April 2, 1908] 



NA TURE 



519 



Association (Honolulu, igo8). While the results offer no 

 preeise solution to this problem, they explain some of the 

 phenomena of scale formation, and contain much of 

 interest to other investigators, practical and theoretical, 

 of this question, perhaps giving them a clue which will 

 Ir-ad to the discovery of a successful method of treating 

 the juice of the cane which will inhibit to some extent the 

 formation of scale during evaporation. 



Mr. W. Gali.ati.v has published (Cambridge : Elijah 

 Johnson, 30 Trinity Street) a pamphlet on the nine-point 

 circle, consisting of a collection of short notes reprinted 

 from the Mathematical Gazette and other sources. Most of 

 the notes deal with analytical rather than geometrical 

 properties associated with a triangle and the circle in 

 question. 



In the Proceedings of the .American .Academy of .Arts and 

 Sciences, xliii., 8, Messrs. C. R. Sanger and O. F. Black 

 discuss the quantitative determination of arsenic by the 

 Ciutzeit method. They find that consistent results can be 

 obtained, and the main difficulties avoided, by allowing the 

 arsenic deposit to travel along a strip of paper, and by 

 sensitising this with mercuric chloride in preference to 

 silver nitrate. 



In the Proceedings of the Tokyo Mathematico-Physical 

 Society (January), K. .Aichi discusses the capacity of 

 nearly spherical electrical conductors. The property, 

 obvious from the general principles of the theory of maxima 

 and minima, that the capacity of a nearly spherical con- 

 ductor is, to the first order of small quantities, equal to 

 that of a spherical conductor of equal area, is deduced from 

 anah'tical formulae. 



In Engineering of March 27 illustrations are given of the 

 new plant of the Stavely Ironworks, Chesterfield, an under- 

 taking with a record of two centuries. The new works 

 are of great interest, not because of any distinctive 

 departure, but because great discrimination has been 

 exercised in weighing the relative merits of different 

 systems in order that the many mechanical features in the 

 complete equipment should harmonise with the aim to 

 ensure efficiency. 



The application of electricity is fast revolutionising many 

 industries, and an interesting application in the chemical 

 industry is described in the Journal of the Franklin 

 Institute by Mr. E. R. Taylor, who gives an account of 

 the process and apparatus for the production in the electric 

 furnace of carbon bisulphide, the manufacture of which 

 in retorts is one of the most disagreeable of manufactures. 

 The furnace used is 10 feet in diameter and 20 feet high, 

 and will produce 5000 lb. per twenty-four hours with 

 economy and satisfaction. Two electrodes only are pro- 

 vided. The market for carbon bisulphide is a limited 

 one, and no larger furnace than those now in use would 

 he justified under present conditions. But were the market 

 for carbon bisulphide as large and as regular as that for 

 pig iron, the size of the furnace need only be limited by 

 market requirements and the amount of electricitv avail- 

 able. 



Under the title " Two Oxford Physiologists " (Clarendon 

 Press, Oxford, price is.). Prof. Francis Gotch has pub- 

 lished an address, delivered before the Oxford University 

 extension summer meeting of last year, which deals with 

 the life and work of Richard Lower (1631-1691) and John 

 Mayow (1643-1679). The address contains an admirable 

 account of the work of Lower, who is best known as 

 being the first to carry out the transfusion of blood from 

 NO. 2005, VOL. 7'/'] 



one animal to another, and of Mayow, who first recogniscif 

 the true nature of respiration, and whose " medico-physical 

 works " have just been translated from Latin into English 

 (Nature, vol. Ixxvii., p. 339). Prof. Gotch's eloquent 

 address has an especial interest for the general reader in 

 so far as it throws a clear light on the conditions under 

 which scientific work was- performed in the seventeenth 

 century. 



We have received a reprint of a lecture by Prof. 

 St^phane Leduc on " Diffusion and Osmosis " delivered 

 before the meeting held at Rheims in 1907 of the French 

 .Association for the Advancement of Science. Certain re- 

 markable experiments are described dealing with the forma- 

 tion and properties of the so-called " waves of diffusion "; 

 the phenomena dealt with, although evidently due to the 

 transmission of material particles, are accompanied by- 

 effects entirely similar to those produced by wave motion, 

 especially in so far as they show interference and diffrac- 

 tion. It is stated also that by means of diffusion under 

 certain chosen conditions, using merely solutions of different 

 concentration coloured with a little Indian ink, the pheno- 



mena of karyokinesis can be reproduced in their proper 

 order and form. Peculiar growths, presenting an appear- 

 ance similar to that of true vegetable growths, can also be 

 obtained by leaving " seeds," consisting, for example, of 

 copper sulphate mixed with sugar, in an aqueous solution 

 of potassium ferrocyanide saturated with common salt, and 

 containing more or less gelatin and other salts (see accom- 

 panying figure). In different experiments growths 

 analogous to roots, rhizomes, stems, leaves, and terminal 

 organs of true plants were obtained, each with a character- 

 istic internal structure depending on the nature of the salts 

 in solution. By these experiments the interesting question 

 is raised, how far the morphology of ordinary plants is 

 determined by purely osmotic phenomena. 



In 1869 Bunsen wrote to Sir Henry Roscoe an account 

 of a mysterious explosion caused by touching with the 

 finger some reduced rhodium and iridium. The question 

 of the explosive platinum metals has been taken up several 

 times since then by various investigators, but the exact 

 cause of the explosive properties of these metals has not 



