402 



NA TURE 



[August 27, 1896 



and art museum of palatial dimensions at a cost of over a 

 quarter of a million, and while thus recognising the need of a 

 central building, adequate to the exposition of science and art 

 in its broadest sense, they have endeavoured to meet the natural 

 requirements of an extensive city by establishing subsidiary 

 museums in various parks and open spaces, the latest of these 

 being the Camphill Gallery in Queen's Park, devoted at present 

 to special exhibitions. In his presidential address Mr. James 

 Paton, Curator of the Galleries and Museums, gave an 

 interesting account of their foundation and progress. The 

 papers read at the meeting included such practical subjects as 

 descriptive labels for geological collections, by H. Bolton, 

 electrotypes in Natural History Museums, by F. A. Bather ; 

 Type specimens in Botanical Museums, by E. M. Holmes ; 

 Chemistry in Museums, by George W. Ord ; illustrated 

 lectures in Museums, by Thomas Rennie ; the lighting of 

 Museums, by Thomas White ; and a paper by F. A. Bather, on 

 how may Museums best retard the advance of science, in 

 which in a satirical vein he pointed out how the storage or even 

 exhibition of specimens is not necessarily conducive to the 

 elucidation of their history and structure. In addition to the 

 various Glasgow museums, the members of the Association 

 paid a visit to Perth, on the invitation of the Lord Provost, and 

 they there had the opportunity of inspecting, under the able 

 guidance of Mr. Henry Coates and Mr. Alexander M. Rodger, 

 one of the most recent, as it is the most interesting and 

 attractive, museums of a purely local character that has ever 

 been formed in Britain. 



The interest of Prof. Ewart's experimental stud at Penicuik, 

 Midlothian, was increased, a few days ago, by the arrival of a 

 hybrid between a male Burchell's zebra {Eijims bitrthelli) and 

 3.mAxe(Eiiitiis cabaltiis). Though the mare is jet black, the 

 foal, except over the hind-quarters, has as many bands as its 

 zebra parent. The bands are fawn-coloured, the background 

 nearly black. But though the hybrid by its stripes suggests the 

 zebra, in form it closely resembles an extremely well-bred foal. 

 Should the mare have a foal to Prof. Ewart's Arab horse 

 " Benazrek," provided with stripes and other zebra-like features, 

 an important step will have been made in justifying breeders in 

 beheving in Telegony, or, as it is familiarly called, "the infec- 

 tion of the germ." When the present hybrid colt and the hybrids 

 expected next summer reach maturity, it will be alike interesting 

 and important to ascertain whether they are fertile with each 

 other, and with pure horses, zebras, and asses. 



In a very interesting paper on the geology of Novaya Zemlya 

 {Izvestia of the Russian Geographical Society, i8g6, i.). Prof. 

 Chernysheff points out the difference which exists between the 

 middle parts of the island and its southern part. The latter, 

 which must be considered as a continuation of the Pai-kho, or 

 northern Ural ridge, is a plateau consisting of Lower Permian 

 deposits (Artinsk layers) stretching north-west ; while in the 

 north of Bezymyannaya Bay (72° 40') the island consists of an 

 Alpine region, rising to an altitude of 4000 feet, and is built up 

 of Devonian rocks, stretching north-east, and intersected by 

 deep transversal valleys of aqueous origin, such as Matochkin 

 Shar, and .several others. It may be added to this fundamental 

 fact, fully established by M. Chernysheff, that we should thus 

 find in Novaya Zemlya a repetition of what is seen further south 

 in the Urals, which also consist of plateaus stretching north- 

 west, and of chains of mountains having a north-eastern direction. 

 The whole of the island has been extensively glaciated. Immense 

 moraines have been accumulated at levels which are much 

 higher than those on which we now findyfrH-fields in the south, 

 and in the north big moraines are found, where there are no gla- 

 ciers at the present time, or only very small ones. The glaciation 

 of Novaya Zemlya was contemporaneous with the glaciation of 

 NO. 1400, VOL. 54] 



North Russia, and was followed by a period of subsidence, 

 during which an archipelago of small islands was all that 

 remained of the big island. Terraces of marine origin, containing 

 shells of molluscs now living in the Arctic Ocean, are admirably 

 well developed along the shores, up to an altitude of 160 metres 

 above the sea-level. At the present time the island is in a 

 period of upheaval, and its glaciers are again on the increase. 

 Large fields c>f Jim, in which the ice has the same structure .as 

 in glaciers, are spread over the southern plateau ; while further 

 north, in the Alpine tracts, young glaciers are being formed ; so 

 that if the same conditions continue to prevail, the island will 

 become again the ice wilderness it formerly was. 



Prok. a W. Rucker contributes to the July number of 

 Terrestrial Magnetism a summary of the results of the recent 

 magnetic survey of Great Britain and Ireland, conducted by 

 Dr. Thorpe and himself. Prof. Riicker presents his valuable sum- 

 mary under three heads, (i) On the accuracy of the delineation 

 of the terrestrial isomagnetic lines. (2) On the accuracy of the 

 determination of the local disturbing magnetic forces. (3) 

 On the relation between the magnetic and the geological 

 constitution of Great Britain and Ireland. Illustrations 

 accompany the article. An investigation of magnetic dis- 

 turbances during the interval 1890-95, as taken from the records 

 of the Potsdam magnetograph, is described by G. Liideling. 

 For this interval the author fails to find a marked relationship 

 between the annual curve of sun-spot frequency and the annual 

 variation of magnetic disturbances. There is, however, a close 

 correspondence in the diurnal and in the annual variation of the 

 disturbances and of polar lights as observed at Oxford. 



The mode by which light and Rcintgen rays are able to bring 

 about the discharge of an electrified surface, is discussed by Dr. 

 Oliver Lodge in Scieiue Progress. Experiments were carried 

 out by him with the object of testing the presence of metallic 

 particles or vapour near an electrified metal rapidly discharging 

 under the action of light. The results lead to the conclusion 

 " that the discharge of electricity from illuminated surfaces is not 

 effected by evaporation of those surfaces, but that the molecules, 

 which convey the charge, belong to something in the gas, and 

 not to the illuminated bod)'." It is suggested that the discharge 

 of an electrified surface by Rontgen rays— an action which 

 seems to be brought about by the conversion of the gas, or other 

 insulating material, near the charged body into a conductor — is 

 probably effected " by dissociating the substances into charged 

 atoms which are then free to act as carriers, and speedily convey 

 to a distance the charge of an electrified body by journeys along 

 the lines of force. It may be that ultra-violet light acts in 

 somewhat the same way, but not in exactly the same way." 

 As to the nature of the rays, everything now indicates them to 

 be transverse vibrations, and Dr. Lodge thinks their wave" 

 lengths are not much greater than the size of atoms. 



Prof. Vicentini, whose microseismograph has been noticed 

 several times in these columns, has recently erected at Padua an 

 important modification of his instrument. His original micro- 

 seismograph at Siena consists of a pendulum whose bob remains 

 nearly steady during rapid vibrations, and the movements of the 

 ground are magnified, first by a vertical lever, and still further 

 by two horizontal levers at right angles to one another. In this 

 form, it is most useful for giving the times of the different phases 

 of a disturbance ; but, owing to the comparatively small velocity 

 {2 mm. per minute) of the paper on which the movements are 

 recorded, it furnishes but little information as to the direction 

 of the displacements. At the suggestion of Dr. Pacher, the 

 pair of horizontal levers has been replaced by a small and very 

 light pantagraph ; the weight of the bob has also been increased 

 from 50 to 100 kg., the length of the pendulum from i'50to 



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