February 5, 1903] 



NA TURE 



527 



ascents were made in an area of low barometric pressure. The 

 highest altitudes attained by unmanned balloons were : — Strass- 

 burg, 13,700 metres, minimum temperature - 5 1 ^ "6 C. (on the 

 ground 5°'2>; Berlin, temperature at starting 4°, at 13,930 

 metres -25° o, but the minimum temperature, -44° - 2, was 

 recorded at an altitude of 9214 metres. On November 6, an 

 altitude of 15,612 metres was reached at Chalais-Meudon, 

 minimum temperature recorded -55'2 (on the ground 11°); 

 Strassburg, 11,300 metres, minimum -53° '4, temperature at 

 starting -3°"6; Berlin, 12,985 metres, -52°'6 (on the 

 ground I '2). During these ascents, an area of high barometric 

 pressure lay over N.E. and E. Europe, and extended nearly to 

 the western coasts. 



The yearbook of the Meteorological Observatory of Agram 

 for the year 1901 has been received. This is the first volume 

 issued under the new service for Croatia and Slavonia, which is 

 now placed under the superintendence of Dr. Mohorovicie, 

 director of the observatory. Observations for Agram and two 

 other stations were first published in the Austrian yearbook for 

 1853, and from 1871 by the Hungarian meteorological service. 

 Under the new rigime, the number of stations which already 

 existed has been considerably increased, and much advantage 

 will necessarily accrue from the fact that greater uniformity 

 will be introduced by the centralisation of the stations under 

 one authority instead of being dependent on at least three local 

 organisations. The publication of the observations is carried 

 out according to the usual international scheme, but the large- 

 folio shape of the work is somewhat inconvenient for library 

 shelves. 



Mr. C. E. Stromeyer has exhibited to the Manchester 

 Literary and Philosophical Society samples of boiler scale which 

 show excrescences having a striking resemblance to volcanic 

 cones (Fig. 1). Mr. Stromeyer endeavours to show that the 

 formation of these cones is due to unequal heating of the boiler 



Fig. 1. — Miniature Volcanoes in Boiler Scale. 



scale when varying in thickness. He suggests that a similar 

 action may account for the formation of volcanoes and their 

 posilion near ocean shores. For his arguments upon this sub- 

 ject, we must refer to the Proceedings of the Manchester Literary 

 and Philosophical Society for October 21, 1902. 



We have received from Mr. C. T. Whitmell a small brochure 

 entitled " Velocities, Paths and Eclipses in the Solar System," 

 being a paper read before the Leeds Astronomical Society. 

 There is nothing, perhaps, new in the paper, but much that can 

 instruct and interest. We could have wished, however, that the 

 author had been a little clearer in the use of his units. For 

 instance, on p. 2, where a mass of velocities in miles per 

 sidereal hour are given, there is nothing to indicate this, but of 

 course it is readily inferred. The paths of satellites about their 

 respective primaries are very well illustrated, and are especially 

 interesting as showing some of the curves in which our satellite 

 must have moved from the time of its separate existence near 



NO. I/36, VOL. 67] 



the surface of the earth to its present position, and will assume 

 in its possible subsequent career. In the last section of total 

 eclipses, the author considers the cases in which total solar 

 eclipses can be produced on the various planets of the solar 

 system by the interposition of the various satellites. Here, of 

 course, the data are somewhat doubtful, but we have the 

 advantage of seeing in one table the main conditions of the 

 problem. 



Among other interesting papers in the last number of the 

 Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club, Mr. Wesche gives 

 an account, with figures, of three male rotifers which have 

 hitherto not been illustrated or described fully. He also de- 

 scribes a new mastaxed male, which has not yet been identified. 

 The males have only been seen in about 20 per cent, of the 

 known species of rotifers. 



Major Ronald Ross's report on malaria at Ismailia and 

 Suez has been issued by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medi- 

 cine. No larvae of anopheles were detected in the freshwater 

 canal and its branches, and Major Ross ascribes this to the 

 presence of fish, which devour them. Numerous larvae of anopheles 

 were, however, found in the marshes connected with the natural 

 waters round Ismailia. Major Ross considers that it should be 

 an easy matter to abolish malaria in these districts by drainage 

 of swamps and' other measures. 



Counting the red corpuscles of the blood is a tedious and 

 trying process when great accuracy is aimed at. At the meet- 

 ing of the Physiological Society on January 17, Dr. C. A. 

 MacMunn showed several lantern slides illustrating how this 

 can be done by photographing the blood, diluted to half or to 

 one per cent., in the huemocytometer of Thoma-Zeiss. Not 

 only are the red corpuscles seen on the plate, but also all the 

 ruling of the cell. The most suitable power of the microscope 

 for this purpose was found to be a J-inch objective and 

 Zeiss eyepiece No. 4, with the 6-inch tube-length. About 

 350 small squares of the instrument are seen on the plate, and 

 if we take, e.g. , an average of 7 per square for a dilution of 

 1 in 200, we have 2450 corpuscles on the plate. A second, a 

 third or more drops can be photographed if necessary, and thus 

 great accuracy can be attained. This method enables one to 

 keep a permanent record of the blood counts, and enables the 

 enumeration to be made at any time that may be convenient. 

 It has numerous applications, obvious to anyone interested in 

 the subject. Of course, the microscope and camera must be 

 used in the vertical position. 



Referring to the killing of trout by lightning mentioned 

 in last week's issue (p. 304), a correspondent writes to record a 

 similar incident which occurred at Cirencester several years 

 ago. After a vivid flash of lightning, three young gold fish 

 were found dead in their glass bowl near the window of a 

 house. A house not far off was struck by the lightning at the 

 time, and badly damaged. 



Mr. T. S. Hall, writing from the University of Melbourne, 

 s'ates that from the remarks of Captain G. E. H. Barrett- 

 Hamilton in the British Museum Report on the Southern Cross 

 collections, it appears that the Victorian record of the occurrence 

 of the crab-eating seal has escaped notice. The skin and 

 skeleton of one of these seals, a female, caught at Portland, 

 Victoria, in January, 1894, have been on view for some years in 

 the Victorian National Museum. The colour of the skin is a 

 yellowish-white, and the length of the mounted skeleton is 

 about 6 feet 9 inches from snout to tip of tail. A second speci- 

 men came ashore at St. Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne, in July, 

 1897. Its length was 7 feet 4 inches, and it was a pure glossy 

 white. These two occurrences were recorded by Mr. Hall in 

 the Victorian Naturalist fcr August, 1897. Berg's Argentine 



