June 19, 1879] 



NATURE 



183 



domestic purposes. They therefore do not recommend any 

 legislation for applying the light to private purposes on the 

 strength of its being practicable for large spaces and buildings, 

 but they do recommend that no legislative restrictions shall 

 be allowed to impede its further development. As to granting 

 authority for adopting the electric light, the committee think 

 there is already in existence sufficient power for applying it to 

 open spaces and large centres ; and, mentioning the diversity 

 of views among the witnesses as to whether or not mimicipal 

 bodies have power under existing statutes to break up streets for 

 the purpose of laying electric light wires, they say that if such 

 power does not exist it should be granted under proper ■ regula- 

 tions. They consider, however, that the time is not yet ripe for 

 allowing private companies to break up streets in order to supply 

 the electric light, but they advise that municipal authorities 

 should receive all possible help for public lighting by electricity, 

 and that the Legislature should be willing to give all reasonable 

 facilities for extending the use of the electric light where proper 

 demand for it arises. They consider further that for lighthouse 

 purposes the electric light has established itself, but they have 

 not been able to satisfy themselves from the evidence that electric 

 lighting is economical as compared with gas. 



The success of the J-iMoclikoff lights at the Palais de I'Industrie 

 is nightly increasing. The number of visitors exceeds 6,000 

 nightly, exclusive of press men, artists, and bearers of free tickets. 

 The salons are rather more crowded than in daylight. No extinc- 

 tion at all has been noticed since the first night. The change of 

 candles is effected by keys worked from the engine-house, and 

 takes less than a second for each series of lamps. Several 

 places of public entertaimnent in Paris areadopting the Jablochkoff 

 light principally to avoid the heat which results from burning 

 gas, and is so obnoxious in summer time. 



As an illustration of the combination of science and commerce 

 we may mention a new idea that has lately been carried out by 

 a Swiss firm of chocolate-makers. We are unable to say 

 whether the chocolate bon-bons have any peculiar merit in them- 

 selves, but the attraction lies in the manner of packing, the 

 sweetmeats being put up in boxes containing two layers of small 

 packets put up in very ornamental wrappers with coloured 

 detigns, in series representing the various branches of natural 

 hbtory, such as birds, butterflies, fishes, fruits, flowers, and even 

 paleontology and geography. Each box, containing about 

 twenty small packets of chocolate, is accompanied with a concise 

 descriptive treatise in French written by a competent naturalist. 

 That on birds is thus described: — "After a pleasant general 

 introduction on the utility and charming attraction of birds, and 

 the necessity for the protection and preservation of many, a 

 brief sketch is given of their properties of flight, structure, 

 organs of sense, sight, smell, and voice, respiration, nests, eggs, 

 and incubation, moulting, geographical distribution, migration, 

 utility to man, and general classification. Instructions are also 

 given for preparing and mounting bird-skins, and scientific de- 

 scriptions are furnished of those birds chosen for illustration 

 either for their beauty or brilliant plumage." A similar plan to 

 the above is adopted in other branches of natural history. 



Hartleben of Vienna armounces the publication of an 

 Illustrated History of Writing, a popular account of the origin 

 of writing, of speech, and of numbers, as well as the systems of 

 writing of all peoples. The author is Herr Karl Faulmann. 

 '''..e work will be illustrated with numerous coloured plates as 

 » ell as woodcuts. 



The Patriot of Angers relates that on June 10 an immense 

 number of butterflies were observed flying above a part of the 

 city called Le Mail. They w ere travelling at a little distance 

 from the earth, and inconveniencing persons walking in the 

 streets. The same phenomenon was observed in Alsace, at 



Bisheim, on the 8th. The Bisheim butterflies were so nimierous, 

 according to the Journal d' Alsace, that the light of day was 

 obscured. Their colour was red, in places tinged with grey. 

 On the 7th the commune of Wetzikon, in the canton of Zurich, 

 was invaded by an immense swarm of butterflies a kilometre 

 wide, and so long that the procession took two hours to pass. 

 They flew from two to ten metres above the ground, and went off 

 in a north-westerly direction. Swarms of grasshoppers have 

 recently appeared in Armenia. News from Elisabetpol states 

 that both the banks of the River Kur were completely covered 

 with the insects, as far as Terter on the one bank, and as far as 

 Akstafa on the other. All vegetation is devastated. 



The North German Gazette states that a woman in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Diisseldorf, who had been bitten by a mad dog, has 

 been cured by Dr. Offenberg, by an injection under the skin of a 

 dose of twenty centigrammes of curare. 



The village of Mariaweiler near Diiren (Rhenish Prussia) 

 proves to be a great field of debris of a Roman colony. A Roman 

 villa has just been excavated there so that most of the apartments 

 could be measured. An inscription in one of the rooms has not 

 yet been deciphered. The Roman coins found at the place date 

 down to the fourth century. 



Fossil remains of a mastodont have just been found in^Vienna 

 on the Ottakringer Strasse. Prof, von Hochstetter himself 

 undertook the excavation of the remains. With the exception 

 of the jaw and teeth all the bones found are much decomposed, 

 and it will be very difficult to preserve them. 



A Geneva correspondent writes that a meteor of remarkable 

 brightness and size was seen on June 7, about 10 p.m., in the 

 neighbourhood of that city. It was also seen at Neuchatel, Zug, 

 Milan, and over its entire course its path was sinuous, presenting 

 a strange zig-zag form. Some who saw it speak of it as having 

 the appearance of the full moon, giving out an iridescent or 

 greenish light. Its path was from north-east to south-west. 

 The meteor, according to the Times Geneva correspondent, was 

 seen in several other parts of the Confederation and at St. Vit- 

 tore Olona, in Lombardy. Four minutes after it finally disap- 

 peared, he states, there was heard a loud report, resembling a 

 volley of artillery. A similar report was heard in the Valaisian 

 Alps, and almost at the same time, according to the Gazette de 

 Lausanne, a shower of aerolites fell into Lake Lugano, near 

 Melide, causing violent undulations, and nearly overtiuTiing the 

 boats of several fishermen who were returning to port. 



On Friday last a first trial was made at Woolwich of the new 

 100-ton gun. The shot with which it was loaded weighed 2,010 lbs. 

 The gun was fitted with a gas check. Its diameter was very little 

 less than that of the bore, which has a calibre of 1 7I inches, increas- 

 ing to I9j inches in the powder chamber. The thickness of the 

 metal at the muzzle is about 5 inches only, but at the breech-end the 

 chamber is surrounded with a wall of iron 2 feet 5 inch through, 

 making the maximum diameter 6 feet 6 inches. The gun is 

 36 feet in length, of which the bore occupies 33 feet, and the 

 total length of gun and carriage when run out for firing is 

 44 feet. The cartridge, consisting of 440 lbs. of cube powder, 

 strongly bound in canvas and stiffened by wooden bands, was 

 rammed home, occupying 5 feet of the bore, and then followed 

 the projectile, the length of which was 2 feet 8 inches. The gun 

 was fired by electricity from the instrument-room, and recoiled 

 a considerable way up the platform, but suffered no damage 

 either to itself or the carriage. The screens registered a velocity 

 of 1,590 feet per second, but the iirojectile was found to have 

 broken up, which may have affected the result. 



The Mayor of Liverpool has given to the Council of the Iron 

 .-ind Steel Institute an invitation to visit that town in September, 

 and a deputation from the Council of the Institute waited upon 



