Febeuaby 12, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



257 



should not be greatly alarmed at present de- 

 velopments concerning electrical phenomena. 



We know that molecules on the sun are in 

 constant wireless communication with mole- 

 cules on the earth. We can partially interrupt 

 this communication by interposing a screen 

 having a diameter of a centimeter or two. 

 The molecules within the shadow now receive 

 impulses transmitted to them by those out- 

 side of the shadow. 



Here we have an action which is sufficiently 

 amazing. Any explanation which we might 

 make of it could not involve anything more 

 wonderful than the action itself. 



After we admit the existence of matter and 

 of electrical phenomena, as we now know 

 them, why may we not assent to the propo- 

 sition that all atoms of matter are composed 

 of positive and negative electricity or of posi- 

 tive and negative ions? This is essentially 

 Franklin's hypothesis, deprived of its occult 

 features, by reason of what has since been 

 learned. The conductors in a power service 

 are then aggregations of positive ions, or of 

 positive electricity. The negative ions, or, 

 as Franklin would have stated it, the elec- 

 trical fluid, flows through what we now call the 

 positive ions. Their rhythmical transfer 

 from atom to atom accounts for the Joule 

 effect. In addition we may have conditions 

 Tvhich involve an actual and sudden transfer 

 of kinetic energy from the moving negative 

 ions to the positive ions. Such a case we 

 have in the electric arc, which seems to me to 

 be mainly a Thomson effect. 



It is now established that the positive and 

 negative discharges, which Wheatstone ex- 

 amined with the revolving mirror, are in the 

 nature of compression and rarefaction waves. 

 They are waves in Franldin's fluid. The 

 negative terminal of any battery or dynamo 

 is the compression terminal. From this 

 terminal Franklin's fluid flows. 



The writer has obtained photographs of the 

 Wheatstone sparks and Wheatstone's con- 

 clusions concerning direction of propagation 

 of the discharges from the terminals have 

 been fully verified. 



Francis E. Nipher 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 Research in China. In three Volumes and 

 Atlas. Vol. I., Part I. Descriptive — Topog- 

 raphy and Geology. By Bailey Willis, 

 Eliot Blackweldee and E. H. Sargent. 

 4to, pp. xiv ■+ 353 + index. Pis. LI.; figs. 

 65. 1907. Vol. II. Systematic Geology. 

 By Bailey Willis. 4to, pp. v4-133 + 

 index. Pis. VIII. July, 1907. Published 

 by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 

 These admirably written and illustrated vol- 

 umes should be read by all scientists interested 

 in the geology of Asia and also by those inter- 

 ested in the larger problems of diastrophism. 

 and geologic history. The first and larger 

 volume will be used more especially as a work 

 of reference for details of Chinese geology ^ 

 the second volume treats the same material im 

 a condensed and systematic manner, following 

 the course of geologic history and covering to 

 some extent the whole of eastern Asia. Apply- 

 ing throughout the recently developed prin- 

 ciples of diastrophism and physiography, a 

 field of research in which the senior author 

 has previously done distinguished work, these 

 volumes mark a distinct advance over the 

 previous comprehensive treatises dealing with 

 this region, von Eichthofen's " China " and 

 Suess's " The Face of the Earth." The atlas, 

 by the incorporation of Chinese characters, 

 has been made readily available to the Chinese, 

 and in the modern educative awakening of 

 China such a publication dealing with that 

 portion of the world may be of material aid 

 in stimulating an interest in the earth sci- 

 ences. It must not be thought, however, with 

 national self complacency that the general 

 educative effect need be restricted to China. 

 The photographs and descriptions of certain 

 districts bring home the desolation which may 

 result from reckless deforestation, with the 

 consequent sweeping of soils from the hill- 

 sides and burial of valley alluvium beneath 

 sand and gravel. This is a lesson the Amer- 

 ican people still need to learn and the material 

 has already been utilized by the Outlook and 

 the National Geographic Magazine. 



The route of the expedition lay first into the 

 Shantung peninsula, thence from Peking- 

 southwestward through north central Chinai 



