286 



NA TURE 



[January 19, 1893 



Bulletin of the Ne^v York Mathematical Society, vol. ii. No. 2, 

 November 1892. — This number practically consists of one 

 paper, and that a very interesting one, by Dr. Emory McClin- 

 tock, "On the Non-Euclidian Geometry," a subject which has 

 been more than once brought before our readers. In vol. viii. 

 (1873) appeared Clifford's translation of Riemann's 

 Habilitationsschrift " ueber die Hypothesen welche der Geo- 

 metrie zu Grunde liegen " (1854). In 1883 this geometry was 

 considered in Cayley's British Association address, and quite 

 recently (February 25, 1892) in a translation of Poincare's 

 " kevue Generale des Sciences." " The chief lesson to be 

 obtained from all non-euclidian diversions is that the distin- 

 guishing mark of euclidian geometry is fixity of distance- 

 measurement, by which alone it is possible to draw the same 

 figure upon different scales. That the same figure may be 

 drawn upon different scales might well be laid down as the 

 axiom necessary and sufficient to distinguish euclidian from non- 

 ■euclidian geometry." To this is appended a footnote which 

 says that this is " referred to as ' the axiom of similars' by Sir 

 Richard {sxc) Ball in the article ' Measurement ' of the " Encycl. 

 Brit." A short article follows on the new logarithmic tables 

 of J. de Mendizabal-Tamborrel (Paris, Hermann, 1891). In 

 addition there are the usual "Notes," but no list of publica- 

 tions. 



No. 3, December 1892. — This number contains a careful 

 •criticism of Ball's " Mathematical Recreations," with suggestions 

 and discussions by Prof J. E. Oliver of Ithaca, New York, 

 and an account of Dr. Julius Bauschinger's " Zweites Miinchener 

 Sternverzeichniss, enthaltend die mittleren Oerter von 18,200 

 Sternen liir das Aequinocdum, 1880," by Prof. T. H. Safford. 

 " Notes" and " New Publications" follow. 



Wiedemann's Annalen der Physik tind Chemie, No. \i. — On 

 the temperature coefficient of the electrical resistance of mercury 

 and on the mercury resistances of the Imperial Institution, by D. 

 Kreichgauer and W. Jaeger. The coefficient was measured in 

 the case of the copies of standard resistances already described. 

 The formula obtained for the resistance ivt at temperature t by 

 two independent methods was 



wt — 1V0 (i + o'ooo875/ -f 000000125/-) 



— Generation of electricity by friction of gases against metals, by 

 K. Wesendonck. — On galvanic polarization at small electrodes, 

 by F. Richarz. — Electric oscillations in wires, direct measure- 

 ment of the moving wave, by Kr. Birkeland. The oscillations 

 were produced in two copper wires running parallel to each 

 other at a distance of 80cm. They were 30m. long, and ended 

 in one direction in brass plates 40cm. square, facing two similar 

 plates connected with the terminals of the spark gap of a power- 

 ful induction coil. The potentials along the wire when 

 the coil was working were determined by measuring the length 

 of the sparks crossing between the i<nobs of a spark micrometer, 

 one of them being connected with the wire by a sliding contact, 

 the other leading through a telephone to earth. Statical effects 

 on the telephone were made inappreciable by laying a thread 

 moistened with dilute sulphuric acid across the wires near the 

 " collector " plates. Under these circumstances the passage of 

 sparks was immediately indicated by the telephone, and their 

 lengih ould be measured down to o'ooo5mm. — Determination 

 of dielectric constants by means of the differential inductor, by 

 Oscar Werner. — Measurement of resistances by means of the 

 telephone, by Max Wien. — Diffusion of light by rough surfaces, 

 by Christian Wiener. Experiments made on cast gypsum show 

 that Lambert's law of diffusion, according to which the bright- 

 ness of a surface is independent of the angle from which it is 

 seen, is not stncily correct. The brightness at the edge of a 

 round -urface is o'6 times that given by his law. In the vicinity 

 of reflect! n points the brightness is greater, and at the greate-t 

 brightness the angle of incidence is greater than the angle of 

 reflection. — A unit for measuring intensity of sensation, by the 

 same. — On internal friction ofsobd bo'lie , e-pecially metals, by 

 \V. Voigt. — Measurement of the coefficient of diffusion of 

 liquids, by F. Niemoeller. —Absolute compressi 'iiity of 

 mercury, by G de Meiz. — Propagation of energy through the 

 ether, by G. Helm. — On the utilization and action of the tele- 

 phone in electrical null methods ; reply to Hr. Winkelmann, by 

 £. Cohn. — On the solution of sodium silicates, and influence 

 of time upon their constitution, by F. Kohlrau ch. — liehaviour 

 of polarized light in refraction, by G. Quincke. — On a mercury 

 arc light, by L. Arons. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Meteorological Society, December 21. — 

 C. Theodore Williams, President, in the chair. — The following 

 papers were read :— Moving anticyclones in the Southern Hemi- 

 sphere, by Mr. H. C. Russell, F.R.S., Government Astrono- 

 mer, New South Wales. The author describes the results of his 

 practical study of the daily weather charts for Australasia, and 

 states that the leading fact brought out is that the weather south 

 of 20° S. latitude is the product of a series of rapidly moving 

 anticyclones, which follow one another with remarkable regu- 

 larity, and are the great controlling force in determining local 

 weather. These anticyclones are more numerous in summer 

 than in winter, the average number for the year being 42. 

 They usually take seven or eight days to travel across Australia 

 in summer, and nine or ten days in winter ; the average daily 

 rate of translation being 400 miles. The shape of the anticyclone 

 appears to undergo some modification as it nears the east coast. 

 The winds on the north side of the anti-cyclone are not so 

 strong as those on the south side, and the intensity of the weather 

 is in proportion to the difference in pressure between the anti- 

 cyclone and the V'depression, but the relation of the pressures 

 varies frequently before the wind responds, the pressure appear- 

 ing to be controlled from above by the more or less rapid descent 

 of air which feeds the anticyclone. Cyclonic storms are very 

 unusual, and do not occur more than once in two or three 

 months. — The tracks of ocean wind systems in transit over 

 Australasia, by Capt. M. W. C. Hepworih. The author Las 

 examined the daily weather charts of Australia and New 

 Zealand, and has prepared maps showing the daily positions of 

 the centres of high and low pressures for a whole year. He 

 finds that the wind systems, which make their first appearance 

 to the westward and south-westward, advance to the eastward 

 rapidly, and frequently very rapidly, during the winter months, 

 but during the summer months they usually move more slowly, 

 and not unfrequently recurve. Their progress is retarded by 

 contact with the areas of high pressure which they encounter ; 

 the mean of the tracks of these anticyclones, moving also from 

 west to east, appears to be across the southern portion of Aus- 

 tralia and onward, crossing the islands of New Zealand during 

 the winter months, but to the southward of Western and South 

 Australia, across Victoria and New South Wales, and thence to 

 the north-eastward, avoiding New Zealand during the summer 

 months. — Rainfall of Nottinghamshire, 1861-90, by Mr. H. 

 Mellish. The author has collected and discussed all the rainfall 

 records made in the county during the thirty yt^ars, and ftnds that 

 ins the extreme west the mean rainfall is 27 inches or more, and 

 that over the rest of the county it varies between 25 and 27 

 inches, except north of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincoln- 

 shire Railway, where the rainfall is less than 25 inches, and in the 

 northeast towards Gainsborough, where it is not more than 23 

 inches. The year of greatest rainfall was 1872, and of least 

 rainfall 1887. October is the wettest month and February the 

 driest. — A new instrument for cloud measurements, by Dr. Nils 

 Ekholm, 



Geological Society, December 21, 1892. — Prof. J. W. 

 Judd, F. K. S., VicePiCsidtnt, in the chair. — The following 

 communications were read : — (^n a Sauropodous Dinosaurian 

 vertebra from the Wealden of Hastings, by R. Lydekker. In 

 addition to Hoplosautus armatus and Pelerosaurus Conybearei, 

 there is evidence of anotht-r laige Nauropodous Dinosaur in the 

 Wealden, now known as Morosaurus brevis. Up to the present 

 time it has been impossible adequately to compare Hoplosaurus 

 armatus '^\\.\\ Morosaurus brevis ; but lecently Mr. Rufford has 

 sent to the British Museum an impeifect dorsal veriebra of a 

 large Sauroi)odous I >inosaur from the Wealden of Hastings, 

 which enabled the required comparison to be made. The author 

 describes the vertebra, contrasts it with that of Hoplosaurus 

 armatus, and gives piesump'ive evidence that it should be 

 releired to the so-called Morosaurus Becklesi (Marsh), which 

 apparently cannot be separated from M. [Cetiosaurus) brevis. 

 He has not been able to compare Mr. Rufford's specimen with 

 the dorsals of ihe American A/orosaurus, in order to discover 

 whether the English Dinosaur is correctly referred to that 

 genus. This paper led to a discussion, in which the chairman, 

 Mr. Hulke, Prof. Seeley, Mr. E. T. Newton, and the author 

 took part. — On some additional remains of Cestraciont and other 

 fi.-hes in the (iieen Gritty Marls, immediately overlying the Red 

 Marls of the Upper Keuper in Warwickshire, by the Rev. P. 



NO. I 212, VOL. 47] 



