322 



NA TURE 



[Fed. 5, 1885 



40 ov 50 feet. It is unknown in many parts of China, the 

 provinces of Che-kiang and Kiangsu being the only ones, so far 

 as can be ascertained, where the listening tubes are employed. 

 Besides this toy, Chinese ingenuity produced, about a century 

 and a half ago, the •" thousand mile speaker." This imple- 

 ment is described as "a roll of copper, likened to a pipe, 

 containing an artful device ; whispered into, and immediately 

 closed, the confined message, however long, may be conveyed to 

 any distance, and thus, in a battle, recent instructions may be 

 conveniently communicated. It is a contrivance of extra- 

 ordinary merit." The inventor of the "thousand-mile 

 speaker," one Chiang Shun-hsin, of Huichou, flourished during 

 the reign of Kang-hsi, during parts of the seventeenth and 

 eighteenth centuries. He wrote on occult science, astronomy 

 and foreign physics, and the above description of his invention 

 was copied from his works into a provincial encyclopaedia. At 

 the time the latter work was published — in the reign of Kien 

 Long — there was no longer an instrument of this kind in the 

 province, as the ingenious invention appears to have perished 

 with the student who contrived it. 



The following very interesting table has been compiled from 

 the records of the meteorological observatory at Tokio. It gives 

 the total number of recorded earthquakes which occurred in the 

 respective months during the ten years ending December 10, 



January 



February 



March.., 



April ... 

 May ... 

 June ... 



July ... 

 August 

 September. 

 October . 

 November . 

 December 



The list would, of course, need to be in full detail for each month 

 of each year, in order that any safe deduction might be made 

 from it ; but the general notion that there are more earthquakes in 

 winter than in summer receives some support from this table. The 

 average per month for the ten years is 45 ; that for the six winter 

 months (October-March) is 56 ; and for the six summer months 

 35, or about 40 per cent. less. An important element of dis- 

 turbance in the figures would be the great improvement in seis- 

 niological instruments since 1874, and the consequent registra- 

 tion of movements which would previously have passed 

 unnoticed. 



There have been a number of earthquake >hocks during the 

 past week. Another severe shock, accompanied by what is 

 described as a tremendous report, occurred at Alhama, on 

 January 27. By the fall of a house one person was killed and 

 two others were injured. On the 27th and 28th fresh shocks 

 occurred in the hot spring district of Southern Styria ; also at 

 four o'clock on the morning of the 27th a severe and prolonged 

 shock was felt at Valparaiso. On the 31st a shock occurred at 

 Algiers, destroying eight Arab houses. The shock was also 

 felt at Setif. 



Mr. James Jackson, ot the Paris Geographical Society, has 

 issued a new and much extended list of various speeds in metres 

 per second. It begins with the Mer de Glace at 0-0000099 m. 

 per second, and concludes with the current from a Leyden jar in 

 a copper wire of 0-0017 m - at 443, 500,000 m. per second. 



We are glad to see that the Health Journal, the first number 

 of which we noticed, is still continuing to do good work in 

 connection with sanitary science. We have before us the 

 twenty-first number, which contains several useful articles. We 

 commend the Journal to the notice of those interested in the 

 subject. It is published by Heywood, of Manchester. 



The Journal Jc Saint-Pilersbourg states that the first Russian 

 school for Mussulmans has been opened at Tashkend. The 

 pupils, who belonged to the families of native notables, num- 



bered lorty-one at the commencement. It is proposed to open 

 schools of the same kind elsewhere. 



When M. Barral died he had written the larger part of a 

 " Dictionnaire d' Agriculture." The first number, which con- 

 tains 250 pages large Svo, two columns, closely printed, has just 

 been published by Hachette and Co. About twelve similar 

 parts will follow in the course of four or five years. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Malbrouck Monkey [Cercopithecus cyno- 

 surus & ) from West Africa, presented by Mrs. East ; a Sambur 

 Deer (Cei-vus aristotclis i ) from Madras, presented by the 

 Officers 1st Battalion Essex Regiment ; a Long-eared Owl (Asia 

 otus), a Tawny Owl (Syrtiiutn aluco), British, presented by Mr. 

 Geo. E. Crisp; a Malayan Tapir (Tapirus indicus A) from 

 Malacca, a White Stork (Ciconia alba), European, two Magpies 

 (Pica rustica), British, deposited ; two Calandra Larks (Melano- 

 corypha calandra), European, purchased ; five Striped Snakes 

 ( Tropidonotus sirtalis), born in the Gardens. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



The Occultation of Aldebaran on February 22. — In 

 the occultation of Aldebaran on the 22nd of the present month, 

 the immersion takes place while the sun is above the horizon in 

 this country, and the emersion soon after sunset. The follow- 

 ing times and angles are founded upon the data of the Nautical 

 Almanac, the angles being reckoned as in that work ; the times 

 are Greenwich mean times at the respective observatories : — 



Greenwich.. 



Oxford 



Cambridge 



Dublin 



Liverpool .. 



Glasgow 



Edinburgh.. 



Variable Stars. — Dr. Gould notifies the detection of three 

 new variable stars at Cordoba, which he calls respectively R Lupi, 

 R Piscis Austrini, and R Phcenicis. In his communication to 

 the Astronomische Nach) ichten he refers to his recently publi hed 

 zones for their positions, which, brought up to the beginning of 

 the present year, will be : — 



R.A. 



Decl. 



R Lupi 



R Piscis Austrini 

 R Phcenicis 



.. 15 46 1 ... -35 572 

 . 22 11 28 ... - 30 10 7 

 .. 23 50 29 ... -50 25 6 



By Argelander's formula of sines the last maximum of Mira 

 should have occurred on January 28, but the maxima and minima 

 of the last four or five years appear to have taken place between 

 a fortnight and three weeks earlier than the dates assigned by 

 the formula. Perhaps some reader of Nature may be able to 

 fix the time of the recent maximum from his own observations. 



Wolf's Comet. — The following ephemeris of Wolf's comet 

 of short period is deduced from Herr Thraen's ellipse, which 

 depends upon normal places to November 23. The comet was 

 observed without difficulty at Lund on January 20 : — 



At 6/1. Greenwich Mean Tunc 



