May 1 6, 1889] 



NATURE 



67 



A series of ancient wreaths and plant remains from the 

 cemetery of Hawara, Egypt, exhibited by Mr. Percy E. 

 Newberry, by permission of the Director of the Royal 

 Gardens, Kew. These wreaths and plant remains were dis- 

 covered last year by Mr. P'linders Petrie, in coffins of the 

 Ptolemaic period, and date from about the first century before 

 Christ. They are fully described by Mr. Percy E. Newberry, in 

 Mr. W. M. Flinders Petrie's "Hawara, Biahmu, and Arsinoii," 

 and were presented to Kew some few month? since. 



Gramme ring, rotating under the influence of the magnetism 

 of the earth, exhibited by Mr. J. Wilson Swan. It is a motor 

 of the type of the ordinary dynamo-electric machine, but without 

 field magnets other than the north and south magnetic poles of 

 the earth. The current passing in the ring is about half an 

 ampere. 



Preparations of the new element gnomium, recently discovered 

 by Gerhard Kriiss and F. W. Schmidt, of Munich, exhibited 

 by Dr. Hugo Miiller, F.R.S. Gnomium oxide ; gnomium 

 chloride (in aqueous solution) ; nickel from which the gnomium, 

 which up to the present always accompanied it, has been sepa- 

 rated ;' nickel oxide free from gnomium. Gnomium is a metallic 

 element which, according to the discovery of Kriiss and Schmidt, 

 is always associated with cobalt and nickel, and consequently 

 neither of these metals have up to the present been known in 

 the pure state. 



Illustrations of the new and the old astronomy, exhibited by 

 Mr. I>aac Roberts. Among these was the photograph of the 

 nebula 51 M. Canum Venaticorum ; the original negative being 

 shown under the microscope. 



Mr. H. J. Chaney showed a hollow cylinder and sphere, used 

 in the re-determination of the weight of a cubic inch of distilled 

 water, 1889. / — 62 , B = 30 inches. One cubic inch — 

 252'286 grains. 



Voltaic balance, exhibited by Dr. G. Gore, F.R.S. Used for 

 measuring voltaic energy in chemical analysis ; strength of 

 aqueous solutions ; effect of light and heat on aqueous solutions ; 

 detecting chemical changes in liquids and measuring their rates : 

 <letecting chemical compounds and their combining proportions ; 

 measuring losses of vol'aic energy during chemical combination ; 

 measuring chemical energy. By means of it the influence of 

 I part by weight of chlorine in 500,000 million parts by weight 

 of water has been detected. 



Films of metals and metallic oxides 'deposited by electric 

 sparks, exhibited by Prof \V. N. Hartley, F.R.S. 



Hair from the Yenisei Mammoth, obtained by F. Schmidt, of 

 the Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, exhibited by Prof. 

 G. H. Seeley, F.R.S. 



Drawings illustrating the feeding of Scrobicularino, exhibited 

 by Dr. H. C. Sorby, F.R.S. The feeding of Scrobicularice, as 

 also of Tellinte, is by actively taking in mud by the indraught 

 syphon and afterwards discharging it by the same, unlike the 

 quiet habit of most other Conchifera. 



Mr. J. Young showed— (i) a cluster of nests of a species of 

 Ssvift (Collocalia) taken in one of the Society Islands ; (2) a 

 specimen of Piuznaiielitis sociabilis, a plover obtained in South 

 America, of which only two specimens (obtained fifty years ago) 

 were previously known in Europe ; (3) the tail of a Japanese 

 barndoor cock, 1 1 feet long. 



Mr. ^V. H. Preece, F.R.S., exhibited — (i) calcedonified 

 tree-trunk, from Arizona, U.S.A. ; (2) transverse, tangential, 

 and radial microscopical sections of the wood, to illustrate the 

 original vegetable structures and the mineralogical changes which 

 have taken place during and subsequently to the silicification of 

 the woody tissues. 



EgyjJtian blue (" Vesterien ") artificially prepared by Prof. F. 

 Fouque, of the College de France, Paris, exhibited by Prof. 

 J. W. Judd, F.R.S. This substance is shown to have the for- 

 mula CaO, CuO, 4SiO. It has been obtained, not only in a 

 glassy form, but in crystals, which are remarkable for their in- 

 tense pleochroism (dark blue to rose pink), as was shown in 

 specimen under microscope. For comparison specimens of ancient 

 objects (Scarabei and ornaments used in mosaic work) were ex- 

 hibited by Mr. R. H. Soden Smith, to illustrate the method in 

 which this blue enamel was employed by the Egyptians. Other 

 specimens of antique ornaments glazed with the Egyptian blue, 

 exhibited by Mr. John Evans, Treasurer of the Royal Society. 



A revolving stage for the microscope, exhibited by Prof R. J. 

 Anderson. . 



Prof. H. Marshall Ward, F.R.S., exhibited various parasitic 

 fungi, and specimens of diseased timber showing characteristic 



symptoms of injury caused by them. The chief of these 

 are : — (i) piece of larch stem, aftected with the " larch 

 disease," and exhibiting the cups of Pcziza (Hi-lotiitni) ivill- 

 kominii on the cancerous cortex ; (2) specimen of fructification 

 of Polyporiis stilplntreus ; (3) piece of larch timber attacked by 

 Polyportis stdplnirctis, showing the characteristic symptoms of 

 the injury ; (4) piece of oak timber, exhilMting the characteristic 

 symptoms of disease due to the ravages of Stcrettm hirsjitiim ; 

 (5) piece of oak attacked by Thelephora pcvdix, showing the very 

 different mode of injury due to this fungus ; (6) piece of spruce fir, 

 attacked by the mycelium of Tiainetes radiciprda, and exhibit- 

 ing the very characteristic dark spots which serve to diagnose the 

 disease ; (7) piece of pine injured by Agaricns mellctts, and show- 

 ing the very different symptoms which betray the presence of this 

 fungus ; (8) piece of deal with grey mycelium of Mcrtdhts 

 lacrymans, causing the common " dry rot " of timber: and a 

 similar piece of timber attacked by the white mycelium of 

 Polyporus vaporarius, another and quite different fungus, which 

 produces a form of " dry-rot " ; (9) portion of pine stem in- 

 fected with Pcrider?nii(m pint, the TEcidium form of Coleosporiiim 

 seneciottis, — the other form of this parasite is found on various 

 species of groundsel (it does mu'^h damage to the pines in some 

 fo-ests, producing so-called "cankers" as disastrous as those of 

 the "larch disease"); (10) specimen of wheat infested by 

 Ustilago carlo (U. segeium), showing the destruction of the ears 

 by the fungus, the black spores of which completely occupy the 

 interior of the grain; (11) specimen of grass attacked by 

 Epichloe typhina, a destructive ascomycetous fungus which in- 

 fests the flowering shoots of pasture grasses : (12) culture speci- 

 mens of Sclero'ia developed from species of Botrytis, which 

 destroy certain garden plants. Micro.-copic preparations of these 

 are also exhibited. 



Models illustrating a cause of contortions of strata, exhibited 

 by Dr. Charles Ricketts. To induce these flexures, dry and 

 powdered clay of different colours is spread in consecutive layers 

 in a trough, when by the access of water, the clay becomes 

 plastic, sand is poured on some special part, its weight in the 

 experiment being supplemented by extra pressure ; this causes 

 the heavier substance to subside into the plastic mass ; at the 

 same time the clay-beds are squeezed outwards, the layers 

 underneath being formed into films still continuous with those at 

 the sides, which are rendered considerably thicker than in their 

 original state, and are curved into folds, representing on a small 

 scale such as frequently occur in stratified rocks. The experi- 

 ment so exactly coincides with natural phenomena that it is 

 reasonable to expect it will afford a true explanation of a 

 frequent cause of contortion, and also of cleavage of strata (see 

 "On some Physical Changes in the Earth's Crust, Part 3," 

 Geological Magazine, April 1889, p. 165). 



Amorphophalliis campanulatus, exhilsited by the Director of 

 the Royal Gardens, Kew. 



New optical apparatus for lecture demonstration, invented and 

 exhibited by Mr. Eric Stuart Bruce :— (i) Apparatus for project- 

 ing Crookes's radiometer in action on the screen, so as to render 

 its effects visible to large audiences. — (2) "The electro-grapho- 

 scope." A striking method of showing the illusions produced 

 by persistence of vision to large audiences. In this apparatus 

 a narrow lathe of wood, about an inch wide, is made to revolve 

 rapidly by means of an electric motor, the effect being an almost 

 invisible haze, but when the revolving lathe is placed in the 

 path of the rays of light proceeding from an oxybydrogen 

 lantern, in which there is a transparent picture or photograph, 

 the image is apparently cast upon the air, in the case of a 

 statue giving the effect of bold relief. In reality minute portions 

 only of the image are cast upon the revolving plane, in such rapid 

 i-iiccession that they are united into the perfect whole by the 

 retentive action of the retina of the human eye. 



Mr. Eadweard Muybridge exhibited projections by the electric 

 lantern of automatic electro-photographs, exposed at regulated 

 intervals of time, illustrating the consecutive jjhases of bipedal 

 locomotion, as synchronously viewed from two or more points of 

 ."■itlht. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



American Journal of Science, May. — The elcLirical resistance 

 of stressed glass, by Carl Barus. Pollowing u|i Warburg's ex- 

 periments, which have thrown so much new light on the thermal 

 relations of the resistance of glass, the author here deals specially 



