326 



NATURE 



{Feb, 6, 1879 



forming collections of scientific specimens and books, and are, 

 in short, the guides, philosophers, and friends of all desirous 

 of accomplishing almost any purpose connected with science. 

 Their " Biicher-Verzeichniss," No. 293 (Physics and Chemistry), 

 is marvellously complete ; nothing of any value, published in 

 any country in any form, seems to have escaped the compiler. 

 Friedlander und Sohn have been at this work for twenty-eight 

 years, and their catalogues issued during that time must be of 

 great interest and value to the student of science. 



The Times Geneva correspondent, under date February 3, 

 telegraphs that a singular and almost unprecedented meteoro- 

 logical phenomenon has been observable during the past ten or 

 fifteen days in many parts of Switzerland. While the tem- 

 perature in the valleys and plains has been low, the waters 

 covered with ice, and snow resting on the ground, a warm 

 south wind has prevailed in the uplands and among the higher 

 Alps, where the streams remain unfrozen and the snow has 

 almost disappeared. This has been especially the case in Uri, 

 Schwytz, the Grisons, Neuchatel, and the Bernese Oberland. 

 Mr. Coolidge, an Englishman, with four guides, made the 

 ascent of the great Schreckhorn last week at four o'clock in the 

 afternoon, when the thermometer on the summit of the moun- 

 tain marked several degrees above freezing-point. The Ober- 

 land Alpine Club propose to buy some of the ibex forming 

 part of the collection of the late King Victor Emmanuel, for 

 the purpose of re-stocking the mountains of Switzerland. 



A SHOCK of earthquake was felt at Foochow and Amoy on 

 December 17. 



A FINE meteor was obsei'ved at Prague and many other towns 

 and villages of Bohemia on January 11, at 7.30 P.M. It ap- 

 peared in the north-western part of the sky and moved towards 

 the south-west, disappearing with a loud report, and leaving a 

 long luminous train behind. The colour of the meteor was 

 white at first and reddish violet at the end ; the duration of the 

 phenomenon was ten seconds. 



The project of a canal between the Rhine and the Maas seems 

 at last to approach realisation. The city of Crefeld has declared 

 its readiness to pay the sum of 500,000 marks (25,000/.) towards 

 it, and it is confidently hoped that now both the Prussian as well 

 as the Dutch Government Avill grant the necessary additional 

 funds. 



We believe that the changes in the Government of the French 

 Republic will be favourable to the development of education all 

 over the land. The extension of public instruction is to be a 

 part of the programme of the Ministry, which will not be 

 published before our present impression will be in the hands of 

 our readers. 



Another of the London gas companies has been trying to 

 show what gas-lighting can be made if only the public are 

 willing to go to the necessary expense. On Friday last the 

 Gas Light and Coke Company lit up part of Regent Street in 

 much the same way that the Phoenix Company recently did 

 the Waterloo Road. The result is described as admirable. By 

 the use of Sugg's improved form of burner, a light framework, 

 and the proper adjustment of suitable reflectors, a light was 

 obtained very much brighter than that to which we have been 

 so long accustomed. We believe if some enterprising company 

 undertook to light one of our principal thoroughfares for some 

 months at their own expense by this method, they would 

 most likely be rewarded by a demand on the part of the public 

 that the new form of light should be made general and per- 

 manent. Some comparative experiments which have been 

 made at Westgate-on-Sea with the Jablochkoff candles have led 



the experimenters to the conclusion that this form of electric 

 lighting is much more expensive than gas, and is surrounded 

 with so many difficulties that no amount of improvement is 

 likely to fit it for adoption. It is rumoured that an experiment 

 is likely to be made in lighting the reading-room of the British 

 Museum with the electric light. 



The Austrian Tourist Club has offered two prizes of loo and 

 50 florins respectively for the best and next-best monograph of 

 a mountain group or single mountain from the district of the 

 Austrian Alps. Particulars respecting the competition can be 

 learnt upon application to the Committee of the Club, Gusshau;;- 

 strasse, Vienna. 



Continuing his researches on the scintillation of stars, ]\r. 

 Montigny has examined the influence of atmospheric temperaiture 

 and pressure, moisture in the air, fogs, snow, different winds, 

 &c. His observations are detailed in a recent number (11, of 

 1878) of the Belgian Academy's Bulletin. The general conclu- 

 sion to which the various facts point is thus stated : — It is the 

 presence of water in greater or less quantity in the atmosphere, 

 that exerts the most marked influence on scintillation, and which 

 most modifies the character of it, either when the water is dis- 

 solved as vapour in the air, or when it falls to the surface of the 

 ground in the liquid state, or in the solid state, in the form of 

 snow." 



In spectacles designed purely for amusement there occur from 

 time to time exhibitions of muscular dexterity and strength which 

 are highly interesting to the physiologist. Za Nature mentions 

 that there was lately to be seen at the Hippodrome, in Paris, a 

 gymnast, named Joignerey, who discharged a piece of cannon, 

 not supporting it on the shoulder, as others have done, but like 

 a rifle. The same man, suspended by his legs from a trapeze, 

 raised with his teeth a horse and its rider. About the same time 

 visitors to the skating theatre were astounded by the feats of the 

 juggler Treuiz, who entwined himself in a long streamer wound 

 as an aerial helix, a feat which has been peculiar to the Japanese ; 

 and, with cubes of wood thrown into the air and caught, sketched 

 the rudiments of unstable architectural.forms, modifying their 

 arrangement with unfailing dexterity and certainty. 



Ax a recent meeting of the French Physical Society M, Benoit 

 showed a thermo-regulator of his invention, based on the increase 

 of maximum tension of a saturated vapour with the temperature. 

 A small vessel, containing methylic ether, is placed in the stove 

 whose temperature is to be kept constant ; it communicates with 

 a mercury manometer, the movements of which, again, serve to 

 regulate the flow of the coal-gas which heats the stove. M. 

 Benoit has thus been able to maintain a temperature of 85° C. 

 constant to within one-tenth of a degree. The apparatus owes 

 this rare precision to the smallness of its mass and the rapidity 

 with which the tension cf the vapour increases with the tempe- 

 rature. The author showed that after having regulated it for 

 the surrounding temperature, one had merely to blow rapidly on 

 the small vessel of liquid in order to produce the extinction cf 

 the gas-burners governed by the apparatus. 



Several Parisian photographers have tried to use electric 

 light for obtaining cliches, and have been wonderfully successful. 

 MM. Pierre Petit and Lebert are the most prominent amongst 

 them. 



Scarcely a month passes but we receive the first number of 

 a new journal devoted to science. Last week we referred to a 

 new Italian Nature, and we have before us several otJier journals 

 which are at least new to us. V Athettceuin Beige, which has 

 entered on its second year, devotes a portion of its space to 

 science, as Mell as to literature and art ; it seems to us to be well 

 conducted. The first number of the second year of Le Momie 



