NA TURE 



[Jan. 29, 1885 



which proves that marine conditions recurred for a short 

 time, and brought again into the lake basin such marine 

 Silurian forms as Beyrichia, Orthoceras, and even Grap- 

 tolites} We are not left to conjecture the nature of 

 Silurian insect-life, for Mr. Charles Brongniart intimated 

 to the Paris Academy of Sciences (December 29, 18S4), 

 through M. Alphonse Milne- Edwards, the discovery of a 

 fossil insect, the rock containing which is the Silurian 

 sandstone of Calvados, and which is even more, ancient 

 than the strata containing the Swedish and Scottish 

 scorpions. The specimen consists of the wing, the cha- 

 racteristics of which are those of the wings of Blatta. 



Jt may be that, as recent scorpions feed extensively on 

 the eggs of various Invertebrates, the Silurian species also 

 visited the shores for the eggs of animals left bare by the 

 tides, among which Parka decipiens, the eggs of its marine 

 allies, the Eurypterids (if the latter had the habits of their 

 near relation, the recent king-crab), would form a bonne 

 bouche. If this suggestion should prove to be well 

 founded, we may suppose that it was this habit of fre- 

 quenting the shores that led the present specimens to be 

 imbedded in marine strata, as from their completeness 

 they could not have been borne far from their native 

 shores. Ben. N. Peach 



NOTES 



We greatly regret to record the death of Dr. J. Gw/n Jeffreys, 

 F.R.S., from a sudden attack of apoplexy, on Saturday last, 

 at the age of seventy-six years. We hope to refer at length, in 

 our next number, to Dr. Jeffreys's scientific work. 



Sir William Thomson will on Monday give an address at 

 the opening of the fine laboratories at University College, 

 Bangor. In the evening there will be a conversazione. 



The premium of the Society of Telegraph Engineers ami of 

 Electricians was presented, at the annual meeting, to Prof. 

 George Forbes, F.R. S.E., for his paper on " The relation which 

 should subsist between the strength of an electric current and 

 the diameter of conductors to prevent over-heating." The Fahie 

 premium was presented to Mr. W. H. Stone, M.A., for 

 his paper on "The physiological bearing of electricity on 

 health." The Paris Electrical Exhibition premium was presented 

 to Mr. H. C. Mance for his paper on " A method of eliminating 

 the effects of polarisation and earth-currents from earth-tests." 

 Having presented the premium* and thanked the members for 

 their support during his year of office, Prof. Adams vacated the 

 chair and introd iced the president for 1885, Mr. C. E. 

 Spagnoletti. 



At the recent meeting of the Government Grant Committee, 

 Prof. Ewing, of Dundee, received a grant of 100/. to institute 

 observations of earth movements on Ben Nevis. He was asked 

 to undertake this work by the Directors of the Observatory there, 

 and he intends to look both for minute earth tremors, such as 

 have been observed by Rossi and Bertelli in Italy, and for slow 

 movements of the horizon, such as those observed by Messrs. 

 G. H. and H. Darwin at Cambridge. The isolated position 

 of the Ben Nevis Observatory makes it particularly well suited 

 for observations of this kind. 



Sir Joseph Lister, Professor of Clinical Surgery in King's 

 College, London, has been appointed by the German Emperor 

 a Knight of the Order Pour le Merite for Science and Arts. 



We have received from the Fine Art Society a "remark" 



proof of a very fine etching, by Mr. Flameng, of Mr. Collier's 



portrait of Prof. Huxley, which attracted so much attention at 



the Royal Academy Exhibition two years ago. Doubtless many 



of our readers will remember the leading features of the portrait, 



1 A. Geikie. " Explanation of Sheet 23 of Geological Survey of Scotland,' 

 1873, P <4- 



the etching of which will form a suitable companion to that of 

 Mr. Darwin by the same engraver, also from a painting by Mr. 

 Collier. 



The first arrangement for supplying private houses with elec- 

 tricity is now in working order in Paris. It has been placed in 

 the Passage des Panoramas, Galerie Vivienne, for the use of all' 

 the houses in this extensive block. The motor being a gas- 

 engine, the use of which is legal in cities, the proprietors of this 

 lighting establishment have nothing to do with civic authorities, 

 and regulations. Six or seven shops are now lighted by ab >ut 

 100 Woodhouse and Rawson incandescent lamps. 



The Russian Government are preparing an expedition to West- 

 ern Siberia, for the purpose of examining some sulphur deposits 

 recently discovered there. The natives have for many years 

 had knowledge of these deposits, but the Government have only 

 recently been made cognisant thereof, through a report by Lieut. 

 Kalityn. According to the statement of M. Konschin, a mining 

 engineer, one of the deposits contains upwards of five million pood 

 of sulphur, the number of the former being ten. Europe has 

 hitherto been supplied with this article from Sicily, and it is 

 hoped that the Russian deposits may compete with the mines in 

 that island. In Russia sulphur has hitherto only been found at 

 Tchirkota, not far from Petroffsk, in Piaghestan, which has. 

 chiefly been delivered to the powder-mills. The expedition in 

 question will leave St. Petersburg next month. 



Mr. H. Cecil writes to us with reference to our note on the 

 British Museum lectures last week. "Tosome of us," Mr. Cecil 

 writes, "it is a source of no little astonishment that the materials 

 of these lectures, some of them of such surpassing interest, should 

 not be made accessible to students and the general public in 

 some full, substantial, and permanent form. Besides, it would 

 surely pay. The hunger of men never was keener for every 

 single seed-corn of threshed-out verity ; and I am myself con- 

 stantly asked with reference to the subjects of these very lectures : 

 Where can I find this in accurate form, vouched by the writer's 

 name, and open to the examination and judgment of all men?" 



A Michigan paper gives an account of a phenomenon that 

 was witnessed in Orion and vicinity on the evening of December 

 20 : — At Marshall a bright luminous ball of large dimensions, 

 tinged with a deep green, apparently lit up the whole heavens. 

 The light was instantly followed by a loud noise, somewhat 

 resembling distant thunder, which continued for about one 

 minute. The general opinion is that it was an aerolite. At 

 Jackson the vibration was preceded by a vivid flash in the 

 heavens, resembling lightning. The phenomena were noticed 

 in several portions of the city. To the south it was felt quite 

 strong. Near Hanover and Horton the quaking of the earth 

 was observed, while the heavens for an instant were lighted by 

 an instantaneous flash, followed by a loud report. Buildings 

 were slightly jarred, and the people noted the motion of their 

 houses. 



The Rev. H. Sumangala, High Priest of Adam's Peak, 

 Ceylon, has recently contributed to the Orientalist, a magazine 

 published at Kandy, a short summary of the views of Hindu 

 astronomers on the form and attraction of the earth. The theory 

 of Bhaskara, who flourished in the twelfth century of our era, 

 was that the terrestrial globe, which is composed of earth, air, 

 water, space, and fire, is of a spherical shape, and being sur- 

 rounded by planets, such as the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the 

 Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, and by the orbits of stars. 

 stands firm in the midst of space by its own power, without 

 any other aid. This, he says, is a well-ascertained fact. Like 

 the pollen in the Kadamba flower, on its surface are countries, 

 mountains, gardens, and buildings, where Raksasas, men, Devas, 

 and Asuras dwell. He refutes the theory that the earth cannot 

 stand of itself without any support by arguing that, if there be 



