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Huxley at the Royal College of Science, and he there distin- 

 guished himself by taking the Forbes medal. Full of enthusiasm, 

 he laid his plans to return to the College in the following session 

 for the work of investigation, but an exceptionally severe con- 

 stitutional breakdown prevented him from so doing. He was 

 ordered to Davos, and he there spent the rest of his life, with 

 the exception of brief periods of absence passed in study at the 

 Universities of Zurich and Berlin, he being attracted to the 

 latter city by the now famous investigations of Koch. While at 

 Davos, Jones developed a practice as a consulting bacteriologist, 

 working and experimenting whenever he was able. He did not 

 hesitate to submit even his own person to experiment, and in 

 one of his letters he admitted himself enamoured of the Richet 

 muscle-plasma treatment, with which he experienced an imme- 

 diate success. In the closing year of his life, Jones returned to 

 some experiments he had previously made upon the physiological 

 effects of air at high altitudes, but to no purpose, for the end 

 came suddenly and peacefully, a tubercular cystic trouble neces- 

 sitating an operation, which, while affording relief, proved of no 

 permanent value. He was buried at Davos, where his loss will 

 be severely felt. 



We have received a pamphlet setting forth in concise form 

 a history of the progress and present status of the work of the 

 Concilium Bibliographicum at Zurich, which for the past five or 

 six years has been maintained at considerable pecuniary risk by 

 Dr. H. H. Field, who in successive periods has had to face a 

 deficit ranging from 5625 francs for each of the first three years 

 to 224 for the last. The official foundation of the institution 

 was by a vote of the third International Congress of Zoologists, 

 at their meeting in Holland of 1895, and the experimental 

 stage of its work has now passed. The Swiss Society of 

 Naturalists, who have all along been among the foremost 

 supporters of the undertakirxg, have with commendable en- 

 thusiasm induced the Swiss Government, by a recent vote of its 

 Parliament, to increase five-fold a subsidy with which during 

 recent years it has generously endowed the work. There is 

 hereby insured the future permanence of the enterprise, which 

 now becomes independent of the person of its present director. 

 The pamphlet gives, in addition, an analytical table of the cards 

 and other bibliographic materials which have emanated from 

 the Bureau, and a register of the distribution of the cards in the 

 chief divisions of the bibliography. Terms of subscription, an 

 outline scheme for future development, with an ambitious pro- 

 gramme for the present year, bring the pamphlet to a close, 

 except for the remark that a removal has recently been made to 

 more spacious quarters. Acknowledgment is made of support 

 received from the Elizabeth Thompson Science Fund, and while 

 we would congratulate Dr. Field upon this and the encouraging 

 circumstances under which he starts work for the new century 

 and wish him every success, we would recommend to the con. 

 sideration of zoologists and bibliographers at home the fact that 

 Cape Colony takes about as many cards as the whole of 

 England. This is a condition which simply should not be, and 

 denotes a poor return for the services done. 



The April Pilot Chart for the North Atlantic and Mediter- 

 ranean has just been published by the Meteorological Council. 

 It follows the same arrangement as that for the January speci- 

 men chart described in our last number. But of course there 

 are, in all directions, important changes in the details. There 

 are some interesting features connected with the winds and 

 currents, particularly the modifications in the set of the currents 

 off our western and south-western coasts, which are, no doubt, 

 due to the prevalence of polar winds off the coasts of north- 

 western Europe in the spring months, causing a surface drift to 

 the westward and south-westward, and interfering with the 

 normal flow of the Gulf Stream. Many subjects are dealt with 



NO. 1639, VOL. 63] 



in the letterpress, but prominence is given to fog and ice about 

 the banks of Newfoundland, these dangers increasing with the 

 opening of navigation of the St. Lawrence Gulf and River for 

 the summer. It is explained that the fogs of this locality have 

 certain peculiarities, the knowledge of which may be of no little 

 service to the seaman. Thus, with the wind blowing from the 

 sea towards the land, the fog is generally of no great density, 

 for objects can ofte*n be sighted at a distance of half a mile, but 

 with calm fogs following strong winds nothing can be seen at 

 fifty yards from the deck, yet at a height of fifty or sixty feet in 

 the rigging it may be possible, at the same time, to see almost 

 any distance round. Up to the time of going to press no ice 

 had been reported on the Grand Banks this season, the weather 

 off St. John's, Newfoundland, on the 8th inst. being favourable, 

 and no ice to be seen, so that it does not look like a great ice 

 year. 



For several years past the Deutsche Seewarte, Hamburg, has 

 made strenuous efforts to accelerate and improve the service of 

 telegraphic weather reports. The subject has 1)een discussed 

 both at international meetings and at conferences of the heads 

 of the German meteorological systems, and it is recognised on 

 all sides that the present service can be materially improved by 

 a more speedy collection, discussion and publication of observa- 

 tions. So long ago as 1872 a very perfect system was introduced 

 in the United States, called the circuit-system, in which the, 

 necessary wires over certain telegrapli lines are reserved ex- 

 clusively for the ti-ansmission of meteorological messages for 

 a time after each observation. This method has been found to 

 work very satisfactorily in the United States, but in Europe, 

 where the control of the wires is in the hands of various 

 countries, the difficulty of introducing a similar method is 

 insurmountable. The system recommended by the Deutsche 

 Seewarte is called the radial-system, in which the observa- 

 tions pass through the central offices. Special observation* 

 have been made for nearly a year at 8 a.m. mid-European 

 time, or at about 7 a.m. Greenwich time, at some thirty- 

 five stations in various countries, including several in the 

 British Islands, and forwarded to the Deutsche Seewarte, 

 which enable the Hamburg office to issue reports as early 

 as 9 a.m. ; and the early publication of this information 

 has been found to lead to such satisfactory results as to 

 warrant a considerable extension of the plan in the near 

 future. The method is fully discussed and explained by Dr. 

 van Bebber, in the February number of Das Wetter, irv 

 an article entitled " The Present Condition of Weather 

 Telegraphy." 



We have received a copy of the year-book of the Austrian 

 Meteorological Office for 1899, containing daily observations at 

 twenty stations, hourly observations for Vienna, and hourly 

 means and monthly and yearly summaries for a large number of 

 stations. During each winter the Vienna thermograms show 

 some anomalous jumps of temperature, amounting to 3° to 5" C. 

 and at times reaching even to 10° in half an hour, or less. The 

 mild winter of 1898-9 exhibited several such cases, and these have 

 been made the subject of an interesting discussion by Mr. Max 

 Margules, who has compared the thermograms of Vienna with 

 those of two places situated some 30 or 40 miles to the east and 

 west of that place. In very sudden rises of temperature it is a 

 matter of considerable importance to know what is taking place 

 above. In all cases it was found that at a relatively greater 

 altitude, say 500 to 800 metres above the lower stations, the 

 warmer temperature occurred some hours or even a day earlier 

 than at the lower stations. The subject has been discussed with 

 reference to the following conditions : — (i) A progressive increase 

 of temperature in the upper air ; (2) a constant temperature 

 above ; (3) an increasing temperature below with a decreasing 

 temperature in the higher strata of the atmosphere. 



