Jan. 24, 1878] 



NATURE 



251 



hope, however, to be able in an early number to publish definite 

 information on the matter. 



The German Military Department, always on the) watch to 

 make use of the latest scientific discoveries, has naturally de- 

 voted its attention at once to the telephone. In the last number 

 of the Militair Wochenblatt we notice a report on the practica- 

 bility of its use in warfare for maintaining communication with 

 pickets and outlying posts. The experiments were carried out 

 at a temperature of —3° C, and during a violent wind, and 

 showed most conclusively its availability for the purposes in 

 question. 



It is gratifying to knovir that at last Cleopatra's Needle has 

 safely reached the Thames. It is proposed to moor the inge- 

 niously-constructed vessel containing the obelisk at a convenient 

 part of the Thames embankment for some days, to enable the 

 public to inspect it. 



The lately formed society for the protection of the interests of 

 chemical manufactures in Germany, begins with the present year 

 the publication, at Berlin, of a monthly organ entitled Die 

 chemische Industrie, under the editorship of Dr. Emil Jacobsen. 

 It is intended to make it a complete record of everything of 

 interest in the department of technical chemistry. 



The Academy of Sciences will hold its anniversary meeting 

 next Monday, when M. Bertrand will deliver an doge of Lame, 

 a member of the Academy of Sciences and a physicist, who died 

 twenty years ago. He had travelled in Russia like Becquerel, 

 but not as an officer belonging to an invading force. He had 

 been appointed by the Russian Government to establish the 

 Military School of Odessa. 



The second part of Signor Mantegazza's studies on the 

 Ethnology of New Guinea is published in the December num- 

 ber of his Archivio, illustrated by a number of plates. 



A Geographical Society has been formed at Metz, based on 

 the model of those in other German cities. 



The German Patent Office reports that it has received during 

 the past year 6,424 applications, a larger number than any other 

 country can boast of except the United States. 



The Association for the Improvement of Geometrical Teach- 

 ing held its annual meeting at University College, Gower Street, 

 on Friday, January 11, and at this meeting, in addition to 

 proceeding with the work already taken in hand, it was resolved 

 that sub-committees should be appointed to draw up syllabuses 

 of solid geometry and of higher plane geometry, and also that 

 the Association should take into consideration the subject of 

 geometrical conies, with a view to expressing its opinion on the 

 best order of teaching it. The president (Dr. Hirst, F.R.S.) 

 delivered an address, and subsequently tendered his resignation 

 of the presidentship on the ground of the pressing nature of his 

 other duties ; the Rev. E. F. MacCarthy, one of the secretaries, 

 also was obliged, for a like reason, to resign his office. The 

 vacancies were filled up by the election of Mr. R, B. Hayward, 

 F.R.S. , as president, and of Mr. R. Tucker as secretary (in 

 conjunction with Mr. R. Levett, the principal originator of the 

 movement). Mr. J. M. Wilson and Dr. Jones were re-elected 

 vice-presidents. Mr. II. C. Watson, Clifton College, was 

 elected Treasurer in the room of Mr. II. Weston Eve. 



It appears that beer is adulterated to a great extent with 

 glycerin. An easy and exact method of its determination in this 

 connection is wanting, and a prize of 3,000 marks has been 

 offered by the Verein fiir dcutschen Gra<erbjlei:s for the best 

 solution of this problem. 



The Deutsche ornithologische Gesdlschajt was lately re- 

 quested by the Chancellor of the Empire to express its opinion 

 on a proposed Jaw for the protection of birds. A duly 



appointed commission under the presidency of Dr. Brehm, 

 has recently presented a report on this subject, in which the con- 

 templated law is regarded as unnecessary. There is at present, 

 according to their information, no general diminution in the 

 number of useful birds, and where a local disappearance has 

 been observed, it is to be traced to the present development of the 

 agriculture and/orestry of the land, and is not due to the direct 

 attempts of man. 



The German botanist, Regel, has discovered in the Himalayas 

 a variety of wild onion, which he regards as the original source 

 of our ordinary garden onion. It. is called Allium cepa sylvestre. 



Berlin is becoming the centre of an extensive system of sub- 

 terranean telegraphic lines radiating in various directions. Cables 

 have been already laid, or are in process of being laid, on the 

 routes Berlin-Cologne, [Berlin- Frankfort, Berlin-Strassburg, 

 Berlin- Breslau, Berlin-Konigsberg, and Berlin-Hamburg and 

 Kiel. As a glance at the map will show, the military element 

 plays an important part in the selection of these routes. Most of 

 the lines are [buried alongside the substantial roadways which 

 traverse the empire. The work of excavation is carried on 

 rapidly by means of enormous portable engines which dig a 

 trench one metre in depth and half a metre broad, lay in it the 

 cables (generally two in number, containing each seven wires), 

 and cover them by a continuous movement. 



A DOG-FISH became entangled in the net of some French fisher- 

 men near Cape Agd« lately, and after having dragged their boat 

 about during the entire night at the rate of twelve miles an hour, 

 was finally captured and brought to land. It measured over 

 sixteen feet in length and weighed about 2,500 lbs. Its enormous 

 stomach contained the head, feet, and several other portions of 

 a mule, as well as two half-digested tunny-fish. 



We notice in the last number of the Journal of the Russian 

 Chemical and Physical Societies (vol. ix. No. 9), two interesting 

 chemical papers by M. Eltekoff, on the regularity of elimination 

 of the elements of the haloid-hydric acids from chlorates of 

 hydro-carbonates, and on the structure of different amylenes 

 which are found in the amylene supplied by trade. 



Prof. C. Hermanauz, of Vienna, died recently in Japan, 

 while engaged on a voyage round the world, chiefly for th 

 purpose of agricultural observation. 



Few national scientific associations have grown so rapidly e 

 the French Association for the Advancement of Science. 

 Although but in its seventh year, we notice from the recently 

 issued report of the secretary that the number of the members is 

 already nearly 2,400. In this short time the association has 

 accumulated a capttal of 223,000 francs, and has granted 26,000 

 francs to various scientific objects. Each member pays annually 

 20 francs, and receives a handsome copy of the report. The last 

 issued (for the Session of 1876) forms a bulky volume of 1,200 

 pages, illustrated by seventeen well executed plates. According 

 to the statutes, Paris is excluded from the place of session, on 

 much the same ground that London is never chosen by, the 

 British Association. The present year forms, however, an 

 exception, on account of the Exhibition, and Paris will welcome 

 the Association far the first time. 



In the eighth number of the Journal of the Russian Chemical 

 Society is a paper by Prof. Meorshutkin on the influence 

 of isomerism on the formation of ethers between acids and 

 alcohols (Nature, vol. xvii. p. 151) (also published separately 

 in French) ; a note by M. Ziloff, on the influence of the medium 

 on the electro-dynamical induction ; a paper by M. Borgmann , 

 on thermo-electricity ; and a note by M. Kraevich, on his new 

 portable barometer, which is intended to avoid the usual boiling 

 of mercury in barometrical tubes, aii4 W45 highly approved some 



