February i6, 1899] 



jVA TURE 



2,77 



Ix one of the last numbers of the U.S. Monthly Weather 

 l\c-v!i:w (October 1898), Mr. H. Earlscliffe makes a suggestion 

 of the possible utilisation of fog, which should call forth all 

 the inventive genius of America. He states that in California 

 there are vast areas of valuable land where the water supply is 

 insufficient, but which are frequented by heavy fogs from the 

 ocean. These fogs generally occur at night during the dry 

 .summer months, when moisture is most needed, and are dis- 

 sipated early in the morning by the sun. Neither science nor 

 art can at present suggest any feasible method of condensing 

 the moisture, and causing the fog to descend in drops of rain. 

 What is needed is some simple mechanical arrangement by 

 which the fog particles shall be intercepted and forced to drip 

 or glide downward to the ground, or to catch them as the leaves 

 of the trees do. Such devices as the explosion of dynamite are 

 likely to be too expensive in comparison with the return they 

 make. 



In Ciel et Terre of the ist inst. there is an article by M. 

 Lancaster, Director of the Meteorological Division of the 

 Brussels Observatory, entitled " Frost and Anti-cyclones." At 

 a recent meeting of the Royal Meteorological Society, Mr. 

 W. H. Dines read a paper on the winter temperature and 

 height of the barometer in north-west Europe, in which he 

 stated that the winter temperature did not depend upon the 

 height of the barometer, and that it was just as likely to be 

 cold when the barometer is below the average as when it is 

 above the average. M. Lancaster draws attention to his 

 paper in Ciel et Terre in 1895, in which he comes to nearly the 

 same conclusion as Mr. Dines ; and he states that the tables 

 of monthly mean barometric pressures for Brussels from 1S33 

 to 1S98 show that during the seven months of December, 

 which gave the highest mean barometric values, only one, that 

 of 1879, had a temperature below the average. In ten months 

 of January, with exceptionally high barometric pressure, the 

 temperature, however, was below the average ; while out of 

 eight months of February, with high pressures, only one (1887) 

 had a temperature below the average. The careful scientific 

 work of both authors is beyond question ; it may be mentioned, 

 however, that Mr. Dines' paper met with considerable criticism, 

 and, unless meteorological text-books are to be rewritten, the 

 matter calls for further careful inquiry, with the view of seeing 

 that no fallacy underlies the investigation. 



In the Revue scientifique of January 7, we leatn that on 

 October 31 a small monument was erected at the small village 

 of Saint- Lothaire in the Jura, to Charles Marc Sauria, the 

 original inventor of matches. The writer of the paper, Dr. 

 Cabanes, tells us that Sauria was born in 1812, and was the son 

 of General Sauria. He always showed a keen interest in scien- 

 tific inventions of all kinds, and while studying for the medical 

 profession at the college at Dole, obtained some chemicals from 

 an apothecary, and spent all his spare time in trying to make a 

 match which would light by striking, while his fellow students 

 were enjoying themselves. In the winter of 1830-31 his efforts 

 were crowned with success. Sauria confided his inventions to 

 his professor, M. Nicolet. Sauria gained but little profit from 

 his invention, which he could not afford to patent, and spent 

 the greater part of his days as a simple country doctor. It is 

 interesting to learn that matches were invented independently 

 in 1832 by Frederic Kammerer, an Austrian, who seems to have 

 died in great poverty ; and the same discovery is also attributed 

 to the Hungarian Irinyi. 



We have received a reprint of a paper, published by Prof. 



Edward S. Morse in the November number of Apphton's 



Popular Scientific Monthly, entitled "Was Middle America 



peopled from Asia ? " Prof. Morse answers the question in the 



NO. 1529, VOL. 59] 



negative, renewing the arguments of the Asiaticists, and sup- 

 ports his conclusions by pointing out the absence of any evidence 

 of interchange of social commodities. 



An important paper on physiographical problems raised by 

 the distribution of temperature and salinity in the waters of the 

 northern Pacific, is cimtained in Peteriiianii's Milteilungen for 

 January. The discussion is chiefly based on the work of the 

 U.S. s. Albatross between 1890 and 1895, ^"^ of the Russian 

 vessel I'itiaz, under Makarow, in 1887. Considerable light is 

 thrown on the movements of the deeper waters in the Bering 

 and Okhotsk Seas, and in the western and central Pacific 

 generally. 



Petermann's Mitteilungcn gives an account of the work of the 

 international Glacier Commission appointed by the Geological 

 Congress at Zurich in 1S94. The Commission has issued a pre- 

 liminary discourse by Prof. F. A. Forel, and three annual re- 

 ports. The result of widest general interest arrived at, so far, is 

 that periodic variations of climate are much more marked in the 

 central regions of continents than on the borders. Coast-lands, 

 and especially those of the .\tlantic, are exceptional regions, in 

 which characteristic dry periods are not, in general, recognisable. 

 The advance and retreat of glaciers show corresponding 

 differences. 



We have received the second number of La Cultura Geo- 

 ^afica, a new illustrated review, published twice a month at 

 Florence. It is to contain short articles on all branches of 

 geography, but special attention will be paid to the geography 

 of Italy, terrestrial physics, anthropogeography, and the history 

 and teaching of geography. Among the subjects treated in the 

 last issue are Danubian Italy, the poles of low temperature, the 

 vertical distribution and grouj ing of the lakes of the province 

 of Trent, &c. 



The volume of Proceedings of the Indiana Academy o" 

 Science, recently published, contains the results of a sta- 

 tistical inquiry into the variations of two species of Etheostoma 

 living in lakes in the State. The paper is a contribution 

 from the zoological laboratory of the Indiana University, 

 the director of which, Prof. C. H. Eigenmann, explains that 

 for the purpose of making a detailed comparison between the 

 faunas of two units of environment, a biological station has 

 been established on Turkey Lake, Kosciusko County, Indiana. 

 Five miles from this lake is another lake of different shape and 

 depth — Tippecanoe Lake. The two lakes are on opposite sides 

 of the watershed separating the St. Lawrence from the Missis- 

 sippi Basin. A physical survey has been made of these lakes, 

 and the physical and biological conditions of the two lakes are 

 being studied as two units of environment within which it is 

 proposed to determine the extent of variation in the non- 

 migratory vertebrates, the kind of variation, whether continuous 

 or discontinuous, the quantitative variation, the direction of 

 variation, and the annual or periodic variation and the effect o 

 selection. 



A IWPER by Mr. W. J. Moenkhaus, on the variation of speci- 

 mens oi Etheostoma caprodes and£. nigrum in two lakes, is one 

 of a series projected to illustrate the points referred to in the 

 foregoing note. The chief results are summarised as follows : 

 ( I ) In Etheostoma caprodes the males are more variable than the 

 females in the ratio of -507 : -468. In Etheostoma nigrum the 

 females are more variable than the males in the ratio of '402 : 

 ■454. (2) The specimens of both species in Turkey Lake differ 

 from those in Tippecanoe Lake in every structure examined. 

 (3) The variation in the two species is determinate for the lake — 

 that is. both species are modified in the same way by the same 

 lake with but one exception. (4I This difference is not the 



