i6 



NATURE 



{_Nov. 5, I J 



Orthoclase becomes a clear glass filled with bubbles : — 

 at a lower temperature beryl behaves in the same way. 



Topaz whitens to a milky glass — apparently decom- 

 posing, throwing out filmy threads of clear glass and 

 bubbles of glass which break, liberating a gas (fluorine?) 

 which, attacking the white-hot platinum, causes rings of 

 colour to appear round the specimen. I have now been 

 using the apparatus for nearly a month, and in its earliest 

 days it led me right in the diagnosis of a microscopical 

 mineral, iolite, not before found in our Irish granite, I 

 think. The unlooked-for characters of the mineral, 

 coupled with the extreme minuteness of the crystals, led 

 me previously astray, until my meldometer fixed its fusi- 

 bility for me as far above the suspected bodies. 



Carbon slips were at first used, as I was unaware of the 

 capabilities of platinum. 



A form of the apparatus adapted, at Prof. Fitzgerald's 

 suggestion, to fit into the lantern for projection on the 

 screen has been made for me by Yeates. In this form 

 the heated conductor passes both below and above the 

 specimen, which is regarded from a horizontal direction. 



J. JOLY 



Physical Laboratory, Trinity College, Dublin, 

 November i 



NOTES 

 Our readers will hear with regret that Prof. Huxley has 

 placed in the hands of the Council of the Royal Society his 

 resignation of the office of President, and that the Council have 

 felt it their duty to accept that resignation. It would appear 

 that Prof. Huxley had wished to resign so long ago as November 

 last, when he had decided to winter abroad, and again, last 

 summer, he definitely placed his resignation in the hands of the 

 Council. On both these former occasions Prof. Huxley was 

 induced to continue in office, in the hopes that he would soon 

 regain complete health. On the present occasion we gather that 

 the resignation was accepted, because, though Prof. Huxley is 

 rapidly improving in health, the cares of the presidential chair 

 seemed likely to prove a hindrance to his complete recovery 

 being so rapid as could be desired. We feel sure that the whole 

 scientific world will share the regret of the Council of the Royal 

 Society at the necessity of such a step, but we also feel that 

 every one must recognise the wisdom of the decision. We may 

 add that every one hopes that freedom from the responsibilities 

 of office may soon convert the marked improvement in Prof. 

 Huxley's health, visible to all his friends, into complete and 

 perfect restoration. 



We understand that Prof. Stokes has consented to allow 

 himself to be nominated as Prof. Huxley's successor in the 

 presidential chair. We believe that this choice of the Council 

 will give universal satisfaction to the Fellows of the Society ; 

 while it makes Prof. Stokes doubly the successor of Newton, 

 it does honour to the Society. 



A CONSIDERAHLE portion of the "Zoological Record " for 

 1884 has already been issued to subscribers ; the Reports on 

 Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, and Hymenopteri, by Mr. W. F. 

 Kirby, were issued in September, and those on Reptiles, Fishes, 

 Mollusca, Tunicata, Polyzoa, and Brachiopoda last week. The 

 remaining parts are in a very forward state, Mr. W. L. Sclater, 

 B.A., having undertaken the Mammalia in the place of Dr. 

 Murie. 



The French Government has just created a certain number of 

 travelling-juries. This is a modified form of an institution esta- 

 blished by the first Republic. In the organic law of the Institut 

 it was ordained that the Institut was to select yearly ten citizens 

 to travel abroad and collect information useful to science, com- 

 merce, and agriculture. These scientific travellers will not be 



appointed by the Academy of Sciences or the whole Institut, but 

 by a special administrative commission on the basis of a com- 

 petitive examination. 



While so much public attention is attracted by the second 

 part of the Greville "Memoirs," it will interest our readers to 

 learn that the acute and observant Clerk to the Council, who, on 

 the whole, had a very low idea of the great men with whom he 

 came in contact, possessed a great respect for the men of science 

 of his generation. Under March 17, 183S, we find the follow- 

 ing interesting entry ("Memoirs," vol. i. p. 78): — "Went to 

 the Royal Institution last night in hopes of hearing Faraday 

 lecture, but the lecture was given by Mr. Pereira upon crystals, 

 a subject of which he appeared to be master, to judge by his 

 facility and fluency ; but the whole of it was unintelligible to me. 

 Met Dr. Buckland and talked to him for an hour, and he intro- 

 duced me to Mr. Wheatstone, the inventor of the electric tele- 

 graph, of the progress of which he gave us an account. I wish 

 I had turned my attention to these things and sought occupation 

 and amusement in them long ago. I am satisfied that, apart 

 from all considerations of utility, or even of profit, they afford a 

 very pregnant source of pleasure and gratification. There is a 

 cheerfulness, an activity, an appearance of satisfaction in the 

 conversation and demeanour of scientific men that conveys a 

 lively notion of the pleasure they derive from their pursuits. I 

 feel ashamed to go among such people when I compare their 

 lives with my own, their knowledge with my ignorance, their 

 brisk and active intellects with my dull and sluggish mind, 

 become sluggish and feeble for want of exercise and care." 



The first volume of "Geology, Chemical, Physical, and 

 Stratigraphical," by Prof. Joseph Prestwich, F.R.S., will be 

 ready for publication immediately by the Clarendon Press- 

 This work is a general treatise on Geology adapted both for 

 elementary and advanced students. Vol. I. treats of questions 

 in chemical and physical geology, and special attention is paid 

 to such subjects, among others, as Hydro-Geology, the geological 

 bearings of the recent deep-sea explorations, volcanic action, 

 joints, mineral veins, the age of mountain ranges, and meta- 

 morphism. Vol. II., which is far advanced, treats of strati- 

 graphy and palceontology,, and touches upon various theoretical 

 questions. The author advocates the non-uniformitayian views 

 of geology. The book is copiously illustrated with woodcuts, 

 maps, and plates. 



Father Denza, according to the Times Rome correspon- 

 dent, writing from the Observatory of Moncalieri, gives inter- 

 esting particulars of a remarkable shower of dust which fell in 

 various parts of Italy in the night of October 14-15. This 

 dust-shower accompanied the violent gale of wind which 

 occurred at the time, and seems to have fallen thickest in 

 places situated more or less in the latitude of Rome. Father 

 Denza regards the dust as meteoric. Mr. Abercromby writes 

 to the Times to point out that this is probably premature, if by 

 meteoric Father Denza means the product of meteors. But is it 

 not probable that by meteoric sand he simply means sand which 

 falls as "a meteor" or meteorological phenomenon? As Mr. 

 Abercromby points out, this dust probably came from the 

 Sahara. 



An interesting series of papers, copiously illustrated by ch.arts, 

 and comparative tables, is appearing in Naturen, on the climate 

 of Norway. The author. Dr. Hesselberg, enters fully into the 

 various causes on which depend the great differences between 

 the inland and littoral climates, and notes in detail the varying 

 relations of temperature for each month in the interior, and on 

 the coast. From these tables it would appear that while in 

 Norway, generally, the five months, from November to March 

 inclusive, exhibit a purely winter temperature, no single month 



