Nov. 7, 1878] 



NATURE 



17 



Prof. F. V. Haydex has r,;cently been elected honorary 

 -•niber of the Scciete Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles, Lau- 

 :ine, Switzerland; Societe Malacologique, Brussels, Belgium; 

 :.d the Geographical Society of Halle, Prussia. 



It is announced that the Sheffield meeting of the British Asso- 

 tion will begin, not on August 6, but August 20, 1879. 



From a Government Minute we have received from Mauritius, 

 •we learn that the governor. Sir Arthiu: Phayre, laid before the 

 council of July 20 an application from the President of the 

 Meteorological Society of Mauritius for a grant of money, in 

 order that the results of the meteorological obser\-ations made 

 during many years by Dr. Meldrum, the Government observer, 

 may be published in a form which will be advantageous to 

 science and to navigation, as well as to commerce. The form 

 which it is proposed the publication shall take is twofold, namely : 

 sjTioptic weather charts for the Indian Ocean, extending over 

 twelve consecutive months, and a storm atlas of the Indian 

 Ocean, exhibiting the principal results which have been 

 obtained respecting the more marked atmospheric disturbances 

 in the Indian Ocean during the last thirty years. The objects 

 are set forth in detail in a report by Dr. Meldrum, of which a 

 copy is annexed to the Minute. The matter was referred to the 

 Finance Committee, who, we trust, will grant the sum asked 

 for. If they have any regard to the interests of navigation and 

 commerce in the Indian Ocean, there can be no doubt as to their 

 decision. 



Commander Perrier has been making some interesting 

 experiments with the Giffard captive balloon for the purpose of 

 comparing the qualities of the best aneroid barometers selected 

 from the Paris Exhibition. Each French maker who obtained a 

 silver medal sent two instruments, which were sent up five or 

 six times, and compared with a standard Fortin barometer placed 

 at the foot of the cable. It was discovered that very few of 

 these barometers recovered their original readings imtil after the 

 lapse of a considerable time. Some photographs were taken of 

 Paris at this high altitude, and are most interesting, although 

 the motion of the car has caused some want of distinctness in 

 the parts removed from the centre of station. 



Some interesting objects have recently been brought to light 

 from the lake-dwellings in the lake of Neufchatel, and are now 

 exhibited at the Neufchatel Museum. Amongst them are tliree 

 particularly worthy of notice : (i) a large and extremely well 

 preserved piece of amber ; (2) a golden earring of masterly 

 workmanship, of the bronze age ; and (3) a canoe cut out from 

 the trunk of a single oak tree in perfect preser\-ation. Its length 

 is 7 metres, its breadth 55 centimetres at the prow-, and 65 

 centimetres at the stern; its depth is 19 centimetres, its total 

 height from 22 to 24, and the thickness of its sides 6 to 8J 

 centimetres. 



News from Panama states that the volcano Cotopaxi is in 

 a state of violent activity. Its crater is surroimded by ice and 

 snow, but the clouds of ashes and smoke rising from it can be 

 seen even at Guayaquil on the shores of the Pacific. 



The Daily Navs Naples Correspondent under date November 

 2, telegraphs that after numerous variations the activity of the 

 eruption of Vesuvius appeared to be then at its height. The 

 lava flowed into the same ravine into which it fell during the 

 emption of 1872. The seismographs denoted an approaching 

 increase in the eruption. 



Two firesh shocks of earthquake are reported from Buir 

 (Rhenish Prussia), of wliich the first was felt for many miles 

 around. It occurred on October 24, at 12.30 A.M., and the 

 second one on the same date at 3.45 p.m. 



A violet-coloured meteor, with a reddish train, was seen 

 at Stanislas, Austria, on the evening of the 24th in the Great 



Bear and moving in a northerly direction. It is described as 

 thrice the size of Jupiter. 



In Nature (vol. xviii. p. 652) we gave an account of a veri- 

 fication of M. Pervouchine's first result (vol. xviii. p. 104). We 

 have now seen a very short and neat verification not only of 

 Pervouchine's first but also of his second result.(vol. xviiL p. 456). 

 The author (Mr. John Bridge, M.A.) uses the scale whose radix 

 is 16 instead of the binary scale. He assume r„ to be the 

 remainder arising from the division of 2*", then since 2-" ~ = (2-'^)'» 

 it follows that r^^rx is the remainder arising from the division of 

 (r^\ Hence the remainders can be successfully calculated. 

 Thus for the first result the divisor is (in scale 16) 1(12)001 



• •• '"s = - 5249, ^'6 = + 9(11)4. ^7 = - 59(10)6, 



rg = -f (12)5(11)4, rg = - io(io)(is), r^^ = + 1702, 



rn = + (i3)(io)(i3)6, r^j = - I. 



Hence 2- ' has remainder — I, and therefore 2^ " -f i is divisible 

 7 X 2^* -r I. The second result is obtained in the same manner, 

 the divisor being (io)(i6)® 4- i, i.e., (lo)ocoooi, and the last 

 remainder r^s. These verifications have been presented to the 

 London Mathematical Society by the author. 



^ A supplement to No. 37 of the Boktin de la Institucion 

 libre de Enseilanza consists of a prospectus gi'V'ing an account of 

 its aims and of its statutes, which we sketched out in a former 

 notice of the Institution. It also contains a list of officers (among 

 the four honorary professors we notice the names of John 

 Tyndall, de Londres, and Charles Darwin, de Londres) and of 

 the courses of lectures for the students. We have received, 

 also, a copy of the Vice-Rector's (Montero Rios) address, " Las 

 Elecciones Pontificiales." Among other papers read at the con. 

 ercncias v;t note "El Aqua y sus Transformaciones," por D- 

 Francisco Quiroga; "Relaciones entre la Sciencia y el Arte," 

 por D. Federico Rubio ; " Teorias Modemas sobre los 

 Funciones Cerebrales," por D. Luis Simano ; " La Vida de los 

 Astros," por D. A. G. de Linares. No. 33 has papers on "La 

 Geometria Sintetica" (continuation) ; "Los Principales Publica- 

 ciones sobre Plantas Insectivoras^' (two by Mr. F. Darwin are 

 noticed), and the catalogue of the /' Coleccion de Rocas" in 

 the Natiural History Cabinet is proceeded with. 



There has been opened at Berlin the Telegraphic Museum 

 established by M. Stephan, the General Director of Postal 

 Telegraphs in Germany. The exhibition has been located 

 in two large rooms of the General Post Ofiice at Berlin. 

 This is not the first institution of the kind, a telegraphic 

 museum, and even laboratory, having been established at Tokio 

 by the Japannese Government for the use of the pupils in tele- 

 graphic engineering. A number of interesting experiments have 

 been already made in that laboratory under the guidance of 

 Messrs. Ayrton and Perry. 



We have received the Transactions of the Norfolk and Nor- 

 wich Naturalists' Society for 1877-8. The society is now in its 

 tenth year, and is both financially and numerically stronger 

 than at any previous period of its existence, the number of 

 members being nearly 190. A glance at the contents of the 

 part shows that the society is fairly carrying them out. We 

 would partiodarly call attention to the series of letters on the 

 ornithology of Norfolk, by eminent deceased naturalists, 

 edited by Prof. Newton. The society is makii^ it a feature of 

 its work to rescue all such valuable records from loss. The 

 society is also endeavouring to rescue from oblivion the memory 

 of men who did good work in their time, but are fast being for- 

 gotten. The complete meteorological report is also an annual 

 contribution ; the observations are recorded by the valuable set 

 of instruments, the property, of the Norwich Meteorologica 

 Society. Mr. Stevenson's "Ornithological Notes" are also 

 continued from year to year. The last paper is perhaps the 

 most important : it is part viii. of a carefully compiled fauna, 



