ished, while that of soft steel or soft iron was increased; and in both cases the effect was approximately proportional to the square of the magnetising force. When the magnetisation was transverse a similar effect was observed. The next subject investigated by Adams was the phenomenon of the effect of light in reducing the resistance of selenium, which had recently been discovered by Mayhew. With great patience and experimental skill he showed that the effect. was not due, as had been supposed, to any heating of the selenium, but was a genuine result of illumination; and he proved that the change of resistance was greater for yellow-green rays than for any other part of the spectrum. The Adams was one of the founders of the Physical Society, in 1875; and to its first volume of Proceedings he contributed a description of a new form of polariscope for determining the angle between the optic axes of biaxial crystals. crystal slice to be examined was placed between two pieces of glass, one being a hemisphere and the other a shallower section than a hemisphere, the convex surfaces having a common centre in the crystal slice. The combination was placed in oil between the usual crossed Nicol prisms, and could be tilted through any desired angles so as to bring first one and then the other of the optical axes of the crystal into alignment with the axis of the instrument, thus enabling the angle between the axes to be accurately measured without corrections for the refractive index. He In 1880 Adams was chosen president of section A of the British Association, and delivered an address dealing generally with recent progress in physics. He also presented a report of a comparison between the magnetograph curves from the magnetic observatories of Kew, Stonyhurst, Lisbon, Coimbra, Vienna, and Petrograd. In the following year he continued his magnetic investigations with a paper on the connection between magnetic disturbances and earth-currents. wrote also on the development of lighthouse illumination, and with Dr. Hopkinson examined the performance of the De Meritens dynamos at the North Foreland lighthouse. As president, in 1884, of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, he took for the subject of his inaugural address the topics of the growth of electrical science and the testing of dynamo machines and incandescent lamps. He wrote a series of articles on electric light and atmospheric absorption, and another on lighthouse illuminants and apparatus, for publication in the Electrician in the years 1885 and 1886. After some years he returned to the subject of magnetic disturbances as recorded simultaneously on the magnetographs at several observatories, in a paper which was published in the Philosophical Transactions (vol. cviii.) in 1893. To the British Association report of 1898 he contributed an account of the determination of the Gaussian magnetic constants made many years previously by his elder brother, the astronomer, John Couch Adams. Grylls Adams served on the council of the Royal Society from 1882 to 1884, and again from 1896 to 1898. He was president of the Physical Society in 1879. In 1883 he delivered a series of Cantor lectures on the subject of electric lighting. He retired from the professorship at King's College in 1906. He has left a widow, three sons, and one daughter. NOTES. WE record with much regret the death on April 16, at sixty-five years of age, of Mr. Richard Lydekker, F.R.S., distinguished by his original work and numerous writings on all aspects of natural science, and a constant contributor to NATURE for many years to within a few days of his death. THE Paris Geographical Society has just made a special award of a gold medal to Dr. J. Scott Keltie, for his long and distinguished services to geographical science. COLONEL G. W. GOETHALS, engineer of the Panama Canal, and Sir Thomas Shaughnessy, president of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, have been elected honorary members of the Institution of Civil Engineers. THE British Medical Journal announces that the Louis Livingston Seaman medal for progress and achievement in the promotion of hygiene and the mitigation of occupational diseases has been awarded to Major-General W C. Gorgas. THE Warren prize of the Massachusetts General Hospital, of the value of 100l., and awarded triennially, is offered for the year 1916 for the best essay on some special subject in physiology, surgery, or pathology. Further particulars are obtainable from Dr. F. A. Washburn, at the hospital named. WE learn from the Lancet that the Hutchinson Museum has been acquired by the Medical School of Johns Hopkins University. The collection comprises original coloured drawings; coloured plates taken from atlases, books, and memoirs; engravings, woodcuts, photographs, and pencil sketches, in some cases with the letterpress or manuscript notes attached. The collection illustrates the whole range of medicine and surgery, but particularly syphilis and skin diseases. SIR THOMAS CLOUSTON, a leading authority upon the subject of mental diseases, died in Edinburgh on April 19, at nearly seventy-five years of age. He was lecturer on mental diseases at Edinburgh University, and was the author of a number of important works on disorders of the mind. He was president of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, in 1902-3, and was for some time editor of the Journal of Mental Science. THE death is announced of Mr. J. B. A. Légé, who made the first tide-predicting machine for the late Lord Kelvin. He was the constructor of signalling lamps and other apparatus invented by Admiral Sir Percy Scott and used in the Navy. Among Mr. Légé's inventions may be mentioned horological mechanisms, torpedoes, and direct-acting petrol engines. AN International Engineering Congress will be held during the week September 20-25 next, at San Francisco, under the presidency of Colonel G. W. Goethals, chairman and chief engineer of the Isthmian Canal Commission, and under the auspices of the leading American technical and scientific societies. Applications for further information should be addressed to Mr. W. A. Cattell, secretary-treasurer, Foxcroft Building, San Francisco, U.S.A., from whom circulars and reply forms may be obtained. THE Christiania correspondent of the Morning Post announces the death of Prof. G. Gustafson, professor of Norwegian archæology in the University of Christiania. Prof. Gustafson was born at Gotland, Sweden, in 1853, and went to Norway in 1889 as keeper of the antiquarian section of the Museum at Bergen. He was appointed in 1900 professor of archæology at the University of Christiania, where he reorganised the archæological and prehistoric museum and conducted numerous excavations. Ar a special meeting of the Conchological Society held at the University of Manchester in lieu of the ordinary February meeting, an illuminated address was presented to Mr. J. W. Taylor on attaining his seventieth birthday. The address directs attention to the fact that it is forty-one years ago since Mr. Taylor undertook the publication of the Quarterly Journal of Conchology, which later led to the inauguration of the Conchological Society. Mr. Taylor's great work has been the "Monograph of the Land and Freshwater Mollusca of the British Isles," of which three volumes are now completed. We learn from the British Medical Journal that Dr. S. von Prowazek, director of the department of protozoology in the Institute of Marine and Tropical Diseases at Hamburg, has died at Lima of typhus fever contracted in the course of a research on the pathology of that disease. He was thirty-nine years of age, a native of Austria, and studied under Ehrlich, Hertwig, and Schaudinn. We notice also the announcement of the death of another worker in the field of tropical diseases, namely, Lieut.-Col. W. S. Harrison, formerly assistant-professor of pathology at the Royal Army Medical College. Lieut.-Col. Harrison was only forty-three years of age; and he appears to have contracted the disease from which he died on April 12 during research work in connection with tropical diseases in India and Jamaica. THE annual meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute will be held at the Institution of Civil Engineers on May 13 and 14. The Bessemer gold medal for 1915, which has been awarded to Mr. Pierre Martin, formerly of Sireuil, near Paris, will be received on his behalf by M. Paul Cambon, the French Ambassador, during the first meeting, and in the afternoon of the same day Prof. Hubert, of Liège University, will lecture on large gas engines. During the morning of the second day the Andrew Carnegie gold medal for 1914 will be presented to Mr. E. Nusbaumer, of Paris, and the award of research scholarships for the current year will be announced. Papers will be read and discussed on both days. The council of the institute has decided on account of the war that it will be inadvisable to hold the annual dinner this year. It has been decided provisionally that the autumn meeting of the institute shall be held in London during the week ending September 25. Ir is proposed to place a bust of Sir Archibald Geikie in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, where there are already busts of all previous occupants of the post of Director-General of the Geological Survey and of the museum, as well as of several other distinguished geologists. Sir Archibald Geikie was connected with the Geological Survey for nearly forty-six years, during nineteen of which he was Director-General. A committee representative of the universities and the principal scientific institutions and societies of the United Kingdom has been formed to carry out the proposal. It is estimated that the cost of a bust and of a replica to be presented to Sir Archibald Geikie will be between 400l. and 500l.; and the committee invites subscriptions towards this sum. There should be no difficulty in securing the amount required for this modest form of memorial of a geologist of world-wide distinction, who was connected for so many years with the institution in which the bust is to be placed. Contributions for the fund should be made to the honorary treasurer, Mr. J. A. Howe, curator of the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, S.W. THE South African Institute for Medical Research has issued a valuable monograph, "Anthropological Notes on Bantu Natives from Portuguese East Africa," prepared by Mr. C. D. Maynard, statistician and clinician to the institute, and Dr. G. A. Turner, medical officer to the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association, who have had excellent opportunities for studying these people. The paper supplies an elaborate series of measurements of this very mixed racestature, brain weight, skull thickness, cephalic and cranial indices, spleen, liver, and kidney weights. The correlation of stature and brain weight is found to be only partially established, and the Bantu cerebrum appears to be rather lighter in relation to stature than that of the European. The current impression that the native's skull is thicker than that of the European is found to be incorrect. The article is provided with a useful bibliography of the subject. THE Smithsonian Institution has just issued an account, by Dr. J. W. Fewkes, of a collection of beautiful pottery from the Mimbres Valley of New Mexico, dating back to prehistoric times. This is the first collection received by the museum from this valley, and this type of pottery is unrepresented in other collections. Its importance lies in the fact that a comparatively large number of specimens have human or other figures painted upon them, and that they resemble those from Casas Grandes in Mexico. An interesting and significant custom of these people is that they buried their dead in urns, under the floors of their houses in a sitting posture, with a bowl inverted over the head like a cap, or, when the body is extended, over the face. Such bowls have always a small round hole in the bottom, which has been interpreted as due to the belief that pottery possesses spirits which can escape only when the vessels have been "killed"; possibly it is a mode of releasing the ghost of the dead man. DR. V. IVANOF has ascertained by microscopic observation the existence of leaves in saxaul (Haloxylon ammodendron). Other botanists have described the shrub as completely leafless or provided only with small, scaly growths. The leaves grow closely into the stem, and the apical parts and stalks form a continuous whole (Proceedings of the Society of Naturalists at the University of Kazan, 1912-13). IN the Journal of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences for January, Mr. Matsumoto gives a preliminary account of a new classification of the featherstars, or Ophiuroidea, the full details of which are to be published in Japan. The author, who has received valuable advice and assistance from Prof. H. Clark, finds that ophiuroids must be divided into two main groups, the first of which (Egophiuroida) is mainly Palæozoic, and lacks most of the structural features by which Ophiuroidea are distinguished from Asteroidea. ACCORDING to an article by Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell in the issue of the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy for December, 1914, the well-known Miocene insectivorous beds of Florissant, Colorado, continue to yield a number of new forms, so that the time is still distant when it will be possible to publish a complete list of the fauna. Compared with the rich insect-bearing beds of Eningen, Baden, and of the neighbouring village of Wangen, on the Rhine, the Florissant fauna is markedly the richer, so far as definitely named species are concerned. The Eningen fauna, for example, comprises 250 beetles, 8o Hemiptera, 60 Hymenoptera, and 30 flies, but the members of these groups already named from Florissant number, respectively, about 494, 230, 220, and 100. THE Termites (so-called "white ants") afford unfailing interest to the entomologist. A valuable account of the bionomics of the species of these insects found in the eastern United States has been lately issued by T. E. Snyder (U.S. Dept. Agric. Entom. Bulletin, No. 94). Two species of the Leucotermes (L. flavipes and L. virginicus) form the subject of most of the observations recorded. The forms of these termites and the general course of their development have been fairly well known for many years past. Mr. Snyder has directed especial attention to the fate of the winged, sexual individuals that "swarm" from the nests at certain seasons. survivors often comparatively few of "swarms" usually cast their wings before courtship begins, and do not actually pair until they have established themselves in a new "royal chamber," which, in the case of Leucotermes, is a cavity in wood. It is not necessary for these "royal pairs" to be established by foraging workers and soldiers; they are apparently, as a rule, independent of help in the foundation of a new community. The provision of neoteinic" royal individuals is associated The these with the foundation of fresh communities from old overcrowded societies. IN Meddelelser fra Kommissionen for Havundersøgelser, Serie Fiskeri, Bd. iv., No. 7, Dr. Johs. Schmidt discusses the classification of fresh-water eels (Anguilla). A considerable number of specimens from various localities have been investigated as regards the amount of variation occurring in different characters, the characters being additional to those which were discussed in a previous paper. It has proved possible to distinguish between three species, A. vulgaris, A. rostrata, and A. japonica. All European fresh-water eels belong to one and the same species, within which no constant local races can be shown to exist. An attractive article in the April issue of Wild Life is one by Miss F. Pitt, illustrated by four reproductions of photographs, of the marten, in which particulars are given with regard of the past and present distribution of that species in Great Britain. Many readers of the same number will doubtless also be interested in a well-illustrated article by Mr. F. J. Stubbs on the plague-flea, and how it is carried about by rats, as well as the way in which it becomes infected with the plague-bacillus. It might have been added that the ultimate source of plague appears to be the indescribably evil-smelling burrows of the bobac marmot of the steppes of eastern Europe and western Asia. IN the January issue of the Journal of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences Miss A. M. Fielde gives further particulars with regard to her investigations of the functions of the antennæ of ants. It has already been shown by the author that the function of these appendages is olfactory, and it is now demonstrated that their constituent segments take up particular kinds of odours. The distal segment, for example, warns an ant from approaching any colony other than its own. Again, the penultimate joint deals with the odour which renders one ant-colony inimical to others of the same species. Another segment serves to guide an ant on the homeward track by enabling it to pick up the scent left on the ground during its outward journey, while the function of yet another is to recognise the whereabouts of the queen and her undeveloped progeny on the part of a worker, and so on with other items in the olfactory functions of these insects. WHEN he first named a gigantic ungulate, with somewhat Dinotherium-like teeth, from the Lower Tertiaries of Patagonia, under the name of Pyrotherium, the late Dr. F. Ameghino regarded it as a proboscidean. His views have not, however, been accepted by the majority of paleontologists, and no mention of the genus is made by Dr. Andrews in his summary of the evolution of the Proboscidea in the "Guide to the Elephants in the British Museum." During a recent expedition to Patagonia, dispatched by Amherst College, Prof. F. B. Loomis obtained a couple of skulls of Pyrotherium, which he has described in a volume, published by Amherst College, under the title of "The Deseado Formation of Pata gonia." He concludes that the genus is really proboscidean, but his views (which are supported by Señor C. Ameghino in Physis for December, 1914) are disputed in a review by Mr. R. S. Lull in vol. xxxviii., p. 482, of the American Journal of Science, where it is urged that the characters relied upon by Prof. Loomis are not of taxonomic value, and that Pyrotherium is not entitled to a place among the Proboscidea. The question has an important bearing, not only on the phylogeny and "radiation" of that group, but on mammalian distribution in general. GREAT interest attaches to an article by Mr. A. H. Clark in Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. lxv., No. 1, on the distribution of Peripatus and its allies, collectively constituting the group Onychophora. This group, which is apparently an ancient one, though there is no direct evidence on this point, occurs in the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra; Ceram, Papua, New Britain, Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand; Ethiopian Africa; and Central and South America, and the West Indies. The distributional area is thus limited to countries with a mean annual temperature of from approximately 50° to 80° F.; most of the species, however, occur in countries where the mean is from 60° to 70° F. All the species are restricted to the region south of the tropic of Cancer, while the great majority are confined to the southern hemisphere, the West Indies and Central America being the only localities where an appreciable number of species occur north of the equator. The group is divided into the two families, Peripatidæ and Peripatopsidæ, and nowhere, so far as known, are species. of the two families found in the same area. Moreover, the two subfamilies into which the Peripatidæ are divided are sundered by the entire breadth of the Indian Ocean. Then, again, the two subfamilies of the Peripatopsidæ inhabit separate areas in the Australasian region, one being restricted to Papua and the neighbouring islands, while the other is found in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand; both groups, however, co-exist in South Africa. No. xxxix. of the Notes of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, contains papers on some new Japanese mountain plants, by Mr. H. Takeda, an enumeration of the Chinese Astragali by Mr. N. D. Simpson, and contributions to the knowledge of the Asiatic Polypodiums by Mr. Takeda. The mountain plants come from the mountain group, Yûparodake in the island of Yezo, some 6000 ft. high, which has not been properly explored botanically before, and a great many interesting records have been obtained and new species collected, salient details of some of which are figured. Mr. Simpson's paper on a very difficult genus is of considerable value, since he has given a careful synopsis of the Chinese species, setting them out in clearly defined sections, and has assigned the specimens to their respective species. Seventeen new species, chiefly from Yunnan and Szechuan, are also described. In the Philippine Journal of Science Mr. Frank G. Gates gives an account, illustrated by a map and plates, of the re-development of vegetation on Taal Volcano, a low mountain in the middle of Bombon Lake, Batangas Province, Luzon. The lake is 22 km. long by 14 km. wide, and the island is therefore not a very great distance from the surrounding shores. The devastating earthquake occurred on January 30, 1911, and the progress of the re-growth of vegetation has been carefully noted. Strand plants, Ipomaea PesCaprae and Canavalia lineata, first appeared, due to water transport of seeds, then grasses became established from wind-borne seeds. In contrast to Krakatoa, very few ferns have appeared, probably as only a few are found on the mainland. After the grasses came shrubs and small trees, and the latter are followed by trees and bamboos. The plants found are discussed in connection with the ecological formations in which they may be grouped. THE annual report on the Forest Administration of Southern Nigeria for the year 1913, recently received, is, like its predecessors, an interesting document, though it records much that is to be deplored. The destruction of forest which is taking place to give more land for cultivation is a very serious matter, for whole ranges of hills have been denuded of forest growth right up to their crests, and the sources of their many streams have been exposed. The result of this forest destruction will mean, not only the washing away of the soil from the slopes, but, even more important, the loss of a proper water supply to the fertile valleys. With bare hills, the rain precipitated will at once run off instead of being conserved by the forest and released gradually, and the cultivation of cacao and kola in the valleys will become impossible. The chief conservator, who has toured widely through the country, records the same tale of reckless destruction of forest on all sides. It is to be hoped that prompt action will be taken, as was done in India when roads and railways opened the country, to save the existing forest from the general wreckage and also ensure a continuous water supply. THOUGH it has been usual to regard the great Hawaiian earthquakes of 1868 as of volcanic origin, Mr. H. O. Wood, in a valuable paper, has recently collected evidence which seems to show that they were tectonic, rather than true volcanic, earthquakes (Bull. Seis. Soc. America, vol. iv., 1914, pp. 169-203). He points out that the most violent earthquake of the series, that of April 2, was preceded and followed by numerous accessory shocks, that it disturbed an area of about 375,000 square miles, that the depth of its origin must have been considerable, and that it gave rise to important seismic sea-waves. In all these respects, it differed from earthquakes of the ordinary volcanic type, many of which, however, are probably not directly connected with volcanic operations, but are due to fault-slips along radial and peripheral fractures of the volcano. IT has long been known that magnets are sometimes made to oscillate during the passage of earthquake-waves; and the phenomena, especially those observed with the Riviera earthquake of 1887, have given rise to considerable discussion. A recent memoir by Prof. H. F. Reid (Bull. Seis. Soc. America, vol. iv., 1914, pp. 204-14) ought to end the controversy. He shows that there are certain periods for horizontal and vertical disturbances that will cause marked oscillations of unifilar and bifilar magnets and magnetic balances; and that, if the periods of the earthquake-vibrations should approximate to any of these periods, they may cause the magnets to oscillate. Prof. Reid concludes that the broadening, blurring, or interruption of the magnetic trace at the time of earthquakes may be due to oscillation of the suspended magnets by purely mechanical vibrations, and does not require us to assume the existence of real magnetic forces or electric currents. He MR. N. L. BOWEN (Amer. Journ. Sci., vol. xxxix., 1915, p. 175) describes and illustrates several interesting experiments which show that crystals separating from a molten silicate mixture tend to accumulate by gravitation in the lower layers of the mass. thus gives strong support to Charles Darwin's view of gravitation as a factor in the differentiation of igneous rocks. Crystals of olivine have been gathered towards the bottom of a crucible, those in the lowest layers being smaller than those above them, since the latter have fallen through a greater depth of liquid. Both olivine and pyroxene crystals induce during cooling the formation of coats of amphibole round them. Seeing how quartz in lavas may become coated by a deposit of pyroxene, there is clearly room for further research as to these reaction-zones. The author has succeeded in separating tridymite in more highly siliceous mixtures, the crystals becoming in this case concentrated upwards by flotation. THE January issue of the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia contains a summary, in French, by Mr. Stanislas Meunier of his views with regard to the general theory of glacial phenomena and the origin of polished and striated pebbles. In many respects these views are of a distinctly revolutionary type, and subversive of current theories. Especially is this the case with regard to striated pebbles, generally held to be of glacial origin, but which, in the author's opinion, are rather the result of "subterranean denudation," as exemplified by formations in the Vosges and elsewhere. It is remarked that these polished and striated fragments are almost exclusively calcareous, and that the scratches have been made by quartzitic and other hard rocks. A portion of surfacewater, it is observed, sinks into porous soil, where subterranean denudation brings these slowly moving quartz-fragments into contact with irregularly shaped débris of calcareous rocks, which are eventually ground down into the polished and striated pebbles hitherto regarded as affording decisive evidence of glacial action. THE replacement of limestone by hæmatite, so as to produce masses or beds of iron ore, has been long recognised. In a paper on the genesis of certain Palæozoic interbedded iron ore deposits, Mr. R. B. Earle makes a strong case for the similar replacement of sandstone by percolating ferruginous waters charged with carbon dioxide (Annals N. York Acad. Sci., vol. xxiv., p. 115). He uses the word "iron " freely in place of "iron oxide"; but we gather that the ore referred to is usually hæmatite. The Clinton formation that flanks the Appalachian Mountains includes oolitic iron ores, in which the nuclei of the oolitic grains consist of parily corroded sand-grains. The quartz can be seen in microscopic sections to be in various stages of discoloration and replacement. The crusts of ore finally protect the nucleus from complete decay. The removal of quartz from granite and its replacement by calcite has been noted in the north of Ireland; but a better parallel with the Clinton occurrences is to be found in the Karroo sandstones of the Orange Free State, as described by Prof. R. B. Young (Trans. Geol. Soc. S. Africa, vol. xvii., 1914, p. 55). Here nodules of pyrite have originated, in which the iron sulphide "is seen not only to fill the interstices between sand-grains, but also to replace the latter to a considerable extent, the metasomatic action being most intense as the centres of the nodules are approached." Felspar as well as quartz has been attacked in this case. THE Transactions of the Naturalists' Society of Kazan University contain several articles on the botany of western Siberia and the Steppes—“In the Mountains and Valleys of the Altai" (vol. xlvi., No. 1), and "Researches into the Botanical Geography of Saissan in Semipalatinsk" (vol. xliv., No. 5), by V. A. Keller, and "Botanical and Geographical Investigations in Semipalatinsk" (vol. xlv., No. 3), by V. Krüger. Both authors give lists of the plants collected, with details of the localities where they were found and their environment. They also paid close attention to the temperature of the soil during the summer months when they were at work. Mr. Keller found the absolutely lowest soil temperature in the Altai in the upper part of the forest zone, and this zone seems to be in general colder than the mountain tundra which lies at a higher elevation. In the latter region the soil was considerably warmer where lichens abounded than in the tundra of bushes and mosses. The absolutely lowest temperatures (343° down to freezing point) were found in July in the section of the forest zone, where the vegetation was of a character intermediate between those of sphagnum peat swamp and wet mossy forest. The highest temperature (70.5°) occurred in the stony section of the mountain steppe. Mr. Krüger also ascertained the proportion of moisture in the surface soil, and found that in the following six areas indicated by their predominant forms of vegetation—(1) Festuca sulcata, (2) Artemsia pauciflora, (3) Atriplex canum, (4) Obione verrucifera, (5) Halicnemum strobilaceum, (6) Salicornea herbacea -the percentage increased from (1) to (6). At about a foot below the surface the proportion also increased, but in a smaller ratio. The salinity of the soil was also smallest in the first and largest in the sixth area. DISCUSSIONS of the anemographic observations recorded at Port Blair and at Dhubri by Mr. W. A. Harwood are given in the Memoirs of the Indian Meteorological Department, vol. xix. In an introduction, Dr. G. T. Walker explains that the analysis of the winds at Port Blair was almost completed by Sir John Eliot prior to his death. The Port Blair discussion, which embraces the observations for ten years, September, 1894, to August, 1904, is of special |