592 



NATURE 



[April 24, 1879 



A COURSE of three lectures will be delivered in the Galleries 

 of Natural History and Antiquities, British Museum, on the 

 24th, 28th, and 30th inst., by Dr. Carter Blake, of Westminster 

 Hospital. Some of the keepers of departments will also give 

 vivd voce explanations of the specimens under their care. 



Mr. Artemas Martin, a well-known American mathe- 

 matician, has lately commenced the publication of a serial work, 

 entitled The Mathematical Visitor, appearing occasionally at 

 intervals of several months. It is published by him at Erie, 

 Pennsylvania, and shows a creditable spirit of enterprise in 

 entering a field which is not generally considered remunerative. 



We have received the first number of the American Chemical 

 yournal, which promises to take a high place in scientific litera- 

 ture. Its first object is to collect the good original papers 

 written by American chemists, and to make them the basis of a 

 purely chemical journal, while papers from other journals, and 

 notes in all departments of chemistry will find a place. It is 

 expected that six numbers will appear yearly. The principal 

 articles in the first number are " On the Complex Inorganic 

 Acids," by Dr. W. Gibbs, " On Nitrogen Iodide," by Mr. J. W. 

 Mallet, a paper on Lockyer's hypothesis that the so-called ele- 

 ments are compound bodies, by Mr. C. S. Hastings, of Johns 

 Hopkins University, and "On the Oxidation of Substitution 

 Products of Aromatic Hydrocarbons," by Messrs. Remsen and 

 Hes. There are, besides, several reviews and a number of 

 notes. 



The scientific journals of Pennsylvania express much regret 

 at the possibility of the failure of the Legislature of that State 

 to make appropriations for the continuance of the work of the 

 Geological Survey. This work has been carried on for several 

 years past under Prof. Lesley with great success, and it is so 

 near completion that its cessation now might be considered 

 almost a national calamity. 



The War Department is on the point of at length adopting 

 war balloons into the land and sea services. Movable apparatus 

 for inflating and manipulating military balloons in the field has 

 just been completed in the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, and 

 been tried with two new balloons, specially constructed for 

 military purposes. The apjjliances consist of a portable tank, 

 weighing 400 lb., containing iron shavings, together with a port- 

 able boiler and furnace. These appliances can be moved about 

 with troops on the field or on vessels at sea. Hydrogen is 

 generated by passing steam through the iron turnings. As soon 

 as the necessary arrangements can be made it is in contemplation 

 to send a few war balloons out to Zululand. 



The boring of an artesian well for the purpose of investigating 

 the nature of the chalk layers through which the submarine tunnel 

 between England and France is to pass was resumed on the 

 French coast at Sandgatte on March I last. The depth of the 

 well, which at the end of last year was at 34*35 metres, was 

 extended to 38*50 m. — that is, to a depth corresponding to 

 8*67 m. below the low-water level. At this depth the flow into 

 the well amounted to 1,300 litres per minute, and the exhaust 

 machines became insufficient. They are to be replaced by more 

 powerful ones. 



We are glad to see that Messrs. Kegan Paul and Co. have 

 published in a handy form a complete translation of Prof. 

 Haeckel's " Freedom in Science and Teaching," first reproduced 

 in this country in our owti columns. There is an interesting 

 prefatoiy note by Prof. Huxley. 



A new monthly electrical paper has been started in Paris, the 

 Lumih-e electrique, intended as a general organ of electricity. 



We have received from Messrs. Cole and Sons, of Notting 

 Hill, several specimens of pathological, physiological, and edu- 

 cational preparations for the microscope, which for cutting and 



mounting surpass anything we have seen. They are really 

 beautiful preparations, and deserve to be widely used. 



The Report of the Marlborough College Natural History 

 Society for the past year is an unusually satisfactory one. 

 Several modifications in the rules have been attended with 

 good results, and the Society seems in a .fair way to become 

 a real working one. The papers by the boys and others are 

 highly creditable ; perhaps the most generally interesting is that 

 by Mr. Rodwell, on Iceland. The Report of the Winchester 

 and Hampshire Scientific and Literary Society is not quite so 

 satisfactory as could be wished ; the dilettante and absolutely 

 idle elements seem large, and the Report complains of the in- 

 difference to the less popular subjects. We trust that the next 

 Report will be more satisfactory. 



Apropos of electric perforation of glass. Prof Waltenhofen, of 

 Prague, has recently described the following experiments : — A 

 thin glass plate, having on it a small drop of stearine, is intro- 

 duced into the spark-path of an electric machine. It is perforated 

 at the part where the drop is, and more easily so when the drop- 

 side is turned to the positive electrode. A glass plate, hung bi- 

 filarly between the electrodes of a Holtz machine, is driven by 

 the discharge towards the negative electrode, and more strongly? 

 if the side turned towards the positive electrode be partly covered 

 with stearine. Prof. Waltenhofen considers that 'the rapidly- 

 moving air-molecules in the spark-path are ruled by a com- 

 ponent of velocity directed from the positive to the negative 

 electrode. 



The following subjects in natural science have been proposed 

 by the Society of Arts and Sciences of Utrecht, for prize com- 

 petition : — I. Researches on the development of one or several 

 species of invertebrates whose history is not yet known. 2. 

 Researches on the influence of small variations in exterior cir- 

 cumstances on the evolution of the embryo of one or several 

 species of vertebrates. 3. Exact anatomical description of the 

 larva and nymph of the common cockchafer {Melolontha vul- 

 garis). 4. By what means may the water of rivers which 

 traverse Holland be purified so as to become potable, without 

 any injury to health ? What would be the expense of applying 

 them on a large scale ? 5. A memoir on the results of experi- 

 ments made in recent times on the motion of liquids and the 

 resistance they offer to moving bodies ; with an exposition (a) of 

 the general or special laws which may be deduced ; (3) of the 

 principal points on which some data are still wanting, and the 

 nature of the experiments necessary to obtain them. 6. Critical 

 and experimental study of the functions of the semicircular 

 canals of the ear. 7. Critical and historical study of the theo- 

 ries of electric phenomena observed in muscles and nerves. 8. 

 Critical aperpi of the methods employed to determine the place 

 which substituted atoms and groups of atoms occupy in bodies 

 of the aromatic series, according to the theory of the constitution 

 of benzol given by Kekule and Ladenburg. 9. Determine 

 rigorously the quantities of heat liberated or absorbed in the 

 allotropic change of two or several simple substances. Each 

 prize consists of an honorary diploma and about 25/. Papers 

 must be sent in to the Secretary before December r, 1879. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include three Red Brockets {Cervits rufiis) from 

 Brazil, presented by Mr. W. H. Lacy; a Blue-faced Green 

 Amazon {Chrysotis lotiquett) from St. iucia. West Indies, a 

 Yellow-fronted Amazon {Chrysotis ochrocephala) frorn Guiana, 

 presented by Mr. Neville Holland ; a Black-faced Kangaroo 

 (Macropus melanops) from South Australia, three White-eared 

 Conures {Conuras leucotis) from Brazil, an Upland Goose 

 {Bernicla magellanica) from the Falkland Islands, deposited ; a 

 Reeve's Muntjac {Ceraihts reroesi) born in the Gardens. 



