136 
NAT HTL 
ing islands, which possess the most ancient worm-fauna, 
were separated at an early date from this plateau. From 
this area the primitive worms travelled in one direction 
into the Austro-Malayan countries, while in another, by 
way of Antarctica, they reached South America and Africa. 
Other theories as to former land-connections in the southern 
hemisphere are propounded. 
In the Transactions of the South African Philosophical 
Society Dr. Bolas and Major Wolley-Dod have published 
a list of the flowering plants and ferns of the Cape Peninsula, 
and have thereby brought to notice a flora which presents 
a number of unique features. In the first place, from an 
area of rather less than 200 square miles, they report 
more than 2000 flowering plants, and amongst these there 
are a number of representatives of such uncommon orders 
as Selaginacee, Restiacee, and Proteacee. Another 
striking character is the richness in species of several 
genera; thus Erica possesses no fewer than g2 species, 
Mesembryanthemum shows 61, while the very rare genus 
Restio has as many as 29 representatives. 
Mucu uncertainty has existed as to whether or no the 
bacterial cell possesses a nucleus. Some have considered that 
it does not, others that it contains a fragmented one, or one 
of the ordinary type, or that the whole cell is a naked 
nucleus. Profs. Rayman and Kruis (Bulletin Acad. des 
Sciences de 1’Empereur Francois Joseph I., June 5) claim to 
have shown by a special staining method that a nucleus is 
present in the form of a small round body situated at about 
the centre of the cell. In order to demonstrate this struc- 
ture, films are prepared on perfectly clean cover glasses, 
dried in a desiccator, treated with a mordant of iron-alum, 
and stained with a dye known as alizarine PS, or its con- 
stituents. The paper is illustrated with some excellent re- 
productions of photographs. 
We have received the Transactions of the Leicester 
Literary and Philosophical Society fur the session 1902-3. 
The volume also contains the report of the council and the 
annual reports of the sections into which the Society is 
divided for working purposes. Numerous papers are re- 
printed, and some of them are well illustrated. The volume 
is published at sixpence by Messrs. Thornley and Wadding- 
ton, of Leicester. 
A THIRD edition of Prof. James Walker’s ‘‘ Introduction 
to Physical Chemistry’? has been published by Messrs. 
Macmillan and Co., Ltd. A new chapter on electromotive 
force has been added, and the chapter on thermodynamical 
prcofs has been extended. In cases where recent researches 
have made it possible, more accurate numerical values and 
better illustrative examples have been substituted in the 
text. 
THE current number of the Quarterly Journal of the Royal 
Meteorological Society is an interesting one. Dr. W. N. 
Shaw, F.R.S., in a paper containing several instructive 
figures, a detailed analysis of the meteorological 
aspects of the storm of February 26-27. Mr. C. P. Hooker 
discusses the relation of the rainfall to the depth of water 
in a well; Mr. W. Marriott examines the available observ- 
ations in connection with the frost of April, and Mr. J. 
Baxendell gives illustrated descriptions of the Dines-Baxen- 
dell anemograph and the dial-pattern non-oscillating 
pressure-plate anemometer. 
gives 
Ir is now the common practice to illustrate lectures and 
demonstrations in most schools and colleges by means of 
the lantern and lantern-slides. Those teachers and lecturers 
NO. 1780, VOL. 69] 
[ DECEMBER 10, 1903 
who have not mastered the art of making their own slides 
would do well to study the lists of slides which are to be 
purchased from Messrs. Newton and Co., of Fleet Street, 
London. We have received from this firm a supplementary 
list of slides to illustrate scientific and other subjects, and 
among them we notice sets dealing with the growth, struc- 
ture, and defects of timber; the evolution of a frog; the 
bacteriology of tropical diseases; and the open-air cure for 
consumption. 
A NEW _ illustrated catalogue of chemical apparatus 
recently published by Messrs. F. E. Becker and Co., of 
Hatton Wall, London, is one of the most complete and 
conveniently arranged that we have examined. Every item 
in the ljst is illustrated by a figure immediately adjoining 
it, and the unusually full index makes reference very easy- 
The catalogue gives information concerning all forms of 
chemical apparatus in general use in laboratories, and an 
exhaustive list of chemicals, reagents, and standard solu- 
tions is also included. Teachers of chemistry, and those 
who are engaged in chemical research, should obtain a 
copy of the catalogue to keep in their laboratories for 
reference. 
A TRANSLATION of a long thesis on radio-active substances, 
presented to the Faculté des Sciences de Paris by Mdme. 
S. Curie, is concluded in the current number of the Chemical 
News (December 4). 
“*T will define, in conclusion, the part I have personally 
taken in the researches upon radio-active bodies. I have 
investigated the radio-activity of uranium compounds. L 
have examined other bodies for the existence of radio- 
activity, and found the property to be possessed by thorium 
compounds. I have made clear the atomic character of the 
radio-activity of the compounds of uranium and thorium, 
I have conducted a research upon radio-active substances 
other than uranium and thorium. To this end I investi- 
by an accurate electro- 
that certain minerals 
The conclusions read as follows :— 
gated a large number of substances 
method, and I discovered 
possess activity which is not to be accounted for by their 
content of uranium and thorium. From this I concluded 
that these minerals must contain a radio-active body different 
from uranium and thorium, and more strongly radio-active 
than the latter metals. In conjunction with M. Curie, and 
subsequently with MM. Curie and Bémont, I was able to 
extract from pitch-blende two strongly radio-active bodies 
—polonium and radium. I have been continuously engaged 
upon the chemical examination and preparation of these 
substances. I effected the fractionations necessary to the 
concentration of radium, and I succeeded in isolating pure 
radium chloride. Concurrently with this work, I made 
several atomic weight determinations with a very small 
quantity of material, and was finally able to determine the 
atomic weight of radium with a very fair degree of accuracy. 
The work has proved that radium is a new chemteal element. 
Thus the new method of investigating new chemical 
elements, established by M. Curie and myself, based wpom 
radio-activity, is fully justified. I have investigated the law 
of absorption of polonium rays, and of the absorbable rays 
of radium, and have demonstrated that this law of absorp- 
tion is peculiar and different from the known laws of other 
radiations. I have investigated the variation of activity of 
radium salts, the effect of solution and of heating, and the. 
renewal of activity with time, after solution or after heat-. 
ing. In conjunction with M. Curie, I have examined) 
different effects produced by the new radio-active substances; 
(electric, photographic, fluorescent, luminous, colorations, 
&c.). In conjunction with M. Curie, I have established the 
metric 
