3 38 



NA TURE 



[August 21, 1884 



nature of the spawn ; (2) the periods of spawning ; (3) the 

 food of the herring. In 1S82 the Board of British White 

 Herring Fishery having been dissolved, the present Fishery 

 Board for Scotland was established, to carry on the work 

 of superintending the fisheries, and also to "take such 

 measures for their improvement as the funds under their 

 ministration may admit of." The Board soon recognised 

 the absolute necessity of obtaining accurate scientific 

 information as to the habits and life-history of the food 

 fishes, and therefore appointed a Committee consisting of 

 Prof. Cossar Ewart (convener), Sir James R. Gibson 

 Maitland, Sheriff Forbes Irvine, and J. Maxtone Graham, 

 to carry on scientific investigations. 



The preliminary report of work done in the autumn of 

 1S83 and at Ballantrae has been already given in Nature. 

 The Admiralty has been pleased to provide a gunboat, 

 H.M.S. Jackal, Lieut. Prichett, R.N., commander, to 

 help in the investigations and inspect the spawning 

 grounds, and the Boird has also at its service the cruiser 

 Vigilant, both of which vessels have done excellent work, 

 though it is desirable that they should be replaced by 

 others more capable of sea-going service. The Board is 

 fortunate in having in its service a large staff of intelligent 

 officers not only familiar with all the practical aspects of 

 the fishing industry but deeply interested in the scientific 

 work of the Board, which they aid to their utmost power. 

 The future lines of inquiry which the Board hope to 

 undertake include (1) the examination of the spawning 

 beds round the Scottish coast ; (2) the determination of 

 the food of useful fishes ; (3) the investigation of per- 

 centage of young herring, &c, destroyed by present 

 modes of fishing ; (4) the influence of sea-birds, &c, on 

 supply of fishes ; (5) study of spawning, nature of the 

 eggs, and general life and development of herring, &c. ; 



(6) best means of restocking deserted fishing grounds ; 



(7) of increasing artificially the supply of shell-fish ; and 



(8) of inquiry into fungi, &c, hurtful to fish life. The 

 Board is fitting up a marine station at St. Andrew's, 

 where Prof. Mcintosh will make investigations for the 

 Board, whilst similar work will be carried on in the Moray 

 Firth. We trust that the impetus given to and the in- 

 terest excited in the work of the Board may produce most 

 favourable results, both economic and scientific. 



We hope to return in a future number to some of the 

 papers of specially scientific interest contained in this 

 Report. 



THE HISTORY OF A TYPHOON 

 pERE DECHEVRENS, the indefatigable head of the 

 -*- Meteorological and Magnetic Observatory at Zika- 

 wei near Shanghai, has just published the first part of a 

 work dealing with the typhoons of 1882. The present 

 instalment is confined to those of the months of July and 

 August in that year. The various phns and maps show- 

 ing the course of the typhoons, and the height of the 

 barometer at various times during their progress in dif- 

 ferent place-;, are so " fabulously complicated," to use the 

 writer's phrase, that he fears more than one reader will 

 reg.ml his pamphlet as a work of imagination. Pere 

 Dechevrens, however, has had the advantage of observa- 

 tions made in China, Japan, and the Philippines by cap- 

 tains of vessels, lighthouse keepers, Customs officers, &c, 

 such as have never before been made of any cyclone. 

 Chinese typhoons, as he points out, fortunately for the 

 meteorologi,t, though unfortunately for the navigator, 

 ravage places visited by the ships of all nationalities, and 

 hence with a little arrangement and organisation these 

 phenomena may be easily studied in these regions. The 

 Shanghai Chamber of Commerce and Sir Robert Hart 

 have arranged for a regular supply to Pere Dechevrens of 

 a regular series of meteorological observations, and one 

 of the earliest results is the pamphlet now before us. As 

 a consequence of these wide and varied observations, the 



writer, while acknowledging the work of his predecessors, 

 such as Spindler in Russia, Knipping in Japan, and Faura 

 in Manila, claims that, while they were only able to give 

 the history, as it were, of incidents in the life of a typhoon, 

 he, thanks to the vast number and extent of the docu- 

 ments placed in his hands, has been able to connect these 

 various fragments, and to trace the history of several 

 typhoons from their cradle in equatorial maritime regions 

 to their grave in the North Pacific Ocean. This, in his 

 own words, is what Pere Dechevrens has now done in 

 his pamphlet. The first section deals with July 1882, and 

 it is divided into several sub-sections, dealing with the 

 formation of a typhoon on July 5, its progress in the 

 China Sea, and a first separation or offshoot from the 

 main storm, its progress on the mainland of China, the 

 second typhoon of July 10 in the China Sea, and before 

 Hong Kong, in the Formosa Channel, "its flight towards 

 India, and its disappearance in the north of China," and 

 finally an account of a typhoon in Hong Kong and Indo- 

 China. The typhoons of August are discussed in a similar 

 manner in detail, the conclusions being supported by ob- 

 servations made in all parts of the China seas and coasts. 

 There are also a large number of diagrams. In his re- 

 capitulation the writer points out that, though he has 

 been speaking of various typhoons, such as that in the 

 Formosa Channel, in Hong Kong, &o, he has really been 

 dealing with only one widespread storm, which, during its 

 life of fifteen days, visited every coast from the equator 

 to Siberia, and from the extreme east of Japan to the 

 western frontier of India. The character which Pere 

 Dechevrens gives the phenomenon he has so carefully 

 studied is this : — " It allows itself to stray with the greatest 

 ease outside the straight path. In a truly headlong way 

 it throws itself against all obstacles, gets into difficulties 

 from which it can scarcely extricate itself, wastes its 

 energies in whirlwinds, often powerless, which it abandons 

 readily, goes, returns, hastens, stops still, in a word re- 

 volving always in the same circle, until, having expended 

 all its strength, it disappears miserably at that part 

 of the Pacific which in a short time would have been able 

 to give it the necessary vigour to sustain a longer career, 

 and, like many others, to reach the shores of North 

 America, or at least, if retarded by the violence of the 

 North Pacific, as far as Behring Straits." Three facts 

 which this study renders prominent are : — 



1. The extreme facility with which these typhoons 

 divide and subdivide. 



2. The mutual attraction and repulsion of atmospheric 

 disturbances (whirlwinds). 



3. The absence of the south-west monsoon in the 

 Philippine Islands. 



In his recapitulation these three points are discussed at 

 some length in the summary, and we merely indicate 

 them here to show the student what he may expect in 

 this painstaking and learned publication. 



HEALTHY SCHOOLS 1 



THERE can be no more appropriate product of an 

 exhibition which seeks to illustrate the two problems 

 of health and education than a handbook on healthy 

 schools. Within the brief space of 72 pages Mr. Paget 

 has brought together here some of the most important 

 counsels which experience has suggested on structure, 

 drainage, fitting, food, recreation, ventilation, and other 

 conditions on which the health of children in schools 

 depends. No school manager or teacher can read it 

 without much profit ; and the executive of the Exhibition 

 has done the community a service by placing within its 

 reach in a succinct and readable form so much practical 

 knowledge and fruitful suggestion. 



' " Healthy Schools." By Charles E. Paget, Medical Officer of Health 

 ! ,1 thi u itmoreland Combined Sanitary I 'istrict ; Honorary Secretary ol 

 the Epidemiological Society of London. International Health Exhibition 

 Handbook Series. (Clowes and Sons.) 



