426 



NA TURE 



[March 5, 1903 



connection with the gases at the electrodes of the Wehnelt 

 interrupter, and by Dr. Ernest Lecher, in connection with the 

 effect of electrification of the field on the discharge. The 

 electric conductivity of powders is treated by Franz Streinitz. 



Speaking generally, the physical papers show a considerable 

 amount of steady, plodding work in the elaboration of existing 

 theories and the tabulation of statistical results rather than any 

 very striking innovations in the direction of new theories. 



Zoology. 



The systematic position of the armoured dinosaurs from the 

 upper Cretaceous of the Gosau district, originally described, on 

 the evidence of extremely imperfect material, under the names 

 of Struthiosaurus, CratEeomus and Anoplosaurus, has recently 

 occupied the attention of Herr F. B. Nopessa, jun. (Sitzungs- 

 berichte, vol. cxi. p. 93, 1902). The author follows some 

 previous observers in regarding the first and second of these 

 presumed generic types as identical, as also in considering the 

 third to be inseparable from the Huxleyan Acanthopholis. 

 Consequently, the two genera Struthiosaurus and Acanthopholis 

 have alone to be considered. 



The suggestion of the late Prof. Marsh that these European 

 forms are members of the same family (Ceratopsidre) as the 

 horned dinosaurs of the topmost Cretaceous of North America 

 is discountenanced by Herr Nopessa. Rather, he thinks, they 

 typify a family by themselves — the Acanthopholididte — in many 

 respects intermediate between the comparatively generalised 

 SteLi isauridre and the highly specialised Ceratopsida?. From 

 the* horned dinosaurs, the members of the intermediate family 

 are readily distinguished by the absence of bony horn-cores on 

 the skull and also of a frill-like neck-shield. They are further 

 characterised by the non- fusion of the cervical vertebra?, the 

 relatively large fore-limbs and the long and powerful tail. As 

 regards the large size of the fore-limb, they are connected with 

 the Stegosauridce by the Wealden Polacanthus. Taken as a 

 whole, their organisation tends to confirm the view that among 

 the armoured dinosaurs the early bipedal, or partially bipedal, 

 forms are the more primitive, and the quadrupedal types 

 (Ceratopsidre) the more specialised. 



In the samecommunication, Herr Nopessa describes a chambered 

 vertebra of one of the gigantic sauropodous dinosaurs from the 

 Cretaceous of Neuquen, Patagonia. The reptile to which this 

 vertebra belonged is regarded as generically distinct from Titano- 

 saurus and Argyrosaurus, both of which have been recorded by Mr. 

 Lydekker from the formation in question, but no further attempt 

 is made to determine its systematic position. The sauropodous 

 dinosaurs are now known in the southern hemisphere from both 

 Madagascar and Patagonia. 



Mollusca, both recent and fossil, have come in for a consider- 

 able share of attention in the issues of the Siizungsieric Ate recently 

 to hand. In vol. ex. p. 315, Herr R. Hoernes describes new 

 cerithia, belonging to the group typified by Clava bidentata, 

 from the Tertiary of Oisnitz, in Central Styria, with remarks on 

 the distribution of that group in the Mediterranean and Sarma- 

 tian horizons. The paper is illustrated by a beautifully executed 

 plate. In the succeeding volume (p. 5), Dr. C. Gorjanovic- 

 Kramberger treats of the Tertiary cockles of the genus Limno- 

 cardium in Croatia, more especially those pertaining to the sub- 

 genus Budmania. Some doubt has been thrown on the right of 

 the latter group to distinction, but, from the hinge and other 

 characters, the author justifies its separation from the more 

 typical form. Finally, in the same volume (p. 123), Dr. R. 

 Sturany discusses our present knowledge of the land molluscs 

 of Asia Minor, describing a few new forms. 



Botany, 



An interesting paper by Prof. Haberlandt gives an account 

 of cultural experiments made with isolated plant cells. These 

 were taken from the mesophyll tissue of the leaf of Lamium 

 purpureum, and when placed in culture solutions were kept 

 living for several weeks. Considerable increase in size was 

 observed in some cases, and an appreciable increase in the 

 thickness of the walls occurred, especially where the walls were 

 concave. In the solutions containing only inorganic salts, the 

 chlorophyll corpuscles soon turned yellowish, but kept their 

 g een colour when sugar was supplied. It would appear that 

 the plastids pass on all the products of their assimilation and 

 require to be constantly nourished, to prevent decomposition of 

 the chlorophyll. With regard to the renewed growth of the cells 

 when isolated, Prof. Habeilandt regards this as the continuation 



NO. I74O, VOL. 67] 



o. growth which is ordinarily arrested in the leaf to suit the- 

 requirements of the organism. Two peculiar effects of light are 

 described by Dr. H. Molisch. A flagellate, Chromophytonx 

 Rosanoffii, shows a large chromatophore which takes up a 

 position on the shaded side. If viewed from the direction in 

 which light rays are impinging upon the organism, at certain 

 angles the cells seem to sparkle. The effect is due to the light 

 which is condensed by the cell on the chromatophore and thence 

 reflected, and is similar to that described for the moss 

 Schistostega. The second paper refers to the light which is 

 emitted by the bacterium Micrococcus phosphoreus obtained 

 during the decomposition o meat. The light is sufficiently 

 strong to produce heliotropic curvature in many seedlings, and 

 a'so in the sporangiophores of Phycomyces. 



The poisonous effects so well known in the case of leaves o»- 

 Primula obconica are further elucidated by the investigations 

 of Dr. A. Nestler. Besides various cultivated forms of Primula: 

 obconica, three species, Primula sinensis, Primula Sieboldii and 

 Primula corttaoides, all belonging to the group sinensis, were 

 found to produce similar effects, giving rise to throbbing and- 

 inflammation. The source of irritation was traced to the 

 secretions of glandular hairs. These readily crystallise out, and 

 by sublimation were obtained pure. The writer recommends- 

 the outward application of strong alcohol as a palliative. 



THE FUTURE OF COAL GASA 



TXTHEN, in the early years of last century, coal gas be- 

 came a commercial reality, the one end and aim of 

 the manufacturer was to produce his gas, and such details- 

 as purity, illuminating and calorific value never troubled 

 his mind. As time passed on, however, and competing, 

 companies vied with each other in their endeavours to secure 

 customers, advantages had to be offered to coax consumers 

 from the enemy's camp, and those who remember the battle 

 of the two then existing City companies with another pro- 

 posed rival in 1847-48—49, and the way in which the gas- 

 consumers in the City were at that time pestered and pam- 

 phleted by the supporters of the rival schemes, will realise 

 that even in those days gas management was not a bed of 

 roses. The outcome of the rivalry was the introduction in 

 the early 'fifties of a standard of illuminating value, and a 

 string of Parliamentary requirements which have ever since 

 safeguarded the consumer and harried the gas manufacturer. 



In 1850 a Bill was passed which enacted that a consump- 

 tion of 5 cubic feet of gas per hour should be equal to the 

 light of twelve wax candles of the size known as sixes, the 

 burner employed being a brass Argand burner with fifteen 

 holes. In i860 another Act changed the illuminating power 

 to twelve sperm candles, which meant an increase of some 

 i6J per cent, in the illuminating value of the gas, owing to 

 the fact that the wax candles originally used were only equal, 

 in illuminating power to 10.3 sperm candles, as at present 

 employed for testing purposes. In 1S68 the illuminating 

 power was again raised to fourteen candles, whilst, in 1876, 

 the present sixteen-candle standard was reached. 



The amount of light emitted, however, by the gas was- 

 still insufficient to satisfy the desires of the consumers, who, 

 utterly ignoring the fact that the illumination to be derived 

 from coal gas was quite as much dependent on the burners 

 employed as it was upon the standard illuminating value, 

 vented their dissatisfaction at the light emitted by small 

 flat-flame burners by clamouring for a higher quality of 

 gas ; and even thirty years ago the great aim of the gas- 

 consuming public was to obtain the highest candle power 

 that could be squeezed out of the gas company, in order that 

 they might gain something like decent illumination from 

 the fiat-flame burners then almost exclusively used, and which, 

 were, as a rule, so small as to destroy entirely the value of 

 the gas. It was at this period that the anomaly became 

 common of seeing a town supplied with gas of more than, 

 twenty-candle illuminating value swathed in semi-darkness, 

 whilst another, using the much-abused thirteen- or fourteen- 

 candle gas, supplied at a good pressure and burnt in decent- 

 sized burners, was well illuminated. 



It was at this time, also, that some of our most able 

 chemists ranged themselves on the side of the votaries o{ 



1 Abstract of Cantor lectures delivered at the Society of Arts by Profi- 

 V. B. Lewes. 



