December 4, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



493 



was not reached from October to April inclusive. 

 The daily range is small, as was to be expected, 

 on account of high latitude, position on the sea- 

 coast, and great cloudiness of the warmer weather. 

 The greatest difference of the warmest and coldest 

 hour is 6°. 4, in April. The small amount of cloud 

 in winter, and the large amount in the warmer 

 weather, are to be noted. The latter is in great 

 measure due to fog or low clouds. The mean 

 temperature at a depth of 0.4 metre in the ground 

 was much higher in the yearly mean than the 

 mean temperature of the air (—11°. 6 against 

 — 17°. 4). It is interesting to see, thus, how even 

 the small covering of snow mentioned by the ob- 

 servers acts in protecting the ground from the 

 frosts. The relative humidity is great in all 

 months, as was to be expected. 



September. 

 October . . . 

 November. 

 December . 

 January — 

 February . . 



March 



April 



May 



June 



July 



August 



Year .. . 



Extremes 





«M 





of 

 temperature. 



Mean 



o 



II 



Pre- 







pres- 

 sure.! 



vailing 

 wind.2 







Min. 



Max. 





< 





-12.3 



11.0 



753.9 



9.0 



W26 



-29.6 



-2 5 



759.3 



7.2 



E25 



-36.3 



-18.3 



758.9 



6.0 



S 23 



-49.'<! 



-19.4 



761.7 



5.1 



S 23 



-47.8 



-25.9 



763.5 



3.7 



S 28 



-53.2 



-27.1 



764.9 



2.6 



S 30 



-41.6 



-18.6 



763.9 



3.3 



SE24 



-32.8 



-10.2 



765.8 



5.2 



E33 



-24.2 



3.3 



755.6 



8.6 



E29 



-12.6 



12.5 



7.52.3 



8.4 



E32 



-0.2 



12.1 



757.8 



7.6 



E37 



-1,2 



12.8 



756.4 



8.5 



E30 



-53.2 



12.8 



759.3 



6.3 







(3^ 



1 Barometer 4.9 metres above level of river. 



2 The figures show the percentage of the wind to the total 

 number of observations (eight directions). 



3 In metres per second. 



A preliminary map, based on the surveys of the 

 expedition, accompanies the report, and gives 

 new and important data, including the northern 

 limit of forest. Generally it reaches to 71° north, 

 but on both banks of the Lena to nearly 72°. The 

 protection afforded by the high ground on the 

 banks of the river is evidently the reason of this ; 

 the cold winds of summer, and small amount of 

 sunshine, being the principal enemies of vegetation 

 here, not the winter frosts, which are much more 

 severe in the valleys of the interior, where forest- 

 trees grow well. 



At the Moscow university there was, a short 

 tinae ago, a celebration of the thirty-five years' 

 professorship of N. J. Davydow, one of the most 

 distinguished mathematicians of Russia, his prin- 

 cipal works being in theoretical mechanics and 

 the theory of probabilities. Among scientific 

 work going on there, we may mention that pub- 

 lished recently by Professor Joukowsky, on the 



movements of a solid with compartments filled by 

 incompressible liquids. 



The Russian universities give their degrees of 

 ' magister ' and ' doctor ' after a public disputation 

 sustained by the recipient. The latter was recently 

 conferred on I. S. Nasimow, for his dissertation 

 ' On the application of the theory of ellix^tic func- 

 tions to the theory of numbers,' — a distinguished 

 work, say the specialists. 



At St. Petersburg there was in October a bril- 

 liant ' disputation,' after which the doctor degree 

 of chemistry was conferred on Professor Koisowa- 

 low, for his work on ' Contact phenomena.' The 

 hero of the day was Professor Mendelejef, one of 

 the official opponents, who made a briUiant speech 

 of more than an hour. On Nov. 15 the degree of 

 magister of astronomy was conferred on Prince 

 Dolgorowsky for his work on ' The secular irregu- 

 larities in the movement of the moon,' of which 

 our astronomers have a high opinion. 



O. E. 

 St. Petersburg, Nov. 15, 



LONDON LETTER. 

 A DEPLORABLE accident has put an end to the 

 career of one of the most active and useful scien- 

 tific workers of our day, and has made a gap in 

 scientific circles which will not readily be filled. 

 On the night between Nov. 9 and 10, Dr. W. B. 

 Carpenter, F.R.S., the eminent physiologist, was 

 taking a hot-air bath to relieve rheumatic pains 

 (from which he had more or less constantly suffered 

 since his visit to America in 1882), when by some 

 means the spirit-lamp was upset, and he was so 

 fearfully burned that he died m four hom'S, in 

 presence of his wife and his two eldest sons. 

 There is good reason to hope that, after the first 

 few minutes of agony, he did not suffer ; his last 

 words being, " I have had a good night, I should 

 like to be left alone." The surgeon stated at the 

 inquest that he "had never known so severe a 

 case of burning, it was hterally from head to foot." 

 The funeral took place at Highgate, a hill iu a 

 northern suburb of London, on Nov. 13. Among 

 those who assembled at the cemetery, notwith- 

 standing the unfavorable weather, were Professor 

 Huxley, the president, and Dr. Michael Foster, 

 the secretary, of the Royal society; IMr. Percy 

 Sladen, secretary of the Linnean society ; Professor 

 Judd, representing the Geological society; Pro- 

 fessor Stewart, the president of the Microscopic 

 society; Prof. H. N. Moseley of Oxford, repre- 

 senting the officers of the ChaUenger expedition ; 

 Prof. W. H. Flower, of the British museum ; Mr. 

 Lecky; Rev. Page Roberts, a weU-knoT\Ti represen- 

 tative of the ' Broad church : ' Su* Joseph Hooker 



