July 19, 1894] 



NA TURE 



27: 



the Edwards Library, University College, Gower Street, from 

 July 23 to September i. 



The death is announced of Dr. Adolph Hannover, at Copen 

 bagen, at eighty years of age, and of Dr. J. Ilyrtl, of Vienna 

 University, at the age of eighty-four. 



The first annual meeting of the Australasian Institute of 

 Mining Engineers, recently held at IJallarat, Victoria, appears 

 to have been a very successful one. The inaugural meeting of 

 the Institute was held last year at Adelaide, when Sir Henry 

 Ayres, the President of the Legislative Council of South Aus- 

 tralia, was chosen as its first president. Among the speeches 

 delivered at that time was a very pointed one by the Hon. 

 James Martin, the head of the engineering firm bearing that 

 name. In the course of his remarks he said : " Science is 

 much needed in mining, for without it mining cannot go along. 

 We have been blundering too much by rule of thumb, which 

 has done much to injure the mining industry and those who are 

 willing to take some risks in mining. It has been the want of 

 knowledge of the men who have been placed as mining managers 

 that has ruined so many concerns. We want to bring science, 

 experience, and knowledge to bear upon mining, so 'hat we 

 will be able to bring wealth from the earth without a waste of 

 labour." Mr. James Stirling, the present president of the 

 Institute, took the " Mineral Wealth of the Colony of Victoria" 

 as the subject of his address at the Ballarat meeting. A variety 

 of papers on mining topics were read and discussed, and visits 

 were made to a number of mines and engineering works. The 

 Institute has accepted an invitation from the Premier of Tas- 

 mania to hold the annual meeting in Hobart, Tasmania, next 

 year, at which time the mining exhibition will be open. 



Under the conductorship of Major Lamorock Flower, a 

 meeting of the Essex Field Club was held last Saturday on the 

 River Lea, the Conservancy Board having placed their steam- 

 barge at the disposal of the club for the occasion. About sixty 

 members embarked at Hertfoid and steamed down the river as 

 far as Tottenham. Many well-known scientific men were pre- 

 sent and gave addresses during the course of the day. Major 

 Flower, after welcoming the party on behalf of the Conserv.incy 

 Board (to which he is sanitary engineer), gave an account of the 

 river and of his own work in connection with the improvement 

 in its condition. After lunch at Broxbourne, Mr. J. E. Harting 

 read a short paper on Izaak Walton's association with the river, 

 and exhibited a most interesting set of prints in illustration of 

 his remarks. Mr. G. J. Symons, F.R.S., later in the day, gave 

 an account of the watershed, and explained the connection 

 between the rainfall and the water supplied to the river. Mr. 

 Howard Saunders followed with an address on the birds of the 

 Lea Valley, and Mr. T. V. Holmes concluded with a paper on 

 the geology of the district, explaining how the river had in the 

 course of time shifted its bed generally in an easterly direction, 

 leaving gravel deposits to the west often a mile or more from 

 the present stream. As the result of a most enjoyable meeting, 

 it was generally conceded that the river above the intake of the 

 East London Waterworks Company at Ponder's End was in a 

 very good condition, but great regret was expressed at the 

 accumulation of heaps of the most evil-smelling garbage which 

 here and there greeted the party on their way down. This 

 ] refuse, as Major Flower explained, is brought from London in 

 barges, and is heaped by the river b.anks under certain legal 

 powers permitted by an Act of Parliament passed in 1868, and 

 which the Conservancy Board has therefore at present no power 

 of preventing ; but it is to be hoped that the general advance of 

 sanitary science will soon bo such that public opinion will lead 

 to legal restrictions as to the placing of decomposing refuse on 

 the banks of any stream of which the water is used for human 

 consumption. 



NO. 1290, VOL. 50] 



According to press telegrams, the cholera epidemic which 

 has recently appeared at St. Petersburg is assuming an alarming 

 character, being much more severe than that of last year. It 

 is odicially reported that 875 cases of cholera, and 294 deaths 

 have occurred in St. Petersburg alone from the 8th inst. up to 

 Saturday last. In Cronstadt, also, the disease has become 

 epidemic, and other parts of Russia are seriously affected. A 

 number of deaths from cholera are reported from the province 

 of Galicia, in Austria-Hungary. Zaieszczki, in Galicia, has been 

 declared to be a centre of the epidemic, and the necessary 

 precautions have been taken to prevent communication with 

 the infected district. Cases of cholera have also occurred in 

 Sparta, near Adalia, Asia Minor, in the Prussian part of the 

 Vistula, and at Liege and several surrounding villages, and an 

 isolated case with choleraic symptoms has been notified at Paris. 



Further particulars with regard to the earthquake in 

 Turkey last week shov; that it was of a very serious nature. Xo 

 official return of the real number of victims has yet been pub- 

 lished, but Renter reports that the death-roll in Stamboul alone 

 is known to exceed two hundred. According to Press telegrams, 

 the damage to property in Constantinople is estimated to 

 amount to ^T6,ooo,ooo. There is scarcely a street in that city 

 which does not show signs of the destructive effects of the 

 earthquake, many of the old Turkish houses in Stamboul and 

 the suburbs having been completely wrecked. The Grand 

 Bazaar suffered severely. The vaulted roof of the jewellers' 

 arcade fell in, causing a scene of great panic and confusion. 

 Renter's telegrams state that, at Prinkipo, the Greek Orthodox 

 Church and a large number of houses were destroyed or seriously 

 damaged. On the Island of Halki nearly all the houses have 

 been rendered uninhabitable. A portion of the Great Ottoman 

 Naval College also collapsed, six students being killed and 

 several injured. On the island of Antigoni not a house has 

 been left intact, with the exception of the monasteries. .\t 

 Pera four houses fell in, and many were damaged, the number 

 of victims being five. The village of Galateria, near St. 

 Stephano, has been completely destroyed. The shock was felt 

 in the interior of Anatolia at a distance of 236 miles from Con- 

 stantinople. Nearly all the railway stations have been damaged, 

 and the town of Jalova, in the Gulf of Ismidt, has been almost 

 totally destroyed. During the first shock at the island of Halki 

 and the village of St. Stephano the sea retired over 200 yards, 

 leaving many boats and vessels high and dry. The waters then 

 returned with such force and violence that they overflowed the 

 quay, hurling the boats on to the shore far above sea-level, and 

 causing great damage. It is reported that shocks continue to 

 be felt at intervals, but the movements of the ground are barely 

 perceptible. The point from which the surface disturbances 

 proceeded is said to be in the Sea of Marmora, somewhere 

 between Jolava on the Asiatic side, and Stephano on the 

 European side. 



A PRIVATE telegram to the Royal Geographical Society has 

 brought bad news of the Wellman polar expedition, the departure 

 of which for Spitzbergen was noticed in N.VTtJRE, vol. 1. p. S?- 

 The sleam-yacht Saide, belonging to Captain Townley-Parker, of 

 the Royal Yacht Squadron, called at Danes Island, in the north- 

 east of Spitzbergen, on July 6, and found the geologist of 

 Mr. Wellman's party, Mr. Oyen, alone in charge of the house 

 and stores. The expedition had reached Danes Island safely 

 on May 7, and after landing Mr. Oyen, set out for Seven Islands 

 on the loth, promising to send back the steamer for Mr. Oyen 

 in a week's time ; but she had never returned. The Saidc at 

 once attempted to go in search of the missing vessel, but was 

 stopped by ice off Hakluyts Head in 80° 10' N., and compelled 

 to return. No trace of the ship had been seen by the Norwegian 

 walrus-hunters who are cruising off Spitzbergen, and the inevit- 



