918 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 311. 



by droughts, and subsequently, at times by 

 famines. Tlius, taking the period from 

 1877 to 1889, there was rain from the minus 

 pulse in 1877-78-79 (part); no rain pulse 

 in 1879 (part)-80-81 (part); rain irom plus 

 pulse 1881 (part) 82-83-84 (part); no i-ain 

 pulse in 1884 (part)-86-87 ; and rain from 

 the minm pulse in 1887 (part)-88-89. All 

 the Indian famines since 1836 had occurred 

 iu these intervals, carried back in time on 

 the assumption of an 11-year cycle. Thus, 

 taking 1880 as the central year on the as- 

 cending curve, it was itself a j'ear of famine 

 in Madras and the North-West Provinces j 

 also 



1880 — 11 = 1869, N.W.P. famine (1868-69) 

 1869 — 11 = 1858, N.W.P. famine (1860) 

 1858 — 11 = 1847, 



1847 — 11 = 1836, Great famine in Upper India 

 (1837-38). Again, taking 1885-1886 as the central 

 years on the descending curve : — 



1885-86, Bengal and Madras famines 

 (1884-85) 

 (1885-86)— 11=1874-75, N. W. P. famine (1873-74) 

 Bombay famine ( 1875-76) 

 Bombay and Upper India 

 famines (1876-77) 

 (1874-75) — 11 = 1863-64, Madras and Orissa fam- 

 ines (1865-66) 

 (1863-64) — 11 = 1852-53, Madras famine (1854). 



It was clear from this table that if as 

 much had been known in 1836 as was 

 known now, the probability of famines at 

 all the subsequent dates indicated might 

 have been foreseen. The dates might also 

 be carried forward from 1880 ; thus — 



1880 -f 11 = 1891, N.W.P. famine (1890) 



Madras, Bombay and Bengal 

 famines (1891-92) 

 (1885-1886) -f 11 = 1896-97, General famine. 



Famine years in India were usually 

 years of low flood in Egypt, and it might 

 be pointed out that the highest N"iles fol- 

 lowed, at an interval of one or two j'ears, 

 the years of the p/iM and minus pulses. As 

 to the great Indian famine of last year, the 

 widened line curves, so far from having 



crossed in 1897 or 1898, as they ought ac- 

 cording to the few precedents available, 

 had not crossed even now ; in other words, 

 the condition of ordinary solar mean tem- 

 perature had not even yet been reached. 

 Now India in a normal cycle was supplied 

 from the southern ocean during the mini- 

 mum sunspot period, and the rain was due 

 to some pressure effect brought about in 

 high southern latitudes by the sun at 7ninus 

 temperature. But as this temperature con- 

 dition was not reached in 1899, as it would 

 have been in a normal year, the rain failed. 

 Thus the only abnormal famine recorded 

 since 1836 occurred precisely at the time 

 when an abnormal effect of an unprece- 

 dented maximum of solar temperature was 

 revealed by the study of the widened lines. 



THE ULKE COLLECTION OF COLEOPTEBA. 



The collection of Coleoptera brought to- 

 gether during the last 50 years by Henry 

 Ulke, of Washington, D. C, has been pur- 

 chased by the Carnegie Museum, of Pitts- 

 burgh, Pa. 



Henry Ulke, artist, musician, entomolo- 

 gist — a noticeable character from many 

 points of view — having passed beyond his 

 eightieth birthday, has given up his ento- 

 mological collections, but by no means his 

 interest in this branch of science. The 

 writer met him the other day in Washing- 

 ton, active, alert, clear-eyed, with a com- 

 plexion like a child's, and asked him how 

 it was that he retained his youth at 10 

 years beyond the allotted space of life. 

 The reply was wittily characteristic and 

 contained a characteristic truth : "In the 

 first place," said Ulke, " I was very careful 

 in my choice of parents ; and in the second 

 place, my love of Nature has kept me con- 

 stantly in the woods and fields throughout 

 all my life." 



The Ulke collection of Coleoptera is one 

 of the largest and, historically and in other 



