156 



NATURE 



[Dec. 15, 1887 



that may have been matle for his wife and family (two children 

 of three and five years), and their sad condition calls for the 

 consideration of his scientific colleagues. 



In opening the exhibition, at the People's Palace, of the work 

 of London apprentices, on Saturday, the Prince of Wales 

 delivered an excellent speech on technical education. He was 

 able to announce that, thanks to the generosity of the Drapers' 

 Company and the Charity Commissioners, the People's Palace 

 will soon be on a permanent footing. He also stated that the 

 Ironmongers' Company and the Charity Commissioners are to 

 co-operate for the establishment, in some other part of London, 

 of an institution corresponding to the People's Palace— an insti- 

 tution for providing technical, scientific, commercial, and art stic 

 education united with physical and social recreation. 



A Committee, consisting for the most part of members of the 

 two Commissions which presided over the Prehistoric and Ethno- 

 graphic Sections in the Paris Exhibition of 1878, has been 

 appointed by the French Minister of Commerce and Industry to 

 preside over Section I. of Technological History at the Exhibition 

 of 1889. This department, which will be located in the so-called 

 Palais des Arts liberaux, will represent physical, or technical, 

 anthropology, prehistoric archreology, and ethnography. The 

 four other Sections connected with anthropological and ethno- 

 graphic sciences will respectively illustrate the liberal arts, 

 arts and trades, means of transport, and iniiitary arts. The 

 President of the Committee is M, de Roziere, and the Acting 

 Secretary M. P. Topinard, editor of the Revtu d^ Anthropologie, 

 through whose pages an appeal is made to foreign as well as 

 French anthropologists for contributions to this Section of the 

 coming Exhibition, such, more especially, as casts of skulls 

 and other parts of the body by which racial types can be best 

 illustrated. 



The Chief Signal Officer of the United States has issued his 

 Report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1887. The Report 

 shows that there has been a growing demand for weather fore- 

 casts : as a rule, predictions are made for forty different districts- 

 The system of cold-wave warnings continues in successful opera- 

 tion : these warnings imply that the temperature will fall below 

 45°, and that in twenty- four hours an abnormal fall of 15° or more 

 will occur. Such predictions are valuable both as regards 

 agricultural interests and personal comfort. A bulletin showing 

 the effect of the weather for the previous seven days on im- 

 portant growing crops is now issued once a week. The State 

 services play an important part in the meteorological organiza- 

 tions of the United States. These now number nineteen, in 

 addition to the New England Meteorological Society. It is 

 recommended that the attention of Congress be called to the 

 propriety of making an appropriation for the service of tele- 

 grams now sent from the United States to Europe, in view of 

 their importance to ship-masters of all countries. 



At the meeting of the French Meteorological Society, on 

 November 9, attention was drawn to the establishment, of a 

 meteorological station at Bagneres-de-Bigorre. This station is 

 of importance from its position at the foot of the Pic-du-Midi, 

 being about 7540 feet below the mountain observatory. M. 

 Teisserenc de Bort submitted an atlas of maritime meteorology, 

 which has just been published with the co-operation of the 

 Central Meteorological Office of France. 



On November 16, Dr. Buys Ballot, Director of the 

 Royal Meteorological Institute of the Netherlands, was pre- 

 sented with a gold medal, at a banquet held in his honour, as a 

 mark of respect on his completion of forty years of eminent 

 services (1847-87). The meeting was attended by men of 

 science from various countries. 



Cicl et Terre of November i discusses an investigation of the 

 surface temperature of the ocean, by Prof. O. Kriimmel, in the 

 Zeit'chrift fiir WissenschaftUche Geographic, containing charts 

 for February and August, with coloured isotherms for each 2° C, 

 over all oceans. The space occupied in latitude by water of 75° F' 

 is calculated for the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Temperatures 

 above 86° F. are found only at isolated points, as on the west 

 coast of Central America, in August. Nearly 40 per cent, of the 

 whole superficies of the ocean, both in February and August, has 

 a temperature above 75°. The low temperature on the west 

 coasts of Africa and South America is attributed by the author 

 to the action of the winds instead of to the action of Polar surface 

 currents, by which it has hitherto been explained. 



During last autumn the German Fishery Association des- 

 patched the steamer Holsatia into the Baltic for scientific 

 research, some of the results of which have just been made 

 public. There were on board Prof. Hensen, Dr. Brandt, Dr. 

 Oldenburg, and several officials connected with the German 

 fisheries. The Holsatia left Memel on September 14, and, 

 steering in a north-westerly direction, trawded over her course 

 in order to ascertain what fish vwere most plentiful at that season. 

 This proved to be herring. In the deep channel running to the 

 north-west of Memel, between that city and the Hoberg bank, 

 off the island of Gottland, it was found that the temperature of 

 the sea, at a depth of 142 metres only, was 3° C, whereas at the 

 surface it was 14° C. Several measurements were taken, but 

 with the same result. This spot being one of the deepest in 

 the Baltic, it has been suggested that this abnormal temperature 

 may be caused by some cold un'ler-current coming from the 

 Gulf of Bothnia or the Bay of Finland. From this point the 

 course was shaped for the island of Oland and the fishing-bank 

 called "Mittelbank," soundings being taken throughout. Net- 

 fishing was also carried on, particularly with a so-called 

 "vertical" net, employed for the purpose of ascertaining the 

 nature of the food of fish in certain waters. Some trawling 

 resulted in the bringing up of boulders of a very curious .shape, 

 as well as mussels and other marine animals. All the objects 

 brought up were photographed. 



In the December Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, 

 issued from the Royal Gardens, Kew, there is an interesting 

 account of cubebs, the value of which has risen rapidly during 

 the last few years. There are also excellent papers on Sabicii 

 wood, Mexican fibre or istle, the food-grain^ of India, broom 

 root or Mexican whisk, Contrayerva, the introduction of the 

 Brazil nut to the East Indies and Australia, and the Castilloa 

 rubber of Central America. 



Another comprehensive application of the well-known re- 

 action of Messrs. Friedel and Crafts, which has played so 

 remarkable a role in organic chemistry, has recently been made 

 by M. Leon Roux. In a long but highly interesting communi- 

 cition to the Aiinales de Chimie et Physvjue, M. Roux describes 

 how he has been enabled, with the aid of that wonderful sub- 

 stance, chloride of aluminium, to extend the bounds of chemistry 

 still further, by preparing a large number of higher homologues 

 of naphthalene. In fact, he has been successful in building up 

 from the heavier molecuh of naphthalene an entirely new series 

 of hydrocarbons, analogous in many respects to the series de- 

 rived, by the earlier use of this reaction, from the lighter mole- 

 cule of benzene. The insertion of the CH3 groups, however, 

 is a much more difficult operation in the naphthalene than in the 

 benzene series, and requires a much higher temperature ; the 

 homologues themselves, moreover, are much more interesting, 

 inasmuch as two isomeric kind-s, o and /3, of each are possible. 

 Thus the methyl naphthalene C]oH7 . CFf, fjrmed by the new 

 method was found to consist of a mixture of the a and /3 isomers, 

 which could be partially separated by taking advantage of 



