May 14, 1896] 



NA TURE 



27 



tions published by the (lerman Ciovcrnment in the year 

 1893, an abridged translation of which forms an appendix 

 to Mr. Hankin's book, they are sufficient for the purpose, 

 and are better adapted to Indian Cantonments. 



Chemical Experiments, General and Analytical. By 

 R. P. Williams. Pp. no. (Boston, U.S.A., and 

 London : Ginn and Co., 1895.) 



This is a practical, and, in some respects, an admirable, 

 manual for chemical laboratories. The experiments de- 

 scribed in the first half of the book instruct in metric 

 measurements, glass manipulation, physical changes, 

 chemical changes, and the preparation, properties and tests 

 for the non-metallic elements and of the most important 

 gaseous compounds. This part of the volume furnishes 

 a good introductory course of practical chemistry. In 

 the second part, the general and an;ilytical reactions for 

 metals are tabulated, the method adopted being to take 

 each metal of a group separately and give the analytical 

 reactions for it, and afterwards to treat the group in the 

 same way. As a whole, the book should prove of 

 service to students of analytical chemistry. Two features 

 possessed by it oftend the eye : one is the reformed 

 chemical orthography, such as sulfuric for sulphuric, 

 oxids for oxides, iodin for iodine, and so on ; the other 

 is the use of nearly sixty abbreviations, as, for instance, 

 in the following sentences. 



" Put into a t.t. or e.d. a thin piece of Cu, say i'"'"'- add 

 10 or 20 drops HNO^" (p. 19). 



"Put into a gen. (rec. or t.t.) 5^ FeS, lo""- H,0, and 

 5" HCl(orH.,S04)"(p. 42). , 



"Arrange the app. with inverted recs. as for the 

 hydrogen exp. " (p. 35). 



Something may perhaps be said for the free use of 

 abbreviations of this character by trained chemists, but 

 their introduction in a book for young students is apt to 

 lead to slovenly habits. 



Traitc' de nu'canique gencrale. Par H. Resal. Deuxi^me 

 edition, entierement refondue. Tome premier et 

 deuxieme. Pp. 166 and 300. (Paris : Gauthier-Villars, 

 1895.) 

 In editing the first two volumes of the seven volumes 

 •which form M. Resal's "Traite de mdcanique," the 

 author has seized the opportunity of completing certain 

 subjects in the seventh volume, to which he directs atten- 

 tion in his preface. The scope of this treatise is so very 

 ^reat, covering all the ground of modern Theoretical and 

 Applied Mechanics, that the author is debarred from 

 entering into much detail. Thus, for instance, such a 

 large subject as Hydrodynamics, including Hydraulics 

 and Sound, is polished off in about sixty pages. 



The work is obviously intended to serve as a text-book 

 n Government technical schools, in which the amount 

 of various knowledge required from a student is so great 

 that he does not allow himself to become interested in 

 details. G. 



Modern Stone-Cutting and Masonry. By John S. 

 Siebert, C.E., and F. C. Biggin, U.S. Pp. v -|- 47. 

 'New York: John Wiley and Sons. London: Chap- 

 man and Hall, Limited, 1896.) 

 Thi'. arts of stone-cutting and masonry, and their 

 applications in engineering and architectural practice 

 in the United States, are briefly tre.ited in this book, 

 with special reference to the making of working drawings. 

 The information given is of a thoroughly practical nature, 

 and the fourteen plates, containing dr.uvings of various 

 forms of buttresses and arches, furnisli useful examples 

 of actual masonry work. The book will be found 

 serviceable and instructive to students of the section of 

 vngineering and architecture described in it. 



NO 1385, YOL. 54] 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



\The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed by his correspondents. Neither can he ttnderlake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous cominunications.'\ 



Two Brilliant Meteors. 



On April 8 and 12, fine meteors were observed at various 

 places in England. 



The first of these appeared at about 8h. 21m. (April 8), and 

 descriptions of its apparent path have reached me from Croydon, 

 Kenley and Sutton in Surrey, also from Bridgwater, Reading 

 and Crowthorne. 



At Croydon the meteor was described by Mr. Salmon 

 as a beautiful one, passing from Arcturus to near a Cassiopeia?. 

 Duration, ten seconds. The nucleus divided into two frag- 

 ments. At Kenley Mr. Evershed noticed the meteor 

 travelling from Arcturus to ,8 Cassiopeia^. It finally broke 

 into fragments after a duration of five or six seconds. At 

 first it was not brighter than a second magnitude star, but 

 increased rapidly, so that at the end of its flight it was many 

 times brighter than Venus. Mr. Bawtree, of Sutton, describes 

 the path as from near /3 Draconis to 3 Cassiopei;e, and estimated 

 the duration as six to ten seconds. Mr. Corder, at Bridgwater, 

 saw the meteor through trees, and at a low altitude, so that it 

 did not appear to him brighter than Vega. Towards the end 

 the nucleus divided into three. Its path was from 225° 4-15" 

 to 260° 4- 40", and duration six .seconds. Mr. Saunder, at 

 Crowthorne, Berks, says the meteor was several times as bright 

 as Jupiter, and that before its disappearance the head was in 

 several distinct pieces. Its path was from S Bootis to near 

 6 Cephei. Mr. Davis, at Reading, describes the meteor as 

 being equal to Venus, and passing in twelve seconds from near 

 Arcturus to the point 340° 4- 57". It broke up into fragments 

 at the end. 



The second meteor appeared on April 12 at 8h. 6m., and I 

 have accounts of it from Greenwich, Wellingborough, Bridg- 

 water, Stokesay, Nottingham, West Malvern, Southport, 

 Slough, Dunstable, Lochwinnoch, Kenfrew.shire, and several 

 other places. At Greenwich, Mr. Dyson estimated the meteor 

 as four times as bright as Jupiter, and describes the end 

 part of its flight as being about 1 5° below the pole from W. to 

 E. Mr. Tatman, of Wellingborough, says the meteor passed 

 from N.E. to S.E., and occupied 12 seconds in its transit, 

 ultimately disappearing behind a dark cloud. At Bridgwater the 

 meteor moved from about 30° altitude in N. to 15° in N.E. , 

 and appeared to be about the size of the moon in one of her 

 quarters. Mr. C. E. Clough, at Southport, says the meteor 

 fell vertically about 15" to the right of Arcturus. In bright- 

 ness it was estimated to equal two full moons. When first 

 seen it was about 60' high, and it disappeared at an altitude of 

 about 10' or 15°. At Nottingham, Mr. J. T. Wood says the 

 meteor crossed the zenith, and was last seen near 6 Virginis. It 

 was ten nmes as bright as Jupiter. At Oxford, Mr. Robinson 

 gives the time as 8h. 6m., and describes its course as from 

 7|° -I- 60° to 2574° -t- 37°. Its duration was six .seconds, and 

 Ihe meteor equalled and probably excelled Jupiter in brilliancy. 

 At Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, -Mr. P. Dewar noticed the 

 meteor at Sh. 4^m., and says its motion appeared slow, lasting 

 for four or five seconds. Its direction was from S.E. to E., and 

 it disappeared near the horizon. At Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, 

 the object was seen to come from the west, travel to N.E. and 

 be lost towards E. The observations at Stokesay and West 

 Malvern appear in Nature of April 23, p. 581. I have a lew 

 other descriptions, and they are in satisfactory agreement. 



The real paths of the two meteors appear to have been as 



April 6, 8h. 



Height : 

 Position 

 Height I 

 Position 



T.ength of observed path 



Velocity per second 



Earth point 



Radiant point 



Inclination of meteor's descent 



S. border Leicester- 



Insh Sea 

 204" - 9° 



April J 



118 miles 

 Formby, Lancashire 



34 miles 

 Doddington, Camb. 



Woodbridge, Suffolk. 

 5"' 4- 4=' 



