432 



NA TURE 



\August 29, 1889 



gaseous mass has condensed to a moderate size as compared 

 with the dimensions it must have possessed before any planets 

 had been formed. 



Sydney. 

 Royal Society of New South Wales, July 3, — Prof. 

 Liversidge, F.R.S., President in the chair. — The Chairman 

 announced that Mr. C. S. Wilkinson, the Government Geologist, 

 had kindly consented to deliver (gratuitously) a course of (three) 

 lectures in connection with the Clarke Memorial, commencing 

 in October or November next. — The following papers were 

 read:- — Notes on the high tide of June 15-17, 1889, by 

 John Tebbult ; and on the marine and fresh-water Inver- 

 tebrates of Port Jackson and the neighbourhood, by Thomas 

 Whitelegge. At the conclusion of the latter paper the President 

 presented the Society's bronze medal, which, together with a 

 money prize of .1^25, had been awarded to Mr. Whitelegge for 

 his paper. — Prof. Anderson Stuart showed a modification of the 

 "kymoscope" which he exhibited at the Society's last monthly 

 meeting. This form demonstrated the phenomena of inter- 

 ference in wave motion— one series of tubes had one wave, a 

 parallel series had the other, and both opened into a common 

 series in which the interference was made visible. The two 

 waves came fr^m pumps which could be so arranged as to vary 

 the amplitude of the waves and to change the position of the 

 straight lines produced when the waves met or " interfered." 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, August 19. — M. des Cloizeaux, 

 President, in the chair. — Remarks on the conditions under which 

 the fixation of nitrogen is eftected in a'-gillaceous soils, by M. 

 Berthelot. Here is described a fresh series of experiments on 

 the fixation of nitre -ren m the ground with the co-operation of 

 living organisms, microbes, and more highly organized plants. 

 Replying to a recent communication of M. Schlcesing on the 

 negative results of his studies, M. Berthelot accepts these con- 

 clusions, and even claims priority for them, adding, however, 

 that they were given by him as defining the negative conditions 

 of the phenomenon — that is, the conditions under which the 

 fixation of nitrogen does not take place. In a second paper M. 

 Berthelot describes some further researches on the fixation of 

 nitrogen by vegetable humus under the influence of electricity. — 

 Note on the glacial epoch, by M. H. P'aye. It is argued that 

 glaciation does not depend on any direct cause, such as a passing 

 obscuration of the sun at the beginning of the Quaternary epoch, 

 but is due to a far more remote cause — that is to say, the appear- 

 ance of the seasons and of the poles of low temperature at a 

 time when the sun had acquired its definite form and dimensions. 

 A repetition of the great changes that took place during Tertiary 

 times has been prevented by the continually increasing thickness 

 of the terrestrial crust and by the slower rate of progress of the 

 cooling process. — Observations on the sardine frequenting the 

 Mediterranean waters, by M. A. F. Marion. The results are 

 here communicated of the researches made by the author during 

 the fishing season 1888-1889, for the purpose of verifying and 

 completing his previous observations on the migrations and life- 

 history of the sardine periodically visiting the shores of the 

 Mediterranean. — On the total eclipse of August 19, 1887, by 

 M. N. Egoroff. This is a sum nary of the Russian report on 

 the observations of the eclipse of 1887 made at the seven stations 

 of the Russian Physico- Chemical Society in accordance with the 

 programme prepared by the Special Commission. — Electric 

 figures produced by lightning, by M. Ch. V. Zenger. The 

 curious effects are described of an electric discharge which struck 

 a silvered mirror during a terrific thunderstorm near Prague, on 

 June 9, 1889. The mirror shows over ten points at which the 

 electric fluid penetrated th-ough its gilded frame, volatilizing 

 and transferring the gold to the anterior face of the glass, while on 

 the opposite side the volatilization of the silver coating produced 

 the most beautiful electric figures. These figures show that there 

 occurred repeated and successive discharges, as also indicated by 

 recent photographs of flashes taken with the oscillating camera 

 obscura. — Observation of the occultation of Jupiter and its satellites 

 by the moon, taken at the Observatory of Nice, by M. Perrotin. 

 The hours of the various phases of the occultation that took place 

 on August 7, 1889, are tabulated at mean time at Nice. The 

 satellites are shown to have disappeared, not instantaneously, 

 but gradually during several tenths of a second. — Observations 

 of the new planet discovered at the Observatory of Nice on 

 August 3, 1889, by M. Charlois. The observations are for the 

 period August 3-6, when the planet had the brightness of a star 

 of magnitude 13 '5 to 14. — On a new mode of teaching music, 



based on the periodicity of the octave, by M. Ricard. The 

 author aims at a radical reform in the teaching of music, and 

 expounds his system in a series of fundamental propositions, such 

 as : musical effect is quite different from acoustic effect ; there 

 can be no physical gamut, a major and a minor, but one only, 

 that of the white notes of the piano, called the major, and so on. 

 — On contraction in solutions, by M. Charpy. The object of 

 these researches is to determine how the contraction produced in 

 the process of solution varies with its concentration. — On the 

 phosphotungstic acids, by M. E. Pechard. The methods hitherto 

 employed for the preparation of these acids have all been in- 

 direct. But the study of metatungstic acid has suggested to M, 

 Pechard the possibility of realizing the direct union of this acid 

 with phosphoric acid. The general method of preparation con- 

 sists in evaporating, under suitable conditions, a mixture of both 

 acids in determined proportions. — On the passivity of cobalt, by 

 M. Ernest Saint-Edme. It is shown that certain treatises on 

 chemistry are wrong in stating that cobalt in the presence of 

 concentrated nitric acid becomes passive like iron and nickel. — 

 On the heat of combustion of some organic compounds 

 (continued), by M. S. Ossipoff. The author's series of deter- 

 minations is here concluded with teraconic acid, malic anhydride, 

 methyl fum irate, and maleate of methyl. 



BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, and SERIALS RECEIVED. 



Le5 5ns Synlhetiques de Me'canique Ge'nerale : M. J. Boussinesq (Paris, 

 Gauthier-Villars). — Traite d'Optique, tome premier, M. E. Mascart (Paris, 

 Gauthier-Villars). — Inde.x Generum Avium ; a List of the Genera and Sub- 

 genera of Birds : F. H. Waterhouse (Porter).— The Ahernate Current 

 Transformer in Theory and Practice ; vol. i. 'I he Induction of Electric Cur- 

 rents : J. A. Fleming {Electriciaft Office). — Album von Cele'bes-Typen : 

 Dr. A. B. Meyer (Dresden).— Lung-Ch'Uan-Yao oder Altes Seladon-Por- 

 zellan : Dr. A. B. Meyer(Berlin, Friedliinder). — Le Developpement del'Image 

 La'ente: A. de la Baume Pluvinel (Paris, Gauthier-Villars). — Traite Pratique 

 du Developpement : A. Londe(Paris, Gauthier-Villars). — LeCylindrographe : 

 P. M e-isard (Parif, Gauthier-Villars). — History of Higher Education in 

 South Carolina : C. Meriwether (Washington). — Education in Georgia : C. 

 E. Jones (Washington).— History of Education in Florida : G. G. Bush 

 (Washington).— Higher Education in Wisconsin: Allen and Spencer 

 (Washington). 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



The Scientific Works of Sir William Siemens . . 409 



The Advancement of Medicine. — ^J. G. A 411 



Treatise on Hydrodynamics 412 



The Land of Manfred 413 



Our Book Shelf:— 



Aitchison : " The Zoology of the Afghan Delimitation 



Commiision." — W. T. B 413 



Cross and Bevan : "A Text book of Paper-making." 



— W. R. H 414 



Traill: "Boilers; their Construction and Strength." 



— N. J. L 414 



"Lord Howe Island; its Zoology, Geology, and 



Physical Characters" 414 



Letters to the Editor : — 



Sunset Glows at Honolulu. — Serena E. Bishop . . 415 



Globular Lightning. — A. T. Hare 415 



On some Effects of Lightning. — Spencer Pickering . 415 

 Some Lake Ontario Temperatures. — A. T. Drum- 



mond 416 



The Yahgan.— H. C 416 



Electrolysis of Potassium Iodide. — E. F, Mondy . . 417 

 Spherical Eggs. — Prof. W. Steadman A dis . . . 417 

 Another Photographic Survey of the Heaverrs ... 417 

 The Journal of Morphology — A Record of Progress. 



— G. B. H 419 



The August Perseids of 1889. By W. F. Denning . 420 



Notes 420 



Our Astronomical Column: — 



Comet 1889 ^/(Brooks, July 6) 424 



Comet 1889 <? (Davidson) 424 



New Minor Planets 424 



New Double Stars 424 



Stars with Remarkable Spectra 424 



Astronomical Phenomena for the Week 1889 



September 1-7 424 



The Science Collections at South Kensington . . . 425 

 An Italian's View of English Agricultural Educa- 

 tion. By Prof. John Wrightson 4^^^ 



" Infernito " 429fl 



Societies and Academies 4^99 



