METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS ON BEN NEVIS. 255 
the cyclones and many of the smaller barometric depressions. In several 
respects this remark applies also to the distribution of fogs. 
Among the results indicated by the observations made during the past 
four summer seasons at the intermediate station compared with the 
observations made at the two Observatories, the more important referred 
to in our last year’s Report is this : When the reduced barometer at the 
top of Ben Nevis, for a series of observations, comes higher than that of 
Fort William, the accompanying disturbance of temperature takes place 
in the lower half of the mountain, that is below the intermediate station, 
and denotes the approach of an anti-cyclone. Conversely, when the 
reduced barometer at the Ben Nevis Observatory reads lower than that 
of Fort William, then the disturbance of temperature takes place in the 
upper half of the mountain, and denotes the approach of a cyclone. 
The hourly and other observations at the two Observatories from 
January 1888 to December 1896 are now in the press, together with a 
general discussion of the results, and other discussions of separate inquiries 
raised by observations, nearly all of which have been resumed in the suc- 
cessive annual reports of your Committee. 
Arrangements have been made for the publication during the next 
three years, in the ‘Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,’ 
of the hourly observations made at the Observatories from 1888 to 1901, 
the time to which it is proposed by the Directors to continue the obser- 
vations. The observations will fill three large quarto volumes, the cost of 
publishing which will be a little over 1,000/7.. Your Committee have much 
pleasure in adding that the Royal Society of London have agreed to give 
500/., being half of the whole expenditure, the balance being met by the 
Royal Society of Edinburgh ; and that Mr. Mackay Bernard of Dunsinnan 
has by another donation of 500/. enabled the Directors to continue the 
observations for another year. These handsome gifts, the first two by the 
two leading Scientific Societies of the country, and the third by a generous 
_ private person, are announced by your Committee with great satisfaction. 
Water and Sewage Examination Results.—Report of the Committee, 
consisting of Professor W. Ramsay (Chairman), Dr. 8. RipeaL 
(Secretary), Sir W. Crookes, Professor F. CLiowrs, Professor 
P. F. Frankiann, and Professor R. Boyce, appointed to establish 
w Uniform System of recording the Results of the Chemical and 
Bacterial Heamination of Water and Sewage. 
The Committee beg to report as follows :—That it is desirable that 
results of analysis should be expressed in parts per 100,000, except in 
the case of dissolved gases, when these should be stated as cubic centi- 
metres of gas at 0°C. and 760 mm. in 1 litre of water. This method of 
recording results is in accordance with that suggested by the Committee 
appointed in 1887 to confer with the Committee of the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science, with a view to forming a uniform 
system of recording the results of water analysis.! 
2. The Committee suggest that in the case of all nitrogen compounds 
1 Brit. Assoc. Report, 1889. 
