342 
NATURE 
[Aug. 25, 1870 
He received his education at St. Paul’s School and Trinity 
College, Cambridge, and was Senior Wrangler and First Smith’s 
Prizeman in 1806. 
THE Duke of Argyll writes to the Zzmes to say that a re- 
markable meteor which was visible in the north of England on 
the 15th inst., was also seenat Inveraray. ‘It burst,” the Duke 
says, ‘‘about 50 degrees above the horizon in the N.N.W., and 
ts great peculiarity was in the appearance presented by the 
laminous vapour which was the product of its explosion. This 
vapour was brighter than the tail of any comet—at first linear in 
shape—with sharp irregular projections. It was soon, however, 
eurled up, as if by an atmospheric current, into the form of a 
horse-shoe, and in this form seemed to drift very slowly before 
the north-east wind in a south-west direction. It gradually, 
Lut very slowly, lost its brilliancy, remaining visible for more 
han a quarter of an hour.” Two other correspondents of the 
Times describe a very brilliant meteor which was seen in Cam- 
bridgeshire on Saturday night. 
A WATERSPOUT was observed off Calais on Saturday evening. 
From the edge of a thick black thunder-cloud two funnel-shaped 
projections were seen to depend, until they gradually reached 
the surface of the sea, on which they created a great disturbance, 
masses of foam rising up to a considerable height around the 
foot of each waterspout. It was calculated that the long 
streamers hanging down from the cloud to the sea were nearly 
a mile in length. The wind caused them to wave about gently 
and alter their form slightly from time to time. One of the 
waterspouts lasted about ten minutes, and the other about a quarter 
ofan hour. During this time they moved rapidly along the sea. 
ON Saturday evening, August 20, between Ir P.M. and mid- 
night, a very beautiful aurora borealis was seen near Weobley, 
in Herefordshire, stretching from N,N.E. to N.W., and visible, 
with more or less distinctness, for about three hours. 
THE Exgineer states that an exhibition is about to be opened 
in Tromso, the capital of Finmark. The exhibition will contain 
the products and appliances used in the several fisheries, those 
of agriculture, and of mechanical and domestic industry, together 
with objects and products illustrative of the mode of life and 
state of civilisation of the inhabitants of those regions. 
WE recorded recently the purchase by the Belgian Govern- 
ment of the Martius herbarium as the nucleus of a national col- 
lection. The same Government has now also purchased the 
Brussels Botanic Gardens from the Belgian Horticultural Society. 
The capital of Belgium has thus laid the foundation of a national |- 
establishment comparable to those of Paris and London. 
THE Treasurer’s report of the British Medical Congress, which 
has just been sitting for four days at Newcastle-on-Tyne, shows 
that out of an income of 5,000/. per annum it spends just 15/, 
on scientific research. It is stated that the greater part of the 
funds are required to keep afloat its own journal, and that a 
proposition from some of the members to publish an annual 
volume of Transactions found but little favour. 
Two instances are recorded in Les Mondes of somnambulism 
being perfectly cured by the administration of bromide of 
potassium. In one case, a woman of the age of twenty-four who 
had been subject to attacks two or three times a week for ten 
years, was operated upon; the dose given was two grammes of 
the bromide in seventy-five of water per diem, gradually increased 
to six grammes; the attacks became at once less and less 
frequent, and entirely ceased at the end of two months. In the 
other case, a girl of eight was the subject ; one gramme was 
given morning and evening, and the cure was complete and 
immediate. 
WE have received a specimen of paper manufactured 
entirely from wood, which is at least equal in colour and texture 
to the cheaper kinds of ordinary printing paper. There is no 
doubt that the pulp from the fibre of the firand some other kinds 
of wood makes excellent material for paper, which can be pre- 
pared at a low price, the only practical difficulty being the high 
temperature and consequently the high pressure required to 
decompose the non-fibrous matter. Another material now 
actually employed for the manufacture of paper, is the husk and 
seeds of the cotton-pod from which the oil has been expressed, 
the fibrous pulp resulting from this operation is said to be an 
excellent paper-making material. The larger portion of the 
cheaper printing-papers used for newspapers, magazines, &c., is 
now made entirely from the Spanish Esparto grass, a name given 
to two distinct species, MJacrochloa tenacissima, and Lygeum 
spartum, both growing abundantly on the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean; but the comparatively high price of this material, more 
than double what it was a few years since, affords a favourable 
opening for the introduction of other paper-making fibres. 
PROFESSOR ORTON does not give a very encouraging account 
of the intellectual condition of Ecuador. He says :—‘‘ Ecuador 
boasts one university and eleven colleges, yet the people are not 
educated. Literature, science, philosophy, law, and medicine, 
are only names: there is not a single book-store in the city of 
Quito, and there are only four newspapers published in the whole 
of the Republic. In the schools the pupils study in concert 
aloud, Arab fashion.” Yet Professor Orton adds that Chile has 
thought it worth her while lately to sign a convention with 
Ecuador ‘‘ for an exchange of literary productions !” 
THE Government of Nicaragua has sent an expedition under 
Mr. Sonnenstern, a civil engineer, to examine whether the River 
Coco can be made navigable. The report of Mr. Sonnenstern, 
which is favourable, has been published in the Gazette of Nica- 
ragua. ‘The river has hitherto been little known. The Indians 
are stated to be indolent and docile, and might, by contact with 
settlers, be civilised. ‘ 
THERE is a rumour in California that a large quicksilver 
deposit has been discovered in the coast mountains eastward of 
San José. 
THE Ecuador Government has decreed that in the capital and 
suburbs no house constructed of cane and straw shall be per- 
mitted, and that three months after the date of the decree all 
those existing shall be demolished. There was a former decree 
to this effect, which is thus fully enforced. 
THE old Palace of Government at Lima, in Peru, is condemned, 
and a new one, which is to be a stone palace from the designs of 
M. Zoiles, architect and engineer, is to be built. In preparation, 
the ministerial departments have been removed from the old 
building. 
THE Federal Government of the United States of Columbia 
has paid a debt to the state of Panama by the transfer of house 
property in Panama, which is to be converted into a college for 
that city. 
THE Rey. W. A. Leighton, of Shrewsbury, author of the ‘‘ Flora 
of Shropshire,” is preparing for publication ‘‘A Lichen Flora of 
Great Britain, Ireland, and the Channel Islands.” 
WE have to acknowledge the receipt of ‘‘Hogg’s Secret 
Code for Letters or Telegrams,” with instructions for converting 
a message into ciphers, and for converting ciphers into a mes- 
sage. 
TuE Rey. Prof. Haughton reprints from the Dublin Quarterly 
Journal of Medical Science his paper ‘‘ On the Muscular Forces 
employed in Parturition, their amount and mode of application.” 
Kari FRITscH’s ‘‘ Phanologische Beobachtungen aus dem 
Pflanzen und Theirreiche ” contains an immense mass of observa- 
tions taken in the neighbourhood of Vienna and other districts of 
Austria, in the year 1857 (but now for the first time published), 
on what may be termed periodical natural history, that is, the 
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