460 



NATURE 



[Marc/i ii, 1880 



down fruits, and unearthing animals ; at a later date the stick 

 was bent and used hoe-fashion, the point being hardened by fire ; 

 the Indians of North America still use it in this form. In south 

 Sweden large tracts of land give evidence of early cultivation, 

 which is attributed by the natives to a prehistoric people called 

 by them " the hackers," whose rude hoe was a fir pole with a short 

 projecting branch, pointed, and who are always associated with the 

 giants of mythology. There came into use afterwards a larger 

 instrument of the same kind, which was not used like the hoe, 

 but dragged by men or oxen. Instances of this are to be found 

 in old Egyptian pictures, and among the bas reliefs, and it is 

 evidently the primitive idea of the plough. The plough is in its 

 origin prehistoric, evidences of its early use being found amongst 

 the Greeks, Egyptians, and Chinese, and it had from the earliest 

 times a religious sanction, one proof of which is found in the 

 fact that the name of Brahma's wife — Sita — signifies a furrow. 

 A wooden hook shod with iron was the next improvement, and 

 in the time of Virgil we find a wheeled plough in use, which 

 differed little from the best in Europe a century ago. Some 

 people assert that the plough was the earliest vehicle, but it seems 

 more prohable that the sled was first used, then rollers were 

 placed underneath, and shifted forward when necessary, as seen 

 in one of Raphael's pictures in the Vatican, and then the middle 

 part of the rollers was shaved away in order to reduce friction. 

 In some carts of the Scythians the solid drum wheel is fixed to 

 the axle, so that v* heel and axle revolve together ; and in Italy 

 and Portugal, at the present day, the carts are very generally 

 built with large block drum wheels, and in many cases the 

 bearings are not locked below, but merely rest on the axle like 

 forks. The original mode of harnessing was the yoke, attached 

 to the horns or withers of oxen ; in the time of Homer no traces 

 were used, but the Egyptians used one trace, which shows that 

 they were one stage advanced in civilisation. The Gauls and 

 Britons evidence a still further advance in the employment of 

 chariots, some being even furnished w ith scythes, like those men- 

 tioned in the Maccabees. — Dr. Dally exhibited a fine collection 

 of ethnological objects from British Columbia. On some of the 

 hats which were shown, Dr. Dally pointed out marks similar to 

 the tattoo marks with which the natives adorn their bodies, and 

 which, he said, all have a definite meaning, being, in fact, a 

 record of events which have taken place in the life of the wearer. 

 Some of the specimens of native workmanship were remarkably 

 good, particularly some silver bracelets which had been made 

 and engraved specially for Dr. Dally. The natives appear to 

 have a knowledge of working iron and brass as well as the softer 

 metals. 



Cambridge 

 Philosophical Society, February 9. — Prof. Newton, pre- 

 sident, in the chair. — Mr. \V. J. Lewis was elected a Fellow of 

 the Society. — The following communications were made to the 

 Society : — A theorem in elementary trigonometry, by Mr. 1. W. L. 

 Glaisher. The theorem in question is that— 



cos a cos /; cos c cos d + sin a sin b sin c sin J 

 = ci s a' cos b' cos c 1 cos d' + sin a' sin V sin <! sin d 1 , 

 where a' = J ( - a + b + c + d), 



b' = I (a - t + e + a), &c. 

 so that a' = a — a, b' = a - />, &c. 



where <r = is(a + b + c + a). 



— Note on the reflection and refraction of light, by Mr. R. T. 

 Glazebrook. In his paper on the reflection and refraction of 

 light at the bounding surface of two isotropic media Green 

 vhat no external forces act on the ether in either medium, 

 and that its elasticity is the same in the two. He further assumes 

 that the velocity of propagation of the normal vibrations is very 

 greit compared with that of the transverse. Kirchhoff, in a 

 paper read before the Berlin Academy, replaces Green's assump- 

 tions by the supposition that external forces act over the common 

 surface of the two media of such a nature as to prevent the 

 propagation of the normal waves. In addition he supposes that 

 these forces produce neither loss nor gain of energy, and discusses 

 the case of two crystalline media. These principles are applied 

 in the paper to the problem for two isotropic media, and expres- 

 sions for the intensity of the reflected and refracted wares are 

 deduced. For the reflected wave the intensity of the wave in 

 which the vibrations are in the plane of incidence agrees with 

 that given by Fresnel for vibration perpendicular to that plane, 

 and vice versa. The intensities of the refracted waves are slightly 

 different from Fresnel's expressions. The results agree with 

 those given by MacCullagh, Irish Transactions, 1848. His 

 expression for the intensity of the strained medium is, however, 



inconsistent with the conservation of energy. The change of 

 phase produced by total reflection is also investigaced. It 

 follows, too, from the equations, that the density of the ether is 

 the same in all isotropic transparent bodies. 

 Boston, U.S.A. 



American Academy of Arts and Sciences, January 14. — 

 Hon. Charles Francis Adams in the chair. — Mr. S. W. Holman, 

 of the Mass. Institute of Technology, considered the bearing of 

 Chappuis's recent study of surface-condensation upon the de- 

 termination of the coefficient of expansion of gases, and shows 

 that the effect of introducing a correction for condensation 

 is in general to bring the results obtained by different ex- 

 perimenters into closer accordance. — Mr. W. H. Pickering 

 has investigated the relative amount of light of four different 

 refrangibilities in various artificial lights and in moonlight 

 and sunlight, using as standard a portion of the flame from 

 an argand gas-burner. He also discussed the question of the 

 sun's temperature, showing from the intrinsic brilliancy of the 

 sun and from the relative amount of yellow and violet light in its 

 rays the temperature lies between 270,000° C. and 22,000° C. as 

 probable limits. An additional method, based upon other 

 measurements discussed in a different manner gives 80,000° C. 

 as the probable upper limit and 8,000° as the lowest possible 

 limit. 



Vienna 



Imperial Academy of Sciences, January 8. — On perfect 

 inscribed polygons, by Prof. Weyr. — Researches on picrotoxin, 

 by Prof. v. Barth. — Researches on the rainfall of Austria- Hungary 

 (second part), by Herr Hann, — On the number of optic nerve 

 fibres and retinal cones in the human eye, by Prof, von Briicke. 

 — On heliotropic phenomena in the plant-kingdom, by Prof. 

 Wiesner. 



Tanuary 15. — On the theory of gaseous friction, by Prof. 

 Boltzmann. — On a relation between the singular elements of 

 cubic involutions, by Prof. Le Paige. — On the carrying power of 

 magnets, by Prof. Stefan. — On the principal reducing properties 

 of ferro-oxalate of potassium and some reactions produced by 

 them, by Dr. Eder. — Histological researches on traumatic 

 inflammation of the brain, by Dr. Unger. — Researches on the 

 formation of the ground substance of cartilage, by Dr. Spina.— 

 New method for quantitative determination of ferrous and ferric 

 oxide in presence of organic acids and also cane-sugar, by Dr. 

 Eder and Herr Meyer. 



CONTENTS Page 



The Recent Gunnery Experiments 437 



Vegetation under Electric Light 43- 



Moore's Ornithological Tables 440 



Linkages *4 S 



Our booK Shelf: — 



" The American Entomologist '* 44* 



Letters to the Editor : — 



A Museum Conference.— Jas. Paton 442 



The Himalayan Ranges.— W". T. Blanford 4 1= 



Tidal Phenomenon in Lake Constance.— Dr. F. A. Forbl ... 443 

 The Tay Bridge Storm.— Sir Ralph Abercromby, Bart. (//://: 



Chart) 413 



A Lecture Experiment on Ice-Crystals.— Prof. L. Blebkrode . . 444 



CI ud Classification— Eliot Howard 444 



Diatoms in the London Clay.— W. H. ShkUBSOLE 444 



Meteor.— H. 1'. H. Grone.man 445 



Sunshine.— Chas. Coppock . 445 



Lines of Force due to a Small Magnet —John Buchanan ... 445 



Artificial Diamonds.— Dr. R. Sydney Maksden 445 



Pictft's Proposal to Dissociath the Metalloid Elements . . 445 

 The Destruction of Insrct Pests, an Unforeseen Application 

 of the Results of Biological Investigation. By Prof. E. Ray 



Lankester.F.RS 447 



The Classification of the English Tektiaries 44» 



A New Class opRhizopoda 449 



Notes «« 



Our Astronomical Column:— 



An Astronomical Bibliography 453 



The Great Southern Comet 453 



Biological Notes: — 1 *~ 1 1 



On Certain Remarkable Phenomena Presented by the Coloured 



Blood-Corpuscles of the Frog . . . • 453 



The Human Retina 453 



Ural Crayfish 454 



Development of Amblystoma punctatum 454 



Stimuli in Sensitive Nerves «j 



Geographical Notes ■ • '• • • • * 455 



On the Influence of Electric Light upon \ fgp.tation and 

 on Certain Physical Principles Involved. Ly C. William 



Siemens D.C.L., F. R.S ,5 



Prehistoric Antiquities of the Austrian Empire 457 



Notes from Italy and Sicily • " 457 



Scientific Serials ^g 



Societies and Academies " 



