154 



NA TURE 



[Dec. 17, T885 



apparently penetrates with good eftect into every room in the 

 house ; unfortunately the flue in the entrance hall is one which 

 has a persistent down draught, and we are unable to warm the 

 air in the hall and passages. 



There appears to be no rule without exception for automatic 

 ventilation ; in one room we have Tobin's ventilators, the 

 opening on the outside facing direct north ; these have to be 

 closed always when the room is occupied, as the cold air, after 

 rising a short distance, descends on the heads of the occupants. 

 In another room are four similar shafts built in the wall, tlie 

 bottom inlets facing west ; these shafts are always left full open 

 in the severest weather, the draught being usually downwards 

 and outwards ; but why this occurs I cannot form the remotest 

 conception, unless eddies are caused by an adjoining building. 

 There is no doubt that external conditions affect the practical 

 ventilation of any building, and no absolute rules are applicable 

 in every case alike. Tnos. Fletcher 



Warrington 



Rain at Smyrna 

 The telegraph has informed us of a heavy fall of rain at 

 Smyrna on Wednesday, November 25, but few particulars have 

 yet reached us, except some from Capt. Stabb, Corr. Mem. Soc. 

 of Arts. The storm began at six in the morning, and in a few 

 hours 6 inches were registered. When the quay, or embank- 

 ment, was proposed some years ago, in conjunction with the 

 Council of Public Works I endeavoured to provide an efficient 

 outfall sewer underneath it, but we were defeated by local 

 intrigue. The drainage of Smyrna is worse than in the time of 

 Strabo, by the large additions taken in from the shelving bay. 

 The torrents pouring down from Mount Pagus (the Castle Hill) 

 came through the Turkish quarter, causing the fall of some twenty 

 houses, and washing bodies out of the Turkish and Jewish grave- 

 yards. On reaching the lower streets the sewers ceased to act, 

 and cellars, stores, and warehouses were flooded, causing a lo^s 

 of 50,000/. worth of opium, cotton, valonia, and other mer- 

 chandise, and much damage to private houses. The River 

 Meles overflowed its shallow bed, and reached the Point Kail- 

 way Station, destroying some market gardens. In the suburb 

 of Bournabat two houses were brought down, and the Cassuba 

 raih\'ay embankment was damaged. The storm seems not to 

 have reached beyond Manisa (Magnesia ad Sipylum), over 

 Mount Sipylus, on one side, and Turbalu, beyond the Smyrna 

 plain, on the other. No such inundation has taken place 

 within memory. Hyde Clarke 



The Sea-Mills at Argostoli 

 With reference to the inquiry of your correspondent, Surgeon 

 Lloyd Thomas, in your issue of the loth instant (p. 129), there 

 is a short paper on this subject by Capt. H. P. Shilston, entitled 

 " On Curious Natural Phenomena in Cephalonia," to be found 

 in the Transactions of the Liverpool Geological Association, 

 vol. i. (Liverpool: Henry Young, iSSi). The writer describes 

 the inflow of water to the land through crevices in the limestone, 

 as observed by him, and gives an explanation by Prof. Ansted, 

 M.A., F. R.S., who considers that the phenomenon arises from 

 the large amount of evaporation, within range of the district, by 

 which the level of the subterranean stores of water is kept con- 

 stantly below the level .of the sea, notwithstanding the joint 

 supply of rain- and sea-water. O. W. J. 



Liverpool, December 12 



In answer to the question of Mr. J. Lloyd Thomas in the last 

 number of your valuable paper (p. 129) respecting the sea-mills 

 of Argostoli, we beg to inform you that we have published, 

 " Die Insel Kephalonia und die Meermiihien von Argostoli, 

 Versuch einer Losung dieses geophysikalischen Riithsels," 

 von Prof. K. W. M. Wiebel, mit i Karte, 3 Skizzen und 

 5 Holzschnitten, 1873. 



Hamburg, December 12 L. Friederichsen and Co. 



Friction and Molecular Structure 

 I shall feel obliged if you will kindly allow me to ask any 

 reader of Nature whether moderate friction can so change the 

 molecular structure of glass as to account for the following fact : — 

 Last night, about twenty minutes after a paraffine lamp had been 

 lighted and had been burning steadily, its glass chimney suddenly 



burst into small fragments at the exact place at which, about an 

 hour before, I had rubbed it with a piece of brown paper in 

 order to remove soot from the interior. The chimney was 

 thoroughly annealed, having been in constant use for more than 

 three years. The flame was not high ; the night was not frosty ; 

 the glass was uniformly thin at the place of fracture, which was 

 six inches above the top of the flame, and two inches below the 

 top of the chimney. 1 he part which had not been rubbed is 

 quite uninjured : not even a crack extending into it, while the 

 rubbed part is shattered. Edward Geoghegan 



Bardsea, December I 



The Resting Position of Oysters — A Correction 



Mr. J. T. Cunningham in his letter of November 28 (p. 129), 

 after showing that Pecien ofenularis must rest on its right valve, 

 goes on to say : — Of Paten tnaxitnus I cannot speak with 

 certainty, and therefore leave to Mr. Arthur Hunt the responsi- 

 bility of stating that there is a difference in respect of position in 

 the two species." So far from my having hinted that any species 

 of Pecten rests on other than the right valve, my letter, to which 

 Mr. Cunningham refers, concludes with the plain statement, 

 " in each case the mollusk rests on the same valve.'' The point 

 to be noticed is that in Pecten niaximus the right valve is most 

 convex, and in Pecien opercularis the left valve. 



A. R. Hunt 



Radiolaria 



I have recently had the pleasure of finding, in the London 

 Clay, a number of well-preserved specimens representative of 

 several species of Radiolaria, most of which, I have good 

 reason for thinking, difter from any known fossil or recent 

 forms. It was my intention to submit them to the Geological 

 Society during the present month, but circumstances prevent 

 this being done. The delay may lead to an extension of the 

 list, especially if I am fortunate enough to meet with a micro- 

 scopist kind enough to assist in the examination of material yet 

 untouched. W. H. Shrubsole 



Sheemess-on-Sea, December 14 



THE CONTINUITY OF THE GERM-PLASMA 

 CONSIDERED AS THE BASIS OF A THEOR V 

 OF HEREDITY 1 



THE thoughts developed in this most interesting and 

 important essay were first expressed in a lecture 

 delivered to students of the University of Jena last 

 winter. They were reduced to writing in the spring, and 

 completed for publication in June. The author received 

 Oscar Hertwig's essay on the "Theory of Inheritance," 

 and Kolliker's " On the importance of the Cell-nuclei for 

 the Processes of Heredity," after his manuscript was 

 complete. In the matter of the extreme importance of 

 the nucleus he agrees with both these authors. 



As was stated in reviewing here two years ago Prof. 

 Weismann's memoir "On the Origin of the Se.xual Cells 

 of the Hydromedusse," all his memoirs abound in original 

 views and suggestions, which render them of peculiar and 

 widely-spread interest. The present is no exception to 

 the rule. It is intended in this article to give a kind of 

 abstract of the memoir, composed largely of a series of 

 translated passages : for the fuller development of details, 

 the history of the development of ideas on the subject, 

 and controversial matters, readers are referred to the 

 original, which is an octavo of 122 pages. 



" How is it," asks the author in commencement, 

 "that in the case of all higher animals and plants, a single 

 cell is able to separate itself from amongst the inillions of 

 most various kinds of which an organism is composed, 

 and by division and complicated differentiation to recon- 

 struct a new individual with marvellous likeness, un- 

 changed in many cases even throughout whole geological 

 periods?" The question is a hard one indeed, and the 

 various attempts which have been made to solve it, 



1 "Die Continuitat des Keimplasma's als Grundlage einer Theorie der 

 Vereibung." Von Dr. August Weismann, Professor in Freiburg i. B. 

 (Jena ; Verlag von Guslav Fischer, 1S85.) 



