400 



NATURE 



\Mar. 21, 1872 



Theie is also " -a'/iin-axc," an instrument for extirpating whin 

 from land. 



The Scotch form of whin is qu/iyn. 



March 16 John Jeremiah 



The Aurora of February 4 



This Aurora was seen throughout Europe, inc'uding Russia 

 and Constantinople, in Egypt, in the Mauritius, and in India. 



May not all auroras pervade the atmosphere around the entire 

 globe and be visible wherever night prevails with a sufficiently 

 clear sky ? And so may not the southern and northern aurora 

 belong to one and the same universal aurora ? 



George Greenwood 



Alresford, March 16 



I see notices in the English papers of a great aurora seen in 

 all parts of Scotland, England, and even as far south as Alex- 

 andria in Africa. It may be interesting for your readers to know 

 that it was visible here on the same evening — Sunday, Febioiary 

 4. I saw it first at 6.30 P.M., and at various times after that 

 until 10.30, after which I did not look out of doors. There were 

 no streamers, and the peculiarity of the appearance was that it 

 was in all directions, and less in the north than in the west and 

 east. It presented the appearance of a dull red fog, in shifting 

 masses, and more like the haze I observed here in i86i, when 

 tlie earth was said to have passed through the tail of the comet 

 of that year. Auroras are very rare in tliis latitude, but we have 

 had four or five displays in fifteen months : one so bright as to 

 excite the alarm of fire, and to call out the fire department. 



George S. Blackie 



Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., Feb. 27 



Barometric Depressions 



By the introduction of parenthetical sentences between words, 

 which do to some extent represent my meaning, though they are 

 not mine, as the inverted commas w-ould imply, and by tlie 

 omission of the main point of his own argument, Mr. Ley has 

 presented as mine certain propositions which may well appear to 

 him and to every one who reads them, rot only irreconciieable, 

 but sheer nonsense. As these parenthetical interpolations are 

 Mr. Ley's own, and as the point in his argument to which I took 

 exception was not the application of Buys Ballot's Law, but his 

 proposition — shortly stated — that revolving storms are caused by 

 heavy rain, I conceive that his version of my views, which may 

 be funny but is certainly incon'ect, is scarcely worth the serious 

 attention of any one. 



As to the rest, it is a great thing, in any branch of science, to 

 establish points beyond the reach of further argument or doubt. 

 The depression of the barometer in summer over a great part of 

 Asia has hitherto seemed one of the most curious and difficult 

 problems in Physical Geography. We now know all about it. 

 There is no more room for doubt. It is "really due" to the 

 rarefaction of the air. Mr. Ley says so. What, how, why, 

 when, or where, are details far too commonplace for him to enter 

 upon. 



The whole subject of barometric changes, and their relation 

 to strong winds or storms, is one of extreme difficulty ; and, in 

 the present state of our knowledge, we can do little more than 

 guess at or discuss the probable solution of the many questions 

 that arise out of it. From the off-hand way in which Mr. Ley 

 disposes of them, or wishes them disposed of, it would appear 

 that he has not yet arrived at even an appreciation of their diffi- 

 culty. This is the real point on which we are at issue ; the range 

 of his study has been too confined. A more general application 

 of his industry will, I hope — should he again meet me in my 

 capacity of critic — relieve me of the necessity of making remarks 

 unpleasant for him to read, or for me to write. 



J. K. L. 



The Meteor of March 4 

 I have been looking out for some corresponding notice of a 

 meteor seen here on March 4, but hitherto in vain. At first I 

 hoped that the interesting accounts from Ireland, published in the 

 last number of Nature, might have referred to the same 

 phenomenon ; but I soon found that the dates were discordant, 



and I now beg to forward the following brief notice of the earlier 

 one : — 



On the above-mentioned evening, about yh. 40m. P. M. railway 

 time, a brilliant meteor was noticed by my gardener Thomas 

 Wood. According to his account it appeared about 20° or 30° 

 above the N. horizon as a ball of red lire passing rapidly from 

 W. to E., about one-lhird as large as the full mo jn, with a tail 

 seven or eight times its diameter in length, the portion nearest 

 the head being reddish ; but changing at about one-third of its 

 length to green, which was especiallydistinct towards its tapering 

 point. The head seemed to be surrounded by some sparks. It 

 threw such a hght upon the ground as to show all the growing 

 wheat in the field through which the spectator was passmg. The 

 course was rather descending, and it went out suddenly without 

 coming down to the horizon. I have heard of only one other 

 person in the neighbourhood who saw the light cast by the 

 meteor, and who described it as extremely brilliant. It is 

 singular that it has not been more generally noticed. The 

 especial interest attached to it is the fact that, in common with 

 the one observed only four days later in Ireland, its course was 

 in the unusual direction of the earth's motion. 



Hardwick Vicarage, Hay, March iS T. W. Webb 



THEODOR GOLDSTUCKER 



T7OR the following particulars of the career of the late 

 ^ Prof. Goldstiicker we are indebted mainly to the 

 Academy and Triibucr's Orie/ital Record : — • 



By the death of Theodor Goldstiicker, at the early age 

 of fifty-one, philology has lost one of its greatest scholars, 

 and society, what it can still less afford to lose, one of the 

 noblest and most disinterested of men. Born at Konigs- 

 berg, in Prussia, he began the study of Sanskrit, for the 

 profound knowledge of which he has since become so 

 famous throughout the world, under Prof Peter von 

 Bohlen, at the University of that town. He continued 

 this study undei- Profs. August Wilhelm von Schlegel and 

 Christian Lassen at Bonn. He afterwards resided for 

 some time at Paris, where he enjoyed the friendship of 

 men of the greatest distinction, such as Burnouf, Letronne, 

 &c. He then resided at the University of Berlin, where 

 he began soon to display great scholarly activity. Alex- 

 ander von Humboldt formed already at that time a very 

 high estimate of the capacities of the young scholar, whose 

 aid, in several very difficult questions of Indian philosophy, 

 he gratefully acknowledged in his " Kosmos." 



After the reaction of 1848-9, Goldstiicker came over to 

 England for the purpose of assisting Prof Wilson in the 

 preparation of a new edition of his Sanskrit Dictionary. 

 For this new edition no material whatever existed save the 

 dictionary itself in its printed form. Goldstiicker, never- 

 theless, undertook its revision single-handed ; and the 

 immense proportions which under his hand the first six 

 parts assumed (480 pp. without getting to the end of the 

 first letter) rendered the completion of the work by one 

 man or in one generation impossible. Many thousands 

 of notes and references for this and other works, the 

 result of an unremitting study of the MSS. treasures at 

 the India House, &c., are left behind ; and we are glad 

 to learn from the Acadeiity that the report in some of the 

 newspapers that the deceased had left directions in his 

 will for their destruction is without foundation. 



The earliest work undertaken by Goldstiicker was the 

 translation into German of the " Prabodha Chandrodaya," 

 a theologico-philosophical drama, by Krischna Mi(;ra, to 

 which Professor Rosenkranz wrote a Preface. In 1 861 

 he published, as an Introduction to a Fac-simile Edition 

 of tlie " Manava-Kalpa- Sutra," an investigation of some 

 literary and chronological questions, which maybe settled 

 by a study of Panini's work, under the title ot " Panini, 

 his place in Sanskrit literature." Goldstiicker also edited 

 the text of the "Jaiminiya-nyaya-mala-vistara," of which 

 work 400 pages in large quarto are in type. 



