July 27, 1876] 



NATURE 



279 



of 1,600,000 francs', and the municipal council is now busy 

 carrying out the conditions of the will. It is said many 

 improvements will be carried out in the new establishment. 



A STATUE has been erected at Bayeux (Calvados) to M. de 

 Caumont, who originated forty-two years ago the Congress of 

 the French learned societies of the provinces. This year the 

 meeting will take place at Autun (Haute-Mame) in the beginning 

 of September. 



Lieut. Christie, R.E., writing to us from Madras with re- 

 gard to the use of selenium in telegraphy, says that if we could do 

 away with the man (or woman) signaller, and substitute a commu- 

 tator actuated by a current of electricity generated by the action 

 of light upon a piece of selenium, we should (supposing the 

 sensitiveness of the selenium to be adequate) have a combination 

 capable of enormously increased rapidity. The message to be 

 transmitted would be first set up (by mechanical means) in the 

 Morse character, in long and short slits in an opaque screen ; 

 and this perforated screen being passed rapidly between the 

 selenium and a source of light, the currents of electricity would 

 be generated which are required for actuating the commutator. 

 The possibihty of such a combination depends on the sensitive- 

 ness of selenium to the influence of light. Assuming the com- 

 bination to be possible, the rapidity of signalling would seem to 

 be limited only by either the mechanical conditions of the com- 

 mutator (or relay), or the power of the printing instrument at 

 the receiving station. 



Everyone will be glad to hear of Mr. Stanley's safety, and 

 of the success of the African Expedition, of which he is head. 

 From the brief notice in yesterday's Telegraph, we learn that 

 several despatches have been received from Mr. Stanley, the last 

 dated April 24, 1876, from Ubagwe, in Unyamwezi, within 

 fifteen days of Ujiji. Mr. Stanley further explored the Victoria 

 Nyanza, and inflicted one of his regrettable " severe punish- 

 ments " upon the people of Bambireh, for a former attack. The 

 district between Victoria and Abert Lakes was explored, and a 

 " strange tribe of pale-faced people" was met with in the " cold 

 uplands " of a remarkable mountain, Gambaragara. He returned 

 to Uganda, whence he set out to Ujiji, exploring the Kagera 

 River, Speke's " Lake Windermere," and the hot springs of 

 Karagwe. We regret to notice from a Daily Ne^vs telegram 

 that the Italian African Expedition has been badly treated by 

 the " Emir of Zeila." 



The number of denizens of the Southport Aquarium has been 

 lately increased by the birth of no less than 1,000 sea-horses in 

 one of the tanks. 



In Prof. Loomis's "Contributions to Meteorology," fifth 

 paper, just published in the American Journal of Science and 

 Arts, an important point suggested is that when barometers are 

 low and temperatures high in Iceland, barometers are high and 

 temperatures low in Central Europe, and similarly that a like 

 relation exists between the barometers and temperatures of the 

 Aleutian Islands and those of the United States — the influence 

 in both cases being most decided during the cold months of the 

 year. The idea here thrown out is deserving of a thorough in- 

 vestigation by the facts of observation owing to its important 

 bearings on weather-forecasting. It is shown in the same paper 

 that, in the course of storms, the amount of rainfall is least when 

 the pressure at the centre of the storm is increasing, or when the 

 storm is diminishing in intensity ; and the amount of rainfall is 

 greatest when the pressure at the centre of the storm is decreas- 

 ing, or when the storm is increasing in intensity, the effect being 

 also mo?t decided during the colder months of the year. 



The French Alpine Club will hold a General Congress at 

 Annecy on August 13, 14, and 15. All the sections of the 

 French Alpine Club will be present, and the English, Italian, 



and Swiss Alpine Clubs are expected to send a large number of 

 representatives. 



The Vienna earthquake, to which we referred last week, 

 occurred on July 17 at 1.22 P.M. The principal seat of the 

 commotion was Scheibbs, a small country place forty miles west 

 of Vienna ; almost every house in Scheibbs has been damaged. 

 The area of the commotion was very large, equal to about two- 

 thirds of England. It reached Austria proper, Moravia, part of 

 Bohemia, and Hungary. The last earthquake in Vienna was 

 on January 3, 1873. Fifteen instances of earthquake have been 

 recorded in Vienna from the ^beginning of the thirteenth to 

 the end of the eighteenth century. None of them produced any 

 real damage, except those of September, 1590, and December 4, 

 1689. 



That International Exhibitions have not quite failed to attract 

 the attention of the world, is proved by the success which is 

 attending the great undertaking at Philadelphia. A pamphlet of 

 sixteen pages ' ' The Forest Products of Michigan at the Centen- 

 nial Exposition," by Prof. W. J. Beal, of the State Agricultural 

 College, just received, is one of a shoal of similar essays which 

 always emanate from these great shows, and which are often 

 valuable contributions to the knowledge of the natural resources 

 of the countries upon which they treat. Michigan, as is well 

 known, is the head-quarters of the American timber trade ; of 

 this fact we are reniinded that two-thirds of the best timber 

 known in the New York, Philadelphia, and Boston markets is 

 .obtained from Michigan, besides which a good deal comes to 

 Great Britain and Germany. Of North American building 

 woods much in demand in the country may be mentioned pitch- 

 pine, and the timbers of other species of the genus Finus, while 

 among ornamental woods that of Acer saccharinum, the sugar or 

 bird's-eye maple, as well as the black walnut, jfuglans nigra, are 

 extensively used. With the natural charactei istic belief in his own 

 country's greatness the author compares unfavourably not only 

 the forests of Great Britain but also those of every other part of 

 the globe, South America included. 



Mr. G. E. Dobson, of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, 

 has just issued a very useful monograph of the Asiatic Chirop- 

 tera, founded upon a personal examination of almost all the 

 materials available for the study of the Asiatic members of this 

 group both in India and in Europe. To it is added a catalogue 

 of the specimens of bats contained in the collection of the Indian 

 Museum, Calcutta. The confusion hitherto existing in this 

 difficult group of mammals is very great, and Mr. Dobson has 

 done excellent service in putting them to rights. The catalogue 

 is printed in London by order of the Trustees of the Indian 

 Museum. 



The veteran naturalist. Dr. R. Schomburgk, sends us his 

 Report on the Progress and Condition of the Botanic Garden 

 and Government Plantations at Adelaide, South Australia, for 

 the year 1875. The Garden seems to be in a most flourishing 

 condition, the copious and wide-spread rains of the past year 

 having had a most beneficial influence upon it, as upon the 

 country generally. The Zoological branch of the establishment 

 has received many accessions, and a long list is given of plants 

 added during 1875, to those already in cultivation in the Botanic 

 Garden. 



The American naturalists have lately devoted their attention to 

 " Guadeloupe " — not the West Indian Island commonly known 

 by a similar name, but a small bland lying off the coast of Lower 

 California, 220 miles south-west of San Diego. Eleven land 

 birds were found "by Dr. Palmer upon Guadeloupe Island, and 

 specimens of them were transmitted to the National Museum at 

 Washington. It is a most noteworthy fact that every one of 

 these land birds is distinct from those found on the neighbouring 



