October 15, 1896J 



NA TURE 



573 



nf six in the latter case (minimum) atew average ; also including 

 (sny) two of the following years in each case, a tendency to 

 excess iif - values in one case, and of + values in the other. 

 If the amounts of excess and deficit lie further considered, the 

 ;>\eragc deficit in the one case, and excess in the other, is dis- 

 tinctly the greater. 



(Two averages have here been used, dividing at 1870.) 



We have considere<I six months of the year. But the same 

 tendency may be discerned in individual months, and other 

 combinations of months. June and August show it very well : 

 also (less distinctly) the whole summer group (June to August). 



If any one will take the troulile to compare smoothed curves 

 of June temperature at a number of European stations, he will 

 find, I l)elieve, that most of these agree in the feature considered, 

 and that one supplements another. Thus the correspondence 

 with the sun-spot curve may fail somewhat at a particular point 

 in the case of one station ; but another curve agrees better at 

 that point, and so on. 



A comparison of six months" curves for other stations seems 

 <lesirable. The Greenwich curve, I think, shows the influence, 

 but less fully. 



In such selections and comparisons of portions of the year and 

 different stations, an analogy might lie traced to what occurs in 

 looking at something through a microscope. We screw the 

 tube out and in, and at one point get a generally clear image ; 

 with another position, part of the image is blurred and part 

 rendered more distinct ; with still another, there is a general 

 blurring, .and so on. 



The rainfall of Bremen, especially in the summer half, also 

 presents interesting features in this connection (see Met. Zeits. 

 for 1895, p 120). 



Several of the monthly curves sliow a tendency to high values 

 near maximum sun-spots. I have here combined the rainfall of 

 August and September in a smoothed curve (f). The maxima 

 and minima, it will be seen, correspond pretty closely with those 

 of the sun-spots. 



Has not a too mechanical conception regarding sun-spots and 

 weather prevailed in the minds of some? In view of the great 

 instability and variability of weather, is it not rational to sup- 

 pose that the thing to be looked for may be merely of the nature 

 <'fan average effect, a tendency, a preponderance? The position, 

 further, that if .sun spots aftect weather, they must affect it 

 everywhere in the same wav, I lielieve lo be untenable. 



A B. M. 



An Antidote to Snake-Bites: "Scorpion-Oil." 



I c.-VMK across the following popular remedy last June, when 

 at Kandersteg. Since my return to England I have written to 

 the guide, -Vbraham Midler, and here give the substance of his 

 answer to my request for more exact details. 



Every year Italian scor]iion-sellers traverse Switzerland, 

 especially the mountain valleys thereof; in the lower land and 

 towns the reinedy can be obtained at the chemists', and these 

 buy their scorpions direct from Italy. It is usual to take, say, 

 a half-litre of good olive oil (at the lime he told me it was 

 walnut oil ; perhaps this is commoner and cheaper ?), and 

 throw therein about ten living scorpions. The scorpions are 

 left in the oil until they die— say twelve or twenty-four hours. 

 They are then taken out and thrown away, or the oil is poured 

 from oil them into a bottle. 



In the case of poisonous snake-bites, or poisonous "Inseklcti- 

 sliiheii," the wound is first, if possible, washed out with salt 

 water. The scorpion-oil is then rubbed in, and all round over 

 the swollen part, the rubbing being towards the wound. 



In the case of other "xiei:kli,^vii^ Schnitten, S/u/ten, Giiel- 

 Si/ningiii. gichligen Geschwiilsli- tiiid dergleichen" the oil is 

 applied in like manner, only it is not poured into the wound, as 

 it is too " uharpf." 



The custom is centuries old, and (my informant believes) very 

 widely spread in Switzerland, lie could find out more details, 

 if required, from a chemist. 



In general the application is external only ; but there are 

 men who, when suffering from great internal pain of which they 

 do not know the cause, drink some drops of the oil in camomile 

 tea. ( Result not stated I) 



The scorpion-oil is used for men and animals alike. 

 J I think ihM giechtigen must be an error for ni/ligtn : it cannot well be 

 gichtigCH when used with Sclinitttn. My knowledge of German does not 

 enable me to translate Gtietschungfn or Gn£tschitn£;c». I have given these 

 few words in the German to avoid confusion. 



NO. 1407, VOL. 54] 



It seeitis to me that, since the oil rubbed into the wound 

 caused by a snake or an insect doubtless contains some .scorpion 

 jjoison, the above is of interest in connection with the recent 

 experiments in inoculation. (Nature, vol. liii. pp. 569, 592 ) 



R.N.E. College, Devonport. W. Larhen. 



Chameleonic Notes. 

 Mr. Barilett writes me that they have no chameleon now 

 in the Gardens, so that probably my little stranger is the only 

 one in this country ; and to the note on its habits, which you 

 printed in your number of July 16, may I add the following : 

 Little is known of these most interesting creatures, and the book 

 knowdedge is singularly discrepant. After being kept for nearly 

 eight months under a large bell glass in iny library, and fed with 

 garden flies of all sorts, he began changing his skin. This, first, 

 appeared to hang rather loosely in niitk-wltitc folds on his body, 

 then he got rid of it bit by bit, squirming himself against the 

 stick on which he was perched, and continually changing his 

 altitude. He also used his feet occasionally, to help to rip off the 

 old skin ; and being very restless, this was all got rid of in one 

 day. His general colour also changed from very light brown 

 to very dark brown, then to light brown, and again to very 

 dark brown, while the skin-shedding took place. He 

 never seeined to care for any water all the time I had him. On 

 being approached in a dark room at night, he appeared most 

 conspicuously while, doubtless for protective purposes. I believe 

 wild-fow I shooters are also in the habit of painting their boats 

 and paraphernalia white in order to be less conspicuous. Turning 

 the bright light of a lantern (with a powerful reflector) upon him, 

 he immediately began visibly \o darken, until in an extremely 

 short space of time he had assumed the same colour as the brown 

 twig on which he was sitting. These colour changes have, I 

 think, never been satisfactorily explained ; and their rapidity is 

 not the least extraordinary phenomenon in these most curious 

 creatures. E. L. T. Ridsdale. 



Visual Aid in the Oral Teaching of Deaf-Mutes. 



I MUST confess to being one of those unacquainted with 

 Kcenig's invention, but the object of the interesting experiment 

 described by Mr. Hawk.sley in Nature of October i is 

 sufficiently evident from the results. 



Since the experiments of MM. Marey and Rosapelly, and 

 more recently the phonograph, rendered it possible to reproduce 

 in a graphic form the sounds of the human voice, the question 

 of the practical application of such visual reproductions in the 

 oral education of the deaf has frequently been mooted, but solar 

 without any useful result. 



As is well known, the speech of orally educated deaf-mutes is 

 not usually so natural, and hence not so readily understood, as 

 that of those who hear. This is chiefly due to the absence of 

 the controlling action of the hearing ; but if this could be sup- 

 plied by visual means, much might be accomplished. 



If, therefore, some physicist would devise a simple and efficient 

 apparatus by which an orally taught deaf-mute could test his 

 speech to ascertaiii how far it corresponded in inflection, &c., 

 with that of his teacher or other hearing person, and to regulate 

 it accordingly, a great practical boon would be conferred on the 

 deaf and their teachers. 



Doubtless, as Mr. Hawksley says, the principle of Kcenig's 

 invention might be made useful to oral teachers, but a simpler 

 application of it than is exhibited in his experiment would be 

 desirable, and indeed necessary, before it could become generally 

 available. A. Farrak, Jun. 



October 2. 



A Retnarkable Lightning Flash. 



The "remarkable lightning flash" depicted by Mr. George 

 G. Burch in Natukr for September 24, is to me interesting. 

 Many years ago I witnessed what was jirobably a flash of the 

 same kind, a phenomenon I considered at the time very extra- 

 ordinary. In the early evening of a fine summer day, while 

 sitting leisurely on a hedge on a comparatively high hill near to 

 Llandyssul in the county of Cardigan, with an immense area of 

 country within reach of my vision, there appeared, slightly above 

 the horizon in the west, what seemed to be a perfectly endless 

 flash, almost circular in shape, and exceedingly serrated. 



There was not a single stray end to be seen, as in Mr. Eurch's 

 flash. I heard no thunder, and I knew from the fainlness of the 



