1 84 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[August, 1904. 



tory of the new theory. When its vital cycle has been 

 complete, the crystal then becomes old and is i'ossilised. 

 It is then inert." 



What is the origin of the little globules whence, 

 as has been stated above, all crystals arise -^ Have they 

 germs or seeds of some kind ? \'on Schrcin thinks not. 

 He regards the inception of the crystal as real 

 spontaneous generation. Al. di Brazza, however, 

 criticises this attitude. He asks : 



" Why can we not ascribe to the molecule, this in- 

 finitely small constituent part of things, the primary 

 generative faculties and substitute for the formula; of 

 Redi and \"ircho\v* a new one : Oiniic viviitn ex mulccida 

 [all life from the molecule]? " 



This hypothesis the writers submitted to \'on Schion, 

 who reallirms his belief that the crystal has absolutely 

 no pre-existing nucleus, molecular or other, in the solu- 

 tion in which it arises.! 



* Omnc cclhda c cclluld. 



t Professor Von Schriin remarked in his earlier papers that in 

 the preparation and development of bacilli four products were 

 evolved. They were — i., a colourless liquid which forms the envelope 

 about the spore-forming bacillus; ii., gas; lii., irregular masses of 

 albumen; iv., crystals. 



(Dbituary. 



DR. ISAAC ROBERTS. F.R..S. 



It is with exceeding regret that wc have to record the sudden 

 death on Sunday, July 17, of Isaac Roberts, U.Sc. (Dublin), 

 F.R.S., F.R.A.S. There is no need to tell the readers of 

 " Knowledge " of the contributions which Dr. Roberts made 

 to the science of astronomy by his photographs of stars, 

 clusters, nebulae, and comets. Many of these he published in 

 its pages, and his last contribution— three beautitul presenta- 

 tions of Comet Borelly (c 1903)— in the October number of 

 last year, must be fresh in the minds of all. Since iSyo he 

 devoted himself almost entirely to astronomy at his residence, 

 Starfield, Crowborough, where he built an observatory, 

 equipped with a 20-inch reflector and a 5-inch Cooke refractor. 

 In earlier years he had also made a study of geology, and was 

 elected a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1S70. In 1SS2 

 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society ; 

 he served on its Council for some years, and was awarded its 

 gold medal in 1895 for his astronomical researches. In 1S90 

 he was elected a h'ellow of the Royal Society, and in 1892 the 

 University of Dublin conferred on him the hon. degree of 

 Doctor of Science. In October, igoi, he married Mdlle. 

 Dorothea Khnnpke, D.-es-Sc, who had previously been head of 

 the Bureau for measuring the plates of the International Cata- 

 logue in llu: National Uljservatory at Paris. In 1893 and 1899 

 he publislicd two volumes of photographs of star-clusters and 

 nebuhe, photographs which, if his work is continued, will 

 afford ere long evidence of the nature of the changes which 

 are going on in the stellar universe. Dr. Roberts was born 

 in 1829. 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM NOBLE. F.R.A.S. 



English astronomy h.is sutfcred a very grievous loss in the 

 death of Captain William \ol)lc, of Forest Lodge, Maresfield, 

 L'ckfield, Surrey. He was l)orn in 1828, and for some years 

 was a member of the Rifle Brigade, .ind after his retirement 

 from the service he took an active interest in the politics and 

 business of his county, l)eing a Justice of the Peace for many 

 years before his death. He took a great interest in many 

 scientific subjects, but liis chief pursuit was astronomy, and he 

 was elected a l'"cllovv of the Royal Astronomical Society on 

 June 8, 1855, and served on its Council with but short inter- 



missions from 1867 until 1902. He was an original member of 

 the British Astronomical Association, was its first President, 

 serving from 1890 to 1892, and contributed largely to its success. 

 He conmiunicated many papers to the " Monthly Notices" of 

 the Royal Astronomical Society, to the "Journal" of the 

 British Astronomical Association, to the " Observatory," to 

 " Knowledge," and to the " English Mechanic." To thelast 

 periodical he contributed for many years a fortnightly letter, 

 under the signature of a " Fellow of the Royal Astronomical 

 Society." He had also the author of " Half-Hours with a 

 3-inch Telescope," a book of great practical value and aid to 

 amateurs beginning a study of the Moon and planets. He 

 was himself a good observer, and his drawings ot Jupiter and 

 Mars and of portions of the Moon are both truthful and 

 accurate. He was a most engaging personality. It was not 

 only that he took an interest m astronomy and the work of 

 astronomers, but he manifested his interest in a breezy and 

 genial fashion. He had always ready to help by word or 

 letters the novice in the science that he himself loved. His 

 death took place on Saturday, July 9, 1904. 



PROFESSOR THEODOR BREDICHIN. 



Professor Theodor Bredichin died on May 14, 1904, after 

 a short illness. Russia has lost in him her most eminent astron- 

 omer and the one who has had most influence on the develop- 

 ment of astronomy, both as Professor and as Director, success- 

 ively, of the two largest Russian observatories — Moscow and 

 Pulkowo. He was born on December 8, 1830, in Nicolaieff, 

 and was educated first at the Richelieu Lyceum in Odessa, 

 and then in the University of Moscow. He was elected Pro- 

 fessor of Astronomy at the University in 1857, and in 1873 

 was made Director of its observatory. Here he initiated 

 observations of stellar spectra, of the places of stars, and the 

 determination of gravity through observations of pendulums. 

 But bis great work was his research on the forms of comets 

 with which was connected his theory of meteors. In i8go he 

 succeeded O. Struve as Director of the great Pulkowo Obser- 

 vatory, and here he remained until 1894, when be resigned 

 his Directorate and retired to Petersburg to pursue his comet- 

 ary investigations. He was elected a foreign Associate of the 

 Royal Astronomical Society in 1884. 



At the Royal Society's conversazione was exhibited 

 a little instrument devised by the Hon. K. J. Strutt 

 and called a radium electroscope, in which the de- 

 parture of negative ions from a speck of radium en- 

 closed in a scaled vacuum tube perpetually charges the 

 leaves of an electroscope also inside the sealed tube. 

 The action is probably not perpetual, but so long as 

 the radium lasts, say 30,000 years, the tiny leaves of 

 the electroscope will go on opening and shutting so 

 many times a minute, like a clock or a perpetiud motor. 

 But this spectacular form of motion is not the limit ol 

 the radium electroscope's potential activities. Mr. 

 Harrison Glew has devised an arrangement by which 

 the periodical discharges of the electroscope, when the 

 lea\ es touch the side of the sealed glass tube (in which 

 ;i w ire connects two inner coatings of zinc foil to earth), 

 rings a bell or prints a record of every contact of the 

 lea\es. Each discharge from the outside terminal of 

 zinc foil and wire, when the leaf strikes the inner foil, 

 is sullicient to ;ict on a " coherer " similar to that which 

 is used in wireless telegraphy. The "coherer," as in 

 a wireless telegraphic system, is put in a bell circuit, 

 and each time it is acted on, as it might lie acted on by 

 a train of Hertzian waves, it rings :i bell. In Mr. 

 'Glew's experiments, with a three milligrammes speck 

 of radium, the bell was rung every se\enty seconds. 

 Thus we might devise a perpetual " minute bell." 



