October 9, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



531 



tion between mortality and freeness from certain 

 disorders and the rates of growth. ' Proposed 

 Standard Chart of Proportions of American 

 Females,' by Anna Eichards and Bessie Belle 

 Little. ' What Nervous Tests shall we use to 

 Complete the Picture of the Individual ?' by G. 

 W. Fitz. ' The Use of Anthropometrical Meas- 

 urements in Schools,' by Wm. T. Porter. 



The first number of the Journal of Physical 

 Chemistry has now been published by the edi- 

 tors, Professors Wilder, D. Bancroft and Joseph 



E. Treevor. It contains articles by Mr. A. E. 

 Taylor and Prof. Bancroft in continuation of 

 work on Irreversible Cells and on Ternary 

 Mixtures previously published in The Physical 

 Review and on Chemistry and its Laws by Dr. 



F. Wald, starting from Prof. Wolcott Gibbs' 

 propositions concerning the equilibrium of mis- 

 sible substances. 18 pages are devoted to re- 

 views written by a special board consisting of 

 Messrs. W. Lash Miller, E. H, Loomis, C. L. 

 Speyers and R. B. Warder, in addition to the 

 editors. The Journal will be issued monthly 

 with the exception of July, August and Sep- 

 tember, and will contain from 48 to 64 pages. 



At the recent meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion Prof. Ramsay read a paper on helium, in 

 the course of which he gave an account of his 

 experiments undertaken with a view to deter- 

 m.ining the character of helium by comparison 

 with hydrogen, oxygen, argon, acetylene and 

 other gases. He has obtained the remarkable 

 result that different samples of helium have dif- 

 ferent densities, which indicate that helium may 

 be a mixture of two gases. 



Appletons^ Popular Science Monthly for Octo- 

 ber opens with an article by President Menden- 

 hall, in which he reviews seriatim the letters 

 by Mr. Herbert Spencer first printed anony- 

 mously in the London Times and subsequently, 

 under Mr. Spencer's signature, in the Monthly. 

 President Mendenhall finds no diflSculty in an- 

 swering the rather weak arguments of Mr. 

 Spencer, which, indeed, have under his hands 

 the appearance of men of straw set up on pur- 

 pose to be knocked down. 



Nature states that letters have been received 

 from Prof, Sollas, by the Chairman and Secre- 

 tary of the Coral Reef Boring Committee of 



the Royal Society, which show that, so far as 

 the main object of the expedition is concerned, 

 the effort has been an almost complete failure. 

 When the party had landed on Funafuti from 

 the ' Penguin, ' they selected the most promis- 

 ing site, as it appeared, for a bore-hole. The 

 apparatus was landed and set up, and a bore- 

 hole carried down to a depth of about 65 feet, 

 when further progress became impossible, for 

 material like a quicksand was struck, which 

 choked the bore-hole. Very little solid coral 

 rock was pierced. To pass over the steps then 

 taken, it may be enough at present to say that 

 another attempt was ultimately made nearer to 

 the edge of the island, where there appeared 

 some hope of finding more solid coral rock. 

 This boring was carried down to 72 feet, 

 and then similar difficulties prevented further 

 progress. The material struck was a kind 

 of quicksand containing ' boulders ' of coral. 

 As fast as the sand was got out, fresh material 

 poured in, and the water pumped down the 

 tube, with a view of cleaning it, actually flowed 

 out into the surrounding bed, while the coral 

 boulders made it impossible to drive the tubes 

 through the quicksand. So far as the reef was 

 pierced it appeared to be not solid coral, but 

 more like a ' vast coarse sponge of coral with 

 wide interstices, either empty or sand-filled.' 

 Although the expedition has failed in its 

 main object, it has met with great success in all 

 the others. Large collections have been made, 

 Messrs. Gardiner and Hedley have thoroughly 

 investigated the fauna and flora, both land and 

 marine, of the atoll, Dr, Collingwood has ob- 

 tained information of ethical interest, and Cap- 

 tain Field a series of soundings, both within 

 and without the atoll, which Prof. Sollas states 

 are more complete than have yet been obtained, 

 and must greatly modify our views as to the 

 nature of coral reefs. Of all these matters it 

 would be premature to speak, till Prof. Sollas 

 has returned and been able to give fuller par- 

 ticulars, and Captain Field has reported to the 

 Admiralty. 



The British Medical Journal states that a new 

 and unexpected agency is having a most bene- 

 ficial effect in contributing to the abatement of 

 the smoke nuisance in London. The relative 

 clearness of the London atmosphere within the 



