208 



NA TURE 



[December 31, 1891 



rapid transfer from one climate to another, would be glad to 

 visit the island, especially if they could combine to obtain steam 

 communication occasionally with Malta. 



The Meteorological Office of Paris has recently published its 

 Annals for the year 1889, in three volumes, as in previous years. 

 Volume i., under the title of Memoirs, contains a treatise by M. 

 Fron on the course of the thunderstorms during the year, ac- 

 companied by daily charts. M. Moureaux has published the 

 details of the magnetic observations made at Saint Maur, with a 

 summary of the disturbances ; eight plates reproduce exactly 

 the photographic curves of the most remarkable disturbances. 

 M. Angot gives the results of the first simultaneous observations 

 made at the Central Meteorological Office and on the Eiffel 

 Tower. The diurnal variation of pressure at the summit of the 

 tower shows that the first minimum (4h.-5h. a.m.) is much more 

 pronounced in all months at the summit than at the base, and 

 appears to occur rather later. The first maximum (gh.- 

 loh. a.m.) is much less important at the summit, especially 

 during the summer months, and also appears to occur 

 later. The second minimum (2h.-3h. p.m.) is much less 

 important at the summit, and the second maximum (about 

 loh. p.m.) is rather more pronounced at the summit than 

 at the base. The temperature of the air at the summit of the 

 tower during the night differs constantly from that of St. Maur 

 by less than the normal value ; during the day, on the contrary, 

 the difference of temperature is much greater between the two 

 stations than the normal value. The wind, during all months, 

 has a diurnal variation quite different from that at the Central 

 Office ; the maximum occurs at the middle of the night, while 

 the minimum occurs at about loh, a.m., and rather later in 

 winter. Vols. ii. and iii. contain respectively the general obser- 

 vations and the rainfall values at the various stations. 



The idea of a " weather lexicon " has been recently developed 

 by Herr Seemann {Met. Zeit. ), using the records of the Ham- 

 burg Naval Observatory. The design is to find in a collection 

 of daily weather charts a condition of the air over Europe re- 

 sembling that of the day for which a prognosis is to be formed, and 

 note the former sequence of weather, as throwing light on what 

 the coming weather is likely to be. Herr Seemann uses in his 

 lexicon all the Hamburg weather charts of the ten years 1876 to 

 1885. Each chart is briefly characterized ; the pressure differences 

 in three directions (north-west, south-west, and north-east from 

 Hamburg) being indicated for each day ; also wind observa- 

 tions in the Alps and in Norway. The days are arranged 

 according to the amounts of difference in pressure between 

 Hamburg and Stornoway ; this gives nine groups. Under 

 these are formed sub-groups according to the differences between 

 Hamburg and Biarritz ; and under these, others based on the 

 differences between Hamburg and Helsingfors. The classifica- 

 tion is further extended to wind direction. The idea seems a 

 useful one, and experience will doubtless show in what direc- 

 tions the proposed method may be most advantageously modified 

 and developed. 



The New York Nation of December 17, mentions a rather 

 striking example of the injustice which is sometimes done to 

 American men of science by the McKinley Tariff. A professor 

 in one of the academies near Boston, returning from Europe, 

 brought with him a microscope for his own use in the biological 

 department. Under section 686 of the tariff law, which in- 

 cludes in the free list "professional books, implements, instru. 

 ments, and tools of trade, occupation, or employment, in the 

 actual possession at the time of persons arriving in the United 

 States," he might very reasonably have expected to import this 

 without duty, but at the steamship dock in Bjston a heavy duty 

 was demanded. He appealed to the collector, but was per- 

 mitted to carry the instrument away without payment of the 

 NO. 1 157, VOL. 45] 



tax only upon his making a gift of it to the institution with 

 which he was connected. Even then the trouble was not quite 

 at an end. The Principal of the Academy had to take an oath 

 that he accepted the instrument as a free gift to the school, for 

 its sole use, and not to be sold or given away. 



In a paper contributed to the current number of the 

 Journal of the Franklin Institute, Mr. John Birkinbine, 

 President of the American Institute of Mining Engineers 

 shows that during the last thirty years the United States has 

 increased its relative production of one ton of pig-iron for every 

 thirty- two inhabitants to one ton of pig-iron for every seven and 

 one-half inhabitants. The Middle States have advanced from 

 one ton for every eleven inhabitants to one ton for every two 

 and one-quarter inhabitants. With regard to Pennsylvania, he 

 notes that while its population of less than 3,000,000 inhabit- 

 ants in i860 had increased to 5,250,000 in 1890, its pig-iron 

 product of but little over 500,000 in i860 was augmented to 

 nearly 4,250,000 in 1890. In i860, Pennsylvania produced one 

 ton of pig-iron for every five inhabitants ; in 1870, it made one 

 ton of pig-iron for every three and three-quarters inhabitants ; 

 in 1880, one ton was made for every two and one-half inhabit- 

 ants ; and in 1890 one ton for every one and one- quarter in- 

 habitants. Until 1692, no iron was made in Pennsylvania, and 

 even then so little was produced that the exact locality where it 

 was prepared is not known. As a practical producer of iron, 

 the State's history does not begin until 1716, sixty-one years 

 after the establishment of the industry in Massachusetts. Pig- 

 iron was not made in Pittsburg before 1859, but in thirty-one 

 years the magnificent industry in Allegheny County advanced 

 so steadily that in 1890 a total of 1,337,309 gross tons was 

 produced. 



Mr. Charles R. Keyes contributes to the new instalment 

 of the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Phila- 

 delphia, a valuable paper on fossil faunas in Central Iowa. 

 In a paper on the lower coal measures of Central Iowa, in 

 1888, 35 genera and nearly 60 species were mentioned. The 

 figures are now increased to 51 and 84 respectively, and many 

 forms have not yet been thoroughly investigated. The interest, 

 however, lies not so much in the numerical increase of the 

 species as in the information imparted in regard to both the 

 geological and geographical range of the various types within 

 and beyond the limits of the State ; and in the exhibition, in 

 many forms, of structural features which have hitherto been 

 more or less obscure. A recent geological study of the locality 

 has disclosed a large number of stations where animal life was 

 at one time very prolific. Several new horizons have been 

 definitely made out, on account of which the distribution in 

 time of the various forms is capable of being traced with greater 

 accuracy than has hitherto been possible. 



A third edition of Mr. Charles A. Cutter's " Rules for a 

 Dictionary Catalogue," has been issued by the U.S. Bureau of 

 Education. Mr. Cutter is librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, 

 and his experience has, of course, been of the greatest service 

 to him in the working out of his system, which is well worthy 

 of the attention of librarian -■. The objects of a " Dictionary 

 Catalogue," as he defines them, are (i) to enable a person to 

 find a book of which either {a) the author, {h) the title, {c) the 

 subject, is known ; (2) to show what the library has id) by a 

 given author, {e) onagiven subject, (/) in a given kind of litera- 

 ture ; (3) to assist in the choice of a book [g) as to its edition 

 (bibliographically), {li) as to its character (literary or topical). 



Prof. E. D. Cope announces in the American Naturalist 

 the discovery of a new species of frog in New Jersey. It is a 

 most distinct species, and about the size of the wood frog {Rana 

 silvatica). It is not nearly related to any species of the genus 



