332 



NATURE 



{Feb. 6, 1890 



and that at a higher temperature of about 1700° F, the oxygen 

 thus absorbed would be given off again, and the monoxide would 

 apparently be restored to its original condition. The paper 

 clearly describes the machinery required for the manufacture of 

 oxygen by means of barium oxide. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Oxford. — The lecture lists for this term include the following 

 courses : — Prof. Clifton, Magnetism ; Mr. Baynes, Thermo- 

 dynamics ; Prof. Odling, Diacidic Olefine Acids ; Mr. Veley, 

 Physical Chemistry. Prof. Burdon-Sanderson has resumed his 

 lectures, and Mr. Gotch is treating of the Physiology of Muscle. 

 Dr. Tylor lectures on the Development of Religions. 



An open Fellowship in Mathematics at Christ Church has 

 been awarded to Mr. C. H. Thompson, Queen's College, Lec- 

 turer in Mathematics at Lampeter. No other mathematical 

 Fellowship has been awarded for about seven years. 



The arrangement of the Pitt-Rivers anthropological collection 

 at the Museum is proceeding as rapidly as the constant acqui- 

 sition of new material allows, and a large portion of the collec- 

 tion is now open for public inspection. 



CAMBPaDGE.^ — At the next meeting of the Cambridge Philo- 

 sophical Society, on Monday, February 10, the following papers 

 will be read : — 



(i) W. Bateson (St. John's), on the perceptions and modes of 

 feeding of fishes. 



(2) A. C. Seward (St. John's), notes on Lomatophloios. 



(3) S. F. Harmer (King's), on the origin of the embryos in 

 the ovicells of Cyclostomatous Polyzoa. 



Prof. Stuart has communicated to the Vice-Chancellor his 

 intention of resigning the Chair of Mechanism and Applied 

 Science before the end of the current academical year. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



American Journal of Mathematics, vol. xii.. No. 2 (Balti- 

 more, January 1890). — The number opens with the concluding 

 part of Mr. Forsyth's paper on " Systems of Ternariants that 

 are Algebraically Complete" (pp. 1 15-160). It is illustrated 

 with numerous tables and closed with a useful abstract of con- 

 tents. — In the following memoir (pp. 161-190), by Prof. Franklin, 

 on " Some Applications of Circular Co-ordinates," the author 

 investigates, with the aid of these co-ordinates, some interesting 

 theorems relating to the orientation of systems of lines given 

 in a recent volume (vol, x, p. 258) by M. Humbert. Several 

 further illustrations are given, and the memoir closes with a 

 discussion of the curve given by the equation sin x^^/x = smydy. — 

 Mr. F. N. Cole writes (pp. 191-212) on "Rotations in Space 

 of Four Dimensions," The present article is preliminary to a 

 second paper on groups of rotations in four-dimensional space 

 which is to follow. 



Bulletins de la Socicte d^ Anthropologic, tome xii., serie iii., 

 fasc. 3 (Paris, 1889). — Continuation of M. Dumont's paper on 

 the natality of Paimpol, in which he treats at great length of the 

 causes which influence the ratio of marriages contracted in every 

 hundred of the population in the maritime districts of Brittany, 

 and of the number of children born in each family. In both these 

 respects the means rank amongst the lowest for all France. 

 One cause for this may be the preponderance of women over 

 men, a large number of the latter being engaged as seamen, or 

 taking part in the Iceland and other distant fisheries. Another 

 factor in this problem is probably the subdivision of property among 

 all the members of a family, who in the peasant and small 

 burgher classes, not uncommonly remain together all their lives, 

 and avoid marriage in the fear of diminishing their individual 

 shares of the patrimony. This, coupled with the repugnance, 

 so common among the French peasantry, against large families, 

 leads indirectly to late marriages or to celibacy, and has thus 

 exercised a baneful influence on the normal increase of the 

 population. — An essay on the classification of human races, 

 based entirely on physical characters, by M. Denniker. Believ- 

 ing in the long persistence of types in spite of the constant inter- 

 mixture of races, the author thinks that it is only by a careful 

 study of the typical characteristics in a so-called ethnic group 

 that we can arrive at any correct idea of the affinities between 

 •different races. In an elaborate synoptical table he enumerates 



the thirteen races which he proposes for his classification, adding 

 separate remarks on the varieties of each. — The dog, by M. G. 

 de Mortillet. Assuming from negative evidence the non- 

 existence of the dog in the Quaternary age, the author traces his 

 presence onwards from the Kjokkenmoddings, in which 

 abundant remains of this animal are to be found. Passing from 

 the prehistoric ages in Europe he considers at length the evidence 

 that can be advanced of the existence of several varieties of the 

 dog among the Egyptians, and later on among the ancient 

 Greeks and Romans ; and in the fact of the innumerable 

 varieties of Canis domcsticus, M. de Mortillet believes we have 

 one of the most conclusive proofs of e volution. ^ — Observations 

 on the skeletons of two young orangs, by M. Herve. — Pre- 

 Columbian ethnography of Venezuela, by Dr. Marcano. The 

 most interesting report in this treatise is that referring to the 

 Grotto de Cerro de Luna, owing to the almost absolute certainly 

 that it had never been entered since Guiana was first visited by 

 white men. Here Dr. Marcano recovered fifty- two male, and 

 forty-three female skulls, with five of children, together with 

 numerous long bones. Among these skulls many were painted 

 red, and others had obviously been embalmed. The general 

 mean of their cephalic index was 79, while the facial 

 characters were mesorrhinic and prognathic. — On correlative 

 variations in the biceps, by M. G. Herve. — A report of the 

 Seventh Conference on Transformism, by M. M. Duval. The 

 author here gives an interesting biographical notice of the great 

 P'rench savant Lamarck, entering at the same time fully into 

 the character and scope of his researches, and showing how far 

 his views differed from, or approximated to, those of Darwin. 

 As a rtsu7ne of what Lamarck attempted on the same lines of 

 inquiry so successfully followed by Darwin, M. Duval's report 

 presents much interest for the English reader. — On the menhirs 

 of Morbihan, by M. Gaillard. — On the discovery of Roben- 

 hausian flint implements near Macon, by M. Lafay. — Compari- 

 son of three sub-species of man, by M. Lombard. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Royal Society, January 23. — " On a Photographic Method 

 for determining Variability in Stars." By Isaac Roberts, 

 F.R. A.S. Communicated by Prof J. Norman Lockyer, 

 F.R,S, 



Some of the uncertainties which necessarily attend, ^:he de- 

 termination of variability in the brightness of star^ by eye 

 observations are removed by the application of phptographic 

 methods, and particularly by that of giving two or more ex- 

 posures of the same photographic plate to a given sky space, 

 with intervals of days or weeks between each exposure. 



In this way any errors caused by atmospheric, actinic, or 

 chemical changes, together with those due to personal bias, are 

 eliminated, and the study of stellar variability can be pursued 

 under conditions that admit of the necessary exactitude. 



As a'l illustration of the applicability of this dual photographic 

 method, the enlargement on paper from the negative is now 

 submitted. It shows the results obtained by two exposures of 

 the same plate to the sky in the region of the great nebula in 

 Orion. The first exposure was of two hours' duration on 

 January 29, and the second of two and a half hours on 

 February 3, 1889. The stellar images formed during the 

 two exposures are o"oi22ofan inch apart, measured from centre 

 to centre, and therefore comparable with each other in the field 

 of a microscope. When the images are examined in the 

 manner thus indicated, and their diameters also measured by 

 means of a suitably made eye-piece micrometer, it is found that 

 at least ten of the photographed stars, the magnitudes of which 

 are estimated to range between the 7th and 15th, have changed 

 to a considerable extent in the short interval of five days. 



The ten stars referred to are to be found within an area of less 

 than two square degrees of the sky, and in the table given are 

 the co-ordinates of their positions with reference to Orionis. 

 The measurements of the diameters of their photo images on a 

 scale of o"00002 of an inch are also given. 



"Physical Properties of Nickel Steel." By J. Hopkinson, 

 D.Sc, F.R.S. 



Mr. Riley, of the Steel Company of Scotland, has kindly 

 sent me samples of wire drawn from the material concerning the 

 magnetic properties of which I recently made a communication 



