136 



NA TURE 



[December 12, 1907 



1905 ; tile fourth has recently been issued. Apart from 

 the account of the genus Psychotria, that concludes the 

 Rubiacea;, these numbers contain the orders — following 

 the sequence of Bentham and Hooker's system — 

 Valerianea; to Loganiace?e. The authors, Sir George 

 King and Mr. J. S. Gamble, have assumed responsibility 

 for separate orders in addition to certain others undertaken 

 by Colonel D. Prain. For the twenty-eight orders col- 

 laled, the species amount to 686, of which 190 are new 

 to science. The additions are numerous in the Myr- 

 sinaces and Sapotaceas, notably in the genera Ardisia and 

 Bassia. also in the genus Diospyros. A new genus, 

 Pernettyopsis, and five species of Rhododendron, form an 

 Increment to the Ericacea;. Many of the genera of the 

 Apocynaceae are very fully represented in Malaya, e.g. 

 Urceola, .'Xnodendron, and ^\■illughbcia. The Sapotaceae 

 ■and ApocynacecE are rich in rubber, gutta, and other 

 «conomic species. 



Three memoirs have recently been issued by Dr. 

 Leather, of the Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa 

 (India). One, on the composition of Indian oil seeds, gives 

 the percentage of oil in eleven different varieties, including 

 cotton-seed, linseed, and others less known here. Among 

 other interesting points, it is stated that Indian linseed 

 contains about 40 per cent, of oil, and is consequently 

 richer than seed grown elsewhere. Further investigations 

 of oil seeds are much needed on account of the commercial 

 value of the oil and the agricultural value of the residue 

 left after extraction. In another memoir a description is 

 given of the pot culture house at Pusa ; the only novel 

 point is the method of watering. The soils under investi- 

 gation cracked and caked if water was poured direct on 

 to the top ; it was therefore allowed to diffuse out from a 

 porous pot placed in the soil. This method is commonly 

 ■employed to irrigate trees in parts of India, a porous 

 spherical vessel being sunk in the ground near the root 

 of the tree and kept full of water. The last memoir deals 

 with experiments on the availability of phosphates and 

 potash. The general result is that Dyer's citric acid 

 method for determining phosphates is likely to be useful 

 in examining Indian soils. This, indeed, might reasonably 

 have been expected. 



In the Journal of the Franklin Institute (vol. clxiv.. 



No. 3) Dr. E. Goldsmith describes a meteoric stone which 



was seen to fall on April 30, 1906, on the New Jersey 



shore. On analysis the stone yielded 44-36 per cent, of 



iron. 42-80 per cent, of silica, 4-18 per cent, of alumina, 

 2-00 per cent, of nickel oxide, 1-90 per cent, of titanic acid, 

 and 1-84 per cent, of carbon. 



We h.-ive received from the author, Mr. J. P. Johnson, 

 a pamphlet (Johannesburg, price is.) containing two short 

 papers on the auriferous conglomerate of the Witwaters- 

 rand and on the antimony deposits of the Murchison range. 

 The former, while containing little that is new, gives a 

 concise review of the geology of the goldfield, and the 

 latter contains a description of some interesting antimony 

 ore deposits which appear to be impregnations of a bed 

 of metamorphosed limestone. The antimony occurs as 

 sulphide, altered at the surface into a yellow oxide and 

 'the hydro.xide. 



In the Journal of the Franklin Institute (vol. clxiv.. 

 No. 5) Mr. L. E. Levy gives an appreciative obituary 

 notice of Prof. Angelo Heilprin, the eminent American 

 geographer and geologist, who died on July 17. In 1876 

 he studied in London at the Royal School of Mines, where 

 he gained the Edward Forbes medal. He was the author 

 NO. 1989 VOL. 77J 



of numerous important works, the most interesting being 

 " The Arctic Problem " (1893), which contains the story 

 of the Peary Relief Expedition, which he organised. He 

 lived but fifty-four years, yet within that brief period he 

 accomplished work that would well suffice the compass of 

 the longest lifetime. 



.\ti important report, compiled by Miss k. M. Anderson 

 and Dr. T. M. Legge, has been issued on dangerous and 

 injurious processes in the coating of metal with lead, or a 

 mixture of lead and tin. The Blue-book also contains the 

 results of an experimental investigation into the conditions 

 of operating tinning workshops, which has been written 

 by Mr. G. E. Duckering, one of His M.ajesty's inspectors of 

 factories, who carried out the investigation. The most 

 important of the suggested regulations set forth in the re- 

 port is that no lead shall be used in the tinning of metal 

 hollow-ware. 



The president of the International .\tronautical Com- 

 mittee has sent us a summary of the places that took part 

 in the scientific balloon ascents of July 22-27, ^nd the 

 heights reached, so far as at present known. This series 

 of ascents was made in compliance with a suggestion by 

 the recent Aeronautical Conference at Milan that a special 

 effort should be made to obtain information regarding the 

 conditions obtaining in the upper regions of the atmo- 

 sphere on consecutive days ; the results will be eventually 

 published in detail by the Aeronautical Committee. 

 About fifty places took part in the investigation, the extra- 

 European ascents being at or near the Azores, Spits- 

 bergen, Iceland, China Sea, Cairo, and the United States ; 

 at Simla unfavourable weather prevented experiments from 

 being made. Twenty-five balloons were sent up in 

 England and Scotland ' alone, and (so far as yet known) 

 some of the balloons from Manchester reached the highest 

 altitude attained in any of the ascents, viz. 21,500 metres. 

 From Uccle (Brussels) a height of 21,140 metres was 

 reached, and 20,000 metres near the Azores. We learn 

 that nearly all the English balloons drifted to the east- 

 ward, and that the temperature records proved conclusively 

 the existence of isothermal conditions above some 12,000 

 metres, thus confirming the interesting theory put for- 

 ward by M. Teisserenc de Bort. Wc understand that 

 similar special ascents extending over a week will prob- 

 ably be made next year, and that, through the efforts of 

 Prof. Schuster, arrangements have been made by the 

 University of Manchester for the kite station on Glossop 

 Moor to be continued. 



A CLEAR and concise statement of our present knowledge 

 of the masses of the electrons which pl.ay so important a 

 part in electrical phenomena was presented to the Italian 

 Physical Society in the form of a report on the subject by 

 Prof. Levi-Civita at the recent congress at Parma, and is 

 published in full in the October number of Nuovo 

 Cimento. 



After careful consideration of the various methods of 

 determining the ratio of the electromagnetic to the electro- 

 static unit of electricity, Messrs. E. B. Rosa and N. E. 

 Dorsey came to the conclusion, several years ago, that 

 the most accurate were Maxwell's bridge method, in which 

 a condenser rapidly charged and discharged replaces one 

 of the resistances of a resistance bridge, and the method 

 in which the charges or the discharges of a condenser 

 rapidly charged and discharged are sent through one coil 

 of a differential galvanometer, while a steady current from 

 the charging battery is sent through the other coil. The 

 October number of the Bulletin of the U.S. Bureau of 



