6io 



NA TURE 



[October 19, 1905 



teria or spores not undergoing actual development are 

 totally without action on a solution of the tellurite. The 

 test seems to be especially useful for ensuring sterility in 

 the case of liquids or therapeutic sera destined for hypo- 

 dermic injection. 



TiiF. many thermoelectric methods which have been 

 devised during the past few years for the measurement of 

 very high and of very low temperatures have proved them- 

 selves of a wide and general utility. But hitherto no 

 instrument of a similar type has been made available for 

 the accurate measurement of temperatures between o° C. 

 and 200° C. In the Physical Review (vol. xxi. p. 65) Mr. 

 A. de Forest Palmer describes a thermojunction consisting 

 of a soft iron wire in conjunction with an " advance " 

 wire containing copper, niclcel, and iron, by means of 

 which temperatures within the extremes named may be 

 determined with an error not exceeding 004 per cent. 

 Such an instrument is easily calibrated, and in certain 

 circumstances can profitably replace a mercury thermo- 

 meter of a corresponding degree of accuracy. 



Lc Radium for September (26 annfe, No. 9) contains 

 articles on the influence of the connections on the action 

 of vacuum tubes, by M. Charbonneau, on the treatment 

 of cancer with radium, by M. Darier, and a summary of 

 current work connected w'ith radio-activity. 



The Journal of the Royal Sanitary Institute for October 

 (xxvi.. No. 9) contains articles on the administration of 

 the Food and Drugs Act, by Mr. Wellesley Harris, on the 

 waste of infant life, by Dr. Nash, on hygiene in education, 

 by Mr. White Wallis, and notes on common parasites found 

 in bodies of animals used for food, by Mr. King. 



We have received " Contributions from the Research 

 Laboratory and Sewage Experimental Station," Massa- 

 chusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, vol. i., 1905. It 

 contains several valuable papers, e.g. the mode of action 

 of the contact filter in sewage purification, by Messrs. 

 Phelps and Farrell, determination of organic nitrogen in 

 sewage by the Kjeldahl process, by Mr. Phelps, a study of 

 the methods in current use for the determination of free 

 and albumenoid ammonia in sewage, by Mr. Phelps, and 

 determination of the number of bacteria in sewage, &c., 

 Ijy Mr. Winslow. 



Messrs. F. Vieweg .\nd Son, Brunswick, have published 

 a fourth edition of " Hauptsiitze der Differential- und 

 Integral-rechnung," by Prof. R. Fricke. 



Mr. W. B. Clive has published a third edition of Dr. 

 G. H. Bailey's " Second Stage Inorganic Chemistry 

 (Theoretical)." This edition has been re-written and 

 enlarged. 



The third, revised edition of " Leitfaden fur das zoo- 

 logische Praktikum," by Prof. W. Kiikenthal, has been 

 published by Mr. Gustav Fischer, Jena. The second 

 edition of this work was reviewed in N.\tlre of April 24, 

 1002 (vol. Ixv. p. 581). 



The first part of a work on " Die atherischen Ole," by 

 Dr. F. W. Semmler, has just been received from the pub- 

 lishers, Messrs. \'eit and Co., Leipzig. It is proposed to 

 issue the work in twelve parts which will make up three 

 volumes, to bo completed during next vear. The work 

 will be noticed when the whole of tlie parts have been 

 received. 



A THIRD edition of Mr. Tyson Sewell's " Elements of 

 Electrical Engineering " has been published by Messrs. 

 Crosby Lockwood and Son. The book was reviewed in 

 NO. 1877, VOL. 72I 



Nature of November 20, 1902 (vol. Ixvii. p. 53), and it is 

 only necessary to mention that more examples have been 

 added to the appendix, and that particulars of the 

 " Wright " and other electrolytic meters have been 

 inserted. 



A SECOND edition of Mr. J. W. Russell's " Elementary 

 Treatise on Pure Geometry " has been published by the 

 Clarendon Press. The first edition of the book was noticed 

 in our issue of June i, 1S93 (vol. xlviii. p. loi). Besides 

 numerous small improvements throughout, other changes 

 have been made in the revised edition, and among these 

 may be mentioned the re-arrangement of the examples and 

 the omission of redundant ones. Each chapter has been 

 made independent of following chapters ; more use has 

 been made of projection in proofs of theorems, and corre- 

 lative theorems have been proved by reciprocation. .An 

 index has been added. 



Messrs. Flatters and Garnett, Ltd., Deansgate, Man- 

 chester, have sent us a specimen of new storage cabinets 

 made by them for lantern slides. Each drawer of the 

 cabinet will hold 100 slides in five divisions, and is fitted 

 with brass handle and space for movable card label. 

 Single drawers are supplied, and cabinets are made with 

 four, six, twelve, and twenty-four drawers. There are no 

 grooves in the drawers, but the top edges are cut down a 

 little, so that the slides rise above the edges and can 

 readily be lifted out. The cabinets provide a convenient 

 and neat means of storing lantern slides. A despatch box 

 also submitted by Messrs. Flatters and Garnett is fitted 

 at each end with a strip of brass which clasps the cover 

 when the slides are in transit, and can be swung off 

 immediately the slides are required. This box has the 

 usual rubber packing to prevent shock and breakage. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



.Another Large Sl'x-spot. — .Another large group of sun- 

 spots, the fourth or fifth this year to be visible to the pro- 

 tected naked-eye, is now to be seen on the solar disc not 

 very far from the centre. The group, which consists of 

 a large number of separate small nuclei, is, roughly, 

 100,000 miles across its longest diameter, and was first 

 seen coming round the limb on Saturday, October 14. 



M. Bigovrdan's Eclipse Results. — M. Bigourdan, who 

 was placed in charge of the Bureau des Longitudes ex- 

 pedition to Sfax (Tunis) to observe the recent total eclipse 

 of the sun, communicated the preliminary results of his 

 observations to a meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences 

 held on October 2. The greater part of his communication 

 consisted of descriptions of the instruments employed and 

 the conditions they were employed under. 



A coronagraph, designed to take numerous large-scale 

 photographs, in order to show the relation between the 

 details of the inner corona and those on the corresponding 

 regions of the solar disc, became deranged after the second 

 plate was exposed, but the two plates obtained show 

 numerous details of the inner corona. In a second corona- 

 graph, of 0-95 m. focal length and 015 m. aperture, a 

 green glass screen, transmitting only those wave-lengths 

 near to \ 530, was placed in front of the plate, and the 

 exposure made to last throughout totality. The negative 

 obtained shows the corona extending for about 30' from 

 the moon's limb. 



Two spectroscopes having slits much longer than the 

 diameter of the solar image were employed, the slits being 

 so arranged that the spectrum of the coronal radiations at 

 points situated at the ends of the sun's axis and equator 

 respectively might be photographed. Photometric observ- 

 ations of the corona, both visual and photographic, were 

 also m.ade. 



Observations of the terrestrial magnetic elements showed 

 that the variations caused by the interposition of the moon 

 were but small. The shadow bands formed a very striking 



