NOVEMBEK 15, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



759 



Section was begun. Papers were read by 

 Professors A. Gray, F.R.S., J. S. Dunlop 

 and A. Wood, on ' Elastic Fatigue as shown 

 by Metals and Woods '; by Professor G. 

 Quincke, of Heidelberg, on ' The Clearing 

 of Turbid Solutions and the Influence of 

 Light on the Motion of the Suspended 

 Particles'; by Professor A. Gray, F.R.S. , 

 on ' The Relation between Temperature 

 and Internal Viscosities of Solids'; by Pro- 

 fessor W. Ramsay, F.R.S. , and G. Senter, 

 on ' Hydrostatic Pressure '; by E. H. Grif- 

 fith, F.R.S., on ' The Freezing Points of 

 Certain Dilute Solutions'; and by Dr. R. 

 T. Glazebrook, F.R.S., on 'The Buildings 

 of the National Physical Laboratory. ' Dr. 

 Glazebrook, who is the director of this new 

 institution, gave a history and description 

 of the building now being fitted up in Bushy 

 Park, ten miles southwest of London, and 

 described the objects for which it had been 

 founded, as reported on pages 662-663 of 

 Science. 



On September 13 the Section was di- 

 vided into two parts, Physics and the newly 

 organized subsection of Astronomy. In 

 the former Dr. Glazebrook read the report 

 of the Committee on Electrical Standards, 

 which stated that no evidence of any marked 

 change in the relative values had shown 

 itself. Mr. S. Skinner read a note on ' A 

 Comparison of the Deposits in Silver Vol- 

 tameters with diflerent Solvents,' and Pro- 

 fessor A. Schuster, F.R.S., presented one 

 on ' The Conduction of Electricity through 

 Mercury Vapor.' Dr. V. Cremieu, of Paris, 

 spoke on ' The Magnetic Effects of Electric 

 Convection ' in which he showed that an 

 electrically-charged body in motion has not 

 the same electromagnetic properties as an 

 electric current, but, as Lord Kelvin re- 

 marked, if these experiments are regarded 

 as conclusive the present electromagnetic 

 theory must be rejected. Other papers were 

 by G. M. Minchin, F.R.S., on ' Photoelec- 

 tric Cells '; by B. Hopkinson, on ' The Ne- 



cessity for Postulating an Ether'; and by 

 Professor F. C. Bose, on ' The Change of 

 Conductivity of Metallic Particles under 

 Cyclic Variations of Electromotive Force.' 

 The Astronomical subsection met under the 

 presidency of Professor H.H.Turner, F.R.S., 

 of Oxford (who took the place of Dr. Cope- 

 land, Astronomer Royal for Scotland, de- 

 tained by illness), and he delivered an ad- 

 dress on cooperation in astronomical work, 

 with special reference to the astrographic 

 chart. While agreeing with Major Mac- 

 Mahon as to the value of cooperation, Pro- 

 fessor Turner called attention to the harm 

 that might result from undertaking too 

 much and through the checking of original 

 research. The most important astronom- 

 ical papers were by Professor G. Forbes, 

 F.R.S., on 'The Position of a Planet 

 beyond Neptune,' and by Father A. L. 

 Cortie, of Stonyhurst, who proved that the 

 faculse on the sun's surface followed the 

 same law of drift as the spots. Professor 

 Turner exhibited a copy of the first photo- 

 graph of the spectrum of a lightning flash 

 obtained by Professor E. C. Pickering, of 

 Harvard Observatory. 



At the next meeting of the Physical Secr 

 tion two papers, by Professor E. W. Morley 

 and Mr. C. F. Brush, of Cleveland, were 

 presented by the former gentleman, the first 

 being on a new gauge for small pressures, 

 designed especially to measure the pressure 

 of aqueous vapor (which will be described 

 in the American Journal of Science), and the 

 second on the transmission of heat through 

 water vapor. Other papers were by Messrs. 

 C. Bedford and C. F. Green on ' A Method 

 of Determining Specific Heats of Metals at 

 Low Temperatures ' ; by Professor H. L. 

 Callandar, F.R.S., on 'The Variation of 

 the Specific Heat of Water '; two papers on 

 the Lippmann electrometer by Messrs. 

 F. G. Cottrell and J. A. Craw and one by 

 Dr. M. W. Travers and G. Senter on 'A 

 Comparison of Constant Volume and Con- 



