July 5) 1883] 



NA TURE 



233 



minded in doing a great injustice to the Government of 

 Japan, by which he was temporarily employed. 



Munich B. Kot6 



NOTES 

 At the annual general meeting of the Society of Arts, which 

 was held on the 27th ult., Sir William Siemens being in the 

 chair, the following resolution relative to the death of Mr. 

 Spottiswoode, who was a vice-president of the Society, was 

 passed : — "That this meeting of the Society of Arts desires to 

 express the deep regret with w hich it has received the news of the 

 death of Mr. William Spottiswoode, one of its vice-presidents, 

 and its sense of the lo-s which the Society has sustained by 

 his decease. In him England loses one of her most remarkable 

 men of science, science itself one of its grea'dt ornaments, and 

 all who knew him a sincere and valued friend. Besides devoting 

 his own time and thought to the advancement of knowledge, lie 

 was ever ready to lend to all engaged in like pursuits the assist- 

 ance of his experience and his wise counsel. In thus placing on 

 record their own appreciation of his services, the Society desires 

 to express its feelings of sympathy with his widow and his 

 family, ,-nd also with the Fellows of the Koyal Society, of 

 which he was the honoured and beloved President." 



The report of the Council for the past year, which was then read, 

 makes it abundantly evident that the useful work of the Society 

 is being carried on as succe-sfully as heretofore. The eoin'tr- 

 sazione o( the Society previously fixed for the nth inst. has been 

 postponed to the 25th. On that day it will be held at the 

 Fisheries Exhibition, South Kensington, when the Prince and 

 Princess of Wales will be present. 



Intelligence has been received from Vivi, on the Congo, 

 of the sudden death of the well-known Swedish explore, Capt. 

 T. G. Een. Mr. Een, who was on his way to join Mr. Stanley 

 on the Upper Congo, fell down dead from heart disease, just as 

 the signal for his caravan to start was given. 



The Vienna Academy of Sciences offers two prizes of 1000 

 florins each (about 84/.) for the best treatises (1) on the capacity 

 of various crystals for conducing electrical currents ; and (2) on 

 the chemical cons'itution of albumen matter. 



The well known Russian merchant Sibiriakoff is about to 

 send another vessel to 'the Siberian rivers this summer. This is 

 the steamer Obe, built of Bessemer steel at Motala in Sweden, 

 and which will leave Gothenburg this week. The vessel, which 

 is provUioned for sixteen months, is commanded by the Kussian 

 Capt. Weide, who has for many years sailed on the Yenisei and 

 Lena. She will proceed to Tromso, where she will meet his 

 other steamer, the Nordenskjold. A schooner with building 

 materials will accompany the steamers as far as Novaya Zemlya, 

 where it is intended to erect some storehouses at Yugor Scharr 

 for the reception of cargoes when ice prevents the approach to 

 Obi or Yenisei. At Novaya Zemlya a member of the expedition, 

 Capt. Grbnbeck, with two Samoyedes, will be left behind to 

 study the ice and make meteorological observations during the 

 winter. The Obe and Nordenskjold will proceed to Port Dick- 

 son and the River Yenisei, in the mouth of which, in the Sasto- 

 rovsky, the Nordenskjold discharges her cargo, viz. merchandi-e, 

 and loads a cargo of Siberian produce, with which she returns 

 to Europe. The Obe proceeds up river with what cargo she can 

 carry as far as Yeniseisk, and remains there for river navigation 

 during next summer. 



M. Thollon is now working in the Observatory at Paris. 

 We are informed that the Pic du Midi Observatory is making 

 great progress towards completion, and that Admiral Mouchez, 



M. Thollon, and other astronomers will visit it towards the end 

 of August. 



The monthly meeting of electricians has developed into a new 

 institution, which is to be called Sociele des Electriciens. A 

 committee has been established for determining the regulations 

 to be proposed at a general meeting next October. M. 

 Cochery, Ministre des Postes et Telegraphes has been appointed 

 honorary president of the society. 



A remarkable instance of the fidelity and sagacity of the 

 dog happened on Friday last at Milford Haven, and is recorded 

 in the daily papers. Two men named Davies and Taylor were 

 out in a boat which was swamped. The former of these was 

 the owner of a dog, and whilst the men were struggling in the 

 water the animal caught hold of Taylor with the object of sup- 

 porting him; finding, however, that it was not his master to 

 whom he was rendering this assistance, he relinquished his grasp 

 and went to the aid of Davies, his master, supporting him until 

 he was rescued by a passing steamer, the other man being 

 drowned. 



On June 13 at about 2 p.m. an earthquake was felt in the 

 neighbourhood of Vossevangen in Norway. There was one 

 continuous shock lasting several seconds, accompanied by a noise 

 as that of a heavy train passing. 



A new electric boat, exceeding in size all that have hitherto 

 been designed, is now being fitted up at Millwall by the 

 Electrical Power Storage Company, and i-, we understand, 

 nearly ready for her formal trial trip. The new craft is of iron, 

 and measures forty-six feet in length. Her "engine" is a 

 Siemens' dynamo of the D2 type, and works direct on the screw 

 shaft without any gearing. The screw is of unusually narrow 

 pi:ch, in order to enable the dynamo to run with a high velocity. 

 She carries sixty-five accumulators of the Faure-Sellon-Volck- 

 mar pattern of the same size as those used in the smaller electric 

 boat constructed last autumn by the same company. In the 

 private trials made, a speed of eight miles per hour was main- 

 tained. This boat will be sent to Vienna, and will doubtless 

 attract much notice at the forthcoming Electrical Exhibition in 

 that city. 



Rignold's panorama of the Arctic regions will be exhibited 

 at the Royal Victoria Coffee Hall during the present month. 

 '1 his panorama, which was painted by the late Clarkson Stan- 

 field, R.A., has the reputation of being the finest marine 

 painting extant. 



Under the title of " Hardy Perennials and Old-fashioned 

 Flowers " Mr. L. Upcott Gill of 170, Strand, has issued the first 

 number of what will be, if carried out on the lines here laid 

 down, a rather bulky book, and moreover an expensive one, 

 inasmuch as the number before us, which bears da'e April, is 

 priced at 6d., contains only forty-eight pages, and proceeds only 

 to Cal. in an alphabetical arrangement of the names of the 

 flowers which are' recommended for cultivation. The aim of the 

 work is a good one, namely, the bringing to notice many flowers 

 for cultivation in our gardens that are now totally neglected or 

 forgotten. Many old familiar friends are brought to mind in 

 glancing through these forty-eight pages. The arrangement of 

 the plants in alphabetical order of their scientific names is the 

 best that could have been adopted. The wholesale use of 

 capital letters for the specific names should be altered, and more 

 care should be taken in the spelling, such mistakes occurring as 

 Achillea Aigyptka for efgyptiaca, Calthus for Caltha, &c. Some 

 of the figures also are extremely poor. 



Since the above was written we have received the June 

 number of this little work, which brings it down to Hellebonts 

 or the Christmas Rose. In this latest number the same lavish 

 use of capitals occurs for the initial letter of the specific name 



