230 
for producing the gas-according to an improved method 
of MM. Brin fréres, who attach the highest value to oxygen 
as an industrial agent, and indicate various applications of 
it. The process is the well-known one in which caustic baryta 
absorbs oxygen from the air, and gives it up under heat. Bya 
special way of preparing the baryta, however (described in 
Annales Industrielles), they render it highly retentive of its 
absorbent power, obviating the necessity of frequent renewal- 
After 400 operations there was (on microscopical examination) 
no appreciable change. The baryta is placed, at Passy, in 
metallic retorts connected, in groups of fifteen, in two furnaces 
heated with gaseous fuel. A locomotive engine drives Root 
blowers, which force air into the retorts ; after peroxidation the 
oxygen is liberated by heat, and pumped into the gasometer 
through an apparatus which removes traces of carbonic acid. 
As it is found that the peroxidation takes place better with moist 
than with dry air, the air is passed through a saturator on its 
way to the retorts. For production of 5000 cubic metres of 
oxygen a day in Paris, it is estimated (from the data at Passy) 
that the cost per cubic metre would be from 0°12 to o715 franc, 
according as coal or coke was used for fuel. The price of 100 
kilogr. of baryta prepared by the new method is about 250 
francs. 
MILITARY surgeons are familiar with the remarkable attitude 
retained by soldiers who have died on the battle-field. kecent 
experiments by M. Brown-Séquard (Comptes rendus, December 
26) throw some light on the phenomenon. It is proved (1) that 
a true muscular contraction may occur a certain time after as 
well as before death, and that this contraction may last long, 
and pass into the state of cadaveric rigidity, or disappear com- 
pletely, so that one may then recognise the persistence of mus- 
cular irritability ; (2) that of the different parts of the brain, the 
cerebellum has most power of producing contraction after death ; 
(3) that the retention, by soldiers killed on the battle-field, of 
the attitude they had before death, depends not on a sudden 
occurrence of cadaveric rigidity, but on the production of a true 
contraction. 
In a paper lately read before the Royal Society of Tasmania, 
Sir J. H. Lefroy gives a new determination of the magnetic 
declination—8° 49'°3 E.—at Hobart for the year 1881, which he 
had made on the site of the old magnetical observatory of 
1840-48. He notes the observation of Tasman in 1642, that 
‘‘near the coast here” (Tasmania) ‘‘the needle points due 
north,” and comparing this with the values obtained by some 
modern observers since 1840, he concludes that the declination 
which had been increasing up to the time of the magnetic survey 
made by Dr. Neumayer in 1863, is now decreasing. At Mel- 
bourne it has also been observed that the declination has been 
decreasing since 1865. 
THE University of St. Petersburg has had added to it an 
astronomical observatory for the students. Until now the 
students who wished to learn practical astronomy have been 
reduced to make use of the very old observatory of the 
Academy of Sciences, with its old instruments and a complete 
want of any accommodation for study, or to find some friend 
among the officers of the Military General Staff Academy, who 
study at Pulkovo, Now St. Petersburg has a fine observatory, 
and will have an assistant-professor especially for this subject. 
St. PETERSBURG is to have its Electrical Exhibition, organised 
by the Technical Society. Several manufacturers of electrical 
apparatus and several Kussian inventors have already promised 
their co-operation. 
A VOLUME of considerable interest has recently been publi-hed 
by Friedenchsen and Co. of Hamburg—‘‘ Dr. Ludwig Leich- 
hardt’s Briefe an seine Angehorigen,” edited by Dr. G. Neu- 
NATURE 
mayer and Otto Leichhardt, a nephew of the unfortunate — 
These letters are of special interest at 
Australian explorer. 
present, when rumours come from Australia that the journals 
and other traces of Leichhardt have at last beenfound. The 
letters extend from 1834 (Gottingen) to April 3, 1848 (Macpher- 
son’s Station, Fitzroy Downs). These letters give one a high 
opinion of Leichhardt’s qualifications for the work of explora- 
tion. He had an excellent education not only at home, but 
during lengthened residences in London and Paris. He had a 
strong love for natural science, was a shrewd and accurate ob- 
server, and a writer of considerable graphic power. His account 
of life in London and Paris is decidedly interesting, and his 
letters from Australia during his exploring work lead one to feel 
that the death of the writer was a real loss to science, These 
letters were quite worth publishing. Appended is a long paper 
by Dr. Neumayer on Leichhardt as a naturalist and explorer, in 
which the writer justly gives a high estimation of his qualifica- 
tions and character. 
THE Association for the Improvement of Geometrical Teach- 
ing will hold its annual meeting at University College, Gower 
Street, W.C., on Wednesday, January 11, at If a.m., when 
amongst other business the Code of Rules drawn up last April 
will be submitted for confirmation. The following resolutions 
will be proposed : That the proofs of the propositions contained 
in Book I. of the Syllabus will be received by the Association ; 
and that the Committee for Elementary Plane Geometry be 
instructed to add a collection of exercises to the proofs of the 
propositions of the Syllabus. All persons interested in the 
objects of the Association are invited to attend. 
THE number of visitors to the Royal Gardens, Kew, during 
the year 1881 was 836,676, the largest hitherto recorded. 
AMONG the special articles in the Annuaire of the Brussels 
Observatory for 1882 are the following :—A list of 2000 com- 
munes in Belgium with their altitude according to the official 
survey ; a paper on the conformation of the terrestrial globe ; a 
series of studies of sun-spots in their various relations, by M. 
R. Tamene ; tides on the coast of Belgium, by F. Van Ryssel- 
berghe ; asteroids and comets discovered in 1881, by M. L. 
Niesten. 
Mr. E. C. OzAnNeE, of the Indian Civil Service, at present 
a student at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, has 
been appointed Director of Agriculture in the Presidency of 
Bombay. 
A SCHEME is on foot, having been approved by the Municipal 
Council of Paris, for extensively lighting with electricity the 
quarters of the Prefecture of the Seine, in the Tuileries. It is 
the work of M. Cernesson, and comprises lighting the Salle des 
Séances with eighty Swan lamps (in place of eighty Carcel 
lamps), and six Siemens’ arc-lamps ; lighting the library with 
forty-eight Maxim incandescent lamps (on the present lustres) + 
another room with twenty-four Lane-Fox incandescent lamps ; 
another with twenty Swan lamps; the Salle des Pas Perdus 
with two Werdermann lamps; a lobby with two Siemens’ 
lamps, and a staircase with four Brush lamps. The whole will 
require an outlay of 75,000 francs. The horse-power necessary 
is 44, and while the idea of obtaining this from the Seine has 
been considered, it has been decided to set up a gas-engine in 
the court of the Tuileries. A portion of the motor force is to be 
employed for electric hoists, for driving ventilators, and other 
uses. 
From the Annual Report of the Government Botanical 
Gardens at Saharunpur and Mussooree for the year ending March 
last, we gather the following facts :—On the collection and pre- 
paration of drugs, which seems to be an important item in the 
work of the establishment, it is stated that an indent for 200 Ib. 
[ Fan. 5, 1882. 
a 
