OcToBER 26, 1899 | 
NATURE 
623 
Corsica on September 9. Whole gales were frequently en- 
countered throughout the course of the storm across the Atlantic. 
Off the coast of Provence it caused strong N,W. gales and a 
rough sea on September 9-11. This hurricane can be traced 
over the North Atlantic for a period of thirty-six days, making 
it in length of life the most noteworthy storm ever reported 
to the Hydrographic Office in Washington. 
A sUMMARY of divers and sundry views respecting the cause 
of formation of hail is given by Signor Pio Bettoni in the 
Bolletino mensuale of the Italian Meteorological Society. The 
great divergence of opinion on the subject seems to suggest that 
we have not made much advance towards arriving at a definite 
explanation of the phenomenon during the century which has 
elapsed since Volta published his well-known electrostatic 
theory. Of the views here enumerated some are modifications 
of Volta’s theory, and attribute the formation of hail to electro- 
static causes, others ascribe the phenomenon to whirlwinds 
(vortices), others, again, to refrigerating air currents, and even 
the more unconventional theories, according to which hailstones 
come to the earth from interplanetary space or their refriger- 
ation is due to transmutation of caloric into electricity, are not 
without their advocates. 
In Himmel und Erde for September, Dr. E, Less, of the 
Berlin Meteorological Office, gives a very lucid account of the 
general circulation of the atmosphere. In the first half of this 
century our knowledge of weather changes was almost ex- 
clusively confined to climatological investigations, in which Prof. 
Dove, of Berlin, was the most prominent representative ; he 
referred the origin of all winds to an interchange of the air 
between the equator and the poles. But the study of synoptic 
weather charts, from about the year 1860, showed that the 
explanation hitherto given of weather changes did not generally 
accord with observed facts, and that they were intimately con- 
nected with the existence of areas of high or low barometrical 
conditions. The author points out that while the behaviour of 
the great atmospherical currents is, generally speaking, capable 
of explanation, the relation between them and the smaller dis- 
turbances which occur in our latitudes leave many doubtful 
points to be cleared up. In fact, what part is played by the 
general and what by the local conditions in producing the 
different phases of weather is as yet but little understood. The 
explanation of these phenomena is one of the most important 
problems of meteorological research, the solution of which must 
be approached in various ways. 
THE Bulletin International of the Cracow Academy contains 
anotice of a paper, by M. P. Rudski, on the theory of the 
physics of the earth. In it the author gives a mathematical 
investigation of the variation of latitude in an elastic spheroid 
covered with water, and investigates the earth’s rigidity as 
deduced from the 430-day period of the variation. The values 
deduced depend on the assumed “‘ effective density” of the 
earth. Taking for this density the values 2°2, 3:0, 4°0, 4°5 
and 5°5, Rudski finds the corresponding values of the rigidity 
to be 567, 879, 1713, 2036 and 2681 times 10° C.G.S. units 
respectively, that of steel being 819% 10%. By neglecting the 
effects of the ocean, and taking for the effective density the value 
5°5, the author finds 7 = 1250 x 10%. 
WITH a view of contributing data towards the determination 
of the secular variations of the earth’s magnetism, Dr. Emilio 
Oddone contributesto the Rendicontd del R. Istituto Lombardo, 
xxxii. 15, his determinations of the magnetic elements at 
Pavia for June 1898, which admit of comparison with the corre- 
sponding elements determined by him at the same spot about 
fifteen years ago. The present results are as follows: declin- 
ation, 11° 48’ + 2’; inclination, 61° 26’ + 2’; intensity in 
NO. 1565, VOL. 60] 
C.G.S. units, horizontal, 0°216, + o*001; vertical, 0°3973 ; 
total, 0°452,. While the interval between the present and the 
previous determination is too short to allow of these observations 
being made the basis of a new determination of the secular vari- 
ations of the earth’s magnetism, the author remarks that the 
empiric formulz for the inclination and horizontal intensity, 
when exterpolated for fifteen years, agree fairly well with the 
above-mentioned numbers, but the annual variation in late years 
comes out to be less than was to be inferred from past 
observations. 
Prors. ELSTER AND GEITEL, writing in Weedemann’s 
Annalen, 69, discuss the source of energy in Becquerel rays, and 
advance the theory that the rays may be due to changes of the 
molecular arrangement of the atoms of the radio-active substance 
in which these pass from an unstable toa stable configuration with 
expenditure of energy. Ina second note, the same authors show 
that Becquerel rays experience no deviation from a magnetic 
field, but that such a field in certain circumstances decreases 
the electro-dispersive power of air that has been traversed by 
them. 
IN a communication to Wiedemann’s Annalen, 67, Herr K- 
Kahle describes at some length experiments with the silver 
voltameter and their applications to determine the electromotive 
force of normal elements. The object of the paper is to obtain 
the electromotive force of the Clark cell, previously determined 
by the author by means of Helmholtz’s electro-dynamometer, 
independently from the electro-chemical equivalent of silver. 
The value now obtained for the ratio of the Clark at 15° to the 
cadmium at 20° is 1740663. Herr Kahle infers the following 
results as correct to 2 in 10,000, viz. Clark, 15°: 1°4328;; cad- 
mium, 20°: 1'0186,; and Clark, 0° : 1°4492 internal volts. 
Dr. FRANZ KERNTLER has published a paper on the unity 
of the absolute system of units in relation to electric and 
magnetic measurements, in which hé proposes to supersede 
the present dual systems of electrostatic and electromagnetic 
units. According to Dr. Kerntler’s system, quantity of 
electricity and quantity of magnetism are both measured by 
Coulomb’s law in C.G.S, units, and are thus both of the same 
dimensions, being identical with the electrostatic and magnetic 
units respectively ; but a current has two measures, which Dr. 
Kerntler designates as its ‘‘opulence”’ and its ‘ fecundity.” 
These, which represent its electromagnetic and electrostatic 
measurements in common parlance, are in the ratio of 1 to **v,” 
Dr. F. J. ALLEN has contributed to the Proceedings of the 
Birmingham Natural History and Philosophical Society, xi. 1, 
an essay on the nature and origin of life. The author remarks. 
that the most prominent and perhaps most fundamental 
phenomenon of life is what may be described as the energy’ 
trafic or the function of trading in energy. After briefly 
pointing out the differences between anabolism and catabolism, 
Dr. Allen advances the opinion that it is nitrogen which, in 
virtue of its variability, instability, and lability, plays the most 
important part in the phenomena of life, and he enunciates the 
law that every vital action involves the passage of oxygen either 
to or from nitrogen. In the section dealing with the origin of 
life, it is stated that life in its physical aspect is the culmination 
of that chemical instability in certain elements which has always 
kept them circulating at the earth’s surface. Dr. Allen considers 
that existing conditions are favourable to the origination of 
primitive forms of vital processes at the present time, and the 
reason that such forms do not originate now is that the elements 
required for their development are seized and assimilated by the 
already developed organisms. In regard to the possible 
existence of life in other parts of the universe, the same con- 
ditions of instability which are peculiar to the group of elements 
