January 28, 19 15] 



NATURE 



599 



various kinds of phosphorus, the red variety pre- 

 dominating-. In the common shell the phosphorus is 

 contained in a cylindrical box, diameter 25 millimetres 

 and height 60 millimetres, placed in a cavity behind 

 the explosive. In the shrapnel shell, the bullets are 

 placed in a cylindrical white metal box 65 millimetres 

 diameter, and the space between the bullets is filled 

 with the same violet-brown powder. The whole is 

 rammed tight, so that the bullets, which are 

 roughened, retain a certain quantity of the phos- 

 phorus. As a result, pieces of German shells and 

 shrapnel bullets carry more or less phosphorus into a 

 wound. This fact should be specially brought to the 

 notice of surgeons, since phosphorus can produce a 

 mortification of the tissues even with a shrapnel 

 bullet, and micro-organisms, especially the anaerobic 

 organisms, which produce tetanus and gas gangrene, 

 find a favourable medium for their development and 

 the wound may become grave. It is therefore advised 

 that wounds produced by shrapnel and fragments of 

 shell should be deeply incised and cleaned with the 

 greatest care. 



Messrs. Longmans, Green and Co. announce that 

 from February i the complete list of publicaiions of 

 the Manchester University Press will be published by 

 them throughout the world. 



OVR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Annual Report of the U.S. Naval Observatory. 

 —The report, for the vear 19 14, of the superintendent 

 of the U.S. Naval Observatorj-, is presented as 

 Appendix No. 2 in the Annual Report of the Chief of 

 the Bureau of Navigation, 1914. While the report 

 itself onlv covers twenty pages, the contents are very 

 concentrated, and cover a very large field of activity. 

 The superintendent refers briefly to the distribution 

 of time, the issue of the American Ephemeris and 

 Nautical Almanac, the observations of sun, moon, 

 planets, satellites, comets etc. Each of these subjects 

 is more fullv described in the subsequent paragraphs 

 under the various sub-headings. Regarding the longi- 

 tude determination between Washington and Paris by 

 wireless signals, it is stated that the reduction of the 

 observations is well advanced, and this will constitute 

 the first direct determination between the Naval Ob- 

 servatorv and Europe. Ten American observatories 

 took advantage of the opportunity of using these 

 signals and made the necessary observations to deter- 

 mine their longitudes. 



The Appley Bridge Aerolite. — ^A description of the 

 Applev Bridge meteorite (see Natlre, November 5, 

 1914, and Januarv 7) sent to the Royal Astronomical 

 Societv bv Messrs.' W. C. Jenkins (Godlee Obser\ator)) 

 and E. C. Rhead, appears in the Monthly Notices of 

 the Societv for December, 19 14. Of the recorded falls 

 in Great Britain that of Wold Cottage is the only 

 one of greater weight than the present one. Ultimate 

 analysis showed silica, magnesia, iron, and alumina 

 were the principal constituents; small quantities of 

 sulphur, nickel, and phosphorus were found. 

 Chlorine, sodium, potassium, calcium, strontium, and 

 antimony were detected and lead was suspected. It 

 is stated that a careful — chemical — search for titanium 

 gave negative results. The question arises, was 

 chromium specially looked for? 



AnNUAIRE DL- BVREAf DES LONGITUDES, iqip.— We 



have received a copv of this ver^- useful publication, 

 NO. 2361, VOL. 94] 



issued by the Bureau des Longitudes, Paris. The 

 table of contents is, of course, parallel with that of 

 the volume for 1913, that is to say, in addition to 

 minor changes in the first section, the second section 

 is made up of geographical and statistical tables, etc., 

 in place of the chemical and physical data given last 

 year. There is a noteworthy addition in the shape of 

 a description of the constellations from the pen of 

 M. G. Bigourdan, containing a list giving details of 

 more than 400 of the brighter stars in 88 constellations. 

 The usefulness of the list might have been increased 

 bv the addition of a column containing type of 

 spectrum. A valuable essay (162 pages) by the same 

 able author on the methods of testing mirrors and 

 objectives forms the final section. 



The Theory of a Sunspot Swarm of Meteors. — 

 Prof. R. A. Sampson (.Monthly Notices, Royal 

 Astronomical Society, December, 19x4) discusses some 

 points in the theory that sunspots are produced by a 

 bombardment of the sun by meteors of the Leonid 

 swarm detach'ed by encounter with Saturn. Two 

 objections are advanced : first, that the conditions 

 required bv the hypothesis would require an im- 

 probable mass for the Leonids, and, secondly, that the 

 orbit of the Leonids does not allow the required en- 

 counter of the swarm with Saturn. What is probably 

 the more interesting outcome of Prof. Sampson's 

 investigation is the deduction of a new date for the 

 capture of the Leonids. It is shown that there are 

 three dates, all more recent than Leverrier's (a.d. 126), 

 in which the critical conditions for capture obtained; 

 one of these, a.d. 885, comes a little before the earliest 

 recorded shower (a.d. 902), and accordingly is con- 

 sidered the more probable date. 



THE RESTORATION OF AN 

 ICHTHYOSAUR. 



SOME three-quarters of a centun,- ago the late Sir 

 Richard Owen directed attention to the very 

 frequent occurrence in the flattened skeletons of 

 ichthvosaurs from the Lias of Whitby and Lyme 

 Regis of a sudden flexure in the vertebrae of the tail 

 at a distance from the tip of about one-fourth the total 

 length. This flexure, he argued, must have been due 

 i to the presence of a terminal tail-fin, placed vertically, 

 like that of a fish, although not fish-like in structure. 

 The truth of this has been made apparent, not only 

 bv the impression of the soft parts in some of the 

 ichthvosaurs from the Lias of Holzmaden, but like- 

 wise bv the skeletons of their successors disinterred 

 by the Messrs. Leeds from the Oxford Clay near 

 Peterborough, all the latter exhibiting a structural 

 modification at the point in question. Of these won- 

 derful Oxfordian skeletons a reconstructed example, 

 of which we are enabled to give a figure, has recently 

 been set up in the fossil reptile gallen.- in the Natural 

 Historv branch of the British Museum, and is believed 

 to be the first entire articulated specimen placed on 

 exhibition. It belongs to the big-eyed, broad-paddled, 

 and practically edentulous group constituting the 

 genus Ophthalmosaurus, of which it represents the 

 species known as O. icetiicus. .As mounted, it 

 measures a little more than 13 ft. in total length, 

 and carries about fifty pairs of ribs, of which the first 

 half-dozen or so are crowded together in order to 

 enable them to underlie the scapulae. 



The work of fitting together and mounting the 

 disjecta membra of this skeleton was one which' 

 called into play all the skill of the articulators of the 

 geological department, to whom great credit is due 

 for the accomplishment of such a difficult task. 

 .\ point of special interest in connection with these 



