49^ 



NA TURE 



[February 25, 1909 



bones are, however, considered to indicate an animal of 

 slighter build than either of the living species, and are 

 therefore regarded as belonging to an extinct form, for 

 which the name Diceros whitei is suggested. 



The Austrian Meteorological Office has issued, as part ii. 

 of the " Climatology of Austria," a discussion of the 

 observations at Trieste for the sixty years 1841-1900, by 

 Mr. E. Mazelle, director of the maritime observatory at 

 that place. In addition to its importance as a contribu- 

 tion to climatology, the discussion of this long series is 

 intended to serve as a basis for the " reduction " of mean 

 values in neighbouring localities for shorter periods to one 

 of similar length. The tables contain, inter alia, mean and 

 extreme . values for yearly, iive-yearly, and ten-yearly 

 periods. The mean annual temperature of Trieste for the 

 sixty years was s7°-4 ; July, 7S°-6 ; January, 4o°-i. The 

 absolute maximum for thirty-two years (1869-1900) was 

 99°-S (July. 1873) ; 'he minimum, i4°-o (February, 1870) ; 

 but in January, 1907, a reading of ^"-0 was recorded. The 

 annual rainfall is approximately 43 inches ; the wettest 

 month is October, and the driest February ; rain falls on 

 an average on 109 days in the year. 



The past week was exceptionally fine and dry over the 

 whole of Great Britain, and the weather was practically 

 rainless in all parts of England. The aggregate measure- 

 ment of rain for February is likely to prove very much 

 below the average over the entire area of the British Isles. 

 At Greenwich the rainfall to February 24 was 0.32 inch. 

 In February, 1891, the total measurement of rain at 

 Greenwich was 0-04 inch, so that the present month is far 

 from establishing a record in this respect. The duration 

 of bright sunshine was everywhere large, and in England 

 the weather was exceptionally brilliant. For the five days 

 from February 18-22 inclusive, the sun shone for forty- 

 two hours at Greenwich, where the average duration for 

 the month is fifty-seven hours. Sharp frosts have occurred 

 at night over England. At Greenwich the exposed thermo- 

 meter on the grass fell below 20° on each night during 

 the last week, and on three nights it fell to 11°. Frost 

 also occurred each night in the shade, and on the morn- 

 ing of Tuesday, February 23, the thermometer in the 

 screen fell to 19°, which is lower than any reading so 

 late in February during the last sixty years. The day 

 temperatures have been fairly high for the time of year, 

 due to the bright weather, and on the _ four consecutive 

 days from February 19-22 the thermometer in the sun's 

 rays exceeded go", and on Monday, February 22, it rose 

 to 97°. The fine and dry spell of weather over England 

 was due to the prevalence of anticyclonic conditions, a 

 region of high barometer readings being situated over the 

 United Kingdom. 



Natural science and the healing art formed the subject 

 of Prof. Tschirch's rectorial address at the anniversary 

 festival in the University of Bern in November last 

 <" Naturforschung und Heilkunde," by Prof. A. Tschirch. 

 Pp. 30. Leipzig : C. H. Tauchnitz, 1909. Price i mark). 

 This ancient seat of learning can boast many great names 

 in the past, and the new rector was able to point to Haller, 

 among others, who recognised the importance of natural 

 science in the progress of medicine. Growth in the know- 

 ledge of science has been accompanied by an increase in 

 the means the physician and surgeon possess in grappling 

 with disease. Chemistry is no longer a mere handmaid 

 of medicine, though biochemistry may be regarded as 

 one of the most important factors in the future progress of 

 medicine. The subject is throughout treated in a philo- 

 sophical manner, and the address will well bear careful 

 perusal. 



NO. 2052, VOL. 79] 



According to a note in the January number of the 

 Journal of the Franklin Institute, the Forest Service at 

 Washington is watching with interest the substitution of 

 cement for wood as a building material. While the 

 demand for timber has remained almost stationary, the 

 production of cement has increased in the last five years 

 from 25 to 50 million barrels. 



Le Radium for January contains a table of radio-active 

 constants compiled by eleven well-known workers in the 

 field of radio-activity. The constants tabulated for each 

 substance are : — the atomic weight, the time constant, the 

 half-decay time, the mean life, the nature of the radiation, 

 the mean path in air of the emitted a rays, the thickness 

 of aluminium which will stop those rays, and the thick- 

 ness necessary to reduce the ;8 and 7 rays to half intensity. 

 The table will be very useful, not only as a record of 

 what is already known, but as an indication of the lacunae 

 which remain to be filled. 



The report of the International Committee on Atomic 

 Weights for 1909 contains a discussion of researches deal- 

 ing with the atomic weights of hydrogen, chlorine, sulphur, 

 lead, cadmium, tellurium, rhodium, palladium, europium, 

 erbium, ytterbium, columbium, and radium. The changes 

 proposed are : — chlorine, from 35-45 to 35-46 ; sulphur, 

 32-06 to 32-07; lead, from 206-9 '° 207-1; tellurium, 127-6 

 to 127-5; palladium, from 106-5 '° 106-7; columbium, from 

 94 to 935 ; radium, from 225 to 226-4. -'^ general revision 

 of the whole table of atomic weights has been made on the 

 basis of the following fundamental data: — when = i6, 

 H = i-oo8, C = i2-ooo, N = i4-oo7, 01 = 35-460, Br = 79-9i6, 

 Ag = io7-SSo, K = 39-095, 5 = 32-070. The changes intro- 

 duced by this re-calculation are small and comparatively 

 unimportant. 



SiNXE the time of Prout, the calculation of the atomic 

 weights of the elements by means of a formula has been 

 a favourite speculation. Some of the earlier attempts were 

 considered satisfactory by their proposers if the calculated 

 and experimental values agreed within a unit or two, and 

 were, moreover, usually based on an empirical formula. 

 Two recent attempts in this direction (A. L. Bernouilli, 

 " An Atomic-weight Formula on the Basis of the Law 

 of Mass Action and Avogadro's Law," Zeitschrift fiir 

 physikalische Chemic, January 26, and A. C. G. 

 Egerton, " The Divergence of the Atomic Weights of the 

 Lighter Elements from Whole Numbers," read before the 

 Cliemical Society on February 4) fall in a different cate- 

 gory. The formulae are proposed on a definite physical 

 basis, and the values for the atomic weights deduced are 

 very close to the best experimental numbers. 



The elastic breakdown of materials submitted to com- 

 pound stresses forms the subject of articles in Engineering 

 of February 5 and 12, contributed by Mr. L. B. Turner. 

 The author discusses the various theories and investigations 

 which have been advanced for ductile materials, the three 

 principal being Rankine's, based on breakdown taking 

 place when a certain maximum tension occurs ; Euler's, 

 based on a certain maximum stretch being obtained ; and 

 Guest's, based on occurrence of a certain maximum shear- 

 ing stress. Of these, the first two will not bear the test 

 of experimental investigation ; the latter was first 

 enunciated by Guest in the Philosophical Magazine, 1900, 

 and was supported by a large number of his experimental 

 results. Mr. Turner has repeated some of Guest's experi- 

 ments, using weldless steel tubes, which were all annealed 

 under similar conditions in an electric furnace. Nineteen 

 results for combined pull and torque are given, of which 

 two may be disregarded as being abnormal. The remain- 



