November 30, 1895] 



NA rURE 



107 



fortnight of April, 1894, but the exact date is not yet known. 

 The eight sections of the exhibition will comprise electricity, 

 mining machinery, mechanical preparation of minerals, metal- 

 lurgy, chemical industries, statistics and plans, and mining and 

 metallurgical products respectively. 



The Municipal Council of Lausanne has been considering a 

 scheme for the electrical transmission of power (says La Nature). 

 It is proposed to obtain work to the extent of about 1200 horse- 

 power from the Grand-Eau river, at a distance of forty kilo- 

 metres from Lausanne This energy will be utilised to supply 

 about 5000 lamps and 16 arc-lights during the night, while in 

 the day it will furnish the motive power for electric trams, and 

 motors for domestic use, besides pumping the town's water- 

 supply to the proper level. 



The new examination laboratories of the Institute of 

 Chemistry will be opened on Friday, December 8. 



The last of the Gilchrist lectures, in connection with the 

 Bethnal Green Free Library, will be given on Thursday, 

 December 7, by Dr. Andrew Wilson, on "Brain and Nerve 

 and their Work." 



Prof. Bornmlller has returned from his extended 

 botanical journey in Persia. 



A COMMITTEE has been appointed by the Italian Botanical 

 Society for the study of the flora of Italy, both phanerogamic 

 and cryptogamic. The reports from the various members will 

 be collated by Prof. Arcangeli, and published in the BuUetino 

 of the Society. 



Bulletin No. 38 of the Experiment Station of the Kansas 

 State Agricultural College is occupied by a preliminary report 

 on rusts of grain, accompanied by three plates illustrating the 

 mode of development of Puccinia graminis, P. riibigo-vera, 

 and P. coronata. In Kansas the two former of these are 

 found chiefly on wheat, while the last is apparently confined 

 to oats. 



Evidences of the existence of mau in Nicaragua during the 

 early Neolithic age were discovered by the Spaniards about the 

 beginning of the sixteenth century. They mainly consist of 

 flint-heads of arrows and spears, stone statues of men, and 

 numerous fragments of pottery made of clay, containing 

 fragments of volcanic rocks, unadorned and originally 

 unburned. Of these evidences, those indicating the geological 

 time or epoch in which they were made are, according to Mr. 

 J. Crawford (Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural His- 

 tory, vol. xxvi. p. 49, 1893) :(i) Several well-executed stone 

 statues found in the same locality, and all of the same brachy- 

 cephalic type, carefully sculptured from blocks of hard rock, 

 with brittle tools of flint, jasper, and felsite ; (2) oblong blocks 

 of partly metamorphosed rocks, in their natural state or but 

 slightly shaped by man, apparently forming the foundations for 

 an oblong temple or observatory extending east and west ; 

 (3) fragments of unadorned pottery found near the stone 

 images, cemented in the debris of a well-marked subsidence, 

 all discovered in the small valley on the west face of the moun- 

 tain island of Momotombito. This island is situated near the 

 volcanic cone Momotombo, and an unobstructed view of the 

 Pacific Ocean, about twenty-seven miles to the westward, can be 

 obtained fiom the observatory or temple. Mr. Crawford's 

 examination of the locality and the handiwork leads him to 

 believe that "the aborigines cf the sculptors of the stone images 

 found on the island came from Polynesia, over the land route or 

 chain of almost connected islands then existing across the 

 Pacific Ocean, and that the latest subsidence of twenty-five feet, 

 as recorded on the island and the western part of Nicaragua, 

 and the consequent synchronous activity of all the volcanoes in 



NO. 1257, VOL. 49] 



that region, both occurring during the time when the sculptors 

 were carving stones into images of types of their own people, 

 caused the sculptors and their tribe to migrate eastward (the 

 only safe route) and seek a home on the side of the very fertile 

 and non-volcanic Amerrique mountains, where their probable 

 descendants — the Amerriques — now reside." 



The first of the three articles in the current number of the 

 Internationales Archivfiir EthnograpIiie(y\. parts 4 and 5) is by 

 Prof. H. H. Giglioli. It is entitled " Notes on the Ethno- 

 graphical Collections formed by Dr. Elio Modigliani during his 

 recent Explorations in Central Sumatra and Engano." Dr. 

 Modigliani published in 1890 a valuable book, " Un Viaggis a 

 Nias," giving an account of his anthropological investigations in 

 that little known island. Giglioli's communication, which is 

 fully illustrated, appears to be a preliminary notice of a forth- 

 coming work by Modigliani, and it gives to English readers a 

 foretaste of the extremely interesting and important investiga- 

 tions made by that skilled observer and excellent collectof. 

 Modigliani was not allowed by the Dutch colonial authori- 

 ties to remain long among their foes the Battaks of Lake 

 Toba, but he made good use of his time, and also discovered a 

 magnificent waterfall. Giglioli gives an admirable summary of 

 the arts and crafts, habits and superstitions of these literally 

 cannibals. The islanders of Engano remarkably resemble the 

 Nicobarese, but the faces of some of them recall Polynesian and 

 especially Micronesian types. Like other islands, the old order is 

 rapidly changing, and the population of about 8,000, ten years 

 ago, is now reduced to 840. Prof. A. C. Haddon has a paper 

 on " The Secular and Ceremonial Dances of Torres Straits," 

 illustrated by wocdcuts and four admirably executed coloured 

 plates. This is the first time that any Papuan dances have been 

 adequately described. The dances are classified into festive 

 dances, war dances, ceremonial dances (including initiation and 

 seasonal dances), turtle processions, and funeral ceremonies. 

 The descriptions of the dances and the decoration of the per- 

 formers are given in great detail ; the initiation and funeral 

 ceremonies were carefully built up, so to speak, from the 

 accounts of the natives. Here also so much change has taken 

 place, that in a short time it will be impossible to gather any 

 further information of any value. Prof. W. Joest has an 

 illustrated paper on various toys ("Allerlei Spielzeug"). 

 There are also the usual notes, reviews, and bibliography. 



We have received from Sgr. Arcidiacono a pamphlet con- 

 taining the results of observations of the geodynamic pheno- 

 mena which preceded, accompanied, and followed the 

 Etna eruptions of May and June, 1886, carried out under 

 the direction of the late Prof. Orazio Silvestri, of the Uni- 

 versity of Catania. This work forms a valuable addition to 

 geodynamic literature, and contains a detailed account of the 

 movements, both microscopic and sensible, observed in the 

 various seismological stations around Etna from May iS to June 

 II, a table of all the shocks recorded, with their general 

 character, direction, and intensity, and a reproduction of the 

 seismograph diagram in the form of a curve about 15 feet 

 long, which shows the course of the phenomena as recorded 

 between the dates May 8 and June 16. The general aspect of 

 calm was first broken on May 12, where slight and slow per- 

 turbations are recorded. These were repeated more emphati- 

 cally on May 14 and 15. The 17th was calm, but at 10.30 a.m. 

 on the 1 8th the explosion of the central crater occurred, which 

 threw the barometer stile right off" the scale. This was followed 

 by a continued succession of violent shocks during the same day, 

 and by the eccentric explosion of the southern flank on May 19. 

 The eruption then followed a regular course until May 26, the 

 disturbances being much smaller and of nearly constant average 

 amplitude for each hour. A steady diminution of the eruptive 



