November 12, 1891] 



NATURE 



i7 



been given. An idea was mooted that a change in the 

 sea temperature could be trusted to indicate the position 

 of the ship in latitude, and some experienced captains in 

 the mercantile marine advocated warmly this test, holding 

 that a sea temperature of 80'' F. was never found at this 

 season south of Cape Guardafui. The attention of the 

 Meteorological Office was called to these statements, and 

 it was evident that an investigation into the facts would 

 be of great service to the mariner. A preliminary inquiry 

 threw doubt on the view in question, though it was ap- 

 parent that the temperature was, generally speaking, 

 lower to the south of Cape Guardafui than to the 

 north. The charts now published are the outcome of 

 the inquiry. So far as the practical bearing of the 

 investigation on navigation is concerned, the result, in 

 brief, is that in every month of the year a sea surface 

 temperature above 80^ may be found to the southward of 

 Cape Guardafui ; and that, although in the months of 

 June, July, and August, when the south-west monsoon 

 is at its height, this occurrence is rarer than at other 

 seasons, the thermometer would prove a very dangerous 

 guide for the purpose suggested. 



The primary object of the discussion undertaken by 

 the Meteorological Office was to show the difference of 

 sea surface temperature near Cape Guardafui in com- 

 parison with that over the sea to the southward during 

 the south-west monsoon months, from April to September, 

 but more especially in the months of June, July, and 

 August, when the monsoon is most pronounced. In spite 

 of this being the period of the northern summer, the 

 surface water is coldest at this season, and from June to 

 September are the only months during the year that 

 temperatures below 70" are experienced within the area 

 dealt with. It is clear that during the full strength of 

 the south-west monsoon the cold water of the southern 

 hemisphere is driven north of the equator ; but on the 

 other hand, although low temperatures are experienced, 

 readings of 80° and above are met with in these months 

 at a considerable distance to the southward of Cape 

 Guardafui ; and for a vessel, making a passage from the 

 southward, to reason that she had passed Cape Guardafui 

 because the thermometer indicated a temperature of 80" 

 would be altogether misleading. The temperatures are 

 without doubt more uniformly high in the vicinity of 

 Cape Guardafui than further to the southward during 

 the months of June to September, and this justifies to a 

 very great extent the opinion formed by many leading 

 captains of the merchant service that a safe course might 

 be shaped by the thermometer ; but this view is now 

 proved to be erroneous. The sea surface temperature 

 reaches its highest point in the district discussed during 

 the months of March, April, and May, when nearly the 

 whole area is above 80°. 



The winds and ocean currents, which are plotted in posi- 

 tion on the charts, give features of especial interest. The 

 change of monsoon is well shown, and the effect produced 

 by the adjacent land on the direction of the wind, also the 

 variations in the strength of the monsoon, especially the 

 intensified force of the south-west wind, which reaches its 

 maximum in July, when the winds frequently blow with 

 the force of a whole gale. The direction during the 

 south-west monsoon is generally more southerly near the 

 land than over the open sea. The surface current during 

 the south-west monsoon almost invariably sets off" the 

 land to the eastward and north-eastward, and it some- 

 times attains the velocity of 80 to 100 miles in the 24 

 hours. In the north-east monsoon the conditions are 

 generally much quieter, but the monthly charts show 

 interesting and important differences ; and the work, 

 embracing, as it does, the whole twelvemonths, illustrates 

 very fully the changes which occur, and afford very 

 valuable material both for the man of science and the 

 sailor. 



NO. I 150, VOL. 45] 



NOTES. 



The President and Council of the Royal Society have re- 

 commended Prof. Charles Lapworth and Prof. A. VV. Riicker 

 for the Royal Medals this year, and the Queen has signified her 

 approval of the award. The other medallists are Prof. Canniz- 

 zaro for the Copley Medal, and Prof. Victor Meyer for the Davy 

 Medal. 



The following is the list of names recommended by the 

 President and Council of the Royal Society for election into the 

 Council for the year 1892, at the anniversary meeting on 

 November 30 : — President : Sir William Thomson. Treasurer : 

 John Evans. Secretaries : Prof. Michael Foster, Lord Ray- 

 leigh. Foreign Secretary : Sir Archibald Geikie. Other Mem 

 bers of the Council : Captain William de Wiveleslie Abney, 

 William Thomas Blanford, Prof. Alexander Crum Brown, Prof. 

 George Carey Foster, James Whitbread Lee Glaisher, Frederick 

 Ducane Godman, John Hopkinson, Prof. George Downing 

 Liveing, Prof. Joseph Norman Lockyer, Prof. Arthur Milnes 

 Marshall, Philip Henry Pye- Smith, William Chandler Roberts- 

 Austen, Prof. Edward Albert Schafer, Sir George Gabriel 

 Stokes, Prof. Sydney Howard Vines, General James Thomas 

 Walker. 



We are glad to hear of a splendid gift which has just been 

 formally accepted by the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. 

 It is a gift of 200,000 dollars, which has been presented to the 

 Institution by Mr. Thomas Hodgkins, of Setauket, Long Island. 

 The donation is accompanied with a condition — which, as the 

 New York Trihime remarks, " will not be onerous " — that the 

 donor shall have the option of giving another sum of 100,000 

 dollars within the year. Mr. Hodgkins has arranged that the 

 interest of 100,000 dollars shall be " permanently devoted to the 

 increase and diffusion of more exact knowledge in regard to the 

 nature and properties of atmospheric air." 



The opening meeting of the seventy-fourth session of the 

 Institution of Civil Engineers was held on Tuesday, and was 

 very fully attended. Awards were made for various original 

 communications submitted during the past session, for various 

 papers printed in the Proceedings without being discussed, and 

 for various papers read at the supplemental meetings of students. 

 Mr. George Berkley, the President, delivered an address, taking 

 as his subject the advance of engineering work in relatioa to 

 social progress. 



The following, briefly stated, are prize subjects recently 

 proposed by the Dutch Academy of Sciences, at Haarlem : — 

 (i) Molecular theory of internal.friction of gases departing from 

 Boyle's law, and if possible, of liquids. (2) Determination of 

 the duration of electric vibrations in various conductors. 



(3) Try inoculation of Visciim album on apple, pear, chestnut, 

 and lime trees, and explain its preference for certain species. 



(4) Criticism of opinions on structure and mode of growth of the 

 cell-wall, having regard to continuity of the protoplasm of the 

 adjacent cells (in some cases). (5) New experiments on the 

 reproductive power of parts of plants, and the polarity observed 

 in it. (6) Study of the low organisms appearing (usually as 

 filaments) in bottles containing solutions of chemical products, 

 after long standing. (7) Significance of peptones for the circu- 

 lation of nitrogen in plants. (8) Oxidation of ammoniacal salts 

 in the ground, and transformation into nitrates. Do the 

 microbes found by Winogradsky and Frankland exist in the 

 soil of Holland? (9) Researches on the organism concerned 

 in production of marsh gas, or the conditions in which the gas 

 is formed, if life has only an indirect influence on the phenome- 

 non. Liberation of the gas from manure, (10) Study of the 



