68 
NATURE 
[May 15, 1902 
which ultimately serve as the starting place for the coil of cilia 
in each antherozoid, are regarded as organs sez generzs ; and 
although their possible relation to centrosomes is also considered, 
the arguments against their identity with the latter are cogent. 
In fertilisation, the entire antherozoid enters the egg, and the 
cytoplasm and nuclei of the male and female cells respectively 
become fused. No centrosomes were observed during the 
cleavage of the fertilised egg during the formation of the 
embryo. 
WE have received from the publishers (Messrs. Cassell, Ltd.) a 
copy of the first part of an illustrated quarto work on ‘‘ European 
Butterflies and Moths,” by Mr. W. F. Kirby, the well-known 
lepidopterist. The plates are excellent examples of modern 
colour-printing, and the work, so far as it has yet gone, may be 
described as an attractive subject attractively treated. Perhaps 
it would have been better if a little more prominence had been 
given in the text to the English names. The work is to be 
issued in fortnightly parts. 
A VOLUME containing the physical papers of the late Prof. 
H. A. Rowland is now in preparation. It will be issued under 
the editorial direction of a committee appointed for that purpose, 
consisting of President Remsen, Prof. Welch and Prof. Ames. 
The book will contain Prof. Rowland’s articles and memoirs on 
physical subjects, together with his popular writings and 
addresses, numbering sixty in all. It will occupy between 
six and seven hundred pages, and will be published at the 
price of one guinea net per copy. Orders may be sent to 
Prof, Joseph S. Ames, secretary of the committee of publica- 
tion, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. 
THE industry of chemical perfumes is one of recent develop- 
ment and is rapidly assuming an importance second only to 
the colour industry in the field of commercial organic chemistry. 
The current number of the AZonztew Scéentifigue contains an 
account by MM. Marc Tiffenau, R. Bernard and A. Gloess 
of the exhibits in this field at the Paris Exhibition of 1900, 
preceded by a short sketch of the general methods employed 
in the preparation of chemical perfumes. It is interesting to 
note that practically the whole of this branch of applied science 
is divided between two nations, France and Germany. 
of Maxwell the electromagnetic 
theory of light that the dielectric capacity should be equal to 
the square of the refractive index has led to a mass of ex- 
perimental work not always in accord with the law. In the 
current number of the Comptes rendus, M. Edm. van Aubel 
collects the experimental data for these two constants for four 
classes of nitrogen compounds, amines, alkyl nitrates, fatty 
nitro-derivatives and nitriles, and shows that in all cases the 
dielectric constant diminishes as the molecular weight in- 
creases, whilst the refractive index increases, a result ob- 
viously incompatible with Maxwell’s law. 
THE conclusion froin 
THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include two Lesser Kestrels ( 72s272nculus cenchris), 
a Short-eared Owl (Aszo brachyotus) captured in the Red Sea, 
presented by Capt. E. W. Burnett; a Red-footed Falcon 
(Tinnunculus vespertinus), South European, presented by Miss 
E. Leeke; a Virginian Eagle Owl (zo virgintanus) from the 
West Indies, presented by Mr. B. C. Storey ; a Common 
Mynah (Acridotheres tristis) from India, presented by Mr. 
F. G. Miéville; two Syrian Bears (Ursus syréacus) from 
Western Asia, twenty-two Moorish Toads (Bufo maurttanica) 
from North-west Africa, five Amphiumas (Amphiuma means), 
ten Punctated Newts (Amdlystoma punctatum) from North 
America, an Upland Goose (Chlocphaga magellanica) from the 
Falkland Islands, received in exchange; a Japanese Deer 
(Cervus stka) born in the Gardens. 
NO. 1698, VOL. 66] 
OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 
New VARIABLE STARS.—The following variable stars have 
been detected on plates taken with the astrographic telescope 
at Greenwich Observatory :— 
Star. R.A. Decl. Variation. 
h om, s. S $ m. m. 
6. 1902, Draconis -. 18 (5 YO) 25 +265) 56790.2. (Oo ——ae 
7. 1902. Draconis - 18 6°54)... “F660 "8:91... O75 — rw 
8. 1902. Camelopardalis 5 49 22 ... +74 30°8 ... 8'9-<14 
ELEMEN1S OF COMET 1902 @ (BROoKS).—The following 
elements computed for this comet are given in Astronomische 
Nachrichten, Bd. 158, No. 3790 :— 
T=1902 May 7°159, Berlin M.T. 
w= 228 22) 
N= 52 15°4 - 19020. 
2— 66 30'4 
log 7=9°65436. 
CoLABA OBSERVATORY.—The Report of the Director of the 
Government Observatory at Colaba, Bombay, has been issued, 
and contains the results of magnetic and meteorological observa- 
tions made during the year 1gor. 
The magnetic observations have been on regular record since 
1842, but there is now reason to believe that disturbances will 
occur from the proximity of the electric tramways in Bombay. 
It is hoped, however, that a new site will be granted early 
enough to permit of a fresh series of determinations running 
parallel with the present, so that the value of such a long con- 
tinuous record may not be seriously affected. 
ATOMS AND VALENCIES. 
AN offprint has come to hand of a thoughtful essay by Mr. J. 
Fraser, of the Scottish Ordnance Survey, entitled ‘* A 
Theoretical Representation leading to Suggestions bearing 
on the Ultimate Constitution of Matter and Ether,” which 
appeared recently in Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin. xxiv., i., 1902, 
pp. 1-64. Under this guarded title the writer discourses, in a 
manner often stimulating and suggestive, on the bearing on the 
facts of chemistry and chemical physics of a notion he has 
formed of the constitution of the zther, and of matter which he 
considers as constructed out of that medium. He begins by 
quoting Sir J. Herschel’s opinion that the eether is ‘‘an adaman- 
tine solid,” far denser, in fact, than the densest metal. The 
other alternative, that of inertia or density insensibly minute, 
has been more commonly in evidence in recent times, especially 
since Lord Kelvin showed that it was adequate for the trans- 
mission of radiant energy across space. It is something to know 
that the more unfamiliar view, which has recently again been 
broached in illustration of the laws of general cther-theory, 
presented no intrinsic difficulty to the mind of so competent an 
authority as Herschel. Enormous density implies still more 
enormous elastic resistance, which Mr. Fraser ascribes in a way 
to a kinetic origin, like Kelvin’s and FitzGerald’s turbulent 
motion. How is an atom of matter to be represented? Briefly 
and bluntly, in the words of the writer, as ‘‘a veritable ethereal 
bubble ”—walled in by a single layer of zether-particles, in very 
rapid rotation, the centrifugal force of which prevents the bubble 
from collapsing under the enormous ambient pressure. How is 
its permanence assured ? Astronomical analogies are invoked 
in favour of its possibility ; but the sceptical critic had better 
refrain from too close scrutiny in order to pass on to see 
whether any light on atomic behaviour is shed by a somewhat 
loose representation of this sort. After all, a hollow vortex-ring 
atom is a ring-shaped bubble kept open much in this way ; and 
representations dynamically vaguer than this have turned out in 
chemical science to contain the germ of fruitful and far-reaching 
progress. A sort of Le Sage corpuscular theory of gravity is set 
forth with considerable freshness and some plausibility. But 
the most interesting sections relate to chemical suggestion, with 
regard to which the writer modestly confesses to little know- 
ledge except what has been acquired with a view to the present 
attempt. It may be remarked on his behalf that knowledge of 
speculative scientific theory, when acquired with some construc- 
tive intention of this sort, even if it be visionary, is apt to be 
a much more real possession than when the aim is merely to 
become well-informed in a colourless way about the opinions that 
