April i i. 1895^ 



NA TURE 



571 



(2) Instances in which any one of the above peculiarities has 

 appeared in the broods of diflereni parents. In replying lo this 

 question, it wil! be hardly worth while lo record the sudden 

 appearance of eiiher albinism or melanism, as both are well 

 known to be of frequent occurrence. 



Note. — The question is not asked now, whether such pecu- 

 liarities, or "sports, " may be accounted for by atavism or other 

 hypothetical cause. 



(3) Instances in which any of these peculiarly characterised 

 individuals have transmitted their peculiarities, hereditarily, to 

 one or more generations. Kspecial mention should be made, 

 whether the peculiarity was in any case transmitted in all its 

 original intensity, and numerical data would be particularly ac- 

 ceptable, that showed the frequency of its transmission (a) in an 

 undiluted form, {h) in one that was more or less diluted, and \c) 



i of its non-transmission in any perceptible degree.' 



It is impossible to exp'ain to a general nieeling the precise 

 way in which the desired facts would be utilised. An explana- 

 tion that would be sufficiently brief fur the purpose could not 

 be rendered intelligible except to those lew who are already 

 familiar with the evidence, and the technical treatment of it by 

 which the law of Regression is established, and with the con- 

 sequences and requirements of that law. Regressiveness and 

 stability are contrasted conditions, and neither of them can be 

 fully understood apart from the other. 



I may as well take this 0|)portunity of appending a list of my 

 various memoirs on these sul>jects. They appeared from time 

 to time in various forms as the inquiry progressed and as 

 suitable openings occurred for writing or speaking. TI.e more 

 important of these are Nos. I, 3, part of 6, 7, and S in the 

 following list. Nos. i to 5 refer to regression only. 



List of Memoirs, by Mr. F. Galton, o.n Regression 

 AND Organic Staihlity. 



(1) Typical Laws of Heredity. Journal ol the Royal In- 

 stitution, 1S77. (This was the first statement of the law of 

 Regression, as founded on a series of experiments with sweet 

 peas.) 



(2) Presidential Address, Anthropological Section of the 

 British Association, 18S5. (Here the law of Regression was 

 confirmed by anthropological observations.) 



(3) Regression towards Mediocrity in Family Stature. 

 Journal of the Anthropological Insttiute, 1885. (A revised 

 and illustrated reprint of No. 2.) 



(4) Family Likeness in Stature. Proc. Roy. Soc, 1886. 



(5) Family Likeness in Eye Colour. Proc. Roy. Soc, 1886. 



(6) Natural Inheritance. (Macmillan and Co., 1889.) (This 

 volume summarises the results of previous work.) 



(7) Patterns in Thumb and Finger Marks . . . and the 

 Resemblance of their Classes to Ordinary Genera. Phi!. 

 Trans. Roy. Soc, 1891. 



(8) Discontinuity in Evolution. Mind, 1894. (An article 

 on Mr. Bateson's work.) 



A NEW DETERMINATION OF THE OHM. 

 A yRE.SII determination of the value of the ohm in 

 ■'^ absolute measure has been made by F. Himstedt 

 (H'iedemaiin's .4nnalen, liv. p. 305). The method employed 

 is that which the author had used in a previous deter- 

 mination, and consists of passing through a galvanometer 

 all the make or break currents induced in a secondary 

 coil when the current in a long primary helix is interrupted 

 a known number of times per second. A known fraction 

 of the primary current is then passed through the same gal- 

 vanometer. The primary helix in these experiments consists 

 of a single layer ol uncovered copper wire, wound, by means 

 of a screw-cutting lathe, in a regular spiral on a glass cylinder. 

 The turns of wire are held in their place, and the insulation 

 improved, by being coated with shellac. As the mean of a 

 number of determinations, the author obtains the value lo6'28 

 cm. as the length of the column of mercury at o' C, having a 

 cross secli')n of one square millimetre, which has the resistance 

 of lo^'C.G.S. units. In connection with the above-described 

 experiments, the author has been led to measure some coeffi- 

 cients of self-induction, using for this purpose a modification 

 of the Rayleigh-Maxwell method. The great difficulty in 

 measuring a coefficient of self-induction by -this method is 



1 Written coinnniiiications should be addressed to F. Galton, .;2, Kutl.ind 

 Gate, London, S.W. 



NO. I -528, VOL 51] 



that, in order to get a throw of sufficient magnitude to be ac- 

 curately measured, it is necessary lo employ a somewhat strong 

 current. The result is that the temperature of the coil, the self- 

 induction of which is being measured, rises rapidly, and thus 

 the balance of the Wheatstone's bridge for steady currents is 

 upset. Herr Himstedt (;ets over this difficulty by using the 

 commutator, which he employs in his determination of the 

 ohm, to break the battery circuit a known number of times per 

 second, and to cut the galvanometer out of circuit while either 

 the mike or break is taking place. In this way a steady 

 deflection is obtained of sufficient magnitude to be readily 

 measured, even when the current employed is between 0001 

 and O-0O2 amperes. The above method only difTcrs from that 

 employed by Profs. Ayrton and Perry in their secohm-meter, in 

 that the author takes two separate readings, one with the bridge 

 balanced for steady currents, the other when the commutator is 

 working, instead of bringing the galvanometer deflector to zero 

 by upsetting the steady current balance. 



THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION REPORT 



FOR 1894. 

 \ TR. S. P. LANGLEY'S report of the operations of the 

 ■^ Smithsonian Institution for the year ending June 30, 



1894, has just reached this country, and it furnishes interesting 

 reading on a number of points relating to the U.S. National 

 Museum, the Bureau of Ethnology, the Bureau of International 

 Exchanges, the National Zoological Park, and the Astrophysical 

 Observatory. 



The total permanent funds of the Institution are now 911,000 

 dollars, and interest at the rate of 5 per cent, per annum is 

 allowed upon this by the Treasury, the interest alone being 

 used in carrying out the aims of the Institution. The total 

 receipts during the fiscal year covered by the Report amounted to 

 69,967 dollars, and the entire expenditure, including a sum of 

 eight thousand dollars added to the permanent fund, was 67,461 

 dollars. The Institution also disbursed the Treasury grants of 

 14,500 dollars for International Exchanges ; 40,000 dollars for 

 North American E'.hnology ; 154,000 dollars for the U.S. 

 National Museum ; 50,000 dollars for the National Zoological 

 Park ; and 9000 dollars for the Astro- Physical Observatory. 



It appears to be an essential portion of the original scheme 

 of the government of the Ins' itution that its secretary should be 

 expected to advance knowledge, whether in letters or in science, 

 by personal research ; but the increasing demands of time for 

 labours of administration has greatly limited the possibility of 

 doing this. Mr. Langley has, however, found time to continue 

 his researches upon the solar spectrum (see Nature, Novem- 

 ber I, 1S94). This work, carried on in the Astro- Physical 

 Ofiservatory, is certainly of more than common importance. 

 His investigations upon aerodynamics have also been con- 

 tinued intermittently. They are not complete, but they appear 

 to poini to conclusions ol general and unusual interest. 



A widespread interest seems to have been awakened in the 

 Hodgkins competition, with reference to investigations appertain- 

 ing to the nature and properties of atmospheric air. .\ letter 

 printed in Nature of June 21, 1894, announced that the lime 

 within which papers might be submitted was extended to the 

 end of last year. The Report informs us that, up lo June 30, 

 1894. 250 memoirs, printed and manuscript, had been received . 

 in connection with the competition, representing correspondents 

 in the United States, Mexico, England, Scotland, Norway, 

 Denmark, Russia (including Finland), France, Belgium, 

 Germany, Austria-Hungary, Servia, Italy, and British India. 



A few grants have been made from the Hodgkins Fund, in 

 aid of certain important researches. In this connection we 

 notice that Prof. E. W. Morley's work on the determinations 

 of the density of oxygen and hydrogen, aided by special ap- 

 paratus provided by the Institution, is approaching completion. 



The investigations undertaken by Dr. J. S. Billings and Dr. 

 S. Weir Mitchell into the nature of the peculiar substances of 

 organic origin contained in the air expired by human beings, 

 has been continued under a grant from the Hodgkins Fund, and 

 also the researches by Dr. O. Luinmerand Dr. E. Pringsheim, 

 of Beilin University, on the determination of an exact measure 

 of the cooling of gases while expanding, with a view to revising 

 the value of that most important constant which is technically 

 termed the "gamma" function. 



Mr. Langley refers again to the unsatisfactory condition of 

 the National Museum. The collections have increased so 



