*54 



NA TURE 



[January i i, 1906 



Addicks discusses the subject of the electrolytic refining of 

 copper, especially from the point of view of the multiple 

 system. The main differences between this system and the 

 series system are in power cost, compactness, and cost 

 oi preparing anodes. ["he fact that large refineries on both 

 systems are being satisfactorily worked bears witness to 

 the dose balancing of the advantages and disadvantages 

 in each case, although much more material is refined by 

 the multiple than by the series process. 



During the night of January 5-6 the central and 

 southern parts of England experienced a very severe gale ; 

 the 6h. p.m. observations received at the Meteorological 

 Office on January 5 gave hut little indication of tin- 

 approach of such .1 severe disturbance, but were sufficient 

 to justify the hoisting of storm signals on all our west 

 coasts. The weather chart fur Kb. a.m. on Saturday, 

 January 6, showed that the .run.' ..1 the storm, which had 

 travelled very rapidly, lax over Lincolnshire, and that 

 strong gales were prevailing in the English Channel ami 

 over the southern and eastern counties. In the London 

 district the gusts were very heavy, but it did not experience 

 the full fury which was met with on the coast, although 

 some injury was caused by falling slates and chimneys, and 

 so trees were uprooted. Several wrecks have beer re- 

 ported from the English Channel, and much damagi 

 done to shipping in the Bristol Channel and elsewhere. 

 On Tuesday afternoon (January .>l London and other parts 

 were visited by sharp thunderstorms, accompanied by heavy 

 rain and hail. 



A sixth edition of the " Hints to Meteorological 

 Observers," prepared under the direction of the council 

 , the Royal Meteorological Society by Mr. W. Marriott, 

 has just been published. The work has been revised and 

 enlarged, and although only 1 .insisting of sixty-seven pages, 

 including text, tables, and many illustratio> , contains all 

 that is necessary for ordinary normal climatological 

 stations; its conciseness renders it, in our opinion, all the 

 more valuable, and at the present time — the excellent in- 

 structions prepared by Mr. Scott for the Meteorological 

 Office being out of print — it is the most useful book of 

 instructions now available for English observers. Among 

 the' additions may he mentioned references to the Richard 

 recording instruments la want to which we recently re- 

 ed), fuller insini. ii..n- in connection with phenological 

 observations, and tables for the conversion of anemometrical 

 values from English to French measures, and vice versd. 

 The work would be a desirable acquisition for all meteor- 

 ological observers, especially those not conversant with the 

 more comprehensive instructions lately published in the 

 French and German languages. 



The Meteorological Committee has issued a useful little 

 pamphlet (12 octavo pages, with .harts) on the relation 

 between pressure, temperature, and air circulation over 

 the South Atlantic Ocean. Tin- introductory remarks state 

 that the preparation of monthly wind and other charts 

 . . . upied the marine department of the Meteorological 

 Office from iN.>x to 10. .4, ami were based on no less than 

 .140.000 observations. The charts were published by the 

 hydrographic department of the Admiralty, and at the 

 request of the Meteorological Council Captain Hepworth, 

 the marine superintendent, undertook the preparation of 

 notes which, with a number of small diagrams, are deduc- 

 tions from an examination of the elaborate charts above 

 referred to. They show the variations, the position and 

 intensity of the areas of high pressure, and their relation 

 to the equatorial doldrums, the distribution of gales, 



NO. 1889, VOL. 73] 



loo, & c . The gales appear to reach the South Atlantic 

 in two ways : — (1) they cross South America between 25 S. 

 and Cape Horn, or (2) they avoid the land, and round 

 Cape Horn to the eastward, following the general drift 

 of air and sea surface. Fog is rarely met with north of 

 the thirtieth parallel, except near the land on either side 

 of the ocean. More southward fog max be expected, and 

 is increasingly frequent the higher the latitude reached. 

 This is attributed to the increase of gale frequency with 

 latitude, the cyclonic systems causing rapid fluctuations in 

 in tempei atun 



'I 111: value for the latent heat of water is the subject 

 of a note by Prof. A. Ledui in the currenl number of the 

 Comptes ren&us (January ;). He points out that, in 

 spite of the fundamental importance ..1 this constant, there 

 is ,1 difference of 1 per cent, between the 79-25 of 

 Laprostaye and Deasins, confirmed by Regnault, and the 

 80-03 "' Bunsen. lie (lis. uss, s the possible effect on these 

 figures oi tin- recent work on the variation of the specifii 

 heat of water, and shows that even after this is taken into 

 account tin- difference is still of the same order. Substi- 

 tuting, however, 0-9176 for the density of ice at o° C. for 

 the 001674 found by Bunsen, tie- 80-03 °' t,le latter 

 investigator becomes 7915. The larger number for the 

 density oi ice is that found by M. Leduc from his own 

 1. earches, who thus arrives al 79-2 ...lou.- at 15° C. as 

 the si probable value for the latent heal ol water. 



The third part of "The Primary Arithmetic," edited 

 lo Dr. Wm. Briggs, has been published by -Mr. W. B. 

 ('live at (.</. 



A comprehensive catalogi I microscopes and acces- 

 sories has just been issued by Messrs. W. Watson and 

 Sons, High Holborn, W.C. Several of the instruments 

 described and illustrated embody valuable modifications in 

 constructional detail; and the requirements of all class.-, 

 of workers are met by the two seri.-s of objectives — holo- 

 scopic and parachromatie — computed by Mr. A. E. 

 Conrady, under whose supervision the whole ... Messrs, 

 Watson's optical work is now produced. 



Two more subject-lists ol works in the library of the 

 Patent Office have been published. The first comprises 

 books on heat and heat-engines (excluding marine engineer- 

 ing!, and the second deals with works on aerial navigation 

 and meteorology. Each list consists of two parts, a general 

 alphabet of subject-headings, with entries in chronological 

 order of the works arranged under these headings, and a 

 k.-y, or a summary of these headings shown in class order 

 These lists may be obtained at the Patent Office, Chancery 

 I .in.', W.C., at 6<i. each. 



The Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for 

 December, 1905 (xvi., No. 177), contains the second of the 

 Herter lectures by Prof. Hans Meyer on the contributions 

 of pharmacology to physiology, several medical and surgical 

 papers and reports of societies, and some interesting ex- 

 tracts from medical reports by Dr. Wiesenthal, a physician 

 who lived in Baltimore in the latter part of the eighteenth 

 century. The Bulletin is an admirable publication, and 

 should be in the hands of all medical practitioners. 



The Science Press of New York has published an a jnl 



of a research of Prof. E. L. Thorndike on the measure- 

 ment of twins as the first number of a series of mono- 

 graphs to be known as " Archives of Philosophy, 

 Psychology, and Scientific Methods," which are to be 

 edited by Profs. J. McKeen Cattell and F. J. E. Wood- 

 bridge. This monograph presents the results of pre. ise 



