January i8, 1894J 



NA TURE 



7^ 



Bremen. Daring his stay at Elsfleth he took an active part in 

 the founding of the North German Lloyd's Company. In 1867 

 he resigned his position, and moved to Hamburg, where he 

 established the Norddeutsche Seewarte, and in connection 

 therewith organised the first system of storm warnings for the 

 German coaUs. The activity of this institution, which existed 

 under the above title for eight years, was most creditable to its 

 management. In February, 1S75, the organisation was taken 

 up by the Imperial Government, and Dr. v. Freeden was re- 

 lieved of his office. He retired to Bonn, where he occupied him- 

 self with editing the Ilitnsa, a nautical newspaper which he had 

 started. He was for five years from 187 1 Member for Hamburg 

 of the Reichstag, but he declined re-election on removing his 

 residence to Bonn. 



The FCe-M Bulletin says that Mr. W. Scott has been nppointcd 

 Director of Forests and Botanical Gardens in Mauriliu , in 

 succession to Mr. J. Home, who has recently retired. 



Dr. W. Migula has been appointed Professor of Hutany at 

 Karlsruhe Technical High School, Dr. W. Laposchnikoff Pro- 

 fessor of Botany in Tomsk University, S.beiia, and Dr. 

 Zelinka Extraor. inary Professor of Zoology in Graz University. 



The medals and funds to be given at the anniversary meeting 

 of the Geological Stciety of London to be held on February 16 

 next, have been awarded as follows : — The WoUaston Medal to 

 Prof. Karl A. von Zittel ; the Murchison Medal to Mr. W. T. 

 Aveline ; the Lyell Medal to Prof. John Milne, F.R.S. ; the 

 balance of the proceeds of the Wollaston Fund to Mr. A. 

 Strahan ; that of the Murchison Fund to Mr. G. Barrow ; that 

 of the Lyell Fund to Mr. William Hill ; and a portion of the 

 proceeds of the Barlow-Jamieson Fund to Mr. Charles Davison, 



Dr. E. Symes Thompson will deliver four lectures at 

 Grcjham College from January 22-26, his subject being "The 

 Sense of Touch.'' 



The forty-seventh annual general meeting of the Institution 

 of Mechanical Engineers will be held on February i and 2, 

 when the President, Dr. William Anderson, F. R.S., will retire, 

 and will be succeed :d by Prof. A. B. W. Kennedy, F.R.S. 



A COMPLETE skeleton of a Plesiosaurus, about 3i yards long, 

 has been found, with other fossil remains, at Holzmaden in 

 Wiirtemberg. It is being t"ken to the Berlin Museum. 



Prof. Carr informs us that a very extensive and valuable 

 collection of British and foreign plants has been presented to 

 the Nottingham Natural History Museum by Mr. H. Fisher 

 late of Newark. Some idea of the nature and extent of the 

 collection may be gathered from the following enumeration of 

 the more important series included in it : (i) A practically com- 

 plete herbarium of British plants, comprising about 2000 species 

 and varieties, and about 10,000 specimens. (2) A European 

 collection, comprising many thousand species from France, 

 Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Roumania, Russia, Norway, 

 Sweden, &c. (3) Several thousand species from North America. 

 (4) A very fine collection from the Bombay Presidency. (5) 

 About 1500 species from Natal, the Transvaal, and other plants 

 of South Africa. (6) A small collection from Australia. Of 

 the above collection that from Russia is of quite exceptional 

 value and interest. It comprises species from all paits of the 

 Russian Empire— from St. Petersburg, Lapland, and the 

 Crimea, through Siberia to Kamskalka and Turkestan, also 

 from the Trans-Caucasus and the Caspian region. The Spanish 

 collection is an extremely fine and valuable one— probably one 

 of the best in existence. In order to hand over the collection 

 to the town in as complete and accessible a form as possible, 

 Mr. Fisher is himself arranging and labelling the collection. 

 NO. 1264, VOL. 49] 



M ucii has been wi itlen and conjectured as to the origin of music 

 and the rhythmical movement of the body which is intimately 

 associated with musical sounds. Dr. S. Wilk.= , F.R.S., discusses 

 this problem in the January number of the Medical Afagazitie. 

 He points out that it is felt by many that the origin admits of a 

 physiological explanation ; but others prefer to regard muiic 

 as a purely spiritual faculty. All, however, who have con- 

 sidered the nature and origin of music believe that rhythm, as 

 exemplified by movement, is very closely connecied with it. 

 The latest work on piimilive music is by Wallaschek, and the 

 conclusion he arrives at is that rhjthm, or keeping time, lies at 

 the very foundation of the musical sense. But rhythm and the 

 time sense can be referred to muscular contraction and relaxa- 

 tion, for it has been long maintained by physiologist - that the 

 muscular jense is the measuie of lime, and intin.ately bound up 

 with the idea of music. As Dr. Wilks remarks, there must be 

 an up and down movement or rhythm in all muscular action, 

 and this seems to be the same thing as the sense of time or 

 rh}thm of which Wallaschek speaks. In fact, the rh)thmical 

 sense insisted on by Wallaschek as the basis of music is, in all 

 probability, the muscular sense which physiologists believe to 

 form an intimate part of the musical faculty. Not in the different 

 passions of the mind, but in muscular action, therefore, music 

 appears to have had its origin. 



The internal temperature of trees has formed the subject of 

 some investigations by M. W. Prinz {La Nature). The results 

 show that the mean annual internal temperature of a tree is 

 practically the same as that of the surrounding air, but the 

 monthly means diff"er by two or three degrees. In general it 

 takes a day for a thermal variation to be transmitted to the heart 

 of a tree. On some days the internal temperature differs by as 

 much as 10° C. from the air outside, but generally the difference 

 is only a few degrees. When the air-temperature falls below 

 the freezing point, the internal temperature of a tree descends 

 to a point near that at which the sap freezes, and appears to 

 remain there. The maximum temperature of the interior of the 

 trunk of a tree may occur some time before the maximum is 

 reached by the sun ounding air, owing to the action of the spring 

 sun upon the tree while devoid of foliage. During the high 

 temperatures of summer, the internal temperature was proved by 

 the investigations to be about 15' C. with a variation of2°C. at 

 the most. Speaking generally, a large tree is warmer than the 

 air in cold months, and a little colder than the air during the 

 summer months. 



During the recent frost, large masses of ice containing numer- 

 ous freshwater eels were carried down the River Arun to Little- 

 hampton. This affords an interesting example of the manner 

 in which freshwater fish in a perfect state of preservation may 

 be buiied in some number in marine deposits. 



Mr. J. Stirling, in his second special report on the 

 Victorian Coal-fields, describes the various areas in detail, 

 referring amongst other points to littoral and subaerial denud- 

 ation and to the origin of soils. In the Kilcunda district 

 numerous boreholes for coal have been put down by Govern- 

 ment — one to a depth of 1158 feet. 



Mr. J. J. Stevenson, in the jSm/Z^/Zw of the Geological Society 

 for America, vol. v., discusses the origin of the Pennsylvania 

 anthracite, and shows that there is no relation between the 

 amount of disturbance of the strata and the production of 

 anthracite. The coal becomes more anthracitic as the seams 

 thicken towards the north-east ; in this direction the coal seam, 

 whilst in process of formation, would be lorger exposed to 

 chemical change. 



Dr. W. F. Hu.me read a paper on "The Genesis of the 

 Chalk " before the Geologists' Association on January 5. He 



