86 



NATURE 



[May 28, 1903 



at some stations kites were used. We quote only the pre- 

 liminary results of the registering balloons, as these attained 

 the greatest altitudes. At Trappes, near Paris, a tempera- 

 ture of — 49°-8 C. was registered at 10,000 metres ; the 

 reading at starting was 9°-6, and an inversion of o°-2 

 occurred at 750 metres. The balloon rose to 15,700 metres, 

 but if readings at higher altitudes than those quoted are 

 suspected of being vitiated by radiation, they are scrupu- 

 lously rejected. At Strassburg, the temperature at 

 starting was 6°-3, and the following readings were re- 

 corded : Sg"-! at 15,600 metres, -54°o at 10,300 metres, 



— 5i°-5 at 12,200 metres. A second balloon, on March 6, 

 recorded — 62°-i at 15,330 metres, — 5i°-2 at 10,200 

 metres, and — 48°-2 at 11,300 metres. At Berlin the follow- 

 ing temperatures were recorded :— - S7°-o at 10,400 metres, 



— 5i°o at 12,000 metres; at starting 4°-4. The type of 

 weather was cyclonic over the British Isles and west of 

 Scandinavia, and anticyclonic over south-west France and 

 eastern Russia. 



There has recently been some discussion in the columns 

 of our contemporary Science as to who first made use of 

 the word "barometer." It occurred in a paper by Boyle 

 in the Phil. Trans, of 1666, and also in an anonymous 

 article in the same journal in 1665. Our valued corre- 

 spondent, Mr. A. L. Rotch, refers to the use of the 

 word in 1665 i" " The General History of the Air . . . 

 by the Honble. Robert Boyle, Esq.," published in 

 London in 1692. We have referred to the work 

 and to the article in question, viz. " A Short Account 

 of the Statical Baroscope, imparted by Mr. Boyl, March 

 24, 1665. In a Letter to Mr. H. Oldenburgh." As the 

 matter may be of interest to our readers, we quote the 

 sentence (p. 98) :— " When I come to another Place, where 

 there is a Mercurial Barometer, as well freed from Air as 

 mine (for that must be supposed) if taking out my Scale- 

 Instrument, it appears to weigh precisely a Drachm ; and 

 the Mercury, in the Baroscope there, stand at 29^ Inches, 

 we may conclude, the Gravity of the Atmosphere, not to 

 be sensibly unequal in both those two Places, though very 

 distant." ^ 



During the summer months of the years 1900-1902 the 

 cutter yacht Walwin, belonging to Dr. R. N. Wolfenden,' was 

 engaged, under the owner's direction, in taking sea tempera- 

 ture observations at the surface and at various depths, 

 and in the collection of samples of water in the channel 

 between the Shetland and Faeroe Islands. The discussion 

 of the observations was entrusted to Mr. H. N. Dickson, 

 who has communicated the results in an interesting paper 

 to the Geographical Journal for April. There are two 

 opposing movements of water in the channel, from the south 

 and from the north. The former, or north-moving currents, 

 are of two kinds :— (a) drift currents caused by the winds '; 

 these are strongest during winter ; and (b) stream currents,' 

 or the Norwegian branch of the European stream ; these are 

 strongest during summer. The south-moving currents are 

 also of two kinds :— (c) water from the central and western 

 parts of the Norwegian sea, and (d) water derived from the 

 melting of ice in the Arctic regions. One of the conclusions 

 drawn by the author is that the movements of the surface 

 waters of the sea and the temperature of the air near the 

 British Isles do not stand in any direct relation of cause 

 and effect. The temperature of the surface water influences 

 the distribution of atmospheric pressure, and will therefore 

 affect the direction of the prevailing winds, but motion has 

 nothing to do with this influence. 



An exhibition of mounted heads of the larger mammals 

 and other products of the chase from the German Colonies 

 . NO. 1752, VOL 68] 



(Deutsch-Kolonial Jagd-Austellung) has lately been opened 

 at Carlsruhe, under the patronage of the Grand Duke 

 Frederick of Baden. More than fifty persons, who have 

 been out in the German Colonies as officials or in quest 

 of sport, have sent their trophies to it, and a most extensive 

 and instructive series of specimens is the result, which no 

 one interested in the larger game-animals should fail to 

 see. The well-known traveller and naturalist, Oscar 

 Neumann, has contributed the whole of his large African 

 collection. Herr Carl Hagenbeck, of Hamburg, who has 

 long been engaged in getting together a series of heads 

 and horns from all parts of the world, has likewise sent 

 the whole of them to Carlsruhe for exhibition. Amongst 

 the latter the specimens of wild sheep, ibexes and deer from 

 Central Asia have attracted much attention. The collec- 

 tion will be open to view all the summer in the building 

 of the Jubileum Art Exhibition, at Carlsruhe. 



Captain Stanley Flower, the director of the Zoological 

 Gardens at Gizeh, near Cairo, is expected to arrive in 

 England about the end of this month, and will bring with 

 him a valuable contribution to the Zoological Society's 

 menagerie. This is a male Gravy's zebra, by far the 

 largest and finest member of the group of African striped 

 asses. There are already two female examples of this 

 beautiful animal in the Zoological Society's Gardens, which 

 have been placed under the Society's care by H.M. the 

 King, so that the acquisition of a male of the same species 

 is eminently desirable. The male in question was obtained 

 for the Society by Colonel Harrington, the British Resident 

 at the capital of Abyssinia, and was brought down as far 

 as Cairo in December last. But it was thought prudent 

 to keep the animal in a warmer climate during the winter 

 season, so it was arranged to deposit it at Gizeh under 

 Captain Flower's care. It is hoped that Captain Flower 

 will likewise be able to bring to England on the same 

 occasion another female of the same species of zebra, also 

 obtained for the Zoological Society by Colonel Harrington. 



An important series of statistical articles dealing with 

 the occurrence and incidence of cancer in various countries 

 has been published in the British Medical Journal. The 

 main conclusions arrived at are that cancer is prone to 

 attack certain races, especially the Scandinavian and the 

 different branches of the Germanic family, that it is more 

 prevalent in districts in which beer is the staple drink, and 

 that it tends to cause excessive mortality in regions abound- 

 ino- in water, and to a much more marked extent when 

 these are covered with woods or forests. 



The well-known salmon disease, since the researches of 

 the late Prof. Huxley, has always been regarded as being 

 caused by the attack of a fungus, the Saprolegnia ferax. 

 Recently Mr. Hume Patterson has conducted a research 

 for the Fishery Board for Scotland, and has come to the 

 conclusion that the disease is due to invasion of the tissues 

 of the fish by a special bacillus {B. salmonis pestis), which 

 gains access through some abrasion or ulceration of the 

 skin. When the skin of the fish is in a healthy state, the 

 disease is apparently not contracted. The bacillus remains 

 alive in the dead fish, which therefore prove a source of 

 infection, and should immediately be removed and burnt 

 as soon as they are observed. 



Various explanations have been given of the cause of 

 the phenomenon of agglutination, the aggregation of the 

 bacteria into clumps, that occurs when an immune serum 

 is added to a bacterial culture. A substance termed agglu- 

 tinin develops in the serum as the result of immunisation 

 (also frequently during an attack of infective disease, e.g. 

 typhoid fever), which combines with some constituent in 



