446 



NA TURE 



[September 7, 1893 



wire system, central station, and attendance, the cost of which 

 could not be defrayed by the limited public likely to require a 

 luxury of this so.t. Whenever, on the other hand, an enter- 

 prise was started with faulty mains and insufficient staff, the 

 system was doomed to fail and to create a prejudice against the 

 principle itself. All these difficulties are avoided by incorporat- 

 ing the control system with the electric light or power installation 

 already existing. This is done by means of a clock invented by 

 Herr von Hefner- Alteneck, which is placed in circuit like an 

 ordinary incandescent lamp. It is kept wound up by the cur- 

 rent, at an annual cost not exceeding that of one i6-candle 

 lamp burning for ten hours, i.e. about 41/. In case of inter- 

 ruption of circuit, the clock will go about twelve hours inde- 

 pendently of the current. The control is effected once a day 

 by a momentary drop of the circuit potential by about 6 or 10 

 volts at 5 A.iM., which has the effect of pointing all the clocks in the 

 circuit at 5. The effect upon the lamps is inappreciable. The 

 control can be performed by hand in the dynamo room, or 

 automatically through the assistance of an observatory. The 

 General Electric Company of Berlin proposes shortly to em- 

 body the system in its enterprises. 



Messrs. Gauthier-Vili.ars have issued their quarterly list 

 of new publications. 



We have received the Transactions and Proceedings of the 

 New Zealand Institute, vol. xxv. 1892. 



The report and proceedings of the Manchester Field 

 Naturalists' and Archjeologists' Society has been issued for the 

 year 1892, 



The Geological Survey of Alabama has issued a report, by 

 Mr. A. M. Gibson, on the "Geological Structure of Murphree's 

 Valley." The report deals particularly with the mineral re- 

 sources of the region. 



The University Correspondence College Press has published 

 the fourth Intermediate Science and Preliminary Scientific Direc- 

 tory, containing the papers set at the examinations in July last, 

 and the answers fully worked. 



The Toynbee Hall Natural History Society recently organ- 

 ised an excursion to Jersey. Seventeen members took part in 

 the expedition, and represented three sections — Botany, Geo- 

 logy, and Zoology. The whole of the coast and much of the 

 interior was visited. At the monthly meeting of the Society, 

 held Monday, September 4, many of the results of a fortnight's 

 natural history work in the island were exhibited. 



Two new volumes have been added to the Aide-Mtmoire 

 series edited by M. Leaute, and published by Messrs. Gaulhier- 

 Villars and M. G. Masson. " Accidents de Chaudieres," by 

 M. F. Sinigaglia, deals with the causes and prevention of boiler 

 accidents, and M. H. Laurent, in his " Theorie des Jeux de 

 Hasard," gives a number of problems connected with games of 

 chance. 



Messrs. John Bartholomew and Co., Edinburgh, have 

 published a "Naturalists' Map of Scotland," showing {a) 

 Faunal divisions and lighthouses ; {b) Height of land and depth 

 of sea ; (c) Deer forests and salmon rivers ; {d) Areas of moor, 

 land, hill pastures, and other uncultivated lands ; (c) Areas of 

 cultivated land. The map is excellently lithographed, and 

 will doubtless be appreciated by the tourist as well as by the 

 naturalist. 



Mr. William F. Clay, Edinburgh, has published, as an 

 Alembic Club reprint, the two papers by Cavendish, which 

 appeared in the Philosophical Transactions under the title 

 " Experiments on Air." The first paper appeared in 1784, and 

 contains an account of Cavendish's researches into the com- 

 position of water ; the second paper, published in the following 

 year, contains the description of his discovery of nitric acid. 

 NO. 12^5. VOL. 48] 



In 1891 a biological survey of parts of California, Nevada, 

 Arizona, and Utah was conducted by the U.S. Department of 

 Agriculture, Dr. C, Hart Merriam being in charge. The second 

 part of the report on the results of this — the Death Valley 

 Expedition — has just been published, and forms the sevcntfc 

 number of " North American Fauna." It consists of the 

 special reports on birds, reptiles, batrachians, fishes, molluscs, 

 insects, and the shrubs of the desert region, cacti and yuccas. 

 The first part of the report, containing the narrative of the expe- 

 dition, discussion of life-zones, and the list of mammalia, has 

 not yet appeared. 



Too great praise cannot be given to the authorities of the 

 Natural History Maseum for the excellent series of guide-book* 

 that are being issued from time to time by the various depart- 

 ments. The latest addition to this series is a guide to Sowerby's 

 models of British Fungi in the department of botany, prepared 

 by Mr. Worthington G. Smith. The Sowerby collection was 

 acquired by the Museum in 1844, and consists of more than two 

 hundred models made of unbaked pipeclay. Mr. Smith's de- 

 scription of the fungi should be widely distributed, for it will 

 enable the public to distinguish easily the edible and poiionons 

 species. 



The benefits derived by science from the Soiithsoniari Insti- 

 tution are almost incalculable. Memoirs, monographs, and 

 bibliographies of a most important character are distributed t» 

 private individuals and libraries with so free a hand that eveiy 

 one interested in the matters with which tliey deal must leara 

 of their publication. A very important volume has recently bee» 

 received from the institution ; it is " A Select Bibliography of 

 Chemistry," by Mr. Henry Carrington Bolton. The volume 

 gives the titles of practically all the books on chemistry pub- 

 lished in Europe and America between 1492 and 1892. It 

 contains works in every department of both pure and applied 

 chemistry. Academic dissertations, however, and theses, are 

 not, as a rule, included, neither is the voluminous literature of 

 periodicals. The works are arranged into seven sections as 

 follows:— (l) Bibliography, (2) Dictionaries, (3) History, {4) 

 Biography, (5) Chemistry, pure and applied, (6) Alchemy, (7) 

 Periodicals. Section v. is more extensive than the other six com- 

 bined. Besides pure chemistry, the book comprises works in ev«y 

 department of chemistry applied to the arts, but not to the arts 

 themselves. In each section, with the exception of those of 

 biography and periodicals, the titles are arranged alphabetically 

 by authors. Altogether, 12,031 titles have been indexed, of 

 which 4507 are in German, 2765 in English, and 2141 in FrencA. 

 In addition to the author's index, there is a subject-index whick 

 vei-y considerably facilitates reference. For the conception of 

 the bibliography and the completion of a stupendous work, Mr- 

 Bolton deserves the thanks of all chemists. A debt of grati- 

 tude is also due to the Smithsonian Institution for publishing 

 so useful a volume. 



A FURTHER communication upon the manufacture of oxygen 

 from the air by the agency of calcium plumbate, CsoPbOj, the 

 compound formed by lime with peroxide of lead, is contributed 

 by Herr G. Kassner to the current number of the Chemiktr 

 Zeilung. Oxygen is now so important a commercial article 

 that any new mode of advantageously preparing it upoii alarge 

 scale must of necessity be of considerable interest. The suc- 

 cess of the " Brin" method of isolating it indirectly from the 

 atmosphere by the agency of barium peroxide has given rise to 

 several attempts to discover some other substance cap.ible of 

 yielding oxygen of an equal degree of purity and under equally 

 favourable conditions as regards cost of plant and working. 

 Calcium plumbate would appear to possess several properties 

 capable of rendering it an efficient substitute for barium per- 

 oxide, and Herr Kassner even claims for it a distinct superiority. 



