FERRUARY 25, 1904} 
NATURE 207 
the Gas-Engine Research Committee is now ready to be 
tested at the works. Prof. I. Hudson Beare, the reporter 
to the Committee on the Value of the Steam Jacket, carried 
out during the summer and autumn a number of experi- 
ments with the experimental jacketed vessel; the results 
obtained are now being worked out, and further experi- 
ments are in progress. New, and it is hoped more satis- 
factory, valve arrangements for admitting the steam to and 
exhausting it from the experimental vessels are now being 
designed. A cordial invitation from the American Society 
of Mechanical Engineers to hold a joint meeting in Chicago, 
with the view of visiting afterwards the St. Louis Ex- 
hibition, has been accepted by the council on behalf of the 
members. 
Pror. F. G. Baity, in a short article in the Electrictan, 
gives the results of some tests on the efficiency and colour 
of the new osmium lamps. He finds that the consumption 
of power at the correct running voltage is about 1-9 watts 
per candle, and that the colour of the light at this efficiency 
is practically the same as that of a carbon lamp running 
at 2-1 watts per candle. From this it seems that the 
osmium filament is slightly superior to a carbon filament 
as a radiator, though the main cause of the higher efficiency 
of the lamp is the higher temperature which the osmium 
filament can stand. The only trustworthy life tests yet pub- 
lished are those made by Prof. Wedding, who found an 
average life of 1900 hours from a test on eighteen lamps 
starting at an efficiency of 1-7 watts per candle; at the end 
of the life the candle-power had fallen off about 20 per cent., 
and the efficiency was 2-1 watts per candle. According to 
Prof. Baily’s tests, the osmium lamp is not quite so sensitive 
to voltage variations as a carbon lamp; at the*same time 
the difficulty of producing a high voltage lamp does not 
seem to have been overcome, the highest P.D. for which 
lamps are manufactured being 55 volts. This cannot fail 
to act as a great drawback to the introduction of the lamp 
into commercial use. 
Mr. H. C. Russett, Government Astronomer of New 
South Wales, has sent us a copy of the results of rain, 
river and evaporation observations made in that colony 
during the year 1900; the tables are illustrated by maps 
and diagrams. 
is a little better than that of the five preceding years, but 
it was nevertheless much below the average fall. Our 
knowledge of the distribution of rain over New South 
Wales is almost entirely due to Mr. Russell’s persistent 
exertions; when he first undertook the systematic collec- 
tion of rainfall statistics in the colony, in the year 1870, 
he found only five rain gauges in use; at the present time 
(1900) the number of recording stations has increased to 
1703. Mr. Russell’s study of the periods of floods and 
droughts has led him to the conclusion that these periods 
have followed each other with regularity, and he predicts 
that in 1904 and 1905 the rainfall will be abundant. In 
support of this he states that he has discovered, to his own 
satisfaction, that the rainfall is controlled by the moon, and 
he gives a diagram showing that when the moon's course 
is to the southward, in the southern hemisphere, more rain 
falls than when the moon moves to the northwards. 
Symons’s Meteorological Magazine for this month con- 
tains the very interesting summary of the climate of the 
British Empire during the year 1902, in the same form 
that it has appeared for many years. Several new stations 
have been added, but, as pointed out by Dr. Mill, it is still 
far from being fully representative of all the varying 
climates of the Empire. Two of the new stations take a 
NO. 1791, VOL. 69] 
Mr. Russell states that the year’s rainfall | 
“ec 
place among the ‘‘ records’’ for the year:—(1) Madras 
shows the highest mean annual temperature yet quoted in 
these tables (83°-2), the lowest being Winnipeg (37°-6) ; (2) 
Coolgardie (W. Australia) has the greatest mean daily 
range (25°-5), the least being Hong Kong (8°-6).. Cool- 
gardie owes its great range to high maxima, whereas 
Winnipeg, which held the place for sixteen years, owed it 
to low minima. The highest shade temperature was 111°-4 
at Adelaide in February, and the lowest —36°-1 at Winni- 
peg in January. The driest station was Adelaide, mean 
humidity 59, and the dampest was Trinidad, 82. The 
latter station had the highest temperature in the sun, 
177°-0. The greatest rainfall was at Colombo, 117 inches, 
and the least at Coolgardie, 147 inches. The greatest 
amount of cloud was at London (66), and the least at 
Grenada (29). The returns from Dawson were incomplete ; 
the absolute temperatures for November to 
January varied from —48° to —51°. 
minimum 
Messrs. LucrtEN ALLEGRE AND Co. have opened an ex- 
hibition at 99 Regent Street of done upon the 
“Luna ”’ printing-out paper, for which they are the agents. 
This paper has been considerably used on the Continent for 
three or four years, and is now being introduced into this 
country. It differs from other silver papers in that the 
sensitive salts are not carried in a film or layer of medium, 
but permeate the substance of the paper itself. It is pre- 
pared by soaking the paper, or other material, in an aqueous 
liquid that contains the sensitive salts. The picture may 
therefore be printed on either side of the paper so far as 
its sensitiveness is,concerned. The platinum toning bath re- 
commended gives a wide range of colours from reds, 
through browns and violets to black, according to the time 
that it is allowed to act. A partially exposed print may be 
developed by an acid developer, and in this way more con- 
trast is obtained. Similar paper is made for the production 
of transparencies for decorative purposes or for the reproduc- 
tion of negatives. The advantages of retaining the actual 
surface of the paper instead of coating it with a film are 
obvious to those interested in the matter, especially as the 
brilliancy of the resulting image does not appear to suffer. 
The exhibition will remain open for a few months. 
work 
No. 4 of the first volume of the Indiana University Bulletin 
contains valuable lists of certain sections of the local fauna 
and flora. 
Twenty years having elapsed since the publication of 
Mr. G. T. Porritt’s well-known ‘* List of Yorkshire Lepi- 
doptera,’’ the author has been well advised in issuing’ a 
new and enlarged edition, containing not only additions 
to the number of species, but likewise recording fuller in- 
formation with regard to habitat, and including notes on 
variation. The new issue forms part xxx. of the Trans- 
actions of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union. 
In the course of a note on a specimen of a killer-whale 
recently stranded on the coast of Maine, Mr. F. W. True 
(Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., xxvii. p. 297) comes to the con- 
clusion that there are probably several distinct forms of 
these cetaceans, but that there is not yet sufficient material 
for properly defining them. The typical species, commonly 
known as Orca gladiator, apparently ranges right across 
the Atlantic. 
WE have received a copy of the sixth instalment (from 
the Biological Bulletin) of an essay on the eyes of the blind 
vertebrates of North America, the author, Mr. E. F. Muhse, 
discussing in this instance those of a Cuban blind snake 
(Typhlops lumbricalis). Hitherto the structure of the eye 
