362 



NA TURE 



[August 9, 1894 



tific men from all classes and races of men in the British 

 Empire." It is remarked with regret that though such a 

 project as this has been contemplated by the authorities in 

 charge of the Institute, little more progress has been made 

 in the matter. We cordially agree with our contemporary in 

 thinking the matter important enough to engage the attention 

 of the committee of the Institute, and would urge that the 

 necessary steps for its consideration be taken at the earliest 

 possible date. 



Dr. J. \V. VAN Bebger, of the Deutsche Seewarte, has 

 examined the daily synoptic weather charts for the North 

 Atlantic Ocean and adjacent continents, issued in connection 

 with the Danish Meteorological Institute, for four years ending 

 November 1SS7, and has published some useful results obtained 

 from them in the Anualen der Hydrographie for June. The 

 tables show the frequency of the occurrence of barometric 

 depressions in the North Atlantic for areas of 10° of longi- 

 tude and 5' of latitude, and charts give further information 

 graphically. These low pressure areas exhibit an increase 

 of frequency from high northern to middle latitudes, and then a 

 decrease towards low latitudes, so that below the 30lh parallel 

 the minima occur very rarely. In the meridianal direction, the 

 barometric minima are most frequent on the e.istern coast of 

 North America, and originate less frequently over the ocean. 

 The mean height of the barometer in the areas of low pressure 

 exhibits several peculiarities in different seasons. In spring, 

 the depth of the barometric minima over the whole area is 

 relatively small ; to the south of Iceland the barometer fre- 

 quently falls considerably below twenty-nine inches. In 

 summer the mean height of the barometer, especially on 

 the ocean, is higher than in spring, the lowest readings being 

 generally between Iceland and Greenland, while in autumn 

 and winter the readings over the ocean are considerably 

 lower than in the other seasons. The lowest readings 

 are again found to the south of Iceland, where the mean 

 minima in winter fall below 2S'5 inches. With regard to 

 barometric maxima, or areas of high pressure, their movement 

 is mostly towards east and south-east. The regularity of their 

 paths is shown by the charts to be much greater than is usually 

 supposed. The behaviour of stationary maxima is very interest- 

 ing ; there is in all seasons a great frequency of stationary 

 maxima over the ocean between 20° and 40' W. long, and 25" 

 and 40° N. lat. There is also another maximum of frequency 

 in spring and summer between Greenland and Spitzbergen. 

 These stationary maxima exert an important influence over the 

 weather of the British Islands, and the discussion of synoptic 

 charts, such as now undertaken by Dr. van Bebber, is one of 

 the most likely means of improving our knowledge of weather 

 phenomena. 



An account of the performance of the new continuous-record 

 seismomelrograph of the Collegio Romano, during 1893 and 

 1894, was communicated to the Accademia dci Lincei at a 

 recent meeting by Dr. G. Agamennone. The regi^lration was 

 mechanical, and not, as in some modern instruments, photo- 

 graphic The pendulum for the two horizontal components 

 was 6m. long, and carried a bob weighing 75 kgr. Records 

 were obtained at Rome of the three earthquakes of Zanic in 

 1893, and also of the shocks felt in .Samothrace, Aleppo, .Scrvia, 

 and Nikolaiey. On November 5, 1893, the instruments, both 

 at the Collegio Romano and the Rocca di Papa Observatory, 

 registered the violent earthquake proceeding from Turkestan 

 and Northern India. Hut the most interesting record, repro- 

 duced in the author's paper, is that of the Japanese earth- 

 quake of March 22, 1894. The diiturbances registered at 

 Rome lasted nearly an hour, and showed three main .series of 

 (hocks, with intervals of comparative quiet between. Towards 



NO. 1293. VOL. 50] 



the close of the earthquake the individual wave-lines became 

 distinctly visible, each wave taking about seventeen seconds to 

 pass. Taking the velocity of propagation of these earth 

 tremors as 2500 metres per second, this would give some 40 km. 

 for the wave-length of this disturbance. These slow undula- 

 tions began to appear at I lh.'5Sm., whereas from the beginning 

 of the earthquake at lih. 37m. 20s. till then the period h.ad been 

 much shorter, and the individual traces overlapped. Wh.Tt is 

 of special importance in this record is the enormous distance 

 nearly one earth -quadrant — across which the disturbance v..u 

 propagated. 



At the last meeting of the Societe Helvetique des Sciences 

 Naturelles at Lausanne, M. Raoul Pictet gave some particulars 

 concerning cold-burns experienced by himself and his assistants 

 during his investigations of the lowest temperatures attainable, 

 lie distinguishes two degrees of burns. In the case of tht 

 first, the skin is reddened, and turns blue on the following day. 

 The area of the spot is nearly doubled during the following 

 days, and it is not generally healed till about five or six week; 

 afterwards. It is accompanied by a very painful itching on th( 

 affected spot and the surrounding tissues. When the burning ii 

 more serious, produced by a longer contact with the cold body, I 

 or by contact rendered perfect by alcohol, ether, or liquid air, r 

 burn of the second degree is experienced. The skin is rapidlj; 

 detached, and all the parts reached by the cold behave liki \ 

 foreign bodies. A long and stubborn suppuration sets in, whicl I 

 does not seem to accelerate the reconstitution of the tissues | 

 The wounds are always malignant, and scar very slowly and it 

 a manner altogether different from burns produced by tire 

 When on one occasion M. I'ictet had sufl'ered a severe burn ui 

 the hand, due to a drop of liquid air, he seriously scorched tlv 

 same hand .-iccidentally. The scorched portion was hcali 1 

 ten or twelve days, whereas six months afterwards the w 

 produced liy the cold burn w.is still open. In order tu try Ih 

 effect of radi.ition in dry cold air, .M. Pictet held his bare am 

 up to the elbow in a refrigerating vessel maintained at - 105 

 without touching the metallic walls. Me felt over the whol 

 skin and throughout the muscles a sensation which had a dii 

 tinct character, and could not be described by words. The set 

 sation is not disagreeable at first, but gradually become 

 decidedly so, and appears to have its scat in the central boneo 

 the periosteum. After three or four minutes the skin is ratht 

 blue, and the pain becomes intense and more deep-seated. 

 withdrawing the arm from the refrigerator at the end of te 

 minutes a strong reaction is experienced, accompanied by : 

 superficial inflammation of the skin. This reaction resemble' 

 that which takes place after handling snow for some time will' 

 bare arms, except that it is more intense. 



Whether electromagnetic waves are capable of produciD 

 mechanical eflects on the conductors forming resonators, is a quei 

 tion which h.as been investigated by different observers, theresul 

 obtained being entirely discordant. The current number 1 

 Wiedemann s Annalen contains a paper, by Ilerr Lcbedew, c| 

 the subject, in which he describes a new form of apparatus whio 

 he has employed, and with which he finds that these waves CI 

 exert mechanical effects on suspended resonators. The electr.j 

 waves were set up by means of a Lecher wire system twent | 

 eight metres long ; the waves in this system, which damp o> 

 with such great rapidity, being used to induce others in a 8u: 

 ably placed vibrator. The magnetic vibrator consists of 

 piece of zinc, 20 cm. by 65 cm., bent double, sothat the disi 

 between the opposite ends, which form the plates of a condci 

 could be adjusted, and thus the wave-length of the vibrai 

 produced be varied between 320 cm. and 380 cm. The magii^ 

 resonator consists of a coil of four turns of fine silver wire, wi 

 its .axis horizontal, and having terminals connected to two clecli 



