466 



NATURE 



[August 29, 1878 



tiles of different colour?, so that the minute animals of different 

 shades can be the more readily overhauled when emptied upon 

 them. The shelves in the laboratory are all of glass, the tanks 

 are of slate, the conducting pipes are of iron, lined with a com- 

 position of rubber, which it is believed will protect them against 

 corrosion. These fables are all well lighted, and are available 

 for students, whom Mr. Agassiz invites to share his facilities. 

 Four persons, in addition to himself, at present occupy the 

 laboratory in prosecuting their special researches. There is, 

 probably, no one of the many buildings erected here and in 

 Europe for the prosecution of biological research so elegantly 

 and thoroughly equipped as that to which we refer. 



Prof. F. E. Nipher, of Washington (U.S.) University, 

 has undertaken a magnetic survey of the state in connection 

 with the weather service. The work will require about three 

 years to complete, and he contemplates getting over one-third 

 of the state this summer. He will establish about twenty or 

 twenty^five magnetic stations, to determine the dip of the mag- 

 netic needle and the deflection from the magnetic meridian. 

 The professor started out on the survey "early in July, accom- 

 panied by five or six students from Washington University, 

 who will act as the assistants. He has received a complete 

 set of instruments from the United States Coast Survey, consist- 

 ing of a dip-needle and declination needle, with theodolite. The 

 party will first go to St. Charles, and up the North Missouri 

 railroad, taking in a territory as far west as Chillicothe, and em- 

 bracing among the points of observation Hannibal, Macon City, 

 Mexico, Columbia, Fulton, Kirksville, Moberley, and other 

 eligible points. 



Mr. Augustus Fendler, whose collections of plants, made 

 thirty years ago in the vicinity of Santa Fe, were made known 

 by Prof. Gray, and who for many years resided in Venezuela as 

 a botanical collector, is now :prosecuting similar work in the 

 Island of Trinidad, devoting himself to the gathering of ferns 

 and fern-like plants. Sets of the first series of these, embracing 

 the first thirty-eight species, are procurable at a moderate price 

 from the curator of Harvard University Herbarium, Cambridge, 

 Massachusetts. They have all been named by Prof. Eaton, of 

 Yale College. 



Some months ago we gave an account of the explorations of 

 a young American, Mr. Herbert H. Smith, on the Amazon, 

 referring to some geographical discoveries made by him, as also 

 to his success in securing a large series of insects. Mr. Smith 

 left New York on July 6 for Brazil, first to complete his work 

 on the Amazon, and then to proceed to the southern provinces 

 of Brazil. 



A VIOLENT earthquake is reported from Innspruck. It 

 occurred on the 9th inst. at 12.40 p.m., and was accompanied 

 by loud subterranean noise. At 9 a.m. on the 26th, earthquake 

 shocks were felt over a great part of Belgium and Holland, and 

 in Rhenish Prussia at about 11 A.M. A shock of earthquake was 

 felt at nine on the morning of the 26th inst. at Liege, doors 

 and windows being much shaken and chairs disturbed. It was 

 also felt at Elberfeld, Cologne, Osnabriick, and Barmen. At 

 Barmen houses were upreared, roofs displaced, fiurniture shaken, 

 and goods in the shop windows overturned. The shocks were 

 repeated about eleven at Elberfeld, Diisseldorf, Cologne, and 

 Bonn. 



At Halberstadt a remarkable Fata Morgana was observed 

 on the 5th inst. at 7. 10 P.M. The phenomenon is described by 

 an eye-witness, who states that in a stratum of cloud in the 

 direction of the Brocken both house and tower standing on the 

 summit of that mountain were reproduced in distinct outlines 

 and on a gigantic scale ; even the windows could be recognised. 

 The duration of the phenomenon was about one minute. 



The meeting of German anthropologists took place at Kiel 

 on the 1 2th, 13th, and 14th inst., and was well attended. 

 Strassburg was chosen as the meeting -place for next year. Prof. 

 Schaaffhausen of Bonn presided, and addresses were delivered 

 by Professors Handelmann, Mehlis, Fraas, Virchow, Ranke, 

 Stieda, and others. On August 14 an excursion was made to 

 Liibeck. The Schleswig-Holstein Anthropological Society 

 had arranged an interesting exhibition for the occasion. 



The British Archaeological Association concluded a very suc- 

 cessful meeting at Wisbeach on Saturday, Under the presidency 

 of the Bishop of St. David's, the Cambrian Archaeological 

 Association held its annual gathering at Lampeter last week. 



A Canton correspondent, under date April 12, sends us the 

 following account of the tornado of April 1 1 : — Yesterday after* 

 noon, April 11, Canton was visited by a whirlwind of terrific 

 force and unparalleled destructiveness. There was a thunder- 

 storm from 2 P.M. to 3.30; when this was over, lumps of ice, 

 about the size of pigeons' eggs, but shaped like the star -fish, 

 fell in great quantities. Our surprise was hardly over at this 

 strange phenomenon (thermometer 80° F. in the shade) when a 

 noise was heard, like that made by the screw of a ship as a 

 person on board sleeping close to it would hear it, rising and 

 falling in regular rhythm. This sound was occasioned by the 

 travelling of a v/ind of an intensity that baffles description, 

 which burst upon the city and settlement, scathing and blasting 

 everything which came within its fell grasp. For a space of 

 time, variously estimated at from three to five minutes, it per- 

 formed its work of destruction, uprooting trees, unroofing houses, 

 overturning walls, engulfing boats, and leaving behind a scene 

 of desolation such as only an eye-witness would believe in. The 

 path along which the tornado passed was converted into shape- 

 less ruins, but fortunately its width was not more than 200 

 yards. In Shamien (the foreign settlement) 134 large banyans, 

 some of eighteen years' growth, have been blown down, most of 

 them torn up by the roots, and in rare cases the trunks have been 

 rudely snapped in two. A large banyan, distant twenty yards 

 from our house, was torn up and hurled roots foremost, right 

 into the verandah, smashing to chips the solid stone balustrade. 

 One single instance will give you a fair idea of the force of this 

 hurricane. A tile was found sticking in the side of a tree (in 

 the Consulate groimds), into which it had penetrated two inches. 

 A coolie was killed on the road fifty yards from our house by a 

 brick blown away. Men were blown yards into the air and 

 killed, and in one instance, a cow was blown up, but was not 

 killed. The stone seats in the Bund, and stones over a ton 

 weight have been driven yards away. The immense granite 

 blocks forming the parapets of the bridge were hurled bodily 

 into the canal. The track followed by the tornado through the 

 native city is marked by a confused mass of bricks and mortar, 

 and in some places there is literally "not left one stone standing 

 on another." According to a native estimate the number of 

 houses entirely destroyed is about 5,000, the total damage to 

 foreign houses about 12,000/. sterling, and the loss of life 6,000. 

 Already 4,000 corpses have been interred, and more are being 

 dug up every minute. 



We have received the first part (PolyJ>etaIcF) of a "Diagnoses 

 Plantarum Novarum vel minus Cognitarum Mexicanarum et 

 Centrali-Americanarum," by Mr. W. B. Hemsley. This, we 

 believe, is merely the forerunner of a work of great extent and 

 importance which Mr. Hemsley has undertaken, of the scope of 

 which the following statement may give some idea. It may be 

 known to some of our readers that Messrs. Godman and Salvm, 

 aided by various specialists, have for many years been engaged m 

 working up the zoology of Central America and Mexico. About 

 three years ago it occurred to them that it would add greatly to 

 the interest of their work if the botany could be so far worked 



