2o6 



NA TURE 



[December 28, 1899 



TWE. British Medical Journal states that the Italian Parlia- 

 ment has voted a sum of 1,300,000 lire for the erection of new 

 buildings in the University of Bologna. The work will be 

 begun next spring. 



We learn from the Times that M. Raphael BischofFsheim has 

 presented to the Paris University his observatory at Nice worth 

 2,700,ooof., and 2,5oo,ooof. the interest of which is to cover its 

 expenses. 



M. T. Ribot, professor of psychology at the College de 

 France, has been elected a member of the Paris Academy of 

 Moral Sciences in succession to the late M. Nourrisson. 



General Gallieni, Governor of Madagascar, has been 

 elected a correspondant of the Paris Academy of Sciences. The 

 Academy has also elected M. Meray as correspondant of the 

 section of geometry, and M. Rosenbusch as a member of the 

 section of mineralogy. , 



A SPECIAL correspondent of ihe Times reports : " six Marconi 

 wireless telegraphy instruments intended for the Boers have 

 been captured at Cape Town.^The experiments at Orange 

 River have been highly successful. The 'communication with 

 De Aar, seventy miles distant, is perfect." 



Mr. C. Vernon Boys, F.R.S., will deliver the first of a 

 course of six Christmas lectures specially adapted for young 

 people, at the Royal Institution this afternoon. The subject 

 will be " Fluids in Motion and at Rest" (experimentally illus- 

 trated). The remaining lectures will be on December 30 and 

 January 2, 4, 6, 9, 1900. 



The two astronomers whose names have been submitted to 

 the French Minister of Public Instruction, who will select one 

 to fill the vacancy in the Bureau des Longitudes caused by the 

 death of M. Tisserand, are M. Radau and M. Bigourdan. 



An exhibition of food, clothing, medicines, and other 

 articles suitable for travellers in uncivilised and unhealthy 

 regions of the globe, will be held at St. Martin's Town Hall, 

 Charing Cross, on January 1-5, under the title of the '' Living- 

 stone Exhibition." A loan collection of Livingstone relics and 

 of objects of interest connected with the work of other travellers 

 will be on view. 



An interesting account of experiments on the growth and 

 regeneration of the tails of tadpoles, conducted by means of 

 Bom's method of grafting, is given by Mr. R. G. Harrison in 

 the October number of the Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins 

 Hospital. In the neighbourhood of Baltimore there occur two 

 species of frogs whose embryos differ so markedly in colouration 

 from one another, that in any case where parts derived from 

 each are united by grafting into a single organism it is easy to 

 follow in the living specimen, as development proceeds, the 

 change in position of any group of cells in respect to the original 

 line of section. During the development of the tail after graft- 

 ing it was noticed that a remarkable shifting of the epidermis 

 over the underlying organs took place ; so that after a time the 

 epidermis properly belonging to the tail was restricted to the 

 terminal third of that appendage. Now it is well known that 

 the cutaneous nerves of the trunk and tail of the full-grown 

 larvae and frogs, in passing from the vertebral column to^;^ their 

 termination in the skin, pursue an oblique course ; and this is 

 obviously due to the above-mentioned backward shifting of the 

 epidermis. Certain other iriteresting features were also brought 

 to light in the course of the experiments. 



With the view to ascertain what displacement, vertically or 



horizontally, took place in the Khasi and Garo Hills during the 



Indian earthquake of June 1897, a revision of the principal 



triangulations in the district was made by officers of the Survey 



NO. 1574. VOL. 61] 



of India Department during 1898, and the results are referred 

 to in the report just issued. Horizontal and vertical observ- 

 ations were taken at thirteen stations, fixing the positions of 

 twenty-two and the heights of twenty-five old stations, em- 

 bracing an area of 1020 square miles. The results show that 

 the whole of this "area lay within the region affected by the 

 earthquake, so it is impossible to state how much any one 

 station has been displaced in comparison with the unaffected 

 area outside, but apparently all have suffered more or less. The 

 average horizontal displacement appears to be about 7 feet > 

 whilst the changes in height vary from a subsidence, of 4 '3 feet 

 to an upheaval of 24 feet ; these, however, for the reasons 

 already mentioned, cannot be considered as absolute, but only 

 relative changes. The general apparent effect is that the area 

 has been both widened and raised. If possible, the revision 

 work should be continued and extended, with instruments of 

 equal calibre to those employed in the original triangulaiion ; 

 for accurate measurements of the movement of the earth's crust 

 due to a large earthquake are of deep scientific interest. 



The Antiquity of Man in America is an important problem, 

 and it is well that Mr. W. H. Holmes should revise, as he has 

 done in the American Anthropologist (N.S., I., 1899, p. 614), 

 the evidence relating to Auriferous Gravel Man in California. 

 He discusses this special aspect of the question in a full, lucid 

 and judicial ^spirit. His conclusion is that the testimony fur- 

 nished is greatly weakened by the facts (i) that the finds on 

 which it was based were made almost wholly by inexpert 

 observers, and (2) that all were recorded at second hand. 

 Affidavits cannot redeem it. Nothing short of expert testimony, 

 amply verified and vigorously stated, will convince the critical 

 mind that a Tertiary race of men, using symmetrically-shaped 

 and beautiful implements, wearing necklaces of wampum and 

 polished beads of marble or travertine bored accurately with 

 revolving drills, fishing with nets weighted with neatly-grooved 

 stone sinkers, and having a religious system so highly developed 

 that at least two forms of ceremonial stories had been specialised, 

 occupied the American continent long enough to develop this 

 marked degree of culture without leaving numerous and dis- 

 tinctive traces of its existence. All these objects resemble 

 modern implements in every essential respect. They are such 

 as may have fallen in the mines from Indian camp sites or been 

 carried in by the Indians themselves. 



An article upon electrolytic processes in industrial operations, 

 contributed to the Engineering Magazine by Dr. W. Borchers, 

 shows some of the remarkable developrn'ents of electro-techno- 

 logy during late years. Descriptions are given of the various 

 processes by which industrial products are obtained electrolytic- 

 ally. The Castner process for manufacturing sodium is well 

 known, and several similar devices have recently been intro- 

 duced. Magnesium is obtained from melted magnesium salts 

 by a process founded upon Bunsen's investigations. For the 

 production of aluminium, the Pittsburg Reduction Company 

 use a mixture of chlorides and fluorides of the metals of the 

 alkalis and alkaline earths as electrolytes and solvent for the 

 aluminum oxide. Copper, nickel, silver, and gold, in so far as 

 electrolysis may be said to be applicable to them, are chiefly 

 obtained in pure form by electrical means from the crude metal 

 produced by the smelter. Gold is also electrolytically deposited 

 from weak solutions obtained by chemical lixiviation processes. 

 Caustic soda, caustic potash, chlorate of potash, and chlorine 

 are obtained by electrolysis from aqueous alkali-chloride solu- 

 tions. By suitable appliances and working conditions, the 

 chlorine and caustic alkali solution may be carried off separately 

 to produce chloride of lime and solid caiistic soda, or they may 

 be made to form a solution of chlorate of potash in the place of 

 caustic potash and chlorine. The methods by which these and 



