;62 



NAfURk 



\Aug. 24, 1876 



duration was only a few seconds no real damage has been 

 recorded. 



An interesting series of papers is commenced in the August part 

 of the Geographical Magazine, giving Sketches of Life in Green- 

 land, by a lady who was born and passed several years of her 

 life in the country. The papers are likely to show life in Green- 

 land in somewhat new aspects. In the same number is a long 

 and valuable letter from Dr. Beccari on New Guinea, dealing 

 chiefly with its ethnology ; he holds firmly to the opinion that 

 the Papuans are a mixed people. Mr. H. P. Malet contributes 

 a paper on the Sta-Level, and Mr. Ravenstein continues his 

 paper on the Census of the British Isles. 



In the last issued number (May) of the Bulletin of the French 

 Geographical Society, is a long and valuable Report on the 

 Progress of the Geographical Sciences during the year 1875, by 

 M. Ch. Maunoir. In the same number is the conclusion of M. 

 De Sainte-Maire's Itinerary in Herzegovina, and the address of 

 the President, Baron De La Ronciere Le Noury, at the last 

 general meeting of the society. 



The *' concours general," or competition between the pupils of 

 the several colleges of Paris, is an old institution established by 

 the University of Paris about thirty years before the' French 

 revolution. In 1730 a Parisian bourgeois, called Legendre, be- 

 queathed to the University a large sum of money under that con- 

 dition. The University was put in possession only after a long 

 law-suit instituted by the heirs, who urged insanity, but at last 

 were defeated. A number of celebrated litterateurs have been 

 successful candidates. This year the prix d'Jionneur was taken 

 by young Remach, who for the first time since the "concours 

 general " was established, took all the other prizes of his class. 

 The success of the "concours general" for the colleges of Paris 

 was so large that M. Duruy established in the last years of the 

 Empire a competition for all provincial colleges, Paris and 

 Versailles excepted. This year the most successful college was 

 Grenoble, which took eight nominations. Lyons took only seven. 



Some interesting particulars of the great rains which occurred 

 in the north-east of Switzerland in the middle of June last are 

 communicated by M. F. Zurcher to \\\q Bulletin Hebdomadaire oi 

 the Scientific Association of France. From 8 p.m. of the 13th to 

 the morning of the 14th the enormous quantity of 12 "4 inches of 

 rain fell at Zurich — a quantity greater than any monthly fall since 

 the observations began in the end of 1863, the largest monthly 

 rainfall having been 1 1 '3 inches during March, 1876. Owing to 

 so unprecedentedly large a rainfall and the melting of the snows 

 which occurred at the same time. Lake Constance rose nearly 

 10 feet above its usual level. It may also be noted that heavy 

 rains have prevailed since the beginning of February, so much 

 so that on the morningof June 14,, the amount collected, reckoned 

 from the beginning of the year, was 45 "67 inches, being nearly 

 2 inches above the annual average rainfall of Zurich. Whence 

 came the aqueous vapour which was discharged from the clouds 

 in such deluges of rain on the night of June 13-14 ? 



In the same number of the Bulletin Hebdomadaire it is stated 

 that Dr. Grzygmala, of Podolia, in East Russia, where hydro- 

 phobia is very prevalent, has successively treated, without a 

 single failure, more than a hundred cases of hydrophobia with 

 the leaves of Xanthium spinosum. It is necessary that the 

 remedy be applied shortly after the person has been bitten and 

 before the symptoms of hydrophobia become manifest — the treat- 

 ment consisting of 9J grains of the leaves of Xanthium in the 

 form of a powder, thrice a day for three weeks. For animals 

 the treatment is the same except that the dose is larger. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Spotted Eagle {Aquila ncevia), European, 

 presented by Mr. W. Prodham j two Common Barn Owls {Strix 



Jlammea), European, presented by Miss M. A. Hicks; a Yellow- 

 bellied Liotbrix {Liothrix luteus) from India, presented by Mr. 

 W. Prehn ; a Common Cuckoo {Cuculus canorus), European, 

 presented by Mr. J. Paddy ; an Egyptian Vulture {Neophron perc- 

 nopterus) from North Africa, deposited ; two White-crested 

 Laughing Thrushes {Garrulax leucolophus) from the Himalayas, 

 a Sun Bittern {Eurypyga helias) from South America ; a Hawk's- 

 billed Turtle {Chelone imbricata) from the West Indies, pur- 

 chased. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



American yournal of Science and Arts, July. — Prof. Loomis 

 here gives some interesting results obtained from observa- 

 tions of the United States Signal Service. Whenever an 

 area of low barometer is formed in the United States, 

 there seems to be always an area of high barometer about 

 1,200 miles to the south-east. The same thing was found 

 to hold for the Atlantic Ocean and Europe, the average 

 distance between the areas being here 1,700 miles, and the 

 direction rather more southerly. Areas of high pressure are 

 probably formed from air that is expelled from those of low. 

 Low barometer is generally associated with high temperature, so 

 we might conclude that a temperature above the mean in Iceland 

 would be accompanied by one below the mean in Central 

 Europe ; this was verified. An unusually high barometer in 

 Central North America may be the result of storms i ,500 or 2,000 

 miles to the north-west. Prof. Loomis found the average forms 

 of the isobars about an area of maximum pressure, an oval with 

 major axis nearly double the minor. The forms about minima 

 were nearly the same ; as were also the directions of the major 

 axes in both cases (N.E). The rainfall is least when the 

 pressure at the centre of a storm is increasing (or the storm 

 diminishing in intensity), greatest in the opposite case. The 

 jtationariness for several days of storms near Nova Scotia or 

 Newfoundland, seems due to unusual rainfall there. Prof. 

 Loomis lastly furnishes data as to the course and velocity of 

 storms in tropical regions. — Prof. Farlow has studied a disease 

 which caused much loss of olive and orange crops in Cali- 

 fornia last summer. He says that though first attracting 

 the eye by the presence of a black fungus, the disease is 

 not caused by it, but rather by the attack of some insect, 

 which deposits some gummy substance on the leaves and 

 bark, or so wounds the tree as to cause some sticky exuda- 

 tion on which the fungus especially thrives. The fungus greatly 

 aggravates the trouble, but in seeking a remedy, it is necessary 

 to look further back. — Mr. Gilbert gives a description of the 

 Colorado Plateau Province as a field for geological study ; it 

 offers valuable matter in an advantageous manner. — Drs. Blake 

 and Genth describe a vanadium mica found on the western slope 

 of the Sierra Nevada, and to which the name of Roscoelite is 

 given, in honour of Prof. Roscoe. It contains quite a large 

 per-centage of vanadium (20'i6), which is present as VgO^. 

 This mica is found in the hanging wall of a small quartz vein, 

 the country rock being porphyry ; fine scales of gold occur be- 

 tween the crystals. — We may further mention a series of notices 

 of recent American earthquakes (1874-76), by Prof. Rockwood. 

 — Mr. Grinnell describes, in the Appendix, a Crinoid from the 

 Cretaceous formation of the West. 



Poggendorff's Annilen der Physik und Chtmie, No. 5, 1876. — • 

 In this number we have the first portions of two valuable papers 

 on electrical subjects — one by M. Root on dielectric polarisation, 

 the other by M. Wiedemann, on the laws of passage of electricity 

 through gases. We shall return to these. — M. Edlund passes 

 under review some researches on what he had termed galvanic 

 expansion; confirming and extending the observations of Streintz 

 in reply to objections urged by Wiedemann against the results 

 from which M. Edlund inferred that there was such expansion 

 (distinguishable from that by heat). From the fact that it disap- 

 pears pretty much accordingto the same laws as heat, the author and 

 M. Streintz supposed that it was caused by molecular oscillations 

 which are gradually communicated to the surrounding medium ; 

 and anything furthering this communication must so diminish 

 said expansion. Now, M. Exner lately experimented by keep- 

 ing the wire through which the current was sent, in cold water ; 

 and the result was an entire disappearance of galvanic expansion, 

 as might have been expected, but the phenomenon was not 

 thereby proved (as M. Exner thought) to have no existence. — In 



