838 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 126. 



oned that over a million trees have been cut 

 down to supply timber for the diamond 

 mines, and the whole country within a 

 radius of 100 miles has been denuded of 

 wood, with the most injurious effects on the 

 climate, as is generally believed there. The 

 absence of trees to break the force of the 

 wind and temper the heat of the sun, com- 

 bined with the extreme dryness of the air, 

 is thought to account for the dust storms so 

 frequent in that region in summer. 



ACCLIMATIZATION OF THE ENGLISH IN CEYLON. 



In connection with the acclimatization of 

 Europeans in the tropics, to which reference 

 was recently made in these ISTotes, a state- 

 ment made by a recent writer on Ceylon, 

 who was for many years Judge of the Ceylon 

 Supreme Court, may be of interest. The 

 quotation, which is from an article in the 

 Scottish Geographical Magazine for April, is as 

 follows: "When all is said, in a tropical 

 climate, even of the best, we live, as it were, 

 on sufferance, and the climate tells on the 

 next generation. For every one of us who 

 has his livelihood in Ceylon there comes the 

 inevitable day when he must part from his 

 children and send them home. This stern 

 necessitj-^ has been styled a price which we 

 must pay our Eastern possessions ; and a 

 heavy price it is." The pathetic strain of 

 such a statement serves to emphasize anew 

 the lesson that complete acclimatization of 

 northern Europeans in the tropics is im- 

 possible. 



regent PUBLICATIONS. 



F. H. BiGELOW : Storms, Storm Tracks and 

 Weather Forecasting. Bulletin No. 20. 

 United States Department of Agriculture, 

 Weather Bureau, 8 vo. , Washington, 

 1896. Pp. 87. Charts 20. 



I. H. Cline : Influence of Climatic Conditions 

 and Weather Changes on the Functions of the 

 Shin. Eeprinted from Proc. Texas State 

 Medical Association, 1896. Pp. 8. Chart 



showing the pathological distribution of 



climate in the United States. 



E. De C. Wabd. 

 Haevaed Univeesity. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



The University of Toronto has conferred the 

 degree of LL.D. on Sir John Evans, President 

 of the British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science ; on Dr. Wolcott Gibbs, President of 

 the American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, and on three of the most distin- 

 guished English men of science, who are ex- 

 pected to attend the Toronto meeting of the 

 British Association : Lord Lister, Lord Kelvin 

 and Lord Rayleigh. 



The third annual meeting of the Botanical 

 Society of America will be held in Toronto on 

 Tuesday and Wednesday, August 17th and 18th, 

 1897, under the presidency of Dr. John 31. 

 Coulter. The Council will meet at 1 p. m. on, 

 Tuesday, and the first session of the Society 

 will begin at 3 p. m. The address of the retir- 

 ing President, Dr. Charles E. Bessey, will be 

 given on Tuesday evening at 8 o'clock. The 

 British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science will meet in Toronto, August 18th to 

 25th. The opening address is to be given on 

 Wednesday evening, August 18th. A fairly 

 large contingent of British botanists and some 

 Continental botanists of note are expected. 

 This meeting will, therefore, probably give un- 

 usual opportunities for renewing or forming ac- 

 quaintances. All foreign botanists present will 

 be invited to sit as associate members of the 

 Society and to read papers. This invitation will 

 be addressed personally to all whose intention 

 to come to Toronto is known, and will also be 

 made known through the scientific papers. 



Miss Catherine W. Bruce, of New York 

 City, has again shown her great interest in as- 

 tronomy by sending Professor J. K. Rees, Di- 

 rector of the Columbia University Observatory, 

 a check for fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500). 

 The money is to be used in publishing the ob- 

 servations and reductions for ' Variation of 

 Latitude and the Constant of Aberration,' made 

 by Professors Rees and Jacoby and Dr. Davis. 

 To this fund for publication there had been 



