August 13, 1896J 



jV.-l TURE 



353 



At the conclusion of a lecture on the transformation of the 

 energy of carbon into other available forms, recently delivered 

 before the Franklin Institute by Mr. C. J. Reed, the Jacques 

 cell, described in a note in these columns on July 30 (p. 29S), 

 was referred to. Several experiments were performed to show 

 that the cell is a thermo-electric one. " It was shown (we quote 

 the Society's Journal) that, at low temperatures, while the 

 caustic alkali contained considerable water, the carbon was 

 IMsitive to the iron ; but that at a high temperature, after the 

 alkali had become highly dehydrated, the carbon was negative 

 to the iron. The carbon rod was replaced, successively, by 

 rods of brass, copper, derman-silver, and iron, without appre- 

 ciably affecting the result, and a current of illuminating gas was 

 passed into the fused alkali in place of the current of air em- 

 ployed by Jacques. The result was unchanged, showing that 

 the action of the current of air was not t'l produce oxidation, but 

 to cool the upper layer of the alkali." 



If the stability of a nation is measured by the amount of care 

 bestowed upon forests, the power of Clermany is not likely to 

 decline. -Mr. (1. A. Daubeny contributes to Nature A'otes a 

 chatty account of forestry in Germany, where more than twenty- 

 five per cent, of the land is covered with trees. In Prussia, 

 twenty-three per cent, is forest ; but in England the proportion 

 of forest land is small — only four per cent. There is quite an 

 army of foresters in Germany — about twelve thousand in all — 

 and, as is well known, these officials receive a thorough training 

 in all the branches of their subject. Mr. Daubeny ascribes the 

 decayed power of Syria, of Greece, and of .Spain to the neglect 

 of their forests, and urges the afforestation of land as a means of 

 developing national resources. " Den Wald zu pflegen, bringt 

 alien Segen," says a German proverb ; and even if the care of 

 forests does not bring every good, it adds considerably to the 

 wealth of a nation. 



U.V'DER the title "Publications of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution," by Mr. W. J. Rhees, a list of a number of papers 

 printed from the Institution's Contributions to Knowlerlge, 

 Miscellaneous Collections, and Annual Reports, for sale or 

 exchange, has been issued. The papers are classified according 

 to a comprehensive scheme of subjects, and are fully indexed. 

 Every student of science will find in the list works which he 

 will be anxious to possess. 



We have received from Messrs. Marcus Ward and Co. a 

 small portfolio of forty coloured prints of common native and 

 introduced plants found in Manitoba. There is no explanatory 

 letter-press, and nothing to show whether there are more to 

 come or not. All we can say for them is that the figures are 

 tolerably well drawn, though often crudely coloured. Still they 

 are recognisable, and may prove serviceable to persons who 

 wish to know the names of plants growing in their neighbour- 

 hood. 



Local scientific societies keep alive the spirit of inquiry, but 

 they often err on the side of dilettantism. We are afraid the 

 Pro.iiedtngs of the Bath Natural History ami Antiquarian Field 

 Club comes into this categor)-, for though the number (vol. viii. 

 No. 3) just received contains a helpful paper by Mr. A. Smith 

 Woodward on the collection of fossil fishes from the Upper Lias 

 of Ilminster, in the Bath Museum, and some notes of local 

 antiquarian interest, there is also a description of an excursion to 

 witness a diviner's experiments in water-finding. It would be 

 well if societies like that at Bath would help more seriously to 

 extend natural knowledge than many of them do at present. 



T\V(i ponderous volumes of the " Pala;ontologia Indica " — a 

 publication which, as every geologist knows, is devoted to the 

 description and illustration of organic remains procured during 

 NO. 1 398, VOL. 54] 



the progress of the geological survey of India — have lately 

 reached us. In one of them (Series xiii. vol. ii. part i.). Dr. 

 William Waagen continues his work on " Salt-Range Fossils" 

 by descriptions of the fossil contents of the Ceratite beds. These 

 beds are believed to represent the Trias of Europe, but it is not 

 po.ssible to say exactly what parts of the Trias are represented 

 by them, though Dr. Waagen's contribution will enable the 

 question to be profitably discussed. The fossils which are 

 obtained from the Ceratite formation of the Salt-Range are 

 chiefly Cephalopoda, only a few remains of fishes having been 

 found. The present volume contains the determinations of the 

 genera of the few specimens available, but by far the greater 

 part of it is devoted to the Ammonoids. The specific descrip- 

 tions of the fossils, and the remarkably fine plates which 

 illustrate them, will prove of prime importance in the further 

 consideration of the classification of that order. In the defini- 

 tion of the genera and families treated by Dr. Waagen, the 

 groups are minutely characterised, but the developmental 

 connection is only kept in sight so far as it has been demon- 

 strated. It is held that, in the present state of our knowledge, 

 it is undesirable to do more than arrange the single genera 

 according to their affinities in smaller groups, or families. 

 Dr. Waagen's memoir will, however, enable the developmental 

 relations to be more fully worked out than has previously been 

 possible. 



The second memoir referred to in the foregoing note belongs 

 to Series xv. of the ' ' Pakieontologia Indica. " In it Dr. Carl Diener 

 describes "The Cephalopoda of the Muschelkalk." The volume 

 is a monograph on the Cephalopoda of the Muschelkalk — a 

 distinct geological horizon in the Himalayan Trias, regarded by 

 Dr. E. von Mojsisovics as a connecting-link between the 

 triassic Mediterranean and Arctic-Pacific provinces. Dr. 

 Diener has used a wealth of paUeontological materials in 

 preparing his work, and his interpretation of them is a valuable , 

 contribution to the knowledge of the triassic fauna of the 

 Himalayas. In a third publication to which we must call atten- 

 tion (Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, vol. xxvii. part 

 i), Dr. F. Noetling describes ".Some Marine Fo.ssils from the 

 Miocene of Upper Burma." Sixty-nine species are described, 

 and fifty-one have been determined. From these identifications 

 it is seen that the fauna represents a marked Indian facies, 

 slightly sprinkled with a more Southern element from Java. 



At the beginning of last year it was decided by the United 

 States Congress that future annual reports of the Department 

 of Agriculture should be divided into two volumes : first, an 

 executive and business report; and second, a volume "specially 

 suited to interest and instruct the farmers of the country," 

 made up of papers from the Department bureaus and divisions. 

 This latter volume ("Yearbook of the Department of Agri- 

 culture, 1895") li^5 recently been distributed, and it will un- 

 doubtedly extend agricultural knowledge in the United States. 

 In the first place, the volume contains a general report of the 

 operations of the Department during 1895. Then there is a 

 series of thirty-three essays by experts, discussing in easy 

 language the results of investigations in agricultural science and 

 new developments in farm practice. As years go on, successive 

 issues of Yearbooks of this kind will give farmers a good library 

 covering the applications of science to practical agriculture. In 

 an appendix, a large amount of miscellaneous information, taken 

 from the reports of the Department, is presented with especial 

 regard to the agricultural reader. It is impossible for us even 

 to enumerate the many papers contained in the volume. 

 Valuable data, facts of interest, recipes, directions with regard 

 to agricultural practice, and descriptions of the relation of 

 forests to farms, insect pests, principles of pruning, soil fer- 

 ments, common birds of the farm and garden, and co-operative 



