16 NATURE 
Isles as far as 30° W. longitude. On shore the month was the 
coldest we had experienced for seven years, the air temperature 
being from 3° to 5° under the normal for various localities. 
TuE Meteorological Council has issued a valuable paper 
entitled ‘‘ Temperature Tables of the British Islands.” The 
work is divided into two parts: (1) The results derived from 
thirty years’ hourly observations (1871-1900) for the four 
observatories Valencia, Aberdeen, Falmouth and Kew, showing 
the means and extremes of temperature for each day of the year 
and for the month; (2) the means and extremes for each month 
and for the year for 117 stations, with records of not less than 
fifteen years. In order to give an adequate representation of 
monthly temperatures of the London area, a table for Greenwich 
is included, with the consent of the Astronomer Royal, which 
gives data for sixty years. In the diagrams representing the 
seasonal variations at the observatories, the curves for maximum 
and minimum readings are printed on tracing paper, so that they 
can be superposed one upon the other, or upon the curve showing 
the mean values. A special feature, it is stated, in the treatment 
of the seasonal curves is an attempt to define a normal seasonal 
variation of temperature by the harmonic analysis of five-day 
means, to which daily averages and individual observations can 
be referred. 
THE first number of the third volume of the West Indian 
Bulletin is devoted to a summary of the business transacted 
during the Agricultural Conference at Barbados in January last ; 
to full reports of a number of papers on various phases of the 
sugar industry, with short accounts of the discussions on them ; 
and to two communications of a general character—‘‘ The 
Organisation and Functions of Boards of Agriculture’ and a 
““Report of the Chemical Section at the Conference.” With 
the approval of the Secretary of State it is proposed by the 
Commissioner shortly to commence the publication of a new 
fortnightly review, to be called the Agrzculturval News, in- 
tended to contain in popular form agricultural information 
suited to the circumstances of the West Indies. 
A PAPER by Mr Horace C. Richards, on the harmonic 
curves known as Lissajou’s figures, is not the least interesting 
feature of the Journal of the Franklin Institute for April. The 
diagrams traced by the aid of a harmonograph are remarkably 
perfect and beautiful. 
AN illustrated account of M. Santos Dumont’s Parisian 
experiments is now given in Prometheus, No. 642. It includes 
reproductions of photographs showing the results of the acci- 
dents on August 8 and September 6, 1901; the successful 
ascents of October last are illustrated by views of the balloon 
when starting and when rounding the Eiffel Tower and a chart 
of the course. 
THE Rendiconti of the Lombardy Academy notes that the 
Bologna Medical and Surgical Society offers a prize of 500 lire 
for an essay on sero-diagnosis in tuberculosis. Further, the 
“‘Olympic Academy” of Vicenza offers a prize of 3160 lire for 
a study of the Italians living on the South American continent, 
including more particularly the question of emigration and the 
relation between the colonists and their mother country. 
TuHeE Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung has decided on a 
new departure in regard to the publication of its /akres- 
bericht. Under the editorship of Prof. A. Gutzmer, of Jena, 
this publication will in future appear monthly instead of an- 
nually, and among other features it is proposed to include 
academic dissertations, inaugural addresses, obituary notices 
both of members and of non-members, discussions on ques- 
tions of teaching, notices of such undertakings as catalogues of 
current literature or the publication of Gauss’s works, accounts 
of the meetings of societies, and notes and queries. 
NO. 1696, vou. 66] 
[May 1, 1902 
WE have received the April number of Ze mozs scientifique, 
which is devoted to a summary of recent books and publications 
on horticulture and botany. Among these we notice two new 
books on the cultivated plants of the south of France, one by 
M. Sauvaigo dealing with the Mediterranean coast, the other on 
southern flowers generally by M. Granger, and a new flora of 
France by M. A. Acloque. 
UNDER the title of Z/éorte nouvelle de la Loupe, M. G. 
Quesneville has published, in Paris, a small érochuve dealing 
with the optical properties of lenses, considered with especial 
reference to vision. The principal difference between the 
present and the conventional treatment is that here account is 
taken of what happens to the rays of light, not only during 
their passage through the system of lenses considered, but also 
after they enter the eye. 
THE manufacture of butter with sterilised cream with 
the view of preventing the spread of tuberculosis is dis- 
cussed by Drs. Serafino Belfanti and Costantino Coggi in the 
Lombardy Rendéconti?, xxxv. 7. In Sweden and Denmark 
pasteurisation is already adopted on a large scale, but in Ger- 
many and Italy a prejudice still exists against butter made with 
cream that has been subjected to this precautionary measure. 
The paper shows that the process, so far from being detrimental 
to the quality of butter, may actually prove of commercial 
value, and that the problem of preventing the diffusion of tuber- 
culosis by means of milk does not involve such great pecuniary 
sacrifices as have been sometimes anticipated. 
Tue Geneva Society of Physics and Natural History has 
just issued the first part of volume xxxiv. of its AZémozres, con- 
taining reports of the work done during 1900 both in physica} 
and biological science. Among the most interesting results we 
notice M. A. Brun’s observation during the summer of 1900 of 
a peculiar kind of snow on Mont Malet, called ‘‘neige de 
Caucase,” or Caucasian snow. It is a porous snow the grains of 
which attain a size of as much as three millimetres, and their 
want of adherence may readily give rise to avalanches. A new 
station at the Hospice of the Great St. Bernard is another 
feature noted in the AZémotves. The observations are made at 
the usual hours of the: Swiss. meteorological service, and the 
building is situated to the north-east of the old hospice. This 
departure is largely due to the energy of Prof. R. Gautier, who 
has equipped the station with thermometers and hygrometers 
specially adapted to high mountain work, and whose efforts 
have been ably supported by the monks. 
WE have received a copy of an address on the teaching of 
biology delivered by Prof. Haberlandt on the occasion of the 
opening of the new scientific and medical institute at the 
University of Gratz on December 9, 1899. 
From the Report of the Director for the year 1899-1900, it 
appears that so long ago as 1857 a Museum was established in the 
town of Trivandrum, Travancore, but that for many years its 
condition was far from flourishing. By the addition of a public 
garden and menagerie, affairs have been placed on a better 
footing ; and it is satisfactory to learn that the museum is now 
devoted to the illustration of local zoology. The following 
sentence from the director’s Report is somewhat remarkable :— 
*©In 1890 I succeeded Colonel Ketchen as Honorary Secretary 
and received the honorarium usually given to the Honorary 
Secretaries.” 
In vol. xxiv. (pp. 499-566) of the Proceedings of the 
U.S. Museum, Mr. W. H. Dall describes and figures a number 
of new or hitherto imperfectly known shells, mainly American, in 
the collection of which he has charge. A large number of 
these, belonging to Buccinum, Trophon and allied forms, are 
a as 
— 
