I90 



NATURE 



[December 7, 191 1 



may be due to slight differences of complexity in the 

 hyclrogen-line images (Astrophysical Journal, vol. xxxiv., 

 14. 4). 



The SrECTRi/M of thb Outer Planets.— In No. 4537 of 

 the Astronomische Nachrichtcn Dr. Otto Biiry publishes a 

 note in which he shows that the wcll-ltnown characteristic 

 absorption-band spectrum of the outer planets can be fairly 

 well matched by combining Chappuis's and Schone's ozone 

 spectra with the spectrum of the higher oxides of nitrogen 

 obtained by Chappuis. As shown on the plate accompany- 

 ing the paper, the chief bands in Vogcl's spectrum of 

 Uranus, for example, are fairly well represented in the 

 ozone and peroxide spectra ; such differences as exist might 

 perhaps become explained if the terrestrial spectra were 

 experimented with more exhaustively under different 

 temperatures and pressures ; for Chappuis has shown that 

 the ozone spectrum is sensitive to such changes. 



Srs-SPOTS AND Cllmate. — Considering the climate of 

 Berlin as depicted in the temperature records from 1756 to 

 1907, and the precipitation records from 1848 to 1907, Herr 

 Otto Meissner finds a possible connection between these 

 climatic features and the periodicity of sun-spots. In a 

 table which he gives in No. 4533 of the Astronomische 

 Xachrichtcn he arranges the years of the eleven-year period 

 from I to II, and opposite each gives the departures of the 

 year's temperature and rainfall from the means. This 

 indicates that the sun-spot maximum years are cold and 

 wet, while the minimum years accord fairly well with the 

 mean. A further investigation considering pressure is to be 

 undertaken. 



PROPOSED MEMORIAL TO PROF. P. G. TAIT. 



r\ N Thursday last, November 30, a representative meeting 

 ^-^ of former students and friends of the late Prof. Tait 

 was held at Edinburgh University, to consider the question 

 of extending the memorials to him. His former colleague, 

 Principal Sir William Turner, K.C.B., presided, .^bout 150 

 apologies for absence were intimated, amongst these being 

 expressions of approval and support from the Rt. Hon. A. J. 

 Balfour, M.P.. the Chancellor of the University; the Right 

 Hon. Lord Aberconway ; Sir Archibald Geikie, K.C.B., 

 President of the Royal Society ; Sir John Murray, K.C.B., 

 and the Right Hon. Lord Haldane of Cloan, P.C. Lord 

 Haldane wrote : — " I cannot be with you on the 30th, but 

 I wish to say that I am very glad indeed that you are 

 taking the step of raising a memorial fund in connection 

 with Prof. Tait. The publication of his Life affords a 

 suitable occasion for doing this. I shall be glad to be a 

 contributor, for I feel that a record should be preserved of 

 the regard in which his old students and the nation 

 generally held this remarkable man. We have too few 

 figures of the stature of Tait to let them pass away without 

 endeavouring to keep a permanent memorial of their 

 greatness." 



As it is now almost a decade since Prof. Tait's death, his 

 successor in the natural philosophy chair (Prof. J. G. 

 MacGregor) made the following statement : — In explanation 

 of the present state of this movement, it may be pointed 

 out that Prof. Tait's main work can be divided into three 

 portions : (i) his educational work, (2) his own experi- 

 mental researches, and (3) his work in mathematical 

 physics. An appropriate memorial might be raised in con- 

 nection with any one or more of these. When he entered 

 upon the work of the natural philosophy chair he was 

 deeply impressed by the soundness of Prof. Tait's educa- 

 tional policy, and by the difficulties in the way of applying 

 and extending it ; and he suggested as a fitting memorial a 

 fund which would make it possible to carry it out. Without 

 the aid of any appeal, this suggestion led to the receipt of 

 subscriptions to the amount of about 1500Z. But before 

 action could be taken, it was found that the University 

 itself was organising, and could not defer, a general 

 extension scheme. It was the unanimous opinion of those 

 who had charge of this scheme that it would be unwise to 

 carry on two competing movements at the same time ; and 

 the Tait memorial was for this reason made a department 

 of the general extension scheme. 



As such it could not be brought to the attention of old 

 students and associates generally, but only to a compara- 



XO. 2197, VOL. 88] 



tively small number of them. Nevertheless, add: 

 subscriptions were made to the original fund to the ' 

 of about 500/., and a special fund, yielding about ao< 

 annum, was provided by Sir John Jackson, to be 

 Professor Tait's Memorial Fund, and to be used, uiMJ 

 direction of trustees, for research on the lines of' 

 Tait's experimental work. 



There arc thus memorial funds connected with two| 

 chief departments of Prof. Tait's activity, but n« 

 nectod with the third. 



The best form for a memorial connected with tl 

 fcssor's work in mathematical physics would obviously 

 Tait chair in that subject ; and Tait himself advocat 

 establishment of such a chair. In 1872 he wrote 

 article in Macntillan's Magazine : — " Would it w« 

 absolutely hoping against hope to proceed as foIlowvTi 

 the Scottish universities, let there be in each a profc 

 of experimental physics and a professor of applied 

 matics, in place of the present solitarv professor of 

 enormous subject of natural philosophy.*' 



Many old students have intimated that they would Ii| 

 have the opportunity of contributing to a inemorinl. 

 was satisfied that a very large proportion of t) 

 be found to share this feeling. 



It will thus be seen that, as a Tait niemori.i 

 founded, the question before this meeting is, sh. 

 for ourselves, and arrange to give to the who.i .. 

 the professor's students and associates and admirer- 

 opportunity of contributing towards the memorial, a; 

 enlarging the original fund, or founding a Tait ch.i; 

 in any other way that may be determined, makin. 

 memorial more worthy even than it now is of the 

 whose great work, personal and scientific, it is intent! 

 commemorate? 



On the motion of .Mr. B. Hall Blyth, seconded 

 G.. M. Paul, a resolution agreeing to the propose 

 carried. 



A general and an executive committee were then ' 

 pointed. Information will be willingly furnished by 

 J. G. MacGregor, Edinburgh. 



BIRD-NOTES. 



T N the October number of British Birds another st 

 ■*■ is added to the British list — this time in the 

 of the slender-billed curlew (Numenius tenuirostr 

 small flock of which was observed towards the 

 September, 1910, on Romney Marsh, Kent. Of the 

 immature pair were shot on September 21, while an 

 male was killed two days later. Two of them were 

 amined in the flesh by Mr. M. J. Nicoll. Althc 

 stragglers have occurred in Heligoland, Holland, 

 northern France, and Germany, the slender-billed cur 

 a native of the Mediterranean countries, whence it 

 to Siberia to breed. .Approximating in size to the 

 brel, the species is distinguished by its short and 

 beak and the pear-shaped dark markings on the 

 The colouring of the crown is unlike that of the whil 

 showing black and buff streaks like those of the curlel 



In the same issue Dr. E. Hartert points out 

 English green woodpeckers differ from the 

 European representative of the species (Picus 

 pinetorunt) by the still shorter and more slender 

 and on this character proposes that it should be reco 

 as a separate race (P. v. pluvius). Scandinavia, 

 and eastern Prussia are the home of the typical rac 

 Italian form, on account of the beak being slender 

 in English birds, is named P. v. fronus. and the Sj 

 P. V. sharpei has long been recognised as distinct. 



Most ornithologists, when pointing out the feature* in 

 plumage by which young partridges may be di=' 

 from old ones, content themselves with the stat 

 the tip of the first flight-feather of the wing is point 

 the former, but rounded in birds which have unif ^ 

 their second autumnal moult. Dr. Louis Bureau, 

 of the Nantes Museum, in an article (in French) pu 

 in the October Zoologist, goes, however, much furthe 

 this. After stating that there are ten primary wJngH 

 he observes that the tenth of the first plumage is tli 

 to fall, this taking place about the end of the first mti 

 when the replacing quill (second plumage) has attained a 



