432 



NA TURE 



[August 30, iqoo 



SCIENTIFIC SERIAL. 



American journal of Science, August. — Rowland's new 

 method for measuring electric absorption and losses of energy 

 due to hysteresis and Foucault currents, and on the detection of 

 short curcuits in coils, by L. M. Potts. Rowland's method, in 

 which the condenser is placed in one arm of a Wheatstone 

 bridge, together with the fixed coils of an electrodynamometer, 

 while the movable coil is mounted in the cross connection, is 

 practically useful. The electric absorption always acts as a 

 resistance in series with a capacity. The resistance is indepen- 

 dent of the current, but the temperature has a decided effect on 

 both. — Some new Jurassic vertebrates, by W. C. Knight. The 

 author describes two new species, called Plesiosatirus shirleyensis 

 and Cimoliosaurus laramiensis respectively. They are in the 

 collection of the University of Wyoming. — Carnotite and asso- 

 ciated vanadiferous minerals in Western Colorado, by W. F. 

 Hillebrand and F. Leslie Ransome. Carnotite is probably a 

 mixture of minerals of which analysis fails to reveal the exact 

 nature. Instead of being the pure uranyl- potassium vanadate, 

 it is to a large extent made up of calcium and barium com- 

 pounds. Near Placerville, Colorado, certain sandstones show a 

 green colouring and cementing material which contains nearly 

 13 per cent, of VjO,. It is intended to work this sandstone 

 for vanadium. — Restoration of Stylonurus Lacoanus, a giant 

 arthropod from the Upper Devonian of the United States, by 

 C. E. Beecher. The arthropod described takes equal rank with 

 the Giant Spider Crab of Japan and the great "Seraphim" 

 ( Pterygotus anglicus). The animal has a length of nearly 5 feet, 

 and with the legs expended it would measure about 8 feet. — 

 lodometric estimation of arsenic acid, by F. A. Gooch and Julia 

 C. Morris. — Further notes on pre-glacial drainage in Michigan, 

 by E. H. Mudge. The author discusses the present and former 

 levels in the vicinity of the village of Saranac. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, August 20.— M. Maurice Levy in 

 the chair. — New observations on the high valley of Dordogne, 

 by M. A. Michel-Levy. Owing to the cuttings recently made 

 for the railway between Queuille and Mont-Dore, some new 

 facts on the geology of this valley have been discovered. On 

 the left flank of the valley the deposit of labradorite can be 

 traced up to the Capucin. More to the south an ouicrop of 

 trachyte, rich in black mica and amphibole, can be followed up 

 lb near the ravines of Riveaugrand. The right flank of the 

 Mont-Dore valley shows clearly the prolongation of the lower 

 andesite of the Grand Cascade. A trachytic dyke has also been 

 recently discovered by M. Paul Gautier in the first ravine west 

 of Compis.sade, which is rich in granitic inclusions.— On the 

 existence of Ceratitis capilaia, var. hispanica, in ihe neighbour- 

 hood of Paris, by M. Alfred Giard. During the present spring 

 a large proportion of the apricots at Courbevoie, near Paris, 

 fell off the trees in a green state, and the remainder, although 

 apparently exceptionally fine when ripe, where found to be honey- 

 combed with larvDS. This larvae were found, on development, to 

 give rise to Ceratitis capitata, a species that has already been 

 found to be very destructive to many kinds of fruit in the Azores, 

 at Madeira, the Cape of Good Hope, Algeria and Malta. This 

 is its first appearance near Paris, possibly owing to an 

 exceptionally favourable spring. Means for combating this 

 scourge are suggested, as it is of the first importance that 

 it should not become acclimatised in Paris.— Observations on 

 shooting stars made from August 11 to August 14 at the 

 Observatory of Paris, by Mile. D. Klumpke. About thirty 

 meteors were observed during four nights, of which some 

 came from Perseus and others from the polar region. 

 The former were white, short and very rapid, the latter 

 luminous and coloured.— Observations of the sun made at 

 the Observatory of Lyons with the Brunner equatorial during 

 the first quarter of 1900, by M. J. Guillaume. The results 

 are given in three tables showing the number of spots, their 

 distribution in latitude, and the distribution of faculse in 

 latitude. — On the composition of the air in a vertical section, 

 and on the composition of the upper layers of the terrestrial 

 atmosphere, by M. G. Hinrichs. By applying a formula of 

 Laplace, the composition of the air is deduced at different 

 levels. From these calculations, carbon dioxide would dis- 

 appear at 30,000 metres, argon at 60,000 metres. At 100,000 



NO. 1609, VOL. 62\ 



metres the air would consist of oxygen 0*3, nitrogen 4*6 

 and hydrogen 95 i per cent. — On the dielectric cohesion of 

 gases, by M. Bouty. When a gas contained in an insulating 

 vessel is placed in a constant electric field, there is a certain 

 critical pressure above which the gas acts as a dielectric, 

 and below which the discharge passes. The relation between 

 this critical pressure (/) and the field {y volts per centimetre) 

 has been studied for three gases — hydrogen, air and carbon 



dioxide. For low pressures the relation found is y = a -v — 



I f 



For higher pressures the curve is practically coincident with 

 the asymptote, j = a f b^^p -f ir). — On the extraction of oxygen 

 from the air by solution at a low temperature, by M. Georges 

 Claude. Various solvents for air have been tried at low tem- 

 peratures in the hope of discovering a liquid in which the 

 difference of solubility of the two gases would be very marked. 

 The experiments, however, were unsuccessful, as it was 

 found that at low temperatures the solubility of the nitrogen 

 increased, so that starting with a mixture containing 65 per 

 cent, of oxygen, after solution and boiling out, the amount of 

 oxygen was practically unchanged, amounting in no case to 

 more than 70 per cent. — On the pyrogallol-sulphonic acids, by 

 M. Marcel Delage. — On the dextrins of saccharification, by 

 M. P. Petit. The results obtained by the action of diastase 

 upon starch were very divergent, depending upon the age of the 

 diastase and the conditions under which it had been preserved. 

 — On the use of sodium peroxide for making wholesome wells 

 containing carbonic acid, by M. E. Derennes. The use of 

 milk of lime for the absorption of dangerous amounts of 

 carbonic acid contained at the bottom of a well has the dis- 

 advantage that the residual gas may consist almost entirely of 

 nitrogen. The substitution of sodium peroxide for lime would 

 ensure as much oxygen being given off as carbon dioxide 

 absorbed. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 

 Right- and Left-handedness. By W. L. H. Duck- 

 worth 409 



Modern Views on the Characters of the Cellular 

 Elements in the Blood. By Dr. T. H. Milroy . . 410 



Biology at Woods' Holl, U,y.A 411 



Our Book Shelf:— 



Scudder : " Brief Guide to the Commoner Butterflies 

 of the Northern United States and Canada." — 



W. F. K 411 



Bailey and Fowler : " Elements of Qualitative 



Analysis" 412 



Letteis to the Editor: — 



Railways and Moving Platforms. — Prof. John Perry, 



F.R S 412 



Snow-drifts on Ingleborough. — Prof. T. G. Bonney, 



F.R.S 412 



Permeability of Iron under the Influence of the 

 Oscillatory Discharge from a Condenser. (Illus- 

 trated.) — E. W. Marchant 413 



Function of the Whips of the Larva of the Puss Moth. 



W. F. Kirby 413 



The Migration of Swifts. — Oswald H. Latter . . . 413 

 Units at the International Electrical Congress . . 414 

 The American Institute and the English Institution 



of Electrical Engineers in Paris 415 



Three Books of Popular Natural History. [Illus- 

 trated.) 417 



The International Congress of Mathematicians . . 418 



Notes 420 



Our Astronomical Column: — 



Astronomical Occurrences in September 425 



Ring Nebula in Lyra 425 



Occultation of Saturn 425 



Opposition of Eros 425 



The International Physical Congress. By Dr. Ch. 



Ed. Guillaume . 425 



Orientation of the Field of View of the Siderostat 



and Ccelostat. [Illustrated.) By A. Fowler . . . 428 

 The Anniversary Meeting of the Reale Accademia 



dei Lincei 430 



University and Educational Intelligence 431 



Scientific Serial 432 



Societies and Academies 432 



