July 21. 1904] 



NATL RE 



285 



are enclosed in square brackets. A fresh account of the 

 genus Hieracium has been drawn up by Miss R. F. 

 Thompson and included in the boolc. A conspectus of the 

 groups and species from the " Handbook of British Rubi," 

 by the Rev. W. -Movie Rogers, has, by permission, been 

 added as an appendLx. 



Since its publication in 1894, Preston's " Theorv of 

 Heat " has been regarded as a standard work on the subject. 

 Teachers and students will welcome the new edition which 

 has just been published by -Messrs. Macmillan and Co., 

 Ltd. The revision, necessary in view of the recent progress 

 made in this branch of physics, has been done by -Mr. J. 

 Rogerson Cotter, of the University of Dublin. Among the 

 changes in the new edition may be mentioned the trans- 

 ference of the section on the dynamical equivalent of heat 

 from chapter viii. to chapter iv., a few unimportant 

 omissions, and the addition of some hundred pages of new 

 matter. The additions have been enclosed in brackets. Mr. 

 Cotter has succeeded in bringing the book well up to date, 

 and in this way has ensured a continued popularity for an 

 excellent treatise. 



An interesting and simple mechanical model devised for 

 the purpose of illustrating to students the gas laws and 

 the nature of Carnot's cycle is described by Dr. F. B. 

 Kenrick in the May number of the Journal of Physical 

 Chemistry. 



We have received a copy of the Chemikalien-Zeitung. a 

 new journal to be published fortnightly under the editorship 

 of Dr. R. Pauli, Berlin. The journal will be devoted to 

 matters relating to the manufacture and application of 

 chemical substances in the industries. One of the chief 

 objects of the promoters is to produce by means of the 

 fortnightly publication a work of encyclopa;dic charactei 

 dealing with this aspect of technical chemistry. 

 ^We have received vol. i.. No. i, of the Memoirs of the 

 College of Science and Engineering, Kyoto Imperial Uni- 

 versity, a publication containing original papers by mem- 

 bers of the university. Among other papers worthy of 

 notice are " Synthesis of Indigo and its Methyl Deriva- 

 tives," by M. Kuhara and M. Chikashigi, and " Defects of 

 Uncarburetted Water Gas as Fuel for Laboratory Use," by 

 M. Chikashigi and H. Matsumoto. 



In the Physikalische Zeitschrift (No. 12, 1904), .Messrs. 

 Elster and Geitel describe a new form of electroscopic 

 apparatus for the investigation of feebly radio-active bodies. 

 With this a large number of different kinds of earths, 

 minerals, lavas, and water deposits has been examined. 

 The activity of the sedimentary deposits from the hot 

 springs at Baden-Baden is remarkably high, the sludge 

 deposited at the source having approximately the same 

 activity as uranyl potassium sulphate. As the distance of 

 the deposited matter from the source increases, its activity 

 falls off rapidly. 



Some recent e.xperiments by M. Henriet communicated in 

 the Comptes rendus (vol. cx.x.xviii. p. 1272, 1904) show that 

 formaldehyde is present in considerable quantity in the atmo- 

 sphere. The method of estimation consists in aspirating 

 the air through a tube containing red oxide of mercury 

 heated to 250° in which the formaldehyde is oxidised to 

 carbonic acid, which is then absorbed in potash bulbs. The 

 carbonic acid already present in the original air has to be 

 subtracted from the amount thus found, and the difference 

 corresponds to formaldehyde. In 100 cubic metres of 

 normal air formaldehyde is present to the e-xtent of 2-6 

 grams. 



In view of the high atomic weight of radium and the 



remarkable ionising properties of the salts, it would not 



NO. 18 I 2, VOL. 70] 



have been surprising if the electrolytic properties of radium 

 bromide had been altogether abnormal. That this is not 

 the case is clearly shown by the recent measurements of 

 Kohlrausch and Henning, published in the Verhandlung of 

 the German Physical Society (vol. v. pp. 144-6, March 15). 

 The electrical conductivity is perfectly normal over the range 

 from N/20 to N/12, 000, and closely resembles that of the 

 corresponding barium salt. The molecular conductivity 

 rises from 1000 to 123-6 over this range of dilution, and the 

 limiting value is given as 125. The mobility of the radium, 

 ion is therefore 57 as compared with 56 for barium, and 53 

 for strontium and calcium. It is of interest to note that 

 Runge and Precht's value for the atomic weight would 

 give an altogether abnormal value, 67, for the ionic mobility. 

 We find in the Bulletin of the Society of Naturalists of 

 St. Petersburg (1904, No. 3) an interesting paper, by N. 

 Karakash, based on a recent journey of A. Zhuravskiy and 

 on previous exploration, giving some idea about the 

 little known eastern portion of the tundras of Arkhangelsk, 

 which is known as the Bolshezemelsk tundra, and lies 

 between the Petchora and the northern Urals and the 

 Pai-hoi Range. This portion of the tundra has not the 

 flat and marshy character which it has in the west, but it 

 is covered with mounds, hills, and narrow low ridges of 

 Boulder-clay, reaching a height of 100 and occasionally 

 200 feet, and a length of from 12 to 20 miles. 

 Between these mounds and hills are found countless lakes, 

 marshes, and spaces which can be described as true patches 

 of the tundra. Ml these hills are undoubtedly of morainic 

 origin, the Boulder-clay having only been washed by water 

 on its surface and covered here and there with sand. 

 As to the boulders, they consist of granites, porphyrites, 

 gneisses, and various metamorphic slates, as also of lime- 

 stones and sandstones. The latter contain Devonian, Car- 

 boniferous, and Carbo-Permian fossils, such as are well 

 known from the western slopes of the Urals, as also Permian 

 and Jurassic fossils, such as are known further south in the 

 basin of the Petchora. Traces of a post-Glacial sea have 

 only been found near the shores, but it is known from the 

 previous researches of Barbot-de-Marny, Tchernysheff and 

 others that large spaces of north-eastern Russia, up to a 

 level of about 120 metres, were covered by the sea during 

 the post-Glacial period. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



R.*Di.4L Velocity ok the Orion Nebula. — From the 

 measurement of a series of spectrograms of the three 

 brighter stars in the trapezium of Orion, Messrs. Frost and 

 .Vdams have determined the radial velocity of those parts of 

 the nebula located by these stars. Seven plates of the star 

 »' Orionis (October, 1903, to February, 1904) gave a mean 

 velocity for the nebula of +193 km., three plates 

 (Decernber, 1903, January and February, 1904) of the star 

 Bond 640 gave 180 km., and one plate (March 8, 1903) of 

 the Bond star 619 gave + 14 km. The general mean was 

 + 18-5 km., which is slightly higher than the values 

 obtained by previous observers, e.g. -I-177 km. obtained by 

 Keeler in 1890-91. Surprise is expressed as to the low value 

 determined for the last named star, as the plate measured 

 was an e.xceptionally good one, but the observers hesitate 

 to draw conclusions from the results obtained from one 

 plate. 



The radial velocities of the stars themselves were also 

 determined from the dark-line spectra on the same plates, 

 and the provisional values are given for the two Bond stars. 

 Regarding (*', the peculiarities of the spectrum and the 

 binary character of the star will necessitate the study of a 

 much greater number of plates before definite values can 

 be obtained. For Bond 640 a mean value of -|-20 km. was 

 determined, whilst for Bond 619 a value of 4-48 km., 

 strikingly greater than that of the nebula, was obtained. 



The same observers also publish the results of similar 



