Showing papers in "Nature in 1916"

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature

Abstract: THE undersigned has the honour to invite the attention of the zoological profession to the fact that Opinions 98 to 104 have been published by the Smithsonian Institution (Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. 73, No. 5). The summaries read as follows:

My Life and Work

Abstract: THE author of this autobiography comes of a family which has exercised a fnarked influence on the industrial development of South Lancashire. Its members, moreover, have played no inconsiderable part in the social and intellectual life of Liverpool. To his father, James Muspratt, belongs the credit of founding the alkali manufacture in Lancashire. His life is one of the romances of chemical industry. Born in Dublin, of English parents, in 1793, he was apprenticed, when fourteen years of age, to a wholesale druggist in that city, but losing both his parents when he was scarcely eighteen, he broke his indentures and embarked for Spain in the hope of obtaining a cornetcy in a cavalry regiment in Wellington's army. A youth of fine physique and of a splendid constitution, Muspratt had all the physical qualifications for a successful soldier, but unfortunately he had no social influence, and in those days commissions in mounted regiments were reserved for those favoured in high quarters. Still, he had some experience of the Peninsular campaign, was stricken with fever in Madrid, and was in Hill's retreat down the valley of the Tagus. He then joined the Navy, and as a midshipman in the Impetueux took part in the blockade of Brest and in one or two frigate actions. He soon threw up this career, and making his way back to Dublin, started chemical manufacturing with the aid of a small inheritance which had been saved from the results of a Chancery action. My Life and Work. By Dr. E. K. Muspratt. Pp. xi + 320. (London: John Lane, 1917.) Price 7s. 6d. net.

Laboratory Manual in General Microbiology

Abstract: THIS book is planned to serve as a manual of instruction in practical microbiology. To a large extent it represents the course given in this subject at the Michigan Agricultural College, and it therefore deals mostly with agricultural microbiology, and the disease-producing organisms, with two or three exceptions, are omitted. Laboratory Manual in General Microbiology. Pp. xvi + 418. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1916.) Price 10s. 6d. net.

Catalogue of the Fresh-water Fishes of Africa in the British Museum (Natural History)

Abstract: THE British Museum has recently published the fourth volume of Mr. G. A. Boulenger's “Catalogue of the Fresh-water Fishes of Africa;” Thus is brought to a conclusion—at any rate, for some years to come—a work of very great value. Mr. Boulenger's research into the ichthyology of the African rivers and lakes has gone far beyond a mere catalogue of species. It began to attract attention nearly twelve years ago by the light that it threw on the past geological history of Africa, the former superficies of this continent at different times in regard to rising and falling levels of land, the connections of the continent with outlying islands, the desiccation or the flooding of great areas of land in, the interior, the increase or the restriction of river basins and of lake limits. Briefly summarised, it went to show that the Nile system in past times has been in direct communication with the now isolated Lake Rudolf, and has come very near to the Chad Basin, which again has communicated intermittently with the Niger, while the Niger or its upper portion may at one. time have had an outlet into the Atlantic in common with the Senegal, and have been separable by only a few miles of land from the upper waters of the Gambia, the Volta, and of all those streams that flow from north to south through the forests of Guinea and the Gold Coast into the great African Bight. On the other hand, it showed a comparative poverty and isolation in fish fauna of the Zambezi Basin and South Africa; and it illustrated, above all, the specialised character and wealth in fish-fauna of the Congo Basin. This region (with which Tanganyika was not always connected) must have approached very closely to the upper waters of the Gaboon and Cameroons rivers to account for the near relationship between their fish-fauna and that of the Congo Basin. Catalogue of the Fresh-water Fishes of Africa in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. iv. By Dr. G. A. Boulenger. Pp. xxvii + 392. (London: British Museum (Natural History), and Longmans, Green and Co., 1916.) Price 30s.

An Introduction to Neurology

Abstract: ALL the special sciences naturally seek incorporation into some comprehensive scheme of thought which tends to embody the conceptions that we hold into one organic unity. Neurology, for instance, is brought out, with its component parts of anatomy, physiology, and psychology, into the conception of biology. In no department of human thought is this striving for an organic unity better exemplified than in the co-ordination and subordination of these special studies into the wider and more embracing science of biology. An Introduction to Neurology. By Prof. C. Judson Herrick. Pp. 355. (Philadelphia and London: W. B. Saunders Co., 1916.) Price 7s. 6d. net.

The Telephone and Telephone Exchanges: their Invention and Development

Abstract: THIS book covers most of the ground relating to telephony from its earliest stages to the present time. It may, indeed, be regarded as a “Short History” of telephony, and, as a matter of fact, the author's original intention was to write a history, but circumstances were not favourable to the project. However, the future historian will find in Mr. Kingsbury's volume much useful historical matter and many finger-posts indicating different avenues of development which merit much fuller treatment than has been possible in this work. The Telephone and Telephone Exchanges: their Invention and Development. By J. E. Kingsbury. Pp. x + 558. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1915.) Price 12s. 6d. net.

The Pollination of Fruit Trees

Abstract: INVESTIGATIONS carried out in this country, in America, and elsewhere have demonstrated the fact that many of our cultivated varieties of apple, pear, plum, &c., are self-sterile. They have shown, moreover, that whereas a variety may be sterile when pollinated with its own pollen, it yields an abundant crop if pollinated with the pollen of certain other varieties. Hence it is of considerable economic importance to discover which varieties serve best for mutual cross-pollination.

Gravitation and the Principle of Relativity

Abstract: ACCORDING to the principle of relativity in its most extended sense, the space and time of physics are merely a mental scaffolding in which for our own convenience we locate the observable phenomena of Nature. Phenomena are conditioned by other phenomena according to certain laws, but not by the space-time scaffolding, which does not exist outside our brains. As usually expressed, the laws of motion and of electrodynamics presuppose some particular measurement of space and time; but, if the principle is true, the real laws connecting phenomena must be independent of our framework of reference—the same for all systems of co-ordinates. Of course, it may be that phenomena are conditioned by something outside observation—a substantial aether which plays the part of an absolute frame of reference. But the following considerations may show that the ideal of relativity is not unreasonabfe. Every observation consists of a determination of coincidence in space or time. This is sufncently obvious in laboratory experiments; and even the crudest visual observation resolves itself into the coincidence of a light-wave with an element of the human retina. If, then, we trace the path of adventure of a material particle, it intersects in succession the paths of other particles or lightwaves, and these intersections or coincidences constitute the observable phenomena. We can represent the course of Nature by drawing the paths of the different particles—on a sheet of paper in a two-dimensional case. The essential part of the diagram is the order of the intersections; the paths between the intersections are outside observation altogether, and are merely interpolated. The sequence of phenomena will not be altered if the paper is made elastic and deformed in any way, because the serial order of the intersections is preserved. This deformation of the paper corresponds to a mathematical transformation of the space in which for convenience we have located the phenomena.

A System of Physical Chemistry

Abstract: PHYSICAL chemistry in the present-day sense of the term may be said to date from 1887, the year in which Ramsay came to London, Ostwald was appointed to the chair in Leipzig, and the Zeitschrift fur physikalische Chemie was founded by Ostwald and van't Hoff. Although many pioneers, amongst whom may be mentioned Deville, Debray, Guldberg and Waage, Gibbs, Horstmann, Berthelot, Thomson, Harcourt and Esson, Gladstone, Le Chatelier, and Lemoine had prepared the way for the new development in chemical science, it was the combined influence of van't Hoff, Arrhenius, Ostwald, and Ramsay that gave direction and strength to the new current of thought and research. A System of Physical Chemistry. By Prof. W. C. McC. Lewis. Two vols. Vol. i., pp. xiv + 523, Vol. ii., pp. vii + 552. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1916.) 9s. net each vol.

Outlines of Sociology

Abstract: THE ancient academic problem of “free will” is always with us; the study of it is never barren, for its meaning changes with the development of society and of social intelligence. As compared with the state of the problem in the time of Hume, for example, the present-day aspect of it is decidedly more clear and scientific. It may be put in Cooley's words: “no man really acts independently of the influences of his fellow men.” “Everywhere,” so Profs. Black-mar and Gillin put it, “there is a social life, setting limitations and predominatingly influencing individual action. In government, in religion, in industry, iti education, in family association—in everything that builds up modern life, men are co-operating. They work together, combine and organise for specific purposes, so that no man lives to himself. Outlines of Sociology. By Prof. F. W. Blackmar Prof. J. L. Gillin. Pp. viii + 586. (New York: The Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1915.) Price 8s. 6d. net.

Relations between the K and L Series of the High-Frequency Spectra

Abstract: KOSSEL has shown that for the K and L lines in the high-frequency spectra the following relation holds good:— .

The Liesegang Phenomenon and Concretionary Structure in Rocks

Abstract: THE curious formations illustrated were produced during some experiments made to support a suggestion that the Liesegang phenomenon might be attributed to adsorption (Science Progress, x., 369, 1916). The tubes contained 15 c.c. of 1 per cent, agar gel, in which small quantities of either liver of sulphur or manganese sulphate had been dissolved, and were treated with 10 c.c. of a standard solution of the other reagent. Particularly in the case of the gels containing the polysulphides, the resulting stratification differed from that hitherto observed, in that many of the zones were separated into a number of concretions, which in some instances were joined by rods to those of the succeeding zone. The concretions were all sharply defined; the indistinctness of Fig. 2 is due to their being imbedded in the gel. The peculiar structure may be due to the presence in the gel of small nuclei in the shape of deposited sulphur, or possibly to the composite character of one of the solutes. The separate spheroids, once started, would grow by adsorption in the same way as the solid strata. To determine the exact conditions of their formation requires further investigation, but it should be possible to repeat the experiment with the carbonates of calcium and magnesium.

The Metallurgy of Gold

Abstract: SIR THOMAS ROSE'S “Metallurgy of Gold” has been recognised for the last twenty years as the best general treatise on the metallurgy of the metal; the appearance of this new edition, which by revision and expansion is practically a new book, will hence be warmly welcomed by all metallurgists. Since the last edition was published in 1906 the changes which have been introduced in the metallurgy of gold have been greater than those in any other metal; the need for a new edition of the book was therefore imperative, and this need has been admirably satisfied in the present volume. The Metallurgy of Gold. By Sir T. K. Rose. Sixth edition. Pp. xix + 601. (London: C. Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1915.) Price 22s. 6d. net.

Eclipse or Empire

Abstract: THIS book will serve the useful purpose of directing popular attention afresh to the important questions of education and scientific research in relation to national prosperity, on which so many eminent scientific men have given emphatic warnings. It is the joint production of a scholar and of a man of business, and although primarily addressed to the man in the street, deserves attention from everyone concerned with education or with commercial manufacture* Its principal aim is to show that Great Britain, which forty years ago was the workshop of the world, is so no longer. It supports this statement by an inquiry into the reason for this decadence and by useful statistics. Eclipse or Empire? By Dr. H. B. Gray S. Turner. Pp. x + 316. (London: Nisbet and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 2s. net.

Observations on the Excitation of Helium Spectra

Abstract: IN the course of an examination of the properties of the electron discharge in an atmosphere of helium we have made some observations of the conditions affecting the excitation of the lines of the helium spectra which seem to be of considerable interest. The source of electrons was an incandescent tungsten filament, and the discharge passed to a parallel nickel wire about 8 mm. distant. The electrodes were mounted in a quartz tube filled with helium at about 2 mm. pressure. The helium was free from all contaminants except a small amount of mercury vapour, the partial pressure of which was about 0.001 mm. in the observations immediately following.

Catalogue of the Mesozoic Plants in the British Museum (Natural History)

Abstract: THE Cretaceous Flora, part ii., is devoted to the Lower Greensand (Aptian) flora of Britain. Several species have previously been recorded, but hitherto no general account of the flora as a whole has been written. The most im portant part of the book is that which deals with new species of Gymnosperms. Twenty-seven Conifers are described, for the most part repre sented by cones or petrified wood, nine Cyciophyta, five Angiosperms, and two Ferns. The introduction includes some interesting observa tions on climate, a summary of previous work, and remarks on the geological position of the plant-bearing beds. The descriptions are care fully compiled, and the work of other authors receives frank criticism. A helpful summary is given of current views on the diagnostic value of different anatomical features in the identification of Coniferous wood. The wisdom of employing the generic name Podocarpoxylon for specimens which cannot as a rule be assigned with certainty to the Podocarpineae is questionable; but Dr. Stopes has, on the whole, adopted a judicial atti tude with regard to the taxonomic value of anatomical characters. Catalogue of the Mesozoic Plants in the British Museum (Natural History). The Cretaceous Flora. Part ii., Lower Greensand (Aptian) Plants of Britain. By Dr. Marie C. Stopes. Pp. xxxvi + 360 + xxxii plates. (London: British Museum (Natural History); Longmans, Green and Co., and others, 1915.) Price 21s.

Discovery; or, The Spirit and Service of Science

Abstract: THIS book is the realisation of a long-cherished project, “une pensee de la jeunesse executee par l'âge mur,” its ambition being to make clear what science—and natural science in particular—aims at, what its human values are, and what spirit characterises the discoverer. We think that Mr. Gregory has done notable service in submitting his apologia at the present time, when the disposition to turn with expectation to science is probably more widespread than ever in the past, and we would congratulate him on the success with which he has stated his case. For while he hides no convictions, he has written temperately and good-humouredly, with such wealth of concrete and personal illustration that there is no hint of sermonising to offend. Perhaps the only passage in the book which betrays a trace of impatience—and we are not surprised—is one in which the author speaks his mind in regard to politicians. But it is all “good hunting,” and the politicians will not wince at worse. Discovery; or, The Spirit and Service of Science. By R. A. Gregory. Pp. x + 340. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 5s. net.

The Application of Mathematics to Epidemiology

Abstract: IT may seem remarkable that serious attempts to elucidate the mysteries of epidemic disease with the help of mathematical methods should only have been made within the last sixty years, and, even when made, should have been confined to the efforts of a very small number of students. In the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the school of which Borelli was the most famous exponent endeavoured to bring much less promising medical fields under mathematical cultivation, while Sydenham's exposition of the principia of epidemiology would, one might have thought, have suggested to the founders of our modern calculus of probabilities that here was indeed an opportunity for them. No doubt, howoever, the explanation is to be found in the absence of statistical data, without which mathematical mills are forced to stand idle. It is of interest to recall the fact that the solution of a problem which took its rise in the failure to publish certain detailed statistics reveals a method which might have been generalised. We allude to Daniel Bernoulli's work on smallpox.1

The Remarkable Meteors of February 9, 1913

Abstract: THE large meteors which passed over Northern America on February 9, 1913, presented some unique features. The length of their observed flight was about 2600 miles, and they must have been moving in paths concentric, or nearly concentric, with the earth's surface, so that they temporarily formed new terrestrial satellites. Their height was about 42 miles, and in the Journal of the R.A.S. of Canada there are 70 pages occupied with the observations and deductions made from them by Prof. C. A. Chant.

The History of the Family as a Social and Educational Institution

Abstract: IN what sense is it right to speak of the history of the family? As an institution it occupies so central a position in the social structure that it may well seem fundamental. Should we write a history of stellar motion so long as. the component forces determining it are constant? Are the forces which find expression in the family constant? Can it be said to have a history? The institutions surrounding the family vary from one age to another, and from people to people. Marriage ceremonials, customs in such matters as dowries, settlements, and other marriage contracts, are not uniform. The rights of parents over their children, of husbands over their wives, differ in a similar way. But can these differences be brought into any general historical scheme, or are they local variations brought about by economic and ideal forces acting upon an institution the essential nature of which has never altered? The History of the Family as a Social and Educational Institution. By Prof. W. Goodsell. Pp. xiv + 588 pp. (New York: The Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1915.) Price 8s. 6d. net.

The Nature of Explosives

Abstract: IT was suggested in the review of Mr. A. Marshall's L important work on “ Explosives” in NATURE of June 3, 1915 (vol. xcv., p. 366) that the book would be improved if it had an introductory chapter dealing with the general principles on which the composition and action of explosives depend. Mr. Marshall, writing from Naini Tal, India, says that he had prepared a chapter on the lines suggested for another shorter work of a less technical character than that which was the subject of our review. Unfortunately, through pressure of other work, he has been obliged to postpone for the present the completion of this book, but he sends us the chapter; and we are glad to publish it as a separate article, as the subject is of particular interest at the present time.

Thomas Alva Edison

Abstract: IN this life of Thomas Alva Edison, the author has given a very interesting description of the childhood, youth, and manhood of America's —one might almost say, the world's —greatest living inventor. We learn that, as a boy, Edison proved unsatisfactory under school routine, but was a great success under his mother's private tuition. He incessantly asked questions on and about everything, and insisted on an answer or wanted to know the reason “why.” He also showed, from the earliest records, that he was a keen thinker, worker, and planner on all work which interested him, but under “routine” of any kind he was a complete failure. Thomas Alva Edison. By F. Rolt-Wheeler. Pp. ix + 201. (New York: The Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 2s. net.

A Plague of Caterpillars

Abstract: WITH reference to what has appeared in the public Press relative to the devastation caused by caterpillars to the oak trees at Ashtead, you may be interested to know that some three or four years since a similar occurrence took place in the oak plantations in Richmond Park.

The Spectrum of Hydrogen

Abstract: THE writer has examined the four-line spectrum of hydrogen as produced in Geissler tubes with a 1 mm. capillary by alternating current of 15 milliamperes without inductance or capacity. The light was analysed by a glass prism monochromator, and the intensities measured by a photo-electric cell of quartz containing rubidium in an atmosphere of helium. The cell was calibrated in absolute units by a carbon filament lamp the energy distribution of which in different wavelengths is that of a grey body in the visible spectrum.

The Place of Science in Education

Abstract: THE memorandum regarding the neglect of science to which you refer in your leading article last week fails in my judgment by its moderation. The proposal that at least as many marks in the Civil Service examinations shall be allotted to science as to classics, may be a step in the right direction, but it is a halting one, for it affects only a limited class of the community and does not insist on the paramount importance of science in general education. What should be stated is not the least, but the whole of what is necessary. What ought to be made clear is that science must form not a mere adjunct but the actual foundation of the education given in secondary schools. In a word, what is wanted is a revolution in our educational system.

The Heat Treatment of Tool Steel

Abstract: THE fact that a demand has arisen for a second edition of this book within four years from its first appearance is the strongest evidence of its practical value. The author states in the preface that he is now less restrained than formerly, and is free to describe in greater detail the different methods of treating steel, and this has enabled him to deal with the subject much more completely than in the first edition. The Heat Treatment of Tool Steel. By H. Brearley. Second edition. Pp. xv + 223. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1916.) Price 10s. 6d. net.

The Third Fossil Tsetse-Fly

Abstract: AMONG some fossil insects collected in the Miocene shales of Florissant, Colorado, by Mr. Geo. Wilson, and transmitted to me by Mr. F. H. Ward, I find a beautifully preserved tsetse-fly. The insect is intermediate in size between the two fossil species previously fpund (both of which may be seen in the British Museum), and is evidently distinct. It may be called Glossina veterna, n.sp., and will be best distinguished by the following measurements in millimetres: length 12.5, length of wing 10.9, length of proboscis 4.1, length and width of abdomen each 5.6. The body and legs are brown or black, the abdomen without dark bands; the wings are hyaline, faintly brownish. The scutellum has long marginal and apical bristles, exactly as in the living species. The post-alar and first dorso-central bristles are also well preserved and normal. The anterior basal cell of the wing is about 0.6 mm. broad at end, its truncate apical end is short, and the lower margin does not bulge much near the end. The abdomen is hairy, as in living species. This excellent specimen affords additional evidence for the existence of two tsetse-flies in the American Miocene, astonishing as the fact is. The new species is nearest to G. osborni, but is too large to be the female of that form.

The Declining Birth-rate: Its Causes and Effects

Abstract: THIS book constitutes the Report of, and includes the chief evidence taken by, the National Birth-rate Commission, instituted, with official recognition, by the National Council of Public Morals. The committee was a strong one, and included upon it Dr. Stevenson, Superintendent of Statistics for the General Register Office, and Dr. Newsholme, Medical Officer of the Local Government Board. The subject of the declining birth-rate is one of enormous importance at the present time. The birth-rate reached a maximum in 1876—36.3 per 1000 population—and has gradually fallen since then to about 23 at the present time, and this in spite of the marriage-rate having remained almost constant. The decline of the birth-rate has not operated uniformly throughout the country, but is more marked among the middle and upper classes. Thus in Hampstead the corrected birth-rate fell from 30.01 in 1881 to 17.55 in 1911, while the corresponding rates for Shoreditch are 31.32 and 30.16. The Declining Birth-rate: Its Causes and Effects. Pp. xiv + 450. (London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1916.) Price 10s. 6d. net.

Harvey's Views on the Use of the Circulation of the Blood

Abstract: UNPRETENDING as it is, this is an admirable little book. It is concise but full of matter, is scholarly and accurate, and, for those who concern themselves with the history of ideas, very interesting. It is a curious thing that of the scores of orators on Harvey none has given any considerable place to a closer discussion of the relations of Harvey, to Aristotle and to Galen. Some of us have touched upon the attitude of Harvey towards the overbearing tradition of these two great ancients, and of the degree, or terms, in which he doggedly asserted his independence of it, or in which he admitted their doctrines or approved their speculations; but no one seems to have completed the task of setting forth exactly how far the ideas, let us say, especially of Aristotle and of Harvey, coincided or diverged. This Prof. Curtis has done, and done finally. Unhappily, upon the appreciation of the reviewer there lies a shadow: this able and interesting scholar died, in September 1913, before the publication of his work. At the author's request, this volume has been edited by his colleague, Frederic Lee, of Columbia University. Harvey's Views on the Use of the Circulation of the Blood. By Prof. J. G. Curtis. Pp. xi + 194. (New York: Columbia University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1915.) Price 6s. 6d. net.

Science and the State

Abstract: IN reference to the recent memorandum signed by thirty-six eminent men of science on the neglect of science in our national organisation, it may be of some interest to your readers to be reminded of the paragraph on a similar topic written by Thomson in his “History of Chemistry,” which appeared in 1831, or more than three-quarters of a century ago:—