April 19, 1877] 



NATURE 



539 



large portion of Europe could be graphically presented. We are 

 much gratified to receive an intimation from the Seewarte that in 

 future the Monthly Reports will be published regularly at the 

 end of the second month after the one to which the Report re- 

 lates. It would be a great boon if small maps accompanied the 

 Report, showing the mean pressure, temperature, rainfall, and 

 direction of wind, in a manner similar to what is so well done 

 by the United States of America. 



Ball Lightning. — A very fine display of this interesting 

 meteor was witnessed at Vence, in the south-east of France, on 

 the night of March 21-22, by M. Ed. Blanc, of which an inter- 

 esting detailed account has just appeared in the Comptes Rendus 

 of the French Academy, p. 666. Toward midnight there was 

 observed, about eleven miles north-east of Vence, a large black 

 thundery cloud, in a state of extreme agitation, and continually 

 raising and lowering its position. At the upper part of this 

 cloud three or four balls of fire issued every two minutes, as if 

 from the invisible centre of the cloud, diverging in all directions, 

 and after running a course of from six to eight degrees, broke 

 silently with effulgent brightness. Their apparent diameter, as 

 seen at a distance of eleven mile, was about a degree. They 

 were mostly of a reddish colour a few, however, being of a 

 yellowish tinge, but all of them assumed a white colour in the 

 act of bursting. Their course, which was horizontal and parallel 

 to the plane of the cloud, was relatively slow, not exceeding two 

 degrees per second, and they bare a strong resemblance to 

 immense soap-bubbles, both as regards apparent lightness and 

 general appearance. From time to time a discharge of lightning 

 passed through the cloud from above downwards, followed some 

 seconds after by a dull rumbling sound. The cloud, with its fine 

 display of fire-balls, took a course from east to west, passing 

 about a league to the north of Vence. The glimmering of the 

 lightning with its low dull thunderous sound continued for more 

 than an hour, after which the sky became darker and darker ; 

 rain mixed with hailstones fell, and lightning, accompanied with 

 thunder, furrowed the sky in all directions. 



NOTES 



The President of the Royal Astronomical Society has 

 announced that the Council of that Society have determined to 

 advance the requisite funds to enable Mr. Gill to carry out his 

 projected expedition to the island of Ascension to measure the 

 parallax of Mars at the approaching opposition, in the expecta- 

 tion that they will be aided by Government or out of the Govern- 

 ment grant to the Royal Society. At all events the Royal 

 Astronomical Society will not allow the opportunity of making 

 this important observation to be lost. Its duty in the matter was 

 evident, and it has not hesitated for a moment in doing it. Mr. 

 Gill will embark for the island of Ascension towards the end of 

 next month. 



Sir Robert Christison, who has been in failing health 

 for some time, has resigned the Chair of Materia Medica 

 in the University of Edinburgh, which he has held with such 

 distinction since the year 1832. Sir Robert, before being ap- 

 pointed to the Chair he has now relinquished, had filled for ten 

 years that of Medical Jurisprudence. 



Last Sunday evening the first of a course of eight lectures to 

 working men on science and literature was delivered at the 

 St. Alban's Schools, Holbom. The lecture was by Mr. R. 

 Bowdler Sharpe, of the British Museum ; the subject, " Birds of 

 Trey and their Geographical Distribution." Mr. Mackonochie 

 deserves the hearty thanks of all interested in the welfare of the 

 working classes for having undertaken so liberal an enterprise. 



The Annual Meeting of the Yorkshire College of Science 

 was held at Leeds on the l6th inst. A highly satisfactory report 



was presented, in which it was urged that the college should 

 now apply for a charter of incorporation. The great desirability 

 of establishing a classical side in the college was recognised in 

 the report and by the president. Lord F. Cavendish, and other 

 speakers, and there is every reason to hope that in no long time 

 the Yorkshire College will be a flourishing rival of Owens Col- 

 lege. The munificence of the Clothworkers' Company deserves 

 all praise and imitation ; its last gift to the College is one of 

 10,000/. 



Dr. Janssen has removed his photographic apparatus from 

 the Boulevard Ornano to Meudon, where he is establishing, in 

 barracks given by the French War Office, a permanent physical 

 observatory at the expense of the Government. 



On April 23 next the Paris Academy of Sciences will hold its 

 anniversary meeting for the distribution of prizes. M. Dumas 

 will deliver a lecture on the two brothers Alexander and Adolphe 

 Brogniard, both of them members of the Academy of Sciences. 

 Admiral Paris will be in the chair. 



The Paris Physical Society held its anniversary meeting on 

 April 5. Various apparatus were exhibited, including a number 

 of radiometers, M. Bischoff's gas engine without refrigerator, 

 and a Mouchat rellector for utilising the heat from the sun. 



It has been decided by the Committee of the French Societes 

 Savants that special warnings should be sent to the coal pits 

 when large depressions are foreseen, in order to suggest precautions 

 against an escape of fire-damp. Many mining engineers believe 

 that the system will be efhcacious. Experience will soon settle 

 the question. 



The U.S. Congress having appropriated 18,000 dollars for a 

 Commission to report on the depredations of the Rocky Moun- 

 tain locusts, the Secretary of the Interior has appointed as mem 

 bers of the Commission Prof. C. V. Riley, Dr. Cyrus Thomas, 

 and Dr. A. S. Packard. The Commissioners have already mapped 

 out their work for the season, and will direct their attention to 

 insect enemies and parasites, mechanical means for the destruc- 

 tion of the pests, geographical distribution, agricultural bearings 

 of the subject, anatomy and embryology, remedial measures and 

 migrations, &c. Bulletins giving the results of the Commission's 

 inquiries will be issued at intervals. 



The opening meeting of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union 

 (formerly known as the West Riding Consolidated Naturalists' 

 Society) was held at Pontefract on Easter Monday, April 2, and 

 proved a great success in every way. The Union is a confedera- 

 tion of twenty-four Natural History and Scientific Societies in 

 Yorkshire, banded together for the purpose of holding each 

 summer a combined series of excursions and meetings, of inves- 

 tigating the fauna and flora of the country, and of publishing the 

 results. The union is divided into five sections, viz., vertebrate 

 zoology, conchology, entomology, botany, and geology, which 

 work on the principle of the British Association. This 

 plan was tried for the first time at Pontefract, and so far as 

 it went proved a decided success. The towns represented in the 

 Union are Huddersfield {three societies), Ileckmondwike, Clay- 

 ton West, Barnsley, Wakefield, Ovenden, Stoinland, Ripponden, 

 Holmfirth, Liversedge, Rastrick, Mirfield, Honley, Middles- 

 town, Paddock, Bradford, Leeds (two societies), Goole, York, 

 Selby, and Sheffield, numbering in the aggregate nearly 1,200 

 members. The next meeting will be held at Wetherly, on Whit 

 Monday, May 21. 



At the last meeting of the French Anthropological 

 Society, a long report was read which showed that Druidism 

 was not quite extinct in Britanny, some country people still 

 adhering to Pagan practices in spite of the priests' exertions. It 

 was noticed that the clergy were anxious to destroy menhirs and 



