376 
was felt inversely to the degree of elasticity of the rocks.” It 
was, moreover, stronger in the neighbourhood of large boundary 
faults, where effects due to reflexion would tend to be well- 
marked. Mr. Greenly also makes the interesting suggestion 
that, in their passage to the Bangor-Anglesey district, the earth- 
waves must be influenced by their having to traverse the older 
palzeozoic rocks of the Snowdonian synclinal fold. 
DesPITe the important influence of modern theories of oscil- 
latory discharges on our knowledge of the phenomena of 
lightning, but few attempts seem to have been made to present 
in a readable and concise form recently observed facts, both 
theoretical and experimental, bearing on the important question 
of lightning protection. The Weather Bureau of the United 
States Department of Agriculture has done good service in 
publishing, in the form of an illustrated pamphlet of seventy- 
four pages, a bulletin on ‘‘ Lightning and the Electricity of the 
Air,” prepared under the direction of Mr. Willis L. Moore, 
The first part, by Mr. Alexander G. McAdie, is occupied 
chiefly with theoretical considerations, and includes descriptions 
of various forms of kites used for modern repetitions of 
Franklin’s experiment, investigations of the potential of the 
air made on the Washington Monument and elsewhere, notes on 
auroral displays, photographs of lightning flashes, and a full 
summary of the best forms of lightning conductors, of general 
directions for the erection of rods, of precautions to be observed 
in thunderstorms, and of the treatment of patients struck by 
lightning. A brief account of the principles of lightning 
arresters and the use of choke coils for alternating current- 
circuits concludes this part. 
Part II. of the bulletin referred to above, by Mr. Alfred 
J. Henry, deals with statistics of loss of life and property by 
lightning, both in the United States and in Europe. It calls 
attention to the danger to live stock caused by wire fences, 
the effects of the soil, the kind of trees usually struck (under 
which head the susceptibility of oaks is prominently shown) 
and the question as to whether the danger of lightning stroke is 
increasing or decreasing. In the last question a distinction is 
made between ‘‘cold”’ strokes and those which cause fire, and 
it would appear that in Bavaria the total number of strokes is on 
the increase, but the percentage of fire-causing strokes is on the 
decrease. This section is illustrated by photographs showing the 
effects of lightning on different trees, and a map showing 
the relative frequency of thunderstorms in different parts of the 
United States. 
WE have recently received from Messrs. Williams and 
Norgate the annual number of JAZ2tthetlungen der Natur - 
forschenden Gesellschaft tn Bern for 1897. Init M. L. Crelier 
contributes a paper on the Bessel’s function of the second kind 
S,,(¢), in which are deduced a number of formule involving 
Bessel’s functions, which the author claims to be new. An 
account of the exhumation of the late Jacob Steiner is also 
given, accompanied by measurements of the great mathe- 
matician’s skull. 
Pror. AuGustTo RIGHI contributes to the Azzdzconte of the 
Bologna Academy a paper on the absorption of light on the 
part of a gas placed in a magnetic field. This forms a continu- 
ation of Prof. Righi’s investigations on the Zeeman effect. 
The new experiments, conducted with the aid of a large 
Rowland’s grating, deal chiefly with the inverse of Zeeman’s 
phenomena, both with hypoazotid and with polarised light in 
sodium vapour. The investigation has an important bearing on 
results previously obtained by Macaluso and Corbino. 
M. E. H. AMAGAT, writing in the Journal de Physique for 
July, proposes a new form of the relation f(Z, v, T)=o for 
NO. 1555, VOL. 60] 
NATURE 
[AucusT 17, 1899 
fluids. | From considerations, partly theoretical and partly 
experimental, M. Amagat is led to adopt the formula 
(,,v—[a+m(v—6)+c/(v—6)]T 
4 pt+- ES SRA 
\2 kor -—a+n,/[(v—B)?+a"] 5 i 
a formula which, in the case of carbonic acid, agrees closely 
with observations of the pressures corresponding to given 
volumes and temperatures, both in the gaseous state and along 
the curve of saturation. 
A NEW classification of the Tineze of Central Europe is given 
by Dr. Arnold Spuler in the Sz¢sungsberichte der physikalisch- 
medtcinischen Soctetat (Frlangen) for 1898. Dr. Spuler follows 
modern views in placing the large Cossidze among the Tinez 
next before the family Tortricoidz. 
WE have just received two new parts of the Audlletin of the 
New York State Museum (vol. vi. Nos. 26 and 27, April and 
May 1899). Both are by Dr. Ephraim Porter Felt, State 
Entomologist. The first relates to the collection, preservation, 
and distribution of New York insects, and contains illustrations 
of apparatus. The second concerns shade-tree pests, and relates 
to various Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, and Hem- 
iptera. It is illustrated, though it is but a small pamphlet, with 
five admirable plates, besides figures in the text. 
THE volume containing the numbers of the Bulletin of 
Miscellaneous Information issued by the Royal Gardens, Kew, 
during 1898, has just been published. Many of the articles in 
this most serviceable publication have already been referred to 
in these columns, and we need now only call attention to the 
issue of them ina form convenient for reference. Particular 
attention is given in the volume to the cultivation of rubber 
plants, artificial indigo, China grass, and other subjects of 
economic importance. 
THE seventh Robert Boyle Lecture on the ‘‘ Physiological 
Perception of Musical Tone,” delivered before the Oxford 
University Scientific Club on June 6, by Prof. J. G. McKen- 
drick, F.R S., has been published in pamphlet form by Mr. 
Henry Frowde. An abstract of the lecture appeared in NATURE 
of June 15. 
THE publication of a series of ‘‘Studien und Skizzen aus 
Naturwissenschaft und Philosophie,” by Dr. Adolf Wagner, 
has been commenced by the firm of the Gebriider Borntraeger, 
Berlin. The first volume is an essay ‘‘ Uber wissenschaftliches 
Denken und iiber populare Wissenschaft,” which should be read 
by persons who instruct the scientific laity by spoken or written 
words ; and the second volume is concerned with the ‘* Problem 
der Willensfreiheit.” A number of other volumes are in pre- 
paration. 
A DESCRIPTIVE catalogue of the Tunicata in the Australian 
Museum, Sydney, N.S.W., prepared by Prof. W. A. Herdman, 
F.R.S., has been published by order of the Trustees of the 
Museum. The collection upon which the catalogue is based 
was sent to Prof. Herdman several years ago, but certain cir- 
cumstances prevented the publication of the work in 1893, when 
it was ready for press. The work is not put forward asa mono- 
graph on Australian Tunicata, so the only anatomical and histo- 
logical details included are those required for the description of 
the various species. A list of the Tunicata Fauna of Australian 
seas, so far as it is at present known, is given, and also a brief 
general account of the structure and life-history of a typicak 
Ascidian, which may be of service to students referring to 
the catalogue. Numerous plates illustrate the various species 
described. 
THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include a Pinche Monkey (J/édas aedipus) from 
