174 



NATURE 



{Jwie 28, 1877 



that the International African Commission has concluded its 

 labours. It has decided that the organisation of stations in Africa 

 belongs to the Executive Committee. The principal object of 

 these stations will be the suppression of the slave trade. It has 

 also been decided that an expedition shall leave Zanzibar in the 

 direction of Lake Tanganyika. The King of the Belgians has 

 been re-elected president of the Commission. 



Triibner, of Strassburg, publishes this month the first number 

 of a ntw Zeitschrift fiir physiolopschc Chemic, edited by Prof. 

 I loppe-Seyler, of Strassburg and other eminent German chemists. 

 The purpose of the journal is to keep together such original 

 papers in physiological chemistry as are now scattered over various 

 chemical, physiological, and medical journals. The new Zcit- 

 schrijl will be published every two months. 



It is stated that in a field near Cologne the Colorado potato 

 beetle has been found in every stage of development. 



In connection with the agitation in favour of planting the 

 streets and squares of Manchester with trees, and protecting the 

 suburban vegetation, which is being carried on by the Field 

 Naturalists and Archxologists' Society of that city, a paper by 

 Mt. R. H. Alcock, F.LS., containing some curious informa- 

 tion, was read at the last meeting of the Society. Mr. Alcock 

 has experimented for the last twenty-five years in planting trees in 

 the vicinity of his mill, situated in Bury, a smoky manufacturing 

 town, a few miles from Manchester. He finds that the plane 

 {Plataitus oricntalis), which is so successful in London, will not 

 grow at all in Lancashire smoke even with careful culture. But 

 on the other hand he has been very successful with the beech, 

 sycamore, birch, wych elm, and Turkey oak. The lime, how- 

 ever, is the tree ehielly recommended : indeed, Mr. Alcock says of 

 it that he is absolutely certain it will grow well in the Manchester 

 thoroughfares if properly planted. If the Manchester people 

 are enabled to walk itnter ih'n Lindeti^ they will have reason to 

 thank the Society which is making such commendable efforts to 

 solve the problem in question. 



It is just 140 years since the National Library of Paris was 

 made public. The area of the building has been enlarged more 

 than twenty times since that, and a scheme is now being planned 

 fur isolating the building from every other hou'e. 



An important French work has just appeared at Geneva — " Le 

 Masiif du Mont Blanc. Etude sur sa Constitution geodesique et 

 geologique, sur ses Transformations et sur I'etat ancien et mo- 

 derne de ses Glacier.s," by E. Viollet Le Due, with 112 illus- 

 trations, and a map on the scale of i : 40,000. The work is the 

 result of seven years' exploration, during which the auihor has 

 set himself to map and describe with all possible accuracy, the 

 characters of the rocks and of the soil, the successive beds of 

 glaciers, the poutions of moraines, the forms of the (ones de 

 di'jection, as well as the general aspect of this great upheaval. 

 The map, based on the former maps of Capt. Mieulet, on the 

 well-knott-n relief of Mont Blanc constructed by Bardin, on the 

 surveys of Forbes, on the work of Alph. Favre, and on careful 

 surveys by the author himself, is indeed a remarkable work, 

 scientifically and artistically. After many attempts the author 

 has given up the idea of representing the relief by level curves, 

 and has returned to the old graphic system under a light cor- 

 responding to that of the sun abjut 10 o'clock on a summer 

 morning. In this way the relief of the locality is so perfectly 

 represen'ed on the map as really to deceive the eye. The 

 geological description deserves the attention of all geologists. 



Mr. E. G. Ravenstein, F.R.G.S., read an elaborate paper 

 at the Statistical .Society on Tuesday evening last week, on the 

 populations of Russia and Turkey. The former of these Empires 

 has 84,584,482 inhabitants, the latter only 25,986,868, or, in- 

 cluding E^iypt, Tripoli, and Tunis, 43,408,900. The population 



of Roumania is 4,8^0,000, of Servia 1,352,500. The population 

 of Russia increases at the rate of v\ percent, per annum, the 

 increase amon;st the Jews being at least double what it is 

 amongst the Christians. With respect to Turkey there exist no 

 data for calculating the increase, though it is mo.st probable that 

 the dominant race does not increase at all, a fact acco nited for 

 by vicious practices, and by the sacrifices demanded from it for 

 the defence of the empire. .Some curious facts were commeatci 

 with respect to the proportions between males and females. 

 Th.-oughout Asiatic Russia and in a considerable portion of 

 European Russia the m.ale sex preponderates. The same fact 

 has been noted in Roumania, in Greece, and in other parts of 

 Europe. The author thus summed up the results of his investi- 

 gations : — In the Russian Empire there are 100 Russians to 

 every 50 members of other nationalities, and 100 Christians to 

 every 16 Mohammedans and Pagans. In Turkey, on the o'her 

 hand, 100 Turks have opposed to them 197 members of other 

 nations and 100 Mohammedans, 47 Christians. 



Mr. Stanford has just published sheet No. i of a large- 

 scale map of the seat of war in Europe. It exhibits with great 

 minuteness the region on both sides of the Danube where ope- 

 rations are being at present carried on, and extends southwards 

 as far as the latitude of Philipopolis. It is admirably executed, 

 and will enable a reader to follow the movements of the belli- 

 gerents with complete satis''action. Mr. Stanford also publishes 

 a bird's-eye view, by Maclure and Macdonald, of the seat of 

 war in Asia and Europe from Kurdistan, much better executed 

 than the generality of similar maps. 



Further details appear in the American papers of the recent 

 destructive earthquake and wave on the west coast of South 

 America. .\ Lima correspondent states that at about 8 30 on 

 the night of May 9, a severe earthquake shock, lasting from four 

 to five minutes, moved the entire southern coast, even reaching 

 down as far as .Vntofagasta. The first shock was succeeded by 

 several others of less intensity, and the sea, receding from the 

 shore, seemed to concentrate its strength for the fearful and 

 repeated attacks it made upon the land. It leftCallao and pro- 

 ceeded southward. At MoUendo the raiUvay was torn up by the sea 

 for a distance of 300 feet, since repaired ; and a violent hurricane 

 afterwards set in from the south, preventing the approach of 

 all vessels, and unroofing the houses of the town. At Atica 

 the shocks were very numerous, and caused immense "damage in 

 the town, the people flying to the Morro for safety. The sea 

 was suddenly perceived to recede from the beach, and [a wave 

 from ten feet to fifteen feet in height rolled in upon the shore, 

 carrying before it all that it met. Eight times was repeated this 

 assault of the ocean. Iquique is in ruins. The movement was 

 expeiienced there at the same time, and with the same force. 

 Its duration was exactly four minutes and twenty seconds. It 

 proceeded from the south-east, directly from the direction of the 

 Ilaga. The town of Tarapatt, twenty-five k-agues inland, and 

 the villages of Rica, Matella, and Canchones were more or less 

 damaged. The shock of earthquake was especially severe at 

 Chanavaya. In some spots the earth opened in crevices of 

 fifteen metres in depth, and the whole surface of the ground was 

 changed. At least 200 persons were killed. At Antofagasta 

 the atmosphere was illuminated by a red glare, supposed to 

 proceed from the volcano of San Pedro de Atacama, a few 

 leagues in the interior. The sea com('letely swept the business 

 portion of the town during four hours. At liuanillion the wave 

 which succeeded the earthquake was nearly sixty feet in height. 

 Mexillones was visited by a tidal-wave sixty-five feet in 

 height. Two-thirds of the town were completely obliterated 

 In connection with the so-called "Tidal Wave" of the. 

 Pacific, Mr. Manley Hopkins writes to ye;terday's Timts : — 

 About the 1st of May last the great crater of Kilauea, on the 



