602 



NATURE 



[January 27, 1916 



The last number of the Revista of the National 

 University of Cordoba (Argentine Republic) deals 

 chiefly with subjects of medical and historical interest. 

 In one article, however, Prof. Angel Gallardo refers 

 to the richness of the collections in different institu- 

 tions in the city, and urges the importance of the 

 foundation of a Provincial Museum, with facilities for 

 original research. 



The National Geographic Magazine for November, 

 1915 (vol. xxviii.. No. 5) maintains its reputation for 

 well-illustrated articles. The greater part of the issue 

 is devoted to a general descriptive article on France, 

 with more than one hundred illustrations, by Mr. 

 A. S. Riggs. Many of the pictures, are excellent, and 

 most are quite new. A short article on the Citizen 

 Army of Switzerland, with some pictures of the army 

 amid the alpine snows, completes the number, except 

 for sixteen colour photographs of miscellaneous geo- 

 graphical subjects illustrating, in the main, types of 

 European peasants. 



Mr. p. W. Stuart-Menteath is well known 

 through his geological studies in the Pyrenees, which 

 have now extended over forty years, and it is highly 

 probable that in many points of detail he can correct 

 the maps and sections of those who have made sweep- 

 ing surveys of the chain. The twelfth part of his 

 descriptions of the " Gisements m^tallifferes des 

 Pyr^n^es-Occidentales " has appeared in the Boletin 

 de la Sociedad Aragonesa de Ciencias Naturales, and 

 is chiefly concerned with the retention in the Cre- 

 taceous system of beds placed by Prof. Termier as 

 Silurian, and the extension of the Cretaceous zones 

 in areas recently mapped as Palaeozoic. A close 

 acquaintance with the strata would be required for 

 the appreciation of the merits of the author's con- 

 troversy with M. L^on Bertrand, or the older one 

 as to the age of the overfolds in the Pyrenees, and 

 of "the alleged Carboniferous granite of Gavarnie 

 ("La nueva Geologia en los Pirineas de Arag6n," 

 Mem. del primer Congreso de Naturalistas Espanoles, 

 1909). 



A SUMMARY of temperature, rainfall, and bright sun- 

 shine for the year 19 15, obtained from the records of 

 the fifty-two weeks ending January i of the present 

 year, has been given by the Meteorological Office. 

 The mean temperature for the year is in fair agree- 

 ment with the average over the whole of the United 

 Kingdom, but is generally slightly deficient, the 

 greatest deficiency amounting to 1° in the east of 

 Scotland and to nearly that amount in the west of 

 Scotland. The rainfall for the year was in excess of 

 the average in all the eastern districts, the amounts 

 ranging from 130 per cent, of the average in the south- 

 east of England, where commonly of late the rains 

 have been abnormally heavy, and 123 per cent, in the 

 east of England to 107 per cent, in the north-east of 

 England. In the western districts the rainfall was 

 more variable, ranging from iii per cent, of the 

 average in the south-west of England and 105 per cent, 

 in the south of Ireland, to 80 per cent, in the west 

 of Scotland, which has the greatest deficiency. In 

 the north of Scotland the rainfall was 82 per cent, of 

 the average, and in the Channel Islands it was 114 per 

 NO. 2413, VOL. 96] 



cent, of the normal. The number of rainy days was 

 less than the average except in the east of England 

 and in the south of Ireland ; in the south-eastof England, 

 where the greatest excess of rain was experienced, the 

 rainy days were fourteen fewer than the normal. The 

 duration of sunshine differed very little from the 

 average, except in the north-west of England, where 

 the total for the year had the average excess of half! 

 an hour per day. j 



The seventh volume of the Journal of the Municipal | 

 School of Technology, Manchester, records the research! 

 work published by the staff and students during 1913. i 

 It extends to 200 pages, and includes important pajjers 

 by Mr. W. C. Popplewell on the properties of re- 

 inforced concrete, by Prof. Knecht and by Mr. Hubner 

 on dyeing and its history, by Prof. Miles Walker on 

 the training of the engineer, and eleven other papers j 

 mainly on technical chemistry. In addition to the] 

 scientific interest provided in these records there is a 

 preparatory note of a page and a half which tells 

 something about the work of the school, and will 

 serve as a guide to the authorities of many schools 

 who have not yet realised what is the great need of! 

 the country in the matter of technical education. Thej 

 first place in the note is given to the three or fourj 

 hundred university students who have passed the| 

 matriculation examination and are taking a three 

 years' course in order to graduate. It appears that 

 the school cannot turn out graduates fast enough 

 to meet the industrial demand for such men. As this 

 is also the experience of the Central Technical College! 

 in London, it is a serious question whether those tech-l 

 nical schools which complain that the industries show! 

 no appreciation of their students are turning out pro-! 

 perly qualified men, or only men who, to make up fori 

 the deficiencies of their early training, obtain a smat- 

 tering of scientific knowledge by attending evening 

 classes when tired out with their day's work? 



Costing, in round figures, i| million pounds, and 

 comprising 880,000 cubic yards of Cyclopean concrete! 

 masonry, the Kensico Dam, one of the principal! 

 features of the Catskill water supply system of Newj 

 York City, has just been completed. The event is thej 

 more notable for the fact that the work has been car-j 

 ried out in the relatively short space of four and aj 

 half years, or three years less than the contract time — j 

 a remarkable achievement in days when experience! 

 is usually of the reverse kind. The Kensico Reservoir,| 

 destined to provide storage capacity for two and a! 

 half months' supply, is formed in the valley of the 

 Bronx River, on the east side of the Hudson, thirty; 

 miles north of New York City.- The dam takes the 

 place of an earlier structure of much less height, enclos-i 

 ing a correspondingly smaller area; the increase in 

 effective height is actually no ft., and in area, 3200 

 acres. According to the Engineer of January 7, the pre- 

 paration of the foundation involved the removal of 2-2 

 million cubic yards of earth and rock, and, in one 

 place, the rock had to be drilled and blasted to a depth 

 of 65 ft. The work of laying the masonry reached 

 the record figure of 84,450 cubic yards in a smgk 

 month. Electric power plant was extensively em- 

 ployed, and a special installation was laid down for 

 the purpose. For the measurement of the water 



