20 



NATURE 



\_May 2, 1878 



for determination of time, and the authorities of the 

 U. S. Naval Observatory confided to the expedition the 

 photographic instruments which had been employed by 

 the American parties on the occasion of the late Transit 

 of Venus, for comparison with those brought from France. 

 M. Sainte-Claire Deville in communicating these par- 

 ticulars to the Paris Academy, adds — " II suffit de publier 

 tous ces details pour que la gratitude de tous les savants 

 soit acquise k de pareils actes de confraternity scien- 

 tiiique." 



Kepler's Manuscripts and Relics. — In the last 

 Annual Report of the Director of the Imperial Obser- 

 vatory at Pulkowa, M. Otto Struve, to the Visiting 

 Committee, attention is called to an interesting acqui- 

 sition recently made by this great astronomical establish- 

 ment. It is known that the library possesses in addition 

 to all the notable published works of Kepler, the nearly 

 complete collection of his manuscripts. This circum- 

 stance caused Prof. Galle, of the Observatory at Breslau, 

 to inform M. Struve that certain articles of which the 

 last direct descendants of Kepler, resident in Silesia, 

 were in possession, and which had been religiously pre- 

 served in the family as memorials of their immortal 

 ancestor, might be obtained by purchase, and the result 

 has been that they are now deposited at Pulkowa, to be 

 preserved with other astronomical treasures, which the 

 Struves, father and son, have secured for the institution. 

 Amongst these articles are particularly mentioned two 

 miniature portraits on copper of Kepler and his first 

 wife, at the time of their marriage, and a memorandum- 

 book used by his first wife and continued by his eldest 

 daughter. 



The Pulkowa Library Catalogue.— In the same 

 Report from the Director of the Russian Observatory, it 

 is mentioned that a continuation of the Catalogue of the 

 valuable library has been some time in preparation, the 

 numerous additions, upwards of 10,000, which have been 

 made to it since the publication of the first Catalogue in 

 i860, rendering a more complete work very desirable. 

 M. Otto Struve justly remarks that the Catalogue of 

 i860 has had its uses beyond the pale of the establish- 

 ment, and we feel sure that workers in almost every 

 branch of astronomy will bear witness to the assistance 

 they have received from that excellent and well-arranged 

 analysis of the contents of this important library, 

 whereby they will have been guided with comparative 

 facility to a knowledge of the literature special to par- 

 ticular astronomical subjects upon which they have been 

 engaged. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 



Round the World. — The French Society des 

 Voyages Autour du Monde, have obtained the steamer 

 Picardic, of the company Valery fr^re et fils, of Mar- 

 seilles, in which to make their intended voyage round 

 the world. The vessel is 1,560 tons and 1,000 horse- 

 power, and is fitted up in the best manner. She is 

 announced to leave Marseilles on June 30 under the 

 command of Lieut. M. G. Biard. The staff is complete, 

 and it is stated that the passenger list will shortly be 

 closed. This project seems likely to have a better result 

 than the much-talked-of American Woodruff Continental 

 Voyage Round the World, which from the first seems to 

 have been utterly hollow, and collapsed on being probed. 



T'j^Africa. — In his recent journey in East Central Africa, 

 the late Capt. Elton, H.M.'s Consul ^at Mozambique, 

 paid considerable attention to the northern end of Lake 

 Nyassa, which was previously very imperfectly known. 

 He arrived, we believe, at a very positive conclusion that 

 no river flowed out of the lake, but he discovered an 

 important and navigable affluent, the Rombashi River. 

 This he considered to be well suited for the la'.:e end of 



the caravan road from the coast. This road, which is 

 being constructed by private enterprise and under the 

 supervision of English engineers, starts from Dar-es- 

 Salam, some twenty miles to the south of Zanzibar, and 

 thirty or forty miles of it have already been completed. 

 When finished it will, no doubt, have an important 

 bearing on the future of this part of Africa, and it will 

 open up to commerce and civilisation a region a consider- 

 able portion of which has remained hitherto entirely 

 unexplored. 



The Abbd Debaize, who recently received a subvention 

 of 100,000 francs from the French Government for pur- 

 poses of African exploration, left Marseilles on April 20 

 for Zanzibar, where he will arrive at the end of May. 

 He will remain there for some time in order to make the 

 most complete preparations for his journey across the 

 Continent, which is expecjted to occupy three years. The 

 same steamer carried nine French missionaries de- 

 spatched to establish posts at the Victoria Nyanza and 

 Lake Tanganyika. . 



NOTES 

 Prof. Hughes, the well-known inventor of the type-printing 

 apparatus so largely employed on the Continent, has made the 

 wonderful discovery that some bodies are sensitive to sound as 

 selenium is sensitive to light. If such a body be placed in the 

 circuit of a small battery it will be so affected by the sonorous 

 vibrations when spoken to as to replace entirely the transmitter 

 of a Bell telephone. Conversation, music, and all the sounds 

 transmitted by an ordinary telephone are easily reproduced. A 

 mere scratch with the finger-nail, or a touch with the soft part 

 of a feather is distinctly transmitted. The sonorous vibrations 

 produce strains in the conductor, which cause variations in the 

 resistance of the circuit, and thereby produce similar variations 

 in a current flowing through that conductor. 



The French deserve all the praise that has been recently 

 lavished upon them for the energy and determination and sound 

 judgment with which they have quietly carried on the preparations 

 tht culminated in the imposing ceremony of yesterday. Their 

 new Exhibition is the one bright spot in the European horizon 

 at present. Even till very recently many-^doubted whether these 

 preparations would ever come to anything, partly on account of 

 the disturbed state of Europe, and partly because the earnest - 

 ness and perseverance of the French as a people were doubted. 

 We have had frequent occasion recently to bring before our 

 readers evidences of the renewed energy of the French in 

 respect of scientific research ; and the unprecedentedly mag- 

 nificent display which now divides the attention of the world 

 with the Eastern crisis, is only one of many other proofs that 

 the French are rapidly achieving for themselves a position more 

 solid than ever they held before. The world, then, is once 

 more taking stock of her industrial riches, and ever since the 

 Exhibitions of Vienna and Philadelphia, the discoveries and 

 applications of science have been so many and so rapid' that the 

 Paris Exhibition must present many new features. For, indeed, 

 however much the great mass of visitors may ignore it, the 

 multitudinous display that was opened yesterday, is simply a 

 specimen of the gifts of science to humanity, as the French 

 themselves would say. Judging from the catalogues British 

 trade is well represented, and our principal scientific-instrument 

 makers are well to the front ; but British culture and British 

 science are nowhere, and, as we have said already, the British 

 Commissioners have lost a splendid opportunity, and will have 

 simply nothing to show beside the magnificent educational and 

 scientific collections of France herself. We have already 

 spoken at length of the many preparations made for represen- 

 tation of French science — scientific conferences, the scientific 

 lectures, scientific excursion^, besides the great display of 



