312 



NATURE 



\yan. 26, 1888 



which some theoretical calculations may be relied upon. — Prof. 

 Schwalbe announced that he is engaged in drawing up a Greek 

 nomenclature in connection with physics, and invited the 

 members of the Society to communicate to him any expressions 

 borrowed from Greek which are either rare or difficult to 

 understand. 



Meteorological Society, January 3. — The President, 

 Prof. von. Bezold, opened the meeting with a short speech 

 in memory of the late member of the Society, Prof. Kirchhofif, 

 whose many-sided works had not been without importance to the 

 science of meteorology. — The Secretary then made his report on 

 the activity of the Society during the past year, and on the 

 establishment of new meteorological stations in connection with 

 the circle of such stations surrounding Berlin promoted by the 

 Society. — At the election of officers which then followed Dr. 

 Vettin was chosen as President, and Prof. Von Bezold as Vice- 

 President. — Dr. Hellmann spoke on the meteorology of the 

 Iberian Peninsula. During a prolonged stay in Spain in the 

 years 1875-76, the speaker was unable tD study the rainfall of the 

 country owing to insufficient data. Since then, however, some 760 

 annual statements have been published from 70 stations, so that 

 he was now in a position to work out the rainfall, and he 

 presented the results of this in the form of a chart, which formed 

 the basis of his communication. The local distribution of rain- 

 fall is very varying. In the district of the Ebro and the whole 

 of the south-east part of the country as far as Carthagena and 

 Old Castile, the rainfall is very slight, the annual fall being about 

 270 mm. ; on the other hand, on the west coast, and in the 

 district of the Pyrenees, the rainfall is considerable, presenting a 

 fall of some 1600 mm. per annum. The maximum fall is 

 found in Serra da Estrella, where it amounts to 3500 mm. 

 The course of the lines of equal rainfall of 300, 400, 600, 800, 

 1000, and 1600 mm. per annum is extremely curious, and 

 M'as carefully discussed by the speaker. Two sections through 

 the peninsula, on which the rainfall was represented by ordinates, 

 showed how steep the gradients are when passing from the west 

 coast towards the interior. The speaker threw a good deal of 

 interesting light on the close connection which exists between 

 the agricultural and social conditions of the inhabitants and the 

 rainfall. It appeared that very profound differences have deve- 

 loped themselves between the districts where the rainfall is great 

 and small, and in the latter where the district is well supplied 

 with water or not, these differences completely governing the 

 character and mode of life of the inhabitants. All the stations in 

 common showed a minimal rainfall in the summer, occurring in 

 the months of July and August. In the most southerly stations 

 this minimum falls to 4 mm. for the above two months, whereas 

 in the north-west it rises to more than loo mm. The curve of 

 maximal rainfall shows three typical forms and three transitional 

 forms. One set of stations shows a maximum in winter, another 

 set has its maximum in the spring, and the third shows it in the 

 autumn, and between these three a graduated transition is 



, 1 T'l. ^- , maximum . ... 



observed. 1 he quotient — t—. mcreases raoidly on eomgf 



mmimum . / & t> 



south. The difference in the amount of rainfall per annum 

 could only be calculated for thirty-two stations, since it 

 must be based on the records of ten consecutive years at least. 

 The ratio of the extreme to the mean annual rainfall in the 

 north-west, as well as in Central Europe, was two, while in the 

 interior of the country this ratio rose to five. The rainstorms 

 are rarely continuous ; they occur chiefly in the morning, and are 

 followed by sunshine : three days of continuous rain, or even of 

 clouds, scarcely ever occur in the whole of Spain. This state- 

 ment was confirmed by the records of the autographic sunshine 

 recorder. Snow rarely falls in the Iberian Peninsula; the 

 maximum fall of twenty-two snowy days was observed at a 

 station on the upper Douro. At the southern stations snow falls 

 once in thirty years, and it never falls at all at many stations. 

 It is impossible to give any account here of the large mass of 

 further details which the speaker brought before the meeting ; 

 they will shortly be published by him in a very extended form. 



Stockholm. 



Royal Academy of Sciences, January 11. — An account of 



a memoir by Prof. Ewart, of Edinburgh, on ri^or marh's and ils 



J relation to the putrefaction of fish, by Prof. Smith. — A report 



j-of the work done by the Swedish Ornithological Society, by the 



-me.— On the organs and modes of attachment of the marine 



Algse, by Count H. Stromfelt. — Mycological studies in Jemt- 

 land, by Dr. E. Henning. — On freshwater Algae from Spain, by 

 Miss M. Lewin. — Astrophotometric studies, by Dr. Charlier. — 

 On the conductibility of illuminated air, by Dr. S. Arrhenius. — 

 Remarks on the paper of Prof. Hoppe, " Zur magnetelectri- 

 schen induction," by Dr. Mebius. — On electric currents caused by 

 mechanical pressure, by M. P. A. Siljestrom. — Some derivates of 

 naphthostyrite, by Dr. Ekstrand. — On barysite, a silicate of lead 

 from the mines of Harstig, by Messrs. Sjogren and Lundstrom. 

 On the recent remarks of M. Lebesconte concerning the 

 Cruziana, by Prof. Nathorst. — Demonstration of some proposi- 

 tions of the theory of the elliptic functions, by Dr. Talk. 



BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, and SERIALS RECEIVED. 



Institute of Actuaries' Text-book; Part 2, Life Contingencies; G. King 

 (Layton). — Geography for Schools ; Part i, Practical Geography : A. Hughes 

 (Clarendon Press).— Histoire des Sciences Mathematiques et Physiques, 

 tome xii. : M. iMarie (Gauthier- Villars, Paris). — The Elements of 

 Graphical Arithmetic and Graphical Statics : J. Y. Gray and G. Lowson 

 (Collins).— Dr. H. G. Bronn's Klassen und Ordnungen des Thier-Reichs ; 

 Erster Band, Protozoa, 35 to 41 Lieferung (Williams and Norgate). — 

 Dynamics and Hydrostatics : R. H. Pinkerton (Blackie). — The Farmers' 

 Friends and Foes : T. Wood (Sonnenschein). — Annuaire de L'Observatoire 

 Royal de Bruxelles, 1888, 55 Annee (Bruxelles).— Prodromus of the Zoology 

 of Victoria, Decade xv. : F. McCoy (Triibner).— Pflanzenleben. i. Band : 

 Kerner von Marilann (Leipzig).— Le Climat de la Belgique : A. Lancaster 

 (Bruxelles). — Tableaux Resumes des Observations Met^orologiques faites a 

 Bruxelles (Bruxelles). — Untersuchungen iiber die Schneegrenze im Gebiete 

 des Mittleren Innthales: F. R. Kerner von Marilann (Wien). — Journal of the 

 Chemical Society, January, and Supplementary No. (Gurney and Jackson). 

 — Transactions of the Seismological Society of J.apan, vol. xi. (Yokohama). 

 — Journal of the Society of Telegraph-Engineers and Electricians, vol. xvi. 

 No. 68 (Sp)n).— B jtanische Jahrbucher fiir Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte, 

 und Pflanzengeographie, Neunter Band, iii. Heft: Dr. A. Engler (Williams 

 and Norgate).— Actes de la Societe Helvelique des Sciences Naturelles, 

 Locle 85 (Neuchatel). 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Odium Medicum 289 



Darwinism and Ethics. By Prof. George J,' Romanes^ 



FRS 290 



An Index-Catalogue. By A. T. Myers 202 

 Our Book Shelf :— 



Plarvie-Brown and Buckley: " A Vertebrate Fauna 



of Sutherland, Caithness, and West Cromarty " . . 292 



Patlison : " Gospel Ethnology " 293 



Taylor: " The British Journal, Photographic Almanac, 



and Photographer's Daily Companion for 1888 " . 293 

 Letters to the Editor : — 



" A Conspiracy of Silence." — The Duke of Argyll, 



F-RS 293 



On some Unapparent Contradictions at the Foundations 



of Knowledge. — F. Howard Collins 294 



Extraordinary Fog in January 1888, at Shirenewton 



Hall, Chepstow. — E'. J. Lowe, F.R.S 294 



' ' The Art of Computation for the Purposes of Science. " 



— Prof. W. Ramsay and Dr. Sydney Young . 294 

 "The Mammoth and the Flood." — Henry H. 



Howorth, M.P 295 



Is Hail so formed ? — Cecil Carus- Wilson .... 295 



"British and Irish Salmonidae." — Dr. Francis Day . 296 



Physical Science and the Woolwich Examinations 296 



A Model of an Earthquake. {Illustrated.) 297 



Anton de Bary. By Prof. H. Marshall Ward ... 297 



Notes 299 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



The Cape Observatory 302 



The Parallax of Mars 302 



The Longitude of Odessa 302 



The Winkler Observatory 302 



Astronomical Phenomena for the Week 1888 



January 29 — February 4 302 



Geographical Notes \\ 302 



Our Electrical Column '..'.'. 303 



A Note on Valency, especially as defined by 

 Helmholtz. {Ilhistrated.) By Prof. Henry E. Arm- 

 strong, F.R.S 303 



Work of the Kew Observatory in 1887 ...... .* 306 



The Total Eclipse of the Moon, January 28 ... . 306 



University and Educational Intelligence 307 



Scientific Serials 308 



Societies and Academies 308 



Books, Pamphlets, and Serials Received ....,* 312 



