FOR GENERAL READERS. 



Vol. I. — No. 12. {New Series.) 



MARCH 23rd, 1888. 



rWeekly, Price Sd. 

 L By Poat. 3}d. 



PAGE 



Current Events 265 



Scientific Table Talk 266 



Rock Excavator (illtis.) 267 



Earthquakes as Agents in the Forma- 

 tion of National Character ... 26S 



A Fowl's Egg (jY.'kj.) „ 269 



General Notes 271 



Pascal's Vase 273 



The Struggle for Life in the Sea and 



in Fresh Waters 274 



Natural History : 



Wild Silks (jtt«.) 275 



Sparrow Ravages in Cheshire ... 276 



Ferocity of the Alligator ... 276 



Miscellaneous Notes 276 



C ONTENT S. 



Technical Education — III : page 



Mr. Swire Smith on the Technical 



Education Bill 277 



Reviews : 



Living Lights, a popular account 



of Phosphorescent Animals and 



Vegetables ... ... ... 279 



The Rothamstead Experiments on 



the Growth of Wheat, etc. ... 279 

 Proceedings of the United States 



National Museum 280 



Cleveland Institution of Engineers 280 

 Abstracts of Papers, Lectures, etc. : 



Royal Society ... ... ... 281 



Royal Institution 282 



Royal Geographical Society ... 282 

 Bradford Naturalists' Society ... 282 

 Royal Scottish Society of Arts ... 283 



PAGE 



Liverpool Microscopical Society 283 

 South London Entomological and 



Natural History Society ... 284 



Glasgow Natural History Society 284 



Birmingham Queen's College ... 284 



Society of Engineers 284 



Correspondence ; 



" A Peck of March Dust is Worth 

 a King's Ransom " — Mean Volo- 

 city of the Wind — Do Birds avoid 



Poisonous Fruits ? 285 



Recent Inventions 286 



Technical Education Xotes ... ... 287 



Announcements 287 



Diary for Next Week 288 



Sales and Exchanges 288 



Selected Books 288 



CURRENT EVENTS. 



Coral Reefs and Islands. — As is well known, Mr. 

 Murray has lately been made to point a moral, if not to 

 adorn a tale, and his champion the Duke of Argyll went 

 so far as to say that scientific men would not give him a 

 fair hearing. This, of course, was a mistake, but what- 

 ever may have occurred before, he has now had an 

 opportunity of lecturing in his own way at the Royal 

 Institution, and we may be permitted to suggest that a 

 mountain of wrath and prejudice has been made out of 

 a molehill of scientific speculation. Formerly it was 

 believed that coral reefs were raised from great depths 

 to the surface by the activity of the coral animals. Dar- 

 win, however, showed that the production of ring- 

 shaped reefs or atolls is due to the gradual subsidence 

 of the foundations on which they rest. 



Mr. Murray, on the other hand, contends that there 

 has been no such subsidence, and that the crater-like 

 form in the centre of the atolls is due to the carbonate of 

 lime, of which corals are so largely composed, having 

 been dissolved away by water, v^hile at the same time 

 the coral growth on the inside has been slower, owing to 

 there being an insufficient supply of food. The greatest 

 authority on the subject, Professor Dana, is opposed to 

 this view, but possibly it may eventually be found that 

 Darwin and Murray are both correct. In some cases 

 Darwin's theory may obtain, as there is good reason to 

 suppose ; in other cases the removal of the coral deposits 

 by solution may be the true explanation. 



There was a great display of projections on the screen, 

 and perhaps the most interesting was that of a coral reef 

 usually covered with water, but which was photographed 

 instantaneously by Mr. Ralph Abercromby, during the 



receding of a wave. Referring to the depth at which 

 coral animals can live, the lecturer pointed out that if 

 varies with the depth at which there is warm water, one 

 chief reason being that the coral animals feed on pelagic 

 organisms which tl rive best in streams of warm water. 

 He also mentioned that with regard to the solution of 

 the carbonate of lime, the lagoon water usually contains 

 a high percentage of carbonic acid which is constantly 

 being produced by the decomposition of organic sub- 

 stances. The presence of carbonic acid in the water 

 being necessary to dissolve the carbonate of lime, the 

 condition of the lagoon water is therefore, in this respect, 

 favourable to the solution, especially as its temperature 

 is usually high. 



Photography. — The remarkable display of photographs 

 and apparatus at the Crystal Palace Exhibition, and the 

 recent conference of photographists held in the Society of 

 Arts' rooms, cannot fail to have impressed visitors with 

 the great progress made in this useful art. The character 

 of the papers read at this meeting also shows that the 

 advances made have been chiefly due to the scientific 

 spirit with which the technique of the various branches 

 of the subject has been treated. The mere empirical use 

 of certain solutions, for instance, with the most skilled 

 manipulation, will lead to very little improvement ; but 

 if the operator understands the chemical reactions which 

 occur under the influence of light, he is at once in a posi- 

 tion to consider improved methods of attaining the end 

 in view. The same may be said of other branches of 

 the art, and it points to the great importance of the 

 underlying principles being mastered by all who wish to 

 lake an intelligeat part in its developmen^ These 

 amateurs and dildtmtte workers are more or less scoffed 



