February 2, 191 1] 



NATURE 



453 



[1835-1910]. Some Account of the Fundamental Dis- 

 coveries of the Great Pioneer of the Bio-chemistry of 

 Crystallo-colloids in Living Cells." This may be regarded 

 as supplementing the biographical notice of Ringer's 

 career, and of his work as a clinician, which is to be 

 found in the British Medical Journal of October 29, 1910. 



We have received from Messrs. E. Merck, of Darmstadt, 

 a copy of the third German edition of their *' Index " of 

 pharmaceutical preparations. Eight years have elapsed 

 since the second edition was issued, and the index now 

 forms a handsome volume of nearly 400 pages. Copies of 

 the new edition can be procured from the London agent 

 of the firm. 



The properties of binary mixtures of some liquefied gases 

 are described in the Journal of the Chemical Society by 

 Dr. B. D. Steele and Mr. L. S. Bagster, of Melbourne 

 University. The mixtures chosen were those of sulphur 

 dioxide with hydrogen bromide, and hydrogen sulphide 

 with hydrogen bromide and with hydrogen iodide. The 

 vapour pressures were plotted for a series of temperatuies 

 from —35° to —75°. A mixture of hydrogen sulphide and 

 hydrogen bromide in the proportion of 60 to 40 was found 

 to have a minimum vapour pressure (or maximum boiling 

 point, analogous to those observed in mixtures of water 

 with the halogen acids), in spite of the fact that the solu- 

 tions are non-conductors and have given no evidence either 

 of ionisation or of association. Mixtures of hydrogen 

 sulphide and hydrogen iodide, on the other hand, gave 

 direct linear relationships between total vapour pressure 

 and composition (of liquid) and between the vapour 

 pressures of the two constituents and the concentration of 

 the liquid, thus adding another to the very short list of 

 pairs of liquids which obey Raoult's law throughout the 

 whole range of compositions. 



The fourth volume of the Journal of the Institute of 

 Metals is now available. It has been edited by Mr. G. 

 Shaw Scott, the secretary of the societ\% and copies may 

 be purchased at the offices of the institute, price 215. net. 

 The greater part of the volume consists of the papers of 

 scientific interest read at the annual autumn meeting of 

 the institute held in Glasgow last September^ abstracts of 

 which were published in Nature of September 29 (vol. 

 Ixxxiv., p. 421). These papers are in the volume supple- 

 niented by written communications from eminent authori- 

 ties after the papers were read. The first May lecture, 

 which was delivered by Prof. W. Gowland, F.R.S., is 

 also included, together with a series of abstracts of papers 

 relating to the non-ferrous metals and the industries con- 

 nected with them. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Splendid Meteor ox January 25. — Mr. W. F. Denning 

 writes : — " St. Paul's Day, January 25, has been noted 

 in past years for occasionally supplying very large meteors, 

 and it has maintained its character this year. 



" A fireball was seen at yh. 5m. p.m. by Mr. J. L. 

 Haughton, of Birmingham, falling very slowly from the 

 region of Aldebaran in Taurus to * Orionis. The meteor 

 was more brilliant than Venus at her best, but there were 

 some clouds in the sky, which prevented the best effects 

 being observed and interfered with the accuracy of the 

 record. Near Leeds, Mr. J. H. Park witnessed the meteor 

 sailing very slowly along from the north-west to south- 

 east, and passing south-west of the Pleiades. The heavens 

 WTe much overcast, and only a few stars visible. 



■' The probable radiant of the fireball was in Cepheus 

 at 330° + 58°, and it apparently belonged to the same 

 stream as that which supplied the magnificent fireball of 

 January 25, 1894. The recent one passed from over Mon- 



NO. 2153, VOL. 85] 



mouth to Wiltshire at a height of about 83 to 46 miles, 

 but additional observations are required." 



Nova Lacert^.— In No. 4466 of the Astronomische 

 Nachrichten Dr. Max Wolf publishes a reproduction of 

 the region about Nova Lacertae from a photograph taken 

 on January 2 with an exposure of thirty-one minutes. 

 The reprocluction covers a circular region of 1° diameter, 

 with the nova at the centre, and shows stars to about the 

 fifteenth magnitude; the B.D. comparison stars are 

 especially marked. The earlier plates on which a star 

 of magnitude twelve or thirteen is shown in the nova's 

 position were taken on July 15, 1904 (exposure 3h. 46m.) 

 and January 9 and 11, 1894 (2h. 30m. exposure), the former 

 with the Bruce and the latter with the 6-inch telescope. 

 In No. 4467 of the same journal the result of a compari- 

 son of positions of this faint object and the nova is 

 announced, and it seems reasonably certain that they are 

 identical — that the star took part in the catastrophe pro- 

 ducing the nova. 



The identity is confirmed by Prof. Barnard, who, in 

 No. 4468 of the Astronomische Nachrichten, states that he 

 has found the image of a fourteenth-magnitude star in 

 the place of the nova on plates taken on August 7, 1907, 

 August 22 and 24, 1909, and October 11, 1893. On the 

 first-named plate the position of the image agrees within 

 oois. in R.A. and o-i' in dec, with the nma's position 

 as determined with the 40-inch micrometer. In the 40-inch 

 telescope the nova has two distinct and sharp foci, such 

 as were also exhibited by Nova Geminorum (1903). the one 

 being 8 mm. further from the object-glass than the other. 

 Prof. Barnard has never noted this peculiaritv' in other 

 stars, and ascribes it to the great brilliance of the crimson 

 Ha line of hydrogen, as shown on the Yerkes spectro- 

 grams. 



For January 10 and 16 Prof. Millosevich gives the 

 magnitude of the nova as 7-4 and 7-7 respectively. 



Dr. Miinch obtained a spectrogram with a 15-cm. 

 objective prism used with the Zeiss triplet of the Potsdam 

 Observaton.' on January 6 and 7, and the same prism 

 was used, by Dr. Eberhard, in connection with the 30-cm. 

 reflector on January 8. The plates show a continuous 

 spectrum crossed by a number of bright lines. The 

 hydrogen lines Ha-H»j are bright and very broad, and 

 there is a very bright band at A 4654. A broad absorption 

 band appears on the more refrangible side of H7, a bright 

 emission line is seen at X 4056, and near it. at A. 4045, 

 there is a distinct absorption line ; the K line is much 

 fainter than would be expected from the brightness of the 

 emission lines. 



A plate taken by Prof. Hertzsprung on May 22, 1910, 

 shows no trace of the nova, which was then certainly 

 fainter than the eleventh magnitude. 



M. Felix de Roy, Antwerp, found the magnitude of the 

 nova on Januarv' 7 to be 7-8, and the colour was about 

 6<' on Osthoff's scale. A telegram from Herr Mewes, 

 Breslau, states that the nova was exceedingly red on 

 January 14. 



Absorbing Matter in Space. — In No. 5 of the Trans- 

 vaal Observator)- Circulars Mr. Innes discusses the blank 

 region of the sky around the star S. Corona Aust., and 

 suggests that the apparent vacuity may be the result of 

 the interposition of an absorbing medium which cuts off 

 the light of the stars behind it. Messrs. Innes and 

 Worssell find that in one part of the region the field of 

 the 9-inch refractor (25') includes no star of any magni- 

 tude. The latter also considers that he is able to detect 

 a distinct difference in tint on passing the border of the 

 blank and starry parts of the sky ; the region is probably 

 unique. Some of the stars appear to be surrounded by 

 nebulous matter, but the small dark patches — seen on a 

 photograph reproduced on Plate xxii. — are the most re- 

 markable objects. Mr. Innes suggests that all the pheno- 

 mena could be best explained by supposing that irregular 

 sheafs of gas, some of which are dark and <^aque, others 

 slightly luminous at their extremities, cover the region. 

 Where this gas is impenetrable no stars are seen ; rifts in 

 it allow other stars to appear ; and where it is slightly 

 luminous the stars behind it appear with circumjacent 

 nebulosities. 



In 1899-1901 the tenth-magnitude star Cor.D.M. 

 — 36° 13208 was recorded by Mr. Innes as " not seen," 



