quency of electronic
rotation
in the atoms of
Lynn, and may be assigned to about the same In 1859 the late Mr.
Lynn, and may be assigned to about the same In 1859 the late Mr.
Athenaeum - London - 1912a
Swinny.
represent Trinity College, Dublin, at the tragedies.
a
Frowde
## p. 342 (#264) ############################################
342
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4404, MARCH 23, 1912
recognized, comparable with the trans. evolutionist has constantly to remember
SCIENCE
mission of messages by letter-post, by ordi. that adaptation to like conditions of life
nary telegraph, or by wireless telegraphy. may lead to parallelism of development in
Thus the secretions of certain cells may different groups. On taking a broad view
act as stimulants on distant cells by means of recent and fossil reptiles, it is seen that
OUR LIBRARY TABLE. of circulating fluids, as is the case with the they admit of classification in two main
chemical secretions known as hormones : divisions or sub-classes—one a mammal-like
BIOLOGY, or the scientific study of living this is the letter-post method. Or there may brigade termed Theromorpha, the other a
things, is so vast a subject that it has neces- be material connexion by means of nerve bird - like brigade termed Ornithomorpha.
sarily been divided and subdivided into fibres or protoplasmic threads—the telegraph Both divisions were probably derived from
many subordinate sciences, and a student, wires. Again, possibly one cell may act the primæval salamanders known technically
whilo devoting himself to one or more of on another at a distance through the agency as stegocephalian amphibians, the evolution
these branches, often fails to take a philo- of stimuli transmitted without apparent of the class having occurred, it is supposed,
sophical view of the whole. Yet much of the material connexion, like electric waves. in the later ages of Palæozoic time.
educational value of biological study depends The reader who turns over the pages of this The section on the Amphibia is written
on the due recognition of general principles | work will find much of interest on such jointly by Mr. Cunningham and Dr. G. A.
rather than on specialization in any particular subjects as the evolution of sex, the adapta- Boulenger, whilst the former alone is
section. Realizing this, Prof. Arthur Dendy, tion of the organism to its environment, the responsible for the long section on Fishes.
in Outlines of Evolutionary Biology (Con experiments of Mendel, the mutation theory. The treatment of both groups is excellent,
stable & Co. ), takes a general survey of of De Vries, the geographical distribution of so far as the limits of the work permitted.
the broad field of biology, occupying as his life, and the construction of fossil pedigrees, It may bo doubted whether those living
standpoint the elevation which has been or phylogenetic trees, from the record of amphibians that retain gills or gill-slits
raised in recent years by the evolutionist. the rocks. A notable part of the volume throughout life are, as has been commonly
The author brings to his task peculiar is a sketch of the history of the theory of supposed, representative of the most primitive
advantages, inasmuch as he has studied life organic evolution, from Buffon to Weismann. type. It was an old idea that the lungs of
in many distant parts, having held professor: Prof. Dendy, in conclusion, is led to indulge the higher vertebrates had been developed
ships of biology and zoology in New Zealand in the characteristic optimism of the evolu- from the air-bladder of fishes, but it is now
and South Africa, and having seen insular tionist, and from the gradual development believed that, on the contrary, the air.
life in such remote spots as the Chatham of the human race in the past he looks bladder was probably evolved from lungs.
Islands. These islands, about 400 miles E. of with confidence to its progress in the In the well-known lung-fishes the respiratory
New Zealand, were inhabited by a native future.
function of the air-bladder is evident, and
race called Morioris, a peaceful people who in
it is permissible to regard such forms as
the early part of the nineteenth century were Reptiles, Amphibia, Fishes, and Lower distinctly connecting the fishes with amphi-
attacked by an invading party, of Maoris Chordata. By Richard Lydekker, J. T. bians. A very interesting account is given
from New Zealand, and, having lost the art Cunningham, and Others. (Methuen. ) — of the luminosity of certain fishes. It is
of self-defence, were virtually exterminated. When Mr. Pycraft, of the Natural History worth noting that, whilst some fishes that
This is cited as an illustration of the obvious Museum, originally suggested the publica- live in surface-waters possess light-producing
principle that in the struggle for existence tion of a series of four volumes to be entitled organs, many that dwell in the dark depths
natural selection eliminates the weakest, 'Animal Life : an Evolutionary Natural of ocean are probably unable to emit light.
the degenerate Morioris having fallen before History,' it was his intention not only to Prof. Arthur Thomson, of Aberdeen,
the Maoris just as the wingless birds of New contribute the volume on birds, already describes in the latter part of the volume
Zealand, unable to save themselves by noticed in these columns (Athen. , May 28, certain creatures of a primitive type that
flight, are being rapidly killed by the pro- 1910, p. 644), but also to act as general editor seem to occupy the border-land between
daceous mammals introduced by Europeans. of the series. Failing health, however, has vertebrates and invertebrates. These in.
Prof. Dendy furnishes in this work an ex. unfortunately compelled him to relinquish clude the hags and lampreys, which differ
cellent summary of the fundamental facts for a time his editorial labour, and the new from true fishes in that they are destitute of
and principles on which the theory of organic volume of the series now before us has been definitely developed jaws. Probably they
evolution is based. In order to introduce the brought out under the care of Mr. J. T. were given off from the great vertebrate
subject to readers who lack biological train. Cunningham. In these days natural history stem at a much lower level than that at which
ing, he deals in the early part of the volume has become so highly specialized that it is fishes diverged. Of yet lower grade are
with the structure and function of certain dangerous for any writer to venture outside the curious little lancelets, which belong
plants and animals. Here we naturally his own range of close study, and it was to a simple Chordate type, and the tuni-
meet our ever-present friend, the amoeba, consequently wise to distribute the prepara- cates or ascidians, which stand at the
but the writer is not generally concerned tion of this volume among several naturalists “ threshold of vertebrate life. ”
with concrete examples. Speculation, from of distinction, each a recognized authority The work is illustrated with a number of
the nature of the subject, cannot be avoided. on his own section. Their object has been to plates in monochrome and four in colour,
Biological problems are often extremely set forth the natural history of certain classes the latter illustrating such subjects as pro
complicated, and their solution demands of vertebrates as viewed in the light of evolu. tective and warning colours in reptiles and
wide knowledge and acute judgment. In tion, and to do this in such a way that, amphibians, and the brilliant coloration of
discussing the views of opposing schools of without sacrifice of scientific accuracy, the certain fishes in tropical waters.
thought the author shows an impartial spirit, subject may be understood by any reader
but it is not to be expected that all his con. who is interested in nature-study, but may
clusions will receive general assent.
not have been specially trained in science.
On the much-vexed question of the in. Their success is beyond question.
SOCIETIES.
heritance or non - inheritance of acquired The first section of the work, descriptive
ROYAL. -March 14. - Sir Archibald Geikie,
characters, Prof. Dendy, after careful exami. of the great class of Reptiles, is contributed
President, in the chair. -Papers were read as
nation of the evidence on both sides, reaches by the fluent and practised pen of Mr. R.
follows: Prof. Dr. E. Goldmann, *On New
a conclusion not unfavourable to the former Lydekker. Here, as elsewhere throughout Method of examining Normal and Diseased
view, though he expresses himself with the volume, much prominence is naturally Tissues by Means of Intra-vitam Staining,'
commendable caution. It is a question given to extinct types, in order to trace, so
Dr. E. K. Martin, on The Effects of Ultra-
whether a modification of the body which far as the imperfect record permits, the lines
Violet Rays on the Eye,'-and Dr. W. S. Lazarus-
Barlow, On the Presence of Radium in some
has arisen during the lifetime of an indi. along which evolution has proceeded. The Carcinomatous Tumours. "
vidual, not by inheritance, but in response ancestry of all warm-blooded vertebrates Mr. Charles Russ read a paper on 'An
to the environment, can or cannot affect may be carried back to the reptilian stock, Improved Method for Opsonic "Index Estima.
the germ-cells in such a way that the off from which there seems to have been evolved tions involving the Separation of Red and White
spring will inherit the modification. Whilst in one direction the group of birds, in another Human Blood Corpuscles:'. The Opsonic Index
agreeing with Weismann that it is only that of mammals. Modern opinion, how. abandoned. Its liability to error depends chiefly
germinal or blastogenic characters that are ever, does not favour the view formerly held, upon the large variation in bacterial content of
transmitted, the author believes that in that the dinosaurian reptiles, which often the leucocytes. This variation makes the “ error
certain circumstances a somatogenic or assumed an erect attitude and presented of random sampling" liable to be large (Green,
bodily character may be transformed into certain avian resemblances in the skeleton wood and White), and this purely mathematical
error has doubtless been at times responsible
a blastogenic one. True, it is not easy to of the pelvis and hind limbs, represent the for the apparent differences of opsonin when
understand by what kind of organic mechan. ancestral type from which birds have sprung. contrasting two sera (normal and diseased).
ism the conversion may be brought about, Nor is the relationship of the pterodactyles, By repeatedly estimating the opsonin of a normal
but the author's illustrations are suggestive or flying reptiles, to birds generally believed, Mr. Russ found the deviation
from the mean liable
serum, in which all the materials were the same,
Three possible modes of transmission from in the present state of our knowledge, to be to be large. From general considerations this
the cells of the soma to the germ-cells are more than a superficial resemblance, The " content variation was presumed to depend
## p. 343 (#265) ############################################
No. 4404, MARCH 23, 1912
343
THE ATHENÆUM
wa
sea.
upon an uneven distribution of bacteria amongst mercury was avoided. The results were com- having been executed in the time of Richard III.
the leucocytes. A scrutiny of the old method pared with those obtained by simple air-drying. The St. John the Baptist subjects, divided by
showed two serious defects, viz. : (1) Presence of The action of light was excluded during the ex. ornamented buttresses, as in the St. Stephen
500 useless red corpuscles to every leucocyte periments. B. typhosus and B. coli died both in pictures, are unmistakably of foreign origin.
(hindering access of bacteria to leucocytes, and vacuo and in air-dried slips within five days. Gernian and Italian influences are both manifcst,
their even mixture). (2) Sedimentation of the S. pyogenes aureus persists considerably longer and this work came, probably, from the Low
opsonic mixture during incubation (also hindering under both conditions. The interest centres Countries. The treatment is broadly decorative
access, &c. ). To remove these defects (1) the around B. pyocyaneus.
Air-dried films did not in character, and the colour in both instances is
leucocytes were separated in bulk from the red survive beyond nine days. The slips kept in pleasant. Though not of great artistic importance,
corpuscles in human blood by an extension of vacuo were alive at seven months. How much they are both good and vigorous instances of a
Dr. Ponder's work on leucocytes, and used for longer this bacterium will live in vacuo the authors class of work of which iconoclasm has left us
the improved process ; (2) the opsonic mixture are testing.
few examples, and it is greatly to be hoped that
was kept in rotary motion during incubation by B. pyocyaneus was submitted in vacuo to the the authorities at Windsor will see their way to
a suitable mechanism. When repeated tests action of heat, and also to the sun's rays (the tako steps to preserve them from absolute
were made with the same materials by the scaled vacuum tubes being submerged in water). destruction.
improved method there was a largely reduced Its resistance to these agencies, in the dried state,
liability to error. This affected both the average in vacuo, was not materially, if at all, increased.
ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. -March 16. -Anni-
and maximum deviation from the mean value. The bacillus was killed, moreover, by the action of
versary Meeting. -Jean Gaston Darboux (Paris)
The observed errors by the improved method ultra-violet rays on being removed from the and Elias Metchnikoff (Paris) were elected
were one quarter the magnitude of those by the vacuum and treated in an atmosphere of nitrogen.
Honorary Members of the Academy in the section
old process, the conditions of experiment being So far as the possibility of interplanetary of Science; and Moritz Hoernes (Vienna), Giacomo
almost completely comparable.
bacterial life is concerned, it is evident that bacteria
Lumbroso (Rome), and Wilhelm Dörpfeld (Athens)
Prof. W. M. Thornton read a paper on 'The
in the fully dried state, if free in the interplanetary in the section of Polite Literature and Anti-
Electrical Conductivity of Bacteria, and the Rate vacuum, would
be killed by the solar light. And quities.
of Inhibition of Racteria by Electric Currents. The as Sir James Dewar's experiments have demon-
electrical conductivity of bacteria is measured by strated that the ultra-violet rays will kill undried
observing their orientation when an alternating
bacteria whilst in the frozen condition at the
INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. ---March 19.
electric current is passed through a series of saline temperature of liquid air, there is little to support
--Mr. A. B. McDonald and Mr. G. M. Taylor read
solutions of graded conductivity containing them. the hypothesis that the living protoplasm on the a paper on The Main Drainage of Glasgow. '
There is no orientation when the conductivity of earth originally immigrated from interplanetary The paper began with a retrospect of the
the liquid is the same as that of the bacteria. space in a free or unincluded condition—that free, many past endeavours to free the River Clyde
The values found range from 35 to 350 ohms per
particulate life has entered the earth's atmosphere,
froni the pollution of the Glasgow sewage, going
centimetre cube, and depend upon the nature as a result of light propulsion, from extramundane
as far back as the year 1805. At this time the
and state of the culture mediuin. The result of space.
river was quite tideless and fordable in many
sub-culturing in broth is found to be that the
places at Glasgow. Trade was insignificant, as
conductivity of the bacteria increases at each step,
seaborne traffic could reach the city only after
reaching a steady value at about the fourth sub-
SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES. —March 14. -Dr. transportage into small boats at Dumbarton.
culture. Tap water containing B. coli communis
C. H. Read, President, in the chair. —The Rev. In 1662 the town council ordered a small
can be completely sterilized by direct currents in
E. K. B. Morgan exhibited, through Mr. Mill quay to be built at the Broomielaw, and this was
several hours at 0-2 ampère sq. cm. Alternating
Stephenson, a palimpsest brass from Biddenden, the commencement of the transformation of the
currents sterilize water nearly if not quite as well
Kent. The brass, which commemorates Thomas Clyde into one of the busiest waterways in the
United Kingdom.
as direct currents having the same current-Fleet, is dated 1572, and is cut out of parts of
density. In order to obtain well-marked and
two Flemish brasses. The reverses of the inscrip- As trade increased, all fishing interests were
consistent results, it is necessary to use high
tion and coats of arms are portions of a brass dating forgotten, and the condition of the river became
current-densities and to have a form of cell with
about 1520, but the reverse of the figure of foul in the extreme. Sixty years ago the con-
a thin film of liquid which can be readily cooled.
Thomas Fleet is more interesting: This is cut dition of things was so bad that a scheme was
Milk is curdled by direct current at the positive
from the lower right-hand corner of a large figure suggested for the construction of a reservoir in
pole, and thinned at the negative pole. Mill can
brass of a lady. Her gown is pounced with the upper ward of Lanark, to impound flood-
be sterilized without curdling by passing alternat-
banner-shaped shields bearing apparently the water and discharge it during the summer, in
ing current, this being largely thermal. The
arms of Hainault and of the family of Borssele order to scour the sewage in the harbour out to
van der Hooge. The
fragment bears a striking
cause of the marked bactericidal action of light is
This was the first of numerous voluntary
resemblance to the Braunch brass at King's
suggested to be syntony between it and the fre-
suggestions which were formulated.
quency of electronic rotation in the atoms of
Lynn, and may be assigned to about the same In 1859 the late Mr. J. F. La Trobe Bateman,
protoplasm.
date, 1364.
Past-President Inst. C. E. , and the late Prof.
Messrs. E. C. Hort and W. J. Penfold read
The front portion of a medieval jewelled mitre Anderson reported on the subject. Further reports
'A Clinical Study of Experimental Fever. ' In
was sent for exhibition by Lady Herries. The were made by the late Sir Joseph Bazalgette,
1911 it was shown that ordinary distilled water
mitre is of cloth of gold ornamented with jewels Past-President Inst. C. E. , and the late Sir John
and solutions in it of salt frequently exhibit
and enamels, but it has apparently undergone Hawkshaw, Past - President Inst. C. E. , and in
pyrogenetic properties as the result of contamina-
two restorations. The enamelled and jewelled 1878 Mr. Bateman again reported, but nothing
bands are so similar to those on the mitre of was done, and the condition of the river became
tion with a hitherto undescribed body. This
substance appears to be an extractive in water or
William of Wykeham at New College, Oxford, worse and worse.
saline of bacterial protein, but its presence bears
that there can be little doubt that originally the Soon after this a Bill was deposited in Parlia-
no relation to the number of micro-organisms
two mitres were more or less identical. At the end ment for the construction of the Glasgow under-
demonstrable at the time of injection of liquids
of the fifteenth or the beginning of the sixteenth ground railway, which was projected in such a
containing it. It is heat-stable, is of small
century the mitre was remounted on the cloth of way as to dislocate the entire sewerage system
molecule, and will pass the ordinary bacterial
gold fabric, while at a subsequent renovation then in existence. The Corporation strongly
filters. In the present communication it is shown
gold lace was added round the edge, and the opposed this measure, but eventually arrived
that the existence of this contamination, to a
arrangement of the jewels and enamels was at an agreement on obtaining from the promoters
great extent, vitiates deductions drawn froni
entirely altered.
an undertaking that they would bear the expenses
previous work on the causation of fever after
A paper on the paintings in the Hastings and of reconstructing the sewers to the approval of tho
injection of a variety of substances dissolved
Oxenbridge Chantries at St. George's Chapel, Council; and in conference with Sir Joseph
or suspended in water or saline.
Windsor, was presented by Mr. W. H. St. John Bazalgette a system was designed whereby the
The archi- sewage of the north-eastern area was conveyed
Water, fever, salt fever, fibrin ferment fever, Hope and Mr. P. H. Newman.
protein fever, tissue fever of various kinds, and
tectural features of the chapels were described to Dalmarnock. The Corporation then engaged
sugar fever are generally regarded as different
by Mr. Hope. The Hastings Chapel was built by the late Mr. G. V. Alsing to design works for tho
types of fever depending on the injection of
William, Lord Hastings of Hastings, during the purification of the sewage at Dalmarnock. The
substances credited with the possession
of specific menu of Edward W. ; and here he was buried after sewage there treated amounts to an average daily
Pyrogenetic functions. In each case water or
flow of 184 million gallons, and about 247,000 tons
saline has been the injection medium. By a
The chapel is small, and the greater part of the floor of wet sludge are dealt with per annum.
series of charts it was shown that the unsuspected of the stalls of the choir, and about 6 ft. above the
space is occupied by the grave slab. At the back Mr. W. 7. Easton read a paper on 'The Con:
struction of the Glasgow Main-Drainage Works,'
presence of the contamination referred to is an
important determining factor in the production
floor, are the paintings, which were described by and Mr. D. H. Morton on ‘Glasgow Main Drainage :
of many of these types of fever. Control charts length of the backs of the chantrics, with the
Mr. Newman. These pictures occupy the entire the Mechanical Equipment of the Western Works
show that the injection of salt, fibrin ferment, exception of a few inches in the case of that of
and of Kinning Park Pumping-Station. '
glucose, lactose, saccharose, and tissue extracts of
various kinds in water innocent of this contamina-
Bishop Oxenbridge. The pictures are about
tion does not produce fever. The authors con-
4 ft. high, and are shaped at the tops to fit the ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. - March 19,-
clude: (1) That the establishment as separate Chantry aro incidents in the life and martyr.
vaulting. The subjects depicted in the Hastings Mr. Alfred P. Maudslay, President, in the chair. -
entities of these various types of fever no longer
Dr. C. S. Myers gave a lecture on Prinitivo
rests on secure ground. , (2) That future advance bridge Chantry represent incidents in the life and
dom of St. Stephen, while those in the Oxen- Music. '. In this paper the chief objects and
in the experimental study of fever is not possible
methods of studying the music of priinitive
unless precaution be taken to ensure that the
martyrdom of St. John the Baptist. Although peoples were described, illustrated by examples
water or saline used for injection is free from the
little known to visitors to the chapel, these works from Borneo (Sarawak), Torres Straits (Murray
are of considerable interest, and it is much to be
fever-producing body described.
Islanders), and Ceylon (Veddas), the music of
regretted that they are showing signs of rapid which Dr. Myers had personally investigated.
Messrs. S. G. Shattock and L. S. Dudgeon read
a paper ‘On Certain Results of drying Non:
decay. Mr. Newman had reported on their Many of the songs were exhibited by means of the
condition to the Dean and Chapter, but difficulties phonograph-an instrument the importance of
sporing Bacteria in a Charcoal Liquid-Air Vacuum. '
The bacteria used comprised B. coli, B. typhosus,
had arisen as to their treatment with the object which, even to the most musically gifted ethno-
Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus, and B. pyocyaneus.
of preservation, for although not painted, as was logist working " in the field," was strongly
at one time supposed, on the actual backs of the emphasized. The structure and details of other
Cultures in peptone water were inoculated to slips stalls of the Knights of the Garter, but on separate songs were indicated by various lantern . slides
of glass, and after being allowed to dry in the air panels, their removal was impossible without in which (1) the music was reduced to our own
were transferred to test tubes from which the air increasing the damage already sustained. The
was exhausted by means of a motor pump, the
notation ; (2) the nature and frequency of the
St. Stephen subjects are of English origin, and various intervals employed were demonstrated,
vacuum being completed by Sir James Dewar's possibly painted for the place they occupy, the intervals being expressed in ratios of vibration
charcoal and liquid air apparatus; the use of though not in silu. They show indications of frequencies or in "cents," i. e. , hundredth parts
## p. 344 (#266) ############################################
344
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4404, MARCH 23, 1912
6
in
of our tempered semitone ; and (3) the various
apparently great intestinal disturbance, and
scales deduced from the songs were shown.
Detailed descriptions were given of tho technique
the Subtilis proved fata) to growth. From
Science Gossip.
of analyzing phonographic records, and of the
these facts M. Cohendy draws the conclusion
graphic method introduced by Dr. Myers for
that an animal reared in a perfectly aseptic
recording “in the field " the occasionally baffling MM. PAPIN AND ROUILLY have invented atmosphere does not thereby become ultra-
rbythms, met with especially in the drum accom- a new and very ingenious aeroplane upon sensitive to the action of microbes; but
paniments to primitive music. The music of what they call the gyropter principle. that bacteria harmless to the normal
analyzed to show (1) the wide difference even
Instead of imitating the bird or insect, they animal are harmful to one reared under
between such very simple forms of music belong. have taken the seed-vessel of the sycamore abnormal conditions. The distinction is,
ing to two distant peoples ; (2) the different lines or plane tree for their model, and have perhaps, rather fine-drawn.
of musica! development traceable within different equipped their machine with one vast sail,
communities ; (3) the great importance, alike placed at an acute angle with the horizon
SIR J. J. THOMSON, whose work at the
for ethnology and musical history, of studying
the process of diffusion of the various styles of and rotating freely round the car, which is Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge is
music, and also of musical instruments, in regard suspended at some small distance from its familiar all over the world, has been ap.
to their form, their intervals, and their absolute lower end or point. Hence, if the motor pointed to the Order of Merit.
pitch.
stops working from any cause, it is said that
THE twentieth James Forrest Lecture
the car will descend on an even keel, the
METEOROLOGICAL. - March 20. -Dr. H. N.
will be delivered at the Institution of Civil
Dickson, President, in the chair. -Prof. Otto
automatic rotation of the sail, from the Engineers on Friday, April 19th, at 9 P. M. ,
Pettersson delivered a lecture on The Connec- joint effect of the pressure of the air and
Phenomena. ' He began by saying that the scopic equilibrium as
tion between Hydrographical and Meteorological the gravitational force, preserving the gyro- by Mr. H. R, Arnulph Mallock, his subject
the vegetable
being “Aerial Flight. '
Medieval Age was characterized by frequent model. The engine is also designed on a
violent climatic changes, which seem to have
MESSRS. WITHERBY & Co. are shortly
culminated in the thirteenth and fourteenth
new principle, and acts directly upon the publishing for Mr. F. W. Headley an illus-
centuries, when hot summers, accompanied by driving shaft by the emission of compressed trated book on "The Flight of Birds, a
droughts" (which nearly, dried up the rivers of air from orifices, in the same way as the subject which the author has long studied.
Europe), alternated with cold summers and hydraulic whirls now used for the sprinkling The book is designed to interest the aviator
excessive rainfall. In winter violent storm-
floods occurred which entirely remoulded the of lawns. Drawings of the apparatus were as well as the ornithologist.
coasts of the North Sea ; or frost set in so severely exhibited at the last meeting of the Académie
that the entire Baltic and sometimes even the des Sciences.
PROF. BACKLUND, Director of the Imperial
Kattegat and the Skagerak were frozen. The
Observatory at Pulkowa, Russia, whose
lecturer showed that such phenomena may be THE appearance of certain metals in
name is closely associated with Encke's
ascribed to alterations in the oceanic circulation animal tissues has long been studied, and the comet, to the study of which he has devoted
caused by the influence of the moon and the sun.
Experiments carried on during the last four years
presence of minute quantities of arsenic in
many years of assiduous labour, has recently
at Bornoe in Sweden have shown that the inflow the secretions of the thyroid gland has been
published some interesting speculations as
of the under-current from the North Sea into the noted. Prof. Henze has now discovered that to the periodic changes in brightness of a
Kattegat--which brings the herring shoals in the blood globules of Phallusia mamillata, puzzling nature which the comet undergoes.
winter to the Swedish coast—is oscillatory, the
an ascidian fairly common in the Mediter. It has been noticed that the comet is much
boundary surface of the deep water rising and
sinking from 50 to 80 ft
. about twice a month. ranean, give the characteristic reaction of brighter before than after its perihelion
The phenomenon is governed by the moon's the rare metal vanadium, which seems to be passage, and Prof. Backlund explains this
declination and proximity to the earth. From present in the form of vanadic acid. Van.
by supposing that the particles composing
astronomical data Prof. Pettersson concludes adium has been used of late years in the Encke's comet are not round, but flat par-
that the influence both of the sun and of the moon
manufacture of steel alloys, and seems to ticles oriented in parallel planes. So,
upon the waters of the ocean in winter about the
time of the solstice must have been greater 600
act here as a catalyser, no doubt playing when either the earth or the sun is in the
to 700 years ago than at the present time. some part in the physiological process of mean plane of the particles, there would
oxidation.
be a great loss of light, just as Saturn's ring
M. VAILLARD, Medical Inspector-General
vanishes when its plane passes through
either the earth or the sun.
of the French Army, has investigated the
Mox. Institute of Actuarles, 5. -'Notes on the Construction of
ielortalido Tablet R. Eldertohen dhe der Fipronil phenomena of the transmission of germs THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES in St. Peters-
Museum, 8. -English Modern Archi-
tecture,' Mr. B. Fletcher.
from one individual to another in epidemic burg has founded an institute for research
Society of Arts, 8. - Materials and Methods of Decorative
diseases, such as diphtheria, typhoid fever, in chemistry, physics, and mineralogy, which
Painting. ' Lecture II. , Mr. N. Heaton. (Cantor Lecture. )
Geograpbical: 8. 30. - Exploration in N. W. Mongolia and cerebro-spinal meningitis, and even the new is to be called the Lomonossov Institute,
Dzungaria,' Mr. D. Carruthers.
Turs. Royal Institution, 8. - Ancient Britain,' Lecture III, Dr. malady called acute poliomyelitis. He de- in honour of the distinguished Russian
Colonial Institute. 4-The Boundaries of British Guiana,' clares it to be proved, as the result of naturalist Michael Lomonossov, whose bi-
British Museum, 1. 30. – Later Byzantine Churches," Mr. B. experiments on animals, that individuals
centenary was celebrated in 1911.
can act as carriers of the germs of diseases
Society of Arts, 4.
a
Frowde
## p. 342 (#264) ############################################
342
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4404, MARCH 23, 1912
recognized, comparable with the trans. evolutionist has constantly to remember
SCIENCE
mission of messages by letter-post, by ordi. that adaptation to like conditions of life
nary telegraph, or by wireless telegraphy. may lead to parallelism of development in
Thus the secretions of certain cells may different groups. On taking a broad view
act as stimulants on distant cells by means of recent and fossil reptiles, it is seen that
OUR LIBRARY TABLE. of circulating fluids, as is the case with the they admit of classification in two main
chemical secretions known as hormones : divisions or sub-classes—one a mammal-like
BIOLOGY, or the scientific study of living this is the letter-post method. Or there may brigade termed Theromorpha, the other a
things, is so vast a subject that it has neces- be material connexion by means of nerve bird - like brigade termed Ornithomorpha.
sarily been divided and subdivided into fibres or protoplasmic threads—the telegraph Both divisions were probably derived from
many subordinate sciences, and a student, wires. Again, possibly one cell may act the primæval salamanders known technically
whilo devoting himself to one or more of on another at a distance through the agency as stegocephalian amphibians, the evolution
these branches, often fails to take a philo- of stimuli transmitted without apparent of the class having occurred, it is supposed,
sophical view of the whole. Yet much of the material connexion, like electric waves. in the later ages of Palæozoic time.
educational value of biological study depends The reader who turns over the pages of this The section on the Amphibia is written
on the due recognition of general principles | work will find much of interest on such jointly by Mr. Cunningham and Dr. G. A.
rather than on specialization in any particular subjects as the evolution of sex, the adapta- Boulenger, whilst the former alone is
section. Realizing this, Prof. Arthur Dendy, tion of the organism to its environment, the responsible for the long section on Fishes.
in Outlines of Evolutionary Biology (Con experiments of Mendel, the mutation theory. The treatment of both groups is excellent,
stable & Co. ), takes a general survey of of De Vries, the geographical distribution of so far as the limits of the work permitted.
the broad field of biology, occupying as his life, and the construction of fossil pedigrees, It may bo doubted whether those living
standpoint the elevation which has been or phylogenetic trees, from the record of amphibians that retain gills or gill-slits
raised in recent years by the evolutionist. the rocks. A notable part of the volume throughout life are, as has been commonly
The author brings to his task peculiar is a sketch of the history of the theory of supposed, representative of the most primitive
advantages, inasmuch as he has studied life organic evolution, from Buffon to Weismann. type. It was an old idea that the lungs of
in many distant parts, having held professor: Prof. Dendy, in conclusion, is led to indulge the higher vertebrates had been developed
ships of biology and zoology in New Zealand in the characteristic optimism of the evolu- from the air-bladder of fishes, but it is now
and South Africa, and having seen insular tionist, and from the gradual development believed that, on the contrary, the air.
life in such remote spots as the Chatham of the human race in the past he looks bladder was probably evolved from lungs.
Islands. These islands, about 400 miles E. of with confidence to its progress in the In the well-known lung-fishes the respiratory
New Zealand, were inhabited by a native future.
function of the air-bladder is evident, and
race called Morioris, a peaceful people who in
it is permissible to regard such forms as
the early part of the nineteenth century were Reptiles, Amphibia, Fishes, and Lower distinctly connecting the fishes with amphi-
attacked by an invading party, of Maoris Chordata. By Richard Lydekker, J. T. bians. A very interesting account is given
from New Zealand, and, having lost the art Cunningham, and Others. (Methuen. ) — of the luminosity of certain fishes. It is
of self-defence, were virtually exterminated. When Mr. Pycraft, of the Natural History worth noting that, whilst some fishes that
This is cited as an illustration of the obvious Museum, originally suggested the publica- live in surface-waters possess light-producing
principle that in the struggle for existence tion of a series of four volumes to be entitled organs, many that dwell in the dark depths
natural selection eliminates the weakest, 'Animal Life : an Evolutionary Natural of ocean are probably unable to emit light.
the degenerate Morioris having fallen before History,' it was his intention not only to Prof. Arthur Thomson, of Aberdeen,
the Maoris just as the wingless birds of New contribute the volume on birds, already describes in the latter part of the volume
Zealand, unable to save themselves by noticed in these columns (Athen. , May 28, certain creatures of a primitive type that
flight, are being rapidly killed by the pro- 1910, p. 644), but also to act as general editor seem to occupy the border-land between
daceous mammals introduced by Europeans. of the series. Failing health, however, has vertebrates and invertebrates. These in.
Prof. Dendy furnishes in this work an ex. unfortunately compelled him to relinquish clude the hags and lampreys, which differ
cellent summary of the fundamental facts for a time his editorial labour, and the new from true fishes in that they are destitute of
and principles on which the theory of organic volume of the series now before us has been definitely developed jaws. Probably they
evolution is based. In order to introduce the brought out under the care of Mr. J. T. were given off from the great vertebrate
subject to readers who lack biological train. Cunningham. In these days natural history stem at a much lower level than that at which
ing, he deals in the early part of the volume has become so highly specialized that it is fishes diverged. Of yet lower grade are
with the structure and function of certain dangerous for any writer to venture outside the curious little lancelets, which belong
plants and animals. Here we naturally his own range of close study, and it was to a simple Chordate type, and the tuni-
meet our ever-present friend, the amoeba, consequently wise to distribute the prepara- cates or ascidians, which stand at the
but the writer is not generally concerned tion of this volume among several naturalists “ threshold of vertebrate life. ”
with concrete examples. Speculation, from of distinction, each a recognized authority The work is illustrated with a number of
the nature of the subject, cannot be avoided. on his own section. Their object has been to plates in monochrome and four in colour,
Biological problems are often extremely set forth the natural history of certain classes the latter illustrating such subjects as pro
complicated, and their solution demands of vertebrates as viewed in the light of evolu. tective and warning colours in reptiles and
wide knowledge and acute judgment. In tion, and to do this in such a way that, amphibians, and the brilliant coloration of
discussing the views of opposing schools of without sacrifice of scientific accuracy, the certain fishes in tropical waters.
thought the author shows an impartial spirit, subject may be understood by any reader
but it is not to be expected that all his con. who is interested in nature-study, but may
clusions will receive general assent.
not have been specially trained in science.
On the much-vexed question of the in. Their success is beyond question.
SOCIETIES.
heritance or non - inheritance of acquired The first section of the work, descriptive
ROYAL. -March 14. - Sir Archibald Geikie,
characters, Prof. Dendy, after careful exami. of the great class of Reptiles, is contributed
President, in the chair. -Papers were read as
nation of the evidence on both sides, reaches by the fluent and practised pen of Mr. R.
follows: Prof. Dr. E. Goldmann, *On New
a conclusion not unfavourable to the former Lydekker. Here, as elsewhere throughout Method of examining Normal and Diseased
view, though he expresses himself with the volume, much prominence is naturally Tissues by Means of Intra-vitam Staining,'
commendable caution. It is a question given to extinct types, in order to trace, so
Dr. E. K. Martin, on The Effects of Ultra-
whether a modification of the body which far as the imperfect record permits, the lines
Violet Rays on the Eye,'-and Dr. W. S. Lazarus-
Barlow, On the Presence of Radium in some
has arisen during the lifetime of an indi. along which evolution has proceeded. The Carcinomatous Tumours. "
vidual, not by inheritance, but in response ancestry of all warm-blooded vertebrates Mr. Charles Russ read a paper on 'An
to the environment, can or cannot affect may be carried back to the reptilian stock, Improved Method for Opsonic "Index Estima.
the germ-cells in such a way that the off from which there seems to have been evolved tions involving the Separation of Red and White
spring will inherit the modification. Whilst in one direction the group of birds, in another Human Blood Corpuscles:'. The Opsonic Index
agreeing with Weismann that it is only that of mammals. Modern opinion, how. abandoned. Its liability to error depends chiefly
germinal or blastogenic characters that are ever, does not favour the view formerly held, upon the large variation in bacterial content of
transmitted, the author believes that in that the dinosaurian reptiles, which often the leucocytes. This variation makes the “ error
certain circumstances a somatogenic or assumed an erect attitude and presented of random sampling" liable to be large (Green,
bodily character may be transformed into certain avian resemblances in the skeleton wood and White), and this purely mathematical
error has doubtless been at times responsible
a blastogenic one. True, it is not easy to of the pelvis and hind limbs, represent the for the apparent differences of opsonin when
understand by what kind of organic mechan. ancestral type from which birds have sprung. contrasting two sera (normal and diseased).
ism the conversion may be brought about, Nor is the relationship of the pterodactyles, By repeatedly estimating the opsonin of a normal
but the author's illustrations are suggestive or flying reptiles, to birds generally believed, Mr. Russ found the deviation
from the mean liable
serum, in which all the materials were the same,
Three possible modes of transmission from in the present state of our knowledge, to be to be large. From general considerations this
the cells of the soma to the germ-cells are more than a superficial resemblance, The " content variation was presumed to depend
## p. 343 (#265) ############################################
No. 4404, MARCH 23, 1912
343
THE ATHENÆUM
wa
sea.
upon an uneven distribution of bacteria amongst mercury was avoided. The results were com- having been executed in the time of Richard III.
the leucocytes. A scrutiny of the old method pared with those obtained by simple air-drying. The St. John the Baptist subjects, divided by
showed two serious defects, viz. : (1) Presence of The action of light was excluded during the ex. ornamented buttresses, as in the St. Stephen
500 useless red corpuscles to every leucocyte periments. B. typhosus and B. coli died both in pictures, are unmistakably of foreign origin.
(hindering access of bacteria to leucocytes, and vacuo and in air-dried slips within five days. Gernian and Italian influences are both manifcst,
their even mixture). (2) Sedimentation of the S. pyogenes aureus persists considerably longer and this work came, probably, from the Low
opsonic mixture during incubation (also hindering under both conditions. The interest centres Countries. The treatment is broadly decorative
access, &c. ). To remove these defects (1) the around B. pyocyaneus.
Air-dried films did not in character, and the colour in both instances is
leucocytes were separated in bulk from the red survive beyond nine days. The slips kept in pleasant. Though not of great artistic importance,
corpuscles in human blood by an extension of vacuo were alive at seven months. How much they are both good and vigorous instances of a
Dr. Ponder's work on leucocytes, and used for longer this bacterium will live in vacuo the authors class of work of which iconoclasm has left us
the improved process ; (2) the opsonic mixture are testing.
few examples, and it is greatly to be hoped that
was kept in rotary motion during incubation by B. pyocyaneus was submitted in vacuo to the the authorities at Windsor will see their way to
a suitable mechanism. When repeated tests action of heat, and also to the sun's rays (the tako steps to preserve them from absolute
were made with the same materials by the scaled vacuum tubes being submerged in water). destruction.
improved method there was a largely reduced Its resistance to these agencies, in the dried state,
liability to error. This affected both the average in vacuo, was not materially, if at all, increased.
ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. -March 16. -Anni-
and maximum deviation from the mean value. The bacillus was killed, moreover, by the action of
versary Meeting. -Jean Gaston Darboux (Paris)
The observed errors by the improved method ultra-violet rays on being removed from the and Elias Metchnikoff (Paris) were elected
were one quarter the magnitude of those by the vacuum and treated in an atmosphere of nitrogen.
Honorary Members of the Academy in the section
old process, the conditions of experiment being So far as the possibility of interplanetary of Science; and Moritz Hoernes (Vienna), Giacomo
almost completely comparable.
bacterial life is concerned, it is evident that bacteria
Lumbroso (Rome), and Wilhelm Dörpfeld (Athens)
Prof. W. M. Thornton read a paper on 'The
in the fully dried state, if free in the interplanetary in the section of Polite Literature and Anti-
Electrical Conductivity of Bacteria, and the Rate vacuum, would
be killed by the solar light. And quities.
of Inhibition of Racteria by Electric Currents. The as Sir James Dewar's experiments have demon-
electrical conductivity of bacteria is measured by strated that the ultra-violet rays will kill undried
observing their orientation when an alternating
bacteria whilst in the frozen condition at the
INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. ---March 19.
electric current is passed through a series of saline temperature of liquid air, there is little to support
--Mr. A. B. McDonald and Mr. G. M. Taylor read
solutions of graded conductivity containing them. the hypothesis that the living protoplasm on the a paper on The Main Drainage of Glasgow. '
There is no orientation when the conductivity of earth originally immigrated from interplanetary The paper began with a retrospect of the
the liquid is the same as that of the bacteria. space in a free or unincluded condition—that free, many past endeavours to free the River Clyde
The values found range from 35 to 350 ohms per
particulate life has entered the earth's atmosphere,
froni the pollution of the Glasgow sewage, going
centimetre cube, and depend upon the nature as a result of light propulsion, from extramundane
as far back as the year 1805. At this time the
and state of the culture mediuin. The result of space.
river was quite tideless and fordable in many
sub-culturing in broth is found to be that the
places at Glasgow. Trade was insignificant, as
conductivity of the bacteria increases at each step,
seaborne traffic could reach the city only after
reaching a steady value at about the fourth sub-
SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES. —March 14. -Dr. transportage into small boats at Dumbarton.
culture. Tap water containing B. coli communis
C. H. Read, President, in the chair. —The Rev. In 1662 the town council ordered a small
can be completely sterilized by direct currents in
E. K. B. Morgan exhibited, through Mr. Mill quay to be built at the Broomielaw, and this was
several hours at 0-2 ampère sq. cm. Alternating
Stephenson, a palimpsest brass from Biddenden, the commencement of the transformation of the
currents sterilize water nearly if not quite as well
Kent. The brass, which commemorates Thomas Clyde into one of the busiest waterways in the
United Kingdom.
as direct currents having the same current-Fleet, is dated 1572, and is cut out of parts of
density. In order to obtain well-marked and
two Flemish brasses. The reverses of the inscrip- As trade increased, all fishing interests were
consistent results, it is necessary to use high
tion and coats of arms are portions of a brass dating forgotten, and the condition of the river became
current-densities and to have a form of cell with
about 1520, but the reverse of the figure of foul in the extreme. Sixty years ago the con-
a thin film of liquid which can be readily cooled.
Thomas Fleet is more interesting: This is cut dition of things was so bad that a scheme was
Milk is curdled by direct current at the positive
from the lower right-hand corner of a large figure suggested for the construction of a reservoir in
pole, and thinned at the negative pole. Mill can
brass of a lady. Her gown is pounced with the upper ward of Lanark, to impound flood-
be sterilized without curdling by passing alternat-
banner-shaped shields bearing apparently the water and discharge it during the summer, in
ing current, this being largely thermal. The
arms of Hainault and of the family of Borssele order to scour the sewage in the harbour out to
van der Hooge. The
fragment bears a striking
cause of the marked bactericidal action of light is
This was the first of numerous voluntary
resemblance to the Braunch brass at King's
suggested to be syntony between it and the fre-
suggestions which were formulated.
quency of electronic rotation in the atoms of
Lynn, and may be assigned to about the same In 1859 the late Mr. J. F. La Trobe Bateman,
protoplasm.
date, 1364.
Past-President Inst. C. E. , and the late Prof.
Messrs. E. C. Hort and W. J. Penfold read
The front portion of a medieval jewelled mitre Anderson reported on the subject. Further reports
'A Clinical Study of Experimental Fever. ' In
was sent for exhibition by Lady Herries. The were made by the late Sir Joseph Bazalgette,
1911 it was shown that ordinary distilled water
mitre is of cloth of gold ornamented with jewels Past-President Inst. C. E. , and the late Sir John
and solutions in it of salt frequently exhibit
and enamels, but it has apparently undergone Hawkshaw, Past - President Inst. C. E. , and in
pyrogenetic properties as the result of contamina-
two restorations. The enamelled and jewelled 1878 Mr. Bateman again reported, but nothing
bands are so similar to those on the mitre of was done, and the condition of the river became
tion with a hitherto undescribed body. This
substance appears to be an extractive in water or
William of Wykeham at New College, Oxford, worse and worse.
saline of bacterial protein, but its presence bears
that there can be little doubt that originally the Soon after this a Bill was deposited in Parlia-
no relation to the number of micro-organisms
two mitres were more or less identical. At the end ment for the construction of the Glasgow under-
demonstrable at the time of injection of liquids
of the fifteenth or the beginning of the sixteenth ground railway, which was projected in such a
containing it. It is heat-stable, is of small
century the mitre was remounted on the cloth of way as to dislocate the entire sewerage system
molecule, and will pass the ordinary bacterial
gold fabric, while at a subsequent renovation then in existence. The Corporation strongly
filters. In the present communication it is shown
gold lace was added round the edge, and the opposed this measure, but eventually arrived
that the existence of this contamination, to a
arrangement of the jewels and enamels was at an agreement on obtaining from the promoters
great extent, vitiates deductions drawn froni
entirely altered.
an undertaking that they would bear the expenses
previous work on the causation of fever after
A paper on the paintings in the Hastings and of reconstructing the sewers to the approval of tho
injection of a variety of substances dissolved
Oxenbridge Chantries at St. George's Chapel, Council; and in conference with Sir Joseph
or suspended in water or saline.
Windsor, was presented by Mr. W. H. St. John Bazalgette a system was designed whereby the
The archi- sewage of the north-eastern area was conveyed
Water, fever, salt fever, fibrin ferment fever, Hope and Mr. P. H. Newman.
protein fever, tissue fever of various kinds, and
tectural features of the chapels were described to Dalmarnock. The Corporation then engaged
sugar fever are generally regarded as different
by Mr. Hope. The Hastings Chapel was built by the late Mr. G. V. Alsing to design works for tho
types of fever depending on the injection of
William, Lord Hastings of Hastings, during the purification of the sewage at Dalmarnock. The
substances credited with the possession
of specific menu of Edward W. ; and here he was buried after sewage there treated amounts to an average daily
Pyrogenetic functions. In each case water or
flow of 184 million gallons, and about 247,000 tons
saline has been the injection medium. By a
The chapel is small, and the greater part of the floor of wet sludge are dealt with per annum.
series of charts it was shown that the unsuspected of the stalls of the choir, and about 6 ft. above the
space is occupied by the grave slab. At the back Mr. W. 7. Easton read a paper on 'The Con:
struction of the Glasgow Main-Drainage Works,'
presence of the contamination referred to is an
important determining factor in the production
floor, are the paintings, which were described by and Mr. D. H. Morton on ‘Glasgow Main Drainage :
of many of these types of fever. Control charts length of the backs of the chantrics, with the
Mr. Newman. These pictures occupy the entire the Mechanical Equipment of the Western Works
show that the injection of salt, fibrin ferment, exception of a few inches in the case of that of
and of Kinning Park Pumping-Station. '
glucose, lactose, saccharose, and tissue extracts of
various kinds in water innocent of this contamina-
Bishop Oxenbridge. The pictures are about
tion does not produce fever. The authors con-
4 ft. high, and are shaped at the tops to fit the ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. - March 19,-
clude: (1) That the establishment as separate Chantry aro incidents in the life and martyr.
vaulting. The subjects depicted in the Hastings Mr. Alfred P. Maudslay, President, in the chair. -
entities of these various types of fever no longer
Dr. C. S. Myers gave a lecture on Prinitivo
rests on secure ground. , (2) That future advance bridge Chantry represent incidents in the life and
dom of St. Stephen, while those in the Oxen- Music. '. In this paper the chief objects and
in the experimental study of fever is not possible
methods of studying the music of priinitive
unless precaution be taken to ensure that the
martyrdom of St. John the Baptist. Although peoples were described, illustrated by examples
water or saline used for injection is free from the
little known to visitors to the chapel, these works from Borneo (Sarawak), Torres Straits (Murray
are of considerable interest, and it is much to be
fever-producing body described.
Islanders), and Ceylon (Veddas), the music of
regretted that they are showing signs of rapid which Dr. Myers had personally investigated.
Messrs. S. G. Shattock and L. S. Dudgeon read
a paper ‘On Certain Results of drying Non:
decay. Mr. Newman had reported on their Many of the songs were exhibited by means of the
condition to the Dean and Chapter, but difficulties phonograph-an instrument the importance of
sporing Bacteria in a Charcoal Liquid-Air Vacuum. '
The bacteria used comprised B. coli, B. typhosus,
had arisen as to their treatment with the object which, even to the most musically gifted ethno-
Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus, and B. pyocyaneus.
of preservation, for although not painted, as was logist working " in the field," was strongly
at one time supposed, on the actual backs of the emphasized. The structure and details of other
Cultures in peptone water were inoculated to slips stalls of the Knights of the Garter, but on separate songs were indicated by various lantern . slides
of glass, and after being allowed to dry in the air panels, their removal was impossible without in which (1) the music was reduced to our own
were transferred to test tubes from which the air increasing the damage already sustained. The
was exhausted by means of a motor pump, the
notation ; (2) the nature and frequency of the
St. Stephen subjects are of English origin, and various intervals employed were demonstrated,
vacuum being completed by Sir James Dewar's possibly painted for the place they occupy, the intervals being expressed in ratios of vibration
charcoal and liquid air apparatus; the use of though not in silu. They show indications of frequencies or in "cents," i. e. , hundredth parts
## p. 344 (#266) ############################################
344
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4404, MARCH 23, 1912
6
in
of our tempered semitone ; and (3) the various
apparently great intestinal disturbance, and
scales deduced from the songs were shown.
Detailed descriptions were given of tho technique
the Subtilis proved fata) to growth. From
Science Gossip.
of analyzing phonographic records, and of the
these facts M. Cohendy draws the conclusion
graphic method introduced by Dr. Myers for
that an animal reared in a perfectly aseptic
recording “in the field " the occasionally baffling MM. PAPIN AND ROUILLY have invented atmosphere does not thereby become ultra-
rbythms, met with especially in the drum accom- a new and very ingenious aeroplane upon sensitive to the action of microbes; but
paniments to primitive music. The music of what they call the gyropter principle. that bacteria harmless to the normal
analyzed to show (1) the wide difference even
Instead of imitating the bird or insect, they animal are harmful to one reared under
between such very simple forms of music belong. have taken the seed-vessel of the sycamore abnormal conditions. The distinction is,
ing to two distant peoples ; (2) the different lines or plane tree for their model, and have perhaps, rather fine-drawn.
of musica! development traceable within different equipped their machine with one vast sail,
communities ; (3) the great importance, alike placed at an acute angle with the horizon
SIR J. J. THOMSON, whose work at the
for ethnology and musical history, of studying
the process of diffusion of the various styles of and rotating freely round the car, which is Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge is
music, and also of musical instruments, in regard suspended at some small distance from its familiar all over the world, has been ap.
to their form, their intervals, and their absolute lower end or point. Hence, if the motor pointed to the Order of Merit.
pitch.
stops working from any cause, it is said that
THE twentieth James Forrest Lecture
the car will descend on an even keel, the
METEOROLOGICAL. - March 20. -Dr. H. N.
will be delivered at the Institution of Civil
Dickson, President, in the chair. -Prof. Otto
automatic rotation of the sail, from the Engineers on Friday, April 19th, at 9 P. M. ,
Pettersson delivered a lecture on The Connec- joint effect of the pressure of the air and
Phenomena. ' He began by saying that the scopic equilibrium as
tion between Hydrographical and Meteorological the gravitational force, preserving the gyro- by Mr. H. R, Arnulph Mallock, his subject
the vegetable
being “Aerial Flight. '
Medieval Age was characterized by frequent model. The engine is also designed on a
violent climatic changes, which seem to have
MESSRS. WITHERBY & Co. are shortly
culminated in the thirteenth and fourteenth
new principle, and acts directly upon the publishing for Mr. F. W. Headley an illus-
centuries, when hot summers, accompanied by driving shaft by the emission of compressed trated book on "The Flight of Birds, a
droughts" (which nearly, dried up the rivers of air from orifices, in the same way as the subject which the author has long studied.
Europe), alternated with cold summers and hydraulic whirls now used for the sprinkling The book is designed to interest the aviator
excessive rainfall. In winter violent storm-
floods occurred which entirely remoulded the of lawns. Drawings of the apparatus were as well as the ornithologist.
coasts of the North Sea ; or frost set in so severely exhibited at the last meeting of the Académie
that the entire Baltic and sometimes even the des Sciences.
PROF. BACKLUND, Director of the Imperial
Kattegat and the Skagerak were frozen. The
Observatory at Pulkowa, Russia, whose
lecturer showed that such phenomena may be THE appearance of certain metals in
name is closely associated with Encke's
ascribed to alterations in the oceanic circulation animal tissues has long been studied, and the comet, to the study of which he has devoted
caused by the influence of the moon and the sun.
Experiments carried on during the last four years
presence of minute quantities of arsenic in
many years of assiduous labour, has recently
at Bornoe in Sweden have shown that the inflow the secretions of the thyroid gland has been
published some interesting speculations as
of the under-current from the North Sea into the noted. Prof. Henze has now discovered that to the periodic changes in brightness of a
Kattegat--which brings the herring shoals in the blood globules of Phallusia mamillata, puzzling nature which the comet undergoes.
winter to the Swedish coast—is oscillatory, the
an ascidian fairly common in the Mediter. It has been noticed that the comet is much
boundary surface of the deep water rising and
sinking from 50 to 80 ft
. about twice a month. ranean, give the characteristic reaction of brighter before than after its perihelion
The phenomenon is governed by the moon's the rare metal vanadium, which seems to be passage, and Prof. Backlund explains this
declination and proximity to the earth. From present in the form of vanadic acid. Van.
by supposing that the particles composing
astronomical data Prof. Pettersson concludes adium has been used of late years in the Encke's comet are not round, but flat par-
that the influence both of the sun and of the moon
manufacture of steel alloys, and seems to ticles oriented in parallel planes. So,
upon the waters of the ocean in winter about the
time of the solstice must have been greater 600
act here as a catalyser, no doubt playing when either the earth or the sun is in the
to 700 years ago than at the present time. some part in the physiological process of mean plane of the particles, there would
oxidation.
be a great loss of light, just as Saturn's ring
M. VAILLARD, Medical Inspector-General
vanishes when its plane passes through
either the earth or the sun.
of the French Army, has investigated the
Mox. Institute of Actuarles, 5. -'Notes on the Construction of
ielortalido Tablet R. Eldertohen dhe der Fipronil phenomena of the transmission of germs THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES in St. Peters-
Museum, 8. -English Modern Archi-
tecture,' Mr. B. Fletcher.
from one individual to another in epidemic burg has founded an institute for research
Society of Arts, 8. - Materials and Methods of Decorative
diseases, such as diphtheria, typhoid fever, in chemistry, physics, and mineralogy, which
Painting. ' Lecture II. , Mr. N. Heaton. (Cantor Lecture. )
Geograpbical: 8. 30. - Exploration in N. W. Mongolia and cerebro-spinal meningitis, and even the new is to be called the Lomonossov Institute,
Dzungaria,' Mr. D. Carruthers.
Turs. Royal Institution, 8. - Ancient Britain,' Lecture III, Dr. malady called acute poliomyelitis. He de- in honour of the distinguished Russian
Colonial Institute. 4-The Boundaries of British Guiana,' clares it to be proved, as the result of naturalist Michael Lomonossov, whose bi-
British Museum, 1. 30. – Later Byzantine Churches," Mr. B. experiments on animals, that individuals
centenary was celebrated in 1911.
can act as carriers of the germs of diseases
Society of Arts, 4.
