438 



NA TURE 



[March lo, 1887 



would be interesting to know whether similar results have been 

 found in India and elsewhere within the tropics, or may yet 

 be obtained. 



Computing 8 7" by means of these formulce, and applying the 

 results to the temperatures at Kingston, we have 



Mean Min. 



... 68-0 



■•■ 57-5 



- 54-7 



... 45'6 



which are fairly satisfactory. 



Putting SP = 30 inches, the minimum formula gives -311° 

 as the temperature of space, the thermometer being shaded from 

 the sun by any spherical body such as the earth or moon. 



Putting hF = 30 inches, the mean formula gives -81° as the 

 mean temperature of a body devoid of atmosphere, such as a 

 meteorite pursuing its course in space, or the moon, at the mean 

 distance of the earth from the sun. 



An expression for maximum temperatures cannot be as easily 

 deduced ; but if the surface of the meteorite or the moon which 

 is turned from the sun be - 311'^, and if the mean temperature 

 be -81°, it follows that the maximum temperature of the surface 

 turned towards the sun must be about + 149°. 



Jamaica, February 12 M.AXWELL Hall 



Electricity and Clocks 



In addition to the plan pointed out by Prof. Sylvanus Thompson 

 (the correct way to repeat from a striking clock to electric bells), 

 I believe I have seen an arrangement in Dublin whereby a single 

 port or going train only is made to strike the hours on an in- 

 definite number of electric bells. I believe this mechanism is a 

 patent. Horloge 



Sandvmount, March 2 



Top-shaped Hailstones 



On August 6, 1885, a hailstorm occurred in this neighbour- 

 hood, during \a hich two waterspouts were seen. After one of 

 these had burst, a fall of hailstones, almost exactly similar to 

 those described by Mr. Middlemi-s in your issue of March 3 

 (p. 413), commenced and lasted for some minutes. I do not remem- 

 ber to have noticed that there was a mass of clear ice at the base 

 of the cone, but the banding v/as veiy distinct. 



Beside the horizontal stratification there was another perpen- 

 dicular one, giving the hailstone the appearance of bein;.^ composed 

 of alternate cylinders of clear and white ice. If the hailstones 

 which Mr. Middleniiss saw at Ramnagar showed this peculiarity, 

 he will perhaps be kind enough to communicate the fact through 

 your columns. Sketches of the hailstones which fell in this 

 district were published in the Meteorological Record soon 

 after the occurrence, but I cannot give the precise date of the 

 copy. T. Spencer Smithson 



Facit, Rochdale, March 7 



The Present Southern Comet 

 Either the present brilliant southern comet is periodic, or 

 one of a large family of comets, moving in similar orbits and 

 possessing marked similarities of structure. Its orbit, as far as 

 an orbit can be determined from the approximate positions of a 

 very indefinite nucleus, is similar to those of the 1843 and 1880 

 coaiets. In Grant's " History of Astronomy " the following 

 description of the i668 comet occurs : — " It appeared a little 

 above the western horizon. The tail measured 23° in length, 

 and resembled a huge beam of light. The head was so small 

 as to be scarcely visible. The observations will be represented 

 with sufficient accuracy by the elements of the orbit of the 

 comet of 1843." A fairly accurate description of the present 

 comet. There are other comets — 1618, 16S9, 1702 — which 

 possess this strong family likeness. If these comets be not one 

 and the same, they must all have had a common origin. I do 

 not know if it has been noticed that the aphelia of their orbits 

 lie within a few degrees of .Sirius. It may be possible that they 

 have all been ejected from that gigantic sun ; at any rate, it is 

 impossible that they could have been attracted from nebulous 

 masses lying beyond Siriu=. A. W. R. 



Lovedale, South Africa, February i 



The Earthquake 



I examined my magnetograms very carefully on the day ol 

 the earthquake in North Italy, and I find no trace of any special 

 disturbance on the H.F. trace similar to that on the Kew curve. 

 It may be well to place this on record, as it may aid in fixing 

 the limits of the disturbance. S. J. Pei^ry 



Stonyhurst College, Blackburn, March 7 



CEREBRAL LOCALISATION' 

 I. 

 T T is rather more than ten years since the first edition of 

 •'■ this book came under review in the pages of this 

 journal. And it was intrusted to very able hands, for the 

 reviewer was George Henry Lewes, himself an experi- 

 mentalist in this branch of physiology, and of the highest 

 distinction as a philosopher and psychologist. The review 

 is courteously but unflinchingly hostile : exception is taken 

 to some of the facts and to most of the deductions of the 

 author ; although the value of the work, from its richness 

 in suggestions as well as in facts, is ungrudgingly admitted. 

 Mr. Lewes especially complains that the book " is so defi- 

 cient in the indispensable correctives of counter facts and 

 arguments, that the reader must be cautioned against 

 accepting any position unless elsewhere verified. . . . 

 From one cause or another there is a disregard of counter 

 evidence, which, in a second edition, I should seriously 

 urge him to rectify. . . . This disregard arises from 

 no unfairness, but simply from the one-sidedness which 

 comes from preoccupation with certain views." 



The increased size of the work (498 pages instead of 323) 

 is, no doubt, in part due to an endeavour to carry out this 

 suggestion, although the growth of the subject may of 

 itself, in great measure, account for such increase. Indeed, 

 it must be confessed that the characteristic complained of 

 by Mr. Lewes has not by any means entirely disappeared, 

 and the student who may consult its pages must bear in 

 mind that the book still remains the gospel of the func- 

 tions of the brain " according to Ferrier." 



The pervading idea of the work is expressed by the 

 term " localisation of function." It was against this idea 

 (and especially against certain applications of it) that Mr. 

 Lewes brought to bear the full powers of his criticism. 



One serious objection which was urged by him against 

 many of Dr. Ferrier's results (those of localised extirpa- 

 tion) was that he was unable to keep the animals alive 

 long enough to allow the effects of Disturbance of function 

 to subside, so as to leave only the effects of Removal to be 

 estimated. But the use of antiseptics has now permitted 

 this objection to be removed, since there is no longer, in 

 most instances, the same difficulty in preserving the 

 animals, as was the case in Dr. Ferrier's first experiments. 



It is further urged by the previous reviewer that "neither 

 the eft'ects of Disturbance nor the efi'ects of Removal are 

 to be taken as conclusive evidence tliat the function dis- 

 turbed or removed is the function of the organ operated on." 

 [But although not of themselves conclusive, yet if looked 

 at in conjunction with other evidence they may furnish 

 important indications regardingthefunction of the organ.] 

 Mr. Lewes further affirms that " whenever a function per- 

 sists or reappears after the destruction of an organ, this is 

 absolutely conclusive against its being the function of tJiat 

 organ," meaning, of course, of that organ alone. That, 

 in the case of recovery or reappearance, partial or com- 

 plete, of a lost function, another organ previously possessed 

 of a difierent function has vicariously taken its place, is 

 a scarcely tenable hypothesis. And yet there are well- 

 recorded instances of such reappearance : as in the case of 

 Goltz's dogs, which recovered some of the lost power of 

 voluntary movement ; and in that of the visual disturbances 

 which are caused by lesions of the occipital lobe, in which 



' "The Functions of the Brain." By David Ferrier. M.D., LL.D., F.R.S. 

 Second Edition, re-written and enlarged. (London : Smith, Elder, and Co., 

 1886.) 



