334 



NATURE 



[September 7, 191 1 



The fifty-second course of lectures and demonstrations 

 for sanitary inspectors, held under the auspices of the 

 Royal Sanitary Institute, will begin on Monday, Sep- 

 tember 18, and close on Friday, December i. The course 

 will be divided into two parts. The first part will consist 

 of six lectures dealing with elementary physics and 

 chemistry in relation to water, soil, air, ventilation, and 

 meteorology. The second part will deal with meat and 

 food inspection, including the taking of samples of water, 

 food, and drugs for analysis. On October 6 a course of 

 lectures to assist school teachers and other students enter- 

 ing for examinations in hygiene in its bearing in school 

 life, and for women health visitors and school nurses, will 

 be held at the Royal Sanitary Institute and Parkes 

 Museum. A course of practical training for meat inspec- 

 tors will be begun on October 13. 



At the National Congress of Applied Chemistry, which 

 is to be held at Turin from September 23 to 28, a general 

 discussion will take place on the fiscal and customs practice 

 in regard to the industrial use of alcohol, and Prof. Miolati 

 will give an experimental demonstration of the use of 

 atmospheric nitrogen for industrial purposes. 



A Fungus Foray in connection with the Yorkshire 

 Naturalists' Union is arranged to take place in Mulgrave 

 Woods, Sandsend, near Whitby, from Saturday, Sep- 

 tember 23, to Thursday, September 28. The following 

 papers and lecture will be delivered : — on September 23, 

 notes on the Uredinaceae, by Mr. R. H. Philip; fungi 

 found in sewage-polluted West Riding streams, and in 

 other places, by Mr. J. W. H. Johnson; and on Sep- 

 tember 25 Mr. George Massee will lecture on " Diseases 

 of Plants caused by Fungi." 



The annual Fungus Foray of the South-Eastern Union 

 of Scientific Societies will be held at Hastings on Satur- 

 day, September 30. The gathering will be preceded, on 

 September 29, by the delivery (at the Museum, Hastings) 

 of a popular lecture on " Fungi," by Mr. E. W. Swanton. 

 Those intending to take part in the foray are requested to 

 give intimation to this effect, by September 27, to Mr. 

 G. Abbott, 2 Rusthall Park, Tunbridge Wells. 



Addresses will be delivered as follows at the reopening 

 of certain of the London medical schools :— St. George's 

 Hospital, on October 2, by Dr. H. A. Miers, F.R.S., on 

 "Lucidity"; Middlesex Hospital, on October 2, by Dr. 

 C. Berkeley ; University College Hospital, on October 2, 

 by Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S. ; London (Roval 

 Free Hospital) School of Medicine for Women, on 

 October 2, by Sir William Butlin ; London Hospital, on 

 October 3, the " Schorstein " lecture by Dr. J. Mackenzie, 

 and on October 4 a further lecture will be delivered on 

 the subject of " Auricular Fibrillation." 



The Meteorological Office in its recent issue of the 

 Weekly Weather Report gives a summary of the weather 

 for the summer, comprised by the thirteen weeks from 

 June 4 to September 2. The mean temperature for the 

 period was above the average over the entire kingdom, 

 the excess ranging from about 4° in the east of England 

 to rather more than a degree in the north of Scotland. 

 The extreme temperature exceeded 90° in all the English 

 districts, and was as high as 98 in the Midlands and 

 97° in the east of England. The rainfall was deficient 

 over the entire country, except in the north of Scotland, 

 where the excess was only 0-05 inch. The largest 

 deficiency was 3.16 inches in the south-east of England 

 and 3-00 inches in the south-west of England. The aggre- 

 easuremenl ol rain ranged from 3-34 inches in the I 

 NO. 2TS4, VOL. 87] 



south-east of England to 10-62 inches in the north of 

 Scotland. The number of rainy days was everywhere 

 deficient, the greatest deficiency being 19, in the Channel 

 Islands. The duration of bright sunshine was everywhere 

 largely in excess of the average, the greatest excess being 

 225 hours in the south-east of England. The absolute 

 duration ranged from 476 hours in the north of Scotland 

 to 861 hours in the Channel Islands, and 838 hours in the 

 south-east of England. At Greenwich the mean tempera- 

 ture for the summer, June to August inclusive, is 66- 1°, 

 which is 3-8° above the normal. The mean for the re- 

 spective months was : June, 6o-8° ; July, 68-3° ; August, 

 69.1°, the excess in the last-mentioned month being 6-2°. 

 The August mean is fully 2° higher than any previous 

 record for the corresponding month. The mean of the 

 maxima readings is 8i-i°, and there is no previous record 

 of the mean exceeding 80°. There have already been 40 

 days this summer (April 2 to September 5) with the shade 

 temperature above 8o°, and in the last seventy years 1868 

 is the only year with an equal number of hot days, whilst 

 1846, 1857, and 1859 are the only other years with more 

 than 30 such warm days. The shade temperature of ioo° 

 at Greenwich on August 9 establishes a record for absolute 

 temperature. The aggregate rainfall at Greenwich for the 

 three summer months is 3-74 inches, which is 2-80 inches 

 less than the average; the driest month was July, with 

 0.26 inch. The rainfall this summer is the least since 

 1885, and 1869, 1864, and 1849 are the only other years 

 since 1841 with so small a summer rainfall. The dura- 

 tion of bright sunshine for the three months is 818 hours, 

 which is 175 hours more than usual; the respectivi 

 amounts are: June, 223 hours; July, 335 hours; August, 

 260 hours. 



Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., delivered his p 

 dential address to the Cambrian Archaeological Association 

 at Abergele on August 29, taking as his subject " Some 

 Points in the Pre-history of Wales." In the course of his 

 remarks, he said that at the time when the Neolithic 

 aborigines first found their way so far west in the British 

 Islands, the whole land was covered with forest, the lower 

 portions of the valleys were filled with morasses, and the 

 only tracks were those of the wild animals. The land 

 was some 60 feet above its present level, and the coast- 

 line included the area of Anglesea. The Neolithic farmers 

 and herdsmen were a small, oval-headed people, well 

 formed, and had been clearly proved to be identical with 

 the Iberian peoples of history. They were represented to- 

 day by the small, dark element in the Welsh population. 

 The next elements in the Welsh population were the taller, 

 broad-headed people who lived in Wales in the Bronze age. 

 Their civilisation was derived from the Continent, and 

 they were identified with the earlier division of the Celtic 

 peoples, the Goidels, termed by Rhys the Q Celts. In the 

 prehistoric Iron age a new civilisation made its appearance. 

 That, too, was probably introduced by invading tribes 

 from the Continent, and these belonged to the Brythons, 

 or P Celts, of Rhys. These represented the third element, 

 and no new traceable element was added by the Roman 

 occupation. 



The Bulletins of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for July 

 and Augu-t (xxii., Nos. 244 and 246) contain matter of 

 much medical interest. In No. 246 Dr. S. A. Knopf 

 describes, under the name of "the starnook," a device for 

 open-air treatment. It consists of a small room or 

 chamber, sufficiently large to contain a small bed, built of 

 wood or galvanised iron on a balcony, or against a 

 window ami supported on posts. The walls are louvred, 

 and partly consist of shutters which can be opened, and 



