JUNE 27, 1884.] 
International society is very satisfactory, and Leo- 
poldville increasing rapidly. 
— The report of the Ohio meteorological bureau for 
April gives, in addition to the usual statistical tables 
for its twenty odd stations, a descriptive account of 
the Jamestown tornadoes of April 27, by E. H. Mark, 
secretary. There seem to have been two adjacent 
but separate tornadoes, moving easterly about sixty 
miles an hour. One of them had a path about seven 
miles long; and the other, thirty miles, of which 
eleven miles were skipped over without damage. 
The width of the paths varied from two hundred feet 
to a quarter of amile. Rain and hail fell to one side 
of the track, and sometimes on the track as well; 
but it is not stated whether the latter happened 
before, during, or after the passage of the funnel- 
cloud. About three hundred buildings were de- 
stroyed or damaged, besides many smaller outhouses 
and sheds of which no note was taken; and five per- 
sons were killed. Trees four feet in diameter were 
snapped off like twigs; cows were lifted over fences, 
and whirled around in the air; an iron bar six feet 
long, and weighing about a hundred pounds, was 
carried a hundred and fifty feet across a canal, and 
lodged in the fork of a tree. The violent action of 
the first tornado began at the meeting of two clouds, — 
a heavy, dark cloud from the south-west; and a light, 
yellow one from the north-west. A witness of their 
combat said, ‘The dark cloud whipped the yellow 
one.’ The ordinary funnel-cloud was formed from 
their union, and performed all the usual freaks, 
swaying from side to side, ‘ bounding over the coun- 
try,’ rising and falling ‘ like a ball attached to a rub- 
bercord.’ Itis to be regretted, that, in the description 
of the apparent movements of the cloud, forms of 
expression are used that imply a downward motion. 
An abstract of Mr. Finley’s characteristics of torna- 
does is appended, both to call attention to the obser- 
vations that should be made on passing storms, and to 
point out how their danger may be best avoided. 
— The May number of the Journal of the anthro- 
pological institute contains President Flower’s address 
on the aims and prospects of the study of anthropol- 
ogy. The great difficulty of the study of anthro- 
pology, he said, is the multifarious nature of the 
branches of knowledge comprehended under the title. 
The most important elements of difference between 
races are: 1°, structural characters; 2°, mental and 
moral characters; 3°, language; 4°, social customs. 
All these should be carefully studied by those who 
have any share in the government of people belong- 
ing to races alien to themselves. 
—Mr. W. F. Denning of Bristol has computed, 
from his own observations made in the early part of 
1869, and in February of the present year, a new 
value of the rotation-period of the planet Mars. He 
observed the central meridian passages of the ‘ hour- 
glass,’ or ‘ Kaiser Sea,’ as being the most prominent 
and suitable feature on the planet for such compari- 
sons; and the result of his discussion gives, for the 
sidereal rotation-period of Mars, 242 37m 228,34, the 
interval covering 5,349 rotations. This period is in 
SCIENCE. 
801 
good agreement with those derived by Kaiser, Schmidt, 
and Proctor, from much longer series of observations. 
Mr. Denning also collects the principal previous de- 
terminations of this constant, and has, in all, six 
values (all within 0%.6 of each other), the mean of 
which is 245 37™ 22°.626. This corresponds to a daily 
rate of 350°.8922. 
—Mr. Sereno E. Bishop of Honolulu has added 
sixteen pages to the Krakatoa literature in a little pa- 
per on the ‘ equatorial’ smoke-stream from Krakatoa, 
in which he wishes to call more especial attention to a 
phenomenon consequent on the great eruption, that 
he thinks has not received sufficient notice. This is 
the ‘‘ swift, strong fling from the eruptive column of 
Krakatoa of a vast stream of smoke, due west with 
great precision along a narrow equatorial belt at an 
enormous velocity, nearly around the globe.”’ If the 
facts as here stated are fully confirmed, there will 
certainly be a remarkably rapid westward propaga- 
tion of sunset effects to be explained; but the meth- 
od of explanation suggested by Mr. Bishop is very 
unsatisfactory in assuming a limit to the atmosphere 
at forty-five miles altitude. Beginning with this un- 
warranted assumption, the author supposes that the 
volcanic gases, vapors, and finest dust would form a 
flat, conical accumulation over the point of eruption 
and above the atmosphere. Down the slopes of this 
flat cone, the gases would slide with accelerated ve- 
locity, but chiefly to the westward on account of lag- 
ging behind the meridian of eruption (the lagging is 
given as twenty-six miles an hour at an elevation of 
a hundred miles, but should be fifty-two miles an 
hour); and thus the rapid westward propagation of 
the sunsets can be accounted for. There can be no 
question as to the tendency to action somewhat in 
the manner here suggested; but whether this tenden- 
cy will be fully realized is very questionable, unless 
decidedly greater elevations than a hundred miles 
were reached. The presence of some thin remnant 
of an atmosphere, even above a hundred miles, is de- 
manded by observations on meteorites; and the con- 
densation of volcanic vapors at that altitude would 
be very rapid. The neglect of these facts is a serious 
weakness in Mr. Bishop’s theory. 
— Honolulu papers of latest date report a renewal 
of the red sunsets. 
— The new Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche mikro- 
skopie und fiir mikroskopische technik, edited by Dr. 
W. J. Behrens of Gottingen, makes a good impression 
by its first number, being very attractively printed, 
and having good contents. There are eight original 
articles upon various practical matters, a series of ab- 
stracts of the important recent contributions to micro- 
scopical technique, and several reviews of books lately 
published. Now that the art of preparing objects 
and using the instrument has progressed in so many 
directions, microscopical science needs a journal de- 
voted to technique; and we trust this new suitor for 
subscriptions will find support to make it thrive. The 
present number of the Zeitschrift contains a list of 
papers referring to matters of microscopical tech- 
nique, and published between Jan. 1 and Dee. 1, 
1883. Hereafter the lists will be quarterly. 
