376 
NATURE 
[JUNE II, 1914 
His letters do not, | think, entitle him at present 
to be placed in the category of benefactors, because 
his checking is unsound and his theory is out of date. 
Even if he had succeeded in what appears to be his 
immediate object, and had cooked the forecaster’s 
goose, it would have made a sorry meal. Those who 
are acquainted with the history of meteorology in this 
or any other country know that whatever may 
be the merits of the bird herself, as long as she lives 
she may lay golden eggs which are very sustaining 
for the progress of science. 
Official forecasts for twenty-four hours in advance 
are often right and sometimes wrong, but the study of 
the daily weather by means of maps has a fascination 
which increases year by year as the observations be- 
come more precise and the area covered becomes wider 
and wider. ‘‘Age cannot wither nor custom stale 
its infinite variety.” The subject is so complex and 
so varied that it is mere vanity to think of taking up 
the whole of it at once and producing a complete 
solution applicable to the whole of time. We must 
take the pieces which our intelligence, such as it is, 
enables us to tackle. Quite apart from the practical 
utility to the public, of which others must judge, and 
which is not quite a single-valued function of accuracy, 
the daily forecast is absolutely indispensable for the 
student of atmospheric physics. The daily map serves 
also a variety of useful public purposes of which the 
forecasts are only one. 
Notwithstanding Mr, Mallock’s theory, the forecasts 
for twenty-four hours are gradually getting more 
accurate; but, even if his contention were valid, I 
should still ask to be allowed to continue the study of 
the daily observations, as my predecessors did from 
1867 to 1879, when the issue of forecasts was, once 
before, suspended in deference to the representations 
of the learned. W. N. SHaw. 
June 5. 
Cellular Structure of Emulsions. 
THE letters and photographs published on_ this 
subject do not make it quite clear whether the cellular 
structure observed is confined to the surface, or exists 
in the interior of the emulsion. Superficial cellular 
structure is by no means uncommon, and is shown 
to advantage by thin layers of heavy tar-oil or 
benzaldehyde on the surface of water. If the pheno- 
menon under discussion is restricted to the surface, it 
probably falls, as suggested by Mr. Harold Wager, 
under the heading of the “cohesion figures’? first 
studied by Tomlinson. If, however, the cellular 
structure extends throughout, some further explana- 
tion is necessary, and it would be interesting to know 
whether any such cases have been observed. 
Cuas. R. Dartine. 
City and Guilds Technical College, 
Finsbury, E.C. 
£8 and y Rays and the Structure of the Atom 
(Internal-Charge Numbers.) 
IN a previous letter to Nature (December 25; LOR, 
Pp. 477) it was suggested that ‘‘a cluster of a particles 
only may be at the centre of the atom,” and that, 
though the innermost electrons “‘ may have no influence 
at all on the properties of the elements, and for an 
electron (or a particle) penetrating from without will 
belong to the nucleus (see Nature, November PAG pe 
1913, P. 372), a B particle ejected from near that 
cluster must pass all other electrons and excite radia- 
tion different for each, as dependent on the (succes- 
sively changing) charge within.” 
NO. 2326, VOU-703] 
The word ‘‘ring’’ has here been purposely omitted ; 
for from the wave-lengths of the soft y rays (L radia- 
tion) of radium B (Rutherford and E. N. da C. 
Andrade, Phil. Mag., vol. xxvii., 1914, p. 861), and of 
the B-ray spectrum of this substance (Kutherford and 
Robinson, Phil. Mag., vol. xxvi., 1913, p. 724), it may 
be seen that these frequencies are nearly equal to the 
square of (probably all) integers from P, the periodic 
number to A/2, half the atomic weight, multiplied by 
a constant (3-942 x 10'*/sec.), and that the B-ray spec- 
trum contains only velocities equal to (probably all) 
integers from P to A/2, multiplied by a constant 
(3-175 x 10° cm./sec.), so that all the radii of the inner 
electrons should be different, and these electrons must 
‘“be moving in a manner prohibiting any two of them 
from forming a ring,’’ but not ‘either form a single 
ring or rings in parallel planes”? (J. W. Nicholson, 
Nature, May 14, p. 268, and Phil. Mag., April, 1914, 
Pp. 557, respectively), forming a ‘‘planetary’’ rather 
than a ‘“‘Saturnian”’ atom. (P=the periodic number 
=the number of peripheric electrons; see NATURE, 
December 25, 1913, p. 477, and) March 5) rata) pore 
and the periodic system in Table IT.) 
Taste I. 
1 II. WG LN V. Vil. 
Charge A.To8 | Af gatia=?) ele, B Ng 
107—99 es sa =, 
98 0-793 1945 980 
97 0-809 1-926 97:0 
g6 zi, = = 
95 0838 1-892 95-3 
94 o853 S77 ewes 
93 =a = aa, 
gi 0-917 1-809 gil 
go aa oe <3 
89 0053. | ean esos 
88 0-982 1-748 83-0 
87 1-000 1-727 87-0 
86 1-029 1-708 86-0 
85 1-055 1-687 85:0 
34 1-074 1-670 84:1 
2 1-100 1-650 83:1 
82 I-I4I 1-620 81-6 
81 1175 1597 804 
80 1-196 1-583 798 
BS c 250 1-569 Woe 
78 1266 1539 7-5. 0°823 7738 
Dei 1-286 1528 77-0 — -- 
70 1-315 1510 76-0 0-805 76-0 
75 eae) 1-499 152 0-797 1S 
74 1305 48207460 0-787 ThA 
78) =a aes 
72 0-762 72:0 
7: OFae 720 
70 ae ai 
69 A 0-731 69-1 
68 = 0-719 68-0 
67 = ot Cee 
66 = 0-700 66-5 
65 “a a a 
63 — — 
62 0-656 62-0 
61 — — 
60 0-635 60:0 
I. The possible charges for each electron. 
Il. The wave-lengths of the y rays of RaB. 
Ill. The square root of these y-ray frequencies. 
IV. The possible charges calculated from ITI. 
V. The velocities of the so-called 8 rays of RaB. 
VI. The possible charges calculated from V. 
