NATURE 



\May 4, 1882 



addition to coal-cutting machines, which had been devised to 

 dispense with powder, or render its employment safe. The use 

 of compre sed air had been attended by tome measure of suc- 

 cess, and the dispersion of water, used as tamping, by the 

 explosion of a powder charge in the form of a spray, had been 

 shown to have frequently, though not reliably, the effect of 

 drowning the flame developed by the explosion. The employ- 

 ment of water-columns, by which the force developed by the 

 detonation of dynamite was uniformly transmitted throughout 

 the entire length of the hole, had been proved, by experiments 

 in coal-mines in Lancashire, and special test-experiments at 

 Cardiff, to render that material very suitable for coal-getting, 

 and at the same time to render ('lasting possible without libera- 

 tion of flame. Lastly, the employment of cylinders or cartridges 

 of compressed quicklime, according to a simple system elabo- 

 rated by Professors Smith and Moore, was referred to as ranking 

 before all other methods of getting coal, yet proposed, in point 

 of simplicity, cost, and above all, safety, and the lecturer de- 

 scribed operations witnessed by himself with this system of 

 coal-getting at Shipley Collieries. In concluding, Mr. Abel 

 exhorted those interested in, or entrusted with the working of 

 coal-mines, to spare no pains to test rigorously and fairly the 

 merits of any processes or methods of affording promise of 

 dispensing with the employment of powder in the ordinary way, 

 and thus of securing protection to the miner against combined 

 dangers of fire-damp and dust. 



THE INFLUENCE OF TEMPERA TURE ON 

 CERTAIN SEEDS 

 (")N regarding seeds of our hardy trees which are sown in 

 ^^^ autumn, and which do not germinate before the return of 

 spring, we feel forced to admit that however the other conditions 

 may vary, the cause which causes the germination in the com- 

 mencement of the fine weather is the rise in the temperature, and 

 one is equally tempted to think that the higher the temperature, 

 as long as this rise does not equal that which would destroy the 

 seeds, the more active and pronounced would be the germination. 

 Nevertheless this is not by any means always the case, at any 

 rate in the seeds of the walnut and almond trees. Anxious to 

 germinate some of these seeds in winter, Prof. II. Baillon 

 thought to obtain a more rapid development in a warm house, 

 in which the temperature varied within the twenty-four hours 

 from 1 5° to 25° (59- 77 F.), than in a cool house in -which during 

 the same time the temperature varied between 5° and 15° (41 — 

 59 F. ), but the trial proved a failure. In the cool-house, in the 

 course of six weeks, the walnuts had stems of about two deci- 

 metres in height, whereas the most advanced of those in the 

 warm hou-e had only stems of from two to three centimetres in 

 the fully developed leaves. The experiment was several times 

 repeated. The same quality of earth, and the same quantity of 

 water was used, and the results were the same. After a space 

 of two and a half months the greater part of the nuts sown in 

 the warm house had only roots occasionally well developed, but 

 little or no caulome outside the fruit. Moreover, the greater 

 part of the walnuts which germinated in a house, where there 

 was good bottom-heat, had roots which did not behave like 

 those of walnuts, germinating in the cool house and without 

 bottom heat, the tap root of the latter grew well in length before 

 any egress of the plumule, whereas the tap-roots of those grown 

 in the warm house were early arrested in their development, and 

 this through growing in a very friable soil, consisting of moist 

 sawdust, much less resisting than the sand or the earth of the 

 cool-house, in which the tap-roots developed so well. This was 

 very nearly the same with the almonds, and would seem to point 

 to the fact that in the case of some seeds there is no advantage 

 to be gained by forcing them. Some, like Eranthis hiemalis, 

 at whatever period they are sown in the open air, will develop 

 themselves at a fixed time, as it does in January (H. Baillon in 

 No. 39 of the Bulletin Periodique de la Soc Linn, de Paris, 

 January, 1882.) 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCA TIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 

 Prof. Henry Aixeyne Nicholson has been appointed f o 

 the chair of Natural History in Aberde.n, vacant by the removal 

 of Prof. Cossar Ewart to Edinburgh. 



Dr. Sorby, F.R.S., has been elected president of Firth 

 College, Sheffield. 



The Nottingham University College Committee have ap- 

 pointed Mr. Wm. Garnett, of St. John's College, Cambridge, 

 to the Professorship of Mathematics and Physics, at tbe College, 

 vacant by the resignation of Pro f . Fleming. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



American Journal of Science, April. — The wings of ptero- 

 dactyles, by O. C. Marsh. — Sandstones having the grains in part 

 quartz crystals, by A. A. Young. — Notes on American earth- 

 quakes, No. II, by C. J. Rockwood. — Notes on the electro- 

 magnetic theory of light, No. 1, by J. W. Gibbs. — The "timber 

 line," by H. Gannett.— Simple method for calibrating thermo- 

 meters, by S. VV. Holman.— Notice of Fisher's "Physics of the 

 Earth's Crust," by C. Dutton. — Physiological optics, No. III., 

 by W. L. Stevens. — Great dyke of Foyaite or Elceolite-syenite 

 in North-Western New Jersey, by B. K. Emerson. — Notice of 

 the remarkable marine fauna occupying the outer bank off the 

 southern coast of New England, No. 51, by A. E. Verrill. — 

 Determination of phosphorus in iron, by J. L. Smith. 



Journal de Physique, March. — On the electro-chemical equiva- 

 lent of water, by M. Mascart. — Studies on the psychrometer, 

 by M. Angot. — Electric Lighting (concluded), by M. Foussereau. 

 Determination of the ventral segments of sonorous tubes by 

 means of manometric flames, by M. Hurion. — Compensator for 

 measuring electromotive forces, by M. Slouguinoff. — On phos- 

 pborographs of the solar spectrum, by M. Becquerel. 



April, — On a simple law relative to natural magnetic double 

 circular refraction, by M. Cornu. — Determination of the 

 illuminating power of simple radiations, by MM. Crova and 

 I.agarde. — Measurement of potentials corresponding to deter- 

 minate explosive distances, by M. Bailie. — Study on the com- 

 bustion of explosive gaseous mixtures, by MM. Mallard and Le 

 Chatelier. — New dry sensitive therm' meter, by M. Micbelson. 



Sitosungsberichte der physkalisch-vudicinischen Societal zu Pr- 

 langen, 13 Heft, November, 1880, to August, 1SS1. — On the 

 action of the milk-juice of Fiats carica, by A. Hansen. — On 

 the artificial production of double-formations in chickens, by L. 

 Gerlach. — On intra-thoracic pressure, by J. Rosenthal. — On the 

 law of dispersion, by E. Lommel. — A polarisation apparatus 

 from platii'Cyanide of magnesium, by the same. — The germinal 

 plates of Planarh, by E. Selenka. — Contributions to tbe theory 

 of binary forms, by M. Noether. — Obseivations on the compo 

 sition ai d exchange of material of the electrical organ in the 

 torpedo, by T. Weyl. — On a new way of permanently fixing 

 small anatomical objects for the purposes of demonstration, and 

 preserving them without use of alcohol, by L. Gerlach. — On the 

 compression of drugs, by J. Rosenthal.— On the influence of 

 chemical agents on the amount of assimilation of green plants, 

 by T. Weyl. 



Rivisia Scientifico-Industriale e Ciornale del Naturalista, 

 January 31. — Mode of rendering the Holtz machine more active, 

 by C. Marangoni. — The radiometer and school experiments, by 

 C. Kovelli. — On a Querquedula new to Italy, by A. Fiori. — New 

 applications of the pneumatic method fur rapid desiccation 

 of large Orthoptera, &c, by P. Stefanelli.- Preparation of 

 Hemiptera, by G. Cavanna. — Contribution to the study of 

 anthropology of the Southern Provinces, by M. del Lupo. 



February 2S. — Nephoscopeof P. F. Ceccbi. — On the synthesis 

 of various organic acids, by Drs. Bartoli and Papasogli, through 

 electrolysis of water and of acid on alkaline, &c, solutions with 

 carbon-electrodes, by P. Guasti. — Differential apparatus for 

 determining the ozone in air, by D. Tommasi. — Observations on 

 the habits and the development of sEschna cyama. Mull., by P. 

 Stefanelli. 



March 15. — On Lebia turcica, Fab., by F. Piccioli. — Lombard 

 palaeontology ; fossil fauna of I.ombardy, by A. Stoppani. 



R t ale Istituto Lombardo diScienze e Letterc. Rendiconti, vol. xv. 

 fasc. iv. — On some fossil insects of Lombardy, by F. Sordelli. — 

 Some theorems on the degenerate forms of ellipsoid of Culmann, 

 by G. Jung. — The douhle quadratic transformation of space 

 (continued), by F. Aschieri. — Geometrical construction of the 

 universal transformation of the third order, by E. Bertini. 



Fasc. v. — Reduction of integrals of algebraic functions to in- 

 tegrals of rational functions, by C. Formenti. — What are the 

 most simple and sure means of radical cure of hemorrhoidal 

 varices? by A. Scarenzio. — Aberrations of the sexual sentiment 



