860 



SCIENCE. 



[N. P. Vol. VIII. No. 207. 



negatives, which the writer has had the 

 good fortune to see, are very fine, indeed, 

 and show an amazing amount of detail in 

 case of both consonant and vowel sounds. 

 The photographs were taken by using acet- 

 ylene burning in oxygen, an image of the 

 flame being thrown upon a moving sensi- 

 tive film. 



ETHEEION. 



Nature, in acknowledging the receipt of a 

 paper by Mr. Charles F. Brusch (sic) on the 

 new gas Etherion, promises to " refer to the 

 paper later when we receive a spectroscopic 

 demonstration of the existence of the new 

 gas." It seems to the writer that Mr. 

 Brush has demonstrated the existence of a 

 gas — or something thin like air — which has 

 a thermal conductivity one hundred times 

 as great as that of hydrogen. If such is 

 the case, the gas is certaialy a new gas, and 

 perhaps the spectroscope cannot be expected 

 even to verij'y its existence ; for Mr. Brush's 

 speculation as to its molecular weight 

 (1/10,000) is to a certain extent legitimate, 

 and perhaps a gas of this molecular weight 

 might not have any spectrum at all. One 

 does, however, feel like demanding the 

 demonstration of the existence of this sub- 

 stance by some of the methods heretofore 

 employed in this field of discover}', but the 

 fact remains that its thermal conductivity 

 is sufBcient to establish its existence. The 

 only question in the matter is the accuracy 

 of Mr. Brush's experimental results, and 

 everyone who heard his paper at Boston 

 was convinced of the adequacy of the ex- 

 perimentation. It may interest the readers 

 of Science to learn that Professor E. W. 

 Morley has joined Mr. Brush in continuing 

 the investigation of the new gas. 



THE GRAVITATION CONSTANT. 



KiCHAEz and Krigar-Menzel* have fin- 

 ished their elaborate and painstaking deter- 

 mination of the gravitation constant by 



* Wied. Ann., Vol. 66, p. 177. 



means of the balance. A preliminary de- 

 termination of the decrease of gravity with 

 height, begun in '89, was reported to the 

 Berlin Academy in '93. 



The resulting value of the gravitation 

 constant is 



(6.685 ± 0.011) • 10-^ -^„ 

 g ■ sec' 



and of the density of the earth 

 (5.505 ± 0.009) -^,. 



This result lies between the results of Poyn- 

 ting and of Boys, and is, no doubt, the- 

 best result hitherto obtained ; although the 

 estimated probable error of Boys' result is- 

 only =h 0.002. 



W. S. F. 



ZOOLOGICAL NOTES. 

 THE BRAIN OF THE CHIMPANZEE. 



The last number of the Journal of the 

 Boston Societj' of Medical Sciences contains 

 an article by E. W. Taylor on the Minute 

 Anatomy of the Oblongata and Pons of the 

 Chimpanzee. The author calls attention to- 

 the fact that, while the gross anatomy of the 

 anthropoid apes has received much atten- 

 tion, comparatively little has been done in 

 the way of minute study, and says that par- 

 ticular studj' should be given the cortex, in 

 which the final secret of the differentiation of 

 brain types must lie. The methods of prep- 

 aration of the sections are given, and then 

 follows a detailed description and compari- 

 son with similar sections of the oblongata 

 and pons of man. 



The points of special interest in the ob- 

 longata are the great development of the 

 motor tracts ; the peculiar conformation of 

 the gray matter ; the irregular character of 

 the sensory crossing, and the smallness of 

 the fillet ; the fewness of the external ven- 

 tral arcuate fibers, and the absence of the 

 nucleus arciformis ; the large size of the de- 

 scending root of the fifth nerve and the im- 

 perfect development of the restiform body. 



