478 



NATURE 



[March 15, 1900 



published two years ago, treated of the Zoantheae, to which 

 group three new species are now added. The descriptions are 

 full, the drawings on the plates are admirable, and we are glad 

 to notice long and important sections on the " anatomy and 

 histology " of each species. 



Mr. Lestef. F. Ward describes a new genus {Cycadella), 

 and twenty new species of fossil Cycadean trunks from the 

 Upper Jurassic freshwater beds of Wyoming, in the Proceedings 

 of the Washington Academy of Sciences for February. 



The Wellington College Natural History Society continues to 

 encourage an interest in scientific matters among members of 

 the school. The latest report shows that during last year in- 

 structive lectures were given upon a number of scientific subjects, 

 such as bacteria, extinct animals, ants, and Rontgen rays. The 

 Pender prize, for the best essay on a scientific subject, was 

 awarded to H. O. O'Hagan for a thoughtful paper on " Thames 

 Fish, and their Habits," containing original observations of 

 much interest. In order to further aid natural history work in 

 the school, a field club has been started, the members of which 

 propose to thoroughly explore the immediate neighbourhood for 

 the purpose of making new, and revising old, lists of objects, 

 and to start a local museum. 



The number of the Irish Naturalist for February 1900 con- 

 tains a description by Mr. David McArdle, with an illustrative 

 plate of the rare and little-known liverwort, Lejeunia Rossettiana, 

 clistingwished by the remarkable echinate hygroscopic hairs on 

 the capsule. It was found on Ross Island, Killarney. 



Scientific bibliophiles will be interested to know that 

 Messrs. H. Sotheran and Co. , and Messrs. John Wheldon and 

 Co., have just issued catalogues containing many rare and 

 second-hand scientific books which they offer for sale. 



New editions of Mr. W. T. Lynn's handy booklets on 

 *' Remarkable Eclipses" and " Remarkable Comets" have been 

 published by Mr. E. Stanford. At the end of the latter a list 

 of the dates of the next returns of comets observed at more than 

 one appearance is given. The comets due this year are : — 

 Summer, De Vico's comet, rediscovered by Swift in 1894 

 (period 5^ years) ; and towards winter, Barnard's comet (period 

 S\ years). 



The first part of a work on " L'electricite en Physiologic," by 

 Prcjf. L. Morokhowetz, professor of physiology and direptor of 

 the physiological institute of the Imperial University of Moscow, 

 has just been received. It is proposed in the complete work to 

 describe the present state of knowledge of the influence of 

 electricity on the animal organism and in animal electricity. 

 The present chapter deals with electrostatic principles and in- 

 struments used in electro- physiology. The publishers of the 

 work are A. Lang and F. Tastevin, Moscow. 



We have received The Naturalist's Directory (Upcott 

 Gill) for 1900. It contains a large number of names, and is 

 undoubtedly a useful little volume. But there seems a tendency 

 to glorify the pushing amateur at the expense of the real scien- 

 tific worker. In the list of British zoologists we notice, for 

 example, the absence of the names of Mr. W. T. Blanford and 

 the editor of the " Royal Natural History" ; while the foreign 

 list, when it omits names like Bocage, CoUett, Merriam and 

 Milne-Edwards, is ludicrously inadequate to its purpose. 



An enlarged and revised edition of Huxley's " Lessons 

 in Elementary Physiology," prepared by Sir Michael Foster, 

 K.C.B., and Dr. Sheridan Lea, F.R.S., will be published 

 almost immediately by Messrs. Macmillan and Co. The 

 book originally appeared in 1866, and the last new edition 

 was issued in 1885, though since then it has been reprinted 

 NO. 1585, VOL. 61] 



six times. Revision was therefore urgently needed in order 

 to bring the book in line with progress in science and educa- 

 tion during more recent years. This has been carried out in 

 sympathy with Huxley's original aims and methods, so that 

 the book should have as successful a career in the future as 

 it has had in the past. 



Messrs. Everett and Co. have issued a catalogue of some 

 of the instruments made by them for use in electrical and 

 physical laboratories and workshops. Galvanometers, resist- 

 ance coils and Wheatstone Bridges, electrometers, rheostats, and 

 other instruments required in electrical work in the laboratory 

 and testing-room, form a prominent feature of the catalogue. 

 Among the apparatus specially designed for laboratory tuition 

 we notice arrangements for demonstrating the laws of the 

 galvanometer, for measuring the temperature coefficients of 

 electrical alloys, and for determining the linear expansions of 

 metal rods. 



The methods employed by Prof. Moissan in the preparation of 

 diamonds by artificial means, using his electric furnace, are 

 popularly described by Mr. R. H. Sherard in the March 

 number of Pearson's Magazine. Expressions such as " the 

 highest degree of heat," and "a heat of from 4000 to 5000 

 degrees Centigrade," suggest that the revision of the article by 

 some one acquainted with the distinction between heat and 

 temperature would have prevented a confusion of ideas. 

 Another contribution to the same magazine is " Stories of other 

 Worlds," by Mr. George Griffith. A trip is made (in imagin- 

 ation) to the planet Venus, and fact is combined with fancy in 

 describing the features of the planet and inhabitants. But the 

 human element looms so large that the story lacks the veri- 

 similitude which characterises Mr. H. G. Wells's treatment of 

 scientific themes. 



Messrs. Macmillan and Co. are about to publish a third 

 and completely revised edition of a work on *' Micro-organisms 

 and Fermentation," by Dr. Alfred Jorgenson, Director of the 

 Laboratory for the Physiology and Technology of Ferment- 

 ation at Copenhagen. The original aim of the book was to 

 give an account of the morphology and biology of the micro- 

 organisms of fermentation, and so to supplement the treatment 

 in text-books of the chemical side of the subject. To the 

 new edition have been added a biological treatment, per- 

 formed in the author's laboratory, of several English high- 

 fermentation yeasts, isolated from yeast used in breweries and 

 distilleries in various parts ; a summary of observations on the 

 variations which yeast undergoes during its use in factories ; 

 and a concise account of the organisms occurring in milk, 

 and of the use of lactic acid bacteria in dairies and dis- 

 tilleries. The book thus appeals to chemists, botanists and 

 biologists, as well as to technologists engaged in the ferment- 

 ation industries. 



A NEW gas furnace has been designed by M. Armand 

 Gautier which will be of great service in researches in which 

 a tube has to be kept at a constant high temperature for 

 long periods of time. The principle of the mufile is applied 

 to the ordinary tube combustion furnace, and M. Gautier has 

 been able to keep a tube at any temperature between 150" 

 and 800° for hours together without a greater variation than 

 ± 5°. Even at 1200°, if a good governor is interposed be- 

 tween the gas main and the furnace, the variations do not 

 exceed 20°. A detailed description, with drawings, is given 

 in the current number of the Coinptes rendus. 



Since M. Moissan has found that the original platinum- 

 iridium apparatus may be replaced by a U-tube of copper, it has 

 been possible to study without difficulty reactions requiring con- 

 siderable quantities of fluorine. In the current number of the 

 Comptes rendus, M. Moissan gives an account of a new fluoride 



