July 27, 1893] 



NATURE 



297 



has from that time received a pension from the society. His 

 bent was literary rather than scientific, and he was the author 

 of several books of holiday travel written in a pleasant style 

 and in that correct English upon which he always prided him- 

 self. Mr. White died on Friday last, in the eighty-third year 

 of his age. 



The annual congress of the British Institute of Public 

 Health will be held at Edinburgh from July 27 to August 1, 

 under the presidency of Dr. Henry D. Littlejohn and the 

 auspices of the Lord Provost and Corporation of Edinburgh. 



The Societe Belgede Geologic et d'Hydrologie has arranged 

 an excursion of some interest for August 4 tog, under the direc- 

 tion of M. E. Dupont, the special object being to study the hydro- 

 logy of the district around Dinant, Namur, Rochefort, Madave, 

 &c. The springs and surface-streams will be examined, and 

 also the famous Grotte de Han. Attention will also be paid to 

 other physical features of the districts, including the formation 

 of valley-terraces and the origin of the loam on the plateaux. 



The annual exhibition of the Photographic Society of Great 

 Britain will be held at the Gallery of the Royal Society of 

 Painters in Water-Colours, Pall Mall, from September 25 

 to November 15. It will be opened by a reception held by 

 the President, Capt. Abney. The last day for receiving pictures 

 is September 1 1. 



The Aspatria Agricultural College, which has been rebuilt 

 and greatly enlarged, was opened on July 21 by the Mayor of 

 Carlisle, before a large and representative gathering. 



A STATUE of Claude Chappe, the inventor of the system of 

 semaphore signalling, has recently been erected on the 

 Boulevard Saint-Germain, Paris. 



The Societe Industriellede Mulhouse has issued its programme 

 of prizes to be awarded in 1894. Prizes will be given for works 

 on the constitution of various colouring matters, mordants, dyes, 

 the fixing of colours, areometry, drugs, bleaching, actinometry, 

 and other subjects. In mechanical arts the prize-subjects relate 

 to building construction, steam engines, motors, spinning and 

 weaving, electric motors, and the comparative advantages of gas 

 and electricity for lighting purposes. There are also prizes for 

 subjects of natural history and agriculture, commerce, statistical 

 and historical geography, and the fine arts. The prizes are open 

 to persons of all nationalities. Competitors should send in their 

 memoirs, plans, and specimens, marked with a pseudonym or 

 motto before February 15, 1894, to the President of the Society. 

 The same pseudonym or motto, with the full name of the sender, 

 must be forwarded under separate cover at the same time. A 

 detailed programme of subjects for which prizes will be awarded, 

 can be obtainec by application to the Secretary of the Society, 

 Mulhouse, Alsace. 



When it was resolved last January "That it is desirable that 

 the eminent services of the late Sir Richard Owen in the 

 advancement of the knowledge of the sciences of anatomy, 

 zoology, and palseontology should be commemorated by some 

 suitable memorial," it was confidently expected that there would 

 be a generous response to the appeal for funds. A large num- 

 ber of circulars were sent out, yet the list published in June 

 contains the names of less than 300 contributors. The dona- 

 tions then amounted to ;i£^935, and the amount promised has 

 even now only reached ;^iooo, whereas the committee hoped 

 to obtain at least twice that sum. For those who have come 

 orward there is nothing but praise ; the cause of complaint lies 

 in the paucity of subscribers. Only 300 admirers of Owen can 

 be found desirous of giving concrete expression to their feel- 

 ings of regard. The fact is humiliating, and, for the sake of 

 British science, we trust it will soon be altered. Of Sir 



NO. 1239, VOL. 48] 



Richard Owen it can truly be said, that among students ot 

 science "Many shall commend his understanding ; and as long 

 as the world endureth, it shall not be blotted out ; his memorial 

 shall not depart away, and his name shall live from generation 

 to generation." But Owen's greatness should not only be 

 appreciated by men of science, it should be made known to the 

 world by means of a monument. As a mark of respect to^ 

 their master and an act of duty, all naturalists should add a 

 stone to his cairn. 



One of the conclusions arrived at in 1888 by the Commission 

 appointed to investigate the action of light on water colours, 

 was that "every pigment is permanent when exposed to light 

 ' in vacuo,' and this indicates the direction in which experiments 

 should be made for the preservation of water-colour drawings." 

 Actuated by this expression of opinion, Mr. W. S. Simpson has 

 devised a simple and effective means whereby works of art can 

 be isolated from the deteriorating effects of air and moisture. 

 The picture which it is desired to preserve is placed face down- 

 wards in a shallow rectangular tray having a clear glass bottom, 

 and is then covered at the back. The chamber thus formed is 

 afterwards exhausted by means of a Spregnel pump, and her- 

 metically sealed. Assuming that no leakage occurs, and that 

 light has no intrinsic action upon pigment, the picture will be 

 preserved in all its pristine beauty until the crack of doom. To 

 test for leakage, a small manometer, constructed on the principle 

 of the aneroid barometer, can be fixed to each isolated picture. 

 Mr. Simpson's idea is a good one, and it possesses the inestimable 

 advantage of being applicable to any picture, for all that is re- 

 quired is to take the picture from its frame and fit it into an air- 

 tight chamber of the same size before replacing it. Should the 

 vacuum not maintain its integrity, the manometer will indicate 

 its imperfections, and the chamber can easily be exhausted again. 

 It appears, therefore, that the method has great possibilities 

 before it. 



With regard to the statement made by Mr. E. Douglas 

 Archibald in our issue of May 25, that the highest rainfall in 

 twenty-four hours was 40-8 inches, registered at Chirapunji, in 

 the Khasi hills, a correspondent writes to the Ceylon Observer 

 as follows : — "If the Indian Planters' Gazette of 28 Jan., 1893, 

 is correct, the following paragraph establishes a still higher 

 record. On page 59 one reads : ' Our Dera Doon correspond- 

 ent writes on January 24, 1893 : last night we had 48 inches 

 of rain, and all the hills are covered with snow. It is still, 

 raining.'" For this to have any scientific value, however, it 

 must be known who were the observers, and by what means the 

 rainfall was gauged. 



The duration and form of temperature waves as they occur 

 at Trieste has been studied by Herr Ed. Mazelle, and described 

 in a recent communication to the Vienna Academy. Daily 

 records during the period from 1871 to 1890 show a mean wave 

 length of 4"23 days. The longest waves occurred in winter 

 and summer, the shortest in spring and autumn at Trieste, in 

 marked contrast to Central Europe, where the reverse occurs. 

 The mean duration of increase of temperature was always 

 longer than that of fall of temperature, in the proportion of 

 2'39to I '84. For dull days both the periodic and the aperiodic 

 diurnal variation were of less extent, but both the maxima and 

 minima of temperature occurred earlier in the day. The vari- 

 ability of mean daily temperatures was different for different 

 parts of the year, showing maxima in January and July, and 

 minima in September and April. The occurrence of the first 

 day of frost was found to vary between wider limits than that 

 of the last frost. 



The German Meteorological Office has issued a volume con- 

 taining the results of rainfall observations for the year 1891, 



