88 



NATURE 



{Nov. 24, 1887 



We are requested to state that the lectures to be given on 

 behalf of the Anthropological Institute by Mr. Francis Galton 

 — which were postponed in consequence of that gentleman's 

 indisposition — will be delivered in the Lecture Theatre of the 

 South Kensington Museum on Saturday, the 26th inst., and the 

 two following Saturdays, December 3 and 10. 



An International Exhibition will shortly be held by the 

 Ornithological Society at Berlin. 



A MAGNETIC Observatory is about to be erected near the 

 Solar Observatory, on the Brauhausberg, near Potsdam. 



A CORRESPONDENT Writes to us from Venice that on the 9th 

 inst. an earthquake occurred there at 1.32 a.m. There were 

 five gentle undulations, which lasted ten seconds. On the 

 same morning — at 1.30 a.m. — a shock at Ferrara is said to have 

 lasted seven seconds. 



The other day Mr. Raskin sent to the Times the following 

 extract from a letter, dated November 14, which he had received 

 from a friend at Florence : — " We had an earthquake this morn- 

 ing, which frightened everybody, and my door shook so that I 

 thought somebody was trying to break in, and then there was a 

 terrible noise, but I believe no harm done. The bells rang of 

 themselves at the Carmine, and some say that one or two chim- 

 neys fell, but nobody seems to know." From a report issued 

 by Signor Passerini, Director of the Meteorological Observatory 

 connected with the Agricultural College of Scandicci, we learn 

 that three shocks were felt there on the 14th, the first taking 

 place about 5.20 a.m. It was accompanied by a rather loud 

 rumbling, and was powerful enough to shake all the furniture in 

 Signor Passerini's room. A second shock, weaker, and not 

 accompanied by rumbling, was felt about twenty minutes later. 

 At 6.49 a.m. the third shock, the strongest of all, and ac- 

 companied by loud rumbling, was felt. During the continuance 

 of this shock people in the open country saw trees much shaken, 

 and quantities of leaves were observed to fall. The direction of 

 the shocks was from north-north-west to south-south-east. 



At the suggestion of Prof. MushketofF, who has just returned 

 from his official visit to Semiretchia, a special Commission has 

 been appointed to watch the course of any earthquakes that may 

 happen, and to report on them, in those parts of the Russian 

 Empire which are most frequently visited, such as the Caucasus, 

 Turkestan, and the Transbaikal region. 



Advices from Baku state that a naphtha spring has burst 

 forth near the town of Balachany, the oil being thrown to a 

 height of over 100 feet and carried away long distances by the 

 wind. Sometimes the oil falls like rain over the adjacent 

 districts, and forms small streams, whilst heavy naphtha gases 

 fill the air. 



Another contribution to the subject of photography in 

 colours is published by Mr. Carey Lea in the November 

 number of the American Journal of Science. Although the 

 interpretations placed upon his former experiments have 

 not received universal acceptance in this country, still the 

 experiments themselves have been generally received with 

 considerable interest and surprise, and indeed are at the 

 present time being repeated and considerably extended in 

 more than one English laboratory. The appearance of another 

 communication from Mr. Carey Lea is therefore most opportune, 

 and will doubtless form the subject for considerable discussion. 

 It will be remembered that the so-called photo-salts of silver, a 

 description of which appeared in these columns a few months 

 ago, were said to consist of combinations of ordinary chloride of 

 silver with small quantities of subchloride. Mr. Carey Lea now 

 finds that silver chloride combines with small quantities of many 

 other chlorides, besides its own subchloride, to form coloured 



salts, comparatively stable and remarkably less sensitive to light. 

 Thus if silver nitrate be added to a solution of ferric chloride in 

 presence of free hydrochloric acid, the precipitate obtained is 

 buff-coloured, and the ferric chloride carried down by the silver 

 chloride cannot be washed out even by hydrochloric acid. The 

 most remarkable properly of this silver-ferric chloride is that it 

 is almost unacted upon by light. Chlorides of cobalt, nickel, 

 manganese, and mercury give analogous combinations, each 

 having a characteristic colour. As those chlorides, such as ferric 

 and mercuric, which readily part with one equivalent of chlorine, 

 act most energetically in reducing the sensitiveness, it appears 

 probable that the traces of chlorine thus capable of being given 

 up, simply hold in check the commencement of the movement 

 towards reduction. 



We have received from Mr. Stewart Culin the reprint of a 

 paper read by him before the Anthropological Section of the 

 American Association at its meeting at New York during the 

 past autumn. It is entitled "China in America : a Study in 

 the Social Life of the Chinese in the Eastern Cities of the United 

 States," and describes the special districts in Southern China from 

 which the immigrants mostly come, the guilds and associations 

 they form, their mode of life, their pleasures, which are some- 

 what few and simple, and much else in respect to them that is 

 of a very interesting character. His own contact with the 

 Chinese in the United States leads him to form a favour- 

 able estimate of their character and attainments, which have 

 been the subjects of much misconception. They are not "the 

 dregs of the people, given up to gambling and opium-smoking, 

 and distinguished only by their vices," as the anti-Chinese orators 

 aver ; nor are their mental and moral qualities quite so high as 

 others allege. But we fear very much that Mr. Culin is over 

 sanguine in the anticipation that the returning emigrants will 

 some day carry enlightenment to their own country. Their 

 work is not of a kind that enables them to acquire very 

 great knowledge of the resources of the West ; they come 

 with a special object, viz. the acquisition of a competence, 

 they toil unremittingly until that is attained, when they speed 

 home again, usually with no very pleasant memories of the land 

 of their sojourn. To China herself we must look for the 

 elements of her regeneration, and time, which is the great 

 solvent, will have its slow effect on that huge mass of humanity. 



The German publisher, Herr Trewendt, of Breslau, has just 

 issued the twentieth part of a Dictionary of Zoology, Anthro- 

 pology, and Ethnology ; the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth 

 parts of a Dictionary of Chemistry ; and the twentieth part of a 

 hand-book of Botany. These works belong to the elaborate 

 " Encyklop^die der Wissenschaften," edited by Dr. W. Forster, 

 Dr. A. Kenngott, Dr. A. Ladenburg, and other scientific 

 writers. 



Prof. Forel is at present studying the penetration of light 

 into the Lake of Geneva, by means of the photographic effect 

 on chloride of silver paper. Six photographic apparatus are 

 attached one above another to a rope at lo-metre intervals. 

 They are let down into the lake after sunset, left there one day 

 or more, and taken up again at night. The depth limit of 

 absolute darkness has been found this year, in the beginning of 

 March, 100 m. ; of May, 75 m. ; and of July, 45 m. Prof. 

 Forel hopes to carry on these experiments for a whole year, 

 every two months, and so obtain the curve for penetration of 

 light into the lake. 



The loss of electricity by a conductor in moist air has been 

 lately studied by Signor Guglielmo (Turin Academy). He finds 

 that with potentials less than 600 volts, moist air insulates as 

 well as dry air, but with higher potentials, there is more loss 

 in moist air, and more the moister the air, and the higher the 

 , potential. The potential at which the difference becomes per- 



