June 4, 1903] 



NATURE 



105 



|y bring back the state of affairs which existed on 



average during- the long period mentioned," 

 ^The fact that we are at present in a period of re- 

 lively low rainfall is, of course, well known, and as 



jards the Thames Basin, the following table is 

 loted, giving the average annual fall deduced from 



;nty-four well-distributed stations : — 



The report points out that the mean rainfall for the 

 ten years 1883-92 was 26.60, and for the ten years 

 1893-1902 it was 25.44, or more than an inch less. 

 But it is not clearly pointed out that the means of the 

 four consecutive periods of five years give the respective 

 values 26.57 in-. -^-65 in., 26.87 i"-. and 24-02 in., 

 in other words, that on the whole the rainfall was 

 increasing slightly for fifteen years, and fell sharply 

 in the last five. Nor is attention called to the fact 

 that the average rainfall of 28.50 inches for the Thames 

 Basin was arrived at by Mr. Symons in 1893 from the 

 consideration of a much larger number of stations 

 than the twenty-four on which the subsequent values 

 are based, for the ten years 1880-89, which period Mr, 

 Symons showed probably gave the same mean value as 

 the long period 1850-89. It is probable that the latter 

 figures represent the average rainfall of the basin as 

 accurately as so small a number of stations can, and 

 they are at least comparable inter sc, but it is by no 

 means so sure that they can fairly be compared with 

 the earlier mean value obtained by the consideration of 

 a much larger number of stations. In fact, we are not 

 Inclined to look upon the decline in the rainfall as quite 

 so serious as it appears to be from the report, and we 

 are confident that in the course of time, and probably in 

 a comparatively short time, the fall will again reach 

 the average. 



The report shows plainly that the diminution in the 

 flow of the Thames (and the same holds good of the 

 Lea) is greater than the diminution of the rainfall. 

 Theoretical considerations suggest that this is what 

 should occur, for the amount of water absorbed by 

 vegetation must be approximately constant, and in a 

 dry year evaporation is usually more active than in a 

 wet one, while, when the water-level in the pervious 

 rocks is lowered, the flow of springs cannot respond 

 to the rainfall with the promptitude usual when the 

 rocks are saturated. 



It is a matter of regret that hydrology, as applied to 

 the rivers of the whole British Isles, has not been taken 

 up by any Government department. This report of 

 the County Council shows the interest of the problems 

 involved, and it may be that a more systematic treat- 

 ment of statistics of rainfall and river-flow would 

 answer the questions which is suggests. 



Hugh Robert Mill. 



ARCTIC GEOLOGY. 



A S the report on the geological observations made 

 -^*- during the recent Polar expedition of the Fram, 

 recently read before the Royal Geographical Society by 

 Mr. P. Schel, of which we have received a separate 

 copy, is only a preliminary one, and the geological 

 terms employed require some revision to make them 

 intelligible to an English reader, a brief notice may 

 suffice, though evidently the results will be very 

 valuable. Under Captain Sverdrup's leadership, 



>^'o. 1753. '^'01-- 68] 



EUesmere Land was crossed, part of its southern 

 and its western coast was traced, with the corre- 

 sponding side of Grinnell Land, and journeys were 

 made round Axel Heiberg and Ringnes Islands. Ihe 

 collections obtained, which were often considerable, 

 show that the region explored, with the newly dis- 

 covered islands, consists of formations which were 

 known to occur on the two sides of Smith Sound 

 and on the long chain of islands extending on or near 

 the seventy-fifth parallel from North Devon to Prince 

 Patrick Island, viz. a foundation of crystalline 

 Archaean rocks, largely granitoid, followed by sedi- 

 imentaries the oldest of which are of Cambrian age, 

 the part immediately following the Archaean being 

 occasionally, as might be expected, an arkoso. In 

 some places representatives of the Ordovician and 

 Silurian occur, and, as in the other islands, Devonian 

 and Carboniferous, including the representative lime- 

 stone, are extensively developed. Mesozoic formations 

 are represented, but apparently on no great scale, and 

 large masses of sandstone, with lignites and shales, are 

 identified by their plant fossils as Tertiary (Miocene or 

 perhaps rather earlier), as in Greenland. In parts of 

 EUesmere Land and Heiberg Island are various 

 eruptive rocks, porphyrites and diabases, cutting the 

 Archaean and the older sedimentaries. Basalts and 

 dolerites occur in Grinnell Land intrusive in Mesozoic 

 strata, and Surface lavas and somewhat similar 

 rocks overlie Carboniferous rocks in Heiberg Island. 

 They are older than the Tertiary shale mentioned above. 

 The region has occasionally been much faulted, and 

 locally crushed up against a " horst " of Archaean rock. 

 It has also been affected by earth movements of late 

 date, indicated by raised beaches and marine terraces, 

 which are at various elevations up to nearly 600 feetj 

 and so prove that the land has risen. There are no 

 large masses of inland ice or signs of glaciers having 

 formerly been on a much more extensive scale than at 

 present. This is probably due, at any rate partly, to a 

 rather small precipitation. 



/. V. LABORDE (1830-1903). 



DR. LABORDE (Jean Baptiste Vincent), who died 

 recently at the age of seventy-two, was born at 

 Buzet (Lot et Garonne), and received a good education 

 at the Lycee of Cahors, after spending some time in a 

 boarding-school at Casteljaloux. To satisfy his 

 natural bent for medical studies he went to Paris, 

 without any resources, and, in order to provide for his 

 livelihood and his studies, he was obliged to give 

 private lessons. However, he managed to be appointed 

 externe des hopitaux in 1854, in the same promotion as 

 Lancereaux, now president of the Academic de M^de- 

 cine. Four years later, he obtained the internat, in 

 which capacity he spent four years more in the hospitals 

 of Paris, after which he was graduated doctor m^dic. 

 for his thesis on " La Paralysie Infantile " (1864). 

 Meanwhile he had obtained the gold medal of the 

 hospitals, the Corvisart prize, and another prize from 

 the Soci^t^ M^dicale des Hopitaux, and, lastly, in the 

 very year in which he got his doctor's degree, the 

 Godard prize, awarded by the Soci^t^ Anatomique de 

 Paris. 



In 1872 Laborde gave up pure medicine to devote 

 himself to scientific works, particularly to physiology, 

 giving to his researches a solid and safe basis, by 

 means of the experimental method. At first only an 

 assistant to Prof. B^clard, he was soon appointed chef 

 des travaux de physiologic at the Faculty de Medecine, 

 and for many years the demonstrations he gave in his 

 laboratory were attended by numerous pupils. It was 

 in the course of this period that he published the 



