490 



NATURE 



[September 13, 1900 



given, and from its duration, the storm would appear to have 

 been of the nature of the worst West India hurricanes. 



The Stella Polare, with the Duke of the Abruzzi and mem- 

 bers of his Arctic expedition on board, arrived at Christiania on 

 Tuesday. A Renter telegram from Tromso states that the ship 

 was pushed by the ice in Table Bay right on to the land, and 

 four separate parties were sent out from it. The first was 

 despatched northwards to establish depots, and had to travel 

 two days overland. The second party, consisting of a Norwegian 

 and two Italians, was to have been out twelve days, but the men 

 never returned. The third party were away twenty-four days, 

 and the fourth 105 days. This last reached lat. 86° 33' N., 

 thus penetrating a little further north than Dr. Nansen and 

 Lieut. Johansen, who reached lat. 86° 14' N. The scientific 

 results of the expedition are said to be satisfactory, but no 

 information concerning them, or of the latitude observations, is 

 yet available. 



The recent Congress of British Chambers of Commerce at Paris 

 adopted resolutions urging the adoption of the metric system of 

 weights and measures in our Government departments, and the 

 teaching of decimals in public elementary schools at an early 

 stage, as an essential part of arithmetic. 



The Entomologist for September contains an interesting 

 account of the artificial ant-hills in the Paris Exhibition. These 

 are shown by M. C. Janet, who has devoted many years to 

 studying the habits of the social Hymenoptera. They are made 

 of porous pink plaster covered with glass, through which visitors 

 may observe the movements of their busy inhabitants, and are 

 constructed after the plan of a natural hill in a garden near 

 Beauvois. Several species of ants are exhibited, one of which 

 has " slaves." M. Janet is of opinion that ants have a language 

 of sounds, and that at any rate they produce grating noises, prob- 

 ably by rubbing together their bodies ; while he is fully assured 

 that they possess an acute sense of hearing. 



To the current issue of the Entomologist s Monthly Magazine, 

 Sir George Hampson communicates a notice of certain mal- 

 formed specimens of moths recently acquired by the British 

 Museum. The object of the communication is to draw attention, 

 not only to peculiarities of the insects themselves, but likewise 

 to the fact that the authorities of the Museum have recently 

 started a collection to display the abnormalities and "sports" 

 which occur among insects, and, it may be added, among all 

 other groups of animals as well. Sir George Hampson appeals 

 to all entomologists to assist in the formation of this series. 



The chapters on "Nature and Science for Young Folks" in 

 the August and September numbers of St. Nicholas maintain, 

 under the able editorship of Mr. E. F. Bigelow, their high 

 standard of excellence and interest, many of the illustrations being 

 unusually attractive and instructive. In the August number we 

 have first a delightful dissertation on "Flowers of the Sea," 

 with an exquisite photograph of a dried sea-weed ; this being 

 followed by an account of the manner in which gnat-larvoe 

 maintain their breathing apparatus at the surface of the water 

 during the process of respiration. In the September issue the 

 attention of ithe young reader is at first attracted to the intrinsic 

 beauty of leaves — such as can be met with in any copse or wood 

 — by an account of how to make leaf-garlands and chains, from 

 which the transition is easy to the numerous points of interest 

 displayed by microscopic sections of these beautiful structures, 

 and to the part they play in the economy of nature. A prize 

 competition in which figures of birds and insects are given for 

 identification by the reader strikes us as an especially good 

 feature, and in every way superior to the useless and hackneyed 

 "missing word competition." 



NO. 16 II, VOL. 62] 



The meteorological reporter to the Government of India 

 has issued his usual "Brief memorandum on the weather in 

 India during the months of June and July, and forecast of the 

 general distribution of the rainfall in India during the months 

 of August and September, 1900." The character of the mon- 

 soon rains in June and July has been in fair accordance with the 

 forecast issued in the beginning of June. From a consideration 

 of the weather and "of the snowfall in the mountains during 

 those months, it is assumed that the general distribution of 

 rainfall for the months of August and September will be 

 favourable. A comparison with several previous years also 

 suggests that it is probable that the rainfall of the retreating 

 south-west monsoon (October to December) will be favourably 

 distributed in the Peninsula. 



The French Meteorological Office has recently issued its 

 Annales for the year 1897 ; the first volume, under the title 

 of " Memoirs," contains, in addition to the usual articles relating 

 to thunderstorms and ma;jfl€tic observations, a discussion by 

 M. Angot of the temperature at a number of stations since 1851. 

 This valuable paper forms the first part of an investigation of 

 the climate of France during forty years ending with 1890. A 

 second memoir by M. Angot contains the principal results of the 

 simultaneous observations made at the Meteorological Office in 

 Paris and on the Eiffel Tower during six years. M. Teisserenc 

 de Bort, who established and maintains at Trappes an observa- 

 tory specially devoted to the study of clouds and the movements 

 of the upper air, publishes the results hitherto obtained from 

 numerous ascents of unmanned balloons. The second volume 

 contains the results of observations at stations in France and its 

 Colonies, The publication of the valuable series of rainfall 

 observations, which has hitherto formed the third volume, is 

 postponed for the present, from motives of economy. The 

 Central Office in Paris receives 167 telegraphic reports daily, 

 and in the year in question 89 per cent, of the weather fore- 

 casts were successful. The observers receive encouragement 

 in the way of medals, sixty-eight of these were awarded for 

 observations on land, and eighteen for observations at sea. 

 Much attention is now given to the development of observations 

 in the French Colonies, and in distant parts generally, a matter 

 which, until a few years ago, had been somewhat overlooked. 



Many attempts have been made to introduce Euclid's Fifth 

 Book, or its equivalent, in the teaching of geometry, and recently 

 a work on the Fifth and Sixth Books appeared from the pen of 

 Prof. M. J. M. Hill, F.R.S. A later contribution to this sub- 

 ject is a paper, by Prof. George A. Gibson, on " Proportion," a 

 substitute for the Fifth Book of Euclid's Elements, published as 

 an appendix to the Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathematical 

 Society. A deductive treatment of proportion such as this, 

 which takes account of incommensurability, is doubtless a good 

 mental training for the advanced student ; but seeing that in an 

 elementary course on arithmetic and algebra the rules for 

 multiplying and dividing negative and fractional quantities are 

 practically never logically proved by students, but rather assumed 

 and applied to working examples, there is surely sufficient pre- 

 cedent for taking it as granted that the laws of proportion apply 

 to incommensurable magnitudes. At any rate the matter is one 

 for discussion between the two schools, one of which seeks to 

 put the teaching of mathematics on a rigorously deductive basis, 

 while the other would abolish Euclid's lengthy deductions and 

 rather teach the results of mathematical reasoning and how to 

 work with them in practical applications. 



We have received a copy of a rectorial address, delivered by 

 Prof. Briickner before the University of Berne, entitled " Die 

 Schweizerische Landschaft einst und jetzt." The topographical 

 changes which have taken place in Switzerland since the glacial 



