March 5, 190.1] 



NA TURE 



42; 



The Meteorological Office pilot chart for March directs 

 attention to the unusually cold water observed at various 

 times during last December in mid-ocean, on the Transatlan- 

 ti: steamer routes, surface temperatures as low as 38 to 45° 

 being recorded where the normal values are from 50 to 

 53 . On the western coasts of the British Isles, also, for 

 about a week from December 5, when an easterly type of 

 weather prevailed, the shore water was very cold, 36 to 38 

 being recorded even up the west of Ireland, and at Newquay, 

 on the Cornish coast, the minimum was 41 . The general 

 range of water temperature during the month was from 

 io° to 14° at the western stations, against from 4 to 7° at 

 the east coast ones. At the beginning of February the first 

 ice of the season was drifting down the east coast of New- 

 foundland and blocking the harbour of St. John's. 



A lengthy article on " White Water " in the March pilot 

 chart of the Meteorological Office gives many interesting 

 particulars relating to the phenomenon known to seamen as 

 the milky sea, which seems to be more frequently observed 

 in the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean than elsewhere. 

 Various observers describe the scene as " ghastly," " awe- 

 inspiring," " wild, weird and rather ancient marinerish," 

 &c, and Captain Carpenter, of the Challenger, states that 

 when in the milky sea a ship seems to be passing through 

 a sort of luminous fog in which all sense of distance is 

 lost ; sea and sky seem to join, and there is almost as much 

 ■danger of collision as in a true fog. Although the phe- 

 nomenon is doubtless a form of phosphorescence, no adequate 

 explanation of it has yet been arrived at. 



A report on the fishes collected in the expedition of 1898 

 to Socotra and southern Arabia has been communicated to 

 the Vienna Academy by Herr F. Steindachner. In addition 

 to several rare species hitherto only known from the Atlantic 

 Ocean, the collections contained six new forms. 



No. 80 of the Communications from the Leyden Physical 

 Laboratory contains an account of Dr. L. H. Siertsema's 

 measurements of the magnetic rotation of the plane of 

 polarisation of liquefied chloride under atmospheric pressure. 

 For sodium light the value found is o''oi372, and the rota- 

 tion dispersion is normal, differing little from that with 

 gases and with water. 



Under the title " The Practice Curve," Mr. J. H. Bair, 

 in a special supplement of the Psychological Review, de- 

 scribes experiments for investigating various aspects of 

 association, such as the relation between the sensory and 

 motor side of our mental life, the processes involved in the 

 formation and modification of habit, and endeavours in 

 general to find a satisfactory physiological and psychological 

 explanation for the phenomena of association. 



A paper on the protective action of wire gauze against 

 •explosions has been communicated to the Vienna Academy 

 ■of Sciences by Dr. H. Mache. The author considers the 

 case where a homogeneous gas-mixture traverses the gauze 

 with a velocity less than the rate of propagation of an ex- 

 plosion. In this case the flame approaches the gauze, but 

 comes to a standstill in front of it. This effect is attributed 

 to the absorption of part of the heat of combustion by the 

 wires, whereby the rate of propagation of the explosion is 

 •decreased. By means of certain assumptions, the author 

 investigates a formula for the distance at which the flame 

 stops short of the gauze. 



A useful glossary of the minerals and mineral localities 

 of Texas has been prepared by Dr. F. W. Simonds 

 {Bulletin No. 5 of the University of Texas Mineral Survey). 

 NO. 174O, VOL. 67] 



Such substances as lignite, pearls, pottery clay and petro- 

 leum are included. 



In the Proceedings of the Cotteswold Club (vol. xiv. 

 part ii., 1903) there is a detailed account of the Rhaetic 

 strata in north-west Gloucestershire, by Mr. L. Richardson, 

 who adds many new particulars relating to well-known 

 sections, and describes some fresh localities. There is also 

 the address of the president, Mr. E. B. Wethered, who dis- 

 cusses the origin of certain Palaeozoic sandstones and lime- 

 stones. 



Prof. W. W. Watts contributes an excellent account of 

 the older rocks of Charnwood Forest, with a map showing 

 the structure of the ground if the Trias and more recent 

 deposits were stripped off (Proceedings of the Geologists' 

 Association, vol. xvii., parts vii. and viii.). The structure 

 is that of an anticline traversed by thrust-planes and drop 

 faults. Attention is also directed to the terraced and 

 smoothed surfaces of the granite under Keuper Marl at 

 Mountsorrel. These features are attributed to wind erosion 

 in Triassic times, and they are well depicted in a photo- 

 graphic plate. 



" The Greatest Flying Creature " is the title of an essay 

 by Prof. S. P. Langley, and it is introductory to a paper on 

 the pterodactyl Ornithostoma ingens by Mr. F. A. Lucas 

 (Smithsonian Report for iqoi, 1902). The questions dis- 

 cussed are : — " What has Nature herself done in the way 

 of large flying machines, and are the birds which we see 

 now the limit of her ability to construct them? " Prof. 

 Langley gives particulars relating to various insects and 

 birds, of the wing surface and its relation to the weight 

 of the creature ; and these show that the larger the insect 

 or bird, the smaller is the relative supporting surface. He 

 adds, " The explanation may be very near at hand, but it 

 is not to me evident." 



Signor Luigi Brugnatelli describes (Rendiconti di Reale 

 Istituto Lombardo di Sc. e. Lett., 2, xxxv. p. 869) a 

 new mineral, "artinite," from the Valle Lanterna, which 

 is interesting chemically as a basic hydrated magnesium 

 carbonate not before known, and interesting petrologically 

 as a final decomposition product of a peridotite rock. Its 

 chemical formula is MgCO,.Mg(OH)..3H„0. Its hardness 

 is about 2'5, its specific gravity about 2'02, and its mean re- 

 fractive index about 1*53. It is biaxial and optically nega- 

 tive, but its crystallographic system could not be determined 

 with certainty. It is probably monoclinic. 



The Cambridge University Press has published solutions 

 of the examples in the " Elements of Hydrostatics," by Mr. 

 S. L. Loney, who has prepared this " Key " to his book. 



A selection of Dr. G. Stanley Hall's papers on the 

 psychology of children and its relation to pedagogics has 

 been translated into German by Dr. J. Stimpfl, and published 

 by Herr O. Bonde, Altenburg, under the title " Ausge- 

 wahlte Beitrage zur Kinderpsychologie und Padagogik." 

 Dr. Stimpfl contributes an introduction, in which he gives 

 an appreciative account of Dr. Hall's valuable studies of 

 child psychology. 



The first volume of " The Fauna and Geography of the 

 Maldive and Laccadive Archipelagoes," edited by Mr. J. 

 Stanley Gardiner, has been completed by the issue of the 

 fourth part from the Cambridge University Press. This 

 part contains papers on the Cephalochorda collected by the 

 expedition of 1899 and 1900, the birds, earthworks, the 

 Maldive and Laccadive groups, with notes on other coral 



