NATURE 



[May II, 1893 



NOTES. 



The annual meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute will be 

 held at the Institution of Civil Engineers, 25, Great George 

 Street, London, on Wednesday and Thursday, May 24 and 25. 

 On Wednesday business will be transacted ; the Bessemer Gold 

 Medal for 1893 will be presented to Mr. John Fritz, of Bethle- 

 hem, Pa., U.S.A. ; and the president-elect, Mr. E.Windsor 

 Richards, will deliver his inaugural address. The following 

 papers will afterwards be read and discussed: "On the elimi- 

 nation of sulphur from iron and steel " (second paper), by J. E. 

 Stead ; " On the Saniter process of desulphurisation," by E. H. 

 Saniter. On Thursday the following papers will be read and 

 discussed: — "On the basic process of Witkowitz," by F. 

 Kupelwieser ; "Notes on puddling iron," by John Head ; " On 

 a recording pyrometer," by Prof. Roberts- Austen, F.R.S. 



The Royal Society soiree was being held as Nature went to 

 press yesterday evening. 



A DINNER will be given by the Master and Fellows of Gon- 

 ville and Caius College, Cambridge, on Wednesday, June 2r, 

 in the College Hall, to celebrate the tercentenary of the ad- 

 mission of William Harvey to the college. 



The annual dinner of the Royal Geographical Society will 

 take place on Saturday, May 13, at the Whitehall Rooms, Hotel 

 Metropole, Sir M. E. Grant Duff, President of the Society, in 

 t he chair. 



The second annual Robert Boyle Lecture of the Oxford 

 University Junior Scientific Club will be delivered in the 

 University Museum on Tuesday, the l6th inst., at 8.30 p.m., 

 by Lord Kelvin, P.R.S. His subject will be, " The Molecular 

 Tactics of Crystals." 



The Geologists' Association has made arrangements for a 

 geological excursion to Farnham on Saturday, May 13. During 

 Whitsuntide there will be an excursion to Bradford-on-Avon and 

 Westbury, in Wiltshire. 



The late Lord Derby has left by will to the Royal Society 

 a sum of ;^2000. He has also bequeathed £zooo to the Royal 

 Institiition. 



The Royal Society of New South Wales offers its medal and 

 £2^ for the best communication sent in not later than May i, 

 1894, containing the results of original research or observation 

 upon each of the following subjects: — (i) On the timbers of 

 New South Wales, with special reference to their fitness for use in 

 construction, manufactures, and other similar purposes ; (2) on 

 the raised sea-beaches and kitchen middens on the coast of 

 New South Wales ; ( 3) on the aboriginal rock-carvings and 

 paintings in New South Wales. 



The Royal Hungarian Academy of Sciences at Buda-Pesth 

 has devoted the sum of 2000 fl. to the promotion of botanical 

 investigations during the year 1893. 



The Committee of the Kew Observatory has issued its re- 

 port for the year ending December 31, 1892. 



The Council of the Durham College of Science has resolved 

 to offer to each county council in England the right of 

 nominating a scholar who shall attend the course of instruction 

 in the agricultural department of the college without the pay- 

 ment of fees, on condition that the county council pay to the 

 scholar not less than ;^30 towards the cost of his board and 

 lodging in Newcastle or the neighbourhood, and of such books 

 or appliances as he may require for his study. The scholarships 

 will be tenable in the first instance for one year, but may be re- 

 newed for a second year by the college council if the progress o 

 the student is satisfactory. The object of the college council is 

 twofold : to bring before the notice of county councils and 



NO. 1228, VOL. 48] 



others the advantages offered by its agricultural department, and 

 to make some acknowledgment to the country generally for the 

 contributions it has received from imperial sources through the 

 Board of Agriculture. 



The Yorkshire Naturalists' Union is making a great effort to 

 double its membership, and ought to have little difficulty in 

 accomplishing its purpose, as it is one of the niost vigorous of - 

 the provincial scientific societies. Its funds are at present in- '*„ 

 sufficient to justify it in publishing all the important works it has ; 

 in hand. 



Mr. M. a. Veeder writes to us from Lyons, New York, that 

 Lieut. Peary, of the United States Navy, during his coming 

 expedition to the northernmost Greenland, will record observa- 

 tions of the aurora, upon a plan that will enable comparisons to 

 be made in detail with records from other localities. " The plan," 

 Mr. Veeder says, "is already in operation, upon an international 

 basis, and the results are proving to be important. Numerous 

 observers widely distributed are desirable, and inasmuch as even 

 those who have no special technical knowledge may make 

 entries that will be of value any who feel so disposed may co- 

 operate." Further information and supplies of blanks may be 

 obtained from Mr. Veeder, who will be glad to receive also, any 

 records of observations of the aurora whatever, for purposes of 

 comparison. 



Moderate rains occurred in the north and west, in the early- 

 part of last week, owing to the advance of depressions from the 

 Atlantic, and a small amount of rain fell in the midland counties, 

 but over the southern and eastern parts of England there was no 

 measurable quantity. The drought has continued with great 

 persistency over the southern part of the kingdom, the period 

 without rain, up to Tuesday the 9th inst., being fifty-three days- 

 at some of the stations reporting to the Meteorological Off ce. 

 An anticyclone embraced the greater part of western Europe 

 throughout the past week, and spread westwards over the 

 British .Islands, causing high atmospheric pressure, while in 

 northern Scandinavia the barometer rose to nearly 31 inches. 

 The temperature has been irregular ; although high for the time 

 of year, it has been lower generally than some weeks ago ; in a 

 few instances the daily maxima have exceeded 70°, but in parts . 

 they have been little above 50°. The Weekly Weather Report 

 of the 6th instant showed a general decrease of bright sunshine. 

 The percentage of possible duration ranged from 18 to 27 in 

 Ireland, from 22 to 30 in Scotland, and from 41 to 57 in Eng- 

 land ; in the Channel Islands the high percentage of 81 was 

 recorded. 



At the meeting of the French Meteorological Society oa. 

 April 4 Dr. Fines presented a note on the violence of the 

 storms which are occasionally experienced in the province of 

 Roussillon (Eastern Pyrenees). On five occasions between 

 i860 and 1867 railway trains have been overturned on the line, 

 from Narbonne to Perpignan. A storm of great violence 

 occurred from January 15 to 24 last, in which at one time the > 

 velocity amounted to 85 miles an hour. A large number of' 

 trees were uprooted and some loaded railway trucks were over- 

 turned on this occasion. ; 



The annual general meeting and conversazione of the Sel- 

 borne Society were held at the rooms of the Royal Society of 

 British Artists yesterday evening. The objects of this excellent 

 society are : to preserve from unnecessary destruction such wild 

 birds, animals, and plants as are harmless, beautiful, or rare ; 

 to discourage the wearing and use for ornament of birds and 

 their plumage, except when the birds are killed for food or 

 reared for their plumage ; to protect places and objects of in- 

 terest or natural beauty from ill-treatment or destruction ; and 



