576 
NATURE 
[OcroBER 12, 1899 
gas flame goes out, and the thermostatic bar, cooling off, closes 
the circuit and gives the alarm. 
At the International Fishery Congress held at Bergen in 1898, 
and at that held at Dieppe, an effort was made to start the 
publication of an ‘‘ International Review of Fisheries and Fish 
Culture,” which should serve to maintain constant relations 
between specialists of this branch of science working in 
different countries. Such efforts were, however, unsuccessful 
so far as a favourable decision of the Congresses being arrived 
at was concerned, This being so, and the want of such an 
organ being considered a very real one, the Russian Imperial 
Society of Fish Culture and Fisheries has undertaken the 
publication of such a periodical as has been mentioned, to con- 
tain articles in German, French and English. The first number, 
dated August, has just reached us and contains many interesting 
contributions, among which may be mentioned ‘‘ A Short Com- 
parison between the Caspian and the Baltic Seas,” ‘‘ Short 
Notices of the Fisheries of Sweden,” ‘‘ Fish Culture in the 
United States,” ‘Contributions to the Study of Fishing 
Apparatus.” The following programme will give an idea as to 
the scope of the new journal, which has made a very creditable 
beginning :—Ne w facts pertaining to fish- and oyster-culture 
(statistics, new methods used in fish-culture, inventions, &c.). 
New facts and data pertaining to fisheries (statistics, fishing 
news, inventions, new laws, &c.). Professional education of 
fishermen and of workmen engaged in the manufacture 
of preserved fish. Novelties in the manufacture of fish pro- 
ducts (new patents, new canneries, &c.). Improvements in 
the fish-trade and in the methods of carrying fish (fish-markets, 
cold-storage houses, refrigerator-cars ; new duties on imported 
fish). The work of fishery-societies. Review of scientific 
investigations connected with fisheries. New books on fish- 
culture and fishing. Personal notes. 
IN a recent number of the Paris Comptes rendus (vol. cxxix. 
p- 417), M. L. Teisserenc de Bort contributes some interesting 
particulars relating to the temperature of the free air and its 
variations from observations obtained from ninety unmanned 
balloons, sent up from his observatory at Trappes since April 
1898. The observations have been spread over every month; 
seven of the ascents exceeded 14,000 metres, twenty-four 13,000 
metres, and fifty-three attained a height of 9000 metres. The 
discussion of the observations exhibits the following general 
results : (1) The temperature at various heights presents during 
the course of the year important and greater variations than 
have been admitted from older series of observations made in 
manned balloons. The temperature of o° C. is found at very 
different altitudes, varying from the level of the ground in winter 
to above 4000 metres in summer. The isotherm of —25°C. is 
met with about 3000 metres in winter and above 7000 m, in 
summer; in September it was observed even above 8000 m. 
The isotherm of — 40° C. was several times found as lowas 6000 m., 
and is generally met with about 9000 m. and even higher 
towards the end of summer. The temperature of — 50°C. has 
never been recorded below 8000 m. ; its greatest altitude was at 
12,000 m. (2) There appears to be a marked tendency to an 
annual variation of temperature even up to 10,000 m., the maxi- 
mum being about the end of the summer, and the minimum near 
the end of the winter. The observations given in a table ap- 
pended to the paper do not show such a rapid variability with 
height as has been generally supposed ; it appears, further, to vary 
with the type of weather. 
In the A¢tz det Lincez viii. (2) 4, Dr. D. Lo. Monaco and L. 
Panichi give a second note on the action of quinine on the 
parasite of malaria. The most remarkable result is the effect of 
solutions of strengths lying between certain limits in provoking 
the exit of the parasites from the red corpuscles, when the 
NO. 1563, VOL. 60] 
parasites are in the second or adult stage. The authors now 
find that the action of quinine on the endoglobular parasites of 
spring fever may be thus summed up: (1) in very dilute 
solutions it excites them ; (2) in less dilute solutions the excite- 
ment, which reaches its maximum phase in the exit of the 
parasite from the red corpuscle, is preceded by a brief con- 
traction ; (3) in strong or concentrated solutions it paralyses 
them. There is still some doubt as to the dose of quinine 
which should be administered in order to effect a cure, and this 
probably varies in different patients ; but it appears that the 
doses commonly adopted must be regarded as excessive, and 
that the rational dose suited for curing an attack of spring fever 
is comprised between half a gramme and a gramme of bisul- 
phate of quinine. : 
THE Silzungsherichte der physikalisch medicinischen’ Societét 
(Erlangen) contains abstracts of several experiments on kathodic 
rays. The first of these, by Prof. E. Wiedemann and A. Wehnelt, 
isa simple proof that while kathodic rays are deflected by a 
magnet, the Goldstein rays are not directly influenced by mag- 
netic force. In the second note the same authors deal with the 
question of the repulsion of converging kathodic rays, and de- 
scribe experiments showing that the rays emanating from a 
hollow kathode cut one another, and that this result is not 
inconsistent with Weber’s experiments. The third note deals 
with the variations in the potential of discharge in the kathodic 
dark space, and their independence of ultra-violet or Rontgen 
rays. Prof. E, Wiedemann contributes a further note on the 
“‘simple” kathodic rays of Deslandres. M. Arnold discusses 
the influence of the luminosity of the anti-kathode on the emis- 
sion of Réntgen rays; and A. Moffatt gives an interesting note 
showing that the power of Rontgen rays (ze. their energy 
divided by the time) is greater than is commonly supposed, and 
may be about 1 to 10 calories per second. 
THE Calabro-Messinese earthquake of November 16, 1894, 
occupies a prominent place among recent Italian shocks. A 
Government commission was immediately appointed to study it, 
but, for various reasons, the complete report has not yet been 
published. Prof. Ricco, however, has contributed a summary 
of the seismological section to the Royal Accademia dei Lincei 
(Rendiconti, vol. viii. pp. 3-12, 35-45), and has illustrated it by 
a map showing the isoseismal lines of the principal shocks of 
1894 and 1783. The meizoseismal area of the earthquake of 
1894 is situated about twenty miles north-east of Reggio, and 
the isoseismal lines (which depend, however, on observations 
from only 170 places) are roughly concentric with this area, but 
they expand towards the north-west, and are rather crowded 
together towards the south-east. Asa general rule, they follow 
the boundaries of the great crystalline masses. The total 
disturbed area (included within the isoseismal 2) is about 
44,000 square miles. Nearly a thousand houses were com- 
pletely destroyed, and more than 44,000 were damaged ; about 
a hundred persons were killed, and a thousand wounded. The 
earthquake was registered by seismographs at seven Italian 
observatories, and by the horizontal pendulum at Nicolaiew. A 
puteometer at Catania indicated a sudden rise of 17 mm. in the 
well-water, followed by a fall of 14 mm., after which the surface 
returned nearly to its original position. The mean surface- 
velocity of the larger vibrations in Italy was almost exactly 
2 km. per second ; but it varied with the distance, for the 
hodograph (see NATURE, vol. lii. p. 632) is at first convex to the 
axis of the distance and afterwards concave. Prof. Riccd remarks 
that the earthquake of 1894 may be regarded as an alter-shock of 
the great earthquake of 1783, its epicentre being displaced slightly 
to the south-west; but its intensity was much less, for the 
meizoseismal area (that bounded: by the isoseismal 10) is only 
one-sixth of that of the earthquake of 1783. 
