26o 



NATURE 



[January 14, 1892 



In a paper entitled "The Navajo Belt-Weaver," published 

 by the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. Shufeldt gives an excellent 

 account of weaving as practised by the Navajos. While living 

 in the north-western part of New Mexico, he was able to watch 

 native weavers preparing their beautiful blankets, belts, and 

 sashes ; and on one occasion he was fortunate enough to have 

 an opportunity of photographing an Indian woman while en- 

 gaged in weaving a belt. The reproduction of the photograph 

 is interesting, and is said by Dr, Shufeldt to show the entire 

 scene well. Curves are never found in the figure patterns on 

 the belts or blankets, but horizontal stripes, diagonals, and the 

 lozenge are interwoven with a variety that appears to be almost 

 endless in the matter of design. The leading colours used are 

 red, brilliant orange yellow, a blue, and by combination a green, 

 and, finally, black, white, and grey. 



Mr. W. T. Robertson gives in the October number of the 

 Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales a clear and interesting 

 account of the cultivation and manufacture of tea. The object 

 of the paper is to supply the farmers of New South Wales with 

 information which they maybe able to turn to practical advantage. 

 Mr. Robertson does not think that the colony can ever manu- 

 facture sufficiently large quantities of tea to put it in a position 

 to compete with China, India, and Ceylon. He sees no reason, 

 however, why the industry should not be conducted on a modest 

 scale. A farmer with children could utilize their labour in the 

 plucking and the light work in manufacture, while the heavier 

 he could undertake himself. If the owner had, say, an acre 

 under cultivation, it would probably bring him in 300 pounds 

 of made tea per annum — enough for his own consumption, 

 with a surplus which he could dispose of at a good profit. 



M. Paul Topinard contributes to the new number of 

 V Anthropologie a most interesting paper on the transforma- 

 tion of the animal skull into a human skull. The process 

 may be explained, he thinks, by the influence, direct and 

 indirect, due to the enlargement of the brain. There is also 

 a paper, by M. G. de Lapouge, on various prehistoric skulls 

 from the collection of M. Puech, of Montpellier ; and Dr. R. 

 CoUignon brings together some facts relating to the colour of 

 the eyes and hair of the Japanese. 



A WORK on the great earthquake of Japan, by Prof. John 

 Milne and Prof. W. K. Burton, is now in the press at Tokyo. 

 It will be illustrated by 25 large photo-plates. For the sake of 

 comparison, there will be two plates showing on a small scale 

 the effects of earthquakes in Italy and other countries. All the 

 plates are to be on the finest quality of Japanese paper. 



The prospectus is issued of a Forstlichnaturzvissenschaftliche 

 Zeitschrift, an organ for laboratories of forest-botany, forest- 

 zoology, forest-chemistry, agriculture, and meteorology. It is 

 to appear monthly in Munich, under the editorship of Dr. Carl 

 Freiherr von Tubeuf ; the first number is announced for the 

 current month. 



MM. RouY AND FouCAUD- expect to publish the first fascicle 

 of their new Flore de France in the course of the coming year. 



Mr. Elliot Stock has published a fourth edition of Mr. H. 

 W. S. Worsley-Benison's "Nature's Fairy-Land." 



Part 39 of Cassell's "New Popular Educator" has been pub- 

 lished. It includes, besides many illustrations in the text, a 

 coloured plate representing the Great Hall, Karnac. 



Further details of his experiments upon the colour and 

 spectrum of free gaseous fluorine are contributed by M. Moissan 

 to the January number of the Annates de Chimie et de Physique. 

 The apparatus employed was, of necessity, constructed of 

 platinum, and M. Moissan prefaces his description of it with an 

 account of a few later observations upon the action of fluorine on 

 platinum. He finds that fluorine may be stored for days in his 

 vessels of platinum without the slightest action occurring, pro- 

 NO. II 59, VOL. 45] 



vided the precautions which he has previously described are 

 taken to remove the last traces of hydrofluoric acid vapour from 

 the gas. Moreover, even at 100° fluorine was found incapable 

 of eff"ecting the least alteration in a spiral of platinum wire im- 

 mersed in the heated gas. It is not until a temperature superior 

 to 400° is attained that corrosion commences, and the platinum 

 vessel requires heating to low redness before rapid action occurs. 



In order to ascertain whether fluorine, like other members of 

 the family of halogens, was possessed of a distinctive colour, a 

 tube of platinum, one metre long and two centimetres diameter, 

 was procured. The two ends of this tube were closed by disks 

 of faultlessly clear and colourless fluor-spar, a commodity of great 

 rarity. Near the ends were inserted narrow side-tubes of 

 platinum for the entrance and exit of the fluorine ; the ends of 

 these side-tubes were closed by small, tightly-fitting stoppers, 

 also of platinum. The whole apparatus held about 200 cubic 

 centimetres of gas. In performing the experiment, pure fluorine 

 was allowed to stream through the apparatus until a crystal of 

 silicon held at the end of the exit-tube burst into flame. The 

 stoppers were then inserted, and the colour of the inclosed gas 

 examined against a white background. For the sake of com 

 parison a similar observation was made with a blackened glass 

 tube, closed at the ends with plate-glass disks, and filled first 

 with air and afterwards with chlorine. The colour of fluorine is 

 then seen to be somewhat paler than that of chlorine, and 

 decidedly more yellow — just what one would expect from the 

 position of fluorine at the head of the halogen family group. 



The experiments made with the view of determining the spec- 

 trum of fluorine were carried out in the following manner. A 

 beautiful little piece of platinum apparatus was constructed, 

 consisting of a wide tube, brightly polished inside and supported 

 vertically. It was closed at each end by a platinum cap, 

 through each of which passed a stout electrode rod. Each rod 

 vvas in turn connected with one of the wires from a Ruhmkorff 

 coil, worked by six Bunsen cells. Two pairs of these rods, 

 which served for the passing of the spark, were employed 

 alternately, one pair made of platinum and the other of gold, 

 so that the lines due to the terminals could be eliminated. In 

 order to permit jthe spectroscopic observation of the spark, a 

 short horizontal tube of the same diameter was attached at the 

 middle of the vertical tube, opposite to the two terminals ; the 

 open front end of this horizontal tube was closed with a window 

 of perfectly colourless fluor-spar. Narrow entrance and exit 

 tubes were also attached near the ends of the vertical tube in 

 order to enable the apparatus to be filled with any gas at 

 pleasure. The spectrum given by passing the spark between 

 platinum terminals in an atmosphere of nitrogen was first ob- 

 served ; then the nitrogen was displaced by fluorine, and the spark 

 again passed and observed. The two observations were then 

 repeated with terminals of gold. The positions of the lines in 

 the spectrum of fluorine thus obtained were finally confirmed by 

 observations of the dissociation spectra of hydrofluoric acid and 

 the gaseous fluorides of silicon, carbon, and phosphorus. The 

 results show that the spectrum of fluorine consists of thirteen 

 bright red lines, whose positions have previously been given in 

 a preliminary note by M. Moissan, and which will be found in 

 Nature, vol. xliv. p. 623. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Toque Monkey {Macacus pileatus ? ) from 

 Ceylon, presented by Mr. John Bell ; a Vervet Monkey 

 {Cercopithccus lalandii i ) from South Africa, presented by Mr. 

 R. J. White; a Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua 

 sulphurea) from Moluccas, presented by Mr. J. Buckingham ; 

 a White-tailed Sea Eagle {Haliaetus albicilla) from Asia Minor, 

 presented by Sir H. F, de Trafford, Bart., F.Z.S. 



