November 29, 1894J 



NA TURE 



I II 



The Socictc Internationale des Electricians established a 

 central laboratory at Paris about seven years ago. The prin- 

 cipal object of the laboratory was the preservation of electrical 

 standards, and to afford practical electricians an opportunity for 

 testing their various instruments. It is evident that such a 

 laboratory offers special advantages for the investigation of 

 questions belonging to the science and industry of electricity. 

 These facilities have been to some extent utilised ; but in order 

 to increase the usefulness of the institution, the Society has 

 added to it a School of Applied Electricity. This school, which 

 will be opened on December 3, has been constructed on a plot 

 of land granted by the city of Paris, the funds for the building 

 having been raised by private subscription. Purely practical 

 instruction will be given at the school. There will be two 

 chief courses, one dealing with the industrial applications of 

 electricity, and the other with electrometry. It is hoped that 

 the school will be a training ground for higher work in the 

 Central Laboratory, to which it is attached. 



A Russian ethnographic exhibition will be held next year in 

 the Champ de Mars, Paris. 



The University of Chicago is establishing a special depart- 

 ment of botany, with Prof. J. M. Coulter at its head. 



It is announced that the printing of the important and 

 laborious " Index Kewensis " will probably be completed about 

 Midsummer 1895. 



The death has recently occurred of Dr. L. Schwarz, the 

 Director of Dorpat Observatory, and the Professor of Astro- 

 nomy in the University there. 



The resolutions passed by Convocation at Oxford, last 

 summer, in favour of conferring degrees upon persons who have 

 pursued a course of special study or research in the University, 

 were submitted to a Congregation on Tuesday, and, after some 

 discussion, the preamble was carried by a majority of sixty-nine 

 votes. 



A Dalziel telegram from Halifax, Nova Scotia,dated Novem- 

 ber 27, says : "It is reported that the steamer Falcon, of the 

 Peary Arctic Exploration Expedition, was wrecked on the 

 Virgin rocks, some distance off the southern coast of Greenland 

 in October, and that all on board perished." 



The Royal Botanical Society of Belgium has established a 

 Committee of Vegetable Pathology, holding its sittings in the 

 Botanic Garden at Brussels, for the purpose of affording informa- 

 tion to nurserymen, horticulturists, and arboriculturists, respect- 

 ing the diseases which attack plants, and the best mode of 

 combating them. 



In January last, attention was drawn to the fact that a sale 

 of seven lions had taken place at the gardens of the Royal 

 Zoological Society of Ireland, of which number six were born 

 in Ireland. A further batch of five cubs, all males, has recently 

 been disposed of by the Council, after a protracted correspon- 

 dence. The total exchange value for these twelve lions ex- 

 ceeds, we understand, ^500. 



Agricultural Associations seem to be waking up to the 

 necessity for the scientific investigation of diseases and pests 

 affecting crops. One of the resolutions passed at a largely- 

 attended conference of agricultural societies of New Zealand 

 held during the past summer, was — " That the seivices of a first- 

 class entomologist be obtained by Government, who shall give 

 his whole lime to an examination of insect pests, with a view to 

 their destruction." It was also resolved to request the Govern- 

 ment to get expert opinions as to the best method of 

 exterminating the grub in corn and grass crops. 



The promotion of an intellectual observance of Sunday is the 

 object of the .Sunday Society. At present the Society numbers 



NO. 1309, VOL. 51] 



among its chief aims the opening of the Natural History 

 Museum and the South Kensington Museum on Sundays, so 

 that the scientific collections of the nation shall enlighten a 

 wider public. In furtherance of the general principle involved, 

 a number of special sermons will be delivered next Sunday, this 

 being the Society's third annual Museum Sunday ; and several 

 science and art collections will be open to members of the 

 Society. 



Near Dankeld Cathedral, in the Duke of Athole's grounds, 

 are two of the original five larch trees said to be the first intro- 

 duced into this country. They were planted in 1738, and io 

 the year 18S8 they were measured with the following results : 



Mr. Walter B. Harris gave an account of his recent 

 journey to Tafilet, at the last meeting of the Royal Geographical 

 Society. He left Morocco city on November i, 1893, in dis- 

 guise, and crossed the Atlas at an elevation of a little over 8000 

 feet. In connection with this, it is worth noting that the 

 Bulletin of the Paris Geographical Society (vol. xv. p. 199) 

 contains a description, by M. Gabriel Delbrel, of a visit he paid 

 to Tafilet last year. 



Dr. Karl K.\rstens, of Kiel, has made a critical revision 

 of the various estimates of the average depth of the oceans, as 

 arrived at by the methods of different calculators. These 

 methods he classes as of three kinds : that of measuring areas by 

 the planimeter on a contoured map, that of calculating the 

 areas of successive profiles drawn at intervals of 5' of latitude 

 apart, and that of taking the mean depth of the soundings in 

 definite small areas, and combining these to give the mean 

 depth of the whole. Murray and Penck had made calculations 

 by variations of the first method, and got out the mean depth of 

 the oceans as 3797 metres (2074 fathoms) and 3650 metres (1995 

 fathoms) respectively ; Heiderich, by the second method, got 

 343S metres (1881 fathoms); and Kriimniel, by the third method, 

 gave the figure 3320 metres (1815 fathoms). Since Kriimmel's 

 calculations were made in i886, his student Karstens has gone 

 over them, taking advantage of the very numerous additional 

 soundings which have been made, and he comes to the con- 

 clusion that the average depth of the oceans as a whole is 

 3496 metres, or 1909 fathoms. The maximum probable value 

 was 3632, and the minimum 3377 metres. The mean depth of 

 the Pacific Ocean is given as 3829, of the Indian Ocean 3593, 

 and of the .\tlantic 3160 metres. 



Herr P. DiNSE published the first part of a discussion of 

 the geographical characteristics of fjords in a recent number of 

 the Zeitschrift of the Berlin Geographical Society (vol. xxix. 

 p. 189). This instalment deals with the morphology of fjord- 

 riven coasts, a subsequent paper being intended to treat of the 

 theory of the origin of fjords, The author distinguishes 

 between fjords or inlets running into steep coasts, and some- 

 times branching, including one or more basins deeper than the 

 sea immediately outside, and fjord-chaniHls or sounds which 

 are similar but open at both ends, and fjord-lakes which are 

 similar but closed at both ends, and separated from the sea. 

 .\ farther distinction is drawn between the different kinds 

 of inlet which superficially resemble fjords, the most contrasted 

 ! in submarine configuration being the rias of Spain and other 

 coasts, in which the depth of the water gradually increases from 

 the head until it merges in the general deepening of the sea 

 outside. The inlets of the soulh-west of Ireland areexamples 

 of this type, contiasting with the characteristic fjor.is of ll'.e 



