590 



NATURE 



[Fed. 25, 1886 



these are dealt with in the appendix referred to. A special 

 interest, befitting the occasion, seems to have been taken 

 by several subscribers in the problems so gorgeously- 

 dressed up and so prettily put before them. Not only 

 were solutions forthcoming which were correct and neat, 

 but now and then a talented contributor emulates the 

 author himself in regard to the manner and style of 

 wording the answer. 



Whilst ample meed of praise is awarded to all good 

 work — and the author's fund of humour never seems to 

 fail him, causing even the initials of his anonymous 

 correspondents to lend themselves to give point to his 

 remarks — where there is any falling away from his high 

 standard of excellence, the criticisms are serious enough, 

 and, if need be, severe. 



Fallacies and shortcomings in the answers are laid bare 

 as mercilessly as in the treatise on " Euclid and his 

 Modern Rivals." But great care is taken to bring home 

 to the mind of the hapless contributor a full sense of the 

 error into which he has fallen ; and there are several 

 very apt analogies and illustrations to be found in this 

 appendix. 



When the sketches first appeared, editors of the puzzle 

 columns of other magazines must have been filled with 

 " mingled feelings of admiration and despair " as they 

 viewed these emanations from Lewis Carroll. And we 

 do not doubt that very many mathematical tutors, as well 

 as their pupils, will read with pleasure and profit " A 

 Tangled Tale," and the appendix thereto, and feel deeply 

 grateful to the author for publishing in book form this 

 further example of his genius. 



Mr. Frost has furnished a very striking frontispiece ; 

 and of his other illustrations the last may be specially 

 noted here, wherein is depicted a martyr to experimental 

 science who remains steadfast and unmoved at his 

 observations whilst the waves close round and drown 

 him : this is apropos of an exceedingly clever and entirely 

 new "hydrostatic paradox," which the author has invented 

 by dressing up, with the aid of Lardner's " Physics," a very 

 old fallacy. A. R. Willis 



Tableaux-Resumes des Observations Mcteorologiquesfailcs 

 a Bruxelles pendant itne p'eriode de cinquante annees 

 (1833-18S2). Prepartfs par A. Lancaster. L " Tem- 

 pi^rature de I'Air." (Bruxelles, 1886.) 

 In this pamphlet of seventy-nine pages Mr. Lancaster 

 admirably resumes the observations of the temperature 

 of the air made at Brussels during the fifty years from 

 1833, when they were begun by Oucteler, to the end of 

 1882. An important consideration kept in view through- 

 out is the climatological aspects of the observations, par- 

 ticularly the frequency or rareness of certain tempera- 

 tures in different times of the year which bear more or 

 less immediately on vegetable and animal life. 



From 1S33 to 1877 the observations were made with 

 thermometers exposed 10 feet above the ground at a 

 north window of the Observatory ; but from the begin- 

 ning of 1878 the thermometers were placed in a Steven- 

 son screen in the garden at a point 16 feet distant from 

 their original position, and at a height of 4i feet from 

 the ground. Care was taken at the time of the change 

 to make a double series of observations in the two 

 positions, from which it is shown that the earlier series 

 were o'''8 too high as compared with the observations 

 made with the Stevenson screen arrangement. 



The mean annual temperature of Brussels is So°'5. 

 The highest annual temperature was 53°'8 in 1834, and 

 the lowest 47"''l in 1879, there being thus a diflference of 

 6°7. During the fifty years the greatest difierence in the 

 temperature which occurred in the space of any one day 

 was 37"--4 on January 26, 18S1. In midsummer the daily 

 maximum occurs at 3.22 p.m., and the minimum at 3.39 

 a.m. ; but in midwinter these phases of the temperature 

 occur at 3.39 p.m. and 6.36 a.m. As regards very high 



temperatures, 90 'o or upwards has not been observed 

 earlier than June 6 or later than August 19; and as 

 regards the periods of intensest cold, a temperature of 

 zero Fahr. has been recorded only between January 16 

 and 26. The longest continued frost was in 1845, when 

 from February 7 to March 22, or during 45 days, the 

 temperature fell to freezing or lower each successive day. 

 The hardest winter was that of 1844-45, when temperature 

 fell to freezing on 90 days, and the most open winter that 

 of 1846-47, when frost was recorded only on 17 days. 

 January 183S was characterised by severe and long- 

 continued frosts, temperature falling to 23"o or lower on 

 22 consecutive days, to l4°'o on 13 days, and to 5°'0 on 

 5 days. The absolutely lowest temperature recorded was 

 — 4°'4 on January 25, 188 1, and the highest 95°'4 on July 

 19 of the same year. The five mean coldest consecutive 

 days of the year are January S to 12, the mean being 34°'4 ; 

 and the five warmest July 15 to 19, the mean being 66'''5. 

 A second maximum occurs from August 13 to 17, when 

 the mean is 65°'5. The most marked interruptions in the 

 annual rise of temperature from January to July are 

 February 10 to 14, April 10 to 14, the middle of May, 

 and June 26 to July 2 ; and the interruptions in the fall 

 of temperature from July to January are August 13 to 17, 

 already referred to, and December 4 to 7. The interest 

 of these temperature interruptions is their wide geo- 

 graphical range, and no quite satisfactory explanation of 

 them has yet been given. 



Notes from the Leyden Museum. Vol. VII. (1885.) 

 LInder the able editorship of Dr. F. A. Jentink, the 

 Director of the Leyden Museum, these "Notes" have 

 been published as quarterly parts throughout the past 

 y-ear. They form a volume of some 2S6 pages, which is 

 illustrated by 10 plates. Among the more important 

 "Notes" we may mention a monograph of the genus 

 Cuscus by the Editor. Four species are recognised : 

 C.'oriejztalis, C. celebensis, C. maciilatus, and C. iirsinus. 

 Gray's species, C. celebensis, is re-described, if indeed the 

 original description can be said to merit such a title, 

 being contradictory on most important points, and illus- 

 trated with figures of another species. In a note on some 

 rare mammals the same author describes and figures 

 Hapaleinur griseus and H. sii/ius, and notes the occur- 

 rence in Cemral Africa of Epomophorus comptus and E. 

 gambiaiuis, of Paradoxurus stigmaticus and Ptilocercus 

 lowii from North-East Sumatra. He also re-describes, 

 almost re-discovers, the rare Antelope do?-ia, Ogilby, and 

 A. lonoiceps, Gray. Mr. J. Biittenkofer's " List of Birds 

 collected in Western Liberia" is prefaced by a most in- 

 teresting account of the Zoological Expedition sent out 

 to the West Coast of Africa under the supervision of the 

 late Prof. Schlegel. Two years and a half (1880-82) were 

 spent in Western Liberia, of which a rough sketch-map 

 is given. The ordinary temperature of Liberia may 

 tolerably well be compared to that of a European sum- 

 mer, rarely ever becoming insupportable. It has its dry 

 and rainy seasons, and produces an extremely rich flora 

 and fauna. His companion, C. F. Sala, died in June 1881, 

 and Mr. Biittenkofer, from ill health, was obliged to leave 

 for Holland in April 1882. Mr. Stampfli has since gone 

 out, and is now carrying on very successful researches in 

 the southern portions of the district. This paper on the 

 birds of Liberia is to form but one of a series devoted 

 to the different groups collected. 



The entomological notes are numerous, and contain 

 descriptions of new or rare Coleoptera by C. Ritsema, 

 J. W. van Lansberge, Neervoort van de Poll, Ant. Grou- 

 velle. Rev. H. S. Gorham, and E. Candeze. Some of the 

 new species are represented on coloured plates. F. M. 

 van der Wulp continues his descriptions of exotic Diptera. 



Mr. Schepman describes and figures a new Neritina 

 from Gara, already named in manuscript by E. von 

 Martens as N. subocellatu, and Dr. Horst gives an ac- 



