Aug' 



Apr 2, 1900] 



NATURE 



323 



The Faculty of Sciences of the University of Rome proposes 

 to publish by subscription a complete collection of the works of 

 the late Prof. Eugenic Beltrami. The collection will probably 

 extend to three or four large volumes of 2000 pages in all, and 

 a copy will be sent to subscribers of 2/. and upwards. Sub- 

 scriptions are to be sent to Isaia Sonzogno, secretary of the 

 Scuola d'Applicazione per gli Ingegneri, 5, Piazza San Pietro 

 in Vincoli, Rome. 



In a pamphlet, entitled the " Inidikil System," Mr. A. 

 Lincoln Hyde suggests a decimal system of weights and 

 measures for the English speaking people based on taking the 

 inch as the fundamental unit. One of the author's main 

 arguments for the proposal appears to be the failure of the 

 metric system to obtain public favour in Great Britain and 

 lerica, and he therefore thinks it desirable to make another 

 tempt at decimalising our weights and measures. 



In the Proceedings of the Rochester Academy of Sciences, 

 )1. iii. Brochure 2, Prof. Arthur L. Baker gives a general sum- 

 iry of vector analysis, and a short note on the graphic repre- 

 Bntation of imaginaries — both suitable for teaching purposes. 



Part 13 of the Rendiconti del R. Istituto Lombardo contains 

 mathematical papers— one by Dr. Duilio Gigli, on heli- 

 coidal and ruled surfaces in elliptic space ; the other by Signor 

 U. Anialdi, on commutative linear substitutions. In the former, 

 Dr. Gigli, starting with the classical methods of Beltrami, de- 

 duces certain theorems relating to ruled surfaces in space of 

 constant curvature, exactly analogous to those known to exist in 

 Euclidean space. The second paper deals with certain general- 

 isations enunciated by Schlesinger in his note, " Ueber vert- 

 auschbare lineare Substitutionen " (Crelle, 1899), to which 

 Amaldi applies certain synthetic methods due to Prof. 

 Pincherle. 



In connection with the view that phosphorescence is due to 

 movements of the ether determined by the vibrations of material 

 particles, much interest attaches to the question as to whether 

 the intensity of phosphorescence is modified by a magnetic 

 field. Some experiments described by M. Alexandre de 

 Hemptinne in the Bulletin de la Classe des Sciences (Brussels) 

 appear to answer this question in the negative. In one experi- 

 ment the phosphorescent substance was contained in a tube 

 about 30 cm. long, placed between the poles of an electro- 

 magnet. The middle part of the tube was thus submitted to a 

 field of about 30,000 C.G.S. units, while at the ends the mag- 

 netic force was comparatively feeble. The tube contained sul- 

 phide of calcium or of zinc, prepared after Becquerel's methods, 

 and it was excited by being exposed to the sun. On observing 

 the tube in a dark room it was seen to be uniformly phos- 

 phorescent throughout its length ; it remained phosphorescent 

 lor a considerable time, and gradually the intensity diminished, 

 but at no stage of the experiment was any difference of intensity 

 noticeable from one end of the tube to the other. In order to 

 make more exact observations, M. de Hemptinne constructed a 

 phosphoroscope of sufficiently large dimensions to contain an 

 electro-magnet. Although this method was much more sensi- 

 tive than the preceding one, not the slightest difference could be 

 observed in the behaviour of sulphide of lime, sulphide of zinc, 

 nitrate of uranium, diamond and other more or less phosphor- 

 escent substances when submitted to a magnetic field of about 

 32,000 units. 



High summer temperatures have continued to prevail over 

 the southern portion of our islands, but there has been an absence 

 of the excessive heat which was experienced in the preceding 

 week. Heavy thunderstorms occurred over a large part of 



and smaller amounts in many parts of the country. Two quite 

 separate storms passed over the metropolis, one in the afternoon 

 and the second late in the evening. The lightning flashes were 

 very frequent and unusually brilliant. At Greenwich, the rain- 

 fall accompanying the thunderstorms measured 0*84 inch, while 

 in Westminster it only amounted to 0'42 inch. The weather 

 has been generally cooler since the storms, although the ther- 

 mometer in the south of England is well above the average. 

 The mean temperature for July was 4' above the average at 

 Greenwich; the mean of the maxima was 78°, and of the minima, 

 or night readings, 57°. The total rainfall for the month at 

 Greenwich was I '41 inches, which is more than an inch less 

 than the average. 



A PAMPHLET on the organisation of the meteorological 

 service in Japan has been published by the Tokio Observa- 

 tory, for presentation to the Paris Exhibition. This service, 

 which is very complete, consists of eighty stations of the first 

 and second orders, and of about 900 stations at which only rain- 

 fall or temperature is recorded. The departmental stations, in 

 accordance with the decree establishing the service, are estab- 

 lished in suitable places, chosen by the Ministry of Public 

 Instruction, and any persons wishing to establish additional 

 stations have to obtain the authority of that Ministry. Elec- 

 trical, earthquake, and other exceptional phenomena are regu- 

 larly observed, in addition to the usual meteorological observa- 

 tions. All vessels belonging either to the imperial or merchant 

 service, which are over 100 tons burden, are compelled to make 

 observations at regular intervals, six times daily , and the logs are 

 forwarded to the central observatory. There is also a regular 

 service of weather telegraphy and storm warnings. The obser- 

 vations made three times daily are published in Weather Reports, 

 together with forecasts for the following day. The average 

 success of these forecasts amounts to 82 per cent., and of the 

 storm warnings to 70 per cent. In addition to the Dxily Weather 

 Report, monthly and yearly bulletins are issued ; these are natu- 

 rally written in the Japanese language, but an English translation 

 of the titles and important phrases is added. The present 

 director of the service is Prof. K. Nakamura, graduate of the 

 Tokio University ; the staff and attendants of the central 

 observatory amount to fifty-three in number. 



The ethnology of ancient history, deduced from records, 

 monuments and coins, is a subject in which M. Charles de 

 Ujfalvy has made some important investigations. In t Atithro- 

 pologie, tome ix. , he has published a memoir on the White Huns. 

 The Huns artificially deformed their heads so as to greatly in- 

 crease their height (deformation relevie of Broca). They were 

 nearly related to the Hoa of the Chinese annals (which name 

 is merely the origin of the word Hun), to the Ye-tha of the 

 Chinese (who must not be confounded with the very different 

 Yu^-tchi), and to the White Huns or Ephthalites of Byzantine 

 and Armenian authors. The Huna kings of India practised the 

 same cranial deformation, as is shown by their effigies repre- 

 sented on their coinage. The Ephthalites practised polyandric 

 customs, and their women wore special horned head dresses. 

 Traces of polyandric habits, as well as of these extraordinary 

 coilfures, are still to be met with, after more than twelve hundred 

 years, in certain regions of the old Ephthalitic empire. 



The second part of vol. xxviii. of the Morphologischesjahrbuck 

 is entirely taken up by two profusely illustrated memoirs on the 

 morphological anatomy of Vertebrates. In the first of these 

 Dr. S. Paulli continues his elaborate investigations into the 

 extent and form of the air-chambers in the mammalian skull ;. 

 dealing in this section with the morphology of the ethmoid bone 

 and the relations of the aforesaid chambers in Ungulates. Per- 

 haps the most striking feature in this communication is the 



England on July 27, resulting in a fairly heavy rain over London I labour expended in working out the details of the labyrinth 

 NO. 1605, VOL. 62] 



