July 6, 1876] 



NATURE 



223 



communication was read from Mr. R. B. Sharpe, containing the 

 description of an apparently new species of owl from the Solo- 

 mon Islands, which he proposed to call Ninox solomonis. — Mr. 

 A. H. Garrod some notes on the anatomy of certain parrots. — Mr. 

 H. E. Dresser read the description of a new species of broad- 

 billed sandpiper, from North-Eastern Asia, to which he gave 

 the name Liviicola sibirica. — A second communication from Mr. 

 Dresser contained the description of a new species of Tetraogallus, 

 discovered by Mr. Danford in the Cilician Taurus, which he pro- 

 posed to call T, tauricus. — Dr. A. Giinther read some notes on 

 a small collection of animals brought by Lieut. L. Cameron, 

 C.B., from Angola. — A communication was read from Lieut. 

 R. Wardlaw Ramsay, giving the description of a fine new species 

 of Nuthatch from Karen-nee, which he proposed to call Sitta 

 magna. 



Meteorological Society, June 21. — Mr. H. S. Eaton, 

 M.A., president, in the chair. The following papers were 

 read : — On the climate of Scarborough, by F. Shaw. The 

 thermometers used were placed in a louvre-boarded case fixed to 

 the north side of a wooden structure, having an open grass plot 

 in front of them. The garden is about midway between the 

 north and south sides of the town, and 150 yards from the shore; 

 and as both residents and visitors are continually passing along 

 this line, the observations may be taken as fairly representing the 

 temperature of Scarborough as a watering-place. The mean 

 monthly temperatures based on the average of the past eight 

 years are : — 



0000 



Jan., 38 "8 April, 46 "o I July, 60 "4 Oct., 48*2 



Feb., 397 May, 50-5 Aug., 58-9 Nov., 42-2 



Mar., 41-6 June, 55-9 | Sept., 55-1 Dec, 39-0 



The mean for the year is 48°* I. 



The maximum temperature on any day in July, the warmest 

 month, does not exceed on the average, 78° 'O ; the highest in 

 the eight years being 85°*5 in 1868. The mean of the extreme 

 minimum temperature in the eight Januarys is 24°'2 ; the lowest 

 being I3°'3, which occurred on January i, 1875. The moderate 

 and agreeable summer temperature is due to the close proximity 

 of the town to the sea, which in the warmest month of the 

 season is about 5° below that of the air. The autumn and 

 winter temperatures are also much influenced by the sea on the 

 one hand, and the shelter afforded by the surrounding hills on 

 the other. The sea is about 5" warmer than the air in the 

 autumn, and 3° in the winter, while, the prevailing winds are 

 south-westerly and not felt in their full force. The annual rain- 

 fall, on the average of the past ten years, is 28*29 inches, which 

 falls on 167 days. — Notice of upward currents during the forma- 

 tion and passage of cumulus and cumulo-stratus clouds, by Rev. J. 

 Crompton. On Nov. i, 1866, the day after the visit of the Prince 

 and Princess of Wales to Norwich, when the city was profusely 

 decorated with flags, the author, when walking close to the 

 cathedral, was struck with the unusual fluttering of the flags on 

 the top of the spire, which is 300 feet high. They were stream- 

 ing with a strained, quivering motion, perpendicularly upwards. 

 A heavy cloud was passing overhead at the moment, and as it 

 passed the flags followed the cloud and then gradually dropped 

 into comparative quietness. The same phenomenon was noticed 

 several times. As the cloud approached, the upper banners 

 began to feel its influence, and streamed towards it against the 

 direction of the wind, which still blew as before, steadily on all 

 below ; as the cloud came nearer the vehement quivering and 

 straining motion of the flags increased, they began to take an 

 upward perpendicular direction right into the cloud, and seemed 

 almost tearing themselves from the staves to which they were 

 fastened ; again, as the cloud passed they followed it as they 

 had previously streamed to meet its approach, and then dropped 

 away as before, one or two actually folding over their staves. 

 All the other flags at a lower elevation did not show the least 

 symptom of disturbance. — Suggestions on certain variations, 

 annual and diurnal, in the relation of the barometric gradient to 

 the force of the wind, by Rev. W. Clement Ley. The author 

 finds that the mean velocity of the wind corresponding to each 

 gradient is much higher in summer than in winter. This is the 

 case at all stations (though not equally) with all winds, with all 

 lengths of values of radius of isobaric curvature, and with all 

 values of actual barometric pressure. The general character of 

 the mean diurnal variations of velocity, as these occur at the 

 stations in the British Isles, may be fairly inferred from mean 

 horary velocity curves, and may be thus described : — At the 

 inland stations, in summer, a slight increment of velocity occurs 



about midnight. This is succeeded [by the morning minimum, 

 which takes place in most of the months examined a little after 

 sunrise. The mean velocity then rises until i p.m., when the 

 diurnal maximum is sometimes attained. A slight subsidence 

 then commonly occurs, but the mean velocity rises again at 3 or 

 4 P.M., and this second increment frequently forms the diurnal 

 maximum. A great fall then takes place, which is more rapid 

 than the rise in the morning ; and the evening minimum, which 

 is in most months the diurnal minimum, is attained about 

 10 P.M. The mean velocity at i p.m. is, in fine and hot 

 weather, more than double the 10 p.m. velocity in miles per 

 hour, and exceeds the diurnal mean by about one-third. In 

 winter the inflexions are very greatly modified. The mid- 

 night rise is not in all months traceable, and the subsequent 

 diminution is not very great. The morning maximum occurs 

 about sunrise. The diurnal maximum takes place about i p.m., 

 is less than double the minimum in miles per hour, and exceeds 

 the mean of the day by about one-fifth only. — Average weekly 

 temperature of thirty years (1846-75) at Cardington, by John 

 Maclaren. — De la vulgarisation par la presse des Observations 

 meteorologiques, by M. Harold Tarry. 



Physical Society, June 10. — Prof. G. C. Foster, president, 

 in the chair. — Mr. W. J. Wilson exhibited and explained a 

 reflecting tangent galvanometer which he has recently designed 

 for the purpose of exhibiting the indications of the instrument to 

 an audience, and so arranged that the divisions on the scale show 

 witkout calculation the relative strengths of different currents. 

 It should be observed at the outset that this object cannot be 

 attained by attaching a mirror to the needle as in the ordinary 

 galvanometer, as the angle passed over by the reflected ray is 

 double that through which the needle is deflected. In the 

 arrangement exhibited, the beam of light after passing through a 

 small orifice traversed by cross wires, is reflected vertically by a 

 fixed mirror : the ray then passes through a lens, and is again 

 reflected from a smsdl plane mirror parallel to the irst, which 

 is rigidly fixed below a small magnetic needle. By thi s means 

 the ray becomes again horizontal, and, since the light now falls 

 on the second mirror always at the same angle, the extent of 

 motion of the ray is identical with that of the needle, and, if the 

 scale be one of equal parts placed in the magnetic meridian, the 

 indications on it will be proportional to the tangents of the 

 angles, and therefore to the strengths of the currents. The 

 needle and mirror are suspended by a silk fibre, and a bent strip 

 of aluminium, the ends of which dip into water in an annular 

 trough, is attached to the needle in order to check its oscilla- 

 tions. A series of observations taken with varying resistances 

 introduced into the current, showed that the indications are very 

 reliable. — Mr. S. P. Thompson then exhibited an electromotor 

 clock made by Mr. W. Hepworth, of York, and provided 

 with a commutator of Mr, Thompson's design. This part 

 of the instrument is veiy simple, and reverses the current 

 at each single oscillation by means of two light springs 

 resting on inclined planes. The motion of the pendulum drives 

 the train of wheels by a modification of the gravity-escapement, 

 and a very small battery -power is sufficient. — Prof. G. Fuller, 

 C. E., exhibited and described his "electric multiplier," an in- 

 strument which may be looked upon as an automatic electro- 

 phorus. An insulated plate of vulcanite is supported in a 

 vertical position, and on each side of it is an insulated metallic 

 plate, and these can be moved together to and from the vulcanite 

 by rotating a handle. When these plates are far apart, two 

 metallic arms provided with points are made to pass one on each 

 side of the vulcanite plates. One of these is insulated, and is 

 provided with a rod terminating in a knob, which at a certain 

 point in its path almost touches the metallic plate on the oppo- 

 site side of the sheet of vulcanite. The other arm is in connec- 

 tion with the earth. The action of the instrument is as follows. 

 A charge of, say, negative electricity, having been given to the 

 insulated arm, it is passed over its face of the vulcanite, while 

 positive is drawn up from the earth and thrown upon the oppo- 

 site face by the uninsulated series of points. These arms are 

 then removed, and the two metallic plates are brought into con. 

 tact with the vulcanite. Call the side of the plate charged with 

 negative electricity A, and the other B. The negative of A in- 

 duces positive on the near face of its metallic plate and repels 

 the negative. This passes, by a strip of tin-foil joining the two 

 faces of the vulcanite, to the other metallic plate neutralising its 

 free positive, and when the plates are moved away from the vul- 

 canite, that from A is charged with positive, and that from B 

 with negative. Before reaching its extreme position this latter 



