May 12, 1887] 



NATURE 



45 



ut one would expect in that case to find pyramidal rather than 

 onical shapes, or at least to find some shaped so as to comple- 

 lent the cones. I failed to notice any indications of such 

 hapes in the specimens (about thirty) which I examined. I 

 kould be inclined to believe that the soft, snow-like portions 

 ad been formed during the passage of the harder stranded 

 tones through a moist and possibly clouded stratum of air. 



"I was unable to see how they reached the ground, whether 

 loint or blunt end downwards. If in the latter way, one could 

 .ccount for the soft part, as being formed from previously un- 

 rozen particles, cooled by contact with the nucleus, and, so to 

 peak, sliding back to a position sheltered from the air, as it 

 wept by the sides of the cone. 



" But if the narrower end were foremost (and that would be the 

 nore natural position), then, unless the little mass — like an ice- 

 )erg — could freeze particles in front of it before reaching them, it 

 vould seem that the snow point must have resulted from the 

 iccretion of small particles already frozen, and the pointed shape 

 vould be what we should expect. The only rotatory motion 

 possible would be that in a plane perpendicular to the direction 

 if the path through the air, and might account for the conical 

 hape, the edges of any pyramid being rounded off." 



M. A. Wentzil, of Izdebno, near Warsaw, writes to us of a 

 lailstorm which occurred there on the 4th inst. " At 3 o'clock 

 n the afternoon," he says, "hail began to fall, at first of small 

 ize, but in a few minutes the hailstones increased to the size of 

 valnuts. Nine such which I picked up at hazard weighed to- 

 gether 13 lut (o*i65 kilo). They were almost spherical with a 

 nean diameter of if English inches. In the centre of each was 

 I kernel of clear ice about the size of a pea, and from this 

 :ernel radiated conical masses of white ice, so that the surface of 

 he hailstone was like that of a mulberry, the interspaces being 

 illed with clear ice. The damage in the gardens and to glass 

 )anes was, as may be imagined from the size of the stones, 

 onsiderable 



On March 3 we printed a letter from Mr. C. S. Middlemiss, 

 lescribing a fall of top-shaped hailstones near Ramnagar, in the 

 >Jorth-West Provinces of India (Nature, vol. xxxv. p. 413). 

 >Vriting to us on March 7, Mr. T. Spencer Smithson said 

 p. 438) that a fall of hailstones, almost exactly similar to those 

 lescribed by Mr. Middlemiss, had taken place in the neigbour- 

 lood of Rochdale on August 6, 1885. Mr. Smithson, however, 

 jointed out that besides the horizontal stratification in these hail- 

 stones there was a perpendicular one, giving each hailstone the 

 ippearance of being composed of alternate cylinders of clear 

 md white ice ; and he asked Mr. Middlemiss to state whether 

 he hailstones seen at Ramnagar had this peculiarity. Mr. 

 Vliddlemiss now writes to us, in reply to Mr. Smithson's question, 

 hat the broad end of the hailstones showed no trace of any 

 divisional planes whatever, being perfectly amorphous as origin- 

 illy stated. "The banded portion, so far as my memory serves 

 pe, " he says, " may have possessed a faint longitudinal striation, 

 bst sufficient to run the bands together and to induce me to 

 hade the diagrams vertically rather than horizontally, but I can- 

 lot be certain of it. It was not a marked feature, I feel sure." 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Rivista Scientifico-Industriale, February. — The total solar 

 clipse of August 19, 1887, by Prof. Cacciatore. Prof. Tacchini 

 laving at the last eclipse established the presence round the sun 

 if delicate white protuberances different from the ordinary rose- 

 ioloured protuberances daily visible under the spectroscope, it 

 s announced that the Minister of Public Instruction will send 

 Prof. Tacchini and Prof Ricc6 to observe the August eclipse in 

 jJiberia for the express purpose of studying these new mani- 

 festations. — On the origin of the variations of intensity in the dry 

 jile, and on the means of preventing them, by Prof. Luigi 

 Palmieri. The author's experiments lead to the conclusion that 

 !he dry pile is not only the most durable, but also the most 

 lonstant, and that the variations of intensity are due to dis- 

 >ersions. These dispersions are independent of the moisture and 

 emperature of the surrounding a;tmosphere, at least within 

 ertain limits, while the pile enveloped in a volume of air will 

 ireserve its force almost unaltered for years, and not only 

 lot diminished, but even slightly increased, by the atmospheric 

 loisture. 



March. — A new method of measuring the specific weights of 

 [aids, by Dr. Alessandro Sandrucci. A new method is described, 



for which a single apparatus alone is needed, and for which 

 the author proposes the name of areovolumeter, combining as it 

 does the functions of the areometer and volumeter. Although 

 somewhat less accurate than Marangoni's recently invented 

 double volumeter, this process reduces the disturbing influence 

 of superficial tension to a minimum, while completely dispensing 

 with the empirical scales on the volumeters, the determination of 

 which involves considerable difficulty. 



Bulletin de PAcade/nie Roy ale de Belgique, February. — Deter- 

 mination of the direction and velocity of the movement of the 

 solar system in space, by M. P. Ubaghs. For the direction, the 

 same method is adopted as that already known through the 

 labours of M. Folic. For the velocity, use is made of three 

 groups of stars of the second, third, and fourth magnitudes, the 

 first group belonging probably to the solar nebula itself. The 

 resulting velocity is only 16,500,000 kilometres for the year as 

 compared with the 850,000,000 obtained by Homann working 

 on the spectroscopic observations of Greenwich. — On the in- 

 fluence of diurnal nutation on the questions connected with the 

 observations of 7 Draconis made at the Observatory of Green- 

 wich, by L. Niesten, By employing M. Folie's formula of 

 diurnal nutation the author has determined a source of error long 

 suspected in the calculations of Main and Downing. By intro- 

 ducing the necessary correction he arrives for the first time at a 

 positive parallax for 7 Draconis. He thus also, for the first 

 time, determines beyond all doubt the real existence of diurnal 

 nutation. — On the two tetrabromureted hydrocamphenes, by W. 

 De la Royere. It is shown that by the action of the chloro- 

 bromide of phosphorus on camphor there are produced two 

 tetrabromureted hydrocamphenes differing in their physical 

 properties, specific weights, points of fusion, and molecular 

 rotatory power. By subjecting them to the action of the nitrate 

 of silver, heat, and chlorine, the author transforms the two 

 isomeres into one and the same tribromureted camphene ; while 

 metallic silver reduces them to an identical bibromureted cam- 

 phene, chlorine producing a bichlorureted and tetrabromureted 

 hydrocamphene also identical for both. 



Rendiconti del Reale Istituto Lo?nbardo, February. — State of 

 education in Italy, by Prof. A. Amati. The results of the recent 

 official returns are given in tabulated form for the 284 circuits of 

 the kingdom, showing in separate columns the percentage of 

 " analfabeti " (illiterate) in each communal district and its chief 

 town. The general result appears to be more unsatisfactory than 

 had been anticipated, the disparity especially between the towns 

 and rural districts being still excessive, even in Piedmont, Liguria, 

 and some of the other best regulated departments. — Measurement 

 of the muscular force in man, by Prof. G. Zoja. A brief account 

 is given of the various instruments devised for determining 

 scientifically the degree of muscular force in individuals, accord- 

 ing to sex, age, and other conditions, from Regnier's dyna- 

 mometer to the present time. The author also proposes a 

 scheme of classification based on the degree of muscular energy 

 possessed by the individual, and ranging from a given mean 

 (Mesostheni) upwards and downwards through the Megastheni 

 and Microstheni to the two extremes of Heraclestheni and 

 Astheni. 



March. — Observations on the luminous solar rays, by Giovanni 

 Cantoni. The attention of meteorologists is called to the 

 lucimeter recently constructed at Milan, which is stated to give 

 more satisfactory results than the English heliograph with glass 

 sphere or Craveri's chemical photometer. It determines with 

 great accuracy the relative measure of the luminous rays at all 

 hours of the day in relation to the altitude of the sun above the 

 horizon of the place of observation. It also gives the integral of 

 the successive and varying luminous influences of the sun during 

 the course of a whole day. With regard to the instrument 

 described by Clark in Nature (vol. xxxii. p. 233) for measuring the 

 radiant energy of the sun, its principle is stated to be based not 

 so much on Wollaston, as on the discovery made many years 

 ago by Bellani, and for some time applied by the author to 

 agricultural meteorology. — Meteorological observations made at 

 the Brera Observatory, Milan, for the month of February. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, April 21. — "Some Applications of Dyn- 

 amical Principles to Physical Phenomena. Part II." By J. 

 J. Thomson, M.A., F.R.S., Fellow of Trinity College and 



