April 5, 1894] 



NA TURE 



539 



tendency to alteration of volume avoided. The alloy exerts a 

 slight action upon the glass at a red heat, causing a browning, 

 but after the first heating during the preparation of the instru- 

 ment the action ceases, the stained interior surface resisting 

 further action. It is only necessary to heat the bulb and a small 

 portion of the stem, for the coefficient of expansion of the 

 alloy increases with the temperature in such a manner as to 

 compensate for the error due to the portion not heated. The 

 graduations are thus equidistant, and various points in them are 

 determined by immersion of the lower portion of the instrument 

 in the vapour of high boiling substances whose temperatures of 

 ebullition have been well ascertained. The instrument should 

 be a very useful one for the determination of high boiling points. 



The "Hand-Guide to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Perade- 

 niya," prepared by Mr. Henry Trimen, F.R.S., the Director, 

 contains some interesting information. The gardens were 

 opened in 1821, six years after the final occupation of the 

 Kandyan Kingdom by the English. A plan for a proper 

 botanical garden in Ceylon was drawn up by Sir Joseph 

 Banks as far back as 1810, the site chosen being Slave Island, 

 Colombo. Mr. W. Kerr took charge of this establishment in 

 i8i2, but he died two years later, and was succeeded by Mr. 

 Alexander Moon. It was during Moon's rule that the gardens 

 were moved to the present site at Peradeniya. Moon was a 

 diligent student of the flora of Ceylon, and published a valuable 

 work upon it, but after his death, in 1825, a succession of more 

 or less unqualified persons were -placed in charge. With the 

 appointment in 1844, however, of Mr. George Gardner, the 

 gardens started on the active, independent, and useful existence 

 which they have since maintained. Mr. Gardner died in 1849, 

 and was succeeded by Dr. Thwaites, who kept Peradeniya in a 

 high state of efficiency for more than thirty years, and died at 

 Kandy in 1882, having never left the island since his arrival. 

 The present director has held his position since 1880. 



A PAMPHLET has been published by the observatory of Villa 

 Colon, near Montevideo, containing the results of rainfall 

 observations for the ten years 1883- 1892, computed by the 

 Rev. L. Morandi. The mean annual fall is 35-3 inches; the 

 maximum and minimum values for each month show that 

 they varied from 117 inches in January 1889 to O'o inch in 

 August 1886, whereas the normal values for these months 

 are 3 '4 inches and 3-5 inches respectively. The greatest fall in 

 one day was 3-15 inches, on January 26, 1889, while on the 6th 

 of the same month 19 inch fell in 2^ hours. The number of 

 days on which rain fell in the year varied from 68 to 109. The 

 greatest number of consecutive rainy days was 9, and of dry 

 days 38 ; the greater quantity falls in the early morning. Other 

 tables show the relation between the rainfall, atmospheric 

 pressure, and wind. 



An extremely brilliant aurora borealis was observed on March 

 30. The Hon. Rollo Russell saw the display from Haslemere. 

 In a letter to us, he says :— " A bluish-white illumination, like late 

 twilight, was first noticed in the north-west, and this continued 

 with little variation for about fifteen minutes, namely, from 10. 15 

 to 10.30 p.m. A red streamer then shot up towards the zenith, 

 and was for about half a minute rather well-defined, but after- 

 wards gradually became fainter and broader. A considerable 

 amount of pale white light remained in the north-west at 10.40. 

 When the phenomenon was at its brightest, the stars in its 

 direction ceased to be visible." The following particulars, re- 

 ceived from Mr. C. E. Stromeyer, of Glasgow, are of interest :— 

 " Luminous (white) rays were seen to converge from all parts 

 of the horizon towards a common centre, which, as nearly as I 

 could gauge, shifted its position as follows :— At 10.30 p.m., 

 NO. 1275, '^'OL. 49] 



iih. 30m. N. 50° ; at II p.m., loh., N. 40° ; at 11.30 p.m. 

 the centre was not well defined, and few rays showed them- 

 selves." Mr. Stromeyer remarks that at first the centre was 

 occupied by luminous clouds of an irregular streaky nature, 

 which sometimes took the form of spirals. Occasionally waves 

 of light were also seen passing rapidly along the rays torvard 

 the centre. Mr. Preece, writing to the Times, says the aurora 

 was accompanied, as usual, by very strong earth currents on all 

 telegraph lines. At I0'20, a peculiar noise was heard upon a 

 telephone inserted upon a long Irish wire at Llanfairpwll in 

 Anglesey, and at 2 a.m. on Saturday, March 31, "twangs" 

 were heard, as if a stretched wire had been struck. 



We are informed that the fund established by Mrs. Eli^abelh 

 Thompson, of Stamford, Connecticut, "for the advancement 

 and prosecution of scientific research in its broadest sense," now 

 amounts to .126,000. As accumulated income will be available 

 in June next, the tiustees desire to receive applications for appro- 

 priations in aid of scientific work. This endowment is rot for 

 the benefit of any one department of science, but it is the inten- 

 tion of the trustees to give the preference to those investigations 

 which cannot otherwise be provided for, which have for their 

 object the advancement of human knowledge or the benefit of 

 mankind in general, rather than to researches directed to the 

 solution of questions of merely local importance. Applications 

 for assistance from this fund, in order to receive consideration, 

 must be accompanied by full information, especially in regard to 

 the following points: (l) Precise amount required; (2) exact 

 nature of the investigation proposed ; (3) conditions under which 

 the research is to be prosecuted ; (4) manner in which the 

 appropriation asked for is to be expended. All applications 

 should reach the Secretary of the Board of Trustees, Dr. C. S. 

 Minot, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., U.S. A., before 

 June I. The following grants have been made, in addi- 

 tion to those contained in the list previously noted in these 

 columns (Nature, vol. xlv. p. 91): .§300 to Prof. E. Wiede- 

 mann, Erlangen, for researches on luminous electric discharges ; 

 .$200 to Prof. S. Exner, Vienna, for experiments with carrier 

 pigeons ; .$100 to Prof. K. Robert, Dorpat, for researches 

 on sphacelinic acid and cornutine ; .?200 to Prof. A. Bechamp, 

 Paris, for researches on the composition of milk ; .$200 to Prof- 

 E, Drechsel, Leipzig, for researches on bases derived from 

 albumens. 



An ordinary general meeting of the Institution of Mechanical 

 Engineers will be held on Thursday and Friday, April 19 and 

 20. Prof. A.J B. W. Kennedy, F. R.S., will deliver his in- 

 augural address on the former date, after which papers will he 

 read and discussed. 



At the twenty-fifth annual meeting of the Norfolk and 

 Norwich Naturalists' Society, held on March 27, Prof. Robert 

 Collelt, of Christiania, and Mr. E. T. Newton, F.R.S., were 

 elected honorary members, and Dr. Charles Plowright was 

 appointed president, in succession to Mr. T. Southwell. It 

 was resolved by the meeting that the society be enrolled as a 

 corresponding society of the British Association. 



The Worthing correspondent of the Daily Chronicle says 

 that an unfavourable report upon the results of the trial of M. 

 Hermite's system of treating sewage matter with electrolysed 

 sea-water (see p. 469) has been prepared by Dr. C. Kelly, 

 medical officer of health of the borough and of the combined 

 sanitary district of West Sussex. The report contains the 

 results of chemical and bacteriological analyses made respectively 

 by Dr. Dupre and Dr. Klein. The results of the various tests 

 are set out in detail, and Dr. Kelly concludes : — " Since (here 

 is no instantaneous decomposition of f^^cal matter and no 



