148 



NATURE 



[August 4, 19 10 



NOTES. 



Several weeks ago tho nnnauncenienl was made that an 

 Italian Government Commission, appointed to inquire into 

 the condition of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, had reported 

 that the structure was in danger of collapse (July 14, 

 p. 48). We are glad to be able to print in the present 

 issue the translation of an article by Prof. A. Battelli, 

 professor of physics in the University of Pisa, in which 

 the facts with reference to the tower are clearly stated. 

 The article should serve to moderate anxiety for the safety 

 of this famous structure. 



. It is stated by tlie Paris correspondent of the Times that 

 the Government of the Republic of Ecuador has proposed 

 to present to France the observatory at Quito, together 

 with its apparatus and dependencies, and that the .\cademy 

 of Sciences has decided provisionally to accept the gift. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death of the 

 Rev. Robert Harley. F.R.S., on July 26, at eighty-two 

 years of age. 



The Paris correspondent of the Times states, on the 

 authority of the Depeche Coloiiiale, that M. Louis Gentil, 

 professor of geology at the Sorbonne, who accompanied 

 the expedition which recently explored the .\tlas region 

 under the auspices of the Coiriit(5 du Maroc, has been 

 entrusted by the French Minister of Public Instruction 

 with a mission to the Muluya Valley, where he will com- 

 plete his scientific researches in the .'Mgero-Moroccan 

 frontier district. 



The famous extinct geyser of Waimangu, New Zealand, 

 near which a volcanic eruption was reported last week as 

 having coinmenced, was for a few years the most powerful 

 geyser on record. The activity of this geyser in 1903 and 

 iq04 created such anxiety in the North Island of New 

 Zealand that an .Auckland paper, attributing its activity to 

 the great increase in the size of the adjacent Lake Roto- 

 mahana, proposed that the lake should be drained in order 

 to allow the freer outlet from the hot springs of the locality. 

 No action w^as taken, and the danger was removed by the 

 bursting of the lake dam. The water of Lake Rotomahana 

 was discharged to Lake Rotorua, and Waimangu ceased its 

 eruptions. It will be ijiteresting to learn from the New 

 Zealand geologists whether the renewal of the volcanic 

 activity along the Tarawera rift is connected with the 

 cessation of Waimangu. 



The executive committee formed for the purpose of 

 organising and holding a great International Horticultural 

 Exhibition in London in the spring of 1912 is now doing 

 everything possible to push forward the necessary arrange- 

 ments. The honorary secretary of the committee is Mr. 

 Edward White, 7 Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W. 

 The exhibition will be held in May, and it will be open 

 to the public on eight weekdays. .Although in no way 

 responsible for the exhibition, the Royal Horticultural 

 Society is extending its general approval to the scheme. 

 This society has not only agreed to forgo the holding of 

 the usual Temple Flower Show for that year, but it has 

 also contributed a sum of 1000/. towards the International 

 E.xhibition, and in addition is prepared to assist generously 

 in the formation of a guarantee fund. 



It is seldom that for the period of a whole month there 

 is such a failure of summer weather as was experienced 

 this year tTiroughout July. There were in all only five 

 days at Greenwich with a temperature of 70° or above, and 

 this is the smallest number of warm days in any July 

 since trustworthy records were commenced in 1S41, about 

 NO. 2127, VOL. 84] 



seventy years ago. The July with the next fewest number 

 of warm days was in 1879, when there were eight days 

 with the temperature above 70°, whilst there have only 

 been four Julys during the last thirty years with fewer 

 than twenty such warm days, and as recently as 1905 the 

 temperature of 70° was exceeded in July on twenty-nine 

 days. In the last nineteen years there have only been two 

 Julys besides last month in which the shade temperature 

 failed to touch 80°. The mean temperature for the month 

 was 60°, which is 4° below the average of the past sixty 

 years, and it is 1-5° below the mean for the corresponding 

 month in 1909, when the early part of the summer was 

 unseasonable like the present, although July last year had 

 eighteen days with a temperature above 70°. The aggre- 

 gate rainfall in the neighbourhood of London for July this 

 year was 3-5 inches, which is i-i inches more than the 

 normal, and rain fell on seventeen days. The aggregate 

 for June and July this year is 5.6 inches, which is 1-2 inches 

 less than for the corresponding two months last year. The 

 duration of bright sunshine in July this year was 115 hours, 

 which is only one-half the average, and is sixty hours 

 less than in July last year. 



The visit of the German .Association of Gas and Water 

 Engineers to Great Britain, which was postponed on 

 account of the death of King Edward, has now been 

 arranged to take place during the week commencing 

 October 2 next. The visitors are to be the guests of the 

 Institution of Gas Engineers, the Gas Light and Coke 

 Company, the South Metropolitan Gas Company, the 

 Croydon Gas Company, and the Corporations of Edinburgh 

 and Glasgow respectively, of which latter city the engineer 

 of the gas department, Mr. .Alex. Wilson, is now the 

 president of the Institution of Gas Engineers. 



At the last meeting of the British Science Guild, held 

 in the rooms of the Royal Geographical Society, communi- 

 cations were received from the Canadian and New South 

 Wales sections of the Guild. In the case of the Can.idian 

 section. Lord Grey is resigning the presidentship on account 

 of his departure, and it is hoped that Lord Strathcona will 

 act as president in his place. No fewer than 120 members 

 have joined the New South Wales section of the Guild, 

 and important literature has been forwarded in connection 

 with technical education and the report on open-air spaces 

 for school children in Sydney. The agricultural memorial 

 to the Prime Minister having received numerous signatures 

 from representative agricultural societies and others was 

 ordered to be submitted to the Prime Minister. The report 

 of the committee on the synchronisation of clocks was 

 finally approved, and it was decided to approach the Local 

 Government Board by deputation and to ask the President 

 to promote legislation on the subject. 



According to Miss F. Buchanan, writing in the July 

 number of Science Progress on the significance of the 

 pulse-rate in vertebrates, the relative size of the heart in 

 different groups of animals depends on the amount of work 

 it is called upon to perform. Thus in fishes, where it has 

 only to pump the blood so far as the gills, the heart is 

 always small, averaging 0-09 per cent, of the body-weight ; 

 but in the inert flat-fishes it is still smaller, being only 

 about 004 per cent, of the body-weight. On the other 

 hand, in birds, more especially migratory and vocal species, 

 the heart has very heavy work to perform, and is con- 

 sequently of great relative size, ranging from i to 2, 

 or in a few cases 26, per cent, of the body-weight. In 

 consequence of these differences in the amount of work 

 the heart has to execute, its size bears no fixed relation 

 to that of the animal to which it belongs. " The heart 



