20 



NATURE 



[November 5, 189 1 



seems to have been caused at Ogaki, where at least looo persons 

 were killed, chiefly by falling buildings. Both there and at 

 Gifu the earthquake was followed by fires, in which many 

 perished. At Kitagata, Ichinomiya, Tiraguna, Kiyonsu, 

 Kamatsu, and other places, chiefly along the coast, great damage 

 was done. The city of Nagoya suffered to a less extent, 

 although seriously. Much distress prevails in the ruined towns, 

 and the Government is embarrassed in its efforts by the prevail- 

 ing panic, and the absence of means of communication, telegraph 

 lines and many miles of railway having been destroyed. Exact 

 details as to the extent of the calamity will probably not be 

 obtained for some lime. On November 2 the following was the 

 official estimate : killed, 4006 persons ; injured, fully 5000 ; 

 houses destroyed, 50,000. 



A GREAT rush of migratory birds seems to have passed over 

 Dublin during the night of May 4 last, evidently on the way 

 to their northern breeding- haunts. An account of the matter is 

 given by Mr. Allan Ellison in the new number of the Zoologist. 

 " While sitting in our rooms in Trinity College, about il p.m.," 

 he says, "we were attracted by the loud call-notes of birds 

 passing overhead. The night was calm and cloudy, not very 

 dark. We listened at the open window until about i a.m., 

 when they seemed to be still passing over in undiminished 

 numbers. They were mostly golden plovers and dunlins, 

 easily recognized by their notes, but we frequently heard the 

 cry of the whimbrel, or the shrill call of the common sandpiper. 

 It was most curious to hear these notes, at first far away towards 

 the south-west, gradually becoming louder as the flocks drew 

 nearer and passed overhead, and then rapidly passing away to 

 the northward. Sometimes the whole air seemed full of their 

 clear whistling notes : in one direction the loud, short pipe of 

 the golden plover, in another the shrill wheezing cry of the 

 dunlin, reminding one of the sound made by a whistle with 

 a pea in it. Sometimes a bird or two would fly quite close over 

 the house-tops, uttering its loud whistle close to the open 

 window, but they seemed for the most part to fly at a great 

 height." 



One large meteorite and two fragments were lately received 

 by the Government Central Museum, Madras, through the Board 

 of Revenue. Mr. Edward Thurston, the Superintendent of the 

 Museum, quotes in his report for 1890-91 the following state- 

 ment, by the Tahsildar of Tirupatur, in the Salem district, as to 

 the conditions under which these stones fell :— "On June 4, 1890, 

 about 8 a.m., there was a sudden clap of thunder, accompanied 

 by an unusual rumbling noise. At this time two stones are 

 said to have fallen in the village of Kakangarai. The fall of 

 both the stones occurred at the same time in adjacent fields, and 

 was witnessed by rayats, who were ploughing close by at the 

 time. One stone appears to have been broken up and divided 

 among the rayats, while the other was taken charge of by the 

 village munsif. The large specimen weighs \\\ ounces, and 

 the fragments weigh about i ounce and i ounce respectively." 



The sponge trade of the Bahama Islands forms the subject of 

 an excellent report by the U.S. Consul at Nassau, The num- 

 ber of persons engaged in this industry in the Bahamas is from 

 5000 to 6000, all of whom, except the shipowners, brokers, and 

 skippers are coloured people. The sponges are gathered by 

 means of iron hooks attached to long poles. By using a water- 

 glass the fisherman can readily discover the sponges at the 

 bottom, and then with his pole and hook he will bring up those 

 he may select as fit for his purpose, leaving the smaller ones un- 

 touched. Some sponges adhere firmly to the bed of the sea, 

 while others — known as "rollers" — are not attached at all. 

 About ten years ago an attempt was made to introduce dredges, 

 but it seemed likely that they would ruin the beds, and a law 

 was passed forbidding their use. The vessels. are provided and 

 NO. I 149, VOL. 45] 



fitted out, as a rule, for a voyage of about six weeks, and 

 generally from six to eight voyages are made in the year. It is 

 difficult to estimate the average catch per trip, as the cargoes 

 vary greatly in size and value. Of the larger sponges a catch of 

 5000, or of the smaller ones 7500, would be considered a fair lot. 

 Occasionally a cargo of from 12,000 to 15,000 large sponges has 

 been brought in, but this success is exceptional. Contradictory 

 statements are made as to the lime taken by sponges to grow 

 to the size at which they are wanted. It seems probable, 

 however, that under ordinary conditions a healthy sponge will 

 reach a marketable size in from twelve to eighteen months. 



Extensive excavations of the prehistoric mounds in Ohio 

 and Indiana have lately been carried on under the supervision 

 of Prof. Putnam. In one mound, near Anderson Station, 

 Indiana, 7232 flint spear-heads and knives have been discovered. 

 They were found in a layer one fojt thick, extending over a space 

 of twenty by thirty feet. They are made of grey flint found 

 only in Indiana. The largest find of flint implements previously 

 made in America did not include more than 1800 specimens. 



Statistics published by the French Ministry of Public In- 

 struction show that there are in France 525 learned Societies, of 

 which 135 have been officially recognized as of national im- 

 portance. Of these 525 Societies, 95 are historical and social ; 

 95 agricultural and horticultural ; 57 medical and pharma- 

 ceutical ; 45 scientific ; 41 artistic ; 37 geographical ; and the 

 rest miscellaneous, including photographic, statistical, and 

 ballooning associations. 



Prof. Kikuchi, of Tokyo, whose Japanese treatise on geo- 

 metry we noticed briefly a year or two since, has now published a 

 translation of his work into English. In the first Japanese Par- 

 liament Prof. Kikuchi had the honour to be made a life member 

 of the House of Peers by the Emperor (" this does not constitute 

 peerage as in England "), and at the request of the Department 

 of Agriculture and Commerce he was one of the original framers 

 of the Weights and Measures Bill, 



The Cambridge University Press has published a second 

 edition of Mr. S. L. Loney's "Treatise on Elementary 

 Dynamics." The book is intended for beginners, the author 

 having dealt only with those parts of dynamics which can be 

 treated without the use of the infinitesimal calculus. In the 

 present edition the work has been carefully revised and some- 

 what enlarged. 



The first part has now been issued of the Zeitschrift fiir 

 PJlanzenkrankheiten, edited by Dr. Paul Sorauer, with the assist- 

 ance of an "International Phytopathological Committee." The 

 journal is intended to be published hi-monthly, at a subscription 

 of 15 marks per annum ; and will contain original articles, re- 

 views, and news, extending over the whole subject of the diseases 

 of plants and the remedies for these diseases. 



Messrs. Cassell and Co. have issued Part 37 of their " New 

 Popular Educator." Besides many illustrations in the text, 

 there is a coloured plate representing sea-jellies and sea-stars. 



Free hydroxylamine, NHoOH, has been isolated by M. 

 Lobry de Bruyn, and a preliminary account of its mode of pre- 

 paration and properties is published by him in the current num- 

 ber of the Recueil des travaux chimiqties des Pays- B as (1891, 10, 

 loi). The manner in which the free base was obtained was 

 briefly as follows. About a hundred grams of hydroxylamine 

 hydrochloride, NH2OH. HCI, were dissolved in six hundred cubic 

 centimetres of warm methyl alcohol. To this solution a quantity 

 of sodium dissolved in methyl alcohol was added, in such pro- 

 portion that the hydrochloride of hydroxylamine was present 

 in slight excess over and above that required to convert it to 

 sodium chloride, After deposition of the separated sodium 



