Dec. 19, 1889] 



NATURE 



161 



offered a second ;if iood towards the fitting up and equipment of 

 the laboratories, contingent on the friends of the College con- 

 tributing an equal amount. We purpose shortly giving an 

 account and plans of these laboratories. 



More than a quarter of a century has passed since it was 

 decided that the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine should be 

 started. The editors have now resolved to issue a new series, 

 each volume of which will begin in January and end in Decem- 

 ber. There will be no radical change in the constitution of the 

 magazine, but the number of pages and illustrations will often 

 be increased. 



The result of the poll for a free library at Whitechapel, 

 declared last Saturday night, is interesting and significant. On 

 a register of 6000, there were 3553 affirmative votes and only 

 935 dissentients. This is the more noteworthy, because about 

 eleven years ago a like proposal was rejected by a majority of 

 about two to one. 



The following science lectures will be given at the Royal 

 Victoria Hall during January : January 7, " A Visit to the Chief 

 Cities of Italy," by Rev. W. W. Edwards; January 14, "The 

 Bottom of the Sea," by Dr. P. H. Carpenter ; January 21, "To 

 Vancouver's Island and back," by Mr. W. L. Carpenter ; 

 January 28, " Musical Sounds and how we hear them," by Dr. 

 F. W. Mott. 



A SECOND edition of Sir William sAitken's "Animal Alka- 

 loids" (H. K. Lewis) has been published. The work has been 

 carefully revised, and the author's aim has been to bring the 

 book up to the present state of knowledge regarding the im- 

 portant subject to which it relates. 



The first part of a monograph of Oriental Cicadida, by W. L. 

 T)istant, has been published by order of the Trustees of the 

 Indian Museum, Calcutta. It is printed in clear type, and in- 

 cludes two fine plates. The monograph, when completed, will 

 evidently be of much scientific value. 



M. Vayssiere has now completed the publication of his 

 " Atlas d' Anatomic Comparee des Invertebres." It comprises 

 sixty plates, with corresponding letterpress, and is much 

 appreciated by French zoologists. , 



The Proceedings and Transactions of the International Agri- 

 cultural Congress held in Paris last summer have just been issued. 



A Reuter's telegram from Madrid says that a shock of 

 earthquake was felt at Granada on the evening of December 16. 

 There was great alarm for the moment, and the people rushed 

 in panic out of the theatre, where a performance was going on 

 at the time. Apparently no damage was done. 



The Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic Ocean for December 

 states that stormy weather has been prevalent during the month 

 of November. Two notable cyclones have occurred ; the first 

 moved eastward from Chesapeake Bay on the night of the 9th. 

 On the nth it was central in about latitude 41° N., longitude 

 57° W. ; and from this position it moved nearly due north-east, 

 and rapidly increased in energy. The other cyclone moved east- 

 ward from the New Jersey coast on the 13th, and was central on 

 the 14th in latitude 42° 40' N., longitude 63° 20' W. This 

 storm attained great violence during the 14th and 15th. After 

 the 1 6th, gales of varying force occurred along the coast north 

 of Florida. There was very little fog during the month ; a 

 dense bank was reported on the 17th on the north coast of Cuba. 

 A number of icebergs arc still reported in the vicinity of Belle 

 Isle, and several smaller bergs have been seen over the New- 

 foundland Banks. 



At the meeting of the French Meteorological Society on 

 November 5, M. Teisserenc de Bort gave an account of his 

 researches on barometric gradients. He distinguished two kinds of 

 gradients, one due to the differences of temperature, and another 



due to the earth's rotation, and pointed out that these twa 

 gradients are always superposed, and that their distinction was 

 a matter of importance, for if the first case predominates (a 

 gradient due to difference of temperature), the wind force may 

 increase and the depression become deeper, while in the second 

 case the depression tends to disappear. He thought it was not 

 impossible to make this distinction, for if we know the force of 

 the wind we might calculate the moment of inertia and the cor- 

 responding gradient. He also presented a work on the distri- 

 bution of atmospheric pressure over the surface of the globe. 

 He showed that the distribution of pressure over different 

 meridians varies upwards of an inch on the same parallel accord- 

 ing to the season. With the view of finding out the arrangement 

 of the isobars in higher regions of the atmosphere, the author 

 has calculated the pressures by formulae at various heights, from 

 the pressure and temperature observed at the earth's surface, and 

 compared their accuracy by the readings at some mountain 

 stations, and he has found that most of the irregularities in the 

 distribution of the isobars tend to disappear as we reach the 

 higher regions of the air, and to be replaced by inflexions in the 

 opposite sense. A summary of this paper will be found in the 

 Comptes rendus of the French Academy for December 2. 



At a meeting of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 

 on October 30, Mr. A. Sidney OUiff called attention to the ex- 

 traordinary abundance of a large Noctuid moth — apparently 

 Agrotis spina, Gu. {A. vastator, Sc. ) — during the early part of 

 October in various parts of the country, especially in the vicinity 

 of Sydney, where it appeared in such vast numbers as to cause 

 great consternation amongst those who were not aware that its 

 food in the larval state is confined to low-growing herbage, and 

 that at no stage of its existence does it eat cloth, furs, or feathers. 

 A similar visitation of these moths occurred in October 1867. 

 Mr. Olliff said that Agrotis spina was found in great numbers 

 on the summit of Mount Kosciusko and other high points in the 

 Australian Alps, and added that he was of opinion, after ex- 

 tended inquiry, that this species, and no other, was the true 

 Bugong moth, which formerly formed an important article of 

 food amongst the blacks of the Upper Tumut district. 



Mr. Thomas Cornish, Penzance, recently recorded in Th 

 Zoologist the occurrence of the "Old English" or " Black '^' 

 Rat, captured at a place about five miles north-east of Penzance. 

 In the current number of the same periodical he says that im- 

 mediately after that capture a perfectly trustworthy observer saw 

 near Cam bourne, at a place ten miles south-east from where the 

 first specimen was obtained, a Black Rat, which was certainly 

 not the ordinary Hanoverian Rat ; and at a later time Mr. 

 Cornish saw and handled another specimen, captured in Paul 

 Parish, about three miles south-west of Penzance. " These 

 facts," says Mr. Cornish, " apparently point to an incursion of 

 this animal, which is gregarious certainly, and probably a vagrant 

 in herds, but not a migrant." 



Mr. J. R. Dobbins, San Gabriel, California, contributes to- 

 the new number of Insect Life (vol. ii. No. 4) a note on the 

 spread of the Australian ladybird. The note is dated July 2, 

 1889. At that time the Vedolia had multiplied in numbers, and 

 had spread so rapidly that every one of Mr. Dobbins's 3200 

 orchard trees was literally swarming with them. All his 

 ornamental trees, shrubs, and vines which had been infested with 

 white scale were practically cleansed by this wonderful parasite. 

 "About one month since," says Mr. Dobbins, " I made a public 

 statement that my orchard would be free from ' Icerya by Novem- 

 ber I,' but the work has gone on with such amazing speed and 

 thoroughness, that I am to-day confident that the pest will have 

 been exterminated from my trees by the middle of August. 

 People are coming here daily, and by placing infested branches 

 upon the ground beneath my trees for two hours, can secure 



