January 19, 1893] 



NATURE 



285 



working with the Otto cycle, he was of opinion, that, with 

 engines of large size, the results would be still better if the cycle 

 were altered, especially when generator-gas was used. His 

 reasons for this were fully stated in the paper. 



The following was a sumtnary of the points urged by the 

 author : — 



I. — When town-gas was used for driving the engines of an 

 electrical station, the consumption was about 50 per cent, less 

 than the volume of gas required to give the same amount of light 

 by ordinary burners. 



2. — When town-gas was used, neither boiler nor firemen 

 were required, and there were no ashes to remove ; less space 

 was needed ; no accumulators were required, except such as 

 might be necessary to equalize the load -^f the engines and to 

 provide for a small amount of storage. The engines could be 

 worked in the most crowded districts, close to where the lights 

 were required, and where boilers were not allowed. 



3.— When generator-gas was used, the consumption of fuel 

 under a full load would be at least 50 per cent, less than with 

 steam-power, and the loss due to steam-boilers not being fully 

 worked could be almost entirely avoided. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge.— We regret to hear that Professor Cayley has 

 been suffering from serious illness, and that he is inconsequence 

 unable to give this term his advertised course of lectures in Pure 

 Mathematics. 



L. Cobbett, M.A., M.B., of Trinity College, has been ap- 

 pointed Demonstrator of Pathology in the place of Dr. E. Lloyd 

 Jones, who has resigned the office. 



Mr. F. Darwin, Deputy Professor of Botany, announces a 

 special course of lectures in the Chemical Physiology of Plants, 

 to be given by Mr. Acton, of St. John's College, on Tuesdays 

 in the present Lent Term. 



Mr. J. Y. Buchanan, F.R.S., announces a second course of 

 lectures in Geography, to be given in the Easter Term. 



Mr. A. E. Shipley has been appointed an additional member 

 of the Special Board for Biology and Geology. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 3rd 

 series, vol. iii. pt. 4. — Cottage sanitation (illustrated), by H. 

 McLean 'Wilson, a paper prepared under the supervision 

 of Dr. Spottiswoode Cameron and T. Pridgin Teale, F.R.S. 

 It contains a discussion of the principal sanitary defects, which 

 are most likely to be found in the houses of agricultural 

 labourers, with valuable suggestions and remedies. The object 

 aimed at is "to put the whole country, and every house in the 

 country, into such a condition that if the epidemic (cholera) 

 should break out it would have no chance of spreading." — Field 

 experiments on the fixation of free nitrogen, by James Mason, 

 gives an account of the enriching of some plots of poor land on 

 the Oxford clay at Eynsham by the growth of two leguminous 

 crops in succession. The two crops chosen were beans and 

 mixed clovers. So far as they go the results are striking. Prior 

 to 1888 the land had never been cultivated or received any 

 manure. Brought into tillage in that year two plots produced 

 10^ cwts. and 9 cwts. per acre of barley and oats respectively, 

 straw included, — an excessively low return. In the autumn of 

 1888 the plots were treated with 20 cwts. of basic slag per acre, 

 and the subsoil with the same amount. Beans in the following 

 year yielded an average of 46 bushels and 23 cwts. straw per 

 acre. In 1890 mixed clovers gave a yield of 28 cwts. 

 per acre as the average of the two plots, and in 1891 a crop of 

 three tons clover-hay was obtained. Potatoes were grown upon 

 the plots last year, and gave an average yield of eight tons per 

 acre. Excepting the basic slag, no manure of any kind had ever 

 been applied to the plots. The experiments are being continued 

 and extended.— Wild birds, useful and injurious (illustrated), by 

 C. F. Archibald. — Utilization of straw as food for stock, by 

 Joseph Darby. Showing methods of using chaffed straw as a 

 remedy for the deficient hay crop of last summer, with records 

 of previous experiences under similar circumstances. — Yew 

 poisoning, by Mr. E. P. Squarey, Mr. Charles Whitehead, Mr. 

 W. Carruthers, F.R.S., and Dr. Munro. But few definite con- 



NO. I 2 12, VOL. 47] 



elusions can be arrived at, owing to the conflicting nature of the 

 information available. It appears, however, (i) that both the 

 male and female yews are poisonous ; (2) the poisonous alkaloid 

 (or alkaloids) exists chiefly in the leaves and in the seeds ; 

 (3) the fleshy part of the fruit is harmless, or nearly so ; (4) the 

 amount of poisonous alkaloid in the leaves varies considerably 

 with individual trees, and perhaps with the season of the year. 

 Dr. Munro contributes a review of the chemical work done 

 upon taxine, the only alkaloid in yew which has been investi- 

 gated ; very little is known with certainty about it, either as to 

 its chemical nature or its physiological action. As Dr. Munro 

 suggests, "yew leaves merit exhaustive chemical examination." 

 —Besides the official reports, there are several short articles, 

 including one upon the ferments of milk, abridged by Dr. Munro 

 from Prof. H. W. Conn's pamphlet on the subject, issued last 

 .summer; also a paper upon the decline of wheat-growing in 

 England, by the editor. 



American Journal of Science, January. — The age of the 

 earth, by Clarence King. This paper contains an application 

 of Lord Kelvin's reasoning from probable rates of refrigeration 

 to the determination of the earth's age, aided by Dr. Car) 

 Barus's recent work in geological physics, especially his deter- 

 mination of the latent heat of fusion, specific heats melted and 

 solid, and the volume expansion between the melted and solid 

 state, of the rock diabase. Thermal considerations have shown 

 that with a given initial excess of temperature of the earth over 

 surrounding space, and an assigned value for rock conductivity, 

 it is possible to determine the curve of temperature from the 

 earth's centre to its surface. It appears that for an initial 

 temperature of 2000° C, the initial maximum temperature must 

 still extend uniformly from the centre to within a few hundred 

 miles of the surface for any admissible value of the age. But 

 since the pressures increase steadily as we proceed towards the 

 centre, there must be a point at which their effect outweighs 

 that of the temperature, and the material, though very hot, 

 remains in the solid state. Now on the data supplied by Barus's 

 researches it is possible to state what temperatures are necessary 

 to keep a certain representative species of rock in the fluid 

 state at successive points within the earth. The amount of 

 possible liquid layer is limited by the facts of tidal rigidity, 

 which fix the maximum admissible temperature at 1950'' and the 

 age at 24 x 10" years. Lower values are excluded by the 

 gradient of temperature observed on proceeding downwards 

 from the surface. This value, twenty-four million years, agrees 

 fairly well with the age assigned by Helmholtz and Kelvin to 

 the sun. It is also concluded that the earth never was all 

 liquid, that the original liquid layer did not exceed 53 miles, 

 and that the spheroidal shape is due to the plasticity of the 

 lithosphere as manifested under the action of verv slowly 

 applied forces. — Tertiary geology of Calvert Cliffs, Maryland, 

 by Gilbert D. Harris. — " Anglesite " associated with bolei'.e, 

 by F. A. Genth. — Preliminary account of the iced-bar base 

 apparatus of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, by 

 R. S. Woodward. — Some experiments with an artificial geyser, 

 by J. C. Graham. — Observations of the Andromed meteors of 

 November 23 and 27, 1892, by H. A. Newton. — Preliminary 

 notice of a meteoric stone seen to fall at Bath, South Dakota, 

 by A. E. Foote. — New Cretaceous bird allied to Hespsrornis, 

 by O. C. Marsh. — Skull and brain of Claosaurus, by O. C. 

 Marsh. 



The Botanical Gazette for October contains an interesting 

 article by Mr, H. L. Russell on the bacterial investigation of 

 the sea and its floor. The author has had the opportunity of 

 carrying on bacteriological observations in sea- water, both from 

 the Bay of Naples and from the coast of Massachusetts. He finds 

 micro-organisms invariably present in sea water, though not in 

 such large numbers as in fresh water, even at a great distance from 

 the shore, and to a depth of 3200 feet ; and a larger number in 

 the slime at the bottom than in the water itself. Some marine 

 forms are cosmapolitan, and the bacteria that are so universally 

 present in sea-water and mud seem to be quite peculiar to this 

 habitat. — Mr. E. L. Berthoud describes the mode in which the 

 geographical distribution of some plants has been greatly ex- 

 tended by the agency of the buffalo. — In the number for Novem- 

 ber Prof. Underwood gives a report of the proceedings of the 

 International Botanical Congress lately held at Genoa. — Mr. 

 G. W. Martin contributes an account of the development of the 

 flower and embryo-sac in Solidago and Aster. 



