3^8 



NATURE 



\Feb. 26, 1874 



gen is, however, not to be found in the soil, but the 

 examination of the drainage waters from the different 

 plots exhibits so large a content of nitrates, that calcula- 

 tion leads to the behef that in the case of ammonium 

 salts and nitrate of sodium the loss of nitrogen chiefly 

 takes place in this manner. Chemists knowing that 

 ammonia is readily absorbed and firmly held by soil, had 

 never anticipated that so considerable a loss might occur 

 by drainage. It plainly appears, however, from these re- 

 sults, that ammonia when appUed to the soil is quickly 

 converted into nitric acid, and in heavy rains may be 

 easily washed out. During autunm and winter there is 

 little evaporation from the soil, and no consumption of 

 water by a growing crop : as soon therefore as the surface 

 soil is saturated most of the subsequent rain-faU will pass 

 into the subsoil, or find its exit through the drains. The 

 authors calcvdate that if the drainage water contains 

 I part of nitrogen in 100,000, and many of the waters 

 analysed were much richer, there will be a loss of 2"26ths 

 of nitrogen equal to about 23 lbs. of guano' for every inch 

 of rain that passes beyond the reach of the roots. It is 

 evident, among other conclusions from these important 

 facts, that ammonia should only be applied to the land in 

 the spring, when the crop is able to make ircm:\ediate use 

 of it. It may also be found that on gravelly and sandy soils, 

 which have Uttle power of holding water, organic forms of 

 nitrogen, as rape cake and farm-yard manure, may be more 

 certain in their effects than ammonia or nitrates. The 

 organic manures being only slowly rendered soluble in 

 the soil, can suffer comparatively little loss from sudden 

 rain. The subject of the economic appUcation of nitrogen 

 is being further investigated at Rothamsted. 



We have no space to do more than allude to the re- 

 searches which have been conducted at Rothamsted in 

 the department of animal chemistry : the experiments on 

 the fattening of stock, and on the composition of the car- 

 case produced, have been equally important in their re- 

 sults with those field experiments we have referred to. 

 Of the indebtedness of Science to Mr. Lawes" unique 

 and costly experiments we need not speak, the facts are 

 so plain that they speak for themselves. Xor need we state 

 the moraL The addition to the national wealth which 

 has accrued from the discoveries made by Mr. Lawes 

 is already enormous. It must be borne in mind that 

 this benefit has arisen from acciJcnial researches, 

 for Mr. Lawes was not compelled to take them up, 

 nor is he bound to continue them. Now if such work 

 is not national work, The Royal Observatory ought to 

 be shut up to-morrow, for the work done there is not 

 one jot or tittle more important. 



DR. LIVIXGSTOSE 



THE telegram, dated at Aden on the 23rd of this 

 month, announces that Lieut. Murphy is bringing 

 the body of Dr. Livingstone down to Ziinzibar, while 

 Lieut. Cameron has passed onwards to L'jiji to recover Dr. 

 Li\-ingstone's papers and to continue his work. The story 

 of those faithful negroes having carried the body of their 

 beloved chief over hundreds of miles is one of the most 

 romantic in history-, and is a fitting dose to the noble 

 life of the great explorer. Dean Stanley, we are in- 

 formed, has proposed that the remains of Li\-ingstone 

 shall find a last resting-place in Westminster .•Vbbey. 



Yesterday 'the 25th} was the last day on which instruc- 

 tions could be sent out by telegram touching the dis- 

 posal of the body. We cannot believe that the neces- 

 sary orders have not been despatched; for the 

 wishes of the country are well known, and have been 

 sufficiently expressed. With the body will arrive all 

 Livingstone's faithful followers, who were engaged on 

 the understanding that they were to receive a certain 

 fixed monthly payment. There were Chumah and the 

 two or three other men who had been with him since 

 1S65. There were Jacob Wainwright and the other Nas- 

 sick boys, and the men sent up to Lnyanyembe in the 

 summer of 1S72 ; and there were the men engaged in the 

 interior by Dr. Livingstone himself. .-V sum of about 

 1,000/. will be required to pay off these loyal and faithful 

 servants of Her Majestj-s ConsuL Yesterday was the 

 last day on which an order for the paj-ment could be 

 sent out Has this been done ? The people of England 

 have a right to an answer, and an immediate answer, 

 for if the Government hesitates, the country will never 

 allow this disgrace to come upon it. 



As soon as the full details arrive by the next mail, it will 

 be fitting that we should give our readers a memoir of the 

 illustrious martyr to Science who has passed away. But 

 now we desire to know — and all England will join with us 

 in the inquirj- — whether orders were sent out by telegram 

 on the 25th, respecting the disposal of Dr. Livingstone's 

 body, and the paj-ment of his followers, the devoted ser- 

 \-ants of Her Majestj-'s Consul ? 



LieuL Cameron, in conducting the search expedition, 

 has suffered terribly from fever and ophthalmia, and has 

 been obliged to incur hea\y expenses. But he has dis- 

 played the best qualities of an explorer. He is a good 

 manager of natives, an excellent walker, an accurate 

 astronomical observer, a linguist, and a man of indomit- 

 able perseverance. He is now pressing forward on a 

 perilous and important dut)-, and we trust he will carry 

 with him the generous sympathy of the Geographical 

 Society, and of the pubUc generally. 



POST-TERTIARY GEOLOGY 



The Great Ice-Age and Us relation to the Antiquity 0/ 



Man. By James Geikie. (W. Isbister and Co. 1S74.) 



I. 



EVERY neld-geologist, who works in northern lati- 

 tudes, soon comes to know what is meant by Drift, 

 In his attempts to trace the superposition and run across 

 the country of the soUd rocks, he is always sooner or 

 later brought up by coming across masses of stony clay, 

 gravel, and sand, which burj" them to greater or less 

 depths, and more or less completely hide them from 

 view. These superficial accumulations lie indifferently 

 on all members of the bedded formations ; they occur 

 now in detached patches, and now spread like a pall over 

 vast tracts of country. 



In the latter case it is clear that they would soon make 

 their presence felt by the way in which they effectually 

 mask the geological structure of the ground they cover ; 

 it was impossible, therefore, that they could be for long 

 ignored altogether, but they seem for a time to have been 

 looked upon as something very inferior in interest and im- 

 portance to the older and more regular formations, in some 



