Jan. 5, 1888] 



NATURE 



239 



he atomic weight (X) of each of the first fourteen elements in 

 VIendelejeff's classification is a simple multiple of the same 

 )0wer of the atomic weight of lithium. Or X' = mf 



/. X = 1-9459 + ^ 



It is easy to see that since x may be any whole number, and m 

 iny small whole number, X may have any value whatever within 

 ;he limits of errors of experiment ; or the relation is fanciful 

 rather than real. 



2 (" - - 

 8. Values of the definite integral -j- \ ^ "^ ^^x represent- 



Vir J o 

 ing tlie probability curve, upon which the whole science of the 

 adjustment and comparison of quantitative experiments is 

 based. 



Tables of the third class, which ofter special facilities to those 

 sngaged in any one kind of work, are very numerous. 



The physicist has Rankine's "Rules and Tables," Everett's 

 "Units and Physical Constants," Hospitallier's " Formulaire de 

 I'Electricien,' and many others. 



The chemist has Biedermann's "Kemiker Kalendar," the 

 " Agenda du Chemiste," and various tables for analysis, such as 

 those at the end of Fresenius. 



The needs of both physicists and chemists are more or less 

 supplied by Landolt and Bernstein's " Tabellen," the " Annuaire 

 du Bureau des Longitudes," and my own more portable 

 "Numerical Tables and Constants in Elementary Science." 



I know of no such numerical compendium dealing with biology, 

 but have often felt the want of one. 



To sum up briefly the points which have been so far 



touched upon. The great majority of numerical problems which 



eally occur in scientific work only require four figures to be 



ccurately dealt with ; hence a little ingenuity will generally 



ring them within the range of small tables. They should be 



orked out neatly, and as briefly as is consistent with the requisite 



ccuracy ; all useless figures should be rigorously excluded as 



nisleading. Some few problems require the use of more power- 



ul tables. Six-figure tables, such as those in Weale's series, 



nd Collins's Logarithms for practical men, are little used, and 



; venient in practice. Seven-figure tables, such as Callet, 



>n, Babbage, Chambers, Schron, Bremiker, Bruhns, Sang, 



,._. ..a as numbers go are nearly equally good ; they differ chiefly 



n the trigonometrical ratios, which lie outside our present subject, 



md also considerably in price. Sydney Lupton. 



( To be continued. ) 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Zoological Society, Decem'ier 20, 1887. — Prof. W. H. 

 •"lower, F. R.S., Pre-ident, in the chair. — The Secretary read a 

 eport on the additions that had been made to the Society's 

 lenagerio during the month of November 1887. — Mr. Sclater 

 ead a letter from Dr. H. Burmeister containing a description of 

 supposed new Humming-bird from Tucuman. Mr. Sclater 

 roposed to call this species, of which the type was in the 

 fational Museum of Buenos Ayres, C/uEtocercus burmeisteri. — 

 'he Secretary exhibited, on behalf of Major Yerbury, a pair of 

 cms of the Oorial {Ovis cycloceros), which formerly belonged 

 the Royal Artillery Mess at Fort Attock, and were stated to 

 ave been originally obtained in the Chitta Pahar Range, a few 

 liles south of Attock. Tliese horns were apparently of the 

 )rm lately described by Mr. A. O. Hume as Ovis blanfordi. — 

 .n extract was read from a letter received from Mr. H. M. 

 hipson, of the Bombay Natural History Society, offering some 

 ing Snakes for the Society's collection. — Mr. F. E. Beddard 

 ad a paper on Hooker's Sea-lion, Otaria (Arctocephalus) 

 ookeri, based upon the specimens of this species recently 

 ceived by the Society, one of which had lately died. Tne 

 thor called attention to the external features, visceral anatomy, 

 ,d osteology of this Sea-lion, in comparison with the corre- 

 onding characters of other species of the group. — Mr. G. A. 

 ulenger read the description of a new genus of Lizards of the 

 pily Teiidte, founded on a specimen presented to the British 

 useum by Mr. H. N. Ridley, who had obtained it in the 

 [rest of Iguarasse, Pernambuco. The author proposed to name 

 ~ izarcl Sifuolepis ridleyi. — A communication from the Rev. 



H. S. Gorham, entitled a " Revision of the Japanese species of 

 EndoiJiychidcE," was read. In this paper three new genera and 

 thirteen new species were characterized and described. Addi- 

 tional observations were made upon the species previously 

 known to inhabit Japan. The new species were based on 

 specimens obtained by Mr. George Lewis during his last 

 journey to the islands in 1880-81. — Mr. G. A. Boulenger gave 

 an account of the fishes obtained by Surgeon-Major A. S. G. 

 Jayakar at Muscat, east coast of Arabia, which had been pre- 

 sented by him to the British Museum. The collection con- 

 tained specimens of 172 species, many of which were unrepre- 

 sented in the national collection, and fifteen of which were 

 apparently new to science. — Mr. H. Druce read a paper 

 containing descriptions of some new species of Lepidoptera 

 Heterocera, from Tropical Africa. 



Edinburgh, 



Royal Society, December 19, 1887. — Sir Douglas 

 Maclagan, Vice-President, in the chair. — Mr. John Murray 

 communicated a paper on the height and volume of the dry land, 

 and the depth and volume of the ocean. The mean height of 

 the land above sea-level is 2250 feet. Only 2 per cent, of the 

 ocean is included inside a depth of 500 fathoms. Seventy-seven 

 per cent, lies between depths of 500 and 3000 fathoms. Ttie 

 mean depth of the ocean is 12,480 feet. If all the land were 

 utilized to fill up hollows on the earth's surface, the sea would 

 cover it to a uniform depth of 2 miles. — Sir W. Turner read a 

 paper on the pineal gland in the walrus. The gland is excessively 

 developed backwards, being visible from above without any dis- 

 section of the brain. The author contrasted it with the same 

 gland in the lizard which is prolonged forwards and ends in the 

 pineal eye. The cerebral lobes in the lizard are small, while 

 those of all mammals are large. He suggested that the develop- 

 ment of the lobes may have carried the gland backwards, and 

 caused atrophy of the prolongation ending in the pineal eye. The 

 atrophy, on the other hand, might have been caused by ossification 

 extending over the aperture where the eye is situated. — Dr. 

 Byron Bramwell described a method which he and Dr. Milne 

 Murray had used successfully to record the exact time-relations 

 of cardiac sounds and murmurs. — Prof. Crum Brown sub- 

 mitted a paper by Prof. Letts on the benzyl phosphines. 

 — Dr. H. R. Mill read a criticism by Dr. Guppy on the 

 theory of subsidence as explaining the origin of coral reefs. — 

 Prof. Tait discussed the compressibility of water and of different 

 solutions of common salt. Perkins proved sixty years ago that 

 water becomes less compressible as the pressure is raised. At 

 high pressures then it may be roughly assimilated to an extremely 

 compressed gas. If the gas be regarded as consisting of hard 

 spheres, the curve representing the relation between pressure and 

 volume is approximately hyperbolic. The first asymptote of the 

 hyperbola indicates what must be added to the external pressure 

 to give the whole pressure to which the liquid is subject. The 

 second indicates the ultimate volume to which it could be reduced 

 by an infinite pressure. Applying this to the experimental 

 results given to the Society in July last, the author showed that 

 the pressure in water under ordinary circumstances is somewhere 

 about thirty-two tons' weight per square inch ; and the ultimate 

 loss of volume under infinite pressure is about 25 per cent. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, December 26, 1887. — M. Janssen, 

 President, in the chair. — Annual address, by M. Janssen. 

 After brief reference to the losses sustained by the Academy 

 during the year by the deaths of the illustrious savants MM. 

 Paul Bert, Gasselin, Boussingault, and Vulpian, the President 

 passed on to speak of recent scientific progress in France. 

 Special mention was made of the magnificent Observatory just 

 completed at Nice, for which the munificent founder, M. 

 Bischoffsheim, receives the Arago Medal, now for the first time 

 awarded. Allusion was also made to the isolation of fluorine 

 effected by M. Moissan, and to the development of stellar 

 photography, declared to be an "invention d'origine toute 

 fran9aise." Nevertheless reference is made to the preliminary 

 work of the English and American labourers in this field, 

 Rutherfurd, Warren de la Rue, Bond, and Gould. — Tne 

 Presidential allocution was followed by the announcement of 

 the prizes for the year 1887, by the Secretary, M. J. Bertrand, 

 who also read a paper on the life and work of the distinguished 

 engineer, Stanislas Charles H. Laurent Dupuy de Lome. 



