374 



NATURE 



[February 15, 1900 



a strychnine or cinchonine salt of the thetine hydrobromide, or 

 a malate of the base. Pope and Peachey succeeded in pre- 

 paring two salts of the thetine with active acids (dextrocamphor- 

 sulphonic and dextro-a-broniocamphorsiilphonic acids), but found 

 that no resolution of the asymmetric thetine into optically active 

 components occurs. Hence they draw the conclusion that if 

 sulphur really exists as a quadrivalent element in these salts, 

 the four atoms directly and independently attached to the 

 sulphur lie in the same plane as the latter. 



Thk additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include an Entellus Monkey {Semnopithecus enlellns) 

 from India, presented by Mrs. E. J. Gaudie ; a Red Deer 

 (Cei-vHs elaphiis. fi) from Scotland, presented by the Right 

 Hon. the Marquis of Breadalbane, K.G., P.C. ; a Spanish Blue 

 Magpie {Cyanopolins coiki) from Spain, presented by Mr. L. 

 Ineram Baker ; an Alligator Terrapin (Chflydra serpentina), a 

 Floridan Terrapin {Chryseinys conctnna), a Salt-water Teiyapin 

 {Malacpclemiiiys terrapin), a Sculptured Terrapin {Cleniviys 

 insctdpla), four American B^x Tortoises {Cisludo Carolina), a 

 Prickly Trionyx {Trionyx spinifer), two Reeves's Terrapins 

 (Damonia reevesi), a Blue Lizard {Gerrhonottis coei-uhus), a 

 Three-striped Boa {Lichannra trivirsiala), two Striped Snakes 

 {Tropidonoitis sirtalis),'2L Seven -banded Snake {Tropidonotus 

 septemvittaius), four Corn Snakes {Coluber guttai us), a Chicken 

 Snake {Coluber obsohtus), an American Black Snake {Zanteuis 

 constrictor), two King Snakes {Coronella getula), nine Change- 

 able Tree-Frogs {Hyla versicolor) from North America, a 

 Common Boa {Boa f(j«f/r/V/£7;-), an Annulated Terrapin {Nicoria 

 annulata) from South America, eight Adorned Terrapins 

 (Chryseinys ornata) from Central America, a Wrinkled Terrapin 

 (Chrysemys scripta rugosa) from the West Indies, two Grooved 

 Tortoises {Testudo caharata) from South Africa, a Starred 

 Tortoise {Testudo elezavs) from India, deposited ; two Tceheli 

 Monkeys {Macaciis icheliensi';, i 9 ) from Northern China, pre- 

 sented by Dr. S. W. Bushell ; a Vulpine Phalanger ( THcho- 

 saurus znilpecttla) ' from Australia, presented by Miss Freda 

 Gilder ; three Dial Birds ( Copsychus saularis) from India, 

 purchased. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 

 Definitive Orbit of Comet 1897 III.— Herr E. Wessell, 

 of the Helsingfors Observatory, has reduced 168 observations of 

 Perrine's Comet, 1897 III, made at various observatories, and 

 gives the resulting definitive elements of the orbit in the 

 Astronomische Nachrichten, Bd. 151, No. 3614, as follow : — 



Defiiiitive Elements of Comet Perrine (1897 III.). 

 T=i897 Dec. 8-679793 Berlin Mean Time. 



'*' = 65 ii 57-6 ; 

 a = 32 3 87 ^ 1897-0. 

 i --= 69 35 58-2 ) 

 logi' = o-i32477 



New Variable Star in Draco.— Dr. T. D. Anderson, 

 of Edinburgh, has communicated to the Astj-onomische Nach- 

 richten, No. 3618, his recent discovery of the variability of a star 

 having the following position : — 



R.A. I7h. 55-61 

 Decl. -f54° 51' 



The variation in magnitude is from 9-4 to 10-4. Neither the 

 variable nor the four stars used for comparison are mentioned 

 in the Bonn Durchmusterung. 



Time Used in Ephemerides.— With the current number 

 of the Obseivatory is issued a slip stating that the variable star 

 ephemerides, published in the Aftnual Companion, are given in 

 Greenwich civil time, and not in astronomical time, as hereto- 

 fore. The day is divided into 24 hours, and begins at midnight. 

 This change was rendered necessary by reason of its having 



NO. I581, VOL. 61] 



}i855. 



been adopted by M. Loewy in the Aiinuaire dti Bureau des 

 Longitudes, from which the data for the variable star ephemerides 

 are obtained. It is thought that this change is responsible for 

 the recent misl(;ading reports as to the adoption by the principal 

 observatories of the civil time reckoning. 



Leonid Meteors.— Signor E. Fergola contributes to the 

 Rendiconto of the Naples Academy a note on observations of 

 the Leonid shower, made at the Observatory at Capodimonte, 

 The numbers of meteors observed on November 14, 15, 16 and 

 17 were 15, 30, 32 and 11, and the radiant point, as determineJ 

 by conjoint observations of Signori Aiberli, Tedeschi and 

 Nobili, was in R.A. loh. 8m., and declination 23°'4s. 



THE FUNCTIONS OF THE ENGINEER} 

 T^HE success of the modern engineer is due to the fact that 

 he has buried in the depths of oblivion the much-vaunted 

 empirical rule of thumb, and that he has elevated to the heights 

 of science the observations of exact practice and the exercise 

 of pure reason. The principle of doubt, which is the root of 

 all scientific inquiry, forces him to consider every phase of weak- 

 ness in the materials that he employs in his structures, to ex- 

 amine every possible cause of error in his designs, to anticipate 

 every .source of failure in his work. The principle of faith, 

 which is the outcome of the growth of his experience, mu.st be 

 continually illuminated by the light of progress, and controlled 

 by the patient development and consideration of the too-long- 

 hidden laws of nature. The engineer must maintain his ac- 

 quaintance with ever-growing science so as to be able to fulfil 

 promptly and accurately his duty, which is the application of 

 the great principle of energy and the utilisation of the marvel- 

 lous properties of matter to the wants, comfort and happiness 

 of man. 



In considering the functions of the engineer we have to con- 

 sider h\% practice and his making. 



His practice — what has he got to do ? The practice of 

 engineering can be divided into three branches : Civil, Military 

 and Naval. 



The term civil was originally introduced to distinguish the 

 practical man of peace from the practical man of war. Engineer- 

 ing applied to our wants and comforts is a very different thing 

 to that applied to the destruction of our foes or to protect our- 

 .selves from their wish to destroy us. War is waged both on 

 land and .sea, and as the conditions involved in attack and 

 defence in modern times have become so totally different in 

 the.se two cases, the term military has been gradually confined 

 to the operations of our army on land, while the term naval is 

 applicable to the warlike operations of our fleets. England 

 owes her present position as the centre of a great empire to her 

 naval supremacy, and she has acquired this supremacy as much 

 by the inventive, constructive and maintaining powers of her 

 working engineers as by the mighty deeds of her fearless fight- 

 ing sailors. 



Civil engineering aids us not only to build that haven of rest 

 and comfort that we call home, but to surround it with the 

 elements of health — pure air, pure water, pure food, pure light. 

 If we congregate together in towns or scatter ourselves in country 

 districts it supplies us with all possible means of transport l>y 

 road, river and rail, and of means of intercommunication l>y 

 post, telegraph and telephone. These means of annihilating 

 time and space are not only inter-urban in our own country but 

 international in our continents, and in a wider sense imperial, 

 cosmical and universal, over the whole earth. The world is 

 knit in one connected whole by wire. We know to-day from 

 that triumph of art, science and culture — the intelligent and 

 free British daily public Press — the history of nearly all that 

 took place yesterday over the whole globe. 



The engineer fears not the infinitely great, for the stars in 

 their courses aid him to survey the land and to cross the deep 

 with safety. He spurns not the infinitely little, for the molecules 

 in their mutual actions and reactions supply him with those 

 metals and those elements of purity and strength which give him 

 the means to resist the forces of nature so as to span the broad 

 channel, laugh at the foaming river, build the palace of glass at 

 Sydenham, cover acres of ground so as to display this year in 

 Paris the goods, manufactures, and works of art, industry and 

 utility of the whole world. 



i An address by Sir William Henry Preece, K.C.B., F.R.S., delivered 

 before the Glasgow Association of Civil Engineers on February 8. 



