660 
Increased State-aid would help to solve this problem, 
for daily observations at one station up to an average 
of about 15 km. could be carried on in England at a 
cost of about 1oool, per annum, and a daily record of 
the changes occurring above would be of the greatest 
value. Increased money aid is also desirable to enable 
England to join in a general scheme for the produc- 
tion of charts covering the whole known surface of 
the globe. It is not, of course, certain that any imme- 
diate improvement in the forecasts would ensue, but 
increased knowledge would inevitably in the long run 
take a practical form, just as it has in every other 
branch of science. 
Increased aid in another form is also much to be 
desired. The number of observations that have been 
tabulated and published is immense, but comparatively 
little working up has been done. The physical pro- 
cesses of the atmosphere present many fascinating 
problems; to go no further, we may instance the 
fall of temperature with height, and the abrupt cessa- 
tion of that fall at about 11 km.; the facts are fairly 
well known, and the mechanical and thermodynamical 
principles that should explain them are known. There 
is plenty of work for many workers, and there are 
probably plenty of men well equipped with the re- 
quisite knowledge of mathematics and physics looking 
for some useful field of work. I would therefore com- 
mend to them the problem of the general and local 
circulation of the atmosphere. 
W. H. Dives. 
Watlington, Oxon., January 30. 
Dr. Bastian’s Evidence for Spontaneous Generation. 
WE notice, in a communication that appeared in 
a recent issue of Nature (January 22, p. 579), that 
Dr. Bastian is apparently under the impression that 
we accept his own interpretation of the “ organisms”’ 
which have appeared in his sealed and sterilised tubes, 
viz. that they really are living organisms. 
This does not represent our position. Dr, Bastian 
has kindly afforded us an opportunity of examining 
the contents of his tubes, which were opened in our 
presence, and although the resemblance between the 
“organisms” in question to living Torule, &c., 
was sufficiently striking, it did not seem to us to be 
proved that the similarity went beyond mere re- 
semblance. We were not, and still are not, convinced 
of the living nature of these ‘‘organisms”’ at all, still 
less that they are living organisms spontaneously 
generated. 
One of our colleagues, Mr. Paine, is engaged in 
repeating Dr. Bastian’s experiments with the view of 
solving the problem as to what may be the actual 
nature of the appearances in question, 
J. B. Farmer. 
V. H. BLackman. 
Imperial College of Science and Technology, 
January 30. 
A Possible Cause of Explosions in Coal Mines. 
Ir a cloud of dry dust is suddenly raised by a cur- 
rent of air and projected against an insulated con- 
ductor, the latter becomes charged with electricity to 
such a potential that sparks several centimetres in 
length may be obtained. It does not matter much— 
save in respect to the sign of the charge—what the 
nature of the dust is, for sand, coal dust, flour, or 
iron filings all give rise to strong charges. Sand 
gives a positive charge and coal dust a negative one. 
It therefore appeared possible that a cloud of dust 
raised by a sudden fall, or other means, in a mine 
might charge up an insulated conductor to such an 
NO. 2311, VOL. 92] 
NATURE 
[FEBRUARY 12, 1914 
extent that a spark could pass to an earthed conductor. 
near it, and thus fire an explosive mixture of gase: 
if this was present. - ar: 
Some observations recently taken in the Ludlow 
Pit at Radstock have more or less confirmed this 
theory. In conveying the coal from the working 
seam to the shaft a considerable amount of dust is 
raised, and, walking behind the train of wagons, any 
electrification due to the dust was easily indicated 
by a Wulf electrometer furnished with a radium-tipped 
wire to act as a collector, With only a moderate 
amount of dust the electrometer indicated a potential 
of more than 280 volts, and a hollow insulated con- 
ductor held in the dust-cloud was also strongly 
charged. Sparks, however, could not be obtained in 
the mine, but on making experiments in the laboratory 
with coal dust from the mine, it was easy to charge 
up a metal tube to such a potential that sparks up 
to 1 cm. in length were obtained from it by blowing 
through the tube a stream of dust. 
The dust actually present in the mine was, save 
close up to the working seams, never pure coal. In 
order to minimise the risk of dust explosions, large 
quantities of fine flue dust from the boilers were scat- 
tered in all the workings, so as to cover the coal dust, 
and this flue dust gave a charge of opposite sign to 
that upon the coal. When tested in the laboratory 
the mixture would not charge a conductor to a spark- 
ing potential, whilst pure coal dust, and more par- 
ticularly the flue dust, gave very strong charges. If, 
then, such a combination should occur as that of a 
sudden cloud of coal, or perhaps other dust, an insu- 
lated conductor, an earth-connected conductor near 
it, and an explosive mixture of gases, it is not incon- 
ceivable that an explosion might follow. I make the 
suggestion quite tentatively. 
W. A. Douctas Rupee. 
Cambridge, January 28. 
The Eugenics Education Society. 
In Nature of January 29, Prof. Pearson complains 
that the sentence, ‘‘but even he (Sir Francis Galton) 
in the last few months of his life saw that the popular 
movement he had started was likely to outgrow its 
knowledge, and feared that more evil than good 
might result from it,’’ which appeared in his letter to 
The Times of October 15, has been misquoted in the 
January number of The Eugenics Review, the words 
last few months having been altered to last years. 
He then goes on to say: ‘‘The controversial methods 
which can change ‘ last months’ into ‘ last years,’ and 
then cite letters of 1909 are characteristic of that 
looseness of procedure which must eventually be fatal 
to any popular movement run by this society.’ As 
a member of the editorial committee of The Eugenics 
Review, I passed the final proofs for the press, and 
so share the responsibility for the mistake with Major 
Leonard Darwin, who actually wrote the note in 
question. I do not quite understand what Prof. Pear- 
son means by ‘‘looseness of procedure.’’ If he merely 
means ‘‘making mistakes,” then, although I have 
no wish to minimise the evils and dangers of so 
doing, I cannot agree with him that it “‘ must be fatal 
to any popular movement run by the society.’’ I 
hope I shall not be accused of promulgating a danger- 
ously original doctrine if I say that it is human to 
err. Indeed, Prof. Pearson has on occasion been 
human enough to do so himself. Yet many human 
institutions, including those connected with Prof. 
Pearson, continue to flourish. 
It is possible, however, that his words contain a 
more serious charge, namely, that of deliberately mis- 
quoting him in order to contradict him, I do not 
