Oct. 19, 1876] 



NA TURE 



561 



seem to us that any other conclusion was possible, and we expect 

 to see a similar ingress allowed to the ladies by all other bodies. 

 The Queen's University, it is anticipated, will be the next to 

 follow suit, and these fortresses having surrendered at discretion, 

 it is impossible that others can long sustain the siege. 



A REPORT that Mr. Lucas, the African traveller, had given up 

 exploration in consequence of illness is unfounded. Mr. Lucas 

 had an attack of fever, but is now at Cairo waiting for stores 

 which have been ordered from England, on the arrival of which 

 he will proceed by steamer to Zanzibar, and again make for the 

 interior, Mr. Lucas is in communication with the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society. 



Mrs. Nassau Senior writes to the Times on the curious be- 

 haviour of tempered glass. She furnished twelve gas burners 

 with tempered glass globes purchased in London, and having the 

 veritable label of M. de la Bastie affixed to each. On the night 

 of the 6th inst. after the gas had been extinguished for exactly 

 an hour, one of the globes burst with a report and fell in pieces 

 on the floor, leaving the bottom ring still on the burner. These 

 pieces, which were, of course, found to be perfectly cold, were 

 some two or three inches long, and an inch or so wide. They 

 continued for an hour or more splitting up and subdividing them- 

 selves into smaller and still smaller fragments, each split being 

 accompanied by a slight report, until at length there was not a 

 fragment larger than a hazel nut, and the greater part of the 

 glass was in pieces of about the size of a pea, and of a crystalline 

 form. In the morning it was found that the rim had'fallen from 

 the burner to the floor in atoms. The subject deserves careful 

 investigation. 



The Science Loan Exhibition has been so successful that the 

 time for closing it has been postponed, and the evening lectures 

 are to be recommenced immediately. 



We have received ituiks sur les Moiivements de V Atinosphire, 

 Part I, by Professors C. M. Guldberg and H. Mohn, of Chris- 

 tiania. In this first part of what promises to be an important 

 contribution to the physics of the atmosphere, the authors con- 

 fine the discussion to some simple elementary cases of the 

 mechanics of the atmosphere relative to its equilibrium, tempera- 

 ture, humidity, and horizontal and vertical currents. We join 

 the authors in hoping that the results will demonstrate the neces- 

 sity of more extensive observations than have yet been made in 

 tropical regions, and in the higher regions of the atmosphere on 

 mountains or by captive balloons, and that the true path of pro- 

 gress for meteorology to follow is the development of the diffi- 

 cult question of atmospheric mechanics. We may add that in 

 order to obtain the physical data required for its discussion, the 

 only rational step to be first taken is to plant numerous meteoro- 

 logical stations over limited areas, the stations being so closely 

 planted as to secure approximations to the barometric gradients 

 between the observing- stations and to the wind-velocities, suffi- 

 ciently close to the true gradients and velocities as to meet the 

 demands of the problem to be investigated. 



The teaching body of the French National School of Agricul- 

 ture, established at the Conservatoire des Arts-et-Metiers, has 

 now been organised. The director of studies is M. Boussingault, 

 the founder of agricultural chemistry in France. The number 

 of professorships is twenty, and a competition will take place for 

 three of them. Amongst the seventeen others who have been 

 appointed by decree, M. Lavei^e, Professor of Agricultural 

 Economy, M. Leon Bocquerelle, Professor of Physics and Me- 

 teorology, and M. Tany, Professor of Sylviculture, were formerly 

 professors at the Versailles School of National Agriculture, 

 which was suppressed in 1852. The former imperial farmhouse 

 at Vincennes will be utilised for experimental agriculture. 

 Amongst the professorships which have beea created ought to be 



noticed one of Comparative Agriculture, or the ^systematic com- 

 parison of French and foreign agriculture. 



M. Waddington, the French Minister of Public Instruction, 

 has published a circular warning the several municipal adminis- 

 trations of France, that he is to ask from Parliament next session 

 a credit for increasing the salaries of professors who, having not 

 taken any superior degree, are nevertheless useful and steady 

 workers. - But he desires the cities to enter into an agreement 

 v/ith the Government to secure to competent teachers in the 

 several municipal secondary schools a rate of remuneration not 

 below a sum named. It is only when that rate shall have been 

 granted.'as a permanency by the local authorities that the Govern- 

 ment will give any addition. 



M. Waddington is said to be preparing to present to 

 both Houses of the French Parliament a Bill to alter th» law 

 for grantii5g degrees, giving the power entirely to the State 

 examiners. The same proposal was rejected by the Senate last 

 spring. 



A NEW municipal school, the Ecole Monge, was opened at 

 Paris on October 8. The peculiarity of the establishment is a 

 covered yard situated in the centre of the building, and occupying 

 a space of 18,000 square feet for winter recreations. When 

 the weather is favourable, the pupils are turned into an open 

 ground of 37,000 square feet. A portico for gymnastics has been 

 erected in the winter grounds. To each studio is annexed a 

 small museum, so that pupils may have constantly at their dis- 

 posal the principal objects or models which are described in the 

 course of the lectures given by the teachers. The school is 

 intended for 800 pupils, but only 500 have been admitted, a part 

 of the work being yet unfinished. 



The Tarbes Observeur states that a strong earthquake was felt 

 at Bagneres de Bizarre (Hautes Pyrenees) on Friday, October 6, 

 at five in the morning. The water of Salies, a thermal spring 

 in the vicinity, which generally flows at 59° F., had its tempera- 

 ture suddenly altered to 'jiP, owing to the subterranean action. 

 A few hours afterwards the*same commotion was felt by General 

 Nansouty, who has taken his post as observer on the Pic du Midi. 

 The duration was three seconds, and direction south by north. 



On September 22, an earthquake motion was felt at Corleone, 

 near Palermo, and from that time to September 27, seismic com- 

 motions were almost continuous. Great damage has been done 

 to a large number of houses, and the inhabitants desert the city 

 ev«ry night and encamp in the vicinity ; cold is becoming 

 intense during the now long nights. Some are said to have 

 turned insane. 



Messrs, C. G. Maynard, of Newtonville, Massachusetts, 

 and W. F. Parker, of West Meriden, Connecticut, are about to 

 undertake an investigation of the natural history of the Bahama 

 Islands, which promises to be of great interest to science in view 

 of the fact that, with the exception of the examination made by 

 Dr. Henry Bryant, of Boston, U.S., but little has been done in 

 this respect since the time of Catesby, whose work was published 

 nearly 150 years ago. These gentlemen propose to fit out a 

 yacht in Boston, suitably equipped and provisioned, and send 

 her to the Gulf of Mexico, there to embark some time in the 

 present month, and to make a minute investigation of the natu- 

 ral history ef each island, obtaining specimens of its land fauna 

 and of the inhabitants of the waters along their shores. They will 

 be accompanied by several| assistants, and hope to make very 

 large collections of all kinds. Dr. Lewis E. Sturttvant, of 

 Boston, will accompany the expedition for the purpose especially 

 of assisting Mr. Maynard in making drawings and dissections 

 on the spot of the various animals. 



A naval testimonial will be presented to Commander V. L. 

 Cameron, R.N., C.B., at the Royal United Service Institution, 



