July 



[901] 



NA TURE 



265 



The optical establishment of C. P. Goerz, at Friedenau, 

 Berlin, has just produced its 100,000th lens— a Goerz double 

 anastigmat. To have placed upon the photographic market 

 100,000 anastigmat lenses in eight years (since 1893) is a note- 

 worthy record. 



M. MORENA Y Anda publishes rin the Traiisadioiis of the 

 " Antonio Alzate " Society of Mexico a table showing the 

 diurnal variability of air temperature at Tacubaya for each 

 month of the fifteen years 1SS4-1S9S. The hours of observation 

 are 7 a.m., 2 p.m. and 9 p.m. 



Dr. Max Verworn's " Allgemeine Physiologic" was 

 welcomed as a valuable work when it appeared in 1S94, and 

 its scope and character were described in these columns (vol. li., 

 p. 529). The work has been translated into English, French, 

 Russian and Italian, and has taken its place as a standard text- 

 book of general physiology. The third edition has now been 

 published by Herr Gustav Fischer, of Jena. 



The syndics of the Cambridge University Press have under- 

 taken the publication of a work on the fauna and geography of 

 the Maldive and Laccadive Archipelagoes. An expedition, 

 consisting of Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner, Mr. L. A. Borradaile 

 and Mr. C. Forster Cooper, passed eleven months in these two 

 groups, and the work will contain the scientific results of the 

 visit. The chief object of the expedition was to investigate the 

 interdependence of the physical and biological factors in the 

 formation of atolls and reefs. To this end upwards of 300 

 dredgings were taken, a large number of soundings were run, 

 and every group of organisms was carefully collected. The 

 land fauna was carefully and exhaustively collected, and, being 

 from an undoubted oceanic area, cannot fail to be of interest. The 

 marine collections fill in an almost unknown gap between the Red 

 Sea and the East Indies, and are the most extensive ever obtained 

 from any coral, oceanic area. The work will be published in 

 eight parts, of which the first will appear in October next. 



In the last Berichte, Nencki and Marchlewski describe the 

 very interesting discovery of the close chemical relationship 

 existing between the red colouring matter of the blood and the 

 green chlorophyll of plants. Hreinatoporphyrin a derivative 

 of hemoglobin, and phyllocyanin obtained from chlorophyll, 

 both yield on reduction hcemopyrrol, which is probably an iso- 

 butyl or methyl propyl pyrrol. 



In the newly issued Bulletin Inteinational tie r Academie des 

 Sciences de Cracovie, L. Bruner publishes the results of his 

 dynamic investigations on the bromination of aromatic com- 

 pounds. The dependence of the velocity of bromination on the 

 nature and position of the substituting groups in the benzene 

 ring has been studied, and especially the catalytic activity of the 

 most important bromine " carriers." In respect of this capacity, 

 aluminium, chromium, iron and thallium salts, compounds of 

 antimony and phosphorus, and finally iodine have been investi- 

 gated. It is found that the catalytic activity of the bromine 

 "carriers" depends upon the nature of the substance which is 

 being brominated, so that the arrangement of these bodies in a 

 general series according to their activity is not possible. For 

 benzene and bromobenzene the order is (l) aluminium, {2) thal- 

 lium, (3) iron salts, (4) iodine, (5) antimony, (6) phosphorus 

 halogens. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two Green Monkeys (Ccrcopithecus calli- 

 trichits) from West Africa, presented respectively by Mr. R. de 

 Courcy Hickton and Mr. S. Prust ; a Macaque Monkey 

 {Macacus cynomolgus) from India, presented by Mrs. Mould ; 

 a Crab-eating Raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus) from South 

 .■America, presented by Mr. B. \V. Gardom ; a Cuckoo 

 NO. 1654, VOL. 64] 



(Cucubis canorns), British, presented by Lieut. -Colonel J. 8. 

 Benyon ; an Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) from North 

 America, presented by Mr. W. Phillips ; two Mocassin Snakes 

 ( Troptdonotits fasciatiis) from North America, presented by 

 Captain J- B. Gilliat ; a Great Wallaroo (Macroptts robnstus), 

 four Bridled Wallabies (Onychogale frcnati) from Australia, 

 two Parrot Finches (Erythrura psiltacea) from New Caledonia, 

 two Grey-headed Porphyries [Poiphyrio polioiepkalus), two 

 Ceylonese Terrapins [Nicoria trijnga) from India, five Derbian 

 Sternotheres [Sternothaertis derbianus) from West Africa, two 

 Grey Monitors ( Varanus griseus){\om North Africa, deposited ; 

 two Griffon Vultures {Gyps fidvus), European, received in 

 exchange; a Wapiti Deer (Crrviis canadensis), three Glossy 

 Ibises [Plegadis falcinellus), bred in the Gardens. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Light Variation of the Minor Planet (345) Terci- 

 niNA. — In the Astronomische Nachrichten (Bd. 156, No. 3726), 

 Herr J. Hartmann gives an account of his investigations of the 

 variation in brightness of this small planet, first pointed out by 

 Prof. Max Wolf, of Heidelberg, in 1899 {Astrouoinisike 

 Nachrichten, No. 3704). Two photographs were obtained on 

 April 20 and a third on April 22, all with the large Potsdam 

 refractor. Reproductions are given showing the trails of the 

 planet with reference to the neighbouring stars. The period 

 deduced is as follows : — 



Beginning of increase 



Culmination 



End of increase ... 



gh. om. "I 



loh. 14m. -4h. lom. = 250m. 



I3h. lom. J 



In the same journal Prof. Max Wolf gives a reproduction of a 

 photograph taken with a 6-inch Voigtlander objective on 

 April 22, the period determined from this being about 240m., 

 which is in close agreement with that determined from the 

 Potsdam photographs. The value determined from the older 

 observations on 1899 November 4 was 290 minutes. 



Untied States Naval Observatory. — The recent issue 

 of vol. i. of the second series of Publications of the U.S. 

 Naval Observatory contains the first results of work done at 

 the institution since the removal from the old site and the re- 

 mounting of the instruments at the new observatory. In this 

 volume a new method of publication is initiated, the observations 

 made with one instrument and extending over several years being 

 given together instead of all observations being published 

 annually. This first volume contains the reduced observations 

 of the sun, moon, planets and many miscellaneous stars made 

 with the 9-inch and 6-inch transit circles during the years 1S94- 

 1899. 



THE COMPTOMETER} 



TN acceding to the editor's request to contribute an article to 

 -*■ Nai'URE upon this instrument, I should like at the outset to 

 express the feeling of curiosity with which any one, familiar with 

 the many arithmometers now so generally in use, must introduce 

 himself to the examination of the comptometer. He will prob- 

 ably know before he begins that it is a mere adding machine ; 

 that whereas any arithmometer at each turn of the handle adds 

 or subtracts, as the case may be, any figure set upon the machine, 

 no matter how many digits within the capacity of the machine 

 there may be, or how many times, or how fast within the 

 capacity of the operator he may turn the handle, so that by means 

 of the shifting result-slide multiplication and division can be 

 performed at a rate, and without mental effort, that is a tax upon 

 our imagination, the comptometer is a mere adding machine in 

 which the operator acts upon one key at a time, which adds, 

 each time he presses it, the number on its head to the corre- 

 sponding digit on the register below. While, therefore, the 

 machine is evidently well adapted for addition, which is so simple 

 an operation that most people believe an instrument for the 

 purpose is not worth the expense of purchasing, it would appear 

 at first that the process of multiplying, to be explained shortly, 



1 Chicago, U.S..^. : Felt and Tarrant Manufacturing Co. Manchester: 

 The Calculating Machine Co. 



