December 28, 191 1] 



NATURE 



279 



particular mental characters than one of bad ancestry, 

 and a very high state of efficiency is common only in dogs 

 well bred from the Field Trials point of view. These par- 

 ticular mental potentialities are just as much inborn 

 characters as the shape of the dog's head ; they are modified 

 by selection in precisely the same way, and are trans- 

 mitted, with variations, from parents to offspring. 



If the existence of heritable variations in each particular 

 mental potentiality be accepted, the conclusion is practically 

 unavoidable that, as Prof. Pearson has suggested, the 

 majority of the lowest class of the population is inferior 

 in capacity for intellectual development to the majority of 

 the middle and upper classes. Favourable variations which 

 are inherited must generally result in a rise, unfavourable 

 in a fall in social position, and a fall to the lowest class 

 means a high mortality among the offspring. Moreover, 

 the upper and middle classes are subjected to continual 

 selection. A known period of selection has changed the 

 Jews from an extraordinarily militant, quarrelsome, and 

 bloodthirsty race to an undoubtedly peaceful, and probably 

 the most generally intellectual race in the world. Any 

 individual amongst them who continued to react to violence 

 by developing a violent temperament must certainly have 

 been eliminated, while survival depended upon a high 

 capacity for making other mental acquirements. The com- 

 parative brevity of the period during which selection lasted 

 suggests that mental potentialities respond, if anything, 

 more quickly to selection than do physical potentialities. 



Glasgow, December i6. Ciurles Walker. 



Theory of Complex Cartesian Coordinates. 



.A RECENT number of the Proceedings of the London 

 Mathematical Society (vol. x., part iii.) contains a note of 

 mine on a theory of complex Cartesian coordinates, in 

 which the complex point (a + di, b-j-ei, c+fi) is represented 

 by the segment AB joining the real point (a, b, c) to the 

 real point {a + d, b + e, c+f). Since its publication I have 

 learnt that the same theory has been discussed by Mr. 

 Eller\- W. Davis in the Nebraska Universitv Studies 

 (Linr, >-, I., 10). 



I :! ••.riling now for two purposes. In the first place, 

 I wi-ii to express my regret that, not knowing of Mr. 

 D;ni-. < worlc, I mad(} no reference to it in my paper. 

 Secondis , the fact that two investigators have quite in- 

 dependently, and both after a study of v. Staudt, invented 

 the same representation of complex points, affords a pre- 

 sumption that it is a natural one. Personally, I believe 

 that many interesting facts will follow from further in- 

 vestigations in this field : it will never replace Staudt 's 

 projective theory, which is absolutely perfect so far as- it 

 gor-. liut it may help to make, the comprehension of 

 Staud!- work a little easier, and thus popularise one of 



tl' ~i splendid works of mathematical genius. 



.'i\<\ lii.i' piii-^ of Mr. Davis's paper were read 

 M :' \in< lii.iii .Mathematical Society (.April and 



Noveinboi-, i^oj ; Nin . iiili'r, 1909) and the British Associa- 

 tion (August, ii)<i<ii. I i^^avi' a brief account of the theory 

 m\-^flf to the Mathematical Association at a previous date; 

 Iiut 1 ' ,illy there is no question of priority in dispute. Probably 

 Mr. I ). a is, like myself, has been in possession of the elements 

 of ih' ih-oi-y for a long time. G. B. M.\riii:ws. 



im M. iiai \'ic\v, Bangor, December 19. 



Science and Literary Form. 



1 lii ;^;i[) h'tvv.in the tprminology of commercial science 



and the mdinarN ani'-iiiii'- nf l:inguage seems to be hope- 



li'ssl-, w idcniii--. 'I h,' lojliiw int^ specimens arc culled at 



■ii»in till' rucount of \h.f o\iiil)iti(in (if the Physical 



Miiiainid in '/'//c 'I'Idics TaiLiini i-riiig Supplement 



or U(( 'iiilj'i- jm: " s\ n( hi I j-riip.', " " decremeter," 



" lumeter." '1 hi' v.umI " ^pi 1 iIi.hh t- r " is now consecrated 



bv f,'vt-h,,nk> and 1 \iii b\ li-^i.-^lalion. All this givos oni- 



ihink, -Ahi-n it is remembered how i.U' ful lli'' 



■nliiii pidMii'rs in electrical develo]inii-iii - (Isi'l\iii, 



Ma'-.'.'^ili, >\c.i wii" lo -I li-rt siiii.-iMi' (i-rni^. 'I'll" i|Uisii,,n 



C\^i'P, pi |-^i~,U in iililriidinL; it-.i'll', in wlial f I:itiiin all tin-. 



Stand i'l ihi \ ii '. that education can be based on a purely 



SCieii!':|. ll\'nii!IU_;. J. L. 



Canibridyi', I)iiiinl.)er 20. 



The Weather of 1911. 



The intf'resi" >-<- ■'( '^-- I'.duard l''ry in Nature 



of Noveml)! r •. !• precisely by the other 



question: W h , 1 ■ cipitation occur in the 



NO. 2200, VOL. 88] 



European summer, 1911? I replied to this question, 

 asked by the editor of Ciel et Terre, by pointing to the 

 excessive rains of middle and northern China, Japan, and 

 the Philippine Islands in the same summer, 191 1. Indeed, 

 the rams of Baguio (Luzon), July 14-17, established a 

 record only comparable with the rains of Cherrapunji, 

 June 12-16, 1874. Baguio received in four days 2239 mm. ; 

 Cherrapunji in five days 2598 mm. More' comparisons 

 may be found in the Frankfurter Zeitung, December 8, 

 11., and, I hope, at an early date in Ciel et Terre. .Here 

 I emphasise the connection of these rains, especially in 

 Hondo and Luzon, with typhoons, proved clearly for the 

 latter island in the preliminary communication of P. ]osi 

 Coronas, assistant director of the Manila Observatory : 

 "Three typhoons, which caused heavy floods in Luzon." 

 ^^ In Nature of April 11, 1907, p. 560, I published a paper, 

 " Atmospheric Seesaw-phenomena and the Occurrence of 

 Typhoon Storms." I applied afterwards the law there 

 stated to the weather of the summer of 1907, being on the 

 Atlantic side of the earth extremely cool, in a paper, 

 " Klimaschwankungen und der thermisch-barometrische 

 Ausgleich," in the Meteor ologische Zeitschrift, 1909, vii., 

 PP- 331-2- Indeed, the formation of tropical cyclones 

 (typhoons) in that summer largely preponderated in the 

 great Pacifical focus of such storms. The same explanation 

 as for the cool summer of 1907 can, strange to say, be 

 employed for the dry and hot summer of 191 1. A difference 

 is only caused by the larger development of the Azores- 

 maximum of aerial pressure in 191 1. This development 

 made the Pacifical depressions arriving on the western side 

 of Canada travel more northerly than usual, and therefore 

 arrive in Europe on the more easterly coasts of Russia 

 instead of, as in 1907, on the coasts of western and central 

 Europe. To this also may be ascribed the occasional 

 excesses to nighu frost in central Europe during June and 

 August, 1911, July descending also to +2° C. 



The development of the maximum was caused by a some- 

 what independent and contrary northerly precession of 

 subtropical conditions over Europe and of tropical con- 

 ditions over subtropical latitudes. These caused another 

 strange phenomenon of aerial pressure in Europe and also 

 in North America, namely, a retrograde motion of 

 depressions similar to the first part of tracks of tropical 

 cyclones, the phenomenon of " Zugstrasse VL," as I 

 designated it. I found this extremely rare phenomenon 

 over Europe in May, Juno, and September, 1910, October 

 and November, 1911, and over North America three times in 

 August, 1911. Its occurrence in Europe coincided with well- 

 developed " Hochwasses Tiefs." Conducting them quickly 

 westwards, and preventing them from pouring out plainly 

 their precipitations, it contributed to the relative dryness of 

 October and November, 1911. Wiliielm Krebs. 



Grossflottbek (Holstcin), December 9. 



Nature of Light emitted by Fireflies. 



In Nature of Novi'in1)i'r 23 (vol. Iwwiii., p. in) there 

 is a letter from Messrs. Singh and Maidik on the nature 

 of the light of the firefly (Luciola), in which th.\v p port 

 the penetration of opaque substances by the i,i\- !rom 

 these insects to such an extent as to affect a pi 

 plate. Their results are essentially similar to 

 ported bv Muraoka (WiedcDiniiii's Aim. J. < '.■■'; a. 

 I'hysik, 1896, vol. ccxi v., pj). 7:,v-''^i : Jouiii. ("..ll. Sri., 

 Tokyo, 1S07, vol. i\., pp. i2()-39), an explanation ol which 

 has been givi 11 h\ Moli-. h (" Leuchtende Pflanzrn," ji na, 

 1904; Ri^poi-i, Sniilhsonian Institution, Washing^";. IV(\, 

 1905, pp. ;-', I I' 'I. 'I hi' vp.', (ral structure of tl ' 



Lanipviid.i- li.i- I'li'M -iiidii'd -p' rtrophotogrnp' 

 Iv.-'S and Cohl'iii,' (Hullrlin of ']"■.' 

 W.ashin-'lon, D.C. loio, vol. x ') 



\- Ivr- (/'//v.s/r,(/ h'r -1. - I'p- 



I I ohliiK/ {I'hvsik,: ;//, loi 1, vol. 



20 • aUo in Ciiri.I. ; .,1 i . x-!. \!!1;., 



srp.ir;ii 



\\\., PP 



pp. 355 I oi. 



i;,.|oi'i' ali.'inpl :ii;; I'.a'l!. 

 Singh anil M.iidil,- uould il 

 and to r. Iir lo M.in-.dd' 

 von l.iidit 

 buch di-r v ; 



Industrial 

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iktion 

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