3°4 



NA TURE 



[January 29, 1 903 



August and November for the years 1896-1901. From a statis- 

 tical point of view, the volume will prove useful, but it seems a 

 pity that observations should be kept so long before they are 

 published. 



The paper on electric automobiles read by Mr. H. F. Joel 

 before the Institution of Civil Engineers on January 13 is one 

 of great interest. The desirability of the automobile replacing 

 horse traction from a sanitary point of view is probably admitted 

 by everyone, and certainly the electric car would afford the best 

 solution. Mr. Joel is of opinion that there is a great future 

 before the electric automobile, which has already proved itself 

 capable of running 100 miles on one charge and of performing 

 much longer tours. This shows that even the storage battery 

 of to-day is sufficiently good to give very satisfactory results ; 

 the author in his paper goes carefully into the results of the 

 battery tests made by the Automobile Club of France, and into 

 the question of the ratio of weight of vehicle to weight of 

 battery. Many valuable curves showing the relations between 

 ton-mileage, total weight, useful load, &c. , are given, and the 

 paper is, on the whole, a valuable contribution on the subject. 



A series of papers by Dr. Ouirino Majorana in the Alti dei 

 Lined of last summer are devoted to the phenomena of magnetic 

 double refraction and the so-called " bimagnetic rotation " of the 

 plane of polarisation. The phenomena were observed by 

 fixing a column of liquid 7 cm. long between the poles of a 

 Weiss electromagnet, the solutions best suited for the purpose 

 being chloride of iron and still better " dialysed iron." 

 The bi-refraction is proportional to the thickness of the liquid 

 column, which is normal to the lines of force and also to the 

 degree of concentration of the solution. For different colours, 

 it varies inversely as the square of the wave-length. Experi- 

 ments conducted with the view of ascertaining the rapidity with 

 which the phenomena are produced tend to show that, like 

 rotatory polarisation and Kerr's phenomenon, it takes place 

 instantaneously. Dr. Majorana's phenomenon of "bimagnetic 

 rotation," which has already been noticed in these columns, is 

 discussed in conjunction with Voigt's highly probable explan- 

 ation that it owes its origin to the unequal absorption of the 

 light-components polarised along and perpendicular to the lines 

 of force. It is obvious that in a ray polarised on entrance in a 

 direction making an angle of, say, 45 with the lines of force, 

 the effect of such an unequal absorption would be to deflect the 

 plane of polarisation towards the direction in which the absorp- 

 tion is least. The phenomenon is observed in certain impure 

 solutions of ferric chloride; it is approximately proportional 

 to the thickness of the liquid traversed, at any rate when 

 the deviation is small. As the intensity of the field increases, 

 the deviation at first increases rapidly and then tends to a 

 constant limit. From theoretical grounds, it follows that if the 

 planes of polarisation on incidence and emergence make angles 

 a and 8 with the lines of force, the ratio of tan o to tan G is 

 constant, and hence sin (a -8) is proportional to sin (a + B), so 

 that the deviation (a - £), being small, is proportional to 

 sin(a-f-jS), and hence is a maximum when the angles are nearly 

 45 , agreeing with the results of experiments 



The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued two reports, 

 one by Dr. W. O. Atwater and Dr. F. G. Benedict, on the 

 metabolism of matter and energy in the human body, and the 

 other by Prof. Charles E. Wait, drawn up under the immediate 

 supervision of Prof. Atwater, dealing with the effect of muscular 

 work on the metabolism of nitrogen and the digestibility of 

 food. These reports form a part of the nutrition investigations 

 for which a special committee has been appointed by the 

 Department. The first report deals with thirteen experiments, 

 forming part of a series which are in progress at Middletown, 

 Conn., and which have for their ultimate object the study of the 



NO. 1735, VOL. 67] 



laws of nutrition. The Atvvater-Rosa respiration calorimeter 

 used in the experiments is shown to be a satisfactory instrument 

 of precision, and the conclusions, besides affording information 

 as to the demands of the body for nutriment, and the effect of 

 muscular work on digestion and metabolism, afford evidence 

 little short of definite demonstration that the principle of con- 

 servation of energy holds good in living organisms. 



The first part of an illustrated paper, by Dr. H. von Buttel- 

 Keepen, on the phylogenetic relationship of bees' nests, and the 

 biology of solitary and social bees, appears in the Biologisches 

 Cenlralblatt for January. 



We have received a copy of the Transactions of the York- 

 shire Naturalists' Union for 1900, containing reports on the 

 Lepidoptera and also on the botany and meteorology of the 

 county. 



In part i. of the third volume of Annals of the South African 

 Museum, Dr. W. F. Purcell describes new genera and species 

 of the arachnoid family Solpugidas and also certain typical 

 Arachnida. 



The Zoologist for January contains an account, by Mr. W. F. 

 Raunsley, of a South American quaker-parrot {Myiopsittacns 

 monachns) — -said to be the only nest-building species of its tribe 

 — building in the open in the New Forest, near Lyndhurst. The 

 nest, which was of large size, was constructed in the angle of 

 the roof of a house. It is not the first time that birds of this 

 species have nested in the open. 



We have received two fasciculi o. the Proceedings or the 

 U.S. Museum (Nos. 1311 and 1312). In the former, Mr. J. E. 

 Benedict describes as new one genus and forty-six species of the 

 crustacean family Galatheida?, with a list of all the known 

 marine representatives of the group. In the latter, Mr. W. H. 

 Dall gives a synopsis of the molluscan family Veneridre, with 

 a list of the existing North American species, among which 

 many are new. 



The Fishing Gazette 01 January 17 relates a curious incident 

 which occurred at the fish-breeding establishment at Hdlms- 

 bach, Germany, on July 3, 1899. In one of the buildings were 

 some tanks containing a number of live trout about to ba 

 dispatched to Berlin. Daring a thunderstorm, a heavy flash of 

 lightning appeared to strike the building, and on examination 

 it was found that all the fish in the tank next an open window 

 were dead. Although the wire-netting covering the tank was 

 not damaged and the fish themselves showed no special signs of 

 having been struck, there seems every probability that the 

 deaths of the latter were caused by the lightning. A similar 

 experience was recorded in Germany in 1901, and some years 

 ago, after a severe thunderstorm, a number of large trout were 

 found dead in a pool in our own Lea. 



The Quarterly Review for January contains three articles 

 connected with biological science. In the first, Mr. Lydekker 

 discusses the origin of the present and past vertebrate faunas of 

 South America, devoting special attention to the fossil mammals 

 and birds of the pampean formation of the Argentine and the 

 Santa Cruz beds of Patagonia. It is shown that at the epoch of 

 the deposition of the latter, South America was insulated and 

 inhabited mainly by a fauna of edentates, peculiar ungulates, 

 rodents, monkeys, marsupials and giant birds. A subsequent 

 connection with North America permitted the immigration of 

 northern types, while, conversely, a certain number of southern 

 forms effected an entrance into North America. As to the 

 origin of the primitive South American fauna, there is still 

 much uncertainty and speculation, but it is considered probable 

 that a contingent was furnished from Africa by means of a land- 

 bridge. Some remarkable evidence is cited in regard to the 



