204 



NATURE 



'\ynne 26, 1879 



6. Jf the discharge is irregular and the strata indis- 

 tinct, an alteration of the amount of current makes the 

 strata distinct and steady. Most frequently a point of 

 steadiness is produced by the careful introduction of 

 external resistance ; subsequently the introduction of 

 more resistance produces a new phase of unsteadiness, 

 and still more resistance another phase of steady and 

 distinct stratification. 



7. The greatest heat is in the vicinity of the strata. 

 This can be best observed when the tube contains either 

 only one stratum, or a small number separated by a 

 broad interval. There is reason to believe that even in 

 the dark discharge there may be strata, for we have found 

 a development of heat in the middle of a tube in which 

 there was no illumination except on the terminals. 



8. Even when the strata are to all appearance per- 

 fectly steady, a pulsation can be detected in the curre7itj 



but it is not proved that the strata depend upon inter- 

 mittence. 



9. There is no anrent fro/n a battery through a tube 

 divided by a glass division into two chambers, and the 

 tube can only be illuminated by alternatijig charges. 



10. In the same tube and with the same gas, a very 

 great variety of phe7iomena can be produced by varying 

 the pressure and the current. The hcmitiosities and 

 strata, in their various forms, can be reproduced in the 

 same tube, or in others having similar dimensiotis. 



11. At the same pressure and with the same current, 

 the diameter of the tube affects the character of the dis- 

 charge and the form and closeness of the stratification. 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 



THE goodly volume of the proceedings of this Society 

 for the session 1877-78 witnesses to the zeal and 

 success with which scientific problems, whether of 

 general or of more specially local interest, are attacked 

 by our northern savants. 



The fascination in which the public mind has been 

 held by those remarkable instruments, the telephone, 

 phonograph, and microphone, here matures in fruitful 

 study of them. Prominent among the researches referred 

 to are those of Prof. Fleeming Jenkin and Mr. Ewing on 

 the wave-forms of articulate sounds, as obtained from the 

 phonograph (already described in our columns), and the 

 thoughtful investigations of Dr. Ferguson on the indica- 

 tions of molecular action in the telephone, leading to the 

 conclusion that at the sending-station the evidence of 

 molecular action, though suggestive, is by no means con- 

 clusive, whereas at the receiving-station, the existence of 

 molecular as well as mechanical action amounts to 

 demonstration, and it is shown to be considerable in 

 amount. Several striking observations in the same field 

 are recorded by Professors McKendrick, Tait, and 

 Forbes, Mr. Blyth, and others. In a paper on beats of 

 imperfect harmonies. Sir William Thomson develops the 

 theory of the phenomenon, and affirms (as a result of ex- 

 periment) that in every case the ear distinguishes the two 

 halves of the period of each beat, represented respec- 

 tively by a sharp-topped and flat-hollowed curve and by 

 a flat-topped and sharp-hollowed curve. 



The Fourth Report of the Boulder Committee com- 

 municates many instructive facts, especially as regards 

 transport of boulders. In his appended remarks Dr. 

 Home shows reason for thinking that two notable 

 spherical balls of marcasite found in the boulder clay 

 at Leith, came from the westward, one from Campsie 

 or Kilsyth (not less than thirty miles), the other from 

 Humble, nine or ten miles due west of Edinburgh. A 

 geological study of the district indicates the agency of 

 deep-sea currents loaded with ice, which flowed upon the 

 Campsie Hills from the west-north-west, scooping out the 

 present valley and breaking up, to a large extent, the coal 



strata in it. Thus some of the nodules in these strata 

 would find their way to Leith, where they were embedded 

 Several cases are noted in which boulders, to reach their 

 present sites, must have crossed arms of the sea {e.g., 

 boulders in Stafifa, at Appin, and in Loch Creran, from 

 Mull, and others in Nairn, from Ross-shire). The high 

 position of many boulders is explained by Prof. Judd' s 

 supposition, that in pliocene times there were mountains 

 in Skye, Mull, Ardnamurchan, and even in Rum, some of 

 which reached a height of at least 14,000 feet. In another 

 geological paper Prof. Geikie traces out the limits of the 

 different basins in which the old red sandstone of the 

 British Islands was deposited, distinguishing the basins 

 as Lakes Orcadie, Caledonia, Cheviot, Lome, and the 

 Welsh Lake. Dealing with the first alone, he examines 

 the evidence for Murchison's three-fold arrangement of 

 the old red sandstone (finding the middle division only in 

 the north of Scotland), and describes the various districts 

 of Lake Orcadie sericitim. 



From experiments on suspension, solution, and chemical 

 combination, Mr. William Durham concludes that these 

 phenomena differ only in degree, and are manifestations 

 of the same force. The attraction of chemical affinity is 

 not, in all cases at least, exhausted when a definite com- 

 pound is formed, but has sufficient power left to form 

 solution or suspension compounds. The same force 

 operating in chemical combination and solution, explains 

 the powerful effects of solution in promoting chemical 

 reaction and electric conductivity. Among chemical 

 subjects treated, are the action of heat on some salts of 

 trimethyl sulphine (Brown and Blackie), the action of 

 chlorides of iodine on acetylene and ethylene (McGowan), 

 and the crystallisation of isomorphous salts (Robinson). 



In physiology, we note an extension of Prof. Rutherford 

 and Messrs. Vignals' experiments on the biliary secretion, 

 with reference to the action of cholagogues. The effects of 

 fifty-two medicinal agents on the liver (of dogs) have been 

 investigated, and the great majority of the conclusions are 

 in complete harmony with the results of clinical obse'^va- 

 tion, while many new facts are given to the physician. — 

 Mr. Newman successfully imitates in a physical experi- 

 ment, the function of the kidney. — Mr. Stirling furnishes 

 some notes of the fungus disease affecting salmon. 



A sketch is given by Mr. Edward Lang, of the arrange- 

 ment of tables of baUistic curves in a medium resisting as 

 the square of the velocity, and of the application of these 

 tables to gunnery. 



Without further enumeration, we may direct attention 

 to some interesting accounts of that rare phenomenon, a 

 white sunbow, witnessed at Edinburgh on January 10 last 

 year. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



The SATURNI.4N Satellite H YPERioN.— Prof. Asapl 

 Hall has investigated the elements of this satellite, first 

 from thirty of the best observations made at Washington 

 in 1875, and again from thirty observations by Mr. Lassell 

 at Malta, in 1852-53. In the former case the approximate 

 elements in Astron. Nach. No. 2137 were used in the 

 calculation of equations of condition, which were solved 

 by the method of least squares. The resulting orbit is as 

 follows : — 



Passage through perisaturnium, 1875, Oct. 27"83So 

 Greenwich M.T. 



n 



Perisaturnium . . , 

 Ascending Node 



Inclination 



Excentricity 

 Semi-axis major ... 



172 59-7) For 1875,82. 

 120 I2'0^ Referred to tlie plane 

 6 1 2 ■ I ) of the earth's equator. 



0-11885 



2i6"'56 



Assuming these values for the node and inclination, Mr. 

 Lassell's observations were discussed and gave the 

 elements ;— 



