July 13, 1905] 



NA TURE 



253 



the stagnation of rain water, the notification, and if 

 necessary the removal to hospital, of cases of malaria, and 

 the use of kerosene and the administration of quinine, with 

 such marked success that at the present time malaria has 

 practically, if not absolutely, disappeared from the places 

 where the aforesaid measures have been carried out, while 

 the remainder of the district remains much as it was. 

 The report is a striking testimony to the value of the dis- 

 covery by Maior Ronald Ross. 



A COMMITTEE appointed some years ago by the labor- 

 atory section of the American Public Health Association 

 has recently issued its report on standard methods of 

 water analysis. The committee in formulating the report 

 has ascertained in a comprehensive manner the views of 

 American analysts in regard to the bacteriological, 

 chemical, physical, and microscopical e.\aiTiinations of 

 water, and much cooperative work has been done in con- 

 nection with the differentiation of species of bacteria. The 

 need for greater uniformity in water analysis methods is 

 universally recognised, and in the further standardisation 

 of analytical and bacteriological methods in this country 

 regard should be had to the report of the American com- 

 mittee. The part dealing with the identification of species 

 of bacteria would appear to be specially valuable. The 

 report is reprinted from the Journal of Infectious Diseases 

 (May). 



In connection with the .Agricultural Education and 

 Forestry Exhibition at the recent show of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society there was a section devoted to 

 meteorology, organised by the Royal Meteorological 

 .Society. One feature was a typical climatological station 

 with all the necessary instruments ; another was an ex- 

 hibition of diagrarhs, maps, photographs, &c., illustrating 

 the effect of weather upon agriculture. Barometers, 

 thermometers, rain gauges, sunshine recorders, &c., were 

 also shown, and an address was given each day by Mr. 

 W. Marriott on meteorology in relation to agriculture. 



We have received from the meteorological reporter to 

 the Government of Irtdia (t)r. G. T. Walker) the Monthly 

 Weather Review for November, 1904, and the Annual 

 Summary for 1903. In the Monthly Review the data are 

 presented from two different points of view : — (i) the pre- 

 valence and spread of diseases, and (2) their connection 

 with agricultural questions. For this purpose India has 

 been divided into two large groups of divisions, from 

 what may be termed the inedical and agricultural stand- 

 points. The vastness of the area, and the number of tables 

 that the discussions necessitate, are somewhat bewildering. 

 The Annual Summary^ however, completes the discussion, 

 and the aggregate data are presented in an elaborate but 

 clear and able manner. From the agricultural standpoint, 

 India is divided into 57 meteorological districts; the 

 tables show, for each element, the departures of the 

 monthly and annual mean values for 1903 from the averages 

 of past years, and the leading features are clearly illustrated 

 by a series of carefully prepared charts. 



The English titles of the Journal of the Meteorological 

 Society of Japan for May show that it contains several in- 

 teresting articles, e.g. on the earthquake of April 15, the 

 hot wind at Taito in Formosa, and others. Mr. T. Okada 

 contributes a note in English on the relation between 

 the pulse-rate and atmospheric pressure. The author 

 quotes a table by Prof. Clayton, who made an ascent 

 of Pike's Peak in igoi by means of the railway, and 

 therefore without exertion, and Mr. Okada has calculated 

 the atmospheric pressure at each station up to 4313 

 NO. 1863, VOL. 72] 



metres, from Hann's simplified barometric formula. A 

 glance' at the table shows that the pulse-rate regularly 

 increases with decrease of atmospheric pressure, and he 

 gives a simple equation by the use of which the actual 

 and calculated values exactly agree. This formula shows 

 that a decrease of 9 mm. of pressure causes an 

 of one beat of the heart per minute. 



mcrease 



We have received a copy of the report and results of 

 observations for the year 1904 at the Fernley Observatory,, 

 Southport. The work carried on at this institution is of 

 considerable importance ; the observatory represents the 

 coast district of the north-west of England, between Liver- 

 pool and Fleetwood, while somewhat to the east is the 

 inland observatory of Stonyhurst. All these stations, 

 except, perhaps, Fleetwood, are equipped with complete 

 self-recording instruments. The Southport Observatory 

 undertakes, in addition to the usual work of a first 

 order station, considerable experimental work con- 

 nected with rainfall, evaporation, wind, &c., at various 

 subordinate stations in its vicinity. It also publishes a 

 useful table of comparative climatological statistics at 

 health resorts and large towns. The tables show that at 

 Southport the year 1904 was very dry, the rainfall being 

 7-4 inches below the average. The maximum shade 

 temperature was 82°-4, on July n, and the minimum 

 22°-o, on November 27 ; the lowest radiation temperature 

 was'i3°-4, on February 29. The director is Mr. J. 

 Baxendell, meteorologist to the Southport Corporation, and 

 the chief assistant Mr. F. L. Halliwell, who, in connection 

 with Mr. Baxendell and Mr. W. H. Dines, has invented 

 several large sensitive recording instruments which are 

 now adopted at various important stations. 



The Board of Agriculture and Fisheries has received, 

 through the Foreign Office, a copy of a despatch from 

 the British Consul at Munich reporting that 200,000 eggs 

 of a new kind of whitefish (Coregonus .Albula) of the 

 Salmonid;e family, imported from Lake Peipus, in 

 Russia, were hatched last year with excellent results at 

 the fish-breeding station at Starnberg, near Munich. It 

 is the intention of the Bavarian Fisheries Society, under 

 which the experiments have taken place, to continue trials 

 for five consecutive years to the same extent as hitherto, 

 in the hope that the fish first placed in the different lakes 

 may have spawned by then. 



The Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for May 

 (xvi., No. 170) contains papers on various medical subjects 

 and on cancer, &c., in bitches. Dr. Hemmeter, in an 

 article of considerable interest, discusses the history of the 

 discovery of the circulation of the blood. He remarks that 

 no less than six individuals have been credited with this 

 discovery— Servetus by the Spaniards, Colombus, Ruini. 

 and Cesalpinus bv the Italians, Harvey by the English, 

 and Rabelais by the French. He then proceeds critically 

 to survey the evidence for and against the claims of these, 

 and also of Galen, Malpighi, and others whose anatomical 

 discoveries were almost necessarily precursors of the con- 

 ception of the blood circulation. Dr. Hemmeter finally 

 concludes that " the discovery of the circulation of the 

 blood was the work of almost a millennium from Aristotle 

 and Galen to Harvey, but the one who first logically drew 

 true consequences out of hundreds of years of preceding 

 work and upon whose broad intellectual shoulders all sub- 

 sequent investigations rested, was William Harvey; and 

 to-day 328 years after his birth, we may side without 

 reservation with the words of Bartholin : " At Harveyo 

 omnes applaudunt circulationis auctori." 



