June 3, 1898.] 



.SCIENCK 



111 



from currents of high frequency, the condition 

 lasting for some time after the removal of the 

 electrodes. While in this condition the finger 

 could be pricked with a pin without any re- 

 sulting sensation except that of dull contact. 

 Sensitiveness to cold was also removed. The 

 investigation has been continued and has 

 shown the possibility of employing a sinu- 

 soidal current of high frequency as an anaes- 

 thetic. Full details as to the requisite fre- 

 quency and intensity will be published later. 

 e. w. ^ceiptuee. 

 Yale "Univeesity, 

 New Haven", Conn., May 25th. 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 

 Hie Sun's Place in Nature. By Sir Noeman 



LocKYEE. London and New York, The 



Macmillan Company. 1897. Pp. 360. Price, 

 12 shillings. 



The character of this latest work of its emi- 

 nent author might, perhaps, be misunderstood 

 from its title. It discusses the Sun's place in 

 the order of evolution of the stars, and not in 

 relation to the solar system. It is, therefore, to 

 be classed as a book on stellar astronomy, and 

 is to a considerable extent based upon a course 

 of lectures recently delivered by the author at 

 the School of Mines in London. The nature of 

 the work may best be shown by quoting in full 

 the conclusion: "I am not aware that any 

 more crucial test than the foregoing can be ap- 

 plied to the rival schemes of stellar classifica- 

 tion, and, as I hold that the result of its appli- 

 cation is entirely in favor of the one which as- 

 sumes the existence of some stellar bodies which 

 are Increasing their temperature while others 

 are reducing it, the Sun's place in Nature must 

 be regarded as near that occupied by Arcturus 

 and Capella, and very far separated from that 

 occupied by a Cygni, y Cygni, and a Tauri. Nor 

 is this all, the origin of the Sun in a nebula not 

 exclusively gaseous, but only containing gases 

 among its constituents, is greatly strengthened 

 by the extended study of the classification 

 problem which has occupied the last few chap- 

 ters. Along all lines, then, the fundamental 

 requirements of the Meteoritio Hypothesis have 

 been strengthened by the later work." 



The book may be regarded, then, as a sequel 



to ' The Meteoritic Hypothesis,' which appeared 

 in 1890, and is intended to reply to the criti- 

 cisms of the earlier work, as well as to present 

 the author's view of the bearing on that hypoth- 

 esis of the relevant discoveries in the interven- 

 ing years. It is, therefore, not a book for the 

 instruction of the general reader, unless he has 

 a taste for argumentative reasoning, adduced 

 in behalf of a theory which has not met with 

 general acceptance. It is written in Sir Nor- 

 man's easy style, and may readily carry the 

 reader who is not critical along to the conclu- 

 sions of the author. 



An interesting account is given of the dis- 

 covery of terrestrial helium and the investi- 

 gations of its spectrum from various minerals, 

 in which the researches of the author were early 

 and important. Some seventy minerals were 

 examined in his laboratory at South Kensing- 

 ton, and the D3 line of helium was detected in 

 the spectrum of sixteen of them. 



It is an essential feature of the Meteoritic 

 Hypothesis that nebulie are meteoritic in their 

 nature, and that they pass into the stage of 

 ' stars ' as the meteoric ' swarms ' become more 

 condensed. Accordingly considerable space is 

 devoted to the chemistry and nature of the 

 nebula and their relation to stars. Professor 

 Lockyer has himself obtained very successful 

 photographs of the Orion nebula, and he gives 

 a list of 54 lines on a plate taken in 1890. If 

 there is any connection between nebulje and 

 meteorites it would certainly be expected to 

 reveal itself in some resemblance of their spec- 

 tra. As a matter of fact, however, aside from 

 hydrogen and helium, which are abundantly 

 represented by lines, the only elements which 

 Professor Lockyer identifies are calcium (three 

 lines), iron, carbon and magnesium (one line 

 each). Now Keeler's measures have demon- 

 strated that the chief nebular line does not 

 coincide with the magnesium line, and still less 

 do the remaining lines agree in wave-length 

 with the lines of the elements mentioned. 

 Thus it appears that there is an entire absence 

 of spectral similarity between nebulse and 

 meteorites, except that both contain the uni- 

 versally prevalent hydrogen. 



The references made to the work of Dr. 

 Huggins, especially in connection with the 



