February 1, 1893.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



31 



hinted that in the future it may be possible to raise the 

 quality of German tobacco, not so much by careful culture 

 and judicious selection of varieties, which has so far proved 

 unsuccessful, as by inoculating with pure cultures of 

 bacteria found in some of the tine foreign tobaccos, whereby 

 similar fermentative changes may be induced in the 

 (lerman raw material, and the quality correspondingly 

 improved. It will be highly interesting to watch the future 

 results of this transplanting of bacteria. 



The following are the lecture arrangements at the Royal 

 Institution before Easter : — Sir liobert S. Ball, six lectures 

 (for young people) on Astronomy; Professor Victor Horsley, 

 ten lectures on the Brain; tiie Rev. Canon Ainger, three 

 lectures on Tennyson ; Professor Patrick Geddes, four 

 lectures on the Factors of Organic Evolution ; the Rev. 

 Augustus .Jessopp, three lectures on The Great Revival — a 

 study in Mediaeval History ; Professor C. Hubert H. Parry, 

 four lectures on Expression and Design in ^lusic (with 

 musical illustrations) ; the Right Hon. Lod Rayleigh, six 

 lectures on Sound and Vibrations. The Friday evening 

 meetings began on .January 20th, when a discourse was j 

 given by Professor Dewar on Liquid Atmospheric Air, 

 followed on January 27th by Francis Galton, F.R.S., on 

 The .Just-Perceptible Iiiflerence. The other lectures will be 

 as follows : — Februaiy 3rd, Alexander Siemens, Theory and 

 Practice in Electrical Science (with experimental illustra- 

 tions) ; February 10th, Professor Charles Stewart, Some 

 Associated Organisms; February 17th, Professor A. H. 

 Church, F.R.S., Turacin, a remarkable Animal Pigment 

 containing Copper ; February 24th, Edward Hopkinson, 

 Electrical Railways ; March 3rd, George Simonds, Sculp- 

 ture considered apart from Arcbreology ; March 10th, Sir 

 Herbert Maxwell, Early Myth and Late Romance ; March 

 17th, William .James Russell, F.R.S., Ancient Egyptian 

 Pigments ; ilarch 24th, Discourse by Lord Rayleigh. 



Fifty years ago the introduction of iron as a building 

 material created a revolution in the science and art of 

 shipbuilding, and of late years steel has largely taken the 

 place of iron. But it now seems highly probable that a 

 still greater change is coming. In the near future we 

 may expect to see aluminium replacing steel to some 

 extent. There are at present in existence five small craft 

 constructed of this metal. There are three petroleum 

 yachts, which were built last year at Zurich. One is a 

 Swedish lifeboat. The fiflh is a yacht which is now com- 

 pleting for sea in Germany. Aluminium has lately become 

 cheaper, and to the shipbuilder it offers so many striking 

 advantages that, even at its present price, it is sure of 

 moi'e general adoption. In strength and • toughness it 

 rivals steel, in non-liability to corrosion it is almost as 



good as gold, and in lightness it stands altogether alone. 

 — •-♦-, — 

 Sir .John Lubbock, in a recent lecture on the Habits of 

 Ants, suggested the question whether ants were moral and 

 accountable beings. Their communities were no mere 

 collection of independent individuals, but organized com- 

 munities, labouring with the utmost harmony tor the 

 common good. Various observers bad recorded instances 

 of attachment and aflection. He himself had never 

 noticed a quarrel between two ants belonging to the same 

 nest. All seemed to be in harmony within the limits of the 

 community. But ants not belonging to the same nest were 



always enemies, even if they belonged to the same species. 

 — I > I — 

 A valuable forthcoming work is that of Mr. Flinders 

 Petrie, on " Meidoun." The author has visited the 

 temple of the pyramid of Senefra, still quite perfect. One 

 of the incriptions he found must be quite 5000 years old. 



The tunnel at Niagara Falls is finished, and the plant 

 for obtaining power will be in operation by next March. 

 It is expected that a current of 45,000 electric horse-power 

 will be transmitted from there to Buffalo, and 30,000 to 

 other points. 



*^» 



(■eologists will be glad to hear that the plans of the 

 long-promised Sedgwick Geological Museum were under dis- 

 cussion at Cambridge last month, and there now seems 

 to be a prospect of the early realization of the scheme for 

 a Memorial i\[useum. The staff of the geological depart- 

 ment of the university is also to be increased liy the 

 addition of a demonstrator in palasontology. 



Ciood illustrations of the geological features of the earth's 

 surface are still much wanted. We therefore welcome the 

 publication of the first part of a large illustrated work on 

 " The ^'olcanoes of Japan," by Professors John Milne and 

 W. K. r.urton, with photographs by K. Ogawa. The 

 present part contains ten plates, and is devoted to the 

 illustration of the most famous and beautiful of all the 

 Japanese volcanoes — Fujisan (or Fuji Yama, as we still 

 find it in our atlas). The photographs are reproduced as 

 permanent collotypes 11 by 8 inches, and are in every 

 way admirable. Last year we called attention to a 

 similarly illustrated work on " The Great Earthquake in 

 Japan, 1891." We hope soon to see the second part. The 

 book may be obtained of Messrs. Kelly and Walsh. 

 Professor Milne gives in his text some interesting par- 

 ticulars about this great volcano. 



Mr. Preece's wire to wire communication, mentioned in 

 our January issue, is not a new idea. The late Mr. 

 Willougliby Smith made similar tests some years ago. 

 Before the Indian Mutiny in 1857, Sir Wm. O'Shaughnessy, 

 Director-General of Electric Telegraphs in India, made 

 fairly successful experiments in that direction, which, but 

 for the mutiny, would, no doubt, have been continued and 

 improved. 



The great American pneumatic gun is described by a 

 visitor to Shoeburyness as capable of throwing a shell 

 having a charge of 600 lbs. of dynamite. It resembles a 

 huge telescope, pointing upward at an angle of 80 degrees, 

 and is 70 feet long. The missile is discharged by com- 

 pressed air, and yet its discharge produces a report and a 

 cloud of smoke, just as if gunpowder had been exploded. 

 The shots were carried a mile and a half. 



THE LUNAR APENNINES. 



By A. C. Ran YARD. 



THE range of lunar mountains which runs diagonally 

 across our plate is described by the Rev. T. W. 

 W'ebb, in his ('clextial Objects fm- Cunnnon 

 Telescopes, as being " more like the moimtains of 

 the earth than is usually the case." This range 

 of mountains is known as the lunar Apennines. It rises 

 gradually on its south-west flank, but is comparatively 

 precipitous on the other side, as though it was a 

 momitain range composed of strata tilted or tipped up 

 towards the north-east. But the greater steepness on one 

 side of a mountain range niust not, without further evi- 

 dence, be taken' as proving that the mountains are built 

 up of stratified rocks which have been laid down beneath 

 a lunar ocean ; for there are many terrestrial volcanic ridges 

 which are steep on one side and slope away gently on the 

 other, ridges which exhibit a stratified strticture being 

 built up of beds of volcanic ash, sometimes alternated with 



