Dec. 28, 1871J 



NATURE 



"^IZ 



In Ihis table, column I gives Ihe auroral and the Fraunhofer 

 lines ; column 2, the number of these as measured upon the scale 

 of the spectroscope used; column 3, the wave-lengths of these 

 lines ob:ained as above stated ; column 4, the wave-lengths of 

 the auror.il lines, given by themselves ; and column 5, the wave- 

 lengths of what I assume to be tlie same lines, with their wave- 

 lengths as raeisured by the observers mentioned. 



'I'he point of particular interest in this observation is the fact 

 that the line (4) of wave-lenglh 502 is not laid down in any 

 authority accessible to me a5 having been observed in the auroral 

 spectrum. Indeed, no previous observer, so far as I know, has 

 seen any auroral line between the Fraunhofer lines b and F. 

 Professor C. A. Young (Joiirnnl of Scieniii and Art, III. ii. 

 332, Nov., 1S71) gives two lines — Nos. 56 and 57, or i866-8 and 

 18703 of Kirchhoff — obsen'ed by hira in the sun's chromo- 

 sphere and also by Kayct in the eclipse of 1868, one of which 

 may coincide witli this fourth auroral line. 



New Haven, Nov. 13 George F. Barker 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The Geological Magazine, Nos. 86 — 89, August to November 

 1871. This valuable magazine continues to furnish us every 

 month with important and interesting articles upon subjects be- 

 longing to the various departments of geology. In the first 

 number now before us we hnd an interesting paper on volcanoes 

 by the editor, Mr. H. Woodward, and a particularly valuable 

 arlicle by Mr. J. W. Judd on the anomalous mode of growth of 

 certain fossil oysters. In the latter, which is illustrated with a 

 plate, the author notices those oysters from various secondary 

 deposits, in which the shell has acquired throughout the peculiar 

 sculpture of some ammonite, Ti'igo?ua, or other shell, to which 

 its lower valve has adhered during growth. — In the Septcml>er 

 number the most interesting paper is Mr. Woodward's descrip- 

 tion of a new Arachnide from the Dudley coal-measures. This 

 animal, to which the author gives the name of Eophrynus 

 Prestvicii, is most nearly allied to the existing genus Phryims, 

 and the specimen is remarkable for the beautiful preservation of 

 the casts of both suifaces. — Among the contents of the October 

 number we must call p.articular attention to Dr. Murie's article 

 on Sivathcriuin, in which the author discusses the characters of 

 that most remarkable animal, which he regards as most nearly 

 allied to the Saiga antelope, the latter being placed by him at 

 the central point of ramification of the hollow-horned rumin.ants, 

 and leading from the ruminants towards the Pachyderms through 

 the Tapir. This valuable memoir is illustrated with two plates, 

 one representing the skeleton of the animal, the other giving an 

 ideal restoration of the living aspect of the male, female, and 

 young of this gigantic ruminant. — The November number opens 

 with a biographical notice (with a portrait) of Sir Roderick 

 Murchison, followed by a shorter one of Mr. Charles Babbage. 

 The other articles contained in it are on relics of the Carboni- 

 ferous and other old land-surfaces, by Mr. Woodward ; on the 

 prospects of coal south of the Mendips, by Messrs. Bristow 

 and H. B. Woodward ; on the futUe search for coal near 

 Northampton, by Mr. S.Sharp ; and on the Foraminifera of the 

 Cretaceous rocks, by Mtssrs. T. Rupert Jones and W. K. 

 Parker. 



The Journal of Botany for November commences with an in- 

 teresting contribution to historical botany ; in a paper read by 

 the late Robert Brown before the Edinburgh Natural History 

 Society in 1792 on "The Botanical History of Angus " never 

 before printed. It was probably his first contribution to botanical 

 science, having been written when he was about eighteen years 

 old. Prof. Thiselton-Dyer contributes some observations on 

 "Fungi parasitic upon I'accinium I'ltis- fila-a ," and i\lr. A. W. 

 Bennett " Further observations on Protandry and Protogyny," in 

 continuation of his previous researches on this subject. Mr. T. 

 A. Briggs has a note on an undescribed species of Rubtis, and 

 the remainder of the number is filled up with short notes, 

 abstracts, extracts, and reviews. 



The number for December opens with the commencement of 

 a paper by Mr. J. G. Baker " On the Botany of the Lizard Penin- 

 sula." Although this district is well known to botanists as the 

 habitat of many very rare -and local plants, yet no detailed 

 account has yet been published of the flora of this portion of 

 Cornwall. From the idea that many plants very common in 

 other parts of England would find their limit short of this south- 



western extremity of the island, a list is here given of every 

 flowering plant observed during a three days' visit, accompanied 

 by general remarks on the peculiarities of the flora, both in what 

 it includes and in what is absent from it. The only other 

 original paper of importance in tlie number is a new arrangement 

 by the Rev. J. C. Leefe of the English species of the extremely 

 difficult genus Salix. 



Journal of tlie Royal Gcologioal Society of Ireland. Part I, vol. 

 iii. new series (vol. xiii.), has just been published. It contains 

 besides the Report of Council for 1870-71, J. Emerson Reynolds 

 on two remarkable Crystals of Galena; G. PI. Kinahan, addi- 

 tional notes on Foliation, and supplementary notes on some of 

 the Drift in Ireland ; R. G. Symes, on the Geology and extinct 

 Volcanoes of Clermont, Auvergne — plates i. ii. iii. ; W. H. 

 Baily, on the genus Plcurorhynchus, and a new species — plate 

 iv. ; M.H. Ormsby, Analyses of some Granite Rocks from India, 

 and of their constituent minerals (1668) ; Edwd. T. Hardman, 

 Analysis of Trachyte Porphyry from Tardree near Antrim, and 

 on the Analysis of a Limestone compared with that of the same 

 rock where it is in close proximity to a Doloritic Dyke ; R. C. 

 Tichborne, note on the Geological Formation of some of the 

 Tiroxides. 



Journal of the Chemical Society, October. — This number does 

 not contain any papers originally communicated to the Society. 

 The abstracts of foreign papers, however, occupy nearly 100 

 pages, and comprise many subjects of interest. The importance 

 of tlie work done this way by the Chemical Society can scarcely 

 be estimated ; the journal must now be of great value not only 

 to the chemist, but also to tlie physicist, physiologist, and to the 

 chemical manufacturer, for many papers in these subjects are 

 abstracted fully. An abstract of M. Berthelot's paper on the 

 heat evolved in the formation of organic derivatives of nitric acid 

 is very interesting. It is shown that in the formation of nitro- 

 glycerine, a very small amount of heat is evolved, as comp.ared 

 with that evolved in the formation of gun-cotton or nitrobenzine. 

 This will account for the ready decomposition of the former, and 

 the formidable effects produced by its decomposition. Amagat 

 has experimented on the compressibility and dilatation of sul- 

 phurous and carbonic anhydrides ; lie finds that they first begin to 

 act as perfect gases at a temperature of 250" C. Several of the 

 abstracts contained in this number have already been noticed in 

 these pages. One of them deserves especial notice, by Friedel 

 and Ladenburg, on silicopropionic acid ; this body is the first in 

 which the group CO„H contained in organic acids has been re- 

 placed by the corresponding group SiO.. H. Amato has obtained 

 a curious compound, glucosophosphoric acid, the sodium salt of 

 which has the composition CfiHuOjNaoPOj. Waage has pub- 

 lished a paper on the use of bromine in chemical analysis, in 

 which he points out that this reagent can be substituted with 

 advantage for chlorine in many instances ; it is very useful in de- 

 composing pyrites, the whole of the sulphur being easily oxi- 

 dised. We find an abstract of llischof's paper on Fire Clays, 

 which appears to deal very practically with this most important 

 subject. 



The part just issued of the Transactions oftheLinnean Society, 

 completing vol. xxvii., contains three papers, of two of these, 

 " Revision of the Genus Cassia," by Mr. G. Bentham, the pre- 

 sident, and " Contributions to the Natural History of the Passi- 

 florcte," by Dr. M. T. Masters, abstracts have already appeared 

 in our columns. The remaining paper, " Notes on the Reptiles, 

 Amphibia, Fishes, MoUusca, and Cretacea, obtained during the 

 Voyage of H.M..S. jYassau in the years l865-69," by Dr. Cun- 

 ningham, contains descriptions of several new species collected 

 and named by the n.aturalist to the expedition, and notes on the 

 habits, localities, and characters of many other species. All these 

 papers are illustrated by plates. 



The first part of Volume xxviii. is also published, consisting 

 of only a single paper. Dr. Triana's monograph of the Mela- 

 stomaccce. Alter some general remarks on the order, and on 

 each of the genera comprised within it in French, follows an 

 enumeration of the species, with the synonymy, references to 

 type specimens in the principal herbaria, and fresh descriptions 

 ol new or badly-described species. It is illustrated by seven 

 plates. 



The Bulletin of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Belgium for 

 September and October, 1871 (Tom. xxxii., Nos. 9 and 10), 

 contains but little scientific matter. — M. J. C. Houzeau com- 

 municates a description of a method of measuring directly the 



