492 



NATURE 



\_April\Z, 1878 



tion ; the former oxidise and do not become 1 brittle, the 

 latter do not oxidise, but do become brittle. In intermediate 

 directions the rails participate more or less in' the qualities of 

 those which are placed in the two extreme directions. What 

 becomes of the iron which is now so plentifully used in the 

 construction of building — ^^girders among others ? Is not this a 

 subject for serious research ? 



The French Minister for Public Works has accepted the 

 plans of an underground railway in Paris, which was worked 

 oat by order of the Prefect of the Seine. According to these it 

 is intended to build the central station seven metres underneath 

 the gardens of the Palais Royal. Three different lines will 

 radiate from that spot, viz. : ( i ) to the Exchange, the Opera, the 

 railway station of St. Lazare, then to Batignolles, communicating 

 with the Great Western Railway 'and the Chemin de Fer de Cein- 

 ture ; (2) to Les Halles, the rue Turbigo, the Boulevard Sebas- 

 topol, the Boulevard de Strasbourg, the Great Eastern and Great 

 Northern Railways ; from the Boulevard de Strasbourg a branch 

 line would lead to the Vincennes and Lyons Railway Stations, 

 passing underneath the Seine to the left bank of the river ; (3) to 

 the rue de Rennes, the Montparnasse Railway Station, the 

 station for Sceaux, and to Gentilly. The cost of the lines is 

 estimated at 6,000,000/., and is to be borne jointly by the 

 State, the Departement de la Seine, and the City of Paris. 



Writing in La Nature, M. Helene calls attention to the 

 excellent example set by Switzerland in regard to popular 

 meteorology. There is hardly a town but has in one of its 

 squares, perhaps at the side of a lake, an elegant column with 

 instruments required for obseivation of the usual phenomena. 

 Thus in Fiibourg, is a black marble column (about 2 '65 m. 

 high) on a granite platform. On the north face is an alcohol 

 thermometer, with double graduation cut in the marble ; on the 

 west a mercury barometer ; on the east a hairhygroneter. The 

 south face has an inscription giving the longitude, latitude, alti- 

 tude, barometric and thermometric means, and annual rainfall. 

 On a globe crowning the column are lines giving the direction 

 of the four cardinal points. An inscription near the base tells 

 that the column was erected by the Fribourg Society of Natural 

 Sciences. The monument cost not more than 1,500 to 2,000 

 francs. Such columns often give various other kinds of informa- 

 tion, e.g. the hour in different cities of the globe when it is mid- 

 day at Berne, the heights'of neighbouring mountains, measures, 

 variations of lake level, records of severe winters, &o., in short 

 the chief points which a natural curiosity would seek knowledge 

 of. They are generally erected by cantonal societies. 



We have received the first two parts of the tenth edition of 

 Cooley's "Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts," revised and partly 

 rewritten by Prof. R. V. Tuson, F.C.S. To what extent the 

 work has been brought up to date may be learned by looking at 

 the articles on Spectrum Analysis and Anemometers ; in the 

 latter case the anemometers now in use are dismissed in a 

 foot-note. 



Interesting antiquities, coins, vases, &c., have recently 

 been found at Strassburg in some excavations which are being 

 made in connection with water-works. In some parts a number 

 of skeletons of animals have been discovered, amongst others a 

 well-preserved jaw with tusks of a prehistoric boar, and some 

 deer horns, &c. 



At Cologne a meeting of the International Society against 

 the pollution of rivers, the soil, and air, took place a few 

 weeks ago. Its reports are published by Herr Hugo Voigt, at 

 Leipzig. 



The International Congress for the investigation of the 

 history of America before Columbus, will meet at Brussels 

 during 1879. Originally it was intended to hold the meeting at 

 some American city. 



The United States of North America possessed only forty- 

 nine public libraries in the year 1800. The number has now 

 risen to no less than 3,682, and the number of volumes con- 

 tained in them exceeds thirteen millions. 



Two new institutions are about to be established in Germany ; 

 one at Bielefeld, for textile industries, and another at Iserlohn, 

 for metal industry. 



On March 11 the Ural Mountains were first crossed by a 

 railway train upon the occasion of the opening of the new line 

 from Perm to Jekaterinburg. 



On the 14th inst. the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb at 

 Leipzig celebrated the looth anniversary of its foundation. It 

 is the oldest institution of the kind in Germany. 



A new eruption is reported to have occurred in Iceland on 

 March 24, in the vicinity of Mount Ilecla. 



During the past three years Admiral Duperre has met with 

 considerable success in his efforts to develop the resources of the 

 French colony in Cochin China, He first started an experi- 

 mental farm just outside Saigon, where sugar-cane, cotton, 

 indigo, coffee shrubs, &c., were planted under the superin- 

 tendence of a botanist from Paris. From this farm thousands 

 of coffee plants, &c., are distributed every year all over the 

 colony among the French and native planters. Tobacco has 

 also been successfully cultivated, and attempts are about to be 

 made to prepare the leaf for the European market, and an 

 ofificial from the tobacco manufactory at Paris has been appointed 

 to superintend this work. The sugar-cane is found to flourish 

 well in Cochin China, and experiments are being made with a 

 view to discovering the best means of turning it to profitable 

 account. 



At p. 16, vol. xvl. of Nature, is an account of a new stimu- 

 lant known as pitury, which it was shown had been proved by 

 Baron von Mueller to be derived from Dtihoisia hopwoodi, a 

 plant described by himself in 186 r. It was mentioned in the 

 paper above alluded to that the better known species oi Duboisia, 

 namely, D. myoporoides of Robert Brown might possibly prove 

 to be of some medicinal value. This prophecy has since been 

 borne out, for in a paper read by Dr. J. Bancroft on Duboisia 

 and Pituri before the Queensland Philosophical Society at Bris- 

 bane, a good deal of information is given on both these new 

 medicinal products. With regard to D, myoporoides, which is a 

 small tree or shrub, we are told that it is found in various locali- 

 ties from the neighbourhood of Sydney to that of Cape York, 

 and that it has also been found in New Caledonia and New 

 Guinea. It grows plentifully on the borders of the vine scrubs 

 about Brisbane and springs up abundantly after the clearance 

 of forest land. The valuable part of the plant seems to be the 

 leaves, from which an extract was, in the first place, made, and 

 its effects tried upon some cats and dogs, which, during the 

 time they were under its influence, were as helpless as if they 

 were totally blind, falling down when the slightest obstacle came in 

 their way. A trial of its effect was afterwards made on the human 

 eye in several cases, and its action in dilating the pupil was found to 

 be very powerful and rapid. The active principle seems to be 

 almost identical with atropine, both as regards its action and its 

 strength, and it is used in Sydney and Brisbane in place of that 

 alkaloid. A good deal of attention has been given in this country 

 to the new agent by Dr. Ringer and Mr. Tweedy. The former siys 

 that it has the power of drying the mouth or preventing the flow 

 of saliva, and that it also produces headache and drowsiness, while 

 the latter considers it quicker and more energetic in its action 

 than atropine, and considerably more so than the strongest extract 

 of belladonna. In every case in which it had been used by him 

 he found its action entirely satisfactory. This subject, which is 

 one of importance, inasmuch as it promises to open up a new 



