November 22. 1894I 



NATURE 



individual stations during the week were 6-25 inches at God- 

 manstone (near Dorchester), 5-51 inches at Scilly, 5-13 inches 

 at Killarney, and 470 inches at Falmouth, while 460 inches 

 fell at Crowborough, Sussex, in six days. The rainfall since the 

 beginning of the year has now exceeded the average in all dis- 

 tricts, except the Midland Counties and the west coast of Scot- 

 land. The excess in the south of England and south of Ireland 

 amounts to over five inches. 



Reports in the medical papers show that the enthusiasm 

 roused in France by the results of the antitoxin treatment of 

 diphtheria has by no means abated. We learn from the British 

 Medical Journal \)i^\. the administrative Society of the Sauve- 

 teurs de la Seine have presented M. Roux with the Grand 

 Diph'ime d'llonneur. The Var General Council has voted an 

 equivalent of £\o for the Pasteur Institute, and ^80 towards 

 creating a similar institute at Marseilles. The Lille Municipal 

 Council has declared for the erection of a diphtheria laboratory, 

 and has opened a subscription in order to collect the necessary 

 funds. The city of Lille has subscribed /■looo. The Council 

 has undertaken to furnish from /i400to ^1600 for a municipal 

 bacteriological laboratory. The Havre municipality has voted 

 ^200 towards the cost of establishing a laboratory for the pre- 

 paration of anti-diphtheric serum. The Paris correspondent of 

 the Lancet reports that the Municipal Council of Paris has voted 

 a subvention of fifteen thousand francs to the Pasteur Institute 

 in aid of the preparation and, distribution of anti-toxin. A 

 sum of seven thousand six hundred francs has also been voted 

 for the erection of accommodation for immune horses, and an 

 allowance of fifteen hundred francs has been made to enable 

 the institute to prepare and distribute anti-diphtheric serum 

 during the present month and the month of December. In our 

 own country. Sir Joseph Lister's appeal for funds has resulted 

 in the sum of ^£'850 being raised. It is estimated that at least 

 ;^200O will be required by the British Institute of Preventive 

 Medicine in order to establish an installation for the manufac- 

 ture of a sufficient quantity of the fluid to supply the demand. 



A MARINIC laboratory founded and maintained by a religious 

 corporation, is probably unique of its kind ; but such is the case 

 with the Russian station on the island of Solowetzk, in the 

 White Sea, as an interesting article in Die Natur informs us. 

 From the early part of the fifteenth century Solowelzk or Holy 

 Island has been the seat of an important monastery, but the 

 foundation, in 1S81, of a marine laboratory in connection with 

 it was principally due to the efforts of Prof. R. Wagner, of St. 

 Petersburg, and to the friendly offices of the late Archimandrite 

 Mileti. The laboratory results from the conversion of a herring 

 factory already existing there on a favourable site. It is now a 

 convenient two-storied building, furnished with tank-room, 

 museum, and six work-rooms with large windows, fully provided 

 with all necessary utensils and reagents. Perpetual day is 

 enjoyed from the middle of May to the middle of July, and 

 during that period the energetic naturalist can work continuously 

 with his microscope night and day, if he so pleases. A little 

 fleet of sailing-boats is at the disposal of the station, but, owing 

 to the uncertainty of the winds, a steam-launch ii found to be a 

 great desideratum. The attendants are selected from the 

 peasants serving longer or shorter periods in the monastery, and 

 the laboratory naturally suffers a good deal of inconvenience 

 from the frequent changes which ensue. The director for some 

 three years past has been M. Knipowitsch, whose local know- 

 ledge has considerably facilitated the researches of visiting 

 naturalists. A long deep lagoon on the east of the island 

 presents features of unusual interest to the biologist. Owing to 

 its physical conformation the lower layers of water remain 

 throughout the year at a constant low temperature, enabling 

 such .'\rctic forms as Yoldia arctica to survive through the 



NO. I30S, VOL. 5 l] 



summer heat ; while the warming of the tidal surface waters in 

 summer favours the development of such forms as Cyprina 

 islandica, and markedly hastens the development of medusae 

 such as Cyanea and Aurelia. Solowetzk may be reached from 

 St. Petersburg either via Jaroslaw and Archangel, or, more 

 directly, viA the lakes, Povjonelz and Szumski. 



Captain Wiggins, who had left the Yenesei in the Slj\:rne>:, 

 late in the season for England, has been wrecked in Yugor 

 Strait, but a telegram from .\rchangel states that all on board 

 are well. Particulars have not yet been received, but the fact 

 points to a serious condition of the ice in the Kara Sea. 



The Christm.as Lectures to Young People, arranged by the 

 Royal Geographical Society, will this year be delivered by Dr. 

 H. R. Mill. The course, entitled " Holiday Geography," will 

 include four lectures, dealing respectively with maps as holiday 

 companions ; geographical pictures, with special reference to 

 amateur photography ; a neglected corner — the English lakes ; 

 and a geographical holiday on the edge of the Alps. The 

 lectures will take place in the map-room of the Royal 

 Geographical Society, and will be profusely illustrated by the 

 lantern. 



The Royal Geographical Society initiated the new technical 

 meetings for geographers on Monday afternoon, by the discus- 

 sion of a piper on a pre-Columbian discovery of America, by 

 Mr. Yule Oldham. The claim for the discovery of Brazil by a 

 Portuguese navigator in 1447 was based on a map of Andrea 

 Biancho prepared in 144S, on which an "authentic island 1500 

 miles west of Cape Verde" was shown. This evidence was 

 supported by various additional arguments, including the St. 

 Brandan's Island of Martin Behaim's globe of 1492. A 

 very lively discussion ensued, in which Mr. E. G. Ravenstein, 

 Mr. Payne, Mr. Beazeley, Dr. Schlichter, Mr. Delmar Morgan, 

 and others took part. The general conclusion of the meeting 

 was unfavourable to the view of the early discovery of Brazil, 

 but all speakers united in expressing their admiration of the 

 manner in which Mr. Oldham marshalled the facts and ex- 

 pounded his theory. 



Dr. .\dolf E. Forster, of Vienna, has made a very careful 

 study of the temperature variations in the rivers of Central 

 Europe, which has just been published in Prof. Penck's 

 Geographisclie Al'liaitdluiigen. He has collected a great number 

 of isolated sets of observations, in several cases extending over 

 many years, which have been made by different observers on the 

 main rivers and tributaries of the Vistula, Oder, Elbe, Weser, 

 Rhine, Danube, Adige, Po, Rhone, Loire, Seine, and Thames. 

 These are discussed in order to bring out the amount of diurnal 

 range, the effect on the mean result of different methods of 

 observations (including the effect of depth), the relation between 

 the temperature of water and air in different classes of rivers, 

 the annual march of river-temperature, the variability of water- 

 temperature from the long-period means, the influence of ice, 

 and various other factors, such as the effect of dynamical heat- 

 ing on account of fall from higher to lower levels. Dr. Forster 

 recognises the necessity of farther observations of a strictly 

 comparable kind in order to obtain sure results, especially with 

 regard to the bearing of river-temperature on meteorology ; but 

 the results he has obtained are of great interest. He shows 

 how the relation of air- and water-temperature depends on the 

 character of the water-surface considered. In glacier-fed rivers 

 the air is colder than the water only for four months in winter and 

 early spring ; in summer the maximum temperature of air and 

 water coincides with the greatest excess of aii-temperature. .\ 

 similar though less marked relation holds good for mountain 

 streams which are not fed by glaciers. In lakes and the outlets 

 of lakes the air-temperature is higher than that of the water 

 only during the four months during which heat is being stored, 

 th curves crossing close to the maximum. In rivers flowiog 



