90 



NATURE 



[March i6, 



i<H I 



August, as well as the hydrographical conditions, which 

 showed that the warm salt Atlantic water flows into the 

 fjord, and has there its tpm|>erature and salinity lowered 

 by the glacier ice descending from the land. 



In the Monthly Review of the Seismic Activity of the 

 Earth's Crust, issued by the Kaiserl. Hauptstation fiir 

 Krdbebenforschung in Strassburg, we find for June, iqio, 

 references to, forty -seven earthquakes. A few of these 

 were destructive, but the greater number appear to have 

 been local tremors. For each of these disturbances we 

 have the date, the time (local and Greenwich), the 

 character of the movement, its duration, direction,, and 

 general remarks. The fact that Japan records, on the 

 average, loo earthquakes per month, and the world prob- 

 ably experiences several thousands, it seems extremely 

 likely that this publication will increase in size, but, as 

 it stands, it must frequently be of great value in the inter- 

 pretation of teleseismic records. 



The Canadian Department of Mines has issued two 

 advance chapters of the annual report on the mineral pro- 

 duction of Canada during the year 1909. Each chapter 

 is by Mr. John Mcl.eish, chief of the division of mineral 

 resources and statistics ; one deals with the production of 

 iron and steel in Canada in 1909, and the other with the 

 production of coal and coke. The former industry showed 

 a very satisfactory and steady growth as compared with 

 previous years, but the coal-mining industry was marked 

 during 1909 by a decreased production in Nova Scotia 

 and an increased production in the western provinces, 

 resulting in an aggregate decrease for the whole of Canada 

 of 384,836 tons (short tons of 2000 lb.), or about 3J per 

 cent. -Although iron ores. are of wide occurrence through- 

 out Canada, being found practically in every province, the 

 development of these resources has not kept pace with 

 the growth of Canadian metallurgical industries. About 

 17 per cent, only of the iron ore used in Canadian furnaces 

 during 1909 was of domestic origin. Much of the coke 

 and limestone also was imported, so that Canadian iron 

 industries are now, and have been for a number of years, 

 largely dependent on imported raw material. Coal mining 

 has long been the most important of Canada's mining 

 industries, and in 1909 is credited with 27 per cent, of the 

 total mineral production of the country. The output in 

 r909 is more than twice that of ten years ago, about four 

 times the output of twenty years ago, and nearly ten 

 times the production of 1879. Notwithstanding its large 

 coal resources, Canada's total coal production in 1909 was 

 only about 564 per cent, of the estimated consumption, 

 and the additional requirements were supplied by imports, 

 chiefly from the United States. 



The. meteorological chart of the Indian Ocean for 

 March, issued by the Meteorological Committee, quotes 

 several cases of phosphorescent seas that have been 

 observed in recent years. Among the most interesting is 

 one forwarded to the Danish Meteorological Institute by 

 Captain Gabe in the Strait of Malacca in June, 1909. 

 Luminous waves were observed travelling from west to 

 east, and gradually assumed the form of long arms, with 

 dark intervals between them. These issued from an 

 apparent focus, around which they rotated, which seemed 

 to be on the horizon. An illustration of the pheno- 

 menon shows that the beams of light were somewhat 

 curved, the concave edge being in the direction of rotation 

 (clockwise). The brightness lasted about a quarter of an 

 hour. A somewhat similar case of rotatory light svstem 

 was observed by Captain Breyer in August last near the 

 Natuna Islands, but the direction of rotation round the 

 apparent focus in this instance was anti-clockwise. 

 NO. 2159, VOL. 86] 



In the Verhandlungen der Deutichen Physikalisch> , 

 Gesellschaft for t'ebruary 15, Prof. M. Planck remov- 

 one of the difliculties in the proof of his expression for t!; 

 radiation from a perfectly black body. It will be remen 

 bered that the proof depended on the assumption that . 

 simple Hertz oscillator could only possess an amount ot 

 energy which was an integral multiple of a certain small 

 quantity of energy, or, in other words, that energy v,-.-. 

 atomic in structure, and emission and absorption of ener^ 

 must take place by " atomic " steps. In the present pap' 

 Prof. Planck shows that, although emission must still tai: 

 place in steps, absorption may be taken as continuous, an 

 the amount of energy possessed by an oscillator at ai 

 instant may be a fractional number of " atoms." If, hov 

 ever, the probability that the oscillator emits an " atom 

 of energy be taken proportional to the whole number ■ 

 " atoms " of energy it possesses, the fractional exci - 

 being disregarded, the final expression for the ener;; 

 radiated by a perfectly black body in terms of temperatur. 

 and wave-length becomes identical with that formerly 

 given. 



In a recent short publication of the Royal Observatoi 

 of Wilhelmshaven, the new director. Captain Capelle, ev 

 plains how it is proposed to deal with arrears in tl: 

 publication of magnetic work of that institution, and intr< 

 duces a discussion of the magnetic character of the ve:: 

 1910, by Prof. Bidlingmaier, who is now a member of h 

 staff. Dr. Bidlingmaier regards the degree of disturbam 

 of each individual hour as given by the numerals 0,1, or 

 2, according to the extent of the departure of the corre- 

 sponding portion of magnetic curve from the position 

 characteristic of that hour on the average quiet day. Thf- 

 character of the hour is shown graphically by the colov: 

 of a small square, white, shaded, or black. The squar^ 

 for adjacent hours and days are juxtaposed, so that t! 

 information is given for a whole month in a rectangul 

 area about 80x65 rnm., and that for a whole year in 

 couple of pages. Summing the numerical values for an 

 specified number of hours, and taking the mean, 

 numerical measure is obtained for the average disturbance 

 of the period, and certain conclusions are drawn as to the 

 reality of 24-hour and 30-day disturbance ; period- 

 Whether the character of the hour is determined solely 1 

 reference to the horizontal force is not .clear. A full' 

 explanation seems to be in view. The definition of d> 

 turbance presents a considerable resemblance to Sabine- 

 and whether it will commend itself to the general body i 

 niagneticians remains to be seen. 



The Bulletins of the Cracow Academy of Sciences for 

 19 10 contain three important papers by Prof. L. Bruner 

 and his colleagues on photo-chemistry. The first action 

 studied was that of light in promoting the conversion of 

 maleic into fumaric acid in presence of bromine. In th-^ 

 absence of light, the bromine merely combines with tli 

 two acids to form dibromosuccinnic acids, the action pro- 

 ceeding fifteen times more quickly with maleic than with 

 the more stable fumaric acid. In presence of light, perhaps 

 because the bromination may become reversible, the main 

 action is to cause the maleic to change into fumaric acid. 

 This change, which is not effected in presence of chlorin- 

 or iodine or of the compounds ICl and ICl, was traced 

 by measurements of conductivity and of solubility. The 

 amount of fumaric acid finally produced depends on the 

 nature of the light, but if this is fixed there is a definite 

 ratio between the fumaric acid produced and the bromine 

 used ; by increasing the quantity of bromine, the maleic 

 acid can be changed completely into fumaric acid. These 

 observations reveal a striking contrast with catalytic 



