372 
A DESPATCH from Havana, dated August 19, states that Jate ad- 
vices from Lima and Peru report a serious accident had occurred 
sixty miles from that city. A body ofearth, estimated at 10,000,000 
cubic yards, fell from a mountain side into a valley, severely 
injuring a number of persons, and damming up a river, the 
water of which had risen 109 feet above its usual height. En- 
gineers were of opinion that the water would soon burst its 
barriers, when it would rush towards Lima, sweeping every- 
thing before it, and submerging the lower portion of the city. 
Several towns in Chili had been greatly damaged by earth- 
quakes. 
As the result of a recent careful study of the drug Pareira 
brava, Mr. Daniel Hanbury has discovered that, instead of its 
being obtained from Cissampelos pareira, of the natural order 
Menispermacee, the genuine Pareira brava is the stem and 
root of a plant which he has identified with Chondrodendron 
tomentosum of Ruiz and Payon. The drug of English com- 
merce, however, is mostly of larger size than the root of Chon- 
drodendyon and is of doubtful origin, the structure of the wood 
being also that of the order Menispermacee. 
UnpeEr the title of ‘‘ On Coal at Home and Abroad,” Messrs. 
Longman have recently published in one volume the following 
three articles, contributed to the Zdinburgh Review by the Rev. 
J. R. Leifchild :—1. Consumption and Cost of Coal; 2, On the 
Coalfields of North America and Great Britain ; 3. Fatal Accidents 
in Coal Mines. The republication of these papers at the present 
time is very opportune ; they will be found to contain a great 
deal of information on the all-important ‘‘Coal question,” as 
well as many interesting details concerning the working of coal 
mines and the character and condition of the miners. 
Zoo.ocists will find in Dr. Theodore Gill’s ‘‘ Synoptical 
Tables of Characters of the Mammalia,” prepared for the Smith- 
sonian Institution of Washington, an excellent, concise, and 
accurate description of the characters of the families of the 
Mammalia, in a form more scientific and manageable than any 
yet published, at the same time that the merits of the most 
modern suggestions are fully weighed. The biography of the 
subject is also exhaustively treated. 
Tue Brighton Aquarium is an institution which all biologists 
undoubtedly look to as one from which much valuable in- 
formation may be obtained on points connected with the habits 
and peculiarities of the animals which it has such advantages in 
retaining. The communications made public by its “ Consulting 
Naturalist,” however, are of a character very different from what 
we should expect from one so favourably placed. A fresh 
arrival is thus announced :—‘‘ One_of the funniest little ‘cusses’ 
ever turned out of Nature’s workshop, in the shape of a seal, 
made a bow to the public in the Brighton Aquarium a few days 
ago.” This is followed, later on, bya guasi advertisement of the 
concert given in the building, in which the’seal is playfully made 
to do duty as the butt for pun and slang quotation. 
THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include two Persian Sheep (Ovis aries), presented by 
Mr. W. H. Shirley ; a Diamond Snake (Morelia spilotes) from 
New South Wales, presented by Mr. H. Frieland ; two Robben 
Island Snakes (Coronella phocarum), presented by the Rev. G. 
H. Fisk ; two Chubb (Zeuciscus cephalus) and a Barbel (Barbus 
vulgaris) presented by Mr, E. S. Wilson; two Ring-tailed 
Lemurs (Zemur catta) from Madagascar; a King Parakeet 
(Aprosmicius scapulatus) from New South Wales; a Black 
Cuckoo (Zudynamys orientalis) from India, purchased; a 
Weeper Capuchin (Cebus capucinus and a White-throated Sa: 
pajou (C. Aygoleucus) from America, deposited. 
NATURE 
A POSSIBLE NEW METHOD OF ELECTRICAL 
ILLUMINATION 
qt will be in the recollection of the readers of the Yournal, 
that, in April last, an analogy was pointed out between 
sunlight and the electric light, and that certain conditions were 
therein indicated as being most fayourable to that particular de_ 
velopment of light which would best bring out the separation o 
the power producing the light from the place of its manifesta- 
tion. Those conditions were the employment of magneto-elec 
tricity, and the use of a closed incandescent conductor in an a . 
mosphere which would not oxidise or otherwise affect the d 
bility of the light-producing material. From the quotation from 
the Russian paper Go/os which follows, it will be seen that the 
results anticipated are even now in the course of realisation, and 
all that practical men can do is, to wish the plan the success it 
seems to deserve, and to wait the result of the further exhibitions 
of its power in London and other places more accessible to the 
Western nations than St. Petersburg :— 
‘©On Tuesday the 8-20 of May, a most interesting trial was 
made for the first time in public at the Admiralty House, St. 
Petersburg, under the auspices of Messrs. S. A. Kosloff ” and 
Co., the proprietors of the patent, of a new system of light- 
ing by electricity, the invention of Mr. A. Ladiguin, of thal 
own, , 
‘* Owing to the restricted space in the hall made use of on 
this occasion, the number of spectators was necessarily limited, 
but still they consisted of more than a hundred specialists from 
different countries, representatives of science, honourable visitors, 
and many reporters, who were all deeply interested, and unani- 
mously decided that the trial was really successful. 
“Up to the present time, as is well known, the electric light 
has been used only for lighthouses, as an electric sun illumina- 
tion for signals, or on the stage, where a strong light may be 
required without regard to cost; but thus far it has been quite 
impossible to employ it for lighting streets or houses. j 
‘By the old method the electric spark was passed between 
two points of charcoal, each attached toa copper wire connected 
with anelectro-magnetic machine. 
‘“*The disadvantages attending this mode consisted in the 
facts that, for each light a separate machine was required, and 
that the flight so obtained, although very powerful, was ime 
possible to be regulated, besides being non-continuous, owing 
to the rapid consumption of the charcoal points from expo 
to air, 
“ All these difficulties Mr. A. Ladiguin has tried and appa 
rently overcome most successfully. 
‘* By his newly-invented method, only one piece of charcoal 
or other bad conductor is required, which being attached to a 
wire connected with an electro-magnetic machine is placed in a 
glass tube, from which the air is exhausted, and replaced by 
gas which will not at a high temperature combine chemica 
with the charcoal. This tube is then hermetically sealed, and 
the machine being set in motion by means of a small steam 
engine, the charcoal becomes gradually and equally heated, and 
emits a soft, steady, and continuous light, which, by a ‘mo: t 
simple contrivance, can be strengthened or weakened at th 
option of those employing it; its duration being dependent 
solely on the electric current, which of course will last as long as 
the machine is kept in motion. ’ 
‘Taking into consideration the fact that one machine, worked 
by a small three-horse power engine, is capable of lighting many 
hundreds of lanterns, it is evident what an enormous advantage 
“and profit could be gained by the illumination of streets, private 
houses, public buildings, and mines with the new electric light, 
In the latter it must prove invaluable, as no explosion need evel 
be feared from it, and these lanterns will burn equally as well 
under water as in a room. 
‘‘Without mentioning the many advantages this mode of 
illumination has over gas, which by its unpleasant odour and 
evaporation is slowly poisoning thousands of human beings, and 
from which explosions are frequent, we can state that by calcu 
lations made, this electric light can be produced at a fifth of the 
cost of coal gas. 
“ We hope shortly to place before the public more complete 
particulars, as well as reports of further experiments which are 
proposed to take place in Vienna, Paris, and London.’ 
* From the Yournal of the Society of Arts. 
