January 26, i6g^] 



NA TURE 



3Pi 



a continuance of mild, unsettled weather appeared probable. 



The Weekly Weather Report shows that for the week ending 

 the 2ist instant there was a large deficiency of rainfall in the 

 west of Scotland, south-west of England, and south of Ireland. 

 The percenta ge of possible duration of sunshine ranged from 

 28 in the south-west of England to 7 in the south of England 

 •and to 3 in the north of Scotland. 



The Reperlorium fiir Meieorologie, vol. xv. recently issued by 

 the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, contains 

 a discussion by P. A. Miiller, of the Ekaterinburg Observatory, 

 at the foot of the Ural Mountains, in the Government of Perm, 

 on the question of the evaporation from a snow surface. Several 

 writers, among whom are Drs. Briickner and Woeikof, differ 

 in opinion as to whether the evaporation from a snow surface 

 exceeds the condensation of the aqueous vapour of the air im- 

 mediately above it. The method generally adopted for the 

 decision of the question is to find whether the temperature of 

 the snow surface is above or below the dew-point of the sur- 

 rounding air ; in one case there would be evaporation, and in 

 the other condensation. The paper occupies forty-seven small 

 folio pages, and the observations were made hourly from 

 December 21, 1890, to February 28, 1891. The result of the 

 investigation shows that according to the temperatures of the 

 dew-point and of the surface of the snow, the evaporation of the 

 snow greatly exceeds the condensation of the aqueous vapour, 

 for the condensation occurred at only 27 per cent, while the 

 evaporation occurred at 73 per cent, of the hourly observations. 



Prof. Flinders Petrie, to whose introductory lecture at 

 University College, Gower Street, we referred last week, 

 delivered on Saturday the first of his regular course of lectures 

 on the Edwards Foundation. He said >the Egypt of the early 

 monuments was a mere strip of a few miles wide of green, 

 amid boundless deserts, and beneath a sky of the greatest 

 brilliancy ; a land of extreme contrasts of light and shadow, of 

 life and death. These conditions were reflected in the art. 

 On the one hand was the most massive and overwhelming con- 

 struction, and, on the other, the most delicate and detailed 

 reliefs. On the one hand, the most sublime and stolid statuary ; 

 on the other, the course and accidents of daily life freely 

 treated. On the one hand, masses of smooth buildings that 

 far outdo tha native hills on which they stand, gaunt and bare, 

 and, on the other, the vivid and rich colouring in the interiors. 

 In consequence of the climate also Egypt is a land of great 

 simplicity of life, and simplicity is especially the characteristic 

 of the oldest Egyptian buildings. Speaking of the early 

 Egyptian statues. Prof. Petrie said that the race represented by 

 them appears as "one of the noblest that ever existed." 



At Leeds, on Monday, Lord Playfair presided at a public 

 dinner, held in support of the Yorkshire College. In pro- 

 posing the principal toast— " The Yorkshire College"— he 

 spoke of the efforts made half a century ago to secure for science 

 the place which rightly belongs to it in the educational system. 

 He was glad, he said, that these efforts had met with a temporary 

 resistance, because if the Universities had at once yielded there 

 would have been no colleges now in our great provincial towns. 

 The colleges, he thought, were adapting themselves rapidly and 

 well, upon the whole, to the genius of their several localities. 

 Of the Yorkshire College he said that she had fitted herself for 

 the liberal culture and life-work of a great industrial centre. 

 "No doubt her technical courses are peculiar. Actual laboratories 

 for spinning, for dyeing, for tanning, for engineering, are novel 

 adjuncts to a college. What does it mean ? That you are try- 

 ing to strengthen and embellish industrial pursuits, as the 

 Universities acted upon the professions when they were obliged 

 to include them. Surely a great town like Leeds is right when 

 NO. I 2 13, VOL. 47] 



it imbues its producers with intellectual knowledge, as well as 

 with technical expertness. Such men in future carve out 

 industrial professions for themselves, and illumine them by 

 appropriate culture." 



The interesting address lately delivered by Sir Henry Roscoe 

 on the occasion of the prize distribution at the Birmingham 

 Municipal Technical School has now been issued separately. 

 He describes the report of the first year's work as "more 

 than encouraging." Speaking of the building which is to be 

 erected for technical training at Birmingham, he says : — "You 

 in Birmingham have, in my judgment, taken the right course. 

 You are not going to squander your money by using it for a 

 thousand different purposes. You are, I hope, going to do a 

 good thing, and a big thing, in building and equipping a really 

 great institution, worthy of your city and of your well-earned 

 renown as being foremost amongst our towns in educational 

 matters. You will have a place of higher technical instruction 

 to which all the Midlands will look up. It will be the gathering 

 ground for all the youthful talent of the busy millions of the 

 district. It will be here that the future Faradays, and Priestleys, 

 and Watts will get that sound though elementary scientific 

 training which will enable them to pursue that training to its 

 highest point at the Mason College here, or in other colleges 

 elsewhere, which may in the end make both them and their 

 country great." 



The new technical schools connected with University College, 

 Nottingham, which were formally opened the other day, promise 

 to be of immense service, not only to Nottingham itself, but to 

 the wide district of which it is the educational centre. A 

 remarkably clear description of the buildings, with plans, is 

 given in a pamphlet prepared for the ceremonial opening. The 

 pamphlet also includes an interesting summary of the facts 

 relating to the history of the Nottingham College and its 

 technical department. 



Mr. C. F. JURITZ, Senior Analyst in the Department of 

 Lands, Mines, and Agriculture, Cape Colony, announces in the 

 Agricultural Journal, issued by the Department, that a compre- 

 hensive series of investigations with reference to the chemical 

 composition of the various soils of the colony is about to be 

 undertaken. The samples of soil are to be collected by one of 

 the officers of the analytical branch of the Department. In the 

 first instance the southern part of the Malmesbury district will 

 be visited, and soils will be taken from several localities repre- 

 sentative (a) of primary and {b) of alluvial soils belonging to the 

 Malmesbury beds of clay slate. Mr. Juritz proposes next to 

 collect soils from the more northerly portion of the same dis- 

 trict, in the vicinity of Hopefield, for instance, after which the 

 Caledon district will be taken in hand. These analyses when 

 completed will afford, he points out, an insight into the general 

 composition of the clay slate soils, lying around the south- 

 western coast of the Colony between Donkin's and Mossel 

 Bays. The Government of Cape Colony look upon the pro- 

 posals that have been made as "a move in the right direction," 

 and have promised their warmest support. 



Mr. Keuarnath Basu, describing in Science some relics of 

 primitive fashions in India, says he does not see the same pro- 

 fusion as he saw ten or twelve years ago, of tattoo-marks and 

 red-ochre or red oxide of lead {sindur) over the forehead and 

 crown among the women of Bengal. The rapid progress of female 

 education and the consequent refinement in aesthetic taste are, 

 he says, the causes of the decline of this rude and savage adorn- 

 ment. The people of Behar, the North-western provinces, and 

 other districts, however, still cling to these remnants of savagery. 

 The up-country women, besides tatooing their bodies and paint- 

 ing the head with red paint, bore the lower lobes of their ears. 



