57i 



NA TURE 



[October i i, 1894 



characters : it will be capable of forming an oxide RO3 ; its 

 hydride, if it exists, will be even more unstable than tellurium 

 hydride ; its compounds will be easily reduced ; it will form 

 definite alloys with metals ; and have the specific gravity of 

 about 93. Since then Prof. W. Preyer, in his "Genetisches 

 System der chemischen Elemente," Berlin, 1S93, p. 100, 

 among unknown elements, gives one in the sulphur group, thus 

 predicted by Mendelcef. He goes into further details, repre- 

 senting the atomic weight as 213 ; specific gravity, 86 ; atomic 

 volume, 247 ; specific heat, 0*03 ; electro-negative, divalent, 

 diamagnetic. 



A. Griinwald (HI. 1891, 5, p. 21) appears to have seen the 

 spectrum of this element, whilst observing spectra of tellurium, 

 copper and antimony. 



Norweglum is considered by some chemists to be this missing 

 element ; Dr. Preyer is not of that opinion, regarding the 

 claims of norwegium to be considered an element to be 

 insufficiently supported. 



In consideration of Dr. Brauner's work on the atomic weight 

 of tellurium, and the priority of his suggestion of the existence 

 of an accompanying element of higher atomic weight, coupled 

 with his excellent work generally in furthering the claims of the 

 Periodic Law (notably in the cases of beryllium and of ihe 

 cerium, lanthanum and didymium series), I would suggest that 

 this new element, when isolated from its close union with 

 tellurium, be called Bohemium, in his honour. 



C. T. Blansiiard. 



I 



Bright Meteors. 



A PRETTY bright meteor crossed the eastern sky here on 

 Saturday evening last, at about 7.54 p.m. I saw only the flash 

 of light which it cast on the ground and in the sky towards the 

 east, like a momentary weak red flash of lightning. "A 

 shooting-star," said a bystander close 10 me, who saw it fairly 

 well, and who gave me, roughly, this description, by the stars, 

 of its apparent course : From about R.A. 340°, Decl. -f 25°, to 

 about 336', -t- 12°. It described this course o( 12' in about a 

 second, and was red in colour, and broke up at last with a red 

 (lash, leaving no train of light or of sparks along the track 

 which it had traversed, so long as for a second or two in which 

 I had lime to look towards the direction where he pointed. 

 Tree-tops intercepted his view beyond the point of this disrup- 

 tion, but the light's sudden extinction there made a much 

 further extension of the track unlikely. 



About an hour afterwards, at about 8.49 p.m., I chanced to 

 see another rather fine shootingslar, of about the brightness and 

 colour of the planet Mars at present, descending some 16' 

 or 18° across the norihern sky in one and ahalf or two 

 seconds, from R.A. 47°, Decl. -^ 70°, to 100° + 69', beginning 

 and disappearing rather suddenly, and of nearly uniformly 

 bright appearance all along its course. It projected no sparks, 

 and, like the earlier meteor, left no train of light or enduring 

 sparks along its track to mark its course. 



Prolonged backwards the apparent piths of these two meteors 

 diverge from near a Cassiopeia:, and it may perhaps be 

 that a sbo»er of bri.;ht, ruddy meteors from the direction of 

 Cassiopeia was in progress on that date, of which the two 

 meteors here described may have been bright enough members 

 to have been generally noted. The above otiscrvations, although 

 those of the brighter meteor are only of rather slender accuracy, 

 will perhaps be useful, in that case, to serve for comparison with 

 other records which, at least of the larger meteor of the two, 

 inay not impossibly have been noted and preseived elsewhere. 



A. S. Herschel. 



Observatory House, Slough, October i. 



Tan-Spots over Dogs' Eyes. 



Can any of your readers explain the meaning of the Ian- 

 spots seen so commonly over the eyes in black-and-tan dogs of 

 moit breeds? 



When in Melbourne last year, I went carefully over all the 

 dogs in a show, with one of the stewards, and we found the 

 spots in all the black-.and-tan terriers, foxhounds, dcerhounds, 

 colliet, luichers, iS:c. ; but I could get no infoiniation regard- 

 ing them from the experts. 



In some of Ihe higliiy-bred toy dogs, as the small black-and- 

 Ian terriers, I found on inquiry that these Si>ots, formerly so 



NO. 1302, VOL. 50] 



very conspicuous, were being bred out, and had nearly dis- 

 appeared. Their persistence through so many strongly-marked 

 varieties, except those of late date, is singular, for there is 

 fairly good proof that when first douieslicated the dog was 

 red or bright brown, like the pariah, dingo, &c. 



As far as I can see, we do not find the spots white on a black 

 or dark ground ; nor yet black or dark on a white or light 

 ground. My explanation is that they have arisen as a per- 

 manent marking after the dogs "sported" to black under 

 domestication, and have been preserved and developed 

 through natural selection. Possibly they are protective, and 

 simulate eyes. 



One morning, just at dawn, I had occasion to go out into the 

 garden, and while stooping to examine some flowers, near a 

 fence partly covered with creepers, I suddenly saw an animal's 

 head looking through, and what seemed to be two black, 

 and seemingly large, eyes glared at me. Suspecting that a 

 black leopard was about to spring over, I started back, clapped 

 my hands, and shouted. To my relief, however, I saw a tail 

 wag, and found that the spectator was a coolie's dog I knew 

 very well, and which recognised me. The use of the tan- 

 spots — in this case at least — ihen occurred to me. 



May it not be that the spots thus serve a protective purpose, 

 and have often saved the lives of dogs (black dogs) from their 

 enemies, the smaller felines, such as the clouded leopard, &c.? 

 Perhaps the matter is not new ; but if it is, it seems worth 

 looking into. 



I have several dogs about here now with black bodies and 

 heads ; the tan-spots, rather pale, are of the size of a shilling. I 

 have shot one, keeping the skin of the head as a curiosity. 



Sibsagar, Asani, September 7. S. E. Peal. 



Flight of the Albatross. 



At the request of several friends, I enclose, for your inspec- 

 tion, a snap-shot of a northern albatross, which I took en roult 

 from Victoria, British Columbia, to San Francisco. 



The photograph gives the bird in a position in which the 

 human eye is incap.able of seeing it. Strangely enough, the flight 

 of the bird which I photographed had been during the whole 

 course of the morning the subject of much discussion : none of us 

 could imagice how the force which enabled it to fly at such 



great speed was generated. I remembered having seen some 

 discussion in ihe papers on the subject, and slated that the 

 matter ha<l been settled to Ihe satisfaction of scientific people, 

 and dill my best to explain ihc theory. 



I chose ihe moment for my photograph when the I ird was 

 about fifteen feet from the camera, and sailing alongside of 

 Ihe steamer. The sirelcli of Ihc wings w.as cstimaled by the 



