April i8, 1895 



NATURE 



587 



scier.ce had conferred great benefits upon civilised peoples by 

 the application of its results and laws to mechanical, chemical, 

 and electrical industries. But M. Berthelot held that material 

 progress was the least of the fruits of scientific work ; he claimed 

 for science the more extensive domains of the moral and social 

 world, and vindicated the position taken up by him in bis article 

 on " Science et la Morale," which appeared in the Rntie de 

 Paris. The speech and the banquet may be taken as an effec- 

 tual reply to those who question the benefits of scientific 

 investigation in France. 



O^LV last w<ek, in announcing the publication of the fourth 

 edition of Prof. James D. Dana's "Manual of Geology," we 

 referred to the exiiaoidinary activity of ihe author. We regret 

 this week to have lo lecoid his c'eatb, at eighty-three years of 

 age. Another eminent man of science who has just passed 

 away is Prof. Lothar von Meyer, at the age of sixty-five. 



Reu ter's correspondent at Toronto reports that the Provin- 

 cial Legislative -Assembly of Ontario has authorised a grant of 

 75CO dollars towards defraying the expenses of a meeting of the 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science to be held in 

 Toronto in 1897, should the Association accept the invitation to 

 hold a meeting there. 



Mr. R. Fitch, whose name is especially well known among 

 aichseologisls and geologists of Norfolk and Norwich, and 

 who, three ytais ?go, presented his collections to the Norwich 

 Muitim, ai:d provided cases for them, has just died, at the 

 advanced age of ninety-three. 



John Adams Rydeb, Professor of Embryology at the 

 University of Pennsylvania, died on March 26. 



Prof. James E. Oliver, the mathematician, who was 

 ccnnccted with ^he Cornell University faculty for twenty-five 

 years, died at Ithaca, on March 27. He was born in Port- 

 land, Me., July 27, :829. He graduated at Harvard in 1849, 

 and received in the same year the appointment of assistant 

 editor in the office of the American Nautical Almanac. He 

 became in 1S71 assistant professor of mat hematics at Cornell 

 University, and in 1S73 *^5 appointed to the chair as Professor. 

 He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences, the' American Philosophical Society, and the National 

 Academy of Sciences. 



A monu.ment to the late Prof. Villemin, who added so much 

 to ihe knowledge of the nature of tuberculosis, has just been un- 

 veiled at Val c!eGiace. A monumental souvenir of the late 

 Prof. G. Pcuchet «as aho unveiled a few days ago, at Pere- 

 Lachaise. 



The Heme .^ocielaiy, en the application of Ihe East Riding 

 Courty Council, has made an order prohibiting the taking or 

 destroying of wild birds' eggs on the promontory of Spurn 

 for a peiiod of five years. Spurn Point is one of the chief 

 places of deposit by sea birds of their eggs on the Yorkshire 

 coast, and of late years there has teen w.inton destruction of 

 both sea-gulls and their eggs. 



A cORREsroNDENT infoims us that a very bright meteor was 

 seen at Ta)port, N.B., at lob. 4m. p.m., on Saturday, April 

 13. It started at a point a little to the east of Vega, and was 

 moving almost directly towards Saturn. It was visible for about 

 six seconds, and seemed to have a jerky motion. It was more 

 brilliant than Venus, and w.-vs elongated in shape. The 

 weather was veiy clear and quiet at the lime of observation. 

 The meteor's direction of flight was, approximately, from 270" 

 + 40" to 221° - f. 



NO. 1329, VOL. 51] 



Sir Joseph Fayrer, Sir Guyer Hunter, and Mr. Jonathan 

 Hutchinson, the adjudicators, have (says the Brilisk MiJical 

 Journal) awarded a prize of fifty guineas to each of the follow- 

 i rg essays, sent in in response to the invitation of the Leprosy 

 Fund : " On the history of the decline and final extinction of 

 leprosy as an endemic disease in the British Islands," by Dr. 

 George Newman ; " On the conditions underwhich leprosy has 

 declined in Iceland and on the extent of its former and present 

 prevalence," Dr. Edward Ehlers (Copenhagen) ; " On the facts 

 as to Ihe recent increase of leprosy at the Cape and its present 

 prevalence in South Africa," Dr. S. P. Impey (Medical Superin- 

 tendent, Robbin Island) ; " On the reputed recent increase of 

 leprosy on the Australian Continent ; its extent and possible 

 causes," Dr. Ashburton Thompson ; " On the conditions under 

 which leprosy prevails in China, Cochin China, Batavia, and 

 the Malay Peninsula," Dr. James Cantlie (Hong Kong). On 

 some of ihe subjects for which prizes were offered no essays 

 were sent in, and some of the essays sent in were held 

 not to meet the terms of the competition. The successful 

 essays will be printed and published at the expense of the 

 Fund. 



Aboit 1 1. 15 on Sunday night, shocks of earthquake of vary- 

 ing intensity were felt over a considerable portion of Austria- 

 Hu ngary, extending from Vienna to the Adriatic coast and the 

 adjoining islands in one direction, and from Sahbui^ to Agram 

 in another. In Vienna, according to the limes correspondent, 

 the shocks were slight. Clocks were stopped, however, in 

 parts of the town, and windows were heard to rattle. The 

 vibrati ons are reported to have proceeded from south to north. 

 The earthquake would seem to have reached its greatest in- 

 tensity within a triangle formed by Laibach, Trieste, and Fiume. 

 At Laibach no fewer th.in twenty-five shocks were noticed, 

 and they continued until seven o'clock on Monday morning. 

 The collections in the Laibach Museum are said to have been 

 almost entirely destroyed. At Trieste several vibrations were 

 felt, one of which was often seconds duration. Many buildings 

 have heen more or less damaged. Tremors of still longer 

 dur alion are reported from Krainbui^. Shocks of less violence 

 o ccurred at Klagenfurt, Leibnitz, Luttenberg, Agram, and else- 

 where. Four distinct vibrations were felt at Venice : the first, 

 which took place at 11. 17 p.m., was very severe, and lasted 

 twelve seconds. Severe shocks of earthquake were also felt in 

 Italy, at Ferrara, Udine, Treviso, and Padua. 



We have on various occasions given short descriptions in these 

 pages of experiments carried on by different investigators with a 

 view to discovering a practicable method of telegraphing over a 

 considerable distance without metallic wires connecting the two 

 stations. Among the observers who have devoted a considerable 

 time to this problem may be mentioned Mr. Preece, the chief 

 engineer of the Telegraph Department of the Post OfiBce ; and 

 it is to this gentleman we owe the first practical application of 

 the method of telegraphing by induction. During last week the 

 submarine cable connecting Oban with .\uchnacraig broke 

 down, and the telegraphic messages have since been passed be- 

 tween these two places (distant about six miles) by means of 

 Mr. Preece's inductive method. .\ gutta-percha insulated wire, 

 one and a half miles long, was laid along the ground from 

 Morven, whilst on the Island of Mull use was made of the ordin- 

 ary overhead line connecting Craignure with Aros. The dis- 

 tance between the two parallel wires was about 3|i miles, the 

 Sound of Mull being here at its narrowest. Using a vibrator 

 as transmitter, and a telephone as receiver, the u;ual messages 

 were successfully dealt with until the cable was repaired, the 

 whole experiment forming a very interesting event in the annals 

 of telegraphy. 



