214 



NATURE 



\yan. lo, 1878 



of the term, but simply the result of local chemical action. The 

 formation is crefaceous. The bluff is capped by calcic carbonate. 

 Beneath ai-e shales containing ferric bi.-ulphide in crystals of 

 pyrites. Below the shale is a soft limestone, containing car- 

 bonates of magnesia and alumina. The chemical reactions 

 consequent upon part of the soil being soaked with water after 

 its fall toward the river, have been the decomposition of the 

 V-yrites, the production of sulphuric acid, and the attack of the 

 acid on the alkaline carbonates. The heat evolved in the first of 

 these reactions is, of course, very great ; in the latter part the 

 violence must be increased by the liberation of carbonic anhydride. 

 All the authenticated disturbances are thus easily explained. 

 Prof. Aughey does not connect them with the earthquake. 



Prof. J. L. Campbell, of Washington and Lee University, has 

 been collating and discussing the data for the great meteor which 

 was seen in many parts of Virginia on the afternoon of November 

 20. He concludes that its height was about 100 miles ; but this 

 estimate is merely approximate. Its course seems to have been 

 8° or 10° west of north. Its explosion appears to have taken 

 place over the south-east corner of Halifax County, about fifteen 

 or twenty miles a little south of west from Clarksville, 100 miles 

 from Richmond, eighty from Lexington, and fifty-five from 

 Raleigh. It was a meteor of unusual size and brilliancy, and 

 detonated loudly when it exploded. 



The corner-stone of a building for the accommodation of th^ 

 Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences was laid on October 4, 

 and is almost the first edifice west of Chicago intended for purely 

 scientific purposes ; the building is expected to be ready for occu- 

 pation this month. The Academy is a young institution, which 

 has grown very rapidly, and has already assumed a prominent 

 position among establishments of this kind in the United States. 

 This is due principally to the excellent character of its Transac- 

 tions, filled with interesting information, and especially rich in 

 subjects relating to American archasology. Part i of vol. ii. has 

 been sent us. 



If the descriptions are not overdrawn, a remarkably convenient 

 small steam engine has been invented in Philadelphia. It is an 

 oscillating engine, attached to a tank liolding about two gallons 

 of water. The boiler is of about a quart capacity ; the steam- 

 chest half that size ; the whole concern occupies a space of about 

 10 inches square and 18 high, and weighs 35 pounds. It is 

 designed for use with any sort of light machinery, and is said to 

 be suitable for a variety of domestic work. The details of the 

 contrivance are not yet stated, but assurances are given that it 

 carnot, under any circumstances, explode ; that it is as manage- 

 able as an ordinary gas burner, since the inventor has succeeded 

 in dispensing with water and steam gauges and automatic floats, 

 so that the whole apparatus is simple, and no skill is required to 

 operate it. The kitchen of the future is expected to contain one 

 of these engines, to chop hash, turn the coffee-mill and the 

 roasting-jack, sift ashes, and mangle the family linen. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



Edinburgh. — The matriculation returns for the past year 

 have now been completed, and show a considerable increase in 

 the number of students in residence over any former period. 

 The numbers on the register for 1876 were 2,302, for 1877 they 

 amount to 2,560. The students are divided between the several 

 faculties as tollows : — In the faculty of arts, 953 students ; of 

 theology, 67; of law, 364 ; and of medicine, 1,176. The 

 ground is now being cleared for the erection of the University 

 Extension Buildings, which, with the aid of the Government 

 grant, will be vigorously proceeded with, and thus furnish the 

 additional accommodation so urgently required for the increasing 

 number of students, and for the fuller development of the teach- 

 ing resources of the University. 



Taunton Coliege School.— A first-class microscope by 

 Smith and Beck, a handsome clock and centre-piece, a purse 

 containing 136/., and addresses emblazoned on parchment, from 

 the old boys, the parents, and the friends of the school, have 

 been presented to the Rev. W. Tuckwell, on his leaving 

 Taunton. 



France.— M. Bardoux will propose to the French Parliament, 

 during its present session, to organise, in each department (there 

 are eighty-nine), a high primary school after the model of the 

 Ecole Turgot, one of the municipal schools of Paris. He will also 



introduce a bill for enlarging the Sorbonne, the traditional head- 

 quarters of the University. 



Berlin. — The professorship of botany, which has been vacant 

 since the death of Alexander Braun last March, is now to be filled 

 by Prof. Eichler, of Kiel, vvho has accepted a call to this position 

 as well as to the directorship of the Botanical Gardens in Berlin. 

 He enters upon his duties next April. During the interim the 

 gardens are under the direction of Prof. Koch. 



GoTTiNGEN. — The present attendance at the University is 909, 

 a slight decrease on the past summers. They are divided among 

 the faculties as follows: theology, 86; medicine, 115; law, 

 275 ; philosophy, 433. The representation of foreign countries 

 is unusually small, with the exception of America, which supplies 

 a contingent of 27. The corps of instructors, numbering ir6, 

 includes 9 in theology, 26 in medicine, 14 in law, and 67 in 

 philosophy and science. 



Erlangen.— The University is attended at present by 448 

 students, a slight increase on the number of the past summer. 

 Bavaria contributes 305, the remaining 143 coming from the 

 other parts of Germany and from abroad. Medicine includes 

 no, pharmacy 56, chemistry and the natural sciences 32, 

 mathematics and physics 10, 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The current number of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopic 

 Science commences with Dr. Roberts' address at the Manchester 

 meeting of the British Medical Association on the doctrine of 

 Contagium Vivum and its application to medicine. — Following 

 this is Part 4 of Mr. Archer's resume of recent contributions to 

 our knowledge of "Fresh-water Rhizopoda," including the 

 Rhizopoda, Monothalamia, Monostomata. — Prof. Carl Vogt's 

 account of Loxosoma is abstracted, with notes, by Rev. T. Hinks. 

 The genus is confirmed as a Polyzoon, and allied to Pedicellma 

 Its ova and reproductive buds are described, as well as the dif- 

 ferent organs, in detail. —A paper by Prof. Arthur Boettcher 

 treats of the results arrived at by treating red blood corpuscles 

 with alcoholic solution of corrosive sublimate. — Dr. Klem con- 

 tributes a paper on the minute anatomy of the epidermis in 

 small-pox of sheep. — The last paper is Prof. Lankester's im- 

 portant notes on the embryology and classification of the animal 

 kingdom ; comprising a revision of speculations relative to the 

 origin and significance of the germ-layers. This paper has since 

 been separately published. 



Annalen der Physik und Chemie, No. 10. — On the border 

 angle and the expansion of liquids on solid bodies, by M, 

 Quincke. — On the specific heat of vapours and their variations 

 with the temperature, by M. Wiedemann. — Determination of 

 the ratio of the specific heats for air at constant pressure and 

 constant volume by the velocity of sound, by M . Kaiser. — On 

 the internal friction of solid bodies (continued), by M. Schmidt. 

 — On the doctrine of aggregate states, by M. Ritter, — Manometric 

 method of determining the specific gravity of gases, by M. Reek- 

 nagel. — On the disaggregation of tin, by the Editor. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



London 



Royal Society, Dec. 13, 1877. — "Experimental Researches 

 on the Electric Discharge with the Chloride of Silver Battery," 

 by Warren De la Rue, M.A., D.C.L., F.R.S., and Hugo W. 

 MiiUer, Ph.D., F.R.S. Part L 



The paper in question deals mainly with the striking distance 

 between terminals of different forms in air and in other gases at 

 ordinary atmospheric pressures ; and in air at reduced pressures 

 short of the partial vacua of the so-called vacuum tubes. 



The authors have found that the discharge of the battery, with 

 one or two poles in the form of a point, presents several interesting 

 phenomena which precede the true jump of the spark, and which 

 do not occur with other forms of terminals ; for example, discs 

 or spherical surfaces. With 8,040 cells the striking distance 

 between a paraboloidal point, positive, and a disc is about 0*34 

 in. (864 millims.), but there is always a luminous discharge. 

 Very apparent, far beyond the distance measurable by their 

 micronometer-discharger, namely, I*l6 inch (29*5 millims.), as 

 they have before stated.^ 



The current which passes during the luminous discharge which 

 ' Proc, Roy. Sec, i8}6, vol. xxiv. p. i6g. 



