Jan. 24, 1889] 



NATURE 



305 



be too late to say that the work as a whole is more valuable than 

 ever, and that especial credit is due to the editor for the excellent 

 sections on subjects relating to astronomy. We may call his 

 attention to the fact that for some mysterious reason the office 

 of Nature is not included in the list of newspaper offices in 

 London. 



The prevention of smoke formed the subject of an interesting 

 discussion at a recent meeting of the Institution of Engineers 

 and Shipbuilders in Scotland. Mr. G. C. Thomson, who had 

 read a paper on the subject, said, in summing up the debate, 

 that he would like to add to his paper the effect of a day's fog 

 in London. For the twenty-four hours ending Thursday morn- 

 ing, November 17, 1887, the gas sent out by the Gas light and 

 Coke Company was I03,664,cxx) cubic feet, or 35,000,000 excess 

 over the same day in i885. The gas was sold at 3^'. per 1000 

 feet, and was equal to .1^15,500, so that the value of the excess 

 in money equalled .1^5250— a sum that would go a great way in 

 putting many of the faulty furnaces in London into good work- 

 ing order, so that they would give no smoke. Mr. Thomson 

 also called attention to the loss of health and life which a foT;gy 

 day always entailed on a community. 



At the meeting of the Royal Geological Society of Ireland 

 on January 9, Mr. Kinahan communicated a paper, a general 

 supplement to his previous articles on the " Economic Geology 

 of Ireland." In this the suggestion as to the pre-Cambrian 

 age of some of the Irish rocks is of interest. The author pointed 

 out that it is highly improbable that any Irish rocks are equiva- 

 lents of the American Laurentians or Huronians ; but in refer 

 ente to the " Gap rocks" of the epoch between the Huronian 

 and Primordial, called by Chamberlain the Agnotozoic epoch, 

 he suggested that possibly rocks of this age might be found. 

 He mentioned the Bray Head series, which he would pro- 

 visionally call "Oldhamians," as rocks that seem to be evidently 

 older than the Welsh Cambrians ; and as the Welsh Cambrians 

 by their fossils seem to be the equivalents of the American 

 Primordials, any rocks older than the Welsh Cambrians ought 

 to belong to strata of Agnotozoic age. The suggestion that the 

 Oldhamians are older than the Welsh Cambrians was founded 

 on the profound break between them and the Irish equivalents 

 of the Llandriloes ; while in Wales the Cambrians pass con- 

 formably upwards into the W'elsh Llandriloes, The author 

 then pointed out that if the Oldhamians are of pre-Cambrian 

 age (Agnotozoic) it is probable the rocks of North- West | 

 Mayo (Mullet) are similarly Agnotozoic, while it is possible, if 

 not probable, that Griffith's older rocks in Ulster (Donegal, 

 Tyrone, and Antrim ?) may also be Agnotozoic. 



The Quarterly Record of the Royal Botanic Society for 

 April-June 1888 contains the report of a lecture, by Mr. G. J. 

 Symons, on sunshine. The subject is discussed chiefly from an 

 instrumental point of view, under the heads of thermometric 

 solar radiation, sunshine-recorders, and sunlight-recorders. Mr. 

 Symons points out that Newton, in the seventeenth century, 

 compare 1 the readings of two thermometers, one in the sun 

 and the other in the shade. De Saussure, in 1774, was the first 

 to make an appara us for direct observations upon the heat of 

 sunshine, and, in 1837, the subject was taken up by Sir John 

 Herschel, M. Pouillet and others. Their researches led to the use 

 of the black-bulb thermometer in vacuo, while bright and black- 

 bulb thermometers were used by Arago in 1844. This class of 

 instruments was further improved by the Rev. F. W. Stow, in 

 1869. The firsi direct sunshine-recorder was designed by the 

 late Mr. J. F. Campbell, and erected by him in Whitehall, in 

 December 1854 ; it consisted of a mahogany bowl, with a 

 hollow sphere of glass, nearly filled with acidulated water, to 

 form a lens. In December 1857, a solid glass sphere was sub- 



stituted ; the observations were discussed by Profs, Roscoe and 

 Stewart (Proc. Roy, Soc, June 1875) Finally, towards the 

 end of 1879, after various experiments at Greenwich and Kew 

 Observatories, Prof. Stokes designed the card supporter which 

 is now used by the Meteorological Office and other institutions. 

 The observations have been discussed by Mr. Scott for the years 

 1880-85 (Quart. Journ. Roy. Met. Soc, July 1885). Mr- 

 Bianford stated, some years ago, that this instrument would 

 give better results than the thermometric method, which has 

 now been practically discontinued in India, Of the photogra- 

 phic sunlight-recorders, the principal are those by Mr. J, P, 

 Jordan and Prof. McLeod. Another pattern has been designed 

 by Dr. Maurer, and illustrated in La Nature for May 19, 1888, 

 in which it is stated that the paper can be left unchanged for 

 twenty days. Mr. Symons concludes his interesting lecture by 

 remarks upon the action of light upon vegetation. 



Reports of earthquakes have lately been received from many 

 different parts of the world. At Flekbero, in the Torrisdal, 

 in South Norway, there was an earthquake on December 27, 

 1888. Shocks were felt at Herisau, Zug, Frauenfeld, and ZUrich, 

 and at Wyl (Aargau), on January i, at 5 a.m. A severe shock 

 occurred at Constance on January 7, at three minutes to 12 noon. 

 It continued for two seconds, and seemed to move from west 

 to east. It was also noticed in several parts of North Switzer- 

 land ; and at Wattwyl the shock was so severe that the inhabi- 

 tants rushed out of their houses in terror. At St. Gallen, the 

 pictures, curtains, &c., swung about on the walls, and the 

 woodwork creaked. According to a telegram sent through 

 Renter's agency from Smyrna on January 21, a disastrous 

 earthquake occuried last Thursday at Sparta (?), in Asia Minor, 

 in which 300 houses were destroyed. A shock was felt at Athens 

 on January 22, as well as at Megara and Arachova, It was 

 accompanied by heavy rains and a vijlent gale. 



On Friday morning last, a shock of earthquake was felt in 

 the county of Midlothian, Of this earthquake we may have 

 something to say on a future occasion. 



Referring to the Calcutta earthquake of December 23 last, 

 which is said to have been the most severe felt since 1885, 

 the Englishman says that it took place at 10.50 p.m., ana 

 lasted for about a minute and a half. It was severe enough to 

 try the stability of substantial houses. Sleepers were awakened 

 by the loud rattling of doors and windows, and pemk a frames 

 and lamps swung about in a curious fashion. So far as could be 

 judged, the ddrection of the wave was from east to west. The 

 disturbance was wide-spread, but appears to have varied in 

 intensity in different places. 



The papers on "Modern Views of Electricity," by Prof. 

 Oliver Lodge, which have been appearing in Nature, will soon 

 be published as a volume of the " Nature Series." 



A WORK on " The Principles of Inductive or Empirical 

 Logic," by Dr. John Venn, is about to be issued by Messrs, 

 Macmillan, It con;ains the substance of lectures delivered in 

 Caius College for a number of years past. The general treat- 

 ment of the subject is somewhat more in accord with that adopted 

 by J. S, Mill than with that of the majority of recent English 

 works on logic. 



Messrs. Macmillan and Co, have in the press Part I, of 

 "A Graduated Course of Natural Science for Elementary and 

 Technical Schools and Colleges," by M. B, Loewy. The 

 author's object is to place the teaching of natural science in 

 schools upon an exclusively experimental basis, and to make it 

 at the same time thoroughly methodical and systematic, the 

 scholar being led from known and easily-under.>tood facts to 

 less-known and more difficult results. In this way, it is thought 



