August 5, 1897] 



NA TURE 



323 



account for the innocuousness of stomach administration. It is 

 shown that the bile of venomous serpents is able, when mixed 

 with the venom of serpents, to prevent lethal doses of the latter 

 from producing death ; and that the bile is indeed so powerful 

 an agent in doing this, that a quantity actually smaller than the 

 quantity of venom may be sufficient for the purpose. It need 

 scarcely be added that the doses of bile thus shown to be suffi- 

 cient represent only minute portions of the bile stored in the 

 gall-bladder of a serpent, and that a serpent, therefore, has at 

 its disposal enough of bile to prevent injury from venom intro- 

 duced into the stomach in quantities many times greater than 

 the minimum lethal dose. The bile of other animals, such as 

 the ox, rabbit, and guinea-pig, also possesses this anti-venomous 

 property, but in a smaller degree than that of venomous serpents. 

 Prof Fraser has isolated the antidotal constituent from the bile 

 of venomous serpents, and an experiment with this substance 

 not only supplies strong confirmation of the evidence that bile is 

 able to render serpents' venom inert, but also suggests that from 

 bile there may be produced an antidote for snake-poisoning, 

 which, in its antidotal value, is at least equal to the most 

 powerful antivenene or antivenomous serum as yet obtained 

 from the blood of immunised animals. 



The Porthcawl Urban District Council required a water 

 supply ; and to the majority of the members it appeared that a 

 water diviner was the most competent man to inform them how 

 to obtain their desire. A specialist, for whom water had strong 

 attractions, was thereupon engaged, though more than one half 

 of the ratepayers opposed this action, thus showing that they 

 were more enlightened than their elect. However, a total ex- 

 penditure of about 800/. was made in connection with the water 

 supply, and apparently upon the recommendations of the water 

 diviner. Nothing might have been known of this scheme outside 

 Porthcawl but for the inquiry which the Local Government 

 Board holds in the case of such expenditure. As the result of 

 the inquiry, however, the water finder's fees have been dis- 

 allowed on the ground that they had been illegally paid to a 

 person supposed to be possessed of supernatural powers, and 

 upon whose advice several hundred pounds had been spent, 

 which action involved waste of public money. The whole of 

 the expenditure was therefore disallowed, less 250/. allowed as 

 a loan for experimental purposes. The Council has thus to 

 pay dearly for its experience. 



The Annales of the Central Meteorological Office of France 

 for 1895 contain a valuable discussion of the rainfall of Western 

 Europe, by M. A. Angot. Next to temperature, rainfall is the 

 most important meteorological element, but owing to the diffi- 

 culty that the subject presents, it has only been seriously attacked 

 in a few cases, the principal exceptions in Europe being for the 

 British Islands, Russia, and the Iberian Peninsula. The influence 

 of topographical conditions and the varying amount of rainfall 

 make it necessary to deal with a great many stations, and a con- 

 siderable number of years. It is also essential that the data 

 should be for the same years, otherwise the rainfall of a relatively 

 dry period at one station may be compared with a relatively wet 

 one at another station. M. Angot has discussed the monthly 

 and seasonal values at 275 stations for the thirty years 1861- 

 1890. At many of the stations a longer series was available, 

 but at some it has been necessary to reduce a shorter period to 

 the longer one by use of coefficients. The values are given both 

 in a tabular form and upon charts, and a short discussion for 

 each month explains the principal features of the rainfall. Space 

 will not allow us to enter into any of the interesting details 

 shown by the monthly and seasonal charts. The yearly chart 

 shows that the dryest regions, where the rainfall is less than 20 

 inches, are few in number and small in extent. Outside the 

 NO. 1449, VOL. 56] 



Iberian Peninsula there are only five such regions : the south- 

 east coast of Sweden, two in Bohemia, and two in France. In- 

 Spain there are several large areas where the fall does not reach 

 that amount, the minimum value being 1 1 "3 inches at Salamanca.. 

 Smaller values are recorded in Russia, but this is outside the 

 area of the charts. The greatest amounts are found in Scotland, 

 Cumberland, the southern slopes of the Alps, and 'the moun- 

 tainous region of Upper Austria, where the falls exceed 78 inches.. 



A CORRESPONDENT sends us an extract from a Melbourne 

 paper, The Age, for March 13, on the subject of weather fore- 

 casting in Australia, which, in the light of Mr. Eliot's recent 

 article in these columns, is of great interest. The following is a 

 brief summary of the communication in question : — Since 

 Christmas the extraordinary weather that has been experienced 

 in Australia has created more than usual interest in meteor- 

 ological affairs. There have been three falls of snow in the 

 Victorian Alps within the last three months, and at the time of- 

 writing (March) Mounts Bogong and Feathertop were covered, 

 with snow to a depth of six feet. Mr. Baracchi stated recently 

 that the bad weather of the last few days was caused by the 

 " backing of the Antarctic [depression, which has been arrested in. 

 its eastward course by suction at the equator." He may be 

 correct, for he has " carefully, as we have seen, kept the data on 

 which his opinion is founded to himself, but it seems somewhat 

 unusual and unlikely." Mr. Russell, of New South Wales, 

 attributes the cold weather to an extensive high pressure of great' 

 energy which has come in almost a direct line from West 

 Australia. The writer of the article previously suggested that a 

 probable cause of the unreasonable weather was the unwonted 

 number of icebergs and ice-fields in the Southern Ocean, for 

 almost every ship that hailed from the Cape passed through 

 hundreds of miles of ice. 



In some years the pack-ice and icebergs from Victoria Landi 

 drift in vast quantities more northwards than in others, and the 

 cause of their abundance this year is, according to the U.S. 

 Hydrographic Department, the great volcanic disturbances which 

 have broken up the polar sea and set it adrift. Mr. Russell's 

 explanation is that we owe their presence to the long continuance 

 of southerly and south-westerly winds ; but this explanation does 

 not account for the cause of such winds. It is, however, " only 

 reasonable to conclude that there is an intimate association be- 

 tween the cold weather and the icebergs." Usually the air 

 blows over a large expanse of open ocean, which warms it before 

 it approaches the coast of Australia ; but in the present year 

 they were chilled by blowing over vast fields of ice and icebergs. 

 It would be interesting, however, to examine carefully the 

 meteorological observations made on ships during their voyages, 

 and it is suggested that " our meteorologists would act wisely 

 were they to imitate the example of the American authorities, 

 who offer inducements to shipmasters for such information." 



Mr. Thos. Meehan records ("Contributions to the Life- 

 Histories of Plants," xii., Proc. Acad. N.S. Philadelphia) a 

 case of cleistogamy in an umbelliferous plant, Cryptania 

 canadensis. This species, like so many others of the same 

 order, produces two kinds of flowers in the same inflorescence. 

 The outer florets are male, and possess showy corollas, whilst 

 the inner flowers are hermaphrodite, possessing both stamens 

 and pistil concealed in a small fugacious corolla. Fertilisation 

 takes place in the unopened buds, and thus the process may 

 be legitimately regarded as one of cleistogamy, although the 

 degeneration of floral structure, usually a concomitant feature, 

 is relatively little apparent. There can exist but little doubt 

 that the (assumed) function of the outer sterile showy florets as 

 serving to attract insect visitors proved to be imperfectly dis- 



