February 23, 1893] 



NATURE 



395 



his work on the Ionian Islands (pp. 415-419) chiefly from 

 the report of the Lord High Commissioner, Sir Howard 

 Douglas. The prison was in this case also unroofed, and 

 hardly a house in the town of Zante escaped some injury. 

 All of the villages on, or bordering on, the plain suffered 

 more or less, especially Sculikado, which was reduced to 

 a heap of ruins. The total amount of damage done was 

 estimated at not less than ^300,000. The great earth- 

 quake was followed by a large number of others, 

 some very severe, ninety-five being counted up to 

 November 4. Ansted notes (pp. 368, 369) the 

 curious fact that each of the Ionian Islands seems 

 for the most part to have its own earthquakes, 

 independently of the others. About the year 1818, 

 he says, all the sensible shocks in Cephalonia and 

 Zante were tabulated, the record extending over two and 

 a quarter years. " During this time thirty distinct and 

 well-marked shocks were recorded in Cephalonia ; but in 

 no case did the shocks in Zante, although nearly con- 

 temporaneous, absolutely coincide with them. In most 

 cases an interval of some days, and almost always more 

 than twenly-four hours, seems to have elapsed between 

 the times of the disturbances in the two, although they 

 are so near that in these days [1863] of long range, a 

 cannon-shot fired from the one might reach to the 

 other." 



NOTES. 

 The French Academy of Sciences has opened a subscription 

 in support of the movement for the publication of the writings 

 of Jean Servais Stas and the erection of a monument in his 

 memory. 



A MEETING of delegates of the Academies of Science at 

 Berlin, Gottingen, Leipzig, Munich, and Vienna was held on 

 January 29, under the presidency of Prof. Ribbeck. The object 

 of the meeting was to prepare the way for a sort of federal union 

 of the various German scientific societies, so that they may be able 

 to act together about important matters of common interest. A 

 hope was expressed that a great international confederation of 

 scientific societies might ultimately be formed. 



Announcement has been made of the death, on February 

 2, 1893, at Hendaye, in the Department of the Basses Pyrenees, 

 in his sixty-eighth year, of M. Victor Aime Leon Olphe-Gal- 

 liard, author, among other works, of " Contributions a la Faune 

 Ornithologique de I'Europe OccidentaIe,".in forty livraisons (of 

 which the last was published in 1892) giving an elaborate de- 

 scription of the birds not merely of Western but of almost the 

 whole of Europe, to say nothing of allied species belonging 

 to other countries. M. Olphe-Galliard (whose name few writers, 

 even Frenchmen, spell correctly) was remarkable among his 

 countrymen for his knowledge of other languages than his own, 

 and his recognition of the works of foreign ornithologists stands 

 out in great contrast with that accorded to them by most con- 

 tinental authors. He translated into French several valuable 

 papers written in Swedish and other tongues as little known, 

 thus bringing them before readers to whom they would have been 

 otherwise inaccessible, while he still further showed his apprecia- 

 tion of foreign naturalists by introducing into his principal work 

 portraits of Johann Friedrich Naumann and William Mac- 

 gillivray as the representative ornithologists of Germany and 

 Great Britain. The earliest performance by which M. Olphe- 

 Galliard will be remembered was his description in the Annales 

 of the National Society of Lyons for 1852 of the interesting Al- 

 gerian bird which he called Erithacus Moussieri, after a French 

 army-surgeon of that name who had recognised it as a new 

 species in 1846, In the following year specimens of it were 

 procured by the late Mr. Louis Eraser, and placed in the British 

 NO. 1217, VOL. 47J 



Museum, but they met no kind reception there then, or even 

 later, for the species finds itself in the Catalogue of Birds {vW. 

 p. 20) far removed from what all naturalists who have observed 

 it in life declare to be its nearest relations — the Stonechats or 

 the Redstarts — and shot into the rubbish -hole placarded Time- 

 liidcE, where no one would ever think of looking for it. M. 

 OIphe-Galliard's latest publication consisted of letters addressed 

 to him by the somewhat eccentric Christian Ludwig Brehm, 

 which appeared in the Ornithologisches Jahrbuch for 1892. 



A MEETING of conchologists is to be held at 67, Chancery 

 Lane, on Monday, February 27, at 8 p.m., for the purpose of 

 founding a " Malacological Society of London." 



The Geologists' Association has arranged for a visit of the 

 members to the British Museum (Natural History), Crom.vell 

 Road, on'March 18, when Mr. W. Carruthers will give a demon- 

 stration on "Gymnosperms from the Devonian to the present 

 time." There will be an exgursion to Norwich, Cromer, and 

 Lowestoft at Easter. 



Some admirable suggestions for the guidance of teachers of 

 evening classes in wood-working under the direction of County 

 Councils have been prepared by the Examination Board and 

 Committee of the City and Guilds of London Institute. The 

 suggestions relate to drawing lessons, object lessons, and bench- 

 work lessons. 



The type of weather during the past week has undergone but 

 little change from that of the preceding week. Anticyclonic 

 areas lay over Scandinavia and Spain, and low pressure systems 

 continued to skirt our north and west coasts. The general 

 conditions, however, were much quieter, although a deep de- 

 pression reached the west of Ireland on Sunday, causing gales 

 on our western coasts. On Tuesday a large and important dis- 

 turbance arrived over the south-west of England from off the 

 Atlantic, and the wind circulation around its central area was 

 complete. The difference of barometric pressure was, however, 

 by no means large in different parts of the kingdom, and con- 

 sequently there was not much wind. The barometer fell as 

 low as 287 inches over the centre of the cyclonic area, and later 

 during the day the disturbance continued its passage across 

 England, and was accompanied by heavy rain. Temperature, 

 continued high for the season, the daily maxima ranging gener- 

 ally from 45° to 55°, while on Sunday, the I9ih inst., the ther- 

 mometer rose to 60° in the inland parts of England. In London 

 it reached 59°, which was a higher reading than had been 

 recorded so early in the year since 1878. The sky was excep- 

 tionally brilliant in the east and south-east on that day, but on 

 the whole the air has been very damp throughout the week, 

 and rainfall has been of almost daily occurrence. For the week 

 ended the i8th inst. the rainfall exceeded the mean in all dis- 

 tricts, except in the east of England. In the west of Scotland 

 and the south-west of England the excess was considerable. 

 Bright sunshine only exceeded the normal amount in Ireland 

 and the north and east of Scotland. 



The Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic Ocean for February, 

 1893, shows that the weather in the North Atlantic during 

 January was not abnormally severe, and that the eastern part of 

 the ocean was unusually free from storms. A map is given 

 illustrating the great size and severity of the hurricane of 

 December 22 last, which had moved rapidly from Hatteras in 

 an east-north-east direction. At the time selected for illustra- 

 tion, when the centre lay in longitude 36° west, the storm area 

 covered the entire Atlantic from Labrador and Nova Scotia to 

 Madeira, Portugal, and Ireland. Some very low barometer 

 readings were recorded, the lowest being 2775 inches. There 

 was a large amount of ice during January along the coast of 



