334 



NATUkE 



Ijan. 31. 1889 



The day had been close, hot, and bieezeless, so far as the 

 surface was concerned, and the cloud in question formed a 

 grateful screen to the afternoon's sun, which was shining brightly 

 north and south of our position ; and continued to do so until old 

 Sol hid his face for the night in lower clouds later on. At about 

 5 p.m., a well-formed waterspout was observed trailing away 

 north-eastward from the cloua's northern verge ; then about 40° or 

 30' high. Near the dense cloud from which it grew its mass 

 was dark and opaque ; but from half wny down its length 

 to below where it terminated in an unfinished turmoil of jags and 

 rags, it was semi-transparent, the clouds l^eyond in the back- 

 ground being distinctly seen through it ; and there was a light- 

 coloured tube within its gauzy mass which at times was very 

 pronounced and conspicuous. 



There seemed to be no commotion on the river or the shore, 

 over which its lower part hung at a height of five or six hundred 

 feet, from the time when it was first observed until it began to 

 wane and draw itself upwards. It was then, when it had shrunk 

 and shortened, that the inside downru.h was seen to advantage, 

 and the simultaneous upward whirl around the dense remains of 

 the tube, which, so far as I was able to make out from the 

 motions of the cloudlets, I cannot do better than liken to the 

 turning inside out of a coat sleeve or of a stocking, only the end 

 of the lube was always ragged ; and here, where this reversing 

 process was taking place, there was great commotion in the air 

 currents, more especially after the tube had withdrawn itself up 

 to its opaque head. 



T had a good telescope, observed these phenomena very care- 

 fully, and was on the alert for optical illusions ; and, as the upper 

 part of the spout remained intact for a long time after the 

 gossamer-like lower continuation had melted into invisible 

 va)iour, I had an oppoitunity of studying it well. 



It was very remarkable to see two or three common kites 

 hoveling high up in the vapour plane round and round the dense 

 tube, every now and then becoming hidden behind it as they per- 

 formed their gyrations, and in the same direction as the lapged 

 fragments of rack or scud which were rushing round and upw ards 

 towards the dense head of the spout, until they vere actvally 

 lost to sight in the very cloud itself. 



The "thunder-headed'' clcud, from the lover part of vhich 

 the spout issued, gradually melted away, and grew less gaudy 

 as it cwirdled, without, as is usual urider yindlar circumstances, 

 pouring forth a torrent of rain. But there was a double rainbow 

 projected on the clouds I anking up over to the eaMward, and 

 evidently rain was falling in the space between them and the tun 

 for some time after the last remains of the snout had disappeared, 

 and all was again trarquil aloft. 



The following evening, during a heavy thunderstorm and 

 severe squall from the north-east, some twenty miles further 

 down the river, a flash of lightning revealed the existence of a 

 grand waterspout close by. This thunderstorm was remarkable, 

 as it stretched south and north frcm the pilot station to far north 

 of our position ofi Kedgeree, and struck.boih places at nearly the 

 same hour, 7 p.m. Possibly all these phenomena had some 

 cor.nection with the small whirl reported in Mr. Pedler's useful 

 weather bulletin issued daily frcm the Meteorological Office. 

 The squall itself was seen from an early hour in the evening as a 

 tract of daik streaks hovering ominously high up behinel the 

 accumulating white clouds away in the north-east and east, and 

 threatening to quench the light north-west wind blowing in the 

 estuary. 



Subsequent information concerning this sudden thunderstorm 

 shows that it was one of the class, referred to lately in Nature 

 by the Hon. Kalph Abercromby, which extend in an almost 

 straight line for maybe hundreds of n/iles. It was felt at nearly 

 the same hour all the way from Titighur on the north, to a 

 point forty or fifty miles south of the Hughli Pilot Station — 

 or, say, nearly 200 miles. S. K. Elson. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Journal of the Kussian Chemical and Physical Society, vol. 

 XX. fasc. 8. — On the propeities of allene, ly G, Gustavson 

 and N. Demianoff. The existence of this isomer of allyler.e 

 (CH2:C:CH2) was foreseen since 1872; row, it has been 

 obtamed by the action of zinc dust and alcohol on C3H4Bro. It 

 is an uncoloured gas, the smell of which resembles that of 

 allylene. It smokes freely when turning. — A note on the 

 atomicity of bore, by G. Gustavson.— On unorganized ferments, 



by N. Kravkoff, being an inquiry into the properties of pure 

 vegetable diastase.— On a general law of contraction during the 

 formation of solutions of salts, by A. (ieritsch. The author 

 comes to the conclusion that the contraction (5) is proportional 

 to the produce of the respective percentages of water and salt in 

 the solution 5 = C(ioo - /)/ ; for NaoCO;} the constant C is 

 = o'oo86, and the contraction calculateei by means of the 

 formula for solutions at from 3 to 13 per cent, are very near 

 the contradicts directly measured by flerlach and Mendelejeff. 

 — On the solutions of sulphuric acid from the molecular point 

 of view, by M. Teploff. — On the heat of combustion of stii- 

 bene, the mononaphthenes, and some organic acids, by J. 

 Os'ipoff. — An apparatus for the demonstration of thermic con- 

 ductibilily, by O. Chwolson.— On anew method of measuring 

 the index of refraction, used by E. Forsch for measuring the 

 same in the lenses of the Pulkowa refractor. — A'.note on the 

 mutial influence of electrized bodies, by A. Stepanoff. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Linnean Society, January 17. — Mr. W. Carruthers, F.R.S., 

 President, in the chair.— On behalf of M. Buysman, of Middle- 

 burg, Mr. B. D. laclsson exhibited a series of careful dissections 

 oi Nymph a:a cartilca collected by Dr. Schweinfurth in Egypt. — 

 Mr. D. Morris exhibited specimens of drift fruit from Jamaica, 

 where he had collected no fewer than thirty-five difttrent kinds 

 brought by the Gulf Stream from the mouths of the Orinoco an<l 

 Amazon. Although the species exhibited had net been deter- 

 mined with cfitainty, it was believed to be probably I/iimiria 

 hahamifera, Aud., the flower of which is figured by Eichler 

 ("Flora Brasiliensis," vol. xii. part 2, p. 440, pi. xcii. fig. i), but 

 the fruit undescribed. It was commonly known in French Guiana 

 as bois rouge, and fiom it was obtained a gum useel medicinally 

 and burnt as incense. An interesting discussion followed, ii> 

 which Mr. J. G. Baker, Mr. Rolfe, and Mr. Breese took part. — 

 Mr. T. Chiisty exhibited a material felted from Manilla hemp, 

 and waterproofed, very strong and light, and particularly useful 

 for surgical bandages, for which purpose it was highly recom- 

 irended by army surgeons. — Mr. F. Crisp exhibited seme spee;i-r 

 mens of agate so curiously marl ed as to lead to the erroree us 

 suppositien thr.t they inclosed fossil insects and Crustacea, — A 

 paper was then read, by Mr. J. G. Tepper, on the natural his- 

 tory of the Kangaroo Island grass-tree, Xaiitharrhaa Tatcana. 

 1 his tree grows abundantly in Kangaroo Islrnd, South Australia, 

 in poor gravelly and sandy soil, intermixed with ferruginous con- 

 cretions, and attains a height of from 6 to 14 feet, with a dia- 

 meter of 6 to 18 inches, and a floral spike of from 10 to 19 feet. 

 It is thus a mcst cc nspicuous plant, and lends a peculiarly weird 

 aspect to the country it occupies. Its rate of growth is descrifed 

 as very slow, old settlers having remarked but little change in 

 individual trees after thirty years' observation. The mcst re- 

 markable feature in the structure of the stem is the formation of 

 a dense ligneous central core immediately above and connected 

 with the roots, exhibiting numerous annular zones traversed by 

 transverse (medullary) fibres. The flowers are borne in a dense 

 spike upon a smooth peduncle. Individually ihey are ircon- 

 spicuous, of a whitish colour, and develop a strong odour anel 

 abundant nectar during the warmer part of the day, when they 

 are visited and fertilized by Hymenopterous insects, the most re- 

 markable being a large metallic-green carpenter-bee (J<ylocaJa), 

 which tunnels out cells in the dead flower-stalks. An interesting 

 discussion followed upon the botanical position of the grass- trees, 

 and the antiquity of the type, in which the President, Mr. A. \V. 

 Bennett. Mr, T. G. Baker, Mr. Morris, and Mr. Kolfe took part. 



Edinburgh. 

 Royal Society, December 17, 1888. — Sir W. Thomsorr, 

 President, in the chair. —Mr. R. Kidston read a paper on s< me 

 fossil plants from Teilia quarry, Gwaunyscor, near Prestatyn, 

 Flintshire. — Dr. G. Sims Woodhead communicated an abstract 

 of the results of an inquiry into the causation of Asiatic cholera. 

 The first part (general) was by Dr. Neil McLeod anel Mr. \V, 

 T. Milles. The second part (with special regard to the repro- 

 duction of the disease) was by Dr. McLeod. The disease wa.'--- 

 shown to be due to the comma bacillus. In forty out of forty- 

 four cases this bacillus was present ; while, in a large number of 

 spurious cases, it was only once or twice defected. It was 

 found that symptoms similar to those accompanying cholera in 



