156 



NA TURE 



[December 15, 1898 



greatest importance. Of course, Dr. Brinton's note is only a 

 summary of the present knowledge, but it is welcome. 



Is Das Wetter for November, Dr. W. Meinhardus, of 

 Berlin, discusses a fall of ice or frozen rain which occurred over 

 a large part of the central and eastern parts of Germany on 

 October 20. This phenomenon, which is sometimes called 

 glazed frost, is one of the most peculiar and rarest forms of 

 precipitation, which covers all bodies upon which it falls with a 

 more or less thick layer of ice. From the reports received at 

 the Berlin Meteorological Office, it appears that the frozen rain 

 occurred with extraordinary violence in several localities. At 

 Potsdam, Dr. Siiring calculated thai a blade of grass bore eight 

 hundred times its own weight of ice. The ice-coating lasted 

 through the whole of the d.ay, and only disappeared with the 

 setting in of a warm westerly current on the following morning. 

 The occurrence of glazed frost is usually e.\plained by the rain 

 falling upon bodies below the freezing point, but no frosty 

 weather had preceded the fall in this case. The conditions that 

 produced it appear to have been ( i ) a layer of air in the upper 

 regions, with a temperature above the freezing point ; (2) this 

 upper layer must have been moist, and have had a tendency to 

 move upwards, so that condensation and rain-formation oc- 

 curred ; and (j) below this layer there must have been another 

 stratum with a temperature below the freezing point. This in- 

 version of temperature conditions is borne out by observations 

 received from several of the mountain stations. 



A rATER on the ventilation of tunnels and buildings was read 

 at the Institution of Civil Engineers, on December 6, by Mr. 

 Francis Fox. In regard to the first part of the subject, Mr. 

 Fox enunciated the proposition that If the amount of carbon 

 dioxide in the air of a railway tunnel did not exceed 20 parts in 

 10,000, then the ventilation might be deemed satisfactory. The 

 case of the Metropolitan Railway tunnels, having been the 

 result of recent investigation, was not mentioned otherwise than 

 to recall the fact that the amount of carbon dioxide in the air 

 had been shown to be as much as 86 parts per 10,000. The 

 great Alpine tunnels were next referred to. In the case of that 

 under Mont Cenis, SJ miles long and 26 feet wide, the higher 

 altitude of the middle of the tunnel above its entrances was 

 inimical to good ventilation, and at times great difficulty was 

 €xperienced in carrying on the traffic. The .Si. Gothard Tunnel, 

 9j miles in length and 26 feet wide, was nearly level from end 

 to end and, until recently, natural ventilation only sufficed, but, 

 owing to increase of the traffic and the use of briquette fuel, the 

 Saccardo system had lately been introduced. This consisted in 

 blowing into the mouth of the tunnel a large volume of air 

 which, on the principle of the Injector, caused an induced cur- 

 rent in the annular space between the Interior surface of the 

 tunnel and the gauge of maximum construction. In the second 

 part of the paper Mr. Fox referred to the statement by Dr. 

 Ransome, F. R.S., that 70,000 deaths occurred annually in 

 Great Britain from tuberculous disease, nearly all of which 

 could be saved were the subject of fresh air both understood 

 and acted upon by the community. Competent medical 

 authority considered that the quantity of carbon dioxide in the 

 air of rooms should not exceed 10 parts per 10,000, equivalent 

 to about 16 cubic feet per head per minute. In French hospitals 

 50 cubic feet per patient per minute was allowed. Mr. Fox 

 considered that 20 cubic feet per minute would be sufficient for 

 ordinary purposes. Tables were given of the impurity in the 

 air of schools, with different systems of ventilation, of that in 

 dwelling-houses, and of that in sewers ; from which it appeared 

 that the latter was the least impure of the three. 



Prok. VV. F. Ganong, of Smith College, Northampton, 

 .Mass., U.S.A., is desirous of obtaining accurately determined 

 NO. 1520, VOL. 59] 



seeds of Cactacex for studies on the embryology of the order 

 His investigations on this subject are being published in th 

 Botanical Gazette. 



Dr. N. Wii.le has been appointed curator of the Muscui 

 and Herbarium of the University of Christiania, in succession t 

 the late Prof. Blytt ; and Dr. Carl Fritsch has been elected 1 

 succeed Kerner v. Marilaun as director of the Botanic, 

 Museum at Vienna. 



Lord Lister's recent remarks upon the humanity of viv: 

 section, reported in Nature of October 20, have induced th 

 Hon. Stephen Coleridge to gather a few extracts from ih _ 

 medical journals and the Journal of Physiology, and presen 

 them as evidence of " prolonged and terrible tortures." Thi 

 he does in the hope that Lord Lister will " do himself the justic 

 to confess that his statement at Liverpool was inaccurate " ! 



The English equivalent of the German word "Anlage"' I 

 still a matter of discussion among biologists. Among the word 

 favoured by various writers are forecast, fundament, rudiment 

 beginning, origin, and foundation. Dr. Arthur Willey recentl; 

 suggested in these columns (.\ugust 25, p. 390) the word prim 

 ordiuni as an accurate and well-sounding rendering of .\nlage. 

 Prof. Burt G. Wilder expresses a favourable opinion upon thi 

 word in Science, but thinks the shorter word proton, alread 

 familiar in numerous compounds, and used by many biologists 

 is a better equivalent. 



Dr. Amico Bir.NAMi, lecturer in the Institute of Patho 

 logical Anatomy of the Royal University of Rome, discusses ii 

 the Lancet the inoculation theory of malarial infection, anc 

 gives an account of a successful experiment with mosquitoes 

 He remarks at the end of this week's contribution : "To sun 

 up, malaria is a disease which is contracted by inoculation — i 

 fact of which we have now obtained the first experimenia 

 proof, since we have seen that an individual who has never ha« 

 malarial fever by sleeping in a healthy place where no one hat 

 ever previously taken fever may sicken with malaria of a grav< 

 type if bitten by certain species of the mosquito brought in th< 

 adult state from some dist.tnt locality of highly malariiU' 

 character. Further, everything points to the conclusion thai 

 inoculation is the only mode by which infection is acquiredl 

 since air and water as carriers of infection may be excludtdl 

 and because arguments based on analogy all tend in the sanM 

 direction. This much at any rate we can .assert — namely, that 

 inoculation is the only mechanism of infection which has bee! 

 demonstrated experimentally." 



An elaborate illustrated catalogue of apparatus used il 

 physical and chemical laboratories and lecture rooms, and 

 for bacteriological and microscopical work, has been issued 1)| 

 Messrs. VV. and J. George, Ltd., the successors of the firm a) 

 Messrs. F. E. Becker and Co. The catalogue runs into no l<.s< 

 than 662 pages, is printed on good paper, and profusely illus) 

 traled with pictures (many of them new) of instruments and 

 accessories. Special attention appears to have been given 

 to the arrangement of the contents, the description .and prIoS 

 of each piece of apparatus being immediately adjacent to lilt 

 illustration of the apparatus. The overcrowded appearance '>! 

 many catalogues ^'f scientific apparatus is thus avoided, and all! 

 particulars with regard to any instrument are readily founil 

 The catalogue should be seen by teachers and investigators 1I 

 all branches of experimental science. 



In a recent number of the fournal fiir praktisclu Chemie is 

 an interesting contribution by Prof. Curtius .and Dr. Rissom la 

 the chemistry of azoimide and its metallic derivatives. Soma 

 losses having been noticed during the preparation of azoimid.- 

 by distilling a metallic salt with acid, it was found that heating 



