l82 



NATURE 



[October 15, 1914 



of Southport. With reference to the latter, Mr. 

 Baxendell remarks that, owing to the sea breezes, 

 all the summer months are cool by day ; generally 

 speaking, there is more sunshine in the afternoon 

 than in the morning. July is the best month of 

 the year for outdoor life ; May and June, and even 

 September, are more settled than August. The report 

 includes, as usual, a very handy table of compara- 

 tive climatological statistics at health resorts and 

 large towns, compiled from Meteorological Office 

 data. 



In the Bulletin of the Calcutta Mathematical Society, 

 vol. ii., part i (Calcutta University Press, 19 14), a 

 paper is published by Mr. Jibon M. Bose, on the 

 equations of motion of a plane kite, with special 

 reference to its equilibrium, small oscillations, and 

 conditions of stability. The paper thus constitutes a 

 solution of Problem 16 of Bryan's "Stability in Avia- 

 tion " (p. 180). In the case in which the kite is a 

 plane lamina without keels, the author, as might be 

 expected, obtains cubic equations for the longitudinal 

 and lateral stability. This result is in accordance 

 with the corresponding results for an aeroplane in 

 which certain roots of the biquadratics vanish unless 

 the aeroplane is provided with auxiliary surfaces. 



The Morning Post's "own correspondent" in Rome 

 announces that Prof. Argentieri, of Aquila (there is no 

 university in Aquila, and we do not find Prof. Argen- 

 tieri 's name in "Minerva"), has invented a "pocket" 

 system of radio-telegraphy, in which apparatus cost- 

 ing twelve shillings is capable of intercepting mes- 

 sages from the Eiffel Tower, a distance of 730 miles, 

 that the German Government has offered him a large 

 sum of money for the system, and that he has 

 patriotically refused it, preferring to place his inven- 

 tion at the service of his own Government. It is 

 true that the aerial for receiving messages of high 

 power need not necessarily be of great length, that 

 a great deal of wire can be coiled up in the pocket 

 and erected on light portable posts to a considerable 

 height, and it is also true that the remaining appa- 

 ratus, for receiving only, may be of small bulk, but 

 one can well be sceptical as to the authenticity of such 

 a statement as the above. Perhaps tl?e time will 

 come when a man may slip a telephone receiver over 

 his head, put up an aluminium-framed umbrella, stand 

 with his feet in- a puddle, and, using a battery, induc- 

 tion coil, and a sending key disposed in various 

 pockets, and a detector in his hat, communicate freely 

 with friends a few hundred miles away. But we have 

 not reached this point yet, and, at present prices, the 

 aluminium umbrella alone would probably cost twelve 

 shillings. We are willing to give Mr. Argentieri the 

 full credit his invention deserves so soon as he has 

 found an opportunity to explain its details or to 

 demonstrate its capabilities, but, in the meantime, we 

 cannot take seriously the description given in our 

 contemporary. 



The following forthcoming books are additional to 

 those announced in our issue of last week ; — In 

 Anthropology and Archaeology : The Literature of the 

 Ancient Egyptians, Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge ; A History 

 of the Egyptian People, Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge 

 (J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd.); ,Egean Archaeology, 

 NO. 2346, VOL. 94] 



H. R. Hall (The Medici Society, Ltd.); A Hausa 

 Phrase Book, with Medical and Scientific Vocabu- 

 laries, A. C. Parsons ; Contributions to the Ethnology 

 of the Salish Tribes, J. A. Teit; Coos Texts, L. J. 

 Frachtenberg (Oxford University Press). In Geo- 

 graphy and Travel : Life and Death in the Antarctic, 

 Sir D. Mawson, two vols., illustrated (W. Heine- 

 mann); Indo-China and its Primitive People, Capt. H. 

 Baudesson, illustrated ; The Roman Colonies of North 

 Africa, and their Ruined Cities, R. Sturzenbecker, 

 illustrated (Hutchinson and Co.) ; Geography of 

 Eastern Asia, D. Paton (Oxford University Press) ; 

 On the Trail of the Opium Poppy, Sir A. Hosie, two 

 vols., illustrated (G. Philip and Son, Ltd.); Travels 

 in the Middle East, Lieut. T. C. Fowle, illustrated; 

 The Voyages of Capt. Scott, retold by C. Turley, illus- 

 trated (Smith, Elder and Co.). In Mathematics and 

 Physical Science : Electric Waves, Prof. G. W. Pierce ; 

 The Emission of Electricity from Hot Bodies, Prof. 

 O. W. Richardson ; Colloidal Solutions, Prof. E. F. 

 Burton ; Atmospheric Ionization, Prof. J. C. McLennan 

 (each in the series of Monographs on Physics), (Long- 

 mans and Co.) ; Elementary Principles in Statistical 

 Mechanics, Prof. J. Willard Gibbs (Oxford University 

 Press). In Medical Science : The Evolution of 

 Modern Medicine, Sir W. Osier (Oxford Uni- 

 versity Press). In Metallurgy : Zinc, Dr. J. S. G. 

 Primrose ; Aluminium, Dr. R. Seligmann ; Metallurgy 

 of Strain, S. C. W. Humfrey; Brass, G. D. Ben- 

 gough; Refractory Metals, W. C. Hancock (Con- 

 stable and Co., Ltd.). In Technology : Electrical In- 

 stallation Manuals on Conductors, House Wiring, 

 etc. ; Lamps, Switches, Fittings, Transformers ; Bells, 

 Telephones, etc. ; Testing and Localizing Faults (Con- 

 stable and Co., Ltd.); Architectural Acoustics, W. C. 

 Sabine (Oxford University Press). 



A NEW and cheaper edition of the late Dr. Alfred 

 Russel Wallace's book, "The World of Life : a Mani- 

 festation of Creative Power, Directive Mind, and 

 Ultimate Purpose," has been published by Messrs. 

 Chapman and Hall, Ltd. In its original form the 

 work was reviewed at length in our issue for June 8, 

 1911 (vol. Ixxxvi., p. 481), and it will be sufficient here 

 to say that it can now be obtained at the price of 6s. 

 net. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Comet 1913/ (Delavan). — M. P. Puiseux communi- 

 cates to the Comptes rendus for September 28 (vol. 

 clix.. No. 13) an account of photographs of Delavan 's 

 comet (19 13/) which have been obtained at the Paris 

 Observatory with the Henry-Gautier equatorial on Sep- 

 tember 5 and 6. The plates are impressed with a 

 reseau, and each shows at least six stars which figure 

 in the catalogues of the Astronomische Gesellschaft, 

 executed at Bonn and Cambridge, together with a 

 large number of fainter stars. Thus the necessary 

 data are available for the determination of two accu- j 

 rate positions of this object. The comet on these dates j 

 was a little fainter than a 3-3 magnitude star. M. i 

 Coggia, in the same number of the Comptes rendus. \ 

 gives five observations of positions of this comet made j 

 between September 14 and 18. On these dates the | 

 comet presented a round nucleus of about magnitude 5 | 

 with a tail of about 1° in length. j 



