4IO 



NATURE 



\_Sept. 6, 1877 



an exceedingly limited number of recommendations to the 

 Government. One of them relates to the organisation of the 

 me'eorological service. The Association directs the attention of 

 the Government to the inferiority of French meteorology, and 

 urges the Gi^vernment to estaSlish an official investii^ation into its 

 working. All efforts to take the Service des Averti-semtnts out 

 of the hands of the observatory have been defeated. The pro- 

 posed reform does not aim at diminishing the influence of M. 

 I.everrier on the service he has created in France. 



A request is to be sent to the Government to endow the 

 Geological Society of Normandy with the privileges of an insti- 

 tution of public interest, whicli means to grant it a charter and 

 incorporate it. It is expected that the admirable geological 

 exhibitions collected through M. Lennier's exertions will remain 

 permanent, and become a fair specimen of regional geology. A 

 number of exhibitors have consented either to give their objects 

 or to lend them until similar objects can be procured in their 

 stead. M. Lennier, whose exertions have been indefatiijable, 

 is the director and founder of the Havre Aquarium, which is a 

 mo lei institution, not for the variety of species, but for the 

 number of objects and the health of the animals. 



The several industrial establisliments at Havre were opened 

 for public inspection, as well as the Government buildings. 

 The most interesting object was a fog trumpet of Briiish 

 make. The steam engine working it has a power of three 

 horses. It is calculated to compre-s about 800 htres of air at 

 a pressure of little more than two atmospheres in two tanks put 

 into communication by a Urge tube. One of these tanks is in 

 communication with the pump, and the other with the trumpet. 

 Tlie latter is closed by a self-acting valve, which opens once 

 every forty-eight seconds, and during seven seconds gives a volu- 

 minous sound in la of the diapason. 



The last excursion (to Rouen) was more successful than the 

 first. The Frigorifiqiie had been sent from Havre to Rouen in 

 order to increase the attraction, and was visited by many of the 

 excursionists. 



The number of members of the Havre meeting was not more 

 than 600 altogether. The foreign members numbeted about forty, 

 upwards of twenty being Engbshn en. Very few lart'es attended 

 the proceedings. No final banquet took place, o*ing probably 

 to the fear ol some political discussion disturliiiig an assembly 

 which ought to be devoted entirely to science. 



There is only a single scientific society in Havre which, in 

 spite of its amljitious title (Societe d'Etudes diverses) has only 

 sixty members out of a population of 85,000, including more 

 than fifty millionaires. The society meets regul-.rly and 

 pubiishts yearly a handsome volume. It has been decided to 

 establish a local society of commercial geography, and a local 

 committee to collect meteorological observations taken on board 

 the transatlantic steamers. 



If we consider the work done in certain sections the Havre 

 meeting has not been a failure ; but it was altoge her a sectional 

 meeting from the inaugural speech of Presifent Broca to the two 

 or three lectures which were delivered in the theatre. We are 

 confident that M. Fremy will spare no pains to render the Paris 

 meeting next year a success and as far as possible international. 

 He will endeavour to get the presidents of sections each to 

 deliver an inaugural address. It is intended to establish a tem- 

 porary daily newspaper to publish at full length the reports of 

 sectional proceedings, tSic. 



In the Section of Meteorology the principal business was the 

 vote of the requisition sent to the Government, which will 

 probably induce the Ministry to increase the grant to French 

 meteorology. The majority of ttie section are in favour of the 

 establishment of a central meteorological institute to investigate 

 large meteorological problems and centralise all meteorological 

 services except weather previsions. A resolution was proposed 

 by Dr. Janssen, urging transatlantic companies to take meteo- 

 rological observations on board ; another resolution asked M. 

 Giffard to organise a meteorological observatory on board his 

 captive balloon, during the exhibition of 187S. Mr. James 

 Glaisher gave an address on the result of his thirty scieniific 

 ascents, and the experiments made in the Ashburnham captive 

 balloon. His address was well received, and he was invited 

 to sit with the bureau. M. Alluard, the Diiector of the Puy- 

 de-Dome Observatory, engaged to establish intermediate stations 

 on the flanks of the mountain, and to keep observations during 

 the time when the monster captive balloon is making its ascents. 

 This proposal will be communicated to Gen. Nansouty, Director 

 of the Pic-du-Midi Observatory. A resolution was voted pro- 

 testing against the delays in the construction of a telegraph line 



from Pic-du-Midi to Bagn^res, for the purpose of sending regular 

 observations during the time when the observatory is cut off by 

 snow from all communication with the world below. 



M. Alluard presented to the section diagrams of comparative 

 barometric measures taken on the summit of the Puy-de-Dome 

 and at Clermont-Ferrand during storms. This shows clearly 

 that the law of pressure varies in inverse ratio, diminishing on 

 the top of the mountains when increasing at Clermont, and -Ace 

 7'irsa, It shows evidently that storms are produced, not by a 

 single wind, but by a conflict of several winds at a certain 

 distance (rom the earth. 



In the Geological Section a large proportion of the papers 

 were on various points connected wiih the geology of Nor- 

 mandy, one of the most important being a piper by M. 

 Moriere on the presence of the liassic stage in the department of 

 Orne and on tlie fossils he has collected during many years inves- 

 tigation into the geology of the region. In this section, also, 

 M. Pomel read a long paper to prove that M. Roudaire's 

 project of an inland sea in Algeria, of which we recently gave 

 details, is impossible M. Pomel maintains that the level of the 

 Chotts is too high, and that if by any process they could be 

 filled, the water would very soon find its way back to the 

 Mediterranean. Another paper of some importance was by 

 MM. de Tromelin and Grasset, being a '* Summary Study 

 of the Paleozoic Fauna of Lower Languedoc and the 

 Pyrenees," for the purpose of comjiaringihe primary formations 

 of the South wih those of the North-West of France. M. 

 Jannettaz gave an account of his observations on the propa- 

 gation of heat in schistose rocks and in crystals. From his 

 experiments he concludes that heat is transmitted more readily 

 along the planes of cleavage of crystals and along the plane of 

 schistosity of slates, gneiss, crystalline or agillaceous schists, 

 than along the direction perpendicular to these planes. He 

 thinks we may thus explain, to a great extent, the variation 

 observed in the increase of temperature with depth in different 

 parts of the globe. 



In the Botanical Section M. Corenwinder continued his 

 account of his investigations on the Functions of Leaves. 

 After twenty-five years' work M. Corenwinder thus sums 

 up the results he has obta ned : — The leaves of vegetables 

 in their relations to the a'mospheric air are the seat of two 

 distinct functions. By their protoplasm they absorb oxygen 

 and constantly exhale carbonic acid. By their chloro- 

 phyll, they inspire, on the contrary, during the day only, 

 carbonic acid, and expire oxygen. In their early stage the 

 protoplasm predominates ; chlorophyll is not abundant. Hence 

 the respiratory function predominates during all that period over 

 the chlorophyllian function, and consequently leaves exhale car- 

 bonic acid without interruption. In proportion as leaves grow 

 the colourless protoplasm diminishes and the chlorophyll in- 

 creases ; thus the capacity of emitting carbonic aciti rapidly 

 decreases, and soon they exhale, during the day, nothing but 

 oxygen gas. Henceforth it is only by shutting off or diminishing 

 the light, when the action of the chlorophyll is diminished or 

 suspended, that the effect of respiration becomes more or less 

 sensible. There is then among living beings only one kind of 

 respiration. The part played by chlorophyll is of a different 

 order ; it is an act of assimilation which has nothing in common 

 with the preceding. M. Corenwinder hopes that henceforth it 

 will cease to be taught that plants are provided with two respira- 

 tions, one for the day and the other for the night. 



NOTES 



We are informed by a cable telegram from a New York corre- 

 spondeiit that Prof. O. C. Marsh, the eminent palfeontologist, 

 has been elected president of next year's meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Association for the Advancement of Science, which has just 

 concluded its Nashville session. We have received the Proceed- 

 ings of the last year's meeting at Buffalo. 



The Aquarium Winter Garden at Tynemouth, near New- 

 castle, is rapidly approaching completion. The building occu- 

 pies a commanding position on the Long Sands between the 

 town of Tynemouth and the little fishing village of Culler- 

 coats. The entire basement is devoted to the Aquarium with its 

 reservoirs and pumping machinery, and the show tanks, of which 

 there will be both a sea and a fresh-water series, will contain 



