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[Vol. XVII. No. 435 



summer is greatest in beech woods, less in pine, and least in fir. 

 The absolute value of the influence in woods of a given kind of 

 tree is afifected by the degree of density of the wood, being higher 

 the denser the wood. The character of the climate (oceanic or 

 continental) also afEects the results. From daily observations in 

 forest and open country, every two hours in the second half of 

 June, it appears that, soon after 5 a.m. and 8 p.m., the air-tem- 

 perature in the wood was equal to that in the open; that the 

 maximum was about 0.9° lower in the wood, and the minimum 

 0.6° higher; that in May to September the difference sometimes 

 reached 3.7° ; that the maximum in the wood occurred about half 

 an hour later, and the minimum a quarter of an hour earlier, than 

 in the open; and that the daily mean air-temperature was about 

 one-third of a degree less in the wood. 



— Dr. F. M. Chisolm states, in the American Journal of Oph- 

 thalmology, that two curious cases, one an adult, and the other a 

 child of ten years, presented the following physiological freak. 

 When first noticed by the patient, it was supposed to be dirt ; and 

 when examined it presented a dark bluish line, about half an inch 

 in length, running vertically up from the ciliary border. Under 

 a magnifying glass it was recognized as the shaft of a hair that, 

 in process of growth, had its tip caught as it was emerging from 

 its follicle in the epithelium, and growth had pushed it onwards, 

 wedging aside the epithelium, until it had gained its usual limit 

 of size. 



— The extraordinary collection of mummies, papyri, and other 

 objects of antiquarian interest recovered last February at Dehr-el- 

 Bahari, is now safely housed in the Ghizeh Museum. According 

 to the Cairo correspondent of the London Times, all the objects 

 are in good condition, although some anxiety was caused by the 

 protracted journey by boats from Luxor. The correspondent says 

 that the mummies mostly belong to the 31st Dynasty, and, though 

 styled Priests of Amnion, are supposed to be the corpses of gen- 

 erals and other ofiB.cial dignitaries who bore ecclesiastical besides 

 other titles. The 163 mummies and the 75 papyri are not yet un- 

 rolled, and it is difficult to form an estimate of their archseologi- 

 cal value, as many of the sarcophagi bear different names on the 

 outer and inner casings, whUst others have the names usually 

 inscribed on the outer casings intentionally effaced. M. Grebaut 

 thinks that, owing to this circumstance and the magnitude of the 

 collection, some time will be required before any important com- 

 munications can be made to the scientific world. 



— A series of experiments Ins been lately made by Herr Rubner 

 with regard to the familiar fact that not only dry high tempera- 

 tures are more easily borne than moist, but dry cold causes much 

 less discomfort than moist cold. Dogs, fasting or fed, being ob- 

 served in an air calorimeter, it appeared that, in all cases, moist 

 air increased the loss of heat by conduction and radiation. For 

 every variation of the air-moisture one per cent, heat was parted 

 with to the extent of 0.33 per cent. In a previous investigation, 

 says Nature, Herr Rubner demonstrated the lessened yield of water 

 l)y evaporation from animals where the air-moisture is increased, 

 involving lessened loss of heat. Here, then, are two antagonistic 

 influences. He is disposed to regard the increased radiation and 

 conduction in moist air as the primary action, and the diminished 

 evaporation as secondary. The colder feeling of moist cold than 

 dry is readily explained by the increased heat radiation. In moist 

 heat, with the sense of oppression it brings, this factor passes 

 rather into the background. The degree of temperature, and 

 some other influences, of complex nature, also affect the amount 

 of radiation. 



'^ — The Seventh International Congress of Hygiene and Demog- 

 raphy will be held in London, Aug. 10 to 17. The meetings of 

 the Section of Preventive Medicine will be held under the presi- 

 dency of Sir Joseph Fayrer in Burlington House, Piccadilly, on 

 Aug. 11 to 14, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. On Tuesday, Aug. 11, 

 after a short address by the president, a discussion will be held 

 upon " The Mode of Preventing the Spread of Epidemic Disease 

 from one Country to Another." The discussion will be opened by 

 Surgeon-General J. M. Cunningham, C.S.I., of London. On 

 Wednesday a discussion will be held upon "Diphtheria, with Spe- 



cial Reference to its Distribution, and to the Need for Compre- 

 hensive and Systematic Enquiry into the Causes of its Prevalence 

 in Certain Countries or Parts of Countries, with a View to its 

 Prevention." The discussion will be opened by Dr. Edward Seaton 

 of London, and continued by leading representatives of France 

 and America. On Thursday a discussion will be held upon " The 

 Relation of Alcoholism to Public Health, and the Methods to be 

 Adopted for its Prevention." The discussion will be opened by 

 Sir Dyce Duckworth, LL.D., M.D., of London, and by Professor 

 Westergaard of Copenhagen. On Friday papers on miscellaneous 

 subjects will be read and discussed. A list of papers accepted by 

 the section will be published later. Gentlemen who are desirous 

 of joining the congress and taking part in any of the discussions, 

 or of communicating papers on other subjects within the scope of 

 the section, are requested to inform the honorary secretaries of the 

 section before June 15. Abstracts of papers to be read in the sec- 

 tion must be furnished to the honorary secretaries not later than 

 June 15; and the full text of the papers before July 15. Com- 

 munications respecting the section should be addressed to Dr. 

 Isambard Owen, 40 Curzon Street, London, W. 



— In a paper recently published in the Meteorologisohe Zeit- 

 schrift, of which a brief abstract appears in Nature of May 21, 

 Pi'ofessor Hellman of Berlin shows, from observations taken at 

 different British, Continental, and American stations at which 

 barographs are used, that there exists a close coincidence in the 

 daily range of the monthly extremes and in that of the hourly 

 values of the barometer. He finds that the hours of occurrence 

 of the highest and the lowest readings of the barometer during a 

 month agree almost completely with the times in which the nor- 

 mal daily range has its maxima and minima, both cui-ves being so 

 similar in shape that it may be possible to judge of the general 

 character of the daily range of the barometer from knowing only 

 the hours at which the monthly extremes mostly occur. Hence, 

 as the lowest readings of the barometer are accompanied by cloudy 

 and stormy vi-eather, during which the effect of the solar radiation 

 upon the surface of the earth and the heating of the lower strata 

 of the atmosphere are quite insignificant. Professor Hellmann con- 

 cludes that Professor Hann and others are right in assuming that 

 the normal daily range of the barometer is chiefly an effect of the 

 absorption of the solar rays in the upper strata of our atmosphere. 

 Professor Hann has applied the harmonic analysis to the numbers 

 fui'nished by Professor Hellman, and, by combining several sta- 

 tions in a group, has found the coefficients of the periodic formula 

 to be practically the same as those for the normal daily range. We 

 should, however, like to see a further confirmation with respect to 

 the coincidence of the lowest readings and the diurnal minima, 

 since the lowest readings occur so frequently during the passage of 

 a severe storm, which can scarcely be said to have any agreement 

 with the ordinary diurnal fluctuation. 



— The first paper in the last volume of "Transactions of the 

 Seismological Society of Japan," says Nature, is bj' Mr. Berlin, 

 and describes the double oscillograph and its employment for the 

 study of rolling and pitching. It traces curves automatically, 

 showing the motion produced in a floating body by waves. The 

 second paper is on the "Seiches ' of lakes, by Dr. P. A. Forel of 

 Geneva, and discusses those variations in the level of the water 

 of lakes with the investigation of which the author's name has 

 been associated for some years past. Professor John Milne de- 

 scribes the remarkable instrument invented by him for measuring 

 and recording the oscillatory movements of railway trains. Mr. 

 Mason contributes a paper, accompanied by carefully compiled 

 tables, demonstrating the importance of elaborating some uniform 

 system of time-keeping for the purposes of seismological observa- 

 tions. Professor C. G. Knott, in his paper on earthquake fre- 

 quency, explodes two of the time-honored delusions of the popular 

 mind in regard to earthquakes, viz., that they aie more frequent 

 during the night than the day, and that their periodicity is con- 

 nected with lunar culminations. Mr. Otsuka gives an interesting 

 account of the great earthquake that visited Kumamoto in July, 

 1888; and Mr. Pereira contributes a carefully compiled record of 

 all the earthquakes noted by him in Yokohama from March, 1885, 

 to December, 1889. Mr. W. E. Forster writes on earthquakes of 



