38 



NATURE 



[November io, 1892 



During the latter part of last week the weather continued 

 very unsettled, the depressions which advanced from the Atlantic 

 causing strong southerly winds or gales in many places, with 

 frequent and heavy rain, while the temperature was uniformly 

 high for the time of year, the daily maxima reaching nearly 60° 

 in the southern parts, and eJcceeding 50° in the northern parts of 

 the kingdom. On Saturday night a considerable decrease of 

 temperature occurred, owing to the advance of an anti-cyclone 

 which subsequently spread over most of the country ; the 

 southerly winds gradually disappeared, and were succeeded by 

 calm and variable airs. In the early part of the present week 

 fog became prevalent in many parts of England, but the weather 

 was generally fair with frosts over the inland districts. On Tues- 

 day, however, fresh depressions were passing along our north- 

 west coasts, and rain squalls became general over Ireland 

 and Scotland, while southerly winds again became pre- 

 valent. The Weekly Weather Report, issued on the 5th 

 instant, showed that the rainfall greatly exceeded the mean in 

 the east and south of England, while in Scotland and the 

 northern parts of England the fall was below the average. Since 

 the beginning of the year, the eastern. Midland, and north-west 

 districts of England have had three inches of rainfall in excess 

 of the normal amount, while in the south-west of England there 

 is a deficiency of 7 '6 inches. 



The U. S. Hydrographic Ofifice has issued a chart showing the 

 submarine cables of the world, with their principal land connec- 

 tions. The chart is described by Goldthwaite's Geographical 

 Magazine as a necessity to foreign commerce. It contains tables 

 for the computation of rates to any part of the world. 



The November number of the Rew Bulletin contains sections 

 on coffee cultivation in British Honduras, the prune industry of 

 California, sugar cane borers in the West Indies, sisal hemp in- 

 dustry in Yucatan, Liberian coffee in the Malay native states, 

 and Bombay aloe fibre. There are also miscellaneous notes, 

 from one of which botanists will be glad to learn that after many 

 unsuccessful attempts to introduce living examples of the in- 

 teresting plant, Dischidia rafflesiana, Kew has at last succeeded, 

 thanks mainly to the generosity of Dr. Treub, the distinguished 

 director of the Botanic Gardens, Java, who sent a plant of it in 

 a Wardian case two years ago. This plant is now established 

 and growing freely, producing numerous large pitcher-like leaves 

 as well as the small normal hoya-like foliage. The morpho- 

 logical meaning of these pitchers has not yet been thoroughly 

 worked out. " The species of dischidia all want a careful study. 

 They cannot be described satisfactorily from dried specimens. 

 The leaves change in form, and it is not ascertained in respect 

 of many species whether they may or may not be converted into 

 pitchers (ascidia)" (Hooker in " Flora of British India"). The 

 plant at Kew is now under the special observation of Dr. Scott, 

 hon. keeper of the Jodrell Laboratory. D. bcngalensis is an old 

 garden plant. It is cultivated at Kew in the Palm House. D. 

 rafflesiana is for the present kept in one of the propagating pits. 



At the opening meeting of the twelfth session of the Junior 

 Engineering Society on November 4, an excellent address was 

 delivered by the president, Dr. John Hopkinson, F. R. S. , on the 

 cost of electric supply. His general conclusion on the subject is 

 that to be ready to supply a customer with electricity at any 

 moment he wants it, will cost those giving the supply not much 

 less than ;,^ii per annum for every kilowatt, that is for every 

 unit per hour ; and afterwards to give the supply will not cost 

 very much more than ^d. per unit. The clear apprehension of 

 this point Dr. Hopkinson believes to be essential to the com- 

 mercial success of electric supply. It is hopeless, he thinks, for 

 electricity to compete with gas in this country all along the line, 

 if price is the only consideration. But with selected customers, 

 electricity is cheaper than gas. Surely, he adds, it is the inte- 

 NO- 1202, VOL. 47] 



rest of those who supply electricity to secure such customers by 

 charging them a rate having some sort of relation to the cost 

 of supplying them. 



An address delivered by Prof. Virchow at the opening of the 

 recent International Congress of Archaeology at Moscow is 

 printed in the current number of the Revue Scientifique. Prof. 

 Virchow repeats in this address what he has often said before — 

 that no trace of *' the missing link" between man and the lower 

 animals has been discovered either in the human skulls which are 

 believed to be most ancient or in the physical organization of 

 modern savages. He urges that the immediate task for anthrop- 

 ologists is to explain the origin of the existing human races, and to 

 determine the causes by which these races, while retaining the 

 power of hereditary transmission, have acquired their distinctive 

 characteristics. At first sight, he says, it is easy to suppose that a 

 dolichocephalic skull may be transformed into one of brachy- 

 cephalic form ; but it has not yet been shown that any dolicho- 

 cephalic race has been actually transformed into a brachycephalic 

 one, or vice versA. Prehistoric anthropology ought, he thinks, 

 to find methods which would facilitate the recognition of the 

 types of ancient races and peoples, and enable us to find them 

 again among the races and peoples of the present day. It 

 ought also, as occasion offers, to collect data with regard to 

 those strange individual cases about which theories, as Dr. 

 Virchow holds, have been prematurely formed, and which 

 should be kept in " the scientific baggage " until we have secured 

 intermediate links which will render it possible for us to unite 

 them in a series. 



According to an official report of Captain von Fran9ois, 

 the dromedaries which have been introduced into the German 

 territories in South-west Africa in connection with the parcel 

 post service have more than fulfilled the expectations that had 

 been formed about them. The climate suits them, and they 

 are not affected by any of the prevalent cattle diseases. On 

 the road between Lehuititang and Geinab they were six days 

 without water, and on the seventh day, at Geinab, they did not 

 seem to be very thirsty. In stony regions their feet do not, 

 like those of unshod horses or oxen, suffer any injury. When 

 loaded with a weight of 250 pounds, a dromedary advances at 

 much the same rate as an ox- waggon. The only drawback 

 connected with these useful creatures is that they are rather 

 costly. 



Mr. a. E. Douglass, first assistant at the Boydun station of 

 the Harvard College Observatory, Arequipa, contributes an 

 interesting paper to Science, October 21, on indications of a 

 rainy period in Southern Peru. There is evidence to show, he 

 thinks, that for many thousands of years, going back far beyond 

 the recognized period of human habitation, the climate of Peru 

 has been very much as it is at present. That was preceded by a 

 slow rise of the land out of the sea, which caused the climate to 

 change from wet to dry. But under the wet climate the 

 elevation of the land was still too great, and perhaps the duration 

 of the epoch was too short, to produce a luxuriant tropical 

 vegetation ; otherwise there would be to-day extensive coal- 

 fields. The wet climate, however, was sufiicient greatly to alter 

 the face of the country. Lake Titicaca was of enormous area, 

 fed perhaps by the melting glaciers. In the almost continuous 

 rainy season, huge turbid rivers roared and tumbled down these 

 western slopes of the Cordillera, while on each mountain sum- 

 mit vast quantities of snow fell, only to pursue its way down the 

 steep slopes, carving out valleys, building up ridges, and by its 

 melting wearing out deep ravines, which grow smaller as they 

 become lost in the broad level plain below. Under such 

 luxuriance of moisture the valley of Arequipa must have teemed 

 with animal and vegetable life, the barren hills to the south 

 were clothed in green, and the desert of La Joya blossomed like 

 a garden. 



