June 6, 1895] 



NATURE 



"^io 



NOTES. 

 Prof. Cornu, the \'ice-Presi(lem of the I'aris Academy of 

 Sciences, is now in England, and will deliver (he discourse at 

 the Royal Institution to-morrow evening. On Tuesday evening 

 he was entertained by the members of the Athena-um Club « ho 

 are members of the Institut de France, either as Associates or 

 Correspondants. There were present, representing the 

 Academic des Sciences, Lord Kelvin (.\ssociate), Sir II. 

 Gilbert, Mr. Huggins, Mr. Lockyer, .\dmiral Sir CI. H. 

 Richards, and Mr. Sylvester (Correspondants) ; representing the 

 Academic des Inscriptions, Sir J. Evans and Sir E. Maunde 

 Thompson ; representing the Academic des Beaux Arts, Mr. 

 Herkomer. Letters of regret for unavoidable absence were read 

 from Mr. Frankland and Sir Joseph Lister, .\ssociates of the 

 Acadcniie des .Sciences : and Sir J. Hooker, Lord Rayleigh, Sir 

 A. Geikie, Dr. Williamson, and SirIL Roscoe, Correspondants ; 

 Academic des Beau-x Arts, Sir J. Millais, Mr. Ahna-Tadema, 

 Sir E. Burne-Jones ; Academic des Sciences Morales et Poli- 

 tiques, Mr. Goschen, Mr. Bryce, Mr. Lecky, and Sir F. 

 Pollock. 



.Mk. Herbert SrENCER has been created by the German 

 Emperor a foreign Knight of the Order Pour le Merite. -Another 

 mark of the esteem in which he is held is his election as an 

 Honorary Member of the \"ienna Academy of Sciences. 



SiK .\rchibald Geikie has just been elected a Correspond- 

 ing Member of the same Academy. 



IJk. Backlund has been appointed Director of the Pul- 

 kcua Observatory, and Dr. Hermann Struve will succeed the 

 late Dr. C. F. W. Peters as Director of the Kdnigsberg 

 Ol'servatory. 



1 1 is noted in Science that Deputy Surgeon-CIeneral J. S. 

 Killings will shortly leave the Army Medical Museiun, of which he 

 is curator, and the Library of the Surgeon-General's OlVire, of 

 which he is librarian, having accepted the chair of Hygiene 

 in the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Billings hopes to com- 

 plete his work on the final volume of the great Index Catalogue 

 before his retirement. 



Dr. John Anthony, whose name is familiar to many 

 worker.- in microscopy, died at Birmingham on .Monday, at 

 eighty-one years of age. 



TiiK death is announced of Prof. I'lanz Ernst Neumann, 

 Honorary President of the Phy.sikalisch-Okonomische Gesell- 

 schaft at Kiinigsberg. Prof. Neumann died on May 23 at the 

 advanced age of ninety-seven, having lieen born September 1 1 , 

 179S. He was eminent in the department of mathematical 

 physics, and was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society of 

 Louiliin in 1862. | 



.\\ioNc.other deaths of scientific menabroad, we notice that of 

 Di. John Byron, well-known for his bacteriological researches. 

 Hewasliacteriologistin the Loomis Laboratory, and lecturer on 

 bacteriology in the University Medical School of New York. 

 Dr. I{>ron is believed to have contracted the disease of which 

 he died, by inhaling tubercle bacilli while carrying out some 

 experiments. The deaths are also announced of Dr. O. 

 Keich. at Berlin : Dr. F. Miiller, the zoologist, at Basel : and 

 Brigailier-(;eneral Charles Sutherland, formerly Surgeoh- 

 Geiieral of the United States Army, at Washington. 



The Ilarveian Oration will be delivered at Edinburgh on 

 June 2S, by Dr. Vellowlees. 



The Secretary of State for the Home Department has 



reiiucsied the following gentlemen to inquire into and report on 



the manufacture, filling, and use of gas cylinders :— Prof C. \'. 



Boys, ['rof. H. B. Dixon, Dr. .\. Dupre, the Rev. F. J. Smith, 



NO. 1336, VOL. 52] 



and Prof W. C. Unwin. Mr. Robert F. Rejuard, of the Home 

 Office, will act as secretar)'. 



.\cTlNi; under the Wild Birds Protection Act, 1894, notice has 

 been gi\ en by the Home Secretar)-, that the taking or destroying of 

 the eggs of the " barn owl, brown or wood owl, long-eared owl, 

 .short-eared owl, common buzzard, merlin, kestrel, goldfinch, 

 black-headed gull, peregrine falcon, kingfisher, dotterel, raven, 

 heron, bittern, woodcock, dijipcr or water ouzel, and golden 

 plover," is prohibited in an)- part of the county of Westmor- 

 land. 



The [ireliminary programme for the sixty-third annual 

 meeting of the British Medical .\ssociation, to be held in Lon<lon 

 from July 30 to .\ugust 2, is given in the British Medical 

 foiiynal. The President, Sir J. Russell Reynolds, hiII deliver 

 his address on July 30. The .\ddress in Medicine will be de- 

 livered by .Sir William Broadbent on the following day. Mr. 

 Jonathan Hutchinson, F. R.S. , will gi\e the Address in Surgery 

 on Thursda)', .\ugust i, and the .\ddress in Physiology will be 

 given by Prof. E. .\. .Schafer at the concluding meeting on 

 August 2. 



At the annual general meeting of the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers, held last week, .Sir B. Baker was elected President, 

 and Mr. J. Wolfe Barry, C.B., Mr. W. H. Preece, C.B., Sir 

 Douglas Fox, and Mr. James Mansergh \'ice-Presidents. The 

 members of the Council are Dr. W. Anderson, Mr. Alex. R. 

 Binnie, Mr. W. R. Galbrailh, .Mr. J. H. Greathead, .Mr. \. C. 

 Ilawkshaw, Mr. C. Hawksley, Dr. John Hopkinson, Dr. .\lcx. 

 B. W. Kennedy, Sir G. L. Molesworth, .Sir .Andrew Noble, Sir 

 E. J. Reed, Mr. W. Shelford, Mr. F. W. Webb, Sir W. H. 

 White, and Sir E. Leader Williams. 



We have received from Dr. P. Bergholz, Director of the 

 Meteorological Observatory at Bremen, the results of the hourly 

 observations made during the year 1894, with rainfall values 

 obtained from four stations in the .suburbs. This obser\atory 

 I forms part of the regular German meteorological service, and 

 j the results are therefore given in the form recommended by re- 

 cent congresses : but in addition to the prescribed observation.s 

 the «ork c<mtains other valuable information, e.g. phenological 

 observations, and the dates of freezing and clearing of the Weser 

 since iSiS. This table shows that the most prolonged frosts 

 j during that period were in 1S44-5, 1846-7, 1857-S, and 1870-1. 

 In each case the Weser was frozen over for two months or up- 

 wards. We observe, however, that the publication of the data 

 is to be discontinued, as that river is now kept free for navigation 

 by artificial means. .V graphical representation of the principal 

 meteorological results gives a ready means of comparing the 

 characteristics of the difterent months. 



The Egyptian Government have published an important 

 paper on the climate of Cairo and .Alexandria, based on observa- 

 tions taken between 1886 and 1890, and discussed by Dr. Engel, 

 chief of the Statistical Service. The work contains a number of 

 tables and diagrams, together with introductory text, from which 

 we extract a few of the results obtained. At Cairo, the mean 

 annual temperature for the five years was 70 '3, the absolute 

 maximum being Il8°'2 on June 13, 1886, and the lowest 33°'S 

 on January I, 1890. The average yearly number of rainy days 

 was twenty-four, and the amount I '2 inch only. At Alexandria 

 the ntean temperature was 68' '5, the absolule maximum being 

 I00°'6, on May 10, 1889, and the minimum 43°'9, on January 22, 

 1S89. The average number of rainy days was forty, and the 

 amomit 8'2 inches. The princiiial difference in the climate of 

 lite two places consists in the diurnal and seasonal variations of 

 temperature. Cairo is much the hotter of the two places in 

 summer, but cooler than Alexandria in the winter ; and the 

 tlifferences in the extreme tem]>eratures are much greater at 



