464 



NA TURE 



\_March 18, 1886 



of the Committee ought to acquiesce in its decisions. 

 We ourselves do not agree with every point of the Com- 

 mittee's work, but at the same time the " List " supphed 

 a great want in ornithology in this country, and it will, no 

 doubt, be greatly improved in a second edition. 



Oologists in this country have in Mr. Seebohm's work 

 a thoroughly good hand-book, the figures of the eggs 

 being highly satisfactory, while as to the information 

 concerning the nesting-habits and life of the birds, we 

 believe this " History of British Birds " to be by far the 

 most complete yet published in this country. R. B. S. 



NOTES 



The collection of funds for the Pasteur Hospital is proceeding 

 rapidly. The total of the first list is a little under 10,000/. 



In reply to a recent letter from the Russian Minister of Edu- 

 cation, M. Pasteur has written offering to receive Russian 

 doctors for instruction, and suggesting that Russia should con- 

 tribute towards the establishment of his proposed Institution at 

 Paris. A small establishment for the application of M. Pasteur's 

 method against rabies has already been started in St. Peters- 

 burg, on the initiative and at the expense of Pdnce Alexander 

 of Oldenburg, where experiments on rabbits and dogs are now 

 being made, preparatory to the treating of persons in danger of 

 hydrophobia. 



In the House of Commons, last week, in reply to a question 

 by Sir Henry Roscoe, Mr. Chamberiain stated that his atten- 

 had been called to the reported discovery by M. Pasteur of a 

 cure for hydrophobia. The recognised eminence of M. Pasteur 

 as a scientific investigator, and the great interest and importance 

 which attach to the subject of his recent inquiries, seemed to him 

 to justify a careful and impartial examination of the results ob- 

 obtained. At present the information on the matter in the 

 possession of his department was too vague and incomplete to 

 afford materials for a full appreciation of M. Pasteur's process. 

 Mr. Chamberlain promised to consider how such an inquiry can 

 be most satisfactorily conducted, and to confer with the Chan- 

 cellor of the Exchequer with reference to the question of the 

 expense. He hoped to be able to arrange for such an investiga- 

 tion as may enable a just estimate to be formed as to the relia- 

 bility of M. Pasteur's method and its applicability to this 

 country. 



The French Minister of Public Instruction has applied to the 

 French Parliament for a grant of about 150,000 fr. for the build- 

 ing of an equatorial-coudc according to the Lcewy system. The 

 total sum required will be 100,000 fr. more. 



At the last meeting of .the Berlin Anthropological Society 

 Prof Virchow stated that the German Colonial Society had sei,t 

 circulars to all European colonies situated in the tropics 

 requesting observations to be made regarding the question of the 

 acclimatisation of Europeans in the tropics, the result of this 

 inquiry to be communicated to the German Naturalists' 

 Association at their next annual meeting in September. An 

 exhibition of objects required in fitting out scientific travellers 

 for their journeys will also be held at the same time as the 

 meeting of German naturalists. 



The Ben Nevis Weather Reports chronicle an extraordinary 

 dryness of the air in the end of last week. From 3 a.m. of 

 Thursday the air became so dry that a humidity of about 15 per 

 cent, was maintained for some time, and the dew-point fell to 

 - 24" 'o. On Friday the humidity was about 13 percent, till 

 3 p.m., when the air became still drier, and at 9 p.m. the 

 humidity was only 8 per cent., the readings at this hour being: 

 di7bulb. i9"'-2, and wet bulb, l3°'o. The great dryness ceased 



at midnight, when the air suddenly became saturated. The 

 snov\' lying at the Observatory at present is not much more than 

 half the quantity of the two previous winters at this season. 



It is reported that on Sunday night, about 11 o'clock, a 

 sharp shock of earthquake, lasting seven seconds, caused a panic 

 at the theatre in Granada. The audience rose, and rushed into 

 the streets. The inhabitants, awakened by the shock, poured 

 out of their houses, and many persons remained in the streets 

 and squares part of the night. Very little material damage was 

 done to the houses, and none to the public buildings, for the 

 preservation of which the authorities have adopted precautions. 

 The shocks were oscillatory from west to east, and accompanied 

 by a rumbling noise. The shock was felt also in the districts 

 which were the scene of the earthquake of 1884. The villagers 

 were terribly alarmed, and some houses were injured. 



A VIOLENT shock of earthquake was felt at Wiesbaden at 

 twenty-eight minutes past midnight on Sunday. 



The fourth volume of Dr. M. C. Cooke's " Illustrations of 

 British Fungi" is just completed, bringing the total number of 

 coloured plates up to 622, illustrating 790 species and varieties 

 of Agariais, or more than double the number figured by Fries 

 in his "Icones," and nearly as many as there are in the com- 

 bined works of Sowerby, Hussey, Bolton, BuUiard, and Kromb- 

 holz. It is estimated that the two volumes yet to be published, 

 if the author receives sufficient support, will contain about 400 

 additional species, making a total of nearly 1200 species and 

 varieties of the gill-bearing Fungi, or nearly three times as many 

 as in any other work in e.xistence. The four volumes accomplished 

 represent five years' laborious work and a great expenditure of 

 money by the author, who is publishing at his own sole cost ; yet 

 we are assured that he has not only derived no profit therefrom, 

 but has suffered a loss, and this in spite of his having saved the 

 expense of an artist. Surely there must beasuflicient number of 

 persons in this country interested in botany to render such a work 

 self-su|)porting, if not remunerative ; especially as the price is 

 about half that of contemporaneous Continental works on the same 

 subject. Dr. Cooke, in response to numerous solicitations, also 

 proposes issuing a volume of coloured plates of British Desmids 

 as a supplement to his " British Fresh- Water Algce," provided 

 a sufficient number of subscribers come forward. 



Near the village of Dorndorf (Prussian province of Nassau) 

 considerable alarm has recently been caused by the repeated ap- 

 pearance of extensive fissures in the surface of a hill. Quite lately 

 the main fissure has advanced- to within 100 metres of the 

 village, at which point it, however, turned aside, seemingly 

 returning to its starting-point. Subsidence of the soil has also 

 been noticed in several parts of the circumscribed area, which 

 measures about a mile in diameter. 



The climate of Lucerne has been described by Herr Suidter 

 (in a recent address there) on the basis of five years' observa- 

 tions at Mariahilf Lucerne, he says, is in the fohn-climate, 

 but on the outer edge of its zone (the fdhn being, it is known, 

 a strong, warm, descending wind of southerly direction in 

 Switzerland). The former is proved by the preponderance of 

 warm winds and the large rainfall (average 1275 "8 mm. in 

 1S79-83) compared with Central Switzerland, the latter by 

 the low mean annual temperature (8^-284 C), and by a much 

 less rainfall than places near the source of the fohn, such as (in 

 descending order) Rigikulm, Vitznau, Schwyz, and Engelberg ; 

 where the fohn blows much oftener and more continuously and 

 strongly. A peculiar green tinge of the sky's blue over the 

 Uri or Obwaldner Mountains tells the Lueerners of the fohn's 

 coming, some 12 to 24 hours in advance. Drenching rain 

 nearly always comes with it. The lowest temperature in those 

 five years was - 17° C. (in 1879) ; but years often pass without 



