JULV 23, 1896] 



NATURE 



77 



theodolite requires the two observers— each placed 

 at one end of the measured base — to agree by- 

 telephonic correspondence on one fixed point in the 

 cloud, which it is not always easy to do, as well as 

 on the precise instant at which the observation should 

 be taken ; the calculation of the observations is sub- 

 sequently made from triyonometrical formuhc, or 

 by a slide-rule, or plotting machine. The photo- 

 grammeter, which is a theodolite provided with a 

 small telescope and a camera obscura, possesses one 

 great advantage from the fact that the two observers 

 have no need to agree as to the special point to be 

 observed : it is sufficient that both photograph the same 

 part of the sky at the same moment. On each photo- 

 graphic plate the coordinates of a point of intersection 

 are known, and by placing it upon a glass scale graduated 

 to millimetres the coordinates of as many points as may 

 be desired can be fi.xed ; it is only necessary to deter- 

 mine, once for all, how many minutes correspond to a 

 millimetre on the plate. Once the coordinates are found, 

 the calculations can be made as in the case of the theo- 

 dolites. .As these researches require the calculation of 

 a great number of observations, it is indispensable that 

 the methods employed in reducinj^ them should be as 

 simple as possible. This desideratum has been solved 

 by M. Akerblom, in a very satisfactory manner, in a 

 pamphlet entitled " De I'emploi des Photogrammeters " 



(Upsala, 1S94J, which has been distributed by Dr. 

 Hildebrandsson to intending observers. Easy methods 

 of reduction, giving approximately correct results, have 

 also been devised by General R. Strachey and Sir G. 

 Stokes. 



We have before us a valuable investigation by Dr. 

 Kayser, containing some 1500 cloud measurements made 

 under the auspices of the Philosophical Society of Dan- 

 zig, between May and August 1895, ''Y means of photo- 

 grammeters. In various respects the camera used appears 

 to be an improvement on some of the instruments hitherto 

 adopted, being of simple construction, well balanced, 

 and combining ease of movement with necessary rigidity, 

 while the altitude and azimuth circles are sufficiently large 

 to admit of accurate reading. The accompanying plates 

 are reproductions of a pair of photographs of a cumulus 

 cloud observed by this means on May 25, 1895. The 

 mean height of the cloud from several measurements 

 was found to be 1714 metres, the distance between the 

 two observing stations being about 679 metres. In order 

 not to delay the publication of the .Society's volume, no 

 classification of the heights of the various clouds has 

 been made : but in the Mclcoroloiiische Zcitschrift for 

 May, Dr. Sprung has attempted this, and finds the mean 

 values in metres to be as follows: — Stratus, 1704; 

 <:umulus, 2856 ; strato-cumulus, 2196 ; alto-cumulus, 4098 ; 



NO. 1 395. ^"OL. 54] 



cirro-cumulus, 6834 ; cirrus, 10,043. The daily variation 

 of altitude cannot be deduced from these observations, 

 because they were not distributed sufficiently uniformly 

 throughout the day. Dr. Kayser's work contains useful 

 materials for the study of observers during the inter- 

 national cloud year, and we are glad to see that the 

 observations are to be continued this summer. 



NOTES. 

 Ox Wednesday in last week, the Queen invested Lord Kelvin ' 

 with the Riband and Badge of a Knight Grand Cross of the 

 new Royal Victorian Order. 



Sir Wii.lia.m MacCormac has been elected President of the 

 Royal College of Surgeons of England. 



General M. Rykatchef has been appointed Director of 

 the Central Physical Observatory, St. Petersburg, in the place 

 of Dr. H. Wild, resigned. For many years General Rykatchef . 

 has had charge of the maritime meteorological branch of that 

 Observatory. 



In the House of Common? on Friday last, .Sir S. Northcote 

 asked the President of the Board of Trade if he would introduce 

 this Session a Bill to deal with the metric system, in order that 

 chambers of commerce and other parties interested might have 

 sufficient time during the recess to consider the proposals of 

 Her Majesty's Government on this subject. .Mr. Ritchie re- 

 plied that he would be glad to introduce the Bill, but without 

 any intention of proceeding with it this Session. 



The large male Indian elephant which was brought home by 

 the Prince of Wales from India in May 1876, and which died in 

 the Zoological Society's Gardens on March 8 last, has been 

 successfully mounted by Mr. E. Gerrard, jun. The specimen is 

 at present placed in the Central Hall of the Natural History 

 Museum, just opposite the principal entrance ; but it will be 

 ultimately moved to the Mammal Gallery, which is now in 

 process of rearrangement, when space has been found for it. 



A FINE example of the Pangolin, or Scaly Anteater,iis now on 

 view at the Zoological Society's Gardens, having been placed 

 there, on deposit, by the Hon. Walter Rothschild. Pangolins 

 are seldom seen in captivity, being very difficult to keep in good 

 health. There has been no example of this form in the Society's 

 collection for nearly twenty years. The present specimen, 

 which seems likely to do well, belongs to the species called the 

 Short-tailed Pangolin (Mains temiiiincki), of which a good 

 figure is given in the third volume of " The Royal Natural 

 History," lately published. It is said to have been obtained in 

 the Transvaal. 



Dr. Klein recently delivered three lectures on the subject 

 of " Recent Researches in the Identification of the Typhoid 

 Bacillus and the Cholera Vibrio," being the Harben Lectures 

 in connection with the British Institute of Public Health. The 

 lectures are the property of that Institute, and will be published 

 in its official organ. The Journal of State Medicine. The first 

 lecture has just been published in the July numbei. The other 

 lectures will appear in the August number. 



By means of a rearrangement of existing scholarships 

 at the Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, and by the 

 establishment of a special fund, memorials have been founded 

 to Dr. Livingstone and Prof Huxley, both old students of the 

 school. The memorial to Livingstone takes the form of an 

 entrance scholarship of 100 guineas per annum, and that to 

 Huxley of (l) an entrance scholarship of ^^55, open to the sons 

 of medical men ; (2) a second year's prize in anatomy and 

 physiology ; and (3) a lectureship dealing with recent advances 



