October 2, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



495 



sought to furnisli an eclectic theory of the phe- 

 nomenon in which biology and law were equally 

 represented. To-day in Geneva the discussion is 

 resumed and, whatever modifications these pro- 

 visional solutions of the problem mayy etundergo, 

 their effect must be to impress both parliaments 

 and people with the necessity of ' raising a penal 

 system which, without confounding the prison 

 with the hospital, will recognize a moral clinique 

 as well as a repressive code,' and so tend to 

 ' eliminate the elements which are unfit for 

 social life and dangerous to humanity.' 



Prof. L. H. Bailey's Nursery Booh, first 

 published in 1891 by The Eural Publishing 

 Company, has now been thoroughly revised 

 and re-cast and published by The Macmillan 

 Co. as the third volume of the Garden Craft 

 Series. The book contains a strictly scien- 

 tific treatment of 'seedage,' 'separation and 

 division' 'layerage,' 'cuttage,' and 'graftage,' 

 together with an extended nursery list, filling 

 191 pages. The author has incorporated in 

 this edition a paper read before the Peninsular 

 Horticultural Society in 1892, in which it is 

 argued that while grafting is not suitable to all 

 plants it is not a devitalizing process for those 

 on which it can be adopted. The wide sale of 

 Prof. Bailey's book shows that practical garden- 

 ers are able to appreciate a scientific treatise on 

 their art. 



Dr. D. Walter has published in the Natur- 

 wissenschaftliche Rundschau experiments on the 

 diffuse reflection of the Rontgen rays, made in 

 the State" Laboratory of Physics at Hamburg. 

 More than twenty elements were used, the re- 

 flecting surfaces being separated from the pho- 

 tographic film by a thin sheet of black paper, 

 while the rays passed through the glass. The 

 amount of diffuse reflection was in relation to 

 the position of the elements in the periodic sys- 

 tem, being the greatest for the silver group, and 

 decreasing on both sides. The decrease in pass- 

 ing from the silver to the platinum group was 

 considerably larger than the increase from the 

 copper to the silver group. No reflection could 

 be detected in the case of the diamond. The angle 

 of incidence of the rays made no difference, nor 

 did it matter whether or not the surface was pol- 

 ished, but the order of the substances was differ- 

 ent when the surface was not parallel to the film. 



We learn from Kantstudien that a new life of 

 Kant by Dr. M. Kronenberg is about to be pub- 

 lished by Beck, of Munich, and that Prof. Fr. 

 Paulsen has in preparation a volume on Kant 

 for Frommanns Klassikern der PMlosophie. Vol- 

 umes in this series on Fechner by Prof. K. Lass- 

 witz, on Hobbes by Prof. F. Tonnies, and on 

 Kierkegaard by Prof. H. Hoffding, have already 

 been published. 



The Revue Scientifique states that M. Vallot 

 has this year entertained at his meteorological 

 observatory four Frenchmen, three Swiss, one 

 German, one Italian and one American. M. 

 Vallot generously entertains all meteorologists 

 who wish to make observations at this station, 

 which is the highest in Europe, being 4,385 m. 

 above the sea and only 427 m. from the summit 

 of Mt. Blanc. 



The Committee of the British Association on 

 Zoological Bibliography and Publication make 

 the following recommendations : (1) that each 

 part of serial publication should have the date 

 of actual publication, as near as may be, printed 

 on the wrapper, and, when possible, on the last 

 sheet sent to press. (2) The authors' separate 

 copies should be issued with the original pagina- 

 tion and plate-numbers clearly indicated on each 

 page and plate, and with a reference to the orig- 

 inal place of publication. (3) That authors' 

 separate copies should not be distributed pri- 

 vately before the paper has been published in 

 the regular manner. The Committee further 

 asks for cooperation in the following rules 

 of conduct upon which the best workers are 

 agreed, but which it is impossible to enforce, 

 and to which it is difficult to convert the mass 

 of writers. These are : (4) That it is desi- 

 rable to express the subject of one's paper in 

 its title, while keeping the title as concise as 

 possible. (5) That new species should be prop- 

 erly diagnosed and figured when possible. 

 (6) That new names should not be proposed 

 in irrelevant foot-notes or anonymous para- 

 graphs. (7) That reference to previous pub- 

 lications should be made fully and correctly, 

 if possible in accordance with one of the recog- 

 nized sets of rules for quotation, such as that 

 recently adopted by the French Zoological So- 

 ciety. 



According to Natural Science the Geological 



