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350 
NATURE 
[FEBRUARY I1, 1904 
Tue February number of the Geographical Journal con- 
tains several articles of exceptional importance and interest. 
Sir Thomas Holdich writes on the Patagonian Andes, giving 
a valuable summary of his recent work in connection with 
the Chile-Argentina Boundary Arbitration. A paper by 
Prince Kropotkin, of which the first part is here published, 
throws much new light on ‘“‘ The Orography of Asia.”’ Dr. 
Otto Nordenskjéld and Dr. Gunnar Andersson contribute an 
account of the work of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition. 
The completed paper ‘‘On a Flat Model which Solves 
Problems in the Use of the Globes,’’ by Prof. Everett, gives 
a number of interesting results in addition to those contained 
in his letter to Nature of July 30, 1903. 
WE have received a copy of a paper by Dr. P. T. Austen, 
reprinted from the Scientific American Supplement, and 
bearing the title ‘‘ The Chemical Factor in Human 
Progress.’’ The reader will find the influence of chemical 
knowledge upon the development of the industries, of agri- 
culture, of sanitation, &c., discussed in a very interesting 
manner, and the pamphlet is well worthy of notice. 
WE have received a copy of a German pamphlet by 
B. Kolbe the object of which is to show the manifold 
applicability of the differential thermoscope and a six-fold 
manometer in experimental demonstrations of the pheno- 
mena and laws of heat. Thirty important experiments are 
described which can be carried out with the aid of these 
instruments, and excellent illustrations of the method of 
demonstration are given. 
Tue report of the International Committee on Atomic 
Weights has just been issued, and only two changes are 
recommended from the table of values for 1903. 
for caesium has been changed to 132-9, and that for cerium 
to 140-25 (O=16). The report directs attention to the in- 
advisability of using glass vessels in experimental atomic 
weight determinations, and suggests the use of vessels of 
pure silica, so-called quartz-glass, in all such investigations. 
A redetermination of the atomic weights of gallium, | 
indium, columbium, tantalum, mercury, tin, bismuth, 
antimony, palladium, vanadium, phosphorus, and silicon is 
regarded as necessary. 
In the December (1903) Sitzungsberichte of the Vienna 
Academy of Sciences, Prof. C. Doelter describes a form of 
crystallisation microscope adapted to the determination of 
the melting points of silicates and silicate mixtures. The 
attainment of high temperatures is effected by means of 
a small electric oven, 5 centimetres high, mounted on the 
object stand, and in the apparatus described a temperature 
of _1200° C. can be reached. The distance between the object 
and objective during the observation is about 27 millimetres, 
and by a special arrangement of asbestos plates and a spiral 
tube carrying ice-cold water the microscope and the objective 
can be kept quite cool, even when the substance under ex- 
amination is subjected to a temperature of about 1200° C. 
In vol. xlv. of the Zeitschrift fiir physikalische Chemie 
Dr. E. Baur describes some interesting experiments on 
colour-sensitive silver chloride. Mixtures of the chloride 
and of the subchloride Ag,Cl prepared by treatment of 
colloidal silver solutions with insufficient chlorine water 
were mixed with about 5 per cent. of gelatin. Plates pre- 
pared with the product so obtained give the spectrum in its | 
natural colours after one hour’s exposure. The phenomenon 
is independent of the relative amounts of chloride and sub- | 
chloride in the mixture. The author inclines to the view 
that several colour-sensitive forms of the subchloride exist, 
which are transformed into one another under the influence 
of the different spectral rays. 
1«. 1789, VOL. 69] 
The value | 
| 
Tue first number of the British Journal of Psychology, 
edited by Prof. James Ward and Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, has 
been published by the Cambridge University Press. The 
scope of the Journal is already known from the circular 
previously issued; it comprises psychology in the widest 
sense of the term, and is pledged to ‘‘ side with no school 
and have no predilections ’’; it is not a “‘ periodical,’’ it has 
no fixed time of publication; it is rather designed to be a 
medium for the production of original articles and reports 
of experimental work. The contents of the present, pre- 
sumably typical, number include an article on ‘‘ The De- 
finition of Psychology,’’ by Prof. Ward; a sketch of 
Telesio’s psychology, by J. Lewis McIntyre; and two im- 
portant contributions on the experimental psychology of 
vision, by Prof. C. S. Sherrington and Prof. W. McDougall. 
The juxtaposition of Telesio and the experimental psycho- 
logists is itself a lecture on that progress which this Journal 
will assuredly support and stimulate. 
Tue additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during 
the past week include a Ring-necked Parrakeet (Palaeornis 
torquatus) from India, presented by Miss M. Bull; four 
Hybrid Silver Pheasants (between Euplocamus nycthe- 
merus and Phasianus colchicus), presented by Mr. H. S. 
Gladstone; two Black-headed Lemurs (Lemur brunneus) 
from Madagascar, presented by Mr. H. C. Jenkins; a 
Tayra (Galictis barbara) from South America, a Vulpine 
Phalanger (Trichosurus vulpecula) from Australia, a 
Levaillant’s Amazon (Chrysotis levaillanti) from Mexico, a 
Malabar Parrakeet (Palaeornis peristerodes), three Hard- 
wick’s Mastigures (Uromastix hardwicki) from India, a 
Pennsylvanian Mud Terrapin (Cinosternum  pennsyl- 
vanicum) from North America, deposited; a Racket-tailed 
Parrot (Prioniturus platurus), an  Everett’s Thick-billed 
Parrakeet (Tanygnathus everetti) from the Philippine 
| Islands, two Red Lories (Eos rubra) from Moluccas, two 
Blue-streaked Lories (Eos reticulata) from Timor Laut, a 
Tabuan Parrakeet (Pyrrhulopsis tabuan) from the Fiji 
Islands, two Wonga-wonga Pigeons (Leucosarcia picata) 
from New South Wales, purchased. 
OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 
ReEporT OF THE HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY.—In the 
forty-eighth annual report of the Harvard College Observ- 
atory, Prof. E. C. Pickering, the director, again directs 
attention to the urgent need for cooperation in the study 
of the greater unsolved astronomical problems, and indicates 
the methods of procedure whereby the greatest results might 
be obtained from the least expenditure. In the solution of 
many of these problems the numerous photographs already 
obtained at Harvard would, if the funds necessary for their 
reduction were forthcoming, be of inestimable value. 
The body of the report deals with the work accomplished 
during the year ending September 30, 1903, the observations 
made with each instrument being treated separately. 
More than 15,000 photometric light comparisons have 
been made with the East equatorial, the computed error of 
each set of sixteen settings only amounting to three or four 
hundredths of a magnitude. Photometric measurements of 
the light of Jupiter’s satellites, whilst undergoing eclipse, 
have been made during fifteen eclipses. The variability of 
some 2000 stars, suspected by other observers, has been de- 
finitely determined, and it is estimated that the time of 
minimum of Algol variables can be determined to within 
two minutes with this instrument. 
The director has made 71,992 settings of the 12-inch 
meridian photometer during 143 nights, and by interposing 
a shaded glass has found it possible to compare magnitudes 
of such widely different orders as those of Sirius and a 
twelfth magnitude star. Another modification of this in- 
| strument permitted the light of the sky during the daytime, 
at twilight, and at night, the brightness of various portions 
