4QO 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Nov. 9, 1888. 



was inaugurated with a lecture by the president, Mr. A- 

 R. Binnie, on " Heat in Relation to Coal." 



Liverpool Naturalists' Field Club. — -On October 

 26th this club held a conversazione which proved a 

 great success. Amongst the exhibits were two yellow 

 love-birds, shown by Mr. William Cross, and some living 

 Longicorne beetles. 



Liverpool Geological Field Class. — On October 27th 

 the members of this class, under the guidance of Mr. 

 Lomas, lecturer on geology at the University College, 

 and Mr. H. C. Beasley, President of the Liverpool 

 Geological Society, visited Wallasey and Poulton. 



Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian 

 Society. — At the monthly meeting held on October nth, 

 Deemster Gill, the President, read his report, as 

 delegate, of the British Association meeting at Bath. 

 The question of publishing a quarterly report was con- 

 sidered, and a list of Manx land and fresh-water shells, 

 taken by Mr. Lionel E. Adams, was read. 



Falmouth Naturalist Society. — The annual con- 

 versazione in connection with this Society was held in the 

 Town Hall, Falmouth, on Monday, October 29th. 



Kidderminster. — Sir R. S. Ball delivered a lecture on 

 " Comets and Shooting Stars," in the Town Hall, on 

 October 29th. 



AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 

 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



We abstract from the columns of the Sydney Morning 

 Herald the following report of the proceedings : — 



Section A. — Astronomy, Mathematics, Physics, and 



Mechanics. 

 In this section Mr. R. L.J. Ellery.'F.R.S., F.R.A.S., presided, 

 and delivered the presidential address on The Present Position of 

 Astronomical Knowledge. After a very exhaustive review of the 

 solar system and the wonders of the universe, he said, — " Owing 

 to the nearness to which the planet Mars often approaches us, and to 

 the earth-like character of its telescope appearance, it naturally 

 presents a most interesting study to the astronomer. It is seen to be 

 marked out as if in continents and seas, the marking often appear- 

 ing as if obscured by clouds. Very considerable changes in the 

 features have been observed from time to time, and recently appear - 

 ances as of narrow channels or canals have been seen, which have 

 changed and split, and been joined by cross-channels. These 

 observations have been dilated upon by popular scientific writers, 

 who have suggested that the canals and channels are the work of 

 martial inhabitants for irrigation or other great engineering purposes. 

 The writers must have imagined stupendous works by stupendous 

 beings, when canals and irrigation channels are as wide as the 

 Mediterranean Sea. The mapping of Mars has been pushed to a 

 minuteness that many astronomers cannot follow, but the soaring 

 imagination of one popular writer brooks no bounds, and where we 

 have canals and artificial channels this year we may discover barges 

 and steamboats next. My own experience leads me to regard many 

 of the drawings and speculations concerning the martial surface as 

 being a little in advance of ascertained facts. It is undoubtedly 

 very earthlike in character, and it is very probably nearer the same 

 stage (as regards cooling) of our planet than any other. It also 

 appears to be endowed with an atmosphere often cloud-laden, 

 obscuring the features of the planet's surface. We wait for increased 

 powers of observation at the future near approaches of this planet 

 for further developments. The most interesting fact in connection 

 with this planet is the comparatively recent discovery by Hall, in 

 1877, in America, of his two satellites, whose existence had not 

 hitherto been even suspected. The remarkable features of these 

 bodies are their nearness to the parent planet, their smallness, 

 and their rapid motion. They have been named Deimos and Phobos 



(fear and panic). Phobos is only 3,760 miles, and Deimos 12,500 

 miles, from Mars' surface. The former goes round the planet in a 

 little over seven hours and a-half, and latter in about thirty hours 

 and a-quarter. The actual dimensions can only be estimated from 

 light measures, which give diameters of about nine and eleven miles. 

 Some very important suggestions by Mr. Norman Lockyer, upon 

 the classification of heavenly bodies, and I may almost say a new 

 theory of the universe, have been laid before the scientific public 

 through the Royal Society of London. In brief, it may be stated 

 as follows — Space is a planum of meteoric matter. All self- 

 luminous bodies in the celestial spaces are composed of meteorites 

 or meteoric vapour produced by heat from condensation of meteor 

 swarms due to gravity. He assumes some at least of the meteoric 

 matter to have orbital motion. Some may be in motion, some at 

 rest, but all visible evidence of this matter appears as stars, comets, 

 or nebulae, between which no distinction can be made on physical 

 grounds. Visibility is brought about by collisions of meteoric 

 particles, and according to the profusion or sparseness of the 

 meteoric particles in space where collisions occur by intersection of 

 orbits with matter at rest, or with bodies in other orbits, we have 

 nebulae of the several kinds, comets, nebulous stars, and even con- 

 crete stars themselves. This may be called the meteoric hypothesis, 

 and as the conception has for its foundation a mass of indisputable 

 facts, the result of long and laborious research with the spectroscope 

 in the laboratory, compared skilfully and patiently with facts, 

 revealed by spectroscopic examination of all classes of celestial 

 objects, I can but regard it as a most important step in physical 

 astronomy, destined, I believe, to mark a new epoch in the science. 

 The idea that meteoric matter or bodies pervade all space is not 

 in itself a new one, for when we consider, accepting Professor 

 Newton's estimate that twenty million meteorites fall to our earth 

 daily, it is evident that space is, astronomically speaking, full of 

 them. Nevertheless, by the same calculation by which Professor 

 Newton arrived at the foregoing number, he ascertained their sparse- 

 ness to be such that the meteorites must be 250 miles from each 

 other in space. As regards the effects of collision of meteorites, 

 the speed of visible meteors can be measured, and it is reckoned to 

 be at an average thirty miles a second. If then the specific heat of 

 the material of which they are composed be "10, the increase of tem- 

 perature when their motion was arrested by a full collision would 

 amount to 2,700,000 degrees centigrade, steel being fluid at 2552 

 Fahrenheit." 



Mr. W. Sutherland read a paper on The Law of Molecular 

 Force, and in this paper he further discussed the hypothesis already 

 discussed in the Philosophical Magazine, viz. : — That molecular 

 bodies attract one another with a force varying inversely with the 

 fourth power of the distance between them. 



He also read a paper on Molecular Refraction. This paper was 

 devoted to the question of showing that the formula of the English 

 physicist Gladstone for the connection between the index and the 

 density is the best formula yet proposed, and it had a theoretical 

 foundation. 



Mr. H. C. Russell read a paper on Contributions to the History 

 of Astronomy in Australia. The paper was a long and exhaustive 

 research into the records of the past, and gave facts and figures 

 relating to the astronomy and meteorology of the early observers. 

 He also read a paper on A Proposed Method of Recording Varia- 

 tions in the Direction of the Vertical. 



Professor Threlfall read a letter which had been received 

 from Professor Rucker in relation to the effect rocks containing iron 

 had upon the magnet. 



Some discussion took place, which was closed by Professor 

 Threlfall remarking that he did not consider the subject of very 

 great importance, as people did not ' ■ steer " by the compass when 

 on land. 



Mr. Graydon read a paper on The Diurnal Variation of 

 Atmospheric Pressure and Wind. 



Professor Threlfall also read papers on The Measurements of 

 High Resistances, and on Galvanometers Suitable for the Purpose. 

 M' Arthur Pollock on the Clark Cell as a Means of Obtaining 

 Standard Currents, and on its Application to the Construction of a 

 Graded Galvanometer for the Prince Alfred Hospital. 



Section B. — Chemistry and Mineralogy. 



This section met under the presidency of Professor Black, who 

 delivered the presidential address dealing with general chemistry in 

 relation to education, and contended that chemical knowledge 

 should be taught in all branches of education, especially in the 

 higher schools. In this respect a great improvement might be 

 made from a practical point of view. 



The first paper read was on Butterine as an Article of Food, 



