Feb, 8, 1883] ~ 
THE Smithsonian Institution have received from Dr. Stej- 
neger, who was despatched on a scientific mission to Behring 
Island some time since, e/even fairly perfect crania of the extinct 
Sirenian Mammal, Riytina stelleri, together with sets of nearly 
all the other bones of the skeleton. 
THE Royal Swedish Geographical Society has decided to 
appoint a committee, consisting of Professors Nordenskjéld and 
Gyldén, and Consul Elfwing, to consider the proposal for an 
international meridian and a common time. This committee 
has requested Consul Elfwing to draw up the Society’s report on 
the question. 
THE eminent Swedish paleontologist, Nathorst, has published 
the results of his examination of the fossil plants collected by 
the Vega expedition at Mogi, in South Japan. According to 
Hr. Nathorst these remains belong to the Tertiary period, and 
while they are older than the Glacial age, they would yet seem 
to be referable to a time when the climate was colder than at 
present, This instance of the pre-ence in Eastern Asia of a 
flora of polar origin shortly before the advent of the Glacial 
period, is considered especially interesting from the strong evi- 
dence which it affords in favour of the theory of the migrations 
of plants in the early ages of the world’s history. 
FROMacommunication of theresults of Herr Hakonson-Hansen’s 
observations of the November auroral displays which is printed in 
the last number of WVaturen, we learn that while there were as 
many as nineteen specially vivid and one ordinary manifestation 
at Trondhjem in that month, the extraordinary length of time 
during which the aurore retained their brightness gave a special 
character to the phenomena. On every night of the week from 
the 12th to the 18th inclusive, the heavens were illuminated with 
the auroral light, which on the 13th appeared as early as 4 p.m., 
while on the 17th it continued visible from $ p.m. till 6 a.m. 
on the following morning. During this period it was found 
almost impossible to work the telegraphic wires by day or night, 
The most striking display occurred on the 18th, at 4.30 a.m. 
when a brilliant corona appeared in the zenith, from which vivid 
streams of light stretched to the horizon, while luminous waves 
flowed uninterruptedly from the latter towards the corona, dif- 
fusing so strong alight as to enable one with ease to read mode- 
rately clear print. On the same day, at Gothenburg, it was 
found impossible to make the wires act. 
Naturen warns its readers not to put implicit faith in the 
statements made in reference to the large yields of silver, which 
may be expected from the old silver mines in Nordland. Ac- 
cording to the prospectus of a company, which offers the public 
one thousand shares in the Svenningdal mine, near the little 
town Mosjo, 162,000 kroner’s worth of ore was purchased from 
the owners in 1881 for the silver works at Freiberg in Saxony, 
yet, as the writer points out, there were only twenty-five men 
employed in the mine in the course of that year! It is well 
known that traces of silver are constantly found in the galena 
and cadmium yielded by these mines, but this fact even the most 
daring of speculators must admit to be a very insufficient basis, 
on which to maintain the numerous companies, amounting, it is 
said, to one hundred, which are offering the public at home and 
abroad shares in one, or other of the more or less exhausted 
mines of Nordland. 
THE Anthropological Society of Paris has received from one 
of its members, Dr. Benzengre, a report of the autopsy of 
General Skobeleff, from which it would appear that the weight 
of the brain, according to Broca’s system, was 1457, which is 
considerably above the mean for ordinary adult Europeans of 
his height (1°73m.) and even slightly above that hitherto given 
for men of exceptionally great intellect. 
NATURE 
347 
Dr. WILLIAM H. STONE will give the first of three lectures, 
at the Royal Institution, on Singing, Speaking, and Stammering, 
on Saturday next (February 17); and Prof. Robert S. Ball will 
give the first of four lectures on the Supreme Discoveries in 
Astronomy, on Tuesday (February 20). 
THE Norwegian Government have commissioned Dr, S. A. 
Buch during the present year to make researches, practical as 
well as scientific, into the great herring fisheries which annually 
take place on the west coast of Norway. 
THE new mathematical journal, Acta mathematica (noticed in 
another column), published in Stockholm, Berlin, and Paris, has 
received a subsidy of kr. 1000 from the Swedish Government, 
while the Danish have granted a sum of 60/. a year to the editors 
in Denmark—Prof. Lorenz, and Drs. Petersen and Zeuthen. 
THE U.S. Commissioners of Fish and Fisheries propose to 
build a large aquarium at Wood’s Hole, Mass., in connection 
with their new station there. The aquarium will be devoted to 
biological researches of every description, At the adjoining 
station preparations are being made for the artificial propagation 
of cod, mackerel, halibut, and other fishes useful for food, and 
it is expected to hatch annually a thousand millions of cod and 
of other kinds in proportion. 
AT the meeting of the Essex Field Club held on January 27, a 
resolution was passed condemning the proposed extension of the 
Great Eastern Railway from Chingford to High Beach. The 
Club regards it as ‘‘ wholly unnecessary for the railway to take 
the route projeczed, and that it would not fail to prejudicially 
affect the advantages secured by the Epping Forest Act, which 
directs that the forest is to be preserved as far as possible in its 
natural aspect, and the Society hereby authorises the Council to 
petition Parliament against the project, and to send copies of 
this Resolution to the Press.” 
Pror. VERGA has been recently investigating the subject of 
intemperance in Milan (Reale Jst. Lomb.), a vice which seems 
to be on the increase there. Among other things he notes that 
suicide and kleptomania are very rare among the drunkards. 
With regard to the two sexes, he says that women fall much less 
easily into intemperance than men, and that drunken women 
belong to the lowest social strata, and show true brutification. 
Men appear to give themselves to excessive drinking more in the 
cold season ; women in the mild season. Women relapse more 
frequently and shamefully into drunkenness than men, and more 
easily remain victims. The female drunkard excites disgust or 
laughter by her behaviour, but is not dangerous either to herself 
or to others; the male drunkard alarms by his excesses, and has 
often to be severely punished. 
THE behaviour of the virus of anthrax in the form of spores 
and in that of the bacterium (Bacz//us anthracis) under heat and 
various reagents, has been investigated fully by Signor Perroncito, 
The results are published in the Ali della R. Accademia det 
Lincei, and show well how much greater power of resistance the 
spore has than the bacterium. 
THE Jablochkoff light of the Avenue de l’Opera having been 
extinguished, the Place de Carrousel is the only street now 
electrically lighted in Paris at the expense of the Municipal 
Exchequer. But the electric light is every day finding new 
fields of display ; a building company who are erecting a large 
structure in the Paris will manufacture the light on their own 
premises for their own use, and <ell it to the tenants at moderate 
rates. 
M. THOLLON has sent from Nice to the Academy of Sciences 
a determination of the velocity of the motion of the great 1882 
comet, calculated from the displacement of the spectral rays. 
