94 



NATURE 



\_Dec. 3, 1874 



The observations of the November swarm of falling stars at 

 the several French stations had no result. It seems pretty certain 

 that the phenomenon is now at its lowest ebb of brilliancy. 



M. Chevreul, the director of the Paris Museum, has resigned 

 his office owing to difficulties in the nomination of a professor. 

 The administration and the professors have come to the conclusion 

 that the appointment must be postponed for a year, and a 

 supj>liant will deliver the lectures. 



The first number of a new monthly illustrated periodical, 

 largely devoted to science, has just appeared in Paris. It is 

 entitled, Raitie Fllustrk ties Lellres, Sciences, Arts, el Industries 

 dans !es Deux Mondes, 



Annates Telegraphiques, a periodical issued by the French ad- 

 ministration, but in abeyance for the last eight years, has again 

 reappeared. 



M. Martin, a French telegraphic engineer, has invented an 

 engine for recording votes. The contrivance has been designed 

 on the principle of the sonncltes clectriqiies, and is exhibited in a 

 shop in the Place Dauphine. The peculiarity is that the votes 

 are registered and their total reckoned automatically. The in- 

 vention is attracting public notice, as it is expected that the 

 Versailles representatives will have an immense number of votes 

 to register during the ne.\t session. 



Mr. Ernest Ingersoll, of Boston, U.S., who accompanied 

 the party of Dr. Hayden during the past summer, as zoologist, 

 has returned with a large quantity of specimens of natural 

 history, which he is engaged in working up for publication. An 

 important feature of this series consists in a very extensive col- 

 lection of land and freshwater shells, a branch which has been 

 too much neglected lately by explorers, to whom recent and 

 fossil vertebrates have had greater attractions. Mr. Ingersoll 

 was greatly surprised at the number and character of the mol- 

 luscan forms secured in Colorado, as also their strange distribu- 

 tion and stations, and is confident that the facts which he has 

 to present will be considered extremely interesting to concho- 

 logists. 



Among the gaps that have remained unfilled in the series of 

 reports of the Wilkes Expedition has been that on the plants col- 

 lected by the party, partly in consequence of the failure of the U.S. 

 Congress to make the necessary appropriations, and partly on 

 account of the death of Dr. Torrey, who had charge of the 

 phenogamous portion. This volume, however, has lately 

 appeared, Dr. Gray having undertaken the work of Dr. Torrey 

 after his death. That part relating to the cryptogamous plants 

 (consisting of the mosses) had been already published in several 

 portions — that on the mosses as prepared by Mr. W. S. SuUi- 

 vant, that of the lichens by Prof. Tuckerman, and that on the 

 algre by Professors Bailey and Harvey ; the fungi by the late 

 Dr. Curtis and Mr. Berkeley. The volume is an imperial quarto 

 of 420 pages of letterpress, and contains twenty-nine plates. Of 

 this only twenty copies are on sale, to be had of Westermann 

 and Co., New York, and at the Herbarium of Harvard Uni- 

 versity. 



The Council of the Society of Arts have arranged v.-ith Prof. 

 McLeod, of the India Engineering College, Cooper's Hill, to 

 deliver two lectures (on dates to be hereafter determined) 

 during the Cliristmas holidays. The subject will be "The 

 Work and Food of the Iron Horse." 



A SEVERE earthquake shock was felt in Chili shortly after ; 

 midnight on Sept. 26. It extende i as far north as Copiapo, and 

 south as far as Talca, anJ was the heaviest shock experienced 

 siiice the memorable one of July 7 last year. V'alj.araiso, ; 

 Santiago, and intermediate country were almost on the focu; of 



the intensity of the .shock. The earthquake travelled from east 

 to west. The temperature immediately rose two degrees and 

 six-tenths. The night was beautifully clear. Several slight 

 tremors were felt during the ensuing week. 



The Hastings and St. Leonards Philosophical and Historical 

 Society, which has entered on the seventeenth year of its work, 

 is on the whole in a healthy condition. A number of the members ' 

 have undertaken to investigate the science of the neighbourhood ] 

 in connection with botany, zoology, archajology, geology, meteoro- 

 logy, &c., so that we may expect by and by some results of sub- 

 stantial value. 



It is gratifying to hear that an attempt is being made to create 

 an interest in science in North London. A series of lectures on 

 scientific subjects are being given in the Athenceum, Camden 

 Road, at a very moderate price, and we hope the result will be 

 the formation of a North London Scientific Society and Field 

 Club, somewhat after the model of the one recently started in 

 West London. These North London lectures we shall notify in 

 our "Diary." 



A recent number of the Australian Sketclier contains a very 

 interesting account of the great Melbourne telescope, with 

 which so much good work has already been done by Mr. EUery 

 and his staff; a series of well-executed illustrations accompany 

 the paper. It is, as the article justly concludes, to the credit of 

 the colony that amidst its prevalent utilitarianism it remembered 

 and recognised the claims of science to the degi'ee implied in the 

 purchase and support of so noble an instrument. The telescope 

 cost about 5,000.'., in addition to the sum of \,<i<^ol. for the 

 house. 



We arc glad to see that.Mr. W. G. Valentin's "Course of 

 Qualitative Chemical Analysis " (Churchill) has reached a third 

 edition. 



Dr. WeInHOLd's excellent " Vorschule der Experimental- 

 physik," which we noticed in vol. iv. p. 15S, has reached a 

 second edition, in which the author has brought his work up to 

 time. 



" Be.\uty in Common Things " is the title of a very pretty 

 quarto volume published by the Society for Promoting Christian 

 Knowledge. It consists of twelve chromolithographed drawings 

 from nature by Mrs. J. W. Whymper, with descriptive text by 

 the author of " Life Underground." The drawings are all of 

 the most common plants, such as the Bramble, the Wild Straw- 

 berry, Furze Blossom, Blackthorn, Mushrooms, &c. ; but while 

 perfectly faithful to nature, the arrangement and execution are 

 so artistic as to aflbrd genuine pleasure. The text is pleasant 

 and informing, and altogether the book is a very beautiful 

 Christmas present, and likely to give children into whose hands 

 it may fall, a taste forthe study of nature. 



We have received the fifth edition (dated 1S75) of Dr. J. H. 

 Bennett's very interesting book, " Winter and Spring on the 

 Shores of the Mediterranean " (Churchill). We recommend it 

 to those in search of a genial winter home. 



F fto Jf Liverpool comes a carefully compiled ' ' Synopsis of an 

 Arrangement of Invertebrate Animals in the Free Public 

 Mu-eum of Liverpool," by the Rev. H. H. Higgin=, M.A. 

 Prefixed is an introduction the substance of which appeared 

 in two articles by Mr. Higgins, in Nature, vol. iii. pp. 202 and 

 481. 



The Geological, Botanical, and Natural History Section of 

 the Catalogue of the Leeds Public Library contains the names 

 of many valuable works of reference. Some of our readers may 

 be glad to know that access can bshad at all times to any of 

 the works mentioned in the catalogue. 



