422 



NATURE 



[March i, 1900 



in endeavouring to fix a metric thread for bolts and screws, 

 nuts, bolt-heads, &c., as the present universal normal standard 

 (the Whitworth) is so differently constructed by different works 

 that the parts are not as interchangeable as should be the case. 

 These classifications are naturally making more and more pro- 

 gress in Germany, not in the iron trade alone, but in other 

 manufactures. In view of these facts, the Consul points out 

 that Germany and the Continent generally will have a constantly 

 increasing advantage over British manufactures in the future in 

 foreign countries, unless the metric system be fully and entirely 

 adopted by Great Britain. 



The Danish Meteorological Institute has for the last few years 

 been carrying on the useful work of collecting from all available 

 sources particulars of the state of the polar ice. In the first 

 place, observations were collected around Greenland only, but 

 more recently it has been able to extend its observations so as 

 to comprise the seas from Novaya Zemlya and Spitsbergen to 

 Davis Strait and Baffin Bay. The results for 1899, accompanied 

 by charts, have been published in the " Nautical Meteorological 

 Yearbook " of the Institute for that year, and exhibit the follow- 

 ing peculiarities: — (i) In the Kara Sea, the western part of 

 Barents Sea, the South-east and part of North Spitsbergen, and 

 also in Smith Sound and the immediately adjacent waters, there 

 appears to have been more ice present than is usually the case. 



(2) South of Franz Joseph Land and on the east coast of Green- 

 land, there has been considerably less ice present than usual. 

 This latter condition gives promise of a good spring season off 

 the south-west coast of Greenland. The great scientific and 

 practical value of knowing, as far as possible, the annual dis- 

 tribution, character and quantity of drift ice of polar origin was 

 unanimously recognised by the International Geographical 

 Congress in Berlin last year, and the Danish Institute will gladly 

 receive any observations upon the subject, to assist in compiling 

 similar information for future years. 



In advance of the complete report of the Indian Plague 

 Commission, a chapter has just been published devoted to Mr. 

 Ilaffkine's method of anti-plague inoculations. Among the 

 results of the Commissioners' critical study of the nature and 

 effect of the anti-plague vaccine are the following: — (i) 

 Inoculation sensibly diminishes ^he incidence of plague 

 attacks on the inoculated population, but the protection which 

 is afforded against attacks is not absolute. (2) Inoculation 

 diminishes the death-rate among the inoculated population. 

 This is due, not to the fact that the rate of attack is diminished, 

 but also to the fact that the fatality of attacks is diminished. 



(3) Inoculation does not appear to confer any degree of pro- 

 tection within the first few days after the inoculation has been 

 performed. (4) Inoculation confers a protection which certainly 

 lasts for some considerable number of weeks. It is possible 

 that the protection lasts for a number of months. (5) The 

 varying strength of the vaccine employed has apparently had a 

 great effect upon the results which have been obtained from 

 inoculation. There appears to be a definite quantum of 

 vaccinating material which gives the maximum amount of pro- 

 tection ; and provided that this quantum can be injected in one 

 dose, and provided also that the protection turns out to be a 

 lasting one, reinoculation might with advantage be dispensed 

 with. The best results of inoculation will only be obtained 

 after an accurate method of standardisation has been devised. 

 (6) The Commissioners finally recommend that, under the safe- 

 guards and conditions of accurate standardisation and complete 

 sterilisation of the vaccine and the thorough sterilisation of the 

 syringe in every case, inoculations should be encouraged 

 wherever possible, and in particular among disinfecting staffs 

 and the attendants of plague hospitals. 



NO. 1583, VOL. 61] 



We have received from Mr. H, Geitel an interesting paper 

 read before the Brunswick Society of Science, entitled " Con- 

 tributions to the Knowledge of Atmospheric Electricity," by 

 Mr. J. Elster and himself. The paper deals principally with a 

 summary of the results of experiments on the ionic conduction 

 of gases, first investigated by W. Giese, in 1882, and subse- 

 quently by Frof. A. Schuster, J. J. Thomson, and others, and 

 explains the recent advances made in the problem of atmospheric 

 electricity by treating it from a similar standpoint. The results 

 attained agree well with those arrived at by Mr. C. T. R. 

 Wilson, of the Cavendish Laboratory, at Cambridge, in recent 

 experiments, made at the instance of the Meteorological Council, 

 on the relation between rain and atmospheric electricity (/'/5z7. 

 Trans. Ser. A, 193, 1899). He found that positive and negative 

 ions (at least those produced in air by Rontgen rays) differed 

 in their efficiency as condensation nuclei, that the negative 

 ions are more efficient as nuclei for the condensation of water 

 vapour, and that a preponderance of negative electricity will 

 consequently be carried down by precipitation to the earth's 

 surface. Elster and Geitel found that normal atmospheric air 

 contains positive and negative ions in nearly equal quantity, 

 and that when the air is pure the ions meet with little ob- 

 struction to their movement, the negative (as shown by Zeleny) 

 moving faster, but that if the air is misty their mass is greatly 

 increased, and their mobility almost entirely prevented. 



A MEMOIR on the geology of Newport, Monmouthshire, by 

 Mr. Aubrey Strahan, has just been issued by the Geological 

 Survey. It is notified as the first part of a general memoir on 

 the geology of the South Wales coal-field. The original 

 geological survey of that large area was commenced more than 

 sixty years ago by De la Beche, and it is but natural that the 

 old one-inch maps have long been out-of-date. The re-survey 

 was commenced by Mr. Strahan in 1891, and now, with the aid 

 of several colleagues, a large part of the coal-field has been 

 mapped in detail on the six-inch scale. These larger maps are 

 deposited for reference in the Geological Survey Office in 

 Jermyn Street, while the one inch maps, which are published, 

 afford a good general idea of the structure of the country. Of 

 these sheet No. 249 is now described. The main advances 

 made are in the sub-division of the Old Red Sandstone and of 

 the Coal-measures, and in the tracing out of the faults and dis- 

 turbances which have affected the position of the productive 

 coal-strata. The memoir contains the results of a systematic 

 survey, whereby the variations in the character and thickness of 

 the strata have been followed, and the numerous coal-seams 

 have been tabulated and correlated. The practical importance 

 of the work in the colliery districts will be appreciated by those 

 interested in the further development of the great coal-field. 

 On scientific grounds geologists will find matter of interest 

 relating to the Silurian rocks and fossils of the Usk district, as 

 well as in regard to the Old Red Sandstone, Carboniferous Rocks, 

 Keuper Marls, Rhaelic Beds and Lower Lias. It is noteworthy 

 that there appears to be a sharp plane of demarcation between 

 the Silurian and Old Red Sandstone ; and that no break has 

 locally been found in the series of strata which constitute the 

 Old Red Sindstone. The mapping of the Drift deposits has 

 thrown much new light on the extent of the glaciation of South 

 Wales. 



Prof. Tacchixi, in a recent contribution to the R. Acca- 

 deinia dei Lincei, describes the Roman earthquake of July 19, 

 1899. The earthquake belongs to the series which have their 

 origins beneath the Alban Hills, the epicentre being situated 

 near Frascati. At this place, and in some of the neighbouring 

 villages, buildings were damaged. The shock was felt to a 

 distance of 130 km. from the epicentre, and was recorded by 

 the seismometrograph at Catania (520 km.), having travelled 



