564 



NA TURE 



[Oct. ii, 1883 



the red end ; at the violet the light was so brilliant as to appear 

 almost white. The only clouds at the time were bars of white 

 cirri, and it was across some of these that the halo showed itself. 

 Thi- lasted for eight minutes, and then began to fade as the cirri 

 moved away, but the colours again brightened, and were still 

 visible, even when the sky was apparently clear, although, where 

 the patch of colour remained, very faint cirri could still be per- 

 ceived behind and through the brightness. At 9.51 the whole 

 had disappeared. The wind at the lime was nearly due north. 

 I should like to know whether these solar balos are considered 

 to be produced by ice-crystals in the higher regions. They 

 appear to me quite as prevalent in summer as in "inter. 



Great Malvern, October 2 E. Brown 



A Remarkable Rainbow 



The phenomenon ol supernumerary bows noticed by " L. C." 

 on September 24, has been repeatedly observed and described. 

 Various explanations have been suggested; and " L. C." will 

 probably find what he wants in Archdeacon Pratt's paper in 

 Phil. Mag., 4th series, vol. v. pp. 78-S6 (1853). 



A. Ramsay 



Meteor 



A splendid meteor was seen yesterday (Saturday) evening at 

 about nine o'clock. It passed from the nor;h-ea~t, beneath the 

 Pole star, to the west, where it vanished instantaneously without 

 bursting. The nucleus measured, I should say, at least 5' of 

 arc in breadth, and was extremely brilliant. A. Taun 



31, Mornington Road, N.W., October 7 



A Palaeolithic Flake 



It may interest some of your readers to know that I found 

 last week a Palaeolithic flake in some gravel at Gray's Inn Lane, 

 where they are now making excavations for sewers. It is a 

 somewhat large, flatfish, subtriangular flake of implement-like 

 form, exhibiting a large cone on the plain side towards the butt, 

 and the other side showing several facets ; ochreous all over, 

 and somewhat abraded. There is one in the British Museum 

 from this spot, only it is an implement, black, lustrous, and 

 spear-shaped, and seems to have come from a higher stratum 

 than the flake before mentioned. Mr. W. G. Smith has an 

 implement from Drury Lane — brought to him by an excavator 

 instructed by him to look for implements at Shacklewell, and 

 while at work at Drury Lane he found one, and, recognising it 

 as an implement, brought it to Mr. Smith. It is subtriangular, 

 worked all over on both sides, blackish indigo, lustrous, and 

 very slightly abraded. These are as yet the only relics of Palaeo- 

 lithic man recorded as found in Central London. 



49, Beech Street, E.C. G. E. Lawrence 



Hop "Condition" 



I observe that it is asserted in a German technical journal 

 that the golden microscopic dust on hops, which English growers 

 call "condition," and in which the finest properties of the hop 

 are supposed to reside, does not increase in quantity, as generally 

 it is supposed to do, with the growth of the inflorescence. The 

 quantity on the plants is declare! to be as great when the buds 

 are first developed as at maturity. Can any of your readers 

 oblige me with observations or references in point ? 



II. M. C. 



JOACHIM BARRANDE 



'THE announcement that Barrande has passed away 

 ■*■ will be received with sincere regret in every quarter 

 of the globe where geology is cultivated. His death 

 another of the few remaining links that connect 

 the present generation of workers with the early pioneers 

 of geological science. Born in 1800, he was eventually 

 appointed tutor to the young Due de Bordeaux. So at- 

 tached did he become to the royal family of France, that 

 when Charles X. abdicated he voluntarily went into exile, 

 accompanying his young pupil to Prague, which remained 



his domicile thenceforward to the end of his long life. 

 It was during the early years of his exile that he gave 

 himself to natural history pursuits. In a brief visit to 

 Vienna he came upon a copy of Murchison's " Silurian 

 System," then recently published, and finding some of 

 the fossils therein figured to resemble others which he 

 had himself picked up in Bohemia, he on his return 

 began to look more attentively at the rocks of his neigh- 

 bourhood. Getting more interested with every fresh 

 excursion, he began to open quarries and employ work- 

 men to search for fossils. In order the more easily to 

 direct their work he laboriously acquired their language. 

 Year after year he continued these researches, devoting 

 to them his time, energy, and fortune. He became 

 the prince of fossil collectors. But at the same 

 time he applied himself with unwearied industry to 

 the scientific study of the fossils and of the rocks con- 

 taining them. By degrees his labours took shape, and 

 there resulted from them his colossal work, the " Systeme 

 Silurien de la Boheme," a noble monument of scientific 

 enthusiasm. It was begun as far back as 1852. Since 

 that time no fewer than twenty-two massive quarto 

 volumes of text and plates have been published. Unde- 

 terred by the remonstrances of a publisher who would 

 insist on counting the cost and the sale, Barrande was 

 his own publisher, and prosecuted his labour of love 

 down to the end of his life. His numerous separate 

 papers on geological subjects began to appear in 1S46, 

 and have been continued to the present time. Living in 

 exile for upwards of half a century, Barrande occasionally 

 visited his native country, and took a keen interest in 

 scientific progress there, but remained an unflinching 

 royalist, refusing to do anything or accept any distinction 

 which might seem to compromise his political principles. 

 He even declined to be nominated a corresponding 

 member of the French Academy. But honours were 

 heaped upon him by the scientific societies of other 

 countries. Due tribute will no doubt be paid to his 

 scientific achievements ; for the present we have time 

 only to offer these few lines to the memory of one of the 

 most unwearied and profound students of palaeontology, 

 and one of the most upright and honourable of men. 



THE SANITARY CONGRESS ON HOUSE 

 SANITATION 



A CONSIDERABLE amount of attention was given 

 ** at the recent Congress of the Sanitary Institute in 

 Glasgow to the question of house construction, and to 

 the evils which are attendant upon the present system 

 under which human habitations are erected both in the 

 metropolis and elsewhere. When it is remembered how 

 large a portion of time the inhabitants of this country 

 are compelled, by reason of climate and otherwise, to 

 spend inside their dwelling houses, it is obvious that the 

 health both of the present and of future generations 

 must be largely dependent on the sanitary condition of 

 those dwellings, and that very earnest consideration 

 should be given, both by experts in matters of building 

 and also by the public themselves, to the sanitary details 

 of house accommodation. And yet it is notorious that 

 houses, which are faulty in almost every particular relat- 

 ing to health, are week by week being run up by hun- 

 dreds and thousands ; that even where money does not 

 enter into consideration the dwelling-rooms of mansions 

 are left without any provision for ventilation whatever ; 

 and that both the wealthy and the poor are stricken with 

 disease by reason of the foul air which has been conveyed 

 from the sewers into their homes as the result of arrange- 

 ments which are, in point of fact, almost always more 

 costly than should have been the more simple appliances 

 which would have prevented the possibility of such an 

 occurrence. 



As the law now stands there are certain evils which 



