SEPTEMBER 7, 1899} 
NATURE 
441 
tions, on September 18-23. The congress is being organised by 
the Associazione Elettrotecnica Italiana and the Societa Italiana 
di Fisica, and the leading foreign scientific authorities have been 
invited to attend. 
THE report of the Director of the Botanical Survey of India, 
for the year 1898-99, shows that every advantage has been 
taken of the funds placed ‘at the disposal of the survey for 
exploration in Burma, Assam and Bengal. A report by Mr. 
J. F. Duthie, Director of the Botanical Department of Northern 
India, states that the two parties of plant collectors who left 
Saharanpur in March 1898 to collect botanical specimens in the 
forest tracts of the Rohilkhand, Northern Oudh and Gorakhpur 
districts, collected between them about 1000 species ; and also 
seeds of a large number of trees and shrubs for sowing in the 
Saharanpur Garden The collections include several very inter- 
esting plants, for many of them had not been previously recorded 
for that part of India, whilst some had not been collected since 
they were originally discovered by Buchanan-Hamilton and 
others many years ago. : 
A BLUE-BOOK just issued, on the number of persons em- 
ployed, and accidents in mines and quarries in the United 
Kingdom in 1898 contains several noteworthy points. During 
the year, 990 separate fatal accidents occurred in and about the 
mines and quarries, causing the loss of 1075 lives. Compared 
with the previous year, there was a decrease of twenty-five in 
the number of fatal accidents and a decrease of twenty-seven in 
the number of lives lost. When these numbers are considered 
in relation to the number of persons engaged ‘in the mining 
industry, it is found that the death-rate in 1898 was the lowest 
hitherto recorded, viz. 1°28 per thousand as compared with 1°49 
for the preceding five years.. The improvement commenced in 
1895, and has continued steadily down to the present time. It 
is pointed out that the use of naked lights—always the principal 
source of danger—is responsible for 147 out of the 163 ex- 
plosions which occurred, and for sixteen of the twenty-seven 
deaths. In one of the worst explosions in 1898, it was con- 
clusively proved that the explosion was one of coal-dust alone, and 
that it was caused by a shot of gunpowder illegally, fired in a 
place which was very hot. and dusty. As usual, gunpowder 
caused far more accidents than any other explosive, and nitro- 
glycerine compounds were responsible for more accidents than 
nitrate of ammonia compounds. 
Tue Physical Atlas which has been for about ten years in 
preparation at the Edinburgh Geographical Institute, under the 
direction of Mr. J. G. Bartholomew, will be the most compre- 
hensive of its kind ever attempted. A draft prospectus just 
issued shows that the work will comprise seven volumes and 
more than two hundred plates. The subjects of these volumes 
will be geology ; orography, hydrography, and oceanography ; 
meteorology ; botany ; zoology ; ethnography and demography ; 
general cosmography and terrestrial magnetism, Berghaus’s 
‘*Physikalischer Atlas” has been used as the basis of the 
undertaking ; but the present work is much more extensive, and 
comprises entirely new and original material. Mr. Bartholo- 
mew’s aim has been to produce a cartographic unification of 
natural science at the present time, and neither pains nor ex- 
pense have been spared to make the Atlas a standard one to 
which men of science may turn with confidence. The meteor- 
ology section, with over 400 maps on thirty-four plates, will 
shortly be published. 
AMONG the recent publications of the Deutsche Seewarte we 
would draw attention to a valuable discussion by Dr. W. 
K6ppen, in vol. xxi. of Aus dem Archiv, upon recent deter- 
minations of the relation between wind velocity and Beaufort’s 
wind-force scale (0-12). The relatively great expense of 
NO. 1558, VOL. 6c] 
anemometers, and the difficulty of obtaining a good exposure 
for them, are obstacles to their general use, while the employ- 
ment of the Beaufort scale is necessarily continued at the great 
majority of observing stations, and at sea. It is therefore 
important to determine satisfactorily the relation between wind 
velocity and force. The first serious attempt at this determin- 
ation was made by Mr. R. H. Scott, in 1875, and the values 
then obtained still appear in text-books and instructions, 
although it is now admitted that the instrumental factor Bhs 
which had hitherto been generally used for the conversion of 
the anemometrical records into miles per hour, is consider- 
ably too high. Since that time experiments have been made, 
notably by Koppen, Sprung, Mohn, Dines, Curtis and others, 
the general result of which has been to show that the factor 
in question should be reduced to about 2:2. This result is 
confirmed by Dr. Koppen’s recent investigation, and we under- 
stand that, as a result of his inquiries, anemometrical records’ 
in ail the publications of the Seewarte will in future be 
reduced to real velocities by this smaller factor. We recom- 
mend the careful perusal of Dr. Koppen’s paper to all 
meteorologists. 
WE have received from the Secretary to the British Associ- 
ation Committee on Zoological and Botanical Publication a 
notice to the effect that at the Bristol meeting of the Associatiom 
the committee was reappointed, with the Rev. T. R. R. 
Stebbing as chairman, in succession‘to the late Sir W. H. Flower, 
and with the addition of Messrs. B. D. Jackson and A. C- 
Seward as representatives of Botany. It is now proposed to: 
deal with botanical publications ; and it is believed that the 
principles and proposals of the 1897 report will apply with 
equal force to botanical papers. It is hoped that they may be 
interpreted in that spirit. It will be well to remind our readers 
that the recommendations are as follows, viz. :—(1) ‘‘That 
each part of a serial publication should have the date of actual 
publication, as near as may be, printed on the wrapper, and, 
when possible, on the last sheet sent to press. (2) That 
authors’ separate copies should be issued with the original 
pagination and plate-numbers clearly indicated on each page 
and plate, and with a reference to the original place of public- 
ation. (3) That authors’ separate copies should not be dis- 
tributed privately before the paper has been published in the 
regular manner. (4) That it is desirable to express the subject 
of one’s paper in its title, while keeping the title as concise as 
possible. (5) That new species should be properly diagnosed, 
and figured when possible. (6) That new names should not be 
proposed in irrelevant footnotes or anonymous paragraphs. 
(7) That references to previous publications should be made 
fully and correctly if possible, in accordance with one of the 
recognised sets of rules for quotation, such as that recently 
adopted by the French Zoological Society.” 
AN account of the electric welding of tram-rail joints in the 
city of Buffalo, U.S.A., is given in the Zlectrical Review 
of August 25. This process of rail welding has been 
greatly improved, and the results now obtained are seemingly 
all that can be desired. In Buffalo the bar used for welding is. 
1 x 3x8, and this joining of steel to steel, and the increased 
carrying capacity owing to the bars at the joints, results in a 
joint being a place of least resistance. The plant in operation 
for the purpose of welding consists of five cars. One of these 
is a sand-blast car which runs in advance of the welding car, 
and prepares the joint. The other cars are the welding car, 
the transformer car, the motor and booster car, and a car that 
follows in the rear to smooth any rough places about the joint. 
After the welding bars are placed over the joint the jaws of the 
welder are applied to them, anda pressure of about 1400 Ibs. 
applied by means of a hydraulic jack connected to the upper 
