594 



NATURE 



[November i8, 1920 



Manchester. 

 Literary and Philoiophlcal Society, October 19. — Sir 

 Henry A. Miers, president, in the chair. — C. E. 

 Stromeyer : An attempt to explain the real nature of 

 time, space, and other dimensions. The author said 

 that in the remote past doubts seem to have been 

 entertained about the reality of time and space, and 

 of matter it seems always to have been believed that 

 it could be made to appear and disappear. Kant 

 and Schopenhauer were converts to the new 

 belief in the indestructibility of matter, but 

 asserted of time and' space that they were functions 

 of the brain. They may, therefore, be looked 

 upon as being the innocent originators of the 

 modern idea that the world is mind and matter. In 

 their days energy and its conservation or indestructi- 

 bility had not been discovered, but they suspected that 

 besides matter there was another reality which they 

 respectively called "das Ding an sich "— the real thing 

 —and "der Wille zum I-eben " — the will to live. They 

 did not explain what thev meant by reality, and the 

 author pointed out that 'they should have" said that 

 time and space were relatively unreal to matter and to 

 the "real thing," in the same way that length, breadth, 

 and depth are relatively unreal to space, if this be 

 taken as the standard of reality. The author then 

 said that dimensions, using the term in its widest 

 sense so as to include time, space, velocity, work, pres- 

 sure, and all the electric, thermometric, and chemical 

 dimensions, were unquestionablv factors of energv. 

 Energy always appears as a product of these factors 

 never as a factor. It stands in marked contrast to 

 every one of its factors in being indivisible quantita- 

 tively until It has been divided aualitativelv. It cannot 

 be located in the same sense that length may be said 

 to be located in space or a volt in an ampere. ' Ener«v 

 in contrast to its factors or dimensions, seems to be 

 the only "real thing"; all its factors, our world, are 

 re ative y unreal, but amongst each other thev appear 

 relatively real. Thus, contrarv to Kant's and Schopen- 

 hauer sviews, matter is both as real and as unreal 

 as are time and space. The author also dealt with the 

 tourth dimension, and showed that it was not a real 



Edinburgh. 

 Royal Society October 25._Prof. F. O. Bower 

 addtr'- '"./^? chair.-_The president delivered an 

 address on 'Size: A Neglected Factor in Stelar 

 Morphology.' The purpose%f the address was the 

 application of the principle of similar structures to 



ZlT.'Tr^^ V''"'-' °^ P'^"*^- The princiDle had 

 been used by zoologists to explain certain peculiarities 



BotInt.c"".l"'/'K ''"''•^•i ''""^ ^''*^''"=^1 ^"d internal. 

 Botanists had been slower to use it in relation to 

 plants, though it had been pointed out that the limit 

 of size of trees is imposed bv the fact that the 

 strength of the trunk increases' onlv as the square 

 while the weight increases 9s the cube, of the dimen! 



^rf!;. T^^'''T.•'■'^''*"■°." ''"'^^ ^°' the limiting 

 surface of internal tissues in prooortion to their bulk • 



as the size increases the surface 'varies as the square' 

 while the bulk of the tissues enclosed varies as the 

 fi^ If; then, interchange- of soluble substances 



through the limiting surface be proportional to its 

 area, as the size is increased there will come a limit 

 beyond which further increase is impossible unless the 

 form be altered. This general position was used to 

 explain the verv complicated vascular system in certain 

 plants, especially the ferns. The breaking uo of their 

 vascular tracts into curiously elaborate masses was 

 held to be a necessary consequenre of the need for 

 increased oroportion of surface to bulk in the larger 

 forms. It was also exemplified in certain roots of 

 palms and other plants. The reason whv the difficulty 

 NO. 2664, VOL. 106] 



did not arise in ordinary tree-trunks was that after 

 the early stages the strict limitation of the conducting 

 tracks was broken down. But in fern-stems and 

 palm-roots it was strictly maintained in the adult, and 

 this was what raised the difficulty and accounted for 

 the peculiar structure which they showed. 



Paris. 

 Academy ol Sciences, October 26.— M. Henri 

 Deslandres in the chair.— P. Appell : The ellipsoidal 

 oscillations of a liquid sphere. — P. Termier and W. 

 Kilian : The tectonic signification of the fragments of 

 mica schists^ various crystalline rocks, and green 

 rocks which crop out here and there near Brian^on 

 in or at the surface of strata of Brian^on faties. — 

 C. Nicolle and E. Conseil : The preventive vaccination 

 of man against Mediterranean fever. Experiments on 

 human subjects showed that it is easy to vaccinate 

 preventively by subcutaneous inoculations of dead 

 cultures. The duration of the immunity has yet to 

 be determined. — R. Birlteland : Resolution of the 

 trinomial algebraical equation by higher hyper- 

 geometrical functions. — M. Zervog : Some transforma- 

 tions of partial differential equations of the second 

 order. — C. Camichel, D. Eydoux, and A. Foch : The 

 transmission of energy by vibrations of liquids in 

 pipes. M. Constantinescu has recently described his 

 researches on the transmission of energy by means 

 of vibratory waves in a pipe full of liquid. .\s the 

 methods of calculation have not been published, the 

 author develops the theoretical side of the question by 

 the general method given by .Mlievi. — \. Buhl : The 

 symmetries of the gravific field and the Lorentzian 

 extension of Hamilton's principle. — E. Jouguet : The 

 variation of entropy in waves of shock of elastic 

 bodies. The variation of entropy is of the third order 

 at least, and hence for small discontinuities the 

 dynamic adiabalic law of Hugoniot is very near the 

 ordinary adiabatic law. — P. Dejean : The AVj point of 

 steels and of martensite. In a recent paper by 

 L. Guillet a diagram by M. Chevenard was given 

 relating to iron-nickel alloys practically free from 

 carbon. For alloys between o and 25 per cent, of 

 nickel the curve of the Ar, points showed no dis- 

 continuity, and this appeared to contradict some 

 earlier results of the authors on the critical points of 

 nickel steels containing 02 per cent, of carbon. In 

 the present communication it is proved that the two 

 series of results are not contradictory. — M. Harlot : 

 Combinations of the halogen derivatives of lead and 

 thallium. \ study of the electrical conductivity of 

 aqueous centinormal solutions of PbCU and TlCl 

 indicated the existence of a compound TlCl.PbCL. and 

 this was isolated bv cooling a boiling aqueous solution 

 containing the two chlorides in equimolccular propor- 

 tions. The crystals separating are of a definite form, 

 but after keeping for some time at the boiling point 

 in presence of a quantity of water insufficient to dis- 

 solve it, they decompose into the two constituents, readily 

 identifiable under the microscope. Similarly consti- 

 tuted double bromides and iodides were also prepared. 

 — M. Godchot : The systematic degradation of dibasic 

 saturated acids of high molecular weight. The 

 method of Bouvet has been successfully extended to 

 suberic, azelaic, and sebacic acids. — k. Damiens : The 

 estimation of traces of bromine in' organic materials. 

 — G. Denigis : .An extremely sensitive. colour reaction 

 for phosphates and arsenates : its aoolications. 

 Traces of phosphates treated \vith an acid solution 

 of ammonium molvbdate and a little stannous chloride 

 develop a blue coloration. Arsenates behave similarly. — 

 M. Marion : The action of hydrogen peroxide on flour. 

 Solutions of hydrogen peroxide allowed to react with 

 flour under definite conditions (concentration of 



