May 14, 1 891] 



NATURE 



of essays — " Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection," 

 and "Tropical Nature and other Essays." Several essays have 

 been either wholly or in part omitted. On the other hand, the 

 author has included essays on the antiquity of man in North 

 America, and on the debt of science to Darwin, which have 

 hitherto been accessible only in the periodicals where they 

 originally appeared. The text has been carefully corrected, and 

 some important additions have been made. 



A SUPPLEMENT to Dr. T. Lauder Brunton's "Text-book 

 of Pharmacology, Therapeutics, and Materia Medica " has been 

 issued by Messrs. Macmillan and Co. It presents the additions 

 made in 1890 to the British Pharmacopoeia of 1885. Although 

 the medicinal substances contained in the British Pharmacopoeia 

 of 1885 are considered in the body of the work under the 

 natural divisions of the mineral, vegetable, and animal king- 

 doms to which they belong, the author thinks it is easier to 

 remember the additions by grouping them together according 

 to their uses. A complete alphabetical list of them is also 

 given. 



A "Botanical Address-book" has been issued by the 

 well-known Leipzig publisher, Wilhelm Engelmann. It con- 

 tains a list of living botanists, and of botanical institutions, 

 societies, and periodicals. 



F. A. Brockhaus, of Leipzig, has issued a catalogue of 

 scientific works which are offered for sale at his establishment. 

 It includes, besides books, a large number of scientific periodi» 

 cals and the publications of many learned societies. 



The 92nd and 93rd Parts of the " Landerkunde von Europa," 

 edited by Alfred Kirchhoff, have been published. They present 

 an excellent account of various parts of the Balkan Peninsula. 



Willing's (late May's) useful "British and Irish Press Guide " 

 for 1891 has been published. This is the eighteenth annual issue. 



The first number of a monthly journal for civil, mechanical, 

 and electrical engineers, was published last week. The new 

 journal is called the Engineering Review, and is edited by Mr. 

 H. C. E. Andree and Mr. Edward Walker. 



At the meeting of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 

 on March 25, the Rev. Dr. W. WooUs read a paper on the 

 classification of Eucalypts. After critically reviewing the cha- 

 racters of Eucalypts which have, from time to time, been made 

 use of for classificatory purposes, more particularly those of the 

 anthers and of the bark as set forth in the anthereal and cortical 

 systems of Bentham and Mueller, the author suggested the 

 probable value of a classification based on the characters of the 

 fruit— such as shape, position of the capsules, the number of 

 cells, and the appearance of the valves, &c. 



Captain Petersen, of the Swedish barque Eleanora, noted 

 a submarine earthquake in the volcanic region of the Atlantic 

 west of St. Paul Rocks on March 13 between 7 and 8 p.m. 

 According to a statement in the printed matter prepared for pub- 

 lication on the Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic Ocean for the 

 present month, the ship was heading north-west, going about 

 3 knots, with a light easterly wind and calm sea, when a noise 

 was heard on the port side, like a heavy surf, and almost im- 

 mediately the sea began to bubble and boil like a huge kettle, 

 the broken water reaching as high as the poop-deck. No distinct 

 shock was felt, but after the disturbance struck the ship she con- 

 tinued to tremble as long as it lasted. After about an hour it 

 ceased for an hour, and was then followed by another similar 

 disturbance. A bubbling sound was all that could be heard, 

 and the water appeared foamy, but it was impossible, on 

 account of the darkness, to say whether it was muddy. The 

 next day weather and sea were as usual. Position at 8 p.m., 

 lat. 3° 47' N., long. 42° 03' W. The region from St. Paul 



NO. I I 24, VOL. 44] 



Rocks to and including the Windward Islands is especially 

 subject to earthquakes, and reports similar to the above are ofien 

 received. 



At the ordinary meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers 

 on May 5, Mr. William Langdon read an interesting paper on 

 railway-train lighting. He pointed out that the main questions 

 to be determined were whether electricity was safe, trustworthy, 

 and less costly than other illuminants. The fact that electrically- 

 lighted trains had now been running for a considerable period 

 without accident appeared to him conclusive evidence of its 

 safety, and experience had shown that there was no reason to 

 doubt its trustworthiness where efficient provision had been 

 made ; and he believed that when the cost of applying any of 

 the illuminants, whether oil, gas, or electricity, to a complete 

 railway system was taken into account the latter would be found 

 the most economical. Regarding electricity as the illuminant 

 which would, at no distant date, be universally employed for 

 train lighting, Mr. Langdon suggested the desirability of arriving 

 at a common basis with regard to the following fundamental 

 points: (l) electrical system; (2) form and position of the 

 electrical couplings ; (3) pressure of current. Unless this was 

 effected it was to be feared that unnecessary difficulties might 

 be created by the diversity of the plans adopted. 



Mr. C. J. Hanssen, a civil engineer of Copenhagen, has 

 proposed a new international system of measures and weights, to 

 which he invites our attention. He hopes that England will 

 adopt his system, and that then the United States and Russia 

 will follow, and thus the new system would become entirely 

 international. Mr. Hanssen proposes that the English foot 

 should be increased in length by about i /2500th part of its 

 present length (from i "oocoo to i •000403) ; the pound avoir- 

 dupois, the ounce, and the imperial gallon, remaining unaltered, 

 Ti-.e cubic foot, as Mr. Hanssen states, would then contain 

 exactly 1000 ounces of distilled water at 4° C. ; and its inter- 

 comparison with the metric units of weight, length, and volume, 

 would become apparently easy. We fear, however, that there 

 is little hope in this country of introducing any such new system. 

 As Mr, Chaney has indicated in his report on the Metric Con- 

 ference, there are only two things possible in the metrology of 

 this country : either to adhere to the present Imperial system, or 

 to introduce the metric system. No half-way or modified 

 Imperial system, such as Mr. Hanssen would propose, appears 

 to be possible. 



The Deutsche Seewarte has published, in vol. xiii. of its 

 Aus dem Archiv, a paper by Captain C. H. Seemann, one of 

 the assistants in that establishment, entitled " Weather Lexicon : 

 an Index to the European Weather Charts from 1876-1885." 

 The author considers that the principles we at present possess 

 for forecasting the weather— ^.^. Buys-Ballot's law, the relation 

 of the tracks of depressions to the distribution of pressure and 

 temperature, or the dependence of the lower air-currents upon 

 the upper currents — are not sufficient for the purpose, and he has 

 made an index of the various similar types of weather-charts. 

 He has calculated the barometrical differences which occur each 

 day in three directions : (i) from Hamburg towards the north- 

 west (Stornoway) ; (2) from Hamburg to the south-west 

 (Biarritz) ; and (3) from Hamburg to the north-east (Helsing- 

 fors) ; and, by knowing the difference for any day, a reference 

 to a table of such differences shows the dates of other charts 

 with similar conditions, so that, by selecting one which appears 

 most suitable to the present conditions, we may judge of the 

 probable weather from that which actually followed that par- 

 ticular type. In the paper in question, only barometer and 

 wind have been taken into account ; the distribution of tem- 

 perature would, of course, have great influence upon the changes 

 of weather, but the author preferred to postpone the considera- 

 tion of that element in this primary classification. 



