Fan. 18, 1883] 
NATURE 
277 
The following winter this battery was taken ty St. Petersburg, 
and Prof. Lenz demonstrated its action to a distinguished 
auditory, formed of members of the Imperial family and generals 
of the army. It was during this lecture that M. Lewitski 
obtained a photograph of the professor, A positive of this 
portrait was presented by M. Lermantoff to the Russian Physical 
Society at the séance on December 14, 1880, It is by no means 
a poor photograph, but full of detail in the shadows and half 
tints. 
In a recent report of the Berlin Physical Society (p. 95) we 
referred to some valuable observations by Dr. Koenig with Prof. 
Helmholtz’s new instrument, called the Zewkoscope. We observe 
that a detailed account (with illustration) of the instrument and 
of the results obtained with it, appears in //“edemann’s Annalen, 
Nos. 12 and 13 of last year. 
Pror, F, W. Purnam has concluded a very successful course 
of lectures at the Peabody Museum, Boston, on some of the 
most interesting of American antiquities. The Boston Evening 
Transcrift in an article on the lectures says:—‘‘It is to be 
hoped that the curator will not again be retarded in his work 
from the want of means for its prosecution, when he has shown, 
as he has in this course of lectures, how much can be done at 
comparatively little expense under proper methods of research. 
As he said in his lecture, what is to be done must be done at 
once, and it would be a great pity to have the opportunities now 
open to him lost to science. The ancient city known to the 
present inhabitants of the Little Miami Valley, thirty-five miles 
east of Cincinnati, as ‘Fort Ancient,’ would be worth to 
American scholars for study as much as any of the old Greek 
cities that have been so thoroughly dug over by European 
explorers and students. Certainly American scholars should 
lead in American archeology and ethnology. ‘The restoration 
or preservation of these wonderful remains of a comparatively 
enlightened prehistoric American people would be a glorious 
monument for any American Institution of learning and 
science.” 
SHocks of earthquake have been felt in the province of 
Murcia, in Spain. Seven shocks occurred at Archena on the 
zith inst. Shocks have also been felt at Fortuna, Muta, Ricotel 
and other towns in Murcia. Eleven distinct shocks were felt 
on Tuesday morning at Archena, between the hours of three and 
six. Some lasted fifteen, and others lasted two seconds. An 
earthquake of a few seconds duration was experienced at Kultorp, 
near Kalmar, in Sweden, at 8.50 p.m. on the 12th inst. A 
slight shock of earthquake was felt at Monmouth at five o’clock 
on Tuesday evening, accompanied by a light, rushing noise. The 
wave seemed to pass from south-east to north-west. 
A REMARKABLE discovery of the elder Xue inscriptions has 
just been made in Ryfylke in Norway. The characters have 
been made on a stone, the arrival of which in Christiania is 
awaited with great interest by savants. 
THE French Minister of Postal Telegraphy in France has 
established at the central office a special course of lectures on 
Wheatstone’s automatic apparatus, to which sixteen competent 
operators, from different parts of the country, have been admitted, 
‘Lhe course of lectures and experiments has lasted two months. 
The pupils are now passing an examination, and a special certi- 
ficate will be issued to the successful candidates, which will 
greatly help them in their future promotion in the postal tele- 
graphic service. 
THE Parc Montceau, placed in one of the most fashionable 
parts of Paris is now lighted by Jablochkoff candles with success. 
ADMIRAL Moucuez has issued his invitation for the Soirées 
de \’Observatoire, at which as usual will be exhibited all the 
scientific novelties of the year. 
M. CHEVREUL has been unanimously nominated once more 
President of the French Société Nationale d’Agriculture. 
if is expected that the French Government will take in hand 
the celebration of the centenary of the discovery of balloons. 
The two committees which had been formed by several 
aeronautical societies have been amalgamated, and M, Gaston 
Tissandier has been appointed president. The scheme of an 
international exhibition for balloons and instruments used in 
aérial investigations has been adopted by M. Herrisson, the 
Minister of Public Works, and will be carried into effect by M. 
Armengaud Jeane, the well-known civil engineer. 
In his speech on laying down his office, previous to being 
admitted Vice-Chancellor for the year 1883, Dr. Porter, 
Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, referred to the endowments 
of the new Professorships of Physiology and Pathology, 
increased grants to the museums and lecture-rooms, and a 
chemical Jaboratory on an adequate scale, as among the more 
urgent claims on the new funds available to the University. 
Pror, FRispy writes from the U.S. Naval Observatory, 
Washington, that in the circular he lately sent (NATURE, 
vol. xxvii, p. 226), giving elliptic orbit of great comet, 
¢ = 89° 7’ 42"*70 should be @ = 89° 13' 42"""70. 
THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include a Bonnet Monkey (AZacacus radiatus 8) from 
India, presented by Mr. C. James; a Common Otter (Zutra 
vulgaris), British, presented by Mr. E. P. Squarey; a Black- 
necked Hare (Lepus nigricollis 6) from Ceylon, presented by 
Mr. W. Bowden Smith; an Indian Antelope (Avéilope cervi- 
capra) from India, presented by Capt. R. Brooke Hunt ; a Bohor 
Antelope (Cervicapra bohor 2) from India, presented by Mr. W. 
J. Evelyn ; a Black-backed Jackal (Canis mesomelas) from South 
Africa, presented by Mr, J. S. Crow; a Larger Hill Mynah 
(Gracula intermedia) from India, presented by Mrs. M. R. 
Manuel ; three Passenger Pigeons (Zcéopistes migratorius) from 
North America, presented by Mr. F. J. Thompson; a 
Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma ) from California, pre- 
sented by Mr. Martin R. de Selincourt ; a Common Adder 
(Vipera berus), British, presented by Mr. J. Harris ; an Indian 
Black Cuckoo (Zudynamys orientalis) from India, purchased ; 
an Axis Deer (Cervus axis 6), born in the Gardens. 
APPROXIMATIVE PHOTOMETRIC MEASURE- 
MENTS OF SUN, MOON, CLOUDY SKY, 
AND ELECTRIC AND OTHER ARTIFICIAL 
LIGHTS * 
IR WILLIAM THOMSON pointed out that the light and 
heat perceived in the radiations from hot bodies were but the 
different modes in which the energy of vibration induced by the 
heat was conveyed to our consciousness. <A hot kettle ; red-hot 
iron ; incandescent iron, platinum, or carbon, the incandescence in 
the electric arc, all radiate energy in the same manner, and accord- 
ing as it is perceived through the sense of sight, by its organ the 
eye, or by the sense of heat,? we speak of it as light or heat. 
When the period of vibration is longer than one four-hundred- 
million-millionth of a second, the radiation can only be per 
ceived by the sense of heat; when the period of vibration is 
Abstract of lecture at the Glasgow Philosophical Society, by Sir William 
Thomson, F.R.S. A 
2 Sometimes wrongly called the sense of touch. The true list of the 
senses, first given, I believe, by Dr. Thos. Reid, makes two of what used 
to be called the sense of touch, so that, instead of the still too common 
wrong-reckoning of five senses, we have six, as follows :— 
Sense of Force. 
oF Heat. 
an Sound. 
o Light. 
a Taste 
= Smell. 
