclimatization  of 
the  salmon  {Sal/no  salar)  in  Tasmanian  waters,  by  W.  Saville- 
Kent ;  a  first  list  of  the  birds  of  Maria  Island,  by  Colonel  W. 
V.  Legge  ;  observations  with  respect'  to  the  nature  and  classi- 
fication of  the  rocks  of  the  Tertiary  period,  more  particularly 
relating  to  Tasmania,  by  R.  M.  Johnson. 

Messrs.  Macmili.an  and  Co.  have  just  published  the  third 
edition  of  Lock's  "Arithmetic  for  Schools."  Simultaneously 
with  this  edition,  a  key  to  the  work,  by  the  Rev.  R.  G.  Watson, 
has  been  issued.  Mr.  Lock  explains  that  the  solutions  have 
been  very  carefully  worked  under  his  superintendence. 

The  "LHand-book  of  Jamaica"  for  1S88-89,  by  A.  C.  Sinclair 
and  L.  R.  Fyfe,  has  been  issued.  It  is  compiled  from  official 
and  other  trustworthy  sources,  and  includes  ample  historical, 
statistical,  and  general  information  concerning  the  island. 

A  guide  to  the  Caucasus,  by  E.  Weidenbaum,  has  been 
published  at  Tiflis  by  order  of  the  Governor-General.  It 
contains  much  archaeological  information. 


6oo 


NATURE 


[Oct.  18,  1888 


We  have  received  the  tenth  volume  of  the  third  series  of  the 
Memoirs,  and  the  first  volume  of  the  fourth  series  of  the 
Memoirs  and  Proceedings,  of  the  Manchester  Literary  and 
Philosophical  Society. 

The  University  College  of  Liverpool,  and  the  University 
College  of  Wales,  Aberystwith,  have  each  issued  a  calendar 
for  the  session  1888-89. 

Messrs.  Longmans  and  Co.  have  in  the  press  the  follow- 
ing works  : — "  A  Hand-book  of  Cry  progamic  Botany,"  by  A.  W. 
Bennett  and  George  R.  Milne  Murray;  "A  Text -book  of 
Elementary  Biology,"  by  R.  J.  Harvey  Gibson;  "  Force  and 
Energy :  a  Theory  of  Dynamics,"  by  Grant  Allen  ;  and  Part  1 
of  "Graphics;  or,  the  Art  of  Calculation  by  Drawing  Lines, 
applied  to  Mathematics,  Theoretical  Mechanics  and  Engineering, 
including  the  Kinetics  and  Dynamics  of  Machinery,  and  the 
Statics  of  Machines,  Bridges,  Roofs,  and  other  Engineering 
Structures,"  by  Prof.  Robert  H.  Smith. 

Messrs.  Chapman  and  Hall  will  shortly  publish  "  Thirty 
Thousand  Years  of  the  Earth's  Past  History,"  by  Major-General 
A.  W.  Drayson  ;  and  "Marine  Engines  and  Boilers,"  by  Mr. 
George  C  V.  Holmes. 

Among  the  works  announced  by  Messrs.  Sampson  Low  and 
Co.  are  the  following  : — "  Metallic  Alloys  ;  a  Practical  Guide  for 
the  Manufacture  of  all  kinds  of  Alloys,  Amalgams,  and  Solders 
used  by  Metal-workers,  especially  by  Bell-founders,  Bronze- 
workers,  Tinsmiths,  Gold  and  Silver  Workers,  Dentists,  &c, 
&c,  as  well  as  their  Chemical  and  Physical  Properties,"  edited 
chiefly  from  the  German  of  A.  Krapp  and  Andreas  Wildberger, 
with  many  additions  by  William  T.  Brannt  ;  "  The  American 
Steam  Engineer  :  Theoretical  and  Practical,  with  Examples  of 
the  latest  and  most  approved  American  Practice  in  the  Design 
and  Construction  of  Steam-Engines  and  Boilers,"  for  the  use  of 
engineers,  machinists,  boiler-makers,  and  engineering  students, 
fully  illustrated  by  E.  Edwards,  C.E.  ;  "Science  and  Geology 
in  Relation  to  the  Universal  Deluge,"  by  W.  B.  Galloway, 
M.A.,  Vicar  of  St.  Mark's,  Regent's  Park;  "Technology  of 
Textile  Design  :  being  a  Practical  Treatise  on  the  Construction 
and  Application  of  Weaves  for  all  Textile  Fabrics,  with  minute 
Reference  to  the  latest  Inventions  for  Weaving,"  containing  also 
an  appendix  showing  the  analysis  and  giving  the  calculations 
necessary  for  the  manufacture  of  the  various  textile  fabrics, 
by  E.  A.  Posselt,  Head  Master,  Textile  Department,  Pennsyl- 
vania Museum  and  School  of  Industrial  Art,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Dr.  Birkbeck  Hill,  the  editor  of  Boswell's  "Johnson," 
has  nearly  ready  for  publication  through  the  Clarendon  Press  a 
collection  of  letters  from  David  Hume  to  William  Strahan, 
hitherto  unpublished.  In  the  preface  he  recounts  the  circum- 
stances under  which  Lord  Rosebery  purchased  the  originals 
when  the  authorities  of  the  Bodleian  and  of  the  British  Museum 
had  declined  them.  A  "  Life  of  Hume  "  has  been  prefixed,  and 
the  letters  have  been  fully  annotated. 

We  have  received  a  copy  of  a  pamphlet  entitled  "The 
Technical  Education  of  Engineers,"  a  course  of  technical  study 
recommended  by  the  Manchester  Association  of  Engineers  to 
youths  engaged  in  engineering  workshops  and  other  mechanical 
trades.  There  are  practical  hints  as  to  the  course  to  be  pursued 
in  each  subject,  and  the  names  of  books  recommended  by  the 
Association  are  given.  The  little  work,  which  only  costs  two- 
pence, should  be  in  the  hands  of  all  those  for  -whose  aid  it  was 
compiled. 

The  Botanical  Exchange  Club  of  the  British  Isles  has  issued 
its  Report  for  1887.  Mr.  Arthur  Bennett  indicates  the  new 
county  records  in  the  plants  contributed. 

Mr.  Saville-Kent,  at  present  engaged  in  officially  in- 
vestigating and  reporting  upon  the  fish  and  fisheries  of  various 


of  the  Australian  colonies,  has  accepted  an  invitation  from 
Captain  the  Hon.  F.  C.  Vereker  and  other  officers  of  H. M.S. 
Myrmidon,  to  join  that  ship  at  Port  Darwin  and  to  take  part  in 
the  marine  natural  history  exploration  of  the  northern  and  north- 
western Australian  coast  in  association  with  the  survey  work 
now  being  conducted.  Mr.  Saville-Kent  proceeds  via  Brisbane 
and  Thursday  Island,  taking  with  him  trawls,  dredges,  and  other 
apparatus  suited  for  the  projected  work. 

The  Committee  of  the  Sunday  Lecture  Society  have  decided 
that  during  the  winter  a  course  of  twenty-one  lectures  shall  be 
given  in  St.  George's  Hall,  London,  on  Sunday  afternoons,  at 
4  p.m.,  as  in  former  years,  beginning  on  October  21. 

The  next  ordinary  general  meeting  of  the  Institution  of 
Mechanical  Engineers  will  be  held  on  Wednesday,  October  24, 
and  Thursday,  October  25,  at  25  Great  George  Street,  West- 
minster. The  chair  will  be  taken  at  7.30  p.m.,  on  each  evening, 
by  Charles  Cochrane,  Esq.,  Vice-President,  in  the  absence  of 
the  President,  Edward  H.  Carbutt,  Esq.,  who  is  travelling  in 
America.  The  discussions  will  be  resumed  on  the  following 
papers  read  at  the  last  two  meetings  in  May  and  August : 
description  of  Emery's  testing  machine,  by  Mr.  Henry  R. 
Towne,  of  Stamford,  Connecticut,  U.S.A.  ;  description  of 
the  compound  steam  turbine  and  turbo-electric  generator,  by 
the  Hon.  Charles  A.  Parsons,  of  Gateshead.  The  following 
papers  will  be  read  and  discussed,  as  far  as  time  pe  rmits  :  de- 
scription of  the  Rathmines  and  Rathgar  township  water- works 
by  Mr.  Arthur  W.  N.  Tyrrell,  of  London ;  supplementary 
paper  on  the  use  of  petroleum  refuse  as  fuel  in  locomotive 
engines,  by  Mr.  Thomas  Urquhart,  Locomotive  Superintendent, 
Grazi  and  Tsaritsin  Railway,  South-East  Russia. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Rhesus  Monkey  {Macacus  rhesus  <j)  from 
India,  presented  by  Miss  Kate  Marion  Pope  ;  a  Brush-tailed 
Kangaroo  {Petrogale  penicillata  6),  a  Laughing  Kingfisher 
{Dacelo  giganted)  from  New  South  Wales,  presented  by  Captain 
Philp  ;  a  Gazelle  {Gazella  dorcas  Q)  from  North  Africa,  pre- 
sented by  Mrs.  Eugenio  Arbib  ;  a  Brazilian  Hangnest  {Icterus 
jamaicai)  from   Brazil,   presented   by  Mr.  T.    R.    Tufnell  ;  five 

— —  Francolines  {Francolinus 2  cJ  3  9)  from  South  Africa, 

presented  by  Captain  Larmer  ;  a  Laughing  Kingfisher  ( Dacelo 
gigantea)  from  Australia,  presented  by  Mr.  H.  Butler ;  two 
Slowworms  (Anguis fragilis),  British,  presented  by  Mr.  Cecil 
L.  Nicholson  ;  two  Alpacas  {Lama pacos)  from  Peru,  two  Upland 
Geese  {Bernicla  magellanica  £9)  from  the  Falkland  Islands, 
three  Crested  Pelicans  {Pelecanus  crispus),  South  European,  de- 
posited ;  four  Esquimaux  Dogs  {Cants  familiaris,  var.),  a 
Bennett's  Wallaby  {Hahnaturus  bennetti  9 ),  a  Vulpine  Phalanger 
{PJialangista  vulpina),  born  in  the  Gardens. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

The  Solar  Parallax  from  Photographs  of  the  Last 
Transit  of  Venus.— A  preliminary  value  of  the  solar  parallax, 
as  obtained  from  the  measurement  of  the  photographs  of  the  sun 
taken  at  the  different  American  stations  during  the  transit  of 
Venus,  of  December  1882,  has  been  recently  published.  This 
value  is  based  upon  the  measured  distances  of  the  centres  of  the 
sun  and  of  Venus  on  1475  photographs,  taken  at  ten  stations, 
six  in  the  United  States,  two  in  South  America,  and  the  remain- 
ing two  at  Wellington,  South  Africa,  and  Auckland,  New 
Zealand.  It  compares  as  follows  with  the  values  deduced  from 
the  American  and  French  photographs  respectively  of  the  transit 
of  1874  : — 


American  1882 
American  1874 
French  1874 


7r  =  8-847  =•=  0012 
ir  -  8-883  ±  0-034 
it  =  8'8o 


The  value  now  found,  though  probably  a  close  approximation 
to  that  which  will  be  afforded  by  the  complete  discussion  of  all 


Oct.  1 8,  1888] 


NATURE 


601 


the  photographs,  cannot  be  regarded  as  final,  since,  amongst 
other  reasons,  the  reduction  of  the  position  angles  of  Venus  is 
yet  unfinished. 

The  Markings  on  Mars. — Observations  of  Mars  more 
recently  published  tend  to  throw  doubt  upon  the  "  inundation 
of  Libya,"  which  M.  Perrotin  reported  some  four  or  five  months 
ago.  Not  only  were  Prof.  Schiaparelli  and  Dr.  Terby  unable 
to  confirm  his  statement,  but  M.  Niesten  at  Brussels,  and  Prof. 
Holden  at  the  Lick  Observatory,  failed  to  remark  this  change. 
The  observations  of  Prof.  Holden  and  his  assistants  did  not 
begin  until  July  16,  and  were  continued  until  August  10.  The 
planet  was  therefore  very  unfavourably  situated  when  they 
were  made,  since  the  diameter  of  the  planet  was  always  less 
than  9",  and  its  zenith  distance  about  6o°.  Several  of  the 
more  important  canals  were  seen,  but  they  were  not  seen 
double,  but  appeared  rather  "  as  broad  bands  covering 
the  spaces  on  M.  Schiaparelli's  map  which  are  occupied  by 
pairs  of  canals,  and  by  the  space  separating  the  members  of 
each  pair."  M.  Niesten  also  seems  to  have  failed  to  see  the 
gemination  of  the  canals,  but,  in  common  with  other  observers, 
was  much  struck  by  the  whiteness  and  brilliancy  of  some  portions 
of  the  planet,  particularly  of  Elysium  or  Fontana  Land,  as  it  is 
called  by  Mr.  Green.  The  brightness  of  Fontana  Land  has 
been  commented  on  both  by  M.  Perrotin  and  Prof.  Schiaparelli, 
and  the  former  observer  has  recently  delineated  an  intricate 
network  of  canals  between  that  district  and  the  north  pole,  and 
another  yet  more  complicated  on  the  Madler  Continent.  Prof. 
Schiaparelli  has  had  to  chronicle  still  stranger  changes  in  this 
last-named  district,  which  he  observed  on  May  20  under  spe- 
cially favourable  circumstances,  having  been  able  to  distinguish 
the  two  banks  of  some  of  the  canals,  the  one  from  the  other, 
and  to  detect  very  small  undulations  in  them.  He  speaks  also 
of  the  ordinary  markings,  of  gulfs,  canals,  &c,  as  disappearing 
at  a  given  moment,  for  their  places  to  be  taken  by  grotesque 
polygons  and  geminations  "which  evidently  approximately 
represent  the  earlier  state ;  but  it  is  a  gross,  and,  I  should 
say,  an  almost  ridiculous  mask." 


ASTRONOMICAL 
WEEK  18 


PHENOMENA    FOR 
58  OCTOBER  21-27. 


THE 


/"pOR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed. ) 


At  Greenzvich  on  October  21 

Sun  rises,  6h.  37m.  ;  souths,  nh.  44m.  35 "2s.  ;  sets,  i6h.  52m.  : 
right  asc.  on  meridian,  I3h.  460m.  ;  deck  io°  57'  S. 
Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  i8h.  54m. 

Moon  (Full  on  October  19,   2 ih.)  rises,    I7h.   43m.*;  souths, 


oh.    40m. ; 

sets,    7h.     50m.  :    right    asc.     on    meridian, 

2h.  39 -3m.  ; 

deck  io°  28'  N. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 

Planet.           Rises. 

Souths.             Sets.                          on  meridian. 

h.  m. 

h.    m.            h.    in.             h.       m.                0        , 

Mercury..     8  41 

...    12   56    ...    17    II    ...    14   577    ...    19   59  S. 

Venus   ...     9  13 

...    13    30    ...    17   47 

•  •   15  3i'9  -   19  38  S. 

Mars      ...    12  II 

...    15    52    ...    19   33 

..  17  54'i  ...  25     2  S. 

Jupiter  ...   10  10 

...    14    19    ...    l8   28 

..  16  20-4  ...  20  58  S. 

Saturn  ...   23  58* 

...      7    26    ...    14   54 

..     9  263  ...   18  58  N. 

Uranus...     5  37 

...   11     7  •••  16  37 

..  13    8-5  ...     6  37  S. 

Neptune..   18  14* 

...     2    0  ...     9  46 

..     4    01   ...   18  50  N. 

*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening. 

Occullations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 


angles  from  ver- 

Oct. 

Star. 

Mag.         Disap. 

Reap. 

tex  to  right  for 
inverted  image. 

h.    m. 

h.    m. 

n        „ 

23    •• 

S2  Tauri    ... 

..  6     ...     2  53  ... 

3  59 

...    156   274 

24    ■• 

X1  Orionis 

..  4^  ...   21     2   ... 

21  56 

...     39  264 

27    •• 

B.A.C.  2854  . 

..  6     ...  21  59  ... 

Meteor- Showers. 
R.A.         Decl. 

22  51 

...     46  239 

Near 

v  Orionis 

...     90'  ...   15  N. 

...     The  Orionia's. 

From 

Canis  Minor 

...    105   ...   12  N. 

...     Sw 

ft ;  streaks. 

»> 

Cancer 

...    133   ...   21  N. 

...     Very  swift. 

Star. 

U  Cephei     ...     . 

Algol    

S  Aurigae     ... 
R  Canis  Majoris. 
S  Hydrae 
U  Ophiuchi... 

R  Scuti         ...     . 

r)  Aquilae 

S  Sagittae     ...     . 

S  Delphini  ... 
T  Vulpeculse 
Y  Cygni 

R  Vulpeculoe 
T  Cephei 
5  Cephei 


Variable  Stars. 
R.A.  Decl. 

h.       m. 

o  52-4 


81   16  N. 


Oct. 


3    0-9  ...  40  31  N. 


5  197  •• 

7  14*5  •• 

8  477  .. 

17  io-9  .. 

18  41-5  .. 

19  46*8  .. 

19  509  .. 

20  37-9  .. 
20  467  .. 
20  47-6  .. 

20  59-4  .. 

21  81  .. 

22  25*0 


3N. 
12  S. 
30  N. 
20  N. 


5  5o  S. 

o  43  N- 
16  20  N. 

16  41  N. 
27  50  N. 
34  14  N. 

23  23  N. 
68  2  N. 
57  5*N. 


h. 

m. 

21, 

2 

51   m 

25. 

2 

30  m 

25. 

2 

51  m 

27, 

*3 

40  m 

24. 

M 

23. 

I 

59  m 

23. 

M 

21, 

30 

32  m 

26, 

21 

19  m 

25, 

m 

24, 

9 

0  m 

2S, 

1 

0  m 

26, 

I 

0  M 

26, 

M 

23. 

0 

0  m 

23, 

3 

0  m 

26, 

3 

0  m 

23. 

m 

23. 

m 

23> 

23 

O  M 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum. 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

To  the  October  number  of  Petennann's  Mitteilnngen,  Dr.  J. 
Hann  contributes  an  important  paper,  containing  a  resume  of 
data  on  the  temperature  and  rainfall  of  the  Japanese  islands, 
and  Dr.  F.  Boas  a  paper  of  a  similar  character  on  the  ice 
conditions  of  the  south-west  of  Baffin's  Bay. 

Captain  Wiggins  has  failed  to  accomplish  the  voyage  to 
the  Yenissei  along  the  north  coast  of  Europe  and  Asia — mainly, 
it  would  seem,  on  account  of  the  delay  caused  by  his  having  to 
wait  for  another  vessel  from  Europe.  Dr.  Torell,  the  well- 
known  Swedish  Arctic  explorer,  who  is  well  acquainted  with 
these  seas,  maintains  that  there  should  be  no  difficulty  in 
establishing  a  regular  communication  between  Europe  and 
Siberia  along  the  northeast  passage,  though  he  admits  that  it 
would  be  liable  to  interruption  about  once  in  five  years.  But  in 
order  to  insure  success  he  states  that  vessels  should  be  built 
specially  for  the  work,  and  that  they  should  go  out  early  in 
summer  and  take  up  their  post  on  the  west  side  of  Matotshkin 
Scharr,  in  Novaya  Zemlya,  to  be  ready  to  enter  the  Kara  Sea  as 
soon  as  ever  it  begins  to  clear  of  ice.  A  railway  across  Siberia, 
however,  should  serve  to  render  any  such  hazardous  trade-route 
unnecessary,  and  such  a  railway  is  sure  to  be  constructed  soon. 

A  CENSUS  of  the  illiterates  in  the  various  countries  of  the 
world  recently  published  in  the  Statistische  Monatschrift,  places 
the  three  Sclavic  States  of  Roumania,  Servia,  and  Russia,  at  the 
head  of  the  list,  with  about  80  per  cent,  of  the  population 
unable  to  read  and  write.  Of  the  Latin-speaking  races,  Spain 
heads  the  list  with  63  per  cent.,  followed  by  Italy  with  48  per 
cent.,  France  and  Belgium  having  about  15  per  cent.  The 
illiterates  in  Hungary  number  43  per  cent.,  in  Austria  39,  and  in 
Ireland  21.  In  England  we  find  13  per  cent.,  Holland  10  per 
cent.,  United  States  (white  population)  8  percent.,  and  Scotland 
7  per  cent,  unable  to  read  and  wriie.  When  we  come  to  the 
purely  Teutonic  States,  we  find  a  marked  reduction  in  the 
percentage  of  illiterates.  The  highest  is  in  Switzerland,  2*5  ; 
in  the  whole  German  Empire  it  is  1  per  cent.  ;  in  Sweden, 
Denmark,  Bavaria,  Baden,  and  Wiirtemberg,  there  is  practically 
no  one  who  cannot  read  and  write. 

In  the  October  number  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Royal 
Geographical  Society,  the  Shah  of  Persia  appears  as  a  geo- 
grapher. In  a  paper,  annotated  by  General  Houtum-Schindler, 
His  Majesty  describes  simply,  but  clearly,  the  results  of  his  own 
observations  on  a  new  lake,  between  Kom  and  Teheran,  or 
rather  the  reappearance  of  an  old  lake,  which  is  said  to  have 
dried  up  in  1357.  Whatever  may  be  the  history  of  the  lake, 
there  seems  little  doubt  that  at  one  time  a  large  part  of  Central 
Persia  was  covered  with  water.  Mr.  H.  H.  Johnston  con- 
tributes a  short  study,  from  his  own  observations,  of  what  he 
calls  the  Bantu  Borderland  in  West  Africa,  which  is  accompanied 
by  a  map  showing  the  boundaries  of  the  Bantu  and  Semi-Bantu 
races,  and  also  the  coutses  of  migration  of  the  two.  Another 
important  paper,  accompanied  by  a  map,  is  a  translation,  by 
Miss  Hay,  of  Tashkent,  of  a  description  of  the  destructive  earth- 
quakes of  May  and  June  1887,  in  the  Vernoe  district  of  Russian 
Turkestan.  Captain  Wharton's  paper  on  Christmas  Island  is 
given  at  length. 


602 


NA  TURE 


{Oct.  18,  1888 


NOTES   ON  METEORITES} 

V. 

'\7^7E   shall   see   next   that    another  line  of  thought    and    in- 

.  quiry  was  required  to  completely  establish  the  cosmical 

hypothesis  by  giving  us  data  as  to  the  velocities  of  the  meteorites. 

This  was  that  the  sporadic  meteors,  those  which  made  their 
appearance  by  chance,  so  to  speak,  were  always  more  numerous 
in  the  morning  than  in  the  evening  hours,  and  further  that  the 
numbers  seen  in  the  northern  hemisphere  in  one  half  year  was 
greater  than  that  seen  in  the  other.  These  facts,  although  at  first 
theyseemedto  connect  these  phenomena  with  our  terrestrial  hours, 
and  therefore  were  at  first  considered  to  militate  against  the  cosmi- 
cal hypothesis,  were  subsequently  shown,  byBompas,  A.  S.  Her- 
schel,  H.  A.  Newton,  and  Schiaparelli,  to  be  a  distinct  proof  that 
the  bodies  were  moving  in  space  with  a  velocity  not  incomparable 
with,  but  at  the  same  time  somewhat  greater  than,  that  of  the 
earth  itself ;  that  therefore  they  were  moving  with  planetary 
velocities,  and  therefore  were  truly  members  of  the  solar  system. 

The  work  of  M.  Coulvier-Gravier2  was  the  first  to  indicate 
the  extreme  regularity  with  which  the  numbers  increased  from 
sunset  to  sunrise,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  accompanying  table  :  — 


Time  of 

Observation. 

5  p.m.-  6  p.m. 

6  p.m.-  7  p.m. 

7  p.m.-  8  p.m. 

8  p.m.-  9  p.m. 

9  p.m. -10  p.m. 
to  p.m. -1 1  p.m. 
II  p.m. -1 2 


Number  seen 
per  hour. 

7-2 

6-5 
70 

6-3 
7-9 

8-o 

9-5 


Time  of 
Observation. 

12  -I  a.m. 

1  a.m. -2  a.m. 

2  a.m. -3  a.m. 

3  a.m. -4  a.m. 

4  a.m. -5  a.m. 

5  a.m. -6  a.m. 

6  a.m. -7  a.m. 


Number  seen 
per  hour. 

...  107 

...  I3-I 

...  16-8 

...  156 

...   13-8 

•••    137 
...    13-0 


It  was  the  dependence  of  these  phenomena  upon  certain  ter- 
restrial hours  which  made  that  eminent  observer  decline  to 
consider  their  origin  as  in  any  way  cosmical. 

Mr.  Bompas,3  commenting  on  the  numbers  obtained  by 
Coulvier-Gravier,  wrote — • 

"  The  part  of  the  heavens  towards  which  the  earth  is  moving 
at  any  time  is  always  six  hours  from  the  sun.  At  6  a.m.  the 
observer's  meridian  is  in  the  direction  of  the  earth's  motion  ;  and 
at  6  p.m.  in  the  opposite. 

"  Thus  the  greatest  number  of  meteors  are  encountered  when 
the  observer's  meridian  is  in  the  direction  of  the  earth's  motion, 
and  the  number  diminishes  from  thence  to  6  p.m.,  when  he 
looks  the  opposite  way." 

The  accompanying  wood-cut  will  make  this  clear.  The  front 
half  of  the  earth  ploughing  its  way  through  space  is  unshaded  ;  an 
observer  is  being  carried  along  the  line  of  the  earth's  motion  at 
sunrise,  the  earth  is  behind  him,  so  to  speak,  and  the  point 
towards  which  the  earth  is  travelling  lies  90°  in  longitude  behind 
the  sun. 

Combining  these  facts,  Bompas  explained  the  results  on  the  prin- 
ciple that  if  the  meteors  be  distributed  equally  in  space  they 
would  converge  to  the  earth,  if  at  rest,  equally  on  all  sides.  But 
if  the  earth  be  in  motion,  and  with  a  velocity  one-half  the 
average  velocity  of  the  meteors,  they  would  converge  to  it  more 
on  the  side  towards  which  it  is  moving  than  the  other  :  and  in 
the  proportion  of  nearly  two-thirds  of  the  number,  would  have 
an  apparent  motion  more  or  less  opposed  to  that  of  the  earth, 
and  apparently  diverging  from  the  point  towards  which  the  earth 
is  moving,  with  a  gradual  increase  in  number  from  6  p.m.  to 
6  a.m. 

Before  we  proceed  to  show  the  bearing  of  this  matter,  a  word 
must  be  said  with  regard  to  the  actual  conditions  under  which 
these  bodies  reach  us  from  space,  and  how  the  fall  of  these 
bodies  upon  the  earth  and  their  appearance  in  the  heavens  even 
in  the  case  of  no  fall  have  been  investigated. 

To  approach  the  proof  of  the  cosmical  hypothesis  afforded 
by  these  observations,  we  may  begin  by  supposing  the  earth  at 
rest.  If  the  movements  of  the  cosmical  particles  are  in  all  direc- 
tions, they  will  fall  equally  on  all  parts  of  the  earth,  and  even 
the  earth's  rotation  will  make  no  difference.  .But  if  we  assume 
the  earth's  movement  in  its  orbit  to  be  much  more  rapid  than 
the  movements  of  the  meteorites,  it  is  clear  that  its  forward  half 
will  receive  blows  while  the  hinder  half  cannot. 

Suppose  that  all  the  regions  of  space  swept  through  by  the 
earth  in  its  orbit  round  the  sun  were  occupied  here  and  there  by 

1  Continued  from  p.  559. 

2  "  Recherches  sur  les  Meteores,"  p.  219  (Paris,  1859). 

3  Monthly  Nances,  vol.  xvii.  p.  148. 


meteorites,  also  like  the  earth  moving  in  orbits  round  the  sun, 
and  let  us  assume  for  the  moment  that  they  are  pretty  nearly 
equally  distributed  and  are  moving  in  all  directions. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  earth  in  movement  in  its  orbit, 
at  the  rate  of  about  1000  miles  a  minute,  would  be  sweeping 
through  them  all  the  year  round,  and  we  should  get  the  appear- 
ance of  a  shooting-star  or  the  fall  of  a  meteorite  every  day  in 
the  year.  Careful  observations  in  climates  most  convenient  for 
these  researches,  where  the  sky  is  freest  from  cloud  and  is  purest, 
show,  as  we  have  seen,  that  there  is  not  only  no  night  but  no 
hour  without  a  falling  star.  We  are  therefore  justified  in  con 
sidering  that  practically  the  part  of  the  solar  system  which  is 
swept  through  by  the  earth  is  not  a  vacuum,  not  empty  space, 
but  space  peopled  with  meteorites  here  and  there. 

If  these  meteoritic  bodies  are  equally  distributed  and  are  going 
in  the  same  direction  as  the  earth,  but  moving  more  quickly, 
they  would  follow  and  catch  the  earth  ;  if  they  were  travelling  in 
the  same  direction  as  the  earth,  but  more  slowly,  we  should  over- 
take them,  and  the  two  sides  of  the  earth  separated  by  a  plane  at 


-^                                                                   APEX      OF 

"SC..                                                     EARTH'S  WAY 

\  *  \  \ 

/t\ 

/^~ 

SUNRISE 

v_y.    . 

EARTH^Hf 

IJPJ 

SUN 

•                          / 

/ 

SUNSET 

' -^^                                             ANTI- 

APEX 

Fig.  10. 

right  angles  to  the  tangent  to  the  part  of  the  orbit  along  which  it  is 
moving  at  the  time  (see  Fig.  10)  would  experience  a  different  con- 
dition. One  side  would  be  bombarded  by  the  greater  number  of 
meteorites  in  the  former  case,  while  in  the  latter  the  forward 
half  only  would  be  affected.  The  assumption,  however,  is  that 
they  are  travelling  in  all  directions  ;  hence  the  numbers  which 
fall  on  the  front  hemisphere  compared  with  those  that  fall  on  the 
opposite  one — in  other  words,  the  numbers  seen  at  sunrise  as 
compared  with  those  seen  at  sunset — -must  depend  wholly  on  the 
velocity  of  the  earth  as  compared  with  the  mean  velocity  of  the 
meteorites. 

The  point  of  space  towards  which  the  earth  is  travelling  at 
any  moment,  shown  in  Fig.  10,  has  been  called  "the  apex  of 
the  earth's  way  "  ;  the  point  of  space  it  is  leaving  the  "anti- 
apex.  " 1 

1  These  terms  were  suggested  by  Prof.  Pritchard.  In  1866,  Schia- 
parelli suggested  point  de  mire.  Quite  recently,  Prof.  Newton,  of  Yale, 
has  suggested  "goal"  and  "quit." 


Oct.  1 8,  1888] 


NATURE 


603 


The  apex  of  the  earth's  way  is  always  900  of  longitude  behind 
the  sun. 

Having,  then,  this  general  view  of  the  movement  of  the  earth 
in  her  orbit,  we  are  in  a  position  to  discuss  Mr.  Bompas's  argu- 
ment, and  we  cannot  do  better  than  use  the  explanation  given 
by  Prof.  Pritchar  1  to  the  Royal  Astronomical  Society  in  1864,1 
which  really  possesses  an  historical  interest. 

"Our  object  is  to  show  that  this  hypothetical  uniformity  of  dis- 
tribution, combined  with  the  direction  and  amount  of  the  earth's 
motion,  will  have  a  very  sensible  effect  on  the  number  of  meteors 
actually  visible  at  a  given  place,  at  a  given  hour  of  the  night,  as 
explained  (in  a  somewhat  different  way)  by  Mr.  Bompas  [and  at 
a  given  season  of  the  year,  as  extended  by  Mr.  Herschel]. 

"For  the  purpose  of  illustration,  suppose  H  o  R  (Fig.  11)  to 
represent  a  flat  umbrella,  of  which  N  o  is  the  stick  ;  suppose, 
also,  rain  to  fall  upon  it  equally,  and  in  all  directions  :  then,  if 
the  umbrella  be  at  rest,  as  much  rain  will  fall  upon  its  front, 
looking  from  z,  as  on  its  back,  from  N. 

"  But  now  suppose  the  umbrella  itself  has  a  motion  from  o  to 
Ein  a  given  time,  and,  for  the  simplicity  of  first  conception,  let 
o  E  represent  also  the  uniform  velocity  of  the  rain  :  very  much 
more  rain  will  now  fall  on  the  front  of  11  o  R,  and  much  less  on 
the  bat'k  of  H  o  k,  than  before.     In  fact,  if  o  m  be  taken  =  o  E, 


Fig.  11. 

and  the  angle  m  o  R  be  made  =  ROE,  and  the  parallelogram 
tn  E  be  complete  1,  then  a  raindrop,  of  which  w's  real  path  is 
M  E,  would,  by  the  motion  of  n  o  K,  just  graze  along  the  front 
surface  of  H  o  R  in  the  direction  M  R  o,  when  it  arrives  at  E. 
Moreover,  all  the  rain  which  at  the  beginning  of  the  motion 
was  moving  within  the  angle  m  o  r,  which  would  have  fallen  on 
the  back  of  H  o  R  at  rest,  will  now  fall  on  the  front  of  ho  r,  if 
in  motion. 

"  The  application  of  this  hypothetical  case  to  that  of  meteors  is 
obvious,  hok  now  represents  the  horizon,  z  the  zenith  of  an 
observer,  and  o  E  the  direction  and  magnitude  of  the  earth's 
orbital  motion.  The  earth's  diurnal  motion  of  rotation  is  com- 
paratively too  small  to  be  taken  into  account  for  our  present 
purposes.  So  long,  then,  as  OE,  the  direction  of  the  earth's 
orbital  motion,  is  in  front  of  the  horizon  of  an  observer,  there 
will  thereby  occur  to  him  an  additional  flow  (and  partial  com- 
bustion) of  meteors  against  the  earth's  atmosphere  above  him  ; 
and  this  increased  flow  will  become  the  greater  as  the  angle 
ROE  becomes  greater.  If  o  E  be  below  it  0  R.  then  the  number 
of  visible  meteors  will  thereby  be  diminished.'' 

Now,  if  we  refer  to  Fig.  10  we  shall  see  that  the  observer  does 
not  reach  the  forward  part  of  the  earth  (with  reference  to  the 
apex  of  the  earth's  way)  till  midnight,  and  that  the  apex  rises 
gradually  till  it  is  on  his  meridian  at  sunrise. 

■    '  Monthly  Xo'.ius,  1864,  vol.  xxiv.  p.  133. 


Here,  then,  is  the  reason  why  the  number  increases  from  sun- 
set to  sunrise,  based  upon  the  theory  of  their  cosmical  origin, 
and  really  explainable  in  no  other  way. 

>  >>w  for  the  yearly  conditions  as  revealed  by  observation. 

Dr.  Julius  Schmidt,  the  Director  of  the  Observatory  at  Athens, 
observed,  between  the  north  latitudes  of  49°'5  and  54°*2,  during 
eight  years  from  1843  to  '850,  on  an  average  470  meteors  in 
every  year.  These  were  distributed  among  the  several  months 
as  follows,  taking  an  average  of  the  entire  series  : — 


Month. 

July  ... 
August  ... 
September 
October... 
November 
December 

January  ... 

February 

March    ... 

April 

May 

June 


Shooting- 

starv 

Total 
Shooting-stars. 

49 
188 

4i 
37 

...   400 

54 
3i 

J 

17 

) 

5 

11 
n 

...      70 

12 

'4 

Total 


470 


Prof.  A.  Herschel  was  the  first  to  point  out  that  this  yearly 
difference,  as  well  as  the  daily  difference  in  the  hourly  numbers, 
arrived  at  by  Coulvier-Gravier,  demonstrated  the  cosmical 
origin. 

In  1864  he  wrote  as  follows,  assuming  that  the  meteorites 
travelled  faster  than  the  earth: — l 

"A  season  of  frequency  of  aerolites,  shooting-stars,  and  bolides, 
must  be  expected  to  succeed,  in  all  latitudes,  three  months  later 
than  the  summer  season  of  the  sun  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  a 
dearth  of  meteors,  in  the  spring,  one  quarter  of  a  year  later  than 
mid-winter.  In  general,  and  in  all  latitudes,  the  meteoric  seasons, 
or  seasons  of  meteoric  frequency,  must  strictly  follow  the  tropical 
seasons,  and  three  months  later  in  the  year.  Thus,  in  the  earth's 
northern  hemisphere,  the  Northern  Pole  remains  directed  to  the 
sun  from  the  equinox  of  March  until  that  of  September,  and  to 
the  course  of  meteors  from  the  solstice  of  June  to  the  solstice  of 
December.  The  greatest  frequency  of  the  meteorites  will  fall 
about  the  equinox  of  autumn,  in  September  and  October.  This 
most  nearly  agrees  with  the  European  observations.  The  meteoric 
season  of  Arago  may,  therefore,  be  drawn  as  a  consequence  from 
his  planetary  hypothesis,  if  it  be  permitted  to  change  the  li  nits 
which  he  assigns  to  it  by  a  small  quantity — namely,  from  the 
Earth's  apsides  to  its  solstices  in  its  orbit. 

"The  same  fact,  which  appears  strongly  marked  with  regard  to 
shooting-stars  in  the  eight  years'  summary  of  Dr.  Schmidt,  is 
found  repeated  in  a  striking  manner  in  the  existing  '  Northern 
Catalogues  of  Star-showers,  Fire-balls,  and  Aeroliths.'  The 
following  references  may  be  taken  as  examples  : — 

Number —  Number — 

Appearances.  July  to  December.    January  to  Jjne. 

Star-showers  from  1800  B.C. 


In  M.  Quetelet's  catalogue 
("Physiquedu Globe,"  1861)  \ 
Aerolitic  meteors,  from  the 
Christian  era.  In  Mr. 
Greg's  catalogue  (British 
Assoc.  Report,  i860)  .  . 
Large  and  small  fire-balls. 
In  same  catalogue  {ibid.)    . 


72 


216 


843 


28 


553-' 


It  was  now  pointed  out,  by  Newton2  and  Schiaparelli,3  that, 
provided  the  actual  facts  of  the  daily  and  yearly  variation  were 
sufficiently  assured,  the  true  velocities  of  these  bodies  in  space 
could  not  be  just  simply  similar  to  the  earth's  velocity,  nor  their 
paths  in  space  planetary  orbits  like  that  of  the  earth,  and  of 
about  the  same  dimensions  ;  but  that  as  their  motion  was  much 
faster  their  orbits  would  be  variously  distributed  parabolas,  and 
they  would  consequently  be  more  akin  to  comets. 

That  the  movement  was  really  much  faster  was   argued  in 

1   Monihiy  Xotkcs,  vol.  xxiv. 

3  Sillittian's  Journal,    vol.   xxxix.,     1865;     Nat.    Acad.   Sci.,    vol.    i. ; 
An  111a ire  de  V Observaloire  de  Bruxelles,   i856,  p.   201. 
3  Los  liondes,  vol.  xiii. 


604 


NA  TURE 


{Oct.  1 8,  1888 


1865,  from  the  duration  of  the  flight  of  shooting-stars,  by  Prof. 
Newton.1 

From  Wartmann's  observations  of  the  duration  of  the  flights  of 
368  shooting-stars  at  Geneva  during  one  night  by  six  observers, 
a  mean  was  found  of  0*495.  for  each  flight.  The  mean  of  499 
estimates  made  in  August  and  November  1864  is  o*4l8s.  The 
mean  duration  of  the  867  flights  iso*45s. 

Prof.  Newton  remarks  : — "A  mean  duration  of  half  a  second, 
and  a  mean  length  of  path  between  39  and  65  kilometres,  imply 
a  mean  velocity  between  78  and  130  kilometres  per  second.  The 
smallest  of  these  (more  than  48  miles)  is  twice  and  a  half  the 
velocity  of  the  earth  in  its  orbit  about  the  sun.  This  cannot  con- 
sist with  the  supposition  that  most  of  the  meteoroids  move  in 
closed  orbits  about  the  sun." 

Both  the  briefness,  however,  of  this  assumed  duration,  and 
even  the  least  limit,  accordingly,  of  the  velocity  so  found,  were 
presumed  by  Prof.  Newton  to  be  probably  overrated. 

The  final  step  in  this  demonstration  was  taken  by  Schiapa- 
relli,  but  before  this  Newton  had  distinctly  shown  that  most  of 
the  meteors  visible  were  not  single  in  their  movements  round 
the  sun,  but  that  they  belonged  to  systematic  streams  and  that 
these  streams  were  not  rings. 

With  special  reference  to  the  November  ring,  Prof.  Schiapa- 
relli'-' came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  orbit,  instead  of  being 
nearly  circular,  as  Newton  had  at  first  supposed,  was  very 
elongated,  like  those  of  comets  ;  and  Prof.  Adams :!  demon- 
strated shortly  afterwards  that,  among  several  possible  periods  of 
the  stream  which  Prof.  Newton  had  already  indicated,  the  true 
period  was  33*25  years,  the  demonstration  depending  upon  the 
increase  of  the  longitude  of  the  node  by  the  action  of  the  planets 
Jupiter,  Saturn,  and  Uranus,  the  calculated  increase  amounting 
to  28',  while  the  actual  increase  was  29',  and  he  gave  the 
following  elements  of  the  orbit  of  the  swarm — 


Period 

Mean  distance 
Eccentricity 
Perihelion  distance... 
Inclination   ... 
Longitude  of  node  ... 
Distance  of  perihelion  from  node... 
Motion  retrograde. 


33*25  years  (assumed) 
10*3402 
0*9047 

o*9855 
1 6°  46' 
57-28 
651 


Aided  by  considerations  suggested  by  observations  of  the 
conditions  under  which  the  meteors  were  observed — from  a 
particular  part  of  the  sky,  in  a  particular  part  of  the  earth's 
orbit,  at  a  particular  time  and  from  a  particular  point  of  the 
earth's  surface,,  we  can  understand  at  once  that  it  was  as  practic- 
able to  determine  the  orbit  of  the  swarm  as  it  is  to  determine 
the  orbit  of  a  planet  or  of  a  comet. 

The  final  step  taken  by  Schiaparelli,  to  which  we  have 
referred,  was  a  demonstration  that  the  orbits  of  certain  of  these 
streams  or  swarms,  to  which  reference  has  been  made,  were 
really  identical  with  the  elements  of  known  comets. 

Schiaparelli  computed  the  elements  of  the  orbit  of  the  August 
meteors,  supposing  them  to  be  moving  along  a  cometary  or 
parabolic  orbit.  For  his  calculations  the  data  were  the  radiant 
in  R.A.  440,  N.  Decl.  56°,  the  time  of  the  earth  passing  near  the 
centre  of  the  group  in  1866,  August  10*75.  With  the  elements 
thus  obtained  he  found  those  of  the  comet  1862  III.,  accord- 
ing to  the  latest  determinations  by  Oppolzer,4  to  be  nearly 
identical,  as  is  seen  in  the  following  statement : — ■ 


Long,  of  perihelion 
Long,  of  node 
Inclination 
Perihelion  distance 

Motion 

Perihelion  passage 
Period    


Elements  of 
August  Meteors. 

•  •      U3  38 

..    138  16 

64     3 
..      0-9643 
..    retrograde 
..    July  23*62 


Elements  of 
Comet  1862  III. 


344  41 
137   27 

66  25 

09626 

retrograde 

Aug.  22-9,  i860 

123*4  years 

As  remarked  by  Prof.  Newton,5  we  come  thus  to  the  un- 
expected conclusion  that  the  comet  of  1862  is  nothing  else  than 
one  of  the  August  meteoroids,  and  probably  the  largest  of  them  all. 

Silliman's  Journal,  vol.  xxxix.  p.  203. 
'■ 'Bulletino  Meteorologico  dell'  Osservatorio  del  Collegio  Romano,  vol.  v. 
i860. 

3  Monthly  Notices,  vol.  xxvi.  p.  247,  April  1867. 

4  Astr.  Nach  ,  No.  1384.  3  Silliman's  Journal,  vol.  xliii.,  !867. 


When  this  relation  of  the  comet  of  1862  with  the  August 
meteors  was  discovered  by  Schiaparelli,  no  comet  was  known 
having  similar  relations  with  the  November  meteors.  Oppolzer, 
however,  shortly  after,1  published  a  corrected  orbit  of  comet 
1866  I.,  and  the  resemblance  of  its  elements  to  those  of  the  orbit 
of  the  November  group  was  at  once  obvious,  and  attracted  the 
attention  of  several  astronomers.2  The  following  table  gives  the 
details  : — 3 


Nov.  Meteors. 

Comet  1861  I. 

Perihelion  passage  .. 

.  Nov.  10*092,  1866  ... 

fan.  11*160,  1866 

Passage  of  descend- 

ing node 

•        „       I3-576 

Long,  of  Perih. 

5°6  25*9 

60  28-0 

,,     ,,     asc.  node .. 

231    282 

231  261 

Inclination        

17   44'5 

17  i8*i 

Perihelion  distance  .. 

09873 

09765 

Eccentricity 

0-9046 

09054 

Semi-major  axis 

10-340 

10-324 

Periodic  time    

33-250 

33-I76 

Motion      

retrograde 

retrograde 

Since  this  discovery  of  Schiaparelli's,  one  by  one  the  various 
star  showers  have  been  shown  to  be  due  to  meteorite  swarms 
pursuing  generally  elliptic  orbits  round  the  sun,  which  orbits  are 
identical  with  those  of  various  known  comets.  Hence  each 
"  radiant  point  "  is  already,  or  will  subsequently  be,  associated 
with  a  comet. 

Distribution  of  Meteorites  in  the  Solar  System. 

The  vide  planetaire  is  now  ultimately  abolished,  and  we  find 
the  solar  system  to  be  a  meteoritic  plenum  in  which  sporadic 
meteorites  and  swarms  of  greater  or  less  density  are  moving  in 
orbits  more  or  less  elongated  round  the  sun. 

The  demonstration  that  meteorites  are  extra  terrestrial  bodies 
has  been  followed  by  researches  which,  as  they  have  become 
more  complete  and  searching,  have  gradually  driven  men  of 
science  to  increase  their  estimates,  till  at  last  the  numbers  acknow- 
ledged to  exist  in  what  was  formerly  supposed  to  be  empty  space 
have  become  enormous. 

First  as  to  the  sporadic  meteorites. 

Observations  of  sporadic  falling  stars  have  been  used  to  deter- 
mine the  average  number  of  meteorites  which  attempt  to 
pierce  the  earth's  atmosphere  during  each  twenty-four  hours. 
Dr.  Schmidt,  of  Athens,  from  observations  made  during  seven- 
teen years,  found  that  the  mean  hourly  number  of  luminous 
meteors  visible  on  a  clear  moonless  night  by  one  observer 
was  fourteen,  taking  the  time  of  observation  from  midnight 
to  1  a.m. 

It  has  been  further  experimentally  shown  that  a  large  group 
of  observers  who  might  include  the  whole  horizon  in  their 
observations  would  see  about  six  times  as  many  as  are  visible  to 
one  eye.  '  Prof.'H.  A.  Newton  and  others  have  calculated  that 
making  all  proper  corrections  the  number  which  might  be  visible 
over  the  whole  earth  would  be  a  little  greater  than  10,000  times 
as  many  as  could'  be  seen  at  one  place.  From  this  we  gather- 
that  not  less  than  20,000,000  luminous  meteors  fall  upon  our 
planet  daily,  each  of  which  in  a  dark  clear  night  would  present 
us  with  the  well-known  phenomenon  of  a  shooting-star. 

This  number,  however,  by  no  means  represents  the  total 
number  of  sporadic  meteorites  that  enter  our  atmosphere,  because 
many  entirely  invisible  to  the  naked  eye  are  often  seen  in 
telescopes.  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  number  of  meteorites 
if  these  were  included  would  be  increased  at  least  twenty-fold  ; 
this  would  give  us  400,000,000  of  meteorites  falling  in  the  earth's 
atmosphere  daily. 

If  we  consider  only  those  meteorites  visible  to  the  naked  eye 
as  sporadic  meteors  or  falling  stars,  and  if  we  further  assume 
that  their  absolute  velocity  in  space  is  equal  to  that  of  comets 
moving  in  parabolic  orbits,  Prof.  H.  A.  Newton  has  shown  that 
the  average  number  of  meteorites  in  the  space  that  the  earth 
traverses  is  in  each  volume  equal  to  the  earth  about  30,000.  This 
gives  us  as  a  result  in  round  numbers  that  the  meteorites  are  dis- 
tributed each  250  miles  away  from  its  neighbours.4 

1  Astr.  Nach.,  No.  1624. 

2  Peters,  Astr.  Nach.,  No.  1624;  Oppolzer,  ibid.,  No.  1626;  Schiaparelli, 
ibid. 

3  Bulletino  Meteor.,  February  28,  1867. 

4  Article  "Meteorites,"  Prof.  Newton,  "  Encyclopaedia  Britannica," 
9th  edition,  vol.  xvi.  ;  and  "Abstract  of  a  Memoir  on  bhooting-Stars,"  by 
Prof.  Newton  {Silliman's  Journal,  vol.  xxxix.,  1865). 


Oct.  1 8,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


605 


Next  as  to  systematic  meteorites,  those,  that  is,  that  are  massed 
in  .swarms. 

Much  still  remains  to  be  done  before  their  greater  density  is 
known.  Prof.  Newton  has  calculated  that  in  the  liiela  swarm 
the  meteorites  are  thirty  miles  apart. 

J.  Norman  Lockyer. 

{To  be  continued.) 


DR.  JANSSEN  ON  THE  SPECTRUM  OE 
OXYGEN. 

""PIiE  following  is  an  abstract  of  the  account  given  by  M. 
Janssen,  in  Section  A  of  the  Blitish  Association, 
of  his  researches  into  the  different  forms  of  oxygen,  in  the 
direction  of  an  inquiry  into  the  molecular  constitution  of  that 
element.  These  experiments  have  been  made  in  the  labora- 
tory which  has  been  organized  under  Dr.  Janssen's  supervision, 
and  at  the  expense  of  the  French  Government,  at  Meudon.  The 
hall  in  which  the  observations  have  been  carried  out  is  100 
metres  in  length.  It  contains  every  requisite  for  studying  the 
optical  properties  of  gases  ;  principally  instruments  so  con- 
structed that  a  long  column  of  gas  may  be  examined  under  a 
high  pressure.  One  of  these  is  a  set  of  steel  tubes  varying  in 
length  from  0*42  metres  to  60  metres,  terminated  at  each  end 
by  a  glass  plate,  perpendicular  to  their  axes,  and  constructed  to 
resist  a  pressure  of  200  atmospheres.  The  chief  result  of  this 
work  was  the  discovery  of  a  new  law  of  the  selective  absorption 
by  oxygen  of  any  beam  of  light,  quite  independently  of  its  origin, 
whether  from  the  sun  or  the  electric  light.  It  was  proved  that 
oxygen  produces  two  kinds  of  absorption-phenomena  on  the 
spectrum  of  the  light — first,  the  known  rays  ;  and,  secondly,  a 
system  of  dark  bands  which  had  not,  up  to  this  time,  been 
noticed.  M.  Janssen  has  demonstrated  that  the  intensity  of  the 
rays  varies  as  the  products  of  the  length  of  the  column  into  the 
density ;  while  that  of  the  bands  varies  as  the  products  of  the 
length  of  the  column  into  the  square  of  the  density.  The  prin- 
cipal results  obtained  by  M.  Janssen  are  best  displayed  in  the 
following  table  : — 


Metres. 
60 
20 

5 

i'47 
o75 
0*42 


Atmospheres, 
6 

10  to  12 
23 
38 

501055 
70  to  75 


Atmospheres. 

Atmospheres 

6 

6 

104 

18 

207 

72 

38-3 

240 

53-6 

480 

717 

858 

1.  Length  of  the  tube. 

2.  Pressure  observed. 

3.  Pressure  calculated  by  formula  Ld-  (product  of  length 
of  column  into  the  square  of  the  density). 

4.  Pressure  calculated  by  the  formula  Ld. 

These  numbers  are  fixed  by  the  point  at  which  the  band  in 
the  yellow  first  appears,  this  phenomenon  supplying  the  standard 
term  of  comparison.  It  is  easy  to  see  how  nearly  the  observed 
results  in  the  second  column  agree  with  the  figures  in  the 
third,  and  how  far  they  differ  from  those  in  the  fourth. 
The  law  of  the  square  has  been  discovered  by  an  analytical 
method,  which  will  be  published  in  full  in  the  Proceedings  of 
the  British  Association.  Dr.  Janssen  has  proved  the  exact- 
ness of  this  law  in  its  application  to  the  oxygen  contained  in  the 
atmosphere,  in  measuring  the  altitude  of  the  sun  necessary  for 
the  first  appearance  of  the  band.  He  verified  the  same  law  by 
experiments  on  oxygen  in  its  liquid  state,  and  found  that  a 
thickness  of  4  to  5  millimetres  was  sufficient.  •  The  correctness 
of  this  law  must  be  considered  as  valid  from  o  to  700  atmo- 
spheres. For  the  flutings  of  the  group  B  the  law  of  variation 
according  to  the  formula  Ld  has  been  verified  from  o  to  100 
atmospheres  by  direct  observation  of  the  tubes.  It  is  curious  to 
notice  how  by  the  systematic  variation  of  length  of  column  and 
density  it  is  possible  to  obtain  either  lines  without  ban  Is, 
bands  without  lines,  or  bands  and  lines  together.  Among  the 
astronomical  applications  of  this  law  it  is  noted  that  a 
nebula  which  might  have  a  diameter  of  2000  times  the  distance 
of  the  earth  from  the  sun,  containing  oxygen  at  a  density  of 
one-millionth  of  an  atmosphere,  could  be  traversed  by  the  light 
of  a  star  without  causing  the  appearance  of  oxygen-bands  in  the 
spectrum.  M.  Janssen  stated  that  he  is  still  pursuing  these 
investigations,   and   others   attendant   thereon,   relative    to    the 


molecular    construction   of    oxygen    and    its    presence    in    the 
atmosphere  of  the  planets. 

At  the  conclusion  of  Dr.  Janssen's  paper,  Sir  Wm.  Thomson 
recapitulated  the  main  facts  to  the  audience,  stating  his  opinion 
that  the  discovery  of  the  law  of  the  square  of  the  density  was  a 
most  brilliant  achievement. 


THE  GROWTH  OF  ROOT-CROPS.1 

"T"IIIS  is  a  pamphlet  of  extremely  closely  written  matter, 
-1  which  purports  to  be  a  lecture  delivered  on  July  27,  1887, 
to  agricultural  students  in  Cirencester  College.  Viewing  it  as  a 
lecture  we  should  accord  it  qualified  praise,  because  a  lecture 
must  be  regarded  as  oral  instruction,  and  ought  to  be  sufficiently 
dilute  and  sufficiently  moist  to  allow  of  the  process  of  mental 
deglutition.  The  pamphlet  is  really  a  treatise  upon  the  effect  of 
fertilizers  on  the  growth  of  roots  and  their  composition,  and  it 
would  be  presumption  on  our  part  to  do  more  than  bow  respect- 
ful acquiescence  to  each  statement  made  by  so  learned  and  so 
experienced  a  specialist. 

Dr.  Gilbert  has  studied  turnips  ever  since  1843,  and  probably 
long  before  then,  and  his  knowledge  of  their  habits,  their  require- 
ments, and  their  uses,  is  unequalled  by  that  of  anyone  else  in  this 
country.  Anyone  who  will  read  through  the  pamphlet  now  before 
us  will  find  his  ideas  with  regard  to  these  esculents  enlarged  and 
dignified.  Dr.  Gilbert  chiefly  treats  his  subject  from  a  chemical 
point  of  view — the  fertilizers  best  suited  for  producing  a  crop, 
and  the  composition  of  the  crop  after  it  is  grown.  The  extra- 
ordinary dependence  of  the  turnip  upon  artificial  help  is  shown 
by  many  tables,  and  the  erroneous  idea  that  the  turnip  acts  as  a 
renovator  or  restorer  of  fertility  is  exposed  and  disproved.  If  any 
crop  is  capable  of  completely  exhausting  a  soil  of  all  its  available 
fertility,  it  is  a  turnip  crop  manured  with  superphosphate  of  lime. 
So  far  from  being  a  renovator  it  is  a  waster.  Still,  circumstances 
control  cases,  and  the  special  circumstances  which  accompany 
turnip  cultivation  are  of  an  ameliorating  sort.  True,  if  your 
turnip  is  sold  off  the  farm  it  may  be  looked  upon  by  the  landowner 
as  a  burglar  making  off  with  his  goods  and  chattels,  but  con- 
sumed "on  the  premises"  it  yields  up  its  wealth  and  becomes 
beneficent.  Like  John  Barleycorn,  it  springs  up  again  after  ever 
such  rough  usage,  and  its  spirit  lives  in  succeeding  corn  crops. 

The  superiority  of  swedes  over  turnips  is  shown  by  the  much 
smaller  proportion  of  leaf  existing  in  them  in  comparison  with 
white  turnips  ;  and  also  in  the  larger  proportion  of  dry  matter 
in  the  root.  White  turnips,  especially  when  dressed  with  nitro- 
genous matter,  gave  600  parts  in  weight  of  leaf  to  1000  of  root. 
Swedes  gave  under  similar  circumstances  228  parts  of  leaf  to 
1000  of  root.     White  turnips  were  found  to  contain  from  7 '66  to 

8  "54  per  cent,  of  dry  matter,  while  swedes  contained  from  10*83 
to  1 2 '04  percent,  of  dry  matter.  In  both  swedes  and  turnips  the 
effect  of  superphosphate  of  lime  in  increasing  the  crop  is  remark- 
able when  there  is  a  sufficient  stock  of  nitrogen  in  the  soil.  A 
single  crop  will,  however,  deplenish  the  excess  of  nitrogen,  and 
fresh  applications  of  superphosphate  will  not  act  with  the  same 
energy.  Take,  for  example,  the  series  of  root-crops  grown  in 
rotation  with  other  crops,  but  recurring  at  intervals  of  four  years 
in    1848,     1852,     1856,    &c.     The   portion    unmanured  yielded 

9  tons  per  acre  the  first  year,  but  the  fifth,  ninth,  thirteenth, 
and  seventeenth,  it  only  yielded  from  helf  a  ton  to  one  ton  per 
per  acre.  Similarly,  superphosphate  gave  a  crop  of  14^  tons 
in  1848,  and  of  II  tons  in  1852  ;  but  in  1856,  i860,  and  1864,  the 
yields  produced  by  the  same  top  dressing  varied  from  lh  to  6f 
tons  per  acre.  In  no  crop  more  than  in  the  turnip  crop  is  a  full 
supply  of  nitrogenous  and  mineral  plant  foods  more  essential, 
and  hence  the  importance  of  farm -yard  manure  for  its  thorough 
development. 

But  the  most  interesting  portion  of  the  lecture  is  the  second 
part,  in  which  the  effect  of  fertilizers  upon  the  proportion  of  sugar 
and  albuminoids  in  root-crops  is  dealt  with.  The  effect  of  nitro- 
genous dressings  in  increasing  the  power  of  the  plant  to  take  car- 
bon from  the  air,  and  especially  to  elaborate  it  into  sugar,  is  much 
enforced.  It  is,  however,  evident  that  the  effect  of  the  nitrogenous 
manure,  especially  in  the  case  of  mangel-wurzel,  consists  in  in- 
creasing the  crop,  and  the  crop  being  increased  the  amount  of 
sugar  and  dry  matter  generally,  will  naturally  increase  also.  So 
far  indeed  as  percentage  goes,  it  is  higher  where  no  nitrogenous 
manure  is  used  than  in  any  other  cases.  In  fact,  wherever 
nitrogenous  manures  are  employed,  the  percentage  of  sugar  is 

1  "The  Growth  of  Root-Crops."  by  J.  H.  Gilbert,  M.A.,   LI..!).,  F.R.S., 
Sibthorpian  Professor  in  the  University  of  Oxford. 


6o5 


NA TURE 


[Oct.  18,  1888 


mmediately  reduced.  The  great  increase  in  the  actual  weight  of 
the  crop  treated  with  nitrogenous  manures,  however,  completely 
overrides  percentages,  and  hence  the  table  showing  the  effect 
of  nitrogenous  manures  records  a  great  increase  of  sugar,  corre- 
sponding with  the  application  of  nitrogenous  fertilizers.  Dr. 
Gilbert  says :  "I  cannot  discuss  the  physiological  explanations 
of  the  fact  that  nitrogenous  manures  have  such  a  marked  effect 
on  the  production  of  the  non-nitrogenous  substance — sugar." 

It  would  also  be  an  interesting  physiological  question  why  the 
percentage  of  sugar  is  highest  when  no  nitrogenous  manure  is 
applied,  and  also  why  nitrogen,  even  in  the  form  of  farm-yard 
manure,  appears  to  at  once  lower  the  proportion  of  sugar  in 
mangel.  Also,  why  further  additions  of  nitrogen  still  further 
lower  the  percentage  of  sugar.  The  percentages  stand  as 
follows  : — 

Sugar,  per  cent,  {in  mangel-wurzel). 

No  manure         ...         ...         ...         ...     ii'4  per  cent. 

Superphosphate...  ...         ...         ...     10*4       ,, 

Farm-yard  manure        ...         ...  ...       8-6       ,, 

Farm-yard  manure  and  sodium  nitrate       71       ,, 
The  actual  quantities  of  sugar  per  acre  stand  as  follows,  in 
pounds : — 

No  manure 

Superphosphate  ... 

Farmyard  manure 

Farm-yard  manure  and  sodium  nitrate... 


950  pounds  per  acre. 
1028         ,,         ,, 
2513 
3I09 


Judged  by  percentages  we  have  a  descending  series,  but 
judged  by  actual  quantities  an  ascending  series  of  figures.  It  is 
somewhat  difficult  in  the  face  of  the  diminishing  percentages  of 
sugar  caused  by  the  application  of  nitrogenous  manures,  to  see 
how  the  functional  powers  of  the  plant  to  make  sugar  have  been 
heightened  or  intensified.  Still,  Dr.  Gilbert  says  :  "A  direct 
connection  between  the  supply  of  nitrogen  to  the  plant  and  the 
formation  of  non-nitrogenous  substances  is  obvious."  Might  it 
not  be  as  truly  said,  "  A  direct  connection  between  the  weight  of 
the  crop  and  the  weight  of  non-nitrogenous  substances  contained 
in  the  crop  is  obvious"  ? 


We  have  received  a  copy  of  memoranda  of  the  origin,  plan, 
and  results  of  the  Rothamsted  field  and  other  experiments, 
which  gives  an  excellent  idea  as  to  the  work  carried  on  by  Sir 
John  Lawes  on  his  Hertfordshire  property.  Sir  John  began  to 
experiment  on  growing  crops  in  1837,  but  fixes  the  actual  com- 
mencement of  the  Kothamsted  Station  in  1843,  when  he 
associated  Dr.  Gilbert  with  himself  in  carrying  out  a  magnificent 
series  of  agricultural  experiments.  A  large  staff  of  chemists  and 
assistants  are  employed  entirely  at  Sir  John's  own  cost,  and  he 
has  provided  for  the  continuance  of  the  work  after  his  death  by 
setting  apart  £"100,000  for  the  purpose  as  well  as  sufficient  land 
for  carrying  out  his  intentions.  It  is  pleasant  to  find  Sir  John 
Lawes  and  his  indefatigable  coadjutor  Dr.  J.  H.  Gilbert  still 
young  in  mind  and  constitution,  and  able  to  throw  all  their  old 
ardour  into  their  work. 


FLETCHER'S  COMPRESSED  OXYGEN 
FURNACE. 

'THE  use  of  oxygen  with  coal-gas  in  a  laboratory  furnace  has 
up  to  the  present  been  attended  with  serious  difficulties, 
owing  to  the  intensely  local  nature  of  the  heat  obtained,  and  the 
consequent  perforation  and  destruction  of  crucibles  and  other 
vessels. 

In  this  furnace,  diffusion  of  the  heat  is  secured  by  using  a  fine 
jet  of  Brin's  compressed  oxygen  directed  centrally  into  one  end 
of  a  tube  a  quarter  of  an  inch  in  bore,  open  at  both  ends,  the 
oxygen  jet  acting  as  an  injector,  and  drawing  with  it  from  four 
to  eight  times  its  bulk  of  air,  the  proportion  depending  on  the 
size  of  the  oxygen  jet.  This  tube,  containing  the  mixture  of 
oxygen  and  air,  is  used  as  the  central  part  of  an  ordinary  blow- 
pipe of  heavy  cast-iron,  which  is  placed  close  up  against  the 
burner-opening  of  one  of  Fletcher's  ordinary  injector  furnaces, 
lined  with  a  specially  refractory  material. 

The  power  of  the  furnace  depends  entirely  on  the  quantity  of 
oxygen  and  gas  supplied,  and  can  be  adjusted  to  any  power 
from  a  dull  red,  which  can  be  maintained  for  many  hours 
steadily,  without  attention,  to  a  heat  which  will  "drop"  the 
most  refractory  crucible  in  less  than  five  minutes  from  the  time 
the  gas  is  lighted. 


When  working  at  moderate  temperatures,  the  furnace  is  suf- 
ficiently quiet  to  admit  of  its  use  on  a  lecture-table,  but  at  its 
highest  power  the  noise  is  considerable. 

There  is  no  difficulty  in  adapting  the  burner  to  other  forms  of 
furnace,  provided  it  is  found  possible  to  produce  satisfactory 
casings  to  withstand  the  heat ;  those  made  for  the  crucible  fur- 
nace stand,  as  a  rule,  exceedingly  well,  but  with  alterations  in 
form  great  difficulties  are  introduced,  more  especially  with 
muffles,  which,  as  at  present  made,  will  not  stand  any  sudden 


heat,  nor  will  they  hold  their  shape  at  any  temperature  ap 
proaching  whiteness.  The  burner  alone  will  be  useful  in  heat- 
ing many  substances  in  the  open,  but,  owing  to  the  broad  and 
diffused  flame,  it  is  of  little  practical  value  for  blow-pipe  work. 

The  special  advantages  of  the  apparatus  are  that  it  is  entirely 
self-acting,  requires  no  attendance,  and  that  it  greatly  increases 
the  range  of  temperatures  which  can  be  obtained  by  any  simple 
apparatus.  The  largest  size  at  present  made  takes  crucibles  not 
exceeding  3  inches  high. 


FOREST  CONSERVANCY  IN  CEYLON. 

(""OLONEL  CLARKE,  the  Acting-Conservator  of  Forests  in 
^-x  Ceylon,  in  his  Report  for  last  year  says  that  since  attention 
was  called  in  1873  t0  tne  gradual  destruction  of  forests  in  Ceylon 
efforts  have  been  made  to  check  the  evil.  At  first  the  expense  was 
the  great  obstacle.  The  Government  did  not  see  its  way  to  expend 
the  large  sums  that  would  be  necessary  before  the  forests  could 
be  regarded  as  self-supporting.  However,  in  1885,  "  The 
Forest  Ordinance "  was  passed,  under  which  certain  areas  of 
forest  lands  were  acquired  by  the  State  and  made  State  forests, 
the  owners  of  those  areas  or  persons  having  any  interest  in  them 
being  compensated  for  the  loss  of  their  rights.  These  tracts 
were  to  be  clearly  marked  out,  and,  where  necessary,  replanted 
and  improved.  It  is  yet  too  soon  to  say  what  the  effects  will  be 
of  this  systematic  treatment,  but  the  Government  hopes  that  a 
constant  supply  of  good  timber  will  be  at  hand,  and  that  the 
climate  of  the  island  will  be  benefited  by  increased  care  of  the 
forests.  Forests,  Colonel  Clarke  says,  make  the  climate  more 
equable,  increase  the  relative  humidity  of  the  air,  and  perhaps 
increase  the  rainfall.  Furthermore,  the  water-supply  is  regulated 
by  forests,  the  springs  being  more  regular  and  sustained,  and  the 
rivers  more  continuous  in  their  flow.  Adjacent  fields  are  pro- 
tected by  them  and  the  speed  of  the  wind  is  reduced.  In  tropical 
countries  especially,  where,  during  the  wet  season,  the  rain  falls 
in  torrents,  forests  are  useful  in  preventing  the  soil  from  being 
washed  away  into  the  rivers  and  bays.  Besides,  it  is  confidently 
expected  that  a  substantial  revenue  will  be  derived  from  the  sale 
of  timber,  fuel,  &c.  India,  which,  relatively  speaking,  has  not 
more  valuable  forests  than  Ceylon,  yielded  in  the  year  1883-84 
a  gross  revenue  of  ,£1,052,190,  representing  a  clear  profit  of 
£403,815.  In  the  past  the  native  forest-keepers  connived  with 
gangs  of  natives  who  plundered  the  forests  and  deprived  the 
island  of  the  revenue  that  would  otherwise  have  accrued.  The 
evil  effect  of  the  destruction  of  forests  that  was  so  very  common 
until  quite  recently  in  every  quarter  of  the  globe,  is  apparent 


Oct.  iS,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


607 


everywhere.  Some  striking  instances  were  given  in  1885  before 
the  Select  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  on  Forestry. 
For  example,  what  was  fifty  years  ago  the  great  rice-producing 
district  of  the  west  of  India.  Ratnagiri,  lias  suffered  terribly 
from  the  denudation  of  the  Western  Chars  of  the  dense  forests 
which  extended  all  over  that  range  of  mountains.  Again,  the 
native  State  of  Jinjira  was  all  hut  ruined  by  the  indiscriminate 
felling  of  the  f  irests  which  covered  the  whole  State,  which  is 
from  fifteen  to  a  hundred  miles  in  breadth,  and  short  forty  in 
length.  Similarly,  in  Ceylon  itself,  the  chena  cultivator  in  the 
Southern  and  North -Western  Provinces  and  in  the  Province  of 
Uva  is  threatened  with  ruin. 

The  recommendations  made  by  Colonel  Clar'-e  in  18S7,  and 
approved  of  by  Government  were  the  following  :— The  Govern- 
ment Agent  and  the  Conservator  of  Forests  were  annually, 
subject  to  the  approval  of  the  Government,  to  ag>ee  on  what 
works  were  to  be  accomplished  in  the  way  of  demarcation,  con- 
servation, &c.  and  these  were  to  be  carried  out  by  the  Provincial 
Forester  under  the  authority  and  protection  of  the  Government 
Agent.  In  departmental  questions,  such  as  those  relating  to 
pay,  promotion,  discipline,  and  other  matters,  the  Conservator 
of  Forests  was  ro  be  supreme.  The  present  mode  of  working  is 
illustrated  by  the  plan  of  operations  for  this  year,  drawn  up  by 
Colonel  Clarke,  and  sanctioned  by  the  Government  in  March 
last.  The  plan  is  drawn  up  under  four  heads  :  (t)  demarcation  ; 
(2)  limber  and  firewood  supply  ;  (3)  re-afforestation  ;  (4)  extra 
establishments.  With  regard  to  demarcation  it  was  seen  that 
this  was  urgently  needed  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  large  towns, 
and  Government  was,  therefore,  recommended  to  allow  the 
whole  available  staff  to  be  placed  at  this  work.  The  forests  in 
the  northern,  eastern,  and  north-central  provinces  were  to  be 
allowed  to  take  care  of  themselves  for  a  time,  as  the  population 
was  very  sparse  in  those  regions.  Thus  it  was  proposed  to 
begin  at  once  with  the  Mitirigala  and  Kananpella  forests,  which 
lie  in  the  vicinity  of  Colombo  and  on  the  banks  of  the  Kelani. 
The  present  system,  by  which  contractors  cut  timber  for  the 
Public  Works  Department,  is  to  be  changed,  for  no  sufficient 
check  can  be  exercised  over  the  contractors  and  their  workmen, 
and  it  is  intended  to  establish  depots  in  various  centres  where  it 
is  considered  that  there  will  be  sufficient  demand  for  timber  and 
firewood.  When  this  is  done,  not  only  will  the  heavier  timber 
be  utilized  as  at  ]  resent,  but  also  the  lighter  portions  which  are 
now  left  to  rot  in  the  forests.  Two  great  depots  are  to  be 
established,  one  on  the  east  coa;t  and  one  at  Colombo.  To  the 
latter  will  be  sent  all  the  timber  that  is  intended  for  export,  such 
as  ebony,  satin  wood,  &c,  and  to  the  other  depot  those  timbers 
which  are  in  demand  in  India,  but  which  would  not  bear  the 
cost  of  transit  to  Colombo.  According  to  the  Report  ten  depots 
in  all  will  be  established  this  year.  An  effort  will  be  made  to 
give  the  forests  of  Ceylon  a  trial  for  railway  sleepers.  Colonel 
Clarke  says  that  the  local  demand  should  be  met,  as  two  trees 
which  are  very  plentiful  in  the  island  are,  in  his  opinion,  suitable 
for  that  purpose,  Palai  (Mimitsops  Judica)  and  Kumbuk  {Ter- 
minalia  glabra).  Re-afforestation,  in  Colonel  Clarke's  opinion, 
is  not  a  pressing  question  ;  demarcation  should  first  be  completed. 
Many  of  the  Ceylon  forests,  he  thinks,  are  overworked,  and 
require  a  long  period  of  rest.  To  carry  out  the  works  now 
absolutely  necessary  for  the  protection  of  the  forests,  the  staff  is 
to  be  increased  by  adding  forest-rangers  and  river-guards. 


UNIVERSITY   AND    EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 

Cambridge. — The  list  of  lectures  in  Physics  this  term  in- 
cludes Prof.  Stokes's  on  Physical  Optics,  Prof.  Thomson's  on 
the  Properties  of  Matter  and  on  Mathematics  for  Students  of 
Physics,  and  Mr.  Wilberforce's  on  Dynamo-electric  Machines. 
Among  the  numerous  chemical  lectures  we  do  not  note  any  very 
novel  feature.  Prof.  Newton  will  lecture  on  the  Evolution  of 
the  Animal  Kingdom,  and  Mr.  Gadow  on  the  Morphology  of  the 
Ichthyopsida,  recent  and  extinct.  In  Botany,  the  Readership  has 
not  yet  been  filled  up  ;  Mr.  Gardiner  is  giving  a  general  element- 
ary course,  Mr.  Potter  is  lecturing  on  the  Geographical  Distribution 
of  Plants,  and  Mr.  Vaizey  on  the  Classification  of  Plants.  In 
Geology,  Mr.  Marr  lectures  on  the  Principles  and  on  Advanced 
Stratigraphy,  Mr.  Harker  on  Petrology,  Mr.  Roberts  on  Ad- 
vanced Palaeontology,  and  Mr.  Seward  on  Palaeobotany.  The 
physiological  and  anatomical  courses  are  much  as  usual.  There 
are  three  (graduated)  sets  of  demonstration   classes  in   Mech-  ! 


anism,  and  lectures  by  Prof.  Stuart  and  Mr.  Lyon.  In  Mathe- 
matics, Prof.  Cayley  is  lecturing  on  Elliptic  Functions,  Prof. 
I  )arwin  on  Orbits  and  Perturbations  of  Planets,  Mr.  Pendlebury 
on  the  Theory  of  Numbers,  Mr.  Hobson  on  Fourier's  Series 
and  on  Conduction  of  Heat,  Mr.  Larmor  on  Electrostatics,  Mr. 
Forsyth  on  Theory  of  Functions,  Dr.  Besant  on  Analysis 
Dr.  Glaisher  on  Elliptic  Functions,  and  Mr.  Herman  on 
Hydrodynamics. 

At  Sidney  Sussex  College,  an  examination  for  Open  Scholar- 
ships in  Natural  Science  will  be  held  on  January  1  next  ;  two 
are  offered,  one  of  £'0  and  one  of  ^40  ;  subjects — Chemistry, 
Physics,  Biology,  and  Geology.  The  Tutor  will  give  further 
particulars  on  application. 

King's  College  offers  one  Exhibition  for  Natural  Science  ; 
examination  to  begin  about  December  10. 

Emmanuel,  Jesus,  and  Christ's  Colleges  will  hold  joint  ex- 
aminations for  Open  Scholarships  on  December  II  and  following 
days.  All  candidates  must  show  a  competent  knowledge  of 
Chemistry.  Candidates  may  also  be  examined  in  Physics,  in 
Elementary  Biology,  and  in  Geology.  The  Tutors  will  give 
full  particulars. 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

Bulletin  de  la  Socihe  de  Naturalistes  de  Moscoit,  1888,  No.  2. 
—  On  the  development  of  Amphipods,  by  Dr.  Sophie  Pereya- 
slavtseva. — List  of  plants  of  Tambof,  by  Litvinoff.—  On  the  great 
comet  of  1887,  by  Th.  Bredichin  (in  French). — Short  notes 
on  some  Russian  species  of  Blaps,  by  E.  Ballion  (in  German). 
— On  the  Mollusks  of  Caucasia,  by  O.  Retowski.  Twenty-nine 
species  from  Novorossiisk,  and  ten  from  Abhasia  are  described 
(in  German). — The  Chlorophycecc  of  the  neighbourhood  of 
Kharkoff,  by  D.  B.  Ryabinin.  Until  now,  this  subdivision  of 
Algce  has  been  rather  neglected  in  Russia,  and  only  100  species 
have  been  described  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Moscow.  M. 
Ryabinin's  list  comprises  233  species,  belonging  to  74  different 
genera  (with  notes  in  French).  —  Materials  for  the  flora  of 
Moscow,  by  Prof.  Gorojankin  (in  Russian).  The  capital  work 
of  the  late  Prof.  Kaufmann,  "The  Flora  of  Moscow,"  which 
was  published  in  1866,  has  been  revised  by  M.  Petunnikoff, 
who  compared  it  with  the  rich  materials  of  the  Moscow 
Botanical  Garden,  and  published  a  supplementary  list.  Students 
of  the  Moscow  University  having  been  directed  during  the  last 
three  years  to  collect  new  materials  during  special  excursions, 
Prof.  Gorojankin  has  availed  himself  of  all  their  collections,  as 
well  as  of  a  dozen  other  collections,  and  now  publishes  a  new 
supplementary  list,  which  contains  102  new  species  of  Phanero- 
gams and  two  species  of  Cryptogams. — The  spiders  and  other 
insects  of  Sarepta,  by  A.  Becker  (in  German). — The  Dariinsk 
mineral  water  in  the  Government  of  Moscow,  by  A.  Sabaneeff 
(in  Russian).  The  spring  is  rich  in  iron,  and  is  like  that  of 
Lipetsk. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 

London. 

Entomological  Society,  October  3. — Dr.  D.  Sharp,  Pre- 
sident, in  the  chair. — Mr.  F.  P.  Pascoe  exhibited  a  number  of 
new  species  of  Longicornia,  from  Sumatra,  Madagascar,  and 
South  Africa. — Dr.  P.  B.  Mason  exhibited,  for  Mr.  Harris,  a 
specimen  of  Charocampa  Ncrii,  recently  captured  at  Burton-on- 
Trent. — Mr.  S.  Stevens  exhibited  a  specimen  of  Vanessa  Antiopa, 
which  he  caught  in  the  Isle  of  Wight  in  August  last.  —  Mr.  E.  B. 
Poulton  exhibited  a  living  larva  of  Smerinthus  ocellatus  in  the 
last  stage,  fourteen  larvae  of  Boarmia  roboraria,  and  some 
cocoons  of  Rumia  cratagata.  The  object  of  the  exhibition  was 
to  show  the  influence  of  special  food-plants  and  surroundings  on 
the  colours  of  the  larva?  and  cocoons. — Mr.  M.  Jacoby  exhibited 
a  varied  series  of  Titulura  sangvinipennis,  Lac,  from  Central 
America.  He  stated  that  many  of  the  varieties  exhibited  had 
been  described  in  error  as  distinct  species. — Mr.  Billups  exhibited 
specimens  of  Bracon  brevicornis,  Wesm.,  bred  from  larvae  of 
Ephestia  Kiihniella.  He  remarked  that  this  rare  species  had  only 
been  recorded  as  bred  on  two  or  three  occasions,  viz.  by  the 
Rev.  T.  A.  Marshall,  Mr.  W.  F.  Kirby,  Herr  Brischke,  and 
Mr.  Sydney  Webb. — Mr.  W.  Warren  exhibited  specimens  of 
Anlithesia  ustulana  and  A.  fuligana ;  also  bred  series  of  the 


6o8 


NATURE 


\Oct.  1 8,  1888 


following  species :  Eupacilia  Degreyana,  Stigmonota  palli- 
frontana,  Cacacia  decretana,  andGelcc/iia peliella. — Lord  Walsing- 
ham,  F.R.S.,  exhibited  specimens  of  several  species  of  the  genus 
Cryptopkasa  of  the  Tineina,  some  of  the  most  remarkable  being 
males  and  females  of  Zitua  balteata,  Walker,  bred  by  Mr.  Sidney 
Olliff  from  pupae  found  in  January  last,  at  Newcastle,  New 
South  Wales,  in  burrows  in  branches  of  a  species  of  Acacia. — 
Mr.  F.  D.  Godman,  F.R.S.,  exhibited  a  larva  of  a  Cicada, 
from  Mexico,  having  a  fungoid  growth  on  the  head. — Captain 
Elwes  exhibited  a  large  number  of  butterflies,  representing  about 
180  species,  recently  collected  by  himself  and  Mr.  Godman  in 
California  and  Yellowstone  Park.  The  collection  included 
many  species  of  great  interest,  amongst  others  a  Ccenonympha 
described  by  Edwards  as  an  Erebia,  a  very  rare  species  of 
Thecla,  and  a  remarkable  series  of  species  of  the  genus  Colias. — ■ 
Mr.  H.  Goss  exhibited,  for  Mr.  W.  J.  Cross,  an  extraordinary 
variety  of  Agrotis  segetum,  caught  by  the  latter  near  Ely  in  July 
last. — Mr.  W.  L.  Distant  read  a  paper  entitled  "An  enumera- 
tion of  the  Khynchota  received  from  Baron  von  Miiller,  F.  R.  S., 
and  collected  by  Mr.  Sayer  in  New  Guinea  during  Mr.  Cuthbert- 
son's  expedition." — Mr.  Poulton  read  a  paper  entitled  "Notes 
in  1887  upon  Lepidopterous  larvse,  including  a  complete  account 
of  the  life-history  of  Sphinx  conzolvuli  and  Aglia  tau " ;  and 
Mr.  White  exhibited  specimens  of  preserved  larvse  of  S.  con- 
volvuli,  A.  tau,  and  other  species  referred  to  in  Mr.  Poulton's 
paper.  Mr.  Jenner  Weir,  Mr.  Kirby,  Mr.  White,  and  Dr. 
Sharp  took  part  in  the  discussion  which  ensued. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  October  8. — M.  Des  Cloizeaux  in 
the  chair. — Order  of  appearance  of  the  first  vessels  in  the  leaves 
of  Stimulus  Lupulus  and  japonicus,  by  M.  A.  Trecul.  These 
researches  show  that,  as  already  announced  by  the  author  so  far 
back  as  1853,  the  stipuli  may  sprout  long  before  any  of  the  leaf- 
lobes  make  their  appearance.  The  verification  of  the  phenomenon 
is  easy  either  in  the  Humulus  here  studied  or  in  the  Cannabis 
saliva  previously  described. — On  the  molecular  weight  and  on 
the  valency  of  perseite,  by  M.  Maquenne.  In  a  recent  communica- 
tion {Comptes  rendus,  cvi.  p.  1235)  the  author  showed  that 
perseite  possesses  the  function  of  a  polyvalent  alcohol,  and  that 
its  ethers  present  the  same  centesimal  composition  as  those  of 
mannite  and  dulcite.  It  was  also  shown  that  the  analysis  of 
perseite  yields  the  same  results  as  mannite,  and  that  these  bodies 
at  equal  weight  equally  lower  the  freezing-point  of  their  solvents. 
Hence  perseite  might  be  supposed  isomerous  with  the  mannites, 
C6H]406.  But  further  researches,  and  the  study  of  some  new 
derivatives  of  perseite,  clearly  show  the  inaccuracy  of  the  formula 
of  this  substance  as  determined  in  the  former  note,  and  as  pre- 
viously accepted  by  MM.  Miintz  and  Marcano.  It  is  now  shown 
to  be  the  immediate  superior  homologue  to  ordinary  mannite 
with  corrected  formula  C7H]607.  It  is  at  once  the  first  hepta- 
valent  alcohol  and  the  first  sugar  in  C7  that  has  yet  been  deter- 
mined.—  On  the  orbit  of  Winnecke's  periodical  comet,  and  on 
a  new  determination  of  the  mass  of  Jupiter,  by  M.  E.  de  Haertl. 
The  results  are  given  of  the  author's  protracted  observations, 
undertaken  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  whether  any  change 
due  to  a  resisting  medium  has  taken  place  in  the  revolutions  of 
this  short-period  comet,  whose  return  was  carefully  recorded  in 
1858,  1869,  1875,  and  1886.  A  fresh  calculation  is  made  of 
Jupiter's  mass,  based  on  its  disturbing  effect  on  the  comet's 
orbit.  The  value  of  the  mass  that  best  satisfies  all  the  obser- 
vations is  m  —  1  :  1047*1752  ±  0-0136. — Reflected  image  of 
the  sun  on  the  marine  horizon,  by  M.  Ricco.  The  observations 
here  recorded  have  been  taken  since  1886,  on  the  east  terrace  of 
the  Observatory  of  Palermo,  2  kilometres  from  the  shore  and 
72  metres  above  sea-level.  They  were  interrupted  this  year  by 
the  foggy  horizons,  probably  caused  by  the  eruptions  of  Vulcano, 
which  began  on  August  2,  and  have  continued  at  intervals  down 
to  the  present  time.  The  observations  will  be  renewed  next 
sPring>  with  the  return  of  the  sun  to  the  marine  horizon. 
Under  clear  skies  and  in  calm  weather  the'  elliptical  form  of 
the  image  of  the  sun  is  very  evident,  so  that  it  seems  strange 
the  ancient  astronomers  did  not  perceive  in  this  phenomenon 
an  indication  of  the  rotundity  of  the  globe. — A  study  of  the 
heats  of  combustion  of  some  acids  connected  with  the  series  of 
the  oxalic  and  lactic  acids,  by  M.  Louguinine.  The  results  of 
the  researches  communicated  in  this  memoir  have  reference  to 
the  malonic,  succinic,  pyrotartaric,  suberic,  sebacylic,  and  oxy- 
isobutyric  acids.  The  first  five  present  homologous  relations 
between  themselves  and  with  oxalic  acid  ;  the  last  is  similarly 


connected  with  lactic  acid. — On  the  freezing-points  of  the 
solutions  of  the  organic  compounds  of  aluminium,  by  MM.  E. 
Louise  and  L.  Roux.  The  determination  of  the  vapour  densities 
of  these  substances  has  led  the  authors  to  give  them  the  general 
formula  A12X6.  Their  further  investigations,  here  described, 
have  been  carried  out  with  a  view  to  determining  the  value  of 
the  molecular  weights  of  the  organic  compounds  of  aluminium 
by  Raoult's  method  based  on  the  lowering  of  the  freezing-points 
of  the  solutions.  Their  new  determinations  confirm  their  previous 
conclusions  on  the  vapour  densities,  and  show  that  these  sub- 
stances can  in  no  case  be  represented  by  the  simple  formula 
A1X3. — M.  E.  Picard  contributes  a  paper  on  Laplace's  trans- 
formation and  linear  equations  with  partial  derivatives  ;  and  the 
Perpetual  Secretary  gives  the  analysis  of  a  note  presented  by  M. 
G.  Govi  on  a  new  method  for  constructing  and  calculating  the 
place,  position,  and  size  of  images  given  by  complex  optical 
systems. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Elementary  Commercial  Geography  :  H.  R.  Mill  (Cambridge  University 
Press).— Star  Atlas:  Dr.  H.  J.  Klein,  translated  byE.  McClure  (S.P.CK.). 
—  Reports  on  the  Mining  Industries  of  New  Zealand  (Wellington,  N.Z.). 
— The  Illustrated  Optical  Manual,  4th  edition  :  Sir  T.  Longmore  (Long- 
mans).— British  Birds,  August,  September,  and  October :  H.  Saunders 
(Gurney  and  Jackson).  — British  Dogs,  No.  24:  H.  Dalziel  (U.  Gill). — The 
Speaking  Parrots,  Part  6:  Dr.  K.  Russ  (U.  Gill)-— Elementary  Statics  :  Rev. 
J.  B.  Lock  (Macmillan). — Chemical  Noies  and  Equations,  3rd  edition  :  R. 
M.  Murray  (Maclachlan  and  Stewart,  Edinburgh). — Catalogue  of  the  Fishes 
in  the  Collection  of  the  Australian  Museum,  Part  1;  Recent  Palceichthyan 
Fishes:  J.  D.  Ogilby  (Sydney).— Three  Formations  of  the  Middle  Atlantic 
Slope:  J.  M.  McGree. — Zeitschrift  fiir  Wissenschaftliche  Zoologie,  xlvii. 
Band,  2  Heft  (Williams  and  Norgate). — Bulletin  de  l'Academie  Royale  des 
Sciences  de  Belgique,  No.  8  (Bruxelles). 


CONTENTS.  page 

Applications  of  Dynamics  to  Physics  and  Chemistry  585 
Recent  Works  on  Ornithology.    By  Prof.  R.  Bowdler 

Sharpe 587 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Aveling :   "Mechanics" 5^7 

Smith  :   "  Solutions  of  the  Examples  in  an  Elementary 

Treatise  on  Conic  Sections  " 5^8 

"  The  Beginner's  Guide  to  Photography  " 588 

Letters  to  the  Editor: — 

Prophetic     Germs.  —  Prof.     E.     Ray     Lankester, 

F.R.S 588 

A  New  Australian  Mammal. — E.  C.  Stirling    .    .    .  588 
Nomenclature  of  Determinants. — Dr.  Thomas  Muir  589 

A  Shadow  and  a  Halo.— B.  W.  S.  ;  A.  S.  Eve  .    .  589 

Nesting  Habit  of  the  Home  Sparrow. — G.  L.  Grant  590 

Sonorous  Sands. — D.  Pidgeon 590 

A  Shell-Collector's  Difficulty. — D.   Pidgeon  ....  590 
Yorkshire    Geological    and     Polytechnic    Society. — 

James  W.  Davis 590 

Modern    Views    of    Electricity.     XI.      {Illustrated.) 

By  Prof.  Oliver  J.  Lodge,  F.R.S 590 

Present  Position  of  the  Manufacture  of  Aluminium  592 
The   Queen's    Jubilee    Prize    Essay  of  the    Royal 

Botanic  Society  of  London 594 

The   Zodiacal  Light.     {Illustrated.)     By  O.  T.    Sher- 

mai : 594 

Chemistry  at  the  British  Association 595 

Geology  at  the  British  Association 596 

Notes 597 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

The  Solar  Parallax  from   Photographs    of  the    Last 

Transit  of  Venus 600 

The  Markings  on  Mars 6or 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for     the     Week    1888 

October  21-27 601 

Geographical  Notes 601 

Notes     on    Meteorites.       V.       {Illustrated.)      By   J. 

Norman  Lockyer,  F.R.S 602 

Dr.  Janssen  on  the  Spectrum  of  Oxygen 605 

The  Growth  of  Root-Crops 605 

Fletcher's    Compressed    Oxygen    Furnace.      {Illus- 
trated.)       606 

Forest  Conservancy  in  Ceylon 606 

University  and  Educational  Intelligence 607 

Scientific  Serials 607 

Societies  and  Academies 607 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 608 


NA TURE 


609 


THURSDAY,   OCTOBER   25,    1888. 


EMPIRICISM  VERSUS  SCIENCE. 

THERE  is  among  the  general  public  a  perennial 
tendency  to  exalt  and  honour  the  man  of  affairs — 
the  man  whose  business  it  is  to  pose  as  figurehead  and 
carry  through  great  schemes  in  the  face  of  the  community — 
at  the  expense  of  the  quiet  student  or  the  scientific  pioneer. 
And  every  now  and  then  this  permanent  tendency  is 
played  upon  by  someone  who  ought  to  know  better,  and 
excited  into  more  conspicuous  vitality  ;  sometimes  taking 
the  form  of  a  demonstration  in  favour  of  "  practice  "  as 
opposed  to  "  theory,"  sometimes  the  form  of  a  flow  of 
ribaldry  against  scientific  methods  and  results.  Such  a 
periodical  outburst  seems  to  have  broken  loose  just  now, 
and  the  technical  press  is  full  of  scoffs  at  men  of  science, 
and  glorification  of  the  principle  of  rule-of-thumb. 

It  is  easy  for  students  of  science  to  smile  at  the  ab- 
surdities thus  propounded  and  to  take  no  further  notice. 
It  is  only  statements  which  have  a  germ  of  truth  about 
them  that  are  able  really  to  bite  and  sting.  And  if  a  feel- 
ing of  momentary  irritation  is  excited  by  reading  some 
piece  of  extra  absurdity  set  forth  for  the  unedification  and 
misleading  of  the  public,  the  best  antidote  is  a  return  to 
one's  own  work,  and  silence. 

It  is  possible,  however,  sometimes  to  carry  complais- 
ance too  far.  "  If  you  make  yourself  a  sheep,"  was  one  of 
Franklin's  mottoes,  "  the  wolves  will  eat  you  "  ;  and  there 
is  sound  worldly  wisdom  in  the  maxim,  though  it  may  be 
difficult  always  to  reconcile  it  with  some  other  precepts 
of  a  higher  authority. 

The  only  really  irritating  thing  about  these  attacks  is 
that  they  do  not  call  things  by  their  right  names  :  if  they 
did,  the  absurdity  would  be  too  glaring  for  anyone  of 
importance  to  be  taken  in.  So  they  sing  the  praises  of 
empiricism  and  decry  science  under  the  totally  false  and 
misleading  names  of"  practice"  and  "theory"  respectively. 
Now  plainly  there  is  no  real  antithesis  possible  between 
theory  and  practice  unless  one  is  right  and  the  other 
wrong  or  incomplete.  If  both  are  right,  they  must  agree. 
If  one  is  conspicuously  right  and  the  other  conspicuously 
wrong,  it  is  a  very  cheap  and  simple  matter  to  distribute 
praise  and  blame. 

Whenever  there  is  discordance  between  theory  and 
practice — a  theory  which  says  how  a  thing  ought  to  be 
done,  and  the  practice  by  which  its  doing  has  hitherto 
been  attempted— manifestly  there  is  something  wrong 
with  one  or  other  of  them.  The  blame  should  be  applied 
to  the  error,  and  the  error  may  lie  equally  well  on  either 
side.  The  practice  in  early  steam-engines  was  to  cool  the 
cylinder  at  every  stroke  in  order  to  condense  the  steam. 
It  certainly  did  condense  the  steam,  and  was  therefore 
successful.  The  self-styled  "  practical  man  "  of  that  day 
would  most  likely  have  derided  any  small-scale  laboratory 
experiments  as  futile  and  ridiculous,  and  not  correspond- 
ing to  the  conditions  of  actual  work.  Nevertheless,  that 
eminent  theorist,  James  Watt,  by  studying  the  behaviour 
of  saturated  steam  under  various  circumstances  in  a 
scientific  manner,  and  by  discovering  that  the  pressure  in 
any  connected  system  of  vessels  containing  vapour  would 
rapidly  become  equal  to  the  vapour-tension  corresponding 
Vol.  *»*xviii.— No.  991* 


to  the  coldest,  did  succeed  in  introducing  a  noteworthy 
improvement  into  a  time-honoured  practice.  Again,  the 
question  of  the  specific  heat  of  saturated  steam,  whether 
it  be  zero,  or  positive,  or  negative,  is  a  highly  scientific 
question,  first  solved  on  the  side  of  theory  by  Clausius.an 
eminent  example  of  the  purely  scientific  worker  ;  but  the 
fact  that  it  is  negative  has  an  immediate  practical  bearing 
on  the  important  subject  of  steam-jacketing,  and  fully 
explains  the  advantage  of  that  process. 

But  it  may  be  said  the  advantage  of  the  steam-j  acket 
was  discovered  by  experience.  Very  likely.  It  is  a  con- 
spicuous and  satisfactory  fact  that  progress  can  be  made 
in  two  distinct  ways.  Sometimes  the  improvement  is 
discovered  by  what  may  be  termed  blindfold  experience  : 
a  certain  operation  turns  out  to  be  uniformly  successful, 
and,  without  any  further  knowledge,  that  is  sufficient 
justification  of  its  performance.  The  observed  fact  that 
inhalations  of  chloroform  produced  temporary  anaesthesia 
was  sufficient  justification  of  its  use  in  surgery  without 
any  theory  as  to  why  it  so  acted.  The  motion  of  the 
planets  in  ellipses,  according  to  certain  laws,  might  have 
been  deduced  from  the  theory  of  gravitation  ;  but 
historically  those  motions  were  deduced  by  a  laborious 
comparison  of  observations.  Sometimes  observation  is 
ahead  of  theory ;  sometimes  theory  is  ahead  of  observation. 
It  is  mere  nonsense  to  decry  either  on  that  account. 

It  is  also  absurd  to  deny  that  our  knowledge  of  a  fact, 
and  our  confidence  in  its  use,  and  of  all  the  conditions 
under  which  it  may  be  used  or  may  not  be  used,  are  enor- 
mously enhanced  when  one  knows  not  only  the  bare  fact  by 
observation  empirically,  but  when  also  one  thoroughly 
understands  the  reasons  and  the  laws  connected  with  it. 
It  would  be  justifiable  to  employ  a  successful  drug  even 
if  one  knew  nothing  of  its  mode  of  action,  and  could  give 
no  reason  for  its  effects  ;  but  it  is  far  more  satisfactory 
to  understand  it  exactly,  and  to  have  a  complete  theory 
of  its  physiological  action.  One  can  then  decide  before- 
hand, without  empiricism,  or  a  possibly  fatal  experiment, 
under  what  circumstances  and  to  what  constitutions  it 
would  be  noxious. 

The  fact  that  lightning-conductors  are  often  successful 
is  ample  justification  for  their  use,  but  it  will  be  far  more 
satisfactory  when,  by  help  of  laboratory  experiments  and 
theory,  one  understands  all  the  laws  of  great  electrical 
discharges,  and  can  provide  with  security  against  their 
vagaries. 

These  things  are  truisms,  but  it  would  seem  to  be 
sometimes  necessary  to  utter  truisms. 

Sometimes  one  hears  a  judgment  such  as  this  :  "  Yes, 
he  is  a  very  good  man  in  some  ways,  but  he  is  too  much 
of  a  theorist."  And  then  there  is  a  sapient  shaking  of 
heads,  as  if  the  term  "theorist"  were  an  intelligible  term 
of  abuse.  You  suppose  it  means  that  the  wretched  man 
knows  too  much  about  the  mode  of  working  of  things  ;  too 
much  about  the  strength  of  materials,  too  much  about 
graphical  statics,  if  he  is  engaged  in  building  a  bridge  ; 
but  if  you  ask  the  meaning  of  the  fatal  term,  you 
find  it  explained  in  some  such  way  as  that  "  he  does  not 
attend  to  details,"  or  "  he  does  not  look  after  his  work- 
men," or  "  he  accepts  rotten  materials."  Then  why  not 
apply  some  term  which  shall  legitimately  mean  these 
things,  such  as  careless,  or  lazy,  or  ignorant,  or  un- 
businesslike ?     Probably  the  word  "  theorist "  as  a  term 

D  D 


6io 


NA  TURE 


{Oct. 


5» 


of  abuse  is   meant   to  euphemistically   imply   all  these 
things.     If  so,  it  is  a  foolish  euphemism. 

There  are  certain  notable  theorists  who  are  so  eminent 
that  no  one  is  willing  to  stultify  himself  by  abusing  them  ; 
and  inasmuch  as  the  superabundant  energy  of  some  of 
these  men  often  leads  them  occasionally  out  of  their 
main  pursuits  into  alien  fields  of  activity,  wherein  never- 
theless they  frequently  shine  as  the  equals  or  superiors 
of  smaller  men  whose  life-work  lies  in  the  same  fields, 
it  is  becoming  customary  to  ingeniously  attempt  to 
exclude  them  from  the  class  it  is  wished  to  denounce, 
and  to  include  them  in  the  circle  wherein  they  are 
comparatively  amateurs  or  dabblers. 

At  the  recent  meeting  of  the  British  Association  the 
old  joke  was  repeated  about  claiming  Sir  William  Thom- 
son as  an  electrical  engineer  instead  of  a  physicist  and 
mathematician.  This  is  all  very  well  as  a  joke,  but  the 
British  public  is  too  apt  to  take  these  things  in  sober 
earnest.  The  range  of  activity  of  a  pre-eminently  great 
man  is  frequently  not  a  narrow  one,  and  he  is  extremely 
likely  to  shine  in  whatever  he  takes  up,  even  if  it  be  only  as 
a  pastime,  or  as  relief  from  more  serious  work.  Sir  Isaac 
Newton  made  an  excellent  Master  of  the  Mint.  Perhaps 
therefore,  in  his  day,  City  men  claimed  him  as  essentially 
one  of  themselves.  Sir  William  Thomson  has  amused  him- 
self with  navigation,  as  well  as  with  electrical  engineering. 

This  outcry  against  theory  is  becoming  absurd.  It 
used  to  be  confined  to  the  conclusions  of  mathematics. 
It  is  indeed  still  rampant  there,  but  it  is  being  ex- 
tended also  to  conclusions  deduced  in  the  laboratory. 
Everything  done  in  the  laboratory  or  the  study  is 
looked  at  with  suspicion.  The  right  place  to  study  the 
laws  of  steam-engines  is  on  a  locomotive.  The  right 
place  to  study  marine  engineering  is  in  the  hold  of  a 
steamship.  The  only  place  to  study  lightning  is  in  a 
thunderstorm. 

Give  out  these  plausible  fallacies  with  a  certain  unction 
to  a  British  audience,  and  you  will  evoke  "loud  ap- 
plause." It  is  so  easy  to  evoke  loud  applause  by  talking 
pernicious  but  plausible  nonsense.  Your  British  audience 
hates  to  think,  and  likes  to  have  its  stupidity  tickled  by 
some  after-dinner  sentiment,  which  makes  it  feel  that, 
after  all,  no  one  really  knows  anything  about  anything  ; 
that  whoever  professes  to  understand  a  subject  theoretic- 
ally is .  ipso  facto  a  quack  ;  and  that  the  only  difference 
between  itself  and  everybody  else  is  that  some  people 
cloak  their  ignorance  under  a  show  of  learning  and 
mathematical  formulae.  These  humbugging  theorists 
may  therefore  be  cheaply  derided.  "  There  is  a  lot  of 
arrant  humbug  stowed  away  now  and  then  under  a  mathe- 
matical cloak,"  said  a  technical  paper  the  other  day. 

And  what  of  the  "practical"  man?  Any  man  who 
talks  sense  and  goes  to  the  bottom  of  things,  so  as  to 
really  understand  and  to  be  able  to  explain  what  he 
means  and  how  things  are,  is  essentially  a  practical  man. 
One  class  has  no  right  to  monopolize  this  adjective.  A 
mathematician  may  make  statements  according  com- 
pletely with  facts  and  phenomena,  and  leading  to  the  most 
complete  understanding  of  every-day  truths.  An  empiric 
may  utter  the  most  glaring  absurdities,  utterly  out  of 
harmony  with  anything  in  heaven  or  earth,  or  under  the 
earth.  Is  Prof.  Stokes  therefore  to  be  styled  unpractical, 
and  Prof,  (shall  we^say)  Pepper  practical  ? 


Push  the  matter  to  an  extreme,  and  you  can  enunciate 
sentences  like  these.  If  you  want  to  know  about  steam- 
engines  and  compound  locomotives,  you  must  go,  not  to 
theorists  like  Rankine,  or  Unwin,  or  Cotterill,  or  even  to 
Mr.  Webb.  The  driver  of  the  Scotch  express  is  the 
man  really  able  to  give  you  trustworthy  and  practical 
information. 

If  you  want  to  know  the  principles  underlying  the  con- 
struction of  ships,  and  why  some  ships  go  quicker  than 
others,  do  not  think  of  applying  to  the  writings  of  the  late 
William  Froude  with  his  nonsensical  paraffin  toys,  but 
consult  the  captain  of  the  Umbria  or  the  City  of  Rome. 

We  have  set  down  these  sentences  as  a  reductio  ad 
absurdtim  of  some  of  the  claims  set  forth  in  favour  of 
empiricism  as  against  science,  under  the  specious  and 
plausible  heading  of  practice  against  theory  :  but  really 
they  are  not  a  whit  more  absurd  than  much  that  is 
seriously  argued  ;  and  were  they  propounded  under 
favourable  auspices  to  an  average  British  audience,  they 
would  very  likely  be  swallowed  without  nausea.  The  ex- 
periment is  almost  worth  trying,  only  it  would  be  difficult 
for  anyone  himself  faithless  to  avoid  some  suspicion  of 
irony,  which  would  be  fatal  to  success. 

Space  may  be  afforded  for  a  few  more  very  brief  extracts 
from  some  of  the  engineering  and  technical  journals 
during  the  past  month.  The  first  is  so  choice  as  to  need  no 
comment : — "The  world  owes  next  to  nothing  to  the  man  of 

pure  science The  engineer,  and  the  engineer  alone, 

is  the  great  civilizer.  The  man  of  science  follows  in  his 
train."  This  doctrine  is  explained  and  illustrated  by 
insistence  on  the  futility  of  Faraday's  work  in  connection 
with  magneto-electricity,  until  taken  up  and  realized  by 
the  practical  man. 

In  the  same  paper,  a  week  later,  occurs  the  following  : — 
"  No  one  knows  anything  with  certainty  about  lightning 
outside  of  the  common  knowledge  possessed  by  most 
fairly  educated  people."  And  again,  "  We  fail  to  see  that 
what  is  true  in  the  laboratory  must  be  true  out  of  doors." 

This  is  interesting  as  an  almost  exact  reproduction  of 
one  of  the  historic  objections  made  to  Galileo's  unwelcome 
discovery  of  Jupiter's  satellites.  It  was  then  similarly 
maintained  that,  though  the  telescope  was  all  very  well 
for  terrestrial  objects,  it  was  quite  misleading  when  applied 
to  the  heavens. 

An  instance  of  a  converse  proposition  is  told  in  a  recent 
popular  work  on  astronomy  (is  it  Sir  R.  Ball's  ?),  about  a 
farmer  and  amateur  astronomer,  who  came  to  the  writer 
with  a  revolutionary  system  of  astronomy,  based  upon  a 
number  of  observations  which  he  had  taken  with  a  sex- 
tant of  the  altitude  of  the  heavenly  bodies.  The  gentleman 
had  thus  found  that  the  generally  received  opinion  about 
the  distances  of  the  fixed  stars  was  extremely  erroneous. 
But  on  inquiry  it  turned  out  that  his  altitudes  were  all 
calculated  on  the  common-sense  and  well-known  fact  that 
sixty-nine  miles  make  a  degree.  Finding  it  impossible  to 
get  the  gentleman  to  put  his  mind  into  an  attitude  for 
receiving  any  instruction  on  the  theoretical  subject  of  the 
measurement  of  angles,  the  representative  of  the  orthodox 
clique  who  impose  their  statements  on  the  world  as  some- 
thing more  trustworthy  than  common  information  pre- 
vailed on  the  gentleman  to  apply  his  sextant  to  determine 
the  altitude  of  his  own  barn.  This  reductio  ad  absurdum 
was   avoided,  however,  and  the  overthrow  of    orthodox 


Oct.  25,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


611 


astronomy  successfully  maintained,  by  the  hoped-for 
convert  "failing  to  see  that  an  astronomical  instrument 
had  any  application  whatever  to  terrestrial  objects." 

A  paragraph  recently  inserted  in  an  electro-technical 
journal,  with  editorial  sanction,  styles  mathematicians 
"  the  accountants  of  science,"  and  goes  on  in  a  tone  less 
comic  than  bitter: — "When  some  young  shaver  shoots 
off  his  school  learning"  {i.e.  uses  some  mathematical 
operation  or  notation),  "  I  feel  inclined  to  reply  to  him  in 
Italian,  as  both  are  as  generally  and  completely  understood 
in  the  Society  of ."  Now  if  the  subject  under  dis- 
cussion were,  say,  passages  in  Tasso  or  Dante,  an  Italian 
quotation  would  be  very  natural,  and  persons  ignorant  of 
the  language  would  hardly  be  invited,  or  indeed  anxious, 
to  express  an  opinion.  Is  it  not  equally  clear  that  when 
the  subject-matter  is  numerical  magnitude  and  quantity, 
the  appropriate  language  may  sometimes  have  to  be 
used  ? 

It  has  always  been  customary,  as  we  have  before  re- 
marked, for  the  empiric  to  feel  some  hostility  to  the 
mathematician,  especially  to  the  mathematician  who 
endeavours  to  apply  his  powerful  and  beautiful  machinery 
to  the  elucidation  of  the  facts  of  Nature.  But  only 
recently  has  it  become  the  fashion  to  extend  the  same 
attitude  of  mistrust  and  dislike  to  the  experimental 
worker  in  a  laboratory.  Both  these  hostilities  probably 
have  their  root  in  an  instinct  of  self-protection.  Without 
them  the  empiric  would  be  constantly  suffering  wounds  in 
his  self-esteem,  and  might  lose  confidence  in  his  faith  as  to 
the  universal  prevalence  of  ignorance  and  the  advantages 
of  rule-of-thumb.  For  a  man  of  the  world  professing  a 
certain  science  to  have  to  recognize  a  certain  number  of 
minds  as  immeasurably  superior  to  his  own,  and  their 
conclusions  in  that  very  science  as  being  almost  certainly 
correct,  although  flatly  opposed  to  his  own  instinct  and 
traditions  :  this  is  in  m  my  cases  intolerable.  He  cannot 
away  with  these  great  theorists,  neither  can  he  in  his 
heart  contemn  them  ;  but  he  can  do  his  best  to  deceive 
himself  and  others  by  extending  to  them  euphemistic 
terms  of  abuse,  and  by  pretending  that  he  could  do  all 
that  they  do  if  only  he  thought  it  worth  while.  He  may 
even  go  further,  and  flinging  abroad  a  universal  accusation 
of  ignorance  will  easily  delude  a  gullible  public  into  the 
belief  that  knowledge  is  after  all  only  a  matter  of  opinion, 
and  that  what  one  man  says  is  quite  as  good  as  what  is 
said  by  another. 

And  in  this  procedure  he  is  fairly  secure  against  any 
retaliation  from  the  great  men.  They  are  deeply  and 
painfully  conscious  of  ignorance  in  one  sense  :  their 
knowledge  sits  lightly  upon  them  ;  and  .when  broadside 
and  grotesque  accusations  of  ignorance  are  hurled  at  them 
with  the  intention  of  putting  them  on  a  level  with  the 
uninstructed  and,  in  quite  another  sense,  "  ignorant " 
populace,  they  resent  it  not  ;  scarcely  recognizing,  indeed, 
the  absurdity  of  the  position. 

The  hostility  of  the  "  practical  m.in  :'  for  the  systematic 
and  recondite  methods  of  science  was  at  one  time  mainly 
borne  by  mathematicians,  because  they  it  was  mainly 
who  spoke  a  language  and  thought  thoughts  too  high  for 
common  apprehension.  Since  then  experiment  has  become 
more  exact, more  illuminated  by  theory, more  scientific  and 
less  empirical  ;  hence  it  is  that  the  hostility  is  now  being 
extended  to  the  experimentalist  in  his  laboratory  as  well. 


But  really,  it  may  be  rather  offensively  suggested,  what 
other  attitude  can  be  taken  up?  If  a  man  is  to  be 
ble  of  getting  schemes  through  Parliament,  of 
impressing  a  jury,  and  generally  of  playing  to  the 
gallery  and  becoming  a  power  in  the  State,  he  cannot, 
unless  very  exceptionally  endowed,  have  the  aptitudes 
and  powers  proper  to  a  man  of  high  science.  And  yet  it 
will  never  do  to  allow  even  to  himself  that  the  sjientific 
man  is  in  his  own  line  immeasurably  above  him.  Such  a 
reverent  and  submissive  attitude  would  ruin  his  chance 
with  the  gallery  at  once.  Swagger  and  a  confident  front 
are  more  than  the  tricks  of  the  trade,  they  are  the 
essentials  to  success. 

We  are  glad  to  recognize,  however,  that  the  recent 
outburst  against  the  methods  and  conclusions  of  pure 
science  is  the  work  of  the  camp-followers  rather  than  of 
the  leaders  on  the  commercial  side.  There  have  been  and 
are  several  conspicuous  examples  not  only  of  the  scientific 
man  taking  a  high  position  on  the  commercial  side,  but 
also  of  the  commercial  man  taking  a  high  position  in 
the  ranks  of  pure  s:ience.  This  interchange  of  indi- 
viduals, and  the  further  rapprochement  which  the  great 
extension  of  science  into  industrial  life  of  various  kinds 
has  caused,  and  must  in  the  future  still  further  cause, 
are  making  it  now  clearly  recognized  how  intimately  pure 
science  and  the  commercial  applications  of  science  are 
connected  together,  how  great  is  their  mutual  dependence 
on  each  other,  and  how  essential  to  the  well-being  of 
each  is  a  close  and  friendly  co-operation  with  the  other. 

These  facts,  and  the  friendly  attitude  of  the  leaders  on 
both  sides,  render  the  attempt  made  in  the  rank  and  file 
to  sow  discord  between  the  two  great  classes  the  more 
absurd,  and  must  make  it  in  the  long  run  entirely  futile. 

THE  MESOZOIC  MAMMALIA. 
The     Structure     and     Classification    of    the     Mest 
Mammalia.     By  H.   F.  Osborn.    fount.  Ac.  Xat.  . 
Philadelphia,  Vol.    IX.   No.  2.      (Philadelphia: 
lished  by  the  Academy,  1888.) 

IN  the  elaborate  memoir  before  us,  comprising  eighty 
quarto  pages  of  text,  illustrated  by  thirty  woodcuts 
and  two  plates,  Prof.  Osborn,  of  Princeton  College,  New 
jersey,  gives  us  the  result  of  his  researches  into  the  struc- 
ture of  the  Mesozoic  and  allied  Tertiary  Mammals,  based 
upon  observations  carried  on  both  in  America  and 
Europe.  As  a  rule,  these  Mammals  are  of  small  size, 
and  are  mainly  known  to  us  by  more  or  less  imperfect 
jaws  and  teeth  ;  by  far  the  greater  number  of  specimens 
c  msisting  of  the  lo.ver  jaw  or  mandible.  Now,  it  is  well 
known  that  even  in  groups  of  the  smaller  Mammals 
which  are  well  represented  at  the  present  day,  such  as  the 
Shrews  among  the  Insectivora,  or  the  Bats,  it  is  almost,  if 
not  quite,  impossible  to  recognize  many  of  the  genera,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  species,  when  we  have  to  deal  only 
with  a  series  of  fossil  or  sub-fossil  lower  jaws  from  the 
cavern  or  later  Tertiary  deposits.  And  if  this  be  so  in 
groups  with  which  we  are  well  acquainted,  the  difficulty 
is  of  course  increased  many  times  over  when  we  have  to 
deal  with  forms  having  no  close  analogues  among  the 
existing  fauna.  The  puzzle  is  further  increased  by  the 
difficulty  of  referring  such  portions  of  upper  jaws  as  are 
more  rarely  found  to  the  species  indicated  by  mandibles  ; 


6l2 


NATURE 


[Oct.  25,  1888 


and  this  induces  a  great  danger  of  founding  species  or 
higher  groups  upon  the  evidence  of  upper  jaws,  which 
cannot  be  decisively  shown  to  be  distinct  from  those 
founded  upon  the  evidence  of  the  mandibles.  Prof. 
Osborn,  as  will  be  noticed  below,  has  not  altogether 
steered  clear  of  this  danger  ;  and  we  consider  it  would 
be  advisable  in  delicate  researches  of  this  nature  to  lay 
down  a  rule  that  family  or  higher  groups  should  only  be 
formed  upon  the  evidence  of  homologous  parts,  even  if 
genera  and  species  have  been  named  upon  the  evidence 
of  dissimilar  parts  of  the  skeleton. 

Before,  however,  proceeding  to  any  detailed  criticism, 
it  will  be  advisable  to  take  a  brief  survey  of  the  memoir 
before  us,  and  to  note  the  scheme  of  classification  which 
is  proposed.  The  memoir  begins  with  a  survey  of 
previous  work  on  the  subject,  especial  attention  being 
directed  to  the  labours  of  Sir  Richard  Owen  in  Europe, 
and  to  those  of  Profs.  Cope  and  Marsh  in  America.  On 
the  second  page  (187)  a  table  is  given  of  all  the 
described  genera  of  Mesozoic  Mammals,  which  include 
forms  from  Europe,  America,  and  South  Africa ; 
together  with  certain  allied  Tertiary  genera  from  North 
America  and  France,  and  Thylacoleo  of  the  Pleistocene  of 
Australia.  We  may  add  that  since  this  memoir  was 
sent  to  press,  forms  allied  to  those  of  the  North  American 
Eocene  have  been  described  by  Sefior  Ameghino  in  the 
Tertiaries  of  the  Argentine  Republic.  The  next  section 
is  devoted  to  a  detailed  description  of  the  British  forms, 
in  which  certain  generic  terms,  proposed  by  the  author 
in  a  preliminary  communication,  are  fully  described  and 
illustrated.  We  may  here  mention  that  the  author  tells 
us  that  the  process  of  passing  his  memoir  through  the 
press  occupied  an  unusually  long  period,  during  which 
certain  other  memoirs  appeared  on  the  subject  ;  and  that 
he  thus  saw  occasion  to  modify  in  some  respects  several 
statements  made  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  work,  footnotes 
being  usually  appended  to  this  effect. 

After  the  descriptive  portion  we  come  to  what  is  really 
the  most  important  section  of  the  whole  memoir — namely, 
that  headed  the  classification  and  zoological  relationships 
of  the  Mesozoic  Mammalia.  It  is  here  observed  that 
these  forms  may  be  divided  into  two  large  groups.  "  In 
the  first  group,  A,  one  of  the  incisors  is  greatly  developed 
at  the  expense  of  the  others,  and  of  the  canine,  which 
usually  disappears  ;  behind  these  teeth  is  a  diastema  of 
varying  width,  followed  by  premolars  which  are  subject 
to  great  variation  in  form  and  number,  while  the  molars 
bear  tubercles.  In  the  second  group,  B,  the  incisors  are 
small  and  numerous,  the  canine  is  always  present  and 
well  developed ;  the  teeth  usually  form  a  continuous 
series,  and  the  molars  bear  cusps  instead  of  tubercles." 
These  two  groups  are  compared  to  the  Diprotodontiaand 
Polyprotodontia,  among  existing  Marsupials,  and  the 
following  scheme  of  classification  is  proposed  : — 

A.  First  Group. 

I.  Sub-order  Multituberculata. 

1.  Family    Plagiaulacid^e. — Microlestes,    Plagiaulax, 

Ctenacodon,  Ptilodus,  Neoplagiaulax,   Meniscoessus, 
and  perhaps  Thylacoleo. 

2.  Family    Bolodontid/E.  —  Bolodon,    Allodon,     and 

perhaps  Chirox. 

3.  Family  Tritylodontid.e. —  Tritylodon,   Triglyphus, 

4.  Family  Polymastodontid^e. — Poly  mastodon. 
Incertce  sedis  —Chirox. 


B.   Second  Group. 

I.  Order  Protodonta. 

Family       Dromatheriid^e. — Dromatheriitm,      Micro- 
conodon. 

II.  Sub-order  Prodidelphia. 

1.  Family Triconodontid/e. — Amphilestes,  Amphitylus, 

Triconodon,    Priacodon,   Phascolotherium,    Tinodon, 
Spalacotherium,  Menacodon. 

2.  Family  AMPHITHERIID^. — Amphitherium,  Dicrocy- 

nodon  (Diplocynodon),  Docodon,  Enneodon,  Peramiis. 

3.  Family     Peralestid^:.  —  Peralestes,      Peraspalax, 

Paurodon. 

4.  Family  Kurtodontid^;. — Kurtodon. 

III.  Sub-order  Insectivora  Primitiva. 

1.  Family     Amblotheriid^. — Amblotherium,     Achy- 

rodon. 

2.  Family  Stylacodontid^;. — Stylacodon,  Phascolestes, 

Dryolesles,  Asthenodon. 
Incerto?  sedis — Laodon. 

The  Multituberculata,  excluding  Thylacoleo,  extend  in 
time  in  Europe  and  North  America  from  the  Upper 
Trias  to  the  Lower  Eocene,  but  the  recently  discovered 
South  American  forms  may  be  of  later  age.  In  dis- 
cussing the  relationship  of  this  group  of  families  on 
p.  212,  the  author  states  that,  admitting  their  Mar- 
supial relationship,  it  is  clear  that  the  genera  "  are  closely 
related  to  each  other,  and  widely  separated  from  the 
Diprotodontia  by  their  dental  structure,  which  is  very  dis- 
similar, and  indicates  that  they  probably  branched  off 
from  the  stem  of  the  recent  Marsupials  at  a  remote  period, 
probably  I  the  Triassic."  They  are  accordingly  regarded 
on  the  following  page  as  a  sub-order  of  Marsupials, 
characterized  by  the  tuberculated  characters  of  their 
molars.  If,  however,  as  suggested  on  p.  214,  Thylacoleo, 
which  is  evidently  only  an  aberrant  and  specialized 
Phalanger,  has  any  sort  of  relationship  to  the  Plagi- 
aulacida,  then  it  will  be  evident  that  this  group  cannot 
be  even  subordinate^  separated  from  the  Diprotodonts 
Further  observations  upon  the  relationships  of  this  group, 
are  given  upon  pp.  251  and  254,  the  latter  section  having 
evidently  been  written  subsequently  to  the  earlier  sections. 
On  the  former  page  evidence  is  adduced  to  show  that  in 
some  of  these  forms  the  first  upper  incisor  has  been  lost, 
and  the  second  becomes  hypertrophied,  whereas  in  ex- 
isting Marsupials  it  is  the  first  which  always  persists  and 
becomes  enlarged.  There  is  no  evidence  as  to  the  serial 
homology  of  the  lower  incisor.  On  p.  254  and  the 
following  pages,  the  suggestion  of  Prof.  Cope,  based  on 
the  resemblance  of  the  molars  of  the  Multituberculata  to 
the  aborted  teeth  of  Ornithorhynchus,  that  these  forms 
maybe  Monotremes,is  discussed  at  some  length,  but  with- 
out any  definite  conclusion  being  reached.  We  presume, 
however,  that  in  writing  this  part  of  the  memoir  the 
author  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  relationship 
of  these  forms  to  Thylacoleo  is  altogether  a  myth.  It  is, 
however,  at  first  sight  not  very  easy  to  believe  that  the 
general  similarity  in  the  structure  of  the  cutting  fourth 
premolar  in  the  Multituberculata  and  the  modern  Diproto- 
dontia is  not  indicative  of  a  real  affinity  between  the  two  ; 
and  as  to  the  argument  that  the  peculiar  structure  of  the 
two  molars  is  of  itself  sufficient  to  indicate  the  sub- 
ordinal  distinction  of  the  Multituberculata,  we  think  that 
a  sub-order  which  contains  such  different  types  of  molar 
I  dentition  as  are  shown  by  Macropus,  Pseudochirus,  Phas- 


Oct.  25,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


613 


co  lard  us,  and  Phascolomys,  could  surely  also  find  room 
for  the  Multituberculate  type.  The  evidence  of  the 
homology  of  the  incisors  is,  however,  a  weighty  one  in 
the  author's  favour. 

Prof.  Osborn  places  the  Triassic  Microlestes  with  the 
Plagiaulacidce  rather  than  the  Bolodontida,  but  we  think 
the  existence  of  a  cutting  fourth  lower  premolar  ought  to 
be  proved  before  this  view  can  be  definitely  admitted. 
There  may  also  be  considerable  hesitation  in  accepting 
the  view  expressed  on  p.  217,  that  there  are  five  premolars 
in  the  upper  jaw  assigned  by  Prof.  Marsh  to  Ctenacodon; 
but  beyond  these  and  other  small  points  the  author's 
classification  of  this  group  appears  to  commend  itself. 

We  cannot  say  the  same  in  regard  to  the  classi- 
fication of  the  second  group,  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  it  is  proposed  to  split  up  into  one  distinct  order, 
into  one  sub-order  provisionally  referred  to  the  Mar- 
supialia,  and  a  second  assigned  with  more  hesitation 
to  the  Insectivora.  In  this  group  the  author  has,  we 
venture  to  think,  found  differences  which,  if  they  exist  at 
all,  are  by  no  means  of  the  importance  he  attributes  to 
them  ;  while  at  least  one  case  occurs  to  us,  where,  to  say 
the  least,  there  is  a  considerable  presumption  that  speci- 
mens assigned  to  the  two  sub- orders  may  really  be  refer- 
able to  a  single  genus.  Sufficient  account  does  not, 
indeed,  appear  to  have  been  taken  of  the  variation  in  the 
dentition  of  different  recent  genera  of  Marsupials  which 
are  usually  included  in  a  single  family  ;  as,  for  example, 
Thylacinus,  Dasyurus,  and  Myrmecobius  among  the  Poly- 
protodonts,  and  Phalanger,  Pseudochirus,  and  Phascol- 
arctusm.  the  Diprotodonts.  In  the  case  of  obscure  fossil 
forms  like  the  present,  it  appears  to  us  that  there  ought  to 
be  the  greatest  hesitation  in  making  groups  of  higher 
value  than  family  rank ;  and  that  even  in  the  case  of 
families  their  limits  ought  to  be  much  more  loosely 
drawn  than  among  existing  forms,  where  we  have  full 
evidence  before  us.  It  is,  indeed,  far  more  advantageous 
to  keep  all  such  obscure  forms  more  or  less  closely 
associated  until  absolutely  decisive  evidence  is  forth- 
coming as  to  their  right  to  wide  separation.  In  the 
present  instance,  however,  the  author  has,  to  put  it  in  the 
mildest  form,  by  no  means  adduced  any  such  decisive 
evidence  ;  while,  as  already  mentioned,  there  is  a  strong 
presumption  that  in  certain  particular  cases  he  has  widely 
separated  closely  allied,  if  not  absolutely  identical,  forms. 
The  first  so-called  order — the  Protodonta — is  formed 
for  the  reception  of  the  American  Triassic  Dromatherium  ' 
and  Microconodon ;  if,  indeed,  the  latter  be  really  entitled 
to  generic  distinction.  The  grounds  for  the  ordinal 
distinction  of  these  forms  are  that  the  roots  of  the  cheek- 
teeth are  not  fully  divided ;  but  stronger  evidence  than 
this  is  required  before  these  obscure  forms  can  be  definitely 
regarded  as  entitled  to  constitute  more  than  a  family. 
And  even  if  they  belong  to  an  order  distinct  from  the 
Marsupials,  there  is  no  evidence  to  show  that  they  are 
not  Monotremes,  or  perhaps  rather  Prototheria. 

The  sub-order  Prodidelphia  is  defined  as  including 
primitive  Marsupials,  generally  characterized  by  the  pre- 
sence of  four  premolars  and  numerous  molars,  the  latter 
having  distinctly  divided  roots.  It  is,  however,  added  (on 
p.   259)  that  "no  definite   sub-ordinal   character  can   be 

1  Prof.  Osborn  proposes. to  alter  the  spelling  of  this  name  to  Dromo- 
tlicrium. 


assigned  ;  but  in  view  of  the  retention  of  several  features, 
and  of  their  ancestral  position,  these  Mammals  may  be 
distinguished  from  the  recent  Marsupials  as  the  sub-order 
Prodidelphia."  In  our  own  judgment,  the  formation  of  a 
large  group  which  confessedly  cannot  be  distinguished 
from  one  already  established  is  unjustifiable,  and  not 
conducive  to  any  advantage.  The  first  family  of  this 
group  is  the  Triconodontidce,  in  which,  as  shown  above, 
our  author  includes  a  large  number  of  genera.  The 
genus  Triconodon,  together  with  the  allied  or  identical 
American  Priacodon,  has,  however,  such  a  totally  different 
fades  from  all  the  other  forms,  that  we  are  inclined  to 
follow  Prof.  Marsh  in  regarding  it  as  alone  constituting 
the  family.  We  are,  morever,  rather  at  a  loss  to  find  the 
value  of  the  characters  which  Prof.  Osborn  regards  as 
distinctive  of  the  enlarged  family  ;  for,  whereas  he  states 
in  the  definition  of  the  family  (on  p.  227)  that  the  "  condyle 
is  low,"  on  the  opposite  page  the  genus  A mphitylus  is 
described  as  having  the  "  condyle  lofty."  Some  very 
interesting  observations  are  recorded  (p.  198)  as  to  the 
changing  and  development  of  the  teeth  in  Triconodon,  in 
which  it  is  concluded,  as  had  been  previously  indicated  by 
Mr.  O.  Thomas,  that  the  replacement  was  limited,  as  in 
modern  Marsupials,  to  a  single  premolar ;  while  it  is  further 
shown  that  in  many  instances  it  appears  probable  that  the 
last  true  molar  was  never  developed.  In  classing  Phasco- 
lotherium,  of  the  Stonesfield  Slate,  in  the  Triconodontidce, 
the  author  appears  to  have  been  greatly  influenced  by 
regarding  Trico7iodo7i  as  having  the  condyle  placed  low 
down  on  the  mandible.  We  have,  however,  considerable 
doubts  whether  this  is  a  character  of  much  importance, 
as  it  varies  so  much  in  the  allied  Phascolotherium  and 
Amphitylus.  In  considering  that  the  whole  of  the  seven 
cheek-teeth  of  Phascolotherium  are  true  molars,  the  author 
departs  very  widely  from  the  view  taken  by  Sir  R.  Owen, 
and  a  great  deal  more  evidence  is  required  before  it  can 
be  considered  proved  that  at  least  the  first  two  of  these 
teeth  are  not  premolars. 

In  making  such  mention  as  space  permits  of  some  of  the 
other  genera,  we  must  take  those  included  under  the  Prodi- 
delphia and  the  so-called  Insectivora  Primitiva  together. 
In  this  connection  it  appears  that  a  great  deal  depends  on 
the  interpretation  of  the  dental  characters  of  the  original 
genus  Amphithcrium,  to  which  Prof.  Osborn  refers  the 
fragment  of  a  mandible  figured  on  p.  192.  It  is  stated, 
with  great  fairness,  that  when  the  author  examined  this 
specimen  he  regarded  it  as  totally  distinct  from  Amphi- 
therium,  but  that  comparisons  of  his  drawings  with 
figures  led  him  to  change  his  opinion.  On  p.  192  it  is 
observed  that  "  when  these  mutilated  crowns  [of  the 
type]  are  compared  with  the  perfect  crowns  of  the  newly- 
acquired  jaw,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  they  belong  to 
the  same  pattern.  If  this  be  the  case,  the  latter  specimen 
is  of  great  interest,  as  it  enables  us  for  the  first  time  to 
fully  characterize  the  molar  dentition  of  Amphithcrium." 
We  have  purposely  italicized  portions  of  the  above  sen- 
tences, since  they  show  a  somewhat  curious  instance  of 
the  author's  method.  Thus,  in  the  first  sentence  the 
teeth  of  the  new  jaw  are  definitely  stated  to  be  of  the 
type  of  those  of  Amphithcrium,  while  in  the  second  a 
provisional  element  is  introduced ;  and  yet  subsequently 
this  jaw  is  again  definitely  taken  as  affording  the  true 
structure  of  the  Amphitherium  molar.     Far  be  it  from  us 


614 


NA  TURE 


[Oct. 


o> 


1888 


to  say  that  this  jaw  does  not  belong  to  Amphitherium — 
it  very  probably  does  ;  but  it  certainly  does  not  afford 
decisive  evidence  on  which  to  base  an  extensive  super- 
structure, and  to  make  Amphytherium  the  type  of  one 
family,  while  Amphitylus  and  Amphilestcs  (regarded  by 
Owen  as  closely  related  to  the  former)  are  referred  to  the 
Triconodonlidtc.     Then,  again,  exception  may  be  taken 
to  the  interpretation  of  the  molar  structure  in  the  jaw  in 
question.     Prof.  Osborn  regards  the  teeth  as  consisting 
of  two  cusps  and  a  talon  in  line,  approximating  to  the 
fashion  of  A  mphi  testes  ;    but  to   us  they  appear    to  re- 
semble  those  of  the   Upper  Jurassic  genus    Amblolhc- 
rium,  in  which  the   molars  consist  of  a  trilobed  blade 
and  a  posterior  talon.     Now,  Amblotkerium  is  made  the 
representative  of  a  family  which  is  taken  as  the  type  of 
the   Insectivora  Primitiva.     Apart  from  the  question  of 
what  Amphitherium  really  is,  the  molar  teeth  of  Ambto- 
therium,  as  already  said,  differ  considerably  from  those 
of  Amphilestcs  (Prodidelphia)  ;  but,  since  precisely  ana- 
logous  differences  occur  n  a   single   family   of  existing 
Marsupials,  these   differences   do   not    appear  to  afford 
grounds  for    even  family,  let   alone  ordinal,  distinction. 
No  definite    characters  are,  indeed,  given   by  which  the 
Insectivora  Primitiva  (p.   235)  are  to  be  distinguished 
from  the  Prodidelphia  ;  and  if  we  compare  the  figure  of 
the  mandible  of  Amphilestcs,  given  on  p.  228,  with  that 
of  Amblothcrium,  represented  in  Plate  ix.,  Fig.  II,  the 
resemblance  in  the  contour  of  the  posterior  portion  of 
the  jaw  is  so  close  that  scarcely  even  generic  distinction 
could  be  drawn  from  this  part.     The  conclusions  drawn 
from  this  portion  of  the  jaw  in  the  diffeient  forms  are 
indeed  very  remarkable.     Thus  we  have  already  noticed 
how   the   low  condyle   is   given   as   a   character  of   the 
Tritylodontida,  and  yet  the    feature  is  totally  wanting 
in  the  first  genus,  Amphitestes,  which  agrees  exactly  with 
Amblotlicrium   in  its  lofty  condyle.     The  alleged  broad 
and  narrow  coronoids  of  the  two  forms  may  be  in  great 
part  due  to  the  effects  of  pressure.     The  absence  of  in- 
flection in  the  angle  of  Amblotherium  is  shared  by  some 
of  the   forms   included    in  the    Triconodontidce.      Then, 
again,  we  are  totally  unable   (after  repeated  examinations 
of  the  types)  to  see  how  the  lower  jaw,  on  which  P era- 
spat  ax  was   founded,    can    be    even    generically   distin- 
guished from  Amblotherium,  the  dental  formula  being, 
with  the  exception  of  an  additional  lower  molar,  identical ; 
and  yet  the  one  genus   is  referred  to  the  Prodidelphia, 
and  the  other  to  the   Insectivora  Primitiva.     As  another 
instance,  the  general  similarity  in  the  structure  of  the 
lower  molars  of  Spalacotherium  to  those  of  Chrysochloris 
coupled  with  an  analogous  similarity  existing  between  the 
upper  ones  of  Peralestes  and  those  of  the  same  existing 
genus,  suggests  at  all  events  a  very  considerable  presump- 
tion that  the  two  fossil  genera  may  be  identical.     We  find, 
however,  Spalacotherium  placed  in  the  Triconodontidcr, 
while  Peralestes  is  made  the  type  of  another  family  of  the 
Prodidelphia,  which  includes  the  above-mentioned  Pera- 
spalax.     Now,  even  if  the  above  obvious  resemblance  is 
ignored,  we  totally  fail  to  see  any  reason  for  including 
Spalacotherium  in  the   Triconodontidce,  and  agree  with 
Prof.   Marsh  in    regarding  it  as  the  type   of  a  distinct 
family.      If,   moreover,   any   of  these   forms   are   to    be 
referred  to  the  Insectivora,  we  should  have  thought  that 
Spalacotherium,  with  its   Chrysochloris-hke  molars,  and 


the  reduction  of  its  lower  incisors  to  the  Eutherian  three, 
was  the  very  one  which  had  a  claim  to  such  a  position. 
In  regard  to  the  new  genus  Kurtodon — the  type  of  the 
Kurtodontidce — we  can  only  say  that. there  appears  to  us 
to  be  no  evidence  that  the  upper  jaws  on  which  it  is 
founded  may  not  belong  to  one  of  the  genera  named  on 
the  evidence  of  the  mandible. 

Other  points  might  be  noticed  if  space  permitted  ; 
but  we  have  indicated  enough  to  show  that  a  great 
deal  more  must  be  absolutely  proved  before  many 
of  the  genera  admitted  by  Prof.  Osborn  can  be  even 
allowed  to  stand  as  definitely  distinct  ;  while,  as  to 
the  proposed  division  of  the  Polyprotodont  forms  into 
Insectivora  and  Marsupialia,  we  have  shown  that  in  its 
present  form  it  breaks  down  hopelessly  at  every  point, 
although  we  are  far  from  saying  that  all  the  known  forms 
are  certainly  Marsupial.  It  appears,  however,  desirable, 
till  we  attain  much  fuller  knowledge  of  their  organization, 
to  leave  a  large  proportion  of  them  in  a  single  ill- defined 
family. 

In  criticizing  this  memoir  we  have  not  hesitated,  in 
what  appear  to  us  to  be  the  true  interests  of  science,  to 
speak  freely.      We    should,   however,   be    unjust    if   we 
failed  to  recognize  the  amount  of  labour  of  a  very  try- 
ing kind  which  the  author  has  bestowed  on  the  subject  ; 
and  we  especially  commend  the  value  of  his  observations 
on  the  Multituberculata.     It  is  also  a  decided  advantage 
'  to  have  all  the  American  and  European  forms  compared 
!  together  by  one  who  has  had  the  good  fortune  to  study 
'  so  many  of  the  types  from  both  areas.     Finally,  no  one 
1  can  fail  to  be  struck  with  the  excellent  illustrations  with 
which  the  monograph  is    adorned,   a   large   number   of 
which,  we  believe,  are  from  the  author's  own  drawings. 


EA  R  TH  SCULP  TURE. 
Les  Formes  du    Terrain.     Par  Lieut. -Colonel  G.   De  la 
Noe,    avec    la    collaboration  de   Emm.    de    Margerie. 
2  Vols.  (Text,  pp.  205  ;  Plates  xlix).     (Paris,  1888.) 

THE  origin  of  the  features  of  the  earth's  surface  must 
always  prove  an  attractive  subject  no  less  to  the 
geographer  than  to  the  geologist.  The  one  describes  and 
the  other  expounds  ;  and  the  work  before  us  is  an  admir- 
able example  of  what  may  be  done  by  the  joint  labours  of 
geologist  and  geographer  in  illustrating  and  explaining 
the  form  of  the  ground. 

In  turning  over  the  pages  of  the  work,  and  in  contem- 
plating the  many  instructive  diagrams  and  pictorial  illus- 
trations, one  is  prepared  for  a  more  exhaustive  treatment 
of  the  origin  of  scenery  than  is  really  to  be  found  in  these 
volumes.  So  far  as  the  geologist  is  concerned,  the  work 
is  mainly  a  treatise  on  sub-aerial  denudation,  and  with 
special  reference  to  France.  It  is  almost  entirely  occupied 
with  the  method  of  denudation  by  rain  and  rivers,  and  with 
an  account  of  the  features  which  they  originate.  We  are 
told  how  different  rocks  are  disintegrated  by  surface 
agencies,  and  how  the  broken  material  is  afterwards 
transported  by  streams.  Attention  is  especially  called 
to  the  action  of  running  water  on  rocks  of  varying  cha- 
racter and  inclination,  to  the  influence  of  vegetation  in 
preserving  slopes  at  certain  inclinations,  and  to  the  effect 
of  rain  in  diminishing  the  angle  of  slopes.  The  influence 
of  climate  is  dwelt  upon,  and  it  is  shown  how  the  perme- 


Oct.  25,  1888] 


NATURE 


61 


able  strata  are  characterized  by  dry  valleys  and  few 
water-courses,  while  the  impermeable  beds  support 
abundant  streams. 

The  relations  of  disturbed  strata,  of  anticlinals  and 
synclinals  to  valley  and  hill,  are  duly  noted  ;  and  it  is 
pointed  out  how  the  flow  of  rivers  is  determined  by  the 
lie  of  the  land  when  it  is  upraised  from  beneath  the  sea- 
level,  and  that  in  few  cases  are  their  courses  directed  by 
faults  or  fractures.  The  authors  explain  the  recession  of 
escarpments  by  the  undermining  or  undercutting  of  softer 
beds  and  the  production  of  landslips  ;  and  they  note  the 
influence  of  lateral  streams  in  eroding  these  softer  strata 
at  the  foot  of  the  hills,  a  subject  illustrated  by  reference 
to  the  Wealden  area  and  other  districts. 

Little  is  said  about  marine  denudation,  for  the  action 
of  the  sea  is  essentially  limited  to  the  destruction  of 
cliffs  along  its  margin,  and  to  the  formation  of  marine 
platforms.  Concerning  great  "  plateaux  of  abrasion,"  or 
so-called  "plains  of  marine  denudation,"  the  authors 
express  their  opinion  that  it  would  be  wrong  to  attribute 
their  formation  exclusively  to  the  sea,  for  they  consider 
that  the  prolonged  action  of  sub-aerial  forces  is  to  reduce 
the  land  to  a  level.  Nor  do  the  authors  attribute  great 
excavating  power  to  glaciers.  In  their  opinion  these 
icy  agents  occupied  and  modified  old  valleys,  and  have 
not  always  effaced  the  pre- Glacial  alluvial  deposits  ;  and 
they  see  little  evidence  of  post-Glacial  erosion.  In  these 
respects  their  observations  are  based  on  local  and 
limited  evidence  ;  for  in  this  country,  although  the  main 
features  were  marked  out  in  pre-Glacial  times,  there  is 
abundant  evidence  of  denudation  by  glacial  action,  and 
subsequently  in  times  when  the  ice  had  done  its  work. 

The  authors  have  clearly  pointed  out  that  the  topo- 
graphical features  are  as  a  rule  in  direct  relation  with  the 
geological  structure  ;  indeed,  the  form  of  the  ground  is 
one  of  the  most  important  guides  to  the  field-geologist  in 
his  delineation  of  the  superficial  distribution  of  the  rock- 
masses.  Nevertheless,  in  the  explanation  of  the  origin  of 
our  scenery,  there  are  many  points  concerning  the  original 
extent  of  each  formation,  and  the  changes  in  texture 
which  the  rocks  have  undergone,  that  are  but  briefly,  if 
at  all,  noticed  in  this  work.  In  this  respect,  however,  each 
country  must  be  studied  in  detail  before  the  complex 
history  of  its  physical  features  can  be  deciphered. 

The  present  work,  as  before  stated,  deals  mainly  with 
the  mode  in  which  rain  and  rivers  sculpture  the  surface 
of  the  earth.  It  is  an  instructive  summary  of  what  is 
known  on  this  subject,  supported  by  original  observations 
and  by  references  to  the  principal  authorities,  and  illus- 
trated in  a  far  more  sumptuous  manner  than  has  ever 
been  attempted  in  this  country.  H.  B.  W. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Eclectic    Physical     Geography.       By    Russell    Hinman. 
(New  York:    Van  Antwerp,  Bragg,  and  Co.,  1888.) 

To  quote  the  author's  preface,  "The  aim  of  this  book 
is  to  indicate  briefly  what  we  know  or  surmise  concerning 
the  proximate  causes  of  the  more  common  and  familiar 
phenomena  observed  at  the  earth's  surface."  The  book 
commences  with  an  introduction  to  the  general  laws  of 
Nature,  in  which  short  outlines  of  the  properties  of 
matter  and  the  various  forms  of  energy  are  given.     The 


earth  is  then  treated  as  a  planet ;  its  relation  to  the  sun  and 
stars,  and  the  nature  and  results  of  its  movements,  being 
described.  Next  come  chapters  on  the  atmosphere,  the 
sea,  the  land,  meteorology  ;  and  finally,  the  various  forms 
of  life.  The  causes  of  the  movements  of  the  atmosphere, 
sea,  and  land,  and  their  respective  effects,  are  all  clearly 
stated.  Brief  outlines  are  given  of  the  gradual  disintegra- 
tion of  terrestrial  rocks,  and  the  subsequent  transporta- 
tion and  accumulation  of  the  products.  Fossils  and 
their  teachings  also  receive  attention.  In  short,  nothing 
of  importance  has  been  omitted. 

The  general  plan  of  the  book  bears  a  considerable 
resemblance  to  that  suggested  by  the  syllabus  of  the 
Science  and  Art  Department's  course  of  elementary 
physiography,  and  with  a  teacher  to  extend  the  preli- 
minary chapter  on  the  forms  of  energy,  would  form  an 
admirable  text-book  for  that  subject.  The  order  in 
which  the  subjects  are  taken  is  practically  the  same,  and 
is  obviously  the  most  natural  and  rational. 

The  chapters  on  the  forms  of  life  and  their  distribution 
will  prove  of  special  interest  to  young  students  or  general 
readers.  There  is  a  good  outline  of  the  development 
theory,  and  of  what  we  know  of  man  from  prehistoric 
times. 

The  book  throughout  is  illustrated  by  a  great  number 
of  drawings,  maps,  and  charts,  which  not  only  beautify 
but  illustrate  the  text  in  a  most  admirable  manner.  The 
charts  are  drawn  on  three  different  systems  of  projection, 
each  system  being  applied  where  it  is  most  suitable  ;  and, 
what  is  very  important,  the  different  systems  are  fully 
explained.  A  book  like  this  cannot  fail  to  impress  the 
reader  with  a  due  sense  of  the  importance  of  diagram- 
matic representation  in  facilitating  description.  The 
various  sectional  drawings  are  especially  valuable  in 
this  respect. 

The  book  thoroughly  deserves  the  highest  praise,  and 
as  an  introduction  to  the  study  of  science  must  certainly 
rank  amon^r  the  best. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
of  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations.] 

Prophetic  Germs. 

Pkof.  Ray  Lankester  has  mistaken  me.  When  I  said  in 
my  last  letter  of  October  8  that  "all  organs  whatever  do 
actually  pass  through  rudimentary  s'.ages  in  which  actual  use  is 
impossible,"  I  referred  specially  to  the  embryological  develop- 
ment of  the  individual.  This  is  a  fact  which  cannot  be  denied. 
But  on  the  Darwinian  hypothesis  this  fact  applies  equally  to  the 
birth  of  species — which  are  nothing  but  the  passing  results  of 
individual  variation.  If  true  now  of  all  individuals,  it  must,  on 
that  hypothesis,  ha\e  been  true  of  them  for  all  time. 

Inheritance  is  no  explanation  of  this  fact.  It  is  merely  one 
part  of  the  fact  separately  stated.  Neither  is  "  correlation  of 
growth  "  any  explanation  of  it.  This,  again,  is  a  mere  phrase 
stating  in  another  form  the  very  fact  which  it  pretends  to  explain. 
All  organic  growths  are  "correlated."  But  with  what?  First, 
with  each  other  ;  and,  secondly,  with  some  combined  use,  which 
invariably  lies  in  the  future  when  such  growths  begin.  "  Corre- 
lation of  growth  "  is  the  law  under  which  "  prophetic  germs  " 
begin  to  be  developed  ;  and  this  prophetic  character  becomes 
all  the  more  marked  in  proportion  as  we  carry  back  existing 
forms  of  life  to  the  forms  which  were  primaeval.  It  is  a  favourite 
idea  among  the  disciples  of  Darwin  that  the  embryological  de- 
velopment of  individuals  represents  in  epitome  the  whole  history 
of  organic  life.  I  do  not  see  why  they  should  object  to  it  when 
it  leads  us  to  the  conclusion  that  the  whole  organic  world  must 
have  begun  in  germs  which  were  prophetic — that  all  organs 
must  have  come  into  being  before  they  could  be  used. 

Argyll. 


6i6 


NATURE 


[Oct.  25,  1888 


Definition  of  the  Theory  of  Natural  Selection. 

In  his  Presidential  address  before  Section  D  of  the  British 
Association,  Mr.  Dyer  is  reported  to  have  said,  while  alluding 
to  myself: — "He  has  startled  us  with  the  paradox  that  Mr. 
Darwin  did  not,  after  all,  put  forth,  as  I  conceive  it  was  his  own 
impression  that  he  did,  a  theory  of  the  origin  of  species,  but  only 
of  adaptations.  And  inasmuch  as  Mr.  Romanes  is  of  opinion 
that  specific  differences  are  not  adaptive,  while  those  of  genera 
are,  it  follows  that  Mr.  Darwin  only  really  accounted  for  the 
origin  of  the  latter,  while  for  an  explanation  of  the  former  we 
must  look  to  Mr.  Romanes  himself"  (Nature,  September  13, 
p.  47.6). 

It  is  here  stated  :  (1)  that  in  my  opinion  specific  differences  are 
not  adaptive  ;  (2)  that  I  regard  Mr.  Darwin's  theory  as  explain- 
ing the  origin  of  genera,  but  not  the  origin  of  species  ;  and 
(3)  that,  consequently,  biologists  are  virtually  invited  by  me 
to  accept  the  theory  of  physiological  selection  as  a  substitute  for 
Mr.  Darwin's  theory  of  natural  selection,  in  so  far,  at  all  events, 
as  the  origin  of  species  is  concerned. 

In  direct  contradiction  to  all  these  statements  I  will  now  quote 
passages  from  the  paper  with  reference  to  which  they  are  made. 
It  would  be  easy  for  me  to  add  further  quotations  to  the  same 
effect  under  each  of  the  three  heads,  but  the  following  will  be 
sufficient  to  serve  the  double  purpose  which  I  have  in  view — 
namely,  first  to  correct  misrepresentations,  and  next  to  furnish  a 
basis  for  further  remarks  upon  the  subject.  The  italics  have 
reference  only  to  the  former  purpose. 

(1)  and  (2). — -"It  [the  theory  of  natural  selection]  is  not, 
strictly  speaking,  a  theory  of  the  origin  of  species  :  it  is  a  theory 
of  the  origin — or,  rather,  of  the  cumulative  development — of 
adaptations,  whether  these  be  morphological,  physiological,  or 
psychological,  and  whether  they  occur  in  species  only,  or  like- 
wise in  genera,  families,  orders,  and  classes. 

"  These  two  things  are  very  far  from  being  the  same  ;  for,  on 
the  one  hand,  in  an  enormously  preponderating  number  of 
instances,  adaptive  structures  are  common  to  numerous  species  ; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  features  which  serve  to  distinguish 
species  from  species  are,  as  we  have  just  seen,  by  no  means 
invariably — or  even  generally — of  any  adaptive  character.  Of 
course,  if  this  were  not  so,  or  if  species  ahvays  and  only  differed 
from  one  another  in  respect  of  features  presenting  some  utility, 
then  any  theory  of  the  origin  of  such  adaptive  features  would 
also  become  a  theory  of  the  origin  of  the  species  which  presented 
them.  As  the  case  actually  stands,  however,  not  only  are 
specific  distinctions  very  often  of  no  utilitarian  meaning  ;  but,  as 
already  pointed  out,  the  most  constant  of  all  such  distinctions  is 
that  of  sterility,  and  this  the  theory  of  natural  selection  is  con- 
fessedly unable  to  explain.  .  .  .  In  so  far  as  natural  selection 
has  had  anything  to  do  with  the  genesis  of  species,  its  operation 
has  been,  so  to  speak,  incidental :  it  has  only  helped  in  the  work 
of  originating  species  in  so  far  as  some  among  the  adaptive 
variations  which  it  has  preserved  happen  to  have  constituted 
differences  of  only  specific  value.  But  there  is  an  innumerable 
multitude  of  other  such  differences  with  which  natural  selection 
can  have  had  nothing  to  do — particularly  the  most  general  of 
all  such  differences,  or  that  of  mutual  sterility  ;  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  by  far  the  larger  number  of  adaptations  which  it  has 
preserved  are  now  the  common  property  of  numberless  species. 
But  let  me  not  be  misunderstood.  In  saying  that  the  theory  of 
natural  selection  is  not,  properly  speaking,  a  theory  of  the  origin 
of  species,  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  theory  has  no  part  at 
all  in  explaining  such  origin.  Any  such  statement  would  be  in 
the  last  degree  absurd.  What  I  mean  to  say  is  that  the  theory 
is  one  which  explains  the  origin  or  the  conservation  of  adapta- 
tions, whether  structural  or  instinctive,  and  whether  these  occur 
in  species,  genera,  families,  orders,  or  classes.  In  so  far,  there- 
fore, as  useful  structure!  are  likewise  species-distinguishing 
structures,  so  far  is  the  theory  of  their  origin  also  a  theory  of  the 
origin  of  the  species  which  present  them. " 

(3)  "Let  it,  therefore,  be  clearly  understood  that  it  is  the 
office  of  natural  selection  to  evolve  adaptations — not  therefore 
or  necessarily  to  evolve  species.  Let  it  also  be  clearly  under- 
stood that  in  thus  seeking  to  place  the  theory  of  natural  selection 
on  its  true  I  gical  footing,  I  am  in  nowise  detracting  from  the 
importance  of  that  theory.  On  the  contrary,  I  am  but  seeking 
to  release  it  from  the  difficulties  with  which  it  has  been  hitherto 
illegitimately  surrounded.  ...  I  cannot  feel  that  I  am  turning 
traitor  to  the  cause  of  Darwinism.  On  the  contrary,  I  hope  thus 
to  remove  certain  difficulties  in  the  way  of  Darwinian  teaching  ; 


and  I  well  know  that  Mr.  Darwin  himself  would  have  been  the 
first  to  welcome  my  attempt  at  suggesting  another  factor  in  the 
formation  of  species,  which,  a'lhough  quite  independent  of '  nattiral 
selection,  is  in  no  zvay  opposed  to  natural  selection,  and  may  there- 
fore be  regarded  as  a  factor  supplementary  to  natural  selection.  .  .  . 
And  here,  as  elsewhere,  I  believe  that  the  co-operation  enables 
the  two  principles  to  effect  very  much  more  in  the  way  of 
species-making  than  either  of  them  could  effect  if  working 
separately.  On  the  one  hand,  without  the  assistance  of  physio- 
logical selection,  natural  selection  would,  I  believe,  be  all  but 
overcome  by  the  adverse  influences  of  free  intercrossing — in- 
fluences all  the  more  potent  under  the  very  conditions  which  are 
required  for  the  multiplication  of  species  by  divergence  of 
character.  On  the  other  hand,  vilhou?  natural seLction,  physio- 
logical selection  would  be  powerless  to  create  any  differences  of 
specific  type,  other  than  those  of  mutual  sterility  and  trivia/ 
details  of  structure,  form,  and  colour — differences  wholly  without 
meaning  from  a  utilitarian  point  of  view.  But  in  their  combina- 
tion these  two  principles  appear  to  me  able  to  accomplish  what 
neither  can  accomplish  alone — namely,  a  full  and  satisfactory 
explanation  of  the  origin  of  species." 

These  quotations  appear  to  me  sufficient  to  prove  the  in- 
accuracy of  Mr.  Dyer's  remarks.  But  I  should  not  have 
taken  the  trouble  to  notice  misinterpretations  of  so  absurd  a 
kind,  were  it  not  that  I  have  something  more  to  say  on  the 
subject  of  which  they  treat.  For  Mr.  Dyer,  in  his  address, 
alludes  to  a  recent  criticism  by  Mr.  Huxley,  which  also  deals 
with  my  "paradox,"  but  does  so  in  a  very  different  manner. 
That  is  to  say,  the  passages  which  Mr.  Huxley  devotes  to 
this  subject  exhibit  a  much  more  careful  consideration  of 
the  points  in  it  to  which  he  alludes,  as  well  as  a  manifest 
desire  to  state  the  issue  fairly.  I  will  therefore  pass  on  to 
consider  the  criticism  as  it  was  originally  presented  by  Mr. 
Huxley,  leaving  behind  the  teralological  reproduction  of  it  by 
Mr.  Dyer  as  effectually  disposed  of  by  mere  quotations  from  my 
paper  itself. 

The  substance  of  Mr.  Huxley's  criticism,  in  so  far  as  it 
apparently  applies  to  me,  is  conveyed  in  the  following 
words: — "'Favourable  variations'  are  those  which  are  better 
adapted  to  surrounding  conditions.  It  follows,  therefore,  that 
every  variety  which  is  selected  into  a  species  is  so  favoured 
and  preserved  in  consequence  of  being,  in  some  one  or  more 
respects,  better  adapted  to  its  surroundings  than  its  rivals.  In 
other  words,  every  species  which  exists,  exists  in  virtue  of 
adaptation,  and  whatever  accounts  for  that  adaptation  accounts 
for  the  existence  of  the  species.  To  say  that  Darwin  has  put 
forward  a  theory  of  the  adaptation  of  species,  but  not  of  their 
origin,  is  therefore  to  misunderstand  the  first  principles  of  the 
theory.  For,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  it  is  a  necessary  conse- 
quence of  the  theory  of  selection  that  every  species  must  have 
some  one  or  more  structural  or  functional  peculiarities,  in  virtue 
of  the  advantage  conferred  by  which,  it  has  fought  through  the 
crowd  of  its  competitors,  and  achieved  a  certain  duration.  In 
this  sense,  it  is  true  that  every  species  has  been  '  originated '  by 
selection"  (Proc.  Roy.  Soc,  vol.  xliv.  No.  269,  p.  xviii.). 

Now,  in  the  first  place,  I  have  nowhere  said  that  "Darwin 
has  put  forward  a  theory  of  the  adaptation  of  species,  but  not  of 
their  origin."  I  said,  and  continue  to  say,  that  he  has  put 
forward  a  theory  of  adaptations  in  general,  and  that  where  such 
adaptations  appertain  to  species  only  (i.e.  are  peculiar  to  par- 
ticular species),  the  theory  becomes  "  also  a  theory  of  the  origin 
of  the  species  which  present  them."  The  only  possible  mis- 
understanding, therefore,  which  can  here  be  alleged  against  me 
is,  that  I  fail  to  perceive  it  as  a  "  necessary  consequence  of  the 
theory  of  selection  that  every  species  must  have  some  one  or 
more  structural  or  functional  peculiarities"  of  an  adaptive  or 
utilitarian  kind.  Now,  if  this  is  a  misunderstanding,  I  must 
confess  to  not  having  had  it  removed  by  Mr.  Huxley's  exposition. 

The  whole  criticism  is  tersely  conveyed  in  the  form  of  two 
sequent  propositions — namely,  "Every  species  which  exists,  exists 
in  virtue  of  adaptation  ;  and  whatever  accounts  for  that  adaptation 
accounts  for  the  existence  of  the  species. "  My  answer  is  likewise 
two-fold.  First,  I  do  not  accept  the  premiss  ;  and  next,  even  if 
I  did,  I  can  show  that  the  resulting  conclusion  would  not  over- 
turn my  definition.  Let  us  consider  these  two  points  separately, 
beginning  with  the  latter,  as  the  one  which  may  be  most  briefly 
disposed  of. 

I.  Provisionally  conceding  that  "every  species  which  exists, 
exists  in  virtue  of  adaptation,"  I  maintain  that  my  definition  of  the 
theory  of  natural  selection  still  holds  good.     For  even  on  the 


Oct.  25,  1888] 


NATURE 


617 


basis  of  this  concession,  or  on  the  ground  of  this  assumption, 
the  theory  of  natural  selection  is  not  shown  to  be  primarily 
a  theory  of  the  origin  of  species.  It  follows,  indeed,  from  the 
assumption— is,  in  fact,  part  and  parcel  of  the  assumption — that 
all  species  have  been  originated  by  natural  selection  ;  but  why  ? 
Only  because  natural  selection  has  originated  those  particular 
adaptive  features  in  virtue  of  which  species  exist  as  species.  It 
is  only  in  virtue  of  having  created  these  features  that  natural 
selection  has  created  the  species  presenting  them — just  as  it  has 
created  genera,  families,  orders,  &c,  in  virtue  of  other  adaptive 
fe  Uures  extending  through  progressively  wider  areas  of  taxonomic 
division.  Everywhere  and  equally  this  principle  has  been  pri- 
marily engaged  in  the  evolution  of  adaptations,  and  if  one  re-.uk 
of  its  work  has  been  that  of  enabling  the  systematist  to  trace 
lines  of  genetic  descent  under  his  divisions  of  species,  genera, 
and  the  rest,  such  a  result  is  but  .--econdary  or  incidental.  A 
wing,  for  example,  is  an  adaptive  structure  which  is  formed  on 
at  least  four  completely  different  plans  in  different  classes  of  the 
animal  kingdom  ;  and  it  is  the  function  of  natural  selection  as 
a  theory  to  explain  all  this  variety  of  adaptive  structure, 
with  its  infinite  number  of  subordinate  variations  through 
the  different  forms  in  each  class,  whether  "species"  or 
otherwise.  Now,  I  say  that  such  a  theory  is  first  of  all  a 
theory  of  the  evolution  of  adaptations,  even  though  it  be 
conceded  that  all  species  exist  in  virtue  of  differing  from  one 
another  in  respect  of  adaptations,  and  hence  that  the  theory 
becomes  also  a  theory  of  the  evolution  of  species,  as  it  is  also  a 
theory  of  the  evolution  of  genera,  families,  &c.  Take  a  parallel 
instance.  If  a  man  were  to  define  the  nebular  theory  as  a  theory 
of  the  origin  of  Saturn's  rings,  an  astronomer  would  tell  him 
that  his  definition  is  much  too  limited.  The  theory  is,  indeed,  a 
theory  of  the  origin  of  Saturn's  rings  ;  but  it  is  so  because  it  is  a 
theory  of  the  origin  of  the  entire  solar  system,  of  which  Saturn's 
rings  constitute  a  part.  Similarly,  the  theory  of  natural  selec- 
tion is  a  theory  of  the  entire  system  of  organic  Nature  in  re-pect 
of  adaptations,  whether  these  are  distinctive  of  particular  species 
only,  or  likewise  common  to  any  number  of  species.  In  short, 
it  is  "primarily"  a  theory  of  adaptations  wherever  these  occur, 
and  only  becomes  "  also  "  or  "  incidentally  "  a  theory  of  species 
in  cases  where  adaptations  happen  to  be  restricted  in  their 
occurrence  to  organic  types  of  a  certain  order  of  taxonomic 
division. 

This,  I  think,  is  enough  to  justify  my  definition  in  a  formal  01 
logical  sense.  But  as  Mr.  Huxley's  criticism  involves  certain 
questions  of  a  material  or  biological  kind,  I  should  like  to  take 
this  opportunity  of  considering  what  he  has  said  upon  them. 
Therefore  I  will  now  pass  on  to  the  second  head  of  my  answer. 

II.  Hitherto,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  I  have  conceded  that, 
in  the  words  of  my  critic,  "  it  is  a  necessary  consequence  of  the 
theory  of  selection  that  every  species  must  have  some  one  or 
more  structural  or  functional  peculiarities  "  of  an  adaptive  kind. 
But  now  I  will  endeavour  to  show  that  this  statement  does  not 
"follow  as  a  necessary  consequence"  from  "the  theory  of 
selection." 

Be  it  observed,  the  question  which  I  am  about  to  consider  is 
not  whether  "every  species  which  exists,  exists  in  virtue  of 
adaptation  "  common  to  its  genus,  family,  order,  class,  or  sub- 
kingdom.  The  question  is  whether  every  species  which  exists, 
exists  in  virtue  of  some  advantageous  "peculiarity  "  or  adaptive 
advantage  not  shared  by  its  nearest  allies.  In  other  words,  we 
are  not  disputing  whether  it  is  a  necessary  consequence  of  Mr. 
Darwin's  theory  that  all  "species"  must  present  "  adaptations." 
This,  of  course,  I  fully  admit.  But  what  we  are  disputing  is, 
whether  it  is  a  necessary  comequence  of  Mr.  Darwin's  theory 
that  every  species  must  present  at  least  one  adaptive  character 
(or  combination  of  adaptive  characters)  peculiar  to  itself  alone. 
Now,  such  being  the  question,  let  us  consider  Mr.  Huxley's 
treatment  of  it. 

Most  obviously  "it  follows  "  from  the  theory  of  selection  that 
"every  variety  which  is  selected  into  a  species  is  favoured  and 
preserved  in  consequence  of  being,  in  some  one  or  more  respects, 
better  adapted  to  its  surroundings  than  its  rivals."  This,  in  fact, 
is  no  more  than  a  re-statement  of  the  theory  itself.  But  it  does 
not  follow  that  "  every  species  which  exists,  exists  in  virtue  of 
adaptation"  peculiar  to  that  species;  i.e.  that  every  species 
which  exists,  exists  in  virtue  of  having  been  "selected."  This 
may  or  may  not  be  true  as  a  matter  of  fact  :  as  a  matter  of 
logic,  the  inference  is  not  deducible  from  the  selection  theory. 
Every  variety  which  is  selected  into  a  species  must,  indeed,  pre- 
sent some  such  peculiar  advantage  ;  but  this  is  by  no  means 


equivalent  to  saying,  "in  other  words,"  that  every  variety 
which  becomes  a  species  must  do  so.  For  the  latter  statement 
imports  a  completely  new  assumption — namely,  that  every 
variety  which  becomes  a  species  must  do  so  because  it  has  been 
selected  into  a  species.  In  short,  what  we  are  here  told  is,  that 
if  we  believe  the  selection  principle  to  have  given  origin  to  some 
species,  we  must  further  believe,  "as  a  necessary  consequence," 
that  it  has  given  origin  to  all  species. 

Not  to  perceive  a  consequence  so  neces-ary  is  said  to  betray  a 
fundamental  misunderstanding  of  the  first  principles  of  Mr. 
Darwin's  theory.  Perhaps,  therefore,  it  is  worth  while  to  consider 
the  matter  from  another  and  less  formal  point  of  view. 

It  surely  is  no  essential  part  of  Mr.  Darwin's  theory  to  deny 
that  isolation  (in  all  its  kinds)  may  lead  to  the  survival  of  new 
varieties,  and  so,  in  some  cases,  to  the  origin  of  new  species 
which  need  not  necessarily  present  any  change  in  the  adaptive 
characters  respectively  inherited  from  their  parent  stocks.  Under 
isolation,  and  the  consequent  absence  of  what  Prof.  Weismam; 
has  called  panmixia,  there  is  much  rea-on  to  believe  that  new 
"structural  or  functional  peculiarities  "  may  arise  (whether  by 
direct  action  of  changed  conditions,  by  independent  variation  in 
the  absence  of  panmixia,  or  by  both  these  principles  combined) 
which  are  without  any  adaptive  significance  ;  and  I  cannot  see 
why  it  should  be  held  to  constitute  any  essential  part  of  Mr. 
Darwin's  theory  to  deny  that  such  is  the  case.  No  one,  I  sup- 
pose, will  venture  to  express  a  doubt  that  there  are  named 
species,  both  of  plants  and  animals,  which  have  been  formed 
under  isolation,  and  which  experiments — such  as  those  recently 
made  with  our  severally-isolated  forms  of  British  trout — would 
prove  to  be  but  "local  varieties,"  capable  of  being  changed  one 
into  another  by  mere  change  of  habitat,  without  any  question  of 
"  selection  "  being  so  much  as  possible.  Here  it  is  the  direct 
action  of  changed  conditions  which  induces  modifications  of 
type  sufficiently  pronounced  to  take  rank  as  distinct  species  in 
the  eyes  of  a  systematist ;  and  the  only  difference  between  such 
a  case  and  one  where  the  modifications  are  due  to  independent 
variation  is  that  in  the  former  case  their  non-adaptive  character 
admits  of  being  proved  by  experiment.  According  to  the 
general  theory  of  evolution,  there  is  no  distinction  to  be  drawn 
between  a  local  variety  and  a  new  species,  save  as  regards  the 
extent  to  which  modification  may  have  proceeded.  If,  there- 
fore, as  in  the  case  of  the  trout,  mere  change  of  habitat  from  one 
district  of  Great  Britain  to  another  (apart  from  any  "selection") 
is  able  to  induce  modifications  sufficient  in  amount  to  have  been 
ranked  as  species  by  expert  ichthyologists,  much  more  may  this 
frequently  be  the  case  under  geographical  isolation  in  larger 
areas,  with  exposure  to  different  climates,  and  subject  to  the 
superadded  influence  of  independent  variation. 

I  have  good  reason  to  be  well  aware  that  great  differences  of 
opinion  are  entertained  by  different  naturalists  touching  the 
degree  of  importance  which  should  be  assigned  to  isolation  as  a 
factor  of  organic  evolution  ;  and  in  one  of  the  very  last  issues  of 
Nature,  Mr.  Wallace  presents  with  great  lucidity  the  view 
that  isolation  alone  can  never  originate  a  new  species  by  inde- 
pendent variation  without  the  unavoidable  intervention  of 
natural  selection,  seeing  that  "  at  each  step  of  the  divergence  " 
there  must  be  "  necessarily  selection  of  the  fit  "  from  the  less  fit 
(September  20,  p.  491).  I  will  not  wait  to  show  that,  if  in  an 
isolated  section  of  a  species  no  new  peculiarities  should  be  re- 
quired to  render  its  constituent  individuals  more  "  fit,"  selection 
need  not  necessarily  effect  any  change  with  regard  to  adaptive 
characters ;  nor  need  I  remark  that  even  when  selection  is 
enabled  to  effect  such  a  change  under  such  circumstances,  it 
does  so  because  it  is  assisted  by  isolation,  thus  becoming,  not 
the  cause,  but  a  eon-cause  of  "the  origin  of  species."  A  great 
ileal  could  be  said  on  both  these  points  ;  but,  for  the  sake  of 
brevity,  I  will  take  rav  stand  on  the  bare  fact  that,  according  to 
the  general  theory  of  evolution,  a  local  variety  is  what  Mr. 
Darwin  calls  "an  incipient  species";  and,  on  the  ground  of 
this  fact,  I  ask  where  the  line  is  to  be  drawn  between  varieties 
and  species  in  respect  of  adaptive  characters?  If  no  answer  can 
be  given,  we  must  take  it  from  Mr.  Huxley,  as  "a  necessary 
consequence  of  the  theory  of  selection,"  that  every  variety 
"  which  exists,  exists  in  virtue  of  adaptation."  Thus,  to  take 
but  two  illustrations  from  among  several  that  might  be  drawn 
from  the  trout  just  alluded  to,  when  two  lots  of  "  Lochlevens" 
were  placed  in  two  separate  ponds  within  a  very  short  distance 
of  each  other,  and  exposed,  as  far  as  could  be  ascertained,  to 
parallel  conditions  of  life,  remarkable — but  in  no  conceivable 
respect  adaptive — differences  in  coloration  were  developed  be- 


6i8 


NA  TURE 


[Oct. 


18S8 


tween  the  trout  which  respectively  inhabited  the  two  ponds 
("British  and  Irish  Salmonidte,"  pp.  226-27,  1887).  Will  any- 
one undertake  to  affirm,  after  looking  at  the  coloured  plates, 
that  these  changes  must  ne:e  sarily  have  been  due  to  selection? 
Again,  in  a  recent  communication  to  the  Field  (]u\y  7),  Mr.  Day 
gives  an  engraving  of  a  remarkable  variation  which  is  taking 
place  in  the  gill-covers  of  trout  which  have  been  transported  to 
New  Zealand,  and  there  "turned  down  "under  nature.  Pre- 
mising only  that,  although  this  is  a  change  of  structure,  there  is 
110  more  adaptive  meaning  to  be  found  in  it  than  in  those 
changes  of  colour  above  mentioned,1  I  will  quote  Mr.  Day's 
remarks  upon  the  subject:  "It  will  be  interesting  to  watch 
the  changes  occurring  among  these  trout  in  their  new  home, 
and  to  observe  whether  these  serrations  are  continued  or  merely 
temporary  ;  for  if  they  should  become  developed  with  time 
there  would  be  still  more  reason  for  constituting  them  a  new 
species  than  now  exists  among  the  various  European  races ; 
while,  should  trout  with  serrated  preopercles  and  interopercles 
be  admitted  as  constituting  a  new  species,  we  could  now  trace 
the  process  of  development  from  its  commencement,  and  show 
how  such  has  been  occasioned  by  transplanting  our  European 
trout  to  the  warmer  waters  of  the  Antipodes." 

Should  it  be  objected  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  state  of 
matters  anticipated  by  Mr.  Day  has  not  yet  arrived,  my  answer 
would  be  obvious— namely,  supposing  tha'  such  a  state  of  matters 
had  arrived,  could  the  fact  be  reasonably  held  to  annihilate  the 
whole  theory  of  natural  selection  ?  Yet  this  is  what  such  a  fact 
would  necessarily  do,  if  we  hold  it  to  be  "a  necessary  conse- 
quence of  the  theory  "  that  every  species  which  exists,  exists  in 
virtue  of  having  been  "selected."  If  we  have  not  here  a  re- 
ductio  ad  absurdum,  I  do  not  know  how  one  can  ever  hope  to 
apply  that  method. 

Of  course  I  am  not  disputing  that  in  general  there  is  a  very 
great  distinction  between  local  varieties  and  good  species  in 
respect  of  peculiar  adaptive  characters.  In  other  words,  I 
have  no  doubt  at  all  that  probably  the  great  majority  of 
of  species  have  been  originated  by  natural  selection,  either  as 
the  sole  cause  or  in  association  with  other  causes.  But  the  alle- 
gation which  I  am  resisting  is,  that  it  follows  as  a  necessary 
consequence  from  the  theory  of  selection  itself  that  every  species 
must  owe  its  origin  to  selection.  And  I  have  endeavoured  to 
show  that  this  allegation  admits  of  being  reduced  to  an  absurdity. 
When  Mr.  Wallace,  in  the  letter  above  referred  to,  expresses 
dissent  from  Mr.  Gulick's  view  that  species  are  frequently  origin- 
ated by  the  influence  of  isolation  alone,  he  adds  :  "If  this  is  a 
fact,  it  is  a  most  important  and  fundamental  fact,  equal  in  its 
far-reaching  significance  to  natural  selection  itself ;  I  accordingly 
read  the  paper  with  continual  expectation  of  finding  some  evi- 
dence of  this  momentous  principle,  but  in  vain."  Now,  sup- 
posing that  Mr.  Wallace  had  found  the  evidence  which  would 
have  fully  satisfied  him,  would  he  therefore  have  been  logically 
required  to  abandon  his  own  great  generalization?  Would  he 
have  been  required  to  acknowledge,  not  only,  as  he  says,  a 
principle  "equal  in  its  far-reaching  significance  to  natural 
selection  itself,"  but  a  principle  which  altogether  superseded  that 
of  natural  selection  ?  I  say  it  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  such 
would  have  been  the  case,  and  yet  it  must  necessarily  have  been 
the  case  if  it  be  "a  necessary  consequence"  of  his  theory  that 
all  (if  any)  species  are  originated  by  >  election. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  1  am  not  arguing  the  biological 
question  whether,  or  how  far,  species  exist  which  do  not  owe 
their  existence  to  selection  ;  I  am  arguing  only  the  logical  ques- 
tion whether  it  is  "a  necessary  consequence  of  the  theory  of 
selection "  that  they  cannot.  And  I  now  submit  that  it  no 
more  follows  from  the  selecion  theory  alone,  that  "every 
v.iriety  "  which  becomes  "  a  species  "  does  so  "in  consequence 
of  being  in  some  one  or  more  respects  better  adapted  to  its 
surroundings  than  "  its  existing  cmtemporaries,  than  it  does  that 
every  variety  which  becomes  a  variety  does  so  for  the  same 
reason.  If  the  former  statement  is  a  statement  of  biological 
fact  (which,  for  my  own  part,  I  do  not  believe),  the  fact  is  one 
lhat  would  stand  to  be  proved  inductively  as  a  fact  :  it  cannot 
be  made  good  by  way  of  logical  deduction  "from  the  theory  of 
selection." 

1  In  this  connection,  also,  it  is  of  great  importance  to  remember  lhat  it  is 
only  twenty  years  ago  since  the  trout  in  question  were  sent  to  New  Zealand, 
and  their  fry  liberated  in  the  waters  there  ;  f  jT  the  most  ardent  upholder 
of  the  theory  of  natural  selection  as  the  sole  cause  of  specific  transmutation 
will  scarcely  maintain  that  twenty  years  is  long  enough  for  survival  of  the 
fittest  to  effect  a  structural  change  of  an  "unknown  "  adaptive  character  in 
a  long-lived  animal  with  all  the  waters  of  New  Zealand  to  spread  over. 


I  have  thus  dealt  with  Mr.  Huxley's  criticism  at  some  length, 
because,  although  it  has  reference  mainly  to  a  matter  of  logical 
definition,  and  in  no  way  touches  my  own  theory  of  "  physio- 
logical selection,"  it  appears  to  me  a  matter  of  interest  from  a 
dialectical  point  of  view,  and  also  because  it  does  involve  cer- 
tain questions  of  considerable  importance  from  a  biological  point 
of  view.  Moreover,  I  object  to  being  accused  of  misunder- 
standing the  theory  of  natural  selection,  merely  because  some 
of  my  critics  have  not  sufficiently  c  msidered  what  appears  to 
them  a  "  paradoxical "  way  of  regarding  it. 

George  J.  Romanes. 

How  Se?-  Birds  Dine. 
As  I  have  ascertained  that  the  following  fact  is  not  well 
known,  I  send  you  this  account  in  the  hope  that  it  may  be  of 
interest  to  naturalists  and  to  the  general  public.  Anyone  who 
lives  in  the  Western  Hebrides  will  have  often  watched  on  a 
calm  day  the  sea-birds  feeding  with  noisy  clamour  in  the  sea- 
lochs  and  about  the  numerous  islands.  This  is  especially  the 
case  in  August,  when  the  shoals  of  small  herring  are  very  plenti- 
ful. Some  years  ago,  when  in  a  sailing-boat  off  the  west  coast 
of  Mull,  I  caught  with  a  hand-net  a  dishful  of  these  small  fry 
as  they  swam  along  the  surface  of  the  water.  Last  year,  noticing 
from  a  steam-launch  the  birds  congregated  in  great  numbers  at 
one  spot,  the  idea  struck  me  to  steam  to  the  place  and  try  to  get 
a  share  of  the  birds'  repist.     The  idea  was  at  once  carried  out. 

1  stood  on  the  prow  with  landing-net  in  hand,  and  the  launch 
wa  steered  towards  the  birds.  As  we  drew  near,  the  banqueters 
flew  away  with  evident  dissatisfaction  at  the  interruption,  a  few 
of  the  more  greedy  making  their  last  hasty  dives.  In  another 
moment  we  were  at  the  spot,  and  1  saw,  to  my  intense  surprise, 
about    2   feet  under    the    surface,  a  large   reddish-brown    ball, 

2  to  3  feet  in  length  and  2  feet  in  depth.  I  made  a  frantic 
swoop  with  the  net  into  the  ball,  and  brought  on  deck  half  a 
pailful  of  the  sea-birds'  dinner.  LVen  as  we  passed  we  could  see 
the  great  living  ball  sinking  and  breaking  into  pieces.  1  his 
year  J  aid  others  have  tried  the  same  spot  with  great  success. 
Sometimes  the  ball  has  sunk  too  deep  to  be  reached  ;  some- 
times there  was  no  ball  to  be  seen  ;  but  on  the  most  successful 
day  I  filled  a  pailful  in  three  hauls.  In  September  we  saw  no 
ball,  because,  perhaps,  the  fish  hid  grown  too  large  for  the 
birds  to  manage.  As  far  as  I  can  judge,  the  modus  operandi  is 
carried  out  by  the  divers,  who  surround  a  shoal  and  hem  them 
in  on  all  sides,  so  that  the  terrified  fish  huddle  together  in  a 
vain  effort  to  escape  inevitable  destruction.  The  divers  work 
from  below  and  other  sea-birds  feed  from  above  ;  and,  as  in 
some  cases  after  the  birds  had  been  at  work  for  some  time  I  saw 
no  ball,  I  suppose  not  one  fish  is  left  to  tell  the  tale.  I  must 
leave  to  naturalists  the  real  explanation  of  the  matter  ;  but  I 
may  mention  that,  when  disturbed  by  the  boat,  the  divers  seem 
to  come  to  the  surface  in  a  great  ring  round  the  scene  of  their 
feast.  I  may  aho  mention  that  once,  when  the  boat  was  still 
300  or  400  yards  away,  the  birds  suddenly  rose  and  whirled 
about  with  frightened  screams.  I  wondered  what  could  be  the 
cause,  until  I  saw  the  round  back  of  a  porpoise  rolling  lazily 
round  at  the  exact  spot,  and  then  rolling  back  again.  When 
we  steamed  past  there  was  no  sign  of  a  ball.  What  two  delicious 
mouthfuls  for  the  porpoise  !  Comtton. 

Loch  Luichart,  Ross-shire,  N.B. 


The  Zodiacal  Light. 

Mr.  O.  T.  Sherman  gives  an  in'eresting  communication  or 
the  zodiacal  light  in  Nature  of  Octo  er  18  (p.  594),  and  asks 
for  reference  to  any  observations.  He  alludes  to  Cassini. 
The  following  extract  from  a  letter  by  Cassini  may  not  have 
come  under  his  notice:  "It  is  a  remarkable  circumstance  that 
since  the  end  of  the  year  1688,  when  this  light  began  to  grow 
fainter,  spots  should  have  no  longer  appeared  on  the  sun,  whilt 
in  the  preceding  years  they  were  very  frequent,  which  seems  tr 
support,  in  a  manner,  the  conjecture  that  the  light  may  ari-t 
from  the  same  emanations  as  the  spots  and  faculrc  of  the  sun." 
This  does  not  quite  tally  with  Mr.  Sherman's  notion  that  the 
maxima  of  the  zodiacal  light  coincide  with  the  minima  of  sun- 
spots.  May  it  not  rather  be  that,  supposing  sun-spots  to  be 
largely  occasioned  by  increased  influx  of  meteoric  matter  falling 
into  the  sun,  which  matter  gets  sublimed  and  repulsed  to  aug- 
ment the  materials  forming  the  zodiacal  light,  therefore  the 
maxima  of  the  latter  may  then  lag  behind  the  maxima  of  the 
sun-spots.  Henry  Muirhead. 

Cambuslang,  October  20. 


Oct.  25,  1888] 


NATURE 


619 


The  Geometric  Interpretation  of  Monge's  Differential 
Equation  to  all  Conies. 

Neither  the  note  of  Prof.  Asutosh  Mukhopadhyay  in 
Nature  of  the  nth  inst.  (p.  564),  nor  that  of  Lieut. -Colonel 
Allan  Cunningham  in  the  number  of  August  2  (p.  318),  has 
satisfied  me  that  the  criticism  implied  in  my  short  note  (June  28, 
p.  197)  on  the  Professor's  first  note  (June  21,  p.  173)  is  unfounded. 
Permit  me,  therefore,  to  develop  that  criticism  a  little  more  at 
large. 

I  have  not  yet  had  an  opportunity  of  referring  to  the  papers 
of  the  Professor  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Asiatic  Society,  but 
from  what  I  can  gather  as  to  their  contents  from  his  notes  in 
Nature,  I  am  in  no  way  disposed  to  underestimate  the  accuracy 
or  the  value  of  his  results.  It  is  only  to  his  claim  to  find  in 
them  "the  true  interpretation  of  Monge's  differential  equation 
to  any  conic"  that  I  demur. 

To  my  apprehension  the  interpretation  in  question  is  a  truism, 
not  a  truth.  What  has  been  put  into  the  question  as  a  defini- 
tion emerges  afterwards,  as  might  have  been  anticipated,  as 
an  interpretation.  If  the  Professor  has  given  a  definition  of 
aberrancy,  independent  of  a  conic  and  its  known  proper:  ies,  of 
cour.-e  I  am  wrong  ;  but  I  gather  from  his  note  that  by  aberrancy 
he  merely  means  (if  I  may  thus  express  it)  deviation  from 
cdnicity.  Whatever  measure  of  aberrancy,  then,  he  adopts  for 
curves  generally,  must  necessarily  become  zero  for  a  conic, 
which  has,  from  the  very  meaning  of  the  words,  no  "deviation 
from  conicity." 

The  difference,  as  I  conceive  it,  between  an  interpretation 
properly  so  called  and  an  interpretation  that  is  a  mere  truism, 
may  be  clearly  illustrated  by  the  case  of  the  circle.  The  Pro- 
fessor tells  us  that  "the  differential  equation  of  all  circles 
I  V  f-)r  -  7>p<r  —  o,  means  that  the  angle  of  aberrancy 
vanishes  at  every  point  of  every  circle."  If  thus  read,  what 
I  have  said  above  applies,  and  the  interpretation  is  but  a  truism. 
It   admits,  however,  of  a  different  reading.     For  it  is  easy  to 

show  that  (1  +f)r  -  3^/  =  (1  +  f-f  *J*t  where   s,  <p  are  the 

as2 
usual  intrinsic  co-ordinates  of  the  curve,  so  that  the  differential 
equation  is  equivalent  to  d-^/ds'1  =  o.  Now  d<p/ds  is  the  measure 
of  the  curvature  of  a  curve,  defined  as  the  rate  of  change,  per 
unit  of  arc,  of  the  inclination  of  the  tangent  to  a  fixed  direc- 
tion, a  definition  which  is  quite  independent  of  the  circle;  and 
d-<plds-  is  the  rate  of  change,  per  unit  of  arc,  of  the  curvature. 
Hence  the  equa'ion  d'2<p/ds2  =  o,  being  true  at  every  point  of 
every  circle,  expresses  the  truth  that  in  a  circle  there  is  no 
change  of  curvature  from  point  to  roint— or,  in  other  words,  the 
property  that  the  curvature  of  a  circle  is  the  same  at  every  point. 
I  submit  that  this,  lather  than  the  Professor's,  involving  the  notion 
of  aberrancy,  has  a  right  to  be  regarded  as  the  true  interpretation 
of  the  equation. 

In  like  manner,  the  true  interpretation  of  the  differential 
equation  to  a  conic,  if  it  ever  is  discovered,  will  express  that 
some  magnitude  or  concept  connected  with  a  curve,  and  defined 
independently  of  the  particular  curves,  the  conic  sections,  vanishes 
at  every  point  of  every  conic. 

Even  admitting  the  Professor's  interpretation,  I  agree  with 
Colonel  Allan  Cunningham  that  it  has  no  prerogative  right  over 
others  of  the  same  character  to  be  called  the  interpretation  of 
the  equation.  To  go  no  farther,  any  number  of  "  aberrancy 
curves"  may  be  imagined;  as,  for  instance,  the  locus  of  the 
focus,  instead  of  the  centre,  of  the  osculating  conic,  for  which 
it  will  be  true  that  "  the  radius  of  curvature  of  the  aberrancy 
curve  vanishes  at  every  point  of  every  conic  "  ;  for  in  fact,  in 
this  case  the  aberrancy  curve  degenerates  into  a  single  point, 
and  to  say  that  the  radius  of  curvature  vanishes,  or  that  the 
curvature  is  infinite,  at  every  point  of  a  curve,  is,  to  my  appre- 
hension, only  a  roundabout,  and  not  very  instructive,  way  of 
saying  that  the  curve  becomes  reduced  to  a  single  point. 

Harrow,  October  13.  R.  B.  H. 

A  Shadow  and  a  Halo. 
The  following  notices  of  anthelia  may  be  interesting  to  the 
readers  of  Nature.  Frances  Kidley  Havergal  thus  described 
a  sunset  on  the  Faulhorn  :  "  At  one  juncture  a  cloud  stood  still, 
apparently  about  two  hundred  yards  off,  and  we  each  saw  our 
own  shadow  gigantically  reflected  on  it,  surrounded  by  a  com- 
plete rainbow  arch,  a  full  circle  of  bright  prismatic  colours,  a 
transfiguration  of  our  own  shadows  almost  startling;  each,  more- 
over, seeing  only  their  own  glorification"  ("Swiss  Letters  and 
Alpine  Poems  "). 


Tennant,  in  his  book  on  Ceylon,  states  that  this  curious 
phenomenon,  whi  h  may  probably  have  suggested  to  the  early 
painters  the  idea  of  the  glory  surrounding  the  heads  of  beatified 
saints,  is  to  be  seen  in  singular  beauty  at  early  morning  in 
Ceylon.  When  the  light  is  intense,  and  the  shadows  propor- 
tionally dark,  when  the  sun  is  near  the  horizon,  and  the 
shadow  of  a  person  is  thrown  on  the  dewy  grass,  each  drop  of 
dew  furnishes  a  double  reflection  from  its  convex  and  concave 
surfaces  ;  and  to  the  spectator  the  shadow  of  his  own  figure,  but 
more  particularly  the  head,  appears  surrounded  by  a  halo  as  vivid 
as  if  radiated  from  diamonds. 

•S.  T.  Coleridge  described  the  phenomenon  thus  : — 

"Such  thou  art,  as  when 
The  woodman  winding  westward  up  the  glen 
At  wintry  dawn,  where  o'er  the  sheep  track's  maze 
The  viewless  snow-mist  weaves  a  glisi'ning  haze, 
Sees  full  before  him,  gliding  without  tread, 
An  image  with  a  glory  round  its  head  : 
The  enamoured  rustic  worships  its  fair  hues, 
Nor  knows  he  makes  the  shadow  he  pursues." 
Benvenuto  Cellini  saw,  probably,  this  phenomenon,  and  sup- 
posed it  peculiar  to  himself.     F.  Robertson  ci'es  it  as  a  proof  of 
inordinate  vanity.     Hesajs:    "Conceive  a  man  gravely  telling 
you  that  a  vision  of  glory  encircled  his  head  through  life,  visible 
on  his  shadow,  especially  on  the  dewy  grass  at  morning,  and 
which    he  possessed  the  power  of  showing  to  a  chosen  few  " 
("  Life  and  Letters  of  F.  Robertson,"  vol.  ii.  p.  192). 

Bardsea,  October  22.  Edward  Gcoghegan. 


I  have  frequently,  on  the  South  Downs,  seen  a  halo  round 
the  shadow  of  my  head,  as  described  in  your  last  number  by  Mr. 
A.  S.  Eve.  I  have  noticed  that  the  further  off  the  shadow,  the 
brighter  is  the  halo.  I  have  also  observed,  wher.  looking  at  my 
shadow  in  the  sea,  that  rays  of  light  appear  to  surround  the 
shadow  of  my  head.  Charles  Cave. 

Ditcham  Park,  Petersfield,  October  22. 

On  the  Grass  Minimum  Thermometer. 

The  average  readings  of  the  self-recording  grass  minimum 
thermometer  for  every  month  during  the  past  three  years  have 
been  compared  with  the  average  minimum  damp  bulb  tempera- 
tures, obtained  from  the  means  of  hourly  readings,  and  the 
following  figures  show  the  corrections  to  be  applied  to  the  latter 
in  order  to  obtain  the  former  : — January  -o0-3,  February  +o0-3, 
March  -o°-3,  April  -o°8,  May  -o°'2,  June  -  f'l,  July  -  i°r, 
August  —  o°*9,  September  +o°'2,  October  +i0,4,  November 
-+-  lc,9,  December  +  o°'4. 

The  grass  minimum  is  nearly  a  degree  below  the  damp 
bulb  minimum  in  the  wet  season,  and  nearly  2°  above  it  in 
the  driest  month.  The  comparison  between  the  minimum  air 
temperature  and  the  minimum  on  grass  does  not  measure  the 
terrestrial  radiation,  although  the  difference  is  to  some  extent 
influenced  by  radiation.  Moreover,  the  epochs  of  the  two 
minima  need  not  coincide — e.g.  in  Hong  Kong  the  early  morning 
hours  are  more  cloudy  than  the  evening  hours. 

During  the  daytime  in  summer  the  thermometer,  exposed  an 
inch  above  the  short  grass,  shows  as  a  rule  temperatures  rising 
to  1200  or  1300,  especially  in  calm  weather ;  but  even  when  it  is 
not  perfectly  calm,  the  force  of  the  wind  is  not  felt  so  near  the 
ground,  from  which  the  air  rises  laden  with  minute  particles  of 
dust,  which  are  observed  adhering  to  the  cloth  of  damp  bulbs 
and  other  objects  cooled  by  evaporation,  and  which  may  occa- 
sionally be  smelt  in  the  air.  At  night  such  minute  particles 
would  of  course  tend  to  return  to  the  ground,  and  the  unhealthy 
character  of  the  ground-fog  during  early  morning  hours  in 
tropical  countries  may  be  intensified  by  this  circumstance. 

Hong  Kong  Observatory,  W.   Doberck. 

September  10. 


ON  THE  ELECTROMOTIVE    VARIATIONS 

WHICH    ACCOMPANY    THE    BEAT  OF  THE 

HUMAN  HEART. 

THE  observation  of  these  variations  is  extremely  easy, 
the   only   requisite   being  a    sufficiently    sensitive 
capillary  electrometer.1 

'  The  electrometers  I  used  were  made  by  Mr.  Dean,  glass-blower,  8  Cross 
Street,  Haf.on  Garden. 


620 


NATURE 


[Oct.  25,  1888 


The  successful  issue  of  the  observations  is  so  certain 
that  they  can  be  best  described  in  the  form  of  directions 
to  a  person  who  should  be  desirous  of  seeing  them 
for  himself,  followed  by  the  prediction  of  what  will  be 
observed  by  him. 

§  I.  Two  vessels  of  salt  solution  are  to  be  pre- 
pared, and  connected  with  the  capillary  electrometer 
by  electrodes.  The  various  extremities  of  the  observer 
are  to  be  dipped  into  the  salt  solution,  while  the  capillary 
column  is  watched.  Electrical  variations,  apparently 
synchronous  with  the  heart's  pulse,  will  be  observed  with 
certain  combinations  rather  than  with  others,  and  the 
results  (on  a  normal  person  with  the  heart  pointing  to  the 
left)  will  be  as  follows  : — 


Connect  with  electrometer  — 

1.  Left  hand  and  right  hand 

2.  Left  hand  and  left  foot 

3.  Left  hand  and  right  foot 

4.  Right  hand  and  left  foot 

5.  Right  hand  and  right  foot 


6.   Right  foot  and  left  foot 


Electrical  variations 
Little  or  no  variations 
Little  or  no  variations 
Electrical  variations 
Electrical  variations 
No  electrical  variations 

will  be  apparent. 

Further  observations  may  be  made  with  the  mouth  used 
as  a  leading-off  point  in  connection  with  each  of  the  four 
extremities.  To  lead  off  from  the  mouth  a  silver  electrode 
coated  with  silver  chloride  is  kept  under  the  tongue.  The 
results  will  be  as  follows  : — 


Connect  with  ehctrometer — - 

7.  Mouth  and  left  hand 

8.  M  iuth  and  right  hand 

9.  Mouth  and  left  foot 
o.   Mouth  and  right  foot 


Electrical  variations 
Little  or  no  variations 
Electrical  variations 
Electrical  variations 

will  be  apparent. 

Finally,  it  is  possible  to  add  to  the  evidence  obtained, 
by  using  the  rectum  as  a  lead  off  by  means  of  a  silver 
electrode.     This,  if  tried,  would  give  with 


11.  Rectum  and  mouth 

12.  Rectum  andleft  hand 

13.  Rectum  and  right  hand 

14.  Rectum  and  left  foot 

15.  Rectum  and  right  foot 


Electrical  variations 
Little  or  no  variations 
Electrical  variations 
Little  or  no  variations 
Little  or  no  variations. 


These  will  have  been  the  results  ;  the  cases  in  which  the 
mode  of  leading  off  has  been  favourable  to  the  production 


J<\\ 

m 

7/^^^V\ 

jMl 

l/9xj\a_ 

1 

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Vv^wi 

Wk  / 

llll   «/        ff 

1     «\ 

a\  1 

of  electrical  variations  will  be  unmistakably  distinguished 
from  those  in  which  the  mode  of  leading  off  has  been 
unfavourable. 

The  explanation  of  these  facts  is  most  shortly  given  in 
the  diagram,    c  c  is  the  axis  of  any  current  which  must  be 


produced  if  at  any  time  the  apex  and  base  of  the  ventricles 
differ  in  potential.  00  is  the  line  of  zero  potential  at 
right  angles  to  C  C. 

a  a  a  are  equipotential  lines  round  a  supposed  focus  A. 
b  b  b  are  equipotential  lines  round  a  supposed  focus  B. 
Any  lead  off  from  two  superficial  points  a  a  or  b  b  is  un- 
favourable. Any  lead  off  from  two  points  a  b  is  favourable 
to  the  manifestation  of  electromotive  differences  originat- 
ing at  the  heart.  This  will  have  been  demonstrated  by 
the  experiments  directed  to  be  made. 

§  II.  On  a  quadruped  (dog,  cat,  rabbit)  the  results 
will  come  out  somewhat  differently.  The  heart  occupies 
an  approximately  median  position,  so  that  the  asymmetry 
observed  on  man  does  not  hold  good  with  the  above- 
named  animals.  In  these  the  current  axis  will  be  along 
a  median  longitudinal  line  ;  the  line  of  zero  potential  will 
be  at  right  angles  to  it,  i.e.  transverse. 

This  can  be  verified  by  trial  with  very  little  trouble.  A 
quadruped  is  led  off  by  the  various  extremities  and 
orifices  immediately  after  death  before  the  heart  has 
ceased  to  beat  ;  or  a  dog  may  be  trained  to  stand  quiet 
with  his  feet  in  dishes  of  salt  solution  (I  have  a  large 
and  well-disposed  dog  who  will  stand  thus  by  the  hour). 
However  the  test  be  made,  the  results  will  come  out  as 
follows : — 


Connect  with  electrometer — 

1.  Left  paw  l  and  right  paw 

2.  Left  paw  and  left  foot 

3.  Left  paw  and  right  foot 

4.  Right  paw  and  left  foot 
Kight  paw  and  right  foot 


Little  or  no  electrical  variations 
Electrical  variations 
Electrical  variations 
Electrical  variations 
Electrical  vacations 
Little  or  no  electrical  variations 
will  be  apparent. 

Extending  the  observations  to  mouth  and  rectum,  the 
results  will  be  thus  : — 


6.   Right  foot  and  left  foot 


7.  Mouth  and  left  paw 

8.  Mouth  and  right  paw 

9.  Mouth  and  left  foot 

10.  Mouth  and  right  foot 

1 1 .  Mouth  and  rectum 

12.  Rectum  and  left  paw 

13.  Rectum  and  right  paw 

14.  Rectum  and  left  foot 

15.  Rectum  and  right  foot 


Little  or  no  electrical  variations 
Little  or  no  electrical  variations 
Electrical  variations 
Electrical  variations 
Electrical  variations 
Electrical  variations 
hlectrical  variations 
Little  or  no  electrical  variations 
Little  or  no  electrical  variations. 


§  III.  Upon  these  two  proofs  may  be  piled  a  third  proof 
of  the  correctness  of  the  facts  and  of  their  explanation. 
Cases  of  situs  viscerum  inversus  are  to  be  found  ;  the 
viscera  of  such  people  are  situated  as  those  of  a  normal 
person  seen  in  a  mirror  ;  i.e.  inter  alia,  the  heart  points  to 
the  right.  I  have  examined  two  such  cases,  with  results 
exactly  as  anticipated,  viz.  the  favourable  combinations,  4, 
5,  and  7,  of  a  normal  subject  (§  I.)  are  unfavourable  in  the 
case  of  situs  inversus,  while  the  unfavourable  combina- 
tions, 2,  3,  and  8,  are  favourable.  Combinations  1,  9,  and  10 
are  favourable,  and  6  is  unfavourable  in  both  cases,  there 
being  the  notable  peculiarity  as  regards  1  that  the  varia- 
tions are  reversed  in  direction  in  each  of  the  two  cases. 
The  significance  of  this  point  will  be  obvious  to  the 
reader  who  has  followed  the  facts  up  to  this  point :  in 
both  cases  we  have  a  favourable  combination,  but  a 
reversal  of  points  a  and  b. 

§  IV.  As  regards  the  character  and  direction  of  each 
cardiac  variation,  it  will  be  found  to  be  composed  of  two 
phases,  the  first  short,  sharp,  and  difficult  to  read  as 
regards  direction,  the  second  comparatively  prolonged 
and  easy  to  read.  The  second  phase  clearly  indicates 
negativity  of  the  heart's  base,  the  first  phase  less  clearly 
negativity  of  the  heart's  apex — facts  which  testify  that  the 
contraction  begins  at  the  apex  and  ends  at  the  base  of 
the  ventricles.  The  auricular  contraction  does  not  affect 
any  electrometer  I  have  used. 

1  "Paw"  is  used  as  an  alt  relation  for  anterior  extremity  ;  "foot"  for 
posterior  extremity. 


Oci.  25,  1888] 


NATURE 


021 


If  I  may  venture  to  forecast  the  manner  in  which 
these  statements  may  receive  from  independent  sources 
that  verification  which  any  statement  requires  before 
it  can  be  accepted  as  a  correct  representation  of 
fact,  I  should  say  that  as  regards  §  I.  no  contradiction 
will  arise  unless  the  first  case  tested  should  happen 
to  be  that  of  a  person  with  the  heart  occupying  an 
unusually  median  position,  when  the  favourable  and  un- 
favourable cases,  though  still  distinguishable,  may  be  less 
so  than  if  the  heart  occupied  its  usual  oblique  position 
pointing  to  the  left.  In  any  case,  however,  the  variation 
will  be  found  more  marked  with  a  favourable  than  an  un- 
favourable combination.    As  regards  §  II.,  the  statements 


made  can  be  verified  as  soon  as  tested  upon  a  recently 
killed  cat  or  upon  a  properly  educated  dog.  The  veri- 
fication of  §  III.  only  requires  that  a  suitable  case 
should  be  discovered.  As  regards  the  character  of  the 
variation,  it  is  probable  that  its  diphasic  character  may 
be  overlooked  at  the  first  glance,  but  (in  a  favourable 
case)  this  character  will  soon  be  apparent.  As  regards 
direction,  that  of  the  second  phase  will  be  determined 
without  much  difficulty,  but  that  of  the  first  will  be  found 
very  difficult  to  seize.  I  was  not  able  to  make  up  my 
mind  about  it  until  I  had  obtained  successful  photographs 
of  the  movements  on  a  quick-travelling  sensitive  plate. 

Augustus  D.  Waller. 


THE  MAXIMUM  OF  MIRA   CETI. 

I  AM  anxious  to  call  the  attention  of  observers  to  the 
present  spectrum  of  Mira,  which  arrived  at  its 
maximum  brilliancy  on  the  15th  inst.  I  pointed  out 
recently  (Nature,  May  24,  p.  79)  that  stars  of  the  group 
to  which  Mira  belongs  are  sparse  meteorite-swarms  like 
comets,  and  that,  when  variable,  the  variability  is  produced 
by  collisions  between  two  swarms,  the  centres  of  which 
are  nearest  together  (periastron  passage)  at  maximum. 

Broadly  speaking,  then,  we  may  regard  variables  of 
this  class  as  incipient  double  stars,  or  condensing 
swarms  with  double  nuclei,  the  invisibility  of  the  com- 
panion being  due  to  its  nearness  to  the  primary,  or  to  its 


faintness.  It  is  obvious  that  variability  will  occur  mostly 
in  the  swarms  having  a  mean  condensation,  for  the  reason 
that  at  first  the  meteorites  are  too  far  apart  for  many 
collisions  to  occur,  and  that,  finally,  the  outliers  of  the 
major  swarm  are  drawn  within  the  orbit  of  the  smaller 
revolving  one,  so  that  it  passes  clear. 

The  present  maximum  of  Mira  tests  my  hypothesis, 
and  its  brightness  is  such  that  a  small  telescope  and  a 
Maclean's  spectroscopic  eye-piece  are  all  that  are  neces- 
sary to  see  in  how  striking  a  manner  the  test  is  borne. 
The  two  brightest  bands  now  visible  are  at  X  517  and 
X  546,  precisely  where  these  are  seen  in  the  brightest 
comets.  The  former  is  the  brightest  carbon  fluting  seen 
in  the  spectrum  of  the   Bunsen   flame,   or   spirit-lamp, 


50 

60 

5          6          7         8          3 

0       1      23 

4         5        6         7.8         9        0      .12        3         4        £ 

1— — ; L- — ■ — -* — 

O    CETI /                V__^/ 

— 1 ' ' — — 

/3  PEGASI                                                 ,    . 

M 

"Tn/^L. 

ENCKE'S  COMET.  1871^^/               V            ^/ 

/ 

^^_ .     -.          | 

YOUNG                   " 

and  the  other,  at  546,  is  the  citron  carbon  fluting  begin- 
ning at  564,  but  modified  by  the  masking  effects  of  the 
manganese  absorption  fluting  at  558,  and  also  that  of 
lead  at  546. 

The  blackness  of  the  spaces  between  the  bright  flutings 
shows  that  there  can  be  very  little  continuous  spectrum 
from  the  meteorites,  and  therefore  that  the  absorption  is 
that  of  the  light  of  the  carbon  flutings. 

The  mean  spectrum  of  Mira  is  that  of  a  star  like 
j3  Pegasi,  which  I  have  shown  to  consist  of  bright  carbon 
flutings,  and  dark  flutings  of  magnesium,  manganese, 
iron,  lead,  and  barium.  In  8  Pegasi,  as  in  Mira  under 
mean  conditions,  the  carbon  is  somewhat  faint,  but  in 
a  Herculis  it  is  very  bright.  The  general  effect  of  the. 
conditions  of  maximum  of  Mira  therefore  seems  to  bej 


that  of  changing  its  spectrum  from  one  like  that  of  /S 
Pegasi  to  one  like  that  of  a  Herculis. 

I  observed  that  the  principal  carbon  fluting  at  X  517 
was  somewhat  brighter  on  the  14th  than  on  the  17th  inst. 
In  variable  stars  of  this  class  the  proof  is  now  complete 
that  the  increase  of  luminosity  is  accompanied  by 
cometary  conditions,  and  that  it  is  due  to  the  increased 
radiation  of  carbon. 

In  the  accompanying  figure  the  spectrum  of  Mira  is 
compared  with  that  of  8  Pegasi  and  Encke's  comet.  In 
some  comets  the  carbon  fluting  is  cut  off  at  546,  exactly 
as  it  is  in  Mira.  The  observations  of  Mira  were  made  by 
myself  at  Westgate,  those  of  J3  Pegasi  by  Mr.  Fowler  at 
the  Astronomical  Laboratory  at  South  Kensington. 

J.  Norman  Lockyer^ 


622 


NATURE 


[Oct.  25,  1888 


FLORA    OF   THE  KERMADEC  ISLANDS. 

UPWARDS  of  thirty  years  ago  Sir  Joseph  Hooker 
published  an  account  of  the  botany  of  Raoul 
or  Sunday  Island,  one  of  the  Kermadec  Group  (Journal 
of  the  Linnean  Society,  i.  pp.  125-29),  founded  upon 
a  small  collection  made  by  McGillivray  and  Milne, 
naturalists  attached  to  H.M.S.  Herald.  This  collection 
consisted  of  forty-two  species,  of  which  twenty  were 
flowering  plants,  and  the  rest  ferns  and  lycopods  :  and 
the  most  interesting  circumstance  connected  with  it  was 
"the  identity  of  most  of  the  flowering  plants,  and  all  but 
one  of  the  ferns,  with  those  of  New  Zealand." 

In  1885,  Mr.  J.  T.  Arundel  presented  to  the  Kew 
Herbarium  a  collection  of  fourteen  species  from  Meyer, 
a  small  rocky  islet  about  a  mile  and  a  half  north  of 
Sunday  Island.  Poor  as  it  was,  it  contained  half-a-dozen 
plants  not  previously  known  from  the  group,  though  they 
are  all  included  in  the  collection  referred  to  below. 

Since  then,  no  further  light  has  been  thrown  on  this 
insular  flora,  until  the  quite  recent  appearance  (Transac- 
tions of  the  New  Zealand  Institute,  xx.  pp.  1 51-81)  of  a 
paper  by  Mr.  T.  F.  Cheeseman,  Curator  of  the,  Auck- 
land Museum,  New  Zealand,  a  copy  of  which  was  kindly 
forwarded  to  the  writer.  Mr.  Cheeseman  was  per- 
mitted, through  the  kind  offices  of  Mr.  Percy  Smith,  the 
Assistant  Surveyor-General  of  New  Zealand,  to  accompany 
the  expedition  despatched  last  year  for  the  purpose  of 
formally  annexing  the  group  to  the  colony  of  New  Zealand. 
If  Mr.  Cheeseman  has  not  succeeded  in  exhausting  the 
botany  of  the  Kermadec  Islands,  which,  of  course,  is 
hardly  probable,  the  undiscovered  species  cannot  ma- 
terially affect  the  question  of  the  origin  of  the  vegetation. 
But  before  giving  the  results  of  his  investigations,  it  will 
be  useful  to  indicate  the  position  and  extent  of  the 
islands. 

There  are  four  islands  lying  at  great  distances  apart, 
between  290 10'  and  31°  30'  S.  lat.,  and  stretching  in  a  south- 
west and  a  north-east  direction,  like  New  Zealand  itself, 
the  nearest  point  of  which  is  between  500  and  600  miles 
distant.  Raoul  or  Sunday  Island  is  the  largest  and  the 
farthest  from  New  Zealand,  being  twenty  miles  in  cir- 
cumference, and  about  640  miles  from  Auckland,  and  a 
little  less  than  that  distance  from  Tonga.  Macaulay,  the 
next  in  size,  is  sixty-eight  miles  to  the  south-west  of 
Sunday  Island  ;  and  Curtis  and  L'Esperance,  still  farther 
to  the  south-west,  are  little  more  than  rocks.  The 
expedition  failed  to  land  on  the  last-named  island,  and 
the  visit  to  Curtis  Island  was  of  very  brief  duration, 
hence  the  botany  relates  almost  exclusively  to  Sunday 
and  Macaulay  Islands. 

The  group  is  of  volcanic  origin,  and  the  greatest 
elevation  in  Sunday  Island  is  1720  feet,  while  Macaulay 
nowhere  reaches  quite  half  that  height. 

Altogether  Mr.  Cheeseman  collected  115  indigenous 
vascular  plants,  eighty-four  being  phanerogams  and 
thirty-one  cryptogams,  and  only  five  of  them  were 
regarded  as  endemic.  In  addition  to  the  foregoing, 
twenty-six  species  of  naturalized  plants,  chiefly  European 
weeds,  were  observed  or  collected. 

Of  the  115  indigenous  species,  no  fewer  than  eighty-five 
are  also  found  in  New  Zealand,  though  only  fourteen  of 
these  are  absolutely  confined  to  the  two  localities.  Forty- 
four  species  are  found  in  Norfolk  Island,  forty  of  which 
also  occur  in  New  Zealand,  and  only  two  are  apparently 
confined  to  Norfolk  Island  and  the  Kermadecs.  Forty 
species  extend  to  Lord  Howe's  Island,  but  thirty-four  of 
these  are  also  in  New  Zealand,  and  none  of  the  peculiar 
plants  of  Lord  Howe's  Island  reach  the  Kermadecs. 
Seventy-six  of  the  species  are  common  to  Australia,  sixty- 
three  of  them  being  also  in  New  Zealand,  and  none  of 
them  otherwise  peculiar  to  Australia.  Lastly,  forty-seven 
are  found  in  Polynesia,  and  thirty-one  of  these  also  occur 
in  New  Zealand. 


The  foregoing  data,  as  Mr.  Cheeseman  observes,  point 
unmistakably  to  New  Zealand  as  the  source  of  thegreater 
part  of  the  flora  of  the  Kermadec  Islands.  How  the 
plants  reached  these  islands  is  an  interesting  question. 
Mr.  Cheeseman  is  prepared  to  admit  a  former  north- 
western extension  of  New  Zealand  ;  but,  after  a  careful 
examination  of  the  evidence,  he  arrives  at  the  conclusion 
that  the  Kermadec  Islands  have  always  been  isolated,  or, 
at  least,  have  not  formed  part  of  any  other  land  since  the 
Secondary  period.  Spores  of  the  ferns  may  have  been 
conveyed  by  winds  ;  and  ocean  currents  and  birds,  it  may 
well  be  conceived,  have  operated  in  stocking  the  islands 
with  flowering  plants.  Most  of  the  birds  are  New 
Zealand  species,  and  the  presence  of  Kauri  logs,  of 
different  dates  and  brands,  stranded  on  various  parts 
of  the  beach,  is  convincing  evidence  of  the  direction 
of  ocean  currents.  Moreover,  the  composition  of  the 
flora  strongly  supports  this  theory. 

Sunday  Island  is  the  only  one  of  the  group  on  which 
there  is  anything  approaching  arboreous  vegetation,  and 
this,  with  the  exception  of  a  small  area  of  the  crater,  is 
clothed  with  forest  from  the  sea-shore  to  the  tops  of  the 
highest  peaks.  The  prevailing  tree  is  Metrosideros 
polyinorpha,  one  of  the  most  characteristic  trees  of 
Polynesia,  especially  of  the  smaller  islands,  reaching  the 
Sandwich,  Marquesas,  and  Pitcairn  Islands  ;  but  this 
particular  species  does  not  occur  in  New  Zealand  nor  in 
Australia. 

Next  to  the  Metrosideros  in  abundance  and  con- 
spicuousness  is  a  palm,  which  Mr.  Cheeseman  thinks 
may  be  identical  with  the  Norfolk  Island  Rhopalostylis 
Baneri  (Areca  Baneri).  In  some  places  this  grows 
gregariously,  forming  large  groves. 

Ferns  are  everywhere  abundant,  varied,  and  luxuriant ; 
and  the  endemic  tree-fern,  Cyathea  Milnei,  is  very  plenti- 
ful, and  handsome  withal,  rising  to  a  height  of  50  or 
60  feet.  Prominent  among  the  New  Zealand  trees  are 
Corynocarpus  Icevigatus,  Myoporiun  latum,  Melicope 
ternata,  Melicytus  ramiflorus,  and  Panax  arboreum. 
Cordyline  terminate,  the  widely-spread  Polynesian  "  Ti," 
and  Pisonia  Brunoniana,  Pittosporum  crassifolium, 
Coprosma  acutifolia,  and  C.  petiolata,  natives  of  New 
Zealand,  are  other  elements  deserving  of  notice. 

The  herbaceous  vegetation  includes  no  plants  with 
very  conspicuous  flowers,  but  there  are  two  orchids — 
namely,  Acianthus  Sinclairii,  a  native  of  New  Zealand, 
and  Microtis  porrifolia,  which  also  inhabits  both  New 
Zealand  and  Australia. 

Macaulay  Island  was  entirely  covered  with  a  beautiful 
sward  of  natural  grass,  supposed  to  be  composed  of  a 
species  of  Poa  and  an  Agrostis,  but  in  the  absence  of 
flowers  they  were  indeterminable. 

Students  of  botanical  geography  will  find  much  more 
that  is  interesting  in  Mr.  Cheeseman's  valuable  paper, 
from  which  I  have  extracted  the  principal  facts. 

W.    BOTTING    HEMSLEY. 


DIGIT!  MINIMI  DECESSUS. 
[Sent  by  a  Correspondent.} 
'THE  following  lines  appeared  in  the  Guy's  Hospital 
-*-  Gazette  of  October  13.  The  correspondent  who  sends 
them  to  us  suggests  that  they  may  fitly  find  a  place  in 
Nature,  d  propos  of  the  controversy  on  "  Prophetic 
Germs." 

"  Man  is  losing  his  little  toe,  ....  and  can  do  without  it." 
— Mr.  Clement  Lucas,  in  his  opening  lecture. 

If  thou  must  go,  thou  feeble,  foolish  digit, 

Fain  would"  I  speed  thy  slow,  degenerate  way  ! 

I  daily  feel  a  disagreeable  fidget 
Whenever  I've  occasion  to  display 

Thy  doubtful  outline,  and  thy  form  chaotic 

(Born  of  a  taste  in  boots,  perhaps  erotic). 


Oct  25,  1888J 


NATURE 


623 


Thou  art  a  shock  to  my  aesthetic  sense, 

And  ofierest  no  kind  of  recompense 
In  way  of  use  ;  of  every  function  shorn, 
Except  to  act  as  basis  for  a  corn. 
When  thou  art  gone  I'll  still  maintain  my  grace, 

Still  walk  erect  wherever  I  may  be  ; 
Still  I'll  belong  to  the  athletic  race, 

Waltz  with  the  fair,  and  kick  mine  enemy  ! 
So  pace  Schopenhauers,  and  pace  Mallocks 
When  I've  acquired  a  hypertrophied  hallux, 

To  monodactyle  type  thus  simplified, 

Life  shall  be  simpler  too,  and  so— beatified. 
*  #  *  * 

When  future  science  forgets  thee  in  thy  prime, 
Methinks  a  great  mind  from  a  northern  clime 

May  then  discuss  thy  remnants,  and  declare 

He  finds  a  true  prophetic  organ  there  ! 

F.  G.  H. 


NOTES. 
.  We  lately  (Sept.  6,  p.  437)  printed  an  account  of  the  formation 
of  the  Australasian  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science. 
If  we  may  judge  from  the  newspaper  reports  which  have  now 
reached  this  country,  the  first  general  meeting  of  the  Association 
seems  to  have  been  remarkably  successful.  The  session  began 
at  the  Sydney  University  on  Tuesday  evening,  August  28. 
Lord  Carringlon  opened  the  proceedings  with  a  short  speech, 
and  then  an  address  was  delivered  by  Mr.  H.  C.  Russell,  the 
President.  On  the  following  day  the  sectional  meetings  began, 
and  their  work  went  on  during  the  remainder  of  the  week. 
About  no  papers  were  sent  in  by  students  of  various  branches 
of  science,  and  a  considerable  number  of  them  will  be  published 
in  full  in  the  first  volume  soon  to  be  issued  by  the  Association. 
The  members  had  an  opportunity  of  taking  part  in  several 
pleasant  excursions,  and  much  hospitality  was  shown  to  visitors 
by  leading  citizens.  At  the  time  of  the  meeting  there  were  about 
850  members,  and  it  is  confidently  anticipated  that  next  year 
this  number  will  be  largely  increased.  The  next  meeting  is  to 
be  held  in  Melbourne,  and  Baron  Sir  Ferdinand  von  Midler,  the 
Government  Botanist  of  Victoria,  is  the  President-elect.  In 
1890  the  Association  will  meet  in  New  Zealand. 

The  following  is  the  list  of  names  to  be  submitted,  at  the 
annual  meeting  (November  8)  of  the  London  Mathematical 
Society,  for  the  new  Council:— For  President,  J.  J.  Walker, 
F.R.S.  ;  for  Vice-Presidents,  Sir  J.  Cockle,  F.R.S.,  E.  B. 
Elliott,  and  Prof.  Greenhill,  F.R.S.  The  Treasurer  and  Hon. 
Secretaries  remain  unaltered.  The  other  members  are  :  A.  B. 
Basset,  Dr.  Glaisher,  F.R.S.,  Messrs.  J.  Hammond,  H.  Hart, 
J.  Larmor,  C.  Leudesdorf,  and  S.  Roberts,  F.R.S.,  Captain 
P.  A.  Macmahon,  R.  A.,  and  Dr.  Routh,  F.  U.S.  It  is  proposed 
that  the  vacancies  caused  by  the  withdrawal  of  Lord  Rayleigh, 
Sec.R.S..  and  the  lamented  recent  death  of  Arthur  Buchheim, 
shall  be  filled  up  by  Messrs.  Basset  and  Routh,  as  above. 

II. M.S.  Jackal,  which  has  been  engaged,  under  the  direction 
of  the  Scientific  Committ-e  of  the  Scottish  Fishery  Board,  in 
a  cruise  of  physical  investigation  in  the  North  Sea,  recently  re- 
turned to  Granton.  The  course  was  along  the  east  coast  to  the 
Orkney  and  Shetland  Islands,  and  then  to  Bergen,  Copenhagen, 
and  Kiel.  The  physical  work  was  carried  on  by  Dr.  Gibson,  of  the 
Chemistry  Department  of  the  Edinburgh  University,  assisted  by 
Dr.  Hunter  Stewart  and  Mr.  F.  M.  Gibson  ;  and  owing  to  the 
exceptionally  favourable  weather  a  large  number  of  stations  were 
formed  at  various  parts  of  the  route,  at  which  series  of  tempera- 
ture observations  were  taken,  the  density  and  alkalinity  of  the 
water  determined,  and  samples  preserved  for  analytical  examina- 
tion. Dr.  Gibson  had  interviews  with  most  of  those  conducting 
scientific  fishery  work  in  the  countries  visited,  including  Mr. 
Buch  of  Bergen,  Dr.  Paulsen,   Lieut.   Drechsel,  Dr.  Pettersen, 


and  Mr.  F  eddersen  of  Copenhagen,  and  Prof.  Karsten  of  the 
Kiel  Commission  ;  and  we  understand  these  conferences  may 
result  in  closer  cooperation  between  the  various  countries,  in 
regard  to  the  method  and  scope  of  scientific  fishery  investigations- 

The  members  of  the  International  Commission  of  Weights  and 
Measures  have  finished  their  session  at  the  Pavilion  de  Breteuil, 
Paris.  The  making  of  standard  metres  is  progressing,  and  next 
year  they  will  be  distributed  to  the  various  Governments.  The 
guarantee  of  the  Bureau  extends  to  the  thousandth  of  a 
millimetre  and  the  ten- thousandth  of  a  gramme. 

Therk  are  now  on  the  books  of  the  Institution  of  Civil 
Engineers  1614  members,  2499  associate  members,  458  asso- 
ciates, 19  honorary  members,  and  939  students,  together  5529, 
being  an  increase  at  the  rate  of  i\  per  cent,  during  the  past 
twelve  months. 

A  specimen  of  the  sword-fish  {X-phias)  was  captured  some 
days  ago  in  Long  Reach,  Milton  Creek,  Siltingbourne,  by  a 
bargeman.  The  fish  measured  5  feet  2  inches  from  end  of  tail 
to  tip  of  sword. 

An  Agricultural  and  Industrial  Exhibition  was  opened  at 
Mysore  by  the  Maharajah  on  the  17th  inst. 

AT  a  recent  meeting  of  the  Bombay  Natural  History  Society, 
the  idea  of  starting  a  Zoological  Garden  in  that  city  was  mooted 
by  Mr.  H.  M.  Phipson,  the  Honorary  Secretary  of  the  Society, 
and  was  warmly  taken  up.  It  was  stated  that  the  Society  has 
been  compelled  to  refuse  large  numbers  of  valuable  specimens 
of  animals  offered  to  it.  All  that  is  asked  from  the  Government 
is  that  they  shall  grant  a  site,  and  it  is  hoped  that  they  may  see 
their  way  to  do  so. 

Dr.  J.  C.  Cox  lately  described,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Linnean 
Society  of  New  South  Wales,  two  very  remarkable  female 
figures,  modelled  in  wax,  obtained  in  an  aboriginal  camp  at 
Miriam  Vale,  near  the  head  of  the  Calliope  River,  Rockhampton. 
These  figures  are  said  to  be  the  only  examples  of  plastic  art 
ever  discovered  among  the  Australian  aboriginals. 

In  the  Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  the  Adelaide  Botanic 
Garden  for  the  past  year  it  is  stated  that  the  insect-powder  plant 
{Fyrethriun  cincraricefolium,  Trevir.),  roseum,  and  car  muni, 
Bibrst. ),  and  the  cheesemaker  {Withania  coagirfans,  Dan.), 
which  were  introduced  into  the  Garden  a  few  years  ago,  have 
found  a  congenial  climate  there,  and  have  prospered  wherever 
they  were  planted  in  the  colony.  Eland's  Boontges  (Elephant- 
orrhiza  Burcheilii,  Benth.),  which  has  also  been  recently  intro- 
duced, does  fairly  well.  In  winter  nothing  remains  of  this  plant 
but  the  roots,  which  contain  tannic  acid.  A  number  of  cuttings 
from  the  Daira  grape,  a  valuable  species  which  comes  from 
Almeria,  have  thriven  wonderfully  in  the  Garden.  There  are 
now  in  the  palm  house  180  species  and  varieties  of  palms.  The 
Museum  of  Economic  Botany  attached  to  the  Garden  has  been 
enriched  during  the  past  year  by  1795  article-,  amongst  the 
more  remarkable  of  which  was  a  collection  sent  by  the  Sultan  of 
Johore,  one  of  the  specimens  being  a  sample  of  sugar  prepared 
from  the  cocoa-  nui. 

Students  of  the  Caucasian  languages  will  be  glad  to  learn 
that  the  second  volume  of  Baron  Uslar's  work,  '"The  Ethno- 
graphy of  the  Caucasus,"  has  been  published  at  Tirlis.  It  con- 
tains his  "  Tchetchen  Language,"  and,  in  an  appendix,  several 
articles  on  the  epics  of  the  Caucasian  mountaineers,  on  the 
study  of  the  Caucasian  languages  and  their  alphabets,  as  also 
a  translation  of  Schiefner's  "  Tchetchensche  Studien,"  and  a 
collection  of  Tchetchen  proverbs  and  tales  about  Nasr-eddin, 
by  J.  Bartolomei. 

In  connection  with  the  discussion  on  "  Valency"  at  the  Bath 
meeting  of  the  British  Association,  referred  to  in  last  week's 
Nature,  Prof.  Meldola  read  a  paper  on  the  constitution  of  the 


624 


NATURE 


[Oct.  25,  1888 


azonaphthol  compounds,  in  which  he  drew  attention  to  the 
fact  that  the  properties  of  these  important  colouring-matters 
could  only  be  satisfactorily  explained  by  admitting  that  they 
contained  oxygen  in  the  tetravalent  condition. 

The  vapour-densities  of  the  chlorides  of  chromium  have,  for 
the  first  time,  been  determined  by  Profs.  Nilson  and  Pettersson,  of 
Stockholm.  The  interest  attaching  especially  to  the  chromic 
chloride,  hitherto  known  as  Cr2Cl8,  in  view  of  the  recent  re- 
determinations of  the  densities  of  the'corresponding  chlorides  of 
aluminium  and  iron,  gives  more  than  secondary  importance  to 
the  work  of  the  Swedish  chemists.  Readers  of  Nature  will 
remember  that  these  recent  experiments  by  the  indefatigable 
workers  just  mentioned,  and  by  Prof.  Victor  Meyer  and  his  co- 
workers at  Gottingen,  upon  the  composition  of  the  molecules  of 
the  chlorides  of  aluminium  and  iron,  resulted  in  the  conclusion 
that  the  double  formulae,  Al2Cl(i  and  Fe.,Cl6,  must  be  abandoned 
in  favour  of  the  simpler  formulae,  A1C13  and  FeCl3.  This,  of 
course,  meant  that  our  old  notions  as  to  the  tetrad  nature  of  these 
elements  were  incorrect,  and  that  in  reality  they  behave  as  triads. 
Profs.  Nilson  and  Pettersson  now  clinch  the  matter  by  showing 
that  chromium,  which  in  many  respects  so  much  resembles 
aluminium  and  iron,  behaves  in  precisely  the  same  way.  Chromic 
chloride  was  fortunately  obtained  in  beautiful  laminated  crystals  of 
almost  perfect  purity.  The  minute  traces  of  absorbed  moisture  were 
readily  eliminated  by  gently  warming  in  a  current  of  dry  car- 
bonic acid  gas  ;  when  this  was  accomplished  the  requisite  quan- 
tity was  weighed  out  into  a  small  platinum  capsule  in  those 
experiments  which  were  conducted  in  the  platinum  density 
apparatus,  and  in  small  pieces  of  ignited  porous  tubing  when  the 
porcelain  apparatus  was  employed.  The  chloride  was  found  to 
vaporize  very  slowly  indeed  at  10650  C,  precluding  the  possi- 
bility of  taking  densities  below  that  temperature  ;  however,  at 
this  comparatively  low  temperature,  the  density  was  6 "135. 
Now  CrCl3  corresponds  to  a  density  of  5*478,  while  Cr2Cl6 
must  of  necessity  require  a  number  twice  as  great,  and  hence 
cannot  exist  in  the  gaseous  state.  On  increasing  the  temperature 
to  1190°,  the  value  of  5  '5 17  was  obtained,  which  remained  prac- 
tically constant  up  to  nearly  13000.  Over  13000  the  molecules 
of  CrCl3  commence  to  break  up  into  those  of  CrCl2  and  free 
chlorine.  This  is  a  most  decisive  result,  and  one  which  cannot 
possibly  lead  to  any  other  conclusion  than  the  adoption  of  the 
formula  CrCl3.  It  is  only  fair  to  mention  that  Messrs.  Friedel 
and  Crafts  on  carrying  out  vapour-density  determinations  of 
aluminium  chloride  by  Dumas's  method  for  250°  above  its  boil- 
ing-point (183°),  have  very  recently  [obtained  results  which 
appear  to  indicate  that  this  chloride  may  condense  to  the  double 
molecule  A12C1B  at  these  comparatively  low  temperatures.  How- 
ever this  may  be,  there  can  be  no  doubt  in  the  cases  of  iron  and 
chromium  that  the  triad  formula  is  the  only  one  compatible 
with  experiment,  and  we  shall  be  very  glad  to  see  the  doubt  in 
case  of  aluminium  completely  cleared  up  by  further  experiments. 
The  determinations  in  the  case  of  the  lower  chloride  of  chromium, 
CrCI2,  have  been  made  under  great  experimental  difficulties.  This 
substance  is  the  most  difficultly  volatilized  of  any  yet  submitted 
to  vapour- density  determinations.  It  required  the  most  intense 
heat  of  the  hottest  procurable  furnace,  and  even  then  was  only 
very  slowly  converted  into  vapour.  It  was  obtained  perfectly 
pure  by  reduction  of  the  chromic  chloride  utilized  for  the  former 
experiments,  by  gently  heating  in  a  stream  of  hydrogen.  At  the 
lowest  observable  temperature,  I300u-I400°  C,  the  density  was 
found  to  be  7 "8,  considerably  lower  than  the  number  required  by 
Cr2Cl4.  On  further  increasing  the  heat  to  1600°,  the  density 
gradually  diminished  to  6  "2,  showing  that  at  some  still  higher 
temperature  one  would  finally  attain  the  value  4*25  corre- 
sponding to  CrCl2.  Hence  chromous  chloride  again  resembles 
ferrous  chloride,  the  only  difference  being  that  the  former  is  much 
more  difficult  to  vaporize. 


An  exceedingly  useful  and  handy  resume"  of  results  in  the 
"  modern  geometry  of  the  triangle"  is  published  in  the  just 
issued  Proceedings  of  the  Association  Francaise  pour  l'Avance- 
ment  des  Sciences,  Congres  de  Toulouse,  1887.  It  is  entitled 
"Premier  Inventaire  de  la  Geometrie  du  Triangle,"  by  M.  E. 
Vigarie.  A  second  "  Inventaire,"  which  the  author  proposes  to 
draw  up,  will  be  occupied  with  the  extensions  to  certain  (as 
Harmonic)  quadrilaterals  and  polygons,  and  to  space  figures. 

We  have  received  Part  3  of  "A  Catalogue  of  the  Moths 
of  India,"  compiled  by  E.  C.  Cotes,  First  Assistant  to  the 
Superintendent,  Indian  Museum,  and  Colonel  C.  Swinhoe.  Of 
the  first  two  parts,  dealing  respectively  with  Sphinges  and 
Bombyces,  we  have  already  given  some  account  (Nature, 
vol.  xxxvii.  p.  386).  The  present  part  deals  with  Noctues, 
Pseudo-Deltoides,  and  Deltoides. 

The  Trustees  of  the  Australian  Museum,  Sydney,  have  issued 
Part  I.  of  a  catalogue  of  the  fishes  in  the  collection  of  the 
Museum.  It  relates  to  recent  palaeichthyan  fishes,  and  has 
been  compiled  by  Mr.  J.  Douglas  Ogilby. 

A  remarkable  book  on  "The  Butterflies  of  the  Eastern 
United  States  and  Canada,  with  especial  reference  to  New 
England,"  by  S.  H.  Scudder,  of  Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.S.A.,  is 
about  to  be  published  in  monthly  parts.  It  will  be  completed 
in  twelve  parts,  the  first  of  which  will  appear  in  November. 
The  preparation  of  this  elaborate  work  was  first  announced  by 
the  author  in  1869.  Since  that  time  he  has  had  it  always  in 
hand,  and  during  the  last  eight  years  he  has  devoted  to  it 
undivided  attention.  According  to  the  prospectus  which  has 
been  issued,  Mr.  Scudder  has  not  only  availed  himself  of  the 
personal  aid  of  a  host  of  willing  friends  and  correspondents, 
who  have  confided  to  him  their  voluminous  field  notes  and 
numerous  specimens,  but  he  has  carefully  gleaned  every  fact  of 
value  from  the  natural  history  journals  and  other  publications, 
and  supplemented  all  by  his  thirty-five  years'  experience  in  the 
field.  It  is  claimed  that  no  systematic  work  on  butterflies  has 
ever  appeared  in  any  language  comparable  with  it  in  the  com- 
plete elaboration  of  a  single  limited  fauna,  in  attention  to  every 
stage  of  life,  in  thorough  and  excellent  illustration  of  every 
period  of  the  butterfly's  existence,  and  in  careful  detail  of  all 
structural  features.  The  book  will  contain  seventeen  plates  of 
butterflies,  six  of  eggs,  eleven  of  caterpillars,  two  of  the  nests  of 
caterpillars,  three  of  chrysalides,  two  of  parasites,  thirty-three  of 
^ructural  details  in  all  stages  of  life,  nineteen  maps  and  groups 
of  maps  to  illustrate  the  geographical  distribution  of  the  butter- 
flies, and  three  portraits  of  early  naturalists  of  America — in  all, 
about  two  thousand  figures  on  ninety-six  plates,  of  which  forty 
or  more  will  be  coloured.  The  printing  of  the  plates  was  begun 
three  years  ago,  and  is  now  nearly  finished. 

A  third  edition  of  Mr.  R.  Milne  Murray's  "  Chemical  Notes 
and  Equations''  (Maclachlan  and  Stewart,  Edinburgh)  has 
been  issued.  The  book  is  intended  for  the  use  of  students.  In 
this  edition  a  section  on  the  electrolysis  of  salts  has  been 
introduced,  and  some  additions  have  been  made  to  the 
descriptive  part  of  the  work. 

The  latest  number  (No.  3,  vol.  iii.)  of  the  Journal  of  the 
Bombay  Natural  History  Society  contains,  amongst  other 
papers  :  unscientific  notes  on  the  tiger,  by  J.  D.  Inverarity ; 
butterflies  and  ants,  by  Lionel  de  Niceville  ;  on  the  Lepidoptera 
of  Karachi  and  its  neighbourhood  (part  2),  by  Colonel  Swinhoe  ; 
notes  on  some  bees  and  wasps  from  Burmah,  by  Captain  C.  T. 
Bingham  ;  notes  on  the  origin  of  the  belief  in  the  bis-cobra,  by 
G.  A.  Da  Gama.  Mr.  Da  Gama  says  that  the  term  bis-cobra 
is  not  of  Oriental  origin,  but  is  a  contraction  of  the  Portuguese 
bicho-de- cobra.  The  early  Portuguese  settlers  in  India  named 
the  animals  they  met  with  from  their  most  prominent  features. 


Oct.  25,  1888] 


NATURE 


625 


Thus,  the  nag  they  called,  on  account  of  its  hood,  cobra-de- 
capello ;  the  Dakota,  on  account  of  its  carpet-like  skin,  they 
called  cobra-de-alcatifa — that  is,  the  carpet-snake.  From  old 
Portuguese  writings  he  believes  that  the  mangoose  is  the  bis- 
cobra ;  and  from  the  crawling  motion  of  that  animal  the 
Portuguese  had  an  idea  that  the  bicho-de-cobra  was  a  lizard. 
In  fact,  in  a  work  of  the  Jesuit  father  De  Souza,  published  in 
1 7 10,  though  probably  written  twenty  years  earlier,  the  man- 
goose  is  described  as  "that  poisonous  reptile,  bicho-de-cobra." 
The  name  mangoose  gradually  usurped  the  place  of  bicho-de- 
cobra,  but  among  the  natives  the  idea  of  a  poisonous  lizard 
called  bis-cobra  remained,  and  it  has  been  handed  down  with 
terrible  stories  of  its  poisonous  powers. 

The  South  London  Microscopical  and  Natural  History  Club 
has  published  its  seventeenth  Annual  Report.  The  Report 
includes  abstracts  of  some  interesting  papers  read  at  the 
meetings.  The  Committee  say  that  during  the  past  year  there 
was  a  uniformly  good  attendance  of  members. 

We  have  received  the  third  number  of  the  series  "Insect 
Life,"  issued  by  the  Entomological  Division  of  the  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture.  The  object  of  this  series  is  to 
exhibit  the  economy  and  life-habits  of  insects,  especially  in  their 
relation  to  agriculture.  Among  the  contents  of  this  number  are 
notes  on  the  Rocky  Mountain  locust ;  a  report  on  injury  done  by 
"roaches"  to  the  files  in  the  Treasury  at  Washington  ;  further 
notes  on  the  hop-plant  louse  (Phorodon  humuli)  ;  and  a  paper 
suggesting  steps  towards  a  revision  of  Chambers's  index  to  the 
described  Tineina  of  the  United  States  and  Canada,  with  notes 
and  descriptions  of  new  species,  by  Lord  Walsingham. 

Some  time  ago  the  Colorado  Ornithological  Association  was 
formed,  and  through  the  efforts  of  its  members  a  comprehensive 
list  of  the  birds  of  Colorado,  numbering  about  350  species  and 
sub-species,  was  soon  prepared.  This  Society  has  now  trans- 
formed itself  into  an  organization  with  wider  aims,  and  has 
assumed  the  name  of  the  Colorado  Biological  Association.  The 
objects  of  the  Association  in  its  new  form  are  the  detailed 
investigation  and  recording  of  the  fauna  and  flora  of  Colorado, 
recent  and  fossil.  The  Association  hopes  to  become  the  highest 
authority  on  all  matters  connected  with  the  biology  of  the  State, 
both  from  the  scientific  and  the  economic  points  of  view,  and 
through  its  Secretary  and  referees  will  place  itself  at  the  service 
of  the  scientific  and  general  public  in  answering  all  questions 
within  the  scope  of  its  investigations,  and  in  identifying 
specimens  that  may  be  submitted  for  this  purpose. 

The  general  Report,  by  Prof.  Egoroff,  on  the  observations 
made  in  Russia  and  Siberia  during  the  eclipse  of  the  sun  of 
August  19,  1887,  under  the  direction  of  the  Committee  of  the 
Russian  Physical  and  Chemical  Society,  is  now  published  (in 
Russian)  in  the  Journal  of  the  Society  (vol.  xx.  6).  Seven  sta- 
tions were  provided  with  observers  and  instruments  (at  Wilno, 
Nikolsk,  Tver,  Petrovsk,  Vyatka,  Krasnoyarsk,  and  the 
Bay  of  Possiet),  but  only  at  three  of  them — Petrovsk,  Kras- 
noyarsk, and  Possiet — could  the  eclipse  be  observed  in  detail. 
Fourteen  excellent  photographs  were  taken  at  Krasnoyarsk, 
and  of  these  two  are  reproduced  in  M.  Egoroff's  Report,  as 
also  several  drawings  of  the  corona  which  were  made  by  hand 
at  Polotsk,  Vladimir,  and  places  in  Siberia.  Various  observa- 
tions with  regard  to  the  position  of  the  protuberances  and  the 
shape  of  the  corona  are  given  in  the  Report,  and  its  general 
conclusions  are  as  follows: — (1)  The  corona  is  not  a  merely 
optical  phenomenon  :  it  has  a  real  existence,  and  it  maintained 
its  shape  not  only  during  the  whole  of  the  eclipse  at  each  spot 
where  it  was  observed,  but  also  at  spots  as  far  distant  from  one 
another  as  Polotsk  and  Possiet  (distance,  6000  miles).  (2)  The 
corona  of  1887  is  a  representation  of  those  corona:  which  cor- 
respond to  a  minimum   of  spots  on  the  sun.     The  like  were 


observed  in  1867  and  1878.  Its  peculiarities  are  interesting  in 
connection  with  the  question  as  to  the  structure  of  the  sun  and 
its  corona.  Mr.  Norman  Lockyer,  in  his  work  on  "The  Che- 
mistry of  the  Sun,"  expresses  regret  that  he  could  not  see,  in 
1886,  while  in  Grenada,  those  panaches  on  the  poles  of  the  sun 
which  he  had  carefully  studied  in  1878.  The  photographs  of 
M.  Hamontoff  (Krasnoyarsk)  prove  that  those  currents  existed, 
and  that  they  were  well  seen  on  August  19,  1887.  (3)  There  is 
a  correlation  between  the  distribution  of  the  rays  of  the  corona 
and  the  position  of  protuberances.  (4)  The  brilliancy  of  the 
light  of  the  corona  is  of  the  same  order  as  that  of  the  full 
moon  (as  shown  by  several  photometric  measurements,  and  also 
by  the  visibility  of  a  Leonis  in  the  rays  of  the  corona).  (5)  The 
spectrum  of  the  corona  was  an  uninterrupted  one,  with  feeble 
Fraunhofer  lines.  Bright  lines  were  not  seen,  except  for  a 
moment  at  Petrovsk,  where  M.  Stonaewicz  saw  the  green  bright 
line  ;  the  cloudiness  of  the  sky,  which  resulted  in  a  great 
amount  of  reflected  light,  probably  prevented  the  bright  lines 
from  being  seen.  (6)  Polarimetric  measurements  require  a 
bright  sky ;  under  other  conditions  false  conclusions  might  be 
arrived  at.  (7)  Both  atmospheric  pressure  and  temperature  are 
lowered  during  the  eclipse,  the  minimum  coming  at  a  later  time 
than  the  middle  time  of  the  full  eclipse. 

A  great  number  of  meteorological  observations  having  been 
made  during  the  eclipse  at  various  places  in  Russia  and  Siberia, 
Prof.  Hesehus  now  sums  them  up  in  the  same  issue  of  the 
Journal  of  the  Russian  Physical  and  Chemical  Society  (xx.  6). 
It  appears  from  the  curves  which  he  has  drawn  after  having  availed 
himself  of  observations  made  at  twenty-five  different  stations, 
that  the  eclipse  resulted  in  lowering  the  atmospheric  pressure 
by  about  o-2  mm.,  the  minimum  being  reached  a  few  minutes 
(about  five  to  ten)  after  the  time  of  the  full  eclipse.  The  fact 
is  best  explained  by  the  condensation  of  vapour  in  the  atmosphere. 
The  temperature  was  lowered  by  an  average  of  i°-6  C.  in  the 
shade — the  minimum  being  reached  ten  minutes  after  the  full 
eclipse  ;  and  by  about  8°  6  in  the  sun's  rays — the  minimum  being 
attained  in  this  case  three  minutes  after  the  full  phase  of  the 
eclipse.  The  force  of  the  wind  also  was  reduced,  probably  on 
account  of  the  condensation  of  vapour  in  the  atmosphere.  The 
data  as  to  the  influence  of  the  eclipse  on  the  magnetic  needle 
are  contradictory.  The  influence  of  the  eclipse  on  plants  and 
animals  was  well  pronounced.  The  Acacia  armata  folded  its 
leaves,  while  the  Nicotians  and  Mirabilis  jaloppa  opened  their 
flowers.  In  the  marshy  spots  of  Siberia,  such  as  Turinsk,  the 
mosquitoes  made  their  appearance,  as  they  usually  do  in  the 
evenings.  The  well-known  facts  as  to  the  uneasiness  and  fear 
which  are  felt  by  higher  animals  were  confirmed.  On  the 
whole,  the  Physical  Society  expected  more  important  results 
when  it  organized  meteorological  observations  at  so  many 
stations  provided  with  physical  instruments,  but  the  weather 
was  unfavourable  to  the  work  of  the  observers.  Hilger's 
spectrograph  for  photographing  the  ultra-violet  parts  of  the 
spectrum  of  the  corona  with  the  view  of  detecting  traces  of 
carbon  and  carboniferous  compounds,  could  not  be  used  on 
account  of  the  weather. 

The  same  periodical  contains  a  record  of  Prof.  Mendelejeff's 
impressions  during  his  balloon  ascent  at  Klin.  The  Russian 
chemist  saw  the  corona  from  his  balloon  for  only  twenty  seconds. 
His  view  of  the  sun  was  unfortunately  obstructed  by  a  cloud. 

The  Meteorological  Council  have  published  Part  5  of 
"  Contributions  to  our  Knowledge  of  the  Meteorology  of  the 
Arctic  Regions."  The  four  previous  parts  contained  principally 
the  meteorological  results  furnished  by  the  Franklin  search 
expeditions  which  wintered  to  the  eastward  of  longitude  1200 
W.  between  1848-58,  but  also  included  the  results  available  from 
the  date  of  Sir  W.  E.   Parry's  expedition   in    1819.     Part    5 


626 


NATURE 


{Oct.  25,  1888 


relates  to  the  region  of  Behring  Strait,  and  to  th;  search  ex- 
peditions in  that  direction  between  1848-54.  The  whole  series 
has  been  discussed  in  a  uniform  and  most  complete  manner  by 
Mr.  R.  Strachan,  and  all  the  available  information  relating  to 
the  physical  phenomena,  and  to  the  movements  of  animals  and 
birds,  has  been  thoroughly  exhausted.  The  work  contains  most 
valuable  data  for  scientific  inquiry,  and  for  use  in  any  future 
expeditions  to  those  remote  regions. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  two  Toque  Monkeys  (Macacus  pileatus  <j  9 ) 
from  Ceylon,  presented  by  Mrs.  Ellen  Hodson  ;  a  Moustache 
Monkey  {Cercopithcus  cephus  <J )  from  West  Africa,  presented 
by  Mr.  Andrew  Allen;  a  Common  Otter  (Lutra  vulgaris  Q  ), 
British,  presented  by  Mr.  John  Crisp  ;  a  Japanese  Deer  (Cervus 
sika  6 )  from  Corea,  presented  by  Capt.  H.  C.  Eagles,  R.M.L.I.  ; 
three  Virginian  Opossums  {Didelphys  virginiana  <$  9  9 )  from 
North  America,  presented  by  Mr.  G.  F.  Whateley,  R.N.  ;  a 
Common  Chameleon  {Chamcelcon  vulgaris)  from  North  Africa, 
presented  by  Mr.  George  Berry;  a  Collared  Mangabey  {Ccrco- 
cebus  collaris)  from  West  Africa,  a  Grey  Ichneumon  {fferpestes 
gtiseus)  from  India,  two  Cockateels  (Calopsitta  novic-hollan Ha:) 
from  Australia,  four  Snow  Geese  {Chen  albatus)  from  North 
America,  a  Larger  Hill-Mynah  {Gracula  intermedia)  from 
Northern  India,  deposited;  four  Radiated  Tortoises  {Tesindo 
radiata)  from  Madagascar,  purchased  ;  an  Indian  Swine  (Sza 
cristatus)  from  India,  a  Nilotic  Trionyx  {Trionyx  agypticus) 
from  the  River  Nile,  received  in  exchange. 

OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

The  Ring  Nebula  in'  Lyra. — Prof.  Holden  reports  that 
this  object,  as  seen  with  the  great  Lick  refractor,  shows  far 
more  detail  than  had  been  detected  either  by  Lassell  with  his 
4-foot  reflector,  or  by  the  Washington  observers  with  the 
great  26-inch  refractor.  With  these  telescopes  thirteen  stars 
had  been  seen  in  an  oval  outside  the  ring,  and  one  star  had  been 
seen  within  it.  The  36-inch  Lick  telescope  shows  twelve  stars 
within  the  ring  or  projected  upon  it,  and  renders  it  obvious  that 
the  nebula  consists  of  a  series  of  ovals  or  ellipses  :  first  the  ring 
of  stars,  then  the  outer  and  inner  edges  of  the  nebulosity,  next  a 
ring  of  faint  stars  round  the  edges  of  the  inner  ring,  and  last  a 
number  of  s'ars  situated  on  the  various  parts  of  the  nebulosity 
and  outer  oval. 

Comets  Brooks  and  Faye. — The  following  ephemerides 
are  in  continuation  of  those  given  in  Nature,  vol.  xxxviii. 
P-  576:- 


Comet  188S  c  (Brooks). 


1888. 

R.A. 

T 

h.     m.     s. 

0 

Oct.  29  . 

•    16   47   54    . 

.  0 

3i   ■ 

.     l6    52    12    . 

.   O 

Nov.  2  . 

..    16    56    26    . 

.    I 

4  • 

■17     0  33  . 

.    2 

6  . 

•17     4  36  • 

•  3 

8  . 

•17     8  35   . 

•  3 

10  . 

.   17  12  30 

•  4 

12  . 

.   17  16  21   . 

•  4 

Decl. 


Comet  i88Srf(Faye). 


R.A. 

Decl. 

h.    m.    s. 

3     ••• 

7  53  H  • 

•  8  22-3 

IN. 

7  55  34  • 

•  7  58-4 

7  57  48  • 

■  7  34-6 

Star. 

7  59  53  • 

.7   IIO 

8     1  50. 

•  6  47'5 

U  Cephei 

8     3  39- 

•  6  24-3 

Algol     ... 

8     5  21  . 

.6     1-3 

A.  Tauri... 

8     6  55. 

•5  38  7 

N. 

141  s. 
59 'o 
42  "O 
23-2 
27 
40  6 
17*0 
5i-8  S. 

Comet  1888  e  (Barnard). —The  following  ephemeris  for 
Berlin  midnight  is  by  Herr  A.  Berberich  {Aslr.  Nach.,  No. 
2861):  — 

Decl. 

3°487N. 

3  17*5 

2  44  6 
2  9-9 
1  33'4 
0  55-3 
0  i6'o  N. 

The  brightness  at  discovery  is  taken  as  unity. 

American  Observatories.— Piof.  W.  W.  Campbell  has 
been  appointed  to  the  position  in  the  Observatory  of  Ann 
Arbor  which  was  held  by  Mr.  J.  M.  Schaeberie  previous  to 
his  appointment  as  assistant  at  the  Lick  Observatory. 


IS88. 

R.A. 

h.    m.    s. 

Oct.   28  .. 

540    6 

XT               30    - 

.    5  3z  12 

l\ov.     1  .. 

•    5  23  39 

3  •• 

•    5  14  24 

5  •• 

•    5    428 

7  •• 

•    4  53  50 

9  •• 

•    44231 

Log  r. 
0-3370  . 

Log  A. 

.  0-1498  . 

Bright 
ness. 
..  60 

0-33I7  • 

..  0-1214 

..  7-1 

0-3265  . 

..00949  . 

..  8-2 

0-3214  . 

.  0-0716 

••  9-4 

The  Observatory  at  Iowa  College,  Grinnell,  Iowa,  possesses 
a  fine  equatorial  of  8  inches  aperture  by  the  Clarks,  and  strong 
efforts  are  being  made  to  obtain  a  transit-instrument  and  chrono- 
graph, and  sidereal  and  mean  clocks,  so  that  a  time  service  may 
be  maintained. 

The  Carleton  College  Observatory,  Northfield,  Minnesota,  is 
now  a  very  well  equipped  institution,  with  transit  and  prime 
vertical  instruments,  besides  the  old  equatorial  of  8^  inches,  and 
the  new  one  of  16  inches  aperture,  the  30-foot  dome  for  which  is 
already  in  its  place.  A  standard  time  service  has  been  organized, 
and  standard  "  Central  "  time — that  is,  time  six  hours  later  than 
Greenwich  mean  time — is  distributed  to  nine  railways,  embracing 
in  all  more  than  12,000  miles  of  road.  The  charge  of  this  depart- 
ment has  been  given  to  MissC.  R.  Willard.  Dr.  II.  C.  Wilson, 
late  of  Mount  Lookout,  Cincinnati,  is  Assistant  Professor  of 
Astronomy  at  Carleton  College,  and  Prof.  W.  W.  Payne,  editor 
of  the  Sidereal  Messenger,  is  Director  of  the  Observatory. 

Messrs.  Fearnley  (the  Director  of  the  Christiania  Obser- 
vatory) and  Geelmuyden  have  published  zone  observations  of  the 
stars  between  64°  50'  and  700  10'  north  declination,  made  at  the 
Observatory.  The  volume  is  a  large  one  of  319  pages.  The 
observations  are  preceded  by  an  introduction  giving  an  account 
of  the  work, 

ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR     THE 

WEEK  1888  OCTOBER  28— NOVEMBER  3. 

/"C*OR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 

*  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  October  28 
Sun  rises,  6h.  50m.  ;  souths,  nh.  43m.  49-os.  ;  sets,  1611.  3Sm.  : 
right  asc.  on  meridian,  14I1.  I2'8m.;  decl.  13°  22' S.  Sidereal 
Time  at  Sunset,  19I1.  8m. 
Moon  (at  Last  Quarter  October  28,  2h.)  rises,  22h.  8m.*  ;  souths 
6n.  I2m. ;  sets.  14)1.  6m. :  right  asc.  on  meridian,  8h.  40'im.; 
decl.  1 90  31'  N. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 
Planet.         Rises.  Souths.  Sets.  on  meridian. 

h.    m.  h.    m.  h.    m.  h.      m.  0      , 

Mercury..     7  40  ...   12  12  ...   16  44  ...   14  41-6  ...   17  23  S. 

Venus 9  35  ...  13  38  ...  17  41  ...  16  77  ...  21  48  S. 

Mars 12  6  ...  15  47  ...  19  28  ...  18  17-0  ...  24  58  S. 

Jupiter....  9  49  ...  13  57  ...  18  5  ...  16  26-4  ...  21  13  S. 
Saturn....  23  33*...  7  o  ...  14  27  ...  9  28-i  ...  15  5r  N. 
Uranus...  5  12  ...  10  41  ...  16  10  ...  13  io'i  ...  6  47  S. 
Neptune..  17  46*...  1  32  ...  9  18  ...  3  59-4  ...  18  48  N. 

*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening. 
Oct.  h. 

29     ...       4     ...     Saturn  in  conjunction  with  and  1°  16'  south 

of  the  Moon. 
Nov. 

I     ...       o     ...     Mercury  in  inferior  conjunction  with  the  Sun. 
1     ...     21     ...     Venus  in  conjunction  with  and  i°  31'  south 
of  Jupiter. 
12     ...     Mercury  in  conjunction  with  and  40  50'  south 
of  the  Moon. 

Variable  Stars. 
R.A.  Decl. 

h.      m.  ».      4  "•    m- 

o  52-4  ...  81    16  N.  ...  Oct.  31,     2     9  tn 

3    0*9  ...  40  31  N.  ...     ,,     30,  20  29  m 

3  545  ...  12  10N.  ...     ,,     30,    4  38  m 

Nov.    3,    3  30  tn 
R  Canis  Majoris...     7   14-5  ...  16  12  S.    ...  Oct.   31,    o  51  tn 

Nov.    1,    4     7  tn 
U  Monocerotis    ...     7  25-5    ..    9  33  S.    ...  Oct.  31,  M 

S  Cancri      8  37-5  ..    19  26  N.  ...     ,,      29,  23  42  m 

U  Ophiuchi 17   10-9  ...     1  20  N.  ...  Nov.     1,  18  12  tn 

B  Lyrae 18  46-0  ...  33   14  N ,        I,  20     O  M 

T  Vulpeculse       ...  20  46-7  ...  27  50  N.  ...  Oct.  29,  20    o  M 

,,     30,  21     o  m 

V  Cygni       20  47  6  ...  34  14  N.  ...     ,,     29,    3     o  tn 

Nov.     1,     3     o  tn 

5  Cephei       22  25-0  ...  57  51  N.  ...     ,,       2,     1     o  m 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimun.. 

Meteor- Showers. 
R.A.  Decl. 

Near  v  Arielis        :.. 
,,     30  Tauri 
,,     &  Tauri 


4i  ■ 

.  22  N.     . 

Slow 

brilliant 

56  . 

.   10  N.     . 

Slow  ; 

brilliant. 

78  .. 

.  3°  N.    . 

.     Swift. 

Uct.  25,  I888J 


NATURE 


627 


(7.Y   THE   O RIG IX  AND   THE  CAUSATION  OF 
VITAL  MOVEMENT} 

I. 

\  M<  fNG  the  phenomena  of  life  the  movement  of  masses,  or 
*"*■    mechanical  work,  takes  a  prominent  place.     It  is  the  most 

lie  of  all  the  vital  processes;  to  OUT  sensual  perceptions,  so 
universally  distributed,  and  so  hound  up  with  most  of  the 
activities  of  organisms  that  it  might  almost  be  designated  the 
incarnation  of  life. 

In  saying  tbis  it  must  be  understood  that  vital  movement  is 
by  no  means  exclusively  confined  to  animals— that  it  is  not,  as 
was  once  believed,  a  special  animal  function  ;  on  the  contrary, 
it  is  an  attribute  of  all  living  matter,  as  well  of  the  lowest 
creatures  as  of  the  most  highly  developed  plants,  so  that,  how- 
ever extraordinary  it  may  appear,  the  activity  of  our  muscles 
which  enables  us  to  transform  sensation  into  action  finds  an 
analogue  in  the  plant.  Our  conviction  of  the  inter-connection 
and  profound  unity  of  all  living  things  has  thus  a  physiological 
foundation,  based  as  it  is  not  merely  on  the  community  of  deriva- 
tion and  of  structure  of  living  things,  but  also  on  the  proof  of 
.similar  activities. 

If  a  division  of  the  morphological  from  the  physiological  is  in 
any  way  permissible,  it  may  be  said  that  the  unitary  conception 
of  life  for  which  our  age  is  distinguished  rests  in  a  higher  degree 
on  the  knowledge  of  vital  processes  than  is  commonly  recognized, 
and  in  fact  is  just  as  much  founded  on  physi  logical  experience 
as  on  that  of  the  forms  of  the  organism. 

From  the  traditional  conception  of  life,  which  scarcely  con- 
tained more  than  that  everything  between  life  and  death  is  the 
antithesis  of  the  not  living,  it  is  a  long  road  we  have  had  to 
travel  to  attain  to  the  modern  conception  of  the  real  unity  of 
life  ;  and  a  remarkable  road,  since  it  bears  witness  to  the  con- 
fident anticipation  of  victory,  in  face  of  all  impediments  raised 
Up  by  science  itcelf.  Movement,  and  nothing  less,  had  been 
placed  at  the  summit  of  that  antithesis,  which  physico-chemical 
research  in  the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdom  had  revived  with 
the  discovery  that  the  plant  transformed  kinetic  into  potential 
energy,  and  the  animal  the  latter  into  the  former.  While  the 
animal  made  use  of  oxygen  to  generate  heat  and  perform  work 
through  ihe  metabolism  of  its  substance,  the  plant  made  use  of 
the  heat  in  reducing  and  synthetic  processes  for  the  accumulation 
of  potential  energy  in  the  form  of  its  own  consumable  substance 
and  the  expired  oxygen. 

With  wha'ever  unassailable  correctness  this  conception  com- 
prehends life  as  a  whole,  affording  a  pleasing  solution  of  its 
antithesis  by  referring  animal  activities  to  nourishment  by  the 
plant,  the  latter  to  the  products  of  the  combustion  of  the  animal 
body,  and  both  in  the  last  instance  to  the  forces  of  the  sun  as 
original  source  of  all  life,  yet  th'-s  did  but  cast  up  the  sum-total 
of  the  processes  of  life,  and  did  but  express  more  intimately 
than  befove  that  which  divides  the  most  highly-developed 
branches  of  the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdom,  in  which  the 
divergence  of  forms  and  arrangements  is  greatest.  For  by  the 
side  of  this  distinction  there  exists  even  between  man  and  the 
most  highly  elaborated  plant  a  connection  of  a  kind  quite  other 
than  the  symbiotic  interdependence  through  the  medium  of  light, 
air,  and  food,  a  community,  however,  which  is  not  disclosed 
until  we  go  back  to  the  ultimate  elements  of  organization. 

As  in  the  animal  synthetic  processes  are  not  wanting,  without 
which  it  could  not  even  produce  a  molecule  of  the  colouring 
matter  of  its  blood,  so  in  the  plant  we  are  acquainted  with  dis- 
sociations and  combustion,  and  also  with  evolution  of  heat  and 
movement  of  masses  ;  not  that  by  this  I  refer  to  those  coarser 
movements  which  are  referable  to  turgescence,  but  primitive 
movements,  which  we  find  first  in  the  smallest  elementary 
organisms,  of  whic'1.  all  living  beings  are  made  up. 

We  have  almost  in  our  own  persons  lived  to  see  the  old  antici- 
pation <>f  a  single  kingdom  of  living  things  become  gradually  an 
established  truth  through  the  discovery  of  the  cell.  After  the 
ground-lines  of  the  construction  of  plants  and  animals  out  of 
originally  similar  nue'eated  cells  had  been  established  by  1h. 
Schwann,  and  since  Darwin's  immortal  work  enabled  us  to 
derive  everything  that  ever  lived  or  will  live  from  one  single 
cell,  we  have  come  to  realize  that  every  single  organism  renews  in 
itself  the  work  of  past  ages,  and  again  builds  itself  up  from  a 

«  "On  the  Origin  and  the  Causation  of  Vital  Movement  {I'tbcr  die  Ent- 
ttthumg  der  vitalen  Beweguug)"  being  the  Crooninn  Lecture  del  vered  111 
the  Theatre  .  f  the  Royal  'institution  on  May  28,  c3S8,  by  Dr.  \V.  (Cflhne, 
Pr.  fts:  or  of  Physiology  in  ihe  University  of  Heidelberg. 


germ  similar  to   that    from  which    its   most   ancient    ance-: 
s'arted. 

This  conviction  has  become  so  firmly  implanted  in  our  genera- 
tion 1  hat  now  we  scarcely  feel  the  gaps  which  still  exist  in  our 
actual  knowledge,  and  almost  unjustly  underestimate  that  which 
the  investigation!  of  our  contemporaries  yet  add  to  the  cell- 
theory,  as  if  it  were  mere  work  of  repetition.  And  yet  it  has 
been  very  extensive  and  decisive-  for  example,  the  recent 
researches  upon  the  intimate  structure  of  the  cell-nucleus — since 
nothing  less  results  from  it  than  that  the  reproduction  of  the 
cell  by  fission  takes  place  identically,  down  to  the  most  minute 
details,  in  all  animals  and  plants.1 

Now,  if  the  shaping  of  the  cell  and  all  the  fashioning  of 
forms  is  an  actirify,  and  if  Morphology,  "since  it  has  made  the 
arising  of  form  more  its  study  than  the  describing  of  what  is 
already  completed.''  has  become  part  of  Physiology,  it  might  be 
Me  and  conceivable  that  research  directed  to  all  activities 
and  going  beyond  the  visible  form  to  the  chemical  components 
of  the  structures  and  the  transformation  of  substance  and  force, 
should  observe  great  differences  in  processes  where  all  our 
morphological  experience  would  only  have  shown  identity.  We 
were  near  enough  to  this  point  ;  for  if  it  were  true,  as  was  long 
assumed,  that  that  which  is  the  bearer  and  the  seat  of  the  most 
essential  of  all  vital  processes  in  the  cell  is  completely  form! 
it  is  not  easy  to  see  why  the  form  should  be  so  determinant  of 
function. 

We  have  hope  that  this  is  not  so,  and  will  endeavour  to  show 
in  Movement  the  functional  as  well  as  the  morphological  unity 
of  all  living  matter. 

As  I  have  already  said,  there  is  an  elementary  kind  of  move- 
ment in  the  cell,  carried  out  by  the  cell-body — that  part  of  the 
cell  which,  in  contradistinction  to  nucleus,  membranes,  and 
various  inelosures,  has  been  designated  protoplasm.  The  proto- 
plasm moves  itself,  as  in  the  case  of  certain  free-living  Proto- 
zoa, like  the  long-known  Amoeba,  like  the  so-called  sarcode — 
in  many  cases  better  comparable  to  the  movement  of  the  pseudo- 
podia  of  Rhizopods.  The  resemblance  of  the  latter  to  what  was 
formerly  called  the  sap-current  in  many  plant-cells,  led  Ferd. 
Cohn2  to  interpret  plant  protoplasm  as  sarcode,  an  idea  actively 
supported  by  Max  Schultze,3  the  best  authority  on  pseudopxlial 
movement.  It  is  not  necessary  to  say  here  how  widespread 
protoplasmic  movement  is,  for  there  cannot  be  a  cell  that  does 
not  present  it  at  some  stage  of  its  existence.  Doubt  on  this 
subject  can  only  exist  in  regard  to  the  smallest  of  all  organisms, 
those  of  fermentation,  of  putrefaction,  and  of  pathogenic  activity 
which  are  too  small  for  observation.  But  even  in  these,  from 
the  movement  they  perform  as  a  whole,  we  have  grounds  to 
infer  the  existence  of  a  protoplasm. 

It  is  proved  that  protoplasmic  movement  does  not  follow 
external  impulses  or  currents,  but  is  a  spontaneous  activity.  It 
may  go  on  in  opposition  to  gravity,  and  overcomes  frictional 
resistance,  as  shown  by  the  mass  itself  moving  forward  on 
surfaces  of  every  kind,  and  being  able  to  drag  heavy  bodies 
along  with  it.      It  is  proper  mechanical  work. 

The  cause  of  the  movement  can  only  be  an  internal  one, 
residing  in  the  contractile  substance  itself,  and  can  only  consist 
of  chemical  processes  taking  place  within  the  peculiar  pasty, 
slime-like  mass.  Yet  the  question  had  to  be  put  whether  these 
processes  were  not  first  set  up  by  something  coming  perhaps 
from  the  outside,  for  the  movement  changes,  sometimes  stops 
or  takes  place  more  slowly,  or  occurs  but  partially,  and  may  by 
many  means  be  artificially  aroused  or  diminished. 

At  this  point   experimental  phy-iological  research  had  to  step 
in,  attacking  the  problem  in  the  same  way  as  it  had  long  before 
done  in  the  case  of  the  most  highly-developed  contractile  struc- 
tures, the  muscles.     A  muscle  behaves   so    far  just  like   proto- 
plasm that  its  contracion  does  work,  which  can  only  depend  on 
chemical   transformations  of  its  own  substance,    during   which 
potential  is  converted  into  kinetic  energy ;  but  it  differs  in  that 
a  distinct  impulse  from  without  is  needed  to  set  the  game  going. 
In  normal  conditions  it  receives  the  initiating  impulse  from  its 
nerve,  and  nothing  else  appears  able  to  take  its  place,  since 
nothing  that  might  otherwise  act  upon  it,  such  as  the  motion  of 
1  1  he  m  ist  0  implete  exposition  <if  the-;e  important  later  discoveries  on  the 
reproducti   n  of  the  cell   is   to  tic  found  in  the  bwk  of  YV.  Hemming,  "  Zell- 
pubBtant.  Kern  und  ZelllheUung,"  Leipzig,  t88a    C/.  the  "  (Curzehut  nsche 
Uebersicht"   (p     385),   with  the  ijuo-ations  from   the  works  of  Schneider, 
Strassburgcr,    Btttschll,    Hemming,     O.    Hertwig,    and    the    research 
Auerbach,  lialhiani.   van   IWnedea.   Eberth.  Schleicher,  Balfour,  and  othrs. 
ichtrage   zj»r  Naturgeschichto  des  Protoc  ecus  pluviatilis,"  Xova 
[eta  Acad.  Leopold  Ctetar.,  vo'.  audi.  Part  2,  p.  60=  (1850). 
3   •'  Ueber  den  Organismusder  Polythalamien,"  Leipzig,  1854. 


628 


NATURE 


[Oct.  25,  1888 


the  blood  or  changes  in  its  constitution,  disturbs  its  repose. 
But  if  we  let  electric  currents  traverse  the  muscle,  or  if  we 
suddenly  change  its  temperature,  or  act  upon  it  mechanically  or 
chemically,  contractions  result  which  do  an  amount  of  work  out 
of  all  relation  to  the  insignificant  impulse  ;  the  means  employed 
only  set  going  the  process  peculiar  to  the  muscle  ;  and  this  is 
what  is  meant  when  we  term  them  stimuli,  and  the  faculty  of 
muscles  to  react  to  them  irritability. 

Now,  is  protoplasm  irritable  in  this  sense  ?  Experiments  on 
objects  of  every  kind  have  answered  this  affirmatively,  and, 
more  than  that,  have  even  shown  a  striking  agreement  with 
the  irritability  of  muscle.  Of  the  above-mentioned  agents,  be- 
sides rise  of  temperature,  which  ultimately  sets  all  contractile 
cell-substance  in  maximal  contraction — a  heat  tetanus1  which 
disappears  with  cooling — the  electric  current  has  shown  itself 
the  most  efficient,  the  stimulus  which  most  surely  excites 
muscles  of  every  kind  as  well  as  all  nervous  matter,  and  has 
thence  become  the  most  indispensable  instrument  of  physiology. 

1  may  be  permitted  to  adduce  an  example  because  it  illustrates 
what  is  typical  and  essential.2  It  is  the  case  of  the  fresh-water 
Amoebae.  Every  time  these  organisms,  moving  like  melting  and 
rolling  drops,  are  subjected  to  an  induction  shock,  they  contract 
almost  to  a  sphere,  and  assume  the  spherical  form  completely  if 
the  shocks  follow  each  other  at  short  intervals,  being  by  this 
means  fixed  for  a  longer  time  in  this  condition.  Feebler  shocks, 
which  singly  have  no  effect,  become  effective  by  summation 
when  applied  in  quick  succession,  just  as  in  the  case  of  muscle. 
If  the  movements  of  the  animal  by  itself  are  sluggish,  on 
electrical  stimulation  they  are  strengthened  and  accelerated. 
Thus  the  stimulation  increases  the  natural  movement,  and  if 
increased  stimulation  brings  about  repose,  it  is  only  the  apparent 
repose  of  prolonged  maximal  contraction,  like  that  of  our 
muscles  when  we  hold  out  a  weight  for  some  time  at  arm's 
length.  All  protoplasm  behaves  in  this  way  from  whatever 
source  derived.  Larger  masses  which  cannot  contract  to  one 
sphere  (as  in  many  plant-cells,  or  those  great  cake-like  giant 
masses  of  the  plasmodium  of  the  Myxomycetes)  form  several 
such  spheres  in  part  connected  by  thread-like  bridges.  Every- 
where the  taking  on  of  a  figure  with  smallest  surface  is  the 
result  of  stimulation  and  the  expression  of  augmented  con- 
traction.3 That  which  was  outstretched  becomes  shorter  and  in 
like  measure  thicker,  just  as  a  muscle  swells  when  it  shortens 
itself. 

Since  protoplasm,  which  either  does  not  move  at  all  sponta- 
neously or  so  slowly  that  we  cannot  perceive  it,  reacts  in  the 
same  way  to  stimuli,  we  must  in  the  case  of  ordinary  movements 
infer  the  existence  of  processes  originating  them  either  in  the 
interior,  i.e.  automatic  stimuli,  or  of  external  processes  which 
had  at  first  escaped  us.  Whoever  sees  f  >r  the  first  time  the 
action  of  any  one  of  the  simpler  independent  Protozoa  cannot 
avoid  the  idea  that  psychic  activity  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the 
term  lies  behind  it,  something  like  will  and  design.  He  sees 
the  elementary  being  seeking  and  taking  up  food,  avoiding 
obstacles,  and  when  touched  by  foreign  objects  energetically 
drawing  back,  so  that  he  infers  sensation  also.  Possibly  he  has 
struck  the  correct  solution — at  least  we  could  not  refute  him — but 
we  should  put  his  deduction  to  a  hard  proof  if  we  showed  him 
the  same  phenomena  in  the  colourless  cells  of  his  own  blood,  or 
in  the  protoplasm  of  a  plant-cell  ;  and  if  we  placed  him  before 
the  rhythmically  contracting  cells  from  the  beating  heart  of  a 
bird's  egg  incubated  barely  a  couple  of  days,  he  would  certainly 
wish  with  us  that  the  search  were  for  a  more  material  cause,  and 
hope  that  among  them  some  chemical  or  physical  cause  might  be 
found  to  set  up  the  process.  Biology  cannot  indeed  yet  claim 
to  have  established  such  causes  in  explanation  of  the  automatism 
of  protoplasm,  but  no  one  will  blame  the  science  for  continuing 
the  search  for  them. 

Some  causes  are  already  excluded,  e.g.  light,  although  there 
are  a  few  micro-organisms  whose  movements  are  excited  by  it.4 
Fluctuations  of  temperature  may  also  be  left  out  of  account.  On 
the  other  hand,  oxygen  has  a  notable  influence.5     Withdrawal 

W.     Kiihne,      "  Untersuchungen     iiber     das     Prot9plasma    und     die 
Contraktilitat,"  Leipzig,  1864,  PP-  42>  66,  87,  102. 

2  Kiihne,  ibid.  p.  30. 

3  Th.  W.  Engelmann,  five  years  later,  confirmed  the  passage  of  proto- 
plasm, especially  of  Amoeba,  to  the  spherical  form  on  stimulating ;  cf.  his 
"  Beitrage  zur  Physiologie  des  Protoplasmas,"  Pfliiger  Archi-u,  vol.  ii. 
1869,  p.  315,  and  "  Handbuch  der  Physiologie,  herausg.  von  L.  Hermann," 
vol.  i.  p.  367. 

4  Engelmann,  "  Ueber  die  Reizung  des  contraktikn  Protoplasma  durch 
plotzliche  Beleuchtung,"  Pjiiiger  Archiv,  vol.  xix.  p.  1. 

5  Kiihne,  I.e.,  pp.  50,  67,  88-89,  104-106.  The  cessation  of  the  so-called 
sap-stream  in  the  cells  of  Chmra  on  excluding  the  air  by  oil  was  observed  as 


of  the  vital  air  stops  all  protoplasmic  movement,  though  without 
killing  the  cell-body,  as  is  seen  from  the  fact  that  after  the  loss 
of  automatism  electrical  stimulation  can  supply  its  place,  and 
that  the  normal  movements  return  on  readmitting  the  air. 

We  might  thus  consider  oxygen  the  prime  mover  in  automatism, 
and  processes  of  oxidation  its  essence,  did  we  not  remember  that 
many  objects  need  very  prolonged  withdrawal  of  the  gas  to 
come  completely  to  rest.  This  might,  however,  depend  upon 
the  difficulty  of  removing  the  last  traces  of  oxygen  com- 
pletely, or  it  may  be  that  these  cannot  be  removed  by  the  means 
adopted,  but  must  remain  until  consumed  by  the  protoplasm 
itself. 

Since  protoplasm  is  of  pap-like  softness,  and  may  be  in  a 
state  of  rest  or  motion  at  a>>y  spot,  its  exterior  limits  are  just 
as  capable  of  change  as  everything  within  it  is  capable  of 
quitting  its  position  and  taking  up  any  other.  Thus  the  move- 
ment cannot  become  more  ordered  until  obstacles  confine  and 
direct  it.  Between  the  perfected  organization  of  contractile 
substance  in  muscle  and  that  of  protoplasm  capable  only  of 
unordered  movement,  we  meet  a  succession  of  significant  steps 
hy  means  of  which  we  can  see  how  the  ordering  was  attained. 
The  first  step  would  seem  to  consist  in  the  uncommonly  wide- 
spread flagellar  and  ciliary  motion,  in  which  an  elastic  structure, 
affixed  on  one  side  to  the  contractile  mass,  is  drawn  down  or 
bent  by  its  movement,  straightening  out  again  in  the  rhythmic 
pauses  of  repose.  A  further  step,  at  which  the  contraction  can 
only  take  place  along  an  axis,  consists  in  the  arrangement  of  the 
protoplasm  in  fine  strips  wholly  or  partially  surrounded  by  elastic 
walls,  or  again  in  elastic  fibrils  being  embedded  in  protoplasmic 
processes.  In  this  case  we  have  actual  primitive  muscles  before 
us,  of  which  the  most  elegant  examples  are  known  in  the 
Infusoria  among  the  Vorticellx  and  Stentores.  The  movement 
of  these  structures  is  quite  like  that  cf  muscle.  The  strips 
lengthen  and  thicken,  and  they  may  also  be  contracted  in  quick 
twitches  or  in  a  prolonged  tetanus,  the  relaxing,  like  the  stage 
of  diminishing  energy  of  all  muscles,  always  proceeding  more 
slowly  than  that  of  the  increasing  energy  before  the  maximum. 

The  muscles  of  the  unicellular  Infusoria,  no  longer  doubtful 
in  a  physiological  sense,  show  us  muscle  as  a  constituent  of  the 
cell,  and  differentiation,  without  the  production  of  new  cells 
specially  endowed  for  the  purpose,  taking  place  in  one  cell  to 
the  extent  of  elaborating  contractile  elements  determinate  in 
form  and  precise  in  work.  It  is  very  noteworthy  that  side  by 
side  with  these  muscular  strips  provided  with  highly  regulated 
movement,  other  protoplasm  persists,  which  continues  unin- 
terruptedly its  ordinary  unordered  movements,  while  no  such 
unrest  is  to  be  remarked  in  the  muscles.  On  the  contrary,  these 
latter  are  only  used  from  time  to  time,  apparently  for  attaining 
distinct  objects.  We  get  the  impression  that  the  automatism 
has,  as  it  were,  been  lost  by  this  portion,  so  that  it  must  wait 
for  stimuli  to  reach  it  from  other  parts  of  the  cell.  If  oxygen 
really  applies  the  first  spur  to  the  protoplasm,  it  has  no  direct 
power  over  the  primitive  muscle,  so  that  compared  with  the 
protoplasm  the  muscle  is  endowed  with  a  diminished  irritability. 

It  has  often  been  said  that  protoplasm  presents  the  complete 
set  of  vital  phenomena — assimilation,  dissimilation,  contractility, 
automatism,  resorption,  respiration,  and  secretion,  and  even 
reproduction  by  dividing.  Leaving  reproduction  on  one  side, 
as  now  disputed,  and  on  good  grounds,  we  can  assent  to  the 
assertion,  and  examine  which  of  those  functions  remain  for  the 
products  of  differentiation.  In  the  case  of  the  muscle,  we  find 
it  to  be  all  of  them  with  the  exception  of  a  single  one  ;  for, 
while  it  undoubtedly  takes  part  in  nutrition  as  in  respiration  and 
carries  on  a  chemical  exchange,  all  of  which  are  indispensable 
for  contractility,  i.e.  for  its  work,  and  since  secretion  generalized 
signifies  merely  the  throwing  off  of  broken-down  products,  it  is 
wanting  only  in  automatism,  that  faculty  of  reacting  to  certain 
stimuli,  which  remained  reserved  for  protoplasm.  In  this  there 
is  nothing  opposed  to  the  assumption  that  protoplasm  as  opposed 
to  muscle  possesses  elementary  nervous  properties. 

The  above  is  sufficient  to  show  the  transition  to  the  very 
highly  developed  motor  apparatus  which  distinguishes  the 
animal  kingdom  from  almost  its  lowest  stages — I  mean  the 
bi-cellular  apparatus,  which  consists  of  separate  cells  united 
only  for  one  purpose,  one  of  which  presents  the  exciting  nerve, 
the  other  the  obedient  muscle. 

From  past  experience  we  know  that  division  of  the  nerve,  or, 
more  correctly  speaking,  removal  of  the  nervous  cell  substance, 

far  back  as  1774  by  Bonaventura  Corti :  andfurther  by  Hofmeister  in 
Nitel'a  under  the  influence  of  reduced  atmospheric  pressure.  Cf.  Engelmann 
in  "Handbuch  der  Physiol,  von  Hermann,"  vol.  i.  Part  1,  p.  362. 


Oct.  25,  1888] 


NATURE 


629 


condemns  the  muscle  to  rest.  The  stimuli  then  start  from  the 
nerve-cell,  to  them  the  muscles  react  by  doing  work,  and  they 
are  conveyed  to  the  muscles  through  the  continuation  of  the  cell 
which  the  nerve-//';?  presents.  \Ve  need  not  yet  trouble  our- 
selves how  the  excitation  of  the  nerve-cell  arises,  whether 
through  external — sensory — stimuli,  or  through  an  enigmatical 
psychic  act,  or  through  chemical  influences  ;  certain  it  is  that 
these  were,  before  the  division  of  the  nerve,  the  sole  impulse 
to  the  muscle's  movements.  But  what  the  muscles  lack  we 
can  supply  artificially,  and  more  ;  we  can  put  the  nerve-remnant 
in  such  manifold  states  of  excitement  as  it  never  before  expe- 
perienced  from  its  cell-body,  so  that  the  muscle  is  compelled  to 
undergo  many  kinds  of  movement  quite  new  to  it,  and  we  can 
attain  the  same  result  by  direct  stimulation  of  the  muscle. 

In  the  circle  of  these  experiences  arose  the  controversy,  not 
yet  quite  ended,1  as  to  muscular  irritability  ;  properly,  the  ques- 
tion whether  it  was,  in  general,  possible  to  stimulate  anything 
artificially  that  is  not  nerve— that  is,  to  set  free  the  activity 
peculiar  to  a  non-nervous  structure  by  the  means  at  our 
command. 

Haller,  who  was  the  first  to  occupy  himself  minutely  with  the 
stimulation  of  muscle,  and  introduced  the  term  irritability,  de- 
cided, but  only  incidentally  and  by  the  way,  that  the  stimulus 
could  strike  also  the  ramifications  of  the  nerve  in  the  muscle, 
and  he  was  far  from  interesting  himself  in  the  question  in  the 
modern  sense,  or  from  suspecting  the  point  of  view  from  which 
the  independent  irritability  of  muscle  would  later  on  be  ques- 
tioned. We  ought  not  to  blame  him  much  for  the  latter,  since 
even  to-day  it  is  not  easy  to  understand  the  motives  of  an  oppo- 
sition now  continued  for  more  than  a  century.  At  the  outset, 
if  I  am  not  mistaken,  the  teaching  of  the  Animistic,  or,  as  it 
might  now  be  called,  the  Neuristic  school,  led  to  the  conception 
that  not  only  the  excitation  and  regulation  of  the  various  func- 
tions, but  the  actual  endowment  of  the  several  tissues  with  their 
respective  activities,  was  the  work  of  that  everywhere  pre- 
dominant and  distinctly  animal  contrivance,  the  nervous  system. 

In  connection  with  this,  there  seems  to  have  arisen  the  view  of 
the  ubiquity  of  nerves — that  is,  of  so  fine  a  penetration  of  the 
parts  with  nerve  radiations,  that,  especially  in  muscle,  not  the 
smallest  particle  free  from  nerve  could  be  demonstrated,  a  view 
which,  on  the  strength  of  microscopic  research,  is  coming  up 
again  at  the  present  day  in  a  constantly  new  dress,  and  finds 
energetic  adherents,2  but,  as  we  shall  see,  to  be  refuted,  espe- 
cially by  experiment.  If  we  disregard  this,  we  shall  find  the 
tendency  to  consider  only  nerves  as  excitable,  in  some  degree 
founded  on  the  differentiation  which  transferred  automatism  to 
the  nervous  matter,  robbing  all  the  remaining  tissues  of  irrita- 
bility, so  that  they  only  retained  the  faculty  of  reacting  to  the 
stimulated  nerve  with  which  they  were  bound  up.  This  was  as 
much  as  saying  it  was  impossible  artificially  to  replace  the 
nervous  stimulus,  or  that,  if  we  did  succeed,  we  were  strictly 
imitating  it,  in  which  case,  indeed,  we  should  have  come  un- 
awares upon  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  motor  innervation. 
Against  such  arguments  it  availed  nothing  to  point  out  the 
excitability  of  nerveless  sarcode,  as  was  often  done  in  favour  of 
irritability  ;  for,  just  as  it  was  formerly  useless,  because  the  real 
genetic  connection  of  sarcode  and  muscle  was  not  known,  so 
to-day  it  would  have  to  be  rejected,  because  automatic  protoplasm 
can  also  be  correctly  considered  nervous. 

A  non-irritable  muscle  would  strike  us  as  strange  enough,  and, 
against  all  expectation,  different  from  the  nerve,  when  we  con- 
sider that  the  nerve-fibre,  although  incapable  of  being  affected 
by  all  the  natural  stimuli  which  excite  its  ganglion-cells,  free, 
that  is,  from  automatism,  is  artificially  excitable  at  every  spot 
by  the  most  different  agents.  However,  we  have  no  further 
need  of  such  considerations,  since  the  question  of  irritability  lies 
within  a  region  where,  instead  of  speculation,  observation  and 
experiment  have  become  decisive. 

1  Cf.  J.  Rosenthal,  "  Allgemeine  Physiologie  der  Muskeln  und  Nerven," 
Leipzig^  1877,  p.  255. 

-  T.  Gerlach,  "  Ueber  des  Verhalten  der  Nerven  in  den  quergestreiften 
Muskelfaden  der  Wirbelthiere,"  Erlangen  Phys.  Med.  Soc.  Sitzber., 
1873.  "Das  Verhaltniss  der  Nerven  zu  den  willkiirlichen  Muskeln  der 
Wirbelthiere,"  Leipzig,  1874.  "Ueber  das  Verhaltniss  der  nervosen  und 
contraktilen  Substanz  der  quergestreiften  Muskels,"  Archiv  Mikrosk. 
Altai.,  voL  xiii.  p.  399.  A.  Foettinger,  "  Sur  les  terminaisons  des  nerfs 
dans  les  muscles  des  insectes,"  Archives  de  Biol.,  vol.  i.,  1880.  Engelmann, 
Pfli'ger  Archiv,  vol.  vii  ,  1873,  P-  47 '»  v°l.  x'-,  1875,  p.  463;  vol.  xxvi. 
p.  531.  In  these  publications  it  is  sought  to  prove  that  the  motor  nerves 
pass  either  into  the  interstitial  nucleated  substance  of  the  muscle  (therefore 
into  the  sarcoglia)  or  into  the  layers  of  the  "  Nebenscheiben."  This  latter 
view  is  opposed  by,  among  others,  A.  Rollett,  in  his  thoroughgoing  expo- 
sition of  the  structure  of  muscle  (Vienna,  Denkschriften  der  k.  Akid.,  vol. 
xlix.  p.  29),  and  W.  Kiihne  (Zeitschr.  f.  Biol.,  vol.  xxiii.  p.  1. 


As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  older  statements,  long  considered  a 
good  basis  for  opposing  irritability,  are  incorrect,  as,  for  instance, 
that  an  excised  piece  of  muscle  in  which  no  nerves  could  be  seen 
with  the  lens  did  not  twitch  on  stimulating  it. 

We  can  show  you  a  little  piece,  3  millimetres  long,  from  the 
end  of  the  sartorius  muscle  of  the  frog,  in  which  the  best 
microscope  discovers  no  traces  of  nerves,  easily  made  recogniz- 
able by  osmium-gold  staining  (Fig.  1).  Such  a  piece,  trans- 
versely cut  off,  twitches,  as  we  know,  at  each  effective  muscular 
stimulus.  Pieces  which  can  be  obtained  free  from  nerves  from 
many  other  muscles  behave  in  the  same  way,  as,  for  instance, 
pieces  from  the  delicate  muscles  of  the  pectoral  skin  of  a  frog 
(Fig.  2). 

Further,  the  assertion  was  incorrect  that  everything  that  ex- 
cited the  nerve  made  the  muscle  twitch,  and  vice  versa  ;  for  we 
see  here  a  sartorius  suspended  in  ammonia  vapour,  contracting 


Fig.  1.1  Fig.  2. 

powerfully,  while  a  nerve  entirely  submerged  in  liquid  ammonia 
appears  wholly  unstimulated,  for  it  does  not  rouse  the  thigh 
muscles  from  their  repose. 

Conversely,  we  see  a  thigh  whose  nerve  dips  into  glycerine  in 
maximal  contraction,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  a  muscle  in  con- 
tact at  its  excitable  end  with  the  same  glycerine  remains  at  rest, 
yet  it  twitches  if  I  dip  it  in  up  to  its  nerve-bearing  tracts.2 

These  are  old  experiments,3  and  it  is  admitted  they  have  over- 
thrown the  earlier  opinion.  But  they  have  not  been  deemed 
sufficient  to  prove  muscular  irritability,  because  the  ultimate 
endings  of  the  nerves  might  have  an  irritability  other  than  that 
of  their  stems.  This  is  the  only  objection  still  raised.  One 
could  wish  no  other  were  conceivable,  for  this  one  admits  of 
refutation. 

(To  be  continued.) 


D 


THE  HEMENWA  Y  EXPEDITION  IN 
ARIZONA.* 

R.  JACOB  L.  WORTMAN,  of  the  United  States  Army 
Medical  Museum,  has  just  returned  from  Arizona,  where 
he  has  spent  the  winter  and  spring  attached  to  the  Hemenway 
South- Western  Archaeological  Expedition  under  the  direction  of 
Frank  Hamilton  Cushing,  which  was  mentioned  in  the  March 
number  of  the  Naturalist,  and  he  confirms  the  importance  as 
well  as  the  genuineness  of  the  discoveries  of  Mr.  Cushing.  The 
Expedition  is  thoroughly  equipped  and  well  organized,  and  its 
investigations  have  been  conducted  in  a  vigorous  and  scientific 
manner,  with  special  reference  to  the  many  details  which  go  to 
make  collections  of  this  character  of  value  to  the  scientific 
student.  Not  only  have  the  ruins  been  carefully  surveyed  and 
mapped,  but  each  specimen  has  been  labelled  with  great  care,  in 

1  The  drawings,  Figs.  X.  2,  3,  5,  8,  are  taken  from  the  papers  of  Dr.  K. 
Mays,  "  Histophysiologische  Untersuchungen  iiber  die  Verbreitung  der 
Nerven  in  den  Muskeln"  (Zeitschr.  Biol.,  vol.  xx.  p.  449),  and  "Ueber 
Nervenfasertheilungen  in  den  Nervenstammen  der  Froschmuskeln " 
(Zeitschr.  Biol.,  vol.  xxii.  p.  354);  Figs.  9-13  are  from  the  author's  papers 
in  Zeitschr.  Biol.,  vol.  xxiii.  pp.  1-148,  Plates  A-Q. 

2  The  experiments  were  performed  during  the  lecture  by  projecting  on  the 
wall  images  of  the  preparations  enlarged  some  thirty  times. 

3  Kuhne,  "  Ueber  direkte  und  indirekte  Muskelreizung  mittelst 
chemischer  Agentien,"   Mailer's  Archiv.  f.  Anat.,  1859,  p.  213. 

*  Reprinted  from  the  American  Naturalist,  June  1888.  The  writer  is 
Mr.  Thomas  Wilson,  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 


630 


NATURE 


[Oct. 


;D> 


such  a  manner  as  to  indicate  exactly  where  found,  together  with 
all  such  other  facts  in  connection  with  it  as  will  be  of  use  to 
the  student. 

The  Expedition  has  for  its  object  the  study  of  the  ancient 
civilization  of  the  south-west,  and  if  the  results  of  the  first  year's 
work  can  be  taken  as  an  index  of  what  it  will  accomplish,  we 
may  confidently  look  for  a  solution  of  this  perplexing  question. 
Already  a  large  and  valuable  collection  illustrative  of  the  culture 
of  these  prehistoric  people  has  been  secured,  and  it  is  a  matter  of 
congratulation  that  it  has  been  so  collected  that  the  scientific 
student  can  get  all  out  of -it  that  it  can  be  made  to  tell. 

Mr.  Cushing's  ethnological  training  has  been  in  such  a  direction 
as  to  give  him  a  peculiar  fitness  for  the  position  which  he 
occupies,  having  spent  six  years  or  more  in  studying  the  social 
institutions,  customs,  habits,  religion,  and  language  of  the 
modern  Pueblo  Indians,  and  this  thorough  knowledge  of  these 
\i  indispensable  to  the  proper  interpretation  of  the  facts  gathered 
by  the  Expedition.  The  anthropological  work  is  in  charge  of  Dr. 
Herman  Ten  Kate,  a  native  of  Holland,  son  of  the  distinguished 
artist  of  that  name.  Dr.  J.  L.  Wortman,  the  Anatomist  of  the 
Army  Medical  Museum  of  Washington,  is  his  assistant.  Mr. 
Adolph  Bandelier,  whose  knowledge  of  the  early  Spanish  and 
Mexican  records  is  well  known,  is  connected  with  the  Expedition 
as  historian.  Mr.  Chas.  A.  Garlick  is  the  civil  engineer  and 
topographer.  Mr.  Fred.  Hodge  is  the  draughtsman  and  secretary, 
while  Mr.  Yates  is  the  photographer.  Mrs.  dishing  and  her 
sister,  Miss  Margaret  Magill,  are  also  members  of  the  party,  and 
have  rendered  important  aid  in  the  classification  and  care  of  the 
specimens.  Miss  Magill's  artistic  talents  have  been  of  special 
service  to  the  Expedition  by  reason  of  her  clever  sketches  and 
drawings  of  the  specimens  in  side. 

The  locality  in  which  explorations  have  so  far  been  conducted 
comprises  the  Gila  and  Salt  River  Valleys,  situated  for  the  most 
part  in  South-Western  Arizona.  They  are  fertile  tracts  of  large 
extent,  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  they  were  once  occupied 
by  a  thrifty  and  prosperous  people,  whose  history  remains  un- 
written. The  Rio  Salado  (Salt  River)  is  the  principal  tributary 
of  the  Gila,  and  affords  abundant  water  to  irrigate  its  valley,  a 
tract  including  a  half  a  million  acres,  or  more.  The  land  for 
the  most  part  is  covered  with  cactus,  sage  brush,  grease  wood, 
and  mesquite  trees,  but  when  cleared  and  brought  under  irriga- 
tion is  made  to  produce  abundantly  almost  any  and  all  the  crops 
of  civilized  husbandry.  Fruits  and  cereals  grow  in  profusion, 
and  the  land  is  said  to  be  well  adapted  to  the  growth  of  cotton 
and  tobacco.  The  land  rises  from  the  river  at  a  gentle  slope,  a 
fact  which  is  of  great  importance  to  a  system  of  irrigation.  At 
the  upper  or  north-western  end  of  the  valley,  however,  the  river 
is  bordered  upon  the  south  by  a  mesa  which  slopes  away  to  the 
Gila,  no  mountains  intervening  between  the  streams  at  this 
point.  Water  brought  from  the  Salt  River  upon  this  mesa  can 
be  made  to  flow  a  distance  of  twenty  miles  to  the  south,  or  into 
the  Gila,  and  will  irrigate  a  tract  many  miles  in  extent.  This 
these  ancient  people  did,  and,  scattered  over  this  plain  from  the 
Salt  to  the  Gila  are  to  be  found  the  ruins  of  their  villages,  towns, 
and  cities,  long  since  crumbled  into  dust,  and  now  overgrown 
with  a  thick  mesquite  forest. 

Their  houses  were  for  the  most  part  built  along  the  main 
irrigating  canals,  and  are  now  indicated  by  irregular  truncated 
mounds,  of  various  dimensions,  thickly  strewn  with  fragments  of 
broken  pottery.  Excavating  these  mounds,  the  foundations  or 
ground  plans  of  the  buildings  were  discovered.  Some  of  them 
were  large,  often  several  hundred  feet  square,  and,  according  to 
Mr.  Cushing,  three  or  four  stories  in  height.  They  were  con- 
structed usually  of  adobe  bricks,  but  in  some  instances  they 
inclosed  the  adobe  betwfeen  rows  of  upright  posts  wattled  with 
cane  or  willow.  Each  house  would  contain  from  two  to  five 
hundred  rooms,  and  is  thought  by  Mr.  Cushing  to  have  been  the 
house  of  a  clan.  A  considerable  grouping  of  the  communal 
houses  constitutes  what  Mr,  Cushing  has  called  the  cities  of  Los 
Muertos,  Los  Hornos,  Los  Guanacas,  Los  Pueblitas,  Los 
Acequias,  &c.  They  are  not  built  with  the  regularity  of  our 
modern  cities.  Los  Muertos  (the  city  of  the  dead)  can  be  traced 
for  three  or  four  miles,  and  includes  some  forty  or  fifty  of  these 
great  communal  structures  that  have  been  so  far  unearthed,  but 
if  systematic  search  be  continued  double  or  quadruple  this 
number  will  probably  be  found. 

A  characteristic  feature  of  each  of  these  cities,  and  one  which 
probably  led  Mr.  Cushing  to  designate  them  as  such,  is  a  ruin 
of  much  greater  dimensions  than  any  of  the  rest,  which  is 
invariably   surrounded  by   a   strong  outside   wall,    inclosing    a 


considerable  space  or  yard.  This  inclosed  space  around  the 
large  building  or  temple  is  supposed  to  have  been  for  the  purpose 
of  protection  in  times  of  war,  when  pressed  by  an  enemy,  and 
the  large  building  itself  served  not  only  as  a  store-house  for 
a  reserve  supply  of  provisions,  but  also,  if  we  are  to  judge  from 
the  remains  and  implements,  was  the  abode  of  the  ruler  or  chief 
priest  of  the  people  of  the  town. 

While  no  accurate  computations  have  been  attempted,  it  is 
supposed,  taking  into  consideration  the  number  of  to*ns  or 
cities  known  to  have  existed  in  the  Gila  and  Salt  River 
Valleys  that  the  population  could  not  have  been  less  than  two 
hundred  thousand.  There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  these 
places  were  not  successively,  but  simultaneously  occupied, 
especially  when  we  remember  that  they  constructed  large 
irrigating  canals  for  a  distance  of  fifteen  or  twenty  miles,  which 
with  their  rude  implements  mu.t  have  been  a  gigantic  under- 
taking. Their  irrigating  system  was  extensive  and  complete, 
and  covered  almost,  if  not  quite,  all  the  cultivable  parts  of  the 
two  valleys.  The  present  inhabitants  of  the  soil  have  taken 
advantage  of  these  ancient  waterways,  constructed  at  such 
expenditure  of  prehistoric  labour,  and  they  now  run  many  of 
their  irrigating  canals  in  these  ditches.  These  ancient  canals 
were  constructed  with  care.  A  cross-section  exhibits  a  series  of 
terraces  widening  towards  the  top,  so  that  a  large  or  small 
quantity  of  water  could  be  accommodated  and  a  good  depth 
secured.  After  the  canals  were  dug  they  were  puddled  and  then 
burnt,  probably  by  filling  them  with  brush  and  then  setting  it  on 
fire,  so  that  they  almost  equalled  terra- cotta  in  durability.  Mr. 
Cushing  is  of  opinion  that  they  were  not  used  for  irrigation 
alone,  but  for  navigation  as  well.  There  are  indications  that 
they  used  rafts  made  of  reeds  (balsas)  for  navigating  these  canals. 
and  this  appears  more  probable  from  the  heavy  materials  that 
have  been  brought  from  a  distance.  It  seems  certain  that  they 
floated  the  pine  timber  used  in  their  building  operations  down 
the  Salt  and  Gila  Rivers  from  the  distant  mountains  :  it  is  too 
much  to  suppose  that  they  carried  this  material  upon  their  backs 
for  a  distance  of  a  hundred  miles. 

The  burial  customs  of  these  people  were  peculiar,  and  con- 
sisted of  two  methods,  viz.  cremation  and  interment.  In  the 
case  of  the  priestly  class  the  body  was  wrapped  in  cotton  cloths 
and  deposited  beneath  the  floor  of  the  house.  Generally  the 
bodies  were  laid  along  the  east  wall  of  the  building,  with  head 
to  the  east,  although  this  custom  was  not  invariable.  When  a 
person  of  this  clan  died,  a  grave  was  dug  in  the  floor,  a  foot  and 
a  half  or  two  feet  deep,  and  the  body  placed  therein  ;  it  was  then 
covered  with  adobe  mud  and  packed  firmly  around  the  corpse. 
When  this  covering  dried,  and  the  soft  parts  and  wrappings  dis- 
appeared, the  skeleton  would  be  found  inclosed  in  a  rude  sort 
of  sarcophagus.  In  nu oierous  instances,  two,  and  more  rarely 
three,  skeletons  were  found  in  one  grave.  In  all  such  cases  of 
double  or  triple  burial  the  skeletons  indicate  that  it  was  male  and 
female,  or  one  male  and  two  females.  Buried  with  each  cadaver 
was  a  food  vessel  and  a  water  jar,  and  sometimes  several  of 
each,  often  highly  decorated.  That  they  were  wrapped  in 
cloths,  presumably  of  cotton,  is  evident  from  the  impressions  of 
the  cloth  made  upon  the  soft  adobe  covering.  Fragments  of 
this  material  were  found  and  preserved,  notwithstanding  its 
decomposed  condition. 

Connected  with  each  communal  structure  is  what  Mr.  Cushing 
aptly  terms  a  pyral  mound,  since  the  bodies  of  the  common  class 
were  burned  and  their  possessions  destroyed  upon  this  spat. 
The  ashes  and  fragments  of  the  charred  bones  were  collected  and 
placed  in  a  burial  urn,  which  had  been  previously  "  killed,"  and 
the  whole  buried  in  close  proximity  to  the  spot.  The  accumula- 
tions of  this  charred  and  fragmentary  material  now  make  mounds 
of  sizable  dimensions,  which  in  itself  would  indicate  a  long  period 
of  occupancy.  In  the  case  of  the  pyral  burials  everything  was 
broken  and  destroyed,  while  in  the  priestly  b.irials  the  accom- 
paniments were  always  whole.  In  one  case  of  the  priestly 
burials  not  only  were  the  usual  accompaniments  pre.-ent,  but  a 
quantity  of  arrow-points,  spear-heads,  and  a  large  stone  knife, 
together  with  numerous  turquoise  ornaments  and  materials  for 
inlaying,  were  found  deposited  in  the  grave.  This  individual 
Mr.  Cushing  identified  from  his  paraphernalia  as  belonging  in 
all  probability  to  the  priesthood  of  some  war  order,  and  this 
seems  more  probable  when  we  come  to  examine  the  skeleton, 
for  he  had  sustained  a  fracture  of  the  arm,  and  one  knee  was 
stiff  from  anchylosis,  no  doubt  the  scars  of  hard-fought  battles. 

Of  the  priestly  burials  something  like  four  or  five  hundred 
were  unearthed  in  the  various  towns,  while  many  more  of  the 


Oct.  25,  1888] 


NATURE 


631 


cremated  remains  were  found  in  the  vicinity  of  the  pyral  mounds. 
The  skeletons,  as  a  rule,  were  so  frail  that  comparatively  few 
could  be  preserved.  Of  the  whole  number  about  one  hundred 
good  skulls,  and  probably  fifty  tolerably  complete  skeletons, 
were  collected.  These  were  so  frail  that  Dr.  Wortman  was 
compelled  to  use  a  goodly  supply  of  shellac  varnish  to  keep  them 
from  falling  to  dust.  Silicate  of  soda  was  tried,  but  it  was  not 
found  so  good  as  the  ordinary  shellac  dissolved  in  alcohol. 

The  objects  which  go  to  make  up  the  collection  are  various, 
and  consist  of  those  of  ornament  and  utility.  Numerous  shell 
carvings,  some  of  which  had  been  beautifully  in'aid  with 
turquoise,  were  found,  while  a  very  few  copper  ornaments  in 
the  shape  of  bells  and  ear-rings  were  also  dug  up.  Their  tools 
consist  almost  entirely  of  stone,  and  were,  for  the  most  part, 
polished,  though  such  implements  as  potters'  stones,  rasps,  mauls, 
metates,  &c. ,  were  never  polished.  Their  stone  axes  and  hatchets 
are  of  the  ordinary  pattern,  and  are  generally  well  polished  ; 
they  are  of  various  sizes  and  shapes,  and  some  of  them  were  no 
douH  used  as  picks  in  digging  up  the  hard  cement  and  gravel 
in  the  construction  of  their  irrigating  canals.  Stone  hoes, 
knives,  and  arrow-heads  were  also  found  in  abundance. 

The  collection  of  pottery  is  large,  and,  according  to  Mr. 
Cashing,  resembles  that  of  Zufii  manufacture  more  than  any 
other  people.  It  is  often  highly  decorated  with  quaint  and 
unique  patterns,  in  various  colours,  and  some  fragments  exhibited 
a  fine  glaze,  which  indicates  a  high  state  of  the  ceramic  art. 

That  they  were  acquainted  with  metals  there  can  be  but  little 
doubt,  although  they  do  not  appear  to  have  made  use  of  it  except 
in  the  way  of  ornament.  Some  places  in  the  neighbouring 
mountains  seemed  to  indicate  that  they  mined  for  ore,  which 
they  smelted  in  crude  ovens.  Whether  this  was  copper  or  the 
precious  metals  is  now  difficult  to  determine,  but  that  they  were 
accustomed  to  bring  these  ovens  or  furnaces  to  a  very  high  heat 
is  indicated  by  the  slag  in  their  immediate  vicinity. 

It  is  perhaps  premature  to  attempt  to  decide  who  these  people 
were,  to  whom  they  were  related,  and  what  became  of  them;  I 
think  it  fairly  settled  by  there  discoveries  that  they  were  the 
ancestors  of  the  modern  Pueblos.  Whether  or  not  they  were 
in  any  way  connected  with  the  ancient  people  of  Mexico  and 
Yucatan  the  future  alone  can  decide.  It  ?eems  certain,  however, 
that  one  part  of  them  went  north  to  found  the  later  Pueblo 
civilizations  which  are  now  represented  by  the  Zunis  of  to-day. 

If  historical  evidence  is  worth  anything,  and  if  we  can  trust 
the  ordinary  evidences  of  archaeology,  then  these  ruins  are 
beyond  question  pre-Columbian,  and  may  be  as  much  as  a 
thousand  years  old. 

Mr.  Cushing's  final  Report  will  be  awaited  with  interest  by 
all  who  are  in  any  way  interested  in  the  subject.  The  archaeo- 
logical specimens  have  been  shipped  to  Salem,  and  the  skeletons 
will  go  to  the  Army  Medical  Museum  in  Washington. 


SELF-REPRODUCING  FOOD  FOR  YOUNG  FISH. 

FN  a  very  interesting  Report  of  the  United  States  Consul 
at  Marseilles  on  the  above  subject,  he  says  that  every 
person  interested  in  the  artificial  propagation  of  fish,  particu- 
larly those  of  the  genus  Salmottidce,  knows  the  great  care 
which  is  necessary  to  carry  the  young  fry  through  the  period 
immediately  following  the  absorption  of  the  umbilical  sac,  and  to 
bring  them  to  such  a  stage  of  maturity  that  they  can  be  oafely 
turned  loose  in  open  ponds  and  streams  to  shift  for  themselves. 
The  mere  hatching  of  the  eggs  presents  no1  difficulty,  but  with 
the  commencement  of  artificial  nutrition  the  serious  part  of  the 
work  begins,  and  it  is  usually  only  a  small  percentage  of  the 
swarms  which  are  hatched  that  reach  the  maturity  of  yearlings. 
During  the  intervening  months  it  has  been  customary  to  feed 
the  young  fish  on  curdled  milk,  coagulated  blood,  finely 
hashed  meat  and  liver,  grated  yolk  of  eggs,  macerated  brains  of 
animals,  &c,  ihe  preparation  of  which,  and  the  constant 
feeding  of  the  little  creatures,  involves  constant  and  costly 
labour.  Besides,  none  of  these  forms  of  nutriment  have 
been  found  entirely  satisfactory ;  they  are  artificial,  and 
different  from  the  living  organic  food  which  Nature  provides. 
A  plan  invented  by  Mr.  F.  Lugrin,  of  Geneva,  and  practised 
since  1884  with  the  greatest  success  in  the  piscicultural  establish- 
ment at  Gremaz,  in  the  province  of  Ain,  in  Eastern  France, 
seems  to  overcome  all  these  difficulties.  The  apparatus  at 
Gremaz  occupies  a  gently-sloping  piece  of  ground,  about  six 
acres  in  extent,    watered  by  three  springs,   which  collectively 


yield  about  500  gallons  of  water  a  minute.  The  tanks  are  about 
120  feet  long,  12  feet  wide,  and  5  feet  deep.  On  account  of  the 
gravelly  nature  of  the  soil,  the  walls  and  bottoms  of  some  of  the 
tanks  are  lined  with  cement.  The  tanks  are  divided  l>y  sliding 
gates  of  wire  gauze  sufficiently  fine  to  prevent  the  passage  of  the 
fry.  Mr.  Lugrin  spreads  upon  the  bottom  of  these  tanks  a 
material  impregnated  with  the  elements  necessary  to  produce 
spontaneously  a  limitless  number  of  Daphniu-,  Cyclofs,  Limit., 
as  well  as  larvoe  of  various  Ephemera  which  form  the  natural 
aliment  of  trout  and  other  SalmoniJie.  This  producing  material 
is  of  trifling  cost.  The  water  in  the  tanks,  which  is  from 
2  to  3  feet  d<-ep,  is  left  undisturbed  for  a  few  weeks,  and  is  then 
found  to  be  peopled  with  myriads  of  the  species  above  named. 
With  a  fairly  abundant  propagation  of  these  organisms,  20,000 
young  fry  and  3000  fish  one  year  old  can  subsist  and  thrive  for 
a  whole  month  in  a  tank  of  the  size  of  one  of  those  at  Gremaz. 
These  23,000  fish  and  fry  will  eat  from  600  to  800  pounds  in  a 
month,  and  each  tank  at  Gremaz  will  produce  from  650  to  900 
pounds  of  erevettes  (freshwater  shrimps),  to  say  nothing  of  the 
myriads  of  other  species  which  are  produced  at  the  same  time. 
Trout  raised  by  this  method  have  the  flavour  and  firmness  of 
wild  fish.  One  great  advantage  of  Mr.  Lugrin's  system  is,  that 
once  a  tank  is  prepared  it  is  permanently  productive. 


UNIVERSITY  AND  EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 

Oxford. — The  lecture-lists  for  this  term  contain  no  consider- 
able innovations  in  the  physical  and  chemical  teaching.  The 
u-ual  systematic  courses  are  to  be  given  at  the  University 
Museum,  and  at  Balliol,  Christ  Church,  and  Trinity.  We  may 
notice  especially  the  following  lectures  : — 

Prof.  Pritchard,  Recent  Speculations  on  the  Structure  of  the 
Stellar  Universe,  Spherical  Astronomy,  and  the  Theory  of 
Errors  ;  Prof.  Price,  Optics  ;  Mr.  Walker,  Double  Refraction 
treated  Mathematically ;  Mr.  Baynes,  Theory  of  Gases,  and 
Practical  Electrical  Measurements  ;  Prof.  Odling,  5-Carbon  and 
6-Carbon  Compounds ;  Mr.  Vernon  Harcourt,  Volumetric 
Analysis. 

In  the  Biological  Departments  two  new  Professors  have  just 
entered  on  their  offices.  Prof.  Green  is  giving  two  courses  of 
lectures  on  Geology,  and  improving  the  Museum  collections,  and 
Prof.  Vines  has  begun  a  systematic  course  of  Elementary 
Botany.  The  Morphological  Laboratory  is  in  charge  of  Dr. 
Hickson  and  Mr.  Latter  ;  and  Mr.  Mitchell  lectures  on  the  Geo- 
graphical Distribution  of  Animals.  Prof.  Burdon-Sanderson  is 
lecturing  on  Elementary  Physiology,  and  Mr.  Gotch  has  a  more 
advanced  course.  Dr.  Tylor's  subject  this  term  is  Race, 
Language,  and  Civilization. 

An  important  statute  has  just  past  Convocation,  which  intro- 
duces the  biological  sciences  into  the  Pass  Examinations  of  the 
University  for  the  B.  A.  degree.  It  is  expected  that  the  change 
will  be  of  great  use,  especially  to  medical  students,  who  cannot 
afford  the  time  required  to  read  for  an  Honour  Examination  in 
Natural  Science. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 

Paris. 
Academy  of  Sciences,  October  15. — M.  Des  Cloizeaux  in 
the  chair.  —  On  the  deformation  of  the  images  of  stars  seen  by 
reflection  on  the  surface  of  the  sea,  by  M.  C.  Wolf.  An  attempt 
is  here  made  to  calculate  the  extent  of  this  deformation,  attention 
to  which  has  lately  been  drawn  by  M.  Ricco.  The  calculation 
shows  that  the  difference  in  the  angular  heights  of  the  object 
and  its  image  increases  towards  the  zenith,  at  first  rapidly,  then 
slowly,  attaining  its  maximum  at  the  zenith,  for  which  it  is  double 
the  depression  of  the  horizon.  A  luminous  band  stretching  from 
the  apparent  horizon  to  the  zenith  of  the  observer,  and  subtending 
an  angle  of  900  19' '2,  would  give  an  image  terminating  at  the 
nadir,  and  with  an  angular  extent  of  not  more  than  900-  i9'-2. — 
On  the  latent  colours  of  bodies,  by  M.  G.  Govi.  The  experi- 
ments here  described  with  the  bi-iodide  of  mercury,  minium, 
and  some  other  substances  exposed  to  the  light  of  the  incan- 
descent vapour  of  sodium— that  is,  the  nearly  pure  yellow  light 
D — tend  to  show  that  ordinary  diffused  or  transmitted  light  does 
not  give  us  the  true  colour  of  bodies.  To  obtain  this  true,  but 
invisible  or  latent  colour,   a   special  process  of  illumination  is 


632 


NATURE 


[Oct.  25,  1888 


needed.  In  genera],  solar  or  diffused  light,  not  containing  all  the 
visible  coloured  radiations,  is  incapable  always  of  showing  us  the 
true  colour  of  bodies  ;  further,  the  light  given  by  incandescent 
bodies  containing  all  the  visible  radiations  is  insufficient  to  dis- 
close this  true  colour,  which  can  be  discovered  only  by  means  of 
a  complete  continuous  spectrum  without  absorption  bands  or 
rays,  or  by  simple  radiations  from  incandescent  gases.  In  such 
lights  the  true  colour  is  that  which  is  diffused  or  transmitted 
with  greatest  intensity,  or  else  the  blend  of  those  so  diffused  or 
transmitted.  This  is  somewhat  analogous  to  the  dichroism  or 
polychroisrn  of  certain  substances,  as,  for  instance,  the  alcoholic 
solution  of  chlorophyll,  which  may  seem  green,  brown,  or  red, 
according  to  its  degree  of  concentration  or  its  thickness  on  the 
path  of  the  white  light  traversing  it. — On  the  observations  of 
stars  by  reflection,  and  on  the  measurement  of  the  flexion  of 
Gambey's  circle,  by  M.  Peiigaud.  The  experiments  here 
described  with  the  modified  form  of  Villarceau's  mercury  bath, 
lately  submitted  to  the  Academy,  have  enabled  the  author,  as 
he  anticipated,  to  obtain  good  images  of  reflected  stars.  Thus 
have  been  easily  obtained  within  a  period  of  five  or  six  weeks 
about  three  direct  and  six  reflected  observations  of  about  a  hundred 
stars  of  all  altitudes  from  250  above  the  southern  to  250  above 
the  northern  horizon.  A  calculation  of  the  flexion  of  Gambey's 
circle  yields  a  value  practically  identical  with  that  given  by 
Villarceau. — On  the  luminous  ligament  in  the  transits  and 
occultations  of  Jupiter's  satellites,  by  M.  Ch.  Andre.  In  a 
recent  communication  {Coviptes  rendus,  cvii.  p.  216)  the  author 
showed  that  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  uncertainty  in  these 
observations  was  due  to  the  formation  in  the  focal  plane  of  the 
telescope,  and,  within  a  certain  distance  of  the  geometrical  con- 
tact, to  a  luminous  connection  or  "ligament"  between  the 
images  of  the  satellite  and  the  planet.  A  method  is  here 
explained  by  means  of  which  the  possible  errors  due  to  this 
phenomenon  may  be  avoided. — Observations  of  Brewster's 
neutral  point,  by  MM.  J.  L.  Soret  and  Ch.  Soret.  The  neutral 
point  of  atmospheric  polarization  situated  below  the  sun  has 
rarely  been  observed  since  its  existence  was  first  determined  by 
Brewster.  The  authors  have  now  been  able  accurately  to 
observe  it  on  the  summit  of  Rigi  (1800  metres)  on  the  mornings 
of  September  23  and  24,  the  height  of  the  sun  above  the  horizon 
being  from  20°  to  350.  They  were  able  at  the  same  time  to 
determine  the  distance  of  the  neutral  point  above  the  sun 
(Babinet's  neutral  point). — On  some  double  phosphates  of 
yttria  and  of  potassa  or  soda,  by  M.  A.  Dubois.  These  phos- 
phates have  been  obtained  by  causing  the  amorphous  phosphate 
of  yttria  to  react,  by  the  dry  process,  on  the  sulphate  of  potassa 
(H.  Debray's  process,  extended  by  Grandeau  to  the  chief  groups 
of  metallic  oxides)  ;  and  also  by  making  the  pure  yttria  react  at 
a  high  temperature  on  the  metaphosphates  and  pyrophosphates 
of  potassa  and  soda. — On  the  alkaloids  of  cod  liver  oil  (con- 
tinued), by  MM.  Arm.  Gautier  and  L.  Morgues.  Having 
already  determined  the  volatile  alkaloids,  butylamine,  amylamine, 
hexylamine,  and  hydrodimethylpyridine,  the  authors  here  de- 
scribe the  two  fixed  bases  accompanying  them.  These  are 
named  aselline,  from  Asellus  major,  the  large  cod ;  and 
morrhuine,  from  Gadus  morrhua,  the  common  cod ;  the  latter 
being  especially  remarkable  for  its  physiological  properties.  The 
respective  formulas  are,  C25H32N4  and  C19H27N3.— -  On  pro- 
pylphycite,  by  M.  Ad.  Fauconnier.  Under  this  name,  Carius 
described,  in  1865,  a  body  with  the  formula  C3H804,  which 
Claus  afterwards  declared  to  be  the  glyceric  aldehyde,  unknown 
in  a  pure  state.  From  the  author's  further  researches  it  now 
appears  that  propylphycite  is  nothing  but  glycerine  itself. 

Stockholm. 
Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  October  10. — Species  Sar- 
gassorum  Australia;  descriptse  et  dispositse  a  Prof.  T.  G. 
Ayardh. — On  persulphocyanacid  and  dithiocyanacid,  by  Dr. 
Klason. — On  a  scientific  tour  in  Russia,  Germany,  and  Holland, 
by  Dr.  S.  Arrhenius. — On  a  magnetic  field  balance,  by  Dr. 
Angstrom. — Baron  Nordenskiold  exhibited  an  edition,  from  1560, 
of  Mercator's  large  map  of  the  world,  lately  discovered  by 
himself.  —  On  a  new  arseniate  mineral  from  Mossgrufvan,  in 
Nordmark,  by  Hr.  Sjogren.- — On  the  anatomical  structure  of 
Desmarestia  aculeata,  Lam.,  by  Miss  E.  Soderstrom. — On  a 
class  of  transcendents,  which  originate  through  iterated  integra- 
tion of  rational  functions,  by  M.  A.  Jonquiere,  of  Bern. — On 
aceto-propyl-benzol  and  aceto-kumol  and  their  derivatives,  by 
Prof.  Widman. — The  electrical  and  thermic  conductibility  of 
specular  iron,    by  Hr.   H.  Backstrom. — Contributions   to   the 


knowledge  of  the  thermo-electricity  of  crystals,  by  the  same. 
— Determination  of  the  magnetic  inclination  in  Stockholm, 
Sundsvall,  and  Ostersund,  by  Hr.  P.  A.  Siljestrom. 

Amsterdam. 

Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  September  29. — M.  de 
Vries  read  a  paper  on  sterile  plants  of  maize  or  Indian  corn. — 
M.  Van  Bemmelen  discussed  the  contents  of  a  paper  of  M. 
Bakhuis  Rozeboom,  on  the  combinations  of  calcium  chloride 
with  water  in  solid  and  fluid  condition. — M.  J.  A.  C.  Oudemans 
read  a  paper  on  levels  becoming  unfit  for  use  by  the  diminished 
mobility  of  the  bubble,  in  consequence  of  the  precipitation  of 
granular  corpuscles  against  the  interior  surface  of  the  g'.ass.  He 
demonstrated  that  this  evil  could  be  obviated  by  (1)  constructing 
the  levels  of  kali-glass,  and  not  of  natron-glass  ;  (2)  taking  care 
that  no  water  should  be  able  to  penetrate  into  the  interior  of 
the  instrument  ;  and  (3)  employing,  instead  of  sulphuric  ether, 
petroleum  ether  for  the  filling. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

The  Fatal  Illness  of  Frederick  the  Noble  :  Sir  M.  Mackenzie  (Sampson 
Low). — The  Senses,  Instincts,  and  Intelligence  of  Animals:  Sir  John 
Lubbock (Kegan  Paul). — Lectures  on  the  Ikosahedron  and  the  Solution  .j{ 
Equations  of  the  Fifth  Degree  :  F.  Klein,  translated  by  G.  G.  Morrice 
(Triibner). — Text-book  of  Practical  Logarithms  and  Trigonometry  :  J.  H. 
Palmer  (Macmillan). — Experimental  Mechanics,  2nd  edition  :  Sir  R.  S.  Kail 
(Macmillan). — Examples  for  Practice  in  the  use  of  Seven-figureLogarithms  : 
J.  Wolstenholme  (Macmillan). — The  History  of  Australian  Exploration, 
1788-1888  :  E.  Favenc  (Turner  and  Henderson,  Sydney). — A  Manual  of  the 
Vertebrate  Animals  of  the  Northern  United  States,  5th  edition  :  D.  S.  Jordan 
(McClurg,  Chicago). — Outlines  of  Natural  Philosophy,  enlarged  edition  :  J. 
D.  Everett  (Blackie).— The  British  Moss  Flora,  Part  xi.  :  K.  Braithwaite 
(published  by  author). — The  Theory  and  Practice  of  Absolute  Measurements 
in  Electricity  and  Magnetism,  Vol.  i.  :  A.  Gray  (Macmillan). — Mathematical 
Examples  :  J.  M.  Dyer  and  P.  Prowde-Smith  (Bell). — The  Student's  Pesta- 
lozzi  :  J.  Russell  (Sonnenschein). — Journal  of  the  Royal  Microscopical 
Society,  October  (Williams  and  Norgate).—  Journal  of  the  Royal  Statistical 
Society,  September  (Stanford). — Annalen  der  Physik  und  Chemie,  1888,  No. 
10;  Beiblatterzu  den  Annalen  der  Physik  und  Chemie,  18S8,  No.  9  (Barth, 
Leipzig). — Bulletin  of  the  American  Geographical  Society,  vol.  xx.  No.  3 
(New  York), — Bulletins  de  la  Societe  d' Anthropologic  de  Paris,  Tome  xi.  (3 
Serie)  Fasc.  1  and  2  (Masson,  Paris). 

CONTENTS.  page 

Empiricism  versus  Science 609 

The  Mesozoic  Mammalia 611 

Earth  Sculpture 61+ 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Hinman  :   "  Eclectic  Physical  Geography  " 615 

Letters  to  the  Editor : — 

Prophetic  Germs.— The  Duke  of  Argyll,  F.R.S.     .    615 
Definition  of  the  Theory  of  Natural  Selection. — Prof. 

George  J.  Romanes,  F.R.S 616 

How  Sea-Birds  Dine. — Earl  Compton 618 

The  Zodiacal  Light. — Dr.  Henry  Muirhead     .    .    .    618 
The  Geometric  Interpretation  of  Monge's  Differential 

Equation  to  all  Conies. — R.  B.  H 619 

A  Shadow  and  a  Halo. — Rev.  Edward  Geoghegan ; 

Charles  Cave 619 

On    the    Grass    Minimum    Thermometer. — Dr.    W. 

Doberck 619 

On  the  Electromotive  Variations  which  accompany 
the  Beat  of  the  Human  Heart.     {Illustrated.)     By 

Dr.  Augustus  D.  Waller 619 

The    Maximum  of  Mira  Ceti.     {Illustrated.)      By  J. 

Norman  Lockyer,  F.R.S 621 

Flora   of  the  Kermadec   Islands.     By  W.   Botting 

Hemsley 622 

Digiti  Minimi  Decessus 622 

Notes 623 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

The  Ring  Nebula  in  Lyra 626 

Comets  Brooks  and  Faye 626 

Comet  1888  e  (Barnard) 626 

American  Observatories 626 

Astronomical     Phenomena    for     the     Week    1888 

October  28— November  3 626 

On  the  Origin  and  the  Causation  of  Vital  Movement. 

I.     {Illustrated.)     By  Dr.  W.  Kuhne 627 

The  Hemenway  Expedition  in  Arizona.  By  Thomas 

Wilson 629 

Self-reproducing  Food  for  Young  Fishj 631 

University  and  Educational  Intelligence 631 

Societies  and  Academies 631 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 632 


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