SEPTEMBER 21, 1899 | 
north. Naturally Prof. Hatcher gathered much valuable 
material illustrating the life and customs of the Patagonian 
Indian tribes, and he has obtained an important series of 
photographic negatives which depict the geological and 
physiographic features of that region. 
THE British Central Africa Gazette (July 24), published at 
Zomba, announces the arrival at Nyasa of Mr. J. E. S. Moore, 
who visited Lakes Shirwa, Nyasa, and Tanganyika in 1896 
under the auspices of the Royal Society, and has again returned 
to Central Africa to survey the basin of Lake Tanganyika, to 
collect specimens of the aquatic fauna and flora, and to study 
the geological history of this portion of the great Central 
African rift. Mr. Moore has with him a complete set of 
apparatus for deep-water dredging, and the results of the present 
expedition should be even more satisfactory and interesting than 
those of the previous investigation. On the way to Tanganyika, 
deep sounding and dredging operations will be made in Lake 
Nyasa, the Administration gunboat Gzendolen having been 
placed at the disposal of the expedition for this purpose. It is 
intended to spend several months on Lake Tanganyika, and, 
after leaving the north end of that lake, to proceed to Lakes | 
Kivu, Albert Edward, and Albert, whence it is proposed to 
make for the East African coast. 
WE regret to see the announcement of the death of M, 
Gaston Tissandier, the founder of our Parisian namesake, Za 
Nature, and the author of a number of scientific works. For 
many years M. Tissandier devoted much atténtion to ballooning, 
and made many balloon ascents, during which he obtained in- 
formation of value to aéronautics and meteorology. The results 
of his investigations will be found in the Comptes rendus of the 
Paris Academy of Sciences. He was nominated president of 
the French Association of aérial navigation, and in £876 received 
from the Association the Janssen gold medal. His first memoir 
on the application of electricity to aérial navigation was 
crowned by the Paris Academy of Sciences. In 1886, M. 
Tissandier was made a member of the committee on aéronautics 
by the Minister of War, and also of the civil committee on the 
same subject by the Minister of the Interior. He was a member 
of many scientific societies in France, and a vice-president of 
the French Meteorological Society. He was made a Chevalier 
of the Legion of Honour in 1872, and in 1893 the Society for 
the Encouragement of National Industry awarded him the grand 
gold medal. In addition to his scientific papers, M. Tissandier 
was the author of several volumes on physics, chemistry, 
photography, and ballooning. 
Mr. C. E. STROMEYER has sent us a stereoscopic photograph 
of what appears to him to have been an induced lightning flash, 
taken by Mr. S. Jewsbury at Didsbury. The camera by which 
the photograph was obtained was placed upon the sill of an 
open window during a thunderstorm, in order to depict any 
flashes of lightning which might come within its field of view. 
No flashes were seen in this part of the sky, but when the plate 
was developed a broken streak of light appeared upon the two 
pictures. The trail is horizontal and directed towards a lamp- 
post in a neighbouring road. As similar markings are often 
found on plates when lighted lamps are in the field, their 
electrical origin in the present case is difficult to establish ; for 
they may have been produced while the camera was being 
placed in position, or taken away, with the lens off. Nevertheless 
the photograph furnishes interesting material for speculation. 
Mr. T. KINGSMILL sends us two cuttings from the Shanghai 
Mercury referring to two electric displays of an unusual 
character observed at Shanghai on July 19 and August 10. 
On the former occasion it is stated :—‘‘ The northern sky was 
NO. 1560, VOL. 60] 
NATURE 
511 
in an almost constant blaze of light. Flashes came sometimes 
from two centres, as though there were an elliptical area of 
disturbance from whose foci were sent forth the shafts of 
lightning. At times these flashes would take the opposite 
course, and starting from the circumference make their way to 
the foci. Though the lightning flashes reached within twenty- 
five degrees of the zenith, and were vigorous enough in all 
conscience, yet nothing but the faintest distant rumbling could 
be heard.” On August 10 ‘‘ the reflection of lightning was seen 
from the S.W. and gradually increased in brightness until at 
about 7.50 it had reached the zenith.” The report states that 
‘‘the lightning played over nearly the whole of the exposed 
sky, sometimes six and seven streamers at a time lighting up 
the sky. They were different in appearance from ordinary 
forked lightning, having rather the appearance of a network of 
ribbons crossing the exposed sky in all directions, like the dis- 
charges in a vacuum tube. The most unusual circumstance 
was that these discharges, though most vivid, were almost 
noiseless, and could scarcely be heard above the ordinary 
jinrickshaw traffic of the street, the only accompanying sound| 
to the brightest display even in the zenith being a low rumbling, 
as of ordinary very distant thunder.” Mr. Kingsmill remarks- 
that both displays were synchronous with distant typhoons. 
Av a meeting of the Lincolnshire Naturalists’ Union and the 
Lincolnshire Science Society, on September 11, Dr. G. M. 
Lowe, the president of both Societies, expressed the hope that 
something would soon be done to give science—both natural and’ 
physical—in Lincolnshire, first, a permanent home, secondly, the 
means of making useful observations, and thirdly, of recording 
them. The first requires the establishment of a museum, which: 
would at once be a memorial of the great men who had been: 
born and lived in Lincolnshire, amongst whom may be mentioned! 
Isaac Newton, Sir John Franklin, and Mr. John Cordeaux, As: 
a repository of specimens of the fast disappearing fauna and flora 
of our former fen country, of specimens of local antiquarian 
interest, of specimens bearing on the technique of our local arts 
and manufactures, a museum worthy of Lincolnshire would soon 
become invaluable. Next month the county authorities will 
consider an application for space within the Old Keep of the 
Castle, to erect buildings for an observatory for the reception of 
astronomical instruments offered to the county, and for a meteor-~ 
ological station. A third requirement is a means of recording 
and preserving the observations and papers of members of the 
scientific societies in the county. A magazine devoted to. 
natural and physical science could, Dr. Lowe felt sure, be 
supported by Lincolnshire alone; and if the writers of ob- 
servations and of papers on scientific subjects could be per- 
suaded to drop the pedantic, and use as far as possible a 
simple phraseology, a highly interesting and useful publi- 
cation could be provided, which would have a stimulating 
effect in directing the scientific education of the younger 
generation. 
WE have received from Prof. A. Klossovsky a copy of a paper 
read before the congress of naturalists, &c., at Kieff, entitled, 
‘*The Physical Life of our Planet.” The author treats the. 
subject on the supposition that the earth is similar to a living 
organism, in which the various functions and elements are closely 
connected according to certain laws. He considers that even 
the variations of terrestrial magnetism depend upon a system of 
currents which traverse the atmosphere and are in evident corre- 
lation with the cyclonic activity of the air, and, further, that 
the magnetic and electric fields have an influence on the pro- 
gress of phenomena at the surface of the earth. He gives some 
interesting accounts of the most recent acquisitions of science in 
the determination of the different forces which constitute the 
physics of the globe. 
