March 27, 18 90 J 



NA TURE 



495 



Society of Australia have forwarded to the Baron a draft for j^ioo 

 towards the expenses of obtaining some information regarding 

 the fauna and flora of Kina Balu and its neighbourhood. Baron 

 de Lissa has placed himself in communication with the Governor 

 on the subject, and is endeavouring to secure the services of 

 a well-known geologist and naturalist who is residing at 

 Sandakan. 



The following science lectures will be delivered at the Royal 

 Victoria Hall : — April i, an hour with the telescope, by J. D. 

 McClure ; April 15, the colours of a soap bubble, by John Cox. 



It is pleasant to turn over the pages of the handsome new 

 edition of Darwin's famous " Voyage of a Naturalist " (Murray). 

 The text is well printed, and no one can fail to enjoy the admir- 

 able illustrations contributed by Mr. R. T. Pritchett. In a 

 prefatory note Mr. Murray explains that most of the views given 

 in the work are from sketches made on the spot by Mr. Pritchett, 

 with Mr. Darwin's book by his hand. 



In a few days the first part of a new work on the theory of 

 determinants, by Dr. Muir, of Glasgow, will be published by 

 Messrs. Macmillan and Co. It presents the subject in the his- 

 torical order of its development, beginning with the brilliant 

 but unfruitful conceptions of Leibnitz in 1693, and carrying the 

 record forward to 1841, the year of the appearance of Cayley's 

 first paper. 



Mr. H. a. Miers, of the Natural History Museum, is 

 engaged upon a text-book of mineralogy, which will be 

 published by Messrs. Macmillan and Co. 



Last week (p. 478) we noted that at the meeting of the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh, on February 28, Dr. John Berry Haycraft 

 had communicated the results of some recent investigations on 

 voluntary muscular contraction. Dr. Haycraft's observations 

 are interesting both to physiologists and to physicists. Where 

 a muscle is stimulated by an electrical shock, all the fibres of 

 the nerve receive the same stimulus, and all the fibres of the 

 muscle to which the nerve passes contract together, and in the 

 same way. This is not the case when a muscle contracts on 

 receiving a natural nerve stimulation, starting either as a result 

 of volition or of reflex action. The central nervous system 

 seems unable to affect all the fibres of a muscle, through the 

 numerous nerve fibres passing to it, in such a manner that they 

 all shall contract exactly in the same way. The reason for 

 supposing this to be the case is the fact, observed by the author, 

 that fascicular movements are always present within a muscle 

 during a voluntary or a reflex contraction, so that tracings taken 

 from different parts of the same muscle invariably differ from 

 each other. The experiments were conducted both upon the 

 human masseter and the gastrocnemius muscle of the frog. These 

 fascicular movements occurring within it will prevent any muscle 

 Irom pulling with perfect steadiness on an*y lever or other 

 registering apparatus, and the tracings taken by means of such 

 apparatus will show oscillatory waves, often very rhythmical in 

 their appearance. Many observers have concluded from an 

 examination of these tracings that they indicate that the central 

 nervous system discharges impulses into the muscle at a rate 

 corresponding with that of the oscillations observed. Thus some 

 observers find 20, others 10 oscillations per second in the muscle 

 curve, and they consider that the nervous system discharges into 

 the muscle at these rates. The author finds that the fascicular 

 movements just described as occurring within the muscle itself 

 account fully for the oscillations seen, the irregular aperiodic 

 movements of the muscle compounding themselves with the 

 period of oscillation proper to the registering apparatus itself, 

 for by varying the instruments used, the resultant curves 

 may be varied at will, slow oscillations appearing when using 



instruments of slow period, quick oscillations when using 

 instruments of quick period. The author suggests that these 

 fascicular movements probably account for the production of the 

 muscle sound, which Helmholtz long ago pointed out was chiefly 

 an ear-resonance sound. This, of course, could readily be 

 evoked by any slow aperiodic movement, and the fascicular 

 movements within the muscle must at any rate assist in pro- 

 ducing it. These fascicular movements may, perhaps, account 

 for the results obtained by Loven, with the capillary electro- 

 meter, for it is more probable that he was registering the 

 period of his own instrument than that the muscles were twitch- 

 ing at the slow rate of 8 times per second. If these conclusions 

 are correct, there remains little to be said in support of the 

 theory generally accepted that the nervous system normally 

 discharges nerve impulses into the muscles like shots quickly fired 

 from a revolver. It may be that this is the case, but the sub- 

 ject requires more extended investigation before any definite 

 conclusions can be arrived at. 



The St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences has issued the 

 Report for 1889, which was read at the annual meeting on 

 January 12. The Report contains a valuable analysis of the 

 scientific work done by the members during the year. In 

 mathematics. Prof. Tchebysheff's applications of simple fractions 

 to the investigation of the approximate value of the square root, 

 and M. Ishmenetsky's work on the integration of symmetrical 

 differential equations, are especially worthy of note. In astro- 

 nomy, we notice O. A. Backlund's researches on the influence of 

 temperature upon refraction. In physics, M. Khwolson made 

 an attempt at a mathematical investigation of the extremely 

 complicated laws of dispersion of light in milk-coloured glasses. 

 The exploration of earth magnetism has made marked progress, 

 both as regards the theory of diurnal variations and the measure- 

 ment of magnetical elements in Caucasia and Siberia. Besides 

 theoretical work in meteorology, the Central Physical Observa- 

 tory has extended its system of weather-forecasts. Much interest- 

 ing work has been accomplished in geology. Baron Toll having 

 brought out the first volume of the geological part of the work of 

 the expedition to- the New Siberia Islands. In the botanical 

 department the chief event was the publication of two parts of 

 Prof. Maximowicz's description of the plants brought from 

 Central Asia by Przewalsky, as well as the flora of Western 

 China, as represented in the valuable collections brought by 

 M. Potanin. Highly interesting work was done in zoology by 

 Prof. Famintzyn. 



When the sun sets in the sea, a curious appearance, as of a 

 bluish-green flame, is sometimes observed. This has been 

 thought to be due to the light passing through the crests of 

 waves. But Prof. Sohncke (^Met. Zeits.) considers this view 

 disproved by such an observation as that recently made by Prof. 

 Lange at a watering-place on the Baltic. Shortly before sunset, 

 the disk was divided in two by a thin strip of cloud ; and just as 

 the upper part disappeared under the cloud, the blue flame was 

 observed. Thus the cause appears to be in the air, not in the 

 sea. It is a case of atmospheric refraction. And as a planet, 

 seen near the horizon with a good telescope, appears drawn out 

 into a spectrum, with the more refracted blue-violet end higher 

 than the red, so the last visible part of the sun furnishes the 

 blue-violet end of a spectrum. But it would be interesting, 

 Herr Sohncke remarks, to determine more precisely the condi- 

 tions of this not very frequent phenomenon. Perhaps it requires 

 merely great transparency of air, as only in this case would the 

 last ray be able to give a spectrum sufficiently intense in its blue 

 region. 



The Report of the Meteorological Council for the year ending 

 March 31, 1889, has been published, and describes the work of 

 the Office under three heads, (i) Ocean Meteorology. The 



