Jidy^, 1880] 



NATURE 



219 



which Mr. Preston calls in question, it would be manifestly 

 illogical on his premisses for Mr. Creoles to regard the isolated 

 molecule as a solid, even though, according to Mr. Preston, it 

 may poss-ibly possess certain properties in common with what \\e 

 call solids, for solidity, according to Mr. Crookes, being "merely 

 the effect on our senses of ihe motion of the discrete molecules 

 among themselves," it would be exceedingly arbitrary to ascribe 

 to the molecules themselves a quality which, as we commonly 

 know it, is simply an effect of their motion. We might just as 

 well identify a geis with pressicre. 

 July 3 E. Douglas Archikald 



Minerva Ornaments 



I NOTICE that a correspondent writing from America expresses 

 his scepticism as to the figural character of certain stone objects 

 in Dr. Schliemann's collection at South Ken-'ington. Judging 

 from the analogy of similar objects found in America, he pro- 

 nounces them to be "net-sinl<ers '' and not idols. Whatever, 

 however, may be the nature of the American objects, I think 

 there can be but little doubt that Dr. Schliemann is right in 

 considering the objects discovered by him at Hissarlik to be rude 

 representations of a deity. At first sight they certainly have but 

 little resemblance to anything of the sort, but a careful examina- 

 tion shows that several are marked with the rude delineation of 

 a human face — or, as Dr. Schliemann believes, of an owl's face 

 — as well as of a triple necklace, and srmetimes also the charac- 

 teristics of a woman. Occasionally the hair is represented on 

 the back of the head by straight lines. The delineation is some- 

 times incised, sometimes painted, though the paint is mostly 

 worn off. As the marked objects are of the same shape as the 

 unmarked ones, we can have no hesitation in inferring that both 

 were intended for the same purpose. A. W. Sayce 



July 4 



Arthur Young's Travels in France 



A FEW months ago my friend Mr. F. F. Tuckett, of Bristol) 

 drew my attention to a passage in Arthur Young's Travels in 

 France, published in 1792, narrating a vi>it to Lavoisier and to 

 a certain M. Lomond, the inventor of an, electric telegraph, 

 which in some points anticipated that of Ronalds. The mention 

 of Lomond's name in a historical list of telegraphic inventors 

 recently publi.'hed by ycur contemporary, \}m Scientific American, 

 induces me to send you the inclosed extract as likely to be of 

 interest to the readers of Nature. S. P. Thompson 



Univ. Coll., Bristol, June 18 



"The l6th. — To M. Lavoisier by appointment. Madame 

 Lavoisier, a lively, sensible, scientific lady, had prepared a 

 aejeuni Avglois of tea and coffee, but her conversation on Mr, 

 Kirwan's Essay on Phlogiston, which she is translating from 

 the English, and on other subjects which a woman of under- 

 standing, that works with her husband in his laboratory, knows 

 how to adorn, was the best repast. That apartment, the opera- 

 tions of which have been rendered so interesting to the philo- 

 sophical world, I had pleasure in viewing. In the apparatus 

 for aerial experiments nothing makes so great a figure as the 

 machine for burning inflammable and vital air, to make or 

 deposit water ; it is a splendid machine. 



" Three vessels are held in suspension wiih indexes for marking 

 the immediate variations of their w eights ; two, that are as large 

 as half-hogsheads, contain the one inflammable, the other the 

 vital air, and a tube of communication passes to the third, where 

 the two airs unite and burn ; by contrivances, too complex to 

 describe w ithout plates, the loss of weight of the two ains, as 

 indicated by their i-espective balances, equal at every moment to 

 the gain in the third vessel from the formation or deposition of 

 water, it not being yet ascertained whether the water be actually 

 made or deposited. If accurate (of which I must confess I have 

 little conception) it is a noble machine. Mons. Lavoisier, when 

 the structure of it was commenced, said, 'Mais oui, monsieur, et 

 meire par un artiste Fran9ois ! ' with an accent of voice that 

 admitted their general inferiority to curs. It is v\ ell known that 

 we have a cr nsiderable exportation of mathematical and other 

 carious instruments to every part of Europe, and to France 

 among the rest. Nor is this new, for the apparatus with which 

 the I rench Academicians measured a degree in the polar circle n as 

 made by Mr. George Graham. Another engine Mons. Lavoisier 

 showed us was an electrical apparatus inclosed in a balloon, for 



trying electrical experiments in any sort of air. Ilis pond of 

 quicksilver is considerable, containing 250 lbs., and his water 

 apparatus is great, but his furnace did not seem so well calculated 

 for the higher degrees of heat as some others I have seen. I was 

 glad to find this gentleman splendidly lodged and with every 

 appearance of a man of considerable fortune. This ever gives 

 one pleasure : the employments of a state can never be in better 

 hands than of men w ho thus apply the superfluity of their wealth. 

 From the use that is generally made of money, one would think 

 it the assistance of all others of the least consequence in affecting 

 any business truly useful to mankind, many of the great dis- 

 coveries that have enlarged the hririzon of science having been 

 in this respect the result of means seemingly inadequate to the 

 end : the energetic exertions of ardent minds, bursting from 

 obscurity, and breaking the bonds inflicted by poverty, perhaps 

 by distress. 



"To the 'Hotel des Invalids,' the major of which establish- 

 ment had the goodness to show the whole of it. In the evening 

 to Mons. Lomond, a very ingenious and inventive mechanic, 

 who has made an improvement of the jenny for spinning cotton. 

 Common machines are said to make too hard a thread for certain 

 fabrics, but this forms it loose and spongy. 



" In electricity he has made a remarkable discovery : you write 

 two or three words on a pa)-er, he takes it into a room and turns 

 a machine inclosed in a cylindrical cae, at the top of which is 

 an electrometer, a fine small pith ball ; a wire connects with a 

 similar cylinder and electrometer in a distant apartment ; and 

 his wife, by remarking the corresponding motions of the ball, 

 writes down the words they indicate : from « hich it appears he 

 has found an alphabet of motions. As the length of the wire 

 makes no difference in the effect, a correspondence might be 

 carried on at a distance — within and without a besieged town,- 

 for instance, or for a purpose much more worthy, and a thousand 

 times more harmless, between two lovers prohibited or prevented- 

 from any better connection. 



' ' Whatever the use may be, the invention is beautiful. Mons. 

 Lomond has many other curious macl-ines, all the entire work of 

 his own hands. Mechanical invention seems to be in him a 

 natural propensity." ("Travels during the Years 17S7, 1788, 

 and 17S9," by Artiur Ycun?, Esq., F.R.S. Vol. i. p. 64.) 



" Saxifraga umbrosa " adorned with Brilliant Colours by 

 the Selection of Syrphidae 



Among Diptera the most assiduous visitors of flowers are 

 certain Syrphidce, which, elegantly coloured themselves, are 

 fond of splendid flower-colours, and, before eating pollen or 

 sucking nectar, like to stop a while, hovering free in the air, in 

 front of their favourites, apparently fascinated, or at least de- 

 lighted, by the brilliancy of their colours. Thus I repeatedly 

 observed Syrpluis baltcatiis hovering before the flowers of 

 Verbascuiii nigrum, often Melanostoma niel'inei, and Ascia 

 podagrica before Veronica chamivdrys ; in the Alps the lank 

 Sphegina chmipcs before Saxifraga rotundifolia, and in my 

 garden Ascia podagrica before Saxifraga umbrosa. 



Of Verbisciim nigrum the main fertilisers are humble-bees, 

 Diptera cooperating orly in a subordinate degree ; in the case 

 of the three other species, on the contrary, the above-named 

 Syrphidje are such frequent visitors and cross-fertilisers that we 

 may safely conclude that it is by their selection of elegantly- 

 coloured varieties that these flowers have acquired their beautiful 

 peculiarity. Hence, in order to estimate the colour-sense of 

 these t'yrphidce, it is worth while to consider what colour-com- 

 binations they have been able to produce by their selection. 



Saxifraga umbrosa being, as far as hitherto known, their 

 finest masterpiece, we may in the first place look at the varie- 

 gated decoration of this species. Its snow-white petals are 

 adorned with coloured spots, which in size and intensity of light 

 gradually decrease from the base of the petals towards their 

 extremity. Indeed, nearest to their base, within the first third 

 of their length, there is a large irregular spot of an intense yellow ; 

 about the middle of their length there follows a narrower cross 

 band of red colour, vermilion towards the base, intensely pink 

 towMrds the outside, not reaching the margins of the petals, 

 sometimes dissolved into several separate spots; lastly, beyond 

 the middle of the length of the peLils there are three to eight 

 smaller roundish spots of a paler violet-pink colour. 



The flowers of I'eronica chama-drys prove that also gay blue 

 colours are perceived and selec'ed by Ascia. 



Lippstadt, Germany Hermann Muller 



