352 



NATURE 



{Feb. 13, 1879 



cUtion the entire coast line from Keppel Point to McFarlane 

 Harbour was traversed on foot. 



Perhaps no branch of anthropology has been more cultivated 

 or yielded larger results during the last few years than that 

 relating to prehistoric man. At the same time no inconsiderable 

 part of the evidence has been derived from the examination of 

 osseous and other remains in caves both in England and on the 

 continent. The greatest interest has always been felt in the 

 revelations that might accrue to the science of anthropology by 

 an investigation of the bone- caves of Borneo, situated as that 

 island is on the confines of the lost continent Lemuria, where 

 Dr. Peschel thinks it possible that the first appearance of man 

 may have taken place. In his late presidential address to the 

 Anthropological Institute, Mr. Evans referred to the fact that 

 Mr. Everett, a well-known naturalist, had undertaken to devote 

 a twelvemonth to the prosecution of cave-researches in Borneo. 

 Mr. Everett commenced his researches in October last, and the 

 principal proceeds from more or less extensive excavations in 

 several caves are now on their way to this country, Mr. 

 Everett's first quarterly report had just been received by Mr. 

 Evans, in which the discovery is reported of numerous mam- 

 malian remains, the age of which has still, of course, to be 

 determined, and also of remains of a race of men of whom no 

 local tradition seems to be extant, and who habitually used the 

 caves of Upper Sarawak either as domiciles, or as places of 

 sepulture, or possibly for other purposes. Though unknown to 

 history or tradition, this race of men appear to have been 

 acquainted with the use of manufactured iron, so that, probably, 

 no great antiquity is to be assigned to the remains already 

 discovered. Mr. Evans stated that at least 100/. has still to be 

 forthcoming for the exploration fund, in addition to what has 

 been already subscribed, and that he would be happy to receive 

 subscriptions. 



The magnetic behaviour of iron in the form of powder haS 

 lately been investigated by Prof, von Waltenhofen, of Prague. 

 Three samples of finely pulverised and chemically pure iron, 

 filling well-closed glass tubes, were magnetised by means of 

 spirals of wire, through which were sent currents of increasing 

 intensity, and the magnetic moments thus produced were mea- 

 sured. A comparison of these with those excited in equally 

 heavy iron and steel bars by equal magnetising forces shows 

 that the specific magnetisability of pulverised iron is not only 

 much smaller than that of coherent iron, but even smaller than 

 that of the hardest kind of steel known, viz., glass -hard Wolf- 

 ram steel. Prof. Waltenhofen seeks an explanation of this in 

 the circumstance that the magnetic mutual action of the polar 

 molecules, which strengthens the action of exterior magnetising 

 forces, is greatly lessened through the comparatively great 

 intervals between the particles of the powdered iron ; and the 

 numbers he obtained led him to the conclusion that the electro- 

 magnetism of an iron bar is to be regarded only in the least part 

 as due to direct action of the magnetising current, and mainly 

 due to that reciprocal action of the molecular magnets. 



In his ninth Bridgewater treatise, Mr. Babbage refers to the 

 possibility of constructing an automaton which would play the 

 simple game of tit-tat-to (or "oughts and crosses"). Such a 

 machine (probably the first ever constructed), working on the 

 principle of a mechanical table, has been made by Mr. Freeland 

 of Philadelphia. It is described in the January number of the 

 Jourtial of the Franklin Institute, and was exhibited at the 

 Institute on October 16 last year. It is now at the University 

 of Pennsylvania, where, since its final adjustment, it has jolayed 

 a large number of games without losing a single one. 



Earthquakes are reported from Waldkirch and Buchholz, 

 in Baden, on January 26, at 10 p.m. Both villages are situated 



in the Elz Valley, on the slopes of the Kandel Mountain, which 

 measures 1,380 metres in height. A violent shock was also felt 

 in the Swiss Canton of Uri on January 24, at 2 a.m. 



The Italian Secretary for Agriculture, Industry, and Com- 

 merce, has offered a prize of 3,oc» lire (about 115/.) for the best 

 monograph on the cultivation, growth, and diseases of the 

 species citrtis (the common lemon-tree). The competition will 

 last until May, 188 1, and all particulars may be learnt direct 

 from the Secretary's office at Rome. 



A VERY satisfactory Report comes to us from the Free 

 Library Committee of Dundee. Under the care of Mr. Mac- 

 lachlan, the library, in the quality of its contents and its organi- 

 sation, is becoming one of the first of the kind in the kingdom, 

 and is evidently well appreciated by the busy and inquisitive 

 workers of Dundee. Scientific works have a large share of 

 attention, and the museum, we are glad to see, is rapidly ex- 

 tending, and is likely ere long to be worthy of one of our great 

 commercial centres. We have received a carefully compiled 

 fourth supplement to the catalogue of the Library. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two Slender Loris {Loris gracilis) from 

 Ceylon, presented by Mr. Leith Bonhate ; a Common Rhea 

 (Rhea americana) from South America, presented by Major 

 Venables ; a Purple-crested Touracou {Corythaix porphyreolopha) 

 from East Africa, presented by the Rev. J. A. Gould ; a 

 Geoffroy's Dove {Peristera geoffroii), bred in the Gardens. 



OXYGEN IN THE SUN^ 



"yHE paper referred to appeared in the October number o; 

 ■*■ this Journal.^ A cursory glance at it gives the impres-? 

 sion that the methods had been carefully criticised beforehand, 

 that the experiments had been made with minute accuracy and 

 that the results were trustworthy ; but closer examination of it 

 raises most serious questions on all the points mentioned. 

 Errors of method and of experiment appear which make it quite 

 impossible to accept the conclusions reached. It is the purpose 

 of this note to point out some of these. 



In the first place the author throiighout the paper confounds 

 Angstrom's scale numbers with wave-lengths. Thus, for ex- 

 ample, p. 257, he says, line 18, the photographs were "in 

 sections of eighty to one hundred wave-lengths," line 24, 

 " each wave-length being five millimeters in extent," and line 34, 

 "each section of one hundred or more wave-lengths ; " p. 258, 

 line 24, "Error amounting to half a wave-length could there- 

 fore exist in the position of a line, according as it fell on one 

 side or the other of a figure on the scale expressing a wave- 

 length; " p. 259, line 18, one iron line "to every eleven wave- 

 len^Tths was used ; " p. 261, line 18, no element gives "a line 

 within two or three-tenths of a wave-length of that position ;"' 

 p. 264, line 16, " no other element furnishes a line which falls 

 on the same wave-length." In proof that he really means scale 

 divisions, he gives a section of his chart on p. 259, and says, 

 line 38, " On the first space below the line is the scale of wave- 

 lengths, each wave-length being five millimeters in extent ; " and 

 p. 260, line 28, ' ' in the eighteen wave-lengths represented in 

 the diagram." There are eighteen scale divisions in the diagram, 

 each scale division being five millimeters long. Again, p. 264, 

 referring to the coincidence of oxygen and solar lines in his 

 table, he says, line 2, "in four, the difference is only five one- 

 hundredths of a wave-length ; in twenty-two, ten one-hundredths 

 of a wave-length ; in four, fifteen one-hundredths of a wave- 

 length ; in eleven, twenty-one one-hundredths of a wave-length ; 

 and in the remainder, the greatest difference is only thirty-five 

 one-hundredths of a wave-length." Referring to the table, the 

 four lines first mentioned are given as 398275, 4075*50, 4345 '15, 

 and 4483*80 ; the corresponding oxygen lines being given as 

 3982-70, 4075-45, 4345*20, and 4483-75. The difference is 

 obviously five one-hundredths of a scale division, not of a wave- 



' Note en J. C. Draper's paper "On the Presence c£ Dark Lmes in the 

 Solar Spectrum which correspond closely to the Lines of the Spectrum c£ 

 Oxygen." From the A])tericaii J curnal of Science for Febru?.ry. Commu- 

 nicated by the Author. 



2 See Nature, vol. xviii. p. 654. 



i 



