May 23, 1878J 



NATURE 



95 



which terminates flush with the lower side of the cork. Above, 

 the tube is bent twice at right angles, the other extremity of 

 the tube dipping below the surface of water of ordinary tem- 

 perature. 



The water of the flask is now boiled, and as soon as the air 

 iias been driven from the flask remove the flame and allow the 

 water of the vessel to recede into the flask. At the first entry 

 of the cool water the steam will be so greatly CDndensed that 

 a brisk ebuUition will take place, which for a few seconds 

 checks the inflow of the water, driving it down the tube ; further 

 jcooling quickly causes more water to enter, when the same 

 phenomenon is repeated. After two or three oscillations of 

 this kind the water runs continuously, and with great velocity, 

 into the flask, which should not be allowed to fill, as it is in that 

 <:ase usually broken by the shock, which terminates the ex- 

 periment. Francis E. Nipher 



St. Louis, April 12 



Sound-emitting Crustaceans 



In an article in Nature, vol. xviii. p. 53, you say : 

 *'Ever)'body who had searched for animals on coral-reefs, or 

 ■had dredged in tropical seas, was familiar with the ' clicking ' 

 sounds emitted by the Alphei and their allies." 



Those who wish to hear this sound need not go to coral reefs, 

 •or tropical seas — as the shores of Guernsey, Herm, or the other 

 Channel Islands, produce Alpheus ruber and other Alphei in 

 •abundance. 



Keeping them as I do in aquaria, it is startling sometimes in 

 the evening to hear the loud snap, produced by sharply striking 

 ^together the two claws on the larger leg. 



May 10 H. Stuart Wortley 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

 After the suppression of the Mahometan rebellion in 

 -the Chinese prorince of Yiinnan, a number of the 

 so-called Panthays took refuge in British Burmah to 

 avoid the indiscriminate cruelty of their conquerors ; 

 but they have recently migrated, apparently en masse, to 

 another region. This, we gather from a Rangoon paper, 

 is a tract of country on the north-east of Upper Burmah, 

 which belongs neither to the Siamese nor the Burmese, 

 -and oyer which the Chinese have never pretended to 

 exercise any authority. This district is ruled over by a 

 number of Shan and Kachyen chieftains, some of whom 

 were at first inclined to oppose the Panthay settlement, 

 but have ceased to make any opposition to it. The 

 immigrants are said to be nearly 3,000 in number, and 

 are divided into two settlements about ten miles apart. 

 They have intermarried with the women of the country, 

 and in course of time will, no doubt, form a considerable 

 <;ommunity among these savage tribes. Their principal 

 occupation is agriculture, though a few of them have 

 Jtaken small quantities of goods from Mandalay, and 

 -have laid the foundation of a trade with the surrounding 

 tribes. These Panthays, it seems, prefer the rude inde- 

 pendence of their colony in the wilds to settling in either 

 Upper or British Burmah. 



- Notwithstanding the embarrassed position of Russia 

 at the present time, there seems to be no falling off in 

 the exemplary activity of the Russian Geographical So- 

 ciety ; indeed, it is well known that while its researches 

 in Asia are of high scientific value, they are also not 

 -without political utility, and perhaps significance. The 

 April meeting, the official abstract report of which 

 is just to hand, was Asiatic all over. It was re- 

 "ported that the expedition to explore the divide between 

 the waters of the Obi and Yenessei had set out on 

 March 12, and that M. Smirnow was to set out on 

 April 15 for the Petchora, to spend the summer in inves- 

 tigating the magnetic elements. The Society has pro- 

 jected two other expeditions for this summer, one of an 

 ethnographical character in European Russia, the other 

 purely geographical to Mongolia. M. Potanin, who had 

 just returned, gave a summary of the results of his explo- 

 itations in the Altai regions, some details of which we hare 

 already given. For the first time we have something like 



an adequate account of the extent, the offshoots, the 

 physical geography, and the ethnology of the Altai 

 region. The second part of the third volume of the 

 results of the Siberian expedition of the Society has been 

 published, and contains a study, by Prof. Oswald Heer, 

 of the flora of the Jurassic beds of the government of 

 Irkutsk and the region of the Amoor. The eighth volume 

 of the Memoirs of the Society, also recently published, 

 ought to interest ethnologists, containing as it does a 

 large collection of information on "customary law" as it 

 exists in various districts of Russia and among some of 

 the tribes on her borders. 



The Times Paris correspondent states that according 

 to the German papers Hermann Soyaux, the botanist of 

 the German Expedition to the Loango coast, 1873-76, 

 will set out in July or August on another expedition to 

 equatorial Western Africa to explore the Gabun and 

 Ogovai country in the interests of natural science, and at 

 the same time, under the patronage of the Hamburg firm 

 of Wdrmann, to make experiments with a view to the 

 starting of plantations. A long account of Herr Soyaux's 

 travels in Loango and Angola is about to appear, .pub- 

 lished by Messrs. Brockhaus. 



TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN UNIVERSITY 

 COLLEGE, LONDON 



IN November, 1876, a short paragraph was inserted in 

 Nature (voL xv. p. 69) which contained a notice of 

 the commencement of technical teaching at University 

 College in connection with the classes of mathematics, 

 physics, engineering, and drawing. It may be of interest 

 to state what progress has been made in the workroom up 

 to the present time under rather unfavourable conditions. 

 This we endeavour to do after a recent visit paid at the 

 request of M. Robin, M.Sc, the able and painstaking 

 superintendent of the department, under the direction of 

 the professorial staff. At present the workroom is open 

 on each week-day from ten to five, except on Saturdays, 

 when it is closed at two. The superintendent is present 

 from ten to three on three of the days. Students, who 

 make use of the room, may choose their own hours for 

 work. 



Following the order indicated in the syllabus, we first 

 examined the models in the mathematical section. Here 

 we were specially interested in the models illustrative of 

 most of the propositions of modern geometry ; pencils of 

 planes and of lines (to show the simple contrivances em- 

 ployed, we may say these models were made of knitting- 

 needles with small spherical ends of sealing-wax of 

 different colours, thus enabling the student to see their 

 different directions ; in other cases joins were indicated 

 by ties of differently coloured wool, thus allowing motion 

 to the figures, as in a model showing that the corre- 

 sponding points of two perspective triangles meet in a 

 line). Projective rows of points made of pricked wood, 

 the corresponding points joined by india-rubber threads ; 

 models exhibiting the generation of ruled surfaces of the 

 second order, movable models made of silk thieads 

 stretched by weights, parallel pencils of lines making the 

 paraboloid. The generation of curves by the intersection of 

 pencils of lines ; this was shown by two flat pencils of 

 lines made of coloured silk in mahogany frames, one of 

 which moved upon the other ; at the intersection of 

 certain pairs of threads were placed small indices which 

 clearly showed to the eye various forms of ellipses and 

 hyperbolas. This model we remember attracted consi- 

 derable attention at the conversazione in June last, whilst 

 Prof. Henrici was manipulating it so as to give the curves 

 named. Curves are also produced, whose forms are shown 

 by the aid of sawdust or of sand scattered on a glass 

 plate ; these were mostly got as envelopes. In this 

 department, also, are several models of linkages giving 

 approximate and true straight lines, illustrating the dis- 



