37^ 



NATURE 



[December ii, 1919 



so many regions, implies confused ideas. Apparently 

 we are only at the beginning of a long controversy 

 on the merits and demerits of Einstein's theor>'. The 

 Times Educational Supplement seeks to give s-ome 

 material for its readers to form a judgment upon it; 

 its correspondent, however, devotes the major portion 

 of his exposition to Einstein's earlier theory, and 

 touches only lightly upon the new work. 



The Earaday Society, the Royal Microscopical 

 Society, the Optical Society, and the Photomicro- 

 graphic Society, in co-operation with the Optical 

 Committee of the British Science Guild, meeting 

 in joint session, will hold a symposium and 

 general discussion on "The Microscope: its 

 Design, Construction, and .Applications," on Wed- 

 nesday, January 14 next. The meeting will be 

 held in the rooms of the Royal Society, Burlington 

 House, Piccadilly, W.i (by kind permission of the 

 president and council), and it will extend over two 

 sessions — from 4.30 to 6.30 and from 8 to 10 p.m. 

 During the afternoon preceding the meeting, from 

 2.30 to 4.30, an exhibition will be held in the library 

 of the Royal Society, which will illustrate recent 

 developments in the science of microscopy and the 

 latest applications of the microscope in all branches 

 of industry. The meeting will be presided over by 

 Sir Robert Hadficld, president of the Faraday Society, 

 who will deliver the opening address. Mr. J. E. 

 Barnard, president of the Royal Microscopical Society, 

 will th^n give a general survey of the subject, and he 

 will be followed by Sir Herbert Jackson. Prof. F. C. 

 Cheshire will speak on the mechanical design 

 of microscopes, and a papei bv Prof. .\. E. Conrady 

 on microscopical optics will be presented. Further 

 particulars relating to the discussion mav be obtained 

 from Mr. F. S. Spiers, secretary, the Faraday .Society, 

 10 Essex Street, London, W.C.2, or Mr. C. J. Lock, 

 secretary, the Royal Microscopical Society, 20 Hanover 

 Square, London, W. i. 



Prof. Anniiul'e Ricco, whose death in September 

 last at the age of seventy-five we much regret to see 

 announced, was born at Modena on September 15, 

 1844. In his early days Prof. Ricco took up engineer- 

 ing. He was present at the Meteorological Congress 

 at Vienna in 1873, when he paid visits to several 

 ."Kustrian and German observatories. In 1877 he .was 

 appointed professor of physics at Modena, and shortly 

 afterwards professor of physical technology at the 

 Engineering .School at Naples. Prof. Ricco took up 

 astronomical yvork in 1879, becoming an assistant at 

 Palermo Observatory. His work included observa- 

 tions of sun-spots and prominences, comets, and the 

 planet Jupiter. In i8go he was appointed director of 

 the Observatory of Catania and Etna, which post 

 he retained until his death. His special subject was 

 solar physics. He undertook regular observations of 

 sun-spots and prominences, and took part in .several 

 eclipse expeditions : to Russia in 1887, to Algeria in 

 1900, to Spain in 1905, and to the Crimea in 1914. 

 On the last occasion he detected a new red band in 

 the coronal spectrum, the principal line of which 

 appeared to conform to a series discovered by Nichol- 

 son, having the cube roots of their wave-lengths in 

 arithmetical progression. Work on sidereal astro- 

 nom\, meteorology, seismology, and geodesy was 

 also carried on under his direction. Prof. Ricco 

 further undertook the laborious task of photographing 

 one of the zones of the .Astrographic Catalogue (north 

 declination 54° to 44?). In spite of great financial 

 difficulties, he published the catalogue of the first 

 three hours of right ascension. His published papers 

 are very numerous ; a recent one directs attention to 

 the advi.sabilitv of correlating solar variations with 



NO. 2615, VOL. 104] 



meteorological phenomena, on the lines initiated by 

 Prof. Abbot. Prof. Ricco was elected an associate of 

 the Rojal .Astronomical Society in 191 1, and last Julv 

 he was chosen as one of the four vice-presidents of 

 the neyv Union .Vstronomique Internationale. 



In the October issue of Man Dr. J. W. Fewkes 

 describes a remarkable carved yvooden object from 

 .Santo Domingo, now in the collection of the Missouri 

 Historical Society, St. Louis. It is a rude figure of 

 a man found in a cave in that island. The ancient 

 .Vntilleans are said to have lived in caves, yvhere thev 

 performed their religious ceremonies, and the fact that 

 this relic was discovered in a cave accounts for its 

 good state of preservation. It so closely resembles a 

 .specimen in the British Museum, described in the 

 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 

 (vol. xxxvii., 1907), that there is little doubt that it 

 represents a Duko or seat used in some religious riti- 

 by the prehistoric people of the island. 



The report of the Superintendent of the .Archaeo- 

 logical Survey of Burma for 1918-19 contains a dis- 

 cussion on the origin of the Shan alphabet. From 

 this it appears that it is derived from the Tibetan 

 rather than from the Burman or the Talaiqu alphabet, 

 and its transmission is due to the close connection 

 betyveen Tibet and the ancient Shan kingdom of 

 Nanehao. Mr. Duroiselle is noyv engaged on th<- 

 systematic collection of materials for the early history 

 of Burma. The epigraphical records cover a wide 

 period, and these are noyv being interpreted. This is 

 supplemented by evidence, rot only from Burman 

 chronicles, but also from Chinese works and accounts 

 of the voyages of .Arab, Persian, and Indian travellers. 

 The pioneer in this yvork yvas Father Sangermano, 

 but the fresh material now available yvill form a use- 

 ful supplement to the information collected by him. 



The Danish Kommissionen for Havundersogelser 

 (Copenhagen C. .A. Reitzel, 1918) has published 

 an exhaustive geographical and biological study 

 of Randersfjord, a long inlet on the east coast 

 of Denmark. The volume, yyhich is entitle<l 

 " Randers Fjords Naturhistorie," is edited by Dr. 

 .A. C. Johansen. It contains more than five hundred 

 pages, and has numerous excellent maps and photo- 

 graphs. .Among the eleven authors who have con- 

 tributed to this fine yvork we note that the editor is 

 responsible for the geology, archaeology, and verte- 

 brate zoology. Dr. J. P. Jacobsen for the hydro- 

 graphy, and Dr. C. H. Ostenfeld for a long .section 

 on the plants and general features of the vegetation. 

 This section is particularly valuable, as the author has 

 entered into the detailed relationship of the plant-life 

 to its environment, and gives many fine photographir 

 illustrations of different ve/fetation formations. .Among 

 the maps in the volume there is a layer-coloure<l 

 orograpiiical map of the yvhole district on a scale of 

 I : 200,000. 



The habits and economic relations of the !.fuano 

 birds of Peru form the subject of an able Report 

 (No. 2298) by Mr. Robert E. Coker, issued by the 

 United States National Museum. The hordes of 

 penguins, cormorants, gannets, and pelicans which 

 resort to the islands fringing the coast of Peru for 

 breeding purposes are protected by the Peruvian 

 Government for the sake of the vast quantities of 

 guano they deposit. This, owing to the fact that rain 

 never falls, retains its nitrogen, which would other- 

 wise be converted into ammonia and lost by evapora- 

 tion. The pages of the report are croyvded yvith 

 interesting otjservatlons on the habits of these birds, 

 and it is to be hoped -that immediate steps yvill be 

 taken to' protect certain species, which the author 



