February lo, 1898J 



NA TURE 



351 



those parts. Looked at from that point of view the Observ- 

 atory seems to have fulfilled its original object. The Report for 

 1896, just received, gives a full account of the work carried on, 

 and particularly analyses the relative success that has attended 

 the weather and storm predictions issued. Adopting the 

 general method of taking the sum of total and partial successes 

 as a measure of success, and similarly with the failures, we 

 learn that 97 per cent, of the weather forecasts have been 

 justified. With regard to the success in predicting the approach 

 of a typhoon, the percentage is nearly as good, if we leave out 

 of account a peculiar storm, prevalent in the winter, called a 

 " Norther," and of which it is impossible to publish any forecast 

 till information is available from the interior of China and the 

 northern ports. For instance, there appears to be no tele- 

 graphic communication between the Observatory and either 

 Hankow or Cheefoo, so that all information from a particular 

 direction is wanting, which, if it could be obtained, would add 

 materially to the safety of the shipping and commerce. But 

 notwithstanding these disadvantageous circumstances, the per- 

 centage of success is 75 for all gales, and leaving out those for 

 whose successful prediction northern information is necessary, 

 the percentage is as high as 83. Among the original inquiries 

 prosecuted at the Observatory is one on anemometer records at 

 various altitudes. Two Robinson anemometers of identical 

 construction are mounted at 150 feet and 1834 feet above mean 

 sea-level. The lower is at the Observatory on the Chinese 

 mainland, the higher on the island of Hong Kong. The result 

 is to show the ratio between the force of the wind at the two 

 stations for each hour of the day throughout the year. In the 

 summer, when the wind is generally southerly, the proportionate 

 velocity is greater than in winter, when the wind is easterly. 

 Similarly at midnight, and the morning hours, the difference of 

 velocity is greater than at noon, and the hours immediately 

 after. 



The Pharmaceutical Journal is doing its best to encourage 

 the use of the metric system by pharmacists in their daily 

 business. Recent legislation has made the use of the system 

 legal in British commerce, but, as our contemporary points 

 out, the mischief of a permissive system is that what 

 is permitted is often, as a matter of convenience, ignored ; 

 and there is little doubt that the mere permission to 

 use metric weights and measures in trade will prove 

 futile in encouraging the general adoption of the system. The 

 suggestion is offered, therefore, that pharmacists should neglect 

 no opportunity of familiarising themselves, and those with whom 

 they come in contact in the course of their business, with the 

 more rational weights and measures that are now legal, the 

 more especially as they appear destined, sooner or later, to sup- 

 plant the older weights and measures entirely. With the view 

 of encouraging and assisting the reform indicated, it is proposed 

 in future to give all quantities in the pages of the Pharftta- 

 ceutical fournal in accordance with the metric system, and the 

 change will be effected in its entirety at as earlier a period 

 as may prove convenient. After the new Pharmacopoeia is 

 published, there will be no excuse for British pharmacists to 

 plead unfamiliarity with the metric system. 



Among the more valuable incidental results of the Canadian 

 meeting of the British Association must be reckoned the 

 advances in our knowledge of the surface life of the North 

 Atlantic, made by members of the Association during their out- 

 ward and homeward voyages. We have referred in earlier 

 numbers to the collections of plankton made by Prof. Herdman 

 along the Canadian transatlantic route, and by Mr. Garstang 

 along the Canadian and American routes. Prof. Herdman's 

 account of his work is the first to appear, and has been published 

 as a memoir in the Transactions of the Liverpool Biological 



NO. 1476, VOL. 57] 



Society (vol. xii.), under the joint authorship of Prof. Herdman, 

 Mr. J. C. Thompson, and Mr. Andrew Scott. The memoir 

 reveals a remarkably wide distribution for the majority of the 

 forms enumerated. Four new species of Copepoda are described, 

 three of them from the St. Lawrence and one from Puget Sound 

 on the Pacific Coast. The discovery of these forms by English 

 visitors should encourage Canadian naturalists to take up this 

 promising field of research for themselves. 



In order to obtain positive data as to the results of the serum 

 treatment of diphtheria in Russia, the two St. Petersburg 

 societies, of Children's Physicians and of Russian Physicians, 

 nominated a special committee which studied all that had 

 hitherto been printed in Russia on the subject, and entered into 

 correspondence with the doctors who had used serum in their 

 practice. An elaborate report of the committee was read, on 

 December 24 last, by Dr. Rauchfuss before a meeting of the 

 Society of Russian Physicians. In 44,631 registered diphtheria 

 cases in which serum was used, the mortality was only I4"6 per 

 cent. , while in 6507 cases where no serum was used, the mortality 

 was more than double, i.e. 34 per cent. By a careful analysis 

 of data taken from 51 provinces of Russia, Dr. Rauchfuss shows 

 that in each province separately the serum treatment had the 

 effect of at once notably reducing the mortality, even in the 

 midst of severe epidemics. He does not deny that medical 

 help is now applied for in a number of lighter cases, in which 

 no doctor would have been called for a few years ago ; but the 

 marked difference between the mortality in the cases which were 

 treated with serum and those which were not, cannot be ex- 

 plained in this way, while the confidence of the population, 

 including the peasants, in the new treatment is also a testimony 

 in favour of it. Eleven laboratories situated in different parts 

 ' of Russia are now preparing diphtheria serum. 



'It is now recognised that properly-organised and equipped 

 museums are valuable factors in education, and render good ser- 

 vice in directing and stimulating scientific work. Unfortunately, 

 owing to general lack of means, and a staff the members of 

 which have not received sufficient training, provincial museums 

 are often of no service to education or to science. In Natural 

 Science (December 1897), Mr. Herbert Bolton refers to these 

 museums, and points out that hardly any two can be said to work 

 upon a Common plan, whilst most develop and exist rather as 

 the sport of circumstances than as the outcome of definite pur- 

 pose and design. What is badly wanted is the creation of an 

 annual museums' grant by Government in aid of provincial 

 museums of University Colleges, and of large cities possessing 

 good collections and a trained staff, the sum allotted to each 

 being determined by considerations similar to those which guide 

 the application of the present University Colleges' grant. Upon 

 the strength of such a grant the Government could charge each 

 museum with a definite scope of work and the attainment and 

 retention of a certain standard of excellence. It is also sug- 

 gested that other museums might be subsidised through the 

 agency of Council Councils, upon certificates of efficiency and 

 progress received annually from an accredited visitor, who might 

 be an official of the Government or of one of the first-class 

 museums, Mr. Bolton's scheme of classification of museums, 

 and of the work these institutions might do, should assist in 

 directing attention to an important subject. 



M. \. Deniker {Bulletins de la Sociiti cT Anthropologie de 

 Paris, 1897, fascicules 3 and 4), in a paper of considerable length, 

 briefly mentions the characteristics of the inhabitants of the 

 various districts of Europe. If three variants (cephalic index, 

 measurement of stature, and colour of skin and hair) be each 

 classified under three headings, twenty-seven combinations may 

 result : as a matter of fact only six occur in considerable 

 numbers, while four more in lesser numbers. The conclusion 



