Feb. 9, 1871 | 
NATURE 
299 

the still lower zones would continue to increase up to the very 
centre of the earth, the inference is that the whole of this great 
central mass situated at a distance of some 459 miles or less 
below the surface, is actually formed of metals and their com- 
pounds. 
Whether this great central metallic nucleus is fluid or solid 
may next be inqui ed into. According to Bunsen’s theory pre- 
viously alluded to, it ought to be solid, for owing to the enormous 
pressure to which it would be exposed, the solidification of the 
m lten sphere should first commence at the centre. This view 
would be quite correct if the earth was composed of highly com- 
pressible non-metallic materials ; but since this is not the case, 
anil since, as before alluded to, the experimental data already 
obtained indicate that neither the metallic nor the less compres- 
sible substances become more refractory in proportion to the in- 
crease of pressure, we are more justified in assuming that the 
central nucleus also must be in a fluid condition, and the more 
so ,not only because we know that metallic compounds are as a 
rule infinitely more fusible than rock silicates, but also as the 
well-known high temperature of the earth’s interior would, by its 
expanding action, tend to counteract the effects of the pressure 
In summing up this inquiry, the balance of evidence appears 
to me to be decidedly in favour of the hypothesis that the interior 
of our earth isa mass of molten matter arranged in concentric 
layers or zones according to their respective densities, and the 
whole enclosed within a comparatively thin external crust or shell. 
Davip Forses 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 
Tue American Naturalist for January opens with a long paper 
by Prof. J. S. Newberry ‘‘On the Ancient Lakes of Western 
America : their Deposits and Drainage,” which is stated to be 
a chapter from Dr. Hayden’s forthcoming ‘‘Sun-pictures of the 
Rocky Mountains.” Prof. Newberry states that the wonderful 
collection of fossil plants and animal remains brought by Dr. 
Hayden from the country bordering the Upper Missouri has 
been shown, by his observations and the researches of Mr. 
Meek, to have been derived from deposits made in exten- 
sive fresh water lakes, lakes which once occupied much 
of the region lying immediately east of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, but which have now totally disappeared. ‘The sedi- 
ments that accumulated in the bottom of these old lakes 
show that in the éarliest periods of their history they contained 
salt water, at least that the sea had access to them, and their 
waters were more or less impregnated with salt, so as to be 
inhabited by oysters and other marine or estuary mollusks. In 
due time the continental elevation which brought all the 
country west of the Mississippi up out of the wide- 
spread Cretaceous sea raised these lake-basins altogether 
above the sea-level, and surrounded them with a broad expanse 
of dry land. Between these lakes were the areas of dry land 
covered with luxuriant and beautiful vegetation, and inhabited by 
herds of elephants and other great mammals, such as could only 
inhabit a well-watered and fertile country. Prof, Newberry’s 
explanations throw much light on that remarkable feature of the 
western side of the great continent, the canons formed by the 
rivers, like the stupendous one of the Colorado, nearly 1,000 
miles in length and from 3,099 to 6,000 feet in depth, with almost 
perpendicular sides. The Rey. A. P. Peabody contributes an 
account of the Chinese in San Francisco; Mr. H. Willey, a 
paper on Lichens under the microscope, with wood-cuts which 
very well illustrate their mode of vegetation and reproduction ; 
and Dr. A. P. Barnard, adescription of a new form of binocular 
for use with high powers of the microscope. The shorter articles 
and Natural History Miscellany contain, as usual, much in- 
teresting information. 
The Yournal of Botany for February commences a series of 
papers which will be very useful to systematic botanists ; an 
alphabetical catalogue of the new genera and species of plants 
published during 1870 in the English botanical and gardening 
journals, not including the ‘Journal of the Linnean Society.’ 
The present number only carries the list- down to Deacontium. 
Mr. J. G. Baker continues his monograph of thegenus A7pAium, 
and Dr. Hance contributes an article on the so-called ‘‘olives” 
of Southern China, which he states to be produced by two 
species of Canarium, trees from twenty to thirty feet high, 

largely grown in the neighbourhood of Whampoa. The stones 
are beau'ifully and elaborately carved by the Chinese as orna- 
ments, and, when set in gold, form exceedingly handsome 
brooches or bracelets. Two articles of special interest to syste- 
matists are Prof. Dyerand Dr. Trimen on Polygonum nodosum ; 
and Mr. W. P. Hiern on the form and distribution over the 
world of the Batrachian (or aquatic) section of Ranunculus. 
There is also the usual section of short Notes and Queries. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LoNDON 
Chemical Society, February 2.—Prof. Williamson, F.R.S., 
President, in the chair. The f llowing gentlemen were elected 
Fe lows: R. J. Friswell, R. F. Humiston, M.D., A. H. Mason, 
I, R. Justin, Prof. Frankland, F.R.S., read a paper “ On the 
Development of Fungi in Potable Water.” He began by 
alluding to the experiments Dr. Heisch had made some months 
back with waters contaminated with sewage matter. When to 
such waters some sugar was added, very soon a kind of fermen- 
tition ersied, and a rich fungoid growth made its appearance. 
vrol. Franxland has now repeated and extended these experi- 
ments and arrived, with one or two exceptions, at the same 
results. But in the course of his researches ne encountered some 
reactions which revealed to him that the presence of sewage 
matter in saccharic water is in itself not sufficient to produce 
fungoid growth, but that the pres nce of phosphates in some form 
is indispensall2 to such production. Prof. Franklind fur her 
found that the germs which give rise to the development of fungi 
need not necessarily come from sewage contamination, but that 
they may be derived from th? atmosphere. Finally, he found 
that animal charcoal does not remove those germs. Dr. Frank- 
land thinks that the suzar test of Dr. Heisch for the detection of 
traces of sewage contamination may be turned into a very 
delicate reagent for the detection of minute quantities of phos- 
phates ; for when these defy the power of the usual laboratory 
tests, they yet are capable of feeding those germs and thus giving 
rise to the fungoid growth. From all his observations Prof. 
Frankland drew the following conclusicns :—1. Potable water 
m'xed with sewage, urine, albumen, and certain other matters, 
or brought into contact with animal charcoal, subsequently 
develops fungoid growth, and other organisms, when small 
quantities of sugar are dissolved in them and they are exposed 
to a summer temperature. 2. The germs of these organisms are 
present in the atmosphere, and every water contains them after 
momentary contact with the air. 3. The development of these 
germs cannot take place without the presence of phosphoric acd, 
or a phosphate or phosphorus in some form of combination. 
Water, however much contaminated, if free from phosphorus, 
does not produce them. A German philosopher has said “ ohne 
Phosphor kein Gedanke.” The above experiments warrant the 
alteration of this dictum to ‘ohne Phosphor gar kein Leben.”* 
Anthropological Society January 31.—Dr. Charnock, 
President, in the chair. A paper was read by Mr. Joseph 
Kaines, on some of the Racial Aspects of Music, The 
author, in a very brief glance at the characters of the musc 
of the various races of men on the globe, drew particular atten- 
tion to a stiiking anthropological fact—namely, that the music of 
the people of the north-east of Europe, unlike that of all the 
rest, was pervaded bya settled melancholy. He sought to account 
for this phenomenon physically and psychically. He drew 
attention to the climatal and general physical co: ditions under 
which the peoples of the north-east of Europe live, and suggested 
that, in the constant war with Nature, and the endeavour to 
modify Nature’s laws, they acquired a gravity, awe, and sadness, 
of which the peoples of the sunny south knew no hing, as their 
music showed, Nature having used them more kindly. The 
author contrasted the biographies (as well as the music) of the 
German and Italian composers, and showed that the men differed 
as widely ; sadness and sorrow marking the one, brightness and 
gladness characterising the other. He commented upon the in- 
trospectiveness of the northern peoples, and the rapt attention 
and morbid analysis they vive to the great problems of Life, 
Death, God, and Immortality ; and stated that the contempla- 
tion of these and such sublime mysteries saddened and b ijhiened 
by tarns all their taoughts and impressions. It was cu-ious to 
note tat even the dance tunes and popular airs cf the Ge:mans, 
Norwegians, and Swiss, as has been remarked by Mr. H. F. 
