March 8, 1883] 
NATURE 
445 
Roveili finds that 8° of dark heat neutralise the effect of the 
weak light emitted by a common candle at the distance of 45 
centimetres from the radiometer. The instrument may serve 
aivantageously to demonstrate the relation between the absorp- 
tive and the emissive power of bodies, and to determine their 
respective values. 
M. Ferry, the new Premier in the French Cabinet, as well 
as Minister for Public Instruction, will deliver the usual address 
to the Congrés des Sociétés Savantes at the end of this month. 
M. Houzeau, the director of the Brussels Observatory, has 
returned from San José, but has obtained leave from his Govern- 
ment, and will spend the remaining part of the winter at Cannes, 
The King of Belgium is anxious to have the Observatory trans- 
ferred to Laeken, to an eligible site placed in the vicinity of his 
castle, but nothing is decided in that respect. A temporary shed 
has been erected for the new meridian circle by Repsold, but the 
readings are taken with the old one. 
M. SHULACHENKO, who managed the Russian military tele- 
‘graph during the Kulja expedition, communicates to the Russian 
Physical Society the following results of his experiments with 
Siemens’ telephones :—At adistance of 93 miles, music, singing, 
and speaking were heard quite distinctly ; at 130 miles, conver- 
sation was difficult, —it was necessary to shout loudly, and those 
who received messages had to display a great sensibility of ear ; 
but it was possible to have conversation even at a distance of 
212 miles. When six pairs of telephones were put side by side, 
having each its wire, and the wires not being connected with one 
another, the conversation on one of them was heard on all the 
others. When the connecting wire of one pair of telephones 
was broken, the conversation on this pair was heard on the next 
pair of telephones the wire of which was in good state. 
A COMMEMORATIVE stone has been placed on the house 
No. 17 in Via Dei Prefetti, Rome, to Morse, the telegraphist. 
The inscription was as follows, translated into English :— 
**Samuel Finkez Breese Morse inhabited this house from 2oth 
February, 1830, to January, 1831, inventor of the writing electro- 
magnetic telegraph. He was born at Charlestown 27th April, 
1791 ; died at New York 2d April, 1872.” 
THE last number of the Zzvest7a of the Russian Geographical 
Society gives interesting particulars of the naphtha-wells in the 
province of Ferghana, in ‘lurkistan. There are no less than 
200 wells which are situated at the foot of both mountain ridges 
that inclose the valley of Ferghana. One range of wells, twenty- 
seven miles long, is situated on both banks of the Naryn. twenty 
miles north of Namangan. The other, about sixty-five miles 
long, is situated in the latitude of Makhram, in the districts of 
Marghilan and Kokan. There is a third intermediate group 
some thirty miles east of Andijan. The wells are situated in 
the limestones and slates of the ‘* #erghana level” of the chalk 
formation. The specific weight of the Ferghana naphtha is 
0°950 at 17° Cels., 09517 at 28°, and 07945 at 43°; it belongs 
therefore to the heavy mineral oils. The heavier parts remaining 
after the evaporation of naphtha in open air are known under 
the name of £4//k, and when mixed with sand give an excellent 
waterproof cement, sometimes used by natives for irrigation 
canals, ‘There are also mines of mountain-wax on the Kok-tube 
Mountain, in the district of Namangan, and a very good mine 
of sulphur at Karim-duvany. 
M,. DoMojrIROFF continues to publish in the /evestéa of the 
Russian Gcographical Society his anemometric observations on 
board the clipper Djigtit, In June, 1881, during the cruise 
from the Zond Strait to the Seychelles Islands, he met mostly 
with south-east winds, the velocity of which varied from 3 to 
7°5 metres per second, with one exception, on June 9, when it 
| 
reached 15 metres. On the cruise from the Seychelles to Aden, 
from June 25 to 30, the wind was mostly south-west, and varied 
from 5 to 12°7, reaching 14°3 metres per second on June 29. 
The observations are carried on in the same way as was described 
in a preceding number of NATURE, 
THE young West Siberian branch of the Russian Geographi- 
cal Society proposes to publish in its next volume of Memoirs a 
botanical description of the district of Tara, which has the 
interest of having an intermediate flora between the forest region 
and the Steppes, the Irtish being a boundary-line between the 
two. The same Soriety continues the excavation of several 
koorgans in the district of Yalutorovsk. 
FROM various parts of the Greek Archipelago and from the 
Pelikon district continued volcanic phenomena are reported. 
The neighbourhood of Volo in Thessaly is particularly affected. 
Also the island of Chios seems again to be a centre of disturb- 
ance. The volcano at Santorin is very active. 
On February 16, at 8.10 a.m., a slight earthquake was noted 
at Bologna and the whole Southern Romagna. Mount Vesuyius 
increased its activity on that occasion. 
A DISCOVERY, which is expected to throw some light on pre- 
historic times in what is now Germany, has been made near 
Andernach on the Rhine. Remains of prehistoric animals 
have been found ina pumice-stone pit, and Prof. Schaaffhausen 
of Bonn has investigated the spot closely, A lava-stream under- 
lying the pumice-stone was laid bare, showing a width of only 
two metres. The crevices between the blocks of lava were filled 
with pumice-stone to a depth of one-half io one metre ; below 
this, however, there was pure loam and clay, and in this were 
found numerous animal bones, apparently broken by man, as 
well as many stone implements. It is supposed that there was 
a settlement there, of which the food-remains fell into the lava- 
crevices defore the whole was covered with pumice-stone, 
Tue additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include a Macaque Monkey (Aacacus cynomolgus) 
from India, presented by Miss Annie M. Davis; an Ocelot 
(Felis pardalis) from South America, presented by Mrs. A. 
Harley ; a Grey Ichneumon (/erfestes griseus) from India, pre- 
sented by Miss G, Gordon Clark; a Black Rat (MZus rattus), 
British, presented by Mr. H. B. Stott; a Tawny Eagle (Aguila 
nevioides) from South Africa, presented by Mr, Roland Trimen, 
F.Z.S. ; a Slender-billed Cockatoo (Licmetis tenuirostris) from 
South Australia, presented by Mr. A. Anderson; a Common 
Magpie (Pica rustica), British, presented by Mr. Charles Davis ; 
a Ring-necked Parrakeet (Padeoriis torguatus) from India, pre- 
sented by Miss Bibby ; a Common Curlew (Wiwnenius arquata), 
a Golden Plover (Charadrius pluvialis), British, purchased, 
OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 
Tue Comer 1883 a.—Ina circular issued from the Imperial 
Academy of Sciences, Vienna, are the following elements of a 
comet discovered at Rochester, N.Y., on the 23rd ult., founded 
by Dr. Hepperger upon observations on February 24, 25, and 26. 
Perihelion passage, February 20'20206 M.'. at Berlin. 
Longitude of perihelion 33 23 51 = 
a ascending node 280 4 al eee 
Mmelination| <.. <2. sa een ses 77 32 48 | : 
Logarithm of perihelion distance 9°379124 
Motion—direct. 
Prof, Millosevich kindly communicates observations made at the 
Collegio Romano in Rome :— 
Rome M.T. R.A. Decl, 
h. m. s. h. im. Ss. Ae Gy iy 
Feb, 28 7 431 23 43 19°58 +31 37 545 
March 1 7 53 14 ess, ir27 +31 49 7° 
