i8 



NATURE 



\_Nov, 7, 1878 



and flora of the county. The subjects of the previous parts have 

 been mammals, reptiles, marine, fresh-water, and land shells, 

 fungi, lepidoptera, flowering plants and ferns, diatomaceae. 

 Other sections will follow as opportunity occurs. We have also 

 received the Proceedings of the Norwich Geological Society, 

 part i., which contains some interesting papers, a creditable 

 Fourth Annual Report of the Lisburn School Association, and 

 a satisfactory Report of the Committee of the Goole Scientific 

 Society, whiclTis in its third year. 



We have received the progiammes of the arrangements for 

 the session of the various association societies of Cumberland, of 

 the organisation and activity of which we have had already 

 occasion to speak. The programmes seem to us on the whole 

 very satisfactory. 



A FINE statue of Corinthian metal resting upon a marble 

 pedestal has just been found through excavations which are 

 being made at the Ponte Sisto at Rome. The statue is 3 metres 

 high and is slightly damaged ; the right arm is entirely broken 

 off" ; yet it is hoped that the damage is not beyond repair. The 

 general belief among archaeologists is that the statue represents 

 the Emperor Probus. 



At Berlin a " Society for Ornithology and the Protection of 

 Birds " has just been formed, under the presidency of Dr. Karl 

 Russ. It consists of about fifty members at present, amongst 

 whom there are numerous eminent ornithologists. The special 

 purposes of the new Society are the discussion and practical 

 testing of ornithological questions in regular meetings, the estab- 

 lishment of frequent ornithological exhibitions on as large a scale 

 as possible, and the delivery of public lectures on the science of 

 birds in all its branches. 



M. NicoLLE, the organiser of the Exhibition of Maritime 

 and River Industries, which took place at the Palais de 

 1' Industrie, Champs Elysees, in 1876, has received from the 

 French Government, authority to use the same building in 1879 

 for an exhibition of science applied to industry. M. Nicolle is 

 now busy making his arrangements for next spring. We under- 

 stand that a very large place will be devoted to the wonders 

 of electricity. This exhibition is opened to all nations, and 

 scientific exhibitors at the Champ de Mars and the Trocadero 

 will receive circulars giving details before the close of the 

 exhibition. A sum of 700,000 francs has been voted out of the 

 National subscription for covering the travelling expenses of 

 5,000 working men to the exhibition. A sum of from 4/. to 6/., 

 according to distance, has been handed over to each of the 

 chosen delegates, and the railway companies have agreed to 

 take only half of the ordinary fares. 



From America we have received from the twenty-first to the 

 twenty-eighth annual reports of the New York State Museum of 

 Natural History, edited by the regents of the University of the 

 State of New York. Their contents are of the highest interest, 

 comprising many geological, botanical, and zoological communi- 

 cations of value. Amongst others we note an elaborate paper 

 (with map) on the Niagara and Lower Helderberg groups, their 

 relations and geographical distribution, by Dr. James Hall, the 

 director of the museum ; numerous entomological contributions 

 by J. A. Lintner ; an account of an ascent of Mount Steward 

 and its barometrical measurement, by Verplanck Colvin ; re- 

 marks on some peculiar impressions in sandstone of the Chemung 

 group. New York, by Dr. Hall and R. P. Whitfield ; notes and 

 observations on the Cohoes Mastodon, by Dr. J. Hall. Each 

 part contains a number of m ell-executed plates. We may, at a 

 future date, return to some of the contents at greater length. 

 We have also befoi'e us the Transactions of the Academy of 

 Science of St. Louis (vol. iii. No. 4) ; the principal contents 

 are a valuable treatise by Prof. G. Seyffarth, entitled " Correc- 

 tions of the present Theory of the Moon's Motions according to 



the Classic Eclipses ; " a note on the larval characters and habits 

 of the blister beetles, by Charles T. Riley ; a synopsis of Ame- 

 rican firs, by Dr. George Engelmann, and other botanical com- 

 munications by the same gentleman. Also the following publica- 

 tions of interest for entomologists : — Collecting Butterflies and 

 Moths, by Montagu Browne ; Preliminary Studies on the North 

 American Pyralidae, by A. R. Grote ; Butterflies and Moths of 

 North America, by Herman Strecker; Lepidoptera, Rhopalo- 

 ceres, and Heteroceres, by the same (Nos. 14 and 15). 



M. W. De Fonvielle writes us that Capt. Howgate has not 

 forgotten the suggestion made by him of utilising for ballooning 

 purposes the magnificent coal seam discovered by our Arctic 

 Expedition on the shores of Lady Franklin Bay. Capt. Howgate 

 has made use of the delays arising from the slowness of Con- 

 gress in granting the required credit for his Arctic colony, in 

 having experiments made to ascertain whether it is possible to 

 inflate balloons without recurring to the ponderous process of 

 preparing ordinary lighting gas. From a report on the experi- 

 ments which have been made by Prof. Samuel King in the 

 inflation of the " King Carnival," we learn that great success 

 has been met with. The inflation, we are told, was accom- 

 plished successfully throughout in seven hours' time. Gas for 

 the purpose was supplied by what may ,be .termed a five-foot 

 generator of the Lowe pattern or build, which employs the 

 modern method of a steam in conjunction with an air blast. Five 

 charges or turns were required to fill the balloon. The amoimt 

 of gas produced by each charge or turn approximated 6,000 

 cubic feet. As will be inferred from the two last statements, 

 the capacity of the balloon is about 30,000 cubic feet. The 

 generator employed could have filled the balloon in less than 

 six hours, and would have done so had not the operations been 

 purposely delayed, which delay , was occasioned by a state of' 

 weather somewhat unfavourable to the ascension which it waSi 

 proposed to make. The external dimensions of the generator are, 

 height eleven feet, diameter five feet. It is cylindrical in shape, 

 and has an inside fire-brick lining of about six or seven inches; 

 thickness, thus leaving a clear diameter for generating purposes 

 of less than four feet. About ten inches of the height is also 

 taken up by the bottom lining. The gas for the inflation Avas 

 made from anthracite coal. Steam is passed through the incan- 

 descent coal. There comes from the generator an impure hydi-o- 

 gen gas containing carbonic acid and oxide of carbon. The car- 

 bonic acid is then removed by a suitable and famihar process, '" 

 and the carbonic oxide remains with the gas. About forty-six 

 lbs. buoyancy is obtained to every thousand feet of gas. The 

 cylinder of the generator can be made in sections, of cast-iron, 

 if no fire-bricks are used, and of wrought-iron if fire-bricks are 

 used. The sections can be luted with clay and then bolted 

 together. The results of these interesting experiments wiU be 

 laid before the Geographical Society of Paris and Minister of 

 War of France. M. De Fonvielle inquires whether it is really 

 hopeless to find a liquid which might absorb the largest quantity 

 of carbonic oxide, and restore to the hydrogen gas its natural 

 buoyancy. 



It is stated that a committee is being formed in Paris with 

 a view to a permanent International Exhibition at the Crystal 

 Palace. French exhibitors are invited to transfer their pro- 

 ductions from the Champ de Mars to Sydenham, and thus 

 realise the original idea of the Crystal Palace as a cosmo-a| 

 politan museum and warehouse, * 



We have received from Mr. Clifton Ward two papers by him 

 reprinted separately—" Quartz as it Occurs in the Lake District,"* 

 and "Notes on Archaeological Remains in the Lake District." 4^ 



We have on bur table the following books :— " A Manual of 

 Anthropometry," by Charles Roberts, F.R.C.S. (J. and A. 

 Churchill); "The Art of Scientific Discovery," by G. Gore, 



