NA TURE 



[February i, 1906 



man of science installed in his laboratory in all important 

 manufactories and encouraged to help in (heir develop- 

 ment." Great employers have it in their power to advance 

 the education of the people all alone the line. Technical 

 instruction in all its stages is a practical thing; and when 

 it is realised that employers appreciate the instructed and 

 intelligent student, then parents will begin to see that 

 education has a practical value. The educational gospel 

 should be "Believe, believe," not only or chiefly in 

 machinery, in a curriculum, a laboratory, a library, but 

 in the value of knowledge, of intelligence, of training, and 

 when we have made this belief widespread an important 

 step will have been taken toward the education of our 

 pi 1 , ipli . 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Royal Society, December 14, 1905. — "Report on the 

 Psychology and Sociology of the Todas and other Indian 

 Tribes." Bv Dr. \Y. H. R. Rivers. Communicated by 

 the Secretaries of the Royal So. iety. 



An abstract of observations made chiefly 011 the Todas 

 of the Nilgiri Hills. The psychological work deals chiefly 

 with the senses, in only two of which is there evidence 

 oi decided difference between Todas and Englishmen. The 

 former were less sensitive to pain, and showed certain 

 deficiencies in the colour-sense, especially in the degree of 

 relative sensibility to red and blue, a low degree of sensi- 

 bility for blue being associated with defective nomenclature 

 for that colour. Definite colour-blindness was found in 

 12 per cent, of the males, a frequency higher than has been 

 recorded in any other race. Quantitative observations were 

 made on two visual illusions, one of which, that of com- 

 pared horizontal and vertical lines, was distinctly more 

 pronounced in the Todas, while the other, the Muller-Lver 

 illusion, was present in a slighter degree. This difference 

 is believed to depend on the difference in nature of (he two 

 illusions. Especial attention was paid to the variability 

 of the individuals subjected to the tests, and it is shown 

 that there is some evidence of correlation between the degree 

 of general intellectual development and certain simple 

 mental activities which can be tested by experimental 

 methods. 



The sociology of the Todas was studied by means of the 

 genealogical method, and was found to have many points 

 of resemblance with that of Malabar, and the view is 

 advanced that the Todas at one time inhabited that district 

 and are probablj of the same race as the present inhabitants 

 of Malabar, the Xairs and Nambutiris. A detailed record 

 was obtained of the elaborate religious ritual of the Todas, 

 and evidence is given that this religion has undergone 

 degenerative changes. It is suggested that this is part of 

 the general disappearance of a higher culture which the 

 Todas brought with them to the Nilgiri Hills. 



".On the Spectrum of the Spontaneous Luminous Radi- 

 ation of Radium. Part IV. — Extension of the Glow." Bv 

 Sir William Huggins, K.C.B., O.M., F.R.S., and Lady 

 Hug-grins. 



In our second paper ' we suggest " whether the rays, 

 which are analogous to the kathode corpuscles, may not 

 be mainly operative in exciting the radium glow. On 

 this surmise it would be reasonable to expect some little 

 stension of the glow outside the limit of the solid radium 

 itself. We are unable to detect any halo of luminosity 

 outside tie- limit of the solid radium bromide; the glow 

 appears to end with sudden abruptness at the boundary 

 surface of the radium." We omitted to state that this 

 conclusion was arrived at by eye observations. The radium 

 ivas observed in the dark with a lens, and with a low-power 

 inii ros, , ipe. 



The earlier photographs of the spectrum of the glow 

 were taken, for the purpose of comparison spectra,, with 

 the height of the slit reduced by shutters so as to be within 

 the width of the exposed radium bromide, and, therefore, 

 these photographs would not show whether the bright bands 

 of nitrogen extend into the air beyond the radium. Sub- 

 sequently photographs were taken with the whole height 

 of the slit, and on these we find that all the bands of 

 nitrogen do extend to some little distance outside the 

 1 Roy. Soc. Free, vol. lx.vii., p. 4101(1903). 

 NO. 1892, VOL. 73] 



radium salt. Our attention at the time being directed ' 1 

 other phenomena of the glow, we did not examine the 

 photographs to see if the nitrogen bands extended beyond 

 the radium. 



In a paper, dated August 22, 1905, F. Himstedt and 

 G VIeyer ' state that in their photographs of the spectrum 

 of RaBr,, the four nitrogen bands, 3i"7, 3371, about 

 3300, ami 3159, extend beyond the radium salt, wdiile the 

 other less refrangible bands are not traceable outside the 

 radium. In our photographs all the nitrogen bands project 

 beyond the radium salt, the relative distance to which the 

 extension can be detected in the case of each band being, 

 as might be expected, in proportion to the strength of the 

 impression of that band upon the photographic plate. 



B. Waller and R. Pohl, in a paper dated September, 

 1905, " give an account of experiments made with the help 

 "i screens, which show that for a distance of up to about 

 2 cm. the air surrounding radium bromide has an action 

 on a photographic plate. 



On re-examining an early photograph, taken in 1903 for 

 another purpose, which is described in our second paper,' 1 

 in which the RaBr. was enclosed in a very narrow tube 

 of thin glass, we find that the bands of nitrogen, which 

 are strung within the tube, show no trace of extension on 

 the plate beyond the tube. The exposure of this plate 

 w .is se\ "ii days. 



Ibis experiment, which we have repeated recently with 

 an exposure of fourteen days, shows that the luminosit) 

 of nitrogen in the near neighbourhood of radium bromide 

 is not due to the kathode-like /3 radiation, for this passes 

 freely through glas,. 



Two explanations may be suggested: first, that the 

 active cause is the a rays; ' or secondly, that the nitrogen 

 moiecuies which encounter those molecules of the radium 

 which are undergoing active changes are broken up into 

 ions, which are projected outwards, and give rise in the 

 glow of luminous nitrogen/ 



Royal Astronomical Society, January 12. — Mr. W. II 

 Maw, president, in the chair. — Photograph of comet c, 1905, 

 taken at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, on January 8: 

 Astronomer Royal. The photograph showed the comet 

 with a bright nucleus and a faint, straight tail extending 

 about 1°. It was hoped that further photographs would be 

 obtained after the comet had passed the sun. — The ring 

 nebula in Lyra : E. I'.. Barnard. A careful series of 

 measures of the positions of the stars about the nebula 

 appeared to show that the star in the centre of the ring 

 had neither proper motion nor parallax. — Mean areas and 

 heliographic latitudes of sun-spots in the year 1904 : 

 Astronomer Royal. — Photographic reproduction of 

 riseaux for star photography : H. Bourget Specimens 

 of the riseaux were shown on the screen. — Report on 

 observations of Jupiter at Trincomali, Ceylon, 1904—5; 

 Major P. B. Molesworth. Special attention was dire, ted 

 10 tlie remarkable movement of the south tropical dark 

 area in the neighbourhood of the great red spot. The 

 motion of the area across the red spot bay was so rapid 

 that it seemed necessary to assign some cause other than 

 the actual transference of matter. — Measures of wide double 

 stars : Rev. T. E. Espin. — Action of the wood of the dark 

 slide upon photographic plates: Prof. 11. II. Turner. The 

 plates were negatives of the solar eclipse taken at Aswan 

 by Mr. J. II. Reynold,, which were greatly injured by 

 strong impressions of the grain of the wood of the dark 

 slides in which the\ wen- placed alter exposure. The same 

 had occurred to Dr. Copeland's plates taken in 189$. It 

 was stated that the wood of Mr. Reynolds's slides was very 

 old, and various suggestions were made, but the n- d cause 

 of this effect upon the plates still appeared obs. ure.- 

 Lunar nomenclature : W. Goodacre. — Measures of the 

 lunar crater Mosting A made at the Royal Observatory, 

 Greenwich : Astronomer Royal. 



1 F. Himsted and G. Meyer, Ber. J. Nat. Gesells. Freiberg vol. xvi. 



PI' 



, vol. 





B Walter and R. Pohl, Ami. dc Phys 



'•'•'Roy. Soc. Proc, vol. Ixxii., p. 412. 



^ B. Walter, July, rqos, showed by means of absorption screens that the 

 radiation from radio-tellurium can produce the ultra-violet light of nitrogen 

 (Aon. d. Phys , vol. xvii., p. 367). 



5 The experiments described in our last paper showed that probably the 

 rays are not the operative cause of the nitrogen glow (Roy. Soc. Prvc, 

 vol. lxxvi., p. 4S8). 



