October 15, 1896] 



NA TURE 



577 



found that two plates of brass were equivalent in transparency 

 to eight of aluminium, or sixteen sheets of tinfoil, but the 

 same proportionality did not hold good in the case of certain 

 other combinations of the three metals ; thus proving that rays 

 which have traversed a metal plate, differ from those directly 

 emanating from the Crookes tube in their power of penetrating 

 other plates of the same or different metal. 



Whether high altitudes are productive of aniiimia, or lead 

 to an augmentation in the number of red blood-corpuscles, has 

 long been a subject of controversy, the former view having been 

 propounded by Jourdanet in i86j, and the latter by Viault in 

 1890. A series of observations bearing on this point are de- 

 scribed by Dr. Kuthy in the ///// dei Limei. Some of these 

 observations were made on rabbits maintained in an artificially 

 rarefied atmosphere, others on human subjects at high altitudes. 

 In each case an apparent increase, both in the number of red cor- 

 puscles and in the percentage of hemoglobin, was observed ; but 

 the author is inclined to regard this efiect as due to a modification 

 in the circulation of the blood, by which these constituents are 

 brought to the surface of the body, rather than to a change in 

 its actual constitution. 



An American correspondent writes, under date October 2 : — 

 "The albatross flying machine of Mr. William Paul came to 

 grief last Saturday. After waiting nearly a month for a favour- 

 able wind, a start was made from the chute after two hours of 

 labour in placing the machine in position ; but the first start did 

 not get the machine off the ways. It was replaced a second 

 time and started, but a sudden sideways gust of wind struck 

 and tilted it, turning it about and back on its course. It 

 dropped rapidly from a height of about sixty-five feet, striking 

 a clump of trees, and thence falling to the ground. Mr. Paul 

 was stunned, but not seriously injured. He will build a lighter 

 machine of well-seasoned bamboo during the winter." 



The most extensive and destructive West India cyclone on 

 record swept across America on Tuesday and Wednesday, 

 September 29 and 30, involving tremendous loss of life and 

 property. The cyclone began on Sunday, south of Cuba. On 

 Tuesday it struck the south-west coast of Florida, sweeping 

 away almost the whole of the city of Cedar Keys, and passing 

 through the State with great devastation. In the city of 

 Jacksonville not a single building in the best residential quarter 

 escaped serious injury. The storm inflicted great damage on 

 the cities of Savannah and Brunswick on the coast of Georgia, 

 with loss of life in both cities ; and one hundred lives were lost 

 on the sea islands along the same coast. Continuing northward, 

 it spread a wide path of ruin through the country, including 

 conspicuous destruction in Washington, and still more in 

 Alexandria opposite to it, and in Baltimore, and through 

 Eastern Pennsylvania. On Wednesday the storm raged in 

 Michigan and extended to Milwaukee and Chicago, at which 

 points great injury was done to shipping at wharves and outside, 

 very many vessels having been sunk at the wharves in Chicago. 

 The path of this storm was further west than that of the similar 

 one in 1893, which devastated the sea islands and other 

 localities, and the loss of life in this case was due more largely 

 to the fall of debris than to the water. 



The suggestion that the mineral composition of a sedimentary 

 deposit inay, if the source of its materials can be traced, aft'ord 

 evidence of the climate that existed during its formation, is not 

 a new one. It has, for example, been put forward by Indian 

 geologists in dealing with the Permo-Carboniferous glacial 

 deposits in the southern hemisphere. It appears to have been 

 independently arrived at by -Mr. G. P. Merrill, as a result of his 

 investigations on the decay rf certain crystalline rocks. Using 

 the term degeneration to cover all the processes by which a 

 NO. 1407, VOL. 54] 



massive rock is brought to the state at which its materials are 

 easily transported, he distinguishes the physical and mechanical 

 processes as dismlci;ralion from the chemical one of decomfa- 

 sition. The former may be said generally to predominate in its 

 results over the latter in cold and in dry climates ; though many 

 qualifying considerations must be taken into account. Apart 

 from this generally interesting conclusion, the two papers by Mr. 

 Merrill, on the granitic rocks of the district of Columbia, and on 

 a diabase dyke at Medford, Massachusetts [Bull. Geol. Soc. 

 America, vol. vi. p. 321 ; and vol. vii. p. 349), contain most 

 detailed mechanical and chemical analyses of these rocks in 

 various stages of degeneration, with full discussions on the 

 evidence so obtained. It is to be hoped that many similar 

 analyses may be made in other parts of the world, in cases 

 where the conditions of occurrence are equally favourable. 



In an elaborate communication by Prof. Bernhard Fischer, 

 on the pollution of the water in the harbour of Kiel, some 

 interesting determinations are incidentally given of the bacterial 

 contents of several samples of sea-water made by Dr. Bassenge, 

 on a voyage from Kiel to the Azores. Prof. Fischer himself 

 made some time previously various examinations of sea-water 

 selected from different places, and together the results furnish 

 an interesting addition to our knowledge of marine-bacteriology. 

 The average microbial contents of sea-water at some distance 

 from land appear to be mostly under 250 per cubic centimetre, 

 but in the English Channel, .Skaggerack, Kattegat, and other 

 more or less confined sea areas, the number reaches an average 

 of 500 per C.C., and rarely rises above 1000 c.c. Near the 

 coast and in sea harbours the number may be much higher ; thus 

 in Plymouth harbour as many as 13,320 per c.c. were found, 

 although in the vicinity of Dartmouth only Soo bacteria per 

 c.c. were obtained. Dr. Fischer attempts on these results to 

 set up a numerical bacterial standard of purity for sea-water, 

 and he has fixed upon a limit of 500 per c.c. as affording a safe 

 index as to the unpolluted character of sea-water, whilst a 

 higher figure should, he considers, be taken as a sure sign 

 of contamination. With all due deference to Dr. P'ischer's 

 arbitrary standard, we think that there is too great a tendency 

 at the present time to try and create bacterial numerical 

 standards. Bacteriology does not admit of being dealt with on 

 such a hard and fast basis, and whilst in some cases a large 

 number of bacteria may mean nothing at all, and be without any 

 further significance, on another occasion a far smaller number 

 may be an index of danger. We have recently had an attenqit 

 to start a milk bacterial-standard ; now we are to have a fixed 

 sea-water microbial-measure, it only remains for our aerial 

 surroundings to be bacterially standardised ! 



Another instance of the valuable work done at the Royat 

 Gardens, Kew, in the organisation of botanical nomenclature, i;; 

 afforded by the descriptive list of new garden plants of the year 

 1895, just issued as a Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information. 

 To prepare and publish an annual list of the garden plants de- 

 scribed in botanical and horticultural publications, both English 

 and foreign, is no easy task ; yet such a list, comprising all the 

 new introductions recorded during last year, is now published. 

 It hardly needs pointing out that lists of this character are 

 indispensable to a correct nomenclature, especially in the smaller 

 botanical establishments in correspondence with Kew. In 

 addition to species and botanical varieties, all hybrids, whether 

 introduced or of garden origin, with botanical names, and de- 

 -scribed for the first time in 1895, ^^^ included in the Kew list. 



Under certain conditions, charcoal is liable to spontaneous; 

 combustion. The assertion has been made that charcoal used 

 in building refrigerating chambers on shore and on board vessels 

 has ignited spontaneously ; but the evidence on this point 



