288 



jV^ rURE 



[July i8, 1901 



referring to barometric pressure and air temperature having 

 already appeared. The wind-directions are grouped in various 

 ways ; among the tables we find the relative frequency arranged 

 under sixteen points of the compass, for each month and for 

 each season, during the fifty separate years deduced from the 

 hourly or two-hourly indications of a self-recording anemometer. 

 The plates containing the average monthly and yearly wind- 

 roses show the prevailing directions more clearly than anything 

 else could do. It is seen at a glance that the winds between 

 south-west and west are more frequent than all the other direc- 

 tions combined. 



SiGNOR G. Oddo, writing in the Atli dei Lined on the u.se of 

 oxychloride of phosphorus as a solvent in cryoscopic observations, 

 finds that the cryoscopic constant of this solvent is 69, and that, 

 like water, but within narrower limits, it ionises dilute saline 

 solutions. 



The stability of a given state of motion is a subject on which 

 much has been written and more remains to be written. A 

 paper on certain criteria of instability, by SignorT. Levi-Civita, 

 appears in the Annalidi matematka pura cd appUcata. After 

 discussing the general theory, the author proceeds to consider 

 the problem of three bodies, and shows in particular 

 that periodical solutions approximating to uniform circular 

 motions are unstable, a conclusion contrary to what would 

 naturally be inferred from considerations of celestial mechanics. 

 The same author, writing in the Atti dci Limei, deals with the 

 stationary motions of a rigid body in the case of Kowalevsky. 



Dr. F. Caubet, of the University of Bordeaux, has published 

 a lengthy thesis on the liquefaction of gaseous mixtures, dealing 

 in particular with the phenomena of the critical point and of 

 retrograde condensation. In it the author describes an elaborate 

 series of experimental determinations of the isothermal lines, 

 the lines of Gibbs and Konowaloff, and the dew- and boiling- 

 points of three series of mixtures each formed of two of the 

 three gases, methyl chloride, carbonic anhydride and sulphurous 

 anhydride. By tracing the isothermals for different degrees of 

 concentration, both in the homogeneous and in the hetero- 

 geneous states, Dr. Caubet hopes to throw experimental light on 

 the theories derived from considerations of the thermodynamic 

 potential. 



.\N account of the earthquake of April 24, in the neighbour- 

 hood of Palombara Sabina, is given by Dr. Luigi Palazzo in 

 the Atti dei Liiicei, x. g. The shock was registered at the 

 Central Meteorological Office at about :5h. 20m. 25s. Italian 

 time, and lasted about five to six seconds. The town of 

 Palombara was visited without delay by Prof. Cancani, who 

 found that the damage in the centre of the town was small ; but 

 in the village of Stazzano four or five houses were destroyed, 

 others rendered uninhabitable, while considerable damage was 

 done at Cretone, and the author thinks it probable that the 

 epicentre was at a sulphur spring about a kilometre distant from 

 Cretone, and that the origin of the shock was in the strata from 

 which the spring arises, at a comparatively small depth. 



The cuirent number of the Journal of Hygiene contains, 

 amongst other articles, an appreciative obituary notice of Prof. 

 Max von Pettenkofer, accompanied by an excellent portrait. 

 Pettenkofer's name is now so invariably associated with 

 investigations in the department of hygiene that his earlier 

 work in pure chemistry runs a risk of being overlooked. As 

 long ago as 1S50 he presented to the Bavarian Academy a paper 

 calling attention to some of the main facts which form the basis 

 of the periodic law of the elements, but, like Newlands in this 

 country, his work obtained no recognition at the time, and it 

 was only in 1S99 that the German Chemical Society conferred 

 upon him the Liebig medal in tardy recognition of the merit of 

 his researches of nearly half a century before. It was largely 

 NO. 1655, VOL. 64] 



due to Pettenkofer that Germany has now chairs of hygiene 

 with magnificent laboratories in all but one of her twenty 

 universities, besides the famous Imperial Institute of Public 

 Health in Berlin. 



In their Report for the past year the council of the Leicester 

 Literary and Philosophical Society announce that they are 

 cooperating with the National Trust for the Preservation of 

 Objects of Historical Interest or Natural Beauty, and that steps 

 are being taken to register and protect such objects in the 

 county as may come within the scope of the Society's aims. 

 The Transactions (issued with the Report) contain a lecture on 

 heredity and the question of the inheritance of acquired 

 characters, by Mr. C. J. Bond. Dr. J- G. Adams, professor of 

 pathology at McGill University, sends us a reprint from the 

 New York Ulediial Journal {01 ]ane of an address on the same 

 subject, in which- he proposes to supersede VVeismann's and 

 allied theories on heredity and inheritance by one of his own. 



An article on the fauna of the Antarctic (" La Faune du pole- 

 Sud "), contributed by M. E. G. Racovitza to the Revue 

 Scicntifique for July 6, appears opportunely. It is based on 

 the results of the recent Belgian expedition and contains a 

 general account of the fauna, with special details of the habits 

 of the penguins, and a few notes on the flora. Since the whole 

 of the Antarctic land (both continent and islands) appears to be 

 invested with an unbroken sheet of inland ice (miscalled 

 inlandsis), the author does not hold out hopes of the discovery 

 of any important new types of life in the interior. 



To the January issue of the Journal of the Straits branch of 

 the Royal Asiatic Society, Mr. H. N. Ridley, director of the 

 Botanical Gardens at Singapore, communicates an extremely 

 interesting paper on the flora of Mount Ophir. This flora 

 includes three factors, a lowland Malay element, specially 

 modified for existence at a higher elevation, the usual Oriental 

 alpine (or Himalayan) element and — what is most interesting 

 and unexpected— an Australian element. The same journal 

 also contains a list of the butterflies of Mount Penrissen, Sara- 

 wak, and one of the reptiles of Borneo, both by Mr. R. 

 Shelford, curator of the Sarawak Museum. 



Mr. L. M. Lambe has published a revision of the genera 

 and species of Canadian Palaeozoic Corals (" Coniributions to 

 Canadian Paleontology," vol. iv. part ii. Geol. Survey 

 Canada, 1901). His work is illustrated by thirteen plates. 



In a brief article on Indiana caves, Dr. O. C. Farrington dis- 

 cusses some peculiar forms of stalactites and stalagmites (Publica- 

 tions of the Field Columbian Museum, vol. i. No. 8, geol. series, 

 1901). The shape of certain vermiform stalactites is attributed, 

 with Merrill, to the fact that drops of water may have been 

 guided to other positions than those dictated by gravity by the 

 directions assumed by spicules of calcite in crystallising. In 

 one huge stalagmite both aragonite and calcite occur, and its 

 minimum age is reckoned at 90,000 years. Lining the walls of 

 a pool in one of the caves are calcite crystals in close association 

 with stalagmites ; here the crystals were formed in relatively 

 still water, while the stalactites and stalagmites were formed 

 when the water was moving. The author suggests that in a 

 general way banded structures may be taken as indicating 

 formation from waters in motion, while distinct crystals were 

 formed from waters at rest ; and he would apply these princi- 

 ples to the origin of mineral veins, agates, geodes, &c. He 

 proposes the term stagmalites for formations produced by 

 dropping water, and to include stalactites and stalagmites. 



The Transactions of the " Antonio Alzate" Society of Mexico 

 contain a paper by MM. Marroquin y Rivera and P. C. 

 Sanchez on the mountain chain of the Ajusco and its subter- 

 ranean waters. In the northern part of the Vallce de Mexico, 

 which is a closed basin, are two lakes named Chalco and 



