348 
NATURE 
[/26. 9, 1882 
ing establishments, in its new building, rue Bergere 16. Not 
less than eighty electric regulators, and a large number of 
Swan ‘lamps, have been illuminated by Grenet’s battery. The 
illumination will continue every night after a very few days, 
when the new offices will be occupied by the staff of the Com- 
pany. One of the peculiarities of this system is that the offices 
are illuminated by the Jaspar reflecting system, but it is the 
ceiling itself which is used as a reflector. The effect is splendid. 
The large hall is illuminated from the top by sixteen Serrin and 
Siemens’ regulators. The arc is concealed by a ceiling of 
coloured lights. Swan lamps are used for the staircases, and the 
chambers where the valuables are kept. All the offices are con- 
nected with the head office by telephones, pneumatic tubes, and 
‘telegraphs. The battery is controlled by electrical agency. The 
fifty elements are placed in the upper part of the edifice as well 
as the tanks for keeping the liquid. When it is used it is col- 
lected in another tank placed in the lower part, from which it is 
carried by special carriages and brought to a special workshop 
at some distance. In this workshop the zinc is regenerated, as 
well as the sufphuric acid and the sesquioxide of chromium is 
changed again into chromate. The cycle of regeneration is com- 
plete, and we may give details as toits working. The suppression 
of reflectors and the use of the ceiling in their stead was devised 
by M. Corrayer, the architect of the Comptoir d’Escompte. 
THE water of Lake Maggiore, which it has been proposed to 
conyey to Milan, has lately been examined by Prof. Maggi by 
M. Certe’s method, the samples being taken at 65 metres depth, 
and about 400m. fromthebanks, Forty-eight hours after a little 
esmic acid was added, there was obtained a small deposit of dead 
organisms of bacterian form, none of which had appeared in the 
microscope. He founda solution of chloride of palladium to 
have also the effect of hardening those small organisms and so 
making them opaque and microscopically visible. Small irregular 
masses of protoplasmic nature, capable of taking colour from a 
magenta solution, were also thrown down. Prof. Maggi further 
treated the water of the lake with various colouring agents. 
Hematoxiline, methyl-violet, magenta, and Lione blue gave 
the best results. While the same small organisms and proto- 
plasmic masses were manifested, only the latter, curiously, took 
colour. In spring water of Valcuvia, and rain water, microbes 
like those in the lake, not visible in a microscope of 800 diameters, 
were revealed by the colouring and hardening reagents. Prof. 
Maggi proposes to call these organisms Aphaneri, as distinguished 
from the bacteria and microbes, which, without reagents, are 
visible in the microscope (Pamer?), and among which are agents 
of infection, and which take colour from methyl-violet, magenta, 
&c. The Aphaneri, he thinks, are probably harmless. 
Among the new subjects for prize competition announced by 
the Reale Jstituto Lombardo we note the following: Mlustrate 
with new facts of pathological anatomy and experimental 
physiology the doctrine of cortical sensory centres (for 31 May, 
1884, prize 2000 lire); Monography of magneto electric and 
dynamo-electric machines, comprising the history and theory, 
and indicating the merits and defects of the different types with 
regard to their various industrial applications (for 31 December, 
1883, prize 4000 lire) ; History of the life and works of Leonardo 
da Vinci (for 31 March 1886, prize 5000 lire) ; Geognostic, chemi- 
cal, and physical study of the agrarian soil of a portion of Lom 
bardy(for 31 May, 1883, prize 1500 lire and gold medat 500 lire). 
Further particulars will be found in the Rendiconti of the Institute 
THE Birmingham Town Hall was crammed from ceiling to 
floor on Sunday night to hear a lecture on Natural History 
delivered by the Rev. W. Tuckwell, at the invitation of the 
Sunday Lecture Society. The subject was a ‘‘ Day on the 
Hills,” and the delight of the rough audience was unbounded at 
the wonders from bog and hill-top, pond and stone-quarry, 
revealed to them by the lecturer, who, without ‘‘ preaching,” 
gaye more than once a religious turn to the discourse, Hymns 
were sung and sacred music performed before and after the 
lecture. The local papers point out that of the 3000 and 
upwards present the great majority were persons who do not 
usually attend church or chapel. 
WE learn that Dr. Andrew Clark has consented to preside at 
a lecture on the ‘* Dress of the Period,” to be given by Mr. 
Frederick Treves, of the London Hospital, on Saturday after- 
noon, February 26, at the Kensington ‘Town Hall, at 4 o'clock. 
The lecture is given under the auspices of the National Health 
Society. 
THE Lake of Constance is now lower than at any time since 
1805. At Hoernlin, on the Swiss side, some interesting Lacus- 
trine habitations have been laid bare, and several valuable finds 
of nephrite axes and other objects have been made. 
Beror: leaving, the Minister of Public Instruction, M. Paul 
Bert, signed a decree establishing the Popular Observatory, 
which we have mentioned already in our Notes. The report 
was drawn by a Commission composed of Admiral Mouchez, 
M. Flammarion, and others. 
M. FLAMMARION will start, in the month of March, a monthly 
astronomical paper, to be published by Gauthier Villars. Each 
number will be profusely illustrated. 
On Monday last the cuckoo was heard in the policies sur- 
rounding Halleath, Lochwaben, Dumfriesshire, the weather on 
that day being remarkably bright and warm. 
WE have on our table the following books :—Elementary 
Physiography, by Andrew Findlater (Chambers) ; Original Gra- 
vity, by J. A. Nettleton (Lampray) ; Market Garden Husbandry, 
by W. H. Ablett (Chapman and Hall) ; Sahara und Sudan, by 
G. Nachtigal (Paul Parey, Berlin) ; The Honey Ants and Occi- 
dent Ants, by McCook; The Water Supply of England and 
Wales, by C. E. de Rance (Stanford); Mountain Life in 
Algeria, by Edgar Barclay (Kegan Paul and Co.) ; Between the 
Amazon and Andes, by Mrs. Mulhall (Stanford) ; Vignettes 
from Nature, by Grant Allen (Chatto and Windus) ; The Story 
of our Museum, by the Rev. H. Housman (Society for Pro- 
moting Christian Knowledge) ; Year-Book of Photography, 1882, 
by H. Baden Pritchard (Piper and Carter) ; Outlines of Physio- 
graphy, by G. Thom (J. Thin); Sounds and their Relations, by 
A. M. Bell (Triibner) ; Philosophy of Self-Consciousness, by P. 
F. Fitzgerald (Triibner); Consumption, by De Lacy Evans 
(Bailliére, Tyndall, and Co.); Report of the Lightning Rod 
Conference (Spon); Sparks from a Geologist’s Hammer, by 
Alex. Winchell (Triibner) ; Lessons on Form, by R. P. Wright 
(Longman) ; Myth and Science, by Tito Vignoli (Kegan Paul 
and Co.) ; Practical Microscopy, by George E. Davis (David 
Bogue) ; Aristotle on the Parts of Animals, translated by W. 
Ogle, M.D. (Kegan Paul and Co.) ; Transit of Venus, 1874, by 
Sir G. B, Airy (Stationery Office); An Old Chapter of the 
Geological Record, by King and Rowney (Van Voorst) ; Dental 
Anatomy, by C. S. Tomes (Churchill) ; Tunis, Land and 
People, by Chevalier de Hesse-Wartegg (Chatto and Windus), 
WE are asked by the author to state that at the end of the 
third paragraph of the article on ‘The Recent Weather” in 
NArurg, vol. xxv. p. 285, the barometric pres-ures inadvertently 
quoted as 30°093, 30°079, and 30°076 inches, should obviously 
have been 30°930, 30°790, and 30°760 inches. 
THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include a Sykes’s Monkey (Cercopithecus albigularis 3 ) 
from East Africa, presented by Mr. H. Gunning ; a Ring-tailed 
Lemur (Lemur catta) from Madagascar, presented by Capt. M. 
