December 19, 1907] 



NA TURE 



157 



he regards the natives of British East Africa as at present 

 quite useless for this purpose, while tliose trained on the 

 west coast could not be employed in the highlands of East 

 Africa. Indian natives are being employed, but have not 

 proved altogether satisfactory. 



Reviewing the world's tin-mining industry, Mr. .A. 

 Selwyn-Brown, in the Engineering Magazine (vol. xxxiv.. 

 No. 2), shows that the world's production of tin last year 

 was 96,196 tons. The active tin-mining fields are few in 

 number, and, as a rule, not in a very prosperous condition, 

 notwithstanding the high value of tin and the large exist- 

 ing demand for it. The alluvial deposits in the Dutch 

 East Indies and in the Malay States are approaching 

 exhaustion, and difficulties are being caused by the scarcity 

 of coolie labour. Bolivia is advancing its consumption, 

 but it is upon .Australia and Tasmania that consumers will 

 have to depend for the principal part of their tin supplies, 

 unless .Africa should develop into a tin-mining country of 

 importance. 



A STRONG gale traversed Scotland and the north-east of 

 I-mgland during Friday night and Saturday in last week. 

 During its progress over our island the cyclonic system 

 increased greatly .in depth, the lowest reading of the baro- 

 meter reported being 28-39 inches, at Spurn Head, at 

 S a.m. on .Saturday. The greatest strength of the wind 

 was from the north-west, and was due to a sharp rise of 

 the barometer in the rear of the disturbance. The heaviest 

 part of the storm occurred over the southern portion of 

 the kingdom, where considerable damage was occasioned, 

 and wrecks, accompanied with loss of life, occurred in the 

 English Channel. Heavy rain preceded the storm, and 

 large tracts of land were flooded in the Midlands and in 

 the southern districts. A fall of temperature was experi- 

 enced after the passage of the storm area, and frost has 

 occurred in several places. 



In a lecture delivered before the meeting of German 

 Naturalists and Physicians at Dresden in September last. 

 Dr. E, Herrmann directed attention to his researches 

 on the periodical variations of atmospheric pressure, 

 and to the possibilitf of submitting the phenomena to 

 numerical investigation. For this purpose he used the 

 well-known daily synoptic weather charts of the North 

 Atlantic Ocean and adjacent continents issued by the 

 Deutsche Seewarte and the Danish Meteorological Insti- 

 tute. The diagrams which accompany his paper, a copy 

 of which he has sent to us, seem to show that a succession 

 of analogous phenomena occurs at regular intervals, and 

 that areas of low and high barometric pressure follow 

 each other at certain distances. He asserts that the 

 periods exhibited are due to the moon's movements or 

 to a combination of these with that of the sun. We 

 remember that Sir J. Herschel stated that the moon's 

 influence is " utterly insignificant as a meteorological 

 cause." Nevertheless, Dr. Herrmann's paper may be con- 

 sidered as a painstaking endeavour to throw light upon the 

 intricate processes involved in the general atmospheric 

 circulation. 



Mr. Gustav Fischer, of Jena, has just published the 

 -econd edition of Prof. L. Jost's " Vorlesungen iibcr 

 rflanzen-physiologie," the first edition of which was very 

 favourably reviewed in Nature of July 14, 1904 (vol. Ixx., 

 p. 242). The work has been translated into English, and 

 a rfview of this edition appeared in Nature of Drcomber 5 



A third edition of " Practical Forestry and its Bearing 

 on the Improvement of Estates," by Prof. Charles E. 

 Curtis, has been published by Messrs. Crosby Lockwood 



NO, 1990, VOL. 77] 



and Son. The work has been revised and also enlarged 

 by the addition of an appendix on the planting of waste 

 lands, a project which the author hopes may not only add 

 to the wealth of the nation, but give employment to the 

 rural population, and so keep them upon the land. It is 

 pointed out in the volume that the management of our 

 woodlands is improving, and that what was once a source 

 of loss is becoming a source of profit. 



The twenty-third issue of " Hazell's .Annual," that for 

 1908, is even more complete than previous editions. It is 

 an alphabetically arranged, cyclopedic record of men and 

 affairs designed especially to be of use in 1908. Articles 

 are provided, for example, on the Olympic games, the 

 Franco-British Exhibition, and on recent work in colour 

 photography. The most important of the Blue-books pub- 

 lished during 1907 are summarised, and among these 

 abridgments likely to be of special assistance to readers of 

 Nature may be mentioned those dealing with agriculture, 

 education, and sea fisheries. The busy worker in many 

 departments of knowledge will find the annual a trust- 

 worthy and useful work of reference. 



Though it has not increased in price, " Who's Who" 

 continues to grow in size. Messrs. .A. and C. Black, the 

 publishers of this work of reference, which may justly be 

 described as indispensable, have this year added eighty- 

 three pages of biographies, and the new volume contains 

 2040 pages. The biographical notices vary much in 

 length, and, unfortunately, the longest notices are not 

 always those of the most important persons ; but, despite 

 such inequalities, the book may be unreservedly recom- 

 mended to those readers whose necessity it is to know 

 something about the men and women who, for one cause 

 or another, have become prominent in work or play. 

 " Who's Who Year-book, 1908," is also larger than its 

 predecessors, and its clearly arranged and exhaustive 

 tabular matter will continue to be consulted by everybody 

 desiring a minimum of trouble in the task of reference. 



The Rev. Robert Harley, F.R.S., has written an 

 interesting biographical sketch of Robert Rawson, who 

 achieved some distinction in the scientific world by his 

 work in mathematics and on the dynamical stability of 

 floating bodies. Rawson was originally a Midland miner 

 whose mathematical ability attracted the notice of Stephen- 

 son and Prof. Eaton Hodgkinson. He became a teacher 

 of mathematics at Manchester, and contributed several 

 papers to the Literary and Philosophical Society of that 

 city. In 1847 he was appointed the first headmaster of 

 H.M. Dockyard School, Portsmouth, upon the recom- 

 mendation of Prof. Hodgkinson, and he occupied this 

 post for- twenty-eight years, among the men who passed 

 through the school during this period being Sir Philip 

 Watts, K.C.B., F.R.S., Sir John Durston, K.C.B., and 

 Dr. Francis Elgar, F.R.S. Rawson died in March, 1906, 

 and was buried in Havant cemetery. Mr. Harley's 

 appreciative account of his career is published by Messrs. 

 J. Clarke and Co., 13 and 14 Fleet Street, E.C., and 

 .Messrs. Griffin and Co., Portsea. 



In the " Day by Day " Tellurian which Messrs. G. 

 Philip and Son have submitted to us, a simple and novel 

 means is used to preserve the constant direction of the 

 terrestrial axis in the course of the revolution of the earth 

 around the sun. The tellurian is intended to be suspended 

 on a wall or some other convenient vertical plane. The 

 sun and earth are represented by two globes connected 

 by a rod upon a diagram showing the months and other 

 divisions of the year. As the terrestrial globe is moved 

 around the globe representing the sun, a heavy bob attached 

 by thick wire to the axis is maintained vertical by the 



