November 28, 1901J 



MA TURE 



societies and publications. The list contains nearly one hundred 

 papers as the record of activity during the College year 1900- 

 1901, and it is a better testimony to the work carried on than 

 many successes at examinations. A similar statement of in- 

 vestigations made in the laboratories of the Royal College of 

 Science and the Solar Physics Observatory during the session 

 1899-1900 will be found in the recently-published report of the 

 Board of Education, vol. iii. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIAL. 



American Journal of Science, November. — On the effect of 

 temperature and moisture on the emanation of phosphorus, 

 and on a distinction in the behaviour of nuclei and of ions, by 

 C. Barus. — On the determination of the heat of dissociation and 

 combustion of acetylene, ethylene and methane, by W. G. Mixter. 

 Acetylene was explodetl alone and with oxygen and the amount 

 of heat evolved measured. If acetylene is exploded without 

 oxygen in presence of a small quantity of ethylene, the latter is 

 completely decomposed, and in this way the heat of dissociation 

 can be more accurately determined than by the usual com- 

 bustion method. — The geological relations and the age of the 

 St. Toseph and Potosi limestones of St. Francois County, 

 Missouri, by F. S. Nason. — Note on the Cambrian fossils of the 

 Francois County, Missouri, by C. E. Beecher. From the 

 fossils found an extensive area and thickness of sedimentary 

 rocks are definitely pl.iced in the Cambrian. Palaaontological 

 evidence as to the nature of these rocks had hitherto been 

 largely wanting. — Discovery of Eurypterid remains in the Cam- 

 brian of Missouri, by C. E. Beecher. Description and drawing 

 of Strabops Thacheri — The determination of persulphates, by 

 C. A. Peters and S. E. Moody. An experimental examination 

 of the methods proposed by Mondolpho, Namias, Le Blanc and 

 Eckhardt, Grutzner and the author. The process of Le Blanc 

 and Eckhardt, the oxidation of ammonio-ferrous sulphate in 

 sulphuric acid solution, is recommended as being simple, rapid 

 and convenient. — Studies of Eocene mammalia in the Marsh col- 

 lection, Peabody Museum, by J. L. Wortman. A continuation of 

 previous papers on the same subject. — The Carboniferous and 

 Permian age of the red beds of Eastern Oklahoma from strati- 

 graphic evidence, by G. I. Adam. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 

 Physical Society, November 22. — Prof. S. P. Thompson, 

 president, in the chair — Prof. W. Cassie read a paper 

 on multiple transmission fi.xed arm spectroscopes. The 

 simplest fium of spectroscope shown consisted of two half 

 prisms silvered on the back, between which a beam of 

 light goes backwards and forwards with a slight upward 

 inclination. The result in dispersing and resolving power 

 is equivalent to direct transmission through a long train of 

 prisms. The collimator and observing telescope are fixed and 

 adjustment is made by a double tangent .screw which moves 

 both the prisms. Two other types constructed on a similar 

 principle were described, of which one had one prism and two 

 speculum mirrors, and the other had two refracting prisms 

 and a reflecting right-angled prism. The adjustments of these 

 in.slruments are simple and their power great. By a small 

 movement of an adjusting screw the observer can produce 

 great changes of dispersion by passing from one lo 

 another of (he series of spectra which are produced. 

 The author in reply to questions said that with an ordinary 

 Bunsen burner sodium flame a series of about five spectra Is 

 easily observed with dispersion equivalent to direct transmis- 

 sion through ten full-sized prisms. The loss of light at the 

 reflections limits the number of transmissions that can be used ; 

 but he believed that no other spectroscope with only two prisms 

 would give dispersing power and resolving power in any way 

 approaching the instrument described. — Prof. W. Cassie then 

 read a paper on the measurement of Young's modulus. The 

 apparatus described consisted of a horizontal needle (a bar of 

 large moment of inertia) supported by a bifilar suspension made 

 of the wire of which the stretch modulus is to be measured. 

 The periods of the pitching, rolling and bifilar oscillations of 

 thl.= s)^tem are ob.served, and an expression for the stretch 

 modulus is obtained which involves no measurements except the 



NO. 1674, VOL. 65] 



weight of the needle and the periods of oscillations. The 

 necessary adjustments, and the means of eliminating residual 

 errors of adjustment, were described for two forms of the 

 apparatus. One form also affords a simple means of statical 

 measurement by hanging a small weight on the needle at 

 measured distances from the centre, calculating the dif- 

 ference of tension produced in the wires, and observing with 

 a mirror and scale the consequent dip of the needle. — 

 A paper entitled "Notes on Gas-Thermometry, Part ii,," 

 by Dr. P. Chappuis, was read by Dr. Harker. Messrs. Holborn 

 and Day have published recently in a research on the air ther- 

 mometer the results of a new determination of the expansion 

 of Berlin porcelain between 0° and 1000°. The author has 

 already drawn attention in a former note to the fact that part of 

 the divergence found between the results of Callendar and 

 Griffiths and of Harker and himself for the boiling-point of 

 sulphur may be attributed to the uncertainty in the values 

 assumed for the expansion of porcelain. In the present paper 

 the author examines the way in which their results would be 

 modified by the introduction of the dilatation deduced from the 

 experiments of Messrs. Holborn and Day. It follows from the 

 introduction of the new values that the boiling-point of sulphur 

 deduced from experiments with a porcelain reservoir ther- 

 mometer would be lowered from 445°'2 to 444°7, a number 

 very close to that obtained by Callendar and Griffiths. In a 

 second part of the paper Dr. Chappuis has recalculated the 

 divergences between the uncorrected nitrogen scale and the 

 theoretical scale, and finds that the difference between these 

 values and those given previously is too small to be of any 

 practical importance. Prof. II. L. Callendar said that he was 

 highly gratified to see that the application of the correction 

 for the expansion of the bulb of Dr. Chappuis' gas- 

 thermometer, deduced from Holborn and Day's re- 

 sults, gave a value, 444° "7, for the boiling-point of 

 sulphur in such close agreement with the value 444° '5 

 deduced by Mr. Griffiths and himself in 1890. The agreement 

 i was really much closer than appeared at first sight, because the 

 remaining difference of two-tenths of a degree in the results was 

 almost exactly accounted for by the scale difference of the 

 constant pressure and constant volume thermometers according 

 to the theory of Joule and Thomson. It was also interesting to 

 remark that the corrected result found by Dr. Chappuis was in 

 very close agreement with that deduced from their own observa- 

 tions by Messrs. Holborn and Day. Dr. Chappuis had not re- 

 ferred in the present note to the work of Bedford on the 

 expansion of Bayeux porcelain, which he had criticised in a 

 previous paper. A comparison of results would show that 

 Bedford's results agreed very fairly, allowing for the dift'erence 

 of material, with Holborn and Day's from 200° to 600" C. ; and 

 that both differed from those of Dr. Chappuis between o' and 

 So", when extrapolated, in a precisely similar manner. It was 

 quite possible, as he (Prof. Callendar) had previously suggested, 

 that the expansion of porcelain between 0° and too' was anoma- 

 lous. It appeared certain that some anomaly in the expansion at 

 800° was indicated both in the experiments of Bedford and also 

 in those of Holborn and Day. It was also clear that Dr. 

 Chappuis' results for Bayeux porcelain when extrapolated would 

 agree with Bedford's at a temperature a little above 100° C., or 

 very nearly at the same point at which his results for Berlin 

 porcelain agreed with those of Holborn and Day. 



Mathematical Society, November 14. — Dr. Hobson, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — After the ballot had been taken 

 the president announced that the gentlemen whose names were 

 published in Nature (October 17) were duly elected for the 

 current session. Dr. J. Larmor, F. R.S., propounded a query 

 regarding the recent behaviour of Nova Persel which gave rise 

 to remarks by the president. Dr. Glaisher, F. R. S., and iMessrs. 

 Hargreaves, Hough and Lieut. -Colonel Cunningham, R.E. — Prof. 

 Love, F.R.S. .communicated two papers by Mr. J. H. Michell, (i\ 

 on the inversion of plane .stress, and (2) on the theory of Hele- 

 Shaw's experiments on fluid motion, dwelling specially on the 

 latter paper, which also evoked some discussion. — Mr. E, T. 

 Whiitaker read a paper on the .solullon of dynamical problems 

 in lernis of trigonometrical series. The president spoke at some 

 length upon the subject and other members joined in a dis- 

 cussion. — The following papers were communicated by the 

 reading ot their titles : — Linear groups in an infinite field. 

 Dr. L. E. Dickson ; note on the algebraic properties of Pfatfians, 

 Mr. J. Brill ; on Burmann's theorem. Prof. A. C. Dixon ; the 

 Pulseux diagram and differential equations, Mr. R. W. H. T. 



