Feb. 29, 1872] 



NATURE 



349 



U.S., for the year 1871-72. The University was founded by 

 a gift, in the year 1S65, from the Hon. Asa Parker, of the sum 

 of 500,000 dols., and a site of land containing 56 acres in the 

 Lehigh Valley. The purpose of the founder was " to provide the 

 means for imparting to young men of the valley, of the state, 

 and of the country, a complete professional education, which 

 should not only supply their general wants, but also fit them to 

 take an immediate and active part in the practical and profes- 

 sional duties of the time. The system determined upon proposes 

 to discard only what has been proved to be useless in the former 

 systems, and to introduce those important branches which have 

 been heretofore more or less neglected in what purports to be a 

 liberal education, and especially those industrial pursuits which 

 tend to develop the resources of the country, — pursuits, the para- 

 mount claims and inter-relations of which natural science is daily 

 displaying — such as Engineering, Civil, Mechanical, and Mining ; 

 Chemistry, Metallurgy, Architecture, and Construction." For 

 this purpose, special classes in all the above-named subjects have 

 been instituted ; and by the liberality of Robert II. Sayre, one 

 of the trustees of the University, an Astronomical Observatory 

 has been erected in the University grounds and placed under the 

 care of tlie Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy, for instrac- 

 lion of students in Practical Astronomy. The Observatory con- 

 tains an equatorial, by Alvan Clark, of six inches clear aperture, 

 and of eight feet focus ; a zenith sector, by Blunt ; a superior 

 astronomical clock, by William Bond and Sons ; a meridian circle 

 and a prismatic sectant, by Pistor and Martins. 



Dr. E. Askenasv, in his " Beitriige zur Kritik der Darwin- 

 schen Lehre," contrasts the doctrine of Natural .Selection as 

 carried out to its full extent by Darwin in his "Origin of 

 Species " and " Variation of Animals and Plants under Domesti- 

 cation," with the modified form of theory adopted by Nageli in 

 his " Conception and Origin of Species in Natural History." 



The first part of Dr. N. J. C. Midler's " Botanische Unter- 

 suchungen " treats of the separation of carbonic acid by the 

 green parts of plants under the influence of sunlight, and is 

 illustrated by a plate, delineating, in the form of curves, the 

 effects of the different rays in the solar spectrum. 



Dr. Gerard KREFFr, in a paper on the Australian Verte- 

 brata, Fossil and Recent, points out how valuable would be a 

 general study of Natural History in a country like Australia, 

 where every pool and creek teems with animal life, numerous 

 mussels, various kinds of cray-fish, turtles, frogs, lizards, fresh- 

 water snakes, and other creatures, all of which are m.ore nourish- 

 ing to a starving human being than the wretched nardoo on 

 which the lamented Burke and Wills tried to subsist. He advo- 

 cates the establishment of district museums, and that the children 

 should be taught to observe the habits and economy of different 

 animals, in particular of those which are useful, by which means 

 the wealth of the country would be much increased. Dr. Krefft 

 promises hereafter a complete natural history of Australian Verte- 

 brates, which will be the first ever published. 



The " American Horological Journal," published in New 

 York, of which several numbers lie on our table, contains not 

 only articles of special interest to manufacturers and vendors of 

 clocks and watches, but others on Spectrum Analysis, and kin- 

 dred scientific subjects. 



" Index to Prices " is responsible for the following :— The 

 demand for human hair is so great that it is impossible to supply 

 it. Price has risen to ids. a pound. As much as 1,000 dols. 

 has been offered for a " head of hair" six feet long. Some ladies 

 dress fifty to sixty miles of hair every morning. 



At the meeting of the Society of Arts held last week. Dr. 

 Brands, Inspector-General of Forests to the Government of India, 

 said that the cinchona plantations were now become almost 



forests. Before long they would be able to be coppiced every 

 six or eight years, just as oak coppices were treated in Germany, 

 Scotland, and elsewhere, every fifteenth or eighteenth year, and 

 this would probably be the simplest and most profitable mode of 

 getting the bark. The introduction of ipecacuanha into India 

 was also alluded to. Dr. Masters expressed an opinion that 

 there must be dozens, if not scores, of plants indigenous to that 

 country, having the same medical properties as ipecacuanha, 

 which could be much more easily utilised. 



According to the editor of the Jouni:il of Conchology, of 

 Paris, the Paris Museum received twenty-three shots from cannon 

 of the German besiegers in the course of the siege, destroying 

 many of the plant-houses. Two of these balls exploded in the 

 conchological laboratory, in the care of Prof. Deshayes, causing 

 great injury to the specimens, and the Scplaria in the general 

 collection were literally ground to powder. The large collection 

 of shells of the lower sands of the Paris basin was entirely de- 

 stroyed. This is much to be lamented in a scientific point ot 

 view, as it contained many types. A ball also passed through a 

 glass case containing the Unios and Anodonta. 



At a late meeting of the State Denial Society of Pennsylvania 

 one of the members, Dr. Barker, is reported in the Dental Times 

 (July 1S71) to h.ave read an essay on Irregularity of Teeth, the 

 circumstances favouring it, and suggestions on its prevention and 

 treatment. The essayist held the opinion that a retrograde 

 metamorphosis is going on in human teeth. To obviate this 

 there must be improvement in the mode of living, the use of 

 more substantial food, and from the time of the appearance of 

 the deciduous teeth children should be under the care of an edu- 

 cated dentist ; so that when the permanent teeth begin to erupt 

 they may be properly guided, and a regular arch result. As a 

 rule the first permanent molars should be extracted to make 

 room for the succeeding teeth, for the jaws of the Anglo-Saxon 

 race are shortening, and no longer have room for thirty-two 

 teeth. How will this end ? 



On January 28, the town of Schamachi, in the Caucasus, 

 was totally destroyed by a succession of earthquakes. Few houses 

 remain standing, and many lives have been lost. 



A Correspondent of the GAi^t* writes to say that the recent 

 intelligence, describing the total destruction of the city of Oran 

 in Chile by an earthquake, must be a mistake. He says, that 

 the city of Oran in the province of Salta, in the Argentine Con- 

 federation, was destroyed by an earthquake, on October 22, 

 last year, but very few lives were lost. This is the earthquake 

 referred to in Nature (p. 251), but the date was there wrongly 

 given as November 15. 



Between ten and eleven at night, on December 12, two shocks 

 of earthquake were felt at Serampore, in quick succession. 

 The second and the strongest lasted about ten seconds, and 

 seemed to move from north to south. The vibrations were very 

 strong, but no great amount of damage was done. 



The Rangoon Mail states that on the night of December 12, 

 an earthquake which lasted about ten seconds was felt at I'rome. 

 The wave appeared to travel from north-east to south-west. The 

 shocks were stated to be severe, and followed in quick succession, 

 but no damage is reported in the town. The earthquake 

 occurred on the night of the new moon. A letter received from 

 Herzadak states that an earthquake was felt there on the same 

 night. In another paragraph we give an account of an earth- 

 quake felt at the same time at Serampore. 



On the I2th of December at 10.5 P..M. an earthquake was felt 

 at Calcutta with a shock lasting eight seconds, and moving from 

 east to west. It was felt at Ducca about the same time, but its 

 direction was considered to be from north to south. It was also 

 felt at Aky.ab and in Burmah. 



