46o 



NA rURE 



{Sept. 23, 1875 



them receiving 4,000 francs yearly. The instruments are to be 

 under the direct supervision of the Minister of PubUc Instruc- 

 tion. 



Meteors of unusual brilliancy have been seen from several 

 points of late. We recently noticed one seen from the Radcliffe 

 Observatory, Oxford, on Sept. 3, and from the same place we 

 learn that a large meteor was observed on Sept. 7, iih. 21m. 

 Greenwich mean time, about twice the apparent magnitude of 

 Jupiter, increasing to about four times that of Jupiter, with an 

 accompanying tail of about 5° in length, from near 4 Arietis to a 

 point near/Tauri, where it burst into five or six pieces. Colour, 

 blue to green, with red at bursting. Time^visible, about seven 

 seconds. It was seen by Mr. Lucas and Mr. Bellamy. Another 

 very peculiar one was seen from Edinburgh and neighbourhood 

 on the nth inst. A Burntisland correspondent, Mr. G. J. P. 

 Grieve, writes that about II P. M. that evening, while pacing a 

 gravel walk in moonlight and partly gaslight, a sudden vivid 

 gleam from behind threw his shadow clear cut on a bright 

 ground. Turning sharp to see the origin of the blaze, after a 

 second or so he noticed a serpentine meteor : the glow or trace 

 left in the path of a shooting star, whose maximum intensity, if 

 not explosion, lay at the west end of the trace. The trace 

 appeared in Auriga, and so close to the three leading stars next 

 south of Capella, that he had not the least difficulty in sketching 

 the position. The particulars are these :— Station in lat. N. 

 56° 3' 57" ; long. W. 3° 13' 10". Position of meteor, in constel- 

 lation Auriga. Duration from first blaze to disappearance of 

 trace, three to four minutes. Timed at disappearance of trace, 

 1 1. 2| p. M. by Edinburgh gun time. Several letters on this serpen- 

 tine meteor — "the sky snake " they call it in the north — appear 

 in the Scotsman, all agreeing as to its peculiar form^and great 

 briUiancy. One observer near Mid Calder "was attracted by 

 the appearance of a magnificent meteor, which was visible for 

 about two seconds, and which, being apparently interrupted in 

 its flight, assumed a zigzag course ; and, flashing brightly at 

 each angle thus formed, it disappeared, leaving the snake-shaped 

 track behind it, which was visible for several minutes afterwards, 

 finally disappearing in the form of a ring." On the night of the 

 14th inst. another magnificent one was visible, apparently over 

 all England, It is noticed in the Bradford Observer of the 15th, 

 and Mr. T. W. Shore writes us that he-'saw it while in the 

 Southampton Water. The time of its appearance, both, in the 

 north and south of England, was 8.30 P.M. Mr. Shore, while 

 looking towards the land on the north, observed the meteor com- 

 mence its luminous course at an apparent altitude of about 30°, 

 and travel to the hoiizon in a direction from S.E. to N.W. The 

 meteor appeared to him to be about three or four times the 

 brightness of Jupiter, and the time of its course rather more than 

 two seconds. The Bradford Observer states that "all accounts 

 agree in saying that it presented, the appearance of a flying body 

 of light of considerable size, and that during the period of its 

 passage it lighted the whole sky. It would seem that it first 

 made its appearance from the south-west, its course being over 

 Bowhng Park and in a north-westerly direction over Bowling, 

 Hoiton, and Manningham, and a spectator describes it as an 

 oblong body of light, several feet in length, and bearing the 

 appearance of some solid body in a state of combustion, the 

 sparks flying out on all sides, and a track of flame being left 

 after its passage. Its passage was accompanied by a noise as of 

 a loud explosion, which was plainly heard, not only by those 

 who were outside, but by persons inside the houses who did not 

 see the aerolite itself. All parties concur in saying that so strong 

 a light was cast around that a newspaper could easily be read for 

 the space of half a minute." The same meteor was seen from 

 Manchester and London, and no doubt from various other 

 places. In the report of the meteor of Sept. 3, 5 should be 

 \ Piscis Australis. 



iN'order to stimulate research, experiment, and invention, and 

 to promote the advancement of mining enterprise in Cornwall 

 and Devon, Mr. G. L. Basset, of Tehidy, offers prizes under the 

 following conditions : — l. For the discovery of a new mineral, 

 in Cornwall or Devon, which is deemed likely to become com- 

 mercially; valuable, a prize of 50/. An accurate analysis and a 

 description of the leading physical properties and distinguishing 

 characteristics of the mineral to be given, specimens to be handed 

 to the Committee, and the locality and mode of occurrence to be 

 distinctly described. 2. For the invention of a method — me- 

 chanical or chemical — of making marketable with commercial 

 advantage, ores or minerals produced in Cornwall or Devon, and 

 hitherto regarded as worthless or of little value. The method 

 to be clearly described, and specimens of the product in its 

 several stages to be jhanded to the Committee ; or, for the dis- 

 covery of some new application of a mineral substance already 

 known to occur in Cornwall or Devon, either by itself or in com- 

 bination, tojsome useful purpose, so as to render it of marketable 

 value, or materially to enhance its value if already marketable to 

 some extent — a prize of 100/. The prizes to be awarded at the 

 discretion and according to the judgment of a Committee, con- 

 sisting of the President and Hon. Sec. of the Miners' Association, 

 and some other gentlemen to be nominated by Mr. Basset.! |A11 

 communications on this subject must be addressed, in the first 

 instance, to Mr. J. H. Collins, F.G.S., hon. sec. of the Miners' 

 Association of Cornwall and Devon, 57, Lemon Street, Truro. 



According to information communicated to Aftonbladet from 

 Christiania, the Norwegian vessel, which in the end of August 

 met Nordenskjold west of Novaya Zemlya, was the yacht Elvire 

 Dorothea, belonging to J. Berger, in Hammerfest. The yacht 

 has returned from the Arctic Sea to Hammerfest. Its master, 

 Johan Alexandersen, states that the Sea of Kara was nearly free 

 of ice, and that it cannot be doubted that Nordenskjold will 

 reach the goal of his journey, the River Obi. 



M. Leverrier has announced to the French Academy that 

 Mr. Hind, the superintendent of the Nautical Almanack, intends 

 to employ his new Tables of Saturn as soon as they are printed. 

 He reminded the Academy '^that this will be the sixth table con- 

 structed by him that the British Admiralty has introduced into 

 the almanack, and ,he expressed his sense of the honour thus 

 done him by the Admiralty. 



An interesting and very useful publication comes to us 

 from Germany, under the title of " Die Fortschritte des Darwi- 

 nismus," by J. W. Spengel (Cologne and Leipzig, E. W. 

 Mayer). This is the second number of the publication, and 

 originally appeared as a paper in Klein's Revue der Natur- 

 wissenschaften. The purpose of the brochure of eighty pages is 

 to give a brief review of all the works and articles of importance 

 bearing onjDarwinism, either /w or ^^«, published during 1873-4. 

 A very large number of such works, in various languages, is 

 noticed, and their bearing on the Darwinian hypothesis pointed 

 out. The work will be found of great use to those who have 

 not access or have not time to consult all the various publica- 

 tions bearing on the important theory, and will also serve as 

 an excellent bibliography to those who wish to make a thorough 

 study of the subject. 



The German Scientific and Medical Association was opened 

 at Graz on the 17th inst. Lieut. Weyprecht, of the recent 

 Austrian Arctic Expedition, made a speech deprecating all past 

 Arctic expeditions as adventurous and valueless because they con- 

 stituted an international rivalry that resulted only in giving 

 names to some ice-bound islands. The speaker, amid general 

 applause, expounded a new programme for making Arctic expe- 

 ditions more fruitful for natural science, and to enable poorer 

 countries to undertake such expeditions. 



In the American Boston Medical and Surgical Journal for 

 July there is a paper by Dr. H. P. Bowditch, on the course of 



