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NATURE 



[June 25, 1908 



December, and a syllabus for the present year has been 

 received. Among subjects to be dealt with this session 

 we notice Mendel's law of heredity, physical and geological 

 problems suggested by the construction of the Arthur's 

 Pass Tunnel, bird life in New Zealand, and Antarctic 

 exploration. The council of the institute has in hand the 

 publication of reports that will be made on the collections 

 secured during the recent sub-Antarctic expedition to the 

 Auckland and Campbell Islands, and has taken steps to 

 secure the proper investigation of scientific questions which 

 will be raised by the boring of the Arthur's Pass Tunnel. 

 Mr. E. G. Hogg, of Christ's College, is the president of 

 the institute ; Mr. R. Speight, of Canterbury College, the 

 honorary secretary ; and Dr. Chas. Chilton, of Canterbury 

 College, the honorary treasurer. 



The issue of Science for June 5 contains an interesting 

 symposium at the Illinois State Academy of Science on 

 the opportunities for American young men in science. 

 Prof. J. G. Coulter deals with the opportunities avail- 

 able in botany, Prof. W. A. Noyes with openings for 

 chemists, Dr. H. Foster Bain with the outlook in geology, 

 Prof. H. Crew that in physics, and Dr. H. V. Neal that 

 in zoology. There is a fair unanimity among the con- 

 tributors that the young man whose primary object is to 

 make money should not select as his life's work the pursuit 

 of pure science. It is curious to remark that Prof. Coulter 

 referred to the lack of interest in science on the part of 

 the American public, and traced it to the same cause as 

 was suggested in the Times correspondence arising out of 

 the speeches at last year's Royal Society dinner to account 

 for the similar apathy in this country, that American men 

 of science rarely make it their duty properly to popularise 

 the problems on which they are at work. Prof. Coulter 

 stated that in America the demand for trained botanists 

 continues to exceed the supply. Prof. Noyes estimated 

 that there are about 8000 chemists in the United States, 

 and concluded by saying that the demand for chemists to 

 fill positions in connection with the bureau of chemistry 

 has largely exceeded the supply of suitable men. Dr. Bain 

 made it clear that it may be taken for granted that properly 

 equipped and willing workers in geology may rest assured 

 of positions being open to them. Prof. Crew summarised 

 the opportunities for young men in physics under the head- 

 ings of research, applied physics, engineering, and teach- 

 ing, and spoke very hopefully of the outlook in each of 

 these directions. Dr. Neal said, so far as zoology is con- 

 cerned, that the chances for getting good zoological 

 positions have much improved during the last ten years. 

 Though there is this increased demand, there has been no 

 increase in the supply of men to fill the posts. New fields 

 for employment are being opened, and there is every 

 possibility that the present demand for zoologists will be 

 maintained. 



Prof. E. B. Poulton's " Essays on Evolution " are to 

 be published by the Oxford University Press on July i, 

 the fiftieth anniversary of the meeting of the Linnean 

 Society at which was read the joint essay on natural 

 selection by Darwin and Wallace. The ten essays cover 

 the period 1889-1907. 



Messrs. E. and F. N. Spon, Ltd., have published, at 

 4d. net, tables of logarithms, antilogarithms, useful con- 

 stants and the functions of angles, taken from the examina- 

 tion tables of the Board of Education. The tables are 

 mounted on linen, and so folded that they will go into the 

 pocket easily ; they can be opened out in such a way that 

 the logarithms and antilogarithms can be examined side 

 by side. 



NO. 2017, VOL. 78] 



The first part of the " International Geography " by 

 seventy authors, edited by Dr. H. R. Mill, has now been 

 published separately by Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 

 at IS. 6rf. This section, which deals with the principles 

 of geography, is the eighth portion of this standard book 

 to be issued in a convenient separate form, and at a price 

 which makes it available as a class-book in schools. These 

 parts of the " International Geography " deserve to be 

 widely used in schools where the study of geography is 

 taken seriously. 



We have on previous occasions directed attention to the 

 medical and scientific circulating library conducted by Mr. 

 H. K. Lewis, of Gower Street, London, W.C. The new 

 edition of the library catalogue, revised to the end of 1907, 

 has been published recently at a price of 2S. net to sub- 

 scribers and 5s. net to non-subscribers. The catalogue 

 shows that the student and man of science may here obtain' 

 the advantage of a very large collection of modern medical 

 and scientific text-books and special monographs. In 

 addition to books on pure and medical science, works on 

 different branches of engineering science and general 

 technology are included. Not only are the books classified 

 under their authors' names, but they are also conveniently 

 arranged in a second section according to subjects. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



The Rin'gs of Saturn. — In a note published as Bulletin 

 No. 32 of the Lowell Observatory, Prof. Lowell develops 

 rather more fully the idea that the appendages B and C 

 of Saturn are not flat rings, but tores. He arrives at 

 this conclusion, by two independent methods, from a dis- 

 cussion of the phenomena observed at Arizona during 

 November and December last. In the first place, a black' 

 core was observed running medially through the length 

 of the shadowy band which then encircled the planet. Thi.s 

 core was seen by all the observers at Flagstaff, although 

 not caught by Prof. Barnard at Yerkes nor reported in 

 the Lick observations, and is presumed to be the black 

 shadow of the plane ring A bordered by the particles of 

 the rings B and C scattered above and below the plane 

 of A. That is to say, the rings B and C differ from A 

 in being tores and not flat rings. Then the agglomera- 

 tions, seen at many different observatories, are shown to 

 be better accounted for by Prof. Lowell's theory of the 

 form of the rings than by the several other theories which 

 have been proposed. An analytical discussion of the per- 

 turbing effects to which the ring matter is subjected by 

 the satellites, &c., shows that the assumed heaping up of 

 the particles, as indicated by the agglomerations, is in 

 accordance with gravitational laws. Furthermore, it is 

 shown from the observational results that the inevitable 

 disintegration of the rings is in the process of taking 

 place. 



The Fortv-inch Objective of the Yerkes Observatory. 

 — .'Vn interesting paper by Mr. Philip Fox, giving the 

 results of an investigation of the 40-inch objective of the 

 Yerkes Observatory, appears in the May number of the 

 Aslrophysical Journal (vol. xxvii.. No. 4, p. 237). The 

 tests, in the first instance, were carried out at the sugges- 

 tion of Prof. Hartmann, who is desirous that the data 

 might be published for every objective in active use, but 

 they have been extended and comprehensively discussed by 

 Mr. Fox. The method employed was that of the " zonal 

 test," using a perforated diaphragm having sixty holes, 

 each of 2 cm. diameter, located at the corners of squares 

 on fifteen different zones. Briefly, the results indicate, 

 inter alia, that the centre of the Yerkes objective is of 

 appreciably shorter focal length than the edge. The varia- 

 tions come, however, well within the limits for which Prof. 

 Hartmann classifies an objective as " preeminently good." 

 Plates taken at varying zenith distances appear to indicate 

 that the performance of the objective varies with the zenith 

 distance, and, should this be confirmed, it appears certain 



