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clude that cases of resemblance between cuckoos' eggs and those of the species in whose nests they are

STUDIES OF CLOUDS.1

deposited, are due to coincidence rendered possible MR. CLAYDEN'S work will be a standard one for

by a large degree of variation in the former." Although digressions are not announced on the title, the latter is wide enough to cover many things, and many odd bits of out-of-the-way knowledge are woven into this book, which is mainly concerned with birds. A rather bitter attack on game preservers and sportsmen (with a slap at the army dropped in) is sandwiched between some most charming studies of wild life and natural scenery, written in clear and powerful and often quaint and humorous style. When has the barn owl been more aptly described than in this passage? "Never a sound from wing or throat as it flaps or skims in the half-light, watching the ground with its cat's eyes as it goes, until suddenly the silence is startled by a single, rasping yell such as might make the hair stand on the back of every mouse for a

all students of clouds. When the now international classification was first proposed by the late Ralph Abercromby and the present writer, our purpose was to devise a classification for common use at all meteorological stations and in all the navies of the world. It is evident that such a classification must be simple and practicable. A great number of forms must lead to constant errors when used by ordinary observers. Therefore we only proposed the ten types given now in the international cloud atlas.

We were well aware, however, and expressed the view in plain words, that these ten forms are not sufficient for special studies of the transformation of clouds or of the relations between cloud form and weather. For these cases each of the ten great types must be divided into several subspecies, to which proper names must be given.

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quarter of a mile around. The Arch-mouser is on the trail, and such a master of his craft that he appears at times to toot his horn in contempt of his quarry. Or, is this sudden shriek used to start any mouse that may be lurking below, so that when moving it may be more readily discerned?" Mr. Boraston, too, sometimes wants to know why. The eighteen photographs which illustrate this nicely got up volume are almost beyond praise. We have selected this one for reproduction, not because it is by any means the most beautiful, but because of the cleverness with which the whole of this rock, with its seaweed and its oyster-catchers, has been focused; it will appeal strongly to those who love our west coast and its birds. The whole book will be welcomed and treasured up by the great fraternity of British birdO. V. APLIN.

men.

Various attempts have been made to extend the scheme in this way. Abbé Maze in France, Prof. Köppen in Germany, the Rev. F. L. Odenbach in America, and, above all, the Rev. Clement Ley in England, have proposed and defined more detailed classifications; and Mr. Clayden has now in his cloud studies taken a great step forward in this direction.

The descriptions and the illustrations reproduced from photographs are excellent, and everyone who is accustomed to observe the ever-changing panorama of skies will admire the large amount of exact observations given in this book. The book contains reproductions of many typical cloud-forms and certain intermediate forms showing the transformation of one cloud-form into another.

1 "Cloud Studies." By Arthur W. Clayder, M.A. Pp. xiii+184; 61 plates. (London: John Murray, 1905.) Price 12s. net.

It is important to notice that the author accepts the types of the international cloud atlas and arranges his various forms as subforms of these types. There is, however, one exception. Mr. Clayden does not admit the nimbus cloud as a special type, but puts it under the type stratus. He employs nimbus as an adjective indicating that rain is falling from a cloud. We cannot agree with this plan. Every form of cloud can be transformed into another. It is, indeed, well known that the true typical forms are rare, the majority of clouds being intermediate forms. Of course, it often happens that stratus cloud is transformed to nimbus. The farmer in Sweden says, "if the fog is falling the weather will be fine, if the fog is lifting it comes back as rain." It is really the case that in certain weather conditions the fog follows the upward motion of the air; in the rising air the temperature falls, condensation goes on, and the light fog is transformed to a dense nimbus with rain.

of clouds to a work of the greatest value, which should be studied with the greatest care. No one who desires to study the transformations of clouds or the relation of cloud forms to weather can neglect to consider the valuable results and ideas put forward by Mr. Clayden. Of course, it is not possible for an international committee or conference to establish a very detailed classification of clouds, but we think it would be very useful if the author would provide the plates and short descriptions as a small atlas for use in observatories and for specialists. H. HILDEBRAND HILDEBRANDSSON.

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Nevertheless, there is a vast difference between the fog formed on or near the ground and the true canopy of nimbus cloud rushing forward beneath a layer of alto-stratus in the front of a storm. But here, as always, one form does sometimes pass into another. The alto-stratus does also sometimes sink down and become transformed into nimbus. We know that during summer all low clouds, as a rule, assume more or less the cumulus form. Thus we cannot say that a stratus or an alto-stratus is a nimbus more than that a stratus or a nimbus is a cumulus.

It is not possible to give in this short notice a description of the different forms presented in this book. We must also abstain from an exposition of the author's views regarding the causes which produce the different cloud forms. These views are in most cases highly probable, and in all cases useful hints are given for further investigations. Our purpose now is only to direct the attention of our fellow-students

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The observers (Dr. Otto Klotz and F. W. O. Werry) were provided with practically identical instruments, the principal ones being the two Cooke transits, of 3 inches clear aperture, and of about 36 inches focal length. Cement or brick piers were built at every station. The observers occupied alternate stations across the Pacific, and as the number of stations is odd, Southport and Doubtless Bay are free from the personal equation, without a direct determination of the latter, although the personal equation was determined. Mr. Werry occupied Fanning and Norfolk,

the writer the other stations, including Sydney, Brisbane, and Wellington for personal equation. At Southport connection was made with the observatories at Sydney and Brisbane, and from Doubtless Bay with Wellington.

It was on September 29, 1903, that the first mutual observations and clock exchange were had with Sydney, and so this night may be considered as the one when for the first time longitude from the west clasped hands with longitude from the east, and the first astronomical girdle of the world was completed. In making the comparison at Sydney between the longitude brought from the east with that from the west, I have used the value of Prof. Albrecht for the arc Greenwich-Potsdam oh. 52m. 16'051s., and for the arcs from Potsdam to Madras, viâ Teherân, Bushire, Karachi, Bombay, and Bolaram, those of Major Burrard, giving for the longitude of Madras 5h. 20m. 59.235.

As there has been no re-determination of the various arcs from Madras to Australia, I have adopted the values given in the Australian report of Ellery, Todd and Russell.

Applying these latter to the longitude of Madras, we get for the longitude of Sydney

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figures an allowance must be made for the personal equation, and it seems that, if Mr. Middlemiss's standard had been adopted in 1897, the former of these figures would have been considerably increased and the latter somewhat reduced.

There were two centres of great violence, one near Kangra and Dharmsala, where the tenth degree of the Rossi-Forel scale was surpassed, the other in the Dehra Dun, where the ninth degree was not reached. Between these two the violence was much less, and Mr. Middlemiss points out that the two districts of greatest destruction lie, each, in an embayment of the course of the great boundary fault of the Himalayas; they are the only two irregularities in the generally even sweep of the boundary of the Tertiaries of the sub-Himalayan tract, and as the general effect of the Tertiary, and post-Tertiary, folding and foldfaulting has been to obliterate irregularities in the outline of the mountain-foot, it is natural to suppose that any marked irregularities still left may be in a peculiar state of strain, especially liable to give rise to geotectonic movements. Those which took place on April 4 last seem to have exhausted themselves

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Tertiary System

Saharanpur.

Old Himalayan Rocks

The ovals indicate Isoseismal No. 8

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AFTER a lapse of only eight years since the great

earthquake of 1897, India suffered another calamity of the same nature on April 4, 1905, less in violence and extent, but more calamitous in its results, for it claimed a death-roll of 20,000 souls. An interesting preliminary account of this earthquake, by Mr. C. S. Middlemiss, appears in the concluding part of vol. xxxii. of the Records of the Geological Survey of India, where the total area over which the shock was felt is estimated at about 1,625,000 square miles, as against 1,750,000 in 1897. The area over which the shock was destructive is smaller in proportion than these figures would suggest, for the isoseist corresponding to 10 degrees of the Rossi-Forel scale includes only 200 square miles, and that corresponding to 8 degrees of the same scale 2150 square miles, as against 300 and 145,000 in 1897. In comparing these

FIG. 1.-Origin of the Kangra earthquake of April 4, 1905.

underground, for no surface faults or changes of level were detected.

The nature of the shock seems to have differed from that of 1897, when all accounts agreed in describing it as simple, with only one marked maximum of violence. In 1904 there were, both in the Kangra and Dehra Dun districts, two or three distinct shocks, and we may mention that this is reflected in the long-distance records of the shocks, which indicate at least two distinct impulses, following each other at an interval of a couple of minutes, whereas in 1897 there was no indication of more than a single impulse. The violence of the shock at its greatest seems to have been a little less than in 1897; at Kangra Mr. Middlemiss's observations give the acceleration of wave particle as about 13 feet per second per second, the amplitude as 9.75 inches, and the period as 1.57 seconds. The time of origin, as deduced from Jocal observations, is said to have been 6h. 9m. os. Madras time, within a second or two of error; the rate of propagation was 1.95 to 1.98 miles per second as between the origin and the seismograph stations at Bombay, Calcutta, and Kodaikanal, but it must be

remarked that this rate refers to the large motion on the Milne seismographs, not to the felt shock, the discussion of which is deferred to the larger memoir promised.

Among miscellaneous effects of the earthquake it is mentioned that in some cases the flow of springs was more or less completely checked, while others increased or broke out in new places. In Sind and Burma the shock was not felt, but affected the bubbles of level tubes during survey operations, the movement in the former district indicating a surface tilt of about 30 seconds of arc above and below the horizontal, in a north-east-south-west direction.

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He was born at Windsor in March, 1842, was educated privately, and entered the Civil Service at an early age. In 1860 he was appointed to the Exchequer, the department in which at that time the statutory powers with respect to weights and measures were vested. Here he had the good fortune to come into contact with Airy and Miller, who had just completed their researches, undertaken at the instance of the Government, in connection with the restoration of the Imperial standards. Profiting by their advice and encouragement, he devoted himself with much zeal to the technical duties which were imposed upon his department by the Sale of Gas Act, 1859. Under the direction of H. W. Chisholm, the Warden of the Standards, he took an important part in perfecting the official apparatus for verifying gasmeasuring instruments. He acted as secretary to the Standards Commission, 1867-71, and had much to do with the preparation of the voluminous appendices to its reports.

On the abolition of the separate office of Warden of the Standards in 1878, Mr. Chaney was placed in charge of the Standards Department of the Board of Trade. As superintendent of weights and measures he was responsible for the model regulations with| respect to weights and measures on which the local regulations throughout the country have been based. He was for many years the representative of the United Kingdom on the Comité International des Poids et Mesures, and took an active share in its proceedings. When the metric system of weights and measures was made permissive in this country in 1897, Mr. Chaney compiled the new tables of metric equivalents which were legalised the following year by Order in Council.

Mr. Chaney's scientific writings are for the most part to be found in the periodical publications of the Standards Department, and include, inter alia, Report on the Standards of Measurement for Gas," "Verification of Standards for the Governments of India and Russia " (1877), " Screw Gauges" (1881-3), "Densities and Expansions" (1883), "Expansion of Palladium," "Re-comparison of the Imperial and Metric Units" (1883), "Verification of the New Parliamentary Standards of Length and Weight' (1881-3). His "Re-determination of the Mass of a Cubic Inch of Distilled Water" (Phil. Trans., 1892), which was intended to serve as a basis for calculating the relation between measures of capacity and volume, gave for the cubic contents of the gallon the value 277-463 cubic inches, a much better approximation than the value 277.274 cubic inches, due to Kater,

which was accepted up to that date. The researches which have since been undertaken at the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures, and are still in progress, have yielded a provisional result for the mass of a cubic decimetre of distilled water at its maximum density which leads to the value 277-420 cubic inches for the cubic contents of the gallon. This does not differ much from Chaney's result, and is to be considered as the best determination up to date.

His well known work "Our Weights and Measures," which appeared in 1897, contains a mass of metrological information not readily accessible elsewhere. One of his latest contributions to science was the article "Weights and Measures" in the supplement to the ninth edition of the "Encyclopædia Britannica." His last official publication was a report on the "Construction and Verification of a New Copy of the Imperial Standard Yard" (1905).

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His great experience in precise measurement caused him to be regarded as a valuable cooperator, and his advice was frequently sought by official committees. The Imperial Service Order was conferred upon him in 1902, and the services rendered by him in connection with the restoration of the Russian standards of weight and measure were recognised by the present Tsar as well as by his grandfather, Alexander II.

Mr. Chaney's name has long been familiar in metrological circles, and his death has removed another link with the past. The memory of his kindly disposition and ready assistance will be treasured by all those who were in any way associated with

him.

NOTES.

WE are informed that the council of the Royal Society has selected the following candidates for election as fellows of the society :-Dr. C. W. Andrews, Mr. G. T. Beilby, Mr. F. F. Blackman, Prof. T. J. I'Anson Bromwich, Mr. P. H. Cowell, Mr. W. Heape, Mr. J. H. Jeans, Dr. C. H. Lees, Captain H. G. Lyons, R.E., Prof A. B. Macallum, Mr. J. E. Marsh, Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell, Mr. J. Swinburne, Prof. H. A. Wilson, Prof. A. E. Wright.

A MEETING was held at the Mansion House on Monday, the Lord Mayor presiding, to consider what steps should be taken to commemorate the discovery by Dr. W. H. Perkin fifty years ago of the first artificial colouring matter obtained from a coal-tar product, and to celebrate the great development of the coal-tar colour industry thus started. A note describing the origin and nature of the movement appeared in these columns on February 15 (p. 370). The proceedings at Monday's meeting were opened by Lord Halsbury, who moved :-"That, in view of this being the fiftieth year of the foundation of the coaltar colour industry, it is desirable that steps should be taken to memorialise the event and to do honour to Dr. W. H. Perkin, the founder." Sir William Bousfield seconded the motion, which was supported by the Master of the Leathersellers' Company and Prof. H. E. Armstrong, and unanimously carried. Lord Rayleigh moved :"That an appeal be made in this country and abroad for subscriptions for the purpose of carrying out the following objects:-(1) The presentation to Dr. Perkin for his lifetime of an oil portrait of himself, executed by an eminent artist, the portrait to become the property of the nation at his death. (2) The execution of a marble bust of Dr. Perkin to be placed in the rooms of the Chemical

46

Society. (3) The establishment of a 'Perkin Research Fund' for the promotion of chemical research to be administered through the Chemical Society." This resolution, which was also adopted, was seconded by Sir William Ramsay, and supported by Sir Henry Roscoe and Mr. David Howard. It is unnecessary here to detail the steps in the growth of the German coal-tar colour industry which is the commercial outcome of Dr. Perkin's discovery-an industrial development by which this country might have been expected to benefit. But, as a correspondent writes in the Times of February 24:Although in this country there have never been wanting capable chemists able to carry on and extend the manufacture of colouring matters, there has been complete lack of understanding on the commercial side of the complex requirements of the industry and complete lack of sympathy between the capitalist and the scientific worker. The failure must be credited to our universities and to our faulty system of higher education-to our inbred Philistinism. Little, if anything, has been done either in school or university to evoke in the community even an elementary understanding of the principles of science and of their application to commerce and industry. We are now paying the penalty of our neglect." To secure that the nation shall derive full industrial value from scientific discoveries will be possible only when we have developed a system of secondary and higher education in which modern needs and modern methods are recognised; for not until then will there be among us a generation of employers and capitalists able to understand expert opinions and with scientific imagination enough to read the signs of the times.

THE encroachments of the sea on parts of our coasts, and the question of national responsibility for the protection of the seaboard against such erosion, was raised in the House of Commons on Monday in an amendment to the Address. Several members urged that the Government should give financial assistance for the construction of works for coast protection and afford facilities to local authorities for obtaining loans on easy terms for the defence of the sea coast. The President of the Board of Trade stated that the Government has decided to have an inquiry in the form of a Royal Commission, which will extend not merely to coast defence, but to two or three other kindred subjects, such as waste lands and probably afforestation. A Commission will be appointed at an early date to inquire into the matter. Some objections to the expenditure of Imperial funds upon the protection of private property at sea-side resorts and other localities were stated in an article in NATURE of February 15 (p. 309).

SEVERAL years ago a commission was appointed by the Imperial Academy of Sciences of Vienna to collect phonographic records to be preserved for scientific study. Some of the results obtained by expeditions to Kroatia, Slavonia, and Lesbos were described in NATURE of January 29, 1903 (vol. xvii., p. 301). The Vienna correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette now states that from North Tyrol and Vorarlberg fifty-seven specimens of German dialects have been obtained for the archives, and another forty-seven from Carinthia. From New Guinea have been sent thirty-two phonographs recording the language and music of the natives, with especially interesting war songs and the accompanying drum music. From India have been received valuable records of old Sanskrit songs. An expedition which was sent out to Australia is now on its way back, and another party is about to start for Greenland.

Ir is stated that the new director of the Vatican Observatory will be Father J. G. Hagan, S.J., professor of astronomy in Georgetown University, U.S.A., and director of the observatory there.

IN connection with the indication by the London County Council of houses in London which have been the residences of distinguished individuals, a memorial tablet was erected on Monday on No. 110 Gower Street, where Charles Darwin resided from 1839 to 1842.

MR. E. T. WHITTAKER, F.R.S., has been appointed Andrews professor of astronomy in the University of Dublin, in succession to the late Prof. C. J. Joly, F.R.S. The appointment carries with it the office of Royal Astronomer of Ireland.

A REUTER message from Paris states that the committee of the Alliance Française-Britannique received at the Sorbonne on Monday the delegates of the London branch of the Alliance, headed by Sir Archibald Geikie, F.R.S., the chairman. M. Liard, Vice-Rector of Paris University, and M. Levasseur, director of the Collège de France, and honorary president of the Alliance Française, welcomed the British delegates. After Sir Archibald Geikie had delivered an address on geology, the British guests visited the laboratory and the large amphitheatre of the Sorbonne. In the evening they were present at a banquet given in their honour, the Minister of Public Instruction being in the chair.

WE learn from the British Medical Journal that the next meeting of the Congress of Experimental Psychology will be held at Würzburg, April 18-21. Among the communications promised are the following:-Dr. F. Krüger, on the relations between experimental phonetics and psychology; Prof. O. Külpe, on the present position of experimental æsthetics; Dr. F. Schumann, on the psychology of reading; Prof. R. Sommer, on psychiatry and the psychology of the individual; Dr. W. Weygandt, on the psychological investigation of congenital feeble-mindedness. Communications relative to the congress should be addressed to Prof. O. Külpe, Würzburg.

ABOUT two years ago steps were taken to erect a fitting memorial to James Watt at his birthplace. This is to take the form of a commemorative public building and statue at Greenock. In the Engineer of February 23 disappointment is expressed that an object so obviously worthy, and an appeal so influentially prosecuted, should not have had greater success. Only 700l. has been subscribed in Great Britain and 190l. in America. Influentia: canvass, nevertheless, was made by Mr. Carnegie in the United States, while in Great Britain Dr. Robert Caird sent out 10,000 circulars inviting subscriptions. The balance required, 9300l., has been contributed by Mr. Carnegie.

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ORNITHOLOGY has lost its oldest votary by the death, on February 20, of Prof. Jean Louis Cabanis, for many years in charge of the collection of birds in the Museum of Berlin. Born in 1816, his earliest work of importance seems to have been the ornithology of Tschudi's Fauna Peruana" in 1845 and 1846. He afterwards did the same service for Sir Richard Schomburgk's "Reisen im Britisch-Guiana"; but the Ornithologische Notizen " in the Archiv für Naturgeschichte for 1847 almost marked a new epoch in the progress of the science, for they were written in conjunction, it may be said, with Johannes Müller, and practically applied the principles of taxonomy laid down by that great anatomist, in his contributions to the Academy of Sciences in Berlin in 1845 and 1846, On certain variations in the vocal organs of the Passeres

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