170 



NATURE 



[Dec. 21, 1876 



latter peculiarity has been noticed in several members of the 

 ape family. In the course of his trip Dr. Maclay reached what 

 he regarded as the highest mountain of the peninsula. At its 

 foot he found the most numerous remains of the prehistoric 

 Milanesian inhabitants, and encountered the dreaded " Bru," an 

 ape above the human size. His accounts possess a special 

 interest, as they supply the first accurate description of what are 

 probably the only continental representatives of the insular 

 tribes of the Malay Archipelago. Prof. Virchow exhibited also 

 a bronze three-wheel vehicle, excavated near the River Spree, 

 which was ornamented with oxen heads and birds. Among a 

 large number of anthropological objects shown to the Society 

 were a collection of outlines of the feet of negroes on the Loango 

 coast, showing in the most striking manner, by comparison, 

 with the feet of F^uropeans, the crippling effects of modern 

 costume. 



The South African Exhibition is to be opened at Cape Town 

 on March 15, 1877. We believe that Messrs. R. S. Newall and 

 Co., the well-known lightning-conductor manufacturers, have 

 received the contract for supplying their copper-rope lightning- 

 conductors to the buildings. 



A MEETING was recently held in Birmingham of the Council 

 in conection with the projected aquarium for that town. We are 

 glad to see that the arrangements for carrying the scheme into 

 execution are well forward, and a Committee was appointed at 

 the meeting to make all necessary preliminary arrangements. 

 The proposed plan of the aquarium seems to us all that could be 

 desired, and we are glad to see that Mr. Hughes, and other 

 speakers at the above meeting, showed a laudable desire to make 

 the institution serve important educational purposes ; we hope, 

 at least, that it will not degenerate into a second-rate music-hall 

 and miscellaneous rendezvous. 



The French government established many years ago at 

 Athens a school to which pupils are sent yearly at its expense, 

 to study, in situ, Greek archoeology. M. Jules Simon, when 

 ?»tinister of Public Instruction, established a similar school at 

 Rome, for Italian archEcology. Both have been highly success- 

 ful. The number of works sent to France by them has been so 

 great that it was stated at the last sitting of the Academy des 

 Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, that M. Waddington has deter- 

 mined to issue a special periodical to be called Annals of Air ha:- 

 ology in order to publish the contributions of the Fellows of the 

 gchools and of other French archaeologists. 



A CORRESPONDENT writes that on Wednesday, about ten 

 minutes to 5 p.m., while at Blackwater, near Yorktown, Hants, he 

 suddenly saw, not sixty yards off, what appeared to be a small 

 ball of fire falling from the heavens. It was of a pale yellow 

 colour at first, changing to a lovely bluish green ; then, as it 

 approached nearer to the eaitb, it became brilliant red, with a 

 tail of fire of the colour already mentioned ; and finally, when 

 about a yard from the ground, it seemed to go out. There was 

 no explosion, no hissing sound. There were thin clouds in the 

 sky at the time, but no wind ; and very few stars had come out. 

 It shortly became too dark to ascertain if any body had actually 

 fallen, or if the exploding carbon, or whatever it may have been, 

 had left any mark on the grass, which was partly under water. 

 Several friends had noticed an aerolite proceeding from north to 

 south in the direction of our correspondent's post, about the 

 time when he saw the fire-ball fall. 



The intensity, colour, and polarisation of the diffuse light of 

 the sky in different parts has recently been a subject of study by 

 M. Wild, of the St. Petersburg Academy, who has endeavoured 

 to measure it with a somewhat complicated instrument devised 

 by him and named a " urano photometer." Referring to the 

 Academy's Bulletin for the account of this instrument, we may 

 here give briefly the results at which M. Wild has arrived :— 

 I. Proceeding from the sun in a vertical circle northwards, it is 



found that the colour of the light gradually changes from the 

 red end of the spectrum towards the violet, and at about 80" 

 distance from the sun, it reaches about midway between the 

 Fraunhofer lines C and D (corresponding to a wave-length of 

 0*000628 mm.) ; from there on to the horizon the colour gradually 

 goes back towards the red end of the spectrum. Thus, in St. 

 Petersburg at the time of equinox, the sun having about 60° 

 zenith distance, the colour tone of the diffuse light at 80" angular 

 distance (in a vertical circle) is mostly pure blue, and passes 01 

 either side into green. 2. The saturation of the colour appears 

 to reach its maximum at 90° distance from the sun ; where also 

 the degree of polarisation is a maximum. On either side of 

 this maximum the degree both of polarisation and of saturation 

 of colour decreases pretty regularly. 3. The intensity of the 

 diffuse reflected light of the sky appears, on the other hand, to 

 be at its least at about 80° distance from the sun, and from there 

 it increases less quickly towards the horizon than towards the 

 sun. Thus, while at 140° distance from the sun the intensity is 

 about five times greater than at 80°, at 20" distance it is over 

 seven times greater. Southwards from the sun the intensity is 

 considerably greater than northwards for the same distance. 

 Thus, at 20° distance southwards it is nearly twice as great as 

 the same distance northwards. These researches are being further 

 prosecuted by the author. 



The "photography of tones" has been accomplished by Dr. 

 Stein in a way which he describes in Poggendorff' s Annalen 

 (No. 9, 1876), One variety of his method consists in fixing a 

 tuning-fork horizontally with its branches in vertical planes ; 

 there is a hole bored through the upper branch and a horizontal 

 beam of light of somewhat larger section than the hole is directed 

 on this from a heliostat. Part of the beam passes through to 

 a sensitised plate in a case, which plate is made to move rapidly 

 in a horizontal direction by means of a spring, or the like. Thus 

 the luminous circle (on the plate) which, when the fork is vibrated 

 and the plate at rest, gives a vertical line, gives a horizontal sinu- 

 ous line when the plate is put in motion. The rate of motion of 

 the plate being fixed, there will be a different number of undu- 

 lations in a given space for each fork of different pitch. The 

 curve has some interesting features ; thus, it is much brighter at 

 the bends than at the intermediate parts, the motion having 

 been slower at the points of turning. The gradual retardation 

 and acceleration are clearly shown. Dr. Stein .finds it pos- 

 sible to photograph all ordinary musical tones, and even those 

 vibrations which are above the upper limit of audition. He 

 applies his method to strings also ; fixing on these, with light 

 supports, small square discs of blackened mica with a hole for 

 admission of the light. Several cords in a row may have their 

 periods photographed together on the same plate, the mica discs 

 rising one above another. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Sykes's yiouk^y {CercoJ)ithea4s alJogularis) 

 from West Africa, presented by Mr. R. Payne ; a Vervet Monkey 

 {Cercopithecus lalandii) from South Africa, presented by Mr, 

 Thos. Mash ; a Rhesus Monkey {Macacics erythrceus) from India, 

 presented by Mr. J. H. Ivory ; a Hoffmann's Sloth {Cholopus 

 hoffmanm) from Panama, presented by Mr. L. R. Dickinson ; a 

 Sdver-backed Fox {Canis chama) from South Africa, presented 

 by Mr. Richard Ladd ; a Common Paradoxure {Paradoxurus 

 typus) from Bengal, presented by Dr. J. B.t, Wilson ; a Black- 

 headed Gull [Larus ridibundus), European, presented by Mr. 

 James Smart ; two Jardine's Parrots {Pceocephalus gulielmi) from 

 West Africa, two Indian Robins {Geocichla citrina), two Red- 

 crowned Jay Thrusiies {Garrulax ruficeps), a Horsfield's Moun- 

 tain Thrush {Mycophoneus hofsfieldi) from India, purchased ; a 

 Red Coati {Nasua nasica.) from South America, seven Double- 

 spurred Francolines {Francolinus bicalcaratus) from West Africa, 

 deposited. 



