August 28, 1884] 



NA TURE 



429 



which are embodied in each species." He treats of the origin 

 of the deep-sea fauna from that of the littoral region. It is 

 impossible here to follow him in his most valuable speculations. 

 In one matter, however, I would venture to express a difference 

 of opinion. He regards the littoral forms of invertebrates as 

 migrating into the deep sea by the following process : Their 

 free-swimming larvae are supposed to be carried out by currents 

 far from land, and then, having completed their development, to 

 sink to the bottom, where a very few survive and thrive. It is 

 hardly to be conceived that any animal, especially in a young 

 and tender condition, could suddenly adapt itself to the vast 

 change of conditions entailed in a move from littoral to deep-sea 

 life. It seems to me much more likely that the move of animals 

 from the shallow to the deep sea has been of the most gradual 

 kind, and spread over long series of generations, which may have 

 migrated downwards, perhaps a fathom or so in a century, partly 

 by very slight migrations of the adults, partly by very short 

 excursions of larvae. Thus alone, by almost insensible steps, 

 could animals, such as those under consideration, be enabled to 

 survive an entire change of food, light, temperature, and 

 surroundings. 



NOTES 



We have received a box of plants from the Ben Nevis Ob- 

 servatory, including specimens of Saxifraga stellaris, from a 

 height of 4400 feet, and Armeria vulgaris, from 4370 feet. The 

 plants of these two species, with the numerous flowers which 

 covered them, are as large and well grown as any we have ever 

 seen at lower levels. There is also a specimen of Gnaphalium 

 supinum, fairly well grown and in flower, from a height of 437° 

 feet, and a single plant of Oxyria reniformis from 4390 feet, also 

 fairly well grown, but not in flower. The interest attached to 

 the collection is the great height at which they have been found 

 growing in full vigour, the heights being greater than those 

 hitherto given in our " Floras " as the limits of growth of the spe- 

 cies in the British Islands. In the case of Armeria vulgaris the 

 height is considerably greater, 3800 feet being the limit assigned 

 to this species in Hooker's " British Flora." 



The Hygienic Congress has voted a resolution requesting the 

 Dutch Government to convoke an International Conference on 

 Cholera, for the purpose of establishing a permanent Inter- 

 national Epidemical Committee, and preparing an international 

 penal sanitary code. The Congress has denounced the modern 

 system of education and competitive examinations as injurious to 

 health. 



On the afternoon of Tuesday, August 12, the foundation-stone 

 of the new Meteorological Observatory at Falmouth was laid by 

 the Right Hon. the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, the President of 

 the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, in the presence of an 

 assembly of over 400 persons. Some eighteen months ago the 

 Meteorological Council of London gave notice that they intended 

 to maintain only three first-class Observatories in the British 

 Isles, and that the grants to four out of the seven then existing 

 would cease on December 31, 1883. The three which they 

 decided on continuing to subsidise were Kew, Valentia, and 

 Aberdeen, but in view of the good work done and the value of 

 the observations, the Council expressed the hope that local 

 efforts would succeed in maintaining the Observatories at the 

 other four stations. The Meteorological Committee of the 

 Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, which has the local 

 management of the Observatory, made strenuous efforts to retain 

 the institution in Falmouth, and, after much negotiation, the 

 Meteorological Office agreed to continue their grant of 250/. a 

 year, provided a new building were erected on a site approved 

 by them, at some distance from the harbour, so as to be free 

 from the disturbing influences on the wind which the harbour 

 and its surroundings were supposed to cause. The Polytechnic 

 Society took the matter up with great zeal and determination, 

 and the result has been that matters in connection with the new 



Observatory have become sufficiently matured to admit of the 

 foundation-stone being laid. The new Observatory is situate at 

 the top of Killigrew Street, opposite Belmont. It will not take 

 the shape of the present one, with its high octagonal tower, but 

 will be built in the form of a villa residence, one portion to be 

 the dwelling-house of the superintendent (Mr. E. Kitto, 

 F.R.Met.S.), the other to be specially constructed for the recep- 

 tion of the various instruments. The apparatus in the present 

 Observatory will be transferred to the new one, and the obser- 

 vations now carried on will be continued without alteration, so 

 that the Falmouth Observatory will still be one of the first-class 

 Observatories of the United Kingdom, under the control of the 

 Meteorological Office. The instruments are a barograph, for 

 recording the changes of the barometer ; a thermograph, for 

 recording the variations of both the dry and the wet bulb ther- 

 mometers ; the anemograph, to measure the force and direction 

 of the wind ; a sunshine recorder ; and a self-registering rain- 

 gauge. In addition to these, the Royal Society have made a 

 grant for the purchase of a complete set of magnetographs for 

 recording the declination of the needle, and the force of the 

 magnetic currents. Although these will entail an extra annual 

 expense of 50/. a year, the Polytechnic Society has boldly under- 

 taken the responsibility of this work. Seeing that the great 

 value of magnetic observations depends to a large extent on their 

 being taken simultaneously and continuously at stations far re- 

 moved from one another, and that there is now no first-class 

 magnetic Observatory in the British Isles west of Oxford, Fal- 

 mouth Observatory may be expected to supply a valuable addi- 

 tional data to our knowledge of this comparatively little-known 

 subject. The Observatory will be under the superintendence of 

 Mr. E. Kitto, the Secretary of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic- 

 Society. 



Prof. C. V. Riley, U.S. Entomologist, and Curator of 

 Insects in the U.S. National Museum, left for home on the 23rd, 

 expecting to arrive in time for the meeting of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science in Philadelphia. 

 During his two month's sojourn in Europe he has twice been on 

 the Continent, and has visited correspondents and acquaintances 

 both there and in England, examining the insect collections in 

 various museums, and especially in our own at South Kensington. 

 He speaks favourably of the lasting influence for good which the 

 International Forestry Exhibition at Edinburgh will have, and 

 of the Serrel serigraph — an American invention which has of late 

 years been perfected in Lyons, and which he thinks is destined 

 to revolutionise silk-reeling and profoundly influence silk-culture, 

 which is just now attracting unusual attention in the States. He 

 was also much interested with the investigations into the life- 

 habits of the Aphidida that are being carried on by Jules Lich- 

 tenstein at Montpellier, and with the thoroughness with which 

 the French authorities encourage experimental research in ad- 

 vanced agriculture. He received a warm welcome at Montpellier, 

 whither he went at the invitation of the French Minister of 

 Agriculture to explain some new methods of dealing with the 

 Phylloxera, and where he found his own recommendations oi 

 previous years so fully carried out. He was also surprised at the 

 very extensive and successful experiments with American vines 

 carried on at Pageset near Nimes. At a meeting of the Societe 

 d' Agriculture d'Herault, held on June 30, he read a paper en- 

 titled " Quelques Mots sur les Insecticides aux Etats-Unis, et 

 proposition d'un nouveau remede," which appears in full, with 

 an account of the discussion, &c, in Le Messager Agricok for 

 July 10, 18S4. The "new" remedy is kerosene emulsion, 

 which has been successfully used, especially against Coccidce, in 

 the States. Its application against the Phylloxera is recom- 

 mended in much the same manner as is used with regard to 

 bisulphate of carbon ; the proportions recommended are 300 or 

 400 grammes of the emulsion in 40 litres of water. 



