66 



NATURE 



[March 20, 191, 



but only 13 in. remain above ground. The gauge is 

 made of stout galvanised iron. Attention has been 

 given to every detail in construction with the view 

 of securing the greatest possible accuracy and with 

 a minimum of trouble to the observer. 



In the Journal of the Meteorological Society of 

 Japan for November, 1912, we find five articles. The 

 first, by Mr. T. Hirata, is on wind in Korea, and 

 other ^important meteorological phenomena. The 

 second, by Mr. K. Asakura, is on the Red Stream, or 

 Akashiwo, near Kanagawa. He remarks that in 

 August it was very hot and many fish died, but not 

 so many as in the previous year. Mr. K. Nakamura 

 discourses on the climate in the Bonins, whilst Mr. 

 N. Takenaka gives the results of twenty-seven years' 

 observations in Kyushu on the velocity and direction 

 of the strongest winds. The only paper published in 

 Roman characters is one by Mr. S. Fujiwhara. Its 

 title is " Periodic Changes of Climatic Elements in 

 Relation to the Oscillation of the Earth's Axis." The 

 first climatic element to which he directs attention is 

 the freezing of a small lake called Suvva, in Central 

 Japan. In the sheet of ice two or three large fissures 

 are usually developed, and there is a belief that this 

 splitting is somehow or other connected with the 

 weather and crops of the following year. For this 

 reason a record has been kept since a.d. 1444 of the 

 first date of the complete freezing up of this lake. 

 These dates, in relation to years, have been plotted 

 on squared paper. The resulting curves show, but 

 not very clearlv, a tendency for warm winters to recur 

 every seven years. These curves of freezing are com- 

 pared with temperature curves at several places in 

 Japan, and curves showing the variation in latitude. 



Messrs. Wratten and Wainwright, Ltd. (Croy- 

 don), are issuing a second and revised edition of the 

 descriptive list of their "light filters," which have 

 gained for this firm a world-wide reputation. It 

 includes nearly ninety varieties, each with a statement 

 of its special use, whether in spectroscopy, photo- 

 micrography, or the getting of monochromatic light, 

 &c, and its stability when exposed to light. It in- 

 cludes also the photographed absorption spectrum of 

 each filter over a range of light intensities of from 

 one to ten thousand, and the spectrum sensitiveness 

 of the plates that the firm makes. There are filters 

 designed for use with mercury-vapour lamps, passing 

 respectively the yellow, green, and violet lines, and 

 we are told of one filter that it transmits 72 per cent, 

 of the light of the green line and \ per cent, of the 

 yellow, while by sacrificing 50 per cent, of the green 

 light the yellow can be "completely absorbed." The 

 list forms an excellent guide for those who use colour 

 screens for any purpose. 



An address, delivered by Prof. Millikan at the recent 

 meeting of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, is reproduced in Science for January 

 24. It deals with the atomic theories of energy, and 

 shows that the only one which appears capable of 

 explaining the whole of the facts of radiation, whether 

 of light or of X-rays, is that advanced by Prof. 

 NO. 2264, VOL. 91] 



Einstein, who, witli Sir J. J. Thomson, supposes the 

 radiation is concentrated in space along lines of force 

 or Faraday lines, and not distributed uniformly over 

 the wave surface, and further believes, with Prof. 

 Planck, that along these lines the energy travels in 

 atomic form and not as a continuous stream. The 

 main objection to the general adoption of such a 

 theory at the present time is its failure to explain 

 the well-known facts of interference and diffraction of 

 I light. 



The third issue of the Taschenbuch fur Matlie- 

 matiker und Physiker, by Messrs. Teubner, contains 

 a portrait of the late Prof. F. Kohlrausch, and a short 

 account of his life. Five pages of the mathematical 

 part are devoted to a report of the organisation and 

 activities of the international commission on the 

 teaching of mathematics. Other special articles deal 

 with the theory of groups, with multiple valued func- 

 tions and with analytical mechanics. The physical 

 half has sections of the " quanten " theory, on physical 

 chemistry and on crystallography. In both parts of 



; the book vector methods are freely used, the quater- 

 nion being defined as the complex product of two 



| vectors. The section on the "quanten" theory, by 

 Prof. Sommerfeld, of Munich, gives a clear account 

 of both the advantages and the difficulties of the 

 theory. The pocket-book is well indexed, and con- 

 tains a list of all the most important books on mathe- 

 matics and physics which have appeared during the 

 last two years. 



In the account, published in the issue of Nature 

 for April 11, 1912 (vol. lxxxix., p. 143), of the pro- 

 ceedings in connection with the one hundredth anni- 

 versary of the foundation of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia, celebrated in March, 1912, 

 it was stated that certain volumes would be published 

 as a permanent record of the event. We have now 

 received a copy of vol. xv. of the second series of the 

 Journal of the academy, which has been published in 

 a special form in commemoration of the hundredth 

 anniversary celebration. It consists of two parts 

 bound together, the first of which runs to 142 pages, 

 and is concerned wholly with the proceedings of the 

 centenary meeting. The second part contains twenty- 

 two fully illustrated scientific memoirs, which together 

 occupy 591 pages, and are illustrated by fifty-nine full- 

 page plates, u in. by 14 in. Part i. consists chiefly 

 of the addresses delivered by the mayor in welcoming 

 the delegates, by the president, which took the form 

 of a history of the academy, and by various speakers 

 at the banquet, together with lists of delegates and 

 selections from the congratulatory letters and cable- 

 grams received from learned societies throughout the 

 world. Some of the memoirs published in the second 

 part of the volume were those read during the anni- 

 versary meetings. The frontispiece is a well-executed 

 picture of the academy buildings, which, previous to 

 the centenary meeting, were much enlarged and ren- 

 dered fireproof with the assistance of the legislature 

 of the State. The handsome volume forms a fitting 

 memorial of an interesting series of meetings. 



