October 31, 1901] 



NA TURE 



657 



expense. From despatches just received by Sir Clements 

 Markham from the Cape, it appears that the Discovery must be 

 accounted a poor sailer, though she has proved to be a good 

 sea boat. Her coal consumption is, however, disappointing, 

 the economy of the engines being less than was expected. The 

 ship leaked from causes which can no doubt be obviated, but 

 the defect has necessitated clearing the holds to construct floors 

 with an ample bilge space beneath, so that the provision cases 

 be preserved from injury. These facts accentuate the importance 

 of providing a relief ship to communicate with the Discovery at 

 the end of the first winter, to take out coals and stores, and 

 to render assistance in other ways. A strong appeal is to be made 

 to supplement the funds already subscribed for this purpose. 

 The sum of 66So/. has been obtained, but a further amount of 

 10,000/. is required, and this should be secured without delay. 



A STRIKING testimony as to the value of Dr. Calmette's 

 antivenene is to be found in an extract from a report by the 

 medical officer on an Indian railway line which the current 

 issue of the Lancet contains. "On the night of the 23rd [of 

 August] I was called," says the medical man in question, "to 

 see a coolie woman who had been bitten by a large snake 

 suppo sed to be a cobra. She was said to have been bitten at 

 about 7 p.m. and I did not see her till two hours later. She 

 was then practically moribund, the throat paralysed, and 

 consciousness completely lost. All the symptoms of poisoning 

 by colubrine venom were well marked. I injected a full dose 

 of Dr. Calmette's antivenene, but was not sanguine as to the 

 result, the patient's condition being apparently hopeless. The 

 effect of the remedy was marvellous ; consciousness returned in 

 fifteen minutes, and I was so encouraged by the result of the 

 first injection that I decided to give another dose of the serum. 

 It acted like magic and within three hours of the first injection 

 the patient was well." 



We have received from Signer Palazzo, director of the Italian 

 Meteorological Service, an account of the organisation of special 

 stations for the study of hail and thunder storms and for carrying 

 on further experiments as to the possibility of dispersing thunder 

 clouds by gun firing. Although scientific men are very sceptical 

 about the efficacy of the practice, the majority of Italian agri- 

 culturists are very enthusiastic in the matter, and tbe Govern- 

 ment has consequently voted 10,000 lire for the establishment of 

 two shooting stations in the most suitable localities and has 

 provided them with the most sensitive instruments for predicting 

 the advance of the storms,' and with means for tracing their 

 course and the amount of damage caused. Up to the present 

 time the results obtained are contradictory ; in some cases the 

 firing appears to have had a favourable effect, while in others 

 the firing apparatus itself has been choked by the falling hail. 

 The inquiry will, at all events, be useful in throwing light upon 

 the propagation and characteristics of thunderstorms. 



The twenty-third annual report of the Deutsche Seewarte, for 

 the year 1900, shows that the subject of maritime meteorology 

 has been prosecuted with increased activity ; 75 complete log- 

 books were received from the Navy and 472 from the mercantile 

 marine, in addition to which 299 abstract logs containing less 

 complete observations were received. The consulates in various 

 parts of the world, including several in this country, act as 

 agencies for meteorological purposes. The observations are 

 published in the form of tabular results referring to ten-degree 

 squares, or districts of the ocean, and are utilised in the con- 

 struction of the daily synoptic weather charts of the North 

 .\tlantic. The department dealing with weather telegraphy is 

 also very active, and has made great endeavours to improve the 

 service by the introduction of direct interchange of reports made 

 at'^h". ihStead of Sh. a.m. ,"a practice which is' being followed 

 by most countries, whereby weather information is disseminated 

 NO. 1670, VOL. 64] 



earlier than before, with a consequent increase of utility. In 

 this matter Dr. Neumayer has been very ably supported by Dr. 

 van Bebber, the superintendent of the section engaged in 

 weather prediction. 



Many attempts have been made to generalise the methods of 

 " casting out " the nines or elevens so as to obtain in a simple 

 form the criterion of divisibility of high numbers by factors 

 other than 9 or II. For example, we have the well-known 

 test for divisibility by 7 or 13 which consists in pointing the 

 given number off in thousands and subtracting the sum of the 

 numbers in one set of alternate groups from the sum of those in 

 the other set. Such generalisations date as far back as a paper 

 in the works of Blaise Pascal published in 1779. Prof. Gino 

 Loria, writing in the Atti dei Lincei, x. 7, now gives an in- 

 vestigation of the criteria of divisibility by any integer in a 

 comparatively simple form. 



A SERIES of experiments on the period of a rod vibrating in 

 a liquid is described by Mary J. Northway and A. Stanley 

 Mackenzie in the Physical Review for September. The lower- 

 ing of pitch, which is, of course, due mainly to the inertia of 

 the fluid particles, is found in these experiments to conform to 

 the following general approximate results: — The interval of 

 lowering for a rod of given cross section is independent of the 

 length. It is also approximately the same for brass and steel 

 and is probably independent of the material within the range of 

 substances ordinarily used. The interval of lowering for a rod 

 of given width is approximately inversely proportional to the 

 thickness, while for a rod of given thickness it is approximately 

 directly proportional to the width. From the experiments, 

 which were made both in water and cotton-seed oil, the authors 

 calculate for the rods of diff'erent section the coefficient by 

 which the mass of the displaced liquid must be multiplied in 

 order, when added to the mass of the solid, to represent the 

 effect' of fluid inertia, i.e. the well-known coefficient which is 

 proved in hydrodynamics to be unity for a cylinder and one half 

 for a sphere moving in perfect fluid.' The rods used in these 

 e'xperiments a:ppear to have had a rectatigular cross section, it 

 would be interesting to inquire whether they had sharp edges, 

 and under what conditions such edges tend to increase the 

 damping of the oscillations. 



Those engaged in or about to commence the production of 

 coloured pictures by means of a camera will find much to 

 interest them in the catalogue of apparatus, material and 

 appliances which has just been received from Messrs. Sanger 

 Shepherd and Co. In the process under consideration, many 

 of the difficulties that were conspicious in the Ives process have 

 been eliminated, so that the procedure is in the reach of every 

 photographer and the equipment required reduced to a minimum. 

 By using the very carefully adjusted colour filters and printing- 

 colours of exactly the correct absorption, which are here placed 

 within the reach of anyone, and by providing oneself with the 

 repeating back for the three separate negatives, a perfectly 

 efficient outfit is secured. To make the coloured pictures, full 

 instructions are added in a special pamphlet. The ordinary 

 lantern may be used for throwing the pictures on the screen, 

 and brilliant discs up to 12 feet diameter can be shown with 

 the ordinary o.xyhydrogen limelight ; and with the electric arc 

 discs up to 20 or 30 feet. A further pamphlet of Messrs. Cadett 

 and Neall, Ltd., contains a concise account of the object of 

 orthochromatic photography and the principles underlying 

 its use. 



We have received reprints of an important paper by Mr. 

 Thomas H. Holland on the Sivamalai series of elaaolite-syenites 

 and corundum-syenites in the Coimbatore district, Madras Presi- 

 dency {Mem. Geol. Surv. India, vol. xxx. part iii.,1901). ' The 

 elaeolite-syenites are accompanied by augite-syenites containing 



