Augjist 2, 1877] 



NA TURE 



279 



de vouloir bien vous y trouver pour proceder a la mise en train 

 des experiences en litige. 



Veuillez agreez, Monsieur, I'expression de mes sentiments les 

 plus distingues. Ph. van Tieghem, 



Membre de la Commission 



I made all the necessary arrangements that [afternoon in M. 

 Pasteur's laboratory for the performance of my experiments, and 

 the next morning at eight o'clock M. Pasieur and I were at the 

 appointed place. M. van Tieghem was also there, and shortly 

 afterwards M. Milne Edwards arrived. He apparently had had 

 no communication with M. Dumas since the time of my inter- 

 view, and when told, in reply to a question of his, of the pro- 

 position which I bad made to M. Dumas, M. Milne Edwards very 

 hastily expressed his disapproval of it. and at once, without 

 listening further, left the laboratory. He was follo7;ed by M. 

 van Tieghem. I remained, and after one hour M. van Tieghem 

 returned. He informed me that, having waited in vain for the 

 arrival of M. Dumas, M. Milne Edwards had at length gone 

 away. 



I remained in conversation with M. van Tieghem for nearly 

 an hour in an upp;r room of M. Pasteur's laboratory. When 

 we came down, much to my surprise, we learned from M. 

 Pasteur that M. Dumas had arrived, that he had been told of 

 the departure of M. Milne Edwards, and that he also had then 

 left, saying that the Commission was at an end — but without in 

 any way communicating either with his colleague, M. van 

 Tieghem, or with myself. 



Thus began and ended the proceedings of this remarkable 

 Commission of the French Academy. 



July 30 H. Charlton Bast i an 



NOTES 



From correspondence which we have'received, we gather, that 

 because we omitted to state in our leading article of last week the 

 fact that London is the only Univer-ity which treats science as a 

 necessary branch of education, that article has been thought 

 hostilej to the University of London. The fact in question is 

 of course well known and appreciated, but it did not seem to us 

 to be relevant. Our article had reference to the question of 

 Universities as against Examining Boards rather than to the 

 quality of the examinations. We heartily acknowledge the good 

 the London Examining Board has done, and the obligations 

 under which it has placed science and scientific men. 



The Annual Conference of the Royal Archa;ologicaI Institute 

 of Great Britain and Ireland commences, on the 7th proximo, at 

 Hereford, for a week. The Bishop of Hereford is president. 



An important resolution ^of the International Geodetic Con- 

 gress is now being carried out. The Montsouris observatory is being 

 connected by telegraphic observations with Bonn and Berlin in 

 Germany, and with Geneva and Ncufchatel in Switzerland. Two 

 astronomers from Berlin having arrived in Paris, and M. Loewy, 

 member of the French Academy of Sciences, with two assistants, 

 having arrived in Berlin from Paris, the work has been at once 

 proceeded with. The wires are freed a few hours every night 

 for obtaining comparisons. The connection with Geneva and 

 Neufchatel is executed, via Lyons, by Commander Perrier, of 

 the staff, and the operations have been continued to Marseilles 

 and Algiers. The comparison between the Montsouris and Paris 

 observatories will be a work of triangulation, the two establish- 

 ments being about a gun-shot from each other. 



A NtJMEER of Abyssinians have arrived in Paris on their way 

 to London. They are encamped in the Acclimatisation Gardens 

 (Bois de Boulogne), with camels, elephants, osiriches, &c., and 

 olher animals destined to the London Zoological Gardens. 

 The heads and manners of the blacks have been scientifically 

 examined by Dr. Broca, and a report on them will be read at the 

 French Society for the Advancement of Science at Havre. 



The Bureau of the French Association to meet in Havre on 

 the 23rd instant, consists of Prof. Broca, president ; M. Kuhl- 



mann, vice-president ; M. Deherain, general secretary ; M. Perrier, 

 vice-secretary ; M. Masson, treasurer. Most of the French 

 railway companies give half-price tickets to persons going to the 

 Association. The hotel proprietors in Havre guarantee a certain 

 number of beds ; furnished apartments have also been largely 

 promised, and the berths in one of the Transatlantic Company's 

 steamers have been placed gratuitously at the disposal of 

 members. 



An interesting account of the recent falling of a mountain in 

 Tarentaise, Savoy, causing disaster to two flourishing villages, 

 has been communicated to the Coioricr des Alpes, by AL Berard. 

 The phenomenon has been incorrectly reported as instantaneou?, 

 and the destructive effect complete, whereas the case is that of 

 a mountain which for twenty days, without cessation, has 1 een 

 dismembering itself and literally falling night and day, into the 

 valley below, filling it with piled-up blocks of stone, extinguish- 

 ing all sounds by its incessant thunder, and covering the distant 

 horison with a thick cloud of .yellowish dust. The entire 

 mass comprised in the slope forms a mutilated cone 200 

 metres broad at the top and 600 at the base (the slope 

 being about 50°) ; this is composed of blocks of hard schist 

 lying close together, but| no longer united ; and it is united 

 to the body of the [mountain only by a vertical mass 40 

 to 50 m. ; thick, which already is fissured and shaken. 

 Periods of repose occur lasting only a lew seconds or a minute at 

 most ; then the movement recommences, and continues about 

 500 hours. Blocks of 40 cubic metres become displaced with 

 no apparent cause, traverse the iSoom. of descent in thirty 

 seconds, leaping 400 or 500 m. at a time, and finally get dashed 

 to pieces in the bed of the torrent, or launch their shattered frag- 

 ments into the opposite forest, mowing down gigantic pines as if 

 they were so many thistles. One such block was seen to strike 

 a fine fir-tree before reaching the bridge between the villages ; 

 the tree was not simply broken or overthrown, but was crushed 

 to dust (volatilisS) ; trunk and branches disappeared in the air 

 like a burning match. Rocks are hurled together and broken 

 into fragments that are thrown across the valley like swallows in 

 a whirlwind ; then followjshowers of smaller fragments, and one 

 hears the whistling sound of thousands of pebbles as they pass. 

 M. Berard reached the'edge of the rock (2,460 m. high), on one 

 of the sides of the falling cone, and ventured along it, obtaining 

 a good view of the "terrifying" spectacle. He reaffirms his 

 conviction that the phenomenon is inexplicable by any of the 

 usual reasons that account for .Mpine disturbances, such as 

 penetration of water, or melting of snows, or inferior strata in 

 motion ; nor does the declivity of the slope explain it. His 

 hypothesis is that some geological force is at work, of which the 

 complex resultant acts obliquely to the axis of the mountain and 

 almost parallel to its sides. 



According to M. Perrin, an eighth or a tenth portion of the 

 French army is incapable of doing good service, in consequence 

 of indistinct vision. M. Perrin formally proposes to remedy this 

 by the .adoption of spectacles. It is affirmed that spectacles are 

 useful, if not indispensable, to 47 per cent, of the officers coming 

 from the Ecole Polytechnique. 



From the Annual Report of the Council of the Royal Society 

 of New South Wales, we gather that the membership at the 

 beginning of the session of 1S77 was 298, and that the Society 

 is in a generally flourishing state. A ^considerable access ot 

 activity has occurred since the establishment of sections (nine) 

 last year. The Council are hopeful of obtaining an annual 

 endowment from the Government. 



For want of space the gigantic Giffai d captive balloon will not be 

 constructed, as was anticipated, in the Paris Exhibition, but special 

 ground will be granted as we announced a few months ago. The 



