12 



NATURE 



{May 4, 1876 



Among numerous subjects which came up for consi- 

 deration, it appeared that the scheme for publication, in a 

 uniform manner, of actual observations and monthly 

 results from a limited number of stations in each country, 

 which are to be considered as international, had been 

 already accepted almost without exception or suggestion 

 of amendment by all the countries which had been present 

 at Vienna. It is hoped that this measure will ultimately 

 tend to bring about unifonnity in hours and methods of 

 observation. 



In weather telegraphy it was resolved to calculate 

 gradients in the metric scale, as millimetres per one de- 

 gree (sixty nautical miles). In this country they will be 

 referred to English units. It was not found practicable 

 to endeavour to introduce uniform hours for observations 

 in weather telegraphy in Europe at present. As to 

 weather charts, a proposal for the exclusion of all 

 meridians except that of Greenwich was postponed to the 

 next Congress. It was resolved to take advantage of that 

 meeting to attempt to effect the comparison of the 

 principal standard barometers by means of travelling 

 barometers to be conveyed to the place of meeting, and 

 left there for a considerable time. 



It was recognised as impracticable at present to create 

 an International Meteorological Institute, and conse- 

 quently it was decided that international investigations 

 must be carried on at the expense of individual nations, 

 other nations to be requested to furnish materials, as far 

 as possible, in a usable form. A list of upwards of 200 

 subscribers to the international synoptic weather charts 

 of Capt. Hoffjneyer was announced. 



Resolutions were adopted in favour of the establish- 

 ment of stations on high mountains, and in distant locali- 

 ties, and Lieut. Weyprecht's proposition for a circle of 

 observing stations in the Arctic Regions round the Pole 

 was recognised as scientifically of high importance and 

 deserving of general support. 



With reference to universal instructions for observa- 

 tions it was stated that no general form of instructions 

 could be drawn up to suit all climates, and it appeared to 

 the committee that the instructions recently prepared in 

 the German, Russian, and English languages respec- 

 tively, as well as in Italian (as soon as some contem- 

 plated modifications shall have been introduced), were 

 sufficiently in accordance with the requirements of the 

 Vienna Congress. It was hoped that ere long French 

 instructions of the same tenor would be issued. 



It was announced that the Italian Government was 

 prepared to invite the next Congress to meet at Rome in 

 September 1877, and the proposal was most gratefully 

 accepted. In preparation for this meeting a number of 

 reports on the present state of the different departments 

 of the science are called for from various meteorologists. 

 The questions to be treated in these reports are mainly 

 instrumental, and they are of great importance in the 

 present state of the subject. The detailed Report of the 

 Committee will be published without delay. 



SOIREE OF THE ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL 

 SOCIETY 

 r\^ Friday, April 21st, Mr. H. C. Sorby, president of 

 ^^ the Royal Microscopical Society, gave a large soiree 

 in the apartments of King's College. Invitations had 

 been issued for above 1,500, including the whole of the 

 Fellows of the Royal Microscopical Society, the presi- 

 dents and leading officers of many of the London Scien- 

 tific Societies ; all the distinguished foreigners now in 

 London as commissioners from the various foreign 

 Governments to the Exhibition of Scientific Apparatus 

 at South Kensington • and many of the President's pri- 

 vate friends. About 800 were present, including about 

 300 ladies. After having been received by the President 

 and one of the secretaries, the visitors passed into the 



various rooms of the College, in which were exhibited 

 many objects connected with microscopical science. For 

 the number, variety, scientific value, or general interest of 

 the specimens, this exhibition has probably never been 

 surpassed. Amongst the new instruments m^iy be men- 

 tioned Mr. Sorby's arrangement for accurately measuring 

 the wave-length of the centre of absorption-bands in 

 spectra ; a new form of Stephenson's erecting binocular 

 microscope, by Mr. Bevington, and another by Mr. 

 Browning, of somewhat different construction. Mr. 

 Browning also exhibited his new portable microscope, 

 which is so constructed that the body can be turned 

 on one side and reversed in such a manner as to 

 reduce the height to about one half. The President 

 also exhibited a large series of specimens illustrating his 

 own special subjects, shown by means of fifty micro- 

 scopes, lent to him by four of the principal makers in 

 London (Becks, Browning, Crouch, and Ross), and 

 about 150 first-rate instruments and objects were con- 

 tributed by the Fellows of the society and other friends. 

 These were so distributed over the large apartments of 

 the College as to avoid crowding in any part. Almost 

 every branch of science to which the microscope has been 

 applied was well represented, and many of the finest 

 specimens ever prepared were shown and described. 

 Many very interesting living objects were sent direct 

 from the Brighton Aquarium and elsewhere. In the lec- 

 ture theatre were exhibited Dr. Hudson's most beautiful 

 drawings of microscopic objects shown in a new man- 

 ner as transparencies ; Mr. Spottiswoode's splendid pola- 

 rising apparatus, and various objects shown with the oxy- 

 hydrogen microscope by How and Company. The large 

 entrance hall was decorated with plants and flowers, and 

 used as a promenade. The two museums of the College 

 were also thrown open. Refreshments were supplied by 

 the steward of the College. The guests were provided 

 with a classified catalogue of the objects exhibited, but 

 they were so numerous that it was impossible for any one 

 to examine more than a small part of the whole. One of 

 the most satisfactory results of the soiree is the great im- 

 pression produced by it on the foreign scientific men, who 

 appear to have been quite unprepared for, and greatly 

 surprised at, what they saw during the evening. 



ON CERTAIN METHODS OF CHEMICAL 

 RESEARCH^ 



'X'HE lecturer began by describing the simple form of 

 -'- apparatus which he employed many years ago in 

 his researches on the heat evolved in the combination of 

 oxygen, chlorine, bromine, &c., with other bodies. In 

 every case the bodies to be combined were inclosed in a 

 vessel surrounded with water, and the combination was 

 effected either by the ignition of a fine platinum wire, or 

 where they acted directly upon one another, by the frac- 

 ture of a glass capsule containing one of the combining 

 bodies, the heat being measured by the rise of tempera- 

 ture of the water. He next referred to the arrangement 

 by which he had been the first to decompose water so as 

 to render visible the hydrogen and oxygen, and to mea- 

 sure their relative volumes by means of atmospheric 

 electricity and of electrical currents from the ordinary 

 machine. For this purpose fine platinum wires were 

 hermetically sealed into fine thermometer tubes, which 

 were then filled with dilute sulphuric acid by withdrawing 

 the air by ebullition. The same current of frictional elec- 

 tricity will decompose the water in almost an indefinite 

 number such couples arranged in a consecutive series. 

 Capillary tubes of this kind may be employed for eudio- 

 metric experiments, which would be exceedingly tedious 

 in wide tubes. Thus oxygen gas can at once be absorbed 

 by passing the silent discharge through it while standing 



' Abstract of a Lecture to the Chemical Society by Dr. Andrews, F. R.S., 

 April 28. Communicated by the author. 



