- March 16, 1882] 
NATURE 
471 
In the churchyard, another Stevenson screen has been fixed con- 
- taining a similar set of thermometers, for comparison with those 
above. All the thermometers will be read every morning at 
nine o’clock. The electrical thermometer consists of a coil of 
wire wound round a cylindrical piece of wood inclosed in a small 
brass tube, a third wire is joined to one of the wires, and the 
three insulated by gutta-percha, form a light cable which is 
brought down to the base of the tower and connected to a gal- 
vanometer, the terminals of which are in connection with the 
two poles of a six-cell Leclanché galvanic battery. The instru- 
ment is read by depressing a key, which causes the needle of the 
galvanometer to deflect ; a pointer or vernier (moving a contact 
roller upon a wire in a circular groove) is then pushed to the 
right or to the left upon a divided scale until the needle remains 
stationary on the zero point, when the electrical resistance of the 
wire is measured upon the scale. The number indicated by the 
vernier is then read off, and by referring to a table of equivalents 
the actual temperature in degrees of Fahrenheit is readily ascer- 
tained. Simultaneous readings of the electrical thermometer at 
the summit of the tower and of the dry bulb thermometer in the 
churchyard will be made frequently during the day by the verger 
of the church. 
A RussIAN naval officer has invented a very ingenious apparatus 
for ascertaining the depth of the sea without the use of a costly 
and heavy line. Indeed, no line at all is used. The instrument 
consists of a piece of lead, a small wheel with a contrivance for 
reyistering the number of revolutions, and a float. While the 
apparatus sinks, the wheel revolves, and the registered revolu- 
tions indicate the depth. When the bottom is reached, the lead 
becomes detached, the float begins to act, and the machine shoots 
up to the surface, where it can easily be fished up by a net and 
the register read off. 
Pror. WEGMULLER, the eminent Munich sculptor, is hard at 
work at the monument of Baron Justus von Liebig, the eminent 
chemist, which will be erected in the Public Gardens at the 
Maximilian’s platz of Munich. It is of Carrara marble and over 
‘life size. 
THE enterprising people of Paisley, near Glasgow, are to 
have a popular observatory attached to their Free Library and 
Museum, mainly through the liberality of Mr. Thomas Coats, 
who, with the assistance of Prof. Grant, of Glasgow, has not 
only purchased a suitable equatorial with all necessary adjust- 
ments, and a cupola, but is erecting a tower for the reception of 
the instrument, Similar institutions in the provinces might take 
a hint from Paisley. 
M. DE FREYCINET, the French Minister of Public Affairs, 
has declared himself a candidate for the next election to the 
Academy of Sciences, to fill the seat vacated by M. de Bussy’s 
recent death. His claim is grounded on the publication of 
books relating to engineering and the integral calculus. M. Paul 
Bert, the late Minister of Public Instruction is also offering him- 
self for election, but in the section of Surgery and Medicine. 
BAEYER, in continuing his investigations on indigo (Berichte, 
xv. 50), arrives at probable structural formule for the mole- 
cules of this compound and some of its derivatives. Some 
_light has been thrown on chemical changes which occur in 
the manufacture of yellow prusszate of potash by the observation 
of Remsen (Amer. Chem. Fnl., iii. 134), that a cyanide of iron 
is formed when iron, which has been reduced by hydrozen and 
organic matter, is heated with metallic sodium in an atmosphere 
of hydrogen. 
THE Panama Star and Herald of Monday announces that an 
earthquake has occurred in Costa Rica, by which the towns of 
Alajuela, San Ramon, Grecia, and Heredia have been destroyed. 
Tt was at first stated that several thousand persons had perished, 
but according to later information, the loss has been grossly 
exaggerated. 
From April 11 to 16 a Pedagogical Congress will meet at 
the Sorbonne, under the presidency of the French Minister of 
Public Instruction, who will be, as in former years, M. Ferry. 
The male public teachers will, as in 1881, send their delegates ; 
but a great innovation will take place—the female teachers will 
for the first time enjoy the same privilege. The Fvernal Officiel 
has already published the programme of questions which will be 
discussed in this characteristic session. 
MoveEMENTs of the ground appear to be now going on in the 
Jura. M. Girardot has lately pointed out that villages that were 
invisible to each other at the beginning of the century, and even 
thirty to forty years ago, are now visible. First the roofs 
appeared, then (in part) the walls, Such is the case with the 
villages of Doucier and Marigny, near Lake Chalain. Important 
changes have been observed even within ten years. 
A LARGE meteorite fell at Mirotch Planina (Eastern Servia), 
on February 21 last. 
WE have on our table the following books :—A Monograph 
of the Insectivora, Systematic and Anatomical, by G. E. Dobson 
(Van Voorst) ; Lecons sur L’Electriciié et le Magnetisme, by E. 
Maxart and J. Joubert (G. Masson); The Use of Gas as a 
Workshop Tool, by Thos. Fletcher, Warrington ; Contributions 
to Meteorology, by Elias Loomis; Punjab Customary Law, 3 
vols., by C. L. Tupper (Quaritch) ; Geology of the Counties of 
England, by W. J. Harrison (Kelly and Co.); The Sun, by C. 
A. Young (Kegan Paul and Co.) ; Hesperothen, 2 vols., by W. 
H. Russell (Low and Co.) ; A Plea for the Rain-band, by J. 
Rand Capron ; Pioneering in the Far East, by Ludwig Verner 
Helms (W. H, Allen); Ferments et Maladies, by E. Duclaux 
(G. Masson) ; Commercial Organic Analysis, vol. ii., by A. H. 
Allen (Churchill) ; Manitoba, by Rev. G. Bryce (Low and Co.) + 
Electric Lighting, 3rd edition, by Killingworth Hedges (Spon) ; 
Blackie’s Imperial Dictionary, vol. ii. ; Preparation for Science 
Teaching, by John Spanton (Griffith and Farran) ; Ueber die 
Dauer des Lebens, by Dr. A. Weismann (Fischer, Jena) ; 
Die Magneto und Dynamo-elektrischen Maschinen, by Dr. H. 
Schellen (Dumont-Schanberg) ; Acoustics, Light, and Heat, by 
N. E. William Lees (Collins) ; Experimental Chemistry, Part I., 
by Prof. J. Emerson Reynolds (Longman); Geology and Re- 
sources of the Black Hills of Dakota (Government Office, Wash 
ington, D.C.) ; Atlas to the same; Magnetism and Electricity, 
by R. Wormell (Murby). 
THE acditions to the Zoolog’cal Society’s Gardeus during the 
past week include a Water Vole (drvicola amphibius), British, 
presented by Mr. W. K. Stanley ; two Common Buzzards (Luteo 
vulgaris) from Scotland, presented by Mr. W. M. Baillie; a 
Harrier (Circus, sp. inc.) from South Africa, presented by 
Mr. Cole; a West African Python (Python sebe) from West 
Africa, deposited ; a Muscat Gazelle (Gazel/a muscatensts), born 
in the Gardens. 
OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 
VARIABLE Srars.—Prof. Julius Schmidt has published his 
variable-star results for 1881, which evince the same assiduity 
of observation as in so many years past. Seven minima of 
Algol were determined ; the last occurred on November 27, at 
1th. 85m. M.T, at Athens, Of Ceraski’s variable U Cephei, 
a minimum took place May 13, at 11h. 0°2m., and one on 
November 26, at oh. 4°Im,—the interval corresponding to 79 
periods of 2d. 11h, 49m. 25s. A minimum of Mira Ceti (a 
phase of which we have comparatively few observations) oc- 
curred on March 2. x Cygni attained a maximun July 17°0, 
brightness 6°5 ; this date is nearly three months later than the 
epoch assigned by Argelander’s formula in the seventh volume 
of the Bonn Observations, as indeed has been the case for some 
years. For Pigott’s variable R Scuti, Prof. Schmidt finds 
maxima at August 7°2 and October 31°2, and minima at July 4.9 
and September 23°6. He has many epochs for the short- 
