376 
NATURE 
[FEBRUARY 18, 1904 
Tur Bulletin of the French Physical Society contains a 
preliminary account of the work of the French Geodetic 
Expedition which was sent out in 1901 to measure a new 
base line in the region of the Andes. In addition to this 
work the expedition has undertaken a series of measure- 
ments of the intensity of gravitation at Riobamba (altitude 
metres). These observations confirm Bouguer’s 
formula for reduction to sea-level, which takes account not 
only of the altitude, but also of the attraction of the under- 
lying stratum of earth. If, following the views of certain 
geodetists, the correction due to the second cause is omitted, 
discordant results are obtained. 
3000 
Tue last addition to the ‘‘ Manueli Hoepli’’ is a pocket- 
book on the mathematical theory of elasticity by Prof. 
Roberto Marcolongo, of Messina. The book is written for 
students who have received a general preliminary training 
in the methods of higher mathematical analysis; at the 
same time the introduction of the subject of elasticity proper 
is preceded by two chapters dealing with harmonic functions, 
the theory of the potential, Green’s, Gauss’s and Dirichlet’s 
theorems and allied matters. The book should afford 
excellent introduction to the general theory of the equations 
of elasticity ; for the discussion of special problems the reader 
is referred to the larger treatises on elasticity. 
an 
Tue February number of Knowledge and Scientific News 
gives an account of what appears to be the first successful 
achievement of artificial flight, by Messrs. Orville and 
Wilbur Wright. That these brothers have been successful 
in gliding experiments performed under gravity is well 
known, but they now appear to have succeeded in raising 
themselves from the ground by a motor-driven machine 
which, after running along a mono-rail for 4o feet, rose 
into the air, and was driven in the face of a gale blowing 
at about 25 miles an hour, with a velocity of about ro miles 
an hour relative to the ground, or 35 miles an hour relative 
to the wind. In the last trial the machine flew half a mile 
relative to the air, or 852 feet relative to the ground. It 
is sincerely to be hoped that this success will not, as in sc 
many previous instances, be followed by a fatal accident. 
A BroGRaPnicaL notice of Prof. Angelo Maffucci, whose 
death on November 24 has already been noted, is con- 
tributed to the Atti det Lincei by Signor Foa. Maffucci 
was born at Calitri, in the province of Avellino, on October 
17, 1847, and his family, being farmers, naturally wished 
him to become either a farmer or a priest, but he preferred 
to go to Naples and study medicine. In 1873 he gained a 
medal for his campaign against the cholera, and some time 
later he became assistant in the Institution of Pathological 
Anatomy under Prof. von Schrén. In 1882 he was 
appointed professor of pathological anatomy at Catania, 
and in 1884 was elected to a chair at Pisa, which he held 
until his death. His most important work dealt with the 
infection of the embryo by the tubercle bacillus, as bearing 
on the heredity of tuberculosis. He received the Balbi-Valier 
prize of the Venetian Academy and the gold medal of the 
Societa dei Quaranta (Society of the Forty). When near 
his death he proposed to found a scholarship in pathological 
anatomy at Pisa. 
In the first part of vol. Ixxvi. of the Zeitschrift fiir 
wissenschaftliche Zoologie Prof. E. Rohde continues the 
account of his investigations into the structure of the 
organic cell. A second article, by Mr. A. Kolliker, is de- 
voted to the development and origin of the vitreous humour 
of the eye, the author arriving at the conclusion that this 
structure, although essentially of ectodermal origin, in the 
NO. 1790, VOL. 69] 
course of its development includes certain mesodermal 
elements. The remaining contents of this part include an 
account of the ‘* Témésvarysche organ,’’ found at the base 
of the antennz of myriopods, by Dr. C, Hennings, and an 
article, by Mr. C. Thesing, on spermatogenesis in cephalo- 
pods. 
“Current Misconceptions in Natural History ’’ is the 
title of an article by Mr. J. Burroughs in the February 
number of the Century Magasine, in which the author 
deprecates the popular tendency to invest animals with 
human attributes and human modes of thought. Especially 
is the author convinced that animals do not consciously. 
teach their offspring, urging the improbability of their 
being able to reflect upon their future any more than upon 
their past, or that they are solicitous about the future well- 
being of their young any more than about their own 
ancestry. With great fairness Mr. Burroughs quotes, how- 
ever, a letter from President Roosevelt in which somewhat 
opposite opinions are expressed, the President stating his. 
belief that ‘‘ there is a large amount of unconscious teach- 
ing by wood-folk of their offspring.’’ Possibly, as the 
author states, the divergence of view is largely owing to 
the difference in meaning attached by the two writers to 
the same words. ‘ 
Tne Rapid Review—a new magazine issued by Messrs- 
C. Arthur Pearson, Ltd.—contains three pages dignified by 
the title ‘* The Science of the Month,”’ in which extracts are 
given from published articles on the physiology of fatigue, 
plants and anzsthetics, and cancer, and from reports of 
Prof. Lankester’s Royal Institution lectures on extinct 
animals. 
Messrs. Swan SONNENSCHEIN AND Co., Lrp., have pub- 
lished the ‘* Public Schools Year Book ’’ for 1904. This. 
useful work of reference was founded by three public school 
men representing Eton, Harrow, and Winchester, and the 
present is its fifteenth year of publication. Among im- 
portant additions to the current issue are sections dealing” 
with the education of engineers and musicians. The annual 
has become indispensable to parents sending their boys to 
a public school, and to the masters in such institutions. 
A SEVENTH edition of ‘‘ Dynamo-Electric Machinery,’’ by 
Prof. S. P. Thompson, F.R.S., is being published by Messrs. 
E. and F. N. Spon, Ltd. With the development of the 
subject it has become necessary to divide the work into two 
parts. Part i. of the new edition has been issued, and deals 
only with machinery for continuous currents. The con- 
cluding part, describing machinery for alternating currents, 
is in the press, and is expected to appear during the present 
year. Chapters on dynamo design, which were published 
in 1902 as a separate book, are now embodied in the present 
work. 
WE are asked to announce that the preliminary work for 
the Technolexicon of the Society of German Engineers must 
be concluded by Easter of this year, so collaborators are 
requested to send in all outstanding contributions. This. 
universal technical dictionary for translation purposes, in 
English, German, and French, the compilation of which 
was begun in 1901, has received help up to the present time 
from 363 technical societies at home and abroad ; 51 of these: 
are English, American, South African, &e., 274 German, 
Austrian, and German-Swiss, and 38 French, Belgian, and 
French-Swiss societies. No less than 2573 firms and in- 
dividual collaborators have promised contributions to the 
dictionary. Communications referring to the dictionary 
should be addressed to Dr. Hubert Jansen, Berlin (NW. 7), 
Dorotheenstrasse 49. 
