May 24, 1894] 



NATURE 



85 



or sheet. The author also gave particulars of the experiments 

 made on some nickel alloys manufactured by Messrs. Fleitmann, 

 Witte, and Co., of .Schwerte (Westphalia). One of these alloys 

 (marked I, I ,) has when hard a specific resistance at 20' C. of 

 50'2 microhms and a temperature co-eflficient of - oooooii, 

 while when soft its specific resistance is 47T microhms and its 

 temperature co-efficient H 0000005. This alloy may prove of 

 considerable practical utility, although if it is found that its 

 thermoelectric power with reference to copper and brass is, as 

 is generally the case with these alloys, at all great, this will in a 

 great measure prohibit its use in cases where great accuracy is 

 required. During the discussion on the above paper M. Guil- 

 !aume mentioned that an alloy of 68 6 parts copper, 30 parts 

 manganese, and I '3 parts of iron has a specific resistance of 

 108 microhms, while its temperature co-efficient is very small, 

 even passing from positive to ncijative as the temperature rises. 

 He also mentioned that the difficulty of the high thermoelectric 

 power with reference to copper could be overcome if the wires 

 are soldered to plates of the same alloy, which are in turn 

 soldered to the copper connectors of the resistance boxes or 

 Wheatstone bridges. 



Profs. Riccu and Saija have, after many laborious efforts, 

 succeeded in obtaining a fairly accurate record of the diurnal 

 and annual variations of temperature on the summit of Mount 

 Etna. The results, as communicated to the Accademiix Gioenia 

 di Catania, form a valuable addition to meteorological 

 thermometry. The impossibility of maintaining a staff" at an 

 elevation of 3000 m. above sea-level, at a place difficult to 



I reach and without telegraphic communication, made the em- 

 ployment of automatic recording instruments indispensable. A 



■ Richard barograph and thermogiaph were installed at the Etna 

 Observatory, capable of acting for forty days without further 

 attention. Some interruptions occurred owing to the freezing 

 of the lubricants and irregular unrolling of the register paper, 

 but between August 27, 1891, and February 28, 1S94, a total of 



' 357 days were registered automatically, and 137 days by personal 

 observation. With the slight diurnal variation, 3-hour in 



I tervals were found sullicient. The highest temperature observed 



] was 16° C, on September 2, 1892 ; the lowest - 10 -3 C, on 

 March 2, 1893. As a rule, the coldest month was January, and 

 the warmest August. The mean diurnal variation was l°'6 in 

 winter, and 6°'8 in summer. The climate of the summit 

 of Etna, with its mean annual temperature of + i°'o6 C, 

 resembles that of the North Cape or the Brocken. The 

 uniformity of temperature was to be expected after similar 

 observations in the Alps, and the covering of snow, which 

 usually lies from the middle of November till the end of 

 March, serves to keep the diurnal oscillation in winter below 

 i '6 C. The changes of temperature during the year are very 

 similar to those observed at the foot of the volcano, but the 



I daily maximum, instead of being several hours after midday, 



i occurs just about noon at the summit, probably owing to the 

 absence of vapour capable of absorbing and storing up the heat 

 of the sun. 



LlTTLK is known of the interior of the great peninsula of 

 Labrador, that vast territory estimated to contain two hundred 

 and eighty-five thousand square miles. During the last six or 



I seven years, however, several explorers have visited the region, 

 and returned with interesting geographical results. Mr. H. G. 



] Bryant is one of these, and his description of the journey 

 through Labrador to the Grand Kails on the Grand, or Hamilton 

 River, recently published in a BuIUtin (vol. i. No. 2) of the 

 Geographical Club of Philadelphia, is full of interest. The 

 greater part of the paper, and all the excellent views that 

 illustrate it, originally appeared in the Century Magazine. Mr. 

 Bryant set out with Prof. C. A. Kenastpn in June 1891, and 

 KO. 1282, VOL. 50] 



they reached the Falls on September 2. A mile above the 

 main leap the river is about four hundred yards wide. Four 

 rapids intervene between this point and the Falls. At the first 

 rapid the width of the stream does not exceed one hundred and 

 seventy-five yards, and from thence it rapidly contracts until, 

 just above the escarpment proper, the water rushes between 

 banks not more than fifty yards apart. Below the Falls the 

 river runs for twenty-five miles between vertical clilTs of gneissic 

 rock, which rises in places to a height of four hundred feet. 

 ! The water falls through a height of about three hundred and 

 I twenty feet, and under favourable conditions the roar of the 

 cataract can be heard at a distance of twenty miles. Appended 

 to the paper is a list of plants collected by Prof. Kenaston during 

 I the expedition, and also the results of meteorological observa- 

 tions made at various points. The further exploration of the 

 region traversed by Messrs. Bryant and Kenaston would be of 

 great value to geographical science, and might lead to geological 

 discoveries of scientific and commercial importance. 



In order to satisfactorily identify any particular bacillus 

 with that generally associated with cholera, it is necessary 

 to have recourse to animal experiments. For this pur- 

 pose it has been customary to use guinea-pigs ; and 

 PfeifTer's method is to take about '0015 grm. of the 

 surface-growth of an agar-agar culture, distribute it in I c.c. of 

 sterile broth, and inject it into the peritoneal cavity. The 

 above quantity is usually fatal with characteristic symptoms to 

 an animal of 300-350 grms. weight. This is, however, by no 

 means a simple or easy operation, but so far no other method of 

 proving the virulence of the cholera bacillus has superseded it. 

 In a recent number of the Centralblatt fur Bakteriologie (vol. 

 XV. 1894, p. 150), Dr. Sabolotny describes some investigations 

 which he has made on the susceptibility of the marmot to 

 Koch's cholera bacillus. The experiments were carried out in 

 the Bacteriological Institute at Odessa, and Sabolotny mentions 

 that these animals are found in large numbers in the south of 

 Russia. When oi-o'2 c.c. of a one-day old broth-cholera- 

 culture grown at 37° C. is introduced into the peritoneal cavity 

 of marmots, they die in from 12-18 hours. Of much interest 

 is, however, the discovery that similar quantities of cholera 

 cultures introduced subcutaneously also proved fatal to these 

 animals, the bacilli being found in the blood, liver, spleen, and 

 peritoneal fluid. It was also found that they could be infected 

 per OS without any preliminary treatment with soda and opium, 

 for marmots fed with materials containing small quantities of 

 cholera bacilli died, and the latter were always found in large 

 numbers in the stomach, as well as frequently in the liver and 

 spleen, and also occasionally in the blood. The identification 

 of the cholera bacillus by animal experiment is thus greatly 

 simplified. 



The Committee that controls the operations of the Kew 

 Observatory, and which in February of last year became " The 

 Incorporated Kew Committee of the Royal .Society," have 

 issued their report of the work done during 1893. Undtrr experi 

 mental work we note that, to estimate the amount and density 

 of fog and mist, the observation of a series of distant objects 

 referred to in the last report were continued. A note is taken 

 of the most distant of the selected objects visible at each 

 observation hour. An analysis of the results for the period 

 May 1S92, to December 1893, is at present being carried out. 

 During the thickest fog experienced in 1893, at one of the hours 

 of observation the most distant object visible «.as only 12 feet 

 o(T. Twelve watches, designated " non-magnetic watches," 

 were examined during the year, both as to their ordinary time- 

 keeping and also as to their non-magnelic properties, and al- 

 though the trial to which they were submitted wa.s severe — the 

 movement being tested in an intense magnetic field, both itt 



