January 5, 1899] 



NATURE 



229 



the theoretical expectation. For an emission frequency 

 N of the vapour will now be converted, across the lines 

 of force, into absorption frequencies N +«, N, and N - n. 

 The first and last being for vertical vibrations, and the 

 central one for horizontal vibrations. If, therefore, the 

 plane of polarisation of the incident light (arc lamp) be 

 inclined at any angle a to the vertical, its horizontal 

 component will be absorbed by the vapour for the 

 frequency N, and its vertical component for the 

 frequencies N+« and N - «. The other components 

 will be transmitted, and being vertical and horizontal 

 respectively, and not being of the same period, they 

 cannot be extinguished by a nicol set to quench light 

 polarised at an angle n to the vertical. When the in- 

 cident light is polarised in a vertical plane, however, or 

 in a horizontal plane, the analysing nicol can quench the 

 transmitted light, and the lines do not light up in the 

 spectroscope. The writer has found on trial that the 

 expectation of theory is realised, and that when the 

 polariser is inclined to the vertical the phenomenon 

 takes place across the lines of force as in Righi's ex- 

 periment along the lines of force.' 



Many other interesting points deserve notice, such as 

 Prof G. F. Fitzgerald's theory connec ting the Faraday 

 effect with the Zeeman effect; but want of space compels 

 us to close the present account of the work done in this 

 field during the past year. We may just mention, in 

 conclusion, that the Faraday eftect in gases has been 

 placed in strong evidence by an interesting experiment 

 due to MM. Macaluso and Corbino {Comptes rciidiis, 

 t. 127, p. 548, 1898), which depends for its explanation 

 on the fact that the rotatory power of a substance 

 increases enormously as the frequency of the transmitted 

 light approaches that of an absorption band of the sub- 

 stance through which it is transmitted. 



Thom.\s Preston. 



RECENT WORK IN COMPARA TIVE MYOLOG V. 

 'T^HE introduction of biology into medical education, 

 ^ productive of such good effects, has been in few 

 departments more beneficial than in that of comparative 

 anatomy ; and we desire to call attention to the present 

 aspect of one outcome of this, which appears to us a 

 direct result of the adoption by the surgical anatomist of 

 the comparative method, and to be full of promise for the 

 future. 



Our remarks are prompted by a paper which has 

 recently appeared in the Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society, as the completion of an extensive study of the 

 comparative myology of the terrestrial carnivora, by Prof 

 Bertram Windle and Mr. F. G. Parsons, a most laborious 

 piece of work, involving the careful dissection of close 

 upon one hundred individuals representative of the leading- 

 carnivorous families. Of desultory descriptions of the 

 myology of individual mammals we have long had 

 enough, and it is the merit of the two anatomists 

 named to have attacked the subject in a thoroughly 

 systematic manner, transcending that of most of their 

 predecessors. Incorporating with their own extensive 

 observations the sum of our previous knowledge, by 

 carefully classifying the muscles, dealing with them in 

 sets, and tabulating their relationships where necessary 

 in a manner permitting of ready reference, they have 

 now laid the foundation of a really comprehensive system 

 of recording myological facts. The paper to which we 

 refer is serial with others which its authors have published 

 on the Rodentia and Marsupialia, either individually or 

 together ; and perusal of the series leads us to believe 



1 Prof. Righi's elegant experiment was brought before the notice of the 

 British .\ssociation in September last by Prof. S. P. Thompson, and three 

 or four days afterwards, with kind permission, I made the observations here 

 described in Prof. Barrett's laboratory in the Royal College of Science, 



NO. 



1523, VOL. 59] 



that in finally deciding the zoological position of some of 

 the more anomalous mammalian forms the study of the 

 muscles may yet play a not unimportant part. We 

 welcome thus, for example, the conclusion of one of the 

 authors that the Jerboas are allied to the Myomorpha 

 as insisted upon by Winge ; and the fact that in other 

 respects they are in agreement with his recent work in 

 the classification of the Mammalia, the value and im- 

 portance of which has been by no means sufficiently 

 appreciated in this country. 



In having access to the collections of the Zoological 

 Society, Royal College of Surgeons Museum, and other 

 London institutions, our authors command a wealth of 

 material unobtainable elsewhere, and they are thus 

 enabled not merely to record facts of adult anatomy, 

 but, by comparing individuals of species, to approx- 

 imately determine the limitations of individual variation. 

 Accurate observations, when systematically arranged, 

 have a permanent value in the progress of science ; and, 

 confessing to an admiration of the laborious persistence 

 with which our authors have persevered in their task, we 

 sincerely hope they will continue it until each and every 

 order of Mammals shall have been investigated. 



REV. BARTHOLOMEW PRICE, F.R.S. 



THE death of the Rev. Bartholomew Price, F.R.S., on 

 Thursday last, deprives the University of Oxford of 

 one who worked long and loyally for its welfare. He 

 took a most active part in the business of the University 

 and of his College, and on many occasions helped to 

 further the interests of science at Oxford. For these 

 labours and for his attractive personal qualities he will 

 be long remembered by many old pupils and friends. 



Dr. Price was born in i8iS at Coin St. Dennis, 

 Gloucestershire, and was educated privately at Pem- 

 broke College, whence he obtained a first class in 

 mathematics in 1840. He gained the University Mathe- 

 matical Scholarship in 1842, and two years later was 

 elected Fellow of his College. In 1S44 he became tutor, 

 and nine years afterwards Sedleian Professor of Natural 

 Philosophy. In 1852 appeared the first volume of his 

 elaborate work on the infinitesimal calculus, dealing with 

 the differential calculus ; the second, on the integral 

 calculus and calculus of variations, was published in 

 1854 ; the third, on statics and dynamics of a particle, 

 appeared in 1856 ; and the last of the four, on the 

 dynamics of material systems, was published in 1862. 

 This treatise obtained for him a considerable reputation 

 in the mathematical world ; but his principal work in 

 life was practical, and he will be remembered rather as 

 the active secretary of the University Press during the 

 years of its first great activities after the death of 

 Dean Gaisford, than as a Mathematical Professor. Prof 

 Price resigned the secretaryship of the Clarendon Press 

 in 1885, when he was succeeded by Mr. P. Lyttelton Gell, 

 who held the post till a few months ago. 



Dr. Price was appointed .Sedleian professor of natural 

 philosophy at Oxford in 1853, and he only retired from 

 his post in June last, upon attaining his eightieth year. 

 The event was commemorated by a dinner, at which 

 numerous old pupils and others showed the esteem in 

 which they held their counsellor and friend. For many 

 years, both before and after his appointment to the chair 

 of Natural Philosophy, the greater part of the mathe- 

 matical teaching of the University was in his hands. 

 He was one of the public examiners in mathematical and 

 physical sciences eleven times in twenty-four years, and 

 his works on the differential and integral calculus, &c., 

 were for long the recognised text-books. 



Dr. Price was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 

 1852, and he served on the Council of the Society no 

 less than five times. He also served on the Royal Com- 



