4o6 



NA TURE 



\_Fcb. 25, 1886 



author concludes that for further accuracy in this kind of work 

 we must look for improvements in the methods employed, the 

 instruments having, he believes, attained to a state as near per- 

 fection as possible. — On some new forms of calorimeters, by 

 Prof. W. F. Barrett. These instruments were constiiicted for 

 the accurate and ready determinations of specific heats, notably 

 those of liquids. In the first form the bulb of a thermometer is 

 blown into the form of a cup of about 4 cubic centimetres capa- 

 city, which thus acts as a calorimeter. Into this cup the liquid 

 is dropped directly from a burette, its temperature being ob- 

 served by a thermometer in the burette, the mouth of which is 

 closed by the end of the bulb of the thermometer, which is 

 ground, and thus acts the part of a stopper, so that, on raising 

 tlie thermometer, the liquid flows from the burette into the cup. 

 The thermometer itself forms a balance, the horizontal stem 

 acting as the beam is supported by a knife-edge, and a pan is 

 attached to the further end by the addition of weights to which 

 the weight of liquid added can be ascertained. In the second 

 form a simple thermometer with a large bulb is used, the latter 

 dipping into a silver vessel, into which the liquid is introduced 

 as before. — Prof. S. P. Thompson exhibited a glass calorimeter, 

 similar in construction to that of Favre and Silbermann ; water 

 is used instead of mercury, the great density of which renders it 

 unsuitable for use in so large a glass vessel. 



Anthropological Institute, February 9. — Mr. Francis 

 Gallon, F. R.S., President, in the chair. — The election of Prof. 

 Otio T. Mason, Prof. J. Ranke, Dr. G. Manouvrier, and Prof. 

 J. Kollmann as Honorary Members, and of the Rev. W. Birks, 

 J. G. Blumer, F. H. Collins, J. Spielman, and T. L. Wall, as 

 Ordinary Members, was announced. — The President read a paper 

 on recent designs for anthropometric instruments, and called 

 particular attention to a number of instruments made by the 

 Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company, and exhibited by 

 Mr. Horace Darwin, who afterwards described them and showed 

 the manner in which they are used. — M. Collin, of Paris, 

 exhibited a traveller's box of anthropometric instritments and 

 Topinard's craniophore. — Prof. A. Macalister read a paper on a 

 skull from an ancient burying-ground in Kamchatka ; and Dr. 

 G. Garson read a paper on the cephalic index, in which he 

 proposed a system of nomenclature for international adoption 

 which has already been accepted in principle by several of the 

 leading anthropologists on the Continent. 



Royal Meteorological Society, February 17. — -Mr. W. 

 Ellis, F.R.A..S., President, in the chair.— Mr. G. Buchanan, 

 Capt. G. H. Leggett, Dr. H. C. Taylor, J. P., and Mr. J. 

 Tolson were elected Fellows of the Society. — The following 

 papers were read :— General remarks on the naming of clouds, 

 by Capt. H. Toynbee, F.R.Met. Soc. The author considers it 

 important to keep to Luke Howard's nomenclature, leaving it 

 to the observers to express by an additional word any pecu- 

 liarity they notice in a particular cloud. — On the thickne-^s of 

 shower-clouds, by Mr. A. W. Clayden, M.A., F.G.S. From 

 some measurements made by the author during the summer of 

 1885 he has come to the conclusion that clouds of less than 

 2000 feet in thickness are not often accompanied by rain ; and, 

 if they are, it is only very gentle, consisting of minute drops. 

 With a thickness of between 2000 and 4000 feet the size of 

 the drops is moderate. As the thickness gets greater, the 

 size of the drops increases, and at the same time their tem- 

 perature becomes lower, until, when the thickness is upwards of 

 6000 feet, hail is produced. — On the formation of rain, hail, and 

 snow, by Mr. A. W. Clayden, M.A., F.G.S. The author 

 points out that all observations tend to show that, except under 

 quite abnormal conditions, the temperature of the atmosphere 

 falls as the height above sea-level increases ; and there seems 

 n6 reason whatever for assuming that the law does not apply to 

 that portion of the atmosphere which forms a cloud. Hence, 

 if a drop were to be formed at or near the upper surface of a 

 cloud, it would fall down into a region saturated with vapour at 

 a temperature above its own. The result will be further con- 

 densation, producing a larger drop ; and this process will con- 

 tinue until it leaves the cloud. If its temperature is below the 

 dew-point of the air it falls through, condensation will continue 

 until it reaches the ground. However, it is obvious that this 

 subsequent gain cannot bear any very large proportion to the 

 growth while falling through the saturated cloud, from which 

 the conclusion follows that the size of the drop must increase 

 with the thickness of the cloud. The author suggests that con- 

 densation begins on the upper surface of the cloud by the 

 cooling of some of the liquid cloud-particles. If this particle is 



cold enough it will solidify, and snow v/ill be formed. Should 

 it not be quite cold enough to solidify at once, owing to its 

 minuteness, but remain still below the freezing-point, hail is 

 formed. Finally, if the temperature is not low enough for either 

 snow or hail, rain is produced. — On three years' work by the 

 " chrono-barometer " and "chrono-thermometer," 1882-S4, by 

 Mr. W. F. Stanley, F.R.Met. Soc. The chrono-barometer is a 

 clock that counts the oscillations of a pendulum formed by a sus- 

 pended barometer. The upper chamber of the pendulum is a 

 cylinder of.an inch or more in diameter. By change of atmo- 

 spheric pressure the mercury in the pendulum is displaced from the 

 bottom to the top, and I'ice z-cwsd. The rate of the clock is accele- 

 rated or retarded in proportion to the displacemen tof the mercury. 

 The chrono-thermometer is a similar clock to the above, and the 

 pendulum is also a barometer ; but instead of the lower chamber 

 being exposed to pressure, the whole tube is inclosed in a 

 second hermetically-sealed tube containing air. Atmospheric 

 pressure being thus removed, the expansion of the included air 

 liy heat alone forces the mercury up into the vacuum-chamber, 

 and alters the period of oscillation of the pendulum. 



Victoria (Philosophical) Institute, February 15.- .V 

 paper on final cau^e, by Prof. Dabney, of Texas IJniversity, 

 was read. 



Edinburgh 



Mathematical Society, February 12. — Dr. R. M. Ferguson, 

 President, in the chair. — Mr. William Harvey communicated 

 several theorems in kinematics with geometrical demonstrations ; 

 and Mr. R. E. Allardice submitted a proof, by Mr. T. Hugh 

 Miller, of Lagrange's theorem. 



Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, February 15. — M. Jurien de la 

 Graviere, President, in the chair. — Discourses pronounced at 

 the obsequies of M. Jamin, by M. J. Bertrand on behalf of the 

 Academy, and by M. L. Troost in the name of the Faculty of 

 Sciences. — Remarks on the 172 tornadoes recorded in the 

 United States during the year 1884, by M. Faye. From the 

 scientific point of view the author considers that it seems defin- 

 itely established that there is a definite portion of an area of low 

 pressure within which the conditions for the development of 

 tornadoes is most favourable. The special tornado reporters for 

 the Signal Service are now endeavouring still more accurately to 

 determine this "dangerous octant," as it is called in .America. 

 February 19, 1884, is mentioned as memorable in the history of 

 these destructive phenomena. On that day no less than forty- 

 five were recorded in the South-Eastern States, attended with a 

 total loss of 800 lives, 2500 injured, 10,000 houses and build- 

 ings destroyed, and from 10,000 to 15,000 people left homeless. 

 — Note on a prophylactic means of protecting the vine by 

 destroying the winter egg of Phylloxera, by M. P. de Lafitte. 

 This plan has now been tried with considerable success during 

 the last three years at three different places in the department of 

 Lot-et-Garonne. The State aid granted for the purpose having 

 long been exhausted, growers have been encouraged by these 

 results to continue the experiments at their own expense. — On 

 the periods of the double integrals, by M. E. Picard. — On the 

 theory of reciprocants, by M. R. Perrin. It is shown that the 

 new forms introduced by Prof. Sylvester into mathematical 

 analysis may be considerably simplified by the employment of a 

 few general theorems here communicated to the Academy. — 

 Note on the polhodie and terpolhodie (continued), by M. .A. 

 Mannheim. — Spectroscopic observations on the new star dis- 

 covered by Mr. Gore in Orion, made at the Nice Observatory by 

 MM. Perrotin and Thollon. This star presents a fine line spec- 

 trum stretching far into the violet, the red and especially the 

 green being remarkably brilliant, while the yellow appears rela- 

 tively dull. This suggested a certain analogy with the spectra of 

 comets, only much more complicated, and the idea was con- 

 firmed by subsequent comparative observations made on a 

 Orionis, which shows a characteristic continuous spectrum inter- 

 sected by dark bands and lines. Notwithstanding the faint 

 yellow bands, the new star would therefore appear to be of the 

 same type as a Orionis. — Note on the deviation of the equi- 

 potential lines, and the variation of resistance shown by bismuth 

 in a magnetic field, by M. Leduc— On the electrolysis of the 

 salts : influence of temperature, of the distance and surface of 

 the electrodes, by M. Adolphe Renard. — Observations in con- 

 nection with M. A. Millot's note on the "Products of Oxida- 

 tion of Carbon by the Electrolysis of a Solution of Ammonia," by 



