August 29, 1889] 



NATURE 



421 



The fneetifig of the Iron and Steel Institute in Paris on the 

 24th and following days of September promises to be of great 

 interest. A large attendance of members is expected. They will 

 be received and entertained by an influential committee under 

 the presidency of M. Eiffel ; and the French Society of Civil 

 Engineers will entertain them at breakfast on the Eiffel Tower. 

 Among the papers will be one by Sir Lowthian Bell on the sub- 

 ject of water gas, and Prof. Jordan will deal with the mining 

 and metallurgical exhibits at Paris. Excursions will be made to 

 the iron-works of the Loire and St. Etienne, and of the Nord, 

 and to other centres of the iron and steel industry. Luxembourg 

 and the works of M. Schneider at Creusot will also be visited. 



Prof. Lowig has resigned his appointment as Director of the 

 Chemical Laboratory at the University of Breslau. He has seen 

 nearly sixty years of academical service. 



A SEVERE shock of earthquake was felt in Greece on August 26. 

 According to a Renter's telegram from Athens, the direction of 

 the earthquake was from north-west to south-east. Its effects 

 were most severe in the district of Acarnania. Most of the 

 houses in the towns of Anierinion and Aetolikon have become 

 uninhabitable, and chasms were formed emitting sand and water. 

 The centre of the shock is believed to have been in the Gulf of 

 Corinth, where the telegraph cable was broken. 



The National Home-Reading Union has now opened its office 

 at Surrey House, Victoria Embankment, W.C. Miss Mondy 

 has been appointed Secretary to the young people's section, 

 and Mr. George Howell, M.P., Secretary to the artisans' section. 

 All communications concerning either of these sections should 

 be addressed to them respectively. Miss Mondy has also been 

 appointed Office Secre'ary, and communications concerning the 

 general work of the Union, as well as concerning the general 

 readers' section, should be addressed to the Hon. Secretary. 

 Letters of inquiry should be accompanied by a stamped and 

 addressed envelope. 



The Victorian Naiuralist for May and June contains a most 

 interesting paper, by Prof. Baldwin Spencer and Mr. C. 

 French, describing a trip through the district of Croajingolong. 

 Speaking generally, they describe West Croajingolong as com- 

 posed of Lower and Upper Silurian strata — slates, shales, sand- 

 stones, more rarely conglomerates, and at times metamorphosed 

 by contact with irruptive rocks. The latter are in the form of 

 (l) continuous bands of granite, or (2) a series of knobs 

 of granite, both running along lines lying roughly north and 

 south. In the former case they are traversed along their length 

 by river-valleys. In districts where there are isolated knobs 

 of granite, the rock masses stand out, forming prominent peaks 

 and ridges. The weathering of the granite on Mount EUery is 

 described as most striking. On the surface it has been formed 

 into huge boulders from 20 feet to 75 feet in height, which lie 

 piled up on one another in indescribable confusion. One huge 

 mass, the egg shape of which gave to the mountain the native 

 name of " Goonegerah," stands out high above the dense forest, 

 which, save in this instance alone, clothes to their summits the 

 long ridges and many peaks of this wild district. So far as the 

 insect life of the district is concerned, the most striking pheno- 

 menon seems to be the vast number of ant-hills in every part. 

 Over large areas the mounds of "jumper " ants were so thick as 

 to remind the travellers of "mole-hills" at home. In their 

 study of the flora of Croajingolong they were most impressed 

 by the numerous specimens of the cabbage-tree palm [Livislona 

 ausiralis) and the waratah ( Telopea oreades). The existence of 

 the latter species, peculiar to Victoria, was first discovered 

 by Baron von Mueller during his journeying through the Genoa 

 district in East Croajingolong. This tree, which sometimes 

 reaches the height of 50 feet, grows with equal profusion and 

 strength in the deepest valleys and on the tops of the loftiest hills. 



The Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution have 

 issued Part i of the Annual Report, showing the operations, 

 experiments, and condition of the Institution, for the year ending 

 June 30, 1886. A general appendix contains papers relating to 

 anthropology, by various writers ; a paper on certain parasites, 

 commensals, and domiciliares in the pearl oysters, by R, E. C, 

 Stearns ; a paper on time-reckoning for the twentieth century, 

 by S. Fleming ; a report on astronomical observatories, by G 

 H. Boehmer ; and a catalogue of publications of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, by W. J. Rhees. 



Mr. J. H. Hart, Superintendent of the Botanic Garden«, 

 Trinidad, refers, in his Report for 1888, to the comparatively 

 large number of American and European tourists by whom these 

 gardens are now visited. Mr. flart has been more impressed by 

 the energy and enthusiasm displayed by visitors from the north 

 than by "anything seen from the European side of the world." 

 "In fact," he says, "Europeans must look to their laurels in 

 these matters. Speaking as one myself, it cannot be said that any 

 prejudice dictates this expression of opinion, but I record it as a 

 fact worthy of the attention of my countrymen." Tourists of all 

 classes at Trinidad, it seems, agree in one respect — in their love 

 of photographing forms of plant life which are new or strange to 

 them. Mr. Hart is so unkind as to describe this as a " prevail- 

 ing epidemic." The expenditure of dry plates in the Trinidad 

 Gardens is "so large as to afford a rich harvest to the 

 manufacturers." 



The Committee of the Chester Society of Natural Science 

 and Literature has issued its Report, with statement of accounts, 

 for 1888-89. 1'his Society was founded by Charles Kingsley in 

 187 1, and has made steady progress in every department of its 

 work. It has now 617 members. Originally, it included only 

 three sections; now there are seven, "with the prospect of an 

 eighth in the coming year." During the past year the debt on 

 the present building was entirely wiped out through the liberality 

 of some of the members, and the Society looks forward with 

 satisfaction to an increase of accommodation. 



A PAPER on the soft palate in the domestic cat, by Dr. T. 

 B. Stowell, has been reprinted from the tenth volume of the 

 Proceedings of the American Society of Microscopists. It is 

 offered as a preliminary contribution to a more general inquiry 

 "as to the phylogenesis and the function of the uvula of the 

 palate, or the conditions which favoured or led to the uvula of 

 the palate, or the conditions which favoured or led to the 

 development of the uvula of the soft palate." On March 2, 

 1888, the same writer read before the American Philosophical 

 Society, a paper on the glosso-pharyngeal, the accessory, and 

 the hypoglossal nerves in the domestic cat. This paper has 

 also been issued separately. 



La Nature of August 17 contains an interesting account, 

 bv M. Angot, of the laboratories and instrumental arrangements 

 of the Central Meteorological Office in Paris, which now 

 occupies a large building and grounds formerly connected with 

 the Emperor's stables, with an entrance in the Rue de I'Uni- 

 ver.-ite. The building is lighted, when required, by electricity, 

 and contains, in addition to the usual offices, several rooms for 

 the verification of instruments, of which a great number are 

 tested annually, darkened chambers for the photographic regis- 

 tration of earth currents and magnetic elements by instruments 

 designed by M. Mascart. These instruments are influenced by 

 surrounding buildings, and are principally intended for the 

 instruction of visitors ; the more accurate records are made at 

 the Observatory of the Pare St. Maur. Another large room 

 is devoted to the apparatus invented by M. Weyher for 

 reproducing atmospheric whirls artificially. In the grounds are 



