June 3, 1897] 



NA TURE 



107 



fjeolc^cal interest near Baltimore, on one of which Sir Archi- 

 bald Geikie and his companions were the guests of the 

 Secretary of the Navy at the Naval Academy, Annapolis, and 

 upon one of the United States Government vessels on a trip 

 to view the Cretaceous and Tertiary formations along the 

 Severn River. A longer excursion was made at the close of 

 the lectures, so as to illustrate the geology of the State of Mary- 

 land, Through the efforts of Prof. W. B. Clark, who is also 

 State Geologist of Maryland, the interest of the Governor of 

 the State and of the principal railway and mining officials had 

 been secured, so that free transportation was given on the 

 Baltimore and Ohio, the Cumberland and Potomac, and the 

 Western Maryland Railways, as well as on one of the State official 

 gteamboats. Before breaking up, the entire company of geologists 

 signed and presented a short address of thanks to the Board of 

 Commissioners of the Maryland Geological Survey and the State 

 Geologist, for the hospitable forethought which had enabled 

 them to spend four days in inspecting a region presenting so 

 many interesting geological aspects. At the close of the 

 Baltimore visit Sir Archibald Geikie went to Washington, where 

 he delivered an address before the Geological Society, and was 

 afterwards given a reception in the rooms of the U.S. Geological 

 Survey. He also gave addresses to the students of Bryn Mawr 

 College, the Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, and the 

 Brooklyn Institute. The different institutions seemed to vie with 

 one another in doing honour to their guest ; and it is to be hoped 

 that when an opportunity arises, the cordial feeling thus mani- 

 fested will be fully reciprocated. Sir Archibald Geikie returned 

 to London a few days ago. His lectures at the John Hopkins 

 University will ultimately be published. 



We regret to hear that Dr. Fritz Miiller, the well-known 

 biologist, died at Blumenau on May 21. 



A Bill to legalise the use of weights and measures of the 

 metric system was given a first reading in the House of Com- 

 mons on Thursday last. 



An afternoon meeting of the Anthropological Institute will be 

 held on June 15, at the South Kensington Museum, when Mr. 

 A. P. Maudslay will lecture on "The Maya Monuments and 

 Inscriptions in Central America." 



It is announced that the memorial to Joseph Thomson, the 

 African explorer, will be unveiled by Sir Clements Markham, 

 K.C.B., F.R.S., at Thomson's native town, Thornhill, near 

 Dumfries, on Tuesday next, June 8. 



The great lens for the Yerkes telescope has just been 

 finished by the Clarks, at Cambridgeport, and shipped to the 

 University of Chicago, where it will be immediately mounted, 

 as the tube and connected apparatus are already in position. 



In reply to a question asked in the House of Commons on 

 Friday last, whether any steps had been taken to fix the site of 

 the new magnetic observatory at Greenwich, the First Com- 

 missioner of Works replied that a site had been selected, with 

 the concurrence of the Astronomer Royal. 



A NEW biological station at Millport, on the Clyde, was 

 opened a few days ago (says the British Medical JournaT) by 

 Dr. John Murray, F.R.S. The station has been erected at a 

 cost of 1500/., and though in regard to accommodation and 

 equipment it cannot compare with many similar institutions in 

 this country and the continent, as Dr. Murray pointed out, its 

 position makes it a place of very great possibilities. The col- 

 lection of the late Dr. Robertson, who did so much for the 

 station, has been presented by his wife for the museum of the 

 building. 



NO. 1440, VOL. 56] 



The State recognition given to the International Congress of 

 Medicine and Surgery, to be held in Moscow in August next, is 

 referred to in the Lancet. The Czar has taken the Congress 

 under his patronage, and has consented to receive deputations 

 from the various nationalities represented at the Congress. It is 

 probable that the reception will take place in St. Petersburg 

 immediately after the close of the meetings in Moscow. The 

 Russian Government has acted most liberally towards the 

 Congress. It has increased its original grant of 50,000 roubles 

 towards the expenses by an additional grant of 25,000. This 

 makes the handsome total of 75,000 roubles, or about 8000/. at 

 the present exchange. In addition to this, the State has promised 

 free railway tickets to members of the Congress from the frontier 

 to Moscow and back. To Russian members similar free tickets 

 will be granted from any part of the empire. Just as liberal 

 recognition has been given by the Russian Government to the 

 International Geological Congress to be held at St. Petersburg 

 at the end of August. 



In connection with the recent correspondence in these 

 columns on luminous phenomena observed on mountains, it is 

 interesting to direct attention to a very remarkable series of 

 observations of electrical storms on Pike's Peak, Colorado, con- 

 tained in vol. xxii. of the Annals of the Astronomical Observ- 

 atory of Harvard College, and described in Nature (vol. xlii. 

 P- 59S» October 16, 1890). Luminous jets appeared very often 

 along the telegraph wires for the length of an eighth of a mile, 

 and the anemometer cups looked like revolving balls of fire. 

 Upon touching the anemometer under these conditions, an 

 observer found ' ' his hands instantly become aflame. On raising 

 them and spreading his fingers, each of them became tipped 

 with one or more cones of light nearly three inches in length." 

 Many more striking effects of this character are described in 

 detail in the report to which reference has been made. 



The Smithsonian Institution is publishing in their " Mis- 

 cellaneous Collections " a number of interesting memoirs sub- 

 mitted in the Hodgkins Fund Prize Competition. No. 1077 

 of this series is a contribution by Mr. A. McAdie, on the 

 equipment and work of an aero-physical observatory, in which 

 he deals especially with the question of future research in con- 

 nection with our knowledge of atmospheric air and the pre- 

 vision of weather. After the experience of twenty-five years, 

 the author asks, " Has the synoptic map realised the ex- 

 pectations of meteorologists, and justified the expense of its 

 existence ? " The answer is in the affirmative ; but if the further 

 question is asked whether the forecaster of to-day is far in 

 advance of the forecaster of 1870, the reply is uncertain, and 

 the experience of recent years would seem to indicate that we 

 have nearly exhausted the capabilities of the weather map in its 

 present form. An aero-physical laboratory would afford oppor- 

 tunity for important research and investigation, and the author 

 draws attention to some profitable lines of study bearing upon 

 the conditions which control the weather. Among such in- 

 vestigations, Ober beck's papers on the " Motions of the 

 Atmosphere," and von Bezold's "Thermodynamics of the 

 Atmosphere " may be mentioned as examples of the lines 

 indicated. The study of atmospheric electricity also offers 

 possibilities of great extension of our knowledge of atmospheric 

 phenomena. In 1752 a simple experiment demonstrated the 

 nature of the lightning flash, but at the present time the origin 

 of the electricity of thunder-clouds, and similar questions, are 

 as the nature of the lightning was before the time of that 

 experiment. Much useful scientific work in weather fore- 

 casting has undoubtedly been done, but it remains none the 

 less true that the present condition of our knowledge is still 

 unsatisfactory. 



