66 



A^A TURE 



[November 21, 1907 



object-lessons. With the assistance of voluntary helpers, 

 the staff provided for the table during the year more than 

 3500 specimens of freshly gathered wild-flowers, the 

 greatest number on a single day being i68, on July 23. 



The Proceedings of the council of the Institute of 

 Chemistry from July to October of the present year show 

 that the council has directed the attention of the Local 

 ^Government Board to the desirability of making the con- 

 dition of appointment of public analysts attractive to candi- 

 dates with the highest qualifications, and has also urged 

 that the tenure of offices held by men of such ability and 

 experience should be made more secure. Approval is ex- 

 pressed of the action of the County Council of East 

 Suffolk, which has lately set an example by empowering 

 the county coroner to order an analysis by a properly 

 C|ualified analyst in any case of suspected poison, not being 

 one of alleged foul play. The council has deemed it 

 desirable to advise fellows or associates of the institute 

 who may be seeking appointments in India to make sure 

 they are gazetted as officers, and recognised as such in the 

 regulations of the department under which they are seek- 

 ing appointment, so that they may not find themselves in 

 a position inferior to that to which they have a right, 

 both officially and socially. 



The annual report of the Smithsonian Institution for 

 the year ending June 30, 1906, has been received. Of its 

 546 pages, ninety-one refer to administrative matters, and 

 Include the reports of the executive committee of the Board 

 of Regents and the acting secretary, Mr. Richard Rathbun, 

 together with the Acts and Resolutions of Congress relative 

 to the Smithsonian Institution adopted during the year. 

 The appendi.x is again the most extensive and interesting 

 part of the publication. Among other important contribu- 

 tions to this part of the volume w,-e notice the translations 

 of Madame Curie's opening lecture at the Sorbonne on 

 November 5, 1906, on modern theories of electricity and 

 matter; Prof. Himstedt's essay on radio-activity; M. H. 

 Radau's account of astronomy on Mont Blanc; an abstract 

 of M. A. Lacroix's description of Vesuvius in eruption in 

 April, 1906; M. E. Bugnion's contribution to poly- 

 embryony and the determination of sex ; Herr E. Pfizen- 

 mayer's contribution to the morphology of the mammoth ; 

 M. L. Cu^not's lecture on heredity; M. A. Yermoloff's 

 description of the bisons of the Caucasus; Dr. Jakob 

 Ruber's account of the founding of colonies by .'\tta 

 Sexdens ; M. Hugues Obermaier's description of Quater- 

 nary human remains in central Europe ; Prof. R. 

 Blanchard's lecture on zoology and medicine; and M. 

 Eugene Lemaire's account of the y6le of chemistry in 

 paintings. Among original contributions to the appendix 

 are those of Mr. C. G. .Abbot on recent progress in astro- 

 nomical research, and Mr. C. J. Blanchard on the national 

 reclamation of arid lands. Royal Institution discourses re- 

 printed include those of Mr. Marconi on recent advances 

 in wireless telegraphy, and Prof. Schuster on international 

 science. As usual, the appendix contains a profusion of 

 beautiful illustrations. 



.A THIRD impression of Dr. David Nabarro's " Laws of 

 Health " has been published by Mr. Edward .Arnold. The 

 book provides a simply worded description of the organs 

 of the human body, and much sensible advice as to how 

 to ensure their health and general well-being. The author 

 has acquainted himself with the needs of schools, and his 

 book should be of service to teachers in the preparation of 

 lessons on elementary hygiene. 



The third volume of the " Index of Economic Material 

 in Documents of the States of the United States " has 

 NO. 1986, VOL. "J-J^^ 



been received. The index is being prepared for the depart- 

 ment of economics and sociology of the Carnegie Institu- 

 tion of Washington, and is being published by the 

 institution. The present instalment is by Adelaide R. Hasse, 

 and is concerned wholly with the documents of Vermont, 

 and deals with the years 1789-1904. The index is confined 

 to printed reports of administrative officers, legislative 

 committees, and special commissions of the States, and 

 to governors' messages. It does not refer particularly 

 to constitutions, laws and legislative proceedings, or to 

 court decisions. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 

 A Large Solar Pro.minence. — Dr. A. .\. Rambaut, 

 F.R.S., sends us particulars of a large solar prominence 

 observed by him on Friday last, November 15, at the Rad- 

 cliffe Observatory, Oxford. Using a slit tangential to the 

 sun's limb, a prominence having the form of two smooth 

 rounded hills was observed at iih. 45m., and it quickly 

 increased in height until it filled the slit. .A few minutes 

 later the whole aperture in the brass plate to which the 

 jaws of the slit were attached on the collimator was not 

 large enough to contain the whole of the outburst. The 

 prominence was in position-angle 273° on the sun's disc 

 measured in the usual way from the north point through 

 east. A sun-spot of fair size, surrounded by masses of 

 bright faculfe, was visible in nearly the same position-angle 

 and near the limb. In the interval between iih. 56m. and 

 I2h. lom., that is, in fourteen minutes, the height of the 

 prominence increased 140,000 miles, so the rate of increase 

 was 10,000 miles per minute, or 167 miles per second. 

 The height attained was 324,600 miles. 



Mellish's Comet, 19070. — A new set of elcmnnts, calcu- 

 lated from places observed on October 15 and 19 and 

 November 2, and a daily ephemeris for comet 1907c, are 

 published by Herr M. Ebell in No. 4212 (p. 195, 

 November 7) of the Aslronoinische Nachrichten. The 

 following is an abstract from the ephemeris : — 



Ephemeris 12/1. (M.T. Berlin). 

 1907 a(app.) 6(app.) 1. g>- Iog.i Brighl- 



Nov. 20 ... 2 14-3 ... 4- 28 8'4 ... 0-1720 ... 97179 ... r66 



,, 24 ... I 320 ... +28 33'i . , 0-1855 ■ 97865 ■■ ri4 



,, 2S ... I 1-9 ... +28 19-9 ... 0-1987 ... 9 8541 ... 0-78 



Dec. 2 ... o 40-5 ... +27 55-1 ... 0-2116 ... 9-9172 .. 0-55 



6 ... o 25-3 ... +27 29-7 .. 02243 ■■■ 9 9748 ... 0-40 



At the time of unit brightness (October 15) the comet's 



magnitude was about 95. 



On November 23 the comet will pass about 40' .S. of 

 a Trianguli, and on November 28 it will be fvj" S. of 

 J3 Andromedae, crossing the meridian at about 8.30 p.m. 



Mars as the Abode of Life. — The Century Magazine 

 for November (No. i, vol. Ixxv., p. 113) contains the first 

 of a series of articles on the possibility of Mars being 

 inhabitable, in which Prof. Lowell discusses, as an intro- 

 duction, the possible origin and evolution of planets. He 

 commences with . a description of meteorites, and traces 

 out the various steps of the meteoritic hypothesis, and 

 then defines six stages through which the cooling celestial 

 niass passes in its progress from a self-luminous sun to a 

 cold dead body. Discussing the present aspects of the 

 planets, he shows that these are in accord with the stages 

 defined, and points out that the crumpling which produces 

 landscape variations is essentially an effect of cooling. 

 The relative roughness of the surfaces of the earth, of 

 Mars, and of the moon is then discussed, and the com- 

 paratively abnormal mountainous character of the last- 

 named explained by its initial temperature being the 

 temperature of the combined earth and moon masses, and 

 therefore sufficient to produce, in the cooling of so small 

 a mass, the huge lunar mountains with which we are 

 familiar ; the non-mountainous character of the Martian 

 landscape is also explained. This first paper concludes 

 with a discussion of the formation and distribution of 

 continental and oceanic areas. 



