January 9, 1902] 



NA rURE 



Britain, and have promised to give their support to any measure 

 brought forward with this end in view. The Association points 

 out that, in the interests of our foreign trade, it is most desirable 

 that we should at once carry this reform into effect, as the 

 constantly reiterated statements of British consuls prove that 

 much trade is lost because our weights and measures are not 

 understood in countries where the metric system is in force. In 

 Australia, Canada and Cape Colony the change would be 

 welcomed ; and seeing how easily so serious an impediment to 

 commerce can be removed, it is hoped that the Government 

 will give more attention to the subject in the coming session of 

 Parliament than it has so far done. 



It is announced that a large sum of money — about 200,000/. 

 — has been placed at the disposal of His Majesty the King for 

 charitable or utilitarian purposes by Sir Ernest Cassel. This 

 money, by the King's direction, is to be devoted to the erection 

 of a sanatorium for tuberculous patients in England. For the 

 carrying out of this purpose His M<jesty has appointed an ad- 

 visory committee consisting of Sir William Broadbent, Sir 

 Richard Douglas Powell, Sir Francis Liking, Sir Feli.-c Semon, 

 Sir Hermann Weber and Dr. C. Theodore Williams, with Dr. 

 Horton-Smith and Dr. John Broadbant as honorary secretaries. 

 The institution is to accommodate loo patients, and will be 

 fully equipped with all requirements for scientific research. In 

 fact, it is intended to construct the sanatorium on the best lines 

 which past experience and original thought can suggest, and in 

 order to obtain the most valuible opinions a sum of 800/. will 

 be awarded in prizes for the best essays and plans upon the 

 subject. Medical men of all nationalities may compete. The 

 papers may either be the work of a medical man or the joint 

 production of a medical man and an architect. AH essays and 

 plans must be sent, postage paid, on or before April 15, 1902, 

 to one of the secretaries of the committee: — Dr. P. Horton- 

 Smith, 15, Upper Brook Street, London, W. ; or Dr. John 

 Broadbent, 35, Seymour Street, London, W. Three money 

 prizes, of 500/., 20a/. and 100/. respectively, will be awarded in 

 order of merit on the recommendation of the advisory com- 

 mittee for the three best essays, provided they come up to the 

 requisite standard of excellence. 



An astronomical observatory has been erected and equipped 

 by the Bengal Government at the Presidency College, Calcutta, 

 and was opened a few days ago. The idea of providing means 

 for the instruction of Indian youths in practical astronomy was 

 conceived about five years ago, when the Maharaja of Tipperah 

 presented to the Presidency College an equatorial telescope by 

 Grubb, 4^-inch aperture. On Dr. J. C. Hose's representation, the 

 Government of Bengal agreed to provide a building suitable for 

 observations. But it was not until after the eclipse of January, 

 1898, when; the professional and amateur astronomers who 

 visited India caused active interest to be taken in building the 

 observatory. From an article in the Pioneer Mail we learn 

 that the chief instrument of the observatory is a 7-inch 

 equatorial by Sir Howard Grubb, with an electrically controlled 

 driving clock and with electric lights for all the graduated 

 circles. The telescope will generally be used for eye observa- 

 tions, but the object-glass may be adapted to photography, and 

 the mounting of the telescope is of a strength that will admit of 

 its being used for spectroscopic examination of the sun or the 

 brighter stars. The equipment will allow a considerable number 

 of students to become familiar with the elements of astronomy 

 in its most practical form. It is hoped that the Presidency 

 College Observatory will yet be equipped with more instruments 

 through private liberality. 



The Geological Survey of the Colony of the Cape of Good 

 Hope has recently been working in Pondoland, and has secured 

 a very fine collection of fossils from the Cretaceous rocks which 

 NO. 1680, VOL. 65] 



occur along the coast near Natal. The most interesting; fin 1 of 

 all was one of a pair of lower jaws belonging to a large reptile 

 allied to Mosisaurus. The large trenchant teeth are set, each 

 in a cylindrical socket and arranged in such a way that there is 

 a series of teeth firmly anchylosed to the socket and other suc- 

 cessional teeth that are loose and have fallen into the hollow of 

 the fixed teeth. Many detached bones were also found, but the 

 whole deposit is littoral, and very little can be made out of these, 

 as they have been much rolled about on a shingle biach before 

 becoming imbedded. With the Mosasanrus bones there are 

 numbers of flat plates belonging to the bony carapace of a turtle 

 such as Protosphargis as well as such characteristic chelonian 

 bones as the V-shaped one composed of the scapula and pro- 

 coracoid. A large number of sharks' teeth occur between the 

 pebbles belonging to the genera Corax, Lamna, Otodus, 

 Enchodus, Odontaspis, and a single Elasmobranch vertebra was 

 found. Between sixty and seventy genera of MoUusca were 

 obtained, including many finely preserved examples, some of 

 which are new to science and a great many new to South Africa. 

 Echinoderms and Polyzoa also occur, and eight species of 

 Foraminifera, belonging to the genera Vaginulina, Nodosaria, 

 Virgulina, Discorbina, Truncatulina, Textularia. The collection 

 is now in the South African Museum, Cape Town, where the 

 greater part is exhibited. 



Almost nothing is known of the amount of rain on the 

 mountains in Arctic regions. Mr. Hamberg has placed large 

 permanent pluviometers on some high mountains in Swedish 

 Lapland and has observed that much more snow and rain fall 

 there than in adjacent low ground. 



In the Popular Science Monthly for December, 1901, Mr. H. 

 Helm Clayton, of the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, 

 discusses the influence of rainfall on commerce and politics. He 

 gives a table of the annual departure from the normal rainfall 

 in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys for a large number of years, 

 showing, not only that every severe financial panic has been closely 

 associated with persistent deficiency of rainfall, but that (with 

 one exception) no period of protracted drought has occurred 

 without a financial panic. 



The Geographical Journal for November last contains a paper 

 by Mr. H. N. Dickson on the mean temperature of the atmo- 

 sphere and the causes of glacial periods. The conclusions of the 

 author tend to show that considerably smaller changes of tem- 

 perature and of the distribution and amount of precipitation, 

 caused by the assumption of a lowering of mean temperature 

 taking place by cooling in the polar regions, than has generally 

 been supposed, enable us to account for the nature and distri- 

 bution of glacial phenomena, as they are at present known 

 to us. 



The only countries which took part in the international 

 balloon ascents during September, October and November 

 were Austria, France, Germany and Russia. Some of the 

 greatest altitudes were attained from M. Teisserenc de Bort's 

 observatory at Trappes, near Paris : — On September 5 (night 

 ascent), 14,178 m., temperature -55°'2C., on ground 5' 6 ; 

 on October 3 (night ascent), 14,500 m., temperature -58', on 

 ground 8 ■! ; (day ascent) 13,150 m., temperature -53°, on 

 ground li'; November 7 (night ascent), 13,200 m., -62°, on 

 ground 2°'4. From Berlin, on this day, an altitude of 12,010 m. 

 wasattained, temperature - 58°'4,ground6°'5. Amanned balloon 

 which left Berlin, height i too m., temperature 4-i', experienced 

 a wind velocity of 80 kilometres (50 miles) an hour. 



I.N our notes columns we recently directed attention (p. no) ' 

 to a paper by Prof. Lebedew in which he described an experi- 

 mental investigation of the pressure of light radiation. We 

 have now received a paper on the same subject, by Messrs. 



