supply, and are evidently inspired by a determination to give something like concrete value for public money. While awaiting the verdicts of science and the deliberations of legislators, it is useful to have to hand a work such as this, which gives a concise statement and accurate picture of the present condition of the great sea-fishing industry.

The book is abundantly supplied with interesting photographs. There is also a sea-fisheries map, in which, however, is one glaring defect. From this map it would appear that Yarmouth and Lowestoft are given over entirely to the drift-net fishing, and that neither of these places has any connection by rail with the metropolis. This is inconsistent with what is stated in the text, and is opposed to common knowledge.

THE ELEVENTH EROS CIRCULAR.1

T HE appearance of this volume brings us definitely face to face with a new situation in the derivation of accurate positions of the heavenly bodies from photographs. It will be remembered that in the winter of 1900-1 the recently discovered small planet Eros made a very near approach to the earth, and a large number of photographs were taken with the view of determining the distance of the planet, from a knowledge of

which that of the sun, and the dimensions of the solar system generally, could be inferred with (it was hoped) considerably improved accuracy. The measurement of the plates involves enormous labour, and has only been partially accomplished in the intervening four years; and the discussion of the measures has necessarily proceeded even more slowly. But the present publication of more than 400 quarto pages represents a notable addition to the tabular statement of measures, and contains an important contribution to the discussion.

It appears that the plates taken at different observatories are liable to disagreement in a serious manner. Putting aside the planet itself for a moment, when the positions of the stars found from plates taken at the Algiers Observatory are compared with those found from plates taken at Paris, there is a difference varying with the brightness of the individual stars. Such a difference is not altogether new in astronomy; it was pointed out by Sir David Gill a dozen years ago or more that eye observations of stellar positions made by different observers were likely to differ systematically in this manner; but this was attributed to human defects in the observer, and it was hoped that photography would free us from the embarrassment. So it probably will when rightly used; but we have apparently not yet completely realised the necessary precautions. The instruments for taking the photographs at Algiers and at Paris are as precisely similar as the constructor could make them; they were used in the same way; the plates were measured similarly and with careful attention to certain known sources of error, and yet the resulting star places show the following differences in seconds of arc in the mean of 5 groups of 87 stars each :

There is a range of more than half a second, and we want to measure the hundredth of a second! This is probably an exceptional case; but what may occur once may occur again, and in view of this fact it is 1 Conference astrophotographique internationale de Juillet, 1900. Cirulaire No. 11. (Paris: Gauthier Villars, 1904.)

not too much to say that a very serious addition has been made to the labour of determining the quantity sought-the solar parallax-by this revelation."

It is disappointing to find no satisfactory sugges tion of the cause of error in the paper which gives an account of it. A suggestion is indeed made, viz. that in measuring a plate the presence of an adjacent image (for the exposure is repeated on the same plate so as to show all the images more than once) may disturb the eye of the measurer. All our experience hitherto is against such a possibility. It seems more likely to the writer that the cause may be sought in the object glass of the photographic telescope, and, to be more precise, in an error of centreing of the crown lens relatively to the flint. Such an error is well known to opticians, and is easily detected in a visual telescope by the fringe of colour on one side of a star image when slightly out of focus. But the images formed by a photographic telescope are not examined by the eye in the regular course of work, and such an error might therefore escape detection until revealed by such a comparison of measures as is given above. stray light on one side of the image would not be strong enough to affect the sensitive film in the case of faint stars, but for a bright star it would spread the image in that direction, and so introduce a spurious displacement of the centre. If this explanation be correct, the error can be both detected and eliminated by turning the object glass through 180° (with most forms of telescope mounting it is only necessary to turn the telescope to the other side of the pier), and this can easily be done. Indeed, it ought to have been done before now, under the admirable maxim for physical work, reverse everything that can be reversed," but, so far as is known to the writer, the point has hitherto escaped notice.

The

If on examination this explanation will not fit the facts, some other must be found. A few additional details in the volume before us would have made it possible to test this hypothesis; if, for instance, it had been specified which plates were taken on one side of the pier and which on the other, a comparison of the two sets would have given very definite information. Mr. Hinks has already given cogent reasons (see Observatory for September, 1903) for regretting the lack of information as to the identity of the individual plates, and we have now to add this further reason. For the systematic difference described is not confined to Algiers-Paris. If we turn to the paper following that in which M. Trépied gives the figures above quoted and arrange the differences found at the Goodsell Observatory (Carleton College, Minnesota) according to stellar magnitude, we find a well marked effect in R.A. and a smaller one in dec.; and probably other cases, when duly examined, will give similar results, though it does not seem to have occurred to astronomers generally to make a properly searching inquiry. For instance, at the end of the volume M. Loewy tabulates a series of differences between two lists of star places prepared with great care by himself and by Prof. Tucker, of the Lick Observatory, and he comments with satisfaction on the close accordance of the two lists. But a very slight examination suffices to show that the differences are affected with "magnitude-equation," though in this instance the effect may be due to the visual observations.

In fact, while duly admiring the energy and diligence with which this vast mass of material has been collected and published, a result due in great part to the powers of organisation of M. Loewy, the director of the Paris Observatory, we may well feel some doubts whether it will turn out to be, as he hopes, a "collection of homogeneous material, susceptible of being immediately used without the necessity of undertaking,

as in the past, long and tedious preliminary investigations" (p. 3). Homogeneity for such a purpose cannot be secured by mere similarity in publication of results; indeed, this very process tends to cover up vital differences of detail, and it is to be feared that, unless these can be unearthed again, the work will suffer in accuracy.

There is an appendix at the end of the volume professing to give a bibliography of the already large literature on the Eros campaign, but containing no reference to the Monthly Notices or other English work. Is not this rather a strange oversight? H. H. TURNER.

NOTES.

BRITISH Science has been honoured by the award of the Nobel prize for physics to Lord Rayleigh, and the prize for chemistry to Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S. Prof. Pavloff, of the Military Academy of Medicine at St. Petersburg, has been awarded the prize for physiology. The distribution of the prizes took place at Stockholm on December 10 in the presence of King Oscar and the Royal Family, foreign ministers and members of the Cabinet, and many leading representatives of science, art, and literature. After speeches had been delivered by the vice-president and other representatives of the Nobel committee, and of the Academies of Science, Medicine, and Literature, King Oscar personally presented Lord Rayleigh, Sir William Ramsay, and Prof. Pavloff with their prizes, together with diplomas and gold medals. The sum of money attaching to each prize amounts to about 78251. The distribution of the prizes was followed by a banquet, at which the Crown Prince presided; and among the company were Prince and Princess Charles, Lord and Lady Rayleigh, Sir William and Lady Ramsay, and M. and Mme. Pavloff. Morner proposed the health of Prof. Pavloff, Prof. Petterson that of Sir William Ramsay, and Prof. Hasselberg that of Lord Rayleigh. On Monday Sir William

Count

Ramsay delivered a lecture on argon and helium at the Academy of Sciences, and King Oscar gave a dinner party to the prize winners. On Tuesday Lord Rayleigh delivered a lecture at the academy on the density of gases. Both lectures were highly appreciated and greatly applauded. It is announced that Lord Rayleigh proposes to present to Cambridge University the value of the Nobel prize for physics awarded to him.

SIR NORMAN LOCKYER, K.C.B., F.R.S., has been elected a corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg.

THE Lavoisier gold medal, which has been awarded by the French Academy of Sciences to Sir James Dewar, F.R.S., for his researches on the liquefaction of gases, was founded in 1900, to be given, without distinction of nationality, at such times as the French Academy should elect

PROF. BOYCE, of Liverpool University, has proposed to the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce a scheme for the establishment of a commercial museum and bureau of scientific information. The object is to correlate the various scientific forces in the city in order to utilise them for commercial advantage. The scheme has been referred to a committee of the Chamber of Commerce.

On the invitation of the director, Dr. J. J. Dobbie, F.R.S., and Mrs. Dobbie, a large and representative gathering assembled in the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, on Monday evening, December 12, to celebrate the jubilee of the museum. The museum embraces three departmentsnatural history, art and ethnography, and technology, under their respective keepers, Dr. Traquair, F.R.S., Mr. D. J. Vallance, and Dr. Alex. Galt. In the natural history department the collection of fossil fish is one of the most important in the world. Other special features of this department are the hall of British zoology and the zoological type collection, the aim of the latter being to illustrate the bearing of comparative anatomy on the classification of the animal kingdom. The ethnographical collection is one of the most extensive of its kind, and contains many specimens brought home by explorers of the end of the eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth centuries. The technological department contains a large and fine collection of machine and engineering models, most of them made in the museum workshops, together with mining and metallurgical specimens and models. There is also a large collection of economic botany attached to this department. The collections of H.M. Geological Survey of Scotland are housed in the museum, and with these is associated the Heddle-Dudgeon collection of Scottish minerals, which has been described as the finest collection The of the minerals of any one country in existence. museum is supported by a Parliamentary grant, and is under the Scotch Education Department, which was represented at the conversazione by Sir Henry Craik, K.C.B., and Mr. Macdonald, assistant secretary.

A MEETING was held in the geological lecture theatre of the Owens College, Manchester, on December 8, at which it was resolved to establish a Manchester University Geologists' Association. The object of the association is to afford a centre of social reunion for the discussion of geological subjects. Prof. Boyd Dawkins was elected president, Mr. B. Hobson and Mr. Winstanley vice-presidents, Mr. W. J. Hall secretary, and Mr. O. B. Leigh treasurer.

A SHORT time ago Dr. Doyen claimed to have discovered the microbe of cancer, and to have prepared with it a curative serum for the disease. A committee was appointed to investigate Dr. Doyen's claims (see NATURE, October 27, p. 631), and, according to the daily Press, has now reported favourably on them. The Standard's correspondent tele

scientific men. The present is the first occasion on which the medal has been awarded to a British man of science.

THE Wislicenus memorial lecture will be delivered before the Chemical Society by Prof. W. H. Perkin, F.R.S., on Wednesday, January 25, at 8.30 p.m.

MR. A. SILVA WHITE, formerly secretary to the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, and editor of the Scottish Geographical Magazine, has been appointed assistant secretary of the British Association, and has already taken up the duties of the post.

yet arrived at any conclusion.

On the recent retirement of Sir William Macgregor from the Governorship of Lagos, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine decided to mark its appreciation of his valuable services to the cause of health and sanitation by raising a fund, to which Sir Alfred Jones contributed 500l. and Mr. John Holt 200l. It has been decided to expend this fund on two medical expeditions to the west coast of Africa, one in charge of Prof. Boyce, who, with Dr. A. Evans and Dr. H. H. Clarke, sailed from the Mersey on Wednesday, the other under Colonel Giles. These expeditions will

study the various health problems presented by the districts they visit, the distribution of biting insects, and related

matters.

A DEMONSTRATION of the Pollak-Virag high-speed writing telegraph was given on December 9 at the Carlton Hotel in the presence of the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador. The Pollak-Virag high-speed telegraphic system was described upwards of three years ago in a detailed article published in NATURE for May 2, 1901, and readers may be referred to that account for particulars of the instruments used. Very high speeds-reaching 100,000 words an hour-were reported as having been attained in America in 1901 by this system, using several perforating machines to prepare the message being sent; but it now appears that these estimates were too high. The postal authorities in Hungary in recent experiments carried out between Budapest and Pozsony, a distance of some 218 kilometres, with two copper telephone wires of 3 mm. diameter, secured the transmission of 45,000 words an hour. In another series of experiments, conducted between Berlin and Königsberg, a maximum transmission of 40,000 words an hour was attained over a distance of 710 kilometres with wires 4.5 mm. in diameter. It is stated that our Post Office department is about to carry out some trials of the PollakVirag system.

THE performances of an intelligent horse-" Clever Hans "at Berlin two or three months ago attracted much attention. In a letter which appeared in NATURE of October 20 (vol. Ixx. p. 602) the Rev. J. Meehan pointed out that the performances of the horse were much the same as those of the horse "Mahomet" shown at the Royal Aquarium twelve or thirteen years ago, and depended entirely upon the animal's observation of movements of the trainer or the tones of his voice, Much the same opinion has been reached by a commission of psychological experts, headed by Prof. Stumpf, of Berlin University, that has subjected "Clever Hans " to a scientific examination. The conclusion arrived at is that the horse is not capable of independent thought. According to the Berlin correspondent of the Daily Chronicle, Prof. Stumpf found that this horse is gifted with remarkable powers of observation, which four years of patient and skilful treatment have developed. When asked a question "Hans" knows he has to beat with his hoof in reply, but he does not know when to cease beating until he detects some movement on the part of the person questioning him. The commission expresses the opinion that, so far as Herr von Osten, the owner, is concerned, these movements are given involuntarily, and are sometimes of so imperceptible a nature as to be undetected, save by highly trained human observers. There has been no trickery, says Prof. Stumpf, but, on the other hand, there have been no reasoning powers on the horse's part. The whole secret is in von Osten's skill, patience, and judicious reward, and, on "Hans's " part, in keen powers of observation.

VISITORS to the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park will miss the old Indian rhinoceros "Jim," which had been a denizen of the menagerie since July 25, 1864, on which date it was presented to the society by the late Mr. A. Grote. It died on December 7, after having been out of health for many months. Such a long sojourn in captivity in this country is probably unparalleled for an animal of this kind. As a statement has appeared in the Press that the skin might perhaps be mounted in the British (Natural History) Museum, it may be well to state that His Highness the Maharaja of Kuch-Behar recently presented the skin of a wild specimen of the great

Indian rhinoceros to the museum, which has been set up. and is exhibited. The "Zoo" specimen will therefore not find a home in the national collection.

THE December number of the Century Magazine contains a most interesting account, by Mr. G. H. Grosvenor, of the new method of purifying water-both in small quantities and when stored in large reservoirs-by means of blue vitriol (copper-sulphate). It has long been known that copper is fatal to bacteria, but the fear has hitherto been that the amount required to effect the destruction of such organisms would likewise be injurious to man. Dr. G. T. Moore has, however, announced in an American official publication that he can employ copper in such a diluted form as to be quite harmless to the higher forms of animal, and yet sufficiently potent to destroy the germs of cholera and typhoid, as well as mosquito larvæ, in a few hours. The method of introducing the copper-salt into the water is fully explained in the article. It may be added that the treatment is stated to be equally efficacious and safe for sterilising milk. As an illustration of the effects of copper in destroying bacteria, it is mentioned that such organisms are never found on copper coins, although abundant on those of silver, and it is mentioned that artisans in copper-works are immune to bacterial diseases. Whether we have been wise in abolishing the old-fashioned copper tea-kettle is one of the questions raised by the new operations.

3

THE discovery of the existence of an anterior rudimentary pair of gills in the Continental fresh-water crayfish Astacus fluviatilis, which is not present in the common A. pallipes of the Thames, was described by Prof. Lankester in NATURE of January 21 (vol. lxix. p. 270), and is recorded in the November issue of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science by Miss M. Moseley, who appears to have The inherited her father's love for biological studies. other four papers in the same number of are very technical nature, the longest and perhaps the most important being a detailed account by Mr. J. W. Jenkinson of the maturation and fertilisation of the egg of the axolotl (Amblystoma tigrinum). More general interest attaches, however, to the article by Prof. L. Rogers on the development of flagellated organisms or trypanosomes from the protozoic parasites found in the spleen in cases of cachexial fevers and certain other diseases. Of the two remaining articles, the one by Dr. J. Rennie discusses the so-called epithelial islets in the pancreas of bony fishes, while the second, by Dr. H. G. Fowler, is devoted to the description of the anatomy of a radiolarian of the genus Gazeletta.

IN an article entitled "A Flamingo City," which appears in the December number of the Century Magazine, Mr. F. M. Chapman, of the American Museum of Natural History, gives a graphic and well illustrated account of one of the great breeding-places of the American flamingo in the Bahamas. Although previous observers, both in those islands and in Europe, have published descriptions of flamingo colonies, and have refuted the old error that the birds sat straddle-wise on their nests, the author claims to be the first to have seen nestling flamingoes in their native haunts, and likewise to have brought the camera to bear on one of the breeding-places of these birds. Flamingoes, as Mr. Chapman remarks, are more brightly coloured than any other large bird, and their gregarious habits and the open nature of their resorts are admirably suited to bring their gorgeous hues into prominence. The visit to the nesting-grounds was made at the latter end of May, when both eggs and young birds were to be found in the nests.