62 



NA TURE 



[November 17, 1904 



graphically the variations of the principal magnetic and 

 meteorological elements and of earth movements, in addition 

 to a self-registering " Beckley " rain gauge and other auto- 

 matic apparatus. The tables, containing hourly and mean 

 values, have been carefully prepared on the Greenwich 

 pattern, and are, therefore, quite clear and convenient for 

 reference. Mr. Claxton prints the results of an interesting 

 investigation of the degree of accuracy of self-registering 

 maximum and minimum thermometers. He finds that maxi- 

 mum thermometers read higher in a horizontal position than 

 when inclined to the horizon ; the excess mav amount to 

 1° F. Also, that the indications of spirit minimum thermo- 

 meters are untrustworthy, owing chiefly to evaporation of 

 the spirit. They should be used in conjunction with an 

 ordinary mercurial thermometer. 



A PAPER on Britain's place in foreign markets is con- 

 tributed to the Economic Journal for September by Prof. 

 A. W. Flux. The author has had considerable difficulty 

 in drawing up statistics owing to the great discrepancies 

 which he finds in the returns from different countries. He, 

 however, considers that the market for British goods in 

 Germany, France, and the United States, though narrowed 

 by the tariff policy of the third, is still of great importance, 

 and is expansive in some degree except in the case of the 

 United States. In all three cases, however, the trade done 

 by other countries as a whole has grown faster than their 

 trade with us. 



During March, 1903, several excursions were made 

 to the Phlegraean fields of Naples by Dr. G. de Lorenzo and 

 Sir .'\rchibald Geikie. At the suggestion of the latter the 

 former has now published a short history of volcanic activity 

 in this region (Rendiconto Naples Academy, May to July). 

 Dr. de Lorenzo divides the volcanic formations into three 

 periods, the first being represented by the pipernoid tufa 

 of the Campagna and by conglomerate and breccia at Cuma, 

 Camaldoli and Procida, the second by the yellow tufa of 

 Posilipo, Xisida, Pozzuoli, Capodimonte, &c., and the 

 trachitic masses of the Vomero, and the third period by the 

 eruptions of the Solfatara, .Monte Nuovo, the Lago d'.Agnano 

 and similar formations. 



In the Rendiconto of the Naples Academy for March and 

 April, Prof. Orazio Rebuffat describes some interesting and 

 simple experiments with radium salts. When a glass rod 

 was rubbed with wool in the common way for producing 

 electric sparks the author found that if the experiment 

 was performed in a medium containing a radium salt a 

 luminous glow follow^ed the wool, and when the finger was 

 brought near the excited glass a glow was again seen. 

 By taking a vacuum tube and opening connection with a 

 small tube containing a salt of radium, and then rubbing 

 the outside of the glass tube with wool, a brilliant glow 

 was seen w-ithin. By means of this experiment Prof. 

 Rebuffat considers it possible to demonstrate the production 

 of emanations from radium preparations of very feeble 

 activity. 



Dr. R. vox LnNDENFKi.n, of Prague, has published in 

 Globus, lx.\xv., 24, a discussion of the melting of glacier's in 

 winter. The author considers that the earth's interior heat 

 is incapable of accounting for any considerable part of the 

 phenomenon ; indeed, he only attributes about 3 per cent, 

 to 6 per cent, of the result to this cause. Another cause 

 which may account for a further i per cent, is the slow 

 conduction of the summer heat to the interior. The main 

 cause of the melting is attributed to the heating of the 

 NO. 1829, VOL. 71] 



ice by the work done in its descent. This work is converted 

 into heat in overcoming friction, viscosity, and similar re- 

 sistances, just as in Joule's classical experiments. A 

 further increase in the internal melting during the winter 

 is probably due to the pressure produced by the winter 

 snows. 



.A SPECIAL report of the seventy-sixth meeting of the 

 German Association of Naturalists and Physicians is con- 

 tained in the number of the Physikalische Zeitschrift for 

 October 20. The meeting was held at Breslau from 

 September 18 to 24, and the physical papers include the 

 following: — E. Hoppe, constitution of magnets; H. HarrI, 

 lecture apparatus ; C. Pulfrich, coast surveying, &c. ; l''. 

 Muller, vacuum apparatus; C. Dieterici, energy of water and 

 its vapour ; W. Scheffer, stereoscopic problems ; A. Kohler, 

 photomicrography by ultra-violet light; J. Stark, mercury 

 lamps of quartz glass ; O. Lummer and P. Weiss, n-rays ; 

 W. Nernst, chemical equilibria at high temperatures ; 

 L. Grunmach, properties of emanium and liquid nitrous 

 oxide ; A. Wehnelt, negative ions from incandescent metallic 

 oxides ; O. Lummer, resolution of fine spectrum lines ; 

 W. Schmidt, models of wave motion ; H. T. Simon, a phase- 

 meter ; M. Reinganum, molecular volumes of halogen salts ; 

 L. Graetz, radiations from hydrogen peroxide; J. Rosen- 

 thal, Sprengel pumps ; W. Stern, tone-variators ; K. 

 Schreber, explosion motors, also force, weight and mass ; 

 G. Bredig and F. Epstein, kinetics of adiabatic reactions ; 

 and E. Meyer, combustion engines. In addition a dis- 

 cussion took place on mathematical and scientific teaching 

 in the higher schools, including addresses by K. Fricke, 

 F. Klein, F. Merkel, and G. Leubuscher. In the general 

 meetings papers were read on the Ice age by Messrs. 

 Bruckner, Meyer and Partsch, on the Antarctic expedition 

 by Prof. Gazert, and on biological mechanics by Prof. 

 Roux. 



The scientific methods which have characterised Japanese 

 operations in the Far East are not the only results of the 

 well developed system of education which the last thirty- 

 five years has seen established in Japan. Some fifty years 

 ago Japan was a hermit nation more than five centuries 

 behind the times, to-day she constitutes a new and important 

 factor in the problem of the distribution of the world's 

 commerce. The story of the foreign commerce of Japan 

 since the restoration of imperial authority in 1868 is told 

 by .Mr. Yukimasa Hattori in Nos. 9 and 10 of series xxii. 

 of the Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and 

 Political Science, copies of which have reached us. Mr. 

 Hattori considers his subject under three headings : the 

 volume of trade, the character of Japan's commerce, and 

 the geographical distribution of trade. Two remarks 

 towards the end of his paper will show the conclusions 

 to which Mr. Hattori has come. " Japan must rely on 

 industrial development rather than on agriculture, and must 

 try to excel in the quality of the goods produced rather 

 than in quantity." "Japan possesses all the advantages 

 necessary to make her a great manufacturing country. Her 

 people possess exceptional skill, and labour is relatively 

 cheap ; coal is abundant, and the raw material is easily 

 obtainable either at home or in the neighbourmg countries." 

 Those readers who have followed the steps in Japan's de- 

 velopment since 1868 will be prepared to agree with Mr. 

 Hattori that his country is but " at the very beginning of 

 beginnings " of what will yet be seen. 



A SECOND edition of Mr. Drinkwater Butt's " Practical 

 Retouching " has been published by Messrs. Iliffe and Sons 

 Ltd., at IS. net. 



