May 27, 1915] 
NATURE 
358 

Physical Society, have come recently to hand. In the 
former Prof. Lippmann describes a method of deter- 
mining differences of longitude by taking instan- 
taneous photographs of the stars at the two stations 
at the same moment. Prof. Bouty continues his 
examination of the fundamental assumptions of the 
kinetic theory of gases, and deals with the mean free 
path. M. J. Duclaux shows that the specific heats 
of a large number of organic liquids can be calcu- 
lated directly from their chemical formule. The July 
number contains the lecture on photo-electricity given 
before the society in April, 1914, by Messrs. Pohl and 
Pringsheim. In addition to several shorter papers, 
the two numbers devote between fifty and sixty pages 
to abstracts of papers which have appeared elsewhere. 
Tue March issue of the Presidency College Maga- 
sine, Calcutta, contains a warmly appreciative article 
by Mr. F. V. Fernandes on the Indian School of 
Chemistry, with special reference to the work of 
Prafulla Chandra Ray and his pupils at the Presidency 
College. Prof. Ray is more particularly known to 
European chemists from his ‘‘ History of Hindu Chem- 
istry,’ and by his investigations on the inorganic and 
organic nitrites, a field of inquiry with which his 
laboratory has been specially identified, and with which 
certain of his pupils have been associated. Under 
the fostering influence of Principal James, Prof. Ray 
has gradually built up a distinct Indian School of 
Chemistry, and after centuries of scientific stagnation, 
India bids fair to recover something of her former 
position in the chemical world through the agency of 
the succession of pupils which have passed through 
his hands. 
In a recent number of the Scientific American 
(April 24, p. 379) a description appears of what is 
claimed to be the largest by-product coking plant in 
the world. Owing to the enormous natural fuel 
resources of the United States, economy in the use 
of fuel has received but scant attention. Future 
generations will have bitter cause for complaint about 
the prodigal waste of fuel by their ancestors; in no 
country more so than in that blessed with the greatest 
supplies. What this waste amounts to is now being 
realised, and in the production of metallurgical coke 
the lead of the Continent and Great Britain in the 
use of recovery plant is being foliowed. It is estimated 
that enough benzol to run 200,000 automobiles a 
year, and enough sulphate of ammonia to supply 
the farmers of the States with fertiliser for two years 
at the present rate of consumption, was thrown away 
in the waste gases of the beehive colxe-ovens of the 
United States in 1912. Altogether the value of the 
by-products, had they been recovered, would have been 
about eighty million dollars. If the same amount of 
coal had been coked in retort ovens, more than five 
million more tons of coke would have been obtained. 
The new plant of the United States Steel Corporation 
comprises 560 ovens, and will produce 2,900,000 tons of 
coke annually. One hundred and twenty million 
cubic feet of gas will be obtained every twenty-four 
hours, half of which will be employed ir heating the 
ovens, the other half for the corporation’s steel furnaces. 
It is remarkable that this big plant is not equipped 
NO. 2378, VOL. 95] 

for the recovery of benzol. Owing to the native 
supplies of petrol, benzol as a motor fuel is not of 
that interest in the States which it is in Europe, 
especially at the present time; but even there benzol 
recovery will certainly soon become general, if only 
for the measure of independence it will secure against 
trusts and rings controlling the output of petroleum 
products. 
“SANITATION IN War” is the title of a new book 
to be published about June 1 by Messrs. J. and A. 
Churchill, of 7 Great Marlborough-street, London, 
embodying lectures delivered by Major P. S. Lelean, 
assistant-professor of hygiene at the Royal Army 
Medical College. An introduction to the volume has 
been written by Surgeon-General Sir Alfred Keogh. 
OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 
Comer TempPeL 2.—A telegram from Prof. Strém- 
gren, of Copenhagen, dated May 18, records the dis- 
covery of a comet by Delavan on May 16 at 
20h. 522m. G.M.T. Its position is given as R.A. 
oh. 33m. 1s., and declination —2° 5' 31” Its mag- 
nitude is not stated. From a communication to the 
Morning Post of May 20 the comet seems to be that 
of Tempel 2. It is there stated ““. . . Tempel 2 has 
just been re-discovered by Delavan, who has been 
notably successful at La Plata in the last few years. 
The comet is probably not bright, and will very likely 
not be observed in this country, as it rises almost 
with the sun, and passed perihelion on April 14, only 
about one day from its predicted date. It is in a 
direction between the constellation of Pisces and 
Cetus. It was discovered by Tempel in 1873, and was 
observed in 1878, 1894, 1899, and 1904, so that three 
returns, including the last one, were not observed, 
its period being rather less than 5} years."" 
OBSERVATIONS OF SATURN aT FLacsrarr.—Writing 
to the Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 4800, under 
dates March ir and 18, Prof. Percival Lowell says 
(March 11):—‘The crepe ring of Saturn has been 
observed and measured persistently wider on the east 
than on the west side of the planet during the past 
month by a difference of five-hundredths. This fact 
will have important bearings on the mechanics of the 
stability of the ring. Any phase effect or defect of 
illumination of the constituents of the ring are not 
sufficient to explain the phenomenon on account of 
the diminutive size of the meteorites composing it. A 
possible explanation of this detected eccentricity of the 
ring may be the revolution of the perisaturnium.”’ 
Writing on March 18, he says:—‘‘ Photographs of 
Saturn taken on March 12 at this observatory, both 
by Mr. E. C. Slipher and the director, confirm visual 
observations in revealing that Cassini’s division is 
visible in part above the contour of the ball by about 
four-tenths of its true width. This enables the oblate- 
ness of Saturn to be deduced from the photographs, a 
preliminary reduction of which shows that oblateness 
to be about one-ninth.”’ 
THE SPECTRUM OF THE INNER Corona.—In_ the 
Ofversigt af Finska Vetenskaps-Societetens Fér- 
handlingar (Bd. lvii., Afd. A, No. 25) Dr. R. Furuh- 
jelm communicates a note on the spectrum of the 
inner corona. The photographs were secured by an 
expedition from the observatory of Helsingfors, which 
took up its position at Kumlinge, isles of Aland in 
Finland, for the observation of the eclipse of August 
14 of last year. Details of the instrument used are 
given, but it may be stated that the size of the image 
falling on the slit was 36-4 mm., and the spectroscope 
was furnished with three prisms of angles of about 

