March 27, 1879] 



NATURE 



49. 



of the islands might be made highly remuaerative. Sugar- 

 cane, coRee, tea, cinchona, and cocoa are the principal staples 

 .idvocated. Sugar is looked upon in a most favourable 

 light ; some parts of the islands, both in richness of soil 

 and climate, as well as in extent, are spoken of as extremely 

 favourable for growing and maturing the cane ; so much so as 

 to make all well-wishers of Fiji look for the time when sugar 

 \sill be made in the islands and "exported by the hundred 

 thousand tons and to the value of millions of pounds sterling." 

 Regarding coffee we learn that the Government have sent large 

 supplies of seed into the interior of Viti Levu to form coffee 

 gardens for the natives. The plants are described as having an 

 extremely healthy appearance. Tea and cinchona could both be 

 grown successfully in Yiti Le\-u over an excent of country roughly 

 estimated at about one hundred square miles. Though many 

 valuable timber trees exist in the islands it is suggested that several 

 well-known Indian trees such as teak, saul, sL-soo, toon, and 

 ebony, as well as mahogany, rosewood, and others should be 

 introduced. It is to be hoped that as the resources of Fiji, 

 including those of the forests, become developed, no undue 

 sacrifice of timber will be effected, but on the contrary the trees 

 will be carefully presers'ed or replanted as others are cut down. 



The class of substances whose fluorescence does not follow 

 Stokes's law, and so which do not emit rays of le=s refrangibility 

 than the existing rays, has lately been enlarged by Prof. Lommel 

 by addition of one of two new fluorescing substances. That is 

 anthracene blue, an etheric solution of which fluoresces olive 

 green very strongly ; it is excited extremely weakly by the blue 

 and the greater part of the violet rays, but very strongly by the 

 orange-green and yellow-green. The second new fluorescing 

 substance is bisulphobichloranthracenic acid, the etheric solu- 

 tion of which gives superficially a beautiful blue, and the interior 

 a greenish fluorescence. It obeys Stokes's law. 



The French Minister of Public Works has not yet answered 

 the inquiries made by M. Giffard as to the probability of the 

 Cour de Tuileries being at his disposal up to the end of Sep- 

 tember, in order to organise a new series of captive ascents. 

 But M. Giffard, willing to give the preference to his native 

 city, has rejected the advantageous offers made by the German 

 company offering to work his captive ballooii, and to pay him 

 a royalty of 2,}) per cent, on the gross receipts. 



At 12.35 A.ii. on the 22nd inst. an earthquake traversed 

 Northern Persia, taking a direction from Tabreez to Zendjan and 

 Mianeh, and shocks contmued with more or less severity until 

 Sunday, the 23rd. Several strongly-built houses were thrown 

 down at Mianeh, and in others large rents were made in the 

 walls. The most serious damage, however, appears to have been 

 occasioned in two tillages off the road, about four farsachs from 

 Mianeh, named respectively Tark and Manan. These were 

 totally destroyed, and of the 500 inhabitants in the one case and 

 the 600 inhabitants in the other, only a few are reported to have 

 been saved. Mianeh is situated in north lat. 37° 27', east long. 

 47° 43'- 



In a report from the Philippine Islands we learn that in the 

 towns of Molo and Javo, both situated close to each other, and 

 distant about three miles from Yloilo, it is very rare to enter a 

 house that has not its loom at work, so large a trade is done in 

 weaving not only in the towns themselves but all over the pro- 

 vince. The principal fibre used is that of the pine-apple, and 

 some of the articles manufactured, such as shirts and dresses, 

 are of considerable merit and sell at high prices. In weaving 

 China silk in colours is intermixed with the pine-apple fibre, for 

 the purpose of giving stripes to the dresses and shirts. The 

 value of the Chinese silk so imported varies at from 2co,ooo dol. 

 to 400,000 dol. {^40,000 tO;^8o,oco) per annum. 



The Teplitz thermal question may be considered as being solved 

 in the most satisfactory manner. The Spring Committee esta- 

 blished by the Austrian Government declared that the quantity 

 of recovered water is 2,224 cubic feet per hour, which is suffi- 

 cient for supplying all the thermal establishments in existence 

 before the catastrophe. The temperature has not been altered 

 in any sensible manner. It appears that altogether the 

 catastrophe may be considered as having been in some respects 

 useful. The actual quantity is one-third more than the sum ot 

 the several sources which were used before the catastrophe. 



We have received the first number of a new American journal 

 — Usf/ul Arts — edited by Mr. J. A. Whitney. It contains a 

 great deal of miscellaneous industrial information, mostly referring 

 to patents. 



Gardening llUistraUd is the title of a new cheap "weekly 

 jouinal for town and country." 



A METEOROLOGICAL work, entitled " Ergebnisse fiinfzig- 

 jahriger Beobachtvmgen der Witterung zu Dresden," with an 

 introduction on meteorology, the atmosphere, meteorological 

 instniments and obsenations, has just been published by Dr. 

 Adolf Drechsler, the director of the Royal Physico-Mathematical 

 Institution at Dresden. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Mona Monkey {Cercopitheciis mono) from 

 West Africa, presented by Miss Sandford ; a Bonnet Monkey 

 {Mcuacus radiatus) -ixom India, presented by Mr. George Eggar ; 

 a Chinchilla (Chinchilla lanigera) fi-om South America, pre- 

 sented by Sir Chas. Smith; a Greater-spotted Woodpecker 

 {Piats viajor) European, presented by Mr. H. Laver ; a Smnatran 

 Rhinoceros {Rhinoceros sumairensis) from Sumatra, a Tabuan 

 Parrakeet (Pyrrhulopsis fabiiensis), a Stair's Dove {PJiIogtznas 

 stairi) from the Fiji Islands, deposited ; a Pied Wagtail {Mota- 

 cilla yarrellt), a Reed Bunting {Emberiza scheniclus) European, 

 purchased. 



SPECULATIONS ON THE SOURCE OF 

 METEORITES^ 



T HAVE recently read M. G. Tschermak's most interesting 

 -^ memoir, "DieBildung der Meteoriten und der Vulcanis- 

 mus." * I am not competent to offer any opinion on the miner- 

 alogical questions involved in his discussion, but the numerous 

 arguments he has adduced appear to me to justify his conclusion 

 that " the meteorites have had a volcanic source on some celestial 

 body." These arguments are briefly as follows : — 



Meteorites are ^ways angular fragments even before they come 

 into the air. 



Most meteoric irons have a crystalline structure which, accord- 

 ing to Haidinger, requires a very long period of formation at a 

 nearly constant temperature. This condition could only have 

 been fulfilled in a large mass. 



Many meteoric stones show flutings resembling those seen en 

 terrestrial rocks and which are due to the nibbing of adjacent 

 masses. 



Other meteoric stones show a joining together of several frag- 

 ments analogous to breccia. 



Many meteoric stones are composed of very small particles 

 analogous to volcanic tufas. 



After {.lancing at the old theory of the volcanoes in the mocn 

 and rejecting as untenable the supposition that meteorites have 

 any connection with ordinary shooting stars, Tschermak con- 

 cludes — " We may suppose that many celestial bodies of consider- 

 able dimensions are siill small enough to admit of the possibility 

 that projectiles driven from them in volcanoes shall not ret^m 

 by gravity. These would really be the sources of meteorites." 

 Similar views having been put forward by Mr. J. Lawrence Smith 

 and other authorities it is not unreasonable to discuss the follow- 

 ing problem. 



' Read at the Royal Irish Academy, January i3- ^ . ,. . _, . 



^ -'Sitzungsberichteder mathematisch-naturwissenschafthchen Uasse der 

 kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften." Wien, 1375. Band Ixxi., Ab- 

 theilung 2, pp. 661-674. 



