April 26, 1877] 



NATURE 



561 



the operation is to connect the French trigonometrical trian- 

 gulation with the system of the Geodesical International Asso- 

 ciation, which is covering almost the whole of Europe. 



We recently announced that Mr. Siddal, of the Chester Society 

 of Natural Science, had detected Radiolarians in Carboniferous 

 limestone. At a meeting of the Society lately it was announced 

 that another member of the Society (Mr. Shnibsole, F.G.S.) 

 had disovered both Foraminifera and ^Radiolarians in the chalk 

 of the North Wales border. 



Mr. George Cross, of Chester, a member of the Chester 

 Natural Science Society, and conductor and teacher of the classes 

 formed in that city under the auspices of the Government Science 

 and Art Department, died on the i6th inst. at the early age of 

 forty. As an able scientific man of genial disposition and 

 kindly feeling his loss is deplored by a large circle of friends. 



The Agricultural Society of France is building a large hotel 

 in the Rue de Bellechasse at Paris, which will be fitted with 

 every convenience for meetings and lectures, including museum 

 and libraries. The expenses are defrayed by a benefactor who 

 has taken effectual measures to conceal his name. The cost will 

 be more than 20,000/. 



The Society of Arts are'prepared to offer' prizes of 5/., 3/., 

 and 2/. respectively, and certificates, for proficiency in qualitative 

 blowpipe analysis. The competition is open to any person, but 

 as it is intended principally for those interested in the mining 

 industries of Devon and Cornwall, the examination will be held 

 in the centre of the mining districts. The arrangements will be 

 in the hands of the committee of the Miners' Association, and 

 intending candidates should apply to the honorary secretary of 

 the Association, Mr. J. H. Collins, Lemon Street, Truro. The 

 examination will be held at Redruth, from 5 to 9 P.M., on 

 Tuesday, June 5, 1877. 



The subject of the Rhind Lectures on Archncology in connec- 

 tion with the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland this year is : — 

 •' Do we possess the means of determining scientifically the con- 

 dition of primeval man and his age on the earth?" The lectures, 

 six in number, commenced yesterday, the lecturer being Dr. 

 Arthur Mitchell. 



At four o'clock on Monday morning a sharp shock of an 

 earthquake was felt at Oban. The motion was undulatory, 

 accompanied by a rumbling noise, and terminating in a sort of 

 jerk. The motion did not last above six seconds. Furniture 

 and articles of household use were jerked upwards, and pieces 

 of crockery were thrown from the shelves. A lighter shock was 

 felt in the Island of Kerrera last week, and a short time ago a 

 shock was felt in Tobermory, Island of Mull. 



At the first meeting for the year of the West Riding Geological 

 and Polytechnic Society held at Ripon on April 4, the Marquis 

 of Ripen gave an address on scientific pursuits and their results. 

 He advocated thoroughness in all such work, and urged his 

 hearers not to accept facts without complete investigation, nor 

 yet stubbornly to reject facts because they did not accord with 

 their own preconceived ideas. 



Under !the title of "Giuseppe de Notaris, sua Vita e sue 

 Opere," an interesting sketch of the life of this eminent botanist, 

 who died in January last, is published, reprinted from the 

 columns of the Roman journal, the Opinione. De Notaris was 

 a member of a noble but poor Italian family, and was bora at 

 Milan in 1805. Brought up to the medical profession, he early 

 devoted himself to the study of botany, and filled botanical 

 chairs successively at Milan, Turin, Genoa, and Rome. His 

 labours were directed mainly to the description and the prin- 

 ciples of the classification of cryptogams, especially of mosses, 

 in which his services to science are very great and his publica- 



tions very numerous. Until the last few years his labours re- 

 ceived but little recognition by the State, and the publication of 

 their results was frequently interrupted by his poverty ; but the 

 Municipality of Genoa did itself immortal honour by publishing 

 at its expense his important " Epilogo della Eriologia italiana.'' 

 In 1872 de Notaris was elected a foreign member of the 

 Linnean Society of London. 



The Mathematical and Physical Sections of the Russian 

 Geographical Society discussed at a recent meeting a scheme 

 for the thorough exploration of the Lower Angara outflow 

 of I>ake Baikal, the pecuniary means for the purpose being 

 offered by M. Sibiryakof. The navigability of this important 

 water-communication would be the principal problem to be 

 solved by the explorers. At the same meeting M. Vojeikoff 

 described the results of his meteorological travels to British 

 India. 



Some striking experiments have been lately made by M. 

 Daubree, on the physical and mechanical action of strongly- 

 compressed incandescent gas arising from combustion of powder- 

 In one case a thin steel plate (23 sq. ctm. surface), rolled up, was 

 inclosed in the chamber along with 12 grm. of powder, which was 

 fired by electricity. The steel was completely fused, and trans- 

 formed into an ingot curiously twisted and swollen, resembling 

 the ferruginous skeleton of some meteoric irons. A good deal 

 of the iron had passed into the state of sulphuret, found as a 

 fine powder. These remarkable changes must have occurred in 

 a fraction of a second. In another series of experiments the 

 gases formed had opportunity of escape by a small orifice in the 

 side of a hollow cylindrical cock (with conical top) adapted and 

 screwed into the chamber. Here the hot particles of gas fused 

 and carried off the steel in the state of fine powder, which was 

 sulphurised immediately. The cock was put considerably out of 

 shape, deep sinuous furrows being made in its surface, and in 

 one case reaching the central cavity so as to make a second 

 orifice, while the terminal cone wholly disappeared. An abun- 

 dant metallic dust, incandescent, was projected into the atmo- 

 sphere. Analogous phenomena probably occur in volcanoes, 

 meteorites, &c. 



Our readers will remember the announcement made by us 

 some time ago of the shipment of a consignment of white-fish 

 eggs, furnished by the United States Fish Commission, to Wel- 

 lington, New Zealand. We are happy to state that, as the result 

 of this action, a report has been received of the safe arrival of 

 these eggs at Wellington in good condition. The young fish at 

 the end of five days from the time of hatching, were three- 

 quarters of an inch long, very transparent, with bright yellow 

 eyes, and very lively, apparently doing welL 



According to a recent Austrian census it appears that the 

 percentage of cretinism ranges from a small figure up to as high 

 as forty in the different districts of the Alpine parts of the em- 

 pire. The proportion to every ten thousand inhabitants is, in 

 the Salzburg district, 40; in Upper Austria, l8"3 ; in Styria, 

 17 ; in Silesia, 10 ; in Tyrol, 7 '6, ic. 



The last number of the hvestia of the Russian Geographical 

 Society contains some extracts from the journal kept by Dr. 

 Miklucho Maclay during his cruise in Western Micronesia, 

 from March to June, 1876. In the early part of March, after 

 visiting the Island of Geby, lying under the equator. Dr. 

 Maclay, about the end of March, passed by Auropic Island, 

 the inhabitants of which he describes as not very dark, with 

 thick curly hair. Thence he proceeded to Mogemos, or Mac- 

 kenzie Island, Woap Island, and others, on his way to the 

 Pelew Archipelago, where he stayed about two weeks, studying 

 very interesting specimens of the " picture-writing " and folk- 

 lore. The shameful exportation of the inhabitants by whites, 

 which he had opportunity of witnessing during his cruise, will 



