One very interesting point we may note with regard to the class Aves-namely, that while birds still possessed the teeth which they had inherited from their reptilian ancestors, two very remarkable and distinct types of the class had already made their appearance, and that these two types have persisted on, even to the present day, dividing the class into Ratite and Carinate. The characters of the ancient toothed birds indicate undoubtedly a great antiquity for the class, which was probably evolved from the Reptilia in Triassic times, or even earlier.

Although the majority of entries in Mr. Lydekker's Catalogue relate to the Carinata, the Ratite are also well represented in the collection, and there is a sufficient number of remarkable extinct forms and figured types to impart to this volume a high scientific interest.

In conclusion, we must express our thanks to Mr. Lydekker for this last contribution to the very useful series of Catalogues which he has prepared for the Trustees of the British Museum, which cannot fail to prove of great service to biological science.

IRON CARBONYL FROM WATER GAS.

T the meeting of the Chemical Society on Thursday AT last, November 5, a communication was made by Sir Henry Roscoe, M.P., in the joint names of himself and Mr. Scudder, concerning a new and highly interesting mode of formation of iron carbonyl, Fe(CO), the volatile compound of iron and carbon monoxide independently obtained a few months ago by M. Berthelot and by Messrs. Mond and Quincke. During the course of experiments upon the application of water-gas, which contains about 40 per cent. of carbon monoxide and an approximately equal quantity of hydrogen, to the purposes of illumination, it was noticed that the magnesia combs placed over the flame of the burning water-gas rapidly became coated with oxide of iron, which materially lessened the illuminating power. Steatite burners were likewise found to become stained with oxide of iron. The deposit, when allowed to accumulate, took a coralloid

tuberous form quite different from accumulations of particles mechanically carried in a stream of gas This led to the supposition that the iron had existed in the water-gas in a volatile form, and was deposited as the result of the decomposition of the volatile compound at the high temperature of the flame. Further experiments were subsequently made with water-gas which had been compressed to eight atmospheres in iron cylinders. After standing for a week in such a cylinder, the gas, which usually burns with a blue non-luminous flame, was found to burn with an intensely yellow flame, and the illuminating power when the magnesia comb was placed over the flame was considerably reduced, owing to the deposition upon the comb of large quantities of oxide of iron. The experiment was repeated before the Fellows of the Society present, and upon depressing the lid of a porcelain crucible upon the flame a black stain was immediately produced, due to the deposition of particles of metallic iron or oxide. Moreover, upon heating the glass tube through which the gas was passing upon its way to the burner, a black mirror of metallic iron was rapidly formed. A thick deposit was also formed upon a plug of

cotton-wool inserted in the tube between the heated

portion and the burner. A similar tube was exhibited, through which, while heated, one cubic foot of water-gas had been allowed to pass from a cylinder in which it had been stored two weeks; the deposit was strikingly large, both in the portion which had been heated and upon the cotton-wool. After allowing a similar cylinder containing compressed water-gas to stand for five weeks, the flame was found to be smoky, from the large amount of iron liberated during the coni

bustion. The smokiness, and, indeed, the whole luminosity, disappeared upon heating the tube, the gas burning with its ordinary blue flame; a thick mirror was at once deposited, and a large amount of iron retained by the cotton-wool. Thirty litres of gas from this cylinder, burnt during the space of half an hour, gave thirty-two milligrams of metallic iron in the form of a mirror, and forty milligrams were deposited upon the cotton-woo'. Upon passing the gas through a U-tube surrounded by ice, a few drops of a turbid liquid were obtained, consisting mainly of iron carbonyl, possessing the properties ascribed to it at the meeting of the British Association at Cardiff by Mr. Mond. The turbidity entirely disappeared upon the addition of hydrochloric acid. From the above experiments it is evident that iron carbonyl is produced in the cold by the action of the carbon monoxide contained in the water-gas upon the iron of the containing cylinder, for the greater the length of time during which it has been stored, the greater is the amount of the compound present It is interesting to learn that the same deposit of metallic iron or oxide is found upon steatite burners from which ordinary coal-gas is burnt, pointing to the existence of iron carbonyl in our common illuminating gas. This concluthat coal-gas which has been compressed in iron cylinders sion is strengthened by the fact recorded by Dr. Thorne, and allowed to stand some time is rendered unfit for use for lantern projection, owing to the deep stain of iron formed upon the lime cylinders. It is also interesting, in view of the fact that iron carbonyl is capable of formation in the cold, to note that the nickel compound, Ni(CO), described by Messrs. Mond, Langer, and Quincke last year (vide NATURE, vol. xlii. p. 370), is also readily formed in the cold, provided the metallic nickel has been previously heated in a current of hydrogen. A. E. TUTTON.

CAPE GUARDAFUI ANd the neiGHBOURING SEA1

THIS work consists of monthly charts which illustrate

the sea surface temperature, the wind, ocean currents, sea disturbance, and weather in the immediate vicinity of Cape Guardafui, extending down the Somali coast so as to include Ras Hafún, and covering the sea to Notice to 53 E. Some years ago the Admiralty issued a Mariners," indicating the precautions necessary in rounding Cape Guardafui from the southward, in consequence of the Committee of Lloyd's having drawn attention, through the Board of Trade, to the large number of wrecks which had taken place in the neighbourhood. It was pointed out that the wrecks occurred chiefly during the period of the south-west monsoon, which blows from April to September, when the weather on the African coast is stormy and accompanied by a heavy sea; the currents are strong, and the land is generally obscured by a thick haze. The principal recommendation adopted by the Admiralty was the necessity for every precaution in verifying the vessel's position by soundings; and with this precaution it is asserted that the vessel's safety is assured, as the water rapidly deepens northward of the parallel of the cape. Ignorant of the exact position, many seamen have mistaken the high land at the back for the latter, which, being lower and lighter in colour, is of Ras Jard Hafún, ten miles south of Cape Guardafui, often invisible at any considerable distance. Believing the cape to be passed, ships have been steered into the comparatively low bay between the two headlands, and have struck on the sandy beach before any warning has

"Meteorological Charts of the Portion of the Indian Ocean adjacent to Cape Guardafui and Kas Hafún." (London: Published by the authority of the Meteorological Council, 1891.)

been given. An idea was mooted that a change in the sea temperature could be trusted to indicate the position of the ship in latitude, and some experienced captains in the mercantile marine advocated warmly this test, holding that a sea temperature of 80° F. was never found at this season south of Cape Guardafui. The attention of the Meteorological Office was called to these statements, and it was evident that an investigation into the facts would be of great service to the mariner. A preliminary inquiry threw doubt on the view in question, though it was apparent that the temperature was, generally speaking, lower to the south of Cape Guardafui than to the north. The charts now published are the outcome of the inquiry. So far as the practical bearing of the investigation on navigation is concerned, the result, in brief, is that in every month of the year a sea surface temperature above 80 may be found to the southward of Cape Guardafui; and that, although in the months of June, July, and August, when the south-west monsoon is at its height, this occurrence is rarer than at other seasons, the thermometer would prove a very dangerous guide for the purpose suggested.

The primary object of the discussion undertaken by the Meteorological Office was to show the difference of sea surface temperature near Cape Guardafui in comparison with that over the sea to the southward during the south-west monsoon months, from April to September, but more especially in the months of June, July, and August, when the monsoon is most pronounced. In spite of this being the period of the northern summer, the surface water is coldest at this season, and from June to September are the only months during the year that temperatures below 70° are experienced within the area dealt with. It is clear that during the full strength of the south-west monsoon the cold water of the southern hemisphere is driven north of the equator; but on the other hand, although low temperatures are experienced, readings of 80° and above are met with in these months at a considerable distance to the southward of Cape Guardafui; and for a vessel, making a passage from the southward, to reason that she had passed Cape Guardafui because the thermometer indicated a temperature of 80° would be altogether misleading. The temperatures are without doubt more uniformly high in the vicinity of Cape Guardafui than further to the southward during the months of June to September, and this justifies to a very great extent the opinion formed by many leading captains of the merchant service that a safe course might be shaped by the thermometer; but this view is now proved to be erroneous. The sea surface temperaturereaches its highest point in the district discussed during the months of March, April, and May, when nearly the whole area is above 80°.

The winds and ocean currents, which are plotted in position on the charts, give features of especial interest. The change of monsoon is well shown, and the effect produced by the adjacent land on the direction of the wind, also the variations in the strength of the monsoon, especially the intensified force of the south-west wind, which reaches its maximum in July, when the winds frequently blow with the force of a whole gale. The direction during the south-west monsoon is generally more southerly near the land than over the open sea. The surface current during the south-west monsoon almost invariably sets off the land to the eastward and north-eastward, and it sometimes attains the velocity of 80 to 100 miles in the 24 hours. In the north-east monsoon the conditions are generally much quieter, but the monthly charts show interesting and important differences; and the work, embracing, as it does, the whole twelve months, illustrates very fully the changes which occur, and afford very valuable material both for the man of science and the sailor.

NOTES.

THE President and Council of the Royal Society have recommended Prof. Charles Lapworth and Prof. A. W. Rücker for the Royal Medals this year, and the Queen has signified her approval of the award. The other medallists are Prof. Cannizzaro for the Copley Medal, and Prof. Victor Meyer for the Davy Medal.

THE following is the list of names recommended by the President and Council of the Royal Society for election into the Council for the year 1892, at the anniversary meeting on November 30-President: Sir William Thomson. Treasurer: John Evans. Secretaries: Prof. Michael Foster, Lord Rayleigh. Foreign Secretary: Sir Archibald Geikie. Other Mem bers of the Council: Captain William de Wiveleslie Abney, William Thomas Blanford, Prof. Alexander Crum Brown, Prof. George Carey Foster, James Whitbread Lee Glaisher, Frederick Ducane Godman, John Hopkinson, Prof. George Downing Liveing, Prof. Joseph Norman Lockyer, Prof. Arthur Milnes Marshall, Philip Henry Pye-Smith, William Chandler RobertsAusten, Prof. Edward Albert Schäfer, Sir George Gabriel Stokes, Prof. Sydney Howard Vines, General James Thomas

Walker.

formally accepted by the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. WE are glad to hear of a splendid gift which has just been It is a gift of 200,000 dollars, which has been presented to the Institution by Mr. Thomas Hodgkins, of Setauket, Long Island. The donation is accompanied with a condition-which, as the New York Tribune remarks, "will not be onerous"-that the donor shall have the option of giving another sum of 100,000 dollars within the year. Mr. Hodgkins has arranged that the interest of 100,000 dollars shall be "permanently devoted to the increase and diffusion of more exact knowledge in regard to the nature and properties of atmospheric air."

THE opening meeting of the seventy-fourth session of the Institution of Civil Engineers was held on Tuesday, and was very fully attended. Awards were made for various original communications submitted during the past session, for various papers printed in the Proceedings without being discussed, and for various papers read at the supplemental meetings of students. Mr. George Berkley, the President, delivered an address, taking as his subject the advance of engineering work in relation to social progress.

THE following, briefly stated, are prize subjects recently proposed by the Dutch Academy of Sciences, at Haarlem :— (1) Molecular theory of internal friction of gases departing from Boyle's law, and if possible, of liquids. (2) Determination of

the duration of electric vibrations in various conductors.

(3) Try inoculation of Viscum album on apple, pear, chestnut, and lime trees, and explain its preference for certain species. (4) Criticism of opinions on structure and mode of growth of the cell-wall, having regard to continuity of the protoplasm of the adjacent cells (in some cases). (5) New experiments on the reproductive power of parts of plants, and the polarity observed in it. (6) Study of the low organisms appearing (usually as filaments) in bottles containing solutions of chemical products, after long standing. (7) Significance of peptones for the circulation of nitrogen in plants. (8) Oxidation of ammoniacal salts in the ground, and transformation into nitrates. Do the microbes found by Winogradsky and Frankland exist in the soil of Holland? (9) Researches on the organism concerned in production of marsh gas, or the conditions in which the gas is formed, if life has only an indirect influence on the phenomenon. Liberation of the gas from manure. (10) Study of the

microbes involved in ensilage of green fodder, and of the variations of sugar and acidity with temperature and time. (11) The development of Triclades. (12) The development of the spleen. The prize offered in each case is a gold medal or a sum of 150 florins. Memoirs may be written in Dutch, French, English, Latin, Italian, or German (not German characters), and they are to be sent in, with sealed packet, to the secretary before January 1, 1893. (Further particulars in the Revue Scientifique, October 10, 1891.)

ACCORDING to an official report which reached the Japanese Legation, London, on November 6, the earthquake of October 28 affected the prefectures of Aichi and Gifu. It was calculated that the number of persons killed was 6500, and of persons injured 9000; that 75,000 houses were destroyed, and 12,000 damaged.

IN its review of the weather during October, the U.S. Pilot Chart notes that the latter part of September and nearly the entire month of October were characterized by exceptionally severe weather in the North Atlantic. Tropical hurricanes

passed north between Hatteras and Bermuda on October 3, 12, and 18. The heavy weather that prevailed between Newfoundland and the British Channel in the last week of September was followed by comparatively moderate weather during the first two days of October, but a storm that apparently moved eastward in high latitudes on the 2nd and 3rd caused increasing westerly gales in mid-ocean, and the force of these gales was very greatly increased by the formation of a secondary on the 4th, a short distance west of Rockall. This secondary remained central about the same place for three days, the 4th, 5th, and 6th, and during all of this time there was very severe weather almost all the way from the North Sea to the Grand Banks. There were also later storms, and altogether, when the facts are fully known, it will probably be found that the month was one of the most severe on record.

WE take from Symons's Monthly Meteorological Magazine for October the following interesting details of the climate of the British Empire during 1890. The tables for the year exhibit some exceptional features. For the first time in the 17 years that the figures have been published, the highest shade-temperature occurred at an East Indian station, 105°6 at Calcutta, instead of in Australia. The highest sun-temperature was, however, recorded at Adelaide, 163°9, although it is not exceptional for this to occur at Calcutta, while the mean temperature of the East Indian stations far exceeds that of Australia. The lowest shade-temperature occurred, as usual, at Winnipeg, - 39°4, the extreme rigour of whose winters far exceeds the cold at the other Canadian stations. The greatest range in the year, 135°9, as well as the greatest mean daily range and the lowest mean temperature, 32° 8, also occurred there; while the least yearly range, 25°4, and the highest mean temperature, 80°5, occurred at Colombo, Ceylon. The driest station was Adelaide, mean humidity 62, and the dampest London, mean humidity 80. The greatest rainfall for the places quoted was 82'90 inches at Trinidad, and the least, 1996 inches at Jamaica. The most cloudy station was Hobart, in Tasmania, and the least cloudy Malta. A large amount of cloud occurs at most insular stations, as well as great humidity, and small range of temperature; and, at one time or another London, Ceylon, Barbados, and Mauritius have recorded the extremes of most of these elements.

At the distribution of prizes in the Sheffield Technical School last week, Dr. Sorby, the President of the Council of Firth College, spoke vigorously and opportunely on a subject which is likely to become one of increasing importance-the true relation of technical education to the study of pure science. He feared, he said, not that technical education would not succeed, but that the public might forget that there might be something else

besides. He hoped that in the efforts that were being made to insure education in everything which was required for the trade of the country they would not forget that there were other things besides that. Some of the greatest discoveries made by Davy, Faraday, and Pasteur, were not made for trade purposes, but in the interests of abstract science. If they did anything to delay the development of science as a whole, they would hinder trade in the long run. Abstract science might sometimes appear at first to be very abstract, but all at once it might turn out to be of the utmost value in connection with trade. He would be very sorry indeed if in the future technical instruction should push other education out of the field altogether. There was a danger of this, because the funds available for education and objects of that kind were limited, and what was devoted to one institution was to some extent taken from others.

THE annual report on the technological examinations of the City and Guilds of London Institute has just been published. It is signed by Mr. G. Matthey, F.R.S., chairman of the examinations committee, and Sir Philip Magnus, superintendent of technological examinations. The facts set forth in the report are, upon the whole, satisfactory. At the recent examination the total number of worked papers was 7416, as against 6781 in 1890, showing an increase of 635, the corresponding increases in the two previous years being 175 and 440. This year, too, there is not only an increase in the number, but also in the proportion of candidates who have succeeded in satisfying the examiners, the number of passes being 4099 as against 3507 in 1890, and the percentage of passes 55'3 as against 51.8. Moreover, the examinations were held this year in 53 as against 49 subjects in the previous year, and in 245 as against 219 different centres throughout the country.

WRITING to the Times on the place due to horticulture in technical education, Mr. W. Wilks, honorary secretary of the Royal Horticultural Society, says that that Society is ready to co-operate with the County Councils in any attempt to promote the serious study of the subject. The Society has already entered into arrangements with the County Council of Surrey for holding examinations and awarding certificates, &c., after a series of lectures in various centres; and the County Council of Cambridgeshire is in communication with the Society as to the provision of practical demonstrations of scientific methods applied to orchards, allotments, and cottage gardens. Mr. Wilks is also in correspondence with a gentleman in Somersetshire, with the object of sending round an itinerant instructor and adviser to some of the cider orchard districts of that county.

AT a meeting of the Ashmolean Society in the Museum, Oxford, on Monday, November 9, under the presidency of Prof. Odling, Colonel Swinhoe read a paper on silk-producing moths. The author exhibited specimens of Bombyx mori and of their cocoons, showing the changes produced by variation of climate and domestication on members belonging to the Bombycidæ. Several specimens of the tussur silkworm were exhibited, illustrating in some respects the effects of cross-breeding, which, in the opinion of the author, had done much to depreciate the commercial value of the silk produce of India. Much greater care-a care which the Chinese appreciated-was needed on the part of the native breeders of the silkworm to insure in the silk the peculiar qualities which enhance its market value. A discussion followed, in the course of which Prof. Legge described briefly the method of culture of the mulberry-tree in China, and some of the methods employed in winding and securing the silk.

A MAMMALIAN tooth has just been discovered by Mr. Charles Dawson, of Uckfield, in a Wealden bone-bed near Hastings. The fossil much resembles one of the lower molars of Plagiaulax, a genus well known from the Purbeck Beds of Swanage. It is the first evidence of a mammal from the Wealden formation, and will be exhibited and described by Mr. Smith Woodward at the next meeting of the Zoological Society, on the 17th inst.

DE CANDOLLE states, in his "Origin of Cultivated Plants," that maize is unknown in the wild condition. Some light may possibly be thrown on the origin of cultivated maize, by the discovery of a wild species, the only one of the genus, in Mexico. It is described by Prof. Sereno Watson, in the "Contributions to American Botany," under the name Zea

nana.

WE learn from the Journal of Botany that the great Index of Genera and Species of Flowering Plants, on which Mr. B. Daydon Jackson has been continuously engaged for nearly ten years, is now ready for the printers' hands, and will be issued by the Clarendon Press, under the title "Index Kewensis nominum omnium plantarum phanerogamarum, 1735-1885." The work has been carefully revised by Sir Joseph Hooker, who, besides annotating the manuscript, has undertaken the care of the geographical distribution.

IF the weather during the approaching winter be as severe as that which we had last winter, many persons will be likely to take some interest in an invention which is attracting notice in America. This is an electric snow-sweeper-a snow-sweeper driven by an electric motor. The Engineering Magazine, of New York, says that while the machine is driven along the track of an electric railway by a motor of 30 horse-power, taking its current through the trolly wire, the two sweeping brushes are each driven by an independent motor, and all the three motors are reversible. It is stated that this plough is competent to remove from a track snow having a depth of from 3 to 12 inches, while running at a speed of from 4 to 10 miles an hour. The independent action (of the brush-motors enables them, when necessary, to be run at a high rate of speed while the plough is moved slowly along the track, and thus to cut away hard, com. pacted snow, or drifts. It is said that the machine was thoroughly tested last winter, and its effectiveness thereby completely demonstrated.

It is known that ozone can be abundantly produced by the

electric silent discharge, and many years ago Siemens devised an "ozone-tube" for the purpose, consisting of two thin glass

tubes, one within the other; the inner lined, and the outer coated, with metal, to which alternating currents of high tension are brought, acting on the gas to be ozonized within. From recent experiments in Siemens and Halske's laboratory, it appears that a good result may be had with only one dielectric, and for this not only glass, but mica, celluloid, porcelain, or the like, may be used. Thus the ozone-tube may be arranged with a metallic tube within, and the outer tube a metal-coated dielectric; or the inner metal tube may have a dielectric coat, while a metal tube is the inclosing body. As metals that are little or not at all attacked by ozone, platinum, tin, tinned metals, and aluminium are recommended. Through the inner tube flows cold water, and through the space between the tubes air, dried and freed from carbonic acid. Several such tubes may be combined in a system, and worked with alternate currents (for single tubes the continuous current with commutator is best). An apparatus of this kind is now at work in the laboratory, yielding 24 mg. of ozone per second. Experiments are being made in supplying compressed ozone for technical use; and this has been accomplished with a pressure of nine atmo

spheres. One use of ozone, on which Herr Frölich lays special stress (in the recent lecture from which these data are taken), is the disinfection and sterilization of water. And doubtless with an abundant supply of the substance, the use of it would be greatly extended.

MR. A. CRAWFORD, the manager of the travelling dairy connected with the Department of Agriculture, Victoria, is able to give a very favourable report of the results of the operations of the dairy during the last two years. It has been the means, he says, of very largely improving the general average of both cheese and butter sent to market. A good many pupils have been taught who had never made butter or cheese before, and several of them are now managing factories. In nearly all the places he has visited Mr. Crawford has lectured on dairy farming; and in many cases he has gone to outlying districts as well as to important centres.

AT the recent general meeting of the German Anthropological Society, Prof. Montelius, of Stockholm, delivered two remarkably interesting archæological lectures. In the first he dealt with the chronology of the Neolithic Age, especially in Scandinavia. The monuments of that age, he said, belonged to three different periods. First, were free-standing dolmens without passages; next, passage-graves; finally, stone cists. The last are later in proportion to the completeness with which they are covered by the mounds heaped over them. Behind the periods represented by these classes of monuments was a Neolithic period from which no grave of any kind is known to have survived. It has left traces, however, in its implements, which are of an earlier form than the various sorts found in the

different groups of monuments. The Scandinavian forms of Neolithic weapons, implements, and ornaments are closely akin to those which have come down to us in the rest of Europe, especially in North Germany, England, Italy, and even Cyprus. This may be held to prove that there was a more or less active commercial intercourse between Scandinavia and the Continent at a very remote time. To this commercial intercourse Prof. Montelius is disposed to attribute the relatively high civilization of Scandinavia in the Neolithic Age. Prof. Montelius also contends that the various periods of the Neolithic Age in Scandinavia were more nearly contemporaneous with those of other parts of Europe than has hitherto been generally supposed. IN his second lecture Prof. Montelius treated of the Bronze Age in the East and in Southern Europe. He distinguished the following periods :—(1) A copper period without bronze, re

presented by the finds of Richter in Cyprus and those obtained by Schliemann from the first city at Hissarlik. (2) The bronze period in the islands of the Egean Sea, Rhodes, Crete, &c. (3) A later bronze period-(a) with shaft tombs at Mycenæ, (b) with bee-hive tombs in the neighbourhood of Mycena, Orchomenos, &c. These cities had not a pure Hellenic civilization, but must be regarded rather as Oriental colonies. The knowledge of bronze certainly came to Europe from the East; not by way of Siberia and Russia, nor across the Caucasus, but probably through Asia Minor and the Mediterranean to Italy and Spain, whence it rapidly spread to Gaul, Britain, and other

countries.

A PENINSULA called Keweenaw Point, jutting into Lake Superior from the southern shore towards the north-east, is famous as the centre of a vast copper-mining industry. Last year the mines produced no less than 105,586,000 pounds of re fined copper, and it is estimated that during next year production will be increased by at least 20 per cent. Mr. E. B. Hinsdale, who contributes to the latest Bulletin of the American Geographical Society an article on the subject, has much that is interesting to say about the numerous prehistoric mines which have been found in this region. These ancient mines-judging