214 



NA TURE 



[Decembkk 29, i< 



Central Board at their half-yearly meeting in April next. 

 "That Clause I (2) of the Bill should be amended by omitting 

 the words ' one other person,' in order to insert the words 

 ' two other persons, one of whom shall be a person well ac- 

 quainted with the conditions of Wales and the wants of the 

 people.'" "That considerable difliculty might arise in the 

 future from the apparently concurrent jurisdiction of the Board 

 of Education and the Charity Commission foreshadowed in 

 Clause 2 (2) and (3), and that it is important therefore that 

 the Bill should be so amended as to provide for a completer 

 fusion of these two bodies." "That the Bill should be so 

 amended as to indicate clearly that there will be no interference 

 with the present organisation of intermediate and technical 

 education in Wales and Monmouthshire under the Welsh Act, 

 and that provision should be made for preserving to the Central 

 Welsh Board the functions exercised by it under its scheme, 

 and under the Treasury regulations already in force, for the 

 inspection and examination of schools in the Principality." 

 " That the Central Welsh Board might properly be regarded 

 as a Consultative Committee, to which matters specially con- 

 nected with Welsh education might be referred by the Board 

 of Education for consideration and report." 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Ameruati Journal of Science, December.— Another episode 

 in the history of Niagara Falls, by J. W. Spencer. The first 

 episode of the river was characterised by a cascade comparable 

 in size to the American Falls, draining the Erie basin alone. 

 The commencement of the second episode was marked by an 

 increase in the volume of water, owing to the drainage of all 

 the upper lakes being turned into the Niagara. Subsequently 

 the fall was increased from 200 to 420 feet. Instead of con- 

 tinuing until reduced to its present height of 326 feet, the 

 author now believes that it was reduced to a lower amount, 250 

 feet, and subsequently increased. This additional episode 

 accounts more fully for the narrows of the gauge than any 

 previous explanation. The age of the Falls will probably come 

 out a little different from 32,000 years, but their fate will be the 

 same. They will disappear by the lakes being drained into the 

 Mississippi basin by way of Chicago. — An apparatus for 

 measuring very high pressures, by A. de Forest Palmer, jun. The 

 pressure in a Bessemer steel cylinder filled with heavy oil com- 

 pressed by a tinned-.steel screw is measured by a thread of 

 mercury in a capillary tube whose resistance alters with the pres- 

 sure in a manner previously determined by the author. Pressures 

 upwards of 4000 atmospheres may be thus measured. — The 

 application of iodine in the analysis of alkalies and acids, by C. 

 F. Walker and U. H. M. Gillespie. The reaction between 

 iodine and hydroxides of the alkalies and alkaline earths in hot 

 solution is regular and complete under analytical conditions, not 

 being appreciably aflected by the mass action of considerable 

 excesses of iodine. The reaction is best applied in analysis by 

 titrating the alkali with an excess of iodine, removing this 

 excess by boiling, and estimating the iodine in the residue. — 

 Some new tertiary horizons discovered near I'unta .Arenas, 

 Chile, by A. E. Orlmann. These beds, examined by .Mr. J. B. 

 Hatcher, represent two new horizons diflerent from and older 

 than the tertiary beds known as Patagonian, containing a 

 marine fauna completely new to science. ^A biotite-tinguaite 

 dike from .Manchester-by-the-Sea, Essex Co., Mass., by A. S. 

 Eakle. This dike cuts through the augite-syenite of Gales 

 rock near Manchester. It is six inches wide, and exposed for 

 twenty feet. It is very difficult of access, and is only exposed 

 at low water. The rock has a greenish-grey colour and a 

 slightly greasy lustre, like tinguaites and rocks rich in nepheline. 

 Small phenocrysts of felspar aie visiblein the somewhat compact 

 ground mass, and also much magnetite, mixed with biotile, 

 occurs in brownish- black patches, giving the rock a mottled 

 appearance. 



IViet/cmaiin's Annaleit der Vhyiik iinJ Chemic, No. 12. — 

 Genesis of the electric spark, by B. Waller. The authr)r mounts 

 a long sensitive plate on a little car moving on rails and driven 

 by a falling weight. The discharge from an induction coil is 

 so timed that at least two sparks are recorded. The negatives 

 show that each spark consists of several successive discharges in 

 the same direction, at intervals of 27 x 10"' sees. The S]5ark 

 is invariably preceded by brush discharges, and in places where 



NO. 1522, VOL. 59] 



the spark is bent, a small brush like appendage appears, show- 

 ing that the spark changed its direction in consequence of too 

 large a resistance. — Genesis of the point discharge, by E. War- 

 burg. When a needle-point is mounted in the centre of a 

 metallic sphere and charged to a certain minimum potential, a 

 continuous di.scharge passes from the point to the sphere. The 

 author finds that the discharge sets in about 0007 seconds 

 after the potential has attained the proper value. — Properties of 

 the stratified brush discharge in the open air, by M. Toepler. 

 When the current intensity of an inrtuence machine discharge is 

 raised from zero to a high value, the discharge, at first an 

 ordinary brush discharge, takes the form of sparks, and is 

 eventually converted into a stratified " brush light arc," showing 

 white kathode light, scarlet positive light, and anode glow. 

 This is another proof of the essential identity of open-air and 

 vacuum discharges. If the gap is very small, only the spark 

 discharge can be produced. — Tuning-plates as a substitute for 

 tuning-lorks at high pitches, by F. Melde. Small square 

 Chladni plates, say 5 cm. wide and o"5 cm. thick, give high 

 notes whose pitches can be safely calculated from their dimen- 

 sions. They can also be expeiimentally determined by the 

 author's resonance method, being made to transfer their vibra- 

 tions to a rod whose length is adjusted until distinct nodes are 

 formed, made visible by sound. Notes of pilches up to 30,000, 

 and quite inaudible to most ears, can thus be produced and 

 studied. 



The Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science (November) 

 contains papers on the development of the pig during the first 

 ten days, the structure of the mammalian gastric glands, certain 

 green (chlorophylloid) pigments in invertebrates, a larva in the 

 metanauplius stage, and the nephridia of the Polych;eta 

 (Part ii.). 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, November 19. — "'Nitragin" and the 

 Nodules of Leguminous Plants." By Maria Dawson, B.Sc. 

 (London and Wales.) Communicated by Prof. H. Marshall 

 Ward, F.R.S. 



A study of the nodules found upon the roots of leguminous 

 plants has led the author to an unhesitating confirmation of the 

 parasitic nature of both the filaments and the bacteroids con- 

 tained in these organs. The filaments, it was found, have no 

 such constant relation to the nucleus of the cells, as was repre- 

 sented by Beyerinck in 1S88. By plasmolysis of the root- hairs, 

 the infection tube is shown to have grown into the hair, and not 

 to correspond with the primordial utricle of the hair, a result 

 which proves that Frank was mistaken in regarding the tube as 

 formed from the contents of the hair mingled with fungal pro- 

 toplasm. By staining with aniline blue and orseillin these 

 tubes and the filaments in the cells were shown to consist ot 

 strands of straight mdlets, lying parallel to the longer axis of 

 the filament, and embedded in a colourless matrix. This 

 matrix does not cimsist of cellulose, chitin, or any form of muci- 

 lage. The swellings upon the filaments occur at places where 

 the rodlets have become heaped up, and at such places the fila- 

 ments eventually burst, liberating the rodlets, whilst they them- 

 selves remain as pointed portions, directed towards each other 

 in the cells. After liberation from the filaments, the rodlets 

 become transformed into X, \', and V-shaped bacteroids. This 

 variety of shape does not occur when these organisms are culti- 

 vated outside the plant on a solid medium, but in liquid pea 

 extract, the change fmm straight rodlets to "bacteroids ' occurs 

 in a few days. By cultivating these organisms in drop cultures 

 under constant obscrv.ition «ith high powers, these rodlets are 

 seen to multiply by division into equal, or sometimes slightly 

 unequal, halves. By this method Iheauthor hopes also to deter- 

 mine whether the change in shape arises from fu.sion of two or 

 more individuals or by branching. Their nmltiplication by 

 division leads to the conclusion that these organisms are mem- 

 bers of the Schizomyceles ; whether or not they are true 

 bacteria must, however, still be undecided until the final stage 

 in their life-history has i)een fully followed. 



The X, V, or V-shaped bacteroid, when once formed appears 

 to be incapable of further growth. These organisms are aerobic 

 in character, their power of fixing atmospheric nitrogen is to be 

 tested in connection with their growth on silicic .icid gelatin. 



