6o4 



NA TURE 



[April 26, 1894 



At the end of last week a series of severe earthquake dis- 

 turbances passed over Greece, causing great destruction of pro- 

 perty and loss of life. A sharp shock was felt at Athens about 

 seven o'clock on April 20. It appeared to pass from west to 

 east, and lasted for about half a minute. The shock was also 

 felt throughout the kingdom, though with less severity in the 

 Peloponnesus than in Northern Greece, while Zanteand the other 

 Ionian Islands appear to have escaped injury. Thebes was al- 

 most completely wrecked by the first disturbance, and a second 

 shock, which took place at six o'clock on Saturday morning, 

 completed the destruction. Shocks were also felt at Athens on 

 Saturday morning, but no very serious casualties have occurred 

 there. The district that has felt the effects of the disturbance 

 most severely is that lying between Thebes, Livadia, Atalanti, 

 and Chalcis. According to the reports, the intensity of the 

 shocks diminished in proportion to the distance from this centre. 

 The villages round Atalanti have suffered terribly, Larymni, 

 Proskina, Malesina, Martino, and Pelli being left in ruins. In 

 the town of Chalcis, also, the earthquake has effected consider- 

 able damage. A violent shock was felt there at noon on Sun- 

 day, and caused great devastation. There is some uncertainty 

 as to the number of persons killed by the effects of the earth- 

 quakes. The official estimate gives the number of lives lost as 

 about 200, but other reports make it as many as 300. Tremors 

 continue to be felt at Athens and other places, but no great 

 shock has been reported since that which visited the districts of 

 Chalcis and Atalanti on Sunday. 



The Royal Geographical Society has awarded its gold 

 medals for the current session to Captain H. Bower, for his 

 remarkable journey across Tibet from west to east, and to M. 

 Elisee Reclus, on the completion of his great work on com- 

 parative geography, entitled " Nouvelle Geographic Uni- 

 verselle." The minor awards were given as follows : — The 

 Murchison grant to Captain Joseph Wiggins, for his services in 

 opening up the Kara Sea route to Siberia ; the Back grant to 

 Captain H. J. Snow, for his surveys of the Kurile Islands ; the 

 Gill Memorial to Mr. J. E. Ferguson, a native of Sierra 

 Leone, for his elucidation of the geography of the Gold Coast 

 interior; and the Cuthbert Peek grant to Dr. J. W. Gregory, 

 in recognition of his journey to Lake Baringo and Mount 

 Kenia. The Duke of York has consented to become Honorary 

 President of the Society. Dr. H. Mohn (Norway), Mr. 

 Frederic Jeppe (Transvaal Republic), and Mr. Justin Winsor 

 (United States) were elected honorary corresponding members. 



The philosophical faculty of the University of Gottingen has 

 offered two prizes — the first of 3400 marks, and the second of 

 680 marks — for the best investigations of the solubility of mixed 

 crystals. At present this question is of especial interest, as 

 according to van't Hoff's hypothesis a mixed crystal may be 

 regarded as a solution in a solid solvent. By an application of 

 the thermodynamical equations oi Willard Gibbs, Roozeboom 

 has also studied the conditions of equilibrium of mixed crystals 

 when in contact with their saturated solutions. These con- 

 siderations lead to a result which may be stated as follows : — If 

 a substance A form a mixed crystal with another substance, 

 when the mixed crystal is in contact with its saturated solution, 

 the ratio of the concentration of A in the mixed crystal to its 

 concentration in the saturated solution should be the same, no 

 matter what the absolute value of the concentration may be, 

 provided the molecular weight of A in the mixed crystal and in 

 the saturated solution is the same. Measurements of the solu- 

 bility of mixed crystals will therefore test the validity of the 

 above theoretical views, and may lead to a method of estimating 

 the molecular weights of substances in the solid state. Com- 

 petitors must send in their results, written in German, Latin, 



NO. 1278, VOL. 49] 



French, or English, to the Dean of the Faculty by August 31, 

 1896. The awards are to be announced in March 1897. 



The international character of the Naples Zoological Station 

 shows each year increasingly. Great Britain is at present 

 represented by Mr. Riches for Cambridge, Dr. Giinther and Mr. 

 H. Vernon for Oxford, and Mr. Moore for the British Associa- 

 tion. Germany maintains two tables, and keeps them both occu- 

 pied. Among those present at Naples now are Prof. His of 

 Leipzig, Prof Ludwig of Bonn, Prof, Ewald of Strasburg, 

 Dr. Klaatsch and Baron v. Uexkiill of Heidelberg. Austria- 

 Hungary's three tables are occupied by two physiologists of 

 Vienna, Dr. Beer and Dr. Fuchs, and Prof. Klein, botanist, from 

 Buda-Pest. The ten Italian tables are occupied all the year round. 

 Russia has sent Dr. Golenkin, Prof Ognew, and Miss Pere- 

 jaslewzewa from Moscow. Switzerland, Holland, and Belgium 

 maintain one table each, and Dr. Staehelin (Basel), Dr. Schmidt 

 (Utrecht), and Prof. Heymans (Ghent) occupy them. It is said 

 that Roumania will join the other nations this spring, taking a 

 table and sending Prof. Sihleanu from Bucharest, and that negotia- 

 tions are pending with Bulgaria. The contract with Spain will 

 probably be renewed this year ; indeed, nearly every State in 

 Europe — France and the Scandinavian kingdoms excepted — is 

 represented at Naples. A striking feature this year is the great 

 number of Americans. Some years ago, no relations having 

 then been established between the Zoological Station and the 

 United States authorities. Major. Alex. H. Davis, of Syracuse, 

 New York, instituted a table for his countrymen, but the 

 demand becoming greater, a movement was set on foot among 

 American naturalists asking the Smithsonian Institute to take a 

 table, while at the same time Prof. Agassiz proposed the like to 

 the authorities of Harvard College. The development of interest 

 in the work is .shown by the fact that not only are these 

 tables continuously occupied by Americans, but that Major 

 Davis has again stepped forward to take another to meet the 

 urgent demand, and that Prof. Dohrn has consented to place 

 provisionally one or two others at the disposal of American 

 students who wished to work at the Naples Station this year. 

 It is not improbable that, in the near future, California and 

 Japan, representing respectively the eastern and western shores 

 of the Pacific, may have their delegates working side by side 

 in the famous " Stazione. " It may then fairly claim to have 

 girdled the world with the far-reaching influence of its aims and 

 its methods. Of that imitation which is "the sincerest 

 flattery " there has been no lack. Other and excellent stations 

 have come into being ; others still are projected, all doubtless, in 

 varying degree, to serve for purposes of use ; but as first 

 exemplar, as foremost in equipment, as incomparably richest in 

 its intimacy of association with the chief biologists of our time, 

 and, above all, in its international comprehensiveness and repre- 

 sentation, the Naples Station is now, and bids fair long to 

 remain unchallenged, the universal clearing-house of the 

 world's biological science. 



The death is announced of M. G. Salet, of the Paris 

 Sorbonne. 



M. Grimalx, Professor of Chemistry at the Ecole Poly- 

 technique, has been elected a member of the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences, in the place of the late M. Fremy. 



Dr. W. a. Tilden, F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry in the 

 Mason College, Birmingham, has been appointed Dr. T. E. 

 Thorpe's successor at the Royal College of Science. 



Mr. W. EssoN, F.R.S., has been appointed Deputy Savilian 

 Professor of Geometry at Oxford, the continued illness of Prof. 

 Sylvester having rendered him unable to perform the statutory 

 duties of his office. 



