378 



NATURE 



{Feb. 1 6, 1888 



true appreciation of the place which properly belongs to the 

 study of science in education. 



On Tuesday the Committee of the Athenaeum Club elected 

 three new members in accordance with the rule which em- 

 powei^s the election of nine persons annually "of distinguished 

 eminence in science, literature, or the arts, or for public 

 services." The names of two of the new members are familiar 

 to students of science — Major-General Donnelly, R.E., C.B., 

 Secretary to the Department of Science and Art; and Prof 

 G. Carey Foster, F.R.S. 



. One of the leading native residents of Bombay, Sir Dinshaw 

 Petit, has just given the Bombay Government a property valued 

 at 300,000 rupees for the establishment of the proposed Technical 

 Institute of Bombay. 



We regret to announce the death of Dr. Maximilian Schmidt, 

 an eminent geologist and Director of the Zoological Gardens at 

 Berlin. He was born at Frankfurt in 1834, and died at Berlin. 



Emile Rousseau, the well-known French chemist, died on 

 the 4th inst., at the age of seventy-three. 



The annual general meeting of the Fellows of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society was held on Tuesday, Sir Trevor Lawrence, 

 President of the Society, in the chair. The special Committee 

 appointed to inquire into the working of the Society recom- 

 mended that premises in No. in Victoria Street should be 

 secured, and that for shows and meetings the Society should 

 hire the drill-hall of the London Scottish Rifle Volunteers. 

 The Committee also reported that they had under consideration 

 "the construction of new by-laws intended to facilitate the 

 carrying out of as complete a horticultural jaolicy as possible — 

 one in which all aspects and departments should be considered 

 to the undue preponderance of none ; but to the general advan- 

 tage of all." After some discussion the Committee's recommen- 

 dations were adopted. Several members of the Council having 

 placed their resignation in the hands of the Fellows, it was 

 resolved on the motion of Mr. Wilks, seconded by Mr. Veitch, 

 to decline to accept their resignation, and they were then all 

 formally re-elected, including Sir Trevor Lawrence, who was 

 re-appointed. President. 



The Calendar and General Directory of the Science and Art 

 Department for 1888 has been issued. 



The curious fact was some time ago brought to light by 

 Nahrwold that solid particles are ejected from a platinum wire 

 glowing under the influence of an electric current, and form a 

 metallic incrustation upon the walls of a glass tube by which 

 the wire is surrounded. The cause of the emission of these 

 solid particles of platinum has, however, until recently, remained 

 a complete mystery. In the number of the Annalen der Physik 

 und Che?me just received will be found an interesting paper by 

 Dr. Alfred Berliner, who, in the course of a series of experi- 

 ments upon the occlusion of gases by platinum and palladium, 

 has discovered the source of this singular phenomenon. Thin 

 strips of platinum, before being charged with the gas under 

 experiment, were inclosed in a narrow glass tube, and freed from 

 all occluded gas by being heated to redness, in vacuo, by the 

 passage of a constant electric current for several hours. At the 

 expiration of this time the metallic incrustation was invariably 

 found when occluded gas had been evolved. On charging the 

 strips with various quantities of any particular gas, the amount 

 of incrustation formed after the complete expulsion of the gas 

 in each experiment was found to vary in the same proportion. 

 Hence it appears pretty clear that the evolution of gas is neces- 

 sary for the emission of solid particles. This result is strongly 

 confirmed by the fact that palladium, which has such a remark- 

 able power of occluding gases, produces a similar incrustation 



much more readily and at a lower temperature. It appears 

 probable that the action is merely mechanical ; that we have, in 

 fact, an immense number of microscopic volcanoes or solfataras, 

 evolving the occluded gases with such energy that portions of 

 the crater walls are detached and carried away by main force, 

 like their brethren on the large scale, the scoriae and lapilli, to 

 distances very considerable in comparison with the size of the 

 vents. 



The next meeting of the French Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science will be held in Oran from March 29 to April 3. 

 Interesting excursions will be made to Biskra and other places. 



At the meeting of the Meteorological Society of France, on 

 December 20, M. E. Lemoine was elected President for the 

 ensuing year. M. Renou made a communication on the rela- 

 tions which exist between the annual number of solar spats and 

 thunder-storms" in various places, and concluded that the works 

 hitherto published were far from sufficing to show any direct 

 dependence between the two phenomena. At the meeting of 

 January 11, M. Janssen, the retiring President, expressed his 

 opinion of the necessity of organizing meteorological stations on 

 a uniform plan at a certain number of stations, under the super- 

 intendence of professional and paid observers on whom a definite 

 programme could be imposed, instead of having volunteer 

 observers ; this view was also supported by M. Renou. The 

 latter gentleman also spoke of the importance of adopting a 

 uniform cloud nomenclature, and announced that he would 

 shortly present to the Society a work upon this subject. The 

 general secretary presented a note from M. Garrigou- Lagrange 

 on a new electrical anemometer giving the direction of the wind, 

 and the horizontal and vertical components of its force (see 

 Nature, November 3, 18S7, p. 18), and recommended its 

 adoption at some coast stations. 



The Council of the Royal Meteorological Society, 30 Great 

 George Street, Westminster, S.W. , have appointed a Com- 

 mittee to collect observations on British hail- and thunder-storms 

 from volunteer observers. The objects which they hope to 

 attain thereby are : — (i) A knowledge of the nature and causes 

 of the different kinds of thunder-storms, their attention having 

 been specially called to the subject by the great loss of life and 

 property during the past summer. (2) A discovery of the 

 localities where hail and thunder are most frequent and destruc- 

 tive. (3) If possible, to obtain an increased power of forecasting 

 hail and thunder, whereby they hope that eventually damage to 

 persons, stock, and property might be lessened. Forms and 

 instructions will be sent to intending observers. 



We have received a " Brief Sketch of the Meteorology of the 

 Bombay Presidency in 1886-87." It is by Mr. F. Chambers, 

 Meteorological Reporter for Western India. Mr. Chambers 

 points out that the meteorology of the year 1886-87 in the 

 Bombay Presidency presents several features of special interest. 

 There was a decided reappearance, for some time, of almost 

 exactly the same unfavourable meteorological conditions which 

 characterized the year 1877, when the rainfall in many parts of 

 the Presidency was disastrously deficient. Fortunately, these 

 unfavourable condhions did not last long enough to produce 

 distress, for although a prolonged break in the rains caused 

 considerable anxiety for a time, an excessive fall of rain late in 

 the season brought relief, and on the whole the year was a 

 favourable one. 



A severe earthquake occurred in Grenada on January 10. 

 A rumbling noise was immediately followed by a slight shock 

 and gentle lateral oscillations. Then came a very violent shock 

 and vertical undulating oscillations. These were succeeded by 

 gentle oscillations. The shock is supposed to have lasted 

 from twenty to thirty seconds. Several houses in the town of 



