SEPTEMBER 14, 1899] 
station, Upernivik, latitude 72°°47, longitude 55°53 W., the 
mean temperature of twenty-one years was 16°°2, absolute 
maximum 64°‘0, minimum — 41°'1. The average rainfall was only 
8-9 inches, and the greatest fall in twenty-four hours 2°08 
inches. 
Tue report of the president of the American Museum of 
Natural History, on the work done during 1898, is a very satis- 
factory statement of scientific progress, especially the parts of it 
referring to archeological work and explorations made in con- 
nection with the museum. The institution now offers to the 
student of Mexican and Central American archeology unrivalled 
opportunities for the study of the sculptures and hieroglyphic 
writings of the ancient peoples of these portions of America. 
Noteworthy among the numerous explorations referred to in the 
report is the Jesup North Pacific Expedition. Before the organis- 
ation of this expedition the archeological work conducted on 
the north-west coast of America was very limited. During the 
past two years several field parties have carried on very extensive 
investigations in connection with the Jesup expedition, and 
have added very considerably to the collections in the 
museum. During 1897 the field work of the expedition was 
confined to the coast of British Columbia. 
In 1898 the work was taken up on a more_ 
extended scale. Parties were in the field 
on the coast of the State of Washington, 
in the southern interior of British Colum- 
bia, and on the Amoor River in Siberia. 
One of the illustrations in the report, 
showing a rock carving found in Van- 
couver Island, where the shell-heaps of the 
early inhabitants are being investigated, is 
here reproduced. 
ON July 19, for the fifth time during the 
present century, the city of Rome was 
damaged by an earthquake. On this last 
occasion, however, the injuries to build- 
ings were of slight importance, the in- 
tensity of the shock having been greaest 
at Frascati and Marino. Dr. Baratta, 
who gives a brief description of the earth- 
quake in the Godlettino of the Italian 
Geographical Society, remarks that, in its 
small meizoseismal area, it resembled the 
shocks which are characteristic of active 
and extinct volcanic regions, that it was without doubt of Latian | 
origin, and one of the more prominent manifestations of seismic 
activity in the Alban Hills. 
OnE result of the rapid growth of seismology is the sug- 
gestion by Dr. Mario Baratta that provision should be made 
by insurance against the damage to buildings caused by 
earthquakes in certain countries. He shows that, since the 
beginning of the seventeenth century, less than forty earth- 
quakes have been responsible for the deaths of more than 
150,000 persons in Italy alone. Moreover, to take but one 
INCA TO Rae 
example, the great loss of life during the Ischian earthquake of | 
1883 was due to the fact that the buildings had already been 
damaged by the earthquakes of 1828 and 1881. Dr. Baratta 
points out some of the conditions that must determine the 
amount of the premium that should be demanded by insurance 
The most important is the degree of seismicity of the 
district ; but this would be modified by others, such as the 
nature of the surface-rocks, the character of the buildings, &c. 
One advantage of compulsory insurance against earthquakes in 
a country like Italy would be that partially damaged buildings 
NO. 1559, VOL. 60] 
societies. 
485 
would be at once rebuilt or repaired, and this would tend to 
diminish the loss of life in the future. 
THE Kew Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, Nos. 152- 
153, contains the description of a new parasitic disease of the 
tea-plant which has made its appearance in Ceylon. The fungus 
which causes it is described by Mr. G. Massee as Colletots echiene 
camellie, sp. n. 
CONSIDERABLY the most gigantic annual plant ever observed 
is described by Mr. C. H. Baker in the Kew Bulletin. The 
species in question is dcnzda australis, belonging to the Amar- 
antaceze, a native of Florida. The branches attain certainly a 
length of nearly 22, and probably of 25, feet. 
Hysrips between plants belonging to different genera are 
so uncommon that any fresh instance deserves a record. The 
Journal of Botany states that Mr. H. Peirson has found in Kent 
several examples of an orchid which appears to be a cross 
betweeen Orchis maculata and Gymnadenta conopsea. 
A BRIEF summary of the changes which have taken place on 
Vesuvius from 1872 up to June 1899 is given by Dr. R. V. 
Matteucci in the Rendéconto of the Naples Academy, vol. 6, 7. 
Rock carving, Vancouver Island. 
Mr. A. A. CAMPBELL SWINTON sends us a reprint of his 
lecture read before the Philosophical Society of Glasgow in 
March last, on ‘‘ Electric Discharges zz vacuo and the Rontgen 
Rays.” 
THE Institution of Chemistry of Great Britain and Ireland has 
issued, in the form of a handy octavo pamphlet, its regulations 
for admission to membership, together with a register of fellows, 
associates and students for the session 1899-1900, and reprints 
of examination papers set in the session 1898-99. 
A DETERMINATION of the modulus of elasticity for copper, 
brass, and steel under small loads by means ofinterference methods 
is described by Mr. Charles P. Weston in the Physzcal Review 
vili. 5, and leads to the important conclusion that for copper 
| and brass, and probably for steel, the ratio between the deflection 
and a load isa constant quantity for loads ranging from o'5 gr. 
to those which would give the bar a permanent set. 
Dr. AGOSTINO. GALDIERI, writing in the Rerdéconto of the 
Naples Academy, vol. 6, 7, describes a new alga of the family 
Palmellacez, to which he has given the name Plezurococcus 
| sudphurartus, and which he has discovered growing round the 
