ApriL 15, 1897] 
MWeaTURE 
565 
reference in the inventors’ description to the treatment of the 
negative or the unexposed plate with any special solution. The 
process appears to consist in treating a silver print or glass 
transparency with five specially prepared solutions, the compo- 
sitions of which are described in the specification. 
THOSE who have studied rocks from the point of view of 
their magnetic properties, have long been aware of the existence 
of certain isolated portions, or zones, endowed with intense 
magnetisation, the distribution of which, in general, bears no 
fixed relation to the direction of the earth’s magnetic field. The 
theory, frequently advanced, that these singular points owe 
their magnetisation to discharges of lightning, has received a 
remarkable confirmation at the hands of Dr. G. Folgheraiter. 
As the result of numerous observations of the remains of 
walls and ancient buildings in the Roman Campagna, Dr. 
Folgheraiter finds that these structures frequently exhibit 
singular points and zones in every respect identical with 
those observed in rocks. The presence of singular foz¢s in 
walls might be ‘accounted for by supposing that they had 
existed in the stone before it was used for building ; but this 
explanation is incapable of accounting for the singular zones 
in which a number of adjacent stones, as well as the mortar 
connecting them, were found to be so powerfully magnetised, 
that even a small detached portion of the mortar was capable of 
deflecting a compass-needle through 180°. These zones could 
only have derived their magnetisation after the wall had been 
built, and the presence, in some cases, of cracks down the wall 
in the neighbourhood of the singularities, such as would be 
caused by lightning, tends to confirm the present theory of their 
origin. 
The classification of cubic curves is due to Newton; but 
while many papers dealing with curves of the fourth degree are 
to be found in various mathematical periodicals, these have 
usually left the appearance of the curves largely to the reader’s 
imagination. We have, therefore, much pleasure in calling 
attention to a dissertation by Dr. Ruth Gentry, of Bryn 
Mawr College, “‘On the Forms of Plane Quartic Curves” 
(New York: Press of Robert Drummond, 1896), containing a 
complete enumeration of the fundamental forms of these 
curves, and thus achieving for quartic curves what Newton 
accomplished for cubics. 
THE papers read before the London Mathematical Society 
from November 1895 to November 1896, have just been pub- 
lished in vol. xxvii. of the Society’s Proceedings. As we regu- 
larly give a brief account of the meetings of the Society, it is 
unnecessary for us to do more now than call attention to the 
publication in full of the papers referred to in our reports. 
AMONG the eight valuable papers in the new number of 
Science Progress (April) is one, by Prof. E. B. Poulton, on 
«* A Remarkable Anticipation of Modern Views on Evolution.” 
It clearly appears from the article that James Cowles Prichard, 
distinguished for his researches in anthropology and etnnology, 
must be given a very important place among the pioneers of 
evolution. The second volume of his ‘* Researches into the 
Physical History of Mankind” (second edition, 1826) contains 
a most interesting contribution to the history of evolution, and 
it seems to have been overlooked entirely until Dr. Maurice 
Davis called Prof, Meldola’s attention to it. A careful ex- 
amination of the work leads Prof. Poulton to conclude that 
“Prichard apprehended with perfect clearness that domesti- 
cated races of animals and plants have been produced by the 
selection of man, and not by favourable surroundings, careful 
training or cultivation. He believed in the possibility of organic 
evolution, and supported it by excellent arguments which still 
have the strongest weight to-day. He even recognised the 
NO. 1433, VOL. 55] 
operation of natural selection, although he assigned to it a 
subordinate 7é/e. The most important anticipation is, how- 
ever, the masterly discussion on the transmission of acquired 
characters, a discussion in which the distinction between ac- 
quired and inherent or congenital characters is clearly drawn, 
and many of the most difficult cases are fully argued out, the 
conclusions reached being those independently arrived at by 
Prof. Weismann over half a century later.” ; 
A VERY good portrait of Darwin, reproduced from a photo- 
graph by Mrs. J. M. Cameron, forms a supplement to the 
current number of the dAcademy (April 10). 
THE Journal of Botany for April gives an interesting sketch, 
and a portrait, of the life of Mr. H. Boswell, of Oxford, the 
bryologist, who died on February 4, in his sixtieth year. 
WE learn, from the Jozrnal of Botany, that the Foreign Office 
has issued a Report on the Botanical Aspects of British Central 
Africa, by Mr, Alexander Whyte, treating of the economical side 
of the subject. 
THE methods in which the natives of New Caledonia cultivate 
yams and taro is described by M. Glaumont in ZL’ Anthropologie 
(1897, Tome viii. p. 41). Toirrigate the latter, long, wide ditches 
are dug of varied form; some are in spirals, others quite 
labyrinthiform. 
As examples of results obtained by means of a pin-hole 
camera, some photographs reproduced in the Amateur Photo- 
grapher (April 2) are remarkably good. The pictures accom- 
pany two articles, by Mr. George Davison and Mr. H. C. 
Shelley, on pin-hole camerzs and their use. 
Herr J. BRUNNTHALER, of Vienna, has issued a very copious 
‘*Jahres- Katalog ” of the Vienna A7yplogamen- Tauschanstalt, in 
German, French, and English, consisting of a very long list of 
species in the various families of Cryptogams offered in exchange 
or for purchase. The locality of the collection is in all cases 
given, and several new species of Fungi are described. 
WE have received the Annual Report of the Royal Botanic 
Gardens, Trinidad, for 1896. Among interesting items of in- 
formation is the rediscovery in the island of Sacog/ott?s amazonica, 
thus establishing the source of one of the “‘ drift fruits ” discussed 
in the Reports of the Challenger Expedition, as being found by 
various collectors in the Caribbean and other seas. 
Pror. W. A. HERDMAN, who has done a little work in pre- 
historic archeology in the Isle of Man and elsewhere, threw out 
the suggestion, at a recent meeting of the Liverpool Biological 
Society, that the ‘* Calderstones ” near Liverpool originally were 
part of a dolmen ; a visitor present on that occasion corroborated 
this view, and the evidence has since been collected by Prof. 
Herdman in the 7vazsactions of that Society. 
A MYKEN-£AN painting ona calcareous slab is described by M. 
Salomon Reinach in LZ’ Anthropologie (1897, Tome viii. p. 19). 
It represents five marching warriors, who carry circular shields, 
and who are poising their javelins as if on the point of throwing 
them; below are five ill-drawn animals. M. Reinach hopes that 
it will soon be possible to clearly distinguish between Achzan 
and ‘Egean or Pelasgian finds. He refers the painted slab to 
the former culture. 
THE study of iron carbide has for a long time occupied the 
attention of chemists, the general result of whose researches has 
been to show that steel contains a crystalline carbide corre- 
sponding to the formula Fe,C. Curiously enough, although this 
was one of the first metallic carbides known, it has proved to 
be the last to be prepared in quantity by direct synthesis. 
When pure iron and carbon are melted together in the electric 
