tice as well as the theory of the subjects they profess. Such as far as I am able to judge, your Council has found in present able staff of professors.

Then again, in measuring the success of such a College, it be remembered that it is intended for the élite of the trial world, and that, as individual attention must be paid ach student in the laboratories and drawing-offices, the est technical instruction of crowds is impossible. Mittle seems hitherto to have been done in the way of training nical teachers, and for the obvious reason that the demand ach is very limited, whilst that for competent men to enter a are practical career is great.

But whether the College is training teachers, or those who are carry out the lessons of such teachers into practice, does not a. The object is to train men who can improve our present nes, and raise up new ones; and this may be accomplished either or by both methods. Neither the one nor the other bowever, succeed unless the student of technology has a grasp of the scientific principles upon which his industry is

is useless, and worse, to attempt to teach the applications pupils to whom the science itself is an unknown quantity. Hente arises the question, How and where can the preliminary ence training be best given? and the answer to this raises by difficult and some delicate matters.

First, however, let me disabuse your minds of a notion which may become general, and, if so, harmful-namely, the new Memp.litan Polytechnic Institutions, as they are called, can ever to this highest and most important kind of education. Do nete us fancy that the establishment of these no doubt very valuable institutions is the ultimatum to be aimed at in technical fucation, or imagine that they can attempt to do what is done in Germany, France, or Switzerland by institutions bearing the are name I look upon it as a misfortune that, by mere , the name of the old Institution in Regent Street, known same as the home of the diving-bell and of Prof. Pepper's yhow, should have been retained for institutions which neither emble it nor the high schools which form so marked a feature the Continental educational system. These latter are in our Cry rather represented by the scientific departments of our iversities, and by those of the metropolitan and local Unity Colleges, by the Royal Normal School of Science, and your own Central Institution. We cannot too clearly underand that whatever success attends the foundation of these -tropolitan Polytechnics-and no one more cordially wishes sucess than I do-the work of the centres of the highest tion will remains to be done; indeed, the greater the parity of the lower institutions, the greater the need and pe for the higher ones.

The rapid growth in London of this idea of the importance 4 anticraft and recreative education is most remarkable, and * this stimulus we are almost wholly indebted to Mr. Quintin The effect of this movement upon your Institute has been y felt, for it is clear that, whereas seven or eight years ago *uthanasm of the City Companies was strongly in favour of e&igher technical education in the Continental sense, it is now for this newer and more popular, I will not say less useful, handicraft and recreative instruction.

sa fact which may as well be clearly stated, that the Central ition cannot do all it might do for want of a few thousands, hat the scheme of technological examinations is crippled by o of the support of those who at first nobly contributed ans these objects.

The Drapers prefer to support more popular institutions at the Ind, and the Goldsmiths do likewise in regard to their own delion at New Cross, so that there is no doubt that the inest formerly felt in the general and collective work of the te is distinctly on the wane.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, a consideration of these patent Is leads one to the question, How are these things to go on? we never to have law and order"-about which we have rd enough in other matters-introduced into affairs educa

d in what I am about to say, let me premise that I merely my own individual opinion as an independent observer, s only for the success of the good cause which we all have art. Then may I say that I am dead against a cut-andsystem of Governmental education such as we see in other nes? I am all for stimulating and developing local effort cal requirements, and it is because I am fully aware of the

dangers of centralization, and desire to promote adaptability to local needs, that I gave my hearty support to the Government Technical Instruction Bill as amended in the House of Commons, in which the power of the locality to work out its own educational salvation is fully safe-guarded.

But holding these views I see clearly that there are things which can only be satisfactorily accomplished by a central authority.

That our primary education can only be properly conducted on a national basis has been admitted for more than a quarter of a century; so it will be with the higher or secondary education, whether technical, commercial, or professional-we must have a system. As I have said, the foundation of your Institute was the beginning of such a system for technical instruction; but has it not already outstripped the bounds of your control? Can it be satisfactorily worked in the future on its present lines?

Let us look at the matter from an independent point of view. We have now three Government Departments charged with educational | work—the Education Department for Elementary Instruction, the Science and Art Department, and the Charity Commissioners. One of the most important steps which could be taken to bring these under effect ive control is the appointment of a Minister of Education, of Cabinet rank, who would be in close touch with every part of our now discordant educational system. But that is not the immediate question before us.

This refers more especially to the desirability of consolidating the Science and Art Department. As you know, this controls and stimulates, in what I think we may allow to be a satisfactory manner, the teaching of elementary science and of art throughout the country. Would it not conduce to the benefit of the country, if the Guilds' technological examinations were to be undertaken by the Department, and thus placed on a national basis? Several of the subjects now included in the Directory of the Department, on which grants are made, are of a distinctly technical character, and therefore no objection can be raised that the other subjects now under the Guilds Institute cannot equally well be placed under the Department.

The benefits which would thus accrue are great and palpable, the two systems of examinations in pure and in applied science would then work side by side without friction or overlapping, and the extension of the technical examinations would be easy and certain.

If this were accomplished, I for one would strongly urge the removal of the system of payment on individual results-a method in all cases to be deprecated, but one which is especially unsuited for testing the value of technical instruction. This can be much more certainly effected by ascertaining the efficiency of the whole class, of the teacher, and of his appliances, by inspection or otherwise.

If once we get rid of this system of payment on individual results in one set of subjects, we may look forward to its ultimate extinction in the others, and no subject seems so suitable for making a beginning as that of technical instruction.

I would therefore suggest that the best means of securing the permanency and the extension of the very useful technological examinations which your Council—and all honour to them for it— have started, is to request the Government to take them over, thereby rendering the Science and Art Department more efficient, and enabling that Department to make the improvements and alterations in the system which it undoubtedly requires.

May I go one step further in these suggestions, and ask if this should be done, is it not a necessary corollary that the Central Institution should likewise become a Government Normal School for Applied Science? There is much to be said in favour of such a proposal.

The very situation, close to the Royal Normal School of Science, seems to forecast its ultimate destiny. Under separate management, no consistent or well-arranged scheme of common work is possible; brought under one direction, the essential alliance between pure and applied science, as regards teaching, becomes easy of attainment.

Students would pass and re-pass from the one school to the other, obtaining at the one the knowledge of the scientific principles, and, at the other, that of their applications.

Of the national advantages of such a fusion there can, I think, be little doubt. England would then be in possession of an institution which might, for completeness and efficiency, both as regards the personnel and the appliances, soon be made second to none on the Continent, and worthy of the greatest industrial nation in the world.

Your Institute would thus set itself free to extend its influence

in other directions, and could then concentrate its efforts on what is perhaps, after all, its most legitimate and most useful function -that of providing intermediate technical schools on the pattern of the Finsbury School, of which many are required in the metropolis.

The exact terms on which the Government would be prepared to take over this part of your work is a subject on which, of course, I cannot pretend to enter, but a satisfactory basis can, I do not doubt, easily be found.

Your Council would then feel that the great work which they have begun has been handed over in its full vigour to the nation, and that with the nation lies the responsibility of extending and perfecting the system which they have had the honour and the gratification of inaugurating.

I am aware that in making these suggestions, I have raised a somewhat burning question about which there may be difference of opinion, and my apology for this indiscretion, if one is needed, must be the importance of the subject, and the anxiety which we all feel that the technical education of our country shall be placed on a firm and enduring national basis.

A FIRST FORESHADOWING OF THE
PERIODIC LAW.

IT is well known that the Newlands-Mendeleeff classification of the elements was preceded by the discoveries of certain numerical relations between the atomic weights of allied ele. ments, due to Döbereiner, Dumas, and others; but what has been almost entirely ignored is the immense advance made by M. A. E. Béguyer, de Chancourtois,1 a French geologist of note, Professor at the Ecole des Mines, who was the first to publish a list of all the known elements in the order of their atomic weights.

M. de Chancourtois embodied his results in two memoirs presented to the French Academy of Sciences in April 1862 and March 1863. These memoirs have never been printed in extenso, but extracts from them, and additional notes relating to the subject, were published in the Comptes rendus for 1862 (liv. pp. 757, 840, and 967; lv. p. 600), 1863 (lvi. pp. 253 and 479), and 1866 (vol. Ixiii. p. 24). The first note bears the date of April 7, 1862, so that there can be no doubt as to de Chancourtois's claim to priority in this important matter.3

I have in my possession a thin quarto pamphlet, by de Chancourtois, entitled "Vis Tellurique: Classement naturel des corps simples ou radicaux, obtenu au moyen d'un système de classification hélicoidal et numérique " (Paris, Mallet-Bachelier, 1863), which contains nearly all the extracts from the Comptes rendus, together with some additional matter. It contains, also, what is absolutely essential to the comprehension of de Chancourtois's ideas, the graphic representation of his system, which is not to be found in the Comptes rendus.

I propose to give here a translation of the first communication to the Academy, followed by certain explanatory comments and brief extracts from the other papers :

"Geological studies in the field of research opened up by M. Elie de Beaumont in his note on volcanic and metalliferous intrusions (émanations) have led me, for the completion of a lithological memoir on which I am now engaged, to a natural classification of the simple bodies and radicles by a table in the form of a helix, founded on the use of numbers which I call characteristic numbers or numerical characteristics.

"My numbers, which are immediately deduced from the measure of the equivalents or other physical or chemical capacities of the different bodies, are, in the main, the proportional numbers given by the treatises on chemistry, these being reduced to half in the case of hydrogen, nitrogen, fluorine, chlorine, bromine,

Wurtz ("The Atomic Theory," p. 170) and Berthelot ("Les Origines de l'Alchimie," p. 302) give a bare mention of de Chancourtois's name. Mendeleeff, in his Faraday Lecture (Journ. Chem. Soc., October 1889), couples his name with those of Newlands and Strecker, and shows greater appreciation of his work.

M. Friedel, the eminent Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Sorbonne, has kindly procured for me the information that the original manuscripts of these memoirs are preserved in the archives of the Institut; I hope to be able to examine them at some future period.

3 Mr. Newlands' first paper, chiefly devoted to showing that the numerical differences between the atomic weights of allied elements are approximately multiples of 8 was published on February 7, 1863 (Chemical News, | vol. vii. p. 70); his second paper, in which he arranges the elements in the order of their atomic weights, was published on July 30, 1854 (Chemical News, vol. x. p. 39) Se: J. A. R. Newlands "On the Discovery of the Periodic Law," &c. (Spon, 1884).

4 Now Gauthier-Villars.

|

iodine, phosphorus, arsenic, lithium, potassium, so lium silver; in other words, I either divide the equivalents of bodies by two in the system in which oxygen is taken a or multiply by two the equivalents of the other bodies m system in which hydrogen is taken as unity.

"On a cylinder with a circular base, I trace a belix whic the generating lines at an angle of 45. I take the lengt's turn of the helix as my unit of length, and starting from a origin, I mark off on the helix lengths corresponding different characteristic numbers of the system in which number for oxygen is taken as unity. The extremities lines thus marked off determine points on the cylinder w call indifferently characteristic points or geometrical cha and which I distinguish by the ordinary symbols for the i bodies. The same points will evidently be obtained if we as the unit of length the of a turn of the helix, and ma on the curve lengths corresponding to the numbers of the s in which hydrogen is represented by unity.

"The series of points thus determined constitutes the gr representation of my classification, which may easily be on a plane surface by supposing the surface of the cylinde veloped; by its aid I am enabled to enounce the fund theorem of my system: The relations between the propos different bodies are manifested by umple geometrical r between the positions of their characteristic points.

66

For instance, oxygen, sulphur, selenium, tellurium, biz fall approximately on the same generating line, while magne calcium, iron, strontium, uranium, and barium, fall on opposite generating line. On either side of the first of 1. lines we find hydrogen and zinc on the one hand, bromin iodine, copper and lead on the other; parallel to the seroma we find lithium, sodium, potassium, manganese, &c.

"Simple relations of position on a cylindrical surface wall obviously defined by means of helices, of which the genera lines are only a particular case; hence, as a complement ! first theorem, we may add the following: Each heliz through two characteristic points and passing throug's e other points or only near them, brings out relations of a or. kind between their properties; likenesses and differmes manifested by a certain numerical order in thar success n example, immediate sequence or alternation at various polis "In order to attain a greater degree of accuracy, it is net to discuss the results of different measurements with rese the same body.

"One question is all-important in this discussion; it » know if the divergencies which occur may have causes of than the error of experiment. I reply to this question in h affirmative.

"I think that here, as in all determinations of constants"-" we wish to compare, they must be reduced to the same c ditions. This idea seems to me the indispensable compleme to the notion of an absolute characteristic number. Once Pe existence of this absolute number or numerical chara guaranteed by the possibility of connecting it afresh with served facts, certain limits of variation being allowed [ varying within certain limits], we promptly arrive at Fr. law, which presents itself as furnishing a means for reduc experimental observations to a comparable state by a serie trials, without this state being even a completely defined but, on the contrary, in order to be able to define it. combination of this principle with the rules for alignment al me to give the most striking form to my invention. led to formulate the table of integral numbers, which, as I not omit to mention, exhibits under certain aspects the of the work of M. Dumas on this subject.

I am

"In the construction of this table I have had recourse to determinations of specific heats, not only as a means of inc but also to find new numbers unattainable by the meth chemical investigation. By adopting as the constant proda specific heat by atomic weight, the number which corresp both to sulphur and to lead, I have deduced from the sets results given by M. Regnault, purely thermic quotients or r bers, which take their places on my alignments in the most [-* I will only quote two examples: firstly, the qua 44, obtained from the specific heat of the diamond, which h its place on the generating line of the characteristic, 12, of bon, by the side of the characteristic, 43, which correspond, one of the equivalents generally accepted for silicon; and anoth

tous way.

This is probably a misprint, as bismuth does not fall on the generating line in the table.

.

racteristic, 36, of silicon deduced from an equivalent proed by M. Regnault, and which is very remarkable, from its cidence with the characteristic of ammonium.

By the discussion, which has shown me the advisability of cepting various results hitherto looked on as scarcely reconable, I have been led to conceive the possibility of reproducthe series of natural numbers in the series formed by the erical characteristics of the real or supposed simple bodies plemented by the characteristics of the compound radicles formed from gazolytic elements, such as cyanogen, the ammoms, &c., and doubtless also by the compound radicles formed from metallic elements, of which the alloys offer us an example. This natural series, the bodies which are really simple, or at irreducible by the ordinary means at our disposal, would represented by the prime numbers. It will be at once seen there are in my table at least twelve bodies, which, Be sodium (23), have characteristics which are prime numbers. This is what led me to perceive this law, which, I believe, is intined, when established, to form one of the bases for the Escovery of the law of molecular attraction. The predomin

e of the law of divisibility by 4 in the series of my table, 1:redominance which is also to be found in the elements of the theory of numbers, has confirmed me in the idea-an idea in self really simple-that there is a perfect agreement between bodies, the elements of the material order, and numbers, the elements of the abstract order of things (éléments de la variété matérielle, de la variété abstraite). This goal once caught sight of, it will seem natural that I should have recourse to the theory of numbers to help me attain it. It will seem not less natural that I should also have recourse to higher geometry; for the eries of relations it offers cannot fail to afford resources which may enable one to establish connections between the different Dumerical characteristics.

"My helicoidal system in this way leads me on towards abstrac! views of an extremely general nature; and on the other hand it theald, it seems to me, find an application in the natural? ciences, as a method of classification throughout their whole domain, from the series of simple bodies which forms the prototype, to the opposite extreme of our natural divisions; in it will be found, I believe, the means of bringing into connection simultaneously, and by all their characters, the different terms ef those parallel series, orders, families, genera, species, and races, in each natural kingdom, of which men of science have in vain tried to show the affiliation. In geology, as is evident, the application is implicit.

"Whatever may be the import of these considerations, and to return to the principal object of the present memoir, I think that the efficacy of the helicoidal system will be admitted as a means towards hastening the advent of the time when chemical phenomena shall be amenable to mathematical investigations.

"My table, by the distribution of bodies in simple or coupled enes, by its indication of the existence of conjugate groups, &c., traces a plan for diverse categories of syntheses and analyses already executed or to be executed; it draws up very definite programmes for the execution of several researches which are exciting attention. Will not my series, for instance, essentially romatic as they are, be a guide in researches on the spectrum? Will not the relations of the different rays of the spectrum prove to be derived directly from the law of numerical characteristics, tr verd? This idea, which occurred to me before we were aught the identification of the lines in the spectrum, and the dmirable applications of this discovery, seems to me now even ore than probable. Finally, looking upon it only as a concise epresentation of known facts, and reducing it to the points hich offer no matter for discussion, the geometrical table of merical characteristics affords a rapid method for teaching a rge number of notions in physics, chemistry, mineralogy, and logy. I hope, therefore, that my natural classification of the le bodies and radicles being capable of rendering manifold ces, will need, like every object in habitual use, a name of y application; hence, on account of its graphic representation its ongin, I give it the significant name of telluric helix." It will be well to point out immediately that M. de Chanurtois's system assigns to the numerical characteristics of the ements a general formula of the form (n + 16n'), where n' is cessarily an integer; and his table thus brings out the fact

But the discovery of the "octaves" or "periods" cannot be ascribed to our author, although it seems almost impossible that chemists should not have perceived their existence on looking at his table.

experiment. It would remain valid with fractional numbers, and often the hel.coidal alignments would be even more easily applicable to these than to integers" (Comptes rendus, vol. liv. p. 842).

This fact, now familiar, has again been noticed by your correspondent, Mr. A. M. Stapley, in the issue of November 21, 1839.

The atomic weight of rubidium should be 85. We may notice that the author gives as probable also Cs = 135=7+8. 16, which is thus placed on the same generating line.

3 Certainly too high a value; according to Brauner, the exact atomic weight of tellurium remains to be determined.

Three important points, however, do exist in common between de Chancourtois's system and that of Mendeleeff:Firstly, all the known elements are arranged in the order of their combining weights.

Secondly, the combining weights chosen as best suited to bring out clearly the numerical relations existing between them are those adopted by Cannizzaro in 1858, a striking fact when we recollect that de Chancourtois wrote only in 1862, at a date long before these numbers had gained anything like general acceptance.

Lastly, an attempt is made to show that simple numerical relations exist, not only between the combining weights, but between all the measurable properties (toutes les capacités physiques et chimiques) of allied elements.

The reasons for the neglect of de Chancourtois's researches and the oblivion into which they have fallen are not far to seek. His style was heavy and at times obscure, and, moreover, his ideas were presented in a way most unattractive to chemists.

A geologist by profession, de Chancourtois had been powerfully impressed by the facts of isomorphism in the case of the feldspars and pyroxenes, which form such important constituents of the volcanic rocks he was studying; and he was thus led to seek for a system of classification which should bring out some simple relationship between the elements they contained.

To quote from his paper (Comptes rendus, vol. liv. p. 969): "The parallelism of the groups of manganese (7+3. 16) and iron (8+ 3. 16), of potassium (7+2. 16) and calcium (8 + 2. 16), of sodium (7 +16) and magnesium (8+ 16), is the origin of my system"; and again, suggesting the expediency of adopting 55 (= 7+ 3. 16) as a characteristic for aluminium, which would bring the element on the sodium and potassium generating line, "this would render perfect the parallelism between the elements of the feldspars and the pyroxenes, the starting-point of my system" (Comptes rendus, lvi. p. 1479).

Thus the correct idea of seeking for a relationship between the combining weights of isomorphous elements was marred by a somewhat imperfect comprehension of the facts of isomorphism. No chemist would certainly have tried to show any close relationship between aluminium on the one hand and the group of the alkalies on the other, notwithstanding their union in the feldspars and pyroxenes; and a suggestion of this kind served to cast discredit on de Chancourtois's really important views.

Notwithstanding his frequently eccentric ideas, de Chancourtois had the merit, so rare in an inventor of this stamp, of not considering his system as final. We cannot do better than let him speak for himself; and quote the conclusion of his last paper on the subject (Comptes rendus, lvi. p. 481):—“In presence of the rapid increase in the list of elements which engage the attention of chemists and physicists, it has become urgent to unite in one synthesis all the notions of chemical and physical capacities, of which the exposition would otherwise become an impossible task.

"It is, therefore, perhaps not unnecessary to recall the ideas of Pythagoras, or what I may better term the Biblical truth which dominates all the sciences, and of which I propose to make practical use by the following concrete example,1 the first general conclusion of my essay :

"THE PROPERTIES OF BODIES ARE THE PROPERTIES OF NUMBERS.

"It is easily perceived, that a helicoidal system of some kind or another, which is necessarily a graphic table of divisibility, offers the most convenient means for rendering manifest the relations between the two orders of ideas. It is evident, also, that the particular system which I have adopted brings into relief the relations of the most important and usual of the properties of matter, because the case of divisibility by 4, which is the basis of my plan, is the first which presents itself in arithmetical speculation after the case of divisibility by 2, to which there corresponds directly, as one perceives by a first glance at my table, the existence of the natural couples of elements, with consecutive odd and even characteristics.

"I hope, therefore, that the telluric helix will offer, until it is replaced by some more perfect invention, a practical framework, a convenient scale, on which to set down and compare all measurements of capacities, whatever the point of view which may be taken, whatever elasticity or variation, whatever interpretation may be given to the numerical characteristics, by which these capacities must always be represented.

1 The French is vulgarisation, literally popularization.

"The development in a plane of the cylinder r into squares, with the circumference at the base divided16 equal parts, seems to me, in a word, to be a re which men of science, after the fashion of musicians, wi down the results of their experimental or speculative either to co-ordinate their work, or to give a summary of the most concise and clear form to their colleagues an! public."

Lothar Meyer has noted down his classification in the f a helix,1 and Dr. Johnstone Stoney, F. R.S., has shown thy d numerical values of the atomic weights may be expressed metrically as functions of a series of integral numbers by p all lying approximately on a logarithmic spiral.

But no simple mathematical formula has so far been dis to express the relationships of the atomic weights accurately i.e. within the limits of experimental error, and de Chancent predictions still remain but incompletely fulfilled.

I need not comment further on the remarkable breadth at originality of our author's views, taken as a whole. Strange say, it was only a year or two before his death that he c through a colleague, of the immense development they undergone; nor did he ever set up any claims to priority. 5. when we speak of the greatest generalization of modern chemi and recall the names of Newlands and Mendeleeff, it is only that we should no longer forget their distinguished pre-ar de Chancourtois. P. J. HART

SCIENTIFIC SERIALS.

American Journal of Science, December.-The tempera of the moon, by S. P. Langley, with the assistance F. W. Bery. With this memoir the authors complete researches begun at the Allegheny Observatory in 1883 2 continued during the next four years. The main outcome that the mean temperature of the sunlit lunar surface is m lower than has been supposed, most probably not being gro above o° C.-The Lower Cretaceous of the South-West, ind relation to the underlying and overlying formations, by Chai A. White. The chalk formations constituting the sel "Texas Section" are here referred to two natural divisicos which may be designated the Upper and Lower Cretar respectively, although not necessarily the exact equivalent the corresponding European strata. Their fossil contents that each represents an unbroken portion of Cretaceous tr while the paleontological contrast between the two mdiere that there is a time hiatus between them. But this hiatus greater than exhibited in others of the mountain uplifts in same region, and not so great as it is in some cases.-On hinge of Pelecypods and its development, with an attem toward a better subdivision of the group, by William II. Three fundamental types of hinges are described, and on th is based a new classification comprising the three orders * Anomalodesmacea with five sub-orders, Prionodesmaces with eight sub-orders, and Teleodesmacea with eleven or more s orders.-The magnetism of nickel and tungsten alloys, John Trowbridge and Samuel Sheldon. The question is be discussed whether nickel and tungsten alloys magnetized saturation increase in specific magnetism as different kinds steel alloyed in small proportions with tungsten or wolfram known to do. The tabulated results show that tungsten gru increases the magnetic moment of nickel, if the alloy be forge and rolled, but has small influence if simply cast; nor do chang in the amount of tungsten appear to cause corresponding chang in the magnetic properties of the alloy.-Note on the measure ment of the internal resistance of batteries, by B. 0. Pant and R. W. Willson. The authors' researches show that the value of the resistance of a cell obtained by the use of alter currents is always smaller than that obtained by other meth but the application of the method of alternate currents "fatigue all but the so-called constant cells. In most cases there s tendency in the internal resistance to decrease as the strength the current which the cell is delivering increases.-Paper contributed by Robert T. Hill and R. A. F. Penrose, Jun, the relation of the uppermost Cretaceous beds of the E and Southern United States, and on the Tertiary Cretace parting of Arkansas and Texas; by W. E. Hidden a

"Die modernen Theorien der Chemie," iv. Auflage, p. 137, El translation, p. 118.

1. Mackintosh, on sundry yttria and thoria minerals from o County, Texas; and by O. C. Marsh, on the skull of the cuc Ceratopsideæ.

THE American Meteorological Journal for November contains hrt part of an article on "Theories of Storms, based on shield's Laws," by M. H. Faye, member of the French Lute. In support of his "whirlpool" theory, he urges that asorologists have constructed a theory of storms on the basis ungle fact, viz. that storms which burst over a region cause of the barometer there, and he points out that starting with sies of an ascending column, exercising an aspiration below, ing is invariably produced which neither turns nor progresses. tr. A. L. Rotch contributes the first part of an article on Meteorology at the Paris Exposition," dealing with the truments exhibited in the French Section. Among the most Peresting are (1) the actinometers exhibited by the Montsouris bservatory; (2) the Richard actinometer, which has bright and bulbs in vacuo, connected with two thermometers, by rich curves are traced giving at each instant the radiation from Ay, both at night and day; (3) the Richard anemographs, Pach have, instead of the usual Robinson cups, a fan wheel et of six blades inclined at 45°, and fastened to a very light 12, une revolution of the wheel corresponding to one metre of d. Parrigou-Lagrange's anemometer (NATURE, vol. xxxvii. p. Aging the vertical component of the wind, was also exhibited. Badin showed some very fine standard thermometers, and fr. Kotch describes various other instruments, such as hygroLeters, aneroids, &c. Dr. F. Waldo continues his discussion of he Detribution of Average Wind-velocities in the United The present article deals with the comparison of verage wind-velocities with other elements, e.g. with barometric nima, Lieutenant Finley contributes State tornado charts or Arkansas, North Carolina, and Dakota.

THE numbers of the Journal of Botany for November and ober are chiefly occupied with articles of special interest to Talents of British botany. Mr. Thiselton Dyer gives a very reving biography of the late Mr. John Ball, F.R.S., first edunt of the Alpine Club, Under-Secretary of State for the Soares under Lord Palmerston, an ardent explorer in all the quarters of the globe, and a botanist of wide and varied Bowledge. In the December number is a remarkable article be disappearance of British plants, mainly through the redations of collectors.

conti del Reale Istituto Lombardo, November 1.-Phya researches on the lakes of North Italy, by Prof. F. A. Forel. ng a visit to this lacustrine region, last autumn, the author

the waters of Lakes Maggiore, Como, Piano, and 50, with a view to determining their temperature, colour, transparency, as compared with the analogous properties of Luceme and Geneva. The results, which are here tabuthow that the temperature is generally higher, and the deeper in the Italian than in the Swiss lakes, while the arency is about the same, except in the shallow Lake where the temperature is lower and the transparency less any of these basins.-Meteorological observations made he Frera Observatory during the month of September. e observations include records of temperature, barometric e, atmospheric moisture, rainfall, direction of the winds,

1. Goudiness.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.

LONDON.

Royal Society, December 12.-"The Relation of PhysioAction to Atomic Weight." By Miss E. J. Johnston, versity College, Dundee, and Thos. Carnelley, Professor of try in the University of Aberdeen. Communicated by cury Roscoe, F.R.S.

AA dated from the Character of the Elements occurring arly in Living Organisms.—It is shown (a) that life is ated with a low atomic weight, so that elements with an weight of 40 and under are required by the living m, whereas those of an atomic weight greater than 40 tnere or less inimical to life (compare Sestini, Gazz. Chim. 1. vol. 15, p. 107). (6) That the eight elements which enter largely into the composition of the earth's crust, and which, refore, are the most easily accessible to the living organism,

are all included, with the exception of aluminium, in the fourteen elements which are required by the living organism.

A consideration of the exceptions (viz. Li, Be, B, Al, and Fe) to the first rule and of all the known facts bearing on the question leads to the conclusion that," The degree of necessity of an element to the living organism is a function of, first, its atomic weight, and, second, its accessibility to the organism." An element may be inaccessible to living organisms either because it is rare (e.g. Li and Be); or because, though moderately common, it has a very limited distribution (e.g. B); or because, though plentiful and widely distributed, it does not occur in nature in a form in which it can be assimilated (e.g. Al, on account of the insolubility of its native compounds).

That elements which are necessary to life must be readily accessible is self-evident, but that living organisms should require elements with low atomic weights, while elements with high atomic weights are inimical to life, is not so evident. This, however, may be due, in part at least, to the fact that the elements with low atomic weights are on the whole the most common elements (as shown by Gladstone, Phil. Mag. [5], vol. 4, P. 379; compare also Mendeljeff, Zeit. f. Chem. vol. 5, 1869, P: 405), and therefore the most accessible, so that from the first the elements utilized in vital processes have been those which have been the most accessible, and therefore those with the lowest atomic weights.

B. As deduced from the Toxic Action of Compounds adminisobtained by previous observers as to the relation between atomic tered artificially.-In view of the somewhat discordant results weight and physiological action, the authors have reinvestigated the subject as carefully as possible. Their experiments have been made partly with fish (sticklebacks) and partly with aerial micro-organisms, the salt being administered by solution in the medium (water or Koch's jelly) in which the organism lived. the following conclusions are drawn from the results of about 800 experiments which the authors have made during the two years they have worked on this subject :

1. With corresponding compounds of elements belonging to the same sub-group, the toxic action1alters regularly (i.e. increases or diminishes) with the atomic weight.

2. In almost all cases this alteration takes place in such a way that the toxic power increases with the atomic weight. (This is analogous to increase in toxic action in homologous series of carbon compounds.)

3. Elements belonging to odd series (Mendeljeff's classification) are much more toxic than the corresponding elements of even

series.

4. Other things being the same, the greater the ease of reducibility of an element from a state of combination to the free state the greater its toxic action. (Applicable to compounds of odd as compared with those of elements of even series, and also to compounds of the elements of odd series belonging to the same group when compared with one another.)

5. Other things being the same and the compounds comparable, the greater the heat of formation of a compound from its elements the smaller is its toxic power; or, in other words, the greater the stability of a compound the smaller its toxic power. (Applicable to elements belonging to odd series; data for those belonging to even series are wanting or are too incomplete.)

There is a close connection between rules 3, 4, and 5. 6. Lithium forms a very marked exception to all the above rules, for notwithstanding its very low atomic weight, its difficult reducibility to the free state, the fact that it belongs to an even series, and the great stability of its compounds, as indicated by their relatively great heat of formation, its toxic power is, nevertheless comparatively very great. This exceptional character of lithium, however, is not limited to its physiological action only, but applies likewise to many of its purely chemical and physical properties. So much so, indeed, is this the case that its exceptional physiological character might have been foreseen. with the solubility in such a way that as the solubility increases 7. The toxic action of a series of comparable salts runs parallel the toxic action either increases likewise or else diminishes.

8. When the quantity of salt present in Koch's jelly is less than the minimum dose required to prevent the development of micro-organisms, the number of colonies which develops increases as the amount of salt diminishes, but as a rule much more rapidly.

As represented in terms of either the minimum toxic weight of metal or of the minimum molecular toxic dose. The minimum molecular toxic dose minimum toxic weight of salt molecular weight of the salt.