134 



NA TV RE 



[December 9, 1897 



Patrick Geddes, three lectures on Cyprus. The Friday evening 

 meetings will begin on January 21, when a discourse will be 

 given by the Right Hon. Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., on 

 buds and stipules. Succeeding discourses will probably be given 

 by Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan, Mr. A. A. Campbell Swinton, Dr. 

 J. Hall Gladstone, Prof. L. C. Miall, Captain Abney, Prof. 

 T. E. Thorpe, Mr. James Mansergh, the Dean of Canterbury, 

 Prof. Dewar, and others. Lord Rayleigh will deliver lectures 

 after Easter, 



At the meeting of the General Medical Council last week, 

 the Committee entrusted with the duty of preparing the new 

 edition of the British Pharmacopoeia, submitted copies of their 

 draft of the work for the approval of the Council. The estimated 

 amount to be expended on its production will be about 6000/. 

 The Committee suggest that the price of the volume might 

 suitably be seven shillings and sixpence, but the power of 

 actually fixing the price rests with the Commissioners of the 

 Treasury. In order that the Pharmacopoeia might be issued 

 early next year, the Committee recommended that it be 

 delegated to the Executive Committee to adopt the fully 

 corrected work as The British Pharmacopoeia, 1898, to com- 

 municate with the Commissioners of the Treasury on the 

 question of price, to publish the Pharmacopoeia, and to make 

 the usual legal announcement of publication. The report of 

 the Committee was adopted. 



The difficulties in the way of a permanent establishment of 

 the Essex Field Club's County Museum of Natural History have 

 been very largely removed by Mr. Passmore Edwards' muni- 

 ficent offer to build a museum at West Ham (adjoining the new 

 Technical Institute) to contain the Club's collections, on con- 

 dition that the building is maintained by the Corporation of 

 West Ham as a permanent institution, and that it is opened on 

 Sundays. The Town Council have gratefully accepted Mr. 

 Passmore Edwards' offer, and arrangements are being entered 

 into whereby the annual upkeep of the museum will be provided 

 for by a joint fund subscribed by the Corporation and the Club. 

 The task of gathering the collections, and the scientific control 

 of the same, will remain with the Club. The museum is in- 

 tended to illustrate the county of Essex generally, while the 

 Club's smaller museum in Queen Elizabeth's Lodge, Ching- 

 ford, will be confined to objects from Epping Forest — the two in- 

 stitutions being mutually dependent and illustrative, the one of 

 the other. Further details will be issued when the negotiations 

 are completed. 



At the last meeting of the Council of the Australasian Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, the following gentlemen 

 were proposed as vice-presidents of Sections: — Section A 

 (astronomy, mathematics, and physics), Prof. A. M'Aulay and 

 Prof. T. R. Lyle ; Section B (chemistry), Mr. R. T. Bellemey, 

 Prof. E. H. Rennie, and Prof Orme Masson ; Section C 

 (geology and mineralogy), Mr. W. Howchin and Mr. R. L. 

 Jack ; Section D (biology), Prof J. T. Wilson, Prof. C. J. 

 Martin, and Mr. J. J. Fletcher ; Section E (geography), Mr. P. 

 G. King and Mr. A. C. Macdonald ; Section F (ethnology and 

 anthropology), Prof. W. Baldwin Spencer, Mr. Thos. Worsnop, 

 and the Rev. Lorimer Fison ; Section G (economic science and 

 agriculture). Dr. H. N. MacLaurin, Mr. R. Teece, Mr. W. 

 M'Millan, Mr. Sydney Smith, Mr. E. M. Shelton, and Mr. W. 

 Farrer ; Section H (engineering and architecture), Mr. H. 

 Deane and Prof. W. H. Warren ; Section I (sanitary science and 

 hygiene). Dr. D. Hardie, Dr. J. W. Springthorpe, and Dr. J. 

 Ashburton Thompson ; Section J (mental science and educa- 

 tion). Dr. A. Garran, Dr. R. N. Morris, and Mr. R. H. Roe. 

 A large number of additional papers were announced as having 

 been promised to the various Sections. 



NO. 1467, VOL. 57] 



The Meteorological Council have published a very useful 

 volume of Rainfall Tables for the years 1866-90, based upon 

 observations at 492 stations, selected so as to show as nearly as 

 possible the general distribution of rain over the United 

 Kingdom. The present volume has been prepared in connection 

 with the previous set of tables for 1866-80 published in the year 

 1883, and while it includes in the general averages the monthly 

 and annual means of the earlier series, it contains the separate 

 monthly and yearly values for each of the years 1881-90, and of 

 any years prior to 1881 which were not previously published. To 

 facilitate the use of the tables, references to them are arranged 

 both under counties and stations. There is no discussion of 

 the observations, but the averages for the years 1881-90 are 

 shown upon three maps, together with the main watersheds and 

 the catchment basins of the principal rivers, and these exhibit 

 the general distribution of the rainfall very clearly. The 

 whole work has undergone careful supervision, and will be very 

 valuable as a standard of reference in this branch of meteoro- 

 logical statistics. 



The meteorological observations made at the Rousdon Ob- 

 servatory, Lyme Regis, during last year, have been brought 

 together by Mr. Cuthbert E. Peek, and published in the form 

 of a Report. The observatory is a second order station of 

 the Royal .Meteorological Society. Mr. Peek not only de- 

 scribes the meteorological conditions and statistics of the dif- 

 ferent months of the year, but also records the results of a 

 number of experiments to compare rain-gauges and anemo- 

 meters of different kinds. A daily comparison of the actual 

 weather experienced at the observatory with the forecasts of 

 the Meteorological Office showed that, taking wind and weather 

 together, eighty-eight per cent, of the forecasts were correct. 

 Of wind alone, ninety-one per cent, of the forecasts were ful- 

 filled ; and of weather, ninety-two per cent. The most trust- 

 worthy forecasts were in August, there being only one day 

 doubtful during that month. The lowest percentage of trust- 

 worthy forecasts was in January, as might be expected from 

 the remarkable barometric movements of that month. A 

 comparison of forecasts and actual wind and weather for the 

 thirteen years 1884-96, shows that the percentage of successes 

 was only fifty-nine in 1884, but in the following years it 

 reached seventy per cent., and has been increasing year by 

 year ever since. The best forecasts seem to have been made 

 in 1894 and 1895, i'^ which years eighty-nine per cent, of the 

 predictions were fulfilled. 



Dr. Van der Stok, the Director of the meteorological and 

 magnetical observatory of Batavia, has published a very com- 

 prehensive atlas, containing a large amount of information on 

 the winds, weather, currents, &c., of the East Indian Archi- 

 pelago. Some idea of the magnitude of the work may be 

 formed from the fact that it extends to more than two hundred 

 large folio pages of tables and charts, and that it embraces the 

 whole area between the western coast of Sumatra and the 

 northern coast of New Guinea. For forty different points of 

 this area the meteorological conditions have been deduced for 

 each month and for seasons, while monthly wind-roses have 

 been drawn for the day and night separately. The work is 

 divided into three parts: (i) observations made on ships; (2) 

 rainfall and wind observations made on land ; and (3) data re- 

 lating to tides. The materials made use of in the first part have 

 been extracted from many hundreds of log books kept on Dutch 

 men-ofwar during the years 1814-1890, and were obtained 

 from the Ministry of Marine at the Hague for the purpose of 

 this discussion. The work is a valuable contribution to both the 

 physical geography and meteorology of that portion of the globe, 

 and will be of great practical use to navigators. 



