NA TURE 



[December 5, 1901 



two other communications the same writer discusses the New 

 Zealand earthworms, describinj; three new species, under as many 

 generic heads. Prof. Dendy and Miss Olliver jointly describe a 

 new freshwater leech of the genus Glossiphonia, while the former 

 contributes a fourth paper on the land planarians of the 

 colony. 



The acclimatisation and variation of Salmonid;e in New 

 Zealand form the subject of a paper in the Transactions of the 

 New Zealand Institute for 1900 by Mr. A. J. Rutherfurd, in 

 which it is concluded that greater success is likely to attend the 

 introduction of the north Pacific salmonoids than that of Salnio 

 salar, which is a more delicate fish, unlikely to find what it re- 

 quires in an ocean so far removed from its native habitat. In 

 regard to trout, the author is of opinion that " whatever variety 

 we liberate of the ordinary species of trout, it will develop into 

 a Saliiio novai-zeahmdiae, suited to the water in which it is 

 liberated, and corresponding with trout in similar localities in 

 the Northern Hemisphere more closely than with the varieties 

 found in the more northern latitudes of our mother-country." 

 Considerable interest also attaches to a paper by Mr. T. White 

 on breeding black merinoes, of which there are now several 

 flocks in the colony. Although the wool does not fetch so high 

 a price as the best selected white it is really more .valuable, as 

 the price is the same for the whole fleece. 



A CIRCULAR which we have just received from Messrs. 

 Hirschberg and Oestergaard, Berlin, provides us with another 

 example of German enterprise. This firm has produced a large 

 wall map of the British Isles and of the world, showing the 

 British colonies in a distinctive colour, and special offers are 

 being made to English newspapers to take up the map and sell 

 it to their readers. The map is 53 in. by 42 and is printed in 

 twelve colours. In a space left at the top the title of the news- 

 paper adopting the map, and other particulars of local interest, 

 will be inserted as desired. As a number of newspapers have 

 taken up the map there is apparently no objection to its German 

 origin. But how is it that our geographical publishers cannot 

 make similar arrangements with newspapers, and so prevent, in 

 a sense, the war from being carried into our own country ? It 

 certainly seems strange that Germany should find it worth while 

 to supply us with cheap maps of the British Isles and the Empire. 



The "Year Book of the Scientific and Learned Societies" 

 (London: C. Grifiin and Co., Ltd.) is a very handy guide to 

 organisations existing in the British Isles for the promotion of 

 knowledge. The societies and other institutions are arranged 

 in fourteen different departments, according to their objects, and 

 particulars are given as to officers, meetings, conditions of mem- 

 bership, and publications of each. In addition, lists are given of 

 papers read before each society from January, 1900, to June of 

 the present year. The reason why the jjapers read during 

 eighteen months are catalogued instead of those read in a 

 calendar year is that it is intended in future to make the Year 

 Book correspond as closely as possible with the sessional year 

 of the societies dealt with in it. Subsequent volumes will 

 therefore record the papers read before each society between 

 September and June, and they will be published as early as pos- 

 sible in the succeeding session. This change will be an addi- 

 tional convenience to those who use the Year Book as a manual 

 of ready reference or a general review of Great Britain's 

 annual contributions to scientific knowledge. 



The work of John Mayow, a pupil of Robert Boyle, was 

 touched upon by Dr. J. B. Cohen, in an address recently de- 

 livered before the Yorkshire College Scientific Society. Mayow 

 was certainly a genius, and some of his observations are remark- 

 able for their shrewdness and depth, but they have often been 

 misrepresented, and Dr. Cohen gives some interpretations of 

 NO. 1675, VOL. 65] 



them which should interest students of the history of chemistry. 

 His treatise on combustion was completed before the birth of 

 the phlogiston theory, and was revived a century later, after 

 Priestley had discovered oxygen, and the phlogiston theory was 

 breaking down. Referring to Mayow's experiments on hydrogen 

 and nitric oxide, Dr. Cohen remarks, " it must sufl'ice to say 

 that he anticipated Priestley in recognising both these as dis- 

 tinct kinds of gases, differing from, but possessing the same 

 elasticity as air. Although Priestley's view of the composition 

 ofdephlogisticatedair has much in common with that of Mayow's 

 nitro-aerial particles, there is plenty of evidence to show that 

 Priestley's ideas were formed quite independently. It must be 

 admitted, however, that they show little advance on those of a 

 whole century before." 



The recent work of M. Moissan on the properties of pure 

 calcium has shown that the description of this element current 

 in the text-books was by no means an accurate one, and from 

 the work of M. Guntz, published in the current number of the 

 Coniptes rendus, it would appear that the properties of pure 

 barium also differ considerably from those hitherto assigned to 

 it. The starting point of the work is barium amalgam, and by 

 the electrolysis of a saturated solution of barium chloride with 

 a mercury kathode it would appear to be quite easy to prepare 

 several kilograms of a 3 per cent, barium amalgam. It is the 

 separation of the mercury from this amalgam which has proved 

 to be such a difficult matter. M. Maquenne, for instance, who 

 attempted to distil off the mercury, was quite unable to obtain a 

 coherent ingot of barium in this way. M. Guntz has found that 

 the secret of success in this experiment is to apply the heating 

 gradually ; the amalgam is placed in an iron boat in a wide 

 porcelain tube and the tube heated by a coil of fine platinum wire, 

 brasqued by a protecting coating of alumina and magnesia. By 

 means of this electric furnace it has been found possible to 

 raise the temperature as slowly as 200° C. per hour, and finally to 

 maintain the tube, 50 mm. in diameter and 300 mm. long, at 

 1200° to 1300° C, with an expenditure of 600 to 700 watts. 

 Working in this way a good yield of pure barium has been 

 obtained at 1000° C. The barium thus obtained when freshly 

 cut has a white silvery lustre ; it is soft, a little harder than lead, 

 and is extremely oxidisable in the air, often catching fire when 

 attempting to remove it from the boat by means of a hard body. 

 It resembles lithium and calcium in dissolving in liquid ammonia, 

 and attacks easily water, alcohol and even an alcoholic solution 

 of baryta. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a (Jreen Monkey {Cercopillucus caltilrichus) 

 from West Africa, presented by Dr. A. E. Neale ; two Short- 

 eared Owls (Asio braihyotus], one Short-eared Owl (Asia 

 brachyotus), European, presented respectively by Mr. W. 

 Jamrach and Mr. C. VV. Burnett ; a Variegated Sheldrake 

 ( Tadorna variegata) from New Zealand, purchased. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLU^fN. 



Thk New Star in Pkrsei's. — Sir Norman Lockyer recently 

 communicated to the Royal Society some further observations 

 of the new star in Perseus made at the Solar Physics Observatory 

 in continuation of the last previously recorded ( Roy. Soc. Proc, 

 vol. Ixviii. p. 399). In the present paper, which brings the 

 information up to the end of September, it is first pointed out 

 that the short period light vari.itions have ceased and that the 

 Nova was gradually becoming fainter, reaching about magnitude 

 67. In the visual spectrum the nebular line at wave-length 

 5007 was the strongest. Photographs of the spectrum showed 

 that since last April a great change has taken place. The lines 

 then were very broad and ill defined, but are now much narrower 

 with better defined edges. The lines of hydrogen, which were 

 the strongest in the spectrum have become comparatively very 



