4o8 



NATURE 



[Feb. 23, I 



glucine may be obtained with a loss of not more than 10 per cent., 

 and in such a state of purity that its equivalent has been found 

 equal to I2'58. — Influence of various diets on the interchange of 

 the gases in respiration, by MM. Hanriot and Ch. Richet. Con- 

 tinuing their researches on the respiratory function, the authors 

 find that respiration increases with the increase of food, but 

 only when this consists of the hydrates of carbon ; that the inter- 

 change of the gases is but slightly affected by a nitrogenous 

 and fatty diet ; that feculent substances increase the absorption 

 of oxygen and especially the production of COg ; that the cen- 

 tesimal proportions of the absorbed oxygen or of the generated 

 carbonic acid varies little during muscular repose ; that the pro- 

 portion of absorbed oxygen averages about 4*2 per cent., and 

 of generated CO.2 about 3*4 per cent. The subject is illustrated 

 by a diagram showing by a graphic process the influence of a 

 nitrogenous and feculent diet on the respiratory functions 

 generally. — Discovery of a worked flint and a mammoth's tusk 

 at Vitry-en Artois, by M. Ladriere. The position in which 

 these remains were found seems to confirm the author's view that 

 towards the close of the early Quaternary epoch (Mousterian 

 age) Elephas primigcnitis and other large mammals, as well as 

 man, were already spread over the west of Europe. 



Berlin. 



Physical Society, January 20. — Prof, von Helmholtz, Presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — Prof. Oettingen spoke on the interference of 

 electrical vibrations which is produced by the electrical oscilla- 

 tions discovered by Feddersen, during the spark discharge. The 

 discharge oscillations of two Leyden batteries, differing in fre- 

 quency and amplitude, were allowed to produce an interference 

 in the path of a third spark, and this led to a constant succession 

 of alternatingly increased and diminished intensities of this spark. 

 The phenomenon was analyzed by means of a rotating mirror, 

 which resolved it into its several phases, and the events taking 

 place in each spark were recorded by instantnneous photography. 

 The speaker exhibited a large number of these photographs, 

 both as negatives and as positive reproductions, and explained 

 them fully. In these experiments, as in those described at the 

 previous meeting of the Society on the explosion of an electro- 

 lytic mixture of oxygen and hydrogen. Prof Oettingen had 

 succeeded in obtaining accurate results only when he had 

 replaced the concave rotating mirror by a plane one, whose 

 action he then thoroughly discussed. — Prof. Bornstein exhibited 

 a preparation which he had recently obtained quite by chance, 

 during one of his lectures. When lecturing on the diffusion of 

 liquids, he was in the habit of using a Traube artificial cell. On 

 placing a blue crystal of sulphate of copper in a solution of 

 soluble glass, a precipitate is formed as a film on the 

 surface of the salt, when it comes in contact with the soluble 

 glass. The water from the solution then diffuses through the 

 film, dissolving the salt and stretching the film until it is ruptured 

 at some one point. When this occurs the solution of the sulphate 

 of copper comes again into contact with the soluble glass, a new 

 film is formed at the surface of contact, closing up the aperture, 

 and the diffusion begins again. The film thus grows continually 

 in a tubular form, until it finally permeates the whole solution. 

 When recently repeating this lecture experiment, the speakei 

 noticed that the film did not grow in the usual tubular way, but 

 took the form of flattened parallel membranes which advanced 

 through the solution at right angles to their length. He was at 

 present unable to offer any explanation of this latter phenomenon. 

 — Dr. Budde had recently submitted Clausius's fundamental law 

 of electro-dynamics to a recalculation, while taking into account a 

 large series of special conditions ; among these he allowed for 

 the motion of translation of the earth, and found that it had no 

 influence on the validity of the law. At that time he had not 

 calculated the influence of the earth's rotation ; he had however, 

 since then, repeated his former work, and gave an account of 

 the results of his calculation, which showed that the rotatory 

 motion of the earth had also no influence on the law. The 

 same speaker finally drew attention to an error which occurs in 

 all text-books, in connection with the determination of the 

 potential of a system of points, and showed how illogical is the 

 usual definition and of deducing of potential energy. Prof, von 

 Helmholtz then directed attention to the fact that he was in the 

 habit of determining potential energy in a different way, and that 

 its derivation from a system of points is fraught with great 

 difficulties. 



BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, and SERIALS RECEIVED. 



Contributions to the Paleontology of Brazil : C. A. White (Washington).— 

 Die Entstehung der Arten, i Thiel : Dr. G. H. T. Eimer (Fischer, Jena). 

 — Key to Todhunter's DiflFerential Calculus : H. St. J. Hunter (Macmillan). 

 — Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College, vol. xiii. 

 Part 2, Zone Observations made with the Transit Wedge Photometer (Wilson, 

 Cambridge, Mass.). — Calendar and General Directory of the Department 

 of Science and Art for the year 1888 (Eyre and Spottiswoode). — Electrical 

 Instrunient Making fjr Amateurs : S. R. Bottone (Whittaker).— Practical 

 Education : C. G. Leland (Whittaker). — Volapiik, or Universal Language : 

 A. Kirchhoff (Sonnenschein). — Geology: Chemical, Physical, and Strati- 

 graphical, vol. ii. : J. Prestwich (Clarendon Press). — Observations made 

 during 1883 at the U.S. Naval Observatory (Washington). — Die Prahistori- 

 schen Denkmaler der Provinz Westpreussen und der Angrenzenden Gebiete : 

 Dr. A. Lissauer( Williams and Norgate). — The Shell Collector's Hand-book for 

 the Field : J. W. Williams (Roperand Drowley). — My Telescope : A Quekett 

 Club Man(Roper and Drowley). — Through the Yang-tse Gorges : A. J. Little 

 (Low). — Report on the Administration of the Meteorological Department of 

 the Government of India in 1886-87. — Indian Meleorological Memoirs, vol. 

 iii. Part 2 (Calcutta). — A Manual of the Geology of India ; Part 4, 

 Mineralogy: F. R. Mallet (Trubner). — Bulletin of the U.S. Geological 

 Survey, No. 39 (Washington) — The Law of the Univer.se : G. W. Cleverley 

 (ferown. Hull). — Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. 44, 

 Part I, No 173 (Longmans). — Proceedings of the Lmnean Society of New 

 South Wales, 2nd .series, vol. ii. Part 3 (Sydney). — List of Contributors to 

 ditto, 1st series (Sydney). — Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, 

 February (Churchill) — Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society, February 

 (Williams and Norgate). 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



Physical Science and the Woolwich Examinations . 385 



The Moths of India. By H. J. Elwes 386 



Prolegomena to the Statistics of Thought 387 



Our Book Shelf :— 



Reynolds: "Experimental Chemistry for Junior 



Stitdents" 388 



Wood: " The Farmer's Friends and Foes " .... 388 



Clodd : *' The Story of Creation " 388 



Letters to the Editor : — 



Botanists and the Micromillimetre. — Prof. Arthur 



W. Riicker, F.R.S ... 388 



" The Teaching of Elementary Chemistry." — Z. . . 389 

 Natural Science and the Woolwich Examinations. — 



Rev. A. Irving .... 389 



The Composition of Water. ( With Diagrams.) — Dr. 



Sydney Young 390 



The Fog Bow and Ulloa's Ring. ( With Diagram.) — 



Dr. H. Mohn 391 



The Shadow of a Mist. {Illustrated.) — Rev. Henry 



Bernard [392 



Instability of Freshly Magnetized Needles. — Prof. 



Francis E. Nipher 392 



Microsauria and Dendrerpeton. — Sir J. Wm. Daw- 

 son, F.R.S 393 



A New Historic Comet?— W. H. S. Monck ... 393 

 The Proposed Teaching University for London. — 



Sir Philip Magnus 393 



Institute of Chemistry. — Boverton Redwood and 



Alfred Gordon Salamon 393 



Coral Formations. {With Charts). By Capt. W. J. L. 



Wharton, R.N., F.R.S., Hydrographer to the Navy 393 

 The Akkas, a Pygmy Race from Central Africa . . 395 



Rev. John Hewitt Jellett, D.D., D.C.L 396 



Notes 397 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



Mr. Tebbutt's Observatory, Windsor, New South 



Wales 400 



Pulkowa Observatory 4°° 



Wolsingham Observatory 40° 



Astronomical Phenomena for the Week 1888 



February 26 — March 3 4*^0 



The Relations between Geology and the Biological 

 Sciences. By Prof. John W, Judd, F.R.S. ... 401 



Scientific Serials 404 



Societies and Academies 4^4 



Books, Pamphlets, and Serials Received 40S 



