8i6 



NATURE 



[February 17, 192 1 



Regulation) Act, 1920, might interfere with the im- 

 portation of such chemicals, the council of the Insti- 

 tute of Chemistry addressed a letter to the Board of 

 Trade inquiring whether licences would be necessary 

 for the import of small quantities of organic chemicals 

 (including intermediate products used in the manufac- 

 ture of dyes, etc.) required solely for research pur- 

 poses. The Board of Trade in its reply states that 

 whilst it is not possible to regard small quantities of 

 organic intermediate products which may be required 

 for research purposes as beins? outside the scope of 

 the Act, the Board will be prepared to issue general 

 licences for the importation of such products to ap- 

 proved research institutions, covering periods of three 

 months and limited only as to total quantities. This 

 procedure obviates the necessity of separate applica- 

 tions for a large number of small items, but it will 

 be a condition of the issue of such a general licence 

 that a detailed return shall be furnished, at the end of 

 the three months during which the licence is in opera- 

 tion, of the quantities of each product actually imported 

 under it. This ruling indicates that the authorities 

 are prepared to interpret the Act in such a way as 

 not to hamper the prosecution of research. 



The Parkin prize, value looL, will be offered by 

 the Roj'al College of Physicians of Edinburgh for 



the best essay " On the Effects of Volcanic Action 



in the Production of Epidemic Diseases in tlie 



Animal and in the Vegetable Creation, and in the 



Production of Hurricanes and Abnormal Atmospheric 



. Vicissitudes." Essays intended for competition, 



i which is open to competitors of all nationalities, must 



be written in English, and must reach the secretary 



I not later than December 31, 1921. Each essay must 



i bear a motto, and be accpmpanied by a sealed 



envelope bearing the same motto outside and the 



author's name inside. 



The Department of Scientific and Industrial 

 Research has approved the formation of a Research 

 Association for the Cast Iron and Allied Industries 

 as complying with the conditions laid down in the 

 Government scheme for the encouragement of indus- 

 trial research. The secretary of the committee en- 

 gaged in the establishment of this association is Mr. 



j Thomas Vickers, 174 Corporation Street, Birming- 



; ham. 



We learn from the British Medical Journal of 

 I February 12 that an institute of biology named after 

 I Ramon y Cajal has been established at Madrid. It 

 ; consists of four sections, devoted to human and coni- 

 I parative histology, neurology, physiology, and experi- 

 . mental pathology respectively. 



Our Astronomical Column. 



lONisATiON IN THE StJN. — Two papers by Dr. Megh 

 Nad Saha have recently appeared in the Phil. Mag. 

 (vol. xl., pp. 472, 809), in which the author suggests 

 an explanation of the varying character of the spectra 

 exhibited by different elements in the sun. It is well 

 known that some elements are represented by both 

 enhanced and arc lines. Others show enhanced lines 

 only, while a few have not been found at all. Prof. 

 Fowler has ascribed these variations very largely to 

 the different atomic weights of the elements con- 

 cerned, but Dr. Saha is of the opinion that atomic 

 weight is only of minor importance, being largely 

 balanced by selective radiation pressure, and regards 1 

 the variations mentioned above as arising from the 

 different responses of elements to the stimulus exist- 

 ing in the sun. The enhanced lines are assumed to be 

 due to radiations from "ionised atoms" (i.e. atoms 

 that have lost an electron) rather than to a mere 

 increase in temperature, and the different ionisation 

 potentials of the elements will thus cause their vary- 

 ing behaviour. Calculations are given of the per- 

 centage ionisation of various elements at different 

 temperatures and pressures. The results certainly 

 agree quite well with the observed differences of 

 behaviour of the elements chosen, and also with their 

 individual variations in different regions of the sun. 



The First Voyage Round the World. — Prof. Pio 

 Emanuelli, of the Vatican Observatory, contributes an 

 article to the Corriere d'ltalia of December 20 last on 

 the voyage of Magellan four hundred years ago. 

 Magellan sailed from Spain on September 20, 15 19, 

 with five ships. He stayed in Brazil for some months, 

 during which, as his biographer Pigafetta tells us, 

 the potato was tasted for the first time by Europeans. 



On the resumption of the voyage to the south the 

 Straits of Magellan were discovered and traversed, 

 the ships reaching the Pacific on November 28, 1520. 



NO. 2677, VOL. 106] 



On April 27, 152 1, Magellan and several of his com- 

 panions were treacherously slain in the Island of Zebu, 

 in the Philippines. Some of the ships were captured, 

 while others had to be abandoned owing to insufficient 

 crews. Only one ship, the Victoria, returned to Spain, 

 arriving on September 6, 1522, with the 18 survivors 

 of the expedition, which had originally numbered 237. 

 Prof. Emanuelli notes that the first clear and 

 definite description of the Magellanic clouds dates 

 from this expedition. Thus they deservedly per- 

 petuate Magellan's naine in the heavens. Attention is 

 also directed to the fact that until this voyage the 

 geography of the earth as a whole was less well 

 known than that of the planet Mars at the present 

 day. 



Secular Change in the Period of 8 Cephei. — Pro^ 

 Eddington, in studying the pulsation theory of the 

 Cepheids, indicated that a fairly rapid secular change 

 of period was to be expected, and referred to Hertz- 

 sprung 's conclusion that the period of 8 Cephei was 

 diminishing by o-o79s. per annum. Mr. H. Luden- 

 dorff gives a further discussion of the early observa- 

 tions in Ast. Nach., No. 5076. He has' carefully 

 re-reduced the original observations of Mr. F. M. 

 Schwerd, made between 1823 and 1826, and finds 

 that they accord closely with the change of period an- 

 nounced by Hertzsprung. The formula of the latter 

 gives a shift of the time of maximum amounting to 

 — 00121 of a period in 1825, while Schwerd's observa- 

 tions give —0-0134 ±0005. The following values of 

 the shift as given from other earlv series of observa- 

 tions are deduced : — Goodricke, 1785 : shift -o-o36x 

 period +0-005; Pigott, 1785: shift — 0035 x period 

 ±0-011; Westphal, 1818: shift -0-0 10 x period 

 ±o-oo8. Mr. Ludendorff considers that the reality 

 of the change is placed beyond doubt by this dis- 

 cussion. 



