November 23, 1893] 



NA TURE 



81 



cultural Colleges and Experiment Stations have passed a 

 special resolution expressing the value they attach to the exhibit, 

 and the Director- General of the Exposition has forwarded 

 the same to England, wi h the added thanks of the Exposition, 

 for "the great benefit done to American agriculture by this 

 excellent and instructive exhibit." 



A Pasteur Institute has been opened in New York, with 

 Dr. Paul Gibier as its director. 



]\I. O. Callandreau, of the Paris Observatory, has been 

 appointed Professor of Astronomy at the Kcole Polytechnique. 



Dr. Treadwell has been appointed Professor of Analytical 

 Chemistry in the University of Zurich. 



Dr. a. K. E. Baldamus, known for his work in connection 

 with ornithology, died on October 30, at the age of eighty-two. 



Mr. J. Bailey Denton, whose name has long been known 

 to agriculturists and civil engineers, died on November 19, at 

 Stevenage, Herts, in his seventy-ninth year. 



We regret to announce the death, at the age of eighty-one, 

 of M. Chambrelent, a member of the Rural Economy Section 

 of the Paris Academy of Sciences. 



Mr. William Dinning, of Newcastle, a lover of natural 

 science and a promoter of its interests, d'ed on November 13. 

 Shortly before his death, he offered his collection of fossils 

 from the coal measures to the Newcastle Natural History 

 Society, on the condition that the society would provide cases 

 to properly exhibit it and the collection already existing in the 

 local museum. The society was without the necessary means, 

 but Lord Arm-trong has promised to contribute asum of ;i^i500 

 for this purpose. Mr. Dinning was an engineer by profession, 

 but all his leisure was devoted toscientific pursuits. His death 

 will be greatly felt in local circles. 



It is reported that a severe shock of earthquake was ex- 

 perienced on November 17 in Kashan, Western Asia, a large 

 part of the town being destroyed. Great damage was also 

 done at Samarcand. 



Mr. Lloyd Bozward, Worcester, informs us that on No- 

 vember 17 a fine shower of Leonid meteors was seen throughout 

 the night. The meteors are said to have been so numerous 

 that several persons unacquainted with their nature mistook the 

 display for an exhibition of fireworks. 



The Swiney prize of a cup, value .j^ioo, and money to the 

 same amount, to the author of the best published work on 

 jurisprudence, will be awarded by the Society of Arts and the 

 College of Physicians in January next. The prize is awarded 

 every fifth year, the recipient in 1889 being Dr. C. Meymott 

 Tidy, for his work entitled " Legal Medicine." 



At the beginning of next year the first number of an " Index 

 der gesamten chemischen Litteratur " will be published by 

 H. Bechhold, Frankfort. The index will appear monthly, and 

 after the end of each year an index comprising all the papers 

 published during the year in pure and applied chemistry will 

 be issued. The editor of the forthcoming publication is Dr. 

 Julius Ephraim. 



Messrs. W. H. Allen and Co. have in preparation a series 

 of volumes founded upon Jardine's Naturalist's Library. The 

 editor of the series. Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, will undertake several 

 of the ornithological volumes. The authors of other sections 

 are Mr. R. Lydekker (Mammalia), Mr. H. O. Forbes 

 (Mammalia and Birds), Mr. W. R. Ogilvie Grant (Birds), Mr, 

 W. F. Kirby (Insects), Prof. R. H. Traquair, F.R.S. (Fishes), 

 The first volumes will be issued early in 1894, and will consist 

 of British Birds, vol. i., by Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe ; Monkeys, 

 NO. 1256, VOL, 49] 



by H. O. Forbes ; and Butterflies (with special reference to 

 British species), by W. F. Kirby. 



We have previously referred to the fact that on the first of 

 this month Italy adopted the time of Central Europe. All the 

 Italian time-tables have, by order of the Minister of Public 

 Works, been printed with the hours marked up to twenty-four 

 from midnight to midnight. The railway clocks have also been 

 modified, and the hours from 13 to 24 printed in red Arabic 

 characters in a circle interior to the old one. It may be well to 

 remember that at the Paris Exhibition in 1867, Sig. G. Jervis, 

 the Keeper of the Royal Industrial Museum of Turin, exhibited 

 a clock face having a double series of hours, the higher numbers 

 being placed on the exterior circle on account of the greater 

 space there available. He also exhibited a time-table drawn 

 up on the 24-hour plan, and possessing many advantages over 

 those in use even at the present time. Mr. Jervis has thus had 

 the satisfaction of seeing the adoption of the improved clock- 

 dial and the 24-hour time-table, proposed by him nearly a third 

 of a century ago. 



During the past week this country has experienced some of 

 the most destructive, if not the most violent storms that have 

 occurred for some years. The reports received by the Meteoro- 

 logical Office on Thursday morning, the i6th instant, showed 

 that a deep disturbance was approaching our shores, and storm 

 signals were hoisted on our coasts. On the afternoon of that day 

 the storm broke with great violence over the west of Ireland, 

 the direction of the wind being south-easterly with a moderately 

 high temperature, while the barometer was below 29 5 inches. 

 The centre of the storm passed across England and Scotland, 

 taking the ordinary north-easterly course, and by 6 p.m. on 

 Friday it lay off the extreme north-east coast of Scotland, and 

 the barometer had fallen to 28 5 inches ; the wind, as usual in 

 the rear of storms, shifted to the north-westward, causing a 

 sudden fall of temperature with heavy snow and hail in many 

 places. At this point the track of the disturbance took a 

 very unusual direction, and during Friday night the centre 

 moved quickly to the southeastward down the North Sea, 

 and at 8 a.m. on Saturday, the 18th instant, the centre lay 

 off the north-east coast of England, while the pressure rose 

 rapidly over the western portion of the kingdom, causing steeper 

 gradients and bitter northerly and north-easterly winds. The 

 storm first broke over London and the southern parts of the 

 country on Saturday afternoon, and blew in terrific squalls during 

 the whole of Saturday night, the centre again resuming an 

 easterly course across the North Sea to the Dutch and North 

 German coasts. The greatest strength of the wind appears to 

 have been experienced near Holyhead, where the force on 

 Saturday morning was reported as 12 of the Beaufort scale, 

 while force II was reported from Wick and Scilly. In the 

 neighbourhood of London the heaviest gusts were experienced 

 in the early part of Saturday evening ; the anemometer at 

 Greenwich recorded a pressure of 17 pounds on the square foot 

 at about 6 p.m. On Sunday and Monday the wind force was 

 still high in the south-east of England, as well as in the English 

 Channel, and a very high sea was running on our coasts. The 

 storms were also very violent on the other side of the Channel, 

 and were accompanied by heavy falls of snow in many parts of 

 the Continent. 



The Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic Ocean shows that the 

 first half of October was marked by much bad weather north of 

 latitude 45^^ between Newfoundland and the British Isles. One 

 of the storms caused immense loss of life and property in 

 Louisiana, owing to a tidal wave encroaching over the low- 

 lying lands. A supplement issued with the chart shows clearly 

 the actual weather conditions between the 23rd and 28th of 



