January 15, 1903] 



NA TURE 



249 



observed. From the tabulated results, it appears that the 

 periods of vibration for the fundamental and first two 

 overtones, while varying considerably for different rifles, 

 may be said to be roughly about 0^04, o'oo8 and o'oo2 of 

 a second, and the first two overtones are those the periods 

 of which have been the most completely determined. In 

 the case of the other vibrations, most of the tabulated 

 results contain the mere indication that they have been 

 observed, from which it is a natural inference of the 

 reader that they have been much less intense, a result 



^■.■s^.--.-*.- - 



*-**>**—- «~ 



VT 



Fig. i.— 10-Millimetre Servian rirl:, right-handed breech, fixed in cork. 



which appears on general grounds highly probable. The 

 nodal points of the overtone appear to a certain extent to 

 vary periodically in position. The vertex of the angle of 

 vibration, instead of being at the screw of the breech 

 pin, as commonly assumed, is at a nodal point near the 

 muzzle, a result arising from the effect of one of the over- 

 tones at the instant when the bullet leaves the gun, and 

 as the overtones predominate, the vertex approaches the 

 muzzle. 



Of- practical interest is the conclusion that, since a 

 certain time elapses before the vibrations are completely 



Fig. ?. —it-Millimetre Mauser held as in rifle practice. The white spot 

 7, indicates the instant of the bullet leaving the barrel. 



formed, it is important that the bullet should leave the 

 muzzle before the deflection of the barrel has become 

 considerable, and hence that a small-bore gun is to be 

 preferred to one of large calibre. In the six-millimetre 

 Mauser gun, it would appear, from the position of the 

 white dot in Fig. 3, that the limit in this direction has 

 practically been attained, so far as horizontal vibrations 

 are concerned. 



Two further points are discussed. The effect of the 

 breech has been observed by comparing guns with a 

 right-handed and left-handed breech respectively. In 



particular vibrations. The effect was to increase the 

 periods of the first overtone from 00095 ,0 o'°>3° of a 

 second and of the second from 00016 to o'oo36 of a 

 second, to give rise to a third overtone of period 0001 [ 

 of a second and also to alter the phase at the instant at 

 which the bullet left the muzzle. 



The paper of which this is a brief summary is published 

 in the Abhandlungen of the Bavarian Academy (cl. 2, 

 vol. xxi. part iii., pp. 559-574), and it will be seen that it 

 has an important bearing on rifle shooting generally. A 

 marksman who is fully aware of the nature of the 

 vibrations occurring in his rifle ought to be able to allow 

 for them, with a little practice, far better than one ignorant 

 of the scientific aspect of the question. 



G. H. Bryan. 



Fig. 3. — 6-Millimetre Mauser rifle, fixed in cork. 



the former, a deviation to the right of 7111m. per 45 

 metres was observed, in the latter, a deviation to the leit 

 of 4 mm. in the same distance. 



The other question arises in connection with the attach- 

 ment of bayonets. In some observations of the horizontal 

 vibrations, a rifle of 11 mm. calibre was experimenled 

 on, with the bayonet attached at one side, the lateral 

 attachment being the best calculated to affect these 



NO. 1733- voL - 6 7] 



PROF. JOHN YOUNG. 



JOHN YOUNG was born in Edinburgh in 1835. He 

 J was educated at the High School and at the Uni- 

 versity, and finally he graduated as doctor of medicine. 

 Like many of his time, he came under the spell of the 

 great teachers who then made the northern university 

 famous, such men as Goodsir, Edward Forbes, Christison, 

 Syme and Simpson, and there is reason to believe that 

 in particular the first two gave a scientific bias to Dr. 

 Young's career. For some time he worked on the staff 

 of the Ordnance Survey and made a friend of Sir 

 Roderick Murchison, then a leader in the geological world. 

 This was followed by his appointment to the chair of 

 natural history in the University of Glasgow in 1866, and 

 in this chair he taught both zoology and geology for 

 nearly thirty-five years. After a period of failing health, 

 he died on December 13, 1902. Such, in brief, is an 

 outline of his career, but those who knew Dr. Young 

 will recognise how imperfect a representation it is of the 

 man's personality. Gifted with a keen and penetrating 

 intellect and a fertile imagination, showing versatility of 

 acquirements rarely met with, absolutely unconventional, 

 he was also a man of untiring and restless energy. He 

 was a scholar in a high sense of the term, he possessed 

 a cultivated and pure literary taste, he was an artist 

 facile both with brush and pencil, and he had a wide and 

 critical taste in music. As keeper of the Hunterian 

 Museum, he acquired much knowledge of rare books and 

 manuscripts, of the great collection of coins and medals 

 to be found there, and of works of art. Wide, however, 

 as was the sphere of his activity in the University, he 

 yet found time for active labours in the cause of female 

 education, in the work of the Technical College, and in 

 ihe municipal and social life of the city of Glasgow. It 

 was this versatility and superabundant energy that 

 hindered Dr. Young from doing the amount of original 

 work in the two sciences of zoology and geology 

 which might have been expected from a man of his 

 genius, and the woik of his life must not be judged 

 from this point of view. His chief labour, perhaps, was 

 the systematic arrangement of the great legacy of 

 William Hunter— books, picture?, medals, engravings, 

 co i ns — an d in this work he took a keen delight and over 

 it he spent laborious hours, even far on into the night when 

 silence reigned in the cloisters. But it was the man's 

 individuality of character that made him a force in his 

 time. Often a determined opponent, he could also be a 

 true friend, while his mental moods, sometimes quiet and 

 observant, ofttimes brilliant and radiant with flashes of 

 wit and humour, constrained even those who knew him 

 best to regard him as a man quite by himself. He has 

 thus left little of an enduring character in the literature of 

 science, but he wilt be long remembered by many gener- 

 ations of students in the University of Glasgow. 



John G. McKf.ndrick. 



