December 26, 1918] 



NATURE 



J25 



Hi.- saving of fuel bj 1I1. adoption of thi- contrivance 



is very marked, as i- proved l>\ the fact thai the 



«rature of the products "i combustion when thej 



ih. box i- considerably lower than when thev 



enter it. 



The apparatus, which i- nol unsightly, a- il is 



practically concealed by the ornamental si. .v.- in front 



..t it, has' been in operation for the past twenty years 



without causing any trouble or requiring any repairs. 



Now fuel is scarce, economise!- such a- the one 



1 might I..- adopted with advantage. 



R. C. Parsons. 

 4s Princes Gardens, South Kensington, 

 v\\ .7, Decembi 



The Perception of Sound. 



1 would beg permission to add a brief correction 

 t.. m\ remarks relative to thi quotation from Helm- 

 holtz given by Sir Thomas Wrightson, since I 

 have been guilty of some misunderstanding. Sir 

 Joseph Larmor has been kind enough to explain to me 

 iiow the relation between the wave-length of the vibra- 

 e of liquid by a vibrating 

 bodj immersed in it and the dimensions of this body 

 is of importance in the case of the cochlea. 



The time taken by the compression to travel from 

 the oval window to the round window is so short in 

 comparison with the wave-length that there can be 

 only a very minute difference of pressure between the 

 of the basilar membrane due to thi- cause. 

 ( .| the fluid a- a whole will be the 

 means b) which the membrane is set into backward 

 and forward movement. If different parts of the 

 membrane, however, have their own rates of vibra- 

 tion, these parts would be set into resonant vibration 

 bv the appropriate rates of alternation of current, 

 on account of the differences of pressure on the two 

 of the membrane implied by the flow of liquid, 

 lb.- quotation from Helmholtz seems to suggest that 

 he had come to look upon these movements of the 

 liquid as the actual exciting cause of the local reson- 

 .m... If so, it may be that the most satisfactory solu- 

 tion of the many difficulties of the case is in a com- 

 bination of part of Sir Thomas Wrightson 's view 

 with the resonance theory of Helmholtz. 



W. M. Bayliss. 



The Meteoric Shower of December. 



The weather proved very unfavourable for observa- 

 tion during the first half of December this year, and 

 I watched for a return of these meteors on three 

 nights only, viz. the 6th, 8th, and 9th. The tem- 

 perature was unusually high for the period, the mean 

 i> 40;; , and about o° in excess of the average. 

 Few Geminids were recorded on December 6, but on 

 December 8 and 9, between 13I1. and ish., they were 

 more numerous, and the place of the radiant admitted 

 of accurate determination. There seems no question 

 that the position moves to the eastward, with the time, 

 similarly to the Lyrid and Perseid radiants. From 

 observations obtained at Bristol in recent years the 

 Geminid centre came out as follows: — 



R.A. Dec. 



ro2 +32 

 104J+33 



105 + 31 



107 + 32 



108 +33 



"o +33 

 112 +33 



F. Denning. 



Lady Roberts's Field Glass Fund. 



May I, through thi hospitality of your columns, 

 ask all officers and others who have received glasses 

 01 telescopes on loan through my Fund to send them 

 back to me now for return to their owners: V 

 instruments lent through my Fund bear the letters 

 N.S.L. (National Sei le), loll. .wed by a 



letter and a number. I should I..- gla 1 if officers and 

 others returning glasses would enclose in thi cas< 

 a note of acknowledgment for the owner. 



I wish to record my gratitude, not only to the 

 public for the munificent loan of 30,000 glasses, but 

 also to the Press for the valued help which it has 

 given this undertaking 



The address for glasses and correspondence is the 

 Manager, Lady Roberts's Field Glass Fund, 64 Vic- 

 toria Street, S.W.i. Roberts. 



I02] 



INTER-ALLIED CONFERENCE ON INTER- 

 NATIONAL ORGANISATIONS IN SCIENCE. 

 THIS important conference was held in Paris 

 on November 26-29. Primarily, it was a 

 conference of the Committee of Inquiry (Com- 

 mission d'Etudes) which was constituted at a 

 meeting of representatives of academies of the 

 Allied countries and the United States of America 

 held in London, on the invitation of the Royal 

 Society, early in October last. 



The Committee of Inquiry was to "prepare a 

 general scheme of international organisations to 

 meet the requirements of the various branches of 

 scientific and industrial research, including those 

 relating to national defence." At the London 

 conference certain resolutions had been passed 

 and proposals submitted, and the duty of the Paris 

 conference was to weld these into a workable 

 whole and generally to establish on a sound basis 

 an international council or federation of national 

 councils which would be representative in each 

 country of academies and other scientific societies. 



The names of the delegates, who met in Paris 

 to the number of forty-seven, are given in the 

 following list : — Belgium — MM. Lecointe, Mas- 

 sart, de la Yallee Poussin ; Brazil — M. de Car- 

 valho; France — MM. Painleve, Guignard, E. 

 Picard, A. Lacroix, Lippmann, E. Perrier, Roux, 

 Haller, Bigourdan, Baillaud, Lallemand, Moureu, 

 Flahault ; Italy — Sen. Y. Volterra, Profs. Reina, 

 Nasini, Ricco, Fantoli ; Japan — Profs. Tanakadate 

 and Sakurai ; Poland — M. L. Mickiewicz; Ru- 

 mania — MM. Soutzo, Hurmuzeco, Mrazee, Mari- 

 nesco ; Serbia — MM. Zujovic, Petrovitch, Jopo- 

 vitch ; United Kingdom Prof. Schuster, Mr. 

 J. H. Jeans, Sir Frank Dyson, Sir E. Sharpey 

 Schafer, Profs. Frankland, Sherrington, and Star- 

 ling, Col. Lyons, Dr. Knott; United States of 

 America — Prof. Bumstead, Col. Carty, Drs. 

 Durand, Flexner, Hale, Noyes. Although the 

 Academy of Athens had not been able to send 

 representatives, Greece must also be included in 

 the li-t of countries invited to form national 

 research councils. 



On the morning of Tuesday, Nov ember 26, the 

 representatives met in the Academy of Sciences, 

 and were welcomed in a short address by M. 

 Painleve\ It was then proposed that Prof. 



