ii4 



NATURE 



[December 4, 1902 



us contains, in addition to the annual address by the retiring 

 president, Prof. A. Liversidge, F.R.S., three contributions by 

 the new president, Mr. H. C. Russell, F. R.S., one of which 

 briefly discusses the relation between the moon's motion in 

 declination and the quantity of rain in New South Wales, in 

 which the author is convinced that "seeing the rain is shown 

 so clearly to come in times of abundance, when the moon is in 

 certain degrees of her motion south, and when the moon begins 

 to go north, then droughty conditions prevail for seven or even 

 eight years, a phenomenon repeated for three periods of nineteen 

 years each, that it is either a marvellous coincidence, or there is 

 a law connecting the two phenomena." Mr. R. H. Mathews con- 

 tributes an important paper on " The Thurrawal Language," and 

 shorter accounts of some aboriginal tribes of Western Australia 

 and of rock-holes used by aborigines for warming water. Mr. 

 J. H. Maiden, Government Botanist and Director of the Botanic 

 Gardens, Sydney, gives an exhaustive summary of the gums, 

 resins and other vegetable exudations of Australia, as well as 

 interesting historical notes relating to the death of Captain Cook. 

 Mr. G. H. Knibbs also writes two important papers, that on a 

 theory of city design being of wide interest. These papers by no 

 means exhaust the important contributions to science contained 

 in the volume, but since reports of the proceedings of the Society 

 regularly appear in our columns under "Societies and Academies," 

 it is unnecessary to refer at any greater length to the scientific 

 work being done in New South Wales. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two Vervet Monkeys (Cercopithecus lalaiuiii) 

 from South Africa .presented by Miss Barlow ; an Equine Antelope 

 (Hippotragus equinus) from Bechuanaland, presented by Major 

 Chas. Fredk. Minchin, D.S.O. ; three Fat Dormice (Myoxus 

 glis) European, presented by Dr. L. H. Gough ; a Mongoose 

 Lemur {Lemur mongoz) from Madagascar, two Mexican Snakes 

 (Volubiy melanolcucus) from Mexico, deposited ; two Snake 

 Fishes (Polypterus senega/us) from Fashoda, received in 

 exchange. 



Erratum — In parenthesis near the end of letter on "Summer 

 and Winter" (p. 81), "The average mean temperature of 

 summer below 6l°"2," for below read being. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Observations ok hie Perseid Shower.— Herr Koss, 

 director of the Pola Observatory, communicates to No. 3830 of 

 the Aslronomische Nachrichten the results of the observations of 

 Perseids made at that observatory on August 8, 9 and 10. 



The times of appearance, the exact path, the magnitude and 

 the time of duration of each meteor are recorded for ten Perseids 

 seen on August 8, sixteen seen on August 9, and thirty-three 

 seen on August 10. In addition to these, thirteen Perseids and 

 sixteen sporadic meteors were seen, but not mapped. 



The position of the radiant point for August 9 and for 

 August 10 was estimated to be o = 2h. 32m., 8=+56°'5 and 

 a = 3h. 2m., 5=+54°'5, respectively. 



New Variable Star, 16, 1902, Delphini.— From photo- 

 graphs taken at Moscow by M. S. Blakjo, Madame Ceraski has 

 found that the star B. D. + i6°'4290, having the position a = 

 20h. 25m. S9s. - 5, 5 = + 16 57'-2 (1855), is a variable. 



In the catalogue, the magnitude of this object is given as 9*3, 

 and this was confirmed on a negative taken on August iS, 1900. 

 On a plate obtained on August 17, 1901, however, the star does 

 not appear, and, according to the magnitudes of the neighbour- 

 ing stars which do appear, it must therefore have been fainter 

 than the eleventh magnitude. Visual observations confirmed this 

 latter value (Aslronomische Nachrichten, No. 3S30). 



Evolution of Aerography. — In No. 170 of the Proceed- 

 ings of the American Philosophical Society, Mr. Percival Lowell 

 reviews the various steps which have taken place in our know- 

 edge and mapping of the surface of Mars. 



NO. I727, VOL. 67] 



By a series of twelve maps, arranged in chronological order, 

 he shows the gradual development in the amount of detail seen 

 and recorded, from the map of Beer and Madler, published in 

 1840, to that published by himself in 1901. From comparisons 

 of these maps, he divides the history of aerography into three 

 periods, viz., 1840-1876, large dark and light markings shown ; 

 1S77-1892, "canals" in bright regions detected; 1893-1902, 

 " canals " in the dark regions detected ; and also draws the 

 following three deductions therefrom: — (1) The series agree 

 fundamentally. (2) The regularity of the " canals," as recorded 

 by Schiaparelli, was not due to any predisposition on the part 

 of that observer, but was gradually forced upon him as he became 

 more familiar with the surface of the planet. (3) All the maps 

 show a general evolution, from simple to complex, in the de- 

 tection of the surface markings of the planet. 



A Simplified Form of Foucault's Pendulum. — The 

 reinstallation of Foucault's famous experiment at the Pantheon 

 by MM. Berget and Flammarion has, according to M. 

 D'Arsonval, called forth many ingenious devices for proving the 

 same result by means of a simpler apparatus. 



Of these devices, M. D'Arsonval describes, in the Coiuptcs 

 rendus for November 17, the one which, in his opinion, is the 

 simplest and best. 



The main point of this device is the simplicity of the method 

 of suspension. A steel wire, 0035mm. in diameter, carries a 

 leaden ball, which is covered with copper and weighs about 

 2j lbs., and is fixed to the ceiling by an ordinary nail. lis 

 upper end is then clamped in a metal block, so that it is im- 

 movable above the lower face of the block, but free to swing 

 about the point where it enters this face from below, and the 

 block is then screwed to the ceiling or other suitable support. 

 A pendulum suspended in this manner is capable of swinging 

 for about three hours. 



The whole apparatus is contained in a small wooden box, 

 which also carries the sand in which the pendulum pointer maiks 

 the trace of its plane of swing, and is accompanied by a small 

 model pendulum, which may be used to illustrate the principle 

 of the invariability of the plane of oscillation. 



The simplicity, the compact form and the low price (20 

 francs) of this device should render possible its use in schools 

 and colleges, where hitherto the students have had to depend 

 upon descriptions and illustrations for their knowledge of this 

 important experiment, or else pay a visit to the western galleries 

 of the Victoria and Albert Museum, where a large model may 

 always be seen and, if formal representations be made to the 

 authorities, demonstrations may be given. 



PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY APPLIED TO 

 TOXINS AND ANTITOXINS. 



A VERY important contribution to our knowledge of the 

 ■^ toxins and antitoxins is contained in the "Festskrift" re- 

 cently published to celebrale the inauguration of the State 

 Serum Institute at Copenhagen, in the form of a paper with the 

 above title by Arrhenius and Madsen. In passing, we note 

 with pleasure that English has been chosen as the international 

 linguistic medium for the entire contents of the volume. The 

 necessity for collaboration between the representatives of dif- 

 ferent branches of science for the satisfactory study of many 

 of the complex problems of physiology, bacteriology and 

 pathology is gradually becoming generally recognised, and in 

 the present instance we have a striking example of the joint 

 work of two celebrated investigators on a subject lying on the 

 common boundary of their special provinces of knowledge and 

 experience. 



It is well known that tetanus toxin, prepared by filtering off 

 the bacteria from a broth culture and saturating with ammonium 

 sulphate, contains two distinct toxic substances, a spasmin, 

 which produces the characteristic convulsions, and a lysin, 

 which hemolyses the red blood corpuscles of many animals. In 

 the same way, the antitoxin produced in the serum of animals 

 immunised against tetanus contains two distinct antitoxic sub- 

 stances, an antispasmin and an antilysin. 



It has, moreover, been shown by Madsen that experiments 

 on the properties and mutual relationships of the tetanus lysin 

 and antilysin can be performed with great facility and com- 

 paratively great accuracy on blood in vitro, the uncertainty 

 attendant upon animal experiments and the great expenditure of 

 time required by them being thus avoided. 



