52 



NATURE 



{Nov. 9, i8; 



the black vessels seems to have served for incense, the other one 

 may have served the same purpose, but being shaped like a three- 

 armed Roman lamp, it is probable that it served as support for 

 three lamps. Of the different pieces of undoubtedly Roman 

 vases that were found besides the above, one shows the figure 

 of a hare, and another that of a running hound— both in reliet. 



A WISH, which was expressed last year at the International 

 Geographical Congress held at Paris, will be realised in January 

 next. From that date a monthly geographical review will be 

 published there, at the Librairie of Ernest Thonin, and edited 

 by Ludovic Drapeyron, Professor at the Lycee Charlemagne, 

 and member of the Academie. This Revue Geographique will 

 contain reports of all work done in connection with geography ; 

 the investigation of the various methods now employed in 

 teaching geography, as well as topography, will : form some of 

 the principal subjects of the Revue. Besides theoretical original 

 papers, it will publish the latest reports of the different travels 

 of discovei-y going on in various parts of our globe, criticism on 

 new geographical works, biographies of celebrated geographers, 

 &c. The Revue Geographique is not to be the organ of petty 

 party- spirit, but of all those who see in geographical science one 

 of the principal means of breaking the reign of empty rhetorics 

 and scholastics. Besides geographersl and, geologists, the editor 

 invites for co-operation the representatives of all historic sciences 

 in the widest sense of the term — palceontologists and ethno- 

 graphers, as well as* archaeologists — all those, therefore, who by 

 the application of geography in historic^^research, wish to open 

 new fields for social science in general. 



The University of Zurich has announced that in future, like 

 the German universities, it will grant the doctor's degree only 

 after an oral and written examination. 



Mr. Bryce M. Wright, of Great Russell Street, has pro- 

 cured one of the finest and most complete specimens known 

 of the Plesiosaurus from the Lias of Whitby, which is open 

 to the inspection of the public until the I2th inst. The neck 

 is 64 feet long, and the entire animal nearly 17 feet. The 

 whole of the vertebra from the head to the tip of the tail are 

 complete without the slightest break, which gives some idea of 

 the entirety and preservation of the animal. It was procured 

 from the cliff in which it was found in about twenty pieces, but 

 after three weeks' incessant work Mr. Bryce Wright has mounted 

 it in such a manner that one could scarcely believe a bone had 

 been disturbed. Mr, Bryce Wright, has, we believe, secured 

 this specimen for a foreign institution. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Puma {Felis concolor) from Santa Fe, pre- 

 sented by Miss Brassey ; two Wild Swine {Sus scrofa) from 

 Cuba, presented by Mr. J. Alfonso de Aldama; a Persian 

 Gazelle {Gazella subgutterosd) from Persia, presented by Mr. T, 

 Fowler; two Senegal Touracous {Corythaix persa) from West 

 Africa, a Sun Bittern {Eurypyga helias) from South America, 

 a Scarlet Ibis {Ibis rubra) from Para, a Ring-necked Parrakeet 

 {Falceornis torquata) ixova India, two Black Tortoises {Testudo 

 carbonaria), a Common Boa (Boa constrictor) from Panama, a 

 Sulphur-breasted Toucan [Ramphastos carittatus) from Carta- 

 gena, deposited ; an Andean GQOSQ'^(Bernicia melanoptera) from 

 Chili, purchased. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, October 30. — Vice-Admiral Paris in 

 the chair. — The following papers were read :— Letter of Mr. 

 Hind communicated by M. Leverrier, on the intra-Mercurial 

 planet. — Study of the organs of reproduction in ephemera, by 

 M. Joly. — On a new electric lamp devised by M. Sabloschkoff", 

 by M. Denayrouze, The carbons are fixed parallel, and the 

 short interval between them is occujjied by an insulating sub- 

 stance which disappears along with them (as the wax of a candle 

 disappears from the wick). Various insulating substances are 



used, sand, glass, mortar, lac, &c. The simplest and cheap 

 is a sand of pounded glass. — On the distribution of magneti 

 on the surface of magnets, by MM. Treve and Durassier. 1 

 more a steel is carburetted, the more is the magnetism ci 

 densed towards its extremities ; the less carburetted, the mon 

 magnetism spread out equally over its surface. The authors 

 having a series of steels prepared by hardening with cold wal 

 and they seek to formulate a simple law e:-tablishing the relat 

 between the coercitive force and the proportion of carbon. — 

 the deterioration of vineyards of Cote-d'Or, by M. du Men; 

 — M. Wery submitted an apparatus for ventilating apj 

 ments and mines, or increasing the draught of chimneys. — ' 

 the rotatory polarisation of quartz, by MM. Soret and Saras 

 They extend their observations to the ultra-violet rays mi 

 refrangible than the line N, and also make more precise measu 

 ments. The results are tabulated.- — On the laws of vibrate 

 motion of diapasons, by M, Mercadier. The number of vib 

 tions of a prismatic diapason is proportional to its thickness a 

 inversely as the square of its length. The isochronism of vib 

 tions is not absolutely rigorous ; the duration of the period depei 

 on the amplitude and the temperature. In using a diapason 

 chronograph or interrupter, the instrument will not give 

 suits quite identical unless you operate at the same tem] 

 rature and give the vibrations the same amplitude. If (a; 

 generally the case) one does not need complete identity and lai 

 amplitudes, then provided an amplitude of 2 to 3 mm. be 1 

 exceeded, and one operate at temperatures little different, one 

 certain to have the same number of periods per second to nea 

 o'oooi. — Chemical reactions of gallium, by M. Lecoq de Be 

 baudran. Inter alia, further experiment confirms the opinic 

 that oxide of gallium is more soluble than alumina in ammon 

 Carbonate of soda only precipitates indium after gallium. Ch 

 ride of gaUium is very soluble and deliquescent. A slightly ai 

 solution of it dried at a mild heat, gives needles or crystalli 

 lamellse, which act strongly on polarised light. Sulphate of g 

 Hum isnot deliquescent. — On terephtalic aldehyde, by M. Grimai 

 — On the simultaneous formation of two trioxyanthraquinones a 

 the synthesis of anew isomer of purpurine, by M. Rosenstiehl. 

 On the electric apparatus of the torpedo (third part), by \ 

 Rouget. In the electric discs, besides ramifications of ner 

 fibres and the reticulated nervous plate, one finds only vess 

 and cell-elements, fibrillae and membranes belonging all to t 

 connective tissues. M, Rouget offers a theory as to the 11 

 chanism by which the nervous elements produce electrical effec 

 — On the phenomena of division of the cellular nucleus, by '. 

 Balbiani. — Variations ot the electric state of muscles in tetan 

 produced by passage of a continuous current, studied by me£ 

 of the induced contraction, by MM. Moral and Toussaint. 

 such tetanus the induced contractions (shocks, isolated or as: 

 ciated into a tetanus of short duration) are to be regarded 

 accidents, though the comparison of the two traces (inducer a 

 induced) indicates but imperfectly the cause of these acciden 

 The electric state of the muscle is sensibly uniform during 1 

 whole duration of the contraction. — On some parts relating 

 nutrition of the embryo in the egg of the hen. The blastode 

 derives its elements from the yolk, whereas at the beginning 

 incubation, and at least till the time of complete closure of t 

 amnion, the embryo is developed at the cost of the albumen. 

 On the influence of poisoning by; the bulbous agaric on glycjen 

 by M. Ore, — On the employment of picric acid in treatment 

 wounds, by M. Curie, 



CONTENTS P/ 



Fungus Disease in India. By Rev. M. J. Kerkelkv 



The Administration of Patent Laws in England 



Letters to the Editor : — 



Sumner's Method at Sea. — J. A. Ewing 



Sea-Fisheries and the British Association. — E. W. H. Holds- 

 worth 



Mr. Wallace and his Reviewers. — Alfred R. Wallace .... 



Self-fertilisation of Plants. — Prof. Asa Gray 



Nitrite ot Amyl.— Dr. B. W. Rtchardson, F.R.S. 



Captain Nares's Report {With Map) 



Our Astronomical Column :— 



The November Meteors . 



Herscnel's First Glimpse of Uranus 



The Transit of Venus, 1882 



Mr. Knobel's Catalogue of the Literature of Sidereil Astronomy . 

 Meteorological Notes : — 



Climate of Manitoba ... 



.'^irocco at Pau 



The Norwegian Atlantic Expedition 



Barometers of Southern Russia 



The Fall of Temperature in End of October 



Notes 



Societies and Academies 



