9IJ 



NATURE 



[Decembek 



of this new Order will be that in place of the dedara- 

 tioii rcijuired at present, each consignment of living 

 pliints, potatoes, or tomatoes shipped from porta 

 in European France to Great Britain must in future 

 be accompanied by a particular certificate or copy 

 certificate, which must be delivered to an Officer of 

 Customs at the same time and together with the 

 entry relating to the consignment. In future no 

 certificate or declaration of any kind will be require<l 

 in the case of vegetables for consumption other than 

 potatoes or tomatoes. 



.■\ sicRiKs of articles on " Science and Industry in 

 Vtn.iidi," from the pen of Dr. VV. Rosenhain, has 

 1 \- appeared in the Engineer, and in the con- 

 mi.iiug article, on October 26, the author sums up 

 his impressions derived from visits to a large number 

 of scientific and industrial laboratories in North 

 America. It is remarkable that the enormous 

 development of certain laboratories devoted to 

 industrial research, whether under the management 

 of a commercial body, such as the General Electric 

 Co., or of a Government department, such as the 

 U.S. Bureau of Standards, has noticeably had a 

 paralysing effect on the universities, some teachers 

 of science imagining that it is useless for them, with 

 limited equipment, to enter into competition with 

 such great institutions. Such an impression, as the 

 author remarks, would be most unfortunate if it 

 were to become general. The employment of so 

 many competent physicists and chemists in industry 

 has to some extent injured the scientific staffs of the 

 iiniMisities, and the standing of the men in charge 



of teaching and research is not always as high .> 

 might be expected from the wealth and popuIatt< m 

 of the country, and from the vast sums expended <;: 

 buildings and e<}uipment. On drawing up a list < i 

 the most eminent men in various branches of scientiti 

 investigation, the proportion of Americans is di- 

 appointingly small, when the resources of the < 

 are taken into account. This attitude of A 

 towards science and its applications is recc^uisi i 

 and deplored by American men of science tbemse1vf>, 

 and it is a subject of speculation how long it will 

 take so great a nation to awake to the necessity of a 

 change in this respect. 



Bulletin No. 7 i 7 of the Department of the Interior, 

 Washington, is on " Sodium Sulphate : its Sources 

 and Uses," by R. C. Wells. This pamphlet deals with 

 the mineral forms of sodium sulphate together with 

 salt cake, nitre cake, and Glauber's salt. The sulphate 

 process of making wood pulp is also described. The 

 booklet is well illustrated with diagrams of crystal 

 forms, equilibrium diagrams, etc. 



We have received from the Canadian Department 

 of Mines a copy of a report on titanium by A, Robin- 

 son. The three parts into which the book is divided 

 deal with the metal and its comj>ounds, its occurrences 

 in Canada, and the production and uses of the metal 

 respectively. The book is well illustrated with maps 

 and diagrams. The uses to which titanium and its 

 compounds may be put are fully discussed. These 

 include its use in the metallurgy of steel, arc light 

 electrodes, pigments, mordants, and in the ceramic 

 industry. 



Our Astronomical Column. 



Mercury an Evening Star. — Mercury will be 

 visible to the naked eye on a few evenings at the end 

 of December, the planet being above the horizon 

 more than li hours after sunset. At about 5 p.m., 

 Mercury will be visible on very clear evenings a little 

 above the W.S.W. horizon, shining with a rosy light 

 and scintillating after the manner of a fixed star. 

 The brilliant planet Venus will be situated about 

 8° to the eastwards and afford a clue to the exact 

 position of Mercurj', which will shine with far less 

 lustre. A field-glass might be employed to advantage. 

 Early in January, Mercury will disappear from the 

 evening sky, but Venus will remain very conspicuous 

 in the twilight during the ensuing winter and spring 

 months. 



The Einstein Shift in the Solar Spectral Lines. 

 — Allusion was made in this column recently to the 

 announcement of Prof. C. E. St. John that he was 

 satisfied that this shift really exists. He gave 

 further details in a paper read at the meeting 

 of the Royal Astronomical Society on December 14 ; 

 in his previous researches he had felt it necessary 

 to confine himself to lines that are not subject 

 to pressure shift. But now that the pressure 

 in the photosphere is proved to be low, the 

 choice of suitable lines for measurement is greatly 

 widened. In studying the wave-lengths of iron lines 

 at the centre of the sun's disc and at different levels 

 in the photosphere, he finds a shift in excess of 

 Einstein at the highest levels, in agreement with 

 Einstein at the middle levels, and in defect at the 

 lowest ones ; these could be explained by downward 

 and upward currents in the respective regions, super- 

 posed on the general Einstein displacement. He also 



found the latter displacement at the sun's limb ; 

 here, too, some other influence was superposed on it ; 

 scattering due to the greater thickness of solar 

 atmosphere traversed by the rays was suggested. 

 Mr. Evershed expressed himself in full agreement 

 with the conclusions, but Prof. Newall thought the 

 evidence was still not decisive, as many other dis- 

 turbing influences were at work on the sun, e.g. the 

 Stark effect, polarisation and anomalous dispersion ; 

 the observed displacement might be due to these. 



Fixed Calcium Clouds in Interstellar Space. — 

 Mr. J. S. Plaskett has made an examination of the 

 radial motion indicated by the calcium lines in some 

 Cepheid stars of early type which have been found 

 not to partake of the periodic shift of the other 

 spectral lines. It has for some time been considered 

 that these stars are surrounded by calcium clouds. 

 It is now found that these clouds in various regions 

 of the heavens appear to be stationary relatively to 

 the general system of the stars. The clouds would 

 thus seem to be independent of the particular stars 

 showing the lines, and it was suggested at the meeting 

 of the Royal Astronomical Society on December 14 

 that there might be a general diffusion of calcium 

 vapour throughout the stellar system, but that in 

 most stellar spectra its presence is masked by the 

 strong H and K lines belonging to the stars them- 

 selves. Various difficulties were referred to in the 

 discussion. Some thought that the clouds would be 

 luminous and show bright lines ; another diflSculty is 

 the practically perfect transparency of the stellar 

 spaces which Dr. Harlow Shapley deduced from his 

 work on the globular clusters. The subject is still 

 somewhat obscure. 



NO. 2825, VOL. 112] 



