September 22, 1910] 



NATURE 



369 



than the adiabatic for dry air. The air removed by 

 drainage is replaced by air from above, whicli flows 

 <Jo\vn the mountain valleys like a river, often with a 

 tumultuous rush. In this descending current, which 

 is the true Fohn, the temperature gradient is that of 

 the dry adiabatic. The onset of Fohn at a given 

 station occurs when the upper level of the cold air 

 sinks to the level of the station. 



In their early stages all Fohns are fed by air which 

 has travelled horizontallv to the mountain ridges, and 

 then descended on the northern side. There is no 

 evidence of ascent of air on the southern side of the 

 range during this first, or " anticyclonic," stage. If 

 r-"6hn persists, a condition of things often develops in 

 which there is heavv rain, and a marked absence of 

 diurnal range of temperature on the south side of the 

 .\lps, and simultaneouslv the temperatures are much 

 lower to the south than to the north of the range. 

 \\"e have then unmistakable evidence of the ascent of 

 nir on the south and of its subsequent descent on the 

 north of the range. The conditions which determine 

 whether an "anticvclonic " Fohn shall develop into 

 this second or "stationarv" stage need further inves- 

 tigation. ' R. G. K. L. 



KESPIRATIOX AT HIGH ALTITUDES.' 

 pROF R. F. FUCHS, with Dr. Deimler, has 

 -'• confirmed the statement of Zuntz and his co- 

 workers and of Durig, that the oxygen use of the 

 liuman body during work is greatly increased at altitudes 

 <-ibove 3000-4000 metres. While on the CoUe d'Olen 

 the O, use of Fuchs was only 3 per cent, more than 

 at Erlangen ; it was 36 per cent, more on the Capana 

 Regina Alargherita. 



Fuchs and Deimler lived in the hut on the top of 

 Monte Rosa for some weeks, and proved this point 

 •conclusively. This increased use of o.xygen explains 

 why most tourists are taken with mountain sickness 

 at altitudes above 3000-4000 metres. 



The oxygen needs cannot be supplied by the respira- 

 tory and circulatory mechanisms in the face of the 

 falling partial pressure of oxygen, and the high oxygen 

 use. Training and acclimatisation economise the 

 oxygen use. increase the oxygen combining power of 

 the blood, the power of the respiratory and circulating 

 mechanisms. 



The respiratory quotient sinks to a very low level, 

 *'-.?• ° 53 'ifter work, while the resting value is only 

 o'b-o'7 at these high altitudes. To explain this, it is 

 supposed either that glycogen is built out of fat and 

 protein in the body, or that substances are not com- 

 pletely burnt in the body, but are given off as lactic 

 acid in the urine. We know that lactic acid is 

 excreted in the urine after a hard run, when the 

 oxygen used is greater than the supply. 



A. Loewy and Franz Miiller recently have found 

 that the respiratory quotient is reduced bv sea-bathing, 

 a;, from o'88 at Berlin to 073 at the North Sea. 

 The diet was the same. There is some evidence that 

 the protein metabolism is different both in high alti- 

 tudes and after the sea-bathing, but further work is 

 required to explain the low quotients. Under the 

 special conditions substances, such as proteins and 

 their derivatives, may be oxidised, which share but 

 little in the combustion process of the body. Fuchs 

 suggests that the new building of haemoglobin may 

 explain partly the high oxygen use and the low 

 respiratory quotient. It is generallv agreed that a 

 stay in high altitudes does increase the haemoglobin 

 of the body. Leonard Hill. 



1 " Physiologische Studien im Hoch^ebirge: Versuclie uber den repirator- 

 i^chen Stoffwechsel im Hochse'birge." By E. F. Fuch>^ and T. Deimler. 

 Sitzungsberichte der Physikalish-medizinischen Sozietat in Erlangen. 

 Hand 41, 1909. 



NO. 2134, VOL. 84] 



NOTES. 



The ninth meeting of the International Meteorologicat 

 Committee will be held in Berlin on Monday next, Sep- 

 tember 26, and following days. It will be preceded by 

 meetings of the Commission for Terrestrial Magnetism and 

 .Atmospheric Electricity, of which General Rykatcheff is 

 president and Dr. A. Schmidt is secretary, and by meet- 

 ings of the Magnetic Observations Committee of the Inter- 

 national .Association of Academies. Of other commissions 

 which originated with the International Meteorological 

 Committee, those concerning scientific aeronautics, the 

 correlation of solar and terrestrial changes, a proposed 

 Systeme Mondial, weather telegraphy, and maritime 

 weather signals have held meetings in the past year, and 

 their reports will come up for consideration at Berlin. 

 Among new proposals to be considered is one by Prof. 

 V. Bjerknes, of Christiania, for the organisation and 

 publication of strictly synchronous meteorological hourly 

 observations of the air at the surface and above at a 

 large number of stations, with the view of studying in 

 detail the precise changes that take place. Since the last 

 meeting of the International Meteorological Committee, at 

 Paris in 1907, many changes have taken place in the 

 personnel of the committee. Death has removed, MM, 

 Lancaster, Pernter, and Eliot, while M. Hepites has re- 

 signed his directorship of the Roumanian Meteorological 

 Service, and consequently ceases to be a member of the 

 committee. The new members appointed to fill the 

 vacancies are MM. van Everdingen (Holland), Ryder (Den- 

 mark), Trabert (Austria), and G. T. Walker (India). Dr. 

 W. N. Shaw, director of the Meteorological Office, is the 

 president of the committee, and Prof. G. Hellmann, 

 director of the Royal Prussian Meteorological Institute, is 

 the secretary. 



Mr. R. Xewstead, of the University of Liverpool, who, 

 it will be remembered (see Nature, June 30, p. 530), 

 was dispatched three months ago to Malta by the Liver- 

 pool School of Tropical Medicine to investigate the rela- 

 tion of sand-flies to public health, has now returned. It 

 is understood that in the forthcoming report upon the 

 expedition practical measures for dealing with the various 

 disease-carrying insects in the island will be suggested, 

 Mr. Newstead having brought back a considerable amount 

 of material, not only with reference to sand-flies, but also 

 to other carriers of disease. 



The National Fund .Airship, which has just been com- 

 pleted, made its first successful flight at Moisson on 

 September 14. It is a little more than a year ago since 

 Mr. Eric Stuart Bruce, the late honorary secretary of the 

 -Aeronautical Society of Great Britain, was asked to visit 

 France to make an exhaustive examination into the various 

 types of dirigibles in connection with the national air- 

 ship, with the result that the Lebaudy type was selected. 

 This latest Lebaudy airship may certainly be said to be 

 the finest semi-rigid dirigible in the world. It is 337 feet 

 10 inches long, 39 feet 51 inches in diameter, and has a 

 "as capacity of 353,165-8 cubic feet. It contains three 

 ballonets. The motive power is derived from two four- 

 cylinder Panhard-Levassor petrol motors of 135 horse- 

 power each. The two propellers are made of wood. Mr. 

 Bruce is now acting as honorary secretary to the test 

 committee of the National Fund Airship. 



Attention has from time to time been directed to the 

 flower gardens upon vacant land in the neighbourhood of 

 the Strand. The Selborne Society has been investigating 

 a still more interesting building site in Farringdon Street, 



