April 21, 1881] 



NATURE 



577 



superphosphate drilled with the seed would be found 

 quite sufficient, and probably fully equal in effect to twice 

 the quantity of phosphoric acid applied as powdered 

 coprolite. 



Phosphate of iron applied alone was found to have 

 practically no effect on the turnip crop, and the effect of 

 phosphate of aluminium was but little ; this is pretty 

 much as we should expect. There is apparently some 

 mistake in the printed analysis of the phosphate of 

 aluminium used, as it is made to contain 38"28 per cent, 

 of lime, and only 476 per cent, of ferric o.xide and 

 alumina. 



The analyses given of the turnip soils cannot pass 

 without a word ; the reporter is surely unaware of the 

 absurdity which these analyses present. The soil of 

 the unmanured plot in the five experimental fields was 

 analysed in 1876, and again in 1879, after three turnip 

 crops had been taken. The analyses show that on an 

 average about 20 per cent, of the nitrogen, and about 

 48 per cent, of the phosphoric acid in the soil had been 

 removed during these three years, and yet the total 

 weight of the three turnip crops grown on the five fields 

 during this period averaged but 16 tons per acre ! The 

 only remark made by the reporter on these figures is that 

 the soil has evidently become reduced in nitrogen, and 

 much reduced in phosphates : the fact that either the soil 

 sampling or the analyses must be utterly wrong seems to 

 have altogether escaped his attention. 



The experiments with oats do not call for any special 

 remark, except to note the patience which shelled 136,000 

 grains by hand in order to determine the proportion of 

 kernel to husk in the produce of the various plots. 



May we suggest that in a report of field experiments 

 the dates of sowing and of harvest should always be 

 given, and also a description of the character of the 

 weather during the growing period. Without such 

 facts before us it is impossible to interpret the results 

 of field experiments. 



Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society. Vol. 



xi. (November, 1879, to November, 1880). 

 This is a smaller volume than usual, there being fewer 

 papers, and none of them of a great length. The pure 

 mathematics prevails somewhat more than usual over the 

 mixed. 



Prof. Cayley contributes articles "On the Binomial 

 Equation xP - \ — o; Trisection and Quartisection," a 

 theorem in spherical trigonometiy, on a formula of eli- 

 mination. Sir James Cockle writes " On a Binomial 

 Biordinal and the Constants of its Complete Solution." 

 Mr. J. W. L. Glaisher, "On a Method of obtaining the 

 f-formula for the Sine-amplitude in Elliptic Functions " ; 

 Mr. H. W. Lloyd Tanner, "Notes on a General Method 

 of Solving Partial Differential Equations of the First 

 Order with several Dependent Variables," and a prelimi- 

 nary note on a generalisation of Pfaff's Theorem ; Mr. J. J. 

 Walker, " Theorems in the Calculus of Operations " ; and 

 Mr. T. R. Terry, " Notes on a Class of Definite Integrals." 

 Papers of a geometrical nature are — Mr. J. Griffiths, on 

 a geometrical form of Landen's theorem with regard to 

 a hyperbolic arc, and on a class of closed curves whose 

 arcs possess the same property as two Fagnanian arcs of 

 an ellipse ; Mr. H. Hart, on the focal curves of a bicircular 

 quartic ; Mr. H. M. Taylor, on the equation of two planes 

 which can be drawn through two given points to touch a 

 quartic ; Rev. J. Wolstenholme, a form of the equation 

 determining the form and directions of a conic whose 

 equation in Cartesian co-ordinates is given. Dr. Klein of 

 Leipsic has a short note on the transformation of ellipti- 

 cal functions ; Mr. Greenhill applies elliptic co-ordinates 

 and Lagrange's equations of motion to Euler's problem 

 of two centres of force ; and Mr. Routh writes on func- 

 tions analogous to Laplace's functions. Lord Rayleigh's 

 papers are on reflection of vibrations at the confines of 



two media between which the transition is gradual, and 

 on the stability or instability of certain fluid motions. 

 Mr. Samuel Roberts has two notes : one on a problem 

 of Fibonacci's, and the other on the integral solution of 

 X- — 2 Py' = — z- or + 22" in certain cases ; Mr. R. F. 

 Scott writes on cubic determinants and other determi- 

 nants of higher class, and on determinants of alternate 

 numbers (a treatment which he has adopted in his work 

 on " Determinants "). Mr. Hugh McCoU contributes a 

 fourth paper on the calculus of equivalent statements 

 (cf. Prof. Jevons's remarks, NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 485). 

 Other minor articles conclude the volume. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



\Tke Editor does not hold /limself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. 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 novel facts. "^ 



The New Museum of Natural History 



The new Natural History Museum, opened on Easter Mon- 

 day, wa^ visited by some l6,ooo people of a most orderly and 

 respectable cla^s. Owing to the great exertions of Dr. Wood- 

 ward, \vho.se zeal is beyond praise, the main gallery, the Pavilion, 

 and the Gallery of Reptiles were shown in a practically completed 

 state. The Mineral Gallery has long been ready, but the anange- 

 ment of the botanical section is still incomplete, and it was 

 entirely clo-ed. Some little trouble was caused with the um- 

 brellas, and it might be worth while to consider whether, except 

 perhaps in wet weather, the umbrellas need be taken away. The 

 idea that people poke with sticks at oiijects in mnseunis has been 

 long exploded, and no inconvenience is felt at the Kensington 

 Museum, the Louvre, and nearly all foreign galleries and 

 exhibitions, where umbrellas are admitted. 



The architecture in the Mammalia Gallery is veiy obtrusive, 

 and Its over-ornate character and the variety of tone of the 

 terra-cotta, and the similarity of this in colour to the ikuUs .-ind 

 skeletons of the fossil mammalia, are most unfortunate. 



It seems a pity that sonje style with more repose than " Deco- 

 rated Norman" was not f elected. Although very beautiful as 

 a building, and with m-iny features deerving high praise from an 

 architectural point of view, it is evidently not the s'yle best 

 adapted to set off natural-history specimens. The cathedral like 

 Index Museum, with its rather dark side-chapels, and the 

 Museum of Briti-.h Zoology are of proportions that will render it 

 difficult to make an effective display in them. 



I hope that it is not finally decided to place the recent 

 mammalia on the fir>t floor and the birds on the ground floor, 

 because the architect's string courses would \>i interfered with 

 otherwise by the cases. The living and extinct mammalia 

 should face each other, and the birds go aloft. Convenience 

 has already been too much sacrificed to architecture. Every 

 time the lirst floor is visited the length of the Index Museum, 

 150 feet, must be traver.-ed to reach the stairs, and the same 

 distance back along the corridor to reach the door of the 

 Mineral Gallery. This means an immense waste of time. I 

 also notice that the crane is close to the main entrance, and that 

 there are no proper lifts. 



If it was necessary to fashion all the ornaments from natural- 

 history objects, it is a pity that the restorations were not accu- 

 rately made. The oft-repeated figure of a Dapedius swal- 

 lowing a fish almost its own size, and of spiral shells bent to 

 accommodate them to the mr uldings of an arch, is not instructive. 

 The humour of ornamenting (?) the arch leading into ihe pavilion 

 with a hideously represented Archjeopteryx in high relief, re- 

 peated a dozen times, is not obvious, but some joke must 

 doubtless be intended. 



The cost of the small bronze and glass conservatories in the 

 botanical department is out of all proportion to the objects they 

 are to contain. Dried stems of tree-ferns and palms, though 

 very interesting in their way, do very well in other museums 

 without Llass cases, and can be replenished for next to nothing. 



F. G. S. 



