July 22, 1922] 



NA TURE 



127 



Dr. A. C. Haddon, his colleague in the Cambridge 

 Expedition to Torres Straits, and Mr. F. C. Bartlett, 

 appears in the July issue of Man. The biblio- 

 graphy of his published work between the years 

 18SS and 1922 is a remarkable record of the scientific 

 knowledge and powers of work which this scholar 

 possessed, and will increase the regret felt by all his 

 friends and the students of his writings at his sudden 

 and unexpected death in the plenitude of his activity. 



At the first glance one might be tempted to remark 

 that the science master has no concern with the teach- 

 ing of English, but it is evident from the papers on 

 the subject by Mr. Eggar and by Mr. Breames which 

 have appeared in the School Science Review for 

 June 1920 and 1922 respectively, that many science 

 masters have to begin by teaching the boys who come 

 to them to write English. We are told that boys of 

 fourteen who have spent several years on the classical 

 side of a public school are turned over to the science 

 side unable to read English intelligibly or to write it 

 in such a way that their meaning is clear. In such 

 circumstances the science master's task is doubled. 

 He must teach his boys the scientific and technical 

 terms of his subject and also how to express themselves 

 clearly and correctly. Mr. Breames divides the 

 latter process into two stages. In describing an object 

 or an experiment he trains his boys to devote one 

 sentence to each feature or to each change. After- 

 wards he teaches them to combine into one longer 



statement the sentences dealing with the features or 

 changes which are closely related. He finds that 

 this procedure produces a " respectable style " of 

 writing in about two years. 



A booklet from C. F. Elwell, Ltd. (Craven House, 

 Kingsway), shows one of the directions in which 

 wireless telephony is developing, for we have illustra- 

 tions of receiving sets made up into elaborate pieces 

 of drawing-room furniture in the various period styles 

 of decoration. The apparatus itself within these 

 attractive coverings is in the form of compactly 

 arranged enclosed standard panels, the simplest of 

 which is equipped with a crystal detector. The 

 more useful panels employ valve receivers, and the 

 distance from which they will pick up messages, etc., 

 can be extended by the addition of one or more 

 panels of similar dimensions and appearance equipped 

 with amplifiers. Either head telephones or loud- 

 speaking apparatus can be used, and where the 

 higher degrees of amplification are employed, an 

 indoor loop aerial can replace the outdoor aerial 

 which would otherwise be necessary. 



Messrs. H. K. Lewis and Co., Ltd., 136 Gower 

 Street, W.C.i, have sent us two catalogues just issued 

 by them, namely, " College Text Books and Works of 

 Reference on Science and Technoiogy " and "Works 

 on Medicine and Allied Subjects." As the lists are 

 carefully classified they should be very useful for 

 reference. 



Our Astronomical Column. 



It is stated in the Times that the proposal to 

 remove the Paris Observatory to a new site is again 

 under consideration. When the Observatory was 

 erected it was outside the city boundaries, but 

 to-day it is surrounded by busy thoroughfares and 

 streets of tall houses. Commenced in 1667 and 

 finished in 1671, a few vears before the Greenwich 

 Observatory, the main buildings, as seen to-day, 

 were designed by Claude Perrault, the famous 

 architect of the Louvre. The first director was 

 Dominique Cassini, who had come to France in 

 1669 at the invitation of Louis XIV., and the director- 

 ship remained in the Cassini family for about 120 

 years. Picard and La Hire were among the first to 

 work in the Observatorv, and Grant, in his " History 

 of Physical Astronomy," regrets that Picard 's great 

 merits as a practical astronomer were not recognised 

 by his being placed at the head of it. The Observa- 

 tory contains a fine collection of historical instru- 

 ments and apparatus used by the 'distinguished 

 astronomers and phvsicists who have laboured there, 

 and once a month the public are admitted to see the 

 Observatorv and its treasures and to listen to short 

 lectures on the instruments in daily use. 



Cambridge University Observatory. — It is 

 satisfactory to learn from the annual report of this 

 1 . :'>rv, of which Prof. Eddington is director, 



that its activity, which was sadly crippled during 

 th war, two of the assistants having lost their lives, 

 is now fully re-established. The Sheepshanks equa- 

 torial is being used for photographic determinations 

 of proper motion of faint stars by comparison of 

 pairs of plates taken 15 or 20 years apart, one of 

 each pair being photographed through the glass to 

 permit of juxtaposition of images, film to film. 

 The regions include those around stars investigated 



for parallax by Prof. Russell and Mr. Hinks from 

 1903 to 1905, also the region round 6 Orionis, and 

 Kapteyn's Selected Area No. 12. Some of the proper 

 motions are being investigated by Miss Payne 

 (Newnham). Miss Douglas (Newnham) is studying 

 the relation between stellar velocity and absolute 

 magnitude. 



Mr. W. M. H. Greaves has been engaged on various 

 gravitational researches, chiefly connected with the 

 stability of Saturn's Rings, which have been published 

 in the Monthly Notices of the R.A.S. 



Harvard College Observatory's Report. — 

 This is the first annual report issued since I >r. 

 Harlow Shapley succeeded Prof. Pickering, who died 

 in 1919, as director of this observatory. The report 

 shows the wide, sweeping nature of the researches 

 undertaken. Dr. Shapley and Miss Cannon have in 

 hand a discussion of tin- distribution of stars of 

 different spectral type and magnitudes which occur 

 in the Henry Draper Catalogue. The investigations 

 of stellar distances is another line of work in hand 

 which will help 111 the study of the structure of the 

 stellar svstem. Good progress has been made in the 

 publication of the valuable Henry Draper Catalogue, 

 and volume 97 has just been distributed. By the 

 generositv of private donors the prompt appearance 

 of the remaining volumes is now assure.!. Numerous 

 discoveries as to stars with peculiar spectra have 

 been made from an examination of the plates . .f the 

 Henrv Draper Memorial, among which the number 

 of spectra having bright Hues in the region of the 

 Large Magellanic Cloud has been ini reased from 

 48 to 61. The Areepiipa station is becoming yearly 

 of more importance, and particularly so now 

 when the distances of southern stars are so much 

 required. 



NO. 275 I , 



VOL. 1 



IO] 



