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NATURE 



[Dec. 20, 1888 



Mr. Keltic, Prof. Ray Lankester, Mr. Norman Lockyer, Prof 

 MacAlister, Col. Maurice, Captain Moriarty, Dr. John Murray, of 

 the Challenger Commission, Prof. Newton, Prof Roberts- Austen, 

 Prof. Vines, General Walker. At the close of the banquet the 

 •Chairman read letters which had been received from scholars 

 and men of science at home and abroad. In asking the company 

 to pledge each other in good fellowship in the loving cup, he said 

 he could not deny himself the pleasure of saying with how much 

 cordiality and heartfelt gratitude he and his fellow -editor, Mr. J. 

 S. Black, and the publishers greeted the contributors, who, by 

 their hearty assistance and their constant readiness to do far more 

 than one had a right to expect from contributors, had made it 

 possible for them to carry to its completion a work the difficulties 

 of which could not be appreciated other than by those who had 

 ito edit it. Having explained the difficulty of recognizing in one 

 toast more than a thousand English and foreign scholars, of 

 whom not more than one-tenth were present, Dr. Robertson 

 Smith said he would follow the example of the title-page of the 

 "Encyclopaedia Britannica " and propose three toasts — Litera- 

 ture, Science, and Art. In submitting the firs-t of these toasts, 

 he referred to the great judgment and skill of his predecessor, 

 Prof. Spencer Baynes. Dr. Garnett responded for Literature, 

 Dr. A. Geikie for Science, and M. Yriarte for Art. Prof 

 Michael Foster, amid cheer?, gave "The Health of the Editor." 

 AVith regard to the first editor, they would all agree with him 

 that the qualities which Prof. Baynes had for carrying on this 

 great work were in a certain way unexampled. His great 

 knowledge of men and things and the fascinating way in which 

 he made one contribute an article were beyond compare. Con- 

 cerning the present editor he would prefer to fall back upon the 

 letter received from Prof. Huxley, in which he said : — " The 

 influence for good of the spirit of sound criticism which per- 

 meates all the theological articles cannot be over-estimated ; 

 and in all other respects, so far as I can judge, the work is 

 wonderfully well carried out." The toast was drunk with musical 

 honours. Dr. Robertson Smith said it was hardly possible for 

 him to thank them sufficiently for the way in which they had 

 drunk his health. He would repeat how very much he had felt 

 the constant kindness and support of all his contributors, without 

 which a work of the kind was impossible. He feared that th'e 

 ■editor must sometimes be more or less exacting in such cases. 

 It certainly pained him more to be so than, according to his 

 •experience, it pained the contributor to meet the wishes that he 

 expressed. Although all good English work had been due to the 

 spirit of accommodation and of friendly help that pervaded our 

 •national life, from his own experience he did not think that any 

 monument of English work had shown more of this good quality, 

 ■which characterized literary men of every nationality, than had 

 the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." Prof Newton proposed " The 

 Publishers," and Mr. Adam W. Black responded. Mr. Suther- 

 land Black gave "The Health of the Provost and Fellows of 

 Christ's College," and with the reply of Dr. Peile the proceedings 

 •closed. 



The year 1889 being the fiftieth anniversary of the Royaj 

 Botanic Society, it is proposed that the occasion shall be 

 celebrated by a special yt:'/^. An announcement on the subject 

 will be made in due course. 



Prof. Judd informs us that he has communicated to the 

 Geological Society a paper on the Tertiary volcanoes of the 

 Highlands, dealing with some of the questions referred to in 

 the article on this subject which appeared in Nature two weeks 

 ago. 



About four years ago King Oscar of Sweden and Norway 

 offered a prize, consisting of a gold medal valued at 1000 francs, 

 and 2500 kr. (;i^i4o) in money, for any one great discovery 

 within the sphere of higher mathematical analysis. The prize is 



to be awarded on His Majesty's sixtieth birthday, on January 

 21, 1889. Twelve papers have been sent in, seven of which are 

 in French, four in German, and one in Italian. 



Vesuvius has lately been very active. It has been rapidly 

 throwing up a new cone of eruption about 30 to 40 yards to the 

 south-west of the original one, and the fissure across the crater 

 plane towards the west-south-west is increasing in size and is 

 richer in acid emanations. It is possible, therefore, that an 

 eruption may take place soon on that side of the cone, since the 

 vent tends to shift along the fissure pointing in that direction. 



A SEVERE earthquake occurred in the Drant Valley on 

 December 3 at 1.40 a.m. The shocks were from east to west, 

 and were accompanied by subterranean noises. 



In addition to Prof. Milne's paper on the effects of earth- 

 quakes on the lower animals, to which we have already referred 

 in these columns, the last number (vol. xii.) of the Transactions 

 of the Seismologicul Society of Japan contains several other 

 papers of interest, some of which, however, were noticed at the 

 time they were read before the Society. Amongst other papers 

 by Prof Milne are : modern forms of pendulum seismometers • 

 the Gmy-Milne seismograph and other instruments in the 

 Seiimological Laboratory at the Imperial College of Engineer- 

 ing, Tokio ; and on certain seismic phenomena demanding 

 solution. A few of these latter are : sound-phenomena at the 

 extremities of earthquakes ; in soft ground the large horizontal 

 motions are preceded by a series of vertical surface ripples ; 

 near to an origin the amplitude of normal motion is greater than 

 the amplitude of transverse motion, but as the disturbance 

 radiates they rapidly approximate to each other. Mr. W. G. 

 Aston writes on earthquakes in Corea, giving a list of earth- 

 quakes prepared from the standard histories of that country, the 

 " Tongkuk thong-kam " and the "Kuk-chopong-kam," and show- 

 ing that there were not more than twenty-seven earthquakes in all 

 in that country in 1800 years. We observe also that the issue 

 in Japanese of the Transactions of the Society is proceeding 

 apace, and has now reached the fifth volume. This particular 

 volume contains translations into Japanese of the following 

 papers ; earthquake effects, emotional and moral, by Prof. 

 Milne ; a model showing the motion of an earthquake particle 

 during an earthquake, by S. Sekiya ; earthquake frequency, by 

 Dr. C. G. Knott. 



According to a private letter written by a resident atGodthaab, 

 and sent to Denmark by the steamer Fox, Nansen encountered 

 nothing but land covered with ice and snow in the interior of 

 Greenland. The members of the Expedition, the writer says, 

 were often able to " sail " along the smooth snowy surface on the 

 ski. Apropos of the return of the Expedition, the first vessel 

 leaving for Greenland next spring is the steamer Hvielhjornen, 

 belonging to the Greenland Company of Commerce. It departs 

 late in March, so that the Expedition is due in Copenhagen 

 at the end of May. A national subscription is now being raised 

 in Norway to defray the cost of the Expedition, estimated at 

 about ;^iooo, part of this sum only having been as yet contri- 

 tributed. Some sort of national recognition of Dr. Nansen's 

 achievements is also contemiDlated. 



On November 27, about 9 p.m., a brilliant meteor was seen 

 at Christiansand, in Norway. It went from east to west in the 

 southern sky, emitting a bright white light, finally bursting 

 without any report. 



Fogs of great density have prevailed recently in London, and 

 have frequently spread over almost the whole of Great Britain 

 and France. " It will probably not have escaped notice by 

 those residing in the suburbs," says the Times, "that on many 

 occasions lately, while the fog has lasted, moisture has poured 

 down from the leafless branches of the trees as though they had 



