December i i, 1902] 



NATURE 



J 35 



the history of the alphabet : Sir Clements Markham, three 

 lectures on Arctic and Antarctic exploration ; Mr. G. R. M. 

 Murray, three lectures on the flora of the open ocean ; and six- 

 lectures by Lord Rayleigh. The Friday evening meetings will 

 begin on January 16, when a discourse will be delivered by 

 Prof. Dewar on low temperature investigations ; succeeding dis- 

 courses will probably be given by Dr. Tempest Anderson, Prof. 

 W. E. Dalby, Prof. S. Delepine, Principal E. H. Griffiths, Dr. A. 

 Liebmann, Prof. J. G. McKendrick, Prof. Karl Pearson, Prof. 

 E. A. Schafer, Prof. W. A. Herdman and Lord Rayleigh. 



After the formal acceptance, by the British Government, of 

 the invitation to take part in the Universal Exhibition which is 

 to be opened at St. Louis on May I, 1904, it was decided to 

 prepare and distribute an illustrated descriptive pamphlet for 

 the guidance of intending exhibitors and visitors from the 

 United Kingdom. The booklet sets forth the plan of the Ex- 

 position, gives estimates of the men and the historic events to 

 be commemorated, provides a comprehensive review of the 

 various exhibits, and explains the relations which foreign 

 countries, the Government of the United States and the States 

 of the Union bear to it. About twenty-five foreign countries, 

 including Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy, have 

 decided to take part in the Exhibition. France has already 

 made a preliminary appropriation of 650,000 francs, and it is 

 believed this will be at least doubled next year. Germany's 

 exhibit is expected to be even finer than that at the last Paris 

 Exhibition. Japan has made an initial grant of 800,000 yen 

 (about So,ooo/.). The British Government is to be asked, a 

 Times correspondent says, to enlarge the scope of its acceptance, 

 which is limited thus far to the assurance that complete exhibits 

 will be made in art and education, and facilities afforded to 

 industries. 



On Monday, at the Society of Aits, Sir George Birdwood, 

 K.C.I.E., was given evidence of the regard in which he is held 

 by many leaders of thought, for he was presented with a 

 testimonial in the form of some handsome silver plate and a 

 purse of money. In making the presentation on behalf of the 

 committee and subscribers, Sir Owen Tudor Burne alluded to 

 the fact of Sir George Birdwood's having entered the East India 

 Company's service forty-eight years ago. Being afterwards 

 stationed at Bombay, he became one of its leading citizens, 

 founding, among other beneficial works, the Victoria and Albert 

 Museum and the Victoria Gardens, besides greatly enlarging the 

 local branch of the Royal Asiatic Society and throwing open its 

 membershiptopublic-spiritedand learned Hindus, Mohammedans 

 and Parsees ; he was mainly instrumental in raising the neces- 

 sary funds for the building and endowment of the Bombay 

 Univeisity, and was also the author of various writings on 

 Indian art and botany and Indian local and Imperial questions. 



The bending of two alabaster slabs in the Alhambra palace 

 at (Grenada was mentioned by Mr. Spencer Pickering (p. 81) in 

 connection with a letter by Dr. See (p. 56) on the bending of 

 a marble slab under its own weight. Dr. Bleekrode, writing from 

 The Hague with reference to the Alhambra slabs, remarks that 

 they are nearly 3 metres long, and are 23 centimetres wide 

 and 5 centimetres thick. The curvature begins at a distance of 

 about I metre above the floor and the radius is nearly 9 metres. 

 The pressure is estimated to be equal to about 1600 kilogrammes. 

 Dr. Bleekrode points out that the Alhambra was built at the end 

 of the thirteenth century and began to deteriorate nearly two 

 hundred years ago. He suggests that possibly if the masonry 

 causing the pressure were removed, the slabs would become flat 

 again, in which case the bending would have to be regarded 

 merely as an effect of elasticity. 



NO. I728, VOL. 67] 



Dr. T. A. Jaccar, Jvnr., of Haivaid University, in a 

 letter to Science, dirccls attention to a peculiar sequence fol- 

 lowed by the great emptions of Mont Pele'e this year. Since 

 May 5, eruptions of the first rragnilude have occurred at in- 

 tervals of increasing length, as will be noticed from the following 

 dates of violent disturbances of the volcano ; — May 5-May 8, 

 three days; May S-May 20, twelve da)s; May 20-June 6, 

 seventeen days ; June 6-July 9, thirty-three days ; July 9- 

 August 30, fifty-two days. The progressive increase of the 

 interval between the eruplions does not follow any simple 

 arithmetical law, but from a graphic representation of the facts 

 a curve is obtained which suggests that the interval after 

 August 30 has a length of 112 da>s. If that is the case, a 

 great eruption of Mont Pelee might be expected to occur 

 about December 20. 



During the past week, this country has experienced abnor- 

 mally cold weather, and sharp frosts have occurred at night, 

 while the day temperatures have on several occasions only risen 

 slightly above the freezing point. North-easterly and easterly 

 winds have for the most part prevailed, and at times they have 

 blown with considerable strength ; snow has fallen in many 

 places, and in the south of England the ground remained 

 covered for some days. The cold spell has been caused by the 

 extension of the European area of high barometiic pressure 

 over our Islands, and this has brought this country under the 

 influence of the severe weather which has prevailed on the 

 continent. On the night of December 6-7, the thermometer at 

 Greenwich fell to 24°'5 in the screen and to l8°7 on the grass, 

 but still lower temperatures have been recorded in parts of 

 England and Scotland. The anlicyclone over northern Europe 

 has apparently become fairly well established, and with its con- 

 tinuance the weather is likely to remain cold. 



We have received from Dr. Hergesell, president of the Inter- 

 national Aeronautical Committee, a preliminary report upon 

 the scientific balloon ascents made on the first Thursday in each 

 of the months July, August and September last. The ascents, 

 which were made by manned and unmanned balloons and kites, 

 were joined in by Austria, France, (iermany, Hungary and Russia 

 on the continent, by England (Mr. Alexander), Scotland (Mr. 

 Dines), and Blue Hill Observatory, in the United States. 

 Readings at altitudes near or exceeding 10,000 metres were 

 obtained in the following cases : — Berlin (July), ~52°'5 C. at 

 15,690m., ground temperature 9°'4. Strassburg (August), -4i°7 

 at 10,160 m., temperature at starting iS >- 4, and about half an 

 hour later (5h. a.m.), - 53°'i at 11,900m., ground l6° - 2. Berlin, 

 -68° at 18,500m., ground I3°'5. Bath, - 47° 2 at 9305m., tem- 

 perature at starting (8h. a.m.) I5° 4 6 ; the greatest height reached 

 was 11,350m. Strassburg (September), -54° 7 at 12,200m., 

 ground 177. Pavlovsk, -49°7at 11,100m., temperature at 

 starting 1 3 . The ascents were made under the following baro- 

 metric conditions : — In July, high pressure existed over the 

 western part of Europe ; in August and September, areas of low 

 barometric pressure were prevalent. 



We have received from Dr. Robert Bell, acting director of the 

 Geological Survey of Canada, the western sheet of the geological 

 map of the Dominion, on a scale of fifty miles to an inch. It 

 is very clearly printed in colours, and will be of much service 

 as an index map to the structure of the country. 



I.N an article on the composite gneisses in Boylagh, West 

 Donegal {Proceedings Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxiv., 1902), 

 Prof. G. A. J. Cole argues that we have the intermingling and 

 incorporation of two dissimilar masses of stratified and igneous 

 material, and that the gneisses have resulted from the complex 

 metamorphism to which the masses have been subjected. 



