254 



NA TURE 



[July 14, 1892 



out during the time of his Deanship ; and it occurred to Prof. 

 Ramsay that no more fitting task could devolve on the Dean 

 than to chronicle how far the progress of science is due to those, 

 students and teachers, who work in University College. His 

 colleagues have responded to his inquiries, and he has thus been 

 able to lay before the Council a list of publications amounting 

 in all to 84 separate memoirs or books. They contain accounts 

 of researches in which professors, assistants, students, former 

 students who are still at work in the College have taken part ; 

 and Prof. Ramsay maintains that in this, as well as in the 

 routine of teaching, the College fulfils the duties of a true 

 University. The record, he contends, equals, if it does not 

 surpass, that of any University in the kingdom . 



Since Saturday last Mount Etna has been in a state of 

 eruption, and many severe shocks of earthquake have been felt 

 in the surrounding country. From midnight till six o'clock on 

 Saturday evening there were eleven distinct shocks. About 

 noon on Saturday a great fissure opened on the summit of the 

 mountain, from which lava began to issue with great rapidity. 

 During the following night the eruption assumed alarming propor- 

 tions, and huge quantities of lava streamed down the sides of the 

 mountain. This rapidly flowed in two streams— one going in 

 the direction of Nicolosi and the other towards Belpasso. There 

 was a severe earthquake shock in the immediate vicinity of the 

 volcano on Saturday night. On Sunday the people of Nicolosi 

 assembled for mass outside the cathedral, and remained 

 kneeling in the open air, being afraid to enter owing to the 

 continued shocks of earthquake. At five o'clock in the evening 

 the shocks continued, and very loud subterranean rumblings 

 were heard, giving the impression of a terrible storm. Twelve 

 houses and a portion of a church were destroyed. The eruption 

 continued very active. On Monday it was stated that the 

 rumblings had grown less frequent, and there were indications that 

 the eruptions from the newly-formed fissure were about to cease. 

 The principal crater, however, showed signs of renewed activity. 

 On Tuesday the following telegram was despatched from 

 Catania through Renter's agency : — " The eruption of Mount 

 Etna is again rapidly increasing in volume and intensity. Five 

 craters at different points on the mountain are showing great 

 activity. Loud explosions occur continually, and this morning 

 there was a strong shock of earthquake. Giarre, on the ^coast to 

 the north of Catania, has been reduced to ruins, and the whole 

 country round has suffered severely, A number of engineers 

 who have been sent to the points immediately threatened express 

 fears that the wells will blow up on contact with the lava. There 

 is no panic, and in the circumstances the people maintain a 

 fairly calm demeanour." 



A TERRIBLE disaster has happened in the neighbourhood of 

 the sulphur springs of St. Gervais, a little way off the road from 

 Geneva to Chamonix. According to a Renter's telegram, 

 despatched from Bonneville, Haute Savoie, on July 12, the 

 calamity was due to the fact that the lower end of the glacier of 

 Bionnay became detached from Mont Blanc and fell into the 

 torrent beneath. It carried away with it the little village of the 

 same name. The masses of ice and the wreck of the village 

 formed a dam which held up the waters for some time, until they 

 suddenly broke through the obstruction and burst like a cataract 

 into the mountain stream, known as the Bon Nant, which flows 

 by St. Gervais les Bains. These thermal springs, the medi- 

 cinal virtues of which attract many visitors to the hotel 

 during the year, rise in the wooded ravine of Montjoie, 

 through which the Bon Nant or "Good Stream" passes 

 on its way down to meet the river Arve. The gorge in which 

 the Etablissement des Bains, erected at an altitude of 2066 

 feet above the level of the sea, stands, or rather stood, is 

 narrow, and the hotel consisted of five separate buildings joined 

 NO. I 185, VOL. 46] 



together by walls of stone roughly hewn from the mountain side. 

 At a quarter past two on Tuesday morning or thereabouts, the 

 people in the hotel were awakened by a terrific noise of rushing 

 water, and the crashing of rocks one against the other. Then a 

 furious gust of wind drove through the gorge. The next moment 

 a torrent of water, carrying with it fragments of rock, trees, and 

 debris of all descriptions, hurled itself upon the hotel. Of the 

 five buildings, three were utterly destroyed, another was nearly 

 so, while the fifth remained almost unhurt, owing its safety to 

 its position, which was high above the course of the Bon Nant. 

 Passing down the valley, the torrent struck the village of Le 

 Fayet, which was almost entirely demolished. The wreckage 

 of the houses was swept down the stream for miles into the river 

 Arve, on the surface of which corpses and debris of all kinds 

 were seen floating all day on Tuesday. According to the latest 

 calculations on Tuesday evening, there were no fewer than 200 

 victims, more than half of whom were staying at the bathing 

 establishment of St. Gervais. 



The following are among the Civil List pensions granted 

 during the year ended June 20 : — to Mrs. Caroline Emma 

 Carpenter, £,\QO, in consideration of the services rendered by 

 her late husband. Dr. Philip Herbert Carpenter, F.R.S., to 

 science, and of the sad circumstances in which she was left by 

 his death ; to Mr. Thomas Woodhouse Levin, ^^50, in con- 

 sideration of the services he has rendered to education and 

 philosophy and mental science, of his blindness, and of his 

 inadequate means of support ; to Dr. George Gore, F. R.S.> 

 £,iSo, in consideration of his services to chemical and physical 

 science ; to Mr. Henry Dunning Macleod, M.A., ;^ioo, in con- 

 sideration of his labours as a writer upon economical subjects ; 

 to Mr. Henry Bradley, ^^150, in consideration of his labours in 

 connection with the "New English Dictionary"; to Miss 

 Letitia Marian Cole, ;^30, Miss Henrietta Lindsay Cole, 

 ^30, and Miss Rose Owen Cole, ^^30, in recognition of the 

 services rendered by the late Sir Henry Cole to the cause of 

 artistic and scientific education ; and to Mrs. Jeanie Gwynne 

 Bettany, ;^50, in consideration of the services rendered to the 

 spread of scientific knowledge by the numerous writings of her 

 husband, the late Mr. G. T. Bettany, M.A. 



Mr. Thomas Hanbury has presented to the Botanical 

 Institute at Genoa the very rich collection of vascular plants 

 made by the late Prof. Willkomm, of Prague. It comprises as 

 many as 14,472 species, the greater number being European or 

 from the adjacent districts of Asia and Africa. It is especially 

 rich in plants of the Spanish Peninsula, and includes most of 

 Willkomm's original type-specimens. 



The Society of Natural History of St. Petersburg has 

 despatched Dr. K. N. Denkenbach on a mission to explore the 

 flora of the Black Sea. 



The death is announced of Prof. Giovanni Flechia, Vice- 

 President of the Reale Accademia delle Scienze of Turin. 



The series of fifteen water-colour paintings of the volcanic 

 district in New Zealand, which were lent by Miss Constance F. 

 Gordon Gumming to the Indian and Colonial Exhibition, are 

 now lent to " The Castle" at Nottingham, where they will be 

 shown for some little time. They were in the Indian and 

 Colonial Exhibition at the time of the great eruption of Mount 

 Tarawera, which destroyed the beautiful Terraces. 



The weather during the past week has been changeable, with 

 frequent rain, more particularly in the north and west ; X"j inch 

 was measured on the west coast of Ireland on the morning of 

 the 1 2th instant. At the time of our last issue a deep depres- 

 sion lay over the north of Scotland, the barometer being below 

 29 inches, while a moderate westerly gale was blowing in the 



