NA TURE 



[November 23, 1905 



also gives sunn- mineralogical notes on agate pebbles occur- 

 ring in abundance on the surface of decomposed basalt at 

 Little River, on penetration-twin crystals of gypsum from 

 Eukalunda, on tellurides of gold, silver, and lead (hessite 

 and altaite) from Gympie, and on calcite crystals with 

 pyrites inclusions from Golden Gate, Croydon. In Publi- 

 cation No. 198 Mr. Lionel C. Ball describes the occurrence 

 of gold, platinum, tinstone, and monazite in the beach 

 sands on the si uth coast of Queensland. The results 

 obtained indicate that this is a favourable field for the use 

 of a dredger. 1 11 Publication No. 199 Mr. Lionel C. Ball 

 gives a preliminary report on the recent (lis, every of gold 

 at Oaks View, near Rockhampton. The ore is a soft 

 ferruginous material resulting from the alteration of an 

 original serpentine. In Publication No. 200 Mr. Waller E. 

 Cameron describes lie- central Queensland (Dawson- 

 Mackenzie) Coal-measures. The coal is of permo-Carbon- 

 iferou; age, and a promising forecast is given of the great 

 resources "I this portion of Queensland in high-class steam- 

 coal. 



The pretty and well known lecture experiment showing 

 the alternations between longitudinal and torsional oscilla- 

 tions in a suspended spiral spring carrying a weight was 

 described by Wilberforce in 1894. In the Festschrift com- 

 memorative ol the seventieth birthday of Adolf Wiillner 

 (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1905) Prof. A. Sommerfeld de- 

 scribes some further experiments with spiral springs and 

 discusses their use in the determination of Puisson's ratio. 

 The following methods are distinguished :— statical observ- 

 ations, observations of the separate oscillation periods, con- 

 struction and measurement of the Lissajou curves, deter- 

 mination of the conditions of resonance. 



In the Arkiv for mathematics, astronomy, and physics 

 , I the Swedish Academy, Mr. W. Walfrid Ekman gives an 

 investigation (in English) on the influence of the earth's 

 rotation on ocean currents. It had been observed by Dr. 

 Nansen on the Fram that the drift produced by a given 

 wind did not follow the wind's direction, but deviated 

 -cime 20°-.io° to the right, and a mathematical investi- 

 gation by tin writer of the present paper showed how this 

 deviation could be accounted for by the earth's rotation. 

 In the present communication account is taken of the 

 influence of continents and of neighbouring currents. The 

 calculations show the existence ol a surface current tend- 

 ing somewhat to follow the shore lines, but deviating 45° 

 from the direction of the wind in the absence of boundaries, 

 a midwater current with a velocity almost uniform and 

 parallel to the coast, lastly a bottom current compensating 

 for the flow of water towards or from the land in the 

 surface current. 



The Popular Science Monthly for November contains a 

 note by Prof. Mansfield Merriman on the " cattle problem " 

 of Archimedes. This problem occurs in the form of a 

 poem of forty-four lines in a manuscript in the librarv of 

 Wolfenbiittel, and it was brought into notice by Lessing 

 shortly after his appointment as librarian there in 1769. 

 The problem consists, in the first place, in determining the 

 total number of cattle grazing on the plain of Sicily, 

 divided into white, black, dappled, and yellow bulls and 

 cows, from seven equations of condition connecting the 

 numbers in the eight various categories. The problem 

 in this form is easy, but a further rider imposes 

 the additional conditions that the number of white and 

 black bulls shall be a square number, and the number of 

 dappled and yellow bulls a triangular number. Amthor 

 shewed in 1SS0 that numbers satisfying these conditions 

 NO. 1882, VOL /I,] 



could be found, but instead of the total number represent- 

 ing a possible herd of cattle, it would consist of no less 

 than 206,545 digits. Finally, in 1889 Mr. A. H. Bell, in 

 conjunction with two other mathematicians, began the 

 work of solution, and in the course of four years deter- 

 mined the first thirty or thirty-one and the last twelve 

 digits o! th, actual numbers. It is, however, pointed out 

 that to determine all the 206,545 digits would occup_\ a 

 thousand men for a thousand years. 



I\ No. 2, vol. xxii., of the Astrophysical Journal Mr. 

 \Y. W. Strong, of the Dickinson College, Carlisle (Pa.), 

 describes the results obtained from a series of experi- 

 ments on the spectrum of the magnesium spark under 

 various conditions. The spectra were photographed with 

 a 4-inch Rowland grating having 14,400 lines to the inch. 

 Using magnesium poles, he found that the " principal 

 series " lines (\\ 2S02 and 2705) and the line at X 2852 

 were reversed in the end-on positions, but if a copper or 

 iron pole wen- substituted for one of the magnesium poles. 

 and the remaining magnesium pole was placed away from 

 the slit, the reversals did not occur. This seems to indicate 

 that the reversals an- caused by the surrounding vapour 

 of magnesium, and, to prove this, the spark was made 

 to pass between an iron and a magnesium pole through 

 .1 line hole-. For holes of less than 05 mm. in diameter 

 this reversing layer " was entirely cut off, and the spec- 

 trum of the spark between the hole and the iron pole 

 nevei showed an) reversal. Other results, in connection 

 with other lines, were also obtained, but an attempt to get 

 a measurable " Doppler " effect was defeated by the diffuse 



nature of the lines. 



I in Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan for 

 June last contains several useful articles, including one (in 

 Japanese) In I. Hattori on oyster development and meteor- 

 ological conditions, and notes on the climate of the Bonin 

 Islands (in English) by T. Okada. In the summer of 

 1901 a station was established by the Tokio Meteorological 

 Office at Peel Island, one of the largest of the group; the 

 station is situated in lat. 27 5' N. and long. 142 11' E. 

 In addition to the automatic records, observations have 

 been regularly made at ioh. a.m. and 2h. p.m., and the 

 results are published for the years 1902-4. The principal 

 facts relating to this isolated Pacific station may be 

 interesting to some of our readers. The mean annual 

 temperature is 7i°-8, the mean monthly maximum being 

 7q°-5, in August, and the minimum 6t°-5, in January ; the 

 highest temperature recorded was 9i°4, in September, and 

 the lowest 45°5, in February ; no frost or snowfall has been 

 recorded, and vegetation is astonishingly luxuriant. North- 

 westerlv winds blow almost constantly from December to 

 February, inclusive ; the easterly monsoon prevails from 

 July to October, inclusive. The rainy seasons are June 

 and September, and the driest months are April and 

 January ; the total annual rainfall is about 54 inches, and, 

 on an average, there are 147 rainy days in a year. The 

 mean annual relative humidity is 75 per cent. 



Is the October number of the Journal de Physique 

 M. H. Buisson gives particulars of a new determination 

 of the mass of a cubic decimetre of pure water. The 

 author criticises the usual method of determining the 

 volume of a solid by measurement of the linear dimensions; 

 in his experiments two parallelepipeds of quartz, almost 

 cubes, of four and live centimetres edge were used, their, 

 densities, and hence their volumes, being determined by 

 the hydrostatic method, after correcting all the data to 

 0° C. The geometrical dimensions of the cubes were then 

 ascertained by two distinct optical methods based on the 



