4feo 



NA TURE 



[October 14, 1909 



and suitable preliminary training for the students. 

 Tenders for the extension of the college have been accepted 

 by the City Council, and the building is now in course of 

 erection. The scheme provides for an entirely new build- 

 ing for the department of textile industries, which is to 

 be equipped with complete plants for the carding, comb- 

 ing, and weaving of textiles. There is also to be pro- 

 vided a small practical dyeing and finishing plant, capable 

 of dealing with the material produced in the textile depart- 

 ment. The committee has further decided to erect a 

 power house equipped with various types of modern power- 

 producing plant arranged for experimental use. These 

 extensions constitute the most important developments of 

 the institution within recent years, and, when completed, 

 will place the college in the front rank as regards the 

 facilities offered to students for experimental work in the 

 textile and engineering industries. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, October 4. — M. Bouchard in the 

 chair. — A method permitting the measurement of the 

 effective temperatures of the stars. First results : Charles 

 Nordmann. A development of the photometric method 

 described by the author in a previous paper. Values are 

 given for fifteen stars, ranging from 2980° C. for the 

 absolute effective temperature of p Perseus, 5990° C. for 

 the sun, to >6o,ooo for \ Taurus. It is noted that the 

 numbers found, with slight exceptions, are arranged in 

 the order predicted by Sir Norman Lockyer from considera- 

 tions based on the appearance of the enhanced lines of 

 the spectrum. — The hypergeometric equation : Mme. V. 

 Myller-Lebedeff. — The differential equations the general 

 integral of which is uniform and admits mobile essential 

 singularities : J. Chazy. — The measurement of high 

 pressures deduced from the variations of resistance of con- 

 ductors submitted to the pressures to be measured : A. 

 Lafay. The change of resistance with pressure has been 

 studied for platinum, mercury, and manganin. The first 

 of these is not practicable for pressure measurements, since 

 the temperature coefficient is more than 1900 times the 

 pressure coefficient, and there are variations with different 

 wires. Mercury gives more satisfactory results, but on 

 account of its low temperature coefficient manganin is 

 better. — The thermal properties of silver nitrate : M. 

 Cuinchant. Cryoscopic determinations with solutions of 

 the nitrates of lithium, potassium, and thallium in fused 

 silver nitrate gave cryoscopic constants agreeing closely 

 with that deduced from the latent heat of fusion. Deter- 

 minations were also made with lead nitrate, silver chloride, 

 iodide, fluoride, iodate, and sulphate. — The examination of 

 essence of turpentine : Paul Nicolardot and Louis 

 Clement. Mixtures of pure essences with known quanti- 

 ties of resin oil, petrol, and white spirit were made, frac- 

 tionally distilled both under ordinary and reduced pressure, 

 and the physical properties of the fractions measured. — 

 The decomposition of silver tetrachlorplatinate by water, 

 and the preparation of fulminating platinum : Jules 

 Jacobsen. — The magnetic disturbance and aurora borealis 

 of September 25, 1909 : Alfred Angrot. This magnetic 

 disturbance is the greatest that has been observed since 

 the commencement of observations at the Parc-Saint-Maur 

 Observatory in 1883. 



New South Wales. 

 Linnean Society, August 25. — Mr. T. Steel, vice president, 

 in the chair. — Contribution to a knowledge of Australian 

 Hirudinea, part iii. : E. J. Goddard. Three species are 

 dealt with : — Glossiphonia inlermedia, n.sp., from a creek 

 near Fairfield ; G. heteroclita, a European and North 

 American form, now recorded as Australian also ; and the 

 common species, usually known as Hirudo quinqueslriata, 

 Schmarda, but which should bear the name Limnobdella 

 auftralis, Bosisto, of which no adequate account had been 

 published. — .Vustralian fresh-water Polyzoa, part i. : E. J. 

 Goddard. Six named species, representing six genera 

 (including Alcyonella), and several unnamed forms, have 

 been recorded from Australia and New Zealand, of which 

 three species are endemic : — VicforcUa pavida, Sav. Kent ; 

 Lophopus Icndenfeldi, Ridley ; Pahidicella ehrenbcrgii, van 

 Beneden (New Zealand, teste Hamilton) ; Pliimatclla 



NO. 2085, VOL. 81] 



ApUiiii, McGiUivray; P. princeps, Kraepelin ; P. sp., and 

 Alcyonella sp. To these are now added Fredericella 

 australiensis, n.sp., which grows luxuriously in the screen- 

 ing tank at Potts' Hill Reservoir, near Rookwood, and 

 also in the 72-inch main from the end of the lower canal 

 to Potts' Hill. — Mollusca from the Hope Islands, North 

 Queensland : C. Hedley. In continuation of former in- 

 vestigations as to the coral-reef fauna of Queensland, the , 

 author organised another party to examine the reefs several I 

 degrees further north. _ The ' exact position selected was 

 close to the scene of Captain Cook's misfortunes in the 

 Endeavour. A week's work dredging and shore-collecting 

 provided a series of about seven hundred molluscs. Of 

 these, one hundred of the more interesting are discussed 

 in the present communication, about half of which are 

 introduced as new species. The novelties are distributed 

 among the genera Chlamys, Cuna, Rochefortia, Sportella, 

 Phacoides, Gafrarium, Chione, Tellina, Arcopagia, Semele, 

 Theora, Liotia, Cyclostrema, Obtortio, Triphora, Ceri- 

 thiopsis, Epitonium, Vermicularia, Odostomia, Turbonilla, 

 Glyphostoma, Eulima, Marginella, Mangilia, Nassaria, and 

 Retusa. 



DIARY OF SOCIETIES. 



FRfDAV, October 15. 

 Institution of Mechanical Engineers, at 8. 



IVEDNESDAV, October 20. 

 Entomological Society, at 8. 



Royal Microscopical Society, at 8. — On the Microscopical Structure of 

 an Inoceramus Limestone in the Queensland Cretaceous Rocks ; Frederick 

 Chapman. 



FRIDAY, O.TOBFR 22. 



Physical Society, at 5.— On Cadmium Amalgams and the Normal Weston 



Cell : F. E. Smith.— The Production of Helium from Uranium and 



Thorium : Frederick Soddy. — The Production of Radium from Uranium : 



Frederick Soddy.— Note on a Gravitational Problem : Dr. C. V. Burton. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Some Botanical Books 451 



Cla>working in the United States. By Dr. J. W. 



Mellor 452 



A Journey Across Venezuela and Colombia . . . 453 



A Study of Child life 454 



Our Book Shelf:— 



Karsten and Oltmanns : "Lehrbuch der Pharma- 



kognosie." — Prof. Henry G. Greenish ... 454 

 Hampson : " Catalrgue of the Lepidoptera Phalsna; in 



the British Museum " . -455 



Hatch and Corstorphine : " The Geology of South 



Africa" . • . .... 455 



Hayes: " H.-mdbook for Field Geologists" .... 455 

 Wilson: "Physiology: a Popular Account of the 



Functions of the Human Body." — W. D. H. . . 455 

 Letters to tBe Editor • — 



Magnetic Storms.— Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S. . . . 456 

 Magnetic Storms and Solar Eruptions. — Dr. C. Chree, 



F.R.S 456 



Fireball in Sunshine. — W. F. Denning 456 



The Mansfield Automatic Water Finder. — A. A. 



Campbell Swinton 45^ 



Movements of the Earth's Surface. (With Diagrams.] 457 



Scientific Studies of Dew. ponds 45^ 



Artificial Parthenogenesis 459 



Notes 460 



Our Astronoirical Column: — 



Ephemeris for Halley's Comet, igogc (Illustrated.) 465 



Changes on Mars 4^5 



Remarkable Meteors 4^5 



The Ursa-Major System of Stars . . 4^5 



Search. ephemeris for Winnecke's Comet 465 



The Naluie of Solar FacuUx 4^5 



Ptrcy Sladen Memorial Expedition in South-west 

 Africa, 1908.9. (Illustrated.) By Prof. H. H. W. 



Pearson 466 



Researches on the Action Centres of the Atmosphere 467 

 1 he Nature and Extent of Air Pollution by Smoke. 



{Illustrated.) By Prof. J. B. Cohen and A.G. Ruston 468 



Mathematics and Physics at the British Association 469 



Chemistry at the British Association 474 



Anthropology at the British Association 477 



University and Educational Intelligence 479 



Societies and Academies 4^0 



Diary of Societies 4^° 



I 



