470 
NALORE 
[Marci 17, 1904 
electrochemical matters, including a particularly full account | 
of recent advances in battery work. 
Tue U.S. Monthly Weather Review announces that the 
Government of the Argentine Republic has determined to 
give a permanent character to the first-class meteorological 
and magnetic observatory on the island of Ano Nuevo, 
situated in the vicinity of Staten Island, in latitude 54° 30! 
south (Fig. 1). The observatory was established in order 
that the Republic might cooperate with the International 
Antarctic Expedition. It equipped with a 
instrumental outfit, such as is appropriate to a station of 
the first order, and the results obtained during the Inter- 
national Antarctic Expedition, as also of the observations 
for the year 1903, will shortly be published. 
is complete 
This observ- 
atory, as well as the one soon to be established at Bahia 
Blanca, will form a part of the proposed network of observ- 
4 
Fic. 1.—Meteorological and Magnetic Observatory of the Argentine 
Republic on the Island of Ano Nuevo. 
atories on the Atlantic coast of the Argentine Republic. 
All correspondence should be addressed Observatory of Ano 
Nuevo, Ministry of the Marine, Buenos Ayres. 
WE have received a copy of the fifth edition of ‘ Jelinek’s 
The 
-presumably retained in deference to the former eminent chief 
Pp 
schrometer-Tafeln *’ (Leipzig). original name is 
of the Austrian Meteorological Service, who first compiled 
them. 
also madé several important additions to them. 
They were mostly recomputed by Dr. J. Hann, who 
The new 
edition has been revised by Dr. J. M. Pernter, the present 
chief of the Austrian Service, who has added some elaborate 
tables for obtaining by inspection the vapour tension from 
the relative humidity values given by de Saussure’s hair- 
He has also added to the foot of the psychro- 
metric tables the corrections to the ordinary values due to 
conditions of calm and strong wind. We also find short 
tables for deducing the vapour tension at various altitudes 
up to 3000 metres. 
hygrometer. 
The tables are naturally much more 
comprehensive than those usually adopted in this country ; 
they give the values for every tenth of a degree from —30° 
to 40° of the Centigrade thermometer. 
relating to the dry and 
hair-hygrometer 
publication. 
A list of the works 
wet bulb hygrometer and to the 
is a useful addition to this valuable 
In the University of Colorado Studies, Dr. Arnold Emch 
contributes a short note on the p-discriminant of ordinary 
differential equations, and discusses d’Arboux’s proof that 
this discriminant in general represents the cusp-locus of the 
NO. 1794, VOL. 69] 
In a second note the same writer discusses Newton’s 
five types of plane cubics, and shows how to transform 
them by Steiner’s method. 
curves. 
We have had an opportunity of examining and testing 
an induction coil fitted with the Charpentier-Gaiffe patent 
platinum interrupter, sent to us by the Medical Supply 
Association, 228 Gray’s Inn Road, and we find its perform- 
ance fully equal to what is claimed for it. With two four- 
volt cells the full 10-inch spark was obtained with ease, and 
there was every indication that the interrupter was capable 
of working regularly for comparatively long periods without 
attention. In place of the iron hammer and spring of the 
old form, there is a light rigid strip of metal, faced with 
iron, resting by gravity on its lower edge in a shallow 
groove, and pulled downwards by an adjustable spiral 
One of the platinums is carried by a flexible strip 
and remains in contact with a fixed platinum until separated 
by a blow from the hammer, the rapid motion of which 
produces a very sudden break. 
spring. 
The intensity and frequency 
of the discharge can be readily varied by the adjustments 
of the platinums and hammer. The arrangement seems to 
make the most of a given battery power, and will therefore 
be specially appreciated by those to whom portability is an 
in)portant Coils fitted with the new in- 
terrupter are supplied by the Medical Supply Association. 
consideration. 
We have received a paper on pulse and rhythm, con- 
tributed to the Popular Science Monthly by Mary Hallock- 
In it the author endeavours to trace a con- 
nection between rhythm in music and the beats of the human 
pulse. In illustration a table is given of the metronome 
markings of the different of 
movements to 
rhythms of 72 or 76 beats per minute, rates exactly equal 
to those of a normal healthy pulse, and all the other mark- 
ings range from just a little under 60 to 92, 
Greenewalt. 
movements twelve of 
Beethoven’s sonatas. Nineteen are set 
these limits 
representing the maximum range of pulse-action. 
Tue Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin for January (vol. 
xv. No. 154) contains Prof. Osler’s address on the occasion 
of the opening of the new buildings of the medical faculty 
of the University of Toronto. It is entitled ‘* The Master 
Miss Rowley, M.D., 
writes on some unusual forms of the malaria parasite. 
Word in Medicine,’ this being work. 
Tue United States Public Health and Marine Service has 
published a brief report by Dr. Howard on the geographical 
distribution of the yellow fever mosquito. After recording 
the localities in which the Stegomyia fasciata has been met 
with, he concludes that this species may be expected to 
occur in all regions the climate of which is not too dry 
between the parallels of latitude 38° north and 38° south, 
and in which the sum of the daily mean temperatures above 
6° C. or 43° F. amounts to 10,000° C. or 18,000° F. for the 
year. 
THE conquest of the Philippines by the United States 
has been foliowed by the establishment of a Government 
laboratory at Manila, which is already doing excellent 
The latest report is one on the subject of rinder- 
pest in cattle, by Dr. James Jobling. No treatment seems 
to be of any benefit when once an animal has contracted 
the disease, but several methods of preventive inoculation 
may be successfully employed and are detailed, e.g. the 
injection of the bile of an animal dead of the disease, or 
of the blood of a ‘‘ salted ’’ animal, t.e. 
covered. 
work. 
one that has re- 
Tue Journal of Hygiene (vol. iv. No. 1) contains several 
interesting papers. Dr. Bulloch and Mr. Macleod discuss 
