May 20, 1909] 



NATURE 



353 



phthalein, was decolorised by a measured volume of the 

 air under examination, the quantity of air being deter- 

 mined by the number of fillings of a rubber pump. In 

 the York apparatus thi' rubber ball is replaced with 

 advantage by a metallic pump, and the sodium carbonate 

 solution by baryta solution. With the latter solution the 

 absorption is quantitative under the conditions of use pre- 

 scribed in the instructions. .As to the disadvantages of 

 the York apparatus, the quantity of carbon dioxide 

 measured is based on a preliminary calibration with atmo- 

 spheric air, assumed in the table as 36 parts per 10,000. 

 As in towns the amount may be as much as 4-5, the 

 results maj' be uncertain by 25 per cent. The stock bottle 

 for the weak baryta solution carries sufficient solution for 

 eighty tests, or two litres. This amount seems too large, 

 and makes the whole apparatus unnecessarily heavy. The 

 mode of working is simple, and should give good results 

 in unskilled hands. 



The claims of reinforced concrete as a suitable material 

 for buildings likely to be subjected to earthquakes are 

 advanced in Concrete and Constructional Engineering for 

 May. For such buildings either the very lightest form of 

 wood construction should be applied, ' as in Japan, or, if 

 permanence and architectural effect are desired, some form 

 of monolithic construction as is obtainable in reinforced 

 concrete. Masonry and brickwork are entirely out of 

 place, and steel frames covered with concrete do not seem 

 to have the advantages possessed by reinforced concrete 

 in its simplest forms. In the opinion of the writer, steel- 

 frame construction has been adopted too freely in San 

 Francisco and elsewhere. Reinforced concrete buildings 

 need not necessarily be eyesores ; this is altegether a 

 question of good design, and there are sufficient examples 

 of such buildings now in existence to show that the re- 

 proach of the older generation of architects cannot be 

 directed at the productions of a really good designer. The 

 article is of interest in view of the now well-known 

 disastrous effects of the recent earthquake in Messina. 



.■\ CATALOGUE of ncw books and nqw editions added to 

 Mr. H. K. Lewis's medical and scientific circulating 

 library (136 Gower Street, W.C.) during the first quarter 

 of this ye.ar provides a concise summary of the chief works 

 of scientific interest issued in recent months. 



The fifth revised edition of Prof. Max Verworn's 

 " .Mlgcmcine Physiologic " has been published by Mr. 

 Gustav Fischer, Jena. The price of this work, which now 

 occupies 742 pages, is sixteen marks. 



The Bulletin of the Pasteur Institute of Southern India 

 (No. I, 190.8) contains details of several researches carried 

 out by Major Cornwall and Dr. Kes.iva Pai on rabies, 

 e.g. diagnosis of the disease, the Negri bodies, histology 

 of the blood, toxins, &c. 



The commemorative address on Darwin and his work, 

 delivered by Prof. ."Vugust Weismann at Freiburg in 

 Baden on February 12, has been published in pamphlet 

 form by Mr. Gustav Fischer, Jena. .\ note upon the 

 address appeared in Nature of March 18 (p. 75). 



Prof. \V. James's " Principles of Psychology " has 

 been translated into German by Dr. Marie Diirr, and 

 published by the firm of Quelle and Meyer, Leipzig, with 

 notes by Prof. E. Diirr. The same publishers have just 

 issued a translation into German, by Prof. A. Kalahne, 

 of M. L. Poincare's work on " Electricity," already trans- 

 lated into English. 



NO. 2064, VOL. 80] 



The report of the sixth meeting of the South .i^frican 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, held last year 

 at Grahamstown, has now been published. An account of 

 the proceedings of the meeting appeared in N.ature of 

 August 27, 1908 (vol. Ixxviii., p. 395), to which reference 

 may be made for the chief subjects discussed in the 

 volume. The amount of work recorded in the 408 pages 

 of the report is a very creditable record for an association 

 founded so recently, and the officers are to be congratulated 

 upon the success of their efforts to arouse and maintain 

 an interest in scientific work in the South African colonies. 



The Smithsonian Institution of Washington has issued 

 a classified list of Smithsonian publications available for 

 distribution in March, igog. These publications are sup- 

 plied by the institution either gratuitously or at a nominal 

 cost as an aid to research. Of the many activities of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, this wide distribution of papers, 

 scientific and otherwise, among original workers for the 

 extension of knowledge is one of the most useful. The 

 list has been prepared in such a way as to conform as 

 closely as possible with the classification methods used by 

 the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature, and 

 will be found convenient for reference. 



Mr. L. F. Cogliati, 17 Corso di Porta Romana, Milan, 

 has made arrangements to publish the manuscript of 

 Leonardo da Vinci in the library of the Earl of Leicester 

 at Holkham Hall. The volume will contain a double 

 Italian transcription of the text, be printed on hand-made 

 paper, and contain seventy-two heliotype plates, comprising 

 the entire reproduction of the original manuscript and of 

 its numerous illustrations ; it will contain an introduction 

 and index, and include a biography of Leonardo da Vinci 

 by Dr. G. Calvi, the editor of the volume. It may be 

 mentioned that the compilation obtained the Tomasoni 

 prize from the R. Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere. 

 The manuscript contains the material Leonardo gathered 

 for his treatise on hydraulics, and many of his opinions 

 on questions in cosmography and geology are also to be 

 found in it. Only 160 copies of the volume will be pub- 

 lished ; the first 100 are offered to subscribers at 3/. 4s. 

 net (postage, &c., 4s. additional), and the remaining 

 volumes will be 4/. net. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Mars. — A telegram from Prof. Lowell, communicated 

 by Circular No. 108 of the Kiel Centralstelle (May 11), 

 announces that two rifts have appeared in the snow-cap 

 of Mars in longitudes 350° and 240°. 



Jupiter.— In Bulletin No. 38 of the Lowell Observatory 

 Prof. Lowell describes the different features of Jupiter 

 observed at Flagstaff during the period March 28 to June 

 4, 1907. The most interesting feature was the system of 

 wisps, or lacings, between the north and south equatorial 

 belts. These festoons were detected by Mr. Scrivcn Bolton 

 (see Nature, No. 2000, vol. Ixxvii., February 27, 1908, 

 p. 401), and they form a curious network across the 

 equatorial region of the planet. The individual wisps 

 leave caret-shaped markings in the belts, generally at an 

 angle of 45°, and show increased curvature throughout 

 their length. Mr. Lampland has succeeded in obtaining 

 faint photographic images of these peculiar features. 



.Ml the dark belts observed were of a cherry-red colour 

 of varying depths, and even the polar hoods at times 

 showed tints of the same hue. The Great Red Spot was 

 but dimly visible, but many dazzling white spots were, 

 from time to time, made out. The equatorial and tropical 

 belts of each hemisphere were seen to be connected^ by 

 wisps similar to those described above, and the bright 



