centre of figure ; and we cannot but regret that, owing to 
the sudden interruption which now fell upon his scientific 
life, that work of which we have but the introduction was 
never finished, and the many interesting facts as to the 
changes which had taken place in historic times in 
Southern Italy were never recorded, and the many curious 
disquisitions we were led to anticipate are lost for ever. 
In 1668 Christian V. offered Steno the Chair of Ana- 
tomy at Copenhagen, which he accepted, and entered 
upon the duties of his office with the delivery of a re- 
markable inaugural address pointing out the direct bene- 
fits that have been derived from the study of anatomy, 
not only in the alleviation of suffering in others, but from 
the pleasure of the intellectual pursuit itself. But though 
his talent was universally recognised, jealousy and bigotry 
combined to make it uncomfortable for him in his native 
place, and so he returned to Tuscany, where the Grand- 
Duke Cosmo III. intrusted to him the education of his 
son Ferdinand. Steno now began to turn his attention 
to religious questions, and gave up natural science. He 
thought he must endeavour to bring about the conversion 
of his old co-religionists, and wrote several theological 
works which involved him in a controversy with the re- 
formed clergy of Jena. Innocent XI. rewarded his zeal 
by appointing him, in 1677, Bishop of Titopolis (é# ar- 
zibus), and Apostolic Vicar of Northern Europe. 
Steno fixed his residence in Hanover, when the Duke 
John Frederick of Brunswick had just embraced the 
Catholic faith ; but on the death of this prince in 1679, 
the electorate fell under the domination of the Bishop of 
Osnabruck, who belonged to the reformed communion, 
and would not allow any proselytising to go on in his 
states. Steno therefore had to Jeave; and after spend- 
ing some time at Munster and Hamburg, withdrew to 
Schwerin, where he died November 25, 1687. His body 
was, at the request of the Grand-Duke Cosmo III, car- 
ried back to Tuscany and laid in the Basilica of S. 
Lorenzo. 
A simple slab of marble, put up by the Catholics whose 
cause he had espoused, marks the spot. The inscription 
gracefully records the pious prelate’s end. As far as we 
know, no relative stood by’—no man of science pro- 
nounced a eulogy over Steno’s grave. 
The epitaph runs thus :— 
NICOLA! STENONIS 
EPIscoP! TITOPOLITANI 
VIRI DEO PLENI 
QUIDQUID MORTALE FuiT Hic SituM Est 
DANIA GENUIT HETERODOXUM 
ETRURIA ORTHODOXUM 
ROMA 
V RTUTE PROBATUM SACRIS INFULIS INSIGNIVIT 
SAXONIA INFERIOR 
FORTEM EVANGELII ASSERTOREM AGNOVIT 
DEMUM 
DIUTURNIS PRO CHRISTO LABORIBUS AERUMNISQUE 
CONFECTUM 
SVERINUM DESIDERAVIT 
ECCLESIA DEFLEVIT 
FLORENTIA SIBI RESTITUI 
SALTEM IN CINERIBUS VOLUIT 
A.D. 1687 
In this epitaph nothing is said of what Steno did for 
science, and when the President of the International 
Geological Congress led the congressists from Bologna 
to Florence last autumn to place a wreath upon the tomb 
of Steno, and called upon the distinguished Danish anti- 
quary, Waldemar Schmidt, to say a few words to those 
assembled round the last resting-place of his illus- 
trious compatriot, it was felt that it would be a fit and 
* Jacques-Benique Winslow, an illustrious name in the annals of anatomy, 
was descended from a sister of Steno, but otherwise we hear no more of his 
relations, 
NATURE 
[March 23, 1882 
pleasing thing to put another slab beside the old one, in 
memory of that gathering round his grave, and telling of 
the full appreciation of his worth as a man of science by 
those who came two centuries after him. 
THos. MCKENNY HUGHES 
WIND MEASUREMENTS 
Gites the time of Heoke the accurate measurement of 
the wind has formed an object of experimental 
research. That philosopher, if not actually the first to 
invent an anemometer, at any rate appears to have been 
the first to write upon the subject, which since then has 
occupied the attention and exercised the ingenuity of 
many scientific men. The main result of these efforts was 
well shown last week at the exhibition of anemometers 
organised by the Meteorological Society. The President, 
in an interesting historical address, stated that the 
number which had been invented was at least one 
hundred and fifty, and upwards of forty of these were col- 
lected, besides photographs and drawings of many others. 
The exhibition was by kind permission held in the library 
of the Institution of Civil Engineers, at whose weekly 
meeting two papers, on the design of structures to resist 
wind, and the resistance of viaducts to gusts of wind, 
were very opportunely read. 
It is not by any means generally recognised that there 
are two distinct objects for which the measurement of the 
wind is necessary; these are: (1) the determination of 
the actual motion or transference of the air itself; (2) the 
investigation of the effect of the wind. The two societies 
above mentioned well represent these two objects of ane- 
mometry, and all the instruments are included in one or 
other of the two classes, which are said to measure respec- 
tively the velocity and pressure of the wind. These terms, 
though convenient, are slightly misleading, as it is really 
the impulse of the wind which is in both cases measured 
—in one by its effect in producing the continuous rotation 
of a vane or set of cups, in the other by its statical effect 
upon a pressure board or column of air or liquid. 
From the nature of the wind it is evident that nothing 
less than a continuous graphic record could be of much 
service, and but little progress was made until the inven- 
tion, about fifty years ago, of self-recording instruments of 
both classes. The late Dr. Robinson, F.R.S., contributed 
more than any one else to the establishment of the velo- 
city anemometer which, by the addition of Mr. Beckley’s 
self-recording apparatus, is undoubtedly a model of 
mechanical invention. Mr. Follet Osler, F.R.S., as the 
result of much persevering labour and skill, has given to 
the world a pressure instrument of great excellence, and 
of this and the former, both of which may be regarded as 
the best types of the two classes, it may fairly be said 
that much improvement, at any rate in mechanical con- 
struction, can hardly be expected. 
As to the tabulation of results, this is conducted with the 
most scrupulous regularity. Since 1874 the Meteorological 
Office has published hourly numerical records, from its 
various stations, of the direction and other elements of 
the wind. Quarterly records containing engravings of the 
actual curves are also published. These latter have rather 
fallen into arrears, the first volume of the new series for 
1876 having been only published in 1881; but it is satis- 
factory to hear that the work of completing them up to 
the year 1880 is progressing, and it is to be hoped that 
they will always be continued. 
In the face of all this expenditure of time and skill the 
meteorologist and the engineer alike proclaim the unsatis- 
factory state of the science. The engineering aspect of 
the question, viz. the effect of the wind, has recently 
excited considerable attention in consequence of the Tay 
Bridge disaster in this country, and of similar accidents 
abroad. It is evident that with the increase in the size 
of engineering structures, particularly in exposed situa- 
