476 



NATURE 



[Sept. 15, 1887 



appoint a joint committee to examine and report upon the type 

 of buildings best calculated to resist the effects of earthquake 

 shocks, as well as the methods by which these effects may best 

 be mitigated. Formerly Japanese houses were built wholly of 

 wood ; but of late years brick and stone are being largely em- 

 ployed. Many public edifices are now constructed of masonry, 

 and almost all public buildings will in future be of this character. 

 The Minister of Education accordingly thinks it well that the 

 subject of the protection of these from the results of earthquake 

 shocks should be carefully studied by competent persons, 



<'^- The meeting of the Astronomische Gesellshaft at Kiel, under 

 the presidency of M. Auwers, terminated on the 31st ult. The 

 meeting for 1889 will be held at Brussels. Amongst the papers 

 read was one by M. Peters, of Kiel, on the causes of error in 

 marine chronometers, based on observations in the German 

 marine. One source of error was found to be variations similar 

 to those caused by differences of temperature, and produced by 

 the great humidity of the air at sea. Prof. Gylden described a 

 new and simple method of maintaining chronometers at a con- 

 stant temperature. There were some discussions on the orbits 

 of comets. Prof. Sheerer read an historical paper on sunspots, 

 based on a manuscript of Stolberg, commenced in 1749 and 

 concluded in 1799. From this it appears that the periods ob- 

 served in 1 700 were quite different from those noticed in our own 

 day. Between 1645 ^""^ 1670 the spots were very much fewer. 

 Other circumstances also show that these phenomena are subject 

 to curious vicissitudes. At the final meeting on August 31 the 

 Congress was mainly occupied with photography. M. Hartwig 

 presented a plan of the Bamberg Observatory, and M. Hertz 

 described the new Observatory at Vienna. 



We have received the programme of Technological Examina- 

 tions for the coming year of the City and Guilds of London 

 Institute. Amongst the alterations and additions for the year 

 are the following : the grant made to teachers on account of 

 students who are awarded the full technological certificate in 

 the honours grade of any subject is £^ for a first class, and £2 

 for a second class certificate ; the examination in subject 29 is 

 divided into two parts ; the syllabus of i6b has been recon- 

 structed ; the syllabus in subject 2 and also that in 3A are new, 

 and in many other cases the syllabuses have been revised and 

 altered. 



We have received the Calendar of the University College, 

 Dundee, for the coming academical year. The volume also 

 contains the report of the Principal for the session 1886-87. The 

 latter exhibits very satisfactory progress in every direction. 



Mr. Alvan Clark, of Cambridgeport, Mass., U.S.A., 

 who died the other day at the age of eighty-three, 

 had made for himself a splendid reputation as an optician. 

 Mr. Clark was what is called a self-made man, as his education 

 was neglected, and at the age of seventeen he was thrown on 

 his own resources. For some time he supported himself by 

 engraving for calico-printing at Lowell. Afterwards he became 

 a painter of miniature portraits on ivory. In 1835 he opened a 

 studio at Boston, but in the following year he removed with his 

 wife and family to Cambridgeport, where he ever afterwards 

 resided. His attention was attracted to the making of telescopes 

 almost by accident, and he began his labours in this department 

 with telescopes of small sizes. His first success was a 4j-inch 

 instrument, with which he discovered that the star 8 Sextantis 

 is double. Other discoveries soon made his lenses well known ; 

 and he may be said to have established his reputation by the 

 production of the 18-inch refractor ordered for the University of 

 the Mississippi. The use of this glass, before the completion of 

 the telescope, led to the discovery of the companion of Sirius — 

 a discovery which was rewarded with the Lalande medal of the 

 Paris Academy of Sciences. Since that time some of the largest 



telescopes in existence have been made by Mr. Clark and his 

 sons. The telescope constructed by them for the Naval Obser- 

 vatory at Washington is of 26 inches aperture, and the magnificent 

 instrument now being made for the Lick Observatory, Mount 

 Hamilton, California, is of 36 inches aperture. Clark telescopes 

 are known in every part of the world where astronomy is 

 seriously studied. 



The inaugural address at St. Thomas's Hospital Medical 

 School, at the commencement of the session 1887-88, will be 

 delivered in the theatre of the hospital on October i at 3 p.m. 

 by Mr. R. W. Reid, F.R.C.S. 



A NOTE was presented by M. Ch. V. Zenger, at the meeting 

 of the Paris Academy of Sciences on September 5, on a possible 

 relation between the periodical showers of shooting-stars and 

 the occurrence of fires of unknown origin. From a study of 

 the statistics for several years, he infers that such coincidences 

 are extremely frequent, the fires usually breaking out in woods, 

 farmsteads, barns, mills, and also in villages and even in large 

 towns. He points out that during the period from August i to 

 August 18, 1887, violent storms, rich meteoric displays, and 

 conflagrations were of frequent occurrence. 



Prof. Dittmar, of the Glasgow and West of Scotland 

 Technical College, is about to publish a series of exercises in 

 quantitative chemical analysis, with a treatise on gas analysis. 

 The publishers are Hodge and Co. , Glasgow. 



A new^ gaseous oxide of manganese, of the composition Mn04, 

 has been discovered by Dr. Franke {Jottrn. fur praktische 

 Chemie, 1887, No. 14, p. 166). This new gas, which possesses 

 a dark blue colour, is readily obtained by passing a current of 

 carbonic acid gas, saturated at 40° to 50° C. with aqueous 

 vapour over the new oxysulphate of manganese, (Mn03)2S04, 

 recently described by Dr. Franke ; the issuing mixture of 

 gases is afterwards passed through two U-tubes, in the first of 

 which the less volatile MnO^ condenses out, while the Mn04 

 may be condensed at a lower temperature in the second to a 

 bluish-violet amorphous body, which after long shaking dissolves 

 in water with evolution of oxygen and formation of a bright red 

 solution which is found to contain manganic acid. The proper- 

 ties of the tetr oxide Mn04 are sharply distinguished both from ! 

 those of the trioxide MnOs and those of the heptoxide MngOy, 

 in fact it is possible, owing to its small affinity for water, to 

 collect the gas at the pneumatic trough. The decomposition of j 

 the oxysulphate by aqueous vapour probably occurs as follows : | 

 (Mn03)2S04 -i- H2O = Mn04 + MnOo + H2SO4. 



In addition to this most interesting gaseous oxide, Dr. Franke 

 has also prepared a crystalline oxide of the composition MugOg, 

 by treating a new double sulphate of manganese and potassium, 

 2Mn5(S04)8 . 5K2SO4, with a large quantity of water, when 

 brilliant yellow tabular crystals of MugOg fall out, and may be 

 isolated by rem oval of the supernatant acid liquid by decantation. 

 After washing successively with water, alcohol, and ether, and 

 drying at 80° to 100°, the oxide has the appearance of a brownish- 

 black mass, which on closer examination is found to consist of 

 small yellowish metallic-looking plates. Dilute sulphuric acid 

 decomposes it with formation of two molecules of MnS04, and 

 one molecule ofthe hydrate of manganese dioxide, 3Mn02. 2H2O; 

 hence this new oxide may be considered to have the constitutic^Bj 

 3Mn02.2MnO. ^1 



The fauna of the Kirghiz Steppe is the subject of a short but 

 suggestive paper by M. Nazaroff, in the Bulletin of the Moscow 

 Naturalists (vol. Ixii., No. 4). The zoological sketch is pre- 

 ceded by a very clear summary of the orography and geology of 

 the region, and by a picture of its present vegetation ; a 

 map shows the limits ofthe forest tracts, the meadow-land with 

 scattered, mostly deciduous, forests, the steppe-land coverfl 



