126 



NATURE 



[March 24, 192 1 



Physical Society, February 25.— Sir W. H. Bragg, 

 president, in the chair. — R. H. Humphry: A note on 

 the hot-wire inclinometer. Two fine platinum wires 

 were stretched jparallel to each other in a hole in a 

 copper block and were heated electrically. The 

 changes caused by rotation were investigated with 

 hydrogen, air, and carbon dioxide surrounding the 

 wires. The inclinometer filled with carbon dioxide 

 was much more sensitive than one filled with air. 

 The shape of the curves obtained suggests that the 

 temperature gradient in the region traversed by the 

 wires is nearly uniform. — Prof. E. F. Herroun and 

 Prof. E. Wilson : The magnetic susceptibility of 

 certain natural and artificial oxides. The susceptibility 

 of ferric oxide as occurring iri Nature varies through 

 a wide range, but in the case of artificial preparations 

 the range of variation may be much greater. The 

 passage through the stage of magnetic oxide im- 

 presses more pronounced magnetic properties upon 

 the resulting ferric oxide. Heating feebly magnetic 

 ferric oxide with a basic oxide, e.^. lime or mag- 

 nesia, increases susceptibility (confirming List and 

 others). When higher susceptibility has been pro- 

 duced by heating ferric oxide, removal of the 

 metal leaves the ferric oxide in a magnetic condition. 

 The aluminates formed when ferric oxide is 

 replaced by aluminic oxide show no definite 

 increase in susceptibility. — J. Guild : The refracto- 

 metry of prisms. A generalised formula for the 

 refraction of light through a prism is obtained, and 

 the particular cases pertaining to practical methods of 

 refractometrv are deduced from it. The sensitivity of 

 various methods for various prism angles and refrac- 

 tive indices is shown in a series of curves, as is also the 

 liability to error due to errors in auxiliary constants. — 

 T. Smith : Tracing rays through an optical system. A 

 further development of the system described by the 

 author in the previous papers of the same title pre- 

 sented to the society ; formulae for skew rays are 

 put into a shape so far as possible similar to those 

 applying to rays in one plane. 



Aristotelian Society, March 7.— Prof. A. N. White- 

 head in the chair. — Prof. J. E. Boodin : Cosmic evolu- 

 tion. Modern science and modern philosophy agree 

 in treating the evolution of our earth as an indepen- 

 dent drama. The later levels of evolution are sup- 

 posed by some magic to enierge from the earlier — 

 life from matter, thought from reflex action. Some 

 have attempted to introduce a plus principle, such as 

 an ilan vital or entelechy. But such a principle would 

 have to be present from the beginning, thus ante- 

 dating life. It would have to account for the reversed 

 or alternating directions of evolutionary series, and 

 sometimes it would have to lie dormant for long 

 periods of time. It is at best an abstraction of the 

 fact that certain processes have direction. It does 

 not explain the fact. For this we need a cosmic 

 dynamics, and this is found in interaction. Inter- 

 action is not merely a speculative principle. No 

 reasonable man could hold that our complicated organs 

 of si^ht and hearing are developed by chance in the 

 organism without reference to the cosmic environ- 

 ment. It is safe to say that if there were no light 

 patterns there would be no eyes; if there were no 

 sound patterns there would be no ears. Through a 

 long trial and error process and under the control 

 of cosmic patterns the organism develops the appro- 

 priate instruments to respond in specific and differen- 

 tial ways to the cosmos. And what shall we sav of 

 the various levels of control within the organism ? Can 

 we account for the unique type of pattern of creative 

 thoup-ht and its control of the lower levels bv a chance 

 combination of reflex arcs? Here, too, w-e must invoke 

 NO. 2682, VOL. I07I 



the principle of cosmic interaction. The development 

 of the organism to think is due as truly to thought 

 patterns communicated through the cosmic continuum 

 as the development of seeing is due to the light patterns 

 acting upon organic matter. And thought patterns, 

 like light patterns, must be communicated from other 

 worlds that are of a level to emit such patterns. We 

 know no other way. In neither case is it the act 

 of thinking or seeing which is communicated. This is 

 due to the interaction of the respective patterns with 

 matter and its properties. 



Cambridge. 



Philosophical Society, February 28. — Sir Ernest 

 Rutherford, vice-president, in the chair. — Sir Joseph 

 Larmor : The nature of the crystal-reflection of X-rays. 

 The analysis of X-radiation by a crystal suggests the 

 general problem of selective reflection from a medium 

 the properties of which vary periodically with depth 

 according to any assigned law. The equations of this 

 problem reduce to the well-known ditterential equa- 

 tion discussed by Hill in connection with the lunar 

 theory. The conditions for selective reflection reveal 

 immediately the main characteristics of the solutions 

 of Hill's equation; while the expansions in series 

 which have been worked out for various cases can be 

 applied in numerical illustration of the action of the 

 crystal grating. The laws of reflection from a single 

 sheet of ions are also considered. — Dr. G. F. C. Searle : 

 An experiment on focal lines formed by a zone plate. 

 When the axis ON of a zone plate passes through a 

 luminous point Pj the zone plate acts as a lens. When 

 ON makes an angle with OP, two sets of focal 

 lines take the place of the single set of images. For 

 lines in the plane PON the focal length is independent 

 of 0. The theory is extended to the case in which a 

 wave-front of any form falls at any angle on the zone 

 plate — a case realised by placing between P and O a 

 lens having one face cylindrical. — R. H. Fowler and 

 C. N. H. Lock : The origin of the disturbances in the 

 initial motion of a shell. The principal part of the 

 disturbance is orientated similarly from round to 

 round, and it is therefore argued that the cause is to 

 be looked for in vibrations of the barrel. — E. K. 

 Rideal : The latent heats of vaporisation. The latent 

 heats of evaporation can be derived by calculation 

 with the aid of the quantum theory. Regarding the 

 process of evaporation as a monomolecular chemical 

 reaction, it is possible by means of the effusion for- 

 mula of Herz and Langmuir, and the equation for 

 monomolecular chemical reaction of Dushman and 

 Rideal, to evaluate the Nernst chemical constants. The 

 expression derived for the chemical constant agrees 

 dimensionally with a modified expression of Linde- 

 mann's which was obtained from dimensional con- 

 siderations. 



Paris, 



Academy of Sciences, February 28. — M. Georges 

 Lemoine in the chair. — G. Humbert : The ternary 

 forms of Hermite in an imaginary quadratic body 

 (fields v^-i and v'-2).— C. Richet, E. Bachrach, and 

 H. Cardot : The phenomena of anaphylaxy in micro- 

 organisms. Studies on the growth of the lactic 

 bacillus in presence of thallium salts. Strains of this 

 organism grown in presence of a small proportion of 

 the poison for several generations become indifferent 

 to it ; but if now transferred to a culture medium 

 containing a higher proportion of the thallium salt, 

 growth is much less vigorous than with a lactic strain 

 not accustomed to thallium salts. This may be consi- 

 dered as an anaphylactic phenomenon. — P. Vuillemin : 



