August 6, 1891] 



NA TURE 



325 



of our four principal cereals, the nature, and as far as possible 

 the proportional quantities, of the chief carbohydrates found at 

 different stages of ripeness. Memoirs to be accompanied with 

 preparations. A prize of about ^27 for a complete account, 

 accompanied with preparations, of the Phytoptacidia found in 

 Denmark, and a monographic exposition of the species of the 

 genus Phytoptus (in its old and wider sense), which inhabit the 

 various i^alls, found on a particular plant, with the view espe- 

 cially of showing whether several usually different galls of the 

 same plant species arise from the same Phytoptus in different 

 phases of its development. In choosing a plant, preference 

 should be given for one in which these galls have an economic 

 value, as is the case, e.g., with some occurring on the beech. 

 Further, the Academy desires an exposition, as complete as 

 possible, of the development of a particular species of 

 Phytoptus. The date for the first is October 31, 1892 ; for the 

 two others October 31, 1893. Memoirs may be written in 

 Danish, Swedish, English, German, French, or Latin. 



The furstlich Jablonowsky Gesellschaft, recognizing the fact 

 that the determinations of the secular perturbations of the orbits 

 of the interior planets, in the form in which they have been 

 left by Le Verrier, are not satisfactory, and that probably the 

 anomaly in the motion of the perihelion of Mercury is to be 

 explained by the fact that the differential equations have been 

 treated linearally, offers a prize of 1000 marks for a new deter- 

 mination of the secular perturbations of the orbits of Mercury, 

 Venus, the Earth, and Mars, in which the terms of a higher 

 order are taken into account. Competitors are to send in the 

 results of their investigations before November 1894, observing 

 the usual rules to secure the anonymity of their papers. 



The Educational Times states that the Supreme Council of 

 Hygiene of Austria has been engaged in discussing the ad- 

 vantages of erect as compared with slanting writing, and the 

 official Report of Drs. von Reuss and Lorenz points strongly in 

 favour of the former. They point out that the direction of the 

 written characters has a marked influence on the position of the 

 body. In "straight" writing the scholar faces his work, and 

 is spared the twist of the body and neck, which is always ob- 

 servable in those who write slantwise, and one common cause 

 of spinal curvature is thus obviated. The erect method is, 

 therefore, expressly recommended for use in schools, in prefer- 

 ence to the ordinary sloping lines. 



We have received the eighteenth Annual Report of the 

 Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota. It 

 consists of a summary statement for 1889, report of field obser- 

 vations made in 1888 and 1889, by N. H. Winchell ; American 

 opinion on the older rocks, by A. Winchell ; additions to the 

 library of the Survey since 1884, and a list of publications of 

 the Survey. 



V Eledricite points out that the new electric photophone, 

 which consists of a small glow lamp at the end of an elastic 

 tube used for throwing a strong light for surgical purposes into 

 the mouth, ear, &c., was really suggested by the action of the 

 water jet in the luminous fountains now so common, and that 

 these really owe their origin to a laboratory experiment by 

 M. Becquerel in 1876. 



Herr Klenze, we learn from a German source, has been 

 making inquiry into the digestibility of different kinds of cheese. 

 The most easily digested, he found, were Cheshire and Roque- 

 fort ; while others are ranked as follows, in ascending order 

 of difficult digestion : Emmenthal, Gorgonzola, Neuchatel, 

 Ramadour, Rotenburg, Mainz, fromage de Brie, and (most 

 indigestible of all) Swiss cheese. 



In recent numbers of the American Journal of Science 

 (February 1891) and Ciel et Tcrrc (July i and 16, 1891) atten- 

 tion is drawn to the remarkable conclusions arrived at by Dr. 

 NO. II 36, VOL. 44] 



Bruckner in his work entitled "Klimaschwankungen" — the 

 most complete work extant upon the question of the variation of 

 climate — in which he shows that the climate has not undergone 

 any continuous variation from the earliest historic time, but that 

 it oscillates, and presents alternately periods of heat and cold, 

 and of dryness and humidity, the period being about 35 years, 

 which, it will be observed, is a multiple of the period of frequency 

 of sun-spots (11 to 12 years), M. Penck, the eminent German 

 geographer, has drawn some interesting conclusions as to the 

 probable effects upon the harvests of the world. 



Part 34 of Cassell's " New Popular Educator " has just been 

 issued, and contains articles on applied mechanics, algebra, 

 botany, electricity, and comparative anatomy. 



Mr. G. C. Hoffmann, of the Geological and Natural His- 

 tory Survey of Canada, has made a microscopical and chemical 

 examination of a peculiar form of metallic iron found on St. 

 Joseph Island, Lake Huron. It appeared in the form of 

 spherules disseminated through a thin deposit of dark reddish- 

 brown limonite which coated certain faces of some surface 

 specimens of quartz. These metallic-looking spherules were 

 found to consist of nuclei of silicon coated with a humus-like 

 substance, which in turn was overlain by a metallic layer con- 

 taining all the elements most frequently met with in meteoric 

 iron. But the small proportion of nickel present (o'li per 

 cent.), and the relatively large amount of phosphorus (i'07 per 

 cent.), as also the fact that the spherules contain nuclei ap- 

 parently of a concrete character, leads Mr. Hoffmann to suggest 

 the possibility of a terrestrial source for the material, upon the 

 assumption that it has resulted from the reduction of an iron- 

 salt by organic matter. The paper, which is accompanied by 

 four coloured plates, appears in the Transactions of the Royal 

 Society of Canada, 1890. 



The preliminary results of some investigations upon the 

 growth of the face are stated by Prof G. M. West in Science 

 for July 3. The values obtained in the case of measurements of 

 the female face point to the existence of three distinct periods 

 of growth, the first ending at about the seventh year, and the 

 third beginning at about the age of fifteen. The abrupt transi- 

 tion from one period to the next is indicated by the very slow 

 growth of some children until the ages of eight or fourteen, 

 when a rapid development often occurs. From the fifth to the 

 tenth year the average growth appears to be about 6 "5 mm. 

 During the next four years it is 6*2 mm., and from this time 

 little advance is made, the maximum of 128 mm. being reached 

 at about the age of twenty. The male face is larger than the 

 female face at all ages. Its growth is also more rapid, and con- 

 tinues later in life. The measurements have been on 2506 

 persons, including both sexes. 



Prof. Tito Martini, of Venice, contributes to the issue of 

 the Rivista Scicntifico-Industriale for the end of June, the re- 

 sults of some experiments on the crystallization of thin liquid 

 films. He finds that a strong solution of sodium sulphate, when 

 cooled to near its saturation point, possesses a viscous character 

 which enables it to form a thin film on a metallic ring, as in 

 Mr. Boys's experiments with soap-bubbles. On rapid evapora- 

 tion such a film crystallizes to an extremely beautiful open 

 lattice-work of minute crystals, which preserve their transparency 

 for some time, and then effloresce and crumble to powder. The 

 experiments succeeded with rings up to thirty-six millimetres 

 diameter. Similar experiments with ammonium chloride and 

 sodium hyposulphite have hitherto proved unsuccessful. With 

 a transparent film of liquid sulphur, however, even more beauti- 

 ful results have been obtained. The author regards such ex- 

 periments, besides being eminently suitable for lecture 

 demonstration, as likely to throw light on the nature of 

 molecular arrangement in relation to crystallization. . 



