January i6, 1896] 



NATURE 



253 



of Goi was completely destroyed, looo houses being laid in 

 ruins, while great damage was done to many villages. The 

 loss of life in Cioi alone amounted to 800 persons. A sharp 

 earthquake disturbance was also felt at Meshad and Kelat at 

 10.50 on the morning of January 8. 



During last week an anti-cyclone lay over the British 

 Islands, during which the barometer read higher than had pro- 

 bably been recorded before in this country. The Daily Weather 

 Report issued by the Meteorological Office on the 9th inst. 

 showed a barometer reading of 31 "09 inches at Ardrossan, in 

 the West of Scotland, and the readings over the whole of the 

 northern and north-western parts of the kingdom reached or 

 exceeded 31 inches. The nearest reading to this occurred in 

 January 1820, again on the 9th, when the barometer in Scotland 

 rose to 31 "06 inches ; which until now had been considered to be 

 the highest on record in the British Islands. In January 1882, 

 a reading of 30*99 inches was recorded in the South of England. 



We owe the following news to Mr. R. H. Scott, who re- 

 ceived it from Caherciveen. " On Monday night, January 6, at 

 about half- past seven o'clock, a large meteor fell from the sky 

 and approached the earth from a north-east direction. As it 

 approached near the earth with accelerated velocity, bril- 

 liant sparks or particles were shot out from it in all directions. 

 The whole country was brilliantly illuminated for about ten 

 seconds, that is, during the time occupied by the meteor in its 

 descent. When the meteor was apparently within about two 

 hundred yards of the earth, it burst or exploded, and the 

 increased illumination was most remarkable. It was impossible 

 for a person to estimate, even approximately, the place or neigh- 

 Ixjurhood where this meteor fell. Different persons, viewing it 

 from various standpoints, give different locations, but they all 

 agree that the descent was westward or seaward of this locality. 

 The meteor was, apparently, of a globular form, with a tail 

 about eight times as long as the diameter of the globular portion. 

 All was of the same brilliant radiance, but a few seconds before 

 the end of the fall, or when the meteor was extinguished, the 

 half of the tail furthest away from the body became black." 



The Swiss National Exhibition begins at Geneva on May I 

 and terminates October 15. Mr. Theodore Turrettini, Mayor 

 of Geneva, is president of the exhibition, and it is expected that 

 the electrical exhibit will be remarkably good. Mr. Turrettini 

 has recently completed great engineering works near Geneva, 

 whereby the river Rhone supplies 12,000-horse power, to be 

 electrically transmitted six miles to the grounds. This power 

 makes it possible for elaborate electrical works to be shown. 

 There will be a travelling footpath, operated by electricity, 

 traversing the great machinery hall ; horseless cabs driven by 

 electricity, appliances for aerial navigation, a multiplying valve- 

 pump, processes for making paper and fabrics, tests of 

 strength on metals, and many other appliances. Prof. Pictet 

 will exhibit his apparatus for producing intense cold, and will 

 demonstrate the uses of very low temperatures. Numerous other 

 exhiVjits of scientific interest will be shown. 



Prof. W. C. Rontgen, Professor of Physics in Wurzburg 

 University, is reported to have discovered that a number of sub- 

 stances which are opaque to visible rays of light, are transparent 

 to certain waves capable of affecting a photographic plate. It 

 is alleged that he has been able to utilise his discovery to photo- 

 graph metals enclosed in wooden or woollen coverings, and has 

 succeeded in obtaining pictures showing only the Ixines of living 

 persons, the explanation being that, while wood and flesh freely 

 allow the newly-discovered actinic rays to pass through them, 

 IxDnes and metals are opaque to them. So far as we can gather 

 from the reports. Prof. Rontgen uses as his source of light one of 

 Mr. Crookes' high-vacuum tubes, electrically excited. If this 

 NO. 1368, VOL. 53] 



is placed on one side of a box containing a metallic body, or it 

 a hand is held in front of it, and a sensitive plate is arranged on 

 the opposite side, a photc^raph of the metal, or of the lx)nes of 

 the hand, as the case may be, is obtained. The scientific world 

 will look forward with interest to the publication of the det.iils 

 of Prof. Rontgen's work. 



The old question as to the influence of public libraries in 

 disseminating infection is commented uix)n by the British 

 Medical Journal, in the current issue. It is pointed out that an 

 article in the last number of the Annales de rinstitiit Pasteur, 

 by Du Cazal and Catrin, is devoted to this question, and it is 

 shown that the leaves of book soiled by streptococcus pus, 

 pneumonic pus, and expectoration, or by diphtherial false mem- 

 branes, were capable after several days of transmitting these 

 maladies to animals inoculated by bouillon in which pieces of the 

 leaves l centimetre square had been soaked. In regard to the 

 question how far it is possible to disinfect books that have 

 become charged with a contagium, these authors show that there 

 are considerable difficulties in the way. Of chemical dis- 

 infectants they recommend the vapour of formic aldehyde in 

 which calcium chloride has been dissolved. By means of this 

 they obtained complete disinfection, except in regard to typhoid 

 fever. By exposure to high-pressure steam, however, they 

 got good results — the disinfection was perfect and complete. 

 But in the case of bound books the steam had very destructive 

 effects, the millboard being softened and the cloth wrinkled. 

 Stitched books, however, were uninjured, no harm being done 

 either to the paper, the ink, or even to coloured engravings. 



It siJeaks well for the extension of interest in science that 

 steamships are advertised to proceed from London with passen- 

 gers to view the total solar eclipse from Vadso, in the V^aranger 

 Fjord, on August 9. The conditions of 185 1, when a small 

 expedition observed a total eclipse from Bue Island, Norway, 

 has given place to a new state of things ; and there seems every 

 possibility that for every one who went out to see the obscura- 

 tion of the sun then, fifty will witness the phenomenon next 

 August. The Orient Steam Navigation Company will send 

 out two of their steamships ; Messrs. Cook and Son have 

 made arrangements for special eclipse cruises ; and Messrs. 

 Gaze and Son announce a trip to Vadso in the Norse 

 King. This steamer is due at Vadso on August 3, which 

 leaves sufficient time for the average sightseer to settle down 

 to a frame of mind suitable for observing a solar eclipse. 

 But we notice with some astonishment, in a circular issued by 

 Messrs. Gaze and Son, the statement that "an official party ot 

 observers, arranged by a joint committee of the Royal Society 

 and of the Astronomical Society, are proceeding to Norway, and 

 will travel by the s.s. Norse A'ing." We can hardly think that 

 this statement is authoritative, for scientific committees are not 

 in the habit of advertising their intention to patronise any par- 

 ticular line of steamers ; and, further, astronomers usually 

 require more than five days to adjust and set up their instru- 

 ments, if any work of real use to science is to be done. Of 

 course, those photographers who merely wish to take snap-shots 

 at the corona do not need to make any elaborate preparations, 

 and if the steamship they travel by carries them into harbour 

 two or three days before August 9, they will have ample time to 

 point their cameras correctly. 



In a short note contributed to the Paris Academy of Sciences 

 on December 30, Prof. Suess calls attention to the striking geo- 

 graphical results of the researches of his Vienija colleagues on 

 the marine Triassic fauna. While to English geologists the 

 Trias is the typical example of an unfossiliferous land-deposit, 

 the work of Mojsisovics on the contemporaneous deposits of the 

 Alpine region has been the starting-point for a series of dis- 



