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value can be attached to projects for aërial navigation which are not supported by either theory or experiment, yet such projects still succeed in appearing in print, and naturally ninety-nine people out of every hundred mistake the chaff for the grain. In the Journal of the Franklin Institute for July, for instance, Mr. Russell Thayer propounds the idea that all you have to do is to attach a gyroscope to a dirigible balloon and provide it with a sail in order to make it abandon its path of least resistance, drifting with the wind, and plough through the air in a different direction. Even the heading of the paper contains the sentence "The lever in space without a fulcrum

on the earth!"

arts."

We leave readers of NATURE to form their own opinions of this recent contribution to a journal professing to be "devoted to science and the mechanic But if Mr. Russell Thayer will turn to Ila, No. 10, p. 174, he will see that his idea of an airship supported by balloons and driven by sails was anticipated in the year 1670 by the Jesuit priest Francesco Lana, of Brescia, whose design possesses the additional merit of dispensing with the gyroscope! Returning to the serious side of the problem, it

suggested of enabling an aviator to observe the resist ance, and consequently to ascertain the relative velocity of his machine. Captain Renard concludes his "conferences" on aviation in the Bulletin de la Société d'Encouragement for June. From Mr. Octave Chanute we have received by a recent mail papers on "The Evolution of the Two-surface Machine," and "Soaring Flight" (American Aeronautics, September and October, 1908, April, 1909), which remind us of the useful pioneer work in which Mr. Chanute was engaged, particularly before the Wright brothers took the subject so much in hand. In the Revue scientifique for August 14, Capt. Paul Renard writes on "The Antoinette Aeroplane and High Flights." Prof. Houssay, as a zoologist, writes, in the Revue générale des Sciences, xx., 14, on the stabilisation of fishes by fins and other appendages, and points out a certain analogy with the stabilisation of dirigibles. Photography by carrier pigeons is discussed in Ila for July 10, which also contains illustrations, which should interest philatelists, of letters sent by balloon post during the siege of Paris in 1870, and now exhibited at Frankfurt.

In view of the immense amount of popular enthu

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FIG. 1.-1. Wright glider (1900-3). 2. Ader (1890-7). 3. First Blériot monoplane (1906). 4. Santos Dumont's machine which made the first officially recorded flight (1906). 5. Farman's biplane which made the first circuit of a kilometre (January 13, 1908). 6. Robert Esnault Pelterie monoplane (1907-8). 7. Delagrange biplane (1908).

is impossible to glance at the two illustrations accompanying this article without forming the general impression that in many of the types figured the longitudinal stability is defective and the lateral stability nil, or worse than nil. It is merely the danger of making statements which are unsupported by the most circumstantial evidence that prevents us from expressing a very strong and emphatic view regarding pretty well every machine in the collection. The one fact which appears definitely established is that aeroplanes which are unstable, both longitudinally and laterally, can perform flights of indefinite length in the hands of skilled aviators, and this result will receive its full and proper explanation in the prospective mathematical theory. Indeed, for those who can appreciate them, mathematical researches on stability are much more fascinating than flights on aeroplanes.

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siasm aroused by aeroplanes, long before they have reached the stage at which they are likely to be used as a common means of transport, it is somewhat interesting to think that an invention has appeared almost unnoticed which is accessible to everyone, and is capable of affording quite as much genuine enjoyment to those who use it as the aeroplane, at a fraction of the cost. The piano-player was heralded by no flourish of trumpets, it received no attention in the Press, save in the makers' advertisements, and there is no journal devoted to its interests. Yet from a scientific point of view it possesses many remarkable-almost marvellous-properties, which afford abundant material for research. But if such researches were undertaken, no one would publish or read them. All the fashion is for aeroplanes.

G. H. BRYAN.

Since the above article was in proof, the science of aviation has sustained a sad loss by the death of Captain Ferber. Although Captain Ferber's name has not come prominently before the public as a record-breaker, this perhaps is in some measure due to the scientific spirit in which he studied aviation. Captain Ferber commanded the Alpine Battery at Nice from 1900 to 1904, and during that time became

interested in aviation. His first models, like the oldfashioned quadrilateral boy's kite, had aeroplanes of considerable longitudinal dimensions, but on becoming acquainted with the gliding experiments of Chanute, Herring, and the Wright Brothers, he was not long in adopting the two-surfaced rectangular type. Captain Ferber materially developed our theories of longitudinal stability, and he also gave a mathematical investigation, probably the first, of lateral stability. In view of the last statement, and the fact that Ferber's machines were furnished with special triangular sails

THE ROYAL OBSERVATORY AND
ELECTRIC TRAMWAYS.

FROM statements recently appearing in the public Press, many people have been led to regard the Astronomer Royal as an uncompromising opponent of tramway electrification; but as it is perfectly well known that Greenwich is very well supplied with electric trams, it must be quite evident that this impression cannot be correct.

It is specifically alleged that:(1) The extension of the overhead trolley system

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FIG. 2.-8. Blériot monoplane after accident. 9. Luyties American helicopter. 10. Bonnet Labrauche biplane. 11. Vuia helicopter. 12. Goupy triplane. 13. Curtiss's American biplane. 14. Zeus aeroplane. 15. Ferber biplane. 16. Santos Dumont's Demoiselle. 17. Gastambide Mangin biplane. 18. Farman's biplane which travelled from Bouy to Rheims (October 30, 1908). 19. Wright's machine which made the record flight with two passengers (1h. 9m. 45s.). 20. The Antoinette V., which made the record for monoplanes (1h. 7m. 35s.) and attempted to cross the Channel. 21. The Blériot XI., which crossed the Channel on July 25, 1909.

in order to render them laterally stable, it seems somewhat rash to suggest that his fatal accident was due to the precautions being inadequate; yet it is just possible we may find that such was the case; if so, it is remarkable that Ferber should fail when others who have taken less adequate precautions have succeeded. Before his death Captain Ferber attributed the accident to flying too low, so that the machine struck the ground when it heeled over. Captain Ferber was the author of a number of papers and articles dealing with aviation, and also a keen balloonist. G. H. B.

from the Arsenal gates to the Woolwich Free Ferry is blocked by the refusal of official sanction.

(2) The same official sanction is withheld from all schemes for the authorised electric tramway from Woolwich to Eltham.

The facts we have been able to ascertain are as follows, premising that the Admiralty, and not the Astronomer Royal, is officially responsible for safeguarding the efficiency of the observatory records, and that the Board of Trade has to provide for adequate protection of the observatory for the magnetic portion of the work.

(1) The proposal appears to have been brought up for narcissi, meeting with considerable success in suddenly, without previous warning, towards the latter his quest. Two amateurs had already formed wonder. part of August, at a time when, as is well known, ful collections of these flowers which, unknown to the many Government officials are expected to be away general public, they had cultivated for nearly a quarter on leave, and, consequently, delay is almost certain. of a century. These were Mr. W. Backhouse, of It appears also that as soon as the question was gone Darlington, and Mr. Edward Leeds, of Manchester. into by those concerned, it was decided to consent Barr made up his mind that if he could only obtain to the proposal on the strict understanding that any possession of these collections he would have all the further step in the conversion of the existing horse- best of existing daffodils in his own possession. By tramway between East Greenwich and Woolwich | dint of perseverance and enterprise he succeeded in should be by extension of the conduit system east- this, and the collections were removed to Tooting. wards, and not of the trolley system westwards. It where for years afterwards new seedling varieties is, of course, impossible to say how long it will be flowered every year. Every variety worth cultivating before this decision can have any practical effect, but was named and its name registered, for he recognised it is certain that no further delay can be attributed that no commercial success would follow unless the to the observatory. public could be assured that every plant catalogued was accurately and intelligently named. But the varieties continued to multiply so greatly that he found it necessary to elaborate a classification, grouping the sorts into sections according to the length of the trumpet or perianth tube and other characteristics. Mainly owing to Barr's representations, the Royal Horticultural Society promoted a Daffodil Conference in 1884, and his system of classification was then, in the main, adopted. Not long after this the attention of market growers was directed to these bulbs, and in the Scilly Isles, in Cornwall, in Lincolnshire, and other places acres of land were planted for the purpose of supplying the markets with cut blooms, with the result we see to-day in the millions of flowers that are offered everywhere for sale.

(2) As regards the authorised tramway from Woolwich to Eltham, we find that many Eltham residents are strongly opposed to the overhead system, while the official position is not one of hostility to the overhead system per se, but of insisting on insulated returns, any system which ensures this for the protection of Greenwich magnetic records being free from this official objection. As a case in point, the G.B. surface-contact system was proposed by the County Council several years ago and sanctioned officially, but was then dropped after some inconclusive experiments. Recently a new surface-contact system, the S.P. system, was made the subject of an article in

Engineering, May 28, and claims to avoid the risk of danger alleged against the G.B. system. It has been tried and favourably reported on, but has not apparently been suggested for the Woolwich and Eltham tramway.

The official attitude thus seems perfectly consistent and reasonable, and not unsympathetic. The suggestion of overhead wires without insulated returns within a radius of three miles from the observatory ought once for all to be dropped. If the County Council objects to the expense of the conduit system and to the inconvenience of equipping the overhead system with insulated returns, it is for them to find a satisfactory alternative. Unless the protective clauses insisted on by the Government are to become a dead letter, it is futile to try to blame the observatory for delay or obstruction, and it is in the last degree unlikely that the Admiralty will be persuaded to stultify its own action and contention by allowing these clauses to be overridden.

THE

PETER BARR.

HE name of this eminent horticulturist, whose death we announced last week, will ever be associated with the development of narcissi. Born in 1826, in the former village of Govan, which has long since been absorbed in the city of Glasgow, he was the son of a mill-owner who found recreation from weaving in the cultivation of tulips and other florists' flowers. The son appears to have inherited a strong love for floriculture, for he soon tired of the looms, and obtained employment in various seed businesses, until in 1861 he commenced business, with a partner, on the site of the present premises of Messrs. Barr and Sons, King Street, Covent Garden, under the title of Barr and Sugden. Barr then directed his attention to practical floriculture, experimenting with hellebores (Christmas roses), tulips, lilies, and pæonies. For these purposes he found it necessary to take up a piece of ground at Tooting, where he conducted trials which interested the leading florists of the day. He next scoured the country over

Peter Barr retired from business in 1896, after botanising in various places in Europe for the purpose of collecting rare daffodils in their native habitats. In 1898 he began a tour round the world, which lasted seven years. He visited America, Canada, Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, and, on his way home, spent twenty-one months in South Africa. During this world tour he lectured on daffodils, and was interviewed and acclaimed almost everywhere as the "Daffodil King," a title which had been given him in this country by his fellow-floriculturists.

One of the finest white trumpet daffodils ever raised was distributed a few years ago by his firm, and it was named after Peter Barr.

NOTES.

WE learn from the Times, with deep regret, of the death, on Sunday last, of Prof. Anton Dohrn, the founder and director of the Zoological Station at Naples.

SIR THOMAS ELLIOTT, Secretary to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, has been nominated by the French Government to be a Companion of the Order "du Mérite Agricole."

In view of the retirement, to which reference has been made in these columns already, of Prof. J. Cleland, F.R.S., from the chair of anatomy, and of Prof. Jack from the chair of mathematics, at the end of the present month, there has been set on foot, on the initiative of the business committee of the general council of the University of Glasgow, a movement for making appropriate recognition of their long and distinguished services. Circulars have been issued to the whole body of university graduates and to members of other learned bodies with which Profs. Cleland and Jack have been connected. In the circulars it is stated that the form of recognition will, to a large extent, depend on the amounts subscribed, but it is thought that it might fitly include the provision of some fund for

the advancement of anatomical and anthropological science in the case of Prof. Cleland, and of mathematical science in the case of Prof. Jack, and the presentation to the University of portraits or busts by an eminent artist. Representative committees have been formed to administer each fund, and the preliminary lists of subscriptions show that the movement has already met with a hearty response. Men of science and others desiring to take part in the recognition and to contribute to either fund are invited to communicate with the honorary secretary and treasurer, Mr. Archibald Craig, clerk of the University general council, 149 West George Street, Glasgow.

THE Antarctic vessel Nimrod, now moored in the Thames off the Temple Pier, was opened yesterday for the inspection of the public by the Lord Mayor of London.

SHOCKS of earthquake on the morning of September 22 are reported from the Bouches-du-Rhône, Rognes, Reggio

di Calabria, Messina, and Athens, but in no case does much damage appear to have been done.

IT is stated by the British Antarctic Expedition, 1910, that arrangements have been made for the purchase of the Terra Nova for the projected expedition of next year. The vessel, which is a whaler, was built in 1884. In 1903 she was purchased by the Admiralty as relief ship for the Discovery expedition. The year 1905 saw her in the service of the North Polar expedition, on a visit to Franz Josef Land. The size and strength of the ship make her a fitting receptacle for the extensive equipment which it is necessary she should carry for the full success of the plans of the expedition. After being duly inspected on behalf of the expedition in Newfoundland she will sail for England and, it is hoped, reach the Thames about the end of October or early in November. The officers and crew for the expedition have now been selected.

THE presidential address of Mr. W. Noble Twelvetrees will be delivered to the Civil and Mechanical Engineers' Society at Caxton Hall, Westminster, on Thursday, October 7.

ACCORDING to a Times correspondent a group of French, German, and Belgian patrons of aviation are offering a prize of 10,000l. to be awarded to the aviator who rises, with a fixed point as centre, to a height of 250 metres, flies a thousand metres from this altitude in a horizontal direction, and finally, returning, soars for a quarter of an hour at a height of 20 metres over the point of departure. An alternative feat is to make a flight from Brussels to Paris or from Brussels to Cologne, without a stop, at a speed of 60 kilometres an hour.

It is stated in Tropical Life that an International Cotton and Fibre Exhibition will be held in London in 1912, and that in conjunction with it there will be an important conference for the purpose of considering the cotton and fibre questions in their various aspects. A section of the exhibition will be devoted to other fibres, animal, vegetable, and mineral.

ACCORDING to a Reuter message from Rome, the Juba, in Benadir, has formed a new mouth. Some months ago a violent typhoon broke through the spit of land separating the sea from that part of the river which runs parallel with the coast, and the action of the sea and the current combined have since made a new mouth 450 yards in breadth and formed a long lagoon which, with little expense, can be converted into a serviceable harbour. The same message states that the Italian Resident, Captain Ferrari, has found that the Webbi Shebeli does

not, as was supposed, lose itself in marshes in the Ballis country, but is an affluent of the Juba, into which it runs some 120 miles from the latter's mouths.

THE Electrician states that a gift has been made to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers by the Western Electric Company of a valuable collection of patent specifications. The specifications range from May 30, 1871, to December, 1908, and number approximately 100,000.

AMONG the popular lectures shortly to be delivered at the Royal Victoria Hall, Waterloo Bridge Road, are the following:-on October 5, "Marconi's Transatlantic Wireless Telegraphy," by Prof. W. Lynd; on October 19, "The Great Earthquake in Jamaica," by Dr. Vaughan Cornish; on October 26, "New Guinea," by Mr. J. E. Liddiard.

THE annual exhibition of the Royal Photographic Society, at the New Gallery, Regent Street, will remain open until the end of October. It is divided into four

principal sections-pictorial, scientific and technical, professional work, and trade exhibits of apparatus and materials. The scientific student will find matters of interest in every section, including even the pictorial, for, as the society has reverted to its old custom of stating the method of production, the pictorial photographs may be looked upon, if so desired, as specimens of the various processes. The section specially devoted to scientific and technical subjects is this year of a wider interest than usual. The greater number of exhibits represent the character and habits of various living creatures, from the largest to the smallest, and in this department is included special collections of work by the Zoological Photographic Club and by a number of German naturalists, the latter having been collected by R. Voightländer, of Leipzig. The astronomical photographs include recent plates from Greenwich, Stonyhurst College, and the Heidelberg Observatory. Among those who show spectrum photographs we notice the names of Prof. Zeeman, Prof. H. Kayser, A. Fowler, and C. H. Fabry and H. Buisson. Dr. C. L. Leonard contributes Röntgen-ray photographs that show peristaltic waves in the stomach and intestines. Experiments on the resolving power and other properties of photographic plates are shown by C. E. K. Mees and E. K. Hunter. Photomicrography, telephotography, and balloon photography are well represented, and there are a few interesting exhibits that refer to the methods of process work. Of colour photography, although there are many specimens, the only progress indicated is in the direction of the perfecting of the newer plates, more particularly the Thames plate. The regular disposition of the three colours in this plate renders it specially adaptable to reproduction by different methods. We would point out that many photographs of great interest are mounted as lanternslides, and that these are shown on a stand by themselves, away from the general collection of scientific and technical exhibits.

RAINY, cool, and unsettled weather has prevailed throughout September, and although the rainfall in the aggregate has not generally been excessive, there have been few days without rain, except during the third week of the month. The total measurement of rain is in excess of the average in London by about 0-3 inch, and rain fell on nineteen days. The day temperatures have continued remarkably low for the time of year, and at the London reporting station of the Meteorological Office, in St. James's Park, the sheltered thermometer has not once touched 70°. At Greenwich there was only one day with 70° or above, the highest reading being 71°, on September 6. There has not been so cold a September since 1897, and as recently as 1907 there were fifteen days during the month with a

temperature of 70° or above. Our weather over the British Islands has been chiefly under the influence of cyclonic disturbances, which have arrived with considerable frequency from off the Atlantic.

IN the September number of the American Naturalist Dr. R. F. Scharff reviews the evidence in favour of an early Tertiary land-connection between North and South America. He believes in the existence during early Tertiary times of a strip of land connecting western North America with Chile, when Central America and northern South America were submerged. Such a connection, it is urged, is supported by many lines of evidence, and would serve to explain the occurrence of Eocene armadillos in North America and the affinity between the Canadian porcupine (Erethizon) and the Santa Crucian Stiromys.

In addition to their great abundance, the star-fishes of Alaska and British Columbia are remarkable, according to a paper by Prof. A. E. Verrill in the September issue of the American Naturalist, for the redundancy in the number of their rays, this being specially noticeable in the family Asteriidæ, the members of which, despite many exceptions, are generally five-rayed in other parts of the world. "Besides the species that normally have an increased number of rays, or vary indefinitely, there are others which have, more or less rarely, a smaller or larger number as monstrosities. . . . Various other monstrous variations occur somewhat frequently, such as forked rays, supernumerary rays arising from the dorsal surface, &c."

THE second part of the first volume of the Records of the Canterbury Museum (New Zealand) contains an account of the scientific results of a trawling expedition undertaken by the New Zealand Government in 1907. The expedition seems to have been organised entirely from the commercial point of view, and the facilities afforded for scientific investigation were by no means so great as they might have been. It is therefore not surprising that the scientific results are somewhat meagre. This is the more unfortunate, as we still know comparatively little about the marine biology of the waters around the New Zealand coast. The investigations, chiefly of local naturalists, have made us very fully acquainted with the terrestrial fauna of the Dominion, and much has been done in the way of shore-collecting; but systematic marine biological research is, as a rule, beyond the reach of private individuals, and it is here that an enlightened Government might be fairly expected to take an opportunity for encouraging the advancement of science.

PROTOZOOLOGY is very much in evidence in vol. iii., part iv., of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, which contains no fewer than five papers on this subject. Miss Muriel Robertson describes the lifecycle of a new trypanosome from Ceylon, of which the principal host is the soft tortoise, Emyda vittata, and the intermediate host a leech of the genus Glossiphonia. Mr. C. Clifford Dobell describes the processes of physiological degeneration and death in Entamoeba ranarum. Dr. McCarrison places on record his observations on the Amoeba in the intestines of persons suffering from goitre in Gilgit; Dr. Row describes the development of the parasite of oriental sore in cultures; and Prof. Minchin discusses the structure of Trypanosoma lewisi in relation to microscopical technique. Several of these papers are remarkable for the beauty of the coloured plates which accompany them, and the same is true of a short paper by Messrs. Muir and Kershaw describing, under the name Peripatus ceramensis, a new species of Peripatus from Ceram, the first to be recorded from the Moluccas. In the same

number Mr. Joseph Mangan describes the entry of zooxanthellæ into the ovum of Millepora, and gives some particulars concerning the medusæ.

THE report on forest administration in Southern Nigeria for 1907 contains an account of a tour through the west provinces, described by Mr. H. N. Thompson, the conservator of forests. Two fine forest tracts were explored at Ijaye and Ilesha, both of which are situated in the dry-zone vegetation. The first-named is called after an ancient town which was destroyed about sixty years ago, and since that time part of the forest has grown up. Here there were found to be mahogany trees with a girth measurement exceeding 10 feet, which implies a much more rapid rate of growth than is betokened by ring counts. The same conclusion is derived from the dimensions of trees planted in the botanical gardens, wherefore Mr. Thompson advances the opinion that probably the mahogany trees show three or four well-marked zones of growth each year, corresponding to the four definite

seasons.

THE reasons for deterioration that follow upon selffertilisation or inbreeding of the maize plant have been investigated by Dr. G. H. Shull, who puts forward in the publication of the American Breeders' Association (vols. iv. and v.) certain conclusions based on the results of experimental cultivation. Plants selected according to the number of rows of grain in the ear were allowed to selffertilise, when two strains became evident. For reasons which are given, it is considered that the individuals in a maize field are generally very complex hybrids, and that these strains are elementary species or biotypes, so that, according to the author's premises, self-fertilisation tends to isolate elementary forms, producing a homozygous condition, i.e. pure forms. Crosses between the two strains led to a distinct increase in the yield, whence the following method of propagation is suggested. Pure races of maize are to be obtained by self-fertilisation, and the crosses made between these pure races provide seed corn for the field crop.

BOTANICAL teachers making use of lantern-slides may be glad to know of a new series of slides produced by Messrs. F. E. Becker and Co., Hatton Wall, London, from original photomicrographic negatives prepared by Mr. C. W. Greaves. A first series of fifty slides is announced, of which several relate to sections of anomalous dicotyledonous stems, others to the anatomy of stem, leaf, and root of angiosperms and the pine; a few represent cryptogamic and fossil sections. The phanerogamic specimens good microscopic sections, and the section of a Fucus conexamined are clear and well defined, being taken from ceptacle is excellent in general contour and detail.

AN abstract of the report of the director of the Bombay Bacteriological Laboratory for 1908 appears in the British Medical Journal, from which we learn that the issue of anti-plague vaccine was little short of that of the preceding year, when the disease was severely and widely prevalent, the number of doses dispatched being 533,315 against 620,923. Experiments were carried out regarding the efficiency of rat and rat-flea destroyers, but they were not satisfactory or conclusive. The general bacteriological work was of a varied description. Special inquiry was made regarding an outbreak of malaria in the fort and dock area of Bombay; the investigation is still in progress. An outbreak of relapsing fever in the Kolaka district was also made the subject of special study. The laboratory rendered assistance and advice regarding questions relating to plague and other infective diseases, and courses of in

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