76o 



NA TURE 



[N 



In these circumstances it is not surprising to leam 

 that Mr. Fox failed to obtain Dr. Kammerer's results, 

 since* he has tumbled into one of the most obvious 

 .M«f .11. i« .v,^y surprise him very much to learn 

 ■tter f'ot the same results as he did when, 

 I...., ..... I ;..., ha cut off onlv the oral siphon. Since 

 the anal siphon remains of normal length and the 

 reaction is of the animal as a whole, the regenerated 

 oral siphon is of normal length also. But when both 

 anal and oral siphons are amputated in a very young 

 animal, then lon^ siphons are regenerated. I have 

 a photograph which shows an operated Ciona and a 

 normal one growing side by side in 1 1 1< nd 



the contrast between the lengths ot : is 



obxioiis. When T)r K;iiiiiiicr<T ret urn Ij'iin \incnca 

 I liiijic th.it Mr. l(i\ will (oininniiii ,itc with Inin and 

 repeat iirmifnts, observing l)r. Kammerer's 



E recall in, I feel confident, he will obtain 



lamiiu 1. i irsulis. 



My < t.iiiKltiue is based on the followinj^ ( onsidcra- 

 tions. t url llerbst in Germany tried tu repeat Dr. 

 K a 111 merer 's experiments on Salamandra maculosa ; 

 lie arrived at tlie conclnsion that altlioiigli the animal 

 may change colour wnli .nx irdnincnt, \ct thrse 

 changes are temporar}-, and that tlicrelorc it was 

 useless to try to repeat Kammerer's work on the 

 inheritability of these changes. Herbst worked 

 principalh- on Salamander larva;. Mr. E. Boulenger 

 m 1919, liowexer, began to repeat Kammerer's work 

 on young metamorphosed Salamanders. I have been 

 privileged to watch Mr. Boulenger's experiments from 

 the beginning, and now in 1923, after four years' work, 

 Mr. Boulenger and I are both convinced that Kam- 

 merer is perfectly right so far as the first generation is 

 concerned. Our specimens are not yet, unfortunately, 

 completely sexually ripe. E. W. MacBride. 



Imperial College of Science and Technology, 

 South Kensington, London, S.W.7. 



Globular Lightning. 



I AM much interested in the referencta to Ughtning 

 in Dr. A. Russell's presidential address to the Institution 

 of Electrical Engineers, and also in the article by Dr. 

 G. C. Simpson in Nature of November 17, especially 

 where the latter mentions that "the only physical 

 phenomenon yet produced in a laboratory at all 

 approaching ball lightning is the active nitrogen 

 studied by Lord Rayleigh." 



It has occurred to me that possibly the ball may be 

 a mass of concentrated nitrogen oxides, and I suggest 

 this because the observations seem to fit in well with 

 the formation and action of such gases. 



We know that when air passes through high- 

 tension arc flames in an electric furnace, the nitrogen 

 and oxygen combine to make nitric oxide gas, and that 

 as the gas cools down it takes up more oxygen to 

 form nitrogen dioxide, the speed of combination 

 increasing rapidly with the cooling. 



In Norway, and elsewhere, for many years, electric 

 furnaces have been running which aggregate over 

 half a million horse-power and make nitrates from 

 the air in the same way that lightning does. It has 

 been estimated that 100 million tons of nitrogen 

 fixed by lightning flashes fall annually on to the 

 earth's surface. 



The energy suddenly released by a flash is enormous, 

 and the potential has to be many millions of volts to 

 tear a way, or a hole, through the' air dielectric. Mav 

 it not be that a very high pressure is suddenly set up, 

 followed by a sudden reaction and chilUng efiect ? If 

 so, then the conditions are extremely favourable to 

 the production of a large amount of nitric oxide and 



NO, 2821, VOL. I I2I 



nitrM;ea dioxide gas in a very concentrated 

 posstblv liquid form. 



Whilst moving through the air the outer layer 

 the gas will gradually oxidi,se to nitrogen flioxid* 

 which will dissipate, and if th<- length of 

 through the air is long enouijli it may all <i 

 in that way. Occasionally, however, a ball of „ 

 may start from a point so near the earth that somi 

 of it is still in cotk ciitratr- ! ■ • it arrives at 



earth Ic-.cl. 



all of such concentrated gam meets with 

 1 iiatcrial, such as a haystacK or a tree, it 



would miiiKdiately nitrate it and "■ nt explosion 



take {line. One of the worst ! explosions 



that took place in Germany during me War is 

 to have been caused in that way. 



The pocuHar smell, which some observers ha' 

 c;dl<-d " -.iilphurv." may be nitrogen oxides or ozo; 



of (<)iir>c, '' • ' most dif>" ••'♦ '■' <•-•>'-" 



i-~ lidw the i;,- . it lie, i 



38 C larcinoiit Scjuare, London, .\ 1 



Principles of Psychology. 



Ax absence frr.m London pro\-cntrd *- ..,.;.. 



the re\irw thai apjH'arcd in Naii'I: 



p. 535, under the heading " Mental .'•>,.,- ... . 



m\- work " I'niu i])l's of 1 'sychology " ; but ! 



now to enter my protest at'.o'nst tlic ill-usage .,...;. . 



to my book, and to science ; 



I do not speak from me: anity, for I 



have written this book not for my own glorification, 

 but by way of introducing something into the world 

 of thought that will <'\rntually impinge on eveiT,' 

 fibre of our ci\ iiisatP .n .tiid iielp to mould the life of 

 man to greater purposes. 



When as a young student I set forth with this 

 purpose, por mares nunca de antes navigados, I resolved 

 to stake my own intellectual life on the issue, and 

 not to write a line until I had completed t' 

 tion of my problem. That work occuj 

 years of secluded work and intense intellectual eiion. 



If I am confident now, it is as Pythagoras was 

 confident, for the good reason that he had furnished 

 the complete demonstration of what others had 

 tentatively sought to know. 



The review, published anonymously in Nature, 

 contains a series of statements -^o wid" of the mark 

 as to seem to be almost pi: .iding. My 



first book did not, as the re\ -t.s, fall srill- 



bom from the press ; the wiiole edition has, in fact, 

 been sold. It is true that by certain " authoritative 

 teachers " here it was received with sneering com- 

 ment, but it found the most gratifying acceptance 

 in enlightened quarters. The Revue Philosophique, 

 which is the most authoritative of all the philosophical 

 magazines, broke its rule of allotting but one page to a 

 review, and devoted to the book twelve times that 

 space in a finely anah-tical study by Prof. Dugas, 

 himself justly famous in Europe. 



So far from finding with your critic, in his in- 

 comprehensible statement, that " the solurion offered 

 as new is certainly not novel," Prof. Dugas noted 

 especially the " originality " as well as the " pro- 

 fundity '' of the work. Of the present volume he 

 sa)^: "I live with your Principles just now. ... I 

 am more and more struck b\- the philosophic character 

 of your psycholog}'." Amongst many others Ribot 

 and Boutroux, both world -renowned, expressed them- 

 selves in similar terms. Boutroux was " astonished " 



