April 27, 1882] 
NATURE 
615 
New spectroscopic researches required as to whether, 
especially, the sun does or does not contain the essential con- 
stituent principles of organic compounds. Extend, as much as 
possible, the the theories of points and straight lines of Steiner, 
Kirkman, Cayley, Salmon, Hesse, and Bauer, to the properties 
which are, for superior plane curves, for surfaces, and for skew 
curves, the analogues of theorems of Pascal and Brianchon. In 
natural sciences : New researches required on germination of 
seeds, especially on assimilation of nutritive stores by the embryos 
New researches required on development of Trematodes, from 
the histogenic and organogenic points of view. New stratigraphi- 
cal, lithological, and palzeontological researches required, to fix 
the arrangement or the order of succession of layers of the forma- 
tion called Ardennais by Dumont, and at present considered a 
Cambrian. Medals valued at 800 francs will be given as prizes 
in the first division; medals “of 600 francs in the second. 
Memoirs may be written in French, Dutch, cr Latin, and should 
be sent (in the usual form) to the Secretary, before August I, 
1883. 
Tue number of large carnivorous animals killed in Algeria is 
diminishing yearly with great rapidity. In 1879 the Government 
paid for 166 heads of lions and panthers ; and in 1880 only for 
128, viz. 16 lions, 100 adult panthers, and 16 young. It is cer- 
tain that in a very few years they will be entirely extirpated. 
They are now very seldom met with, except in some mountainous 
parts, and almost wholly deserted districts of Constantine pro. 
vince. When the conquest was made, they were occasionally 
seen at the gates of Algiers, and so frequently on the sea-coast, 
that a cape near Arzav received the name of *‘La Montagne 
des Lions,” which it has retained. 
possible. 
THE electrical perturbations were so frequent on the French 
lines from April 16 to 20, that measures had to be taken by the 
Minister of Postal Telegraphy to meet this contingency. The 
electrical equilibrium was restored on the 21st. These electrical 
perturbations were noticed on the telegraphic lines of Germany, 
Belgium, and Italy, and of England, according to the notice 
which was published by the French Administration in the officia] 
paper of the Government. 
A SLIGHT earthquake shock was felt at Geneva on Thursday, 
and a smart one on the previous Monday in the Vaudois and 
Jura. On both these days the telegraphic wires here were 
affected, which produced a violent oscillation of the needles. 
Similar perturbations were observed at other stations. A 
violent earthquake is reported from Syra (Greece). The 
shocks lasted nearly a minute, yet but little damage was done. 
On the A®tolian coast the sea has still its blood-red colour, and 
the smell of sulphuretted hydrogen becomes more and more 
intense. 
THE Daily News Naples Correspondent writes on the 21st :— 
‘The central crater of Mount Etna has been throwing up ashes 
for the last two or three days, covering the pure new snow 
lately fallen with a stratum of black ashes on the south-east side, 
The mud eruption at Paterna continues, but is limited to one 
erater, from which flows hot and liquid mud.” 
THOSE interested in the very wide region included in ‘‘the 
East,” will find the ‘“ Bibliotheca Orientalis,” published by 
Triibner and Co., very useful. It is stated to be a complete list 
of books, papers, serial:, and essays published in 1881 in 
England and the Colonies, Germany, and France, on the His- 
tory, Languages, Religions, Antiquities, and Literature of the 
East, compiled by Charles Friederici. This is the sixth year of 
publication. 
A SIMPLE new thermometer, said to be very sensitive, 
has been described (Four. de Phys., April) by Mr. Michelson, 
It depends on the expansion fof hardened caoutchouc by heat. 
A very thin strip of the substance is attached toa similar strip 
of copper. The lower end of the double strip is fixed, and the 
other has attached to it a fine glass fibre bent at a right angle, 
through which, as the strip bends under heat, motion is im- 
parted to a very light silvered-glass mirror, hung by a cocoon 
fibre. The displacement of the mirror is observed with a tele- 
scope and reflected scale, or by the movement of a spot of light. 
To avoid sudden changes of temperature, the double strip is in- 
closed in a metallic case having a slit opposite the strip. In a 
modification, which the author has not yet tried, the strip is 
reversed, and the lower end enters a highly resistant liquid, in 
which it faces a metallic point; the two serve as electrodes, 
connected with a galvanometer and a Wheatstone bridge. 
AT the thirteenth annual meeting of the Norfolk and Norwich 
Maturalists’ Society, the president stated that during the session 
which was past, a considerable number of papers had been read 
and specimens exhibited, which were not of interest to scientific 
people only. The popular taste demanded something beyond 
that. The society had endeavoured to meet this requirement. 
The number and strength of the Naturalists’ Society grows with 
its years. At the last annual meeting the society numbered 202 
members ; the number now reached is 234. A very good feature 
has been the formation of a naturalists’ library. The concluding 
portion of the address was occupied with a survey of certain 
features in the Ornithology of Norfolk at the present day, some 
of which were a cause of congratulation and others of regret. 
As, for instance, the short-eared owl, which had for some years 
ceased to be a resident species in Norfolk, had again been known 
to nest and rear its young in both divisions of the county ; and 
the hawfinch seemed yearly to increase in favourable localities. 
ONE more American serial comes to us in the shape of the 
Scientific Proceedings of the Ohio Mechanics’ Institute, contain- 
ing a number of papers of practical importance, including a long 
one on Economy of Fuel, by Mr. N, W. Perry. 
WE have on our Table the following books :—Volumetric 
Analysis, 4th edition, by F. Sutton (Churchill and Co.); A 
Manual of Botany, 4th edition, by Rk. Bentley (Churchill) ; Per- 
manence and Evolution, by S. E. B. Bouverie-Pusey (Kegan 
Paul); Annuaire de l’Academie Royale de Belgique (1882, 
Brussels) ; Observations on Cup-shaped and other Lapidarian 
Sculptures in the Old World and in America, by Charles Rau 
(Washington); Vibratory Motion and Sound, by Prof. J. D. 
Everett (Longman) ; Microscopical Section Cutting, by Sylvester 
Marsh (Churchill); The Fishes of Great Britain and Ireland, 
by Francis Day (Williams and Norgate); The Scientific Bases 
of National Progress, by J. Gore, F.R.S. (Williams and Nor- 
gate); Jamaica Institute Lectures, 1881 (Kingston, Jamaica) ; 
The Butterflies of Europe, Part vii., by H. C. Lang (Reeve 
and Co.); A Visit to Madeira, by Deonis Embleton, M.D. 
(Churchill) ; Religion and Philosophy in Germany, by Heinrich 
Heine, translated by John Snodgrass (Triibner) ; A Monograph of 
the British Fossil Cephalopoda, Parti. by J. F. Blake (Van Voorst) ; 
Elementary Physiology, by A. FindJater (Chambers) ; Vital Statis- 
tics: Small Pox and Vaccination, by Dr. C. T. Pearce; (E. W. 
Allen) ; A Manual of the Geology of India, by V. Ball (Calcutta) ; 
Rivers and Canals, 2 vols., by L. F. V. Harcourt (Clarendon 
Press) ; The Sphygmograph, by Dr. Dudgeon (Bailliere, Tin- 
dall, and Co.; On Failure of Brain Power, by Dr, Julius 
Althaus (Longmans) ; Plane Geometrical Drawing, by F. E. 
Hulme F.S.A. (Longmans) ; The Action of Lightning, by Major 
Parnell, R.E. (Lockwood) ; Beauty, and the Laws Governing its 
Development, by Joseph Hands (E. W. Allen) ; New Views of 
Matter, Life, Motion, and Resistance, by Joseph Hands (E, W. 
Allen) ; Astronomical Observations made at Dun-ink, Part 4 
(Hodges, Foster, and Co.); Houses and Farms in America, by Dr, 
| G.H. Everett (C. Dickie) ; Modern Metrology, by L. D’A. Jackson 
