32 



NA TURE 



[May lo, 1877 



than the much maligned Academy, but then the objects of the 

 two are very di6ferenl. At all events the man of science will be 

 furnished with much food for thought and wonder in both. 

 What seems to be generally regarded as the masterpiece in the 

 Grosvenor, Mr. Bunie Jones's "Six Days of Creation," may 

 remind geologists of Hugh Miller's famous phantasy, written in 

 the old " reconciliation " days. However this may be, its con- 

 ception and execution are deserving of study from many points 

 of view, including even the scientific. 



The great Museum of Applied Sciences in Moscow will be 

 opened on June 1 1, the birthday of Peter the Great. The build- 

 ing is ready and the collections have been brought in. It has 

 cost up to the present time half a million of roubles, occu- 

 pies a space of 13,633 square yards, and is divided into three 

 blocks. Besides spacious rooms for collections in applied 

 science, it contains a large and well-ventilated auditory. Eleven 

 scientific societies will hold their sittings in the Museum. 



The foundation of a permanent station for help to wrecked 

 vessels on Novaya Zemlya is now in way of execution. We hope 

 that the station will also be used for taking regular meteoro- 

 logical observations. An Eskimo family, which has already 

 M intered for two years on the island, will remain there perma- 

 nently, and be su])plied by the Russian Government witli all 

 necessaries. 



Prof. Leith Adams has commenced a course of six lectures 

 on the " Distribution of Animals as elucidating Past Changes of 

 the Earth's Surface," in the Royal College of Science, Dublin. 



A PRIZE of 10/., which has been placed at the disposition of 

 the Council by Col. A. A. Croll, is offered by the Society ot 

 Arts, with the Society's Silver Medal, for the best set of Blow- 

 pipe apparatus which shall be sold retail for one guinea. All 

 apparatus for competition must be sent to the Society's house 

 on or before August i, 1877. Details will be found in the 

 yourna/ of May 4. 



The Prince of Wales, in company with Mr. Cunliffe Owen, 

 Col. Ellis, Lord Sulfield, and M. Blowitz, visited the works of 

 the Paris International Exhibition at the Champ de Mars and 

 Trocadero, last Saturday. He was received by M. Krantz, 

 Director of the Exhibition, the Minister of Trade, and some 

 officials. The Prince of Wales was much pleased with the state 

 of the works, which are progressing so rapidly that it is now 

 possible to have a view of the buildings covering so large a 

 space. He selected a space for the special exhibition of 

 objects which he brought back with him from his tour in India. 



In the current number of Mind, Mr. G. H. I.ewes gives 

 briefly what seems to be one of the chief positions taken by him 

 in his new volume "The Physical Basis of Mind." He finds 

 that according to usage the word " consciousness " is equivalent 

 to sentience or feehng ; that it is also used in a special sense as 

 signifying that we not only feel, but feel or are conscious that 

 we feel. Now Mr. Lewes holds that every neural process im- 

 plies sensibility, indeed is feeling or consciousness in the general 

 sense of that term ; accordingly consciousness, sentience— these 

 neural processes may be said to have "various modes and 

 degrees — such as perception, ideation, emotion, volition, which 

 may be conscious, sub-conscious, or unconscious." In the last 

 sentence the word " unconscious" describes a mode or degree of 

 sentience which has not given rise to consciousness in the special 

 sense, and Mr. Lewes contends that the word "unconscious" 

 ought to be confined to this usage, that in strictness we should 

 not speak of unconsciousness outside the sphere of sentience. 

 He then proceeds to argue that to describe a neural process as a 

 mere series of physical changes is to say that " organic pro- 

 cesses suddenly cease to be organic and become purely physical 



by a slight change in their relative position in the consensus." 

 The matter of fact of which Mr. Lewes has to persuade his 

 readers is, that " the reflex mechanism necessarily involves sen- 

 sibility," that a neural process is a feeling. 



Six years ago Dr. Maudsley contended against the popular 

 opinion that insanity was on the increase in this country, the 

 rapid increase of the registered insane being open to a less 

 gloomy explanation. It is gratifymg to find that Dr. Maudsley 

 can in the current number of the Journal of Mental Scienec 

 still maintain with every appearance of truth, that there is no 

 evidence of an increased production of insanity in this country. 



At a recent meeting of the Chemical Section of the Society 

 of Arts, Dr. B. H. Paul read a paper on "The Cinchona Alka- 

 loids, their Sources, Production, and Use," in which he traced 

 the history of the cinchonas from the early part of the seven- 

 teenth century to their successful cultivation in India and other 

 countries. The chemistry of the cinchona barks is a point about 

 which but little is popularly known. It would seem that a 

 considerable amount of cinchonidine, one of the several alka- 

 loids found in cinchona barks, is often mixed wiih the sulphate 

 of quinine of commerce, sometimes, indeed, exceeding ten per 

 cent., and though the medicinal efficacy of the quinine is not 

 materially impaired by this mixing, a great difference is made in 

 the intrinsic value, cinchonidine being worth not more than one- 

 eighth as much as quinine. Considering the present high price 

 of quinine, it is pleasant to be told by Dr. Paul that "the sul- 

 phate of cinchonidine has been proved to be very little inferior 

 in efficacy — for certain kinds of maladies — -to quinine," the price 

 of this alkaloid being two or three shillings an ounce against 

 sixteen shillings for quinine. 



M. Jabloskow, a Russian electrician, has exhibited before the 

 Physical Society of Paris a new process for producing electric 

 light. The voltaic arc is quite suppressed and a current is sent 

 merely through a plate of caolin, which ignites and fuses gra- 

 dually, giving out a magnificent steady light. The transverse 

 dimension which the current is able to warm and ignite varies 

 according to the force of the battery. M. Jabloskow made a 

 most interesting experiment. Cutting in two parts a plate of 

 caolin which had been used for giving a light, he raised two separate 

 lights with the same current. The light given by these two plates 

 was found equal to the light which had been given a few minutes 

 previously. The experiment was considered by all present to be 

 a great success. Experiments on a large scale will be shortly 

 tried at the large hall of the Magazin du Louvre. The generator 

 of electricity was an induction machine of the Alliance type 

 worked by two men. 



At the last meeting of the Russian Geographical Society M. 

 Wojeikof reported upon his last journey in Japan. He started 

 from Hakodadi and visited the Ainos of Jesso Island ; he 

 then went to Aomori, in the northern part of Nipon, and tra- 

 velled to Jeddo, crossing Nipon Island three times from west 

 to east. The northern part of the island is not populous, only 

 the high valleys being settled. The climate of the western 

 shores of Japan is far milder than is generally supposed, the tea- 

 tree reaching here as far as 40° north latitude. The most im- 

 portant result of the journey is the measurement by barometer of 

 the heights of about 600 places. 



Russian newspapers announce 'that our countryman, Mr. 

 Harvey, after having stayed for three days in St. Petersburg, 

 continued his journey for the zoological exploration of the 

 Pechora region. He is accompanied by a painter and a zoolo- 

 gical collector. 



The last number of the Ir^estia of the Russian Geographical 

 Society announces that the south-western branch of the Society, 



