June i6, 1892] 



NATURE 



159 



and by observers at Plymouth, shows that a very considerable 

 variation takes place in the sizes at which fishes become 

 sexually mature in different localities, and Mr. Calderwood 

 thinks it is probably not too much to say that as surely as legis- 

 lation will have to be resorted to for the preservation of fish 

 until they have spawned, so surely will the matter have to be 

 studied for each coast separately. 



Mr. Calderwood records in his report that the demand on 

 the Plymouth Laboratory for specimens to be used in labora- 

 tories and museums throughout the country increases, and 

 requires constant attention. The Laboratory can supply speci- 

 mens which, in very many cases, could not otherwise be 

 obtained. The proper preservation of certain classes of soft 

 animals is in itself an art developed during the last fifteen years, 

 almost entirely by the persevering efforts of Signor Lo Bianco, 

 of Naples. Within the past year these methods have been 

 published, and it is hoped that with practice the specimens sent out 

 from the Plymouth Laboratory may gradually gain the character 

 so long possessed by the Naples specimens alone. 



At the general monthly meeting of the Royal Institution on 

 Monday, June 13, the special thanks of the members were 

 returned for the following donations :— Mrs. Bloomfield Moore, 

 £%o, Sir David Salomons, Bart., ^50, Mr. Charles Hawksley, 

 ^50, for carrying on investigations on liquid oxygen. 



A COMMITTEE appointed by the Botanical Club of Washing- 

 ton to consider the questions of a botanical congress and 

 botanical nomenclature has lately presented its report, which the 

 Club has unanimously adopted. While favouring the final 

 settlement of disputed questions by means of an international 

 congress, the committee do not regard the present as an oppor- 

 tune time. They recommend the reference of the question of 

 plant nomenclature first to a representative body of American 

 botanists, and suggest the consideration, by such a body, of 

 various questions. Among these questions are ihe following : 

 the law of priority, an initial date for genera, an initial date for 

 species, the principle " once a synonym always a synonym," 

 what constitutes publication ?, the form of ordinal and tribal 

 names, and the method of citing authorities. 



The anticyclone, which at the time of our last issue had lain 

 over these islands for some days, then began gradually to give 

 way, and in the night of the 9th northerly winds and cloudy 

 weather set in over Scotland, while depressions formed over 

 England, causing thunderstorms in this country and in Ireland, 

 with heavy rainfall in places, as much as I'l inch being 

 measured at MuUaghmore during the twenty-four hours ending 

 8h. a.m. on Saturday, the nth. These changes in the distribu- 

 tion of pressure caused great fluctuations of temperature ; the 

 maxima observed over Scotland on the 10th were in some cases 

 as much as 30° lower than those of the previous day, while in 

 England, on the nth and 12th, a still larger decrease of 

 temperature was experienced. A small depressi on which lay 

 over the south-east of England on Sunday, caused a steady rain 

 for some hours in that part of the country ; the maximum 

 temperature registered in London was 51°, being about 18" 

 below the average maximum for June. In fact, so low a maxi- 

 mum temperature has not occurred in London, in June, for at 

 least a quarter of a century. On the night of the 19th the 

 temperature on the grass fell to 29° at Oxford. During the 

 early part of the present week an anticyclone, lying to the west- 

 ward, extended over the western and northern parts of the 

 country, and a large depression appeared to the southward of 

 these islands, causing moderate northerly and north-easterly 

 breezes, while temperatures continued low in all parts of the 

 country. 



The Meteorological Council have just issued, as the complet- 

 ing portion of the Weekly Weather Report for 1891, tables giving 

 improved monthly and annual means of temperature, rainfall, 

 NO. 118 1, VOL. 46] 



and bright sunshine for all the stations (65 in number) 

 used in the preparation of that publication. The large amount of 

 labour expended on the calculations, and the trustworthiness of 

 the values may be judged of from the fact that the temperature 

 means extend over 20 years, the rainfall over 25 years, 

 and the sunshine over 10 years. A glance at the figures 

 at any station is sufficient to show the chief characteristics of its 

 climate, as compared with any other locality. They show that 

 London has the highest mean maximum temperature in July, 

 72° "4; Cambridge, the lowest mean minimum, 3i*"6 in December, 

 although several other stations have a mean minimum of 3i°7 

 in that month, and Cambridge and Hillington have 3i°7 and 

 3l°"8 respectively in January. The wettest station is Laudale, 

 N.B., with an annual rainfall o\ 79'''S7 inches, and the driest, 

 Spurn Head, 20-92 inches. The stations with most and least 

 sunshine are Jersey and Glasgow respectively, the deficiency of 

 the latter being due to smoke. 



Dr. J. Hann laid before the Academy of Sciences at Vienna, 

 on May 5, another of those elaborate investigations for which he 

 is so welhknown, entitled " Further Researches into the Daily 

 Oscillations of the Barometer." The first section of the work 

 deals with a thoroagh analysis of the barometric oscillations on 

 mountain summits and in valleys, for different seasons, for which 

 he has calculated the daily harmonic constituents, and given a 

 full description of the phenomena, showing how the amplitude 

 of the single daily oscillation first decreases with increasing 

 altitude, and then increases again with a higher elevation. The 

 epochs of the phases are reversed at about 6000 feet above 

 sea-level as compared with those on the plains. The minimum 

 on the summits occurs about 6h. a.m., and in the valleys be- 

 tween 3h. and 4h. p.m. The double daily oscillation shows, 

 in relation to its amplitude on ths summits, nearly the normal 

 decrease, in proportion to the decreasing pressure, but the epochs 

 of the phases exhibit a retardation on the summits, of as much as 

 one or two hours. In the tropics, however, this retardation is 

 very small. He then endeavours to show that these modifica- 

 tions of the daily barometric range on mountain summits are 

 generally explained by the differences of temperature in the 

 lower strata of air. In connection with this part of the subject, 

 he considers that even the differences in the daily oscillations at 

 Greenwich and Kew are mostly explained by the different 

 altitude of the two stations, and by the fact that Greenwich is on 

 an open hill. In the second section he has computed the har- 

 monic constants for a large number of stations not contained in 

 his former treatise of a similar nature, including some valuable 

 observations supplied by the Brazilian Telegraph Administra- 

 tion, and others at various remote parts of the globe. 



A SECOND attempt is to be made to build an Observatory at 

 the top of Mont Blanc. As the workmen who tunnelled last 

 year through the snow just below the summit did not come upon 

 rock, M. Janssen has decided that the building shall be erected 

 on the frozen snow, A wooden cabin was put up, as an experi- 

 ment, at the end of last summer, and in January and early in the 

 spring it was found that no movement had occurred. According 

 to the Lucerne correspondent of the Times, the Observatory is 

 to be a wooden building 8 metres long and 4 metres wide, 

 and consisting of two floors, each with two rooms. The lower 

 floor, which is to be embedded in the snow, will be placed a 

 the disposition of climbers and guides, and the upper floor re- 

 served for the purposes of the Observatory. The roof, which is 

 to be almost flat, will be furnished with a balustrade, running 

 round it, together with a cupola for observations. The whole 

 building will rest upon six powerful screw-jacks, so that the 

 equilibrium may be restored if there be any displacement of the 

 snow foundations. The building is now being made in Paris, 

 and will shortly be brought in sections to Chamounix. The 

 transport of the building from Chamounix to the summit of 



