July 5, 1877] 



NA TURE 



197 



C.B., for his paper on "The Trade of Central Africa, Present 

 and Future ;" James Irvine, for his paper on " Our Commercial 

 Relations with West Africa, and their Effects on Civilisation ; " 

 Sir Douglas Forsyth, C.B., K.C.S.I., for his paper on "The 

 Progress of Trade in Central Asia ; " W. Thomson, for his paper 

 on "The Sizing of Cotton Goods." 



A CIRCULAR has been issued by Messrs. Rowe and Groser, 

 the hon. secretaries of the British Association Reception Com- 

 mittee at Plymouth, giving some interesting information about 

 that town. Appended to this is a useful table of the tourist 

 fares to Plymouth from some of the principal stations in the 

 kingdom. Besides Mr. Warington Smyth, Prof Odling and 

 Mr. Preece have been named as lecturers. One of the excur- 

 sions is likely to be to Exeter ; at least the inhabitants of that 

 interesting city are taking active steps to bring this about. 

 Those of the members who were at the Exeter meeting of 1S69 

 have no doubt many pleasant memories of the visit. The fine 

 museum, which was only completed in time for the reception of 

 the Association, is now filled and admirably arranged under 

 the guidance of Mr. W. S. M. D'Urban, F.L.S. The Dublin 

 people have already begun to prepare for the meeting in that 

 city in 187S. A meeting was held in the Mansion House the 

 other day, under the presidency of the Lord Mayor, when it 

 was announced that subscriptions had already been received to 

 defray expenses. Dr. Ball is one of the hon. secretaries. 



At the conclusion of the last meeting of the Royal Astro- 

 nomical Society, as we stated last week, a special meeting 

 was held to consider a proposed alteration in the bye-laws. 

 The following is a short account of the business transacted : — 

 Before the last election of ofScers of the Society (in Feb- 

 ruary) two or three of the fellows printed a balloting list 

 of their own, and having circulated it amongst the fellows with- 

 out any indication of its private origin, many of them used it as 

 a polling paper at the election, under the impression that it had 

 been issued by the Council. The election was also influenced in 

 another way by the putting up for secretary the name of a 

 fellow who had declined to serve. By these manoeuvres a 

 curious anomaly in the byelaws was made effective — so effective 

 indeed that one member was elected to the council by a few 

 votes, whilst another who had obtained a far larger number of 

 votes was ruled not elected. With the view of avoiding such 

 thwarting of the will of the society in future, the council ap- 

 pointed a committee to revise those of the bye-laws which bore 

 upon the subject. The present special meeting was called to 

 consider the proposed alterations, and they were now submitted 

 for approval or rejection. An amendment, however, which was 

 proposed by Lord Lindsay, the foreign secretary, was carried, 

 deferring their consideration until after the next election of 

 officers. 



A VERY satisfactory Repor'. by the Savilian Professor of Astro- 

 nomy, Oxford, as Director of the University Observatory, has 

 been made to the Board of Visitors for the year between 

 June 1876 and June 1877. The instruments all seem to 

 have worked well except tlie sun spectroscope, which became 

 seriously deranged in the month of August last, and has not yet 

 been reinstated. 426 photographs of the moon (making alto- 

 gether, to this date, 652) have been taken with the De La Rue 

 reflector during the year ; of these by far the greater number 

 appear to be suitable for micrometric measurement. This will 

 be systematically applied so soon as the Observatory is in pos- 

 session of the costly micrometer now in process of construction 

 by Mr. Simms, and which is to be the gift of Dr. De La Rue to 

 the Observatory. Then will commence the difficult but in- 

 teresting research relative to the amount of the physical libration 

 of the moon. 259 complete measures of 117 double stars 

 have been taken during this year with the great equatorial. 

 A second set of observations of six of the satellites of 



Saturn has been completed. These comprise thirty measures 

 of the co-ordinates of Titan, twenty of Rhea, fourteen of 

 lapelus, fourteen of Dione, twelve of Tethys, and two of 

 Enceladus. The'sun's chromosphere had been observed and 

 delineated on twenty-two days. Eight measures of the difference 

 of the R. A of Venus and h Geminorum, and seven of the differ- 

 ence of declination, were taken at the time of their conjunction. 

 Preparations are being made for observations of the planet Mars 

 at its approaching opposition, with a view to the determination 

 of solar parallax. For this purpose the director has devised a 

 new form of micrometer capable of measuring with the requi- 

 site exactness distances to the extent of forty minutes of arc. 

 If this instrument realises his expectations he thinks it may 

 supersede Bessel's heliometer. It may properly be called a 

 duplex heliometcr-eycpiece. The director suggests the advisability 

 of now printmg the Proceedings of the Observatory. 



A STATUE has been erected at Nancy by public subscription, 

 to Mathieu de Dombosk, the creator of the Roville experimen- 

 tal farm, and one of the earliest scientific agriculturists of France. 

 He was born at Nancy on July 30, 1 777. 



The Prussian Government has ordered Berlin to be con- 

 nected with Hamburg by a subterr.^nean telegraph, in order to 

 avoid perturbations during thunderstorms, which have been very 

 frequent this spring. Similar measures will be adopted for 

 other large towns in Germany. 



M. Gauthier Villars has published in Paris a volume of 

 logarithms, containing tables for all numbers from o to 

 434,000,000,000 with twelve decimals, by M. Namur, secre- 

 tary of the Ecole Moyenne of Thuin-on-Sambre (Belgium). 

 This wonderful volume, selUng at three francs, has been printed 

 by order of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Belgium. 



On Wednesday, June 27, the Harveian Oration at the Royal 

 College 01 Physicians was delivered by Dr. Sieveking. The 

 orator vindicated the claims of Harvey as the true discoverer 

 of the circulation of the blood, the merit of which had been last 

 year publicly ascribed by the Italians to their countryman 

 Andrea Cesalpino. 



Lighting experiments with gramme machines are being tried 

 daily at the Palais de ITndustrie, in Paris. The area of the 

 building is 2| acres, the elevation of roof 95 feet. This immense 

 space has been lighted h giorno, with two electric lustres each 

 composed of six electric lamps. The motive power required is 

 fifty-horsepower, and the results are very satisfactory, although it 

 has not been stated whether they are superior to those of the Alli- 

 ance system, and Jabldchkoff electric candle. The Great Northern 

 Railway Company regularly use electric lamps for their luggage 

 room. The Paris-Lyons Railway is preparing an experiment for 

 the illumination of the whole of the large Paris s'ation. All 

 these experiments are conducted with the intention of testing 

 several electric systems, in order to obtain an immense lighting 

 power for the 1878 international exhibition. 



Town Councils are seldom noted for either their intelligence 

 or their foresight. We are glad to find, however, there is at 

 le.ist one exception, in the Exeter Town Council, who have 

 decided to postpone the purchase of their town gas-works, "on 

 account of the success of the electric light, and the probability 

 of its superseding gas." This is creditable to^ the Exeter Coun- 

 cillors, who, we believe, have been the first public body in this 

 country to recognise the value of this latest application of electri- 

 city. We hope their expectations will be fulfilled. 



A Roman correspondent of the Times, writing with reference 

 to the shower of sand which occurred at Rome on June 22, sends a 

 translation of the remarks of Father Joseph Lais, published in the 

 Voce della Veriia : — "The rain of sand continued although to a 

 smaller extent, on the 23rd of June, on which day the heavens 

 were deeply overcast. The sand fell in small perfectly spherical 

 masses of about I-25,ooo'.h of an inch in diimtter, at a mnxi- 



