September 8, 1904J 



NA TURE 



457 



and he afterwards studied at the university in the same 

 town. In 1863 he entered at Queens' College, Cambridge, 

 and three years later took the mathematical tripos, obtain- 

 ing the degree of fifth wrangler. He was subsequently 

 elected to a fellowship at Queens' College, where he also held 

 ofrice both as mathematical lecturer and as college tutor. 

 In 1S7S Dr. Pirie was elected to the chair of mathematics 

 at .Aberdeen University, which he held until his death. Dr. 

 Pirie's interest in mathematics does not appear to have 

 carried him much beyond ordinary routine work, as his 

 name does not appear as the author of papers in the lead- 

 ing mathematical journals to which reference has been made 

 in connection with the present notice. He, however, pub- 

 lished one text-book, entitled " Lessons in Rigid Dynamics." 



Most of our readers remember that the year 1903 was one 

 of unusually heavy rainfall. " British Rainfall " for that 

 year, recently published, contains tables of nearly 4000 

 stations, and supplies every possible information upon the 

 subject that can be wished for. The work has been issued 

 in practically the same form since 1S61, a fact which, we 

 consider, much enhances its value ; but the materials have 

 continually increased, and its size has been doubled in the 

 last thirty years. The volume before us has, moreover, 

 several important additions, e.g. a section dealing with the 

 duration of rainfall, and rules for rainfall observers. Special 

 articles deal with the extraordinary excess of precipitation 

 in June (accompanied by useful maps) and with the three 

 wettest years, in the annals of " British Rainfall," viz. 1872, 

 1S77, and 1903. Dr. Mill states that only one other year 

 earlier in the nineteenth century can compare with them, 

 and that is 1852. Whereas the average annual rainfall of 

 the British Isles is 39.5 inches, 53 inches fell in 1872, 51 

 inches in 1877, and 52 inches in 1903, an excess of 32 per 

 cent. The total rainfall over England and Wales during 

 three days, June 13 to 15, is estimated at 5348 million tons. 



We have received from the Government Astronomer of 

 Western Australia (Mr. W. E. Cooke) a copy of the meteor- 

 ological observations made at the Perth Observatory and 

 other places in the colony during 1902. Morning and even- 

 ing weather forecasts — the latter intended for newspapers — 

 form part of the routine work, and are very successful ; in 

 fact, complete failure is of very rare occurrence. In con- 

 nection with forecasts, Mr. Cooke states that the prediction 

 of rainfall throughout the interior, for several days in 

 advance, was attended with complete success, and that the 

 experiment indicates a forward step in practical meteorology. 

 In addition to monthly and yearly summaries for a number 

 uf stations, the report contains coloured maps showing for 

 each month and for the year the mean distribution of the 

 various elements over the whole of the colony. 



In a communication to the Societe Fran^:aise de Physique, 

 N'o. 216, 1904, M. Bouty describes experiments on the 

 dielectric cohesion of argon and mercury vapour. The 

 dielectric cohesion of argon is e.xceptionally small, its value 

 being only about one-seventh of that of hydrogen. The 

 smallest trace of impurity increases the value, and the 

 :iuthor recommends the measurement of the dielectric 

 cohesion as a means of testing the purity of argon, the 

 sensitiveness of the test being comparable with that of the 

 spectral examination. 



We have received from the author. Dr. F. Braun, a re- 

 print of an important paper appearing in the Physilialische 

 Zcitschrift (No. 8, pp. 194-9) entitled " Methoden zur 

 X'ergrosserung der Senderenergie fur drahtlose Tele- 

 NO. 18 19, VOL. 70] 



graphie." Dr. Braun discusses the limits of the possible 

 increase of capacity and voltage — and therefore of energy — 

 of the usual sending devices employed in wireless telegraphy, 

 and describes many new^ arrangements consisting of com- 

 binations of capacities and inductances for which consider- 

 ably greater efficiency is claimed. 



Dr. Braun also sends us a copy of an article on 

 " Herstellung doppelt brechender Korper aus isotropen 

 Bestandteilen " {Physikalische Zcitschrijt, No. 8, pp. 

 199-203), in which he suggests that a doubly refracting 

 body may consist in a homogeneous mi.xture of isotropic 

 particles of two kinds the dielectric constants of which are 

 different, the distribution of the particles being regular, but 

 difi'erent in three principal directions. In illustration of 

 the suggestion, experiments are described in which the 

 body consisted of fire-bricks with air spaces between them. 

 On passing plane-polarised electric waves through different 

 thicknesses, the waves on issuing exhibited plane, circular, 

 or elliptic polarisation according to the thickness of the 

 body through which they passed. The experiments were 

 conducted on a somewhat gigantic scale. 



In No. i, vol. ix., of Tcrresirial Magnetism and .iimo- 

 spheric Electricity, the aims and organisation of the depart- 

 ment of international research in terrestrial magnetism of 

 the Carnegie Institution are defined. The director is Dr. 

 L. A. Bauer. Of the first allotment of 20,000 dollars, one 

 half is to be devoted to office expenses, comprising the 

 reduction, discussion, &c., of existing data, the second half 

 being reserved for observational and experimental work. If 

 satisfactory results are obtained during the first year, the 

 same sum' of 20,000 dollars is to be granted annually to 

 the department. The aim of the department is to undertake 

 investigations of an international character which are not 

 specifically the subject of inquiry of any one country, such, 

 for instance, as a magnetic survey of ocean areas and un- 

 explored regions, observations of the variation of the earth's 

 magnetism, and magnetic observations in ocean depths and 

 in atmospheric regions. 



We have received Nos. 6 and 7 of the series of mono- 

 graphs now being published under the title of " Attualiti 

 scientifiche," by Nicola Zanichelli, of Bologna. No. 6 

 (pp. 68) is a reprint of a lecture, delivered before the Italian 

 Electrotechnical Association by Prof. Augusto Righi, on 

 our present knowledge of radium. No. 7 (pp. 141) is a 

 useful summary by Lavoro Amaduzzi of the investigations 

 which have hitherto been made of the physical properties 

 of selenium, particularly as regards the variation of its 

 electrical properties under the influence of light ; the 

 practical application of the element in the photophone and. 

 in telephotography is dealt with in detail. As each mono- 

 graph is written by a specialist, the series is likely to be 

 of use not only to the general scientific reader, but also to 

 those workers who are investigating the problems dealt 

 with. Thus in the number dealing with radium, there is 

 a description of new forms of the gold-leaf electroscope 

 and of the torsion-balance which are suitable for detecting 

 and measuring minute traces of radio-activity, whilst the 

 treatise on selenium is of particular value on account of 

 the complete bibliography of the subject which it contains. 

 We may note that the earlier numbers of the series deal 

 with the discharge of electricity through gases, with 

 " chemical problems of the new century," with morpho- 

 logical and chemical evolution, and with the biological 

 problem of the determination of sex. 



