April 11, 1878] 



NATURE 



475 



programme is arranged for the two days, one of the items being 

 a lectvire by Sir George Airy on " The Probable Condition of 

 the Interior of the Earth." 



For Easter Monday and following day the Geologists' Asso- 

 ciation have arranged what promises to be an interesting excur- 

 sion to Chipping Norton. Provincial field societies are now also 

 issuing programmes of their summer excursions ; the Manchester 

 Field Naturalists and the Leeds Naturalists have sent us well- 

 arranged programmes of this kind. 



Excavations in the neighbourhood of Merten, in Lorraine, 

 have uncovered the remains of an old Roman temple, and brought 

 to light a variety of weapons, busts, coins, &c. The indications 

 all point to the existence of a large settlement here under the 

 Roman rule, and arrangements have been made for a series of 

 widely extended excavations. 



The archEeologists of Rome are busied over the latest disco- 

 very, the uncovering of a cellar containing a thousand vessels 

 for various commercial purposes, two hundred of which are 

 covered with inscriptions throwing no small light on the business 

 terms of the ancient Romans. 



In the course of a report, which has just been published by 

 order of the Inspector-General of Maritime Customs in China, 

 Dr. F. Wong gives us some curious particulars respecting a 

 strange remedial agent employed by the Chinese in cases of 

 Cynanche Tonsillaris. The disease they term Ngo-how, or 

 "Goose-throat," and the remedy in question is called How-tsao, 

 a soft stone not unlike biliary calculus in appearance. It is 

 expensive, being worth twenty times its weight in silver, and is 

 said to come from Siam. Twenty or thirty grains of this in pow- 

 der, taken in water, is thought to be very efficacious. Dr. Wong 

 mentions having seen a case where this remedy was given, and. 

 where it certainly appeared effective, after gargles and astrin- 

 gents had been applied in vain. The specimens of the stone 

 which have come under his notice appear like animal concre- 

 tions, and are of various sizes, some being smaller than pigeons' 

 eggs, while others are as large as hens' eggs. The story goes 

 that, when a monkey is wounded, the animal, from its natural 

 instinct, picks out the proper medicinal herbs, masticates and 

 applies them to the wound, so that successive layers are in this 

 way laid on so as to form a mass. In time the wound heals, 

 and the lump of dried herbs falls off; it is then picked up by 

 the Siamese, found by them to possess peculiar virtues, and 

 sent in small quantities to China as a drug. 



News from Berlin states that Prof. Mommsen has again 

 started upon a scientific expedition to the south of Italy, from 

 which he intends to return to Berlin at the end of May. 



In the south of France no rain or snow has fallen since the 

 beginning of the winter, and the prevailing drought resulting 

 from this peculiar absence of atmospheric moisture has well- 

 nigh assumed the proportions of a real catastrophe. The 

 authorities have been obliged to take in hand the distribution of 

 drinking water to the inhabitants. Between Marseilles and the 

 Italian frontier certain railway stations are completely without 

 water, and waggon-cisterns had to be constructed which are 

 kept filled by water brought by train. The soil in the district is 

 so hard that all agricultural work is impossible, and the crops 

 are, of course, in a most miserable condition. 



From Leipzig and its vicinity heavy rains are reported causing 

 severe inundations in that neighbourhood. 



Dr. a. Hartmann describes in the Proceedings of the Berlin 

 Physiological Society for the present year, a new application of 

 the telephone for the purpose of testing the hearing. It rests 

 upon the fact that when the magnet of the receiving instrument 

 is excited by a galvanic stream, the intensity of the tone trans- 

 mitted can be altered at will by the introduction of various 



resistances or of Du Bois-Reymond's compensator into the circuit. 

 By this means it is easy to measure comparatively in different 

 persons the limits of hearing, by applying the telephone to the 

 ear, and noticing the amount of resistance necessary in order to 

 extinguish the same sound. 



The American Chemical Society closes its second year with a 

 membership of 300. Its Transactions, instead of appearing at 

 irregular intervals, are to be published twice a month, and efforts 

 are being made to concentrate in them all that America produces 

 in the line of chemical research. The Society has chosen Prof. 

 Johnson, the familiar authority on agricultural chemistry, for its 

 president during 1878, and has elected to honorary membership 

 Professors Frankland and Williamson, of London, Bunsen and 

 Wohler of Germany, Berthelot of Paris, Boutlerow of St_ 

 Petersburg, and Cannizzaro of Rome. 



An earthquake was felt at Liesthal, in the canton of 

 Bale during the night of March 28-29. This phenomenon was 

 probably connected with another commotion which was regis- 

 tered at Strasburg Observatory by Winnecke, and was 

 observed on March 29 at 8h. 52m. 27s. in the morning. The 

 duration of the commotion was only-^s., and would have escaped 

 notice if a registering apparatus had not been kept at the 

 observatory. A violent earthquake was felt at Kaltenbrunn, in the 

 Kaunser Valley (Tyrol) on March 16 at 5 A.M. 



Mr. a. O. Thorlacius, the observer for the Scottish 

 Meteorological Society at Stykkisholm, in the north-west of 

 Iceland, reports the occurrence, on March 4, of the severest 

 thunderstorm ever experienced in that part of Iceland. Thunder 

 and lightning continued without interruption from 5.30 A.M. to 

 8 A.M., accompanied at intervals with rain and hail. For the 

 past thirty-three years, during which Mr. Thorlacius has observed, 

 nearly all the thunderstorms have occurred during the winter 

 months. At 7 A.M. a very fine meteor passed over the village 

 of Stykkisholm and exploded into innumerable fragments over 

 the harbour, unaccompanied, however, with any audible 

 report, and shortly after another fine meteor passed over the 

 village and disappeared without being observed to explode. It 

 is added that this is the first time such meteors have been 

 observed by any one at Stykkisholm. 



With regard to the fact stated by M. Forel, that frequently 

 during distinct shocks of earthquake, the lakes show neither 

 waves nor seiches, while at other times shocks produce large 

 movements, M. De Rossi writes to La Nature, from Rome, that 

 the lakes probably act according to the law of pendulums. Thus 

 in Italy shocks of earthquake have frequently occurred without 

 the pendulum seismograph showing any sign of movement, 

 whereas, again, the pendulum may swing violently without the 

 shock being perceived by any one. M. De Rossi has, with others, 

 experienced a distinct shock of earthquake, and on immediately 

 examining with a microscope eight pendulums of different 

 lengths, could not detect the slightest motion. The fact evidently 

 depends, he says, on the relation between the length of the 

 pendulum and the rapidity of the earth-vibrations. When the 

 seismic wave is synchronous with the natural oscillation of the 

 pendulum, the latter enters into motion; when it is dissyn- 

 chronous, the pendulum refuses to move. 



It will be seen from our advertising columns, that pending 

 the erection of the permanent buildings of the Channel Islands' 

 Zoological Station, St. Helier's, Jersey, arrangements have been 

 made for placing private rooms with tables and apparatus at the 

 disposal of a limited number of naturalists and students, with 

 every assistance in obtaining subjects for investigation. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two Persian Gazelles {Gazella subgutlerosa) 

 from Persia, presented by Mr. R. W. Inglis; a Macaque 



