78 



NATURE 



[July 20, 191 1 



;i doz.-n fini specimens oi Funiculina, the largest ol which 

 1 nearly four feet in length. The bed must be "I 

 considerable extent, as the hauls were nol on thi sarrn pot, 

 .im] both brought up equally good specimens ol these magni- 

 ficent pennatulids. Most of the large specimens "I Funi- 

 culina, in the way, were not caught in the trawl-net, but 

 were balanced across the front of the frame, at eai h i nd, in 

 such a |)recarious position as to make one wondei how 

 many others had been lost in hauling in. The bottom 

 deposit was evidently line mud. W. A. Herdman. 



S.Y. Runa, 



Sound of Iona, July n. 



On the Non-simultaneity of Suddenly Beginning 

 Magnetic Storms. 



In his paper "On the Supposed Propagation of 'Equa- 

 torial' Magnetic Disturbances with Wlo, iiie- ..I the Order 

 of a Hundred Miles per Second," read before the Physical 

 Society of London, November n, tgio, and published in the 

 Proceedings of that society, vol. xxiii, pp. 49-57, Dr. Chree, 

 in reviewing my paper published in the Journal of Terres- 

 trial Magnetism (vol. 15, pp. 93-105), expressed some doubts 

 as to my views on the subject of the non-simultaneity of 

 suddenly beginning magnetic storms. 



It seems to me that there should not be any doubt as to 

 my position on this point when I stated in my above- 

 mentioned paper (loc. cit. p. 103) that the evidence there 

 presented confirmed wh.-n Dr. Hanoi- had stated, namely, 

 thai magnetic storm- do not begin at the same instant all 

 over ill' world, and added a little further on that a new 

 view-point in the discussion and analysis of magnetic storms 

 is thus introduced, meaning that a new view-point must 

 now be had on account of this non-simultaneity of the 

 occurrence of the beginning ol the storms which, I believe, 

 the data shows to exist. 



I agree with Dr. Bauer in his conclusion that the 

 abruptly beginning magnetic storms are not simultaneous 

 all over the world, and this conclusion, it seems to me, is 

 supported, not only by the data in my paper, but by that 

 in his paper which appeared prior, and in that which has 

 appeared subsequent, to mine. R. I.. Faris. 



U.S. Coasl and Geodetic Survey, 

 Washington, D. C. 



The Number of Possible Elements and Mendeleeff's 

 " Cubic " Periodic System. 



According to Rutherford's theory of " single scatter- 

 ing " (" On the Scattering of a and /3 Particles by Matter 

 and the Structure of the Atom," Phil. Wag., \Iav, tent), and 

 to Barkla's " Note on the Energy of Scatter,.! X-Radia- 

 tion " (ibid.), the numbers of electrons per atom is half 

 the atomic weight ; thus, for U, about 120. Now, a re- 

 construction of Mendeleeff's " cubic " periodic system, as 

 suggested in his famous paper " Die Beziehungen zwischen 

 den Eigenschaften der Elemente und ihreh Atom- 

 gewichten " (Ostw. Klass., No. 68, pp. 32, 36, 37,- and 

 74), gives a constant mean difference between consecutive 

 atomic weights = 2, and thus, from II to U, 120 as the 

 number of possible elements (van den Broek, " Das 

 Mendelejeff'sche ' Kubisrhe ' Periodische Svstem der 

 Elemente und die Einordnung der Radioelemente in dieses 

 System," Physik. Z.eitschr. 12, p. 490). Hence, it' thi- cubic 

 periodii system should prove t" be correct, then thi number 

 of possible elements is equal to the number ol possible per- 

 manenl charges of each sign per atom, or to each possible 

 permam m 1 harge (of both signs) pi 1 atom belongs a possible 

 element. \. van den Broek. 



Xooidu ijk-Zee, June 23. 



Phases of Evolution and Heredity. 



I should like your reviewer of the above hook in Nature 

 for May 25 to consider the following points : — 



1. In a tall-dwarf crossing where the results are read 

 in plants, the ultimate ratios considered as due to a 

 probability combination of the egg-cells and pollen grains 

 the influence of which necessarily ends within a generation, 

 explain why we do not get the ratio in the plants coming 

 out in F 1 . 



2. To niv query, "How is ile' recessive element ex- 

 pressed in F 1 ? It has not disappeared as it reappears in 



NO. 2 177, VOL. 87] 



F J unaltered. It is not expressed in the ' soma ' of the 

 plant: where is it?" your reviewer answers " lit the 

 germ-cells." 



Il, however, the determinants ol the recessives are • ■>:- 

 pressed in the germ-cells, i.e., in the propagative pai 

 the plant, so must those for tie- impure dominant and 

 dominant plants. These plants segregate in a 1:2:1 

 ratio, and therefore the determinants lor the conn 

 unit-characters musl !"■ in that ratio in the propagative 

 pait of the oospores. Does the reviewer not admit the 

 accuracy oi my view after all? I). Berry Hart. 



5 Randolph Cliff, Edinburgh. 



I find it very difficult to follow Dr. Berry Hart. If 

 he means, by the question which concludes Ins letter, to 

 ask whether I accept his theory as truly representing, 

 once and for all, the causes which determine the Mendelian 

 ratio 1:2:1, my answer is an unqualified negative; not 

 because I think I know what the true theory is, bul 

 because I do not think the time is yet ripe to formulate 

 it. Dr. Hart's theory is evidently different from the 

 accepted Mendelian theory; and it may be nearer the 

 truth. Whether it is or not, further experiment alone 

 can show. The Reviewer. 



Available Laboratory Attendants. 



The London County Council has for some time 

 referring to us a certain number of boys who have been 

 trained as laboratory attendants in their higher grade and 

 secondary schools, and whose services they are unable to 

 retain after they have attained seventeen years of age. We 

 are anxious to find suitable vacancies either in chemical 

 works or laboratories for these boys, who are of a dis- 

 tinctly superior type and some of whom have profited by 

 their experience to pass the Board of Education examina- 

 tions in inorganic chemistry. 



Some of these boys who were placed by us, thanks to a 

 letter published by you last year, are doing well and giving 

 satisfaction to their respective employei 



Should any of your readers, now or at any future time, 

 have a vacancy for such a lad, I should be glad to hear 

 from him. 



G. E. Reiss, Hon. s. 



Apprenticeship and Skilled Employment Association, 

 36 Denison House, 296, Vauxhall Bridge Road, 

 London, S.W. July 6. 



Mersenne's Numbers. 



I desire to announce the discovery which I have made 

 that ( 2 ' *" — 1 ) is divisible by 43441- This leaves only 16 

 of the numbers (2,,- 1) originally reported composite by 

 Mersenne, -till unverified. I have submitted my deter- 

 mination to Lt.-Col. Allan Cunningham, R.E., who has 

 kindly verified it. 



It is interesting to know that while (2'" — 1) is 

 divisible by 41441, the quotient when divided by this 

 number (43441 1 Lav. a remainder 21S39. This latter 

 result has been verified by two divisions. 



Herbert J. Woodall. 



Market Place, Stockport, June 12. 



The Fox and the Fleas. 



Some readers of Nature may be interested in seeing the 

 following passage from one of Liebig's letters to Wohler, 

 dated Giessen, June 24, 1849, as showing that the story 

 has long been familiar, at least in Germany : — 



" Das freiheitsmorderische Gesindel ist mm. wie I 



Fuchs die Fldhe in dem Biindel Heu, in einer Schlinge 

 gefangen . . .," &c. William A. Tilden. 



The Oaks, Northwood, Middlesex, July 10. 



Cabbage White Butterfly. 



Would some entomologist state if he knows of any 

 reference n, the fact that the larva- of the Large Cabbage 

 White seek to arrange themselves in pairs — male and 

 female — when they pup 



Can the sexes be distinguished externally in the larval 

 and in the pupal -rages? E. W. Read 



Sutherland Technical School, Golspie. 



