544 



NATURE 



[April lo, 1879 



found among these remains, the burning of the lake dwellings 

 probably occurred in spring or early summer. In one place a 

 vessel was found filled with acorns, which, not being a favourite 

 food, would naturally, it is presumed, be left to the last, and 

 only used in default of something more palatable. From these 

 facts and considerations it is inferred that at the time when 

 many, if not all, the lake villages of Neuchatel fell a prey to the 

 flames, its waters were at the height usual with them in spring 

 before their level had been artificially lowered by the engineer- 

 ing operations recently undertaken for confining within their 

 channels the streams of that part of the Jurassic range which 

 dominates the valleys of Neuch&tel and Morat. 



The death is announced, on Tuesday, at the age of eighty- 

 two years, of Sir Anthony Panizzi, formerly Principal Librarian 

 of the British Museum. 



We regret to announce the death of Herr Ludwig Reichen- 

 bach, an eminent German botanist and zoologist. He died at 

 Dresden on the i8th ult., aged 86 years. 



The German scientific world is much gratified at the distinc- 

 tion conferred upon Dr. Julius Schmidt, of Athens, by the French 

 Academy of Sciences, which recently honoured Dr. Schmidt by 

 presenting him with the Prix Volz in recognition of his work on 

 the moon. This prize is only given for important astronomical 

 work, and has not been awarded since 1870. 



The various German societies for the protection of animals 

 are now keenly discussing the vivisection question and have 

 arranged a congress, which will shortly meet at Gotha, and which 

 is to fix the final resolutions. 



Dr. J. E. Taylor has concluded the seventh winter series of 

 scientific discourses at the Ipswich Museum. These have been 

 free, and the average attendance has been 500 per night. Dr. 

 Taylor regards the local collection of the Ipswich Museum as 

 probably one of the best geological museums in Europe. He 

 deserves credit for his exertions in spreading a knowledge of 

 science in the district in which he lives. 



On Easter Monday and following day, the Geologists' Associa- 

 tion will have an excursion to Weymouth and Portland. 



We have received a small pamphlet of eighty pages, containing 

 the numerous opinions which have been expressed on Prof. 

 Church's position with reference to the Agricultural College at 

 Cirencester. The result of the conduct of the College authorities 

 is likely to be the establishment of a rival institution, to be ready 

 in October next. If it be the case, as is so generally alleged, 

 that the Cirencester institution is a failure £0 far as agricultural 

 education is concerned, we cannot be sorry that steps should be 

 at once taken to supply the want. 



We have received the first two parts of a very fine " Atlas of 

 Histology," by Dr. Klein and Mr. E, Noble Smith. The work 

 is intended to be a pictorial and literal representation of the 

 structure of the tissues of man and other vertebrates, its chief 

 aim being to teach not so much the history of histology as his- 

 tology itself in its modern aspect. The delicate illustrations are 

 executed with wonderful care and beauty. 



There was a slight shock of earthquake on the 3rd inst. at 

 Cadiz. 



In the year 1877 Mr. Clark Mills, of Washington, the well- 

 known sculptor, visited St. Augustine, Florida, in the interest 

 of the Smithsonian Institution and of the Peabody Museum in 

 Cambridge, for the purpose of takingcastsof the heads of certain 

 Indian prisoners in Fort Marion. These prisoners had been 

 captured some years before, and sent to Florida for safe keeping. 



and were in charge of Capt. R. H. Pratt, of the Army. Most 

 of them had been guilty of grave offences against life and pro- 

 perty. A visit to and interviews with these Indians have con- 

 stituted the staple of the correspondence of visitors to St. 

 Augustine for several years past. During the year 1878 this 

 station was broken up, some of the Indians being released, and 

 others transferred to Hampton, Virginia, where, under the charge 

 of General Armstrong, there is an establishment for the educa- 

 tion of certain negroes. By authority of the War Department, 

 Capt. Pratt has recently gathered up a large number of Indian 

 youth of both sexes, and taken them to Hampton, where they 

 are subjected to moral and mental training, and show a great 

 aptitude for learning. Quite recently, at the request of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, Mr. Mills visited Hampton, and with 

 the assistance of Capt. Pratt, has made a series of excel- 

 lent casts of some fifty Indians of both sexes and different 

 ages. They will in time be reproduced, properly worked up, 

 and exhibited in the National Museum, which will thus, in more 

 than a hundred busts from life of the American aborigines, 

 possess a very remarkable anthropological collection. Numerous 

 applications have been received from the anthropological museums 

 of Europe for copies of these busts. 



The Gauss monument for the city of Brunswick is now very 

 nearly completed, the casting taking place in the studio of Prof. 

 Howald, at Brunswick, after Herr Schaper's model, the well- 

 known Berlin sculptor. The figure will measure nine feet in 

 height, and the great mathematician is represented in a fur coat 

 with a book in his left hand, bearing the inscription "Disquisi- 

 tiones," the work which rendered his name immortal. The head 

 is said to be a masterpiece of th2 plastic art. 



Some new experiments on digestion (in which portions of the 

 stomach in living dogs were isolated, and their phenomena 

 studied) have been recently described by Herr Heidenhain in 

 Pfliiger's Archiv. He arrives at these two (preliminary) conclu- 

 sions : — (i) Purely mechanical stimulation acts only locally on 

 secretion of gastric juice; (2) The secretion (act), however, 

 extends beyond the place of stimulation to distant parts of the 

 mucous surface, when absorption occurs at that place. In other 

 words, we must distinguish a primary and a f^econdary secretion. 

 The primary is small and is produced by mechanical effect at 

 the place of stimulation ; the secondary is abundant and depends 

 on the act of digestion, in £o far as absorption is connected with 

 this, in the stomach. 



We learn that experiments have been made at Mont Valerien 

 by the French Ministry of War with a number of portable 

 Gramme electro-magnetic machines and portable lenses for 

 directing the rays to a great distance and exploring the horizon 

 during night with the same accuracy as during open daylight. The 

 optical apparatus is mounted on a special waggon and weighs no 

 more than two or three tons. It has been ascertained that the 

 machines can travel with the same velocity as mounted artillery. 

 The electric light and directing-lines can also be used for sig- 

 nalling in a known direction at an immense distance, as from Paris 

 to Orleans, if placed at a sufficient altitude. 



Recent researches by Herr Ammdii ptdve that the gas- 

 absorption of dry ground depends oh various' factors— varying 

 with the state of mechanical division, and chemical nature of the 

 constituents of the ground, and the temperature and nature of 

 the gas. (Quartz, clay, lime, hydrated iron oxide, gypsum, and 

 humus were examined as to their behaviour with various gases 

 of the atmosphere and the ground under different conditions.) 

 Phy.-ical forces have an undoubted role in the condensation, i.e., 

 the gases are held and condensed by surface-aftractibn of the 

 particles of the soil ; and as this attraction is a function' of -the 

 surface the effect is greater the smaller the particles. But che- 



