236 



NATURE 



[April 13, 1911 



general rharaclcr about to iipfwar in 7/ic Quarterly Journal 

 of Malliematics. — R. T. A, Inn** : Upon the fourth order 

 perturbations in thi> motions of Satellites III. and IV. of 

 Jupiter. Thr author recomputes and practically confirms 

 the values of certain long-p<Ti(Kl inequalities in the lon^^itude 

 of the third jjreat satellifr of Jupiter orifjinally discovered 

 by the late M. de H.nerdtl. These inequalities arc due to 

 the near approach of conunensurability of the mean motions 

 of the III. and IV. satellites; sev<'n times the mean motion 

 of IV. being nearly equal to three times that of in, so thai 

 althoufvh these inequalities depend on the 4th powers of 

 the eccentricities they exceed the limit of II. adopted in 

 Prof. Sampson's *' New Tables of the (ireat .Satellites of 

 Jupifcr, iqio." The inequalities in the motion of IV. are 

 now computed for the first time. In the sum these 

 inequalities will at times amoimt to about 8* in the longi- 

 tude of 111. and 10* in that of IV. — C. L. Biif*n : The 

 funeral ceremonies of the Hottentots. The Hottentots have 

 their medical men who treat patients during illness. Like 

 most South African tribes, witchcraft is practised by these 

 medicine men, and the sick are told that their enemies, 

 bad relatives, and bad neifrhbours arc the cause of illness. 

 In the event of death following, the medicine man attri- 

 butes the disaster to the bad influence of certain parties, 

 actually naming the persons he thinks concerned. Formerly 

 these responsible persons were put to death ; now it leads 

 to much hatred and personal feeling among the Hottentots. 

 Immediately after death they prepare for the funeral. A 

 grave is dug by means of a gcmsbok horn and a roughly 

 made wooden shovel. The ceremonial is then described. 

 .After the funeral a dance is held, and festivities are 

 indulged in all through the night. For a few weeks the 

 male relatives of the deceased go to the grave every 

 morning before sunrise, quite naked, and pray to the 

 " taas " (ghost). After that time they suppose that the 

 ijhost has left the grave and has entered an animal called 

 by them " thas " jackal. This animal they assert has 

 never been caught, and it can only be killed bv a silver 

 bullet. — Prof. W. A. D. Rudgr* : The meteorites in the 

 Bloemfontein Museum. The paper contains an account of 

 the meteorites in the Bloemfontein Museum. There are two 

 fragments of the Kroonstadt fall of 1877. These apparently 

 consist of a tough fibrous mass of iron-nickel alloy, with 

 an aggregation round it of fine particles of silica 

 (asmanite?) troilite pyrites, and apparently felspar. The 

 larger meteorite which fell at Winburg, 1881, contains 

 04 per cent, of iron and 2 per cent, of nickel. The nickel 

 is confined to a few veins which run through the mass of 

 the meteorite. F'rom these veins crystals of the alloy can 

 be separated by dilute sulphuric acid in which the alloy is 

 insoluble. These crystals seem to be skeleton forms built 

 up of triangular plates, the interstices being filled up with 

 amorphous carbon. The iron is very soft, but patches of 

 hardness occur. The " Widmanstatten " lines are not so 

 well developed as in most iron meteorites, probablv due to 

 the nickel being located in veins instead of disseminated 

 throughout the whole mass. The weight of this meteorite 

 was about 50 kilogrammes, and it is markedly magnetic, 

 having a nupiber of poles. The alloy of nickel and iron 

 retains its susceptibility up to a dull red heat. — J. R. 

 Sutton : -Seismographic record of the South African earth- 

 quake of October, iqio. The extent of the movement of 

 the horizontal pendulum during the quake was about one- 

 half its average daily E.W. oscillation. — James Moir : (i) 

 Colloidal gold and purple of Cassius. Description of 

 behaviour of chloroauric acid dissolved in 200,000 parts of 

 water towards a number of reducing agents. The colora- 

 tion produced by pure stannous chloride SnCl, is not 

 purple of Cassius, but a brown of remarkable stability, 

 w-hich the author shows is not due to extreme fineness of 

 division, and which may be colloidal aurous chloride. 

 Purple of Cassius results when SnCl, and an oxidant with 

 loosely bound oxygen are employed. The tin in the purple 

 is shown to be merely a vehicle for finclv divided gold, the 

 shade varying from pink to indigo according to the rapidity 

 of formation, the first division being obtained by the slow 

 reducing action of glycerol. (2) Some remarkable oxidation 

 products of bonzidcne. An investigation of the beautiful 

 blue products obtained from benzidene by certain processes 

 of oxidation, such as the blood test. The products obtained 

 by the action of chromic acid and of ferricvanide are shown 



to be the chromatc and ferricyanidc respective! 

 diphenoquinonc-diaminc NH : C,H< : C.H, : Nil, bir 

 latter is an extremely reactive substance and p . { 



easily to very insoluble substances of th»» an<" 

 class, benzidine is the sole rcduction-i 

 substances as freshlv prepared. The v 

 to be NH,.C„H,.S' :N.C,,H..NH,.-li. .. T»rbutt . 

 The Egyptian influence on Rhodesia ruin buihbr'., or vice 

 versa. The object of this note is to show that .Matlv<r'« 

 statement that the Rhodesian ruins are of native origin 

 does not seem too improbable, if the articles found in or 

 about the Rhodesian ruins arc compared with siin 

 articles of Egyptian primitive art. The author cont' 

 that the very res<-mblance between them is r • — " 

 one or two articles, but to almost everythin; 

 found, and illustrations comparing the K. . . 

 Egyptian objects are given to support the theorj*. 



DIARY OF SOCIETIES. 



WEDSESDAY, April iij. 

 Royal Meteorolocical SfKiETv, at 7.30 —Variations in the Ki..: 

 Climate durint; the 30 years. 1881-1910: W. Marriott.— <i) The \ .^ 

 of the Two-theodoliie Method for delermining Vertical Air-mot 

 (3) An Automatic Valve for Pilot Balloons : Captain C. H. \jty. 



CONTENTS. I A E 



Problems of Sexual and Asexual Reproduction . 2 jj 

 Webster's New International Dictionary. By 



O. J. R. H 2 .4 



Glaucoma and its Cause 20$ 



Experimental Therapeutics : 06 



Projective Geometry. By G. B. M 2J7 



The New Psychology. By Prof. J. A. Green . . . 208 



Cultivation of the Land. By E. J. R 209 



New Books on Chemistry. By J. B. C 209 



Our Book Shelf ::ia 



Letters to the Editor: — 



The Fox and the Fleas. (fliuslraied.) — h.. N. 

 Meldrum ; T. S. Grey; Prof. T. McKenny 



Hughes, F.R.S 211 



The Radiation producing Aurora Borealis. (///mj- 



trated.)—'L.. Vegard 212 



The Velocity of Earth Movements caused by the 

 Messina Earthquake.— Prof. G. B. Rizzo . . . 213 

 From the Niger to the Nile across Africa. {Illus- 

 trated.) By Sir H. H. Johnston, G. CM. G., K.C.B. 21; 



The Nagas of Manipur. (Illustrated) 215 



The Penny : a Suggestion. By Prof. John Milne, 



F.R.S 216 



The British Science Guild. By G. F. D 217 



Notes 2i!> 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



Detonating Meteor in Messina 22; 



Halley's Comet 22; 



Circulation in the Solar Atmosphere 22 ;, 



The Popularisation of Astronomy 223 



The Antwerp Astronomical Society 223 



Spectroscopic Binaries 223 



Experiments with Coal Dust in French Collieries. 



By Prof. W. Galloway 223 



The Institution of Naval Architects 226 



State Surveys 227 



The Standardisation of Colours. By Dr. A. P. 



Laurie . 228 



Diet and Development. By Prof. J. S. Macdonald . 228 

 Recent Progress in Aeronautics. By Major B. 



Baden-Powell 229 



The Australasian Antarctic Expedition. By Dr. 



Douglas Mawson 231 



University and Educational Intelligence 233 



Societies and Academies 233 



Diary of Societies 236 



NO. 2163, VOL. 86] 



