350 



NATURE 



[August 13, 1903 



Miss Dorothy Bate, whose investigation of the fossil- 

 iferous caves of Cyprus has recently created much interest 

 among palteontologists, has also paid attention to the 

 birds of that British dependency, and has written a paper on 

 the subject which will appear in the next number of the Ihis. 

 She has succeeded in making some good additions to the 

 late Lord Lilford's " List of the Birds of Cyprus," which 

 was published in 1889. 



Mr. R. C. L. Perkins, who was employed for some years 

 by the Sandwich Island Exploration Committee of the 

 British Association to make zoological collections in the 

 Hawaiian Archipelago, has received an appointment as 

 economic entomologist in those islands, with the services of 

 two assistants at his disposal. All the exertions that can 

 be made will be required, as it is said that the crops in 

 several of the islands are being completely ruined by intro- 

 duced insects of various kinds and by fungoid diseases. 

 No better selection could have been made for such a post, 

 as Mr. Perkins is an expert on Hawaiian insects, and is 

 still engaged in work upon them for the British Association 

 committee. 



The manatee which has lately been added to the Zoo- 

 logical Society's living collection is an animal of much 

 interest, as it does not belong to the ordinary species of 

 the American coasts, but is a representative of the smaller 

 form {Manatus inunguis) which is confined to the fresh 

 waters of the Amazon. Here it was first discovered by 

 the Austrian explorer Natterer, in the Rio Madeira, in 

 1830, and designated inunguis from the complete absence 

 of nails on the hand, which are always present in 

 M. americanus. A single living specimen of the same form 

 was previously received by the Zoological Society in 1896, 

 and its anatomy was described by Mr. Beddard in the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Zoological Society for 1897. The present 

 manatee, which is a young animal about three feet long, 

 has been placed in one of the tanks in the reptile house, 

 and is fed principally upon lettuce. An excellent coloured 

 figure of the marine manatee, based upon life-sketches made 

 by the. late Joseph Wolf, will be found in the mammal 

 volume of Salvin and Godman's " Biologia Centrali- 

 Americana." 



On the night of August 8 a destructive hurricane, which 

 lasted five hours, swept over Martinique. The storm 

 passed over Fort de France at i o'clock in the morning, 

 taking a north-westerly direction. The barometer went 

 down to 28-70 inches. 



Reports of the following earthquake shocks on the 

 Continent have appeared in the daily papers during the 

 past few days : — August 9. Lisbon, 10.8 p.m. Three 

 distinct shocks. Duration, three seconds, two seconds, and 

 eight seconds respectively. Interval of two seconds between 

 each shock. — August 11. Malta, 5.33 a.m. Duration, one 

 minute. Naples, 5.35 a.m. Duration, two seconds. 

 Syracuse, 5.38 a.m. Rumbling sounds heard. Ganea, 

 6.9 a.m. Duration; thirty-two seconds. Direction, north 

 to south. Walls of houses cracked. The shocks were felt 

 in almost the whole of Eastern Sicily. 



A LARGE party of delegates to the twenty-fourth annual 

 meeting of French geographical and colonial societies, held 

 at Rouen last week, is paying a visit to London, and on 

 Monday was received by the council of the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society, and entertained at luncheon. Twenty- 

 four French geographical societies, nine kindred societies, 

 and three foreign geographical societies were represented 

 at the Rouen congress, and the members visiting England 

 number eighty-two. At the luncheon, in responding to 

 NO. 1761,, VOL. 68] 



the toast of " The Geographical Societies of France," pro- 

 posed by the chairman, Major Leonard Darwin, M. Zevort, 

 rector of the University of Caen, and president of the 

 congress, said his claim to speak in that assembly was 

 that he was the rector of a university, French in 

 its character, founded by an English king, that he re- 

 presented a city which was visited every year by hundreds 

 of English people, and he was, moreover, the nephew of 

 Pasteur speaking to a son of Darwin. Wherever the 

 French had worked and the English had followed there 

 had been great progress in civilisation and in the peaceful 

 development of the human race. That was the spirit in 

 which the delegates came to this country, and it was in 

 that spirit they were welcomed. 



A REPORT by the director on the work in the engineering 

 and physics departments of the National Physical Labor- 

 atory during the half year ended June 30 gives interesting 

 particulars of the research work in progress. In the wind 

 pressure research in the engineering laboratory, the case 

 of f^at surfaces exposed to a perpendicular current of air 

 has been worked out, and a general relation established 

 which is now being tested for the case of larger surfaces 

 exposed to the natural wind. The case of parallel plates 

 at varying distances apart has been treated, and experi- 

 ments are also in progress on the pressure on inclined 

 surfaces. Drawings have been prepared, and some pre- 

 liminary tests made for the research into the constants of 

 steam. In the physics department Dr. Harker has con- 

 tinued his comparison between the air thermometer, the 

 platinum thermometer and the thermojunctions, and the 

 work is now complete for temperatures between 0° C. and 

 about 1050° C. The first part of the work for temperatures 

 up to 500° C. was done with M. Chappuis, at Sevres, and 

 the results have been published. Dr. Harker has also con- 

 structed and subjected to stringent tests a set of platinum 

 thermometers for the British Association. A small research 

 on the specific heat of iron at high temperatures — 700° C. 

 to 1000° C. — is nearly complete, and promises to be of 

 interest. Mr. F. E. Smith's research on the resistance of 

 mercury and the construction of a standard mercury resist- 

 ance is practically complete. The value of the specific 

 resistance of mercury will probably prove to be very close 

 to that determined by the director and Mr. Fitzpatrick in 

 1888. On the assumption that the absolute value of the 

 wire standards in the laboratory is known, the length of 

 the column of mercury, i sq. mm. in section, having a 

 resistance of 10° C.G.S. units, is found to be almost exactly 

 10629cm. The difference between Mr. Smith's results and 

 those of the Reichsanstalt will not be more than some few 

 parts in 100,000. An investigation of some importance 

 into the changes in insulating strength of various dielectrics 

 due to continued heating, by Mr. A. Campbell and Mr. 

 Rayner, undertaken for the Engineering Standards Com- 

 mittee, promises to lead to results of value. In the metal- 

 lurgical division the solidifying points and cooling curves 

 of a series of pure iron carbon alloys have been determined, 

 using platinum platinum-iridium and platinum platinum- 

 rhodium thermojunctions. The range of carbon is from 

 015 to 355 per cent.; the range of temperature from 

 1502° C. to 1111° C. on the thermojunction scale. In 

 addition to the above research work, nearly 600 tests have 

 been made during the half year. 



We have received from Mr. E. Bohm two incandescent 

 electric lamps which are specially designed to give good 

 illumination vertically downwards. In both lamps the lower 

 half of the bulb is made of fluted gfass, which, acting as a 

 row of lenses, serves to concentrate the light downwards ; 



