276 



NATURE 



[July 19, 1894 



The village of Gossau, situated about ten kilometres from 

 St. Gall io Switzerland, was recently the scene of a curious 

 electrical phenomenon. This village is lighted by a supply 

 station situated at a distance of twelve kilometres, which sup- 

 plies the current at high tension to transformers at the village. 

 During a thunderstorm, which lasted several hours, the supply , 

 wires were struck by lightning, all the electric lamps being 

 extinguished, while bright sparks passing between the aerial i 

 wires lighted up the whole village. These phenomena were 

 particularly brilliant at the chief transformer substation, 

 where the sparks continued to pass for more than an hour, and 

 only stopped when the circuit was broken at the generator 

 station. 



The current number of Science Progress contains a paper by 

 Mr. Chree, the Superintendent of the Kew Observatory. In 

 this paper, which is entitled " The most recent Values of the 

 Magnetic Elements at the Principal Magnetic Observatories of 

 the World," the author points out the importance of the con- 

 tinuous records of the different magnetic elements made at some 

 of the observatories, both for the purpose of applying the correc- 

 tion for secular change to the charts and maps useJ by travellers 

 by land and sea, and for allowing observers engaged on a mag- 

 netic survey to correct their observed results by allowing for any 

 disturbance of the observed element from its mean value at the 

 moment at which the observation was made. The possibility of 

 making this correction depends on the fact that the diurnal change 

 as well as the small irregular disturbances occur simultaneously, 

 and similarly over considerable tracts of country. This fact is 

 very markedly shown by superposing the photographic traces 

 obtained at Kew and Falmouth, when it will be found that every 

 little undulation is faithfully reproduced. The paper also con- 

 tains a " popular " account of the different observations made, 

 and the methods by which the photographic curves are ob- 

 tained and the results reduced. .\ most useful table of the 

 magnetic elements at the different observatories, which we see 

 from an editorial note is to be continued from year to year, 

 is appended. This table contains besides the latitude and 

 longitude of the observatory, th: mean declination, dip, hori- 

 zontal force and vertical force for the last year for which data 

 are available. A very useful addition to the table would be 

 four additional columns giving, where possible, the secular 

 change. 



We have received from T. Ilomcn, of the University of 

 Helsingfors, a work entitled BoJenphysikalische unJ meteoro- 

 logiiche lieobachtuit^en, which has been carefully compiled from 

 all available sources, and also from a long serie> of observations 

 made by the author, with especial reference to night frosts and 

 their effect upon vegetation in the spring and autumn. The obser- 

 vations and conclusions refer more particularly to northern Europe, 

 but will be foun 1 of practical use to agriculturists generally. 

 The work is divided into six sections ; the first three deal with the 

 tempera'.ure and the conductivity of the earth's surface, and at 

 various depths, with different kinds of soil, with the formation 

 of dc#, and with evaporation, while the last three chapters deal 

 with the phenomena of night fr.jits, the methods of their pre- 

 diction, and a discussion of the various means which may be 

 adopted to prevent or lessen their injury to vegetation. The 

 chapter relating to the conditions under which frosts usually 

 occur i< inttructive, and shows that they chiefly depend upon 

 the tracks taken by barometric depressions, the positions of 

 areas of high barometer, and on the amount of the radiation 

 from the surface of the earth. The method sometimes 

 adopted of predicting frost from the position of the dew-point 

 in the evening is shown to be very unsafe, especially for ground 

 tcmpsratures. The protection caused by burning wet straw or 

 most, anl »o preventing radiation by means of smoke, is fully 

 NO. 1290, VOL. 50] 



discussed ; but the plan is not likely to come into general use, 

 owing to the large area over which fires have to be lighted, and 

 the probability of the smoke being drifted away by currents of 

 air. The experiments have been made at a considerable cost of 

 labour and money, part of the necessary funds having been con- 

 tributed by the authorities of the University. 



.\ r.APERon the "Geology of Torres Straits," from the com 

 bined points of view of Profs. A. C. Haddon, W. J. Sollas, 

 F.R.S., and G. A. J. Cole, was read before the Royal Irish 

 .Academy two years ago, and has just been published in the 

 Society's Transactions (\ol. xxx. part XI.). This is the first 

 time that any detailed description has been given of the islands 

 between Queensland and New Guinea. One of the chief 

 conclusions arrived at, from a close study, is that no recent 

 movements of elevation of the shores of Torres Straits have taken 

 place. " As our knowledge grows " (the authors state) "we 

 the more distinctly see in .-Vustralia and its islands the ruins of a 

 great southern continent, fractured and submerged, possibly 

 during the great Alpine Himalayan revolutions, and now in 

 process of resurgence, as the vast folds of the earth's crust roll 

 slowly inwards upon the central continental mass." 



A COPY of Dr. Sykes' report on the cause of the increase of 

 mortality from diphtheria in London, prepared at the instance of 

 the Health Department of the Vestry of St. Pancras, has been 

 sent to us. Dr. Thorne Thome, who has also drawn up a report 

 on the same subject, concludes that increased school attendance 

 has had a material influence in increasing the spread of diph- 

 theria, and Dr. Sykes regards this conclusion as irresistible. 

 Again, the increase in cases described as diphtheritic m-iy be also 

 due to variation in nomenclature, most forms of infectious sore- 

 throat being now regarded as diphtheria, whereas formerly the terra 

 was restricted to typical cases. Dr. Sykes is, however, also of 

 opinion that the variation in nomenclature may very possibly be 

 due to a change of type in disease of the throat, brought about 

 by increased density of population in our great towns, and 

 the effects of increased personal infection conse^iuent upon 

 the greater aggregation in schools. Uut does this explain why 

 London should be singled out from all our great cities for such 

 a disastrous epidemic of diphtheria as has unfortunately pre- 

 vailed over such a long and continuous period .' Why should 

 not these causes apply with equal force to Glasgow, Man- 

 chester, Birmingham, or any of our great centres of industry? 



Frank, and afterwards Schloesing and Laurent, showed 

 that soil containing bacteria and alg.-e can fix free nitrogen in 

 large quantities ; their experiments, however, did not decide 

 whether alga; alone are capable of doing this. In order to answer 

 this question Kossowitsch has estimated {Rotanische Zeitung, 

 •May 16, 1S94) the amount of nitrogen present in a nutritive soil 

 before and after the growth of pure cultures of two kinds of 

 alga;, Cystococcus and Slichococciis. In neither case was any 

 sensible increase of nitrogen detected ; so that it appears that 

 neither of these alga: alone have the power of fixing free nitrogen. 

 Cystoioccus, even when mixed with pure cultures of the bacteria 

 which enable the Leguminosse to .issimilate free nitrogen, was 

 found pDwerlcss in this direction ; whereas a mixture of soil- 

 bacteria and Cystococcus, which also contained a small amount 

 of other alga;, had the power of fixing free nitrogen to a large 

 extent. The same author also describes a number of experiments 

 with heterogeneous mixtures of alga; and bacteria, and shows 

 how in each case the capability of fixing free nitrogen is grealljr 

 increased by the addition of dextrose to the nutritive sub- 

 stratum. From this and also from the fact that such mixtures 

 of algx and bacteria which arc capable of fixing free nitrogen 

 when exposed to light cannot be shown to assimilate it in the 

 dark, he concludes that although in no case has it been proved 



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