38 



NATURE 



[November 12, 1891 



microbes involved in ensilage of green fodder, and of the 

 variations of sugar and acidity with temperature and time. 

 (11) The development of Trlclades. (12) The development of 

 the spleen. The prize offered in each case is a gold medal or a 

 sum of 150 florins. Memoirs may be virritten in Dutch, French, 

 English, Latin, Italian, or German (not German characters), 

 and they are to be sent in, with sealed packet, to the secretary 

 before January i, 1893. (Further particulars in the Revue 

 Scientifique, October 10, 1891.) 



According to an official report which reached the Japanese 

 Legation, London, on November 6, the earthquake of October 

 28 affected the prefectures of Aichi and Gifu. It was calculated 

 that the number of persons killed was 6500, and of persons 

 injured 9000; that 75,000 houses were destroyed, and 12,000 

 damaged. 



In its review of the weather during October, the U.S. Pilot 

 Chart notes that the latter part of September and nearly the 

 entire month of October were characterized by exceptionally 

 severe weather in the North Atlantic, Tropical hurricanes 

 passed north between Hatteras and Bermuda on October 3, 12, 

 and 18. The heavy weather that prevailed between Newfound- 

 land and the British Channel in the last week of September was 

 followed by comparatively moderate weather during the first two 

 days of October, but a storm that apparently moved eastward in 

 high latitudes on the 2nd and 3rd caused increasing westerly 

 gales in mid-ocean, and the force of these gales was very greatly 

 increased by the formation of a secondary on the 4th, a short 

 distance west of Rockall. This secondary remained central 

 about the same place for three days, the 4th, 5 th, and 6th, and 

 during all of this time there was very severe weather almost all 

 the way from the North Sea to the Grand Banks. There were 

 also later storms, and altogether, when the facts are fully 

 known, it will probably be found that the month was one of the 

 most severe on record. 



We take from Symons's Monthly Meteorological Magazine for 

 October the following interesting details of the climate of the 

 British Empire during 1890. The tables for the year exhibit 

 some exceptional features. For the first time in the 17 years that 

 the figures have been published, the highest shade-temperature 

 occurred at an East Indian station, io5°'6 at Calcutta, instead 

 of in Australia. The highest sun-temperature was, however, re- 

 corded at Adelaide, 163° -9, although it is not exceptional for 

 this to occur at Calcutta, while the mean temperature of the 

 East Indian stations far exceeds that of Australia. The lowest 

 shade-temperature occurred, as usual, at Winnipeg, - 39°*4, the 

 extreme rigour of whose winters far exceeds the cold at the other 

 Canadian stations. The greatest range in the year, I35°'9, as 

 well as the greatest mean daily range and the lowest mean tem- 

 perature, 32° 8, also occurred there ; while the least yearly range, 

 25''-4, and the highest mean temperature, 8o°-5, occurred at 

 Colombo, Ceylon. The driest station was Adelaide, mean 

 humidity 62, and the dampest London, mean humidity 80. 

 The greatest rainfall for the places quoted was 82-90 inches at 

 Trinidad, and the least, 19-96 inches at Jamaica. The most 

 cloudy station was Hobart, in Tasmania, and the least cloudy 

 Malta, A large amount of cloud occurs at most insular stations, 

 as well as great humidity, and small range of temperature ; and, 

 atone time or another London, Ceylon, Barbados, and Mauritius 

 have recorded the extremes of most of these elements. 



At the distribution of prizes in the Sheffield Technical School 

 last week. Dr. ^Sorby, the President of the iCouncil of Firth 

 College, spoke vigorously and opportunely on a subject which is 

 likely to become one of increasing importance— the true relation 

 of technical education to the study of pure science. He feared, 

 he said, not that technical education would not succeed, but 

 that the public might forget that there might be something else 

 NO, II 50, VOL, 45] 



besides. He hoped that in the efforts that were being made to 

 insure education in everything which was required for the trade 

 of the country they would not forget that there were other 

 things besides that. Some of the greatest discoveries made 

 by Davy, Faraday, and Pasteur, were not made for trade 

 purposes, but in the interests of abstract science. If they did 

 anything to delay the development of science as a whole, they 

 would hinder trade in the long run. Abstract science might 

 sometimes appear at first to be very abstract, but all at once it 

 might turn out to be of the utmost value in connection with 

 trade. He would be very sorry indeed if in the future technical 

 instruction should push other education out of the field altogether. 

 There was a danger of this, because the funds available for 

 education and objects of that kind were limited, and what was 

 devoted to one institution was to some extent taken from others. 

 The annual report on the technological examinations of the 

 City and Guilds of London Institute has just been published. 

 It is signed by Mr. G. Matthey, F.R.S., chairman of the ex- 

 aminations committee, and Sir Philip Magnus, superintendent 

 of technological examinations. The facts set forth in the 

 report are, upon the whole, satisfactory. At the recent ex- 

 amination the total number of worked papers was 7416, as 

 against 6781 in 1890, showing an increase of 635, the corre- 

 sponding increases in the two previous years being 175 and 440. 

 This year, too, there is not only an increase in the number, but 

 also in the proportion of candidates who have succeeded in 

 satisfying the examiners, the number of passes being 4099 as 

 against 3507 in 1890, and the percentage of passes 55-3 as 

 against 51 '8. Moreover, the examinations were held this year 

 in 53 as against 49 subjects in the previous year, and in 245 as 

 against 219 different centres throughout the country. 



Writing to the Times on the place due to horticulture in 

 technical education, Mr. W. Wilks, honorary secretary of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society, says that that Society is ready to 

 co-operate with the County Councils in any attempt to promote 

 the serious study of the subject. The Society has already 

 entered into arrangements with the County Council of Surrey 

 for holding examinations and awarding certificates, &c., after a 

 series of lectures in various centres ; and the County Council of 

 Cambridgeshire is in communication with the Society as to the 

 provision of practical demonstrations of scientific methods applied 

 to orchards, allotments, and cottage gardens. Mr. Wilks is 

 also in correspondence with a gentleman in Somersetshire, with 

 the object of sending round an itinerant instructor and adviser 

 to some of the cider orchard districts of that county. 



At a meeting of the Ashmolean Society in the Museum, Ox- 

 ford, on Monday, November 9, under the presidency of Prof. 

 Odling, Colonel Swinhoe read a paper on silk-producing moths. 

 The author exhibited specimens of Bombyx mori and of 1heir 

 cocoons, showing the changes produced by variation of climate 

 and domestication on members belonging to the Bombycidas. 

 Several specimens of the tussur silkworm were exhibited, illus- 

 trating in some respects the effects of cross-breeding, which, in 

 the opinion of the author, had done much to depreciate the 

 commercial value of the silk produce of India. Much greater 

 care — a care which the Chinese appreciated — was needed on the 

 part of the native breeders of the silkworm to insure in the silk 

 the peculiar qualities which enhance its market value. A dis- 

 cussion followed, in the course of which Prof, Legge described 

 briefly the method of culture of the mulberry-tree in China, and 

 some of the methods employed in winding and securing the silk. 



The Christmas lectures to juveniles, at the Royal Institution, 

 will this year be on " Life in Motion, or the Animal Machine"' 

 (experimentally illustrated), and will be delivered by Prof, John 

 G, McKendrick, F.R.S., Professor of Physiology in the Uni- 

 versity of Glasgow. 



