April io, 1902] 



NATURE 



541 



from hourly observations, with a chronicle of the weather in 

 English and Spanish. The bulletin also includes accounts of 

 unusual occurrences and notes on the crops obtained from 

 stations established throughout the Archipelago. Among the 

 occurrences is an account of the earthquake of December 15 

 last. This was the strongest shock experienced since 18S0, 

 and was felt over an area almost as large as Spain. It lasted for 

 a minute and a half, but, owing especially to the slowness of 

 the motions, the damage caused was not great. 



The Anmiaire MiUorologique for the present year, published 

 by the Belgian Royal Observatory, under the direction of M. A. 

 Lancaster, has been received. The annual is full of interest, 

 and contains many useful facts and much accurate information on 

 meteorological matters in general. Thus, after a short summary 

 of the more important astronomical ephemerides, we find a 

 meteorological calendar and the second portion of the history of 

 meteorology in Belgium, covering the period from the foundation 

 of the Brussels Academy of Science to the first publications of 

 the Royal Observatory. M. Lancaster brings together all the 

 facts relating to the temperature, rainfall and wind pressure at 

 Brussels from the year 1S33 to 1900, and-prints, not only the 

 monthly means or totals, as the case may be, but the mean 

 value for each season and for the whole year. M. Vander- 

 linden writes a most interesting essay on the meteorological 

 conditions of the upper atmosphere, and describes the various 

 means that have' been and are now adopted for exploring 

 great heights meteorologically. A number of miscellaneous 

 tables and data follow this article, and the annual concludes with 

 an account of the movements of the atmosphere from cloud 

 observations made at Brussels, a rhtimi of the meteorological 

 observations made at Uccle, near Brussels, during the year 

 1901, and, lastly, a description of the climate of Belgium for 

 the year 1900. 



An illustrated account of Mr. Wilbur Wright's aeronautical 

 experiments with gliding machines is given in the Sdcntific 

 American for February 22. These experiments differ from 

 those of Messrs. Lilienthal, Pilcher and Chanute in two im- 

 portant features, (i) the horizontal position of the operator 

 when gliding, which is calculated to save about half a horse- 

 power by the diminution of air-resistance, and (2) the use of a 

 front rudder instead of one at the back of the machine. In 

 describing one of these experiments, made with a machine of 

 308 square feet in a wind blowing thirteen miles an hour, the 

 Scientific American states : — The machine sailed off and made 

 an undulating flight of a little more than 300 feet. To the 

 onlookers this flight seemed very successful, but to the operator 

 it was known that the full power of the rudder had been required 

 to keep the machine from either running into the ground or 

 rising so high as to lose all headway. The experiments also 

 showed that one of the greatest dangers in machines with 

 horizontal tails had been overcome by the use of a front rudder, 

 and the operators escaped from positions which had proved very 

 dangerous to preceding experimenters. In subsequent experi- 

 ments the machine with its new curvature never failed to 

 respond promptly to even small movements of the rudder. 

 Many glides were made whenever the conditions were 

 favourable. 



The Report of the Felsted School Scientific Society for 

 1900-1 contains an interesting account, by Mr. A. A. G. 

 Dobson, of an expedition down the Bermejo River, organised 

 by the Messrs. Leach, the well-known sugar- and coffee- 

 planters of the Tucuman district of Argentina. 



The most important paper in the portion of the Pro- 

 ceedings of theiPhiladelphia Academy for 1901, which we have 

 just received, is one by -Miss C. B. Thompson on a new nemer- 



NO. 1693, ^''-"^- ^5] 



tean worm [ZyguepDlia littoraHs) recently discovered in Massa- 

 chusetts. The account, which is illustrated by five plates, 

 occupies eighty pages. 



We have received the second (April) number of a new 

 monthly illustrated journal, TIic- Coxn'ry, published by ]. M. 

 Dent and Co. and edited by Mr. H. Roberts. In addition to 

 ordinary subjects connected with the country, inclusive of sport- 

 ing, farming and gardening, this number has three articles on 

 natural history. One of ihese deals with wild life in Britain, 

 as exemplified by the black-headed gull, the second treats of 

 the songs of birds, from the point of view of systematic classifica- 

 tion of the species, while the third describes bird-hatints. All 

 three are well and pleasantly written, and the first and third 

 are attractively illustrated. 



Messks. Blackwood have sent us a copy of the first number 

 of a new journal, the Field Nataralisf s Quarterly, edited by 

 Dr. G. Leighton. The part, which is illustrated with a couple 

 of excellent full-page photographic reproductions, opens with 

 an account of certain uncommon British sea-fishes, by Mr. F. G. 

 Aflalo, and contains thirteen other articles, four of which deal 

 with animals and nature in winter. That the editor does not 

 intend to confine his purview to British subjects is indicated by 

 an anonymous article on the fauna of New Zealand ; while the 

 wide range proposed to be embraced is made evident by one on 

 telegony in dogs, by Prof. Evvart. The appearance of this new 

 journal may be taken as an earnest of the reviving interest in 

 field natural history. 



We have received parts i. and ii. of vol. Ixxi. of the Zeitschrift 

 fiir wisscnschaft. Zoologic. The former is entirely devoted to 

 an elaborate memoir on the development of the kidneys in the 

 amniote vertebrates, by Ilerr K. E. Schreiner, of the Anatomical 

 Institute of the University of Prague. Important conclusions 

 are drawn as to the relationship of the permanent to the primi- 

 tive kidneys. Among the contents of the second part is a paper 

 on the development of the Anatidce, as represented by the 

 domesticated duck, by Prof. P. Mitrophanow ; while another, 

 by Herr E. Botezat, deals with the nerves in the epithelium of 

 the tongue of mammals. In a third communication, Herr 

 F. Urban describes a new genus and species {Rhabdodcrmella 

 nuttingi) of calcareous sponge from Monterey Bay, Calriornia. 



The issue of an annual report by the president of the 

 Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, which has been in abeyance 

 since 1881, has been resumed for the past year. In this Report 

 Mr. S. G. Dixon gives a satisfactory account of the position 

 and prospects of the Academy, the financial resources of which 

 were largely increased in 1900. As in most institutions of a 

 kindred nature, the attendance at the weekly meetings has, 

 however, sensibly decreased owing to the increasing specialisa- 

 tion of natural history. An enormous increase has taken place 

 of late years in the zoological collections of the Academy, the 

 molluscan department having since 1887, when it was regarded 

 as the leading collection in the world, received no less than 

 30,000 " lots." 



In the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science for March, 

 Mr. E. S. Goodrich publishes the first part of a paper on the 

 structure and homology of the renal organs of Amphioxus, or, 

 as it should properly be called, Branchiostoma. The announce- 

 ment of the author's important discovery as to the identity of 

 these organs in their segmental arrangement, function and 

 histological structure with the nephridea (renal organs) of 

 polychcetous worms like Phyllodoce has been already made in 

 a preliminary paper, and the evidence is now submitted to the 

 scientific world in fuller detail, accompanied by excellent illus- 

 trations. Bearing in mind that in both cases the renal organs 

 are furnished with so-called "solenocytes," there seems, as the 



