oO 
a NATURE 
[JUNE 11; 1974 
been working in Richard’s laboratory at Harvard in 
order to obtain atomic weights of as high a degree of 
trustworthiness as possible. The differences established 
by the series of determinations announced at the 
meeting by Fajans amount to about 0°3 per cent. 
(Soddy and Hymans read a paper before the London 
Chemical Society on May 7, in which they likewise de- 
scribed experiments which showed a difference between 
thorite lead and ordinary lead of o0’5 per cent.) The 
keen discussions which followed the various papers 
showed quite clearly that the chief subjects at present 
of general interest to physical chemists in Germany 
are: (1) applications of the theory of quanta; (2) the 
nature of sorption; (3) the photochemistry of gases; 
and (4) the generalisation made by Bredig and 
Snethlage, in extension of the work of numerous 
other investigators, as to the parallelism between the 
catalytic activity of undissociated acids and_ their 
strength. A striking illustration of the wide bear- 
ing of some of the (at first sight) apparently un- 
interesting special investigations were afforded by 
E. Cohen’s paper on unstable modifications of pure 
metals. His results demonstrate that most measure- 
ments hitherto made of physical constants of metals, 
such as density and Hall effect, have not been carried 
out on chemical individuals, but on unknown mix- 
tures of these unsuspected metastable forms, so that 
they require to be revised. 
WE have received the catalogue of microscopes, 
etc., made by C. Reichert, of Vienna, for which 
Messrs. Angus and Co., of Wigmore Street, are the 
British agents. Since the foundation of the firm in 
1876, 55,000 microscopes have been produced. The 
catalogue comprises microscope stands of varying 
complexity, achromatic and apochromatic objectives, 
comparison eye-pieces and other accessories, polari- 
meters, and microtomes Both workmanship and 
prices compare favourably with those of other well- 
known makers. 
WE have seen the March issue of Gendai no Kagaku 
(Scientific Gazette)—a new Japanese journal similar 
to Nature, printed in Japanese characters. It has 
been designed to meet an increasingly felt need for 
a serious and authoritative general organ for the 
growing body of men of science and students of 
research in Japan. The journal is well printed, and 
its contents are written and edited by professors of 
the Tokyo and Kyoto Imperial Universities. The 
issue before us contains special articles on insects and 
their pup, the relation between zoology and medicine, 
great men of science, and inertia and relativity; 
reviews of books; notes and abstracts classified under 
the various sections of astronomy, physical geography, 
biology, chemistry, and applied sciences ; meteorological 
reports and ephemerides of celestial phenomena, and 
proceedings of societies. In the last-named section 
no fewer than eight learned societies of Tokyo are 
represented. ‘The illustrations include a collotype por- 
trait of Prof. Simon Newcomb, and a star chart, to 
be continued serially. The publication is to be wel- 
comed as a sign of the increase of interest in scientific 
subjects in Japan. 
NO; 2326, VOL. 93] 
| the S:-E. horizon in 281°—25°. 
Pror. W. Bareson’s work on-‘‘ Mendel’s Principles 
of Heredity’? has been translated into German by 
Alma Winckler, and published with an introduction 
by Prof. R. von Wettstein, under the title, **‘ Mendel’s 
Vererbungstheorien,”” by Mr. B. G. Teubner, Leipzig 
and Berlin, at the price of 12 marks. Another trans- 
lation just received from the same publisher is ** Pflan- 
zenanatomie,”’ translated by Dr. S. Tschulok from the 
fifth Russian edition of Prof. V. I. Palladin’s work. 
We have also received a volume entitled ‘‘ Theory of 
the Atom,” by Prof. T. Mizuno, of Kyoto Imperial 
University, Japan, published by the Maruzen Co., 
Ltd., Tokyo, but as it is in Japanese characters it is 
intelligible only to a few European men of science, and 
no useful purpose would be served by reviewing it in 
these columns. 
OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 
ASTRONOMICAL OCCURRENCES FOR JUNE :— 
June rr. oh. om. Jupiter stationary. 
» 15h. 33m. Uranus in conjunction with the 
Moon (Uranus 1° 48’ N.). 
12. 12h, 32m. Jupiter in conjunction with the 
Moon (Jupiter 0° 44’ N.). 
18. 20h. om. Mercury at greatest elongation 
(24° 55' E.). 
om. 8h. §5m. ‘Sumi enters “Sign” of Canter 
Summer commences. 
22. 12h. 24m. Saturn in conjunction with the 
Moon (Saturn 6° i’ S.). 
25. 21h. 9m. Venus in conjunction with the 
Moon (Venus 0° 46’ S.). 
27. 15h. 58m. Mars in conjunction with the 
Moon (Mars 0° 36’ N.). 
Comet 1914b (ZLATINSKy).—Astronomische Nachrich- 
ten, No. 4737, publishes the elements and ephemeris 
of the comet discovered by Zlatinsky (1914b) calculated 
by Mr. Crawford and Miss Levy. These agree very 
closely with those computed by Prof. H. Kobold, and 
published in this column on May 28 (p. 330). A 
further communication to this number by Prof. E. C. 
Pickering states that Dr. Perrine cables the similarity 
of Zlatinsky’s comet with comet 1790 III., Caroline 
Herschel. The following ephemeris has been calcu- 
ie by Dr. Ebert, and appears in Das Weltall for 
May :— 
R.A. Dec. 
iby 5 SS. 5 ; 
June 11 Ke Susan si Se ee 7 05 
1S) ae = OF 505 
US) ne Do ei et 2S 
17 eee QO 11887 a 4 26-1 
19 566 9 15 44 ws —5 56:2 
FIREBALLS.—Mr. W. F. Denning writes that on 
June 3 at about 10.30 p.m., and June 4 at 11.7 p.m., 
brilliant meteors were observed by Mrs. Fiammetta 
Wilson, of Bexley Heath. The former had a path 
from 80°+46° to 33°+509°, which it traversed in 
6; seconds, carefully timed by stop-watch. The latter 
was placed near the N.W. horizon, close to the stars 
Castor and Pollux, and seemed to explode with a 
flash brighter than Venus. 
The fireball of June 3 was seen at Bristol, and a 
comparison of the pair of observations shows its 
height to have been about fifty-one to forty-eight miles. 
It flight was almost horizontal from a radiant near 
Path about 160 miles 
long, velocity twenty-five miles per second. It began 
over The Wash and ended over the county of Durham. 
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