Aprils, 1885] 



NA TURE 



537 



NOTES 



We regret to learn of the death, at the age of eighty years, 

 of the eminent physiologist, Prof. Karl von Siebold, of Munich. 



We have also to announce the death of Mr. Frederick Field, 

 F.R. S. Mr. Field was one of the original members of the 

 Chemical Society. He held for some time the post of Vice- 

 Consul in Caldera, Chili, and was successively Professor of 

 Chemistry at St. Mary's Hospital and the London Institution. 

 He was senior partner of the firm of J. C. and J. Field at the 

 time of his death. Mr. Field contributed numerous papers to 

 various branches of chemistry, especially that relating to the 

 mineralogy and metallurgy of South America. 



A communication dated March 7 has been received from 

 Mr. Thorlacius, observer for the Scottish Meteorological Society 

 at Stykkisholm, in which he states that till February the winter 

 in Iceland was not a severe one. In that month, however, the 

 weather was very cold, and ice between six and seven feet thick 

 formed in the harbour, during which of course no temperature 

 observations of the sea could be taken. On March 4 and 5 'he 

 ice broke up, and in the open space between the floating ice- 

 blocks the temperature of the sea was found to be 2o/ J 'o. Of 

 the Spitzbergen ice it is remarked that nothing had yet been 

 heard of it, but that it could not be far off, as north-easterly 

 winds had been blowing all February. Mr. Thorlacius observed 

 an aurora on January 24, with a triple arch and faint traces of a 

 fourth bow within the other three arches close down on the horizon, 

 being the first time an aurora of this description has been seen 

 by him since he began his regular meteorological observations in 

 1S45. 



The Monthly Weather Review of the Dominion of Canada 

 for February, 1SS5, presents some points of interest. At 

 Victoria, llritish Columbia, the mean temperature was 9°'0 

 higher than the average, and 13° '8 higher than February last 

 year ; but, on the other hand, to the east of the Rockies, tem- 

 perature was under the average, the greatest defect from the 

 average, I3°'3, occurring at Port Stanley. At Toronto the 

 mean temperature was only 1 1°'I, being ii°'i lower than the 

 average of forty-five years, and with the single exception of 

 February, 1S75, when the mean fell to io°"2, was the coldest 

 month recorded at the observatory during the past forty-five 

 years. Generally the month was remarkable for the cold which 

 prevailed nearly everywhere, and also for the very stormy weather 

 which was experienced over the Lake Region, and in Eastern 

 Canada, between the Sth and nth. On the 9th tempera- 

 ture fell in Manitoba to -48°'3 at St. Andrew's, and 

 -46°'o at Stony Mountain; and in Asiniboia to -47°'0 

 a* 1'heasant Forks. The proportion of sunshine re- 

 corded in each hour of the day during which the sun 

 u as above the horizon is given for twelve stations, giving a mean 

 result of 39 per cent, of actual as compared with possible hours 

 of sunshine. It is remarkable that only at one of the twelve 

 : ins, viz. Cornwall, was ico per cent, recorded during any 

 day of the month. The number of predictions or forecasts of 

 weather issued during the month was 523, of which 80 per cent. 

 were fully, and 92 per cent, either fully or partially, verified. 

 As regards the three storms which occurred, thirty-nine warnings 

 were issued and cautionary signals at the various signal stations, 

 each of which was verified in every particulai as to the force of 

 the wind ; and with respect to the predictions as to the probable 

 changes in the direi ind, 90 per cent, were fully and 



IOO per cent, were either fully or partially verified. 



Mr. Cuthbert L. Peek sends us his First Report of a 

 meteorological observatory established at Rousdon, Devon, in 

 September, 1883. The Report presents some of the features of 

 the meteorology of Rousdon during 1884. Fully half a quarto 



page is given to a somewhat popular account of the weather of 

 each month. A few illustrations are given, of which the first 

 shows by curves the mean monthly temperature of Greenwich 

 for the forty years ending 1S73, and the mean at Rousdon for 

 the months of 1884. Nowhere, however, is there printed in 

 figures a monthly mean either of the pressure or the tem- 

 perature of the air, the author contenting himself only with the 

 extreme pressures and temperatures of the months. Subsequent 

 reports will, no doubt, make good these omissions, and will 

 continue, it is hoped, the comparison of the weather forecasts 

 of the Meteorological Office, with the weather actually ex- 

 perienced in this district of Eastern Devon. 



The veteran zoologists of Cuba, Science states— Prof. Felipe 

 Poey, who is now nearly eighty-six years old, and Dr. Juan 

 Gundlach, who has completed his seventy-fourth year — are still 

 engaged industriously in studying the fauna of that tropical 

 island. Dr. Gundlach has been publishing his contributions to 

 the fauna of Porto Rico in the Annals of the Spanish Society of 

 Natural History. The vertebrates (including fishes by Poey) 

 have all appeared, and recently the freshwater marine mollusca 

 have been issued. Gundlach has been publishing every month 

 eight octavo pages in the Annals of the Havana Academy of 

 Sciences — a contribution to the mammals, birds, and reptiles ot 

 Cuba — and is now at work upon the insects, of which the Lepido- 

 ptera are already nearly completed, and occupy already nearly 400 

 pages. Poey has published the fishes of the island in the Annals 

 of the Spanish Society of Natural History, and Arango has dis- 

 cussed the mollusks. It is to be hoped that these still vigorous 

 naturalists will live to see the completion of the work they have 

 undertaken with so much zeal. 



The French Academy of Sciences has appointed a new com- 

 mission on aerostats consisting of MM. Faye, Fremy, Jamin, 

 Tresca, Cornu, and Perier. 



The French Society of Physics will meet as usual to-day, in 

 the rooms of the Societe d' Encouragement, to exhibit all the new 

 apparatus invented during the year. 



Prof. Tyndall will begin a course of five lectures at the 

 Royal Institution on Tuesday next (April 16) on " Natural 

 Forces and Energies." 



The arrangements for the remaining April Popular Science 

 Lectures at the Royal Victoria Hall, Waterloo Road, are as 

 follow.— April 21, P. H. Carpenter, D.Sc, on Greenland. 

 April 28, Dr. J. A. Fleming, "Our Nimble Servant, Elec- 

 tricity, and what we can make it do." 



Exhibits in the Fish Culture Department of the forthcoming 

 Inventions Exhibition are already being placed in the several 

 spaces allotted to them. They include hatching-boxes showing 

 the manner in which fish eggs are incubated ; feeding-boxes in 

 which the fry are inserted after losing their umbilical sac, and 

 numerous appliances and apparatus necessary to carrying on the 

 work of fish-culture successfully. There will also be shown 

 various species of fish in different stages of development reared 

 artificially, together with models of fish-farms, oyster-culture 

 establishments, and a number of other exhibits of an interesting 

 nature. 



A commission appointed by the French Government to 

 inspect the forests of Tunis, and to make proposals with regard 

 to afforestation, has recently presented its report. In the dis- 

 tricts south of the Medjerda valley the so-called forests are mere 

 brushwood, composed of the callistus, juniper, Aleppo pines, 

 and small oaks. The land is cleared for pasturage and cultiva- 

 tion, and only here and there are seen groups of larger trees, 

 such as Alpine firs and olives Nothing is therefore to be 

 gained by preserving here, and the cost would be very great ; 



