July 21, 19 10] 



NATURE 



building at Portsmouth and Sheerness for the British 

 Admiralty, which are expected to be ready for service 

 during the autumn of next year. 



The aerial-propeller testing plant at Vickers' Works, 

 Barrow-in-Furness, is illustrated in Engineering for July 8. 

 The apparatus consists of a double cantilever, i66 feet in 

 length, the longer arm, at the end of w^hich the propeller 

 under test is mounted, being no feet in length. The 

 cantilever is carried on ball-bearings on a cast-iron column, 

 and the propeller is driven from a lOo horse-power electric 

 motor situated in a test house which is arranged on the 

 cantilever near the supporting column. The power is 

 conveyed to the propeller by means of a long shaft passing 

 along the cantilever, and bevel gear. The cantilever may 

 revolve at any speed up to 70 miles per hour at the point 

 of attachment of the propeller. The structure is balanced 

 by a weight on the shorter arm of the cantilever. There 

 is a method of compensating the circular motion of the 

 propeller so that the conditions are similar to those of a 

 ship running in a straight line through the air. The 

 piopeller may be run at speeds from 500 to 1000 revolu- 

 tions per minute, and its speed through the air can be 

 regulated by means of resistance screens. Measurements 

 of thrust, efTiciency, &c., are recorded in the observation 

 station. Provision has been made for attaching a gondola 

 to the platform ahead of the propeller, so as to obtain 

 similar conditions to those on an air-ship having the 

 propeller astern of the gondola. With characteristic solici- 

 tude for the advancement of science generally, Messrs. 

 \'ickers will place the apparatus at the disposal of 

 investigators, so that any type of propellers may be tested. 



Meteorologists, teachers of practical geography, and 

 others will all find Messrs. Aitchison and Co. 's catalogue, 

 ."Section iv., useful and interesting. It is concerned chiefly 

 with barometers, thermometers, rain gauges, compasses, 

 and pedometers ; and the excellent illustrations and clearly 

 arranged letterpress make reference easy and pleasant. 



.■\ THIRD edition of Prof. Ch. Moureu's " Notions fonda- 

 mentales de Chimie organique " has been published by ^L 

 Gauthicr-Villars, of Paris. The first edition of the work 

 was reviewed in our issue of January 22, 1903 (vol. Ixvii., 

 p. 269), and it is only necessary to state that the present 

 volume has been revised and brought up to date. 



" African- Mlmetic Butterflies " is the title of a mono- 

 graph by Mr. H. Eltringham which the Oxford University 

 I'less is about to publish. Descriptions and illustrations 

 are given of the principal known instances of mimetic 

 resemblances in the Rhopalocera of the Ethiopian region, 

 together with an explanation of the Miillerian and Batesian 

 theories of mimicry. 



\ VALUABLE Supplement of seventy pages, dealing with 

 Japan in all its aspects, was published with Tuesday's 

 Times (July 19). .^mong the numerous important articles 

 we notice in particular those on education, seismology, and 

 volcanoes, by Baron Kikuchi, Prof. F. Omori, and Mr. E. 

 Rruce-Mitford respectively. The publication, as part of a 

 daily newspaper, of such a vast amount of detail and 

 description relating to Japan as is given in the articles and 

 tables is a remarkable enterprise. The supplement con- 

 tams more information upon the position and progress of 

 Japan than can be found in many books. 

 ^^ A second edition of Prof. Armstrong's book of essays, 

 " The Teaching of Scientific Method and other Papers on 

 Education," has been published by Messrs. Macmillan and 

 Co., Ltd. The first edition was reviewed at length in our 

 .\0. 2125, VOL. 84] 



issue of January 2S, 1904 (vol. Ixix., p. 2S9), and it wilF 

 be sufficient to direct attention to the additions made in 

 the present volume. Prof. Armstrong has introduced a 

 prefatory essay entitled " Twenty-five Years Later," in 

 which he considers the changes that have taken place in 

 the teaching of science in schools during the period to- 

 which his essays relate. He has added two contributions ; 

 one, " The Correlation of Mathematical Teaching with 

 other Work in Schools," was part of a report presented' 

 to the British Association at its York meeting, and the 

 other, " .A Criticism of School Method, with Suggestions 

 for its Improvement," was delivered as an address to the 

 Portsmouth Secondary Education League. 



The following volumes of the " Fauna of British India" 

 series are nearing completion : — Mr. G. J. Arrow's volume 

 on the Cetoniinse and Dynastinfe is practically ready for 

 publication. Mr. W. L. Distant's volume, an appendix to 

 the Rhynchota, and Canon W. W. Fowler's work on the 

 CicindelidsE and Paussidje, with a general introduction to 

 the Coleoptera, are in the press. The remaining volumes 

 which the editor, Mr. \. E. Shipley, with the assistance of 

 Mr. Guy A. K. Marshall, and with the sanction of the 

 Secretary of State for India, has arranged for in this series 

 are : — Volumes on the Orthoptera (Acridiid^ and Locus- 

 tidae), Mr. W. F. Kirby ; Butterflies (LycsenidEe and' 

 Hesperidae), Mr. H. H. Druce ; the Curculionidae, Mr. 

 G. A. K. Marshall; /the Ichneumonidae, Mr. Claude 

 Morley ; the Longicorn Beetles, Mr. C. J. Gahan ; the 

 BlattidjE, Mr. R. Shelford ; the Helicids, Lieut. -Colonel' 

 H. H. Godwin-.Austen ; the Ixodidae and Argasidre, Mr. C. 

 Warburton ; Leeches, Mr. W. A. Harding ; Fresh-water 

 Sponges and Polyzoa and Hydrida, Dr. N. Annandale ; the 

 Mcloid^, Mr. Creighton Wellman ; the Brachyurous 

 Crustacea, Lieut.-Colonel .A. Alcock ; and the Nemocera- 

 (excluding the Chironomidae and the Culicidfe), Mr. E. 

 Brunetti. 



The annual report of the Board of Scientific Advice for 

 India for 1908-9 has been received. The attention of the 

 Board has been directed to the fact that the rapid increase 

 in the number of scientific institutions throughout the 

 world is rendering it more difficult to obtain back numbers 

 of the more important scientific periodicals, and that unless 

 efforts are made now to secure complete sets of some of 

 these for India it will be impossible at a later date to 

 establish efficient libraries for the requirements of scientific 

 research in India. The Board, on the advice of a sub- 

 committee appointed to deal with the question, has recorp- 

 mended the Government to maintain " first-class " general 

 reference libraries in Bengal, Bombay, Burma, Madras, the 

 Punjab, and the United Provinces, and " second-class " 

 libraries in large towns like Cawnpore, Mandalay, Nagpur, 

 Simla, and so on. Lists of scientific periodicals which 

 should be maintained in all " first-class " libraries and in 

 " second-class " libraries accompanied the recommenda- 

 tions. The programmes of the various scientific depart- 

 ments of Government for the ensuing year were, after 

 some revision, approved by the Board. In connection with 

 the work of the Meteorological Department, it is proposed 

 to make a series of balloon flights next December, the 

 month chosen by the International Commission in Europe 

 and America for simultaneous experiments on the condi- 

 tions of the upper air. It is hoped, too, that the publication 

 of the si.tty years' records in connection with terrestrial' 

 magnetism at Colaba will be completed during the current 

 year. The Department of Agricultural Bacteriology hopes 

 to attack, among other problems, the determination of the 

 chief bacteria characteristic of Indian soils, particularly 

 those taking part in the fixation of nitrogen, the rotting- 



