196 



NA TURE 



{Dec. 27, I i 



not remember to have noticed the cirrus cloud in more than one 

 instance. The sunsets have been subject for remark in quite a 

 number of the papers." I inclose also a newspaper, the Olive 

 Brnticli, of Hancock, Minnesota, U.S.A., which has been 

 forwarded to me by anolher correspondent, containing a notice 

 of the sunset of November 10. 



Richmond, Surrey, December 22 F. A. R. Russell 



In a letter dated Tokio, October 3, describing a tour in the 

 interior of Japan, Prof. Tames Main Dixon writes : — ' ' During 

 the two or three days at the end of August we enjoyed fine dry 

 weather, but the sun was copper-coloured and had' no bright- 

 ness. It was capital weather for travelling, but rather inex- 

 plicab'e. When we got to Nikko, the people came to us to in- 

 quire if some catastrophe were impending, for the appearance of 

 the sun foreboded evil. We laughed at their fears, and assured 

 them all was right. However it seems that if the appearance of 

 the sun foreboded no evil, it was a wonderful sign of the greatest 

 earthquake and volcanic catastrophe on record. The fearful ex- 

 plosion of Krakatoa, in the Straits of Sunda, took phace on 

 August 26, and there seems httle reason to doubt that the mon- 

 soon had carried the volcanic dust along with it, the dust 

 obscuring the sun. The distance is nearly 3000 miles." 



Lewis Campbell 



St. Andrews, December 22 



Peripatus 



Dr. von Kennel, in a note on the " Development of Peri- 

 patus," which appeared in a recent number of the Zoolo(ischer 

 Ameigtr, and has been translated and printed in your columns, 

 has thrown some doubt on the accuracy of the observations 

 recorded in the late Prof Balfour's memoir on the " Anatomy 

 and Development of PcHpaliis capensis (Quart. Journ. Micro. 

 Sci., April, 1883). We trust that you will give us, as the editors 

 of that memoir, this opportunity of making a few brief state- 

 ments in reply to the .somewhat unusually outspoken criticisms 

 contained in his preliminary note. 



Dr. von Kennel entirely omits to mention in his paper that 

 Prof. Balfour's researches refer to a Cape species of Peripatus 

 (P. capensis), whilst the species which he has worked at are 

 'West Indian, and differ considerably from Peripatus capensis. 



Considering the fact, well known to embryologists, that there 

 are numerous instances of great discrepancies in the embryonic 

 history of closely-allied forms, it seems to us strange that the 

 only explanation, suggested by Dr. von Kennel, of the differ- 

 ences between his results and those recorded in Prof. Balfour's 

 memoir should be that the latter are absurdly erroneous. 



The remarkable attitude which Dr. von Kennel has assumed 

 in this matter must have been obvious to all competent zoologists. 

 We offer these remarks mainly because his statements have 

 appeared in a journal which has a wide circulation amongst 

 readers who are not so well able to judge of the merits of the 

 case. 



We are able to state in conclusion that the results enumerated 

 on pp. 256, 257 of Prof. Balfour's memoir have been confirmed 

 by Mr. Sedgwick on a large number of fresh and well-preserved 

 embryos of Peripatus from the Cape, obtained since the publica- 

 tion of the memoir. H. N. Moseley 



A. Sedgwick 



[The translator of Dr. von Kennel's "Note on the Development 

 of Peripatus," to whom we submitted the above letter, writes to 

 us that, "though with a large experience in such matters, he is 

 quite unable to see anything ' unusually outspoken ' in Dr. von 

 JCenr-el's criticisms ; h.ad any such occurred, he would have 

 passed them over; nor does he find any foundation for the 

 statement that Dr. von Kennel explains the results of Prof. 

 Balfour's memoir as 'absurdly erroneous.' Dr. von Kennel, 

 at the beginning of his note, only asserts that his observations 

 cast some doubt on those of Balfour, apologetically adding that 

 his material was immensely richer than Balfour's, and at the 

 conclusion of his Note he simply calls attention to the discre- 

 pancies between his observations and Balfour's illustrations." 

 At the translator's reque-t we quote the original of the two 

 critical paragraphs with the translations, so that the many com- 

 petent zoologists who are among.st our readers can judge whether 

 the latter adds to or takes from the spirit of the former. — Ed. 

 Nature. 



" Ich thue dieses haupt^achlich deswegen, weil die durch 

 Moseley und Sedgwick publicirte Abhandlungaus dem Nachlass 

 Balfour's einige Abbildungen von Embryonen und Schnitten 

 durch solche enthalt, deren Genauigkeit ich nach meinem 

 reichlichen und ausgezeichnet conseivirten Material und nach 

 den Beobachtungen am frischen Objecte etwas anzweifeln muss, 

 deren Deutung vollends die Probe nicht halt." 



" I do this chiefly because the treatise published by Moseley 

 and Sedgwick from the posthumous notes of Balfour contains 

 some representations of embryos and cross-sections of the same, 

 upon whose accuracy in details I, with my rich and well-pre- 

 served collection of specimens, and observations on fresh objects, 

 must cast some doubt, and the interpretation of which does not 

 bear investigation." 



" Ich enthalte mich hier, um nicht weitlaufig zu werden, jeder 

 Discussion, mu's jedoch noch einmal darauf hinweisen, wie wenig 

 Balfour's Abbildungen und die Schilderungen der Ilerausgeber 

 mit den hier mitgetheilten Thatsachen stimmen." 



"I here abstain for the sake of brevity from all discussion, 

 but must, however, call attention to the fact how little Balfour's 

 illustrations and the descriptions of the Editors agree with the 

 facts as they are here given."] 



A New Rock 



During my visit last .summer to Lake Sagvand, in the 

 Balsfjord, near the city of Tromso, I discovered a new enstalite- 

 bearing rock, which forms entire little hills. It is composed of 

 light yellow-green enstatite, mixed with magnesite. The mag- 

 nesite, which is entirely free from luiie, is partly white, partly 

 dirty grey in colour, in which latter state it contains a little 

 oxidulated iron, and appears then distinctly crystalline, with 

 rhomboidal planes of cleavage. The rock is greatly interspersed 

 with little grains of chromite, which are found in the enstatite 

 as well as the magnesite. Here and there small grains of pyrite 

 also appear. The substance is perfectly free from olivine, at all 

 events neither olivine nor serpentine has been discovered under 

 microscopical analysis. 



The rock must be considered a new petrographical species. 

 I have named it "Sagvandite," from the place where it was first 

 discovered. It appears with a strong reddish-brown colour on 

 its uneven surface, where the magnesite is completely washed 

 out, so that the enstatite alone remains. The rock is not slaty, 

 and must so far be said to be of massive structure. 



When I have had an opportunity of thoroughly analysing the 

 new substance, I propose to give a complete description of it 

 in Nature. Karl Pettersen 



Tro:iiso Museum, Finmarken, Norway, December 



Diffusion of Scientific Memoirs 

 In his notice of the Reprint of Prof. Stokes' papers in 

 Nature for Dec. 13 (p. 145), Prof. Tait, with characteristic 

 incisiveness, speaks of the "almost inaccessible" volumes of the 

 Cajubridge Philosophical Transactions, and proceeds to offer an 

 " easy cure " for that simple though grave malady. I think if 

 Prof Tait had taken the trouble to make the inquiry he would 

 have found that very few societies are so liberal in the free dis- 

 semination of their publications, and that the number of 

 universities, prominent societies, or libraries which do not 

 receive them gratis, or merely in exchange, is very small. 

 December 14 W. M. HiCKS 



The question so pointedly at [issue between Mr. Hicks and 

 myself is one which can be settled by statistics only. Nature .| 

 would do a real service to science by collecting statistics as to 

 the numbers of different centres (home, and foreign, separately) 

 at which the Transactions of various scientific Societies were 

 freely accessible in 1883 (say) ; and also the corresponding num- 

 bers in 1853. The Royal Society regularly publishes such infor- 

 mation in its Transactions, so does the Royal Society of 

 Edinburgh. 



I have been a Fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 

 for about 30 years ; and, during that time, I have received from 

 the Society some fasciculi (of Proceedings only) certainly not 

 amounting to a dozen in all : — and I am not aware that my case 

 is an exceptional one. 



Mr. Hicks writes as if he thought I was bringing an accusa- 

 tion. Surely the figure, of malady, which I was careful to 

 employ, cannot be so construed. P. G. Tait 



