474 



NATURE 



\Marcli 20, 1879 



At the evening meeting on Monday, the 31st inst., at 8.30, 

 at the Royal United Service Institution, D'Arlincourt's tele- 

 graph will be exhibited and vi^orked, illustrative of a means of 

 communicating orders in the field. The paper of the evening is 

 on "Orders in the Field and the Means of Communicating 

 them," and will be read by Major Webber, R.E. 



A PAMPHLET has just been issued at Quebec, compiled under 

 the auspices of the Boards of Trade of that town and Montreal, 

 dealing with the subject of telegraphy with the coasts and 

 islands of the Gulf and Lower River St. Lawrence, and the 

 coasts of the maritime provinces, considered from the point of 

 view of its relation to the shipping, to the fisheries, and to the 

 signal service. The brochure is accompanied by a large-scale 

 coast telegraph chart of the region named, delineated under the 

 direction of the Hon. P. Fortin, on which are shown existing 

 and projected telegraph lines and the ordinary tracks of vessels. 



At the last meeting of the Eastbourne Natural History Society 

 an interesting paper was read by Dr. Murdie on sea-water, its 

 adaptations to various purposes, and its management in reference 

 to marine zoology. 



Mr. Tegetmeter has published a facsimile reprint of Moore's 

 " Columbarium " from the original edition of 1735. The work, 

 the source from which all subsequent works have taken their 

 rise, ought to interest both fanciers and naturalists ; by its aid, 

 as Mr. Tegetmeier says, the latter may trace the alterations pro- 

 duced in varieties of the same species, continued for 150 genera- 

 tions. Moore was a well-known doctor of the City of London, 

 and was so eminent in his way as to merit a bantering satire from 

 Pope, 



Prof. Edward Morse, of Tokio, announces that he has 

 discovered undoubted evidences of the practice of cannibalism 

 among the early inhabitants of Japan. These evidences he 

 describes in a paper read at the Biological Society of the Tokio 

 Dai Gaku. 



The Colonies and India has an interesting note on the subject 

 of Vanilla, which appears to be mainly supplied by Mauritius, 

 Brazil, and Mexico, but could probably be grown in many of our 

 colonies. The parasitical plant which yields this aromatic bean 

 will climb up any tree that gives sufficient shade ; it attains a 

 height of about a foot, and thrives for thirty or forty years, pro- 

 ducing some fifty pods each year after the second. The beans 

 take eight or nine months to mature, and are gathered between 

 October and December ; they are oiled occasionally to prevent 

 excessive shrinking, and dried in the sun ; when warm they are 

 wrapped in woollen cloths to absorb the evaporation, and during 

 the process attain their black silvery hue. Vanilla is the most 

 costly, in proportion to weight, of all vegetable productions, and 

 only a few hundredweights reach England annually. 



Masson, of Paris, has published in a collective form, under 

 the title of "Revues scientifiques publiees par le joiu-nal La 

 Republique Frangaise,^' a large number of papers on subjects of 

 scientific interest published at intervals in that paper, under the 

 direction of Prof. Paul Bert. 



The comparative effects of pressure and hammering in chang- 

 ing the volume of soft masses, has been investigated by Herr Kick 

 (Ding. Pol. Jo.). A carefully cast lead cylinder 100-3 mm. liig^» 

 70*2 mm. diameter, and 387'8s ccm. at 15°, was compressed in a 

 Gollner's machine to 69 mm. and 50 mm. height respectively. 

 The volume was found to be hardly altered at all (it became 

 387-814 ccm. in the second case). A lead cylinder 59-7 mm. high 

 and 50 mm. diameter was now beat down by means of a steam 

 hammer to i6'7 mm. height. The volume was reduced from 

 117*56 to 117-33 ccm. Thus, to condense metals, it is necessary 

 to resort to beating, or to use extraordinary pressure on inclosed 

 material. 



Some interesting experiments with regard to tension of car- 

 bonic acid in blood have recently been made by Herr Gaule iu 

 the physiological laboratory of Prof. Ludvvig (Du Bois Reymond's 

 Archiv). He notes the following differences between blood and 

 serum in this connection : — i. The proportion of carbonic acid 

 in serum is higher than that in blood. 2. The tension of car- 

 bonic acid in serum is less than that in blood. 3. If in serum 

 the quantity of free carbonic acid diminish, there is decomposed 

 only the quantity"of bicarbonate^of soda which corresponds to this 

 diminution, but in blood more. 4. On addition of simple car- 

 bonate of soda, the tension of free carbonic acid diminishes in 

 the serum, but in blood it does not. 5. In blood there exists a 

 substance which is capable of dissolving the entire combination 

 between carbonic acid and soda, but in serum not. This sub- 

 stance, which attracts the carbonate of soda, is very probably 

 hsemoglobin, which then further decomposes the combined salt into 

 soda and carbonic acid, and thus maintains with the bicarbonate 

 salt and the free carbonic acid a series of complicated exchanges, 

 which probably render possible and promote the giving out of 

 carbonic acid and the removal of it from the tissues and the 

 lymph. 



Carl's Repertorium fiir Experimental Physik (xv. Band, 2 

 Heft) contains an illustrated account of the new meteorological 

 magnetic observatory for St. Petersburg at Pawlowsk. In the 

 same number we note a useful simplification of the spectroscope, 

 by Herr Hiifner. 



The measuring of sea-depths with the lead leaves much to be 

 desired in point of accuracy. Dr. Riihlmann is of opinion 

 [Annalen der Physik) that reliable results will be had, only when 

 it is practicable to measure the weight of the water column. 

 This weight, and therewith the height of the column, might be 

 easily ascertained from pressure on a manometer. And the 

 point i?, to combine with the pressure-measuring instrument 

 an arrangement whereby one may read off what the apparatus 

 indicates at that point, the depth of which below the surface is 

 to be determined. To construct such a manometer need not, he 

 thinks, greatly puzzle the mechanician. The various forms of 

 aneroid barometer are a good direction. Suppose, e.g., a mano- 

 meter made after this fashion, and available for very high 

 pressure, and let there be adapted to it an electro-magnetic 

 arrangement, wherewith, when a current is sent through it from 

 the ship, the index is pressed so forcibly against the scale, that 

 a mark is produced on this. In this way, closing the circuit at 

 different times, it would be possible to determine the pressure in 

 different parts of the sea. If, at the same time, there were sunk 

 a junction of a thermo-element, the other junction of which was 

 kept at constant temperature, and if the current of this thermo- 

 element were conducted through a sensitive marine galvanometer 

 on the ship, one could ascertain the temperature of the water at 

 the points for which measurements of pressure were obtained. 

 Very accurate results could only be expected, when not only the 

 pressure at the sea-bottom, but also the temperature of the watei 

 at as many points of less depth as possible, were known. Dr. 

 Riihlmann is not aware if such a method has been put into 

 practice, but he gives an exposition of the theory of it. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include an Indian Fruit Bat {Pteropus tnedius) from 

 India, presented by Capt. F. P. MUlett ; a Mule Deer {Cervus 

 maerotis) from Ottawa, Illinois, U.S.A., presented by Judge 

 Caton ; two Gaimard's Rat Kangaroos {Hypsiprymnusgaimardi) 

 from Australia, presented by Mr. Ernest E. Harrold ; a Spotted 

 Ichneumon (Herpesies auropunctaius) from India, presented by 

 Miss H. Boteler ; a Brent Goose {Bernicla brtnta), European, 

 presented by Mr. H. A. Dombrain; a Black-faced Spider 

 Monkey ^Ateles aier), a Black-handed Spider Monkey (Ateles 

 melanochir) from South America, received in exchange ; a Black 



