192 
NATURE 
| Fuly 7, 1870 
THE Moniteur Scientifique for June 15th, edited by Dr. Quesne- 
ville, contains three articles taken from our columns, the source 
of two only of which are acknowledged—‘“‘ The Science of Ex- 
plosives applied to the Art of War,” and ‘‘ Scientific Experimental 
Research,” by Mr. George Gore (or, as the French rendering has 
it, Mr. George Core). The third, Dr. Lankester’s article on 
«*The Extract of Meat,” appears as an original paper. 
THE annual meeting of the Royal Archeological Institute of 
Great Britain and Ireland will be held at Leicester at the end of 
the present month. The meeting is under the patronage of Her 
Majesty and the Prince of Wales, and Lord Talbot de Mala- 
hide, F.S.A., is the president of the year. Leicester itself 
possesses many features of archeological interest. These in- 
clude its medizeval churches, the Norman hall of its ancient 
castle, the ‘‘newarke” of the castle, numerous Roman pave- 
ments, one being 7 si¢#, and the noted mass of Roman masonry 
called the ‘*Jewry Wall,” the ancient hall of Corpus Christi 
Guild, the Chapel of Trinity Hospital, and the now forsaken 
hospital of William de Wyggelston. With these may be 
mentioned the site of Leicester Abbey, surrounded by its 
original walls, where Cardinal Wolsey breathed his last. 
Among the features of interest which will be included in the 
proceedings of the week will be the inspection of Kirby, Mux- 
loe Castle, Ashby-de-la-Zouch Castle, the ruins in Bradgate 
Park, so intimately connected with Lady Jane Grey, the re- 
mains of Ulverscroft Priory, the curious stained glass of Wood- 
house Chapel, the house known as Latimer’s at Thurcaston, the 
noble church at Melton Mowbray, the fine Norman hall at 
Oakham, the interesting hall and church at Exton, and the re- 
markable encampment at Barrow-on-the-Hill. A temporary 
museum will be established as usual during the week, and will 
include a collection of portraits of worthies connected with the 
counties of Leicester and Rutland. 
THE general monthly meeting of the Royal Institution of 
Great Britain was held on Monday, July 4, Sir R. I. Murchison, 
K.C.B., F.R.S., in the chair. The secretary announced the 
receipt of 2,000/., a legacy from the late Mr. Alfred Davis, 
M.R.1., for the promotion of experimental researches. 
BaBoo RADANAUTH SICKDAR, for many years chief computer 
to the Trigonometrical Survey of India, at one time in charge of 
the Calcutta Observatory, and a mathematician of some attain- 
ments, died in May last at Calcutta. 
Tue Governor of Madras has presented to the Horticultural 
Gardens there four young date palms, which he has procured 
from Egypt. 
THERE has been for some time in India a discussion on the sub- 
ject of pearl oyster banks on the Tinnevelly coast. Those who have 
maintained the existence of the oysters are now fully confirmed 
by the discovery of young oysters in abundance. One bank is 
four miles in length and about two in width, and in another two 
years will yield a good harvest of pearls. 
A MINERAL spring has been discovered in the Gheiveh hills, 
near Broussa, in Asia Minor. 
THE foundation-stone of a new Observatory was laid at Port 
Louis, Mauritius, on the 30th of May, by H.R.H. the Duke 
of Edinburgh, to be called the Royal Alfred Observatory. In 
addition to astronomical observations, it is intended to make the 
Observatory a centre for researches for the advancement of me- 
teorology and terrestrial magnetism. Full particulars of the 
ceremony will be found in another column, In Sir Henry 
Barkly, who is about to leave Mauritius for the Cape, the colony 
will lose a Governor who has always had at heart the promo- 
tion of everything connected with physical and natural science. 
Tue temperature of the Cranial Cavity has lately been in- 
vestigated by Mendel, of Pankow near Berlin. He states that 
Fick had already found the normal temperature of the cranial 
cavity to be lower than that of the body generally. Jacobson 
and Bernhardt had similarly noticed the inferior temperature of 
the blood arriving at the heart by the superior vena cava, and the 
depression produced by it in the right cavities. M. Mendel 
corroborates these results, and finds constantly that in health 
there is a difference of from seven-tenths to one degree centigrade 
between the temperature of the cranial cavity and the rectum in 
the rabbit, and that in the dog the difference is almost as well 
marked. Duméril and Demarquay have shown that the tempera- 
ture of the body is lowered by the action of chloroform. 
Bouisson arrived at the same results, as have also Sulzynski and 
Scheinnesson ; the latter experimenting upon man. ‘The diffe- 
rence observed by Mendel between the cranial and rectal tem- 
perature is much more pronounced when the animal is under 
the influence of chloroform than when in health. Chloroform 
lowers the temperature generally, but especially that of the 
cranial cavity. The effects produced by chloral on the general 
temperature have been already studied by Demarquay. This 
author has found that the temperature of the body falls several 
tenths of a degree. Mendel arrives at the same results in re- 
gard to the temperature of the cranial cavity, except that it falls 
toa still greater degree than the general temperature. Dequix, 
Dupuy, Leuret, and Gscheidlen have found that after a medi- 
cinal dose of morphia the temperature of the body rises, though 
when given in a poisonous dose it falls. Mendel again arrives 
at a similar conclusion, viz., that the depression of temperature 
is more rapid and more marked in the cranial cavity than in the 
rest of the body. In poisoning by alcohol the temperature of 
the cranial cavity rises to such a point that it surpasses the tem- 
perature of the rectum. 
THE hygrometrical balance compensating for the severe drought 
under which Western Europe has been suffering for the past 
three months, appears to have been maintained by an unusually 
heavy rainfall, reported at the Paris Observatory as having been 
experienced in Egypt, Lybia, Asia Minor, and Russia. The 
Paris correspondent of the Dai/y News states that two theories 
to account for the drought have been broached among French 
savants, One of these attributes to the cutting of the Suez 
Canal a displacement of the atmospheric currents which re- 
gulate the weather of Europe and North Africa! The other 
theory is grounded on the statement that the spring rains in 
France are caused by atmospheric commotions resulting from the 
breaking up of the ice fields to the east of Newfoundland, and 
that for this reason a longand severe winter in the Arctic regions 
is followed by a dry spring and severe and destructive sum- 
mer storms in Central and Western Europe. The author of this 
theory suggests that science should be employed in breaking up 
the ice-fields at the end of a severe winter by nitro-glycerine and 
picrate of potassium. This scheme is advocated in the pages of 
Cosmos, by a civil engineer of the name of V. Prou, who 
proposes forming an ‘‘ Insurance Company against Drought,” 
for the purpose of assisting nature in the disintegration of the 
Polar ice, and thus forming a more equable temperature. 
WE are glad to see that the savants of Haarlem continue to 
bring out the ‘‘ Archives du Musée Teyler.” The new fasciculus 
just received in London contains the following papers :—‘* Sur 
les insectes fossiles du calcaire lithographique de la Baviére,” 
by H. Weyenbergh, jun. ; ‘‘ Description d’un crinoide et d’un 
poisson du systeme heersien,” by Dr. T. C. Winkler, and a 
further instalment ‘‘Sur la Dispersion,” by Van der Willigen. 
The plates representing the fossil insects and the crinoid are 
beautifully executed, and for purposes of study are almost as 
good as the originals. By way of explanation we mention that 
the ‘*Systéme Heersien,” takes its name from a district in the 
province of Limburg, in which two villages, Upper and Lower 
Heers, are situate. 
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