290 



NA TURE 



\Fcb. II, 1875 



one of these birds with the muscles and integuments pre- 

 served. 



Several portions of the external covering of the bud 

 have also been discovered, along with bones, which show 

 signs of recent interment. Beside feathers, the complete 

 skeleton in the museum at York has the integument of 

 the feet partly preserved, from which it is evident that 

 the toes were covered with numerous small hexagonal 

 scales. We are now able to supplement our knowledge 

 with a description of the covering of the tarsus from a 

 specimen sent by Dr. Haast to Prof. Alphonse Milne- 

 Edwards, which is to be seen in the Museum of Natural 

 History at Paris. This specimen is figured, one fourth the 

 natural size, in the accompanying drawing, for which we 

 have to thank the proprietors of our enterprising French 

 namesake La Katuyc. It was obtained at Knobly Range, 

 Otago, and belongs to the species Dinornis ingcns. From 

 it we learn that the tarsus, as well as the toes, was nearly 

 entirely covered with small horny imbricate scales, and 

 not with broad transverse scutes, as it might quite possibly 

 have been. It is also evident that the hind toe, or hallux, 

 which is not present in either the Ostrich, Rea, Emu, 

 Cassowary, nor in some species of Moas, was articulated 

 to the metatarsal segment of the limb a little above the 

 level of the other toes. Those species oi Dinornis which 

 possess the hind toe, Prof. Owen includes in the genus 

 ralapteryx. 



Amongst the struthious birds, the Moas agree most 

 with the Apteryx, in the presence (occasionally) of a fourth 

 toe ; and in their geographical distribution. They re- 

 semble the Cassowaries and the Emus most in the struc- 

 ture of their feathers ; and in ihe structure of the skull 

 differ from all to an extent which his m\de Prof. Huxley 

 arrange them as a separate family of the Ratit?e. A 

 knowledge of the anatomy of their perishable parts would 

 be an invaluable assistance in the determination of their 

 true affinities, but it is almost too much to hope that the 

 material for such an investigation will ever present itself. 



THE RECENT STORMS IN THE A TL ANTIC 



THIS subject has attracted the notice of the New 

 Vor/c Herald, which, in an article on the 23rd 

 January, remarks that " the successive gales appear to 

 have been connected with the high barometer or polar air- 

 waves which have recently swept across the northern part 

 of the United States." Our contemporary says, more- 

 over, that the last '"great barometer fluctuation was 

 followed by a storm centre which the weather reports 

 recorded on the 19th inst. as then moving eastward over 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence. ... In fact, the lesson appa- 

 rently deducible from the recent steamer detentions and 

 ship disasters we had to record is, that the severest 

 cyclones may be looked for as the sequel phenomena of 

 the great winter areas of high barometer and intense cold ; 

 or, in other words, the rising glass should be studied by 

 the seaman as carefully as the falling glass." 



Certainly, there is some truth in this assertion ; but our 

 contemporary ignores the startling fact that at the very 

 same moment we had in Europe low pressure, southern 

 gales, and high temperature. On the 15th a strong south- 

 westerly gale was raging at Valentia. Evidently the 

 danger is very great when a rising barometer in America is 

 coupled with a falling barometer in Europe, or vice versa. 



Unhappily, the Transatlantic Telegraph is not in use 

 now for sending meteorological summaries between 

 Europe and America. It is deeply to be regretted 

 that the practice was discontinued, and we hope the 

 recent disastrous gales will induce the nations on both 

 sides of the great ocean to neglect no longer that useful 

 channel of mutual information. 



W. DE FONVIELLE 



THE PAST AND FUTURE WORK 

 GEOLOGY* 



Ot 



f\^ the 29th ult. Prof. Prestv/ich, who, as our readers know, 

 ^-^ has succeeded the late Prof. Phillip; in the chair of Geology 

 at Oxford, gave his inaugural lecture in the Museum of the 

 University. He commenced by paying a high and well-merited 

 tribute to the value of the work, the wide attainments and charac- 

 ter of his predecessor, Prof. Phillips, and giving a brief sketch 

 of the aspect of geological science at the time the chair wa5 estab- 

 hshed. Prof. Prest.vich then proceeded to notice some of the 

 larger features, whether on questions of theory or on questions of 

 fact, by which the progress of geology has been marked, and 

 which, while they may serve to show how much has been done, 

 will yet indicate how much still remains to be accomplished. 



"The geologist commences," Prof. Prestwich said, "where 

 the astronomer ends. We have to adapt the large and broad 

 generalisations of CDsmical phenomena to the minuter details 

 of terrestrial structure and constitution, which it is our business 

 to study. The common origin of the solar system has been long 

 inferred from the spheroidal figure of the earth and the relations 

 of the planets to one another, and explained by evolution from an 

 original nebulous mass ; and geologists have had to consider how 

 far such a hypothesis is in accordance with geological facts. The 

 questions connected with the earliest stages of the earth's history 

 are on the very boundary line of our science, but they liave too 

 important a bearing on its subsequent stages not to command our 

 serious attentiun ; and though obscure and theoretical, they serve 

 to guide us to firmer ground. This nebular hypothesis has re- 

 cently received from physicists corroboration of a most novel and 

 striking character, equally interesting to geologists and astro- 

 nomers. 



"The wondeiful discoveries with respect to th; solar atmo- 

 sphere, made by means of the spectroscope, have now presented 

 us with an entirely new class of evidence, which, taken in con- 

 junction with the argument derived from figure and plan, gives 

 irresistible weight to the theory of a common origin of the sun 

 and its planets ; and while serving to connect our earth with 

 distant \vorlds, indicates as a corollary what of necessity mttst 

 have been its early condition and probable constitution. 



" The whole number of known elements composing the crust and 

 atmosphere of the earth, the lecturer went on to say, amount 

 only to sixty-four, and their relative distribution is vastly dispro- 

 portionate. It has been estimated that oxygen in combination 

 forms by weight one-half of the earth's crust ; silicon enters for 

 a quarter ; then follow aluminium, calcium, magnesium, potas- 

 sium, sodium, iron, and carbon. These nine together have been 

 estimated to constitute I'.Vn of the earth's crust. The other isiia 

 consist o( the remaining fifty-five non-metallic and metallic ele- 

 ments. 



" The researches of KirchhofT, Angstrom, Thalen, and Lockyer 

 have nov,- made known, that of these sixty-four terrestrial elements 

 there are twenty present in those parts of the solar atmosphere 

 called the "chromosphere" anl "reversing layer," as the stra- 

 tum which surrounds the photosphere is called from certain 

 optical properties. They consist off — 

 Aluminiuai. Chromium. Lead (?) Sodium. 



Barium. Cobalt. Magnesium. Strontium. 



Cadmium. Copper (?) Manganese. Titanium. 



Calcium. Hydrogen. NickeL Uranium. 



Cerium. Iron. Potassium. Zinc. 



" Nor, with possibly two exceptions, does the spectroscope give 

 any indication of unknown elements. 



" While these phenomena afford such strong additional proofs of 

 the common origin of our solar .system, Mr. Norman Lockyer, 

 basing his inquiries upon these and other facts recently acquired 



* In.->uguial Lecture of J. Prestwich, F.R.S., Professor of Geology in 

 the University of t)xford. Delivered January 29. 

 t On analysing this list we find : — 



1 Perin:inent Gas Hydrogen. 



2 IMcials of the Alkalies Sodium. Potassium. 



'^ Earths'*!.':"''.!. °'..!''^.*"!?.""1} C^''^'""'- Strontium. Barium. 



3 Metals of the Zinc class Magnesium. Zinc. Cadmium. 



All .v RT . 1 r.L T /M f Manganese. Cobalt. Chromium 



AH the Metals of the Iron CIass...| j^^,,^ j^;^;.^, .Ur.-,nium. 



2 Metals of the Tin class Tin. Titanium. 



I IMelaloftheLeadclass(probably) 



The metals of the Tungsten, Antimony, Silver, and Gold classes are 

 entirely unrepresented, while, if we except the metallic nature of hydrogen, 

 there is not a single metalloid on tlie list, although they have been dili- 

 gently searched for. 



