Dec. 13, 1888] 



NATURE 



59 



Meteor- Showtrs. 

 E.A. Decl. 



Near Pollux 



"5 

 195 



32 N. 

 67 N. 



Rather swift. 

 Swift ; streaks. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 

 Great activity is still being displayed by German explorers in 

 the interior of Togo-land. Captain C. von Fran9ois has brought 

 to a successful termination his journey into the country onfined 

 within the great bend of the Niger. The route taken by him 

 was as follows : viz. Kpandu, Salaga, lendi, Gambaga, and 

 then across the upper course of the Volta at Bupere (the river at 

 this spot, though more than 80 yards broad, is no longer 

 navigable). From this point he arrived on April 19 last at 

 Surma (11^ 28' N. lat.) in the country of Mosi. lie afterwards 

 made an excursion from Gambaga to the south-west by way of 

 Nantong to the River Volta, and returned to the coast through 

 Adeli. In the latter place he met Dr. L. Wolf, who founded a 

 station there on the Adado Mountains in the beginning of May, 

 having travelled to Adeli through the eastern part of Togo-land. 

 Dr. Wolf has, with the aid of a mercurial barometer, been able 

 to determine numerous altitudes with greater accuracy than any 

 measurements previously made in this part of Africa. It appears 

 from his results that Dr. Henrici has considerably over-estimated 

 the h;;ight of the Agome Mountains. Herr von Puttkamer, the 

 Imperial Commissioner, made in March an excursion into the 

 regi n of the French Protectorate as far as the lower course of 

 the Mono, and then explored the country of Agotime up to the 

 foot of the mountains. All these travellers agree in stating 

 that the prospects of the interior of Togo-land are very favour- 

 able, both "tas regards agriculture and commerce. The climatic 

 conditions of these uplands are much more favourable than those 

 f the coast. 



The last issue of the Bollettitto of the Italian Geographical 

 Society, which is a double number for October and November, 

 publishes an account by Dr. Leopoldo Travesi of an expedition 

 he made last November to the almost unknown district of 

 Jimma (Jimma-Kakka, Jimma Abba-Jifar) on the debatable 

 borderland between Abyssinia and Kaffa. Jimma constitutes a 

 petty Mohammedan State tributary to Menelek, King of Shoa, 

 in the Upper Valley of the Ghibeh, which is an important head- 

 stream of the Gugsa, and which had hitherto been crossed 

 only by one European, Travesi's fellow-countryman, Cecchi. 

 Through fear of "annexation ' or " protection," Europeans are 

 jealously excluded, and Travesi only succeeded in penetrating 

 into the country by joining the suite of its ruler, Abba-Jafir, wh ) 

 was returning from a visit to his suzerain, King Menelek. 

 Jimma forms a deep upland valley over 6000 feet above sea- 

 level, about 40 miles long and 10 broad, and inhabited by an 

 extremely mixed population, in which the Abyssinian, Galla, 

 and Negro elements are intermingled in diverse proportions. 

 Hence the great variety of types, and colours ranging from the 

 relatively fair and regular Hamitic to the dark and nearly pure 

 Negro, as well illustrated by the numerous photographs 

 Travesi succeeded in obtaining, and eight of which are here 

 reproduced. The penal code of Jimma is remarkable for its 

 simplicity, most offences being punished by "banishment," 

 which is here a euphuistic expression for "slavery." Hence 

 to the traveller's question, "What do you do with your 

 thieves and other criminals ?" the prompt reply invariably was 

 " We drive them from the country," meaning "We sell them." 

 Had Travesi been allowed to penetrate a little further south, he 

 would have solved the problem of the Juba and Sobat (White 

 Nile) water-parting. As it was, he was able, from native re- 

 port, almost to satisfy himself that the Gugsa, here called the 

 Uma and elsewhere the Abula, flows, not west to the Nile basin, 

 but south-east to Lake Abbala, which is known to be in the 

 Juba basin. Consequently the Gugsa may be regarded as the 

 chief head- stream of that river. He also heard of d'Abbadie's 

 Mount Wosho, here however called l-yoso, which lay away to 

 the south-east, and to describe the altitude of which the natives 

 exhausted the language of hyperbole. They could not exactly 

 say where it was, except that the country was called .\m'ca (?), 

 but they knew quite well it was the highest mountain in the world, 

 lost in the skie-, &c. The Wosho, whose existence was lately 

 imperilled by certain vague reports, seems thus, at all events, 

 "rehabilitated." 



ELECTRICAL NOTES. 



The magnetic elements for Paris for 1888 are — 



Declination 15° 52' i" 



Dip . . 63° 14' 7" 



H 019+80 



V 0'42245 



Total force o 46520 



SORET (Atr/i. (ies Sciences, April 1888) has reproduced Oliver 

 Dodge's experiment on the dissipation of fog on a small scale by 

 placing a platinum cup, containing water in a boiling condition, 

 by a Bunsen flame in connection with one pole of an influence 

 machine and a point above the water in connection with the other 

 pole. When the machine is not at work, so-called steam ascends 

 undisturbed, but when the machine is excited the clouds whirl 

 and move about in a flame-like fashion, until the vapour dis- 

 appears entirely. The experiment is made in a dark rjom, and 

 the cup is illuminated by a beam of electric ligh". 



C. L. Weber {Ann. Wiedemann, xxxiv. p. 576) has made some 

 interesting observations on the variation of the resistance of 

 alloys of tin-lead and tin-bismuth at their period of fusion. A 

 CDnsiderable and rapid increase of resi-tance is observed as the 

 fusing-point is reached, and it is the more marked the simpler 

 the composition of the alloys. Pb^Sn behaves like pure tin. 

 The tin-bismuth alloys are very irregular, for the specific 

 resistance of bismuth falls as the point of fusion is reached. 



Von Oettixgen {Ann. IViedemann, xxxiv. p. 570) has beer» 

 repeating his old experiments on the oscillatory dischai^es of 

 Leyden jars, and he has obtained some admirable photographs 

 of sparks. They give periods of oscillations varying from 19 to 

 39 millionths of a second. 



The use of Gassner's dry cell is making great progress ir» 

 Germany. In the latest formhydrated ferric oxide is used as the 

 depolarizer. Ferric oxide is said to abandon all its oxygen in 

 presence of sal ammoniac. 



A novel trial is about to commence in Philadelphia. It is 

 to decide the question whether electricity is a condition or a 

 thing, and whether it is something which is manufactured. 



A Congress of Electricians will be held in Paris, ir» 

 1889, under the presidency of M. Mascart, and under the 

 auspices of the International Society of Electricians. It is 

 proposed to hold the meeting in September, but the British 

 Association meeting in Newcastle will prevent many English 

 electricians from being present. 



The term "therm," in place oi caloric, for the unit of heat in the 

 C.G.S. system has not met with general approbation, as the other 

 name:! applied to the e units have done. It was, perhaps, hastily 

 accepted ; but has it occurred to the dissentients that it might be 

 dispensed with altogether, and that the unit of work "Joule" 

 answers all the purpose of a unit of heat ? There are 4-2 /oules 

 in a therm. They are of the same dimensions, and really indi- 

 cate the same physical quantity, viz. the mechanical equivalent of 

 heat. Calorie will, however, perhaps hold its own, now that 

 the C.G.S. system is so generally adopted. The only reason 

 that led to the acceptance of the therm was the confusion arising, 

 from the kilogramme-degree, as well as the gramme decree, being 

 called a cabrie, but the former is fast going out. 



THE ANN I VERSARY OF THE RO YAL SOCIE TY> 



FN the month which intervened between our last anniversary 

 and the end of the year, the Society lost four of its Fellows. 

 In addressing the Fellows last year, I referred to the loss which 

 science had sustained through the death of the illustrious 

 Kirchhoff, and before three weeks were oat, one followed hita 

 to the grave whose researches on the connection between the 

 emission and absorption of radiant heat and light were closely- 

 akin to those of Kirchhoff I refer to Balfour Stewart, who, 

 shortly after landing in Ireland,' whither he had gone to spend 

 the Christmas with his family, was suddenly carried off after 

 only a few hours' illness, shortly afier he had entered on his 

 sixtieth year. His name is widely known on account of his 

 scientific work in heat, magnetism, and solar physics. He has 

 been a member of the Council, and the Rumford Medal of the 

 Society was awarded to him for the particular research to which 

 I alluded at the outset. The other three of our ordinary Fellows 



' Address of the President, deliverei at the Ainivsrsary Meeting» 

 on November 30. 



