Feb. 24, 1 881] 



NA TURE 



383 



may signalise those of the stomach and those of the 

 kidney — the structure of the last-named organ being 

 illustrated with particular minuteness. One is glad to 

 think that one's examinations are over on finding that 

 there are now no less than sixteen several named parts to 

 be remembered in describing the course of a uriniferous 

 tubule ! 



We have hitherto been writing as if the book before us 

 were an Atlas of Plates and their description, and nothing 

 more. This is emphatically not the case however, for the 

 plates are accompanied by a text written by Dr. Klein, 

 which forms a complete and independent compendium 

 of the present state of histology, giving in plain terms 

 and as briefly as is consistent with clearness, an account 

 of the minute structure of each tissue and organ. In this 

 account credit is given wherever possible to those to 

 whom the discovery of new facts is due, but it is, we 

 think, to be regretted that the references to the works in 

 which the facts were published has not been added ; such 

 a notice of the literature of each subject would have been 

 of much value. 



At the end of the book a description of the appearances 

 which are presented by nuclei in process of division will 

 be found, embodying the results of the recent researches 

 of Strasburger, Flemming, Mayzel, Klein, and others , 

 results which have not unnaturally created a feeling of 

 wonderment that in objects which have long engaged the 

 special attention of histologists, changes of so marked a 

 character should occur, and until now have wholly escaped 

 observation. 



\Vc see that endothelium is still described as a tissue 

 distinct from and indeed in contradistinction to epithe- 

 lium, but it seems to be upon its last legs, for it now has 

 to depend for existence upon a negative definition, and 

 no longer presumes to base its claims to the place upon 

 its developmental history. 



There is a general tendency throughout the te.xt to 

 teach the subject somewhat dogmatically, and this, with 

 the absence of detailed reference to literature, detracts 

 from its value as a work of reference, while perhaps 

 increasing its value as a text-book for students. Taking 

 the work however as a whole it is not too much to say 

 that it is in every way worthy of the high reputation of its 

 principal author, and that its appearance, supplying as it 

 does a want that has been long felt, will be welcomed by 

 histologists both at home and abroad. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Urania : an International Journal of Astronomy . Edited 

 by Ralph Copeland, Ph.U., and J. L. E. Dreyer, M.A. 

 The first number of what is intended to be a high-class 

 astronomical periodical, with the above title, has just 

 appeared, and forms twenty-four pages demy quarto. It 

 is proposed to issue it in numbers of from sixteen to 

 twenty-four pages, whenever sufficient material offers, 

 with shorter numbers when subjects of immediate interest 

 require it. Papers will be accepted and printed in French, 

 German, and Italian. This first number is well supported. 

 It contains an article on the solution of Lambert's equa- 

 tion by Prof. Klinkerfues, and auxiliary tables for the 

 calculation of occultations of stars by the moon, by Dr. 

 C. Borgen. The Earl of Crawford and Balcaires con- 

 tributes observations of comets 18S0 /', c, and (/made at 

 Dunecht ; the Earl of Rosse has a paper on determina- 

 tions of lunar radiant heat during an eclipse ; and Dr. 



R. S. Ball communicates an investigation of the parallax 

 of the star Groombridge 1618, which is No. 89 in Arge- 

 lander's list of stars with large proper motions, the 

 observations having been made at Dunsink in 1S78-79 : 

 a parallax to the amount of a third of a second is indi- 

 cated by the measures both of distance and position, so 

 that, as Dr. Ball remarks, there is reason to consider 

 Groombridge 161S entitled to a place amongst the sun's 

 nearest neighbours. Dr. Copeland has a note upon a 

 nebula detected at Dunecht on the method of sweeping 

 suggested by Prof. Pickering of Harvard College, U.S., 

 which is termed "a new planetary nebula." The nebula 

 however is not new ; it was discovered several years since 

 by Mr. S. C. Burnhamwith a refractor of 6-inches aperture, 

 and was notified at the end of his third catalogue of new 

 double-stars : it is referred to also in the notes to his 

 observations of double-stars in 1S77-78, in \.\\fi Memoirs 

 of the Royal .Astronomical Society, vol. xliv. : he found 

 it to be double, the distance between the centres of the 

 two parts and a star of 9m. (which appears to be Durch. 

 + 47°, No. 3289), being 27"'3 at the epoch i878-47. The 

 double nucleus has also been remarked at Dunecht, and 

 the measures of position and distance made there have a 

 particular interest when compared with IVIr. Burnham's 

 in 1878 ; thus we have — 



Burnham, 1878-476 ... Position, SS'5 ... Distance, 2-57 

 Dunechi, 1880-913 ... ,, 7i-9 ... ,, Soo 



Such dift'erences surely indicate rapid motion. Dr. Cope- 

 land does not allude to the star of about ninth magnitude 

 distant less than half a minute of arc in 1878. This 

 journal may be obtained by applying to Mr. J. L. E. 

 Dreyer, (, bservatory, Dunsink, Co. Dublin. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondints. Neither can he undertake to return, or 

 to correspond with the writers of rejected manuscripts. No 

 notice is taken of anonymous communications. 

 The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 

 short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great that it 

 is impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 

 munications containing interesting and navel facts.l 



Infusible Ice 



Prof. Carnelley's directions inNA-ruRE, vol. xxiii. p. 341, 

 just received, ffr producing the hitherto fabulous commodity, 

 "hot ice," have succeeded so much beyond our expectations 

 for a first experiment in our College laboratory to-day, that 

 the ease and simple means with which the experiment was per- 

 formed, and the unaccountable and unaccustomed appearances 

 which it presented, recommend it very strongly, as Prof. Car- 

 nelley remarks in his paper, and as I hope that the following 

 description may also serve to prove, to other observers' trials 

 and repetitions. 



A 30 oz. flask of stout glass (made nearly as strong as the 

 Carre decanters, for vacuum experiments) was tightly fitted, by 

 forcing a two inch plug of large solid india-nibber tube placed 

 round a tube into its mouth and firmly fixing it there w-ith 

 wire, with a delivery-tube of three-eighths of an inch large glass 

 barometer-tube about two feet long. This tube was bent into 

 an S-shape, and at the extreme end of the small U-part, which 

 turned up, it was drawn out to a nearly capillary neck and bent 

 over to communicate by india-rubber tubing through "another 

 i-imilar fla-k surrounded by cold water to act as a condenser, 

 with a Sw an's aspirator giving a vacuum of twenty-eight inches 

 by the action of the town water-supply. About 15 oz. of dis- 

 tilled water previously introduced was now boiled in the flask 

 in vacuo, and distilled over, at a very gentle heat, into the 

 second flask. After two or three hours' boiling the quantity of 

 water in the flask was reduced to about 3 oz., ard the capillary 

 end of the tube w-as then sealed with a blowpipe. The flask thus 

 exhausted makes an excellent water hammer and cryophorus, 

 ringing with «harp raps when the water is shaken to and fro in 

 it or in its tube. The least warmth of the flask, or cold applied 

 to the U-part of the tube, suflices to collect there, by distillation, 

 a quantity cf beautifully clear water completely freed from air. 



