May t4 1908J 



NATURE 



43 



The Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg has 

 recently adopted a system from the transcription of proper 

 names into Russian. The symbols adopted by the Imperial 

 Academy of Sciences are as follows : — ■ 



a B r \ e'') e') in 3 ii^) i ii k .i m h 



a b V g d e. je e z z i, ji i j k I ni n 



n |) c T 5 ■!> X u 'I ui ut I. u 1)^) I.-) 



o p r s t u f ch c s sc — y i ^^i Je 



3 »•) ll') 11 \' 



e ju, 111, ja, la 



f i 



The table of Russian and Latin characters is accom- 

 panied by the following notes : — 



(1) The liquid vowcis ii and m beginning a syllable or 

 preceded by I or r. (which, in the Inst case, are omitted 

 from the transcription) are transcribed by " ja " and 

 " ju "; if preceded by a consonant these vowels are 

 transcribed by ■" ia " and " iu," if they form a syllable 

 with the preceding consonant. 



(2) The liquid vowel " e " and the vowel t preceded 

 by Ii or 1. {which in this case are omitted in the transci iption) 

 are transcribed by " je " and "je" ; if preceded hy a consonant 

 these vowels are transcribed by "e " and '* e." But the liquid 

 vowel " e" beginning a prope name is transcribed by a simple 

 "e." Thus Egorov (jironounced Yegorov) begins with the 

 liquid " e." 



(3) The letter 11 preceeded by 1. is transcribed by "ji " (the 

 liquid " i "). 



(4) The letter v at the end of a word or before a con- 

 sonant is transcribed by " i." 



(5) The letter " e," when it is pronounced "jo," is 

 represented, as in Russian, by "e," but only when the 

 author writes his name in that way. 



(6) The names of foreign authors who have written in 

 Russian are re-transcribed according to this system when 

 the original orthography of these names is unknown ; when 

 it is known, the transcription of the Russian form of the 

 name can be given in a note. 



The British system also pi'oposed to use the original 

 form of any Russianised proper name in preference to re- 

 transliterating them. 



The Russian Academy's system does not attempt to 

 secure the precision in re-transliteration which was the 

 main object of the British system ; for the letter " f " 

 stands for either h or '^ ; " u " stands for " y '* or 

 occurs in combination with " j " (which is itself the 

 transliteration of ii) for 10; "j" may be the translitera- 

 tion of anv one of four letters. 11. i. b, or v, as well 

 as in combination with " u " and " a " from 10 or 11. The 

 Frelish "e" is the equivalent of e'ther " e," t, or a. 

 Five Russian letters have alternative transliterations. 

 Phonetically, the Russian system has some advantage over 

 thi; British, although in this respect it is in some ways 

 less satisfactory. The Russian system, however, is pro- 

 posed only for pi-oper names, for which a less rigid system 

 is perhaps necessary than for general scientific and biblio- 

 graphic work. J. W. Gregory. 



dyeing oualities of natural and 

 "synthetic indigo. 



'T'ilE annual report, written by Mr. Cyril Bergtheil, of 

 the Indigo Research Station of the Bihar Planters' 

 -Association for the year 1907-8 has just been issued; it 

 contains an interesting statement with regard to the value 

 of " synthetic " indigo as a dye-stuff compared with 

 natural indigo. From last year's experiments (see 

 Nature, vol. Ixxv., p. 614) it was concluded that 

 " synthetic " indigo gives poorer results under practical 

 conditions than those obtained with the natural dye, the 

 latter imparting a richness of shade or " bloom " which 

 was unobtainable with the synthetic material. It has since 

 been asoertained that the synthetic indigo supplied for the 

 tests was " brand E " of the Badische Anilin- und Soda- 

 Fabrik, which contains some 25 per cent, of lime ; the 

 presence of this high proportion of alkali would of itself 



NO. 201 1, VOL. j8] 



account for the bad results obtained in the hydrosulphite 

 vat. Experiments will now be made using the material 

 which the Badische company itself recommends for the 

 hvdrosulphite vat. 



'The i-est of the report deals with the results obtained 

 in experiments made to ascertain the best conditions to be 

 observed during the 'growth of the indigo plant, and in 

 the extraction of the dye subsequently. Good results have 

 been obtained by the use of sulphuric acid as a means of 

 facilitating the germination of the seed of the Java plant, 

 as recommended in a previous report (N.ature, vol. Ixxv., 

 p. 497), but care must be observed in ensuring that the 

 acid used is of correct strength. A number of interesting 

 experiments made to ascertain the effect of manuring on 

 the production of indican in the plant are also reported. 

 It would appear that the proportion of indican in the plant 

 is independent of, or is actually decreased by, manurial 

 treatment; in fact, the production of indican appears to be 

 a starvation phenomenon, the proportion of the dye being 

 increased by the absence of moisture and by adverse 

 climatic conditions. On the other hand, the fertility of 

 the land must not be allowed to drop too much, otherwise 

 the growth of the plant as a whole is interfered with, and 

 the return of the dye per acre is affected. New fungoid 

 diseases, and an insect pest producing ravages on indigo 

 plants, are also dealt with in the report. 



JfAV METEORS 



^|\ .\Y, like June, cannot be said to be prolific of meteoric 

 ■'■ showers or to offer special inducements to observers. 

 There are, of course, the May Aquarids, due during the first 

 week of the month in the morning hours. There is also 

 a pretty rich showier of Coronids between about May 11 

 and 18 but they are not often seen in marked prominence; 

 and I ' believe there is a special shower at the close of 

 May from the N.W. region of Pegasus, at about 

 -114° -h 28° which deserves more attention. I found the 

 position of this radiant on reducing a number of meteors 

 recorded by the Italian Meteoric Association in 1870, and 

 very satisfactorily confirmed the showers in 1886 May 29 

 to 'June 4, the exact positions being 330 -I- 28 and 

 ^!;°-^27° respectively. 



"there is a well-marked radiant of slow meteors from 

 this point in July and .August, but it has been seldom 

 noticed at the close of Mav and early days of June. Ihis 

 vear moonlight will not interfere with observation, and it 

 would be interesting to watch the eastern sky in the morn- 

 ings of Mav 29 to June 4 for the purpose of further investi- 

 ga'ting these ^ Pegasids. They are of the Perseid type, 

 being swift and streaking meteors, and I think the stream 

 may prove of some importance among the spring showers, 

 Iho'ugh verv little is known of it. , , . » 



Any observations conducted for the purpose of re-detect- 

 ing the system may also be found useful in giving us a 

 fuller insight into the other meteoric displays of the same 

 period. W. F. Denning. 



university and EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — Twenty students matriculated this term, 

 bringing the total number for the year up to 1162. This 

 is an advance of seventy-nine on the numbers for last year, 

 and of ninety-seven on' the numbers for 1906 to the pre- 

 sent date. 'The increase in the number of advanced 

 students over that of last vear is ten. 



It is proposed to confer the degree of Master of Arts. 

 honoris causa, upon Mr. A. Henry, reader in forestry. 



Mr. F. Darwin, F.R.S., has been nominated the repre- 

 sentative of the University at a meeting convened by the 

 Linnean Society of London to be held in July in celebra- 

 tion of the fiftieth anniversary of the reading of the joint 

 essay by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace On 

 the "Tendency of Species to form Varieties ; and on the 

 Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means 

 of Selection." 



The general board has reported on the proposed reader- 

 ship in' metallurgy which the University will be enabled 

 ( to establish bv the munificence of the Goldsmiths' Com- 



