114 



NA TURE 



[November 29, 1900 



Ihigh-bone. Both these bones are relatively small, and in life 

 were probably completely buried in the flesh. Although the 

 relationship may be remote, the author considers that Zeuglodon 

 was certainly related to the seals ; adding that it probably repre- 

 sents a side branch of the ceto-phocic stock which left no 

 descendants. It is also mentioned that the abundance of its 

 remains in certain districts of the United States has been much 

 exaggerated. 



Prof. W. A. Herdman has drawn up a scheme of investi- 

 gations for submission to the Committee of the Lancashire and 

 Western Sea Fisheries. These investigations, it is suggested, 

 should be carried out systematically by the Committee's new 

 steamer, commencing with the new year. The questions as to 

 whether a particular fishery is on the wane or the increase, or 

 whether "nurseries" are already overstocked with young fish 

 or stand in need of replenishing by artificially hatched fish, can 

 only, according to Prof. Herdman, be solved by means of 

 accurate information connected with the abundance, movements 

 and life-histories of the species of fish concerned ; and such 

 information can only be acquired by a practical scientific in- 

 vestigation of our seas. The tables drawn up for recording the 

 observations taken during each cruise seem admirably adapted 

 for their purpose. It is proposed that a certain amount of the 

 steamer's time should be devoted to the taking of regular 

 periodic observations at fixed points according to the plan of 

 these tables. 



We have received from the publishers, Messrs. Gurney and 

 Jackson, a copy of the second edition of Mr. H. Goss's valuable 

 .pamphlet on the " Geological Antiquity of Insects," the first 

 edition of which was noticed in these columns. In the preface 

 the author expresses regret tnat he has had neither time nor energy 

 to incorporate the new matter which has been published since 

 the appearance of the first edition, so that the present issue is 

 mainly a reprint of the latter. 



Mr. a. S. Packard describes some tracks of Crustaceans 

 found in rocks of the Chemung stage (Upper Devonian), and in 

 upper Carboniferous of Pennsylvania and elsewhere [Proc. Amer. 

 Acad., July 1900). These tracks he attributes to Limuloids akin 

 to the Carboniferous genus Prestwichia. Mr. Packard also 

 describes a new fossil crab {Cancer proavi/us), from the Miocene 

 of Gay Head, Martha's Vineyard. He remarks that the extinct 

 species appears to be the stem or ancestral form from which have 

 descended the two species now living in the waters of Vineyard 

 Sound. 



The geological section of the Leicester Literary and 

 Philosophical Society is doing excellent work under the chair- 

 manship of Mr. H. Alfred Roechling. Excursions have this 

 year been made to Atherstone, Polesworth, Ashby-de-laZouch 

 and other places, concerning which concise reports have been 

 printed, together with sections and geological maps (on a scale 

 of two inches to a mile). These maps and sections are the work 

 of Mr. C. Fox Strangways, who has acted as geological leader 

 on many of the excursions. 



In the Astrophysical Journal (vol. xii. pp. 167-175), Prof. 

 H. Crew describes some veiy interesting experiments he has 

 recently made on the differences in the spectra of various metals 

 when the arc producing the light was surrounded by ordinary air 

 or hydrogen. The investigation was undertaken in the hope 

 that the new condition might have some selective effect on the 

 spectrum lines, and thereby facilitate their grouping into series. 

 The arc was produced in a brass hood made in two halves ; 

 into one of these the two electrodes were fitted by insulated 

 bearings, provision being made for one of the electrodes being 

 rotated from outside. The opposing edges of the two hemi- 



NO. 1622, VOL. 63] 



spheres were then screwed together, and a gas-tight joint ob- 

 tained. Opposite the space between the poles, the hood was 

 provided with an opening carrying a brass tube some 12 inches 

 long, having at its outer end a quartz lens which served to pro- 

 ject an image of the enclosed arc on to the slit of a concave 

 Rowland spectrograph of lo-feet radius. The hydrogen was 

 supplied from three large electrolytic cells, and, after passing 

 through a drying tube, was allowed to continually pass through 

 the brass hood, the surplus being ignited at a stopcock. The 

 first indication of the effect of the hydrogen was to materially 

 diminish its intensity, so much so that in some cases the exposure 

 had to be from five to one hundred times that necessary in air 

 only. In addition, there is a most conspicuous change of relative 

 intensity among the lines of any one substance. Tables are 

 given of the lines affected in the cases of magnes'um, zinc and 

 iron. In magnesium, the characteristic line at A4481 has an 

 intensity in hydrogen ten times as great as in air, this change 

 being similar to that obtained in passing from the arc to the in- 

 duction spark. In the case of iron many lines are greatly en- 

 hanced in intensity, but these are not the same lines which are 

 enhanced in substituting the spark for the arc condition ; but 

 the author states that all lines in the arc spectrum which are 

 affected by the hydrogen atmosphere, whether enhanced or 

 diminished in intensity, belong to the spark spectrum also. On 

 the other hand, the lines which belong to Kayser and Runge's 

 series are unaffected by the change from air to hydrogen. 



Messrs. Perken, Son and Co., Ltd., have just issued a 

 new catalogue of photographic apparatus, magic lanterns and 

 accessories. 



Following the example of Cornell University, the New 

 Mexico Normal University has commenced the publication of 

 instructive bulletins to encourage interest in nature study. The 

 subjects of the first two bulletins are house flies and pigments. 



In his letter on the optics of acuteness of sight (p. 83), Dr. 

 A. S. Percival pointed out that as the angle subtended by 

 Jupiter's edge and his first satellite at the observer's eye is 

 greater than one and a half minutes of arc, there is no reason 

 why the four satellites should not be seen by the naked eye. 

 The angle is i'33", and n3t I '33" as it was printed. 



We have received from the firm of Gebriider Borntraeger, 

 Berlin (London : Williams and Norgate), the second fasciculus 

 of the second volume of " Symbolae Antillanae seu fundamenta 

 Florae Indiae occidentalis," edited by Herr J. Urban. The new 

 part deals with the Cyperacese, Acanthacere, new Lauracese and 

 Bromeliaceae, and new and little known Leguminosae. 



Prof. Corfield's Harveian lectures on " Disease and De- 

 fective House Sanitation," of which translations into French 

 and Hungarian have already been published by the Royal 

 Society of Public Health of Belgium and the Hungarian Society 

 of Public Health respectively, have now been translated into 

 Italian by Dr. Soffiantini, of Milan, and are being published, 

 with illustrations, in // Monilore Tecnico. 



Messrs. J. and A. Churchill have published a fourth 

 edition of Dr. E. H. Starling's " Elements of Human Pliy 

 siology." As an introduction to the larger text- books the 

 volume is admirable, and it has proved a serviceable guide to 

 many students since the original volume was published in 1892. 

 A review of the book appeared in Nature eight years itgo 

 (vol. xlvii. p. 146), and we are glad to know that the merits 

 which have made it successful were then fully recognised. 



The second fasciculus of the first volume of the " Conspectus 

 florae graecae," by Dr. E. de Halacsy, has been published by 

 Mr. W. Englemann, of Leipzig (London : Williams and Nor- 

 gate). Nearly a century has elapsed since the appearance of 



