Dec. ii, 1879] 



NA TURE 



14; 



interest attaches to an official document issued in the latter 

 country on the subject. All the Loochoo Islands, the Japanese 

 maintain, are connected by certain geomantic signs in the earth 

 with the Japanese province of Satsurna. The forty-eight cha- 

 racters of the Japanese alphabet are in use there, having been 

 communicated "to the islanders by Minamotonotavnetono. As 

 regards language, they u^e a mixture of Chinese words and the 

 Japanese alphabet in their literature. They call their own 

 kingdom Okina, or otherwise, Okinawa. As regards religion, 

 they worship Yi Shih, the Great Spirit of Japan, besides other 

 divinities. In many of their domestic customs, too, the Japanese 

 maintain that their practice indubitably indicates their origin. 



The new number of Les Annates deV Extreme Orient contains 

 some ethnographical notes on Thibet by the Abbe Desgodins, 

 illustrated by a map of that country and the neighbouring 

 regions. 



The just published part of Le Globe contains a paper by Dr. 

 E. Dufresne, entitled " Une station d'hiver pour les phthisiques 

 dans les Hautes-Alpes," and a third article by M. Yenuikof on 

 geographical discoveries in Asiatic Russia. 



The Bulletin of the Antwerp Geographical Society contains 

 the text of the " Resolutions et Vceux," presented by the section 

 of the late Commercial Geography Congress at Brussels, and 

 adopted by the general meeting. 



At the last sitting of the Paris Society of Geography a letter 

 from M. Sibiriakoff, one of the promoters of Nordenskjold's 

 North Asiatic Expedition, was read. This generous gentleman 

 proposes to the Society to send a handsome subscription, in case 

 a French expedition is sent to these parts. But it does not 

 -appear likely this suggestion will be taken into consideration. 



M. Hertz, the founder of L'Explorateur, the first popular 

 journal of geography established in Paris, died a few days ago 

 at the age of fifty. He was a member of the Council of the 

 Geographical Society and one of the promoters of the Commercial 

 Geographical Society. 



U.S. NATIONAL ACADEMY 



""THE National Academy of Sciences held its semi-annual 

 ■*- meeting at Columbia College, New York, October 28th- 

 30th. Prof. AY. B. Rogers presided. The meeting was 

 welcomed by Prof. F. A. P. Barnard (President of Columbia 

 College), as being the first use that has been made of the new 

 building recently constructed and not yet quite finished, on the 

 western front of the college grounds ; thus appropriately inau- 

 gurating it in the interests of science. Prof. Rogers opened the 

 meeting with a few brief but eloquent remarks, descanting on 

 the far-reaching character of the researches which are now most 

 prominently before the scientific world. As instances he cited 

 the proofs brought by Prof. Whitney of the discovery of human 

 remains in the pliocene ; the evidence adduced by Mr. 

 Lockyer, showing that in the sun many of the elements may 

 prove to be compounds ; the marvellous expositions of "radiant 

 matter" in Mr. Crookes's experiments ; and the striking dis- 

 coveries in the uses of electricity and the telephone. Prof. 

 Rogers is not ready to accept all the new theories which accom- 

 pany these novel conceptions, but he feels assured that we are en 

 the road toward new truths. The present age, like that which 

 preceded the Newtonian era, has brought together a vast and 

 somewhat chaotic mass of observations, out of which great prin- 

 ciples shall be determined. In this work it is to be expected 

 that some of the members of the Academy will bear an active 

 part. 



Dr. Henry Draper read a paper on the photography of star 

 spectra, which we gave at p. 83. 



Trof. C. A. Young contributed some "Spectroscopic Notes." 

 He showed the want of true achromatism in the ordinary achro- 

 matic object-glass. By special arrangement of apparatus and 

 the use of high dispersive powers, he has divided several spectral 

 lines hitherto regarded as basic. The abundance of double lines 

 in the spectrum has a meaning that needs to be investigated ; as 

 a curious fact, it is comparable to the excessive number of double 

 stars that the telescope reveals. Prof. Young is prepared to 

 indulge in a doubt as to whether the dark lines are really 

 produced by absorption. 



Dr. J. J. Woodward, Surgeon, U.S.A., read an elaborate paper 

 on original researches reported iu the second medical volume of 



the "Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion." 

 This is a work published by the U.S. Government in several 

 large quarto volumes. In preparing the work, Dr. Woodward 

 consulted 124 different authors. His studies were aided by the 

 use of the very large number of specimens in the pathological 

 collection of the U.S. Army Museum. For various represen- 

 tations, e.g., showing the cicatrices of diphtheritic ulcers, photo- 

 graphy and the heliotype were employed. The special researches 

 applied chiefly to diseases of the internal organs, such as dysentery 

 and intestinal catarrhs. The minute changes indicating the 

 beginnings of disease were closely studied. Dr. Woodward's 

 conclusions tend to confirm the more recent and advanced views 

 of pathology. 



Dr. J. C. Dalton presented some observations on the structure 

 of the human brain. He divided all brain matter, including the 

 part which extends into the spinal column, into two kinds, the 

 white and the gray. He proceeded to show that the gray kind 

 was in three deposits, which are connected with one another — 

 the spinal cord, the cerebral ganglia, and the extension into the 

 outer sheath of the brain. The connection between these 

 portions was shown to be continuous. The true shape of the 

 corpus striatum and its connection with, as a part of, a circular 

 organ called the surcingle, was demonstrated ; and it was also 

 shown that the lobes of the brain presented the appearance of 

 being lapped together and doubled over around the crus cerebri. 

 In the discussion that followed, Dr. Woodward stated that the 

 brain had been so prepared by a peculiar process, that a single 

 one was sawed into 1,000 slices for microscopical examination. 



Prof. A. Guyot presented some remarks on a new map of the 

 Catskill Mountains, and on the topographical relations of that 

 mountain group to the adjacent regions of the Appalachian 

 system. The excellent work that has been done by Prof. Guyot 

 in the survey of the Catskill region was described some months 

 ago in a paper read before the New York Academy of Sciences : 

 copies are now furnished of the original map that was then 

 exhibited. The object of the present paper was to call attention 

 to the geological problems exhibited- by the Catskill plateau. 

 The author did not regard the carving of the mountains as glacial, 

 work, though the evidence of glacial scratches was not wanting. 

 The process which had taken place, he thought, was an elevation 

 of the whole district. But at the time of that rise the Adiron- 

 dack formation was already in position, and by it the Catskill 

 plateau was squeezed as it .rose. The mountains which now 

 occupy the place of that plateau were left by erosion, their 

 valleys being carved out by the rivers. Prof. James Hall, in the 

 discussion which followed, expressed "himself as delighted with 

 the adhesion of so good an observer as Prof. Guyot to this theory 

 of the formation of mountains by erosion, and net by their 

 separate upheaval. Prof. Rogers described an instance where 

 one of the Shenandoah Mountains could scarcely have been 

 formed by a separate upheaval, for all its strata were horizontal 

 from bottom to top ; but the surrounding region was full of the 

 evidences of disturbance. 



Prof. James Hall exhibited some new and remarkable forms 

 of crinoids from the Lower Helderberg formation. These 

 specimens were obtained partly in New York State, and partly 

 in Tennessee. They were from three to four inches in diameter, 

 and of varying shapes, no two alike, though mostly spheroidal ; 

 some were hemispherical or much flattened; others were turbi- 

 nated. It was at first suspected that these were expansions of the 

 bulbous root of crinoids, but subsequent observations indicated 

 that these are the summits of the animal. They are made up of 

 polygonal plates, but the arrangement is not distinctly radial, 

 and its stellate character is greatly obscured. The specimens, 

 which are now quite numerous, seem to be overgrowths, and 

 present great difficulties in classification. — Prof. Hall read also a 

 paper upon another Silurian fossil, Lycopoditis vonuxtm. This 

 has been regarded as a plant, allied to the ferns : a more- 

 thorough study of the subject has convinced Prof. Hall that this 

 fossil was an animal form. It is found in quantities that cover 

 many acres with a thickness of five to fifteen feet. The atten- 

 tion of the Academy was also called to the question as to the 

 classification of Stomatophora, a coral found upon masses of 

 favosite, and in the same horizon as the curious crinoids. In the 

 discussion which followed, Prof. Newberry called attention to 

 the sponge-like appearance of the crinoid specimens, suggestive 

 of a missing link between crinoids and sponges. 



Prof. Asaph Hall read a brief paper on this year s observations 

 on the satellites of Mars. The discrepancies of position of 

 Deimos are very small. It is found that Phobos comes to its 



