568 



NATURE 



[April 13, 1905 



the English coasts and in the centre of the North Sea, 

 are necessary for the complete investigation of the complex 

 conditions which occur. 



An interesting address was recently delivered to the 

 Royal Meteorological Society (published in its Journal for 

 January last) by Mr. C. W. R. Royds, first lieutenant of 

 the National Antarctic vessel Discovery. As the observ- 

 ations are now under discussion, he was onlv able 

 to give a general account of the meteorological conditions 

 of the Antarctic, but entered fully into the arduous labours 

 which were zealously carried out by the whole of the 

 observing stafT. The meteorological instruments were set 

 up on the ice on April 17, 1902, in lat. 77° 50' S., and 

 eye observations were continued until February 15, 1904, 

 at intervals of two hours ; between Sh. a.m. and loh. p.m. 

 they were taken under the superintendence of Mr. Royds, 

 and the night observations were divided between the 

 eleven officers, each taking one night. In addition 

 there were the self-recording instruments ; these were 

 managed under great difficulties, and their continuous 

 registration was entirely due to the mechanical skill 

 of Mr. Skelton, as they were frequently choked by 

 blizzards. On these occasions the rain gauge would 

 be buried under three or four feet of snow. The lowest 

 screen temperature recorded in the winter quarters was 

 ~59°-5; O" the same day at Cape .Armitage (li miles 

 distant) it was —6^°-6; the coldest day at the latter 

 station was -67°-7 (or nearly 100° of frost) on May 16, 

 1903. The highest black-bulb reading in the sun was 

 '54°. on December 21, 1902. The heaviest gale recorded 

 was 85 miles per hour, by the Robinson anemometer. 

 Throughout the stay in the Antarctic Circle no rain was 

 recorded, and fogs were not nearly so prevalent as is 

 generally supposed ; day after day clear skies and con- 

 tinuous 24 hours' sunshine were recorded. Speaking of 

 the barometer as an instrument of warning of gales, Mr. 

 Royds states that all faith was lost in it, as they came 

 on without any appreciable sudden change in the motion 

 of the mercury. 



The final report of the Royal Commission on Coal 

 Supplies was recently reviewed at some length in Nature 

 (February 2, p. 324). The minutes of evidence, the 

 reports on the various districts, and the appendices, on 

 which the commissioners' conclusions were based have 

 now been issued. The district reports contain much in- 

 formation of great value, and it is satisfactory to find 

 that, in order to render them generally accessible, they 

 are issued separately at moderate prices. The contents 

 of the various parts are as follows : — part ii., report of 

 Sir VV. T. Lewis on the available coal resources of South 

 Wales and the south of England ; part iii., report of Prof. 

 Lapworth and Mr. A. Sopwith on the coal resources of 

 the midlands; part iv., report of Prof. E. Hull, Sir G. J. 

 Armytage, and Mr. A. Strahan on the coal resources of 

 North Wales, Lancashire, and Cheshire; part v., report 

 of Mr. A. Currer Briggs on the coal resources of York- 

 shire, Derbyshire, and Nottinghamshire; part vi., report 

 of Sir Lindsay Wood on the coal resources of Northumber- 

 land, Durham, and Cumberland; part vii., report of Mr. 

 J. S. Dixon on the coal resources of Scotland; part viii., 

 report of Prof. E. Hull on the coal resources of Ireland '; 

 and part ix., report of the geological committee, consisting 

 of Prof. E. Hull, Prof. C. Lapworth, Mr. J. J. H. Teall, 

 and -Mr. A. Strahan, on the resources of the concealed and 

 unproved coalfields of the United Kingdom. Part x., 

 which covers 400 pages, contains the minutes of evidence, 

 and part xi. includes a series of appendices of great 

 NO. 1850, VOL. 71] 



interest. Among these are an estimate of the future coal 

 output of the United Kingdom, calculated at its average 

 decreasing rate of increase during the last thirty years, by 

 -Mr. R. Price-Williams, a report on the colonial and 

 foreign coal resources by Mr. Bennett H. Brough, and a 

 report on deep borings through Secondary rocks by Mr. 

 W. Whitaker. Lastly, part xii. is a supplement contain- 

 ing the plans and diagrams referred to in the evidence. 

 The report on the coal available in concealed unproved 

 areas at depths less than 4000 feet is certainly the most 

 important of this valuable series of documents. Without 

 being over-sanguine, the committee has added 40,000 

 million tons to the probable coal resources of the kingdom. 

 The coloured geological map of the United Kingdom, on 

 the scale of 25 miles to the inch, accompanying this re- 

 port, is of particular interest. 



The well known firm of Bausch and Lomb (London 

 agents, Messrs. A. E. Staley and Co.) has brought 

 out an admirable instrument in their " B.B.P. portable 

 microscope." The workmanship is excellent, and in spite 

 of the fact that the stand and accessories are packed away 

 into a case measuring ii-4X7-8x4-6 inches, the instru- 

 ment is thoroughly serviceable and convenient for use. 

 The base of the stand is made of two diverging bars, which 

 move on the upright column so as to assume a parallel 

 position when ready for packing ; but they are well and 

 heavily constructed, and are perfectly rigid when open. 

 The stage is large, and is ingeniously contrived to turn 

 into the plane of the stand when in the case, and when open 

 it is firmly held in its place. The objectives are of thf* 

 quality which would be expected from a firm with so high 

 a reputation, and the cedar oil for the immersion lens is 

 contained in a metal box, so that there is no danger of 

 breakage or leakage. We think the instrument quite 

 justifies the description given of it as a microscope 

 " capable of being, taken out and set up in a few seconds 

 ready for use, giving all the desirable features of the 

 highest grade bacteriological laboratory instrument." 



In the classical researches of Sainte-Claire Deville on 

 dissociation much use was made of the " hot and cold 

 tube " in proving the existence of chemical reactions at 

 high temperatures, the idea being that by suddenly cool- 

 ing a gaseous system there would not be time for the re- 

 combination of the gases, and hence that some clue could 

 be obtained as to the actual composition of the gaseous 

 mixture at the high temperature. The properties of fused 

 quartz have led M. Berthelot to repeat these experiments 

 under different conditions, and an account of the results 

 is given in the Comptes rendiis for April 3. The sub- 

 stances under examination were enclosed in hermetically 

 sealed quartz tubes, heated for about an hour at 1300° C. 

 to 1400° C, and then suddenly cooled by dropping the 

 tubes into cold water. The cooling in this way was at 

 least as sudden as in Sainte-Claire Deville 's experiments, 

 and the whole contents of the tubes could then be ex- 

 amined. The observations were too numerous to be given 

 in detail here, but the whole trend of the results was to 

 show that no dissociation could be detected in cases where 

 from the earlier experiments a positive result would be ex- 

 pected. Oxygen furnished no trace of ozone, and no trace 

 of hydrocarbon could be formed from carbon, in any of its 

 states, with hydrogen. The dissociation of carbon mon- 

 oxide was practically inappreciable, and in a case of special 

 practical importance, the dissociation of carbon dioxide, 

 and in which two experiments were made, one with slow 

 and the other with instantaneous cooling, no trace of dis- 

 sociation could be detected. 



