158 



NATURE 



IJMne 15, 1876 



angry discussion. Mr. E. P. Ramsay has been installed by the 

 trustees as Mr. Kreiift's successor, and is in full work ; but the 

 Supreme Court has decided that the trustees had no real autho- 

 rity to remove Mr. Krefft. Whatever the issue may be, every- 

 one acquainted with the case must hold that Mr. Krefft deserves 

 fair and liberal treatment as one of the few naturalists in Australia 

 that have done good original work in spite of many surrounding 

 difficulties. 



On June 7 a violent thunderstorm occurred at Valbonne, a 

 large plain at a little distance from Lyons. The only objects 

 struck were huts full of soldiers and arms, and the occurrence 

 furnishes a good instance of the "power of points" and the 

 attracting power of metals and living beings for lightning. Three 

 tents were struck in succession. The occupant of the first was 

 absent at the moment, and the effects were relatively slight, pro- 

 ducing only the breaking of stones and dispersing of dust. In 

 the .second instance a soldier who was standing erect in front of 

 one of the tents was struck ; but the tent being located in the 

 vicinity of an e'cctric telegraph the lightning escaped by it, fired 

 the wires, and broke a dozen poles. This may suggest a very 

 easy method for protecting an encampment. The third flash 

 struck a number of tents placed in a zig-zag line, doing much 

 damage, several of the occupants being either killed or wounded. 

 In one tent three men were killed and seven wounded. All of 

 them were either touched in both legs or on the right side except 

 one, who was wounded in the right eye. In another tent four 

 men were wounded, all of them in both legs or in the left one. 

 In other instances men were turned round in or heaved out of 

 their beds. In all the instances referred to the men were lying on 

 Iheir beds, made of iron, and the sentry standing in front remained 

 unhurt. In one tent a man, who was lying between two men 

 who were killed, escaped unhurt. The uniforms of the soldiers 

 were perforated and exhibited small spots ; one, four centimetres 

 in diameter, entirely sulphurised. A chemical analysis will be 

 made of this part of the uniform, and the result communicated 

 to the Academy of Sciences. 



At a meeting of the Cymmrodorion Society held last Friday, 

 in the Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street, Prof. F. W. Rudler, 

 F.G.S., read a paper on "Natural History Museums, with 

 Suggestions for the Formation of a Central Museum in Wales." 



The boring of the shafts for the Anglo-French tunnel is pro- 

 gressing favouiably. A pump has been erected for the draining 

 of the works. Water has been already met with in abund- 

 ance, although the depth reached is only 40 feet. The intended 

 level is 60 feet further down. 



The Edinburgh Town Council, it is stated, have agreed to 

 apply to the Government for aid to the building fund of the 

 University extension scheme, and to memorialise in favour of a 

 parliamentary grant. The Council had previously subscribed 

 1,000 guineas to the fund on their own account. 



The Geographical Society of Paris has received good news 

 from the Gaboon expedition. Lieut. Brazza and M, Marche 

 have located themselves at Okanda, 500 miles from the mouth 

 of the ^Ogowe, and are establishing permanent settlements and 

 ready means of communicating with the factories on the coast. 

 They lost a part of their baggage and goods in crossing rapids, 

 but having been enabled to send messengers to the French 

 Gaboon settlement they will recover from their losses and will 

 proceed further in the untrodden region. 



On June 8 the French Society of Amis des Sciences held its 

 annual meeting at Paris. M. Bert gave a lecture on the Zenith 

 balloon catastrophe in connection with the inhalation of oxygen. 

 This Sociely was founded by the Baron Thenard for assisting 

 scientific men in their work and their families after their death. 



The French Society for Encouragement of National Industry 

 had to vote this year the great Prony prize for the most use- 

 ful invention in mechanics discovered during a certain number 

 of years. The award was made to M. Henry Giffard, of 

 Pari?, the aeronaut, for the invention of his injector, used in all 

 locomotives. The invention is fifteen years old, and ihe patentee 

 has realised through this his single invention a fortune falling 

 very little short of half a million sterling. 



We take the following from the Geographical Mas^azine : — 

 Dr. P. Ascher?on left Benisutf for Medinet-el-Fayum, en 

 March 16, and started from the latter place on the 24th, en route 

 for the Little Oasis, the botanical exploration of which consti- 

 tuted the object of his journey. On April I he reached Bauiti, 

 the present capital of the Oasis parva, by the same route as that 

 followed by Belzoni in 1816. This journey proved that no 

 " Bahr bela ma" or old river-bed exists ia that portion of the 

 Libyan Desert. After an exhausiive exploration of the oasis, 

 Dr. Ascherson started on May i on his return journey, travelling 

 by an entirely new route, and reaching the Nile at Samalut. 

 The botanical exploration of the oases of the Libyan De?ert 

 begun two years ago by Dr. Ascherson, whilst a member of 

 Rohlf's expedition, has thus been terminated, and several facts 

 of great interest have been ascertained during this last journey as 

 regards the Fayum, as well as the L'ttle Oasis. Several .<:pccies 

 of plants, met with far to the east and south-west, in Asia, but 

 not in the Valley of the Nile, or in the deferts to the east of it, 

 occur also in the oases. Some of the more remarkable of these 

 f\zr\i% art Dianihus Cyri, Populus euphratica (= P. divcrsifdia 

 of Mongolia), and Prosopsis Stephaniatta. 



The Society of Ethnology of Paris has proposed, frr 1876, 

 a prize to the best memoir on "The Slavonic Race, and Maps 

 of the Countries inhabited by Slavonians." The prize will be 

 awarded in December, and the memoir may be written in English 

 as well as in French and in several other language^, not excluding 

 Po ish and Russian. 



The twenty-fifth Annual Educational Conference of the 

 Society of Arts will take place on June 23, at 11 o'clock. The 

 chair will be taken by Sir Henry Cole, K.C.1). With the view 

 of giving special interest to the Conference this year, the Council 

 have decided that the subject of adult education, especially in 

 reference to technical instruction and its promotion by the action 

 of the Government, shall form the principal subject for dis- 

 cussion. 



Prof. E. Quetelet has written a brief notice in the Bulletin 

 of the Royal Academy of Belgium, of the storm of March 12, 

 1876, which was the most violent hitherto observed at Brussels, 

 the wind having reached the enormous pressure of X44 kilo- 

 grammes per square metre, or nearly 30 lbs. per square foot, and 

 the barometer fallen to 28 '560 inches at sea-level, having cnly 

 once fallen below this point since the founding of the Obser- 

 vatory in 1833. We are glad to see that Dr. Buys Ballot is also 

 examining this remarkable storm, which he will be able to do 

 very fully owing to the number of registering barometers in 

 operation at the Dutch Meteorological Station?. 



In the Supplenitnto alia Meteorologia Italiava, anno 1875, 

 fasc. ii., there appears a very valuable paper, by P. F. Denza, 

 on the distribution of the rainfall in Italy during 1872. The 

 paper, which is one of great ability, details the rainfall of that 

 year, comparing it where possible with the averages of past 

 years ; and in consideration of the singular diversity with season 

 of the rainfall of the different pans of Italy, the stations are 

 classed according to five zones, viz., Alpine, Pre-alpine, East 

 Apennine, West Apennine, and Sicilian. The details of the 

 great rains of October 1872 are very interesting, the amount 

 for the month being 40 iiiche-s at Pallanz^', 41 inches at Crabbia, 



