Oct. 2, I ! 



NA TUKE 



547 



receiving instrument consists of a combination of twenty Morse 

 receivers, to each of which is attached a style which marks on 

 the receiving paper its proper sign, thus producing a stenographic 

 message. Great speed in transmitting is claimed for this method, 

 and the following figures are given as comparative : — 



Morse simple 500 words per hour 



Hughes simple 1,200 ,, ,, 



Wheatstone 1,800 „ ,, 



Steno-telegraphic 10,000 ,, ,, 



A medical student, M. J. 01 en, who has been engaged 

 during the summer in studying the fungoid flora in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Bergen (Norway), has found on Ask Island a 

 specimen of the remarkable Tricholoma colossnm. It is the first 

 time it has been found in Norway, and it has only once been 

 found in Sweden. The stem is 2A inches in diameter. Prof. 

 Elis Fries in describing this variety says : " I discovered this 

 unique variety for the first time among branches of spruce lying 

 on the ground in a place near the Tern Lake in Smaland 

 (Sweden). It is the largest and finest of the hitherto discovered 

 mushrooms. " 



The thirteenth annual conversazione of the Chester Society 

 of Natural Science was held in the Town Hall on September 25, 

 and was attended not only by the members, but by a contingent 

 of the Iron and Steel Institute, who have been holding their 

 annual meeting in the Cestrian city. The Kingsley Memorial 

 Medal was awarded to Mr. A. O. Walker, F.L.S., and Kingsley 

 Memorial prizes were given for local natural history collections. 

 It was announced that a prize of 10/. would be given in 1SS5 

 for the best collection of coal-measure fossil plants from the 

 Society's district, a similar sum in 1SS6 for the best collection of 

 " Bees and Wasps" from the same area, and in 1887 "for the 

 best Essay on the Physiography of the Society's District, on the 

 lines of Prof. Huxley's Physiography ; " the district in ques- 

 tion being Flint and Denbigh, with as much of the county of 

 Cheshire as lies west of a line drawn south from Warrington. 

 The exhibition of microscopic objects was, as is usually the case 

 at Chester, exceedingly good, and for teaching purposes they 

 were rendered more useful by the publication by the Society "f a 

 little handbook of twenty-eight pages, on Natural History, for 

 use in the annual conversazioni and other meetings of the 

 Society. It is drawn up by Mr. C. F. Fish, and appears to be 

 an expansion of the useful programme, on which we commented 

 last year. The inf rmation as to the classification and structures of 

 the lower orders of life, both animal and vegetable, appear t j be 

 very carefully done, and are very concise. The work could be 

 made much more useful by expanding the geological and physical 

 portions ; it is published at a few pence. 



Dr. Georg Schweinfurth has left Berlin to return to 

 Egypt, whence he intends to start upon a new scientific exploring 

 tour through the desert. 



. On September 18 the meeting of German naturalists was 

 opened at Magdeburg, under the presidency of Dr. Gachde. 

 Over a thousand men of science were present. Strasburg was fixed 

 upon as next year's meeting-place, with Profs. Kussmaul and 

 De Bary as secretaries. Among the addresses delivered we may 

 mention : — On the relation of micro-organisms to the infectious 

 diseases of man, by Prof. Rosenbach (Gbttingen) ; on the im- 

 portance of German colonisation in Africa, by Dr. Gerhard 

 Rohlfs ; various medical addresses by Drs. Schwarz (Cologne), 

 Paetz (Alt-Scherbitz), Finkler (Bonn), and Prior. 



The death is announced near Sydney of James Snowdon 

 Calvert, the last survivor of Leichhardt's Australian exploring 

 expedition. 



A telephone now transmits, by the ordinary telegraph wire, 

 the music from the Brussels Opera House to the Royal Chalet at 



Ostend. The system, of course, is Van Rysselberghe's, men- 

 tioned in our last number. 



The late Dr. Ferd. von Hochstetter's travelling reports, 

 dating from the celebrated Noi'ara Expedition (1857-59), are 

 now being published in book form, upon the occasion of the 

 twenty-fifth anniversary of the NovarcCs safe return to Trieste. 

 The book will contain a portrait of the author, a preface by 

 V. von Haardt, and a map of the course of the Novara. Holzel 

 of Vienna is the publisher. 



M. Charles Huber, who was travelling in the interior o^ 

 Arabia in the service of the French Ministre de l'Instruction 

 Publique (formerly together with Prof. Euting of Strasburg) 

 has been murdered near Labegh (Rabegh ?) by Bedouins of the 

 Hail tribe. His Arabian servant Mahmoud has met the same 

 fate. 



News has been received from Capt. Adrian Jacobsen, now 

 travelling in Northern Asia, by order < f the Berlin Ethnologi- 

 cal Museum with a view of making ethnographical collections. 

 Capt. Jacobsen, after leaving St. Petersburg, visited Kasan, 

 Ekaterinburg, and Tomsk, and has already sent home two large 

 cases containing ethnographical objects collected among the 

 uncivilised Russian tribes of the Tscheremiss, and Tschmrasch, 

 and Wotjaks. 



Referring to our note of last week on Mr. St. Clair's 

 "Note on a Possible Source of Error in Photographing Blood 

 Corpuscles," the author writes to say that " in Dr. Norris's 

 photographs where the colourless disks are well defined, the 

 dark ones are out of focus." But it has not been shown pos- 

 sible to produce the ghosts while the real images are at all 

 visible, and until this is done we must adhere to the opinion we 

 have already expressed. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Toque Monkey ( Macacus pileatus i ) from 

 India, presented by Mrs. Batchelder ; a Common Marmoset 

 (Hapali jacchus i ) from Brazil, presented by Mr. W. E. 

 Steinscher ; six Great Bats (Vespertilio tioctula), British, pre- 

 sented by Mr. W. Atkinson ; two King Parrakeets (Aprosmictus 

 scapulalus), two Cockateels (Calopsitta nova-hollandia) from 

 Australia, presented by Mrs. C. Price; two Spanish Terrapins 

 (Clemmys trijuga), South European, presented by Mr. W. H. J- 

 Paterson ; a Common Viper ( Vipera berus), British, a Viperine 

 Snake ( Tropidonotus vipsrinus) from West Africa, presented by 

 Mr. William Cross ; a Common Snake (Tropidonotus nalrix), a 

 Common Viper ( Vipera berus), British, presented by Mr. W. 

 H. B. Pain; a White-breasted Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrncnsis) 

 from India, two Reed Buntings (Emberiza schomiculus), a 

 Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilld), a Pied Wagtail (Moticilla lugubris), 

 British, a Tree Boa (Corallus horlulans) from Cuba, purchased. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 Comet 1S84 b (Barnard, July 16). — Dr. Berberich of 

 Strasburg, who has investigated the elements of this comet from 

 observations extending to September 14, has found an elliptical 

 orbit, in which the period is only Sh years, a result which will 

 perhaps have been rather expected, considering the nature of the 

 parabolic orbits previously calculated, and, as was pointed out 

 by Prof. Weiss, their resemblance to the elements of De Vico's 

 comet of short period observed in 1844. Dr. Berberich's ellipse 

 is as follows : — 

 Periheli >n passage, 1884, August 16-48346 Greenwich M.T. 



Longitude of perihelion 



,, ascending node 



Inclination 



Angle of eccentricity 



Log. semi-axis major 



Period of revolution 



... 306 7 31 'I ) Mean 

 5 3 50'2 > Equinox 

 5 28 49-6 ) 1884-0 



■ • 36 3 43'8 

 0-493392 

 2007-9 f ' avs or 5 '4965 years 



