January 30, 1896] 



NA TURE 



305 



M. C. E. Guillaume, and "Nouvelles determinations des 

 metres etalons du Bureau international," by the same authors. 



We have received the 22nd and 23rd Annual Reports of the 

 Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota (for 1893 

 and 1894). Among the contents of the latter are a criticism on 

 the late Dr. G. H. Williams's explanation of the Archtcan 

 greenstones, by N. H. Winchell ; a preliminary report on the 

 gold region of Rainy Lake, by H. V. Winchell and U. S. 

 Grant ; an historical sketch of Lake Superior mining, by H. V. 

 Winchell ; and a study of the late Cilacial earth-movements 

 of the St. Lawrence basin, by Warren Upham. Geologists 

 will be interested to know of the issue of an official " List 

 of Publications" of the Geological Survey of Canada (Ottawa : 

 1895), which includes all reports, with their separate contents, 

 maps, and certain papers on Canadian geology, reprinted from 

 various publications. 



The ninth annual report of the Liverpool Marine Biology 

 Committee contains an account of much useful work done at the 

 Port Erin Station during the past year. (l) In his consideration 

 of the submarine deposits of the Irish Sea, Prof. Herdman 

 suggests the recognition of a neritic group of deposits in addition 

 to the pelagic and terrigenous deposits defined by Murray. The 

 neritic deposits are largely organic in origin, formed from the 

 remains of plants and animals living on the bottom, and so differ 

 on the one hand from the terrigenous deposits derived from the 

 waste of land, and on the other from the deep-sea varieties due 

 chiefly to the accumulation of the remains of pelagic organisms. 



(2) So far as experiments with drift-bottles have been able to 

 show, the prevailing currents on the west of the Isle of Man 

 seem to be towards the Irish coast, and on the east towards the 

 Lancashire, Cheshire, and Cumberland coasts ; these observa- 

 tions are interesting on account of the existence of flat-fish 

 spawning grounds in the neighbourhood of the Manx coast. 



(3) The report also furnishes additional evidence in favour of the 

 Darwinian view that closely-related species are not, as a rule, 

 found together. In addition to the investigations on these 

 general problems, the report includes various contribulions_.in 

 regard to the local fauna. 



The 1896 edition of that very comprehensive volume, the 

 "Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes," has now been issued. 

 To say that no year-book is of greater service to astronomers 

 and physicists than this " Annuaire," is but to record the opinion 

 of all workers in the domain of physical science. The present 

 edition has been brought thoroughly into line with recent know- 

 ledge. M. Lcewy has added a brief note on the proper motion 

 of the sun, and the apex of the sun's way. M. Cornu con- 

 tributes two new notes— one on the bright lines in the spectrum 

 of the chromosphere recently identified with those of terrestrial 

 substances, and the other on the identification of lines in stellar 

 spectra. The list of minor planets has been brought up to 416 ; 

 and some changes have been made in the list of double-star 

 orbits. M. Moureaux gives the values of the magnetic elements 

 determined at 644 points in France ; and M. Cornu contributes 

 new chapters on specific heats, and on the latent heats of fusion 

 and vaporisation of water. Among the articles, we notice one 

 on action at a distance and waves, and another on Fresnel's 

 works, both by M. Cornu ; and there is also an article on 

 the proposed magnetic survey of the earth, by Captain de 

 Bernardieres ; and an account, by M. Janssen, of his third ascent 

 to the observatory on the top of Mont Blanc. 



Messrs. Dulau and Co. have made arrangements to publish 

 a work on "The Coccidae of Ceylon," by Mr. E. E. Green. All 

 the species at present recognised in Ceylon, including several 

 new genera and numerous new species, will be described, and 

 illustrated by 120 coloured plates. The work will be published 

 in four parts, for which Messrs. Dulau are now inviting sub- 

 NO. 1370, VOL. 53] 



scriptions. In the prospectus announcing the proposed pub- 

 lication is an inset, in which the opinion of members of the B.A. 

 committee on the Coccidee of Ceylon is set forth. It is there 

 pointed out that what is known of the distribution of this 

 cosmopolitan group justifies the belief that many of the new 

 species from Ceylon described by Mr. Green will prove, as 

 inquiry advances, to be world-wide. The Committee therefore 

 recommend the work to the consideration of subscribers, 

 believing that it " will be of great assistance to gardeners and 

 to naturalists generally, and of considerable value to those 

 engaged in economic entomology or in the management of 

 plantations in any part of the world, as well as to systematic 

 entomologists and morphologists." 



Several new editions of scientific works have lately been 

 received. Messrs. E. and F. N. Spon have published the third 

 edition of Prof. J. H. Cotterill's classic volume on " The Steam 

 Engine considered as a Thermodynamic Machine." A few slight 

 changes and additions have been made in the appendix, but the 

 book has been practically reprinted without substantial altera- 

 tion. The eleventh edition of " Discoveries and Inventions of 

 the Nineteenth Century," by Mr. Robert Routledge, has been 

 published by Messrs. G. Routledge and Sons. The text has 

 been emended, and the volume has been enlarged by a few pages 

 of notes, and by new sections dealing with some of the engineer- 

 ing achievements and scientific discoveries of the last five years. 

 The final part (vol. iii. part iv.) of the tenth edition of " Quain's 

 Elements of Anatomy" (Longmans, Green, and Co.), edited by 

 Profs. Schiifer and Thane, has now appeared. Its subject is 

 Splanchnology ; the anatomical descriptions belonging to which 

 have been revised, and in many cases rewritten, by Dr. J. Syming- 

 ton, while the histological portion has been re-edited by Prof. 

 Schafer. It is proposed to issue a chapter on superficial 

 anatomy, in the form of an appendix to the work. The fourth 

 ecition has been issued of Mr. W. T. Lynn's slender book on 

 " Remarkable Comets." From the useful list of the dates of the 

 returns of interesting comets, we see that, in the spring of this 

 year, Faye's comet (period 7^ years) is due, and in the spring or 

 summer, Brook's comet (period 7 years). All the information in 

 the book has been carefully brought up to date. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during 

 the past week include a Black- faced Kangaroo {Macropus 

 melanops, 9 ) from Australia, presented by Mr. E. Mitchell ; a 

 Himalayan Bear ( £//-j«j tibetanus, 9 ) from Upper Burmah, pre- 

 sented by Captain Gale ; a Slow Loris {Nycticebtis tardigradtts) 

 from Upper Burmah, presented by Captain J. W. Carrothers ; 

 a Salt-water TQxx?i.^\x\.{Clemtnys ierrapin) from the West Indies, 

 presented by Mr. J. Lea Smith; Seven Galliot's Lizards 

 {Lacerta gaUoti), a Delalande's Gecko ( Tarentola delalandii) 

 from Madeira and Tenerife, presented by Mr. H. B. Hewet- 

 son, two Indian Jerboas [Alactaga indica) from Baluchistan, 

 purchased. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 

 The Double Star 70 Ophiuchi.— -Of the numerous orbits 

 which have been computed for this well-known double star, that 

 derived by Dr. Schur in 1893 is perhaps entitled to greatest 

 confidence. Nevertheless, even in the short interval which has 

 since elapsed, Dr. See finds that th.e companion is several 

 degrees in advance of the theoretical position based on Schur's 

 orbit. In explanation of this, as well as of other departures from 

 the orbit which appear on close investigation. Dr. See suggests 

 that the companion is attended by a dark satellite, moving in a 

 retrograde direction with a period of about thirty-six years, the 

 period of the visible pair being a little less than ninety years. 

 The distance of the companion from the centre of gravity of 

 itself and satellite is probaljly about o"-3 ; and a circular orbit 

 with node and inclination identical with the similar elements of 

 the visible pair sufficiently explains the observed changes of 

 position angle and distance. Adopting the parallax o'''2, the 



