Nov. 29, 1877] 



NATURE 



91 



blood (renewed), 10/. ; Dr. John Barlow, Muirhead Demonstra- 

 tor of Physiology, Glasgow, in aid of an experimental investiga" 

 tion into the changes produced in the blood-vessels by alcohol, 

 10/. ; Dr. Joseph Coats, Dr. McKendrick, and Mr. Ramsay, 

 the committee upon the investigation of ansesthetics, 50/. ; Dr. 

 McKenzie, a research on pycemia, 25/. ; Mr, Callender, F.R. S., 

 Dr. J. Burdon Sanderson, F.R.S., Dr. T. Lauder Brunton, 

 f.R.S., and Mr. Ernest Hart, the committee appointed for the 

 investigation of the pathology and treatment of hydrophobia, 

 100/. Total, 413/. I5J-. 



Telegraph warnings are to be employed all over Paris for 

 giving alarms of fires to all the fire-engine stations. The 

 alarm is given by breaking a small|pane of glass facing the 

 streets, being a variation of the system employed on railways 

 for signalling the engine-driver or guard. 



In the November session of the Berlin Geographical Society 

 Baron v. Richthofen was re-elected presideat. The evening 

 was chiefly occupied by an address from Dr. Nachtigal, on 

 the results of Stanley's lately accomplished expedition, which 

 he regarded as the most prominent event among ater African 

 explorations. Prof. Orth gave a short description of a new 

 met hod of cartography. 



Lieut, de Semell6 has intimated to the Paris Geographical 

 Society that he intends to cross Africa5from west to east, ascending 

 the Niger and Binue, making for Lakes Albert and Victoria, and 

 reaching the east coast at Mombasa or Malinda. He states that 

 he has already obtained sufficient resources. 



The chemists of Berlin have been occupied lately in analysing 

 the wares of the wine merchants, and no little excitement has been 

 caused by the discovery that the entire stock of one of the largest 

 houses dealing in wines for medicinal purposes, consisted entirely 

 of artificially prepared mixtures of spirit and sugar solutions, 

 flavoured with various herbs. 



At Leipzig a " General German A nti- Adulteration Society'' 

 has been formed, which has for its main object the prevention of 

 the adulteration of food. A periodical is to appear, or has already 

 appeared, as the organ of this society. At some fifty other 

 German towns branch societies are being established. All 

 political or religious matters are excluded from the programme 

 of the society, while one of its statutes prescribes the special 

 prosecution of the makers and sellers of so-called secret remedies 

 and medicines. 



In evidence of the interest "now being ^taken by Spain in 

 scientific subjects we may draw attention to the Boletin de la 

 Institucion litre de Ensenanza (Madrid, 1877), the first five 

 numbers of which, from March 7 to June 17, now lie before us. 

 We notice Geometria y morfologia natural, Prof. De Linares ; 

 Investigacion de los propiedades opticas, Prof, Calderon ; La 

 religion de los Celtas sspailoles, Prof. Costa; Principios y 

 Definiciones de la Geometria, Prof. Jimenez ; Precipitacion de los 

 melales puros por los sulfuros naturales, Prof. Quiroga, There 

 are accounts of papers read at meetings under the headings 

 " Resumenes de Enseiianzas," and " Conferencias," The Boletin 

 is in shape not quite so large as Nature, and each number 

 contains four pages. 



The Minister of Instruction in the cabinet chosen by Marshal 

 MacMahon last week is M. A. E, A, Faye, the well-known 

 astronomer, who is spoken of as Leverrier's probable successor. 

 M. Faye is at present in his sixty-third year, and is chiefly known 

 through his discovery of the comet named after him, in 1843. 

 Since that time he has devoted his attention principally to the 

 consideration of the problems of physical astronomy, the solar 

 constitution, &c. His most important works are *' Lemons de 

 Cosmograp^ie," 1852 ; and a translation of Humboldt's 

 '•Cosmos." M, Faye is probably the best known in what is 



ironically termed the cabinet des inconnus. French politics 

 allure an unusually large number of scientific men. Naquet, 

 the chemist, is now a leader of the radical wing of the 

 Republican party, Dumas and Scheurer-Kestner are life 

 members of the senate, and Wurtz was proposed as a candidate 

 for the senate a few weeks since. 



The communication of the city of Moscow with the river 

 Volga, leaving the railway out of account, was, up to the present, 

 only possible in the spring of each year, on account of the 

 shallowness of the Moskwa River. The boats were drawn by 

 horses from Moscow to Kolomna on the river Oka, which falls 

 into the Volga at Nishni-Novgorod, and this means of commu- 

 nication, on account of the great time it occupied, not to 

 mention its cost, was a very imperfect one. A series of locks has 

 recently been constructed on the Moskwa River, and tug steamers 

 are now running between the capital and the Oka. 



We have already referred to the proposed introduction of the 

 telephone into the German tele^iraphic service. Dr. Stephan, 

 the enterprising Postmaster-General of the German empire, who 

 has brought the German postal service to such efficiency, and 

 fairly created the present international telegraphic system, ap- 

 pears to have definitely settled the question of the practicability 

 of the general introduction of the new method. For the past few 

 weeks the telephone has been in constant use between the General 

 Post Office and the General Telegraph Office in Berlin, and has 

 superseded the telegraphic communication between Berlin and 

 some of the neighbouring villages. The results have been so 

 satisfactory that a few days since a consultation of leading tele- 

 graphic officials was held to make arrangements for the establish- 

 ment of a large number of telephonic stations. Since the equip- 

 ment of these stations is so inexpensive, and the long and cos'.ly 

 preliminary training of a telegrapher is avoided, it can easily be 

 understood with what readiness the new invention is put into 

 practical use. Interesting in this connection is the recent adoption 

 of the telephone by Prince Bismarck. He has caused, as we 

 stated last week, the establishment of a telephonic means of 

 communication between the Chancellor's office in Berlin and his 

 country residence at Varzin, in Pomerania, 230 miles distant ; 

 and finds that he is perfectly able to give instructions and receive 

 reports without leaving h's favourite castle. No subterranean 

 wires, but the ordinary telegraphic wires on poles, are used for 

 this purpose. 



A series of researches on the compressibility of liquids has 

 recently been described by M. Araagat in the Annates de Chimie 

 et de Phydque. Among other results, the compressibility is 

 found to be far from depending on the volatility of liquids, as 

 might be supposed. The presence of sulphur, chlorine, bromine, 

 and probably also iodine, tends to diminish the compressibility 

 (a fact sufticiently explained by the corresponding increase of 

 density). With regard to alcohols, the compressibility diminishes 

 from the first member of the series, methylic alcohol, at least at 

 100°. At 14° common and methylic alcohol have nearly the 

 same compressibility ; and at zero the common alcohol is perhaps 

 more compressible than methylic alcohol. Of the ethers, ethyl- 

 acetic ether is more compressible at 14° and at 100° than methyl- 

 acetic ether (an inverse order to that of the densities, which 

 decrease as you rise in the series. With regard to hydrocarbons, 

 the compresdbility decreases regularly both at ordinary tempera- 

 ture and at 100° as you descend in the series. 



A MICROSCOPICAL study has recently been made by M. PriK 

 lieux, of a disease of fruits, and especially of pears, which 

 consists in the appearance of spots, then of crevices, issuing in 

 complete disorganisation. From the facts described, it appears 

 that the cause of this evil is a fungus, the spores of which are 

 developed on the skin of the fruit with the appearance of a thin 

 filarncu". At a certain ti^nc this filament penetrates ilie cpider- 



