)24 



NATURE 



[February 6, 1902 



natural history collections of the late Sir Greville Smyth. Among 

 the specimens are a fine egg of the Great Auk, an egg of the 

 Aepyomis maximtis, a collection of British and foreign birds' 

 eggs and nests, a large collection of birds' skins, comprising 

 a skin of the Apteryx, a collection of the I^epidoptera of 

 India, Ceylon, South America and southern Europe, and also 

 a very complete collection of British species, a collection of 

 exotic Coleoptera, and a choice series of shells. The whole 

 of these valuable natural history specimens are contained in a 

 costly range of cabinets. Lady Smyth has also promised to 

 present two specimen heads of the red deer bred in Ashton 

 Park. 



The "Acker" fusion process for the electrolytic produc- 

 tion of caustic alkali and chlorine is reported to be work- 

 ing successfully at Ni.igara Falls. The process depends upon 

 the decomposition of molten salt with a carbon anode, and a 

 kathode of molten lead. A lead-sodium alloy is formed at the 

 kathode. The circulation and renewal of the molten kathoda 

 material is effected by means of high-pressure-steam and an 

 injector. The lead-sodium alloy is carried into a separate 

 vessel, where the steam decomposes the alloy with formation of 

 sodium hydrate, hydrogen and lead. By careful regulation of 

 the steam supply, the caustic alkali can be obtained as fused 

 anhydrous NaOII, and the necessity for evaporation of the 

 surplus water at a later stage is avoided. The hydrogen gas is 

 collected and burnt, the heat being utilised for the preliminary 

 heating of the rock salt used to feed the cell ; while the molten 

 lead flows back into the cell and functions again as kathode. 

 The mechanical difficulties that have had to be surmounted in 

 the transfer of this process from the laboratory to the works 

 have been great, but, according to the Electrician of January 1 7, 

 3000 h.p. is now being utilised by this most interesting process 

 at Niagara Falls, and anhydrous caustic soda is being produced, 

 without any after boiling-down or evaporation. This latter is 

 one of the chief features of the Acker process, and if the 

 saving in fuel which results is not balanced by very heavy 

 charges for cell maintenance and repairs, the process would 

 appear to have a highly successful future before it. 



The Bulletin international of the Cracow Academy for 

 November, 1901, contains an account, by M. L. Marchlewski.of 

 the researches of the late Prof. MarcellusNencki. Nencki was 

 born in 1S47 at Sieradz, Poland, and studied at Cracow, Jena 

 and Berlin. He held office as assistant lecturer in pathological 

 anatomy at Bern, and in 1878 was appointed professor of 

 physiological chemistry. From 1891 till his death he was head 

 of the chemical department of the Institute for Practical Medi- 

 cine at St. Petersburg. He made many important advances 

 in the study of physiological chemistry. 



The Kendiconio of the Naples Academy contains a short 

 abstract of a paper by G. de Lorenzo, to be published in the 

 Atti of the Academy, dealing with the superficial origin of 

 volcanoes. Signor de Lorenzo seeks to prove, from a study of 

 the volcanoes of southern Italy, that eruptive phenomena in 

 general, and volcanic phenomena in particular, are intimately 

 connected with mountain formation, and like the latter repre- 

 sent purely superficial effects on the earlli, a view which is 

 inconsistent with the hypothesis that they are due to an 

 incandescent central fluid mass within. Signor de Lorenzo has 

 illustrated his theory by pictures of Monte Nuovo, a hill of 

 which the only illustration, even in recent treatises, has been 

 that of Hamilton, dating from last century. 



The /otirnaloi the Society of Arts contains a paper by Mr. 



Frank Gray on elliptographs. The various mechanical apparatus 



for drawing an ellipse are considered by Mr. Gray to depend on 



four methods, namely, the focal method, the trammel method, 



NO. 1684, VOL. 65] 



the mechanical method and the projective method. After 

 reading the paper we are inclined to think that while the 

 instruments described by Mr. Gray are highly ingenious, there 

 is still room for someone to invent a really iimfte and portable 

 instrument for drawing circles in perspective, an operation that 

 is of constant occurrence in geometrical drawing. Many of the 

 instruments described appear to be best suited to drawing large 

 ellipses, whereas small ellipses are often required for dia- 

 grammatic illustrations. Moreover, a further desideratum is to 

 be able to adjust easily an instrument to draw an ellipse of given 

 dimensions, in particular one where two conjugate diameters, 

 instead of the principal axes, are given. Among the instruments 

 considered by Mr. Gray was Nasmyth's instrument now in the 

 possession of the Board of Education. It is remarkable that so 

 late as 1894 two Germans obtained a patent in Great Britain for 

 a "trammel, pure and simple." 



An important paper on the electromagnetic properties of 

 convection currents is published by Prof. .\. Righi in the 

 Nuovo Cimento (5, ii). It deals with the four fundamental 

 principles according to which it is believed that (I) a moving 

 charge generates a magnetic field, (2) changes in a magnetic 

 field produce an electrostatic field, (3) a moving pole generates 

 an electrostatic field, (4) changes in an electrostatic field produce 

 a magnetic field. Experiments of Cremieu have thrown some 

 doubt on the production of a magnetic field by convection of 

 electrostatic charges, and even the existence of unclosed 

 currents has been suggested. Prof. Righi gives a critical ex- 

 amination of Cremieu's experiments, asalsoof those of Rowland, 

 Lodge, Wilson, Pender and others, and describes experiments in 

 verification of the second of the four phenomena. The general 

 conclusion is that Cremieu's experiments need not shake our 

 faith in modern electrical theory, although it still appears de- 

 sirable, if not necessary, that new and accurate researches should 

 be undertaken for the purpose of confirming the above four 

 phenomena individually as well as other phenomena depending 

 on the same laws. 



We have received from the publisher (Mr. L. U. Gill) a copy 

 of the seventh issue of that useful little work, ' ' The Natural- 

 ists' Directory." The new volume appears to be much better 

 than its predecessors. 



The Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Sciences for 

 1900 contains a list of the papers read at the sixteenth annual 

 meeting, many of these being printed only in brief abstract. 

 The president's address is illustrated with some excellent repro- 

 ductions of photographs of microscopic objects. 



In the Report for the year 1901, the Northumberland Sea 

 Fisheries Committee gives a most satisfactory account of the food- 

 fishes of the district, based on the experimental trawling ex- 

 cursions carried on during the past ten years. The results for 

 the whole four stations where the experiments have been con- 

 ducted are as follows :— " Turbot have remained steady ; brill 

 seem to be improving in numbers ; soles are getting less 

 numerous every year, practically speaking ; plaice have slightly 

 improved, and dabs have greatly improved in numbers ; 

 flounders also presented a slight increa.se." A total increase of 

 about 20 per cent, in the number of food-fishes frequenting the 

 bays is estimated to have taken place during the last five years, 

 and the Committee therefore feels justified in saying that the 

 locality is slowly recovering from the effects of the excessive 

 inshore trawling carried on just previous to the commence- 

 ment of the experiments. 



The Scientific American for January 18 issues a supplement 

 (No. 1359) devoted to a comparison of the Panama and 

 Nicaragua canal routes. The supplement contains an exhaustive 



