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219 
Dee. 23, 1869] 
produced at the surface.* In his remarks on the great storm 
(at Nassau, October 1866), Captain Chatfield observed, ‘‘that 
(during the calm) while the vortex of the storm was passing over 
the harbour, the atmosphere was most oppressive, and the clouds 
in the zenith appeared to be revolving rapidly.” Under certain 
modifying circumstances, the same vera causa will, I believe, 
account satisfactorily for the phenomena of ‘‘hail-storms,” 
“water-spouts,” &c. But I am unwilling to trespass too much 
on your space. 
Glenville, Fermoy Henry Hupson, M.D. 
A Cyclone in England. 
Ir is so seldom we get a cyclone so well developed in these 
latitudes, that I have thought the following observations would 
interest the readers of NATURE. 
Noon. Barometer, 29.678. Wind, S.S.W. Estimated force, 4 
4 P.M. oF 23045 55, 1S We 45 9 
6 P.M. ms 29.205. Sie DE 53 +e) 
9.40 P.M. ,, 2eq-gae, 5) WENOW. 5c 9 
II P.M. =5 29.391. 55 IN.W. fe 7 
Tt will be observed the wind began to freshen from the S.S.W. 
with a falling barometer ; it then veered to S.W., W.S.W. to 
W., the barometer falling the whole time. When the wind 
arrived at W. the storm was at its height and the barometer a 
minimum. The wind then veered W. by N., W.N.W. to N.W., 
gradually becoming less violent, and the barometer rose during 
that time. The storm lasted about twelve or fourteen hours. 
From the above, I deduce that Plymouth must have been in 
the southern half of the cyclone which travelled eastward ; 
hence, probably, more damage must have been done further 
north than here. 
I should feel obliged by any reader of NaTURE living in the 
North or East of England, giving the results of his observations 
during the storm. F.R.A.S. 
Plymouth, 17th December, 1869. 
Lectures to Ladies 
T HAVE only just seen the letter in NATURE, signed “‘ M.A.B.,” 
on the subject of the hour chosen for lectures to ladies. I most 
sincerely hope that the morning hour will be continued. It is 
certainly to be regretted if this arrangement is inconvenient to 
ladies engaged in teaching; but to the far larger number who 
are not so engaged, any other hour would be prohibitory. 
In addition to the constant inconvenience entailed on ladies by 
the necessity (or supposed necessity) of their being “fetched and 
carried” every time they go out after dark, all ladies living 
ordinary lives in quiet homes, know very well that it behoves 
them to get their ‘‘occupations” done in the day-time, and that 
if they began attending courses of lectures in the evening, their 
fathers, husbands, and brothers would be apt to raise a pretty 
forcible outcry against the advance of female education. 
If I might venture to make a suggestion, it would be that South 
Kensington is a very long way from everywhere else, and that a 
more central situation would add very much to the convenience 
of those who come from a distance. I am sure that no one who 
attended Professor Huxley’s course of lectures just concluded, 
begrudged the time and trouble it cost them to get there, or 
thought it anything but well bestowed; at the same time a 
shorter and more manageable expedition would be a great boon to 
many. IMIG ats (Ce, 
NOTES 
Tue Gold Medal of the Royal Astrenomical Society has, we 
are informed, been this year awarded to M. Delaunay, one of the 
greatest of living mathematicians and astronomers, for his many 
important investigations. We are sure that English astronomers 
will hail this award with the liveliest satisfaction. 
THE question of Meteorological Standards is, we learn, now 
occupying the attention cf the Royal Society Council. We may 
hope, therefore, that the revision which has so long been needed 
will now take place. 
Tue Lecturers named for the Friday Evening Meetings at 
the Royal Institution, before Easter, are Prof. Tyndall, F.R.S., 
Prof, Odling, F.R.S., Prof. Ruskin, Dr. W. B. Carpenter, F.R.S., 
Mr. W. K. Clifford, Colonel Sir Henry James, F.R.S., Mr. E. 
J. Reed, C.B., Chief Constructor of the Navy, Prof. Sylvester, 
F.R.S., Mr. P. W. Barlow, F.R.S , Prof. Rolleston, F.R.S., 
Prof. Roscoe, F.R.S., and Prof. Huxley, F.R.S. Prof. Tyn- 
dall’s discourse will be on ‘‘ Haze and Dust,” and will probably 
be delivered on the 21st of January. Dr. Odling proposes to, 
lecture on ‘‘Prof. Graham’s Scientific Work ;” Dr. Carpenter 
on ‘‘Temperature and Life in the Deep Sea,’’ and Prof. 
Sylvester on *‘ Chance.” 
Tue Keith Prize of the Royal Society of Edinburgh was 
awarded on Monday to Professor Tait, for his paper on the rota- 
tion of a rigid body about a fixed point. 
THE Professorship of Botany in the Royal College of Science, 
Dublin, is now vacant, Professor Wyville Thomson’s resignation 
having been accepted by the Science and Art Department. 
THE following lectures will be given in the course of the pre- 
sent session of the Chemical Society :—On Vanadium, by Dr. 
Roscoe; on Refraction Equivalents, by Dr. Gladstone ; and on 
the Platinic Ammoniums, by Dr. Odling. 
THE subscriptions to the Faraday Monument Fund, received 
up to Dec. 7, amount to £1,400. The object of the fund is 
to provide a public memorial to Faraday, and the subscription 
from one person is not to exceed five guineas. 
PROFESSOR CARL VoGT, of Vienna, is actively engaged in the 
formation of an Anthropological Society for Austria. 
Dr. S. CouLL MACKENZIE has been appointed to the pro- 
fessorship of Hygiene in the Calcutta Medical College. 
IN a new quarterly journal devoted to public hygiene, and pro- 
duced at Brunswick, in Germany, we find a carefully-written 
article upon English institutions for hygiene, and English factories. 
There are also contributions upon army hygiene, barrack reform, 
and drainage. The journal is edited by Prof. Riclam, of Leipzig. 
Tue Argenteuil Prize has been awarded by the Academy 
of Medicine of Paris in the following way :—To Mr. Corradi, 
of Florence, 5,000 francs; to MM. Mallez and Tripier, 2,000 
francs ; to M. Reliquet, 1,000 francs. 
THE General Secretary of the Academy of Vienna has pub- 
lished as a tirage afart from the almanack of the Academy, a 
biographical sketch of Karl Ludwig Freiherr yon Reichenbach, 
who, after a long and distinguished scientific career, died in 
January last at the advanced age of eighty-one. Dr. Schrotter 
divides the period of Reichenbach’s scientific activity into three 
parts: the first, that of practical work and exact research, during 
which he enriched mankind by the discovery of paraffin and 
creosote; the second, that which he devoted to the study of 
meteorites, a study in which his enthusiastic mind led him beyond 
the boundary of accurate science ; and, lastly, the time when he 
gave himself up to the investigation of so-called animal magnetism 
and the imaginary odic force by which he sought to explain the 
phenomena he thought he had discovered. Dr. Schrotter rightly 
concludes, that however far astray Reichenbach may have been led 
by his odic notions, he earned for himself an honourable place in 
science, his very errors being those of a highly-gifted man. 
WE have received the first part of the volume recording the 
scientific results of the travels of Baron Claus von der Decken in 
East Africa, during the years 1857-1865. The materials have 
been worked up by Peters, Cabanis, Hilgendorf, Ed. yon Martens, 
and Semper, and comprise Mammalia, Birds, Amphibia, Crustacea, 
Mollusca, and Echinodermata. The part before us is illustrated 
by thirty-five lithographic plates of great beauty, most of them 
being carefully and delicately coloured. The second part, which 
is to contain the Insects and Spiders, has been entrusted to 
Gerstacker. 
Dr. OLDHAM, the president, has communicated to the Pro- 
ceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal some interesting notes 
on remains found in aCromlech at Coorg, This Cromlech was 
