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JuLy 17, 1902] 
NATURE 
279 
port sanitary authorities, medical officers of health, engineers 
and surveyors to county and other sanitary authorities, veterinary 
inspectors, sanitary inspectors, domestic hygiene, and hygiene 
of school life. In connection with the congress, a health 
exhibition of apparatus and appliances relating to health and 
domestic use will be held, as a practical illustration of the appli- 
cation and carrying out of the principles and methods discussed 
at the meetings. 
THE announcement that the meteorological observatories on 
Ben Nevis and in Fort-William will have to be closed at the 
beginning of October next, in consequence of the want of 
funds to keep them in operation, will be received with 
regret by many meteorologists and other men of science. 
During the last four years the liberality of Mr. Mackay 
Bernard, of Dunsinnan, made the continuation of the work 
at the observatories possible, but there is no hope, in the 
opinion of the directors, that the observatories can be continued 
as permanent institutions except by assistance from the State. 
From the commencement of the work, in 1883, until now, the 
total cost has been fully 24,000/. Of this sum nearly 17,000/. 
has been received by the directors in the form of subscriptions. 
The balance of the expenditure has been met by a payment 
of 100/. a year, since 1883, from the Meteorological Council 
for the Ben Nevis Observatory, and of 250/. a year from the 
same body, since 1890, for the Fort-William Observatory. 
These two contributions constitute all that can be regarded as 
State aid. The directors have received definite intimation that, 
whether the observatories are continued or not, the latter sum 
—z250/.—is to cease to be paid at the end of this year. In con- 
nection with this subject we notice that Sir John Stirling-Max- 
well has notified the Lord Advocate that he will put a question 
this week in the House of Commons as to whether any applica- 
tion has been made through the Scottish Office for assistance 
for the observatory from the public purse, and whether, if such 
application has been refused, he will state the grounds of 
refusal. 
ArT the Aéronautical Congress held recently at Berlin it was 
concluded that no ascent should take place at a higher level 
than 7 or § kilometres without placing the observers within a 
closed car, ‘‘nacelleclose,” as was suggested,in 1871, by Mr. Louis 
Tridon. At that time a motion to this effect was rejected on 
account of the faith it places in the life-sustaining properties of 
pure oxygen. The scientific committee of the Aéro Club discussed 
this same subject on June 30 and came to the same conclusions. 
Dr. Henocque, professor of physiology at the College de France, 
said that the foregoing principles will be observed in the ascents 
now in preparation by the French Society of Physiology. He 
held that the atmosphere should be divided into three zones ; 
that in the first, up to 4 or 5 kilometres above the sea-level, life 
was possible without the use of additional gas. For the third 
zone, at a level less than 10,000 metres, it would be necessary 
to resort to the closed car, or to an aérial diving suit. The ascents 
which Dr. Henocque arranged to take place on July 15, 
were to be executed entirely in the first zone. Investigation was 
to be made of the effects of the ascents within the limits of a 
depression consistent with life, or not ruinous to health, and in 
accordance with a series of observations made at the Eiffel Tower 
Dr. Henocque hopes to show that in this zone the ascents may 
be considered as beneficial to the general health, invigorating the 
lungs and likely to afford a remedy against some pulmonary 
affections. The conditions of life are not the same as when 
mountaineering, owing to the greater velocity due to the elevation 
and the absence of all muscular fatigue when the aérial traveller 
is comfortably seated in the car of a balloon. 
ACCORDING to the 77es, there is likelihood of large supplies 
of electrical and mining machinery being required shortly for 
NO. 1707, VOL. 66] 
| be built. 
Johannesburg, where an ex ensive electric tramway system is to 
There is a desire to place orders as far as possible 
with British firms, but freights are very heavy, and British 
machinery requires therefore to be made lighter. Prompt 
delivery and lower prices are also needed to meet American 
and German competition ; it is said that several orders have 
recently been secured by foreign firms at very low prices in 
order to secure a firm footing in the market. 
A NEW oxygen-acetylene burner has been devised by M. 
Fouche (says the Azgéneer, July 11) which not only has a much 
higher temperature, but also the admixture of ether vapour is 
prevented. The ratio of the mixture {is 1 volume of acetylene 
to 1S volumes of oxygen, and the flame, which is 6 mm. long, 
has a greenish dart in the centre witha point at a very high 
temperature. Iron and steel, it is claimed, can be easily welded 
without either oxidising or carburising the iron. 
In an Appendix iii. to the Weekly Weather Report for the 
year 1901, the Meteorological Council has recently issued a 
very useful set of tables showing for the stations which furnish 
returns for that Report and the monthly summaries, (1) the 
average maximum, minimum and mean temperatures for each 
month, and for the whole year for thirty years (1871-1900) ; (2) 
the average monthly rainfall and number of rain-days for thirty- 
five years (1866-1900) ; and (3) the average number of hours of 
bright sunshine and percentages of possible duration for twenty 
years (1881-1900). These tables are in continuation of those 
issued in the preface to the Weekly Weather Report for 1895, 
and furnish at a glance valuable information on the clima- 
tology of each of the districts into which the British Islands 
have been divided for the purpose of weather forecasts. 
Mr. W. E. Cooxr’s report on meteorological observations 
made under his direction at the Perth Observatory and other 
places in Western Australia during the year 1900 contains an 
excellent collection of monthly and yearly climate and rain maps 
referring to the colony. One series of the maps shows for every 
month the mean pressures and temperatures and the mean maxi- 
mum temperatures at day and minimum temperatures at night ; 
also the annual means of the same records. In another series 
the amount of rainfall for every month of the year is shown 
graphically in each square degree of the colony, with the average 
rainfall for that district ; and the distribution of the rainfall for 
the whole year is shown in the same way in a separate map. Mr. 
Cooke reports that the astronomical buildings of the Perth Ob- 
servatory are now finished and the instruments in adjustment. 
The observatory is pledged to take a share in the preparation of 
the International Photographic Catalogue of Stars, but owing 
to want of assistants, it is difficult to obtain time for the work. 
The meteorological observations are, however, kept up at a fair 
number of stations, and the results for various localities through- 
out the State obtained since 1875 have been examined, tabu- 
lated and discussed, and will shortly be available in a volume 
entitled ‘* The Climate of Western Australia.” 
Mr. Kumacusu Minakata sends us from Japan two 
specimens, mounted as microscopic slides, of a fresh-water alga 
which he collected in a pond at Wakayama Shi, Japan. He 
desired to obtain an opinion as to the species, which he believed 
to be Pithophora Oedogonia, Wittrock, var. vaucheriotdes, 
Wolle, of which he possessed a quantity of specimens personally 
collected near Jacksonville, Florida, between 1891-92, well 
agreeing in detail with those submitted. He also remarked :— 
“Since the publication of Wittrock’s elaborate monograph of 
the Pithophoraceze, 1877, has any species, besides P. Kewenszs, 
been ever reported from any other part of the Old World?” 
Prof. Howes, to whom we submitted the specimens, says in 
reply :—‘‘I have no doubt that the Japanese identification is 
