Dec. 9, i886j 



NA TUKE 



The marine zoologist will find much valuable matter in 

 the interesting reports by Messrs. Danielssen and Koren 

 of the Asteridea, collected in the Norwegian North Atlantic 

 Expedition. These pipers are a resume ol the complete 

 volume, which will appear lafer on as part of the Collective 

 Report of the Expedition. Of the 20 genera and 40 

 species collected, 4 genera and 11 species are new to 

 science. Numerous specimens of the Pedicellaster found 

 in West Greenland, and described by Dr. Sladen as new, 

 to which he gave the specific name of Pateocrystallus, is 

 identified by Dr. Danielssen as /■". typicus of Sars. Ex- 

 treme importance attaches to the discovery and careful 

 examination of a specimen of an asteroid — unfortunately 

 the only one secured — which differs fro'.ii others of the 

 family by having a central dorsal appendage, generally 

 erect, but capable of motion. This curious Echinoderm, 

 to which Messrs. Danielssen and Koren give the name 

 Hyaster inirahilis, is conjectured by them to represent a 

 larval or developmental stage of the Crinoidea, and after 

 a careful study of this stalk-like appendage they hazard 

 the conjecture that further investigations may lead to 

 the discovery that the .Asteridea are in fact developed 

 from the Crinoidea. Equally interesting, if less im- 

 portant, is the re-discovery of the Greenland " Cluster- 

 polyp " of Ellis, the " Zoopkytum griinlandicum " of 

 Mylius. The specimens examined by these earlier 

 naturalists have long disappeared, and for more than a 

 hundred years no others were found. The Challcitgcr 

 Expedition brought b.ack several forms of an Umbellula, 

 one of which Prof. Kolliker considered to be of the same 

 species as the lost specimens of Ellis and Mylius ; the 

 Norwegian naturalists are of opinion, however, that all 

 the specimens found are mere varieties of Umbellula 

 encrinus, to which they ascribe a wide geographical 

 range. 



In conclusion, while we desire strongly to recommend 

 the Nyt Magasin, it may not be out of place to men- 

 tion that several of the most interesting papers on local 

 Norwegian geology are written in German, and that the 

 highly important results of the recent Norwegian North 

 Atlantic dredgings are given by Dr. Danielssen in 

 English, under the title of a " Preliminary Report " of the 

 Expedition. The magazine, which is under the joint 

 editorship of Professors Kjerulf, Danielssen, Mohn, and 

 Hiortdahl, is printed in the Latin type now so generally 

 used in the Norwegian press, and is copiously illustrated 

 by well-drawn woodcuts, and excellent plates of the 

 animals described. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 

 Acta Mathematica. (Stockholm. Various dates.) 

 This journal, which has already won for itself the repu- 

 tation of being one of the leading mathematical journals, 

 not of the North merely, but of the world, sprang into 

 life at the end of iS32, is published at Stockholm, and 

 has all along been under the able editorship of Prof. G. 

 Mittag-Leffler, assisted by all the foremost mathemati- 

 cians of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland. Its 

 object is stated to be to gather and publish such mathe- 

 matical works as contribute to the development of the 

 science by the novelty either of the results obtained or 

 of the methods employed. 



The seven volumes which have been issued contain 

 papers by some of the foremost Continental mathemati- 



cians : the sole contribution, we believe, in English is 

 furnished by an .American writer, Mr. G. VV. Hill, and is 

 entitled " On the Part of the Motion of the Lunar Perigee 

 which is a l-'unct'on of the Mean Motion of the Sun and 

 Moon " (this paper occurs in vol. viii., which is in course 

 of publication). There are in all, in the complete volumes, 

 107 papers, in almost evei'y department of the science. 



It may be in the recollection of our readers that 

 Oscar 1 1., King of Sweden and Norway, who is styled 

 "Special Protector of the Journal," has instituted a great 

 mathematical prize for an important discovery in 

 higher analysis, the particulars of which have appeared 

 in full detail in our columns (vol. xxxii. p. 302) ; the prize 

 works are to be publidied in the Acta. 



The Methods of Glass-Blowiiig. By W. A. Shenstone. 



(Rivingtons, 1SS6.) 

 Not only the student who is entering, or has just entered, 

 that mystic land of chemical research, but also the ordin- 

 ary student of chemistry who wishes to be more than a 

 mere beginner, or a book-chemist, will hail with great joy 

 the appearance of this little book on glass-blowing. We 

 have not many good professional glass-blowers in this 

 country, and, as the author says, it is a difficult if not im- 

 possible thing to get any instruction in glass-blowing ; and, 

 as a result, the great bulk of chemical students are as 

 dependent on the dealers in glass ware as the bul ; of 

 amateur photographers are on dry plates and other things 

 in that connection. 



Most students even in our hardest working laboratories 

 have some time to spare in which they might practise 

 some of the more useful and simple methods of making 

 glass apparatus mentioned and described in this little 

 book. 



Apart from the immediate utility of being able to make 

 one's glass apparatus in the laboratory, and the help it is 

 in almost any form of chemical or physical research, it 

 cannot fail to be also indirectly useful to a student on 

 his transplantation to a works or the superintendence of 

 some technical operation, and will give him what is so 

 Very desirable, in addition to that of the purely chemical 

 manipulation of analysis, a feeling of confidence in over- 

 coming mechanical difficulties. 



In the introduction is a description of a suitable 

 working-place, blow-pipe, and bellows — things which are 

 seldom to be found fit to use in our laboratories — and the 

 blow-pipe flames ; after which the varieties of glass 

 mostly used, and the actual operations involved in the 

 construction of most glass apparatus, in which glass tubes 

 are the main parts, are very plainly described, being also 

 in many cases illustrated with diagrams of the different 

 stages. The last chapter is devoted to " calibrating and 

 graduating glass apparatus," operations we think every 

 student who gets as far as quantitative analysis should be 

 able to perform in a decent manner. 



We most thoroughly recommend this little book to 

 students who intend to become chemists, and hope the 

 proportion of those who can blow a respectable bulb 

 will soon be increased. At present it is about -i per 

 cent. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 

 [ Thi Editor Joes not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to 

 return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manu- 

 scripts. No notice is taken of anonymoits communications. 

 [ The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters 

 as short as possible. The pressure on his space is so gnat 

 that it is impossible otherwise to insure the appearance even 

 of communicatiotis containing interesting and novel facts. ] 



Two Hours with a "Subject Index" 



There has appeared within the year, under the title 

 of "A Suhjcct-Index to the Modern Works added to the 



