September 22, 1892] 



NATURE 



493 



markings. And it is quite possible that the shadow 

 has been observed on more than one occasion, but 

 mistaken for an ordinary spot on the surface of Jupiter. 



A curious fact in connection with the new satellite 

 is its diminutive size as compared with the four others 

 discovered by Galileo in 1610. But there is a similar 

 disparity in the dimensions of the satellites of Saturn, 

 and in proof of this we have only to compare the bright 

 Titan with the excessively faint Mt'mas and Hyperion. 

 Small as it is, however, it is certain that this new satel- 

 lite of Jupiter is much larger than either of the two 

 abnormally minute moons of Mars. 



American astronomers are to be congratulated on this 

 important discovery. Scientific activity in the United 

 States has been rapidly developing in recent years, and 

 this has been strikingly exemplified in the wide and 

 attractive domain of astronomy. W. F. Denning. 



NOTES. 

 The French Association for the Advancement of Science is 

 holding at Pau its twenty-first annual meeting. The meeting 

 began on Saturday last, when the members of the Association 

 were cordially welcomed to Pau by the Mayor. The President, 

 M. Collignon, delivered an address on the science and art of the 

 engineer. 



The autumn meetings of the Iron and Steel Institute, under 

 the presidency of Sir Frederick Abel, began at St. George's 

 Hall, Liverpool, on Tuesday. At the opening meeting the Pre- 

 sident announced that the Council had elected Mr. Windsor 

 Richards as his successor. 



We are glad to announce that a new Biological Laboratory 

 is about to be established in the Calcutta Zoological Gardens. 

 Babu Joy Gobinda Law, a member of one of the wealthy native 

 families of Bengal, has offered R. 15,003 for the buildings and 

 fittings of this institution. The primary object for which the 

 Laboratory is founded is to investigate the action of snake- 

 poison, and to discover, if possible, an antidote. The Laboratory 

 will, however, also be used for anatomical and pathological re- 

 searches, for which the rich material afforded by the animals in 

 the gardens will be available. 



The Marine Biological Laboratory at Wood Hole, U.S., 

 has been more successful this summer than in any previous year. 

 During its season of work it had a corps of seventeen officers, 

 instructors, and assistants, and an attendance of thirty-eight in- 

 vestigators and sixty-two elementary students. 



With the designation of the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory, a 

 marine biological laboratory has been established at Pacific 

 Grove, California. We learn from the Botanical Gazelle that, 

 through the generosity of the Pacific Improvement Company, a 

 piece of land has been furnished, and a sum granted sufficient to 

 erect a plain frame building ; and, by the liberality of Mr. 

 Timothy Hopkins, provision is made for the equipment of the 

 building, and for the further continuation and extension of the 

 enterprise. An elementary course of lectures on marine botany 

 was to be given during the present season. 



The weather during the past week was very fine and bright over 

 the southern and eastern portions of the United Kingdom, until 

 near the close of the period, when the type entirely changed, and 

 thunderstorms, accompanied by heavy rain, occurred generally, but 

 in the north and west the conditions were throughout far less settled. 

 Cyclonic disturbances arrived on our coasts from the Atlantic 

 with considerable frequency, and although they were for the 

 most part slight and shallow, and unaccompanied by much wind, 

 they were productive of a considerable quantity of rain. An 

 important disturbance passed to the north of Scotland on 

 NO. IT 95. VOL. 46"] 



Thursday night and during Friday, and was accompanied by 

 strong gales on our north-west and north coasts. Temperatures 

 were high for the season over the greater part of England, and 

 on Monday the day readings in places were higher than at any 

 time during the month, the shade thermometer registering 72' 

 in London. Some nights, however, were exceptionally cold, 

 the shade minimum between Saturday and Sunday falling to 

 within one degree of the freezing point in the eastern part of 

 England, while there was a sharp frost on the ground open to 

 the sky. The Weekly Weather Report, issued on the 17th inst., 

 shows that the rainfall exceeded the mean in the north and west 

 of Scotland and in the north of Ireland. In all the other parts 

 of the United Kingdom there was a deficit ; in most of the 

 English districts the fall was very slight. 



The Report of the Meteorological Commission for the year 

 1891 states that complete, or nearly complete, meteorological 

 observations have been received from forty-nine stations, and 

 that observations of rainfall have been furnished from 320 

 stations ; the instruments are usually supplied by the Com- 

 mission. The Report contains diagrami showing the mean 

 monthly rainfall corrected to date at thirty-three stations, 

 together with the abnormal falls in the years 1888 and 1891. 

 The rainfall in 1891 has been excessive, especially over the 

 eastern part of the colony and over the Orange Free State, 

 where at some places it exceeded 12 inches above the average. 

 The observer at Phillipolis states that hardly a farmer in that 

 district but has lost one-third of his sheep, owing to the con- 

 tinued wet, and in some places the farmers have had to vacate 

 their homes in consequence of the weather. 



The *' Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic Ocean " for Septem- 

 ber contains tracks of the drift of the two parts of the derelict 

 ship Fred. B. Taylor, which was cut in two by a collision on June 

 22, in lat. 40° 19' N., long. 68° 33' W. The forward and after 

 parts separated, and drifted in entirely different directions, in a 

 manner which is quite unprecedented in the history of ship- 

 wrecks. The after end was evidently influenced more by wind 

 than the bow portion ; the latter pursued a south-westerly 

 course, which was attributable largely to the cold southerly 

 current between the American coast and the Gulf Stream, and 

 on August 26 had drifted to lat. 38° 40', long. 73° 15'. The 

 stern part took a direct northerly course until July 17, when it 

 was ten miles north-west of Matinicus Island, whence it took a 

 westerly course, and was cast ashore on August 7 on Wells 

 Beach, near Cape Porpoise. 



The first annual convention of the American Association of 

 State Weather Services was held at Rochester, N.Y., on 

 August IS and 16, in conjunction with the meeting of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was 

 largely attended by representatives of the various States. The 

 subject of thermometer exposure was discussed, and a com- 

 mittee was appointed to consider the most suitable form of 

 shelter and manner of exposure to be adopted throughout the 

 country. It was resolved that means should be deduced from 

 self-registering instruments wherever practicable, in preference 

 to the method of using eye observations. An interesting paper 

 was read by W. L. Moore, of Wisconsin, on the forecasting of 

 thunderstorms ; and the question of the best methods of signal- 

 ling weather forecasts, whether by flags, semaphores, sphericaj 

 bodies hoisted on a staff, &c., was freely discussed, and a com- 

 mittee was appointed to report upon the subject at an early 

 date. It was decided that each State service should have a 

 separate exhibit at the World's Fair at Chicago, and not to 

 have the exhibits collected in the building for the use of the 

 United States Weather Bureau. 



Last year an Aino in the western part of the island of Yezo 

 caught two bears, one of which was perfectly white. This 



