May 26, 1887] 



NATURE 



89 



April and October ; the wet season began in June and ended in 

 October, Lightning was observed ahnost daily, accompanied 

 at times by heavy thunderstorms. Tornadoes were most fre- 

 quent in June, October, and November. They lasted about 

 fifteen to twenty minutes, and were generally preceded by a 

 threatening bank of clouds rising over the land, accompanied by 

 a heavy downpour lasting for several hours. The tides were 

 irregular ; for instance, there was scarcely any tidal current in 

 the harbour in the beginning of October 1886, but only a slight 

 rise of the water, so that often the ship did not swing. 



On the night of March 15, at about 8 p.m., a most remark- 

 able display of aurora borealis was ob-:erved at Throndhjem, in 

 Norway. It first appeared in the east in the form of a streamer, 

 which suddenly flashed upwards to the zenith, and joined another 

 one shooting up from the west ; a perfect and symmetrical arc 

 being thus formed right across the sky, one of the bases of which 

 rested on the horizon at the ridge Stenobjerget, and the other 

 at the fortress of Christiansten. The arc emitted a steady white 

 brilliant light, in the centre of which a nucleus of light appeared, 

 more brilliant still. After remaining perfectly stationary and 

 without any undulating motion along it for about a quarter of an 

 hour, the arc moved slowly a little to the northwards, parallel 

 with its former position. The light then began to be diffused, 

 but the aurora remained in the sky till nearly 10 o'clock, although 

 with less intensity. 



Dr. M. a, Veeder writes to us from Lyons, New York, 

 that an aurora was seen there on Saturday evening, April 23. 

 Streamers were numerous and active from 10 to 10.30 p.m. 

 There were magnetic perturbations of marked extent at intervals 

 on Saturday and on Sunday. These perturbations became 

 very decided during the evening of Sunday, when there was 

 again an appearance of the aurora, which was, however, very 

 faint. 



Science says that the U.S. Geological Survey proposes to col- 

 lect all attainable information regarding the recent earthquakes 

 in Arizona. Circular letters of inquiry will be sent to residents 

 on the area affected. The disturbed area seems to be a circle of 

 some 400 miles radius, fully one-quarter as large as the Charles- 

 ton earthquake, and nearly one-third of the area of the Riviera 

 earthquake of last February. 



A PAPER by Prof. Milne, containing an interesting account of 

 a series of observations made upon earthquakes in Tokio 

 between March 1884 and March 1885, has lately been printed. 

 Prof. Milne arrives at the practical conclusion that there are at 

 least three ways in which an ordinary building may be to a con- 

 siderable extent protected from earthquake motion. The first 

 method in a given district is, he says, to make a seismic survey 

 of that area, and then select the locality where the least motion 

 is experienced. A second method is to rest the building at each 

 of its piers upon layers of cast-iron shot. A third method, which 

 is applicable to heavy structures of stone or brick, is to allow 

 them to rest upon foundations on hard ground rising from a 

 deep pit or series of trenches. 



At a meeting of the Council of the National Fish-Culture 

 Association, on Thursday last, a resolution approving of the 

 l)roposed North Sea Fisheries Institute was unanimously carried. 

 At the same meeting the Secretary reported that a large 

 ■ [uantity of trout fry had been presented to various public waters 

 in London and the provinces by the Association. The rest of 

 the fish hatched out this season had been deposited in ponds at the 

 Delaford Park establishment, the aim of the Association being 

 to raise fish entirely from the ova taken from stock bred therein, 

 not from eggs obtained from outside sources. He further stated 

 that the rainbow-trout of California, bred by the Association, 



had all been maliciously poisoned by arsenic. A severe loss had 

 thus been sustained, the fish being very valuable. 



Another establishment for fish-culture has just been formed 

 at Dulverton, in Somersetshire, by Mr. Frank Langdon. A 

 series of ponds has been made near a tributary of the Exe, 

 which affords an ample supply of pure water. Trout culture w ill 

 constitute the chief business of the establishment, and a hatchery 

 is being erected to receive the ova, which will be laid down for 

 incubation at the end of the present year. 



A soirie will be given at University College by the University 

 College Biological Society on Monday, June 6, when Prof. 

 Moseley, F.R.S., will lecture on "Life on the Ocean Surface." 

 Cards of invitation will be sent on application to the Secretary, 

 Mr. Bruce G. Seton. 



M. E. QuiNQUAUD has been investigating the influence of 

 baths on the chemical phenomena of respiration and nutrition. 

 He finds, by experiments on dogs, that cold baths increase the 

 consumption of oxygen, the consumption being on the average 

 ten times more abundant after the bath than before. Very hot 

 baths exert a like influence, but in a less marked manner. Cold 

 baths (and hot as well, but in a less degree) increase pulmonary 

 ventilation : the quantity of air passed through the lungs is 

 double or treble after the bath. At the same time a greater 

 quantity of carbonic acid is expelled. By the analysis of arterial 

 and venous blood it is shown that the respiratory combustions 

 are very much increased under the influence of cold or hot baths, 

 and it is also shown that the production of blood sugar is 

 greater. 



Dr. T. Mitchell Prudden, of New York, has been 

 making some important experiments with a view to deter- 

 mining the effect of freezing on Bacteria. In the case of the 

 Bacillus prodigiosus, there were 6300 Bacteria in a cubic 

 centimetre of water before freezing ; after being frozen 4 days, 

 2970; after 37 days, 22; and none after 51 days. Of the 

 Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus, there were a countless number 

 before freezing; after 18 days of freezing, 224,598; after 

 54 days, 34,320 ; and after 66 days, 49,280. Of the typhoid- 

 fever Bacillus, innumerable before freezing ; 1,019,403 after 

 being frozen 11 days; 336,457 after 27 days; 89,796 after 

 4.2 days ; and 7348 after 103 days. These facts show that certain 

 Bacteria have a remarkable power of resisting the temperature 

 at which ice forms. Dr. Prudden, therefore, recommends that 

 the New York State Board of Health, or other authority, should 

 have power to determine which, if any, of the sources of ice- 

 supply are so situated as to imperil the health of consumers of 

 ice. 



An important new reaction is described in the current issue of 

 the Comples rendus by MM. Varet and Vienne. A current of 

 acetylene was passed through 200 grammes of benzene contain- 

 ing 50 grammes of aluminium chloride during 30 hours, and the 

 oily liquid remaining after removal by washing of the unaltered 

 aluminium chloride was found to yield, on fractional distillation, 

 three distinct products. The first, which came over between 

 143° and 145°, and which amounted to 80 per cent, of the whole, 

 consisted of pure cinnamene or styrolene, CgHg — CH — CH2, a 

 substance occurring in liquid storax [Liquid. unbar orientale), and 

 which was synthetized by M. Berthelot by passing acetylene 

 together with benzene vapour through a tube heated to redness. 

 The second fraction, coming over at 265''-270^ consisted of 

 diphenyl ethane (CBHg)^ = CH— CH.,, and the third fraction, 

 boiling at 28o°-286°, was found to consist entirely of dibenzyl, 

 CeHg— CH2— CHj— CgHj, a solid substance isomeric with 

 diphenyl ethane. These syntheses are extremely interesting, and 

 afford another instance of the singular action of aluminium chloride 

 in enabling us to attack the benzene nucleus. 



