May 13, 1897] 



NATURE 



37 



as that above described, combined with a definite direction of 

 the shock. Slighter earthquakes usually consist of a great 

 number of small vibrations of nearly equal amplitude executed 

 in different planes. 



The method of the computation of the Chinese calendar is 

 ■described with clearness by Paul d'Enjoy in the Bulletins de la 

 Soc. d'Ajithropologie, 1896, p. 562. Every year is named by a 

 combination of two words according to a fixed rule, and the 

 special combination is supposed to indicate the fortunes of the 

 year. The year 1 896 was the period of the external hearth and 



' the monkey ; that is a time of dangers from abroad, which must 

 be met by cunning and dexterity. Unfortunately for the 



^ Chinese, it was the Japanese that exhibited these qualities ! In 

 1897 the Chinese enter calmer times, under the auspices of the 

 internal hearth and the chicken. Next year the activity of the 

 nation will be diverted from the cultivation of the soil, and turned 

 towards watchfulness and the protection of the home, as the 

 yearly combination is waste-land and dog. The months, weeks, 

 days and hours are also described. Each of their hours corre- 

 sponds to two European hours, of which seven belong to the 

 day, and five to the night ; the first hour commences at 1 1 

 o'clock at night. M. d'Enjoy states that Belgium is about to 

 adopt the principle of the Chinese double hours for the official 

 railway time-tables. 



What Sir William Flower has to say upon " Natural 

 ! History as a ^'ocation," carries great weight ; so parents with 

 children who have proved the earnestness of their interest in 

 nature's life and moods, should turn to an article in Chambers's 

 Journal (May) if they wish to know exactly what are the pro- 

 spects of the livelihood obtainable by following the inclination. 

 *' As to natural history as the regular occupation of one who has 

 no other means of living," says Sir William Flower, "I have 

 little to say that is favourable, as it is about the worst paid and 

 least appreciated of all professions." There are signs, however, 

 that the prospects are brightening, and the youth who feels con- 

 fident of his ability "to scorn delights and live laborious days,' 

 may eventually find his way to a position as a lecturer, demon- 

 strator, or curator. To pursue the vocation with any chance of 

 success, he must have a considerable knowledge of modern 

 languages and other subjects, as well as of natural history. He 

 should begin wisely to collect specimens, and should educate 

 himself by his collection ; for, Sir William Flower points out, 

 " The arrangement of a collection not only teaches the nature 

 and properties of the objects contained in it ; it also stimulates 

 a desire to know more of the similar objects not contained in 

 it, but to be found in other and larger collections. Still more 

 important than this, as an educator, it calls out many valuable 

 practical qualities : originality, order, neatness, perseverance, 

 taste, power of discriminating small differences and resemblances, 

 all of which will be found useful in other spheres of life." Sir 

 William Flower's first "museum" was contained in a large, 

 flat, shallow box with a lid ; and one of the first specimens he 

 possessed was a badly stuffed specimen of the dipper or water 

 ousel. 



In the American Journal of Mathematics, xix. 3, Dr. G. H. 

 Bryan gives a brief account of certain applications of the theory 

 of probability to physical phenomena. The main difficulty in 

 accounting for such phenomena by means of the principles of 

 theoretical dynamics lies in the fact that the equations of motion 

 of an ideal system always represent reversible processes, which 

 in nature are conspicuous by their absence. The author pro- 

 ceeds to examine how far the difficulty may be overcome by 

 introducing the theory of probability, especially in connection 

 ■with the kinetic theory of gases, and he gives a short risum^ of 

 NO. 1437, VOL. 56] 



certain investigations by Prof. Boltzmann, from which it is found 

 that, under certain assumptions, the most probable distribution 

 of the coordinates and momenta of the molecules of a gas is that 

 which has been termed the Boltzmann-Maxwell distribution. 

 Unfortunately, however, the proofs involve certain initia' 

 assumptions, and, on varying the nature of these, the results as 

 to the most probable final distributic^n will be different. It would 

 thus appear that even probability considerations do not afford 

 unassailable proofs of the law which forms the usually accepted 

 basis of the kinetic theory — a result completely in accordance 

 with Mr. Burbury's recent investigations, according to which 

 assemblages of densely-crowded molecules do not conform to 

 that law. 



From a number of papers before us dealing with kathodicand 

 Rontgen rays, we extract the following. Dr. Garbasso (Nuovo 

 Ciinenti, 4, iii.), in discussing the effects of products of combus- 

 tion on the length of the electric spark, considers that if flames 

 produce certain actions on the sparks, like those of Rontgen 

 rays, it is because they are the seat of chemical phenomena, 

 since in the products of combustion there exist dissociated mole- 

 cules, in other words electrified particles. It seems probable 

 that Rontgen rays and ultra-violet light act on sparks for the same 

 reason. — Dr. Quirino Majorana {Atti dei Liticei, vi. 5) dis- 

 cusses the electrostatic deviation of kathodic rays, such as can be 

 studied by the introduction of a second kathode or anode in the 

 discharge-tube. — M. L. Benoist (v9w//t7/« de la Socit'te Francaise 

 de Physique, 91) has attempted to discover the law of trans- 

 parency of substances for Rontgen rays. Defining the specific 

 absorbing power as the absorption produced by a layer of unit 

 surface density (or of i decigramme per square centimetre), M. 

 Benoist finds that for ordinary rays this power increases with 

 the density, but the results vary with the quality of the rays 

 themselves. The author advances the view that the law of 

 density (according to which the specific absorbing powers of al 

 substances are equal) is a kind of limitini^ law towards which the 

 results of observation tend as rays of higher frequency are pro 

 duced. — M. Jean Perrin, in discussing the laws according to which 

 electrified bodies are discharged {Bulletin de la SociJtJ Francaise 

 de Physique, 93) considers that when the rays actually reach the 

 conductor, two separate factors must be taken into account, 

 viz. the "metal effect" produced by the incidence of the rays on 

 the conductor, and the " gas effect " due to their action when 

 traversing the gas. By considering the two terms separately, 

 the law of discharge can be represented by a simple mathematical 

 formula. — M. Desire Korda, in the same number of the Bulletin, 

 calls attention to a remarkable dissymmetry produced by Rontgen 

 rays in vacuum tubes, and which he has observed in experiments 

 undertaken in conjunction with Dr. Oudin, 



We have received a report of the results obtained from the 

 experimental fields for the cultivation of the sugar-cane in 

 Antigua, by Mr. F. Watts and Mr. F. R. Shepherd. The ex- 

 periments were mainly on the advantages to be derived from the 

 use of mineral manures in the cultivation of the cane. The re- 

 markable and unexpected result was obtained that the addition 

 of phosphates to the soil diminishes the yield of sugar. Nitrogen, 

 in the form of ammonium sulphate, sodium nitrate, or dried 

 blood, has a slightly beneficial effect on the yield ; potash a 

 much greater beneficial effect. 



The Report of the Kew Observatory Committee for the year 

 1896 states that the magnetic curves during the past year have 

 been quite free from any very large fluctuations. The earth- 

 quake of December 1 7 was shown slightly on the Declination 

 curve, but more distinctly on the Horizontal Force curve. 

 The mean Westerly Declination for the year was 17° io'-8, 



