August i6, 1894J 



NATURE 



39: 



NOTES. 

 The death is announced of Prof. Rudolph Weber, Herlin, at 

 the age of sixty-five, and of Prof. M. P. J. Rollet, of Lyons 

 Observatory, a corre-pondent in the Mcdecine et Chirurgie 

 Section of the Paris Academy of Sciences. 



The University of Halle, on the occasion of the recent bi- 

 centenary celebrations, conferred the honorary degree of Ph.D. 

 upon Prof. Victor Horsley, F. fi.S. ; Mr. K. G. Kenyon and 

 Mr. H. L. D. Ward, both of the British Museum ; Mr. G. A. 

 Grierson, and Prof. W. W. Skeat. 



A Reuter telegram reports that Mr. Aagaard, the United 

 States Consular Agent at Tromsci, has despatched Captain 

 Bottolfsen on board the fast-sailing cutter Malygen to Spiiz- 

 bergen with a supply of provisions and clothing for the Well- 

 man Expedition, for which the Malygen will search, and which, 

 if possible, it will take back to Tromso. 



The President of the Photographic Society of (Ireat Rritain 

 ha* receiveil a communication from the .Secretary of Slate to 

 the effect that the Queen has given her consent to the proposal 

 to call the Society "The Royal Photographic Society c' Great 

 liritain." 



Herr Otto Lillenthal, whose aerial excursions were de- 

 scribed in these columns a short time ago, recently met with a 

 serious accident. The wings of his flying machine collapsed 

 wliile he was at an altitude of about two hundred feet, causing 

 him to fall to the ground. Ilis fall was broken to some extent, 

 but he was badly injured. 



.•\n earthquake disturbance i5 reported to have occurred at 

 Aci Rea'c-, Sicily, shortly before six o'clock on the morning of 

 AiiL S. Great damage was done at Zafarana, where six 

 I i I , I. were killed and several injured. Both there and at Aci 

 Sin Antonio, nearly all the houses have fallen in. Slight 

 shocks were felt in Catania and several other communes in the 

 neighbourhood of Mount Etna, bat no damage was done. 



The Times correspondent at Calcutta, writing on August 12, 

 reports that the Gohna Lake rose 24 ft. 6 in. last week, and 

 is now within 57 ft. of the top of the dam. Its full length 

 is now 4^ miles, the average width being half a mile. The 

 greatest depth is 720 ft. The percolation is very heavy. This, 

 combined with heavy rain, has wa^^hed away a large portion 

 of the lower part of the dam, leaving an almost perpendicular 

 drop of 400 ft. The section thus displayed shows a layer of 

 boulders on the top, below which is pulverised rock. The lake 

 is expected to overflow within fifteen days. 



We learn that the arrangements have now been completed for 

 the fourteenth congress and exhibition of the Sinitary Institute, 

 to be held in Liverpool near the end of next month. On 

 Monday, September 24, the Lord Mayor of Liverpool will 

 receive members at the Town-hall, and the President, Sir F. 

 S. Powell, M.P., will deliver the imugural address in the large 

 theatre of University College ; while in the evening the Lord 

 Mayor will formally open the exhibition. Next day there will 

 be conferences in University College on a variety of subjects. 

 In the conference on " Domestic Hygiene," the Lady Mayoress 

 will preside, and the ladies will afterwards hold a reception. 

 At night Dr. G. B. LongitalT lectures at University College. 

 On September 26, Section I., " Sanitary Science and Preventive 

 Medicine," meet under the presidency of Dr. Klein, in the 

 college, and the discussion will be continued next day. The 

 Lord Mayor gives a reception in the Walker Art Gallery on 

 Wednesday evening. Section II., "Engineering and Architec- 

 ture," meets on Thurulay, and the discussions will be continued 

 on the following day, when also Section HI., "Chemistry, 

 Meteorology, and Geology," meet under tlie presidency of 



NO. 1294, VOL. 50] 



Dr. T. Stevenson. The closing general meeting of the congress 

 takes place in the college on Friday evening, September 28, 

 and later, Sir James Crichton Browne will address the working 

 classes in the Picton Lecture-hall. The exhibition will remiin 

 open three weeks. 



The tenth meeting of the International Congress of Ameri- 

 canists was held at Stockholm, August 3-8, and was attended 

 by the President, Dr. Rudolph Virchow, Biron Nordenskiold, 

 Mrs. Zelia Nuttall (of Dresden), M. Charnay, and Dr. Robert 

 Munro, among others. Prof. Gustav Retziu;, M. E. W. 

 Dahlgren, and M. O. Montelius were some of the members of 

 an influential executive committee, of which M. Carl Bovallius 

 acted as general secretary. H.M. the King of Sweden, with 

 S.A. the Crown Prince, attended the morning sitting on 

 August 6, and heard the following communications read : — 

 "Recent Finds from South American Tomb;," by Dr. R. 

 Virchow; "The ClilT Dwellers," by M. Charnay; and 

 "Remarks on the Calendar System of the .Vncient Mexicans,"' 

 by Mrs. Zelia Nuttall. This lady paid a graceful tribute to the 

 memory of that ardent "Americanist," the late Mrs. Hemmen- 

 way, of Boston, whose death was a sad loss to the cause 

 of American archaeology, and gave a summary in French of the 

 chief results of her own investigations on the calendar system 

 of the ancient Mexicans. Her paper on this subject was 

 printed in English for distribution among the members of the 

 Congress. The same evening the Kmg gave a/t'.V to the mem- 

 bers of the Congress at the Palace of Drottningholm, and 

 proposed the toast of "The Americanist Congress" at supper, 

 to which Dr. Virchow suitably replied. 



The letter on a recent change in the character of April, which 

 appeared in our issue of July 12, has led Dr. O. Z. Bianco to 

 examine the meteorological statistics of Turin for evidence of a 

 similar variation. By tabulating the values of the mean tem- 

 perature in April at that place since 1S65, and smoothing them 

 in averages of five, he finds tha', in the thirty years considered, 

 the lowest average temperature occurred in 18S9 at Turin as 

 well as at Greenwich. The temperature appears to have 

 gradually fallen to this minimum since 1S05, and is now rising 

 If the results of observations are represented dia^rammalically, 

 a figure is obtained which agrees very closely with that accom- 

 panying the letter to which we have referred. Taking simply 

 the monthly mean temperature in different years, the lowest 

 values belong to 1879 and 1S91, and are lo°-i C. and lo°-2 C. 

 respectively. For Greenwich the corresponding point was a 

 temperature of 43-5° F. (6''-4 C.) in 1879 and 1S8S. In the 

 latter year the mean temperature of April inTurin was lo'S C, 

 which is nearly a de:;ree below the normal value. Further 

 inquiry may perhaps lead to an explanation of the change to 

 which attention has been directed. 



V»^E have received the first four numbers of a series of Elec- 

 trical Engineering Leaflets by Prof. E. J. Houston and Mr. 

 A. E. Kennelly, which are being issued in weekly parts. 

 These leaflets are divided into three grades : elementary, which 

 is suited for the use of electrical artisans, wiremen, and ele- 

 mentary students ; intermediite, suited to students in technical 

 schools ; and advanced, suited to students taking a course in 

 electrical engineering. Although, to judge from the four first 

 numbers, these leaflets will be hardly suitable to form by them- 

 selves a complete text-book in this subject, since the points 

 treated are of loo wide a scope to admit of sun"ic;ent detail and 

 explanation being given in the moderate size of th; work (some 

 300 pages small octavo) to ensure a student, without some other 

 source of information, being able to grasp the subject. They 

 will, however, be found very useful as a book of reference , 

 and for revising and keeping fresh information which has 



