NA TURE 



[November 12, 1908 



distributed along the complete ellipse forming the cometary 



orbit. They are therefore always worth careful notice, and 



will seldom be found to fall below reasonable expectation. 



Bristol, November 4. W. F. Denning. 



The result of calculations made by the writer indicates 

 that the Leonid epoch will fall a little later this year than 

 might have been expected. There will be little, if any, 

 meteoric activity during the period November lo-ib, 

 reckoning from noon to noon, but during the remainder of 

 the month it is likely that shooting stars will be much in 

 evidence. The following are the principal meteor showers 

 that fall during the period November 16-30, the dates of 

 the occurrences being expressed in Greenwich astronomical 

 time : — 



Epoch November 16 ; this shower is of the ninth order 

 of magnitude, and has the following maxima : — November 

 16, iih. 20m. ; November 17, 4h. 25m., Sh. 20m., and 

 i6h. 15m. 



Epoch November 17, 2oh., of eleventh order of magni- 

 tude. The following maxima occur after the epoch : — 

 November 18, oh. 50m., loh. 14m.; November 19, 

 oh. 40m., 5h. 5m., and i6h. 50m. 



Epoch November 20, sh., of fifth order of magnitude, 

 and preceded by the following maxima : — November 18, 

 7h. 50m., 2ih. 5m. ; November ig, jh. 5Sm. ; November 20, 

 3h. ism. 



Epoch November 24^ of seventh order of magnitude, 

 which has the following maxima: — November 24, 8h. ssm., 

 i2h. lom. ; November 2s, 6h. 20m., iSh. 24m. 



Epoch November 30, s^-, of fifteenth order of magni- 

 tude, and preceded by the maxima : — November 28, 

 I4h. 30m., 2oh. 30m. ; November 29, oh. and 3h., 

 2oh. 45m. 



It seems from the foregoing that the first maximum 

 takes place on November 16 during the hour preceding 

 midnight. This maximum, which is the only one occur- 

 ring on this night, will probably furnish some Leonids, 

 which may also be observed on the following night. 



131 Rathgar Road, Dublin. John R. Henry. 



The Keeping of Young Herring Alive in Captivity. 



On p. 305 of the new number of the Journal of the 

 Marine Biological .Association reference is made to the 

 difficulty of keeping young herring alive. On Sep- 

 tember 14 last I captured a number of young herring; 

 some, which I put under circulation in salt water, were 

 dead next morning. To kill the others I turned on a 

 fresh-water tap into the bucket containing them. Half 

 an hour or so later I found that, instead of being dead, 

 they were very lively, and .some which had been lying on 

 their backs had recovered. 



I then placed seven under a circulation of half salt water 

 and half fresh water. They lived for a week, then some 

 of them died off. There is still (November 6^ one lively 

 specimen living, and apparently healthy. The only source 

 of food is a little plankton added (twice), and such plankton 

 as comes through the salt-water pipes. 



During the first few days of this experiment sometimes 

 the salt-water tap and at other times the fresh-water tap 

 was shut off for an hour or so. 



Ricn.\RD Elmmirst. 



Marine Biological .Station, Millport, N.B. 



Lime Light. 



I VENTURE to direct your attention to a simple device 

 which 1 have found very useful for increasing the light 

 from a demonstrating lantern. It is usual, on account of 

 their long life, to use so-called artificial lime cylinders, 

 even though they give somewhat less light than pure lime 

 ones. An ordinary Welsbach gas-mantle happens to fit all 

 these cylinders, and should be slipped on before the jet 

 is lighted. The increase in brightness of the light due to 

 this addition is astonishing. The mantle is only slightly 

 damaged by the jet, and by turning occasionally so that 

 the flame impinges upon a fresh place, the intense illumina- 

 tion may be maintained for two hours or so. 



Shooters Hill, Kent. Charles E. S. PuiLLirs. 



NO. 2037, ■^'OL. 79] 



ALBRECHT VOX HALLER. 



ALBRECHT VON HALLER, anatomist, physio- 

 logist, botanist, and poet, was born in Berne 

 on October 16, 170S. He lias been termed " Berne's 

 greatest son," and liis intellectual eminence was con- 

 spicuous even in an age which was singularly pro- 

 ductive of great men. It was, indeed, early mani- 

 fest, for the child Haller was what the Germans 

 term a " Wunderkind " — one of the few such children 

 whose subsequent career has borne out the promise 

 of their youth. As early as his ninth year he began 

 the preparation of lexicons of all the Hebrew and 

 Greek words in the Old and New Testaments, with 

 notes regarding their derivations and different ap- 

 plications. He also prepared a Chaldaic grammar. 

 Whilst still a boy he wrote biographies of no fewer 

 than two thousand celebrities and turned out in- 

 numerable verses (which he afterwards burned) on 

 all conceivable subjects, including a satire in Latin 

 verse on his somewhat harsh and pedantic preceptor. 

 Before he was fifteen he was deeply immersed in 

 philosopliy and mathematics, and already show'ed that 

 inclination towards the natural sciences which eventu- 

 ally evidenced itself in the remarkable works which 

 appeared from his pen. 



At fifteen he entered the University of Tubingen 

 and pursued the study of anatomy and philosophy 

 during two years. At this time Boenhaave, a man 

 of similar almost universal genius, then at the zenith 

 of his fame, was attracting to Leyden earnest students 

 from all parts of the civilised world. The youthful 

 Haller was also drawn into the vortex, and came 

 under the influence both of that great physician and 

 of the anatomists Ruysch and .Albinus. .\fter gradu- 

 ating there at the age of nineteen, Haller visited 

 England, and in London made the acquaintance, 

 amongst others, of Sir Hans Sloane, Douglas, 

 Cheselden, and John Hunter. He then proceeded to 

 Paris, where he spent six months studying anatomy 

 and botanv under Winslow and Jussieu. .\fter leav- 

 ing Paris, he passed a year in Bale, pursuing mathe- 

 matical studies under Bernouilli, and preparing him- 

 self for the active practice of medicine in his native 

 city, where he intended to settle down. .'\t the age 

 of twenty-two we accordingly find him in practice in 

 Berne. His patients do not appear to have been 

 numerous; indeed, it was currently reported that he 

 was " too good a writer and poet to understand much 

 of medicine," and he found abundance of time for 

 working at anatomy and for expeditions to the neigh- 

 bouring -Alps, the fiora of which especially excited his 

 interest. The poem entitled " Die .\Ipen," which was 

 composed by Haller about this time, is probably the 

 one by which he is best known ; the following two 

 verses from it, set to music as a cantata by Dr. 

 Munzinger, were sung at tlie unveiling of the Haller 

 statue on October 16 : — 



Wohl dir. vergniigles Volk ! o danke dem Geschicke, 



D.15 dir der Lasler Quell, den Ueberfiuss, versagt ; 



Dem, den sein Stand vergnugt, dient Armut selbst ?Mm Gliicke, 



Da Pracht und Ueppigkeit der Lander Stiitze nagt. 



Zwar die Natur bedeckt dein hartes Land mil Steinen, 



Allein dein Pflug geht durch, und deine Saat errint ; 



Sie warfdie Alnen auf, dich von der Welt zu zSunen, 



Weil sich die Menschen selbst die griissten Plagen sind. 



In 1735 Haller had begun to lecture in public on 

 anatomy, and was physician to the city hospital in 

 Berne. We also find him fulfilling the function of 

 keeper of the public library and collection of coins. 

 In the short year occupied with these multifarious 

 duties he found time to prepare a " catalogue 

 raisonnf^ " of all the books in the library, and to 

 differentiate and arrange in their chronological order 

 5000 ancient coins. In the following year George II. 



