36o 



NATURE 



{Feb. 7, 1889 



researches which the author is now prosecuting on the Pliocene 

 faunas of the central plateau of France, have afforded an oppor- 

 tunity of studying remains of the canine group older than those 

 of the Quaternary (Pleistocene) epoch, and tending to throw 

 some light on the origin of existing species. During the Middle 

 and Upper Pliocene there existed a considerable number of 

 species, not only closely related to the present Canidse, but also 

 anticipating the various living forms of dog, fox, jackal, and 

 wolf These discoveries tend to overthrow the generally ac- 

 cepted opinion that the present domestic varieties of the dog are 

 all merely artificial modifications of living or Quaternary wolf 

 and jackal types. — Papers were contributed byM. Lerch, on the 

 serial development of certain arithmetical functions ; by M. 

 Sauvage, on the regular solutions of a system of linear differential 

 equations ; by M. W. Loewenthal, on the virulence of the culti- 

 vated Bacillus of cholera, and on the action of salol on this 

 virulence ; and by M. C. Pages, on the locomotion of 

 quadrupeds. 



Astronomical Society, January 9.— M. Flammarion, 

 President, in the chair. — Among the communications were the 

 following : — M. de Meissas sent an observation of M. de Boe's 

 second companion to Polaris. — H.R.H. the Prince of Monaco 

 gave an account of the scientific investigations made on board 

 / 'Hirondelle during the past four years with a view of studying 

 the general physics of our globe.— M. Moussette described an 

 eye-piece for measuring the size of sun-spots and of lunar objects. 

 — M. Mailhat read a paper on a new mercury-bath for artificial 

 horizons, which had been successfully tried at the Paris Obser- 

 vatory. 



Berlin. 

 Meteorological Society, January 8.— Dr. Vettin, President, 

 in the chair. — Dr, Sprung spoke on some new apparatus 

 for the registration of rainfall and wind. — Dr. Vettin pre- 

 sented a number of curves representing his measurements of 

 the velocity of the wind, by which he confirmed the results of 

 his earlier observations as to the existence of a maximum velo- 

 city at midday in the summer, and at midnight in the winter. 

 The measurements were made with Dr. Vettin's feather mano- 

 meter. On the discussion which ensued, it was pointed out 

 that the records yielded by this anemometer do not confirm the 

 above results. 



Physical Society, January 11.— Prof, von Helmholtz, Presi- 

 dent, in the chair.— The President opened the first meeting of 

 the current year by a memorial address on Clausius, in which he 

 briefly touched upon his most important works and their signi- 

 ficance in connection with the whole range of chemistry and 

 physics. — Prof. Kundt gave a short resume of the researches 

 which he had been carrying on of late years on the behaviour of 

 metals to light. He took as his starting-point Kern's discovery 

 that light which is reflected from magnets undergoes a rotation 

 of the plane of polarization, and fully confirmed this as well as 

 all subsequent observations of the English experimenter. In 

 order to avoid any objections which might be raised against the 

 accuracy of the observed phenomenon, he investigated the rota- 

 tion produced by extremely thin films of metal, whose produc- 

 tion was found, after several preliminary experiments, to be 

 rnost easily attained by pulverizing the kathode in vacuo. The 

 light which was transmitted showed signs of rotation, and as a 

 result of a full experimental investigation all metals were found 

 to exert a dextro-rotatory action on light. This law of the 

 positive rotation of the plane of polarized light could be extended 

 to all simple bodies. The thin metallic films further exhibited 

 a doubly- refractive action which led him to determine the 

 refractive index of the metals, after he had succeeded by means 

 of electrolysis in preparing transparent metallic prisms. The 

 speaker described the methods which he employed in these 

 experiments and exhibited the apparatus which he had used. 

 The result of the experiments is already known. The metals 

 possess a varying refractive power, some exhibiting normal, 

 others abnormal, dispersion. The velocity of light in the several 

 metals followed exactly the same serial order as that of their 

 respective conducting powers for electricity and heat. Since it 

 was possible that the deviation of the rays while passing through 

 the metals did not depend upon a true refraction, the speaker 

 had recently examined the behaviour of the refractive indices of 

 the metals at different temperatures. Metals whose refractive 

 index is large showed an increase of the angle of deviation of 

 light as the temperature rises, and thus all doubt as to the fact 

 that he was here dealing with a true refraction was set aside. A 

 further outcome of these experiments was to show that the 



velocity of light in m-tals is dependent on changes of tempera- 

 ture in a way exactly similar to that in which their electrical 

 conductivity is dependent. In order to determine accurately 

 the relationship of the velocity of light to their conductivity, 

 these two values must be measured on one and the same piece of 

 metal. When determining the electrical conductivity in films of 

 metal as thin as those he was using for his optical researches, he 

 found that the greatest difficulty was presented by the measure- 

 ment of the thickness of the film. In his earlier researches, local 

 thicknesses of o"il to o'i4 millionths of a millimetre were 

 measured, values which approximate to the diameter of a mole- 

 cule. These measurements,, the preparation of transparent 

 metallic prisms, and a number of other questions which have 

 become prominent in the course of the above researches, partly 

 carried out by pupils of the speaker, he intends to pursue further. 



BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, and SERIALS RECEIVED. 



Life and Correspondence of Abraham Sharp : W. Cudworth (S. Low). — 

 Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxix. Part 3, On Two-nosed 

 Catenaries and their Application to the Design of Segmental Arches : T. 

 Alexander and A. W. Thomson (Williams and Norgate).— A Treatise on 

 Statics, vol. ii. fourth edition, corrected and enlarged : G. M. Minchin 

 (Oxford, Clarendon Press).— Encyklop»die der NaturwiS:;enschaften, Chemie, 

 Zweite Abthg. 49 and 50 Liefg. (Breslau).— Encyklopsedie der Naturwissen- 

 schaften, Botanik, Erste Abthg. 58 Liefg. (Breslau).— Results of Meteoro- 

 logical Observations made in New South Wales: H. C. Russell (Sydney).— 

 Studies from the Laboratory of Physiological Chemistry, Sheffield Scientific 

 School of Yale University for the Years 1887-88, vol. iii. : edited by R. H. 

 Chittenden (New Haven).— Nautical Monographs, No. 5, the Great Storm 

 off the_ Atlantic Coast of the United States, March 11-14, 1888 : E. Hayden 

 (Washington). — Annuaire de I'Observatoire 'de Bruxelles: D. Folie'(Brux- 

 elles, Hayez).— Butter Making in Denmark : S. Hoare (Norwich).— Le Climat 

 de la Belgique en 1888: A. Lancaster (Bruxelles, Hayez).— Industrial Edu- 

 cation in the South: Rev. A. D. Mayo (Washington).— Second Annual 

 Report of the Liverpool Marine Biological Station on Puffin Island : W. A. 

 Herdman (Liverpool).— Insect Life, vjI. i. No. 7 (Washington).— Sources of 

 the Nitrogen of Vegetation : Sir J. B. Lawes and Prof. J. H. Gilbert 

 (Triibner).— London Geological Field Class Excursions during the Summer 

 of 1888 (Philip).— Michigan Forestry Commission, First Report (Lansings- 

 Results of Rain, River, and Evaporation Observations made in New South 

 Wales during 1887 : H. C. Russell (Sydney).— Journal of the Society of 

 Telegraph-Engineers and Electricians, vol. xvii. No. 76 (Spon). 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Earthquakes 337 



Peripatus 338 



The Teaching of Chemistry 330 



Our Book Shelf :— 



Abbe: "Treatise on Meteorological Apparatus and 



Methods" 340 



Bradshaw: "New Zealand of To-day" ; and E. W. 



Payton : " Round about New Zealand " 340 



Letters to the Editor: — 



Solar Halo. {Illustrated.)~E.vaxi McLennan . . 341 

 Seismic Disturbance at Venezuela. — Dr. A. Ernst . 341 

 Opportunity for a Naturalist.— Dr. P. L. Sclater, 



F.R.S 341 



Mass and Inertia. — Prof, A. M. Worthington ; 



Prof. Andrew Gray 342 



Use of Sucker-Fishes in Fishing. — H. Ling Roth . 342 

 Remarkable Rime and Mist. — E. Brown; Miss 



Annie Ley 342 



Penetration of Daylight into the Waters of the 



Genevan Lake and into the Mediterranean . . . 343 

 The Report of the Krakatao Committee of the 



Royal Society 345 



Science and the Report of the Education Com- 

 mission 348 



Notes 349 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



The Colours of Variable Stars " 352 



New Minor Planets 352 



Comet 1888 e (Barnard, September 2) 352 



Haynald Observatory (Hungary) 352 



Astronomical Phenomena for the Week i88g 



February 10-16 353 



Growth of our Knowledge of Nebulae 353 



The Institution of Mechanical Engineers 354 



Note on the Action of Acids upon Ultramarine. By 



Prof. W. N. Hartley, F.R.S 355 



London Ancient and Modern, from a Sanitary Point 



of View. By Dr. G, V. Poore 356 



University ana Educational Intelligence 357 



Scientific Serials 357 



Societies and Academies 357 



Books, Pamphlets, and Serials Received 360 



