April 13, 1 8 76 J 



NATURE 



475 



the other column giving the same reduced to sea-level. This 

 mode of publishing the observations will, it is evident, furnish 

 the materials for the discussion of important questions of an in- 

 ternational character, which could not be attempted if the obser- 

 vations at the higher stations were published only as reduced to 

 sea-level pressures. 



Im No. 13 of the Journal d' Hygiene, Dr. de Pietra Santa 

 urges with well-timed earnestness the importance to medical 

 men of keeping steadily in view the two-fold function of climat- 

 ology, which is, in the first place, to collect, by means of accu- 

 rate instruments and simple methods, regular meteorological 

 observations ; and in the second place, to observe and study 

 carefully the influence of these phenomena in their physiological 

 and pathological relations. In the latter case the attention must 

 be directed to types and sequences of weather which meteorolo- 

 gists have scarcely yet made subjects of investigation. 



M. Balard, whose death we announced last week, was bom 

 at Montpellier, Sept. 2, 1802. When quite young he mani- 

 fested a strong passion for reading and study. He was early 

 attiacted to chemistry and physics, and while still young was 

 made assistant /r^ara/'«/r and ihen prej>arateiir in chemistry to 

 the Faculty of Sciences. At the age of twenty-four years he 

 discovered the element Bromine, and about 1833 was appointed 

 Professor of Physics to the Montpellier School of Pharmacy and 

 Professor of Chemistry to the Faculty of Sciences. He mani- 

 fested great perseverance and energy in his researches on the 

 utilisation of sea-water for obtaining various saline bodies, and 

 it -was while at Montpellier as professor that he made his fine 

 experiments on hypochlorous acid and amylic alcohol. In 1843 

 he succeeded M. Thenard at the Sorbonne, and in 1846 he was, 

 besides, appointed Superintendent of Lectures at the Upper 

 Normal School. In both positions he acquired a high reputation 

 for his solid instruction and his eminent qualities as a professor. 

 In 1854 he was appointed Professor of General Chemistry at the 

 College de France, a post which he held till his death. He 

 shortly after quitted his position at the Sorbonne to become 

 Inspector- General of Superior Education. In this capacity he 

 never lost an opportunity of impressing upon teachers the great 

 importance of introducing experimental science into schools; 

 the want of apparatus he considered no difficulty, as for such 

 siflQple experiments as are required in a school, the teacher, he 

 thought, might easily devise his own apparatus. In 1846 he was 

 made a member of the Academy of Sciences, and other well- 

 ceserved honours were awarded him. M. Balard's efforts and 

 discoveries were mainly directed to the economic applications of 

 science, and in this respect he has done much valuable work ; 

 and in the future his researches in the utilisation of sea- water 

 may probably turn out to be of even greater practical value than 

 they have hitherto been. M. Balard was a man who made 

 many friends, was warm-hearted and benevolent, and was loved 

 and respected by all who knew him. He has left no written 

 work behind him, but his personal influence in the advance of 

 science in France has been great. 



Mr. Torrens has given notice that on April 24 he will ask 

 the Prime Minister if the Government will give effect to the 

 report of the Civil Service Commissioners recommending an im- 

 provement in the condition of the staff of the British Museum. 



We are glad to know that the idea has been broached in New 

 Zealand and Australia, though in a very quiet way, of a union 

 between the various Australian colonies for the prosecution of 

 Antarctic exploration. The idea seems to have been suggested 

 by the action of the mother-country in sending out the Arctic 

 expedition, and we hope it may grow and take substantial shape. 

 It seems to us that it would be a very proper and creditable 

 thing for the Australian colonies to take up Antarctic explora- 

 tion as their special department 



A CORRESPONDENT, Mr. F. Green, writing from Cannes, 

 France, states that on the 8th instant, for the first time this 

 year, he heard the Cuckoo in a valley amongst mountains six- 

 teen miles to the westward of that place. The first time last 

 year that he heard it in the same neighbourhood was on the loth 

 of April. 



On April 2 at 5.55 A.M., an earthquake was felt at Berne, 

 Two movements took place from east to west The dura- 

 tion at was two seconds ; doors were opened, and church 

 bells were rung by the shocks. In Neufchatel a strong de- 

 tonation was heard ; the oscillation was very strong in the 

 lowest part of the city, and clocks struck' the hour before the 

 appointed time. Persons who were in the streets declared that 

 warm wind was blowing for some seconds. A few hours after- 

 wards a rain-spout occurred near Mainz, in Rhenish Hesse. 

 A number of houses were struck by a thunderbolt and ignited, 

 many others were flooded by the water falling from the moun- 

 tains, and people drowned by an instantaneous flood. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two Chestnut- backed Colies {Coitus castano- 

 notus) from the River Daude, W. Africa, presented by Mr. 

 Henry C. Tait ; a Sclater's Muntjac {Cervitlus sclateri) from 

 China, presented by Mr. W. H. Medhurst ; a Mandrill {Cyno- 

 cephalus mormon), two Yellow Baboons (Cynocephalus babmiin), 

 a Sooty Mangabey {Cercocebus fuliginosus), aMonteiro's Galago 

 [Galago montthi), an African Civet Cat (Viverra ckietta), a 

 Servaline Cat (Fdis servalind), a Banded Ichneumon {Herpestes 

 fasciattis), a Senegal Touracou {Coryfhaix persa), an Angolan 

 Vulture {Gypohierax angolensis), a Marabou Stork (Leptopiilus 

 cnim^niforus), three Broad-fronted Crocodiles {Crocodilus Jron- 

 tatus), from W. Africa, presented by Lieut. V. S. Cameron ; 

 two Secretary Vultures ,{Serpentarius reptilivorus), from S. 

 Africa, deposited ; three Wild Boars {Sus scrofa), born in the 

 Gardens. 



EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES ON THE 

 EFFECTS OF ELECTRICAL INDUCTION, 

 FOR THE PURPOSE OF RECTIFYING THE 

 THEORY COMMONLY ADOPTED^ 

 II. 

 •T^ HE physicist Munck, of Rosenschold, in his memoir on 

 -^ electrical induction, and on the dissimulation of electricity,- 

 concludes that the opposite electricity of the inductor ought to 

 be regarded as bound, since it is connected with the same in- 

 ductor and cannot be discharged by the induced body. 



ISI. Riess continues to criticise Lichtenberg.^ He un- 

 wittingly admits the existence of dissimulated electricity, since 

 he says " that inductive electricity remains in part dissimulated." 

 He afterwards says, "What has been published on the subject of 

 bound, latent, dissimulated electricity has had a pernicious effect 

 upon the science." But if I am not deceived, it is quite the 

 opposite way, as will be seen from my experiments, by which all 

 the objections urged by Riess against the new theory of electrical 

 induction, published by Melloni and verified by me, are over- 

 thrown in the clearest possible manner. 



WuUner says,* " The principal mistake made by Faraday, and on 

 which his reasonings are based, is the hypothesis that induced 

 electricity of the first kind has not the power of acting in an 

 outward direction. It is true that the illustrious English physicist 

 does not explicitly state this hypothesis; but without it his 

 experiments lose all their value." Then according to Wullner, 

 the absence of tension in induced electricity of the first kind is 

 implicitly admitted by Faraday. We shall see that my experi- 

 ments prove how little evidence there is of tension. 



Verdet is not deceived* when he adduces the contradiction 

 into which the physicists fall who deny that induced electricity of 



I An Exposition of the Two Theories of Electrical Induction. By M. Paul 

 Volpicelli. Continued from p. 438. 



I " Pogg- Ann ," vol. 69, pp. 44 and 223. 



3 "Pogg. Ann.," vol. 73, p. 371. 



4 '' Lehrbuch der ExperimentsJ Physik," ist ed-, vol. ii., p. 695. (Leip«», 

 1863.) 



5 •• Ann. de Chem. et de Phys./' jrd «eries, t 4s, p. 374, note i». 



