June 13, 1901] 



NA TURE 



165 



each of the months March to August, with maps. Generally 

 speaking, there were considerable masses of ice during the 

 season 1900 in the north-west of Barents Sea, around Spitz- 

 bergen and in the Kara Sea, less than usual between Franz 

 Joseph Land and Nova Zembla and on the east coast of Green- 

 land, while in Baffin Bay and near Labrador the conditions were 

 particularly favourable. The volume also contains tables 

 showing the diurnal amplitude of the air at the various Danish 

 Jight-vessels, and the surface temperature of the sea in the 

 northern Atlantic Ocean and Davis Strait. The greater part of 

 the work is taken up by carefully compiled tables of general 

 meteorological observations, taken every four hours by the light- 

 keepers, together with monthly means. These form a valuable 

 contribution to the meteorological statistics of the northern parts 

 of Europe. 



M. D. KORDA announces in the Bulletin of the French 

 Physical Society that in a fraction of a minute he has succeeded 

 in crystallising ferrosilicium in the bottom of a crucible by 

 cooling with water. The form of the crystals varies with the 

 proportion of silicon — long needles for 10 to 100 of silicon 

 l^FcoSi), tetrahedra of i to 10 mm. length ol side for 22 to 23 

 per cent, of silicon (FeSi), and laminae of micaceous character 

 for 50 per cent, of silicon (FeSio). Crystals of ferromanganese 

 ■or ferrochromium can be similarly formed. 



Dr. Emilio Oddone describes, in the Rendiconio of the 

 Lombardy Institution, experiments conducted for the purpose of 

 determining the mean coefficient of transparency of the air over 

 distances considerably greattr than those previously experi- 

 mented on, and he gives examples of the application of this 

 anethod to distances of 45, 85 and 135 kilometres. The co- 

 efficients are fairly high, increasing with the distance, and the 

 ultimate values are only slightly less than those corresponding 

 to vertical vision. From this property. Dr. Oddone thinks it 

 possible to calculate approximately the thickness of the atmo- 

 sphere in the direction of the zenith. 



The Archives of the Rontgen Ray contains a short pro- 

 gramme of the Rontgen Exhibition to be held in Hamburg in 

 connection with the seventy-third meeting of the Deutscher 

 Naturforscher und Aerzte. The scientific part will be in the 

 hands of Dr. Albers-Schonberg, Dr. Walter and Dr. Hahn, 

 while the literary part will be taken by Messrs. Lucas Grafe 

 and Sillem. The physical section will include induction coils 

 and contact breakers, portable apparatus, tubes, fluorescent 

 screens, operating tables, stereoscopes and other accessories, 

 power for working the coils, iS:c. , being obtainable at 220 volts 

 continuous and 120 volts alternating current. The medical 

 section will exhibit the latest achievements in radiography and 

 .the therapeutic uses of Rontgen rays. In addition with the 

 above it is mentioned that at a recent sitting of the Prussian 

 Kultus Ministerium the Universities received a grant of 1000/. 

 for additions to the Rontgen ray departments. 



Under the title " A New Era in Interior Lighting," Mr. 

 Charles L. Norton writes in the Technology Quarterly advocat- 

 ing the use of ribbed, corrugated and prismatic glass windows for 

 diffiising light in the interior of rooms and offices. The only 

 comment we can make is that as modern civilisation compels 

 men to work in dingy offices and factories it has been necessary 

 for modern civilisation to devise some means of lessening their 

 dinginess, then "adaptation to environment" will come in and 

 give us a civilised race which actually prefers this kind of 

 illumination to that of the good old plate glass window. Of 

 this tendency Mr. Norton himself affords an instance when he 

 expresses the view that it is to be regretted, but it is certainly 

 true, that strong objection is often made to the "shut in " feeling 

 which some people experience in rooms glazed wholly with 

 diffusing glass. He also considers it one of the uses of the 

 NO. 1650, VOL. 64] 



diffusing window that it allows of the closer approach to one 

 another of tall buildings, with a resulting economy of land — and, 

 we should say, an aggravation of the unnatural conditions under 

 which human life maintains its unlovely struggle for existence 

 in densely populated centres. 



It is interesting to notice how the naval architect is becoming 

 more and more dependent on a knowledge of applied mathe- 

 matics and mathematical physics for the solution of the 

 problems involved in perfecting the construction of steamships. 

 It is only recently that the balancing of marine engines has 

 received serious attention, and this problem has brought the 

 principles of rigid dynamics as well as Fourier's series under 

 the notice of the shipbuilder. But when the parts of an engine 

 have been balanced on the hypothesis that they are perfectly 

 rigid there still remain the eflects of their elasticity to be taken 

 into account. Mr. J. II. MacAlpine has recently communicated 

 to the Journal of the American Society of Naval Engineers a 

 monograph of 2SS pages on " Inertia Stresses of Elastic Gears." 

 The investigation seems to have been suggested, in the first 

 instance, by the defective working of certain forms of valve gear. 

 While Mr. MacAlpine hardly thinks that the elaborate processes 

 of calculation which he gives can be frequently repeated in the 

 ordinary course of designing, they might, at least partly, be 

 resorted to with advantage and with but little labour, in cases 

 where the effect of elasticity seems doubtful. Their application 

 would have saved many expensive breakdowns in the past, and 

 if applied to such cases as the Newark, where serious trouble 

 has arisen, would gradually accumulate a store of valuable data 

 which could not fail to be useful. 



If we may judge by the Report of the Marlborough College 

 Natural History Society for 1900, the issue of the Victoria series 

 of County Histories is having a good effect on institutions of 

 this nature in calling attention to the incompleteness of their 

 records of local faunas. In this particular instance, the local 

 lists of the popular groups of Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera and 

 Coleoptera were found to be well worked up, but those of other 

 groups of insects had been much neglected. The editor also 

 calls attention to the advisability of schoolboys confining their 

 attention to a single section of zoology ; otherwise, with the 

 multitude of other studies and occupations, any real progress is 

 impossible. 



We regret to learn, from a communication by Mr. A. J. 

 North to the Records of the Australian Museum for 1901, that 

 the destruction of native birds in New South Wales is attaining 

 alarming proportions. After referring to a recent newspaper 

 article containing an account of the slaughter of about 250 

 lyre-birds by one man during a single season, the author dwells 

 on the injury done to bird-life in Australia by the growth of 

 the great cities and their suburbs and the consequent clear- 

 ance of timber and coppices. In Sydney the diminution in 

 the number of indigenous birds owing to this cause is bad 

 enough, but it is nothing to what has occurred in Melbourne, 

 which is virtually denuded of trees for miles around. But this 

 is by no means all, for the introduction of foreign mammals has 

 played havoc with many kinds of native birds. Now that the 

 rabbits have been eradicated in many districts the cats intro- 

 duced to prey upon them have turned their attention to the 

 birds ; and the introduced foxes, in addition to robbing hen- 

 yards, destroy hosts of indigenous birds. Neither can the 

 sparrow and the starling be exonerated from blame in the 

 matter. Mr. North urges the necessity of the duty of bird- 

 protection being taught in the schools, as in the United States. 



The significance of spiral swimming— that is to say revolution 

 on their own longer axis — by many of the lower organisms, such 

 as the ciliate and flagellate infusorians and volvox, is discussed by 

 Dr. H. S. Jennings in the May issue of the American Naturalist, 



