July 3. 1879] 



NATURE 



231 



ordinary luminous phenomena — whilst the other is exhausted to 

 about the millionth of an atmosphere. I will first connect the 

 moderately exhausted bulb with the induction-coil, and, retaining 

 the pole at one side (a) always negative, I will put the positive 

 wire successively to the other three poles with which the bulb is 

 furnished. You will see that as 1 change the position of the 

 positive pole, the line of violet light joining the two poles 

 changes. In this moderately exhausted bulb, therefore, the 

 electric current always chooses the shortest path between the 

 two poles, and moves about the bulb as I alter the position of 

 the wires. 



This, then, is the kind of phenomenon we get in ordinary 

 exhaustions. I will now try the same experiment with a tube 

 that is highly exhausted, and, as before, will make the side pole 

 (a') the negative, the top pole {b) being positive. Notice how 

 widely different is the appearance from that shown by the last 

 bulb. The negative pole is in the form of a shallow cup. The 

 bundle of rays from the cup crosses in the centre of the bulb, 

 and thence diverging, falls on the opposite side as a circular 

 jxitch of green light. As I turn the bulb round you will all be 

 able to see the faint blue focus and the green patch on the glass. 

 Now observe, I remove the positive wire from the top, and con- 

 nect it with the side pole (c). The green patch from the diver- 

 gent negative focus is still there. 1 now make the lowest pole 

 \d) positive, and the green patch still remains where it was at 

 first, unchanged in position or intensity. 



This, then, gives us another fact which brings us a little nearer 

 to the cause of this green phosphorescence. It is this — that in the 

 low vacuum the position of the positive pole is of every import- 

 ance, whilst in a high vacuum it scarcely matters at all where 

 the positive pole is ; the phenomena seem to depend entirely on 

 the negative pole. In very high vacua, such as we have been 

 using, the phenomena follow altogether the negative pole. If 

 the negative pole points in the direction of the positive, all very 

 well, but if the negative pole is entirely in the opposite direction 

 it does not matter ; the line of rays is projected all the same in 

 a straight line from the negative. 



( To le continued. ) 



NOTES 



The following grants have just been made from the Research 

 Fund of the Chemical Society : — 30/. to Mr. W. Whitley 

 Williams for experiments on an improved method of organic 

 analysis ; 25/. to Mr. M. M. Pattison Muir, of Caius College, 

 Cambridge, for determining the physical constants and chemical 

 liabitudes of certain bismuth compounds; 15/. to Mr. J. M. 

 Thomson for experiments on the action of isomorphous bodies in 

 exciting the crj-stallisation of super-saturated solutions ; 50/. to 

 Dr. Wright for continuing his researches on chemical dynamics ; 

 25/. to Mr. F. D. Brown for continuing his researches on the 

 theory of fractional distillation ; 30/. to Mr. Bolas for an investi- 

 gation of certain chromium compounds ; 20/. to Mr. F. R. Japp 

 for an investigation of the action 'of organo-zinc compounds on 

 quinones ; and loo/. (the De la Rue donation) to Dr. II. E. 

 Armstrong for the determination of certain physical properties, 

 especially refractive indices, of typical chemical compounds. Dr. 

 De la Rue has announced his intention of presenting the fund 

 with another 100/. This will be the third donation of that amount 

 which the fund has received from him. 



The Council of the Royal Society of Edinburgh have decided 

 to award the Makdougall Brisbane Prize for the biennial period 

 1877-78 to Prof. Geikie for his "Memoir on the Old Red 

 Sandstone of Western Europe," Part I., published in the 

 S .ciety's Transactions, and forming part of his valuable contri- 

 L utions to geology. 



General Mver, of the U.S. Signal Corps, has arrived in 

 Paris from Rome, on his way to London, where he will have 

 an interview with the Meteorological Board for the purpose 

 of establishing an under.-tanding in matters of common in- 

 terest, especially on the subject of exchanging telegrams with 

 America, so that both nations may enjoy a daily summary of the 

 weather on each continent. 



M. Lissajous has been elected a Foreign Corresponding 

 Member in the Paris Academy, Section of Physics, in place of 

 the late Dr. von Mayer. 



Dr. Faivre, the Dean of the Lyons Faculty of Sciences, has 

 been run over by a cart when conducting a number of pupils to a 

 botanical excursion. His constitution was so dreadfully shaken 

 that he died after a few days of suffering. Dr. Faivre was 

 opposed to the Darwinian theory, and has published books 

 against the mutation of species. His most important publication 

 was a review of Goethe's scientific works. 



The collection of living reptiles in the Jardin des Plantes, 

 Paris, has just received an interesting addition in the shape of 

 three living examples of the rare East-Indian serpent known to 

 naturalists as Acrochordus javanicus. These snakes belong to 

 quite a peculiar type of the Ophidian order, and are, in fact, 

 truly fresh-water snakes, living among rocks wholly immersed 

 beneath the surface, and but seldom rising up to inhale air. They 

 are quite harmless, and allow themselves to be handled without 

 difficulty. The food of the Acrochordus is supposed to be fruit — 

 a most anomalous diet for a snake, if this is really the case, but 

 the specimens at Paris have not yet shown a taste for eating 

 anything. 



With reference to a recent note, the Abbe Moigno writes us 

 from Rome that he has not resigned the editorship of Z«il/o«</«, 

 which he has edited for twenty-seven years. He has gone to 

 Rome to lay at the feet of the Pontiff the results of many years 

 laborious work, but will return as he went, not a Cardinal, but 

 the doyct! of scientific journalists, eager for progress in all direc- 

 tions. We sincerely wL-h the Abbe irany more years to carry 

 on the work of editing his well-known journal, that has for so 

 long done good service to science. 



Among other recommendations made at the recent meeting of 

 the International Meteorological Congress was the adoption of 

 the meridian of Greenwich as the starting-point for the construc- 

 tion of synoptic weather charts. In the event of another meridian 

 being used in the construction of meteorological charts the Con- 

 gress recommended that the difference of longitude between the 

 meridian employed and that of Greenwich should be stated on 

 the chart. 



A TERRIFIC thunderstorm broke over Paris on June 28 at six 

 o'clock in the morning. There were a number of casualties ; 

 one of the most singular occurred in a room in the rue de Clichy, 

 No. 34, where two old ladies live. One of them was drinking 

 milk from a cup, which was knocked from her hands and could 

 not be found, although the lady escaped unhurt. In the rez-dc 

 chaussce w as the shop of a chemist, where a number of bottles 

 were broken, and in the same house a bed, where a woman had 

 taken refuge, w as cut into tw o equal parts. 



In a balloon ascent which took place at Rouen on June 15 

 last with a large balloon, the occupants of the car found at 

 12,000 metres from the earth a cloud where the cold was so 

 intense that small icicles were seen suspended to the beards and 

 moustaches of the travellers. 



The Parkes Museum of Hygiene, founded as a memorial of 

 the late Dr. E. A. Parkes to promote the study of all matters 

 bearing upon the health of the community or the individual, was 

 formally opened on Saturday by the Home Secretary, in the rooms 

 en the top floor of the building lent by the council of University 

 College until f-cpara'e and suitable premises can be obtained. 

 At present there have been brought together apparatus, speci- 

 mens, books, reports, and drawings illustrative of matters con- 

 nected with engineering and local hygiene ; architecture, in- 

 cluding general designs and detaili, of buildings, methods of 

 constructing hospitals, blocks of artisans' dwellings, &c., with 



