May 25, 1876] 



NATURE 



81 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



American Journal of Science and Arts, April 1876. — Prof. 

 Wright, of Yale College, examined last year the gises obtained 

 at moderate temperature from a stony meteorite of Iowa 'County ; 

 their chief constituent was carbon dioxide. lie has further 

 examined several other meteorites of both classes (stony and iron, 

 five of each), and the results, here communicated, confirm his 

 former conclusions. Not only do the stony meteorites give off 

 much more gas at low temperatures than the iron, but the com- 

 position is quite distinct. In no case of the latter was the 

 amount of carbon dioxide more than 20 per cent, at 500°, nor 

 than 15 per cent, from the whole quantity evolved, and the 

 volume of carbonic oxide was, in every case but one, consider- 

 ably larger. In the chondrites, on the other hand, the percentage 

 of carbonic oxide is very small, while the carbon dioxide is (with 

 one slight exception) more than half of the total quantity of gas 

 obtained up to red heat. At a temperature of about 350° it 

 constitutes from 80 to 90 per cent, of the gaseous products, in all 

 cases, while at the heat of 100° it forms somewhat more than 95 

 per cent, in the two cases examined in this respect. The 

 hydrogen, on the other hand, progres-ively increases in quantity 

 with rise in the temperature of evolution, and in the last portions 

 given off at a red heat is generally the most important con- 

 stituent. The evolution of those large volumes of carbon 

 dioxide may be taken as characteristic of the stony meteorites, 

 and its relation to the theory of comets and their trains is cer- 

 tainly of great significance. — Prof. Norton gives a succinct 

 account of researches made with a view to determine the laws of 

 the set of materials resulting from a transverse strain under 

 various circumstances. He studied (i) sets from momentary 

 strains, (2) sets from prolonged strains, and (3) duration of set, 

 and variation of set with interval of time elapsed after the with- 

 drawal of the stress. Some of the results are rather at variance, 

 apparently, with the conception of the ultimate molecule, as 

 made up of a limited number of precisely similar atoms endued 

 with unvarying forces of attraction at certain distances and repul- 

 sion at other distances. — ^According to Prof. Le Conte, mountain 

 ranges are formed wholly by a yielding of the crust along cer- 

 tain lines of horizontal pressure ; not, however, by bending of 

 the crust into a convex arch filled and sustained by a liquid be- 

 neath, but by a crushing or mashing together horizontally of the 

 whole crust with the formation of close folds and a thickening or 

 swelling upward of the squeezed mass. In an interesting paper 

 he adduces evidence of this from the coast range of California, 

 which is destitute of granite axes, and has been little changed 

 by metamorphism or overlaid by igneous ejections.— Prof. New- 

 comb criticises somewhat unfavourably the physical theories of 

 climate maintainedin CroU's recent work on Climate and Time 

 in their Geological Relations. — Prof. Mallet studies the consti- 

 tutional formuh'^ of urea, uric acid, and their derivatives, and in 

 an appendix Prof. Marsh describes the principal characters of 

 the I3rontotheridae, with aid of some excellent plates. 



Mind, April. — In this number Mr. G. H. Lewes draws atten- 

 tion to the absence of strictly defined technical terms in psycho- 

 logy, and '' the deplorable and inevitable ambiguity " which in 

 consequence clouds the discussion of psychological questions. 

 After referring to various senses in which the words sensation, 

 sensibility, consciousness are used, he puts the question: "are 

 all changes in the sensitive organism to be included under the 

 term consciousness, or only some changes ? "' We believe some 

 psychologists would answer : no changes in an organism ought 

 to be called consciousness. — Prof. W. Wundt of Leipsic contri- 

 butes a solid paper on " Central Innervation and Conscious- 

 ness." He accepts physical automatism as flowing from the 

 doctrine of the conservation of energy. "If this principle lays 

 claim to a universal validity, we cannot withdraw from it those 

 movements which we are conscious of only as psychologically 

 caused." What he meaui by psychological causation is not very 

 clear. — M. Sidgwick's "Methods of Ethics "is ably re\ iewed by 

 Prof. Bain, who while speaking of the work in terms of highest 

 praise, finds, nevertheless, that justice has scarcely been done to 

 utilitarian ethics, and when Mr. Sidgwick, finding no complete 

 answer to the immoral paradox, "My performance of social duty 

 is good not for me but for others," concludes that our cosmos of 

 duty is in reality a chaos. Prof. Bain thinks that we have here 

 " a sad ending to a great work ; " and he proceeds to give a 

 solution of his own, which fome may consider little more than a 

 restatement of the difficulty. The next paper is a criticism of 

 Mr. Sidgwick's chapter on " Intuitionalism," by Mr. H. Calder- 



wood, who endeavours to show that Mr. Sidgwick has "largely 

 failed in the attempt to give a clear and fair representation of 

 intuitionalism." The editor. Prof Croom Robertson, reviews 

 Mr. Jevons's " Formal Logic. " He praises the ability, ingenuity, 

 and even success with which Mr. Jevons has laboured to con- 

 struct a brand-new system, but is compelled at the same time to 

 maintain the superiority of the methods of the traditional logic. 

 — Mr. Shadworth H. Hodgson continues the work of distin- 

 guishing between philosophy and science. His present paper, 

 "As Regards Psychology," is delightfully hard reading. — " Philo- 

 sophy at Cambridge," is treated by Mr. H. Sidgwick. — A short 

 kindly biography of James Hinton is written by Mr. J. F. 

 Payne. — Critical notices, reports, correspondence, &c., make up 

 the number. 



Memorie della Societh Spettroscopisti Italiani, November, 1875. 

 — Prof. Bredichin writes an article on the spectra of certaia 

 nebulse relating how he has adopted the plan of comparing the 

 lines of the spectrum of the nebula with the FraunhofTer lines of 

 the sun. The spectrum of a Geisler tube of hydrogen is used as 

 an intermediate means of comparison. The mean positions of 

 the lines are 5oo3'9, 5957'9, 4859'2 respectively. The first two 

 lines agree very closely with the iron lines 5005 o and 5956'5. 

 — A comparison of the solar diameters as obtained by the spec- 

 troscopic and transit methods by Secchi, Tacchini, and Rayet. 

 The mean of the spectroscopic observations gave a diameter i ' "8 

 less than the latter method. 



December 1875. — Father Secchi contributes a note on his re- 

 searches on the distribution of heat on the solar disc. — Prof. 

 Ricco writes on the perception and persistence of the sensa'ion 

 of colours. He throws a spectrum on a screen by reflection from 

 an oscillating mirror, so that the spectrum is moved in a direc- 

 tion at right angles to its length backwards and forwards, and the 

 shape of the apparent envelope of the coloured band shows that 

 yellow is the most rapidly perceived colour, and the others de- 

 crease towards the red and blue. — Prof. Oudemanns writes ( n a 

 method of heliometric measurement on the occasion of the transit 

 of Verms. — Prof. Fergola writes on the dimensions of the earth, 

 and researches on the position of the axis of figure with respect 

 to the axis of rotation. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Royal Society, May 18. — " Picrorocellin," by John Sten- 

 house, F.R. S., and Charles Edward Groves. 



" On the Polarisation of Light by Crystals of Iodine," by Sir 

 John Conroy, Bart., M.A. Communicated by A. G. Vernon 

 Harcourt, Lee's Reader in Chemistry in the University of 

 Oxford. 



"Absorption-Spectra of Iodine," by Sir John Conroy, Bart., 

 M. A. Communicated by A. G. Vernon Harcourt, Lee's Reader 

 in Chemistry, University of Oxford. 



Linnean Society, May 4. — Mr. G. Bentham, vice-president, 

 in the chair. —Mr. G. Dawson Rowley and Mr. G. H. Parkes 

 were elected Fellows of the Society. — Two foreign savans were 

 chosen to fill the vacancies caused by death among the honorary 

 members. —Mr. H. Trimen called attention to the photograph 

 of a remarkable example of fasciated inflorescence occurring in 

 Fourcroya ciibensis. Haw. The specimen, coming under the ob- 

 servation of A. Ernst, of Caraccas, is recorded as 6i feet high 

 and 4 feet wide. — On behalf of Dr. Anderson there. were shown 

 specimens demonstrating the extraordinary diminutive eye of the 

 Indian River Whale {Flxtanista i^angetica), which animal to all 

 intents and purposes must be well nigh blind ; and likewise spe- 

 cimens of grasses {Ischamtun rugonim and Paspalum scrobicu- 

 lalum) obtained from the stomach of the same creature, probably 

 residual digesta of fish eaten by it — Dr. Cobbold read a paper 

 on Trematcde parasites from gangetic dolphins. Three species 

 were lucidly described, viz., Distoma lancea, D. campula, and 

 D. Andtrsoni. The first of these was procured from the short- 

 snouted Dolphin (Orcella breviroslris), a form more frequently 

 captured in the Indian river estuaries. The last mentioned is 

 entirely new to science. It and that immediately preceding 

 (formerly designated Campula ohlonga) were both obtained by 

 Dr. J. Anderson from different specimens of the fluviatile Ceta- 

 cean (Flalanisla). The special interest attached to the parasites 

 in question may be thus summarised, i. The circumstance of 

 being obtained from Cetacean hosts not previously known to be 



