4o8 



NATURE 



[August 24, 1893 



and ejected forcibly a considerable mass of air from the open 

 end of tlie trachea. Careful investigation showed that there 

 was no communication between the trachea and oe;ophagu5; 

 Prof. Fraenkel referred the power of speech to the existence of 

 a fold of mucous membrane at the end of the widened pharyn- 

 geal cavity, at about the level of the former larynx, which was 

 thrown into vibration during speech. It had not been possible 

 to ascertain whence the pitient obtained the air requisite to keep 

 the fold in vibration ; possibly the air which had been swallowed 

 sufficed for this purpose. Dr. Krigar Menzel had, in conjunction 

 with Dr. Raps, studied the motion of plucked strings by the 

 method previously employed for stroked strings. The string is 

 stretched across the long axis of a narrow brightly illuminated 

 slit, and thereby casts a smill punctiform shadow on a screen. 

 When the string swings, a curve is traced on the moving screen, 

 which admits of being fixed by photography. The speaker 

 developed the theory of strings vibrating as above, and deduced 

 formula which corresponded to the curves obtained. Dr. 

 Wien spoke on the upper limits of wave length for radiant heat 

 as based upon certain properties of Hertz's waves and the second 

 law of thermodynamics. 



Physiological Society, June 23.— Prjf. du Bois Reymond, 

 President, in the chair. — Prof. Koenig exhibited the two 

 patients with exiirpaled larynx as described in the preceding 

 report of the Physical Society. — Dr. Benda gave an account of 

 his microscopical investigalionson the development and function 

 of the mammary gland. He had studied the development on 

 five- and cight-month-old calves, and the functions on cows and 

 bitches during lactation, and arrived at the conclusions that the 

 mamtnary gland must be regarded as a tubular gland, and that 

 there is no evidence of a new formation of cells during its ac- 

 tivity. The idea that the secretion of milk depends on a 

 breaking-down of the gland cells cannot apparently be supported 

 by the results of microscopic investigation. 



July 7. — Prof Holowinsky, of Warsaw, spoke on a micro- 

 phone he had constructed, by means of which it is possible to 

 render audible rhythmic movements of long period, such as the 

 cardiac impulse, the radial and carotid pulse, &c. The action 

 of the instrument was demonstrated on several persons. — Dr. 

 Baginsky had studied the relation of the nerves to the sensory 

 end-organs in the case of the glossopharyngeal and olfactory 

 nerves, by section of the nerves and subsequent investigation of 

 the behaviour of the terminal sensory cells in each case. In 

 the case of the tongue he found these cells unaltered after 

 degeneration of their nerve ; whereas in the case of the olfactory 

 cells, both they and the whole mucous membrane degenerated 

 after removal of the olfactory bulb. He, however, attributed 

 the result in the latter case to injury of the ethmoid artery. 



July 21. — Dr. Lilienfeld made a further communication on 

 the clotting of blood arrived at by an examination of fibrine and 

 of fibrinogen which he regarded asa nucleo-albumin. He cime 

 to the conclusion that some sulislance is present in normal 

 blood which leads to clotting in presence of minimal amounts of 

 calcium chloride. Dr. Paul Strassmann had studied the 

 mechanism of the closing of the ductus Bjtalli in man, dogs, 

 and cats, and found it dependent upon the anatomical arrange- 

 ments of the entrance into the aortic arch, supporting his views 

 by a series of preparations. Dr. Jacobs had investigated the 

 action of extracts of a series of animal tissues on the number of 

 the white corpuscles. He found that extracts of liver, kidney, 

 pancreas, and thyroid had no effect on their number, while, on 

 the other hand, extracts of spleen, thymus, and the marrow of 

 bones, after producing a short fall, led to an increased production 

 of leucocytes which continued for many hours, and was marked 

 both in the peripheral as well as in the central blood-vessels and 

 in the heart. 



BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, and SERIALS RECEIVED 



B;OK5.— Orchids of South Africa, Vol. i, Part i : H. Bolus (Wesley).— 

 British Locomotives: C. J. B. Cooke (Whittaker).— Euclid, Books i to 6. 

 D. Brent (Rivington). — Tables for the Determination of the Rock-forming 

 Minerals: F. Lcewinson-Lessing, translated by J. W. Gregory (Macmillan). 



City and Guilds of London Institute, Programme of the Techn )logical 

 Examinations, Session 1893 94 (London). —Catalogue of the Madreporarian 

 Corals in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. i, the Genus Madre- 

 pora : G. Brook (London). — Transactions of the Sanitary Institute, Vol. 

 xiii. (London) — Naturalist's Map of Scotland ; J A. Harvie Brown and J. 

 G. Bartholomew (Edinburgh, Bartholomew).— Papers and Proceedings of 

 the Royal Society of Tasmania for 1892 (Hobart) — Edelsteinkunde ; Dr. C. 

 Doelter(Leipzig,Veit).— Mineral Resources of the United States, i8}i (Wash- 

 ington).— Monographs of the U.S. Geological Survey, Vol. xvii.,the Flora of 

 the Dakota Group ; L. Lesquereux (Washington). — Monographs of t'le U. S. 



NO. 1243. VOL. 48I 



Geological Survey. Vol. xviii. ; Gasteropoda and Cephalopoda of the Raritar 

 Clays and Greenland Marls of New Jersey : R. P. Whitfield (Wa.hington) 

 —General Report on the Operations of the Survey of India Department 

 1891-2 (Calcutta). 



Pami-hlets— The Yucca Moth and Yucca P.illination : C. V. Rilej 

 (Wa^hlngton).— Parisitism in Insects: C. V. Riley (Washington). - 

 Intorno all' Assorbimento della Luce nel Platino Diverse Tempera 

 ture : G. B. Riizo (Torino). — Wurde Bernstein von Hinterindien nacl] 

 dcm Westen Exportirt : A. B. Meyer (Dresden).— Some Ancient Relia 

 in Japan: R. Hitchcock (Washington).— The Ancient Burial Mounds 

 of Japan: R. Hitchcock (Washington).— Shinto, or the Mythologs 

 of the Japanese : R. Hitchcock (Washington).— The Ox Bot in tht 

 United States: C. V. Riley (Washington).— U.S. Department ol 

 Agriculture, Report of the Entom'^logist for 1892 (Washington). -De 

 partment of Agriculture, Victoria, Report on a Poisonous Species oi 

 Homeria; D. Mc.^lpine (Melbourne) —Zi-Ka- Wei Observatir)', the 

 " Bokha-a " Typh ion, October, 1892 : Rev. S. Chevalier (Shanghai).— Guidt 

 to Ben Nevis (Kdinburgh, Menzies). Description of some Fossil Plants 

 from th- Great Falls, Coal Field of Montana : W. M. Fontaine (Washing- 

 ton). —On the Occurrenceof the Spiny Boxfish on the Coast of California : 

 C. H Eigenmann (Washington). — R:;port on the Actinia Collected by the 

 U.S. Fish-Comm-ssion Stcimer Albatrms, during the winter 1887-88 : J. 

 P. McMurich (Washington). — Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

 Boston, a brief Account of its Foundation, Character, and Equipment 

 (Boston).— National Association for the Promotion of Technical Education, 

 Sixth Annual Report, 1892-93.- Cholera Prospects and Prevention : R. 

 Thorne Thorne (Allman). —L' Anthropologic aux Etats-Unis: Dr. P, 

 Topinard (Paris. Masson). — Revised Report on the Copepoda of Liverpool 

 Bay: I. C. Thompson (Liverpool). — On the Evolut'on of the Art of Work- 

 ing in Stone, J. D. McGuire (Washing' on). — Guide to Sowerby's Models of 

 British Fungi in the Department of Botany, British Museum (Natural His- 

 tory). W. G. Smith (London). — Maupertuis, L". du Bjis-Keymond (Leipzif, 

 Veit.). 



Serials. — Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and 

 Philosophical Society. Vol. 7, Nos. 3 and 3 (Manchester). — Mittheilungeo 

 der Deutschen Gesellschaft fiir Natur und Volkerkunde Ostasiens n Totio 

 51 Heft ( I'okio). Aus dem Archiv der Deutschen Seewarte, xv. Jabrgang, 

 1892 (Hamburg). 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Water and Ice as Agents of Earth Sculpture . . . 385 



Water Bacteria. By Mrs. Percy Frankland ... 386 



Popular Meteorology 387 



Our Book Shelf:— 



" The New Technical Educator : an Encyclopaidia of 



Technical Education." — N. J. L 388 



Reynman : " Wetteihiichlein. Von wahrer Erkenntniss 



des Welters' 389 



Letters to tbe Editor :— 



Prenatal Influences on Character. — Dr. Alfred R. 



Wallace, F.R.S 389 



Habits of South Africai Animals. — Dr. Alfred R. 



Wallace, F.R.S 390 



Astronomical Photography. — Right Hon. Lord 



Rayleigh, F.R.S. 391 



The Discussion on Quaternions. — Sir Robert S. Ball, 



F.R.S 391 



A Curious Optical Phenomenon. — Dr. A. WiUe . . 391 



Supposed Suicide of a Rattlesnake — W. H. Wood 391 

 Numerous Insects Washed up by the Sea. — Oswald 



H. Latter . ... . 39a 



The Fungus Gardens of Certain South American 



Ants. By John C. Willis 39J 



A Few Remarks on Insect Prevalence during the 



Summer of 1893. By Eleanor A. Ormerod ... 395 



The Great Heat of August 8 to 18 395 



A Sensitive Spherometer. By Dr. A. A. Common, 



F.R.S 396 



Jean Daniel CoUadon. By Dr. Ed. Sarasin .... 396 



Notes 397 



Our Astronomical Column :— j 



The Cordoba Durchmusterung 401 



The Rordame-Quenisset Comet 4^" 



A Simple Eqiatorial Mounting 401 



A Remarkable Source of Error 401 



The Apex of the Sun's Way 401 



The Origin of New Stars 402 



The Minute Structure of Plant Hybrids. By F. 



E. W 402 



Compulsory Laws of Error in Drawing. By Arthur 



L. Haddon 402 



The Department of Science and Art 403 



European Laboratories of Marine Biology .... 404 



University and Educational Intelligence 406 



Scientific Serials 406 



Societies and Academies 4°^ 



Books, Pamphlets, and Serials Received 40S 



