August i8, 1898] 



NATURE 



constituents of tjiis venom. It is only just to Calmette 

 to add that Martin's criticism, of course, only applies to 

 the serum as he was able to obtain it as imported into 

 Australia ; and Martin himself is careful to add that the 

 specimens he had access to were only possessed of very 

 feeble powers. 



Wehrmann's valuable memoir, to which we so fre- 

 quently have referred in the foregoing brief rhumc 

 of some of the latest contributions to the ever- 

 increasing domain of preventive medicine, is a record 

 of experiments carried out under the inspiration of 

 Calmette in the Institut Pasteur at Lille. It is full of 

 experimental data, and no attempt is made to formulate 

 theories on the facts recorded, only at the close the fol- 

 lowing suggestion is to be found : — " Enfin nous voyons 

 que les serums des animaux immunises contre I'un quel- 

 conque des poisons que nous avous Studies sout frequem- 

 ment curatifs ^ I'egard des autres. 



" Ces phenom^nes d'action reciproque preventive, 

 neutralisante in intra et curative, apportent un argu- 

 ment de plus en faveur de la thdorie cellulaire de 

 I'immunite. ... II faut bien en conclure que la notion 

 de specificite des toxines et des serums antitoxiques est 

 loin d'etre aussi etroite qu'on I'avait cru jusqu'k ces 

 derniers temps." G. C. Frankland. 



THE RECENT PERSE ID METEORIC 

 SHO WER. 



T^HIS display appears to have been of rather a special 

 -'■ character on August ii,and to have attracted a 

 considerable amount of attention. At any rate, during 

 the thirty years in which I have witnessed returns of the 

 shower, I have never known it to have been so generally 

 observed. Many people, quite unaware that such a 

 phenomenon was in progress, on looking up and admiring 

 the singular beauty of the night, noticed the meteors. 

 They were so numerous and occasionally so brilliant 

 that they were watched for a considerable time. 



Usually the maximum of the shower occurs on August 

 10, but on that date the atmosphere was, on the whole, 

 unfavourable this year, and at the majority of stations 

 not many Perseids appear to have been observed. The 

 following evening came in under vastly improved con- 

 ditions, the stars shone with remarkable lucidity, and it 

 was quite an ideal night for the observation of meteors. 

 To this circumstance, and to the fact that the shower 

 was really a strong one, perhaps coming a little later 

 than usual, is to be ascribed its marked prominence. 



In the twilight at 8h. 58m. a splendid meteor brighter 

 than Jupiter was seen in the S.S.W. sky, moving very 

 slowly and almost horizontally westwards amongst the 

 stars of Ophiuchus and Serpens, It threw ofif a thick 

 train of yellow sparks, but, when near e Serpentis, the 

 nucleus, after a sudden accession of brilliancy, collapsed, 

 and I thought the whole thing had vanished until, in the 

 same direction of motion, a star-like fragment became 

 visible and travelled some 8" further. It moved very 

 much slower than the earlier and brighter part of the 

 meteor had done, and looked like a mere spark sailing 

 along on the wind. This meteor was also observed at 

 Slough and other places, and it will be possible to obtain 

 some interesting deductions respecting it. It was mani- 

 festly not a Perseid ; its leisurely flight being directed 

 from the region of Pisces and Aquarius. 



At 10 p.m. I began watching the eastern sky, and im- 

 mediately found that the Perseids, with their swift 

 motions and phosphorescent streaks, were in strong 

 evidence. During the 4^ hours ending 2.30 a.m. on 

 August 12 I saw 106 of them, but I believe that a con- 

 tinuous watch of the sky would have enabled twice this 

 number to have been counted. Whenever bright meteors 

 appeared, or others were observed with great exactness, 

 NO. 1503, VOL. 58] 



they were carefully registered ; and during these intervals^ 

 when attention was distracted from the sky, many 

 Perseids must have escaped my notice. I think that one- 

 observer might have counted quite 50 meteors per hour 

 in an uninterrupted view of the sky on the night of 

 August II. 



I endeavoured to ascertain the position of the radiant 

 point as precisely as possible, and obtained it at hourly 

 mtervals from the best observed paths in the region im- 

 mediately surrounding it. The results were as follow : — 



The mean is at 46''*4 + 57°'6, which I believe is well 

 within 1° of probable error. The centre was defined 

 with tolerable sharpness, for all the registered paths 

 intersect within an area of about 4° diameter. 



Some conspicuous meteors were observed during the 

 night, though no really large fireballs appeared. It may- 

 be advisable to give the apparent courses of the brighter 

 objects, for some of them must certainly have been seen 

 by other observers, many of whom were watching the sky 

 on the same night. 



Path Length 



^ ^ of; 



G.M.T. Mag. FTom To path, 



h. m. o £ o 



8 58 ... > li ... 259 - 2 ... 231 - ij ... 28 

 10 9 ... I ... 56 -t-64 ... 65 -1-67 ... 5 



10 16 ... 11 ... 200 +6ii ... 206 +44^ ... 17 



1045 ... 2/ .. 2404 + 62I ... 237 +47 •■• iSi 



1049 ... I ... 37* + 66 ... so +7oh ... 5 



10 57 ... > I ... 21 -1-26 ... 16 -f-iii ... isi 



11 12 ... I ... 359 -1-78^ ... 29Sh + 77i ••• 13 

 It 26 ... > I ... 12^-1-15 ... 7 + oi ... i5i 



11 35 ••• I ••• 50 +67 - 54 +71 ••• 4h 



12 i5i ... I ... 27f -1-37 ... 2S H-3oi ... 7 

 12 i9i ... I ... 2h + 57h ... 348 +54 •• 9 

 12 23i ... 1i ... i4i + 29 ... 6-1-13 ... I7i 



12 39 .. 1 13^ + 19 ••• 9 + 8 ... 12 



13 II ... I ... 20J-H I ... 18 -II ... 12J 

 13 29 ... > I ... 46 +31 ... 46 -I-I9 •• 12 



With the exception of the first, all these were Perseids.. 



It is satisfactory to note that reports from other quarters 

 show that the display was very successfully observed. 

 Prof. Herschel, at Slough, describes the rate of appear- 

 ance and general brightness of the meteors on the night 

 of August II as considerably greater than on other dates^ 

 and mentions having mapped 80 observed paths between 

 io|h. and I4h. Four of the Perseids observed at Bristol 

 were also recorded by him at Slough, and he finds their 

 radiants very definitely and distinctly marked at about 

 46° + 58=. 



At Paris, it appears that very favourable conditions, 

 prevailed on August 10, so that Mile. Klumpe, at the 

 Observatory, succeeded in observing 200 shooting stars. 

 The display is stated to have begun at sunset and to have 

 continued with "amazing rapidity" until sunrise. It is 

 estimated that altogether at least 600 shooting stars were 

 noticed. W. F. Denning. 



NOTES. 



The proposal made at the Toronto meeting of the British' 

 Association last year, for a marine biological station in the 

 Dominion of Canada, is taking practical shape. Such a pro- 

 f)osal has been in the minds of Canadian biologists for many 

 years, and Prof. Prince, the Dominion Commissioner of 

 Fisheries, reported at length upon the necessity for such a 

 marine station for Canada in the Marine and Fisheries Blue 

 Book, 1894, and the Royal Society of Canada also urged the- 



