160 
NATURE 
[Fune 18, 1885 
not claimed that vaccination for cholera will give actual im- 
munity, but that it will alleviate the attack whenever it may 
come, Anti-cholera vaccination, affirms Dr. Ferran, can never 
itself be the cause of an attack. If an attack comes within five 
days of vaccination it must have been previously contracted. 
Dr. Ferran attributes the discovery of anti-cholera vaccination to 
the theories of Prof. Pasteur. 
Dr. CornisH, known for his investigations into the nature of 
cholera, has proposed (according to Ad/en’s Jndian Mail) that 
as between 300 and 4o0o persons are every year judicially sen- 
tenced to death in the Indian Empire and its dependencies, a 
number of these, say one-tenth, be made, with their own full 
knowledge and consent, subjects of experiments as to the spread 
of cholera, on condition that if they escape their lives be spared. 
An international commission of experts might, he suggests, be 
appointed to determine upon the experimental tests needed to 
ascertain if cholera is or is not a disease capable of being com- 
municated from person to person. This would do more in the 
space of a few months to help forward the inquiry into the 
nature of cholera than has been accomplished by indirect obser- 
vation during the last century. But if the principle underlying 
this proposal is admitted by the Indian Government, it might be 
extended to other most important experiments, such as the 
various causes and cure of cholera, the cure for snake-bites, 
hydrophobia, and the like. 
THE following is an official statement of the number of visitors 
to the Whitechapel Fine Art Exhibition during the time it was 
open in March and April last :—Saturday, March 28, 1008 ; 
Sunday, March 29, 2494; Monday, March 30, 2622; Tuesday, 
March 31, 3332 ; Wednesday, April 1, 3292; Thursday, April 
2, 1823 ; Good Friday, April 3, 3703 ; Saturday, April 4, 3269 ; 
Easter Sunday, April 5, 2717; Easter Monday, April 6, 4332; 
Easter Tuesday, April 7, 3720; Wednesday, April 8, 2944 ; 
Thursday, April 9, 2872; Friday, April 10, 1942 ; Saturday, 
April 11, 3348; Sunday, April 12, 3345; total for 16 days; 
46,763. The Exhibition was opened in the afternoon of March 
28, admission being by ticket only until 6 pm., 6 to 10 p.m. 
free ; after that it was opened free from 10 to Io daily (Sundays 
2 to Io). 
AT the meeting of the International Committee of Meteoro- 
logy (instituted by the Congress held at Rome) in the beginning 
of September next, at Paris, the following topics will be con- 
sidered :—Report of the Secretary on the work of the Com- 
mittee since the Copenhagen meeting; report of MM. Brito 
Capello, Hildebrandson, and Ley on the observation of Cirrus ; 
Should a third International Congress be convoked? the esta- 
blishment of stations of the first order on the Congo ; discussion 
of the meteorological véswmés issued in different countries, and 
eventual preparation of a more uniform plan; the utility of 
American meteorological telegrams proposed by Gen. Hazen, 
and organisation of their distribution in Europe ; best means of 
securing the timely reception of meteorological telegrams ; 
ought barometric heights to be reduced to the pressure 
under 45° of latitude ? Should meteorological hours be reckoned 
from I to 24 in conformity with the resolution of the 
Washington Conference? Designation of a completely covered 
sky as to the form of clouds; definition of days of rain and 
snow ; should not a uniform height above the ground be recom- 
mended for pluviometers? recent progress in the more exact 
measurement of snow; international meteorological tables ; 
modification of the rules for administration of the International 
Meteorological Committee. Communications should be ad- 
dressed to Mr. R. H. Scott, F.R.S., Meteorological Office, 
116, Victoria Street, London, 5. W. 
IN a communication to the Physical Society of Berlin, 
on April 24 Herr Kayser read a note concerning his ex- 
periments on the condensation of gases on surfaces, and 
Bunsen’s criticisms. thereon. In a paper published last year 
Bunsen had declared that the previous results under this head 
were erroneous, inasmuch as the observers had proceeded upon 
the false assumption that a maximum of condensation was 
attained in a‘few hours or days, Bunsen himself finding that the 
condensation might go on slowly for years. Herr Kayser, how- 
ever, had, in reply, pointed out that Bunsen had not been suffi- 
ciently careful in cleaning the glass surfaces on which his 
experiments were made, and he now had the satisfaction to 
announce that Bunsen, after repeating his experiments with the 
necessary precautions, had arrived at the same conclusion as 
himself, namely, that there was no demonstrably slow condensa- 
tion, but that the maximum of condensation was reached with 
extraordinary rapidity. 
THE project to build a ‘‘ Grassi-Museum” has now assumed 
a tangible shape at Leipzig, inasmuch as the site for the new 
museum has been chosen, The new museum is to contain 
the collections belonging to the Ethnographical Society, which 
are now crammed into premises entirely unsuitable for them, 
Dr. Orro ZAcHARIAS has recently made interesting researches 
concerning the freshwater fauna of the Silesian Riesengebirge 
and the county of Glatz. The Royal Prussian Academy of 
Sciences has just granted him a sum of money towards the 
continuance of his labours. 
Mr. Howarp NeEwrToN, assistant municipal engineer, of 
Singapore, has published a series of notes and experiments on 
the different kinds of timber in ordinary use in the Straits Settle- 
ments. The pamphlet contains observations on the forests 
adjoining our colonies in the Malay Peninsula, and the need 
already of conservation. The trees are felled in large numbers 
for ordinary use, and the jungles are cleared and exhausted by 
the Chinese gambier and pepper planters. Twenty specimens 
of woods are then described in detail, and finally an account of 
the mode in which the experiments were conducted and elaborate 
tables of the results follow. The breaking weights of some of the 
timbers tested were as follow :—1850, 1836, 1656, 1374, 1286, 
and 1284 Ibs. Notes on the toughness, fracture, deflection, &c., 
are also given. It is curious to notice that some of the finest 
trees near Singapore (in the Johore forests) have no botanical 
equivalents. Mr. Newton specially mentions a tree called by 
the Malays the da//ow, which grows from 60 to roo feet in 
height, with a diameter of 3 to 6 feet. It is a close-grained, 
tenacious, hard, heavy wood, very valuable for building, It is 
called popularly Johore teak, although it does not belong to the- 
natural order Verbenacee. 
THE Russian Geographical Society has awarded a gold medal ~ 
to M. Klossowski for his work on thunderstorms in Russia. We 
take the following from M. Rykatcher’s analysis of this remark- 
able work. The initiative of thunderstorm observations having 
been taken by the Geographical Society in 1871, no less than 
1821 regular observations were made during the years 1873 to 
1882 at 176 different stations. For 145 of them annual and 
monthly averages were calculated, and gave the following 
interesting results. The minimum of thunderstorms (5 to 7 per 
year) is found in the north ; their number increases towards the 
Gulf of Finland (with a depression south of it) and on the middle 
Volga, where it reaches 12 to 15 per year, and remains nearly 
the same throughout middle and southern Russia, with a slight 
decrease in the Crimea. A rapid increase in the number of 
thunderstorms is found in Western Russia, especially in Bess- 
arabia (33 at Kishineff), as also in the East, at Tamboff, Penza, 
and on the Lower Don. The maximum of thunderstorms, 41 
per year, is found at Tiflis. As might be expected, the thunder- 
storms are more frequent where the summer rains and the relative 
humidity are the greatest. Their diurnal maximum is between 
