336 



NA TURE 



\August 2, 1883 



more mineral matter than the same weight of sheep, and a given 

 weight of sheep much more than the same w eight of pigs. With 

 each description of animal the amounts of phosphoric acid, lime, 

 and magnesia, are less in a given live-weight of the fatter than 

 of the comparable leaner individuals. Of both potash and soda, 

 again, the quantity is less in a given live-weight of the fatter 

 animals. The same may be said of the sulphuric acid and the 

 chlorine ; in fact, in a greater or less degree, of every one of the 

 mineral constituents. 



It was estimated that the loss to the farm of mineral con- 

 stituents by the production and sale of mere fattening increase 

 was very small. It was greater of course in the case of growing 

 than of only fattening animals. In illustration, the amounts of 

 some of the most important mineral constituents removed 

 annually from an acre of fair average pasture and arable land in 

 various products were compared. Such estimates could obviously 

 be only approximate, and the quantities will vary considerably. 

 With this reservation it may be stated that, of phosphoric acid, 

 an acre would lose more in milk, and four or five times as much in 

 wheat or barley grain, or in hay, as in the fattening increase of 

 oxen or sheep. Of lime, the land would lose about twice as 

 much in the animal increase as in milk, or in wheat or barley 

 grain ; but perhaps not more than one-tenth as much as in hay. 

 Of potash, again, an acre would yield only a fraction of a pound 

 in animal increase, six or eight times as much in milk, twenty or 

 thirty times as much in wheat or barley grain, and more than 

 100 times as much in hay. 



From the point of view of the physiologist, it would doubtless 

 have been desirable that the selection of parts for the preparation 

 and analysis of the ash should have been different, and more 

 detailed. The agricultural aspects of the subject had, however, 

 necessarily influenced the course of the inquiry ; and the extent 

 of the essential work had enforced the limitation which had been 

 adopted. The results must be accepted as a substantial contri- 

 bution to the chemical statistics of the feeding of the animals of 

 the farm for human food. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, July 23. — M. Blanchard, pn.s.dent, 

 in the chair. — Historic importance of Nicolas Leblanc's dis- 

 covery of the method of extracting artificial soda from marine 

 salt, by M. Dumas. To this great discovery, which the author 

 compares with that of the steam-engine by Watt, is traced the vast 

 development of the chemical industries during the last hundred 

 years. The present annual consumption of the carbonate of 

 soda resulting from Leblanc's process is estimated at from 

 700,000,000 to 800,000,000 kilograms in Europe and America. 

 Yet the name of the discoverer had almost been forgotten till 

 recently revived by the municipality of his birthplace, Issoudun, 

 which now proposes to erect a monument to his memory. — Active 

 or dynamic resistance of solids (continued). Graphic represen- 

 tation of the laws of longitudinal thrust applied to one end of a 

 prismatic rod, the other end of which is fixed, by MM. de Saint- 

 Venant and Flamant. — Method of distributing the beat deve- 

 loped in the process of forging, by M. Tresca.— Descrip- 

 tion of the new apparatus about to be fitted up in the Paris 

 Observatory for the purpose of studying the movements 

 of the sun, by M. C. Wolf. This mechanism, which is based 

 on the same principle as that adopted by G. and H. Darwin in 

 the Cavendish laboratory, Cambridge, is intended more espe- 

 cially for the observation of solar oscillations and deviations 

 from the vertical. — On the present outbreak of cholera in Egypt, 

 and on the probability of Europe escaping its ravages, by M. A. 

 Fauvel. Every day tended to diminish the chance of an inva- 

 sion, and should the epidemic be staved off for the next four or 

 five weeks there would be little cause for further apprehension, 

 as it was expected from past experiences that Egypt itself would 

 be entirely free within »ix weeks at the outside. With regard to 

 the prediction confidently made in many quarters, that the epi- 

 demic would reach the mainland through England, the author 

 remarked that on the contrary it had on all previous occasions 

 found its way to England from the Baltic ports on the main- 

 land. He regarded Greece and Spain as in any case free from 

 danger, and thought that in case it appeared on the French sea- 

 board it might easily be prevented from spreading inland by 

 carefully isolating the patients. He considered that the two 

 cities most exposed to its attacks were Constantinople and 

 Trieste, the former through Syria and Asia Minor, the latter 

 through the arrival of immigrants escaping from Egypt. Not- 

 withstanding the recent disclosures made on the spot, he still 

 holds the view that the cholera was originally introduced into 

 Egypt from Bombay in consequence of the suspension of the pre- 



cautionary measures formerly adopted by the Egyptian Govern- 

 ment against the epidemic. — On the origin of the nitrogen 

 existing in combination on the surface of the earth, by M M. A. 

 Miintz and E. Aubin. Nitrogenous combinations are due in the 

 first instance to the electric phenomena of which the terrestrial 

 atmosphere is the seat. These phenomena appear to have teen 

 much more intense in remote geological epochs than since the 

 appearance of animal and vegetable life on the earth. Hence 

 it would seem that we are now depending on a constantly 

 diminishing stock of combined nitrogen, and the process of 

 diminution must go on unless atmospheric electricity prove 

 to be a source of sufficient reparation. — On the adaptation 

 to viticulture of the sandy tracts of the Landes and 

 Gironde in the south-west of France, by M. A. Robin- 

 son. — Experimental researches on the action of a liquid 

 introduced by a special process into the tissues of the vine for 

 the purpose of destroying phylloxera, by M. P. de Lafitte. 

 Sulphate of copper diluted in water is recommended as Le.-t 

 answering all the conditions, and consequently as the surest 

 antidote to the evil. — On some linear differential equations 

 of the fourth order, by M. Halphen. — On certain special 

 solutions of the problem of the three bodies, by M. H. 

 Poincare. — On some recently observed solar perturbations, by 

 Admiral Mouchez. — On a universal galvanometer without O'cil- 

 latory action, adapted for the measurement of currents of great 

 intensity or of high tension, with illustration, by M. Ducretet. — 

 On the nitric derivatives of hydride of ethylene, by M. Berthe- 

 lot. — On some derivatives of mannitic hexylene, by M. Wurtz. 

 — On the products derived from the bacterian fermentation of 

 albuminoids, by MM. Arm. Gautier and A. Etard. — On the 

 supposed transformation of brucine into strychnine, by M. 

 Hanriot. — On the heat-generating power of coal, by M. 

 Scheurer-Kestner. — On the physiological properties of the bark 

 of the dundake (a West African shrub) and of dundakine, by 

 MM. Bochefontaine, B. Feris, and Marcus. — On the nervous 

 chords in the foot of the heliotides, by M. H. Wegmann. — On 

 the temperatures of the sea observed at Concarneau and Douar- 

 nenez, by M. Goez. — A reply to M. Certes on the subject of the 

 method proposed by him for examining corpuscles held in sus- 

 pension in water, by M. Eug. Marchand. 



CONTENTS page 



Zoology at the Fisheries Exhibition, II. By Frof. 



Henry H. Giglioli 313 



Stellar Navigation 316 



The Student's Mechanics 317 



Our Book Shelf:— 



Maynard's " Manual of Taxidermy " 317 



Letters to the Editor : — 



The Meteorological Council and Falmouth Observa- 

 tory. — Edward Kitto ; Prof. J. Couch Adams, 



F.R.S 318 



Determination of "II."— Prof. T. S. Humpidge . 318 

 The Lachine Aerolite. — E. W. Claypole .... 319 



Cold and Sunspots. — James Blake 319 



Intelligence in Animals— Can a Viper Commit Sui- 

 cide? — R. Langdon 319 



A Cat and a Chicken. — Henry Cecil 320 



Primaeval Man and Working-Men Students. — Worth- 



ington G. Smith 320 



A Remarkable Form of Cloud. — Arthur Ebbels ; 



E. C. Wallis 320 



On Mounting and Photographing Microscopic 



Objects, II 321 



Proposed Zoological Station at Granton, near 



Edinburgh 323 



Elevation and Subsidence ; or, the Permanence of 

 Oceans and Continents. By J. Starkie Gardner . 323 



The Ischia Earthquake 327 



The Agram Earthquake 327 



Notes 328 



Weather Prognostics and Weather Types. By 

 Hon. Ralph Abercromby and W. Marriott (Willi 



Charts) 330 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



The Great Comet of 1882 334 



The Astronomische Gesellschaft 334 



Ephemerides of the Satellites 335 



Scientific Serials 335 



Societies and Academies 335 



