September 9, 191 5] 



NATURE 



51 



me 



but that in the second wall was 07 in. From this it 

 follows that a man hit after a full meal would have 

 less chance of recovery than had this occurred when 

 the organ was empty. Bullet wounds of the lung, 

 provided no large vessels are touched, are seldom fatal 

 in man or beast. The author has seen as many as a 

 dozen men in one ward of a base hospital all con- 

 valescent from lung injuries. 



In an article in Engineering for September 3, Mr. 

 William Hovgaard discusses the Lusitania disaster, 

 and draws therefrom the following conclusions : — (i) 

 The principle of transverse subdivision should be con- 

 sidered as fundamental in. the design of all vessels, 

 merchant ships as well as warships, simply because 

 the longitudinal stability is always much greater than 

 £ transverse, and in sea-going ships is generally 

 ut one hundred times as great, (2) Longitudinal 

 bdivision is intrinsically pernicious, on account of 

 the small transverse stability of all ordinary vessels, 

 and should be used only where absolutely necessary. 

 ;) All wing compartments, where such must be fitted, 

 lould either be so small that their heeling effect 

 when flooded will be negligible, or, if that is imprac- 

 ticable, as may be the case in warships and auxiliary 

 cruisers, they should be in permanent connection with 

 corresponding compartments on the other side of the 

 ship, so as to eliminate the heeling effect automatic- 

 ally. Provision may be made, in addition, for pump- 

 ing water into the side compartments. In pure mer- 

 chant vessels, no side bunkers or other longitudinal 

 compartments of so large a volume as to require such 

 means of compensation should be allowed. 



The Engineer for September 3 has an article on the 

 employment of women as machinists, with special 

 reference to the various shell factories organised by 

 Sir William Beardmore. About 800 girls are now 

 employed in these factories, and the number will 

 shortly be very largely increased. Some of these girls 

 have now been at work for about four months, and 

 were first trained by special instructors selected from 

 men employed in other departments of Messrs. Beard- 

 more 's works, assisted by skilled operators sent down 

 by the makers of several of the machines. These 

 girls were found to be capable of a good output on 

 many of the operations after only a week's instruc- 

 tion. Lady superintendents are in charge of the place 

 night and day, and a good mess-room is provided for 

 meals. All the operations, with one exception, in the 

 making of i8-pounder shells are carried out by the 

 girls. The output on some of the operations exceeded 

 expectation owing to the keenness of the girls, so 

 much so that some of the machines provided have 

 actually been found to be superfluous, and other 

 machines have been shown to be capable of more 

 work than had ever been believed to be possible. 

 There is plenty of such labour available in the country, 

 and all the women are moved by the keenest spirit 

 of patriotism. We trust that employers will not hesi- 

 tate to fill in their blanks from this source. 



Motor barges, which stir up the mud and discharge 

 large quantities of oil in the Grand Canal, in the 

 NO. 2393, VOL. 96] 



neighbourhood of Ballinasloe, Co. Galway, will appar- 

 ently soon bring about the extinction of some of the 

 rarer aquatic mollusca. This at any rate is the 

 opinion, founded on experience, of Mr. R. A. Phillips, 

 who contributes a short but valuable account of the 

 mollusca of South Galway to the Irish Naturalist 

 for August. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Comet Notes. — Comet Mellish (19 15 a) is moving 

 north and towards the earth, and will be nearest about 

 October 26 (47 million miles). It is also rapidly 

 getting away from the sun, and its brightness is 

 diminishing. J. Braae and J. Fischer-Petersen have 

 extended the ephemeris given in Astronomische Nach- 

 richten 4802. The comet is apparently moving nearly 

 parallel to and only slightly S. of the line joining 

 /? Canis Majoris and ^ Orionis. It will make very close 

 approach to each of these stars on September 27 and 

 November 5 respectively. During this time its mag- 

 nitude will have reduced from 77 to nearly 8-3. 

 J. Braae also supplies a continuation of the ephemeris 

 for the periodic comet Tempel II. (19 15 c). Dr. H. 

 Thiele, of the Bergedorf Observatory, publishes {Astro- 

 nomische Nachrichten 481 1), positions measured on 

 August 9 and 10. It is now somewhat distant and 

 retiring. Its declination is slowly decreasing on a 

 path in Taurus, practically at right angles to that of 

 19 15 a. For the other periodic comet at present in 

 apparition, Winnecke's comet (1915b — this return was 

 first observed by Dr. Thiele just mentioned), K. Hille- 

 brand has extended the ephemeris given in Astrono- 

 mische Nachrichten 4787, using slightly improved places 

 (Astronomische Nachrichten, 4810). This comet 

 has also passed perihelion, and does not come nearer 

 than the sun's distance (about September 25). Its 

 apparent path passed near k Virginis (August 31), and 

 from Virgo passes through Libra and centrally through 

 Scorpio, bringing it near e Scorpionis on October 4. 

 During the last apparition (as 1909 d) it remained very 

 faint and without observable tail or nucleus. 



The Total Solar Eclipse, August 21, 1914.— 

 Several publications dealing with this eclipse have 

 lately come to hand. In one of these, MM. C. Bene- 

 dicks and I. Fredholm describe (Ark. K. Svenska Vet' 

 Acad., Band 10, No. 24) some photographs taken 

 at Lundsvall with a telephoto combination (Goerz 

 anastigmat and Zeiss teleansatz). They have devised 

 a laboratory experiment reproducing the effect of 

 shadow-bands which they ascribe simply to an effect 

 of refraction in a non-homogeneous medium. Senor 

 P. Carrasco forwards a reprint of a note referring to 

 his observations made at Theodosia of the red line 

 at A 6373 (Revista R. Acad., Ciencas, January, 1915, 

 Madrid). From Prof. Guglielnio Mengarini we have 

 received a copy of an article which appeared in the 

 Nuova Antologia (fasc. 1039, Rome), describing the 

 op)erations of the Italian expedition to the Crimea. 

 Although occupying a station in the neighbourhood of 

 Theodosia, a ifortunate break in the clouds permitted 

 observations of totality, and the corona was photo- 

 graphed by Prof. Mengarini on a Lumiere autochrome 

 plate, exposed at the focus of the Fraunhofer equa- 

 torial (3 metres f. 1.) loaned by Prof. Bemporad. 

 Illustrations include reproductions of two composite 

 corona photographs and some prominence pictures. 

 Prof. Ricco made visual and spectroscopic observations. 

 Prof. Palazzo employed a^ series of recording instru- 

 ments in observations of solar radiation, terrestrial 



