Augusi 4, 1887] 



NA TURE 



325 



Mr. R. H. Scott, of the Meteorological Office, sends us some 

 notices of earthquakes observed at North Unst and Sumburgh 

 Lighthouses. These notices he has come across while examin- 

 ing Journals of Shetland Lighthouses, and it may be worth 

 while to put them on record. The following are records from 

 logs at North Unst Lighthouse : 1879, January 4, 5 minutes 

 past I p.m. mean time, felt smart shock of earthquake, lasted 

 about 4 seconds ; 1880, July l8, 20 minutes after midnight last, 

 a smart shock of earthquake lasted from 34 to 35 seconds, then a 

 second shock not so strong or of so long duration, — whole rock 

 and building oscillated ; 1885, September 26, at 10 p.m., we 

 felt the tower shake very suddenly, — men in bed as well as the 

 man on the watch cannot account for ic, unless a slight shock of 

 an earthquake,— no heavy sea, and the wind light from north. 

 At Sumburgh Mead Lighthouse the following observation was 

 made : 1876, November 28, at 6 p.m., a slight shock of earth- 

 quake was felt at this station. For two or three seconds the 

 lamp-glass in the tower shook violently. As my attention was 

 taken up with the lamp, and fearing that the glass would fall, I 

 therefore did not observe any other movement. The wind at 

 the time was north by east, and light, accompanied with showers, 

 and dark clouds hanging about. 



Some time ago (vol. xxxiii. p. 491) we gave an account of 

 some excellent papers on "Technical Education, Applied 

 Science, Buildings, Fittings, and Sanitation," by Mr. Edward 

 Cookworthy Robins. These papers, revised and admirably illus- 

 trated, have now been brought together in a handsome volume 

 entitled "Technical School and College Building," and pub- 

 lished by Messrs. Whittaker and Co. The book is dedicated 

 to Prof. Huxley. It will be very welcome to all who are 

 engaged, or who look forward to being engaged, in the con- 

 struction of technical school buildings. 



A BOOK on "Canada and Newfoundland," by Ernst von 

 Hesse- War tegg, is about to be published in Freiburg-im-Breisgau. 

 The author has repeatedly visited the country he describes, and 

 his work is the more likely to be appreciated in Germany, 

 because the northern part of the American continent has hitherto 

 been almost wholly neglected by German writers of books of 

 travel. 



The first number of the American Journal of Psychology will 

 appear early in October. The object of ihc Journal is to record 

 psychological work of a scientific as distinct from a speculative 

 character. 



Prof. Geo. H. Palmer, of Harvard College, has published 

 the results of some inquiries lately made by him as to the annual 

 expenditure of Harvard undergraduates. Of the members of 

 the graduating class, about one-fourth had spent from 400 to 650 

 dollars ; another fourth, from 650 to 975 dollars ; another, from 

 975 to 1200 dollars ; and another, upwards of 1200 dollars. 

 The lowest sum reported was 400 dollars ; the highest, 40CO. 

 Addressing parents. Prof, Palmer says : — " If your son is some- 

 thing like an artist in economy, he may live at Harvard under 

 600 dollars a year. If he is able to live closely, carefully, and 

 yet with due regard to all that he requires, he may easily accom- 

 plish it on between 600 and 800 dollars. If you wish him to 

 live here at ease, from 800 to lorx) dollars may be well expended. 

 I should be very confident that every dollar given him over 1200 

 dollars was a dollar of danger." 



It seems, from a paper by M. Jammes, who lives in Camboja, 

 that animals, as well as human beings, are liable to become 

 addicted to opium-poisoning. In countries where the use of 

 opium is prevalent, many animals remain beside their master 

 while he takes a whiff at his pipe. Breathing an air containing 

 a good deal of opium vapour, they become quite intoxicated, 

 and appear to relish the sensation. This has been noticed con- 

 cerning cats, dogs, and monkeys. The latter, according to M. 



Jammes, like the sensation so much that some of them take to 

 eating opium. 



The Foreign Department of the Chinese Government (the 

 Tsung-liYamen) has just addressed a vei'y striking memorial to 

 the Emperor proposing the introduction of mathematics and 

 physics into the metropolitan and provincial competitive examin- 

 ations for public employment. It is suggested that this should 

 be done in all the provinces of the Empire, the successful can- 

 didates being sent to Pekin to compete for higher grades. They 

 are to be examined in the capital, in addition to the preceding 

 subjects, in civil and military engineering, international law and 

 history. Those who are successful in obtaining the highest degree 

 will receive an honorary official status, equivalent to a Fellowship, 

 in the Foreign Language College at Pekin, together with official 

 appointments in the capital or the provinces. This scheme has 

 now received the Imperial sanction, and it is difficult for those 

 unacquainted with China to appreciate the vast change which it 

 will produce in time. Hitherto the competitive examinations 

 which must be passed by every intending official, have been con- 

 fined to the ancient Chinese classics, exercises in prose and 

 poetical composition, and Chinese history, and they have been of 

 the same kind for centuries. They were the ark of the covenant, 

 which it was sacrilege to touch ; but the Chinese have now 

 introduced mathematical science into the curriculum. It will be 

 interesting to see how the new and old subjects will fare respec- 

 tively, now that they are brought together for the first time in 

 the long hi-tory of China. 



The first volume of a new periodical specially devoted to botany 

 has been issued in St. Petersburg, The periodical is pub- 

 lished in connexion with the botanical garden of the St. Peters- 

 burg University by Profs. Beketoff and Gobi, under the title of 

 " Scripta Botanica Horti Universitatis Petropolitanje." The 

 first volume contains an important work by Prof. Beketoff, on 

 the flora of Yekaterinoslav, which not only gives a list of 1032 

 species of flowering plants (instead of the 536 species formerly 

 found in the province), but contains a most interesting inquiry 

 into the flora of the steppes of South Russia, as compared with 

 those of the Hungarian puszlas on the one side, and the Caspian 

 steppes on the other. The same volume contains a note by 

 Prof. Gobi on a new form of fungi, Cisoma CassandrcE, which is 

 found in the peat-marshes of Finland as a parasite on the 

 Andromeda [Cassandra) calyculata ; and a paper on the 

 vegetation of the Altai, by A. KrasnofT, containing the enumera- 

 tion of plants found by the author. These plants were found 

 on the Artemisia steppes, on the salt steppes, on black-earth, 

 on meadows inundated during the spring, in forests, and on 

 the higher Alps. While comparing the present flora of the 

 Altai with the Pliocene flora of the same area, characterized by 

 the predominance of the beech and other trees of the temperate 

 region, the author points out that only feeble vestiges of the old 

 flora survive in the present flora of the meadows inundated 

 during the spring. The vegetation of the other sub- regions has 

 completely changed since the Tertiary period, and continues 

 still to change. Thus larch forests disappear with astonish- 

 ing rapidity, and are succeeded by herbaceous steppes, while 

 Artemisia steppes have taken the place formerly occupied by 

 the lakes and brackish marshes which covered the bottoms of 

 the valleys. A feature of the " Scripta Botanica," most wel- 

 come to European botanists, is that the papers in Russian are 

 followed by short abstracts in French or German. In the 

 bibliographical section there are analyses of botanical works 

 published in Russia since January i, _i886. The works 

 analyzed under this head are: Prof. Schm.ilhausen's "Flora of 

 South- West Russia " (Kieff, Volhynia, Podolia, Poltava, 

 Tchernigoff, and neighbouring regions), published at Kieff; 

 Prof. W. Zinger's work on the "Flora of Central Russia;" 

 Prof. Maximowicz's "Diagnoses Plantarum Novarum Asiati- 



