July 1 8, 1878] 



NATURE 



317 



observatory, there are four wooden houses for lodging the staff, 

 servants, and for other purposes. All these structures are roofed 

 with bituminized paper, and we need scarcely say that the 

 scientific buildings are at a sufficient distance from the other 

 buildings to prevent the scientific observations being affected 

 by their neighbourhood. The Pavlovsk Observatory is fur- 

 nished with the most improved scientific instruments, and 

 like the Central Physical Observatory of St. Petersburg, 

 is a model establishment of its kind. Every precaution 

 has been taken, both during the building and after its 

 completion, to prevent a trace of iron getting near it. The 

 instruments themselves have been put in their places under the 

 personal superintend«nce of Dr. Wild, the head of the Central 

 Observatory at St. Petersburg. Provisionally the work of the 

 establishment at Pavlovsk will be specially directed to the obser" 

 vation of the meteorological elements and of terrestrial magnet- 

 ism. As soon as trustworthy methods have been found for the 

 constant measurements of other elements, such as atmospheric 

 electricity, terrestrial cmrrents, radiation of heat, the optics and 

 chemistry of the sun and sky, these elements will also form the 

 objects of normal observations. 



Mr. Murray has the following books in the press: — "Re- 

 searches and Adventures among the Lakes and Mountains of 

 Eastern Africa," from the journals of the late Capt. F. Elton, 

 H.B.M.'s Consul in Mozambique ; this work will include 

 notes on the suppression of the slave trade, and will be edited, 

 with additions, by the author's companion, H. B. Cotterill; 

 "Sketches of the Natives of Burmah," an account of their 

 manners, customs, and religion, by Capt. C. J. F. S, Forbes, 

 the officiating Deputy Commissioner of British Burmah ; the 

 fifth division of Dr. Percy's "Metallurgy," which will treat of 

 silver ; and a third revised edition of Mr. E. B. Tylor's 

 "Researches into the Early History of Mankind." Mr, Murray 

 will also publish in autumn the life of another Scottish natu- 

 ralist, by Dr. Smiles. This newly discovered prodigy, a baker, 

 whose name was Dick, has been dead ten years, and is said 

 to have been an even more remarkable man than Thomas 

 Edward. The principal sphere of his geological and botanical 

 labours was in the region of the Pentland Firth and Dunnet 

 Bay, on the north-west of Scotland. 



The problem of technical education, of which so much has 

 been said of late, has long occupied the attention of thoughtful 

 men in France and Germany, In the former of these countries 

 the question has received much more attention than in the years 

 preceding the war of 1870. In a recent conference at the 

 Trocadero Palace, M. Corbon, who has laboured in this direc- 

 tion for forty years, urged the introduction of manual employ- 

 ments and of the practical teaching of the skilled industries into 

 the higher schools. He spoke of the good results which had 

 been found to follow the establishment of the municipal 

 School of Apprenticeship in Paris. Although founded only 

 a few years ago, their system of teaching has attained a 

 high degree of development ; the mechanical trades being 

 particularly well taught and the pupils of the school being 

 in great demand by masters. Examples of the work of 

 pupils of this excellent institution are shown at the Paris 

 Exhibition in the building known as the "Ville de Paris." 

 Visitors to I'aris interested in scientific and technical education 

 should not fail to note the collection of objects there shown. 

 They would also find the school well worthy of a visit. It is 

 situated at No. 60, Boulevard de la Villette, 



It is stated that the Jablochkoff electric lights now so bril- 

 liantly employed in the Avenue de 1' Opera of Paris are costing 

 20/, per night, but the four-and-thirty lamps that illiuninate that 

 street give much more light than is necessary for the purposes of 

 street-lighting. The problem of electric lighting is evidently one 



in which the scientific workers across the channel are deeply 

 interested. It is stated that no less than eighteen different kinds 

 of regulators for the electric light are exhibited at the Pai-is 

 exposition; not including the "candle" of M. Paul Jablochkoft. 



M. MAUMENfe recently communicated to the Societe de 

 Physique, of Paris, a discovery of some importance in thermo- 

 chemistry. Concentrated sulphuric acid which has been left 

 for some months undergoes a change of condition of a singular 

 nature. On mixing a liquid such as olive oil, with, say, one-tenth 

 of its weight of fresh concentrated acid, a certain constant rise of 

 temperature is observed, but if acid three months old is used, the 

 rise of temperature so obtained has a value of about 8° C, less. 

 The same results occur even if the acid has been hermetically 

 sealed in glass tubes. With water and other liquids analogous 

 results are found. It is evident that some of the most important 

 data of the thermal effects of chemical action may require 

 revising in the light of this discovery. 



Though it is very difficult to obtain any details about their 

 jealously- guarded country, a Japan contemporary gathers that 

 the condition of the Coreans is just now miserable in the extreme. 

 The spring crops of this year, it is said, will utterly fail, and the 

 stock of food in the country is reported to be a mere nothing for 

 the four or five millions of people, who must, if they can, 

 struggle on in the hope of a possible autumnal harvest. The 

 cause of the Corean famines is not known, but it is probable 

 that the primary cause there, as in China, is disafforestation, for, 

 although the forests of pines, oaks, &c., on the sea-board are 

 carefully preserved, a great drain must have thinned the woods 

 by the river-sides. Much or most of the wood used in Peking 

 for building houses, temples, and palaces is said to come from 

 Corea, and from the same source are obtained the vast supplies 

 needed for Tientsin and the cities of the province of Chihli, 

 which lie on the Pei-ho, Peitang-ho, and the Grand Canal. 

 Corea produces various woods of the finest quality, and the cart 

 shafts, dray poles, and axle-trees in Northern China are made 

 out of the tough and strong Corean ash, elm, hornbeam, and 

 other hard timber. We think, however, that our contemporary 

 is in error in stating, without qualification, that "the great 

 wooden masts which support the noble temples and gatehouses 

 of the Imperial city of Peking (all enormous, beautiful, and 

 enduring spars) come from Corea," for there is no doubt that 

 most of the magnificent wooden pillars to be found in the halls 

 of the Ming tombs and the Peking palaces and temples 

 came from the Chaotung department and other parts of 

 the Yiinnan province. The timber in question is called 

 by the Chinese nan-niu, and is to be seen in the places 

 mentioned at the present day in perfect condition after the lapse 

 of nearly three hundred years. It may not be uninteresting to 

 add that it is not teak, as is often supposed by foreigners, and 

 that the tree is tall, thin, straight -growing, having no bough or 

 twigs on the stem, but suddenly shooting out branches at the 

 top somewhat like a canopy over a maypole, and its bark is of a 

 peculiar ashy grey colour. This is the account given of it by 

 Mr. Consul Davenport in his Report on the trade capabilities of 

 the country traversed by the Yiinnan Mission in 1875-76, who 

 also observed in the Manwyne valley, in the Kakhyen hills, and 

 again in Lower Burmah, in places comparatively accessible, 

 many trees bearing so striking a resemblance to the valuable 

 nan-mti that the Indian Government have been recently insti- 

 tuting inquiries into the subject with a view to the development 

 of the timber trade in British Burmah. 



We have received the first part of a new " Anatomisch-physio- 

 logischen Atlas der Botanik," by Dr. Arnold Dodel-Port, of 

 Zurich, and his wife, published by Schreiber, of Esslingen. The 

 atlas will be published in two forms containing forty-two and 

 sixty plates respectively, to suit different classes of schools. It 



