May 7, 1903] 



NATURE 



21 



Harvard University, recognising the value of his work, has 

 also awarded him a grant. The new Physical Institute of 

 the Royal Academy of Sciences in Leipzig has likewise aided 

 this research by placing laboratory room at the disposal of 

 Dr. Schumann, who, it is hoped, will be able in the near 

 future to secure still more complete results from his pains- 

 taking experiments in vacuum spectroscopy. 



The memoir by Dr. Carl Barus, issued as part of vol. 

 xxix., Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, describes 

 experiments with ionised air, begun by Dr. Barus some 

 years since, and recently prosecuted under a Hodgkins 

 grant from the Institution. The research was tributary 

 to an investigation of the colours of cloudy condensation. 

 Lord Rayleigh's famous theory, if applied, would stop at 

 the deep reds of the first order, terminating in opaque, 

 whereas in the laboratory experiments exceptionallv brilliant 

 colours, extending almost into the third order of Newton's 

 series, may be produced. It was thus essential as a pre- 

 liminary step to investigate appropriate means for the produc- 

 tion of nuclei, to determine their number per cubic centimetre, 

 their velocity, their association with ionisation, the effect 

 of the pressure of an electric field, &c. This was the general 

 trend of the experiments by Dr. Barus. The endeavour was 

 made with the aid of the condensation tube to show that 

 the nucleus has a specific velocity of its own, and that this 

 is retained even in the absence of an electric field. The 

 application of this principle to plate, to tubular, and to 

 spherical condensers leads, in every case and in spite of the 

 variation of method, to an order of values as to the number 

 of particles in action, agreeing with the data obtained by 

 other investigators from different experiments and theo'- 

 retically different points of view. A second grant has been 

 approved on behalf of Dr. Barus, and a new memoir on the 

 structure of the nucleus, detailing experiments subsequent 

 to those described in the volume just published, is soon to 

 be submitted by him. 



The experiments in air resistance by Mr. C. Canovetti, 

 which were begun at Brescia, Italy, have been continued^ 

 and by means of an ingenious apparatus he has prosecuted 

 a research which has been reported upon in detail, with 

 illustrations accompanied by tables giving the numerical 

 results attained. 



Dr. von Lendenfeld, of the University of Prague who 

 has been assisted by a grant from the Hodgkins ' fund, 

 reports that his studies are now suflficientlv advanced to en- 

 able him to begin the preparation of his manuscript for 

 publication. Telephotography has been extensively and 

 successfully used in this research, and the summary of work 

 already submitted is accompanied by interesting illustra- 

 tions. A monograph embodying the results of the completed 

 research, which will be published later, will present an 

 anatomical and physiological study of insects, the lower 

 vertebrates (Exocoetus, Draco, &c.), birds, mammals 

 (Petaurus, Geleopithecus, &c.), and will treat of the polv- 

 genetic development of the organs of flight in animals. 

 Ihe physical properties of the air, wind velocities, resist- 

 ance, &c., will be considered, and it is hoped that the publica- 

 tion will not only prove of general interest, but will become 

 a valuable work of reference for students. 



The research into the nature of vowels by Prof. Louis 

 Bevier, of Rutgers College, has been reported on through 

 a series of published articles, transmitted by the author to 

 the Institution, which record in detail the results thus far 

 obtained. Ihe investigation is still in progress, the vowel 

 series from a to " u " being now under analysis and 

 discussion. 



A grant has been approved on behalf of Mr. E. C. 

 Huttaker for the construction and practical application of 

 a device intended to produce a uniform and measured flow of 

 air through a tube of any desired diameter. This apparatus 

 IS primarily designed for use in connection with investi- 

 gations in the line of biology, and it has already been applied 

 to exact experiments in the development of the embryo in 



mn/F' }^,2- uJ^^J^^^ ''''■ "'^^"^ °f *his invention facts 

 may be established which will prove of practical value 



Ihe meteorological investigations in connection with air 

 currents at varying altitudes, heretofore reported on as 

 conducted by Mr. A L. Rotch at Blue Hill Meteorologica 

 Observatory, have been supplemented this year bv a series 



NO. 1749, VOL. 68] 



of e.xperiments on the lift and drift of the wind on plane 

 and curved surfaces. 



Dr. Morris W. Travers, of University College, London, 

 has received a grant, and is now engaged in an investi- 

 gation which will deal largely with the liquid properties of 

 hydrogen. 



National Museum. — This museum, established in the 



fundamental Act creating the Smithsonian Institution, grew 



up largely from its private collections, but it is important 



to consider that now it has grown into something which 



represents more nearly the large purpose of Congress in its 



foundation and that it is becoming a " National " Museum. 



j It differs from most other museums in that its primary 



j function was held to be not so much the entertainment or 



I instruction of the resident population as the preservation 



and arrangement of the collections brought together by the 



Government of the United States. These collections now 



I outnumber by some millions of specimens those which It 



has been possible to place upon exhibition in the present 



inadequate quarters. The number of specimens received 



during the year was about 450,000, making the total number 



of objects nearly five and a half millions. 



Bureau of American Ethnology. — The work of this Bureau 

 has related largely to a study of the origin, physical and 

 mental characteristics, arts and industries, food supply, 

 social and political institutions, religions, and languages 

 of native American tribes. 



Field work was conducted in Alaska, Arizona, California, 

 and in several other States and Territories, as also in British 

 Columbia, Mexico, Greenland, and in Porto Rico, while 

 useful information and material was obtained from' corre- 

 spondents and special collaborators. Special attention was 

 devoted to a study of those aboriginal industries which 

 appeared to bear practical relatlohs to modern life, particu- 

 larly to aboriginal methods of house building and Irrigation, 

 and to food sources in those tropical and arid regions that 

 formerly sustained a population five to ten times larger than 

 at the present day. A noteworthy investigation of abor- 

 iginal industries was conducted in Porto Rico, and a special 

 report of the native resources of that Island is in preparation. 

 A special study was made of a ceremony among the 

 Pawnee Indians embracing songs of interest in the develop- 

 ment of music and poetry, and to early phases of the drama, 

 the memoir being accompanied by the primitive music re- 

 corded by the aid of the graphophone, and with photo- 

 graphs of movements and objects introduced in the ceremony 

 International Exchanges.— During the last fiscal year 

 there was handled 125,796 packages, the packages sent 

 abroad numbering 87,149, and those received from foreign 

 countries 38,647. The number of parcels exchanged with 

 Germany was 20,679, and with Great Britain 19,912. 

 trance comes next with 11,378, and then Mexico, Italy 

 Austria-Hungary, and Russia. 



It has long seemed desirable to establish more adequate 

 exchange relations with Japan and China, but efforts in 

 that direction have so far been without success. In Great 

 Britain Germany, and Austria-Hungary, it is still necessary 

 to employ salaried agents to carry on the work, the Govern- 

 ments of these countries for various reasons not yet having 

 organised international exchange bureaus. 



Five years ago, in 1897, the total number of correspondents 

 or participants in the exchange service was 28,008 while the 

 aggregate has now reached 38,200 addresses of libraries 

 and individuals in 154 countries scattered all over the 

 civilised world, even in some of the remotest corners of India 

 Asia, Australia, and Polynesia. 



The general benefit of the service to the scientific world 

 can hardly be measured. Largely as a result of these inter- 

 national exchanges there has accumulated in the Library of 

 U.S. Congress a mass of scientific and Government publica- 

 tions that IS probably not surpassed anywhere, and could 

 scarcely have been secured in any other way 



National Zoological Park.-Dr. Langley has in previous 

 years called the attention of the Regents to the want of a 

 grant for collecting and preserving some of the great land 

 and marine specimens of the Western territory now rapidly 

 approaching extinction, and he again urges the immediate 

 need of doing something, even on the smallest scale, before 

 It IS entirely too lale. It is hoped that means will be pro- 

 vided to meet these wants by the establishment of at least 



