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NA TURE 



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iS86 



ALPINE WINTER 



Alpine Winter in its Medical Aspects: with iVotes on 

 Davos Plaiz, Wiesen, St. Moritz, and the Maloia. By 

 A. Tucker Wise, M.D.,&c. Third Edition. (London: 

 Churchill, lS«6.) 



'T'HIS work possesses a fourfold interest. The niJteoro. 

 logist will find in it an account of the Swiss Alpine 

 climate in winter, with full and careful records of the 

 author's observations, which occupy one-fourth of the 

 whole volume. The sanitary engineer may here obtain a 

 clear account of the first successful attempt that has been 

 made to warm and ventilate a large building on strictly 

 rscientific principles during the months when the temper, 

 ature of the air frequently falls below zero. To the 

 physician the book will serve as a guide in advising his 

 patients on the subject of the Alpine health-resorts, in 

 the determination of suitable cases, the peculiar advan- 

 tages of each place, the duration of stay, and the time to 

 leave — giving, as it does, the physiological effect of each 

 of the peculiar elements of a winter climate at high ele- 

 vations. Lastly, all those who, either from necessity or 

 from choice, ha\-e arranged to pass part of the winter in 

 the Engadine or at Davos, can learn from these pages 

 hiw to plan and prepare for their outfit and journey, 

 the best routes by which to travel, how to avail them- 

 selves of the advantages of the winter health-resorts of 

 these parts, and how to minimise the drawbacks or 

 dangers connected with this system of treatment. 



The principal places which Dr. Tucker Wise describes 

 are Davos-am-Platz, Wiesen (a warm bright hamlet six 

 miles lower down the stream), St. Moritz (now almost as 

 renowned for the vvinter effect of its atmosphere in con- 

 sumption as of its waters in, debility), and, lastly, the 

 iVIaloia. As the author has now taken up his residence 

 at the Maloia Kursaal, it is only natural that he should 

 devote a considerable part of his book to it. It is this 

 hotel which presents, as we have said, the eariiest and 

 one of the greatest efforts in the direction of artificial 

 heating and ventilation in the Alps. Nature and art 

 meet at the Maloia in the most interesting combinations. 

 Without the Kursaal there is the brilliant, dry, calm, 

 absolutely pure atmosphere of the Upper Engadine, 

 " laden with balsamic vapour from the pines " ; within its 

 walls there is every appliance which science can suggest 

 to preserve the purity and maintain the proper tempera- 

 ture of the respired air, constantly liable as it is to 

 dangerous contamination by the residents, who to the 

 number of several hundreds can be accommodated in its 

 apartments. The elaborate system adopted for warming 

 and circulating the admitted air is fully explained in this 

 work with the aid of a series of large diagrams. The air 

 drawn from the outside on the basement, is made to pass 

 over a series of batteries, consisting of steam-pipes in- 

 closed in a case, by means of which it is raised to a 

 temperature of 50° C, whilst it is at the same time mixed 

 with a due proportion of watery vapour. The ascending 

 power of the heated air raises it to the rooms above 

 which it enters at a rate sufficient to change the atmo- 

 sphere every two or three hours. To extract the used-up 

 air there are two tubes of exit, which finally communicate 

 with an iron casing around the main flue of the furnaces, 

 which thus acts as the extraction-shaft. Not only is 



every room thus warmed and ventilated, but the atmo- 

 sphere of any particular chamber car. be medicated 

 at will by placing an antiseptic agent in the air-tube 

 supplying it. A plan has also been adopted in the 

 Ki/rsaal oi introducing ozone into the building by means 

 of the electricity used for lighting, the motor force for the 

 machines being a fall on the River Inn. " The ozoniser 

 draws off its electricity from the main current of the in- 

 candescent lights. After passing through an inductorium, 

 an induced current of about 200,000 volts is obtained, and 

 distributed over the surface of numerous glass plates 

 coated with tin-foil. The method employed is an imita- 

 tion of the natural process which takes place in the 

 atmosphere, — the production of ozonised air by electricity 

 in a state of high tension. Air is forced between the 

 glass plates and through the ozoniser by means of a 

 ' blower,' driven by a water motor." 



To those for whom any of the subjects which we have 

 selected for comment may possess practical interest we 

 would say : " Do not be satisfied with reading Dr. Tucker 

 Wise's book ; go and see for yourselves on the spot." 

 There is no more enjoyable or more successful holiday in 

 our dark and dreary winter for the jaded dweller in large 

 English towns than a few weeks spent in the sparkling 

 air of St. Moritz or the Maloia. B. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 

 Magnetic Horizontal Intensity in Northern Siberia. By 

 A. C. von Tillo. From the Repertoriuin fiir Meteoro- 

 logie, Band x.. No. 7. (St. Petersburg, 1S86.) 



The maps of lines of equal magnetic horizontal intensity 

 which have been puljlished during recent years have been 

 more or less defective in that part of Siberia lying north 

 of the 60th parallel of latitude, partly arising from want 

 of fresh observations, but more directly from insufficiency 

 of data respecting the secular change of that element. 



The present paper, with its accompanying map, is in- 

 tended to remedy these defects, as far as is at present 

 possible, for the epoch iSSo. For this purpose, every 

 observation since 1S2S, when Hansteen and Due started 

 on their well-known magnetic survey, has been collected 

 in a Table A, and the best values obtainable of the secu- 

 lar change in a Table B. As represented in the latter 

 table, the secular change is of so moderate an amount, 

 that every observation during the interval 1828-S4 may, 

 without large error, be considered available for combina- 

 tion in one map for 1S80. 



This has been accordingly done, and a map drawn, 

 showing lines of equal horizontal intensity expressed in 

 Gaussian units, the scale being in conformity with that 

 of the maps published in the Annalen der Hydrographie, 

 Heft vii., July 18S0. 



Amongst the most important recent observations re- 

 corded in Table A are those of F. Mdller in the Ole?iek 

 Expedition of 1873, and of the voyage of the Vega in 

 1878-80, and as a whole the paper and map may be taken 

 as a valuable contribution to terrestrial magnetism. The 

 secular change, however, still remains a quantity requir- 

 ing much more accurate results than those hitherto ob- 

 tained for Siberia, and such as are derived from prolonged 

 observation in one spot, it being now well known that a 

 change of position of a few feet often allows an element 

 of error to enter, caused by local magnetic disturbance. 



The Ordnance Survey of the United Kingdom. By- 

 Lieut. -Colonel T. Pilivington White, R.E. (London and 

 Edinburgh : Blackwood and Sons, 1886.) 

 This is a slight sketch, most of which has already appeared 

 in Blackwood. Carefully as the author has kept himself 



