摘要:

IN the course of work on the diseases of lilies I have shown by means of controlled experiments that an important disease occurring onLilium longiflorumThunberg and its well-known varieties of commerce, ‘Lilium giganteum’ (L. longiflorumvar.takesimaDuchartre), ‘Lilium formosum’ (L. Iongiflorumvar.insulateHort. apud Mallett), and ‘Lilium Harrisii’ (L. longiflorumvar.eximiumBaker), belongs to the group of filterable virus diseases and is transmitted by the aphidAphis liliiTakahashi (very close toA. gosaypiiGlov.). The identification of the insect was made by Dr. F. V. Theobald.The symptoms are a marked downward curling and slightly chlorotic appearance of the leaves. Affected bulbs produce only a flattened rosette, hence the name 'yellow flat' given to the disease. rhoe disease occurs commonly among bulbs of oriental origin. Rigid government inspection has reduced its incidence in the Bermuda lily fields of 'Lilium Harrisii' to a practically negligible quantity. Details will be published in

ISSN:0028-0836    

DOI:10.1038/119528b0

出版商:Nature Publishing Group    

年代:1927

数据来源: Nature

摘要:

L ISTER was one of the greatest discoverers in LJ the realm of preventive medicine. His direct contribution equalled in usefulness that ever made by one man; for the antiseptic system of treating wounds relieved mankind from most of the danger and suffering attendant upon surgical operations and permitted the art of surgery to advance to unimagined achievements. His indirect contribution was great and far reaching, but is less easy of assessment. The obliteration of wound infection which followed the successful practice of antisepsis was an enormous stimulus to research into the causation of infectious diseases generally. These researches received every encouragement from Lister, because he, like Pasteur, was convinced that infectious diseases would be found to depend upon the invasion of the body by the lower world of microbes. From 1851, when he was a house surgeon at University College Hospital, his attention had been focussed upon the causation of inflammation, suppuration, fever, and constitutional disturbance, which at that time almost invariably followed surgical operations. That suppuration was not inevitable was clear, because sometimes wounds healed without it, the edges uniting firmly together in a comparatively short time without any bodily illness. After many fruitless attempts to comprehend the process and causation of suppuration, Lister concluded that it would be wise to attack the problem from the beginning and to study the phenomena of inflammation occasioned in the simplest way. To this end he applied hot water and various chemical irritants to a minute portion of the web of a frog's foot and watched under the microscope the effect upon the blood-vessels and surrounding tissues.Lister's paper on the early stage of inflammation, published in the Philosophical Transactions in 1858, is now classical. In it he showed that inflammation was a reaction of the tissues to a noxious stimulus from without. The problem was: When a wound became inflamed, what was the noxious stimulus ? This question was ever present in his mind, but no answer was forthcoming, until in 1865 a scientific colleague directed his attention to Pasteur's studies on fermentation and putrefaction. The full significance of Pasteur's observations was immediately apparent to Lister, as his mind was prepared by his previous experimental work. Infection of wounds by germs, and the action upon the tissues of the products produced by them, would supply the cause he was looking for. Were all these untoward phenomena due to the putrefaction of the liquids exuded by the injured tissues ? This inference was tested by ingenious experiments and its accuracy was proved, to the lasting benefit of mankind. It should be emphasised that Lister's discovery of the nature of wound diseases was one of the great steps in the progress of preventive medicine, and antedated by fifteen years the proof that any particular microbe was indeed the cause of disease. At this time (1865) the enlightened medical world had grasped that Pasteur's discovery that particular fermentations were produced by specific microbes indicated the possible nature of the various contagia viva responsible for disease. It was appreciated that diseases bred true, as dogs and cats bred true, and that they did not arrive de novo, although their ultimate origin was as mysterious as the origin of species of higher animals or plants. The real nature of the contagia was pure guesswork.The success of Lister's treatment of wounds was a powerful stimulus to the study of the cause of infectious diseases. but, occupied with the development of his antiseptic system of surgery, he could take little part in these researches. Nevertheless, in the intervals of a busy life, he did find time for bacteriological investigations of a fundamental character. This new realm of scientific discovery yet lacked appropriate methods, and Lister had to forge his tools as required. He carried out these early researches in his back parlour. Their importance and the ingenuity of the methods he devised are dealt with in their proper perspective by Prof. Bulloch in another article in this week's issue of NATURE.For fifteen years Lister was the principal representative and exponent in Great Britain of the new knowledge, bit by bit unfolded, of the relation of micro-organisms to disease. As his preoccupations increased with his renown, his personal contributions to bacteriological research, perforce, diminished, but the good effect of his encouragement increased. Whenever the application of bacteriological discoveries to the public health was in question, Lister always took a prominent part. He was president of the Bacteriological Section of the International Congress of Hygiene in 1881, when Koch demonstrated his newly discovered methods of cultivation upon solid media and isolation of different bacteria. In 1890, Koch introduced tuberculin for the treatment of tuberculous infections. Lister, who had a profound respect for Koch, arranged for a thorough trial of the method in his wards at King's College Hospital. Unfortunately, the results, though encouraging at first, proved disappointing.At the second Tuberculosis Congress in 1901, Lister was in the chair when Koch communicated the results of his experiments upon human and bovine tubercle which had led him to the coniclusion that human and bovine tuberculosis were two distinct diseases and that there was no danger for human beings from the consumption of milk or meat from tuberculous cattle. Lister very courteously, but nevertheless trenchantly, criticised Koch's conclusions, pointing out that although the evidence adduced by Koch to show that human tuberculosis could not be communicated to bovines seemed convincing, his reasons for supposing the reciprocal process to be unusual were far less satisfying. In view of Koch's pre-eminence as a bacteriologist and considering the importance of the question, the Congress moved for the appointment of a Royal Commission of inquiry. This suggestion was adopted by the Government. Lister was not a member of the Commission, but he took an active interest in its labours, and when it reported in 1911, it completely justified the criticisms made by him ten years before. Another enterprise in the interest of preventive medicine which had Lister's sympathy and active support from its inception, was the foundation in England of an institute for the study of the causation and prevention of disease. The origin of the Lister Institute, as it is now called, was as follows. On July 1, 1889, a meeting was held at the Mansion House, London, for the purpose of taking steps to present M. Pasteur with a grateful acknowledgment from Great Britain of his gratuitous kindness in Paris to more than two hundred British patients who had been bitten by rabid animals. The acknowledgment took the form of a donation of £2000 to M. Pasteur for the use of the Institut Pasteur in Paris. At the same time the committee realised the want in the United Kingdom of an institute similar in character and purpose to the Institut Pasteur in Paris, or to the Hygienic Institute in Berlin, and others, established on the Continent for scientific research into the causation and prevention of the various infective diseases of men and animals.With the idea of meeting this need the British Institute of Preventive Medicine was incorporated on July 25, 1891, and the objects of the Institute were set forth in a Memorandum of Association, namely: (a) To study, investigate, discover, and improve the means of preventing and curing infective diseases of man and animals; and to provide a place where research may be carried on for the purposes aforesaid. (b) To provide instruction and education in preventive medicine to medical officers of health, medical practitioners, veterinary surgeons, and advanced students.(c) To prepare and to supply to those requiring them such special protective and curative materials as have been already found, or shall in future be found, of value in the prevention and treatment of infective diseases. (d) To treat persons suffering with infective diseases or threatened with them, in uildings of the Institute or elsewhere.(e) With a view to effecting these objects, to provide laboratories, to appoint a scientific staff, to institute lectures and demonstrations, to issue publications of the transactions of the Institute, and to found a library. Lister succeeded the Lord Mayor as chairman of the committee after its first meeting, and was the first chairman of the council of the British Institute of Preventive Medicine. Among his colleagues were Roscoe, Huxley, Ray Lankester, Burdon Sanderson, Horsley, Cheyne, and Sir Andrew Clark. Lister was a regular attendant at the meetings of the council for many years and took the most active part in the management of the Institute. The office of chairman of the council was for a while no sinecure, and the direction of the new Institute was an anxious task. During its early years it had great financial difficulties to contend with, and on more than one occasion its continued existence was almost despaired of. It was only by means of the enthusiasm and careful guidance of its council and the self-sacrifice of the small body of scientific men which composed its staff that it did not succumb to inanition.It was also unfortunate in changing its birth name more frequently than is good for a young institution. In 1898 it became the Jenner Institute of Preventive Medicine in order to receive the donation of a sum of money collected to perpetuate the memory of Edward Jenner and his work. Afterwards it was found that a trading firm possessed the prior legal claim to this title, and a further change of designation being necessitated, it was decided to associate the Institute in future with the honoured name of its chairman. It thus, in 1903, became the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine. In the meantime the financial stresses which threatened the collapse of the Institute had been considerably relieved by substantial donations from the Berridge Trustees, the Grocers' Company, and a number of public-spirited men. The Duke of Westminster having granted, on terms which meant a large personal contribution, a fine site facing the Thames at Chelsea Gardens, the council proceeded to build one-half of the present headquarters of the Institute. These were opened in 1897.The permanent income of the Institute was not, however, adequate to the requirements and capabilities of the enlarged establishment, until towards the end of 1898 it received, for the encouragement of research into the cause and treatment of disease, a most generous endowment of a quarter of a million sterling from Lord Iveagh. This endowment enabled the governing body to extend greatly the usefulness of the Institute and to increase the -up to that time-very inadequate staff. The development of serum therapeutics in 1894 attracted general interest in preventive medicine. A few years previously Behring had discovered that by accustoming an animal to small but progressively increasing doses of tetanus poison, the serum of such an animal possessed the property of neutralising considerable quantities of the poison. This discovery was amplified and put to practical use for the treatment of diphtheria by Roux and Ehrlich, and rapidly established itself as the only rational and effective treatment for this disease.The preparation of antitoxic sera was at once taken up by the Institute. Some temporary premises near London where horses could be accommodated were acquired, and as soon as the value of the remedy was established the council purchased a freehold property near Elstree, Hertfordshire, where a complete equipment for the production of anti-toxic sera and for research into serum therapeutics was installed. Since then the activities of the Institute have increased considerably, but two of the objects for which the Institute was founded, the education of medical officers of health and the treatment of patients, have been discontinued. Elementary education in bacteriology was soon afterwards adequately provided for by the medical schools, and the prophylactic treatment for hydrophobia, which was the particular treatment in view, was no longer required owing to the freedom of the British Isles from rabies.The advantages which the Institute enjoyed from its association with Lister were, in the earlier days of its history, by no means confined to his guidance as chairman of its council. To the scientific staff he was always a colleague. Whatever the nature of the problem they were occupied with, they were sure of his sympathy, and his knowledge and critical insight were ever at the disposal of the humblest worker. During the latter years of his life, although no longer able to take an active part in directing its affairs, he did not cease to take a keen interest in the welfare of the institution he had been largely instrumental in founding, and he manifested his confidence in its continued usefulness by making it joint beneficiary with the Royal Society under his will.

ISSN:0028-0836    

DOI:10.1038/119529a0

出版商:Nature Publishing Group    

年代:1927

数据来源: Nature

摘要:

M Y qualifications to write on certain aspects M~l of Lister's scientific work rest on an acquaintance with his published writings. I have studied these critically by themselves and in relation to the writings on the same subjects by his contemporaries. For more than ten years I also had the great privilege of knowing Lord Lister in a manner which, considering the great disparity of our positions, I may say was almost intimate. As bacteriologist to the British Institute of Preventive Medicine I had to visit him as chairman almost weekly, to keep him in touch with the progress of the work in the antitoxin department. Even after I left the service of the Institute he frequently asked me to call upon him in connexion with scientific work in which he was interested. In this way I was a great deal in his company and, among the younger men of that time, probably saw more of him than any one else. When I first knew Lord Lister he was sixty-eight, and I last saw him in 1909 when he was eighty-two years of age. Both then and since he impressed me as a great personality. He was deeply interested in all advances of medical knowledge and, although leading a very busy life, he strove to keep abreast of bacteriological literature, which was then pouring forth in an unbroken stream. I read through with him most of the complicated papers of Ehrlich and Bordet on hoemolysis. During the reading he would make many suggestions or criticisms which might clear up doubtful points. Finished with the work in hand, he would recur to his own work of early days and indicate the difficulties he had had and how he had overcome them. In a conversation we had on Oct. 23, 1905, he said to me-I wrote it down at the time: " If my works are read when I am gone, my papers on the pigmentary changes in the frog and on the early stages of inflammation will be the ones most highly thought of." These were not the mumblings of senility, for he was then intellectually clear and alert. I took it to mean that he wished to be considered as a scientist rather than a surgical craftsman.In estimating Lister's scientific work it is essential to remember that he had no properly equipped laboratory as we understand the term to-day. There were none such, or but few at the time. His laboratory was his study in his private home, and perhaps the best of his scientific work was that done in 11 Rutland Street, Edinburgh, during his first stay in the northern capital. His principal work on antiseptics was done during the Glasgow period, while his bacteriological work was begun and largely completed in his second Edinburgh period when he resided at 9 Charlotte Square. The hours for Lister's scientific work were early in the morning and far into the night following a harassing day of active surgical work in private practice, or in the wards, operating theatre, and class rooms of the Edinburgh Infirmary. He performed all his appointed duties in a most conscientious way, and he undertook his experimental work so that he might speak with first-hand knowledge on the themes which he had to teach. Many of the problems he felt impelled to investigate were obscure and complicated, but of the greatest practical importance. Some were not capable of solution then, and others have not yet been definitively cleared up. I refer in particular to his work on the coagulation of the blood and on the early stages of inflammation.The coagulation of the blood has at all times excited wonderment, and the theories to explain it have been innumerable and are still being brought to light. In Great Britain notable advances were made in the eighteenth century by William Hewson, who unfortunately died of sepsis from a wound before he was thirty-five. In his short life he made, however, many discoveries. He proved that the red corpuscles were biconcave discs; he described their arrangement in masses like piles of money, an observation extended in 1827 by Lord Lister's father in association with Dr. Thomas Hodgkin. Hewson also clearly noted the existence of the white blood corpuscles and performed a large number of experiments on blood coagulation, although he never quite cleared up the mystery of its nature. His successors in the nineteenth century were not more happy. Coagulation of the blood was early studied by Lister. The problem was constantly before him in connexion with intravascular clotting and the occurrence of putrefaction and secondary hemorrhage in wounds. The prevailing theory was that of B. W. Richardson, and referred the clotting to the escape of ammonia, which was believed to hold the coagulative elements, normally, in solution. In a long series of masterly experiments Lister showed that this ammonia theory was untenable. He clearly saw the need of separating the nature of coagulation from the cause, and while baffled with the former he revealed by his experiments that the latter-the cause of coagulation-is really due to the influence exerted on the blood by the contact, even momentarily, of ordinary matter of some kind. He considered that this contact brings about a reaction between the solid and fluid constituents of the blood so that the corpuscles imparted to the liquor sanguines the disposition to clot. As regards the cause of blood coagulation, it cannot be said that we have materially advanced during the seventy years since the publication of Lister's paper.Another basic pathological process which Lister examined was inflammation. The extraordinary changes which we call inflammation have at all times attracted attention, and the theories intended to explain it constitute a large part of the history of medical doctrines. What is the real nature of the process which we call inflammatory and which results from the application of an irritamentum to the body ? When Lister began his studies on inflammation, great advances on the older doctrines had already taken place. In England particularly, the science of experimental pathology was in process of rapid growth. The older pathological anatomy so ably created by Morgagni was developed well by the French, among whom the names of Bayle, Portal, Laennec, Bretonneau, Chomel, and Cruveilhier will be brought to mind. Students went from Great Britain to study pathological science in France. At the beginning of the nineteenth century Edinburgh was a great nursery of medical talent, and many of her graduates migrated across the border to attain fame in the arenas of the south. We all remember with pride the names of Charles Bell, Richard Bright, Thomas Addison, Thomas Hodgkin, C. J. B. Williams, Marshall Hall, William Sharpey, and the peculiarly able if eccentric Wharton Jones. Their work was advanced by the experimental work of Augustus Volnay Waller and of the little-known but successful worker William Addison. Lister had both Sharpey and Wharton Jones for his teachers. The margination of the leucocytes in the inflamed vessels was taught by C. J. B. Williams, and W. Addison about 1842 and Waller (1846) rediscovered the process of emigration of the leucocytes, which had been previously described by Dutrochet in 1827. Wharton Jones summed up in most critical fashion all the work down to 1846, and himself gained the Astley Cooper prize in 1850 for his splendid essay on the phenomena of inflammation.When, therefore, Lister began to work at the pathology of inflammation he was traversing ground already trodden. He realised, however, that much that had been done concerned the later stages of the process, whereas the real essence of inflammation was most likely to be found by the study of the earliest stages. He worked chiefly with the frog's web and the bat's wing, and took elaborate precautions that at first the parts should be in a perfectly normal condition. By the application of irritants he then passed to the study of what was pathological. Among the phenomena which he particularly investigated may be mentioned the aggregation of the red blood corpuscles, their increased adhesiveness, and the structure of the arterioles and capillaries. He found that the capillaries alter in calibre, but referred the variation to something inherent in their elasticity. While admitting the phenomenon of contractility in the capillaries, modern workers have not accepted his explanation. Lister regarded irritants as acting in a twofold manner. The primary effect was a dilatation of the vessels brought about by the influence of the nervous system and not limited to the locus of the irritant. The secondary effect, on the other hand, was the direct result of the irritant acting on the tissues in consequence of which the blood becomes altered physically. The red discs become more adhesive, they accumulate in masses and may bring about the condition of stasis.Strange to say, Lister made no reference to diapedesis of leucocytes, and probably missed it altogether. Waller's discovery of 1846 had left so little impress at the time that when diapedesis was described in detail in 1867 by Cohnheim, it was regarded as something altogether new. Previous to Lister's work, the advanced changes in inflammation had been observed and very fully described by Wharton Jones, but it is to Lister's credit that he examined it from a new viewpoint and discussed its significance more than his predecessors had done. He was, however, surpassed by Cohnheim in his classical work in 1867. When Lister embarked on his extended researches on wound complications and the cause of suppuration, his experimental inquiries on blood and inflammation were a great help to him. He was groping unaided for the causes of suppuration, but light was beginning to peer through the darkness. This was early in his Glasgow term. In 1865 his attention was directed by a colleague to the work which had been done on fermentation and putrefaction by Pasteur, and this came to him as a revelation. Almost immediately he grasped the significance of the Frenchman's work for surgery. Ten years later (1875) he specifically tells us that the work of Pasteur " long since made me a convert to the germ theory, and it was on the basis of that theory that I founded the antiseptic treatment of wounds in surgery."Although Lister constantly stated his indebtedness to Pasteur, it is, I think, a vulgar error to regard him as a mere copyist of his great French contemporary. So early as 1861, and before he knew Pasteur's results, he was getting near the truth about suppuration, and later on he advanced beyond the point where Pasteur had led him. No doubt Pasteur revealed to him in a more concrete form what he had dimly foreseen himself, and from then onwards he was ardent in the pursuit of bacteriology. The time would be the early 'seventies, when the study of microbes had not emerged as a definite science. There were at the time two conflicting views. One of these, supported by Ferdinand Cohn, the botanist of Breslau, held that bacteria, like other plants, had a constancy of form which rendered them capable of division into genera and species. According to the other view, there was no morphological constancy, but rather a pleomorphism, whereby one and the same bacterium could assume different forms. If this were true, attempts to cultivate or to separate them on morphological grounds were doomed to failure. In his earliest work on the subject in 1873, Lister's observations led him to support the pleomorphic theory, and it will now be admitted that he suffered shipwreck upon it when he stated that Ehrenberg's and Cohn's morphological classification was " entirely untrustworthy." Lister's mistake was one which at the time was made by a great many others and tends to indicate the extraordinary pitfalls which beset the path of the earlier bacteriologists. In his life of Lister, Godlee has published an interesting correspondence which passed between Lister and Pasteur on the subject of change of form among bacteria. Pasteur clearly saw where Lister had erred and advised him to repeat his observations with additional technical precautions. This Lister did, and profiting by his new experience he became one of the foremost bacteriological technicians of his time. So imbued was he with the spirit of high ideals that instead of covering up his tracks he handsomely withdrew his error. " Next to the promulgation of truth," he said, " the best thing I can conceive that a man can do is the recantation of a published error." This sentiment was almost identical with that given to us nearly two thousand years ago by Celsus, who, however, added that such a confession is suited only to a great genius whose splendour is such as to survive the sacrifice, especially in the performance of a task which is to be handed down for the benefit of posterity as a beacon of truth to warn them against similar errors.From the theory of Cohn and Pasteur it was to be presumed that bacteria might in some way be separated from each other and cultivated in a pure state. The great mycologist, Brefeld, had emphasised the importance of raising such pure strains or cultures from one single germ or cell of a fungus. Following in his wake, Lister was the first to isolate a pure culture of a bacterium. By perfect bacteriological technique involving a complete understanding of the problem, he succeeded in isolating a pure culture of a microbe, Bacterium lactis, which is the cause of lactic-acid fermentation in milk. He grew this microbe in sterile milk and raised a pure strain, constant morphologically and physiologically, from a single cell by a series of dilutions carried out with an ingeniously constructed syringe of his own invention. No one can deprive Lister of the merit of having first isolated bacteria in pure culture outside the body. The year was 1877. Lister also introduced the methods of hot-air sterilisation which are in vogue today. His long paper on lactic fermentation is a classic, and a model of what a scientific research should be. Like Pasteur, Lister had the supreme faculty of seeing as if by instinct the exact experiment needed to clear up a point of doubt. All his scientific work bears witness to this, but I may refer to one other instance of it. In two or three experiments which he did on the fate of catgut implanted in the tissues, he got out all the essential facts in 1869, and later attempts of others in more than three hundred papers down to 1927 have, literally speaking, neither added to nor subtracted from anything which he taught us sixty years ago. He was a master of the experimental method-a rare and precious gift which, the Abbate Spallanzani truly said, " has always been confined and always will be confined to.the few."

ISSN:0028-0836    

DOI:10.1038/119531a0

出版商:Nature Publishing Group    

年代:1927

数据来源: Nature

摘要:

Xy ITH the death, on Jan. 3, 1927, of Prof. Carl V V Runge, of the University of Gottingen, in his seventy-first year, there has passed away an eminent mathematician and a friend to several generations of English speaking students in Germany. Runge, whose mother was English, was born in Bremen in 1856 and was educated at Munich and Berlin. In 1886 he was called to the Technical High School at Hanover, where he remained until 1904, when he moved to a professorship at Gottingen in response to an invitation from Klein. Coming in early life under the dominating influence of Weierstrass and Kronecker, it was not unnatural that his first work should be in the field of function theory and algebra, but the urge towards the practical, which directed much of his later work, was soon apparent. Many of his lectures at Columbia University, where he went as an exchange professor in 1909-10, deal with this aspect. At Hanover, as a mathematician in an engineering environment, he had perforce to devise ways and means of adapting methods of mathematical analysis to the practical. Many of his numerical and graphical methods, numerical integration, solution of differential equations and Fourier analysis are now commonplace in engineering training. In this respect his influence on German teaching methods was rather similar to that of Perry in Great Britain. Wherever possible he played an active part in actual practical work, as for example when he assisted in a large geodetic survey, and his appreciation of real problems reflected itself in his teaching and in his theoretical research. His many contributions to the fields of technical mechanics and aerodynamics are evidence of this.Runge was, however, something more than an engineer, a mathematician, and a teacher. Among experimental physicists he is known for his fundamental work in collaboration with H. Kayser on spectral series, and his work in this field ranks him among those who have laid the experimental basis of quantum mechanics. He examined the spark and flame spectrum of radium. He investigated the magnetic resolution of spectrum lines, and showed that the apparently complex separation may be expressed as simple fractions of that of the normal Zeeman triplet. With Paschen he devised a concave grating mounting that has been adopted in many laboratories. He was pre-eminently one of those all too few men of science who could turn his mind profitably to any field of scientific inquiry with the certainty of producing creative work. Educationally, in Germany his influence was to give a practical orientation to the theorist, and a theoretical outlook to the practical man. To English-speaking students in G5ttingen he was undoubtedly the most English of the professoriat, both in appearance and in mental outlook, and he spoke the language fluently. His son was killed early in the War.

ISSN:0028-0836    

DOI:10.1038/119533a0

出版商:Nature Publishing Group    

年代:1927

数据来源: Nature

摘要:

DR. C. DA FANO, reader in histology, King's College, University of London, died with unexpected suddenness at his residence at Campden Hill on Mar. 14, in his forty-eighth year. By his death medical science in Great Britain loses one of the ablest exponents of histology. Dr. Da Fano was the third son of Commendatore Alessandro Da Fano. He received his early training in histology in Golgi's Institute of Histology and General Pathology at the University of Pavia, where he graduated M.D. in 1905 and later (1912) became Libero Docente in morbid anatomy. He obtained a travelling fellowship at Milan and worked in Ziehen's neurological clinic, University of Berlin, in 1908, and in the following year with Dr. Bashford at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London. After a period of work at Groningen he returned to the University of Milan as vicedirector of the Pathological Institute. From 1915 until 1918 be served as captain in the Italian medical corps on the Italian front. In 1918 he went to King's College, University of London, as lecturer in histology, and in 1922 was given the title of reader in histology in the University.Dr. Da Fano specialised in the histology of the central nervous system. His advanced lectures on that subject attracted large audiences, and the histological specimens by which these lectures were illustrated formed a complete and noteworthy collection. His researches, published in a series of about sixty papers in various journals, were mainly concerned with the Golgi apparatus in cells and the special lesions of the nervous system in such affections as encephalitis lethargica. He had a very extensive knowledge of foreign languages, and he generously devoted a considerable portion of his time to acting as one of the editors of Physiological Abstracts. In 1915 he married Miss Dorothea Landau, and leaves a son and daughter.

ISSN:0028-0836    

DOI:10.1038/119534b0

出版商:Nature Publishing Group    

年代:1927

数据来源: Nature

摘要:

IN an article appearing in the supplement to the present issue of NATURE, Sir Joseph Larmor gives a novel interpretation of the local space and time of relativity theory as the absolute space and time of Newtonian dynamics and astronomy. This is clearly not the place to attempt a detailed critical analysis of this important paper, but it may be permissible to summarise a few of the salient arguments. The correlation of past and present astronomical research, as well as the absolute character of atoms, evidenced by spectroscopic research, wheresoever and whensoever they are found, demand absolute time. The welding of local frames of inertia into one coherent fourfold is the business of relativity; the mutual dynamics of masses existing in each local frame proceeds independently by Newtonian principles. The mathematical development is effected by means of the Principle of Least Action, modified to suit the requirements of electrodynamics and relativity and limited as to form by the necessity of conforming to the postulate of invariance. The requisite formulation of a compound Action-density is first minimised as regards its distribution with reference to variation of structure of the fourfold pseudospace, giving structural differential equations of that fourfold, and then by partial integration the Action is reduced to line integrals along the tracks of the atoms in the fourfold. BY a further minimising of the Action in its new form, Sir Joseph obtains the expression, suitable to the fourfold, of the dynamical interaction of the atoms. An essential feature is that the track of the atom is not treated as an isolated geodesic, determined by the gravitational warping of the pseudospace, of which it is both partial cause and effect, but is connected with other tracks through mutual terms in their potential energy, which are shared between the interacting atoms. In an earlier paper by Sir Joseph (Phi. May., S. 6, vol. 45, p. 243, 1923) this sharing of potential energy led to a reduction of Einstein's gravitational constant to one-half of its usual value, because there the time t of the invariant space-time interval of relativity theory was as usual identified with astronomical time. In the article now under discussion, this untoward result is avoided by identifying the local time T, i.e. the invariant time t now corrected for convection by means of the Lorentz transformation, with the absolute time of Newtonian dynamics and astronomy. This procedure leads to Einstein's values of the displacement of spectral lines and of the gravitational deflexion of rays of light, but apparently not to his result for the progressions of planetary perihelia, a conclusion regarded by Sir Joseph as not unsatisfactory in view of the uncertainty of the progression of the perihelion of Mercury, as shown in recent astronomical discussions. Moreover, it leads to the proper relation between electric mass and energy relative to the fourfold, a relation which is not substantiated at all except on the present Newtonian scheme.APrrL 5 was the centenary of the birth of Lister, physiologist, pathologist, and the 'father of modern surgery,' and elsewhere in this issue Dr. C. J. Martin and Prof. W. Bulloch describe some aspects of his life and work. Celebrations of the centenary commenced in London on April 4, when H.M. The King received delegates from learned societies, universities, and medical societies in Great Britain, from the Dominions and many foreign countries, who are attending the ceremonies arranged by a joint committee of the Royal Society, the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, the Royal Society of Medicine, the British Medical Association, and other bodies. Sir Ernest Rutherford, president of the Royal Society, presented an address to the King, to which His Majesty replied, expressing the hope that the gathering of scientific workers for the centenary celebrations would " strengthen the co-operation of all nations in the accumulation of scientific knowledge for the common benefit of the human race." Personal memories of Lister were given by Sir St. Clair Thomson in an address before the Royal Society of Medicine in the evening, and by Sir Watson Cheyne and Sir George Lenthal Cheatle at a meeting in the afternoon of the Listerian Society. On April 5, the official delegates of centenary celebrations were received by the Prime Minister at the house of the British Medical Association, and on the following day a memorial service was held at Westminster Abbey. We hope to give an account of the proceedings in an early issue. Centenary celebrations at Glasgow began on April 1; those arranged at Edinburgh will be held concurrently with the annual meeting there in July of the British Medical Association. THE text has been issued of the Destructive Insects and Pests Bill, which was introduced into the House of Commons by Mr. Guinness on Mar. 25. This Bill provides that an order under the Destructive Insects Act, 1877, as amended by the Act of 1907, may enable an authorized inspector of the Ministry of Agriculture to take necessary action with reference to any crop infected with an insect specified in the order as being a destructive insect within the meaning of the principal Act, which has been introduced into Great Britain. The Act provides that such an inspector may remove or destroy, or cause to be removed or destroyed, any crop infected, or any crop by means of which the insect is likely to be spread. The Bill also provides for the payment of compensation in respect of any crop removed or destroyed. Until now, very few introduced pests have gained a footing in Great Britain, but the provisions under the new Bill are timely precautions. A few years ago the Colorado potato beetle became established in the Bordeaux district of France and its eradication now seems scarcely possible. The entry of such a pest into Great Britain would constitute a menace to a crop that suffers to an almost negligible extent from insect pests. Notwithstanding precautions against their admittance, foreign pests may secure a foothold, and the new Bill provides for the necessary action in the event of such an occurrence. The heavy infestation of cherries from some parts of the continent with the cherry fruit fly is another case in point, but happily that insect likewise has not yet become established in Great Britain.THE first statutory general meeting of the British Mosquito Control Institute was held at the Hotel Cecil, London, on Mar. 30, when the council was elected in accordance with the articles of association approved by the Board of Trade, and by which the Institute is registered under the Companies Acts, 1908-1917, as a company limited by guarantee and not having a share capital. Since the anti-mosquito campaign was begun at Hayling Island about seven years ago, it has become increasingly evident that the work so successfully accomplished there is of more than local interest, and that medical officers of health and sanitary inspectors in many parts of Great Britain, as well as abroad, desire to know how to keep mosquitoes under control. The Ministry of Health can only concern itself with these insects as disease carriers, even though in some districts they make life out of doors almost intolerable in certain months of the year. The Natural History Museum is always willing to identify specimens and give general guidance on methods of dealing with them, but neither it nor the Ministry of Health is concerned with actual field operations by which the mosquito nuisance may be reduced or eliminated. This practical knowledge is, however, available at the British Mosquito Control Institute at Hayling, where there is now a substantial building with laboratory, museum, photographic room, and other facilities for the study of all stages of mosquito life and its regulation. The Institute has been vested in trustees by the founder and director, Mr. J. F. Marshall, whose devoted services in solving problems of mosquito control are widely known and appreciated. Membership is open to all who are interested in the subject, and it is hoped that, in due course, sufficient support will be forthcoming from members and public bodies to make the Institute self-supporting and extend its activities. The council includes among its members Sir Ronald Ross, Sir William Simpson, Sir Arthur Shipley, Dr. Andrew Balfour, Major E. E. Austen, Sir James Crichton-Browne, Dr. G. A. K. Marshall, Dr. C. M. Wenyon, and other entomologists familiar with the mosquito pest, and the chairman is Sir Richard Gregory. The address of the Institute is Hayling Island, Hampshire.CAPT. C. W. R. KNIGHT's kinematograph exhibition "Filming the Golden Eagle " should be seen by every one interested in wild life. It began a short season at the Polytechnic Theatre, Regent Street, W.1, on April 2. By means of this excellent film one is enabled to make intimate acquaintance with one of the finest and least common species in the native avifauna of Great Britain. The pictures were taken last year at three different Scottish eyries, and many interesting incidents from the lives both of the young and of the mother bird are shown. In one case, Capt. Knight was even able to follow the young with his camera for some time after they had left the nest and were able to fly. Perhaps the most striking items are the slow-motion pictures of the adult bird in flight: these include photographs of a trained captive eagle catching the lure in mid-air. In addition to various incidental pictures, there are also some short episodes from the lives of other birds, and those of the chaffinch and of the longtailed-tit are particularly good. A DISPATCH from Cairo dated Mar. 31, which appeared in the Times of the following day, announces the discovery at Saqqara by Mr. Cecil Firth, working for the Department of Antiquities, of a tomb of the Third Dynasty of about 2900 B.C. The tomb, which has a rounded top, is situated on part of the wall about a mile long which surrounds the Step Pyramid. It is thought that it may be the tomb of Imhotep, the architect of the Step Pyramid. An interesting feature of the tomb is the work of low relief on the doors of the underground rooms. Each represents Pharaoh Zoser in the finest artistic style of the period, and although the figures stand out only a millimetre, each muscle is distinctly shown. Twelve magnificent alabaster jars nearly three feet high were found.DR. GANN's preliminary account of his explorations during the past winter in British Honduras, which appeared in the Morning Post of Mar. 28 and two succeeding days, again provides material of much interest to the student of Central American archeology, although it contains nothing so sensational as his discovery last year of the early dated stele at Chetumal Bay. An unsuccessful search for a bilingual record, which might play the part of a Central American Rosetta Stone, in the first Spanish church at Villa Real, the settlement founded by Davila in 1528, was followed by a visit to a camp on the lagoon On Ha on the northern boundary, where excavations on burial mounds produced evidence of Toltec influence on the Maya in the form of a clay squatting tiger with a human head protruding from its mouth. Northwest from Sac Xan on the Rio Hondo, Dr. Gann discovered great ruins of a temple structure 120 feet high, of which the roofs must originally have been at least 160 feet from the ground. It contained a single chamber 58 ft. long, 18 ft. high, and only 3 ft. wide. Chambers in other buildings were as narrow, or even less in width. The Maya ignorance of the principle of the true arch and their employment of the method of overlapping stones in roofing restricted the width of their buildings to at most 16 ft., but nothing proportionately so narrow as these chambers is known in Central America. Dr. Gann conjectures that they were constructed for ceremonial purposes. AN exceptional opportunity for the comparative study of folk-dances will be offered by the festival to take place at Bayonne on April 27 and 28. It is being organised by the Musee Basque de Bayonne. A team of fourteen dancers of the English Folk Dance Society will take part in the festival and will give two performances, one at the annual ball in aid of the funds of the Musee, and the second on the afternoon of the following day, when the English dancers will dance in alternation with teams from the Basque provinces of La Soule, Labourde, Basse Navarre, and Guipuzcoa. As some of the dances from these provinces, each of which has its own tradition, are of a very primitive type, yet in certain features present resemblances to some English folk-dances, their presentation at the same performance should be highly instructive. It will be remembered that Miss Violet Alford, both in the paper read before the British Association at Oxford last year and later, in the autumn, at the joint meeting of the Royal Anthropological Institute and the English FolkDance Society (NATURE, Dec. 4, 1926, p. 824) stressed the significance of the Danse de l'Ours of Basse Navarre in relation to the meanings of some of the primitive traits in English dances, and she is now engaged in carrying her researches further in the Pyrenees area. The English Folk Dance Society's party, which will include in addition to the dancers any members of the Society and their friends who wish to avail themselves of this opportunity, will leave for Bayonne on April 24.MR. J. ALLEN HOWE delivered the Friday evening discourse at the Royal Institution on April 1, taking as his subject " The Stones of London." Situated on a sub-stratum of clay and incoherent gravel, London, from its very beginnings, has had to go beyond its borders for stone. In the fragments of the Roman Wall we have evidence that its builders sought the slopes of Hertfordshire for boulders of bard sarsen stone, the Downs and the Weald of Kent for chalk, ragstone, chert, and firestone; while the local flint gravel was freely used then as now. The Normans introduced the stone from Caen, of which examples may be seen in the Tower, Westminster Abbey, and other buildings. Beer stone from Devon and the somewhat similar Clunch stone, both from the Chalk formation, were much in demand for carving from about the eleventh century; while for columns, beautifully exemplified in the Temple Church, the marble of Purbeck was the favourite material. From the Great Fire of 1666 a new stone era began for London; although many other stones have been and still are employed, Portland stone from that time began to play a dominant part. The majority of London's buildings are now built or faced with limestone, which is readily attacked by the acid-laden town atmosphere, yielding calcium sulphate in the process; this is in itself a cause of further destruction, as the solution soaks into the stone and there crystallises. In the presence of the acid-bearing air the principal cause of unsightly decay is a state of dampness, which may be conditioned by the aspect, the construction, or the design. Continual efforts are being made to discover a preservative that will not impair the appearance of the stone. The least objectionable of these processes, for example, the various silico-fluorides, are liable to prove ineffective after a comparatively short period, and the latest, Dr. Laurie's silicon-ester, is still on trial. The difficulty with all external applications is imperfect penetration with the consequent danger of skin formation. THE annual lecture to the Graduate Section of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers was given by Sir John E. Thornycroft on Mar. 28, his subject being " Torpedo Boats and their Machinery." It is more than sixty years ago that Sir John I. Thornycroft began steam-boat building at Chiswick, and it was his work and that of Sir Alfred Yarrow which made the Thames famous as the home of the highspeed vessel. There is no more fascinating story in engineering than the history of torpedo craft, from the early boats of 30 tons to the destroyers of to-day of more than 2000 tons. The latter have boilers and turbines of more than 40,000 H.P. giving a speed of nearly 40 knots. Turbines have been fitted for twenty years, but in the four-cylinder triple expansion engines of earlier destroyers mechanical engineering of the nineteenth century reached its highest pitch of excellence. The speed at which they ran, the lightness of their construction, and the conditions under which they worked, were all remarkable. Sir John in his lecture gave comparative figures which showed that the machinery of a liner in 1855 weighed more than 600 pounds per horse power, while in a modern destroyer the corresponding figure is 30 pounds. In the coastal motor boats built during the War and fitted with internal combustion engines, the weight was only 12-i pounds per horse-power. AT a meeting of the Newcomen Society on Mar. 30, a paper on "Lead Mining and Smelting in West Yorkshire " was read by Dr. A. Raistrick. In the course of his paper Dr. Raistrick traced the history of lead mining in the Yorkshire dales from Roman times down to the present day, giving notes on the method of quarrying the ore, smelting it, and its sale and transport. Lead pigs are in existence bearing the names of Roman emperors. and there is evidence to show that the industry was carried on continuously, practically down to the present time, though to-day little is being done. The cheaper ores from Spain and elsewhere have been the main cause of the decline, but as foreign mines have to go deeper and instal more machinery, the ore will increase in price and thus the Yorkshire mines may again become profitable. The paper contained much of interest to those who study the history of mining.PURCHASEs during March for the Department of Zoology of the British Museum (Natural History) included a collection of rare land-snails of the genus Nenia from Peru, Bolivia, etc., and a remarkably fine golden eagle from Norway. The Trustees also purchased, for the Department of Geology, seven specimens of an ancient roofed-head amphibian, Protriton, from a new locality in Thuringia. This little salamander-shaped animal is well preserved in a dark oilshale of Lower Permian age; it is one of the Branchiosauria, which owe their name to the indications of gill-arches in the skeletons of immature individuals. A large collection of skulls and heads of African game animals was presented by Major C. H. B. Grant. These are particularly valuable since they are accompanied by full details of locality, season, and the like; many of them represent species or races that are now in danger of extermination. Among other donations submitted to the Trustees was a small series of fossil-bearing rocks obtained by the Norwegian expedition of 1921 from the palwozoic formations of Novaya Zemlya. A nodule containing a V-shaped burrow, probably formed by a kind of lob-worm, was presented by Dr. S. H. Haughton, who obtained it from the Upper Dwyka shales of the Warmbad District, South West Africa; it suggests that these rocks were formed on a tidal flat. Mr. J. R. T. Regan presented some curious branching structures, probably worm-tubes, found by him in the Totternhoe Stone near Dunstable. Other donations included nummulites from north-west India described by Major L. M. Davies, and type-specimens of shells from a freshwater sandstone of unknown age in the Fiji Islands collected by Dr. Matley. THE completion of a second submarine cable connecting Canada with Australasia is an event of considerable importance. E. S. Heurtly, in an article in the Electrician for April 1, gives many interesting details of the work. It involved the laying of two cables, one between Bamfield, on Vancouver Island, and Fanning Island (3466 sea miles) and between Fanning Island and Suva, Fiji Islands, a distance of 2054 sea miles. The original cable, which was laid in 1902, had a working speed of about 75 letters per minute. By using amplifiers, however, its speed has been increased to about 135 letters per minute. The maximum speed on the new northern cable is at least eight times as great as that of the original cable, and the received voltage at Fanning Island is at least five times as high. The great improvement in the trafficcarrying capacity of the two cables is due to the 'loading' of the cables by alloys of nickel-iron, which have a very high permeability for very low magnetising forces. The 'chrome permalloy' used for loading the southern cable has better electrical characteristics than that used on the New York-Azores cable. The original cable has one advantage over the new cables, as duplex working can be used with it. Owing to the difference in times between Europe and Australasia there is little overlapping of the messages going in opposite directions, and consequently this is not a serious drawback to the new cables. Accurate measurements of the time of propagation of the signals between Bamfield and Fanning Island have been made by means of a siphon recorder used with an amplifier and a tuning-fork. The mean of all the results shows that the signal takes 0 67 of a second to travel 3466 miles. When signalling, therefore, at 1000 letters per minute, more than 40 impulses may be in the cable at the same time.ONE of the most remarkable of recently constructed tunnels is the Rove tunnel on the new canal between Arles on the Rhone and the port of Marseilles, by the use of which river traffic can avoid the delta or the crossing of the sea between the terminus of the old canal at Port au Bouc and Marseilles. A fully illustrated article on the canal water appears in La Science Moderne for February. The Rove tunnel under the Nerthe hills is nearly four and a half miles long. It has a width of 72 feet, of which 13 feet are utilised by the pathways beside the canal. The depth of water is seven feet and there is room for two streams of canal traffic, with a height above the water line of about 43 feet. Apart from through traffic, this canal promises to be of value in the new scheme, now under way, of making the great Ptang de Berre, beyond the northern end of the Rove tunnel, a great port, accessible by large vessels from a wide and deep ship canal at Port au Bone. Around this extensive harbour is ample room for manufacturing sites. Provided the water power of the Rhone and its tributaries is made available, the port of Marseilles may well become a great centre of manufacturing industry. THE magazine of the Geographical Association, on reaching its fourteenth volume, has been named Geography in place of the original title The Geographical Teacher. The change in name involves no change in policy or scope. It is still to be published three times a year and to be devoted to the interests of teachers, but its general appearance and production have been much improved. In addition to the usual short articles, notes for teachers, and reviews of geographical books, the spring number contains Sir Charles Close's presidential address on " Population and Emigration," in which he makes a statistical study of Empire settlement. In the belief that the Dominions can absorb annually about five per thousand of their total population, he estimates that Great Britain could send overseas about 100,000 emigrants a year apart from the number that go outside the Empire. He gives a total of about 168,000 as the reasonable annual emigration.No. 4 of the Quarterly Review of Biology completes volume 1, and the editors, Profs. Raymond Pearl and R. W. Hegner, are to be congratulated on the success of their initial volume. The trustworthy and readable articles on subjects of current interest and importance in various fields of biology, and the helpful notices of new biological books, have established the reputation of this new Review and have made it what its editors intended it to be-useful to the professional biologist, to the worker in other sciences who wishes to maintain his general interest in biological progress, and to the intelligent lay reader. The principal article in this issue (No. 4) is a comparative account by Dr. Adolph H. Schultz of the foetal growth of man and other primates, which is excellently illustrated by drawings, diagrams, graphs, and tables. The London agents for the journal are Messrs. Bailliere, Tindall and Cox, 7 and 8 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C.2.DR. P. CHALMERS MITCHELL will deliver the annual Huxley Memorial Lecture at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, South Kensington, on May 4, taking as his subject " Logic and Law in Biology." SIR JAMES BERRY, president of the Royal Society of Medicine and author of standard works on surgical subjects; Sir H. Walford Davies, professor of music, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth; and Sir I Frederick Keeble, formerly Sherardian professor of botany, University of Oxford, and distinguished by his work in pure and applied botany, have been elected members of the Atheneum Club under Rule II., which provides for election by the Committee of " persons of distinguished eminence in science, literature, or the arts, or for public services."THE annual dinner of the British Science Guild will be held at the Criterion Restaurant, London, on Thursday, May 12. Lord Askwith will preside, and the guests include Sir Alfred Mond, Sir Herbert Samuel, the Hon. W. Ormsby-Gore, Sir William Pope, and Sir Frederick Keeble. Particulars may be obtained from the Secretary, British Science Guild, 6 John Street, Adelphi, W.C.2. AT the annual general meeting of the Ray Society held on Mar. 24, the following officers were re-elected: President, Prof. W. C. McIntosh; Treasurer, Sir Sidney F. Harmer; Secretary, Dr. W. T. Calman. Dr. G. P. Bidder was elected a vice-president, and Mr. J. Spedan Lewis and Mr. F. Martin Duncan were elected new members of council. It was announced that the Society's issue for 1927 would be the first volume of a " Monograph of British Sea Anemones," by Dr. T. A. Stephenson, which will be illustrated with coloured plates from the author's drawings of the living animals. It is expected that this work will prove unusually attractive as well as of great scientific interest.APPLICATIONS are invited for the following appointments, on or before the dates mentioned:-An assistant master for mathematics at the Government High School, Nassau, Bahamas-The Board of Education (C. A. (T.)), Whitehall, S.W.1, or The Scottish Education Department (T.), Whitehall, London, S.W.1 (April 11). An assistant pathologist at the Charing Cross Hospital Institute of Pathology-The Secretary of the Institute, 62 Chandos Street, W.C.2 (April 25). Junior assistants in the aerodynamics department of the National Physical LaboratoryThe Director, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington (April 30). A lecturer in geography at Armstrong College-The Registrar, Armstrong College, Newcastleupon-Tyne (May 7). A professor of agriculture at Armstrong College-The Registrar, Armstrong College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (May 20). An assistant in the Dominion Museum, Wellington, New Zealand-The High Commissioner for New Zealand, 415 Strand, W.C.2 (May 31). An assistant in the Laboratory of Zoophysiology of the University of Copenhagen, mainly for research work in respiratory metabolism and gas analysis-Prof. A. Krogh, The University, Copenhagen. A teacher of design, with special reference to the textile industry, at the Leicester College of Arts and Crafts-The Registrar. A senior biology mistress at the Cheltenham Ladies' College-The Principal.

ISSN:0028-0836    

DOI:10.1038/119535a0

出版商:Nature Publishing Group    

年代:1927

数据来源: Nature

摘要:

THE BIELID METEOR SHowERs.-Mr. Willard J. Fisher, of Harvard Observatory, contributes a paper to Proc. Nat. Acad. Sciences, Dec. 1926, in which he collects a large amount of material relating to various apparitions of these showers, and plots them in the endeavour to trace the laws of their recurrence. In 1741 and 1798 the shower occurred on Dec. 6 and 7; there were also December showers in 1830, 1838, and 1847, but all since then have been in November, owing to the motion of the node. On plotting the showers they appear to group themselves along four different lines, indicating presumably that there are several condensations of meteors along the orbit, their periods being slightly different. Many of the brighter showers are separated by intervals of 13 0 years (double the period of the comet). It is noteworthy that three of the four lines in the diagram converge towards a point a few years ahead of the present time, when the date of the shower, will be Nov. 16. It will be well, therefore, to keep a careful watch for these meteors in coming years. COMET GRIGG-SKJELLERUP.-It is curious how this comet has consistently been associated with the British Astronomical Association. It was found both in 1902 and 1922 by members of the Association, Mr. J. Grigg of Thames, New Zealand, and Mr. Skjellerup of Cape Town. The suggestion of identity was first made by Mr. R. T. Crawford and Mr. W. F. Meyer of Caiifornia, but it was Mr. G. Merton, another member of the Association, who finally proved it, and made a prediction for the return of the present year.Mr. F. J. Hargreaves, the director of the photographic section of the Association, was the first to photograph the comet at the present return, on two successive evenings, Mar, 27 and 28. It was Mr. Merton who detected the very faint images of the comet, Mr. Hargreaves having overlooked them. Further confirmation was obtained by a photograph taken by Prof. Schorr at Bergedorf on Mar. 31. Mr. Hargreaves uses an aero-lens of 20 inches focus, the mounting being home-made. It is a great encouragement for amateurs that this tiny equipment beat the instruments at the Yerkes and Harvard Observatories, which reported in the same week that they could obtain no trace of the comet. The explanation is that such large, faint, diffused objects are specially adapted to small-scale photographs using a large light-ratio. The deduced date of perihelion is May 10 245, 1927, U.T., which is only one-tenth of a day earlier than Mr. Merton's predicted date, May 10 34. This date had been communicated to Mr. F. E. Seagrave, who published ephemerides based upon it, but without mentioning Mr. Merton's name. The corrected elements are as follows T 1927 May 10 245 U.T. X 3550 1' 48" t 215 32 1 1927-0 i 17 29 18 0 43 48 58 log q 9 95068 Period 4 98772 years. Ephemeris for Oh U.T.: R.A. Dec]. [log r. log a. Apr. 6. 5h 58-6m 10 25' S. 0 0123 9;7642 14. 6 11 8 1 17 N. 9 9896 9-7213 22. 6 27-3 4 43 9-9707 9-6676 26. 6 36-1 6 49 N. 9-9633 9-6363 The comet will approach within 19 million miles of the earth early in June. It will probably be a difficult object to observe accurately, being large and diffused.

ISSN:0028-0836    

DOI:10.1038/119539a0

出版商:Nature Publishing Group    

年代:1927

数据来源: Nature

摘要:

THE DIVINITY OF THE GUEST.-In the Ceylon Journal of Science, vol. 1, Pt. 3, Mr. A. M. Hocart discusses the position of the guest and his relation to his host in ancient Greece, in India, and in Fiji. In ancient Greece no distinction was made between a stranger, a host, and a guest, as they were not distinguishable. Further, not only was the god present with the stranger, and Zeus the patron of strangers, but also he was often regarded either as a god or actually was a god, as is shown in the manner in which Odysseus was addressed in Phaeacia. The exchange of gifts and the return of hospitality, potential or actual, created a bond of hereditary guest friendship out of which grew the consular system in historical times. The idea that the god accompanied strangers was evidently a check on an unhospitable age. In India, in the Atharvaveda the divine character of the guest is worked out in detail, every act of hospitality being identified with some phase of the sacrifice to a god. In the Anguttara Nikaya, the offerings to the Manes include a reception of guests, who are selected either as being learned or virtuous Brahmans, or as being relations through females. In Fiji, various ceremonial observances towards strangers, including the making of gifts, point to their sacred or heavenly character. In Fiji, however, intercourse takes place only through kinsmen, the kinship being either actual or, in case of necessity, fictitious. It is reckoned through the female. There was also a system of official guest friends. It is suggested that the Homeric system may have developed from some such archaic form as the Fijian, India being the common link in which the offerings to kinsmen and guests are distinguished, while in Fiji the recipients are identical; but in both countries divine honours were accorded to guests. The resulting hypothesis is that the divinity of the guest grows out of the divinity of the kinsman, who stands in cross relationship to the host, and this is extended fictitiously to any stranger. WEAPONS AND ARMOUR OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.-A description by Mr. Herbert W. Krieger of the collection of primitive weapons and armour of the Philippine Islands in the United States National Museum, which appears as No. 137 of the Museum's Bulletin, is of a wider ethnological scope than its title might suggest. The author, in his introductory remarks, deals not only with the history of the collection. which is derived from a variety of sources, and has been given at different times, but also with the development of the types of weapons of the Islands and of their tribal cultures. The various types preserved in metal, bone, wood, and horn, bear traces of the several waves of civilisation that have reached the Philippines. They extend from the primitive digging stick, which may be a club or, with slight adaptations, an axe, a spear, a sword, a knife, or a hoe, down to the cannon of brass and firearms of Spanish manufacture in the possession of insurrectionary native troops. Tribal groups and nationalities manifest in their weapon production and types of body armour and shields a nearness to, or remoteness from, foreign culture influences. No one group has retained exclusively any one type of material culture. Some elements survive from a primitive Melanesian strain; other tribes show borrowings from the aboriginal Negrito; the Batak use the blowgun, a typical Malay weapon, while the Negritos of Zambales and the Luzon east coast use the Malay shield. Fine iron and steel blades, which have come to be recognised as characteristic of the Mohammedanised Moros, show a decorative design on the blade and a blade form invariably of Hindu or Arab character. Although the Spaniards found a crude crucible of stone in use for crushing gold ore and quartz, there appears to have been no stone age in the Philippines. Bamboo furnished in early days all the material required for implements and weapons until those made of iron were introduced from Borneo.CLASSIFICATION OF HEMIPTERA.-The greater part of Vol. 7 published by the Connecticut State Geological and Natural History Survey, 1923-1925, is occupied by an extensive memoir of more than 800 pages forming Bulletin 34 of the Survey and entitled " The Hemiptera or Sucking Insects of Connecticut." Its author, Dr. W. E. Britton, in collaboration with a number of specialists in different families of the order, has provided a trustworthy and authoritative guide to the classification of Hemiptera, which will be found useful to entomologists in many countries. The bulletin is virtually a text-book on its subject and is well illustrated and provided with a full index. DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD FISHES IN THE NORTH SEA. -In Fishery Investigations (Min. Agric. Fish.) ser. 2, vol. 9, No. 4, 1926, Mr. J. 0. Borley provides a series of most instructive charts portraying the quantitative distribution of the marketable sizes of the principal food fishes in the North Sea during the years 1923 and 1924. It should be noted that only fish taken by the trawl are treated; species such as the herring, which are very largely caught in other nets, are dealt with only in so far as they are trawled. The charts are drawn up from the landings of British steam-trawlers, referred to the place of capture. The areas to which landings are referred are small rectangles each 1° of longitude by 30' of latitude; these vary somewhat in extent with latitude, from 1500 square miles in the southern bight of the North Sea to approximately 1200 square miles in the region of the Shetlands. Each chart depicts a set of contours which indicate the relative frequency of occurrence of one particular trade category of fish, in grades of abundance from less than 1 cwt. to more than 100 cwt. per 100 hours of fishing. A loose key-chart, printed on transparent paper and showing the approximate position and names of some of the chief fishing grounds, is provided, which may be superimposed on the others as desired. The whole work demonstrates very clearly the scientific value of the carefully compiled statistics of commercial landings at British ports. Some notes on the natural history of the fishes dealt with in the charts, prepared by Miss Thursby Pelham from a variety of sources, form a supplement to this publication.FLEAS AND PLAGUE.-VOl. I., Pt. 4, of the Ceylon Journal of Science (Dec. 1926) is devoted to the results of researches by Dr. L. Fabian Hirst on the parasitology of plague. He has returned to the important problem of the transmission of plague by the fleas Xenopsylla cheopis and X. astia. All attempts to transmit plague between rats, mice, and guinea-pigs by means of X. astia-596 fleas and a variety of methods were employed-at room temperature in Colombo during four plague seasons gave negative results. Plague was successfully transmitted to twelve rodents by means of 95 X. cheopis in the course of six separate experiments at room temperature. Plague was successfully transmitted from mouse to rat at an artificially reduced temperature (700 F.) by means of A. astia; a female flea of this species with 'blocked' proventriculus transmitted plague to two out of four of the rats on which its bites were observed. Rise of temperature may exert an unequal effect on the transmitting power of two different species of rat-flea. The second part of the work deals with the bionomics of the two species of fleas-egg-laying, life-history, longevity (that of the female being greater), factors which influence biting, etc. A useful list of the rat fleas of the world is given, and appended is a brief account, with seven plates, by Stanley Hirst, of the principal species of Acari parasitic on rats. POLLINATION EXPERIMENTS WITH PEAS.-More detailed observation of Mendelian ratios is revealing consistent departures from expectation, which have to be explained by differences in the conditions under which the pollen tubes grow down the style of a flower or in the viability and rate of growth of pollen tubes, as well as by reference to other features of flower structure. Dr. C. J. Bond (Jour. of Genetics, vol. 17, No. 3) has experimented on these points by pollination of the F2 hybrids beween pea varieties having respectively round yellow and wrinkled green seeds. By pollinating immature stigmas, he finds an increase in the recessives resulting, presumably because the pollen grains bearing the recessive factors, and probably containing more sugar, are more viable or grow faster when the stigma is finally ripe. He also finds a small increase in the proportion of recessives when minimal pollination, i.e. only a few pollen grains on the stigma, is used. The explanation of this probably lies in the ovules, as the effect is more marked when the seed-parent carries the recessive characters. Dr. Bond thinks he also gets evidence that the functional ovules in flowers on different parts of the plant bear somewhat different proportions of the dominant and recessive factors. Such results are to be expected with a more detailed knowledge of the physiology of the ovule and pollen development in the plant. SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION OF HAYSTACKS.-The losses to agriculture due to the spontaneous combustion of haystacks prove to be considerable. In Matgriaux pour 1'9tude des calamitis for JulySeptember 1926, Mr. G. Laupper goes into the problem at length and shows from statistics drawn from Switzerland and Germany that such fires are commonest after a good hay season and are least frequent in poor hay years. The monthly incidence also shows a clear maximum in July and August, with high figures for October and November. The summer maximum he associates naturally with the initial high temperature of the hay after its thorough exposure to solar rays before and after being made into ricks, while a good hay season means that the hay is rich in hydrocarbons, the decomposition of which is at the root of the trouble. The yearly loss to agriculture through stack fires in Germany is calculated to be about one million pounds and in Switzerland to be little less. No sure means of prevention have been discovered. Layers of straw or salt in the ricks have been proved valueless, and ventilation is not a certain cure. The only measure that can be recommended is spreading the hay as soon as abnormal temperature is noticed.THE SURVEY OF INDIA.-The General and Map Publication Reports of the Survey of India for 1925-26 have been published. The total area of new surveys of all kinds completed during the year was 42,489 square miles. About 45 per cent. of the total area assigned to the department has now been surveyed. Work for the new geodetic level net of India made steady progress. Tidal observations were continued as in past years. Map publication included five new sheets of the one-million map of India and adjacent countries, which is now nearing completion except for Arabia; twenty-seven new 'degree' sheets, sixtynine half-inch and 127 one-inch sheets. The modern topographical map of India thus grows steadily, though only a little more than one-third of the total number of sheets have yet been published. The reports contain full index maps to the sheets available. SIZE AND FIGURE OF THlE EARTH.-Newton's theory of gravitation was held up for several years on account of lack of accurate knowledge of the size of the earth, and Newton himself first estimated the earth's figure from its speed of rotation. The determination of the size and figure of the earth has during the last two centuries exacted enormous labour from geodesists. It is generally assumed that the earth is approximately an ellipsoid of revolution, so that only the equatorial radius and the flattening have to be determined. Observations made in different regions of the globe are, however, rather discordant, the differences amounting to several parts in 100,000 as to the size and about 1 per cent. in the flattening. The labour which the observations have involved is so great that every effort should be made to make the fullest use of them. One difficulty in utilising the separate arcs which have been measured results from the fact that they have been discussed with respect to different figures. The figure of Clarke (1880) suits the European observations well, but a considerably different figure was deduced by Hayford from American observations, and this latter was adopted at the Madrid meeting of the Union of Geodesy and Geophysics as the reference figure for future calculations. To simplify comparisons, particularly with Clarke's spheroid, accurate tables have been computed for the Royal Geographical Society, and by means of these Mr. A. R. Hinks has discussed the principal geodetic surveys. He shows the impossibility of separating the two unknowns from arcs near the equator, and shows that different arcs fit different spheroids, and that those in India and South Africa do not fit any spheroid well. The difference in the results cannot arise from errors in the geodetic observations, but the astronomical observations may be effected to a considerable extent by local attraction, as in India. The probability is, however, that the approximation of the earth to a spheroid is only rough. Mr. Hinks points out that gravity observations can also be treated by a graphical process, and that they likewise indicate departure from a common spheroid when different regions of the earth are considered.HELIUM CONTENT OF JAPANESE MINERtALS.-On heating certain minerals containing helium, approximately 50 per cent. is evolved, and the method has been used by J. Sasaki to determine the helium contents of some Japanese minerals. The gases obtained by heating the powdered substances in an evacuated quartz-glass tube are passed over solid potash, red-hot copper oxide, and soda-lime to remove carbon dioxide and hydrogen. By sparking with oxygen in a eudiometer, nitrogen is converted into nitric oxide, which is absorbed by moist potash floating on the surface of the mercury, and the excess of oxygen is allowed to combine with melted phosphorus. The remaining impurities are removed when the residual gas is subjected to a discharge in a modified Geissler tube with liquid electrodes of a sodium-potassium alloy, and to the action of charcoal cooled in liquid air. Estimates of the geological ages of two of the minerals have been calculated by Rutherford's method and appear together with the other data in the December issue of the Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan. The figure for monazite is 90 million years, and that for fergusonite 150 million years. MAGNETIC ELEMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES.The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey has recently issued two small pamphlets (Nos. 353, 360, price 10 cents each), one detailing the results of magnetic observations by the Survey during 1925, the other giving a chart, for the whole of the United States, of magnetic declination and its secular change per year, for the epoch 1925. The Survey issues such isogonic charts and secular-change data every five years, suitable stations being reoccupied during the intervening periods, in order to obtain the data necessary to carry the charts forward. With the chart is a full explanation of its construction and use to surveyors, also instructions to enable a surveyor to determine the declination with the aid of a compass and observations of the sun or stars. Tables are given for use in connexion with such celestial observations, and also tables of secular change in declination for a large inumber of stations, at intervals from 1750 to 1925. The first pamphlet (No. 353) gives observations of declination, dip, and intensity at respectively 330, 123, and 121 stations, widely scattered throughout the States, and including also some in the Philippines, Greenland, and the Aleutian Islands.INDOOR ELECTRICAL ILLUMINATION.-It was stated by Mr. J. W. T. Walsh, of the National Physical Laboratory, in a paper on illuminating engineering which he read to the Institution of Electrical Engineers on Mar. 3, that 90 per cent. of the people in Great Britain carry on their work after daylight hours by an inadequate illumination and an unsuitable system of lighting. To quadruple the illumination and distribute it properly would result in better health and higher efficiency. The sources of illumination used in the early days cast unpleasant shadows. To get over this defect the indirect system of lighting, in which all the light from the source was reflected upwards to the ceiling and was then diffused over the room, was devised. The result was an almost complete absence of shadow, which, although suitable for a few special purposes, such as drawing-office work, was found to be most inconvenient for other work, such as sewing, where the shadows cast by the individual threads are a help. As a consequence of this defect, the modern semi-indirect system of lighting has been evolved. In this system part of the light is transmitted downwards through a bowl of diffusing material, while the remainder is emitted upwards to the ceiling as in the indirect system. The author considers that each of the three systems has its own field of usefulness. He thinks that in a lecture theatre, the totally indirect system has a tendency to appear lifeless and gloomy even though the amount of the illumination is ample. Some direct sources of light ought therefore to be provided in addition. The reflexion of a bright source of light from a polished surface or from a glossy paint or enamel often causes an objectionable glare. Methods should always be devised to obviate this.ELECTRICITY SUPPLY.-In the Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers for March, Mr. J. R. Beard gives a report of the progress made in the transmission and distribution of electricity during the past year. He mentions that for many years the installation of transformer substations out-of-doors has been common abroad, and now, owing to the high cost of buildings, it is becoming common in Great Britain. Until recently all substations for converting from alternating to direct current were manually operated. Owing mainly to the increase in the rates of wages, automatic apparatus for starting up, shutting down, and controlling the apparatus in these stations is now largely used. Experience has shown that automatic control gives greater security than manual control. A recent development is ' supervisory control,' in which the operation of a number of automatic substations can be regulated from a central control point. This combines the accuracy of automatic control with the intelligence of manual control. All the substations on the 170-mile 3000-volt main line electric railway in Natal are operated automatically. Mr. Beard mentions one curious fact in connexion with lowvoltage supply in Great Britain and the United States, namely, that while a pressure of about 230 volts is general in the former, a voltage of 115 is used in the latter. The reason seems to be that in the early days the life of the low-voltage lamps was much longer and their efficiency was much higher than that of high-voltage lamps. It is almost the universal custom in America for the supply authorities to supervise and maintain consumers' lamps. In Great Britain this is left to the consumer. Twenty years ago the low-voltage lamps were much cheaper to maintain, and so the over-all efficiency with their use was greater than that with high-voltage lamps. This, combined with the cheaper wiring systems used, explains why 115 volts is still the standard pressure in the United States. Mr. Beard sums up in favour of alternating current distributed in the three-phase four-wire system. DOPES AND DETONATIONS.-A second commumucation from the Air Ministry Laboratory by Prof. H. L. Callendar and collaborators, dealing with the effect of antiknock compounds on engine 'knock,' appeared in February issues of Engineering (pp. 147, 182, 209). The previous report (Reports and Memoranda, No. 1013) led to the conclusions that detonation was due to the presence of nuclear drops in the charge in the cylinder during explosion, and that 'antiknock' concentrated in the drops, decomposed and protected them from oxidation by the formation of a metallic film or, in the case of the organic dopes, by dilution with a substance of high critical temperature. Such an explanation being inadequate to explain the different behaviour of various dopes, the present communication extends the work on the chemical side. It is found that detonation in paraffin fuels and ether is due to the accumulation of peroxide in the nuclear drops during rapid compression. The amount of peroxide formed would not in itself be sufficient to cause the detonation observed, but acts as a primer causing simultaneous ignition of the drops. The metallic dopes are considered to act by reducing the peroxides as fast as they are formed, preventing their accumulation, and thus delaying the ignition of the drops. The processes of slow combustion of various fuels are investigated by observing the temperature at which combustion becomes appreciable, the dopes being shown in this way to delay oxidation by preventing peroxidation of the fuel. A striking experiment is described, showing the difference in the kind of ignition obtained when the vapour of paraffin is ignited in a hot tube as compared with paraffin spray. In the former case the vapour burns with a quiet flame; in the latter the mixture burns with slight explosions and flashes of flame. The present communication adds to our knowledge of the behaviour of combustible mixtures.

ISSN:0028-0836    

DOI:10.1038/119540a0

出版商:Nature Publishing Group    

年代:1927

数据来源: Nature

摘要:

THE action of light on plants has had a perennial interest for plant physiologists, and recently the subject has received some concentrated attention. Ferdinand Hercik (Publications de la Facultt des Sciences de 1' UniversitM Masaryk, No. 74, 1926) has tried to correlate the action of light and the surface tension of the expressed sap of his plants. He finds that the sap of normally grown seedlings of Lupinus, Sinapis, and Pisum has a greater surface tension than sap from stems of etiolated seedlings. On the other hand, sap from leaves of normally grown seedlings has a smaller surface tension than sap from leaves of etiolated seedlings. Now etiolated plants have usually greater stem growth and less leaf growth than normal plants, and the author correlates the greater surface tension with less growth and the smaller surface tension with greater growth. If, however, seedlings have the same length, then the surface tension of their respective saps is the same irrespective of the conditions under which they have been grown. The author has not traced the causal chain between the surface tension of the sap and the actual phenomena of growth. In a series of papers in the New Phytologist (vol. 24, 5, and vol. 25, 3 and 4), Prof. J. H. Priestley deals with the problem from a slightly different viewpoint and advances some tentative explanations of his results. In the case of the broad bean (Vicia Faba) he was able to destroy some of the more marked etiolation phenomena by only very brief exposures to lighttwo minutes in every twenty-four hours. He points out that any change produced on etiolated plants by the action of light must be initiated, not by the effects of photosynthetic products, but by the photocatalytic effect of light upon the products of metabolism. For example, cells from the cortical region of an etiolated broad bean tip are incapable of being plasmolysed in a 17 per cent. cane-sugar solution, but, after exposure to artificial light for one hour on two successive days, are plasmolysed readily. The author considers that the photochemical action of light releases protein and fatty substances from the developing walls of the cells intervening between the central cylinder and meristem; and these walls, now consisting of purer cellulose, readily permit of the transfer of the nutrient sap from the central cylinder, with an ensuing more diffuse and more superficial development of merismatic tissue. In this way growth, which in the etiolated plant is confined to tips of stems, becomes redistributed.The phototropic curvature of grass and cereal coleoptiles, the subject of much experimentation, is explained by Prof. Priestley on the basis of the foregoing hypothesis. Thus the side of the coleoptile exposed to the light becomes in consequence more permeable, with greater guttation through the apical hydathode from the vein nearer the light. The cells of the lighted side will therefore extend in length less than those of the darkened side, producing a curvature towards the light. Following still another line of attack, Prof. Y. Yoshii has experimented on the influence of the relative length of day and night on plants (Science Reports of the T6hoku Imperial University, 4th series, vol. 2, 2). His results, in the main, confirm and extend the work of Garner and Allard in grouping plants into two categories, long and short day plants, according to the length of daily illumination necessary for the production of flowers (Jour. Agri. Res., i 8, p. 553, and 23, p. 871). The evidence adduced leads to the conclusion that there is probably another group of plants which are nearly or entirely indifferent to photoperiods, but affected by other factors as to time of flowering. The author finds that the optimum photoperiod for reproduction does not result in maximum vegetative growth, and that closely related plants, sometimes even varieties of the same plant, may behave quite differently as regards photoperiods; for example, the late variety of rice plant is a short day plant, while the early variety is indifferent to regulation of light period. This seems to suggest that some other factors besides those concerned in photosynthesis are involved. If the photoperiod is the key to the distinction between spring and winter varieties of wheat, then researches along this particular line may have some application in the practical field of crop production.

ISSN:0028-0836    

DOI:10.1038/119543a0

出版商:Nature Publishing Group    

年代:1927

数据来源: Nature

摘要:

April IO, i864.-The modern process of manufacturing open hearth steel was started by PierreEmile Martin, who melted together pig-iron, scrap, and iron ore in a Siemen's regenerative furnace. Martin's French patent was taken out on April 10, 1864. Two hundred years ago, R6aumur described the conversion of wrought iron into steel by fusing it with pig-iron, but his experiments never went beyond the laboratory stage. The open hearth process was introduced into America in 1868. In 1880 that country produced 1,074,000 tons of Bessemer steel, and 110,000 tons of open hearth steel. Forty years later these figures had increased to 8,883,000 tons of Bessemer steel, and 32,672,000 tons of open hearth steel, the total production being nearly equal to half a ton of steel per head of population. April II, 1709.-The most famous of all prizes for scientific work is the Copley Medal of the Royal Society. It was founded by Sir Godfrey Copley, Bart., who by his will dated Oct. 14, 1704, and proved April 11, 1709, bequeathed to Sir Hans Sloane and Abraham Hill " one hundred pounds in trust for the Royal Society of London for improving natural knowledge, to be laid out in experiments or otherwise for the benefit thereof as they shall direct and appoint." No award was made until 1731, when Stephen Gray, an inmate of the Charterhouse, received a prize for his electrical experiments. On Nov. 10, 1736, the Royal Society resolved to convert the bequest into a gold medal, Desaguliers receiving the first, and since then the medal has generally been awarded annually. Copley was a member of Parliament and held various public offices. In 1881 the then representative of the family, Sir Joseph Copley, transferred to the Royal Society a sum in Consols sufficient to provide in perpetuity an annual bonus of £50 to be given to the recipient of the medal (v. also NATURE, Dec. 4, 1926, p. 823).April 13, 1869.-The successful braking of trains was first solved by Westinghouse. A head-on collision between two trains directed his attention to the matter, and the chance reading of an account of the use of compressed air in boring the Mont Cenis Tunnel led to his experiments with an air brake. His first steam-air brake was patented on April 13, 1869. In 1872 he described the automatic brake, and the following year brought out his ingenious triple valve. In the famous trials on trains carried out by Sir Douglas Galton in 1878-9, the brake of Westinghouse proved its superiority, but it was afterwards much improved, Westinghouse alone taking out altogether 103 patents in connexion with it. April I5, I777.-A hundred and fifty years ago, in a letter dated April 15, 1777, Volta suggested to Prof. Barletti of Pavia the possibility of firing a pistol at Milan by the discharge of Leyden jars at Como, the two places being joined by an iron wire.April I5, I845.-Liebig is regarded as the virtual founder of agricultural chemistry. His famous work, " Die organische Chemie . . ." appeared in 1840, and it was on a barren plot of land outside Giessen that he made his experiments. His researches also led to the foundation of the artificial manure industry, and he himself, through James Muspratt, on April 15, 1845, took out an English patent, the object of his invention being " to restore to the land by means of a manure the mineral elements taken away by the crop which had been grown on and removed from the land." April 15, i893.-The finest pre-turbine British. liner was the s.s. Campania, which on trial on April 15, 1893, developed 31,050 h.p. and attained a speed of 23.18 knots, her displacement being 18,000 tons

ISSN:0028-0836    

DOI:10.1038/119544b0

出版商:Nature Publishing Group    

年代:1927

数据来源: Nature