November i, 1894] 



NATURE 



21 



The Cambridge University Press has published a second edition, 

 in two parts, of Mr. Smith's work. Evidently the book has 

 met with the reception it deserves. 



The importance of experimental work is fully recognised in 

 the agricultural department of the Glasgow and West of Scot- 

 land Technical College. We have before us the reports on ex- 

 periments on the manuring of hay, oats, and turnips, conducted 

 in 1893 on the Home Farm of Cleghorn Estate, near Lanark, 

 and on about fifty other farms scattered all over the south- 

 western counties of Scotland. Prof. R. P. Wright, who 

 directed the experiments, must derive satisfaction from the 

 useful conclusions to which they have led. 



The first part of Mr. J. W. Taylor's " Monograph of the 

 Land and Fresh-water Molluscs of the British Isles," published 



by Messrs. Taylor Bros., Sovereign Street, Leeds, has just 

 appeared. It would be difficult to speak too highly of the fine 

 coloured plate which forms the frontispiece to the part, or of 

 the 138 well-drawn illustrations in the text. These figures will 

 be recognised by all conchologists as faithful representations of 

 the species they personify. The work is readable, concise, and 

 accurate, so far as it has been published, and the scientific 

 naturalist, as well as the systematic student, will find it useful 



and interesting. 



Mr. R. L. Jack, the Government Geologist of Queensland, 

 has issued his report of the progress of the geological survey for 

 last year. We learn from it that the most important work of 

 the year was the production of a geological map of the Ch arters 

 Towers gold field. The first edition of this map was issued 

 early in the present year, and Mr. Jack does not claim too much 

 when he says that no important centre of mining industry in 

 Australia his been so thoroughly mapped. The underground 

 work has now been completed, and it is expected that a second 

 edition, embodying this work, will shortly be published. With 

 Mr. Jack's report we received a report, by Mr. W. H. Rands, 

 on the Towalla and Marceba gold fields. 



Within the past few years the number of students and 

 workers in glacial geology has greatly increased. The third 

 edition of Prof. James Geikie's " Great Ice Age," just published 

 by Mr. Edward Stanford, appeals therefore to a much larger 

 class than when the previous issue appeared seventeen years 

 ago. The work has been enlarged, and most of it has been 

 rewritten. The mass of glacial literature that has accumulated 

 during the last fifteen years or so, has rendered it possible for 

 the author to treat the glacial, and interglaclal, deposits of the 

 continent much more fully than in the second edition. The 

 phenomena of existing glacial action in Alpine and .Vrctic re- 

 gions, and the glaciation of Scotland, have been revised in the 

 light of recent work, and several rearrangements of matter 

 have been made. An important addition consists of two chapters 

 on the glacial phenomena of North America, by Prof. T. C. 

 Chamberlin. All glacialists will welcome this authoritative 

 account of the glacial accumulations of Canada and the United 

 States. It increases the value of what has always been a 

 valuable treatise. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Barbary Ape (Macacu! iniius), a Turtle 

 Dove ('J'u)iur comiiiunii), four Barbary Turtle Doves (Turlur 

 risoritis], four Bubary Partridges {Caccabis pilrosa), a Crested 

 Lark {Alauc/a crislala) from Morocco, presented by Mr. 

 Alfred J. Gosling; a Caracal {Felis caracal), from South 

 Africa, presented by Mr. J. E. Matcham ; a Brown Capuchin 

 (Ccliiis faliicllia) from Guiana, presented by Mr. T. A. 

 Jenkins ; a Common Buzzard {Buleo vulgaris) from Aden, 

 presented by Captain R. Workman ; a Lanner Falcon {Falco 

 laiiariiis), captured at sea, presented by Mr. Arthur J. Elliott ; 

 a Ilawks-biUed Turtle [Clulone imbricala) from the East 



NO. 1305, VOL. 51J 



Indies, presented by Captain E. F. Tyacke ; two Long-nosed 

 Crocodiles (Crocodilus cataphractes) from West Africa, presented 

 by Mr. J. Banks Elliott, three Rusa Deer(C<rrr'«; hippelaphut, 

 (599) from Mauritius, presented by Rear-.\dmiral Kennedy ; 

 two Somili Ostriches {Slruthio molybdophanes) from Somaliland, 

 purchased ; four Plumed Ground Doves (Gcophaps pluinifera) 

 from Australia, received in exchange. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



The Spectrum of 5 Cephei.— M. A. Belopokky has 

 taken a number of photographs of the spectrum of J Cephei — 

 a variable of short period — and determined from them the 

 velocity of the star in the line of sight. The results obtained 

 showed a periodic variation, and M. Belopolsky used them to 

 find the elemen's of the star's orbit, in the manner described 

 by Dr. Lehmann-Filhcs in the Astronomische NcKchrichUn, 

 No. 3242 (see Nature, August 2, p. 327). He finds that the 

 eccentricity of the orbit is 046 ; and the apparent semi-major 

 axis 180,000 geographical miles (207,000 English miles). The 

 period of the star is 5d. gh. The maximum velocity of ap- 

 proach is about 2 8 statute miles per second, and of recession 

 3'2 miles per second. The system, as a whole, is therefore 

 moving away from our own system. It is found that the light- 

 minimum occurs one day before the time of periastron passage 

 given by the computed elements of the orbi'. 



The Rotation of Venus. — For eight years M. Flam- 

 marion has carried on observations of the polar caps of Venus, 

 and, in the current Comptei-rendus, he discusses the bearing 

 of his results upon the question of the planet's period of rota- 

 tion. It will be remembered that Schiaparelli concluded in 1890 

 that the rotation and revolution periods of Venus were of the 

 same length, viz. 225 days ; but later observations by Trou- 

 velot and others have led many astronomers to doubt this inter- 

 pretation, and 10 believe that the rotation period of the planet 

 is not very different from that of the earth. M. Flammarion 

 remarks that if it is conceded that the polar caps are really due 

 to snow or ice, their very existence is against Schiaparelli's view. 

 As the two caps are cfcen visible at the same time, it appears 

 that the axis of Venus is but slightly inclined to the orbit. 

 M. Flammarion's observations of markings on the planet are 

 not sufficient to determine the period of rotation, but they 

 appear to indicate that it is not far removed from twenty-four 

 hours. 



The Lowe Observatory. — A few particulars with regard 

 to the new astronomical ohservaiory, which has lately been 

 erected in Southern California by Prof. T. S. C. Lowe, are given 

 in Saturday's Times. The observatory is seven miles by rail 

 north of Pasadena, and sixteen miles north-east of Los .-Vngeles. 

 Its altitude is about 3600 feet above the sea, and 2000 feet aoove 

 the hill at the base of the mountains, which are s'ery steep at 

 this point. While the crest of the range rises high above the 

 observatory and shelters it on the north, leaving, however, the 

 North Star visible, the entire southern horizon is unobstructed, 

 extending to the rim of a large segment of the Pacific Ocean, 

 about 100 miles distant, on the south and west. Astronomically, 

 it is nearly at the inierseciion of the 34ih parallel of north 

 latitude wiih the liSih meridian of liin.;itude west of Green- 

 wich. The new observatory is well equipped with the great 

 16-inch Clark leflector and other instruments which have done 

 notable work in the Warner Observatory at Rochester under 

 the directorship of Dr. Lewis Swift, who will now superintend 

 the Lov\e Observatory. 



The Mean Parallax ok Stars. — In the Aslroiwmische 

 Nachrichlen, No. 325S, Prof. Hugo Gylden gives the results of 

 his attempts to discover a formula coniieciiiig the )urallax of a 

 star with its magnitude and its apparent motion. The fifty-six 

 stars which have had their parallaxes determined with a satis- 

 factory degree of accuracy were arranged in groups according to 

 their magnitude and according to their apparent motion. 

 Alter a lengthy series of tentative foruiuhc, the observed values 

 were connected within about ten per cent, by the following 

 formula, 



P = o"-204 e -o-2'3'"> '*'"' 



(m 

 -J "//( is the magnitude, and P the parallax 

 of stars exhibiting no proper motion. For stars with 



