556 



NA TURE 



[October 2, 1890 



and after considerable difficulties the Cabane des Bosses was 

 reached on August i8. The altitude of this station is 4400 

 metres. Work was commenced fouf days later, and precisely 

 Similar results obtained. The B group, which appears to consist 

 of ten well-defined doubles when observed at Meudon, and 

 was almost reduced to the last double at Grands- Mulcts, had 

 disappeared altogether. 



These observations, in conjunction with those made last year 

 between the Eiffel Tower and Meudon, those made by M, de la 

 Baume Pluvinel at Candia during the annular eclipse of June 17, 

 and those made in the laboratory at Meudon, definitely demon- 

 strate the absence of oxygen from the sun, or, at least, of oxygen 

 in the state that we know it. 



M. Janssen thinks that, in the interests of astronomical and 

 terrestrial physics and of meteorology, an Observatory should be 

 -established on the summit of Mont Blanc. The difficulties to be 

 overcome in the erection of a station at such an elevation are 

 great, but that they are not insurmountable is evidenced by the 

 observations that have just been made. 



Astronomy and Numismatics. — Dr. A. Vercoutre, in 

 V Astronomie for September, points out how astronomical know- 

 ledge may be of service to numismatical science. It is known 

 that on many antique medals, and notably on the coins of 

 the Roman Republic, stars and members of the solar system 

 figure sometimes as symbols and sometimes as heraldic allusions 

 to the magistrate by whom the coin was struck. Thus, on a 

 coin struck by L. Lucretius Trio, 74 B.C., the seven stars in 

 Ursa Major are shown, and this constellation, being named 

 Septem Triones, was evidently used as a phonetic allusion to the 

 surname (Trio) of the magistrate. Again, on a coin struck in 

 B.C. 43, Dr. Vercoutre noticed five stars, one of which was much 

 larger than the others. He therefore concluded that the con- 

 ste llation represented on the coin was Taurus, as this was the 

 only group of five stars known to the ancients in which one was 

 more brilliant than the others. On this account he was en- 

 abled to attribute the coin to P, Clodius Turrinus, who appa- 

 rently, used the constellation Taurus or Taurinus as a phonetic 

 signification of his surname. A. coin struck by Manius Aquillus, 

 B.C. 94, has figured upon it the first four stars in the constella- 

 tion Aquila. They ' are . shown in nearly the same relative 

 positions occupied in reality, hence the coin contains the oldest 

 known representation of a portion of the celestial vault. It .is 

 therefore possible that an inspection of the stars figured on old 

 •coins may be the means of ascertaining the identity of the magis- 

 trate under whom they were struck, or, knowing this and the 

 constellation represented, they may be useful for the determina- 

 tion of proper motion. 



GEOGRAPHICAL] NO TES. 



M. Andrusoff, whose researches into the geological history 

 of the Caspian Sea have been mentioned more than once in 

 Nature, gives now some interesting preliminary results of his 

 exploration of the Black Sea. After having carefully studied all 

 that was previously known about that sea and embodied it 

 in an excellent paper (published in the last issue of the Izvestia 

 of the Russian Geographical Society, vol. xxvi., 2), he induced 

 the Hydrographical Department of the Russian Navy to send 

 out a special gunboat for the exploration of the Black Sea, 

 under .Captain Spindler and Captain Wrangel. The sea was 

 thus carefully explored from Odessa to Constantinople, and 

 thence to Batum and Sebastopol. It appears that great depths 

 are found everywhere within a short distance of the shore ; and 

 that from a depth of 200 metres the water of the Black Sea 

 begins to contain sulphuretted hydrogen resulting from the de- 

 composition .of decaying organisms, so that no organisms 

 •either vegetable or animal, are met with at depths exceeding 

 200 metres. The Black Sea, he concludes, is not a sea, properly 

 speaking, but an immense stagnant pond ("reaching a maximum 

 depth of 1200 fathoms) which is covered on the surface by the 

 water of the Mediterranean and the rivers which flow into it. 

 The full report of M. 4ndrusoff is expected soon, and is sure to 

 be full of interest. 



A telegram, dated Tashkend, Septeniber 15, gives some 

 extracts from a letter: written by M^ Grombchevsky on July 20j 

 at Sel-ki.lian. The expedition • had at last reached Tibet from 

 the north ; but the hostility of the ruler of Keria compelled 

 thetn.to undertake the journey too, ealrly in the spring. ; On May 



NO. 10^2, VOL. 42] 



21, they were on the Tibet plateau, but weather was most 

 inclement at that time. Hard frosts (20° C. below zero), 

 terrible snow-storms, and a complete want of water — the snow 

 in the mountains not having yet begun to thaw— compelled the 

 expedition to return to Kashgaria without having accomplished 

 the proposed programme of exploration. Later on, the want of 

 money prevented them from returning to Tibet in the summer. 

 M. Grombchevsky also adds that the ruler of Kanjut has entered 

 into vassal relations to the Government of India, and that the 

 fort Shahidulla-hodja is occupied by a garrison of Kashmerees, 

 thus commanding the drainage area of the Raskem-daria and its 

 pasture grounds. Besides, in April last, the beck of Kanjut 

 took possession of the Pamir and Dangarym-bash forts, formerly 

 occupied, by Chinese garrisons ; so that the fort Pamir, which 

 is now practically under English influence, and the Russian fort 

 Kara-kul are separated by but a three days' march over a 

 territory densely peopled with Kirghizes, We may thus expect 

 that the veil which has for so many centuries concealed those 

 regions from science will soon be entirely lifted, and Northern 

 Tibet will become as well known as Central Asia. 



''THE AGE OF SCIENCE.", 



/^N Friday evening last. Lord Derby, before distributing the 

 ^^ awards of the Liverpool School of Science, delivered a clear, 

 vigorous, and interesting address on some aspects of science. Ours, 

 he sa,id, would be remembered as pre-eminently the age of science. 

 Our successors might excel us as writers, as politicians, as soldiers ; 

 they might surpass even the industrial energies of the present 

 time, but it was not likely — it was scarcely possible— that in the 

 region of science the twentieth century should witness advances 

 greater than, or as great as, those of the nineteenth. The 

 general experience of the world had been that brilliant but brief 

 epoc|is of adv9.nce had been followed by long, intervals of stag- 

 nation, and sometimes even of retrogression. . Retrogression 

 was not likely, but stagnation was quite possible.- There was' 

 one phrase mtich employed when people talked on these 

 subjects which, to his mind, contained a fallaey. He;meant 

 the -comnron phrase of popularizing, science.. To popularize 

 science was simply impossible. .Anybody could' cram up, 

 with the help of an average memory and of easily acquired 

 hand-books, a summary of what had been done in astro- 

 nomy, in chemistry, or other sciences, but when that result 

 was accomplished he would be very little nearer to any real 

 gain which science could bring to him. It was only labour 

 and perseverance, added to natural capacity, that could give a 

 scientific mind. Sortie tincture of scientific knowledge was 

 desirable for every educated person. The result might not be 

 great, but the process was valuable. An entire absence of the_ 

 scientific spirit was no doubt compatible with brillif^nt talent and 

 high distinction. We did not find fault for adeficiency of that 

 kind in a novelist, a poet, or a writer of light literature, but it 

 was a deficiency notwithstanding. If asked what he meant by a 

 scientific. spirit, he thought he knew, but he must confess that it 

 was more easily described in vague and general terms than pre- 

 cisely defined. , He meant by it, in the first place, a habit of 

 accuracy and exactness in matters of fact. In the next place, he 

 meant that temper of mind which seeks for conclusions, but 

 does not jump at them — vv'hich is equally opposed to the 

 stupid incredulity of ignorance, refusing to accept any idea which 

 is not familiar ; to the reverential credulity which accepts as true 

 any statement coming down from old or high authority ; and to 

 the careless indifferentism which, so long as a theory looks and 

 sounds well, and especially if it flatters some previously existing 

 feeling of prejudice, does not care on what foundation of reality 

 that theory rests. That the world is governed by laws which we 

 did not make and cannot abolish — laws which will operate 

 whether we recognize or ignore them, and which it is our wisdom 

 therefore to study that we may obey, and in obeying utilize them 

 — ^that was what was taken to be. the outcome of scientific teach- 

 ing, and if anybody thoa^jht that a useless or an unimportant or 

 unnecessary lesson he did not agree with him. Something else 

 science, rightly understood, would teach us to know — what it is 

 that we can hope to know and to understand ; and to recognize 

 how little that is, and how much lies, and probably always will 

 lie, beyond the reach of our faculties. One word only h'e would 

 add— that, having known men of many professions, he should 

 say, as far as his observation went, the happiest lives were those 

 which had been devoted to science. '.'Every step," said Lord 



