220 



NATURE 



[October 22, 1914 



Delavan comet, 19 13/. — Charles Rabut : New projec- 

 tive invariants.— P. Helbronner : The complementary 

 geodesic triangulations of the high regions of the 

 French Alps.— Aug. Chevalier and ' )livier Roehrich : 

 The botanical origin of cultivated rice.— M. RoUet : 

 The extraction of German bullets and fragments of 

 shell by the aid of a powerful electromagnet. 



Cape Town. 

 Royal Society of Sonth Africa, August 19. — Dr. L. 

 P^ringuey, president, in the chair. — T. F. Dreyer : 

 The morphology of the tadpole of Xenopus laevis. 

 Among other conclusions the author states that the 

 epithelium of the gill-slits is continued into the glottis, 

 which is in support of the theory that lungs and gill- 

 slits are homologous. — R. Issel : A morphological 

 study of Strongylus douglasi, Cobbold. A description 

 of the ostrich wire-worm. Although the parasite was 

 discovered in South Africa more than thirty years ago 

 and has considerable economic importance in view 

 of the mortality it causes among ostrich chicks, this 

 is the first complete description of the helminth. It 

 has been found that the parasite has a buccal cavity 

 armed with teeth. This and other details were over- 

 looked in the original description. — W. A. Jolly : The 

 interpretation of the electrocardiogram. An explana- 

 tion of the form of the electrocardiogram in the 

 human being, under normal and pathological con- 

 ditions, was put forward, based on a study of the 

 electrical changes in the simple and slowly contracting 

 heart of the tortoise, isolated from the bodv and 

 caused to beat by induction shocks. — W. von Bonde : 

 On the crystallography of anatase crystals in the 

 auriferous conglomerate of the Witwatersrand. An 

 occurrence of minute anatase crystals in the Rose 

 Deep Gold Mine was described recently by Dr. R. B. 

 Young. A number of these minute crystals was sent 

 to the S.A. College for crystallographic examination. 

 This work was undertaken by the author. Chemica' 

 examination showed the presence of titanium in the 

 mineral. There is, therefore, no doubt as to the 

 correctness of Dr. R. B. Young's determination of 

 the mineral as anatase. A stereographic projection 

 of all the observed faces suggests the possibility thit 

 anatase has not the symmetry hitherto assigned to 

 it. An extended examination of a larger number of 

 crystals is in progress with the viev; of confirming or 

 disproving this suggestion. — T. Muir : Note on ihe 

 product of a special n-line determinant by its central 

 minor of the (n-4)tii order. In Mr. Roseveare's p-nper 

 on a proof that every algebraic equation of the n^^ 

 degree had n roots, an equivalent was given for the 

 product of a special n-line determinant by its central 

 minor of the {n-^Y'^ order, the equivalent taking the 

 form of an aggregate of products of pairs of minors 

 of the (jj-2)tii order. For such a product an apparently 

 similar expression of a general character has been 

 known for some time, but it is found that this does 

 not include the form given by Mr. Roseveare. This 

 latter form is considered and a generalisation of it 

 is worked out. 



BOOKS RECEIVED. 



Discoveries and Inventions of the Twentieth 

 Century. By E. Cressy. Pp. xvi+ ^98. (London : 

 G. Routledge and Sons, Ltd.) 75. 6d. net. 



A Text-Book of Physiological Chemistry. By Profs. 

 O. Hammarsten and S. G. Hedin. Translated by 

 Prof. J. A. Mandel. Seventh edition Pp. viii+1026. 

 (New York : J. Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; London : Chap- 

 man and Hall, Ltd.) , 175. net. 



Fishing and Philandering. By A. Mainwaring. 

 Pp. XV + 254. (London : Heath, Cranton and Ouseley, 

 Ltd.) 6s. net. 



NO. 2347, VOL. 94] 



The Spectroscopy of the Extreme Ultra-Violet. By 

 Dr. T, Lyman. Pp. 135. (London : Longmans and 

 Co.) 5s. net. 



l")epartment of the Interior. U.S. Geological Sur- 

 vey. Bulletin Nos. 556, 557, 571, 580 D, 580 E, 581 A, 

 585. (Washington : Government Printing Office.) 



Department of the Interior. U.S. Geological Sur- 

 vey. Water-Supply Paper 323, 340 B. (Washington : 

 Government Printing Office.) 



Department of the Interior. U.S. Geological Sur- 

 vey. Professional Paper 90 C, (,o D. (Washington : 

 Government Printing Office.) 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. Vol. Ixiv., 

 No. 2. (Washington : Smithsonian Institution.) 



DIARY OF SOCIETIES. 



FRIDA V, October 23. 

 at 8. — Presidential Address : 



lonisation: Sir J. J. 



Physical Society, 



Thomson. 



TUESDAY, October 27. 

 Zoological Society, at 5.30.— Report on the Rhynchota Collected by the' 



WoUaston Expedition in Dutch New Guinea : W. L. Distant. — The 



Foraminifera of the Kerimba Archipelago, Portuguese East Africa : E. 



Heron-Allen and A. Earland. — A Remarkable New Cirripede from the^ 



Chalk of Surrey and Hertfordshire : T. H. Withers. 



THURSDAY, October zq. 

 Institution of Electrical Engineers, at 8. — Inaugural Address by the 



President. 

 Child Study Society, at 7.30.— After Care of Mental Defectives : Miss 

 E. Fox. 



FRIDAY, October 30. 

 Institution ok Mechanical Engineers, at 8. — Thomas Hawkslejr 

 Lecture : Pumping and Other Machinery for Waterworks and Drainage ! 

 W. B.Bryan. 



CONTENTS. PAGB 



Experimental and Philosophical Biology 19J 



Fuels for Power Production. By H. E. W. . . 195 

 Modern Practice in the Extraction of Metals from 



their Ores 196 



Science and Industry 196 



Our Bookshelf . ^ . , 197 



Letters to the Editor: — 



Fizeau's Experiment and the Principle of Relativity. 



— E. Cunningham 197 



Flint Fracture. — W. J. Lewis Abbott 198 



Filtering Power of Sand.— W. P. Dreaper; W. A. 



Davis 19S 



Scieniific Societies and the War.— Dr. W. T. Caiman 19S 



The X-Ray Spectrometer. (Illustrated.) 199 



The Sea Fisheries and the War. By J. J 201 



The Total Solar Eclipse Expedition to Hernosand, 



Sweden. (///«5/ra/^^.) By Father A. L.Cortie, S.J. 20* 



The British Association in Queensland. {Illustrated.) 2Xi^ 



Notes 206 



Our Astronomical Column :— 



Comet i9i3/(Delavan), {Illustrated.) 21C 



Encke's Comet 2|<i 



The Recent Eclipse Expeditions . 2i< 



Societa degli Spettroscopisti Italiani . 2IC 



Anthropology at the British Association 2K 



The Iron and Steel Institute. By Prof. H. C. H. 



Carpenter 2»2 



Papers on Heredity 213 



The Place of Wisdom (Science) in the State and in 



Education. By Prof. Henry E. Armstrong, F.R.S. 21$ 



University and Educational Intelligence 21 j 



Societies and Academies 215 



Books Received 22c 



Diary of Societies 22? 



Editorial and Publishing Offices : 



MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd., 



ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON, W.C. 



Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the j 

 Publishers. 

 Editorial Communications to the Editor. 



Telegraphic Address : Phusis, London, 

 Telephone Number : Gerr.4RD 8830. 



