May 



892] 



NATURE 



39 



next, and by Prof. P. Brounof, KieflF, in Russian, with a few 

 notes in French. Both bulletins contain observations taken 

 three times daily, with daily and monthly means, while the 

 Odessa publication contains monthly rainfall values, and maxi- 

 mum and minimum temperatures for about a hundred stations 

 in South-West Russia. The Kieff observations are preceded by 

 some remarks (in Russian only) on the temperature and density 

 of snow at various depths. 



A REMARKABLE aurora borealis was seen at Moscow during 

 the night of April 26-27. It began at 11.50 p.m. with 

 a dark segment fringed by a bright border, the summit of 

 which stood a few degrees to the west of the meridian. Bright 

 rays were projected to the constellations of Auriga, Perseus, 

 and Cassiopoeia, while the longest rays reached the Pole star. 

 It attained its maximum at 11.56, but four minutes later it 

 began to die away, no traces of it being seen at 12. 15 a.m. At 

 2 a.m. three beams of light appeared again for a few seconds. 

 It is worthy of note that on April 26 a large accumulation of 

 sun-spots was observed at Moscow ; it consisted of ten groups 

 of spots. It may also be added that another aurora borealis, 

 much brighter than the above, was seen at Moscow on March 

 12, at 4 a.m. It lasted for nearly half an hour. 



All who have occasion to use the magic lantern will be 

 interested in the fact that a lantern may now be seen at the 

 Crj'stal Palace finely illuminated by the arc-light. This 

 instrument was designed by Mr. T. C. Hepworth, F.C.S., who 

 uses it to illustrate lecture entertainments in connection with 

 the Crystal Palace Electrical Exhibition. The lamp employed is 

 the Brockie-Pell, which has been modified by Messrs. Newton 

 to make it more suitable for the particular work required. It 

 gives a pure white light, and its brilliance is said to be several 

 times that of the lime-light. The electric arc-light has before 

 been applied to lantern projection, but it is claimed that the 

 Cr)'stal Palace lantern is on quite an unprecedented scale. 



M. Mesuran, of Paris, sends us a prospectus, in which he 

 sets forth the merits of a machine he has invented for the proper 

 boiling of eggs. Hitherto, it seems, mankind have boiled eggs 

 on a wholly false principle. M. Mesdran claims that he has 

 solved the problem, and that his invention is nothing short of 

 "a revelation both from the hygienic and the gastronomic 

 point of view." The invention has been patented in England. 



An interesting trace of Palaeolithic man has lately been dis- 

 covered in Hermann's Cave in the Harz. Excavations were 

 being carried on in the cave, under the superintendence of Herr 

 Grabowsky, when a flint which had all the appearance of having 

 been fashioned into the form of a knife was found among the 

 remains of reindeer and other glacial or Arctic animals. The 

 object could not have been brought into the cave by non-human 

 means, as flint is not found anywhere in the neighbourhood. A 

 paragraph on the subject appears in the current number of 

 Globits, the editor of which appends a note to the effect that the 

 flint (which lay before him as he wrote) has undoubtedly been 

 artificially worked into its present shape. 



Dr. Daniel G. Brinton has issued an interesting pamph- 

 let, in which he urges the claims of anthropology as a branch 

 of University education. He gives an account of the aims 

 and methods of the science, and then sketches a general 

 scheme of anthropological instruction. Dr. Brinton would 

 begin with lectures on somatology, including internal somato- 

 logy, external somatology, psychology, and developmental and 

 comparative somatology. Then would come ethnology, in con- 

 nection with which he would deal with sociology, technology, 

 religion, linguistics, and folk-lore. Under ethnography he 

 would discuss the origin and subdivisions of races ; and archaeo- 

 logy he would divide into " general" and "special." Labora- 



NO. II 76, VOL. 46] 



tory work would include (in the physical laboratory) such tasks 

 as the comparing and identifying of bones, the measuring of 

 skulls, &c. ; and (in the technological laboratory) the study of 

 stone and metal implements, textile materials, &c. There 

 would also be library work and field work. Students who 

 might wish to obtain an adequate notion of the science would 

 have to attend a course of thirty or forty lectures, and give twice 

 as many hours to laboratory work. That would be the mini- 

 mum amount of study. Those who might desire to instruct 

 others, or to prepare for independent research, would devote to 

 the science the greater part of their time during two or three 

 years. 



The structure of the cells of Bacteria continues to occupy the 

 attention of biologists, and a communication on the subject to 

 the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists {Memoirs, vol. xxi., 

 Botany), by W, K. Wahrlich, is worthy of notice. Careful 

 study of several species of Bacteria has led the author to 

 the conclusion that only two substances are to be de- 

 tected in the cell — chromatin, and linin, which surrounds the 

 former. The leading part in the formation of spores belongs 

 to chromatin, which is used entirely for this purpose, while the 

 linin substance is used for the formation of the exosporium. As 

 to the involutional forms, the author can only confirm the 

 opinions of De Bary, Niigeli, and Biichner as to their being 

 representative of a pathological state, or of a degeneration of 

 the cell ; chromatin disappears in such cells, and two or three 

 vacuoles appear in their linin part. The bacterial cells thus 

 appear to be simple nuclei, surrounded by membranes, but 

 devoid of cytoplasm ; chromatin is their most important part, 

 and when it disappears the cell can no longer reproduce itself 

 or continue an independent life. 



A REPORT was lately spread in the United States to the effect 

 that the Government intended to introduce the mongoose in 

 the West to exterminate the rodents which annoy farmers 

 there. The editors of the Naturalist wrote to the Department 

 of Agriculture for information on the subject, and received in 

 reply a letter to the effect that no such " rash act " had ever 

 been contemplated, the introduction of exotic species being 

 contrary to the Department's policy. The Naturalist expresses 

 cordial approval of this answer, evil having, it maintains, "in- 

 variably resulted from the introduction of exotic animals into 

 countries when no adequate natural restriction to their increase 

 exists." 



Mr. F. W. Ward was commissioned last year by the Hon. 

 Sydney Smith, then Minister of Agriculture in New South 

 Wales, to report upon the relations of fruit production in that 

 colony to the English market. The report was presented some 

 time ago, and is printed in the February number of the Agri- 

 cultural Gazette of New South IVales. Mr. Ward is convinced 

 that London offers an attractive market for the fruit products of 

 Australasia in their green, dried, and canned forms. All testi- 

 mony, and most emphatically that of the European growers, is, 

 he says, to the effect that London is, and always will be, the 

 great fruit market of the world. There is also, he adds, a con- 

 sensus of opinion to the effect that Australasia will gain the 

 largest share of the advantage in regard to this market, con- 

 sequent upon the reversal of the seasons. Other territories in 

 the southern hemisphere will dispute the market with Austral- 

 asia ; but Mr. Ward anticipates that the energy and intelligence 

 of Anglo-Saxon communities, operating upon good and cheap 

 soil, an unsurpassed, if not an unrivalled, climate for fruit pro- 

 duction, and splendid facilities of over-sea carriage, will fully 

 or more than compensate for the one great disadvantage of geo- 

 graphical distance. The London market for .\ustralasian fruit 

 resolves itself, for the most part, into a question of carriage. 

 What needs to be done is to minimize the cost of conveying 



