Oct. 25, 1888] 



NATURE 



625 



Thus, the nag they called, on account of its hood, cobra-de- 

 capello ; the Dakota, on account of its carpet-like skin, they 

 called cobra-de-alcatifa — that is, the carpet-snake. From old 

 Portuguese writings he believes that the mangoose is the bis- 

 cobra ; and from the crawling motion of that animal the 

 Portuguese had an idea that the bicho-de-cobra was a lizard. 

 In fact, in a work of the Jesuit father De Souza, published in 

 1 7 10, though probably written twenty years earlier, the man- 

 goose is described as "that poisonous reptile, bicho-de-cobra." 

 The name mangoose gradually usurped the place of bicho-de- 

 cobra, but among the natives the idea of a poisonous lizard 

 called bis-cobra remained, and it has been handed down with 

 terrible stories of its poisonous powers. 



The South London Microscopical and Natural History Club 

 has published its seventeenth Annual Report. The Report 

 includes abstracts of some interesting papers read at the 

 meetings. The Committee say that during the past year there 

 was a uniformly good attendance of members. 



We have received the third number of the series "Insect 

 Life," issued by the Entomological Division of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture. The object of this series is to 

 exhibit the economy and life-habits of insects, especially in their 

 relation to agriculture. Among the contents of this number are 

 notes on the Rocky Mountain locust ; a report on injury done by 

 "roaches" to the files in the Treasury at Washington ; further 

 notes on the hop-plant louse (Phorodon humuli) ; and a paper 

 suggesting steps towards a revision of Chambers's index to the 

 described Tineina of the United States and Canada, with notes 

 and descriptions of new species, by Lord Walsingham. 



Some time ago the Colorado Ornithological Association was 

 formed, and through the efforts of its members a comprehensive 

 list of the birds of Colorado, numbering about 350 species and 

 sub-species, was soon prepared. This Society has now trans- 

 formed itself into an organization with wider aims, and has 

 assumed the name of the Colorado Biological Association. The 

 objects of the Association in its new form are the detailed 

 investigation and recording of the fauna and flora of Colorado, 

 recent and fossil. The Association hopes to become the highest 

 authority on all matters connected with the biology of the State, 

 both from the scientific and the economic points of view, and 

 through its Secretary and referees will place itself at the service 

 of the scientific and general public in answering all questions 

 within the scope of its investigations, and in identifying 

 specimens that may be submitted for this purpose. 



The general Report, by Prof. Egoroff, on the observations 

 made in Russia and Siberia during the eclipse of the sun of 

 August 19, 1887, under the direction of the Committee of the 

 Russian Physical and Chemical Society, is now published (in 

 Russian) in the Journal of the Society (vol. xx. 6). Seven sta- 

 tions were provided with observers and instruments (at Wilno, 

 Nikolsk, Tver, Petrovsk, Vyatka, Krasnoyarsk, and the 

 Bay of Possiet), but only at three of them — Petrovsk, Kras- 

 noyarsk, and Possiet — could the eclipse be observed in detail. 

 Fourteen excellent photographs were taken at Krasnoyarsk, 

 and of these two are reproduced in M. Egoroff's Report, as 

 also several drawings of the corona which were made by hand 

 at Polotsk, Vladimir, and places in Siberia. Various observa- 

 tions with regard to the position of the protuberances and the 

 shape of the corona are given in the Report, and its general 

 conclusions are as follows: — (1) The corona is not a merely 

 optical phenomenon : it has a real existence, and it maintained 

 its shape not only during the whole of the eclipse at each spot 

 where it was observed, but also at spots as far distant from one 

 another as Polotsk and Possiet (distance, 6000 miles). (2) The 

 corona of 1887 is a representation of those corona: which cor- 

 respond to a minimum of spots on the sun. The like were 



observed in 1867 and 1878. Its peculiarities are interesting in 

 connection with the question as to the structure of the sun and 

 its corona. Mr. Norman Lockyer, in his work on "The Che- 

 mistry of the Sun," expresses regret that he could not see, in 

 1886, while in Grenada, those panaches on the poles of the sun 

 which he had carefully studied in 1878. The photographs of 

 M. Hamontoff (Krasnoyarsk) prove that those currents existed, 

 and that they were well seen on August 19, 1887. (3) There is 

 a correlation between the distribution of the rays of the corona 

 and the position of protuberances. (4) The brilliancy of the 

 light of the corona is of the same order as that of the full 

 moon (as shown by several photometric measurements, and also 

 by the visibility of a Leonis in the rays of the corona). (5) The 

 spectrum of the corona was an uninterrupted one, with feeble 

 Fraunhofer lines. Bright lines were not seen, except for a 

 moment at Petrovsk, where M. Stonaewicz saw the green bright 

 line ; the cloudiness of the sky, which resulted in a great 

 amount of reflected light, probably prevented the bright lines 

 from being seen. (6) Polarimetric measurements require a 

 bright sky ; under other conditions false conclusions might be 

 arrived at. (7) Both atmospheric pressure and temperature are 

 lowered during the eclipse, the minimum coming at a later time 

 than the middle time of the full eclipse. 



A great number of meteorological observations having been 

 made during the eclipse at various places in Russia and Siberia, 

 Prof. Hesehus now sums them up in the same issue of the 

 Journal of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society (xx. 6). 

 It appears from the curves which he has drawn after having availed 

 himself of observations made at twenty-five different stations, 

 that the eclipse resulted in lowering the atmospheric pressure 

 by about o - 2 mm., the minimum being reached a few minutes 

 (about five to ten) after the time of the full eclipse. The fact 

 is best explained by the condensation of vapour in the atmosphere. 

 The temperature was lowered by an average of i° - 6 C. in the 

 shade — the minimum being reached ten minutes after the full 

 eclipse ; and by about 8° 6 in the sun's rays — the minimum being 

 attained in this case three minutes after the full phase of the 

 eclipse. The force of the wind also was reduced, probably on 

 account of the condensation of vapour in the atmosphere. The 

 data as to the influence of the eclipse on the magnetic needle 

 are contradictory. The influence of the eclipse on plants and 

 animals was well pronounced. The Acacia armata folded its 

 leaves, while the Nicotians and Mirabilis jaloppa opened their 

 flowers. In the marshy spots of Siberia, such as Turinsk, the 

 mosquitoes made their appearance, as they usually do in the 

 evenings. The well-known facts as to the uneasiness and fear 

 which are felt by higher animals were confirmed. On the 

 whole, the Physical Society expected more important results 

 when it organized meteorological observations at so many 

 stations provided with physical instruments, but the weather 

 was unfavourable to the work of the observers. Hilger's 

 spectrograph for photographing the ultra-violet parts of the 

 spectrum of the corona with the view of detecting traces of 

 carbon and carboniferous compounds, could not be used on 

 account of the weather. 



The same periodical contains a record of Prof. Mendelejeff's 

 impressions during his balloon ascent at Klin. The Russian 

 chemist saw the corona from his balloon for only twenty seconds. 

 His view of the sun was unfortunately obstructed by a cloud. 



The Meteorological Council have published Part 5 of 

 " Contributions to our Knowledge of the Meteorology of the 

 Arctic Regions." The four previous parts contained principally 

 the meteorological results furnished by the Franklin search 

 expeditions which wintered to the eastward of longitude 120 

 W. between 1848-58, but also included the results available from 

 the date of Sir W. E. Parry's expedition in 1819. Part 5 



