November i, 1900] 



NATURE 



13 



the apparent explosion is due to the transfer of kinetic energy to 

 the portions hit at later stages, which are thus torn away from 

 those first encountered. 



We have received from Dr. W. Doberck a copy of the obser- 

 vations made at the Hong Kong Observatory during the year 

 1899, containing hourly values and results of the principal 

 meteorological elements. The volume is the sixteenth of this 

 important series, and the observations are enhanced in value by 

 the fact of their publication on a uniform plan, which admits of 

 comparison of the means of one year with those of another. 

 The weather forecasts show a high degree of success ; following 

 the method of analysis usually adopted, and adding together the 

 sum of total and partial success, the percentage amounts to 94. 

 The collection of observations made in the eastern seas and 

 their collation in one-degree squares, for the construction of 

 trustworthy pilot charts, are actively carried on, and these obser- 

 vations are supplemented by registers kept at forty stations on 

 shore. Astronomical and magnetic observations are also regularly 

 made, and the results published in the volume above referred 

 to. The time-ball was successfully dropped throughout the 

 year, with only seven cases of failure. 



It was only in 1889 that Dr. Merriam, in the "North 

 American Fauna," published a synopsis of the pocket-gophers 

 of the genus Perognathus ; but since that date a host of new 

 species and races have been described. Accordingly, a revision 

 of the group has been found necessary, which has been carried 

 out by Mr. W. H. Osgood in No. 18 of the publication cited, 

 several new forms being added to the already large list. 



We have received parts iii. and vi. of " Papers from the 

 Harriman Alaska Expedition " {Proc. Washington Academy, 

 vol. ii.), the former, by Mr. W. E. Ritter and Miss G. R. 

 Crocker, dealing with the multiplication of rays in a 20-rayed 

 starfish and its bilateral symmetry, and the latter, by Miss A. 

 Robertson, treating of the Bryozoa. The most interesting 

 feature in connection with the starfish (Pycnopodia hehanthoides) 

 is the presumed relation between one of its arms and the so- 

 called larval organ of the embrj'o. In regard to the Bryozoa, 

 Miss Robertson remarks that many of the Alaskan species are 

 common to Queen Charlotte Islands, Paget Sound and CaH- 

 fornia. The distribution of all the forms found on the western 

 coast of North America is given, several new species being 

 described. 



The first half of Part iv. of vol. xxviii. of the Morpholo- 

 gisches Jahrbuch is taken up by the final instalment of Dr. S. 

 PauUi's important memoir on the pneumatic cavities in the 

 mammalian skull. It is concluded that the homology of these 

 cavities can only be determined by means of their relations to 

 the nasal chamber, and that the terms " frontal " and 

 " sphenoidal sinus " have no morphological value. In Mono- 

 tremes, pneumatic chambers are wanting, and in other groups 

 the capacity of these increases with the bodily size of the species 

 in which they occur. The second half of the same fasciculus 

 contains the commencement of a memoir by Prof. L. Bolk on 

 the anatomy of apes, the gravid uterus of the langur (Semno- 

 pithecus) being the first subject for consideration. 



Dr. a. B. Meyer, the Director of the Dresden Museum, 

 has sent us the first instalment of a work entitled " Ueber 

 Museen des Ostens der Vereinigten Staaten von Nord Amerika ; 

 Reisestudien." In the autumn of 1899, Dr. Meyer undertook 

 a journey to the States for the purpose of inspecting the museums 

 and their methods of arrangement and conservancy, and the 

 present issue describes some of the results of his survey. As is 

 well known. Dr. Meyer has paid particular attention to^ the 

 construction of museum cases and cabinets, and he seems to 

 have been much interested in some of those in use in America. 



NO. 16 18, VOL. 63] 



The present part, which is^slavishly illustrated, deals with the 

 museums of New York City, Albany and Buffalo. One of the 

 most striking photographs represents the gallery of Mexican 

 antiquities in the American Museum of Natural History, New 

 York. 



We have received " Verhandlungen der Deutschen Zoologi- 

 schen Gesellschaft auf der zehnten Jahresversammlung zu Graz, 

 den 18, bis 20, April 1900," which contain a number of short 

 papers on zoological subjects chiefly interesting to specialists. 

 We have likewise been favoured with copies of the Bulletin 

 International de PAcadJ/nie des Sciences de Cracovie, Comptes 

 rendus, for May and July 1900. Among other papers, the 

 latter contains a communication, by M. E. Godlewski, on the 

 effects of oxygen on the development of the embryo of the frog ; 

 and a second, by M. S. Maziarski, on the structure of the 

 salivary glands. The last-named author has succeeded in 

 modelling these glands on an enlarged scale in wax, and his 

 paper is illustrated by a plate showing some of these models. 



The following lectures will be given at the Royal Victoria 

 Hall, Waterloo Road, during November : — November 6, 

 •'Plants of Long Ago," Mr. A. Seward, F.R S. ; November 

 13, " Flowers from an Insect's Point of View," Prof. J. B. 

 Farmer ; November 20, " The Medicinal Wells of Old 

 London," Mr. W. H. Shrubsole ; November 27, "Some Un- 

 known Countries north of Tanganyika," Mr. J. E. S. Moore. 



The sixth volume of The Reliquary and Illustrated Archa- 

 ologist, comprising the four quarterly numbers issued this year, 

 has been published by Messrs. Bem rose and Sons. The separate 

 numbers of the magazine have been noticed in these columns as 

 they appeared, but this need not prevent us from remarking 

 that Mr. Romilly Allen, who edits the publication, and his fellow 

 archseologists, are to be congratulated upon the excellent 

 character of the text and illustrations of their organ. 



Dr. M. C. Cooke's book entitled " One Thousand Objects 

 for the Microscope " is well known to microscopists, and the 

 new edition, which has just been published by Messrs. Frederick 

 Wame and Co., is likely to have an even wider sphere of use- 

 fulness. Originally, the book consisted of a list of objects, 

 with brief notes upon their microscopic characteristics. Pre-" 

 ceding this, Dr. Cooke now gives a description of the microscope 

 and its essential accessories, with hints on their manipulation, 

 and on the collection and mounting of the different classes of 

 objects enumerated. The book is thus now a complete guide 

 for beginners of practical microscopy, and will be of assistance 

 to all who have a microscope and wish to know how to make 

 good use of it. 



The number of cases of the production of true nitro- derivatives 

 in the fatty series by direct nitration with fuming nitric acid is 

 practically limited to the work of Franchimont and Klobbie and 

 Ruhemann and Orton on malonic acid derivatives. In the 

 current number of the Comptes rendus, MM, Bouveault and 

 Wahl give the results of some successful experiments upon the 

 direct nitration of unsaturated fatty compounds. With the ethyl 

 ester of dimethylacrylic acid, a good yield of a mono-nitro- 

 derivative is formed, which possesses acid properties, forming a 

 potassium salt ; from which, on treating with acid, an ethyl 

 nitrodimethylacrylate isomeric' with the original compound is 

 obtained. 



Nearly forty years ago Schonbein showed how, on shaking 

 lead amalgam with air and water, equivalent quantities of lead 

 oxide and hydrogen peroxide were formed. In recent years many 

 isolated cases have been described of this so-called autoxidation or 

 simultaneous oxidation of two substances by air, one being in- 

 capable of oxidation by air alone — the researches of Bamberger, 



