248 



NA TURE 



[July 15, 1897 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



{The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed by his correspondents Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of rejected 

 mnnnscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous cominunications.'\ 



The FuUerian Professorship of Physiology at the 

 Royal Institution. 



I AM writing in the assurance that my letter will or will not 

 appear in your columns, according as you shall have judged 

 whether or no it deals with public matter. And this again 

 depends upon the degree in which the Royal Institution of 

 Great Britain is regarded as fulfilling a public function. 



Briefly, the facts are these : — 



I hold the " Fullerian Professorship of Physiology and Com- 

 parative Anatomy " at the Royal Institution. I am surprised 

 and disappointed to find that the duties of that post are regarded 

 in a very flimsy light, and that no provision can be made, either 

 in the Institulionitselfor in the adjoining Davy- Faraday Labora- 

 tory towards their more adequate performance. The obvious 

 fact that the lecture-room rests upon the laboratory, acted upon 

 with such admirable effect in the case of physics and chemistry, 

 is altogether ignored in the case of physiology, with the result 

 that the instruction that can be offered to the public in this latter 

 subject is deficient or inferior, and — in the bad sense of these 

 words — popular and literary. The very excellence of the lecture- 

 theatre, together with the absence of any work-room, diverts 

 the activity of the chair into other than its proper channels. 



The Royal Institution of Great Britain, although it arose by 

 private enterprise, has now for many years occupied the place 

 of a public organ of natural knowledge, and its title expresses 

 its de facto relation to the educated public, who look to the 

 Royal Institution for the best information that can be given in 

 the various subjects there dealt with. 



It is a matter for regret — indeed in the present state of 

 ignorance of physiology, which by many otherwise well-informed 

 persons is supposed to be synonymous with vivisection — it is an 

 actual misfortune, that the Fullerian Professors of Physiology 

 are not enabled to give to the Institution the best work of 

 which they may be capable. To profess " physiology" of an 

 inferior character, under the auspices of the Royal Institution of 

 Great Britain, is misleading and injurious to the interests of 

 science. 



I have felt some hesitation before requesting you to publish 

 this letter, but can see no other means of testing the correctness 

 of rny opinion as to what is due to the public at the Royal 

 Institution of Great Britain by the channel of its Fullerian 

 Professorship of Physiology. Augustus D. Waller. 



July 5- 



Streaming Movements of the Protoplasm in Pollen of 

 Flowers. 



It may, perhaps, not be generally known that pollen of 

 flowers affords a convenient example of the circulation of proto- 

 plasm. If pollen from a fox -glove be placed in a solution of 

 sugar at ordinary temperature in a drop-slide, the grains sprout 

 within twenty minutes, and grow during several hours at an 

 average rate of i/io millimetre per hour. The granules of pro- 

 toplasm move in opposite streams side by side, turning at the 

 lower end of the tube and inside the grain ; the rate of motion 

 may be calculated at i millimetre in one and a half to two 

 minutes. The rapidity and duration of the streaming movement 

 vary in different species ; in the pollen of the fox-glove it seldom 

 continues longer than five or six hours, but in that of the bee 

 orchis it may be still observed on the third day, after the tubes 

 have ceased to grow. Protoplasm which has been set free by 

 the bursting of tubes or grains, continues to show signs of life 

 for a longer period. The granular character of the protoplasm 

 is less distinct in some species than in others, but with a 

 sufficiently high power— 1/8— a visible motion of the contents of 

 pollen tubes appears to be common. H. B. Potter. 



July 13. 



new, but my method of work may be of interest. For the pur- 

 pose of the coin experiment the tube of the usual Jackson type 

 was placed immediately under a table of i-inch deal in a dark 

 room ; on bringing my eye close to that part of the table where 

 a phosphorescent screen showed the most intense radiation, 

 after I had been in the dark for at least ten minutes, I could 

 per<;eive a faint illumination of the retina, and on moving small 

 metal objects to and fro immediately in front of the eye, I could 

 see their shadows on the retina appearing to move always in 

 the opposite direction. On moving the eye further away from 

 the object the shadow enlarged. It is possible to make out the 

 shape of small letters about |-inch long cut out in the middle of 

 a sheet of lead, if they are placed close to the eye. It makes 

 very little difference whether the eyelid is open or shut. The 

 front of the eyeball in my experiment was about 4 inches from 

 the platinum radiating plate. 



The condition for success is that the observer should be in the 

 dark for some time — not less than ten minutes, and in some 

 cases twenty minutes. A person who has recently been in full 

 daylight appears to require a longer time in the dark before the 

 sensitive condition is developed. 



Mason College, July i. Guy Oliver Harrison. 



Distant Stars. 



In the interesting extract of Prof. Newcomb's address at the 

 Flower Observatory, University of Pennsylvania, given in 

 Nature, p. 139, on the distance of the stars, he says : — 



" Evidence is gradually accumulating which points to the 

 probability that the successive orders of smaller and smaller stars, 

 which our continually increasing telescopic power brings into- 

 view, are not situated at greater and greater distances, but that 

 we actually see the boundary of the universe," &c. 



It would be extremely interesting if .some of the reasons for 

 this theory were given ; it seems so startling to imagine that 

 after all we are practically the " hub of the universe," or very 

 nearly so ; and so opposed to the idea that what our most power- 

 ful telescopes can show, may possibly only be in proportion to- 

 the whole universe as one drop of water to the Atlantic Ocean. 



Albert Coli.ison. 



Sound of Distant Firing. 



I see a correspondent reports hearing the saluting at the 

 Portsmouth Naval Review at Chelsea. It was distinctly audible 

 here, loud enough to be heard at some distance further, though 

 the wind was E.S.E. , a fresh breeze, and therefore unfavour- 

 able for helping sound. Also there were no clouds — in sights 

 anyhow — which might aid in reflecting the sound-waves. The 

 reports began a few minutes after 2 p.m., and continued at 

 intervals up to nearly three o'clock, at which time I ceased 

 listening for them. I make the air-line distance just sixty 

 statute miles. 



I may add that, when walking on Wimbledon Common, I 

 frequently hear loud detonation, which I put down to Shoe- 

 buryness, as I do not know of any other place in that directioa 

 at which heavy firing takes place. The distance would be about 

 fifty miles, but across London, which one would think might 

 interfere with sound-transmission. C. Mostyn. 



Wimbledon, July 12. 



Sensitiveness of the Retina to X-Rays. 



While trying a few days ago to detect the position of a coin 

 which a child had swallowed, I found that the retina is affected 

 by the X-rays. I have since learnt that this observation is not 



NO. 1446, VOL. 56] 



Blackbird's Nest appropriated by a Wagtail. 



The double bird's nest I send you was found some time ago 

 in a stack of hop-poles whep they were taken down for use. 

 The lower nest is clearly a blackbird's, and in it, below the 

 lining, were two blackbird's eggs when found. The upper nest 

 (or lining ?) is, I am informed, that of a pied-wagtail, with four 

 eggs, and also the egg of a cuckoo. It is suggested the blackbird 

 was disturbed (by a cuckoo?), and a wagtail, assuming the nest,, 

 completed it in its own fashion, the cuckoo therein laying its 

 egg. (The same cuckoo which had disturbed the blackbird ?) 



The double nest was found by Mr. Pattenden, a farmer here, 

 and seen by his wife and son in situ. I have sent you a letter 

 written by the son, and stating how the nest was found. I do 

 not doubt the story is true. F. C. Constable. 



Burwash, Sussex, July 7. 



