296 



NA TURE 



[July 27, 1893 



stance was a rainfall of I'lg inch at Parsonstown on June 

 10 and no rain whatever at any other of the telegraph 

 stations of the Meteorological Office in this country. 

 Heavy local rains of this type, with downpours of an inch 

 or upwards, were recorded on May 17, 18, 20, and 21, 

 and June 10. It is also to be noted that many thunder- 

 storms occurred during the period unaccompanied with 

 rain, just as happened generally in the east of Scotland 

 in June 1887, on the day of the Queen's Jubilee; and 

 frequently large drops of rain fell, quite insufficient even 

 to wet the ground, and scattered over narrow paths of in- 

 considerable length. Very heavy rains occurred over the 

 eastern districts of Scotland, practically terminating the 

 drought there, on June 22 and 23, when on these two 

 days 420 inches fell at the North Esk Reservoir on the 

 Pentland Hills, 3'32 inches at Roslin, 2'2I inches at 

 Aberdeen, 2"o6 inches at Logic Coldstone, near Ballater, 

 and nearly two inches at many places, whilst generally in 

 the west little and at many places no rain fell at all. 



Temperature was phenomenally and almost continu- 

 ously high in March, April, May, and June, specially 

 as regards the first three of these months. Thus, 

 for London the mean of the three months was 4 "3 

 above the mean of the previous 1 30 years ; and in 

 Edinburgh 3°'3. The only springs since 1763 with a 

 mean temperature exceeding that of 1 893 were for London, 

 1811 and 1794, which were respectively 5''2 and 4"'3 

 above the average ; and for Edinburgh, 1779 and 1781, 

 which exceeded the mean by 4°o and 3 "8. It is highly 

 interesting to note that large as these figures are, the Ben 

 Nevis figures far exceed them, the mean temperature at 

 this high-level observatory for March, April, and May 

 last being 6°'6 above the mean of these months, a result 

 due to the prevailing anticyclones, which so frequently 

 are attended there with abnormally high temperatures. 



The drought has also extended over nearly the whole 

 of Europe, large portions of Canada, the United States, 

 and other parts of the globe. In the north of Italy no 

 living person recollects to have seen the Italian Lakes so 

 low, and the southern Alps so greatly denuded of their 

 snow covering. It is estimated that over the wheat- 

 growing countries of the world this valuable crop will be 

 to no inconsiderable extent under the average. On the 

 other hand, in other parts of the world the rainfall has 

 been e.xceptionally heavy, and followed with widespread 

 disastrous floods, as in the cotton districts of the United 

 States, and in Queensland. 



In London, the total amount of rain that fell during 

 the 1 10 days from March 4 to June 22 was 077 inch. 

 Mr. Symons, our best authority on the question of 

 droughts, enumerates eight droughts which have been 

 recorded during the present century. Of these the longest 

 continued was 105 days, from March 1 1 to June 23, 1844 ; 

 and thus the drought of the present year is the greatest 

 in the British Islands authenticated by meteorological 

 records. 



NICOLAS IVANOVICH LOBATCHEFSKY. 



NICOLAS IVANOVICH LOBATCHEFSKY, the 

 founder of Non-Euclidean Geometry, was born on 

 November 2, 1793. 



A student, and subsequently professor at Kasan, the 

 Physico - Mathematical Society of that interesting 

 University have determined to celebrate the centenary of 

 his birth by founding an International prize for Mathe- 

 matical, and in particular, for Geometrical work bearing 

 upon the late-born but remarkable branch of mathematical 

 science and philosophy which owes its existence to 

 Lobatchefsy's genius and has earned for him the title 

 of the Copernicus of Geometry. 



A committee including the names of Tchebyche, 

 Poincare, Hermite, Darboux, Klein, Sophus Lie, Linde- 



NO. 1239, VOL. 48] 



mann, Cayley, Beltrami, Newcomb, Mittag-Leffler, and 

 over a hundred other notabilities of the mathematical 

 world in both hemispheres, has been appointed to assist 

 in carrying out the plan. 



At this time of day it would he superfluous to dilate 

 on the pre-eminent claims to honourable recognition of 

 one who has played a principal part in reconstituting 

 the basis of geometrical thought and realised his ideas 

 in a series of memoirs with a thoroughness and precision 

 which Gauss in 1846 characterised as the work of " a true 

 geometer." 



Any English mathematician (and it is to be hoped 

 there will be many) desirous of co-operating in erecting 

 this monument (if it may be so called) to the memory of 

 a great scientific reformer, may do so by forwarding a 

 subscription addressed to Prof. Vassilief, President of 

 the Physico-Mathematical Society, University of Kasan. 



NOTES. 



We greatly regret to record the death of Dr. John iLae, 

 F.R. S., at the age of eighty-one. It was he who, in 1854, col- 

 lected relics of the ill-fated Franklin expedition in the Er.-bus 

 and Terror. 



Among the Civil List pensions granted during the year 

 ending June 20, 1893, we note one of £Ti to Mrs. Dittmar, in 

 consideration of the services to chemical science rendered by 

 her late husband, Prof. William Dittmar, F. R. S., and one of 

 £'^0 to Mrs. T. Wolstenholme, in consideration of the merits of 

 her hustiand, the late Rev. Joseph Wolstenholme, as a mathe- 

 matician, and of her straitened circumstances. 



For the convenience of those who wish to be present at the 

 Rothamsted celebration on Saturday next, a special train will 

 leave St. Pancras for Harpenden at 2.2 p.m., returning; at 

 5 p.m. In connection with the celebrations at Rothamslec, it 

 is interesting to recall the circumstance that in the early par: of 

 the present century the signal services rendered by Francis, 

 Duke of Bedford, to the theory and practice of agriculture « ere 

 recognised by the erection, in Russell Square, of a collo:»al 

 statue to his memory. The scheme, in the first instance, was 

 initiated by Sir Joseph Banks, then president of the Royal 

 Society, the first meeting on the subject being held at his 

 house in Soho Square. Subscriptions were solicited from the 

 various agricultural societies existing at the time, and from 

 private individuals, and these flowed in with many expressions 

 of approval of the object in view. The statue and its pedestal, 

 the latter emblematical of the art of husbandry, were designed 

 by Richard Westmacott, who received the sum of ;^6ooo for the 

 work, each subscriber receiving an engraving of the design. 

 An inscription records that the statue to the Duke was erected 

 by his fellow labourers in the field of agricultural improvement 

 in gratitude for his unwearied endeavours to improve the theory 

 and practice of agriculture. 



The French Association for the Advancement of Science 

 will hold its annual meeting from August 3 to August 1-3, at 

 Besancon, under the presidency of Dr. Bouchard. The subjects 

 for discussion in different sections are the mechanical traction 

 of tramways, the local records from which a forecast of the 

 weather at a given place can be made, the role of humus, works 

 of commerce, and the administrative measures necessary to 

 prevent the use of unfit articles of food. 



The death is announced of Mr. Walter White, who for up- 

 wards of forty years served the Royal Society, first in the 

 capacity of clerk and afterwards of assistant secretary and 

 Librarian. Mr. White retired from the latter post in 1885. a"* 



