234 



NA TURE 



[January 7. 1892 



The New Year's address to the members of the Sanitary 

 Inspectors' Association was delivered on Saturday last by Dr. 

 B. W. Richardson, F.R.S., the President. He offered them 

 the congratulations which, he said, they deserved to receive 

 from everybody who was interested in the cause of sanitation 

 on the immense advance which they, as sanitarians, had made 

 during the past year. They occupied a better position in the 

 public estimation than they ever did, and they stood on a firmer 

 foundation from the circumstance that the Board of Trade had 

 given them permission to enrol themselves as a Society limited 

 by guarantee, which really was the same as if they were incor- 

 porated. By that progress they had gained a step which placed 

 them in a most enviable position. It was very rarely that any 

 Society so young as theirs received such a public recognition in 

 so short a time. They were now practically a professional body, 

 such as existed in the Church, the law, and physic. 



The eighth of the series of One Man Photographic Exhibi- 

 tions at the Camera Club is now being held. It consists of 

 photographs by Mr. J. Pattison Gibson. The pictures will be 

 on view for about six weeks. 



A SCIENTIFIC Commission has been appointed by the Govern- 

 ment of Costa Rica for the investigation of various classes of 

 phenomena in that country which have hitherto been inade- 

 quately studied. The Commission consists of Prof. H. Pittier, 

 who acts as Director, Luis Chable, who offered his services for 

 archaeological research, G. K. Cherrie, zoologist, and A. 

 Tonduz, botanist. 



The organizing joint committee of the Essex County Council 

 and the Essex Field Club have issued syllabuses of courses of 

 instruction in several subjects, in addition to those to which we 



lately referred. Mr. J. T. Cunningham, of the Marine Bio- 

 logical Laboratory, Plymouth, is to lecture on the natural history 



of marketable sea-fishes, and on oysters and oyster-culture. 



Mr. H. N. Dickson will give three courses of lessons oa 



elementary practical meteorology for fishermen, farmers, and 



sailors. 



In order to determine the local distribution and altitude of 

 the aurora, a considerable number of observers is necessary, so 

 distributed throughout the area covered by the observations as 

 to secure as full information as possible with regard to the extent 

 to which the aurora is present or absent. To aid and increase 

 the number of observers in this field Mr. M. A. Veeder has 

 issued some blanks^and a circular, and he says : — " It is desirable 

 to have as many observers is possible co-operate in the plan 

 described in the accompanying circular and blanks. Auroras 

 are likely to become more frequent during the coming year, 

 affording a special favourable opportunity for systematic obser- 

 vation." It is stated in the instructions that the chief observa- 

 tions required are the time and zenith distance of all the promi- 

 nent features. If only a single observation can be made each 

 evening, the best hour for it is between 9 and 10 o'clock p m. 

 Observers must remember that in a case like this " every little 

 helps," and the results that have been already obtained warrant 

 the belief that by concerted effort information of practical value 

 may be secured. 



At the meeting of the French Meteorological Society on Dec. i 

 last, M. Angot presented the results of temperature observations 

 made during the year 1890 on the Eiffel Tower at 5x5 feet, 

 646 feet, and 990 feet above the ground. During the night, the 

 temperature increases up to a mean height of about 500 feet, then 

 decreases, slowly at first, and afterwards more rapidly ; at about 

 1000 feet the mean decrease of temperature is about i°"4 per 

 328 feet (100 metres). During the day, the temperature de- 

 creases constantly from the ground upwards ; in the lower strata 

 the decrease] is slower in winter than in summer. In the 



NO. 



I 158, VOL. 45] 



'atter season it amounts to 2°'5 per 328 feet ; but above 500 feet 

 the rate of decrease does not show a decided annual variation ; 

 the amount is about i°*6 per 328 feet. It is worthy of remark 

 that at a height of 984 feet (300 metres) in open air, the decrease 

 of temperature is extremely rapid, both during the night and 

 during the day, and nearly approaches the theoretical value of 

 the law of the adiabatic expansion of gases. M. L. Teisserenc 

 de Bort gave an account of Dr. Hildebrandsson's observations 

 on the motions and heights of clouds. A study of their direc- 

 tion showed that, first, the air which moves in a spiral towards 

 the centre of a depression, having attained a considerable 

 height, moves away from the centre and converges towards the 

 centres of the maxima, and redescends towards the earth by a 

 centrifugal motion. Second, in the northern hemisphere, the 

 direction of an upper wind is always somewhat to the right of 

 that of the lower wind. Thirdly, the mean direction of the 

 upper currents is from west to east in temperate regions, and in 

 the opposite direction in tropical regions. Dr. Hildebrandsson 

 has also published charts of the direction of cirrus clouds, 

 accompanied by theoretical isobars at an altitude of 4000 metres, 

 as proposed by M. Teisserenc de Bort, which show that the 

 motions of the cirrus are quite in accordance with those isobars. 



In the Anales of the National Geographical Institute of 

 Costa Rica, vol. iv., Seiior H. Pittier has published the results 

 of meteorological observations made at San Jose during 1889, 

 together with a summary of rainfall and earthquake observations 

 for the years 1866-80. These observations are valuable, as 

 data from Central America are scanty. A comparison of the 

 rainfall curve with the earthquake phenomena shows that the 

 greater number of shocks occur in the months of maximum 

 rainfall — viz. in May and September. 



At a recent meeting of the Chemical Section of the Franklin 

 Institute, Philadelphia, a letter from Mr. M. Carey Lea was 

 read, transmitting to the Section the gift of a collection of his 

 published papers on allotropic forms of silver and a set of speci- 

 mens of the various modifications of the element which he had 

 prepared. These specimens are greatly valued by the members 

 of the Section. 



A VERY large part of the literature of experimental psycho- 

 logy is taken up with the discussion of the psychophysical measure- 

 ment-methods ; and in many cases the psychological question at 

 issue has been lost sight of, in the interest of the methods them- 

 selves. One of these, which has been the subject of a good 

 deal of controversy — the method of double stimuli — is finally 

 discredited by Prof. F. Angell in the new part of Wundt's Philo- 

 sophische Stiidien. Prof. Angell's experimental results are 

 especially interesting, on the positive side, in their relation to 

 Weber's law. Two other articles in the number contain valuable 

 experimentation. Dr. G. Martius proves the erroneousness of 

 the common opinion that there goes along with increasing in- 

 tensity of a simple clang a continuous decrease of the length of 

 the time[of reaction to it. For practised and attentive reagents the 

 time remained the same, within wide differences of stimulation. 

 Dr. A. Kirschmann tabulates the results of his photometric de- 

 termination of the relations which obtain between "dark" and 

 "light" surfaces, in respect of brightness. It is pointed out 

 that such results furnish in one direction a criterion for art- 

 criticism. 



Mr. C. j. Murphy, who has been charged by the U.S. 

 Agricultural Department with the introduction of Indian corn 

 as a human food into Europe, has made a report to Secretary 

 Rusk on his work in Great Britain. In it he reviews the condi- 

 tions which seem likely to encourage the use of this cereal food 

 in Great Britain and other parts of Europe. Secretary Rusk 

 has caused to be prepared for publication, in conjunction with 

 Mr. Murphy's report, a chapter upon the value of maize as food„ 



