472 



NA TURE 



[March 15, 1888 



sented in the figure. I have repeated, with this apparatus? 

 the classical experiment of Hall on carbonate of lime- 

 A fragment of chalk, heated in a spiral of platinum) 

 diminishes sensibly in volume, while it is being changed 

 into a hard body of a brownish-yellow colour, which dis- 

 solves slowly in acids, at the same time liberating car- 

 bonic acid. Also, our fellow-worker, M. Debray, has long 

 since shown that Iceland spar can be carried to a high- 

 temperature in carbonic acid without being changed, and 

 without losing its transparency. I have also found that 

 a crystal of spar transformed to chalk on the surface by 

 the action of heat under ordinary pressure recovers the 

 iost carbonic acid, but not its primitive transparency ; I 

 have not been able to effect fusion of the spar in the 

 course of my experiments. 



To sum up, the apparatus which I have the honour to 

 make known, and which I have used for several years 

 past, in experiments upon the electric light under pressure, 

 researches which I have carried on with M. Violle in his 

 laboratory at the Normal School, will be able to render, 

 I hope, numerous services to chemists as well as to 

 mineralogists. L. Cailletet. 



NOTES. 



At the Bath meeting of the British Association, which 

 will begin on September 5, Prof. Schuster will preside in 

 Section A (Mathematics and Physics) ; Prof. Tilden in Section B 

 (•Chemistry) ; Prof. Boyd Dawkins in Section C (Geology) ; Mr. 

 Thiselton Dyer in Section D (Biology) ; Colonel Sir C. W. 

 Wilson in Section E (Geography) ; Lord Bramwell in Section F 

 (Economic Science and Statistics) ; Mr. W. H. Preece in 

 Section G (Mechanical Science) ; and General Pitt-Rivers in 

 Section H (Anthropology). 



The Croonian Lecture of the Royal Society will, at the 

 request of the Council, be delivered this year by Prof. W. 

 Kiihne, of Heidelberg. As is well known, Prof. Kiihne has for 

 many years devoted attention to the endings of nerves in muscle, 

 and in the Croonian Lecture he proposes to dwell on the light 

 thrown on the nature of muscular contraction and nervous action 

 by the study of these nerve-endings. Since the rooms of the 

 Royal Society are not well adapted for showing illustrations to 

 large audiences, the lecture, which will be largely illustrated, 

 will be delivered, by the permission of the Managers of the 

 Royal Institution, in the lecture theatre of the Royal Institution, 

 The date fixed is Monday, May 28, at 9 p.m. 



In reply to a question put by Lord Herschell in the House of 

 Lords on Monday, Lord Cranbrook stated that he had come to 

 the determination to recommend the issue of a small Royal 

 Commission to inquire as to the necessity for a Teaching Uni- 

 versity for London, and he hoped that at no great distance of 

 time it would be able to report upon the subject. 



In accordance with the rule which empowers the election of 

 nine persons annually " of distinguished eminence in science, 

 literature, or the arts, or for public services," Prof. A. W. 

 Rucker, F. R.S., has been elected a inember of the Athenaeum 

 Club. 



The Royal Meteorological Society's ninth annual Exhibition 

 of Instruments will be held at the Institution of Civil Engineers, 

 25 Great George Street, Westminster, in conjunction with the 

 Society's meeting on Wednesday, the 21st inst., and will be 

 very interesting and instructive. The Exhibition is devoted to 

 apparatus connected with atmospheric electricity. A most valu- 

 able collection of some fifty photographs of flashes of lightning 

 from all parts of the world will be shown, as well as some 

 curious effects of damage by lightning, including the clothes of 

 a man torn off his body by lightning, &c. The Exhibition will 



remain open till Friday, the 23rd inst. Persons not Fellows, 

 wishing to visit the Exhibition, can obtain tickets on application 

 to Mr. W, Marriott, Royal Meteorological Society, 30 Great 

 George Street, S.W. 



A PLANT of the common coffee {Coffea arabicd) is now loaded 

 with ripe fruit in the palm-house at Kew. Seldom, even on 

 tropical plantations, is a tree to be seen with such a crop. Such 

 an object-lesson should not be missed by those who take an 

 interest in economic bolany. 



The March Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, issued from 

 the Royal Gardens, Kew, contains papers on Forsteronia rubber, 

 patchouli. West African indigo-plants, vanilla, streblus paper, 

 urera fibre, and tea. In the last of these papers valuable infor- 

 mation is given as to the growth of tea in Jamaica, Madagascar, 

 and Natal. 



An excellent biographical sketch of the late Asa Gray, by 

 James D. Dana, appears in the American Journal of Science for 

 March. The article is also issued separately. 



A heavy gale was experienced last Sunday in nearly all parts 

 of the British Islands, the storm continuing in many places 

 throughout the entire day. The greatest violence of the gale 

 was felt over the southern districts of England and in the 

 English Channel, where the direction of the wind was from the 

 south-west and west. In Ireland, Scotland, and the North of 

 England, the direction of the wind was easterly, the central area 

 of the disturbance passing completely over the middle of Eng- 

 land from west to east. At 8 o'clock on Sunday morning the 

 centre of the storm was close to Pembroke, where the barometer 

 was reading 28*57 inches, and at 6 o'clock in the evening 

 it was over Lincolnshire, the barometer reading 28*8 inches. 

 The storm afterwards crossed tbe North Sea, and at 8 o'clock on 

 Monday morning the centre had reached Holland, and was still 

 travelling in an easterly direction. At Greenwich the anemo- 

 meter registered a pressure of 31 pounds on the square foot at 

 5 p.m. on Sunday, which is equal to an hourly velocity of about 

 80 miles. The feature of especial scientific interest with respect 

 to this storm is the sudden manner in which it appeared on our 

 coasts : it practically arrived without any warning, and appears 

 to have been formed almost within the area of the British 

 Islands. It would seem to be a secondary or subsidiary dis- 

 turbance to the storm area which was situated over Scotland on 

 Saturday, and was apparently formed in the south-western 

 segment of the parent cyclone, which is the favourite position 

 for storm development. The passage of such a storm across our 

 islands illustrates very clearly the immense difficulty which 

 underlies any system of forecasting. 



In vol. iii., part 2, of the Indian Meteorological Memoirs, 

 recently published, Mr. Blanford has continued his discussion of 

 the rainfall of India. Part i, which dealt more particularly 

 with the average conditions of rainfall, was fully noticed in 

 Nature (vol. xxxvii. p. 164). The part now in question re- 

 lates to the variations and vicissitudes of rainfall in past years, 

 and their connection with other elements. With the view of 

 ascertaining whether any general laws can be detected, an 

 endeavour is made to determine what peculiarities are associated 

 with the different distribution of rainfall, e.g. the variations of 

 prevailing wind currents, distribution of atmospheric pressure, 

 and the frequency and courses of cyclonic storms. The periodi- 

 cal recurrence of droughts and faoiines sirice 1769 is recorded, 

 and, from general conclusions drawn, it appears that serious 

 droughts occur in Southern India at intervals of nine to twelve 

 years, and that they generally happen about a year before the 

 sunspot minimum. In Northern India, droughts sometimes 

 occur in years of maximum sun^pots. 



