May 4, 1899] 
NATURE 
NS) 
he had taken great interest in all questions relating to meteor- 
ology. He was a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical and of the 
Meteorological Societies, and a member of the Scottish Meteor- 
ological Society, and the author of several papers on the 
meteorology of Uckfield and Crowborough T[ill. 
Mr. Akers-DouGLAs, M.P., the First Commissioner of 
Works, speaking at Whitstable-on-Sea on Thursday last, referred 
to the favourable reports by the medical inspectors on the 
Whitstable oyster beds, and said that the promised legislation 
has not been forgotten. The President of the Local Govern- 
ment Board, with a desire to set at rest the fears regarding the 
eating of oysters, and to protect a dova-fide industry, is about 
to introduce a measure providing for the inspection of oyster 
layings, prohibiting removal from insanitary grounds, and 
cegulating the importation of foreign oysters from suspected 
districts. 
REUTER reports that the President of the Geographical Society 
at Christiania has received a letter from M. Borchgrevink, dated 
Cape Adair, Victoria Land, February 28, in which he says :— 
“*T have now landed on the great Australian continent with 
staff, instruments, and seventy-five dogs. The greatest dis- 
cipline has prevailed throughout.” 
From the current number of the U.S. Monthly Weather Review 
(for December last) we learn that the important decision has been 
taken of correcting all the published barometrical values for 
gravity from January 1, 1899. This change has been found 
necessary owing to the recent extensions of the Weather Bureau 
in the West Indies and along the South American coast. The 
reduction to standard temperature has been practised for the 
last sixty years, but the reduction to standard gravity has been 
applied only in special cases; and although the amount of the 
correction is now usually stated at the head of meteorological 
tables in the same way as the latitude and longitude and height 
above sea-level, the general application of the correction to the 
individual readings has been delayed until a concert of action 
among all nations could be arrived at. Its importance, how- 
ever, has been recognised by various meteorological conferences. 
In the latitude of London the correction to standard gravity of 
latitude 45° amounts to about + ‘02 inch. 
Tue Report of the Kew Observatory Committee of the 
Royal Society has been published for the year 1898. In the 
section referring to terrestrial magnetism, it is stated that two 
magnetic storms, or periods of considerable disturbance of the 
needles were registered, viz. on March 14-15 and on 
September 9-10. The first storm was the largest recorded 
since August 1894, and both were presumably associated with 
the aurora simultaneously seen in the British Isles. One of 
Prof. J. Milne’s seismographs, intended to measure the tilting 
of the ground along an east-west line, was erected in the early 
part of the year. The largest tremors were recorded on 
June 29, August 31, and November 17. Among the experi- 
mental work carried on during the year may be specially 
mentioned that relating to atmospheric electricity, aneroid 
barometers, and platinum and mercurial thermometry. The 
verification of instruments of various kinds has steadily 
increased, the number tested during the year exceeding 24,000. 
Although the number of watches sent for trial was less than in 
the previous year, the high standard referred to in previous 
reports has been maintained. During the year, various schemes 
have been promoted in connection with electric tramways in the 
neighbourhood of the observatory. The Committee state that 
whilst everything has been done, as far as can be foreseen, to 
protect the magnetographs, it is impossible to contemplate the 
future without some misgivings. The proposed establishment 
of a National Physical Laboratory will, in all probability, 
NO. 1540, VOL. 60] 
greatly extend the usefulness of the Kew Observatory ; the 
arrangements were not completed before the close of the year 
1808. 
THE members of the German Deep Sea Expedition arrived 
in Hamburg on Saturday, on board the Va/divia, after nine 
months’ absence. They were welcomed (the 7%mes reports) by 
the Imperial Secretary of State for the Interior, Count von 
Posadowsky, the Saxon Minister of Education, Baron von Sey- 
dewitz, Prof. Drygalski, who will be the leader of the German 
Antarctic expedition, and a large number of the representatives 
of the scientific world. Ata banquet given in the dining-hall 
of the offices of the Hamburg-American Line, Count Posadowsky 
welcomed the members of the expedition in a speech in which 
he referred to the interest manifested by the Emperor in the 
expedition and in all seafaring projects. This was not due 
solely to his Majesty’s personal inclinations, but resulted from 
his profound recognition of the importance of these subjects for 
the future of Germany. A telegram was read in which the 
Emperor expressed his satisfaction at the success of the 
expedition, 
Dr. R. H. Scort, F.R.S., gives in the Quarterly Journal 
of the Royal Meteorological Society, dated January 1899 and 
just issued, a translation of the important paper on the diurnal 
oscillation of the barometer, contributed by Dr. Julius Hann to 
the Aeteorologische Zeitschrift for October 1898. Meteorologists 
unfamiliar with the German language will be glad to have this 
English version of Dr. Hann’s contribution to the theory of the 
daily barometric oscillations. 
As an indication of the character of the season, Mr. W. 
Baylor Hartland, writing from Cork, says his son saw swallows 
on Wednesday last, April 26, at Ard-Cairn. On Thursday he 
himself saw a pair of corncrakes nestling among some daffodil 
beds. Mr. Hartland adds: “ If this had occurred in a field of 
rye, wheat, rye-grass, or vetches, I should not have noticed it. 
But for the birds to nestle within the foliage of broad plantations 
of daffodils, planted for commercial purposes in Ireland, never 
before happened in the Green Isle. I have grown them for 
eighteen years, but the foliage this year is so luxuriant, I sup- 
pose the birds were attracted by its shelter.” 
A PARLIAMENTARY Return just issued shows that between 
the date of the passing of the Vaccination Act on August 12 
and December 31, 1898, the number of certificates of con- 
scientious objection received by the vaccination officers was 
203,413, and that the number of children to whom such 
certificates related was 230,147. 
Ir is stated by the Allgemeine Militir-Zeitung that the 
aluminium steerable balloon invented by Count Zeppelin will 
very probably make its first ascent at the beginning of July. 
The ascent will take place above Lake Constance. In order 
that the balloon may rise clear of trees and buildings, a plat- 
form has been built in the lake on pontoons, at about 700 
metres from the shore, where the apparatus for raising the 
balloon will be placed. 
IN a paper on the treatment of refractory silver ores by 
lixiviation, read by Mr. Breakell at a recent meeting of the 
Institution of Mining Engineers, some results are given which 
bear strong testimony to the value of Russell’s modification of 
the hyposulphite process. Experiments are described proving 
that the presence of only 0°2 per cent. of copper increases the 
volatilisation loss of silver in chloridising roasting. In one 
case the loss was raised from 0°5 to 3°6 ounces of silver per 
ton by the addition of this amount of copper. On the other 
hand, metallic silver and sulphide of silver, which are always 
present, especially in badly roasted charges, are readily dissolved 
