February 2, 1893] 



NATURE 



323 



and has since resided at Folkestone. Of late his health 

 has gradually given way, and he died on January 23, at 

 the age of fifty-eight. He was elected a Fellow of the 

 Royal Society in 1880, and was an honorary member of 

 several foreign meteorological societies. He was President 

 of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1884-85. 



That he was a man of considerable intellectual power 

 is shown by the somewhat unusual range of scientific 

 questions on which he has left works and papers. Besides 

 his geological and meteorological reports, he wrote for the 

 Indian Geological Survey descriptions of the A^rt^/ZZ/dfe and 

 Belemnitidce of the South Indian cretaceous rocks, and he 

 assisted the late Mr. J. W. Salter in describing the Palae- 

 ontology of Niti. He was also author of several papers 

 on recent mollusca ; and amongst his works are two 

 treatises, one on the " Physical Geography of India," 

 largely used as a text-book in Indian schools, and the 

 other " An Elementary Geography of India, Burma, and 

 Ceylon," published as one of Macmillan's Geographical 

 Series. 



NOTES. 



We learn from Sydney that steady progress is being made 

 with the Macleay Memorial Volume, and that it will probably 

 be ready for issue about the end of March. 



An announcement comes from Chicago that Mr. Eadweard 

 Muybridge, who, it will be remembered, visited this country 

 some time since on behalf of the University of Pennsylvania, 

 will give at intervals, from May to October, in the " Zoopraxo- 

 graphical Hall of the Exposition," a series of lectu res on the 

 science of animal locomotion, especially in its relation to design 

 in art. 



On Thursday next, February 9, Prof. Patrick Geddes will 

 begin, at the Royal Institution, a course of four lectures on the 

 factors of organic evolution ; and on Saturday week, February 

 18, Lord Rayleigh will begin a course of six lectures on sound 

 and vibration. 



A TRANSLATION of Prof. Weismann's new work on "The 

 Germ-plasm," recently noticed in Nature, will appear in the 

 "Contemporary Science Series" in the course of a few weeks. 



Last week a deputation, representing the New Decimal 

 Association, the Chambers of Commerce and Trades Unions, 

 as well as various scientific institutions, waited upon Sir 

 William Harcourt, Chancellor of the Exchequer, to urge the 

 Government to adopt the decimal and metrical system of 

 weights, measures, and coinage, or to appoint a committee of 

 inquiry into the subject. Mr. S. Montagu, M.P., as president 

 of the New Decimal Association, having introduced the depu- 

 tation, said that forty years ago there was great apathy upon the 

 subject, but since then there had been inquiries by Select Com- 

 mittees and Royal Commissions into the question of the decimal 

 currency, and though the reports of those bodies were satis- 

 factory, no action had followed. The system had been adopted 

 in Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Scandinavia ; and in England 

 there was now a good popular demand, such as Mr. Goschen 

 said six years ago he was waiting for. Men of science like 

 Lord Kelvin, Sir Henry Roscoe, and Sir John Lubbock, and 

 educationists like Sir Philip Magnus and Dr. Gladstone desired 

 the reform in order to economise brain-power ; representatives 

 of commerce desired it to assist them in their competition with 

 rival nations ; and the working classes were awake to the fact 

 that years of labour were wasted by their children being com- 

 pelled to learn that which could be rendered unnecessary. 

 Several members of the deputation, including Sir Philip Magnus, , 

 NO. 1214, VOL. 47] 



having spoken. Sir William Harcourt replied. He said that 

 every one who reflected on the question must see the great 

 advantages which attach to the decimal system. But the 

 practical difficulties in the way of the proposed change seemed 

 to him for the present to be insurmountable. A decimal system 

 was introduced into Europe by the French Revolution. That 

 was a time when the whole of society was cast into the melting 

 pot, and they changed, not only their notation, not only their 

 metrical system, but the names of the months and the days of the 

 week. The change in Germany took place, not in quiet times, 

 but as a result of the unification of Germany. He believed that 

 even in the United States of America the change was made conse- 

 quent upon the establishment of the Federal system. He did 

 not think that the habits of the people could be altered in quiet 

 times. This applied very much to the measures as well as to 

 the coinage. Sir William was ready as an individual to play his 

 part in forwarding the progress of the decimal system and the 

 metrical system ; but the Government could do nothing in the 

 matter. The people would have to be prepared for so great a 

 change. 



It is worth noting that instruction in the principles of the 

 decimal and metric systems is daily given in public elementary 

 schools, and that this labour — as Mr. J. H. Yoxall, secretary of 

 the National Union of Teachers, has pointed out in a letter to the 

 Times — is imposed upon the children without hope of practical 

 good to the community. Mr. Yoxall contends that if an Act of 

 Parliament were to fix a date of five or ten years hence at which 

 the decimal system should come into legal operation, the work of 

 the schools and the precaution of the mercantile classes would 

 by that time sufficiently prepare the way. 



A DESTRUCTIVE earthquake occurred on Tuesday morning 

 at the town of Zante. Several houses were totally de- 

 stroyed, many more were partially wrecked, and there is 

 hardly a building in the town which has not sustained 

 damage in one form or another. The roof of the prison col- 

 lapsed during the earthquake, and the guards had to be doubled 

 to prevent the escape of the prisoners. The hospital was also 

 so seriously damaged that it was deemed expedient to remove 

 the patients. The shocks, which were general, were renewed 

 again and again, and the whole population was thrown into a 

 stale of panic. 



During the past week the temperature over these islands has 

 been fairly high, the daily maxima often exceeding 50°, notwith- 

 standing a temporary fall, amounting from 12° to 14^ in Scotland 

 and the midland counties of England, on Friday, accompanied 

 by much fog in the south and east of England, while the air has 

 been decidedly humid, the readings of the dry and wet bulb 

 thermometers frequently showing little or no difference. These 

 conditions have been due to deep depressions arriving from the 

 Atlantic and passing in close proximity to our western and 

 northern coasts. In those parts gales have been of almost daily 

 occurrence, and on Sunday they extended as far as the English 

 Channel. Rain has been frequent, but generally the fall has not 

 been heavy, and the sky has generally been overcast and dull, 

 although on Saturday the weather over the south of England was 

 unusually bright and fine. The Weekly Weather Report of 

 January 28 shows that the temperature exceeded the mean in all 

 districts, the greatest excess being 4^ in Scotland. Bright sun- 

 shine also exceeded the mean in some parts of Scotland and in 

 the eastern portion of England, but in other parts of these islands 

 there was a deficiency. 



A MAP showing lines of equal magnetic declination for 

 January i, 1893, in England and Wales, has been very carefully 

 prepared by Mr. W. Ellis, and published as a supplement tO' 



