August 15, 1889] 



NATURE 



Z7Z 



Natural History Society and Field Club has arranged for exhibi- 

 tions of objects of great interest. On the following day mem- 

 bers will drive to Shotover Hill, and a lecture will b; delivered 

 by the President on "the geology of the district." Afterwards 

 there will be a lunch in Christ Church dining hall. Special 

 arrangements will be made for members to visit, on this and 

 also on Monday afternoon, the f jllowing places : — Museum, 

 Ashmolean Museum, Radcliffe Observatory, Botanic Gardens, 

 Bodleian Library, and Clarendon Printing Press. The Oxford 

 Socitty cordially invites members of natural history societies, 

 and their friends, to the meetings of the Union ; and no doubt 

 so pleasant a programme will attract a very large number of 

 visitors. Further information may be obtained from the 

 Secretary, Mr. H. M. J. Underbill, 7 High Street, Oxford. 



A USEFUL little volume relating to the approaching meeting of 

 the British Association has been issued at Newcastle. It con- 

 tains, in addition to the programme and other information, 

 memoirs (reprinted from the Neivcasile Daily Chronicle) of the 

 President, the Presidents of Sections, and the lecturers. The 

 volume costs threepence, and will, of course, be widely circu- 

 lated. There has also been issued, for the use of those who 

 propose to attend the meeting, a list of the hotels, apartments, 

 \ and furnished houses, with a plan of Newcastle. 



Mr. George Phillips Bevan, F.G.S., died on the 31 d 

 inst. at Yaldhurst, Lymington, in his sixtieth year. He was the 

 author of many popular hand-books and guide-books. He also 

 wrote industrial geographies of Great Britain, France, and 

 the United States, and edited a series of works on "British 

 Manufacturing Industries." 



The American Botanical Gazette announces the death of Mrs. 

 Lydia S. Bennett, a well-known botanist at Fisk University, 

 Tennessee. 



On August 12, about 3 o'clock a.m., a rather severe shock of 

 earthquake was felt at Poitiers. Clocks were stopped, and 

 furniture was displaced. No one was injured. 



The German edition of the Report of the International 

 Meteorological Committee meeting at Ziirich, in September 

 last, contains a preface by Dr. Neumayer, relating to the develop- 

 ment of meteorological research in Germany, which, prior to 

 the Congress of Vienna (1873), was almost at a standstill, very 

 little attention having been paid to what was passing in other 

 countries. But the impuls e given by that Congress and various 

 meetings of the Committee, together w ith the establishment of the 

 Deutsche Seewarte at Hamburg and the Meteorological Institute 

 at Berlin, have made the German-speaking countries rank amcng 

 the foremost and most active promoters of meteorology, all now 

 working together on one uniform plan. The Report contains 

 also a very useful index to all the German editions of the publi- 

 cations of the International Meteorological Committee since the 

 Congress of Rome (1879). A mere glance at this index shows 

 the generality and usefulness of the labours of the Committee, 

 exclusive of the meetings in some way connected with it, among 

 which may be specially mentioned those of the Polar Committee 

 (Hamburg, 1879), and the Conference for Agricultural Meteoro- 

 logy (Vienna, i88o). The preparation of meteorological biblio- 

 graphies, the establishment of stations in remote parts of the 

 world and upon high mountains, the preparation of elaborate 

 meteorological conversion tables (not yet published) for use in 

 all countries, and uniformity of methods, are but a few of the 

 principal results arrived at in the last sixteen years. 



One of the latest novelties in the application of electricity 

 consists of an electric reading-lamp, which is being fitted to the 

 carriages on the main line of the South- Eastern Railway. It 

 is on the principle of the " put a penny in the slot " automatic 

 machines. The apparatus is situated immediately over the pas- 



senger's head, and under the rack, and is contained in a small 

 box 5 inches by 3. The light is of five-candle power, and is 

 obtained by the introduction of a penny at the top of the box, 

 and by a subsequent pressure of a knob, and will last for half 

 an hour, extinguishing itself at the end of that time automatic- 

 ally. If the light be required for an indefinite period, a penny 

 every half an hour will suffice. The light can be extinguished 

 at any moment by means of a second button provided for the 

 purpose. One of the special features of the invention is that, 

 if the instrument is out of order, the penny is not lost, as it is 

 in the present machines. It drops right through, and comes out 

 at the bottom of the box, so that it can be recovered, and the 

 same result happens in the case of any coin other than a penny. 

 Each carriage is fitted with an accumulator which supplies the 

 electricity. This invention will add greatly to the comfort of 

 passengers during night journeys. 



Some new light on the subject of indirect vision (i.e. vision 

 with the lateral parts of the retina), is thrown by recent experi- 

 ments made by Kirschmann. The common idea, that the 

 sensitiveness of the retina diminishes outwards to the periphery, 

 appears to be incorrect. There is an objective diminution of 

 light-action, when a source of light is moved away laterally from 

 the middle of the field of vision ; for the mass of penetrating 

 light gets less. Hence, were the diminishing s^sitiveness a fact, 

 a luminous surface should seem to lose brightness when moved to 

 the side ; but it does not (though it appears less distinct in out- 

 line and modified in colour). Kirschmann placed two rotatory 

 disks made up of moveable black and white sectors (giving any 

 degree of brightness), before the observer ; who shut one eye, 

 and looked at the middle of one disk, about a metre and a half 

 from him, while he gave his attention to comparing the bright- 

 ness of the second disk, seen at different angles, by indirect 

 vision. The figures from numerous experiments prove that, in 

 the horizontal meridian, the sensibility to brightness has a 

 maximum at 22° to 25° from the centre, while in the vertical 

 direction the maximum is at 12° to 15°. The growth of sensibility 

 is much greater in the horizontal than in the vertical direction, 

 and the upper part of the retina is superi(;r in this respect to the 

 lower. This corresponds to the needs of vision. Indirect vision 

 with lateral parts of the retina is more important than that with 

 the upper and lower regions ; and the upper half is more 

 important than the lower. 



Messrs. Macmillan have issued a new volume of the 

 " Nature Series" — "Timber and some of its Diseases," by H. 

 Marshall Ward, F.R. S. Until the author's articles appeared in 

 this journal, the subject, as he says in his preface, was almost 

 unknown in England. 



A suggestive paper, on "The Ta Ki, the Svastika, and the 

 Cross in America," by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, is printed in the 

 new number of the Proceedings of the American Philosophical 

 Society. He holds that all these symbols are graphic representa- 

 tions of the movements of the sun with reference to the figure of 

 the earth, as understood by primitive man everywhere, and hence 

 that these symbols are found in various parts of the globe with- 

 out necessarily implying any historic connections of the peoples 

 using them. 



The Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota 

 has issued its sixteenth Annual Report, dealing with such results 

 of its work as are capable of being put into a shape fit for 

 publication. Mr. Winchell, State Geologist, says in an intro- 

 ductory statement that investigations are being carried forward 

 in the lithology of the crystalline rocks and in the palaeontology 

 of the fossiliferous ores, which are not yet sufficiently far 

 advanced to be dealt with in a Report. 



In a valuable paper, included in the Annual Report of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture for 1888, on the plum 



