64 



NATURE 



{May 19, 1881 



take the astronomers who are to observe the approaching transit 

 of Venus. This is intended as the contriljution of France to the 

 international scheme of polar observations, to which England 

 has as yet made no sign of lending her aid. 



Messrs. Siemens and Halske gave a pubUc trial last week 

 of their new electric railway, which runs between Lichterfelde 

 and the Cadettenhaus, about six miles from Berlin. The trial 

 is stated to have been most successful. It was in a simple tram- 

 car, with an electric battery totally concealed between the 

 wheels, in connection, through the rails it ran on, with the 

 principal battery at the station. The rails are three feet three 

 inches apart, and exactly resemble those of an ordinaiy railroad, 

 only the gauge being narrower. The greatest speed obtained on 

 a distance of about one and a half mile was eighteen English 

 miles an hour. Dr. Siemens has proved that if necessary a far 

 greater speed could be obtained, but this is not allowed by the 

 German police authorities. It will not be allowed to proceed at 

 more than nine miles per hour. The railway was opened to the 

 public on Monday. 



M. PouCHET with two assistants are about to proceed to 

 Vadso, on the east coast of Finmark, to collect natural history 

 specimens for the Paris Museum of Natural History. 



An interesting paper on recent earthquakes in Japan has lately 

 been published by Prof. John Milne, vice-president of the Seismo- 

 logical Society of Japan. To get an arrangement which will 

 cause a clock to stop at exactly the same tremor during an earth- 

 quake as another similar clock is stopped at, to get a complete 

 time record of the tremors at any place, and to find accurately 

 the direction of the transmission of earth vibrations, these are 

 the questions which Mr. Milne and his friends have been trying 

 to surmount with the help of a grant of money from the British 

 Association and the help of the Japanese Telegraph Department. 

 A result of the work hitherto done is that there is a chronic 

 centre of disturbance within a radius of a few miles from Yoko- 

 hama, and Mr. Milne felicitates the inhabitants of that seaport 

 on the advantages which their position gives them for seismo- 

 logical observation. The Society has also issued useful forms in 

 which to record earthquake observations, vhich might supply 

 hints to European observers. 



At the Victoria (Philosophical) Institute, on Monday, a paper 

 on "The Rainfall and Climate of India" was read by Sir Joseph 

 Fayrer, K.C.S.I., F.R.S. He reviewed the causes and effects 

 of those climatic changes which obtain in, that country at the 

 present time, and many of which once operated in Palestine and 

 Egypt, not to mention England and other parts of the world, 

 and threw light on questions involving the denudation theory, 

 the variation of river deposits, and other matters affecting the 

 uniformitarian theory of geology. .Sir Josejih Fayrtr spoke at 

 some length in regard to the climate of India, and showed that, 

 if what science had taught us in regard to the effects of cultiva- 

 tion, the preservation of the forests, drainage, &c., were carefully 

 attended to by the powers that be, the importance of the results 

 could not be estimated, as they involved the he.alth and prosperity 

 of that great country. 



In connection with the subject of " Fascination," Dr. Otto of 

 Scbemnitz, Hungary, writes us of a case which came under his 

 notice. In 1859, when the use of firearms was under stringent 

 regulations in Hungary, peasants often killed hares on the 

 Danubian island Creppel in the following way : — Two peasants 

 would drive in a cait over the reaped fields. On spying a hare 

 (say at two to three hundred paces) they proceeded to drive 

 round it some five or six times in succession. One peasant 

 carrying a long stick at length sprang out, at the moment the 

 cart was behind the hare (the cart continuing its course), and 

 oming up to the animal slowly, killed it v.ithout difficulty. It 



was not uncommon to kill thus as many as six or seven hares in 

 one morning. 



The following instance of animal intelligence is sent to us by 

 Dr. John Rae, F.R.S. , who states that the Mr. William 

 Sinclair mentioned is respectable and trustworthy. The anec- 

 dote is taken from the Orkney Herald of May 1 1 : — " A well- 

 authenticated and extraordinary case of the sagacity of the 

 Shetland pony has just come under our notice. A year or two 

 ago Mr. William Sinclair, pupil teacher. Holm, imported one of 

 these little animals from Shetland on which to ride to and from 

 school, his residence being at a considerable distance from the 

 school buildings. Up to that time the animal had been unshod, 

 but some time afterwards Mr. Sinclair had it shod by Mr. Pratt, 

 the parish blacksmith. The other day Mr. Pratt, whose smithy 

 is a long distance from Mr. Sinclair's hoUsC, saw the pony, with- 

 out halter or anything upon it, walking up to where he was work- 

 ing. Thinking the animal had strayed from home, he drove it off, 

 throwing stones after the beast to make it ran homewards. 

 This had the desired effect for a short time ; but Mr. Pratt had 

 only got fairly at work once more in the smithy when the pony's 

 head again made its appearance at the door. On proceeding a 

 second time outside, to drive the pony away, Mr. Pratt, with a 

 blacksmith's instinct, took a look at the pony's feet, when he 

 observed that one of its shoes had been lost. Having made a 

 shoe he put it on, and then waited to see what the animal would 

 do. For a moment it 1 joked at the blacksmith as if asking 

 whether he was done, then pawed once or twice to see if the 

 newly-shod foot was comfortable, and finally gave a pleased 

 neigh, erected its head, and started homewards at a brisk trot. 

 The owner was al<o exceedingly surprised to find the animal at 

 home completely shod the same evening, and it was only on 

 calling at the smithy some days afterwards that he learned the 

 full extent of his pony's sagacity." 



M. J. Plateau has issued a second supplement to the 

 " Bibliographic Analytique des Principaux Phenomenes Sub- 

 jectifs de la Vision," comprising the years 187S-79. It is re- 

 printed iii a separate form from the Memoirs of the Belgian 

 Academy. 



We have received the first jthree parts of \hz Zeitschrift fiir 

 Jii'incnienienkiiniie, a monthly journal intended to bring together 

 all novelties in scientific apparatus. It is edited by Dr. George 

 Schwiskus, assisted by a large staff, and published by Julius 

 Springer of Berlin. It is amply illustrated and its utility is 

 obvious. 



M. Carnot, the grandson of the celebrated War Minister of 

 the First RepubUc, has taken an important step in his capacity of 

 Minister of French Public Works. He sent to the Lower House 

 a. projet de loi asking for a credit of 280,000/. in order to intro- 

 duce at once into all the French lighthouses magneto-electric 

 generators and acoustical signals with steam blower. This pro- 

 posal is sure to be accepted with enthusiasm, and executed with 

 the utmost rapidity. 



The General Council of the Seine have granted the credits 

 asked by the Prefet for establishing in the Morgue a refriger- 

 ating machine by MM. Mignon and Rouard. Ammonia is 

 the substance which has been considered as the most powerful 

 and cheapest by a special conmission appointed by the Council 

 of Hygiene. Laboratories will be annexed to the establishment. 

 The work will begin as soon as Parliament has voted a small 

 sum for contributing to the expense. 



M. Barthelemy St. Hilaire, French Minister of Foreign 

 Affairs, has recommended to M. Cochery a suggestion of M. W. 

 de Fonvielle's advising the appointment of a commission on the 

 state of international law relating to ocean telegraphic cables, 

 and the means of improving it. M. St. Hilaire states that in 



