July 28, 1892] 



NATURE 



299 



A GENERAL meeting of the Sanitary Inspectors' Association 

 was held at Carpenters' Hall, London Wall, on Saturday even- 

 ing last, the president, Dr. B. W. Richardson, presiding. The 

 council presented a report upon the question of examination for 

 sanitary inspectors, recommending that they should be em- 

 powered to confer with the court of the Carpenters' Company in 

 order to arrange for lectures and examinations. The report was 

 adopted. A report upon the association's recent visit to Paris 

 was also presented, setting forth the principal features and inci- 

 dents of the journey. The adoption of this report was moved by 

 Mr. Alexander, and seconded by Mr. Tidman. The chairman, 

 in supporting the motion, said the association had learned many 

 important lessons upon the question of sanitation by their visit 

 to the French capital. After comparing the French and English 

 systems of sanitation, he expressed the opinion that in the 

 matter of disinfection the English might learn much from their 

 French neighbours. He believed that in London there might 

 with advantage be established one or more grand centres for 

 disinfection such as existed in Paris. He deprecated the system 

 in use at the Paris Morgue of freezing dead bodies for the pur- 

 pose of identification as being, in his belief, utterly useless for 

 that purpose. On the question of the inspection of animal food, 

 he thought that England could not do better than follow the 

 system adopted in France of testing every doubtful animal be- 

 fore it went to the shambles. A discussion followed, and on 

 the motion of the chairman an ambulance committee was formed 

 to report on the ambulance system in London. The report was 

 adopted. 



An official telegram received at the Hague from Batavia 

 confirms to some extent the statement made at Sydney as to a 

 terrible volcanic eruption in the island of Great Sangir. The 

 volcano which caused the disaster is named Gunona Awu. The 

 telegram adds that the whole of the north-western portion of 

 the island was entirely destroyed, 2,000 persons being killed. 

 The victims included no Europeans. The rest of the island 

 has also suffered seriously by the eruption, but it is hoped that 

 the damage may be repaired in the course of six months. The 

 crops have been destroyed. 



For some days the eruption of Mount Etna seemed to be 

 gradually decreasing, but on Tuesday it was again very 

 violent, and there were loud subterranean noises. On Monday 

 evening there was a shock of earthquake at Mineo, thirty- 

 seven miles to the south of the volcano. A correspondent 

 of the Times, writing from Catania on July 18, says that the 

 exact seat of the eruption cannot be discovered from that city on 

 account of the dense masses of smoke with which that side of 

 the mountain is enveloped, but from Augusta, a town situated 

 about 15 miles away, the summit and western outline are to be 

 seen standing out in bold prominence against the deep, gentian- 

 blue of the Mediterranean sky, and, with its endless volumes of 

 steam and smoke rolling away to the eastward, Etna presents an 

 indescribably imposing, not to say majestic, appearance. From 

 this little town the scene is sublime. 



The cause of the terrible disaster at St. Gervais is now being 

 investigated by several men of science. There can be no doubt 

 that it originated in the small glacier called the TeteRousse, which 

 is nearly 10,000 feet above sea level. According to a correspon- 

 dent of the Times, who writes from Lucerne, Prof. Duparc is of 

 opinion that the habitual drainage of this glacier had for some 

 reason or other become either totally blocked or obstructed ; the 

 water gradually accumulated in its natural concavity or bed ; and 

 the ever-increasing volume had exercised such an enormous pres- 

 sure as to force a passage and carry away a portion of the face of 

 the glacier with it. The mass of ice and water rushed down the 

 rocks which dominate the glacier of Bionnassay, not in a single 

 NO. 1187, VOL. 46] 



stream but in several, and then reunited into one enormous 

 torrent at the foot of the Bionnassay glacier. A dififerent 

 theory is held by Prof. Forel, of which the correspondent of 

 the Times gives the following account : — Professor Forel does 

 not see how a quantity of water sufficient to force away so large 

 I a portion of the glacier could possibly accumulate in so small a 

 I body as the Ttte Rousse, which has a total super ficies of less 

 than one hundred acres. It slopes freely on three sides ; it is, 

 in fact, one of the most abrupt of the whole chain of Mont 

 Blanc ; and, in a glacier of this description, with an altitude 

 of nearly 10,000 ft., there are none of the conditions of a great 

 accumulation of water. In his opinion, therefore, we must 

 look for the main cause of the disaster in the natural movement 

 and breaking up of the glacier. He estimates the volume of ice 

 which fell at between one and two million cubic metres. The 

 mass, first in falling and then rushing down the rapid slope, 

 became transformed, for the most part, into what he calls a 

 lava of ice and water. The ravine, he says, through which this 

 avalanche rushed shows no traces of any great evacuation of 

 water ; in the upper portions of its transit there is no mud and 

 no accumulation of sand, but, on the other hand, there are 

 great blocks of glacier ice strewn everywhere, and at several 

 points he found portions of powdered ice mixed with earth. 

 Then, again, if this had been simply a torrent of water falling, 

 it would have found its way down the more violent inclines, 

 instead of, as in this case, passing straight over the frontal 

 moraine at the foot of the glacier. In this higher region, there- 

 fore, all the evidence points to an avalanche of ice, which, 

 starting at an altitude of nearly 10,000 ft., and descending at an 

 incline of 70 per cent, for 5,000 ft., was pulverized by its fall, 

 a large portion of it being melted by the heat generated in its 

 rapid passage and contact with matters relatively warm. It 

 rushed into the ravine by the side of the glacier of Bionnassay 

 and joined the waters of the torrent which issues therefrom, and, 

 further aided by the stream of Bon Nant, it became sufficiently 

 liquid to travel down the lower portions of the valley at the 

 slighter incline of 10 per cent., and yet retained sufficient con- 

 sistency to destroy everything in its passage. That this torrent 

 was not composed merely of mud and water is proved, he says, 

 by the fact that it did not always maintain the same height when 

 confined to the narrower ravine, and that the remains on the 

 sides of the rock show it to have been a viscous substance rather 

 than fluid. 



An entire change of weather set in over these islands during 

 the past week. The severe storm referred to in our last issue 

 passed quickly to the south-eastward across the Channel, and 

 subsequently traversed Switzerland and Italy. This was suc- 

 ceeded by an area of high barometer readings, which reached 

 this country from oflf the Atlantic, and extended eastwards over 

 a great part of Europe. Anticyclonic conditions have since been 

 very persistent, with an unusual amount of cloud, especially in 

 the north and south, and, occasionally, mist or fog, but the 

 weather was otherwise fine and very dry. Temperature remained 

 low, under the influence of northerly and easterly winds, the 

 maxima seldom e.xceeding 70°, while the night minima have also 

 been low, especially over the inland districts of England, where, 

 in places, readings have fallen to within 10° of the freezing 

 point. 



The Vatican Observatory, recently established by Pope Leo 

 XIII., has issued volume ii. of its " Pubblicazioni," containing 

 the results of the most important researches undertaken at the 

 observatory, together with a summary of the proceedings of the 

 meetings held in the year 1891, which comprise a collection of 

 notices relating to astronomy and terrestrial physics. Prof. J. 

 Buti contributes papers (i) on the variations of temperature at 

 different heights. The maxima were generally highest at the 



