agreement with each other which the results show, and they take this as evidence that the movements of the rod are due to subjective and not to objective causes. These are precisely the opinions formed as a result of my own series of experiments; and it may still be assumed that no adequate evidence has been produced in favour of the existence of something acting outside the dowser which causes his twig or other indicator to move when it is over water.

In La Nature for May 10 (p. 379), M. Gustave Le Bon has published an article recording the success of certain diviners in discovering the metals contained in five envelopes (viz., aluminium, copper, silver, lead, and zinc); but, as he admits, the method of experiment was not satisfactory, since he thinks he may unintentionally have given signs of approval while the diviners consulted together as to what metals were contained in the envelopes, and since the method of procedure involved the displacement of the envelopes by the diviners, thus giving them an opportunity of forming an opinion based on the different weights, &c., of the metals. He also mentions that M. Coupaux, who performed similar experiments, only had one success out of five, but that the diviners objected to these experiments because the metals were enclosed in glass tubes, and, as they allege, the glass prevents their feeling the influence of the metals.

On the whole, M. Le Bon is of opinion that there is enough evidence to warrant further examination into the claims of diviners; he thinks, however, that the commission appointed by the Académie des Sciences to examine into the question so far as it relates to the discovering of springs ought to do more, and he asks that this commission may also undertake experiments similar to those which he has performed. My own experiments in this direction went to show that the experienced diviners with whom they were tried were not able to discover gold or silver by means of their rods; for though one diviner scored a remarkable success in a single instance, he was absolutely wrong in the other experiments of the same kind which he performed. Nevertheless, this single success (fortuitous as I believe) confirmed an intelligent friend who witnessed it in his belief that the powers of the diviners are real! J. WERTHEIMER.

DR. P. L. SCLATER, F.R.S.

ZOOLOGISTS throughout the world will join with their English brethren in lamenting the death on June 27-albeit at the advanced age of eighty-four of Dr. Phillip Lutley Sclater, F.R.S. The second son of the late Mr. W. L. Sclater, of Hoddington House, Hants, the deceased naturalist was born in 1829, and received his education first at Winchester and subsequently at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he graduated first class in mathematics, and subsequently became honorary fellow of his college. In 1855 he was

called to the Bar as a member of Lincoln's Inn, and in 1875 he acted as private secretary to his brother, the Hon. G. Sclater-Booth (afterwards Lord Basing), when President of the Local Government Board. So early as 1850 he had commenced to write on zoology. Soon after his call to the Bar he devoted himself mainly to natural history, and he was elected secretary to the Zoological Society of London in 1859, which important post he retained till 1902, when advancing years led to his voluntary resignation.

During the greater part of that prolonged period Dr. Sclater was the ruling spirit of the society, and it was to his organising capacity and untiring energy that the menagerie in Regent's Park attained the pre-eminent position it occupied, both as a zoological centre and a place of popular resort, at the time of his retirement. He was also editor of the society's numerous publications, to which he communicated an extraordinary number of valuable papers and memoirs; and it was during his term of office that the Proceedings became entitled to rank as one of the very foremost zoological journals in the world.

But the executive and scientific work connected with the Zoological Society by no means sufficed to absorb all the energies of its secretary, for in 1859 he became editor of the Ibis, a then newly started ornithological journal, and held that post until 1865, to resume it, in conjunction with the late Mr. Howard Saunders, in 1883, and to hold it, either alone or associated with others, throughout the rest of his working career. Dr. Sclater was also one of the founders of the British Ornithologists' Union, of which body he long occupied the presidential chair. Of even more importance, perhaps, was Dr. Sclater's share in the foundation and maintenance of the "Zoological Record," as without that wonderful work of reference zoology at the present day would be an absolute impossibility.

Dr. Sclater was also one of the pioneers-if not the actual founder of the modern science of geographical distribution; and it is to him that we owe such now familiar terms as "Palæarctic " and "Nearctic," which are excellent examples of the classic form of scientific nomenclature in which he delighted.

The prodigious amount of scientific work, more especially in ornithology, produced by Dr. Sclater may be inferred from the fact that a record of his career published some years ago contains entries of something like 1200 different papers and memoirs. From a popular point of view one of

the most attractive works with which he was con

nected was Wolf's "Zoological Sketches," while his monographs of various groups of South American birds are models of their kind.

For the greater part of his long life Sclater was a man of intense activity and energy, and only during the last few years did he show signs of failing health. Injuries received in a carriage accident a few weeks ago hastened the termination of a long life devoted to the advancement of zoological science. R. L.

NOTES.

THE window in Westminster Abbey in memory of Lord Kelvin will be unveiled at the 3 p.m. service of the Abbey on July 15.

We are informed that the following have been elected life honorary members of the Geological Society of South Africa :-Dr. J. S. Flett, F.R.S., assistant director, Geological Survey of Great Britain; Dr. A. Lacroix, professor of mineralogy, Natural History Museum, Paris; and Prof. E. Weinschenk, Alte Akademie, Munich, Bavaria.

THE death is reported, in his seventy-seventh year, of Mr. W. A. Conklin, director of the zoological department of the Central Park, New York, from 1865 to 1898. After the latter date he was engaged in importing wild animals into the United States. From 1878 to 1893 he edited The Journal of Comparative Medicine and Veterinary Archives.

IN the article on the Birmingham meeting of the British Association that appeared in NATURE on June 12 it was stated that an organised programme of the field work in connection with the Geological Section had been prepared by Dr. T. Groom, with the supervision of Prof. Lapworth. We now understand that this is not the case. The excursions in connection with the Geological Section have been organised by Prof. Lapworth, and not by Dr. Groom.

AN earthquake occurred in southern Italy shortly before 10 a.m. on June 28, strong enough to damage buildings in several villages of the province of Cosenza. No lives were lost, though more than twenty persons were injured by falling masonry at Rogiano Gravina. The shock was felt at Messina and Naples, which are respectively about ninety and 150 miles from the epicentre. The province of Cosenza includes one of the more pronounced seismic regions of Calabria, in which originated the severe earthquake of February 12, 1854, and, in part, the still more destructive shock of September 8, 1905.

It is proposed to commemorate in 1914 the seventh centenary of Roger Bacon's birth (1214) by erecting a statue (by Mr. Hope Pinker) in his honour in the Natural History Museum at Oxford, and by raising a fund for the publication of his works. An influential committee, with Sir Archibald Geikie, K.C.B., P.R.S., as chairman of the executive, has been formed to carry these purposes into effect. Roger Bacon was the champion of experimental science and the advocate of positive knowledge at a time when logic reigned supreme; and we are glad that his important place in the history of science is to be made more widely known. The committee proposes :-(1) To hold a Roger Bacon commemoration at Oxford in July, 1914, when the statue will be unveiled, and addresses will be given by distinguished scholars; (2) to issue a memorial volume of essays dealing with various aspects of Roger Bacon's work, written by specialists in the various subjects; (3) to arrange for the editing and printing of Roger Bacon's writings, so far as funds will allow. The first volume (now in the press) will contain his unpublished treatise and commentary

on the pseudo-Aristotelian "Secretum Secretorum edited by Mr. Robert Steele. The second volume al probably contain the medical treatises, an edition e which is being prepared by Dr. E. T. Withington and Mr. A. G. Little. The committee points out the other volumes should contain a complete edition of the Opus Tertium" (fragments of which were printed in 1859, 1909, and 1912); the "Quaestiones" on Ari.. totle's physics and metaphysics, and on the [ Plantis"; the "Communia Mathematicae," and pr haps the Computus Naturalium; while new ar critical editions of the "Opus Majus," of the fragmentary Opus Minus," and of the less importan "De Naturis Metallorum" and "Tractatus Trivr Verborum are desirable. A general committee which the Chancellor of the University of Oxford hiconsented to be hon. president) is being formed, cosisting both of collaborators in the editorial work ar of subscribers. Subscriptions in aid of the foregone objects should be sent to the secretary of the executiv committee, Colonel Hime, 20 West Park Road, Ker

THE Historical Medical Museum now open in Wigmore Street, Mr. H. S. Wellcome's magnificent cl lection, is one of the most interesting sights of Lon don. All ages and all countries have been ransacked to make it complete; we go from Babylon to her. and from the dawn of the art of healing to now Medicine, like man himself, is of lowly origin; have to keep reminding ourselves that evolution's creative wisdom, not blind force, alike in the one ca and in the other. On the threshold of the musum we are met by hideous idols, and all the ugliness witch-doctors and devil-dancers; and there, in the midst of all these savageries, is an exquisite model of the Wellcome Floating Tropical Research Laboratory and a long array of the latest and rarest germs under microscopes. We stand in the hall of statuary, and look past a most unspeakable "ancient Mexican de of healing" to Apollo and Esculapius; or we study the weaved-up follies of charms, amulets, and talmans, until we find it is an error of judgment-1 crucifix among them. The museum is a fine place to wonder and think in-so many hundreds of instruments now discarded and labelled and put under glass. so many appliances become curiosities; so many ways of healing deserted. Then comes the dismal though that a hundred years hence all our present apparatus will likewise be useless :

"It makes me mad, to see what men shall do

And we in our graves-"

Truly, one must take a pinch of philosophy, and : pinch of faith, to keep one's head in this museum. With these, it is possible to receive such a histor lesson as will not be forgotten for many years.

A STANDING Committee of the House of Commers on June 26 discussed a Bill to prohibit experiments upon dogs. The chief operative clause in the Fill proposes to enact that "from and after the passing of this Act it shall be unlawful to perform any exper ment of a nature causing or likely to cause pain or disease to any dog for any purpose whatsoever, eithe with or without anaesthetics, and no person or place shall be licensed for the purpose of performing ar

such experiments." Strenuous opposition was offered to the Bill on behalf of medical science. An amendment was carried postponing the coming into operation of the Act until January 1, 1914. Sir F. Banbury, who has charge of the Bill, agreed to consider the incorporation of an amendment to leave out from "anææsthetics" to the end of the clause and insert "except on such certificate being given as is mentioned in the Cruelty to Animals Act, 1876, that the object of the experiment will be necessarily frustrated unless it be performed on a dog, and that no other animal is available for such experiment." The effect of that would be to bring the dog within section 5 of the Cruelty to Animals Act, and it is in harmony with the majority report of the Royal Commission. The Committee is to resume the consideration of the Bill as we go to press.

YALE University proposes to hold a centenary celebration next November in commemoration of the geological work of James D. Dana. A series of lectures will be given which will be published later in a Dana memorial volume on problems of American geology. The lectures will be given on the Silliman Foundation, and the dates will be announced after the opening of the next academic year. We learn from Science that the lecturers and their respective subjects are as follows:-Introduction: The geology of James Dwight Dana, Prof. W. N. Rice, Wesleyan University. (1) Problems of the Canadian Shield: The Archeozoic and its problems, Prof. F. D. Adams, McGill University; the Proterozoic and its problems, Prof. A. P. Coleman, University of Toronto. Problems of the Cordilleras: The Cambrian and its problems, Dr. C. D. Walcott, Smithsonian Institution; the igneous geology and its problems, Prof. W. Lindgren, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the Tertiary structural evolution and its problems, Dr. F. L. Ransome, United States Geological Survey; the Tertiary sedimentary record and its problems, Dr. W. D. Matthew, American Museum of Natural History.

(2)

The National Geographic Magazine for April takes the form of an admirably illustrated monograph, describing the results of the Yale University Expedition to Peru in 1912, under the charge of Prof. H. Bingham. The most important result was the discovery of the great deserted city, Machu Pichu, on the Urubamba River, north-west of Cuzco. The national legends indicate that the original home of the Incas was at a place called Tampu Tocco, "the temporary abode with windows," which has now been identified with Machu Pichu, the principal temple of which contains three remarkable windows, through which the three Inca groups are said to have emigrated. The inaccessible position of the city rendered it possible for the Incas to conceal its existence from the Spaniards. The wonderful megalithic masonry constructed in the premetallic age, the strange temples in which the cult of the sun and auguries from sacred serpents seem to have been practised, the remarkable burial caves in which the corpses were interred in a crouched posture, the bronzes and pottery, are all described in Prof. Bingham's report. It constitutes a record of impor

tant archæological discoveries conducted in a most inaccessible region under extreme difficulties. The investigation of this district opens out a new chapter in the ancient history of Peru.

IN Bankfield Museum Notes, second series, No. 2, the keeper, Mr. H. Ling Roth, issues another of his useful monographs on primitive industries-"Ancient Greek and Egyptian Looms." After an investigation of the facts, supplemented by illustrations and comments derived from a wide survey of the evidence, he comes to the following conclusion. The ancient Egyptians had two forms of loom the earlier or horizontal form, still surviving in a modified form in Egypt and Seistan; second, the vertical, a later but not universally later form. In the Greek loom the type was upright, the warp threads being kept taut by weights, and similar to the form in central and northern Europe. It probably was provided with a heddle, but this is not certain: a spool was used; the weavers were women, and the weft was beaten upwards or away from the weaver. There seems to be no connection between the Greek and Egyptian types. But in form of looms used by the two peoples the Egyptians were considerably in advance of the Greeks. An interesting part of the monograph is the experiments made by modern skilled weavers to work these primitive machines.

THE introduction of the string galvanometer and its improvement by Prof. Einthoven, of Leyden, have furnished physicians with a new weapon in the exploration of the heart's activity. It is now possible by the use of this sensitive instrument to record photographically the electrical changes which accompany cardiac activity, and the variations these undergo in heart disease furnish the observer with absolutely sure signs of the character of the ailment. The older methods of observation (the stethoscope, &c.) will still remain in use, for, unfortunately, the outfit for obtaining the electro-cardiogram cannot be placed either in the waistcoat pocket or even in a top-hat. It demands a special laboratory and an expensive installation. Electro-cardiography will therefore still remain a method limited to large institutions or to a few specialists. We have received from the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Co., of Cambridge, an interesting catalogue of the apparatus they supply for the purpose, which contains instructions as to the way to use it. Specifications for complete outfits are given, but the cheapest is more than 200l.

THE current number of The Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science (vol. lix, part 1) bears striking testimony to the excellent work done by the Glasgow school of embryologists, under the leadership of Prof. Graham Kerr. Miss Monica Taylor contributes a very valuable account of the development of the remarkable South American eel-like fish Symbranchus marmoratus, with some beautiful illustrations. Nothing has hitherto been known of the development of these remarkable fishes, but abundant material was collected by Dr. Agar in the Gran Chaco in 1907, upon which Miss Taylor's work is based. There are no fins in the adult fish, but the larva has welldeveloped pectorals, which are used mainly as respira

tory organs and drop off bodily when the perfect branchial respiration is established. Miss Jane I. Robertson, from the same school, contributes a useful memoir on the development of the heart and vascular system of Lepidosiren paradoxa, which will be welcomed by comparative anatomists. The University of London is also to the fore in embryological research, as witnessed by a memoir on the reproductive cycle in the marsupial Dasyurus viverrinus, by Prof. J. P. Hill and Dr. C. H. O'Donoghue.

THE variations in the common fresh-water nerite

(Neritina fluviatilis), which are illustrated by a coloured plate, form the subject of a paper by Dr. R. Hilbert in the 34 Bericht Westpreuss. Bot.-Zool. Vereins. These variations, which are very marked, are associated not only with locality, but also with environment, which is likewise extremely variable; some of these molluscs living in water with strong springs, some in small, slow brooks, others in rapid streams or large rivers, and yet others in calcareous, brackish, and even thermal waters. These different stations and physical conditions constitute, in the author's opinion, the starting points of the numerous variations in form and colour so characteristic of the species.

AFTER a considerable, but unavoidable, delay, the concluding portion of the late Mr. J. E. Robson's "Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of Northumberland and Durham" has been published in the Natural History Transactions of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, vol. xv., part 2, this issue forming the completion of the old series. In an introduction to the minute moths of the group Tineina, which forms the subject of this part of the work, the author remarks that two or three species of that group which occur in the area under consideration are unknown elsewhere in the British Isles. "One insect, Acrolepia vetuletella, has not been recorded elsewhere than in the county of Durham, though I believe a solitary example was taken... at Richmond, in Yorkshire. Another, Lithocolletis insignitella, . . . has not been taken in England except between Hartlepool and Castle Eden, where it occurs in enormous numbers."

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THE Bulletin International of the Academy of Sciences of Bohemia (Česka Akademie Císaře Františka Josefa) for 1912 brings the progress of scientific work in Bohemia before wide circle that must remain ignorant of national language. The papers in this volume are in one case in French, and in all other cases in German, and the majority deal with mathematical or geological inquiries. B. Němec continues his studies on fungi, and L. Pračka provides two papers on variable stars. V. Rosický has made a complete examination of seventeen crystals of miargyrite (Ag2S.Sb,S,), resulting in the measurement of twentythree new forms from the Bohemian specimens alone. F. Slavík directs attention to the formation of aragonite at ordinary temperatures in mine-waters at Příbram. B. Ježek describes a new rhombic thallium mineral, orbaite, from Macedonia, based on the acid

HAS,S,, with the composition TIAS,SbS,. A. Hofmann and F. Slavík report on gold and on telluride ores in quartz-veins near the Bavarian border, where mining was carried on so far back as the thirteenth century R. Sokol has studied the terraces of the Elbe valley and J. Woldřich goes beyond Bohemia to the Ca pathians above Dobschau, where, in examining mous tain structure, he has found interesting traces of a flora that is probably of Devonian age.

VOL. xlvii. of the Nouveaux Mémoires de la Societe Helvétique des Sciences Naturelles is occupied by two important papers. E. Ganz writes on the strat graphy of the Middle Cretaceous of the northern Alp. of Switzerland, beginning with the "Schrattenkalk (Barrémian), and ending with the Cenomanian Seewerkalk." Many geologists will remember the fine cliff-sections of these series in the Santis area, and the contrast between the scenery presented by them and that on the margin of our Surrey Downs On p. 140 the author reminds us of the sandy character of the lower Albian and of the clays of the upper Albian in both the Alpine foothills and the south of England. He adopts "Gault" as a stratigraphica and not a lithological term, embracing the Albar. and the Gargasian series when these cannot be divided on a map. Since the latter includes the zones of the English Lower Greensand down to the base of the Sandgate Beds, and also, at the top, the Schloenbachia rostrata beds of the Upper Greensand this "Gault" is closely synonymous with the service able "Selbornian" of Jukes-Browne, and wit "Albian" as used by certain authors. The second memoir is a morphological study by C. Bartschi e "Das westschweizerische Mittelland," the lowlar stretching from the Lake of Geneva to that of Constance. Here the great extension of the Rhone glacier has left abundant traces. The remarks on drumlins and kames will especially interest British readers.

THE meteorological chart of the Indian Ocean for July, issued by the Meteorological Office, contains useful notes on the cyclonic storms of that region. It is pointed out that in this month the south-wes monsoon dominates the meteorological conditions ove the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea; intel gence received from the Indian Meteological De partment showed that towards the end of May the prevailing weather conditions in those districts were quieter than usual for the time of year. The track: laid down on the chart show that the storm centres move to the westward or north-westward across the north of the Bay of Bengal. In the Arabian Sea the monsoon at times attains a force of eight or nine :{ Beaufort's scale, or from thirty to forty-four miles an hour, but such cyclonic disturbances are generally f little importance. Cyclonic storms are said to b practically non-existent in July in the South Indian Ocean; details of their behaviour in that part during the cyclonic season, November to May (NATUS, October 31, 1912), are also referred to in the chart now under report.

In the issue of The Manila Times for May 2015 which has been sent to us, is published the report of

Father Jose Algue, head of the Weather Bureau of the Philippine Government, of the typhoon which lasted from May 4 to May 10, and caused great destruction over a large area. The first warning of this typhoon was given by the observatory of the Weather Bureau on May 4, and it was sent to the observatories of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, and to the secondary station of the eastern Visayas. Frequently during each of the succeeding days throughout which the typhoon raged Father Algue was able to keep in touch with important observing stations, and to give instructions as to the exhibition of appropriate signals and information as to the progress of events. The telegrams sent to Hong Kong and to the other observatories of the Far East gave an account of the Course of the typhoon within the archipelago; thus, or example, the telegram sent at 9.40 a.m. of May 6 read as follows: "The typhoon is at present close to meridian 122° E. and parallel 12° N., moving W.N.W.," while the message sent at 8.40 a.m. of May 7 said: "The typhoon is close to meridian 120° E. and parallel 13° N., moving W.N.W." While the cortex of the typhoon was crossing the islands of Simar and Leyte the area of hurricane winds was approximately fifty miles in diameter. Within this area both the winds and the sea were extraordinarily violent. The rapidity of the fall of the barometer was so great in the China Sea that there was a fall of 20 millimetres in one hour.

DR. L. W. AUSTIN, of the United States Naval Radiotelegraphic Laboratory, contributes, in the June. number of the Journal of the Washington Academy of Science, a short article to the discussion of the cause of the difference in strengths of day and night gnals. The data accumulated in his department during the last three years render it improbable that the difference is due to a decrease of absorption of the waves in the upper atmosphere after the withdrawal of the sun's rays. With arc oscillations it is repeatedly found that when the night signals are weak at the receiving station with the usual wave-length of 4100 metres, a change of the wave-length to 3950 metres strengthens them and vice versa. This, in the author's opinion, points to an explanation depending on the interference of waves travelling along near the ground, with waves which have been reflected from a surface forty or sixty miles up, at which the conductivity of the atmosphere changes with more or less suddenness. In the daytime this stratification is broken up by convection and by the ionisation produced by the sun's rays.

IN the Verhandlungen of the German Physical Society for May 30, Dr. E. Goldstein, of the physical laboratory of the Berlin Astronomical Observatory, gives a preliminary account of a new line spectrum belonging apparently to helium. It appears that Dr. Goldstein first observed the spectrum in 1907, and in the intervening years has obtained many specimens of purified helium from Prof. Dorn, Sir W. Ramsay, Drs. Heuse and Scheel, and others, and has convinced himself that the lines are due to the helium itself or to some other elementary gas, and not to any compound. The new spectrum is characterised

by the great number of close lines on each side of the yellow helium line. Prolonged cooling in liquid air has no effect on it, and up to a certain point increase of pressure of the gas increases its intensity with respect to the ordinary series spectrum. Dr. Goldstein regards the new spectrum as bearing the same relation to the series spectrum as the second spectrum of hydrogen bears to the series spectrum of that gas. A photograph of the spectrum with the scale of wavelengths is given, but the author proposes to publish his more accurate measurements in a subsequent paper.

46

WE have received from the Norton Company, of Worcester, Massachusetts, pamphlets describing articles for laboratory use made with the material alundum." This substance is stated to be practically pure fused alumina, prepared from bauxite by means of the electric furnace. Its high melting point (2050° C.) renders it of value as a refractory agent in high-temperature work, and the manufacturers claim that this property, together with good thermal conductivity, makes alundum very efficient— for example, as a material for cores and muffles in electric furnaces. Crucibles, tubes, combustion boats, and similar apparatus are also described. For fashioning into articles the alundum is ground to various degrees of fineness and mixed with what are rather vaguely referred to as "materials of a ceramic nature," the mixture being subsequently fired. The finished products are therefore more or less porous. Within limits, the porosity can be varied to allow of the substance being used in making such articles as filtering tubes, filter plates, and thimbles for fat extraction. Sometimes the absorbent nature of the material would be a drawback, but for many purposes alundum products may prove useful in the laboratory.

IN The Biochemical Bulletin (vol. ii., No. 6, p. 237) Mr. Vernon Krieble, in a paper on the synthetic action of emulsin, states that emulsin, freshly extracted from sweet almonds, when allowed to act for three and a half hours on amygdalin, gives rise to lævo-mandelonitrile, whereas the emulsin from bitter almonds gives a dextro-mandelonitrile. No experimental details are given in the brief note quoted; these will be published later.

WE have received a copy of a lecture recently delivered before the Institute of Chemistry by Mr. C. A. Hill, on the function and scope of the chemist in a pharmaceutical works. Mr. Hill gives a useful account of the nature of the manufacturing operations involved in the preparation of pharmaceutical chemicals and drugs, and illustrates his descriptions by means of photographs of actual plant; the character of the analytical work in such an establishment is described in general terms, and the possibilities of investigation, either in connection with the improvement of working processes or of a more purely scientific character, are briefly indicated.

PROF. WALDEN has contributed to the June issue of the Bulletin of the St. Petersburg Academy some further data in reference to the relationship between