864 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



from a Basque word pikatu, to cut. Place 

 names in the British Isles involving all forms 

 of the root Pakat have been classified under 

 counties and their densities calculated. The 

 Goidels, who followed the Picts, spread along 

 the valleys of the Thames and Severn to the 

 Mersey, where a part probably crossed to 

 Meath and spread in two streams to the west 

 coast of Ireland ; the other part moved north- 

 ward, and advanced into Scotland almost to 

 the Forth. A second incursion entered Scot- 

 land by Argyll and spread along the west 

 counties to the extreme north. The pre- 

 Pictish inhabitants were probably Iberians, 

 and prevailed mostly in Ireland, South Wales, 

 Cumberland, and South Scotland. 



Experiments made by different observers 

 at different times and places, culminating 

 with those of M. Koechlin on the Eiffel 

 Tower, indicate that the formulas used by 

 meteorologists for the conversion of wind 

 velocity into pressure give results about one 

 third too high. 



The Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic 

 Ocean, published by the Hydrographic Bureau 

 of our Navy Department, shows that from 

 the 9th to the 23d of November there were 

 only two days of good weather. The system 

 adopted by this bureau for collecting and 

 discussing observations made at sea enables 

 it to present the chart of the results very 

 quickly. 



It has been found, after careful investi- 

 gation, by Profs. A. Bartoli and E. Stracciati, 

 of the absorption of solar radiation by fog 

 and by cirrus clouds, that a veil of cirrus is 

 able to intercept as much as thirty per cent 

 of the sun's rays ; while a slight fog, equally 

 diffused in all directions, intercepted from 

 fifty-eight to ninety-two per cent of the solar 

 rays that would have been transmitted with 

 a clear sky. 



Prop. G. S. Brady, after an examination 

 of British fish-cultural establishments, has 

 recommended the foundation of a hatchery 

 on the Northumberland coast to aid in keep- 

 ing up and improving the supply of sea fish, 

 and of a biological laboratory attached to it 

 for the scientific study of the marine fauna 

 of the neighborhood. 



In a recent lecture before the English 

 College of Preceptors on Science Teaching, 

 Mr. H. G. Welles pointed out that a rational 

 course of science should grow naturally out 

 of the kindergarten. This should lead to ob- 

 ject lessons proper, and demonstrations in 

 physics and chemistry may be made to grow 

 insensibly, without any formal beginning, out 

 of such lessons. The best about the only 

 permanently valuable preparation for a sci- 

 entific calling that can be given to a boy in a 

 secondary scliool is tlie broad basis of physics 

 and chemistry led up to in this way. 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



The Marquis Louis Charles Joseph Gas- 

 ton de la Saporta, the eminent fossil bota- 

 nist, and author of many brilliant books on 

 his specialty, died suddenly at Aix, France, 

 in the last week in January. He was born 

 at Saint Zacherie in 1825; was nominated 

 correspondent of the Institute of France in 

 1876. In his special field he was one of the 

 most industrious students and eminent au- 

 thorities of the day. Between his first book, 

 on the flora of the Quaternary period, in 

 1876, and his Paleontological Origin of Cul- 

 tivated Trees, in 1888, he published at least 

 twenty volumes containing important facts 

 and new discoveries. His last work was on 

 the fossil fiora of Portugal. " No one," says 

 M. Albert Gaudry, himself an eminent pale- 

 ontologist, " has cast so clear light on the 

 history of the formation and successive de- 

 velopments of the vegetable world." The 

 Monthly has been often enriched with transla- 

 tions of his brilliant and suggestive essays. 



Prof. Arthur Catley, the greatest Eng- 

 lish mathematician, and one of the most 

 eminent mathematicians of any country or 

 time, died in Cambridge, England, January 

 26th. He was born in Richmond, England, 

 in 1821, and showed a great aptitude and 

 liking at an early age for arithmetical cal- 

 culations although it was said of him in 

 later years that he could not count the 

 change for a shilling. He was educated at 

 Cambridge, where he excelled all in mathe- 

 matics, coming out as senior wrangler and 

 first prize man in 1842; practiced at the 

 bar for several years, without losing his taste 

 or ceasing his devotion to mathematics ; and 

 was appointed to the newly instituted Sad- 

 lerian Professorship of Mathematics at Cam- 

 bridge, in 1863, after he had already con- 

 tributed about three hundred papers to the 

 Royal Society. As a mathematician he is 

 perhaps most famous as the discoverer of 

 the Theory of Invariants, which, according 

 to Prof. Salmon, has given a new aspect to 

 several departments of the science. The 

 Royal Society's list contains the titles of 

 seven hundred and twenty-four pai)ers and 

 memoirs by Cayley, down to 1883, while 

 the number now would probably be about 

 eight hundred. Prof. Cayley was active and 

 eflScient in many other spheres than that of 

 mathematics. He was an early member of 

 the Alpine Club. He was familiar with 

 many European languges. He delivered a 

 course of lectures at Johns Hopkins Uni- 

 versity in the winter of 1882-'83. He was 

 President of tlie British Association at 

 Southport in 1883. He received the Royal 

 and the Copley medals of the Royal Society, 

 was an officer of the French Legion of 

 Honor, and was an honorary member of 

 many learned societies at home and abroad. 

 His mathematical papers are in course of 

 publication in a series of ten quarto vol- 

 umes, of which seven have appeared. 



