June 30, 1898] 



NATURE 



209 



The tenth issue of "The Wealth and Progress of New South 

 Wales," by Mr. T. A. Coghlan, bringing the affairs of the 

 Colony up to the end of 1897, has just been distiibuted by the 

 Agent-General for New South Wales. The volume contains 

 more than a thousand pages, and is filled with accurate inform- 

 ation of service to persons who are engaged in the active 

 life of the Colony, and not without interest to those who are not 

 concerned about the details of local affairs. It would be to the 

 credit of all our Colonies if they published such admirable life- 

 histories as the one for which Mr. Coghlan is responsible. 



The first volume of a second edition of a useful directory of 

 (".erman makers of optical instruments, and other instruments of 

 precision, has been published by the firm of F. and M. Harrwitz, 

 Berlin. This " Adressbuch " is edited by Herr F. Harrwitz, 

 the editor of the journal Der Mechaniker, and has been greatly 

 enlarged. It contains the names and addresses of German 

 mechanicians, opticians, glass instrument makers, and allied 

 callings, arranged alphabetically according to names of firms, 

 towns, and specialities. How numerous these makers of 

 scientific instruments are in Germany may be judged from the 

 fact that the directory just issued contains nearly four hundred 

 pages. 



The number of \h.^ Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society 

 for June contains a reference by the President, Mr. E. M. 

 Nelson, to an old book on optics, Zahn's " Oculus Artificialis,'' 

 published in 1702. The following figures, taken from the work, 

 are reproduced in the Journal : — A telescope-sight for a 

 musket and a cannon, with the legend : " Bombardae et omni 

 genere balistarum ac tormentorum bellicorum tubum opticum 

 sive telescopicum aptare, quo visus ad scopum exacte dirigi 

 poterit." A sunshine recorder or " Organum heliocausticum," 

 with the legend " Horas Luce Sono tibi sphaerula Vitrea 

 monstrat, ignis nil mirum Coelicus urget opus." A series of 

 mirrors for a telescope called " Catoptricodioptrica telescopica." 

 The same number of the Journal contains a lengthy abstract of 

 Dr. A. Clifford Mercer's important paper on " Aperture as a 

 Factor in Microscopic Vision," delivered as a presidential address 

 to the American Microscopical Society ; also an abstract of Mr. 

 E. M. Nelson's paper on " Microscopic Vision," read before the 

 Bristol Naturalists' Society ; and the commencement of a 

 series of papers by Mr. Fortescue W. Millett on recent 

 Foraminifera of the Malay Archipelago, collected by Mr. A. 

 Durrand, illustrated by plates. 



Among the volumes lately published by W. Engelmann, 

 Leipzig, in Ostwald's valuable series of reprints and translations 

 (jf scientific classics {Klassiker der exakten Wissenschaften) is a 

 translation, with notes, by Herr W. Abendroth, of Newton's first 

 ])Ook on optics, dealing with reflection, refraction, and colour, 

 P'our of Ernst von Briicke's papers on plant physiology, published 

 between 1844 and 1862, are reprinted in No. 95 of the series ; 

 and a paper, translated from the Swedish of Eilhard Mitscherlich 

 (1821), on the relation between the chemical composition and 

 crystalline form of salts of arsenic and phosphorus, forms No, 94. 

 The article on crystallography and crystallometry, contributed 

 by J. F. Christian Hessel to Gehler's Physikalische Worterbuche 

 in 1830, appears as a reprint in Nos. 88 and 89, edited by Herr 

 \\. Hess. Prof. E;rnst von Meyer edits No. 92, containing a 

 paper by H. Kolbe (1859) on the natural connection of organic 

 with inorganic compounds, and its bearing upon the classifica- 

 tion of organic bodies. No. 90 is a translation from the French 

 of a geometrical paper (1848) by A. Bravais ; and No. 91 is a 

 German edition of a paper by G. Lejeune Dirichlet (1839-40) 

 on various applications of infinitesimal analysis to the theory of 

 numbers. 



NO. 1496, VOL. 58] 



The value of the Reports of the U.S. National Museum has 

 been so often referred to in these columns, that the announce- 

 ment of the publication of a new volume containing a report 

 upon the condition of the Museum and the work accomplished 

 in its various departments, is sufficient to convey to all who are 

 familiar with the Smithsonian Reports the fact that a large 

 amount of information has been added to the pabulum of 

 scientific readers. The Report just issued runs into 1080 pages, 

 is lavishly illustrated, and is full of interesting matter. In an 

 elaborate paper. Dr. Franz Boas describes and illustrates the 

 collections of the Museum referring to the social organisation 

 and secret societies of the Indians of the coast of British 

 Columbia. His paper is based upon personal studies made 

 during a series of years, and forms a very valuable contribution 

 to the ethnology of the Kwakiutl Indians. Many brilliant re- 

 productions of photographs taken during the performance of 

 native ceremonies are given, and also the transcriptions of a 

 series of phonographic records of songs belonging to the cere- 

 monials. " The Graphic Art of the Eskimos " is dealt with by 

 Dr. W. J. Hoffmann in another long and well-illustrated essay, 

 which will interest archaeologists as well as anthropologists. In 

 addition to the researches in pictography, the paper contains 

 much information upon the gesture language of the various 

 tribes studied. A comparison of the pictographs, and various 

 painted records found in different parts of the United States, 

 with the Eskimo work, show the latter to be superior to the 

 former, especially in faithful reproduction of animal forms and 

 delicacy of artistic execution. The remaining papers in the 

 volume are much shorter than the two already mentioned. 

 Among the subjects dealt with are the tongues of birds, 

 taxidermical methods in the Leyden Museum, and the antiquity 

 of the Red Race in America. 



Since the memorable researches of Humphry Davy on the 

 decomposition of the alkaline earths, many methods have been 

 suggested for preparing the metal calcium in the pure state. 

 M. Moissan, in the current number of the Comptes reudus, after 

 showing that none of these yield a pure metal, describes two 

 ways of preparing crystallised calcium containing less than one 

 per cent, of impurities. The first of the methods depends upon 

 the property possessed by calcium of dissolving in liquid sodium 

 at a dull red heat, and separating out in crystals on cooling. By 

 treating the mass cautiously with absolute alcohol the sodium is 

 removed, and the calcium is obtained in the form of brilliant 

 white hexagonal crystals. Similar white crystals of calcium can 

 be obtained by the electrolysis of fused calcium iodide. It is 

 noteworthy that calcium has usually been described by previous 

 workers as a yellow metal ; doubtless owing to the presence of 

 impurities. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Sykes's Monkey {Cercopithecus albigularisy 

 9 ) from West Africa, presented by Miss Gladys Carey ; a 

 Macaque Monkey (Macacus cynomolgus, <J ) from India, pre- 

 sented by Miss Stankowski ; a Brush-tailed Kangaroo {Petrogale 

 penicillata, $ ) from Australia, presented by Mr. C. J. Leyland ; 

 two Red-backed Pelicans (/V/rVawMJ rufescens) ixom the River 

 Niger, presented by Mr. H. S. Bernstein ; a Black Hangnest 

 (Cassidix oryzivora) from the Amazons, presented by Mr. R. 

 Phillipps; two Yellow-cheeked hemuTsiLemur xantAomystax), 

 two Madaga.scar Tree Boas (Corallus madagascariensis) from 

 Madagascar, a Banded Ichneumon {Crossarchus fasciatus), an 

 Angulated Tortoise (Testudo angulata) from Africa, a Blue- 

 fronted Amazon (Chrysotis astiva) from Brazil, six Algerian 

 Tortoises { Testudo ibera) from Algeria, deposited ; a Great Ant- 

 eater {Myrmecophagajubata),2,1zxaSinAyx& Ant-enter {Taniandua 

 tetradactyla) from South America, a Green-winged Trumpeter 



