Oct. 12, 1876] 



NATURE 



537 



Sydney and Brisbane in about twenty-four to forty hours. The 

 importance of this in a system of weather warnings for Australia 

 need scarcely be pointed out. 



A LiNNEAN Society was recently established in New South 

 Wales, and now numbers, in addition to a president (Mr. W. 

 Macleay), vice-president, secretary, treasurer, and council, about 

 120 members. Its first meeting was held on January 25, 1875, 

 and it now publishes the first part of its first volume of Proceed- 

 ings. Among the papers are contributions to the Malacology 

 of Australia and the Solomon Islands, by Mr. Brazier ; to our 

 knowledge of the stone implements of Australia and the South 

 Sea Islands, by Dr. Cox ; description of a new genus and species 

 of rat-kangaroo {Hypsiprymnodon moschatus), by Mr. E. P. 

 Ramsay ; and, by the same author, of a new genus and species 

 of Passerine bird {Vitiaruficapilla), from the Fiji Islands ; notes 

 on zoological collections made in Torres Straits and New Guinea 

 during the cruise of the Chevert, &c. The botany of the colony 

 appears at present to have furnished nothing to the Society, to 

 which we wish a prosperous career. 



Mr. W. J. Beal reprints in one cover three papers read 

 before the American Association for the Advancement of Science 

 at the Detroit meeting : — Carnivorous plants. Inequilateral 

 leaves, and the Venation of a few odd leaves. Mr. Beal in- 

 cludes Mariynia in the list of true camivorous'plants. 



The fourth annual edition has appeared of Prof. E. Morren's 

 extremely useful " Correspondance botanique," a list of all the 

 botanic gardens in the world, with the officers connected with 

 them, and the various other establishments for instruction in 

 botany. 



The following curious experiment has recently been described 

 by M. Spring to the Belgian Academy : — A sheet of vulcanised 

 caoutchouc two-tenths of a millimetre thick is stretched till its 

 surface becomes six or seven times greater, then rubbed with a 

 cloth. This friction electrifies the sheet so that it will readily 

 attract light bodies. If now the mechanical tension of the sheet be 

 gradually diminished, the quantity of electricity diminishes along 

 with it, \mtil when the band has recovered its original length, all 

 trace of electricity disappears (provided the original charge have 

 not passed a certain limit). M. Spring concludes that the varia- 

 tions of electric state of the band are intimately connected with 

 molecular changes experienced interiorly according to the degree 

 of tension. The experiment is one which deserves the attention 

 of physicists. 



The recent number of the Schriften der naturforschenden 

 Gesellschaft in Dantzig contains several excellent photographs of 

 the skeleton of a whale {Fterobalcena laticeps. Gray), stranded in 

 Dantzic Bay in 1874 ; a description of the spiders of Prussia ; a 

 lecture by M. Ohlert on Laplace's hypothesis, and an account 

 of acoustical studies on the piano, by M. Kayser. 



M. Skalviteit, of Memel, relates in the publication just named 

 that in summer he observed a wasp flying about a writing desk 

 near an open window. There were some steel pen-holders on 

 the desk, and the wasp went into one of the tubes. This must 

 have appeared convenient to it, for it soon began to bring in 

 small caterpillars, building each in with earthy paste, till the 

 tube was full. In each cell an egg was also deposited. M. 

 Skalweit took away this holder, and put another in its place. 

 This was similarly filled by the wasp, though in rainy weather 

 and at night the window was closed. Four holders were thu 

 filled. Opening the holders in the end of August, M. Skalweit 

 found the larvoe grown and the caterpillars consumed. The 

 wasp in question was the Odynerus parietum, which generally 

 constructs its cells in old fence-posts, hollow plant-stems, old 

 walls, &c. 



An improved catalogue of variable stars is published by Prof. 



Schonfeld in the thirty-ninth and fortieth yahresbericht des 

 Mannheimer Vereins fiir Naiurkunde (^asaiheim, 1876). It is 

 largely based on his own observations. 



The extraordinary divisibility of matter is well Dlustrated by 

 a lecture experiment recently described to the Berlin Chemical 

 Society by M. Annaheim. He employs the strong colouring 

 power of fuchsin and cyanin. To form an idea what quantities 

 of colouring matter were still "perceptible by the eye, he dissolved 

 o'ooo7 gramme of fuchsin (a particle about 0-5 mm. diameter) in 

 spirit of wine, and diluted the solution to the extent of 1,000 

 cubic centimetres. Thus in each centimetre there was still 

 o'oocooo7 gramme colouring matter. If this liquid be put in 

 a burette of about I cm. diameter, it appears strongly coloured 

 on a white ground, and the colour can be distinctly seen from a 

 distance. If a drop from the burette (there are thirty-five of them 

 in a cub. ctm.) be now let fall into a small dry test-tube of about 

 0-8 cm. diameter, the red colour is still evident if the tube be 

 held obliquely on white paper, and looked at parallel to the 

 paper, while a second tube with pure spirit of wine is held near 

 for comparison. It follows from this, that with the naked eye 

 one can still perceive 000000002 gramme fuchsin. Assuming 

 that one drop of the solution only contains one molecule of 

 colouring matter (and so much must in all circumstances be 

 present), the absolute weight of an atom of hydrogen is inferred 

 to have the astonishingly small value of o '00000000005 9 gramme 

 (viz. o"ooooooo2 : 337*5 ; molecular weight = 337*5). M. 

 Annahein makes a similar experiment with cyanin, and infers 

 the absolute weight of an atom of hydrogen to be o •000000000054 

 gramme, which closely agrees with the former estimate. From 

 these experiments, then, it is mathematically certain, that the 

 absolute weight of an atom of hydrogen cannot be greater than 

 0*00000000005 gramme. 



The number of visitors to the Loan Collection of Scientific 

 apparatus during the week ending October 7 was as follows : — 

 Monday, 2,186; Tuesday, 1,767; Wednesday, 239; Thursday, 

 252 ; Friday, 200 ; Saturday, 2,439. Total, 7,083. 



The Catholic University of Lille has been at last organised, 

 but the governors of the Sainte-Eugenie Hospital having refused 

 to establish a ward for their use, there can be no Faculty of 

 Medicine. Consequently the University authorities, it is said, 

 are to prosecute the governors before the Council of State in 

 order to obtain the requisite number of patients. 



A correspondent of Land and Water shows that some of 

 our most recent inventions were foreshadowed, if not actually 

 accomplished, upwards of 300 years ago. In a work, ' ' Vegellii 

 Renoti (Flavii) viri iilustris de re militari libri quatuor, etc. 

 Parisiis subscuto Basiliensi ex officina Christiani Wecheli, 

 M.D.XXXV.," are figures of a number of military engines, 

 which we work very hard at reinventing. Amongst others there 

 is a revolving gun, revolving turrets for monitors, water-beds for 

 the wounded, &c. The first plate of Book III. shows a warrior 

 habited in a "Boy ton dress," completely immersed in water, 

 but without apparent means of breathing. In the second plate is 

 a diver with a reservoir of air, and tube communicating with the 

 surface. There are several representations of these "tube and 

 reservoir" apparatus, and diving dresses An engraving not 

 only shows the submarine explorer of more than 300 years ago 

 at work, but also gives the diagram of a diving-bell, according 

 to the notion of some engineer of the early part of the sixteenth 

 century. 



The Session of the Watford Natural History Society and 

 Hertfordshire Field Club commences this evening with a lecture 

 " On the Polarisation of Light," by Mr. James U. Harford. 



The storm of [the end of September raged with such terrific 

 force at Dijon (C6te d'Or) on the 30th at 2 o'clock in the after- 

 noon, that two turrets on the cathedral were thrown down. 



