Sept. 29, 1 881] 



NATURE 



519 



be held there on Wednesday, October 5, at 8 p.m., to name 

 and study them. The foray will be made in Stoke Edith 

 Park and grounds, by the kin! permission of Lady Emily Foley. 

 A meeting of the members will be held in the Woolhope Club- 

 room at 3.45 to elect the officers f^ir the ensuing year, and to 

 transact the ordinary business of the Club. The dinner will 

 take pLace at the Green Dragon Hotel at 4.30 p.m., and a 

 soiree \\\\\ be held at the house of Mr. Thomas Cam at 8 p.m., 

 to which he kindly invites all who may be present at the meeting;. 

 After dinner, or at the evening meetings, papers will be read on 

 the following subjects : — The progress of mycology, by Dr. 

 Bull ; fungus mitnics, by M. C. Cooke, M.A., LL.D., &c. ; the 

 Herefordshire Carices, by the Pre-ident of the Club ; the fungi 

 of the Dolomites by Thomas Howse, F.L.S., &c. ; the fungi 

 which attack the wheat, by the Rev. John E. Vize, M.A.; the 

 geni'ination of the Uredines, and the relationship of Aieidium 

 berberidis to Puccinia graminis, by Mr. C. B. Plowright ; Proto- 

 coccus, by the Rev. John E. Vize, M. A. ; monstrosities in fungi, 

 by W. Phillips, F. L.S., atid a curious and abnormal cellar 

 Polyporus will be shown by Mr. Phillips ; two tomato diseases, 

 by C. B. Plowright. The Pomona Committee of the Club have 

 decided to hold .nn exhibition of apples and pears on Wednesday 

 and Thursday, October 26 and 27, and schedules of the prizes 

 offered may be obtained from the hon. secretaries, Woolhope 

 Ciubroom, Free Library, Hereford. 



All who have to con ult or translate from French scientific 

 and technical works will welcome Dr. F. J. Wershoven's 

 "Technical Vocabulary, English-French, for Scientific, Tech- 

 nical, and Industrial Students '' (Hachette and Co.). The voca- 

 bulary is arranged according to su' jects, beginning with general 

 notions rn matter, and going on to force and motion, gravity, 

 and other subjects in physics, mechanics, and chemistry, and 

 their application^, and giving all the w^rds and phrases in use in 

 regular order. An ample alphabetical inde.x rer.ders the voca- 

 bulary easy of c nsul'ation. The'e is also an English-German 

 edition. 



Mr. a. Trevor Crispin, writing from Hyde End House, 

 Brompton, Reading, sends us the the following information : — 

 He is staying with his brother- in-law, Capt. Johnston, and the 

 other morning, as usual, Capt. Johnston had had a cut fluted 

 tumbler brought to his dre-sing-room filled with milk warm 

 from the cow ; into this a .small quantity of rum was put, and 

 the whole left standing. While Capt. Johnston wa- having his 

 bath there was a loud noise, and on looking round he 

 found the tumbler hid parted in two, and tliere was an 

 interval of four or five inches between the two parts. The frac- 

 ture commences ne.ir the top (and the circumference at the top 

 remains unbroken), at the very line of the level of the milk, the 

 mark of wh'ch remained qui'e di tincfly on the glass. This was 

 the second occurrence of a precisely similar nature, the first 

 having taken place about a month ago ; but then the fracture 

 took place some minutes after the contents of the glass had been 

 con-umed. 



We learn from the Bulletin of the Physical Observatory at 

 Tiflis, that on Augnst 24, at II. 18 p.m., there was fe!t in that 

 town .an earthquake which consisted of three shocks, direction 

 from north-east to soul h- west. The same earthquake was felt 

 at Gori at 11. g, at Kutais at 11.40, the direction being from ea t 

 to west ; at the station Kobi of the military route at 11.27, the 

 direction being north-west to south-east ; and at Gomi, a station 

 of the Poti and Tiflis railway, where it lasted for about twenty- 

 five seconds. 



An earthquake shock, very slight in this neighbourhood, hut 

 stronger further east, was felt in the basin of the Lake of Geneva 

 on Friday. The earthquake was followed by a violent thunder- 



storm, which seemed to extend from the Alps to the Jura. 

 Several vessels were w recked and some lives were lost on the 

 Lake of Brienz. A village in the district of Albula is threat- 

 ened with a disaster similar to that which has just befallen Elm, 

 The village lies at the foot of the Rothorn, a mountain in which 

 there are several deep fissures, a part of which has been 

 actually in movement for some time. Several engineers have 

 already inspected the locality, and the intervention of the 

 Federal and Cantonal Governments is demanded, in order that, 

 if possible, measures may be taken to avert the impending peril. 



A SHOCK of earthquake occurred on September 25 at Elmira, 

 State of New York, followed by a destructive hurricane, which 

 was, however, of short duration. On Thursday last, at noon, 

 further shocks of earthquake alarmed the inhabitants of 

 Orsogna, I.anciano, and Castel Frentano, where a landslip did 

 serious damage. 



The Calendar of the Mason College, Birmingham (which has 

 already attained considerable thickness), for the ensuing sess on 

 contains a very sati~factor)'programme of the teaching promi ed 

 by this institution. The session opens on Tuesday next with 

 two introductory .addresses, by Prof. R. H. Smi'h (Civil and 

 Mechanical Engineering), and Prof. Edward Arber (English 

 Literature). 



Mr. J. W. SWAV, the Photographic Ne-.us states, has entered 

 into an amicable arrangement with Messrs. Siemens Brothers 

 the well-known electricians — they to employ his lamp, and he t 

 use their apparatus. In company, they are to light up the new 

 theatre in Beaufort Buildings with electricity, three hundred of 

 Mr. S^^■an's lamps being used on the stage and in the auditorium. 

 At the Paris Electrical Exhibition they are making a fiiss over 

 the model of a theatre lit up by electricity ; in London we shal 

 have the real thing. 



M. Ferry, French' Minister of Public Instruction, has 

 authorised the opening at Montpellier of the first national college 

 for the education of females. 



The Jamaica Government are offering great advantages to 

 those who are inclined to embark in the cultivation of Cinchona. 

 Suitable land is offered at a very low rate, and it seems to us 

 that, with proper methods and selection of the right kind of 

 plants, there is room in Jamaica f r a limited number of planta- 

 tions of this kind. In connection with this, Mr. D. Morris has 

 issued a valuable series of " Hints and Suggestions for Raising 

 Cinchona phnts from seeds, and establishing Cinchona planta- 

 tions." 



"Profitable and Economic-il Poultry-Keeping," by Mrs. 

 Eliot James, is a u eful little Avork, pul.li hed by Ward, Lock, 

 and Co. 



We have received the Reports of the Leicester and Nottingham 

 Literary and Philosophical Societies. The former is divided 

 into various science sections, each of which seems efficient. The 

 Leicester Society is printing a record of its early Transactions, 

 part vii extending from June i860 to June 1S65. 



A rROPOSiTiON has just been set on foot for an exhibition of 

 naval and submarine engineering appliances, w hich is to he held 

 in the early part of next year at the Agricultural Hall, Islington. 

 It is intended to cover the wide field occupied in the production 

 of machinery and mechanical contrivances employed in, or con- 

 nected with, the construction and equipment of ships of all 

 classes. 



Messrs. Gras and Co. of Madrid announce the publication of 

 a Popular Illustrated Encyclopa:dia of Science and Art, edited by 

 Mr. F. Gillman, mining engineer. It seems to be modelled on 

 the German Conversations lexicon, though, to iudge from the 



