"November 9, 1893] 



jVA TURR 



.^^5 



5h. 45ui. 30s. ; at Crosby, about five miles to the north of 

 Liverpool, 5.47 ; at Shrewsbury 5.48, the duration in this case 

 being estimated as three seconds. In Bristol it is reported 

 that the tremor was distinctly felt along a course from north- 

 west to south-east for forty seconds. Mr. H. Courtenay, writing 

 to us from Waterford, says that the disturbance was experienced 

 thereat 5.25. Mr. Lloyd Bozward, of Worcester, describes the 

 occurrence as follows: — "On Thursday last, at 5.45, a smart shock 

 of earthquake was experienced. At this house the shock was 

 vertical ; no noise was heard, but in a second or two after the 

 first shock a feeble one followed. Persons on the ground-floor 

 observed nothing. The shock was felt at Boughton Park, 

 southwards a mile hence, and there also the servants on the 

 ground-floor felt nothing. These places are on the west side of 

 the Severn. It is somewhat rare for the same shock to be felt 

 on both sides of the Severn, but on this occasion it was some- 

 what severely felt at some large ironworks on the eastern side 

 of the river. There the motion is described as a swaying one, 

 and a rumbling like the passing of a heavy wa;4gon was heard. 

 At Boughton and the ironworks the time given is 5.4S p.m. I 

 took the hour at the time of the shock from a clock, a good time- 

 keeper, in the room with me. At Callow End, Dermstone, a 

 farmstead ten miles north-east of Worcester, no shock was felt, 

 but a loud noise was heard." 



Dr. N. M. Glatfelter reprints from the fifth annual 

 report of the Missouri Botanic Garden " A Study of the Vena- 

 tion of ^a/Zx." Photographic reproductions are given of the 

 leaves of twenty-four American species of willow, and an 

 attempt is made to classify them according to their venation. 



The Deby collection of diatoms now in possession of the 

 British Museum, and open for reference by students in the 

 Cryptogamic Herbarium, is the finest in existence, both as 

 regards the number of species, the authority of the nomenclature, 

 and the beauty of their preparation and preservation. Besides 

 those collected by M. Deby himself, it includes a large number 

 of type-slides prepared by other eminent diatomists. The 

 collection of diatoms in the British Museum is now estimated to 

 amount to about 50,000 slides. 



Dr, H. Wild, Director of the Central Physical Observatory at 

 St. Petersburg, has published in German a summary of the deci- 

 sions of the various international meteorological conferences, from 

 that held at Leipzig in 1872 until that held in Munich in 1891. 

 The arrangement is first under subjects, and secondly according 

 to chronological order, and the svork will be found very useful for 

 reference by persons who may be seeking for information upon 

 any particular subject, instead of having to consult some thirteen 

 different volumes. 



We have received the report on the operations of the German 

 Meteorological Office for the year 1892, which closes an impor- 

 tant period in the history of that institution, owing to the 

 completion of the organisation of the rainfall stations which began 

 with the year 18S5, and the establishment of a first-class me- 

 teorological and magnetical observatory at Potsdam. The rainfall 

 stations now number nearly ipoo, and the stations which send 

 special reports of thunderstorms exceed 14CO. The report con- 

 tains not only a list of the official publications for the year, but 

 also a list of the contributions of the officials to both German and 

 foreign periodicals. We also note that, in order to keep up an 

 interest in the work, the office issues no less.than 200 copies of 

 the popular meteorological journal Das Wetter to its observers. 



The report of the Director of the Royal Alfred Observatory, 

 Mauritius, for the year 1S91 has just reached this country. The 

 maximum shade temperature during the year was 95''4 on 

 December 8, and the minimum 5i''o on August 3. The 

 highest temperature in the sun was i62^'7, and the lowest on 



NO. 1254, VOL. 49] 



the grass 46''o. The rainfall amounted^to 44'63 inches, being 

 3 "15 inches below the average, but at some other stations in 

 the island the rainfall was much greater than at the Observatory. 

 Dr. Meldrum collects 'observations from ships visiting the 

 island, for the preparation of meteorological charts of the Indian 

 Ocean ; the number of days' observations tabulated during the 

 year amounted to 9,600, taken between 23^ N. and 46' S. 

 latitude. 



Colonel A. T. Eraser has sent us an interesting note from 

 Beliary with regard to two Hindoo dwarfs which he photo- 

 graphed in the Kurnoul district of the Madras Presidency, not 

 far south of the river Kistna. In speech and intelligence the 

 dwarfs were indistinguishable from ordinary natives of India. 

 From an interrogation of one of them, it appeared that he be- 

 longed to a family all the male members of which have been 

 dwarfs for several generations. They marry ordinary native 

 girls, and the female children grow up like those of other people. 

 The males, however, though they develop at the normal rate 

 until they reach the age of six, then cease to grow, and become 

 dwarfs. These stunted specimens of humanity are almost help- 

 less, and are quite unable to walk more than a few yards. 



Mr. Miller Christy outlines a scheme for mapping the 

 geographical distribution of vertebrate animals in the Zoologist 

 for November. He proposes to construct a map showing, by 

 means of different colours, the following points for each species : 

 — (i) Its present (indigenous) area of permanent residence 

 throughout the world ; (2) its summer and winter ranges 

 throughout the world (if migratory) ; (3) its relative abundance 

 in different parts of its area ; (4) its lines of migration (if any) ; 



(5) the additional area (if any) over which any species, now 

 partly or wholly extinct, can be traced within historic times ; 



(6) the additional area (if any) over which it has been naturalised 

 by human agency ; and (7) other points of interest, such as iso- 

 lated occurrences, erratic movements, areas of hybridization, 

 &c. Though it may be some years before a scheme of this kind 

 is well under weigh, authorsof monographs of genera or families 

 would do well to systematise their works, so that they could 

 easily be used in the compilation of a topographical catalogue 

 or bibliography. 



The extensive and increasing demand for india-rubber renders 

 it possible that the supply will eventually become exhausted, so 

 attempts at artificial cultivation of rubber trees are being made 

 in various rubber-producing countries. Mr. Hart remarks, in the 

 June Bttlletln of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Trinidad, that 

 rubber has been procured in the Gardens from Castilloa 

 elastica, and that trees of a mature size will produce it in paying 

 quantities. It has also been proved that Ihveas of several 

 species will thrive well in Trinidad. In this connection a paper 

 by Dr. Ernst, on the caoutchouc of the Orinoco, published in 

 the first number of the Kevista Nacional de Agricidture, and 

 included in the Bulletin, is of interest. Dr. Ernst says that 

 the rubber of the Orinoco is extracted from the juice of the 

 Hdvea brazilietisis, Miill, a tree belonging to the family Euphor- 

 biacea. and not to that of the Hevea Guayamnsis. The milky 

 juice obtained from the trees, through incisions made in the 

 bark, has the consistency of cream, and the rubber existing in 

 it in minute globules constitutes from thirty to thirty-three per 

 cent, of the weight. The rubber collectors of the Amazons 

 employ the slow, primitive, and contaminating process of 

 evaporating the juice in the dense smoke of a wood fire, in 

 order to separate the rubber from it. A far better method of ob- 

 taining coagulation is to add a six per cent, solution of alum to the 

 juice, and then submit the coagulated rubber to pressure in order 

 to extract the water it contains. Dr. Ernst thinks that every 

 effort should be made to extend and conserve the forests, thickets, 

 or groves of rubber trees, suggesting, among other things, that 



