324 



NA TURE 



[February 2, 1893 



the Colliery Guardian of January 6, 1893. The explanatory 

 text states that, as before, the work depends on the magnetic 

 surveys of Profs. Rucker and Thorpe. Mr. Ellis gives a 

 table showing the relation between the diurnal variation of 

 magnetic declination and sun-spots, as determined from the 

 magnetic observations made at the Royal Observatory, Green- 

 wich. The general mean at epochs of minima of sun-spots is 

 7-4 minutes, and at epochs of maxima 11-4 minutes of arc, and 

 other magnetic elements show a similar relation. The period 

 between successive epochs of maxima or of minima of sun-spots 

 is well known to be on the average about il years, and the 

 author points out the curious fact that the interval between the 

 minimum and maximum is on the average 4^ years, whilst from 

 maximum to minimum it is 7 years. The relation existing 

 between sun-spot maxima and minima and the diurnal magnetic 

 variation has led many meteorologists to seek for some similar 

 connection with meteorological phenomena, but Mr. Ellis states 

 that no such relation has yet been conclusively established. 



The report of the administration of the Meteorological De- 

 partment of the Government of India in 1891-92 shows con- 

 tinued activity and efficiency in all departments of the work, 

 and bears testimony to the interest taken both by the public and 

 by the employes. The number of observatories maintained by 

 the Government at the end of the year was 165. As regards 

 the actinometric work, an unusual amount has been done, owing 

 to the favourable state of the weather, and the results have been 

 forwarded to the Solar Physics Committee in London. The 

 rainfall data are published month by month, and a large num- 

 ber of unsatisfactory rain gauges has been replaced by new ones. 

 A larger amount of work under the head of marine meteorology 

 has been done than in any previous year ;• several clerks are 

 continually employed in collecting data from ships entering the 

 various ports, and these observations have been utilised in pre- 

 paring daily weather charts of t he whole Indian area for a 

 portion of the year. The systems of storm and flood warnings 

 have been continued as in previous years, and observations have 

 been taken in certain forests, in order to throw light on the 

 influence of forest growth in modifying the distribution and 

 amount of rainfall ; a report upon this subject will shortly be 

 prepared. Among the other papers being prepared for publica- 

 tion we note one on the relation between sun-spots and weather 

 as shown by meteorological observations taken on board ships in 

 the Bay of Bengal during the years 1855 to 1878. 



At the meeting of the Royal Botanic Society of London on 

 Saturday a plant of the Sisal hemp {Agave rigida) was shown from 

 the Society's gardens. This plant is now extensively grown in 

 the Bahamas and Central America for its fibre. The secretary 

 said that until lately, with the exception of two or three fibre 

 plants, as hemp and cotton, commerce depended upon wild 

 plants for its supplies, but so great was the demand now for 

 fibres for papermaking and other uses that it had been found 

 necessary to grow them specially. 



The Slojd Association of Great Britain met on Saturday 

 to receive the annual report, to elect officers, and to appoint 

 an examining body. It was agreed that " Sloyd " should be 

 substituted for "Slojd" in the name of the Association. The 

 system of handiwork which the society is seeking to introduce 

 into schools has already been pretty extensively adopted in this 

 country, especially in the north of England. Mr. Harris 

 stated at the meeting that it was being received with approval 

 in many different parts of the world. He had received com- 

 munications from Napier, New Zealand, and Lahore, India, as 

 to its adoption in these places. 



An American writer who was present at the Galileo Festival 

 in Padua gives a very interesting account of it in the New York 

 NO. I 2 14, VOL, 47] 



Nation. He refers to the speeches delivered in Italian by Sir 

 Joseph Fayrer and Prof. George Darwin, to which we have 

 already alluded. "They were," he says, "much appre- 

 ciated by the audience : * Parla bene ! ' ' Pronunzia bene ! * 

 one heard murmured in tones not devoid of surprise." The 

 greatest orator of the occasion, according to this writer, was 

 Prof. Schmurlo of Dorpat, in Russia. " The type of the lonely 

 and ungainly scholar in appearance, he nevertheless spoke a 

 few phrases so ultra-Italian in the ingenious gracefulness of their 

 turn, that the audience went fairly wild with delight." 



The latest instalment of the Transactions of the Institution 

 of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland contains an interesting 

 paper, by Mr. E. G. Carey, on the bridges of the Manchester Ship 

 Canal. The paper is fully illustrated. The author notes that 

 practically the whole of the bridge-work for this canal has been 

 constructed in Glasgow from Scotch steel. 



The Smithsonian Institution has issued as one of its bul- 

 letins a full and very useful bibliography of the published 

 writings of George Newbold Lawrence, the well-known 

 ornithologist. The work has been done by Mr. L. S. Foster, 

 who gives also a short sketch of Mr. Lawrence's career. Mr. 

 Lawrence's collection of bird-skins is of great scientific value. 

 It includes about 8000 specimens, and contains some three 

 hundred types of new species of birds. The collection was de- 

 posited in the American Museum of Natural History, New York 

 City, in May 1887. Mr. Foster says that the beneficial in- 

 fluence of the labours of Mr. Lawrence, with pen and pencil, on 

 the progress of American ornithology, has been great and undis- 

 puted. It is particularly among the avifauna of the West Indies, 

 Mexico, Central and South America, that his most strenuous 

 efforts have been exerted. 



If we may trust a statement made on the authority of the 

 Tokyo News Agency, it is not surprising that Japan is unwilling 

 to be deprived of the privilege of fishing on the Korean coast. 

 The number of Japanese boats engaged in the fishery is said to 

 be no less than upwards of four thousand four hundred, of which 

 about eighteen hundred have licenses. Their' annual take 

 averages from a million and a half of yen to two million 

 value, and it is estimated that with more diligence and improved 

 methods they might easily bring this figure to three or four 

 millions. 



It is rather surprising that tobacco has been so little cultivated 

 in Australia. The Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales, 

 we are glad to see, has taken up the matter, and in its Novem- 

 ber number devotes to it a comparatively long and interesting 

 paper. The writer of the article thinks that the climate of 

 New South Wales is admirably suited to the growth of tobacco, 

 and hopes that a sufficient quantity of it may hereafter be pro- 

 duced not only to satisfy local demands, but to open up a large 

 and lucrative export trade. 



One of the curious survivals of ancient prejudices in India is 

 the intense dislike with which many high caste Hindus regard 

 sea-voyages. It is even disputed whether a Brahmin who takes 

 a sea- voyage does not lose caste. The Maharaja of Mysore has 

 not only emancipated himself from this strange notion, but is 

 doing his best to overcome it in others. He lately made a 

 voyage to Calcutta, and took with him a number of orthodox 

 Brahmins, as well as Brahmin officials of state. 



Mr. Walter Hough, of Washington, notes in Science 

 that among the collections from Mexico, Central and South 

 America, exhibited in the Columbian Historical Exhibition at 

 Madrid, he observed a number of oblong polished blocks of 

 hard stone of unknown use, averaging 3!^ inches in length, 2% 

 inches in width, and i^ inches in thickness. The broad sui". 



