H 



NA TURE 



[May 5, 1892 



in many districts. The day temperatures have been low, with 

 sharp frosts at night ; on April 29 the thermometer on the 

 grass fell as low as 20° in London, and heavy snow fell at 

 Wick. From official reports for the week ended April 30 the 

 temperature was several degrees below the mean for the week 

 in all districts, although the bright sunshine had exceeded the 

 normal amount. Gales were experienced on our exposed north 

 and west coasts, but for the most part the wind has been light. 

 Bright aurora has again been seen at several places. On May i 

 the thermometer rose to 60° or more at several inland stations, 

 but this improvement was not maintained. The winds, which 

 during a few days were northerly and north-westerly, again 

 became easterly over the whole of the British Isles, with unsettled 

 and unseasonable weather. 



A SPECIAL meeting of the New England Meteorological 

 Society was held in Boston on April 6, when the recom- 

 mendation of the Council to transfer the weather service of the 

 Society to the National Weather Bureau at Washington, with 

 the object of forming a New England Weather Service under 

 the direction of that Bureau, was formally ratified. The New 

 England Weather Service will continue to gather and publish 

 observations of temperature and rainfall, and the monthly 

 Bulletin will be continued as heretofore. While that part of the 

 Society's work, in which the greater number of persons is 

 involved, is thus transferred to the New England Weather 

 Service, the meetings and investigations of the Society will be 

 continued as during the past eight years. Three meetings will 

 be held annually, and the proceedings will be published in the 

 American Meteoi'ological [ournal, while the investigations will be 

 published in the Annals of the Harvard College Observatory. 

 In the Bulletin for March, it is stated that it is the intention of 

 the Weather Bureau to make a special study of thunderstorms 

 during the coming summer. The observations are to be made 

 in several States, from May to August inclusive. 



The Deutsche Seewarte (Hamburg) has recently issued an 

 atlas of thirty-five charts, with introductory text, showing the 

 physical conditions of the Indian Ocean, on a similar plan to 

 that published for the Atlantic Ocean some years ago. The 

 rich materials at the disposal of the Seewarte have been dis- 

 cussed by Dr. Koppen and others in every form that can be of 

 use both to seamen and physicists. Several charts are devoted 

 to the currents, temperature and specific gravity, winds and 

 monsoons, while the magnetic elements have been specially 

 investigated by Dr. Neumayer. 



The Indian journals received by this week's mails report that 

 Mr, John Eliot, the Meteorological Reporter to the Govern- 

 ment of India, has returned to Simla from Chaman and 

 Murree, where he has been establishing new meteorological 

 observatories. 



On Friday last Colonel J. F. Maurice, Professor of Military 

 Art and History to the Slafif College, read at the meeting of 

 the Royal United Service Institution a most interesting paper 

 on military geography. This he described as a science dealing 

 with all those conditions of the surface of the world which 

 affected armies, campaigns, and battles. He sought to show 

 how in the case of each of the great European countries 

 strategic methods are affected by geographical conditions. 



Opinions are being expressed by scientific workers in India 

 in favour of the making of systematic experiments with snake 

 poison. The Committee for the Management of the Calcutta 

 Zoological Gardens are constructing, from private subscriptions 

 a snake-house with the most modern improvements, which 

 will contaifi specimens of all the principal poisonous snakes in 

 NO. II 75, VOL. 46] 



the country. If the necessary funds were available, arrange- 

 ments could be made to fit up a small laboratory in connection 

 with the snake-house, for the purpose of conducting inquiries of 

 all descriptions bearing upon the pathology of snake-bite and 

 cognate subjects, and in future there would be no difficulty in 

 arranging for the carrying out of any special experiments that 

 might be required. It is understood that Dr. D. D. Cunning- 

 ham, F.R.S., President of the Committee, would in that ca e 

 be willing to take an active part in organizing and promotin;^ 

 such inquiries and carrying out such experiments, including the 

 testing of the various alleged remedies for snake bite which are 

 from time to time brought to notice. A Calcutta paper, quoted 

 by the Pioneer Mail, understands that if the Government of 

 India will make a grant of Rs. 5000 towards this object, the 

 Lieutenant-Governor will endeavour to meet the balance from 

 Provincial funds. 



The well-known mycologist, Dr. Stephan Schulzer von 

 Miiggenburg, has just died at the age of ninety. 



At the coming " World's Columbian Exposition " at 

 Chicago, it is proposed to have an exhibition of the " worst 

 weeds " from all the States and Territories of the Union. 



Under the editorship of Mr. E. M, Holmes a Catalogue has 

 just been issued of the " Hanbury Herbarium " in the Museum 

 of the Pharmaceutical Society, The collection consists of above 

 600 dried specimens of plants yielding products used in pharmacy, 

 or believed to have medicinal properties, each specimen being 

 labelled with its locality or the source whence it was obtained, 

 and often accompanied by notes or extracts from letters of 

 foreign correspondents. The collection was formed by the late 

 Daniel Hanbury, F. R.S. ; and, by the desire of his executors, 

 who presented it to the Pharmaceutical Society, it is preserved 

 in a separate room, known as the " Hanbury Room," on the 

 premises of the Society in Bloomsbury Square. 



The second part of "Botanicon Sinicum," by Dr. Bret- 

 schneider, the learned physician to the Russian Legation in 

 Pekin, has just been issued in Shanghai in the Journal of the 

 North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. The work 

 deals with the botany of the Chinese classics, the object being 

 to identify as far as possible the plants mentioned in the writ- 

 ings of Confucius, Mencius, and the other great sages of ancient 

 China, Dr. Bretschneider takes each name in succession, 

 supplies all the information given by native commentators on 

 these ancient writers, and by lexicographers ; then he gives all 

 that can be gleaned from Japanese authorities, and follows this 

 by the identifications of European students ; concluding with 

 the results of his own study and observation. Those whom Dr. 

 I'retschneider's labours for the past twenty-five years have 

 taught to expect profound learning, research, and thoroughness 

 from him will not be disappointed in this work. 



Among the contents of the new number of the Journal of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society are the interesting papers read at 

 the Conference on asters and perennial sunflowers, held at 

 Chiswick in October last. The proceedings of the Conference 

 were opened by an address by Mr. J. G. Baker, which is now 

 printed. In this excellent address, in which the general botanical 

 outlines of the subject are sketched out, Mr. Baker mentions 

 that aster as it stands at present contains 200 or 300 species, and 

 is concentrated in the United States. Nearly all our garden 

 Michaelmas daisies belong to the species that grow wild in the 

 Eastern United States. There are forty species of aster in the 

 Rocky Mountains and fifteen in California, most of which are 

 different from the eastern species, and have not been brought 

 into cultivation. The papers published with Mr, Baker's 



