5^ 



NA TURE 



XOct. 9, 1884 



more interesting. On p. 27 we notice a curious statement. 

 No. 61 to No. 85, says the catalogue, are works published by 

 the University of Tokio. " As English translations accompany 

 many of them, the visitor will be able to gather at once what they 

 treat of," in other words, it is implied that the works were 

 originally written in Japanese, and were afterwards translated 

 into English. This is wholly incorrect ; the works which are 

 spoken of as "translations" are the originals, and were written 

 by European gentlemen (whose names, by the way, are suppress© I ) 

 in the educational department of Japan. Most of them were 

 noticed at the times of their appearance in our own columns. 

 They are all works of high scientific value, and their publication 

 reflects much credit on the University, but, if any remark were 

 necessary at all, it should have been that the Japanese was the 

 translation, and the English the original, and not as stated in 

 the catalogue. Exhibits 86 to 103 are the theses of the students 

 in chemistry presented on graduation, and here the writer's name 

 is in every case given. These papers are no doubt creditable in 

 their way ; still they are only the ordinary work of good students, 

 while the others approach in many cases to the dignity of con- 

 siderable volumes, and represent much labour and knowledge. 

 Yet here the authors' names are withheld, and they are actually 

 spoken of as translations. The writers were men whose names 

 will long be connected with Japanese educational advancement — 

 Messrs. Morse, Knipping, K rschelt, Ewing, and others — and 

 the Commissioner can hardly have been ashamed to have their 

 names in his catalogue, for all who know anything of Japanese 

 education know how much science in Japan is indebted to the 

 labours of these and others like them. Probably quite uninten- 

 tionally there is not only the supprcssio veri but also the suggestio 

 fa/si in the catalogue under this head. 



At the Working Women's College the opening address for 

 the year to students and friends will be delivered in the Maurice 

 Hall of the College, 7, Fitzroy Street, W., to-morrow (Friday) 

 night at 8 p.m., by Mr. George Macdonald. Those interested 

 in the work of the College are invited to be present. 



Messrs. Longmans and Co. announce the following pub- 

 lications as forthcoming : — " Louis Pasteur, his Life and 

 Labours," by his Son-in-Law ; translated from the French by 

 Lady Claud Hamilton. "The Science of Agriculture," by F. . 

 J. Lloyd. "Custom and Myth; Studies of Early Usage and 

 P.elief," by Andrew Lang, M. A. " A Manual of Telegraphy," 

 by William Williams, Permanent Assistant to the Director- 

 tieneral of Telegraphs in India. "Above the Snow Line: 

 Mountaineering Sketches between 1870 and 1SS0," by Clinton 

 Dent, Vice-President of the Alpine Club. 



We have to record the death of M. Bourdon, the inventor of 

 the metallic barometer and manometer which are so largely 

 used. 



In the report last week of the paper read by Prof. Ramsay and 

 Mr. Sydney Young before the Chemical Section of the British 

 Association, " On Evaporation and Dissociation " (p. 551 ), in the 

 sentence "as the dissociation increases the curves approach, 

 &c," "increases" should be "decreases." In Mr. Nicols's 

 letter on "Salmon-Breeding" (September 25, p. 513, col. I, 

 line 13 from top), parrs should he pairs. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Lesser White-nosed Monkey (Cercopithems 

 pe'aurista 6 ) frum West Africa, presented by Miss Ethel A. 

 Hut'on ; a Bonnet Monkey [Afacacus siiiieus 9 ) from India, 

 presented by Mr. W. Phillips ; two Great Bats (Vespertilio noc- 

 tttl-.i), British, presented by Capt. W. St. George Ord ; a Horned 

 Lizard (Phrynosoma cornulum) from Texas, presented by Mrs. 

 S. Russell; an Erxleben's Monkey (Cercopithecus erxlebcni 9 ) 

 from West Africa, a Common Marmoset (Hapale jacchus), a 

 Black-eared Marmoset (Hapale pcnicillata) from South-East 



Brazil, a Pig-tailed Monkey (Macaeus ntmestrinus 9 ) from Java, 

 two Small Ilill-Mynahs (Gracula religiosa) from Southern India, 

 a Blue-bearded Jay [Cyatiocorax eyanopogou) from Para, an 

 Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) from the Mississippi, 

 deposited. 



PHYSICAL NOTES 

 M. Garbe has laid down the two following laws in connection 

 witli Lipmann's capillary electrometer: — (1) The capillarity 

 constant of mercury is greatest when the electrical difference at 

 the meniscus is nil, and, as a rule, its value is independent of 

 the sign of this difference. (2) The electrical capacity at a con- 

 stant surface of an electrode plunged in a liquid is purely a 

 function of the electrical difference, independent of the sign of 

 that difference, and is least when that difference is nil. 



M. Beetz lias made a standard cell which is a modified form 

 of Latimer Clark's mercurons sulphate cell. It consists of a 

 tube in which a compressed cake of mercurous and zincic sul- 

 phates is placed ; at one end of the cake the zinc pole is placed, 

 and at the other end the mercury pole. On short-circuiting the 

 following results were obtained : — 



5 minutes ... I '440 volts I 6 hours ... I'437 volts 



1 hour ''439 ,, 12 ,, ... i'434 ,, 



4 hours ... I '439 ,, I 48 ,, ... I .408 ,, 



Tin resistance was 15700 ohms. 



M. Decharme lias made some experiments comparing a drop 

 of water falling on to a surface of glass, which he had covered 

 with a thin layer of minium so as to preserve forms obtained, with 

 a rifle bullet striking a target. He found a striking analogy in 

 the results. 



M. Foussereau has found the specific resistance of distilled 

 water, in the same apparatus, to vary from 118,900 to 712,500 

 ohms, that is to say, in the ratio of 1 to 6. He accounts for this 

 in three ways : (1) by the solution of the surface of the contain- 

 ing vessel ; (2) by the solution of matter from the air ; (3) to the 

 effect of the dissolved matter during distillation. On the first 

 point he found that at 15° C. after standing in a glass vessel for 

 forty-eight hours the resistance fell 1/30. At 30 C. the change 

 was more rapid, and at 75 C. the resistance varied, so that he 

 was unable to make any measurements. The solution of gases 

 from the air had only a small effect. On the third point great 

 care was observed. Experiment proved that the addition of 

 1/1,000,000 of potassium chloride reduced the resistance 1/3; 

 according to M. Bouty, hydrochloric acid is five or six times as 

 powerful. In respect to ice, M. Foussereau found that at the 

 moment of congelation] the resistance increased nearly 15,000 

 times, and continued to increase as the temperature fell. Thus 

 ice at - 1° C. has a specific resistance of 4S65 megohms, and at 

 - 17° C. 53,540 megohms. A sample of ordinary water gave 

 65 times the conducting power, whilst the ice from it was from 

 30 to 40 times as conducting. 



Herr Warburg has succeeded in electrolysing glass ; the 

 method that he adopted is as follows : — He heated a piece of 

 soda lime glass to about 300° C. — at which temperature it is 

 a conductor — and placed it between mercury electrodes. It 

 was necessary to use from 15 to 3d Bunsen cells for a long 

 period. lie then found that at the anode side of the glass he had 

 a layer of silicic acid ; this layer very quickly reduces the strength 

 of the current owing to its bad conductivity. 



M. Duter has made some very interesting experiments on 

 magnetic shells. He finds that, if thin disks of steel be placed 

 in the field of a powerful electro-magnet so as to magnetise them 

 through from face to face, when they are removed from the field, 

 they have almost entirely ceased to be magnets ; but the faint 

 trace left still showing that the disks were magnetised as shells. 

 Again, M. Duter built up a series of steel disks, either separated 

 by thin paper or cardboard, or placed directly together. This 

 series was then magnetised with the disks in the same position 

 as before : now on removing the whole from the field he found 

 he had a permanent magnet, fairly powerful and regularly mag- 

 netised. His next step was to take the magnet to pieces by 

 separating it disk from disk ; each disk was then found to have 

 almost ceased to be a magnet, but on placing them together 

 again he found that he still had a permanent magnet, but weaker 

 than before. 



