Nov. 3, 1882.] 



• KNOVSALEDGE • 



309 



V AN ILLiiilRATED ^'j^ 



MAGAZINE OF MENCE 



fePlAlNirVfORDED -£XACTI^D £SCRIE£D , 



LOXDOX : FRIDAY, XOVEMBER 3, 1882. 



Contents of No. 53. 



FAGS. 



Science and Art Gossip 369 



A Problem in Atomic Theories. By 



Professor Tyndall 371 



The Comet llllnrlrated) . Bt B. A. 



Proctor 373 



Earthquakes in the British Isles.— 



II. 



ng-trees. 



By Ernest Black... 

 ' Hints aboQt the Rain-band 

 Spectroscope. Bt F. W. Cory, 

 F.M.S .' 



Mr. Stanley's DiscOTeries i 



Rettbws : — Plain Ways in Science 



—The Doomed Comet ! 



Correspondence : — Has the Moon 



key and Mirror, 4 

 Answers to Correspo 

 Cor Whist Column.. 

 Our Chess Coloma ,. 



^ct'fiuf auti art tBoEfgip. 



It seems likely that we shall soon hear of serious vol- 

 canic outbursts in the Italian region of subterranean 

 activity. At Cassone, Verona, and Brescia earthquakes 

 )iave been felt and houses thrown down. 



Professor C. W. C. Fuchs announces that the total 

 number of recorded earthquakes for the year 1881 is 297, 

 volcanic eruptions numbering 10, — the most important 

 being that of Mauna Loa, in Hawaii 



"Present evidence," says Prof. Owen, in Loiigman's 

 Magazine, "concurs in concluding that the modes of life 

 and grades of thought of the men who have left evidences 

 of their existence at the earliest periods, hitherto dis- 

 covered and determined, were such as are now observable 

 in ' savages,' or the human races which are commonly so 

 called." 



M. Bergeron, a French scientist, has produced a minia- 

 ture imitation of the craters in the moon by sending a cur- 

 rent of hot air through a brass tube into a mass of melted, 

 but gradually cooling, metallic alloy. M. Bergeron looks 

 upon the experiment as suggesting the manner in which 

 the lunar craters may have been formed. 



The French Minister of Marine has appointed a com- 

 mission to investigate and report upon a new arrangement 

 for illuminating submarine operations. A powerful arc 

 lamp is enclosed in a water-tight casing, the bottom of 

 •which is formed of a glass plate, and the top is provided with 

 a reflector that will distribute the light over a circle about 

 100 ft in diameter. The series of experiments, which it is 

 intended shall be very complete, will be conducted at Mar- 

 seilles. The divers will be in telephonic connection witli 

 the surface, and be able to direct the movements of the 

 lamp, which will be suspended over the operations, and can 

 be shifted at will. 



The Xanlical Gazette says that during the year 1881 

 the vessels lost at sea averaged about one eviry four hours. 



A large proportion of these losses occurred from careless- 

 ness, and mostly in fogs and other darkness. There were 

 400 ocean steamer collisions in 1879 and 1880 in the 

 North Atlantic Ocean alone. Each of these might have 

 been a\oided if the master of one colliding vessel had been 

 informed in proper time of the course pursued by the 

 approaching one. These losses gave an average of over 

 one steamer a day in which human life was sacrificed and 

 valuable property destroyed. The Gazette believes that if 

 a system of fog-signals had been in use, puch as the Barker 

 code, nearly all of these disasters would have been pre- 

 vented or avoided. 



Lieut. Hovgaard, in a letter to Herr Gamel, the pro- 

 jector of the Danish Polar E.xhibition, states that the 

 Dijmpltna is frozen in near Novaia ZemUa; but he hoped 

 to get free during the equinoctial gales and reach the 

 Jenisei. All well on board. 



Reason is not always heard in vain. The Temperate 

 House Gate to Kew Gardens, which was being bricked up 

 so resolutely, is to be unbricked again, and restored to its 

 former condition. It is pleasant to be assured that this 

 is being done " with the full concurrence of Sir Joseph 

 Hooker ; " yet he must not take it ill if we address our 

 thanks more pointedly to Mr. Shaw-Lefevre. 



It should in fairness be added that this is not absolutely 

 the first time that Sir Joseph Hooker has been known to 

 give " his full concurrence" to a desirable measure. For 

 a long time the members of the Kew Fire Brigade sought 

 in vain for permission to erect a station and engine-room 

 on the borders of his territories. But they " went about 

 with him." They persuaded a son of this local magnate 

 to become a captain in the Fire Brigade, and he, in turn, 

 persuaded his father to allow a small portion of his park 

 to be used for the erection of a Fire Brigade station. These 

 potentates must be deftly dealt witk 



We have spoken of the blowing up of casual trees in 

 Kew Gardens. Sometimes the work of destruction 

 goes on so actively that one might imagine a siege was in 

 progress. It is very necessary that many of the trees, 

 when they show signs of decay, shoidd be removed. Other 

 trees are saved, and the Gardens are in many cases 

 improved. Hundreds of tons of wood have thus been 

 disposed of. This wood was, one would say, the property 

 of the nation— not worth very much, perhaps — yet if Sir 

 Joseph had had it sold, liowevcr, and the proceeds given to 

 the poor or to his gardeners, no one would have complained, 

 we think. He found another use for it, however. It 

 made splendid bonjireg. 



According to Professor F. C. Phillips, healthy plants 

 may absorb througli their roots small ([uantities of lead, 

 zinc, copper, and arsenic. The lead and zinc may enter 

 the tissues in this way without harming the plants, but 

 the comjiounds of copper and arsenic exert a distinctly 

 poisonous influence— tending to kill the plants when present 

 in the soil in considerable quantities. 



An astronomical observatory has lately been erected by 

 the Italian Government on Mount Etna, aliove Catania, 

 which is the highest inhabited building in Europe, as it 

 beats the St Bernard Hospice by over 1.000 feet It has 

 two stories with spacious \>alconies, and lias been built on 

 a cone near the summit of the mountain. The observatory 



