i6o 



NATURE 



\yune 12, 1879 



and for wages, &c., at least 75/. annually. Lord Roseberry has 

 given a donation of 50/., and other subscriptions raise the total 

 sum already obtained to 180/. It is not creditable to this 

 wealthy country that it possesses no zoological station, and we 

 trust our readers will do what they can to assist in raising the 

 moderate sum required. Subscriptions may be sent to >Mr. 

 G. J. Romanes, 1 8, Cornwall Terrace, Regent's Park, N. W. 



A NEW work is announced by Prof. Boyd Dawkins, on 

 " Early Man in Britain and Ilis Place in the Tertiary Period." 

 In this the results of geological and archaeological research, so 

 far as they relate to the history of man in this country, will be 

 placed before the reader in a connected narrative. Man will be 

 treated as the central figure in the tertiary period, and the 

 various changes in geography, climate, and living forms which 

 preceded his arrival in Britain, will be examined, as well as 

 those changes in his environment which took place after he 

 appeared in Europe. His antiquity, his relation to the glacial 

 period, and to existing peoples, and his manner of life, will be 

 discussed, as well as the distribution of the Iberic and Celtic 

 races, their manners ad customs, their progress in civilisation, 

 and the extent to which they were influenced by the civilised 

 nations of the Mediterranean. It is the principal object of this 

 work to give a picture of man isolated in Britain, from his first 

 arrival down to the Roman invasion. It will be largely illus- 

 trated with maps and engravings. The work will be published 

 by Messrs. Macmillan and Co. 



Mr. Rudler has succeeded to the place of the late Trenham 

 Reeks, in the Geological Museum, Jermyn Street. 



In an appreciative article on Sir Henry Bessemer, ct propos of 

 his knighthood, the Times gives some striking statistics to show 

 the vast advances made in the production of steel since the 

 adoption of the Bessemer process : — " Prior to this invention 

 the entire production of cast steel in Great Britain was only 

 about 50,000 tons annually, and its average price, \\hich ranged 

 from 50/. to 60/. per ton, was prohibitory of its use for many of 

 the purposes to which it is now universally applied. In the year 

 1877, notwithstanding the depression of trade, the Bessemer 

 steel produced in Great Britain alone amounted to 750,600 tons, 

 or fifteen times the total of the former method of manufacture ; 

 while the selling price averaged only lo/. per ton, and tlie coal 

 consumed in producing it was less by 3,500,000 tons than would 

 have been required in order to make the same quantity of steel 

 by the old or Sheffield process. The total reduction of cost is 

 equal to about 30,000,000/. sterling upon the quantity manufac- 

 tured in England during the year ; and in this way steel has 

 been rendered available for a vast number of purposes in which 

 its qualities are of the greatest possible value, but from which 

 its high price formerly excluded it. During the same year the 

 Bessemer steel m.anufactured in the five other countries in which 

 the business is chiefly conducted — namely, the United States, 

 Belgium, Germany, France, and Sweden — raised the total 

 output to 1,874,278 tons, with a net selling value of about 

 20,000,000/. sterling. The works in which these operations 

 were carried on were eighty-four in number, and represent a 

 capital of more than three millions. According to the calcula- 

 tions of Mr. Price Williams, who has made the endurance of 

 rails a matter of careful study, the substitution of Bessemer 

 steel for iron for this purpose alone will produce a saving of 

 expenditure during the life of one set of steel rails on all the 

 existing lines in Great Britain of a sum of more than one hun- 

 dred and seventy millions sterling. It may safely be said that 

 there is no other instance in history of an analogous impetus to 

 manufacture, or of an analogous economy, being the result of 

 the brain-work of a single individual ; still less is there an in- 

 stance of such results being realised while the inventor was 



living to enjoy the fruits of his labours, and able to work in 

 fresh directions to increase the benefits which he had already 

 conferred upon his country and upon mankind." 



The enterprising Birmingham Natural History and Microsco- 

 pical Society have again arranged a marine excursion, this time 

 to Falmouth, during next month, on a somewhat similar principle 

 to those to Arran, which proved so successful in the last two 

 years. Facilities will be afforded for dredging excursions and 

 for land excursions to investigate the botany and highly interest- 

 ing geolcgy of the district. The botany of the district is very 

 peculiar and interesting, and the geology is unique in the British 

 Islands, Kynahce Cove and the Lizard being within easy reach 

 of day excursions from Falmouth. During the summer season 

 a most interesting series of observations may be made on the 

 microscopic larval forms of niaiine life (hydroids, echinoderms, 

 annelids, &c.), which abound in the sea, and may at this time 

 readily be taken by the tow net. A small steamer will be 

 chartered, which will economise time and add to personal comfort. 

 The marine fauna of the Cornisli coast is exceedingly rich and 

 varied. The time for the excursion will be from the 5th to the 

 14th or 2 1 St of July. 



Prof. VircHOW has returned to Berlin from Asia Minor, 

 where, as our readers are aware, he had taken part in Dr. 

 Schliemann's excavations. The learned professor was received 

 with great honours at Athens. The Medical Faculty of the 

 High School of that city presented him with the honorary doctor's 

 diploma, and the Medical Society of Athens elected him an 

 honorary member. 



In digging a channel in the neighbourhood of Lake Neuchatel, 

 a lacustrine canoe, very nearly seven metres loiigj has been 

 found. It has been placed in the Cantonal Museum. 



In addition to the list of quite recent earthquakes we gave last 

 week, we now have reports of two more. At Aachen (Aix la 

 Chapelle) several shocks were felt on May 26, soon after 8 p.m., 

 which seemed to proceed in the direction from west to east ; and 

 at Idstein (in the Prussian province of Nassau) a violent shock 

 occurred on May 27, about I A.m. 



M. DE Lesseps has accepted the chairmanship of a committee 

 for arranging the commemoration of the eighteenth centenary of 

 the great eruption of "Vesuvius in 79, when Pliny lost his life, 

 and Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed. According 

 to the most trustworthy records it was on the 23rd of August that^™, 

 this unexpected event took place. ^H 



M. C1.AMOND, the inventor of a thermo-electric pih, has 

 succeeded in producing a current strong enough to work a 

 Serrin regulator with tolerable success. The expense is only 

 7 kilogrammes of coals per hour, and the appearance of the^^ 

 battery reminds one of an ordinary furnace. 3H 



The Paris Academy of Meteorological Ascents has inaugiu-ated 

 the series of its aerial excursions. The first took place at St. 

 Mandes and the second at Arcueil on the occasion of the opening 

 of the Ecole Laplace. The ascensionists propose to take photo- 

 graphs from the car in order to ascertain the position of the 

 balloons and make a verification of the laws of barometric 

 height. The original idea of this difficult operation may be 

 attributed to Leverrier. Each of these ascents will be followed 

 by the publication of diagrams and scientific results obtained. 

 They are prefaced by a lecture, given by a member of the associa- 

 tion, on the practice of aeronautics. 



From June 7 up to the end of the month the exhibition of 

 Beaux Arts at the Paris Palais de I'Industrie will be lighted every 

 night by electricity. The motive power Is supplied by 262 

 Jablochkoff electric lights. 120 have been distributed in the 



