4° 



NATURE 



[November 8, 1894 



monthly review. In Brazil, observations were made at Rio de 

 Janeiro, since 1S25. but no record of them is to be found until 

 1844 ; from this time sammaries have been regularly pu'ilished. 

 A Central Nfeleorological Department was established in 18SS 

 in connection wiih the bureau of the Navy, but the climat- 

 otogical service has not yet been organised. — The forecasting of 

 ocean storms, &c., by \V. Allingham. This paper was 

 prt pared for the International Meteorological Congress held at 

 Chicago in .\ugust last. It deals more particulaily with the 

 storms of the North .\tlantic, and the author shows that at 

 present any attempt to forecast them from America is not very 

 successful. Nevertheless, the Meteorological Office of Paris 

 continues to receive and publish dally reports from the United 

 States and Canada, as well as from steamers ariiving at 

 American ports from the .'Atlantic. — Sun-spo;s and Auroras, 

 by Prof. H. A. Hazen. The author has laid dosvn curves of 

 all the sun-spots measured i^n the Greenwich and India photo- 

 graphs from i88l to 1S8S, and also the auro:al numbers recorded 

 in the United States, and shows that auroras and sun-spots are 

 not concomitant or coincident phenomena. For the purpose 

 of inquiring into the annual range, the auroras and sun-spots 

 for twenty-three years have been summed for months. There is a 

 remarkable correspondence in these results; both phenomena 

 show a maximum in April, and the second maximum occurs in 

 Sep ember for auroras, and in October for sun spots. Prof. 

 Hazen considers that the investigation of sun-spots and auroras 

 is the most promising line that can be taken in a study o( the 

 post.ble cfTecis from some cosmical force upon our atmosphere. 



Bullelin of Ihe American Mathematical So:iety, second 

 series, vol. i. No. i (October 1S94).— This is a continua- 

 tion of the Bulletin of the New Vork Society. The title 

 of the Society having been changed, as previously announced, 

 of necessity the title of the Bulletin is also changed. An 

 article on the " Summer meeiing of the American .Malhe- 

 ir.atical Si.citly " givis an account of the doings, and 

 abstracts of the _ papers read, at the August meeting 

 in Brooklyn, N.Y., of the .-Vmcrican .\ssociatit>n for the 

 Advancement of Science. The co-nperaliun of the two 

 Associations resul.ed in a succes-ful gathering for the younger 

 body. — Other aniclcs in this number are on the connection 

 between binary quarlics and elliptic func'ions, by Prof. E. 

 Study. This is an abstract of a paper which will appear in the 

 American Journal of Matliemalics. It shows how a certain 

 group of rational and irrational co-variants of a binary quanic 

 can be expressed as one-valued functions of one or two para- 

 meters, thus filling up a number of lacunx contained in former 

 presentations uf the subject. — Reduction of the resultant of a 

 binary quadric and «-ic by virtue of ils semi-coiiibinant 

 property, by Prof. H. S. White. The author discusses the 

 partial problem solved by Clelisch, viz. to write in symbolic 

 form the resuliant of a binary quadric and a binary quantic of 

 arbitrary order //. The method employed is novel, and illus- 

 trates the utility of the theory of conjugate forms. — Next a list 

 of astronomical papers read at the American Assiciation meet- 

 ing (see supra), is given, and short abstracts supplied. Notes 

 and new publications complete this number. 



Ameriean Journal of Mathematics, vol. xvi. No. 4 (Balti- 

 more, October 1894). — "Sur la transformation des courbes 

 alt,ebiiqucs," by E. Gour^at (pp. 291-298), discusses two 

 geneialiiaiions of a theorem demonstrated by Liiroth (Math. 

 Annal. ix. p. 163). The rest of the number (pp. 299-396) is 

 taken up by a master. y memoir on isolrnpic el.istic solids of 

 nearly spherical form, by C. Chrcc. It is preceded by a full 

 table o( contents, and has 320 equations. The author remarks 

 that the Investigation of a solution of the elastic solid equations 

 for the tquilibrium or motion of homogeneous isotropic 

 material enclosed by the simplest of all surf.-ices, the spherical, 

 presents no small difliculiy. Eor even a slight departure from 

 the spherical form the increase of dilficuliy is so considerable 

 that, so far as I kno*, the only problem of the class success- 

 fully treated hitherto is that of a nearly spherical solid exposed 

 to gravilatioual force, but free of all surface force. In the case 

 considered by Mr. Chree, surface (orccs appear us well a> bodily 

 forces, so that the luciblem is much more (general than ihat pre- 

 viously treated. Mis method is novel, and ihe memoir closes 

 with some speculations as to the action of the sun on the earth. 



Jlullettn dt la r Acn,i/mie Royale de Belgiijut, No. 8. — Note 

 CD Ihe suliject of a recent communication from M. Ch. 

 Ljigrange, by .\I. K. Kolie. The author claims to have been 



NO. 1306, VOL. 5 '] 



the first to announce that the theoretical period of initial 

 nutation would be found too short owing to the internal 

 fluidity of the globe, and that the best method for observing 

 this nutation would he that of observations at intervals of 

 twelve houis. He also state! that the vaiiations of latitude 

 would be equal and of opposite sign on two oppoite meridians 

 in the same heaiisphere, which was borne out by observations 

 in Europe and Honolulu. His hypothesis exjilainirg the 

 annual vacations is capable of explaining and estimating the 

 systematic difTererces between the ca'alogues of Greenwich and 

 the Cape, given by Downing, and by the diurnal nutation, the 

 differences between Paris, Pulkowa, and Washington, and 

 between Melbourre and the Cape. — On the origin of the 

 dicrotism and the undulations of the systolic plateau of arterial 

 pulsation, by Victor Willem. This work was undertaken in 

 order to decide whether any of the pulsations shown by the 

 sphygmograph and the recorders of arterial pressure have a 

 peripheral origin, or whether they all start from he heart and its 

 neighbourhood. Experiment* upon the carotid and crural 

 arteries of dogs show that the latter alternative is true. The 

 author further studied the influence of various injections upon 

 the pulsation. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



LONDO.N. 



Entomological Society, October 17. — Henry John Elwes, 

 President, in the chair. — Dr. H. G. Breyer, of Prajtoria, 

 Transvaal, South .-Vfiica, was elected a Fellow of the Society. 

 .Mr. G. C. Champion read a letter, dated .\ugust 15 last, from 

 Mr. J. V. Johnson, of Funchal, .Madeira, on the subject of a 

 recent visitation of locusts to the island, and exhibited specimens. 

 Mr. Johnson mentioned that Darwin, in his " Origin of Species," 

 recorded that in November 1S44, dense swarms of locusts 

 visited Madeira. He said that since then, until .\ugust last, 

 these insects had not visited the island, Mr. Champion re- 

 marked that the species was Dccticus alhijrons, Fabr., 

 not a true migatory locust. Mr. Champion also exhibited 

 specimens of /J »;M«.i(d nitiUula, I'elleius dilala'us ani .4thom 

 rhombeus, taken by himself in the New Forest during the past 

 summer. — Mr. 11. Goss read a letter received from Captain 

 Montgomery, J. P., of .Mid Ilovo, Naial, reporting vast flights 

 of locusts there, extending over three miles in length, on .-Vugust 

 31 last, and exhibited a specimen of the locust, a species 01 

 Acridium. Captain Montgomery stated that, as a rule, his 

 district, like m^ si of Natal, was free from the pest, but lli.it an 

 exceptional invasion had occurred in 1S50, — .Mr. J. W. Tuti 

 exhiiiitcd four typical specimens of Einydia crihrum from the 

 New Furest, and, for comparison, four specimens ol the variety, 

 Candida, of the same species, taken at an elevation of 4000 feet, 

 near Courmayeur, on the Italian side of Mont Blanc. He stated 

 that he had also met with this form in the Cogne Valley, at an 

 elevation of from 6000 to 8000 feet. — .Mr. R. .\dkin exhibited 

 a specimen of Erelna •rthio/'s, in which the left fore wing was 

 much bleached, taken in August last, near Carnforth. Mr. 

 Adkin also exhibited a series of .Icrjiij'cta rumiiis from Co. 

 Cork, Ireland, including light and black forms, with examples 

 from theScilly Isles, Isle of Man, and North of Scotland for 

 comparison. — Mr. Elwes exhibited a series of Chy>noba.\ alberta 

 i 9 1 Chionohas uhleti, var. -aruna, and Erehia diicoidalis, from 

 Calgary, Alberta, N.W. Canada, which had been collec'ed in 

 May last, by Mr. Woolley-Dod. He said that the validity ol 

 C. alherta, which had been ques ioned by .Mr. W. H. Edwards, 

 was fully established by these specimens. — Prof. E. B. Poulton, 

 F. K..S., gave an account of the changes which he had recently 

 made at I ixford in the arrangement ol the Hope Collections in 

 the Department of Zool igy, and as to the rooms now available 

 for students woiking at these collections. — Mr. G. T. Bethune- 

 Baker communicated a paper, entitled " Descriptions of the 

 I'yralidx, Cramliidx-, and Phycid.e, collected by the late T. 

 Vernon- Wollaston in Madeira." 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, October 29.— M. Locwy in the 

 chair. — Experimenial verifications of the thcjry of weir?, with 

 either adtierent or partly submerged watir-shee', with regard to 

 the pressures, by .Nl. .1. Boussinesq. — On the existence in plants 

 of principles capalile of condensation with production of car- 

 bonic acid, iiy M.\I. Berthclot and G. Andre. Plant-leaves were 



\ 



