32S 



NA TURE 



[February i, 1900 



The Report of the Meteorological Council for the year end- 

 ing March 31, 1899, has just been issued. The Office continues, 

 as in the past, to collect data relating to the meteorology of the 

 ocean, for which purpose complete outfits of meteorological 

 instruments are supplied to officers of the Mercantile Marine 

 who are willing to take observations. The number of such 

 ships supplied during the year was 114. All ships in the Royal 

 Navy are also supplied with instruments, and the Council re- 

 ceive valuable observations from this source. The results of 

 the weather forecasts issued by the Office show a complete or 

 partial success of 83 per cent, during the year 1898 ; the average 

 success during the last ten years is 81-4 per cent. The special 

 hay harvest forecasts issued to a number of selected stations 

 attained an average success of 89 per cent., and in the district 

 which includes the south of England the complete and partial 

 success reached the high figure of 96 per cent. The Office con- 

 tinues to subsidise and to retain an intimate relationship with 

 a small number of observatories of the highest class ; the in- 

 formation from these is supplemented by observations at stations 

 where the observers are volunteers. Among the miscellaneous 

 investigations may be mentioned those on atmospheric electricity, 

 by Mr. C. T. R. Wilson, of Cambridge, and the diurnal range 

 of rainfall, by Mr. R. H. Scott. An appendix to the Report 

 contains a correspondence relating to allowances made by the 

 .Meteorological Council to the Ben Nevis Observatories. For 

 some time past the Council have also had under their con- 

 sideration the necessity of making systematic provision for 

 superannuation allowances to members of the staff. Such allow- 

 ances will apparently have to be provided from the vote for 

 meteorological observations, and reductions in some directions 

 will have to be made in order to provide the means for a 

 satisfactory arrangement. It is hoped that this may be effected 

 without any material diminution of the scientific usefulness of 

 the Office. 



Two communications on telegony and the inheritance of 

 acquired characters have recently appeared ;— the one, in the 

 December number of the American Naturalist, taking the form 

 of a critical review of Prof Ewart's " Penycuik Experiments," 

 and the other, a paper by Mr. C. J. Bond in the Transactions of 

 the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society, describing some 

 experiments in rabbit-breeding and plant-grafting. While giving 

 his adherence to Prof. Ewart's conclusions, the former writer 

 urges the needs of further experiments on the same lines. Mr. 

 Bond likewise ranges himself on the same side, stating "that 

 the evidence in favour of the transmission of acquired, as 

 opposed to congenital characters, breaks down in that group of 

 cases in which the supposed occurrence of telegony was thought 

 to prove such transmission ; that the explanation of this 

 phenomenon is reversion, and that this may also account for 

 certain phenomena following budding and grafting in plants. 

 Many of the remaining results can be explained by the direct 

 action of the pollen on the maternal tissues without inheritance." 



In the above-mentioned issue of the A/nerican Na'tiralist, 

 Mr. C. E. Mead makes the important announcement that in 

 New Mexico a beetle of the genus Collops has been observed 

 feeding on the larva of the dreaded Colorado potato-beetle. 

 This leads to the belief that the main crop of potatoes in the 

 district in question is mainly saved by the predaceous habits of 

 the Cotlops, whose presence seems worth many hundreds of 

 dollars to the potato-growers of San Juan county. If this be 

 substantiated, steps should be immediately taken to introduce 

 the Collops into other districts affected by the Colorado beetle. 



Three papers on Wehnelt's interrupter form a noteworthy 

 feature of the Attidei Lincei viii. (2) 12. Drs. R. Federico and 

 P. Bacei have determined the form and frequency of the inter- 

 NO. 1 579. \'OL. 6 I j 



ruptions by allowing the current to circulate round a solenoid, 

 by which magneto-optic rotation is produced, and thus obtaining 

 a photograph in which the interruptions are represented by 

 light bands on a dark ground. The conclusions are (i) that the 

 interruptions do not alway occur at equal intervals ; (2) the inter- 

 ruptions are of short duration, averaging about one-sixth of the 

 interval between them ; (3) during the interruption the current 

 does not absolutely cease, but only falls to a minimum ; (4) a 

 magnetic field does not affect the number of interruptions per 

 second, but reduces their duration ; (5) the frequency of the 

 interruptions varies with the electrolyte, a solution of bichromate 

 and sulphuric acid giving a frequency i^ times greater than with 

 a solution of sulphuric acid only ; (6) the bichromate solution 

 does not become turbid, and its heating is less than with sul- 

 phuric acid. Dr. O. M. Corbino investigates, among other 

 results, the mathematical expressions determining the form of the 

 interruptions as deduced from the equations of mutual and self 

 induction, assuming the phenomenon to be due to Joule's law. 

 In a subsequent paper, Dr. Corbino investigates the dissymmetry 

 of the currents obtained in the circuit of a transformer when the 

 current in the primary is broken by Wehnelt's interrupter. 



The whole of the October number of the Journal of Com- 

 parative Neurology, comprising 302 pp., and five beautifully 

 coloured plates, is devoted to an elaborate memoir by Mr. C. J. 

 Herrick on the nerve-components of the bony fishes, as ex- 

 emplified by the cranial and first spinal nerves of Menidia. For 

 the benefit of those not familiar with the theory of nerve-com- 

 ponents, it may be mentioned that this is an extension to the 

 cranial nerves of what has been already done for those of the 

 spinal system, which (not to refer to the " four-root theory") 

 are divisible into motor and sensor portions. Similarly the 

 cranial nerve-trunks may contain several varieties of sensory 

 fibres, having different functional and morphological relations, 

 certain of which may be present in a single segmental nerve. 

 In spite of many technical difficulties, and our imperfect know- 

 ledge of their exact relations, enough has been accomplished to 

 permit of the statement that the several lobes of the medulla 

 oblongata, so characteristic of fishes, may be as.sociated with the 

 respective cutaneous or visceral sense-organs as definitely as the 

 olfactory nerves are associated with the olfactory lobes, or the 

 electric lobes of the torpedo with its electric organs. An excellent 

 example of this association occurs in the so-called "sea-robins," 

 in which certain free rays of the pectoral fins have become' modi- 

 fied into finger-like tactile organs, while their sensor nerves, 

 together with the corresponding dorsal nerves of the spinal 

 cord, have been enormously hypertrophied. Although the 

 criteria of the nerve-components are primarily the central and 

 peripheral distribution of the nerves themselves, it has been 

 found in practice that in fishes each component has certain 

 definite and characteiistic structural peculiarities, by means of 

 which it may be at once recognised, thus rendering the work of 

 the investigator much easier than would otherwise be the case. 



Among the several interesting papers contained in the last 

 numbers of the fzvestia of the Russian Geographical Society, 

 we notice especially one, by General Tillo. It deals with the 

 results of the meteorological observations which were made for 

 two years in the Lukchun depression of Central Asia, in con- 

 nection with the expedition of Roborovsky and Kozloff. This 

 depression was discovered, as is known, by the brothers Grum- 

 Grzimailo. Owing to the absence of places in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Lukchun, the altitude of which would have been 

 measured geometrically, it is evidently impossible to finally 

 determine the real altitude of the depression ; but from three 

 separate comparisons of the observations of the barometer which 

 were made at this place from November 1893 to October 1895 



