88 
from four to five seconds ; direction, north-east to south-west. 
The centre of the earthquake mentioned above seems to have been 
in the neighbourhood of the Millstadt Alp. At the same time 
earthquake-shocks were felt at Stuben, Langen, Péhtnen, Flirsch 
in Vorarlberg, and at Murau and Obdachin Styria. In Switzer- 
land shocks of earthquake occurred on November 14, at 3.35 
a.m., at Villeneuve, Rivaz, Bouveret, and between five and six 
o'clock in the morning at Seewen, Berne and its environs. 
A CORRESPONDENT of the Swiss Bund, writing from Vevey, 
says that on the morning of the 14th a large meteoric stone, 
which seemed to come from a point in the Hautler directly over 
the mountains on the Savoyard side of the Laste, fell with a 
tremendous report in the market-place of Vevey. It was suffi- 
ciently large to have crushed any house upon which it might 
have chanced to alight. 
Dr. T. S. Cossoip exhibited (at the Linnean Society’s 
meeting, November 5) under the microscope about a hundred 
eggs of Bilharzia hematobia, They were taken from a gentle- 
man who had just arrived from Egypt, and who was the victim 
of hzmaturia, supposed to have been contracted during a shooting 
expedition. By adding water nearly all the eggs were hatched 
during the meeting of the Society, and a rare opportunity was 
thus afforded of witnessing the behaviour of the newly-born 
ciliated animalcules. 
THE first step in the construction of a line of telegraph in 
China has been taken, 
Shanghai and Chinkiang on the Yang-tsze River was opened, and 
congratulatory telegrams exchanged between the authorities in 
the two places. The remainder of the line to Peking was ex- 
pected to be completed within two months after that date. The 
‘cable, about two miles in length, was successfully laid across the 
Yang-tsze, and the line on the north of the river is now being 
rapidly pushed forward, following the line of the Grand Canal. 
Several other short cables will have to be laid across the larger 
creeks before the work is completed. With the exception of 
a line a few miles in length, between Woosung and Shang- 
hai, which is the property of the Great Northern Telegraph 
Company, this is the first telegraph line laid in the Chinese 
Empire. When popular prejudice is once overcome, the extent 
to which telegraphs may be employed in China is incalculable. 
Tr is stated that the Chinese Government have taken measures 
for the immediate removal of the bar at the mouth of the 
Shanghai River, which has so long been a serious obstruction to 
navigation. At certain states of the tide ocean-going steamers 
are forced to remain in an exposed situation outside this bar, and 
all the efforts of the Foreign Ministers and mercantile communi- 
ties to obtain its removal have been hitherto ineffectual. This 
is another example of the change which is coming over the 
Chinese counsels. Afropos of this we may mention that the 
ninth vessel constructed by the Chinese has just been launched 
at the Kiangnan Arsenal, It is a screw steamer of about four 
hundred tons, and is intended for the repression of smuggling 
and piracy. The vessels already built at the Arsenal are two 
frigates, four gunboats, a sailing ship, and an ironclad. 
AMONG the numerous publications of the Imperial Maritime 
Customs of China, none are of more general interest than the 
half-yearly reports of the Customs medical officers, They deal, 
as might be expected, with various forms of disease among 
foreigners in China. The twenty-first number has recently been 
published. The writers are scattered all over the vast empire of 
China, from Newchwang in Manchuria to Canton, at various 
stations on the Yangtsze, and in Formosa. The latest issue 
contains papers on ilaria sanguinis hominis in Southern 
‘Formosa, on 7yichinia spiralis in Chinese pork, and on skin 
diseaces. This last is especially important, as one of the prin- 
cipal objections to Mongol immigration is the quantity of disease 
4 “Ta tay. ays ee tind Fs os 1 Obie 
- ’ f dg Any atin J Pi) 
. 
NATURE 
—_—_—  ——— 
On September 19 the line between } 
[Vov. 24, 1881 
which follows. The Hawaiian Archipelago is said to suffer 
severely from diseases such as leprosy, small-pox, syphilis, 
measles, &c., which are all foreign to the islands, and have been 
introduced wholly by the immigrants. These papers certainly 
deserve more attention than they seem as yet to have received in 
this country, 
THE disordered condition of the domestic affairs of Turkey 
has not prevented the Government finding leisure for the reform 
of its system of weights and measures. The new system which 
will replace the old clumsy method of computation will come 
into force on March 1 next, old style. It is strictly metrical, 
and applies to measures of length, square measure, and capacity. 
The measure of length will be based upon the archine, which is 
exactly equal to the French metre. 
IN sinking for a stand-pipe for boring operations, the Colonies 
and India states, the Kilcunda (Victoria) coal prospecting party 
found the skeleton of a kangaroo at a depth of 28 feet. In- 
structions were given by the Mining Department to preserve the 
entire skeleton, and the jawbone was sent to Prof. M‘Coy, who 
states that it belongs to a new species of an extinct genus of kan- 
garoo, and indicates that the deposit which was found is of 
the pliocene tertiary age. The Professor says the discovery is 
a very interesting one, and will form a valuable addition to 
the public collection. 
ON October roa fine fata morgana was observed at Riigenwalde 
(Pomerania), During the afternoon of that day a northern village 
with snow-covered roofs, from which icicles were hanging, was 
seen for about an hour, Human forms are also said to have 
been distinctly recognised. It is believed that Nexd, on the 
Island of Bornholm, was the village reflected. 
AT the last meeting of the Linnean Society Mr. Frank Crisp 
was elected treasurer, and Sir John Kirk a member of the 
Council, to fill vacancies caused by the death of the late Mr. F. 
Currey. 
THE great lava flow from the Mauna Loa (Hawaii), which 
lasted no less than nine months, has at last stopped, It began 
on November 5, 1880, and until August 31 last the Java had run 
a distance of 96 kilometres, from the summit of the voleano 
(which measures 14,000 feet in altitude) dowa the eastern slope, 
almost as far as the sea-coast, The town of Hilo was in the 
most threatening danger of being destroyed. Fortunately the force 
of the eruption was exhausted and the flow of lava stopped 
within a few thousand yards from the town, This eruption was 
the most colossal one ever recorded in Hawaii. 
THE report of the Indian Commissioners shows the present 
number of Indians in the whole country, exclusive of Alaska, to 
be 261,912, all of whom, except 15,416, are more or Jess in 
charge of agents of the Government. 
THE Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers of Paris has been 
removed from the Department of Trade and the Colonies and 
transferred to the Ministry of Fine Arts. The reason of 
this change is obviously the intention of developing technical 
education among French working men. 
THE flashing system of telegraphy has been so successful in 
Tunis that the insurgent Arabs are powerless to stop regular 
correspondence between the several corps of the French army, 
The same system is used in Oran, province Algeria, in the 
pursuit of Bou Amena,. 
THE Yournal of the North China branch of the Royal Asiatic 
Society for 1880 contains a long paper by Dr, Bretschneider, o 
the Russian Legation at Peking, on Early Furopean Researches 
into the Flora and Fauna of China, and one by Dr. Bushell, of 
the British Legation, on the Coins of the Present Chinese 
Dynasty, 
