394 



NA TURE 



\A2lgUSt 2 2, 1889 



on May 8, a "severe" one, lasting 3 seconds, took place at 

 Plevje, in Bosnia (p. 84). From Dr. Johnston-Lavis we further 

 learn that Vesuvius was in a state of active eruption during the 

 end of April and the beginning of May (p. 34), but no relation 

 is suggested even in this case, and it is quite evident that the 

 facts do not serve to prove the connection assumed. 



I do not wish to assert that in no case are synchronous earth- 

 quakes related, for we have undoubted evidence that certain 

 shocks have been very ividespread from a single centre (as the 

 great Lisbon earthquake in 1755) ; but it is my belief that nearly 

 every earthquake, whether large or small, is due to strictly local 

 stratigraphical causes, quite irrespective of volcanic agency. 

 Having made many fruitless attempts myself to co-ordinate 

 different well-authenticated shocks, I have been compelled to 

 disbelieve the theory of their general connection, and have now 

 adduced sufficient evidence to show that the verdict pronounced 

 by Dr. von Rebeur-Paschwitz, that " we may therefore safely 

 conclude that the disturbances noticed in Germany were really 

 due to the volcanic action which caused the earthquakes of 

 Tokio," is not proven, and fallacious. 



4 Mecklenburgh Square, W.C. William White. 



The Sources of Nitrogen in Vegetation. 



The discrepancy between the results obtained in the experi- 

 ments on plants grown in free air instead of closed vessels appears 

 to be general, as stated in Nature (p. 333). Some years ago I 

 ventured to suggest an explanation of this, based on an observa- 

 tion made in the course of some investigations of atmospheric 

 ■dust particles. 



Sheets of paper, smeared with adhesive coatings, and shallow 

 vessels of water, were laid on the ground in a garden near 

 W^illesden. The resulting catch included far more organic than 

 inorganic matter, the organic ma'ter consisting chiefly of small 

 insects. The amount of these was surprisingly great towards 

 the end of summer or beginning of autumn, quite sufficient, I 

 think, to account for the varying results obtained by Sir J. B. 

 Lawes and Prof J. H. Gilbert, especially for the "eccentric" 

 behaviour of the LeguminosK — "sometimes the plants died of 

 nitrogen hunger ; sometimes, after a lime of such hunger, they 

 recovered and produced abundant growth." The explanation 

 may be confirmed or refuted by exposing an unplanted layer of 

 sterilized sand, or other soil, of the same area as that on which 

 the experimental plants are growing, and comparing the gain of 

 combined nitrogen in both cases. W. Mattieu Williams. 



The Grange, Neasden, August 16. 



Do Cats Count ? 



After reading all the accounts of the interesting experiments 

 lately performed on the famous "Sally," I am persuaded the 

 following incident may not be without a certain interest to some 

 readers of Nature. 



About two weeks ago, the cat of a dairyman in this neigh- 

 bourhood gave birth to three kittens. Next day, one of them 

 was removed, during the mother's absence, and drowned. On 

 returning from a foraging expedition, and discovering her loss, 

 puss immediately set out in search, presumably, of the missing 

 one. All her eff )rts in this direction, of course, proved fruitless ; 

 but, evidently determined to at least make up the right number, 

 she did so, curiously enough, by carrying off, from its nest close 

 by, a young hare, not more than a week old. This she is at 

 present suckling side by side with her own kittens. In view of 

 these facts the above question very naturally suggests itself. 



Winchburgh, N.B., August 15. J. T. Walker. 



Anapophyses. 



My attention has been called to a statement by Prof. Cope 

 {Nature, July 25, p. 298), that anapophyses are "wanting 

 from the vertebrae of anthropoid apes and man." He probably 

 means that they are very feebly developed, which is true. I have 

 found them, however, to exist distinctly in Troglodytes and 

 Simla from the eleventh dorsal to the second lumbar vertebra, 

 and in Hylobates from the tenth to the fifteenth trunk vertebra, 

 and sometimes beginning as high up as the third dorsal vertebra. 



St. George Mivart. 



Hurstcote, Chilworth, August 12. 



The International Chemical Congress — A Correction. 



A MISPRINT has occurred in the notation adopted by the 

 Chemical Congress for phenanthrene. The Secretary of the 

 Nomenclature Section has also informed me that a slight modifi- 

 cation has been made on the minutes, with regard to acridine, to 

 make the notation adopted correspond more closely to that of the 

 other " multi-ring " compounds. The two formula; should be — 



Phenanthrene. 

 9_ 



\/ 



'\/3 



5 9 4 



Your Correspondent. 



THE FRENCH ASSOCIATION FOR THE 

 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



'X'HE eighteenth meeting of the French Association 

 ■■■ for the Advancement of Science opened under the 

 happiest auspices. The magnificent Exhibition on the 

 Champ de Mars and the Esplanade des Invalides, which 

 has attracted to Paris an exceptionally large number of 

 foreign men of science, is in itself the most conclusive proof 

 of French energy and the progress of French science during 

 the last decade. It is, perhaps, as M. de Lacaze Duthiers 

 remarked, a more effective declaration of a sincere desire 

 for peace than the utterances of certain diplomatists. But 

 there is no place for politics in the principles of the French 

 Association. Foreigners of all nations have been wel- 

 comed to Paris not only with warm-hearted hospitality, 

 but with an artistic splendour of which they may well be 

 envious for their own countries, and to which we shall 

 allude later. 



We may mention thepresenceof Messrs. J. H.Gladstone, . 

 F.R.S , R. McLachlan, F.R.S., Catalan, Candeze, Istrati, 

 Berlinerblau, OrlofT, Stephanos, Van Beneden, General 

 Wauwermans, MM. Szabo, Valdemar Schmidt, Alexeiefif, 

 Bierens de Haan, Coleman, Colley, Franchimont, William 

 Watson, Egoroff, Joukovsky, R. de Luna, A. Macfarlane, 

 Ragona, ThomasWilson, Benedikt, HugoGylden, Packard, 

 Retzius, de Selys-Longchamps, Angstrom, Brusina, 

 Flavitzky, Graebe, Dufour, Timiriazeff, von Goldschmidt. 



The hrst meeting took place on Thursday, August 8, in 

 the large hall of the Palais des Societes Savantes, which 

 has just been erected by private enterprise in the quaint 

 little rue Serpente which now affords a home to so many 

 of the learned Societies of Paris. 



The President of the Association for the year is the 

 well-known Professor of Zoology at the Sorbonne, M. 

 de Lacaze Duthiers, who chose as the subject of his 

 inaugural' address, " The Development of Zoological 

 Method." 



M. de Lacaze Duthiers began his address by thanking 

 the Municipality of Paris for their invitation and for their 

 generous subvention of ^1200 recently voted towards the 

 year's expenses. He then made a touching allusion to 

 the foundation of the Association. 



" It was one day in July 1871, that Wurtz, whose geniality 

 and whose kindly vivacity you have not forgotten, took me, 

 in his friendly way, by the arm, and said to me as we left 

 the Academy of Sciences, ' Come to my house to-morrow 

 night ; I want to speak to some of our colleagues of a plan 

 which 1 much wish to succeed.' On the Tuesday we met 

 at M. Wurtz's house, just a few friends, MM. Delaunay, 

 Claude Bernard, Decaisne, and myself. One may say that 

 this was the first meeting of the French Association. 



" As the only survivor of those who were our masters and 

 our friends, I could not forbear from speaking to you of 

 the intimate conversation in which our Association origin- 

 ated. I still seem to see and hear Wurtz with his kindling 

 enthusiasm, with an activity at times feverish, but always 



I 



