August 7, 1913] 



NATURE 



59i 



price 25 marks annually), the publication of the 

 Palasontologische Gesellschaft, which was founded in 

 Germany last autumn. The society is intended 

 tn be of an international character, and be- | 

 sides about 130 German palaeontologists, it 

 already counts marly eighty members in other coun- 

 tries. The headquarters are in Berlin, and a meeting 

 is to be held once a year in some locality, either in 

 Germany or in another country, whirr there is an 

 important collection of fossils or where the fossili- 

 ferous strata are of special interest. The fast presi- 

 dent is Prof. Otto Jaekel, of Greifswald, and on tin- 

 council the representatives of Great Britain and the 

 United States are respectively Dr. Smith Woodward 

 and Prof. Charles Schuchert. The published Zeit- 

 schrifi deals with fossils from every point of view, 

 but especially in their biological aspect, and. begins 

 with a presidential address on the study of palaeonto- 

 logv in general. Prof. Jaekel quotes O. Merkel's 

 claim to have discovered that fossils were intelligently 

 collected even so far back as the Bronze age. One 

 or two examples of each of fifty-eight species of 

 Tertiary shells are said to have been found, with two 

 recent Mediterranean species for comparison, in a 

 cinerary urn of this period. Prof. H. Rauff contri- 

 butes an important illustrated paper on Pharetrone 

 sponges, and Dr. C. Wiman discusses cases of the 

 sudden destruction and burial of swarms or large 

 troops of animals. Prof. Jaekel also begins an 

 account of the remarkable discovery of numerous 

 dinosaurs and other vertebrates in a clay-pit in the 

 Upper Trias of Halberstadt, north Germany. 



To the July number of Symons's Meteorological 

 Magazine Mr. R. C. Mossman, of the Argentine 

 Meteorological Office, makes an addition to his third 

 article on southern hemisphere seasonal correlations 

 (NATURE, July 17), showing that a relation can be 

 traced between rainfall at Maiden Island (South 

 Pacific) and mean temperature at Punta Annas 

 (Magellan Strait) from May to August. Winn the 

 rainfall at Maiden Island is above the average the 

 temperature at Punta Arena-, is below the normal, and 

 vice versa. During the seventeen Mars 1890-1906 

 there arc only two years, [894 and 1004, in which the 

 signs are the same, but in each of the four years 

 1907-10 a low mean temperature at Punta Arenas 

 is associated with a deficient rainfall at Maiden Island 

 during the four months in question. Dr. Hilde- 

 brandsson has shown that an apparently well-estab- 

 lished correlation may break down for a few years, 

 and Mr. Mossman remarks that the case under dis- 

 cussion offers another instance of the snapping of 

 the chain. 



A memorandum on the meteorological conditions 

 prevailing over various parts of the earth before the 

 advance of the south-west monsoon in India, issued 

 by the Director-General of Observatories on June 8, 

 has been recently received. The distribution of pres- 

 sure is most favourable when the latter is high in 

 March, April, and May in Argentina and Chile, and 

 low in May in the Indian Ocean ; on the whole the 

 general pressure conditions appear slightly unfavour- 

 able. The inferences to be drawn from the winds 

 NO. 2284, VOL. 91] 



and rainfall in the Indian Ocean during the previous 

 two months do nut affect tin present monsoon pros- 

 pects very strongly, while the accumulations of snow- 

 fall lying on the hills are probably normal. Although 

 on explanation is forthcoming, there is apparently a 

 tendency for years of which tin average pressure over 

 India is high to be associated with a ^nud monsoon 

 in the succeeding year, and vice versA; in 1012 pres- 

 sure was in moderate excess, and the tendency there- 

 fore affords grounds for hope. From these indications 

 all that can be infilled is that a large excess or 

 defect in the total monsoon rainfall of India is un- 

 likely. 



Tin- electron theory makes the dielectric constant I; 

 i>f an electrical insulator varj so thai (k 11 {k 1-2) is 

 proportional to the density. Temperature, therefore, 

 which has little effeel on the density, should have 

 little mi the dielectric constant. Measurement has 

 shown, on the other hand, that the effect of tempera- 

 ture on the constant is eonsii.ler.able, and Prof. Debye, 

 of Zurich, recently suggested that this effeel could be 

 explained by the presence of electrical doublets in the 

 dielectric so long as it is in the liquid stale. The 



I lui 1 ot the absolute temperature into the expression 



above should then be a linear function of the absolute 

 temperature. This Debye showed to be the case. In 

 the Verhandlungen of the German Physical Society 

 for June 30, Dr. Ratnowsky, of Zurich, shows that 

 the dielectric constant should in these circumstances 

 depend to a small extent on the electric field to which 

 the insulator is subjected. A series of measurements 

 by him on a solution of amyl alcohol in benzol made 

 bv the alternating-current bridge method has con- 

 firmed this deduction and gives the number of doublets 

 per cubic centimetre and their elei trical moment in 

 fair agreement with the values found by Debye. 



We have received vol. vi. of the Journal of the 

 Municipal School of Technology, Manchester, which 

 consists of a reprint of the scientific and technical 

 papers which have been communicated to societies 

 or published in the technical Press by members of 

 the staff or by students of the school during the year 

 1012. Nineteen such papers cover the 267 pages of 

 the journal, and deal with subjects like the investiga- 

 tion of the best form and speed for durability of 

 cutting tools, the forces which produce corrugation of 

 tram rails, the properties of porcelain insulators used 

 in high-tension electrical power transmission, the 

 influence of alkalis in the dyeing of cotton, the act ion 

 of metallic chlorides in sizing cotton yarn, (he action 

 oi light on colouring matters. We know of no other 

 technical school in this country which can show so 

 valuable a series of researches turned out in a single 

 year, and we wish the Manchester School every suc- 

 cess in its avowed intention, by offering " systematii 

 training in the principles of science and art as applied 

 to industry," of producing " men of character, wide 

 knowledge, and practical experience," and so foster- 

 ing industry. 



The Optical Convention held at South Kensington 

 on June 19-26 of last year was described in an article 

 published in the issue of Nature for June 27, mi: 



