iio le 4 b Ae a iT “= 4 Re 8 =” 
erg eo > oe 
126 
NATURE 
[Dec. 8, 1881 
two savants did not commence before 1692. It is therefore 
out of the question to credit Leibnitz with the invention of the 
steam-engine or even with the application of the piston principle 
in the steam-engine. E,. GERLAND 
Cassel 
A Question for Naturalists 
Mr. PAUL DU CHAILLU, in his ‘‘Land of the Midnight 
Sun,” tells us that ‘‘the time of dropping the horns in a herd 
(of reindeer) varies from March to May.” This may be true as 
regards the young males up to two or three years of age, and of 
the does, but it is questionable as regards the full-grown males. 
If my memory serves me correctly, the full-grown bucks brought 
to this country with some Lapps a year or two ago, and exhibited 
at the Aquarium, shed their horns in December or January. 
The experience of a gentleman—one of the highest authorities 
in such matters—who holds a most important position at the 
Zoological Gardens, supports my view. Can the Lapps have 
two kinds of reindeer which shed their horns at different sea- 
sons? I know that the full-grown male reindeer of the barren 
grounds of America drop their horns in the latter part of 
November and in December (which does away with the erro- 
neous idea that this animal used the broad brow antler as a 
shovel for clearing away the snow so as to reach his food) ; the 
young buck of two or three years retains his horns until spring, 
and the full-grown female does not shed her horns until May or 
June, usually after having dropped her calf. J. RAE 
4, Addison Gardens, November 19 
Earthquake Vibrations 
IN a note in your issue of August 25 on my account of the 
earthquake of March 8, 1881, felt in Japan, it is said ‘* that from 
the phenomena of the shock and from experiments on artificial 
earthquake waves produced by letting an iron ball weighing 
about one ton fall from a height of about thirty-five feet, Mr. 
Milne agrees that the waves that are felt are transverse to the 
line of propagation of the shock,” Lest it should be thought 
that all the earthquakes which shake the residents in Japan are 
composed of transverse vibrations, allow me to make the following 
brief statements :— 
1. In the earthquake of March 8 my seismographs chiefly 
indicated east and west motions, whilst time observations made 
in Yokohama, as compared with similar observations made in 
Tokio, showed that the earthquake must have travelled up from 
the south. This particular earthquake, as recorded in Tokio, 
might therefore be called a transverse or diagonic shock. 
2. In other shocks normal or direct vibrations are the most 
prominent. These shocks might be called euthutropic. 
3. Others again are compounded of direct and transverse 
motions, and might therefore be called diastrophic. Thus my 
records of the shock of July 5, 1881, very clearly showed a 
variation in the direction of the motion of the ground. At the 
commencement of the shock the motion was N. 112° E.; 14 
second after this the direction was N, 50° E. ; = second more it 
was N. 145° E. ; and after a similar interval N. 62° E. These 
and other changes were very clearly indicated in the diagram 
written by a double-bracket seismograph. 
4. Anaseismic shocks, or those where vertical motion is 
prominent, which vertical motion may sometimes be a component 
of the transverse motion, appear to be rare. 
5. Inthe artificial earthquakes produced by the blow of a 
falling ball the seismographs very clearly wrote both normal and 
transverse vibrations. When bracket-ring seismographs were 
used, these two sets of vibrations could be separated and their 
respective velocities, &c., measured. When a single component 
seismograph was used, the resultant motion due to the composi- 
tion of these two sets of vibrations was recorded. ‘The results 
of these experiments, which experiments were made in conjunc- 
tion with my colleague Mr. T. Gray, will very shortly be 
published. JoHN MILNE 
Imperial College of Engineering, Tokio, Japan, October 13 
The Geological Survey of Italy 
My friend Mr. W. Topley, in his interesting account of the 
Italian Geological Survey (NATURE, vol. xxv. p. 86), is quite 
right when he states that the geological surveyors seem now to 
have definitely fixed the position of the Carrara marbles in the 
Trias. If, however, he means to imply that the geological world 
at large will accept this decision, I fear he is mistaken, The 
patient toil, spread over many years, and carried on by M. 
Coquand with more than due regard to Buffon’s advice to geolo- 
gists, ‘‘ // faut voir beaucoup et revoir souvent,” gives him such 
authority when speaking on the structure of the Apuan Alps and 
the Campigliese, that nothing but the most absolute proof that 
he is wrong in regarding the metamorphic marbles of Carrara, 
as well as those of the Pyrenees (St. Béat, &c.), as being of 
Carboniferous age, will prevent foreign students of Italian geo- 
logy from accepting his views on the matter. I have read, I 
think, all that has been written in Italy by De Stefani and 
others on the point in question since the publication in full of 
M. Coquand’s mature conclusions in the Bulletin de la Société 
géologique de France, in 1874, and I still regard his position as © 
entirely unassailed. In 1876 I published in the Geological Maga- 
zine a short résumé of M. Coquand’s results, to which I would 
vefer any who are interested in the subject. G. A, LEBouR 
OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 
THE PROVINCIAL OBSERVATORIES OF FRANCE.—We have 
before us the ‘‘ Rapport adressé par le comité consultatif des 
observatoires astronomique de province, 4 M. le Ministre de 
l’Instruction Publique,’’ signed by M. Loewy, as reporter. In 
the year 1880 a great impulse appears to have been given to 
what is termed the reform of French astronomy, a considerable 
grant having been obtained by the Minister of Public Instruc- 
tion, which allowed of most material improvement in the equip- 
ment of the several observatories of the provinces. Stress is 
laid upon the reorganisation of the observatory at Algiers, which 
is placed under the direction of M. Trepied, and the Committee 
urge that special attention should be given to the proper equip- 
ment of an establishment which has the advantage of so excep- 
tional a climate. The observatory at Marseilles is still under 
the direction of M. Stephan, who has done such excellent work 
for many years past, and MM. Borrelly and Coggia were the 
assistant-astronomers in 1880: a revision of the star-catalogue 
formed by Riimker at Hamburg is in progress at Marseilles. At 
Toulouse, M. Baillaud is the director; he proposes to devote 
special attention to the observation of the variable stars, In 
1880 a regular course of observations of the solar spots was 
maintained, and it is mentioned that during the nights August 
9-13 three observers count-d upwards of 1200 meteors of the 
Perseus shower. At the observatory of Bordeaux, M. Rayet is 
direct xr ; an equatorially-mounted refractor of 14-inches aper- 
ture has been ordered from Merz of Munich, and a second of 
8-inches aperture is also to be provided. Two observers were 
engaged in 1880 upon a revision of the charts of Chacornac. 
The observatory at Lyons includes four stations, three of them 
devoted to meteorology: the astronomical station is at Saint- 
Genis-Lava], where M. André is director, and the principal 
instrument in process of construction in 1880 was a meridian- 
circle of 6-inches aperture by Eichens, The State-subyention 
to these observatories is 81,000 francs, and further funds are 
provided by the cities of Bordeaux, Marseilles, and Toulouse for 
their respective establishments. 
The Report is a very encouraging one in its bearing on the 
advancement of practical astronomy in France. 
DENNING’s CoMeT.—Dr. Hartwig has corrected his first 
ellipse with the aid of an observation by Prof. Winnecke on 
Nove uber 19, in addition to earlier ones at Mar-eilles and 
Strasburg, and now finds the period of revolution 8°8334 years, 
or 3226°4 days. With the corrected orbit the nearest approach 
to the orbit of Jupiter occurs in 222° 35’, heliocentric longitude, 
where the distance is 0°154, the comet is at this point about 593 
days before perihelion passage. It approaches nearest to the 
orbit of Venus 5°6 days after perihelion passage in longitude 
30° 45’, where the distance is only 0°0226, while in longitude 
82° 35’, about 36°7 days after perihelion passage the comet’s 
distance from the earth’s orbit is at a minimum of 0°0346. 
A New Comet.—A Dunecht circular issued on November 
22 contained elements of a comet from observations made by 
Mr. Wendell at the observatory of Harvard College, U.S., on 
November 17, 19, and 20, Prof. Winnecke has observed this 
comet as follows :— 
Strasburg, M.T. RA. Decl. N. 
Beha elk h m. s : ‘4 
Nov.25 9 54 33 Oo 30 39°46 63 52 2 
26.5653. SI O 25 25°44 62 35 21 
These places differ considerably from the ephemeris telegraphed 
to Dunecht. 
