7o6 



NATURE 



\Oct. 31, 1878 



powders, &c. The work contains coloured illustrations, and is 

 published in fifteen parts. 



On Saturday evening a most interesting soiree took place at 

 the Continental Hotel, Paris. The former pupils of the Central 

 School of Arts and Manufactures received the foreign engineers 

 who had taken part in the Universal Exhibition. At supper 

 jM. Dumas was in the chair, and had on his right hand M. 

 Teisserenc de Bort, and on his left Mr. Cunliffe Owen. The 

 hotel was illuminated as usual on such occasions, with the 

 Jablochkoff candles, and a display of electric machines took 

 place. While speaking of the exhibition we may state that the 

 society for delivering lectures to the visitors, to the foundation 

 and progress of which we have several times referred, has been a 

 gi-eat success. It has been most heartily patronised by M. 

 Bardoux, the Minister of Public Instruction. The visits to the 

 exhibition by the working men travelling with the funds of the 

 great lottery have been taken advantage of by the lecturing 

 organisation, to give numerous special lectures in connection 

 with the various industries. Not less than forty-four lectures 

 were delivered on Monday week to as many different assemblies 

 selected for the purpose. 



A SILVER medal has been awarded at the Paris Exhibition to 

 Mr. Edward Whymper for the engravings which he contributed. 

 This is the highest award made to any British engraver, and is 

 we believe the only silver medal that has been given to any 

 engraver on wood of any country. 



A CORRESPONDENT, Mr. Crowther, proposes that instead of 

 using magneto-electric currents in the Bell telephone, induced 

 electric currents be employed. This he proposes to accomplish 

 by using adjacent flat spirals of copper wire, through one of 

 which a current is sent and the other joined to the line wire and 

 attached to a similar receiver at the distant end. We believe a 

 somewhat similar suggestion has already been tried but with no 

 practical be nefit. 



It is stated that in the Island of St. Vincent the cocoa-nut 

 palm ( Cocos mucifcra) is now found very sparingly, though at 

 one time the palm was one of the most profitable of all the 

 plants grown in the island. About a quarter of a century ago 

 the palms were visited by a severe blight, from which they have 

 never recovered. It is calculated that about a million cocoa- 

 nut trees are about the present time bearing fruit in the archi- 

 pelago of Seychelles, and during the next five years quite half 

 as many more will probably be producing fruit. 



Highly interesting remains of Roman structures have recently 

 been discovered on the Capersburg, near Friedberg, in the 

 Grand Duchy of Hessen. The excavations are under the direc- 

 tion of Herr G. DiefTcnbach, and are being made at the instiga- 

 tion of the Hessian Historical Society of Darmstadt. 



The ;Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society send us an 

 attractive programme of lectures, mostly scientific, for session 

 1878-9. We notice that on January 7 Prof. Thorpe is to lecture 

 on the Solar Eclipse of 1878. 



SiGNOR A. PoNTi, of Milan, has intimated to the Paris 

 Academy that he intends to place at its disposal a sum of 60,000 

 lire for the foundation of an annual prize, to be distributed as 

 the Academy thinks advisable. 



In Class 1 5 of the Paris Exhibition, a gold medal was awarded 

 to Messrs. Lege and Co., not Leqe, as misspelt in the " first 

 proof " of the list referred to last week. 



On September 23-26, 1879, the third meeting of the "Inter- 

 national Congress of Americanists " will take place at Brussels, 

 under the protectorate of the King of the Belgians and the pre- 

 sidency of the Count of Flanders. 



We have received Part I. of " The Herefordshire Pomona," 

 containing coloured figures and descriptions of the most esteemed 

 kinds of apples and pears, edited by Robert Hogg, LL.D., 

 F.L.S., and published under the auspices of the Woolhope 

 Club (London : Hardwicke and Bogue). The work promises 

 to be one of the most magnificent of its kind, and the coloured 

 illustrations are the finest specimens of chromolithography we 

 have seen ; they are by Severeyn?, of Brussels. The text, 

 besides descriptions of the various kinds of apples and pears 

 figured, contains a learned and interesting paper by Dr. Bull 

 " On the Early History of the Apple and Pear," and by the 

 same author, a " Life of Thomas Andrew Knight," the eminent 

 horticulturist, of whom there is a fine portrait. This work is 

 in the highest degree creditable to the Woolhope Club. From 

 a prefixed notice we learn that "The Herefordshire Pomona" 

 was originally intended to form a work of local character, as its 

 title indicates, but the great and widespread interest with which 

 the announcement of its publication has been received induces 

 the Woolhope Club to believe that it will be more useful if its 

 scope be made more general. It is intended, therefore, subject 

 to the favour and support it may meet with, to make this 

 Pomona a thoroughly English work. Its local name will still 

 be retained, but it will embrace all apples and pears of estab- 

 lished merit cultivated in Great Britain, even though some of 

 the new, or special varieties, may not as yet be grown in Here- 

 fordshire. The Second Part of " The Herefordshire Pomona" 

 will be published during the summer of 1879, and will contain, 

 in continuation of the introductory matter, a paper "On 

 Modern Apple Lore;" "A Sketch of the Life of Lord 

 Scudamore," by Dr. Bull, with a full-page portrait ; and a 

 paper "On the Cordon System of Growing Pears," by Sir 

 Henry E. C. Scudamore Stanhope, Bart., with a full-page 

 woodcut of the Cordon Wall at Holme Lacy. These will be 

 followed by six coloured plates of such different varieties of 

 fruits as may be procured in perfection during the ensuing 

 season. The Pomona Committee of the Woolhope Club will 

 feel indebted for any assistance that may be rendered to them 

 by supplying information with reference to any new or rare 

 apples and pears of acknowledged merit ; their origin, date of 

 production, and description of the fruit. If it be desired to 

 submit them to the judgment of the Committee, with a view to 

 their publication in the work, it will be necessary to send a few 

 well- grown typical specimens of the fruit, that such as are 

 selected may be carefully di-awn and coloured from nature, and 

 their descriptions and merits verified. Parcels of fruit should 

 be sent to " The Pomona Committee, Free Library, Hereford." 



A NEW mineral spring has recently been discovered at Suhl, 

 in Thuringia, which is particularly rich in chloride of calcium, 

 according to the analysis of Professors Reichardt (Jena) and 

 Sonnenschein (Berlin). Otherwise it resembles the Elizabeth 

 spring of Kreuznach in its composition. The authorities of 

 Suhl int nd transforming their charmingly situated little 

 Thuringian town into a fashionable watering-place. 



The twenty -fifth volume of the excellent German scientific 

 series, Die Naturkrdfte, contains an able treatise on the con- 

 servation of energy as the basis of modern physics, by Dr. G. 

 Krebs, of Frankfort-on-the-Main. After some introductory chap- 

 ters on the changes occurring in nature, on forces, the conversion 

 of finite motions and the meaning of the words work and energy, 

 the author gives a condensed explanation of the sound-oscilla- 

 tions, the conversion of kinetic into caloric energy, and the 

 mechanical equivalent of heat. He then treats of the inner 

 constitution and the three aggregate states of matter, the propa- 

 gation of heat and light, the identity of the last-named forces, 

 and ends witli a chapter on electricity and magnetism, and one 

 on the dispersion of energy. The little book contains numerous 

 woodcuts. 



