PROPOSALS FOR A LEAGUE OF PEACE, 295 



lies upon each one of us at this hour. For it does seem to me 

 that any man who, by voice or act, would endanger even an 

 attempt to appeal to the reason of the world, and who would 

 thereby help to continue the monstrous agonies and cruelties of 

 the present order — such a man, I say, hardly seems to me to 

 realize his resix^nsibilities as a human being. Either civilization 

 must make an end of war, or war will make an end of our 

 civilization, and a new race will arise, with stronger brains and 

 larger hearts, to carry forward the higher develoj^nient of 

 humanity. 



{Finally reccifcd. August 3, 1917.) 



Distances of the Dark Nebulae. — R. F. Sanford, 

 in Lick Obscn'otory Bulletin No. 297, discusses some relations of 

 the s})iral nebuhe to the Milky Way. Amongst these relations is the 

 distribution of spiral nel)uke in space. That dark nebuke exist 

 is evident from the occurrence of " Coal Sacks " and other dark 

 " holes " — patches devoid of stars in the very densest ])arts of the 

 Milky ^^'ay. It may be assumed that the apparent density of the 

 Milk}' Way structure is a function of the depth from Avhich the 

 stars of the galaxy are sending their light, hence the region of 

 the northern Coal Sack is one in which the system of light-giving 

 stars is comparatively near to us, and it follows that the obstruct- 

 ing matter, coal sack, or dark nebula, must be nearer still, and lies 

 well inside the galactic structure. The Milky Way, moreover, is 

 not a regular cloud belt across the sky, but is intersected by a ver}'' 

 network of dark, irregular lanes. It is evident that to some extent 

 at least this network consists of obstructing matter analogous in 

 character to the dark nebulse. 



TRAXS.\CTIOXS OF SOCIETIES. 



Royal Society of South Africa. — Wednesday, August T5th : Prof. L. 

 Crawford, M.A., D..Sc., F.R.S.E.. in the chair. — "Note on the resolvabUity 

 of the minors of a coinponnd deterniinant" : Sir Thomas Muir. — "The 

 Sfcctra of the Mixed Phthaleins and of the Sulphone-plitlialeins " : Dr. J. 

 Moir. The spectra of 18 mixed phthaleins, containing- two different plienol 

 residues, were described, and the laws governing the coloiir elucidated. 

 The method is an excellent analytical one for identifying phenols and 

 amines and their ethers and derivatives. The spectra of five sulphone- 

 phthaleins made from saccharin were also described, as well as six more 

 new derivatives of ordinary phenolphthalein. A new general formula 

 for the coloured suhstan.ces was put forward. — " Kiniherley Diamonds: 

 especially Cleai'o.i^e Diamonds" : Dr. J. R. Sutton. A general and statis- 

 tical account of the diamonds produced in the mines under the control of 

 the De Beers Company at Kimberley. The outstanding differences in size, 

 colour, and type, between the yields of the different mines were described. 

 The author advanced a view that many diamonds have been naturally 

 broken by the unequal expansion of themselves and mineral inclusions. It 

 appears that brown diamonds have shown a particular disposition to come 

 up broken from the deeper levels of the Wesselton mine, but the author 

 doubts the common assertion that brown or smoky diamonds are njarkedlv 



