September i, 1892] 



NATURE 



435 



that a claim should be made for the usual grant towards carrying 

 on the work of the Corresponding Societies Committee, and the 

 Conference adjourned. 



Second Conference. — August 9. 



The Corresponding Societies Committee was represented by 

 Prof. R. Meldola (Chairman), and Messrs. Symons, Whitaker, 

 Cuthbert Peek, Garson, Poulton, Rev. Canon Tristram, Sir 

 Rawson Rawson, and T. V. Holmes (Secretary), 



The Chairman made a proposal that in future some subject in 

 which the delegates were generally interested should be brought 

 as a short paper before the conference, such as the management 

 of local museums, and the relations of County Councils to tech- 

 nical instruction, and the working of the Technical Education 

 Acts. This was considered an excellent suggestion. Mr. 

 Symons mentioned that he had arranged with Mr. Griffiths that 

 delegates on the first day of the meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion should be supplied with copies of the reports on subjects in 

 which they were interested. This would give them longer time 

 than they had at present to make themselves acquainted with 

 the work which was being done. Mr. Robert Brown thought 

 it would be a good thing if the printed report of the proceedings 

 of the conference of delegates could be sent to the delegates 

 earlier than at present. After some additional remarks from 

 Mr. Cushing and the Chairman, the meeting proceeded to sec- 

 tional work. In connection with the meteorological work in 

 Section A, Mr. Symons spoke of the value of making observa- 

 tions on the temperature of underground waters, especially when 

 new wells were being formed ; and Mr. Whitaker remarked on 

 the equally important point of the fluctuations of water in 

 wells. 



In Sections B and C there was nothing to bring before the 

 Committee. When the work of Section D was reached an in- 

 teresting discussion took place on the disappearance of native 

 plants, Mr. Mark Stirrup began the discussion by reading 

 a short note from an eminent Manchester botanist on the 

 state of the district in thai respect round Manchester. Mr. 

 Sovverbutts, Manchester, said he believed the gentleman from 

 whom the notes had been read was largely responsible for the 

 eradication of rare plants round Manchester, inasmuch as he 

 published a very charming book indicating where they were to 

 be found. (Laughter.) Mr. Coates, Perthshire, said their 

 Naturalists' Field Club, in publishing accounts of excursions or 

 notices in papers of rare flora, only indicated generally where 

 these were to be found. And Mr. W, Gray said that the Bel- 

 fast Nat. Field Club acted in a similar way. 



The Rev. Canon Tristram, Durham, next addressed the 

 delegates on the question of making their field clubs more use- 

 ful. He strongly advocated that these clubs should combine 

 natural history, archaeology, and geology ; and that their func- 

 tion should be, not to destroy, but to preserve all that was rare 

 and curious in a district. Lately their field excursions in many 

 places had been too much 'of a picnic party. On the subject of 

 local museums, the Canon argued that, as a rule, these should 

 only contain objects of local interest, and he suggested that an 

 approach should be made to the County Councils in order to 

 get assistance for forming and keeping such museums in order. 

 In regard to spoliation of districts of rare plants and ferns, the 

 Canon advocated the formation of a public opinion on this 

 question. On the question of the preservation from destruction 

 of the eggs of rare birds, the Rev. E. P. Knubley, Leeds, moved 

 the following resolution, which was seconded by Mr, E, Poul- 

 ton, Oxford, and agreed to : — 



" The conference of delegates, having heard of the threatened 

 extermination of certain birds, as British breeding species, 

 through the destruction of their eggs, deprecates the encourage- 

 ment given to dealers by collectors through their demands for 

 British-taken eggs, and trusts that the corresponding societies 

 will do all that lies in their power to interest and influence 

 naturalists, landowners, and others in the preservation of such 

 birds and their eggs." 



On this subject Canon Tristram also spoke, and put in a strong 

 plea for the preservation of birds of prey— pointing to the case 

 of the mice plague in Dumfries and Lanark shires as a result of 

 destroying the balance of nature by wholesale killing of birds of 

 prey. The resolution brought forward by Mr. Knubley was 

 cordially adopted by the meeting. 



In Section E Mr. Sowerbutts said that he should like to be 

 able to communicate during the year with other delegates who 

 were interested in geographical education. 



NO. II 92, VOL. 46] 



In Section H Mr. E. W. Brabrook brought under the notice 

 of the delegates the Ethnological Survey of the British Isles, 

 which it was proposed to undertake by a committee of the Asso- 

 ciation on the suggestion of the Society of Antiquaries, the 

 Folk- Lore Society, and the Anthropological Institute. Schedules 

 would be sent down to societies, and he asked the co-operation 

 of the delegates. Mr. Brabrook agreed with Canon Tristram in 

 thinking that archaeology should be one of the subjects of study 

 of a field club, Mr. Whitaker said that in his district the 

 Hants Field Club always did its best to protect antiquities ; and 

 Mr. Gray said that at Belfast the Field Club not only tried to 

 preserve ancient remains, but also photographed them. Some 

 of these photographs he exhibited. Canon Tristram mentioned 

 the difficulties Field Clubs sometimes had with clergymen who 

 were over-zealous in church restoration ; and Mr. Tate (Belfast) 

 alluded to the exertions of his society on that point ; while the 

 Chairman thought the clergy were not always as black as they 

 were painted in this matter. Mr. Brabrook made some remarks 

 on the best mode of making an archaeological survey, pointing 

 out the best sources of information, as regards the way of carry- 

 ing it out. 



Finally, Mr. Sowerbutts thought better terms might be 

 obtained from the railway companies for delegates and others 

 travelling to meetings of the British Association. The Chairman 

 and Mr, Symons promised to represent the matter to the Council 

 of the Association, and the conference adjourned. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



The American Meteorological Journal for July contains the 

 following articles : — On the appearance and progressive motion 

 of cyclones in the Indian region, by W. L. Dallas. The object 

 of the inquiry is to see whether the cyclones of the Indian Ocean 

 originate from the unequal distribution of temperature over and 

 above the earth's surface. The author favours the assumption 

 that cyclones are a production of the upper atmosphere, and 

 thinks that the evidence, although far from conclusive, goes 

 to show that (i) cyclonic storms descend from and retreat 

 to the superior layers of the atmosphere ; (2) the whirl 

 may travel along in the upper atmosphere, giving only faint 

 indications of its presence at the earth's surface ; (3) the move- 

 ments of cyclones agree generally with what may be sup- 

 posed to be the movements of a superior layer of the atmo- 

 sphere.— S. A. Hill, a memoir, by Edna Taylor Hill.— The 

 eye of the storm (conclusion), by S. M. Ballou. The cause of 

 the clearness of the eye is attributed by the author to the 

 deficiency of the air at the outer edge of the calm, owing to the 

 deflective force of the earth's rotation and the upward and out- 

 ward movements of the air before reaching the centre ; the 

 deficiency being supplied by a gradual settling of the air 

 over the whole area, thus dissolving the cloud stratum and 

 showing the blue sky. The author admits that the discussion 

 of the subject shows the need of more observations concerning 

 the phenomenon. — Recent efforts towards the improvement of 

 daily weather forecasts, by H. Helm Clayton. The author states 

 in a clear and interesting form the various rules which have 

 hitherto been established, and draws attention to a law of 

 averages discovered by Francis Galton, which might with 

 advantage be used in weather forecasting, for, although only ap- 

 plied by Mr. Galton to heredity, it is probably universal. For 

 example, if a storm during a given twelve hours has moved with 

 a velocity below the average, the probability is that it will move 

 with a velocity one-third nearer the average during the next 

 twelve hours. — The other articles are — on the sea breeze, by 

 W. C. Appleton, and temperature sequences, by H. A. Hazen, 

 being an inquiry as to whether, if the temperature has been high 

 or low for a certain period, we may anticipate the contrary con- 

 dition shortly. The inquiry does not seem to have led to any 

 result which could be turned to practical use. 



Bulletin of the Nerv York Mathematical Society, vol. i., 

 No. 10 (New York, the Society, 1892). — The opening article 

 is a review (pp. 217-223) of "An Elementary Treatise on the 

 Differential Calculus by Joseph Edwards " (2nd edition, Mac- 

 millan, 1892), by Miss C. A. Scott. Whilst the reviewer 

 praises the "lucid and incisive style," the well- chosen words 

 and the well-balanced sentences, she does not fail to make a 

 slashing attack upon details, and to point out "certain specially 

 vicious features. There is considerable force in Dr. Scott s 



