NovEMBER 19, 1903] 
NALTORE 
63 
a maximum about the year 1913. Mr. Douglas Archibald, 
in a letter to the Times for November 16, gives some 
figures which represent the variation of the rainfall over 
the London area from the year 1813, using Greenwich ana 
Mr. Dines’s observations. Arranging these 90 years in 
groups as suggested previously by Brickner, he gives an 
interesting table showing not only the excess or defect 
of rain, but also the excess or defect of atmospheric pres- 
sure and the variations of the price of wheat since 1856. 
| 
| Total excess Mean annual 
Total excess fluctuations of 
Troup of ye er | or defect of | —- 
eee ek ane igor defertce barometric yield of pihent 
Brickner Period | the paris PESTS] Brae avenine 
Creenuich United Kingdom 
| Inches Inches Bushels— 
1806-25 | Wet +15°541] —o-0651 
1826-40 | Dry — 617 | +0165 
1841-55 Wet + 435 —0'045 
1856-70 | Dry | —1185 | +0150 +1°7 
1871-85 | Wet | +19°65 | -—O°120 —2°0 
1886-1902 | Dry | -29°75 | +0°272 +22 
1903-1920(?) Wet | - | _— | — 
1 1813 to 1825 for both. 
“ 
Mr. Archibald concludes his letter by saying that ‘‘ we 
are apparently entering upon a period of more than average 
rainfall, less than average barometric pressure, and about 
two bushels less than the average wheat yield per acre.’’ 
» Messrs. W. J. McNeat anv F. G. Novy report that they 
have succeeded in cultivating the trypanosome parasite of the 
rat, T. Lewisi, in a mixture of sterile defibrinated rabbit’s 
blood and ordinary nutrient agar. Ordinary nutrient agar 
is prepared, sterilised, and allowed to cool to 50° C. One- 
third of its volume of defibrinated rabbit’s blood, obtained 
with aseptic precautions, is then added, and the test-tubes 
containing the mixture are allowed to solidify in the oblique 
position. Loopfuls of rat's blood containing the parasite 
are then sown into the condensation water at the bottom 
of the tubes. In this the trypanosomes readily develop at 
34-37° C. During a year eleven passages were made from 
tube to tube, and a small quantity of the culture from the 
tenth tube readily infected a rat inoculated with it (ref. 
in Bull. de l’Inst. Pasteur, i., No. 16, p. 602). 
THE current number of the Journal of the Sanitary 
Institute (October) is mainly devoted to the papers read at 
the’ congress at Bradford and the discussions thereon. 
Several papers deal with the question of sewage disposal 
and with the bacterial systems of sewage disposal, the 
standardising of sewage being the subject of a’ joint dis- 
cussion in the engineering and biological sections. The 
“Standardisation of Disinfectants ’’ is the title of a paper 
by Messrs. Rideal and Ainslie Walker, and it is proposed 
to test’ all disinfectants under the same conditions of time, 
&c., and to compare the results with those obtained with 
carbolic acid solution. Thus if a 1 in 70 solution of dis- 
infectant X possessed the same disinfecting action as a 1 in 
80 solution of carbolic acid, the efficiency of disinfectant X 
compared with carbolic acid would be 70/80=0-87. This is 
termed the carbolic acid coefficient. 
A ReEpoRT has been issued by Prof. K. R. Koch dealing 
with the gravitational measurements conducted under the 
auspices of the Wiirttemberg Geodetical Commission at ten 
stations on the line from Ulm to Freudenstadt. In these 
experiments a new pendulum made of Delta metal has been 
used with satisfactory results. 
NO. 1777, VOL. 69] 
IN a short paper reprinted from the Rivista di Fisica 
(Pavia), Ingegnere G. Zanotti Bianco deals with the 
history of determinations of the earth’s mean density, with 
especial reference to the investigations of several Italian 
whose work has received but little attention, at 
Among them are C. I. Giulio, 
writers 
any rate in this country. 
Menabrea, and Saigey. 
Mr. A. Cancant has published a paper reprinted from 
the Atti dell’ Accademia Gioenia (Catania) dealing with the 
relation between the temperatures of springs and those ot 
the air. A noteworthy feature of this paper is the biblio- 
graphy of the subject. The principal previous bibliography 
was published by the Weather Bureau at Washington in 
1899, and as only a limited number of copies were litho- 
graphed, it is probable that the present enlarged list will 
be of much use for purposes of reference. 
Tue problem of correlation in hyperspaces forms the sub- 
ject of an important paper by Mr. Giovanni Zeno Giambelli 
in the Memorie of the Lombardy Institution of Sciences 
and Letters. The author refers to the work of Hirst, 
Sturm, Visalli and “others on correlation in plane and 
ofdinary spaces. In' regard to correlation in hyperspaces, 
the fundamental formulze were published without proof by 
Schubert in 1890, and again in 1894-5. Mr. Giambelli now 
gives proofs of Schubert’s formula, and obtains others of 
a more general character. The results are obtained by the 
method of ‘‘ degeneration ’’ introduced by Schubert in deal- 
ing with ordinary space and with quadrics in hyperspaces. 
Papers by Messrs. Epsteen and Shaw in the last two 
numbers of the Transactions of the American Mathematical 
Society deal with the interesting subject of linear algebras, 
and bear witness tao the value and originality of Peirce’s 
researches. Another noticeable paper, in the July number, 
is that of Van Vleck on continued functions, on the lines 
of Stieltjes’s memoir of 1894. The October number of the 
Annals of Mathematics contains the first part of a paper by 
Prof. Greenhill on the mathematical theory of the top, and 
a contribution by Mr. E. B. Wilson which deals with a 
generalised definition of area which does not involve the 
conception of length.: 
Tue September issue of Annotationes Zoologicae Japon- 
enses deals solely with Japanese invertebrates. Mr. E, 
Klocke records the occurrence of the crustacean genus 
‘Bosminopsis'in Japan; Mr. A. Izuka describes a new poly- 
gordian worm, while Mr. E. Ikeda treats of the develop- 
ment of the sexual -org'ans in the phoronis larva. 
In the Morphologisches Jahrbuch (vol. xxxi., part iv.), Dr. 
H. Fleischmann’s essay on the morphology of the head- 
skeleton of the Amniota is continued, Dr. A. Beecker con- 
tributing a section on the nasal region in reptiles, birds, and 
mammals. Mr. G. 
of the development ‘of supernumerary digits in the fore- 
feet of members of the deer-tribe, due, in most cases at 
any rate, to injury during foetal life. None of these appear 
to be atavistic. 
Tornier describes numerous instances 
A REPRINT from the Cape Times of the report of the recent 
annual meeting of, the Game and Trout Protection Associa- 
tion of the western districts of South Africa affords very 
satisfactory reading. The laws for the protection of big 
game are apparently working well, certain attempts to curtail 
the close ‘season having been vetoed by the Government. 
In some districts it has been found advisable to have a 
special close season for’ certain kinds of game, and to in- 
clude therein'a few ‘species of birds which do not properly 
come under thaticatégory. A large tract of country in the 
