370 



NATURE 



[February 14, 1895 



higher conductivity and thermal capacity in its interior 

 than in its crust, its age may be enormously greater than 

 previous calculations have allowed. 



The question bein^ su'' juiiice, we must wait until 

 it is settled. But there seems at present every prospect 

 that the physicists will concede not merely the loo 

 millions of years with which the ireolojjists would be 

 quite content, but a very much greater extent of time. 



.\RCH. GeIKIE. 



NOTES. 



The second of the special meetings of the Royal Society is 

 nnoounced for the 28th inst., when Prof. Weldon will bring 

 forward as a subject for discussion, "Variation in .\nimal3 and 

 I'lanls." 



A SUM of 12,000 francs (/480) was voted to the Mont Blanc 

 Observatory by the French Chamber on Tuesday. 



Prok. Henry \. Rowland has recenily been elected a 

 Foreign .Member of the Reale Accadcmia dei Lincei cf Rome, 

 in the section of Physics. 



The death is announced of the Marquis de Saporta, the 

 eminent botanist, at Aix. He was a Correspondent of the 

 Section of IJotany of the Paris Academy of Sciences. 



.Mr. Reginald Stuart Poole, late Keeper of Coins at 

 ihe British Museum, died on Friday last, in his sixty-third 

 year. Few men have done so much as he to extend the study 

 of Egyptology and antiqiilies, or have added more to these 

 branches of knowledge. B:fore he was seventeen years o( a<»e 

 he wrote a series of articles on Egyptian chronology, which 

 afterwards appeared in book form under the title " IIorK 

 .E^yptiacae." He began very early to lecture on Egyptology 

 and numismatics, and in May 1864 made hii first appearance 

 in a Frid.iy evening lecture at the Royal Institution. In 1877 

 he became Keeper of Coin', and daring his twenty-two years' 

 tenure of that post he saw through the press thirty-five most 

 valuable catalogues of the collection; under his charge. He 

 was the author of the " Ciiies of Ejypt," and of the 

 articles on "Egypt," "Hieroglyphics," and "Numismatics," 

 in the " Encyclop.xJia Brit^nnica." With Miss Amelia B. 

 Edwards, he was one of the founders of the Iv^ypt Explora- 

 tion Fund, of which he remained the honorary secretary to his 

 death. 



A NEW scientific society, composed chiefly of the professors 

 and astistants in the P.iris Natural History Museum, has just 

 been founded. The .'ociely owes its existence to Prof. Milne- 

 Edwardt, the eminent diicctor of the museum. It is proposed 

 to hold monthly meetings, and to issue a Bulletin des 

 Naturaliilts, dealing with natural history matters. 



The .Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society is for- 

 iunatcln having Mr. Henry Wildr. F.R.S., for hs president. 

 Alwayi one of the best of provincial societies, its usefulness 

 is likely to increase, for Mr. Wille ha'; intimated his intention 

 to endow the Sotiety with the sum of eight thou.sand pounds, 

 the annual income from which is to be devoted to various 

 porposd in connection with its work. 



The hiilory of the Museum of the Corporation of London, 

 in the Guildhall, has never been written, although the collec- 

 lioni hoased therein are of very coniiderable interest and 

 value. Taking occasion of the visit of the Essex Field Club 

 on Saturday next, Mr. C. Welch, the Curator, will real a 

 paper on the "Origin and Progress of the Gjildhall Mujcum," 

 to remedy this defect. The museum dcicrrei to b: better 

 NO. 1320, VOL. 51] 



known and better housed than it is at present. A museum 

 fully illustrating the ancient history of London might easily 

 arise from the present collections, and would be a worthy object 

 for achievement for the richest Corporation in the world. 



The Socieie Technique de I'lndustrie du Gaz en France 

 offers several prizes in connection with the Congress to be held 

 during the present year. The /.'urif^l of the Society of .\rts 

 says that the prizes open to all include one of 10,000 francs 

 (^400) offered to the inventor of an incandescent gas-burner 

 showing marked superiority, to be handed in to the Society 

 before .\pril i in the present year, unless the committee exer- 

 cise their power of extending the period for another year. The 

 sum of Sooo francs (^320) will be devoted to various prizes to 

 be awarded to the authors of the best papers on some subject 

 connected with the gas industry, such as the mechanical manti- 

 lenlion (h.indling) of coals, cokes, and the various substances 

 I used in gasworks, a study of watei-gas, and the substitution of 

 hydro-carbons forcannel coal. The papeis must be written in 

 French, and not bear the nime of the author ; but they must 

 contain at the commencement a motto, which must be repro- 

 duced on a sealed envelope containing a declaration, signed by 

 the author, that his work is unpublished, and that he will not 

 make any other publication on the same subject within a year. 

 The manuscripts, with sealed envelope, must be sent to the 

 Society, 65 Rue de Provence, Paris, at least forty days before 

 the period fixed for the Congress. 



Dl'Rl.vr. the past week the severe frost has continued over 

 Ihe whole of these islands, and heavy falls of snow have 

 occurred in all throe countries. The distribution of pressure 

 has been generally anticyclonic, biting easterly winds, and gales 

 on our coasts. The following are a few of the lowest shade 

 minima published in the Pjily Weather Report of the Meteoro- 

 logical OflSce, since we last went to press : — 



February 7 



Nairn 

 Lough- 

 borough 

 London... 



Cambridge 



s 



6 



-5 

 to 

 6 



-4 

 II 



7 



- I ... 

 13 ... 



7 -■ 



I 



20 

 •3 



4 

 '5 



2 

 IS 



«s 



In the neighbourhood of the metropolis some very low readings 

 were recorded on the Sih instant : Wallinglon 2''l, Croydon 

 5 '5, Tulse Hill 6°, Greenwich 69 ; and in other parts of the 

 country the following minima have been observed: —12° at 

 Braemar, - 8° at .Stamford on the Sih, 5 ' at Glenlee on the 

 gih, and a still lower reading, viz. -17°, is said to have been 

 observed at Braemar on the lith instant. The reading of 6" 9 

 at Greenwich is the lowest but one in ih; last 50 years, a tem- 

 perature of 6°'6 having been recorded on January 5, i860. 

 There had bee.i no reading there lower than 10 in February 

 during the same period, until the present frost, in which lower 

 temperatures have occurred on two successive nights. In 

 London such low tempeiatures rarely occur ; a minimum of 

 5° was obsirvoJ by Luke Howard on February 9, 1816. 

 .\nother feature of the present frost has been the low daily 

 maxima. On the i,)th instant it did not exceed 20° at Tulse 

 Hill. At (ireenwich the maximum temperature on January 5i 

 1894, was 19', which was then the lowest maximum observed 

 there since 1841. 



Im a paper read before the ll.ilish Medical Association in 

 1889, Dr. .v. C. .Miller pointed ou'. that, under certain circum- 

 stances, advantage might be derived from high level residence 

 in the treatment of tuberculous conditions. A note, which has 

 a bearing upon this view, is contributed by him to the Jhitish 

 Meatdil fournal. The observers at the meteorological station 

 on the summit of Ben Nevis are cianged every three months 

 or so. While on duty at the observatory, they are, as a matter 



