NA rURE 



[October 6, 1898 



4s no mention in the list of any species of Saxifragacese or 

 Primulacese, and only one each is recorded of Crassulace» and 

 Gentianaceje. 



In a "Note on Stokes's Theorem," Mr. A. G. Webster con- 

 tributes to the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts 

 and Sciences, xxxiii. 20, a very simple proof of the expressions 

 for the components of the curl of a vector point-function in 

 iterms of orthogonal curvilinear coordinates, which he obtains 

 without the laborious process of transformation from rectangular 

 axes. 



The Revue generate des Sciences has brought to light a 

 new student of geometry in the form of Father Cyprien, of 



"the Monastery of Mount Athos. This monk, who turns but 

 to have been formerly a well-known explorer, Prince C. 

 Wiasemsky, contributes to the pages of the Revue an interesting 

 note on what he calls the " transinscribed spheres " of regular 

 polyhedra, viz. spheres touching the edges of polyhedra, and 



-various relations between the radii of spheres transinscribed to 



the regular tetrahedron, cube, octohedron, dodecahedron, and 



icosahedron are established. 



Prof. Oreste Murani contributes to the Rendiconti del 

 R. Istituto Lombardo, xxxi. 4, some interesting observations on 

 stationary Hertzian waves as studied with the use of a coherer. 

 The experiments were undertaken with a view of elucidating the 

 :{)henomenon of multiple resonance indicated by the experi- 

 ments of Sarasin and De la Rive, who by using resonators of 

 ■different sizes had obtained indications of waves of different 

 /lengths. Instead of a resonator, Prof. Murani used a coherer, 

 whose distance from the metallic reflector could be varied. On 

 the hypothesis that the waves given off by the oscillator were 

 simple waves, it would be natural to expect that the galvano- 

 metric deviations due to the coherer should vanish at the nodes 

 .and become a maximum at the loops. The actual observations, 

 however, give no indicai;ions of such maxima and minima, thus 

 favouring the view that the radiations emitted by the primary 

 are not simple, but are composed of an infinity of waves of 

 different periods. 



The invention of the kinematograph has led to a large 

 demand for films, and these of considerably greater length than 

 was previously required. We read in the British Journal of 



.Photography (September 23) that the Eastman Kodak Company 



•of Rochester, New York, have contracted to manufacture three 

 photographic films of a length of 50,000 feet each, i.e. 9 miles 

 826 yards 2 feet long. These films have been ordered by Mr. 

 Dunn for use in a machine of the kinetoscope type, the 

 " Cellograph," of which he is the inventor. It is interesting to 



•note the cost of such strips. The Eastman Company, according 

 to the same account, charges 10,000 dollars for each roll, making 

 in all 30,000 dollars for 150,000 feet, or about 1000 dollars a 



iniile. It is possible now literally to take photographs by the 



.mile. 



A CATALOGUE of the scientific works in the Royal Zoological 

 -Anthropological- Ethnographical Museum in Dresden has been 

 prepared under the direction of Dr. A. B. Meyer, and is pub- 

 lished by Messrs. R. Friedlander and Son, Berlin. The works 

 -are arranged alphabetically according to authors, and system- 

 atically in subjects. 



Helminthologists will welcome the contributions to the 

 anatomy and histology of Nemertean worms, which Dr. 

 Eohmig publishes in the current number of the Zeitschrift fiir 

 ■Wissenschaftliche Zoologie. Two species are described in 

 •detail ; the one {Stichosteinma grcecense) discovered by Dr. 

 Bohmig himself six years ago in a freshwater pond in the 

 'botanic gardens of Graz; and the o\)\^x{Geoneinerteschalicophora), 

 NO. I 5 10, VOL. 58] 



found by Prof, von Graff in one of the hot-houses of the same 

 gardens in 1879. The same number of the Zeitschrift contains 

 also a paper, by W. Karawaiew, on the changes which the 

 internal organs of ants undergo during their n>etamorphosis. 

 The observations recorded were made on female larvae of 

 Lasius flavus, and are chiefly of a histological nature. 



A PAPER on induction coils, read by Mr. A. Apps before the 

 Rontgen Society, and one by Dr. T. Macintyre on contact 

 breakers, appear in the Archives of the Roentgen Ray (vol. iii. 

 No. i), together with a report of the discussions which took 

 place upon them at the meeting at which they were read. Un- 

 stinted praise is awarded to the excellent mechanical construction 

 and performance of British-made instruments. Thus, " The 

 possessor of a good induction coil made by our leading instru- 

 ment-makers should cherish it as the violin-player cherishes his 

 Stradivarius or his Guarnerius." Mr. T, C. Porter gives an 

 extended account of his researches on Rontgen rays, already 

 briefly described by him in these columns ; Mr. Campbell 

 Swinton summarises some of his recent work ; and Drs. Norris 

 Wolfenden and F. W. Forbes-Ross describe the action of 

 Rontgen rays upon the growth and activity of bacteria and 

 micro-organisms. 



The second edition of a "Catalogue of Scientific and Tech- 

 nical Periodicals," by Prof. H. Carrington Bolton, has just been 

 published by the Smithsonian Institution. The catalogue con- 

 tains particulars concerning the principal independent periodicals 

 of every branch of pure and applied science published in all 

 countries from 1665 to the present time. Medicine has been 

 excluded from the list, but anatomy, physiology, and other 

 branches of medical science have been admitted. The period- 

 icals are arranged in alphabetical order, and they number nearly 

 nine thousand. The date of publication of each volume of the 

 journals entered in the catalogue is shown by means of chrono- 

 logical tables, by the use of which it is possible to find the date 

 of a given volume in a given series, or the number of a volume 

 when the date is known. The periodicals are indexed according 

 to subjects, as well as arranged alphabetically according to their 

 titles. The preparation of the volume (which runs into 1247 

 pages) must have involved an immense amount of work, and 

 men of science will be grateful to the Smithsonian Institution 

 for the new edition of this useful bibliography of the scientific 

 press. 



The following are among the forthcoming publications an- 

 nounced by Mr.Wilhelm Engelmann (Leipzig) : — " Repetitorium 

 der Zoologie," by Karl Eckstein, second revised edition ; " Cata- 

 logus Hymenqpterorum hucusque descriptorum systematicus et 

 synonymicus," by C. G. de Dalla Torre, Volumen iv. Bracon- 

 idae ; " Monographieen afrikanischer Pflanzen-Familien-und- 

 Gattungen," edited by A. Engler, i. Moraceae (excl. Ficus), 

 prepared by x\. Engler ; ii. Melastomataceae, prepared by 

 E. Gilg ; " Elemente der Mineralogie begrlindet," by Carl 

 Friedrich Naumann. Thirteenth completely revised edition by 

 Ferdinand Zirkel, second part, completion of the work ; "Kritik 

 der wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnis Eine vorurteilsfreie Weltan- 

 schauung," by Dr. Heinrich von Schoeler ; " Grundriss der 

 Psychologic," by Prof. Wilhelm Wundt, third revised edition ; 

 "Untersuchungen liber Strukturen," by Prof O. Blitschli ; 

 " Grundriss einer Cieschichte der Naturwissenschaften," by 

 Friedrich Dannemann, vol. ii. ; " Monographic der Turbel- 

 larien," by Ludwig von Graff, vol. ii. ; " Handbuch der 

 Bliitenbiologie," founded upon Hermann Miiller's work, by 

 Paul Knuth ; vol. ii. second part, Lobeliaceae bis Coniferae ; 

 " Die Vegetation der Erde Sammlung pflanzen-geographischer 

 Monographieen," edited by A. Engler and O. Drude, vol. iii. 

 Caucasus, by G. E. Radde. 



