.22 



NATURE 



[February i, 1894 



The author has succeeded in obtaining the same effect with solu- 

 tions of copper sulphate, and finds that the chief condition which 

 must in this case be fulfilled is that the current density should be 

 small. The concentration of the solution affects the deposit in 

 the same manner as with silver nitrate, though to a smaller ex- 

 '.eiit. Much smaller ridges were obtained with solutions of lead 

 acetate and of zinc sulphate. The author considers that the 

 ridges are in all cases caused by the effect of convection currents 

 set up in the electrolyte owing to the changes in concentration 

 which go on in the liquid during the passage of the current. 

 The F^per ""^ which these results are given is published in 

 Wiedetnann's Annalen for January. 



In the January number oi ZeifscJwift f/ir prahtische Geologie 

 a brief historical account may be read of the Geological Survey 

 Departments of Bavaria and of Alsace-Lorraine. Bavaria was 

 the first among German States to found a Government Geo- 

 logical Survey. That was more than forty years ago, and ever 

 since its commencement it has been under the able guidance of 

 Oberberg Direktor von Giimbel. To his tireless zeal is largely 

 due the enormous amount of work accomplished by the Survey. 

 The mountains on the borderland of Bohemia and the Austrian 

 Tyrol have been mapped in detail, Franconia was completed 

 in 1891, and there still remain Rhenish Bavaria, the Danube 

 districts, and certain parts in the north-west of Bavaria. The 

 Alsace-Lorraine Survey, instituted in 1873 under the manage- 

 ment of Profs. Benecke and Rosenbusch, was handicapped at 

 its commencement by the want of detailed topographical maps. 

 Rapid strides are now being made, and a series of geological I 

 sheets of Northern Lorraine have been published since 1887. 

 The long southern strip of Alsace is scarcely begun. National 

 rivalry makes itself felt along the French frontier. The German 

 geologists complain that it is made practically impossible for 

 them to carry their work over the frontier, whereas the French 

 geologists have had the advantage of free access into Alsatian 

 territory. 



Modern geology entered on a new period of progress when 

 it realised some of the results of horizontal rock movement. 

 Heim, Lapworth, Bertrand, and others proved beyond dispute 

 that rock masses could be displaced and carried many miles 

 over the surfaces of underlying rock. A Swiss geologist has 

 just proposed a movement of this kind, but on a gigantic scale, 

 as an explanation of the Chablais mountains which extend on 

 both sides of Lake Geneva. He imagines that the upper 

 part of an immense fold of rock was carried from the districts 

 south of Mont Blanc and Mont Rosa, to the northern 

 slopes of the Alps, and that this movement was not 

 limited to the Swiss areas, but could be traced eastwards at 

 least into the Engadine. The Chablais mountains and frag- 

 mentary portions all along the northern edge of the Swiss and 

 Bavarian highlands are thought to be the remaining traces of 

 the carried rocks, and to be, in short, geologically misplaced 

 mountains. Should this theory prove to be correct, it will be 

 of the highest importance ; at the same time, the evidence in its 

 favour does not yet profess to be entirely conclusive. {Arch, 

 des Sc. Phys. etnattir., December, 1893, Geneva, " Surl'origine 

 des Prealpes Romandes," by Hans Schardt.) 



The statistics of the cases treated for hydrophobia during 

 the month of November at th t Pasteur Institute in Paris appear 

 in the December number of the Annates de V Institiit Pasteur. 

 No less than 129 persons underwent this treatment, and of these 

 ninety-four were bitten by undoubtedly rabid animals, the 

 remainder having been attacked by animals suspected of 

 suffering from rabies at the time, but in which the actual proof 

 of this being the case, such as a veterinary examination and com- 

 munication of the disease to other animals, was wanting. Of 

 these persons 109 were bitten by dogs, seventeen by cats, one 

 by a horse, one by a sheep, and one by a pig. In October 127, 



NO. 1266, VOL. 49] 



in September 108, and in August 135 persons were treated for 

 hydrophobia in Paris. The establishment of similar institutes 

 in so many other parts of the world, naturally tends to reduce 

 the number of foreigners attending the Pasteur Institute in 

 Paris ; last year's statistics, however, showed that England still 

 furnished a considerable proportion of the strangers at the 

 Institute, and this state of things is unfortunately likely to 

 continue as long as we are obliged to depend upon other 

 countries for the treatment of this terrible disease. 



We published a few years ago a review of an elaborate work 

 on the chemical and bacteriological examination of potable 

 waters by Salazar and Newman ; these authors have recently 

 communicated a paper on the ice consumed in Valparaiso to 

 the " Actes de la Societe Scientifique du Chili," 1893. The 

 inconsistency of people taking elaborate precautions to ensure 

 the purity of their drinking water, whilst ice is used without 

 any consideration of its source, is pointed out. In one of the 

 samples examined, and taken from some of the ice supplied to the 

 city, as many as 15,300 micro-organisms were found in a cubic 

 centimetre of melted ice. Following in the footsteps of other 

 investigators, the authors insist upon all ice used for consump- 

 tion being prepared from water rendered above suspicion by 

 being either previously distilled or passed through Chamberland 

 filters. 



A CATALOGUE of meteorological, magnetic, and physical 

 instruments has been received from E. A. Zichau, Hamburg. 



The December number of Dr. Braithwaite's " British Moss 

 Flora " has been received. It deals with Bryacese and Bar- 

 tramiacese. 



We have received several supplements to the Queensland 

 Government Gazette, containing the statistics of meteorological 

 observations made in Queensland during 1893. 



The January number of the Essex Review contains an obituary 

 notice of the late Mr. E. Charlesworth, and an article on tech- 

 nical instruction in Essex, by Mr. J. H. Nicholas. 



By far the best description that we have seen of the Man- 

 chester Ship Canal, both as regards text and illustration, 

 appears in Engineering for January 26. The work is traced 

 from its beginning, eleven and a half years ago, and all the 

 details of construction are dealt with in a very exhaustive 

 manner. 



We have received from Messrs. Williams and Norgate a 

 work entitled "Descriptive Biography Columns," by Mr. 

 Nasarvanji Jivanji Readymoney. The work is designed toreceive 

 records of the events that make up one's life, and is therefore 

 similar to Mr. Gallon's life-history album, with the addition 

 of a few novel features. 



The second edition of Clowes' and Coleman's " Quantitative 

 Chemical Analysis " (J. and A. Churchill) has just appeared. 

 The original edition was reviewed in these columns in April, 

 1892. Several important alterations and additions have since 

 been made, thereby increasing the value of a book that has been 

 found useful to both teachers and students. 



Bulletin No. 41 of the Experimental Station of the Kansas 

 State Agricultural College, Manhattan, is devoted to a report 

 from the Botanical Department on the effect of fungicides on 

 the germination of corn. 



The Monatsschrift fur Kakteenkicnde, a monthly journal 

 devoted entirely to the cultivation of Cacti and other succulent 

 plants, has now entered on the fourth year of its existence. It 

 is edited by Prof. Schumann, of Berlin, and published by 

 Neumann, at Neudamm, in Brandenburg. 



