546 



NATURE 



[April 5, 1900 



the year ending June 30, 1899. It has been shown that rock- 

 salt prisms, whether obtained from mineral mined in Russia or 

 Bavaria, have exactly the same refractive indices. It appears, 

 therefore, that this interesting crystal, which from the time of 

 Melloni to Prof. Langley himself has been chiefly used on 

 account of its qualitative properties as regards the transmission 

 of radiations, can now be used quantitatively as a standard of 

 'efraction to which all. wavelengths may be referred with the 

 same order of precision as to the diffraction grating. Prof. 

 Langley's measures of 1897-98, which determined the exact 

 positions of 700 Fraunhofer lines in the infra-red spectrum of 

 rock-salt, may thus be regarded as fixing constants of nature. 

 As the wave-lengths of the lines were determined with ^n 

 average probable error of three, parts in lo.ocx), we are led to 

 the surprising fact'that, by working automatically in the dark, 

 with the bolometer, it has been possible to analyse the infra-red 

 solar spectrum with an accuracy comparable with that attained 

 with much more pains through the eye itself. 



All artificial lights, even the best, are extravagantly wasteful 

 of energy; in that they lavish it in the infra-red, and not in the 

 visible spectrum. Mr. C. G. Abbot, who has charge of the 

 Astrophysical Observatory of the Smithsonian Institution, has 

 examined the light emitted by the Welsbach mantle (which 

 consists of impure thorium oxide) and other incandescent 

 mantles, by means of the bolometer, with a view to comparing 

 their efficiencies. Though the illuminating powers differ con- 

 siderably, thedistribution of energy is much less diversified than 

 would be supposed, and shows clearly the wastefulness even of 

 the Welsbach light as a source of illumination. The infra-red 

 in each case includes by far the greater portion of the energy, 

 and not the visible spectrum, as is the case with the sun, and 

 still more, with phosphorescent substances. Excluding the 

 infra-red radiation, the Welsbach mantle was found to be 

 superior in light to the others experimented with, especially in 

 the red, orange and yellow parts of the visible spectrum. 



In a paper published in the Geological Magazine for March 

 and April, Dr. C. Davison describes some of the less important 

 British earthquakes felt during the years 1893- 1899. The total 

 number of shock's recorded in these seven years is forty-two, of 

 which twenty-eight occurred in England and Wales, and fourteen 

 in Scotland. In England, earthquakes were most numerous in 

 the counties of Pembroke, Hereford and Cornwall ; and in 

 Scotland, in Annandale and Glen Garry, and near Comrie and 

 Fort William. The earthquakes at the two last places are in- 

 teresting from their connection with the two great faults which 

 bound the Highland district ; and the study of the shocks shows 

 that the southern boundary fault near Comrie hades to the 

 north-west, and the northern fault near Fort William probably 

 to the south-east. A list of doubtful and spurious earthquakes 

 is given, and among these are several which have been referred 

 to by correspondents in Nature. Several local earth-shakes 

 in mining districts are described, and Dr. Davison suggests 

 another cause of some of these shocks besides rock-falls in old 

 workings, namely, small fault-slips in those places where the 

 coal has been worked right up to the fault, and so withdrawn 

 support from the rock above. 



Herr R. Parkinson has a unique knowledge of several 

 districts of Melanesia, and he has recently contributed a very 

 valuable paper on the ethnography of the North-western 

 Solomon Islands to the Abhandl. n. Berichie d. K. Zool. u. 

 Anthrop. Miis , Dresden, Bd. vii. 1899. He brings forward 

 some fresh information on that evergreen topic of totemism. In 

 Buka there are two clans which are called after their respective 

 totems, the Fowl and the Frigate-bird, and members of the one 

 clan must marry into the other. In North Bougainville the same 

 NO. 1588, VOL. 61] 



clans exist, but in South Bougainville and in the neighbouring 

 islands there are a number of bird clans ; here also n > one may 

 marry into his own clan, thpugh he may marry into any other.. 

 In all cases the children belong to the mother's clan. The lads 

 are initiated into the Rukruk society in a tabobed clearing in 

 the bush ; as in Australia and elsewhere, a bull-roarer is whirled, 

 and the women believe that the unearthly noise produced by 

 this mystical instrument is the conversation between tlie initiates 

 and the male and female spirit. After this ceremony the lad 

 may marry. As Parkinson deals with other customs, music, 

 houses, clothing, ornaments, money, utensils, weapons and the 

 like, it will be apparent that this memoir is of considerable im- 

 portance, especially as the author has peculiar facilities for 

 gaining trustworthy information. 



In the Report of the Rugby School Natural History Society 

 for 1899 will be found an excellent plate of the skeleton of 

 Ichthyosanrus plalyodon disinterred at Stockton in 1 898. ' 



From the Report \\\%\. to hand, the Ghizeh Zoological Gardens, 

 under the direction of Mr. S. S. Flower, seem' to be in a 

 flourishing condition. By far the most interesting animals 

 acquired during the year are the Proboscis Monkeys presented 

 by the Netherlands Government. 



As the result of an examination of the specimens brought back, 

 by the Harriman expedition, Dr. C. H. Merriam {Proc. Wash-, 

 ington Academy, ii. pp. 13-30) describes no less than twenty- 

 six mammals from Alaska and British North America as new. 

 Although the majority of them are described as species, many 

 naturalists will probably relegate at least a percentage to the 

 rank of local races. 



The Sitzungsberickte of the Royal Scientific Society of Bohe- 

 mia for 1899 is a bulky volume containing a large number of 

 papers on various subjects, many of which, from being written 

 in Czech, are unfortunately a sealed book to the majority of 

 Englishmen. Among interesting or important biological papers, 

 we may call attention to one, by Herr Ryba, on a new Megaphy- 

 ium from the Coal-measures ; to a second, by Herr Smy^ka, on 

 the occurrence of the European Pond-tortoise in Silesia ; and to 

 a third, by Dr. Rohon, on the morphology of the Devonian fishes 

 in one of the Petersburg museums. 



Dr. O. Z. Bianco has sent us a copy of an interesting com- 

 munication made to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Turin: 

 on February il. The paper is intended to be a contribution to 

 the history of meteorology, and contains an account of some 

 recent investigations of Italian men of science upon the [.hysical 

 constitution of the atmosphere, founded upon the famous balloon 

 ascents of Mr. James Glaisher in the years 1S62-6, which still 

 hold their place as the best and most extensive series that we at 

 present possess. The principal object of the paper is the con- 

 struction of improved barometric formulae for the determination 

 of heights. 



We have received from Prof. G. Schwalbe an excerpt paper 

 from the Anna/en der Physik (iv. series, 1900), giving an account 

 of his recent experiments upon Exner's theory of atmospheric 

 electricity. The experiments, like those made some years ago 

 (IVted. Ann. vol. Iviii. p. 500, 1896), were carried on at the 

 physical laboratory of the Agricultural High School at Berlin with 

 the view of investigating the electrical behaviour of the vapours 

 rising from electrified fluids. The author finds that such vapours 

 carry no kind of electricity with them, and that consequently 

 the experiments do not support Exner's theory, which explains 

 the phenomena of atmospheric electricity by the transfer of the 

 electric charge of the earth to the air by means of the evapora- 

 tion going on from masses of water. 



