; 2 6 



NA TURE 



[February 5, 1903 



commerce in this country, these interests should be represented 

 by a Minister and by a department whose rank and status 

 corresponded to the importance of the interests with which the 

 Minister and department were entrusted. He was not pre- 

 pared tc admit, however, that a reform of the Department of 

 State entrusted with the interests of commerce should carry 

 with it an entire revolution in the fiscal and industrial policy 

 pursued by this country for the last two generations. 



Referring to Dr. Charcot's proposed north polar expe- 

 dition, mentioned in last week's Nature (p. 303), the Paris 

 correspondent of the Times says that the expedition, which is 

 under the pal runage of the French Academy of Sciences and, 

 indeed, subsidised by that learned body, will include a scientific 

 campaign in Iceland, Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya. One 

 of its chief objects is to study the habits and, in general, the 

 biology of the codfish. In the neighbourhood of Spitsbergen, 

 the expedition will spend some time in the investigation of 

 those ocean currents the influence of which is so important a 

 factor in the determination of the climate of northern Europe. 

 At Novaya Zemlya, it is hoped to fix with more precision the 

 limits of the islands which have thus far been insufficiently 

 mapped out upon the marine charts. Two zoologists are to 

 accompany the expedition, as well as a geologist and naval 

 officers, specialists in taking astronomical and meteorological 

 observations. It is also probable that M. de Gerlache, the 

 head of the Belgian Antarctic expedition, will assist Dr. 

 Charcot. 



The changes which are being made this year in the public- 

 ation of Science Abstracts will increase the sphere of usefulness 

 of that admirable periodical. Two separate sections will in 

 future be published, dealing respectively with pure and applied 

 branches of physical science. One section will embrace ab- 

 stracts of papers on light, including photography ; heat ; sound ; 

 electricity and magnetism ; chemical physics and electrochem- 

 istry ; general physics ; meteorology and terrestrial physics ; and 

 physical astronomy. The abstracts in the other section will 

 refer to steam plant ; gas and oil engines ; automobiles ; oil 

 engine driven ships and launches ; balloons and airships ; 

 general electrical engineering, including industrial electro- 

 chemistry, electric generators, motors and transformers ; 

 electrical distribution, traction and lighting ; and telegraphy 

 and telephony. The subscription prices will be eighteen shil- 

 lings or four and a half dollars for each section separately, 

 including index : for the two sections thirty shillings or seven 

 and a half dollars. The American Physical Society is now 

 joined with the Institution of Electrical Engineers and the 

 Physical Society of London in the direction of the publication, 

 and has elected Prof E. H. Hall, of the Harvard University, 

 as its representative on the publishing committee. In conse- 

 quence of this arrangement, the physics section will in future be 

 received by all members of the American Physical Society. The 

 American Institute of Electrical Engineers is also cooperating 

 with the committee and taking special means to bring the 

 publication to the notice of all its members. 



Newspaper up-to-date science has of late undergone rapid 

 developments, and now the buyer of a halfpenny paper expects 

 to be regaled, not only with politics and general news, but to 

 have laid before him in very succinct form all scientific results that 

 are expected to have any immediate practical bearing. There 

 is occasionally, we regret to say, an ulterior object in these 

 abstracts, and the expert can often detect the cloven hoof of 

 advertisement for either author or remedy, although this in 

 many cases is ingeniously disguised. The last of this class of 

 jotting dealt with the fact that a dog's life could be maintained 

 for several hours after decapitation by means of the perfusion 

 of a solution of adrenalin or suprarenal extract, and artificial 



NO. I736, VOL. 67] 



respiration. The only thing new in this somewhat startling 

 announcement is the substitution of the animal's blood by a solu- 

 tion containing the adrenalin. That life can continue after 

 division of the spinal coid at its junction with the brain, and 

 that the ordinary blood pressure can be maintained by many 

 agents, physical and pharmacodynamic, is, of course, no new 

 fact. Recently the power of duly oxygenated saline solutions to 

 maintain the activity of the mammalian heart for hours has been 

 clearly demonstrated, as indeed has also the vaso-constrictor 

 and hence blood pressure raising power of adrenalin. Whether 

 the alleged life restorer was the adrenalin or the saline is not 

 clear to the public, but to the man of science the latter is more 

 important than the former. 



We have received from Prof. F. H. Bigelow a set of reprints 

 of his articles that have appeared in the U.S. Monthly Weather 

 ■ from January-July, 1902, on " Studies on the Statics 

 and Kinematics of the Atmosphere in the United States," many 

 of which have been previously refened to in this Journal. 

 These reprints are seven in number, and are on the following 

 subjects : — A new barometric system for the United States, , 

 Canada and the West Indies ; method of observing and dis- 

 cussing the motions of the atmosphere ; the observed circulation 

 of the atmosphere in the high and low areas; review of Ferrel's 

 and Oberbeck's theories of the local and general circulations ; 

 relations between the general circulation and the cyclones and 

 anti-cyclones ; certain mathematical formula? useful in meteor- 

 ological discussions ; and, lastly, a contribution to cosmical 

 meteorology. 



The rainfall of Madras has often been investigated as regards 

 its relationship to the sun-spot curve, and the first indication of 

 a probable periodicity with sun-spots was pointed out by Sir 

 Norman Lockyer in 1872 and later by Dr. Hunter, in 1877. 

 Both showed that the rainfall was generally greater at the 

 times of sun-spot maxima than at those of minima. In 

 a recent number of the United States Monthly Weather 

 (vol. xxx. No. 9, September, 1902), Mr. M. B. Subha 

 Rao, of the Madras Observatory, contributes an article on 

 " The Rainfall in the City of Madras and the Frequency of 

 Sun-spots." The author first investigates the connection between 

 the temperature and rainfall of Madras, but comes to no very 

 definite conclusion on this point. Dealing with the variation 

 of the rainfall and the sun-spot curve from the year 1S11, he is 

 led to deduce that the minimum rain "occurs almost exactly 

 on the year of minimum frequency of sun-spots, the difference 

 being only a year in a few cases." He finds, further, that the 

 " maximum rainfall also takes place when we have the maximum 

 frequency of sun-spots," but he guardedly adds that the 

 difference amounts sometimes to two or three years. Any- 

 one who has examined the figures representing the rainfall of 

 Madras will have noticed that there is a general trend towards 

 an eleven-year variation ; there is, however, a much shferter and 

 more prominent period of variation, which has recently been 

 shown (Roy. Soc. Proc, vol. lxx. p. 503) to be very closely con- 

 nected, not only with the variation of atmospheric pressure 

 from year to year, but with the variation of the percentage fre- 

 quency of prominences seen on the sun's limb. That this is 

 so is strengthened by the fact of the great similarity, on the 

 whole, of curves representing, not only the rainfall of Madras, 

 but those of Malabar, the Western Ghats and Ceylon, and the 

 Indian pressures. 



We have received from Dr. Hergesell a preliminary report 

 upon the international balloon ascents of October 2 and Novem- 

 ber 6, 1902. The countries which cooperated in these in- 

 teresting researches were Austria, France, Germany, Italy (for 

 the first time), Russia, Spain, Switzerland and the United 

 States (Blue Hill Observatory). In October, nearly all the 



