4 
NATURE 
‘| Feb, 16, 1882, 
M. Antoine Breguet’s Appropriations 
‘On looking through the recent brochure on the Gramme 
machine by M. Antoine Breguet, I observe that the author has 
appropriated, without acknowledgment, a large number of the 
beautifully executed Magnetic Figures which Prof. Silvanus 
“Thompson has long since published, both in your columns 
(November 28, 1878) and elsewhere. So far as the eye can 
judge, M. Breguet’s illustrations are printed from cichés of the 
very blocks used in Prof, Thompson’s papers. If—as I under- 
stand was the case—M. Breguet’s attention was called to the 
omis-ion when he employed a similar illustration in a paper of 
his, which appeared some little time ago in the Axx. de Chimie 
et de Physique, the present oversight ought not to pass without 
some protest—the more emphatic as some of Prof. Thompson’s | 
figures are entirely new and of much theoretical and practical 
importance. W. F, BARRETT 
Royal College of Science, February 4 
On the Clenching of the Hands from Emotional and 
other Causes in the Two Sexes 
I SHOULD like to invite the attention of readers of this paper 
to the above subject when they have the opportunity of making 
personal observations, believing myself to have noticed a curious 
distinction. The number of my own cases, though sufficient to 
warrant me in broaching the topic, is not large enough to enable 
me to form definite conclusions. Whether the clenching of the 
hhand be the result of mental emotion, of hysteria, or other 
nervous convulsion, of acute poisoning or of tetanus, women 
always seem to lay the thumb across the palm and fold the 
fingers over it, frequently wounding the skin of the ball of the 
thumb by the pressure of the index and middle finger-nails ; 
while men invariably flex the fingers acutely first, now and then 
digging all four nails into the palm, and turn the thumb ontside, 
across the back of the middle phalanges. Ab ut four years ago 
I witnessed a case of idiopathic tetanus in a black woman in 
Barbad 1s ; the disease had reached that advanced stage where 
the muscles of the extremities begin to be affected during the 
paroxysms, and it was interesting to observe, before actual 
clenching ensued, that the ¢izmd first began to twitch inwardly, 
while the fingers were motionless, Possibly, this may be the 
unconscious result of habits acquired during life; I have had no 
opportunity of nvting the phenomenon in children. Perhaps 
those who read this in the tropics, where there is usually plenty 
of tetanus, hydrophobia, and other convulsive maladies, will 
kindly communicate their experience. ARTHUR STRADLING 
Parhelia in the Mediterranean—The Weather in 
Switzerland 
THE parhelia of January 27, which Mr. Ch. H. Allen in 
Mentone describes, has also been observed at several places in 
Switzerland: for instance, at Glarisand at Basle. The pheno- 
menon has here been more completely developed; the sun 
appeared surrounded by two lightly-coloured halos of 46° and 
g2° in diameter. Owing to the sun’s low altitude, little more 
than the semi-circumference of them was visible. Each of these 
halos had on its summit a tangent arc, turning its convexity 
toward- the sun, the arc on the greater circle shining, as usual, 
in brilliant colours. On the inner halo, in the same altitude 
with the sun, two mock suns of a reddish tint were seen ; a third 
appeared at the summit of the same circle at the junction with 
the tangent arc. All circles turned their red side to the sun. 
That part of the sky was covered with faint cirrus. The spec- 
tacle lasted from 2 to 4 p.m. In the evening of the 27th and 
also of the 29th the common halo of 46° diameter was seen 
round the moon, Daring the uight of the 30th to the 31st some 
snow feil (melted 2°$ mm. in the rain-gauyge), the first in this 
year. 
On January 29, at 3.2 p.m.,a brilliant meteor with a bluish 
trail was observed falling in a south-easterly direction; it 
vanished about 15° above the horizon. The same meteor was 
noticed at Scanfsin the Engadine, where a heavy detonation 
was heard. 
The Basle section of the S.A.C. ascended Mount Pilate, 
near lucerne, on January 28. The extreme transparency of the 
air afforded a view more splendid than is to be seen in sammer. 
The minutest details of the Jura, and of the Black Forest and 
the hills of the Hobgan near the Lake of Constance, could be 
perceived ; only the Vosges Mountains were a little dimmed. 
An ocean-like fog spread over the low parts of the country at a 
level of about 650m. above sea. On the summit of Mount 
Pilate the thermometer marked — 4° C, (25° F.) during the night, 
and +1° C. (34° F.) before sunrise. Over the surface of the 
Lake of Lucerne the air temperature was, at noon of the 20th, 
—2°°5 C. (27°°5 F.); above the fog an hour before, +4° C. 
(39°sE.). ALBERT RIGGENBACH 
Basle, February 11 
On the Climate of North Northumberland as Regards 
its Fitness for Astronomical Observations 
I HAVE looked again at my observations (p. 317), and can 
assure Mr. Joseph Lingwood of their entire accuracy. For 
astronomical purposes the sky is ‘‘completely overcast ’’ when 
not a star is visible. As the observations in question referred to 
the year 1881, I do not see what the ‘‘ weather since taken” 
has to do with the question, unless it be contended that the 
weather in January, 1881, was precisely similar to the weather 
in January of the present year, As a general rule the observa- 
tions would refer to a later hour than 6 p.m. 
Jevon J. MuscHAMP PERRY 
S. Paul’s Vicarage, Alnwick, February 13 
Jago’s ‘Inorganic Chemistry ” 
THE kind tone of the first part of the notice, in your issue of 
December 15 (vol. xxv. p. 150), of my work on Inorganic 
Chemistry leads me, with your permission, to reply to some 
questions asked by the reviewer in the latter portion of his 
remarks. He first iriquires ‘‘ Why should he (the student) begin 
his chemical career by learning that ‘combining weight’ is 
synonymous with ‘atomic weight’?” To this I answer, Be- 
cause in our best standard works on chemistry these terms are 
applied indifferently to the same series of numbers ; and further 
that the combining weight, a number deduced from experiment, 
is according to the atomic theory the relative weight of the atom 
of that particular element. To the query ‘‘ Why should he 
draw from the statement of Avogadro’s law the erroneous con- 
clusion that the molecules of all gases are of the same size?” I 
reply by pointing out that Frankland states that the bulk of any 
elementary molecule, in the gaseous condition, is the same as 
that of hydrogen; and that Koscoe, Miller, and Tilden affirm 
that all gaseous molecules occupy the same volume. ‘The phrase 
‘are of the same size” is simply intended to convey, the same 
meaning as the term ‘‘occupy the same volume.’’ I have not 
deemed it necessary in such a work as that under review to point 
out that the volume occupied by a molecule consists in part of 
intermolecular space ; neither do the works of the chemists 
quoted when explaining the same law. 
My own experience of teaching ci.emistry has convinced me’ 
that a knowledge of the ‘‘atomicity” of the most important 
elements is a vast help to even young students, as thereby they 
learn to write formule and equations not merely from memory, 
but in accordance with certain definite rules. The value of 
graphic formule is considerable, and with sufficient space at my 
disposal I should be quite prepared to demonstrate that the 
formula referred to of nitrous oxide does afford a reasonable 
hypothesis of the molecular constitution of that compound. 
Although I hold these opinions I have however carefully pointed 
out (p. 106) that the so-called laws of atomicity are not always 
obeyed, and have dealt at some length with the notable excep- 
tion, nitric oxide NO. 
I regret to thus trespass on your valuable space, but in justice 
to myself and the work thus reviewed I ask you to kindly insert 
this letter. WILLIAM JAGO 
School of Science and Art, Brighton 
[Combining weight” is not synonymous with “atomic 
weight,” eg. 4°6 parts by weight of nitrogen combine with 1 part 
by weight of hydrogen, but the atom of mitrogen is 14 times 
heavier than the atom of hydrogen ; 8 parts by weight of oxygen 
combine with 1 part by weight of hydrogen, but the atomic 
weight of oxygen is 16, that of hydrogen being 1. In some 
cases, ¢.g. chlorine, the combining and atomic weights are repre- 
sented by the same number. I admit that the terms in question 
are applied to the same series of numbers, in many standard 
books on chemistry, but I maintain that they are applied 
erroneously. : 
I cannot admit that because ‘‘ equal volumes of gases contain 
equal numbers of molecules” therefore ‘all gaseous molecules 
