December 31 



1891 



NA TURE 



207 



NOTES. 



A NUMBER of very remarkable letters and hitherto unedited 

 memoirs of the great Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele, 

 who died in 1786, are to be published under the direction of 

 Baron Nordenskiold. The work will fill about 500 pages octavo, 

 of the same size and print as Wilson's " Life of Henry Caven- 

 dish" (London, 1 851). The Baron is considering the question 

 of bringing out an Anglo-American edition of the work. As 

 editor he may not be quite impartial, but he is persuaded that in 

 importance and interest the book will be unsurpassed in historico- 

 chemical literature. He hopes also to obtain permission to 

 consult some of the papers on chemistry left behind by Caven- 

 dish. For instance, he would like to know if the date assigned 

 by the Rev. Vernon Harcourt to Cavendish's researches on 

 arsenic (Report of the Ninth Meeting of the British Association, 

 held at Birmingham, 1839, p. 50) is exact, or if any error afTects 

 the determination of the date. Where are these papers at present 

 deposited ? Are they accessible to a foreign student ? 



We understand that the Professorship of Descriptive Geometry, 

 Mechanical Drawing, Machinery, and Surveying, in the Royal 

 College of Science, Dublin, will almost immediately become 

 vacant by the retirement of Prof. Pigott, we regret to say on the 

 ground of ill-health. The salary of the chair is £a<x>, rising to 

 ;^500 a year with a share of fees. The appointment rests with 

 the Lord President of the Council, and applications, with testi- 

 monials, should be addressed to the Secretary, Science and Art 

 Department, London. 



The death of C. X. Vaussenat, the Director of the Observa- 

 tory on the Pic du Midi, is announced. Quite recently he 

 received from the Societe Nationale d'Agriculture de France its 

 large gold medal for the eminent services rendered by his ob- 

 servatory to agriculture. The idea of building an observatory 

 on the Pic du Midi was due to General de Nansouty, but in 

 working out the plan the General owed much to the enthusiastic 

 co-operation of M. Vaussenat. When the institution was made 

 over to the State, General de Nansouty became honorary 

 director, M. Vaussenat effective director. M. Vaussenat was an 

 engineer, and had devoted much time to the study of geology. 



Paul Hunfalvy, whose death is recorded by Austrian 

 journals, was recognized as the most eminent Hungarian ethno- 

 grapher and philologist. He was the author of many papers 

 on the relation of the Magyar language to the Finnish, but 

 especially to the Ugrian languages, and on the original seats 

 of the Finnish- Ugrian peoples. In a book describing his travels 

 in the Baltic Provinces he had much that was interesting to say 

 about the Esthonians ; and to a series of works on the races of 

 the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy he contributed a volume on 

 " The Hungarians or Magyars." 



.\n Ethnographical Exhibition is to be held at Prague in 1893. 

 The objects exhibited will relate to the life of the Slavonic 

 population of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia. 



The U.S. Patent Office proposes to exhibit at the Chicago 

 Exposition a comprehensive array of models to illustrate the 

 progress of mechanical civilization. One group of models will 

 show the progress of the printers' art from Gutenberg's in- 

 vention to the latest rotary perfecting and folding printing 

 press, capable of turning out newspapers at the rate of many 

 thousands per hour. Other groups will show the development 

 of the steam-engine, sewing-machine, agricultural machinery, 

 applications of electricity, &c. 



According to ^/^<r/rj«V^, a Chicago journal, Messrs. Siemens 



and Halske, the well-known German firm of electrical engineers 



and manufacturers, propose to outdo all their competitors in the 



extent of their exhibit at the World's Fair, Herr Carl Vogel, 



NO. I 157, VOL. 45] 



the managing director of the firm, recently went to Chicago to 

 make the necessary arrangements. He asked for a special 

 building, but the Committee on Electricity decided that space 

 could not be granted outside the regular buildings. The Depart- 

 ment of Electricity has, however, offered to Messrs. Siemens 

 and Halske 20,000 square feet in the electricity building, and 

 10,000 square feet in the power house, and it is thought that this 

 offer will be accepted. 



A POSTGRADUATE course of study in electrical engineering, 

 lasting two years, has for some time been in successful operation 

 at the School of Mines, Columbia College, New York. An 

 undergraduate course of four years in the subject has just been 

 established at the same institution. Admission will be given 

 only to those who pass the entrance examinations which are 

 necessary for the courses in mining, engineering, civil engineer- 

 ing, chemistry, architecture, &c. The first two years of the 

 new course will cover the preparatory work in mathematics, 

 physics, chemistry, mechanics, and other subjects required for 

 admission to the post-graduate course. During the last two 

 years students will receive a thorough training in electrical 

 engineering proper. The course will begin in October 1892. 

 Those who satisfactorily pass the examinations at the end of the 

 course will receive a degree of electrical engineer. 



The Journal of the Society of Arts is printing a very interest- 

 ing series of Cantor Lectures, by Mr. A. P. Laurie, on pigments 

 and vehicles of the old masters. Mr. Laurie has for some years 

 been studying the literature of this subject ; and, having tested the 

 statements contained therein, as far as he could, by experiments 

 in the laboratory, he thinks he has succeeded in clearing up a 

 few points and answering a few questions. He deals with the 

 subject under three heads : (i) the preparation of the painting 

 surface ; (2) the pigments, their preparation and properties ; (3) 

 the mediums. 



The Adelsberg Cave, with all its recently-discovered side- 

 caverns, has lately been carefully surveyed, in accordance with 

 the instructions of the Austrian Minister of Agriculture, Count 

 Falkenhayn. In the course of the operations some very beauti- 

 ful parts of the cave, which could formerly be reached only with 

 the greatest difficulty, were made easily accessible. An elaborate 

 plan has been deposited in the office of the Minister of Agri- 

 culture, and it is hoped that copies of it, on a reduced scale, 

 may be issued to the public. 



Mr. W. Brandford Griffith, writing from Tver, St. 

 Elizabeth, Jamaica, says that a very perceptible, not to say 

 alarming, shock of earthquake was felt throughout Jamaica 

 early on the morning of October 27. At Kingston the shock 

 was felt at 1. 35 a.m., and the disturbance then seemed to be 

 travelling in a direction north-east by north. 



Mr. G. Jervis gives in the December number of the J/<ffl^tVfr- 

 ranean Naturalist an interesting sketch of the geology of Pan- 

 telleria, to which attention has recently been called by the sub- 

 marine eruptions off its coast. Mr. Jervis refers to the fact that, 

 like Ischia, Pantelleria possesses thermo-mineral springs, highly 

 mineralized, which might become of much therapeutic and 

 economic importance. The Romans and Arabs, if not earlier 

 peoples, seem to have thoroughly appreciated the value of these 

 springs ; but in modern times they have been neglected. Mr. 

 Jervis suggests that the Governor of Malta should despatch 

 one or two medical men to Pantelleria at the public expense at 

 the proper season to study the curative effects of the thermo- 

 mineral waters, and to plan the most practical and efficient 

 method of sending patients there during the summer. It is 

 thought that many military men, suffering from a variety of 

 chronic complaints incident to their rough mode of life and 



