June 20, 1895] 



NATURE 



^77 



woody, President ; James Berry, Secretary. Society for Pro- 

 moting Engineering Education : Geo. F. Swain, President ; 

 Prof. J. B. Johnson, Secretar)'. American Chemical Society : 

 Edgar F. Smith, President ; Prof. Albert C. Hale, Secretary. 

 American Forestry Association : Hon. J. Sterling Morton, 

 President ; F. H. Newell, Secretar)-. Applications relating to 

 membership and papers should be sent to Prof. F. W. Putnam, 

 Permanent Secretary, Salem, Mass. For all matters relating to 

 local arrangements, hotels, railway rates and certificates, Mr. 

 W. A. Webster, Local Secretar)-, A. A. A. S., Springfield, 

 Mass., .should be addressed. 



Mr. R. F. Sti-part has succeeded the late Mr. C. Carpmael, 

 as Director of the Meteorological Service of Canada. 



The Grocers' Company have renewed the research scholar- 

 ship held by Mr. Leonard Hill, and have elected Dr. J. Haldane 

 and Prof Waymouth Reid to the places vacated by Dr. Vaughan 

 Harley and Dr. E. Stirling. The scholarships are each of the 

 value of ;£^250 a year. 



At the annual meeting of the London Library-, held on Friday 

 last, Mr. Herbert Spencer w-as elected a vice-president, and Prof 

 Huxley was elected a member of the committee. A srheme for 

 the reconstruction and extension of the premises, at an estimated 

 cost of ^17,000, was discussed and adopted, and it was decided 

 to commence the work when a sum of ^5000 has been obtained 

 by means of donations. 



The Organising Committee of the International Congress of 

 Applied Chemistry, to be held in Paris next year, met a few- 

 days ago to make preliminary arrangements. The Congress will 

 ■be divided into ten sections, referring respectively to sugar re- 

 fineries, distilleries and brewing industries, agricultural industries, 

 agricultural chemistry, alimentation and public hygiene, chemical 

 industries, chemical apparatus, metallurgical chemistr)-, photo- 

 graphic chemistr)-, and electro-chemistr)-. 



The fifth annual conference of rej^resentativcs of authorities 

 under the Sea Fisheries Act was held on Friday last, under the 

 presidency of Sir Courtenay Boyle. In the course of a few re- 

 marks upon the establishment of hatcheries for sea-fish by com- 

 mittees, or out of Imperial funds, Mr. Bryce pointed out that a 

 great deal had been done by marine laboratories and stations for 

 observation, to determine more fully the habits of the fish, and 

 remarked that only by means of hatcheries, and by prohibiting 

 the taking of undersized fish, was it possible to recreate the 

 diminishing supply of our soles and other flat fish. 



We notice with regret that Dr. Valentine Ball, C.B., I-.R.S., 

 Director of the National Museum, Dublin, died on Saturday, 

 after a short illness. Dr. Ball was for seventeen years con- 

 nected with the Geological Survey of India. On the resigna- 

 tion of the chair of Geology in the University of Dublin by Dr. 

 Haughton, he was appointed to it, and twelve years ago he 

 accepted the position which he held at the time of his death. 

 He was the author of several valuable treatises, and while 

 Director of the National Museum, he greatly added to the value 

 of the collections. 



Several exhibitions and congresses of scientific interest are 

 noted in the Board of Trade Journal as having been lately pro- 

 jected. In connection with the thirteenth International Exhibi- 

 tion to be held at Bordeaux in September next, the Societe 

 Philomathiijue of the town will organise a congress of technical, 

 industrial, and commercial instruction similar to that held in 

 1886, at which the English Government was officially rejire- 

 SLUted. An international exhibition of articles of food, clothing, 

 hygienic appliances, sport, and inventions of all kinds will be 

 held at the " Parkhaus," Bremen, in the course of this year. 

 It will be open from September 14 to October 6. An inter- 

 national exhibition will also be held in Montreal, Canada, next 



NO. 1338, VOL. 52] 



year. The exhibition will open in May, and close in October. 



It will be held on the site of the present exhibition grounds and 

 on adjoining land of the Mount ICoyal Park, embracing altogether 

 about 120 acres. The buildings will be twenty-seven in number, 

 and will be devoted to fine arts, manufactures, and liberal arts, 

 electricity, machiner)-, fisheries, forestry, horticulture, agri- 

 culture, &c. Finally, according to latest advices from Denver, 

 the plans for the holding of a mining and industrial exhibition in 

 that city, in the fall of next year, are being advanced w ith vigour 

 and success. 



The New Vork State Bridge Commission have approved the 

 plan of Engineer Charles MacDonald for a steel suspension bridge 

 from New Jersey to New Vork City. The bridge will be 5600 feet 

 long, with a length of 3110 feet between piers; 125 feet wide, 

 with room for six railroad tracks ; and 1 50 feet above mean tide- 

 water. The piers will be 557 feet high, supported by 125^ 

 feet of solid masonry. The cost is guaranteed not to exceed 

 25,000,000 dollars. The bridge will be much the largest 

 suspension bridge ever attempted. 



0.\E of the most remarkable features of earthquake-pulsa- 

 tions is their great duration. The originating earthquake may 

 last but a few seconds or minutes, while the ground at a dis- 

 tance may rock gently through a very small angle for several or 

 many hours. Dr. E. Oddone, of the geodynamic observ-atory 

 at Pavia, has recently contributed an interesting paper on this sub- 

 ject (Rend, delta K. Ace. del Lincei, iv., 1895, pp. 425-430). 

 Making use of the records of distant earthquakes during the 

 years 1893-94 by delicate seismometrographs at Rocca di Papa, 

 Rome and Siena, he arrives at the important conclusion that the 

 duration of the pulsations increases with the distance from the 

 epicentre. 



Some singular curves showing the distribution of daily wind 

 velocities in the United States, are published by Mr. F. Waldo 

 in the current number of the American Journal of Science. The 

 stations chosen range from the Atlantic to the Pacific and. 

 Mexican coasts, and include Block Island, New Vork, Cleveland, 

 San Francisco, San Diego, North Platte, Fort Apache, Sail 

 Lake City, and Roseburgh, among others. The months of 

 January and July are selected as typical months for average daily 

 variation. The daily variations are always greater in summer 

 than in winter, except for Fort Apache, on the great plateau,, 

 where the e.xcursions are about equal. At this place the 

 velocities vary from 9-2 to 3-3 miles per hour in January, and 

 from lo'i to 2-9 miles per hour in July, the maximum in each 

 case taking place at about 4 p.m., and the minimum at 

 8 a.m. The greatest variation of all is shown by the San 

 Francisco curve for July. About 4 p.m. the wind blows with a 

 speed of some 18 miles per hour, which falls to 7 miles per hour 

 in the forenoon. Tatoosh Island show-s a minimum at 2 p.m. 

 in January-, but its variations in July are similar to those at 

 Block Island in the .\tlantic, which shows the same sequence as 

 the continental stations referred to, but with smaller amjilitudes. 



Two observations recorded by Mr. W. C. J. Butterfield, in 

 the Zoologist, give support to the view- that individual female 

 Cuckoos only introduce their eggs into the nests of one particular 

 species of birds, and not indiscriminately into those of any of 

 the birds usually selected as foster-parents. Mr. Butterfield 

 took a Cuckoo's egg from a Wren's nest in the early part of 

 May, and three weeks later found another Wren's nest within 

 a few yards of the former one, also containing a Cuckoo's egg. 

 The two eggs were exactly alike, both as to size, and as to 

 the manner in which the colouring matters and markings were 

 disposed. It is therefore most probable that the eggs were laid 

 by the same bird ; for it is well known that a strong family 

 likeness exists between the eggs laid by the same individual, 

 although the eggs of different individuals of the same specie-s- 



