May 17, 1894] 



NA TURE 



61 



the assistance of Association grants belong to the Association. 

 Instruments purcliised by means of grants must be returned to 

 the General Secretaryon the conclusion of the research in further- 

 ance of which the grant was made. The Council of the As- 

 sociation are also prepared to receive applications for one of the 

 three Research Scholarship; which is vacant, of the value of 

 ;f 150 per annum, tenable for one year, and subject to renewal 

 by the Council for another year. 



A LECTURE on "Recent Discoveries at Koptos," with illus 

 trations, will be delivered by Prof. Flinders Petrie at University 

 College, Gower Street, on Saturday, May 26, at 2 p.m. These 

 discoveries include the long-sought rise of Egyptian art, and 

 the prehistoric remains of the race on entering Egypt. The 

 lecture will be free to the public without ticket. 



At the annual general meeting of the British Ornithologists' 

 Union, held on Wednesday, the 9th inst.. Lord Lilford was re- 

 elected President, and Mr. F. D. Godman Secretary, for the 

 ensuing year, and Lieut. -Colonel L. H. Irby and Mr. W. T. 

 Blanford, F.R.S., were placed on the committee in lieu of two 

 retiring members. It was agreed that a new (seventh) series of 

 The Ibis should be commenced in 1S95 with the thirty-seventh 

 volume, and that Dr. P. L Sclater, F.R.S., and Mr. Howard 

 Saunders should be appointed as joint editors of it. 



It is impossible to speak too highly of the part taken by the 

 Smithsonian Institution in dilTusing knowledge. Not the least 

 important of the methods adopted to make the works of men 

 of science known unto the ends of the world, is the inclusion of 

 miscellaneous reprints of memoirs in the annual reports of the 

 Institution. A report just received shows the operations, 

 expenditures, and condition of the Institution in 1S92, and con- 

 tains an appendix of the kind referred to. Therefore it is useful 

 and interesting to all engaged in the promotion of knowledge. 

 Of the thirty-three papers appended to the report, six have 

 been reprinted from Nature, and, we need scarcely say, proper 

 acknowledgment of the source is given in each case. There are 

 several translations of important papers, amDng them being 

 Prof. J. A. Palmen's report on the migration of birds, presented 

 to the second International Ornithological Congress in Budapest 

 in 1891 ; and translated extracts from an ornithological essay on 

 the flight of bird-, by M. L. P. Mouillard, published in Paris 

 in 1881 under the title " L'F^npire de r-\ir." Other coniribu- 

 tions calling for special mention refer to the geological history 

 of the Yellowstone Park, Mr. W. Woodville RockhiU's 

 explorations in Mongolia and Thibet, and the progress of 

 astronomy during 1891 and 1S92. 



The recent publication of several important works has brought 

 into prominence the subject of.the theo yof lunctions. Those who 

 are interested in this branch of mathematical science will there- 

 fore be glad to know that Messrs. M.iyer and Miiller, of Berlin, 

 intend to publish, in about eight volumes, the collected papers 

 of Herr Karl Weierstrass, who has been termed the creator of 

 the modern theory of functions. The work will be issued under 

 the auspices of the Koniglich Preussischen Akademie der 

 Wisscnschaften, and it is with the sanction of Prof. Weierstrass 

 himself that this edition of his collected mathematical works is 

 allowed to see the li^ht. Messrs. Mayer and Muller rightly 

 ground the importance of this publication on the name of the 

 author. The first part is to contain memoirs already published, 

 or which are ready for publication, in three volumes, the papers 

 being primed in chronological order. The series is to open with 

 "the development of the modular functions" which was pre 

 sented to the I'nifung's-Commission at Miin-ter in 184I. This 

 part also contains the Braunsberg School programme, the funda- 

 mental importance of which in the theory of the Abelian 

 functions is well known. The second part is to consist of five 

 volumes, and will include the greater part of the lectures 



NO. I 28 I, VOL. 50] 



delivered in the University of Berlin. In the first volume of 

 this part is the lecture based on "the Theory of the Elliptic 

 Functions," which was delivered for the first and only time in 

 the Professor's sixtieth year (cf. Forsyth, cap. v.-vii. ) The 

 theory is here established on Euler's Addition-thearem. The 

 lecture closes with an application to several geometrical and 

 mechanical problems. A later volume contains "the general 

 Elliptic Transcendents," as well as a detailed discussion on the 

 transformation of elliptic functions. The theory of the 

 Abelian functions occupies the remaining volumes, one of which 

 is devoted to a special discussion of the theory of the so-called 

 hyperelliptic functions. The lectures are to be edited by a former 

 pupil of Prof. Weierstrass, who, however, will himself super- 

 vise the publication. The work is to come out in quarto 

 volumes, and great care is to be bestowed on their production. 

 It is expected that all the volumes will be issued in a few years. 



Prof. W. C. Mackenzie, of the College of Agriculture, 

 Ghizeh, has sent us some interesting information with regard 

 to the existence of nitrate of soda in Egypt. It appears 

 that the natives of Upper Egypt, from Keneh to Esneh, 

 are in the habit of carrying a substance called " tafl," from 

 the hills on the east side of the river, to manure their 

 fields, especially the maize crop. That this was done 

 seems to have been well enough known to many people in the 

 habit of spending some time there, but beyond a casual know- 

 ledge of the fact that the "tafl" was used as a manure, no 

 further interest seems to have been taken. What the valuable 

 ingredient was, does not seem to have been known, and the name 

 " tafl " was used indi-criminately for clay for pottery and clay 

 for manure. Analyses of several samples of this substance showed, 

 however, that they contained nitrate of soda from 2 per cent, to 

 185, mixed with varying proportions of chloride and sulphate, 

 as well as calcium carbonate and clay. Further examinations 

 of other samples did not show such a high percentage, the 

 lichest containing only 4 per cent. Prof. Mackenzie visited the 

 deposit in the hills east from Luxor, and some eight miles dis- 

 tant from the town across the desert, and there found the "tafl " 

 right on the face of a limestone hill, apparently cropping out of 

 the rock. Samples taken at difl'erent heights gave percentages 

 varying from 2 to 9"5 of nitrate of soda. On sending in a report 

 about this nitrate, Nubar Pasha, the present Prime Minister, 

 arranged to send up Mr. E. A. Floyer and Prof. Sickenberger 

 10 investigate the whole question, and endeavour to estimate 

 the quantity. The investigation will no doubt throw consider- 

 able light on the orgin of this curious occurrence of nitrate. 

 Prof. Mackenzie thinks that the idea that the clay has simply 

 acted as an absorbent for nitrates got from accumulations of 

 potsherds, &c., does not seem possible, for at Luxor there is no 

 evidence of this whatever, the deposit of nitrate-bearing clay 

 being at the foot of a limestone cliff, and no appearance of 

 potsherds anywhere. He believes that more jirobably caves or 

 swallow-holes in the limestone cliffs have collected clay and 

 organic matter from the river, and the nitrification of this 

 organic matter has produced the nitrate where it is now found. 

 Messrs. Floyer and Sickenberger's report will, however, no 

 doubt clear this point up. 



Among the shorter contributions in the May number of the 

 Psycliological A'ft'iew is one by Prof. W. O. Krohn on the rela- 

 tion of sensation areas to movement. He had the opportunity 

 of testing the sensitivity of the skin of a man who ha I had his 

 left forearm enc.\sed in a plaslerof-paris case for a period of 

 three months. During this entire period the forearm could not 

 be moved either at the wrist or at the elbo*. Prof. Krohn 

 compared the sensitiveness of the skin of the uninjured right 

 forearm with that of the left forearm of the same person, after 

 the plaster case had been removed, by meais of the usual 



