Feb. 24, lE 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



183 



Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow. 

 1886-87. Vol. xviii. Glasgow : J. Smith and Son. 



This volume contains no fewer than thirty-four 

 memoirs, many of which are of very decided value. 

 Some of the papers here inserted lie, however, com- 

 pletely outside our competence. As such we may men- 

 tion Mr. Charles Gairdner's address, inaugurating the 

 Economical Section, and that by Mr. A. Ferguson, en- 

 titled, " Some Minor Rights of Land-ownership." The 

 former of these papers, and, indeed, the establishment of 

 the Economical Section, seems to us not unlikely to open 

 a sideway for the introduction of politics, than which 

 nothing is more strongly to be deprecated. 



Mr. Adolf Schulze gives us an account of the new 

 apochromatic objectives and compensating eye-pieces 

 made by Zeiss, of Jena. We learn that the Prussian 

 Government, from a conviction of the value of the re- 

 searches of Zeiss, Prof Abbe, and Schott has granted 

 them a subsidy of ;£^3,ooo for carrying on their experi- 

 ments on a practical scale. The new objectives are more 

 purely achromatic than any previously constructed. Mr. 

 Schulze considers that we have now as good as reached 

 the limits of microscopic vision, and that no further im- 

 portant improvement is possible until suitable media of 

 far higher refractive power have, been discovered. A 

 short time ago there was a rumour of such a kind of 

 glass having been invented in Sweden, surpassing the 

 diamond in refractive power. We fear the news is too 

 good to be true. 



Mr. W. Milne, B.Sc, read a memoir on Stylostoma 

 Forrestii, a new tentacaliferous protozoon and other 

 infusoria. 



The Rev. James Chalmers discourses on the manners 

 and customs of some of the " Tribes of New 

 Guinea." Their superstitions seem to be many and 

 strange. They live in abject dread of the sorcerers, and 

 cannot understand how it is that the arts of these im- 

 postors have no effect upon white men. 



In a paper by Mr. D. Sandeman on " Technical 

 Education " we notice the gratifying fact that " not long 

 since the designs for nearly all the lace fabricated in 

 Nottingham came from Paris, but now the large majority 

 of the designs used in England were the results of work 

 done in the Nottingham Art School." The injurious 

 effects of the system of " payment by results " (so- 

 called) are frankl3' admitted, but it is curiously stated 

 that the remedy "must come from the manufacturers 

 rather than from the State." But should not the State 

 abandon the system at once ? 



Mr. W. Key, in his memoir on "Coal Gas," shows that 

 when such gas is manufactured above 18 or 20 candle 

 power the deterioration from exposure to frost is in- 

 creased. "'The endeavour to maintain the Glasgow gas 

 at 26 candle power in midwinter costs at each manufac- 

 turing station a sum of from ^^50 to ;^So daily for 

 extra quantity of first-rate coal." 



A most important paper here to be found is that of 

 Prof E. Thorpe, F.R.S., on " Certain Modern Develop- 

 ments of Graham's Ideas on the Constitution of Matter." 

 He points out how the late Angus Smith " had indicated 

 in precise and luminous language Graham's position in 

 that chain of thinkers which includes Leucippus, Lucre- 

 tius, Newton, and Dalton. Like Leucippus he held the 

 essential oneness of matter. His work centralises round 

 the fundamental conception of atomic motion. He con- 



ceives that the various kinds of matter, now recognised: 

 as different elementary substances, may possess one and 

 the same ultimate molecule existing in different con- 

 ditions of movement. The author refers to the masterly 

 exposition of these views in the address delivered by 

 Mr. Crookes before the chemical section of the British 

 Association at its Birmingham meeting. This savant 

 applies to the question of the genesis of the elements 

 the same principle of evolution which Laplace had 

 already applied to the creation of the heavenly bodies, and 

 which Lamarck and Darwin had applied to the origin of the 

 organic world. All appeal to the law of continuity. All 

 hold that nature is one harmonious whole. All reject 

 the view that stars, elements, animals, and plants have 

 either originated by chance or have been primordially 

 created. 



Mr. A. Kay contributes a paper on " The Aboriginal 

 Australian, as He was." But was he aboriginal ? Mr. 

 Kay, after considering the differences between the ex- 

 tinct Tasmanian and the " black fellow " of the Austra- 

 lian mainland, suggests that the latter may have been 

 intruders. But the difficulty is to trace out their origin; 

 The writer considers that before many generations pass 

 the Australian blacks will have been improved off the 

 face of the earth. 



Dr. Duncan writes on the "Reform of our Present 

 Methods of Disposal of the Dead : Earth-to Earth 

 Burial versus Cremation " :— " All our readers may not 

 be aware that ' earth-to-earth burial ' differs from ordi- 

 nary interment merely in the comparatively unimportant 

 point that the corpse is enclosed not in a compact, air- 

 tight coffin, but in a porous receptacle. That this 

 arrangement will expedite decomposition is indisputable, 

 but that putrefaction under such circumstances will 

 assume a different and harmless character is an exceed- 

 ingly bold statement. It is to be lamented that the 

 supporters of this scheme should rank among the bit- 

 terest opponents of cremation, which Dr. Duncan shows 

 is the only satisfactory method of disposing of the dead." 



An obituary notice of the late Robert Gray deserves 

 mention. This gentleman, an enthusiastic ornithologist, 

 was to a great extent instrumental in securing a legal- 

 "close time," both for land birds and sea-fowl. Asa 

 reward for his labours in the cause of science and 

 humanity, he was forbidden by the proprietor to set foot 

 again upon Ailsa Craig. 



We may mention that Mr. Gray's " Birds of the West 

 of Scotland," published at 7s. 6d., now commands from 

 40s. to 50s. per copy. His work on the birds of East 

 Scotland was practically complete at the time of his 

 death, and it will shortly be published by his friend,. 

 Mr. Evans. His widow and his children are understood 

 to be working out the palaeontology of Girvan. 



An Easy Guide to the Constellations, with a Miniature 



Atlas of the Stars, and Key Maps. By the Rev. 



James Gall. London and Edinburgh : Gall and 



Inglis. Price is. 



Starting with the well-known constellation of the 



Plough the author of this little pamphlet points out in 



succession the constellations visible in the northern 



hemisphere, giving a brief description of each and the 



way to find them. The work is well illustrated with 



nineteen diagrams and six charts, and key maps. The 



best feature in this book is that the author, instead of 



representing the magnitudes of the stars in the usual 



conventional way, has adopted a method which approxi- 



