SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



213 



CONTRIBUTED BY FLORA WINSTONE. 



La Nature (Paris, October 23rd, 1S97). M. 

 Henri de Parville continues his very interesting 

 series of articles on " The Memory of Fishes." In 

 this number he goes so far as to claim the faculty 

 of memory for caterpillars and mollusca, founding 

 his remarks on communications received from 

 various correspondents who have tried experiments 

 with these animals. He also gives a third example 

 of memorv in fishes, received by him from M. 

 Pierre Megnin. He says that the carp in the 

 fountains at Fontainebleau if fed with hard crusts 

 of bread will not eat it, but leave it in the water 

 under the charge of one of their number. After 

 watching it from time to time this fish will, at the 

 end of about fifteen minutes, when the bread is 

 soft, swim to his companions, and on informing 

 them of the fact, they all swim back and devour 

 the softened bread. M. Megnin has tried this 

 experiment several times. The Baron de Watte- 

 ville has ah illustrated article on " Pipes," giving a 

 historv and description of the various forms of 

 pipes which have been in use from the early days 

 up to the present. " A New Cybium," Cybium 

 proosli, is described, with illustrations by M. Emile 

 Demenge. The bones of this fish were found by 

 M. Alphonse Proost, Director-General of Agricul- 

 ture, in the Eocene sea, in the midst of the " marnes 

 bnixellier.nes " which flow into the Brabant. 

 (October 30th ) Dr Ph. Glangeaud writes on " The 

 Pithecanthropus trtctus," found by M. Eug. Dubois 

 in the Island of Java, some time ago. Dr. Glangeaud 

 gives illustrations of the manner in which the skull 

 of the extinct animal can be built up from the 

 fragments discovered. He also gives the reasons for 

 believing this animal to be the missing link between 

 apes and mankind, showing how much more 

 closely the bones resemble those of a monkey than 

 of a man. We fear much evidence is still wanting 

 in proof. M. de Napaillac writes on "Gold in 

 the Arctic Regions,'' giving a full illustrated 

 account of the road to Klondyke. M. de Mareschal 

 describes and shows some peculiar results obtained 

 by means of photographs of the human perspira- 



The illustrations shown are from cliches of 



. I'.randt's photographs. (November oth.) 

 M I aul Megnin contribute* an article on " Wild 

 Dogs," describing and illustrating the wil 



irinia, a specimen of which was lately pre- 

 ■enter] to the Jardin d' Acclimatation, Paris. The 

 writer point* out lh.it the popular notion that all 

 dogs ai or even 



foxes, is entirely wrong Recent writers on 

 ■ • D in the 



.lume of : rid its 



Races." ha thai the dog is descended 



.pes whir: .inally wild 



The specimen at the Jardin d'/V itiofl has 



the same dentation a. but 11 



has only four 1 It bears * >me 



resemblance to 3 byena. M. | PoUson gl 

 account of thr method of grafting tomatoes on 

 potatoes, used by the sot of M Ch J'.altet. 



Royal Meteorological Society. — The opening 

 meeting of the session was held on November 17th, 

 at the Institution of Civil Engineers, Mr. E. 

 Mawley. F.R.H.S., President, in the chair. Mr. 

 R. H. Curtis gave the results of a comparison 

 between the sunshine records obtained simul- 

 taneously from a Campbell-Stokes Burning 

 Recorder and from a Jordan Photographic 

 Recorder. The Campbell-Stokes recorder consists 

 of a sphere of glass four inches in diameter 

 supported in a metal zodiacal frame. A card 

 being inserted in one of the grooves according to 

 the season of the year, the sun, when shining, 

 burns away or chars the surface at the points on 

 which its image successively falls, and so gives a 

 record of the duration of bright sunshine. The 

 Jordan recorder consists of a cylindrical box, on 

 the inside of which is placed a sheet of sensitive 

 cyanotype paper. The sunlight, which is admitted 

 into the box by two small apertures, acts on the 

 paper, and travelling over it by reason of the 

 earth's rotation, leaves a distinct trace of chemical 

 action. In an improved pattern two semi- 

 cylindrical boxes are used, one to contain the 

 morning and the other the afternoon record. The 

 Campbell-Stokes instrument gives a record of sun 

 heat, and the Jordan instrument a record of sun 

 light, and whilst it is probably true that as a rule 

 the burning and chemical effects vary directly with 

 the brightness of the sun's rays, yet it by no 

 means follows that the conditions which will 

 produce the most active chemical action must 

 necessarily and always be those most favourable 

 for burning. It has been the opinion of most 

 observers that the photographic instruments yield 

 a larger record than those of the burning type. 

 In order to set the matter at rest, the Council of 

 the Royal Meteorological Society determined to 

 institute a comparison between the Campbell- 

 Stokes and the Jordan recorders which should 

 thoroughly test the capabilities of the two instru- 

 ments and at the same time afford reliable data 

 for determining how far the records yielded by the 

 one may be accepted for comparison with those 

 obtained from the other. These simultaneous 

 observations were carried out by Mr. E. T. 

 Dowson, at Geldeston, near Beccles, and extended 

 over a period of twelve months. The records 

 were sent to Mr. Curtis for tabulation, who gave 

 the results of his examination in this paper. After 

 describing the methods adopted for the measure- 

 ment of the records, Mr ( urtis drew the following 

 conclusions from the figures; (1) In the rase: of the 

 Campbell- Stokes ini trument the records are capable 

 of being measured withavery fair degree of accuracy. 

 (2) Thi 1 be [ordan in iti umenl afford 

 room for much greater difference of opinion as i" 

 what onghl to be tabulated, and consequently 

 i| the [ordan 1 urves are open to 

 • i.ililv morr- di mbl than ai e measui emi nta 

 of the Campbell-Stoki 1 curves (3) When the 

 whole of the photogi aphii trao vhich 1 an be 

 distini tly Men, bu( Ini rtions ol il •■■.'hi' h 

 Bcidcdly hint, has been carefully meas d, 



