July 21, 1887] 



NA TURE 



281 



The Observatory does not appear to possess a sunshine- recorder. 

 Observations for a few selected hours for Bombay and five other 

 stations for the years 1885-86 have already been published 

 separately by the Indian Meteorological Office. 



Meteorological observations have been regularly made at 

 the Khedivial Observatory at Cairo (Abassieh) during the past 

 five years, and have been published in various forms. The pub- 

 lication has now assumed a more definite shape, under the 

 title, Khumi Mensuel, and is issued by the Ministry of Public 

 Instruction. The observations are taken every three hours 

 during the day and night. Yearly summaries are not given, but 

 we find from the monthly values that the mean shade tempera- 

 ture for the year 1886 was 69° '6. The absolute maximum in 

 the shade was ll3°-4 in June, and the minimum, 36°7, in De- 

 cember ; giving a yearly range of 76°7. The thermometers are 

 placed much too high, being about 11 feet above the ground, 

 instead of about 4 feet. The amount of rainfall is not regularly 

 published. 



The Jahrbuch of the Magdeburgische Zeitung for the year 

 1885 (Magdeburg, 1887, 88 pp. 410) contains, in addition to the 

 usual observations and reproductions of the continuous registra- 

 tions of barometer and sunshine-recorder, a table showing the 

 extremes of temperature on the surface of the earth observed by 

 means of five maximum and five minimum thermometers, one 

 pair lying flat and the other four pairs being inclined about 45° 

 under the four principal points of the compass, between May 

 1885 and April 1886; but there is no discussion of the results. 

 There is also an interesting appendix relating to the choice of 

 hours that will give the nearest approach to the mean daily 

 temperature. The author has used the continuous records for 

 Berne, Vienna, Magdeburg, Pawlowsk (near St. Petersburg), 

 and Upsala for a year, and has found the following to be the 

 mean values of the corrections to be applied to the various 

 yearly means :— For 8h., 2h., 8h., o°-040; for 7h., 2h., gh., 

 -o°-092; for 6h., 2h., loh., o°-i04 ; and for max. and 

 min. o°"o84. The best combination according to this in- 

 vestigation is therefore 8h., 2h., 8h., whereas in this country 

 9h. a.m. and gh. p.m. are found to give a good mean. The 

 combination of max. and min. also gives a fairly approximate 

 value for mean latitudes. The author has also investigated the 

 epoch of the maximum and minimum temperature for the same 

 places, and shows how the highest daily temperature occurs 

 later as the summer advances, being at about 3h. p.m. in June 

 and July and between I2h. and ih. in January and December ; 

 and further, that the lowest temperature does not always take 

 place at about sunrise, as is generally supposed, but only during 

 summer, while in winter the minimum is near midnight. The 

 present Director of the Observatory is A. Griitzmacher ; the 

 former Director, Dr. Assmann, having been appointed to the 

 Meteorological Office at Berlin. 



Mr. a. L, Rotch has published the results of the observa- 

 tions m^de at the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, Nor- 

 folk County, Massachusetts, U.S., in the year 1886 (Nature, 

 vol. xxxv. p. 472). This Observatory, which was established 

 by Mr. Rotch in 1885, is now one of the best-equipped stations 

 in the United States, and the current expenses amount to about 

 2500 dollars a year. An auxiliary station has also been esta- 

 blished at the foot of the hill, 440 feet below the Observa- 

 tory, and some curious variations of temperature and precipita- 

 tion have been noted between the two stations, but enough 

 data have not yet been accumulated for publication. Among 

 the special instruments in use may be specified a Campbell- 

 Stokes bright-sunshine recorder, which is believed to be 

 the only one in the United States ; a Jordan sunshine- 

 recorder, which registers both bright and faint sunshine 

 photographically ; and a mirror for the measurement of the 



azimuth and altitude of clouds, but these results are not yet 

 ready for publication. The mean temperature for the year was 

 45 6. The absolute maximum in the shade was 91° o in July, 

 and^ the minimum - i5°o in January, giving a yearly range of 

 106 . The greatest daily range was 38° -2 on December 25, and 

 the least 1-7 in February. The total rainfall and melted snow 

 was 46-99 mches, measured on 132 days ; the greatest monthly 

 fa^llbemg 8-29 inches in February, and the least 1-52 inch in 

 June. The work is accompanied by tracings from the self- 

 recording instruments, selected to illustrate certain phenomena 

 durmg the year, with explanatory text, a practice which is both 

 mexpensive and very instructive. The hourly tabulations of 

 atmospheric pressure and wind velocity have been published in 

 extenso. 



On February 5 last there was a shower of ashes, lasting from 

 7 a.m. to u a.m., at Finschhafen in Kaiser Wilhelm's Land. It 

 covered the surrounding district with a layer of pale grey 

 volcanic ashes. As the condition of the winds at the time was 

 abnormal, it is impossible to say in what locality the volcanic 

 eruption took place. Dr. Schrader reports that on February 2 

 a bright red halo, as if produced by smoke at a great elevation, 

 was noticed around the sun ; a few evenings before, similar 

 halos had been noticed around the moon. Samples of the ashes 

 have been sent to Dr. Neumayer, of Hamburg, for analysis. 



Some time ago, Mr. F. W. Putnam, the American archaeo- 

 logist, wrote a letter to the newspapers, pointing out that the 

 Serpent Mound in Adams County, Ohio, had lately been much 

 damaged by "washouts," and begging that steps might be 

 taken for its preservation. Thereupon three Boston ladies took 

 the matter in hand. The money they asked for was soon ob- 

 tained, and now the ground upon which the mound is situated 

 has been bought, and handed over to the guardianship of the 

 Trustees of the Peabody Museum of American Archseology and 

 Ethnology. Mr. Putnam, through whom the purchase was 

 effected, proposes to spend the approaching autumn in the 

 neighbourhood of the mound, restoring it where it has been 

 injured, transforming wheat-fields into grass lawns, making 

 paths and fences, and planting trees. " So long as the place is 

 respected and guarded by all who visit it," he says in a letter to 

 a Cincinnati newspaper, " the park will be free to all, but should 

 any vandalism be committed, an arrangement would at once be 

 made to put a keeper at the place, and possibly entrance fees 

 would have to be charged in order to pay the expenses." 



Prof. A. H. Keane's translation of "The Necropolis ot 

 Ancon, in Peru," a German contribution to our knowledge of the 

 culture and industries of the empire of the Incas, presenting the 

 results of excavations made on the spot by W. Reiss and A. 

 Stiibel, has been issued in fourteen parts by Messrs. A. Asher 

 and Co. during the years 1880-87. The work is now ready in 

 three volumes, which contain, besides a comprehensive text, 141 

 coloured plates in folio. A separate volume, complete in itself, 

 but at the same time forming a supplement to the present work, 

 is in course of preparation. It will contain treatises by Herren 

 W. Reiss, A. Stiibel, L. Wittmack, R. Virchow, and A. 

 Nehring. 



We have received Part I. of the Annual Report of the Board 

 of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, showing the opera- 

 tions, expenditures, and condition of the Institution, to July 

 1885. In addition to the Secretary's Report, there is a general 

 appendix containing some valuable scientific papers. In one 

 set of these papers an account is given, by eminent writers, of 

 the progress made during the year 1884 in astronomy, geo- 

 graphy, physics, chemistry, and other sciences. Other papers 

 deal with various problems in anthropology. 



The Clarendon Press is publishing a fourth edition of "Ex- 

 ercises in Practical Chemistry," by Mr. A. G. Vernon Harcourt, 



