July 27, 1876] 



NATURE 



281 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



Mind, July. — This number has very little of interest for 

 the general reader. Helmholtz, on the origin and meaning 

 of geometrical axioms, maintains that geometrical axioms, in 

 the form in which it may be maintained that they are not derived 

 from experience, represent no relations of real things, that they 

 have real import only when certain principles of mechanics are 

 conjoined with them, and that then they are amenable to expe- 

 rience, and may be matters of inference. — Prof. Flint makes a 

 clever fight for the non-derivative origin of moral ideas. lie is 

 very hard on the associationist philosophers. The laws of associa- 

 tion, he says, will not explain how virtue, if at first loved merely 

 as a means to happiness, comes subsequently to be loved for its 

 own sake, apart from happiness. He denies that transformations 

 of this kind are ever performed, and tries to show that in the 

 case of avarice, the typical instance of the associationists, there 

 is no such thing as the love of money for its own sake. — Mr. 

 Pollock attempts to show, in reply to Mr. Sidgwick, that the 

 doctrine of evolution is not quite without ethical value. He 

 doubts whether the problem of the ultimate sanction of ethics 

 in individual thought can strictly be deemed even rational. This 

 is rather sad from our moral philosophers ; with theology it has 

 always been rational and simple enough. — Under the title, 

 "The Original Intention of Collective and Abstract Terms," 

 Max Mliller endeavours to make out that Mill in his definitions 

 of mind and of matter lost himself among word?, and only 

 jumped out of the frying-pan into the fire. — Mr. Shadworth H. 

 Hodgson concludes his papers on philosophy and science. He 

 opposes to pure ontological speculations the psychological im- 

 possibility ot ever transcen^ling the duality of subject and object. 

 He retains for philosophy, however, a region avowedly beyond 

 science, the same supra -sensible that Lewes rejects. — Mr. 

 Lindsay gives an appreciative account of the Philosophy of 

 Hermann Lotze, whom we are called on to admire as taking 

 account of the spiritual no less than of the mechanical side of 

 the universe. The history of philosophy at Dublin is written 

 by Mr. Monck. — Among the Critical Notices is a reply by Prof. 

 Bain to the arguments by which Mr. Alexander tries, in his 

 " Moral Causation," to establish the doctrine of human freedom. 

 Prof. Bain is exactly in his element, and the argument is exqui- 

 sitely neat. — In each of the three numbers of Mind there have 

 been notes on a question between Mr. Lewes and Prof. Bain, as 

 to the warrant for our belief in the uniformity of nature, which 

 show how difficult it is for philosophers to make themselves 

 understood by one another. 



Poggendorfs Annalen der Physik und Chemie, No 4, 1876. — 

 In this number we find the second part of M. Winkelmann's 

 memoir on heat conduction in gases ; treating chiefly the subject 

 of the relation of heat-conduction to temperature. The experi- 

 ments were made with three apparatuses of different dimensions, 

 consisting essentially of a spherical glass vessel with the bulb of 

 a thermometer at the centre. The vessel could be filled with the 

 gas to be examined ; it was then placed in melting ice, boiling 

 water, &c., and the time of cooling was observed. The theories 

 of CJausius and Maxwell differ in the law they assign for vari- 

 ation of heat-conduction with the temperature. According to 

 Clausius, the conduction increases proportionally to the square- 

 root of the absolute temperature ; according to Maxwell, pro- 

 portionally to the temperature itself. The experiments of M. 

 Winkelmann so far favour Maxwell's view of the law (though 

 he does not regard them as confirming Maxwell's theory, in. 

 which the hypothesis of a repulsive force between the molecules 

 acting proportionally to the filth power of the distance, does not 

 agree with experience, Thomson and Joule having shown that 

 attractive, and not repulsive forces, act between the molecules). 

 If the heat-conduction of air or hydrogen at o" be made equal 

 to I, then at 100" it is equal to I "364. The co-efficient for 

 carbonic acid is considerably greater ; the conduction at lco° 

 (that at 0° being = i) is l '593 ; but it is less than the theoretical 

 value (i'69i), the variation of the specific heat of this gas with 

 temperature being taken into account. M. Winkelmann further 

 points out that the temperature co-efficient of friction of gases 

 does not agree with that of the heat conduction. — In a contri- 

 bution to the theory of the galvanometer, by M. Weber, will be 

 found some useful directions in construction. Among other things 

 he shows that galvanometers with " current-curve " of the form 

 of two parallel lines connected by semicircles will, with only 

 about a tenth expenditure of wire, show one-third greater sensi- 

 bility than corresponding galvanometers with circular current 



curve. — M. Neesen offers an explanation of elastic reaction based 

 on views furnished by the mechanical theory of heat as to the 

 constitution of bodies. — M. Holtz describes a good apparatus 

 for rendering visible the duration of the retarded discharge 

 through rotation of the place of passage of the spark. It is only 

 for sparks of long duration, and is meant in some sort as sup- 

 plementary to the Wheatstone mirror arrangement as improved 

 by Feddersen. The objections to which that apparatus is open, 

 that it involves a weakening of the already weak light of the 

 short discharges for which it is used, and that the extent of air 

 to be broken through by the discharge is not invariable, here fall 

 away. — In a new form of tuning-fork described by Dr. Konig 

 the arms are penetrated by canals, which are connected below, 

 and mercury is pressed up in them to any required height, from 

 a neighbouring reservoir of the liquid ; thus the tone is varied. 

 The arms are excited by electrical means, as mere drawing 

 of the bow would give sounds of too short duration. — Among 

 other apparatus described are models of inclined planes, and 

 an arrangement for illustraticg the laws of parallelogram of 

 forces. — M. Klein, from the Mineral ogical Museum at Kiel, 

 makes some contributions to a knowledge of gypsum. 



Memoria della Societh degli Spettroscopisti Italiani, January, 

 1876. — Statistics of solar eruptions in 1871, by Prof. Tacchini. 

 It appears from these statistics that the number of eruptions on 

 the western limb was double that on the eastern, the numbers 

 being 66 and 31 respectively, observed on 122 days. The num- 

 ber on the southern hemisphere was one-third less than that on 

 the northern, and the zone on which the most eruptions occurred 

 is between 70° and 80° N.P.D., one only was seen north of 30° 

 N.P.D. — Notes on spectroscopic observations in 1875, by Prof. 

 Bredichin. — Researches on electro-static induction, by G. Pisati. 

 — Researches on magnetism, by G. Pisati and S. Secchiloni. 



February. — Daily notes of spots and faculse near the limb of 

 the sun, observed spectroscopically and directly, commencing 

 February, 1874, by Prof. Tacchini. The reversal of the lines 

 b, b^, b^, P, 1474, 4923, and 5017 appears frequent. The same 

 observer gives the posuions on the limb of the sun at which 

 magnesium was seen from March to June, 1874. 



March. — On the direction in space of the taU of Coggia's 

 comet, by Prof. G. LorenzonL Tables accompany the paper, 

 showing co-ordinates for the period from May 18 to July 14, 

 1874. — Prof. Schiaparelli gives a table of dates for 1876 and 

 1877, on which falling stars should be looked for. Table of solar 

 spots observed in February and March last at Palermo. Statis- 

 tics of solar eruptions observed in 1874. It appears that the 

 number of eruptions on the western limb were three times that 

 on the eastern, the number on the north being about one-fourth 

 greater than those on the south. 



April. — On the influence of eosin on the photographic action 

 of the solar spectrum upon the bromide and bromo-iodide of 

 silver, by Capt. Waterhouse. The watery solution of eosin gives 

 by absorption two bands at about £ and P, the alcoholic 

 solution gives the bands rather nearer the red end of the spec- 

 trum. The action of this substance when added to the bromised 

 collodion, or when a watery solution is poured over the sensitive 

 plate, is to give greater sensibility to the plate for the green rays 

 than to the blue, indigo, or violet, the maximum action being 

 below £, extending to about half way to £>. Ordinary wet 

 collodion plates prepared with bromo-iodised collodion contain- 

 ing eosin prolongs the spectrum nearly to Z>. — Solar eruptions 

 observed in 1872 by Tacchini, and spectroscopic observation on 

 the sun in April, 1876. — The transparency of the air, by Prof, 

 Ricco, 



Zdtschrift der Oesterreichischen Gesellschaft fiir Meteorologif, 

 April I. — A paper lately appeared in this periodical, by Director 

 Mohn, on the cause of the deeper barometrical depressions in 

 winter than in summer, giving the author's reasons for having 

 changed his opinion on the subject since the publication of his 

 "Grundziigen der Meteorologie." In the present number we 

 have a letter from Dr. Gustav Hellmarm, upholding Herr 

 Mohn's first explanation. Having shown how difference of 

 barometric pressure depends upon difference of temperature and 

 differences in the heights of the differing columns of air, and 

 upon differences in humidity, and how these give rise to ascend- 

 ing currents, he states that the up-draught must be stronger in 

 winter than in summer, because (i) the differences of tempera- 

 ture between two places are greater in winter than in summer, 

 or the isotherms are nearer together ; (2) decrease of temperature 

 with height is half as great in winter as in summer ; (3) the air 

 is more saturated with moisture in winter. He lays stress upon 



