176 



NA TURE 



[June 23, 1892 



England, leaving it to be implied that the local time thus 

 shown is that actually employed, and Kelly's famous 

 directories are disfigured with similar tables. 



It is much to be regretted that the system of number- 

 ing the hours of the day from o to 24 has failed to hold 

 the popular fancy. Despite the big clock-face on Green- 

 wich Observatory, people still know their hours by the 

 old ambiguous titles. Usually there is no room for mis- 

 understanding, but mistakes are sometimes possible. A 

 foreign potentate visiting this country recently was much 

 feted during his short stay, breakfasts, luncheons, and 

 dinners being given in his honour, when a certain judge 

 issued a card of invitation to a " Reception at 10 o'clock," 

 which some of the guests interpreted as a.m., and others 

 as p.m. Missing a foreign Prince through such ambiguity 

 is a trifle compared with missing a train or miscalculat- 

 ing the length of a journey, and yet we know of no 

 English time-table (we have heard of American) in 

 wliich the simple plan of naming the afternoon hours 

 fri)ni 12 to 23 is adopted. The method is occasionally 

 used in the record of scientific observations, and always 

 with advantage. 



The present time-standards on the railways of Europe 

 may be summarized as follows : — 



(i) Time of the initial Jiieridian (Western Europe) 

 0° (12.0) : — Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands. 



(2) Time of the first hour interval (Central Europe), 

 15° E. (13.0) : Sweden, Luxemburg, Germany (Prussia 

 excepted temporarily), Austria-Hungary, Servia, Bulgaria, 

 Western Turkey. 



(3) Time of the secoftd hour interval (Eastern Europe), 

 30^^ E. (14.0) : Eastern Turkey, Russia (practically). 



Countries conforming to national standards or to no 

 system, with the hour adopted in their capitals at Green- 

 wich noon: Ireland (11.35), France (12.9), Spain (11.46), 

 Portugal (11.23), Switzerland (12.30), Italy (12.50), 

 Rumania (13.44), Greece (13.35). 



Hugh Robert Mill. 



NOTES. 



Mr. H. T. Stainton, F.R.S., the well-known entomologist, 

 has been appointed one of the Curators of the Hope Professor- 

 ship at Oxford, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Prof. 

 Moseley. 



SiGNOR Giuseppe Fiorelli is retiring from the general direc- 

 tion of the antiquities of Italy, and his friends and admirers 

 have resolved to mark the occasion by giving expression to 

 their high appreciation of his work as an archseologist. A 

 committee has been appointed by the Accademia dei Lincei to 

 make ths necessary preparations. It is proposed that a medal 

 shall be struck in his honour, and that any sum which may re- 

 main after this has been done shall be set apart for the en- 

 couragement of archaeological studies in accordance with Signor 

 Fiorelli's suggestions. 



The second International Congress of Physiology is to be 

 held at Liege on August 28 to 31. 



On Tuesday a conference was held at Lord Brassey's house 

 for the consideration of the best means of establishing a labora- 

 tory of marine biology in Jamaica in commemoration of the 

 fourth centenary of the discovery of America. Lord Rosse 

 moved the first resolution, " That an observatory of marine 

 biology in tropical seas is necessary for the development of 

 science." Prof. Ray Lankester seconded the resolution, and in 

 doing so said that nothing could do more to advance our 

 knowledge of biology at the present moment than the work of 

 such a laboratory as that which it was proposed to establish. 

 They wanted a place where the naturalist could work, and 

 above all they wanted an organization, with a permanent 

 official in charge who would gradually accumulate knowledge of 

 the animals and plants which were to be found in the surround- 

 ing waters. They wanted in such a laboratory the means of 

 NO. I 182, VOL. 46] 



dredging. He hoped they would have a steam vessel, and that 

 the vessel would be large, and the actual building of the labora- 

 tory small. He trusted that there would be an adequate 

 private subscription to enable them to build the laboratory, but 

 the carrying on of the work would require an annual income, 

 which he hoped the home Government and the island Govern- 

 ment would be prepared to find. The resolution was carried 

 unanimously. Mr. Villiers-Stuart moved, and Mr. Wellesley 

 Bourke (M.L.C., Jamaica) seconded, "That no tropical sea. 

 promises so rich a harvest of biological specimens as the great 

 gulf of the West Indies ; that Jamaica is the most central and 

 most suitable station for such an observatory, and that it& 

 establishment would be a suitable memorial of the fourth 

 centenary of the discovery of the Western Hemisphere." This 

 also was unanimously agreed to. 



The Crystal Palace on Saturday last was specially visited 

 by Lord Kelvin to view the National Electrical Exhibition 

 at present being held in its buildings. This Exhibition, as 

 everyone who has seen it must be aware, is a thoroughly repre- 

 sentative one, and besides illustrating the present condition of 

 the application of electricity for practical purposes, carries one 

 back especially in the Post Office exhibit, to the time of its 

 infancy : the historical collection is of considerable importance^ 

 and has been well selected. Instruments are there shown, 

 which have five needles on their dials, the presence of which 

 was once necessary to carry on a conversation, the number of 

 words spoken per minute amounting only to single figures. Very 

 interesting old specimens of cables are also shown, together with 

 the part of a telegraph post connected with the pathetic case of 

 a poor woodpecker which, in the endeavour to find the insect 

 that was producing (so he thought) the humming noise in the 

 post, had pecked a large hole in it. In the demonstration 

 room of Messrs. Siemens Brothers, some truly wonderful sights 

 were displayed. The flame produced by exciting an induction- 

 coil by means of an alternating current was produced on a very 

 large scale, and as it issued from the secondary poles, was made 

 to pass through pieces of wood, lumps of salt and slate, the 

 most striking case being its passage through a large piece of 

 plate glass, for which a very strong current was required. 

 Among the many other exhibits, we may mention the demon- 

 strations in cooking by electricity. The bottom of the kettle or 

 saucepan is coated with a specially prepared enamel, into which 

 a fine wire resistance is embedded ; by this means, as the wire 

 becomes heated, the temperature of the kettle, and therefore 

 of the water in it, is raised. We may note that the Exhibition 

 closes on Saturday, July 2, so that those who have not already 

 visited it should do so without delay. 



A Reuter's telegram from Vizagapatam, Madras, announces 

 the death of Mr. Narasinga Row, the well-known native 

 astronomer. He died on Saturday last. 



The death of Hermann Burmeister, the well-known German 

 zoologist, at Buenos Aires, is announced. He died on May i 

 in his eighty-sixth year. In his early days he was a Professor of 

 Zoology at Halle. During the revolutionary period of 1848 and 

 the following years he associated himself prominently with the 

 Liberals, the result being that in 1850 he had to quit Germany. 

 He travelled for some time in Brazil, and then returned to his 

 native country. He went back to South America in 1856, and 

 not only visited most parts of the Argentine Republic, but 

 crossed the Andes by a way which had never before been taken 

 by a European. After another brief visit to Germany, he finally 

 settled in Buenos Aires in i86i, where he formed the well- 

 known National Museum of Natural Science. Only an accident 

 made it necessary for him to resign his position as Director, and 

 the community, by which his services were highly appreciated, 

 took care that he was properly pensioned. lie was buried at the 

 cost of the State, and the President was present at the funeral. 



