August 3, 1893] 



NATURE 



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its railways would not be less in discord than our own, ruled by 

 Rouen time, and the principal object of the pretended unification 

 would be lost. At the present time, it is true, this consideration 

 is only retrospective, since it is evident to those who have eyes 

 to see, that in the future any international horary amalgamation 

 will be based on the united times of all meridians. 



" What sacrifices would a similar amalgamation impose on 

 France ? In the first place, it would retard the clocks of our 

 railways by four minutes, and civil time by nine minutes. But, 

 from the experience furnished by the law of March 15, 1891, 

 it can be affirmed that^were it not for the difference between 

 interior and exterior timepieces of the stations — the reform would 

 pass absolutely unperceived by the public. 



"It can no longer be said that the change implies a question of 

 national self-respect, since it is not to adopt English or German 

 time, but to take up a universal system already adopted by the 

 greater part of Europe, by all North America, and by a part of 

 Asia (Japan). 



"It is true that the new system will be imperfect so long as 

 France will not adhere to it. It is not only by the adherence of 

 France, however, that this system will be crowned. If France 

 wants to justify the provisions of the 1891 Commissioner 

 of the Senate, it will delay the execution for a hun- 

 dred years. But we do not delude ourselves with views 

 of this kind. During the time of waiting, our horary system 

 will produce in the eyes of Europe — in the eyes of the world — 

 the same effect as an old building out of line, encroaching on the 

 public view, breaking the perspective of a beautiful straight 

 avenue, and from which passers-by will only turn with dis- 

 pleasure. Is this a dignified situation for France ? 



"The situation is made worse from another cause. It has 

 been said that Spain and Portugal are becoming friends again. 

 If, according to the opinion of to-day, these two countries de- 

 sire to unite their times, it is probable that, in order to avoid a 

 conflict between the meridians of Madrid and Lisbon, they will 

 take the time of Western Europe. If that occurs the isolation 

 of France will be complete. 



"There are two ways of escape from this difficulty. The 

 first is based on the question of legality, and is that the 

 Minister of Public Works shall invite our railway companies 

 to retard their clocks by four minutes, and that the Minister of 

 the Interior shall prescribe in his turn that all the public 

 clocks be put back nine minutes with regard to the meridian 

 of Paris. This international unification would have been made 

 had not the law of March 15, 1891, been violated up to 

 now. 



" The other way, and the one altogether more frank and 

 dignified, is this — that France should say to Spain, ' Would 

 you be willing to unite our times? Let us adopt, with Por- 

 tugal, the time of Western Europe, and agree as to the day 

 when it shall be put in force simultaneously.' If France 

 obtains this understanding, it will have done more for the unifi- 

 cation of hours than any other nation ; for each nation has only 

 acted on its own account, while France, in bringing its adher- 

 ence, would bring at the same time that of two companions. 

 This would be at once the crowning of the system. 



" I guarantee that France would receive the plaudits of the 

 entire world, both of the old and the new, and in this question 

 we should, at the first onset, have resumed the place which we 

 generally occupy at the head of progress." 



The editor of the A'eviie Scienlifiijue remarks, in a footnote to 

 M. de Nordling's article, " It is false patriotism that is willing 

 to remain apart from other lands. Are the English who do not 

 wish to adopt the metric system, and the Chinese who built a 

 great wall at their frontier, good patriots ? And are these two 

 examples so worthy of admiration that our ambition should be 

 to imitate them by refusing to accept the unification of hours. 

 The conclusion can be formulated in three simple proposi- 

 tions : — 



" (i) Adopt a single time for all France, without having the 

 time in the interior of railway stations five minutes behind. 



" ( 2) Adopt the time known as that of Western Europe — that 

 is, Greenwich time, which is nine minutes behind Paris time, 

 and which is in reality the time of central France (Havre, Le 

 Mans, Tours, Poitiers, Angouleme, Auch, and Oran). 

 " (3) Urge Spain and Portugal to adopt this time." 

 It is satisfactory to find that the subject of international time 

 is being seriously considered in France. The changes required 

 to refer the times to the Greenwich meridian are so small that, 

 but for national prejudice, they would doubtless have been made 



long ago. However, we are not in a position to moralise upon 

 the opinions of our neighbours as to the adoption of the time 

 of Western Europe, for they point to our absurd system of 

 weights and measures, and we are humiliated. There is little 

 doubt that the French will adopt Greenwich time before the 

 metric system is introduced into this country. 



OLIGODYNAMIC PHENOMENA OF 

 LIVING CELLS. 



A MONG the botanical papers left by the late Prof. Carl 

 "^ v. Niigeli is a very remarkable one bearing the above title, 

 which is now published in the Denkschrift of the Schweizerische 

 naturforschende Gesellschaft by Prof. Schwendener and Prof. 

 Cramer. The observations referred to occupied the closing 

 years of Nageli's life since 1880. 



By oligodynamic phenomena Niigeli means those produced by 

 excessively small quantities of metallic substances in solution. 

 The experiments were made chiefly on two species of Spirogyra, 

 S. nitida and dubia. If in water which is previously "neutral," 

 i.e. not pathogenic to Spirogyra, a gold coin containing ten 

 per cent, of copper is placed, the water acquires the oligodyna- 

 mic property of killing the alga, and the poisoning may begin 

 to manifest itself in as short a period as from three to six 

 minutes. Niigeli satisfied himself that this effect is not due to the 

 action of electricity or of any similar force, but is the result of 

 infinitesimally small quantities of copper dissolved in the water, 

 in the form of CuH.iOj combined with carbon dioxide. In this 

 way one part of copper in 1000 million parts of water may act 

 pathogenically on the alga. Similar results were obtained with 

 silver, zinc, iron, lead, and quicksilver, while the absolutely in- 

 soluble metals gold and platinum were without effect. In this 

 way distilled water is often poisonous to Spirogyra, and it is a 

 remarkable fact that the poisonous metals communicate the pro- 

 perty to glass vessels in which they are placed. The poisonous 

 properties of the water may be diminished or entirely neutra- 

 lised by placing in the water particles of some insoluble solid 

 substances, such as sulphur, graphite, cellulose, wood, coal, 

 silk, wool, &c., which present a large surface on which the 

 metal is precipitated. For the same reason, while the alga will 

 be killed if only a few filaments are present in the water, a much 

 larger quantity will be entirely uninjured. 



Oligodynamic poisoning manifests itself in the living cell in a 

 different way from true chemical poisoning. In the former case 

 the cell does not at once lose its turgidity ; the protoplasmic 

 •aricle remains for a time adherent to the cell-wall, while the spiral 

 band of chlorophyll detaches itself and becomes transformed 

 into a solid mass surrounding the rounded nucleus of the cell. 

 The substance of the band swells up, and presents, on transverse 

 section, a cylindrical or oval form. The phenomena present 

 some resemblances to those produced by electricity. 



The very remarkable results here described are confirmed by 

 Prof. Cramer, who has repeated the experiments, and finds, in 

 all essential points, the phenomena to resemble those obtained 

 by Niigeli. A. W. B. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



A COURSE in Naval Architecture has been recently established 

 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to provide a 

 thorough training in the theory and methods of designing and 

 building ships, together with a study of the properties requisite 

 for safety and good behaviour at sea. It is intended to cover 

 the same ground and accomplish the same results as the English 

 and French government schools for training Naval Constructors. 

 Like all the courses at the Institute it gives, in addition to 

 professional and technical training and equipment, a good scien- 

 tific and liberal education. Attention is directed mainly to the 

 construction of merchant steamships ; but some attention is given 

 to problems arising in the design of men-of-war, which offer at 

 once the most definite and the most intricate questions presen- 

 ted to the naval constructor. The theory of the construction of 

 sailing vessels is also included in the course. 



The Westminster Budget of July 28 contains a record of the 

 scholarships obtained by boys at our public schools during the 



\0 1-240, VOL. 48] 



