40 



NA TURE 



[November io, 1898 



Railway Work,'' by Mr. Philip Dawson ; " Coal Supplies," by 

 Mr. T. Forster Brown ; " Wireless Telegraphy," by Mr. W. H. 

 Preece, C.B., F.R.S. ; " Leadless Glazes," by Mr. WiUon P. 

 Rix. The following courses of Cantor lectures will be delivered : 

 "Acetylene," by Prof. Vivian B. Lewes; "Bacterial Purifica- 

 tion of Sewage," by Dr. Samuel Rideal ; " Cycle Construction 

 and Design," by Mr. Archibald Sharp ; " Leather Manu- 

 facture," by Prof. Henry R. Procter. 



Writing in the Chemical News " On the supposed new gas, 

 Etherion," described by Mr. Charles F. Brush at tlie recent 

 Boston meeting of the American Association, Sir William 

 Crookes concludes as follows: — "On the evidence at present 

 available, I consider it more probable that etherion is water 

 vapour than that it is a new elementary gas, and this is corro- 

 borated by the observations made by Mr. Brush, that etherion 

 is absorbed by phosphoric acid and soda-lime, as well as by the 

 powdered glass from which it has previously been driven ofif 

 by heat." 



Mr. John S. Budgett, who accompanied Mr. Graham Kerr 

 in his recent successful expedition to Paraguay, has left England, 

 under instructions of the Zoological Society, for a winter visit to 

 the Gambia, 'in order to obtain information concerning the Ante- 

 lopes and other larger mammals of that Colony. Mr. Budgett 

 will also make a collection of the fishes of the River Gambia, 

 concerning which little is at present known, and of the other 

 zoological products of the district. 



The expedition of Mr. Harrington and Dr. Hunt, of Columbia 

 University, New York, to Egypt, referred to last week, resulted 

 in bringing back an admirable collection of Nile fishes, and 

 other zoological materials, but was not successful in its chief 

 object, which was to obtain a set of the embryonic stages of 

 Polyplcrus. Although these naturalists remained in the Delta 

 until August 30, and adult specimens of this fish were obtained 

 as late as that dale, the eggs were still immature ; so that the 

 important question of the nature of development of Polyptcrus 

 still awaits investigation. 



Mr. St.\ni.f.v S. Fi.owkr, lately curator of the Royal 

 Museum, Bangkok, has been appointed director of the Zoo- 

 logical Gardens at Gizeh, Cairo, and has arrived there from 

 Siam to take up his appointment. Mr. Flower, on his voyage 

 westward, brought with him, .is a present to the Zoological 

 Society of London, a young Siamang {Hylobates syndaityliis), 

 which is believed to be the first specimen of this rare ape that 

 has ever reached Europe alive. In iSjo the late Dr. George 

 Bennett started from Singapore, with a living Siamang, which 

 he intended to bring to the Society, but it unfortunately died on 

 its way home. 



A .NEW Natural History Museum was opened at King 

 Williams Town, Cape Colony, on October 5. At the conver- 

 sazione, subsequently held, an address was given by .Mr. W. L. 

 Sclater, director of the South African Museum, Capetown. 

 Mr. Sclater, after speaking of museums in general and their 

 origin, gave an account of their introduction into South Africa 

 in 1856 by the foundation, under the governorship of the late 

 Sir George Grey, of the .South African Museum at Capetown. 

 Not long afterwards the Albany Museum at Grahamstown was 

 instituted with the object of illustrating the natural products of 

 the eastern provinces of the Colony. There are also museums 

 in South Africa at Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein, Pretoria, 

 Maritzburg and Durban. 



Many students of science will regret to see the announce- 

 ment that Science Progress comes to an end with the number 

 just published. The valuable character of the contributions 

 which have appeared in that magazine since the first number 

 NO. I 5 I 5, VOL. 59] 



was published in March 1894, are well known in the scientific' 

 world ; and it is a little disappointing to the publishers to have 

 to confess that there is not sufficient demand for such literature 

 to justify them in continuing to issue it. It is to be regretted 

 that a periodical of this kind, containing articles which assist 

 the advance of scientific knowledge, should have to cease foi 

 want of financial support. 



CaI'IAIN J. W. .Maxwei.i. Carroi.i, has sent to thi 

 Geographical Journal (November) a few interesting particulars 

 with reference to ancient stone circles discovered by him in the 

 neighbourhood of Lamin Koto, on the right bank of the Uppei 

 Gambia. The stones are in very good preservation, and are re- 

 garded with respect by the natives. Prayers are offered in their 

 vicinity on feast days during Ramadan by the Almame, or high 

 priest. The diameter of the circle of stones is eighteen feet, 

 and the stone at which the priest stands is a few feet tu the east 

 of the circle. Stone circles were also found by Captain Carroll 

 at Chamen and Palellan. At the latter place a large rectangular 

 stone, twelve feet by four, was discovered. Its height was six, 

 feet at one end and four at the other, and its shape suggested 

 that it had been used as a sacrificial altar. ' 



( 



In the Zeitschrift der Gesetlschaft fiir Erdkunde vit notice J 

 besides minor articles, an account by Dr. C. Lauterbach of the} 

 geographical results of the expedition to Kaiser Wilhelm's Land/ 

 and a paper, by Dr. Meinardus, on the relation between tha 

 winter climates of central and north-western Europe and thff 

 waters of the North Atlantic. The latter is an extension of the 

 author's recent paper in the Mctcorologische Zeitschrift, discuss- 

 ing the observations of Pettersson and Dickson as a possible: 

 basis for long-period weather forecasting. 



In our issue of September 29 last, we very briefly referred) 

 to Dr. Koppen's chartof yearly isotherms and isabnormals of thA 

 sea surface. This chart, together with a discussion of its chief' 

 features, is reproduced in Globus o\ the 15th ult. The chartj 

 shows, in addition to the isotherms, those districts where sC 

 temperature anomaly of more than 2' C. exists ; the areas 

 where the water is too cold are shaded blue, and those whidf 

 are too warm are shaded red, while the districts which arri 

 thermically neutral are left unshaded. It is seen that between 

 latitude o" and 40° S., cold currents extend like long tongue^ 

 from the west coast of South Africa and South America^ 

 towards the west, while to the north of the equator analogoiia 

 currents are developed to a much less extent ; on the coast of 

 the Sahara the sea-temperature is only slightly below the 

 normal value of the latitude. On the western sides of the" 

 oceans, in similar latitudes, there exist warm currents trending* 

 northwards. In the South Atlantic the warm and cold' 

 currents are nearly e(|ualised. In the South Pacific, the cold 

 current, and in the South Indian Ocean, the warm current^ 

 preponderates. This latter feature especially occurs in the; 

 northern hemisphere, and more particularly so in the North 

 Atlantic. It is also seen that an area of cold water occurs on, 

 the western edge of the warm currents, and between them and" 

 the continents, where the latter stretch northwards as far as the< 

 zone of westerly winds, viz. on the east coasts of Asia, North- 

 and South America. There are many other points of interest, 

 to which we are unable to allude at present. 



The Deutsche Seewarte has recently published its twentieth 

 annual report, for the year 1897. The death of Captain See- 

 mann, on September 24 of that year, has been a great loss to 

 the department, as he had for a long time devoted himself to 

 the study and practice of weather telegraphy. .\ conference of 

 the heads of German meteorological institutions was held at the 

 Seewarte in October 1S97, at which siwcial attention was given 

 to the organisation of the meteorological service ; a report of 



