May 6, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



701 



these rays in being able to discharge an electri- 

 fied body, whether the charge be positive or 

 negative. On the other hand, it differs from 

 Rontgen rays and resembles ordinary light, in- 

 asmuch as it can be refracted and polarized. 

 It is also much more easily reflected than 

 Eontgen rays. The radiation from the uranium 

 salts is thus intermediate in properties between 

 ordinary light and Rontgen rays ; and as there 

 can be no question but that this radiation con- 

 sists of transverse vibrations, inasmuch as it 

 can be polarized, it affords strong presumptive 

 evidence that the Rontgen rays are also due to 

 transverse vibrations. 



The persistence of the radiation from the 

 potassium uranyle sulphate is very remarkable. 

 M. Becquerel found that crystals which had been 

 kept in the dark for 160 hours continued to radi- 

 ate vigorously. This radiation is absorbed al- 

 most equally by aluminium and copper, so that 

 it does not show the same dependence upon the 

 atomic weight of the absorbing medium as that 

 of the Rontgen rays ; on the other hand, the 

 radiation resembles Rontgen rays in not being 

 homogeneous. 



GENERAL. 



The Council of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science at the Springfield 

 meeting instructed the sectional committees 

 hereafter to prepare a programme for their 

 sectional meetings and transmit the same to the 

 Permanent Secretary at least one month before 

 the annual meeting. The Buffalo meeting 

 opens on Monday, August 24th, and titles and 

 abstracts of papers should be sent by members 

 to the Secretaries of the sections at as early a 

 date as is convenient. 



The German Society of Naturalists and Phy- 

 sicians will meet at Frankfort-on-Main from the 

 twenty-first to the twenty-sixth of September. 



With the last issue of the Proceedings of the 

 Royal Society an index slip is issued giving the 

 details needed for an author and subject cata- 

 logue of the contents. In the case of one paper 

 there are as many as eleven entries for the sub- 

 ject catalogue. The index slip is printed on 

 one side of thin paper so that the entries can be 

 conveniently attached to cards. 



The Physical Seview for May-June will eon- 

 tain articles on 'Solids and Vapors,' by Wilder 

 D. Bancroft; ' On the Heat Effect of Mixing 

 Liquids,' by C. E. Linebarger; ' The Influence 

 of Heat, of the Electric Current, and of Mag- 

 ijetism upon Young's Modulus,' by Mary Chil- 

 ton Noyes,' and 'A Photographic Study of Arc 

 Spectra,' by Caroline W. Baldwin. 



The prize founded by M. and Mme. Victor 

 Saint Paul for the discovery of a remedy for 

 diphtheria will be divided by the French 

 Academy of Medicine and has been divided 

 between Dr. Roux and Prof Behring. 



It is unoflicially announced that the local 

 committee in charge of the International Medi- 

 cal Congress to be held at Moscow this year 

 has reversed its decision to exclude English 

 from the languages to be used. 



Longmans, Green & Co. have issued a re- 

 print of Tyndall's Glaciers of the Alps. 



The Metric System is being actively discussed 

 by correspondents in the London Times. Those 

 opposing the Metric System seem to be in the 

 majority, but the arguments used seem to be 

 mostly trivial or absurd. 



Gov. Morton has nominated Charles A. Welt- 

 ing, of Cobleskill, N. Y., to succeed Frederick 

 C. Schraub as New York State Commissioner of 

 Agriculture. 



Prof. H. Landes, of the State University of 

 Washington, has been appointed State Geologist. 



The semi-annual meeting of the American 

 Antiquarian Society was held in Boston on 

 April 29th. Among the papers presented was 

 one by Rev. Stephen D. Peet on the history of 

 archseological explorations in the Mississippi 

 Valley. Prof J. W. White, of Harvard Univer- 

 sity, was elected President. 



It is reported in the British Medical Journal 

 that those working with the X-rays are likely 

 to suffer from a variety of skin affections said to 

 be similar to the results of sunburn. 



The London Times states that a recent sale of 

 birds' eggs included a specimen of the egg of the 

 great auk (alca impennis). This specimen, 

 except for a small fracture on one side, is in 

 good preservation. It was purchased in 1841 

 from Mr. HushReid, of Doncaster, who bought 



