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a connection, little expected, between these bodies falling from the heavens, and the lower strata of our globe, and this circumstance has caused an increased amount of attention to the researches of his pupil and follower, M. Meunier, who finds by his recent work that the analogy alluded to is not confined alone to mineralogical constitution, but that it is extended to the relation which these cosmical materials, disseminated in space, present when compared amongst themselves, as is done for the constituent rocks of our globe. The Commission considered that M. Meunier had reason to conclude, from his experiences, that all these masses once belonged to a considerable globe, like the earth, of true geological epochs, and that later it was decomposed into separate fragments, under the action of causes difficult to define exactly, but which we have more than once seen in operation in the heaven itself. Such a conclusion, it is remarked, adds greatly to the interest attaching to these "minute stars: the astronomer, once occupied only with their motions and their probable distribution in space, finds himself confronted with a sidereal geology, as he already was under the necessity of having regard to celestial physics, celestial chemistry, and celestial mineralogy. The medal is awarded with the view to encourage M. Meunier to follow his studies, so interesting in regard to the conup stitution of the solar system.

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The Valz prize was adjudged to Dr. Julius Schmidt, for his great chart of the moon, and the immense labour which its production has involved during a period of thirty-four years. The report of the commission for this prize contains a brief résumé of earlier work in this direction, concluding with a remark, the truth of which will be sufficiently obvious, that Dr. Schmidt's work, "aujourd'hui déjà si précieux, servira dans l'avenir de base à de nombreuses investigations, et nous pensons que le temps ne fera qu'en accroître la valeur."

The Damoiseau prize, first proposed in 1869 for a revision of the theory of Jupiter's satellites, discussion of the observations, and redetermination of the constants involved, with the formation of tables of the satellites, has been renewed without effect in 1872, 1876, and 1877, and is further remitted to 1879. The value of this prize is 5,000 francs.

FAYE'S COMET.-Dr. Axel Möller, continuing his elaborate investigations on the motion of Faye's comet, which he has conducted with so much success during the last twenty years, has communicated to the Stockholm Academy elements and an ephemeris for the next appearance, which it now appears will not take place under such favourable circumstances for observation as has been

stated elsewhere. From November, 1874, to April, 1876, the distance of the comet from Jupiter was less than twice the mean distance of the earth from the sun, and in June and July, 1875, was not more than 15; the effect of this has been to retard the next perihelion passage by more than thirty-eight days, or to delay it till January 22, 1881, under which conditions the theoretical intensity of light can at no time be half as great as at the date of discovery by M. Faye in 1843. Åt the last return only four observations appear to have been secured, owing to the comet's excessive faintness, three by M. Stephan, at Marseilles, on September 3, November 28 and 30, and one by Dr. C. H. F. Peters, at Clinton, U.S., on December 23; so admirably had the calculations of the perturbations during the preceding revolution been effected by Dr. Axel Möller, that M. Stephan's first observation gave the comet's position only four seconds of arc from the predicted place. The chief disturber of the motion of this comet is, of course, the planet Jupiter, but Dr. Möller takes into account also the effect of the attraction of Venus, the earth, Mars, Saturn, and Uranus. The amount of perturbation during the actual revolution is greater than in any other since the comet's discovery. The next perihelion passage takes place 1881, January 22665,

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FOSSILS OF THE AMAZONIAN DEVONIAN. MR. R. Rathbun, late of the Geological Survey of Brazil, has published a list and description of the Brachiopods of the three Amazonian-Devonian localities, showing that of the twenty-one species recorded from the Mæcurú, thirteen were also found on the Caruá, including all the commoner species of the former. There is not so close a relationSeveral ship between the Ereré fauna and the Mæcurú. of the commonest Mæcurú species do not occur at Ereré, and vice versa. At Ereré there are five species of Lingula, four of Chonetes, four of Spirifera; at Mæcurú there are no species of Lingula, four of Chonetes, and six of Spirifera. Several of the Amazonian shells are identical with those of the North American Devonian; three in the Mæcurú, and Caruá, viz., Spirifera duodenaria, Amphigenia elongata, and Strophodonta perplana. Two forms of these are only known in the Corniferous limestone and Schoharie grit of North America. The Ereré beds are more closely related by their fossils to the Hamilton group than to any other North American group. In Pará, on the whole, there is the same general succession of species as in the Corniferous and Hamilton groups of North America, and a similar intermingling of forms. The lamellibranchs are not published yet, but it appears probable that many species are identical with New York State forms. Among the Trilobites are species of Homalonotus, Phacops, and other genera. (Proc. Boston Society of Nat. Hist., 1878.)

AUSTRALIAN FOSSIL CORALS.-The subject of Australian fossil corals has occupied much attention among palæontologists of late years. The investigations of the forms found in the deep sea has brought the tertiary forms into prominent notice. Following in the line of the researches of Prof. Duncan, the Rev. J. E. T. Woods has recently published (Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. xi., 1878) a paper on some Australian tertiary corals, in which he describes some new species from Muddy Creek, near Hamilton, in Western Victoria. Some of the species are very interesting, and the author concludes his paper by asserting -1. That there is no species of the genus Caryophyllia living in the Australian seas, or to be found fossil in its rocks. 2. That there are three well-marked and peculiar forms of Deltocyathus. 3. That of the two species known of Sphenotrochus in Australia, one is still living (S. variolaris, n.s.) at a depth of seventy fathoms. 4. That there are two fossil analogues of the living Conocyathus sulcatus, which itself is supposed to be identical with a European miocene form. 5. That there is a fossil form in the miocene rocks of Australia, of the cretaceous genus Smilotrochus. The Rev. W. Woods mentions that he is preparing a monograph of the recent species

of Australian corals.

HERRING CULTURE.—Dr. H. A. Meyer has published an interesting contribution to the natural history of this important fish, as part 1 of a series of short papers to be issued by the Commission for the Scientific Investigation of the German Sea (Berlin, 1878). In this he supplements his previous researches into the influence of the temperature on the development of the spring herrings' eggs. It may be remembered that in the large report published by the Commission it was found that the escape of the herring from the egg, in the case of the autumn herring, could be very considerably delayed by keeping

the eggs in very cold water; and now experiments made with the same object in view prove that in this respect there is very little, if any, difference in the behaviour of the autumn and spring spawnings. As in the previous experiments eggs artificially fecundated were those operated with, and while some of the eggs were exposed to the salt water at its ordinary temperature at Kiel, others were placed in a wooden refrigerator, into which the same sea-water, but cooled down to the desired degree, was admitted. A most necessary precaution was keeping the eggs from being heaped together, as they then almost invariably became mouldy. Another series of experiments was made to test whether the eggs exposed to the very salt waters of the North Sea would ripen quicker or slower than those exposed to the less salt water of the Baltic, but the time of the development, the temperature of the waters being the same, was found to be very slightly, indeed hardly perceptibly different. A third series of experiments were of a very interesting nature, supplementing those already made, as to the rearing of the herring from artificially fecundated eggs. So far as is known, no one has yet succeeded in rearing the young herring, and even Dr. Meyer's repeated attempts broke down, owing to the impossibility of stopping the formation of the hyphæ of some fungus, and also in some measure to the difficulty of obtaining suitable food. Very soon after the yolk was altogether consumed they would die, so that most of the experiments on their growth were made on specimens freshly caught from time to time. Once he succeeded, in the spring of 1878, in rearing a few until they attained the size of 72 mm. However, as the result of these experiments, a great deal of insight has been obtained into the food at first of almost microscopical dimensions—which the young herring consumes, and as to the enormous voracity of the little fish.

MADAGASCAR FORMS IN AFRICA. At a recent meeting of the Society of Naturalists of Berlin Herr Eichler exhibited specimens of a new species of Ouvirandra lately discovered by Herr Hildebrandt in Eastern Africa. The remarkable form of water-plant known as the Lattice-leaf Plant (Ouvirandra fenestralis) with two other species of the same genus have been hitherto regarded as amongst the wonders of the peculiar flora of Madagascar, so that the discovery of a member of the same group in continental Africa is a fact of much importance in botanical distribution. The new Ouvirandra, although agreeing with the Madagascar species in all essential points of structure, does not present the singular holes in the leaves that distinguish the Ouvirandra fenestralis, but one of the other Madagascar species is likewise abnormal in this respect.

THE "DIGGER" MOLLUSC AND ITS PARASITES.—The little digger, Donax fossor, represents a countless mass of life off Cape May, New Jersey, large areas looking like barley grains lying on a malting floor when the tide retires. It gets uncovered by the breaking surf and instantly reburies itself with its powerful foot when the waves retire. The siphons are long and active, looking like so many wriggling worms. Although the prey of shore birds and fishes, and beset with parasites, they lie so thick as even to interfere with one another in burying themselves. The liver of these bivalves is always found beset by flukes, from half a dozen to several dozen, and a bell-shaped trichodina crowds the branchial cavity.

ACTION OF THE HEART OF THE CRAYFISH.-M. Felix

Plateau, of Ghent, has succeeded in applying the graphic method to the study of the heart's action in the crayfish. A curve is obtained, of which the ascending portions correspond to diastole, and the descending to systole, contrary to what obtains in the vertebrate heart. It is strikingly like the trace of the contraction of a muscle; a rapid, almost sudden ascent, with a short flat summit,

then a gradual descent, at first quicker, then slower. This, however, does not represent the whole truth; it is possible, also, to demonstrate a wave affecting the muscular wall of the heart, and travelling from behind forwards, thus demonstrating that this condensed heart is a true dorsal vessel. On the stimulus of the entrance of renovated blood, it is only the hinder half or two-thirds of the heart that contracts immediately. This forces blood into the forward half, which contracts only when the posterior division is again dilating. When the temperature is increased, as a general rule the diastolic phase is abbreviated, the number of pulsations rising at the same time. M. Plateau has also succeeded in making experiments on the action of the cardiac nerve of Lemoine, an unpaired branch of the stomatogastric ganglion. It is proved that excitation of this nerve quickens the pulsations of the heart, and augments their energy, while section of it slows the heart. Excitation of the thoracic ganglia always retards the heart, the converse of the cardiac nerve. Acetic acid applied to the heart substance arouses its contractions even when they have ceased, and maintains them for several hours. The action of a number of other substances is equally noteworthy, and M. Plateau's full communications to the Académie Royale of Belgium will be awaited with interest by physiologists.

GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES

THE various geographical journals to hand contain several papers of importance. In the January Bulletin of the Paris Society M. Maunier gives a full and intelligent sketch of geographical work during 1878, while Dr. Harmand gives a brief statement of the results of his recent journeys in Anam. The Paris Society seems to have followed the example set by the London Society, and has introduced a new feature, "Nouvelles," containing notes of geographical work beyond the limits of its own papers. The Zeitschrift of the Berlin Society contains two instructive papers, on the Andamans, by Ad. de Roepstarff, and an account of a journey in southwest Persia, by Dr. A. H. Schindler. In the two numbers of the Verhandlungen of the same society, the last for 1878 and first for 1879, the papers of most interest are those on the Mining Industry of Russia, by C. Skalkovsky; on the latest researches on the Aurora Borealis, by Herr Förster; and on the people of East Africa, by Herr No. 2 of this year, Herr Franz Heger gives some hints as Hartmann. In the Mittheilungen of the Vienna Society, to a solution of various geological questions,-glaciation, climate, coal-deposits, &c.-apparently seeking to account for many of the great geological problems by a change in the earth's axis. The March number of Petermann's Mittheilungen contains several papers of interest. From the journal of a Bremen merchant a narrative is given of a journey up the Jenissei, from its mouth to Jenisseisk, in the summer of 1878; and M. N. Latkin gives a detailed account of our knowledge of the Lena and its basin. Exact news of Nordenskjöld's position is given from the San Francisco whaling captain, who was the first to hear of him, and a statement as to the course to be followed by the steamer Nordenskjöld, now building at Malmö, and which will start in May, first to succour the Swedish expedition, and then to proceed to the mouth of the Lena. If it cannot return through Behring's Strait, the staff will spend the winter in collecting all possible data in various departments of science. Nos. 3 and 4 of the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society contain, the former ship canal across the American Isthmus, and the latter an a paper by Rear-Admiral Ammer, on the Inter-oceanic interesting sketch of the life and work of Mercator, by

Mr. E. F. Hall.

NEWS of two African expeditions are to hand, in one case telling of misfortune, and in the other of success. The Belgian expedition, unfortunate from the beginning,

has met with another disaster in the death, from dysentery, of M. Wautier, at a place called Kekongen (? Ukonongo). On the other hand, Major Pinto, the leader of the Portuguese African expedition, telegraphs to Lisbon from Pretoria, that he has virtually crossed Africa from the west coast, after struggling with hunger, thirst, beasts, natives, floods, drought. His route must have to some extent almost coincided with that of Livingstone, and he tells us he has saved all his papers, twenty geographical charts, many topographical maps, several vols. of notes, drawings, meteorological data, a diary of the exploration of the Zambesi's seventy-two cataracts and rapids. He says he has discovered the secret of the Cubango, by which he seems to mean the river which, under various names, was for a time taken by some to be the upper course of the Congo. He lost many followers, and his expedition seems in a small way to have been modelled on that of Stanley's.

THE Times Roman correspondent writes that Menotti Garibaldi and Achille Fazzari intend, if England does not object, to sail in summer or autumn with 3,000 Italians for the south coast of New Guinea, to establish a colony there, and found a new city under the name of Italia. The arrangements, it is said, are almost completed, the 30,000,000 francs required ready, and that applications to join the party are more than can be granted.~ Part of the equipment will be a telegraph cable, to place the colony at once in communication with North Australia. Men of all ranks and callings (except lawyers) are included in the party, and among them several men of science. The proposed colonists express the greatest good will towards England, and it seems to us the trial would be worth making. The Italians make better colonists than the French, and Italians have done so much for the exploration of New Guinea that it seems only fair that they should be allowed to reap some benefit from the labours of such men as D'Albertis and Beccari.

AT the last meeting of the Société Commerciale de Géographie at Paris Dr. Raffray gave some particulars respecting his recent explorations in New Guinea, and called attention to the fact that that country offered a vast field for discovery and study to the traveller, especially from an ornithological and entomological point of view. A report on the subject of a railway across the Desert of Sahara was afterwards read, being the result of the labours of a committee, of which M. Gazeau de Vautibault is president. M. Deloncle also made a communication respecting the Volta region in West Africa, which has been explored by M. Bonnat, and he announced that two Lyons merchants had already determined to establish business houses there.

MGR. LAVIGERIE, Archbishop of Algiers, has forwarded to Les Missions Catholiques the commencement of the journal of the Algerian missionaries, recording the incidents of their march towards the Nyanzas and Lake Tanganyika. This portion of their journal stops at Mukuduku in Ugogo on August 20, and the first instalment of this is now published. It had been intended to accompany it by a map of Equatorial Africa, sent home by Père Charmetant some time back, but it has been thought better to delay the publication, in order that the itinerary of the missionaries and the additional geogra phical information contained in their journal may be included in it.

IT is stated in an Italian newspaper that the Duke of Genoa will go on an exploring expedition, and will sail from Venice in the Vittore Pisani at the end of this month. The programme of the route is to be Port Said, Suez, Aden, Ceylon, and Singapore, where a longer sojourn will be made. Afterwards the traveller will proceed to the Chinese and Japanese coasts; in 1880 he will visit Australia and direct his special attention to the exploration of New Guinea. On the return journey the

Pisani will cruise in the Persian Gulf. Capt. Sebastian and Count Antonela have started on an exploring tour through Africa.

A POSTCARD was received at Berlin on February 15 from Dr. Gerhard Rohlffs, dated January 27 and posted at Sokna, some 250 miles south of Tripolis, at the foot of the Black Mountains, stating that he was in perfect health. The postcard bears the stamp of Dr. Rohlffs's desert post, and a prettily-drawn postage-stamp with African palm-leaves.

To accompany the map of Zululand, noticed last week, Mr. Stanford has published a few useful notes on the physical features and population of the country.

THE Jeannette is fitting up in San Francisco harbour, and will leave for polar exploration in the month of June. Mr. Bennett, who is now in Europe, has been making inquiry at Paris as to the best means of constructing and inflating balloons in the Arctic regions. It is thus likely that aërial navigation will play a part in this new effort to solve the mystery of the north.

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EDISON'S TELEPHONE

UR readers may remember a few months ago we stated, in an article on the Carbon Telephone (NATURE, vol. xix. p. 56), that Mr. Edison had devised an entirely new form of receiver, for use with his telephone, which delivered the voice as loudly as if the words were spoken at the distant end. This receiver has now arrived in England in charge of Mr. Edison's nephew, and to judge from its performances last Friday, it is likely to accomplish all that Edison has stated concerning it.

The principle of this new receiver is that of the electromotograph, and to those of our readers who may not be acquainted with this instrument the following extract from a recently published lecture, on Edison's inventions, by Prof. Barrett will explain what the electro-motograph is.1

"Mere ingenuity in contriving machines does not add to the sum of human knowledge, and if Mr. Edison were merely a clever inventor and nothing more, I should feel less interest in the man. It is, however, a noticeable fea ture of Mr. Edison's inventions that they, in general, contain some new principle, some original observation in experimental science, which entitles him to the rank of a discoverer. Such is the character of the next invention we must consider, the so-called electro-motograph. This is an entirely new method of receiving telegraphic messages, discovered by Edison in 1874. As every one is aware, the ordinary system of telegraphy depends upon the production of magnetism by means of an electric current, the current either attracting and releasing a movable piece of iron, or deflecting a magnetic needle to the right or to the left. By the to-and-fro movements of the iron or the needle the conventional signals are produced which are employed in telegraphy. Now Mr. Edison made the curious and important discovery that messages could be received by the well-known Morse recorder without the use of any magnet. This, to a telegraphist, would be like attempting to perform the play of

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Hamlet," ," while omitting the part of Hamlet himself. In fact, all that is necessary in this simple telegraphic instrument is a band of moistened paper drawn beneath a metal style. The accident of holding his finger against the style of a Morse instrument led Mr. Edison to notice that when an electric current passed from the paper to the point resting upon it the friction of the moving paper was lessened. Hence, if the paper were drawn with a uniform force it would slip more easily beneath the point the moment the current passed. The slipping of the "Science Lectures for the People," No. 5, Tenth Series. (Manchester, Heywood.)

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paper is converted into a to-and-fro motion of a lever to which the point is attached, and which is made to actuate a bell, or sounder," and give rise to audible signals in the usual way. It is necessary to moisten the paper with a solution of certain chemicals. Potash was at first used, but a solution of sulphate of soda or of common salt and pyrogallic acid is found to be best.1

"The advantage of this instrument, which Mr. Edison calls an electro-motograph, is said to be its extreme sensitiveness, it having been worked over a circuit of two hundred miles with only two cells, so that with weak currents, unable to affect ordinary instruments, the electro-motograph can receive messages. More than this, the speed of its working is greater than with the ordinary instruments. Using it as a relay, that is, an instrument for translating weak currents into strong ones, no less than 1,200 words per minute have been transmitted by its means, or five times as fast as it is possible for any person to read the message which comes through the instrument. So prompt and delicate is the motion of this machine that Edison has applied it to the purposes of the receiving instrument for the Reiss telephone, a musical telephone that was made many years ago. The slipping of the paper causes a slight sound. If, then, we sing a certain note into the Reiss transmitting instrument, which vibrates in unison with that note, we obtain the same number of electric currents produced per second as we had of sonorous vibrations in the moving diaphragm. Thus, if we sounded the middle C we should get 264 vibrations, and there would be 264 electric currents, and 264 slips of the paper, thus producing a note of the same pitch in a distant room. The cause of the curious slipping has not been fully ascertained. It may possibly be due to that peculiar repulsive effect to which Mr. Crookes has lately drawn attention, and which produces the dark region around the negative electrode during the continuance of an electric discharge in a vacuum tube, or it may simply be due to electrolytic action."

It is, then, this principle which Edison has made use of in his new receiver, which is of the simplest construction. A diaphragm, preferably of mica, some four inches in diameter, held in a suitable framework, has attached to its centre a spring, or 66 'pawl," the free end of which rests on a little cylinder of chalk, capable of rotation by the hand or other means. The chalk cylinder replaces the paper in the electro-motograph, and is necessarily impregnated with sulphate of soda, or other suitable solution. As the cylinder is rotated, the friction of the spring on the chalk causes the diaphragm to be pulled in or pushed outwards, according to the direction of the rotation. So far the operation is purely mechanical; as soon, however, as the current passes, either owing to electrolytic action or the friction, it is lessened, and the diaphragm tends to spring back to its normal position; on the cessation of the current the friction is restored, to be lessened on the recurrence of another electric wave.

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Thus, a series of tremors are given to the diaphragm corresponding to the swiftly changing character of the electric waves, and these again faithfully express the motion of the diaphragm at the transmitting end. will thus be evident that the incoming current has simply to do the work of liberating the already strained diaphragm. As everyone knows, in Bell's telephone the voice has to do the work of creating the current at the transmitting end, and the feeble magneto-electric currents thus generated throw into motion the diaphragm at the receiving end. In Edison's telephone this is not so. The voice at the transmitting end has simply to vary the electric resistance in the path of a current generated by an ordinary voltaic battery; stronger currents can thus be sent along the line, and these arriving at the receiving end, have merely to vary a mechanical resistance, and * Practical difficulties have, we believe, been found in the working of the

motograph, so that it has not come into telegraphic use.

not to do the work of overcoming the inertia of the diaphragm. It is probable the rotating chalk cylinder acts on the diaphragm with its attached spring like a resined bow on a violin string; vibrations are set up, the extent, rate, and manner of which are modified by the varying friction due to the telephonic currents. Whether these new receivers will retain their present efficacy when in constant use remains to be seen. We should be inclined to think the soft surface of the chalk will eventually wear with the friction, and that a more permanent arrangement will have to be devised. No invention, however, reaches perfection at once, and the present receivers, excellent as is their performance, were, we understand, hastily made in a few days, in compliance with the urgent request of Mr. Edison's courteous representative in London, Col. Gouraud.

The instrument has the appearance of a small box attached to the wall, and from which there projects a single funnel. Sounds of singing, speaking, whistling, sent from the other end, quite a mile off, were heard in every part of a moderately sized room. Telephonic connections, now so common in America, have been established by Col. Gouraud between various business houses in the city; and we believe that shortly this method of communication must become quite common.

NOTES

DR. MICLUCHO MACLAY, the eminent Russian Naturalist and New Guinea explorer, has been trying to rouse the Linnean Society of New South Wales and the scientific public of Sydney to the necessity of founding a zoological station, similar to that at Naples. He tells of the great inconvenience he himself has suffered during his residence at Sydney from the want of such a station, even though the Hon. Mr. Macleay placed his museum at his disposal. But Dr. Maclay's scheme embraces much more. than a station at Sydney. He has written to the German Eastern Asiatic Society at Japan and to Mr. August Godeffroy at Samoa, urging that similar stations be founded at these places, and he has reason to believe that his proposals will not be without result at both places. Thus should zoological stations be instituted at Sydney, in New Zealand (as Dr. Maclay also proposes), in Japan, and at Samoa, we might hope in a very few years to have a fairly com. plete knowledge of the fauna of the Pacific. Dr. Maclay's proposal deserves the heartiest encouragement, and we trust that ere long it will be fully carried out. We hope the people of Sydney, at any rate, will take Dr. Maclay's appeal to heart; he tells them, moreover, that he will judge of the intensity of the scientific life of Australia by the interval which elapses between the reading of his paper on the subject and the actual foundation of the station. He shows what valuable results have followed the foundation of the Naples station, and gives a few hints as to how such a station at Sydney should be organised. We shall be curious to see what will be the result of Dr. Maclay's fervent appeal.

WE are requested to state that on and after April I any person latest information as to the weather in any district of the United may obtain by telegraph from the Meteorological Office the Kingdom by payment of a fee of Is. in addition to 2s. the cost of the message to the Meteorological Office and the reply. The telegram containing the inquiry must not exceed twenty words in length, and must be addressed, "Meteorological Office, London." The Meteorological Office does not undertake to give any information which is not substantially included in the latest notice posted at its own doors, nor does it give forecasts of the weather on the Atlantic coasts of the British Isles;

although it is ready to furnish any information it possesses as to

the actual state of the weather on those coasts. The Meteoro

logical Office is open for such inquiries between the hours of

66

II A.M. and 8 P.M. on week days, and between 6 P.M. and considered, and we think that many of the subjects indexed 8 P.M. on Sundays. might be omitted with advantage if it is meant to be really a Science Index. Judging from the number of misprints, this THE Emperor of Germany has confirmed the election of Sir number seems to have been hastily got out. In geography alone G. B. Airy as a foreign member of the Berlin Academy. we meet with such horrors as Afkanistan," " Leybian Desert," "Oxies" for Oxus, &c. References to the Swedish Arctic Expedition occur under different headings, as if the compiler did not know that the items referred to the same thing. Still, the index is a step in the right direction, and we hope the editor will take competent council, and introduce such improvements as will make his Science Index what it might and ought to be.

RUSSIAN astronomers seem determined to outstrip their confrères in other countries in the matter of telescopes; we are informed that funds have been subscribed for the construction, for Pulkowa Observatory, of a refractor of thirty-two inches aperture.

WE have received a circular from the Research Committee of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, drawing attention to three subjects which they have selected for first investigation, and asking for any information, bearing on all or any of them, which any one interested may be willing to communicate: e.g., records of unpublished experiments, references to authorities on the question, copies of books or papers in which it is treated, &c. The Committee would be glad to receive such information in full detail, and at the earliest convenient date; and it will be suitably acknowledged in their report. The subjects are:Subject A. The hardening, tempering, and annealing of steel. Subject B. The best form of riveted joints to resist strain, in iron or steel, or in combination. Subject C. Friction at high velocities, specially with reference to friction of bearings and pivots, frictions of brakes, &c. The address of the Institution is 10, Victoria Chambers, Victoria Street, Westminster.

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IN the Monthly Weather Report of the U.S. Signal Service for January, 1879, are many points of great interest to meteorologists. The particular report before us belongs to the division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce and Agriculture," and contains a multitude of well-arranged data received up to February 14. The charts accompanying the Report are of special interest. One of them shows the tracks of ocean-storms from November 23, 1878, to January 16, 1879, and exhibits the paths of seven storms. No. 6 of these is shown to have commenced in California on January 6, to have come down to the Gulf of Mexico by the 8th, to have gone north-east through the United States to Newfoundland, between the 8th and 11th, across the Atlantic between Scotland and Iceland, the storm expending itself off the coast of Norway on the 15th, one week after starting from California.

EXPERIMENTS in electric signalling and reconnoitring have been made at Mont Valérien on a large scale. Details are wanting, as the French Government think it prudent to keep secret almost all experiments relating to military matters.

We have received an interesting sketch, with portrait, by Prof. Ehlers, of Göttingen, of the late Wilhelm Engelmann, so long the head of the well-known Leipzig scientific publishing

house, and who did so much for the advancement of scientific knowledge in Germany.

The Science Index is the title of "A Monthly Guide to the Contents of the Scientific Periodicals," the first number of which we have just received, though dated January. This delay is apologised for, on account of the difficulty of getting together a first number. The aim of the journal is highly to be commended, and if carried out on a thoroughly well-considered plan, ought to prove of great service. We are not disposed to criticise this first number too severely, though we think there is considerable room for improvement. It is by no means exclusively devoted to science, including as it does Art, Architecture, Strikes, Baking and Confectionery, Bells, Commerce, and other miscellaneous topics. Indeed, on the principle which has been partially followed, we do not see where the line is to be drawn short of an index to everything. We hardly think the plan has been well

MAJOR MAJENDIE, as the result of a series of experiments with dynamite, has come to the conclusions that frozen dynamite is considerably less sensitive to explosion by a blow than unfrozen dynamite; that cartridges of dynamite having small quantities of exuded nitro-glycerine within them are decidedly more sensi⚫ tive to explosion by a blow than cartridges in which there is no such exudation; that frozen dynamite is much more susceptible to explosion by simple ignition than unfrozen dynamite; that frozen dynamite is much less sensitive to explosion by the impact of a bullet than unfrozen dynamite; that the danger attending the mere breaking in two of a frozen dynamite cartridge does not seem to be of the formidable character indicated by the Austrian regulations; and that frozen nitro-glycerine is not susceptible of detonation by detonators of the same strength as those with which the detonation of unfrozen nitroglycerine may be readily and certainly effected.

THE Bradfordian is the title of a magazine "written and supported by the two Grammar Schools" of Bradford. It has a varied programme, in which, we are pleased to see, science finds a place.

THE Times Geneva correspondent writes that M. A. Borel, of Chaux-de-Fonds, has just had the good fortune to find in the Lake of Neuchatel, between Bazuge and Chatelard, a prehistoric canoe, probably the finest specimen of the sort that has yet come to light in Switzerland. Hollowed out of a single piece of oak, the vessel is 8 metres long, 90 centimetres wide, and 65 centimetres high. It is well finished, and in a perfect state of preservation. The stern carries a spur, and the prow is curved in the form of a hook, probably for the purpose of attaching it by a rope to a landing-place. The canoe is sufficiently large to carry twelve persons. There is no appearance of rowlocks, but the supports on which the thwarts formerly rested are still plainly to be seen. M. Borel proposes to present this interesting "find" to the Museum of Chaux-de-Fonds.

A PETROLEUM spring, one boring of which has yielded 2,000 kilos in twenty-four hours, has been discovered at Pohar, in Austrian Poland.

Osaka, the Japanese claim that petroleum has been known in Japan ACCORDING to the report of H.M.'s Consul for Hiogo and for over 1,200 years, and it would certainly be curious if the numerous springs which exist in certain localities should have escaped notice in their immediate neighbourhood. It is doubtful, however, whether it was ever utilised, and certainly no attempt was made to refine it before the arrival of foreigners. The first efforts in that direction were made near Niigata in 1875, but the petroleum then refined failed to stand a higher test than 75° F. Accordingly Prof. Lyman, who had previously performed a similar service for India, was sent for from America to conduct a professional survey of the region. His report, however, was unfavourable, chiefly on the ground of an insufficient supply. This opinion the Japanese are now about to test, for which purpose they have established a refinery near Hiogo. Its supplies of crude oil are to be drawn from the province of Potomi, distant about 100 miles to the north, the transport being conducted by sea.

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