July 28, 1923] 



NA TURE 



149 



Night Temperature on Mt. Etna. 



T^HE observatory on Mt. Etna is perched high 

 -*■ up on a plateau of the volcano known as the 

 Piano del Lago beneath the summit ridge, which rises 

 about 1000 feet higher. It is sometimes noticed by 

 the officials, who only reside a few days in each 

 month, that a curious rise in temperature, amounting 

 to a couple of degrees or so centigrade, occurs during 

 the middle of the night, constituting a well-marked 

 secondary nocturnal maximum in the diurnal varia- 

 tion of temperature. During a visit to the station in 

 August 1920, Prof. Filippo Eredia noticed that the 

 nocturnal inversion in the regular fall of temperature 

 was associated with the arrival of sulphurous fumes 

 from the crater, but notwithstanding the contem- 

 poraneous occurrence he does not attribute much 

 causal connexion between the two phenomena. A 

 dozen cases, as shown by thermograph records, are 

 discussed by him in a paper contributed to vol. 31 

 (1922) of the Rendiconti della Reale Accademia 

 Nazionale dei Lincei. Most of them occurred in the 

 summer, and in conditions both of calm and of wind 

 of different forces and directions, chiefly N.E. and 

 N.W. The calm cases with clear sky are shown to 

 be analogous to similar nocturnal inversions in other 

 mountain regions, and are attributed partly to the 

 slow descent of air from the summit ridge whereby 

 it is warmed by adiabatic compression, and partly to 

 the latent heat of misty condensation due to the 

 previous general nocturnal chilling of the atmosphere. 

 This, however, is not quite convincing; the effects 

 are too complex to be explained on a purely qualita- 

 tive basis. The cases with strong wind are found 

 to be associated with a great difference of tempera- 

 ture between the interior of Sicily and the eastern 

 flanks of Etna, giving rise to a circulation which 

 carries warmer air to the high-level station. At 

 Catania on the coast near sea-level there are no cor- 

 responding night inversions of the diurnal range of 

 temperature. 



Although the above are only examples of secondary 

 night maxima, the inversion of the regular variation 

 not being nearly marked enough to override the 

 primary day maximum in 24 hours, it is probable that in 

 the latitude of Sicily, where the range of temperature 

 between day and night is at all seasons large, such 

 minor irregularities in the diurnal course of tempera- 

 ture attract more attention than they would in a higher 

 latitude, where during the very short days of winter 

 the diurnal range is small and liable to be obliterated, 

 or even occasionally entirely inverted, by the very 

 rapid and conspicuous irregular variations of tem- 

 perature. In England, for example, during the 

 month of December it is no very rare event for night 

 to be warmer than day : for should frosty air begin 

 towards evening to be replaced by a warm, humid 

 current from the Atlantic, not only will the frost be 

 swept away, instead of intensified, as night comes on, 

 but the thermometer may easily rise to 50° F. or 

 above in the middle of the night. 



L. C. W. B. 



The School of Hygiene in London. 



A N inquiry at the Ministry of Health relating to 

 "^*- the proposed School of Hygiene in London has 

 elicited the following statement of the position of the 

 scheme. 



In May 192 1 the committee on Post-Graduate 

 Medical Education, under the chairmanship of the 

 Earl of Athlone, published its report, recommending, 

 inter alia, the establishment of an Institute of Medi- 



cine in association with the University of London, 

 in which instruction should be given in public health 

 and other departments of medicine. This sugges- 

 tion was further explored by a small Departmental 

 Committee and detailed proposals were formulated. 



The University of London and the Government 

 were, however, unable to find the money to establish 

 an Institute of Medicine such as Lord Athlone's 

 Committee had contemplated, and in these circum- 

 stances the proposals were brought to the notice of 

 the trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation, whose 

 representatives had recently been in consultation with 

 the authorities in Great Britain. The trustees of the 

 Foundation generously agreed to provide two million 

 dollars for the establishment of the Institute, to be 

 called the School of Hygiene, the British Government 

 undertaking to make an annual grant towards the 

 upkeep of the School. Preliminary work was under- 

 taken for the preparation of plans and estimates, and 

 a site has been selected. 



It has been decided that the School when estab- 

 lished shall be affiliated with the University of 

 London but managed by a separate governing body, 

 for which a charter of incorporation will be sought. 

 Pending the presentation of a petition for the 

 charter, the Minister of Health, with the concurrence 

 of the trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation, has 

 appointed a transitional executive committee. The 

 functions of the committee will be to appoint a 

 director, to arrange for amalgamation or co-ordination 

 between the School and other institutions working 

 in similar or closely related spheres, to prepare plans 

 for the new School, and to begin building, unless in 

 the meantime it has been possible to set up the 

 permanent governing body. The members of the 

 committee are : The Rt. Hon. Neville Chamberlain 

 (chairman), the Rt. Hon. the Viscount Burnham, 

 Capt. Sir Arthur Clarke, Sir Walter Fletcher, Lieut. - 

 Col. Fremantle, Sir Harry Goschen, Sir George New- 

 man, Sir Cooper Perry, and Sir Arthur Robinson, with 

 Mr. L. G. Brock, of the Ministry of Health, as 

 secretary. 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



Aberdeen. — At the Summer Graduation on July 

 II, the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on 

 Prof. J. Eraser, Jesus professor of Celtic in the 

 University of Oxford. 



Mr. William Thomas received the degree of Ph.D. for 

 theses on {a) The influence of colloids on reactions 

 involving gases, and (6) Inorganic complex salts. 



The following prizes were awarded : Collie prize 

 in botany and Sutherland gold medal in forestry to 

 Mr. J. H. Hunter ; Struthers medal and prize in 

 anatomy to Mr. J. W. Foster ; Lizars medal in 

 anatomy to Mr. J. W. Foster and Mr. A. J. W. 

 Wilkins ; John Murray medal and scholarship ■ in 

 medicine to Mr. A. Lyall. 



The University Court has decided to make first 

 appointments, in the coming autumn, to the newly 

 founded chair in engineering and to the Cruickshank 

 lectureship in astronomy and meteorology. 



Cambridge. — Mr. D. C. Carroll, Trinity Hall, has 

 been elected to the Michael Foster research student- 

 ship ; Dr. C. C. Worster-Drought, Downing College, 

 has been elected to the E. G. Fearnsides research 

 scholarship. 



London. — At a meeting of the Senate held on 

 July 18, the title of reader in organic chemistry was 

 conferred on Dr. O. L. Brady, of University College ; 



NO. 2804, VOL. I 12] 



