January 2, 191 3] 



NATURE 



493 



but they increase in number with age; (2) they are 

 located in lines corresponding- roughly with the axes 

 of the heart muscle mesh ; (3) they are generally found 

 present in greatest abundance in hearts of raoid beat ; 

 and (4) they are also present in the striated muscle 

 of the media in the proximate (beating) end of the 

 pulmonary arteries ; for example, in those of the 

 mouse. 



We have received the report of the Bristol Museum 

 and Art Gallery Committee for the year ending Sep- 

 tember 30 last, and congratulate the committee and 

 the director on a year of steady progress in all depart- 

 ments. New cases have been provided for the birds, 

 reptiles, amphibians, and fishes, and these groups of 

 vertebrates have been completely re-arranged and 

 placed in their natural place relative to the collections 

 of invertebrates sfi well exhibited in the Dame Emily 

 Smyth room, opened last year. This work completes 

 the re-organisation of the zoological galleries, which 

 must now rank as some of the most attractive in the 

 provinces. A scheme for the reorganisation of the 

 geological and mineralogical collections has been pre- 

 pared, but cannot be carried out in its entirety until 

 new cases are provided. We hope that the appeal 

 made in this report will meet with an adequate 

 response, for the collections contain much valuable 

 material, e.g., the series of Coal Measure fossils from 

 the Bristol and Somerset coal beds, which, as pointed 

 out in this report, is most complete, and must, for 

 some time, remain unique owing to many of the mines 

 having been closed down since they were collected. 

 It is gratifying to note the increased use which has 

 been made of the museum by students and by teachers 

 and pupils of schools. The committee is alive to the 

 educational value of museums and art galleries, and it 

 is a pleasure to record the success which has attended 

 its efforts to make the institution a real educational 

 asset to the city. 



Dr. Felix Osw.ald recently presented to the Royal 

 Geographical Society an account of his journey last 

 winter from the Victoria Nyanza to the Kisii high- 

 lands. His pripiary object was to ascertain the 

 geological nature of the locality where Mr. D. B. 

 Pigott, shortly before his unfortunate death while 

 hunting, found a jaw-bone of Dinotherium. Dr. 

 Oswald, however, also investigated considerable areas 

 of unmapped country in the Kavirondo and Kisii dis- 

 tricts, and reconnoitred in the extensive tracts left 

 uninhabited through the ravages of sleeping-sickness. 

 He has also carefully studied the natives of the countrv 

 east of the Victoria Nyanza, and made many references 

 to the beautiful flora of the region. He drew a com- 

 parison between the successful ruling of this large and 

 recently hostile country by a handful of Englishmen 

 with the domination of the Romans in Britain, and 

 described with welcome appreciation tlie wav in which 

 the land is governed by the district commissioner, two 

 officers and a doctor, living at Kisii, which was chosen 

 as the administrative centre as being outside the range 

 of the tsetse-fly. Dr. Oswald has brought back col- 

 lections of fossils. Neolithic implements, insects, shells, 

 and certain plants, besides geological and topographical 

 NO. 2253, VOL. 90] 



maps, and photographs — all as the result of only two 

 months' work in the field. 



If from the vertices of a triangle perpendiculars 

 be drawn on a straight line, and if from their feet 

 perpendiculars be drawn on the opposite sides, these 

 perpendiculars meet in a point called the orthopole. 

 Mr. W. Gallatly has published a short pamphlet on 

 the properties of the orthopole, based partly on Prof. 

 Neuberg's work and partly on his own. His address 

 is 5 Hampton Place, St. Marychurch, Torquay. 



Messrs. B. G. Teubner, of Leipzig, have forwarded 

 their new catalogue of works on mathematics and 

 natural philosophy, comprising books issued by them 

 in these departments between .'^pril, 1908, and July, 

 19 12. The catalogue is beautifully got up, and con- 

 tains portraits of Leonard Euler as well as of the 

 principal contributors to the Mathematical Encyclo- 

 paedia and other publications. 



The use of algebraic formulce for indicating the 

 prices of goods in an actual price list appears to be 

 somewhat of an innovation, but it has been introduced 

 into the new catalogue of spectroscopic apparatus 

 issued by Messrs. .^dam Hilger, Ltd., of 75 a 

 Camden Road. .\ feature of greater importance is 

 the excellence of the descriptions and illustrations of 

 the apparatus with which the catalogue deals. 



Supplement No. 25, vol. xi., of the Communications 

 from the Physical Laboratory at Leyden (this supple- 

 ment being a reprint of article V. 10 of the Encyklo- 

 pddie der Mathematischen Wisscnschaften), by Prof. 

 H. Kamerlingh Onnes and Dr. W. H. Keesom, con- 

 sists of a most elaborate and extensive monograph on 

 the equation of state. Together with its exhaustive 

 references to the original literature, its table of con- 

 tents and its author and subject indexes, this mono- 

 graph forms a most valuable addition to science, 

 and will be heartily welcomed by all workers in 

 physics and physical chemistry. Prof. Kamerlingh 

 Onnes is the recognised authority in this field of 

 investigation, a position which he has won by thirty 

 years of continuous and systematic theoretical and 

 experimental work. It would be natural, therefore, 

 to expect that this volume (extending to nearly 

 350 pages) would contain a masterly treatment of 

 the subject, and it may be said at once that an 

 e.xamination of its contents more than justifies the 

 expectation. The subject is discussed from every 

 possible aspect, and includes a very full treatment of 

 the theoretical as well as the experimental side of the 

 problem. For many years to come the present mono- 

 graph will be an indispensable work of reference for 

 every physicist and chemist. We have also received 

 Communications Nos. 127, 130, and Supplement 

 No. 25 to Communications Nos. 121-132. These deal 

 with researches on the isotherms of diatomic gases 

 and their binary mixtures, on the second virial 

 coefficient for diatomic gases, and on the Hall effect 

 and changes in resistance in metals and alloys at 

 low temperatures. 



Ay article on "The Essential Oils," including an 

 account of the materials and methods of perfumery. 



