62 



NA TURE 



[November 17, i< 



outweigh 4 to I its injurinu'! ones. Instead of being persecuted 

 the bird should, therefore, receive protection. 



Cornwall is to be congratulated upon the success of the 

 efforts its Technical Instruction Committee are making for the 

 benefit of fishermen, through Mr. J. T. Cunningham, the County 

 lecturer on fishery subjects. The report of the executive com- 

 mittee for fisheries for the year 1S97-98, is almost entirely 

 devoted to a valuable statement by Mr. Cunningham on records 

 of sea fishing and sea temperature, experiments on oyster culture 

 and lobster rearing, fish and net curing, and other matters con- 

 cerning the science and handicraft of sea fisheries. Among ihe 

 interesting items referred to in his report, is the fact that at the 

 beginning of every season male crabs are always more numerous 

 in the pots than females. Their number increases gradually till 

 May or June, when it gradually diminishes ; while the number 

 of females taken does not reach its maximum till June or July, 

 and then they are twice as numerous as the males, and they 

 usually continue to be more abundant than the males until the 

 end of the season. On the other hand, practically the same 

 number of male lobsters are caught as female. The observ- 

 ations of surface temperature, made in connection with these 

 fisheries, are of great service in indicating the influence of 

 temperature upon the number of fish taken in various months. 

 With regard to lobster rearing, Mr. Cunningham reports that 

 important and gratifying success has been obtained, and much 

 precise knowledge has been gained concerning the particular 

 details of treatment on which the life and death of the larvae 

 depend. His observations have convinced him that the opinion 

 that swimming lobster larvae in the sea capture and feed upon 

 other swimming creatures, especially other small swimming 

 crustaceans, is wrong. He holds that lobster larvae are, like 

 the adults, carrion feeders, and are not in the habit of pursuing 

 or capturing live food at all. 



Messrs. Duckworth announce for publication " A Glossary 

 of Botanical Terms," by Mr. B. Daydon Jackson ; and a " Text- 

 book of Agricultural Botany," by Mr. J. Percival. 



Messrs. J. M. Dent and Co. announce that after the 

 December number Natural Scienci will be published by Mr. 

 Young J. Pentland, of Edinburgh, who has acquired all future 

 rights. 



Messrs. W. Wesley and Son have just issued a new 

 Catalogue {No. 132 of their Natural History and Scientific 

 Book Circular), giving a descriptive and classified list of 1500 

 books and pamphlets on the natural history of Great Britain 

 and Ireland. The arrangement of works under the names of 

 the English counties, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, will be of 

 service to collectors of local fauna and flora. 



The following new editions of works already reviewed in 

 Nature have been received : — The third edition of Prof. Gren- 

 ville Cole's "Aids in Practical Geology" (London: Charles 

 Griftin and Co.) The work has been completely revised and 

 enlarged ; many additions of practical service to the geologist 

 have been ipade, and all important factors of geological progress 

 since 1893, when the second edition appeared, have been taken 

 into consideration.— Messrs. Slingo and Brookes's well-known 

 volume on "Electrical Engineering for Electric Light Artisans 

 and Students " has been published in a revised and enlarged 

 edition by Messrs. Longmans, Green, and Co. The work now 

 occupies 780 pages, and it provides students with sound inform- 

 ation concerning direct and simple alternating currents, the 

 machinery and apparatus connected therewith, and their most 

 important applications.— The tenth edition of Mr. C. Ilaughton 

 Gill's "Chemistry for Schools" (Edward Stanford) has been 

 published. Dr. D. Hamilton Jackson is responsible for the 

 NO. 1516, VOL. 59] 



revision of the Lt.iok and the additions made to bring it into line 

 with the new regulations in chemistry for the London Univer- 

 sity Matriculation Examination. — The second edition, revised 

 and enlarged, of Dr. Lassar-Cohn's "Chemistry in Daily Life," 

 translated by Mr. M. M. Pattison Muir, has been published by 

 Messrs. H. Grevel and Co. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two Pumas {Felis concolor, i ? ) from the 

 Argentine Republic, presented by Mr. Ernest Gibson ; a 

 Hamster {Criatus friimenlarius), European, two Bennett's 

 Wallabies (Macropiis bennetti) from Tasmania, a Gentoo 

 Penguin [Pygosceles taenialus) from the Falkland Islands, a 

 Gold Pheasant ( ThaumaUa picla, 9 ) from China, two Ele- 

 phantine Tortoises ( Testiido ekphantina) from the Aldabra 

 Islands, deposited ; two Japanese Deer (Cc)~Jtis sika, i i) from 

 Japan, received in exchange ; an .\xis Deer (Cen'tis axis, 9 )» 

 born in the Gardens. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



The Leonids. — Unfortunately for observers in the neighbour- 

 hood of London, a fog more or less continuously hung over their 

 heads on the nights of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, and 

 rendered observations of the expected meteor shower impossible. 

 Observers at the Solar Physics Observatory, South Kensington, 

 were only able to observe two or three meteors during these 

 nights. One of special brilliance, on the night of Monday, at 

 10.48 G.M.T., shot across the sky from east to west, its paths 

 extending at least 45 degrees. This was undoubtedly a fine 

 Leonid ; but its path could not be traced, as fog and cloud hid 

 the stars from view. 



Mr. R. H. Scott informs us that the meteorological reporter 1 

 at Jersey (Mr Fisher, at St. Aubin's) has reported to the | 

 Meteorological Office that a meteor shower was observed there 

 at 10 p.m. on Monday. 



From a New York telegram, published in one of the daily 

 papers, we gather that the shower was observed in America on 

 the night of the 14th, but it did not attain the expected bril-; 

 liancy. Prof. Young is said to describe the shower observed a§ 

 faint, while at the Lick Observatory the meteors were said to be, 

 small and not marked by extraordinary brilliancy. 



A Globe for Meteor Observers. — Every observer, who 

 has plotted the trails of meteors on star charts, knows that 

 errors of projection arise which are due to the difficulty of plotting 

 accurately the whole length of the trail. If the points of l)e^ 

 ginning and end of the visible trail be mentally noted and' 

 marked off on a star chart, then the line joining these two points 

 does not represent the actual trail of the meteor, in consequence 

 of the fact that the path in the heavens is on a sphere, and that 

 on the chart is on a plane. To avoid such discrepancies it is 

 always better to use a celestial globe, when this difficulty is 

 eliminated. The ordinary celestial globe is, however, not w-ell 

 adapted for recording meteor observations, as it must be illumin- 

 ated from the outside by a lamp, as the observer is in the 

 open air. 



A globe arranged especially for use when such observations 

 are being made, recently invented by M. Pietro Mafti, is de- 

 scribed in the French journal Cosmos, and should be found very 

 serviceable. It consists of a glass hollow sphere mounted on 

 two vertical supports, and capable of adjustment as regards 

 latitude. The outer surface is marked with the brighter stars 

 of each constellation and the Milky Way, and there is also 

 means of obtaining directly the right ascension and declination 

 of any point on the globe. The inside contains two small elec- 

 tric lamps in connection with accumulators in the stand, so that 

 the whole surface of the sphere with the constellations may be 

 seen clearly. Directly a meteor is seen its path can be plotted, 

 and when note is taken of its exact position a wet sponge is all 

 that is necessary to er.a.se it. 



The globe and stand, as it appears in the illustration accom- 

 panying' the article, seems rather elaborate : but there is ap- 

 parently no reason w hy a more simple and cheaper form should 

 not be made, for its use then would be more widely distributed. 



