Britannica Research Articles

An Index to the Complete Encyclopaedia Britannica

An Index to the Complete Encyclopaedia Britannica Get access Notes and Queries, Volume s9-XI, Issue 281, 16 May 1903, Page 399, https://doi.org/10.1093/nq/s9-XI.281.399a Published: 16 May 1903

The classification of the elements

Although no direct evidence acceptable to chemists has been adduced which in any way justifies the belief that the elements are decomposible, it is impossible £o resist the conclusion that they are genetically related—so closely in many respects do they resemble a series of related compounds, especially when regarded from the point of view of the organic chemist. The generalisation known as the Periodic Law is in itself a justification of this view: the manner in which interrelationship becomes manifest when they are classified in accordance with its canons, being probably the strongest of all the arguments which can be cited as tending to show that the elements are compounds—but compounds very different from those with which we are accustomed to deal. Even in the form in which it was put forward by Mendeleeff, however, the periodic generalisation is but a first approximation: and the great Russian has himself pointed out that it needs improvement and development. As chemists are beginning to recognise this, I venture to submit a scheme of classification which I have been led to draw up in writing an article for the forthcoming Supplement to the ‘Encyclopedia Britannica.’ The article, I may say, was sent to press in May, 1900 and the first proof before me is dated November 20, 1900.

The Encyclopædia Britannica

SEVERAL articles of scientific interest are contained in this volume, but limitations of space will only permit us to refer to a few of them. Among the subjects of contributions, in addition to those mentioned below, are Balanoglossus, by Dr. A. Willey; George Bentham, by Sir William T. Thiselton-Dyer; Birds, by Dr. H. Gadow; Brachiopoda, by Mr. A. E. Shipley; Calibration and Calorimetry, by Prof. H. L. Callendar; and the Channel Tunnel, by Prof. Boyd Dawkins. There are also articles on all geographical divisions having names between Austria and Chicacole. The Encyclopaedia Britannica. Vol. xxvi. Aus.—Chi. (Vol. ii. of the tenth edition). Pp. xxii + 763. (London and Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black; and The Times, Printing House Square, London, 1902.)

Encyclopaedia Biblica: A Critical Dictionary of the Literary, Political and Religious History, the Archaeology, Geography and Natural History of the Bible. Edited by the Rev. T. K. Cheyne, M.A., D.D., Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at Oxford and formerly Fellow of BaHiol College, Canon of Rochester, and ]. Sutherland Black, M.A., LL.D., formerly Assistant Editor of the

Encyclopaedia Biblica: A Critical Dictionary of the Literary, Political and Religious History, the Archaeology, Geography and Natural History of the Bible. Edited by the Rev. T. K. Cheyne, M.A., D.D., Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at Oxford and formerly Fellow of BaHiol College, Canon of Rochester, and ]. Sutherland Black, M.A., LL.D., formerly Assistant Editor of the

<italic>Encyclopaedia Biblica, A Critical Dictionary of the Literary, Political and Religious History, the Archaeology, Geography and Natural History of the Bible</italic>. Edited by the Rev. <sc>T. K. Cheyne</sc>, M.A., D.D., Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at Oxford and formerly Fellow of Balliol College, Canon of Rochester, and <sc>J. Sutherland Black</sc>, M.A., LL.D., formerly Assistant Editor of the

Journal Article Encyclopaedia Biblica, A Critical Dictionary of the Literary, Political and Religious History, the Archaeology, Geography and Natural History of the Bible. Edited by the Rev. T. K. Cheyne, M.A., D.D., Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at Oxford and formerly Fellow of Balliol College, Canon of Rochester, and J. Sutherland Black, M.A., LL.D., formerly Assistant Editor of the ‘Encyclopaedia Britannica.’ Volume I : A to D. (New York : The Macmillan Co.; London: Adam and Charles Black. 1899. Pp. xxviii, 572.) Get access Encyclopaedia Biblica, A Critical Dictionary of the Literary, Political and Religious History, the Archaeology, Geography and Natural History of the Bible. Edited by the Cheyne Rev. T. K., M.A., D.D., Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at Oxford and formerly Fellow of Balliol College, Canon of Rochester, and Black J. Sutherland, M.A., LL.D., formerly Assistant Editor of the ‘Encyclopaedia Britannica.’ Volume I: A to D. (New York: The Macmillan Co.; London: Adam and Charles Black. 1899. Pp. xxviii, 572.) C. H. Toy C. H. Toy Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 5, Issue 3, April 1900, Pages 543–545, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/5.3.543 Published: 01 April 1900

Plague in China

IN the “Encyclopaedia Britannica” (ninth edition, vol. xix. p. 168), Dr. J. F. Payne writes: “It is remarkable that of late years reports have come of the occurrence of Oriental plague in China. It has been observed in the province of Yunnan since 1871 … it appears to be endemic, though there are rumours of its having been brought from Burmah, and become more noticeable after the suppression of rebellion in that province [1872].” However, the following passage I have lately found in Hung Liang-Kih's “Peh-Kiang-Shi-Hwa” (British Museum copy, 15,316, a, tom. iv., fol. 4, b), bears witness to the much earlier occurrence of the pest in Yunnan, inasmuch as the author, who was born in 1736, and died in 1809, speaks of his contemporary dead thereby:—“Shi Tau-Nan, the son of Shi Fan, now the Governor of Wang-Kiang, was notorious for his [poetic] gift, and was only thirty-six years old when he died. … Then, in Chau-Chau [in Yunnan] it happened that in daytime strange rats appeared in the houses, and lying down on the ground, perished with blood-spitting. There was not a man who escaped the instantaneous death after being infected with the miasma. Tau-Nan composed thereon a poem, entitled “Death of Rats,” the masterpiece of his; and a few days after, he himself died from this queer rat epidemic.”

Concerning the Thermodynamic Correction for an Air Thermometer

IT seems noteworthy not only that the theoretical investigation on this subject, given in Maxwell's “Theory of Heat” and Tait's “Heat,” is fallacious, as has been pointed out by Mr. Rose-Innes in his letter which appeared in your issue of May 26, but that there is no indication in either of these text-books that the result given is not in accordance with the experimental facts. The investigation in question, which is practically the same as that first given by Lord Kelvin before the experiments were performed, leads to the result that the cooling effect should be proportional to the difference of the logarithms of the pressures before and after passing the plug, instead of proportional to the difference of the pressures themselves, as was actually found to be the case; the discrepancy was, of course, noted'by the experimenters. The methods used in all the theoretical discussions in Lord Kelvin's papers on this subject prior to the final one in Part iv. of the papers “On the Thermal Effects of Fluids in Motion,” seem equally open to objection. The numerical results derived by the-last method, which seems perfectly sound, were given apparently for the first time in the article “Heat” in the “Encyclopaedia Britannica”; the investigation and results are reproduced in Preston's “Theory of Heat,” and substantially in Parker's “Thermodynamics.” The correction obtained to the number representing the temperature of melting ice on the absolute scale by this method was + ˙70, the previous methods giving in succession + ˙83, –˙3 and + .87; the uncorrected estimate finally used was also different from that taken at first.

Sleep, Sleeplessness, and Hypnotics

A theory of sleep phenomena, to be complete, must have data for its construction drawn from wider sources than we find have been surveyed in the average physiologic essay on the subject. Notwithstanding the strides made by biology, more particularly in its morphologic aspects, the past quarter century has added but little to Wm. B. Carpenter's summary of Sleep and Somnambulism, in his famous Physiology, or what is contained in J. G. McKendrick's article in the Encyclopaedia Brittanica. A full bibliography is given in the Dictionnaire Encyclopedique des Sciences Medicales ; Mc-Nish, Durham, Kohlschutter, Pfluger and Mosso afforded the main discussions, which have been added to but little by later writers. Herbert Spencer (Principles of Biology, Vol. I., Chap. IV.) on Waste and Repair,summarizes much that could be more directly applied to a satisfactory consideration of the study than was required in his Synthetic Philosophy. Spencer notes that reptiles maintaining no

SLEEP, SLEEPLESSNESS AND HYPNOTICS.

A theory of sleep phenomena, to be complete, must have data for its construction drawn from wider sources than we find have been surveyed in the average physiologic essay on the subject. Notwithstanding the strides made by biology, more particularly in its morphologic aspects, the past quarter century has added but little to Wm. B. Carpenter's summary of Sleep and Somnambulism, in his famous Physiology, or what is contained in J. G. McKendrick's article in the Encyclopaedia Brittanica. A full bibliography is given in the Dictionnaire Encyclopedique des Sciences Medicales ; Mc-Nish, Durham, Kohlschutter, Pfluger and Mosso afforded the main discussions, which have been added to but little by later writers. Herbert Spencer (Principles of Biology, Vol. I., Chap. IV.) on Waste and Repair,summarizes much that could be more directly applied to a satisfactory consideration of the study than was required in his Synthetic Philosophy. Spencer notes that reptiles maintaining no

Mr. H. O. Forbes's Discoveries in the Chatham Islands

UNWILLING as I am to interpose in the discussion between Mr. Wallace and Mr. Forbes (supra pp. 27, 74), yet each of those gentlemen having referred to opinions formerly expressed by my brother and myself, it seems fitting that I should offer a few words on the present occasion, if it were only to avoid misapprehension; but I would premise that I have not seen Mr. Forbes's paper read before the Geographical Society or his article in the Fortnightly Review. To this I would add that I am no more ashamed of opinions in the utterance of which before the Royal Society in 1868 I took a share, than I am of having then been a quarter of a century younger than I am now. Whether they are to be considered modified by what I published some halfdozen years later, when I next touched upon the subject, I do not greatly care, and leave to the judgment of those (if any there be) who may take the trouble of comparing the passage in the Philosophical Transactions (1869, pp. 357, 358) with that in the “Encyclopaedia Britannica” (ed. 9, iii. p. 760); and what I now think, or at least thought some eighteen months ago, when the last thing I wrote on the question was passed for press, will I hope be before the public in October.

A Question in Physics

CAN there be a crowding of the particles of a gas to a much smaller compass without its being markedly heated? Can a gas expand without being cooled? It is probable that nearly every physicist will give negative answers to these questions, and yet the fact that such conditions may occur sometimes seems well established. The present writer, in 1889, attempted to determine the actual heating of air when compressed by a pump connected with the cylinder by a long tube, and found that the temperature was raised about 4° F. for a compression of 10 inches above atmospheric pressure. In like manner, on expanding this compressed air into the free atmosphere, it was found that the cooling was about 4°. These results were published in Science, vol. xv. p. 387, and were strongly combated by Prof. Ferrel and Prof. Marvin. Prof. Ferrel advanced, as applicable in this case, the well-known thermodynamic formula for the computation of the heat developed in a gas when compressed, as follows:— t/ t′=(p/p′)˙291 in which t and t′ are the absolute temperatures corresponding to the pressures p and p'. Sir Wm. Thomson has given this formula in slightly different form, and with a larger exponent (see “Encyclopaedia Britannica,” vol. vii. p. 814). Prof. Ferrel found that, under the experimental conditions above, the heating should have been 43°, and the cooling 45°? (38°) (see American Meteorological Journal, vol. xii. pp. 339 and 340).

An Introduction to the Study of Mammals Living and Extinct

THIS work is, as the authors inform us in the preface, based largely upon the article Mammalia, together with forty shorter articles, written by Prof. Flower for the ninth edition of the “Encyclopaedia Britannica.” Certain other articles by Dr. Dobson and Dr. St. George Mivart have also been made use of. The illustrations, most of which are admirable, are chiefly those prepared for the “Encyclopaedia,” but many have been added. Mr. Oldfield Thomas, of the British Museum, has assisted the authors in special matters. To Mr. Lydekker fell the task of arranging the various articles made use of in proper sequence, filling up gaps and adding new matter, a large amount of which treats of the extinct forms. An Introduction to the Study of Mammals Living and Extinct. By W. H. Flower Richard Lydekker. (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1891.)

On the Straits of Juan de Fuca, Puget Sound; and Government Improvements on the Pacific Coast

In the year A. D. 1592 (according to the “Encyclopedia Britannica”), an old Greek pilot, in the service of Spain, discovered the straits of Juan de Fuca, so called after him. The “Chambers‘ Encyclopedia” makes a claim that it was visited by Captain Cook in the year 1778, but Kipps‘s “Narrative of the Voyages Round the World, Performed by Captain James Cook,‘ shows that it was Nootka Sound, on the west coast of Vancouver‘s Island, that he visited. So we shall insist that “the old Greek pilot” has the honor of discovering one of the most wonderful inland seas on the surface of the globe, especially when its phenomena are taken into consideration.

Prolegomena to the History of Israel: With a Reprint of the Article "Israel" from the Encyclopedia Britannica. Julius Wellhausen , J. S. Black , A. Menzies

Previous articleNext article FreeBook NoticesProlegomena to the History of Israel: With a Reprint of the Article "Israel" from the Encyclopedia Britannica. Julius Wellhausen , J. S. Black , A. Menzies PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 8, Number 7Mar., 1889 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/470152 Views: 36Total views on this site Journal History This article was published in The Old Testament Student (1883-1889), which is continued by The Old and New Testament Student (1889-1892). PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Resistance of Square Bars to Torsion

THE attention of writers on Applied Mechanics should be called to the error continuously repeated in about thirty editions of the late Prof. Rankine's different works which have appeared during the last thirty years. The error is stilt reproduced in quite recent works of other writers: Prof. Ewing's article, “Steam-Engine,” in the Encyclopaedia Britannica; Prof. Unwin's “Elements of Machine Design”; Prof. Alexander's “Elementary Applied Mechanics”; &c.

Wellhausen's History of IsraelProlegomena to the History of Israel, with a Reprint of the Article Israel from the "Encyclopedia Britannica". Julius Wellhausen

Previous articleNext article FreeBook NoticesWellhausen's History of Israel Prolegomena to the History of Israel, with a Reprint of the Article Israel from the "Encyclopedia Britannica". Julius Wellhausen PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 5, Number 7Mar., 1886 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/469777 Views: 143Total views on this site Journal History This article was published in The Old Testament Student (1883-1889), which is continued by The Old and New Testament Student (1889-1892). PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

IV. On a possible mode of detecting a motion of the solar system through the luminiferous ether. By the late Professor J. Clerk Maxwell, F. R. S. In a letter to Mr. D. P. Todd, of the Nautical Almanac Office, Washington, U. S. Communicated by Professor Stokes, Sec. R. S

Mr. Todd has been so good as to communicate to me a copy of the subjoined letter, and has kindly permitted me to make any use of it. As the notice referred to by Maxwell in the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" is very brief, being confined to a single sentence, and as the subject is one of great interest, I have thought it best to communicate the letter to the Royal Society.

Etna: a History of the Mountain and of its Eruptions

G. F. Rodwell (1843–1905) was researching an entry about Mount Etna for the Encyclopaedia Britannica when he realised that no history of this Italian volcano existed in English. He therefore he began the present work, which was published in 1878. Rodwell starts by looking at classical and literary references before giving a detailed physical description of the volcano. One chapter is devoted to explaining how to climb the mountain – something Rodwell was qualified to do, as he had scaled it himself in 1877. He also gives a historical account of the most dramatic aspect of Etna – its many eruptions, which had first been recorded as early as 525 BCE, while the most recent activity had taken place in 1874, only a few years before Rodwell's ascent. With its focus on history and geology, and inclusion of illustrations and maps, Etna gives a detailed portrait of this famous volcano.

Printing and Calico-Printing

As all that I am ever personally concerned to know is the truth of a matter, I am glad to stand corrected by the writer of the article on Calico-Printing in the “Encyclopaedia Britannica.” The claim I made, however, for the author of the “Natural History of Enthusiasm” was not my own invention; and it would be of interest, I think, to the many who must still, even in our day, revere his memory, to know more fully and accurately what it was that engrossed so many years of his valuable life, and what, if any, have been the practical results.

The Article “Birds” in “Encyclopædia Britannica”

IN reply to Prof. Huxley's letter of last week with reference to my review of the article “Birds” in the “Encyclopaedia Britannica,” I may mention that it is to the illustrious Nitzsch, as far as I am aware, that we owe the combination of the Swifts and the Humming Birds into a single family. Burmeister's edition of Nitzsch's “Pterylography” was published in 1840, and in Mr. Sclater's translation of that invaluable work (p, 86) we read, under the heading MACROCHIRES, “In this family I place the two genera, Cypselus and Trochilus, which indeed present but little external similarity, but are very nearly allied in the structure of their wings.”