58 



NA TURE 



[May 1 6, 1901 



or other substances which are suitable soils for their growth and 

 development. Their luminous properties are dependent on a 

 supply of free oxygen and a suitable percentage of a soluble 

 chloride in the nutritive medium. The exhibit consisted of 

 artificial cultivations of these organisms on suitable nutrient 

 soils, and showed their luminous properties and the variations 

 that occur under different physical conditions. 



Mr. Everard im Thurn, C.B., C.M.G,, exhibited arrow-heads 

 of rock crystal from British Guiana, and orchids growing wild in 

 British Guiana ; Mr. Vaughan Cornish, photographs of waves, 

 &c., in sand, cloud and snow: Mr. J. Wimshurst, F.R.S., 

 photographs which exhibit some of the properties of the light 

 emitted by Rontgen ray tubes ; Mr. Hugh Ramage, diagrams 

 of corresponding lines in homologous spectra ; the Meteor- 

 ological Office, pilot charts of the North Atlantic and Mediter- 

 ranean for April and May, 1901 ; the Cambridge Scientific 

 Instrument Company, Ltd., Callendar and Griffith's patent 

 temperature indicator, and photographs of the spectroscope, made 

 for Sir David Gill, for use with the McClean telescope. Royal 

 Observatory, Cape of Good Hope ; and the Carl Zeiss Optical 

 Works, stereoscopic binocular range-finder. The reading is taken 

 direct from a scale within the instrument without calculations, 

 giving the distances in meters. Range from 75 to 3000 meters ; 

 Prof. J. C. Bose, experiments on binocular alternation of vision ; 

 and Mr. R. Shelford, swords and knives from Sarawak, Borneo. 



The Director, British Museum (Natural History), exhibited 

 models illustrating the structure of the gills of bivalve mol- 

 Jusca ; examples ot mormyrid fishes from the Nile ; a series of 

 adult and young birdsand eggs of the Adelia penguin (Pygopcclis 

 adeliae) ; trephined skulls of natives of the Bismarck Archi- 

 pelago, collected by the Rev. J. Crump and deposited in the 

 British Museum by Mr. W. E."de Winton. These skulls illus- 

 trate native methods of performing the operation of trephining, 

 and are of especial interest owing to the clinical histories of 

 their owners being known. Claw and tooth of Neomylodon 

 Patagonia, and coloured model of the right whale ; Prof. A. G. 

 Greenhill, F. R. S., showed a reflecting stereoscope ; trochleo- 

 static — diagram and models of pulleys ; Mr. C. V. Boys, F.R.S., 

 tool grinding appliance : Dr. Dawson Turner, a mechanical 

 interrupter for an induction coil ; and the Marine Biological 

 Association, examples of marine plankton from the neighbour- 

 hood of Plymouth. The term marine plankton is u.sed to 

 denote organisms whose normal mode of life is to swim freely 

 in the sea-water, in contradistinction to such as live in contact 

 with the sea-floor. The Observatory, Cambridge, exhibited a 

 machine for measuring astronomical photographs ; and Prof. 

 Callendar, F.R.S., a standard barometer. 



Photographs of Nova Persei were exhibited by Sir Norman 

 Lockyer, K.C.B., the Rev. W. Sidgreaves, S.J.,and Mr. Frank 

 McClean, F.R.S. 



The Zoological Society of London exhibited living specimens 

 of the Heloderm (Hcloderiiia siispeclum) from Arizona, the only 

 venomous lizard known ; Dr. J. H. Gladstone, F.R.S., ancient 

 Egyptian gold ; Mr. W. Flinders Petrie, casts and photographs 

 of Egyptian jewellery of the 1st dynasty, 4700 B.C., and speci- 

 mens of molecular transference in ancient bronze ; Prof. A. W. 

 RUcker, Sec. R.S., and Prof. J. W. Judd, C.B., F.R.S., speci- 

 mens of atmospheric dust which fell at Taormina, Sicily, during 

 the month of March, giving rise to the so-called " blood rain " ; 

 SirW. Roberts-Austen, K.C.B., masses of chromium, manganese, 

 ferro-titanium and cobalt. These specimens of metal were 

 reduced from their oxides by means of finely divided aluminium, 

 by Dr. Hans Goldschmidt. 



Dr. P. L. Sclater, F.R.S., exhibited two bandoliers from 

 the Semliki Forest, Congo Free State, made from the skin of 

 a new mammal ; Dr. H. Woodward, F. R.S., coloured casts of 

 objects of natural history, prepared at the British Museum 

 (Natural History) ; an enlarged model of the shell of Ascoceras, 

 a cephalopod occurring in thesilurian rocks of England, Sweden 

 and North .\merica ; and table of British strata, coloured : Mr. 

 G. Abbott exhibited symmetrical concretions, and " growth '' in 

 inorganic matter. Also specimens of four varieties of the cellular 

 or magnesian limestone of Sunderland (Permian), which show a 

 striking resemblance to corals, yet are believed to be only con- 

 cretionary and inorganic. Hon. Walter Rothschild, M. P., ex- 

 hibited leg bones and egg of .-Epyomis titan, Madagascar ; 

 Mr. W. Duddell exhibited the musical arc. If a direct 

 Kttrretit arc between ^o//rf carbons be shunted by a suitable self- 

 induction and condenser in series, alternating currents will flow 

 around the shunt circuit, the arc thu>; converting part of the direct 



NO. 1646, VOL. 64] 



current into alternating current. The frequency of the alternat- 

 ing current is determined, as in the case of the oscillatory 

 discharge of a Leyden jar, by the capacity and the self-induction 

 of the circuit. These alternating currents superposed on the 

 direct current through the arc will cause it to emit musical 

 notes, the pitch of which can be varied by altering the capacity 

 or self-induction, and a tune can be played on the arc by this 

 means. 



The Telegraphone Syndicate exhibited the telegraphone. 

 This instrument, the invention of Mr. Poulsen, of Copenhagen, 

 depends for its action upon the fact that the variations of the 

 magnetic field of an electro-magnet are so accurately represented 

 by the magnetisation of a steel wire which is drawn through it, 

 that if the wire be again passed through the field, currents 

 exactly similar to those which produced the magnetisation 

 of the wire are reproduced in the coils of the magnet. This 

 principle has been applied to the reproduction of speech trans- 

 mitted through an ordinary microphone transmitter. 



The following demonstrations were given by means of the 

 electric lantern: — Dr. Arthur Rowe, life-zones in the White 

 Chalk, and their significance in connection with the evolution of 

 species ; Mr. Francis Fox, some engineering problems and their 

 solution ; Prof. Silvanus P. Thompson, F.R.S. , kinematograph 

 diagrams, illustrating magnetic fields. 



THE NATIONAL ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 

 pROF. J. W. GREGORY has to-day (May 15) cabled 

 •'- his resignation of the leadership of the scientific 

 staff of the National Antarctic Expedition in circum- 

 stances which will shortly be fully explained to the 

 Fellows of the Royal Society by one of their number. 



The great majority of scientific men in this country 

 were confident that Prof Gregory possessed unique 

 qualifications for the post of scientific leader of an ex- 

 pedition in which many branches of science required 

 study and coordination. L'nder his direction, and with 

 a competent naval head who should have an absolute 

 veto upon all operations which involved risk to ship and 

 crew, great scientific results were assured. 



The opposition of the representatives of the Royal 

 Geographical Society, which had obtained most of the 

 funds voluntarily subscribed, and of a few scientific men 

 belonging to the Navy, rendered it impossible that these 

 full powers could be granted ; but a compromise accept- 

 able to Prof Gregory was passed by a large majority (16 

 to 6) of the Joint Antarctic Committee, including the 

 officers of both societies and almost every expert on their 

 joint lists. 



The compromise provided, in the words submitted on 

 February 12 to thejoint committee, " that a landing party, 

 if possible, be placed on shore, under the charge of the 

 Director of the Civilian Scientific Staff." Prof Gregory 

 was mformedof this, accepted it, and, the next day, sailed 

 for Melbourne. 



The Royal Geographical Society's council refused to 

 accept the compromise, and deputed three of their 

 number to suggest to the officers of the Royal Society 

 that the matter should be settled by a new committee of 

 six, three to be appointed by each council. The Royal 

 Society consented ; the committee, chietiy composed of 

 non-experts, met, and proposed modifications which 

 Prof. Gregory has been unable to accept. 



We shall await with some interest to see whether the 

 majority of Fellows of the Royal Society, and of other 

 scientific men in this country, will appro\e the manner 

 in which the Royal Society has acted as the guardian of 

 scientific interests. 



NOTES. 



INTELLIGENXE has just reached us from Melbourne that on 

 April 10 news had been received from Charlotte Waters, both 

 by letter and telegram, of the safety of Prof. W. Baldwin 

 Spencer and his energetic co-explorer, Mr. Gillen. They report 

 themselves in good health and already busy taking phono- and 



