3o8 



NA TURE 



[January 24, 1901 



discovered in 1892 ; and it was afterwards found that the tomb- 

 stone of Job Charnock, the founder of Calcutta, was made of 

 the same rock, so the name Charnockite "was suggested for it 

 in honour of the man who was the unconscious means of bring- 

 ing the first specimen of this interesting rock to the city which 

 ultimately became the capital of India." The members of the 

 Charnockite series are now fully described and illustrated. They 

 are regarded as igneous in origin, and as intrusive in the older 

 schists and gneisses. 



In the " Palseontologia Indica " we have (in series xv., 

 relating to Himalayan fossils, vol. iii. part 2) a monograph on 

 the Trias Brachiopoda and Lamellibranchiata, by Dr. Alex- 

 ander Bittner, a work translated by Dr. and Mrs. A. H. Foord. 

 About sixty species are described. The genera are all well 

 known and generally distributed in the Alpine Trias. Identical 

 species, however, are only sparingly represented in India. 

 Another monograph (belonging to series ix., Jurassic Fauna of 

 Cutch, vol. ii. part 2) is on corals, by Dr. J. W. Gregory. A 

 magnificent collection of corals from the Peninsula of Cutch was 

 made by Wynne and Fedden and Stoliczka between 1867 and 

 1872. It was sent to England in 1890 in the hopes that the 

 late Dr. Duncan would undertake the task of description. 

 Owing to failing health he requested Dr. Gregory to carry out the 

 work, and this the latter has now done with conspicuous ability, 

 but not without much anxious consideration. The author was 

 reluctant at first to treat as mere individual variations differences 

 which in the case of the corresponding European corals are 

 regarded as of specific value ; but he was driven, and happily 

 so, to this course, as the alternative was the creation of some 

 3,000 new species or varieties. The bulk of the collection 

 comes from the Putchum Beds (Bathonian) to the north-west of 

 Jumara, and they represent a coral bank rather than a reef. 

 Some corals were obtained from the Chari Beds (Callovian and 

 Oxfordian), and some indicate higher geological horizons. In 

 all seventy-one species are desciibed, and illustrated in a series 

 of excellent plates. 



The question of Hindu castes is treated by Mr. Tribhovandas 

 Mangaldas Nathubhai in the Journal of the Anthropological 

 Society of Bombay (vol. v. p. 74). He points out that "the 

 present castes did not strictly adhere to their original distin- 

 guishing characteristics," and that the spirit of the original 

 laws "not being rightly understood and followed, they yielded 

 not the advantages intended, and produced evils never contem- 

 plated." The author makes some sensible remarks on the re- 

 marriage of widows ; and with regard to the caste system he 

 advocates, not abolition of caste or the raising of the status of 

 the lower castes, but a reversion to the teaching of the Shastras. 

 In the same number of the journal are some notes on the folk- 

 lore of the lizard and ominous birds in India. 



An article upon Huxley's life and memoirs appears in the 

 January number of the Quarterly Review. 



The meteorological observations made at the Adelaide 

 Observatory and other places in South Australia and the 

 Northern Territory during the year 1897, under the direction of 

 Sir Charles Todd, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., are tabulated and dis- 

 cussed in a volume just published by the Government of South 

 Australia. 



A NEW volume of "The Fauna of British India, including 

 Ceylon and Burma," edited by Dr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S., 

 has been published under the authority of the Secretary of State 

 for India. The author of the volume is Mr. R. I. Pocock, 

 who mentions in the preface that it "contains descriptions of 

 all the species of Arachnida of the orders Scorpiones (scorpions), 

 Uropygi (whip-scorpions), Amblypygi, Solifugse, and of most 

 of the larger and otherwise conspicuous species of Araneoe (true 



NO. 1630, VOL. 63] 



spiders) known to occur in British India, Burma and Ceylon, 

 together with diagnoses of the genera, families and sub-orders 

 into which they fall." 



Popular Astronomy for December 1900 contains the address, 

 delivered by Mr. J. A. Brashear at the ceremony of laying the 

 foundation stone of the New Allegheny Observatory at River- 

 side Park, Allegheny, Pa The history of the institution is 

 reviewed since its incorporation in i860. Prof. F. L. Wadswortb 

 is the present director of the Observatory. The existing fine 

 equipment is to be considerably augmented, and a special feature 

 is that one department is to be open day and night to the students 

 in the high schools and higher grades of the common schools, and 

 also to citizens — -a proposal first suggested by the late Prof. J. E. 

 Keeler, a former director. 



Messrs. Iliffe, Sons and Sturmey, Ltd., have sent us 

 the fourth edition of Mr. John A. Hodges' " Practical Enlarg- 

 ing." This edition, we find, has not only been thoroughly 

 revised and brought up-to-date, but much additional matter has 

 been included. The worker is pr ovided with a sound and 

 elementary practical handbook, and it is interesting and im- 

 portant to note what the author states in the preface, that " no 

 formula is given, nor any method of working described, which 

 I have not personally thoroughly tested and proved to be 

 trustworthy." With the introduction and general use of hand 

 cameras and lenses giving flat fields, the process of " enlarg- 

 ing " the originals is now so widely adopted that such a service- 

 able handbook as this will be found most useful. 



" Willing's Press Guide" is a handy index to the press 

 of the world. The newspapers and other periodicals included 

 in- the lists are classified alphabetically according to title, and 

 are also arranged in other groups according to place of publica- 

 tion and subject. We notice a few curious entries in the 

 various classes of scientific publications of the United King- 

 dom. Under Astronomy the reports of two observatories are 

 included, and " Astronomical Leaflets " which are not knowD 

 to us. Under Science also several unimportant publications are 

 named, while others are omitted. For instance, ihe Journal of 

 the City of London College Science Society is given, but the 

 Philosophical Magazine does not appear in the list, though it 

 does appear under Philosophy. Reports of local scientific 

 societies are also mentioned under Science and other heads, but 

 the "Year-Book of Scientific Societies " shows that the number 

 of omissions far exceeds that of societies included. If space 

 cannot be found for the reports of all important local societies 

 concerned with natural history and other sciences, it would be 

 better to omit such societies entirely. At present the lists do 

 not give a correct view of the publications of societies of this 

 kind. 



Some interesting measurements of the electromotive force of 

 concentration batteries containing nonaqueous solutions are 

 communicated by L. Kahlenberg in the Journal of Physical 

 Chemistry (vol. iv. p. 709). Whereas the E.M.F. of batteries 

 containing aqueous solutions has been shown in very many 

 cases to agree quite well with the potential difference calculated 

 on the basis of Nernst's osmotic theory, the author's experi- 

 ments indicate that the difference between the observed and 

 calculated electromotive force is very considerable in the case 

 of solutions in non-aqueous solvents. In view of the dis- 

 crepancies, it is suggested that Nernst's formula should be 

 subjected to a rigid test for the case of non-aqueous solutions. 



A course of lectures on electro-chemistry to a large 

 audience is only with great difficulty capable of being illustrated 

 by quantitative experiments. The usual methods of measuring 

 current, resistance, voltage, &c., cannot readily be adapted in a 

 completely satisfactory manner to the exigencies of the lecture- 



