76 



NATURE 



\May 27, 1875 



A SHOCK of earthquake was felt at Spezzia, Italy, on May 20. 

 It is possible that the earthquakes which were felt almost daily 

 in Italy a few weeks since were connected with the Icelandic 

 phenomena ; generally, any volcanic commotion in Iceland occurs 

 simultaneously with volcanic or seismic phenomena iu Italy. 



The University of Cambridge proposes to con 'or the honorary 

 degree of LL.D. upon Dr. Samuel Birch, F.S.A., the Keeper of 

 Oriental Antiquities in the British Museum. 



The death is announced, on Feb. 5 last, at the age of thirty-five 

 years, in the interior of Africa, of Mr. Frank Gates, F.R.G.S., 

 who, since the beginning of 1873, has been travelling in that 

 country with the twofold object of acquiring an accurate know- 

 ledge of its natural features and of studying its fauna. After 

 spending some time in the Matabele country, north of the 

 Limpopo River, towards the end of last year Mr. Gates pro- 

 ceeded to the Victoria Falls, on the Zambesi. Shortly after 

 leiving the Zambesi, when near to the Makalake towns, he 

 succumbed to fever. Mr. Gates's effects, it is hoped, will be 

 brought home by a personal friend, who has recently gone up 

 count ry from Pietermaritzburg. They include a large number of 

 specimens of natural history and curiosities which Mr. Gates 

 had collected, besides all his notes and papers, and are expected 

 to prove of very considerable interest. Mr. Gates had already 

 made a successful expedition into North and Central America. 



The Report read at the Anniversary of the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society on Monday shows a net increase of 202 mem- 

 ber.-, the roll of ordinary members now reaching the total of 2,960 

 The total income of the year was 7,511/. 11^. loa'., all but about 

 500/. of which has been disbursed. Medals were presented to 

 Count von Beust on behalf of Lieuts. Weyprecht and Payer, and 

 to the successful competitors in the public schools examinations. 

 A presentation gold watch was handed by the chairman. Sir 

 H. C, Rawlinson, to Col. Montgomerie, of the Indian Trigono- 

 metrical Survey, for transmission to Mr. W. H. Johnson, the 

 explorer of Kuen Lun and Khotan. The President, in his 

 address, referred to the losses by death sustained by the Society, 

 to the Arctic Expedition, to the Admiralty Surveys in the 

 Challenger, the Basiliik, the Shearwater, and other vessels, and 

 to other geographical topics. 



Mr. William Macleay, of Sydney, who has fitted out the 

 expedition for the exploration of New Guinea, is, we believe, an 

 ardent naturalist. The ship he has purchased is named the 

 Chevert, and has been placed under the command of Captain 

 Edwards. Mr. Macleay accompanies the expedition, which left 

 Sydney on the i8th inst. 



The body of an American, John Blackford by name, has 

 recently been found in a large ice-block in the vicinity of Mont 

 Blanc, after several days of thaw. The unfortunate tourist had 

 tried three years ago to ascend Mont Blanc without a guide, 

 and had not since been heard of Features and clothes are 

 perfectly preserved. 



In the vicinity of Salzwedel an immense layer of rock-salt has 

 been discovered. Borings had been made for some time past 

 with a view to discovering coal ; the formation of limestone, 

 however, in which these experiments were made, is extremely 

 hard, and the borings made but small progress. At the be- 

 ginning of this year the first specimens of rock-salt were ob- 

 tained at a depth of about 730 feet. The borings have now 

 gone 250 feet deeper, and the rock-salt remains the same. It is 

 the intention of the proprietor to go to a depth of 2,000 feet. 



Mr. Mallet's paper on " The Nature and Grigin of Vol- 

 canic Heat and Energy," read to the Royal Society in 1872, and 

 published in Phil. Trans, for 1873, has been translated in full 

 into German by Dr. A. von Lasaulx, Professor of Geology at 

 the University of Bonn, and published as a separate work. We 

 regret that a few clerical errors which' escaped correction until 



the original paper was published, together with the necessary 

 errata, have been overlooked by the translator. The errors are, 

 however, self-evident, and occur in the German translation in 

 paragraphs 186 to 198. The errors originate by dividing, in 

 place of multiplying, a certain number of heat units at line 11, 

 par. 186, and do not affect the argument of the paper. 



A little medal of palladium, with hydrogen occluded in it, 

 now at Leeds, is described by the compiler of the " Yorkshire 

 Exhibition Guide" in the following terms:— "A medal and 

 plate formed of the new metal, palladium, will be interesting to 

 scientific men. The discovery of this metal by Prof. Graham a 

 few years ago finally settled the long-disputed point as to 

 whether or not the gas hydrogen was a metal. He provtd that 

 palladium was simply hydrogen condense!. This may be easily 

 exemplified by placing a piece of the metal under the receiver of 

 an air-pump and exhausting the air. The solid metal at once 

 flies off as a gas, and on re-admitting the air it shrinks again into 

 its former size. The little medal shown contains lOO times its 

 volume of the gas." The writer's wild remarks display so much 

 ignorance, that it is to be feared, notwithstanding their calm 

 positiveness, they can hardly be attributed to a firm and cheerful 

 faith in molecular mobility. 



The French Academy of Sciences, at its private meetings, is at 

 present deliberating upon the means of diminishing the expenses 

 of publishing the Coviptes Rendus without injuring the interest of 

 science. The yearly expense of editing that journal is about 

 70,000 francs, after deducting the receipts from the sale, which 

 is not very large. The Academy has a very liberal free list, the 

 number of copies presented amounting to many hundreds. It has 

 been proposed by M. Leverrier to use a smaller type. Gbjections 

 have been raised by some members, who wi.sh merely to diminish 

 the number of pages allotted to the several papers. But it is 

 very likely that the former suggestion will be adopted, and steps 

 taken to make the Conptes Kenans less bulky. The Compter 

 Hendus forms yearly two thick quarto volumes. The eightieth 

 volume is in course of publication. The number of pages pub- 

 lished since the ist of June, 1835, is about 100,000. 



The Report of Brigadier-General Myer, Chief Signal Gfficer 

 of the United States for 1874, has just been received. This 

 Report, giving an admirable resume of the meteorology of the 

 United States lor 1873-74, and exhibiting throughout an earnest- 

 ness and a vigour in the successful application of the science to 

 practical matter-;, we shall fake an early opportunity to bring 

 before our readers. 



Symons' " British Rainfall," showing the distribution of rain 

 over the British Isles during 1874, as observed at about 1,700 

 stations, has just been published. It contains, in addition to 

 the usual large mass of valuable information detailing the rain- 

 fall of the year, a notice of the remarkable rainfall of Gctober 6. 

 and a map showing its distribution over England and south of 

 Scotland ; [and papers on the measurement of snow and on the 

 rainfall at certain health-resorts in the United Kingdom. We 

 observe with much satisfaction that the editor has ob- 

 tained the services of nine gentlemen as county superinten- 

 dents, to assist him in collecting the rain returns of their 

 respective districts, it being in this way that the observation of 

 this important element will best be rendered still more com- 

 plete. The publication of the monthly as well as the annual 

 amounts of rain for the whole of the 1,700 stations is very 

 desirable, and it is hoped that in an early issue of the "British 

 Rainfall " it will be done. 



A NEW street in Magdeburg has just been called " G uerike 

 Street." Gur readers know that Otto von Guerike, some time- 

 Burgomaster of Magdeburg, was the inventor of the air-pump. 



On May 20 the Plenipotentiaries of France, Austria, Germany, 

 Italy, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Switzerland, Belgium, 



