128 



NA TURE 



[April t, 1909 



laboratory. They may be paid to the treasurer of the 

 college or to the undersigned. 



E. H. Griffiths. 

 University College of South Wales and 

 Monmouthshire, Cardiff. 



Research and the Colleges. 



It is evident that the question of subject-matter for 

 research is still a dilVicult one, and that our colleges are 

 still unable to meet it. In the meantime, it is essential 

 that the students should be instructed in such procedure, 

 unless the matter is to be shelved until some outside source 

 of supply can be obtained. 



I would suggest that class research be instituted on the 

 following basis. The senior students, divided into groups 

 of, say, four, would engage in some well-recognised research 

 of a classic nature, which would be selected from the pub- 

 lished work in this direction. It must follow, I think, 

 that the difliculties met with by the original, investigator 

 would come to the surface, and be followed by the students 

 step by step. 



The different groups in class would at intervals examine 

 each section's work, and be instructed generally in the 

 same by the staff. By a careful selection, and in this way, 

 the work coming before the students might cover research 

 in pure chemistry, and technical or industrial research as 

 well. 



From the industrial side of the question, it seems that 

 Prof. Kipping's recent criticisms on the Institute of 

 Chemistry for not insisting that the subject of original 

 research shall be compulsory arc a little premature, while 

 the colleges themselves do not do more in this direction. 

 From this point of view the institute might insist that all 

 senior students shall be instructed in the methods of re- 

 search in a practical and thorough way, and might refuse 

 to " recognise " any college not conforming to this regula- 

 tion. With the above method of class research this train- 

 ing is available. The fact is often lost sight of that the 

 more important the nature of industrial research the less 

 possible is it to publish it, even to the examiners them- 

 . selves. Thus the opposite conditions obtain from those in 

 the colleges, but the mass of this hidden research is of far 

 greater value and importance than that which is published 

 from these institutions, at any rate to the present genera- 

 tion. ■ W. P. Dre.afer. 



\ Fall of an Aerolite in Mokoia, New Zealand, on 

 November 26, 1908. 



By the kindness of Mr. J. T. Ward, honorary director 

 of the Wanganui Observatory, and Mr. G. R. Marriner, 

 curator of the museum at the same place, I have received 

 particulars of the aerolitic fall of November 26 last, 

 together with several fragments of the object. Perhaps it 

 will be best to quote from their accounts : — 



The flash of the meteor was seen at 12.30 p.m. to 

 12.35 P-m. (civil time, 11.30 fast on Greenwich), and the 

 loud detonations were heard by many persons distributed 

 over more than 100 miles of coast-line and for a con- 

 siderable distance inland. The object left a streak like 

 a line of smoke or steam, which broke into three portions 

 and drifted apart before it disappeared in about five minutes. 

 The sound appeared to follow the flash after a minute or 

 more, and formed a combination of booming with sharp 

 cracking sounds, similar to that produced by thunder and 

 discharges of musketry. The observed flash, or meteor- 

 llight, occupied the following position as ascertained by 

 Mr. W.ird from various observers : — 250° — 30° to 220° — 5°. 



At Stratford, twenty-five miles from the place of the 

 meteor's descent, the noise was very loud, and startled 

 the horses and cattle, as well as many persons who were 

 in the open and amid quiet surroundings. Mr. Marriner 

 visited Mokoia and recovered two fragments of the bofly, 

 but a third, which was seen to fall in a plantation, could 

 not be found owing to the thickness of the bush. The 

 pieces secured were 4J lb. and 3 lb. in weight, and the 

 former fell at the foot of a tree", splintering a part of it 

 and making a hole in the ground about 15 inches deep. 

 NO. 2057, VOL. 80] 



Mr. Marriner estimates the whole weight of the meteorite 

 which fell on Mr. Hawkins's estate as 12 lb., but as dis- 

 integration occurred before its descent, the original body 

 was much larger, and it is to be hoped that other frag- 

 ments will be found after more careful examination of 

 the district. 



The portions received by me are composed of a very dark 

 grey stone or admixture of stone and iron, which has 

 evidently undergone intense heat, and seems of a crumbly 

 nature. The analysis of the meteorite is being made at 

 Wanganui, and will be published shortly. After circulating 

 in space for probably countless ages, it had apparently 

 ceased its rovings when it struck the root of the tree in 

 Mokoia and penetrated about 15 inches below the soil ; 

 but it was destined for a further flight from one side of 

 our globe to the other, for it has just completed its transit 

 of about 13,000 miles to Bristol ! 



It is interesting, after a person has habitually watched 

 the luminous careers of these bodies during many years, tO' 

 hold a similar object in one's hand and contemplate it 

 from a much nearer point of view I 



Bristol, March ig. W. F. DliNNlNG. 



Early References to Fluorescence and Light transmitted 

 by Thin Gold Films. 



Petro van Musschenbroek, in his "' Elcmenta 

 Physics," after a discussion of the colours of thin films, 

 proceeds: — "id quoque conspicuum est in infuso Ligni 

 Nephritici, quod pro diverso tam oculi, quam lucis situ, 

 alio colore apparet " (p. 393, second edition, Leyden, 1741). 



This clearly could not have been an instance of ordinary 

 interference colours, and it occurred to me that we might 

 have here an early observation of fluorescence. 



Inquiries kindly made for me by Mr. Harold Evans 

 have elicited, in a letter to the Gardeners' Chronicle, 

 the facts that the wood Lignum Nepliriticum was shown 

 in the Paris Exhibition of 1S55, that its source is some 

 Mexican tree, but that this tree was not identified, at any 

 rate in 1871. In the Admiralty Manual of Scientific 

 Inquiry for that year information as to its origin is asked 

 for, and it is stated that " its infusion is remarkable for 

 having the blue tint seen in a solution of quinine." 



This seems to confirm definitely my conjecture that 

 van Musschenbroek had observed fluorescence at least 

 ninety-two years before it was recorded in alcoholic chloro- 

 phyll solutions by Brewster, and more than one hundred 

 years before Ilerschel described it in solutions of quinine 

 sulphate. 



Can any of your readers throw any further light upon 

 the nature of Lignum Nephriticum? 



In the next sentence after the one quoted above 

 van Musschenbroek alludes to the blue colour of the light 

 transmitted by very thin films of gold : — " tum Auri 

 lamellae tenuissimae ante Microscopium positac ; per 

 quarum poros Lu.x caerulea tantum transit." 



John H. Sh.axby. 



University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, 

 Cardiff, March 22. 



Another Fossil Tsetse Fly. 



In N.mure, August 22, 1907, I reported the discovery 

 of a tsetsc-fiy (Glossina) in the Miocene shales of Florissant, 

 Colorado. In going over the materials collected in the 

 same locality in 190S, I find a second species of the same 

 genus. It is preserved showing the lateral aspect, the 

 abdomen arched dorsally, and the proboscis evident, though 

 imperfect. It is about 103 mm. long, the wing 7 mm., 

 thus much smaller than G. oUgocena. The venation is 

 perfectly typical for Glossina, but the first basal cell bulges 

 less subapically than in G. oligocena, its maximum breadth 

 or depth being only 323 micromillimetres. The vein 

 bounding the outer side of the discal cell has a double 

 curve, as in the CEstridje. 



For the new species I propose the name Glossina osborni, 

 after Prof. II. F. Osborn, the distinguished palaeontologist. 

 T. D. A. COCKERELI- 



University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 

 March 15. 



