372 
comparatively early age of fifty-six years. 
to refer to his career and work in detail. 
We hope next week 
THE death is announced at Basle of Prof. Peter Merian, the 
Nestor of Swiss geologists. He was born on December 20, 
1795. His first important work, on the Jura of the Canton 
of Basle, was published in 1821, followed a few years later by a 
geological account of the Southern Schwarzwald. In 1821 he 
was appointed Professor of Physics and Chemistry in his native 
University, and at a later period he accepted the Chair of 
Mineralogy and Geology, which he held for half a century. 
He was more than once chosen rector of his University, 
and throughout his life not only continued his geological 
activity, but took an active interest in scientific work of all 
kinds as well as in public affairs. 
WE learn that Dr. Oscar Dickson arrived in Christiana on the 
‘gth inst. to confer with King Oscar, who is sojourning there, as 
to an Arctic expedition to be despatched this year, under the 
command of Baron Nordenskjold, to North Greenland. 
M. JANSSEN, as leader of the French Eclipse Expedition, will 
embark on March 6 for Panama. He will cross the isthmus by 
rail, and the Eclaireur will be ready at Colon to take him to 
Sable Island, near Caroline Island in the Marquesas group. 
Mr. DEans Cowan, well known for his explorations in 
Madagascar (see Proc. R. Geogr. Soc., vol. iv. p. 521), has now 
fully settled to return there, in order to explore the southern part 
of the island. Of this district little is known, and it may be 
fully expected that Mr. Cowan will get valuable additions to our 
knowledge of the natural history of the country. Mr. Cowan 
calculates that his journey will occupy about two years. His 
plan is to begin at Ambahy on the south-east coast, and to pro- 
ceed inland to the most southern point reached when he made 
his survey of the Bara-land, working southward amongst the 
Tausay and Taudroy people, thence westward towards the dis- 
trict of the Mahafaly tribe, and on to the River Onylahy. This 
will occupy one year. From the Onylahy the route will be 
nearly north through western Bara-land and the Sakalava 
country, ending at Mojanga. As these journeys will be amongst 
the aborigines, and even in different geological formations to 
that from which nearly all our Madagascar specimens are 
obtained, Mr. Cowan expects that the results will be of a most 
valuable character, and help to a solution of many interesting 
questions in regard to Madagascar. 
CoLONEL EMILE GAUTIER has been appointed Director of 
the Observatory of Geneva, in succession to the late Prof. E. 
Plantamour, who had filled the position from 1839. 
On Tuesday, February 6, a large number of scientific men 
and social and political notabilities assembled at the Northern 
Station, Paris, to witness the transmission of energy by an iron 
wire used like an ordinary telegraphic line, and extending to 
Sevran, near Le Bourget, and returning to the station, thus 
completing a distance of 20 kilometres. The primary engine 
was moved by a force of about 5 horse-power, and the force of 
the secondary was said to be 24. No precise measure was 
taken. The experiment was in continuation of the much spoken 
of Munich transmission of energy from Mierbach, according to the 
Marcel-Deprez system. It is not believed that this new experi- 
ment will put an end to the controversy. Many papers have 
reported enthusiastically on the proceedings, and letters have 
been written by electricians claiming to have executed more 
successful trials. It is stated that new experiments on the Marcel- 
Deprez system of transmission of energy will take place under the 
superintendence of M, Tresca, with the same machines as on 
February 6. The Lumiere Electrique states that the percentage 
of force is about 374 per cent., and that the dynamometer for 
NATURE 
| Fed. 15, 1883 
measuring the motive power of the primary machine was not in 
order at the time of the first experiment. 
PROF. FLOWER will commence, at the Royal College of 
Surgeons, oa Monday, the 26th inst., a course of nine lectures 
upon the Anatomy of the Horse and its allies. In the first three 
lectures the general position of the horse in the animal kingdom, 
and its relations to other existing and extinct species will be 
treated of ; the remainder of the course being devoted to a more 
detailed account of the osseous, dental, muscular, nervous, and 
other systems, as compared with those of the generalised Mam- 
malian type, the allied forms of Ungulates, and Man. The 
lectures will be given on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 
and are free to all who take an interest in the subject. 
IT seems that the season of 1882 has, on account of the state 
of the ice in the Arctic seas, undoubtedly been one of the most 
adverse on record. Thus while the Norwegian walrus and white 
fish hunters were unable to get to the north of Spitzbergen and 
the Swedish Meteorological Expedition to Mossel Bay, no vessel 
succeeded in reaching the Siberian rivers. It appears from 
information just to hand that the summer along the coast of 
Siberia has been unusually cold, while incessant north-east winds 
have accumulated drift-ice on the shores to such an extent that 
the estuaries of the Yenissei and the Obi were not once navigable 
in the season. Thus the small steamer Da//mann, of Yenis- 
seisk, belonging to Baron Knop, was quite unable to get from 
the Yenissei into the Obi, and all she accomplished during the 
year was to transfer a few thousand poods of grain from Mr. 
Sibiriakoff’s depot, where it had been lying for some years, to 
Baron Knop’s, to be eventually forwarded to Europe. When it 
is remembered that this was the state of the ice in the eastern 
and southern parts of the Arctic seas, and we remember the 
reports of Mr. Leigh Smith and Sir Henry Gore Booth of open 
water north and east of Novaya Zemblya, it becomes apparent 
that some other part of the Polar basin must have been very free 
from ice during the summer. It seems to be the opinion of 
several authorities, as for instance Baron Nordenskjéld, that any 
vessel which had attempted to penetrate by way of Behring 
Strait would, no doubt, have demonstrated the practicability of 
navigating the Siberian seas every summer from one end or the 
other. This year fresh attempts will be made by Mr. Sibiriakoff, 
Baron Knop, and Dr. Oscar Dickson to open up a trade route 
with Siberia from Europe ; those however acquainted with the 
Arctic seasons would not be surprised to see the ice in the 
summer of 1883 as adverse to Arctic voyaging as it was in 1882. 
THE first news has been received at St. Petersburg from the 
Russian Lena Expedition. Lieut. Harder, who was searching for 
the remains of the victims of the Feanmette disaster, met Dr. 
Bunge and Jiirgens on October 3. He found the members of the 
Lena Expedition in excellent health, and already comfortably 
settled in their winter quarters. 
M. Wo tr, chief of the Physical Department in the Paris 
Observatory, delivered last Saturday evening a lecture at the 
Sorbonne, on the Methods employed in Astronomical Physics, 
before a very large and enthusiastic audience. M. Wolf insisted 
upon the three methods employed by astronomers, viz. ocular 
inspection with telescopes, spectroscopic analysis, and photo- 
graphy. He dwelt upon the difficulties of vision with instru- 
ments possessed of a great magnifying power, and he tried to 
oppose the popular delusion that any description of celestial 
phenomena could be photographed with advantage. He 
explained that this method should be almost exclusively confined 
to the sun and moon, The lecture was illustrated by many 
experiments and projections. 
AN important advance is in course of realisation in the use of 
telegraphy for French newspapers. The Reforme has hired a 
