448 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[May II, I S 



purity, and these are detailed in the accounts of the 

 researches. 



It is a matter of considerable r3gret that, in issuing a 

 new edition of this work, it has not been brought up to 

 date by the expression of the electric currents in am- 

 peres, instead of by the number of cells used, even if 

 measurements of the strength of the magnetic fields 

 could not have been in terms of the units which are 

 familiar to all electricians. For this reason the work 

 has little interest beyond that of a purely historical 

 character. 



Science Sketches. By David Stare Jordan. Chicago : 

 McLurg and Co. 



These sketches are almost exclusively biological, but, 

 we regret to add, quite as exclusively ichthyological. 

 Mr. Jordan seems to be quite as devoted to fishes as was 

 the late Frank Buckland. This very much reduces the 

 interest of the essays before us. Fish, and, indeed, all 

 purely aquatic forms of life, have their being in what 

 after all must be regarded a different world from ours. 

 They come in contact with us at few points only, and, as 

 far as they are concerned, that most popular division of 

 Natural History which treats of the habits, the senses, and 

 the psychology of animals is almost a blank. 



The essay on the " Nomenclature of American Birds" 

 is interesting. But why American? Surely a correct 

 system of nomenclature should apply to the birds of the 

 world. 



The author says little on the question whether 

 a binomial or a trinomial nomenclature is to be pre- 

 ferred, but he defends a Code recognised by the Ameri- 

 can and the British Associations against the strictures of 

 Prof Gill. He is scarcely correct, however, in his re- 

 marks on Canon xvii. of the Code, one clause of which is to 

 the effect that a name founded upon the male is to be pre- 

 ferred to one founded upon the female; one founded on the 

 adult to one founded on the young; and one founded on 

 the nuptial condition to that on the pre or post-nuptial 

 condition. We dispute his remark that in most groups 

 of animals we " cannot discriminate in any such way 

 between males, females, and young." In insects which 

 form the round numbers of the animal kingdom we can, 

 quite as readily as in birds. We notice the happy re- 

 mark," Literature deals with manner, whilst science treats 

 of matter." 



The next paper, entitled " An Eccentric Naturalist," 

 gives an account of the doings of Constantine Samuel 

 Rafinesque. 



This man, born in Constantinople of a Franco-Turkish 

 father and a Graeco-German mother, is paradoxically said 

 by our author to be an American ! Whatever his 

 nationality, he was a botanist and a zoologist, attending 

 by preference to molluscs and, like Mr. Jordan, to fishes. 

 Whilst dwelling in Sicily, from 1805 to 1815, he is said 

 to have " discovered the medicinal squill," in which he 

 did a large business. Unless we are much misinformed, 

 the squill was in use during the last century. He formed 

 the acquaintance of W. Swainson, the quinarian, and of 

 Audubon. He collected and described shells, and fishes, 

 and plants from the Hellespont to the Wabash. His 

 scientific work was vitiated by neglect of details and by 

 his lack of specialism. He attempted work in every 

 held of learning, and the result was what we might ex- 

 pect. He was, however, one of the earliest botanists who 

 rebelled against the artificial groupings of Linnseus, 

 foreshadowing Jussien, and he had even an inkling of 



organic evolution. But for his views he reaped merely 

 hatred and contempt, being spoken of by his neighbours 

 as a " crazy herb-doctor." He died in poverty and 

 neglect, and the very place of hi? burial is forgotten. 



The pap;r on Darwin is genial, appreciative — we may 

 even say, loving. But we meet with a strange mistake at 

 the close. 



Mr. Jordan writes: — "Among all who have v.'ritten 

 or spoken since then (Darwin's burial), whatever their 

 religious faith, by none has an unkind word been said." 

 Alas ! we know to the contrary. The harpies of classical 

 legend have left behind them legitimate descendants. 



An "Ascent of the Matterhorn " is an account of danger 

 and trial undergone for nothing. The Alps are played out. 

 The same amount of peril and fatigue in the Andes or the 

 Himalaya would have been remunerative. 



Turning Lathes : a Manual for Technical Schools and 

 Apprentices. Edited by James Tukin, B. A. London : 

 E. and F. N. Spon. Price 3s. 

 We cannot say that we think there is any necessity 

 for this little book on elementary turning, as the sub- 

 ject has been repeatedly covered in a similar manner by 

 equally upretending little volumes, but the humility of 

 the preface disarms criticism, and if, as the editor hopes, 

 there is room for another treatise on the subject, we 

 think an absolute novice is as likely to learn as much of 

 the rudiments of turning from this book as from those 

 already published. 



— •'-^5*^^'^5«^-* — ■ ^ 



NOTES ON METEORITES. 



DR. REUSH [American Naturalist), discussing the 

 phenomena connected with the fall of these bodies, 

 says that the velocity of the fire-ball seen in the sky has 

 been ascertained to be from 40 to 46 miles per second. 

 This tremendous speed accounts for the fire phenome- 

 non, as the atmosphere not being able to escape in front 

 of the stone, becomes condensed to an enormous degree 

 — a great quantity of heat becoming thus developed ac- 

 cording to known physical laws. The meteorites at one 

 time having the temperature of space through which 

 they were rushing — a temperature far below the freezing- 

 point — will thus become enormously heated on the out- 

 side when entering the earth's atmosphere. The pres- 

 sure of the strongly-condensed atmosphere finally ex- 

 ceeding a certain limit, acts as a blasting agency, ac- 

 cording to a commonly-received opinion, and the fire- 

 ball explodes. The fragments are still glowing for a 

 while after the explosion, but as a rule they have pro- 

 bably become cooled on reaching the ground. Nor is 

 the final speed very considerable, the original velocity of 

 the fire-ball having been diminished by the resistance of 

 the air. 



When falling at full speed the surface of the meteor- 

 ites may be supposed to be continually melting, nay, 

 perhaps evaporating. By the friction of the air, how- 

 ever, the molten substance is removed almost as fast as 

 it is formed. In this way may be explained the " fire- 

 tail " which the observers in many cases affirm that they 

 have seen. In the same manner is formed the smoke 

 which on several occasions has been observed floating in 

 the wake of the fire-ball. 



Bacteriology. — The Dutch Government has resolved 

 upon establishing a bacteriological institution at Batavia, 

 in Java. 



