North Pole, which paper, according as it is looked at, is provo. 
cative either of amusement or amazement. It is amusing to 
read that it is all the way from the equator that these cirrus 
clouds travel, giving us Europeans, by systems of vorticose 
movements let down from their lofty heights, our cyclones, our 
rains, our thunderstorms, our hail, and even our snow; that, 
towards the elucidation of the great problems of the movements 
of the atmosphere in their bearings on climate aud weather, the 
observations made forty years ago by Lottin, Martius, Bravais, 
&e., in the Arctic regions, are quite sufficient for the purpose. 
The additional data to be expected from the Arctic network of 
stations now proposed to be established at Bossekop, Jan 
Mayen, Navaja Zemlia, Spitzbergen, &c., being quite insigni- 
ficant; and that the French meteorologists in agreeing to 
establish, as their contribution to this extensive research into 
the movements of the atmosphere, a station near Cape 
Horn, supposed, as assumed by M. Faye, that this station 
near the antarctic circle, would assist them in framing 
weather forecasts for France. It is amazing to see it quietly 
assumed that the fishermen and sailors on the French coasts 
haye no practical, or at least personal interest in the storms 
which sweep across the British Islands and Scandinavia ; and 
to read the explicit statement that in the interests of the 
seaports of France, and of science itself, what is above all 
things needed is the organising of a first-class meteorological 
station (we grande station météorologigue) in the Azores. With 
regard to this, French sailors and fishermen may-be thankful 
that other counsels rule the action of those who are entrusted 
with the preparation of weather forecasts for their country and 
with the investigation of those laws, a knowledge of which will 
enhance the value of this branch of practical meteorology. 
In his inaugural address at the opening of the Session of the 
Sanitary Institute, Dr. Alfred Carpenter dwelt upon the neces- 
sity of such an organisation, as proved by the lamentable ignor- 
ance of the mere elements of sanitary science shown by many 
of the candidates for the diploma of the Institute, most of them 
already official guides of health and other bodies. It seems 
strange to be told by Dr. Carpenter that there is a feeling of 
antagonism to the Institute in the Social Science Association. 
The former is the practical outcome of the latter, and the 
Association ought therefore to rejoice that its teachings have 
borne such desirable fruit. The Institute is certainly doing 
much good, and there seems to be no doubt that by its action 
and by other means, a beginning has been made in this country 
of a thorough sanitary reform, 
AN instructive case of injury from lightning, on a gentleman’s 
estate near Geneva, is recorded by M.. Colladon (Arch. des 
Sciences, September 15). The lightning first struck a tall poplar 
standing near an iron-wire fence ; thence the fluid passed to an 
elm standing close to the fence on the other side, damaged three 
main branches of this, and wounded the trunk on the fence side, 
down to a point opposite the top wire of the fence. The course 
was then along this wire, but only, it appears, in one direction, 
viz. towards an iron gatea little way off, under which passed the 
pipe which supplied gas to the house. The wire, a double one, 
was fused in some parts. After damaging the gate the current 
found its way to the gaspipe (making a hole in the ground), and 
passed along this to the house, injuring no part of the pipe- 
system of that, but only a piece of ornamental rose-work con- 
taining iron wire in the ceiling of the drawing-room over the 
lustre. Thence it passed to earth by the iron pipes and 
wires on a balcony outside the room. Several bushes near the 
poplar and fence were affected (coloured brown), and the plate 
on the collar of a dog which was attached to a wire between two 
shrubs, and had been heard to how! at the time, had disappeared. 
The extended character of the discharge and the influence of 
wires seem to be salient points in this case. M. Colladon 
- NATURE 
[Dec. 15, 1881 
advises making the parts of telegraphic or telephonic wires that 
pass near a house double or triple the mean thickness, so as to 
diminish the chances of lateral dischar ge, 
M. PLATEAU has studied the phenomena of the bursting of 
bubbles, hen a bubble bursts it disappears almost instan- 
taneously, leaving behind it a multitude of small liquid drops. 
The order of the phenomena is really as follows :—The bubble 
begins to burst at one point, the film rolling away in a circle 
around the opening, and its edge becoming a rapidly-enlarging 
liquid ring. This ring draws itself together into segmental 
portions, which ultimately kecome small spherules. At the same 
time the contraction of the rest of the bubble causes a rush of 
air through the aperture, and blows off the spherules into the air 
with a kind of small explosion. The phenomena are best ob- 
served by blowing a bubble of glyceric solution upon an iron 
wire ring, and then bursting it at the top by touching it with a 
needle whose point has been dipped in oil. 
THE conduct of competitive examinations in China seems to 
be farther from perfection than might be expected in the case of 
such an ancient institution, The Peking Gazelle contains a 
memorial from one of the censors complaining that the matsheds 
which are erected at the entrance to the examination hall in the 
capital to issue tickets of admission to competitors are frequently 
overturned by the rush of applicants, that an unseemly crowding 
and snatching of tickets from the officials take place, and that can- 
didates break the rule prohibiting them from leaving the compart- 
ments in which they are isolated during the examination, They 
are allowed, he says, to fetch their food themselves (examina- 
tions in China last from thirty-six hours to three days at a stretch) 
from the kitchens, and they meet and converse freely, Prepared 
essays, the memorialist fears, are passed in from outside during 
these hours by the student’s friends. Again, when the lists of 
successful candidates are posted up, a tumultuous crowd assembles 
outside the gates ; bands of the unsuccessful ones obstruct the 
progress of the chief examiner, employing threats and entreaties 
to prevail on him to alter the lists. The censor also protests 
against the length of time frequently taken before the results of 
an examination are known. The Chinese examiners, however, 
have an excuse for this which our own Civil Service Commis- 
sioners have not, viz., the number of students examined ; at the 
triennial provincial examination held in Canton in 1879 there 
were 10,160 candidates for 82 degrees ! 
THE death is announced of Mr. William Bramsen, a Danish 
gentleman whose acquirements in Japanese scholarship were 
extensive. During a residence of more than twelve years in 
Japan Mr. Bramsen devoted his leisure to a study of the 
language, chronology, and numismatics of the country. His 
principal work is ‘‘ Japanese Chronology,” published in 1880, 
the only complete treatise on the subject which has ever been 
written, In this laborious work Mr. Bramsen has given the 
exact day of the month and year corresponding to the Japanese 
dates for the past thousand years. He has further explained the 
complicated systems by which the Japanese and Chinese reckoned 
time, and has thrown out the suggestion that in the early periods 
of Japanese and Chinese history the year included the time 
betweea the equinoxes, and did not correspond to our year. This 
idea he has supported with much learning, and should it on 
further examination turn out to be correct, it will revolutionise 
our notions of the antiquity of the Chinese and Japanese peoples. 
During the past year Mr. Bramsen was engaged in producing in 
parts a beautiful work on Japanese numismatics. Only the first 
part, dealing with recent copper coins, had been published. A 
few weeks ago he read a paper on the subject before the Numis- 
matic Society of London. His collection of Japanese coins 
was the most complete private collection in existence, and 
was, we believe, valued by himself at about 2000/, He 
