NA TURE 



\_Nov. 6, 187:; 



(b) In the case of Light, not much can be said as yet : but 

 with regard to radiation and absorption of radiant heat, Tyndall 

 has shown that the complex molecules of organic vapours are 

 the best radiators, and that uncombined atoms can hardly be 

 said to radiate or absorb at all. So we see that the simple, 

 " metallic" vapours radiate but ill, whilst the more complex atoms 

 do not reflect, but rather absorb light and heat rays. Indeed, 

 we may suppose, that as in the case of complex vapours, the 

 more highly evolved atoms, requiring a greater supply of force, 

 turn these rays that fall on them to account ; whilst the metals 

 dispense with them by reflecting them. 



(<-) The chief relations of electricity have already been alluded 

 to. The chemical affinity between elements increases as they 

 differ in electric polarity ; and the more highly evolved, the 

 more chlorous or electro-negative are they. 



Lastly, late researches have shown that the elements nitrogen 

 and sulphur at a high temperature, give more complex spectra. 

 This (act, if it be a fact, has thrown some doubt on their claim 

 to be regarded as absolute elements. 



In explaining the phenontenon, we should probably consider 

 the sulphur particle to be composed of several groupings of the 

 ultimate element, which, driven apart by the action of heat, are 

 made to vibrate separately with variojs velocities. Thus the 

 allotropic form of oxygen, ozone, has been represented by a 



simple formula q j O, being made up, as it is supposed, of two 



groupings of the element oxygen, that being the ultimate atom. 



The above sta'ements seem to me to agree in showing, that 

 if the hypothesis of evolution is tenable at all, it can be extended 

 to explain all or nearly all the relations between the elements at 

 present existing on this globe. C. T. Bi.anshard 



Queen's College, Oxford 



Ancient Balances 

 Apropos of Mr. Chisholm's interesting account of ancient 

 weighing instruments, in your last number, I venture to call his 

 attention to the representation of an equal-armed balance in an 

 Egyptian papyrus of the nineteenth dynasty, about 1350 E.c. 

 It is to be found in the celebrated "Ritual of the Dead," a 

 hieroglyphical papyrus of Hunnefer, of the reign of Seti I. In 

 the "Judgment Scene" the heart of the deceased is represented 

 as being weighed in a balance in the Hall of Perfect Justice, and 

 in the presence of Osiris. The balance is of the ordin.aiy equal- 

 beam construction, the final adjustment being attained by a 

 sliding weight on one side of the beam, exactly hke the "rider" 

 on our exact balances. The papyrus may be seen in the British 

 Museum. G. F. Rodwell 



Brilliant Meteors 



On Saturday evening (Oct. iS), about half-past S o'clocl;, 

 I observed, from Boltsburn, Durham, a meteor of considerable 

 brilliancy in the north-western part of the sky ; it shot down- 

 ward from an elevation of about 40°, and left a streak of very 

 red light on its path. The streak continued visible for nine or 

 ten seconds. John Currv 



Boltiburn, Oct. 20 



L.^ST evening, October 26, when returning home I observed a 

 brilliant meteor stream across the sky. It may be worth while to 

 leccrd it. 



Not having my watch, I can only guess the time as about 

 8.20 P.M. Ihe first appearance was like a flash of lightning 

 inteniely white, arresting attention at once. When observed it 

 streamed from| Persei above Capella (in allitude)and disappeared 

 in Lynx. For two thirds of its course its light was very bright, 

 and it left a brilliant train of sparks, but lor the remaining third 

 it merely showed its own single expning light. 



Later in the evening when observing with the telescope in 

 Cephcus, tv. o .shooiiiig stars cro^std the field at different times, 

 apparently horn the s»me ladiii.t. T. T. S. 



Thruxton Rectory, Herelcrd 



SIR HENRY HOLLAND 



A LTHOUGH the late .Sir Henry Holland, whose name 

 •^*- has been familiar to the world during the greater 

 part of the present century, cannot be regarded as a man 



eminent in scientific research, still, as a Fellow of the 

 Royal Society of nearly sixty years' standing, as President 

 of the Royal Institution, as one who was ever ready to 

 contribute towards the advancement of scientific research, 

 and as the friend of all the most eminent men of science 

 of his time, which was a long one, we deem him worthy 

 of more than a passing notice. 



As much as for anything else. Sir Henry was known as 

 an indefatigable traveller ; his fondness for travelling, in- 

 deed, having led to the illness which was the immediate 

 cause of his death on October 27 last, his 86th birth- 

 day. He had very early in his career deliberately deter- 

 mined to set aside two months each year for the purpose 

 of indulging his favourite recreation. This year, imme- 

 diately after his return from a visit to Russia, he set off for 

 Naples in September last, staying a short time at Rome 

 and Paris on his v/ay home. He arrived in London on 

 October 25, suffering from a slight cold, which was suffi- 

 cient, notwithstanding the wonderful robustness of his 

 constitution, to cut him off in two days. He began his 

 travelling career by a visit to Iceland in iSio, since which 

 he has explored almost every corner of Europe, and 

 been eight times in America. In his " Recollections of 

 Past Life," published in 1S72, he speaks thus of his 

 travels : — 



"The Danube I have followed with scarcely an inter- 

 ruption, from its assumed sources at Donau-F.schingen to 

 tlie Black Sea — the Rhine, now become so familiar to 

 common travel, from the infant stream in the Alps to the 

 'bifidos tractus et juncta paludibus ora' which Claudius 

 with singular local accuracy describes as the end of 

 Stilicho's river journey. The St. Lawrence 1 have pur- 

 sued uninterruptedly for neatly 2,000 miles of its lake and 

 river course. The waters of the Upper Mississippi I have 

 recently navigated for some hundred miles below the Falls 

 of St. .4nthony. The Ohio, Susquehanna, Potomac, and 

 Connecticut rivers I have followed far towards their 

 sources ; and the Ottawa, grand in its scenery of water- 

 falls, lakes, forests, and mountain gorges, for 300 miles 

 above Montreal. There has been pleasure to me also in 

 touching upon some single point of a river, and watching 

 the flow of waters which come from unknown springs or 

 find their issue in some remote ocean or sea. I have felt 

 this on the Nile at its time of highest inundation, in 

 crossing the Volga when scarcely wider than the Thames 

 at Oxford, and still more when near the sources of the 

 streams that feed the Euphrates, south of Trebizond." 



It was mainly on account of the reputation which even 

 then he had achieved as a traveller, that he was elected a 

 Fellow of the Royal Society in 181 j. 



Sir Henry was elected President of the Royal Institu- 

 tion in 1S65, and took the very warmest interest in its 

 success, and in the promotion of scientific research, being 

 seldom or never absent from his post, doing much to 

 popularise science among the upper classes, among whom, 

 as our readers know, he was always a welcome guest. 

 For fifteen years Sir Henry contributed 40/. annually to 

 a fund specially set apait for the promotion of research, 

 and was always ready to take by the hand promising 

 young students who were diffident of their own abilities. 

 Sir Henry himself never knew what it was to struggle, no 

 man ever slid more easily into the highest professional 

 and social posiion, and no man was ever probably less 

 spoiled by his success. He counted from the very first 

 among his patients, many of whom became his intimate 

 friends, the highest in social and political rank both 

 at home and abroad, and the most eminent in litera- 

 ture, science, and ait, knew nearly everyone whose name ' 

 during the last sixty years has been before the public, 

 and was respected and loved by all with whom he came 

 in contact. Sir Henry had naturally good abilities, 

 great tact and knowledge of the world, a mind stored with 

 knowledge gained from books, from travel, and from 

 his intercourse wi;h men, which, combined with his genial 



