eZ 
NATURE 
[May 7, 1885 
quences of the rising and falling of masses of air; the hydro- 
meteors and their influence on the climates of separate regions— 
many quite new and original remarks and observations being 
embodied in these five chapters ; the influence of snow and ice- 
coverings—two chapters again where the meteorologist and 
geologist will find a series of most interesting suggestions ; the 
temperature of lakes, seas, and oceans ; the influence of wind ; 
the variations of temperature with the height—very carefully 
discussed ; the diurnal changes and the unperiodical ones ; and 
finally, the influence of climate on vegetation, and vice versd— 
again two chapters full of new appreciations. The climates of 
eight separate regions—Atlantic, North and Middle America, 
Tropical America, Middle and South Africa, Mediterranean 
basin, North-West and Middle Europe, South-Eastern Asia, and 
finally Russia and Northern Asia, are discussed with great de- 
tail and with a richness of quite new data in ten separate 
chapters. Needless toadd that the author, well acquainted with 
so many foreign languages, has embodied in his work all that is 
worthy of notice in meteorological literature. The work is 
illustrated by ten maps and fourteen drawings, and contains very 
numerous tables. 
DuRING the opposition of Neptune, just passed, we learn 
from Scéence, Prof. Pickering continued the observation of the 
planet’s magnitude with the meridian photometer of the Harvard 
College Observatory in the same method as previously employed. 
Nine series of observations extend from December 16, 1884, to 
January 21, 1885, the final result from which, when corrected 
for atmospheric absorption, instrumental error, and reduction to 
mean opposition, becomes 7°63. The residual difference for 
only one series is as great as two-tenths of a magnitude. The 
corresponding results for two previous seasons are 7°71 and 7°77. 
Contrary to the experience of Mr. Maxwell Hall, of Jamaica, 
who found evidence for a rotation-period of Neptune in small 
variations of the planet’s light according to his own observations, 
Prof. Pickering regards it as improbable that there is any varia- 
tion in the light of Neptune of a strictly periodic character, and 
further calls attention to the influence, much neglected by ob- 
servers, upon the observed brightness of objects when seen east 
and west of the meridian on the same night. This has to be 
taken account of in the observations of maxima and minima of 
many variable stars, and may to some extent account for the 
variations of Neptune’s light detected by Mr. Hall. 
THE report of the Post Office, Telegraph, and Observatory 
Departments of South Australia for the past year contains a 
detailed account ix/er alia of the work of the Observatory De- 
partment in that colony since its foundation in 1867. It would 
be impossible to do more than refer generally here to numerous 
details given in the ten closely-printed foolscap pages devoted to 
the subject. Since its establishment the department appears to 
have kept pace with the strides of the colony to which it belongs. 
The astronomical observatory at Adelaide is now well supplied 
with meteorological appliances, having self-recording and other 
instruments necessary to constitute it a first-class station as 
defined by the Meteorological Congress at Vienna. There are 
also fourteen well-equipped stations of the second order, 
scattered all over the colony, from Port Darwin, in the extreme 
north of the continent, to Cape Northumberland in the extreme 
south. Rain-gauges are kept at every telegraph office in the 
colony ; in 1870 there were reports from forty-six stations ; in 
1883 from 254, and there are still large gaps to be filled up. A 
system of weather-telegraphy has been arranged between the 
Australasian colonies, these being divided into districts or aspects 
to facilitate the transmission of the messages, and to afford the 
necessary data for laying down the isobars. The important 
operations undertaken to determine Australian longitudes are also 
described in detail. Mr. Todd, the head of the combined de- 
partments—post, telegraph, and observatory—anticipates great 
assistance in the inter-colonial meteorological part of his work 
from Mr. Clement E, Wrazge’s high-level meteorological 
station on Mount Lofty, ‘as he brings to his work great practical 
experience and almost unbounded enthusiasm.” 
THE last number (vol. v. No. 4, 1885) of the Proceedings of 
the Bath Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club contains 
papers on the group of stones at Stanton Drew, in Somerset- 
shire, by Mr, J. Allen Tucker, in which he favours the theory 
that these huge monuments are the remnants of a temple, either 
erected by the Druids or by some primeval or prehistoric race, 
and only used by the Druids, and were not intended to com- 
memorate a battle, which was too common an event in early 
times ; by Rev. L. Blomefield, on a second specimen of the 
rare Longicorn beetle found in Bath; by Mr. Williams, on the 
natural history of British owls ; and by Mr. Morgan, on water- 
supply, principally as applied to domestic purposes. There are 
also several minor contributions noticed in the summary of pro- 
ceedings at the meetings. 
WE have received the prospectus of a Field Club for Hamp- 
shire, the Honorary Secretary to which is Mr. E. Westlake, 
Fordingbridge, Salisbury. The first meeting is to be held at 
Winchester on May 28. The marvel is that a county as varied 
as any in England in this respect should have been so long with- 
out its Naturalists’ Field Club. White of Selborne on the east, 
and Kingsley on the north, have made the county a classic one 
for students of nature. With these examples to live up to, and 
such a field as Hampshire (including the Isle of Wight) the 
Proceedings of the new club should be interesting and suc- 
cessful. 
THE Report of the Committee of the Kelvingrove Museum 
of Glasgow for the past year illustrates the truth of a remark of 
Mr. Higgins in his pamphlet on museums recently noticed in 
these columns, viz. that the number of museums in which a sum 
of money could be best spent in making additions is very small ; 
that is, as a rule, arrangement is more needed than acquisition, 
The Committee of the Kelvingrove Museum report that the 
establishment has been overcrowded for years, that the enor- 
mous amount of specimens of all kinds stored away out of sight 
is constantly increasing, and that the labour and unremitting 
watchfulness required to keep such stored specimens from de- 
teriorating grows in proportion, and withdraws from essential 
and more useful museum work much of the time of the small 
staff, and it has thus become from year to year increasingly 
difficult to undertake any considerable project for improving the 
order, classification, or labelling of any section of the museum. 
This is certainly a grave evil, for it threatens to destroy the 
main object of such a museum, viz. public instruction. It is to 
be hoped that a wealthy and public-spirited town such as 
Glasgow will not permit this state of things to continue ; for, 
as the Report points out, from the stores already within the 
museum, supplemented in some departments by inexpensive and 
easily acquired objects, a natural history museum could be 
equipped which would satisfactorily illustrate all the range of 
the animal kingdom, and prove at once of great value to the 
student of zoology, and a popular attraction to the public. For 
the rest, there has been ‘‘a large, steady, and well-maintained 
flow of visitors, which does not show any indication of waning.” 
Tue Lyceum of Natural History of Williams College, Wil- 
liamstown, Mass., the oldest natural history society but one 
connected with any college in the United States, will celebrate 
its fiftieth anniversary on the 24th of this month, at which a 
former member, Dr. W. K. Brooks, of the class of 1870, now 
Associate of Johns Hopkins University, will deliver an address, 
The Lyceum propo:ed to take advantage of the occasion to raise 
funds to enable it to undertake expeditions to some spot, similar 
