NATURE 



[May 13, 189; 



and the mean Inclination 67° 22' '3. In the various experi- 

 ments carried on at the observatory, particular attentiori has 

 been paid to observations of atmospheric electricity, and to 

 the comparisons of mercury and platinum thermometers. The 

 number of instruments verified during the year exceeded 20, 5CX). 



M. Camille Flammariox brings together {Bulletin 

 de la Societe Astronomiqtte de Fiance for May) some statistics 

 regarding the amount of rainfall in Paris since the year 1688, 

 which discloses the remarkable fact that a gradual increase in the 

 fall for the last two hundred years is indicated. A glance at the 

 yearly means does not, perhaps, give such a decided apparent 

 increase as a survey of the means obtained by grouping several 

 years together. The following brief table, extracted from M. 

 Flammarion's note, speaks for itself : — 



mm. 

 1689 to 1719 4857 



1720 ,, 1754 409-4 



1773 ,> 1797 

 1804 ,, 1824 

 1825 ,, 1844 

 1S45 „ 1872 

 1873 ,, 1896 



492-5 



507-5 

 522-4 

 557-4 



Whether this " increase " is actually due to more rain, or to some 

 such causes as better positions for rain gauges, or more improved 

 rain gauges themselves, one cannot with certainty say, but the 

 amount of increase seems- rather to negative this. The figures, 

 nevertheless, are very astonishing ; and it would be interesting 

 to examine other series of observations extending over a long 

 period. 



The Geological Commission of Cape Colony has published 

 a bibliography of South African geology, containing a list of 

 nearly six hundred papers. 



Astronomers will be interested to know that Mr. Henry 

 Frowde has in hand " Tables for Facilitating the Computation 

 of Star-Constants," by Dr. E. J. Stone, F.R.S., Radcliffe 

 Observer at Oxford, modified and revised by Pro , H. H. 

 Turner. We much regret to have to add to this announcement 

 that Dr. Stone died on Sunday last. 



In papers recently published in the Bulletin of the American 

 Museum of Natural History (November 1896 and March 1897), 

 Dr. J. L. Wortman makes an important contribution to the 

 knowledge of Mammalian descent. He unites six genera of 

 primitive Mammalia, from various horizons in the North 

 American Eocene, into a sub-order Ganodonta, and maintains 

 that they are the ancestors of the New World Edentates. In 

 following one of the families of this sub-order up through suc- 

 cessive stages of the Eocene, he finds the genealogy to be com- 

 pletely traceable ; at the end of that period the line disappears 

 altogether, but is taken up again in the Edentates of the Santa 

 Cruz formation of South America. An almost inevitable con- 

 clusion from this is that about the end of the Eocene there was 

 at least a temporary land connection between the two Americas. 



Messrs. John Walker and Co., Ltd., have sent us 

 several packets of their "Perfection Envelope," which have 

 been designed to do away with the necessity of licking, or other- 

 wise moistening, the gum on the flap of an envelope in order to 

 make it adhere. The gum is placed upon the back of the 

 envelope instead of on the flap, so that by moistening the 

 flap the envelope can be sealed without touching the gum with 

 the tongue. The advantage thus gained is not very clear, for it 

 is possible in the case of any envelope to moisten the back 

 instead of the gummed flap. What is really required is a simple 

 device for sealing envelopes without going through the very 

 objectionable practice of licking them. 



NO. 1437, VOL. 56] 



A second edition of Prof. Lester F. Ward's " Dynamic 

 Sociology, or Applied Social Science, as based upon Statistical 

 Sociology and the less Complex Sciences" (two volumes) has 

 been published by Messrs. D. Appleton and Co. The work first 

 appeared in 1883, when there was not a chair of Sociology in 

 any University in the world. Now there is a small army of 

 active professors of Sociology in the United States alone, and the 

 demand has consequently arisen for a new edition of Prof. 

 Ward's pioneer work, ^'ery little revision has, however, been 

 made. An amusing story is told by Prof. Ward with reference 

 to his volume. The book was interdicted in Russia, but the 

 grounds upon which the action of the Russian Government 

 was based were not clear until a correspondent suggested 

 that the cause of trouble was the title, which appeared to 

 be "h compound of socialism and dynamite.'' — A second 

 edition of Dr. L. Edmunds' " Law and Practice of Letters 

 Patent for Inventions" has been prepared by Dr. T. M. 

 Stevens, and is publisned by Messrs. Stevens and Co. The 

 first edition of the book appeared in 1890, and was reviewed 

 in our columns in that year (vol. xliii. p. 53).— Prof. E. A. 

 Schafer's very instructive "Course of Practical Histology" 

 (Smith, Elder, and Co.) has reached a second edition. The 

 volume is a practical handbook in which practicable methods 

 are described. Its aim is "to assist the student to carry on 

 histological work independently of the constant presence of a 

 teacher "; and well is this purpose realised throughout the book. 

 —Messrs. E. and F. N. Spon have published a third, consider- 

 ably enlarged, edition of "The Engineer's Sketch-Book," by 

 Thomas W. Barber. The work contains 2603 sketches of 

 "mechanical movements, devices, appliances, contrivances and 

 details employed in the design and construction of machinery 

 for every purpose, classified and arranged for reference for the 

 use of engineers, mechanical draughtsmen, managers, mechanics, 

 inventors, patent agents, and all engaged in the mechanical 

 arts." 



Among noteworthy papers and other publications which 

 have come under our notice within the past few days are the 

 following :— Dr. Fridtjof Nansen contributes to the Geographical 

 Joumal (May) a valuable outline of the scientific resulfs obtained 

 during the Norwegian Arctic Expedition. The same journal 

 contains a full report of the discussion of the North Polar 

 problem, at the Royal Geographical Society on March 22. — 

 Mr. J. Holt Schooling illustrates "The Weight of the Earth" 

 with several ingenious diagrams in the Strand Magazine. — ■ 

 Three books, by Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan, referring to the 

 human mind and animal intelligence, furnish the text for aa 

 article in the Quarterly Revieiv (No. 370, April), — Two papers 

 on the structure and physical characters of striped muscular 

 fibre, and the phenomena of its construction, appear in the 

 Journal of Anatomy and Physiology (April), and form useful 

 contributions to a subject which has for many years furnished 

 histologists and physiologists with material for controversy. — 

 The notes on progress in petrography, contributed during 1896 

 to the American Natzcralist, by Mr. W. S. Bayley, have been 

 brought together in a pamphlet, which should prove very 

 serviceable for reference. — In the Proceedings of the Royal 

 Society of Victoria (vol. ix.), containing papers read before the 

 Society during 1896, are described : A new species of marsupial 

 from Central Australia ; aboriginal rock painting in the Victoria 

 Range, County of Dundas, \'ictoria; geographical distribution 

 of land and fresh-water vertebrates in Victoria ; the temper- 

 atures of reptiles, monotremes and marsupials; the "Burbung" 

 of the New' England Tribes, New South Wales, and the 

 " Bora" of the Kamilaroi Tribes (these detailed descriptions of 

 ceremonies of Australian native tribes are based upon personal 

 observations made by the author, Mr. R. II. Mathews) ; a 

 contribution to the knowledge of the Tertiaries in the neigh- 



