April 6, 1882 | 
NATURE 
535 
help feeling that shipowners in their own interests 
would adopt a wise course by supplying correct data, 
and otherwise considering the question of framing rules, 
based on sound principles, which would take cognisance 
of all the surrounding elements affecting this complex 
question, and thereby enable rules and tables to be 
framed which would be accepted as a fair compromise, 
and equitable and sound reference for the future guidance 
of all interested in this important subject, and the result 
of which would, without doubt, tend to diminish the 
loss of much valuable property and the sacrifice of many 
human lives.” 
Messrs. Read and Jeckins, of L/oyd’s Register, con- 
tribute a valuable investigation into the transverse strains 
of iron ships. This subject was, we believe, first investi- 
gated vigorously by Mr. W. John, who read a paper on 
the same subject in 1877, before the Institution of Naval 
Architects. The method of treatment pursued by Messrs. 
Read and Jenkins is too technical to reproduce at length 
in these pages. After investigating the strains of foir 
steam-vessels, supposed to be docked when loaded with 
cargo of the density of coal, up to the height of the 
lowest tier of beams, they conclude with the important 
observation that the results demonstrate, in an unmis- 
takable manner, how necessary it is to provide additional 
transverse strengthening in the engine and boiler space 
in steam-vessels, where the localised weights of the 
engines and boilers, and the want of support from the 
deck above, due to the small number of beams, increase 
the strain of the middle line and bilge. 
The most interesting of the remaining papers were two 
by Mr. T. Harvard Biles, naval architect to Messrs. J. 
and G. Thompson, of Glasgow, on Progressive Speed 
Trials, and on the Curves of Stability of Certain Mail 
Steamers. The former paper was of great practical value 
to navalarchitects, as it affords to all the means of carry- 
ing out progressive trials with ease and rapidity. Mr. 
Biles abandons the measured mile trial, because of the 
inseparable inaccuracies which attendel it. These were 
due to the varying and unknown rate at which the tide 
flows, and to the impossibility of knowing whether the 
ship, when she comes on the mile, is running at 
her proper speed, or is accelerating her own motion. 
Mr. Biles throws out from the bow of the ship 
a floating object which is observed as it passes a 
a set of transverse sights fixed on the ship about one 
hundred feet from the bow, and again when it passes 
another pair of sights fixed at a given distance from the 
first pair. The time occupied in the transit is recorded 
by an electric apparatus, which also at the same time 
records seconds automatically, and also the number of 
revolutions of the engine. The floating object moves with 
the tide, and therefore the speed of flow of the latter need 
not be taken into account. By means of this apparatus, 
builders can measure the true speed at which their 
vessels are travelling when steaming right ahead, and 
consequently can derive all the information to be obtained 
from progressive trials, without resorting to the old- 
fashioned, tedious system of runs on the measured mile. 
We regret that want of space prevents us from noticing 
the remaining papers read at these meetings, not one of 
which was deficient in interest. 
NEW AND VERY RARE FISH FROM THE 
MEDITERRANEAN 
Ox a long ichthyological excursion which I undertook 
by order of the Minister of Public Instruction in 
November and December last, during which I explored 
our Adriatic coast from Ancona to Lecce, the Ionian 
shores from Taranto to Reggio (Calabria), and visited 
the two seas of Sicily, collecting principally at Messina, 
Catania, and Palermo; I collected above 2000 specimens 
of fish, amongst which were many rare species, and several 
quite new to the ichthyofauna of the Mediterranean. 
Amongst the latter I may mention a large and perfect 
specimen of Molva vulgaris, fourd in the market of 
Catania; this is a North Atlantic species, and has not 
yet been recorded from the Mediterranean; there has 
been, it is true, for many years a dried skin specimen 
in the Genoa University Museum, which was figured in 
1864 by Canestrini as Haloporphyrus lepidion, and six — 
years afterwards corrected by the same author as Lofa 
vulgaris. About a year ago Dr. Vinciguerra and myself 
determined it correctly, but aS no data as to its capture 
had been preserved, we were in considerable doubt as to 
its being a Mediterranean specimen. At Palermo, where 
I went after leaving Catania, I found a third Italian 
specimen of this species. At Messina I collected two 
specimens of Scorfena ustulata, Lowe, aud a fine speci- 
men of Umzbiina ronchus, Val., both new, to our fauna. 
I believe that most of the Madeira species will eventually 
be found in the Mediterranean, especially off the Sicilian 
coasts. Messina is a splendid locality for deep-sea or 
pelagic forms; it appears that during stormy weather, 
especially from the south-east, many abyssal species are 
in some way thrown up, and may be found in hundreds 
floating in the Messina harbour, which stretches like a net 
or trap across the Straits; such are Chauliodus, Sto- 
mias, Argyropelecus, Microstoma, Coccita, Maurolicus, 
Gonostonia, and some ten or twelve species of Scopelus. 
While there last November I secured a fine Wadacocepha- 
Zus levis, and a singular fish of a deep black colour, with 
small eyes and a naked skin, and a most aéyssa/ physiog- 
nomy, which is quite new to me, and which I| have not yet 
been able to determine; it may be allied to JZadacosteus. 
I shall close these notes by mentioning the capture of 
a very strange fish (belonging to the singular Votacanthz), 
which may well be called the vavest of fishes. It is a 
small specimen evidently closely allied to Wotacanthus 
Rissoanus, De Filip, but which appears to present some 
notable differences ; I have not yet been able to compare 
it with the unique and type specimen of JV. Azssoanus, from 
Nice, now in the Turin Zoological Museum, and of which no 
scientific description was ever published. My specimen was 
also caught near Nice in August of last year. V. Azsso- 
anus should be generically distinguished from the other 
known species from which it differs in many essential 
characters. Litken and I believe Giinther have expre-sed 
the same opinion. I should, therefore, propose the name 
Paradoxichthys, and should that term be pre-occupied, 
the equivalent Zeratichthys. Should the specimen I 
have turn out specifically distinct from P. Azssoanus, 1 
should like to call it Pavadovxichthys Garibaldianus, dedi- 
cating it to a great Nizzardo and fellow-countryman of 
Risso. 
Florence, March 23 HENRY H. GIGLIOLI 
PROF. BARFF’S NEW ANTISEPTIC 
iy a communication to the Society of Arts, March 29, 
1882, a long and interesting paper was read by Prof. 
Barff on a ‘“‘ New Antiseptic Compound” applicable to 
the preservation of articles of food. 
The compound in question is an ether of boric acid 
and glycerine of the composition BO,C,H, (the chemical 
description in the paper is inaccurate), first obtained by 
Schiff and Becchi (Compt. Rendus, 62, p. 397, and /. pr. 
chem., 98, 184). Experiments made with this substance 
on various articles of food, both solid and liquid, seem to 
have yielded very satisfactory results, as far as the pre- 
serving action is concerned ; but neither in the paper nor 
in the interesting discussion which followed its reading 
does it appear that the preserving action is due specially 
to the compound in question, or to one of its constituents. 
That boric acid acts as a preventive of decomposition 
in organised bodies when present in considerable quantity 
there is no doubt, but very little is known of its action n 
