or the deep lanes at Torquay, to study the habits of this interesting creature. Among the trap-door spiders mostly observed by Mr. Moggridge, he found that the débris of their food chiefly consisted of the horny coats of ants; the nests being sometimes plunged into the midst of the colony of ants, and most carefully concealed, with an opening only at the top; "this perfect concealment," he says, being of essential importance to the spiders' success in life, for if they once alarmed the whole colony of ants, and let them know the exact whereabouts of their lurking place, they would soon learn to avoid it," even perhaps to attack and destroy their enemy. In conclusion, it only remains to say that the illustrations are both numerous and excellent, and that there are in this little work good and useful specific descriptions of the spiders, by the Rev. O. Pickard-Cambridge. We can thoroughly recommend the book to our readers. ELLEN FRANCES LUBBOCK. Horae Hellenicae: Essays and Discussions on some Important Points of Greek Philology and Antiquity. By Professor Blackie. (London: Macmillan & Co., 1874.) THE eleven essays reprinted in this volume might, perhaps, conveniently be classified under three heads. I. Philosophy and History-1. "On the Theology of Homer;" 2. "On the Scientific Interpretation of Popular Myths with special reference to Greek Mythology;" 3. "On the Sophists of the Fifth Century B.C.;" 4. "On the PreSocratic Philosophy;" 5. "On the Spartan Constitution and the Agrarian Laws of Lycurgus.' II. Literary Criticism:-1. "On the 'Prometheus Bound' of Aeschylus;" 2. "On the Popular Poetry of Modern Greece;" 3. "Remarks on English Hexameters." III. Philology and Grammar:-1. "On the Philological Genius and Character of the Neo-Hellenic Dialect of the Greek Tongue;" 2. "On Onomatopoeia in Language; 3. “On the Place and Power of Accent in Language." In treating, within narrow limits, a collection of papers at once so miscellaneous and severally so elaborate, we can at most hope to do two things-to indicate the distinctive marks of the volume as a whole, and to draw attention to a few topics of which the treatment appears especially worthy of notice. Now, the great characteristic of Professor Blackie as a scholar, the characteristic which sets its impress on this volume as on everything else that he has written, is that for him the language and the literature of ancient Greece are living. His study of them has not been arrested by any arbitrary or conventional limit of classicism, but has been carried on, and has been applied with the same eager ness, to the language and to the thought of modern Greece, while it has been illustrated, with all the brightness of a mind ingenious to a fault, from the resources of a remark ably wide and philosophical culture. Those Dialogues in classical Greek by which Professor Blackie has striven to make the language more present, more real to students of to-day, perfectly express the distinctive bent of his genius as a scholar; and, though there may be room for doubting whether the ordinary sympathy with Sophocles will be quickened by knowing that, if a Periclean Greek had meant "Let the clergyman say grace," he might have said rò peλav popov evλoyɛirw, yet, on the whole, this essential vivacity, this spirited resolve that his chosen study shall be living and not dead, which is Professor Blackie's great characteristic, is admirable, and in England is precious. Whatever in Professor Blackie's style occasionally offends against the sense of just measure, is due to this exuberance of vitality; and is, properly speaking, less grotesque than dionysiac. If, after the example of the Dialogues just mentioned, it is lawful to conjecture what Pericles would have said of Professor Blackie in such instances, it seems conceivable that Pericles might have tempered praise and remonstrance in fit proportions by saying, ó ȧvip reavIEVETAL. Perhaps of all these essays one of the | ablest, the most complete, and the most suggestive is that on the philological character of the Modern Greek language and its relation to Old Greek (pp. 111-166). The origin and development of the NeoHellenic dialect is traced from the twelfth century-where two short poems, addressed by a Byzantine monk to the Emperor Manuel in 1143, already attest a popular language of the illiterate masses existing side by side with the traditional literary and ecclesiastical idiom-down to the time when the learning and patriotism of Adamantine Koraes, stimulated by the influences of the French Revolution, finally established this popular language as a definite and substantive type. But at the outset the question arises-Can this Neo-Hellenic language be properly called a dialect of the language in which Plato wrote ? Professor Blackie's statement of the difference between a new language and a new dialect is at least practically adequate "Whenever the old materials of a language are so modified as that only a very few words remain in their original form, and that more accidentally than systematically, and when the obscurity arising from this source is increased by the admixture, in larger or smaller quantity, of foreign materials, in this case, as in the case of Spanish and Italian, a new language has been created. But whenever the changes induced on the old materials are comparatively slight, and more sporadic than penetrating and pervading in their character, with only a very spare admixture of foreign materials, in this case we shall have only a new dialect- not a new language." As the standard of Modern Greek, for the purposes of a philological investigation, Professor Blackie has sought a book written for general circulation before the process of purification and restoration instituted by Koraes had removed some marks of origin and growth; and his choice has fallen on a translation of the Arabian Nights into Modern Greek, published at Venice in 1792. After some useful remarks on the necessity of distinguishing corruption from development a language is corrupted when it forsakes its natural analogies, as in padaire for pavoáre, not when it puts forth new forms agreeable to them, as raxóc and Spwuepóc by the side of raxúc and Bowuwons-Professor Blackie enters on a detailed comparison of modern with ancient Greek. The results of his analysis might be arranged under the two heads of word-lore and syntax. I. Under the first we have :-(1) Change and extension in the usage of par. ticular words: e.g., onków, "to weigh," now means "to raise." The whole list of examples is very interesting. (2) Growth of new terminations to old roots: e.g., apxiw, dakpów. (3) Growth of new compound verbs: e.g., vxonоvéw, "to sympathise." (4) Curtailment of words; and this in seven principal cases: (i.) suppression of a short initial vowel, as Aiyos for oλiyos, or of an unaccented initial diphthong, as μarów for aiμarów, dév for ovcer, or a whole initial syllable, as dúokaλoç for dichokados: (ii) δάσκαλος διδάσκαλος: suppression of a final v, as raλó for kadór, or of the final -ov of diminutives, as maidi for raidior: (iii.) suppression of both initial and final syllables, as μári for ouμáriov: (iv.) curtailments of the verb, as βλάψα for ἔβλαψα, γραμμένος for γεγραμμένος, ἐλευθερωθῆ for XevớεрwOйraι, yрápe for ypaper: (v.) ab. sorption of the preposition into the definite article, as, for eis Thy móder, orηy móðir, Dorice σravóλv-whence Stamboul: (vi.) syncope or synizesis, as onion for omittie, außáw for ovμßißálw: (vii.) crasis, as va for ira eloai, TúpXeraι for Orov EPXETAL. (5) εἶσαι, πώρχεται ὅπου ἔρχεται. Regular substitution of the diminutive for the simple word; as Toráμμɩ (Tоráμior), Yeportáki (yeportákior), &c.-a tendency already manifest in the classical language e.g. Onpiov, mediov: cf. oculus. (6) Lengthening of words, (i.) by the addition of a letter or syllable, either initial ("prosthetic") or final ("paragogic "); e.g. Tokion for kid, Tóres for TOTE; (ii.) by the insertion of y, as ȧyoupos for åwpoc: (iii.) in verbs, by the insertion of in the pres. indic., as pépre for pépw, or the addition of ka to the 1st aor. pass., as typáq0nka for ¿ypáp0nr. (7) Tend ency to abolish anomalies, and to return to the natural analogies of the language; e.g., ἐφέρθην as lst aor. pass. of φέρω a tendency seen most strongly in the abolition of verbs in μ-thus didw for didwμi, &c. II. Under the second head-Syntax-we have: (1) Abridgment of the verbal system, by (i.) loss of the optative, of which the work is done by the conjunctive: (ii.) loss of the infinitive, leading to constructions such as dia ro να πραχθῶσι ταῦτα for πραχθῆναι ταῦτα, οἱ which Professor Blackie excuses the clumsiness by our on account of the fact that," and the Latin propterea quod: (iii.) loss of the future, which is formed with the help of Béλw or Há: (iv.) loss of the pluperf., which is formed with exw. (2) Disappearance of the dative case: (3) Frequent substitution for the relative os of ó óñvios (il quale). (4) Confusion of wav or car with the simple c, "as." (5) Formation of new prepositions or adverbs, as ovμuá, “near," rà ioia=avrika, &c. As to Modern Greek pronunciation, Professor Blackie observes that the classical accent usually keeps its place, though quantity is usually ignored and the vocalisation is corrupted by itacism, especially in regard to n and v. Lord Strangford said of Modern Greek that it would be easy to show two Ionisms for one Aeolism or Dorism. Professor Blackie is of a dif ferent opinion-holding that the character of the modern language is, on the whole, Aeolo-Doric. As Doric marks, he points to the frequent broad a (e.g., Enrą for Znrei, ζητᾷ 903araι for poẞeirai), and to the formation of futures in from a present in 4, not oo, e.g., rázw, not ráoow; again, the future of rpoμa becomes тpoμážw, &c. As an Aeolic mark, he instances the accus. plur. of 1st decl. in at, not a, as Μούσαις for Μούσας. Grotians and pre-Grotians are no longer the ultimate elements of opinion about the Sophists; "reactions" and subtle counterreactions have given the controversy a sort of new life lately. Professor Blackie adheres, on the whole, to the pre-Grotian view as set forth by Brucker and Gillies. We wish that we had space to discuss his essay in detail; as it is, we must be content to observe that he seems to us somewhat unduly to extenuate Hegel's appreciation (p. 204) of what was good in the Sophists' work; that the severest things in the passage from the κατὰ σοφιστῶν, quoted at p. 210, are meant, as is clear from other places in Isocrates, for the Socratics; and that, in the Journal of Philology, No. 8 (1872), he will find a reassertion of Grote's view by Mr. H. Sidgwick, in which the utter vagueness of the name of "sophist is deduced from the reciprocal usage of the word by those whom we call " sophists and those whom we call " philosophers." Isocrates is one type of "sophist" for Plato, and Plato is one type of sophist for Iso crates. pert in heroic measures? The solution is Selections from a volume of such various of SCIENCE NOTES. PHYSIOLOGY. THE Journal of Anatomy and Physiology for November 1874 is perhaps overweighted with purely anatomical matter. The longest paper is one by Professor Struthers on "Variations in the Vertebrae and Ribs in Man;" in connexion with the same subject, Dr. Goodhart describes three cases of malformation of the spinal column. Professor Watson continues his contributions to the anatomy of the Indian elephant. Mr. J. C. Galton furnishes a note on the Epitrochleo-anconeus monograph on this subject. He regards this musmuscle, by way of supplement to Wenzel Gruber's cular anomaly in man as a "functionally useless heirloom, which has descended to us from very reThe essay "On the Place and Power of mote ancestors; " for, very constantly found in the Accent in Language" is important, and the Edentata, and present in both genera of Monosubject is one on which the essayist speaks tremes, it becomes gradually less frequent as we with the double authority of learning and ascend the Mammalian scale, and disappears altoof experiment. The substance of seventy-tem-in the anthropoid apes. Dr. Ransome pubgether as a normal constituent of the muscular sysfour pages may perhaps be briefly given lishes a series of careful measurements, showing the thus:-The four affections of articulated variations in position of the heart's impulse detersound are (1) volume, (2) stress, (3) pitch, mined by changes of posture. Perhaps the most read(4) quantity-i.e., duration in time. Accent able paper is one by the Dean of Clonfert, who must always depend on (2) or (3), or both; handles the well-worn topic of correlation between it has nothing to do with (1) and (4). cerebral development and reasoning power in mamGreek accent, says Professor Blackie, demals in a somewhat novel way. He distinguishes pends on both (2) and (3)." It does not mean three principal stages in the progressive evolution elevation of the voice merely, but also, and of the reasoning faculty: the first, exemplified in roat the same time, that greater stretch or dents, is the power of distinctly conceiving any particular act on which the animal may be engaged, tension of the voice which produces the em- coupled with inability to realise simultaneously phatic syllable of a word " (p. 345): i.e., it the position of that act in the chain of steps means pitch plus stress. The view of Mr. leading to a desired end; the second, as shown Munro and of Mr. W. G. Clark, whom Pro- by the dog and other carnivora, includes the fessor Blackie controverts, is that the classi- power of thinking of a particular act with cal Greek accent meant pitch without stress; purpose as part of a series leading up to a that, in classical verse, metre was determined given object; the third, manifested by the higher by quantity alone; but that, by some proapes, is the power of thinking a fact as a case cess, which cannot now be explained, the lieves to stand in an intimate relation to the deof a general principle. These three stages he beclassical pitch-accent became in later times, velopment of the three cerebral lobes: the anterior a stress-accent. One principal question is, lobe serving to "think single objects of sense; how was accent reconciled with quantity in the middle lobe to "think such objects with a reciting Greek verse? The believers in the sense of a succession of them and as part of that pitch-accent are content to say that we do succession; while the posterior lobe, which not exactly know, and that, if we did, we makes its first appearance in the monkey tribe, has for its main function "the act of thinking a probably could not reproduce the effect. Professor Blackie offers this definite soluco-existence or succession of objects as a case of a general principle." The very ingenuity of this tion:-There are two sorts of accent; the hypothesis makes it seem rather premature. The accent of spoken language, and the accent dearth of experimental data concerning the mental (or rhythmical beat) of music. Greek processes of even our domestic animals is very poetry, made to be sung, was governed singular; our knowledge consisting mainly of anecprimarily by quantity, but had also its dotes, to judge of whose relative credibility deaccent, this accent being, however, the mands an uncommon refinement of the critical sense. The number concludes with the usual musical, not the colloquial, accent. "Here, therefore," says Professor Blackie, copious and well-arranged Reports on the Pro66 'the Gordian knot is untied." Shall we gress of Anatomy and Physiology. par be doned if we venture to think that the Gordian knot has rather been treated as it is said to have been treated by an earlier ex nagel (Virchow's Archiv, lxii. 2) continues his in rabbits. Finding the method he had previously adopted-that of destroying limited areas of brain-matter by injecting minute quantities of chromic acid-unsuitable for his present object, he had recourse to mechanical destruction of the tissue of the thalami. This was effected very completely in some instances, without causing damage to any of the neighbouring parts. The results of the total destruction of one or both optic thalami were, in the main, negative. In opposition to statements made by some of the older observers, Nothnagel found no sign of motor paralysis or of cutaneous anaesthesia. The absence of motorial disturbance is from direct electrical stimulation of the thalami. in agreement with the results obtained by Ferrier Nothnagel accordingly concludes that neither the channels along which motor impulses are conveyed from the hemispheres, nor those along which sensory impressions travel from the periphery to the seat of consciousness, traverse the organs in question. One curious phenomenon, however, was exhibited by some of the animals subjected to experimenta phenomenon which had previously been observed to follow injury of a particular spot in the cortex. animal made no attempt to withdraw it from its When the forepaw was stretched out, the constrained position, though fully able to do so. When the lesion was bilateral this peculiarity was presented by both paws; when one-sided, only by the paw opposite to the injured thalamus. The explanation suggested by the author is that the animal retains only a very inadequate idea of the position of the extended paw, owing to impairment of one of the faculties usually grouped under the head of "muscular sense." This would lend some support to the hypothesis of Meynert, based on purely anatomical grounds, that the optic thalamus serves to discharge combined muscular movements in answer to stimuli conveyed from the sensory surfaces of the periphery, without such combined movements are transmitted from the intervention of consciousness. Impressions of the thalami to the grey matter of the hemispheres, for the subsequent volitional reproduction of such where they are stored up and employed as material movements. Further researches by Hitzig on the convolutions will be found by those interested in the subject in Reichert and Dubois-Reymond's Archiv, No. 4, for 1874. An abstract of them is furnished by Ferrier in the Medical Record for January 6. Picard (Comptes Rendus, Nov. 30, 1874) conProportionate Amount of Iron in the Blood.tributes the results of an enquiry conducted under the auspices of Cl. Bernard. He finds that the amount of iron in defibrinated dog's blood may vary considerably (092 per cent. in a young, well-nourished animal; 041 in one that had been weakened by previous loss of blood). But on comparing the amount of iron contained in 100 cubic centimètres of blood with the amount blood, previously saturated, may be made to yield of oxygen which a similar quantity of the same in vacuo, he finds the ratio between them to be constant and equal to 2.3. The percentage of iron in the blood may thus be an index to its "respiratory capacity." He goes on to enquire whether a reserve fund of iron is contained in any of the viscera, and finds that the spleen contains upwards of 2 per cent. The liver stands next to the spleen in this respect; but it never contains a greater proportion than the blood. Effect of Hybernation on the Composition of Organs in the Marmot.-A series of analyses on this subject are furnished by Aeby (Archiv für experimentelle Path. und Pharmakologie, vol. iii. part 2). Much water is lost by the blood and muscular tissue, the former yielding up a larger proportion than the latter; this is accounted for by the urinary secretion and exhalation from the lungs and skin persisting throughout the winter sleep. The brain and spleen, however, retain death from privation of liquids. The mineral contheir normal amount of water; just as they do in stituents of the blood and muscular tissue are much reduced; while they undergo a positive increase in the liver, spleen, and brain. An abundant formation of glycogen takes place in the first of these organs. Influence of Diet on the Composition of the Bones. A fresh set of observations on this interesting subject is contributed by Weiske (Zeitschrift für Biologie, Bd. x. Heft. 4). He has already shown that by depriving even growing animals of their due supply of lime and phosphoric acid, no change is wrought in the chemical composition of their bones. He now brings forward evidence to show that if lime be withdrawn as completely as possible from the food, no further increase of bone-tissue takes place; that, on the contrary, the skeleton wastes just as in death from general inanition. An increase or diminution of any one of the mineral constituents of bone in the diet of an animal does not seem to produce any corresponding variation in the composition of its osseous tissue. Lastly, it is impossible to substitute some unusual element (magnesium, strontium) for lime in the bones, by introducing it in the food, either with or without a proportionate abstraction of the ordinary mineral constituents from the animal's diet. (This is in striking opposition to the results arrived at by Papillon.) Action of certain Biliary Derivatives on the Animal Economy.-Feltz and Ritter had previously ascertained (Comptes Rendus, July 13, 1874) that the introduction of large doses of the taurocholate or glycocholate of soda into the circulation, caused speedy death with epileptiform convulsions. They now (ibid., December 14, 1874) investigate the action of the sodic salts of cholalic and choloidic acid, that of dyslysin, glycocoll and taurin, in a similar manner. These substances are found to be devoid of active properties. Accordingly, they conclude that the toxic action of the salts of the bile-acids cannot be explained by their undergoing dissociation in the body. The injection of the pigmentary principles of the bile produced no very marked effect; cholesterin gave rise to accidents of an embolic order only. ASTRONOMY. Shadows of Jupiter's Satellites.-During the last four years Mr. Burton has frequently observed that the shadows of Jupiter's satellites projected on the disc of the planet during transit were elliptical, and that this was, as a rule, the case only when Jupiter was near quadrature, and the shadow therefore seen obliquely. Mr. Burton's explanation of the phenomenon is that the shadow falls on cumulus clouds, which give rise to the markings on Jupiter's disc, these clouds being dark and therefore invisible wherever the shadow falls, but in full sunshine scattering the light in all directions. The shadow will thus present exactly the same appearance as a cylindrical hole which sends hardly exceeding the discordance between the several observations. Considering that a single second of arc corresponds to the motion of Venus in twenty-five seconds of time, this result is extremely gratifying, and tends to increase our confidence in the value for the sun's distance which M. Le Verrier has deduced indirectly from his Tables of Venus. The error of the tables formerly in use was no less than fifteen minutes for the time of egress at Alexandria. Spectrum of Coggia's Comet.-Dr Vogel, in the Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 2018, discusses his own and other spectroscopic observations of Coggia's comet, his object being to determine the positions of the brightest parts as well as of the edges of the three bands seen. The zero used for his scale was the middle point between two of the magnesium lines (b, and b), and every precaution was taken to avoid any disturbance of the spectroscope; but the method seems hardly so satisfactory as that of direct comparison with the carbon spectrum seen at the same time, and side by side with that of the comet. While admitting that the three bands in the spectra of different comets have their edges on the red in the same positions in the spectrum, Dr. Vogel considers that the place of maximum brightness in each band varies, which may, in his opinion, arise from the different conditions of pressure and temperature of the gas (whether a compound of carbon or not) of which comets appear to be composed. At the same time Dr. Vogel of the bands of dioxide of carbon, with which the remarks that the positions of the brightest points comet was directly compared at Greenwich, do latter he considers more closely to resemble the not agree with those of the hydrocarbons, which tirely from that of English spectroscopists who spectra of comets, a conclusion which differs enhave made the carbon spectrum their special study. At the same time it is quite possible that Dr. Vogel was using dioxide of carbon under different conditions, and in any case a direct comparison of two spectra must have more value than any scale readings, however carefully made. The Velocity of Light.-A new determination of the velocity of light has been made by M. Cornu, under the auspices of the French Academy of Sciences, on the plan devised by M. Fizeau, the time taken by light to travel twice over the distance between the Paris Observatory and the tower of Montlhéry, twenty-three kilomètres distant, being determined. The light of a Drummond lime-light, long, was thrown in the direction of Montlhéry, after passing through a telescope nearly nine mètres and reflected back from that place by a colpointed in the direction of the light, and having a limator (or telescope without an eye-piece) plane reflector at its focus, the returning beam being viewed by the same telescope through which it first passed. At the focus of this telescope a toothed wheel can be made to rotate very rapidly (1,600 times a second), and between the teeth of this wheel the light passes out, but on its return the wheel has turned a little, and the observation consists in noting at what rate the wheel is turn when the returning light is cut off by the interposition of a tooth in place of the space between two teeth. When this is the case the wheel must have turned through half a tooth, one and a half teeth, two and a half, or some similar number, in the interval taken by light to go and return, so that from the no light to the eye, but allows light from the Accuracy of the Tables of Venus.-Mr. Hind has compared the observations of the Transit of Venus made in Egypt with the predicted times deduced from Le Verrier's tables, and has found an apparent error of only a few seconds of time, number of teeth and the rate of rotation this inof 300,400 kilomètres a second, a result which is terval is determined. M. Cornu finds a velocity probably true to one-thousandth part. The distance of the sun indirectly follows in two ways from this result: (1) from eclipses of Jupiter's satellites which happen earlier when the earth is nearest to Jupiter than when she is farthest off, light having in the latter case to traverse the additional space of the earth's orbit, which is found by observations of these eclipses to make a difference of nearly sixteen minutes, so that with the velocity of light just found, the sun's parallax comes out 8"-88; (2) the motion of the earth in her orbit causes an apparent displacement in the positions of stars, known as aberration, which is equal to the earth's velocity divided by the velocity of light; the earth's velocity in her orbit being found in this way from the observed displacement and the velocity of light; the size of the orbit described and the sun's distance follow at once from the length of the year; the sun's parallax is thus found to be 888 or 880 according as Bradley's or Struve's value of aberration is taken. From a comparison of observations of Venus with theory, Le Verrier deduced a value 8"-86, and the observations of the parallax of Mars in 1862 gave 8"'84. Melbourne Observatory.-M. Ellery's reports for 1873 and 1874 on the work done at the Melbourne Observatory have been published. A large number of meridian observations have been made, though the zone work has not been resumed, and some excellent photographs of the Moon have been taken with the great Melbourne reflector of four feet aperture. The work for which this fine instrument was specially ordered has not progressed very rapidly, only two nebulae having been examined on twenty-seven nights in the course of thirteen months, and the Board of Visitors specially recommend that no consideration whatever be allowed to interfere with the important work of scrutinising the nebulae. At present visitors are admitted to the Observatory in the evening, and this causes great interruption, so that the adoption of the rule, rigorously carried out in this country wherever real work is done, of excluding all visitors while observations are being made, seems imperative. Mr. Ellery has made extensive prehaving been equipped, and his observations of parations for the Transit of Venus, three stations results will be of great value in consequence of accelerated egress for comparison with the Egyptian the failure of all the New Zealand parties to taken, and double-image measures of cusps made. observe this phase. Photographs have also been Orbit of Cancri.—The remarkable triple star Cancri has been observed assiduously since 126 by W. Struve and his son Otto Struve, who has now reduced all the observations and determined the orbits of the three stars. The system is com posed of a close pair of stars about i" apart, with a third star 55 off, and the apparent path of one of the close pair about the other is an eccentric circle (the perspective view of the ellipse which is really described), with a period of sixty-two years. This is on the supposition that the attraction of the third star may be neglected on the average of all the observations, the problem of determining the motion of three mutually attracting bodies being beyond the reach of our present analysis. The path of the third star seems very remarkable. consisting of a series of loops, each described in about twenty years, and M. O. Struve finds that its motion may be satisfactorily represented by supposing the third star to describe a small circle of 03 radius in twenty years, the centre of this circle being carried uniformly round the other two stars, so that the path of the third star would be an epicycle, which might result from the attraction of a dark body in its immediate neighbourhood. Planetary Tables.--In presenting to the French Academy his theory of Neptune, M. Le Verrier gives a general review of the work he has carried out without intermission for the last thirty-five years, forming a complete theory of the eight principal planets, with tables of their motions far exceeding in accuracy anything yet produced. The comparison of theory with observation led M Le Verrier to conclude that there must be some unknown mass attracting Mercury, and probably placed between that planet and the Sun; but the existence of any such planet has not been established by observation, though it is quite conceivable that the attracting mass may consist of a large number of asteroids too minute to be individually perceived. In the case of Mars, a similar discrepancy between theory and observation led to a result of the same kind, but the attracting mass required was found by increasing the Earth's mass by an eighth part, which involved a decrease in the received value of the Sun's distance of one twenty-fifth part, and the same conclusion followed from the discussion of the motions of Venus and the Earth, agreeing remarkbly with the value of the Sun's parallax deduced rom the velocity of light, from the measures of Mars made in 1862, and from the re-discussion of he transit of Venus in 1769. Der Naturforscher quotes, from a paper of Herr P. Ascherson in the Botanische Zeitung, some remarks on the plants of the Libyan Desert observed n Rohlfs' expedition. The greater part show their truggle with local conditions through their halflobular form, and either a minimum or a suppression of leaf surface. The leaves are often educed to fleshy scales, or overgrown with a proection of thick hair. An armature of thorns and rickles is very common; even in the usually armless family of grasses the collector is likely o be wounded by the sharp points of Aristidia ungens and Vilfa spicata. Most of the desert lants are destitute of the pleasant hue of green; nly Schouwia Schimperi and Scopolia mutica deorate themselves with beautiful broad leaves of hat colour. These plants also differ from the ajority in their bright purple and dark violet Owers. An inconspicuous inflorescence adapted wind-blown dust is most common. The seeds re mostly small, numerous, and frequently furnished with feathers or wings, which give them a chance of eaching a spot where they can develope. Nearly Il possess the property of working up through he sand as it threatens to overwhelm them. The marisk especially exhibits this property, and ten reaches a height of from 3 to 5 mètres in the nd-hills. The group of stemless palms are exptions to this rule. Their thick leaves keep the nd back, and they are frequently found at the ottom of sand-hollows. The greater part of the ild plants growing in the oases appear dependent pon the cultivation of those spots, and would Don perish if it were abandoned. Most of them eem wanderers from the Mediterranean. PLANTS of the Mallow family have long been nown to yield useful fibres as well as mucilage, nd we learn from Comptes Rendus that MM. ouju frères have devised a mechanical process f treating the stems of Gombo (Abelmoschus, or [ibiscus, esculentus) so as to afford a pulp which n be converted into good paper-equal, so it is id by M. Landrin, to the best made from rags. he plant grows abundantly in Syria and Egypt, d is cultivated for its edible fruits. The MM. Duju previously patented methods of using the re for cordage and woven fabrics. Gombo iste, sometimes used in medicine, is made from a immy and mucilaginous substance, extracted om the plant by water, which the French have med gombine. An analysis of gombo gives :Water Gombine Cellulose. Resin Mineral matters 13.82 60.75 100.0 THE action of electro-magnets on the spectra of rtain gases forms the subject of a communican to the French Academy by M. J. Chautard. Geissler tube with a straight constricted portion placed between the poles of a magnet, at a short tance from the slit of a spectroscope, and a crometer is arranged, so adjusted to the aunhofer lines as to allow the wave lengths of › different colours to be read off with facility. second spectrum of the gas employed, in a tube affected by the magnet, is also brought into field for comparison. Hydrogen, chlorine, bromine, iodine, oxygen, sulphur, selenium, and inscription on the coin (Tuparvovvroç 'Hpáov Záka THE forms assumed by micro-fungi are so various, and many points in the history of their development so obscure, that no one acquainted with them would be surprised at fresh discoveries proving that almost any number of so-called species are only varieties, differentiated by special conditions of growth. M. Duval claims to have proved that special ferments, lactic, benzoic, and uric. can be obtained from the alcoholic ferment, yeast, sown in appropriate substances. He maintains the doctrine of the mutability of microscopic germs, and, while admitting that M. Pasteur is right in affirming that no organism arises except from a pre-existent germ, he supports his former master, F. A. Pouchet, in declaring that the atmospheric germs are not actual ferments, but capable of becoming such, or of assuming other forms, according to the nature of the medium in which they develop. He refers to a paper in the Journal de l'Anatomie et Physiologie for detailed information. He regards "the functional mobility of the living cell to be in biology analogous to isomerism in chemistry. The study of mutability applied to the genesis of animal ferments," he expects, "will throw a clear light upon zymotic diseases, and he anticipates that it will soon overthrow the notion of specific miasma." (Comptes Rendus, November 16, 1874.) WITH reference to the November meteors, as M. Coulvier-Gravier has shown that for some "If," says M. Chapelas, "we attribute the origin THE Numismatic Chronicle, vol. xiv. part iii., contains four papers. The first, by Mr. Gardner, of the British Museum, is devoted to the description of a very remarkable coin of Heraus, king of the Sakas or Scythians, a ruler unknown in history, but proved by this coin, or rather by the inferences drawn by Mr. Gardner from it, to have held sway in Bactria at the end of the second or the beginning of the first century B.C. The Greek The Greek MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY (Monday, January 4). SIR SIDNEY SMITH SAUNDERS, C.M.G., President, in the Chair.-Mr. Stevens exhibited varieties of Diloba caeruleocephala and Hibernia defoliaria, bred from larvae taken near Brighton. Mr. Smith exhibited a box of hymenopterous insects, collected in the neighbourhood of Calcutta by Mr. Rothney. It comprised several rare species of Formicidae and Fossones, and also many undescribed species of Apidae, among which were two species of Nomia, one of them with remarkable capitate antennae. Mr. McLachlan made some remarks on the December Moth (Cheimatolica brumata), which he had observed one evening during the recent severe frost, attracted in great numbers to the gas lamps in the neighbourhood of Lewisham. Mr. Weir remarked on the importance of ascertaining whether they had been newly hatched during the whether they were hybernated specimens, or severe weather. A letter was read from Mr. R. S. Morrison, of George Town, Colorado, expressing a wish to be placed in communication with any entomologists who might be interested in the insect faunas of the higher altitudes (8,000 to 14,000 feet), which he considered should be more fully investigated. The Secretary exhibited a small bottle containing specimens of a Mantis, forwarded to him from Sarawak by Mr. C. C. de Crespigny. He stated that while sitting at table he was attracted by the unusual appearance of a column of ants crossing it, but on looking more narrowly he observed that they were not ants, but a species of Mantis, and he believed them to be full-grown insects, but that they had no wings. Mr. McLachlan, however, observed that some of the specimens had rudimentary wings, and the President and others believed that they would prove to be larvae, and not perfect insects. Part IV. of the Transactions for 1874 was on the table. SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY (Tuesday, S. BIRCH, LL.D, President, in the Chair.-The a. Ethiopian Annals.—Translated by G. Maspero.-Stèle of King Horsiaten.-This stèle, the text of which has been published in Mariette's Monumens divers, relates the war of King Horsia LONDON ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. (Annual Meeting, January 8). DR. CHARNOCK, F.S.A., President, in the Chair. ten against the people of the Nahasi Land, and ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY (Friday, Jan. 8). A LETTER was read from the private secretary of the King of Siam offering on the part of his Majesty to entertain as his private guests any English astronomers who might go out to observe the total eclipse of the Sun on April 5. The Astronomer Royal communicated a letter from Lord Lindsay giving an account of his observations of the Transit of Venus at Mauritius. Though the phenomenon of most importance, ingress, was lost through cloud and the low altitude of the Sun, a large number of valuable measures were taken with the double-image micrometer and with the heliometer, and out of nearly 300 photographs, 100 were selected for future measurement. Mr. Meldrum at the Mauritius observatory appears to have secured a satisfactory observation of ingress. No news has yet been received from Rodrigues, but as the Sun is somewhat higher there at ingress, there is a better prospect of complete success. A letter was also read from Admiral Ommaney, who observed the transit at Thebes. Mr. De La Rue called attention to the discrepancy of four seconds between the results of two observers at Cairo, which he seemed inclined to attribute to a difference in the optical performance of their telescopes, and he urged that not only should the personal equations of the various observers be determined, as had been done by the help of the model both at Greenwich and at the several stations, but that the effect of different telescopes on the observation should be found on the return of the expeditions, those used by different nations being carefully compared in extension of the plan already carried out at Greenwich. A paper from the Astronomer Royal was read, giving the results of the measures of cusps made at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, during the solar eclipse of last October, from which it appeared that the error of Hansen's Lunar Tables at that epoch was about 6"; this comparison with the tables at the time of new moon can only be made when an eclipse occurs, and observations within several days of new moon are rare. in the Theory of Elliptic Functions; " by Mr. W. J. Johnson, "On some remarkable Changes produced on Iron and Steel by the action of Hydrogen and Acids." FINE ART. SIXTH WINTER EXHIBITION OF OLD MASTERS AT (Second Notice.) To find fault with names and descriptions in a collection of this kind is an easy task. Half an hour's walk through the gallery may furnish any one with a stock of observations of that kind. But to find fault with names and descriptions, and especially to find fault with them at random, is not criticism. I have to return to the charge, and to plead, in face of what has been written in more quarters than one, that it is deplorable when misnomers and misprints, real and imaginary, are harped upon ungraciously and with insufficient knowledge. It is deplorable to throw discredit and discouragement on that work by which the Royal Academy deserves best of us. The important thing is that the private treasures of the country should be brought out for enjoyment, for comparison and study, and should thus become, so far as opportunity extends, the property of us all. The Royal Academy in its winter exhibitions end. To be ungracious and incautious in faultcreates the most precious of opportunities for this finding is the worst way of using the present and the best way of spoiling future opportunities. What society would continue to invite, or what owners to contribute, if that was to be their reward? As it is, the task of invitation and collection is not so easy; the sense of obligation to the community in private owners, as I said last week, is not so universal; the difficulty is to prevail upon private owners and conciliate them. In addition to the difficult task of inviting and collecting, the Royal Academy, it is often urged, should provide the visitor to their winter exhibitions with a catalogue he could safely trust and learn from. No doubt that would help the public and make the undertaking perfect; but I wonder what idea of the labour of commentary and criticism is entertained by those who are so ready to thrust it upon others? An accurate critical catalogue of such a gathering of old masters would take a body of experts to compile, and they would need to be a longer time about it than the pictures are absent from their masters' homes, The only time for the research, the commentary and comparison, by which the foundations of such a catalogue must be laid, is while the pictures are actually under exhibition; and the visitor requires some kind of catalogue from the opening day. The Royal Academy, as it seems to me, follow the one practical plan in giving each picture, not their own warrant, but the name its owner gives it. But at least, it will be said, they are bound to correct obvious errors. I think they are bound to keep out obvious forgeries, imitations, or copies; but, with regard to what they take in, were they once to begin correcting, where and on what principle should they stop? Questions of attribution and identification are only now and then at all obvious; in nine cases out of ten they are expre-tremely delicate; and where shall the line be drawn? It seems to me that herein the public should look for enlightenment, not to the members of the Royal Academy, whose business it is to be painters, but to those who make the history and criticism of painting their business, and who have leisure and ought to have patience to do the business well. Their task must needs include plenty of negative points, corrections of attribution and the rest; but why should not these be made with exactness and deference, instead of at random? and why should criticism be more eager about these than about the positive points, the value and meaning, the beauty and delight, which are there to be made far more abundantly? English measure by saying that 8 kilomètres are In ROYAL SOCIETY (Thursday, January 14). |