6o4 



NATURE 



[October 22. 1903 



chemical phenomena, more recently ascertained, the problem 

 of the chemical and electrical constitution of the muscle or 

 nerve fibre and of the gland cell awaits solution. 



A REPORT on the photogrammetric measurement »f the 

 height of clouds at Simla during the twenty months June, 

 1900, to January, 1902, by Mr. W. L. Dallas, is published 

 in the Indian Meteorological Memoirs, vol. xv. part ii. 

 Only forty-seven good observations were secured, as it 

 frequently happens that the lower clouds are ordinarily 

 thick and below the level of the observatory (7224 feet). 

 These observations give the mean height of cirrus 30,440 

 feet above Simla, and the maximum height 38,440 feet ; of 

 cumulus the mean and maximum heights are 7304 feet and 

 14,318 feet respectively. 



We have received from Mr. W. G. Davis a work on the 

 climate of the Argentine Republic, compiled from observ- 

 ations made to the end of the year 1900. All the meteor- 

 ological elements have been submitted to a careful and 

 elaborate discussion, and the work is a most valuable con- 

 tribution to the climatology of the South American Con- 

 tinent. In a general outline of the treatise, Mr. Davis 

 points out that, in a country which embraces 33° of lati- 

 tude, and the surface of which slopes from the Atlantic to 

 the snow-clad Andes, great differences must prevail in the 

 atmospheric conditions. In the narrow zone lying to the 

 north of the Tropic of Capricorn, the mean annual tempera- 

 ture varies from 23° C. on the coast to less than 14° at the 

 western limits, while the rainfall decreases from 1600 mm. 

 to less than 50 mm. At 8° or 9° farther south, we find, in 

 the Pampas, a mean temperature of 19°, which rapidly 

 decreases towards the slopes of the Cordilleras ; in the 

 eastern part of Entre Rios the rainfall is 1000 to 1200 mm., 

 and diminishes to less than 100 mm. in the province of 

 San Juan. At 10° further south there is little difference in 

 the isotherms (13° or 14°) between the Atlantic and the 

 Andes, while the rainfall (200 to 400 mm.) is practically the 

 same. At the extreme south of the Republic the climate 

 is rigorous ; in Tierra del Fuego the summer mean tempera- 

 ture is 8° to 9°, and the winter 2° to 3°. Rains are frequent, 

 and no month is free from snow. At Staten Island the 

 mean annual precipitation is 1400 mm., while in Tierra del 

 Fuego less than half this quantity falls. 



Mr. R. W. Paul has sent us his new catalogue of elec- 

 trical testing instruments. The list, in addition to the usual 

 resistance boxes, bridges, galvanometers, and other familiar 

 testing instruments, includes several new pieces of apparatus 

 and new patterns. Amongst these mav be noticed the new 

 pattern of Kelvin double bridge for the measurement of 

 low resistances ; there is also a new model Ayrton-Mather 

 narrow-coil galvanometer having conveniently interchange- 

 able coils. A new set of standard wattmeters, designed by 

 Messrs. Duddell and Mather, is included in the list; these 

 are constructed as much as possible from insulating 

 materials, and range from 001 watt to 200 kilowatts. We 

 hope to have an opportunity of describing them more in 

 detail later. An interesting type of resistance has been 

 designed for use with these wattmeters ; it is made of silk- 

 covered manganin wire, which is woven into a fabric with 

 silk threads, thus giving a high resistance free from errors 

 due to capacity or self-induction. 



We have received from Mr. C. E. Kelway a description 

 of his system for warning ships at sea of approaching 

 danger by equipping lighthouses with Hertzian signalling 

 apparatus. The ships themselves would be fitted with a 

 receiving apparatus which would respond when they came 

 within the range of the wireless signals sent out from the 



NO. 1773, VOL. 68] 



lighthouse ; these are to be sent out at regular intervals at 

 the same times as the sound warnings. A ship, by observ- 

 ing the time that passes between receiving the wireless 

 signal and the sound warning, is enabled at once to calcu- 

 late its distance from the lighthouse ; if it now continues 

 on its course for a few miles and then makes a second 

 observation, all the necessary data for ascertaining, trigono- 

 metrically, the exact position of the lighthouse are obtained. 

 A special stop-watch reading directly in distances and a 

 special position finder have been devised by Mr. Kelway 

 for use with his system. The system was, we understand, 

 submitted to the consideration of the recent Berlin Wire- 

 less Telegraphy Conference ; it illustrates one of the many 

 ways in which wireless telegraphy may be made of service 

 to ships. 



From the Bulletin of the Cracow Academy we have 

 received reprints of several papers by Profs. Ladislaus 

 Natanson and St. Zaremba dealing with certain points in 

 the dynamical theory of viscosity. 



Messrs. Teubner, of Leipzig, announce the forthcoming 

 publication of a new work entitled " Encyklopadie der 

 Elementar-Mathematik," under the joint authorship of 

 Profs. H. Weber (Strassburg) and J. Wellstein (Giessen). 

 It is specially written for teachers, and will consist of three 

 volumes dealing respectively with ■ elementary algebra and 

 analysis, elementary geometry, and applications of elemen- 

 tary mathematics. 



The Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society 

 for 1902-3 contain the reprint of some correspondence 

 between Robert Simson (1687-1768, professor of mathe- 

 matics at Glasgow, 1711-1761), Matthew Stewart (1717- 

 1785, professor of mathematics at Edinburgh 1747-1772), 

 and James Stirling, F.R.S. (1692-1770, author of works on 

 Newton's cubic curves and on the calculus). The corre- 

 spondence in question was bought at the Gibson Craig 

 sale of manuscripts by Mr. J. S. Mackay in 1887. 



The Bulletin of the American- Mathematical Society for 

 October contains an English translation of Poincar^'s 

 review of Hilbert's " Foundations of Geometry." Hilbert's 

 monograph is undoubtedly a classic, and Poincar^'s com- 

 ments upon it, as might be expected, are full of interest. 

 One passage may be quoted as dealing with a misunder- 

 standing which is too common. " Some people have gone 

 so far as to . . . ask whether real space is plane, as Euclid 

 assumed, or whether it may not present a slight curvature. 

 They even supposed that experiment could give them an 

 answer to this question. Needless to add that this was a 

 total misconception of the nature of geometry, which is 

 not an experimental science." 



In the American Naturalist for August, Dr. E. W. Doran 

 emphasises the importance of the use of vernacular names 

 for animals, and urges that, when these are of a composite 

 nature, a uniform method in regard to the use of hyphens 

 should be adopted in zoological literature. The rules he 

 proposes with a view of attaining this desirable end will, 

 we think, meet with the general approval of English 

 writers. 



Mr. C. R. Eastman, on morphological grounds, ex- 

 presses, in the American Naturalist, his disbelief in Dr. 

 Patten's assertion that Cephalaspis was provided with a 

 fringe of jointed and movable appendages along the ventral 

 margin of the trunk. No such appendages exist in the 

 allied Pterichthys, and it seems incredible that a vertebrate 

 can possess more than two pairs of limbs. In these respects 

 the writer has the support of Dr. Gaskell. 



