l62 



NA TURE 



[December 9, 1909 



lectures on Assyriology ; Prof. F. W. Mott, six lectures on 

 the emotions and their expression ; Prof. Silvanus P. 

 Thompson, three lectures on illumination, natural and 

 artificial; .Sir J. J. Thomson, six lectures on electric waves 

 and the electromagnetic theory of light. The Friday even- 

 ing meetings will commence on January 21, when Sir 

 James Dewar will deliver a discourse on light reactions at 

 low temperatures. Succeeding discourses will probably be 

 given by the Rev. Canon Beeching, Prof. W. Bateson, Mr. 

 C. E. S. Phillips, Prof. H. H. Turner, Lord Rayleigh, 

 Dr. C. Chree, Dr. H. Brereton Baker, Sir J. J. Thomson, 

 and other gentlemen. 



The death is announced of Dr. T. Nishikawa, of Tokvo, 

 for a number of years an associate of Dr. Kishinouyfi in 

 the Imperial Fisheries Bureau in Tokyo, and later a special 

 investigator of pearls. Writing in Science, Prof. Bashford 

 Dean says that Dr. Nishikawa was distinguished as the 

 discoverer of a process by which the pearl oyster may be 

 caused to secrete spherical pearls. Before this only hemi- 

 spherical pearls had been produced, in spite of centuries 

 of experimentation, especially in the Orient. Dr. Nishi- 

 kawa devoted nearly ten years to his studies on producing 

 pearls, and achieved success only in the days of his final 

 illness. In his memory, and in token of the importance 

 of his discovery, a number of his living pearl oysters were 

 taken to the University of Tokyo on the occasion of the 

 late graduatidn ceremony ; they were opened in the presence 

 of the Emperor, and Prof. lijima demonstrated that their 

 mantles had secreted spherical pearls. The publications of 

 Dr. Nishikawa include important contributions to our 

 knowledge of Japanese fishes, structural, systematic, and 

 embryological. Especially to be recalled is his pioneer 

 paper on the development of the remarkable frilled shark, 

 Chlatnydoselachus anguineus. 



The Dick Institute, Kilmarnock, a gift to his native 

 town from the late James Dick, of the Greenhead Gutta- 

 percha Works, Glasgow, was destroyed by fire on the even- 

 ing of November 26. The building, which cost about 

 15,000/., consisted of a public library and museum. The 

 latter contained the very valuable collection of Carbon- 

 iferous fossils which belonged to the late James Thomson, 

 of Glasgow ; a splendid collection of Silurians, antiquities, 

 &c., presented by the late Dr. Hunter-Selkirk, of Braid- 

 wood, Lanarkshire ; and a very handsome collection of 

 native birds presented by the Kilmarnock Glenfield 

 Ramblers' Society, together with numerous other articles of 

 great scientific value. Mr. H. Y. Simpson, librarian of the 

 institute, informs us that the whole of these have been 

 destroyed by the fire, and the loss is looked upon as irrepar- 

 able, particularly so in the case of the Thomson collection of 

 corals and reptiles, many of which were type-specimens, 

 and therefore regarded by geologists as quite of incalculable 

 value. 



The annual general meeting of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society of England was held on December 8, when various 

 reports, including that of the council, were considered. 

 The council's report shows that the total number of 

 governors and members on the register is 9920. The 

 show of igio will take place in Liverpool on the Waver- 

 tree Playground from June 21-25. We notice that prizes 

 to the value of 450/. are offered for the best managed 

 farms in four classes, duly specified in the report, the 

 competition being confined to tenant farmers resident in 

 Lancashire and Cheshire. The society is also offering a 

 gold medal for the best agricultural motor. A pleasing 

 increase in the number of samples analysed in the society's 

 laboratory is recorded, the number for the last twelve- 

 KO. 2093, VOL. 82] 



months being 475, as against 410 in 1908. The work at 

 the Woburn E.xperimental Farm and Pot-culture Station 

 has progressed well. The field experiments have included 

 an e.xtensive series on the relative value of the new nitro- 

 genous manures, calcium cyanamide and calcium nitrate, in 

 comparison with ammonium sulphate and sodium nitrate ; 

 also a further trial has been given to " nitro-bacterine " 

 and other methods for inoculating leguminous and other 

 crops, and the experiments with magnesia on different 

 field crops have been carried a stage further. Satisfactory 

 work is reported also in the botanical and zoological 

 departments. 



.^N article upon " The Danger of the Comet," con- 

 tributed to the December number of Pearson's Magazine 

 by Mr. E. C. Andrews, contains some interesting par- 

 ticulars — popularly expressed — relating to Halley's and 

 other comets, and an imaginative description of the con- 

 sequences of a collision between the earth and a comet. 

 As nothing is definitely known about the size of the 

 meteorites which probably form a comet's head, the result 

 of the earth passing through the head is problematical. 

 If the head is merely a condensed swarm of cosmic dust 

 particles, there would be a fine shower of shooting-stars, 

 but if the meteorites in it weigh tons instead of grains or 

 ounces, the consequences of a collision with it would, of 

 course, be serious. The tail of a comet is, however, so 

 extremely attenuated in its nature that even if it consists 

 of poisonous gases our atmosphere is not likely to be 

 appreciably affected by it. To describe the tail, as Mr. 

 Andrews does, as a " dense stream of fiery fragments " is, 

 to say the least, misleading. No comet has a mass which 

 is as much as the hundred-thousandth part of the earth's 

 mass ; in other words, the total mass of any comet is less 

 than that of a ball of iron 150 miles in diameter. The 

 fall of a comet into the sun would, therefore, not produce 

 more heat than the sun radiates in eight or nine hours. 

 As Prof. C. A. Young remarked, when referring to the 

 possibility of this event, " there might, and very likely 

 would, be a flash of some kind at the solar surface as the 

 showet of cometary particles struck it, but probably nothing 

 that the astronomers would not take delight in watching." 

 It is desirable to remember facts like these when specu- 

 lating upon the subject of danger from comets. 



The report of the committee of the Warrington Museum 

 for the year ending at Midsummer last records the addi- 

 tions to the collection during the year. The curator ought 

 to be aware that Vespertilio atiritus is not the proper 

 designation for the long-eared bat. 



In a paper published in the Boletin dc la Instniccidn 

 Publica, Buenos Aires, Mr. R. Sinet gives an illustrated 

 summary of Dr. Ameghino's views with regard to the 

 pedigree of the human species, especially dwelling on the 

 supposed evidence of the evolution having taken place from 

 marsupial-like ancestors in South America itself. 



In vol. xl., part i., of the Comptes rendus de la Sociiti 

 ImpMale des Naturalistes de St. Fetersboiirg, Mr. G. 

 Nilus describes two polyzoans, Loxosoma murmanica and 

 L. brumpti, collected in Kola Fjord, on the Murman coast, 

 where they occurred in great profusion, accompanied bv 

 other polyzoans and the gephyrean FhasioUon spitz- 

 bergense. 



The first two articles in the January-June issue of the 

 Sitzungsbertchte uiid Abbandlimgen of the Dresden Insti- 

 tute are devoted to subjects connected with Darwinism 

 and Darwin, Dr. E. Kalkowsky dealing in the former with 

 the geological foundation of the doctrine of evolution, while 



