3o6 



NA TURE 



{jtUy 28, 18S7 



but it must not be applied to the case of adults, many of w hom 

 should be encouraged to take advantage of the new system of 

 technical instruction. A man of thirty would be extremely un- 

 willing to go in for an examination in reading, writing, and 

 arithmetic, but there is no reason why there should not be pay- 

 ment out of the local rate on his behalf, if he is disposed to enter 

 upon a regular course of technical education. The more adults 

 who can be induced to attend technical schools, the better for the 

 working classes and for the country. 



We have received a circular bearing the signatures of W. E. 

 Ayrton, Michael Carteighe, Alfred E. Fletcher, G. Carey 

 Foster, Michael Foster, J. H. Gladstone, H. Forster Morley, 

 William Odling, Sydney Ringer, H, E. Roscoe, W. J. Russell, 

 and P. J. Worsley, who have either been pupils of Dr. A. W. 

 Williamson during the thirty- eight years that he has been Pro- 

 fessor of Chemistry in University College, London, or have been 

 otherwise intimately associated with him. In this circular it is 

 suggested that Prof. Williamson's resignation of his Chair affords 

 a fitting opportunity for recording, in some permanent manner, 

 the high appreciation of his influence as a scientific teacher, and 

 the feeling of personal regard for him as a man, which are 

 so generally entertained by those who know his work and 

 character. It is accordingly proposed to ask him to sit for a 

 portrait to be presented to University College, and subscriptions 

 are invited for this purpose. As it is expected that this proposal 

 will be widely responded to, one guinea is suggested as the 

 ordinary amount of a subscription. Dr. W. J. Russell, F.R. S., 

 34 Upper Hamilton Terrace, N.W., has agreed to act as honorary 

 treasurer of the fund to be collected, and Michael Carteighe, 

 Esq., 36 Nottingham Place, W., and Dr. H. Forster Morley, 

 University Hall, Gordon Square, W.C., as honorary secretaries. 



The Council of King's College, London, has elected Mr. J. 

 W. Groves — Demonstrator of Practical Biology — to the Chair 

 of Botany, rendered vacant by the resignation of Prof. Robert 

 Bentley. 



• Mr. W. L. Sclater, B.A., of Keble College, Oxford, has 

 been appointed by the Trustees of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, 

 to be Deputy Superintendent of their Museum in succession to 

 Mr. Wood Mason, who has become Superintendent upon the 

 resignation of Dr. Anderson. Mr. Sclater, who was a pupil of 

 Prof. Moseley, took a first class in the final Examination for 

 Natural Science in 1885, and has since been working under 

 Prof. Ray Lankester and Mr. Sedgwick, and for the last three 

 years has prepared the report on mammals for the "Zoological 

 Record." Last winter Mr. Sclater passed several months in 

 British Guiana, under the hospitable roof of Mr. E. F. im Thurn, 

 and made collections in several branches of natural history, 

 which have been described in the Zoological Society's Pro- 

 ceedings. 



The summer meetings of the Institution of Naval Architects 

 were opened on Tuesday in the ball of the Literary and Philo- 

 sophical Society, Newcastle-on-Tyne. Lord Armstrong began 

 the regular business of the conference by reading a paper by 

 himself and Mr. J. Vavasseur on the application of hydraulic 

 pressure to gunnery. A paper was also read by Mr. F. 

 C. Marshall on recent developments in marine engineering. 

 After the meeting the members were conveyed in brakes to the 

 Elswick Works, where they were shown over the ordnance and 

 ship-building departments, and were entertained to luncheon by 

 Lord Armstrong. 



An Electrical Exhibition will be given in New York in the 

 autumn by the New York Electrical Society. The Exhibition 

 will be open from September 28 to December 3. It will include, 

 says Science, " all that relates to the science and application of 

 electricity in its broadest sense." As no electrical exhibition 



has ever been held in New York, it .is expected that this 01 

 will attract a large number of visitors. 



We learn from Science that the American Committee of tl 

 International Congress of Geologists will present a report at tl 

 approaching meeting of the American Association concernii 

 the positions to be taken by the representatives of America 

 geologists at the next session of the Congress in London (1888 

 upon the more important questions of nomenclature, classificatioi 

 and colouring, which will there be discussed. The Committ< 

 requests that a day may be set apart by Section E for the coi 

 sideration of these questions, and it proposes that all America 

 geologists (whether members of the American Association c 

 not) shall be invited to attend this session and participate i 

 the work. 



With respect to the recent small but exceedingly fierce an 

 destructive cyclone, which literally effaced a station on the coa 

 of the Bay of Bengal, called False Point (Nature, pp. 110 an 

 136), a correspondent writes tons from Calcutta : — "The ston 

 was an exceedingly interesting one, and some of its features ai 

 quite different from those previously recorded. It is very notici 

 able in the fact that at the centre of the storm a lower pressui 

 was recorded than during any storm that I have read of, k 

 pressure fell to nearly 27 inches at sea-level. The rapidity wit 

 which the pressure fell was also extraordinary." 



Prof. Pedler, Principal of the Presidency College, Calcutts 

 who is in charge of the Bengal Meteorological Department, gav 

 notice of the existence of this terrible storm in the middle of th 

 Bay of Bengal five or six days before it broke over the land. H 

 was also able to give twenty-four hours' notice of the precise pai 

 of the coast which the storm would (and did) cross. He hoiste 

 warning signals in the river at Calcutta to prevent ships from lea\ 

 ing. Unhappily one steamer went out in spite of the signals, an 

 foundered, with about 900 people on board, every one of whon 

 was drowned. In obedience to the signals, six or seven othe 

 vessels remained in safety. Among these vessels were tw 

 steamers going to the same port as the one which foundered 

 and having about as many people on board. A large numbei 

 of persons, therefore, ow ed their lives directly to meteorologica 

 science. It would be hard to conceive a more striking il lustra 

 tion of the practical value of meteorology. 



We have received the concluding part of the Quarterl) 

 Weather Report of the Meteorological Office for the year 1878 

 This volume is the third of the new series begun in 1876 

 and contains charts showing mean meteorological conditions fo: 

 each month, a general summary of the weather for each quarter 

 and the usual tables giving the results derived from the record: 

 of the seven observatories then co-operating with the Office 

 together with continuous curves of the self-recording instruments, 

 In an appendix is a paper by General R. Strachey, R.E., F. R.S.; 

 Chairman of the Meteorological Council, which will be very avail 

 able for agriculturists. By the use of the tables the amount of the 

 excess or defect of the daily temperature above or below an) 

 fixed minimum, below which active vegetation does not begin, 

 may be easily obtained during the year from the ordinary 

 temperature observations usually made ; this could be effected 

 previously only by a laborious calculation. The values of such 

 "accumulated temperature," published in the Weekly Weather 

 Report of the Meteorological Office, are calculated by these 

 tables. The Monthly Weather Report, which began in 1884, 

 and which is published nearly up to date, now takes the place 

 of the Quarterly Reports. 



The Meteorologische Zeitschrift for July contains the conclud- 

 ing portion of Dr. Koppen's article on the classification of 

 clouds (Nature, June 30, p. 208). We are glad to see that in 



I 



