Fepruary 1 6, 1905] 



NATURE 



373 



The experiments described by Dr. M. Koernicke in the 

 October (1904) number of the monthly journal Himmel 

 KHtl Erde prove that both Rontgen and radium rays can 

 produce a very marked action on plants. The general 

 result of exposure of seedlings was to cause retardation 

 and eventually cessation of growth of stem and root ; in 

 some cases growth was resumed after an interval, in 

 others the plants never recovered. The first effect of the 

 rays on' dry bean and turnip seeds was to accelerate 

 germination, but while the beans ceased to develop after 

 a time, the turnips did not even show signs of retardation ; 

 had the exposure been longer, then undoubtedly the turnips 

 would also have reacted. 



Tiu-; latest number of the [^vcstia of the Russian Geo- 

 graphical Society (1904, i. and ii.) contains a further report 

 by Colonel Novitsky on his explorations of the range of 

 Peter I., and an interesting and detailed geographical 

 sketch by A. Dunin-Gorkavitch of the northern portions of 

 the government of Tobolsk and its inhabitants. The latter 

 paper is accompanied by a new map of the province, on a 

 scale of 27 miles to the inch, which gives with special detail 

 the inhabitable portions of this immense region. M. 

 Dubyago gives the results of new pendulum observations In 

 the Urals. 



.\ " CONFERENCE NU.MBER " of the West Indian Biillelin 

 has ju.st been published (46 pp.). It relates to the agri- 

 cultural conference held at Trinidad on January 4-13, and 

 contains the list of the representatives from the several 

 West Indian colonies who attended ; an account of the 

 reception by Sir Henry Jackson, the Governor of Trinidad ; 

 a verbatim report of the presidential address by Sir Daniel 

 Morris ; and an abstract of the proceedings at the con- 

 ference and social gatherings. .\ full account of the 

 papers and discussions will form No. 4 of vol. v. and No. i 

 of vol. vi. of the Bulletin, and afford valuable information 

 on the great progress made in scientific agriculture in the 

 colonies since the Imperial Department was called into 

 existence by Mr. Chamberlain a few years ago. 



We have received a copy of the meteorological observa- 

 tions made at the Adelaide Observatory and other places 

 in South Australia during the years 1900-1901, under the 

 direction of Sir Charles Todd, Government astronomer. 

 .■Xlthough the rainfall of some districts is still unrepresented, 

 the monthly and yearly results are published for 463 

 stations in 1900, and for 474 in 1901, and these are com- 

 pared with the averages for previous years. This re- 

 presents a very large amount of valuable work, in addition 

 to that entailed by the usual tables of meteorological results 

 for a large number of stations distributed over the colony. 

 .\ table is given showing the approximate mean monthly 

 rainfall over the whole of the agricultural districts from 

 the year 1861, and the average yield of wheat per acre. 

 It is pointed out that wheat-growing can only be success- 

 fully prosecuted where the percentage of winter rains is 

 largely in excess of that for the summer months, which 

 is only usuallv the case in the southern districts. 



We are glad to be able to announce the issue of part i. 

 of the new edition of Dr. Hann's excellent " Lehrbuch der 

 Meteorologie." .Although so short a period has elapsed 

 since the publication of the first edition, the science has 

 made such important ad\"ances, owing to the results ob- 

 tained from international balloon and kite observations, and 

 from the study of the movements of the upper air by 

 means of cloud observations, that some of the older theories 

 have to be modified, and a new edition has been rendered 

 necpssary. We learn from tlie notice accompanying the 



NO. 1842, VOL. 71] 



part in question that while many details not considered 

 essential to ordinary readers w'ill be omitted, the principles 

 of the theories adopted in recent investigations by men of 

 science, c'.,^. Prof. Bigelow% in the United States, Dr. Shaw, 

 in this country, and Dr. Hildebrandsson, in .Sweden, will be 

 included. The work will consist of about si.\ parts ; the first 

 deals with air-temperature generally, and with the amount 

 of heat received by and radiated from the solid and fluid sur- 

 face of the earth. From a communication from Dr. Hann 

 which we lately published we learn that his elaborate 

 meteorological charts will, so far as possible, be extended and 

 include the important additions to our knowledge made by 

 recent expeditions to the .Antarctic regions. 



From Dr. Carmelo Scrivanich we have received a short 



pamphlet, printed by the Tipographia sociale of Spalato 



(Italy), dealing with the question of the origin of matter, 

 a subject on which the author invites discussion. 



At the present time investigations of the law of force 

 between two elements carrying currents (.Ampere's and 

 allied laws) are commonly regarded as chiefly of academic 

 interest. Several papers on this subject have been written 

 at various times by Dr. Franz Kerntler, of Budapest, and 

 a further paper dealing with the " correct law " as claimed by 

 the same author has just been issued by him. It is pub- 

 lished by the Budapester I.loyd Press, and bears the date 1905. 



The internationalisation of scientific literature is well 

 illustrated by the publication in the Proceedings of the 

 Academy of Amsterdam of a paper in English by Prof. 

 Sommerfeld, of Aachen, on a simplified deduction of the 

 field and the forces of an electron moving in any given 

 wav. The paper is supplementary to one published in the 

 Gottinger Nachrichten, and leads to the conclusion that 

 the motion of an electron with velocity exceeding that of 

 light is impossible, as it would require an infinite expendi- 

 ture of force and energy to maintain it, if the electron be 

 regarded as a sphere with a uniform surface-charge. On 

 the contrary, in the case of a sphere with a bodily-charge 

 the force remains finite. In this problem the electron moves 

 faster than the field of force which it propagates outwards, 

 and a " shadow of motion " is produced. \ simple illus- 

 tration might be afforded by comparison with the effects 

 produced on a sheet of still water by a disturbance moving 

 with a velocity greater than that wNth which the ripples 

 which it produces radiate outwards. 



In the " Publicationen des astrophysikalischen Observa- 

 torium zu Potsdam," No. 41, Dr. Lohse gives the results 

 of a detailed study of the photographic spark spectra of 

 the metals titanium, vanadium, chromium, manganese, 

 iron, nickel, cobalt, molybdenum, palladium, tungsten, 

 iridium, bismuth, lead, uranium, zirconium, lanthanum, 

 cerium, thorium, and didymium. In the majority of cases 

 the region investigated is from \ 340 to X 400, but for a 

 few metals the record is extended towards the red. Thus, 

 the record for iron goes to X 446, uranium to \ 431. zir- 

 conium to A. 471, lanthanum to \ 567. cerium to A 467, 

 and didymium to A. 569. The wave-lengths are given to 

 the nearest hundredth of a tenth-metre, and a comparison 

 of these with Rov.'land's wave-lengths for corresponding 

 solar lines indicates that they are probably correct to 

 within 003 tenth-metre in the mean. Lohse has adopted 

 the awkward intensity scale of o.i to 10. thus allowing for 

 a hundred gradations. Such a large range is neither 

 necessary nor practicable, and it would have served a 

 better purpo.se to have kept to the scale i to 10 which 

 he used in a previous publication on the same subject. 

 .\ thorough and detailed knowledge of the spark spectra 



