i6o 



NATURE 



[June 12, 1890 



also insures uniformity in the strength of the infusion. By 

 compression it is claimed that the aromatic properties of the leaf 

 are retained for a much longer period, and that it is better 

 preserved from damp and climatic changes." 



Besides the paper on compressed tea, the Kew Bull, tin 

 for June contains a valuable catalogue of timber trees of the 

 Straits Settlements. Among the late Dr. Maingay's botanical 

 collections — which were acquired for Kew — was a herbarium of 

 the woody plants of the Eastern Indian peninsula, a large pro- 

 portion of which were new to science. These were accom- 

 panied with a series of careful note-books containing descrip- 

 tions drawn up from fresh specimens, with the native names. 

 The whole material has been worked up at Kew in the prepara- 

 tion by Sir Josephllookerof the "Flora of British India," and has 

 proved, X^at. Bulletin says, "of inestimable value." In the list 

 now printed botanical identifications are given to the native 

 names comprised in Dr. Maingay's catalogue. In the same 

 number of the Knu Bulletin there is an interesting correspond- 

 ence, in which attention is drawn to the growing of cotton in 

 West Africa, and especially to an attempt which has lately been 

 made to introduce and cultivate experimentally in that region 

 the best forms of Egyptian cotton. 



The Manchester Guardian says that many students of science 

 in Lancashire will learn with satisfaction that the Council of the 

 Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society have at last been 

 able to make arrangements for the cataloguing of the Society's 

 unique library. This includes, amongst much other rare and 

 valuable material, the publications for a long series of years past 

 of several hundred foreign Academies and learned Societies. 



The "Association pour la Protection des Plantes " held an 

 interesting exhibition at Montpellier during the recent centennial 

 celebration. This Society, which is now seven years old, aims 

 at the protection of Alpine plants, especially in Switzerland^ 

 where many species have been all but destroyed by the depreda- 

 tions of plant- dealers. Among its members are many well- 

 known English men of science. It is doing good work in 

 establishing Alpine botanical gardens, where rare species are 

 preserved. 



A BOTANICAL school-garden has recently been instituted in 

 Breslau by the magistracy, for regular supply of plants to the 

 schools of the place, and for enabling teachers to make observa- 

 tions on the spot with their pupils. The cost of the arrangement 

 is about !^300. Private schools share the advantages on payment 

 of an annual subscription. 



German papers announce the death of Dr. Anton Felix 

 Schneider, Professor of Zoology and Director of the Zoological 

 Museum at the University of Breslau. 



The measurement of the Rhone glacier in a comprehensive 

 and systematic way has been carried on since 1874 by the Swiss 

 Alpine Club, and the abundant data obtained will shortly be 

 published in separate form. It appears that the glacier was in 

 recession till 1888, but since last year it has been advancing. 



Two violent shocks of earthquake were felt at Sofia on June 

 7, at half- past 6 a.m. The seismic disturbance was accom- 

 panied by subterranean' noises. Its direction was from south to 

 north. No damage seems to have been done. 



A LARGE water-barometer is now in use in the Saint 

 Jacques Tower, Paris. The glass tube— the longest that has yet 

 been made — is 12 metres 69 centimetres long. The diameter is 

 2 centimetres. Special openings in the tower were required to 

 allow it to be put in its place. It is connected with a registering 

 apparatus, and it is proposed that a photographic apparatus shall 

 be associated with it, in order that the thermometrical readings of 

 NO. 1076, VOL. 42] 



the water in the barometer may also be obtained. The instrument 

 is a very curious one, and may render many services in conse- 

 quence of its considerable sensitiveness. During thunderstorms 

 it is especially active. 



Mr. R. H. Scott has contributed a note on thunderstorms 

 to Longman's Magazine for June, showing various peculiarities 

 in their behaviour in this country and abroad. These storms 

 are generally divided into two groups: (i) heat thunderstorms 

 (the summer type), and (2) cyclonic thunderstorms, which occur 

 principally in autumn and winter. The frequency of the storms 

 is much greater in low latitudes than in high, and their energy 

 is materially moderated by the dampness of the climate, hence 

 our own comparative immunity from them. Certain districts 

 also appear more liable to storms than others ; the damage by 

 hail, which frequently accompanies electrical discharges, appears 

 to be greater in Huntingdonshire and neighbouring counties 

 than in other parts of England. From an extensive inquiry by 

 the Beriin Statistical Office, published in 1866, it appears that 

 houses with thatched roofs are struck by lightning much more 

 frequently than slated houses, while houses in towns are less 

 frequently affected than those in the country. 



FoHN winds, it is now known, are due to the descent from a 

 mountain region of locally heated air- currents, when minima are 

 passing. The fohn phenomena of Greenland have been lately 

 studied by Herren Paulsen and Hann {Met. Zeitsch.). Over 

 the ice-covered interior in winter (they represent) lies a baro- 

 metric maximum, and before minima approach from the west, 

 the phenomenon of increase of temperature with height occurs, 

 as in the Alps. The masses of air on the plateau, cooled by 

 radiation, sink as local cold valley winds, by the fjords. But 

 when an approaching depression from the west sets the air in 

 more general motion, the milder air from higher portions of the 

 anticyclone comes down into the fjords as a warm east wind — 

 the fdhn. The movement extends as the minimum comes 

 nearer, and the warming effect is not confined to the fohn 

 localities. On one side of the mountain precipitation occurs, 

 causing diminished cooling of the rising air, and thereby a 

 continuance of the fohn on the other side. 



The new number of the Journal of the Bombay Natural 

 History Society (vol. v. No. i) contains a valuable paper, by 

 Mr. G. W. Vidal, on the venomous snakes of North Kanara. 

 It has been said that no case of the bite of the Echis having 

 proved fatal is known. Mr. Vidal thinks that at the present 

 day this statement can hardly need refutation. There is no 

 doubt, he says, that the Echis is a far more potent factor in 

 swelling the mortality of the Bombay Presidency than any other 

 venomous species, and it seems to him important that this fact 

 should be more generally known and recognized than it has been 

 hitherto. In all those districts— such as Sind and Ratnagira — 

 where the Echii is known to abound, the average mortality from 

 snake-bite is markedly high, whereas the mortality is insigni- 

 ficant in districts where the Echis is either rare or absent. 



At the meeting of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 

 on April 30, Mr. R. Etheridge read a paper on the question, 

 "Has man a geological history in Australia?" The general 

 want of satisfactory evidence of man's existence in Australia 

 during Post-Tertiary times was commented on, and the various 

 opinions which have been given on the subject were passed in 

 review. A portion of the human tooth found in the Weliington 

 Breccia Cave by the late Mr. Gerard Kreff"t was described, and 

 the question of its value as evidence, from what is known of its 

 history, was discussed. After considering all the evidence at 

 present forthcoming, the author arrived at the conclusion that 

 the matter could hardly be summed up better than by the very 



