Oct. 4, 1883] 



NATURE 



545 



fall until about six o'clock, when everything resumed its normal 

 condition. The occurrence is attributed to the volcanic eruption 

 at the Straits of Sunda. 



The Municipal Council of Paris having passed a resjlution to 

 lower the price of gas, the Gas Company has resisted, and a 

 scientific commission has been appointed to decide whether the 

 gas industry has so advanced as to justify a diminution in the 

 price of the commodity. This commission has begun its work, 

 which is to be terminated in a specified time, and it is surmised 

 that the decision will be in favour of the claims of the City of 

 Paris. The report, which will bear upon the whole of the gas 

 industry, history, and actual state, will be at all events exceed- 

 ingly interesting. 



Several shocks of earthquake were felt in Agram on Tues- 

 day night and early on Wednesday morning last week. Fortu- 

 nately, the phenomenon was unattended by consequences more 

 serious than the usual earth tremors and subterranean rumblings. 



The discussion of 1600 cases of aurora borealis observed 

 during fifteen years at Godhaab has led M. Tromholt (Nature, 

 vol. xxvi. p. 130) to the conclusion that, however subject to 

 the law of periodicity of I I'll years, the periods of frequency 

 at Godhaab are precisely the inverse of what has been oberved 

 under lower latitudes. The same holds good with regard to the 

 annual and diurnal periods of frequency. Prof. Lenz, in the 

 hvestia of the Russian Geographical Society, makes an attempt 

 to explain this circumstance by assuming that the zone of auroras 

 (the " Nordlichtgurtel " of YVeyprecht) is subject to a system of 

 oscillations. In consequence of these it is slowly displaced 

 towards the north, and when it has reached ils most northern 

 position a maximum of auroras is observed at Godhaab and in 

 North Greenland, and a minimum in lower latitudes. The 

 duration of this oscillation is the same as that of the frequency 

 of spots on the sun, the minimum of these last corresponding to 

 a maximum of auroras at Godhaab. The zone of auroras has 

 also an annual period of oscillations ; it seems to advance 

 towards the north during the winter, and returns south during 

 the summer (seeming thus to depend on temperature), as also a 

 diurnal period of still smaller oscillations, in consequence of 

 which it seems to be displaced towards the north during the 

 early hours of the day. As to the cause of the connection 

 between the auroras and sun-spots, it still remains unknown. 

 Prof. Lenz points oul, however, that it results from an analysis 

 of the magnetic storm of Janua.y 31, iSSr, that the cause of 

 this storm was not a change in the intensity of the earth's mag- 

 netism, but merely a displacement of the region where the origin 

 of magnetic storms must be sought for, and which probably is 

 the zone of auroras. This zone would be submitted thus, on 

 Prof. Lenz's hypothesis, to perturbations which appear either 

 under the shape of auroras or as electrical currents. But might 

 not all the phenomena mentioned be explained as well by the 

 oscillations of Nordenskjbld's corona of auroras, and by varia- 

 tions in its luminous intensity produced by cosmical and telluric 

 causes ? 



M. PoTYLITZiN, who has submitted the waters that accompany 

 naphtha, or are ejected by the mud volcanoes of the Caucasus, 

 to a thorough chemical investigation, has found that they be- 

 long to two different groups. Those of the Caspian region are 

 acid and contain almost exclusively chlorides of metals, whilst 

 those of the north-western and southern naphtha regions of the 

 Caucasus contain, besides a large amount of chloride of natrium, 

 also carbonate of natrium, as well as iodine and salts of fatty 

 acids. The presence of bromides and of iodine in these last 

 must be probably explained by their washing out marine deposits 

 of the Eocene, or, may be, of the Cretaceous period, which con- 

 tain masses of marine organisms. Accepting Prof. Mendeleeff's 

 theory as to the origin of naphtha, the author points out that, its 



primary seat being probably at a great depth, it impregnates, in 

 consequence of its capillarity, the upper schists ; but the water 

 that continually descends from the surface down to the lower 

 schists opposes this ascending motion of the naphtha, and a con- 

 tinuous struggle of both is the consequence of the two opposed 

 movements, resulting in oscillations of the level of naphtha and 

 of its discharge. Thus, at the Groznaya wells the amount of 

 extracted naphtha diminishes from 54,000 gallons in the summer 

 to 32,000 in the winter and spring, whilst at the much deeper 

 (343 feet) well of Paolovsk the reverse is observed, the amount 

 of extracted naptha being from 40,000 to 48,000 gallons in the 

 winter, and only 32,000 gallons in the summer. This circum- 

 stance could be easily explained by the retardation which the 

 water experiences in its descent to a greater depth. 



The Statistical Society announces as the subject for the 

 Howard Medal for 1884 — "The Preservation of Health, as it is 

 affected by Personal Habits, such as Cleanliness, Temperance, 

 &c." 



Rapidly as new periodicals and societies with their journals 

 and transactions are started in these days, they do not appear by 

 a column of titles a week as books do. The Mason Science 

 College of Birmingham, accordingly, thinks it not premature to 

 print a first catalogue of about 6000 volumes of these most im- 

 portant publications — British and foreign — which in little more 

 than two years have come into its possession. Such papers form 

 the most fundamental literature of all science, and the wide 

 range of subjects upon which they treat and the completeness of 

 the series of many of those now belonging to the Mason College, 

 will be appreciated by the student for whose service they have 

 been brought together by this noble institution, or by any one 

 who compares this catalogue of them with those of many other 

 collections. 



We are informed that the ships DaciaznA International, used 

 in the expedition which is accompanied by Mr. J. Y. Buchanan, 

 do not belong to the Telegraph Construction Company, but are 

 the property of the Indiarubber, Guttapercha, and Telegraph 

 Works Company, which is engaged in the work of laying the 

 cables from Cadiz to the Canaries, and thence to Senegal, for 

 the Spanish and French Governments. 



Mr. Scott Snell has made some very interesting experi 

 ments on the use of asbestos paint for coating Jablochkoff 

 candles ; he finds that with pure asbestos paint the arc is much 

 steadier and the carbons last much longer. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Bonnet Monkey {Macacus radiatus 9 ) from 

 India, presented by the Rev. G. R. Roberts ; a White-fronted 

 Capuchin (Cebus albifrons & ) from South America, presented by 

 Capt. King; a Blotched Genet {Genctla tigrina), a Long-nosed 

 Crocodile (Crocodilus cataphractus) from West Africa, presented 

 by Surgeon Mosse, A.M.D. ; an Egyptian Cat {Felis chain) from 

 North Africa, presented by Lieut.-Col. Mitchell Taylor; two 

 Kittiwake Gulls {Rissa tridactyla), a Common Guillemot {Una 

 troile), British, presented by Mr. Cuninghame ; a Herring Gull 

 {Lams argentatus), a Shag {Phalacrocorax graculus), a Common 

 Curlew (Nttmmius arquata), British, presented by Dr. A. 

 Gunther, F.R.S. ; seven European Phyllodactyles {Phyllodac- 

 tylus mropeus) from the Island of Elba, presented by Prof. 

 Giglioli, C.M.Z.S. ; a Robben Island Snake (Coronella pho- 

 carum) from South Africa, presented by the Rev. G. H. R. 

 Fisk, C.M.Z.S. ; a Pig-tailed Monkey {Macacus nemeslrimis { ) 

 from Java, a Common Curlew {Numenius arquata), an Oyster- 

 catcher (Hiematopus ostralagus), British, deposited ; a River 

 Jack Viper {Vipcra rhinoceros) from West Africa, seven Short- 

 nosed Sea Horses {Hippocampus antiquorum) from the European 

 Coast, 1 urchased. 



