342 



NA TURE 



[Fed. II, il 



delighted to know will he for the future filled by Dr. 

 Sharp. 



The editor's preface opens with a few feeling words 

 relating to the death of the late editor, E. C. Rye ; he is also 

 obliged to record a broken promise, which thus recalls to 

 mind an almost similar one recorded in vol. i., but with 

 this difference — that for vol. xxi. though at the last hour a 

 Recorder was found to supply the not forthcoming record, 

 and has done so in a manner that, novice though he may 

 be, shows the master's hand, for IVIr. P. L. Sclater's record 

 of the Mammalia forms not alone a scientific record, but 

 its arrangement and style is so good and the summary of 

 work on the general subject is so excellent as to mark it 

 ■out for special notice. 



Mr. Bowdler Sharpe, owing to his visit to Simla, left 

 the record of the birds to Mr. A. H. Evans. 



Mr. Gibson-Carmichael, in his record of Arachnids for 

 18S3 and 18S4, apologises for not recording a list of the 

 new species described in the papers quoted owing " to 

 his not feeling competent to judge of the value of new 

 species." Here we may be allowed to utter a word of 

 caution. A record should not of necessity be a criticism, 

 and we would have preferred to have seen a statement of 

 all the new species and their habitats than merely the 

 titles of papers. For a zoological inquirer the habitat is 

 often an assistance, and we notice that the same Recorder 

 has not in the case of the Myriapoda been as particular 

 in quoting these as we could have wished. Prof. Haddon 

 has recorded the Infusoria. Certain very desirable 

 changes in the sequence of some of the groups have been 

 made by Prof Jeffrey Bell, who acknowledges the receipt 

 of money grants in aid of the publication from the 

 Government Grant Committee of the Royal Society and 

 the British Association, and whom we wish every suc- 

 cess in his arduous and difficult task as editor of our 

 British Record of Zoological Science. 



Elcmente der Litholoe^ie. Von Dr. Ernst Kalkowsky. 



(Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1886.) 

 This is an attempt, and a very successful one, to present 

 to the student an elementary treatise, which shall be at 

 once brief but well up to date ; a difficult task in the case 

 of a subject of which our stock of knowledge is being 

 continually increased by results scattered through, or 

 buried in, countless separate memoirs. The work is 

 without figures, and is compressed into 316 pages, the 

 first 57 of which are given to a general and intro- 

 ductory discussion of the characters of rocks and the 

 methods of investigation. The reader's sound knowledge 

 of the principles of chemistry, mineralogy, and physical 

 optics is assumed by the author. The classification used 

 in the larger treatises is generally adhered to. The 

 arrangement of the information relative to each rock- 

 family is very neat and compact : first is given a list of 

 chemical analyses, and next a description of the macro- 

 scopical and microscopical characters of the component 

 minerals ; then follow accounts of the modes of oc- 

 currence, alteration, and genesis ; and finally a short 

 description of the varieties. The work is altogether 

 satisfactory. 



Notions Gfiurales siir V Eclairagc Electrique. Par 



Henry Vivarez. (Paris: J. Michelet, 1SS6.) 

 This is a second edition of one of those readable and 

 well-illustrated brochures that the French know so well 

 how to write, and that have such a ready sale in their 

 country, but which fail to secure even a publisher in this. 

 The author is known in this country principally as a con- 

 tributor to Engineering. His name has not been asso- 

 ciated with any electric light enterprise, but he clearly 

 understands that which he writes about. There is not 

 much in the book that is new, indeed there is much that 

 is obsolete, but what there is is clear and comprehensive. 

 That which is French has naturally a preference over 



that which comes from " barbarians." The chapter on 

 meters and photometers is excellent. The following table 

 is useful : — 



One carcel = S'3 English standard candles. 

 = 7'5 German „ „ „ 

 = 6-5 Munich „ „ „ 



= 105 litres per hour of gas 



The work is not scientific. It is popular, readable, and 

 useful. 



Rome in 1J7nier and ilie Tuscan Hills in Summer ; a 

 Contribution to the Climate of Italy. By David Young, 

 M.D. (London: Lewis, 1885.) 

 This little volume must prove of practical value to a con- 

 siderable class of people, that class which every year 

 furnishes a large contingent of visitors to Italy and winter 

 residents in Rome. Dr. Young has himself long resided 

 in Italy, and has had ample opportunity of observing its 

 climatal and sanitary conditions. He shows in his in- 

 structive book that Rome has got an undeservedly bad 

 name for its climate, and the object of the volume is to 

 show exactly what that climate is, under such heads as 

 — the climate of Rome and its effects upon health and 

 disease ; the unhealthiness of Rome ; Roman fever and 

 malaria ; water-supply of Rome ; how to live in Rome ; 

 class of invalids likely to derive benefit from a residence 

 in Rome, and so on. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[ The Editor does not hold himself respottsiblc for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 

 or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications. 



[The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters 

 as short as possible. The pressitre on his space is so great 

 that it is impossible otherwise to insure the appearance even 

 of communications containingintertsting and novel facts.'\ 



Barometric Pressure in the Tropics 



The American Eclipse Expedition to the Caroline Islands in 

 May 18S3 also made exceedingly interesting meteorological ob- 

 servations, of which the most important are those on the pressure 

 of the air, as they elucidate some points in the daily period of 

 this phenomenon {Memoirs o{ the National Academy of Sciences, 

 vol. ii.). As this is very regular in the tropics, any difference in 

 it points to exceedingly potent influences, and it is easy to surmise 

 that, in the daytime, none, except a cyclone, can be rnore potent 

 than an eclipic, as no other can shade the whole extent of the 

 atmosphere. The I'esult was an accelerated diminution of pressure 

 from 10.15 to II-30 a m. (totality 11.32 to 11.37 a.m.), then a 

 rise to about noon — i.e. at a time when there is generally a great 

 fall — and later again an accelerated fall. The explanation is 

 probably the following : — The accelerated fall at the beginning 

 is caused by the diminished temperature and elasticity of the air. 

 Then, as the height of equal pressure diminished in the shaded 

 area, air began to flow in from the vicinity, causing a rise of 

 pressure, and the subsequent rapid fall was a return to the normal 

 condition. 



The next total eclipse is to be on August 29 next, being visible 

 in the morning on the Isthmus of Panama, the Leeward Islands, 

 then Tobago, Grenada, the Grenadine Islands, and Barbados, and 

 in the a^terno^n in South Africa from Benguela to Mozambique 

 and the southern part of Madagascar. It would accordingly be 

 important to have half-hourly barometrical observations (self- 

 recording barometers or aneroids would be belter still) at many 

 points both of America and the adjacent islands and of Africa. 

 We should expect to see the morning rise of pressure interrupted 

 on the Antilles Islands (totality 7.23 a.m. at Barbados), and the 

 afternoon fall of pressure also interiiipted in Africa (totality 

 3.10 p.m. at Benguela). 



The varying cloudiness in America and the Antilles (as the 

 rainy season there has not the steadiness of the Indian monsoon 

 and does not exclude clear days) would add a feature of even 

 greater interest, as the influence of the eclipse on the daily 

 period of prcisure in clear and cloudy days could be compared. 

 In South Africa, except the coast, where fogs are frequent at 



