August 19 19 9J 



NA TURE 



22: 



Da'e ... 

 G.M.T. 



Aup. 8 ... .'^ug. 10 ... Aug. II ... Aug. 12 

 lo.S ... II. 15 ... 9-57 •-. '>J-i9 



87 m. ... 103 m. ... 78 



52 „ •■■ 4'< .. ■ • 52 .. 



62 ,, ... no „ ... 52 „ 



40 ., ... — ... 30 V 



43 + 56 ... 43 + 5S ■.. 47 + 58 



Height at fiist... 94 m. 

 ,, end ... 6"; ,, 

 Lergth of p.itb.. 58 ., 

 Vclnciiy per se' . 48 ,, 

 Radiant 4' +57 



On .August 13 the watch was continued, but the 



Perseid shower had greatly declined. .'\bout 25 



meteors were recorded in about 2 hours before 



iih. 45m. (when clouds came over), and of these 



1 1 only were Perseids. 



On .August 14, observing for a similar interval, 

 19 meteors were counted, including 7 Perseids. The 

 principal minor shower seen at Bristol recently was at 

 302° +22° in Vulpecula, and the same radiant was well 

 marked in 190S, both in July and August. 



W. F. Denning. 



On Monday, .August 16, an exhibition of manuscripts, 

 portraits, medals, books, and natural history specimens 

 illustrative of Darwin's life and work was opened to the 

 public in the central hall of the Natural History branch of 

 the British Museum. .-Mthough most of the special portion 

 of the exhibits is displayed in one of the bays on the right 

 side of the hall, a table-case, containing illustrations of the 

 fertilisation of plants by insects and other animals, and a 

 second devoted to insectivorous plants, have been placed 

 in the middle of the hall. In .^ddition to these, several of 

 the permanent cases in the hall, such as those illustrating 

 melanism, albinism, adaptation to natural surroundings, 

 and the breeds of domesticated pigeons, are included in the 

 exhibition. In order that the public may properly appre- 

 ciate and understand the exhibition, an excellent little 

 guide-book has been published, at the price of sixpence, in 

 which, in addition to a brief but comprehensive biography of 

 Darwin, and a photograph of the Darwin statue in the 

 museum, will be found clear explanations of the leading 

 features of the more important exhibits. These exhibits, 

 apart from the two botanical cases, form a total of no fewer 

 than 251, and certainly make a most instructive and 

 interesting displaj'. In the compilation of the guide-book it 

 would have been better had the author avoided the use of 

 words of the type of " e.xoskeleton," which are certainly 

 not understood by the general public. As regards the speci- 

 mens displayed, we must refer our readers to the guide, or, 

 better still, to the exhibition itself. 



Tme fourth International Congress of Aeronautics will 

 be held at Nancy on September 18-24. 



Mr. H. E. Harrison, principal of Faraday House, and 

 a fellow of several scientific societies, died on .August 12 

 at fifty years of age. 



Captain H. E. Purey Cust, R.N., assistant hydrographer 

 of the Navy, has been appointed hydrographer in succession 

 to Rear-Admiral A. M. Field, F.R.S., whose term of office 

 in that appointment has expired. 



Reuter messages from Tokio report that a severe 

 earthquake was felt at 3.30 p.m. on August 15 throughout 

 Central Japan. Much damage was done to the important 

 commercial city of Nagoya, which was practically destroyed 

 by the earthquake that visited the district in 1891. Con- 

 siderable damage is stated to have been done in part of 

 the Shiga Prefecture. 



We learn from the Times that on August 12 the Italian 

 balloon Albatross, manned by Lieut. Mina and Signor 

 KO. 2077, VOL. 81] 



Piacenza, and starling from Turin, reached the height of 

 38,715 feet, at whicli point one of the two aeronauts 

 opened the valve. The highest altitude previously attained 

 in a manned balloon was 35,500 feet, reached by Berson 

 and Siiring on July 31, 1901. The new record is equiva- 

 lent to an altitude of 73 miles, and shows the great 

 heights which can be attained when improved means of 

 respiration are employed. 



We record with regret the death, on .August 14, of Mr. 

 William F. Stanley at eightj'-one years of age. Mr. 

 .Stanley was well known as a maker of scientific instru- 

 ments ; in 1856 he invented the first simple open stereo- 

 scope, and later he designed and manufactured scientific 

 instruments for the use of various Government depart- 

 ments. He was the author of several text-books, and in 

 1895 he published " Notes on the Nebular Theory in Rela- 

 tion to Stellar, .Solar, Planetary, Cometary, and Geological 

 Phenomena," the book being reviewed in the issue of 

 Nature for November 14, 1895 (vol. liii., p. 25). In 

 addition to other beneficent acts, Mr. Stanley erected and 

 equipped at Norwood the Stanley Technical Trade Schools, 

 where boys are educated on thoroughly practical lines. 

 The schools have been endowed adequately, and are for 

 the future to be administered by the Charity Com- 

 niissionors. 



.As has been already announced, the ninety-second 

 annual meeting of the Soci^t^ helvetique des Sciences 

 naturelles will be held this year at Lausanne on 

 September 5-8. The business of the meeting will be 

 conducted in six sections, as follows ; — section of physics 

 and mathematics, president. Prof. H. Dufour ; chemical 

 section, president. Prof. H. Brunner ; section of geology 

 and geography, president. Prof. Lugeon ; agronomic 

 section, president. Prof. E. Chuard ; botanical section, 

 president, Prof. E. Wilczck ; and the section of zoology 

 and physiology, president, Prof. E. Bugnion. On 

 September 6 two lectures will be delivered, one by Prof. 

 S. Finsterwalder on aerodynamics in aviation, and the 

 other by M. Auguste Forel on comparative psychology, 

 determinism, and the theory of memory. Three lectures 

 will be delivered on September 8 at Vevey, as follows : — 

 M. Fritz Sarasin, on the history of the animal life of 

 Ceylon ; M. Raoul Gautier, on some recent important 

 results furnished by astronomical photography ; and M. 

 Martin Rikli, on the natural history of Greenland. Full 

 particulars of the meeting may be obtained from the 

 general secretary, Prof. Paul L. Mercanton, the University, 

 Lausanne. 



To Anftotationes Zoologicac Japancnscs, vol. vii., part ii.. 

 Dr. N. .Annandale, of the Indian Museum, communicates 

 a paper on Japanese freshwater sponges, in which an 

 apparently new species is described. Of the five known 

 Japanese species, three are widely distributed and the 

 other two peculiar to Japan. 



The combined July and August issue of Natuven con- 

 tains an important paper, by Messrs. Bjon Helland- 

 Hansen and Fridtjof Nansen, on annual fluctuations in 

 the mean temperature of the sea on the Scandinavian 

 coast and their influence on the climate, agriculture, and 

 fisheries of Norway. The paper is illustrated with a large 

 number of temperature-charts. 



In the August number of the Irish Naturalist Mr. C. B. 

 Moffat suggests that one reason why certain species of 

 birds construct covered nests is to enable them to rear 

 a larger number of nestlings than would otherwise be 

 possible. The author supports this theory by mentioning 



