the more northern part. Dr. Scheiner's photographs show that its extension southward is very considerable, but, owing to its Himness, was not seen by Prof. Barnard. The form of this nebula, a copy of which is given in this number, is inclined to be spirally, although not so apparent as that of Andromeda, and, curiously enough, it lacks a bright nucleus, as in the latter. MINOR PLANETS.-The work of discovering minor planets seems, at the present time of the year, to be in a very flourishing condition, although rather restricted to two observers, according to the current number of Astronomische Nachrichten No. 3157). Charlois with 10 and Wolf with 2, bringing the present notation up to 1893 x, is a good number for the first quarter of the year, and if this average be kept up we shall soon be driven to indulge in the Greek or German alphabet, or both. GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. MR. JOHN BARTHOLOMEW, of Edinburgh, whose reputation As one of the foremost British map-makers is world-wide, died on March 30, at the age of 61. His career will be remembered as an epoch in the history of the perfecting and popularising of English maps. Trained in Edinburgh and afterwards under the late Dr. Petermann, in London, Mr. Bartholo new succeeded his father in a cartographical business in Edinburgh, which he steadily enlarged and improved, paying attention not only to excellence of mechanical production, but to the improvements of methods of representation. But the leading characteristic of Mr. Bartholomew's work was his conscientious endeavour to produce the most accurate topographical delineation. The general use of maps coloured orographically in this country is mainly due to the efforts of the Edinburgh Geographical Institute, of which he was the head. Mr. Bartholomew gradually withdrew from active work on account of failing health, and his son, Mr. J. G. Bartholomew, has taken his place in the Geographical Institute. MR. THEODORE BENT (see p. 519) has been able to reach Aksum, where, however, he only remained for eight days, on account of tribal wars. The party had to retire abruptly because of a threatened fight, in which they were very nearly compelled to take sides, but fortunately the report of an advance of Italian troops to their relief solved the difficulty, and they reached the coast in safety. Despite the shortness of the working time, some good archæological results have been obtained. THE March number of Petermann's Mitteilungen contains a valiable paper on North-west Patagonia by Dr. J. von Siemi. radzki, with a map showing the results of his surveys and coloured to bring out the pastoral possibilities of the region. His male in 1891-92 led up the Rio Negro and Rio Limay to Lake Nahuel-Huapi and thence northward through the grassy valleys and bare slopes of the Cordillera to the Upper Biobio valley, whence the expedition passed to the coast of Chile. THE Royal Geographical Society has given a grant to Dr. H. R. Mill to defray the expenses of a careful bathymetrical survey of some of the larger English lakes. The work, which will be carried out next summer, would be greatly facilitated if use could be had for a few days of a steam launch upon any of the lakes. Windermere, Coniston Water, and Wastwater will probably be sounded in the first place, as they are the most interesting from the limnological point of view. A PAPER on the Geography and Social Conditions of the Iberian Peninsula read at the March meeting of the Berlin Geographical Society by Prof. Theobald Fischer is published in abstract in the April number of the Geographical Journal. The paradoxical character of the peninsula in the variety of its conditions has long been known. The great central plateau with its broken mountain border sloping steeply to the sea throws the bulk of the populatio towards the coast-line. In the border zone of the peninsula comprising 45 per cent. of its area, more than 66 per cent. of the inhabitants are settled. The only large city in the central plains is Madrid; all the rest of the plateau is occupied by wheat-growers and sheep-rearers; the mining, fruit-growing and industrial interests being all confined to the seaward slopes. There are few parts of Europe in which the physical conditions so plainly dominate the whole character of a country. and From these equations we infer that Z, is the intersection of an ellipse and hyperbola which have the same foci P, and S1. Suppose now that the line SP, contains, say, 100 divisions, and that a system of ellipses, having S, and P1 as foci, with major axes 101, 102, 103 and a system of hyperbolas whose axes are 99, 98, 97 are drawn on one side of S1P1; then, by finding m1, ma from the equations m1 = 100 tan (c + z) cot p, m = 100 tan (cz) cot, we should be able to localise the point mm, as coming between two successive ellipses and also between two consecutive hyperbolas in the diagram. 2. The usefulness of such a diagram lies in its application to problems in navigation. For p may be taken as the north polar distance of the sun, the complement of his altitude, and c the colatitude of the place of observation. Having determined my, ma and thus localised Z, in the diagram, the angle Z1P1S1 is the hour angle which may be suitably measured. If we interchange p and c in the diagram, thus making P1 and Z1 the foci, the point to be localised is S, from the equations n1 100 tan (p + 2) cot c, 112 = 100 tan (p − 2) cot c. The difficulties attending this mode of representation will present themselves in another form in § 4. It is sufficient to notice here that this use of the diagram has the advantage of giving two useful angles-S1P1Z1, the hour angle, and S1Z,P1 the azimuth. 3. The merit of both these modes of representation consists in their being each a single diagram, applicable at any time of year, though in northern latitudes more favourable to accurate measures in summer than in winter. Their demerit consists in the preliminary calculations of mỵ, mạ, or n1, No. This, however, might be minimised by supplying, along with the diagram, tables of the values of m for two arguments @ and given by m = 100 tan cot The whole amount of preliminary calculation would then consist in adding and subtracting and 2, and looking out m1 and m. I shall now investigate the nature of a diagram which requires no preliminary calculation. Returning to the spherical figure SPZ, let us suppose SP to be fixed while the sides PZ, SZ vary so that Z describes a curve on the sphere. The corresponding point 7, will describe a corresponding locus on the plane. For example, if L describes a small circle with P as centre, the locus of Z, will be given by tan c = tan(+)+ 1 (c =)} The lines whose focus is P1 are curves of equal latitude, and those whose focus is S, are Sumner lines. Suppose systems of both kinds of lines to be drawn, the figure will be divided into small quadrilaterals, and the eye, aided by a scale with small divisions, would approximately determine the point within any quadrilateral at which the values of c and are given, intermediate between those of the bounding sides. It is difficult to estimate the error to which this determination would be liable, but supposing the linear dimensions of a quadrilateral at a distance of 10 inches from P, were comparable with the tenth of an inch and that an error of one-hundreth of an inch were committed in the direction to P1Z, this would mean an error of 3 or 4 minutes in the measured value of the hour angle. This error would be important, but not large enough to condemn the method, and the estimate shows that the scale of the diagram should be as large as is practicable. 1 If we confine the diagram to points in north latitudes may be taken to range between 30° and 90°, though it would obviously be desirable also to draw a few lines for which is >90°. The range of 2 may be taken between 10 and 80°. The distance between the foci is, as we have seen, tan pand the distance between the directrices is readily proved to be cotp. The consideration which determines the scale on which the curves should be drawn is that the Sumner for which z = 80° should appear in the diagram as far as it may be required. The curves in each diagram are different from those in every other for different values of p; for although it might at first appear that since the distance from the focus to the directrix is the same for 180° - pas it is for p some saving would be effected, the indications of the same curves in the two cases are different, and the Sumners are placed differently in regard to the parallels of latitude. In the case of the sun a diagram for every ten minutes change in declination would probably be necessary, and this would mean an enormous amount of work. Diagrams for a few of the best stars could, however, be constructed on this principle and would be extremely useful. It will have been noticed that the angle Z1S1P, is equal to the angle ZSP in the spherical figure, but the azimuth is not represented in the plane figure. The following properties of the plane curves may therefore be stated : (1) The angle at which S,Z, cuts the sumner at Z, is equal to the angle at which P,Z1 cuts the parallel of latitude. (2) If a tangent at Z1 be drawn to either curve, say the sumner, to cut S,P, in T and perpendiculars be drawn from T to Z1P1, ZS, meeting them in M and N, then according as T falls between S, and P, or not. From this result a graphical determination of the azimuth is easily obtained. he would be out of the diagram, and this means that +: > 180°. The difficulty may be overcome by solving graphically another triangle S, P1Z, corresponding to SPZ in the spherical figure where S is diametrically opposite to S. For, if SZP+SEZ >180° then S1PZ+S1PZ < 180°. Hence, if we interchange Z, and P, in the diagram and pick out the intersection of the curves 180°-2 and 180°-p we shall thereby find graphically the supplements of the hour angle and azimuth. 5. To these modes of representation may be added stereographic projection on the plane of the equator which admits of lines of equal latitude and Sumner lines being represented by systems of circles and of two angles of the spherical triangle being represented in the corresponding plane figure. 6. The object of all such methods is to facilitate the drawing of lines of position on a Mercator's chart, and as the hour angle must be determined with the greatest possible precision, the diagram should be on a large scale with hour angle lines drawn upon it at suitable intervals. With this in mind the most practical of the foregoing method. would seem to be the first, viz. that in which there is a singe diagram, cut into sections, not necessarily on the same scale, b large enough to admit of the hour angle lines and perhaps also azimuth lines being drawn upon it. ANTHROPOLOGICAL USES OF THE CAMERA. AN interesting paper on the anthropological uses of the camera was lately read by Mr. E. F. im Thurn before the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, and is now reprinted in the Institute's "Journal." Mr. im Thurn points out that primitive phases of life are fast fading from the world in this age of restless travel and explora tion, and urges that it should be recognised as almost the duty of educated travellers in the less known parts of the world to put on permanent record, before it is too late, such of these phases as they may observe. It is certainly, however, he says, not a sufficiently recognised fact that such records, usually made in writing, might be infinitely helped out by the camera. As illustrating the small use of the camera for this special pur pose, Mr. im Thurn calls attention to the almost universal bad ness of illustrations of living primitive folk in books of anthro 4. If we take ZP, for base line the curves to be drawn are curves of altitude and polar distance. This method of representation is tempting as the angles at P, and Z, are then the hour angle and azimuth. Moreover it would be a very convenient way of producing the diagrams to arrange them for consecutive values of the colatitude. Unfortunately there are serious objec-pology and travel, when these illustrations are not merely what tions. Suppose the common directrix of the polar distance lines cuts P1Z produced in X, then when the sun is in the southern hemisphere these lines are hyperbolas on the remote side of the directrix from P, and they diverge rapidly for consecutive values of p > 90°; so much so that, when the colatitude is between 30° and 40°, it is impossible to represent them on a scale which would be of any value. For places in the tropics there would not be the same objection, and diagrams drawn on this principle would be convenient in those regions. There is another difficulty. In winter, in northern latitudes, the azimuth and hour angle may be together greater than two right angles or, what is equivalent, p + z may be >180°. In that case the construction we are going upon fails, although it is possible to meet the difficulty. The point is interesting, and admits of the following explanation In the figure P is the north pole, Z the place of observation, AB the diurnal path of the sun. If C be the middle point of PZ, then all points above the plane through the centre O perpendicular to OC may appear in the plane diagram supposed large enough. Again a plane KL perpendicular to OZ corresponding to = 80° limits the area in which observations may be taken. If, therefore, the sun were observed between F and G may be called physiological pictures. Of old the book illus trator, if, as was usual, he was not himself the traveller, drew as pictures of primitive folk, merely the men and women the surrounded him, drew figures of men and women of his own stage of civilisation, and merely added to these such salies. features as he was able, from the traveller's tales, to fancy that his supposed primitive subjects had. So in 1599 the imaginative artist of Nuremberg who drew the pictures for the rare Lat abbreviation of Sir Walter Raleigh's "Discoverie of Guiana gave to the world his impressions of the "Amazons," the "Headless Men," and the "Men who dwelt on trees" whic are typical of the pictures of "savages" which adorn : travellers' books up to nearly the present century. Mr. im Thurn refers also to the beautifully executed illustra tions by Bartolozzi in Stedman's "Dutch Guiana," in which in place of natives, are shown, with the necessary change." dress, simply Europeans of more than average beauty of form There were doubtless exceptions to the misrepresentation primitive folk, and the greatest of these exceptions known Mr. im Thurn is the beautiful series of drawings by Catlin North American Redmen. But Catlin enjoyed the unu advantage not only of considerable technical skill as an artis but of living among the folk whom he drew and about whom he wrote. Even his drawings, valuable as they are, and artistically superior as they are, are far from having the value of the accuracy of photographs. The modern anthropological illustrator does indeed generally draw from photographs; but almost always from photographs taken under non-natural conditions. Mr. im Thurn mentions as an example a picture of the Caribs of his own country of Guiana, which appears in one of the most valuable and accurate of recent anthropological books. This picture was the best attainable, and is evidently taken from a photograph; yet it gives no hint of what Caribs are like in their natural state. The explanation is easy. During Mr. im Thurn's many years' acquaintance with these Caribs, both in their native wilds and during their brief visits to the town, he has often been struck by the marvellous difference in their appearance when seen under these two differing conditions. It is true that in his natural surroundings the Carib is but very lightly clad, whereas, on the rare occasions when he enters the town he sometimes, but by no means always, puts on a fragmentary and incongruous piece or two of the cast-off clothing of white men, intending, by no means successfully, to adorn his person; but such separable accidents of rags by no means explain the full change in his appearance. Mr. im Thurn has seen the same men, in their distant homes on the mountainous savannahs between Guiana and the Brazils, though clothed with but a single strip of cloth, two or three inches wide and perhaps a yard in length, and either unadorned or adorned with but a scrap of red or white paint, look like what the novelists describe as well-groomed gentlemen. Yet the same individuals in Georgetown, without any added clothing or adornment, look the meanest and wretchedest folk imaginable. The sense of shyness and mean cringing fear which in the town doubtless drives out from them their innate sense of freedom and happy audacity, seems to find outward expression and completely to alter their bodily form. And it was quite evidently under some such depressing circumstances as these that the Redmen-who, by the way, were probably Ackawois and not "True Caribs"-who are shown in the illustration referred to, were photographed. Just as the purely physiological photographs of the anthropometrists are merely pictures of lifeless bodies, so the ordinary photographs of uncharacteristically miserable natives seem to Mr. im Thurn to be comparable to the photographs which one occasionally sees of badly stuffed and distorted birds and animals. Mr. im Thurn gives a clear and most attractive account of his own photographs of phases of primitive life in Guiana-photographs which, at the time of the reading of his paper, were shown on the screen. The following are some extracts from this part of the paper :— Fifteen years ago I went out to Guiana as curator of the publie museum, and in that capacity travelled much in the interior of that colony, only the seaboard of which was, and very little more now is, inhabited. Ten years ago I entered the service of the Government, and, as magistrate, took charge of a large district inhabited almost solely by Redmen. And I remained under those circumstances until, about two years ago, I was transferred to a neighbouring and still larger district of which it may be said that up to the time of my going there the white men who had visited it might be counted on the fingers of one hand. Throughout this time I have lived really among these pleasant red-skinned folk, now and again, for periods of greater or less duration, living not only among, but as they do; and throughout that period I have had none but Redmen as my servant friends. They have got used to me, and I have got used to them, and doubtless in this respect I have enjoyed greater advantages in the matter of gaining their confidence than the ordinary traveller, who merely passes through a country, could hope to enjoy. Some ten years ago, in a book on the "Indians of Guiana," I told all that I then knew about them. Though of course further experience has now taught me a good deal more about them, I must not here linger on anything that does not touch my special subject of to-night-my experiences as a photographer among them. That to gain the confidence of uncivilised folk whom you wish to photograph is one of quite the most essential matters you will easily understand. The first time I tried to photograph a Redman was among the mangrove trees at the mouth of the Barima River. My red-skinned subject was carefully posed high up on a mangrove root. He sat quite still while I focussed and drew the shutter. Then, as I took off the cap, with a moan he fell backward off his perch on to the soft sand below him. Nor could he by any means be persuaded to prepare himself once more to face the unknown terrors of the camera. A very common thing to happen, and to foil the efforts of the photographer at the very moment when he has but to withdraw and to replace the cap, is for the timid subject suddenly to put up his hand to conceal his face, a proceeding most annoying to the photographer, but interesting to the anthropologist, as illustrating the very widespread dread of primitive folk of having their features put on paper, and being thus submitted spiritually to the power of any one possessing the picture. With reference to my earlier remarks on the difficulty of discerning in the ordinary illustrations the real bodily appearance of uncivilised folk, photographs of the True Caribs of Guiana will be shown on the screen. And in so doing it may, without entering into elaborate detail, be once more pointed out that the red-skinned inhabitants of Guiana are distinguishable into three groups or branches (see “Among Indians of Guiana,” p. 159, and "Proceedings of Royal Geographical Society," October, 1892). Though the actual pre-European history of these three is, unfortunately, still greatly a matter of conjecture, it is convenient to use such conjectures as seem most reasonable on this subject as a means of distinguishing the branches-that is to say, it is well to bear in mind that probably of the tribes at present in Guiana the Warraus, who inhabit the swamps about the mouth of the Orinoco, were the earliest occupiers, but that there is at present no evidence at all to show whence these people reached their present homes; that another of the branches, represented only by the Arawacks, who inhabit the whole sea-coast of that country with the exception of the more swampy lands of the Warraus, probably reached their present homes from the West Indian Islands long after the Warraus were already established in those parts; and that the third branch, usually called the Carib branch, and represented by the Ackawois, Macusis, Arecunas, and by the "True Caribs," came also from the Islands, but at various times, and made their way, in somewhat various directions, into the back lands of the country. The first set of pictures I am about to show you all are of this last or "True Carib" branch. The first is of a middle-aged man who lives in the first falls of the Barima River. A single glance at it and a comparison of it with the ordinary, even the best book illustrations of Caribs, will at once serve to make plain the advantage of the photographic method used among the people in their own homes over any other method of showing what these primitive folk are really like. Before shooting the falls in their canoes the Redmen always carefully examine the state of the river to see which rocks are exposed, which lurk as hidden dangers beneath the surface in that particular state of the water; and it was while he was engaged in this cautious survey that this photograph of this Carib was taken. The next is of the same man taken under somewhat different circumstances. The hospitality' of these persons is almost unbounded, and the etiquette of its observance is rigidly fixed. The master of the house, when expecting guests, grooms himself carefully and puts on his best dress and ornaments, these often, as in this case, consisting only of a narrow waistcloth by way of dress and of a necklace and armlets of white beads by way of ornament. Thus honouring the occasion to the best of his ability, he sits, somewhat stolidly, outside his house awaiting his guests, with whom, when they arrive, he will, without rising or in any other way testifying any interest, exchange one or two entirely conventional and monosyllabic sentences, dropping them out one by one at long intervals. It is generally supposed that these red-skinned folk are undemonstrative in their bearing towards one another. But this really is only in the presence of strangers. When alone, or before others with whom they are familiar, their bearing toward each other is even caressing. Such a picture as this, of three Caribs standing with their arms round each other's necks, may often be seen. The next picture, of a young Carib man, perhaps a little above the average in physique, is intended to show that these people, though not tall, are a fine people in the point of physical and muscular development. Again, in the matter of facial expression, the ordinary conception of these people as dull and expressionless should give place to the truer idea that, when not made shy by the presence of unaccustomed strangers, there is a great deal of life and even in some cases of beauty in their appearance. It is practically impossible for a stranger to see them in this their more pleasing and natural state, except when, as I now do in this picture of three Carib lads, they are taken under the most natural conditions, and distance and time being for the purpose annihilated, they are shown you in the most natural conditions but without their knowledge. That it may not be said that in my anxiety to impress you with my own too favourable ideas of these red-skinned friends of mine, I have elected only to show you young fellows in their too brief prime, I next show you an old Carib. I must, however, admit that he is only old for a Redman. His age was probably about forty-five. But these happy childlike people lead but a short if a happy life, and are old at fifty, and rarely survive to sixty... Another obvious, but insufficiently used, use of the camera for anthropological purposes would be for the better illustration of collections of objects of ethnological interest. Those who have tried know best the difficulty of showing these in an effective and interesting manner. Comparatively elaborate and correspondingly artistic objects made and used by a people who have made considerable progress without attaining what we are pleased to call civilisation, are easily shown in an attractive manner; but the simpler objects, illustrating the daily life of people in a much more primitive state of civilisation, are not so easily placed. The articles which constitute the dress and ornaments of a people which makes but little use of ornament and less of dress, are generally of so simple a nature that when stored in rows or, as I am afraid is sometimes the case, in heaps or even in bundles, in museum cases, they too often seem deficient in interest to the very curators of the museum, and are naturally much more so to the outside public. Yet these same things, very likely, to one who has seen them in actual use, seem, just because of their simplicity, more interesting than the elaborate dancing masks and such like. It has been suggested -possibly the suggestion has been carried into effect-to display these on lay figures; but when it is remembered how very few of these simple articles of dress or ornament are worn at any one time, it is obvious that for their proper display in the suggested manner the number of lay figures which would be required would, for reasons both of economy and of space, make the plan ineffective. A much more feasible plan would be to place by the side of each object, or group of objects displayed, a photograph of the object-preferably of the identical object. A few examples will better explain what I mean: The first is a photograph of a Partamona (Ackawoi) Redman in a curious dress made and worn for a special festival celebrated by those people and called Parasheera. The dress consists of three parts, which may be described as skirt, cloak, and mask, all made of the bright greenish-yellow, immature leaves of the Æta palm (Mauritia flexuosa). Probably there is not an example of this dress in any existing museum; for it is probable that no white man except myself has ever seen it, and I frankly confess that I was deterred, as has often been the case under similar circumstances, from bringing away an example of the dress by the consideration that when seen off the body of the wearer it would look like nothing in the world but a small bundle of withered palm leaves, and would to the uninitiated seem supremely uninteresting. The next example I show you is a picture of a Macusi lad in full dancing dress. Those who are acquainted with the ordinary heaped curiosities of the average ethnological collection will perhaps recognise the typical head-dress of bright parrot and macaw feathers, the loose hanging ruff of alternate black curassow and white egret feathers, and the strip of waist-cloth upheld by a cotton belt, which constitutes the whole of this dress; and such persons will probably recognise that these articles seen, as in this photograph, in situ, acquire a new interest. ess not only of the wearer for the time being, but also of b ancestors, for this property is handed down in the male line descent, and is added to by each holder... In short, a good series of photographs showing each of possessions of a primitive folk, and its use, would be far ma instructive and far more interesting than any collection of articles themselves. Or, if it is desired to illustrate not the pos sessions but the habits of such folk, the thing can be done . 122 same way. A few examples from a large series showing the games of these people will illustrate this. Many of their games are dramatic representations of ordinan incidents in their work-a-day life. One represents their and eventful visits to the distant town. Of the many figure in this game one represents the fully-manned canoe in they go on their journey down the big rivers of the comme”, All but two of the players, seated on the ground, the behind the other, and each clasping the player in fron him, form a long line, which, by the action of the fee a thighs of its constituent members, drags itself slowly forward the whole swaying from side to side. In this way-which a certainly involve a considerable amount of somewhat pair!. friction, considering the hardness of the stony ground traverma and the unprotectedness of the skins of the players-a ver realistic representation of the forward rolling motion of a leg and well-manned canoe, such as would be used on a real joarte is attained. And the illusion is assisted by the players' nour imitation of the regular and most characteristic rhythme bez of the paddles against the sides of the canoe, and of the sho.. of the paddlers. After several other figures, another comes, in which th players, all standing in line, each falls forward on his hands an feet, his thighs the highest part of him, so that the whole line players, with their closely pressed bodies, forms a long tunnet through which each player in turn has, as in a well-kno figure in the old-fashioned dance of Sir Roger de Coveries, pass, but by creeping. The journey, that is, is nearly uter and the home-comers, leaving the broad river up which they have come so far, have turned into the narrow creek or sil: stream densely roofed with low hanging trees, which les i directly to their homes; and under this natural tunnel the car has to force its way. Other games to be seen among the Redmen of the borders Guiana and Brazil are simple representations of the doings animals. For instance, one represents an aguti in a pen 2. the attempts of a jaguar to get him out. The players for a ring, their arms round each other's necks. Inside this CT: one of the players crouches, and represents an aguti—a sualı animal often kept in captivity by the Redmen-inside the pes Outside the pen another player watches; it is the jaguar lookin with hungry eyes on the aguti. He tries to get the aguti between the bars of the pen, that is, between the legs of the ring of players. But the living pen whirls round and round, & i it is no easy task for the jaguar to seize the aguti and drag it oc. Yet more curious is the whipping game of the Arawacks It is played by any number of persons, but generally only men and boys, for one, two, or three days and nights-Ľ long, that is, as the supply of paiwari, the native beer, holds The players, with but brief intervals, range themselves in two lines opposite each other. Every now and then a pair - 4 players, one from each line, separate from the rest. One 4 these puts forward his leg and stands firm; the other carefully measures the most effective distance with a powerful a special whip with which each player is provided, and then lashes with all his force the calf of the other. The crack 19 like a pistol shot, and the result is a gash across the skin of the patient's calf. Sometimes a second similar blow is given and borne. Then the position of the pair of players is reversed, and the flogged man flogs the other. Then the pair retire drink good-temperedly together, and rejoin the line, to le another pair take their turn of activity, but presently, and again and again at intervals, to repeat their own activity. Again, one of the commonest articles from Guiana seen in museums is the necklace of peccary teeth, much affected by all the Carib tribes. But in now showing you one of the finest specimens of this ornament I have ever seen, it will probably gain very much in interest from the fact that I am able at the same time to throw on to the screen a picture of the actual necklace on the Macusi, named Lonk, from whose shoulders I acquired it. And it may in passing be of interest to add that these necklaces, in the manufacture of which only the tusk teeth of the peccary are used, so that in proportion to its size each represents a very large number of animals, are most highly valued as heirlooms, and as representing the accumulated prow-stage of civilisation is on record. It has been said that the most active players of this extra ordinary game are the men and boys. But occasionally the women take a part also. And it is noteworthy that when the is the case a wooden figure of a bird, a heron, is substituted fr each of the whips, and a gentle peck with this bird is sube)tuted for the far more serious lash of the whip. I do not know that any equivalent example of the fact that the germ of the ides of courtesy to the weaker sex exists among people even in this SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. LONDON. Chemical Society, March 2.-Dr. J. H. Gladstone, vicepresident, in the chair. The following papers were read :The magnetic rotation and refractive power of ethylene oxide, by W. H. Perkin. The magnetic rotation of ethylene oxide is remarkably low, and the refractive power is also below the calculated value.-The origin of colour (including fluorescence), VIL The phthaleins and fluoresceins, by H. E. Armstrong. The author has previously taken exception to the formulæ usually assigned to phenolphthalein and its congeners; the exhibition of colour by these substances could not be accounted for by the formulæ generally ascribed to them. The correctness of the author's views has now been demonstrated by Bernthsen and Friedlander independently. The former chemist has shown that the rhodamines afford true ethereal salts, proving that they form carboxy-compounds and not lactone derivatives. Bernthsen also points out that the characteristic development of colour observed on adding alkali to phenolphthalein is probably due to the hydrolysis and subsequent conversion of the colourless lactone derivative into a quinolic compound; the latter then suffers dehydration, affording a coloured quinonoid derivative: A Friedländer also has lately shown that phenolphthalein and hydroxylamine interact in alkaline solution with formation of a hydroxime; this and other evidence has led him to the opinion that in their coloured state phenolphthalein and the allied phthaleins which behave similarly towards alkalis, are all quinonoid compounds. The fact that the rhodamines yield ethereal salts is also remarked in a patent specification by a German colour firm. The author considers the recognition of the quinonoid nature of the rhodamines and fluoresceins to be an important argument in favour of the views that fluorescence is a form of colour, and that all quinonoid derivatives would be visibly Aluorescent were it not that the rays which cause the fluorescence sometimes become absorbed in the solution.-The origin of colour, viii. The limitation of colour to truly quinonoid compounds. Change of colour as indicative of change of structure, as in the case of alizarin, by H. E. Armstrong. quinonoid compound may be defined as a hexaphene, i.e. an unsaturated cycloid composed of six "elements," of which two are CK" groups in either para- or ortho positions. Coloured substances generally appear to fall within this definition; the few exceptions to the rule may be explained either by the anthor's view of isodynamic change or as resulting from the presence of traces of impurity. Some of the keto-chlorides prepared by Zincke possess an intense yellow colour, although Containing the group-CCI,-CO-; it is, however, not improbable that in such substances the group CCI, is the true equivalent of the CR" group. The usual constitution assigned to alizarin does not explain its red colour, red being the characteristic colour of the orthoquinones; the colour may be accounted for by regarding alizarin as an isodynamic form of dihydroxyanthraquinone thus: H,CCH, H,CCH, NN contrasting these substances with nitrous oxide; he contends that the above structural formulæ have no real justification, and that latent affinities may exist in these compounds just as in carbonic oxide. Thus nitrous oxide may be regarded as <N - O - N >, and diazoimide as < NNH N >. The influence exerted by the ethenoid and benzenoid groups in organic substances upon their refractive and dispersive powers, is also considered. The origin of colour, ix. Note on the appearance of colour in quinoline derivatives and of fluorescence in quinine, by H. E. Armstrong. From considerations based upon the previous notes, the author shows that any amidoderivative of quinoline might become quinonoid in structure, owing to a change from the centric to an ethenoid form, and would hence be coloured. Similarly, an 'ethenoid form of naphthalene would be quinonoid; it is therefore possible that the fluorescence exhibited by many derivatives of this hydrocarbon is characteristic of the pure substances, and does not always originate in impurities.-The ethereal salts of glyceric acid, active and inactive, by P. Frankland and J. MacGregor. The authors have prepared and characterised a number of ethereal salts of inactive and lævo-glyceric acid; they point out regularities between the rotatory powers of the active salts of a somewhat similar nature to those observed amongst the ethereal salts of tartaric acid. -Formation of the ketone 2: 6-dimethylI-ketohexaphane, by F. S. Kipping. On distilling the calcium salt of dimethylpimelic acid with soda lime, an oil is obtained which contains a ketone of the composition CH10. This ketone is apparently a dimethylketohexamethylene; it is doubtless a homologue of the ketone recently prepared by von Baeyer by distilling calcium pimelate with soda lime.-Note on the interactions of alkali-metal haloids and lead haloids, and of alkali-metal haloids and bismuth haloids, by Eleanor Field. By boiling potassium or ammonium iodide with lead haloids in aqueous solutions, double compounds are obtained, whose composition depends upon the proportions in which the constituents are used. Salts of the compositions, 3PbI,4KI, 3PbI24NHI, PbI3PbCl2, PbI25 PbCl, and PbI,2PbBr, are described. The interactions of haloid salts of the alkali metals with bismuth haloids lead to the formation of compounds having the following compositions-BiBrCl K, BiC1Br1K, and BiCl, Brg(NH4)3. The composition of the products obtained depends, not only on the proportions in which the reacting salts are employed, but also on the nature of the halogens and the metals. An isomeric form of benzylphenylbenzylthiourea by A. E. Dixon. Phenylthiocarbimide and dibenzylamine interact to form the compound PhN: C(SH). N(C,H,),, isomeric with the thiourea C,H,N : C(SH). NPh. C,H,, melting at 103°, previously obtained by the author from benzylthiocarbimide and benzylaniline; the new substance melts at 145-146°. A new atomic diagram and periodic table of the elements, by R. M. Deeley. The author constructs a new atomic diagram of the elements by plotting "volume heats" against "volume atoms." The volume heats are the products of the specific heats and densities, whilst the volume atoms are obtained by dividing relative density by atomic weight. PARIS. Academy of Sciences, March 27.-M. Loewy in the chair. The two candidates selected as competitors for the place of Astronome Titulaire at the Paris Observatory were: In the first place, M. Prosper Henry; in the second, M. Paul Henry. -On the construction of the chart of the heavens, and the determination of the co-ordinates of the centres of the negatives, by M. Loewy.-On the organic substances constituting vegetable soil, by MM. Berthélot and André. "Humus" may be defined as that portion of the remains of vegetation which resists the action of the air and lower organisms, and remains as an insoluble residue in the soil, supplying the roots of the higher plants with nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, alkalies, &c. One specimen of earth freed from all visible plant remains, cellulose, and carbohydrates, taken from the experimental soil of the Vegetable Chemistry station at Meudon, contained 19:1 parts of organic carbon, 15 of hydrogen, 17 of nitrogen, 119 of organic oxygen, total 34'2 parts of organic matter. Some of |