142 



NATURE 



[June 9, 1904 



Anthropological Institute, May 24. — Prof. W. Gowland 

 in the chair. — Mr. H. F. Martin exhibited a large collec- 

 tion of native objects which he had obtained during his 

 residence in northern Nigeria. The exhibit, which was of 

 great interest, comprised specimens of musical instruments, 

 weapons, leather and brass work and pottery, chiefly manu- 

 factured by the Hausas. — The Rev. C. T. Collyer delivered 

 a lecture on Korea and its people, which he illustrated by 

 numerous lantern slides. Mr. Collyer, during his twenty 

 years' residence in the country, had unrivalled opportunities 

 of observing the Koreans, and in his lecture he gave a 

 valuable account of their manners, customs and architecture. 

 His slides illustrated native types and buildings, and he 

 also explained bv diagrams the plan of the Korean house, 

 with the theoretical arrangements for separation of the 

 sexes, their system of counting and their alphabet, which 

 is simplicity itself, consisting of only twenty-five letters, in 

 marked contrast to the elaborate system of ideography in 

 use amongst the Chinese and Japanese. 



Linnean Society, May 24. — Prof. S. H. Vines, F.R.S., 

 in the chair. — .Anniversary meeting. The following 

 officers were elected : — President, Prof. W. \. Herdman ; 

 treasurer, Mr. Frank Crisp ; secretaries, Dr. D. H. Scott 

 and the Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing. The president devoted 

 the greater part of his address to considering the life-work 

 of I.inna;us and his claim to the gratitude of later workers. 

 The president then presented the Linnean gold medal to 

 Dr. .A. Giinther. 



Physical Society, May 27. — Mr. J. Swinburne, vice-presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — The law of action between magnets 

 and its bearing on the determination of the horizontal com- 

 ponent of the earth's magnetic field with unifilar magneto- 

 meters : Dr. C. Chree. Starting with the general formula 

 for the action between two magnets perpendicular to one 

 another, in Lamont's first position, the author discusses 

 how observations should be combined when the higher 

 terms usually neglected in magnetometer reductions are 

 taken into account. — On the ascertained absence of effects 

 of motion through the aether in relation to the constitution 

 of matter on the FitzGerald-Lorentz hypothesis : Prof. J. 

 Larmor. In consequence of recent misapprehensions (c/. 

 D. B. Brace, Phil. Mag., March), the argument on this 

 subject, as given in " .^ther and Matter " (1900), is briefly 

 re-stated. The absence of effect of convection, to the first 

 order, was demonstrated by Lorentz. .Absence of effect to 

 the second order of the ratio of the velocity of convection 

 to that of radiation has now been experimentally estab- 

 lished, as regards optical interference with long path, by 

 .Michelson ; as regards mechanical action on a charged 

 electric condenser, by Trouton ; as regards double-refraction, 

 by Lord Rayleigh and by Prof. Brace. This suggests 

 strongly a complete correspondence in detail between the 

 material system connected with the earth's motion and the 

 same system at rest in the aether, so that their internal 

 lelations are indistinguishable. Theoretically such complete 

 correspondence, up to the second order, exists, involving the 

 FitzGerald-Lorentz shrinkage, provided a purely electrical 

 constitution of matter (as regards its physical relations) is 

 granted, but apparently not otherwise. Thus it is held 

 that these phenomena point consistently in that direction. 

 — On coherence and re-coherence : Dr. P. E. Shaw and 

 C. -A. B. Garrett. In a paper in the Phil. Mag. (March, 

 1901), Dr. Shaw described a method of investigating 

 coherence by measuring the forces required to sunder the 

 cohered surfaces. It was there shown that forces of the 

 order of i dyne were required for a copper-copper contact 

 of two single wires. Further, there seemed to be evidence 

 of a change of state at the place of coherence, possibly 

 orientation of the particles at the contact. In the present 

 paper the authors follow the same method of investigation, 

 adducing evidence that coherence can be e.xplained, and 

 only explained, by Lodge's original theory of fusion, and 

 further establishing the after-effect, whether orientation or 

 otherwise, mentioned in the former paper. 

 Cambridge. 



Philosophical Society, May 16. — Dr. Baker, president, in 

 the chair. — Note on the effect of a magnetic field on the 

 vibrations of an atom containing six corpuscles placed at 

 the corners of a regular octahedron ; Prof. Thomson. The 



NO. 1806, VOL. 70] 



Zeeman effect for a single corpuscle vibrating about its 

 position of equilibrium is to split up the spectral line 

 corresponding to its free vibration into a triplet, the differ- 

 ence between the frequencies of the extreme lines of the 

 triplet being He/iti, in a field of strength H. Measure- 

 ments of the magnetic separation of lines in the spectra of 

 various elements show that different lines may experience 

 different separations. The object of this note is to describe 

 a model atom the vibrations of which would not all be 

 affected in the same way by a magnetic field. It is shown 

 that if six corpuscles are arranged at the corners of an 

 octahedron their vibrations will under the magnetic field 

 be split up into three triplets; in one of these the separation 

 of the frequencies will be normal, i.e. He/m, while in the 

 other two the separation will only amount to half the normal 

 value. — The effect of screening on ionisation in closed 

 vessels : A. Wood. Previous experimenters have shown 

 that the so-called spontaneous ionisation in closed vessels 

 is in part due to a radiation from the walls of the vessels. 

 The experiments described go to show that this radiation 

 consists of two kinds, (a) a secondary radiation e.xcited by 

 a penetrating radiation from without, and (h) an intrinsic 

 radiation probably due to a true radio-activity of the 

 material. The former predominates in vessels of iron, zinc 

 and tin ; the latter in vessels of lead and aluminium. — 

 Quasi radio-activity produced by the point discharge : S. .A. 

 Edmonds. .A metallic body becomes quasi radio-active 

 when points are made to face it, and both points and body 

 are connected to the terminals of a W'imshurst machine, and! 

 the discharge passed in dusty air. When caused to pass 

 in the outside air, or in air freed from dust either by 

 settling or by filtration through glass-wool, no effect is 

 obtainable. All metals act equally well, while the points 

 do not become at all active. This quasi activity is con- 

 sidered to be due to the dust particles in the air trapping 

 the ions present during the discharge and forming a film 

 of them on the surface of the body. — Magnetic defle.xion of 

 the negative current of electricity from a hot platinum wire 

 at low pressures : G. Owen, The paper contains an account 

 of experiments made to obtain some information with re- 

 gard to the mechanism of the discharge at low pressures. 

 The experiments lead to the conclusion that the carriers 

 of the current are mainly corpuscles at all temperatures. 

 When proper precautions are taken, about 90 per cent, of 

 the carriers are deflected by a magnetic field corresponding 

 to that required to deflect particles for which the ratio 

 e/m is 10'. — Some photoelectric effects : W. M. Varley. 

 — Note on the atomic weight of bismuth : R. H. Adie. In 

 this note the author gave his determinations of the atomic 

 weight of bismuth, which confirm the results of Classen 

 and fix the value at about 2088. — Note on compounds con- 

 taining an asymmetric nitrogen and an asymmetric carbon 

 atom ; H. O. Jones. The investigation of the formation 

 of compounds containing an asymmetric nitrogen atom froni 

 an optically active tertiary amine was undertaken in the 

 hope that the two possible isomerides would be formed in 

 unequal quantities and separable by ordinary means. This, 

 expectation has been realised for the union of methyl-/-amyl- 

 aniline with allyl and benzyl iodides. — The spatial configur- 

 ation of trivalent nitrogen compounds : H. O. Jones and 

 J. P. Milling^ton. The paper describes the results of some 

 experiments made with the view of obtaining evidence as to 

 the configuration of trivalent nitrogen compounds, by 

 attempting to resolve compounds in which the vale:ncy of 

 the nitrogen should not change during the process. Methyl- 

 ethyl-aniline-sulphonic acid was prepared and its brucine salt 

 submitted to fractional crystallisation, but without effecting 

 any resolution, and similarly with the dextro-camphor- 

 sulphonate of benzyl-phenyl-hydrazine. It is therefore con- 

 cluded that the three groups attached to the trivalent 

 nitrogen atom are normally situated in the same plane with 

 it. — Relations among perpetuants : A. Young:. — On the pro- 

 portion of the sexes among the Todas : R. C. Punnett and' 

 W. H. R. Rivers. 



Edinburgh. 



Royal Society, May 2. — Prof. Geikie in the chair. — 



In a paper on the date of upheaval which caused the 



twenty-five-feet raised beaches in central Scotland, Dr. 



Robert Munro went carefully into the evidence, and gave- 



