January 28, 1897] 
NATURE 
393 
are, however, as necessary as philosophy ; therefore full space 
will be given to recording them, the only conditions being 
that they are original. These are admirable designs, and if 
future numbers of the new series carry them out as well as the 
opening one, a full measure of success will be the reward. 
Tue Smithsonian Report for 1894 has just been received. As 
is now well known, and it cannot be too widely known, the 
Report of the Smithsonian Institution not only exhibits the 
financial affairs, operations, and conditions of the Institution, 
but also comprises a selection of miscellaneous memoirs of 
interest to every one engaged in the promotion of knowledge. 
This appendix in the present Report runs into more than 
600 pages, and is made up of reprints of thirty-seven papers, 
written by leaders in many branches of science. All these papers 
deal with important scientific work or problems, and they 
possess the additional advantage of being written in language 
easy of comprehension. Seventy plates illustrate the papers, and 
there are numerous figures in the text. The publication of such 
collections of papers as have been included in the Smithsonian 
Reports since 1889, embracing a considerable range of scientific 
investigation and discussion, is of enormous value to all who are 
interested in the progress of natural knowledge. 
In Part iv. of the quarterly /owrna/ of the Sanitary Institute 
_{vol. xvii.), just published, are several papers of interest. Small- 
pox and the beneficent effects of vaccination are the subjects of 
two papers. Dr. Arthur Newsholme describes a number of 
positive instances of the spread of enteric fever by means of 
sewage-contaminated shell-fish ; Dr. Sims Woodhead urges the 
inspection of dairy farms, and the bacteriological examination of 
the milk therefrom, as well as of the agencies which distribute 
it; Mr. W. Hunting discusses tuberculosis in relation to public 
health; and Dr. H. Scurfield lays down an anti-tuberculosis 
programme. Among other subjects dealt with are the bacterial 
filtration of public water-supplies, by Mr. Wolf Defries ; dan- 
gerous constituents of colliery air, by Prof. Frank Clowes ; sani- 
tation in Denmark, by Dr. J. Carlsen ; the treatment of sewage 
(several papers); the planning of secondary schools, by J. 
Osborne Smith; the bacterial examination of water and sand 
Gltration, by Prof. Percy Frankland, F.R.S. ; the effect of cold 
weather upon health, by Dr. A. Lockhart Gillespie. All these 
papers were read at the Congress held at Newcastle-upon-Tyne 
last year. 
AN important relation between the optically active forms of 
methylmannoside, C,1,,O,, and the inactive racemic form of the 
same substance, has been brought to light by Prof. Emil Fischer 
and L. Beensch. The active forms can be separately recrystal- 
lised from warm water without undergoing any change. When 
they are both dissolved in water so as to produce an inactive 
solution, crystals of the racemic form are deposited, provided 
that the temperature of the liquid is above 15°. If the tempera- 
ture, on the other hand, be below 8°, the two active forms 
separate out in individual crystals, which can be mechanically 
separated, and some of which are found to consist of the pure 
dextro-compound, others of the pure levo-compound, Both 
the active and the inactive forms crystallise without water, and 
this is the first instance in which this phenomenon has been 
observed in the absence of water of crystallisation. In all 
previously known cases the racemic form has crystallised with 
less water than the active forms, a fact which might be expected 
to favour its formation at a higher temperature. 
THE name of glycogen may still convey to some the idea of 
the substance that forms grape sugar ; but it is used in a wider 
sense in a recent work by Dr. Charles Creighton. The work is 
“* Microscopical Researches on the Formative Property of Gly- 
.cogen,” and the first part of it, dealing with the physiologica 
side of the subject, has just been published by Messrs. A. and C. 
NO. 1422, VOL. 55] 
Black. Not with the sugar-yielding character of glycogen, but 
with its tissue-making property, is Dr. Creighton concerned ; and 
the present publication describes the researches of others and 
himself on this problem of glycogen in formative processes. The 
observations on the presence of this substance in hibernating 
animals furnish a few new facts. From the evidence so far ob- 
tained, Dr. Creighton states :—‘* We find that in hibernation 
glycogen is present, and may be abundant, in the liver, which is 
against the rule of starving animals; that it is present in some 
peculiar way in the muscular and pulmonary tissues, and that it 
is found in granules in fat-cells. Any attempted interpretation 
of these facts cannot but be hazardous while so many other 
relevant facts remain to be determined exactly; but it seems 
probable, as Voit has conjectured, for the hepatic glycogen, that 
the store of fat is utilised by being converted into glycogen. 
As to the hibernating gland, its function appears in some way 
correlated to the wasting of the fat-store during the winter, the 
gland-substance becoming physiologically most active in corre- 
spondence with the wasting of the animal’s fat in general. We 
await the completion of Dr. Creighton’s work before review- 
ing it. 
THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include two Four-horned Antelopes (etraceros 
guadricornis, 6 2) from India, presented by Colonel W. W. 
Lean ; two Buzzards (Buteo vulgaris) from South Wales, pre- 
sented by Mr. H. Edgar Thomas ; two Carrion Crows (Corzes 
corone), British, presented by Mr. Alfred Greaves ; a Golden 
Eagle (Aguila chrysaetus) from Greece, presented by Dr. H. O. 
Forbes ; a Goosander (Mergus merganser) from Holland, pur- 
chased. 
OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 
OXYGEN IN THE SuN.—Herren Runge and Paschen have 
recently suggested (Astrophysical Journal, No. 5) a criterium by 
which the presence of oxygen in the sun may be directly ascer- 
tained. They have found that in a vacuum. tube filled with 
oxygen, the line at 7775, discovered by Piazzi Smyth, has two 
components, the strongest being the most refrangible and the 
weakest the least refrangible ; the wave-lengths of the three are 
7772°26, 7774'30, and 7775°97. In the solar spectrum about 
this region there are, comparatively speaking, few lines, but, 
corresponding with the above wave-lengths, there is a triplet 
which has the same characteristic intensities. Herren Runge 
and Paschen think that their origin is probably not atmospheric, 
for the spectrum of the oxygen vacuum tube differs widely from 
the absorption spectrum of atmospheric oxygen. Mr. F. 
McLean has examined his photographs of the high and low sun, 
and has found that these lines do not depend on the altitude or 
the sun, which fact still further points to a solar origin. A 
crucial test would be to examine the opposite limbs of the sun, 
and find out whether any displacement of the lines occurs. 
Tue Porar Cap or Mars.—We have received the follow- 
ing information from America :—‘‘A telegram received at 
Harvard Observatory, on January 11, from Lowell Observatory, 
now located near the city of Mexico, says that a rift has been 
observed since January 7 in the north polar cap of Mars in 
longitude 40°.” This “rift” is probably similar to those 
observed at the opposition of 1894, in the southern cap. Prof. 
W. H. Pickering, with a 6-inch telescope, found one on May 
22, crossing the cap from longitude 330° to 170. This grew 
very considerably in size, measurements made on June 6 and 15 
indicating a width of 100 and 350 miles respectively. Mr. 
Douglass also during the same month, June 10, detected a 
second and a third rift, the latter running from longitude 170 
to go’. The sequence of phenomena observed seems to indicate 
that they are due to the lower levels at the poles being un- 
covered; in this way, as the snow melts, the bare ground is 
exposed, appearing dark in contrast to the snow stiil lying on 
the more elevated heights. Their broadening is then a natural 
result of the departing snow, and indicates that the polar cap 
is at that time in a far advanced state of disintegration. 
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