September 4, 1890] 



NATURE 



459 



were taken with much care, and for a locality for which they are 

 very scarce, determined to publish them in detail. The monthly 

 means and summaries have been calculated in the Meteoro- 

 logical Office and added in a convenient form at the end of the 

 volume. From these it is seen that the maximum shade tem- 

 perature was 96° "5 in September 1887, and the minimum 58° "5 

 in March 1888. The rainfall varied considerably in the different 

 years — as much as 26 inches. The greatest daily fall was 6 inches 

 in April. The sunshine recorded in 1888 amounted to an 

 average of 67 hours daily. Dr. Reid remarks, with regard to 

 the wind, that in about 19 days out of 20 there is a light breeze 

 in the west at 6h. a.m., which continues till about 8h. a.m., 

 then a short calm, then a light breeze from about south, which 

 veers round to east or east-south-east by 10 a.m., and there con- 

 tinues till about 4 p.m., when it remains calm till next morning. 

 Only three gales are recorded during the three years, and these 

 all occurred in 1886. 



The Pall Mall Gizette has issued in its *' Extra " series a 

 charming story of a dog. It is called "Teufel the Terrier : the 

 Life and Adventures of an Artist's Dog," and is " told by J. 

 Vales Carrington, and edited by Charing Cross." The tale is 

 admirably illustrated, and will give much pleasure to all who 

 study the ways of dogs, and appreciate their intelligence and 

 sense of fun. 



Part 23 of Cassell's "New Popular Educator" has been 

 published. Besides the woodcuts in the text, there is a coloured 

 ' c illustrating electric discharges in rarefied gases. 



Iessrs. George L. English and Co., of Philadelphia and 

 -New York, have published the fifteenth edition of their cata- 

 logue of the minerals which they have for sale. There has been 

 in America, they say, a " very great increase in the demand for 

 mineral specimens." 



The proposed creation of Universities in France will soon give 

 rise to much animated discussion in the French Senate. Mean- 

 while, the Ministry of Public Instruction has prepared a return 

 showing the number of students who at present attend the 

 different French faculties. The total is 16,587, of whom 15,316 

 are Frenchman and 1 271 foreigners, as against only 9863 fifteen 

 years ago. Of this total 5843 students attend the faculty of 

 medicine, 4570 that of law, 1834 that of literature, 1590 that of 

 pharmacy, 1276 that of science, and loi that of Protestant 

 theology. Rather more than half of these (8653) are students 

 of the different Paris faculties, and of the 1271 foreign students 

 1078 are in Paris. There are 989 Europeans (313 Russians, 159 

 Roumanians, and I2i Turks), 201 Americans (of whom 173 

 come from the United States), 68 Africans (of whom 51 are 

 Egyptians), 12 Asiatics, and i Australian. The great majority 

 of these foreigners are studying medicine ; 907 belong to that 

 faculty, while 240 are studying law, 58 science, 39 pharmacy, 24 

 literature, and 3 Protestant theology. 



'Yw.^ Japan Weekly Mail in a recent issue notices the publica- 

 tion of a kind of Japanese folk-lore journal, called the Fuzokn 

 Ciivahooy the object of which is to collect and record important 

 and curious Japanese national customs. Japanese customs, old 

 and new, are classified by the new journal under seven heads — 

 namely, customs that concern (i) human beings, (2) animals and 

 plants, (3) dress and ornaments, (4) food and beverages, (5) 

 buildings, (6) furniture and coins, (7) miscellaneous. For the 

 illustrations resort is had to old pictures. ■ Every number contains 

 an essay on some interesting custom, with allusions to authorities 

 on the subjects treated. 



The Government of India, it is reported, has decided to dis- 

 continue the annual grant hitherto devoted to search for, and 

 purchase of, rare Sanskrit manuscripts, but the decision will not 



NO. 1088, VOL. 42] 



take effect until 1892. A regular staff of native searchers have been 

 employed during the past ten years, and these have visited most 

 of the large temples throughout India, examining and cataloguing 

 the vast collections of works hoarded up there. The private 

 libraries of several native gentlemen have been likewise care- 

 fully sifted, and their contents recorded. Of the manuscripts 

 thus examined, no fewer than 2400 have been purchased by the 

 Government, and rendered accessible to the public at Bombay 

 and Calcutta. The most valuable "finds" have included 

 numerous old Jain manuscripts, now being submitted to the 

 scrutiny of competent scholars in Bombay. Although the search 

 and purchase grants are to cease, the Indian Government has 

 agreed to continue the allowance of Rs. 9000 per annum for the 

 publication of texts and translations of the Sanskrit and Persiar> 

 works discovered. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Squirrel Monkey {Chrysotkrix sciurea 9> 

 from Guiana, presented by Mrs. Osgood ; two Chinese Alligators 

 {Alligator sinensis) from China, presented by Mr. D. C. Jansen j 

 a Great-billed Touracou {Corythaix macrorhyncha) from West 

 Africa, a Wonga-wonga Pigeon {Leucosarcia picta) from 

 Australia, a Madagascar Love Bird (Agapornis cana) from 

 Madagascar, purchased. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Objects for the Spectroscope. 



Sidereal Time at Greenwich at 10 p.m. on September 4 

 2oh. 55 m. 52s. 



Remarks. 



(i) The G.C. description of this nebula is: "Considerably 

 bright ; large ; elongated in the direction 45° or thereabouts ; 

 barely resolvable." The spectrum appears to have been observed 

 only by Dr. Huggins, who recorded : — " One bright line only 

 was distinctly seen, of apparently the same refrangibility as the 

 brightest of the nitrogen lines. This bright line appeared by 

 glimpses to be double. Possibly this appearance was due to the 

 presence near it of a second line. The faintness of the light did 

 not permit the slit to be made sufficiently narrow for the deter- 

 mination of this point." This is an observation well worth 

 repeating, as it may possibly throw some light on the origin of 

 the chief nebula line. The magnesium fluting near A 500 has 

 been suggested, on various grounds, as the origin of the chief 

 line, and this consists of a rhythmical series of flutings with well- 

 defined edges towards the red end of the spectrum. It may be 

 that the second faint line seen by Dr. Huggins was the second 

 maximum of the compound fluting, but unfortunately he does 

 not state whether it was more or less refrangible than the brighter 

 line. 



(2) It appears to be generally agreed that this is one of the 

 finest specimens of planetary nebulae in the heavens. Lassell 

 saw it as an elliptic ring with a star in the centre. Dr. Huggins 

 and Lieutenant Herschel each recorded three bright, sharp, and 

 distinct lines in its spectrum, and Prof. VVinlock suspected a 

 fourth. The spectrum of this nebula might perhaps be advan- 

 tageously observed in connection with that of the previous 

 nebula. As the temperature of nebulas indicating hydrogen 

 is probably lower than that of nebulje in which the hydrogen 

 lines are absent, there is reasonable ground for supposing that 

 the fluted appearance of the chief line (assuming it to be due to 



