Octobek 24, 1884.] 



SCIENCE. 



409 



On the work of the Northern transcontinental sur- 

 vey, R. Pumpelly ; The grasses mechanically injurious 

 to live-stock, William H. Brewer; On gravitation 

 survey, C. S. Peirce; On minimum differences of 

 sensibility, C. S. Peirce and (by invitation) J. Jastrow; 

 Researches on Ptolemy's star-catalogue, C. H. F. 

 Peters; On the operations of the U. S. geological 

 survey, J. W. Powell; The motion of Hyperion, 

 Asaph Hall; Remarks on the civilization of the native 

 peoples of America (by invitation), E. B. Tylor; Some 

 results of the exploration of the deep sea beneath 

 the Gulf Stream, by the U. S. fish-commission 

 steamer Albatross during the past summer, A. E. 

 Yerrill ; Recent progress in explosives, H. L. Abbot ; 

 On an experimental composite photograph of the 

 members of the academy, R. Pumpelly; Report on 

 meridian- work at Carlsruhe (by invitation), W. Val- 

 entiner; On the algebra of logic, C. S. Peirce; On 

 the temperature of tbe lunar surface, S. P. Langley; 

 On methods of eastern archery, E. S. Morse. 



— A letter to Lieut. Schwatka, from one of the offi- 

 cers of the Imperial geographical society of Russia, 

 states that no polar expedition is to start from Rus- 

 sia this year or next, as has been widely circulated 

 in the American press. There is in view, however, 

 an expedition to the New-Siberian Islands, to start in 

 the spring of 1886, to be carried on by money appro- 

 priated by the czar for that purpose. The expedition 

 is to be undertaken by two gentlemen from the Im- 

 perial academy of sciences of St. Petersburg, and the 

 preparations for it are going on under the supervision 

 of a committee appointed by the academy. The year 

 1885 will be employed in scientific work on the Yana 

 and tbe coast between it and Indigirka. 



— Among recent deaths we note those of G. B. 

 Delponte, formerly professor of botany in the univer- 

 sity of Turin, well known for his researches ^lpon the 

 Desmidiae, on the 18th of May, at Mombaruzzo, Pied- 

 mont ; Count Constantin Branicki, a zealous promoter 

 of natural science, to whose generosity the museum 

 at Warsaw is indebted for a large part of its valuable 

 collections, July 14, at Paris ; August Pasch, professor 

 of mathematics at Stockholm, in that city, on the 16th 

 of July ; L. M. Larsson, author of ' Flora af Werm- 

 land,' on the 17th of July, at Carlstad, Sweden; Dr. 

 M. Perty, a well-known zoologist and anthropologist, 

 from 1834 to 1875 professor of natural history in 

 Berne, where he died Aug. 8, almost eighty years of 

 age: in Moscow, the last of July, A. G. Fischer von 

 Waldheim, president of the Moscow natural-history 

 society; E. P. M. Fournier, botanist, in Paris; Lodo- 

 vico Caldesi, botanist, July 2, in Faenza; Dr. E. 

 Carstanjen, chemist, on the 13th of July, at Leipzig, 

 in his forty-ninth year; Dr. Hans Hiibner, the di- 

 rector of the chemical laboratory at Gottingen, on 

 the 13th of July, in his forty-seventh year ; and Dr. 

 Ferd. Hochstetter, geologist and naturalist on the 

 Novara expedition, on the 18th of July, in his fifty- 

 sixth year. 



— Prof. F. E. Xipher finds from data taken from 

 Dr. Engelmann's observations at St. Louis, Mo., last- 

 ing over a period of forty-seven years, that the dura- 



tion of maximum rains is inversely proportional to the 

 violence, or that the product of violence into duration 

 is constant. This constant is the amount of water 

 which may fall in a continuous rain, and is, for Dr. 

 Engelmann's series of about half a century, about 

 five inches. A rain of five inches per hour may last 

 one hour. A rain of four inches per hour may last an 

 hour and a quarter; and such a rain Dr. Engelmann 

 observed. A rain of two and a half inches per hour 

 may last two hours, and several such rains were ob- 

 served. A rain of an inch per hour may last five 

 hours. Each of these cases would be a five-inch rain. 

 For a longer period of time than fifty years it is 

 likely that greater rains than five inches may be ob- 

 served. The same is to be said if observations are 

 to be taken over a wider area of country. In fact, 

 a rain of six inches in three hours occurred near Cuba, 

 Mo., some years since. This would increase the value 

 of the constant from five to six, but otherwise the 

 relation will probably remain unchanged. 



The importance of this law is very great in en- 

 gineering, where the capacity of sewers, culverts, and 

 bridges, must be such as to carry the water. A more 

 general investigation which Professor Nipher is now 

 making will determine the relation between the vio- 

 lence, duration, and frequency not only of maximum, 

 but of all rains. This work, when completed, will en- 

 able an engineer to construct the water-ways of bridges 

 of such a capacity that they will probably stand a defi- 

 nite number of years before they are washed away. 

 This number of years will be so determined that the 

 interest on the invested capital during the probable 

 life of the bridge will equal the possible damage when 

 the destructive flood comes which the engineer deter- 

 mines shall destroy his work. The running expense 

 of maintaining the bridge is then the least possible. 



— A late number of the Academy states that the 

 eleventh annual meeting of the German and Aus- 

 trian alpenverein has just been held at Constanz, 

 under the presidency of Herr Richter of Salzburg. 

 The grand duke of Baden took part in the proceed- 

 ings. The united clubs have a membership of 12,500, 

 and the property of the verein amounts to 11,430 

 florins. Grants were voted for forest-planting, for 

 support of certain mountain sections of the club, for 

 payment of persons who have engaged to lecture 

 during the winter months, for meteorological obser- 

 vations, and for explorations of caverns. Next Janu- 

 ary will be published the first collected volume of the 

 Mittheilungen of the club, with illustrations. Col- 

 lections of 3,130 marks and 9,925 florins were made 

 for paths and huts. Villach was selected for next 

 year's meeting. 



— Signal-service note xvi., entitled 'The effect of 

 wind-currents on rainfall,' by G. E. Curtis, is one 

 of the most carefully prepared numbers of the series, 

 both in the reference to previous work on the subject, 

 in which English, French, and German authors are 

 quoted, and in the discussion of the special series of 

 records from five gauges on the summit of Mount 

 Washington. The author concludes that the rainfall 

 (without snow) in such exposed situations varies ma- 

 terially within distances of only one or two hundred 



