Atigust 2, 1888] 



NATURE 



3 2 7 



varying quantities. Hence, by extending the observations over 

 a large number of specimens it is possible to find a few which 

 contain only a small number — one, two, or three — of these new 

 elements in any considerable quantity. Working upon this 

 piinciple, Drs. Kriiss and Kiesewetter have been fortunate in 

 discovering a mineral, yttro-titanite of Arendal, the absorption- 

 spectrum of whose nitrates indicates the presence in large 

 quantity of only two elements, viz. that constituent of didymium 

 termed DiS, and the constituent X£ of holmium. The bands 

 of these elements are very intense, and are of wave-lengths 

 521 "5 and 452"6 respectively. Sarmrium is entirely absent, but 

 there are small quantities of constituents of erbium and thulium 

 present. However, the DiS and X£ so largely preponderate, 

 that their fractionation is being undertaken. This happy dis- 

 covery goes very far to prove the accuracy of the deductions 

 made by Kriiss and Nilson, which have caused so much discus- 

 sion in chemical circles ; for of the elements composing the 

 mixture called didymium we have here only one of thetn, and 

 of the constituents of holmium we have likewise but one repre- 

 sentative. Therefore the compound nature of didymium and 

 holmium may now be taken as proved. 



At the meeting of the Scientific Committee of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society, on the 24th ult., Dr. Masters showed 

 ripe fruits of the Plymouth strawberry, grown from plants pre- 

 sented to him by Mr. G. F. Wilson. This curious monstrosity 

 is an alpine strawberry, in which all the parts of the flower 

 are more or less represented by leaves. The plant was men- 

 tioned by old botanical writers, but afterwards disappeared, or 

 was so completely overlooked that its very existence was as- 

 sumed to be a myth. Of late years, however, the plant has 

 reappeared in several gardens, and the correctness of the old 

 writers has been vindicated. 



Plaster-of-Paris models of the bed of the Atlantic Ocean 

 and of that of the Carribean Sea have been sent by the United 

 States Hydrographic Office to the Cincinnatti Exhibition. They 

 were made by Mr. E. E. Court, of the Hydrographic Office ; and 

 the charts from which they were constructed were carefully revised 

 by Commander J. R. Bartlett and Lieut. J. L. Dyer, respec- 

 tively former and present Hydrographer. Science suggests that 

 duplicates or even photographs of these models would be of very 

 great value in the teaching of physical geography. That of the 

 bottom of the Atlantic would, says our American contemporary, 

 give a pupil more actual instruct ion in a quarter of an hour than 

 could be obtained by a week's study of descriptive text. This 

 model, it seems, shows many things that will be surprising to 

 almost everybody except the expert hydrographer. One of these 

 is the great height of many of the small islands from the ocean's 

 bed, when compared with their area either above the surface of 

 the water or where they rest upon the bottom of the sea. This 

 height is exaggerated in the model by the perpendicular scale 

 being made fifty times as great as the horizontal scale ; but, even 

 allowing for that, these islands stand up like tall, narrow, trun- 

 cated cones, many of them not being more than twice as far 

 across at the base as at the top. 



The United States Fish Commission lately sent off to 

 •California 600 live lobsters, 350 of which arrived safely at 

 Sacramento. Several attempts had previously been made to 

 send live lobsters across the North American Continent, but had 

 failed. In the present instance, as we learn from Science, Colonel 

 McDonald, Fish Commissioner, personally superintended the 

 packing of the lobsters. A crate or box devised by the late 

 Captain Chester was used. This was placed within another 

 larger box, the intervening space being filled with pounded ice. 

 In the inner box the lobsters were placed between layers of rock- 

 weed, which at times was moistened with sea-water. Each box 

 had an independent drain, so that the fresh water from the 

 melting ice could not «nter the lobster-box. The temperature 



of the latter was kept at 45" F. A Fish Commission car was 

 used, the boxes along the side of it serving as the outer box of 

 the combination described above ; one hundred crates, each con- 

 taining six lobsters, being placed in them, and surrounded v\ ith 

 ice. Each morning before sunrise a careful inspection of the 

 lobsters was made, and those that had died were removed. The 

 first day 45 died ; the second clay, 55. After that the mortality 

 was much less. All of those that died were in an advanced 

 state of shedding, and were in poor condition when they started. 

 One half of the 350 lobsters that arrived safely on the Pacific 

 coast were placed in the ocean north of San Francisco, and the 

 other half south. The condition of the water in that region is 

 similar to that of the Atlantic off the Massachusetts coast. The 

 temperature is about the same, but is more constant. The 

 lobster on the Massachusetts coast crawls out into deep water in 

 the summer, where the temperature is low, but it is thought that 

 the equable temperature of the Pacific will enable the lobster in 

 these waters to spend the whole year in one spot. 



Ax account of two interesting old globes in the library of the 

 Middle Temple will be presented in the next volume of the 

 Hakluyt Society's series. These globes, one terrestrial, the other 

 celestial, were made by E. Molyneux in 1593, and were the first 

 ever produced in England. The geography on the terrestrial 

 globe was afterwards brought down to 1603. A description of 

 the globes was written in Latin in 1593 by Robert Hughes, a 

 mathematician of the period. This description was rendered into 

 English by Chilmead, of Oxford, in 1623 ; and Chilmead's 

 translation, which has been prepared for publication by Mr. 

 Coote, of the Map Department of the British Museum, will form 

 the substance of the forthcoming volui e. The editor of the 

 volume is Mr. Clements Markham. 



The Report of the Council of the North-Eastern Sanitary 

 Inspection Association for 1887-88 — the fifth financial year of the 

 Association — has been issued at Newcastle. Excellent work is 

 evidently being done by the Association. One of its good deeds 

 has been the formation at Newcastle of a permanent exhibition 

 of sanitary appliances. This exhibition was fitted up at con- 

 siderable outlay by the Association as well as by exhibitors, and 

 is open daily, free to the public, to whom it has proved of great 

 value. " To see the best appliances in each department 

 properly fitted," says the Report, "and to have any explanation 

 desired freely given, where there is nothing on sale, are 

 advantages that must be the better appreciated the more widely 

 they are known. So far as known, there is no better permanent 

 collection in the Kingdom." 



In the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine for August, Dr. R. 

 C. R. Jordan presents a list of species of Lepidoptera taken by 

 him during a short visit to jersey. In this list there are several 

 species which have not hitherto been known to occur in the 

 Channel Islands. Dr. Jordan proposes that a Committee of 

 working entomologists should be formed for the thorough 

 investigation of all orders of insects inhabiting these islands. 



We have received the second supplement of Mr. John 

 Wheldon's Botanical Catalogue. It includes, besides a large 

 number of books relating to botanical subjects, many important 

 works on agriculture. 



The Calendar of the Heriot-Watt College, Edinburgh, for 

 the session 1888-89, has been issued; and it is satisfactory to 

 find that in this well-known institution provision is made for 

 that higher commercial and technical education about which so 

 much has lately been said. It is claimed that the College pos- 

 sesses, in its lecture theatres, laboratories, and workshops, every 

 facility for preparing young men for work as merchants, manu- 

 facturers, or engineers, and for supplying in the evening such 

 instruction as is required by those already employed in such 

 occupations. 



