January io, 1895] 



NA TURE 



SSI 



to Newton's " Essays on Art and Archaeology," and to see 

 how fresh and how living the opinions expressed even 

 more than forty years ago still remain. Though cautious 

 sagacity and a conservative temperament were his pre- 

 vailing characteristics, yet when the occasion needed he 

 could speak with no uncertam voice ; it is a remarkable 

 fact, for instance, that his article on the epoch-making 

 discoveries of Schliemann, written at a time when the 

 altitude of scientific men was still undetermined or op- 

 posed, remains to-day, so far as it goes, an admirable 

 exposition of the subject. His attitude on such subjects 

 was specially characteristic of his favourite study —Greek 

 epigraphy — for which a man needs a wide range com- 

 bined With a patient methodical accuracy. He might, 

 indeed, have said of himself, with his great contemporary, 

 Brunn, "In a critical discussion I would rather err 

 methodically than hit upon the truth without method": 

 a golden watchword ior this age of hurry and competition. 



NOTES. 



Tkof. RiCHTHOFEN has been elected a Correspondent in 

 the .Section de Mincralogie of the Paris Academy of Sciences. 



Dr. d'Arsonval has been appointed to the Chair of 

 Medicine in the College de France, in succession to the late 

 Prof. Brown-Sequard. 



The death is announced of Dr. Josef Schioter, Professor of 

 Bacteriology in Breslau University, and distinguished for several 

 important researches in the domain of botany. Among the 

 deaths of other foreign scientific men are : M. Stieltjes, the 

 eminent Professor of Pure Mathematics in the Toulouse Univer- 

 sity ; Dr. C. Studiali, Professor of Physiology in the University 

 of Pisa, and Dr. J. G. Brinton, at Philadelphia. Dr. Brinton 

 was known for his botanical works. 



Prof. Blake has been appointed by the Government of 

 Baroda to the temporary Directorship of the newly-built Slate 

 Museum at Baroda, and sails this week for India. 



Mr. J. E. DUERDEN, Demonstrator of Biology at the Royal 

 College of Science, Dublin, has been elected Curator of the 

 Institute of Jamaica. 



The Paris correspondent of the Lancet reports that arrange- 

 ments have been made at the Pasteur Institute for the immediate 

 despatch of tubes of anli-toxic serum to any part of Trance. 

 It will thus be seen that M. Roux and his assistants have not 

 been idle. Indeed, both the Institute authorities and the 

 public have worked with a will ; the latter having, through the 

 Figaro, and by means of gifts made directly to the Institute 

 contributed up to December 31, 1894, no less a sum than 

 61 1,000 francs {£2\.^\o). This does not include 100,000 francs 

 1^4000) just voted by the Chambers, and which will doubtless 

 become an annual subsidy. The Institute now possesses, for 

 immunising purposes, a stud of 136 horses, a total that will 

 probably be ultimately increased to the maximum of 150. O:' 

 these, tweniy are kept by the Municipal Council of Paris at a 

 cost of 20,000 francs (£'600) a year, for the benefit of the 

 Paris hospitals and poor. At Villeneuve-d'Ktang— a property 

 ceded by the State to .VI. Pasteur in 1886— there are seventy- 

 nine horses cared f.-r by a capable veterinary surgeon and 

 his staff. That the animals flourish under the r.'gii/u of 

 good feeding and periodical bleedings adopted, is proved by 

 the presence in good health at Alfort of a sturdy Brittauy pony 

 which has hitherto supplied no less than 420 litres of blood. 



There will be a special technical meeting of the Royal 

 Geographical Socety, in the Map Room of the Society, on Tues- 

 day, January 22, at 4 p m., when Prof. .\. W. Rii.ker, F R S., 

 will read a paper on " Terrestrial Magnetism." 



.*\N Austrian polar expedition is being organised by Herr 

 Julius von Payer, with the view of securing the artistic repre- 



NO. 1315, VOL. 51] 



sentalion of the physical features of the east coast of Greenland. 

 The actual work will begin in latitude 74', and will extend 

 beyond latitude 77°. It i-; anticipated that the expedition will 

 be ready to start in June 1896. 



The weather has continued very disturbed over the British 

 Islands during the past week ; northerly gales have occurred 

 with considerable frequency on our northern and western 

 coasts, but ihe conditions have been quieter than of laie over 

 the southern portion of the kingdom. Heavy snow has fallen 

 in Scotland, causing serious interruptions to the railway and 

 telegraphic services ; snow has also fallen in many other parts 

 of the country. Sharp frosts have occurred in the Midland 

 districts, as well as in the north and east ; and on Tuesday the 

 thermometer in the screen registered 19" at Wick, while ten 

 degrees of frost occurred in several parts of the United 

 Kingdom. 



The study of the "ejected blocks" from a volcano is a 

 peculiarly interesting one, for by the careful piecing together 

 of evidence much may be learnt of the internal processes which 

 accompany the outward and visible eruptions. This study has 

 been undertaken by Prof. Johnston-Lavis for Monte Somma, 

 and some recently published papers contain a portion of the 

 results at which he has arrived ( TransacUons Edinburgh Geol. 

 Soc. vi. 314). Of the many varieties of stratified rocks that 

 have been torn off from the walls of the volcanic chimney by 

 the rising lava, those of Tertiary age show the least metamor- 

 phism ; while in the deeper-derived Cretaceous limestones all 

 stages of metamorphism are to be found. The earliest changes 

 appear to be ihe carbonisation of any organic matter to form 

 graphite, and the recrystallisation of the calcite in larger grains. 

 Then as interchange of constituents takes place between the lime- 

 stone and the metamorphosing lava, various lime-silicates appear 

 in a fairly definite order, until finally we have formed that great 

 variety of minerals for which .Monte Somma has long been 

 famous. The occurrence of pcricUa (MgO) is of interest in 

 view of the abundance of hydrochloric acid among the gases 

 emanating from Vesuvius, for that mineral is artificially prepaied 

 by healing magnesia in hydrochloric acid gas. Many of the 

 minerals formed under these condidons of metamorphism lead 

 to decompose rapidly under more normal conditions, and 

 associations of serpentine, tremolite, brucite, &c., are formed, 

 such as are well known in areas of regional metauaorphisai. 



The analogy between these Vesuvian blocks and certain 

 Archxan rock-masses is carried to a striking extent in a further 

 paper, in the authorship of which Dr. J. W. Gregory joins with 

 Prof Johnston-Lavis {Trans. Roy. Dublin Soc, vol. v. 

 ser. ii. No. vii.). Here many specimens are described 

 which show in the most complete manner the association of 

 characters that led to the belief in the organic nature of the 

 Canadian Eozoon. The authors consequently suggest that the 

 Eozoonal structure in its typical localities was developed in the 

 limestones by the contact metamorphism of the associated 

 crystalline rocks— a view which, they point out, is in harmony 

 with the conclusions arrived at by Prof. Lawson on purely 

 straligraphical considerations. The disproof of the organic 

 nature of Eozoon may therefore be considered complete. 



The disease of Anbury, or Finger and Toe, is met with where- 

 ever the turnip crop is cultivated, but it is probably nowhere 

 more destructive than in the north of England. An experiment 

 bearing on the disease, briefly described in the Journal of ihe 

 Royal .\gricultural Society, by I'rof. W. Somerville, will there- 

 fore interest all agriculturists. The experimenter emphasises 

 the fact that the disease is extremely infectious, and may be 

 easily induced by inoculating a soil perfectly sound with soil 

 from a diseased field. Such diseased soil, however, may be 

 easily disinfecled by lime, .-i fact which points to the patho- 



