October 6, 1910] 



NATURE 



435 



effects due to the pitching of the vessel and the actual 

 form of the bottom. 



In several of the diagrams the rapid scending- of 

 the vessel was noticeable in oscillations to the extent 

 of 2 or even 3 feet; but it was not difficult to draw 

 a mean line which would eliminate the motion with a 

 fair degree of accuracy. Practically the speed of the 

 launch scarcely exceeded that at which she might have 

 proceeded with two leadsmen soundinsj in the ordinary 

 manner, and the same number of hands are required, 

 although they need not necessarily be skilled leadsmen. 

 Two oflicers are necessary for fixing the vessel, as 

 they would be in ordinary circumstances. 



On a rocky bottom, where dredging has been carried 

 out, the weight would be constantly liable to catch in 

 the inequalities of the bottom, and bring up the boat, 

 thus causing delays and possibly breakage of gear. 

 In such cases, moreover, the usual method of sweep- 

 ing witli an iron bar could not safelv be dispensed 

 \\ith, however accuratelv each separate section might 

 be obtained. 



On the whole, it mav be said that the advantages to 

 be derived from the invention do not at present seem 

 so clearly pronounced as to make it likely that it 

 would be adopted for use under the conditions usuallv 

 prevailing in the examination of dredged channels. 

 There might, however, be special circumstances in 

 which it could be used advantageouslv. 



A. M. F. 



JVOT£5. 

 .\ MON-UMENT to Gregor Mendel, the naturalist, who was 

 born at Amsterdam in 1822 and died at Briinn in 1S84, 

 was unveiled at the latter place on October 2. 



The summer season, comprised by the six months from 

 .■\pril to September, can in no sense be considered ideal, 

 although from a meteorological point of view it has not 

 differed very widely from the average. At Greenwich the 

 mean temperature for the six months was 57-0°, which is 

 og° below the average of the past sixty years, but is 

 09° higher than for the corresponding six months in 

 1909. The warmest month was August, with a mean 

 temperature of 62-2°, and this was followed by a mean 

 of (>\-^° in June. May and June were the only two 

 months with the mean temperature in excess of the 

 average. The highest shade temperature during the 

 summer was 82-3°, in June, and there was no other month 

 with a temperature of 80°. The only years since 1841 

 with a slightly lower absolute maximum summer tempera- 

 ture are 1853, 1862, 1879, and 1882. There were in all 

 only fifty-one days witli a temperature of 70° or above, 

 and the only summers with so few warm days are 1S60, 

 1879, and 1888. The most conspicuous month for the 

 absence of warm days was July, when there were only 

 six days with a temperature of 70° or above ; this is the 

 smallest number of such warm days in July since the 

 establishment of trustworthy records in 1841. August 

 had twenty days with a temperature of 70° or above, and 

 June follows with seventeen ; in September there were only 

 two. The only instances of frost in the shade in the six 

 summer months are two in .'\pril and one in May. The 

 aggregate rainfall at Greenwich was 13.60 inches, which 

 is 1-22 inches more than the average of the past sixtv 

 years, but is 0-44 inch less than for the corresponding 

 period in 1909. The rainfall was in excess of the average 

 in each month, with the- exception of September, when 

 there was a deficiency of 1-47 inches. The wettest summer 

 month was July, with a total measurement of 3-55 Inches, 

 whirh is 1-15 inches more than the normal. In all, rain 



NO. 2136, VOL. 84] 



fell on ninety-two days, but only on three days in Sep- 

 tember, when the aggregate measurement was 072 inch, 

 and on one day the fall was 0-66 inch. The duration of 

 bright sunshine was 966 hours, which is 165 hours 'fewer 

 than the average, and May is the only month with an 

 excess of sunshine. The sunniest month was May, with 

 a total duration of 219 hours, and the least sunny month 

 was July, with 112 hours' duration, which is 124 hours 

 fewer than the normal. The finest month of the six was 

 undoubtedly September. 



Mr. Marconi has informed the Marconi Wireless Tele- 

 graph Company that wireless telegraphic messages have 

 been successfully transmitted between Clifden (Galway) 

 and Buenos Aires, a distance of about six thousand miles, 

 without the employment of an intervening relay station. 

 We learn from a note in the Engineer for September 30 

 that the tramp steamer Nonsuch, whilst on her voyage 

 from Bombay to Hull and Middlesbrough, was heard at 

 the wireless station at the North Foreland calling her 

 name when she was fifteen miles south of Cape de Gaa, 

 at the south-east corner of Spain, a position distant 940 

 nautical miles from the North Foreland. This distance, 

 across the obstacle of the whole of France and Spain, and 

 the Pyrenees, is a remarkable range for wireless signals 

 from a ship. The owners received a message through the 

 station at Ushant, sent from the ship off Cape Roca, near 

 Lisbon, no less than 610 nautical miles from Ushant. 

 The Nonstuh is the first tramp steamer to be fitted with 

 wireless telegraph. 



The council of the Institution of Civil Engineers has 

 made the following awards in respect of papers published 

 in Section ii. of the Proceedings for the session 1909-10 : — 

 .•\ Telford gold medal to Major W. W. Harts, U.S. Army 

 (Nashville, Tenn.) ; a Watt gold medal to Mr. A. Trewby 

 (London) ; a Crampton prize to Prof. A. H. Gibson and 

 Mr. A. Ryan (Manchester) ; and Telford premiums to 

 .Messrs. W. R. Baldwin-Wiseman (Southampton), O. W. 

 Griffith (London), Dr. W. E. Lilley (Dublin), W. Corin 

 (Sydney), J. A. Saner (Northwich), and F. O. Blackwell 

 (New York). The council has awarded the Indian 

 premium for 19 10 to Mr. C. W. Llovd-Jones (Secunder- 

 abad). 



The Paris correspondent of the Times has reported the 

 death, in his sixty-ninth year, of Prof. Fulgence Raymond, 

 clinical professor of diseases of the nervous system in the 

 University of Paris, and superintendent of the Salp^tri^re. 

 Prof. Raymond became known first by a special study on 

 " L'Hi5michor6e, L'H^mianasth^sie, et Les Tremblements 

 Symptomatiques." On the death of his friend and teacher 

 Charcot, in 1894, Raymond was appointed to succeed to 

 the chair of clinical professor of nervous diseases. He 

 was the author of many works on nervous and kindred 

 diseases, and was celebrated for the laboratories of patho- 

 logical anatomy and physiological psychology which he 

 instituted and superintended at the Salp^triire. Prof. 

 Raymond was a member of many of the scientific societies 

 of Europe. 



The ordinary meetings of the Royal Geographical 

 Society for the winter session will begin on November 7, 

 when Major P. Molesworth Sykes will lecture on his 

 further journeys in Persia. Subsequent meetings have 

 been provisionally arranged as follows: — November 21: 

 some results of the Duke of the .^bruzzi's Karakoram 

 expedition. Dr. Filippo de Filippi ; December 5 : the new 

 geography and its aims, Mr. H. J. Mackinder, M.P. ; 

 December ig : the French .Antarctic Expedition, 1909-10, 



