OcToBER 9, 1902] 
NATURE 
577 
reference to avy other direction—the other theorems, common 
perpendicularity, equality of alternate angles, &c., are easily 
deduced. 
I was pleased to read Dr. Richardson’s letter, as it showed 
that others were working in the same direction as myself. Part 
of my time is devoted to teaching mathematics at the School of 
Mines in this town. This technical institution is attended in 
the evening by students who during the day are serving their 
apprenticeship in mechanical workshops. Although geometry 
is a subject which readily appeals to them, I have learnt the 
futility of presenting it to them under the garbof Euclid. Even 
if they had the courage to face the schoolboy’s drilling in 
Euclid, I could not conscientiously ask them to devote their 
energies to a labour so unremunerative. I, for one, hope that 
Prof. Perry’s efforts to harmonise the teaching of geometry 
and other branches of mathematics with the needs of engineering 
students will bear fruit, and that before the lapse of any con- 
siderable time. W. R. JAMIESON. 
Gawler, South Australia, August 27. 
Symbol for Partial Differentiation. 
Dr. Murtr’s symbols (p. 520) may be very suitable for manu- 
scripts or the blackboard, but the expense of printing them would 
be prohibitive. No book in which such symbols were used to any 
extent could possibly pay. On the other hand, the symbol 
(dE/dv), can always be introduced into a paragraph of letter- 
press without using a justification or a vinculum ; and this very 
much lessens the expense of printing. A. B. Basser. 
Fledborough Hall, Holyport, Berks, September 26. 
Bipedal Locomotion in Lizards, 
I HAVE recently observed bipedal locomotion (p. 551) in the 
case of Calotes versicolor in similar circumstances to those noted 
by Mr. Ernest Green, and have reason to believe that it also occurs 
in the case of several other Agamoid lizards that I have watched 
in the Malay Peninsula, though their movements are too rapid 
to admit of certainty. Lzo/epzs belliz, however, certainly uses all 
four legs when in rapid motion, holding its tail in the air. 
N. ANNANDALE. 
Lochbuie, Isle of Mull, N.B., September 25. 
A Possible Meteor Shower on October 4. 
On Saturday last, October 4, at 7.45 p.m.,I noticed the 
following phenomenon :—The sky was clouded entirely, when, 
happening to look to the west-north-west, I saw a well-defined 
streak of light, starting on a level with some trees in a small 
wood and moving roughly horizontally towards the south for an 
angular distance of about 30°. This was followed at about 3- 
second intervals by another and another, until I counted 43 
of them. After this the interval became greater, and about 
8 o'clock the phenomenon ceased. It appeared to be like 
a meteor shower partially hidden by a thickness of cloud. 
Assuming this to be true, I am afraid the radiant point was 
hidden by the trees before mentioned. The elevation would be 
about 15. Perhaps some of your readers more favourably 
situated may be able to throw further light on the matter. 
G. Percy BAalILey. 
Stonyhurst College, Blackburn, October 6. 
v FALL OF A METEORIC STONE NEAR 
CRUMLIN (CO. ANTRIM) SEPTEMBER 13. 
HE writer of this note visited the scene of the fall 
of this meteorite yesterday evening, September 
20, and learned that it occurred at about 10.30 a.m. 
(local time) on the date in question. The body is almost 
10 lb. in weight and of a more or less irregular outline, 
and of the usual meteoric appearance. It bears strong 
evidence of fusion, shines with a metallic lustre on 
one side and is apparently truncated, a fragment—say 
about a third—having fractured off in its descent through 
the atmosphere. There is also a well-marked line or 
two of fracture still visible. The evidence at present is 
that it fell quite perpendicularly, there being no trace of 
slope or inclination in the hole, about 13-15 inches deep, 
NO. 1719, VOL. 66] 
which it made on striking the soil. Mr. Walker, of Cross- 
hill, on whose holding it fell, says it was quite hot at 
first, and felt warm for almost an hour afterwards. Of 
course, a good deal of interest and local curiosity is 
naturally aroused, the usual query being “ Where did it 
come from?” Possibly the data given above may help 
to furnish an answer to this question, although hardly 
yet sufficient to enable an orbit or trajectory to be com- 
puted for this—the third meteorite which has fallen in the 
British Isles within recent years. The occurrence was 
accompanied by the usual rumblings or detonations, but 
the estimations of the duration are here, as is usual in 
other similar instances, untrustworthy. 
Crumlin is almost due west from Belfast, 
about 10 miles, lat. 54° 36’ N., long. 6° 12’ W.., 
W. H. MILLIGAN. 
26 Cooke Street, Belfast, September 21. 
distance 
[The delay in the publication of Mr. Milligan’s letter has 
resulted from our sending it to Mr. L. Fletcher, F.R.S., 
who has furnished the following interesting notes upon 
the meteorite.—Editor, NATURE. ] 
During the past fortnight it has been stated in various 
Irish and English newspapers that a meteoric stone had 
been seen to reach the earth near the village of Crumlin, 
a few miles distant from Belfast, on Saturday, September 
13, when the meeting of the British Association in that 
city was in mid course. 
Such reports of meteoritic falls are by no means infre- 
quent and are almost always based on mere misapprehen- 
sion of fact ; indeed, it is very seldom that a stone believed 
to be a meteorite is found on critical examination to have 
any valid claim toa celestial origin. As lately as last week, 
for instance, a supposed meteorite was sent to the Natural 
History Museum from Shropshire for inspection, and yet 
was undoubtedly a product of our own earth. 
As twenty-one years had passed away since the fall 
of a meteoric stone in the British Isles and thirty-seven 
years since the fall of a meteoric stone in Ireland, to a 
person in London it seemed more likely that the Crumlin 
fall was mythical than that a heavenly body should have 
fallen after so long an interval near to the very city where 
so many men of science were gathered together ; and it 
seemed in any case to bea matter of certainty that before 
the news of the fall had reached London the stone must 
already have passed into the possession of a private, 
perhaps foreign, collector. 
Last week, impressed by the circumstantial character 
of the reports (especially that sent by Mr. Milligan, 
of Belfast, for publication in NATURE), and desiring 
further information, I telegraphed from South Ken- 
sington to Mr. Andrew Walker, on whose farm 
the stone was said to have fallen; in reply he stated 
that the stone was still in his possession and that 
it had not been examined by anyone who had made 
a special study of meteorites. Though in doubt as to 
the advisability of so long a journey on the basis of such 
evidence as was at the moment available, I left at once 
for Crumlin, and was relieved on arrival to find that the 
journey had not been made in vain ; the stone was un- 
doubtedly a true meteorite. That a high degree of 
excitement had been aroused in the district by the reports 
of a meteoritic fall will be manifest from the circumstance 
that during the interview with Mr. Walker no fewer than 
four different sets of visitors, some in carriages, some on 
foot, called to see the stone and the place where it had 
struck the earth ; each visitor was allowed to handle the 
specimen and feel its weight. It was being stated in the 
village, but Mr. Walker said it was an exaggeration, that 
as many as 300 people had been to the farm in the course 
of asingleday. Although Mr. Walker had been told by 
some of his visitors that it would be unlucky for him to 
part with a gift sent to him direct from heaven, he per- 
ceived that the stone would be best preserved elsewhere 
