May 10, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



529 



of Germany clearly shows that the opjior- 

 tunity to serve mankind along such lines is 

 much enlarged if to tiuin such meu is the 

 chosen aim of the university ; in part, l)e- 

 cause, in that case, the university aftbrds 

 the material ajjparatus by the aid of which 

 the natural thinker or investigator can best 

 do his work, and, most of all, because, in a 

 university so constituted, the atmospliere 

 of the place and the spirit of the meu who 

 work there are friendly to such labors." 



Through the courtesy of the Assistant 

 Secretary of the Roj^al Meteorological So- 

 ciety, we are informed that at the meeting 

 of that Society on Ajiril ITtli Messrs. 

 A. C. Bayard and W. Marriott com- 

 municated a paper on ' The Frost of Janu- 

 ary and February, 1S95, over the British 

 Isles.' It was stated that the cold period 

 which commenced on December 30th and 

 terminated on March 5th was broken by a 

 week's mild weather from January 14th to 

 21st, otherwise there would have been con- 

 tinuous frost for 66 days. Temperatures 

 below 10° Farenheit, and in some cases be- 

 low zero, were recorded in parts of England 

 and Scotland between January Sth and 

 13th, while from the 26th to the 31st, and 

 from February 5th to 20th, temperatures be- 

 low 10° occurred on every day in some part 

 of the British Isles. The coldest days were 

 February Sth to the 10th. The lowest tem- 

 peratures recorded were — 17° at Braemar, 

 and — 11° degrees at Bucton and Drumlan- 

 rig. The mean temperature of the British 

 Isles for January was about 7°, and for 

 February from 11° to 1-1°, below the aver- 

 age, while the mean temperature for the 

 period from Jauuary 26th to February 19th 

 was from 14° to 20° below the average. 

 The distribution of atmospheric pressure 

 was almost entirely the reverse of the 

 normal, the barometer being highest in the 

 north and lowest in the south, the result be- 

 ing a continuance of strong, northerly and 

 easterly winds. The effect of the cold on 



the public health was great, especially on 

 young children and old people. The num- 

 ber of deaths in London due to diseases of 

 the respiratory organs rapidly increased 

 fi'om February 2d to March 2d, when the 

 weekly number was 1448, or 945 above the 

 average. From a comparison of previous 

 records the authors are of opinion that the 

 recent frost was more severe than auy since 

 1814. 



The Popular Science Monthly for May prints 

 an interesting account of the naturalist 

 Conrad Gesner. Ijy Professor AV. K. Brooks. 

 It is illusti-ated by twelve photo-engra\ings 

 taken from the original wood cuts in his 

 woi"k, HUtoria Aniinalitim, pul>lished in the 

 latter half of the si.xteenth century. 



In the Atlantic Monthly for May Mr. Per- 

 cival Lowell begins a series of articles on 

 the planet Mars. He concludes that we 

 have proof jjositive that Mars has an atmos- 

 phere, that the air is thinner at least by 

 half than that on the summits of the Hima- 

 layas, that in constitution it does not differ 

 gi-eatl}' from our own, and that it is rela- 

 tively heavily charged with water vapor. 

 Professor Holden, on the other hand, in the 

 May number of the Xorth American Review, 

 concludes from the observations on the 

 .spectrum of Mars made by Professor Camp- 

 bell, and printed i-eceutly in the Publications 

 of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, that 

 there is no more e\'ideuce of aqueous vapor 

 nor of an atmosphere in Mars than there is 

 in the case of the Moon. 



The American Academj- of Medicine met 

 at Johns Hopkins University on May 4th 

 and May (Ith. under the Presidency of Dr. 

 J. McF. Gaston. 



Mr. Henry Seeboum will write the text 

 for a new work on the eggs of British Birds, 

 to be published l>y Pawson and Brailsford, of 

 Sheffield. England. The work will contain 

 colored illustrations of the eggs of 400 

 species. 



