400 
with the naked eye in the vessel immersed in the block M. 
By projecting them with a lens they are increased about 
200 times, and it is even possible to see by transparence 
the state of their organs.” In the experiment represented 
in Fig. 1, one of the operators is occupied in regulating 
the electric lamp and in setting the microscope of pro- 
jection, while the other commences to apply the pressure. 
The animalculz projected on the screen are the Cyclops, 
small crustaceans which are met with at this time of the 
year in brooks, and which are scarcely a millimetre in 
length. These are so enlarged, and appear with such 
transparency, that we can follow on the screen the move- 
ments of their branchia, and even of their heart, during 
the experiment. Dr. Regnard is pursuing at present his 
Fic. 2.—Details of appara_us ia Fig. 1 
studies into life under high pressures. He showed last 
year that the unequal compressibility of the liquids and 
solids which form the organism caused the latter after a 
long pressure, to be soaked with water, become turgid, 
and consequently lose their functions. But, with the 
apparatus here described, he has been able to follow the 
phenomena which precede this. From the pressure at 
1000 metres (about 200 atmospheres) the object shows 
inquietude, at 2000 metres it falls to the bottom of the 
vessel struggling ; towards 4000 it remains inert and be- 
numbed. When its normal pressure returns it recom- 
mences moving, unless the pressure has been long and its 
tissues are not soaked. This seems to show that the 
effect is a compression of the nervous system. 
NOTES 
WE understand that Mr. Francis Galton has already obtained 
valuable results from the Family Records sent him last year in 
response to his offer of prizes, and that he purposes to make 
much use of them in his Presidential address to the Anthropo- 
logical Section of the British Association at Aberdeen. 
WE have already intimated that Prof. Bonney has decided to 
retire from the Secretaryship of the Association after the 
Aberdeen meeting. We understand that Mr. A. T. Atchison 
will be proposed as his successor. 
Many interesting excursions have been arranged by the Local 
Committee of the Aberdeen meeting of the Association. 
NATURE 
One of them will, of course, be to the great granite quarries in | 
the neighbourhood of Aberdeen. Her Majesty has invited 150 
of the members to Balmoral, where they will be shown over the 
grounds and have lunch. It is not to be expected that the 
Queen will personally receive all the members, though it is 
possible that a few representative men of science may be pre- 
sented to Her Majesty. Other excursions will be to Haddo 
House, Dunecht, Dunnottar, Drum and Crathes, Loch Kinerd, 
on the Saturday ; while on the Wednesday and Thursday of the 
second week parties will be taken to Braemar, Invercauld, 
Haddo House, Huntly Castle, Elgin, Banff, Portsoy, and 
other places. The efforts which the Local Committee are 
making to render the meeting a success are all that could be 
desired. It is only to be hoped that they may succeed 
in persuading the Aberdeen hotel and lodging-house keepers 
to reduce their exorbitant charges. The arrangements for 
important discussions in Sections A and B we have already 
referred to. > 
IN connection with the meeting we venture to recommend to 
our readers the new edition of Baddeley’s ‘‘ Guide to Scotland,” 
Part I, a copy of which has been sent us. It includes all the 
country from the Borders to as far north as Aberdeen, Inverness, 
Gairloch, and Stornoway. No more useful, practical, and 
trustworthy guide to the region exists, while the thirty-seven 
admirably executed maps and plans will be found a great com- 
fort and convenience. Dulau and Co. are the publishers. 
M. JANSSEN will shortly begin a new series of experiments 
on the influence of gases in spectrum analysis, in continuation of 
those which he made about fifteen years ago at La Villette 
gasworks. The tubes in which the gas will be contained and 
compressed will have a length of more than 100 metres, and be 
able to bear an unusual amount of pressure. Thus a new degree 
of accuracy may be expected from these researches, which are 
progressing favourably at the Meudon Physical Observatory. 
For more than a year some important measurements of the 
altitude and movements of clouds have been carried on at Upsala 
by the aid of two theodolites, one of which is mounted in the 
Linnzeus and the other in the Botanical Gardens. These instru- 
ments, which belong to the Academy of Science, were used for 
auroral and cloud measurements by the Swedish expedition to 
Spitzbergen, 1882-83. The object of the measurements of the 
altitude and movements of clouds is not so much to obtain their 
mean altitude as to derive some knowledge of their movements 
in the upper part of the atmosphere, a matter which is of great 
importance to meteorology. The researches have advanced so 
far that it has been found possible to fix astronomically the 
movements and altitude of the cirrus clouds. 
ACCORDING to the Zégliche Rundschau the population of 
Ratisbon has been greatly frightened by the sudden disappear- 
ance recently of thousands of jackdaws, which dwelt in the spire 
of the cathedral of the town, on account of asimilar phenomenon 
occurring before the outbreak of the last cholera epidemic in the 
place. In Munich a similar phenomenon is also stated to have 
taken place. 
REFERRING to ‘‘sonorous sand,” the report of the secretary 
of the Smithsonian Institution says that an interesting problem 
to physicists and geologists has been the sand found in certain 
localities, which, when placed in motion by sliding, sometimes 
produces a very sonorous or resonant sound, peculiar in character 
and difficult of explanation. Prof. Bolton, of Trinity College, 
Hartford, desirous of making researches on the subject, and 
especially of studying the microscopical, chemical, and physical 
peculiarities of the grains, requested the aid of the Institution in 
obtaining materials for the purpose. A considerable variety of 
specimens was collected in the Sandwich Islands, the coast of 
Oregon, Germany, and many other places. These are now in 
Prof. Bolton’s hands, and he will prepare a report on the 
subject. 
THE Chesapeake Zoological Laboratory, as the marine station 
maintained by the Johns Hopkins University is designated, is 
Science states, established for the present summer session at 
Beaufort, on the coast of North Carolina. Dr. W. K. Brooks, 
the director, who was prevented last year by ill-health from 
giving as much time as usual to the laboratory, is fortunately 
quite restored to his usual strength, and is in full activity at his 
post. Twelve collaborators are with him. Several of these are 
already teachers in various branches of zoological science, and 
| all of them are well prepared to make use of the opportunities 
[August 27, 1885 - 
