May 21, 1885} 
able to obtain annually sufficient funds to keep the laboratory in 
efficient working order when once the capital sum of 10,000/. 
has been subscribed. Towards the latter amount they have 
already raised a sum exceeding 5000/. From Plymouth as a 
centre, in the course of future years, the operations of the 
Association will extend, and additional laboratories will no 
doubt be constructed hereafter by the Association on other parts 
‘of the coast of the United Kingdom, should the first one prove 
a success, and the work carried out through its agency meet 
with public approval and support. 
Whilst the Marine Biological Association aims at obtaining, 
by the operations of its laboratory and experimental aquarium, 
that knowledge which is clearly necessary for the improvement 
and regulation of our sea fisheries, if must be remembered that 
its work will necessarily enlarge and advance the great science 
of biology, and that to many of us this is its surest promise of 
utility, for we cannot always directly govern the march of 
scientific progress. The whole field of knowledge must be 
cultivated, in the simple faith that the increase of knowledge is 
the greatest good which human effort can achieve. By adopting 
a thorough and comprehensive scheme of study of the problems 
connected with the life of fishes, we shall, as invariably happens 
in the history of science, obtain results which at present we 
cannot foresee, but which, we may feel assured, will yield in 
unexpected ways rewards and blessings to humanity. 
METEOROLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS 
HE Royal Meteorological Society recently held its sixth 
Annual Exhibition of Instruments at the Institution of Civil 
Engineers, 25, Great George Street, S.W. This Exhibition was 
devoted to sunshine recorders, and solar and terrestrial radiation 
instruments. 
The first attempt at obtaining an instrumental record of the 
amount of sunshine was made by Mr. J. F. Campbell, of Islay, 
in the year 1853, when he mounted a hollow glass sphere filled 
with acidulated water, in the centre of a cup of mahogany, so 
arranged that the sun’s rays were focussed on the interior of the 
cup and burnedit. The lines of burning, therefore, indicated the 
existence of sunshine. Solid glass spheres have been substituted 
for the hollow ones, and cards in metal frames have replaced the 
wood ; but in its principle the sunshine recorder of 1885 differs 
little from that erected on Richmond Terrace, Whitehall, thirty 
yearsago. Other modes of recording sunshine are based on the 
action of the rays of the other end of the spectrum on the actinic 
instead of the heat rays. Among workers in this direction may 
be mentioned Marchand of Fécamp, Sir Henry Roscoe, and 
others. The most recent improvements in this direction are 
those by Prof. McLeod and by Mr. Jordan. 
With regard to solar radiation thermometers, the successive 
stages in the assumed perfecting of these instruments have been 
as follows:—An ordinary mercurial thermometer acts as a 
spherical mirror, and reflects the rays which fall upon it. To 
lessen this the bulbs were first made with black glass ; moreover, 
originally the degree marks were put upon the supporting slab, 
then they were put upon the tubes of the thermometers. It was 
then found that in a position where two thermometers with 
similarly coated bulbs were exposed to the sun, but one was 
exposed to more wind than the other, the indicated tempera- 
tures varied greatly. To ayoid this it was proposed that the 
thermometer should be inserted in a glass shield exhausted of 
air. Various forms of mounting have been adopted, but the 
chief efforts have been expended in determining the influence of 
the amount of air left in the so-called vacuum. 
was that, inasmuch as black glass had a bright surface, there 
NATOCRE 
The next stage | 
was still much light reflected, and therefore the surface was | 
dulled with a coat of lamp-black—so that all heat falling upon 
the bulb might be absorbed. Subsequently, owing to the in- 
fluence of the lower temperature of the unblackened thermo- 
meter tube, about one inch of it was coated like the bulb. As 
evidence of the degree of exhaustion, a small mercurial pressure 
gauge was attached to the thermometer, and by other makers 
platinum wires were soldered through the shield so that the strati- 
fication of the electric arc might indicate the amount of air still left. 
With regard to terrestrial radiation thermometers, the pattern 
of instrument used has varied very little. The Rutherford 
minimum has almost always been used, but its sensitiveness has 
~ gradually been increased : the spherical bulb was replaced by a } f 
cylinder, the cylinder was elongated and bifurcated, and | engaged in photographing the prismatic spectrum that it was 
eventually, in order to strengthen the forks, they were united | decided to publish them in the American Fournal of Science. 
67 
into what is known asa “link.” Another plan was to flatten 
the cylindrical bulb into as thin a plate as possible, this giving a 
maximum of surface in proportion to the contents. The bulb 
was also made double, and thus we have the so-called ‘‘ bottle” 
pattern, and then the tube was let into the side of the bottle, 
and both ends of the bottle were left open, and so we have the 
“open cylinder”—a remarkable specimen of glass-blowing. 
Then there have been two patterns of mercurial thermometers— 
Casella’s and Negretti’s. Difficulties have arisen from the 
degree marks being obliterated by the weather. To guard 
against this the tube has been inclosed in what are known as 
Leach’s shields, and many attempts have been made to render 
the joint at the entrance of the tube watertight. This is not 
easy, because the thermometer is exposed to a great range of 
temperature, and the air inside the shield varies so much in 
volume that it forces its way through almost every joint. The 
object is, however, effected when the external jacket is sealed on 
the stem near the bulb. 
In addition to specimens illustrating the various patterns of 
tle above instruments, the Exhibition also included a number of 
new instruments, and many interesting photographs, sketches 
and diagrams. The photographs of clouds and lightning were 
very good. 
At the meeting of the Society the President, Mr. R. H, Scott, 
F.R.S., read a paper giving a brief account of the various 
instruments and arrangements to be found in the Exhibition for 
the purposes of recording solar and terrestrial radiation and the 
duration of sunshine both in regard of its light and its heat, the 
last-named being obtained by means of the sunshine recorders, 
which are now pretty generally used. He exhibited twelve 
monthly maps showing the percentage proportion of hours 
of recorded sunshine to the hours the sun was above the horizon 
in the various districts of the United Kingdom. He stated that 
the features which strike any one on examining the maps of sun- 
shine, which are for the most part for the five last summers and 
for the four last winters, excluding January to March, 1885, 
which has not yet expired, are :—First, the broad fact that the 
extreme south-western and southern stations are the sunniest, as 
has already frequently been pointed out, Jersey is undoubtedly 
the most favoured of our stations in this particular. Second, 
that in the late autumn and winter Ireland is much sunnier than 
Great Britain, Dublin having absolutely the highest percentage 
of possible duration of sunshine in November and December, 
and being only equalled by Jersey in January. The Dublin 
instrument is not situated in the city, but at the Mountjoy 
Barracks in the Phoenix Park, beyond the Vice-regal Lodge. 
The north-east of Scotland is also exceptionally bright, as the 
station, Aberdeen, lies to leeward of the Grampians. In April 
the line of 40 per cent. of possible duration takes in Jersey, 
Cornwall, Pembrokeshire, the Isle of Man, and the whole of 
Ireland except Armagh. The absolute maximum of the year 
occurs in May, and the amount rises to 50 per cent. (nearly to 
60 in Jersey) over the district just mentioned as enjoying 40 per 
cent. in April. In June there is a falling off, which is continued 
into July and even into August in the Western Highlands. In 
the South of England, however, a second maximum occurs in 
August, the figure for Jersey rising to 50 per cent. This is 
mainly due to the exceptionally bright weather of August, 1884, 
in the southern counties of England. In September, Ireland 
shows a falling off, and the greatest degree of cloudiness is in 
Lincolnshire. In October, the Midland Counties of England 
are the worst off. In November the line of 40 per cent. encloses 
two districts, one Dublin, already mentioned; the other the 
Eastern Counties (Cambridge and Beccles). The absolutely 
highest monthly percentages in the period under consideration 
are in the month of May, 1882, in which St. Anne’s Head, 
Milford Haven, had 62 per cent., while Geldeston (Beccles), 
Douglas (Isle of Man), and Southbourne (Bournemouth) show 
61 per cent. 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 
THE American Fournal of Science, April.—On the use of 
carbon bisulphide in prisms, being an account of experiments 
made by the late Dr. Henry Draper of New York. The results 
so far obtained by Dr. Draper in his investigations on the cause 
of the difficulties encountered in the use of carbon bisulphide in 
prisms seemed so valuable and so likely to prove useful to others 
