August i, 1895] 



NATURE 



oo3 



elementary biology, Mr. V. Gymer Parsons, Mr. P. Chalmers 

 Mitchell ; elementary iihysioloRj') Dr. H. Lewis Jones ; physio- 

 logy, Dr. Vincent D. Harris, Dr. Thomas Oliver, Dr. Frederick 

 W. Mott ; anatomy, Mr. Charles .Stonham, Prof. t;. Dancer 

 Thane ; medical anatomy and principles and practice of medicine, 

 Dr. Philip J. Hensley, Dr. J. Burney Yeo, Dr. (I. Vivian Poore, 

 Dr. J. .Mitchell Bruce, Dr. Frederick Taylor, Dr. Stephen 

 Mackenzie, Dr. William Ewart, Dr. Seymour J. Sharkey, Dr. 

 J. Kingston Fowler, Dr. Robert .Saundby ; midwifery, I)r. J. 

 Baptiste Potter, Dr. J. Watt Black, Dr. Peter Horrocks, DV. 

 Walter S. A. (iriffith ; surgical anatomy and principles and 

 practice of surger)', Mr. John Langton, Sir. J. N. C. Davies- 

 Colley ; public health. Dr. Charles H. Ralfe, Dr. William 

 Pasteur ; Murchison Scholarship, Dr. F. Charlwood Turner, 

 Dr. Samuel H. West. 



We gave last week the names of the Research Scholars 

 appointed for 1895, by Her Majesty's Commissioners for the 

 Exhibition of 1851. We are now informed that the following 

 .scholars, appointed in 1894, have forwarfled satisfiictory reports 

 of their work during the first year of their scholarships, which 

 have accordingly been renewed for a second year. 



,^''Ji'(■.— Such of the above .Scholars as remained at the nominating Institu- 

 tion for the first year will now proceed to another Institution in England 

 or abroad. 



The following scholars, appointed in 1S93, have been selected 

 or exceptional renewal for a third year : — 



Name of Scholar. 



H. W. R^>!am., 

 J. \V. WalkL-r 



J. E. Myers 

 E. C. C. Hal 



Nominating Institution. 



University of Edinburgh 

 University of St. 

 .\ndrcws 



Yorkshire College, Leeds 

 University College, 

 London 



Place of Study. 



University of Leipzig. 



Universities of Leipzig 



and St. Andrews. 

 University of Strassburg 



University College, 

 London. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



American ■ Mcleorolooical foiirnal, July. — The geographical 

 distribution of the maximum and minimvnn hourly wind velocities 

 . . . for January and July, for the United States, by Dr. F. 

 Waldo. This discussion is based on the .Signal Service and 

 Weather Bureau observations, and the subject is treate<l in 

 various ways, and illustrated by wind charts. We select from 

 ihesc (i) the hour of maximum wind and {2) the maximum 

 hourly wind, in miles per hour. There is no great regularity in 

 I he time of occurrence of the strongest wind; in January it 

 occurs on the Atlantic coast from 2h. to 4h. a.m., and on the 

 North Pacific coast it is retarded to 6h. a.m. On the Gulf of 

 Mexico it takes place about noon, while at inland stations it 

 occurs generally about 2h. p.m. In July, on the .\tlantic coa.st, 

 I there is a maximum wind about 2h. p.m. in latitude 45°, but 

 with soiuhward progress it is retarded, until in latitude 30' the 

 hour is changed to 6h. p.m. In the southern i)art of the Pacific 



! NO. 1344, VOL. 52] 



coast, the time of maximum is ih. p.m., which is much earlier 

 than for the adjacent inland or the northern part of the coast. 

 In general, for the inland north-east the hour is 2h. p.m., and 

 there is a retardation with both western and southern progress. 

 In January the maximimi hourly wind reaches a velocity of 

 seventeen miles on the northern parts of the Atlantic and Pacific 

 ct>asts, decreasing with southward progress, while the inland dis- 

 tribution .shows a maximum of ten to thirteen miles per hour over 

 the (Sreat Plains. In July, the maximum hourly wind is eleven 

 to thirteen miles on the -\tlantic coast, while on the North 

 Pacific coast there is a very small maximum (eight miles), but 

 this is counterbalanced by the very high velocity of eighteen 

 miles per hour on the central Californian coast. A reference to 

 the wind charts shows the prevailing conditions much better than 

 any verbal description can do. 



BnUctin of the American Mathematical Society^ Xo. 9. 

 (June 1895, New York). — Mr. J. dePerottgivesa very interesting 

 sketch of Euclidian arithmetic in connection with a notice of the 

 late M. Stieltjes' contribution tcj the Annales dc la Faciiltc dcs 

 Sciences dc Toulouse, vol. iv., entitled " Sur la theorie des 

 nombres.' M. Stieltjes had it in contemplation to write an ex- 

 tensive treatise on the theory of numbers, but unhappily his 

 weak health and final untimely death prevented his getting 

 beyond the paper noticed by Mr. de Perott. This paper is 

 devoted to a greatly generalised form of Euclid's work. " It 

 does not insist on the definition of number, nor on the laws 

 which are at the base of the operations we perform on numbers, 

 but passes immediately to the exposition of the chief properties 

 of the least common multiple and the greatest common divisor 

 of numbers. . . . Poinsot was the first, I think, to whom it 

 occurred that the course could be reversed.'' The results are 

 expressed in a very symmetrical form by the author of the note. 

 — Mr. G. L. Brownwrites a short note on Holder's theorem con- 

 cerning the constancy of factor-groups, and Prof. F. Morley 

 a like note on the theory of three similar figures. The theory 

 has been recently given in the sixth edition of Casey's " Sequel 

 to Euclid," and also in the second edition of his " Conies." 

 Prof. Morley' believes that something is to be said in favour of 

 an appropriate analytic handling of the theory, and gives here 

 some preliminary equations in a convenient form. 



Bollettino della Societa Sisinologicd Italiana, I., 1S95, ^*'' 

 3. — Microseismograph for continuous registration, by Prof. G. 

 Vicentini (see p. 178.) — New type of seismic photochronograph 

 and its applications, by -\. Cancani. ,\ description of an 

 instrument by which the face of a chronometer is photographed 

 at the moment of the shock or of the arrival of long-period 

 pulsations from a distant earthquake. — Review of the principal 

 eruptive phenomena in Sicily and the adjacent islands during the 

 four months January- April, 1895, by S. Archidiacono. — The. 

 Viggianello (Basilicata) earthquake of May 28, 1894, by M. 

 Baratta. An account of an interesting tectonic earthquake. 

 The meizoseismal area, whicli is elliptical and only about 17 km. 

 long, is restricted to the northern slopes of .M. Pollino. This 

 group of mountains represents the northern half of a vast 

 ellipsoid of dolomites and limestones, traversed by great 

 fractures, which, if produced, pass through Rotonda and 

 Viggianello, the towns most damaged by the shock. — Notices of 

 Italian earthquakes (February-April, 1895). 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, July 22. — M. Marey in the chair. — 

 Researches on the composition of grapes from the principal 

 French vines, by M.M. Aime Girard and L. Lindet. — On the 

 osmotic phenomena produced between ether and methyl 

 alcohol across ditferent diaphragms, by M. F. M. Raoult. It is 

 found that with ether and methyl alcohol on the respective sides 

 of a diaphragm of pigs bladder, the methyl alcohol jiasses by 

 osmosis. to the ether side. The bladder membrane appears to 

 be impermeable to ether ; even with mixtures the transference 

 is always of methyl alcohol towards the side where it is of less 

 concentration. Exactly the reverse occurs with a vulcanised 

 caoutchouc membrane, which is impermeable to methyl alcohol, 

 but permealile to ether. The experiments show : ( i ) that 

 osmosis between two determined liquids may not only vary 

 nuich in energy, but even change its sense with the nature of 

 tlie diaphragm ; (2) that the osmotic movement of substances 



