Jan.^i, 1878] 



NATURE 



273 



The first general meetiog of the Institute of Chemistry of 

 Great Britain and Ireland will be held at the rooms of the 

 Chemical Society, Burlirgton House, Piccadilly, to-morrow, 

 at 4 P.M., to rective the report of the Council A balance- 

 sheet will also be presented by the treasurer. 



We have received one more evidence of the revival of activity 

 in Italy, in the shape of the first number of a new weekly 

 journal, La Rassegna Settimanale di Politica, Scienze, Letter e ed 

 Arte, in which a fair amount of space is devoted to science. It 

 is published at Florence. 



The following is a simple method recommended by Dr. 

 Giinther of Berlin, of observing the reversal of the coloured lines of 

 flame- spectra, A thin platinum wire about five ctm. long, is fixed 

 with one end in a glass tube(as holder), and one or two ctm. from the 

 glass it is bent round to a right angle, and inserted in the envelope 

 of a Bunsen flame, so that the free end, held vertical, is heated to 

 a white glow. Into the diametrically opposite part of the flame- 

 sheath is brought a sodium salt. This colours the flame. You 

 then look through a weakly -dispersing prism (the combinations 

 used for direct vision spectroscopes serve btst), and through the 

 sodium flame, towards the glowing wire. Two thir gs are observed, 

 (i) the spectrum of the monochromatic sodium flame, which 

 appears in the form of the flame ; (2) the spectrum of the glowing 

 wire, which appears as a coloured band, but is broken by the 

 dark D-line. Other metallic spectra may also be shown in this 

 way ; only care must be taken that the coloration of the flame be 

 very intense. 



At Hanover the skeleton of a mammoth has just been found, 

 through some excavations which are being made for waterworks 

 near the Ricklinger Beeke. At present only the skull and a 

 tusk have been brought to light, the latter having the circum- 

 ference of a human leg. The fossils are lying at a depth of six 

 metres. 



The publishing firm of Edouard Rouveyre, in Paris, an- 

 nounces the publication of a voluminous catalogue containing 

 the titles, &c., of all those works, books, pamphlets, &c., which, 

 in the period from October 21, 1814, down to July 31, 1877, 

 have been prosecuted, suppressed, or confiscated, in France. It 

 will appear in five parts, at two francs each. 



At the beginning ot the year the new Royal Library of 

 Stockholm, which has now been transferred to the new building 

 at the Humlegaarden, was opened to the public. The new 

 edifice was erected after the design of the architect, Ilerr G. 

 Dahl, at a cost of 900,000 Swedish crowns. The library, 

 which at the beginning of the present century only numbered 

 30,000 volumes, now contains 200,000. 



A NEW monthly periodical, exclusively devoted to the art of 

 photography and its various branches, is being published since 

 Januaiy i, by Messrs. Ad. Braun and Co., of Dornach. Each 

 number contains an artistic photograph. The title of the new 

 serial is Die Lichibildkunst. 



Unusually severe avalanches are reported this winter from 

 Styria. In the neighbourhood of Hieflau one descended upon 

 a railway train, crushing the carriages, and wounding a number, 

 while at Neuberg another fell upon a chalet containing twelve 

 persons, none of whom escaped. 



In the closing session of the German Chemical Society for 

 T877, Prof. Kekule, of Bonn, was elected president. Professors 

 Hofmann and Liebermann of Berlin, Prof. Fehling of Stuttgart, 

 and Prof. Erlenmeyer of Munich vice-presidents. The Society 

 eUcted also as honorary members the two physicists. Prof. Buff 

 of Giessen, and Prof. Kirchhoff of Berlin, and Dr. Stenhouse of 

 London. At the end of its first decade the German Chemical 

 Society looks back upon a period of rapid growth in numbers 

 and efficiency certainly unparalleled in the history of any society 



devoted to a special science. These results are due to several 

 marked causes, which could well be imitated by other associa- 

 tions possessing analogous aims, viz., ease of admission, absence 

 of entrance fee and smallness of the annual subscription, sim- 

 plicity of the statutes, and rapidity and frequency in the publica- 

 tion of the proceedings. The number of members at present is 

 1,827, showing an increase of 229 during the }ear. Of these 206 

 reside in Berlin and 542 outside of Germany and Austrix The 

 membership compares favourably with that of the older sister 

 societies in London (952), and Paris (371). Although the annual 

 payment is so small {15 marks) the society possesses a capital at 

 present of 22,700 marks. During the past ten years the Berichte 

 of the society have contained 3,726 communications, covering 

 nearly 14,000 pages. A very complete index to this enormous 

 amount of material will appear during the course of the present 

 year, the compiler of which was selected by competition from 

 among the twenty-nine appUcants attracted by the unusually 

 liberal appropriation of 5,000 marks for the work. In addition 

 to the extensive chemical correspondence from America, England, 

 France, Italy, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, &c., the value of 

 the Berichte in the future is to be increased by a complete series 

 of abstracts on all papers appearing in German chemical periodi- 

 cals. In the last number we notice a very full and interesting 

 sketch of the late Prof. Oppenheim from the pen of Prof. 

 Hofmann, as well as a detailed account of the Chemical Section 

 at the German Association meeting at Munich by Prof. Lieber- 

 mann. 



The French Academy of Sciences numbers at present 63, three 

 places being vacant by the deaths of Regnault, Becquerel, and 

 Leverrier, the members being divided into eleven sections of six 

 each. There are in addition ten French free academicians and 

 eight foreign associates. The corresponding iiembers, of whom 

 theie can be J 00, are divided according to their nationality as 

 follows: — France, 32; Germany, 19; Great Britain, 16; 

 Russia, 6 ; Italy, 2 ; Austria, I ; Denmark and Sweden, 4 ; 

 Switzerland, 4 ; Belgium, 2 ; United States, 3 j Brazil, 1 ; and 

 there are 1 1 vacancies. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Common Fox (Cams vu//>es), European, 

 presented by Mr. George Fredericks ; two Black Swans {Cygnus 

 atratus) from Australia, presented by Capt. W. H. Eccles ; a 

 Wood Owl (Syrnium aluco), European, presented by Mr. J. E. 

 L'arJet ; a Common Magpie {Pica caudata), a Jackdaw [Corvus 

 moii(dula), European, presented by Mr. G. E. Ladbury; a 

 Hoary Snake. (C'^;v«£f//a cana) from South Africa, presented by 

 the Rev. G. H. R. Fiske, C.M.Z.S; a Jackass Penguin (Sphe- 

 m'scus magellaniati), an Upland Goose [Bernicla mageilanica) 

 from Chili, two West Indian Rails {Aratnides cayennensis) from 

 South America, purchased ; a Derbian Opossum [Didelphys 

 derbianus) from South America, deposited ; a Hog Deer {Cervus 

 porcitius) born in the Gaideni. 



RAINFALL IN INDIA 



WE have received so many long letters from India on 

 the various aspects of the rainfall question that we 

 must either, from want of space, leave them unpublished, 

 or briefly give the gist of them. We adopt the latter 

 course. 



Mr. Archibald sends us a long letter on the seasonal rainfalls 

 of Northern India in connection with the sim-spot period, in which 

 he communicates a few of the principal results obtained from a 

 more detailed and extensive comparison, which the paucity of 

 data at his command hitherto had rendered it impossible to 

 undertake. In the present investigation the registers of eight 

 stations, four in Bengal, and four in the N.W.P. have been 

 employed, and the two seasonal falls of each year, compared (i) 

 for each station separately, and (2) for groups of four and all 

 together, with its position in the sun-spot cycle. 



