Oc(. 23. 1879J 



NATURE 



615 



tube of the telescope and attached thereto by three or more 

 clastic caoutchouc bands. He bad employed two of these rings 

 for his telescope, one placed near the object-glass, the other near 

 the eye-piece. Their united weights were only one-quarter of 

 that of the telescope tube, but nevertheless they diminished the 

 time required for the cessation of vibration to one-sixth of what 

 it was before their application. 



It i? curious to see the impression which the electric light has 

 made on two semi-civilised monarchs, the recent barbarities of 

 one of whom at least have proved him to be little better than a 

 savage. The King of Burmah, the papers tell us, has recently 

 ordered a wholesale importation of electric lighting apparatus ; 

 and from a note in the last number of Les Mondes we learn 

 that the Shah of Persia has had the light introduced into 

 Teheran, showing an intelligent interest in its working under the 

 directioi of a Frenchman, M. Fabius Boital. So pleased was 

 his Persian Majesty with the display that, Les Mondes states, he 

 "decided on the creation of a palace of industry, the construc- 

 tion of which he has confided to M. Boital." Let us hope that 

 the Shah will continue in this laudable frame of mind, and be 

 led on to introduce many of the other beneficial applications of 

 science into his ill-governed country. 



Mr. Franxis Galton has reprinted, with some additions, 

 an abstract of his Royal Institution lecture on Generic Images. 

 Appended are some interesting autotype illustrations showing 

 the re.'ult of composite likenesses of Alexander the Great and 

 Napoleon I., and the composite result of likenesses of six 

 Roman ladies and of eighteen criminals. 



Mr. R. Irwin Lynch, late of the Royal Gardens, Kew, has 

 been appointed Curator of the Cambridge Botanic Garden, in 

 place of the late Mr. Mudd. 



The following scientific missions have been authorised by the 

 French Government for this year :— Ernst Charire, of the Lyons 

 Museum, is to carry out anthropological investigations in Ivasan, 

 the Caucasus, the Crimea, and Turkey ; Emil Riviere, prehistoric 

 researches in the department of Alpes Maritinics; and Paul 

 Sarda to investigate the geology of the soil of Japan, and vihit 

 the most important mining districts. 



Dr. Karl Russ, 'the well-known ornithologist, has, in his 

 serial his, issued a request to all sportsmen in Germany to abstain 

 dvuring the present shooting season from killing hares and 

 partridges, as he opines that in many places both kinds of game 

 would be completely exterminated if his warning is not heeded. 

 Sportsmen in this country would perhaps also do well to give 

 the subject some consideration, as there is no doubt that the two 

 species named must have suffered considerably from the un- 

 favourable weather which prev.iiled during the last spring and 

 summer. 



Earthquakes are reported from Klagenfurt and Grafenstein 

 in Carinthia. At the former place a violent shock « as felt on 

 the 1st iast. at 2h. 20m. 253. a.m. The phenomenon lasted for 

 2-3 seconds-, and was accompanied by loud subterranean 

 rumbling. The direction in nhich it proceeded was norlh-norlh- 

 east to south-south-west. At the latter place a shock was felt 

 on the 1st inst. at 2h. 5m. p.m., also accompanied by a rumbling 

 noise ; direction, west to cast. In the Chinese provinces 0} 

 Shen-Si and Kan-Su earthquakes have quite recently caused 

 much d imaged. It would seem that the earthquake which 

 occurred on Friday and Saturday, the loth and nth inst., ex- 

 tended over a far wider area than had at first been reported. 

 Shocks of greater or less violence were felt not only all over 

 Eastern Hungary, but throughout Transylvania, Servia, Rou- 

 mania, and even Bessarabia. The phenomenon manifested itself 

 in Belgrade at h.alf-past four in the afternoon of the loth, and 

 iasted ei^ht seconds, the direction of the motion being north- 



north-east and south-south-west. In Weisskirchen there were 

 two violent shocks felt on Friday afternoon about a quarter 

 before five o'clock. Further shocks were experienced at half- 

 past seven, and again on Saturday morning at a quarter to five, 

 and all through the night slighter quakings and oscillations of 

 the earth were constantly being repeated. A large number of 

 chimneys were thrown down, and a number of houses were 

 cracked and otherwise damaged at this place. From Temesvar 

 it is reported that a number of shocks, one rapidly succeeding 

 the other, were felt, the ground oscillating under foot. The 

 shocks in Karansebes were so violent as to dash plates and dishes 

 from their shelves to the ground, while to people in the street the 

 ground appeared to rock with an unsteady motion like that of a 

 vessel on a rough sea. 



We have more than once remarked on the extreme incom- 

 pleteness of the indices to that most valuable journal, the 

 Quarterly Journal of Mkroscopieal Science. The index to the 

 new volume (xix.) is not even as complete as the table of con- 

 tents. It is in the interest of both zoology and botany that 

 we make these remarks. 



M. Edouard Sarasin has recently established a registering 

 limnimeter, similar to those of MM. F. A. Forel and Th. 

 riantamour at Geneva, in a locality close to Vevey, near the 

 eastern extremity of the Lake of Geneva. Several observations 

 which he has made since the establishment of the instrument 

 fully confirm the results of the investigations of Forel on the 

 state of permanent oscillation of the fluid mass. The times of 

 maxima and minima of the height of the water coincide with 

 those which are observed at Geneva, showing their predicted 

 alternation, and following an analogous period of seventy-eight 

 minutes. 



The establishment of the electric light at the British Museum 

 appears to have been successful. Eleven lights in all have been 

 fitted up, and of these four are placed in the reading-room, four 

 in other parts of the building, and three outside it. The four in 

 the reading-room are placed, one in the centre and tlu-ee equi- 

 dislantly around it. They are supplied « ith continuous currents, 

 each from its own Siemens dynamo-electric machine. Of .the 

 lights in other parts of the Museum, two are placed in the 

 entrance-hall, one in the reading-room corridor, and one in the 

 Greek gallery. In the courtyard in front of the building are two 

 more lights, while another is placed in the rear, near to the 

 engine and machine-house. These seven lights are supplied from 

 one Siemens machine, producing an alternating or divided 

 current. It will thus be seen that two different systems of electric 

 lighting are employed, both, however, being on the Siemens 

 principle — tlie four lights in the reading-room being 'produced 

 by continuous currents, and calculated to be each equal to 4,000 

 candles, the seven other lights, which are estimated at 400 

 candles each, being produced by an alternating current, and 

 being connected in one circuit about 1,200 yards in length. 



The Indian Museum w iU be finally closed to the public on 



Saturday. 



The laying of the new cable from MarseUles to Oran, in 

 Algerij, has been attended with several mischances. The 

 operation has been executed in a singular manner. The 

 Dacia laid down the land cable from Algiers and steamed to 

 Marseilles, iu order to begin the operation from France. The 

 end of the land cable had been buoyed, but when the Dacia 

 tried to pick it up to connect it with the end coming from 

 France, it broke. The Dacia and Cliarcnte tried to recover it 

 with grapnels, but up to the present time without any other 

 result than deteriorating the existing cable, which is now out of 

 use ; so that instead of having two cables, the capital of Algeria 

 has none. All the messages were sent by the Bone line, which is 

 encumbered by w ork, being mostly devoted to messages from 



