October 21, 1S97] 



NATURE 



595 



an increasing reliance on ascertained facts. These latter came 

 to be regarded as the true and only data upon which natural 

 knowledge could be securely founded and built up. Doubt and 

 fjuestion took the place of false certainty. The hidden mean- 

 ing of phenomena was sought out by observing them under 

 artificially varied conditions — or, to use the words of Harvey, 

 " the secrets of nature were searched out and studied by way of 

 experiment." A priori reasoning from mere assumptions, or 

 from a few loosely observed facts, fell into discredit. Observ- 

 ations were repeated, and made more numerous and more exact. 

 These were linked together w ith more rigid reasoning to 

 stringent inductions. Hypotheses (or generalisations) were 

 subjected to verification by experiment ; and their validity was 

 further tested by their efficacy in interpreting cognate problems 

 and by their power to serve as guides to the acquisition of fresh 

 knowledge. The invention of instruments and appliances for assist- 

 ing research was an essential and invaluable feature of the " new 

 philosophy." Physiology and practical medicine have profited 

 immensely by the general advance of the sister sciences, and by 

 the adoption of scientific methods in the prosecution of research. 

 Optical science gave birth to the achromatic microscope. The 

 microscope has laid bare the minuie structure of plants and 

 animals, and introduced zoologists and botanists to a vast sub- 

 kingdom of minute forms of life previously undreamt of. The 

 microscope also, in conjunction with chemistry, founded the 

 new science of bacteriology. Bacteriology has inspired the 

 beneficent practice of antiseptic surgery ; it has also discovered 

 to us the parasitic nature of zymotic diseases, and opened out a 

 fair prospect of ultimate deliverance from their ravages. Thus 

 have the several sciences advanced, and are still advancing, in 

 concert, step on step, by mutual help, at an ever-increasing 

 speed — pushed on by that irrepressible forward impulse which 

 has characterised the .scientific movement from its inception. 



Mr. Arnold Pike has been cruising this summer in the 

 eastern part of the Spitsbergen archipelago, and, owing to the 

 sea being exceptionally free from ice, was able to make some 

 interesting observations. Stor Fiord was found to be open in 

 the beginning of August, and Mr. Pike's whaler, the Victoria, 

 was able to pass northward through Helis Strait, which at the 

 same date last year was closed by fast ice, into Hinlopen 

 Strait. Mr. Pike succeeded in getting as far east along the 

 north coast of North East Land as Charles XH. Island. The 

 ice was there jammed against the shore, and prevented the 

 circumnavigation of North East Land. The Victoria then 

 returned down Hinlopen Strait, and steamed eastward to Wich's 

 Land and King Charles' Land. They searched for the islands 

 reported in 1884, by Johannesen and Andreassen, which Captain 

 Robertson earlier this year showed to be non-existent. Mr. Pike 

 adds a reasonable explanation of the source of the error. No old 

 pack ice was seen during the whole voyage, and these exceptional 

 conditions appear to have prevailed throughout the whole of the 

 Greenland and Spitsl^ergen seas. 



The Meteorological Reporter to the Government of India has 

 just published his annual summary of the India Weather Review 

 for 1896, which completes the discussion of the meteorology for 

 that year. In this work the data are presented from two 

 different points of view : (i) for the discussion of the prevalence 

 and spread of disease, and (2) in connection with agricultural 

 questions. For the comparison of medical and meteorological 

 statistics, India is arranged into eleven provinces, the data for 

 each of which are given in a tabular form, while for the second 

 purpose the whole area is divided into fifty-seven meteorological 

 districts. The volume contains a very large amount of useful 

 infornuation, from which we abstract a few general remarks. The 

 mean temperature of the whole of India was normal, or in 

 excess, throughout the year, being more than 2° in April, May 

 NO. 1460, VOL. 56] 



and November. The absolute maximum of the year was 123% 

 at Jacobabad. The year was the driest on record during the^ 

 past twenty-two years, the mean humidity being 3 per cent, 

 below the normal ; this was chiefly owing to the high tempera- 

 ture, as the mean aqueous vapour pressure was only 'oi inch< 

 below the average. The rainfall of the year averaged 4*83 

 inches (or 12 per cent.) below the normal; the deficiency was- 

 greatest in Berar (34 percent), and in the North-west Provinces 

 and Central India (31 percent.), and was chiefly due to per- 

 sistent weakness of the south-west monsoon, and its withdrawal 

 from those parts, from three to seven weeks earlier than usual. 

 The deficiency in 1896 was much more serious than in 1895, and 

 led to the partial failure of the crops over an unusually large 

 area. 



An interesting instance of the effect of geological structure 

 upon .local values of magnetic declination is described in the 

 y oiirnal o{ \\\Q Franklin Institute (October) by Mr. Benjamin 

 S. Lyman. It appears that about the year 1883 a number of 

 determinations of the compass variation in the counties of Bucks 

 and Montgomery, Pennsylvania, were made, and a chart show- 

 ing curves of equal declination for every tenth of a degree was. 

 constructed from the observations. A striking feature brought 

 out by this magnetic map was that all the isogonic lines had a 

 sharp bend, the convex side of which pointed north-eastward 

 towards New Hope and Lambertville, on the Delaware. The 

 curves are so extremely at variance with the simple, nearly- 

 straight lines of earlier map?, that the observations upon which 

 they were based were suspected of being incorrect ; they have, 

 however, now been beautifully confirmed by geology. The 

 geological survey of the two counties, begun at the end of 1887, 

 has now proved beyond question the existence of an enormous 

 fault, of about 14,000 feet, in the rock beds, almost precisely oi> 

 the line of the Delaware River end of the axis of the bend irk 

 the curves, and following the same course from there westwards. 

 In other words, the axis of the bend in the magnetic curves lies- 

 directly above the line of fault determined by geological observ- 

 ations. The topography of the region shows no strongly- 

 marked ridge following the course of the axis of the curves,, 

 neither does the form of the out-cropping rocks, sedimentary 

 or igneous, correspond in any way with them ; but there is no- 

 doubt that the remarkable magnetic peculiarity of the region is- 

 related to the equally remarkable and completely correspond- 

 ing geological structure. This confirmation of one set of ob- 

 servations by another of a different character, and made quite 

 independently, furnishes a striking instance of the connection 

 between different branches of scientific investigation. 



Mr. W. F. Lloyd, in giving a brief description of experi- 

 ments made by him to determine the specific heat of humaii 

 blood, in the British Medical Jottrnal, mentions that this physical 

 property appears not to have been previously investigated in 

 this country. The results obtained in his experiments give 0710 

 as the specific heat of human blood. Having determined this 

 value, the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 

 a certain quantity of blood can, of course, be easily calculated. 

 Suppose that the temperature of a patient whose weight is 65. 

 kilogrammes is 37° C, and twelve hours after this the tem- 

 j:)erature has gone up 3° C. The weight of the patient's blood 

 would be iV of 65, or 5 kilogrammes, and the amount of heat 

 required to raise the temperature of 5 kilogrammes 3° C. will 

 be : 5000 X 071 X 3 = 10,650 heat units, the mechanical 

 equivalent of which is 4,515,600 grammetres. This amount of 

 work represents the chemical energy which must be required to- 

 raise the temperature of the blood of the patient 3° C. in twelve 

 hours, so that in every second the chemical changes going on 

 are represented by the amount of energy required to lift 104*5. 

 grammes i metre high against the force of gravity. From this- 



