October i8, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



267 



the weight of only a few decigrams of carbonic acid within a few 

 tenths of a milligram, while in the problem now before us we must 

 weigh at least nine or ten grams of carbonic acid, not simply to a 

 proportional, but to an equal, degree of accuracy. Professor Cooke 

 only succeeded in securing such accuracy after many trials and a 

 careful study of all the conditions involved ; and the primary ob- 

 ject in a paper published in the " Proceedings of the American 

 Academy " (vol. xxiv.) is to describe the precautions which are 

 essential to the success of the new experimental method. Inci- 

 dentally it will appear that the results confirm in a most striking 

 manner the high value of the specific gravity of hydrogen found by 

 Lord Rayleigh, and the low value of of the atomic weight of oxygen 

 found by Professor Cooke at the Harvard Chemical Laboratory. 



— Mr. A. J. Field, in a letter to the editor of Knowledge, on the 

 question whether the female viper swallows its young for their pro- 

 tection, says, " Unfortunately the common adder (or viper) when in 

 captivity is usually a very sullen reptile, and I am afraid that it 

 would give the naturalist but little opportunity for observing its 

 maternal affection, even if a female with young should be obtained 

 without injuriously disturbing or killing the mother. I have kept 

 adders several times, and now have two healthy pairs ; but, although 

 I once succeeded in taming a male adder, I have never succeeded 

 in making a female forget that it was a prisoner. Among vipers, 

 the females are certainly more sulky and bad-tempered than the 

 males ; so that the question will always remain an open one if we 

 must wait until we see the young swallowed by their mothers in 

 captivity. My illustration showing the adder with its fangs erect 

 (referred to by Pen-y-Pan) is quite correct. Two fangs are erected 

 when the adder prepares to strike, no more. The other teeth are 

 merely in readiness should one or both the fangs be lost. The 

 largest adder I have seen was three feet four inches in length." In 

 reply to this letter, the editor of Knowledge writes as follows : " Dr. 

 William Duncan, in a recently published paper on the ' fer-de- 

 lance,' one of the Croialzda, or pit vipers, of the West Indian 

 Islands, says that the female fer-de-lance devours her young in very 

 wholesale fashion. This dangerous serpent is very prolific, and 

 sometimes brings forth as many as two hundred young at a birth, 

 seldom less than one hundred. Dr. Duncan says the female ter-de- 

 lance, when about to bring forth her young, ' generally selects a 

 fairly open or cleared space, a mountain footpath being a favorite 

 spot. Along this she crawls slowly, dropping her young one by 

 one on the way. As soon as the last has been brought forth, the 

 faint and hungry mother turns and devours the first of her brood 

 that meets her sight, and continues this unnatural course until 

 satiated with her repast, or she finds no more of her offspring to 

 glut her rapacity. Naturally many of them, three-fourths at least, 

 escape, and these the strongest, — a clear case of the survival of 

 the fittest. This has been observed by several planters in St. Lucia, 

 and has been mentioned to me independently by Mr. E. S. Gordon, 

 Mr. A. R. Marucheau, and Mr. Marius Devaux, and others of the 

 colony.' " 



— The opinion expressed by Engineering the other day, that 

 the oil-deposits of Burmah really were enormous, in spite of the 

 pessimist report of Dr. Noetling, the paleontologist appointed by 

 the Indian Government to examine the petroleum-fields of Yenang- 

 young, has been justified by events. The Indian press has attacked 

 the report so vigorously in support of Mr. Marvin's views, that Dr. 

 Noetling has been compelled to explain matters in the columns of 

 the Pioneer. According to this, since he made his actual survey 

 his opinion has totally changed, and he now agrees that the petro- 

 leum-deposits are of the immense character insisted on by the 

 author of the " Coming Oil Age." " Since I wrote my report," 

 states Dr. Noetling, "the oil-bearing strata have been traced over 

 a large area, only a very small part of which has hitherto been ex- 

 ploited, and that in a most unscientific way. I, in my report, cal- 

 culated, that, under a reasonable system of working, one square 

 mile could produce not less than 1,440,000 litres per diem. This 

 estimate may be a little too high ; but admitting only half of the 

 estimated production, say 500,000 litres per diem per square mile 

 of the Burmah oil fields, the production would be something enor- 

 mous, as the oil-bearing strata are now known to extend, roughly 

 speaking, over an area of not less than 100 square miles, — a fact 



which was not known to me at the time I wrote my report." Here 

 there is convincing testimony that the area of the Burmese oil- 

 fields is very large ; and the assumption is fair, that, if suitable 

 engineering methods of exploitation be introduced, the industry can 

 be put on a footing that will compete with, and perhaps in course 

 of time even beat, the American oil-trade. 



— At the recent meeting of the British Association, a paper by 

 Mr. J. Spiller, on " An Experiment on Color-Blindness," was read. 

 Mr. Spiller has had so much experience in comparing coal-tar colors 

 and testing for color-blindness, that he thought there could be no 

 question as to his own sight being normal. He made himself 

 color-blind on purpose by taking, on Aug. 29, a dose of a grain and 

 a half of santonine, the acting principle of the fiowers of Artemisia 

 santonina. Within less than five minutes afterwards the white 

 tablecloth appeared of a delicate pale bluish tint, and every thing 

 else as if regarded by spectacles of that color ; ultramarine looked 

 normal ; violet and pink were good ; green turned slate-color. The 

 spectrum was visible, unbroken, but with hardly any variations. 

 There was nothing particular in the green, which appeared fine 

 and normal ; and he could not discover the neutral gray band in 

 the green, for which he was particularly searching. Mr. Spiller 

 warned his audience against any repetition of this experiment, 

 which, after all, did not reduce him to ordinary color-blindness, 

 and the results are extremely disagreeable. 



— "A Bibliography of Geodesy," by J. Howard Gore, B.S., 

 Ph.D., has been issued as Appendix No. 16 of the report for 1887, 

 of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. Although the 

 restricted popular demand for a work peculiarly designed for the 

 uses of the student and scientist rarely induces its author or com- 

 piler to forego its preparation, it is nevertheless likely to be a mat- 

 ter of serious consideration in connection with the question of 

 publication by private enterprise. It is especially the case, that, 

 beyond the gratification of his own scientific tastes and the unde- 

 monstrative approbation of the worthy few who appreciate the 

 value of appliances which lessen the labor of learning, the compiler 

 of so complete and exhaustive a bibliography of geodesy as that of 

 Professor Gore can have had little to inspire his zeal and sustain 

 his prolonged labor in an undertaking which at the outset involved 

 the thorough exploration, in person, of thirty-four of the principal 

 libraries of America and Europe, the exploration of the minor 

 libraries by proxy, and, in addition, a searching inquiry by corre- 

 spondence with all the geodesists or mathematicians of both con- 

 tinents. That Professor Gore has not lacked, during the prepara- 

 tion of his work, such inspiration as was derivable from the ap- 

 probation of the competent, is attested by the generous overtures 

 from various institutions, among them being the International 

 Geodetic Association at Berlin, offering to undertake the pubUca- 

 tion of his book, — a most gratifying recognition of his fitness for 

 the work, and of its anticipated value. The reason for the prep- 

 aration of this work was the need of it felt by the compiler. He 

 began in 1885 a history of geodesy, but before proceeding far it 

 was found very difticuU at any time to be sure that the literature 

 regarding the operations of a given period had been exhausted. It 

 was at once deemed best to collect titles as well as the works them- 

 selves. The excellent library facilities in the various technical de- 

 partments in Washington emphasized the feasibility of such an 

 undertaking. The number of titles collected for this purpose only, 

 so far exceeded the special lists as given in the various bibliog- 

 raphies of mathematics, that many persons suggested an extension 

 of the original plan, so as to make the compilation useful to others. 

 In response to this proposition, the various libraries in Washington 

 were carefully searched, and during two trips to Europe nearly 

 every library facility there has been exhausted. In order to procure 

 titles of such recent works of living authors as might escape 

 notice, owing to delay in obtaining a place in the library catalogues, 

 a circular letter was sent to every mathematician whose address 

 could be obtained. Each circular had appended to it the titles of 

 all of the known works of the recipient, with a request that omis- 

 sions be supplied. This alone was the labor of several months, but 

 was fully repaid in the gratifying assurances from many that noth- 

 ing could be added, as well as in the few additional titles which 

 tend towards making this work complete. 



