uly 4, 1878] 



NATURE 



26'. 



philosopher." So writes "Tom Brown." Our thoughts re- 

 verted to the above description whilst considering the contents 

 of some recent numbers of the University College School Magazine. 

 Our present purpose is not to give an account of this Magazine, 

 which, we remark, appears at uncertain intervals, and contains 

 articles of like character with those found in most similar school 

 publications. Bur we desire to draw attention to the formation 

 of a "scientific society " amongst the boys themselves. This was 

 started in January, 1876. At first the members read quasi- 

 original papers once a week, and then a discussion took place 

 upon the same ; in May of the present year it was resolved 

 to have papers twice a week. At the outset a library was 

 started, books being presented by the members, and in the 

 Michaelmas term of 1877 a reading-room was opened for use 

 between morning and afternoon school, four days in the week. 

 Amongst the scientific papers taken in, we notice that Nature 

 heads the list. In the present year a museum has been started, 

 and we give particulars, as doubtless some old U.C.S. boy 

 may be able to add to it for " auld lang syne." It contains 

 a collection of minerals, fossils, metals, &c. ; specimens illus- 

 trative of economic botany ; ethnological implements, weapons, 

 coins, &c. ; osteological specimens ; marine shells ; a Tennant's 

 geological box (200 specimens) ; and a case of British birds' eggs. 

 The working staff is composed partly of the boys and the termi- 

 nal subscription is a shilling. The privilege of membership 

 (subject to a ballot) is restricted to the fourth and higher science 

 classes. It will be seen that it is yet the "day of small things '' 

 with the Society, but we predict for it considerable usefulness. 

 Had such a society existed at Rugby in the days of " Martin,'' 

 each would have been made for the other. Papers have been read 

 on " Carbon Dioxide as a Motive Power," " Voltaic Electricity,'' 

 " Frictional Electricity," "Electro-Magnetism," "Cyclones," 

 the Barometer, the Thermometer, Comets, Coral, &c. The 

 Society fosters study further by offering to its members every 

 year three prizes, awarded at the annual distribution, for the best 

 collection of natural objects and of microscopical objects, and 

 for the best model of any scientific instrument — all these to be 

 made or mounted by the exhibitor. We believe the usefulness 

 of the Society might still further be increased could its council 

 induce leading scientific men to deliver lectures which should 

 be open to the friends of members and of the boys generally. 

 We are sure the present head and vice-masters would lend their 

 countenance to such a proceeding. 



France was visited by an earthquake on June 25, which was 

 felt at Lyons, Macon, Valence, Villefranche, and Chalons, 

 The movement was from the east towards the west. The shock 

 lasted half a minute, but caused no damage. 



Prof. Burdon Sanderson delivered the Harveian oration 

 on June 26. He occupied himself with the researches by which, 

 in the first half of the present century, the Harveian doctrine 

 of the working of the circulatory apparatus was developed. 



A FINE colossal bronze statue of Capt. Cook, by Mr. 

 Woolner, R.A., which is at present placed in the open space 

 between the United Service Club and the Athenaeum, is 

 intended for erection at Sydney, New South Wales. 



The Council of the Sanitary Institute of Great Britain have 

 appointed a committee, consisting of His Grace the Duke of 

 Northumberland, president, Mr. Edwin Chadwick, C.B., Dr. 

 Richardson, F.R.S., and Dr. Lory Marsh, to represent the 

 Sanitary Institute at the Congres International d'Hygiene in 

 Paris, from the ist to the loth of August next. During the 

 congress in Paris the Societe Fran9aise d'Hygiene, with which 

 the Sanitary Institute is affiliated, will entertain at a banquet on 

 August 9 the members of the Sanitary Institute and their other 

 foreign associates. 



We have received from the Imperial College of Engineering, 



Tokei, Japan, the Calendar for Session 1877-8, and the reports 

 of the professors for the period 1873-77. We have already 

 referred to this admirably conducted institution so fully already 

 (vol. xvi. p. 44), that we need only say now that these publica- 

 tions confirm all we have said about the college. It is based on 

 the best continental models, and the course of instruction is 

 so complete, thorough, scientific, and practical, that English 

 engineering students who read the syllabus of instruction, the 

 list of contents of the museum, the catalogue of the admirable 

 library, and the professors' reports, will be inclined to wish that 

 Japan were a little nearer home. The enthusiasm and discrimi- 

 nation which the Japanese have shown in adopting all the best 

 characteristics of Evyopean civilisation and learning, are one of 

 the wonders of the age ; they have been specially fortunate in 

 obtaining as principal of their Engineering College, so intelligent 

 and accomplished a man as Mr. Henry Dyer has shown himself 

 to be. Among the professors are Messrs. J. Perry and W. E. 

 Ayrton, whose names must be known to many of our readers as 

 the authors of valuable original papers in physics, sent by them 

 occasionally to this journal and to the scientific societies. 



Mr. Consul Layard, of Noumea, sends to the Colonies par- 

 ticulars of extraordinary volcanic eruptions at the island of 

 Tanna in the beginning of the year. The first eruption took 

 place on January 10 last, about 10 A.M. The bottom of the 

 harbour at the west side rose above water for about fifty fathoms 

 length at the first earthquake shock. A new volcano burst out 

 close to " Sulphur Bay," between it and the old volcano. The 

 west side of Port Resolution was all bursting up with steam, 

 A second great eruption and earthquake took place on 

 February ll, and the bottom of the harbour was again up- 

 heaved for about another fifty fathoms, making the entrance 

 of the harbour very narrow. Three rocks rose up about a 

 cable's length from the west point to seaward out of eleven 

 fathoms water. There is now a bar with only fifteen feet of 

 water, where there used to be five or five and a half fathoms, 

 right across the mouth of the harbour, a little inside. A tidal 

 wave about fifty feet high swept the east point of the harbour, 

 destroying all the native plantations. The wave occurred on both 

 occasions, but the first was the biggest. The old mountain was 

 very active, roaring and throwing up huge rocks. The tidal 

 wave was very local ; so was the shock. The missionary oh 

 the other side of the island hardly felt it, and there was no 

 wave there. The natives say they never knew anything like it 

 before. On the west side the earth has cracked and sunk very 

 considerably ; on the east side the land was swept by the tidal 

 wave ; the plantations on both sides are destroyed. 



The glaciers of the Western Himalayas, according to 

 measurements recently given in the Tour de Monde, far surpass 

 in extent any hitherto examined outside of the polar regions. 

 In the Mustagh range, two glaciers immediately adjoining one 

 another possess a united length of sixty-five miles. Another 

 glacier in the neighbourhood is twenty-one miles in length, and 

 from one to two miles in width. Its upper portion is at a height 

 of 24,000 feet above the level of the sea, and its lower portion 

 terminating in masses of ice 250 feet in height, and three miles 

 in breadth, is 16,000 feet above the sea. 



Some interesting fossils have just been found near Holme, 

 strand, on the Bay of Christiania, Norway. They consist of 

 large quantities of dolphin bones and are imbedded in loam 

 some three metres below the present surface, although mora 

 than forty-three metres above the level of the sea. Their sur- 

 roundings are unquestionably of the most recent geological 

 formation, and this discovery may serve as a proof that even 

 during the latest geological period the coast of Southern Nor - 

 way has risen at least forty-three metres. Not a single fossil of 

 the pliocene or pleistocene has been found. 



