324 



NATURE 



[August 4, 1887 



and the Local Committee, while it will endeavour to meet all 

 reasonable wishes, reserves to itself the right to exclude all 

 exhibits that may appear to it to be for any reason unsuitable. 

 No objects shown for advertising purposes will be admissible. 



The summer meetings of the Institution of Mechanical En- 

 gineers were held this week on Tuesday and Wednesday in the 

 University of Edinburgh, under the presidency of Mr. E. H. 

 Carbutt. After the meeting on Tuesday, the members inspected 

 the Forth Bridge and Works. 



On Saturday, July 30, the statue of Paul Broca, close to the 

 Medical School, Paris, was unveiled. Addresses were delivered 

 by different persons connected with the Anthropological School. 



A Chair of Sanitary Engineering has been established in the 

 Imperial University of Japan. It is believed to be the only 

 Chair of the kind at present in existence. The Professor ap- 

 pointed to fill it is Mr. W. K. Burton, lately senior Sanitary 

 Engineer to the London Sanitary Protection Association. 



The geographical habitat of Peripatus leuckarti, Sanger, 

 '\%%'Sxd.{Archiv filr Naturg. 1871, p. 407) by Prof. Leuckart 

 to be " New Holland." Owing to the vagueness of our know- 

 ledge of the subject, it may be of interest to state that two 

 specimens of what appears to be this species have been found in 

 the Queensland scrubs, near Wide Bay. These specimens have 

 been presented to the British Museum by Mr. E. P, Ramsay, of 

 the Australian Museum, Sydney. 



The announcement of the discovery of more than a dozen new 

 elements appears at first sight rather sensational, and were it not 

 that the names of Kriiss and Nilson are sufficient guarantees of 

 its authenticity the intimation would probably be received with 

 more than a little caution. Such, however, is the startling 

 result of the long, laborious, and exceptionally difficult researches 

 of the Swedish chemists upon the nature of the rare earths con- 

 tained in several sparsely-distributed minerals, and a detailed 

 account of their labours will be found in the number of the 

 Berichte just issued. A precise measurement of the wave- 

 lengths of the lines and bands in the absorption-spectra of the 

 nitrates of the rare earths contained in thorite of Brevig and 

 Arendal, wohlerite of Brevi/, ceiite of Bastnas, fergusonite of 

 Arendal and Ytterby, and in euxenite of Arendal and Hittero, 

 has resulted in the surprising observation that only a particular 

 few of the lines supposed by former observers to belong to the 

 nitrate of any one metal are present in the absorption-spectra of 

 the nitrates derived from certain minerals, the other lines being 

 absent in these, but present in the nitrate spectra of other 

 minerals, while some that are present in the former are absent 

 or very faint in the latter. For example, only one of the lines 

 supposed to belong to the nitrate of holmium is present in any 

 intensity in the spectrum of the nitrates from thorite of Brevig, 

 while in the spectrum of nitrates derived from other minerals it 

 is but an insignificant line among several holmium lines much 

 more intense. The conclusion from most exhaustive spectral 

 measurements is inevitable, that most of the so-called elements in 

 these minerals are compound substances, the various ingredients 

 of which are present in certain minerals and absent in others ; 

 further, the fractionation of the nitrates has led to the partial 

 separation of a large number of the components themselves. 

 Holmium, the metal which Soret called X, and which Lecoq de 

 Boisbaudran separated into two components, is now shown to 

 consist of seven distinct elements — Xo, X;8, X7, X5, Xe, X^, 

 and Xtj ; erbium of two — Ero and Er^S, which it is possible to 

 separate by fractionation ; thulium, named by Cleve in 1879, 

 also of two — Tma and TmyS ; didymium which was shown by 

 von Welsbach to consist of two components, praseodym and 

 neodym, must, in the light of these spectral differences, consist 

 of not less than nine distinct elements, while samarium, the 

 name given by Lecoq de Boisbaudran to Marignac's Y;3, is com- 

 posed of at least two components— S ma and Sm;3. Hence, in 



place of holmium, erbium, thulium, didymium, and samarium, 

 we are constrained to accept the existence of more than twenty 

 elements, in the work of completing the isolation of which Drs. 

 Kriiss and Nilson urgently invite assistance. 



The United States Monthly Weather Review for March and 

 April contains interesting notes, e.g. (l) Average storm-tracks 

 over the United States during March, compiled from observa- 

 tions for the years 1873-85. The paths pursued by these storm- 

 centres are divided into four distinct classes, and are traced 

 until the disappearance of the storms at various points on the 

 Atlantic coast. (2) Rain frequency and wind rose for April, 

 with charts constructed from all observations available from the 

 commencement of the records until the end of 1886. The charts 

 have been prepared for use in the current weather predictions of 

 the service. The Reviews also contain descriptions of the storms 

 which occurred over the North Atlantic during each month, and 

 their approximate paths are shown on charts, together with the 

 distribution of icebergs reported. 



Tn^Jahres- Bericht of the Central Meteorological Office of the 

 Grand Duchy of Baden, for 1886, contains the results of meteoro- 

 logical observations at sixteen stations of the second and third 

 orders, and twenty-nine rain stations, of which the positions and 

 heights above sea are given. The Central Ofifice has taken 

 part in two Conferences during the year — one at Munich, relative 

 to the investigation of the frequency, direction of propagation, 

 and intensity of hailstorms ; and the other at Friedrichshafen, 

 with respect to a physical survey of the Lake of Constance. The 

 proposals made at both Conferences are awaiting the decisions 

 of the various Governments concerned. The Report is accom- 

 panied by a chart giving the distribution of the rainfall during 

 the year 1886, and shows three districts with maxima exceeding 

 55 inches, in positions corresponding with those on the chart of 

 the previous year. The greatest amount was 79*56 inches at 

 Todtnauberg, and the least 30"28 inches at Diedesheim. It also 

 contains hydrological observations at various stations on the 

 Rhine and its larger tributaries. 



Dr. K. Weihrauch, Director of the Observatory at 

 Dorpat, Russia, has published the mean values of the meteoro- 

 logical observations at that place for the twenty years 1866-85, 

 giving (i) the results of the individual months and years, and 

 (2) the results for the twenty years combined. This Observatory 

 was established in December 1885 by the late Dr. A. von 

 Oettingen, and is one of the few stations that have persistently 

 published wind components, under each of the points N. E, S. W. 

 (in addition to the usual components N. - S., and E. - W.), 

 whereby a better knowledge of the general distribution of the 

 wind is obtained than when only two components are given. 

 The highest mean monthly shade temperature, for the twenty 

 years, is 63° "2 in July, the lowest 19° "6 in January, and the mean 

 for the year 39° '9. The greatest mean monthly rainfall is 3-64 

 inches in July, the lowest i '02 inches in March, and the total 

 for the year 16 -21 inches. The fourth volume of the actual 

 observations, for the years 1881-85, is now being printed, 

 the publication having been delayed hitherto for want of funds. 



The work done at the Melbourne Observatory in connexion 

 with meteorology and terrestrial magnetism expands a little 

 every year. The importance attaching to rainfall and water- 

 supply renders it necessary to spread rain-gauges wherever trust- 

 worthy observers can be secured, and we learn from the latest 

 Report of the Observatory that 272 monthly returns are now 

 received, most of the observers being volunteers. A complete 

 register of Victorian rainfall has been prepared, showing at a 

 glance the annual and monthly rainfall, as well as the averages 

 for a series of years and months. The issue of weather-maps 

 and forecasts for Southern and Northern Victoria has been 

 regularly continued, and this service appears to be 1 

 appreciated. 



