5/6 



NA TURE 



[October 15, 1896 



to lunch, and to illuminations and fireworks in the 

 Curhaus Gardens in the evening. A large party also 

 went to Marburg on the same day. There was an 

 abundance of literature specially prepared for visitors, 

 and in addition to separate guides to Frankfort for the 

 use of gentlemen and for ladies, Dr. Ziegler and Prof. 

 Konighad published a large post quarto \olume on " Das 

 Klima von Frankfurt am Main " in which they discussed 

 all available meteorological information, the letterpress 

 occupying eighty-four pages, the tables tifty-one pages, 

 and ten double-page diagrams. The records of ice on 

 the river are complete from the year 1825, but prior to 

 that date they are irregular, e.xtendmg, however, as far 

 back as January 1306. 



Several rooms had been set apart for the exhibition of 

 entomological collections ; of Jenner relics (the centenary 

 of inoculation for the small-pox) ; of Riintgen-ray photo- 

 graphs — of the manner in which the photographs are 

 produced ; and many other subjects of a scientific or 

 medical character. 



.\ large number of foreigners came to Frankfort to 

 attend the meetings, those from England being Sir 

 William MacCormac, Prof. .-Vrmstrong, Mr. Harries, 

 and Drs. Semon and Thin. 



NOTES. 



The (latty Marine Laboratory, which is a continuation of the 

 oldest Marine Laboratory in Britain, will be opened by Lord 

 Reay on Friday, October 30. Invitations to the opening cere- 

 mony have just been sent out by the University of St. Andrews. 



Cablegrams from Australia report the death, at Melbourne, 

 on October 9, at the age of seventy-one, of Baron Sir Ferdinand 

 von Miiller, the eminent botanist, who has added so much to our 

 knowledge of the flora of our Australian Colonies. A German 

 by birth. Baron von Mtiller had resided in Australia just half a 

 century. He was a P'ellow of the Royal Society, and Botanist 

 to the Colonial Government. 



The death is announced of Dr. M. W. Drobisch, Professor 

 of Philosophy in the University of Leipzig, and distinguished for 

 his mathematical as well as his philosophical researches. 



There seems to be no room for doubt that llie company 

 which has acquired the world-renowned Giant's Causeway, 

 intends to prevent free access to it. The honorary secretary of 

 the Bally money Sub-committee of the Defence Committee formed 

 to assert public rights, having, in company with other members 

 of the Sub-committee, visited the Causeway a few days ago, has 

 received notice that a writ has been issued against him for 

 trespassing upon the property of the syndicate. 



Prof. Meldola, writing with reference to our note on 

 wasps and flies (p. 549), says : — " I am glad you have again 

 called attention to the useful part played by wasps in keeping 

 flies in check. Many years ago, in an inn parlour on the Essex 

 coast, I made a similar observation with Mr. W. Cole, who was 

 with me at the time. We found hundreds of wings scattered 

 about the window-ledge inside the room, and we were at first at 

 a loss to explain the depredation. While watching, the mystery 

 was solved. The upper part of the window had been left open 

 a few inches, and a wasp came through, caught a fly on the glass 

 pane, instantly clipped off its wings, and flew out of the open upper 

 part of the window with the body. Other wasps followed and 

 repeated the process. For about an hour we observed the con- 

 tinuous arrival of wasps, every one of which secured a fly before 

 departing." 



The weather over the British Islands last week was unusually 

 stormy ; the reports issued by the Meteorological Office show 

 ".hat the atmospheric disturbances followed each other at short 



intervals, and were accompanied with heavy falls of rain in nearly 

 all places. One of the most serious barometric depressions 

 approached our islands from the south-westward on the 7tl\ inst., 

 and the disturbance moved during this and die following day 

 along our extreme western coasts, causing heavy south-westerly 

 gales and terrific seas in the west and north ; over an inch of 

 rain fell in twenty-four hours at several places, the amount 

 measured at Holyhead, on the 8th, being i 'S inches. During 

 this severe gale the Daunt's Rock Lightship, near Cork, dis- 

 appeared, with her crew of ten men. Notwithstanding the 

 recent heavy rainfall, the reports show that there is still a 

 deficiency of five inches from the average in the south-west of 

 England since the beginning of the year, while the north of 

 Scotland has had over six inches in excess of the normal 

 amount. 



Liverpool lacks neither men nor societies devoted to the 

 advancement of natural knowledge ; what is apparently needed 

 is the amalgamation of these societies for mutual assistance and 

 support. Dr. H. O. Forbes, in an inaugural address delivered 

 before the Biological Society of Liverpool on Friday last, urged 

 the amalgamation of all Liverpudlian societies interested in bio- 

 logical science. He suggested that such a conjoint society, 

 meeting in some central place and to be called, perhaps, the 

 Biological Institute of Liverpool, or the Liverpool Institute of 

 Natural Science, or if all the .scientific societies could be induced 

 to unite, the Royal Society of Liverpool, as was the suggestion, 

 some ten years ago, of Prof. Herdman, might be instituted on 

 the model of the New Zealand Institute. Such a combined 

 society in Liverpool would command wider recognition, and 

 contribute more to the advancement of science, than is at present 

 possible with disjointed forces. Dr. Forbes also expressed the 

 hope that two other .scientific institutions of the highest educa- 

 tional value, urgently required in a city like Liverpool — a 

 zoological garden and a resuscitated botanical garden under a 

 trained botanist, both conducted in a thoroughly scientific 

 manner— might be acco.nplished facts before the end of this 

 century. 



Blo\v.n-ou r shots are responsible for a large proportion of 

 the explo.sions in coal niine.s. By a blown-out shot is meant a 

 blast which has failed to effect a rupture of the coal owing to 

 the hole for it having been drilled in a wrong position, or owing 

 to the coal not having been properly prepared by holeing or 

 under-cutting. The gaseous products produced by the combus- 

 tion of the powder are driven violently into the roadways, 

 mixed with the gas distilled from the coal ; and this, with the 

 clouds of dust raised at the same time, provides all the condi- 

 tions for a disastrous explosion. The Commission appointed to 

 inquire into the cause of the explosion at the Brunner Coal 

 Mine, New Zealand, in March last, have, after full consideration 

 of the evidence, concluded that the primary cause was a blown- 

 out shot fired, contrary to the rules of the mine, in a part of the 

 mine where no work should have been in progress. The coal- 

 gas evolved from the surrounding coal is held to have been 

 ignited as the result of the shot, and the flame then spread 

 throughout the dry portions of the mine. The disaster was 

 accentuated by the explosion of the coal dust raised by the 

 concussion along the main road and working-places, which 

 explosion appears, in some cases, to have been locally intensified 

 by small quantities of fire-damp. No direct evidence was 

 obtained by the Commissioners that the explosion was com- 

 menced by an accumulation of fire-damp, or that its extreme 

 violence was due to the combustion of fire-damp mixed with 

 coal-dust. 



Proi". a. Roi'n {Rend. Ace. LincH) coniiiuies his observa- 

 tions on the cryptochrotsm or phenomenon corresponding to 

 colour in Riintgcn rays. In one of his experiments it was 



NO. 1407, VOL. 54] 



