November, i-j, 1910] 



NATURE 



73 



Inch themselves to anything but heavy bodies " (Royal 



immission on Coast Erosion, Ans. 4059). 



A steady current has often no disturbing effect on the 



a bottom, as the upper strata slide over the lower ones, 



ut the slightest wave-action on the bottom, with its 



ilternating currents, is most effective ; and, as Sir George 



stokes pointed out (I believe for the first time), the com- 



ined action of wave and tidal current may be very 



.Tgetic, as in the case he cites, in which the combina- 



in of a steady- tidal current of two miles an hour, com- 



!ied with a reciprocating flow of one mile, would result 



' in a flow rapidly changing between one mile and three 



miles." I doubt whether this important fact had ever 



occurred to anyone else ; and, up to the present time, no 



one has taken any notice of it, so far as I am aware. 



Torquay. A. R. Hunt. 



Two Notes from India. 



I .4M writing to report a rather curious freak lily which 

 I have lately seen out here. It was a garden variety, and 

 it possessed a perianth of eight segments, which, however, 

 is not unusual, but it also possessed eight stamens, the 

 anthers of which were joined together in pairs, the re- 

 mainders of fhese organs being separate. The union began 

 about two-thirds of the way down from their apices, and 

 from then up was complete. If any of your readers can 

 suggest a cause I shall be glad to know it ; I have never 

 seen such a condition before. I may say that the rest of 

 the organs were normal (there was only one flower on the 

 plant), and both flower and plant were very healthy. 



The second note which I might record as well, I think, 

 though I know my statements about it will perhaps make 

 some people doubt my veracity, is that while on duty one 

 day, in the evening, about twenty miles away from 

 Sangor, Central Provinces, in January a year ago, I was 

 driving back through the jungle to Sangor about 7.30 p.m. 

 when I distinctly saw what I consider to be an aurora 

 borealis. The sun had set, and there was no moon out at 

 the time. Suddenly faint streaks, and later distinct and 

 many bright streaks, of light appeared across -the skv, and 

 I got out of the tonga and watched it about a quarter 

 of an hour. There was continual vibration and movement 

 of the light as a whole and of individual parts. The light 

 Avas a plain white one, and very like a zig-zagged comb. 

 No lights of any kind were near, nor could I see the fires 

 or lights of any native villages e.xcept faintly in the 

 distance, and these were quite distinct and easily dis- 

 tinguished from the sky phenomena. I pointed it out to 

 my tonga wallah, who shook his head and said he did 

 not know what it was. The stars were out, but that it 

 was not a planetary light I am certain. I imagine the 

 occurrence of this phenomena must be most uncommon in 



opical countries, and I noted it in my diarv. 



J. H. Barbour. 



Jubbulpore, Central Provinces, India, October 20. 



Instruction in Methods of Research, 



In Nature of November 3 appeared an address by Sir 

 u . A. Tilden on modern scientific research. 



The technical chemist may hardly agree with his con- 

 clusions that the art of scientific discovery cannot be com- 

 municated from one person to the other when the matter 

 IS considered in its wider aspect, and although it may be 

 true that the great discoveries of the future will be made 

 by the " inspired amateur," yet there is plenty of evidence 

 that m Germany, at any rate, the general" increase of 

 knowledge and progress is to a great extent made up in 

 detail work, without which it may also be stated that the 

 great discoveries would never be 'made. Progress in this 

 detail work to a great extent seems to be influenced, if not 

 controlled, by training in research. 



It is interesting to note that some authorities seem to 

 _'ve the impression that in this country the proportion 

 Of research men to chemists is higher than abroad. 



In the columns of Nature and elsewhere I have 

 previously advocated the teaching of the principles of re- 

 search in class in all our chief colleges, and I believe that 

 NO. 2142, VOL. 85] 



the student when entering them looks for some such 

 training and expects it. This training would be of great 

 value to the majority of chemists, who will naturally find 

 their future work in industry. Its influence must be felt 

 in the conduct of their future work. 



The greater part of the time of the industrial chemist 

 is taken up with dealing with unseen difficulties and over- 

 coming them. This may not be research in its proper 

 sense, but these difficulties can only be overcome in one- 

 way, and this when examined in detail will be found to 

 be very similar, if not identical, with that necessary for 

 the conduct of research. In fact, such work might be 

 defined as the application of such principles of research to 

 industry. It is not the application of ordinary academic 

 chemical knowledge. That is certain. 



So that with such a- training, I would venture to point 

 out, the man who has not that " combination of mental 

 powers which is called insight " will derive great benefit, 

 for it seems difficult to think that the student who has 

 passed the entrance examination and gone through the 

 college course can be entirely devoid of some such quality, 

 even if he has not it to a superlative degree. The latter 

 men must be trained, for has not Newton said that " zeal 

 without knowledge is like expedition to a man in the 

 dark "? 



Some two years ago I put the question Sir William 

 Tilden mentions of the establishment of central research 

 stations for the chief industries before a textile society in 

 the north. 



It was then suggested that there were many difficulties in 

 the way of a technical nature. One of the advantages of 

 such a scheme would consist of the training which might 

 be given to the younger men who are entering industrial 

 work, and it may be that this could, to a great extent, 

 take the place of the practical training in the colleges 

 themselves, which Sir William Tilden, perhaps rightly, 

 depreciates when it is carried too far. 



W. P. Dreaper. 



Royal Societies Club, St. James's Street, S.W., 

 November 5. 



The Armour of Stegosaurus. 



Pardon me for saying that there is not the slightest 

 reason to believe that the restoration of Stegosaurus with 

 a double row of plates is incorrect, in spite of the state- 

 ment of the reviewer in Nature for October 13. Not a 

 single plate of this animal has been found with a sym- 

 metrical base, the base always being at an angle to the 

 vertical 'axis of the plate; this implies that the plates were 

 not placed on the median line, but to one side of it. 

 Furthermore, in the onh' sf>ecimen in which anything like 

 a complete series of plates has been preserved the linear 

 extent of these plates is, roughly speaking, 40 feet, and 

 it is a physical impossibility to arrange them in one series 

 on 20 feet of back. These plates lie in position over- 

 lapping one another. 



The only point at issue between Dr. Lull, who has 

 studied the Stegosaurs most carefully, and myself is in 

 regard to the arrangement of the plates. Dr. Lull believes 

 that they were arranged in pairs. My own view is that, 

 reasoning by analogy, they should have been thus arranged, 

 but the facts in the case point to their having been 

 placed alternately on opposite sides of the median line. 

 No pair of plates has ever been found, and, making the 

 greatest allowance possible for individual variation, it 

 seems incredible that differences of several inches should 

 exist between the plates from the two sides of the body if 

 they were arranged in symmetrical pairs. 



F. A. Lucas. 



Museum of the Brooklvn Institute. 



The above letter from Mr. F. A. Lucas shows that my 

 apologies are due to the author of " Extinct Monsters and 

 Creatures of Other Days." It is Marsh's restoration of 

 Stegosaurus with a single row of dorsal plates that is 

 incorrect, as was pointed out in a notice of Dr. Lull's 

 restoration in the American Journal of Science for March, 

 19 10, in Nature for the present year. In writing the 

 review of Mr. Hutchinson's volume I must have trusted 

 to memory, which played me false. R. L. 



