414 



NATURE 



[August 22, 1907 



about inquiries to find out whether the wire had been 

 struct-: or not. No smoke appeared from the flash. There 

 was a deep hissing noise, followed by the natural crash 

 of the thunder some seconds afterwards. 



" The hissinf; noise was probably the wire falling, as 

 It was in many cases driven 2 or 3 inches into the earth. 

 I was about i8o yards from the winch in the same 

 direction as the wire, and abiout forty yards from directly 

 tmdcr the wire to the left, looking from the winch. 



" The balloon went away free, carrying the instru- 

 ments, and was watched for several minutes, as it happened 

 to pass through a clear portion of the sky where no 

 clouds were at the time. It has not since been recovered. 



" On investigation of the wire I found that near the 

 winch, say about 250 yards from it, the wire became less 

 tempered : in fact, it would stand bending quite well in 

 the portions found near the winch. It was fused right 

 off at the first wheel of the winch, and was undamaged 

 at the drum of the winch. 



" The weather was sultry : there had been some rain. 

 The wind was light but squally, W.N.W. There had 

 been no lightning previously. 



" The following are some observations taken on the 

 ground about an hour before the wire was struck : — 



Dry bull) 18° C. 



Wet bull, IS°-8C. 



Barometer ... ... ... ... ... 29'85 



Wind, N.VV. to W.N.W. 



" -Specimens of the wire enclosed." 



It appears from the specimens of wire that the heat 

 developed was sufficient to melt the tin but not to fuse 

 the wire. If then we assume that the process is too rapid 

 for loss of heat by conduction, we get for the limits 

 "between which the heat energy must lie 6x1400x200X0-11 

 and 6x1400x1300x0.18 in gram degree units, the wire 

 weighing about 6 grams per metre, and the mean specific 

 tieat of steel from 0° C. to 1300° C. being taken to be 

 o-i8. 



In ergs the limits become 7.12x10'° and 8-28x10", 

 «r, assuming the height of the cloud to "be 100 metres, 

 the energy was sufficient to raise 73 kilograms, but not 

 sufficient to raise 840 kilograms, to the cloud level. 



The fact of the wire being less brittle in the lower 

 Dortion points to a diminution of the energv developed, 

 but no reasonable explanation of this is apparent unless 

 it is due to an induction effect. 



Tn the case of a similar discharge on April 11 of this 

 year, the wire was comnletely fused from the balloon to 

 the winch ; the length of wire out was half a mile, and 

 the height of the balloon 2000 feet. The balloon was in 

 the clouds at the time. The discharge in this case also 

 took place by a cross flash from cloud to balloon. .An 

 account of the occurrence is given in a paper bv Colonel 

 Capper, read before the Roval Meteorological Societv in 

 ^I^y. ' E. Gold. 



Meteorological OflRce, 63 Victoria Street, London, 

 S.W., August 19. 



The Origin of the Domestic Striped Tabby Cat. 



In the Proceedings of the Zoological Societv for 

 February of this year I attempted to prove that English 

 dornestic cats are to be referred by their patterns to two 

 distinct kinds, which were described as the blotched and 

 striped tabbies ; and in discussing the possible origin of 

 these two cats, I set the blotched tabbv aside as of un- 

 known descent, and stated it as my conviction that the 

 striped tabby was to be traced to' the interbreeding of 

 two well-known wild species, namely, the European wild 

 cat {Fclii syhestris) and the so-called Egyptian or African 

 wild cat (Felis ocreata). There were living at that time 

 in the Zoological Gardens a male example of F. sylvestris 

 from Scotland and a female example of F. ocreata from 

 Uganda. The latter was captured as a kitten near Nairobi 

 in March, loofi, and had never been put to a male. To test 

 the truth of my belief that the progeny of these two species 

 would resemble our domestic striped tabbv, and also to 

 discover if there was any foundation for the theorv some 

 authors had put forward previouslv that the blotched tabbv 

 was the result of such a cross, the two cats in question 



were placed in the same cage this summer. They took 

 to one another at once, and last week the female produced 

 a litter of kittens resembling in every respect a typical 

 striped tabby such as may be seen any day in the streets 

 of London. R. I. PococK. 



Zoological Society's Gardens, August iS. 



A Fossil Tsetse-fly in Colorado. 



.^MO.NG the interesting materials obtained this year in 

 the Miocene shales of Florissant, Colorado, is a large 

 " biting " Ry, with a remarkably long and strong pro- 

 boscis, very well preserved. .\ very superficial examination 

 was sufficient to show that it was no ordinary Tabanid or 

 Muscid, and it at once occurred to me that it was a 

 tsetse-fly. Having no specimen of the latter at hand, I 

 turned to the admirable coloured figures in the second 

 report of the Wellcome Laboratories at Khartoum, and, as 

 was expected, it matched so nearly (hat it might well go 

 in GIpssina. There is a slight difference in the venation 

 which may or may not be of generic value, but if the 

 insect is not a Glossina it is at least closely allied. 

 Curiously, it is not new, for it appears to be the species 

 described by Scudder in 1892 as Palocsfrus oUgocenus, a 

 supposed new genus of Qlstrids. The new specimen, , 

 practically complete, and with the mouth-parts, shows ) 

 that it has nothing to do with Qistrida;, and anyone who 

 will refer to Scudder's figure will sec how closely the 

 venation resembles that of Glossina. 



The specimen obtained this year was found by Mr. 

 George N. Rohwer, a member of our party from the 

 University of Colorado. It is an obvious suggestion, 

 following some remarks lately published by Prof. Osborn, 

 that the existence of such flies may have had something 

 to do with the extinction of some of the Tertiary 

 Mammalia of .\merica. T. D. .\. Cockereli.. 



Universitv of Colorado. 



NO. 1973, VOL. 76] 



PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 



" (~^ ^^ °^ ''^^ penalties of devotion to a progressive 

 ^^ science is the constant feelinf:;^ of being left 

 behind." So savs the president of Section B, in his 

 address from the chair, at the recent meeting of the 

 British Association ; and although he adds that he 

 does." not think there is any occasion for panic," yet 

 the concluding portion of his address seems to indicate 

 that something approaching fear accompanies the im- 

 pression that the progress of science at the present 

 time is almost too rapid. There were some other 

 indications, also, at the meeting, that physics at the 

 present time is mistrusted by some chemists, to an 

 extent perhaps beyond ordinary and necessan- caution. 

 With a great part of the address agreement is easy. 

 The plea that chemists should continue chemists, and 

 that accurate manipulation and careful experimenting 

 should be strenuously cultivated, is so reasonable as 

 to be almost trite: for who would have it otherwise? 

 That an atomic theory of matter, which has proved 

 so useful in the past, should be adhered to as a guide 

 in the future is also a natural desire against which 

 no physicist has a word to say. Indeed, very much 

 the contrary : the atom of matter is as useful a con- 

 ception as ever, and has become even more real and 

 concrete owing to the actual counting and measuring 

 of individual atoms by physicists. But that physicists 

 and mathematicians should leave the atom alone, and 

 refrain from discomposing examination into its prob- 

 able internal structure, should cease to break it up 

 and otherwise modify it by appropriate agencies, and 

 should turn a blind eye to any spontaneous explosions 

 of energy whenever they have the bad taste to occur; 

 also that no element shall be discovered and named 

 which has zero chemical affinity, or which cannot be 

 obtained in w'eighable amounts — all that is surely 

 more than Section B has any right to expect, nor do I 

 suppose that it seriously makes such a demand. 



