386 



NATURE 



\August 25, 1881 



officer in the French service, thinks he will succeed in reading 

 messages at a distance of sixty miles under favourable circum- 

 stances. 



M. EuGfeNE GoDARD, the celebrated French aeronaut, \^ho 

 has been making ascents at Gotha, has been made by the Grand 

 Duke a knight of his order. M. Darmentiers, another French 

 aeronaut, having ascended from Montpelier, has been less suc- 

 cessful. He was driven by a stj-ong wind out to the Medi- 

 terranean Sea, where he perished according to all proba- 

 bility, no news having been received from him up to the latent 

 date. 



An advertising vehicle is circulating in the Paris streets lighted 

 at night by voltaic electricity obtained by bichromate elements. 

 It circulates all round the Boulevards. 



The triple granite concentric vaulting of the St. Gothard 

 Tunnel, in the quicksand formation under Andermatt, is \v>vi 

 completed, and as the rings previously constructed remain intact, 

 it is confidently hoped that a difficulty at one time thought to be 

 insuperable has been conquered, and that the great tunnel will be 

 finished by the end of October. 



Fkom the Report in the last Technological Examination of 

 the City and Guilds of London Institute we see that the number of 

 cmdidites and centres for examination have largely increased. 

 The results are generally better than in the previous year, though 

 from the examiner's reports there is, in most subjects, much to 

 be desired. No doubt in the course of a few years, when the 

 Institute has been fairly at work, the improvement in technical 

 knowledge in the country will be very marked. 



An official investigation shows that the phylloxera infests an 

 area of over 8000 square metres of the vineyards at Heimersheim, 

 near Remagen, on the Rhine. The diseased vines were imported 

 from Austria. Energetic steps are being taken for the annihila- 

 tion of the disease. 



The death is announced of Capt. Popelin, one of the Belgian 

 African explorers, who had established the station at Karema, 

 on the south-east shore of Lake Tanganyika, v\here, apparently, 

 he has succumbed to fever. Capt. Popelin was only thirty-four 

 years of age. 



The British Archteological Association is holding its meetings 

 at Malvern, which forms an admirable centre for excursions to 

 antiquities of all kinds. 



The "Polytechnic" expires this week, many of our readers 

 will be sorry to hear. The age seems to have outgrown its toy 

 science, though doubtless the institution did good in its day in 

 paving the way for the popularisation of real science. In the 

 memories of our older readers it \\ ill doubtless be associated 

 with many a happy day. 



Mr. William Archer, F. R.S., Librarian of the National 

 Library of Ireland, has just issued a pamphlet which we com- 

 mend to his fellow-librarians. The p.amphlct consists of "sug- 

 gestions as to public library buildings, their internal plan and 

 construction, best adapted to effect economy of space (and, 

 hence, saving of cost), and at same time most conducive to 

 public, as well as administrative, convenience, with more espe- 

 cial reference to the National Library of Ireland." We cannot 

 enter into the details discussed by Mr. Archer, but his leading 

 principles as to arrangement may be thus summed up in his own 

 words : — " Central reading-rooms and offices connected, by short 

 and sufficiently numerous radii, with a continuous circuit of 

 book-rooms around and beneath the same, the books in the 

 book-rooms on a greater or less number of tiers of standing 

 presses, these not more than eight feet high — thus securing the 

 immense boon of the abolition of ladders and galleries, and saving 

 at once space (and cost) as well as the time of the public." Mr. 



Archer draws attention to the fact that the question of space is 

 gradually becoming more and more urgent as regards this, the 

 only large public library in Ireland, and that if the providing of 

 enlarged accommodation is to be delayed until a science and 

 art museum and a metropolitan school of art should be built, 

 so as to hand over the buildings at present occupied by these for 

 library purposes, it looks very probable that the library must 

 come to a "stand still." He states further that the number of 

 readers was never before so great as during the past winter, 

 the evening readers having especially increased. The National 

 Library of Ireland, therefore, even in its present cramped and 

 inadequate quarters, is fulfilling a mission of usefulness. 



An important discovery has been made in the vicinity of 

 Kenneh, Upper Egypt. No less than thirty-six well-preserved 

 sarcophagi have been brought to light. They almost exclusively 

 belong to the kings and queens of the older Thebes Dynasty. 

 They contained mummies, papyrus scrolls, Oshis statuettes (some 

 thousands), ornaments, and talismans. The royal names of 

 Raskenes, Amenophis 1., Ahmes, Nofretari, Aahhotep, Totmes 

 II. and III., Seti I., Ramses XII., Finotem, and other Pharaohs 

 are mentioned in the texts, and show the importance of the dis- 

 covery. The sarcophagi were all found in one sepulchral 

 chamber. 



The " Smithsonian Report" for 1879 affords ample evidence 

 that the Smithsonian Institute continues to carry on its great 

 work with increasing efficiency. Its grants of money have been 

 devoted to the carrying out of anthropological researches and 

 geographical explorations, and to the publication of a large 

 number of works bearing on the progress of science. Large 

 additions have been made to the various departments of the free 

 museum of the Institute. The Appendix to the Report, occu- 

 pying the larger half of the volume, contains a number of 

 papers bearing on the anthropology of the North American 

 Indians, one paper of considerable length being "A Study of 

 the Savage Weapons at the Philadelphia Exhibition," by Mr. E. 

 H. Knight. Other papers in the Appendix are : "On the 

 Present Fundamental Principles of Physics," by Prof. Franz 

 Joseph Pesko ; "A Universal Meteorograph, designed for De- 

 tached Observatories," by Prof. E. S. Holden. 



The Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists 

 Society for 18S0-81 contains several useful papers. One of the 

 most interesting is that of Mr. Southwell, "On the Extinction 

 of Species by the Indirect Acts of Man." Mr. Southwell 

 adduces a number of instances in point, showing that experi- 

 mental acclimatisation sometimes leads to disastrous results. 

 Mr. II. W. Feilden contributes some remarks on the Natural 

 History of Franz-Josef Land. From the presidential address we 

 are glad to see that the Society continues to prosper. 



A SHORT time ago a colossal whale was captured and killed 

 on a sandbank near Westerland-Lylt (Schleswig). It measured 

 52 feet in length, 26 feet in circumference, audits tail-fin spanned 

 7 feet across. The animal must have entered the Watten Sea 

 dming high tide and lost itself in shallow water, when the 

 receding tide left it upon the sand. 



The Medical and Sanitary Exhibition, organised by the Com- 

 mittee of the Parkes Museum, was open for the last time on 

 Saturday, August 13, when the number of visitors, exclusive of 

 season-ticket holders, was 1,221, making a total of 24,333 

 visitors for the four weeks during which the Exhibition has been 

 open, allowing only for one visit by each season-ticket holder. 

 During the day the secretary, Mr. Mark Judge, visited the 

 ditferent exhibitors for the purpose of ascertaining their opinion 

 as to the success of the Exhibition. The exhibitors generally 

 expressed themselves as well satisfied with the result, some going 

 so far as to say that they had done an exceptional amount of 

 bu-iness owing to the fact that a very large proportion of the 



