December 15, i 



NA TURE 



00 



the Laboratory of the Fish Commission, antl in 1S96 he 

 xepted the position of assistant director of the Marine 

 liological Laboratory. 



' The C/i^w/j'' aW Z'n/jyz)/ announces the death, at Grasse, 

 '■ M. Jacques Passy, who attracted attention some time ago by 

 i's interesting researches on the chemistry of perfumes as 

 gards their composition and physiological action. He was a 

 lemist of promise, and one of the leading assistants of M. 

 flfred Binet, the director of the laboratory of psychological 

 [lysiology at the Paris Sorbonne. 



r, M. DE FoNVlELi.E writes : — " The success achieved on the 

 ght of November 13-14 by the astronomer HansUy in his bal- 

 fon ascent, has induced M. Janssen to undertake further aerial 

 ^:periments next year for the same purpose. At least two 

 j cents are to take place from three different stations ; one in 

 [urope, one in America, and the last in Central Siberia. 

 I'hese ascents are to take place respectively and successively — 

 ■ ree on the night of the 13-14, three on the night of the 

 1^-15, at 2 o'clock a.m., local time, and to last to 7 o'clock. 

 ■:h; aeronauts will be instructed to re-ascend on the following 

 lorning, viz. 14-15 for the first, and 15-16 for the second, 

 jhe balloons are to measure from 50,000 to 60,000 cubic 

 et each in order to carry three men, one aeronaut and 

 yo observers, supplied with electric lamps, celestial maps, 

 ji'id chronometers. The balloon is to ascend to an altitude 

 1' lo.ooo feet with registering thermo-baric hygrometer. Free 

 'jilloons are to be sent up for testing the high atmosphere at an 

 Ititude of 10,000 feet." 



. A FINE series of stereoscopic diagrams of the catenaries on a 

 'itating sphere, a paraboloid and a cone, as well as of geodesic 

 irves on oblate and prolate spheroids, accompanies Prof. A. G. 

 reenhill's paper in the Proceedings of the London Mathe- 

 matical Society, xxix. pp. 585-670, on " The Catenary and 

 le Associated Trajectory on the Paraboloid and Cone." In 

 le paper itself, the equations and properties of the curves 

 .•presented are worked out by means of elliptic functions, and 

 je understand that the illustrations are due in great part to 

 le cooperation of Mr. T. \. Dewar. In order to make the 

 jirves stand out in better relief, they are mostly drawn on a 

 ickground ruled to resemble a tesselated pavement. 



The thermodynamics of equilibrium in systems of two and 

 iree components having one liquid phase, forms the subject of 

 ji interesting paper by Dr. Giuseppe Bruni in the Atti del 

 Hncei for October (vii. 8), in which the author derives the 

 Allowing conclusion : — If to a system of two components with 

 ply one possible liquid phase there be added a third com- 

 onent which does not combine with the first two and is not 

 omorphous with them, the curves expressing equilibrium of 

 le same order (curves of saturation in binary systems and 

 'yohydratic curves in ternary systems) are parallel. Only in 

 /stems represented by the curve of the ternary mixture, the 

 lird added component exists mostly in the solid phase. 



Since Lord Kelvin published in 1856 the details of the 

 tienomenon known as the Thomson effect, few experimenters 

 ive turned their attention to experiments of a quantitative 

 laracter, Batelli's investigations being almost the only excep- 

 on. An absolute measurement of the Thomson effect in 

 )pper is described by Mr. R. O. King in the Proceedings of 

 le American Academy of Arts and Sciences (xxxiii. 19). As 

 atelli did not experiment with copper, no direct comparison 

 ith his results can be made, but his value obtained for iron is 

 Jout twice as great as Mr. King's present value for copper, 

 ccording to Tait's assumption the value should be about five 

 mes as great. 



NO. 1520, VOL. 59] 



A TTENTION seems to have first been c.illed to the errors in 

 localising sounds by E. Weber. The particular problems in- 

 volved seem to be two, namely, the perception of the directiori- 

 from which a sound comes and the perception of its distance. 

 An attempt to contribute data towards the solution of these two 

 problems has been made by Matataro Matsumoto, of the Tokyo- 

 Imperial University, and his researches on acoustic space appear 

 in vol. V. of the Studies from the Vale Psychological Labor- 

 atory. The author considers that an acou?tic sensation receives 

 its spatial form primarily from the space-idea which is given to 

 us by the visual, tactile and motor sensations- Acoustic space 

 presupposes the existence of the space-form of other sensations. 

 We have only to give an account of how the perception of the 

 position of sounds arises on the basis of the already existing 

 space which was given to us by other senses ; as to the 

 further problem of the ultimate origin of the space-form of 

 perception, its solution must be sought in the visual and tactile 

 perception. 



The late Mr. W. J. C. Miller, formerly Registrar of the 

 General Medical Council, was perhaps best known in his- 

 capacity of mathematical editor of the Educational Times. But 

 he also devoted many of his leisure moments to writing popular 

 articles on natural history, many of which he contributed to 

 the Selborne Society's Nature Notes .-ind other journals- These 

 papers are now to be published in a volume entitled " Nature 

 Studies," under the editorship of Mr. H. Kirke Swann. The 

 book should prove very agreeable reading, besides providing, for 

 the many friends of Mr. Miller, a lasting memorial of the author. 



A CONVENIENT method of preparing filamentous algae and 

 fungi for the microscope is described by Mr. Charles J. Cham- 

 berlain in 1\i& Journal of Applied Microscopy. Mr. Chamberlain 

 uses Flemming's weaker solution or chromo-acetic acid for fixing, 

 followed by iron alum hematoxylin for staining, and mounts in 

 glycerin concentrated by gradual evaporation from a ten per 

 cent, solution. It would be interesting to learn, in applying 

 the method to desmids, whether these can be prevented from 

 their not unfrequently persistent tendency of floating to the 

 surface and getting carried off in the repeated washings that 

 are necessary. 



Dr. Brinton has reissued a short article, contributed to the 

 American Anthropologist, on " The Peoples of the Philippines." 

 The two stocks which were found in possession of the islands 

 at their discovery by Magallanes in 1521 were the small black 

 Negritos, now reduced to about 10,000 persons, and the brown 

 Malayan peoples, who are in the vast majority. As Dr. Brinton 

 says : " The ethnic and historic relations of these two races 

 offer some interesting problems in anthropology" ; and it is not 

 too much to hope, now that America has obtained the sov- 

 ereignty of the islands, that these problems will be investigated 

 and the results published for the benefit of science. It is painful 

 to be reminded of the absolute neglect of these important matters 

 by the British Government, who, with better opportunities than 

 is possible in any other country, do less than is done by 

 most of the European Governments ; while the English student 

 turns naturally with hope to the American Government. 

 Dr. Brinton inclines to the theory, in which we think he is 

 correct, that these two races of the Philippines are ethno- 

 graphically distinct. The Negritos, so called, are extremely 

 rude, owning no fixed habitations, not tilling the soil, making 

 no pottery, and possessing no clothing except a girdle. .Vmong 

 their beliefs is that when one of their own people dies it 

 is due to the black art of their Malayan foes, and they kill a 

 Malayan if they can. This has given rise to a curious .ind 

 significant relationship between the conquerors and conquered, 

 which Dr. Brinton does not mention by the way ; and we think 

 there is a good field for observation here in a matter not always - 

 accessible to the inquirer, but which is, nevertheless, of the 



