404 



NATURE 



[Feb. 23, 1888 



has a right to take up the study and description of any fossil 

 group until he has made a very careful and exhaustive study of 

 its nearest living allies ; but, in addition to this, he ought also to 

 have made himself acquainted with the peculiar mineral changes 

 which organic remains are liable to undergo. He will, more- 

 over, be far more likely to interpret aright and to make the best 

 use of the materials that come to his hand, if he have at least a 

 general knowledge of what others working on siinilar materials 

 belonging to other departments of the animal or vegetable 

 world have been able to accomplish, and of the methods which 

 they have followed. Such palaeontologists, I insist, have as 

 much right to recognition as any other class of biological 

 specialists. 



Still less should I wish it to be implied that I think systematic 

 biologists can afford to be ignorant of the results of palseonto- 

 logical studies, in their own particular fields of labour. One of 

 the most mischievous weeds that have accompanied the evolu- 

 tionist in his incur>ions into various parts of the biological field 

 is the preposterous " genealogical tree." We can scarcely turn 

 over the leaves of a modern systematic work without finding it 

 flourishing in full luxuriance. No sooner has the student of a 

 particular group arranged his families, genera, and species, than 

 he thinks it incumbent upon him to show their genetic relations. 

 Very admii-ably has Prof Alexander Agassiz pointed out the 

 utter fatuity of such a proceeding. As Lyell used to say, in 

 speaking of such proceedings, the imagination of the systematist, 

 untrammelled by an acquaintance with the past history of the 

 group, "revels with all the freedom characteristic of motion in 

 vacuo." If for no other reason, zoologists and botanists ought 

 to study fossil forms in order that, by encountering a few hard 

 facts in the shape of fossils, they may be saved from these 

 unprofitable flights of the imagination. 



(To be continued.) 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Rendiconti del Reale Istituto Lombardo, December 1887. — On 

 the Tertiary formations near Cape La Mortola, in Liguria, North 

 Italy, by Prof. T. Taramelli. The paper deals specially with 

 the abrupt interruption which occurs in the prevailing Eocene 

 and Secondary systems about this part of the Ligurian coast. 

 This interruption is brought into connection with the great 

 development in Liguria of the marine Pliocene formation, which 

 in the Varo basin and near Ventimiglia stands at a present 

 altitude of over 550 metres above the sea, but which does not 

 occur at all further east in Istria and Friuli, where it is repre- 

 sented by thick alluvial deposits of vast extent. — On the neutra- 

 lizers of tubercular virus, by Prof Giuseppe Sormani. In 

 continuation of his previous studies, the author here deals with 

 twenty-one additional substances, or chemical reagents, making 

 eighty altogether. According to their different action on Koch's 

 Bacillus these are grouped in three categories : those that have 

 no effect ; those that only attenuate, and those that entirely 

 destroy, the virus. As many as twenty-two, including camphor- 

 ated chloral, the bromide of ethyl, and the nitrite of ethyl, are 

 found to be effective. — Meteorological observations made at the 

 Brera Observatory during the month of November 1887. 



Rivista Scientifico-Indiistriale, January 15. — The crepuscular 

 tints in connection with the hygrometric state of the atmosphere, 

 by Prof Costantino Rovelli. Constant observation shows that 

 red and orange tints prevail in a dry, yellow and green in a 

 moist, state of the atmosphere. This suggests a threefold divi- 

 sion of the solar spectrum into (i) the region of warm rays trans- 

 mitted by the lowe r atmospheric strata, and corresponding to a 

 dry condition of th e air ; (2) the region of middle rays, yellow 

 and green, more easily diff'used and partly transmitted by the air 

 in moist weather ; (3) the region of cold ray s diffused by an 

 atmosphere abounding in aeriform vapour. The terrestrial dust 

 suspended in the air, by condensing the aqueous vapour, as 

 is now generally accepted, may also tend] to produce those 

 occasional after-glows of intense brightness, which have been so 

 often obierved after violent volcanic eruptions. The various 

 character and intensity of the tints may all be thus explained by 

 the theory of the eclectic transmission of the coloured rays by the 

 corresponding states of the atmosphere, and partly also by the 

 particles of dust held in suspense. — On the constitution of fogs 

 and clouds, by Prof. F. Palagi. These phenomena are attributed 

 to the presence of minute drops of water with diameter of i/io 

 to 1/20 mm. at a temperature above zero. The recent observa- 



tions made by the author on Mount Titano show that when the 

 temperature falls below zero these globules are converted into 

 minute hexagonal needles and flakes of the same form, the former 

 about 1/20 mm. thick, and from two to ten times longer, the 

 latter from i/io to 1/4 mm. in diameter. In their passage from 

 the higher regions through the lower and less cold strata, but 

 still below zero, these simple crystalline forms appear to be trans- 

 formed by the process of condensation and agglomeration into 

 the stars and flakes of ordinary snow. But when the tempera- 

 tare rises above zero they are again changed to the minute liquid 

 drops of clouds, fog, and rain according to the varying degrees 

 of altitude and temperature. 



Bulletin deT Academic des Sciences de St. Petersbourg, vol. xxxii. 

 No. I. — On the effects of the earthquake of February 23, 1887, 

 at the Observatory of Pavlovsk, by Dr. Wild (in German). The 

 effects of the catastrophe having been observed at the Observa- 

 tories of England, France, Italy, Germany, and Austria, in 

 trepidations of the magnetic instruments, it was interesting to 

 see whether the earthquake was felt as far as St. Petersburg. The 

 results indicate that it was not. — On the genus Hemiculter and a 

 new species of Hemiculterella, by N. Warpachowski (in German). 

 — Russian words used in the Sagai dialect, and their phonetic 

 modifications, by N. Katunoff ; and lists of Sagai names of 

 rivers, villages, and tribes, by the same. This little dictionary 

 is highly spoken of by M. Radlof. — Studies, by O. Backlund, 

 about the Pulkowa catalogue of stars, " Positions moyennes de 

 3542 etoiles," published in 1886 (in German). A detailed com- 

 parison of the Pulkowa catalogue with the measurements by Herr 

 Romberg at Pulkowa, as also with the catalogues of Becker, Res- 

 pighi, and Boss. — Hydrological researches, by Dr. Carl Schmidt. 

 — The temperature-maxima before midday in tropical seas, 

 according to the observations of the corvette Vityaz, by M. 

 Rykatcheff"(in German). They show the existence of two separate 

 maxima, one of which sets in half an hour before midday and 

 the other half an hour later. More extensive observations 

 are needed. — On the synthesis of albumen in chlorophyll- 

 bearing plants, by Chrapowitzki (in German). The chlorophyll 

 spots must be considered as places where synthesis of both carbo- 

 hydrates and albumen is going on. — New additions to the Asiatic 

 Museum, by C. Salemann. Summaries of two Persian and 

 three Kagatai manuscripts brought in by M. Pantusoff" from the 

 Semiryetchensk province. 



The Izvestia of the Russian Geographical Society (1887, 

 iv.), contains most valuable papers and maps. Dr. Junker 

 contributes a report on his seven years' journeys in Equatorial 

 Africa, and his paper is accompanied by a map, 53 miles 

 to the inch, of the region extending for ten degrees on the 

 north of the Equator, between the 22nd and 33rd degrees of 

 longitude. Two papers, by M. Potanin, contain a summary 

 of the information gathered from the natives as to Eastern 

 Tibet (the regions of Amdo and Kam), and the region of Central 

 Mongolia situated between the Nan-shan, the Khangai, Hami, 

 and the Utai-shan. Both papers are accompanied by maps, on 

 a scale of 100 miles to an inch, and the two maps complement 

 one another, so as to give a very accurate idea of the upper 

 Hoang-ho. Of the other papers, one by M. KrasnofF, on the 

 manners of life of the Kirghizes in the Semiryetchensk province, 

 will be welcome to ethnographers. The same number contains 

 also a list of fifteen places in Laponia, the latitudes and longi- 

 tudes of which have been measured in 1864 by Captain Ernefeld ; 

 and, in a separate appendix, tables, by Prof. Sharnhorst, for 

 the calculation of heights from barometrical observations. It is 

 self-evident, although it is too often lost of sight, that the calcu- 

 lation of heights upon observations of the barometer, when it is 

 made by means of logarithms, means a much greater accuracy of 

 results than anything that can be obtained from a few observations 

 of atmospheric pressure during a journey, and that some plainer 

 tables would give the results with an accuracy quite sufficient 

 for the accuracy of the data themselves. M. Sharnhorst's tables 

 are an improvement upon those formerly in use, and ought to be 

 introduced into every manual for travellers, instead of the usual 

 logarithmical tables. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Royal Society, January 26.—" Report on Hygrometric 

 Methods. First Part, including the Saturation Method and the 

 Chemical Method, and Dew-point Instruments." By W. N. 



