390 
NATURE 
[Aucust 21, 1y02 
particularly deplorable personal reference at p. 417 
which might well have been spared. 
The fundamental difficulty in the author’s psychological 
theory is his ambiguous treatment of the self. He 
speaks of it, now as a product and process of develop- 
ment, in terms which seem to identify it with the moral 
character, again as a mysterious something behind 
character and acting causally upon it. The discussions 
of particular virtues in part ii., if somewhat too diffuse, 
are, to my mind, the most suggestive things in the whole 
book. In part iii. the attack on ‘‘utilitarianism” is too 
bitter to be discriminating. Egoistic Hedonism may be 
an illogical theory, but an egoistic Hedonist need not in 
practice bea worse man than his neighbours ; it is mere 
vituperation to assert that “few prostitutes are so vile” 
as to be egoistic Hedonists. 
The religious problems raised and in part treated by 
Prof. Ladd are too grave to be dealt with in a summary 
note like the present. Ngaldy ath 
The Thompson Yates Laboratories Report, Edited by 
Rubert Boyce and C. S. Sherrington. Vol. iv., part i., 
1gol, and vol. iv., part ii., 1902. Pp. 563. (London: 
Longmans and Co.) 
THE first ninety pages of part i. of this Report are 
occupied by a description of the filarize or blood-worms 
obtained by the Liverpool Expedition to Nigeria. This 
practically constitutes a monograph upon this important 
group of parasites, is from the pen of Messrs. Annett, 
Dutton and Elliott, and a number of new species are 
described and illustrated. Dealing with human filariz, 
the opinion is expressed that, notwithstanding certain 
differences between them, the weight of evidence is on 
the side of the identity of /7/aria nocturna and F. 
diurna. The bibliography accompanying this paper 
should prove of the greatest value to future workers in the 
subject. The other important papers in part i. are the 
“Flora of the Conjunctiva in Health and Disease,” by 
Dr. Griffith, and the use of bile-salt broth as a test for 
feecal contamination, by Drs. MacConkey and Hill. The 
former gives a very complete account of the bacteriology 
of the conjunctival sac, and, like Lawson, Griffith has 
found the Xerosis bacillus to be a common inhabitant of 
the normal sac. In MacConkey and Hill’s bile-salt 
broth we have a very useful medium for the detection of 
the Bactllus coli and allied species in water, but the 
procedure recommended, viz. to add 1 c.c. of the water to 
each of three tubes, would detect, in all probability, only 
a highly polluted water, not one in which the B. co/z was 
present in small amount, in which case it is essential to 
concentrate the water by filtration through a porcelain 
filter and to examine the deposit. The same remarks 
apply to the examination of samples of the Liverpool 
water supply ; the quantity of water examined (1 c.c.) is 
far too little to give a trustworthy negative result. 
In part ii., Mr. Macdonald contributes an exhaustive 
paper upon the “Injury Current of Nerve,’ and Dr. 
Griinbaum and Prof. Sherrington make an important 
contribution to the physiology of the cerebral cortex in 
the higher apes. Dr. Annett produces some startling 
figures relative to the frequency of expectoration in 
public thoroughfares and the risk of infection with tuber- 
culosis therefrom. The volume contains several other 
papers of minor importance upon various points of 
bacteriological, pathological and clinical interest, and con- 
cludes with the Report of the Liverpool Expedition to 
Brazil to study yellow fever, by Dr. Durham and the late 
Dr. Myers. The latter is somewhat disappointing, the 
zetiology of yellow fever being left very much where it was, 
save that a fine bacillus, difficult to stain and impossible 
to cultivate, was detected in the tissues. 
In conclusion, it may be said that these volumes main- 
tain in every respect the standard of their predecessors. 
R. T. H. 
NO. 1712, VOL. 66] 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 
[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 
pressed by his correspondents, Neither can he undertake 
to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 
manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE, 
No notice is taken of anonymous communications. | 
Sunset Effects. 
AT Baveno (Lago Maggiore) on the evening of July 10, when 
the sun was setting behind the mountains in the north: western 
quarter of the horizon, a number of bright streaks of light 
appeared to radiate from behind a bank of clouds in exactly the 
opposite quarter of the sky. As these streaks were very bright 
near the point from which they apparently emanated and 
gradually faded away with increasing distance from that point, 
the effect was to produce the impression that the sun had set 
in the south-east instead of in the north-west. The explanation 
of the phenomenon is perfectly simple, being that the beams of 
sunlight, cut off by clouds and mountains, had travelled over- 
head through a clear atmosphere and, reaching the hazy air over 
the plains of Lombardy, had illuminated this air, which was 
especially thick at a point opposite the sun, the streaks ap- 
pearing to converge to a vanishing point by the laws of perspec- 
tive. The effect no doubt occurs whenever the necessary 
conditions prevail, viz., banks of clouds or mountains in the 
direction of the setting sun, a clear sky overhead and a thick 
atmosphere in the quarter opposite the sun. 
G. H. BRYAN. 
THE letter on iridescent sunset effects in the current number 
of NATURE (p. 370), and the correspondence now going on 
in the columns of Scéezce, prompt me to send the following 
extract from my journal which was made on board the bar- 
quentine Daysfriny while lying at anchor in Friday Island 
Passage, Torres Straits, on November 29, 1897 :— 
“The sun was setting behind cumulostratus clouds, while 
a little to the southward the horizon was occupied by a large 
storm cloud through which lightning was constantly playing, 
and other clouds of various types were scattered over the sky. 
Behind the storm cloud and between it and the sun were 
several very fine even-textured cirrostratus patches ; these 
assumed frismatic coloration. The colours were very 
vivid and included the blues and greens as well as those 
of the red end of the spectrum; and they appeared to 
be arranged in the sequence of Newton’s rings. The appear- 
ance of the clouds reminded me of a polarisation phenomenon, 
The colours were disposed in broad concentric bands shading 
into one another ; they appeared to be dependent upon the 
thickness of the cloud mass, and were most brilliant at its 
thinner parts. The colours changed but slightly as the sun 
sank behind the horizon, but after a time the prismatic effect 
gave place to the ordinary sunset glow.” 
The phenomenon thus described made a great impression 
upon me at the time, and I am quite convinced that it had 
nothing in common with the normal ‘‘ glow”? reflected by the 
setting sun. S. PACE. 
Hounslow, August 18, 
THE OLDER CIVILISATION OF GREECE: 
FURTHER DISCOVERIES IN CRETE} 
N a review of No. VI. of “ The Annual of the British 
School at Athens,” published last year (vol. Ixiv. 
p- 11), the great importance of the discoveries of Mr. 
A. J. Evans at Knossos in Crete was pointed out, and the 
opinion was expressed that that volume contained “ matter 
of extraordinary interest to students of the history, not 
only of Greece, of Egypt, and Western Asia, but also 
of mankind in general,” for, since ‘the culture which 
now dominates the world is the child of the civilisation 
of Ancient Greece, ... any archeological discovery 
which tends to increase our knowledge of the beginnings 
of Greek civilisation possesses an importance and an 
1 The Annual of the British School at Athens.” 
; 1900-1901. Pp. vii + 191. 
Part vii. Session 
(London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) 
