34 



NATURE 



[March. 13, 1919 



The maintenance cost of the experimental stretch of 

 concrete on the London to Chatham road, laid in 

 1915, has been nil during the four years. 



A NEW series entitled "Manuals of the Science of 

 Industry " is announced by Messrs. Longmans and 

 Co. It will be edited by E. T. Elbourne, and the first 

 volumes will be "Labour Administration," the Editor; 

 "Law and Industry," A. S. Comyns Carr; and 

 "Health and Industry," W. H. Judson. These are in 

 active preparation. The Open Court Co. will publish 

 shortly " Lectures on the Philosophy of Mathematics," 

 J. B. Shaw, The Wireless Press, Ltd., has in the 

 press "The Year-Book of Wireless Telegraphy and 

 Telephony, 1919"; "Continuous-wave Wireless Tele- 

 graphy," 'Dr. W. H. Eccles, part i. ; "Telephony 

 without Wires," P. R. Coursey ; "Alternating-current 

 Working," A. Shore; " Principes El^mentaires de 

 Telegraphic sans Fil," R. D. Bangay ; and "Manual 

 de Instruccion Tecnica para operadores de Telegrafia 

 sin Hilos," J. C. Hawkhead and H. M. Dowsett. 



The latest catalogue (No. 177) of Messrs. W. Heffer 

 and Sons, Ltd., Cambridge, mainly deals with books 

 treating of subjects outside the range of a journal 

 such as Nature, but one section gives particulars of 

 some recent purchases of works relating to scientific 

 subjects. Among them we notice vols. i. to xiii. of 

 the New Phytolo gist ; Moore's " Lepidoptera Indica," 

 10 vols.; Moore's "The Lepidoptera of Ceylon 

 (Rhopalocera and Heterocera) " ; "Catalogue of the 

 Birds in the British Museum," "Catalogue of Birds' 

 Eggs," "Hand-List of Birds," "General Index," in 

 all 38 vols. ; Sowerby's " English Botany, or Coloured 

 Figures of British Plants, with their essential Charac- 

 ters, Synonyms, and Places of Growth," and the 

 index, with the Supplements, and MS. index; 

 Parkinson's "Theatrum Botanicum : The Theatre of 

 Plants, or an Herbal of a Large Extent," first edition ; 

 and Roscoe's " Monandrian Plants of the Order 

 Scitaminae." 



The special catalogues of Messrs. J. Wheldon and 

 Co., 38 Great Queen Street, Kingsway, W.C.2, are 

 always worthy of note, being very carefully classified 

 and containing books not easily procurable. The 

 one just issued (new series. No. 86) is no exception 

 to the rule, and should be seen by all entomological 

 readers of Nature. It contains particulars of more 

 than 1 100 volumes dealing with entomology in its 

 various branches, conveniently arranged under the 

 headings Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Arachnida, Myria- 

 poda, Diptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Neuroptera, 

 Orthoptera, General Entomology, and Economic 

 Entomology. In addition, attention is directed to sets 

 and long runs of many scientific serials. The cata- 

 logue is sent post free on receipt of 2d. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



The Reform of the Calendar.— It will be remem- 

 bered that this subject was much to the fore before 

 the war, and it is now again attracting attention. 

 The Comptes rendus of the Paris Academy of Sciences 

 for January 6 and 20 contain papers upon the sub- 

 ject by M. G. Bigourdan and M. H. Deslandres 

 respectively. Both agree that each quarter should 

 consist of two months of thirty days each, followed 

 by one of thirty-one. This makes each quarter just 

 thirteen weeks. There would be a supplementary day 

 at the middle of the year; in leap-year an additional 

 one at the end. M. Deslandres (but not M. Bigour- 

 dan) is in favour of putting these days outside the 

 weekly reckoning, so that every year would have the 



NO. 2576, VOL. 103] 



same days of the week on the same days of the 

 month. There is no question that the existing calen- 

 dar, with its irregular months, short February, and 

 leap-day at the end of the second month, is very ill- 

 contrived; it is only the difficulty of agreement as to 

 the best alternative that has permitted it to survive so 

 long. 



Dark Markings on the Sky. — Prof. Barnard has 

 often described these dark patches of definite outline, 

 which strongly suggest, by their appearance and by the 

 abrupt alteration in star-density, that they are due to 

 clouds of obstructing matter. He gives a catalogue of 

 182 of these objects in the Astrophysical Journal for 

 January. They are mainly, but not wholly, in the 

 Galaxy. He suggests that in many regions of the 

 sky there is enough background luminosity, due either 

 to unseen stars or diffused nebulous matter, to throw 

 them into relief; one such is in R.A. 4h. 22m. 50s., 

 N. decl. 46° 21'; it is a dark, elliptical space 15' x 10'. 

 It is curious that Prof. Barnard's paper is in juxta- 

 position with one by Dr. Harlow Shapley on the 

 distances of the globular clusters ; taken in conjunc- 

 tion with recent evidence of the wide distributisn of 

 calcium in cosmic clouds, it tends to weaken our con- 

 fidence in the perfect transparency of space which is 

 one of the postulates of Dr. Shapley's deductions. 

 Prof. Barnard gives photographic reproductions of 

 nine of the dark regions in the galactic clouds. In 

 some cases they are fairly round and regular, in others 

 they present complicated and contorted forms. 



The Astrographic Catalogue. — Vol. ii. of the 

 Hyderabad section of this Catalogue has just been pub- 

 lished, containing the measures of the stars on the 

 plates the centres of which lie in decl. — 18°. There 

 are 61,378 stars in the volume, which is at the rate 

 of 3^ millions to the whole sky. Their x, y co- 

 ordinates are given, and the measured diameters. A 

 separate formula is calculated for each plate, of the 

 form A-BV'd, to reduce to the ordinary magnitude 

 scale.. The limiting magnitude for most of the plates 

 appears to be about 13. Standard co-ordinates are 

 also given for all the stars that occur in the Algiers 

 or Washington Astr. Gesellstfhaft catalogues, which 

 are for the same epoch (1900) as the present catalogue. 

 There are also auxiliary tables for forming the R.A. 

 and declination of any star, if required. 



This volume has a pathetic interest in that the 

 director, Mr. R. J. Pocock, has died since it was sent 

 to press. In spite of war difficulties, he accomplished 

 a great deal of work during his few years at Hydera- 

 bad. Much of it is still unpublished. 



A SUGGESTED GOVERNMENT CHEMICAL 

 SERVICE. 



AN important memorandum has been drawn up by 

 the council of the Institute of Chemistry, which 

 desires to direct the attention of the Government to 

 the increasing and vital importance of chemical science 

 in affairs of the State. The memorandum is published 

 in the Proceedings of the institute, part iv., recently 

 issued. 



The council is of opinion that the time is oppor- 

 tune for taking steps to secure for the profession of 

 chemistry a position corresponding with that occupied 

 by other learned professions. It considers that much 

 would be accomplished towards the attainment of that 

 aim if, in the first place, adequate and uniform condi- 

 tions of appointment were accorded to chemists directly 

 engaged in the service of the State. These include 

 chemists occupied in research, in analysis, and in 

 technological work, as well as those employed in 



