October 24. 1907] 



NA TURE 



647 



that the rainfall was more than the mean in all districts 

 except Ireland N. In nearly all parts of the kingdom, 

 except Scotland N. and Ireland S., the excess was very 

 large. Several parts of the country recorded falls of much 

 more than an inch within twenty-four hours, and some 

 places more than 2 inches. Most of the heavy falls 

 occurred either on October 15 or 16. At Lincoln (about 

 1 5 miles from the centre of the city) as much as 3-50 inches 

 were recorded on October 16, and at Leith 261 inches on 

 October 15, while over a large area of Great Britain 

 measurements of between i inch and 2 inches were 

 registered. The largest aggregates for the week were 

 402 inches at Bournemouth and 4-62 inches at Portland 

 Bill. 



The report of the Government Meteorological Depart- 

 ment on rainfall registration in Mysore for 1906 shows 

 very clearly, both statistically and graphically, that the 

 district average for the year was somewhat above the 

 mean of the past thirty-seven years in all parts except in 

 Shimoga and Kadur, but was, on the whole, not sufficient 

 to make up for the deficiency of the two previous years. 

 The greatest rain in twenty-four hours was, as usual, at 

 Augumbe (Shimoga), where 15 inches fell on July 21 and 

 i\\ inches the following day. The director, Mr. J. Cook, 

 states that though the interest of the observers in their 

 work has greatly increased in recent years, many of the 

 gauges are still badly exposed. 



An interesting pamphlet by Mr. D. W. Horner, entitled 

 " Observing and Forecasting the Weather : Meteorology 

 without Instruments," has recently been published by 

 Messrs. Witherby and Co., 326 High Holborn (post free, 

 yd.). On reading this booklet we were impressed bv the 

 fact that much useful work can be done by the public gener- 

 ally without expense, and with advantage to themselves, by 

 recording their observations as recommended. The greater 

 part of the pamphlet deals with the importance of cloud 

 observations, and the author points out how anyone 

 possessing an ordinary photographic camera may obtain 

 useful pictures of clouds and lightning flashes. To make 

 the chapter on wind more complete, a table of the veloci- 

 ties corresponding to estimated force by Beaufort's scale 

 is given ; the equivalents were in general use until very 

 recently, but have been slightly modified by a publication 

 of the Meteorological Office (No. 180, 1906) bearing upon 

 the subject. With reference to the supposed influence of 

 the moon on the weather, the author states that there is 

 " grave reason for doubt " that Sir W. Herschel compiled 

 a table until recently published in almanacs ; any doubt on 

 the question was removed by Sir J. Herschel's denial in 

 GooA Words, 1864. 



Messrs. Sanders and Crowiiurst have issued a new 

 series of lantern slides from Mr. W. Farren's photographs 

 illustrating wild bird life, taken from nature. The slides 

 include many instructive pictures of birds and their habits. 

 Enlargements of the photographs are also issued. 



.\ SECOND edition, being the third impression, of Dr. 

 R. Wallace Stewart's " Higher Text-book of Magnetism 

 and Electricity " has been published by Mr. W. B. Clive. 

 This edition contains an additional chapter on the electron 

 theory of matter and radio-activity, written by Mr. J. 

 Satterly. 



A SECOND edition, which has been revised and enlarged, 

 of Dr. Ernst Cohen's " Vortrage fiir Arzte iiber physik- 

 alische Chemie " has been published by Mr. W. Engel- 

 mann, of Leipzig. An authorised translation of the first 

 edition, by Mr. M. H. Fischer, was published by Messrs. 

 NO. 1982, VOL. 76] 



Henry Holt and Co., of New York, in 1903, and the 

 English version was reviewed in Nature of July 16, 1903 

 (vol. Ixviii., p. 245). 



From Messrs. Philip Harris and Co., Ltd., of Birming- 

 ham, we have received a specimen of their recently intro- 

 duced students' clinometer and compass. It consists of 

 a silvered dial of some i\ inches diameter divided into 

 degrees in the two uppermost quadrants,- and provided 

 with a pair of sights of the usual folding pattern, ."^bout 

 this dial revolves a metal collar carrying a spirit level, to 

 which is affixed an index point indicating the angular 

 elevation of the object under measurement. No fine degree 

 of accuracy can be expected, of course, from a dial of so 

 small a radius, but, with the accompanying compass, the 

 instrument should be found extremely useful in educa- 

 tional work, such as is involved in the practical study of 

 physical geography, inasmuch as it will familiarise the 

 student with the principles of the angular measurements 

 of elevation and azimuth. The clinometer would be 

 simpler to use, it appears to us, and would give greater 

 accuracy, if some method were devised of attaching the 

 collar carrying the level and inde.x to the stand, thereby 

 leaving the sights and dial to move independently of the 

 latter, which could then be accurately levelled at the com- 

 mencement of the observation and afterwards left un- 

 disturbed. 



OVR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Mellish's Comet, igoye. — A second telegram from the 

 Kiel Centralstelle informs us that the comet discovered by 

 Mr. Mellish at Madison on October 13 was observed by 

 Prof. Hartwig at Bamberg on October 15. Its position 

 at I7h. 0-401. (Bamberg M.T.) was R..'\.=8h. 26m. 13s., 

 dec. = 8° 45' 16" S., and its magnitude 9-5. 



The following are a set of elements and an ephcmeris 

 calculated by Miss Lamson from places observed on 

 October 15, 16, and 17, and communicated by Prof. 

 Pickering to the Kiel Centralstelle (Circular No. 100) : — 



Elements. 

 T=I907 September I2'47 (M.T. Greenwich). 

 00 = 291° 



1907 'O 



= 55 



'/ =0-973 



Epher. 



is i2h. (G.M.T.). 



Bri?ht 

 I-I5 



October 19 8 14-1 - 7 o .„ 



23 7 577 -4 38 — 



27 7 36-0 -I 30 — 



31 7 6-8 +2 39 206 



The brightness at time of discovery (mag. =9-0) is taken 

 as unity. On October 27 the comet will be about half- 

 way between y (26) Monocerotis and Procyon, and on 

 October 31 it will be some 2° north of 5 (22) Monocerotis. 

 On the Tatter date the comet will rise a little to the north 

 of east at about 10.30 p.m. 



.\ Bright Meteor. — Mr. W. F. Denning informs us 

 that a fine meteor = 9 was seen by Miss Irene Warner 

 of Horfield Common, near Bristol, on October 19 8h. 50m. 

 It disappeared close to the star S Aquarii, near the planet 

 Saturn, and was directed from the north-east region of 

 Cygnus, near a and €. It was of a fiery yellow colour 

 and formed quite a conspicuous object even in the presence 

 of the nearly full moon. 



The Spectra of Sun-spots and Mira Ceti. — In the 

 September AstrophysUal Journal (vol. xxvi., No. 2, p. 123) 

 Father Cortie compares the spectra of Mira Ceti, taken at 

 Stonyhurst during the maxima of 1897 and 1906, with the 

 sun-spot spectrum, and infers therefrom that the tempera- 

 ture of the spot vapours is lower than that of the photo- 



