MR. PEARSON'S query, in NATURE of November 28, docs not admit of any exact or scientific answer, for there is no natural line of demarcation or change, and the settlement is entirely a matter of usage or convenience. It is not very many years since the dates at Manilla and Macao were different; and till the cession of the Alaska Territory to the Americans, the date there was...
WILL you allow me to ask Dr. Bistian to state in your columns, in reply to this note, the specific gravity of the turn ip infusion, to which a “fragment” of cheese has been added, and which, he states, has rarely failed to give him positive results in his endeavours to obtain evidence of the de now production of living things from dead matter. If Dr. Bistian should be unable to...
UNDER this heading, in your number for Nov. 28, a letter signed “James Pearson” ends thus:—“The query then is—in what part of the globe and in what meridian does October 20 end and October 21 begin?” As well ask where a circle eds and where it begins. See an article at the end of Bayle's Dictionary, entitled, in the second Rotterdam edition, 1702, “Dissertation sur le jour,” vol...
ON reading the article on “The Meteorology of the Future,” in NATURE, December 12, I pondered over this passage—“It is impossible to determine the rainfall over the ocean;” and it occurred to me that it is possible to do something in that line approximately. Is the Challenger supplied with rain-gauges? Would it not be possible to determine in some measure the hourly amount of...
IN reply to Mr. E. Ray Lankester's inquiry in the last number of NATURE, I beg to state that the specific gravity of an infusion of turnip, prepared in the manner I have directed, was found to be 1012, whilst that of an infusion of hay was 1005.
IF the following translation of a letter I have received from Father Denza, Director of the Royal Observatory at Montcalieri, in Piedmont, will be of interest, it is at your service.
As the number of meteors which I counted on the evening of Wednesday last, November 27, varied considerably from the number in Mr. Lowe's tables (Times, November 29), I beg to offer you my observations, in case they should be of any value on account of the more southern point from which they were taken. I lay down on my back upon the flat roof of the house in which I live, and...
WE have had here, and I presume you also have had in England, quite a fine display of shooting stars from the fragments or companions of Biela's comet.
THE aurora of Nov. 27—the evening of the meteoric display—was seen by me near Liverpool. It appears to have been very partial in its manifestation, to judge by the published accounts. There was merely a hazy or diffused cloudy light, devoid both of colouring and symmetry of form. This variety of aurora I have observed on several occasions, when it appears to have attracted but...
THERE has been no doubt as to the author or authors of the “Treatise on Probability,” published under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, since 1844. In that year the “Value of Annuities and Reversionary Payments,” by David Jones, was issued in two volumes by Robert Baldwin, of 47, Paternoster Row, and the title-page states—“To which is...
ON the evening of November 27, Prof. Tingley, of Asbury University, Greencastle, Indiana, observed a remarkable shower of falling stars. The number counted in 40 minutes, from 7h. 15m. to 7h. 55m., was 110. This would give 165 per hour for one observer. But according to Prof. Newton (Slliman's Journal, for January 1868, p. 80), the whole number visible at any station, when the...
I DO not know whether the following notice is worthy of admission into NATURE, but it suggests many interesting consequences as the effects of heavy rains over continents drained by large rivers.
I CANNOT quite agree with Mr. Lockyer that the most important question in meteorology is the discovery of a cycle. Were it even so well proved, it would still be but an empirical law. In my opinion the chief desideratum of the science is a dynamical theory of barometric waves; and the data for this are to be found not merely in records of barometric fluctuations in one place, nor...
A FEW days ago I had an opportunity of estimating the height of a bank of thunderclouds, an account of which may interest the readers of NATURE.
THE recollection of a letter from Prof. Tyndall's pen, which appeared in NATURE some months ago, induces me to contribute an account of a curious sun effect recently seen from the summit of the Kudure Mukh, a hill nearly 6,200 ft. high.
ON the 9th inst. I was fortunate enough to find what I believe to be the first fossil from the Sub-Wealden boring at Netherfield, three or four shells of the genus Cyclas, in dark blue shale from a depth of 100ft. There was also a small piece of what Dr. Bowerbank thinks is a Paludina.
WITH reference to my letter of the 11th ult. (NATURE, vol. vii. p. 124.) I forward the following further information with regard to the appearance of fresh water on the coast of Tobago, promised from the same correspondent.
A FEW weeks ago Mr. A. R. Wallace asked in your columns if there existed such a thing as a cyclopædia which did not mislead or blind the inquirer by harassing and often useless cross references. As no one has yet answered Mr. Wallace's question, will you permit me to direct his attention to that admirable work, almost equivalent in its fullness to a cyclopædia and far superior to...
FROM a note in NATURE, Dec. 19, it appears that it has hitherto been a mooted question among entomologists whether any species of Diptera are pollen-eaters. I have often watched certain slender-bodied flies, belonging to orallied to the family of Noverers (Syrphidœ), in the act of feeding on the pollen of various flowers, which they effected by a quick jerking and grinding...
MR. BENTHAM, in his address to the Linnean Society, delivered May 4, 1872, remarks in a note, “Dr. Hooker has, for instance, remarked that no Dipterocarpeæ have been found east of Borneo;” but that in the present state of our knowledge it is premature to endeavour to establish well-marked limits between the flora of the western and eastern portions of the Indian Archipelago.
THE Royal Exchange storm of Nov., 1838, happened twenty-two years before Prof. C. P. Smyth's Hyperborean one of Oct, 1860—twelve years ago. I have heard of a great one at Dantzic in 1816-17 (also twenty-two years before 1838). In a small book—“Chronological Tablets,” published 1801, article on “Storms,” great ones, in 1794, Oct. 6; 1784, Dec. 5; 1773, March; 1751, Dec.; 1740, Nov...
SOME months ago I inquired through the columns of the Field newspaper if any sportsman, fisherman, or naturalist would oblige me by replying to the following queries respecting the rarer Salmonidæ of Great Britam. Firstly, whether Salmo ferox (the great lake trout) had ever been taken in any lake in Wales, and, secondly, whether any of the Gwiniad tribe (Coregoni), such as the...
THERE is a passage in Dr. Cohn's address as reported in the Christmas number of NATURE (p. 137), which greatly needs correction:—
WITH reference to Mr. Miller's note (NATURE, vol. vii. p. 123), I think it may be desirable to point out that a good many steps have been taken in the direction he suggests. As I believe Mr. Miller is a reader of “British Rainfall,” he will probably hardly need to be reminded of the article on “Ocean Rainfall,” by Mr. F. Gaster in the volume for 1866, wherein tables of the...