148 Scientific Intelligence. 



High Electromotive Force, Memoirs American Academy, voL 

 xiii, No. v — that the strong lines of all metals broaden under 

 great pressure toward the red. j. t. 



12. Modification of the First Linear Spectrum of Emission 

 of Mercury. — Prof. Enrico Castelli has observed this modifica- 

 tion in observing the mercury spectrum produced by the vapor of 

 mercury contained in a Uriollamp. One set of photographs of the 

 spectral lines was made when this lamp was new — the other set 

 when it had been working for a hundred hom*s, during intervals. 

 The lines corresponding to less refrangible monochromatic rays 

 gradually became more intense and produced on the orthochro- 

 matic plates a greater and greater effect ; while the contrary 

 occurred with the more refrangible lines. It occurs to one in 

 reading this article that the change .in the material of the lamp 

 — glass or quartz — might account for the phenomenon. — PhiL 

 Mag., Dec. 1907, pp. 784-785. j. t. 



13. A Gas Generated from Aluminum Electrodes. — R. v. 

 Hirsch and F. Soddt, starting with the formula P 2 V= constant, 

 P being the gas pressure and V the discharge potential, which 

 they believe to hold for pure gases submitted to electrical dis- 

 charges, think they have discovered a new gas which indicates 

 that it is not a mixture but a pure gas, and that its molecular* 

 weight is 4 or some multiple. The authors are inclined to believe 

 that the supposititious new gas may be a modification of hydro- 

 gen as ozone is of oxygen, capable of withstanding the discharge 

 of an influence machine, but decomposed by the discharge 

 of a coil. They admit that the quality of aluminum employed 

 is of great importance. Too great purity of the British alu- 

 minum they think may serve to explain some of the difficulties 

 besetting the X-ray bulb manufacturers in England. — Phil. Mag., 

 Dec. 1907, pp. 779-784. j. t. 



14. Two New Worlds. I, The Infra-world. II, The Supra- 

 world; by E. E. Fournier d'Albe. vii + 157 pp. 1907. 

 (Longmans, Green & Co.) — The author of this work has previ- 

 ously published an excellent popular exposition of the electron 

 theory. In the book before us he has used our present knowl- 

 edge of the electron (imperfect, slight, and recently acquired as 

 that knowledge is) as the basis of an astonishing mass of specu- 

 lation as to the constitution of the universe — or rather of an infi- 

 nite series of universes of different orders of size, of whose 

 existence he gives " proofs." The basis of his speculations is a 

 simple one : the diameter of the earth is about 10 22 times the 

 diameter of an electron ; the earth's period about the sun is 

 about 10 22 times the average period of an electron in the vibra- 

 tions which give rise to light waves ; the author is thus led to 

 consider an " infra-world " in which " space and time are reduced 

 in the same proportion." The number, 10 22 "is nothing less than 

 the ratio of the scales of successive universes." The theory of 

 physical dimensions plays a great part in defining the physical 



