592 



-NATURE 



\April 24, 1890 



in Museum work are cordially invited to join the Association. 

 The conditions of membership are as follows : — Each Museum 

 contributing not less than one guinea a year becomes a member 

 of the Association, and can send three representatives to the 

 meetings. Individuals interested in scientific work are admitted 

 as Associates on payment of \os. 6d. annually. The following 

 are the officers of the Association : — President : Rev. H. H. 

 Higgins ; General Secretaries : H. M. Platnauer, Museum, 

 York, T. J. Moore, Museum, Liverpool ; Local Secretaries : 

 R. Paden, Museum, Liverpool, H. A. Tobias, Museum, 

 Liverpool. 



The next conversazione of the Royal Microscopical Society 

 will be held on Wednesday, the 30lh inst. , at eight o'clock, 



Herr O. Jesse sends us from Steglitz, near Berlin, some very 

 beautiful photographs of luminous night clouds. The photographs 

 of each pair were taken simultaneously at Nanen and Steglitz. 

 Steglitz lies 8 kilometres south-west, Nanen 38 kilometres west- 

 north-west, of the Berlin Observatory. Herr Jesse would add 

 greatly to the value of his work if, the next time he has an 

 opportunity of undertaking it, he would photograph the 

 spectrum. 



La Nature (April 12, p. 303) notes the following curious and 

 interesting phenomena : — Two railways, one the Sceaux line and 

 the other the Ceinture, pass within a comparatively short distance 

 of the Montsouris Observatory, Paris, the former line being about 

 80 metres distant, and the latter but some 60 metres. During the 

 passage of trains on the Ceinture line, which is nearest to the 

 Observatory, the bifilar magnet is found to be disturbed, and 

 its oscillations are registered photographically ; indeed the move- 

 ments are so regular that the curve clearly indicates the exact 

 time of each train passing the Observatory. This phenomenon is 

 due to the fact that as the line crosses the direction of the 

 magnetic meridian the wheel-tires of the carriages become 

 magnetized by induction, and so produce, in consequence of the 

 laws of magnetism, a deviation of the bifilar magnet. The 

 trains on the Sceaux line give rise to a phenomenon not less 

 curious. Whenever the engine-driver blows off steam, the electro- 

 meter is partly discharged, the electrical potential of the air falling 

 to about one-half of its original value. These disturbances are 

 brought forward by the Director of the Paris Observatory in 

 order to oppose the scheme which is now proposed of extending 

 the railway from Sceaux to la Place de Medicis. 



On Tuesday evening, M. Jacques Bertillon (head of the 

 Municipal Bureau of Statistics in Paris) delivered a lecture 

 before the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ire- 

 land, on the method now practised in France of identifying 

 criminals by comparing their measures with those of convicted 

 persons in the prison registers. Mr. Bertillon, who spoke in 

 French, said that the system which he had come there to ex- 

 plain had for its object the recognition of a person 10, 15, 20, 

 or even 100 years after he had been measured, for by that 

 method it was possible to recognize a person after death, if 

 access could be had to his skeleton. Photography was now 

 used only as an aid to identification established by other means. 

 The basis of the anthropometic system was to obtain measure- 

 ments of those bony parts of the body which underwent little 

 or no change after maturity, and could be measured with ex- 

 treme accuracy to within so small a figure as to be practically exact. 

 These parts were the head, the foot, the middle finger, and the 

 extended forearm from the elbow. To clearly illustrate the 

 system, let them suppose 90,000 photographs of men to have 

 been collected. These would be divided into three groups of 

 30,000, according to the height of the men. There would be 

 short men, men of medium height, and tall men. That these 

 three classes might be approximately equal, it was evident that 



the limits of the class of me"n of medium height must be re- 

 stricted more than those of the other two classes. Each of 

 these primary divisions should again be divided on the same 

 principle, without taking any further notice of the height, into 

 three classes, according to the length of the head of each in- 

 dividual. The three classes of short, medium, and long 

 heads would each again be subdivided into three, accord- 

 ing to the width of the heads, and would contain narrow, 

 medium, and wide heads. Experience had proved that with 

 most people the breadth of the head varied independently of 

 the length — that was, given that an individual had a certain 

 length of head, it by no means followed that the breadth of his 

 head could be determined a priori. The length of the middle 

 finger gave a fourth and still more precise indication by which 

 to divide again each one of the packets of photographs ; and 

 these might be divided again according to the length of the 

 foot, the length of the arms outstretched at right angles to the 

 body, and also according to the colour of the eyes. Thus by 

 these anthropometrical coefficients they would be able to divide 

 their collection of 90,000 photographs into very small groups 

 of about 15 each, which they could easily and rapidly examine. 

 M. Bertillon then proceeded to give a practical demonstration 

 of the way in which the measurements were taken. He laid 

 stress on the importance of the hand and the ear as marks of 

 cogniti on. The hand, because it was the organ in most con- 

 stant use in almost every calling and in many trades and pro- 

 fessions, became modified according to the particular character 

 of the work which it had to do. The ear was the precise 

 opposite to this. It changed very slightly, if at all, except, 

 perhaps in the case of prize-fighters, who developed a pecu- 

 liarity of the ear which it was easy to recognize. The ear,, 

 therefore, was an important organ to measure, inasmuch as the 

 results were not likely to be nullified by a change in its con- 

 formation. 



The following telegram was sent through Renter's agency 

 from New York on April 21 : — "Despatches from Mexico state 

 that observations show that the height of the active volcano of 

 Popocatepetl has decreased by 3000 feet since the last measure- 

 ment was taken." 



In the new quarterly statement of the Palestine Exploration 

 Fund, the Committee announce that they have obtained a firman 

 granting permission to excavate at Khiirbet 'Ajlan, the Eglon of 

 Joshua. It is understood that all objects, except duplicates, 

 found in the course of the excavations shall be forwarded to the 

 Museum at Constantinople, but that the Committee's agents 

 shall have the right of making squeezes, sketches, models, photo- 

 graphs, and copies of all such objects. The Committee have 

 been so fortunate as to secure the services of Mr. Flinders 

 Petrie, who is now in Syria making arrangements to start the 

 excavations. 



The death of Dr. Gottlob Friederich H. Kiichenmeister is 

 announced. He was a great authority on Entozoa. 



In the official outline of the principal arrangements at 

 the Crystal Palace for the summer of 1890, reference is 

 made to the International Exhibition of Mining and Metal- 

 lurgy which is to be held there from July 2 to September 

 30. The subjects embraced within the scope of the Exhi- 

 bition comprise machinery in motion and at rest ; gold,, 

 silver, diamond, iron stone, and iron ore mining ; manufacture 

 of iron and steel ; lead mining and manufacture ; tin mining 

 and smelting ; copper and coal mining ; the petroleum and salt 

 industries ; mining for precious stones, &c. There is every ■ 

 reason to expect, through the co-operation of colonial and foreign 

 Governments, many valuable exhibits from abroad. 



The Engineer and Engineering of last week publish long: 

 illustrated accounts of the recent disaster to the City of Paris 



