292 



NATURE 



IFeb. 8, 1872 \ 



factures' of the East, services which have as yet receivetl^no 

 recognition whatever from the Crown. 



The brilliant display of the aurora borealis, seen in London 

 on Sunday night, of which various accounts will be found 

 in our columns, appears to have been observed in France, as 

 well as in Wales. Scotland, and Ireland. Tlie phenomenon was 

 seen in Turkey and also in Egypt. A telegram from Alexandria 

 says that a large space of sky was illuminated for five hours. 

 The report of the Meteorological Department on Monday notices 

 the wide extent of the display, and adds, "a considerable change 

 in the weather seems likely." 



At his inauguration as Rector of the University of Edinburgh 

 on Monday last, Sir Wm. Stirling-Maxwell is reported to have 

 made the following pertinent observations on the medical educa- 

 tion of women :— " He was in favour of teaching women every- 

 thing that they desired to learn, and for opening to them the 

 doors of the highest oral instruction as wide as the doors of 

 book-learning. As to medical education, he said that so long as 

 women would minister to their sick children and husbands, he 

 must hear some argument more convincing than he had yet heard 

 why they were to be debarred from learning the scientific grounds 

 of the art of which they were so often the empirical practitioners, 

 or the docile and intelligent instruments." 



The Acndciiiv for February i contains a reply, by Prof. Helm- 

 holtz, to Prof. Jevons's article on "The Axioms of Geometry," 

 in our issue for October 19. 



We learn from the British Mc-diail Journal that the Brown 

 Institution for Sick Animals is likely to commence at once a work 

 of great public utility. Aided by a handsome grant from the 

 Chambers of Agriculture, Profs. Sanderson and Klein, and Mr. 

 Duguid, will undertake an extended series of observations on the 

 1 y treatment and comparative pathology of pleuro-pneumonia, 

 an epizootic which commits the most costly ravages among our 

 herds. 



"Justices' Justice" has become a proverb. Here is a 

 sample of justices' science: — At Chelmsford the county magis- 

 trates declined to grant the use of the Shire-hall for a lecture on 

 the sun, illustrated by experiments in spectrum analysis, on the 

 ground that the electric light might endanger the safety of the 

 building ! 



The Aincricaii Natiiralisl for January reprints a corre- 

 spondence between the Commissioaer of Agriculture for the 

 United Siates' Government, and Prof. Asa Gray, and other 

 botanists, respecting the dismissal of Dr. C. C. Parry from his 

 oflice of botanist to the department, which appears to have been 

 peiformeJ in a very summary manner, and on slight grounds. 



Mr. M. C. CooivE, the well known mycologist, announces his 

 intention, if the names of a sufficient number of subscribers can 

 be obtained, to issue monthly a small journal, with illustrations, 

 devoted absolutely to Cryp'ogamic Botany. It will serve as a 

 sort of Appendix to the Lichen and Fungi Floras recently pub- 

 lished, by recording and describing new species as they are found. 

 Although British Cryptogamia will occupy the first place, it is 

 intended to record from time to time what is doing abroad in all 

 the Cryptogamic families (except fetns), and to keep the student 

 acquainted with what is being published in foreign countries as 

 well as his own. Monographs of genera and families, critical 

 observations on species, and all kindred subjects, will receive 

 attention. The co-operation is promised of the Rev. W. A. 

 Leighton, Dr. Lauder Lindsay, Dr. Braithwaite, F. Kitton, and 

 other specialists. 



The Joiinml of Bolany states that a re-issue is in course of 

 preparation of Lindley and Button's " Fossil Flora of Great 

 Britain," oiiginally published in 1837, and now very scarce. A 

 supplementary volume will be added by Mr. Carruthers, which 



will contain a critical revision of the species in the original book, 

 and figures and descriptions of all the important additions to 

 fossil botany made during the last thirty-five years. 



A CLEVER application of science to commercial purposes has 

 been made by an Italian gentleman, M. Eugenio de Zuccato, of 

 Padua. By means of the invention any number of copies of a 

 manuscript or design, traced upon a varnished metal plate, may 

 be produced in an ordinary copying press. The iiioiim operandi 

 is very simple. To the bed and upper plate of a press are 

 attached wires leading from a small battery, so that when the 

 top of the instrument is screwed down the two metal surfaces 

 come into contact, and an electric current passes. An iron plate 

 resting upon the bed of the press is coated with varnish, and 

 upon this surface is written with a steel point any communication 

 it is desired to copy. The letters having thus been formed in 

 bare metal, a few sheets of copying paper are impregnated with 

 an acid solution of prussiate of potash, and placed upon the 

 scratched plate, which is then subjected to pressure in the copy- 

 ing press. An electric current passes wherever the metal has 

 been left bare (where the writing is therefore), and the prussiate 

 solution acting upon the iron, there is found pnissiate of iron, or 

 Prussian blue characters, corresponding to those scratched upon 

 the plate. The number of copies that may be produced liy this . 

 electro-chemical action is almost unlimited, and the formation 

 of the Prussian blue lines is, of course, instantaneous. Tlie 

 patent, which is, we believe, the property of Messrs. Waterlow 

 and Sons, forms a remarkable instance of science serving as 

 handmaiden to the man of business. 



It will be remembered that a process of engraving by means 

 of a forcible jet of sand was recently invented in America by 

 Mr. Tilghman, and applied to photography, a gelatine relief 

 being used as the mask or shield containing the design. The 

 Photo'-'rafliic Ni'os states that a further modification has been 

 patented by Mr. Morse, who uses a new method of propelling 

 the sand. He provides a simple box or hopper, from which 

 depends a small tube about Sfc. long, and no machinery what- 

 ever beyond this is used. A mixture of corundum and emery, 

 in the form of powder, is placed in the hopper and allowed to 

 descend through the tube. The object to be engraved is held 

 under the extremity of the tube, so that the engraving powder 

 will fall upon it, and in a few minutes' time the most splendid 

 ornamental designs are cut, with marvellous exactitude and sur- 

 piising beauty. An American paper says : — " We have seen 

 engraved efiects, produced by this process, upon glass and silver 

 ware, that altogether surpass anything that has ever been 

 attempted by the most skilled hand labour. This simple and 

 beautiful invention promises to revolutionise the art of plate and 

 glass engraving. IJy its use the adornment of all kinds of wares, 

 in the most superb manner, may be qnickly accomplished, at a 

 tithe of the cost of the ordinary methods." 



K CATALOGUE is printed of the Meteoric Collection of Mr. 

 Charles Upham Shepard deposited in the Wood's Bailding of 

 Amherst College, Mass., U.S.A. It comprises 146 litholites or 

 meteoric stones, which are considered unquestionably authentic, 

 from all parts of the world, the time of fall varying from the year 

 1492 to 187 1, and 93 siderites or meteoric irons, which fell 

 between 1735 and 1S70. The total weight of the collection is 

 above twelve hundred pounds. The heaviest iron, that of Aerio- 

 topos, weighs 438 pounds ; the smallest, that of Otsego, half an 

 ounce. The largest entire stone, that of New Concord, weighs 

 52 pounds ; the smallest, from Hessle, less than 50 grains. The 

 whole number of specimens exceeds five hundred. The col- 

 lection embraces, besides numerous casts, an extensive series of 

 doubtful meteorites, in which all the principal irons and stones of 

 this descriptionare represented. 



