November 25, 1897] 



NATURE 



Pasteur Institute is set down for payment. In 1895, 45'203 

 closes of anti-diphtheric serum, each ten centigrams in amount, 

 were distributed gratuituously, and in 1896 the number was 

 28,217. Since the commencement of the work, as many as 

 137,058 doses of antitoxic serum have been distributed by the 

 Institute, 5500 of them being for veterinary purposes. 



We regret to announce the death of Dr. F. Stohmann, 

 honorary professor of agricultural chemistry in the University 

 of Leipzig ; and also of Dr. J. Frenzel, curator of the 

 "Miiggelsee" biological station near Berlin, and formerly 

 professor of zoology in the Cordoba University, Argentine Re- 

 public. 



The death of Dr. Leonhard Sohncke, at the age of fifty-five, 

 is announced. Dr. Sohncke at the time of his death was pro- 

 fessor of experimental physics and director of the Physical 

 Laboratory at the Munich Technical High School. 



The Natural History Society of Hanover will celebrate its 

 centenary on December 10-12. 



In a previous number of Nature (vol. Ivii. p. 32) we referred 

 to the death of Prof. Ernst Schering, of Gottingen. Some in- 

 teresting details of his life and work have now been published 

 by Prof. Wilhelm Schur {Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 3458), 

 to which brief reference may be made. Born in the year 1833 

 at Sandbergen, near Ltineburg, Schering studied in Gottingen 

 under Gauss from the year 1852, was made *' ausserordentlicher " 

 professor in i860, and " ordentlicher " in 1868. In 1869 the 

 magnetic part of the observatory department was made distinct 

 from the astronomical, and the former put under the direction of 

 Schering with the object of continuing the magnetic observations 

 made in the first instance by Gauss. After Klinkerfues' death 

 Schering took over the direction of both departments. During 

 the years 1858 to 1863 Schering took part with Klinkerfues in 

 the zone-observations, which were published in 1891. In 1874 

 he published a generalisation of Poisson-Jacobi's perturbation 

 formula, in 1877 a "Festrede" at the celebration of the 

 hundredth anniversary of Gauss's birthday, and in 1884 a solution 

 of Kepler's &o;vtz.'C\ov\.{Astronomische Nachrichten, 2605). His 

 chief work was, however, the publication of Gauss's works in 

 seven volumes. Schering leaves behind him, besides a widow, 

 one daughter and two sons. 



Science states that the American Society of Naturalists and 

 the affiliated societies will meet at Ithaca, N.Y. , on December 

 28, 29 and 30. At the opening meeting an address of welcome will 

 be delivered by President Schurman. On the second day of the 

 meeting the principal item on the programme is a discussion on 

 " The Biological Problems of To-day," in which the following 

 speakers will take part : Prof. H. F. Osborn (on Palaeontology), 

 Prof. W. Trelease (on Botany), Prof B. G. Wilder (on 

 Anatomy), Prof McKeen Cattell (on Psychology), Prof. J. Loeb 

 (on Physiology), Prof. T. H. Morgan (on Developmental 

 Mechanics), Prof. C. B. Davenport (on Morphogenesis). 



Prof. Th. W. Engelmann, of Utrecht, has just published 

 (Wilhelm Engelmann^ Leipzig) a small case (6^ x 9^ inches) 

 containing two sets of tables on which it is intended the results 

 of spectroscopic and spectrophotometric observations may be 

 plotted. The first table, of which there are nine duplicates, 

 consists of six coloured continuous spectra arranged under one 

 another, which serve as a background, so to speak', on which 

 absorption spectra may be drawn. A series of vertical lines 

 forms the scale of wave-lengths, and the positions of the chief 

 Fraunhofer lines are marked in the upper strip. The second 

 table, of which there are also nine similar ones, is somewhat 

 differently arranged. At the upper partis a coloured continuous 



NO. 1405, VOL. 57] 



spectrum as before, with the positions of the chief Fraunhofor 

 lines marked, and below is a series of horizontal and vertical 

 lines, the former to represent the wave-lengths, and the latter 

 the intensities per cent. This will be found useful for recording 

 the positions and extensions of absorption-bands, and determin- 

 ing the light curve of the spectra under investigation. Both 

 these sets of tables are impressed on good thick sheets of paper, 

 and the coloured spectra and graduations are very neatly repro- 

 duced. It is a pity that the red end of the spectrum is placed on 

 the left, and not on the right hand, as this may tend considerably to 

 diminish the usefulness of these cards. Accompanying these 

 sheets are also two numerical tables expressing (i) the coefficients 

 of extinction for different intensities, and (2) the relative in- 

 tensities after the passage through coloured media of different 

 thicknesses. 



The Proceedings of the Liverpool Geological Society for the 

 last session contains a paper by the president, Mr. J. Lomas, 

 on the Hereford earthquake of last December. The map 

 which accompanies it shows the isoseismal lines, so far as they 

 can be drawn, corresponding to the intensities 4, 5, 6 and 7 of 

 the Rossi-Forel scale. These curves are somewhat elliptical in 

 shape, and are grouped symmetrically about a line running 

 N.N.W. from a point a little east of Hereford. Mr. Lomas 

 attributes the earthquake to the friction generated by the slip- 

 ping of strata somewhere along the Severn Valley, and he 

 considers it probable that the slip extended for some distance . 

 along the axis of the isoseismals. 



The effect of temperatures upon the hibernation of injurious 

 insects forms the subject of a short paper by Dr. L. O. Howard 

 in the Proceedings of the ninth annual meeting of the Association 

 of Economic Entomologists, just issued by the U.S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. It is a well-known fact among agricul- 

 turists and horticulturists that winter weather of a steady degree 

 of severity is more favourable to plant growth than a winter with 

 alternating frosts and thaws. With regard to certain injurious 

 insects, it has become an accepted idea among economic en- 

 tomologists that this same principle holds good, but farmers and 

 others believe a winter which has been unusually severe will 

 result in the destruction of injurious insects to such an extent 

 as to promise comparative immunity in the next season. Ex- 

 periments were required to throw light upon the matter, and 

 these have been carried out by Dr. Albert M. Read, of 

 Washington, the manager of the cold storage department of the 

 American Security and Trust Company. Dr. Read has found, 

 in the course of his experiments, that a consistent temperature 

 in the neighbourhood of 18° F. will not destroy the larvae of 

 Tineola biscelliella or oi Atiagemis piceiis, but that an alternation 

 of a low temperature with a comparatively high one invariably 

 results in the death of the larvae of these two insects. For 

 example, if larvae of either which have been kept at a tem- 

 perature of 18° F. are removed to a temperature of from 40° to 

 50° F. they will become slightly active, and when returned to 

 the lower temperature and kept there for a little time, will not 

 revive upon • a retransfer to the warmer temperature. Dr. 

 Howard remarks that it is satisfactory to have experimental 

 proof in support of previously accepted, but more or less 

 theoretical, ideas. 



At the Imperial Institute on Monday night, Mr. E. S. Bruce 

 gave a lecture on his system of electric balloon signalling as ap- 

 plied to scientific exploration in Arctic and Antarctic regions. 

 Major P. A. MacMahon was in the chair. After pointing out 

 how great an advantage it would be for a party to have a means 

 of communicating with the ship when away on an exploring ex- 

 pedition, the lecturer described his system, in which a group of 

 electric lamps was mounted inside a balloon connected with 

 the earth by an electric cable. The operator and most of the 



