542 



NATURE 



[April ^, 1888 



the greatest possible number of contemporary individuals 

 of full strength. Contact with the world wastes away 

 individuals with here an accident to-day, there an accident 

 to-morrow. The possession of immortality by the indi- 

 vidual, while a doubtful boon to it, would be a harmful 

 luxury to the speies. Death makes room for new, com- 

 plete individuals. Death is, however, by no means a uni- 

 versal attribute of organisms. In unicellular organisms 

 the single cell is at once somatic and reproductive, and, 

 while liable to accidental destruction, is potentially im- 

 mortal. The Protozoon divides without a remainder ; 

 and the life of each Protozoon alive to-day has descended 

 in direct continuity from the life of the primordial 

 Protozoon. 



In the Metazoa a division of labour has separated 

 reproductive cells from somatic, and their complexity, by 

 admitting of mutilations short of destruction, has rendered 

 them mortal. The reproductive cells had to remain 

 capable of an indefinite number of generations lest 

 extinction of the race occurred ; but when the somatic 

 cells became specialized, there at once arose the possibility 

 and the necessity of a limit to the number of generations. 



It is clear that the size of an individual is an inherited 

 property. Conditions of nutrition can only negatively 

 determine growth. No superfluity of nutrition could 

 build up the framework of a dwarf into a giant. Natural 

 selection acting on variations has fixed the average size 

 of individuals. It has in fact fixed the space limits of 

 cell reproduction, and could have equally well fixed the 

 limits in time — the duration of life — of individuals. There 

 is a continuity of life from organism to organism through 

 the divisions of the immortal germ-cells. The somatic 

 cells arising from the germ-cell in each generation possess 

 a limited reproductive capacity, and the limits are fixed 

 by natural selection for each species so as to maintain the 

 greatest possible number of contemporary individuals of 

 full vigour. P. Chalmers Mitchell. 



NOTES. 



The French Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 has had a successful meeting at Oran, in Algeria. M. Laussedat, 

 the President, chose as the subject of his address the civilizing 

 influence of the sciences. This was the second meeting of the 

 Association in Algeria, the first having been held in 1881. 



The nineteenth annual Conference of the National Union oi' 

 Elementary Teachers was opened at Cheltenham on Monday. 

 The President, Mr. Pope, in his inaugural address, spoke bitterly 

 of the existing system of elementary education, which he de- 

 nounced as a "failure." On Tuesday, the same tone was 

 adopted by the Rev. E. M. M'Carthy, of King Edward's 

 School, Birmingham, who read a paper to show that the system 

 violates two of ihe fundamental principles of true education. 

 Those principles are : (i) that the course of studies laid down 

 for each stage should be in harmony with, and adapted to, the 

 natural development of the individual child's mind and body ; 

 and (2) that all educational processes should develop faculties so 

 as to produce habits of ready and accurate tlxinking, besides 

 furnishing the mind with knowledge for use and imparting 

 mechanical skill in the use of it. 



Prof. Kiepert, of Berlin, will start immediately on a journey 

 of research in Western Asia Minor. He will be accompanied 

 by Dr. E. Fabricius, the archKologist. The journey will last 

 three months. 



On Easter Monday, 12,374 persons visited the Natural His- 

 tory Museum, South Kensington. The number of visitors on 

 the corresponding day last year was 6570. 



The Report of the Meteorological Council for the year 

 ending March 31, 1887, which has recently been issued, shows j_ 



that at that date observations were being taken for the Office on 

 143 ships, exclusive of the vessels of the Royal Navy, all of 

 which are supplied by the Council with instruments, although the 

 keeping of a special meteorological log is optional. The work 

 in hand by the marine branch is : (i) the completion of the 

 synchronous charts of the North Atlantic ; (2) a discussion of 

 the meteorology of the Red Sea ; (3) current charts for the 

 Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans ; (4) charts of the Aden 

 cyclone of June 1885. In order to discover the cause of this 

 storm and of its unusual course across the Arabian Sea, syn- 

 chronous charts of the North Indian Ocean for the month of 

 June are being prepared. In the weather branch, forecasts 

 are drawn three times a day. A comparison of the results 

 of the 8 p.m. forecasts gives 81 as the total percentage of 

 success. Hay harvest forecasts were issued to some selected 

 stations, as in previous years. Storm-warning telegrams are 

 issued to 141 stations ; the trans-Atlantic messages appear to 

 have been of no practical value for the purpose of these warn- 

 ings — rather the contrary, as they have occasionally caused the 

 premature issue of warnings to our coasts when no storms fol- 

 lowed. The principal changes in the climatological branch have 

 been the erection of self-recording anemometers at Fleetwood 

 and North Shields, and of an electric anemometer at Valentia 

 Island, but unforeseen difficulties have hitherto prevented this 

 from being brought into operation. The Report contains a 

 table showing the distribution of gales round the coasts of the 

 British Islands during each month for the fifteen years 1871-85. 



M. L. Cruls, the Director of the Imperial Observatory at 

 Rio de Janeiro, has made an appeal to all meteorological 

 observers for assistance in the compilation of a " Universal 

 Climatological Dictionary," which is intended to comprise, in a 

 methodical form, the principal meteorological elements from as 

 many stations as possible over the whole globe. The data asked 

 for are the mean monthly and yearly temperatures, together with 

 the monthly maxima and minima, and the dates of the yearly 

 absolute extremes ; the relative humidity, amount of cloud, rain- 

 fall, number of days of rain, thunderstorms, and frost, and the 

 prevalent wind, in each month ; the mean annual height of the 

 barometer, and its mean annual oscillation. The work proposed 

 by M. Cruls would be very useful, as, although information 

 already exists for a great number of stations, it is dispersed in 

 many different publications, and is expressed in different 

 measures, so that comparisons are difficult. Details relating to 

 the meteorological elements of his own country especi ally are 

 much wanted. 



In the Annales du Bureau central nu'teorologique of Paris for 

 1885, vol. i., M. Renou has discused the rainfall of Paris for 

 the last 200 years. The observations were begun in 1688 by 

 Lahire. At that time the Observatory was outside Paris, some 

 distance to the south, but it is now in the midst of a district sur- 

 rounded by high buildings. It is a curious fact that soon after 

 Leverrier assumed the directorship he planted some trees near 

 the rain-gauge, which in time affected its readings ; these trees 

 were afterwards cut down by Admiral Mouchez. The rainfall 

 seems to have undergone some changes in this long period. At 

 the time of Lahire there was a marked maximum in July ; now 

 there are two less marked maxima in June and September. The 

 number of rainy days amounts on an average to 169. Snow 

 occui's very irregularly, but it is never entirely absent in any winter. 

 The heaviest rainfall in a short period was on the 9th of September, 

 1865, which yielded over 2 inches on the terrace of the Observatory 

 n 2\ hours ; the gauge on the ground overflowed. 



While studying the laws of dissolution of salts, M. Umoff came 

 to the following correlation, which seems not to have been yet 

 remarked, and which he communicated in a paper in the 

 Memoirs of the Odessa Society of Naturalists (vol. xii. i). For 



