” p v ”™ = _ ee | — - — = 
= "s P, as ey 
* a ‘ a. 
394 NATURE 
the Society is really in want of the money, the public would be 
only too glad to raise it to keep Jumbo. One reason given for 
parting with the animal is the uncertainty of his temper; but we 
doubt if there is any real ground for this excuse, and we hope it 
is not too late to prevent the children breaking their hearts for 
the loss of their favourite. 
IN vol. xxiii. p. 561, we gave an illustration of the new Etna 
Observatory, and stated that it would probably be completed by 
1882. Signor V. Tedeschi writes from Catania to the Daily 
News that the Observatory has just been finished. Signor 
Tedeschi points out the exceptional advantages possessed by the 
Observatory from its lofty position for astronomical and spectro- 
scopical observations. ‘* These advantages,” hestates, ‘‘induced 
the Municipality of Catania, at whose expense the ob-ervatory 
was constructed, to aim at its being an international station, and 
so they added to the observatory three large bedrooms, a dining- 
room, and kitchen for the use of such foreign men of science as 
desire to remain there for some time, and the telescope is fur- 
nished with a movable iron tube, the length and aperture of which 
can be modified at pleasure, so that foreign astronomers can apply 
the instruments they bring with them. The observatory is built 
on a little eminence on the side of the central crater of Etna, a 
position which makes it almost certain that should a stream of 
lava issue on that side it would divide into two streams and flow 
harmlessly on each side of the little hill. The building consists 
of two storeys, the joint height of which is 9 metres, and the base 
of the edifice occupies a superficial area of 200 square metres. 
In each storey there is a large circular room surrounded by other 
chambers destined for different uses. In the centre of the 
circular room in the lower storey there is a solid pillar to sup- 
port the great refractor. All the instruments, as well as a fine 
collection of seismographic and meteorological apparatus are in 
the upper storey, in the large circular room of which are the 
telescope and chronometrical apparatas. This room is roofed 
with a movable irondome. The observatory on Etna is the 
highest building in Europe. The observatory on Vesuvius is 
619 metres above the level of the sea, the Hospice of the 
Gotthardt 2075 metres, and that of St. Beruard 2491; while the 
Etna observa‘ory is at a height of 2942 metres.” This observa- 
tory will probably render invaluable service to astronomical 
science as well as to terrestrial physics. 
NATAL, we are glad to learn, is going to have an observatory, 
as will be seen from the following extract from a Grahamstown 
paper :—‘‘ Through the generosity of three well-to-do colonists 
in Durban we are going to have an observatory at Natal at last. 
It seems that Mr. Gill, the Astronomer-Royal at the Cape, is | 
now on a visit t» the port, and noticing that Durban is a favour- 
able site for observing the transit of Venus, he mentioned the 
circumstance to» Mr. Henry Escombe, who at once offered to 
give a first-rate equatorial telescope, costing 450/, The Town 
Council granted a site for the observatory, and Mr. W. Randles | 
and Mr. Greenacre, two Durban merchants, undertook to defray 
the cost of the building (300/. to 400/.) between them.” <A 
correspondent of the Sco/sman commends this excellent example 
to the shipowners and landowners of Scotland, who e interests 
would be specially served by a well-equipped observatory on 
Ben Nevis, 
NINE lectures on the Anatomy, Physiology, and Zoolozy of 
the Edentata will be delivered in the theatre of the Royal Col- 
lege of Surgeons, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, at 4 
o'clock, commencing on Monday, February 27, by Prof. W. H. 
Flower, LL.D., F.R.C.S. The following is a programme of the 
course :—General characters of the order: Family Bradypodidec 
—the Sloths ; Afegatherium and other great extinct Ground 
Sloths of America; Family Myrmecophagide—the true Anteaters; 
yi 
[ Fed, 23, 1882 
Family Dasypodide—the Armadillos; G4 ptodon—and other 
extinct Armadillo-like animals ; Family 4/anide—the Pangolins ~ 
or Scaly Anteaters or Aard-varks ; the extinct Edentata of the 
Old World; Classification of Edentata and relation to other 
groups. 
In connection with the International Elcctric Exhibition at 
the Crystal Palace, arrangements have been made with Prof. 
S. P. Thompson, of University College, Bristol, to give the 
following course of lectures :—1. Electric Currents—What are 
they ? (February 22); 2. Electric Currents—How to make them 
by Steam? (March 1); 3. Electric Arc Lights (March 8) ; 4. 
Electric Incandescent Lamps (March 15), on each evening at $ 
p-m. The lectures will be illustrated by diagrams in the magic 
lantern, by experiments on a large scale, and by experiments 
in the magic lantern. This is a praiseworthy step on the part of 
the directors, and we hope it will meet with encouragement. 
Art the meeting of the Essex Field Clu, to be held at Buck- 
harst Hill, next Saturday, February 25, the desirability of 
directing public attention to the pressing necessity which exists 
that some means should be adopted for the protection of our 
native animals and birds from wanton destruction by game- 
keepers and others, will be brought before the Club by Sir 
Fowell Buxton, Bart. (Verderer of Epping Forest). Zoologists 
and lovers of Nature generally, whether Members of the Society 
or not, are earnestly requested to attend, and take part in the 
discussion. . 
ONE of the most recent additions to Chinese literature, accord- 
ing to the China Review, is a translation of Gray’s well-known 
work oa Anatomy. The translator, the late Dr. Osgood, is said to 
have succeeded in the task of giving Chinese names to the multi- 
farious and minute structures which constitute the human body. 
The difficulty of this will be obvious, when it is remembered that 
the Chinese know hardly anything of anatomy, or of the functions 
of the various organs of the body. The only work up to this 
ia Chinese on the subject was a very elementary one, published 
nearly twenty years ago, by a European physician, 
A CHAIN of meridian distances, extending from Vladivostok 
to Madras, has been telegraphically measured during the past 
year by Lieut.-Commanders Green and Davis, and Lieut. Norris 
of the U.S. Navy. The stations occupied and determined were 
Vladivo tok, Nagasaki, Yokohama, Shanghai, Amoy, Hong- 
kong, Manila, Saigon, Singapore, and Madras. ‘The exact 
longitudes of the two terminal stations had been previously esta- 
blishcd by Russian and English officers, but the positions of the 
intermediate stations from which nearly all the longitudes of 
China and Japan have been chronometrically measured have 
always been seriously in doubt. 
ATTENTION continues to be bestowed on the search for new 
elements, and the classification of those which have been recently 
di covered. According to Phipson (Compt. rendus, xciii. 317), 
a specimen of zinc pigment examined by him contained about 
4 per cent. of a new metal, to which, because of the action of 
light upon its salts, he gives the name Actinium. Mendelejeff 
| (Berichte, xiv. 2821) shows that the recently discovered cerite 
metal Ytterbium finds its natural place in his scheme of classi- 
fying the elements according to their atomic weights. Two new 
chlorides of Gallium are described by L. de Boisbaudran (Compt. 
| rend, xciii. 294), and determinatioas of the density of the vapour 
of gallic chloride have confirmed the number 69°9 as the atomic 
| weight of Gallium, 
| 
CHEMISTS are now paying much attention to the study of 
chemical changes, and they are beginning to venture on a 
few generalisations, Several Rus ian chemists have recently 
made important advances, notably Kajander, who considers the 
velocity of the changes which proceed when metals are dissolved 
