December 6, 1900] 



NATURE 



J 39 



any real connection with industrial progress ? When the business 

 man really believes in such institutions, he does not regard 

 them merely as places where a smattering of useful knowledge 

 can be obtained, but as laboratories where adequate provision 

 has to be made for scientific research. As for the laboratories 

 provided for investigation in ironworks and other manufactories, 

 they are as nothing in comparison with what they ought to be. 

 When they do exist, they are often regarded as failures unless every 

 year the cost of their upkeep is less than the saving they effect. 

 What British manufacturers mostly lack is belief in scientific 

 results and sympathy with the scientific spirit. So long as they 

 are deficient in these qualities, they will be unable to derive 

 the fullest advantage from scientific progress. 



Mr. Fox Bourne, on behalf of the committee of the 

 Aborigines Protection Society, has addressed a letter to Mr. 

 Chamberlain with reference to the condition of aborigines of 

 Australia. It is submitted that a comprehensive and uniform 

 native policy should be adopted for the whole of Australia, with 

 harmony and equal efficiency in the measures taken for carrying 

 it out. After referring to the importation of Kanaka and other 

 native labour, the letter recognises that arbitrary interference 

 by her Majesty's Goverment would be inexpedient and im- 

 practicable, but urges that the Governor-General and his ad- 

 visers should be communicated with on this subject, in the hope 

 that they will see their way to take such measures as will ensure 

 to the aborigines adequate protection. 



Mr. a. B. Basset asked, in our issue of October ii (p. 572), 

 for a word to designate a non-singular curve, and suggested that 

 a curve having no double points might be termed an ' ' anauto- 

 tomic curve." Other correspondents have thought that the idea 

 of curves without double points could be conveyed by the words 

 nonsesecting, (p. 7), unautotomic, and nodeless (p. 58). There 

 is an objection to such hybrid terms as "unautotomic," but 

 Mr. W. R. K. Watson writes to point out that "nodeless" 

 stands on different grounds, because the rule against combining 

 elements derived from different languages does not apply to the 

 terminations. Mr. T. B. Sprague also sends us a letter in which 

 he expresses the view that nodeless is a suitable word. Hence, 

 if anautotomic is objected to on the score of euphony, the balance 

 of opinion appears to be in favour of nodeless. 



At a recent meeting of the West Riding section of the Society 

 of Dyers and Colourists, Messrs. A. Dufton and W. M. Gardner 

 read a paper on their arrangement for the production of an 

 artificial light of the same quality as daylight, and illustrated its 

 practical value. The lamp devised for this purpose was shown 

 at the Bradford meeting of the British Association, and has 

 already been briefly described (vol. Ixii. p. 563, October 4). 



In La Nature of November 24, M. E. Durand Greville gives 

 a good description and illustrations of the so-called Pocky or 

 festoon cloud. It was probably first observed by Lamarck 

 about a century ago, and was subsequently frequently seen in the 

 Orkneys, and referred to in pamphlets entitled " Popular weather 

 prognostics of Scotland," by Sir A. Mitchell in 1863, and by the 

 Rev. Dr. Clouston in 1867. It has the appearance of a «/;««</«« 

 cloud reversed, or as it would be seen from a balloon, and it was 

 named by the recent International Cloud Committee tnammato- 

 cumulus. It was supposed to be formed of drops of water, and 

 its occurrence was in most cases followed by storms either of 

 rain or wind. M. Durand's observations lead him to suppose 

 that it is by no means always composed of water-drops, but that 

 it is often formed of small needles of ice. He proposes that this 

 name should be maintained when it is certain that it is composed 

 of water-drops, but to employ the term niammato- cirrus, or 

 Poey's globo-cirrus, when it is equally clear that the cloud is 

 ormed of ice-crystals. 



NO. 1623, VOL. 63] 



A REPORT on the acetylene flame,«considered with especial 

 reference to its use in physical laboratories, is given by Mr. 

 Edward L. Nichols in the Journal of the Franklin Institute. 

 The report deals with the following points : The falling off in 

 illuminating power when the acetylene is stored for some time, 

 especially over water ; the influence of the pressure and mode of 

 production ; the characteristics of pure acetylene flames ; the 

 temperature of the flame ; and the uses of acetylene for the 

 lantern, for the production of high temperatures, and for photo- 

 metric measurements. A further report on the efficiency of the 

 acetylene flame as a source of light is contributed by the same 

 writer to the Physical Review (October). 



Prof. Klein announces that the publication of Gauss's works, 

 which has been delayed since the appearance of the sixth 

 volume, will be resumed under the editorship of Prof. Brendel, 

 who will have the collaboration of Profs. Fricke, Stackel, 

 Borsch, Kriiger and Wiechert. Volume viii. has already 

 appeared, and contains a miscellaneous collection of hitherto un- 

 published writings on arithmetic, algebra, analysis, probability 

 and geometry. Volume vii. will contain the Theoria mottis, as 

 well as a complete collection of Gauss's works on astronomical 

 perturbations ; volume viii. will deal with Gauss's geodetic 

 operations and certain physical problems, supplementary to those 

 treated in previous volumes ; and volume x. will consist of bio- 

 graphical matter, including extracts from Gauss's correspondence. 



A DETAILED account of the system of multiplex telegraphy, 

 which has for its basis the use of alternating currents of different 

 frequencies, is given in the Journal de Physique for November by 

 M. E. Mercadier. 



In \ht Journal de Physiqueior November, M. Raphael Dubois 

 describes in a short note some experiments on the use of photo- 

 bacteria as sources of illumination. By cultures on a large scale, 

 with liquid nutrient media, the author states that it has been 

 possible to illuminate a room with the brilliancy of moonlight. 



A COPY of a very rare botanical pamphlet — the " Orbis 

 Eruditi Judicium de Caroli Linnsei, M.D. Scriptis," dated, 

 Holmise, 1741, is offered for sale in a German book circular 

 ^Recensions-exemplar), at the moderate price of 120 marks. This 

 is the only " apology" ever written by " Linnaeus, and the only 

 work published by him anonymously. It is especially directed 

 against his bitter antagonist, J. G. Wallerius, the mineralogist. 

 Pritzel, by whom this work was not mentioned in the first edition 

 of his catalogue, states in the second edition that he saw a copy in 

 the library of de Candolle. Besides this only three other copies 

 appear to be known, two of which were offered for sale at an 

 auction in Stockholm in November, 1888. The pamphlet 

 contains a r/x«/«/ of the most important events in the life of 

 Linnaeus, as well as a list of his works to date. 



In his presidential address to the twelfth annual meeting of 

 the Association of Economic Entomologists, held in New York 

 last June, Mr. C. P. Gillette urged the importance of the study 

 of the life-histories of insects injurious to crops, saying that much 

 remains to be learned, even in the case of the commonest and 

 most abundant species. The Proceedings of the Association are 

 published as a Bulletin (No. 26) by the Entomological Division 

 of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Among the numerous 

 papers, one of the most interesting deals with the methods 

 adopted for the destruction of the green-pea louse, the illustra- 

 tions showing the extensive scale on which the operations are 

 conducted. The Association, which is stated to be the only one 

 of its kind in existence, comprises 109 members resident in the 

 United States and 42 foreign members. 



We have received a copy of the Communications of the 

 Millport marine biological station for November. Among the 

 more important contents are a paper by Miss Newbigin on the 



