October 15, 1891] 



NATURE 



575 



Paris he died of erysipelas. M. Lucas was forty-nine years 

 J. age. He was a brilliant lecturer, and the author of several 

 valuable books, the most important of which is his " Recreations 

 Mathematiques." 



Application has been made for 20,000 square feet of space 

 for the electrical display from Great Britain at the "World's 

 Fair " at Chicago. Electricity, the new weekly journal pub- 

 lished at Chicago, remarks that this application should "set at 

 rest all doubts in regard to the extent of the exhibit to be made 

 by British manufacturers of electrical apparatus." 



Mr. C, E. Kelway is now showing at the Royal Naval 

 Exhibition an invention which promises to be of great practical 

 value. It consists of an apparatus for marine and general 

 electrical signalling. A number of electric incandescent 

 lamps are placed in a suitable frame, from which insulated 

 wires are led to a key-board, similar to those used in type- 

 writers, or compound-switch. A key is appropriated for each 

 letter of the alphabet and for numerals. On this key being de- 

 pressed the electric current is switched on to the lamps repre- 

 senting the corresponding letter, which is at once shown to the ob- 

 server. On the pressure being removed the lights disappear, and 

 the next letter, or numeral, is in like manner shown, the words 

 being spelt out at a rate more quickly than by the Morse system. 

 Mr. Kelway claims that the applications to which this invention 

 can be put are numerous. It might, he thinks, be of great 

 service in naval tactics, and prove invaluable for military pur- 

 poses. He also points out that it would enable mercantile vessels 

 to communicate readily with each other and with the shore. 



A CORRESPONDENT asks whether there are any firms which 

 supply magic lantern slides dealing with geological subjects. 



The marine laboratory of biology and zoology, which is to be 

 instituted at Bergen next year, will be open to any foreign in- 

 vestigators who may desire to study the marine fauna of that 

 part of Scandinavia. 



The complete list of subscribers to the memorial to Bishop 

 Berkeley, which has just been issued, contains the names of 

 Profs. Huxley and Tyndall, in company with the Archbishop 

 of Dublin and a number of bishops and deans. Mr. Gladstone 

 and Mr. Balfour meet together in the same list. The memorial 

 is a beautiful recumbent figure by Mr. Bruce Joy, R.A., which 

 has been placed in Cloyne Cathedral. The inscription to be 

 placed on the monument has not yet been announced. 



The Sociedad Cientifica "Antonio Alzate," of Mexico, who 

 have lately moved into new quarters, have just resolved to throw 

 open their scientific library to the general public. They are 

 appealing on this ground to all foreign professors and scientific 

 authors to send copies of their works to the library. 



The Engineers' and Architects' Institute of Vienna have 

 resolved to petition the Austrian Government that engineer 

 attaches should in future be appointed to the embassies and 

 legations in London, Berlin, Paris, St. Petersburg, Rome, 

 Washington, and to one Oriental city to be hereafter selected. 



The Royal Horticultural Society has issued a list of fruits 

 which might be profitably cultivated by cottagers and small 

 farmers in this country. The list (to which are added notes on 

 planting, pruning, and manuring) ought to be widely distributed. 

 It contains all the information that is really necessary for the 

 development of a most important industry. 



According to a telegram sent from San Francisco, a severe 

 shock of earthquake was felt there on October 1 1, but no damage 

 was done. At Napa, California, where a heavy shock was ex- 

 perienced, the chimneys were thrown to the ground, and several 

 buildings were shattered. The State Insane Asylum is reported 

 to have been damaged, fissures being made in the walls. The 

 inmates were seized with panic. 



NO. II 46, VOL. 44] 



We take from La Nature of the 3rd inst. the following par- 

 ticulars respecting the destructive cyclone which visited Mar- 

 tinique on the 28th of August last. The curve of a Richard 

 barograph shows that the barometer commenced to fall about 

 2 p.m., when it stood at 29*92 inches, while between 7 and 

 8 p.m. it fell from 2972 inches to 28 70 inches. The 

 wind at this time, too, reached its greatest violence, and con- 

 tinued with hurricane force for several hours, passing alternately 

 from N. E. to South. The recovery of the barometric pressure 

 was equally rapid, the reading being about 2970 inches before 

 10 p.m. M. Sully, of Saint Pierre, writes that the lightning 

 was constant, with varying intensity before and after the passage 

 of the centre. The sound of the thunder was scarcely perceptible, 

 owing to the howling of the wind and the noise caused by the 

 falling roofs and houses. Globular lightning was seen on all 

 sides during the hurricane ; the country folks speak of globes of 

 fire which traversed the air for several minutes, and burst about 

 two feet above the ground. All the towns and villages were 

 greatly damaged, the crops destroyed, and that usually verdant 

 country presented the appearance of the depth of the most 

 severe winter. The deaths are said to be 420 in number. 



In the review of September in the U.S. Pilot Chart, it is 

 pointed out that the month was unusually stormy on the 

 North Atlantic, as indicated by the storm tracks plotted on the 

 chart. Two of these tracks, however, represent August storms, 

 one of them being the track of the Martinique hurricane, and 

 another the track of the hurricane that passed east of Bermuda 

 on August 27. The Martinique hurricane, it appears, moved 

 west-north-west along a somewhat irregular track, crossing 

 over Puerto Rico, Turk's Island, Crooked Island, and lower 

 Florida, finally dying out in the north-eastern Gulf. This 

 unusual course makes it of special interest, and its failure to 

 recurve seems to have been due, possibly, to the opposition of 

 the Bermuda hurricane, in a manner similar to the deflection 

 towards Vera Cruz of the Cuban hurricane of September 1888. 

 The Bermuda hurricane appears to have originated about 300 

 miles S.W. of the Cape Verde Islands on August 19. 



The correspondent of the Times at Alexandria telegraphed 

 on October 11 that three colossal statues, ten feet high, of rose 

 granite, had just been found at Aboukir, a few feet below the 

 surface. The discovery was made from indications furnished to 

 the Government by a local investigator, Daninos Pasha. The 

 first two represent in one group Rameses II. and Queen Hent- 

 mara seated on the same throne. This is unique among 

 Egyptian statues. The third statue represents Rameses stand- 

 ing upright in military attire, a sceptre in his hand and a crown 

 upon his head. Both bear hieroglyphic inscriptions, and both 

 have been thrown from their pedestals face downwards. Their 

 site is on the ancient Cape Zephyrium, near the remains of the 

 Temple of Venus at Arsinoe. Relics of the early Christians 

 have been found in the same locality. 



We learn from the Brighton Herald that a discovery full of 

 interest to archaeologists has been made in Sussex. During some 

 excavations near the depot of the Artillery Volunteers at South- 

 over, Lewes, the workmen uncovered as many as twenty-eight 

 skeletons. They were all buried close to the surface, and 

 within an area of about 130 feet by 50 feet. As there were 

 skeletons of women as well as of men, it is concluded that the 

 site was not that of a battle-field, but ^of a place of burial. A 

 similar find was made in 1830 at Mailing Hill, which is not far 

 distant. The remains now found were accompanied by a large 

 number of weapons and ornaments, the characteristic features 

 of which point to the fact of their being Anglo-Saxon. The 

 skeletons have been reinterred, but the weapons and other 

 articles have been placed in the museum of the Sussex Archieo- 

 logical Society at Lewes Castle. 



