December 20, 1900] 



NATURE 



187 



Dr. Benjafibld, a medical man who has resided for the last 

 twenty-seven years in Tasmania, described the advantages of the 

 Colony as a health resort, at the Imperial Institute on Monday. 

 He said that he was struck, on his arrival in Tasmania, with the 

 almost complete absence of consumption and bronchitis, and it 

 was now three years since he had signed a certificate of death 

 from the former disease. Last year the rural mortality of 

 Southern Tasmania was only 8'8 per looo. In Hobart 2261 

 hours of sunshine have been recorded in one year, as against 

 1 1 58 at Oxford in England. The climate of the Colony is one 

 of the most even and excellent in the world. The atmosphere 

 is pure, clear and crisp, and the general prevalence in the air, as 

 indicated by the characteristic odour, of the essential oil of the 

 eucalyptus tree, existing in abundance in the Colony, especially 

 near Hobart, appears to exercise a direct antiseptic influence 

 against deleterious organisms of all kinds. 



We have received from the Deutsche Seewarte, Hamburg, 

 the ninth volume of meteorological observations made at 

 stations beyond the sea. The observations are taken three 

 times daily with duly verified instruments, and form a very 

 valuable contribution to the climatology of various distant parts 

 of the globe. Some of the stations in Labrador have been in 

 regular operation since the time of the international polar 

 expeditions in 1882-3, and are the more important as they lie in 

 the track of the barometric depressions which pass from the 

 Canadian shores into the Atlantic. Wherever the German 

 nation gets a footing abroad, scientific investigations, and 

 especially meteorological observations, are undertaken ; in 

 addition to the stations in Labrador, the present volume 

 contains observations at Tsing-chow, Apia, Nauru (Pleasant 

 Island), Ralum (New Pomerania), Mogador, and several stations 

 on the west coasts of Africa. Observations are also being made 

 in the German East African Protectorate, and will, it is hoped, 

 be published in the next parts of this useful work. 



The November issue (vol. vi.. No. 2) of the Journal of the 

 Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom contains 

 an extremely interesting and important report on the fauna of 

 the Salcombe Estuary, which has been drawn up by Messrs. 

 E. J. Allen and R. A. Todd, with the assistance of several 

 specialists. Salcombe Harbour possesses an exceptional zoo- 

 logical interest in that it was the hunting-ground of George 

 Montagu in the earlier years of the century, and is consequently 

 the type locality for a considerable number of British marine 

 animals. Partly for this reason and partly because previous 

 visits had demonstrated the richness of its fauna, the harbour 

 was selected as a promising field for a systematic zoological 

 survey, which was undertaken during the past summer. The 

 authors state that the present report, from which the " plank- 

 ton " is excluded, "consists almost entirely of a record of facts 

 with regard to the nature and distribution of the fauna as we 

 have found it during the present summer, consideration and 

 discussion of these facts and comparison with the conditions 

 prevailing in other localities being held over until further in- 

 vestigations on a similar plan have been carried out elsewhere." 

 It does not appear that any new species were obtained. 



Both to fishermen and to naturalists the article by Mr. W. 

 Garstang, dealing with the plague of octopus on the South 

 Coast and its effects on the crab and lobster fisheries, which 

 appears in the Journal of the Marine Biological Association, 

 will appeal strongly. Till the spring of 1899 the common 

 octopus has been comparatively rare in the Plymouth neighbour- 

 hood for the last decade or so, as much as half-a-sovereign 

 having been paid for a specimen. At that epoch, however, a 

 marked increase in the numbers of this voracious mollusc was 

 noticed, and during the year just closing it has appeared in 

 §uch hosts as to cause widespread disaster to the shell-fish 



NO. 1625, VOL. 63] 



industry on both sides of the channel. Several newspaper 

 paragraphs are quoted in evidence of the serious nature of the 

 plague, which the author is inclined to believe is in part due to 

 the exceptional heat of recent summers. 



The Italian earthquakes have formed the subject of a memoir 

 by Perrey and of several detailed studies by Prof. G. Mercalli. 

 Very numerous notices are also to be found in scientific journals, 

 in literary and historical works, in newspapers and in books now 

 become rare. The materials from these various sources are 

 collected andjdiscussed in a valuable work by Dr. M. Baratta, 

 recently published. It consists of fthree parts. The first is a 

 catalogue of 1364 of the more important earthquakes from the 

 beginning of the Christian era to the end of 1898. In the 

 second the seismic history of diff'erent districts is investigated, 

 while the third contains a bibliography of more than 1600 

 papers, &c., on Italian earthquakes. The first two parts are 

 illustrated by 136 seismic maps. 



In Die Umschati, Herr A. Stolberg gives an account of the 

 last ascents of Count von Zeppelin's navigable balloon. The 

 paper is illustrated by diagrams showing the modifications intro- 

 duced into the construction of the machine since the earlier 

 ascents, from which it appears that the suspended platform 

 supporting the sliding weight used in maintaining longitudinal 

 balance has been replaced by a latticed girder arrangement from 

 which the weight is suspended, and, moreover, the steering 

 arrangements have been considerably altered. The author 

 estimates the speed of propulsion relative to the air at about 

 8 metres per second ; and the total weight of the machine at 

 about 10,200 kilogrammes, say ten tons. 



The latest invention in connection with wireless telegraphy is 

 an apparatus designed to warn ships of their approach to a 

 danger in times of fog or places where a simpler system of 

 signalling is not practicable. The contrivance consists of a 

 revolving wheel, having teeth of varying size, which, as it 

 revolves, operate a Morse key connected with wireless telegraphy 

 transmitting instruments, and according to the length of time 

 they keep it depressed cause long or short signals to be trans- 

 mitted. These signals represent the dashes and dots of the 

 Morse code, and hence it is easy to dispose the teeth of the 

 wheel so that any place sends out signals which spell its name. 

 The wheel, which may be rotated by an electric motor or by 

 clockwork, can be arranged to signal every minute or two or 

 continuously, as desired, the idea being that it should be put 

 into operation whenever bad weather comes on. In this way any 

 place can be made the centre of a zone of influence, practically 

 of any required extent, so that all ships coming within it will be 

 notified of the fact by the ringing of an electric bell and the 

 reception of a message giving the name of the place, provided 

 they are fitted with apparatus for detecting the electric waves. 



Mr. Gustav Fischer, Jena, has commenced the publication 

 of the second revised and enlarged edition of Prof, A. Lang's 

 " Lehrbuch der vergleichenden Anatomic der wirbellosea 

 Thiere." The new edition will be in three volumes, the first 

 containing four parts, the second three parts, and the third two. 

 The part just issued is the first of the third volume, and in it 

 Dr. K. Hescheler deals with the moUusca. 



" Appendix No. i," for 1901, of the Kew Bulletin of Miscel- 

 laneous Information consists of a list of the seeds of hardy her- 

 baceous annual and perennial plants and of hardy trees and 

 shrubs which, for the most part, have ripened at Kew during the 

 year 1900. These seeds are not sold to the general public, but 

 are available for exchange with colonial, Indian and foreign 

 botanic gardens, as well as with foreign correspondents of Kew. 

 No application for a share in their distribution, except from 

 remote colonial possessions, will be entertained after the end of 

 March. ; 



