126 



NA TURE 



[Dec. 9, 1886 



cases thai an effect is found to have clung wirh so much per- 

 sistence to one sex, I am rinclined to believe that, upon the 

 experiment being made as I have suggested, that the other sex 

 will produce similar results in regard to the numerical ino- 

 portion of the sexes, and a strong point in favour of this opinion 

 lies in the fact that, as I have myself seen, a sandy coloured 6 

 kitten, apparently bearing the stamp of the normal 6 parent, 

 was found to bear the development of the supe)-numerary digits 

 in a marked degree. Wil.LlAM White 



55, Highbury Hill, N., November 22 



Algebraic Notation of Kinship 



With reference to Mr. Davison's letter in Nature (vol. 

 xxxiv. p. 571), I wish to point out that the subject of algebraic 

 notation, not only for kinship, but for kinship and affinity, has 

 been pretty fully discussed in several pajiers which I contributed 

 to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and especially in a paper 

 entitled " Analysis of Relationships of Consanguinity and 

 Affmily," which, at the retjuest of Mr. Gallon and Dr. Tylor, I 

 contributed to the Anthropological Institute {Journal of the 

 Anthropological Institute, August 1882). Some idea of the 

 nature of that paper may be got from a stalement of the several 

 tables which are appended to it. Table I. gives the notation for 

 the general relations of the first five orders, states the general and 

 singular meaning of each, and classifies them according to index, 

 .sign, and grade. Table II. shows how the^e general relation- 

 ships are divided into ultimate species. Table III. gives all the 

 possible relationships of a man to a woman, and of a woman to 

 a man, within the first five orders ; and such relationships as 

 exclude marriage according to the laws of England are marked 

 •with an asterisk. Table IV. gives the consanguineous reLuion- 

 ships of the first five orders grouped in line.s and species, the 

 agnatic system being formed by the extreme terms on the left, 

 and the uterine system by the extreme terms on the right. 

 Table V. gives strict definitions of the English terms of rela- 

 tionship. 



Besides the algebraic notation, I also developed a graphical 

 notation. In the paper referred to, I apply the graphical nota- 

 tion to show the descent of property acco-ding to the English law. 



Prof. Jevons took much interest in these papers, and it was 

 his intention to give the elements of the analysis in a new 

 chapter of his " Studies in Deductive Logic," but death snatche 1 

 him from us in the midst of his scientific labours. 



Alexandf;r M.\cfarlane 



University of Texas, Rustin, Texas, November 15 



Seismometry 



In the last number of N.-vture (p. 75) there appears a letter by 

 Prof. J. A. Ewing, referring to a note in a previous number (p. 36), 

 apparently a summary of a communication from Prof. Milne. 

 As I have some interest in this question, and have reason to 

 believe from re.narks made in a letter lately received from Prof. 

 Milne that the matters referred to by t'rof. Ewing cannot be 

 those to which Prof Milne referred, I sliould be glad if the 

 original communication could be published. 



Prof. Ewing's letter and indeed several of his recent publica- 

 tions, including the description of his instruments in Nature, 

 are decidedly calculated to mislead those not familiar with the 

 seismological work which has been done in Japan. For examjile, 

 he says, or leads one to infer, that he introduced horizontal pendu- 

 lums in seismology : now that is not the case. It is needless for me 

 to say that horizontal pendulums have long been known as a 

 mean.s of obtaining nearly neutral equilibr'um ; and in particular, 

 with reference to Japan, they are referred 1 1 by Prof. Milne on 

 page 25 of vol. i. part i of the Trans. Seis. Soc. Japan, in a 

 paper which was read in Prof. Ewing's presence several months 

 before Prof. Ewing's instrument was heard of. What Prof. 

 Ewing did introduce was a particular form of horizontal pen- 

 dulum, very particularly described by him in soaie of his early 

 papers, as involving a " new principle" (now apparently aban- 

 doned by him), and he used two such pendulums to write two 

 components of the earth's motion on a continumis'y moving 

 plate. Records on miving mrfaces were not new then, even in 

 Japan, as they are referred to in papers published by ot'ner 

 investigators before Prof. Ewing arrived in the country, but 

 there was this difference in these oldf r methods, that the plates 

 were automatically started by the earthquake ; and Prof. Ewing, 

 after his experience, has noii- adopted this plan. 



Prof Ewing mentions also in his letter that his apparatus 

 writes three components of the motion, but he does not say that 

 the most difficult of the three — namely, the vertical component 

 —is written by an instrument which I introduced and described 

 before the Seismological Society of Japan, first in May 18S0, 

 and afterwards in a modified form in April 1881. Prof Ewing's 

 instrument is professedly, as his first description {Ti-am. Seis. 

 S.'C. japan, vol. iii.) clearly shows, a modification of my second 

 form, and is, what he seems persistently to have shut his eyes to, 

 almost identical with my early form. 



As to Prof. Ewing's statement in the last sentence of his letter 

 that " there is nothing better to take their place," we can hardly 

 be expected to take /lis judgment on this point. 



Thomas Gray 



7, Broomhill Avenue, Partick, Glasgow, November 30 



[Nothing essential was omitted from Prof. Milne's letter. — Ed.] 



Botanical Lecture Experiment 

 The following simple lecture experiment may interest teachers 

 of botany. It is described by Georg Klebs in his paper " Ueber 

 d. Organisation d. Gallerte bei einigen Algen u. Flagellaten," 

 ]3ubli-hed in the most recent part of Unters. a. d. bat. Inst. z. 

 Tubingen. A description of the experiment I give in Klebs's 

 words, translated : — " It is easy to demonstrate, by addition of 

 a watery solution of phenolphtalein, that Algs make the water 

 in which they live alkaline when they are fixing carbon in light. 

 In proportion as the fixation of carbon proceeds, the water 

 gradually assumes a deep red tinge, which gradually disappears 

 when light is excluded." The explanation given is; — "The 

 Alga takes up not only the COo absorbed in the water, but also 

 in part that which is in combination in acid carbonates, in con- 

 sequence of which alkaline combinations arise ; in darkness, 

 owing to respiration, the reverse process takes place." 



I have a vessel with water containing phenolphtalein in which 

 Cladophora has grown for nearly three weeks, and there is 

 daily a reddening of the water, its rapidity being determined by 

 the brightness of the day ; during the night the colour disappears. 



Bayley Balfour 



A Lecture Experiment on the Expansion of Solids 

 by Heat 



Mr. Madan's description of a device for showing that metals 

 and s 'lids expand when exposed to heat is very interesting, 

 especially as such an arrangement, but with important modifica- 

 tions, is capable of giving very excellent scientific results, results 

 which are only surpassed by M. Fizeau's method. One necessary 

 alteration is the substitution of a spring- pressure for the weight 

 on the strip of metal. This and other points will be made quite 

 clear by a perusal of a short description contained in my paper, 

 " A Strain-Indicator for Use at Sea," read before the Institution 

 of Naval Architects. The numerous tables and diagrams there 

 given would, I am afraid, hardly interest your readers, but the 

 repeated experiments in Table I. would be a subject of 

 interest, as they show how well the experiments agree amongst 

 themselves. The errors, though small, are due, in my opinion, 

 not only to the difficulty of reading the dial (each unit being 

 equal to about half an inch, and the second decimal therefore 

 about 1/200 inch), but also to the difficulty of reading the exact 

 position of the weight on the steel-yard of the testing-machine. 

 Far more accurate results are obtained when, instead of a jockey 

 weight being run out, smiU weights are added one by one. 



You will also notice that the instrument gives very good 

 records on pa ler (see launching strain diagrams and railway 

 bridge diagrams), and in this shape it could, I think, be used 

 with advantage for recording changes of temperature. 



C. E. Stromeyer 

 Strawberry Hill, Middlesex, December 2 



Meteors and Auroras 



In the Proae.iings of the Paris Academy of Sciences published 

 in Nature for November 4, at p. 23, a relation between showers 

 of shooting-stars and auroras is noted. In this vicinity on 

 April 14, May 8, July 27, and November 2, very fine auroras 

 were visible, and upon each occasion shooting-stars of unusual 

 brilliancy were observed in the northern heavens whilst the 

 aurora was at its height. M. A. Veeder 



Lyons, New York^ November 24 



