Nov. 1 8, iSSoj 



NATURE 



57 



ordinary nervous concentration of attention common to the 

 Felidx before " pouncing." He speaks of larks being attracted 

 in the South of France by means of an octagonal box holding a 

 mirror mounted on a pivot which is turned by the wind. The 

 reflected rays of sunlight dazzle and delight the birds, and they 

 approach near enough to be caught by a spring net. The preli- 

 minary phase, that of attention, wherein curiosity perhaps pre- 

 dominates, is illustrated in the known trick of a fox amusing 

 ducks by rolling itself down a bank, as also in the perilous 

 interest excited in a loon by a handkerchief waved by an unseen 

 hand. Many must have experienced, on looking over very high 

 galleries upon floors beneath, or over sheer precipices, an almost 

 uncontrollable impulse to throw themselves headlong down. 

 C"au this feeling be described as akin to ' ' fascination " ? 



L. P. Gr.\tacap 

 Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., N. Y., October 28 



A. Percy Smith. — The little centipede is Gcophiliis ekclricus, 

 well known to be occasionally luminous. 



HOMAGE TO MR. DARWIN 



ON Wednesday, November 3, a deputation from the 

 Yorkshire Naturalists' Union waited upon Mr. 

 Daruin at his residence, Down, Beckenhain, Kent, for 

 the purpose of presenting him with an address expressive 

 of admiration for his long devotion to scientific research, 

 and appreciation of the great and important results to which 

 his investigations have led. Prof. Williamson, F.R.S., of 

 the Owens College, Manchester, who is the president of 

 the Union for the current year, was prevented from accom- 

 panying the deputation by the pressure of his professorial 

 duties. The deputation arrived at Mr. Darwin's residence 

 about I p.m., and was received in a most hearty manner 

 by the great naturalist himself, Mrs. Darwin, and other 

 members of the family. The members of the deputation 

 were introduced individually to Mr. Darwin by Dr. Sorby, 

 vice-president of the Union, and then the interesting 

 ceremony of the presentation of the address was at once 

 proceeded with. After a few words on the work of the 

 Union by Dr. Sorby, the address was read by Mr. Thomas 

 Hick, B.A., B.Sc, and formally presented to Mr. Darwin 

 by Dr. Sorby. Replying to the address, ^Ir. Darwin 

 assured the deputation of his deep sense of the honour 

 the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union had conferred upon 

 him on that occasion, and only regretted that he had not 

 done something more deserving of such an honour. He 

 had no idea previously that there was so strong a body 

 of working naturalists in Yorkshire, but was pleased to 

 learn that such was the fact, and to find from the Trans- 

 actions that had been forwarded to him that they were 

 doing useful work. Coming from such a body, the 

 address was all the more gratif>ing to him, though he 

 still feared he hardly merited the good things that had 

 been said of him. The address which had been pre- 

 sented to him he and his family would for ever treasure 

 and preserve, and he desired to express his warmest 

 thanks, both to the deputation and those whom they re- 

 presented, for it, and for the kind and considerate manner 

 in which everything connected with it had been arranged. 

 Subsequently the deputation were entertained at luncheon, 

 and having spent a short time in familiar conversation 

 with their hospitable host and his family, took their 

 departure amid mutual expressions of kindness and 

 regard. 



The following is the text of the Address, which is dated 

 August last : — 



To Charles Darn'in, LL.D., M.A., F.li.S. e-v., C^c. 

 Sir, — The Council and Members of the Yorkshire Naturalists' 

 Union, all of whom, w ith scarcely an ex ;eplion, are working 

 students of one or more of the various branches of natural history, 

 desire to express to you in a mo;t respectful manner, and yet 

 with the greatest cordiality, their admiration of your life-long 

 devotion to original scientific research and their high appreciation 

 of the almost unparalleled success of the investigations by Mhich 



you have contributed so largely to the modern development and 

 progress of biological science. 



More especially do they desire to congratulate you on the fact 

 that your great work on the Origin of Species will come of age 

 at an early date, and that your life has been spared long 

 enough to enable you to see the leading principles therein 

 enunciated accepted by most of the eminent naturaHsts of the 

 day. On the conspicuous merits of that and of your other pub- 

 lished works they need not dwell, as those merits have been 

 recognised and admitted even by those who have dissented most 

 strongly from the conclusions at which you have arrived. They 

 may nevertheless be permitted to remind you that your writings 

 have been instrtimental in giving an impetus to biological and 

 pala:ontological inquiries which has no precedent in the history 

 of science, except perhaps in that which followed the promulga- 

 tion of the gravitation theory of Newton, and that which was due 

 to the discovery of the circulation of the blood by Harvey. 



One of the most important results of your long-continued 

 labours, and one for which you will be remembered with honour 

 and reverence as long as the human intellect exerts itself in 

 the pursuit of natural knowledge, is the scientific basis you have 

 given to the grand Doctrine of Evolution. Other naturalists, as 

 you yourself have shown, had endeavoured to unravel the ques- 

 tions that had arisen respecting the origin, classification, and dis- 

 tribution of organic beings, and had even obtained faint glimpses 

 of the transformation of specific forms. But it was left to you 

 to show, almost to demonstration, that the variations which 

 species of plants and animals exhibit, and in natural selection 

 through the struggle for existence, we have causes at once 

 natural, universal, and effective which of themselves are com- 

 petent not only to explain the existence of the present races of 

 living beings, but also to connect with them, and with one 

 another, the long array of extinct forms with which the 

 palceontologist has made us familiar. 



Farther, the Yorkshire Naturalists are anxious to place on 

 record their firm conviction that in the care, the patience, and 

 the scrupulous conscientiousness with which all your researches 

 have been conducted ; in the ingenuity of the experiments you 

 have devised ; and in the repeated verifications to which your 

 results have been submitted by your own hands, you have 

 furnished an example of the true method of biological inquiry 

 that succeeding generations will deem it an honour to follow, 

 and that cannot but lead to still further conquests in the domain 

 of organic nature. 



In presenting this small tribute of their high regard and 

 esteem, the members of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union cannot 

 but hope and pray that many years of happiness and usefulness 

 may yet remain to you, and that our Science and Literature may 

 be still further enriched w ith the results of yoiu' researches. 



(Signed) \Villi.\m C. Williamson, F.R.S., President, 

 H. C. SoRBY, LL.D., F.R.S., Vice-President, 

 George Brook, ter. F.L.S., Secretary, 

 Wm. Den ISDN Roeisuck, Secretary, 

 and Eleven other representative Ofiicials. 



THE ATOMIC WEIGHT OF BERYLLIUM 



FOR some time chemists have been doubtful what 

 value to assign to the atomic weight of beryllium. 

 Some years ago Prof. Emmerson Reynolds determined 

 the specific heat of this metal to be o'642 ; this number 

 multiplied into 9' l gave 5 8 as the atomic heat of beryllium; 

 in other words it confirmed the generally accepted atomic 

 weight. In 1S78 Nilson and Pettersson re-determined the 

 specific heat of beryllium, and found the number o'4o8 

 for the temperature interval o'''-ioo°; hence these chemists 

 concluded that the atomic weight of the metal must be 

 increased by one-half ( 13'6 X 0-408 = 5-6). If Be = g'l 

 the oxide of beryllium is BeO, and the metal is placed in 

 the magnesium group; but if Be = i3'6 the oxide is 

 Be.,03, and the metal is placed in the aluminium group. 

 But there is no place in Mcndelejeff's classification of the 

 elements according to the magnitude of their atomic 

 weights for a metal with the atomic weight 136, forming 

 an oxide MoC»3, and exhibiting the properties of beryllium. 

 The value of Mcndelejeff's classification is however so 

 great that chemists were not inclined to alter the atomic 

 v.eight of beryllium except upon most cogent evidence. 



