Jan. 22, 1885] 



NA TURE 



279 



i he thirty-eighth annual general meeting of the Institution of 

 Mechanical Engineers will be on January 29 and 30, at 25, 

 Great George Street, Westminster, by the kind permission of 

 the Council of the Institution of Civil Engineers. The chair 

 will be taken by the President at half past seven p.m. on each 

 evening. The following reports and papers will be real anil 

 . as far as time will admit : — Final report on experi- 

 ments bearing upon the question of the condition in which carbon 

 exists in steel, by Sir Frederick Abel, CIS., D.C.L., F.R.S. ; 

 second report of the research committee on friction; on recent 

 improvements in wood-cutting machinery, by Mr. George 

 Richards, of Manchester ; on the history of paddle-wheel steam 

 navigation, by Mr. Henry Sandham, of London ; description of 

 the Tower spherical engine, by Mr. R. Hammersley Heenan, 

 of Manchester. 



The Dutch Government have issued the first part of their 

 official report on the Krakatoa eruption. It deals with the 

 the island prior to the occurrence, and the events of 

 the catastrophe itself. The second part will deal with the scien- 

 tific results of the investigation. The editor examined 1300 

 reports of eye-witnesses, and has endeavoured from them to con- 

 struct a chronological statement of the events preceding and 

 accompanying the eruption. 



The list of the conferences of the Sorbonne has been published 

 for ihi» year. On January 24 Dr. Brouardel lectures on the 

 and protective measures ; February 7, classification 

 of celestial bodies according to their nature, by M. Faye ; 

 February 21, application of recent advances in physics to public 

 works, by M. Gariel ; March 14, architecture of the heavens, by 

 M. Wolf: April 9, great volcanic catastrophes, by M. Velain. 



We are requested to state that Dr. William Pole, F.R.S., 

 has been appointed Honorary Secretary of the Institution of 

 Civil Engineers in the room of the late Mr. Charles Manby. 

 The office of Secretary is filled, as formerly, by Mr. James 

 Forrest. Mr. II. I.. Antrobus has been re-appointed Treasurer. 



Most of the inhabitants of Leden, the Standard states, about 

 a mile from Colchester, were awakened shortly after midnight 

 on Sunday by what they believe to have been an earthquake. 

 Much alarm was occasioned. The shock occurred at half-past 

 twelve o'clock, and lasted about thirty seconds. The houses 

 shook and the crockery rattled, but the shock was nothing like 

 so severe as the one experienced last April. The shock seems 

 to have t • north and east as Aldeburgh. 



Seismic activity appears to have been exceedingly widespread 

 recently. In the middle of November the first earthquake in 

 ten year- occurred at Monkden, in Manchuria. Both shocks, 

 the present and one ten years ago, came from the same direction, 

 viz. north-west to south-east, which, it is curious to note, is not 

 the prevailing direction of the hill ranges, but at right angles to 

 it. The Chinese in Manchuria are persuade 1 that warning of 

 approaching earth 1 ins to the Chinese 



: 1 that the shaking of the earth i; caused by the 



yawning of the great fish, on which the globe reposes. 



It is reported from Sundal and 1 (xendal, on the '.vest coast of 

 Norway, that a severe shock of earthquake was felt there at about 

 7 a.m. on December 28. The shock was so violent that the 

 houses shook, and the people ran out terrified. It was impos- 

 sible to tell in what direction the shock went. This pheno- 

 menon is remarkable for two reasons, viz. that it hardly ever 

 occurs in Norway, and that it occurred on the day after the 

 terrible earthquakes in Spain. 



The prospectus has been issued of the American Journal of 

 Archaology. The Archaeological Institute of America has 

 recognised the Journal as its official organ. Among the specific | 



objects of its editors will be : — (1) To afford to American 

 scholars the means of taking active part in the progress of 

 archreol gical science by the publication of papers embodying 

 the results of original research ; (2) To provide a careful and 

 ample record of archaeological discoveries and investigations in 

 all parts of the world, and to furnish reports of the proceedings 

 of archaeological societies, summaries of important papers, reviews 

 of books, &c. ; (3) To bring to notice and to illustrate important 

 works in the domain of archaeology contained in our public 

 museums and private collections, now little known. The fol- 

 lowing is a list of the editorial staff, so far as at present formed : — 

 Advising Editor : Prof. Charles Eliot Norton, of Harvard Col- 

 lege ; Managing Editor: Dr. A. L. Frothingham, of Johns 

 Hopkins University ; Special Editors : Dr. A. Emerson, of 

 Johns Hopkins University, Mr. T. W. Ludlow, of New York, 

 Prof. Allan Marqnand, of Princeton College, Mr. A. R. Marsh, 

 of Harvard College, Mr. Charles C. Perkins, of Boston. The 

 Journal will be published four times a year, and the numbers 

 for each year will form an Svo volume of about 360 pages. 

 Messrs. Trubner and Co. will be the English agents. 



At Konigsberg, in Prussia, wdll take place during the months 

 of May to August of this year an International Industrial and 

 Polytechnic Exhibition for machinery, motors, tools, appliances 

 for mechanics, small manufacturers, &c. The following are 

 some of the heads of groups under which exhibits wdll be classi- 

 fied — viz. (1) motors; (2) transmission appliances ; (3) tools and 

 implements for all branches of manufacture ; (4) chemical and 

 physical apparatus ; (5) apparatus for technical education ; (6) 

 . and protective appliances ; (7) machinery and appliances 

 for household purposes and for innkeepers ; (8) agricultural im- 

 plements and appliances. The Exhibition takes place under 

 the authority of the Industrial Central Union of the province of 

 East Prussia. Dr. N. Heinemann, of the new Athenaeum Club, 

 j, Pall Mall Fast, has been appointed Special Commissioner of 

 the Exhibition for England, and will give all necessary informa- 

 tion to intending exhibitors. 



The annual meeting of the Association of Assistant Mis- 

 tresses, which is confined to mistresses in gills' high schools, 

 endowed, and proprietary schools, was held on Saturday at the 

 North London Collegiate School for Girls. The President, 

 Mrs. Hankin, of the Edgbaston High School, Birmingham, was 

 in the chair. The discussion of the rules of the Association 

 occupied a large proportion of the time. The Secretary's report 

 showed that the work of tiie past year (the first of the Associa- 

 tion's existence) had been chiefly that of organisation, whilst 

 the Treasurer's report gave a hopeful account of the finances of 

 the institution, there being a considerable balance in hand. It 

 was resolved to appoint foreign and colonial correspondents, 

 whose duty it should be to inform the Association of openings 

 abroad, and a home correspondent, to whoai assistant mis- 

 tresses might apply, and to whom notices of vacancies might 

 be sent. A plan for a lending library, to consist chiefly 

 of voluntary loans of books, was approved, and a sub-com- 

 mittee was appointed to carry it into effect. A hope 

 was expressed that publishers might be induced to pre- 

 sent copies of educational works, and that any friends to the 

 Association, leaving England for a time, might grant the use 

 of their books during their absence. Mrs. Bryant, D.Sc., was 

 elected President for the coming year. After the conclusion of 

 busines, the meeting proceeded to the discussion of papers on 

 educational subjects. Miss Sharpe of Bradford read a paper on 

 the training of teachers. Several papers were also read on the 

 correction of exercises, describing the systems obtaining at dif- 

 ferent schools. It is from the discussion of such papers that the 

 Association anticipates practical results: by their means, ideas 

 are circulated that would otherwise remain unknown to the 

 majority, and hints given by which all interested in their 



