December 25, 1902] 



NA TURE 



151 



system was adopted on the recommendation of a committee 

 appointed by the council of the Royal Society, and that the 

 Board of Trade in doubtful cases had the assistance of the 

 gentleman who acted as secretary to the committee. The 

 President of the Board of Trade said he did not think there was 

 any necessity for a small departmental committee to reconsider 

 the test in the light of recent discoveries, as had been suggested. 



Mr. Francis Watts, Government Analyst and Agricultural 

 Chemist for the Leeward Islands, sends us from Antigua the 

 following particulars of recent high tides received from cor- 

 respondents in various neighbouring islands, and possibly con- 

 nected with changes due to the late volcanic disturbances : — 

 Barbuda. During the month of October and early in November, 

 the tide was abnormally high, the rise being from iS inches 

 to 2 feet above the ordinary. Old inhabitants do not remember 

 a like rise, except perhaps in a severe gale such as a hurricane, 

 and then only for a short time.— Oliver Nugent. Nevis. Tides 

 unusually high for eight or nine days, commencing about 

 November I. — R. B. Roden. Dominica. Tides unusually 

 high for few weeks ending November 12, the level being con- 

 stantly at about high-water mark. No determination had been 

 made whether this was caused by high tides or change of level. — 

 W. H. Porter. Tortola. Tides much higher than usual — a fact 

 generally commented upon and noticed while bathing. No exact 

 observations made, but the difference could safely be put down as 

 a foot in depth.— Dr. Cookman. Referring to these records, Mr. 

 Watts remarks, ' ' Of course, it may turn out that there has simply 

 been an abnormally high tide throughout the Leeward Islands, 

 but so far the tide does not seem to have returned to its normal 

 height. Observations will be continued and submitted from 

 time to time. It will not be a very easy matter to determine if 

 there have been slight changes of level, particularly in places 

 where the shore is very steep, as it is in many of the islands of 

 volcanic origin." 



An aeronautical problem of some interest, and of far less 

 difficulty than the problem of artificial flight, is the performance 

 of journeys across the sea in a balloon. In La Nature for 

 November 15, Lieut. -Colonel G. Espitalier gives an illustrated 

 account of M. Henri Herve's balloon, the Miditerranien No. 2, 

 and the methods adopted for directing it at sea. In order to 

 prevent the balloon from being depressed by a shower of rain, 

 its top part terminates in a cone. Instead of trailing a single 

 guide rope, M. Herve proposes a system of " triangulation," 

 consisting of a trailer floating at the end of a long rope behind 

 the balloon, and a balance weight hanging in the water by a 

 nearly vertical and shorter rope, the resistance of the latter body 

 being necessarily smaller than that of the former. The sea itself 

 furnishes an inexhaustible supply of ballast, and this can be 

 drawn up into a cylindrical reservoir suspended above the 

 balance weight, a suction hose being used for filling the reservoir 

 when required. This " compensator " is fixed near the surface 

 of the water. M. Herve employs two deviators for diverting 

 his balloon by the action of the water, one, which he calls a 

 "minimum deviator," for angles of about 30°, and the other, 

 the " maximum deviator," for angles which are alleged to reach 

 as much as 70° or 80". M. Herve first experimented in this 

 direction on the North Sea in 1886, and last year he transferred 

 the seat of his operations to the Mediterranean. 



In a message from Buenos Ayres, a correspondent of the 

 Times states that Mr. Reginald Rankin made the ascent of 

 Aconcagua alone on December 14, having been deserted by his 

 native guide. Being caught by a snowstorm, Mr. Rankin spent 

 the night in the open at 22,000 feet, and on December 15 

 walked and rode continuously to Puente del Inca, a journey of 

 \i\ hours, with frostbitten hands and feet. His toes have 

 had to be amputated, but his fingers will probably be saved. 



NO. I73O, VOL. 67] 



Until recently, a rule has been in force in the Lahore 

 Veterinary College prohibiting post-mortem examinations of 

 cows or pigs or any other "sacred or prohibited animals." 

 We learn from the Pioneer Mail that the principal has sub- 

 jected the carcass of a bull to examination for educational 

 purposes and has declared that in future the thing will be done 

 as a matter of course. The Bengali Press is indignant and 

 prophesies the most dire results to British rule if the practice is 

 continued, but it is difficult to see how veterinary surgeons can 

 be trained satisfactorily without practical dissection of the kind 

 to which objection is taken. 



In our correspondence columns of December 4 (p. 103), 

 under the title "Germs in Space," the suggestion was made 

 that the dust which reaches the earth from space may contain 

 living as well as dead matter. Mr. John Munro writes to say 

 that in the " Bijou " biography of Lord Kelvin, published some 

 time ago, the same view is expressed in the following passage. 

 The passage runs (p. 81):— "Nay, it seems rather a crude 

 hypothesis, for the seeds of life may be floating like meteorites 

 in space and ready to sow the crust of a new and virgin planet." 



Dr. H. Hergesell, President of the International Aero- 

 nautical Committee, states that the results hitherto obtained 

 from the monthly balloon ascents have justified in every way 

 the continuation of the experiments, and that it is proposed to 

 continue them during the year 1903. During the current year, 

 about no registering balloons and 52 manned balloons have 

 been sent up. In addition, kites have been regularly employed 

 in Europe and Boston, U.S. ; on two occasions, they were 

 also flown from steamers on the Lake of Constance. The 

 complete results for the year 1901 will be published shortly, 

 and those for 1902 are also in the press. 



Several interesting articles of a semi-scientific nature appear 

 in the Christmas number of the Gardener's Magazine, notably 

 the description by Mr. J. Veld of a climbing tour through the 

 south-western Alps, and a historical account of the gardens at 

 Hampton Court by Mr. G. Gordon. A calendar for the new 

 year is included in the issue. 



An investigation into the causes of larch and spruce fir 

 canker, by Mr. George Massee, forms the subject of a publica- 

 tion by the Board of Agriculture. The fungus which generally 

 attacks the larch is Dasyscypha calycina, and an allied species, 

 Dasyscypha resinaria, is mainly the source of trouble in spruce 

 canker ; but these species are not easily distinguishable except 

 to the expert. These two forms are not confined to the larch 

 and spruce, but they may attack certain pines and firs, while 

 other species also are destructive to coniferous trees. Mr. 

 Massee confirms Hartwig's conclusions that they are wound 

 parasites and finds that aphides are frequently the cause of 

 trouble, although late frosts, which induce rupture of the bark 

 and consequently extrusion of sap, are also a source of danger. 

 Seedlings and young trees may be protected by spraying, but in 

 the case of older trees the disease cannot be eradicated. 



A history of systematic botany prior to Linnreus is given by 

 Dr. B. Schorler in the Sitzungsberichte of the " Isis" Society 

 of Dresden. To Aristotle is attributed the commencement of 

 the study of botany as a branch of science ; Theophrastus 

 observed about 450 plants, Dioscorides about Soo. According 

 to Dr. Schorler, the earliest herbariums now extant are those of 

 Aldrovandi in Bologna, Girault in Paris, Caesalpini in Florence, 

 Hernandez in Escurial (Spain), Rauwolff in Leiden, Harder in 

 Ulm, Ratzenberger in Cassel, Caspar Bauhin in Basle and 

 von Burser in Upsala. 



In a series of articles upon the dissociation of matter, which 

 have been published in some of the recent issues of the Revue 

 ScUntifique, M. Gustave le Bon gives an interesting account, 

 partly historical and partly descriptive, of the experiments 



