the Ben-a conclusion in keeping with the result obtained at low level.

It is concluded from the observations that high winds reduce the transparency of the air. In Part I. this conclusion is indicated, and the observations of 1890 confirm it. It is pointed out that whenever the wind was high, the air was unduly thick for the number of particles and the humidity. This is thought to be due to high winds carrying large particles, and mixing the lower stratum of inpure air with the purer upper air. The inequalities in the density of the different parts of the air produced by imperfect mixing will also reduce its transparency.

The Alford observations for 1890 show that the air was occasionally purer and the maximum a little higher in that year than on the previous visit. Whenever the wind blew from the south, it brought polluted air to this station, as it came from inhabited areas; and when the wind was northerly the air was pure. The number of particles was as low as 127 per c.c. with a north-west wind, while it was as high as 6800 per c.c. with a south wind.

An ascent of Callievar was made in 1890 also. On the first visit the air was clear, and the Cairngorms and Lochnagar were clearly seen. The number of particles was 262 per c.c., and rose in the afternoon to 475 per c.c.; but on the second visit the air was thick, and only a faint outline of the Cairngorms was occasionally seen, while Lochnagar was quite invisible. The number of particles was 710, and rose in the afternoon to 1575 per c.c.

The air on this occasion was very irregularly hazed, not being equally transparent in all directions. One mass of air darkened the view to the west, passed over the hill-top and darkened the view to the east. Before this impure mass of air arrived at the hill-top the number of particles was 710, while it was passing the number rose to 1575, and after it had gone east the number fell to 1050 per c.c. During these observations the humidity remained constant. The variations in the transparency were therefore due to variations in the amount of dust.

The condition of the air during the exceptionally warm February of 1890 was tested at Garelochhead on the 27th of the month. Previous to that date the weather had

been very warm, temperatures of 50° and 60° having been frequently recorded in our area, and even 64° was observed in more places than one. The result of the tests showed the air to be remarkably full of dust. During the visit to this station in the end of January 1889, the maximum number of particles observed was 2360, and that was the only occasion on which it was over 1000; whilst on the first day of the second visit the smallest number observed was 7250, and other readings gave nearly 10,000. During this warm period the air was always impure, and had much the same appearance as it had on the 27th. The cause of this great amount of impurity was the presence of an anticyclone lying over Europe, giving rise to southerly winds over our area. The local winds were, however, very light and mixed, and there was no general circulation of the air; the dust impurities therefore accumulated, and, as the figures show, became very great. On the 28th, the day after the air was tested, a depression appeared off the north of our islands, and the isobars were closing in and westerly winds were beginning to blow. With this change the dust began to fall, and was as low as 1750 per c.c. on the 28th. On March 1 and 2 the isobars closed in still further, the winds freshened, and the dust fell to 51 per c.c., ora of what it was on February 27. During the 3rd, 4th, and 5th, the wind remained in the north-west, and the amount of dust was very small.

Certain relations between isobars and dust are pointed out. With regular isobars for westerly and northerly winds the air is pure, and the closer the isobars the purer is the air; whilst isobars for southerly or easterly winds, even though close, do not indicate pure air. From these facts it is shown that an estimate of the amount of dust on

any day can be made from an examination of the weather charts made on and previous to the day selected.

The relation between the amount of dust and the temperature is discussed, with the view of finding whether the observations made in 1890 confirm the conclusion arrived at from the previous records. That conclusion was that a great amount of dust increases the day temperature and checks the fall of temperature at night. The records of temperature and radiation made at Kingairloch in 1890 are of no value, owing to the weather being always under the influence of cyclones, so that there was an absence of clear skies, and the temperatures were regulated by what the winds brought, and were but little influenced by local conditions. But, as already stated, the dust at this station was exceedingly low in 1890, and the temperature was also exceptionally low.

The Alford observations, however, are not open to the same defect, as the weather was suitable for the purpose. These observations point to the same conclusion as that arrived at in 1889. The highest maximum temperatures were recorded on days of high dust, and the lowest minimum when the dust was at a minimum.

The observations made at Garelochhead also support the same conclusion. Towards the end of February the amount of dust was great, and from the meteorological report it will be seen that the temperature was above the mean, and was frequently very high. Again, when the westerly winds swept away the great impurity, they brought with them a high mean temperature. But after the winds ceased to blow, the pure air brought to our area by them seems to have allowed radiation to act freely, as the air then rapidly cooled, and the temperature became exceedingly low, as much as from 8 to II degrees below the mean in some stations in Scotland. The Ben Nevis observations show that during this exceptionally cold period the air was remarkably free from dust.

JOHN COUCH ADAMS.

IT is with deep regret that we record the death of Prof. Adams, who will always hold an eminent place in the history of astronomical science. As he is included in the list of our "Scientific Worthies," we have already given an account of his career (vol. xxxiv. p. 565). It is only necessary for us now, therefore-as in the case of Sir George Airy-to note some of the leading facts of his life and work.

He was born at Lidcot, near Launceston, in Cornwall, on June 5, 1819. He received his early education at the village school and at Devonport, where he gave evidence of his remarkable faculty for mathematical and astronomical study. In October 1839, he entered at St. John's College, Cambridge; and in 1843 he graduated as Senior Wrangler and first Smith's Prizeman, becoming shortly afterwards a Fellow and tutor of his College.

Both before and after taking his degree he was fascinated by a problem which was at that time profoundly interesting astronomers-the irregularities shown by the planet Uranus in its motion. Its orbit differed from the elliptic path which an undisturbed planet would have pursued; and as the deviations could not be explained by the influence of the other known planets, it was supposed that there must be a more remote planet which had not then been observed. To the search for this unknown planet Adams devoted all the energies of his mathematical genius, and everyone knows the brilliant success with which his labours were crowned. His solution was communicated to Prof. Challis in September 1845, and to the Astronomer-Royal in the following month. We need only refer to the facts that similar work was done in 1846 by Leverrier; that the French astronomer's results, unlike those of the English investi

gator, were at once made known; and that on September 23, 1846, the planet Neptune was found by Dr. Galle, of Berlin, on the basis of Leverrier's elements. Adams and Leverrier rank as joint discoverers, and, as such, they received on February 11, 1848, the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. Some members of Adams's college, in order to mark their sense of the importance of his achievement, raised a fund, which the University accepted, for the founding of a prize, to be called "The Adams Prize," to be awarded every two years to the author of the best essay on some subject of pure mathematics, astronomy, or other branch of natural philosophy. In 1851 he was elected President of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Ás he did not take orders, his Fellowship at St. John's expired in 1852, but he continued to reside in the College until 1853, when he was elected to Pembroke. In 1858 he was appointed Professor of Mathematics at the University of St. Andrews, but he held this office only during a single session. He became the Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry, at Cambridge, in 1859, in succession to the late Prof. Peacock, and retained this position during the remainder of his life.

Meanwhile, he had been carrying on many important investigations; and, until ill-health disabled him, his labours were never seriously interrupted. Foremost among his later achievements were the results of his researches on the moon and on the theory of the November meteors. In 1866 the Royal Astronomical Society awarded him its gold medal for his lunar researches. He had succeeded Prof. Challis as Director of the Cambridge Observatory in 1861, and in 1884 he served as one of the delegates for Great Britain at the International Meridian Conference at Washington.

For about a year and a half before his death, Prof. Adams was too ill to do as much work as he had been accustomed to do, and during the last ten weeks he was confined to bed. He died on the morning of January 21.

He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and of the leading foreign scientific bodies; and honorary degrees were conferred upon him by his own University and by Oxford. The post of Astronomer-Royal was offered to him by the First Lord of the Admiralty in 1881, on Sir George Airy's retirement, but declined by him on the ground of age.

WALTER HOOD FITCH.

TH HIS talented botanical artist, whose name appears in almost every illustrated work of importance on botany or horticulture that was published in this country during the half-century from 1835 to 1885, expired at his residence at Kew on the 14th inst., after several years' indisposition, in which mental and physical decay were combined. The deceased was 75 years of age, and his whole life from early youth had been devoted to botanical drawing and painting; and his reputation was so high and so world-wide that it is unnecessary to say much on this point. Nevertheless, some particulars of the work of a man who accomplished so much and so well may be interesting to many persons who only know his work. Of Scotch birth, he was apprenticed, while still very young, to the designing department in a manufactory of fancy cotton goods at Paisley. Here his natural aptitude for drawing developed so rapidly and to such a degree as to indicate that he possessed talents of no ordinary kind, and his name soon became known outside of the factory. By some means he came under the notice of a friend of the late Sir William Hooker, and he, knowing that the latter was in need of a draughtsman, strongly recommended him to try the youth's capabilities. Sir William Hooker, at that time Regius Professor of Botany at Glasgow, acted on this suggestion, and the result was

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so satisfactory that he negotiated the cancel of Fitch's indentures, took him into his sole employ, and trained him for the kind of work he wished him to execute. have not ascertained the exact date of this event, but it must have been as early as the year 1832, for already in 1834 he was a contributor to the Botanical Magazine, and he continued his connection with this long-lived periodical down to 1878, having during this period drawn and lithographed some 3000 of the plates. first his initials did not appear regularly on the plates, but, on reference to the volume for 1837, it may be seen that it was practically all his, and that he had already become an efficient botanical draughtsman. The same year (1837) the first volume of Hooker's "Icones Plantarum was published, and although Fitch's name does not appear, we have other evidence that he was the artist. In short, he not only illustrated all the numerous works of his first patron, but also those of his son, now Sir Joseph Hooker, as well as those of numerous other public and private persons. The fertility of his pencil was equalled by its facility, grace, vigour, and boldness; and his colouring was usually rich, and full, and truthful. It is true that most of his work does not exhibit the finish and minute detail characteristic of the masterpieces of the productions of the few other botanical artists with which comparisons could be made. 1841, Sir William Hooker was appointed Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, Fitch accompanying him, and residing there until his death. At Kew he found full scope for his powers, and notable amongst the numerous productions of his best days are the magnificent elephant folio plates representing various stages of the development of the Victoria regia as cultivated at Kew and Syon House; the plates of Sir William Hooker's numerous works on ferns; of Sir Joseph Hooker's "Botany of Sir James Ross's Antarctic Voyage"; and his "Illustrations of Himalayan Plants and Himalayan Rhododendrons"; of Howard's "Quinologia": of Bateman's "Odontoglossum"; of Welwitch's "West African Plants"; of Speke and Grant's "Plants of the Upper Nile"; and of Seemann's "Botany of the Voyage of the Herald." Examples of his later work are to be found in Elwes's "Lilies," and the botany of Salvin and Godman's Biologia Centrali-Americana," the latter the last important work he accomplished. As might be imagined from the amount of work he did, Fitch wielded the pencil with remarkable rapidity and freedom; and one could not but admire the way in which he stood up and, free handed, guided his pencil over the stone without any preliminary drawing. Botanical drawing, however, is not a very lucrative profession, and therefore not likely to attract persons of great attainments; but when Fitch became incapacitated through failing health, his merits were so far recognized as to gain him a Civil List pension, on the recommendation of the Earl of Beaconsfield, of £100 a year.

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MARCH 17 is the date fixed for the Bakerian Lecture of the Royal Society, and Prof. James Thomson is to be invited to deliver it. The Croonian Lecture is to be delivered on March 24 by Prof. Angelo Mosso, of Turin, the subject being "The Temperature of the Brain."

AT the Council Meeting of the Royal Society on the 21st inst., no fewer than ten deaths were announced, seven of the deceased having been Fellows of the Royal Society, and three Foreign Members. Taking into account that the average number of deaths for the whole year is fifteen, such a list for a single month is quite extraordinary.

PHYSIOLOGICAL science has sustained a severe loss by the death of Dr. Ernst von Brücke, the well-known Professor of Physiology at the University of Vienna. He died at Vienna on January 8, in his seventy-third year. He was a pupil of Johannes Müller, and made many contributions of first-rate importance to the study of physiology.

WE regret to have to record the death of Mr. Thomas Roberts, F.G.S., of St. John's College, assistant to the Woodwardian Professor of Geology at Cambridge. He died on Saturday last at the age of thirty-five. Mr. Roberts obtained a first class in the Natural Sciences Tripos, Part I., in June 1882, and in the second part of the same Tripos for geology in June 1883. He also won the Sedgwick Prize for a geological essay in 1886. Prof. Hughes, in his annual reports to the Senate, often alluded to the value of the services rendered by Mr. Roberts to the students of his classes.

THE Sydney papers announce the death of Sir William Macleay, who did much to promote an interest in science in New South Wales. It was mainly through his efforts that the Linnean Society of New South Wales was founded; and on many occasions he acted towards it with splendid liberality. The building in which it meets was erected at Sir William's expense. This building he transferred to the Society with the lease of the land on which it stands, giving at the same time, by way of endowment, a mortgage of £14,000 bearing interest at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum. He provided an excellent reference library, and equipped the rooms with fittings, furniture, and apparatus for scientific research. According to a speech delivered by one of the presidents, and quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald, he also bore the greater part of the expenses of the Society's publications, supplied the salaries of its officers, and "furnished its specialists with abundant funds for their investigations and their maintenance." Besides, he was the chief instrument in obtaining the Society's Charter, and he arranged to bequeath the sum of £35,000 for the establishment of four "Linnean Fellowships" of the annual value of £400 each. In 1874, Sir William Macleay bought and fitted out the barque Chevert for a scientific expedition to New Guinea; and he was thus enabled to get together a very valuable collection of natural history specimens, which now form an important part of what is known as the Macleay Museum of Natural History, presented by him to the University of Sydney. In addition to his collection, which was estimated at £23,000, he gave to the University (6000 to provide for the salary of a curator.

THE facts relating to the electrical transmission of power from Lauffen, on the Neckar, to Frankfort, a distance of about 110 English miles, have now been made known. They have been established by means of elaborate tests applied by a jury of experts under Prof. Weber, of Zürich. When 113 horsepower was taken from the river, the amount received at Frankfort through the wires was about 81 horse-power, showing an efficiency, in spite of all possible sources of loss, of 72 per cent. Prof. Silvanus Thompson, who has called attention to these striking facts, points out that it is now only a question of means whether, at the Chicago Exposition, there will be a transmission through wires of 1000 horse-power taken from the Falls of Niagara.

AN Electrical Exhibition was opened at St. Petersburg on January 23 by M. Vishnegradski, Minister of Finance, who was accompanied on the occasion by M. Durnovo, Minister of the Interior, and a number of distinguished persons. The Finance Minister, in addressing those present, traced the progress that had been made in electro-technical knowledge during the last twenty years, and dwelt upon the value of the present Exhibition for students of electricity. The Ministers and the

other personages then proceeded to visit the different sections. The Exhibition is said to be of a varied and interesting character, displaying many different kinds of machines at work.

ACCORDING to the American journal Electricity, the plans and specifications for the construction of the conduit system and subways in which the electric conductors, at the Chicago Exposition, are to be carried through the grounds to the different buildings have been issued by the construction department of the World's Fair. The specifications call for the completion of the work by April 15, 1892. The total length of the subway is about 4500 feet. The larger portion of the conduit will be 8 feet and 4 inches square, and will be built of the best seasoned pine. The conduit is to have two linings, the outer one consisting of 2 inch tarred plank. Between the linings will be a concrete mixture of cement, plaster, and sand.

THE Kew Bulletin for January opens with some most interesting notes, by Mr. J. G. Baker, F. R.S., on Agaves and Arborescent Liliacea on the Riviera. Mr. Baker went in November last to the Riviera, chiefly for the purpose of studying these two groups of plants, which grow there in quantities in the open air. The number also contains accounts of the Cape Town Botanic Garden and the Gold Coast Botanical Station.

THE first appendix of the Kew Bulletin of the present year consists of a list of such hardy herbaceous annual and perennial plants, as well as of such trees and shrubs as matured seeds under cultivation in the Royal Gardens, Kew, during the year 1891. These seeds are available for exchange with colonial, Indian, and foreign Botanic Gardens, as well as with regular correspondents of Kew. The seeds can be obtained only in moderate quantity, and are not sold to the general public. No application, except from remote colonial possessions, can be received for seeds after the end of March.

THE Woolhope Club has voted £10 towards defraying the expenses connected with the course of Oxford University Extension lectures, now being delivered in Hereford by Mr. C. CarusWilson, on the "Outlines of Geology.” It is satisfactory to note this instance of a local Club making use of the facilities offered by University Extension for giving to its younger members the opportunity of obtaining systematic training in geological knowledge. The liberal-minded action of the Woolhope Club might well be followed by other Societies throughout the country if they are satisfied of the lecturer's capacity.

WITH reference to Prof. Ray Lankester's communication on "Science in Japan" (p. 256), and especially to his remark that "English, indeed, appears to be the official language of the Imperial University, Tokyo," the following extract may be found interesting. It is taken from the preface to an English translation of a Japanese text-book of elementary geometry, based on that of the Association for the Improvement of Geometrical Teaching, and compiled by Prof. Kikuchi, of the Imperial University, for use in the ordinary normal and middle schools. "In some schools, text-books in English are in use in all the classes, in others only in the higher classes. My object in making this translation is to supply a text-book in English for use in such schools uniform with the Japanese text-book, so that the scholars may pass from one to the other without any trouble."

JUDGING by the contents of a short paper read recently before the Linnean Society, and the discussion which followed, there is an interesting field for scientific investigation amongst the ticks (Ixodide) which are to be found in some parts of Jamaica and other portions of tropical America. These undesirable Acarina appear to have been introduced to Jamaica with cattle from the mainland. They are most prevalent, therefore,

ment used in the measurement of high temperatures. In constructing his pyrometers, Prof. Wiborgh followed two principles -first, that a certain quantity of air, when heated, is maintained at the same volume, and the increase of pressure gives a measure of the increased temperature; and second, that the air is maintained unaltered in pressure when the temperature is determined by the change of volume. The two forms of his air-pyrometers may be compared to the two forms of the barometer-the mercurial and the aneroid. The air-pyrometer in its aneroid or metallic form is especially adapted to determine the temperature of the hot blast, the gases from all sorts of furnaces, of distillation-products from retorts, &c.; and generally it will fulfil any demands that may fairly be made upon an accurate instrument for ascertaining temperatures for practical purposes, in cases where the temperature to be determined ranges from o° to 1400° C.

A REMARKABLE illustration of the height of breaking waves is afforded by the following paragraph, which we take from the San Francisco Chronicle of January 6 :—“ Portland, January 5. The lighthouse tender Manzanita reached Tillamook Rock Sunday for the first time in six weeks, and brought away the keeper, George Hunt, who has been on the rock for four years, and has been transferred to the Cape Mars Light. He says, in the storm of December 7 the waves swept clear over the house, washing away their boats, and tearing loose and carrying away the landing platform and tramway, which were bolted to the rock. On the 29th the waves were still higher, and streams of water poured into the lantern through the ventilators in the balloon top of the dome, 157 feet above the sea-level. The lighthouse was shaken to its foundation by the impact of seas against it, and the water found its way into the house. Men were on duty all night to keep the lamp burning, and but for the wire screen the shutters of the lantern would have been demolished. All hands were alarmed, and old sailors of the crew say they would sooner have taken their chances on board a ship." Prof. Edward S. Holden informs us that it is known to him personally that this lighthouse is sometimes buried in spray and water, and that the glass of its lanterns has been broken by the impact.

THE U.S. National Museum prints a capital paper, by Mr. Frederic A. Lucas, on animals recently extinct or threatened with extermination, as represented in the Museum's collections. In each case the cause of destruction is noted. Mr. Lucas finds that in nearly every instance the cause is "reckless laughter by man." As an instance of the way in which animals may be destroyed, he refers in the introduction to peccaries. In 1885 these little animals were so abundant in several counties of Texas that their well-worn tails were everywhere to be seen, while their favourite haunts could be readily picked out by the peculiar musky odour characteristic of the creatures. Shortly after that date, hog-skin goods being in' favour, a price of fifty cents each was offered for peccary hides, with the result that by 1890 the peccaries were practically exterminated.

THE fresh-water sponges in the collection of the late Mr. Henry Mills were placed some time ago in the hands of Dr. D. S. Kellicott, on the understanding that a representative set of specimens would be selected and prepared for the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. Dr. Kellicott has now finished his labours, and submitted the specimens to the Society. He is of opinion that the region about Buffalo Bay and the Niagara River affords almost ideal conditions for the life and growth of fresh-water animals. Its richness, he thinks, is even yet scarcely appreciated. The outlet of the American freshwater ocean remains at almost a constant level. It is not, like so many lesser American rivers, a mere thread of heated water in summer and a flood of tilt in winter and spring. Neither

storm nor season greatly disturbs its clearness or destroys its purity; and owing to its mass its temperature changes slowly and the range is moderate. There are also deep passages, once portions of the river-bed, now almost land-locked, but still sufficiently open to the river to admit fresh water and maintain a constant level. Aquatic life in these channels is remarkably luxuriant for a Nerth American station in latitude 43°. Again, there are small rivers or creeks entering the main river, the estuaries of which are deep, quiet, and supplied from above with swamp and land drainage, whilst their constancy is assured by that of the Niagara. These are teeming with a vast variety of microscopic plants and animals from early summer to December. These conditions are especially favourable to the growth of sponges, and they are found in extraordinary abundance. Whilst the number of species recorded compares favourably with any explored locality in the world, the abundance of representatives is, according to Dr. Kellicott's experience and the testimony of others, quite unsurpassed.

THE working of mercury mines appears to have become an industry of some importance in Russia. According to the Journal de St. Pétersbourg, quoted by the Board of Trade Journal, there have been found in the district of Bakhmont (province of Catherinoslaw) rich deposits of mercury ore, and the works which have been established there, increasing their operations year by year, have succeeded in producing at the present time 20,000 pouds of mercury annually (poud

36 pounds avoirdupois). Other deposits of mercury have been discovered in Caucasia, in the province of Daghestan ; and the Mining Administration has every reason to believe that private enterprises will be established which will make undertakings of this kind very profitable. Mercury is, as is known, very rare. It is only found in more or less considerable quantity in Spain, Austria, the United States of America, and Italy. The works in the province of Catherinoslaw extract 20,000 pouds of pure mercury from more than 3,500,000 pouds of ore (sulphate of mercury). This quantity is sufficient for Russian consumption, and even allows of an export of 14,000 pouds to other countries.

SOME time ago the Minister of Agriculture in Victoria, acting on the advice of the Board of Viticulture, authorized, among other reserves throughout the colony, the reservation of about 1100 acres in the Dunolly district as a viticultural reserve for experimental purposes. From this area a space of twenty acres has been excised, which has now been cleared and fenced with vermin-proof wire, for the purpose of establishing a perfume farm and experimental plot, for the growing of perfume plants, medicinal drugs, and the production of essential oils. A list of the plants under cultivation at the farm, with a report of the progress up to date, is included in a hand-book issued by the Victorian Royal Commission on Vegetable Products; and it is anticipated that satisfactory results will follow during the present season. The hand-book is published in order that all who may choose to avail themselves of the opportunity may make experiment in their several localities, with the view of comparison with the plot established at Danolly for educational purposes, and so that an interesting and profitable industry may be established in the colony.

But

FROM a series of experiments made a short time ago (Naturw. Rdsch.), Prof. Wesendonck, of Berlin, inferred that dustless air, in friction with metals, does not generate electricity. carbonic acid, under like conditions, readily gave a charge, and this was thought to be due to cloud-formation in the gas streaming out of the vessel which had held it in liquid form, the small water-particles charging the metal by friction. Further experi

ment has seemed to confirm this view. The gas let out from such a vessel, in vertical position, with some freedom, appears cloudy. Gaseous carbonic acid, under 50 or 60 atmospheres,