344 



NATURE 



[Mar. 5, 1874 



W. to 42° 10' W. It certainly must appear singular to geographers 

 that the limits of the best-known stream in the world should be 

 so ill-defined ; but the temperature of the sea at the places 

 marked in the chart cannot suddenly change 12° from any other 

 cause than the irruption of the Gulf-stream or the ordinary 

 waters of the ocean. Had it occurred in a single season only, 

 the correctness of the observations might have been impugned ; 

 but extending, as they do, over several years, their accuracy can- 

 not be challenged. 



It is the opinion of many that the Gulf-stream is extending its 

 boundaries northward, and ameliorating the climate of the British 

 islands. Such an assumption is not an impossibiUty, although 

 there are no changes of volume or velocity at its outlet into the 

 Atlantic. There are, however, grounds for believing that the 

 Labrador current does not run with its former force, as icebergs 

 are seldom seen south of the parallel of 43° 30' north latitude. 

 Observation can alone confirm this theory, but whether correct 

 or not it in nowise affects the accuracy of my data. 



Wm. W. Kiddle 

 U.S. White Star Mail Steamship Oceanic, Feb. 2 

 [We have received a chart from Mr. Kiddle ; but it is too 

 large for insertion in Nature.] 



A Lecture Experiment 



Mr. Tait's letter in Nature of February 26 calls to mind an 

 effective lecture illustration I have used in my classes to illus- 

 trate a fog or cloud produced by cooling air containing moisture. 

 Instead of using an air-pump as described in " Heat, a mode 

 of Motion," take a flask of one or two litres capacity, rinse it 

 out with distilled water, and attach to the neck a cork and glass 

 tube of about twenty or thirty centimetres in length. Place the 

 glass tube in the mouth and exhaust, when a dense cloud will be 

 formed ; then on blowing into the flask the cloud disappears. 

 The cloud may be produced and dissolved as often as wished, 

 and if a beam from the oxy-hydrogen light be sent through the 

 flask, the experiment becomes very effective. 



Midland Institute, Birmingham C. J. Woodward 



The " Treasury of Botany " 

 It might be inferred from your notice of the new edition of the 

 "Treasury of Botany " (Nature, vol. ix. p. 300) that the stereo- 

 typed pages of the original text of that work — of which you are 

 pleased to speak in terms of commendalion — had been reprinted 

 without alteration. Will you allow me space to state that this 

 is by no means the case (as indeed is stated in the preface), but 

 that a large number of corrections have been made, as may be 

 detected-by a keen eye in consequence of the slight difference 

 which is observable in the type w^here the alteration has extended 

 over two or three lines or more. Hence it is not to the Supple- 

 ment alone that the reader must look for such of the "additions 

 to botanical knowledge made during the last eight years " as it 

 has been found practicable to include in the revised edition. 



Thos. Moore 



[We are glad of the opportunity afforded by the foregoing 

 letter of repeating our opinion, already expressed, that in the 

 department of botanical nomenclature and classification, the new 

 edition of the " Treasury of Botany " is an altogether admirable 

 and indispensable work. It is in this department only, or almost 

 exclusively, that the corrections alluded to by Mr. Moore — and 

 to which we perhaps ought to have called special attention— have 

 been made, at least as far as we have been able to detect. We 

 regret that we cannot withdraw from our statement that the 

 same care has not been taken with the histological and physio- 

 logical section. We might quote a number of instances in sup- 

 port of this assertion — a very ungracious task in speaking of a work 

 so excellent in other respects — but will only refer to a single one. 

 Notwithstanding that a very good and useful epitome of the more 

 important properties of "Cellulose " is given in the Supplement, 

 the statement is allowed to stand in the article in the body of the 

 work, that "its composition, according to the latest analysis, is 

 C„4H.>„Oi„ " a formula which does not, and never did, even 

 under the old notation, represent anything near its composition. 

 —A. W. B.] 



The Moons of Uranus 

 In your " Notes, " this week, it is stated that since Mr. Lassell's 

 observations at Malta, no one has seen the four moons of Uranus, 



until the re-discovery of the two small ones lately with the new 

 Washington telescope. 



In 1869-70, the planet was observed with the Melbourne re- 

 flector ; the observations were specially directed to the disc, but 

 at the same time the positions of the four satellites were noted 

 on successive nights and thus identified. 



I speak from memory, but have no doubt that the observations 

 are to be found in the Melbourne records. The statement " have 

 actually been measured by Prof. Newcomb," probably refers to 

 position, angle, and distance. 



March i L. S. 



MEN OF SCIENCE, THEIR NATURE AND 

 THEIR NURTURE* 



THE lecturer spoke of the qualities by which the 

 English men of science of the present day were 

 characterised ; he showed the possibility of defining and 

 measuring the amount of any of those c[ualities, and con- 

 cluded by summarising the opinions of the scientific men 

 on the merits and demerits of their own education, 

 and gave his interpretation of what, according to their 

 own showing, they would have preferred. His data were 

 obtained from a large collection of autobiographical notes, 

 most obligingly communicated to him, in response to his 

 requests, from the larger part of the leading members of 

 the scientific world. He had addressed i So, who, being 

 Fellows of the Royal Society, had, in addition, gained 

 medals or filled posts of recognised scientific position ; 

 115 answers had already been received, of which 80 or 90 

 were full and minute replies to his long and varied series 

 of questions. He dealt with only a small part of his 

 deductions from this valuable material, referring to a 

 forthcoming work for the rest. 



Regarding the chief qualities in the order of their pre- 

 valence among the scientific men, they were — (i) Energy 

 both of body and mind ; (2) Good health ; (3) Great in- 

 dependence of character ; (4) Tenacity of purpose ; (5) 

 Practical business habits ; and (6) What was usually the 

 salt of the whole, strong innate tastes for science gene- 

 rally or some branch of it. He illustrated his remarks by 

 reading many anonymous extracts from the returns, and 

 explained in what way a notable deficiency in any of the 

 above-mentioned qualities would tend to disqualify a man 

 from succeeding in science. 



As to the measurement of qualities, it was argued that 

 the law of constancy in vital statistics might be taken for 

 granted, being evidenced by the experience of insurance 

 offices against fire, death, shipwreck, and other contingen- 

 cies, always with the proviso that the facts are gathered 

 with discretion, on well-known general principles. Hence 

 we may say with assurance, that although two common 

 nuts may differ, yet the contents of different packets, each 

 containing 1,000 nuts, will be scarcely distinguishable, for 

 the same number of nuts of different sizes will be found in 

 each. Let the contents of the several packets be each 

 arranged in a long row, in order of size, beginning with 

 the biggest nut and ending with the smallest, and place the 

 rows rank behind rank ; then by the law of statistical 

 constancy the nuts in the same files will in all cases be 

 closely alike (except the outside ones, where more irregu- 

 larity prevails). Again, if we incorporate two rows into 

 one of double length, still preserving the arrangement as 

 to regular gradation in size, the centre nuts of the two 

 original series will still be found at or near the centre of 

 the compound series, the nuts in quarter positions will 

 still be in quarter positions, and so on. Hence, whatever 

 be the length of the series the ichUive position in it of 

 the nut will be a strict criterion of its size. This is of 

 course equally true of all groups of qualities or characters 



• Lecture on Friday evening, Feb. 27, at the Royal Institution, by Fraiici 

 Gallon, F.R.S. 



