348 
NATURE 
[FEBRUARY II, 1904 
“Encyclopaedia Britannica.’’ As secretary of the Institu- 
tion of Electrical Engineers he not only showed a remark- 
able power of hard work and organisation, but endeared 
himself to its members by his unfailing courtesy in a way 
that will make them all feel his loss as that of a personal 
friend. 
Tue lecture at the Royal Institution to-morrow, February 
12, will be delivered by Mr. W. N. Shaw, F.R.S., on the 
subject of ‘‘ Some Aspects of Modern Weather Forecasting.”’ 
Sarurpay last, February 6, was the hundredth anniversary 
of the death of Joseph Priestley, philosopher and divine. 
In Leeds the event was suitably commemorated by the 
congregation of Mill Hill Chapel, where Priestley was 
minister for some six years, and also by the Priestley Club. 
The members of the club, to the number of fifty, dined 
together, and the president, Dr. T. E. Thorpe, C.B., F.R.S., 
afterwards gave a public address on ‘t The Life and Work 
of Joseph the Philosophical Hall. At 
Warrington the same day Dr. Thorpe unveiled a memorial 
tablet at the house which Priestley occupied during his stay 
in that town. 
Priestley ” in 
THERE appears to be no longer any doubt as to the 
presence in Lake Victoria Nyanza of meduse indistinguish- 
able from those of Lake Tanganyika, and the fact cannot 
be without its effect upon the acceptance of the view put 
forward by Mr. J. E. S. Moore that the fauna of Lake 
Tanganyika differs from that of the other East African 
lakes in alone possessing evidences of a marine origin. 
On December 1, 1903, Prof. Ray Lankester exhibited at 
the Zoological Society some medusa from Victoria Nyanza 
obtained by Mr. Hobley on August 31, 1903, and sent to 
London by Sir Charles Eliot. A doubt being raised by 
some supporters of Mr. Moore's theory as to these medusze 
having really come from Lake Victoria and not from Lake 
Tanganyika, Sir Charles Eliot, in a letter dated Mombasa, 
December 20, 1903, wrote to Prof. Lankester saying that 
the medusa were collected by Mr. Hobley himself in the 
Kavirondo Gulf, by the side of which the railway terminus 
is situated, and that the water was full of them. Mr. 
Hobley, at the request of Sir Charles Eliot, had endeavoured 
to study the life-history of the medusz, but he failed to 
keep them alive for more than a few days. The specimens 
sent to London were said by Mr. R. T. Giinther to be in- 
distinguishable from the Limnocnida tanganyicae of Lake 
Tanganyika. It is interesting in this connection, to note 
that the Victoria medusa were discovered quite in- 
dependently in the same locality (Kavirondo, in the Kisumu 
district), and apparently at about the same time of year. 
According to Globus (January 28, p- 84), M. Ch. Alluaud, 
on the day of his arrival at Lake Victoria, discovered a 
marine medusa similar to that of Lake Tanganyika, and 
communicated an account of his discovery to the Paris 
Geographical Society on September 10, 1903. 
THE weekly weather report, dated January 30, issued by 
the Meteorological Council, which gives the total rainfall 
from January 3, shows that the amount has been above the 
average in all districts the east of Scotland and 
north-east of England, the greatest excess being in the 
Channel Islands. Dealing with the calendar month and 
with individual stations, the excessive rainfall was very 
marked. At Blacksod Point, in the north-west of Ireland, 
the fall amounted to 7-93 inches on thirty days (3-18 inches 
above the average). 
except 
At Dunrossness (Shetlands) rain was 
measured every day, but the excess was only 1-40 inches. 
In the north-west of England 
NO. 1789, VOL. 69] 
there were considerable 
differences, e.g. Holyhead had 4-37 inches, but Liverpool 
only 2-08 inches. In the south-east of England the excess 
amounted to about 06 inch; at Greenwich rain fell on 
twenty-two days, the total amount being 2-51 inches. 
Very high tides were expected in the ordinary course on 
the coasts of the British Isles and France last week, but 
owing to a combination of other circumstances there was a 
phenomenal intensification of the tidal wave. Early in the 
morning of February 2 the tide had reached a dangerously 
high level round the Scilly Isles, and later our western 
coasts, as far north as the Irish Sea, were similarly affected ; 
also the western half of the English Channel and the coast 
of Brittany. On the following day there was an abnormally 
high tide along the eastern half of the Channel, and even 
as far north as Dunbar, on the Firth of Forth, there was 
considerable damage attributed to the same cause. ‘Tidal 
rivers, like the Thames, overflowed their banks, there being, 
in addition to the exceptionally high tides, an immense 
volume of fresh brought down from the inland 
districts, where on several successive days rain had fallen 
heavily and laid vast tracts of country under water. The 
great height of this spring tide is doubtless largely due to 
the rather deep cyclonic depression which was signalled off 
our south-western coasts on February 1. On the morning 
of February 2 its centre was close to Scilly, where the 
barometer had fallen below 29 inches, or an inch below the 
normal, a deficiency of pressure which of itself would 
account for a considerable increase in the height of the 
Moving slowly into the English Channel, the centre 
was, on the morning of February 3, situated between 
Torquay and Portland, and by the following morning it had 
passed across the south-east of England to the Yorkshire 
coast, where it filled up subsequently. The official weather 
reports indicate that the disturbance caused comparatively 
little wind, there being few records of so much as a moderate 
water 
water. 
gale. 
Tie death is announced of the Baron de Ujfalvy, known 
for his anthropological researches and his travels in Central 
Asia. 
Reports have reached us of the discovery of a human 
skeleton in cave-earth at Cheddar. As relics of various ages 
are entombed in the Mendip cavern-deposits, we hope that 
the evidence will be carefully scrutinised, and that it may 
be possible to determine the age of these human remains. 
A Reuter message from Amsterdam states that a telegram 
from the Governor of the Dutch East Indies, dated February 
4, reports an eruption of the voleano Merapi, in the district 
of Klaten, accompanied by a rain of red-hot stones. Twelve 
people were burned to death and twenty severely injured. 
A siicut earthquake shock was recorded at the Liverpool 
Observatory, Bidston, on February 1 at 3.25 a.m. On 
February 2 several people felt distinct shocks of earthquake 
in Jersey. Between 4 a.m. and 6.45 a.m. six slight shocks 
were experienced, and crockery and windows rattled and 
furniture was shaken. Prof. Milne informs us that his 
records do not show any traces of disturbances corresponding 
to the shocks at Jersey, which therefore must have been 
local and very small. 
Te silver medal of the Bavarian Academy of Munich has 
been awarded to Dr. Rudel, of Nuremberg, for his worl: 
on climatology. 
Tuer deaths are announced of Prof. A. Edmund Hess, 
professor of mathematics at Marburg, and of Dr. Christian 
Heinzerling, formerly lecturer at Darmstadt. 
