47S 



NA TURE 



{Sept. n, 1 88. 



lines of thought, and many different subjects of investigation, at 

 one and the same period"; and accordingly his labours are 

 classified under these heads : — (i) Heat and its applications, par- 

 ticularly to metallurgy ; (2) Electrical science and practice ; and 

 (3) Miscellaneous engineering, mechanical, and scientific matters 

 not included under the former heads. Dr. Pole then goes over 

 the whole of Sir William Siemens's scientific labours in these 

 fields, and, as might have been expected, produces the fullest 

 and most valuable memoir of this distinguished member of "the 

 el " which has yet appeared. 



The "Year-Book of the Scientific and Learned Societies of 

 Great Britain and Ireland." published by Messrs. Griffin and 

 Co., will be found useful, and doubtless will tie improved from 

 year to year. The societies are arranged in fourteen sections, 

 according to the field they occupy, with a fifteenth section, in- 

 cluding some of the leading foreign societies. The compilers 

 might certainly have avoided putting the Royal Society and the 

 Royal Institution side by side, as if they had anything in 

 common. 



Mr. W. M. Maskei.l, F.R.M.S., continues his notes on the 

 Coccuhv of New Zealand, and has sent us a lengthy continuation 

 of his former papers, extracted from the Transactions of the New 

 Zealand Institute, vol. xvi. That country seems to be especially 

 rich in "scale-insects," and in Mr. Maskell they find an able 

 student of their modes of life and characteristics. Especially 

 curious is the species described as Rhhococcus fossor, the female 

 of which does not cover herself with a sac or " scale," but sinks 

 herself bodily in a circular pit in the substance of the leaf, and 

 there lays her eggs ; the species feeds onSantoIum cunninghamu 

 in the North Island. Icenya parchasi — a near relative of the 

 " pou a poche blanche " (/. sacchari), so destructive in Mauritius, 

 and which has probably been introduced into Queensland and 

 elsewhere — seems to be spreading rapidly, and to be doing much 

 •damage, not only to cultivated trees and shrubs, but also to the 

 native forest". Before carrying into effect the radical remedy of 

 cutting down and destroying the infected trees, we would recom- 

 mend .Mr. Masked to try an application of kerosene, which has 

 certainly proved useful in the ease of Coccidte on oranges in 

 America. The weak point of these papers consists in the 

 extreme roughness of the plates ; they may be characteristic so 

 far as they go, but a few coarse scratches scarcely sufficiently 

 represent hairs, neither does an open network of crossed lines 

 indicate a solid and probably concave surface. 



The Kavkaz newspaper mentions a bolide that was seen 1 in 

 August 3 at Kazakh, in the district of Elizabethpol. It had the 

 shape of a blue globe which broke into two globes of the same- 

 colour, and disappeared in the direction of the Caucasus Chain. 



"We regret to learn of the death at Montreal, from typhoid fever, 

 of Mr. Walter R. Browne, well known as a writer on the scien- 

 tific aspects of engineering. Mr. Browne had gone to Montreal 

 to attend the British Association mee . 



The dangers to public health which lurk in out-of-the-way 

 places appear inexhaustible. This time the danger comes from 

 the matter which collects on coins which have been a long time 

 in circulation, and to which we have already referred. M. 

 Reinsch of Erlangen has devoted much study to this matter, and 

 has investigated old and recent coins of all metals from all the 

 European States. Everywhere he has found micro-organisms of 

 Alga; and Bacteria. Scraping away the matter which accumu- 

 lates in the interstices of the relief with a needle, and placing it 

 in a drop of distilled water under a microscope of 250 to 300 

 diameters, he found fragments of textile fibres, numerous starchy 

 granules, especially of the starch of wheat, globules of grease, 

 some unicellular Alga;, &c. But when a microscope ol grea el 

 powei was used Bacteria were found among this detritus. There 



were long Bacteria with a vibratory or spiral movement, as well 

 as those of a globular shape. Sometimes both forms were found 

 on one coin ; but as a rule each form was found separately. 

 When a little glycerine or iodine was introduced into the pre- 

 paration these ceased their movements. Among the Alga; two 

 kinds were of most frequent occurrence, viz. a small Chroococais 

 and a small unicellular one resembling the Palmellis. They 

 were collected in little spherical colonii ight, or a 



dozen at a time, and were found only on old coins ; recent ones 

 contained only the Bacteria. A recent writer in Science et Naturt 

 refers to this discovery as of great importance horn a hygienic 

 point of view. 



At numerous places in Lower Austria several shocks of earth- 

 quake were felt on Tuesday last week. The duration of the 

 shocks was from four to nine seconds each. 



At the last meeting of the Seismological Society of Japan, a 

 paper (which is printed in the Japan Gazette) was read by Mr. 

 F. Knipping on the meteorology of Japan. It was based on 

 data obtained from twenty-three meteorological stations in Japan 

 during the year iS83, the extreme position: being Kagoshima 

 and Nagasaki in the south, and Sapporo and Nemoro in Yezo in 

 the north. Interesting comparisons are instituted between the 

 ;n temperature and pressure at different times of the 

 year and in different parts of Japan, and similar variations in 

 Europe. 



Tit :' additions to the Zoological Society's Garden during the 

 pat week include two Ring-tailed Lemurs [Lemur catta 6 9) 

 from Madagascar, presented by Mr. Charles Stewart ; a Common 

 Marmoset (Hapale jacchus) from Brazil, presented by Mr. J. 

 Henderson; two I'eba Armadillos [Tatusia ptba) from South 

 America, presented by Mr. Frank Parish, F.Z.S. ; a Wood Owl 

 (Syrnium aluco), British, presented by Mr. J. Baldwin ; two 

 Smooth Snake , (Coronella Itsvis) from Hampshire, presented by 

 Mr. W. II. B. Pain; seven Common Crowned Pigeons (Goura 

 coronala) from New Guinea, a Victoria Crowned Pigeon (Goura 

 victoria) from the Island of Jobie, two Brazilian Hangnests 

 (Icterus Jamaica':) from Brazil, deposited ; a Gray-cheeked 

 Monkey (Cercocebus albigena) from West Africa, purchased ; a 

 Prairie Wolf (Cam's lalrans) from Kansas, U.S.A., received on 

 approval; a Vulpine Phalanger (Phalanghta vulbina), born in 

 the Gardens. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

 The present number of the Bulletin tic la Socic'tc do Geographic 

 commences with a paper by M. Duveyrier, on the geographical 

 extent of the Mussulman confraternity of Senou-i. This sect, 

 which is distinguished by its au tere and fanatical tenets, arose 

 forty-six years ago under an Algerian, and appears to have in a 

 greater or less degree permeated the Mohammedan world, and 

 acquired vast political importance. It flourishes especially in 

 Northern Africa, reaching as far south as Timbuctoo. The 

 details of its precise extent and the nature of its activity are 

 given in the paper. The second paper, which is not signed, 

 records .< French hydrographical mission to the coast of Morocco 

 by the French officer M. Vincendon-Dumoulin in 1854. The 

 most interesting part of the paper is the introduction, in which 

 the writer discusses the necessity of having a dictionary of geo- 

 graphical etymology ; that is, a work which will explain as far 

 as possible the origin and meaning of geographical names, not 

 only from a philological but also an historical point of view. 

 The names, he says, which, for example, Stanley and De Brazza 

 are caving their settlements in Africa, are explicable now, when 

 everybody knows why Leopoldville is so called ; but it may 

 be different fifty years hence. But who knows, he inquires, 

 that the territory called Adelie in the Polar Ocean was so called 

 after the wife of Admiral Dumont d'Urville, or that the capes 

 known as Jagersschmidt and Cotelle were named after the mem- 

 bers of the hydrographical expedition to Morocco, which the 

 paper then goes on to describe ? From the report of a Commit- 

 tee of the Society appointed for the purpose, we see that three 



