338 
A paper Qn a New System of Warming and Ventilation by 
Mr. J. D. Morrison, was read. The main features of the sys- 
tem consist in so circulating fresh air through a warming cham- 
ber into the room, and foul air through the fire into the chimney, 
that all local currents are resolved into one, which forms an upper 
warmer current from the fire to the opposite wall, and an under 
colder current from the wall back again to the fire, when, after 
supporting combustion, the products escape up the chimney. 
The vacuum thus produced by the warmer current through the 
chimney creates the now colder current from the atmosphere, 
which, passing through the heating chamber, supports the respi- 
ration of any number of persons. 
On Friday, August 8, Mr. A. E. Fletcher, F.C.S., read a 
paper Ox the Rhysimeter, an instrument for indicating the 
velocity of flowing liquids, and for measuring the speed 
of ships through the water. The principle on which it is 
constructed resembles that of the anemometer, recently 
brought into notice by Mr. Fletcher, by which he is 
able to measure the speed of hot air, flame, and smoke, 
contaminated with dust or corrosive vapours, as met with in 
furnace flues and factory chimneys. Both in the anemometer 
and in the rhysimeter, the impact force of the current, and also 
its tendency to induce a current parallel with itself, are measured 
and made to become indicators of the force and velocity of the 
stream. The apparatus is very simple. A compound tube with 
two orifices at the bottom, one of which faces the source of the 
current, while the other faces the opposite direction, is held in 
the stream, and communicates by tubes with the indicator where 
the pressure is measured by columns of ether, water, or mer- 
cury, according to the circumstances of the case. When used 
to measure the velocity of a brook or open stream of water, the 
speed at any depth or at any portion of its surface can be sepa- 
rately estimated. For taking the speed of water in pipes it is 
only necessary that there should be suitable cocks screwed into 
the pipes at the required places ; through these the “speed- 
tube” of the rhysimeter passes without allowing any escape of 
water, whatever may be the pressure. A still more important 
application of the instrument is to measuring the speed of ships. 
Here the speed-tube pierces the bottom or sive of the ship, and 
projects a few inches into the water outside. The indicator may 
be in the captain’s cabin. It resembles in size and appearance a 
barometer. In it a column of mercury indicates continually the 
speed of the ship. The full effect of the velocity is imparted to 
the mercury, without loss by friction or otherwise, so that the 
indication must always be absolutely correct. The instrument 
may be made self-registering, showing by a dial the total num- 
ber of knots the ship has run since she left port, and marking 
on a sheet of paper the speed attained at every portion of the 
time. This permanent register may, in many cases, be of the 
greatest value. The paper was illustrated by diagrams, and by 
tables showing the velocities in knots per hour, or in feet per 
second, for the various heights of the columns of water or mer- 
cu 

Admiral Sir Edward Belcher said the principle was very valu- 
able, but he did not see the necessity of passing the tube down 
so far below the water. He thought one or two inches would 
suffice. 
Prof. Rankine said the principle of the instrument was an old 
one, and the author, he believed, admitted this. Mr. Fletcher 
had overcome a series of inconvenient and difficult details, and 
had produced an instrument which had actually been applied to 
practice with satisfactory results. He belived that the instru- 
ment would be a good substitute for the old log system of ascer- 
taining the speed of a ship. 
This section did not sit on Saturday. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 
THE article in the Quarterly Fournal of Science for July which | 
will be most read, is by the editor, Mr. Crookes, ‘* Experimental 
Investigation of a New Force,” on which we have already com- 
mented. ‘*The Dawn of Light Printing” gives a sketch of 
the early discoveries in photography of Niepce, Fox Talbot, 
and Daguerre. Mr. F. C. Danvers gives an account of the 
present condition of inventions for Pneumatic Transmission, 
with mathematical formule for the power obtained. Under the 
title ‘* Where are the bones of the Men who made the unpolished 
Flint Implements?” Mr. Pengelly argues that we know so little 
about the effect of various climatic and atmospheric conditions on 
the bones of man and the lower animals, that it is rash to con- 
NATURE 

[Aug. 24, 1871 
clude, because human remains are not, as a rule, found asso- 
ciated with flint implements and animal remains in the bone 
caves, that therefore they cannot have been originally deposited 
along with them. He also cites a number of unquestioned 
instances in which the bones of man have been found in such 
situations, to all appearance contemporaneous with the animal 
remains. Even were such evidence entirely wanting, Mr. Pen- 
gelly considers the flint implements themselves absolutely con- 
clusive proof of the contemporaneity of man with the mammoth 
and the extinct cave-animals. One of the most valuable and 
interesting articles in the number, though a short one, is entitled 
‘“©A New Mechanical Agent: A Jet of Sand.” Mr. B. C. 
Tilghman, of Philadelphia, appears to have solved the problem 
of cutting or carving, mechanically, hard substances, such as 
stone, glass, or hard metals, in an expeditious, accurate, and 
economical manner. He has shown that a jet of quartz sand 
thrown against a block of solid corundun will bore a hole through 
it one and a half inches in diameter and one and a half inches 
deep in twenty-five minutes, and this with a velocity obtainable 
by the use of steam as a propelling power at a pressure of 300lbs. 
per square inch. The apparatus used for grinding or cutting 
glass or stone is described in detail. By covering parts of the 
glass surface by a stencil or pattern of any tough or elastic mate- 
rial, such as paper, lace, caoutchouc, or oil paint, designs of any 
kind may be engraved upon ir. In his abstracts of the Progress 
of Science, the editor now confines himself entirely to the 
physical branches. 
THE American Naturalist for August contains no one very 
striking paper, though several of consiaerable interest. Dr. J. 
S. Billines contributes a mycological paper on the ‘‘Study of 
Minute Fungi,” and Mr. A. S. Ritchie one, entitled ‘* The 
Toad as an Entomologist,” showing the very large number of 
insects which that animal destroys. On one occasion the writer 
found thirteen perfect insects in the stomach of a toad belonging 
to nine species, besides one elytron each of two others, and 
other vestiges of legs and wings. He concludes that the toad is 
of great service to agriculturists.— Prof. Lesquereux hasan article 
on the “Mode of Preservation of Vegetable Remains in the 
American Coal Measures,” an important article on vegetable 
palzontology ; and Alexander Agassiz a short paper on “ Syste- 
matic Zoology and Nomenclature,” indicating the great impor- 
tance of a correct system of nomenclature as an item in the 
history of zoology. 
TuElVestern Chronicle of Science for July 1871. Edited by J. H. 
Collins, F.G.S. Nos. 1—7. Falmouth, W. Tregaskis.—We have 
much pleasure in noticing the first seven numbers of this local 
scientific periodical, and sincerely hope it will not be allowed to 
drop from want of subscribers, of which the editor complains. It 
should be encouraged by all lovers of scientific inquiry, not only 
in the western district but throughout the country. Its low price, 
only twopence, puts it within the reach of all, while at the same 
time a large circulation is required to make it pay. The seventh 
number contains an interesting paper, valuable both to architects 
and geologists, on the ornamental rocks of Devon and Cornwall, 
counties abounding in beds of vari-coloured limestone sufficiently 
hard to receive the polish of marble. The second is a most sen- 
sible and judicious paper on the duties of local societies. If the 
suggestions here made were carried out in all societies, an interest 
in physical science would soon become universal. Besides other 
matters, the number contains the results of the May examinations 
in science, so far as these concern the classes in the We t ot 
Cornwall. A large proportion seem to have passed in the various 
subjects, the total number of successful candidates being 69. 
SINCE the commencement of the Revue Scientifigue, it has 
continued much the same course as its predecessor the Revue des 
Cours Scieutifigues. Seven numbers are now before us, containing 
among others, the following articles, besides reports of lectures or 
extracts from the proceedings of various learned societies at home 
and abroad :—Van Beneden on Commensalism in the animal 
kingdom, Ancient Churches by M. Ch. Contejean, Geographical 
distribution of the Baleenze by Van Beneden, Physico-chemical 
researches or Aquatic Articulates by M. Felix Plateau, M. 
Chapveau’s Report on Science and Legislation in relation to the 
Cattle-plague in France, M. Claude Bernard on the In- 
fluence of External Heat on Animals, Accounts of the Life and 
Wrilings of M. Claparéde and Prof. Payen, M. Pasteur’s 
address, “ Why France did not find superior men in the moment 
of peril,” the addresses delivered at the Liverpool meetings of the 
British Association by Huxley, Tyndall, and Rankine, and 
repo.ts of some of the sectional proceedings. 

. 
