October 4, 1894] 



NA rURE 



553 



Bequest, directed by the testator to be applied "for the purpose 

 of presenting penodically a prize or medal to the author of a 

 treatise on any of the ufes or ])roperties <jf iron, nr to the 

 inventor of some new and valuable process relatinL; thereto, 

 such author or inventor being a member, graduate, or associate 

 of the said institution." The annual income amounts to nearly 

 £\^. The next award will be in 1897. The council will not 

 make any av/ard unless a communication of adequate merit is 



I received, but will give more than one premium if llicre are 

 several deserving memoirs on the same subject. In the 

 adjudication of the premiums, no distinction will be made 



I between essays received from members of the institution or 

 strangers, whether natives or foreigners, except in the cases of 

 the Miller and the Howard bequests, which are limited by the 



I donors. There is no specified date for the delivery of MSS., 

 .Ts when a paper is not in time for one session it may be dealt 

 with in the succeeding one. 



The Queen has been pleased, on the recommendation of the 

 Secretary for Scotland, to approve of the appointment of Mr. 

 Angus Sutherland, M.P. , as chairman of the Scottish Fishtry 

 Board. 



The death is announced of Prof. K. M. Albrecht, of Ham- 

 I burg, at the age of forty-three. He was the author of several im- 

 [Kirtant researches in the domains of zoology and comparative 

 anatomy. 



Dr. Charles L. Edwards has been appointed to the Chair 

 J of Biology in the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A. 



At St. Helens, on Tuesday, Colonel Gamble laid the founda- 

 tion-stone of an institute which is to form a central library 

 and reading-room and a school for technical education and 

 manual instruction. He has given the site, and will spend 

 /f 20,000 on the building. 



Mr. William Lunt, of the Royal Gardens, Kew, who acted 

 as botanical collector to Mr. Theodore Bent's expedition to the 

 Hadraumaut Valley, Southern .\rabia, has been appointed, by 

 the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Assistant Superinten- 

 dent of the Koyal Botanic Gardens, Trinidad. 



Several earthquake shocks, accompanied by subterranean 

 rumblings, were felt at Dortmund, Germany, on Tuesday 

 morning, and caused some alarm. 



At the meeting of the Royal Photographic Society, to be 

 held on Tuesday next, the medals will be presented to success- 

 ful exhibitors at the annual exhibition, and the President will 

 deliver an address. 



The new buildings of the Durham College of Science, New- 

 castle-upon-Tyne, will be opened by the Mayor of Newcastle 

 on Tuesday, October 9. 



Sunshine is such an untrustworthy quantity in the climate 

 of the British Isles, that it is no wonder that professional 

 photographers have for some time been developing methods for 

 making themielves independent of it. Judging from the extent 

 in which artificial iUuminalion is used in photographic studios at 

 the present time, it seems probable that a few years hence the 

 sun will be largely (if not enlirely) disregarded in negative- 

 making. An exhibition of apparatus for illuminating studios, 

 and some of the pictures obtained by means of artificial light, 

 is now being held at the rhoto.;tam Commercial Museum, and 

 will remain open until the end of this month. A number of 

 interesting exhibits are on view. There are various magnesium 

 lamps, electric lamps designed for portraiture work, and gas- 

 light systems for studios. Two of the most interesting instances 

 of the use of :nannesium Hash-lamps ate to be (ound in the 



NO. 1 30 1, VOL. 50] 



pictures obtained by Mr. J. C. Burrows in the tin mines of Corn- 

 wall, and Mr. H. W. Hughes in the coal mines of the Black 

 Country. The exhibition well deserves a visit. 



The Weather Revir.ii, edited by Mr. John Eliot, and pub- 

 lished every month by authority of the Government of India, 

 always contains an admirable summary of the chief features of 

 the weather in India during the month to which it refers. The 

 annual summary, which has just reached us, contains a discus- 

 sion of the meteorology of India for the year 1893. The report 

 reminds us that meteorological data in India are chiefly utilised for 

 the following purposes: (l) In the discussion of the prevalence 

 and spread of diseases, more especially of cholera and other 

 diseases of an epidemic character ; (2) in connection with agri- 

 cultural questions, more especially the progress and character of 

 the crops as determined by the weather conditions of the period. 

 In the monthly reviews, a'l the meteorological facts and data 

 are therefore presented from these wo points of view. For 

 medical statistics India is divided into eleven provinces, which 

 are believed to be fairly homogeneous so far as the conditions 

 of the prevalence of the more common diseases are concerned. 

 According to the second method of arrangement, there are 

 fifty-two meteorological divisions, or areas divided from an 

 agricultural standpoint. By following this plan, the meteoro- 

 logical data available are made to yield the greatest amount of 

 good to the people of India. 



QfESTloxs of natural history assume a particular value when 

 they deal with the supply of a popular article of food, and we 

 present, therefore, some conclusions recently arrived at by 

 Mr. F. H. Herrick, of the U.S. Fish Commission, upon the 

 reproductive habits of the American lobster (/.oologiscUer 

 Anzeiger, xvii. No. 454). It is not improbable, as Mr. Her- 

 rick suggests, that the habits of the European lobster are 

 essentially the same as those of its American relative. (l) The 

 majority of adult female? extrude their eggs during June, July, 

 and .August, but a considerable number — probably 10 per cent, 

 of the entire number which breed in the year — lay eggs in the 

 autumn, winter, and spring. (2) The lobster cannot possibly 

 breed oftener than once in two years. (3) The eggs are carried 

 by the mother for ten or eleven months : on the coast of Massa- 

 chusetts, from the middle of July to the middle of the following 

 June. (4) Sexual maturity is reached occasionally at a length 

 of 8 inches, but sometimes not under 12 inches. The majority, 

 however, are mature when \o\ inches long. (5) The numbers 

 of eggs produced by female lobsters at each reproductive period 

 increase in a geometrical series, while the lengths of the 

 lobsters producing these eggs vary in an arithmetical series. .\ 

 lobster 14 inches long will produce four times as many eggs at 

 one laying as a lobster of only 10 inches. (6) Out of the 10,000 

 eggs produced at one time, not more than two arrive at maturity, 

 and even this estimate is probably too high, as the fisheries are 

 now declining. 



The exact measurement of the density of very dilute aqueous 

 solutions to within a millionth of its value, is the subject of a 

 paper by F. K.)hlrausch and W. Hallwachs in IVieJemann's 

 Annalen. The method adopted was that of suspending a glass 

 globe in the solution by a fine thread, and determining its 

 weight. The thread found most suitable w.is a single smooth 

 cocoon fibre. Small disturbing fibres or dust particles could be 

 detected by the behaviour of the swinging balance. The stirring 

 was done by means of a glass rod bent into a horizontal ring at 

 the bottom, and carrying a ring of platinum foil. During 

 stirring, the glass body was lifted by another glass ring pro- 

 vided with pieces ol platinum wire to prevent the body sticking 

 to it. The thermometer indicated hundredths of Centigrade 

 degrees, and could be read to thousandths by the telescope. 

 The sensitiveness of the b.ilance employed was not excessive, 



