194 
NATURE 
[yuly 1, 1886 
15m. to 45 m. a@/ter sunset, and in most cases_ in a cloudless 
sky ; but that on 1886 June 5 was the reverse in both points. 
Some notes will be found in NaTURE, 1883, April and May, for 
the pillar observed in that year. That seen here partly 
resembles Fig .4, Plate IIL. in Symous’s Meteorological Ma,azine, 
1871. F. A. BELLAMY 
Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, June 21 
The Enemies of the Froz 
WHEN living at Mackay, Queensland, I frequently observed 
that the common house-frogs (H. cavulea) were injured in the 
hind-limbs, and on several occasions I would hear them croaking 
in pain ; but on arrival all I saw would be a wretched exhausted 
frog weakly hopping away with a wound in the hind-leg, from 
which the blood would be oozing. Later on I found that rats 
attack the frogs. The rats catch the frog by the hind-leg, and 
apparently suck the wound they cause, then let the frog crawl 
away, attack it and suck it again, and so on until the rat has 
had enough. I believe the rats suck the blood, because 1 was 
never able to discover a frog so attacked on which the flesh had 
been destroyed. 
Mr. W. P. Fletcher, a well-known local naturalist, once gave 
me the following-account of a mantis attacking a frog. It was 
in the autumn of 1877, at Rockhampton, Queensland. He was 
“attracted by hearing the noise of a frog in distress, in the 
daytime, in some garden-shrubs about 6 feet high ; he went 
to see the cause, and found a green frog about 2 inches long. 
A green mantis about 5 inches long, with one claw had hold of 
it across the neck, so that the frog could not move, and the 
mantis was chewing, anl did chew off, the hind-leg, the blood 
flowing profu ely.” He called Mrs. Fletcher to see them, and 
then destroyed the mantis, whereon the frog crawled away. 
At Lake Elphinstone (100 miles from Mackay) I once found 
a small frog (7. vzdel/a) in the house in a very exhausted con- 
dition ; on examination I found a large leech on its tongue. 
This specimen, with the leech attached, I gave to Mr. Boulenger 
at the British Museum, where it can be seen. 
At Mackay the chief enemies of the frogs appeared to be the 
snakes and the Agamide. H. Linc Rotu 
Chronology of Elasticians 
In forming a chronological list of writers on elasticity 1 
have been unable to ascertain the following dates, which I 
should be much obliged if any of your readers would kindly 
supply: Mariotte (zé prés de Dijon vers 1620, Marie). Is 
nothing more definite known as to the date of his birth ? 
F. E. Neumann shy des \ 
W. Weber SAM a? BE 
Eaton Hodsiinsoa’ 9...) 
S. Haughton Ry Oo ll} 
if. He; Jellett j 
University College, London, June 27 
Death years. 
Birth years. 
KARL PEARSON 
SOLAR METEOROLOGY} 
1G. TACCHINVUS detailed report on the various phases 
of solar activity during the year 1884 deserves, as 
might be expected from the reputation of its author, most 
careful attention. Exceptionally fine weather permitted 
observations of sunspots and facula to be made at the 
Collegio Romano on 307 out of the 355 days, so that the 
materials accumulated were more than usually abundant. 
We are thus particularly well informed regarding the 
symptoms attending the protracted maximum which 
culminated in February 1884. 
This is the more fortunate as that maximum was 
distinguished by features of special interest. It was 
delayed considerably beyond the usual term, the interval 
from the maximum of 1870 being no less than 13°4 in lieu 
of the normal 11"1 years. And to this delay corresponded 
a greatly reduced intensity, in accordance with the law by 
which the undulations of the curve representing spot- 
i= 
* “ Meteorologia Solare.”’ Note di P. Tacchini. Estratto dagli dnnadé 
Saye teorologia taliana, Parte 3, 1384. (Roma; Tipografia Metastasio, 
1ods. 
| 
frequency are low in proportion as they are long. The 
maximum of 1884, accordingly, was by much the feeblest 
which had occurred since 1830. It was moreover a 
hesitating —it might almost be called an abortive—maxi- 
mum. Some unknown cause apparently interfered with 
its due and punctual development. Partial anticipatory 
outbreaks betrayed the tendency, continually repressed, 
to complete the cycle at the regular epoch, and with the 
regular expenditure of energy. Now perturbation—of 
whatever nature—is always instructive: hence Signor 
Tacchini’s laborious statistical results acquire added 
significance. 
They have been gathered along several closely connected 
lines of research. The various classes of solar surface- 
phenomena—spots, faculae, prominences, metallic erup-— 
tions—have been studied apart, and the several resulting 
inferences as to the progress of solar disturbance subse- 
quently confronted. The trifling discrepancies thus 
revealed show the mutual dependence of no two such 
species of commotion to be absolute. Each swells or 
subsides on the whole without immediate or invariable 
reference to any other, although under the obvious control 
of some common underlying cause. 
Sunspot activity received a notable accession in the 
beginning of October 1883, the phase of excitement 
reaching its acme in the following February,’ and per- 
sisting until the end of May. Since then, some slight 
oscillations notwithstanding, it has continually declined. 
The sun was not, however, observed at Rome to be free 
from spots on a single day in 1884. The maximum for 
prominences occured in March, and they continued ex- 
ceptionally numerous down to the end of October. Inall, 
2714 were delineated and described in 242 observations 
with the spectroscope, being at the average rate of 11°22 
per diem. Sixty metallic eruptions, observed on the 
same occasions, gave a mean diurnal frequency of 0°248 
as against 0171 for 1883. The richest crop was collected’ 
in November 1884, during which month ten eruptions” 
were recorded in sixteen observations. The development 
of faculae deviated so markedly from that of spots that 
their respective fluctuations were at times even inverted. 
It should also be noted that the mean area per spot in 
1884 was of little more than half its value in the preced- 
ing year, and that the magnetic instruments at Rome 
remained throughout comparatively calm ‘ 
Much valuable information is afforded by Signor 
Tacchini’s careful inquiries as to the distribution on the — 
sun’s surface of the different orders of solar phenomena. 
All these showed, during 1884, a conspicuous prevalence of 
activity in the southern hemisphere ; and the inequality— _ 
as appears from a note by the same author presented to the 
Reale Accademia dei Lincei, March 7. 1886—became still — 
more striking in the ensuing year. No spot was observed | 
in either hemisphere during 1884 at more than 30° from — 
the equator ; nor on the northern side, during the latter | 
half of the year, at above 20°. With this contraction of — 
the spotted zone coincided a close approach to the equator 
of the parallel of maximum frequency ; and the usual 
equatorial minimum was both in 1884 and 1885 very 
imperfectly maintained. & 
Prominences were plentifully distributed between 60° 
north and 50° south latitude, with maxima between 20° © 
and 30. As during the spot-maximum of 1870, they — 
showed no disposition to avoid the vicinity of the — 
equator ; while in 1880, 1881, and 1882, the equatorial | 
minimum of prominences was very marked, and remained 
perceptible in 1883. Although some rare instances Of — 
metallic eruptions were detected in high northern latitud | 
they affected chiefly a zone bounded by parallels of 20° 
Facule occurred predominantly in the same region, an 
nowhere appeared in latitudes above 50°. On the whole 
a concentration towards the equator of the whole range of — 
phenomena was unmistakable, and might be thought | 
1 M. Redolf Wolf places the maximum in November 1883. 
Peer 
