Dec. 4, 1884] 



NA TURE 



107 



pressure of such widely-contrasted states of weather as 

 continuous strong sunshine and continuous cloud may be 

 investigated. 



The direction and force of the wind for each hour of 

 the year is given in full. As regards force, the results 

 show for each month a minimum during the night, or, 

 rather, early morning, and a maximum at noon or shortly 

 thereafter. The extremes of difference occurred in De- 

 cember and June, the maximum being only one-fifth 

 greater than the minimum in December, whereas in June 

 the wind blew with more than double the velocity during 

 the hours about noon than it did from 2 to 4 a.m. It 

 may be remarked here that also in June the sunshine 

 attained to the annual maximum. The relations of the 

 hourly variations of wind direction and force to some of 

 the more decided disturbances of the barometric curves 

 are interesting and striking ; and still more striking and 

 important would have been the comparisons of the 

 minute disturbances in the barometric curve with similar 

 disturbances shown by continuous registrations of direc- 

 tion and velocity of wind. 



The rest of the report is taken up with observations, 

 either once or thrice a day, of the temperature of the soil 

 at depths, in metres, of 5, 3, 1, cri5, 0-05, and o'oo ; daily 

 observations with maximum and minimum thermometers 

 under a thin covering of earth, exposed on bare soil, and 

 immediately over short grass ; daily observations with 

 five maximum and five minimum thermometers at heights, 

 in metres, above the ground, of C05, o"2o, o'qo, 060, o'8o, 

 and roo; observations with the solar radiation thermo- 

 meter at a height of 102 feet, and on the evaporation, — 

 all indicative of the spirit of activity and research which 

 happily characterises this Observatory. 



ON A HYDRIFORM PHASE OF " LI M NO- 

 COD I UM SOWERBIl" 

 IT is now four years and a half since Mr. Sowerby first 

 discovered the fresh-water jelly-fish in the tank at 

 Regent's Park, and since that time no definite advance 

 has been made towards clearing up the mystery of their 

 life-history. 



Prof. Lankester has continued to make observations 

 and experiments of various kinds, in which I have as- 

 sisted him, but we have hitherto had no opportunity of 

 examining the tank after the withdrawal of the water. 

 This year, however, Prof. Lankester arranged with Mr. 

 Sowerby that we should be present at that operation. 

 This took place on Thursday last. We collected a large 

 quantity of the sediment and portions of the roots of 

 various plants, and Prof. Lankester kindly placed the whole 

 of this material in my hands for further investigation. 

 I soon discovered upon some of the Pentederia roots 

 numerous specimens of a minute organism which proved 

 to be hydroid in nature, and evidently a phase in the 

 life-history of Limnocodium. 



Further particulars, including an account of its remark- 

 able structure, and the possible theories as to its connec- 

 tion with the Medusiform person, I reserve till next week, 

 when Prof. Lankester has kindly offered to communicate 

 them for me to the Royal Society. 



1 may add that Mr. Sowerby has kindly made arrange- 

 ments at the Botanic Gardens for keeping the Pontederia 

 in water in the warm tank during the winter, and 

 that, with Mr. Thiselton Dyer's kind permission, I have 

 placed one of the roots in the Royal Gardens at Kew. 



Ai 1 red Gibbs Bourne 



NOTES 



The Lords of the Committee of Council on Education have 



received information, through Her Majesty's Principal Secretary 



of State for Foreign Affairs, that Her Majesty's Consul at 



Antwerp lias been appointed British ' 1 for the 



International Exhibition which is to be held at Antwerp next 

 year, and that Mr. P. L. Simmonds has been appointed by the 

 Executive Council of the Exhibition at Antwerp their Agent- 

 General for Great Britain and Ireland. The Exhibition in 

 question is a national undertaking under the immediate patron- 

 age of Mis Majesty the King of the Belgians and of the Belgian 

 Government. The President of the Exhibition is H.R.H. the 

 Count of Flanders, and the Vice-President the Minister of 

 Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce. The office of the Agent- 

 General is at 35, Queen Victoria Street, and communications 

 from intending exhibitors should be addressed to him there. 



A REMARK was made at the Royal Society dinner on Monday 

 touching the rapidly increasing number of awards of Royal 

 medals not only to Cambridge men, but to men at Cambridge. 

 In connection with it we may refer our readers to an appreciative 

 article in Tuesday's Times on Natural Science at that University, 

 in which the immense progress made during the last twenty 

 years is well brought out. The results which may follow from 

 the growth of a Medical School, and of Girton and Newnham, 

 are indicated. The article concludes with the statement that 

 the new studies, for good or ill, have taken root firmly. "They 

 have already exercised a strong depolarising effect upon the 

 cherished traditions and practices of the older studies. Every- 

 thing is looked at in a new light, from a scientific point of view ; 

 and nothing which cannot stand the scientific test is allowed to 

 pass unchallenged. The outcome of all this can be but dimly 

 foreseen." 



At the annual meeting of the Fellows of the Royal Society 

 of Edinburgh, held on Monday, the 24th ult., the following were 

 elected office-bearers for next year : — President : Thomas Steven- 

 sun, M.I.C.E. ; Vice-Presidents: Rev. W. Lindsay Alexander, 

 I '.1 1., Robert Gray, A. Forbes Irvine of Drum, Edward Sang, 

 LL.D., David Milne Home, John Murray ; General Secretary : 

 Prof. Tait ; Secretaries to Ordinary Meetings : Prof. Turner, 

 Prof. Crum Brown ; Treasurer : Adam Gillies Smith, C.A. ; 

 Curator of Library and Museum : Alexander Buchan, M.A. ; 

 Councillors : Prof. Cossar Ewart, Prof. James Geikie, Rev. Dr. 

 V. Robertson Smith, Stair Agnew, Prof. Douglas Maclagan, 

 M.D., Hon. Lord Maclaren, Rev. Prof. Flint, D.D., Prof. 

 T. I;. Fraser, M.D., Prof. Chiene, J. Y. Buchanan, Prof. 

 Chrystal, Prof. Dickson. 



The University of Edinburgh has just suffered a severe loss 

 by the sudden death of its Principal, Sir Alexander Grant. 

 Many men of science in all parts of the world, who attended the 

 Tercentenary Celebration last April, will remember the prominent 

 and successful part played by the Principal in that remarkable 

 gathering. Full of fresh zeal from this recent triumph of the 

 University, he only a month ago opened the winter session by- 

 giving an address to the students, and seemed likely for many 

 years to keep his post and witness a still further increase of that 

 unexampled prosperity which the University has enjoyed under 

 his rule. But this was not to be. He was struck down by an 

 apoplectic attack on Sunday last in his fifty-eighth year. 



M. Cochery, the French Minister of Postal Telegraphy, has 

 ordered the employment of the pneumatic system, which has 

 now been completed in Paris, for the conveyance of ordinary 

 letters to the several railway stations after the closing hours of 

 the different post-offices, the charge being fixed at three deniers 

 h letter. This is said to be a step preliminary to the 

 carriage of letters, instead of postal cards, by the tubes at an 

 accelerated rate. 



We have received from Messrs. De La Rue and Co. their 

 Diaries — pocket and otherwise— for the ensuing year, and also 

 a charming collection of Christmas cards. The former are as 

 beautifully finished and as full of scientific information and data 



