AprIt 9, 1914] 
NAL GIGE 
143 
dominant yellows, The question of piebalding is also 
dealt with, and many pages of tables of experimenta! 
results are included. 
THE unexpected discovery of hot springs and 
evidences of recent volcanic activity in Spitsbergen is 
described and illustrated by A. Hoel and O. Holtedahl 
in Naturen for January, 1913. The occurrences are in 
Wood Bay, on the little visited north coast of the 
main island. The springs have formed characteristic 
travertine basins, in which a species of Chara is 
recorded, with_a moss and twelve algal species which 
are equally new to the high arctic flora. The char- 
acteristic forms in the moving soils of Spitsbergen, 
- with their walls of stones set in circular cracks, are 
described by W. Meinardus in the Sitzungsberichte des 
Naturhistorischen Verein der preuss. Rheinlande u. 
Westfalens, 1912 (published 1913), C, p. 1. A useful 
bibliography is appended. B. Hégbom points out the 
various features in Spitsbergen that indicate the dry- 
ness and the desert-character of present conditions in 
the island (Bull. Geol. Institution of the Univ. of 
Upsala, vol. xi., p. 242), and A. Smith Woodward 
describes Lower Triassic fish-remains from Sassen 
Bay in the same volume. 
Tue Messina earthquake of December 28, 1908, 
originated in two foci, both beneath the Straits of 
Messina, one at its northern entrance, the other be- 
tween Reggio and Messina. Almost exactly four 
years later, on December 22, 1912, a strong earthquake 
occurred, probably within the latter focus. According 
to Dr. Agammennone, who describes the earthquake 
in a recent number of the Rivista di Astronomia, the 
shock was not announced by any early tremors; it dis- 
turbed an area only 135 miles in diameter; but, though 
its intensity at Messina was 7 (Mercalli scale), the 
shock failed to damage buildings erected in accord- 
ance with the new regulations. 
WE are glad to learn that the United States have 
again decided to send revenue cutters to the vicinity 
of Newfoundland Banks for the purpose of reporting 
on the conditions of the ice. The Seneca has already 
taken up her position, and is sending wireless reports 
to the Hydrographic Office in New York, in addition 
to which she will make oceanographic observations 
while cruising in that district. The meteorological 
charts of the North Atlantic issued by the offices at 
London and Hamburg for April show that drift ice 
has recently increased to a considerable extent. Bergs 
or field ice were seen on or before February 15 
nearly so far south as 42° N., and nearly so far east 
as 41° W. Several ships have had to alter their 
course, considerably, off the Newfoundland Banks. 
THE question whether thermometers in the double- 
louvred ‘‘ Stevenson’ screen, now generally used in 
this country give true measurements of air tem- 
perature has been discussed in Symons’s Meteoro- 
logical Magazine for several months past. Mr. 
W. F. A. Ellison considers that the accuracy that some 
observers are striving for is fallacious, and that on 
a sunny day no two adjacent masses of air have the 
same temperature. An important communication from 
Dr. John Aitken appears in the March number. He 
NOM23195. VOL: 93 
! 
considers that, although the whole mass of air is a 
mixture of more or less heated patches, the ther- 
mometers in the screen in question fairly represent 
the mean temperature, but that the screen must always 
read higher than the true temperature, while the sun 
shines. He points out the important fact that some 
of the screens in use in the north and south of the 
country are not similar in construction in all respects. 
ENGLISH readers of Italian scientific journals have 
often been rather puzzled when they have come across 
such names as Giuseppe Larmor, Guglielmo Ostwald, 
or Enrico Poincaré. From a note published in Isis, 
vol. i., part 4, p. 707 (1914),: by- Aldo- Mieli,. we are 
glad to learn that this practice is being discontinued, 
and he now opens the further question as to how 
uniformity can be obtained in the spelling of classical 
names and others possessing different alphabets from 
ours. Here it is suggested that the nominative case 
should be universally adopted, and in the case of 
Greek a uniform system of equivalents for the Greek 
letters should be adopted. In this list he still adheres 
to the custom of replacing the Greek ph by f. 
ARTICLES of a semi-popular character about mathe- 
matics, as distinct from papers on mathematics, are 
not so common as they deserve to be. The February 
number of the new quarterly, Isis (vol. i., part 4) goes 
a long way to supply this want. Mathematics is re- 
presented by three of the five principal articles. M. 
George Sarton writes on modern tendencies in mathe- 
matical history and criticises the recent works of M. 
Leon Brunschvicg (Paris: Felix Alcan, 1g12) and M. 
Pierre Boutroux (Paris: Hermann, 1913-14), both of 
which volumes are also reviewed in this number. In 
Prof. Gino Loria’s paper on the glories of British 
mathematics, which was read at the International Con- 
gress of Historical Studies in London in 1913, the 
author laments the scarcity of literature dealing with 
the history of English mathematics, and expresses the 
opinion that many valuabie and interesting manu- 
scripts are waiting to be unearthed. Mr. P. E. Jour- 
dain writes on the origin of Cauchy’s conceptions of 
a definite integral and of a continuous function. In 
addition there are a number of reviews of mathe- 
matical books. The subscription to Isis is 24 francs 
per annum, and the offices are at Wondelgem les 
Gand, Belgium. Messrs. Max Drechsel, of Berne, 
are agents. 
Tue photographs of the tracks of a and £ particles 
obtained by Mr. C. T. R. Wilson with his cloud 
apparatus illustrate so well the properties of these 
radiations, that many teachers will be glad to know 
the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company is now 
producing copies of them in the form of lantern slides. 
The clearness of the photographs raises the hope that 
it may be possible to obtain stereoscopic photographs 
which would enable depth to be estimated, or possibly 
kinema views which, when run through the lantern 
slowly, would allow the sequence of events to be 
followed. 
ALTHOUGH the incandescent electric lamp when 
standardised and used with accurate ammeters has 
proved the most trustworthy standard of light, the 
