420 



NA TURE 



[August 25, 1904 



of the subjects proposed for the supplemental registers has 

 been further organised in connection with general education. 

 The Duke of Devonshire, on August 20, handed over 

 from the trustees of the Keighley Mechanics' Institute to 

 the Corporation of the town the title deeds of premises 

 valued at more than 50,000/., which the municipality is 

 taking over. During the course of his speech on that 

 occasion, the Duke of Devonshire referred to the work with 

 which he has been associated as president of the National 

 Association for the Promotion of Technical and Secondary 

 Education. The association has pointed out that the 

 industrial and commercial supremacy of our country, upon 

 which its power and greatness mainly, if not entirely, de- 

 pend — a supremacy which once was unquestioned and un- 

 disputed — is not unassailable and is not unassailed. Our 

 former supremacy rested mainly, if not entirely, upon the 

 possession of great 'natural resources, and upon the energy 

 and industry of our people. These are not now the only, if 

 they are the chief, elements in industrial success. The 

 discoveries of science and the application of science to 

 industries have revolutionised the conditions of industry. 

 Other nations, among whom Germany and the United States 

 have been foremost, but all other Continental nations — 

 France, Italy, Switzerland, and others — have appeared to 

 realise this fact sooner than we have done, and to make 

 greater efforts, and more organised efforts, than we have 

 done to give to all classes engaged in these industries 

 the scientific instruction which is in the present day 

 the necessary condition of success. There are signs that 

 these efforts on their part, and on the part of other countries, 

 and this comparative negligence on our part are already 

 having effect, and it is incontrovertible that it must sooner 

 or later have a vast effect prejudicial to our own commercial 

 and industrial supremacy. It is now recognised that 

 scientific instruction for the whole of our people is a 

 necessary element to our industrial success. Cultivated 

 brains are as essential to industrial efficiency as even the 

 strongest arms or the most willing hearts. The duty of 

 imparting this instruction to those who need it is one that 

 can no longer be safely left to the efforts of the benevolent 

 or the philanthropic, but is the duty of the State as much 

 as that of national defence, the defence of our Imperial 

 possessions, or the defence of our own shores. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Royal Society, June 16. — "The Lethal Concentration of 

 Acids and Bases in respect of Paranweciiim aurelia." By 

 J. O. Wakelin Barratt. 



The author finds that the strong mineral acids, hydro- 

 chloric, nitric, and sulphuric, in ooooi N concentration kill 

 Paramoecia in ten to fifty minutes. Organic acids, in the 

 same concentration, kill sometimes Viiith greater rapidity 

 (formic, lactic, and o.xalic acids), sometimes with less 

 rapidity (citric and acetic acids). Exceedingly weak acids 

 (carbonic, carbolic, boric, hydrocyanic) require a much 

 greater concentration in order to kill Paramoecia in the 

 above period of time. 



The hydrates of potassium, sodium, lithium, calcium, 

 strontium, and barium in 0002 N concentration are fatal 

 in five to sixty minutes. Ammonium hydrate is more 

 lethal, and far more so is the extremely weak base anilin. 

 The lethal character of the alkalis exhibits an order corre- 

 sponding to their periodic grouping. 



The experiments made indicate that the action of acids 

 and alkalis upon the living protoplasm of Paramoecia is 

 of the nature of a chemical reaction, and is not purely 

 hydrolytic in character. 



Pakis. 



Academy of Sciences, August 16. — M. Mascart in the chair. 

 — The second approximation to the equation for the flow 

 of sheets of underground water under slight pressures : 

 J. Boussinesq. — New researches on the liquefaction of 

 helium : Sir James Dewar. A side tube containing charcoal 

 is added to a vacuum tube, and the tube filled with helium. 

 When the charcoal is cooled down by means of liquid 

 hydrogen to 15° C. absolute temperature, the vacuum pro- 



NO., 1817, VOL. 70] 



duced is so good that a coil giving a 16-inch spark in air 

 is required to produce a slight phosphorescent discharge in 

 the middle of the tube. It follows that at this low tempera- 

 ture the charcoal is a good absorbent of helium. These 

 experiments are regarded as confirming the conclusion that 

 the boiling point of helium will not be found to be below 

 5° C. absolute. — On a crystalline conibination of the acetate 

 and thiosulphate of lead, 2PbS,03,(CH,— CO„),Pb : P. 

 Lemoult. This compound is precipitated from a solution of 

 lead acetate to which some sodium thiosulphate has been 

 added, and the precipitate of lead thiosulphate re-dissolved 

 by the addition of acetic acid. The above formula was 

 established by analysis. — The alloys of zinc and magnesium : 

 O. Boudouard. A series of alloys was prepared contain- 

 ing from 5 per cent, to 90 per cent, of magnesium, the 

 melting points of which were determined. The melting 

 point curve showed a maximum and two minima. The 

 maximum corresponded to a definite combination, Zn^Mg, 

 and the microscopic study of a polished section proved the 

 existence of a second definite compound, ZnMgj. Both 

 these alloys were isolated. — The properties and constitution 

 of chrome steels : Lfen Guillet. Two series of chrome 

 steels were studied, both by micrography and by mechanical 

 tests. One series contained very little carbon, the other 

 o-8<; per cent. The steels studied were found to fall into 

 four classes, and the limitations to their practical use are 

 given. — On the evolution of structure in metals : G. 

 Cartaud. A micrographic study of the crystallisation of 

 lead. — The first stages in the development of Sacculina 

 carcini : Paul Abric. — On the comparative values of the 

 tissues of the tail from the point of view of regeneration 

 in the larvje of Alytes. and on the possible absence of this 

 regeneration : P. Wintrebert. — The geology of Chabri^res 

 (Hautes-.\lpes) : E. A. Martel. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Natural History. By R. L 393 



Philosophy of Life and Death. By G. S. B 394 



Our Book Shelf :— 



May :" Warrington's Roman Remains " ... 395 

 Clowes : " The Experimental Bacterial Treatment of 



London Sewage." — Prof. R. T. Hewlett ... 395 



Bosworth : " Round the Coast " .... .... 395 



Letters to the Editor : — 



Synthe.-iis of Radio-active Substance. — Prof. J. Joly, 



FRS 395 



Action of Metals on Photographic Plates. — Prof. J. 



Joly, F.R.S 395 



" The Primrose and Darwinism." — E. A. Bunyard . 395 



An Optical Phenomenon. — George W. Walker . . 396 



Traction of Carriages. — W. Galloway 396 



Indian Rhynchota. — W. L. Distant . . 396 

 The Earliest Mention of liydrodictyon. — Kumagusu 



Minakata 396 



Marconi Weather Telegrams 396 



Prof. J. D. Everett, F.R.S 397 



The British Association at Cambridge 397 



Section A. — Subsection, Cosmical Physics. — Opening 

 Address by Sir John Eliot, K.C.I. E., M.A., 



F.R.S., Chairman of the Subsection .... . 399 

 Section D.- — Zoology. — Opening Address by William 



Bateson, M.A., F.R.S., President of the Section 406 



Notes 413 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



Visibility of the Martian Canals 416 



Total Solar Eclipse of 1905 416 



Solar Prominences during 1903 416 



The Lowell Spectrograph 416 



A New Band Spectrum of Nitrogen 416 



The Perseid Meteoric Shower of 1904. By W. F. 



Denning . 416 



The Third International Congress of Mathe- 

 maticians. By Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S 417 



University and Educational Intelligence 418 



Societies and Academies 420 



