282 



NATURE 



\yan. 19, I 



NOTES. 

 Last week we printed an article advocating the claims 

 of M. Giard to the new Chair of Darwinism in Paris. 

 We are now informed that the appointment will certainly be 

 offered to M. Giard, and that, if he declines it, it will be offered 

 to Prof Perrier, of the Paris Museum of Natural History. It is 

 generally desired that the Chair s-hould be connected with the 

 Faculty of Sciences in the Sorbonne. M. Liard, the Director 

 of Superior Instruction, in the Department of Public Instruction, 

 is favourable to the whole scheme, and hopes are expressed 

 that the lectures may be begun in the course of two or three 

 months. 



Mr. G. J. Romanes has been elected Fullerian Professor of 

 Physiology at the Royal Institution. He intends to devote all 

 the three years of his professorship to one continuous course of 

 lectures on " Before and after Darwin." This year's course — 

 "Before Darwin" — will be an historical survey of the progress 

 of scientific thought and discovery in biology from the earliest 

 times till the publication of "The Origin of Species." Next 

 year's course will be "On the Evidence of Organic Evolution," 

 and the third year's " On the Factors of Organic Evolution." 



On Saturday, the 21st inst., at three o'clock. Lord Rayleigh 

 will deliver, at the Royal Institution, the first of a course of 

 seven lectures on Experimental Optics. The remaining lectures 

 of the course will be given at the same hour on the following 

 Saturdays. 



The annual general meeting of the Anthropological Insti- 

 tute of Great Britain and Ireland will .take place on Tues- 

 day, the 24th inst., at 8 o'clock p.m. precisely, Mr. Francis 

 Galton, F.R. S., President, in the chair. The following will be 

 the order of business : — Confirmation of the minutes ; appoint- 

 ment of scrutineers of the ballot ; Treasurer's financial state- 

 ment ; report of Council for 1887 ; the Presidential Address ; 

 report of scrutineers ; and election of Council for 1888. 



Dr. H. Lloyd Snape has been elected to fill the Chair of 

 Chemistry at University College, Aberystwi';h, rendered vacant 

 by the death of Prof. Ilampidge. The new Professor acted for 

 three sessions as Demonstrator of Chemistry at University Col- 

 lege, Liverpool. Afterwards he studied at the Universities of 

 Berlin and Gottingen under the direction of Profs. Hofmann 

 and V. Meyer respectively. On his return to England he was 

 appointed Director of the Department of Pure and Applied 

 Chemistry in the Manchester Technical School. 



We regret to announce the death of Mr. Hayden, the well- 

 known American geologist. He died on December 22 last. 



Mr. Andrew Garrett, an eminent American conchologist, 

 died at his residence on the island of Huahine, Society Group, 

 South Seas, on November i last, in his sixty-fifth year. 



The Meteorological Council has recently published Part III. 

 of the Daily Synchronous Weather Charts of the North Atlantic 

 and the adjacent continents. Parts I. and II. were respectively 

 noticed in Nature, vol. xxxv. p. 469, and vol. xxxvi. p. 178. 

 The part just issued, dealing with the period from February 15 

 to May 24, 1883, comprises the weather for the end of the 

 winter and the early spring. The charts show clearly how very 

 different are the conditions which exist over the Atlantic in the 

 winter from those which exist in the spring. The ea^ ly charts 

 contain numerous instances of storm=;, and the barometrical 

 disturbances which accompany them embrace a large part 

 of the North Atlantic Ocean. An interesting case of 

 storm development is shown over the American Lakes on 

 February 19. The disturbance subsequently traversed the 

 Atlantic, and passed about 800 miles to the north of Scotland on 

 the 24th, causing a moderate gale in the north of our islands, 



and gales generally over the north-west of Europe. There is 

 another instance of rapid storm development off Florida on 

 April 2, the disturbance growing into a severe humcane when 

 south of Newfoundland on the 4th. A storm-area was formed 

 off the north-west coast of Africa on February 20. This seems 

 to have originated in an intensifying of the northerly wind on 

 the eastern side of the Atlantic anticyclone. On the 22nd the 

 storm was fully developed, and the cyclonic circulation was 

 complete, the barometer registering as low as 29-6 inches. 

 This disturbance travelled to the westward as far as the middle 

 of the Atlantic. On the 25th it was clearly dying out, but on 

 the 26th it apparently gained fresh life, and on February 28 and 

 March i it was causing a gale close to the American coast, and 

 to the south of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. It afterwards 

 travelled eastwards, skirting to the north-west of Iceland on 

 March 3, and finally struck the north-west coast of Norway on 

 the 4th. There is also a case of a double-headed depression 

 travelling to the eastward across the Atlantic between March 25 

 and 31. These charts show very clearly the explanation of 

 the cold northerly and north-easterly winds experienced over 

 England during the spring, the isobaric lines indicating a general 

 extension of the Atlantic high pressure over our islands at ihis 

 season. 



At the meeting of the French'_MeteoroIogical Society on the 

 .6th ult. a paper by M. Andre, Director of the Lyons Ob- 

 servatory, on the influence of altitude on temperature, was read. 

 The observations were made in the environs of Lyons in the 

 years 1S81-84. The mean diurnal range was 18" '5 F. at the 

 lowest station (574 feet), and 12^-3 at the highest station (2050 

 feet). M. Poincare submitted a table showing the relation 

 between the barometric movements at lat. 40° and 10° N., and 

 the phases of the moon. M. Renon made a communication on 

 the observation of fog. He considered the present method of 

 observation to be defective, as the observer could only note 

 what exists around him ; a knowledge of the conditions at a 

 considerable height above him was necessary, to arrive at satis- 

 factory conclusions. This desideratum was also urged by M. 

 Janssen. 



On January 3, snow fell in Christiania from a perfectly clear 

 sky. After a strong southerly wind with cloudy weather in 

 the morning the weather cleared, but at about noon it again 

 thickened, and snow and sleet fell. In the afternoon the sky 

 again became clear and continued thus, with a storm blow ing 

 from the west. Just before 8 p.m., however, thick clouds again 

 gathered, the full moon became obscured, and snow began to 

 fall heavily. A quarter of an hour later the wind swept the 

 clouds away, and the sky became completely clear, with the 

 exception of a few clouds in the east. The stars shone brightly, 

 and the full moon illuminated the landscape ; still snow continued 

 to fall thickly for some ten minutes. That the snow could not 

 have originated with the clouds in the east is proved by the 

 circumstance that the wind was westerly. A well-known 

 meteorologi-t ascribes the phenomenon to the presence at a 

 certain elevation in the atmosphere of a very cold layer of air in 

 which the a' cending, comparatively warmer, air became condensed, 

 the moisture being thrown out in the form of snow, but not in suffi- 

 cient quantities to obscure the blue sky, the stars, and the moon. 

 The great chilling of the layer of air referred to may have been 

 caused by the coldness of the heavy snow clouds which a few 

 minutes previottsly filled the atmosphere. 



On December 24, at 9.45 p.m., a brilliant meteor was ob- 

 served in the north-western sky at Orebro, in Central Sweden. 

 The light, variegated in colour, was very intense. The meteor 

 seemed to fall perpendicularly to the earth with a slow motion, 

 and dissolved itself without any report. On ^December 25, at 

 about 5 p.m., another meteor, shining with an intense bluish- 



