152 



NA TURE 



\yuiie 2 1, 1877 



of Staffordsliire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire, the Bishop 

 of Worcester, several noblemen, clergymen, the Mayor of Bir- 

 mingliam, &c. 



The Helvetic Society of Natural Sciences meets this year at 

 Bex, in Canton Vaud, from August 19 to 27. Several interest- 

 ing excursions have already been arranged for. Prof. Louis 

 Dufour, of Lausanne, will be president. English naturalists will 

 be heartily welcomed. 



The death is announced of Lieut.-Gen. Sir Henry James, 

 director of the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain from 1854, 

 until his appointment to the command of a battalion of Royal 

 Engineers in 1874, since which he has lived in Southampton in 

 failing health. He was seventy-four years old, and from 1S44, 

 when he was director of the Geological Survey in Ireland, had 

 written on various scientific subjects. 



Some bones of Litkornis emninm, an enormous bird of the 

 eocene period, have just been discovered in the London clay at 

 Sheppy by Mr. W. H. ShruUsole, of Sheerness-on-Sea. Casts 

 of these fossds will be taken for the British Museum. 



The well-known traveller. Dr. Schweinfurth, has recently 

 returned to Egypt from a two months' journey through the 

 Arabian cesert, richly laden with scientific collections. He 

 proceeds to Berlin to complete the arr.ingement of the large 

 quantities of botmical specimens collected by him m his la e 

 expeditions. 



No. 4 of the Quaticiiy Bidlctin of the Cairo Society of 

 Geiigraphy contains a valuable account, by Dr. Nachtigal, of his 

 visit to Wadii, as the country between Darfur and liagirmi is 

 called, and notes on the country of Harrar, by Mohammed 

 iSI iktar. The same Society has published separately an obituary 

 notice of the late Marquis de Compiegne, by M. C. Guillemine. 



A VALUAULE and somewhat elaborate geographical sketch of 

 Loango and the Loango Coast, by Dr. Pechuel Losche, has been 

 published ^in a separate: form from the Milt/wi/ungcu of the 

 Leipzig Geographical Society. 



The Annual Report for 1876-7, of the West London Scien- 

 tific Association, speaks favourably of the progress of that Asso- 

 ciation, which now numbers 186 members. 



In the Buenos Ayres Standard of May 13 D. jFrancisco 

 Moreno descibes'a journey he made up the Santa Cruz river, 

 in .Southern Patagonia, in about the 50th deg. of S. lat. Not- 

 withstandmg the great rapidity of the current, he succeeded, 

 with three sailors, in ascending the river, taking thirty days to 

 it. The Sania Cruz issues from a fine lake thirty miles long and 

 icn broad, m S. lat. 50° 14' 22" and 71° 59' W. long. D. Moreno 

 was the first to sail along this lake, which he explored and 

 bke ched pretty thoroujhly, making considerable geological col- 

 licti'ins in the neighbourho.jd both of this and of other lakes in 

 the same region. Am<jngst these w.is Lake Biedma, in the neigh- 

 bourliooil of the still active volcaiso, Chalien. A river more 

 than 200 yards wide cjnnects Lake Biedma with Lake .Santa 

 Cruz. 



Mr. G. Brown Goode, assistant curator of the National 

 jVIu-eum at Washington, has been engaged during the past winter 

 in investigating the natural history of the Bermudas, and Ins 

 recently returned with a large collection, filling twelve barrels 

 and forty-three boxes, and including over 1,000 bottles of inver- 

 tebratas in alcohol. IIis collections embrace the entire marme 

 fauna of the coast — fishes, molluscs, worms, &.C., many of whi.h 

 are believed to be entirely new to science. 



Mk. KoiiERT LowF, M.P., presided on Wednesday, last week, 

 at a nice''nj of the cimTiit'ce formed for the purpose of orga- 



nising a testimoniar to Mr. John Simon, F.R.S., late medical 

 officer to the Privy Council and Local Government Board, in 

 recognition of the long and valuable labours he has rendered to 

 the State, and of his eminent^services to sanitary science. It is 

 pro osed that the testimonial shall assume the form of a bust in 

 marble of Mr. Simon for presentation to the Royal College ol 

 Surgeons, agreeably to the wishes of the Council of that body. 

 The cost, together with the expenses, will probably amount to 

 500/. We are sure that not only members of the medical pro 

 fession, but all who are interested in sanitary science, will 

 willingly contribute to a monument to one who has done so 

 much for that science. 



A SPECIAL direction of science and arts has been added to the 

 French Ministry of Public Instruction. M. Walteville has been 

 appointed to the new office, and it is supposed that having 

 nothing to do with politics, he may continue in office irrespective 

 of any change in the Ministry. It would be well to insure 

 a continuity of action and professional independence to the head 

 of so useful an'administrrtion. 



A NEW photographic' department has been established in 

 France for the reproduction of scientific or artistic objects. The 

 laboratory will be kept up exclusively by Government. The 

 Stale photograpers will be required to employ the most advanced 

 methods and to work for the improvement of the art. 



On Friday night a series of interesting experiments with the 

 Jablochkoff electric light took place at the West India Docks, 

 under the direction of M. Denayrouze. The apparatus used for 

 the occasion consisted merely of an electro-magnetic machine 

 worked by a small steam-engine, some insulated wires, and the 

 electric candles, which are the invention of M. Jablochkoff, and 

 composed, as we have already described, of two carbons placed 

 side by side with a slip of insulating substance between them, 

 which burns away with the carbon exactly in the same way as 

 the wax i>f a wax candle is consumed with the wick. The first 

 experiment in order to show the suitableness of the invention fur 

 dock purposes consisted in the lighting of four of the "candles" 

 in a large yard. The light thus obtained, which was shaded by 

 ground glass, brilliantly illuminated the inclosure, it being 

 possible to read small print at a considerable distance from the 

 lights, while at the same time the eyes were not affected by the 

 glare, as is the case with the ordinary electric light. The second 

 experiment was confined to the illumination of the top story of 

 one of the large warehouses, and this, l.ke its predecessor, was 

 equally successful A large vessel at the quay side was also 

 lighted up, as also was a portion of the quay. The whole of 

 the experiments were very successful, and it was stated that each 

 "candle" gave a light equal to 100 gas lights. The light is 

 Slid to be much less expensive than gas. 



The Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society have com- 

 menced the publication of its Transactions from its foundation 

 in 1835, as far as material for these can now he obtained. We 

 have received the first two parts of this publication, extending 

 from 1835 to 1841 ; they contain much likely to interest not 

 only the members of the Leicester Society, but all who take an 

 interest in the progress of Iccal societies, now becoming so 

 widespread and efficient. 



Some experimental researches on the light refraction of a 

 number of gases are desciibed by M. Mascart in the Annaies 

 Scien'ifiijues. A beam of light was sent through a collimator to 

 two plates of plate-glass connected toge'.herat right angles; the 

 halves of the beam were bent right and left by refraction through 

 the glass. They then went parallel through two copper tubes 

 containing the gases, and after refraction by a second system of 

 glass plates placed in reverse directions, the halves were united 

 again, and the beam passed through a slit to a system of prisms. 



