February 12, 1903] 



NA TURE 



345 



direction, the winds taking in Queensland and New South 

 Wales a westerly, and in Victoria a northerly, direction. The 

 hot weather culminated in terrific dust-storms in Queensland, 

 New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, and during 

 these storms " fireballs " were seen hovering in the air. On 

 the sea, " red rain " was experienced by several passing vessels. 



The following is an abstract of what happened : — 



Melbourne, Wednesday, November 13. Weather pheno- 

 menal, great heat, dust-storms, in all parts of Victoria. 



At Boort, great fireballs fell in the street, throwing up 

 sparks as they exploded. The whole air appeared to be on 

 fire ; intervals of complete darkness ; lanterns had to be used 

 in daytime, and fowls went to roost. 



At Longdale, a house set on fire by a fireball. 



Balls of fire burst on the poppet heads of the New Baram- 

 bogie mine, Chiltern, Victoria, putting the timbering of the 

 shaft on fire. Almost every meteorological station in Victoria 

 sent in similar reports — fireballs, darkness in daytime, and 

 people stumbling about with lanterns. 



Sydney. On November 14, Mr. Bruggman, of Parramatta, 

 was paralysed by a fireball bursting over his head. 



Harden, Wednesday, November 13. During a storm 

 yesterday at Murrumburrah, a huge " fireball " hovered over the 

 houses for a considerable time and then disappeared. 



H. I. Jensen. 



Caboolture, Queensland, January 1. 



A New South Wales Meteorite. 



On reading the account of the fall of the Crumlin 

 meteorite given by several correspondents in your issue of 

 October 9, 1902, I was struck with the parallelism between 

 this occurrence and the fall of the Mount Browne stone 

 in this State on July 17 of this year. Mount Browne is situated 

 near the township of Milparinka, in the extreme north-west 

 corner of New South Wales. About 9.30 a.m. on that date, a 

 loud explosion was heard. In the direction of the sound, a hut 

 is said to have caught fire, this being immediately followed by a 

 whizzing sound and the raising of a cloud of dust at some dis- 

 tance. The stone was picked up within five minutes, while still 

 warm. It may now be seen at the Mining and Geological 

 Museum, Sydney. Its present weight is about 25 lb., but a 

 small piece has been broken off one end. The fractured surface 

 is exceptionally light in colour, the stone being largely non- 

 metallic. 



An account or the phenomena attending the fall has been 

 given by Mr. H. C. Russell in a paper recently read before the 

 Royal Society of New South Wales. George W. Carp 



Sydney, December 23, 1902. 



The Holy Shroud of Turin. 

 I am sorry to find, from an interesting paper by the Rev. Father 

 Thurston on the Holy Shroud in the current number of The 

 Month, that I have mistranslated the passage from Chifflet's 

 " De Linteis Sepulchralibus, &c." p. 198, in which he refers to 

 the spirituous tincture of cinnamon and cloves being used for 

 giving the coriect colour in making a copy on linen of the 

 Besancon shroud for King Philip II. of Spain, and not for 

 depicting the King himsell. Not havinj Chifflet's book at hand 

 when writing, I overlooked the reference to the Besancon 

 shroud, but the mistake does not affect the argument regarding 

 the use of such tinctures by painters in the Middle Ages. 



J. Waterhouse. 



A Simple Sensitive Flame. 



A useful sensitive flame may be obtained from a Bunsen 

 burner with the usual gas supply by completely excluding 

 the air and lowering the gas pressure until the flame becomes 

 lop-sided but quiet. Its range of sensibility extends for 

 singing over the three octaves of the bass and treble 

 clefs, for whistling over the middle octave of these three. 

 The recovery is prompt enough to allow of a response to 

 each note of a slow staccato passage. The type of burner 

 found best is one with a brass tube three-eighths of an inch 

 bore, with one side hole for air which is quite closed by a 

 half-turn of its tightly-fitting sleeve. E. H. Barton. 



University College, Nottingham, January. 



NO. 173/, VOL. 67] 



THE FUNERAL OF SIR GEORGE STOKES. 



'THE funeral of Sir George Stokes at Cambridge on 

 ■*• Thursday last was an impressive ceremony in which 

 distinguished representatives of many branches of 

 learning took part. The University church was crowded 

 in every part, and the assembly constituted a living 

 witness to the esteem in which the memory of Sir 

 George Stokes is held in the intellectual world. 



The coffin containing the late Master's body was 

 first carried round the court of Pembroke College, in 

 accordance with an ancient custom reserved for Masters, 

 the procession being formed of the choir and officiating 

 clergy, the fellows of the College, former fellows, 

 masters of arts, bachelors of arts and undergraduates. 



At the gate of the College, the relatives in carriages 

 took their place in the procession immediately after the 

 fellows. All the other members of the College followed 

 the carriages in their order to Great St. Mary's Church. 



In the meantime, another procession was being arranged 

 in the Senate House, comprising the Vice-Chancellor, the 

 heads of houses, doctors, University officers, professors, 

 and members of the council of the Senate, together with 

 the representatives of learned societies. This procession 

 included : — 



The Vice Chancellor (Dr. F. H. Cha ; e), with the regisirary 

 (Mr. J. W. Clark), in front of whom walked the Esquire Bedells ; 

 Lord Braybrook, Lord Kelvin, Sir Richard Jebb, M.P. , the 

 Masters of Trinity, Clare, Peterhouse, Trinity Hall, St. 

 Catherine's, Jesus, Christ's, St. John's, Emmanuel, Downing, 

 Magdalen, and Selwyn, Profs. Allbutt, Mason, Swete, Clark, 

 Macalister, Bevan, Ward, Hughes, Lewis, Liveing, Ridgeway, 

 Barnes, Marshall, Newton, Westlake, Mayor, Ewing, Skeat, 

 Stanton, Ward and Reid ; the Public Orator (Dr. Sandys), Dr. 

 Routh, Dr. Guillemard, Dr. Ilarmer, Dr. W. G. Lax, Dr. D. 

 Macalister, Dr. Haddon, Dr. James, Dr. Dalton, Dr. Jackson, 

 Dr. Baker, Dr. Langley, Dr. McTaggart, Rev. Dr. Cunningham, 

 Archdeacon Emery, the. Rev. J. O. F. Murray, Rev. H. J. Sharpe, 

 Messrs. Berry, H. Darwin Headley, Wright, Mollison, Scott, 

 Shipley, Grey, Durnford, Wyatt, Magmisson, and many others. 



The representatives of learned societies and other 

 bodies were as follow : — 



The Royal Society — Lord Kelvin (past president), Mr. 

 A. B. Kempe (vice-president [and treasurer), Dr. W. T. 

 Blanford (vice-president), Prof. J. W. Judd (vice-president), 

 Prof. G. Carey Foster (vice-president), Prof. R. B. Clifton, Sir 

 Michael Foster (secretary), Dr. J. Larmor (secretary), Dr. T. E. 

 Thorpe (foreign secretary), Sir Arthur Rucker and Prof. A. 

 Schuster (fellows), Mr. R. W. F. Harrison (assistant secretary), 

 together with Profs. Liveing, J. J. Thomson, G. H. Darwin, 

 J. Dewar, A. R. Forsyth, Sir Robert Bill and Dr. Glaze- 

 brook. The president of the Royal Society was absent by 

 medical advice. 



Victoria University — Prof. Horace Lamb. 



Owens College — Prof. Osborne Reynolds and Prof. A. 

 Schuster. 



Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society — Prof. 

 Osborne Reynolds. 



London Mathematical Society — Prof. Horace Lamb (presi- 

 dent), Prof. A. E. H. Love and Prof. W. Burnside (secre- 

 taries), Dr. J. Larmor (treasurer). 



University of Oxford — Profs. Turner and Clifton. 



University of London^Sir A. Riicker (principal), Prof. 

 Tilden (Dean), Sir William Kamsay. 



British Association and Royal Institution— Prof. Dewar. 



National Physical Laboratory— Dr. R. T. Glazebrook. 



Solar Physics Committee and Observatory — Sir Norman 

 Lockyer, Prof. George Darwin. 



Institution of Electrical Engineers— Prof. W. G. Adams. 



Victoria Institute— Prof. Hull and Mr. Martin Rouse. 



Cambridge Antiquarian Society— Mr. T. D. Atkinson. 



Chemical Society— Piof. W. A. Tilden (treasurer). 



Cambridge Philosophical Society — Dr. H. ¥. Baker (presi- 

 dent), Prof. A. Macalister (past president), Mr. H. F. 

 Newall (treasurer), Mr. A. E. Shipley, Mr. S. Skinner and 

 Mr. H. M. Macdonald (secretaries), Prof. Liveing, Prof. J. J. 

 Thomson and Dr. Hobson (members of the council). 



Royal Astronomical Society — Dr. J. W.L.Glaisher (president). 



