4i8 



NATURE 



[Feb. 28, \\ 



A LADY, Mdlle. G. Cattani, has been appointed a privat- 

 dccent of general pathology in the Faculty of Medicine at Turin. 



Prof. E. Wiedemann has issued a circular about a matter 

 which has considerable interest for men of science. Journals 

 devoted to particular branches of science very often, as he points 

 out, reprint papers which have been originally published by 

 scientific Societies, and omit to indicate the sources from which 

 the papers are taken. It also happens sometimes that articles 

 are sent simultaneously to various periodicals, and appear sooner 

 or later in all of them, either in the original language or in 

 translations. The consequence is that those whose duty it is to 

 1 00k out for the latest information on any subject are put to a 

 vast amount of inconvenience, since it is frequently impossible for 

 them to feel sure that communications which seem to be new are 

 really new. Prof. Wiedemann — who has of course had much 

 experience, in connection with the Annalin der Physik und 

 Chemie, of the trouble caused in this way — appeals to men of 

 science generally, and to the scientific Press, to indicate, in 

 every case in which a paper is reprinted, the fact that it has 

 appeared before, and to state whether the paper has been 

 shortened or expanded or otherwise changed. 



According to Die Natur, Dr. Otto Zacharias, of Hirschberg, 

 Silesia, intends to establish a zoological station for the observa- 

 tion of fresh-water fauna. It is considered that the banks of the 

 Ploner Lake in Holstein would be suitable for the purpose, and 

 funds for maintaining the station for four years are now being 

 collected. 



At the half-yearly meeting of the Forth Railway Bridge 

 Company, held the other day in Edinburgh, very favourable 

 reports as to the progress of the works were submitted. During 

 the past six months the work of erection has proceeded more 

 rapidly and satisfactorily than in any previous half-year, and at 

 the present time the total weight of steel work erected, including 

 the viaduct approach, is 43,500 tons. The last bays of the 

 cantilevers are in an advanced state of manufacture in the shops, 

 and the material is being delivered for the central girders 

 connecting the cantilevers, the erection of which will complete 

 the bridge. 



Dr. Hans Reusch, the well-known Norwegian geologist, 

 invites through the Press reports respecting the recent severe 

 earthquakes in Norway, From those to hand it appears that the 

 earthquake of December 23, at 12.15 P-™-. was felt along the 

 whole coast of the North Bergenhus province and in the districts 

 around the Stat promontory. On December 27, about mid- 

 night, another shock was felt at Bremanger ; and on January 

 6, at 8 p.m., one at Floro, also on the Bergen coast. On 

 January 12, at 4.7 p.m., a fourth shock was felt in and around 

 Bergen. Finally, a shock was felt in the neighbourhood of 

 Christiansand on December 27, at 11.44 ^-m- 



We have received from the Hydrographer of the United 

 States a discussion, by Lieut. Everett Hayden, U.S.N., of the 

 great storm of March 11-14, 1888, known as the New 

 York "blizzard." In Nature, vol. xxxviii. p. 204, we referred 

 briefly to the behaviour of this memorable storm over the land ; 

 the discussion now in question deals with its action over the 

 ocean, and more particularly off the Atlantic coast of the 

 United States, from all data at present available. The meteo- 

 rological conditions at noon (G.M.T.) for the area included 

 between latitude 25° and 50° N., and longitude 50° and 85° 

 W., are exhibited on charts for each of the above four days. 

 The charts show that on the nth a trough of low pressure was 

 extending from the coast of Florida towards the southern 

 limits of Hudson Bay, and was moving towards the coast at 



the rate of 600 miles a day. On the morning of the I2th the 

 centre of the storm passed almost directly over New York, 

 blowing with hurricane force, the barometer reading 29*2 

 inches. On the 13th, the storm area was still skirting the 

 coast of the United States, the centre being about midway 

 between New York and Boston, and the barometer had fallen 

 to 28*9 inches. By the 14th, the great wave of low barometer 

 had overspread the entire western portion of the North Atlantic. 

 The discussion furnishes an instructive example of a somewhat 

 uncommon class of storms, where the usual law founded on the 

 circular theory was to a large extent inapplicable. 



The Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic Ocean for February, 

 issued by the Hydrographer of the United States, shows that 

 the weather in the Atlantic during January was somewhat 

 milder than usual. No severe storms were reported during the 

 first three weeks of the month. Theie was a noticeable increase 

 in the amount of fog encountered, but it was confined princi- 

 pally to the neighbourhood of the Grand Banks and the British 

 Isles. A supplement to the Pilot Chart describes the remark- 

 able cruise of the derelict American schooner W. L. White, 

 which was abandoned off Delaware Bay during the great bliz- 

 zard, on March 13, 1888. She started off to the southward 

 under the influence of the in- shore current and the north-west 

 gale. Upon reaching the Gulf Stream she turned away to the 

 eastward, and commenced her long cruise towards Europe. On 

 reaching the mid-ocean, between latitude 44° and 51° N., and 

 longitude 33° and 44° W., she followed a remarkable zig-zag 

 track, from the beginning of May till the end of October, being 

 drifted backwards and forwards by the Labrador current and the 

 Gulf Stream, and during these six months alone she was re- 

 ported by thirty-six vessel?. On January 23 she was stranded 

 on one of the rocky islands of the Hebrides, after drifting for 

 ten months and ten days, and traversing a distance of more 

 than 5000 miles. 



The Hydrographer of the Navy has issued a notice that 

 storm-signals are now shown at Manilla (Philippine-Islands). The 

 signals consist of (i) a drum (colour not stated), indicating a 

 storm at a great distance, in an unknown direction ; (2) a cone, 

 point upwards or downwards, indicating that a cyclone will pass 

 some distance to the northward or southward, respectively ; (3) 

 a cone, point upwards over or under a drum, indicating that a 

 cyclone will pass close to the northward or southward ; (4) a 

 ball, signifying that a typhoon is approaching, and that all traffic 

 is prohibited. The signal-staffs are painted white. 



It is estimated that the magnificent stalactite cave lately 

 discovered near Reclere, Canton Berne, is about 1600 metres long, 

 600 metres broad, and from 4 to 20 metres high. The greater 

 part of it has not yet been investigated. A pool has been dis- 

 covered, measuring 25 metres square, and it is supposed to be 

 the only one in the cave. 



A WRITER in the American Monthly Microscopical Journal, 

 calls attention to what seems to be a real danger in connection 

 with the kissing of the Bible in courts of law. " The lips," he 

 says, "are most sensitive to the reception of disease-germs, and 

 from the motley throng of dirty and diseased persons who appear 

 in court and kiss the book, what infectious germs may not be 

 obtained through this medium of distribution? It would be in- 

 teresting for microscopists to examine such greasy and worn 

 backs of court Bibles as they can have access to, and to report the 

 kinds and amounts of Bacteria found thereon. . . . In a Massa- 

 chusetts school where scarlet fever and measles had prevailed, 

 some text-books fell into disuse, were put away for a time, and, 

 when wanted, got out and re-distributed, several months having 



