~ 42 : 
A COLOSSAL statue of George Stephenson, and another of 
James Watt, both after models by Prof. Keil, are now being 
completed in the studio of the eminent German sculptor, Herr 
Bock, and are intended for the new Poly echnic at Charlotten- 
burg, near Berlin. 
THE comet was seen at the Paris Observatory by M. 
Bigourden, one of the astronomers, on October 23. It was 
found to be very brilliant, The observation was presented by 
M, Mouchez, with two others done by M. Thollon at the Nice 
Observatory. The sodium lines, which were very brilliant on 
September 18, had wholly disappeared on October 9, when the 
comet was seen for the first time after a very long observation 
of the sky, 
TRE first meeting of the One Hundredth and Twenty-Ninth 
Session of the Society of Arts will be held on Wednesday, 
November 15, when the Opening Address will be delivered by 
Charles William Siemens, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S,, Chairman 
of the Council, The following papers are announced for read- 
ing at the meetings before Christmas —J. Hopkinson, D.Se., 
F.R.S., Ice-making and Refrigerating ; W. H. Preece, FLR.S., 
of Crops; P. L. Simmonds, the Utilisation of Waste; W. K. 
Burton, the Sanitary Inspection of Houses, For meetings after 
Christmas :—J. H, Evans, the Mcdern Lathe; Capt. J. H. 
Colomb, R.N., Collisions at Sea; A. ]. Hipkins, the History 
of the rPianoforte ;, J. Donaldson, the Construction of Torpedo 
Boats ; C. F, Cross. FLC\S., Technical Aspects of Lignification ; 
W. N, Hartley, FLR.S.E., Self:purification of River Waters ; 
James J. Dobbie, D.Sc., and John Hutchinson, the Application 
of Electrolysis to Bleaching and Printing”? Arrangements have 
been made for Five Courses of Cantor Lectures :—On Dynamo- 
Electric Machinery, by Prof. Silvanus P. Thomson, D.Se. ; on 
Solid and Liquid Mluminating Agents, by Leopold Field; on 
the Decorative Treatment of Metal in Architecture, by G. H. 
Birch; on the Transmission of Energy, by Prof. Osborne 
Reynolds, M.A., F.LR.S.; on Secondary Batteries, by Prof. 
Oliver J. Lodge, M.A., D.Sc. The usual short Course of 
Juvenile Lectures will be given during the Christma; holidays 
by Prof. Henry Nottidge Moseley, M.A., F.R.S., on the 
Inhabitants of the Ocean. 
Pror, GrorGs M. MINCHIN will publish very shortly, at the 
Clarendon Press, a work on ‘* Uniplanar Kinematics of Solids 
and Fluids, with Applications to the Distribution and Flow of 
Electricity.” It aims at supplying a deficiency in the course of 
mathematical physics usually pursued by the higher-class students 
in our colleges and universities, by enabling them to enter into 
the study of kinetics with clear notions of acceleration and other 
leading conceptions which belong to the province of kinematics, 
NATURE 
THE delegates of the Clarendon Press have determined to | 
| graphs, and in their faithfulness to reality are a great improve- 
issue a series of translations of important original papers in 
foreign languages on biological subjects, and have committed 
the editing of these memoirs to Dr. Michael Foster, Dr. Pye- 
Smith, and Dr. Burdon Sanderson, It is proposed that the 
series should begin with a single volume of about 750 pages, to 
be divided into three parts ; the first to comprise the treatise of 
Prof. Heidenhain on ‘‘ The Physiology of the Process of Secre- 
tion” ; the second a series of four papers by Prof. Goltz oa 
“The Functions of the Brain,” and a memoir by N. Bubnoff 
and Prof, Heidenhain on *‘ Excitatory and Inhibitory Processes 
in the Motor Centres of the Brain” ; and the third a series of 
memoirs by Prof. Engelmann on “ The Structure and Physiology 
of the Elementary Contractile Tissues.” It is intended that 
each part should be complete in itself, and should be published 
separately. 
THE medical faculty of the Gdttingen University has 
announced as a subject of prize competition, for 1833, a 
| a fish a little under the water, and uses only his ear. 
. eH reo 
(Vow. 9, 1882 
thorough investigation with the more recent aids of microscopical 
art, of the mucous membrane of the bladder and urethra of both 
sexes, especially with reference to their gland-contents, and the 
varying forms of the epithelial cells in expansion of the ducts, 
The philosophical faculty propounds two subjects, one of which 
is an investigation and setting forth of the mode of development 
of the flower of our common mistletoe (Viscum album), with 
critical consideration of the literature of the subject. 
Mount Erna has for some days been showing great and 
increasing activity, emitting flashes of fire and dense volumes 
of smoke, 
AN Arabic manuscript of the year 1365, from which Herr 
Gildemeister has translated several extracts for the Gottingen 
Society of Sciences, affords an interesting peep at nautical matters 
among the Arabians of those times. The author deals separately 
with the ships of the Mediterranean, of the Indian Ocean, and 
Red Sea, and of the Nile and other rivers. /nver alfa, he describes 
a mariner’s compass ; and this is noteworthy, inasmuch as only 
one description of the instrument in an Arabian work has hitherto 
8 ae aaa , ee } snown (it is ‘ art ying is a curious 
Electrical Exhibitions ; William A. Gibbs, the Artificial Drying | been Known (it is of date raga). ‘The following eS 
picture :—‘* A ship [of the Indian Ocean] carries generally four 
divers, whose only duty is, when the water rises in the ship, to 
smear themselves with sesame oil, stop their nostrils with wax, 
and, while the ship is sailing, jump into the sea, Each has two 
hooks connected with a thin line; one of these he fixes in the 
wood of the ship, and with the othee he dives. He swims like 
Where he 
hears the trickling of waterhe stops with wax w here there are hcles, 
stopped with pala stems, and where there is sewing, he often 
passes a piece of cocoa fibre through the fixed palm stem, The 
thing is easy to him; in a day he stops over twenty or thirty 
leaks, The diver comes up, without inconvenience, whether 
there is wind or calm,” 
THREE new Lyceums, in which instruction will be given in 
Finnish, will be opened in a few weeks in Finland, at “Abo, 
Uleaborg, and Bjérneborg, thrs raising the number of Finnish 
Lyceums to eight. In the Helsingfors University, lectures in 
| Finnish are delivered on all subjects in connection with the 
Archeology and History of the north, as also in Botany by 
Prof. Wainio. 
M. W, DE FONVIELLE has just published (Hachette and Co.) 
a little volume on “La Pose du Premier Cable,” in which the 
principal incidents connected with this great undertaking are 
told in a dramatic and popular manner, 
Mr, Muysrince has issued a series of his well-known instan- 
taneous pictures of animals in motion, adapted for the zoetrope. 
Those sent to us include the horse under various conditions, the 
deer, and the dog. They are exact reproductions of the photo- 
ment on the existing zoetrope pictures. Mr. Muybridge is 
preparing for publication a complete series of his original 
photographs, adapted for his zoopraxiseope. 
Unber the tide of ‘La Navigation Electrique” (Paris, 
Baudry), M. Georges Dary gives some interesting notes on 
electric navigation, with special reference to the experiments of 
M. Trouvé. Bemrose and Son have issued a little handbook, 
** The Electric Light Popularly Explained,” by Mr. A. Bromley 
Holmes ; and Macmillan and Co. a useful manual of “ Electric 
Light Arithmetic,” by Mr. R. E. Day, M.A. 
Tue Austrian Archeological Expedition to Asia Minor has 
returned to Vienna, and the objeets found in the excavations 
made and packed in 167 cases have arrived there. 
Pror. Srarony has recently ascended the Dachstein in order 
to make some exact measurements concerning the decrease of 
