^90 



NA TURE 



[February 23, 1893 



further secular rise of from 0*38 to o'Sg of a scale division. 

 Nothing is said in Joule's paper about the temperatures at which 

 the thermometers had been kept before the readings of the 

 freezing point were taken, but as the later observations— and 

 most of the earlier ones— were made in the winter months, it 

 may perhaps be assumed that the temperatures were nearer 7° 

 than 30°, and that the actual reading on the scale last winter 

 should be taken as nearer 23-51 than 23-00. If this is so the 

 total rise of the zero point last winter would be nearer 13-81 

 than 13-30. 



Prof. Schuster states that "with properly annealed ther- 

 mometers the secular changes are much smaller than the 

 temporary ones," and that is no doubt true for observations 

 extending over a limited time and with such comparatively large 

 variations of temperature as from 7° to 30°. It may be pointed 

 out, however, that the secular rise since 1879 or 1880 is probably 

 greater than the maximum temporary change recorded by Prof. 

 Schuster, and of course the total secular rise is enormously 

 greater. 



It may be true that the secular changes of a thermometer 

 gradually vanish, but it must, I think, be conceded, that in the 

 case of Dr. Joule's thermometer it will be a long time before 

 absolute constancy is attained. There can be no doubt that even 

 now, nearly forty-nine years after the first reading was taken, 

 the zero point is still rising, and it does not appear to me to be 

 very improbable that during the next fifty years there may be a 

 further rise of two scale divisions, the amount calculated from 

 the purely empirical formula which I have suggested. 



Sydney Young. 



University College, Bristol, February 20. 



Foraminifer or Sponge? 



Under the above heading in last week's Nature Dr. 

 Hanitsch briefly draws our attention to Mr. A. Goes' report on 

 the deep sea organisms procured by Prof. Agassiz in the American 

 tropical Pacific, which he describes as Arenaceous Foraminifera, 

 with the name Neusina Agassizi. 



As it was from me that Dr. Hanitsch received the specimens 

 he describes, which I had after a personal conversation on the 

 matter sent him, for his opinion as to their relation to true 

 sponges, I venture to send some further observations on these 

 interesting forms. 



Dr. Hanitsch is, I believe, quite right in referring Mr. Goes' 

 Neusina to Prof. Haeckel's Stannophylliim zonarium, as de- 

 scribed in his report on the Challenger deep-sea Keratosa. But 

 while admitting my admiration of Prof. Haeckel's wonderful 

 production on the Challen°:er specimens, I do not agree with 

 him as to their being true Keratose sponges. 



My conclusion is based upon the examination of nearly the 

 whole Challenger collection, and in not one species could I find 

 the slightest trace of any of the flagellated chambers charac- 

 teristic of sponges. 



Prof. Haeckel accounts for the absence of this important 

 feature through the bad preservation of the specimens. Yet he 

 describes the most delicate parts of a commensal Hydroid in full, 

 and was able to observe amceboidal cells, and the granulated 

 sarcode bodies peculiar to all bottom living Foraminifera. 



If, however, the forms described by Prof. Haeckel prove after 

 all to be true Keratose sponges, the present state of our know- 

 ledge does not justify their separation from such recognised 

 genera of Foraminifera, as Masonella, and Syringammina of the 

 late Ur. G. Brady ; Technitella, Haliphysema, and Marsipella 

 of Canon Norman ; or Hyperammina palmiformis, described by 

 myself from the Faroe Channel, all which forms have the power 

 of forming siliceous andchitinous skeletons. 



Without going into further detail here it will be readily under- 

 stood that I quite agree with Mr. Goes in placing these organisms 

 among the Foraminifera, although it would have been better had 

 he given us a clearer and more detailed description of his 

 Neusina. 



I had hoped to have published my personal observations on 

 these most interesting organisms, but circumstances have pre- 

 vented me doing so up to the present. 



I for one would be glad if Dr. Hanitsch would give his opinion 

 as to their supposed sponge structure, which he has not done in his 

 previous letter. F. G. Pearcey, 



Late of the Challenger Expedition and Commission. 

 Owens College Museum, Manchester. 



Colonial Meteorology. 



On p. 363 of your last number your reviewer of the "Year-book 

 of the Imperial Institute," after remarking that " climate cer- 

 tainly deserves better treatment," continues : — 



" We do not think space would be wasted in giving the mean 

 monthly temperatures and rainfall for the average year and for 

 two extreme years, at a few representative stations in the larger 

 colonies. This information cannot indeed be found in any ex- 

 isting books, but must be worked out from original records, 

 which exist abundantly, and are rarely made available to practical 

 workers." 



I am afraid that the reviewer does not always read Nature,. 

 for you, sir, have on several occasions noticed my efforts in this 

 direction, efforts which have gone on uninterruptedly for twenty 

 years. As, now that you have taken the matter up, it is not 

 improbable that some of the funds lavished on the Imperial 

 Institute may be devoted to the subject, and my small organisa- 

 tion be swamped or superseded, I hope that you will, in justice 

 to the directors of the various Colonial observatories who have 

 helped me for so many years, and as some consolation for the 

 entire ignorement of our organisation by your reviewer, allow 

 me to give its history in the fewest words possible. 



In 1873 I determined to try to publish monthly a table giving 

 the principal climatic data for each synchronous month at widely 

 spread stations over the entire British Empire. The leading idea 

 was identity, so as to ensure comparability. I therefore prepared 

 some blank forms and sent them with a circular letter to about 

 twenty of our leading Colonial meteorologists. Every one with- 

 out exception promised to help, and it says much for colonial 

 climate to add that during the subsequent twenty years not more 

 than five or six of my original correspondents have passed 

 away. 



During the period occupied in the transit of my request and of 

 the replies thereto, I wrote a series of short articles pointing out 

 the leading features, and as far as practicable the mean values, 

 for the various stations, so that when we began publishing the 

 monthly values, the departures from the mean could be recognised. 

 These articles and the tables themselves from 1 874 to 1 88 1 appeared 

 in The Colonies (subsequently The Colonies and India). When 

 in 1882 that paper passed into other hands, the proprietors 

 declined to publish the tables, and I began to insert ihem in 

 the Meteorological Magazine, where they have appeared regularly 

 month by month for the subsequent thirteen years. At the close 

 of each year an extra table is given with a summary of the results 

 for the year, and Nature has often done me the honour ot 

 quoting portions of these summaries. 



I enclose copy of our last table, and though I know that to 

 reproduce it would be to make a somewhat large demand upon 

 your space, I feel that the work (wholly unpaid, be it re- 

 membered) of my Colonial friends during these past twenty years, 

 claims some consideration and some recognition. You will see 

 by the signatures that the authorities are the highest attainable. 



G. J. Symons. 



62, Camden Square, N.W., February 17. 



NO. 



1217, VOL. 47] 



Ozone, 



With reference to a paragraph in Nature, p. 373, 

 on observations of ozone in the atmosphere, and the paucity of 

 observers and records, I may be allowed to state that I have 

 collected sets in the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and 

 Mediterranean. These have been taken by officers of the Royal 

 Navy and mercantile marine at sea, and some of the records 

 have been tabulated, and may be communicated to some society 

 in due course. Moffatt's papers, made by Negretti and Zatnbra, 

 have been used throughout, so the observations are all uniform 

 and comparable. W. G. Black. 



Edinburgh, February 19. 



LION-TIGER AND TIGER-LION HYBRIDS. 



THE Council of the Royal Zoological Society of 

 Ireland entertain some hope that it will be possible 

 to produce in their Gardens examples of hybrids or 

 cross-breeds between the two largest species of cat, 

 namely, the lion and tiger. 



T hat such hybrids have been produced is a matter of 

 historical record, and as the writer is particularly inter- 



