298 



NA TURE 



[July 27, 189: 



■together with a circular stating that the number of meteorologi- 

 <;al stations has so greatly increased as to make it advisable to 

 publish five volumes yearly instead of one, two of which will be 

 devoted to the magnetical and meteorological observations made 

 at the Observatory at Potsdam. The number of rain station; 

 has increased from 35 to 1425 since the establishment of the 

 office in the year 1847. In addition to the usual monthly and 

 yearly summaries, the greatest amounts v^hich have fallen in 

 short intervals are given for a large number of stations. These 

 values show clearly how the intensity of the fall decreases with 

 the duration, and that erroneous ideas may be obtained by 

 estimating the hourly fall from that of a shorter period, as is 

 sometimes done. The greatest fall daring five minutes in the 

 year 1891 amounted to 'IS inch per minute, during thirty 

 minutes to "08 inch per minute, and during one hour to '04 inch 

 per minute. The greatest fall registered in any one day was 4'3 

 inches on the May 26 ; a fall of 4'2 inches was also recorded on 

 July 21. 



Some idea may be formed of the rate of increase of the 

 known species of fungi from the fact that, in a recent issue of 

 the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, MM. 

 Ellis and Everhart describe no less than 149 new species from 

 North America. Of these 53 belong to the Pyrenomycetes, 24 

 to the Discomycetes, II to the Uredineas, 2 to the Ustilagineje, 

 46 to the Sphaeropsideje, 13 to the Hyphomycetes. 



A FLORA of Donegal, by Mr. H. Chichester Hart, is about 

 to be published. Until recent years the north-west of Ireland 

 had been greatly neglected by botanists, and the publication is 

 likely, therefore, to be of much interest. 



The firstpart of mm. Rouy and Foucaud's " Flore de France" 

 is announced to appear in August. The geographical area of 

 the work includes, in addition to France proper, also Alsace, 

 Lorraine, and Corsica ; and there will be comprised a biblio- 

 graphy and a list of botanists who have contributed to our 

 knowledge of the flora of France. The first volume of M. 

 Bounier's "Florede la France," published under the auspices of 

 the Ministry of Public Instruction, is expected to appear in the 

 spring of 1894. 



Two recent numbers of the Botanisches Centralblatt (vol. liv. 

 nos. 12 and 13) are largely occupied by a review by Dr. Otto 

 Kuhtze of the discussion on botanical nomenclature since the 

 publication of his " Revisio generum plantarum " in 1891. 



Mr. Mark Stirrup has just published further information 

 as to the occurrence of boulders in the coal measures of Lanca- 

 shire (Trans. Manchester Geol. Soc, vol. xxii. p. 321). Most 

 of the boulders hitherto recorded are of quartzite ; some of those 

 here described are of crystalline rock. Petrographical notes are 

 given by Prof. Bonney. Mr. Stirrup also prints a letter from 

 Prof. E. Orton relating to the occurrence of boulders of vein- 

 quarlz— not quartzite — ^in the coal measures of Ohio (see also 

 Anur. Journ. &«., July 1892). 



Boulders have been recently described from the Kulm beds 

 of the Frankenwald, by E. Kalkowsky [Zcitsch. Deutsch. geol. 

 Gesell. 1893, p. 69), who thinks that they indicate glacial action. 

 This explanation is not satisfactory for the English boulders in 

 coal measures, the origin of which is still unknown. 



Prof. Frank D. Adams has published an interesting 

 description of the Norian Rock of Canada (" Ueber das 

 Norian oder Ober-Laurentian von Canada" extracted from 

 N. Jahrb., Beilagebd. viii., 1893, pp. 419-498). This forms 

 a thesis for the doctor's degree at the University of Heidelberg. 

 The Norian locks consist mainly of " anorthosite," in which 

 iplagioclase is the chief constituent, ferro-magnesian silicates 

 NO. 1239, VOL. 48] 



being scarce or absent. These rocks are intrusive in the Gren- 

 ville series — the upper division of the Lower Laurenti.in of 

 Logan, who regarded the Norian series as Upper Laurentian. 

 Prof. Adams shows that the anorthosites occur near the eastern 

 edge of the great Archaean platform of Canada. He compares 

 this with the distribution of modern volcanoes along the edges 

 of the Continents. Some of the anorthosite masses are of 

 great extent ; that of the Saguenay district covers an area of 

 nearly 6000 sq. miles, that of Morin 1000 sq. miles. These 

 results may be compared with the conclusions already published 

 by Prof. A. C. Lawson, that the Laurentian gneisses of the 

 Rainy Lake region are intrusive in the so-called " Huronian " 

 of that area, rocks which were previously considered to be later 

 than the Laurentian. Prof. Adams's paper contains a map of 

 the Archosan area of Canada and a full bibliography. 



Experiments on the value of ammonia vapour as a disin- 

 fectant have been recently made by Rigler {Centralblatt fiir 

 Bakteriologi^, vol. xiii. No. 20). The organisms employed 

 were Koch's cholera bacillus, the typhoid bacillus, Loeffler's 

 diphtheria bacillus, and the spores and bacilli of anthrax. 

 Threads soaked in broth-cultures of these various organisms 

 were freely exposed in a room filled with ammonia vapour, 

 whilst other threads were wrapped up in dry and damp cloths 

 respectively before being submitted to the vapour, and in every 

 case control threads were simultaneously exposed to air. It was 

 found that cholera bacilli were killed after two hours' exposure 

 in the ammonia room, whether free or enclosed in dry cloths, 

 whilst twice that time elapsed before they succumbed in moist 

 surroundings. In ordinary air they were destroyed in three 

 hours, but they were alive after two days when kept in moist 

 cloths. Two hours' exposure in the ammonia vapour, whether 

 freely exposed or in dry wrappers, sufficed to destroy the 

 typhoid bacilli, but in moist surroundings six hours was neces- 

 sary, whilst twenty-four hours' contact with ordinary air pro- 

 duced no effect upon them. Anthrax bacilli succumbed in three 

 hours in the ammonia room, but their existence was prolonged 

 for five hours when wrapped in dry cloths, whilst whether in 

 dry or moist surroundings a day's exposure in ordinary air left 

 them untouched. The spores, however, were only destroyed 

 after being eight hours in the ammonia vapour, and in ordinary 

 air were unaffected. Diphtheria bacilli, whilst surviving twenty- 

 four hours' contact with ordinary air, were annihilated in four 

 hours by the ammonia vapour, the nature of their environment 

 making no difference in their powers of resistance. In conse- 

 quence of its efficacy, cheapness, and harmless character as 

 regards furniture and clothing, Rigler recommends ammonia 

 vapour as an important means of disinfection. 



The metric measures are in general use in Russia m 

 scientific literature. They have also been adopted by the 

 Mining Administration in all its publications, while the railwaj 

 and water communications engineers are using the decimu 

 divisions of the Russian saglne (7 English feet). ProC 

 P etrushevskiy, who has advocated since 1868 the adoption 

 of metrical measures, now gives in the Journal of the 

 Russian Chemical and Physical Society his scheme of metric 

 measures, as near as possible to the present Russian measures, 

 so as to make them easily acceptable to the population. It must 

 be said that the general use of the schoty (reckoners, made of 

 wires with ten beads on each wire, and used by all peasants, as 

 well as by primary schools for the teaching of arithmetic) and 

 the decimal division of money would greatly facilitate the accep- 

 j tance of the metric system in Russia. The change is also 

 facilitated by the fact that the Russian saglne is very nearly 

 equal to 2 metres, the -.lersta is nearly equal to the kilometrei 

 and the desiatina differs but little from the hectare. The 

 system proposed by Prof. Pelrushevskiy is both plain>nd at 



