April 13, 1899] 



NA TURE 



56; 



the present Japanese have descended is not known, and the 

 dolmens afford little information upon this question. No dol- 

 mens have been found in China, and those which occur in 

 Korea diflfer entirely from those in Japan. In fact, Mr. Gow- 

 land points out, it is not until, in passing westwards through 

 Asia, the shores of the Caspian Sea are reached, that dolmens 

 similar to the Japanese kind are found ; and for more closely 

 allied forms it is necessary to go yet further to Western Europe. 

 The approximate date of the end of the Dolmen Period is re- 

 garded as lying between 600 and 700 a.d., and of its beginning 

 about the second century B.C. To sum up, Mr. Gowland 

 shows "that the period during which the dolmens were built 

 in Japan was characterised, from its beginning to its close, by 

 a well-developed civilisation and a culture which had advanced 

 far beyond the limits of barbarism, and was, in fact, the birth- 

 time of the ornamental arts ; that the builders of the dolmens 

 were the ancestors of the present Japanese ; that during this 

 jieriod the clans of the race had driven out the aborigines from 

 the richest portion of the country, had become a settled and 

 tinited people, and made great progress in both the arts and 

 industries." 



"The Permocarboniferous Fauna of Chitichun, No. i," 

 orms the subject of a memoir by Prof. Carl Diener, recently 

 published by the Geological Survey of India in the Himalayan 

 fossil series of Palreontologia Indica. The fossils described 

 occur in the white limestone which forms the main mass of the 

 peak Chitichun (17,740 feet) in the Tibetan area between the 

 Laptal ranges and the head of the Dharma valley. They 

 represent altogether forty-eight species, among which brachio- 

 pods, numbering forty species, far predominate, both in species 

 and individuals, and comprise five-sixths of the entire faun a. 

 With regard to the general character of the fauna. Prof. Diener 

 swn\s up his views as to the stratigraphical position of the 

 Chitichun limestone as follows : — " The Chitichun limestone is 

 approximately homotaxial with the upper division of the Pro- 

 ductus limestone in the Salt Range. It probably corresponds 

 in age to the permocarboniferous horizon (Artinskian stage) in 

 Russia, but the description of the brachiopods from the Fusulina 

 limestone of Sicily must be awaited for, before it is possible to 

 decide whether it does not hold a slightly higher position in the 

 stratigraphical sequence than the Artinskian deposits." 



We have received the second edition of Dr. W. B. Phillips' 

 monograph on iron making in Alabama, published by the 

 Geological Survey of that State. It contains a general descrip- 

 tion of the ores, fluxes, and fuels used, together with some 

 ■particulars of the manufacture. The first edition was issued in 

 1S96, and did much to further the development of the iron 

 industry of the State. Since then the blast furnace practice has 

 not materially altered. The same soft and hard calcareous 

 htematites and brown ores are used, and the same coke. The 

 use of dolomite as flux has steadily increased. The cheap soft 

 red ore is becoming scarcer, and consequently new deposits of 

 rown ore have been opened. The coke industry shows some 

 notable advances. A complete coal-washing plant, with a 

 capacity of forty tons an hour, and a plant of 120 Semet-Solvay 

 by-product coke ovens have been erected. In connection with 

 the making of steel, the author gives a full description of the 

 manufacture of basic iron in Alabama, and details of the cost of 

 making pig-iron. The lowest cost reached was 231. per ton. 

 Indeed the figures given clearly show that the cheapest pig-iron 

 made in the world is made in .\labama ; and the exportation of 

 218,633 tons to England and the continent during 1897, as 

 against 65,000 tons in 1S96, shows the importance of this fact in 

 the development of outside markets for Alabama iron. 



Messrs. Dulau and Co., of Soho Square, have issued an 

 eight page catalogue of books and papers on Fossil Botany. 

 NO. 1537, VOL. 59] 



Mr. Clement Reid has in preparation a work on "The 

 Origin of the British Flora," which will shortly be published by 

 Messrs. Dulau and Co. 



Mr. R. Bulle.v Newton and Mr. Richard HolUnd con- 

 tribute to the Annals and Magazine of Natttral History for 

 March an account of some Nummulites, Orbitoides, and other 

 Foraminifera from Eocene and later Tertiary strata in Borneo. 



The sixth volume of " A System of Medicine," edited by 

 Prof. Cliftbrd AUbutt, F.R.S., was published on Tuesday by 

 Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Ltd. The subjects dealt with are 

 diseases of the circulatory system (continued), diseases of muscles, 

 and diseases of the nervous system. Prof. Welch's contribution 

 on thrombosis and embolism, which was not received in time 

 for vol. V. , appears in the new volume. We propose to deal 

 with these and succeeding volumes when the work is 

 complete. 



A DAINTY little monthly magazine of photographic inform- 

 ation has just made its appearance under the title of The Photo- 

 Miniature. It is edited by Mr. John A. Tennant, and pub- 

 lished by Messrs. Tennant and Ward, New York (London : 

 Dawbarn and Ward, Ltd.). A survey of the progress of photo- 

 graphic optics, so far as it bears upon modern lenses, forms 

 the greater part of the first number of the magazine ; the re- 

 maining pages consistingof a digest of photographic information. 



The " Handbook of Jamaica" for 1899, comprising historical 

 statistical and general information concerning the island, com- 

 piled by Messrs. T. L. Roxburgh and J. C. Ford, has been 

 published by Mr. Edward Stanford. Among the events of 1898 

 mention is made of the establishment, already announced in 

 these columns, of a West India Weather Service in connection 

 with the Government observatories and stations in the Unied 

 States and several islands in the Carribean Sea. 



The third memoir on the materials collected on the atoll of 

 Funafuti has been published by the Australian Museum, Sydney. 

 Mr. Thomas Whitelegge describes the Hydrozoa, Scyphozoa, 

 Actinozoa, and Vermes in the collection ; and Mr. Charles 

 Hedley describes the Molluscs. In his introductory remarks, 

 he subjects British conchologists to criticism for neglecting 

 anatomical material in order to discover new species. " As a 

 consequence," he says, " of the devotion of the London school 

 to the study of the Pacific fauna, we have a great mass of in- 

 volved synonomy, inadequate descriptions, poor figures or none, 

 crude classification, and total neglect of soft anatomy." Owing 

 to pressure of museum duties, Mr. Hedley has been compelled 

 to omit various inquiries on anatomy and other related matters 

 from his own report ; and, with the exception of brief notes on geo- 

 graphical distribution, he restricts himself to the mere systematic 

 treatment of the species. 



It has been known for some time that the transition temper- 

 ature, or " melting point," of crystallised salts should be con- 

 stant for pure materials ; but prior to the researches of Messrs. 

 T. W. Richards and J. B. Churchill, it was not realised that this 

 constancy was sufficient for standardising thermometers. In 

 these experiments, which are published in the Proceedings of the 

 American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a complete study was 

 first made of sodium sulphate, the transition temperature of 

 which was found to be remarkably constant at 32° -484 C. on 

 the mercury thermometer scale, or 32>"379 C. on the hydrogen 

 scale. These results were then extended to eight other salts, 

 the preliminary figures for which are given ranging from 19-7 

 for sodium chromate, Na.,CrOj. loH.p to 78-0 for barium 

 hydroxide, Ba(OH).,.SH.p. Commenting on the suggestion 

 by Meyerhoffer and Saunders to use such baths for securing 

 constant temperature during determinations of electrolytic con- 



