Marcu 4, 1897 | 
NATURE 
419 
ported by the experience of explorers and others who have had 
to contend with scurvy. There are only three methods which 
have been definitely shown to exert an influence in warding off 
and ameliorating the scorbutic condition. Each of these 
methods consists essentially in the administration of an alkaline 
food-stuff (blood, fresh vegetables, and lime-juice all come under 
this denomination). Of each of these methods it may, there- 
fore, be asserted that it is a method which is calculated to ward 
off and ameliorate a condition of acid-intoxication. Though 
fresh vegetables and lime-juice are used as remedies for scurvy, 
both of them are very slow in their action, and Dr. Wright 
shows that much better remedial agents are alkaline salts, such 
as carbonate of soda or carbonate of potash. A variety of other 
salts are available for the purpose ; for instance, either the 
citrate or the acetate, or the lactate, of soda and potash, or, 
better still, the neutral tartrate of soda and potash. Inasmuch 
as the remedial agents suggested by Dr. Wright are in- 
expensive and eminently portable, explorers and navigators 
should make use of them. 
In the Annaki dell’ Ufficto Centrale dé Meteorologza, vol. xvii., 
Messrs. A. Riccd and G. Saija have discussed at considerable 
length the meteorology of Mount Etna Observatory, situated at 
a height of 9650 feet above the level of the sea, on the southern 
edge of the central crater. Although the observations only 
cover a period of five years, and are not quite continuous, the 
results obtained from this peculiar locality are interesting from 
several points of view, and illustrate the difficulties met with 
at such elevated stations. During the summer season the 
observatory is reached from Catania after a ride of about seven 
hours on mules, but in winter the snow will not bear the weight 
of the mules; when snow is falling the observers have to use a 
compass, as all trace of the path is obliterated. To obviate the 
impossibility of living at the observatory all through the winter, 
a self-recording meteorograph, by Richard Brothers, which 
under favourable circumstances acts for forty days, has been 
erected by the Central Office. For more than six months of 
the year the monthly means of the shade temperature are below 
the freezing point, and this low temperature is sometimes 
recorded in the summer season. The absolute maximum 
observed was 66°4°, and the minimum, 8*1. The diminution 
of temperature with height is, upon an average, 1° for each 328 
feet. The amount and frequency of rainfall, &c., are less than 
in the plain, the number of days being on an average only 
thirty-seven yearly, of which six are days of rain, the remainder 
being of snow, or sleet. 
As a preface to the Weekly Weather Report for the year 1895. 
the Meteorological Council have just issued a valuable series of 
mean values deduced from the observations obtained from a large 
number of stations. The tables show (1) the monthly and 
yearly results of the daily maximum and minimum temperatures 
for the twenty-five years 1871-95 ; (2) the mean rainfall for each 
month and for the year, for the thirty years 1866-95 ; and (3) 
the mean monthly and yearly duration of sunshine for the 
fifleen years 1881-95. The values are issued in continuation of 
those published in the preface to the Weekly Weather Report 
for 1891, and supply very useful information relating to the 
climatology of the British Islands for the periods in question. 
In the preparation of the data, the observations at the stations of 
the Meteorological Council have been supplemented, to some 
extent, by those under the control of the Royal Meteorological 
Society and the Scottish Meteorological Society. These tables 
have been supplemented by another series referring to those 
stations contained in the Dazly Weather Report, and giving addi- 
tional information, showing the mean values of barometric 
pressure for each month and for the year, during the same period, 
together with the absolute extremes of the daily maximum and 
NO. 1427, VOL. 55 | 
minimum temperatures. The highest summer temperature 
occur mostly in July, at times reaching 90° at severa places, 
the maximum being 96° in London in August 1876. The lowes 
temperature recorded in this latter series is — 5° at Loughborough, 
in the Midland Counties, in February 1895. The dryest station 
is Spurn Head, with an annual rainfall ot 20°6 inche ; in 
London the yearly average is 24°8 inches. The greatest amount 
of sunshine occurs in May; the south-west of England is the 
sunniest part, on the yearly average, while London only enjoys 
25 per cent. of the possible amount. 
WE have received from the Geological Survey of Alabama 
the first part of a Report on the Valley Regions of Alabama. 
It deals with the geology and economic resources of the Ten- 
nessee Valley region, is illustrated by nine photographs, and 
contains numerous chemical analyses of ores. 
THE current number of Arazz (Part Ixxvi.) contains a 
paper by Dr. A. D. Waller, F.R.S., upon the action of anzes- 
thetics, sedatives, and narcotics upon isolated nerve, with forty- 
three illustrations showing the effect of various drugs upon 
nerves. Each of these interesting records is thus a trustworthy 
autobiographical episode related by the nerve itself. 
IN a pamphlet entitled ‘‘ La Piscifacture Marine,” published 
by the Institut International de Bibliographie Scientifique, Dr. 
Marcel Baudouin gives an account of the hatcheries for marine 
fishes in the United States, Canada, Floedevig (Norway) and 
Dunbar, and pleads for the establishment of similar institutions 
on the French coast. 
WE haye received two publications of the U.S. Department 
of Agriculture :—‘‘ Contributions from the U.S. National Her- 
barium, Vol. v. No. 1,” consists of a General Report, by Mr. 
John B. Leiberg, on a Botanical Survey of the Coeur d’Alene 
Mountains in Idaho during the summer of 1895. ‘‘ Bulletin 
No. 4” of the Division of Agrostology is devoted to a number 
of papers, by different writers, entitled ‘‘ Studies in American 
Grasses.” 
IN Part ix. of the I/nnesota Botanical Studies for 1896, Miss 
Josephine S. Tilden points out an interesting connection between 
the rare and little known fresh-water alga Pz/inza diluta, found 
on wet rocks, and Stigeoclonium flagelliferum, of which it 
appears to be a peculiar form, dependent on vital conditions. 
Mr. B. Fink describes the mode of pollination of the tomato, 
which is effected by bees in search of pollen. Mr. F. Ramaley 
describes certain points in the anatomy of the stem of the 
Onagracez. 
Ir would be difficult to produce a better short popular account 
of the discovery of Pithecanthropus erectus, by Dr. Dubois, than 
is contributed to the March number of the Zzglish [/lustrated 
Magazine by W. K. Marischal. The illustrations are very in- 
structive, and the brief text will be easily understood by the 
general reader. Another article in the same magazine is of the 
Jules Verne type, and purports to give an account of communi- 
cations with Mars and journeys through space in an air-ship. 
Tu. THORODDSEN’s detailed history of the geography of Ice- 
land has been translated into German by Dr. August Gebhardt. 
The first part of the work, dealing with the geographical history 
up to the end of the sixteenth century, has just been published by 
B. G. Teubner, Leipzig, under the title ‘‘ Geschichte der 
Isliandischen Geographie.” During the past sixteen years Mr. 
Thoroddsen has been systematically exploring Iceland, and 
accumulating material for his work, a review of which will be 
more satisfactorily given when the completed results of his 
bibliographical and geographical surveys are before us. 
NEw editions of several scientific works have come to hand 
within the past few days. Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier’s work on 
‘© Pheasants, their Natural History and Practical Management ” 
(London: Horace Cox) has developed into a third enlarged 
