ee et a a 
DECEMBER 25; 1913] 
SCIENTIFIC PAPERS IN THE SMITH- 
SONIAN REPORT FOR 1912. 
s 1 HE annual report of the Board of Regents of the 
Smithsonian Institution for the year 1912 has 
now been issued by the Government Printing Office 
in Washington. It provides full particulars of the 
varied activities, the expenditure, and the general 
condition of the Institution for the year ending June 
30, 1912. But, as usual, the most attractive part of 
the volume, which runs to 780 pages, is the general 
appendix of 650 pages of contributions by scientific 
workers of many nationalities. These papers are 
sometimes translations of important contributions to 
scientific periodicals in different parts of the world, 
sometimes lectures or addresses of note, and in other 
cases original articles. 
Among the numerous translations may be mentioned 
those of Prof. P. Puiseux’s article in the Revue 
générale des Sciences of June 30, 1912, on the year’s 
progress in astronomy, and that in the Revue Scien- 
tifique for April 6, 1912, on spiral nebula. Another 
translation is of an article by Mr. C. V. Boys on 
experiments with soap bubbles. The original was 
published in the Journal de Physique, August, 1912, 
and was a lecture delivered before the French Physical 
Society in April of that year. From the Revue 
générale des Sciences, November 30, 1912, is taken 
also Prof. Emile Borel’s address on molecular theories 
and mathematics, which was delivered on the occa- 
sion of the inauguration of the Rice Institute at 
Houston, Texas. This is followed by an essay by the 
late Henri Poincaré on the connection between zther 
and matter, an address delivered before the French 
Physical Society on April 11, 1912, and printed in the 
Journal de Physique, May, 1912. It may be remarked 
here that at the end of the volume there is an in- 
teresting biography of Henri Poincaré, his scientific 
work, and his philosophy, written by Dr. Charles 
Nordmann. From the Journal de Physique, June, 
tg11, is taken also Sir William Ramsay’s address to 
the French Physical Society on the measurement of 
infinitesimal quantities of substances, in which he 
details some of the recent efforts of men of science 
“to see the invisible, to touch the intangible, and to 
weigh the imponderable.”” Prof. L. Lecornu’s ‘‘ Re- 
view of Applied Mechanics”’ is taken from the Revue 
générale des Sciences of July 30, 1912; M. A. Lacroix’s 
essay on “A Trip to Madagascar, the Country of 
Beryls,”’ is from La Géographie, November 15, 1912; 
and that by M. R. Legendre on the survival of organs 
and the ‘‘culture”’ of living tissues is from La Nature, 
November 2, 1912, where he cites remarkable experi- 
ments the results of which have proved that organs 
and living tissues may be preserved for some time 
“in cold storage,’ and then transplanted or grafted 
to the living bodies of other individuals of the same 
species. An essay on adaptation and inheritance in 
the light of modern experimental investigation, by 
Herr Paul Kammerer, is from Himmel und Erde, 
June, 191r. Dr. L. Gain’s account of the penguins 
of the Antarctic regions is from La Nature, July 6, 
IgI2. 
Prof. Zaborowski’s paper on ancient Greece 
and its slave population is translated from the Revue 
Anthropologique. From it one is enabled to obtain a 
good idea of the social and economic conditions which 
prevailed in ancient Greece during the height of the 
slave traffic, which was instrumental in effecting a 
decline in the efficiency and productiveness of her 
citizens. Slaves were employed at such low rates and 
were secured in so many ways, that everyone owned 
at least one or two, who were made to perform all 
the household and industrial work, leaving the citizen 
NO. 2304, VOL. 92] 
NATURE 
493 
owners to spend their time in idleness and luxury. 
The prevailing economic conditions and customs 
tended to lower the moral of families, and reduce 
their numbers. Enriched by slave labour, and enter- 
tained by the doings of men and women purchased 
from abroad, the Greeks became spectators of life and 
practically renounced the raising of children. 
Among notable addresses included in the appendix 
Prof. Schifer’s presidential address to the Dundee 
meeting of the British Association takes a prominent 
place. Prof. G. Elliot Smith’s presidential address to 
the Anthropological Section at Dundee on the evolu- 
tion of man appropriately follows Dr. Schafer’s. Dr. 
Edward Sapir’s lecture at the University of Penn- 
sylvania on the history and varieties of human speech 
is reprinted from the Popular Science Monthly, July, 
1git. Prof. H. T. Barnes’s Royal Institution lecture 
on icebergs and their location in navigation is given 
in full. 
Many original contributions are also included. Prof. 
W. J. Humphreys, professor of meteorological physics 
in the United States Weather Bureau, contributes an 
article which will be of interest and of practical value 
to aviators and students of mechanical flight. It is 
entitled ‘‘ Holes in the Air,’’ which means the various 
places in the atmosphere where the conditions, so far 
as flying is concerned, very much resemble actual 
vacuities. The author explains the nature of the nine 
kknown types of atmospheric conditions, which he 
groups under two heads: the vertical group and the 
horizontal group. After carefully covering the dangers 
resulting from such atmospheric conditions, Prof. 
Humphreys concludes his article with the following 
note ;— 
‘All the above sources of danger, whether near 
the surface, like the breakers, the torrents, and the 
eddies, or well up, like the billows and the wind 
sheets, are less and less effective as the speed of the 
aéroplane is increased. But this does not mean that 
the swiftest machine necessarily is the safest; there 
are numerous other factors to be considered, and the 
problem of minimum danger or maximum safety, if 
the aéronaut insists, can only be solved by a proper 
combination of theory and practice, of sound reason- 
ing and intelligent experimentation.” 
Mr. F. B. Taylor, of the U.S. Geological Survey, 
contributes an essay on the glacial and post-glacial 
lakes of the Great Lake Region, and Mr. A. H. 
Brooks, of the same service, one on applied geology. 
Mention must be made of the articles reprinted from 
English periodicals, among which we notice Prof. 
Armstrong’s ‘‘ Origin of Life: A Chemist’s Fantasy,” 
which appeared in Science Progress, October, 1912. 
As usual, the illustrations are numerous and excel- 
lent. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
Lorp Ray LeicH will unveil a tablet to the memory 
of Lord Lister at King’s College, London, on Wednes- 
day, January 14, at 4.30. The ceremony will be fol- 
lowed by the inaugural lecture of the newly appointed 
professor of physics, Prof. O. W. Richardson, F.R.S., 
who will take as his subject, “‘ The Discharge of Elec- 
tricity from Hot Bodies.” 
Dr. GrorGE SENTER, reader in chemistry in the 
University of London, and lecturer in chemistry at 
St. Mary’s Medical School, has been appointed to the 
position of head of the department of chemistry at 
Birkbeck College, in succession to Dr. Alexander 
McKenzie, who was appointed recently to the chair 
of chemistry at University College, Dundee (Univer- 
sity of St. Andrews). 
