NA TURE 



I January 9, 1896 



If I have gone into all these details, it is only to show that 

 photography of clouds is a very easy operation, and within the 

 reach of all amateurs. And let me just add, that vvith the 

 darkest screen (saturated bichromate) and Prazmowski's lens, 

 with a focus of i6o millimetres, and diaphragm of 75V, I obtain 

 negatives with a maximum exposure of six seconds for cirrus, 

 with an ordinary amount of light with a Zeiss' object-glass, a 

 diaphragm of iV and very bright cirrus, having an exposure 

 of -jV of a second, has sometimes been more than sufficient, even 

 too much. 



It would be very interesting if amateurs in photography, so 

 numerous at the present time, would try to photograph clouds 

 which strike them as having interesting shapes, noting with care 

 the hour when they were taken, and also the direction in which 

 the clouds appeared. 



SCIENCE IN THE MAGAZINES. 



O' 



)NE of the most interesting contributions to this month's 

 magazines is an illustrated account in the Century by Mr. 

 Borchgrevink, of his voyage in the Antarctic, prefaced by a 

 note by Mr. A. W. Greely. The article will give an impulse 

 to the movement in favour of an expedition to explore the 

 Antarctic continent. Referring to Mr. Borchgrevink's account, 

 Mr. Greely says : " From a scientific standpoint the interest 

 depends entirely upon the discovery by Borchgrevink, on 

 Possession Island and Cape Adare, Victoria Land, of a crypto- 

 gamous growth, probably an unidentified lichen. The importance 

 of this discovery rests in the fact that hitherto no land vegetation 

 of any kind or description had been found within the confines 

 of the Antarctic circle. The strained deduction has been drawn 

 that the climatic conditions of the Antarctic zone must have 

 changed since the voyage of Ross, who discovered no vege- 

 tation. It should be borne in mind, however, that the great 

 botanist. Sir Joseph Hooker, who served with Ross, was 

 unfortunately prevented from landing with his commander ; 

 otherwise it may not be doubted that low forms of vegetable life 

 which escaped the attention of Ross would have been noted by 

 Hooker. In a practical way it emphasises the possibility of 

 much more extended exploration in the Antarctic Ocean, through 

 the agency of the steam-power of to-day, than was practicable 

 for the greatest of Antarctic navigators — Cook, Balleny, 

 Weddell, Wilkes, and Ross — under sail alone in the past." 

 Ethnologists will be interested in the studies of Indian life given 

 by Alice C. Fletcher in the Century, under the title "Tribal 

 Life among the Omahas." 



An illustrated description of the magnificent new building of 

 the Boston Public Library, contributed by Mr. T. R. Sullivan 

 to Scribner, shows how very thoroughly the American people 

 are working for the advancement of learning. The building will 

 hold a million and a quarter volumes, and everything has been 

 done to make it beautiful, while all that modern contrivance 

 can offer has been utilised to secure comfort. " The reference 

 reading-room of the library," we read, "and its seven thousand 

 volumes are free to all who care to take them down, without 

 the intervention of an attendant. At the southern end, always 

 open for consultation, is the card-catalogue of all the books 

 contained in the building ; any one of these will be furnished 

 and brought from the main library to the designated table at a 

 few moments' notice. There is room for hundreds of readers to 

 sit here from early morning to a late hour of the night in un- 

 disturbed pursuit of knowledge. Those who have tried to work 

 in the overcrowded libraries of Europe, hampered by annoying 

 restrictions and wearisome delays, will fully comprehend the 

 blessing which such freedom brings." In the same magazine 

 there is an article on "Water-ways, from the Ocean to the 

 Lakes," by.Mr. T. C. Clarke, dealing chiefly with the great 

 canal from Lake Erie to the Hudson River. In the editorial 

 notes, reference is made to recent gains in the speed of travel. 

 It appears that the distance between Buffalo and Chicago — 512 

 miles — has been covered at a rate of over sixty-five miles per 

 hour, stops excluded. The distance between New York and 

 Washington is now done in about five hours, but a railway 

 exists (on paper) the trains of which are to shoot over this dis- 

 tance of 240 miles in two hours ! The track is to be elevated 

 above the ground on a single line of upright piers, and the trains 

 are to be driven by electricity, each car carrying its own motor 

 machinery. The most distinctive mechanical feature of the 



NO. 1367, VOL. 53] 



enterprise is the so-called "bicycle" arrangement, by which a 

 single line of wheels run on single rail. The train is to be kept 

 upright by an auxiliary rail on each side, which will not, how- 

 ever, come into play except in rounding curves. 



In the Popular Science Monthly Prof. G. F. Wright discusses 

 the "New Evidence of Glacial Man in Ohio," afforded by a 

 small chipped chest implement found by a trustworthy observer 

 close to Brilliant Station on the Ohio River. He concludes that 

 the discovery "must go far to close the question of man's an- 

 tiquity on the Western continent, and to dispel the doubts upon 

 the subject which, tor one reason or another, have heretofon 

 existed." Prof. James Sully continues, in the same magazine, 

 his " Studies of Childhood," and among the other articles arc 

 " The Anatomy of Speed Skating," by Mr. R. Tait McKenzie ; 

 a criticism by Mr. Le Sueur of Prof. Forbes' article on the 

 work of the Cataract Construction Company, published in 

 Blackwood's Magazine for September 1895 ; " Health Experi- 

 ments in the French Army," by Mr. Stoddard Dewey ; and 

 " Prehistoric Engineering at Lake Copais," by Mr. J. D. 

 Champlin. 



Mr. W. H. Mallock continues in the Contemporary his essay 

 on " Physics and Sociology." He holds that the struggle which 

 causes social progress is a struggle of the few against the few, 

 and is fundamentally different from the Darwinian struggle for 

 existence. In his words : " Within the limits of the minority, 

 composed of the exceptionally gifted, whether their gifts are 

 those of scientific knowledge, or knowledge of men's characters 

 and wants, or of a power to direct men, there does undoubtedly 

 take place a struggle strictly analogous to that with which Dar- 

 winian science has familiarised us, the result being, as Mr. 

 Spencer's celebrated formula expresses it, the survival of the 

 fittest. Only it is not a struggle for existence, if the word 

 existence is taken to mean life ; it is a struggle for existence in a 

 position of rule or domination. It is, moreover, not a struggle 

 with the majority of the community, but with the minority only. 

 The fittest, the survivors, the winners, instead of depriving the 

 majority of the means of subsistence, on the contrary, increase 

 those means, and their unsuccessful rivals are defeated, not by 

 being deprived of the means of living, but only of the profits and 

 privileges that come from directing others. That there is a sub- 

 sidiary struggle amongst the majority, a struggle to obtain work, 

 not to direct work, is true, as has been said already ; but, as has 

 been said also, this is not the struggle which primarily either 

 causes the advance of civilisation or maintains such advances 

 as have been made. It contributes to these results, and how far 

 and in what way it does so will require to be discussed here- 

 after ; but it is not the principal, it is not the primary cause of 

 them. The primary cause is the struggle which causes the sur- 

 vival, not of the largest number of men of average capacity, but 

 of the largest number of men of exceptional capacity — the largest 

 number of great men." Thus, according to the argument, the 

 domination of the fittest is the true counterpart in the social 

 world of the survival of the fittest in the physiological world. 

 The Contemporary also contains a short paper by Mr. Herbert 

 Spencer, on the development of the architect, the paper being 

 the ninth of a series on " Professional Institutions." The view 

 is taken that " the earliest architecture bequeathed by ancient 

 nations was an outcome of ancestor- worship." 



In Science Pi-ogress, Dr. H. E. Armstrong describes " The 

 Plan of Research in Education," and makes a powerful plea 

 for scientific teaching and scientific research, both on account of 

 education and industrial progress. Prof. F. O. Bower discusses 

 recent work on mosses and ferns, with special reference to 

 Prof. Campbell's volume on the subject ; Mr. J. W. Rodger 

 continues his statement of "The New Theory of Solutions" ; 

 Mr. Philip Lake describes " The Geology of Egypt " ; and Mr. 

 G. T. Holloway traces " The Evolution of the Thermometer." 



A brief mention will suffice for the remaining articles in the 

 magazines received by us. Good Words has a short illustrated 

 paper on sponges, by the Rev. T. Bird, and one on "A School 

 of Mackerel," by Mr. Edward Step. The Strand Magazine has 

 several splendid reproductions from photographs of frost patterns 

 on window-panes, obtained by Mr. James Lead beater. The 

 Phonographic Quarterly Review always contains two or three 

 scientific articles. The current number has in it " In a Canadian 

 Forest," by General Sir Charles Wilson, K.C.B., F.R.S. " St. 

 Bartholomew and his Hospital," by Dr. W. R. Gowers, F.R.S. , 

 and several other articles of interest to scientific phonographers. 

 The Fortnightly has an article on ' ' The Climate of South Africa," 

 by Dr. R. Roose ; and among the information articles in 



