February 



1910] 



NA TURE 



405 



published, of the wind tabulations for all the anemometers 

 in connection with the office from 1906 to igog inclusive. 

 There is, besides, a series of diagrams representing the 

 variation of wind velocity with height for all the kite 

 ascents reported to the office in 1908 and 1909. These 

 diagrams show a remarkable approximation, on manv 

 occasions, to direct proportionality between height above 

 sea-level and the wind velocity in the upper air, irrespective 

 of the height of the station at which the observation is 

 made, and suggest a working practical rule for computing 

 the increase of wind aloft. Opportunity is also afforded 

 for considering the computation of gradient wind which 

 must form the basis of any satisfactory method of dealing 

 with wind measurements. 



The Paris floods have fortunately passed their maximum 

 height, and are now generally subsiding. The information 

 to hand having a bearing on the direct cause of the flood 

 is exceedingly meagre, and until the detailed report of the 

 Service hydrom^trique is available little can be said. The 

 data collected by this service is very complete, and extends 

 over a period of'fifty years. A series of low barometric 

 systems passed over the northern portion of the Mediter- 

 ranean and the south of France after January ig, and 

 these occasioned exceptionally heavy rains in the catch- 

 ment basin of the river and its tributaries. In Paris the 

 aggregate rainfall from January 17 to January 25 was 

 2 08 inches, but this is quite inadequate to occasion the 

 tremendous rise of the Seine which occurred ; on no day 

 did the rainfall amount to 0-5 inch. The rains were 

 heavier near the source of the river, and in parts of 

 France and Switzerland the rainfall for the two days 

 January 18-19 amounted to fully 3 inches. According to 

 the BuUetin International of the Central Meteorological 

 Office of France, a swelling of the Seine was forecasted 

 for January 20, but so late as January 20 the flood was 

 not expected to e.xceed about 13 feet on January 22, and 

 on January 21 this estimate was increased to :6 feet for 

 January 23. On this date the estimate was further in- 

 creased to 22 feet for January 24, and on January 25 the 

 estimate for the increase was to 25 feet on January 26. 

 At 8 a.m. on this date the actual flood reached 24-6 feet 

 at Pont d'Austerlitz, 24 feet at Pont de la Tournelle, and 

 27 feet at Pont Royal, whilst a further slight increase was 

 anticipated. The flood is said to have attained its 

 maximum height on January 27-28, when it is reported 

 as having reached 30 feet at Pont Royal. This is appar- 

 ently higher than any previous record, exceeding that of 

 1764. 



It is with regret that we announce the death, in his 

 sixtieth year, of Prof. W. Hillhouse, who held the chair 

 of botany and vegetable physiology in Mason College and 

 the University of Birmingham from 1882, when the chair 

 was founded, until last year, when he was compelled by 

 ill health to resign his appointment. Prof. Hillhouse was 

 born at Bedford in 1850, and some of the earliest of his 

 botanical work was in connection with the flora of his 

 native county. He became a scholar of Trinity College, 

 Cambridge, and afterwards a lecturer in that University. 

 He was also keeper of the University herbarium. His 

 life at Cambridge was marked by the birth of the 

 Cambridge Review, of which he was one of the founders, 

 and the editing of which he shared with Prof. Arnold 

 and Vice-Principal Dale. He was widely known in 

 the Birmingham district for his interest in educational 

 matters, and in particular his efforts were directed to the 

 establishment of a university extension movement in con- 

 nection with Birmingham. He was a most energetic 

 KG. 2IOI, VOL. 82] 



worker as honorary director of the Edgbaston Botanical 

 Gardens, and was chairman of the council of the Midland 

 Reafforesting -Association. He was for a number of years 

 on the Leicestershire Education Committee, and on retiring 

 in 1909 received a very warm tribute for the services he 

 had rendered in promoting the higher education of the 

 county. One of his latest works on behalf of the Uni- 

 versity was the direction of the preliminary laying out 

 of the ornamental grounds surrounding the new buildings 

 at Edgbaston. His death will be sincerely regretted by his 

 colleagues and by many of his old students, by whom his 

 genial and kindly personality was much appreciated. 



The Victoria Museum of Launceston, Tasmania, is 

 setting an example to other institutions of a like nature 

 in arranging for the preparation of a series of dissected 

 skeletons of native birds preserved in formalin. Of one 

 of these a descriptive account has been published in the 

 shape of a pamphlet, by Mr. H. H. Scott, the curator, 

 under the title of " A Memoir on the Wedge-tailed Eagle, 

 Uroaetus audax ; a Study in Avian Osteology." 



.According to vol. ii. of the Journal of the Ipswich and 

 District Field Club, the local excursions have been well 

 attended during the past season, and have attracted a large 

 amount of interest. Specially noteworthy is the discovery 

 of a new Pleistocene bone-bed in a railway-cutting near 

 the city. In connection with another " find " of mam- 

 malian remains may be noticed a repetition of the common 

 error of giving Cervus elephas as the name of the red 

 deer. The issue concludes with a reprint of a paper, by 

 Dr. Bather, on crinoid remains from the Red Crag. 



The hairy-nosed wombat, Phascolomys latifrons, has 

 hitherto been regarded as peculiar to South Australia. It 

 appears, however, that in the Melbourne Museum are pre- 

 served four specimens of this species obtained from a 

 lonely part of New South Wales in or near Denison 

 country so long ago as the year 1884. Whether the species 

 still survives there is unknown, but the donor of the speci- 

 mens stated that it never occurred in any other part of 

 the colony. These New South Wales hairy-nosed wombats 

 are stated to differ from their relatives in the south in the 

 characters of the nose, while the skull appeared to be 

 shorter and rounder. If these differences are well estab- 

 lished, the New South Wales form apparently indicates a 

 distinct species. 



In an article on the menageries of the ancients and 

 the Middle Ages and their influence on modern zoology, 

 published in the January number of La Revue des Id^es, 

 Mr. Gustave Loisel directs attention to the circumstance 

 that in ancient times Indians, Persians, Chaldeans, and 

 Assyrians appear to have completely tamed the larger 

 felines, carrying out this taming process to a considerably 

 greater extent than is accomplished in the case of the 

 hunting-leopard by the natives of modern India. They 

 tamed the lion, for instance, to such a degree that it could 

 be led in a halter and employed in the chase of deer, 

 wild bulls, boars, and asses. It is also considered that the 

 Chinese were the first to domesticate house-cats, and like- 

 wise to train cormorants for fishing. 



In an article on Miocene trees, published in the January 

 number of the American Naturalist, Prof. T. D. A. 

 Cockerell points out the remarkable resemblance between 

 the fossil trees of the Florissant beds of Colorado and 

 those of CEningen, in Baden. Out of six species selected 

 from each locality, two are common to both sets of strata, 

 while four are representative of each other. Nine other 

 Florissant trees are quoted as being represented by allied 



