366 



NATURE 



\Feb. 2 2, 1877 



Some fifty years ago Ampere stated his belief in the existence 

 of molecular electric currents permanently flowing in bodies, 

 and he applied this hypothesis to the explanation of the reci- 

 procal action between movable conductors through which gal- 

 vanic currents are passing and permanent magnets. According 

 to Ampere a permanent magnet contains, in proportion to its 

 strength, a larger or smaller number of molecular currents of the 

 same direction, each of which behaves like a small molecular 

 magnet. In pursuance of this theory, Herr Zoellner has lately 

 made a series of investigations and has recorded the results of 

 his experiments in a paper read before the Royal Saxon Society 

 of Sciences at Leipzig during the past year. With regard to the 

 constitution of material molecules Herr Zoellner expresses his 

 opinion "that each material molecule of a body consists of a 

 conglomeration of (Ampere's) molecular currents of any direction, 

 with a certain quantity of freely movable electric particles, which, 

 under the influence of electrostatic or electrodynamic induction 

 forces, execute such motions or groupings as are determined by 

 Weber's law of electric reciprocal action." It is but fair to state 

 that Weber's views on this subject were identical, and he stated 

 them as early as in 1851 in his explanation of diamagnetism. 

 Zoellner makes a whole series of deductions from this theory, all 

 of which agree with observed phenomena and laws found in 

 various domains of physical science. 



The Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing sends us an interesting letter on 

 the true origin and correct pronunciation of the name Antedon, 

 which we regret we have not space to print in full. As the result 

 of careful inquiry, Mr. Stebbing concludes that the name is un- 

 doubtedly feminine, that the middle syllable should be pro- 

 nounced long, and that the aspirate which de Freminville 

 dropped ought to be restored to the spelling, " If, then, we were 

 to adopt the compromise suggested in Mr. Herbert Carpenter's 

 important letter (vol. xv. p. 197), we should have to write, instead 

 of either Comatula rosacea or Antedon rosacens, the trinomial, 

 Comatula {anthedoft) rosacea. To sanction such an innovation as 

 Mr. Carpenter proposes, no doubt some general agreement would 

 be required, and the same general agreement might be usefully 

 employed in sanctioning a statute of limitations against the 

 revival of obsolete names, and to insure the publication of new 

 scientific names in one or other of a very limited number of 

 chronicles. Some international science congress of the future 

 may perhaps achieve the requisite legislation." 



The yournal of the Society of Arts ior February 16 contains 

 a useful paper by Dr. R, J. Mann, on "Recent Explorations of 

 the Lake Systems of Central Africa," 



We notice an important German work, by the Bernese Pro- 

 fessor, Dr, Emmert, on the diseases of the eye, occasioned by 

 various professions, and especially by the vicious arrangements 

 in schools. An inquiry made by the learned Professor in the 

 cantons of Berne, Solothurn, and Neuchatel proves that an in- 

 creasing myopy is the fate of all scholars, and that at the age of 

 twenty years there are very few of them who are not afllicted with 

 this disease. Various hints by the author as to improved 

 arrangements to be adopted in schools deserve the attention of 

 school boards. 



A recent subscriber will find an account of Siemens' Batho- 

 meter in Nature, March 30, 1876 (vol. xiii. p. 431). 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two Pennant's Parrakeets (Platycercus pen- 

 nanti) from New South Wales, presented by Mr. E. Sargent ; 

 an Anaconda {Eunectes murinus), a Crested Curassow [Crax 

 alector), and two Green-billed Curassows (C. viridirostris) from 

 South America ; two Feline Dourocoulis {NyctipitJiecus felinus) 

 from South Brazil; two Cariamis (Cariama cristata), from South 

 America, purchased. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



London 

 Royal Astronomical Society, February 9. — Annual 

 general meeting. — -William Huggins, D.C.L., president, in the 

 chair. The following gentlemen — A. Mason Worthington, B. A., 

 John Sidney White, and George Francis Hardy, were elected 

 fellows of the Society. The annual report of the society showed 

 that the number of Fellows had been increased during the past 

 year, and that the society's library had been enriched by several 

 important presents of books and manuscripts. Ten minor 

 planets have been discovered in the course of last year, six of 

 them in America, and four in France. In solar physics Prof. 

 Tacchini has made an interesting investigation as to the relative 

 height of solar prominences at different times of the sun-spot 

 period. Prof. Young has determined the rate of the solar 

 rotation by means of the displacement of the dark lines in the 

 spectrum of the sun's limb. He has also proved that the 1474 

 line is double, and that the two components are of unequal 

 strength ; the coronal line corresponds to the stronger of the 

 two, whilst the other is one of the faint lines in the spectrum of 

 iron. Mr. Huggins' photographs of the spectra of stai's were 

 also referred to, and a short account was given of the observa- 

 tions of the new star in Cygnus, which was discovered by Dr. 

 Schmidt, at Athens, on November 24, 1876. Its spectrum gives 

 several bright lines, amongst which are tiiree of the hydrogen 

 lines, C being the brightest of all, the sodium line D, or the 

 chromosphere line near D, the magnesium lines ^, and the 

 coronal line 1474. The reduction of the observations of the 

 transit of Venus has been proceeding continuously at the Green- 

 wich Observatory, under the direction of Capt. Tupman. All the 

 observations with transit instruments at the various stations for 

 local time and longitud«s of Honolulu and Rodriguez by the 

 observations of the moon in zenith distance have been com- 

 pletely reduced. An idea of the magnitude of the undertaking 

 may be formed when it is stated that these two last calculations 

 required the use of three millions of figures. The Report having 

 been adopted, the Society proceeded to the election of Officers 

 for the ensuing year, and the following gentlemen were elected : 

 As President, William Huggins, F.R.S. As Vice-Presi- 

 dents : J. C. Adams, F.R.S., Lowndean Professor of As- 

 tronomy, Cambridge; Sir G, B. Airy, K.C.B., F.R.S., Astro- 

 nomer Royal; Arthur Cayley, F.R.S., Sadlerian Professor of 

 Geometry, Cambridge; Edwin Dunkin, F.R.S. As Trea- 

 surer, Samuel Charles Whitbread, F.R.S. As Secretaries: J. 

 W. Lee Glaisher, F.R.S. ; A. Cowper Ranyard, M.A. As 

 Foreign Secretary, Lord Lindsay, M.P. As Council: John 

 Brett, Esq. ; W. H. M. Christie, M.A. Warren De La Rue, 

 F.R.S. ; J. R. Hind, F.R S., Superintendent of the Nautical 

 Almanac ; E. B. Knobel ; George Knott ; William Lassell, 

 F.R.S. ; E. Nelson; Capt. Wm. Noble; Rev. S. J. Perry, 

 F.R.S, ; Earl of Rosse, F.R.S, ; Capt. G. L. Tupman, R.M.A. 



Geological Society, January 24. — Prof. P. Martin Duncan, 

 M.B,, F.R.S., president, in the chair. — George Barrow, 

 William Heerlein Lindley, and Joseph Samuel Martin, were 

 elected Fellows of the Society, — The following communi- 

 cations were read : — Note on the question of the glacial 

 or volcanic origin of the Talchir boulder-bed of India and 

 the Karoo boulder-bed of South Africa, by H. F, Blanford, 

 F,G.S. The author, referring to a doubt expressed by the 

 President in a paper on Australian tertiary corals as to the 

 glacial origin of the Talchir boulder-bed, indicated that the 

 hypothesis of its formation by the action of local glaciers under 

 present climatal conditions would require the elevation of the 

 whole region to the extent of 14,000 or 15,000 feet, and the 

 assumption that the denudation of this great mountain mass was 

 so moderate that large tracts of the ancient surface are .still pre- 

 served at levels now only a few hundred feet above the sea. This 

 the author regarded as very improbable. He assumed that the 

 President, rejecting the evidence adduced by various writers in 

 favour of the glacial origin of the Talchir and Karoo boulder- 

 beds, was inclined to fall back upon the notion of their being of 

 volcanic origin, and quoted a letter from Mr, King, who had 

 described he Talchir rocks of Kamaram as trappean, in which 

 that gentleman stated that the rocks so interpreted by him prove 

 to be dark green and brownish mudstone. He cited further 

 evidence of like nature, and concluded that the ascription of a 

 volcanic origin to these boulder-beds was probably in all cases 

 due to similar misinterpretations. — On British cretaceous patel- 

 loid gasteroporada, by John Starkie Gardner, F,G.S. In this 



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