72 



NA TURE 



\May 24, 1877 



nounced that he had taken steps to utilise the weather telegrams 

 sent from America by the New York Herald. 



Theke is no ground whatever, we are informed, for the 

 rumour that M. Krantz will resign his office of Director of the 

 International Exhibition, or that the Exhibition will be post- 

 poned. The works are progressing favourably, and will not be 

 interrupted. The British Commission have secured a large 

 plot of ground close to the Champ de Mars for their private 

 use. This ground measures more than 5,000 square yards. 



The Emperor of Brazil, who is now in Paris, has been 

 assiduously attending the meetings of various scientific societies. 

 On Friday he was present at the meeting of the Zoological 

 Society. Several communications were read on fishes, insects, 

 and worms from Brazil. He was also present at the last sitting 

 of the Geographical Society of Paris. A paper was read on the 

 Pampas by an American gentleman, whose flattery of the Em- 

 peror was so high that his Majesty left the room to show his 

 disapproval. The lecturer stated that the Argentine Republic 

 was building a strong wall to protect the Pampas against incur- 

 sions from uncontrollable Indians, and that in doing so not less 

 than 20,000 square miles of excellent grazing ground will be 

 reclaimed. 



The Congres Scientifique of France is holding its present 

 session at Versailles on the occasion of a floral meeting, as we 

 intimated two months ago. The principal attraction is a series 

 of excursions held in the vicinity of Versailles. 



The Russian Council of State has granted a yearly sum of 

 2,000 roubles to the West Siberian Branch of the Russian Geo- 

 graphical Society at Omsk. 



Russian newspapers announce that Prof. Ahlquist had 

 reached, on April 10, Kondinsk, 530 miles north of Tobolsk. 

 His companion, M. Bergroth, remained at Tobolsk. 



Science in Italy has sufTered a heavy loss through the death 

 of Prof. Dr. C. L. Rovida, formerly first physician at the 

 Ospedale Maggiore of Milan, and for the last three years 

 Professor of Special Pathology and Clinical Medicine at the 

 University of Turin. Next to Prof. Moleschott in rank, if not 

 in fame, he was one of the few Italians who follow a rigidly 

 scientific method of investigation and instruction. 



The fourth number of the Btillelin of the Geographical 

 Society of Egypt contains an interesting account of a journey 

 to Harar with a plan of that place, published by two Arabian 

 officials ; one of whom, Fayous Effendi, accompanied the Italian 

 expedition to Zeilah. 



Mount Vesuvius shows signs of fresh activity. The crater 

 is continually sending forth clouds of smoke which at night 

 assume a fiery aspect from the deep-lying glowing lava masses. 



Capt. R. Gessi, the Italian explorer of Albert Nyanza under 

 Col. Gordon, is now preparing at Cairo to undertake, on his own 

 account, a new expedition in company with a naturalist and a 

 photographer. He intends to push forward to the Equatorial 

 Lakes, studying, on his route, all the principal factsof meteorology, 

 anthropology, and natural history, taking sketches and photo- 

 graphs of men, animals, plants, and interesting geological 

 features. 



A CORRESPONDENT writes to us that the medal "of the first 

 class " of the I'aris Acclimatisation Society was presented, not 

 to Mr. Alfred Mosenthal, but to Messrs. Julius de Moscnthal 

 and J. E. Hartiug, the joint authors of the work recently pub- 

 lished by Messrs. Triibner and Co., on " Ostriches and Ostrich 

 Farming," and reviewed by us in vol. xv. p. 176. This work 

 was published some time after the experiments, to which we 

 referred last week, were made at Algiers. These experiments 

 will be found to be fullv detn'led in the work in niiestion. 



A LETTER received at Rome from the commander of the 

 Scilla states that the Italian expedition for the exploration of 

 Central Africa were occupied at Zeilah on April 27 with the 

 final preparations for their then imminent departure to Shoa. 



In the last two numbers of the Bolkthto della Societa Geo^rafica 

 Italiana Prof. Gio. Beltrame publishes an interesting paper on 

 the language of the Akkas — an African tribe of which two indi- 

 viduals were brought over to Italy some years ago. This first 

 attempt at giving an idea of the Akka language and its grammar 

 will prove a valuable contribution to the study of comparative 

 African linguistics 



An immense quantity of locusts have shown themselves in the 

 Algerian provinces, and are travelling from the south towards 

 the Mediterranean. The number of these insects was so pro- 

 digious that the trains from Blidah to Algiers were almost 

 stopped in the beginning of May. 



Mr. John F. Dolley writes to the Times under date Uiten- 

 hage. Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, March 19 : — " In 

 this part of South Africa we have just witnessed a magnificent 

 sight, such as a person can hardly expect to see more than once 

 in a lifetime, if even then. It was on the beautiful clear star- 

 light evening of the l6th of March, at about eight o'clock, when 

 suddenly every one was startled with a bright lightning, like a 

 flash, and on looking for the cause discovered a large meteor 

 coming out of the eastern horizon, and which travelled slowly 

 across the firmament, in an oblique direction to the westward, 

 when it burst, sending forth streams of fire, as if from a hundred 

 rockets, and then was heard a low rumbling noise as of thunder 

 in the distance. The meteor appeared to be nearly, if not quite, 

 as large as the full moon, but not round, more of an oblong 

 shape, and while travelling through the air it very much re- 

 sembled a large turpentine ball. It gave forth a bright bluish 

 light which lit up the whole sky, and you could distinguish 

 everything around you for miles as plainly as in the daytime. 

 ... A party of Hottentots who were coming in from ' Hankey,' 

 a station belonging to the London Missionary Society, state that 

 the driver of the waggon was struck dovvn in the road, and that 

 they all felt a glow of heat as the fireball passed them. The 

 illumination lasted for nearly a minute, and the light was such 

 that it dazzled the eyes of all who saw it." 



A Telegram from New York on the i6th states that forest fires 

 are making great ravages in North-eastern New Vork, Long 

 Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Pennsylvania, 

 Canada, and New Brunswick. A large part of the White 

 Mountains is in flames. The summer hotels are in danger, and 

 railways are interrupted. A great number of mills and dwellings 

 have been destroyed, and hundteds of persons have been ren- 

 dered destitute. 



Steam at ordinary pressure sent into saline solutions on which 

 it has no chemical action, gives a rise of temperature that seems 

 at first sight paradoxical, the temperature produced being always 

 higher than that of the steam. M. Midler, of the Berlin Chemical 

 Society, has been studying the phenomenon. Chloride of sodium 

 is one of the best salts to use. A solution of it sufficienlly con- 

 centrated to have a boiling point of 127° may be raised to 125° 

 simply by sending steam into it at loo^\ Here, then, the steam 

 produces a rise of 25° above its own temperature. The more 

 concentrated the solution the higher is the rise. M. M tiller 

 points out, in explanation, that saline solutions at 100° absorb 

 the steam at the same temperature, and the result is a rise 

 analogous to that produced when a gas, like ammonia, is dis-. 

 solved in water. These experiments throw new light on the 

 controverted question, what is the temperature of the steam 

 which escapes from a concentrated and boiling solution ? Is it 

 100° or a temperature near that of boiling of the solution ? The 

 new results seem to be against the latter, and common, view. 



