May 14. 1896] 



NA TURE 



41 



Uinity of adding to their returns, and will not once more allow 

 the foreigner to develop a system originally devised in this 

 country. 



In the discussion on the paper, several steel makers, who had 

 seen Mr. Darby's plant in operation, spoke as to the excellent 

 way in which the furnace worked when using gas which had 

 been treated for the extraction of the ammonia. 



I'rof. Koherts-.\usten next gave a brief address on the diffu- 

 sion of carbon in iron, he not having prepared a paper in the 

 usual way. The subject has recently been described by the same 

 author in the Bakerian Lecture of the Royal Society and will 

 shortly be treated in these columns ; it is therefore unnecessary 

 for us to go into the matter on the present occasion. 



The remainder of the sitting was almost wholly occupied by 

 the reading and discussion of M. Osmond's and Mr. Howe's 

 papers, the paper of M. de Benneville being taken as read. It 

 would be impossible at the end of a report of this nature to deal 

 with the highly controversial matters which form the subject of 

 these two papers ; and indeed, without the introduction of the 

 micro-sections supplied by Mr. Howe, the matter would not be 

 intelligible. The allotropic theory of the hardening of steel, 

 which has already caused so much discussion, did not appear to 

 be carried very much further on Thursday last, or, at any rate, 

 the majority of those present at the meeting did not seem to 

 sec their way much further towards the end of the problem. M. 

 Osmond welcomes Mr. Howe as a friend and ally. He looks 

 on the latter's carbo-allotropic theory as not antagonistic to his 

 own. The discussion was confined principally to Prof. Arnold 

 and Mr. Hadfield, who are the chief opponents of the school 

 represented principally by M. Osmond and Prof. Roberts- 

 .\usten, nosv, we suppose, with Mr. Howe as an ally. 



The summer meeting of the Institute is this year of an 

 unusually ambitious nature, and will be held in September in 

 Bilbao, a steamer having been chartered for the conveyance of 

 members to that port. The vessel is the Orient liner Orntiiz, 

 which will also serve as a floating hotel for members during the 

 meeting. 



A REMARKABLE DUST-STORM. 

 'Y'WY. .Vmerican journal £/tY/r/c2/j' for February 19 contains 

 an account of an unusual kind of storm which occurred in 

 January of this year. The details were communicated by L. 

 U. Korty, telegraph superintendent of the Union Pacific System, 

 of Omaha, Neb. It was on the telegraph lines of this system 

 between Weber and Peterson, Utah, that considerable difficulty 

 was experienced in working, owing, as it is slated, to the peculiar 

 character of the storm in question. The description is as 

 follosvs : — 



" On the afternoon of January 16, a very peculiar rain-storm 

 occurred in Eastern Utah and Western Wyoming, along the 

 Union Pacific Railway, extending from Ogden, Utah, to 

 Eranston, Wyoming, a distance of 75 miles. The rain con- 

 sisted of salt water or brine. The clothing of persons exposed 

 to the shower had, when dry, the appearance of having been 

 sprinkled with whitewash. The windows in the stores and 

 residences at Evanston were so encrusted with salt deposit as 

 to make it impossible to look out. Dr. C. T. Ciamble, of Alniy, 

 Wyo., a gentleman of undoubted trustworthiness, states that the 

 storm deposited in Almy alone 27 tons of salt. ' This assertion 

 may appear fabulous,' says the doctor, ' but nevertheless is true, 

 as it has been proved by carefully estimating the quantity on a 

 given surface in different jiarts of the camp. The area of Almy 

 is something over nine miles, and three tons to the mile would 

 make 27 tons of the sodium deposited. The salt if collected 

 and sacked would make ten ordinary wagon-loads. Those who 

 doubt the above statements, go to figuring.' 



" The salt-storm lasted about two hours. After it had ceased 

 raining, the sun came out, and as fast as things dried they 

 turned a whitjsh colour, and it was found that everything was 

 covered with a thick coating of salt. Cars, buildings, trees, 

 telegraph poles, insulators and wires all looked ghastly in their 

 while coats. Through Weber Caiion the salt siorm turned into 

 snow later. A peculiar effect of the salt deposit on the telegraph 

 poles, arms and insulators through Weber Can^n was noticed in 

 operating the wires. During the day. when the sun came out, 

 the wires worked clear and without interrupt!' .n, while at night, 

 when it turned cold, the wires were remkrod unserviceable, 

 which was attributed to the fact that the .snow , having melted, 



NO. 1385, VOL. 54J 



some during the daytime and again freezing at night, created a 

 moisture in conjunction with the salt deposit underneath, 

 so as to entirely destroy the insulation of the wires. After 

 several unsuccessful attempts to reniove the cause of the trouble, 

 an engine with a pump and long hose was sent over the line, and 

 the deposit thoroughly washed oft' the poles and fixtures for a 

 distance of 40 miles. The wires of the Rio Grande Western 

 Railroad between Ogden and Salt Lake City were slightly 

 affected in the same way, as were also those of the Southern 

 Pacific for a short distance west of Ogden." 



It has been suggested, as an explanation of the facts, that 

 the salt was raised in vapour over Great Salt Lake, and was 

 carried by the wind and deposited over the country for many 

 miles to the eastward. This, of course, could not have happened,, 

 as salt could iwl be raised in vapour. It seems likely, however, 

 that the white residue may have had the appearance of salt, 

 but was not actually salt. Would not a more reasonable 

 explanation be that fine white dust in the region about the 

 lake may have been carried into the upper regions by the wind, 

 and after traversing some miles brought to earth again owing to 

 the condensation of the vapour surrounding them ? 



SCIENCE IN THE MAGAZINES. 

 "^pHLS month's magazines contain numerous arlicles on 

 scientific topics or with scientific bearings. Rontgen 

 photography naturally forms the theme of several contributions. 

 The Quarterly Review contains a .short descriptive account of 

 methods employed, results obtained, and theories propounded, 

 and even blossoms into illustrations reproduced from radio- 

 graphs taken by Mr. A. A. C. Swinton. The Century 

 Magazine has "a Sympcsium on the Rontgen Rays," the writers 

 being T. C. Martin, R. W. Wood, Elihu Thomson, Sylv.anus 

 P. Thomp.son, J. C. McLennan, W. J. Morton, and Thimias 

 A. Edison. The result of this composite article is vain 

 repetition of experimental conditions, and a confusion of 

 tongues ; Prof. Thompson referring to pictures obtained by 

 Rontgen rays as " sciographs," while other writers describe 

 them as "shadowgraphs," and all the illustrations are designated 

 " cathodgr.aphs. " 



Dr. St. George Mivart writes on " Life from the Lost 

 Atlantis " in the Fortnightly, his paper being concerned chiefly 

 in pointing out the significance of the discovery of Canolestes 

 obscurus, a still-existing survivor of Ameghino's Epanorthid.-e, 

 and the representative of a new family of recent marsupials, 

 described by Mr. Oldfield Thomas before the Zoological Society 

 on December 17, 1895. 



" This little, apparently insignificant, mouse-like creature," 

 to quote the author, "turns out to be an animal of extreme 

 interest, for it affords strong evidence that what we now know 

 as South America and Australia must have been connected, 

 and the Atlantic at least bridged by dry land, if even an 

 Antarctic continent may not have existed, of which South 

 America and Australia are divergent and diverse outgrowths." 



iSIr. G. E. Boxall puts forward, in the Contemporary, the 

 view that the vast sedimentary plains of Australia, which thirty 

 years ago were so "rotten" that no stock could be kept upon 

 them, have been trampled into compactness by large herds of 

 cattle and sheep. He gives reasons for believing the dry plains 

 of Western Australia to be similar to those described by Oxley 

 and others as once existing in the delta of the Murray, where 

 about one hundred millions of sheep are now pastured, besides 

 large herds of cattle and horses ; and therefore he thinks that the 

 present sandy plains will sooner or later be consolidated and 

 rendered secure for stock. He concludes : 



" The plains of Australia are, from the accounts given of them 

 by explorers in all parts of the continent, singularly alike, and if 

 the plains of Northern and Western Australia can be consolidated 

 by the trampling of stock, as I believe those of the eastern 

 districts have been, the time is not far distant when the word 

 ' desert ' may be wiped oft" the map of Australia, and the true 

 character of its vast plains become more generally understood 

 and appreciated." 



Psychologists will be interested in a paper by Mr. Havelock 

 Ellis, in the same review, on ' ' The Colour-Sense in Literature.' 

 Mr. Ellis has examined the works of a series of imaginative 

 writers, usually poets, dating from the dawn of literature to the 

 present time, and has noted the main colour-words that occur, 

 and has also noted how these words are used. His paper 



